cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
LiDAR-Based Classification of Sagebrush Community Types

Abstract Sagebrush ( Artemisia spp.) communities constitute the largest temperate semidesert in North America and provide important rangelands for livestock and habitat for wildlife. Remote sensing methods might provide an efficient method to monitor sagebrush communities. This study used airborne LiDAR and field data to measure vegetation heights in five different community types at the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, southwestern Idaho: herbaceous-dominated, low sagebrush ( Artemisia arbuscula ) –dominated, big sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata spp.) –dominated, bitterbrush ( Purshia tridentata ) -dominated, and other vegetation community types. The objectives were 1) to quantify the correlation between field-measured and airborne LiDAR-derived shrub heights, and 2) to determine if airborne LiDAR-derived mean vegetation heights can be used to classify the five community types. The dominant vegetation type and vegetation heights were measured in 3 × 3 m field plots. The LiDAR point cloud data were converted into a raster format to generate a maximum vegetation height map in 3-m raster cells. The regression relationship between field-based and airborne LiDAR-derived shrub heights was significant ( R 2 =0.77; P value P values
Open loop control of multiple drug effects in anesthesia

Current open-loop computer-controlled infusion pumps do not explicitly control the transient adverse side effects of intravenous drugs during anesthesia. The authors used optimal control principles to synthesize a single-input multiple-output controller that regulates concentrations at the site of desirable drug effect while penalizing excessive side-effect drug concentrations. The cost function incorporates model-based predictions of future effect-site concentrations, and the capability of the anesthesiologist to anticipate upcoming surgical events. The controller was evaluated and then compared with alternative control strategies through computer simulation of a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for the intravenous drug alfentanil. Multiple-effect control offers an analytic approach to limit the overshoot in adverse side-effect concentrations at the consequence of increasing the time to achieve the desired drug effect. >
Why the Federal Reserve Should Not Adopt Inflation Targeting

Inflation targeting has become one of the most significant developments of recent decades in both the theory and the practice of monetary policy. A rapidly expanding literature has analysed the a priori properties of various ‘inflation targeting’ strategies, and an increasing number of central banks around the world ‐ the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Swedish Riksbank, and numerous others ‐ have adopted one form or other of this strategy as the basic framework governing the formulation and implementation of their respective monetary policies. It is hardly surprising that we now see frequent calls for the Federal Reserve System to join the parade and restructure US monetary policy too, within the guidelines of some form of inflation-targeting rubric. I urge our policy makers at the Federal Reserve to reject those calls. The empirical case for the value added by inflation targeting in terms of a country’s macroeconomic performance, especially for a country that is already experiencing low inflation to begin with, is unproved to say the
A compile time partitioning method for DOALL loops on distributed memory systems

The loop partitioning problem on modern distributed memory systems is no longer fully communication bound primarily due to a significantly lower ratio of communication/computation speeds. The useful parallelism may be exploited on these systems to an extent that the communication balances the parallelism and does not produce a very high overhead to nullify all the gains due to the parallelism. We describe a compile time partitioning and scheduling approach based on the above motivation for DOALL loops where communication without data replication is inevitable. First, the code partitioning phase analyzes the references in the body of the DOALL loop nest and determines a set of directions for reducing a larger degree of communication by trading a lesser degree of parallelism. Next, the data distribution phase uses a new larger partition owns rule to achieve computation and communication load balance. The granularity adjustment phase attempts to further eliminate communication through merging partitions to reduce the completion time. Finally, the load balancing phase attempts to reduce the number of processors without degrading the completion time and the mapping phase schedules the partitions on available processors. Relevant theory and algorithms are developed along with a performance evaluation on Cray T3D.
Wiretap channel with rate-limited feedback

This paper studies the problem of secure communication over a degraded wiretap channel p(y, z|x) = p(y|x)p(z|y) with secure feedback link of rate Rf, where X is the channel input, and Y and Z are channel outputs observed by the legitimate receiver and the wiretapper respectively. The secrecy capacity is characterized as Cs{Rf) = maxmin{I(X; Y), I(X; Y|Z) + Rf}. p(x)equation. A capacity-achieving coding scheme is presented, in which the receiver securely feeds back fresh randomness with rate Rf, independent of the received channel output. The transmitter then uses the shared randomness as a secret key on top of Wynerpsilas coding scheme for wiretap channel without feedback. Hence, when the receiver has a means of interacting with the transmitter, he should allocate all resources to convey a new key rather than sending back the channel output. For the converse, a recursive argument is used to obtain the single-letter characterization.
Chemistry of the alkoxy-derived precursor solutions for layer-structured perovskite thin films

