cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Disruption-Resistant MAC Layer for Multichannel Wireless Networks

Wireless networking occurs on a shared medium which renders communication vulnerable to disruption from other networks, environmental interference, and even malicious jammers. The standard solution to this problem is to deploy coordinated spread spectrum technologies that require pre-shared secrets between communicating devices. These secrets can be used to coordinate hopping patterns or spreading sequences. In this paper, by contrast, we study the local broadcast and unicast problems in a disrupted multichannel network with no pre-shared secrets between devices. Previous work in this setting focused on the special case of a single pre-designated sender in a single hop network topology. We consider in this paper, for the first time, upper and lower bounds to these problems in multihop topologies with multiple senders. To validate the potential real world application of our strategies, we conclude by describing a general purpose MAC protocol that uses the algorithms as key primitives, and validates its usefulness with a proof-of-concept implementation that runs the protocol on commodity hardware.
End‐member identification and spectral mixture analysis of CRISM hyperspectral data: A case study on southwest Melas Chasma, Mars

We present spectral unmixing results over the southwest Melas Chasma region, where a variety of hydrated minerals were identified. We use the DISORT radiative transfer model to simultaneously model Mars atmospheric gases, aerosols, and surface scattering and retrieve the single scattering albedos (SSAs) modeled by the Hapke bidirectional scattering function from CRISM data. We employ a spectral unmixing algorithm to quantitatively analyze the mineral abundances by modeling the atmospherically corrected CRISM SSAs using a non-negative least squares (NNLS) linear deconvolution algorithm. To build the spectral library used for spectral unmixing, we use the factor analysis and target transformation (FATT) technique to recover spectral end-members within the CRISM scenes. We investigate several distinct geologic units, including an interbedded poly- and monohydrated sulfate unit (interbedded unit 1) and an interbedded phyllosilicate-sulfate unit (interbedded unit 2). Our spectral unmixing results indicate that, polyhydrated sulfates in the interbedded unit 1 have a much lower abundance (~10%) than that of the surrounding unit (~20%) and thus may have been partially dehydrated into kieserite to form the interbedded strata, supporting a two-staged precipitation-dehydration formation hypothesis. In the interbedded unit 2 phyllosilicates have an abundance of ~40% and are interbedded with ~20% sulfates. The results, in combination with thermodynamic calculations performed previously, suggest that the interbedded phyllosilicates and sulfates likely formed through coupled basalt weathering and evaporation. The methodology developed in this study provides a powerful tool to derive the mineral abundances, aiming to better constrain the formation processes of minerals and past aqueous environment on Mars.
Efficient Photochemical Dihydrogen Generation Initiated by a Bimetallic Self-Quenching Mechanism

Artificial photosynthesis relies on coupling light absorption with chemical fuel generation. A mechanistic study of visible light-driven H2 production from [Cp*Ir(bpy)H]+ (1) has revealed a new, highly efficient pathway for integrating light absorption with bond formation. The net reaction of 1 with a proton source produces H2, but the rate of excited state quenching is surprisingly acid-independent and displays no observable deuterium kinetic isotopic effect. Time-resolved photoluminescence and labeling studies are consistent with diffusion-limited bimetallic self-quenching by electron transfer. Accordingly, the quantum yield of H2 release nearly reaches unity as the concentration of 1 increases. This unique pathway for photochemical H2 generation provides insight into transformations catalyzed by 1.
Chapter Six: Invisible Signs

In the last chapter, I walked you through the labyrinth of the doctrines and history of Shi’ism by way of showing how a traumatic split occurred in the body politics of the faith and its aesthetic formalism parted ways from the captured imagination of the militant Islamism it flaunted to capture power from its monarchic rival. It was toward the end of that chapter that you saw how the aesthetic of intuition could indeed emerge from the current history of Shi’ism precisely at the moment when the nation it informs stands up to decouple itself from the state that falsely claims it. In my next move, I wish to show that neither Islam in general nor, in fact, Shi’ism in particular is any longer singularly in charge of how Iranians or Muslims read reality. To demonstrate this proposition I will dwell on a particularly traumatic moment of the murder of a young Iranian woman, Neda Aqa Soltan (1983–2009), in the course of the Green Movement in order to show how reading that death refuses to yield to any official metanarrative of revisionist historiography—that the simple sign of a murder persists through its militant appropriation by both the state and its discredited opposition. This chapter will begin to shift the focus of my attention from territorial politics to body politics, and see and suggest the metamorphic nature of both as they morph into each other. This shift between territory and body is necessary in order to see the manner in which the formation of the aesthetic reason overshadows and replaces the postcolonial reason, which is categorically predicated on the arrest and denial of the erotics of the body and the playful frivolity of emancipatory politics, its Dionysian proclivity to be even more precise. Here I will return to the domestic scene but now up the ante and look at the liberating aesthetics of representation surrounding the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, when the state failed to control the meaning of what her untimely death meant. In witnessing the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, we are back to the chaotic sign that signate and demand an explanation far beyond its forced reading by one faction or another. Here I will show how unruly signs behave once they are released from their habitual politics of complicity.
Industry/university collaboration in creating advanced multimedia systems and tools

