cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Energy-efficient and metastability-immune timing-error detection and recovery circuits for dynamic variation tolerance

Timing-error detection and recovery circuits are implemented in a 65 nm resilient circuit test-chip to eliminate the clock frequency guardband from dynamic supply voltage (VCC) and temperature variations as well as to exploit path-activation probabilities for maximizing throughput. Two error-detection sequential (EDS) circuits are introduced to preserve the timing-error detection capability of previous EDS designs while lowering clock energy and removing datapath metastability. Error-recovery circuits replay failing instructions at lower clock frequency to guarantee correct functionality. Relative to conventional circuits, silicon measurements indicate that resilient circuits enable either 25 to 32% throughput gain at equal VCC or at least 17% VCC reduction at equal throughput, resulting in 31 to 37% total power reduction.
The accuracy of preliminary WindSat vector wind measurements: comparisons with NDBC buoys and QuikSCAT

Two preliminary, six-month long global WindSat vector wind datasets are validated using buoys and QuikSCAT measurements. Buoy comparisons yield speed and direction root mean square accuracies of 1.4 m/s and 25/spl deg/ for the "NESDIS0" product and 1.3 m/s and 23/spl deg/ for the more recently produced "B1" product from the Naval Research Laboratory. WindSat along- and across-wind random component errors of 0.7-1.0 and 2.6-2.8 m/s (respectively) are larger than those calculated for QuikSCAT in the same period. Global WindSat-QuikSCAT comparisons generally confirmed the buoy analyses. While simple rain flags based directly on WindSat brightness temperature measurements alone are shown to overflag for rain systematically, the advanced "Environmental Data Record" rain flag in the B1 product matches well with Special Sensor Microwave/Imager rain detection frequency and preserves the accuracy of the unflagged vector wind measurements.
Potato Storage Management: a Global Perspective

This paper describes the progress made in improving storage management and provides an overview of the diversity of techniques required to optimize storage conditions depending on the level of technology available, prevailing environmental conditions, and market demands.
UAVSAR: a new NASA airborne SAR system for science and technology research

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is currently building a reconfigurable, polarimetric L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), specifically designed to acquire airborne repeat track SAR data for differential interferometric measurements. Differential interferometry can provide key deformation measurements, important for studies of earthquakes, volcanoes and other dynamically changing phenomena. Using precision real-time GPS and a sensor controlled flight management system, the system will be able to fly predefined paths with great precision. The expected performance of the flight control system will constrain the flight path to be within a 10 m diameter tube about the desired flight track. The radar will be designed to be operable on a UAV (unpiloted aerial vehicle) but will initially be demonstrated on a on a NASA Gulfstream III. The radar will be fully polarimetric, with a range bandwidth of 80 MHz (2 m range resolution), and will support a 16 km range swath. The antenna will be electronically steered along track to assure that the antenna beam can be directed independently, regardless of the wind direction and speed. Other features supported by the antenna include elevation monopulse and pulse-to-pulse re-steering capabilities that will enable some novel modes of operation. The system will nominally operate at 45,000 ft (13800 m). The program began as an Instrument Incubator Project (IIP) funded by NASA Earth Science and Technology Office (ESTO).
The Contributions of Ellen Pence to Batterer Programming

Ellen Pence helped build the foundation of batterer programming with the Duluth program. The program forged new ground and bridged the concerns of advocates and criminal justice officials by developing its “Power and Control Wheel” from women’s experiences with abuse. Its dialogical format, responding to vignettes and control logs, helps to engage men in a reflective process, to monitor their behavior, and to identify alternative outlooks and responses. At the same time, Ellen’s work remains rooted in a gender analysis and a coordinated community response. Critics of Duluth programming miss the mark with a distorted caricature of Duluth, neglect of substantiating research, and the bias from their own personal agendas. Ellen’s personal touch of insightful humor and personal interest has helped to move forward the lessons of Duluth and the field itself. Her groundbreaking program helps to sort through the disarray of approaches among batterer programs today.
Detecting review spam: Challenges and opportunities

Online customer reviews for both products or merchants have greatly affected others' decision making in purchase. Considering the easily accessibility of the reviews and the significant impacts to the retailers, there is an increasing incentive to manipulate the reviews, mostly profit-driven. Without proper protection, spam reviews will cause gradual loss of credibility of the reviews and corrupt the entire online review systems eventually. Therefore, review spam detection is considered as the first step towards securing the online review systems. In this paper, we aim to overview existing detection approaches in a systematic way, define key research issues, and articulate future research challenges and opportunities for review spam detection.
“that was the last time I seen them, and no more”: voices through time in Australian Aborigina autobiography

In the 1920s, Aboriginal Australians in northern Queensland were removed from the bush by force and deposited on missions, where they grew up, were educated, and often lived the rest of their lives. Their autobiographical memories—from conversation—about life in the bush and the events that sundered people from their families are framed in languages provided by subsequent mission life and are discursively shaped by the facts both of the moment and of subsequent biography. This article examines the complex voices in one such autobiographical fragment, drawn from one man's attempt to reconstruct a past for himself.
Integration Of SAP Technology In Finance Classrooms: Perceptions From Students And Implications For Educators

