cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Wabanaki “Family Hunting Territories”

It is now generally concluded that hunting and trapping territories developed among the Northern and Eastern Algonquian Indians largely as a result of the fur trade and other factors directly connected with European colonization. Although this appears to be a valid conclusion, this article argues that both prior and subsequent conditions were unique in the case of the Eastern Algonquian in general and the Wabanaki in particular. Evidence for a riverine orientation and the regular exploitation of the beaver in aboriginal time indicates that Wabanaki territoriality was quite different from that described for the Northern Algonquian, and that its development did not require an abrupt shift away from previous patterns.
Retinal function and morphology are altered in cattle infected with the prion disease transmissible mink encephalopathy.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of diseases that result in progressive and invariably fatal neurologic disease in both animals and humans. TSEs are characterized by the accumulation of an abnormal protease-resistant form of the prion protein in the central nervous system. Transmission of infectious TSEs is believed to occur via ingestion of prion protein-contaminated material. This material is also involved in the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (''mad cow disease'') to humans, which resulted in the variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Abnormal prion protein has been reported in the retina of TSE-affected cattle, but despite these observations, the specific effect of abnormal prion protein on retinal morphology and function has not been assessed. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize potential functional and morphologic abnormalities in the retinas of cattle infected with a bovine-adapted isolate of transmissible mink encephalopathy. We used electroretinography and immunohistochemistry to examine retinas from 10 noninoculated and 5 transmissible mink encephalopathy-inoculated adult Holstein steers. Here we show altered retinal function, as evidenced by prolonged implicit time of the electroretinogram b-wave, in transmissible mink encephalopathy-infected cattle before the onset of clinical illness. We also demonstrate disruption of rod bipolar cell synaptic terminals, indicated by decreased immunoreactivity for the alpha isoform of protein kinase C and vesicular glutamate transporter 1, and activation of Muller glia, as evidenced by increased glial fibrillary acidic protein and glutamine synthetase expression, in the retinas of these cattle at the time of euthanasia due to clinical deterioration. This is the first study to identify both functional and morphologic alterations in the retinas of TSE-infected cattle. Our results support future efforts to focus on the retina for the development of new strategies for the diagnosis of TSEs.
SLIDER: A fast and accurate defect simulation framework

As integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing entered the nano-scale era, defect observability has greatly diminished. As a result, test-fail data diagnosis and mining are playing an indispensable role in providing feedback for yield learning. Accurate simulation of defect behavior is vital to this process but, unfortunately, cannot be achieved with simulation at the logic-level alone. This work proposes a framework to enable fast and accurate defect simulation, by making use of existing and well-developed mixed-signal simulation technology (traditionally used for design verification). While previous work has considered this topic before, the innovation here centers on two aspects: (i) accuracy resulting from defect injection taking place at the layout level, (ii) speedup resulting from careful and automatic partitioning of the circuit into digital and analog domains for mixed-signal simulation, and (iii) complete automation that involves defect injection, design partitioning, netlist extraction, mixed-signal simulation, and test-data extraction. The mixed-signal framework developed can be applied in a variety of settings that include diagnosis resolution improvement, defect localization, fault model evaluation, and virtual failure data creation. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed framework is scalable to handle large designs efficiently. A second set of experiments demonstrates how defect localization can be dramatically improved (> 53%) by more accurate defect simulation.
Striated palmoplantar keratoderma of Brunauer-Fohs-Siemens

A 67-year-old African American man presented with callosities of his hands (which he had since adolescence) that were exacerbated by manual labor. His father suffered severe callosities of his feet, but no other family member was afflicted. Physical examination revealed symmetrically distributed linear hyperkeratotic plaques on the palms extending onto the full length of the volar aspect of his digits (Fig. 1). There was no personal or family history of hair, nail, or dental abnormalities. Histologic evaluation showed marked acanthosis, hypergranulosis, and hyperkeratosis of the lesions (Fig. 2). There was no evidence of epidermolytic hyperkeratosis.
Evidence for remnants of ancient ice-rich deposits: Mangala Valles outflow channel, Mars

High-resolution spacecraft data reveal the presence of a distinctive unit on the upper reaches of the floor of Mangala Valles, an ancient outflow channel on Mars. In contrast to abundant evidence for scour, intense erosion, and hydrodynamic shaping typical of the floors and margins of Mangala and other outflow channels, this unit is smooth-surfaced, has cuspate margins, is superposed on the scoured valley floor, and is extensively pitted. We interpret this unit to be the sublimation lag deposit derived from an ice thermal boundary layer on the aqueous flood that formed the outflow channel system, and the remnant of floodwaters trapped in channel lows. This interpretation further supports the likelihood that climate conditions at the time of emplacement were similar to the hyper-arid cold desert conditions of today. Frozen floodwaters from the ancient martian subsurface could still be preserved in these deposits, representing attractive and accessible exobiological exploration objectives.
Disclosure Requirements and Stock Exchange Listing Choice in an International Context

