cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Input/Output Balances and Nitrogen Limitation in Terrestrial Ecosystems

Publisher Summary The availability of nitrogen (N) often limits net primary production (NPP) and other processes in terrestrial ecosystems. N limits NPP in the long term; two conditions must be met to limit processes: (1) N must be lost from terrestrial ecosystems by pathways that cannot be prevented fully by N-demanding organisms and (2) the power of N2 fixation to add new N to N-limited ecosystems must be constrained. This chapter utilizes a simple model to explore the consequences of (1) losses by dissolved organic nitrogen, transformation dependent trace gas fluxes, and spatial/temporal variation in the supply versus demand for N and (2) constraints on N2 fixation caused by disproportionately severe effects of phosphorus limitation, grazing, and shade intolerance on symbiotic N2 fixers. The results of these analyses suggest that the pervasiveness of N limitation in terrestrial ecosystems is strongly shaped by processes that are not well understood.
Computational Tools for Quantitative Breast Morphometry Based on 3D Scans

Quantitative analysis of breast morphometry is critical to breast plastic surgery. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) photography has emerged as a strong new alternative for breast morphometry analysis in comparison to other existing techniques. 3D photography enables the capture of the entire breast surface topology virtually in a single snapshot and without any direct contact with the patient, thus causing minimal discomfort. In this paper, we present a set of computational tools for the quantitative analysis of two key morphological properties of the breast that are of interest to breast plastic surgery based on 3D scans, namely breast shape and volume. The breast shape is modeled using a compact geometric model capable of capturing the global shape of the breast with very few parameters. Specifically, the shape model is deduced by applying a set of five global deformations to a geometric primitive. These deformations, defined using very intuitive parameters, closely model the key shape variables that surgeons inherently use to describe the overall shape of the breast. Patient-specific parameters of the breast shape model are automatically recovered by fitting a generic breast shape model to the 3D scan of the patient’s breast using a physics-based deformable model framework. The mean error of fit between the automatically fitted shape model and the actual breast surface for 12 subjects varied between 0.9 and 2.6 mm. These results are very encouraging considering the fact that only 17 parameters are used to determine the shape of the breast. The breast volume is estimated automatically by first localizing the breast on a 3D scan of the patient’s torso and then computing the volume enclosed between an interpolated breast-less torso surface and the actual breast. The volume estimated by the proposed method was found to be within the intra-operator variability among five segmentation trials performed manually by an expert on 3D torso scans of three subjects.
They Protect Us from Computer Fraud: Who Protects Us from Them? SafeNet, Inc.: A Case of Fraudulent Financial Reporting

ABSTRACT: This case focuses on fraudulent financial reporting as related to the tone at the top, primarily the chief operating officer, Carole Argo, of SafeNet, Inc. (SafeNet). This case provides students a real-world example by which to apply basic fraud concepts including the fraud triangle, fraud prevention, and red flags (fraud symptoms). Students analyze SafeNet to identify deficiencies and prevention methods, from the perspective of COSO's (2013) Internal Control—Integrated Framework's internal control objectives, components, and principles. Students also analyze SafeNet's corporate governance structure by comparing SafeNet's Board of Directors and its subcommittees pre- and post-SOX. Students learn of stock options as a form of compensation. However, this case does not focus on the details of accounting for stock options. This case is appropriate for students with the financial accounting principles course background. This case was classroom tested in a basic fraud examination course and an interna...
NADPH oxidase is the primary source of superoxide induced by NMDA receptor activation

Neuronal NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activation leads to the formation of superoxide, which normally acts in cell signaling. With extensive NMDAR activation, the resulting superoxide production leads to neuronal death. It is widely held that NMDA-induced superoxide production originates from the mitochondria, but definitive evidence for this is lacking. We evaluated the role of the cytoplasmic enzyme NADPH oxidase in NMDA-induced superoxide production. Neurons in culture and in mouse hippocampus responded to NMDA with a rapid increase in superoxide production, followed by neuronal death. These events were blocked by the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin and in neurons lacking the p47phox subunit, which is required for NADPH oxidase assembly. Superoxide production was also blocked by inhibiting the hexose monophosphate shunt, which regenerates the NADPH substrate, and by inhibiting protein kinase C zeta, which activates the NADPH oxidase complex. These findings identify NADPH oxidase as the primary source of NMDA-induced superoxide production.
constituting the church: Catholic missionaries on the Sepik frontier

Over the years, Catholic missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea have developed special ways of supporting their mission economically, of forming their own community, and of ministry. Through an examination of three successive periods in mission history, I attempt to understand SVD practice in terms of the tension between local imperatives and metropolitan ideals.
FastMap: fast eQTL mapping in homozygous populations.