To better prepare students for this highly competitive technology-rich business world, it is vital that business educators take responsibility for the development of students’ information technology skills in conjunction with the conventional discipline-specific knowledge and lifelong learning skills. This study focuses on the use of one technology tool, the SAP R/3 system, in finance classrooms. The main purpose of this research is to investigate whether implementing SAP technology in the classroom enhances the student’s educational experience. Students’ reactions to the use of this business technology in the classroom and their implications for business educators are addressed. The findings of this study should be useful to business educators who use, or intend to use, this educational tool in their classes.
Legitimated Adolescent Violence: Lessons from Columbine

On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris perpetrated the largest rampage shooting in history of American education. The shootings initiated a debate about the causes. Sociological research indicates that the shootings were the consequence of predatory violence by student elites. Such violence is often visited upon outcast student groups who reject the values or worldview of the dominant elite. Viewed by the dominant majority as occupying a degraded moral position, their harassment and intimidation by elite students tends to be legitimated in the hegemonic ideology of the school. A detailed analysis of the Columbine shootings indicates that the massacre represented the culmination of conflict between elite and outcast students. Adolescent bullying and violence is often defined out of existence because it is perpetrated by student elites organized around sports exploits, especially football. Such violence is dangerous because it establishes a norm in which predatory behavior is acceptable, especially when visited upon those who are different, weak, and vulnerable. Many school rampage shootings before Columbine were vengeance for bullying and humiliation; nearly all post-Columbine school rampage shootings and thwarted plots were retaliations by outcast students for the predatory violence visited upon them by their higher-status peers.
Association of Social Determinants With Children’s Hospitals’ Preventable Readmissions Performance

Importance Performance-measure risk adjustment is of great interest to hospital stakeholders who face substantial financial penalties from readmissions pay-for-performance (P4P) measures. Despite evidence of the association between social determinants of health (SDH) and individual patient readmission risk, the effect of risk adjusting for SDH on readmissions P4P penalties to hospitals is not well understood. Objective To determine whether risk adjustment for commonly available SDH measures affects the readmissions-based P4P penalty status of a national cohort of children’s hospitals. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort study of 43 free-standing children’s hospitals within the Pediatric Health Information System database in the calendar year 2013. We evaluated hospital discharges from 2013 that met criteria for 3M Health Information Systems’ potentially preventable readmissions measure for calendar year 2013. The analysis was conducted from July 2015 to August 2015. Exposures Two risk-adjustment models: a baseline model adjusted for severity of illness and an SDH-enhanced model that adjusted for severity of illness and the following 4 SDH variables: race, ethnicity, payer, and median household income for the patient’s home zip code. Main Outcomes and Measures Change in a hospital’s potentially preventable readmissions penalty status (ie, change in whether a hospital exceeded the penalty threshold) using an observed-to-expected potentially preventable readmissions ratio of 1.0 as a penalty threshold. Results For the 179 400 hospital discharges from the 43 hospitals meeting inclusion criteria, median (interquartile range [IQR]) hospital-level percentages for the SDH variables were 39.2% nonwhite (n = 71 300; IQR, 28.6%-54.6%), 17.9% Hispanic (n = 32 060; IQR, 6.7%-37.0%), and 58.7% publicly insured (n = 106 116; IQR, 50.4%-67.8%). The hospital median household income for the patient’s home zip code was $40 674 (IQR, $35 912-$46 190). When compared with the baseline model, adjustment for SDH resulted in a change in penalty status for 3 hospitals within the 15-day window (2 were no longer above the penalty threshold and 1 was newly penalized) and 5 hospitals within the 30-day window (3 were no longer above the penalty threshold and 2 were newly penalized). Conclusions and Relevance Risk adjustment for SDH changed hospitals’ penalty status on a readmissions-based P4P measure. Without adjusting P4P measures for SDH, hospitals may receive penalties partially related to patient SDH factors beyond the quality of hospital care.
Comparative evaluation of nondestructive devices for measuring pavement thickness in the field

Abstract Estimating pavement surface thicknesses without requiring large footprint equipment or pavement repairs is critical for the structural evaluation of airfield pavement. A research team from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center conducted an evaluation of eleven nondestructive technologies, including eight ground penetrating radar (GPR) devices and three wave propagation technologies, on twenty-one hot-mix asphalt concrete (AC) and nineteen portland cement concrete (PCC) test locations with varying pavement thicknesses. The different technologies were used to estimate pavement thickness over predetermined test points. For each pavement structure, a core was extracted from one of the test points to provide calibration data of each testing device for data refinement. The accuracy of each technology was quantified by calculating the absolute difference between the actual core measurement and the estimated thickness measurement. The results from the devices tested led to the conclusion that separate devices are required on AC and PCC for optimal performance. The ultrasonic tomography and impact echo devices worked best on PCC surfaces, and the 1 GHz horn antenna GPR devices performed best on AC surfaces. The side-by-side testing demonstrated the capabilities of the technologies on varying pavement structures without discrepancies that would likely occur when comparing one set of results to those from a different study.
Measuring the Abundancy of Integers