This paper is based on the keynote talk, which is presented at symposium ELMAR 2016. We first introduce the concept of “Entrepreneurial University (EU)”. The backbone of the EU at FAU is the NSF-sponsored Industry/University Cooperative Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement, which presently has 35 industry members with about $5 million in memberships. The Center is successfully building a bridge linking academia, industry, and government in a coordinated research initiative. In our keynote talk we describe several applied multimedia research projects conducted within the Center including automatic asset management in data centers, driver drowsiness detection system using image processing, 3D image reconstruction and segmentation of brain cells, augmented reality methods for hearing augmentation, and several others. All these projects are initiated by industry partners who are the members of the Center and who are interested to apply the obtained research results and create successful commercial products.
Survival outcome segregated by KRAS mutation status in newly diagnosed stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (pts) treated with first-line chemotherapy.

7595 Background: KRAS mutations (MT) form a distinct subset of NSCLC, generally considered to have poor prognosis. Although KRAS MT is a well-establised prognostic and predictive marker in colorect...
Learning from Loads: An Intelligent System for Decision Support in Identifying Nodal Load Disturbances of Cyber-Attacks in Smart Power Systems Using Gaussian Processes and Fuzzy Inference

The future of electric power is associated with the use of information technologies. The smart grid of the future will utilize communications and big data to regulate power flow, shape demand with a plethora of pieces of information and ensure reliability at all times. However, the extensive use of information technologies in the power system may also form a Trojan horse for cyberattacks. Smart power systems where information is utilized to predict load demand at the nodal level are of interest in this work. Control of power grid nodes may consist of an important tool in cyberattackers’ hands to bring chaos in the electric power system. An intelligent system is proposed for analyzing loads at the nodal level in order to detect whether a cyberattack has occurred in the node. The proposed system integrates computational intelligence with kernel modeled Gaussian processes and fuzzy logic. The overall goal of the intelligent system is to provide a degree of possibility as to whether the load demand is legitimate or it has been manipulated in a way that is a threat to the safety of the node and that of the grid in general. The proposed system is tested with real-world data.
Psychometrics of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Physical Function instrument administered by computerized adaptive testing and the Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand in the orthopedic elbow patient population.

Background This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function (PF) instrument administered through computerized adaptive testing (CAT) compared with the traditional full-length Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH). Methods The PROMIS PF CAT and the DASH were administered to 1759 patients seeking care for elbow conditions. This study used Rasch partial credit modeling to analyze the instruments with item fit, internal reliability, response category thresholds, dimensionality, local independence, gender differential item functioning, and floor and ceiling effects. Results The PROMIS PF CAT and DASH had satisfactory item fit for all but 1 item on both measures. Internal reliabilities were high for both measures. Two items on the DASH and 4 items on the PF CAT showed nonordered category thresholds. Unidimensionality was adequate, and local independence was supported for both instruments. Gender bias was found for 4 items on the PF CAT and 12 items on the DASH. Both measures had adequate instrument targeting and satisfactory floor and ceiling effects. Conclusion The PROMIS PF CAT and the DASH both showed sufficient unidimensionality, good item fit, and good local independence with the exception of high levels of gender item bias, particularly for the DASH. Further scale evaluation should address item bias and item response categories for these instruments. Overall, the PROMIS PF CAT is an effective outcome instrument to measure function in patients with elbow disorders that requires significantly fewer questions than the DASH.
President Trump's Executive Orders and the Rule of Law

This article asks whether President Trump's executive orders constitute an extraordinary assault on the rule of law or a manifestation of the common practice of a president shaping discretion's exercise to fit his policy preferences within a rule of law framework. It gets at that question by examining President Trump's executive orders issued during the first 30 days of his presidency collectively and identifying the constitutional norms they confront, including the constitutional norms of legislative supremacy and obedience to treaties. It also reviews some of the court decisions adjudicating the validity of many of these orders and identifies the issues raised in the orders. Previous work on Trump's executive orders has tended to focus on doctrinal analysis of single orders and therefore misses the larger picture that emerges when looking at them together. It turns out that these orders seek to undermine the rule of law through a broad assault on constitutional norms, especially when considered in light of his public statements and complementary actions. This article partially addresses the question of whether this assault on the rule of law is extraordinary by comparing Trump's executive orders to those of his immediate predecessor, Barak Obama. President Obama issued no orders exciting any legal controversy during his first 30 days in office. During his entire administration, President Obama only issued one illegal executive order, and that order raised difficult legal issues, which suggest an honest error rather than an assault on the rule of law. This comparison suggests (but does not fully prove) that President Trump's assault on the rule of law through executive orders is extraordinary.
Jewell, James Stewart