Abstract Precursors for layer-structured perovskite thin films of SrBi2Ta2O9, or SBT, and SrBi2Nb2O9, or SBN were prepared by the reactions of a Sr-Bi double methoxyethoxide and Ta and/or Nb methoxyethoxide in methoxyethanol, followed by partial hydrolysis. Several analytical techniques such as 1H-, 13C- and 93Nb-NMR and FT-IR were used to determine the arrangement of the metals and oxygen in the precursor molecules. The precursors contain Sr-O-M (M; Ta or Nb) bonds (i.e., a Sr connects two MO6 octahedra), and Sr-O-Bi bonds with Bi atom bonded to the MO6 octahedron. This structure is similar to the layer-structured perovskite crystal sub-lattice. This is the origin of the low temperature crystallization.
Robust Spatial Analysis of Rare Crimes: An Information‐Theoretic Approach

In this paper we describe a semiparametric information-theoretic framework for modeling the determinants of rare events aggregated at intracity areal units while allowing for various forms of error correlation structures. The approach is applied to an examination of the effects of socioeconomic and demographic macro-characteristics of communities on the amount of violence they experience. We investigate and find evidence of some instability in these processes across types of violence and level of areal aggregation. However, we also find evidence of a stable predictor-resource deprivation-for all the types of violence analyzed and at both levels of areal aggregation considered. In addition, we find evidence of a spillover effect of a community's resource deprivation on the level of violence its neighboring areas can expect. We discuss our findings in light of their substantive, methodological, and practical implications.
Calibrating clock stretch during AC scan testing

Delay fault testing via AC scan is shown to suffer from test application problems that, if not accounted for, will cause a reduction in test quality. The problem of clock period stretching is demonstrated, and a novel circuit for calibrating this effect is described. Guidelines for AC scan test application on the tester to improve the quality of AC scan tests are presented, along with results from several large ASICs
Lesbians and Gay Men Embrace Their Sexual Orientation After Conversion Therapy and Ex-Gay Ministries: A Qualitative Study

Abstract This article examines narratives of gay men and lesbians who participated in conversion therapies and/or ex-gay ministries in order to change their sexual orientation to that of heterosexual. Data for this study were gathered through an analysis of the stories of 14 people, published in a document titled Finally Free, who describe their negative experiences with conversion therapy through ex-gay ministries. Analysis of the data revealed seven common psychosocial issues faced by gay men and lesbians who turned to conversion therapy in an attempt to become heterosexual. These issues provide knowledge for social workers' intervention with gay men and lesbians seeking healing and personal growth after participating in conversion therapy and ex-gay ministries.
Families of Binomials

In this chapter, we look briefly at families of binomials and their splitting fields and Galois groups. We have seen that when the base field F contains a primitive n-th root of unity, cyclic extensions of degree d ∣ n correspond to splitting fields of a single binomial xn - u. More generally, we will see that abelian extensions of exponent n correspond to splitting fields of families of binomials. We will also address the issue of when two families of binomials have the same splitting field.
Development of the diencephalon in the rat. I. Autoradiographic study of the time of origin and settling patterns of neurons of the hypothalamus

Groups of pregnant rats were injected with two successive daily doses of 3H-thymidine from gestational day 13 (E13+14) until the day before birth (E21+22). This double labelling procedure was combined with an injection schedule of a single day delay between groups (E13+14; E14+15; E15+16. .I. The two injections assured the comprehensive labelling of prac- tically all neurons of a given structure prior to the onset of their differentiation (comprehensive labelling), whereas the progressive daily delay in injections made it possible to estimate the proportion of neurons formed in various regions of the hypothalamus on a single day. Hypothalamic areas or nuclei were assigned into four classes on the basis of their cytogenetic isochronicity. Struc- tures composed of the earliest arising (class 1) neurons constitute a lateral tier that includes the lateral preoptic and lateral hypothalamic areas, and the later- al mammillary nucleus. Structures composed of early arising (class 2) neurons form a heterogeneous collection of nuclear systems, including the paraventricu- lar, internuclear and supraoptic magnocellular neurons, and several intermedi- ate tier nuclei of the anterior and posterior hypothalamus. The late arising (class 3) and latest arising (class 4) nuclei constitute a periventricular system anteriorly and a more extensive region posteriorly. The latter two nuclear sys- tems may constitute the hypophysiotropic area of the hypothalamus. The nuclei of the mammillary system, which are produced sequentially, are distinguished from other hypothalamic structures by their more rapid generation time. Inter- nuclear labelling gradients were used to infer the neuroepithelial site of origin and settling pattern of neurons. Common sites of origin were indicated for the following structures: the magnocellular neurohypophysial neurons; the neu- rons of the dorsomedial and ventromedial nuclei; and the neurons of the tuberomammillary and arcuate nuclei. The sites of origin of these groups of nu- clei were related to specialized ventricular linings in the mature hypothalamus.
Reprogramming of Skeletal Myoblasts for Induction of Pluripotency for Tumor-Free Cardiomyogenesis in the Infarcted Heart