Motivation: Gene expression Quantitative Trait Locus (eQTL) mapping measures the association between transcript expression and genotype in order to find genomic locations likely to regulate transcript expression. The availability of both gene expression and high-density genotype data has improved our ability to perform eQTL mapping in inbred mouse and other homozygous populations. However, existing eQTL mapping software does not scale well when the number of transcripts and markers are on the order of 105 and 10 5 –10 6 , respectively. Results: We propose a new method, FastMap, for fast and efficient eQTL mapping in homozygous inbred populations with binary allele calls. FastMap exploits the discrete nature and structure of the measured single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In particular, SNPs are organized into a Hamming distance-based tree that minimizes the number of arithmetic operations required to calculate the association of a SNP by making use of the association of its parent SNP in the tree. FastMap’s tree can be used to perform both single marker mapping and haplotype association mapping over an m-SNP window. These performance enhancements also permit permutation-based significance testing. Availability: The FastMap program and source code are available at
Distinguishing universals from particulars

Beall, Jc. 2001. A priestly recipe for explosive curry. Logical Studies 7: 1-15. Belnap, N. D. 1962. Tonk, plonk and plink. Analysis 22: 130-34. Curry, H. B. 1942. The inconsistency of certain formal logics. Journal of Symbolic Logic 7: 115-17. Everett, A. 1994. Absorbing dialetheia? Mind 103: 413-19. Meyer, R., R. Routley and J. M. Dunn. 1979. Curry's paradox. Analysis 39: 124-28. Parsons, T. 1990. True contradictions. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 20: 335-54. Priest, G. 1987. In Contradiction: A Study of the Transconsistent. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Priest, G. 1990. Boolean negation and all that. Journal of Philosophical Logic 19: 20215.
DO ASPHALT MIXTURES CORRELATE BETTER WITH MASTICS OR BINDERS IN EVALUATING PERMANENT DEFORMATION

Researchers have often looked for relationships between mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures and rheological properties of binders when assessing the resistance of mixtures and binders to permanent deformation. When mixtures are subjected to deformation on application of a stress, aggregates act as load-bearing entities, and binders deform in response to applied stress. Intuitively, a correlation must exist between the properties of mixtures and binders. However, a good correlation usually is not observed. There could be a number of reasons for the observed poor correlations, including (a) variability in the data or a possible change in the microstructure of two-phase, polymer-modified asphalt in the presence of aggregates, or (b) strong interactions between the aggregate and the binder that, of course, are not reflected in the binder properties. In such cases, there are reasons to believe asphalt mastics might provide a better correlation because they would account for at least the physicochemical a...
Rate-distortion adaptive vector quantization for wavelet image coding

We propose a wavelet image coding scheme using rate-distortion adaptive tree-structured residual vector quantization. Wavelet transform coefficient coding is based on the pyramid hierarchy (zero-tree), but rather than determining the zero-tree relation from the coarsest subband to the finest by hard thresholding, the prediction in our scheme is achieved by rate-distortion optimization with adaptive vector quantization on the wavelet coefficients from the finest subband to the coarsest. The proposed method involves only integer operations and can be implemented with very low computational complexity. The preliminary experiments have shown some encouraging results: a PSNR of 30.93 dB is obtained at 0.174 bpp on the test image LENA (512/spl times/512).
Conformal or walking? Monte Carlo renormalization group studies of SU(3) gauge models with fundamental fermions

Strongly coupled gauge systems with many fermions are important in many phenomenological models. I use the 2-lattice matching Monte Carlo renormalization group method to study the fixed point structure and critical indexes of $SU(3)$ gauge models with 8 and 12 flavors of fundamental fermions. With an improved renormalization group block transformation I am able to connect the perturbative and confining regimes of the ${N}_{f}=8$ flavor system, thus verifying its QCD-like nature. With ${N}_{f}=12$ flavors the data favor the existence of an infrared fixed point and conformal phase, though the results are also consistent with very slow walking. I measure the anomalous mass dimension in both systems at several gauge couplings and find that they are barely different from the free-field value.
Multilabel Classification using Bayesian Compressed Sensing

