cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
DetectX—Adversarial Input Detection Using Current Signatures in Memristive XBar Arrays

Adversarial input detection has emerged as a prominent technique to harden Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) against adversarial attacks. Most prior works use neural network-based detectors or complex statistical analysis for adversarial detection. These approaches are computationally intensive and vulnerable to adversarial attacks. To this end, we propose DetectX—A hardware friendly adversarial detection mechanism using hardware signatures like Sum of column Currents (SoI) in memristive crossbars (XBar). We show that adversarial inputs have higher SoI compared to clean inputs. However, the difference is too small for reliable adversarial detection. Hence, we propose a dual-phase training methodology: Phase1 training is geared towards increasing the separation between clean and adversarial SoIs; Phase2 training improves the overall robustness against different strengths of adversarial attacks. For hardware-based adversarial detection, we implement the DetectX module using 32 nm CMOS circuits and integrate it with a Neurosim-like analog crossbar architecture. We perform hardware evaluation of the Neurosim+DetectX system on the Neurosim platform using datasets-CIFAR10(VGG8), CIFAR100(VGG16) and TinyImagenet(ResNet18). Our experiments show that DetectX is 10x-25x more energy efficient and immune to dynamic adversarial attacks compared to previous state-of-the-art works. Moreover, we achieve high detection performance (ROC-AUC>0.95) for strong white-box and black-box attacks.
Distinct Roles of Microtubules and Actin Filaments in Defining Dendritic Architecture

Microtubules and F-actin have long been recognized as key regulators of dendritic morphology. Nevertheless, precisely ascertaining their distinct influences on dendritic trees have been hampered until now by the lack of direct, arbor-wide cytoskeletal quantification. We pair live confocal imaging of fluorescently labeled dendritic arborization (da) neurons in drosophila larvae with complete multi-signal neural tracing to separately measure microtubules and F-actin. We demonstrate that dendritic arbor length is highly dependent on local microtubule quantity, whereas local F-actin enrichment is associated with dendritic branching. Computational simulation of arbor structure solely constrained by experimentally observed subcellular distributions of these cytoskeletal components generated synthetic morphological and molecular patterns statistically equivalent to those of real da neurons, corroborating the sufficiency of local microtubule and F-actin in defining dendritic architecture. The analysis and modeling outcomes hold true for the simplest (Class I), most complex (Class IV), and genetically altered (Formin3 overexpression) da neuron types.
Second Harmonic Generation in Lithiated Silicon Nanowires: Derivations and Computational Methods

This research will examine the computational methods to calculate the nonlinear optical process of second harmonic generation (SHG) that will be hypothesized to be present during lithium ion insertion into silicon nanowires. First it will be determined whether the medium in which SHG is conveyed is non-centrosymmetric or whether the medium is inversion symmetric where SHG as a part of the second-order nonlinear optical phenomenon does not exist. It will be demonstrated that the main interaction that determines SHG is multiphoton absorption on lithium ions. The quantum harmonic oscillator (QHO) is used as the background that generates coherent states for electrons and photons that transverse the length of the silicon nanowire. The matrix elements of the Hamiltonian which represents the energy of the system will be used to calculate the probability density of second-order nonlinear optical interactions which includes collectively SHG, sum-frequency generation (SFG) and difference-frequency generation (DFG). As a result it will be seen that at varies concentrations of lithium ions (Li+) within the crystallized silicon (c-Si) matrix the second-order nonlinear optical process has probabilities substantial enough to create second harmonic generation that could possibly be used for such applications as second harmonic imaging microscopy.
Perception Through 2D-MIMO FMCW Automotive Radar Under Adverse Weather

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) radars are being increasingly integrated in commercial vehicles to support new Adaptive Driver Assisted Systems (ADAS) features that require accurate location and Doppler velocity estimates of objects, independent of environmental conditions. To explore radar-based ADAS applications, we have updated our test-bed with Texas Instrument’s mmWave cascaded FMCW radar (TIDEP-01012) that forms a non-uniform 2D MIMO virtual array. In this paper, we develop the necessary received signal models for applying different direction of arrival (DoA) estimation algorithms and experimentally validating their performance on formed virtual array under controlled scenarios. To test the robustness of mmWave radars under adverse weather conditions, we collected raw radar dataset (I-Q samples post demodulated) for various objects by a driven vehicle-mounted platform, specifically for snowy and foggy situations where cameras are largely ineffective. Initial results from radar imaging algorithms to this dataset are presented.
A lower bound on the average size of a connected vertex set of a graph

Abstract The topic is the average order of a connected induced subgraph of a graph. This generalizes, to graphs in general, the average order of a subtree of a tree. In 1983, Jamison proved that the average order of a subtree, over all trees of order n, is minimized by the path P n . In 2018, Kroeker, Mol, and Oellermann conjectured that P n minimizes the average order of a connected induced subgraph over all connected graphs . The main result of this paper confirms this conjecture.
Brachytherapy and non-cancer mortality in patients with oral cavity and oropharynx SCCs

