cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A computational tool for automated large-scale analysis and measurement of bird-song syntax

a b s t r a c t We present computer software for automated, high throughput, quantitative syllable-level analysis of bird song syntax. The primary advantage of our tool is the ease and effectiveness it provides in quantifying syllable sequence and performing a comparison of syllable sequence from one day of singing with one or more other days of singing. The software utilizes the output of the Feature Batch module in Sound Analysis Pro (Tchernichovski et al., 2000) that can be used to measure the temporal and spectral features of each syllable produced during a day of singing. We use these measurements to identify individual syllables based on their temporal and spectral properties and then identify transition probabilities among syllables to determine changes in syntax. This quantifies the ordering of syllables in songs and the frequency with which subsequences appear. Moreover, the software computes the linearity, consistency, and stereotypy scores for every bout presented as well as descriptive statistics for each of these measures for each day of singing. We also report statistical measures that the software utilizes (the Kullback-Leibler distance and the sequence entropy) to quantify the degree of dissimilarity between sequences of syllable transitions. Our tool is useful for comparing the syntactic structure of songs produced by a bird prior to and after a manipulation such as ablation of part of the vocal motor pathway or infusion of pharmacological agents, or for assessing the degree of individual variation in syntactic structure across populations of birds. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PRODUCING DIFFUSE ULTRASOUND REFLECTIONS FROM MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS USING A QUADRATIC RESIDUE DIFFUSER

Simultaneous visualization of tissue and surgical instruments is necessary during ultrasound-guided medical procedures. Standard minimally invasive instruments are typically metallic and act as strong specular scatterers. As a result, such instruments saturate the image or disappear according to the angle of incidence, obscuring nearby tissue and making it difficult to determine the instrument's precise location. The objective of this study was to produce diffusive reflections from the surface of surgical instruments for improved visualization in ultrasound. A surface profile based on a 2D quadratic residue diffuser (QRD) was employed, which has been demonstrated to reduce specular reflection in other acoustic applications. The backscattered echo amplitude from the diffusive surface at various angles of insonation was measured and compared to that from unmodified metal surfaces and heart tissue surfaces. The QRD resulted in an 8 dB reduction of the specular signal. Furthermore, the dynamic range for angles up to 75 degrees was less than 20 dB for the QRD and more than 65 dB for a flat surface. The QRD surface produces two beneficial results for the simultaneous imaging of instruments and tissue. First, the conspicuity of diffusive surfaces in ultrasound images is markedly improved in comparison with unmodified metal surfaces. Secondly, the echo amplitude of diffusive metal surfaces differs in mean and standard deviation from that of tissue facilitating image enhancement and segmentation.
Effects of vitamin B12 on thiouracil action in rats.

SummaryThe effects of crystalline vit. B12 on thiouracil action was determined in immature female rats for a 30-day period. The vitamin completely counteracted the growth-inhibiting action of thiouracil, and this was accompanied by a considerable increase in food consumption. Although vit. B12 decreased the thyroid hypertrophy induced by thiouracil, the uptake of radioactive iodine (I131) by the thyroids was even less than in the rats which received thiouracil only. It is suggested that vit. B12 may be able to induce normal growth in hypothyroid rats.
"My religious aunt asked why i was trying to sell her viagra": experiences with account hijacking

With so much of our lives digital, online, and not entirely under our control, we risk losing access to our communications, reputation, and data. Recent years have brought a rash of high-profile account compromises, but account hijacking is not limited to high-profile accounts. In this paper, we report results of a survey about people's experiences with and attitudes toward account hijacking. The problem is widespread; 30% of our 294 participants had an email or social networking account accessed by an unauthorized party. Five themes emerged from our results: (1) compromised accounts are often valuable to victims, (2) attackers are mostly unknown, but sometimes known, to victims, (3) users acknowledge some responsibility for keeping their accounts secure, (4) users' understanding of important security measures is incomplete, and (5) harm from account hijacking is concrete and emotional. We discuss implications for designing security mechanisms to improve chances for user adoption.
Price Fixing and the Theory of Profit

I. Variety of purposes of the price-fixing agencies, 138. — Methods of price fixing, 140. — II. Cost method of price fixing, 142. — Accountant's cost of production, 144. — Use of the accountant's cost in price fixing, 145. — Profit as the margin above cost, 150. — III. Development of the theory of profit, 151. — Explanation of and justification for profit, 155. — Relation of the theory of profit to price fixing, 159. — IV. Conclusions, 160.
A multiagent approach to autonomous intersection management