Chicago neurologist James Stewart Jewell (1837–87) was the first President of the American Neurological Association. Silas Weir Mitchell had been elected the first President, while Jewell was elected Vice President, but Mitchell declined the honor, making Jewell the first President of the Association in 1875, a position he held for five years. In 1874, along with Henry M. Bannister, Jewell founded and edited the Chicago Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases ; two years later this became the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases , and it has continued uninterrupted to the present day.
Complementary DNA macroarray analyses of differential gene expression in porcine fetal and postnatal muscle

To study differential gene expression in porcine skeletal muscle, a porcine complementary DNA (cDNA) macroarray was produced that contained 327 expressed sequence tags (EST) derived from whole embryo and adult skeletal muscle, and differential display PCR products from fetal and postnatal muscle. Total RNA from four muscle samples, 75- and 105-d fetal hind limb muscles, and 1- and 7-wk postnatal semitendinosus muscle was used to make radiolabeled targets for duplicate hybridization to the macroarray membranes in an initial screen for expression. All EST that gave clear signals (n = 238) were then re-arrayed, and hybridization was conducted with additional biological replication of samples in the 75-d and 1-wk ages. Signal intensity for each gene was normalized to signal intensity measured at control spots on each membrane, which consisted of total cDNA from liver, lung, spleen, and skeletal muscle. Both normalized ratio levels and a mixed linear model analyses were used to identify genes differentially expressed among the muscle samples. Results showed 28 genes had differences in expression level greater than twofold between the 75-d fetal and 1-wk muscle RNA samples. All 28 genes were also identified as genes with significantly different (P 100; P < 0.01) to known genes, two matched genes encoding human hypothetical proteins, and seven had no significant matches to Genbank nonredundant and dbEST (database of expressed sequence tags) entries. These results were confirmed for representative genes with RNA blot analysis of seven developmental time points, including RNA from the same muscle samples tested previously in the macroarray. The RNA blot results confirmed the macroarray results for all selected genes, demonstrating that the macroarray technique used in this study is accurate and reproducible. An unknown muscle clone (M218) with a slightly less than twofold increase in expression from the 75-d to the 1-wk age (1 wk/75 d = 1.94; P = 0.0114) was also shown to differ between these two ages using RNA blot analysis, demonstrating the methods used to identify differentially expressed genes may be conservative. The association between expression patterns of vimentin and desmin was also investigated. Results indicate the switch in intermediate filament protein from vimentin to desmin occurs primarily at the level of transcription and/or RNA processing.
Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction Through Recreational Group Sport Interventions in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract Objective To estimate the pooled effects of community-based, recreational-level group sports on cardiometabolic risk factors and fitness parameters among adults. Participants and Methods We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science electronic databases for English-language articles reporting the effectiveness of recreational-level group sports published between January 1, 1965, and January 17, 2017. We extracted baseline and end of intervention means for cardiometabolic and fitness parameters. Random- or fixed-effects meta-analyses were used to obtain pooled before and after change in outcome means within intervention participants and between groups. Results From 2491 screened titles, 23 publications were included (902 participants; mean ± SD age, 46.6±11.7 years), comprising 21 soccer and 2 rugby interventions. Intervention participants achieved larger improvements (mean [95% CI]) compared with control subjects in weight (−1.44 kg [−1.79 to −1.08 kg]), body mass index (−0.88 kg/m2 [−1.73 to −0.03 kg/m2]), waist circumference (−0.77 cm [−1.21 to −0.33 cm]), body fat (−1.8% [−3.12% to −0.49%]), total cholesterol level (−0.33 mmol/L [−0.53 to −0.13 mmol/L]), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (−0.35 mmol/L [−0.54 to −0.15 mmol/L]), systolic blood pressure (−5.71 mm Hg [−7.98 to −3.44 mm Hg]), diastolic blood pressure (−3.36 mm Hg [−4.93 to −1.78 mm Hg]), maximum oxygen consumption (3.93 mL/min per kg [2.96-4.91 mL/min]), and resting heart rate (−5.51 beats/min [−7.37 to −3.66 beats/min]). Most studies (16) were classified as high quality, and we found no evidence of publication bias. Conclusion We found significant cardiometabolic and fitness improvements following group sport participation, primarily recreational soccer. These findings suggest that group sport interventions are promising strategies for reducing cardiometabolic risk in adults.
Review: Long-chain ω-3 fatty acids have no effect on mortality or overall cardiovascular events