Abstract Background Oral cavity and oropharyngeal squamous cell cancers (OC-OPSCC) display high cancer-specific mortality and increased non-cancer mortality. We examined cause of death in patients treated for OC-OPSCC with brachytherapy, chemotherapy, external beam radiation, surgery, or combination of modalities. We hypothesized that brachytherapy does not increase non-cancer mortality comparably with external beam radiation. Methods A database was constructed from institutional tumor registry and electronic medical record data from all patients with first OC-OPSCC diagnosis at our institution between 2000 and 2010, excluding patients with a second primary cancer at diagnosis. The primary outcome was association between treatment modality and non-cancer mortality. Results Of 693 eligible patients, 460 were deceased; 84 from primary malignancy and 96 from a non-primary cancer cause, including 24 with a second primary cancer. 193 patients received brachytherapy. Cox proportional hazards regression was performed on treatment regimen, stratified by AJCC stage, race, and sex. Age, smoking history, and alcohol had HRs for death of 1.05 (p Conclusion We report non-cancer mortality from a cohort of curatively treated OC-OPSCC and show a significant correlation between brachytherapy and non-cancer survival, independent of remission status. The impact of brachytherapy in OPC was strongest in smokers.
Quantum optics meets black hole thermodynamics via conformal quantum mechanics. I. Master equation for acceleration radiation

A quantum-optics approach is used to study the nature of the acceleration radiation due to a random atomic cloud falling freely into a generalized Schwarzschild black hole through a Boulware vacuum. The properties of this horizon brightened acceleration radiation (HBAR) are analyzed with a master equation that is fully developed in a multimode format. A scheme for the coarse-graining average for an atomic cloud is considered, with emphasis on the random injection scenario, which is shown to generate a thermal state. The role played by conformal quantum mechanics (CQM) is shown to be critical for detailed balance via a Boltzmann factor governed by the near-horizon physics, with the unique selection of the Hawking temperature. The HBAR thermal state is the basis for a thermodynamic framework that parallels black hole thermodynamics.
Comparison of clinical features and prognosis in patients with cryptogenic and secondary organizing pneumonia.

Organizing pneumonia (OP) can be diagnosed pathologically, and cryptogenic OP (COP) and secondary OP (SOP) have been classified by cause and particular underlying context. Because it is clinically difficult to differentiate between COP and SOP, this study investigated characteristics that could distinguish between COP and SOP. The medical records of patients who underwent lung biopsy for a diagnosis of OP at a single tertiary hospital from January 2016 to December 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Eighty-five patients had pathologically proven OP, including 16 diagnosed with COP and 69 diagnosed with SOP. The most common cause of SOP was infectious pneumonia, observed in 57 (82.6%) of the 69 patients, followed by cancer and radiation pneumonitis. The pathogens causing infectious pneumonia were identified in 45 (65.2%) patients. There were no differences in age, sex, and lung function between the COP and SOP groups. Median body mass index was significantly lower (P = 0.030), and median time from symptom onset to hospital admission significantly shorter (P = 0.006), in the SOP than in the COP group. Fever was more common in the SOP group (P = 0.024), and CURB 65, an index of pneumonia severity, tended to be higher in the SOP group (P = 0.017). Some laboratory results differed significantly between the two groups. Lymphocyte counts in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were significantly higher in the COP than in the SOP group (P = 0.012). Radiologic findings showed that effusion was more common in the SOP group (P = 0.036). There were no between-group differences in steroid use, 30 day and in-hospital mortality rates, and rates of OP outcomes and recurrences. Pneumonia recurrence rate was significantly higher in SOP patients who were than were not treated with steroids (P = 0.035). Infection is the main cause of SOP. Symptom onset is more rapid in patients with SOP than with COP. Some blood and BAL fluid test results differed significantly in the COP and SOP groups. Pleural effusion was more common in the SOP group but there were no differences in clinical course. Recurrence in patients with SOP was more common in those who were than were not treated with steroids.
Cross-Modality Protein Embedding for Compound-Protein Affinity and Contact Prediction

Abstract Compound-protein pairs dominate FDA-approved drug-target pairs and the prediction of compound-protein affinity and contact (CPAC) could help accelerate drug discovery. In this study we consider proteins as multi-modal data including 1D amino-acid sequences and (sequence-predicted) 2D residue-pair contact maps. We empirically evaluate the embeddings of the two single modalities in their accuracy and generalizability of CPAC prediction (i.e. structure-free interpretable compound-protein affinity prediction). And we rationalize their performances in both challenges of embedding individual modalities and learning generalizable embedding-label relationship. We further propose two models involving cross-modality protein embedding and establish that the one with cross interaction (thus capturing correlations among modalities) outperforms SOTAs and our single modality models in affinity, contact, and binding-site predictions for proteins never seen in the training set.
Nuclear Factor I in neurons, glia and during the formation of Müller glia-derived progenitor cells in avian, porcine and primate retinas.