Rationale:Skeletal myoblasts (SMs) with inherent myogenic properties are better candidates for reprogramming to pluripotency. Objective:To reprogram SMs to pluripotency and show that reprogrammed S...
Using mobile data collectors to federate clusters of disjoint sensor network segments

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) that operate unattended in harsh environments are susceptible to large scale damage, where many nodes fail simultaneously and the network gets partitioned into several disjoint segments. Restoring connectivity of structurally damaged WSN's segments may be urgent considering that they are employed to assist in risky missions. To deal with these scenarios, Mobile Data Mules (MDMs) are employed to establish intermittent links by moving and carrying data between pairs of segments on an inter-segment minimum spanning tree (mst). In this paper, we study a constrained version of the federation problem when the number of MDM's “k” is less than the number of edges on an mst, which makes the problem more challenging. We present a novel algorithm that groups the segments into k overlapping clusters based on the intersegment proximity. Each cluster is assigned a distinct MDM to tour its segments. A segment that belongs to two clusters serves as a gateway that enables data transfer across clusters. Our algorithm minimizes the tour length for each MDM and sets the speed of the individual MDMs to rendezvous at gateway segments so that buffering space and time for inter-cluster traffic are minimized. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of our algorithm.
On Channel Estimation and Capacity for Amplify and Forward Relay Networks

Relay networks have received considerable attention recently, especially when limited size and power resources impose constraints on the number of antennas within a wireless sensor network. In this paper, we design and analyze a training based linear mean square error (LMMSE) channel estimator for time division multiplex amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks. For the purpose of performance comparison we consider three distinct cases; In the first scenario, each relay estimates its backward and forward channels, in the second scenario each relay knows its backward and forward channels perfectly and finally in the third scenario relays have no knowledge of channels. Finally, we find a lower bound for the capacity considering the effect of training and estimation error.
Adaptive protocols for software distributed shared memory

We demonstrate the benefits of software shared memory protocols that adapt at run time to the memory access patterns observed in the applications. This adaptation is automatic-no user annotations are required-and does not rely on compiler support or special hardware. We investigate adaptation between singleand multiple-writer protocols, dynamic aggregation of pages into a larger transfer unit, and adaptation between invalidate and update. Our results indicate that adaptation between single- and multiple-writer and dynamic page aggregation are clearly beneficial. The results for the adaptation between invalidate and update are less compelling, showing at best gains similar to the dynamic aggregation adaptation and at worst serious performance deterioration.
Going Native: Effects of Disclosure Position and Language on the Recognition and Evaluation of Online Native Advertising

Despite recent industry attention, questions remain about how native advertising is perceived and processed by consumers. Two experiments examined effects of language and positioning in native advertising disclosures on recognition of the content as advertising, effects of recognition on brand and publisher evaluations, and whether disclosure position affects visual attention. Findings show that middle or bottom positioning and wording using “advertising” or “sponsored” increased advertising recognition compared to other conditions, and ad recognition generally led to more negative evaluations. Visual attention mediated the relationship between disclosure position and advertising recognition. Theoretical, practical, and regulatory implications for disclosures in native advertising are discussed.
The compositional analysis of hunter-gatherer pottery from the Kuril Islands

Abstract Archaeological analysis of pottery remains from Northeast Asia has traditionally emphasized macroscopic traits such as decoration and vessel form. While these features are important in characterizing the cultural affiliation of pottery, compositional analysis can provide new lines of evidence that highlight social processes such as migration and exchange. Using a ceramic assemblage recovered from the Kuril Islands of Northeast Asia, this research investigates the regional exchange of pottery associated with the Epi-Jomon and Okhotsk cultural traditions. Results of this study indicate cultural differences highly influence the geographic distribution of compositional groups and patterns of regional exchange.
Creep Rupture of MoSi2/SiCP Composites

We studied the creep rupture of a series of MoSi 2 materials reinforced with SiC particles. Particulate contents were in the range of 0 to 40 volume percent. Temperature and stress ranges were 1050°C to 1200°C and 10 MPa to 50 MPa, which gave failures ranging from 1 hour to 1500 hours. The creep curves show an extensive tertiary regime, accounting for 25-95% of the total lifetime. Tertiary creep increases with increasing stress and temperature. Cavitation occurs throughout the creep life, and tertiary creep is associated with the linkage of cavities into large cracks. The creep life improves with increasing SiC particle content, with a concurrent loss of creep ductility. Significant improvement occurs only when the particle content is greater than 30 volume percent. Our studies suggest that the creep and creep rupture behavior of MoSi 2 can be further improved by increasing the content of SiC particles.
Comparison of Urinary PAHs among Firefighters and Asphalt Pavers