Artificial intelligence research is ushering in a new era of sophisticated, mass-market transportation technology. While computers can already fly a passenger jet better than a trained human pilot, people are still faced with the dangerous yet tedious task of driving automobiles. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is the field that focuses on integrating information technology with vehicles and transportation infrastructure to make transportation safer, cheaper, and more efficient. Recent advances in ITS point to a future in which vehicles themselves handle the vast majority of the driving task. Once autonomous vehicles become popular, autonomous interactions amongst multiple vehicles will be possible. Current methods of vehicle coordination, which are all designed to work with human drivers, will be outdated. The bottleneck for roadway efficiency will no longer be the drivers, but rather the mechanism by which those drivers' actions are coordinated. While open-road driving is a well-studied and more-or-less-solved problem, urban traffic scenarios, especially intersections, are much more challenging. We believe current methods for controlling traffic, specifically at intersections, will not be able to take advantage of the increased sensitivity and precision of autonomous vehicles as compared to human drivers. In this article, we suggest an alternative mechanism for coordinating the movement of autonomous vehicles through intersections. Drivers and intersections in this mechanism are treated as autonomous agents in a multiagent system. In this multiagent system, intersections use a new reservation-based approach built around a detailed communication protocol, which we also present. We demonstrate in simulation that our new mechanism has the potential to significantly outperform current intersection control technology--traffic lights and stop signs. Because our mechanism can emulate a traffic light or stop sign, it subsumes the most popular current methods of intersection control. This article also presents two extensions to the mechanism. The first extension allows the system to control human-driven vehicles in addition to autonomous vehicles. The second gives priority to emergency vehicles without significant cost to civilian vehicles. The mechanism, including both extensions, is implemented and tested in simulation, and we present experimental results that strongly attest to the efficacy of this approach.
Determinants of exceptional human longevity: new ideas and findings

Studies of centenarians are useful in identifying factors leading to long life and avoidance of fatal diseases. In this article we consider several approaches to study effects of early-life and midlife conditions on survival to advanced ages: use of non-biological relatives as controls, the within-family analysis, as well as a sampling of controls from the same population universe as centenarians. These approaches are illustrated using data on American centenarians, their relatives and unrelated shorterlived controls obtained from the online genealogies. The within-family analysis revealed that young maternal age at person’s birth is associated with higher chances of exceptional longevity. Comparison of centenarians and their shorter-lived peers (died at age 65 and sampled from the same pool of online genealogies) confirmed that birth timing in the second half of the calendar year predicts survival to age 100. Parental longevity as well as some childhood and midlife characteristics also proved to be significant predictors of exceptional longevity.
The Baldwin-Lomax Turbulence Model for Two-Dimensional Shock-Wave/Boundary-Layer Interactions

The algebraic turbulent eddy viscosity model of Baldwin and Lomax has been critically examined for the case of two-dimension al (2-D) supersonic compression corner interactions. The flowfields are computed using the Navier-Stokes equations together with three different versions of the Baldwin-Lomax model, including the incorporation of a relaxation technique. The turbulence models are evaluated by a detailed comparison with available experimental data for compression ramp flows over a range of corner angle and Reynolds number. The Baldwin-Lomax outer formulation is found to be unsuitable for separated 2-D supersonic interactions due to the unphysical streamwise variation of the computed length scale in the vicinity of separation. Minor modifications are proposed to partially remedy this difficulty. The use of relaxation provides significant improvement in the flowfield prediction upstream of the corner. However, the relaxation length required is one-tenth of that employed in a previous computational study. AH of the turbulence models tested here fail to simulate the rapid recovery of the boundary layer downstream of reattachment.
A system for generating transcription regulatory networks with combinatorial control of transcription

Summary: We have developed a new software system, REgulatory Network generator with COmbinatorial control (RENCO), for automatic generation of differential equations describing pre-transcriptional combinatorics in artificial regulatory networks. RENCO has the following benefits: (a) it explicitly models protein–protein interactions among transcription factors, (b) it captures combinatorial control of transcription factors on target genes and (c) it produces output in Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) format, which allows these equations to be directly imported into existing simulators. Explicit modeling of the protein interactions allows RENCO to incorporate greater mechanistic detail of the transcription machinery compared to existing models and can provide a better assessment of algorithms for regulatory network inference. Availability: RENCO is a C++ command line program, available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/renco/ Contact: terran@cs.unm.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The discrimination of children's phobias using the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children