Source Citation Abdelhamid AS, Brown TJ, Brainard JS, et al. Omega-3 fatty acids for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;7:CD003177. 300...
Understanding Tourist Destination Choices from Geo-tagged Tweets

Tourism related travels have significant impacts on transportation infrastructures, especially in large tourist attractions such as Florida. It is very expensive to collect individual travel data of a reasonable number of tourists traveling over a large region. Ubiquitous use of social media allows us to collect tourist travel data at a large scale in a cost effective way. This paper presents an analysis of tourist destination choices with longitudinal travel data collected from Twitter. From a collection of geo-tagged tweets, we have filtered out a reliable sample and identified tourists using a data mining approach. Then we find the tourists' destinations inside Florida. We have created a sequence of visited locations and applied a Conditional Random Field (CRF) model to predict the type of a tourists' next destination. The proposed model utilizes the features extracted from tweet posted time and location types. The feature set can be expanded by incorporating content-based features without violating the assumptions of CRF. The data collection steps and results derived from this study will be significantly useful for building an individual-level travel behavior model for tourists using social media data.
Functional form in the supply of broilers and its irreversibility

This study is an attempt to contribute to the knowledge of the influence of price and technological change on the supply of agricultural production in the United States. The commodity analyzed in this study is broilers, which have increased at a remarkable growth rate in production during the last five decades. The broiler industry is considered one of the most dynamic agricultural sectors, and a typical model to characterize the future farming. Thus, this study is related to the supply analysis of the broiler industry to find a cause of the rapid expansion of the industry;The method employed in this study is a statistical time-series regression analysis, which is most frequently employed for agricultural supply studies of farm products. Statistical estimations are performed using four different functional forms: (1) linear functional form, (2) linear-in-logarithmic functional form, (3) a functional form with an application of the Box-Cox transformation to each variable with the same transformation parameter (BC model) and (4) a functional form with an application of the Box-Cox transformation to each variable with different transformation parameters (GBC model). Two different price variables, the broiler price and broiler-feed price ratio, are used, while the feed conversion ratio is used as a variable representing a technological change in the broiler industry. The study period is from 1960-1980, employing quarterly data at the national level;In general, it is found that (1) the GBC model is best to explain the structure of the broiler supply, (2) the broiler producers have been very responsive to the feed conversion ratio, (3) the price elasticity of broiler supply has declined over the feed conversion ratio, and (4) the broiler producers are more responsive to the broiler price rather than the broiler feed price ratio. Statistical evaluations are made in order to test a structural difference between periods and among quarters. There is no statistically significant change in the structure of the broiler supply between periods, but there is a significant difference among quarters. Another focus is placed to test the irreversible nature of the broiler supply by splitting a price variable. The broiler producers have a different responsiveness to increasing and declining phases of broiler price variables, supporting the irreversible phenomena, but their responsiveness is not statistically significantly different from each other.
Can N-Version Decision-Making Prevent the Rebirth of HAL 9000 in Military Camo? Using a “Golden Rule” Threshold to Prevent AI Mission Individuation

The promise of AIs that can target, shoot at, and eliminate enemies in the blink of an eye, brings about the possibility that such AIs can turn rogue and create an adversarial “Skynet.” The main danger is not that AIs might turn against us because they hate us, but because they think they want to be like us: individuals. The solution might be to treat them like individuals. This should include the right and obligation to do unto others as any AI would want other AIs or humans to do unto them. Technically, this involves an N-version decision making process that takes into account not how good or efficient the decision of an AI is, but how likely the AI is to show algorithmic “respect” to other AIs or human rules and operators. In this paper, we discuss a possible methodology for deploying AI decision making that uses multiple AI actors to check on each other to prevent “mission individuation,” i.e., the AIs wanting to complete the mission even if the human operators are sacrificed. The solution envisages mechanisms that demand the AIs to “do unto others as others would do onto them” in making final solutions. This should encourage AIs to accept critique and censoring in certain situations and most important it should lead to decisions that protect both human operators and the final goal of the mission.
92. LEARNING TO LEAD (LEADERSHIP EDUCATION IN ADVANCING DIVERSITY): EMPOWERING TRAINEES THROUGH BUILDING LEADERSHIP AND SCHOLARSHIP CAPACITY IN DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Background Though the patient population is rapidly becoming more diverse, there has remained a low number of physicians who are under-represented in medicine, particularly in academic medicine leadership positions. Building leadership and scholarship capacity for improving diversity and inclusion should begin early during residency and fellowship training. To address these needs, we developed the LEAD (Leadership Education in Advancing Diversity) Program, a voluntary, 9-month longitudinal program for pediatric residents and fellows to provide leadership training and mentorship in creating scholarly works in diversity and inclusion topics. Objective To evaluate participants’ knowledge, confidence and attitudes on diversity and inclusion topics and satisfaction with the LEAD Program. Methods In 2017-2018, IRB-approved, de-identified pre- and retrospective pre/post surveys assessed learner knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and program satisfaction. Analysis included descriptive statistics and two-tailed t-tests. To measure the impact on learners’ leadership and scholarship, we measured the number of workshop presentations by LEAD scholars at local, regional, and national meetings. Results We had 13 participants (8 residents; 5 fellows) in the LEAD Program. 100% (N=13/13) completed the pre-survey and post-survey. 100% of participants thought the LEAD Program should continue to include residents and fellows and should spread to all GME programs at Stanford. There was a statistically significant improvement in participants’ self-confidence for all learning objectives. In total, participants presented 3 local, 2 regional, and 4 national workshops stemming from the LEAD Program. Conclusions The LEAD Program was successful in fostering leadership and promoting scholarship in diversity and inclusion. Future steps include expansion across further GME departments outside of Pediatrics, following long-term career outcomes of LEAD participants, and developing a concurrent mentor curriculum.
Surface Thermal Heterogeneities and the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: The Thermal Heterogeneity Parameter