Objective: The purpose of the investigation is to examine urinary biomarkers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among firefighters and asphalt workers. Methods: Average concentrations of urinary PAHs were used for comparative analysis between groups of firefighters and asphalt pavers. Microsoft Excel was used to perform calculations and the t-test was utilized for statistical analysis. Results: When compared to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standard for smokers and non-smokers, firefighters demonstrated various statistically significant differences in urinary PAH concentrations. Asphalt workers had statistically significant higher urinary concentrations in three PAHs as compared to the NIST smoker mean. Conclusions: Firefighters did not demonstrate a substantial change in urinary PAH metabolite levels when compared to controls. Asphalt pavers experienced concentrations that were in some cases increased by orders of magnitude compared to controls.
DRUG EFFECTS : A SEARCH FOR OUTCOMES

In order to best understand the developmental and behavioral effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, two important activities must occur. The first is the continuing development and refinement of research methodologies. Information-sharing activities such as conferences support this goal. Second, agencies such as NIDA need to support longitudinal followup of prenatally drug-exposed child cohorts and controls to identify outcomes beyond infancy and toddler years. Without support for information exchange and longitudinal followup, researchers will still be in the dark regarding the effects of prenatal drug exposure on school functioning when the next drug epidemic occurs. This message was not heeded in the 1970s and early 1980s, leaving researchers in the 1990s in the uncomfortable position of saying they do not know the longer term effects of prenatal drug exposure.
Onsite clinical services in the era of managed health care.

Both the employer and employee sustain an array of costs related to illness and injury. Dr. Larkin discusses evolving U.S. health care delivery models and cost designs and presents a case study demonstrating that the provision of workplace health care services can substantially reduce these costs.
Meiosis and Reproduction

As a plant develops towards maturity certain tissues become differentiated for the purpose of reproduction. This may be of the vegetative or asexual type where bulbs, corms, tubers and similar organs are produced. But in the majority of flowering plants sexual reproduction leading to the formation of the seed is of more common occurrence.
Information Search in an Era of Connected Consumers

Today, interactive consumers create, communicate, and deliver substantial amounts of information that influence other consumers (consumer-to-consumer or C2C interactions) (Bagozzi and Dholakia 2002; Barwise and Farley 2005; Brown et.al. 2007; Chiou and Cheng 2003; Henning-Thurau et al. 2004; Shankar and Hollinger 2007; Smith et al. 2005). So understanding how consumers search for product information and why they choose certain types of media to conduct their search, is critical in today’s online world. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of marketers attempting to understand the various facets of C2C interactions (Libai et al. 2010). However, there are still several unanswered questions in this prominent stream of research, which deserve further attention. The purpose of this study is to address one such fundamental research question through a 3 (mediums) × 2 (a good and a service) between subjects web survey experiment – what factors related to the source, medium, and message influence the intention to use a particular medium (Text Blog Vs. Photo Blog Vs. Video Blog) to seek product information. The authors expect that along with usefulness and ease of use of the medium, source, medium, as well as message credibility will have varying impacts on the attitude toward using a medium for product information search. The authors attempt to develop and test such a model which will not only contribute substantially to the marketing literature but also open avenues for future research. This research is one of the few initial research endeavors in the field of C2C interactions that is rooted in theory. This model is also of practical import because knowing more about how different factors influencing the intention to use one or more particular mediums for product information search provides a guideline to managers (especially in marketing communications) on where and how to encourage C2C interactions. Given the drastic growth of C2C communications, and avenues that promote the proliferation of information amongst consumers, this research adds significant value to marketing knowledge.
A comparison of resolution recovery performed in projection-space and image-space for a high resolution small animal PET scanner

Advances in PET scanner design and image reconstruction methods have lead to the development of high resolution emission tomographic scanners. Traditional PET reconstruction methods that do not take into account the mispositioning of the lines of response (parallax error) result in blurring images and increased distortion with increased distance from the center of the field-of-view. The image quality can be improved by performing resolution recovery (RR) using a point spread function (PSF) which describes the response of the system to point source. For a high-resolution small animal PET scanner, we studied the resolution recovery modeling in projection-space using a Gaussian-PSF or Monte-Carlo (MC) simulated PSF. We also studied the RR in image-space using the Gaussian-PSF. For this work, we used data that were acquired by scanning a Micro Deluxe phantom and a healthy mouse. The resolution recovery approach which used Gaussian-PSF, with a fixed FWHM, improved the spatial resolution and enhanced image contrast compared to the standard image reconstruction. The resolution recovery method which used the MC simulated spatially variant-PSF further improved the resolution compared to the simple Gaussian-based PSF.
Characterization of the Zika virus two-component NS2B-NS3 protease and structure-assisted identification of allosteric small-molecule antagonists.