We use a rational expectations model to examine how public disclosure requirements affect listing decisions by rent-seeking corporate insiders, and allocation decisions by liquidity traders seeking to minimize trading costs. We find that exchanges competing for trading volume engage in a "race for the top" where under disclosure requirements increase and trading costs fall. This result is robust to diversification incentives of risk-averse liquidity traders, institutional impediments that restrict the flow of liquidity, and listing costs. Under certain conditions, unrestricted liquidity flows to low disclosure exchanges. The consequences of cross-listing also are modeled.
An updated temperature-dependent breakdown coupling model including both impact ionization and tunneling mechanisms for AlGaAs/InGaAs HEMTs

An updated model on the temperature dependent two-terminal breakdown mechanisms coupling both impact ionization (II) and thermionic field emission (TFE) for HEMTs is presented in this paper. This model depicts the interplay between TFE and II mechanisms. Examples of temperature dependence of reverse gate current are discussed. It is important that the coupling mechanism between TFE and II at elevated temperature should be considered, particularly when designing devices for high-power applications.
Chemical and mechanical determinants of apnea during high-frequency ventilation

The factors responsible for the apnea observed during high-frequency ventilation (HFV) were evaluated in 14 pentobarbital sodium-anesthetized cats. A multiple logistic regression analysis provided an estimate of the probability of apnea during HFV as a function of four respiratory variables: mean airway pressure (Paw), tidal volume (VT), frequency, and arterial PCO2 (PaCO2). When mean Paw was 2 cmH2O, PaCO2, VT, and their interaction contributed significantly to the probability of apnea during HFV. At a low value of PaCO2 (25 Torr), the probability of apnea had a minimum value of 0.19 and gradually increased toward 1.0 as VT increased from 0.5 to 7 ml/kg. At higher levels of PaCO2 (30 and 35 Torr) the probability of apnea was zero in the low range of VT but sharply approached 1.0 above a VT of approximately 2.0 ml/kg. However, when Paw was increased to 6 cmH2O, only PaCO2 was an important determinant of apnea. In this case, the probability of apnea was 0.51 when PaCO2 was 25 Torr but decreased to 0.22 when PaCO2 was raised to 25 Torr. At neither Paw was the probability of apnea dependent on frequency. These results suggest that chemoreceptor inputs, in addition to both static and dynamic lung mechanoreceptor afferents, are responsible for determining the output of the central respiratory centers during HFV.
The Rise of Theory in Medical Sociology

The purpose of this book is to provide readers with a single source reviewing and updating developments in theories commonly used today in medical or health sociology. It originated in papers and discussions in a session on new developments in theory in medical sociology at the International Sociological Association’s 2010 World Congress of Sociology held in Gothenburg, Sweden. The session itself was scheduled because theoretical work has increasingly become a major feature of medical sociology. When the field first appeared as a new sociological specialty in the mid-twentieth century, much of the work was atheoretical. Over time, this situation has changed dramatically and it is the task of this book to not only discuss the major theoretical approaches, but to also identify new directions in theory in medical sociology.
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF MIDTERM DURABILITY OF TRANSCATHETER MITRAL VALVE REPAIR IN PATIENTS WITH SEVERE DEGENERATIVE MITRAL REGURGITATION AND PROHIBITIVE SURGICAL RISK

Surgical mitral valve (MV) repair remains the gold standard for treatment of severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR). However, DMR patients who cannot tolerate open MV surgery due to prohibitive risk of mortality and morbidity have limited therapeutic options. We report outcomes through 3
Assuring the Response to Intervention Process Has Substance: Assessing and Supporting Intervention Implementation

Response to intervention (RTI) is a rationally appealing approach to meeting the needs of all students; it is predicated on providing students support at the time and in the environment in which they need support with intensity match to that need. However, the rationality of the system is grounded on providing interventions at a meaningful level of implementation. Extensive research now exists demonstrating that in the absence of systematic follow-up, implementation of interventions is commonly poor and deteriorates over time. This chapter reviews the existing literature as it relates to the definition of intervention implementation, its measurement, improving implementation, and the relationship between implementation and intervention outcome. Central conclusions are that measures based on procedural step completion have been practically and scientifically successful measures and that a number of variations of performance feedback successfully have been used as follow-up. The implications of the existing literature for current RTI practice and additional research needs are discussed.
Passive Scalar Concentration Field of Isolated Turbulent Puffs

Passive scalar concentration field of turbulent puffs was examined experimentally using the planar laser Mie scattering technique. Puffs were generated by injecting air through a 5 mm diameter nozzle into a flow chamber with a weak coflow. The injection time was varied by the use of a fast-response solenoid valve from 20 ms to 161 ms. Puffs with a Reynolds number of 5,000 were examined in the range of 25 – 55 diameters downstream of the nozzle. The results indicate that as the injection time increases, puffs evolve from a spherical geometry to that with a tail. The radial concentration profiles through the puff center result in half-widths that decrease as the injection time increases. On the other hand, the puff length in the axial direction increases with the injection time. The volume entrained by the puff and normalized by the initial injected volume decreases with increasing injection time.
Electoral Systems and Political Context: Social Diversity, Electoral Rules, and the Number of Parties