The regenerative potential of Muller glia (MG) is extraordinary in fish, poor in chick and terrible in mammals. In the chick model, MG readily reprogram into proliferating Muller glia-derived progenitor cells (MGPCs), but neuronal differentiation is very limited. The factors that suppress the neurogenic potential of MGPCs in the chick are slowly being revealed. Isoforms of Nuclear Factor I (NFI) are cell-intrinsic factors that limit neurogenic potential; these factors are required for the formation of MG in the developing mouse retina (Clark et al., 2019) and deletion of these factors reprograms MG into neuron-like cells in mature mouse retina (Hoang et al., 2020). Accordingly, we sought to characterize the patterns of expression NFIs in the developing, mature and damaged chick retina. In addition, we characterized patterns of expression of NFIs in the retinas of large mammals, pigs and monkeys. Using a combination of single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) and immunolabeling we probed for patterns of expression. In embryonic chick, levels of NFIs are very low in early E5 (embryonic day 5) retinal progenitor cells (RPCs), up-regulated in E8 RPCs, further up-regulated in differentiating MG at E12 and E15. NFIs are maintained in mature resting MG, microglia and neurons. Levels of NFIs are reduced in activated MG in retinas treated with NMDA and/or insulin+FGF2, and further down-regulated in proliferating MGPCs. However, levels of NFIs in MGPCs were significantly higher than those seen in RPCs. Immunolabeling for NFIA and NFIB closely matched patterns of expression revealed in different types of retinal neurons and glia, consistent with findings from scRNA-seq. In addition, we find expression of NFIA and NFIB through progenitors in the circumferential marginal zone at the far periphery of the retina. We find similar patterns of expression for NFIs in scRNA-seq databases for pig and monkey retinas. Patterns of expression of NFIA and NFIB were validated with immunofluorescence in pig and monkey retinas wherein these factors were predominantly detected in MG and a few types of inner retinal neurons. In summary, NFIA and NFIB are prominently expressed in developing chick retina and by mature neurons and glia in the retinas of chicks, pigs and monkeys. Although levels of NFIs are decreased in chick, in MGPCs these levels remain higher than those seen in neurogenic RPCs. We propose that the neurogenic potential of MGPCs in the chick retina is suppressed by NFIs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Convergent, functionally independent signaling by mu and delta opioid receptors in hippocampal parvalbumin interneurons.

Functional interactions between G protein-coupled receptors are poised to enhance neuronal sensitivity to neuromodulators and therapeutic drugs. Mu and Delta opioid receptors (MORs and DORs) can interact when overexpressed in the same cells, but whether co-expression of endogenous MORs and DORs in neurons leads to functional interactions is unclear. Here, in mice, we show that both MORs and DORs inhibit parvalbumin-expressing basket cells (PV-BCs) in hippocampal CA1 through partially occlusive signaling pathways that terminate on somato-dendritic potassium channels and presynaptic calcium channels. Using photoactivatable opioid neuropeptides, we find that DORs dominate the response to enkephalin in terms of both ligand-sensitivity and kinetics, which may be due to relatively low expression levels of MOR. Opioid-activated potassium channels do not show heterologous desensitization, indicating that MORs and DORs signal independently. In a direct test for heteromeric functional interactions, the DOR antagonist TIPP-Psi does not alter the kinetics or potency of either the potassium channel or synaptic responses to photorelease of the MOR agonist DAMGO. Thus, aside from largely redundant and convergent signaling, MORs and DORs do not functionally interact in PV-BCs in a way that impacts somato-dendritic potassium currents or synaptic transmission. These findings imply that crosstalk between MORs and DORs, either in the form of physical interactions or synergistic intracellular signaling, is not a preordained outcome of co-expression in neurons.
Tropical precipitation clusters as islands on a rough water-vapor topography

Tropical precipitation clusters exhibit power-law frequency distributions in area and volume (integrated precipitation), implying a lack of characteristic scale in tropical convective organization. However, it remains unknown what gives rise to the power laws and how the power-law exponents for area and volume are related to one another. Here, we explore the perspective that precipitation clusters are islands above a convective threshold on a rough column-water-vapor (CWV) topography. This perspective is supported by the agreement between the precipitation clusters and CWV islands in their frequency distributions as well as fractal dimensions. Power laws exist for CWV islands at different thresholds through the CWV topography, suggesting that the existence of power-laws is not specifically related to local precipitation dynamics, but is rather a general feature of CWV islands. Furthermore, the frequency distributions and fractal dimensions of the clusters can be reproduced when the CWV field is modeled to be self-affine with a roughness exponent of 0.3. Self-affine scaling theory relates the statistics of precipitation clusters to the roughness exponent; it also relates the power-law slopes for area and volume without involving the roughness exponent. Thus, the perspective of precipitation clusters as CWV islands provides a useful framework to consider many statistical properties of the precipitation clusters, particularly given that CWV is well-observed over a wide range of length scales in the tropics. However, the statistics of CWV islands at the convective threshold imply a smaller roughness than is inferred from the power spectrum of the bulk CWV field, and further work is needed to understand the scaling of the CWV field.
Examining the Modular Synthesis of [Cp*Rh] Monohydrides Supported by Chelating Diphosphine Ligands