Representing land–atmosphere exchange processes at the ground surface of numerical-weather-prediction models remains a challenge in spite of the recent advances in computing. Previous studies investigating the effects of spatial surface heterogeneities have been viewed from a turbulence perspective, mostly assuming the existence of a blending length scale above which surface-induced perturbations are modelled using an ad hoc bulk surface parameter representing a pseudo-equivalent surface condition. While these types of approaches can generate reasonable results, they fail to account for the long-lasting spatial perturbations that modify the mean flow. In this work, the interactions between the characteristic scales of surface thermal heterogeneities and the mean resolved fluid dynamics are investigated for a broad range of unstable atmospheric conditions. Thermal dispersive fluxes, which naturally appear as a means to account for persistent-in-time advection fluxes generated by unresolved spatial heterogeneities, provide a quantification of the interaction between surface thermal heterogeneities and the atmospheric boundary-layer mean flow. Hence, they also provide a deterministic approach for including the effect of unresolved processes on the mean flow. We introduce a new non-dimensional number (i.e., the heterogeneity parameter) that can be used to identify the flow conditions and surface configurations in which heterogeneity effects become important. The heterogeneity parameter can be used to distinguish cases with high and low dispersive-flux contributions based on the mean flow and characteristics of the thermal heterogeneities. These results suggest that under weak geostrophic forcing, surface heterogeneity effects should be accounted for in numerical-weather-prediction models.
Heat baths and computational agent-based models

Abstract In this paper, we examine an agent-based model, and an equation-based model in the form of a mean field model. We show how the mean field model is a small, fast model that identifies the high level properties of a subject, in this case financial time series’ stylized facts. The agent based model generates the granularity needed to understand the conditions and factors that generate the stylized financial facts. We conclude with the recommendation that both models be used in sequence so a complete description of a process be established or approximated.
The Azospirillum brasilense Core Chemotaxis Proteins CheA1 and CheA4 Link Chemotaxis Signaling with Nitrogen Metabolism

Bacterial chemotaxis affords motile bacteria the ability to navigate the environment to locate niches for growth and survival. At the molecular level, chemotaxis depends on chemoreceptor signaling arrays that interact with cytoplasmic proteins to control the direction of movement. In Azospirillum brasilense, chemotaxis is mediated by two distinct chemotaxis pathways: Che1 and Che4. Both Che1 and Che4 are critical in the A. brasilense free-living and plant-associated lifestyles. Here, we use whole-cell proteomics and metabolomics to characterize the role of chemotaxis in A. brasilense physiology. We found that mutants lacking CheA1 or CheA4 or both are affected in nonchemotaxis functions, including major changes in transcription, signaling transport, and cell metabolism. We identify specific effects of CheA1 and CheA4 on nitrogen metabolism, including nitrate assimilation and nitrogen fixation, that may depend, at least, on the transcriptional control of rpoN, which encodes RpoN, a global regulator of metabolism, including nitrogen. Consistent with proteomics, the abundance of several nitrogenous compounds (purines, pyrimidines, and amino acids) changed in the metabolomes of the chemotaxis mutants relative to the parental strain. Further, we uncover novel, and yet uncharacterized, layers of transcriptional and posttranscriptional control of nitrogen metabolism regulators. Together, our data reveal roles for CheA1 and CheA4 in linking chemotaxis and nitrogen metabolism, likely through control of global regulatory networks.IMPORTANCE Bacterial chemotaxis is widespread in bacteria, increasing competitiveness in diverse environments and mediating associations with eukaryotic hosts ranging from commensal to beneficial and pathogenic. In most bacteria, chemotaxis signaling is tightly linked to energy metabolism, with this coupling occurring through the sensory input of several energy-sensing chemoreceptors. Here, we show that in A. brasilense the chemotaxis proteins have key roles in modulating nitrogen metabolism, including nitrate assimilation and nitrogen fixation, through novel and yet unknown regulations. These results are significant given that A. brasilense is a model bacterium for plant growth promotion and free-living nitrogen fixation and is used as a bio-inoculant for cereal crops. Chemotaxis signaling in A. brasilense thus links locomotor behaviors to nitrogen metabolism, allowing cells to continuously and reciprocally adjust metabolism and chemotaxis signaling as they navigate gradients.
Transnational Racial (In)Justice In Liberal Democratic Empire