The origins of the study of perfect numbers are lost in antiquity, but the concept was clearly recognized well over 2000 years ago and involves such contributors as Euclid, Fermat, Descartes, Mersenne, Legendre, and Euler. The classification of positive integers as perfect, abundant, or deficient is also an ancient idea, one which dates from before A.D. 100. It is the goal of this note to make explicit an idea used by researchers since the seventeenth century (and perhaps before) and reproduce, comment on, and extend their ideas. For the newcomer to these concepts, the basic definitions are as follows: A perfect number is a positive integer which is equal to the sum of its proper divisors (1 + 2 + 3 = 6; 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28), an abundant number, is one for which the sum of the proper divisors is greater than the number (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 > 12), and a deficient number has the sum of its proper divisors less than the number (1 + 2 + 5 2N, perfect if a(N) = 2N, and deficient if u(N) < 2N. Certainly the prime 41 is very deficient since the only divisors of 41 are 1 and 41, and 1 + 41 is much less than 2 * 41, whereas 8 is, relatively speaking, just barely deficient since 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 is close to 2 * 8. On the other hand, 360 is very abundant since the sum of its divisors, 1170, is greater than 3 * 360. By such examples we are led to a natural measure of the abundancy or deficiency of numbers.
“The Stories We Tell Each Other”: Using Technology for Resistance and Resilience Through Online Narrative Communities

Abstract Narratives are one of the primary ways in which cultural ideologies are taught, preserved, and perpetuated. The expansion of communication technologies into online forums allows for new spaces for the sharing and collection of cultural narratives. U.S. blogger Harriet Jacobs took a unique approach to collecting narratives within an online community through her personal blog, identified as an online feminist space. In September 2009, Jacobs posted a call for examples, anecdotes and stories of ways men can ally themselves against misogyny through her personal blog, Fugitivus: Runaway Slave, Harriet J. Readers responded with short narratives, which Jacobs posted, creating a list dated from September 2009 to April 2010. A total of 110 separate narratives were collected and posted with additional narratives shared in the comments on the post. An examination of the blog post entitled “Stuff What Boys Can Do” focuses on the strategy of sharing narratives as a move toward solidarity and support within a community against a larger societal problem. Women’s discussion groups became popular during second wave feminism as spaces in which women could share common experiences and gain affirmation that their experiences were valid and more common than they realized. Through sharing their stories, women were no longer isolated; the sharing of painful experiences through personal narratives became a source of strength against adversity. Social media, such as personal blogs, offers a new location for interpersonal interactions that allows for asynchronous connection outside the confines of time and physical location. Further, unlike face-to-face communication, in which narratives are transitory, the creation of an online discussion group creates a record of these narratives that can be revisited as a resource for connection and solidarity in the face of adversity. I conducted a narrative analysis of the 110 posts, looking at two broad themes of misogynistic aggression toward women and the actions of the allies present in the narratives. The combined narratives present a sense of the misogynistic hostility experienced by women and the strategies developed by male allies to combat these threats. By identifying broader strategic themes of both threats and counteractions shared by community members, I propose that online community space provides emotional support and a space for social interaction in an interpersonal relational context between geographically dispersed individuals. These shared narratives provide context for each additional narrative, allowing for the development of interpersonal relationships. This proposition is supported by the theory of Computer Mediated Communication ( Rafaeli, 1988 ).
Use of Patients With Diarrhea Who Test Negative for Rotavirus as Controls to Estimate Rotavirus Vaccine Effectiveness Through Case-Control Studies

Background Case-control studies are often performed to estimate postlicensure vaccine effectiveness (VE), but the enrollment of controls can be challenging, time-consuming, and costly. We evaluated whether children enrolled in the same hospital-based diarrheal surveillance used to identify rotavirus cases but who test negative for rotavirus (test-negative controls) can be considered a suitable alternative to nondiarrheal hospital or community-based control groups (traditional controls). Methods We compared calculated VE estimates as a function of varying values of true VE, attack rates of rotavirus and nonrotavirus diarrhea in the population, and sensitivity and specificity of the rotavirus enzyme immunoasssay. We also searched the literature to identify rotavirus VE studies that used traditional and test-negative control groups and compared VE estimates obtained using the different control groups. Results Assuming a 1% attack rate for severe rotavirus diarrhea, a 3% attack rate for severe nonrotavirus diarrhea in the population, a test sensitivity of 96%, and a specificity of 100%, the calculated VE estimates using both the traditional and test-negative control groups closely approximated the true VE for all values from 30% to 100%. As true VE decreased, the traditional case-control approach slightly overestimated the true VE and the test-negative case-control approach slightly underestimated this estimate, but the absolute difference was only ±0.2 percentage points. Field VE estimates from 10 evaluations that used both traditional and test-negative control groups were similar regardless of control group used. Conclusions The use of rotavirus test-negative controls offers an efficient and cost-effective approach to estimating rotavirus VE through case-control studies.
Coupled redox transformation of chromate and arsenite on ferrihydrite.