In this paper, we present a Bayesian framework for multilabel classification using compressed sensing. The key idea in compressed sensing for multilabel classification is to first project the label vector to a lower dimensional space using a random transformation and then learn regression functions over these projections. Our approach considers both of these components in a single probabilistic model, thereby jointly optimizing over compression as well as learning tasks. We then derive an efficient variational inference scheme that provides joint posterior distribution over all the unobserved labels. The two key benefits of the model are that a) it can naturally handle datasets that have missing labels and b) it can also measure uncertainty in prediction. The uncertainty estimate provided by the model allows for active learning paradigms where an oracle provides information about labels that promise to be maximally informative for the prediction task. Our experiments show significant boost over prior methods in terms of prediction performance over benchmark datasets, both in the fully labeled and the missing labels case. Finally, we also highlight various useful active learning scenarios that are enabled by the probabilistic model.
When Explanations Compete: The Role of Explanatory Coherence on Judgements of Likelihood.

The likelihood of a statement is often derived by generating an explanation for it and evaluating the plausibility of the explanation. The explanation discounting principle states that people tend to focus on a single explanation; alternative explanations compete with the effect of reducing one another's credibility. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that this principle applies to inductive inferences concerning the properties of everyday categories. In both experiments, subjects estimated the probability of a series of statements (conclusions) and the conditional probabilities of those conclusions given other related facts. For example, given that most lawyers make good sales people, what is the probability that most psychologists make good sales people? The results showed that when the fact and the conclusion had the same explanation the fact increased people's willingness to believe the conclusion, but when they had different explanations the fact decreased the conclusion's credibility. This decrease is attributed to explanation discounting; the explanation for the fact had the effect of reducing the plausibility of the explanation for the conclusion.
The lessons of a classic revisited: Freud on Jensen's Gradiva.

There is an affinity, romance, and rivalry between psychoanalysis and literature. Both deal with outer and inner lives of mankind, expressed in deeds and dialogues and experienced in dreams and desires, emotions and memories, perceptions and imaginings. Psychoanalysis and literature re-create lives in stories and dramas, in forms appropriate to storytelling (narratology), on the one hand, and dramaturgy and dramatology (Lothane, 2009), on the other. Both deal with interpersonal communication of meaning and purpose, in language spoken and written, with action and interaction. Both show and tell, both depict and interpret, that is, analyze. Both deal with conscious experiences and unconscious processes. But there is this difference: stories contain description and dialogue, drama is all diaologue. In everyday real life dramas there are interactions between persons with distinct physiognomies and characters, in scenes and situations of collaboration, conflict, or crisis. Fictional dramas represent life’s dramatic situations in actions on stage, in film, on television. In stories the narrator’s descriptions of dramatic scenes evoke those scenes in the
Fs Laser Fabricated D-shaped Fiber for Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrate

Femto-second (fs) laser is applied to fabricate D-shaped fiber with sub-micrometer scale surface roughness. After silver thin film deposition, this kind of structure can work as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate.
Taken out of context: differential processing in contextual and isolated word reading

Three experiments are reported that investigate the cognitive processes underlying contextual and isolated word reading. In Phase 1, undergraduate participants were exposed to 75 target words under three conditions. The participants generated 25 words from definitions, read 25 words in context and read 25 in isolation. In Phase 2, volunteers completed either an explicit recall task (Experiment 1), an implicit word stem completion task (Experiment 2) or both tasks (Experiment 3). Our findings provide converging evidence that contextual and isolated word reading elicit different patterns of cognitive processing. Specifically, Experiments 1–3 demonstrated that words read in context were remembered similarly to words generated from definitions: words from both conditions were recalled more frequently in the surprise memory task and selected less often to complete the word stems in the implicit memory task. The opposite pattern was noted for words read in isolation. Reading in context is discussed in terms of its greater reliance on semantic processing, whereas isolated word reading is discussed in relation to perceptually driven processes.
Nepotism in the Federal Judiciary