[Cp*Rh] hydride complexes are invoked as intermediates in certain catalytic cycles, but few of these species have been successfully prepared and isolated, contributing to a relative shortage of information on the properties of such species. Here, the synthesis, isolation, and characterization of two new [Cp*Rh] hydrides are reported; the hydrides are supported by the chelating diphosphine ligands bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm) and 4,5-bis(diphenylphosphino)-9,9-dimethylxanthene (Xantphos). In both systems, reduction of precursor Rh(III) chloride complexes with Na(Hg) results in clean formation of isolable, formally 18e– Rh(I) species, and subsequent protonation by addition of near-stoichiometric quantities of anilinium triflate to the Rh(I) species returns high yields of the desired monohydride complexes. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data for these compounds provide evidence of direct Rh–H interactions, confirmed by complementary infrared spectra showing Rh–H stretching frequencies at 1982 cm–1 (for the dppm-supported hydride) and 1936 cm–1 (for the Xantphos-supported hydride). Findings from comprehensive multinuclear NMR experiments reveal the properties of the unique and especially rich spin systems for the dppm-supported hydride; multifrequency NMR studies in concert with spectral simulations enabled full characterization of splitting patterns attributable to couplings involving diastereotopic methylene protons for this complex. Taken together with prior reports of related monohydrides, the results show that the reduction/protonation reaction sequence is modular for preparation of [Cp*Rh] monohydrides supported by diverse diphosphine ligands spanning from four- to eight-membered rhodacycles.
Time-Optimal Coordination for Connected and Automated Vehicles at Adjacent Intersections

In this paper, we provide a hierarchical coordination framework for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) at two adjacent intersections. This framework consists of an upper-level scheduling problem and a low-level optimal control problem. By partitioning the area around two adjacent intersections into different zones, we formulate a scheduling problem for each individual CAV aimed at minimizing its total travel time. For each CAV, the solution of the upper-level problem designates the arrival times at each zones on its path which becomes the inputs of the low-level problem. The solution of the low-level problem yields the optimal control input (acceleration/deceleration) of each CAV to exit the intersections at the time specified in the upper-level scheduling problem. We validate the performance of our proposed hierarchical framework through extensive numerical simulations and comparison with signalized intersections, centralized scheduling, and FIFO queuing policy.
Fast alignment and preprocessing of chromatin profiles with Chromap.

As sequencing depth of chromatin studies continually grows deeper for sensitive profiling of regulatory elements or chromatin spatial structures, aligning and preprocessing of these sequencing data have become the bottleneck for analysis. Here we present Chromap, an ultrafast method for aligning and preprocessing high throughput chromatin profiles. Chromap is comparable to BWA-MEM and Bowtie2 in alignment accuracy and is over 10 times faster than traditional workflows on bulk ChIP-seq/Hi-C profiles and than 10x Genomics’ CellRanger v2.0.0 pipeline on single-cell ATAC-seq profiles. As studies continue sequencing with deeper coverage, computational processing of these profiles has become increasingly resource consuming. Here the authors designed an efficient computational method called Chromap to align and preprocess high throughput sequencing data from chromatin profiling techniques, including ChIP-seq, Hi-C, or scATAC-seq, with a major decrease in runtime.
The Rise of Law and the Fall of Circular 230: Tax Lawyer Professional Standards, 1985–2015

This Article focuses on the two issues that dominated discussions of professional responsibility standards for tax lawyers in the 1985–2015 period: return position standards and tax shelter opinions. It opens with the ABA’s 1965 opinion providing “reasonable basis” as the standard for undisclosed return positions and then traces the development of the “realistic possibility of success” and “substantial authority” standards. The Article then explores the post-1986 second wave of corporate tax shelters and the responses of Congress, the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, and the tax bar. In addition to documenting the extensive interaction between the federal government and the tax bars, the Article also chronicles the rise and fall of the prominence of Circular 230 and Treasury’s role in regulating tax lawyers. The Article concludes with reflections on the 1985–2015 period in light of the 1945–1985 history covered in two earlier articles, and it then suggests how to move the professional responsibility discussion forward. By the end of 2015, with the ABA opinion on return position standards pre-empted by statute and Circular 230 eviscerated by courts, professional ethics for tax lawyers had been largely replaced by penalty standards and uncertainties. To improve the deliberations on how best to develop standards from the current situation, empirical research into the practice realities of tax lawyers is suggested, giving attention to the diversity of the tax bar and the geographical, firm size, and specialization variations of the tax bar.
Behavior From the Void: Unsupervised Active Pre-Training