Thus far, this book has focused on the interactive effect on political outcomes of electoral rules and the level of democratic and party system development. In this chapter, we shift our focus to how electoral rules interact with a different category of political context, social diversity , to affect the party system. A long line of research has argued that the number of parties in a country is the product of an interactive process between the number of social cleavages and the electoral system, whereby social heterogeneity has little effect on the number of parties under “restrictive” rules such as first-past-the-post (Duverger 1954; Ordeshook and Shvetsova 1994; Amorim Neto and Cox 1997; Clark and Golder 2006; Singer and Stephenson 2009). Many scholars posit that as the number of distinct groups in society increases, so will the number of parties, but that this relationship will exist only under “permissive” electoral rules (such as PR with high district magnitude and little or no legal threshold of representation). The incentives of the electoral system under restrictive rules drive voters, groups, and elites to withdraw their support from candidates who are unlikely to be competitive, and instead line up only behind those truly “in the running” – thereby leading to a small number of parties (or candidates), irrespective of the number of distinct groups in society.
Strengthening the Moral Education of the College students

Moral education is an important link for the colleges to train qualified students. In order to strengthen the moral education in the college students, the following four relations should be dealt well with: 1.the relation between the internal teaching and external restriction;2.the relation between the ideological and political education and the moral psychological education; 3.the relation between the reality and the ideal as well as the transcendence; 4.the relation between the classroom education and extracurricular education.
Adult sarcomas: a missed opportunity for sustained cooperative group translational and clinical research.

Preclinical advances offer an opportunity to further reduce morbidity and mortality from sarcomas over the next decade. Since no single institution or North American cooperative oncology group has the expertise or patient resources for histology-specific clinical and translational research on adult sarcomas, efforts have been made to develop funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). One such initiative was the Intergroup Coalition Against Sarcomas (ICAS), which, building upon the strengths of the multimodality cooperative oncology groups, provided an infrastructure for broad participation by investigators from all treatment disciplines in protocol development and patient entry. However, despite an excellent evaluation in formal peer review, the Division of Cancer Treatment of NCI has ended this initiative claiming insufficient available fundsto the detriment of adult sarcoma patients now and in the future.
Bacterial Nitric Oxide Synthase Is Required for the Staphylococcus aureus Response to Heme Stress

Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogen that causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Within the vertebrate host, S. aureus requires heme as a nutrient iron source and as a cofactor for multiple cellular processes. Although required for pathogenesis, excess heme is toxic. S. aureus employs a two-component system, the heme sensor system (HssRS), to sense and protect against heme toxicity. Upon activation, HssRS induces the expression of the heme-regulated transporter (HrtAB), an efflux pump that alleviates heme toxicity. The ability to sense and respond to heme is critical for the pathogenesis of numerous Gram-positive organisms, yet the mechanism of heme sensing remains unknown. Compound ′3981 was identified in a high-throughput screen as an activator of staphylococcal HssRS that triggers HssRS independently of heme accumulation. ′3981 is toxic to S. aureus; however, derivatives of ′3981 were synthesized that lack toxicity while retaining HssRS activation, enabling the interrogation of the heme s...
Gods, Gods, Gods

The religious world is but the reflex of the real world. – Karl Marx, Capital , 1906, 91 What Gods were for The young priest had been told exactly what to do, and he had been up all night, keeping watch on the sacred things, the first dates anyone had harvested from anywhere throughout the city. They were green and mushy and not particularly appetizing. He preferred them dried, but the goddess wanted the very first and as soon as possible. He was drowsy but attentive as the first light of dawn appeared over the horizon, and gradually he could make out the web of the basket and the sleeping city, with only one or two plumes of smoke rising from the homes of early risers. The old priest had told him exactly how to do it, and the priest could no longer mount the stairs to the terrace, so he had better get it right. He had thought he would be a little cold in the night because he had been supposed to sit there, in front of the mud brick temple, with absolutely nothing on. But in fact, it was still high summer, although the harvesting of the rest of the dates would stretch into autumn. The night had been almost pleasant after the scorching day. The nakedness was to show his purity to the goddess; it might have been embarrassing except that no one else was around at all. Even the day-shift priests had not yet arrived to clean up the temple terrace and to prepare the rest of the goddess's breakfast. For his was a special offering that had to be made on the dawn after the first pickings were available. So here he was, naked.
Two-dimensional materials for integrated optoelectronic information technology

Monolayer materials present a new opportunity in integrated photonics, due to their unprecedented ability to be integrated on any substrate, and exceptional optoelectronic properties. Here, we present our recent results on laser and nonlinear optical devices based on monolayer materials integrated on nanophotonic devices.
Visualizing Words and Knowledge: Arts of Memory for the Digital Age