American aversion to nepotism can be traced back to the Revolutionary Era and its hostility to a hereditary monarchy. Today anti-nepotism policies remain popular in both the private and public employment settings, yet family ties are nonetheless common in elective or appointive political offices. In judicial offices, particularly at the federal level, such ties are not very common, but there have been a few examples of family ties, and there is a federal statute which limits the appointment of family members to the same federal court. Those instances, and the statute, are the subject of this Essay. The Essay discusses how the heretofore obscure federal statute came to prominence during the debate over one of President Clinton's judicial nominees and how the statute was amended during that debate to make its anti-nepotism component more explicit. The Essay addresses whether the statute is constitutional in light of separation of powers and the President's authority to appoint federal judges. Relatedly, it evaluates the policy concerns of the statute and discusses in greater detail two pairs of closely related federal judges who served on the same court: first cousins Learned and Augustus Hand on the United States Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit, and brothers Richard and Morris Shepard Arnold on the Eighth Circuit. This Essay concludes with some observations on the desirability of anti-nepotism rules in the judicial context.
Kidney Transplant in a Patient With Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-1 Syndrome (TRAPS): Case Report and Review of the Literature

Tumor necrosis factor receptor -1-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) is a rare disease that may result in chronic kidney disease due to secondary amyloidosis. We report a case of a patient with a history of TRAPS who received a kidney transplant 11 years ago and still has functioning kidney transplant despite recurrence of amyloidosis and proteinuria.
Surface observation and element distribution of a cupronickel coin

Cupronickel is known as an alloy. It is composed of mainly copper. Cupronickels also include 10–30% nickels. It is used around us. We had very limited information about surface of cupronickels coins. In this study, we investigated surface of a cupronickel coin by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier Transformation Infra Red (FTIR) spectroscopy. We found specific white regions on the surface. We could detect chlorine on the surface of cupronickel coins.
Correlation of Large-Scale Structure Dynamics and Far- Field Radiated Noise in a Mach 0.9 Jet

*† ‡ The main goal of the present work is to excite various instabilities of a high Reynolds number, highspeed jet, track the ensuing large-scale structures, and explore relations between the flow dynamics and the far-field sound. In this paper, results from a Mach 0.9 axisymmetric jet with a ReD of 0.76 x 10 6 are presented and discussed. The flow field is investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and the far field is investigated using an array of 12 microphones at 30° to the downstream jet axis. The far-field pressure level is used to estimate the origin of sound waves in space and time within the jet. The jet is forced by eight localized arc filament plasma actuators equally spaced around the circumference of the nozzle, near the nozzle exit. The actuators operate over a wide frequency range (a few Hz to 200 kHz), and the phase between actuators can be controlled to excite various azimuthal modes (m = 0, 1, 2, 3, ±1, ±2 and ±4). Only the results for forcing around the jet column instability frequency (4kHz) with azimuthal modes m = 0, 1 and 2 will be presented here. When exciting the jet column instability at these lower azimuthal modes, flow visualization shows very robust structures and enhanced mixing. The PIV data confirm these results by exhibiting a larger decay in the jet’s centerline velocity and an increase in turbulent kinetic energy. The results show that the high amplitude noise radiated to 30° is originated shortly after the collapse of the potential core. In this region, phase-averaged PIV data shows the two sides of the mixing layer have interacted and the coherent part of the TKE along the jet centerline has grown, saturated, and is in the decay phase. The dynamics of the velocity fluctuations and TKE in the region of noise generation is highly dependent on the azimuthal mode excited.
“I May Need You, Peter, but You Sure as Hell Need Me Too”: Political Marriages in The Good Wife and Beyond

Observing that contemporary marriages now represent transactional efforts that benefit wives as much as their spouses, this article considers The Good Wife’s Alicia Florrick alongside a list of real-life women, most notably Hillary Clinton, whose examples have helped to trouble and complicate the image of the betrayed wife. While marriage continues to register as a necessary complement to any political run, this fact is increasingly regarded with skepticism and a self-conscious admission that the performance of a happy union is often merely a tactical move, a reality that is well-evidenced in The Good Wife and the ABC drama Scandal. A meditation on Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, a real-life political couple who seem to be baldly borrowing from (or perhaps inspiring) these televised marriages, closes the piece and is used to suggest that political marriages may serve as professional boons.
Spatial Price Equilibrium on Networks