We introduce a new unsupervised pre-training method for reinforcement learning called APT, which stands for Active Pre-Training. APT learns behaviors and representations by actively searching for novel states in reward-free environments. The key novel idea is to explore the environment by maximizing a non-parametric entropy computed in an abstract representation space, which avoids the challenging density modeling and consequently allows our approach to scale much better in environments that have high-dimensional observations (e.g., image observations). We empirically evaluate APT by exposing task-specific reward after a long unsupervised pre-training phase. On Atari games, APT achieves human-level performance on 12 games and obtains highly competitive performance compared to canonical fully supervised RL algorithms. On DMControl suite, APT beats all baselines in terms of asymptotic performance and data efficiency and dramatically improves performance on tasks that are extremely difficult to train from scratch.
Localization, Convexity, and Star Aggregation

Offset Rademacher complexities have been shown to imply sharp, data-dependent upper bounds for the square loss in a broad class of problems including improper statistical learning and online learning. We show that in the statistical setting, the offset complexity upper bound can be generalized to any loss satisfying a certain uniform convexity condition. Amazingly, this condition is shown to also capture exponential concavity and self-concordance, uniting several apparently disparate results. By a unified geometric argument, these bounds translate directly to improper learning in a non-convex class using Audibert's "star algorithm." As applications, we recover the optimal rates for proper and improper learning with the $p$-loss, $1 < p < \infty$ and show that improper variants of empirical risk minimization can attain fast rates for logistic regression and other generalized linear models.
Doing more by doing less: how structured partial backpropagation improves deep learning clusters

Many organizations employ compute clusters equipped with accelerators such as GPUs and TPUs for training deep learning models in a distributed fashion. Training is resource-intensive, consuming significant compute, memory, and network resources. Many prior works explore how to reduce training resource footprint without impacting quality, but their focus on a subset of the bottlenecks (typically only the network) limits their ability to improve overall cluster utilization. In this work, we exploit the unique characteristics of deep learning workloads to propose Structured Partial Backpropagation(SPB), a technique that systematically controls the amount of backpropagation at individual workers in distributed training. This simultaneously reduces network bandwidth, compute utilization, and memory footprint while preserving model quality. To efficiently leverage the benefits of SPB at cluster level, we introduce Jigsaw, a SPB aware scheduler, which does scheduling at the iteration level for Deep Learning Training(DLT) jobs. We find that Jigsaw can improve large scale cluster efficiency by as high as 28%.
Aerosol deposition on plant leaves

An aerosol generator and wind tunnel system designed for use in aerosol deposition are described. Gross deposition on rough pubescent leaves was nearly seven times greater than on smooth, waxy leaves. Results suggest that aerosol deposition, on a per unit area basis, for single horizontal streamlining leaves is similar to that for arrays of leaves under similar flow conditions. Wind re-entrainment of PbCl2 particles was negligible while 2.54 cm of simulated rainfall was sufficient to remove 85% of recently applied aerosol.
The mechanical properties of soybean straw and wheat straw blended medium density fiberboards made with methylene diphenyl diisocyanate binder

Abstract A study was conducted to test the mechanical properties of medium density fiberboard (MDF) produced using soybean straw [Glycine max], wheat straw [Triticum aestivum], and a blend of the two fibers and the variations in properties that this blend produced. Additionally, the difference of soybean straw fibers compared to wheat straw fibers in the performance of MDF properties was investigated. Three formulations of the fibers were produced and tested to investigate the variation between properties of boards produced from the different fibers. The boards produced for testing were pressed using a hot press with 4 wt% methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) resin used to bond the particles and 2 wt% AW-50 wax emulsion used as a water retardant. The boards produced had a nominal density ranging from 579 kg/m3 to 646 kg/m3. Several test methods from ASTM standard D1037-12 were utilized to test the physical and mechanical properties of the boards. Initial results from the testing showed that several combinations of fibers could be used to produce boards with mostly no statistically significant difference between any one formulation, the only difference being a significantly higher difference in the screw withdrawal load needed for 100% wheat fiberboards compared to other formulations. The testing showed the viability of soybean stover fibers as a viable substitute or blend with wheat straw fibers with no appreciable decrease in the board properties except in the case of direct screw withdrawal resistance.
The Effects of Psychological Trauma on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a Research Review