The recent re-emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV)1, a member of the Flaviviridae family, has become a global emergency. Currently, there are no effective methods of preventing or treating ZIKV infection, which causes severe neuroimmunopathology and is particularly harmful to the developing fetuses of infected pregnant women. However, the pathology induced by ZIKV is unique among flaviviruses, and knowledge of the biology of other family members cannot easily be extrapolated to ZIKV. Thus, structure-function studies of ZIKV proteins are urgently needed to facilitate the development of effective preventative and therapeutic agents. Like other flaviviruses, ZIKV expresses an NS2B-NS3 protease, which consists of the NS2B cofactor and the NS3 protease domain and is essential for cleavage of the ZIKV polyprotein precursor and generation of fully functional viral proteins. Here, we report the enzymatic characterization of ZIKV protease, and we identify structural scaffolds for allosteric small-molecule inhibitors of this protease. Molecular modeling of the protease-inhibitor complexes suggests that these compounds bind to the druggable cavity in the NS2B-NS3 protease interface and affect productive interactions of the protease domain with its cofactor. The most potent compound demonstrated efficient inhibition of ZIKV propagation in vitro in human fetal neural progenitor cells and in vivo in SJL mice. The inhibitory scaffolds could be further developed into valuable research reagents and, ultimately, provide a roadmap for the selection of efficient inhibitors of ZIKV infection.
Influencing Nursing Knowledge and Attitudes to Positively Affect Care of Patients with Persistent Pain in the Hospital Setting.

Abstract Hospitalized patients with persistent pain are among the most challenging populations to effectively manage because of coexistence with acute pain. Nurses play a vital role in pain management; however, gaps in knowledge and detrimental attitudes exist. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted evidence-based pain education program to increase nurses' knowledge and attitudes about pain management. One group, paired, pretest/posttest educational intervention. A convenience sample of nurses from three medical and surgical inpatient units were recruited. Participants completed a pretest, the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain Scale, to assess education needs. Identified gaps were targeted during program design. The program consisted of two 30-minute interactive educational sessions approximately 1 month apart. The first session, delivered by a pharmacist, covered pharmacology and pathophysiology content. The second session, delivered by trained registered nurses, used case studies paired with video scenarios. A total of 51 nurses completed the pretest. The final sample consisted of 24 nurses who completed both the pretest and posttest. The mean age was 30 years; 88% were female, and 92% were baccalaureate prepared. Paired t tests indicated higher posttest total scores ( p
Just-in-time, viable, 3d avatars from scans

We demonstrate a system that can generate a photorealistic, interactive 3D character from a human subject that is capable of movement, emotion, speech and gesture in less than 20 minutes without the need for 3D artist intervention or specialized technical knowledge through a near automatic process. Our method uses mostly commodity- or of-the-shelf hardware. We demonstrate the just-in-time use of generating such 3D models for virtual and augmented reality, games, simulation and communication. We anticipate that the inexpensive generation of such photorealistic models will be useful in many venues where a just-in-time 3D construction of digital avatars that resemble particular human subjects is necessary. Figure 1 shows the overall workflow of our virtual character creation pipeline.
Radical Redox-Relay Catalysis: Formal [3+2] Cycloaddition of N-Acylaziridines and Alkenes

We report Ti-catalyzed radical formal [3+2] cycloadditions of N-acylaziridines and alkenes. This method provides an efficient approach to the synthesis of pyrrolidines, structural units prevalent in bioactive compounds and organocatalysts, from readily available starting materials. The overall redox-neutral reaction was achieved via a redox-relay mechanism, which harnesses radical intermediates for selective C—N bond cleavage and formation.
Engineering a light-activated caspase-3 for precise ablation of neurons in vivo

The circuitry of the brain is characterized by cell heterogeneity, sprawling cellular anatomy, and astonishingly complex patterns of connectivity. Determining how complex neural circuits control behavior is a major challenge that is often approached using surgical, chemical, or transgenic approaches to ablate neurons. However, all these approaches suffer from a lack of precise spatial and temporal control. This drawback would be overcome if cellular ablation could be controlled with light. Cells are naturally and cleanly ablated through apoptosis due to the terminal activation of caspases. Here, we describe the engineering of a light-activated human caspase-3 (Caspase-LOV) by exploiting its natural spring-loaded activation mechanism through rational insertion of the light-sensitive LOV2 domain that expands upon illumination. We apply the light-activated caspase (Caspase-LOV) to study neurodegeneration in larval and adult Drosophila . Using the tissue-specific expression system (UAS)-GAL4, we express Caspase-LOV specifically in three neuronal cell types: retinal, sensory, and motor neurons. Illumination of whole flies or specific tissues containing Caspase-LOV–induced cell death and allowed us to follow the time course and sequence of neurodegenerative events. For example, we find that global synchronous activation of caspase-3 drives degeneration with a different time-course and extent in sensory versus motor neurons. We believe the Caspase-LOV tool we engineered will have many other uses for neurobiologists and others for specific temporal and spatial ablation of cells in complex organisms.
A record of ice sheet demise.