Abstract This article attempts to revitalize rhetoric's fourth canon, the art of memory. I begin by demonstrating that the canon of memory was traditionally an art by which words and knowledge were remediated into visual, spatial forms, either in the mind or on the page. It was this technique of visualization, I argue, that linked the canons of memory and invention throughout history. I suggest that the field return to visualization as an art of memory. Today, digital tools that visualize words and knowledge are ubiquitous. Framing data visualization as a twenty-first century analog to the art of memory allows us to think about visualization as a tool for invention rather than as a reified representation of data. Using the idea of “text sense,” I present dispersion plots and text networks as examples of visualizations that enable writers to develop a more robust working memory of their texts.
How Stigma Affects the Lives of People with Intellectual Disabilities: An Overview

Throughout the world, children and adults with intellectual disabilities face social exclusion, marginalization, discrimination, and abuse. This chapter provides an overview of the effects of stigma in perpetuating social inequalities and violating the basic human rights of people with intellectual disabilities. The impact of stigma on a number of life domains associated with well-being and quality of life are addressed, including poverty, safety, education, employment, community integration and participation, health, intimate relationships and reproductive rights, and self-determination. Continued research efforts are needed to more fully understand the effects of stigma across these domains.
Destruction of the Wyoming craton: Seismic evidence and geodynamic processes

Cratons are old and strong continental cores where the lithosphere is thick and remains largely undeformed for 2–3 b.y. Unlike typical cratons, the Wyoming craton underwent pervasive deformation ca. 80–55 Ma during the Laramide orogeny in the west-central United States, and has been subsequently encroached upon by the Yellowstone hotspot since 2.0 Ma. However, the mechanism for the deformation and the craton-hotspot interaction are not well understood. We present here a three-dimensional shear wave velocity model beneath the Wyoming craton constrained from Rayleigh wave data, which reveal new details about the cratonic lithosphere. The average lithosphere thickness beneath the craton is ∼150 km, significantly thinner than a normal cratonic root (>200 km). Continuous low velocities are observed beneath the Yellowstone hotspot and the Cheyenne belt. A low-velocity column is also present in the central-eastern craton at depths of 115–250 km. These low velocities can be explained by hot temperature and partial melting, implying mantle upwelling. A high-velocity anomaly with a dripping shape in central Wyoming extends to 200–250 km depth, indicating mantle downwelling and lithosphere erosion. Our model provides the first seismic evidence for complex small-scale mantle convection beneath the Wyoming craton. The convection probably developed during the subduction of the Farallon plate and has been reinforced by the Yellowstone hotspot. We propose that the combination of flat-slab subduction, small-scale convection, and hotspot activity can lead to massive destruction of a cratonic lithosphere.
Design of high-speed toroidal winding surface PM machine with SiC-based inverters

The purpose of this paper is to study the design opportunities in high-speed toothless toroidal winding surface permanent magnet machine enabled by the implementation of silicon carbide-based power electronic inverters. High-speed machines designed with toothless toroidal winding configuration are beneficial to eliminating the cogging torque due to the absence of stator teeth, but the airgap flux density is reduced and inductance is small due to a large equivalent airgap. On the other hand, high-pole-count toroidal winding electric machines have the advantages of less total weight and volume than the low-pole-count machines. However, the high fundamental frequency required by the high-pole-count machine is challenging to meet with silicon-based power electronic drives because of the limited switching frequency. Silicon carbide-based devices have fast switching capability due to their MOSFET characteristics and can replace Silicon-IGBTs for high voltage applications, i.e. greater than 600 V. By using silicon carbide-based power electronic drives, the above two challenges of low inductance and high fundamental frequency requirement in high-pole-count toothless toroidal winding machines can be overcome. Research studies presented in this paper show that the implementation of silicon carbide-based drives reduces the current harmonic distortion of the high-pole-count toothless toroidal winding machine and makes it feasible for high-speed operation because low inductance and high current ripple issues can be mitigated.
Re: Social Justice as the Moral Core of Family Medicine: A Perspective from the Keystone IV Conference.

To the Editor : Steven Schroeder, in “Social Justice as the Moral Core of Family Medicine: A Perspective from the Keystone IV Conference,” ( J Am Board Fam Med July-August 2016 29:S69-S71; doi:10.3122/jabfm.2016.S1.160110) highlights social justice as a recurring conference theme and promotes 5
“Tears of joy” and “tears and joy?” personal accounts of dimorphous and mixed expressions of emotion

In this investigation two distinct theoretical frameworks were applied to personal accounts of experiencing both smiles and crying, informally referred to as “tears of joy.” Dimorphous theory posits that such expressions arise from a positive or negative appraisal, and a single corresponding emotional experience. In contrast, mixed emotions theoretically arise from simultaneous positive and negative appraisals, positive and negative emotions, which might also culminate in two expressions of emotion. Across three experimental studies participants were exposed to a positive story, or a story with mixed positive and negative aspects. Participants reported on their appraisals, emotions, and personal accounts of their expressions. Explicit, freely-written, and implicit measures, as well as participants’ own explanations for their reported smiling and crying all converged on patterns supporting both dimorphous and mixed expressions of emotion. Data suggest the subjective experience of both “tears of joy” and “tears and joy.”
Further evaluation of animal systemic insecticides, 1969.