The redox chemistry of chromate (Cr(VI)) and arsenite (As(III)) on the iron oxyhydroxide, ferrihydrite (Fh), was investigated. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to determine the composition of the adsorbed layer on Fh during and after exposure to solution-phase Cr(VI) and As(III). The individual exposure of Cr(VI) or As(III) on Fh resulted in the adsorption of the respective species, and there was no change in the oxidation state of either species. In contrast, exposure of Fh simultaneously to Cr(VI) and As(III) led to an adsorbed layer that was primarily Cr(III) and As(V). This redox transformation occurred over various experimental conditions at pH 3, 5, and 7 and in the presence or absence of O2, as demonstrated by in situ ATR-FTIR results. A similar redox transformation was not observed at a solution of pH 9, due to minimal Cr(VI) adsorption. Postreaction XPS showed ...
Fine Structure of Plasmodesmata in a Chytrid

Plasmodesmata were found in the septa of a new species of Entophlyctis. Such structures have been reported infrequently in fungi. Numerous plasmodesmata traverse the septum which separates the deve...
Elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchungen an pflanzlichen Geweben

Mit Hilfe von Schnitten und an isolierten Zellen wurde der submikroskopische Bau der Zellmembranen in der Wurzel, dem Stengel und dem Blatt untersucht. Im ersten Teil ist die Entwicklung der Primarwande an verschieden alten Parenchymzellen erlautert und mit den bisherigen Wachstumstheorien verglichen worden. Aus den Aufnahmen ist zu schliesen, das das Flachenwachstum sowohl durch Dehnung wie durch aktives Wachstum erfolgt. In einem weiteren Kapitel sind die sekundaren Wandverdickungen in den Epidermisund Kollenchymzellen des Hyazinthenblattes und den Markzellen im Stengel von Sedum ausfuhrlich beschrieben worden. Diese Membranen weisen eine deutliche Lamellenstruktur auf, die beim Kollenchym durch abwechselnde Pektin- und Zelluloseschiehten verursacht wird. Auch die stark verdickten Sekundarwande des Holzes sind lamelliert, jedoch liegen die Schichten so eng aufeinander, das sie kaum mehr voneinander unterschieden werden konnen. Die Ergebnisse bestatigen also die bisherigen licht- und polarisationsoptischen Befunde in jeder Hinsicht.
Structure-Based Small Molecule Modulation of a Pre-Amyloid State: Pharmacological Enhancement of IAPP Membrane-Binding and Toxicity.

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is a peptide hormone whose pathological self-assembly is a hallmark of the progression of type II diabetes. IAPP–membrane interactions catalyze its higher-order self-assembly and also underlie its toxic effects toward cells. While there is great interest in developing small molecule reagents capable of altering the structure and behavior of oligomeric, membrane-bound IAPP, the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of this ensemble makes it recalcitrant to traditional approaches. Here, we build on recent insights into the nature of membrane-bound states and develop a combined computational and experimental strategy to address this problem. The generalized structural approach efficiently identified diverse compounds from large commercial libraries with previously unrecognized activities toward the gain-of-function behaviors of IAPP. The use of appropriate computational prescreening reduced the experimental burden by orders of magnitude relative to unbiased high-throughput screeni...
Post-Mongol States and Early Modern Chronology in Iran and China

In the aftermath of the Mongol occupations of the largest and most populous societies of Eurasia, greater visibility of popular religion, more widespread vernacular language use, rising literacy, and fundamental shifts in the structure of rulership and the relationship of state and society could all be observed. Many historians have related these changes to a broader chronology of early modernity. This has been problematic in the case of Iran, whose eighteenth-century passage has not been adequately explored in recent scholarship. Our comparative review of ‘post-Mongol’ Iran and China suggests that this period marks as meaningful a break between a schematic medieval and schematic early modern history in Iran as it does in China. Here, we first consider both societies in the post-Mongol period as empires with secular rulerships and increasingly popular cultural trends, and look at the role of what Crossley has called “simultaneous rulership”—rulership in which the codes of legitimacy of civilisations recognised by the conquest authority are given distinct representation in the rulership — in marking the transition away from religious-endorsed rule to self-legitimating rule as a mark of comparative early modernity.
Delay Time Interval Effect for the Time-frequency Characteristic of Blast Vibration Signal

Delay time interval effects for the time-frequency characteristic of blast vibration signal was studied aided by vibration data analyze software via matlab5.6 based on data Reassigned Smoothing Pseudo Wigner-Ville Distribution (RSPWVD),the test data of Hainan iron corporation No.1 mining area. By comparing the processing of blasting vibration data using different types of time and frequency transformation,it draws a conclusion that the quadratic type of time and frequency transformation is a more straight and more reasonable and higher resolving rate transformation and the researcher can get more detailed and more accurate information when using the method processing the blasting vibration signals. In the experiment,in order to eliminate the time error of delay interval detonator,BC-6 delay interval first fire was used. Blast vibration signal resulted from different delay interval time explosion were reassigned smoothing pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution,and the RSPWVD reflected the time-frequency characteristic of blast vibration. It is proved that delay interval time has great effect on the time-frequency characteristic of blast vibration. Long or short delay interval time determines main frequency and it's durable time. 2figs.,1tab.,11refs.
Outcomes of esophagectomy at academic centers: an association between volume and outcome.