The discriminant validity of children's and parents' ratings of the child's fear on the Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R; Ollendick, 1983) was examined using a clinic sample of children who met DSM criteria for phobic disorders (N = 120). Discriminant function analyses and item analyses were conducted to determine if children meeting diagnostic criteria for a primary disorder of social phobia, simple phobia of the dark/sleeping alone, simple phobia of animals, or a simple phobia of shots/doctors could be differentiated on the basis of FSSC-R subscale scores and items. Results of the discriminant function analyses indicated that the child-completed as well as the parent-completed FSSC-Rs were similarly useful in differentiating the specific types of phobias. Results of the item analyses indicated that child-completed FSSC-R items could discriminate among the different simple phobias but not social phobia and that parent-completed FSSC-R items could discriminate not only the different simple phobias but also social phobia. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of the FSSC-R in the assessment of clinically significant fears in children with phobic disorders and the relative utility of child and parent ratings in the assessment of childhood fears.
EXPLICIT TIME INTEGRATORS FOR NONLINEAR DYNAMICS DERIVED FROM THE MIDPOINT RULE

We address the design of time integrators for mechanical systems that are explicit in the forcing evaluations. Our starting point is the midpoint rule, either in the classical form for the vector space setting, or in the Lie form for the rotation group. By introducing discrete, concentrated impulses we can approximate the forcing impressed upon the system over the time step, and thus arrive at first-order integrators. These can then be composed to yield a second order integrator with very desirable properties: symplecticity and momentum conservation.
Organic Solar Cells: An Overview Focusing on Active Layer Morphology

Solar cells constructed of organic materials are becoming increasingly efficient due to the discovery of the bulk heterojunction concept. This review provides an overview of organic solar cells. Topics covered include: a brief history of organic solar cell development; device construction, definitions, and characteristics; and heterojunction morphology and its relation to device efficiency in conjugated polymer/fullerene systems. The aim of this article is to show that researchers are developing a better understanding of how material structure relates to function and that they are applying this knowledge to build more efficient light-harvesting devices.
The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy, by AnnaLee Saxenian. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. 432 pp. $18.95 paper. $27.95 cloth. ISBN 978-0-674-02566-0 paper/978-0-674-02201-0 cloth

In 1271, Marco Polo took the Silk Road en route to China. After 17 years in China, Marco Polo returned to Venice. He brought back to Western civilization silk, compass technology, and, more importa...
From the Traditional Multimeter to the "Wireless Multimeter Networking"

New functionalities can be added to traditional multimeter with a cost increase of less than 10$ thanks to recent RF technologies. In the proposed solution, many multimeters can cooperate to achieve a simple, multiplexed, remote measurement system. Thanks to a low-cost USB interface, the wireless multimeter network can also operate as a multi-probe data logger. Actually, an extensive use of wireless connection can decrease battery life, if compared with traditional portable devices. In fact, a noisy and crowded channel obliges to retransmit data, and wireless section consumption could become the most critical aspect. For this reason, experimental results about battery life are discussed here.
The economics and politics of cost sharing in higher education: comparative perspectives

Cost-sharing, or the shift in at least part of the higher educational cost burden from governments (or taxpayers) to parents and students, is a worldwide trend manifested in the introduction of (or in sharp increases in) tuition fees, user charges for lodging and food, and in the diminution of student grants. The phenomenon is seen even in Europe, which still remains the last bastion of generally “free” higher education, as well as in countries that were once Marxist and that are finding loopholes to retain the legal semblance of free higher education while becoming increasingly dependent on tuition revenue for the financial survival of their institutions. This paper examines the rationales for cost-sharing as well as the continuing ideological, political, and technical opposition to it, even in the face of extreme austerity and the virtual inevitability of higher educational revenue diversification, including some forms of cost-sharing, in most countries.
Adventures in Naboth's Vineyard

Books reviewed in this article: Atkins, Pope G. and Wilson, Larman C. The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism
Epoxide hydrolase : polymorphism and role in toxicology

Microsomal epoxide hydrolase is a critical biotransformation enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of a broad array of xenobiotic epoxide substrates to more polar diol metabolites. The gene has been shown previously to exhibit polymorphism, including variation in the coding region leading to amino acid substitutions at positions 113 (Y/H) and 139 (H/R). To better evaluate the phenotype associated with the structural region genetic polymorphisms associated with mEH, we performed enzymatic analyses using purified mEH proteins that were expressed using a baculovirus system, or with microsomal preparations obtained from liver tissues that were derived from individuals with homozygous mEH allelic status. Benzo[a]pyrene-4, 5-oxide and cis-stilbene oxide were employed as substrates for the enzymatic determinations. Results obtained with the purified enzymes suggested that the reaction velocity catalyzed by the wild type (Y113/H139) protein was approximately two-fold greater than the corresponding velocities for the variant forms of the enzyme. However, when reaction rates were analyzed using human liver microsomal preparations, the maximal velocities generated among the variant mEH proteins were not statistically different. Collectively, these results indicate that the structural differences coded by the mEH genetic variants may have only modest impact on the enzyme's specific activity in vivo.
Cramer–Rao Bounds for Hybrid TOA/DOA-Based Location Estimation in Sensor Networks