Traditional microeconomics considers the behavior of consumers and producers at isolated points in space. However, in many applications it is important to consider how markets located at different points interact. In this chapter we view markets as located at spatially distinct nodes of a transportation network that is the source of congestion externalities . We introduce and study a family of Nash games that may be expressed as variational inequalities for which commodity prices and network flows are readily computed using the algorithms introduced in previous chapters.
“I Dig You, Chocolate City”: Ebony and Sepia Magazines’ Coverage of Black Political Progress, 1971–1977

The 1960s ended in sorrow with the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, two champions for civil rights. Yet, African Americans had reason to enter the new decade with hope. African American political achievement brought attention to the triumph of the Civil Rights Movement and the power of the black vote. The present study explores African American media coverage of black political progress from 1971 to 1977. Though Ebony featured more political coverage than Sepia, both magazines reflected the magnitude of political change in the USA during the 1970s. Perhaps as a result of mass black mobilization during the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans formed a united front that enabled them to place blacks in political seats. Though black politicians faced many obstacles, media coverage showed that, as they approached the 1980s, blacks sat poised for steady progression, equipped to overcome any challenge they faced.
Multigrid at Scale

The reduced reliability of next generation exascale systems means that the resiliency properties of a numerical algorithm will become an important factor in both the choice of algorithm, and in its analysis. The multigrid algorithm is the workhorse for the distributed solution of linear systems but little is known about its resiliency properties and convergence behavior in a fault-prone environment. In the current work, we propose a probabilistic model for the effect of faults involving random diagonal matrices. We summarize results of the theoretical analysis of the model for the rate of convergence of fault-prone multigrid methods which show that the standard multigrid method will not be resilient. Finally, we present a modification of the standard multigrid algorithm that will be resilient.
Dividing the Plausible Sheep from the Meritless Goats: The Duty to Inform in the Post-Dudenhoeffer World of ERISA

The Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer rejected a long-held presumption in the U.S. Circuits that fiduciaries of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) acted prudently in investing in company stock. Instead, the Court held that ESOP fiduciaries should be subject to the same duty of prudence as all ERISA fiduciaries, leaving ESOP fiduciaries vulnerable to plaintiffs testing the new standard. To reduce the likelihood of suit from employees invested in company stock, companies frequently appoint independent fiduciaries that may insulate them from liability. One way plaintiffs, who may have suffered serious losses from downturns in their employer’s stock, can still successfully assert breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims is by alleging that appointing fiduciaries have a duty to inform appointed fiduciaries of material, nonpublic information that would adversely affect stock price. This Note considers this claim and argues that courts should refrain from creating a per se rule against the duty to inform. Instead, courts should uphold such claims when securities laws would independently require disclosure. Principles of trust law, guidance from the Department of Labor, and the Supreme Court’s holding in Dudenhoeffer support this proposal.
A first principles cable braid electromagnetic penetration model

We propose a cable braid electromagnetic penetration model that is based on first-principles and is derived strictly from the geometrical parameters of the cable in question. We apply this formulation to the case of a one-dimensional array of wires, which can also be modeled analytically via a multipole-conformal mapping expansion for the wire charges and is extended by means of Laplace solutions in bipolar coordinates. Both electric and magnetic penetrations are analyzed, and comparisons are performed between results from the first principles cable braid electromagnetic penetration model and those obtained using the multipole-conformal mapping expansion method. We find results in very good agreement when using up to the octopole moment (for the first principles model), covering a dynamic range of radius-to-half-spacing ratio up to 0.6. These results give us the confidence that our first principles model is applicable to the geometric characteristics of many commercial cables.
A probabilistic multi-objective approach for power flow optimization in hybrid wind-PV-PEV systems