Studies have shown that esophagectomies performed at high-volume centers have lower in-hospital mortality. However, the volume-outcome relationship for esophagectomy performed at academic centers is unknown. Using the University HealthSystem Consortium national database, we examined the influence of the hospital's volume of esophagectomy on outcome at academic centers between January 2003 and October 2007. Outcomes including length of stay, 30-day readmission, morbidity, and observed and expected mortality were compared between high (> 12), medium (6-12), and low-volume centers' ( 12 esophagectomies annually whereby there is a lower mortality and improved outcome.
Reduction of GHG Emissions Through the Conversion of Dairy Waste to Value-Added Materials and Products

Dairy operations constitute ~2.5% of annual U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making dairies one of the largest sources of industrial GHG emissions. We are developing a novel, integrated system to achieve a net reduction in dairy GHGs while producing value-added materials and products. This integrated manure-to-commodities system converts dairy manure to bioenergy, sequesters carbon by converting volatile fatty acid-rich fermenter supernatant to bioplastics, and utilizes anaerobic digester (AD) and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) reactor effluents to produce algae that can be harvested and internally recycled to enhance PHA production and sequester carbon. A decision-making tool is being developed for the integrated system that quantifies net GHG reduction, carbon sequestration, nutrient management and economics.
China and India in the Age of Globalization: The Rise of China and Its Implications for the United States

Throughout much of her long history, China was the dominant power in Asia to which surrounding states paid homage and tribute. The Middle Kingdom saw itself as the center of progress, propriety, and righteousness – a bulwark against the uncivilized barbarity on its periphery. The collapse of the Soviet Union eliminated the major land-based threat to China, and its economic rise has enabled it once again to regain its earlier power and glory. Today, China's global influence and leverage rivals only the lone superpower – the United States. For the international community, and especially China's neighbors, the rise of a potentially Sinocentric world has prompted them to rethink and readjust their relations with Beijing by taking into account its interests and concerns in their foreign policies and diplomacy. Although some hope that China will play a greater role in world affairs (at least to balance the American “hyperpower”), most remain ambivalent – uncertain as to what China's emergence means to them and its implications for global stability and security. Arguably, nowhere is this ambivalence more pronounced than in the United States. Although the United States remains the world's most powerful state, it also knows that its power and influence are neither limitless nor uncontested. To the United States, if there is a “peer competitor” on the horizon, it is China. Indeed, China's ambitious military modernization is fast transforming the country into a formidable power and a genuine strategic competitor to the United States.
Extracorporeal irradiation of blood (ECIB) in man. II. Treatment of acute myelocytic leukemia.

Fourteen adults with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) received 16 courses of extracorporeal irradiation of the blood (ECIB). The median survival time of 8.0 months, taking into consideration many of the variable factors, was as good as, if not better than, studies previously reported despite the absence of hematologic remissions. This group of patients is small, however, and no definitive evaluation of ECIB treatment for AML can be made. Although no significant bone marrow changes were noted, there was a marked decrease in the peripheral leukemic cells of 75 per cent of the patients. There appears to be a correlation of increased survival time with a transit dose of ECIB over 340 rads. At the present time, the usefulness of this mode of treatment in the overall management of AML is uncertain, although it might be considered as an alternative form of therapy for patients in whom chemotherapy is contra-indicated and to prevent leukostasis. When used, the possibility of complications related to the shunt should always be borne in mind.
Mapping, charting, and geodesy in the DoD standard GPS receivers

The authors present the mapping, charting, and geodesy (MC&G) capabilities of the family of US Department of Defense standard GPS receivers. These include coordinate transformation of input and output position data positioning with respect to local data, and computation of both ellipsoid-referenced and mean-sea-level-referenced altitude. The authors first introduce the coordinate system used internally in the user equipment and show its application to user and satellite position. Second, they show the variety of Earth models available for user coordinates and define their relationships to the internal reference frame. They then explain the different types of map coordinates available through the GPS user equipment and discuss how the transformation algorithm are implemented in software. A description of how the algorithms were tested follows, along with test results. >
Biology, Therapy, and Resistance of Myeloid Malignancies Initiated by Hyperactive Ras.