This letter derives the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) for source location estimation using joint time-/direction-of-arrival (TOA/DOA) measurements collected in a wireless sensor network setup. Each sensor is capable of measuring both TOA and DOA from a signal source, which enables it to estimate the source's location individually. Data fusion is then employed to reach a global position estimate. For both optimal measurement fusion and linear state fusion, we derive the CRBs to assess the attainable positioning accuracy, which shed light on the impact of network topology and sensor selection on localization accuracy.
Civil aviation's next generation global CNS/ATM system

Civil aviation is rapidly moving toward utilization of augmented GPS for its navigation, landing guidance and surveillance functions. However, it is now well recognized that the low level GPS signals are vulnerable to terrorist or military jamming over wide areas on Earth, and some form of backup will be required. The latest FAA plan would utilize existing VOR/DME and ILS facilities and primary/secondary radar for such backup. An examination of the augmentation systems required for the GPS aviation functions and the necessary backup systems, shows that the overall system architecture is inefficient and costly, especially the user airborne equipment. The situation has led to a study of an integrated global system concept that provides all of the CNS/ATM aviation functions (communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management) with security, performance and economy. The subsystems and operation of the Integrated Global Surveillance and Guidance System, which we believe to be the next generation CNS/ATM system, is described.
Role of immune cells in salt-sensitive hypertension and renal injury.

Purpose of review Immune mechanisms exacerbate the severity of hypertension in humans and animal models of disease. This review summarizes recent mechanistic studies exploring the pathways whereby immunity influences salt-sensitive hypertension and renal disease. Recent findings Emphasis is placed on the role of T cell subtypes, the mechanisms of T-cell activation, and the identification of potential antigens or neoantigens. Summary Significant advancements have occurred in the search for pathways which activate the adaptive immune response. An enhanced understanding of the factors contributing to hypertension can lead to better therapies.
Wound responses of wild apples suggest multiple resistance mechanism against blue mold decay

Abstract Blue mold caused primarily by Penicillium expansum and to a lesser extent other Penicillium spp. is the most destructive disease of stored apples in the US and worldwide. It was recently shown that resistance to blue mold exists in wild apple germplasms, Malus sieversii, from Kazakhstan and in other species from different regions maintained as a collection in Geneva, NY. We initiated studies to determine the durability and the mechanism(s) of resistance to P. expansum in select wild apple accessions. Wound responses (up to 96 h in 24 h intervals), affecting P. expansum infection, and related cytological changes were determined in accessions with varying levels of resistance. In general, the more resistant the accession, the quicker the wound response that prevented the fungus from infecting tissue and causing decay. No decay developed on immune apple accessions, even when inoculated immediately after wounding at the inoculum concentration of 105 conidia/mL. On a moderately resistant accession, a 24 h interval between wounding and inoculation was sufficient to avert decay. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were detected at high levels immediately after wounding in the immune as well as susceptible accessions. Callose and lignin/suberin appears to play a minor role in resistance responses. Our results indicate the presence of a high level of durable resistance/immunity in the wild apples which is governed by several mechanism(s). This presents a new challenge for explaining the observed resistance and at the same time creates an opportunity for exploiting these resistant mechanisms in breeding programs to incorporate resistance to fruit decays into commercial cultivars.
The Simple Life: The Case Against Ostentation in Jewish Law

While Judaism sees nothing wrong with wealth, it does frown on ostentation. Flaunting wealth has the following deleterious effects: (1) It makes one conspicuous and arouses the envy of others, including enemies of the Jewish people, (2) ostentation can cause people who are not very wealthy to become ashamed of their lack of means, and (3) it can make one arrogant. The purpose of wealth is to help others, not to show it off. This paper will address the attitude of Jewish law towards ostentation. Is one permitted to live an extravagant, opulent, and excessive lifestyle? This paper will demonstrate that a showy, overly materialistic lifestyle is not considered an appropriate lifestyle by Jewish authorities. While it is true that Judaism has a very positive attitude towards wealth and does not generally admire an ascetic way of life, neither does it condone an ostentatious lifestyle.
Serial passage of hog cholera virus in rabbits.