On June 17, 2020, Philonise Floyd addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations’ paramount human rights body, demanding justice for the murder of his brother and the many other Black people who have been subject to the regime of racial extrajudicial killings endemic in the United States. His testimony was part of a remarkable “Urgent Debate” — an emergency special session of the Human Rights Council reserved for extreme human rights situations that marked a pivotal global moment in the transnational racial justice uprising of 2020. To the extent that racial justice advocates and legal scholars are engaged in a process of reckoning with racial subordination and emancipatory horizons, this Essay draws a number of lessons from the Urgent Debate. It foregrounds a transnational analysis as essential for assessing emancipatory possibilities for Black people living in the United States and elsewhere, because the maintenance of Black racial subordination is properly understood as involving a transnational dimension, one that institutionally implicates the United Nations and international law as well. This Essay casts the Urgent Debate as the latest illustration of how tightly liberal hegemons can keep the lid on anti-Black racism through transnational means ranging from naked geopolitical bullying to normative insistence on liberal democratic norms and institutions to obstructive bureaucratic techniques. Ultimately, racial injustice must be assessed and grappled with as a potentially defining or systemic feature of the liberal imperial project, rather than a pathology or aberration that simply requires harder work or more commitment to reform. For purveyors of international human rights law and its accompanying institutional mechanisms — no matter how well-intentioned they may understand themselves to be — the point is that racism is not outside of their systems but is instead an institutionalized feature of these systems. The challenge at hand, then, is to develop strategies and goals that account for this reality.
The Exigent Study of Nonprofit Organizational Evolution: Illuminating Methodological Challenges and Pathways Using a Nonprofit Entrepreneurship Lens

The study of how nonprofits evolve is fundamental to gaining an appreciation of dynamic nonprofit organizational life, and to developing insight into how nonprofits emerge and transform over time. Using a nonprofit entrepreneurship perspective, this article highlights a number of key methodological challenges associated with the study of nonprofit entrepreneurship, including issues of identification and use of single key informants. The article also provides suggestions how to capture the often “messy” nonprofit entrepreneurship process by pointing to the need for longitudinal data, and by discussing the value of qualitative inquiry and methods.
Early Identification of DMD in the Setting of West Syndrome

Duchene muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common muscular dystrophy in childhood, affecting ∼1:5000 male live births worldwide. DMD is a genetic disorder with X-linked recessive inheritance patt...
Purification of production scale amounts of Ge-68 from irradiated gallium metal

102 Objectives Germanium-68 (Ge-68) is produced by proton irradiation of a gallium metal target and purified by organic extraction with toluene or carbon tetrachloride. The Ge-68 is used in a medical isotope generator to produce Gallium-68 for PET imaging agents, such as 68Ga-DOTATOC. The organic solvents used to purify Ge-68 are considered Q3C class 1 & 2 by the FDA and the FDA recommends not using them in drug manufacturing due to unacceptable toxicity. Methods We report here the development and optimization of aqueous chromatography approaches for the purification of production scale separations of Ge-68. Elimination of Zn-65 was problematic; however a non radioactive spike of zinc was used in the purification process which resulted in no detectable amounts of Zn-65 in the purified Ge-68. Results Purified Ge-68 by the different methods contained no Zn-65, and minimal to no cold gallium. The data in the following table indicate the purified Ge-68 meet DOE specifications such as >50 mCi/ml of Ge-68, Zn-65 concentration Conclusions The purification methods produced Ge-68 at the highest radioactive concentrations (>200 mCi/ml) and the highest purity compared to other approaches. Implementation of the production methods at BNL in 2012-2013 resulted in the purification of ~2.5 Ci of Ge-68. Research Support This study was supported by funding provided by the Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, subprogram Isotope Development and Production for Research and Applications.
Geologic evidence for a mantle superplume event at 1.9 Ga