Ras proteins regulate cell fates by cycling between active GTP-bound and inactive GDP-bound states (Ras·GTP and Ras·GDP). Ras·GTP modulates cell fates by activating effector pathways that include the Raf/MEK/ERK, phosphoinositol 3’-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, and Ral·GDS cascades. Signaling terminates when Ras·GTP is hydrolyzed to Ras·GDP. GTPase activating proteins (GAPs) are negative regulators of Ras output that increase the rate of GTP hydrolysis. Mammalian cells express two major GAPs – p120GAP and neurofibromin. The latter is encoded by the NF1 tumor suppressor gene, which is mutated in persons with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Children with NF1 are predisposed to juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) and other cancers. Somatic RAS mutations are also common in myeloid malignancies, and other leukemia-associated mutations, such as FLT3 internal tandem duplications, PTPN11 point mutations, and the BCR-ABL fusion protein deregulate Ras signaling. Together, the prevalence of oncogenic RAS mutations and the existence of these alternative genetic mechanisms establish hyperactive Ras as a major therapeutic target. However, developing inhibitors of oncogenic Ras proteins is extremely challenging due to structural considerations and because an effective drug must restore normal biochemical activity (i.e., repair a broken enzyme). Strains of mice carrying conditional mutant alleles of Nf1, oncogenic Kras, and oncogenic Nras are novel reagents for understanding how cells remodel signaling networks in response to hyperactive Ras and for performing pre-clinical trials. Use of the Mx1-Cre transgene to ablate Nf1 or to activate oncogenic KrasG12D or NrasG12D expression in hematopoietic cells causes myeloproliferative disorders (MPDs) that model JMML and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). We are using retroviral insertional mutagenesis (RIM) to identify cooperating mutations that might induce progression from MPD to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). CI-1040, a potent inhibitor of MEK, unexpectedly had no beneficial effects in Nf1 mutant mice with MPD. By contrast, MEK inhibition induced regression of Nf1-deficient AMLs. These AMLs uniformly developed resistance in vivo, despite equivalent biochemical inhibition of the target in paired sensitive and resistant clones. Analysis of retroviral insertions in resistant AMLs revealed outgrowth of a pre-existing clone during CI-1040 administration, and we have implicated RasGRP1 and p38α as modulating resistance in vivo. These data emphasize the importance of cell context in the response to targeted agents and establish a tractable in vivo system for identifying genes that modulate therapeutic efficacy and for probing mechanisms of acquired resistance.
Developmental and Transmittable Origins of Obesity-Associated Health Disorders

The current global obesity pandemic is clearly linked to both the increasing prevalence of, and preference for, foods high in calories, specifically fat and sucrose, and declining levels of daily physical activity. A less commonly discussed possible explanation is that risk of obesity begins in utero as a result of developmental plasticity during early life. This idea fits into the broader Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (DOHAD) hypothesis, which holds that stressful in utero exposure manifests as disease in adulthood. In this review, we highlight several studies that have revealed the role of epigenetics in multigenerational transmission of developmentally programmed obesity and associated cardiometabolic disease.
FitAware: Channeling Group Dynamics Strategies with Smartwatches in a Physical Activity Intervention

Physical inactivity of the general population is a major public health concern in the US and around the world. Community-based interventions, with group dynamics strategies at the core, are effective at improving individual physical activity behaviors. The use of technologies such as smartwatches has potential to channel and amplify the underlying program principles in such interventions. This work presents a smartwatch-centered system to encourage group cohesion in physical activity interventions, exploring it as part of an eight-week study that revealed participant awareness of group performance through smartwatch interactions.
Amdahl's Law in the Datacenter Era: A Market for Fair Processor Allocation

We present a processor allocation framework that uses Amdahl's Law to model parallel performance and a market mechanism to allocate cores. First, we propose the Amdahl utility function and demonstrate its accuracy when modeling performance from processor core allocations. Second, we design a market based on Amdahl utility that optimizes users' bids for processors based on workload parallelizability. The framework uses entitlements to guarantee fairness yet outperforms existing proportional share algorithms.
Making Menstruation Matter in the Global South: Mapping a Critical History

This chapter provides a detailed picture of the “who, what, where and when” of the MHM movement to date. I begin by tracing evolving definitions of MHM and then shift to a landscape analysis that reveals 130+ organizations and social businesses in 38 countries of the Global South. Foci include provision of products, menstrual and puberty education, and to a lesser degree, policy and infrastructure development. Next, I provide a short critical history of MHM's emergence from the WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) development sector beginning quietly and on the margins in the late twentieth century and picking up steam in the mid-late 2000s. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion contrasting MHM in the Global South with menstrual activism in the Global North—two interrelated activist agendas running on parallel tracks.
Peer effects on low-income children's learning and development.