The following 9 compounds gave > 84% control of cattle grubs, Hypoderma spp., in cattle: BAY 42688 ( O -(dimethylamino) phenyl methylcarbamate), 5 mg/kg oral and 0.25% spray; CELA K-159 (O-(4-bromo-2,5-dichlorophenyl) O -propyl methylphosphonothioate), 5 mg/kg oral; CIBA C-8874 ( O -(2,5-dichloro-4-iodophenyl) O, O -diethyl phosphorothioate), 50 mg/kg oral; ClBA C-9491 ( O -(2,5-dichloro-4-iodophenyl) O, O -dimethyl phosphorothioate), 100 mg/kg oral; ClBA C-11044 ( O -(2,5-dichloro-4-iodophenyl) O -ethyl O -methyl phosphorothioate), 50 mg/kg oral; Hercules 13462 ( O, O -dimethyl phosphorodithioate S -ester with N -(l-mercaptoethyl) succinimide), 0.25% spray; Hercules 14469 ( m -cumenyl (mercaptoacetyl) methylcarbamate S -ester with O, O -dimethyl phosphorodithioate), 50 mg/kg oral; Hercules 17200 (o-tolyl (mercaptoacetyl) methylcarbamate S-ester with O,O-dimethyl phosphorodithioate). 75 rug/kg oral; and Shell SD-12211 ( O, O -dimethyl phosphorothioate O -ester with N -benzyl-4-hydroxyphthalimide), 100 mg/kg oral.
Laboratory Methods in Human Behavioral Ecology

Human behavioral ecology is an empirically based set of methods, concepts, and interpretations aimed at understanding human behavior in a biological and social context. As a tradition of research and theory, human behavioral ecology is in its infancy. It is the intellectual offspring of two major approaches to the study of behavior from a biological perspective: behavioral ecology, which focuses primarily on behavior in natural settings, and the experimental analysis of behavior, which focuses primarily on behavior in laboratory settings. The past decade has seen promising attempts at integrating these two complementary approaches to gain a fuller appreciation of behavior in relation to general principles of adaptation and selection (see Fantino & Abarca, 1985; Kamil, Krebs, & Pulliam, 1987).
Review of GaN totem-pole bridgeless PFC

Switching-mode AC/DC converters are widely used in modern power supplies for computers, data centers and telecommunication equipment. Achieving Power Factor Correction (PFC) and high efficiency are the two most important requirements. In many cases, high power density is also of tremendous interest. Both power efficiency and power density are greatly influenced by the power devices, the topology and the control used. Compared with conventional Si power MOSFET and Si super-junction MOSFET, the newly introduced 600 V GaN devices not only eliminate the reverser recovery, but also have much lower switching and driving losses. These excellent properties enable the emergence of the totem-pole bridgeless AC/DC converter as the next generation preferred solution for PFC instead of the state-of-the art Si-based boost PFC. In this paper, the key technologies and designs for both hard-switching and soft-switching GaN totem-pole PFC are reviewed and the key performance metrics are compared. A soft switching, 3.2 kW totem-pole PFC prototype with 99% efficiency and 130 W/inch3 power density has been achieved in the author's group as a proof of the concept. Based on the power density comparison, the high frequency soft-switching GaN totem-pole PFC is the preferred choice to achieve both high efficiency and high power density at the same time.
An Experiential Resident Module for Understanding Social Determinants of Health at an Academic Safety-Net Hospital.

Introduction Half of the U.S. population has chronic illness. Many disparities exist in health care for management of chronic disease among poorer individuals, including decreased access to healthy...
ELISA-EDL: A Cross-lingual Entity Extraction, Linking and Localization System

We demonstrate ELISA-EDL, a state-of-the-art re-trainable system to extract entity mentions from low-resource languages, link them to external English knowledge bases, and visualize locations related to disaster topics on a world heatmap. We make all of our data sets, resources and system training and testing APIs publicly available for research purpose.
Gender and Genre in Banlieue Film, and the Guerrilla Film Brooklyn

The twenty-first century has seen banlieue film expand as a filmic category. Of particular note, female directors and characters have entered banlieue film in earnest, thereby disrupting what had b...
Home study course: summer 1998.