[1] Both preserved and restored areal distributions of Proterozoic marine intracratonic, passive margin, and platform sediments show a prominent peak at ∼1.9 Ga, indicating that shallow marine sediments were widespread on the continents and that sea level was high at this time. The chemical index of alteration in shales deposited at this time was high, suggesting warm climates, possibly due to enhanced CO2 levels in the atmosphere. High sea level and warms climate may also explain an abundance of black shale, banded iron formations, and shallow marine phosphate deposits and an increase in the number of occurrences and diversity of stromatolites in general and microdigitate stromatolites at 1.9 Ga. All of these observations are consistent with a 1.9-Ga superplume event. The occurrence of only a minor positive carbon isotope shift in marine carbonates at 1.9 Ga indicates that the relative rates of burial of organic and oxidized carbon remained about the same as at present. Slightly low 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios in seawater at 1.9 Ga reflect increased mantle input of Sr from the proposed superplume event, whereas higher ratios at 1.85–1.75 Ga may reflect increased input of continental Sr from a growing supercontinent. The first massive sulfate evaporites in the geologic record at 1.8–1.6 Ga follow the possible 1.9-Ga superplume event. This may reflect an increase in both oxidation state and carbonate deposition in the oceans as plume-related volcanism wanes.
Assessment of software risks with model-based reasoning

Current techniques that specifically address risks associated with software are lacking. Although many risk assessment techniques have been successfully applied in various safety-related systems, they often omit detailed software properties or exclude application perspectives of an entire system. Furthermore, most existing tools require manual assessment of hazard analysis. This paper presents a model-based reasoning approach for assessment of software risks by employing knowledge models of software faults and the system in which the software is used along with reasoning mechanisms that allow automated qualitative inferences for hazard analysis. We give an example of a software controller for a reactor main feed water system to illustrate the approach.
Case Study of Malignant Hyperthermia

Poster Presentation Background The purpose of this case study is to promote awareness and enhance preparedness of the rare and serious condition known as malignant hyperthermia (MH). Case A woman presented to the maternity center with ruptured membranes and contractions at 39 weeks gestation and anticipated a routine vaginal delivery. After 12 hours of labor, a cesarean was performed for suspected chorioamnionitis and fetal intolerance of labor. The epidural was utilized for surgical anesthesia. Within 30 minutes of the recovery phase, the woman's vital signs began to change. Rapid nursing assessment revealed tachycardia, tachypnea, changes in blood pressures, decreased pulse oximeter readings, and an increase in temperature to 106.7°F. Additional assistance was summoned by mobilizing the medical and obstetric rapid response teams. The anesthesiologist and obstetrician arrived at the bedside, the MH cart was immediately retrieved, and treatment was rapidly initiated. Within minutes the woman was being cooled with ice and the first dose of dantrolene sodium was being given intravenously (IV). It took a multidisciplinary team approach to provide the woman with rapid treatment and intervention. The team comprised nurses, physicians, anesthesia technicians, respiratory therapists, phlebotomists, ancillary staff, and environmental service personnel. Actions by the team included additional IV access, lab draws, arterial line placement, chest X‐ray, electrocardiogram, placement of a rectal temperature probe, additional medication preparation, and continued assessment of the woman's status. The woman began to show signs of improvement after receiving 20 vials of dantrolene sodium. She was stabilized and transferred to the intensive care unit for continued monitoring and support. Conclusion Following a visit from our accrediting body in 2012, it was identified that the obstetric unit was not adequately prepared for a MH crisis event. Recommendations were provided to implement staff education and to develop an MH cart stocked with medications and supplies needed in the event of an emergency. Staff education was initiated and drills were performed to enhance awareness and demonstrate competency. Utilizing resources from the main operating room, pharmacy, and the Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States (MHAUS) the MH cart was established and placed on the obstetric unit. Without the recommendations of our accrediting body, staff education, and creation of the MH cart this woman may not have survived this life‐threatening condition.
The Rate- and Species-Dependence of Short-Term Memory in Cardiac Myocytes

Short-term memory is an intrinsic property of paced cardiac myocytes that reflects the influence of pacing history, and not just the immediately preceding diastolic interval (DI), on the action potential duration (APD). Although it is recognized that short-term memory affects the dynamics of cardiac myocytes in general, and the onset of irregular cardiac rhythm in particular, its has never been adequately quantified or measured directly in experiments or numerical simulations, mainly due to the absence of appropriate techniques. As a result, very little is known about the rate- and species dependent behavior of short-term memory. In this study, we introduce a new approach that allows one to estimate how much short-term memory, MS, is present in the cardiac myocyte at different pacing rates. The new quantification is based on the fact that pacing history affects not only the APD, but the entire dynamics of paced cardiac myocytes, in particular the restitution curve. Using the patch clamp technique and numerical simulations, we measured short-term memory restitution—the dependence of MS on the cycle length—in isolated rabbit and guinea pig ventricular myocytes. In both species, MS is rate- and species-dependent, displaying a biphasic behavior as a function of cycle length. Moreover, our results indicate that there is a significant difference in MS measured between both species at small cycle lengths. Numerical simulations suggest that the kinetics of the rapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium current IKr is partially responsible for this difference.
Statistical Modeling of Curves Using Shapes and Related Features