Abstract Using data from a large study of 78 high-quality Head Start classrooms in 12 sites across the U.S., this study examined whether peers' receptive vocabulary skills and teacher-reported social-emotional (S-E) functioning (i.e., behavior problems and self-regulation) measured at the beginning of the preschool year were related to children's gains in these three domains over a school year. Analyses included over 75% of the children in each classroom and produced three noteworthy findings. First, children in classrooms where average peers had higher behavior problems demonstrated increased teacher-reported behavior problems themselves at the end of the year. Second, children in classrooms where average peers had higher self-regulation skills demonstrated larger gains in teacher-reported self-regulation skills at the end of the school year. Third, peers' higher baseline self-regulation skills were found to be associated with children's higher self-regulation in spring, especially when children began the school year with higher levels of self-regulation. This finding indicates that children who have higher baseline self-regulation may be better positioned to benefit from their peers' high self-regulation in developing their own self-regulation skills. In contrast, no evidence was found that peers' baseline receptive vocabulary skills were related to children's receptive vocabulary gains over a school year. Additionally, no significant cross-domain peer effects were found between peers' baseline S-E functioning and children's receptive vocabulary gains nor peers' baseline receptive vocabulary skills and children's S-E development over a school year. Implications of these findings for classroom practice and further research are discussed.
Acute Alcohol Intoxication Inhibits Bystander Intervention Behavior for Sexual Aggression Among Men with High Intent to Help.

BACKGROUND Bystander training programs aim to encourage third-party witnesses to intervene in high-risk sexual situations; however, these programs rarely focus on training bystanders to effectively intervene when intoxicated. This is not surprising due to the limited evidence on the proximal effects of alcohol on bystander intervention for sexual aggression. To this end, the aim of the present study was to test the effects of men's self-reported intent to help strangers and acute alcohol intoxication on the likelihood and speed of sexual aggression intervention. METHODS Participants were 74 men who completed a measure of intent to help (Session 1) and were randomly assigned to consume alcohol or a no-alcohol control beverage (Session 2). Next, they engaged in a novel laboratory paradigm in which they and 4 other confederates (2 men, 2 women) watched a female confederate, who reported a strong dislike of sexual content in the media, view a sexually explicit film which they could stop at any time. Bystander intervention was operationalized as whether and how quickly participants stopped the film. RESULTS Findings indicated that (i) intent to help strangers predicted faster sexual aggression intervention and (ii) intent to help strangers predicted a higher likelihood and faster rate of sexual aggression intervention among sober, but not intoxicated, men. This latter finding suggests that among men who endorsed a high willingness to intervene in sexual aggression, alcohol intoxication decreased intervention behavior. CONCLUSIONS Results demonstrate that alcohol functions as a barrier to intervention for men who would otherwise intervene. Findings are interpreted using an integrative framework for intoxicated sexual aggression intervention and highlight the need for bystander training programs to incorporate alcohol interventions to reduce heavy drinking and psychoeducation to train bystanders how to intervene when intoxicated.
Clinical Spectrum of Human Zinc Deficiency

During the past two decades, a spectrum of clinical deficiency of zinc in human subjects has been recognized. At one end, the manifestations of zinc deficiency may be severe, and at the other end, zinc deficiency may be mild or marginal.
Reconstructing the MERS disease outbreak from news

Disease surveillance is critical for mobilizing health care resources and deciding on isolation measures to contain the spread of infectious diseases. Because ground truth signals of rare and deadly diseases are sparse, it can be useful to enrich surveillance systems using measures of social and environmental factors which are known to influence the spread of a disease. One approach to measure such factors is by using real time news streams. In this study, we model the epidemiological transmission of the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) disease during the outbreak that occurred from 2013 to 2018 in the Arabian peninsula. Using the GDELT news event database, we show that conflict related signals allow us to reconstruct the time series of newly infected cases per week. This reduces the residual sum of squared errors by a factor of 3.36 as compared to a standard epidemiological model. We also capture interpretable time-sensitive factors which illustrate the importance of using real time news stream to model the evolution of a disease such as MERS and facilitate early and effective policy interventions.
Function and structural stability of protein adsorbed to swellable organosilica

Abstract Swellable organically modified silica (SOMS) is a mesoporous sol-gel derived material that spontaneously swells >6 mL/g upon addition organic liquids. Adsorption of 8 different proteins to swollen-state SOMS was studied as a function of adsorbate molecular size and solution pH. Adsorption capacity was dependent on molecular size with the highest capacity of 690 mg/g measured for wheat germ acid phosphatase (58 kDa), a mid-size protein. Adsorption capacities were generally independent of pH suggesting protein-protein interactions do not play a major role in the adsorption mechanism. Rate of adsorption was measured at different protein loadings and fit to a pseudo second-order rate equation. Adsorption rates were independent of loading state when the pH was near a protein's isoelectric point (pI), but varied when the pH differed from the pI of adsorbate. Adsorption was found to irreversible for all proteins when rinsed with buffer solution or ethanol. Infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed cytochrome c and myoglobin indicated that both proteins maintain a native folded state that is stabilized to thermal denaturation. Adsorbed streptavidin was found to bind FITC-biotin (63% binding site saturation) suggesting that adsorbed proteins are accessible to small molecules in bulk solution. Acid phosphatase showed catalytic activity when adsorbed to swollen SOMS, however, specific activity of the bound enzyme was 10-fold lower compared to free enzyme in solution. Adsorption to SOMS appears to be a one-step, reagent-free method to irreversibly immobilize small to mid-sized proteins. Data supports an adsorption mechanism where protein molecules become sterically entrapped in the flexible mesoporous material.
Chapter 8 – LWR Model