SummaryTwo strains of hog cholera virus were inoculated into rabbits. One strain (A) continued in serial passage, became attenuated for swine and, after 15 rabbit passages, produced a febrile reaction of short duration as the only sign of illness. This attenuated strain fully immunized swine to the virulent hog cholera virus. The other strain (B) was present in rabbits for 1 but not 2 consecutive passages. With 6 continued transfers alternately between swine and rabbits, the amount of virus in the rabbit's spleen attained 100 times that found in the initial rabbit transfer. Serial passage in the rabbit was then successful for 2 but not 3 transfers. Evidence of attenuation of this strain was the lengthened incubation period in swine inoculated with the rabbit-passed material. Possible explanations for the difference in adaptability of these strains are discussed.
Changes to the Structure and Dynamics in Mutations of Aβ21–30 Caused by Ions in Solution

The structure and dynamics of the 21–30 fragment of the amyloid β-protein (Aβ21–30) and its Dutch [Glu22Gln], Arctic [Glu22Gly], and Iowa [Asp23Asn] isoforms are of considerable importance, as their folding may play an important role in the pathogenesis of sporadic and familial forms of Alzheimer’s disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. A full understanding of this pathologic folding in in vivo environments is still elusive. Here we examine the interactions and effects of two neurobiologically relevant salts (CaCl2 and KCl) on the structure and dynamics of Aβ21–30 decapeptide monomers containing the Dutch, Arctic, and Iowa charge-modifying point mutations using isobaric–isothermal (NPT) explicit water all-atom molecular-dynamics simulations. Measurements of secondary structure populations, intrapeptide hydrogen bonding, salt bridging, secondary structure lifetimes, cation–residue contacts, water–peptide hydrogen bonding, and hydration-shell water residence times reveal a variety of ion and mutation-depe...
Crisis in the American health care system

According to Federal US law it is forbidden to reject patients or to curtail their care. The law may be seen as a democratic expression of the American people's wish to give all citizens access to the country's health services. Nevertheless it is estimated that millions of people in the USA wholly lack health insurance and very few of them succeed in paying their hospital bills. The problems of collection are so great that hospitals frequently refrain from even making the attempt. The law has a paradoxical effect; the health services are impoverished since no resources are set aside to cover the rising costs.
The Use of a Smartphone (iPhone) As a Tool in Teaching Surgical Pathology Grossing Techniques to Pathology Residents in Training

Residency training in anatomic pathology in the United States follows an apprenticeship model. Many programs rely upon senior residents to supervise junior residents. This method of training lacks standardization and is highly dependent on the skill level of the supervising resident. Although most institutions provide residents with gross examination manuals, reading these is not as effective as observing …
Relations among victimization, witnessing, and perpetration of aggression: impact of gender among youth offenders

The participants included 251 (158 males; 93 females) youth offenders who were arrested and incarcerated in a juvenile facility in the Midwest United States. The aims were to assess (a) how often they were a victim, a witness, and/or a perpetrator of social aggression, simple assault, and aggravated assault during the past year; (b) to examine whether exposure (either witness or victim or both) predicted committing three types of aggressive behaviors; and (c) to assess the impact of gender among the youth offenders. Differential predictability models were utilized to assess gender differences. The findings revealed that gender was an important predictor. For example, females reported higher rates of being a witness, a victim, and a perpetrator of social aggression than did males. Moreover, female offenders committed simple assault more often than males and males committed aggravated assault more often than females. The general results suggest that it is important to examine the various forms of aggression, and exposure, as well as how gender affects these relationships.
Does Increased Arterial Stiffness Herald Cognitive Impairment

See related article, p 2256. Cognitive impairment or dementia is one of the most frequent causes of disability in the elderly. A recent meta-analysis reports global prevalence of dementia from all causes to be between 5% and 7% of adults of age >60 years.1 It doubles every 5 years and reaches >30% at the age of 90 years in the most regions of world.1 Dementia has become a significant economic burden in aging societies worldwide. There is a transitional phase between normal function and dementia. The term mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been introduced to define such transitional cognitive dysfunction in the clinical and research settings.2 The prevalence of MCI is close to 20% in people aged >70 years.2 Given the fact that elderly patients with MCI have a high risk of developing dementia, identification of early biomarkers of MCI would be a critical step to facilitate construction of measures for prevention of dementia. Arterial stiffness refers to a reduction in the ability of large arteries to readily accommodate the increase in blood volume ejected from the heart during systole.3 It has been proposed as an indirect measure of brain microcirculation and small-vessel damage.4 Recent evidence has suggested that cerebral small-vessel disease is involved in pathophysiology of …
Logics of the Absurd