OBJECTIVE The Home Study Course is intended for the prac-ticing colposcopist or practitioner who is seeking to develop or enhance his or her colposcopic skills. The goal of the course is to present colposcopic cases that are unusual or instructive in terms of appearance, presentation, or management or that demonstrate new and important knowledge in the area of colposcopy or pathology. Participants may benefit from read-ing and studying the material or from testing their knowledge by answering the questions.ACCME AccreditationThe American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians. The ASCCP designates this continuing medical education activity for 1 credit hour in Category I of the Physicians' Recognition Award of the American Medical Association. Credit is available for those who choose to apply. The Home Study Course is planned and produced in accordance with the ACCME's Essentials.
Successful implementation of an appendectomy process improvement protocol.

Background A key component of a process improvement program is the institution of hospital-specific protocols to address certain disparities and streamline patient care. In that regard, we evaluated the implementation of an outpatient laparoscopic appendectomy (OLA) protocol at a tertiary military hospital. We hypothesized that OLA would reduce length of stay (LOS) without increasing complications. Methods In August 2016, our institution implemented an OLA protocol—defined as discharge within 24 hours of surgery. Exclusion criteria included age Results In 2017, the first full year of protocol implementation, 44 of 59 (75%) patients met the inclusion criteria, and all but 2 (42 of 44, 95%) stayed for less than 24 hours. Of the two outliers, one developed acute on chronic kidney disease and one had a slow return of bowel function following grade 3 appendicitis. Complications were low across all years (one per year). In 2017, the readmission was for percutaneous drainage of an abscess. Overall, protocol implementation produced a significant decrease in LOS. Discussion OLA protocol decreased LOS at a military hospital and should be expanded to other department of defense (DoD) facilities. Further research is needed to identify cost benefit to the military health system. Level of evidence III.
Wide-Band Tunable Microwave-Absorbing Ceramic Composites Made of Polymer-Derived SiOC Ceramic and in Situ Partially Surface-Oxidized Ultra-High-Temperature Ceramics

Microwave-absorbing materials in a high-temperature harsh environment are highly desired for electronics and aerospace applications. This study reports a novel high-temperature microwave-absorbing ceramic composites made of polymer-derived SiOC ceramic and in situ partially surface-oxidized ultra-high-temperature ceramic (UHTC) ZrB2 nanoparticles. The fabricated composites with a normalized weight fraction of ZrB2 nanoparticles at 40% has a significantly wide microwave absorption bandwidth of 13.5 GHz (26.5-40 GHz) covering the entire Ka-band. This is attributed to the extensive nanointerfaces introduced in the composites, attenuation induced by the interference of electromagnetic wave, attenuation from the formed current loops, and the electronic conduction loss provided by the partially surface-oxidized ZrB2 nanoparticles. The minimum reflection coefficient (RC) was -29.30 dB at 29.47 GHz for a thickness of 1.26 mm for the composites with a normalized weight fraction of ZrB2 nanoparticles at 32.5%. The direct current (dc) conductivity of the nanocomposites showed a clear percolation phenomenon as the normalized weight fraction of ZrB2 nanoparticles increases to 30.49%. The results provide new insights in designing microwave-absorbing materials with a wide absorption frequency range and strong absorption loss for high-temperature harsh environment applications.
Parents, friends and immigrant youths' academic engagement: A mediation analysis.

Parents and friends can help facilitate the academic engagement of newcomer immigrant youth during the early post-migration years. Using an accelerated longitudinal design and the integrative risk and resilience framework, we examined how parent home involvement and friendships were directly and indirectly associated with the development of newcomer immigrant youths' academic engagement. We used data from three waves (Years 3-5) of the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation study where a culturally diverse group of immigrant youth (N = 354, ages 10-17, MtimeinUS = 3.98 years, SD = 1.39) in the United States reported on their perceptions of parent home involvement (educational values and communication) and friendship (educational values and academic support) in Year 3 and on their academic engagement (behavioural and emotional) across 3 years. Findings showed high-stable behavioural and emotional engagement and direct positive associations between perceptions of parent home involvement and initial levels of behavioural and emotional engagement and between perceptions of friend educational values and initial levels of emotional engagement. Additionally, perceptions of parents' educational values indirectly contributed to initial levels of emotional engagement through positive associations with perceptions of friends' educational values. These findings can inform family-school partnerships and school-interventions targeting newcomer immigrant youths' engagement.
Safety Procedures and Checklists for Radiosurgery

The consequences of an error in planning or delivery of radiosurgery can be significant. Establishing and maintaining a robust safety culture is the most important factor in minimizing the risk of an error. A quality committee and the use of an incident learning system are key components of a safety culture. Processes should be designed using the application of human factors engineering and failure modes and effects analysis. Checklists are a valuable tool to mitigate risk and should be used as part of the radiosurgery process. Failure modes and effects analysis can be used to guide checklist development. In addition to a safety culture and well-designed processes, adequate resources, well-documented acceptance testing and commissioning, and ongoing quality improvement are necessary to minimize risk in a radiosurgery program.
Dose calculation errors as a component of failing IROC lung and spine phantom irradiations.