With the information from previous chapters, this chapter addresses the LWR model, whose solution is presented as a procedure. Attention is paid to the construction of shock wave solutions, and to solution of Riemann problems. In addition, properties of the flow-density relationship are discussed in relation to shock waves.
מתי יש ליתן מעמד בכורה לעמדת המאסדר? תובנות מהספרות על שבי רגולטורי When Should Judges Defer to Agency Interpretation? A Regulatory Capture Perspective

תקציר בעברית: מה המשקל אותו יש ליתן לעמדת הרגולטור ביחס לפרשנות הנחיותיו? הלכת זליגמן (העומדת בימים אלה לדיון נוסף) גורסת כי בנסיבות בהן הרגולטור הוא זה שניסח את ההנחיות מושא-המחלוקת והיה אמון על אכיפתן, יש לתת לעמדתו בנוגע לפרשנותן מעמד בכורה. מאמר קצר זה מציע גישה הקשרית יותר: בהתבסס על הספרות המפותחת על כשלים רגולטוריים, נוכל לזהות נסיבות פרטניות בהן פועלים על הרגולטור תמריצים העלולים למנוע ממנו להגיע לפרשנות הנכונה שתקדם את האינטרס הציבורי. ביישום לנסיבות הלכת זליגמן – בה נדרשת עמדת הרגולטור במסגרת תובענה ייצוגית המוגשת בטענת גביית יתר של חברות הביטוח מהמבוטחים – קיימות לפחות חמש סיבות להרהר אחר עמדת הרגולטור. כך לדוגמה, פרשנותו של הרגולטור עלולה להיות מושפעת לרעה משיקולי שימור מוניטין שלו (שלא לאמץ עמדה שתגרום לו להיראות כמי שכשל בתפקידו למנוע גביית יתר בזמן אמת), או משיקולי תעדוף-יתר של יציבות הגופים המפוקחים (שלא לאמץ עמדה שתגרום לגופים המפוקחים נטל כספי שעלול לגרום לקריסתם). בנוסף, מתן מעמד בכורה לעמדת המאסדר בנסיבות אלה עלול לפגוע באפקטיביות של מנגנון התביעה הייצוגית ככלי מאזן ומשלים לאכיפה רגולטורית. בנסיבות אלה, ניתן עדיין לתת לעמדת הרגולטור משקל, אך אין לתת לה עמדת בכורה.
Complex effects of pH on ROS from mitochondrial complex II driven complex I reverse electron transport challenge its role in tissue reperfusion injury

Generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) is an important process in triggering cellular necrosis and tissue infarction during ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Ischemia results in accumulation of the metabolite succinate. Rapid oxidation of this succinate by mitochondrial complex II (Cx-II) during reperfusion reduces the co-enzyme Q (Co-Q) pool, thereby driving electrons backward into complex-I (Cx-I), a process known as reverse electron transport (RET), which is thought to be a major source of ROS. During ischemia, enhanced glycolysis results in an acidic cellular pH at the onset of reperfusion. While the process of RET within Cx-I is known to be enhanced by a high mitochondrial trans-membrane ΔpH, the impact of pH itself on the integrated process of Cx-II to Cx-I RET has not been fully studied. Using isolated mitochondria under conditions which mimic the onset of reperfusion (i.e., high [ADP]). We show that mitochondrial respiration (state 2 and state 3) as well as isolated Cx-II activity are impaired at acidic pH, whereas the overall generation of ROS by Cx-II to Cx-I RET was insensitive to pH. Together these data indicate that the acceleration of Cx-I RET ROS by ΔpH appears to be cancelled out by the impact of pH on the source of electrons, i.e. Cx-II. Implications for the role of Cx-II to Cx-I RET derived ROS in IR injury are discussed.
Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right? Recent Changes to State Child Support Guidelines for Low-Income Noncustodial Parents

There are growing concerns that current child support guidelines may result in “too high” orders likely to go unpaid and resulting in substantial debt. Recent federal legislation reflects these concerns by requiring states to consider the noncustodial parent’s ability to pay when setting child support orders [45 C.F.R. § 302.56(c)(1)(ii)]. However, this legislation leaves states to determine how to balance the economic needs of paying parents and their children. This paper explores how this flexibility affects the extent of variation in order amounts for low-income parents across states. To better understand how states interpret this new ruling and implications for order amounts, we conducted a cross-state comparison of recent changes to state child support guidelines for low-income payors and calculated order amounts for several types of cases. We find that states fall on a spectrum of how they conceive of parental financial responsibility versus parental self-sufficiency in their policy. Some states view noncustodial parents’ responsibilities for their children’s financial needs as secondary to parents’ abilities to meet their own basic needs; others view children’s needs as coming first; and many fall somewhere in between. Our findings add to current understanding of how child support agencies and lawmakers attempt to address the financial needs of low-income families through policy and statute. We find that having generous self-support reserves and no minimum orders allows states to maximize noncustodial parent income. However, if states seek to maximize financial contributions to children, more graduated adjustments to order amounts may be preferable.