In their different ways, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Lord Malquist and Mr Moon embody Stoppard’s recognition that the frequent avant-garde attempt to absolutise ‘absence’ and the ‘absurd’ is quite fallacious. We can express ‘absence’ only because we can overcome that distance, blockage, or objectification. We can articulate the ‘absurd’ only because our relative control over the artistic medium and the world itself enables us to formulate the paradoxes that finite thought must always produce. Such plays as Ionesco’s The Chairs and Beckett’s Endgame therefore depend upon what they seem to deny: our collaborative presence in a coherent if incompletely explicable world. Ionesco’s own career shows that going ‘beyond the absurd’ poses no great problem, for we were never really there in the first place. Recognising that fact, a playwright can take the ‘absurd’ more lightly. And like W. S. Gilbert or Lewis Carroll, he may choose to isolate and refine for comic purposes some of the ‘logics’ through which it can be ordered and communicated.
Introducing the Direct Anterior Approach (DAA) to THA Into Your Practice: a Senior Surgeon's Look at If, How and Why

INTRODUCTION: The senior surgeon has performed THA in his practice for over 30 years, and, while performing THA and revision THA utilizing a variety of surgical approaches, has employed and taught the modified Gibson posterolateral approach to the hip joint as his “workhorse” surgical approach for the majority of his career. In following the development of the DAA, he felt that there were subgroups of patients in his practice for whom the DAA, and supine THA, might prove beneficial, and started to introduce this approach into his practice 2 years ago. This retrospective review describes the risks and benefits of choosing to introduce this approach, and outlines a rational way in which surgeons can decide if they should learn and then offer this approach to appropriate patients within their practice. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A retrospective study was performed comparing outcomes of patients who underwent THA with the standard posterolateral approach vs. those who underwent THA with the direct anterior approach. Demographics such as age, gender, BMI and medical history were obtained. In addition, operative information and pre- and post-operative Harris Hip Score (HHS) evaluations were collected. Radiographic information and details about complications were also acquired. RESULTS: Procedure time and operating room time were significantly different between groups (p Mean abduction angle for the DAA was 42 degrees vs. 50 degrees for the posterolateral approach (p The type of stem used had a significant affect on the amount of complications that occurred (p = 0.0442) in the DAA only. The number of complications that occurred did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.1737). However, the types of complications that occurred were different. The complication that occurred most often in the DAA was periprosthetic fracture, and the complications that occurred most often in the posterolateral group were wound issues and dislocations. DISCUSSION: A further look into the results indicates that there is a learning curve for an experienced surgeon who is beginning to use the direct anterior approach. CONCLUSIONS: For a senior surgeon, the DAA may offer some benefit to his patient population. These benefits are in terms of ease of recovery from surgery, choice and predictability of implants utilized, and absence of restrictions for patients and nursing staff during the recovery process. To minimize the risk of introduction of this procedure, the surgeon and his team need to plan the learning approach, structure the introduction using familiar and predictable implants, and adjust the indications for its application through careful patient selection. Careful discussions with the patients involved are an important part of a successful introduction.
Simulation testing the robustness of a multi-region tag-integrated assessment model that exhibits natal homing and estimates natural mortality and reporting rate

The influence of model complexity on integrated tagging and catch-at-age analysis (ITCAAN) parameter estimation is poorly understood for populations exhibiting natal homing. We investigated ITCAAN performance under varying levels of movement, degree of similarity in population productivities, data quality, spatial complexity in parameterization, and whether natural mortality and (or) reporting rates were fixed at actual values, estimated, or misspecified. Dynamics of four populations with natal homing that intermixed during periods of harvest were simulated based on Lake Erie walleye (Sander vitreus). Our results suggest, when high-quality tagging data are available, ITCAAN models are able to simultaneously estimate movement rates, natural mortality, and tag reporting rates, though accuracy and precision of model estimates will decrease with greater model complexity and fewer tags released. Additionally, ITCAAN models may have difficulty estimating individual population abundances under certain movement r...
Options-based sequential auctions for dynamic cloud resource allocation

With growing demands for cloud computing services, the idea of managing limited cloud resources for making a profit has arisen as an important problem. Auction theory is recently considered as a viable way to solve the problem of cloud resource allocation. In this paper, we consider a model for Cloud of Clouds Networks (CCNs) with different types of servers along with customers with heterogeneous demands, in which customers and cloud servers may join and leave the CCN at will. We propose an options-based sequential auction that not only provides a good match with the dynamic structure of the problem, but also solves the entrance time problem and possesses the truthfulness property. We study both first-price and second-price options-based sequential auctions, and model the price matching processes in those auctions as Markov chains. We provide mathematically tractable methods to find the expected value of the CCN manager's revenue, and further show how the proxy agents' patience time affects the CCN manager's revenue.
Channelopathies: Clinical Presentation and Genetics