Traumatic events such as abuse, bullying, and exposure to violence are commonplace among typically developing children and occur at least as often among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD are vulnerable to traumatization due to their deficits in social communication and emotion regulation. Research on posttraumatic symptoms among children with ASD is reviewed. Bullying has received much attention while there is a paucity of research on other types of trauma. Anxiety, social isolation, and developmental regression are associated with trauma. Further research is needed to clarify the symptom presentation and frequency of PTSD. Sensitive self-report measures are needed as well as validation of existing measures for assessing trauma in this population.
Mental Health Courts: Competence, Responsibility, and Proportionality

Mental health courts (MHCs) function as a component in the criminal justice system designed to reduce recidivism by promoting effective treatment for offenders who commit offenses due to the effects of their mental illness. MHCs frequently require guilty pleas from mentally ill offenders, place those offenders on probation, and require as a condition of probation that those offenders participate in treatment intended to ameliorate the disorders that increase their propensity to commit crimes. MHCs are designed to promote the well-being of the mentally ill offenders by providing treatment that improves their clinical conditions in a manner that decreases risk of recidivism and punishment. Decreasing the risk of recidivism also promotes the well-being of society. Consider the following concerns. First, do MHCs actually decrease recidivism more effectively than available alternatives? Second, what are the alternatives and what considerations other than comparative rates of recidivism are relevant to identifying the most appropriate legal institution to apply in attempting to reduce recidivism among offenders with mental illness? If an offender presents a risk of harm to others due to mental illness, what justifies the state in applying the police power through civil commitment, through an MHC within the criminal justice system or through a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity followed by post-acquittal commitment? MHCs are often described as applying a framework grounded in Therapeutic Jurisprudence. That framework pursues the development of legal rules, procedures, and roles that promote the well-being of those involved in a manner that recognizes and protects other important values embodied in law. In order to advance this project, MHCs must decrease recidivism without causing disproportionate harm to the well-being of some participants or seriously undermining other important values embodied in the relevant law. Thus, justifying MHCs requires that we identify the full range of relevant values and examine the ways in which MHCs may advance or undermine them under various conditions.
PathSys: integrating molecular interaction graphs for systems biology.

Background The goal of information integration in systems biology is to combine information from a number of databases and data sets, which are obtained from both high and low throughput experiments, under one data management scheme such that the cumulative information provides greater biological insight than is possible with individual information sources considered separately.
Evaluation of singular Fourier coefficients in solving electromagnetic scattering by body of revolution

[1] We develop an efficient evaluation scheme for the singular Fourier coefficients in solving electromagnetic scattering by body of revolution (BOR). For the singular modal Green's function (MGF), the scheme first evaluates the integrals over generating arc segments analytically and then distinguishes the singular part from the regular part for the integral over the angle in the revolution direction. This allows us to avoid the approximate calculation for the elliptical integral and the separated singular part is exactly evaluated in a closed form. For the singular MGF's derivatives generated from the gradient of the Green's function, we subtract the kernels with more similar singular integrands in the vicinity of singularity so that the kernels are better regularized. The procedure differs from the existent Glisson's method in several aspects and numerical experiments show that the scheme is simpler in implementation and more efficient for calculation.
Health care reform and the constitutional limits on private accreditation as an alternative to direct government regulation.

My goals are modest. First, I will draw upon my personal experience during six-and-a-half years at the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") to make a few cultural observations about the agency in an effort to suggest why different parts of it approach private accreditation in different ways. Second, I will discuss some of the possible limitations on the use of private accreditation in the health care area, including the private delegation doctrine, a dormant area of constitutional law so treacherous that it seems to have appeal to both former Justice Brennan and Chief Justice Rehnquist as a vehicle for judicial activism.
Molecular pathogenesis lessons from the world of infectious diseases research.

Infectious agents have caused epidemic and endemic diseases involved in the deaths of hundreds of millions of humans as well as significant animal morbidity and mortality throughout history. Indeed, the histories of investigative pathology and microbial pathogenesis are inexorably entwined, sharing well over a century of common ground. It is reasonable to presume that this will continue as new agents emerge (severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and other viruses), old pathogens reemerge (Ebolavirus), and resistance to antimicrobial agents increases in prevalence and importance.1–4 We see no forceful counterbalances on the horizon to this ongoing “restless tide”5 of pathogenic microbes. In the current issue of The American Journal of Pathology, we present a series of reviews on four representative pathogens, including two pathogenic bacteria (brucellae and Staphylococcus aureus),6,7 a virus (influenza),8 and a parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi).9 Each of these discussed microbes represents a major cause of human suffering. Contributing authors were given wide berth on which to focus on molecular pathogenic processes, broadly defined. The overarching goal was to summarize pertinent research on these pathogens, with special attention to specific molecular processes that contribute to pathogenesis and disease. Each organism illustrates different lessons about how pathogens do their dirty work. Rather than produce comprehensive reviews of all areas of pathogenesis, authors elected to highlight lessons that they believe would be of special interest to our readers.
Incomplete excisions of extremity soft tissue sarcomas are unaffected by insurance status or distance from a sarcoma center