Purpose Between July 2013 and August 2019, 22% of the imaging and radiation oncology core (IROC) spine, and 15% of the moving lung phantom irradiations have failed to meet established acceptability criteria. The spine phantom simulates a highly modulated stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) case, whereas the lung phantom represents a low-to-none modulation moving target case. In this study, we assessed the contribution of dose calculation errors to these phantom results and evaluated their effects on failure rates. Methods We evaluated dose calculation errors by comparing the calculation accuracy of various institutions' treatment planning systems (TPSs) vs IROC-Houston's previously established independent dose recalculation system (DRS). Each calculation was compared with the measured dose actually delivered to the phantom; cases in which the recalculation was more accurate were interpreted as a deficiency in the institution's TPS. A total of 258 phantom irradiation plans (172 lung and 86 spine) were recomputed. Results Overall, the DRS performed better than the TPSs in 47% of the spine phantom cases. However, the DRS was more accurate in 93% of failing spine phantom cases (with an average improvement of 2.35%), indicating a deficiency in the institution's treatment planning system. Deficiencies in dose calculation accounted for 60% of the overall discrepancy between measured and planned doses among spine phantoms. In contrast, lung phantom DRS calculations were more accurate in only 35% and 42% of all and failing lung phantom cases respectively, indicating that dose calculation errors were not substantially present. These errors accounted for only 30% of the overall discrepancy between measured and planned doses. Conclusions Dose calculation errors are common and substantial in IROC spine phantom irradiations, highlighting a major failure mode in this phantom and in clinical treatment management of these cases. In contrast, dose calculation accuracy had only a minimal contribution to failing lung phantom results, indicating that other failure modes drive problems with this phantom and similar clinical treatments.
An engineering economy concept inventory

There has been considerable recent emphasis on valid assessment of learning in engineering education. When new teaching pedagogies are introduced, it can be very challenging to demonstrate increase...
Effect of annealing on the electronic structure of AuxPd1-x thin films on silicon: Diffusion of Si and silicide formation

Abstract AuxPd1-x alloys provide efficient hot-carrier generation in the near-infrared via direct interband transitions. When grown on silicon, they offer a route to ultrafast near-infrared photodetection. Before AuxPd1-x alloys can be successfully implemented in photodetector devices, it is essential to understand how processing temperature affects their electronic properties. Herein we study how alloy composition and annealing temperature, under UHV conditions, change the electronic properties of AuxPd1-x alloy films deposited on Si(1 0 0). We observed silicide formation at the surface of alloy films with high Au fraction (e.g., x > 0.9) at only 200 °C, whereas films with lower Au fraction (e.g., x ∼ 0.7) required temperatures up to 450 °C to form silicides. We attribute the increased temperature stability of the AuxPd1-x alloys with ∼30% Au to the higher negative heat of formation for these compositions and to the strong hybridization between Pd 4d and Au 5d states that may participate in the suppression of Si diffusion to the surface.
Do “Off‐Site” Adult Businesses Have Secondary Effects? Legal Doctrine, Social Theory, and Empirical Evidence

Recent federal court decisions appear to limit the ability of cities to mitigate the ambient crime risks associated with adult entertainment businesses. In one instance, a court has assumed that criminological theories do not apply to “off-site” adult businesses. After developing the legal doctrine of secondary effects, we demonstrate that the prevailing criminological theory applies to all adult business models. To corroborate the theory, we report the results of a before/ after quasi-experiment for an off-site adult business. When an off-site adult business opens, ambient crime risk doubles compared to a control area. As theory predicts, moreover, ambient victimization risk is most acute in night-time hours. The theoretical development and empirical results have obvious implications for the evolving legal doctrine of secondary effects.
Integrative analysis of DNA, macroscopic remains and stable isotopes of dog coprolites to reconstruct community diet.

Paleofeces or coprolites are often used to reconstruct diet at archaeological sites, usually using macroscopic analyses or targeted DNA amplification and sequencing. Here we present an integrative analysis of dog coprolites, combining macroscopic analyses, stable isotope measurements, and DNA shotgun sequencing to examine diet and health status. Dog coprolites used in this study were recovered from the Janey B. Goode and East Saint Louis archaeological sites, both of which are located in the American Bottom, an extensive Mississippi River floodplain in Southwestern Illinois. Based on the context of recovery, coprolites are assigned to the Late Woodland and Terminal Late Woodland periods (ca. 600–1050 AD). Given the scarcity of human remains from this time period, these dog coprolites can be useful as a proxy for understanding human diet during the Late Woodland period. We find that the Late Woodland dogs consumed a variety of fish as well as bird and plant taxa, possibly including maize, and also harbored intestinal parasites and pathogenic bacteria. By sequencing the fecal microbiome of the coprolites, we find some similarities to modern dog microbiomes, as well as specific taxa that can be used to discriminate between modern and ancient microbiomes, excluding soil contaminants. As dogs are often used as a surrogate to assess human diet, humans living with these dogs likely had a similar diet and were affected by similar parasites. These analyses, when integrated, show a more comprehensive view of ancient dog and human diet and health in the region during the initial expansion of maize agriculture than any individual method could alone.
Evaluation of Grade in a Genotyped Cohort of Sporadic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma.