Over the last three decades, the field of genetic cardiac arrhythmia diseases has transformed to where genetic testing has become an integral part of diagnosis, treatment and follow- up, including family evaluation. In fact, in some cases these genetic discoveries have enabled pre-clinical diagnosis thereby possibly preventing one of its most devastating, and sometimes sentinel, event of sudden cardiac death (SCD). This is certainly true for the cardiac channelopathies, heritable cardiac arrhythmia syndromes caused by abnormal ion channel function clinically leading to syncope, seizures, and SCD, often in the setting of a structurally normal heart. These inherited and potentially lethal arrhythmia disorders include a variety of diseases, of which the most common ones—long QT syndrome (LQTS), Brugada syndrome (BrS), and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT)—will be discussed in this chapter. As will be outlined, not only can genetics help (or complicate) diagnosis of these channelopathies, important genotype-phenotype correlations have emerged that might aid in risk stratification for these conditions, and genotype specific therapies are available in certain situations.
Muon Neutrino on Electron Elastic Scattering in the NOvA Near Detector and its Applications Beyond the Standard Model

Using the NuMI beam at Fermilab and the NOvA near detector, we study the process by which a muon neutrino elastically scatters off an electron in the detector to produce a very forward going electromagnetic shower. By comparing dE/dx for various particle hypotheses for both longitudinal and transverse directions in a multilayer perceptron neural network, we trained a Particle ID algorithm to identify the scattered electron in an inclusive dataset. Muon-neutrino-on-e elastic scattering provides a clean, purely leptonic process free from nuclear effects for understanding neutral current scattering and constraining the NuMI beam flux. Also, this technique can be applied in two broad areas of beyond the standard model physics: a large neutrino transition magnetic moment and light dark matter particles produced in the NuMI target, both of which would create an energy dependent enhancement in the elastic scattering cross section.
Gender, High School Romantic Involvement, and College Enrollment*

Objectives We investigate how different types of high school romantic involvement are associated with women's and men's patterns of college enrollment (four‐year college, two‐year college, and no enrollment). Methods We analyze restricted‐access longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) using multinomial logistic regression. Results Controlling for baseline educational, romantic, sociodemographic, and family context variables, results show gender‐specific associations between romantic involvement and college enrollment. For women, negative associations between romantic involvement and four‐year enrollment dissipate after accounting for changes in grade point average and educational and marital expectations. However, a negative association between women's casual dating with sex and two‐year enrollment persists, after controlling for these factors. In contrast, casual dating with and without sex is associated with higher likelihood of men's four‐year enrollment accounting for these covariates. Conclusions Our findings provide directions for future research on associations between gender, adolescent romance, and educational transitions.
Vis-à-vis cryptography: private and trustworthy in-person certifications

The growing role of mobile devices in previously face to face interactions presents new domains for cryptographic applications. At the same, time the increased role of digital systems raises new security and privacy issues. With some thirty thousand notifications sent, inSPOT.org's electronic notification of exposure to sexually transmitted infections is one such concerning development. This paper explores those concerns, the features of an ideal service for both notification and certification, and outlines protocols for cryptographic solutions.
Signal-averaged P wave area increases during respiratory events in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and obstructive sleep apnea

P wave characteristics change during simulated apneic events in individuals with atrial fibrillation (AF). This study sought to assess whether similar changes occur during nocturnal respiratory events in patients with AF and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Thirty-five individuals with severe OSA who underwent formal polysomnography and subsequent AF ablation were compared to a matched group without AF. Electrocardiographic segments from each polysomnogram corresponding to the following events were identified: period of wakefulness closest to the initial onset of sleep (baseline-awake), first respiratory event, respiratory event with the lowest nadir oxygen saturation, longest respiratory event, and last respiratory event. Signal-averaged P wave duration and signal-averaged positive P wave area (amplitude*duration for positive P wave amplitudes) were extracted using custom software. P wave characteristics during respiratory events and the baseline-awake condition were compared. Compared to the baseline-awake condition, the signal-averaged positive P wave area was significantly greater during the longest event and the event with the lowest oxygen saturation in those with AF, but not in those without AF. There were no significant differences in signal-averaged P wave duration for any respiratory event compared to the baseline-awake condition, regardless of AF status. In patients with paroxysmal AF and obstructive sleep apnea, the signal-averaged positive P wave area is greater during certain respiratory events than during wakefulness. This finding may reflect the acute impact on right atrial volume of increased venous return associated with respiratory events and could be useful to assess AF risk in sleep apnea and to monitor response to treatment.
Considerations for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in primary immunodeficiency disorders

Primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDs) result from inborn errors in immunity. Susceptibility to infections and oftentimes severe autoimmunity pose life-threatening risks to patients with these disorders. Hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) remains the only curative option for many. Severe combined immunodeficiency disorders (SCID) most commonly present at the time of birth and typically require emergent HCT in the first few weeks of life. HCT poses an unusual challenge for PIDs. Donor source and conditioning regimen often impact the outcome of immune reconstitution after HCT in PIDs. The use of matched or unmatched, as well as related versus unrelated donor has resulted in variable outcomes for different subsets of PIDs. Additionally, there is significant variability in the success of engraftment even for a single patient's lymphocyte subpopulations. While certain cell lines do well without a conditioning regimen, others will not reconstitute unless conditioning is used. The decision to proceed with a conditioning regimen in an already immunocompromised host is further complicated by the fact that alkylating agents should be avoided in radiosensitive PIDs. This manuscript reviews some of the unique elements of HCT in PIDs and evidence-based approaches to transplant in patients with these rare and challenging disorders.
Ideological Asymmetries in Social Psychological Research: Rethinking the Impact of Political Context on Ideological Epistemology

“…we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”(Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, December 27, 1820)In the target...
Precision in GFR Reporting: Let's Stop Playing the Race Card.

When I was in medical school, a surgery resident jokingly told me about the triple point, the spot just below the sternum where one could place their stethoscope to get the surgeon’s physical exam done in 5 seconds or less. It was at this point that one could verify breath sounds, a regular
Ultrasound-guided trigger point injection for piriformis syndrome in the emergency department

Piriformis syndrome, a myofascial pain disorder characterized by deep gluteal pain that radiates to the ipsilateral lower back and/or posterior thigh, is an underreported cause of low back pain frequently misdiagnosed in the emergency department (ED). Often refractory to oral pain medications, this syndrome can be debilitating. Ultrasound-guided trigger point injection of the piriformis muscle can treat piriformis syndrome, but no previous reports exist in the emergency medicine literature. This case series describes 2 patients who presented to our emergency department with low back pain and were diagnosed with piriformis syndrome. Both patients received an ultrasound-guided trigger point injection of the affected piriformis muscle with a significant reduction of pain at 15 minutes and 48 hours after the procedure.
Jumps and Stochastic Volatility: Exchange Rate Processes Implicit in Deutsche Mark Options

An efficient method is developed for pricing American options on stochastic volatility/jumpdiffusion processes under systematic jump and volatility risk. The parameters implicit in deutsche mark (DM) options of the model and various submodels are estimated over the period 1984 to 1991 via nonlinear generalized least squares, and are tested for consistency with $/DM futures prices and the implicit volatility sample path. The stochastic volatility submodel cannot explain the "volatility smile" evidence of implicit excess kurtosis, except under parameters implausible given the time series properties of implicit volatilities. Jump fears can explain the smile, and are consistent with one 8 percent DM appreciation "outlier" observed over the period 1984 to 1991. The central empirical issues in option pricing are what distributional hypotheses are consistent with observed option prices, and whether those distributional hypotheses are consistent with the properties of the un
Dorsolateral Striatal Task-initiation Bursts Represent Past Experiences More than Future Action Plans.

The dorsolateral striatum (DLS) is involved in learning and executing procedural actions. Cell ensembles in the DLS, but not the dorsomedial striatum (DMS), exhibit a burst of firing at the start of a well-learned action sequence (“task-bracketing”). However, it is currently unclear what information is contained in these bursts. Some theories suggest that these bursts should represent the procedural action sequence itself (that they should be about future action chains), whereas others suggest that they should contain representations of the current state of the world, taking into account primarily past information. In addition, the DLS local field potential shows transient bursts of power in the 50 Hz range (γ50) around the time a learned action sequence is initiated. However, it is currently unknown how bursts of activity in DLS cell ensembles and bursts of γ50 power in the DLS local field potential are related to each other. We found that DLS bursts at lap initiation in rats represented recently experienced reward locations more than future procedural actions, indicating that task initiation DLS bursts contain primarily retrospective, rather than prospective, information to guide procedural actions. Furthermore, representations of past reward locations increased during periods of increased γ50 power in the DLS. There was no evidence of task initiation bursts, increased γ50 power, or retrospective reward location information in the neighboring dorsomedial striatum. These data support a role for the DLS in model-free theories of procedural decision-making over planned action-chain theories, suggesting that procedural actions derive from representations of the current and recent past. Significance Statement: While it is well-established that the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) plays a critical role in procedural decision-making, open questions remain about the kinds of representations contained in DLS ensemble activity that guide procedural actions. We found that DLS, but not DMS, cell ensembles contained nonlocal representations of past reward locations that appear moments before task initiation DLS bursts. These retrospective representations were temporally linked to a rise in γ50 power that also preceded the characteristic DLS burst at task initiation. The strength of both γ50 power and retrospective representations grew with experience. These results support models of procedural decision-making based on associations between available actions and the current state of the world over models based on planning over action-chains.