The Cordilleran ice sheet once covered nearly all of western Canada, from the Puget Lowland of Washington to the southern reaches of Alaska ( 1 ). Unlike the Laurentide ice sheet, which covered the relatively flat Canadian shield of eastern Canada, the Cordilleran ice sheet blanketed the high alpine peaks of the Canadian Rockies and Coast Ranges. Although relatively small ( 2 ), it was nonetheless important for shaping the landscape. It also played a critical role in paleohuman migration from Asia to North America ( 3 ) and potentially in past rapid climate events ( 4 ). However, the timing and style of the ice sheet's final demise after the last ice age have been unclear. On page 781 of this issue, Menounos et al. ( 5 ) provide an extensive chronology of Cordilleran ice sheet deglaciation.
Panniculectomy after bariatric surgical weight loss: Analysis of complications and modifiable risk factors.

Abstract Introduction Bariatric surgery results in massive weight loss, leaving many patients with redundant skin that can cause significant physical and psychosocial limitations. We sought to identify variables associated with postoperative complications and adjuncts associated with the mitigation of postoperative complications. Methods A retrospective review was performed of all post-bariatric surgery patients who underwent panniculectomy over a 10-year period. Results Total 706 patients included. Overall complication rate was 56%: dehiscence (24%), surgical site infection (22%), seroma (18%), and post-operative bleeding (5%). Return to operating room rate was 12%. Significant factors were: BMI >26 (p 2 (OR 1.97, p Conclusion High morbidity for post-bariatric panniculectomy is primarily local wound complications. Potentially modifiable factors that increase the complication risk profile include higher BMI, higher ASA class, and the use of fleur-de-lis incision.
An Inquiry into the Nature of Service: A Historical Overview (Part 1)

Design academia and industry has increasingly recognized service as a perspective of design. However, there is still more to explore in design research regarding the assumption that sits beneath this success: What is service? In this paper I explore this question by collecting different perspectives on service that have existed throughout human history: objectified labor, mutual aid, communal sharing, and assistance by contract. By exploring these diverse historical understandings of service, I seek to draw attention to the nature of service as participation.
Negative Cognitive Bias and Perceived Stress: Independent Mediators of the Relation Between Mindfulness and Emotional Distress

Although a growing body of research has demonstrated the benefits of mindfulness for depression and anxiety, the mechanisms by which mindfulness reduces emotional distress are unclear. At least two mechanisms have been proposed: reduced negative cognitive bias and stress reduction. Although both mechanisms have received initial support, these proposed mechanisms have not been examined concurrently. The present studies examined the extent to which less negative cognitive bias and less perceived stress uniquely accounted for the association between mindfulness and emotional distress. In two studies, participants completed measures of trait mindfulness, perceived stress, negative cognitive bias, depression, and anxiety. Across both studies, results from parallel multiple mediation models indicated that both negative cognitive bias and perceived stress accounted for unique variance in the mindfulness–emotional distress association. That is, greater mindfulness was related to less negative cognitive bias and less perceived stress, which in turn were associated with less emotional distress. The results suggest that both stress reduction and negative cognitive bias may be mechanisms by which mindfulness confers benefits to psychological well-being.
La postcolonialité de la littérature urbaine : vers une francophonie de l’intérieur ?

AbstractUntil now postcolonial discourse and the subject of immigration have been accommodated in the main within literary Francophonie. The literature relating to immigration in France generally d...
Religiosity, monitoring and consumer self‐control

The studies herein build on the monitoring model of self‐control to examine how consumers’ religiosity influences their perceived monitoring by self, others, and God, and then how this monitoring influences consumption behavior in situations with surplus versus depleted self‐control resources. Study 1 finds that consumers higher in religiosity whose self‐control resources have been depleted (not depleted) report greater (lesser) self‐monitoring for behaviors that are deemed as high (low) in regulation importance. The opposite pattern of effects was observed for consumers lower in religiosity (or not at all religious). Additionally, self‐monitoring (but not monitoring by others or by God) mediates this relationship. Study 2 results show that religiosity's relationship with consumers’ self‐controlled behaviors is moderated by priming monitoring by self or others (but not monitoring by God) as well as self‐control depletion. These results provide novel insight that monitoring by God may not be influential, regardless of depletion level, and as a result likely should not be integrated into marketer tactics desiring to increase consumers’ self‐controlled behaviors.
Casson Invariant and Gauge Theory

In this chapter, we give an account of SU(2)-gauge theory in dimension three. We discuss C. Taubes’ gauge-theoretical definition of the Casson invariant as (roughly) the Euler number of the gradient field of the Chern-Simons function. The Chern-Simons function plays a central role in modern understanding of homology 3-spheres, so we discuss it in some detail. An infinite dimensional analogue of Morse theory applied to the Chern-Simons function produces the instanton Floer homology which will be discussed in the next chapter. This gauge-theoretical approach to the Casson invariant leads to several extensions in a direction different from that of Walker and Lescop. One of the extensions we discuss is the SU(3) Casson invariant of H. Boden and C. Herald. Another one is the Casson-type invariant for knots in integral homology spheres introduced by X.-S. Lin and C. Herald, and finally, the equivariant Casson invariant of integral homology spheres with a finite cyclic group action by O. Collin and the author.
Introduction—Signs of the Times: Environmental Sustainability, Citizens, Leadership, and Social Justice