Background Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) continue to be excised inappropriately without proper preoperative planning. The reasons for this remain elusive. The role of insurance status and patient distance from sarcoma center in influencing such inappropriate excisions were examined in this study. Methods This retrospective review of a single institution prospective database evaluated 400 patients treated for STS of the extremities between January 2000 and December 2008. Two hundred fifty three patients had a primary excision while 147 patients underwent re-excision. Wilcoxon rank sum test and either χ2 or Fisher's exact were used to compare variables. Multivariable regression analyses were used to take into account potential confounders and identify variables that affected excision status. Results Tumor size, site, depth, stage, margins, and histology were significantly different between the primary excision and re-excision groups; P < 0.05. Insurance status and patient distance from the treatment center were not statistically different between the two groups. Large and deep tumors and certain histology types predicted appropriate referral. Conclusions Inappropriate excision of STS is not influenced by patient distance from a sarcoma center or by a patient's insurance status. In this study, tumor size, depth, and certain histology types predicted the appropriate referral of a STS to a sarcoma center. J. Surg. Oncol. 2013; 108:477–480. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Youth perceptions of their school violence risks

In order to gauge youth perceptions of school violence, this study links two perceptual bias literatures: third-person perception and optimistic bias. The intersection of the two literatures may be especially beneficial in understanding how adolescents process and interpret public health messages and subsequently engage in risk behaviors or self-protective behaviors in health contexts. Participants were 350 urban adolescents in school-based violence prevention sessions who completed a survey. Findings indicate shared predictors of third-person perception and optimistic bias (age, self-esteem) as well as differences (knowledge). The findings also provide insight into understanding how adolescents process and interpret public health messages and subsequently engage in risk behaviors or self-protective behaviors in health contexts.
Fermentation and Downstream Processing of Bacillus

The genus Bacillus comprises a heterogeneous group of chemoorganotrophic, aerobic, rod-shaped microorganisms. These include both mesophilic and thermophilic species as well as acidophiles and alkalophiles. One of their main characteristics is their ability to produce heat-resistant endospores.
CMOS compatible self-aligned S/D regions for implant-free InGaAs MOSFETs

abstract CMOS compatible self-aligned access regions for indium gallium arsenide (In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As) implant-free n-type metal oxide semiconductor eld effect transistors (MOSFETs) are investigated. In situ doped n+source/drain regions are selectively grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy and self-alignedNickel InGaAs alloyed metal contacts are obtained using a self-aligned silicide-like process, where differ-ent process conditions are studied. Soft pre-epitaxy cleaning is followed by X-ray photoelectron spectros-copy, while the Ni InGaAs/III V interface is characterized by back-side SIMS proling. Relevant contactand sheet resistances are measured and integration issues are highlighted. Gate-rst implant-free self-aligned n-MOSFETs are produced to quantify the impact of Ni InGaAs contacts on the deviceperformance. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. IntroductionDue to their higher injection velocity, III V compound semicon-ductors and in particular indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) arebeing studied as possible candidates to replace Si as the channelmaterial in metal oxide semiconductor eld-effect-transistors(MOSFETs) for digital logic applications. Several challenges haveto be tackled to benet from the III Vs superior transport proper-ties and achieve a high drain current performance. Achieving lowresistance self-aligned source/drain access regions suitable forhigh-performance logic at 10 nm node and beyond is one of themost critical challenges. These contacts have to be highly compat-ible with standard CMOS ows, scalable to the small-pitch require-ments and thermally stable to stand the back-end process.Several approaches have been tried such as ion implantationwhich has shown its limits due to the too high thermal budget re-quired to achieve a decent S/D dopant activation[1]. Selective epi-taxy of in situ doped InGaAs S/D regions has been done bymolecular beam epitaxy (MBE)[2] and metal-organic vapor phaseepitaxy (MOVPE) [3], achieving a high carrier density in a self-aligned gate-rst scheme. These two approaches require a III Vcleaning recipe which includes a wet etch down to an etch-stoplayer before regrowth. Etching the channel material prior to S/Dformation is not an option in the case of fully-depleted types ofarchitectures like extremely-thin compound semiconductor oninsulator (ETCSOI).Low contact resistance and self-aligned molybdenum (Mo)metal contacts have been demonstrated using a height-selectiveetching process[4]. However, this process might be difcult tomanufacture over large wafer size on scaled devices. A salicide-like(self-aligned silicide) process on III V has been developed using aNickel InGaAs (Ni InGaAs) alloy integrated in a metallic S/D n-MOSFET[5,6] which suffers from a high off-state drain currentdue to the absence of a channel-to-S/D p n junction.In this work we report on a CMOS compatible process ow toachieve self-aligned implant-free access regions for In
Organic Food Demand: A Focus Group Study Involving Caucasian and African-American Shoppers