Abstract This paper formulates and solves a probabilistic optimal power flow approach (POPF) for a hybrid power system that includes plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy (WE) sources. In the proposed approach, the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) was combined with the antithetic variates method (AVM) to determine the probability distribution function (PDF) of the power generated by the hybrid system. To reduce the computational cost of the optimal power flow calculations, we solved the POPF problem using a master–slave parallel epsilon variable multi objective genetic algorithm (Pev-MOGA). The performance of the proposed approach was assessed using the IEEE 30-bus, 57-bus and 118-bus power systems. Various scenarios incorporating several configurations of WEs, PVs and PEVs sources were considered in the evaluation. Sensitivity analysis was also performed for further assessment. The obtained results along with a comparison analysis with other optimization algorithms confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed approach in accurately providing a set of optimal solutions for the hybrid power system.
Elastomeric sensor surfaces for high-throughput single-cell force cytometry

As cells with aberrant force-generating phenotypes can directly lead to disease, cellular force-generation mechanisms are high-value targets for new therapies. Here, we show that single-cell force sensors embedded in elastomers enable single-cell force measurements with ~100-fold improvement in throughput than was previously possible. The microtechnology is scalable and seamlessly integrates with the multi-well plate format, enabling highly parallelized time-course studies. In this regard, we show that airway smooth muscle cells isolated from fatally asthmatic patients have innately greater and faster force-generation capacity in response to stimulation than healthy control cells. By simultaneously tracing agonist-induced calcium flux and contractility in the same cell, we show that the calcium level is ultimately a poor quantitative predictor of cellular force generation. Finally, by quantifying phagocytic forces in thousands of individual human macrophages, we show that force initiation is a digital response (rather than a proportional one) to the proper immunogen. By combining mechanobiology at the single-cell level with high-throughput capabilities, this microtechnology can support drug-discovery efforts for clinical conditions associated with aberrant cellular force generation.
Affect and Sensation: Plato’s Embodied Cognition

I argue that Plato, in the Timaeus , draws deep theoretical distinctions between sensation and affect, which comprises pleasure, pain, desire and emotion. Sensation (but not affect) is both ‘fine-grained’ (having orderly causal connections with its fundamental explanatory items) and ‘immediate’ (being provoked absent any mediating psychological state). Emotions, by contrast, are mediated and coarse-grained. Pleasure and pain are coarse-grained but, in a range of important cases, immediate. The Theaetetus assimilates affect to sensation in a way the Timaeus does not. Smell frustrates Timaeus because it is coarse-grained, although unlike pleasure and pain it is so by accident of physiology.
Convex Extensions and Relaxation Strategies

Central to the efficiency of global optimization methods for nonconvex mathematical programs is the capability to construct tight convex relaxations. In this chapter, we develop the theory of convex extensions of lower semicontinuous (l.s.c.) functions and illustrate its use in building convex envelopes of nonconvex mathematical programs. The techniques developed here amount to a recipe that can be used to construct closed-form expressions of convex and concave envelopes of many classes of functions.
Analytic continuation as the origin of complex distances in impedance approximations

Abstract Engineering approximations of physical systems sometimes produce models in which real-valued model-based physical-distances are added to complex-valued distances and/or (for electrical systems), real-valued current/charge image intensities are replaced with complex-valued quantities. These models are arrived at often using ad hoc approximations that allow infinite integrals or series to be approximated in closed form. Arriving at accurate ad hoc approximations in a compatible analytic form is often the difficult step in the derivation of these approximations. In this paper, we show that this difficult ad hoc step can be replaced for many classes of functions with the use of analytic continuation via Pade approximants, along with some reasonable engineering judgement. We apply our approach to several existing approximations in the electrical engineering field (overhead transmission line impedance, underground cable impedance and Green’s functions used in ground potential rise calculations) and show that these approximations can be derived elegantly, without the need for grand leaps of insight, and provide a basis for both distance parameters and current/charge intensities that are complex-valued.
Uranium Resource Recovery from Desalination Plant Feed and Reject Water Using Amidoxime Functionalized Adsorbent

With global demand for nuclear power expected to rise, new nuclear fuel resources must be explored to ensure the viability and sustainability of nuclear power. Uranium recovery from seawater is one potential source, though the low concentration of uranium in seawater is a significant obstacle. As a concentrate of seawater, desalination brine reject would have a significantly higher uranyl concentration. In this work, the adsorption of uranium and competing ions in brine reject is investigated. Adsorption experiments were performed over 84 days in 5-gallon batch tanks with amidoxime adsorbents and samples taken from the feed seawater and reverse osmosis brine reject of the Tampa Bay Desalination Plant. The aqueous concentration and adsorbed mass of uranium, zinc, copper, iron, vanadium, calcium, and magnesium were determined through inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. Aqueous adsorption modeling was used to simulate speciation and adsorption of these ions under the experimental conditions. The ad...
Resilient community microgrids: governance and operational challenges