(2007). Introduction—Signs of the Times: Environmental Sustainability, Citizens, Leadership, and Social Justice. Administrative Theory & Praxis: Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 370-374.
Vertical line array tilt revealed through snapping shrimp noise

The shallow-water acoustic variability experiment (SAVEX15), conducted in the East China Sea, unexpectedly recorded a great deal of snapping shrimp noise on a 16-element (56-m length) vertical line array deployed in 100-m water depths. These impulsive events can be used to find the tilt of the moored array which was caused by the strong ocean currents in the area. In this environment, the recorded snaps of bottom-dwelling shrimp within a radius of more than 500 m were largely separated from one another in time, and coherent time domain beamforming was successful in localizing snaps in time and range. The sparse and impulse nature of the snaps allowed for a simple normalization and gave tens of snap detections per second after a threshold detector. The results from the automated detector showed it was necessary to search with the beamformer over a three-dimensional space for reliable performance: (1) arrival time, (2) source range, and (3) array tilt. The results of the beamformer search in array tilt space are consistent with independent acoustic tilt measurements of the same array, showing that snapping shrimp noise in this region can provide valuable inference for the acoustic environment.The shallow-water acoustic variability experiment (SAVEX15), conducted in the East China Sea, unexpectedly recorded a great deal of snapping shrimp noise on a 16-element (56-m length) vertical line array deployed in 100-m water depths. These impulsive events can be used to find the tilt of the moored array which was caused by the strong ocean currents in the area. In this environment, the recorded snaps of bottom-dwelling shrimp within a radius of more than 500 m were largely separated from one another in time, and coherent time domain beamforming was successful in localizing snaps in time and range. The sparse and impulse nature of the snaps allowed for a simple normalization and gave tens of snap detections per second after a threshold detector. The results from the automated detector showed it was necessary to search with the beamformer over a three-dimensional space for reliable performance: (1) arrival time, (2) source range, and (3) array tilt. The results of the beamformer search in array tilt spac...
The Effect of Prosecutorial Actions on Deterrence: A County-Level Analysis:

In the current study, we examine prosecutorial decisions that affect the certainty, celerity, and severity of punishment at the county level in the state of Florida. Leveraging a unique data set, w...
(359) Resilience and Pain-Related Areas in the Brain: Consideration of Sex and Ethnic/Race Differences

In adults with osteoarthritis, clinical pain and disability have been shown to differ across sex and ethnicity/race. Recent evidence also indicates changes in pain-related brain structure across these groups. Resilience is associated with lower pain and greater functioning. However, the relationship between resilience and the brain is not well understood. We investigated if resilience was associated with pain-related brain structure in individuals with/without knee pain and if patterns differed by sex and ethnicity/race. Study participants included 171 individuals (mean age 57.97±8.50; 62 male/109 female; 72 Non-Hispanic Black (NHB)/99 Non-Hispanic White (NHW) with and without knee pain. Participants completed measures of resilience: biobehavioral (tobacco use and waist/hip ratio) and psychosocial (optimism, affect, coping, perceived stress, and social support). Responses were dichotomized based on published norms/means and summed, creating a composite resilience score. High and low resilience was defined by median split. T1-weighted MRI data were processed using FreeSurfer for a priori region analyses. Potential covariates included age, sex, race, study site, education level, body mass index, and chronic pain severity based on the FITT index (frequency, intensity, time/duration, and total pain sites). MANCOVAs were completed for analyses. The high and low resilience groups differed in amygdala volume (p=0.021) with trends for medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC; p=0.064) and thalamus (p=0.094). Males with high resilience had thicker MPFC than low resilience males (p=0.037). Females with high resilience had larger amygdala than low resilience females (p=0.005). NHB with high resilience had larger amygdala (p=0.025) and a trend for thicker somatosensory cortex (p=0.064). NHW with high resilience had a trend for thicker insula (p=0.081). Preliminary findings indicate resilience may be associated with pain-related brain structure. Sex and ethnic/race group differences were also observed. Prospective research is needed to elucidate the influence of resilience on the experience of pain, neurobiological underpinnings, and sex and ethnicity/race differences.
A Management System for the Training and Supervision of Psychology, Social Work, and Nursing Trainees in a Substance Abuse Treatment Facility

Let us begin with a platitudinous remark. “Substance abuse treatment programs are understaffed!” The validity of this remark seems self-evident. Nonetheless, we conducted a brief needs assessment in Salt Lake City, Utah, to see if the data supported such a conclusion. Ten drug and/or alcohol programs were randomly selected from a local treatment resources manual. The directors of these programs were asked a simple question: “Is you program adequately staffed?” Nine out of ten (90%) said their programs were understaffed.
Interface-Capturing Method for Free-Surface Plunging and Breaking Waves