Motivated by the problems of analyzing protein backbones, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) fiber tracts in the human brain, and other problems involving curves, in this study we present some statistical models of parameterized curves, in , in terms of combinations of features such as shape, location, scale, and orientation. For each combination of interest, we identify a representation manifold, endow it with a Riemannian metric, and outline tools for computing sample statistics on these manifolds. An important characteristic of the chosen representations is that the ensuing comparison and modeling of curves is invariant to how the curves are parameterized. The nuisance variables, including parameterization, are removed by forming quotient spaces under appropriate group actions. In the case of shape analysis, the resulting spaces are quotient spaces of Hilbert spheres, and we derive certain wrapped truncated normal densities for capturing variability in observed curves. We demonstrate ...
On the mechanism and kinetics of the CO-oxidation reaction on polycrystalline palladium: II. The kinetics☆

Abstract The kinetics of the oxidation of carbon monoxide have been studied extensively over polycrystalline palladium foils which were prepared by exposure to relatively large amounts of oxygen at high temperatures. Reaction orders with respect to CO2, CO and O2 were determined over various intervals of partial pressure, total pressure and temperature; 0.1 ⩽ P CO p O2 ⩽ 20, 10 −7 −3 Pa, and 450 K . The order with respect to CO2 was zero under all the conditions tested. The orders with respect to O2 and CO depended on the partial pressure ratio and showed very little dependence on total pressure. For pO2 pCO in this temperature range, the orders with respect to oxygen and carbon monoxide were zero and unity respectively. The inhibitory effect of CO vanished at T = 573 K. In this case the orders were the same as above except when pO2 ] pCO the amount of adsorbed oxygen is almost independent of pO2. The amount decreases sharply around PO2 = PCO and is very small for pO2
EFFECTS OF HANDLING ON THE PHYSICAL AND BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT OF SIAMESE KITTENS

In the recent rash of studies on early experience have been those dealing with increased somesthetic stimulation under the guise of "handling" or "petting." These studies, usually with rats, have shown remarkable changes in growth, emotionality, learning, and resistance to stress (Bernstein, 1957; Bovard, 1958). The present report deals with the changes in physical characteristics, in emotionality, and in learning in Siamese kittens following handling throughout the first three months after birth. W e expected the handled kittens to show: (a ) more rapid growth as indicated by weight gains; ( b ) lower emotionality; and (c ) superior discrimination performance as compared with that of their controls.
Electron-ion collisions of fusion interest☆

Abstract A brief review of current activities in research on collision of electrons and multicharged ions is presented. The relative importance of intermediate excited states, i.e., recombination resonances and directly excited autoionizing levels, is greater for multicharged ions than for singly charged ions. A few examples of fusion interest are presented to illustrate the effects of intermediate states and our developing understanding of their importance in all inelastic electron-ion collisions.
Application of real structured singular values to flight control law validation

Flight control law validation issues raised at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center are described, and these problems are recast into the real p, analysis framework. To solve these problems, a recently developed algorithm for computing real p, is extended to include repeated real perturbations. Worst-case direction information also is provided; such information is useful in applications that require proper weighting of the perturbation block structure. An iterative weighting procedure is described that indicates the relative importance of the real uncertainties being analyzed. Other developments motivated by flight-test issues also are described: block structures for analyzing phase margin and transport delay, robustly guaranteed gain and phase margins, and implementation on simulated flight data. These tools and techniques are demonstrated on X-31 flight control laws.
Activation of hERG Channels: Opening New Applications for the Biophysics of Antiarrhythmic Therapy

Control of the repolarization phase of the cardiac action potential is critical for normal excitability. Abnormalities in channel function such as those due to congenital defects, or that are due to acquired mechanisms (i.e., drug-induced), can compromise the action potential waveform and potentially lead to life-threatening arrhythmias (1). Of particular importance is the current through Kv11.1 channels, which is the subject of the two companion articles of Perissinotti et al. (2) and Guo et al.
Pollution Regulation as a Barrier to New Firm Entry: Initial Evidence and Implications for Future Research

Researchers have suggested that environmental regulations may deter the entry of firms into industries, and their assertions imply that an advantage is thereby conferred on incumbent firms. Empiric...