Abstract A new class of microgrids is being developed whose primary mission is to address community resiliency needs. These microgrids are intended to ensure that critical services in the community can be maintained in the face of an extended multiweek interruption of the main power grid. In response to the rise in the number of catastrophic events and our increasing reliance on electric power to maintain critical loads, microgrids have emerged as one way to address these challenges. These microgrids can help protect communities from additional damages that can arise from the lack of electric power, and to recover more quickly in the aftermath of an event. By nature, these microgrids will serve multiple entities. In many cases, the microgrid generation will also be owned by several of these entities. A primary distribution system owned and operated by the electric service provider serving the area will connect the critical load entities. To be successful, the microgrid must balance the competing objectives of these entities. The challenges include many technical, governance, economic, and regulatory issues. This chapter discusses these issues. It also includes a case study on application of these concepts to the Potsdam Resilient Underground Microgrid that is under study.
A Memory-efficient Algorithm for Large-scale Sparsity Regularized Image Reconstruction

We derive a memory-efficient first-order variable splitting algorithm for convex image reconstruction problems with non-smooth regularization terms. The algorithm is based on a primal-dual approach, where one of the dual variables is updated using a step of the Frank-Wolfe algorithm, rather than the typical proximal point step used in other primal-dual algorithms. We show in certain cases this results in an algorithm with far less memory demand than other first-order methods based on proximal mappings. We demonstrate the algorithm on the problem of sparse-view X-ray computed tomography (CT) reconstruction with non-smooth edge-preserving regularization and show competitive run-time with other state-of-the-art algorithms while using much less memory.
The Nutrigenetics of Choline

Abstract Metabolic variation is an important reason that people differ in their requirements and responses to nutrients. Genetic, epigenetic, and microbiome variations underlie why people may be metabolically different. In this review, we focus on the genetic reasons for metabolic variation and use studies on the nutrient choline to highlight key principles.
Bcl-Xl Mitigates p53 Activity in AML1-ETO-Expressing Human Hematopoietic Cells.

Abstract Abstract 387 A subset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is caused by chromosomal translocation (8;21), resulting in the expression of the AML1-ETO (AE) fusion protein. We have recently shown that AE represses DNA damage repair genes, resulting in increased DNA damage and upregulation of p53. These findings suggest that AE contributes to leukemogenesis by promoting additional mutations. However, it remains undefined how AE cells survive in the context of increased p53. In the current study, we showed that Bcl-xL is upregulated upon AE expression. Bcl-xL knockdown resulted in growth disadvantage and increased apoptosis in AE cells, but not in normal CD34+ cells. On the other hand, Bcl-xL overexpression in AE cells leads to an expansion of colony-forming cells and an increase in the frequency of long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-IC). Interestingly, similar results were obtained when a Bcl-xL mutant (Bcl-xLG138A) that is defective in BH3 binding is overexpressed in AE cells, suggesting that the additional cytoprotection is not contributed by pro-apoptotic protein binding. Instead, published evidence on the p53 sequestering function of Bcl-xL prompted us to speculate that AE expression may lead to the establishment of a new balance between pro-apoptotic signals conveyed by activated p53 and the pro-survival characteristic of Bcl-xL. Indeed, using confocal microscopy, we observed colocalization of Bcl-xL and p53 in CD34+ AE cells. In addition, we also observed an increase in p53 target gene expression in AE cells following Bcl-xL knockdown, implicating interplay between Bcl-xL levels and p53 activity. Strikingly, examination of the two critical apoptosis-inducing p53 downstream targets, Bim and Puma, revealed that, whereas Bim is upregluated in AE cells, Puma is downregulated upon AE expression. AE ablation in an established cell line induces Puma expression. A chromatin immunoprecipitation assay revealed that AE binds to the first intron of the Puma gene. These data suggest that AE directly represses Puma gene expression, thereby preventing Puma-induced dissociation of p53 from Bcl-xL. Taken together, our in vitro findings demonstrated that the interplay among p53, Bcl-xL and Puma in response to DNA damage in normal cellular physiology is disrupted in the presence of AE to ensure cell survival. To recapitulate the critical role of Bcl-xL in AE expressing cells in an in vivo xenotransplantation assay, we transduced scrambled and Bcl-xL shRNA into AE/N-RASG12D cells, followed by transplantation into the bone marrow cavity of immunodeficient mice. We found that Bcl-xL knockdown is associated with a significant reduction in the long-term engraftment capability of AE/N-RASG12D cells. In conclusion, our data indicate that AE expressing human hematopoietic cells depend on Bcl-xL for their survival and growth. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
An Exploratory Study on Pseudo-Data Generation in Prescription and Adverse Drug Reaction Extraction