A focus group study using four groups of food shoppers provides insights into consumers’ knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding organic foods. Two focus groups consisted of shoppers who regularly bought organic foods and two focus groups of shoppers who predominantly purchased conventional foods. Participants in one of the conventional groups were all Caucasian; in the other they were all African-American. While familiarity with organic foods was much lower in the African-American group, its members were more receptive and positive towards organic foods. Likewise, the African-American shoppers were more accepting of price premiums for organics foods. In comparing the two organic shopper groups with the two conventional shopper groups, it was found that the former were generally more knowledgeable about organic foods. They were also more likely to follow a special diet than conventional Caucasian shoppers. However, the behavior of organic shoppers varied widely. The research supports examining social justice and access as motivations for changing policies to support organic agriculture.
The effects of avatar appearance on interviewer ratings in virtual employment interviews

It is increasingly common for people engaging in computer-mediated interactions to be accompanied by a digital avatar that represents them. Little is known, however, about how these avatars influence others' impressions. We examine this question in the context of employment interviews. It is well known that attractive job candidates are afforded an advantage in traditional face-to-face job interviews. We investigate whether raters evaluating computer-mediated interviews will follow a similar pattern when a digital avatar represents the candidate. To investigate this question, we asked 374 raters to view an interview transcript that was accompanied by either a male or female avatar, applying for either a male or female gender-typed job. We found that candidates with more attractive avatars received more favorable interview ratings, regardless of job gender type. These findings support the notion that the ''what is beautiful is good'' stereotype influences interview ratings even in computer-mediated interviews; raters automatically apply the same heuristics to digital and non-digital faces.
IL-6 mediated isotype specific suppression of hapten specific IgE in serum of BPO-KLH sensitized mice: role of IFN alpha in maintainance of hapten specific IgE responses.

The ability of IL-6 or IFN alpha or antibodies to these cytokines to regulate serum levels of hapten specific immunoglobulins (IgM, IgGl, IgE, IgA) was studied in BPO-KLH (benzylpenicilloyl-keyhole limpet hemocyanin) sensitized BALB/c mice at the peak of a hapten specific IgE antibody forming cell (AFC) response. To induce peak IgE responses, mice were injected intraperitonealy (i. p.) with BPO-KLH (10 /g) in aluminum hydroxide gel (alum) on days 0, 21, and 42. On day 44, mice were injected s.c. with IL-6 (100-1000 U), IFN alpha (1000-10,000 U), anti-IL-6 (100-1000 neutralizing units [NU]), or anti-IFN alpha (1000-10,000 NU). On day 46, levels of BPO specific IgM, IgGl, IgE and IgA in serum were determined (ELISA). Data are expressed as μg/ml. IL-6 suppressed BPO specific IgE in serum in isotype specific fashion (to >90%), increasing IgA (n3 fold), and leaving IgM and IgGl unchanged. Since removal of endogenous IL-6 with anti-IL-6 increased serum IgE, and suppressed IgGl (≈50%), with IgM and IgA unchanged...
Democratic materialism: the articulation of world power in democracy’s era of triumph

Acknowledging the historical and readily overlooked raison d’etre of formal democracy is critical in the contemporary era of democratization. Despite a popular fixation on democracy’s civic virtues, the most powerful democracies have been historically linked to the institution of empire due to the fundamental acquisitive underpinnings that they both share. Given its elemental function as guarantor of individual possession for the common citizenry, the most powerful – and thus successful – democratic states in the international arena have served as ‘acquisitive collectives of private property’. It is no surprise that the materially successful and consequently stable democratic states that lead the world system are/have been favorably linked to the structure of imperialism. Any conception of an emerging era of democratic ‘peace’ must accommodate the coercive imperialism of old modified to suit the era of democratically sponsored globalization. Thus, this article contextualizes the popularly overlooked relat...
The Effect of Changes in Iron Redox State on the Activity of Enzymes Sensitive to Modification of SH Groups

Abstract Iron ions in micromolar concentrations induced a rapid and selective inhibition of the activity of skeletal muscle creatine kinase (CK), sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+-ATPase, and pyruvate kinase (PK). This effect of iron was dependent on the presence of adenine nucleotides and on the redox state of iron. Changing the redox state of the media created different Fe2+/Fe3+ ratios which selectively depressed different enzymes: depression of PK activity occurred when iron was predominantly in its reduced form and, consequently, when there was a high Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio; depression of SR Ca2+ uptake and SR Ca2+-ATPase activity occurred when the Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio was close to 1; depression of CK activity occurred when iron was predominantly in its oxidized form and the Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio was low. All iron-sensitive enzymes possessed sulfhydryl groups, accessible to N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), which were essential for their activity. The rate of inhibition of enzyme activity with NEM increased in the order PK