AIMS Tumour grade and RET mutation status, especially the presence of high-risk exon 15 and 16 RET mutations, have been reported to be prognostic in patients with sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). The aims of our study were to evaluate the performance of two recently proposed grading systems and to assess the association between grade and genotype in a cohort of sporadic MTCs. METHODS AND RESULTS We identified 44 sporadic MTCs. All available tumour slides were examined, and cases were assigned a grade on the basis of either mitotic count and tumour necrosis, or mitotic count, tumour necrosis, and Ki-67 proliferative index, as described in two recent studies. Additional clinicopathological features and outcome information were obtained from the pathology reports and electronic medical records. The presence of RET and RAS mutations was determined either with direct sequencing or with massively parallel sequencing. Both grading systems were prognostic for progression-free survival and disease-specific survival on univariate analysis. There was no correlation between grade and mutation status. Specifically, neither RET nor high-risk RET mutations were enriched in high-grade tumours, as assessed by either grading scheme. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that grade is not correlated with RET/RAS mutation status, indicating that grade and genotype may give independent prognostic information.
In-Situ Distortion Prediction in Metal Additive Manufacturing Considering Boundary Conditions

Undesired distortion often occurs in metal additive manufacturing due to the high temperature gradient resulting from repeated thermal cycles. A good understanding and fast predictions of in-situ distortion are essential to achieve high dimensional accuracy and prevent delamination or failure of build parts. Experimental investigations and numerical methods have been employed to study the in-situ distortion. However, the complex measurement systems and high computational cost limit their applications. An analytical modeling method with closed-form solutions is proposed in this paper to predict the in-situ distortion of laser cladding process without using iteration-based numerical calculations. The effects of build edges and geometry are considered, which include thermal convection and radiation at boundaries. Heat input and heat sink solutions modified from the point moving heat source model are added together to predict the temperature profile of the build and substrate. The die-substrate assembly model is used to calculate the deflection during the manufacturing process. Alloy 625 is selected to test the predictive accuracy and computational efficiency of the presented analytical model. The predicted results are close to the experimental data of in-situ distortion in literature. The computational time is less than 30 s. The good predictive accuracy and low computational cost make the presented method a promising approach to study the full-field temperature and distortion of a geometrically complex part.
The Effect of Time-Series and Cross-Sectional Heterogeneity on Panel Unit Root Test Power

Panel unit root tests represent a significant advancement in addressing the low power of unit root tests by exploiting cross-sectional and time-series information. In this article we employ Monte Carlo techniques to quantify the power improvements due to cross-sectional information and assess test sensitivity to heterogeneous data. Pooling the data alleviates negative effects of slowly adjusting equilibrium relations as well as persistence in the forcing variable. However, if the panel contains a mixture of unit root and stationary series, the power of the test decreases substantially and the interpretation of the results becomes tenuous.
Proof of Concept for Shoot Blight and Fire Blight Canker Management with Post-Infection Spray Applications of Prohexadione-Calcium and Acibenzolar- S -Methyl in Apple.

To reduce the severity of shoot blight and prevent the resulting development of cankers on perennial apple wood, we evaluated eight fire blight post-infection spry programs of prohexadione-calcium ...
Hamiltonian and Gradient Flows, Algorithms and Control

Resonant geometric phases for soliton equations by M. S. Alber and J. E. Marsden Schur flows for orthogonal Hessenberg matrices by G. S. Ammar and W. B. Gragg Sub-Riemannian optimal control problems by A. M. Bloch, P. E. Crouch, and T. S. Ratiu Systems of hydrodynamic type, connected with the toda lattice and the Volterra model by O. I. Bogoyavlenskii The double bracket equation as the solution of a variational problem by R. W. Brockett Integration and visualization of matrix orbits on the connection machine by J.-P. Brunet A list of matrix flows with applications by M. T.-C. Chu The Gibbs variational principle, gradient flows, and interior-point methods by L. E. Faybusovich Optimization techniques on Riemannian manifolds by S. T. Smith On the number of real roots of a sparse polynomial system by B. Sturmfels Gradient flows for local minima of combinatorial optimization problems by W. S. Wong.
Evapotranspiration: Challenges in Measurement and Modeling

Evapotranspiration (ET) processes at the leaf-to-landscape scales have important controls and feedbacks for the regional and global climate systems through complex interactions among the Earth's atmospheric, hydrological, and biogeochemical cycles. Innovative methods, tools, and technologies for improved understanding and quantifying of ET are critical for adapting more effective management strategies to cope with the increasing demand for freshwater resources under global change.