AbstractThis paper presents an interface-capturing method for two-phase flows with large-amplitude free-surface motion. The method is developed by embedding the level-set equation in the momentum b...
Researching and writing based on multiple texts

Abstract Students perform poorly on multiple text reading-writing (MTRW) tasks. To address this issue, we examine students' strategy engagement during response composition by analyzing five types of data. These include: (a) log data of text access, (b) the notes that students composed during processing, (c) students' modified think-aloud reports, (d) screen-capture videos of writing behaviors, and (e) the written products generated. We report on insights gained by coordinating and juxtaposing these various sources of data on students' writing. Results showed that while students accessed and took notes on the majority of the texts provided, information from texts was rarely connected, neither in students' notes nor in the written responses composed. Moreover, students' effortful engagement in multiple text use, captured via log data, was associated with task performance. Finally, a number of variables, corresponding to students’ strategy reports during processing, were found to be significant predictors of writing performance.
Causal conflicts produce domino effects.

Inconsistent beliefs call for revision—but which of them should individuals revise? A long-standing view is that they should make minimal changes that restore consistency. An alternative view is th...
Task Specific Tremor Subsequently Developing into Parkinson's Disease: Case Series

Background Parkinson's Disease (PD) can present with dystonia or essential tremor but task specific tremor (TST) preceding PD has been only rarely reported. The relationship between TST and PD is unclear. We report a series of 12 patients with TST who later developed PD. Cases Patients with TST and PD were identified from our database. Records and imaging were reviewed and descriptive statistics presented. Twelve patients were identified. All 11 patients who had TST of arm developed rest tremor ipsilateral to the TST arm. DaTscan showed reduced dopaminergic uptake in all 11 patients who were scanned. The TST improved with STN and VIM DBS (3/12) and partially to dopaminergic medications (N = 3) and trihexyphenidyl (N = 2). Conclusion Rest tremor consistently occurring ipsilateral to TST, positive DaTscan, and partial response to dopaminergic medications but not to ET medications suggests TST is a precursor to PD in this population rather than chance occurrence.
What do patients with glaucoma see: a novel iPad app to improve glaucoma patient awareness of visual field loss

Purpose Glaucoma patients with peripheral vision loss have in the past subjectively described their field loss as ‘blurred’ or ‘no vision compromise’. We developed an iPad app for patients to self-characterise perception within areas of glaucomatous visual field loss. Methods Twelve glaucoma patients with visual acuity ≥20/40 in each eye, stable and reliable Humphrey Visual Field (HVF) over 2 years were enrolled. An iPad app (held at 33 cm) allowed subjects to modify ‘blur’ or ‘dimness’ to match their perception of a 2×2 m wall-mounted poster at 1 m distance. Subjects fixated at the centre of the poster (spanning 45° of field from centre). The output was degree of blur/dim: normal, mild and severe noted on the iPad image at the 54 retinal loci tested by the HVF 24-2 and was compared to threshold sensitivity values at these loci. Monocular (Right eye (OD), left eye (OS)) HVF responses were used to calculate an integrated binocular (OU) visual field index (VFI). All three data sets were analysed separately. Results 36 HVF and iPad responses from 12 subjects (mean age 71±8.2y) were analysed. The mean VFI was 77% OD, 76% OS, 83% OU. The most common iPad response reported was normal followed by blur. No subject reported dim response. The mean HVF sensitivity threshold was significantly associated with the iPad response at the corresponding retinal loci (For OD, OS and OU, respectively (dB): normal: 23, 25, 27; mild blur: 18, 16, 22; severe blur: 9, 9, 11). On receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the HVF retinal sensitivity cut-off at which subjects reported blur was 23.4 OD, 23 OS and 23.3 OU (dB). Conclusions Glaucoma subjects self-pictorialised their field defects as blur; never dim or black. Our innovation allows translation of HVF data to quantitatively characterise visual perception in patients with glaucomatous field defects.
Profiles of Childhood Maltreatment: Associations with Sexual Risk Behavior during Adolescence in a Sample of Racial/Ethnic Minority Girls

This study examines associations between childhood maltreatment and developmental trajectories of sexual risk behaviors (SRBs) in a sample of 882 sexually active adolescent girls, predominantly Hispanic or Black, assessed every 6 months between 13 and 23 years. Latent profile analyses revealed four distinct maltreatment profiles: Low Maltreatment (76%), Moderate Emotional Neglect Only (15%), Severe Physical/Emotional Abuse (3%), and Severe Sexual Abuse (6%). Multilevel growth analyses showed the Moderate Emotional Neglect Only and Severe Sexual Abuse profiles exhibited more SRBs starting in late adolescence, and the Severe Sexual Abuse profile also exhibited a faster increase than the Low Maltreatment profile. Understanding heterogeneity within maltreated populations may have important implications for healthy sexual development.