Prescription information and adverse drug reactions (ADR) are two components of detailed medication instructions that can benefit many aspects of clinical research. Automatic extraction of this information from free-text narratives via Information Extraction (IE) can open it up to downstream uses. IE is commonly tackled by supervised Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems which rely on annotated training data. However, training data generation is manual, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. It is desirable to develop automatic methods for augmenting manually labeled data. We propose pseudo-data generation as one such automatic method. Pseudo-data are synthetic data generated by combining elements of existing labeled data. We propose and evaluate two sets of pseudo-data generation methods: knowledge-driven methods based on gazetteers and data-driven methods based on deep learning. We use the resulting pseudo-data to improve medication and ADR extraction. Data-driven pseudo-data are suitable for concept categories with high semantic regularities and short textual spans. Knowledge-driven pseudo-data are effective for concept categories with longer textual spans, assuming the knowledge base offers good coverage of these concepts. Combining the knowledge- and data-driven pseudo-data achieves significant performance improvement on medication names and ADRs over baselines limited to the use of available labeled data.
When Academic Success Is Insufficient

Education scholars have long debated ways to address the marginal status of Latinx students. Academic initiatives, such as “Equity and Excellence” and “Diversity and Inclusion,” arose from communit...
Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma in Coagulation and Sterilization.

Abstract Rapid loss of blood, in the operating room or trauma, necessitates a need for hastening coagulation Attempts to hasten coagulation include electrocautery based on thermal plasma discharges. Although there have been other effective attempts to prevent further loss of blood via coagulation, tissue damage and dessication can occur as a result of the high temperatures 2 . Our group has developed a method to initiate rapid coagulation with dielectric plasma discharge (cold). Initial experiments were performed using fresh blood from volunteers to compare time for coagulation of whole blood exposed to plasma, one minute versus 10 minutes. We tried same experiments on cut cadaver organs such as spleen and placenta which showed evidence of rapid coagulation compared to control without evidence of tissue damage. Our research team has developed a novel method using non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBD plasma) to coagulate blood and sterilize tissues without causing thermal damage. This treatment would be safe to patients because no exposed electrodes are involved and high frequency current (under 10 KHz) is kept below mili-ampere. Our experiments have shown that such plasma treatment hastens blood coagulation and causes simultaneous wound sterilization via a large concentration of chemically active species in plasma that are ions, radicals (O, OH, N) and electronically-excited atoms and molecules. A kinetic model of blood coagulation under influence of DBD plasma was constructed. The model assumes contact flux of positive ions from DBD plasma into the surface of the blood being treated. Once at the surface, these ions recombine, leading to formation of aqueous Hydrogen ions which catalyze the release of Calcium ions into the blood. The addition of Calcium ions to blood speeds up the coagulation process proportionally to the amount of ions added. The model demonstrates thrombin formation in the presence of DBD plasma peaking and occurring within significantly less time compared to thrombin formation without DBD plasma 3 . Such medically relevant demonstrations and mathematical explanations have allowed us to develop a portable device that may prove useful in situations where control of bleeding is crucial. In addition, because of the potential for simultaneous sterilization, this device may also help to decrease infections. This pioneering technology will find applicability in many clinical situations: sterilization of human tissue surfaces prior to surgery and sterilization of catheters, a well-known cause of morbidity in hospitals.
The influence of riparian invasion by the terrestrial shrub Lonicera maackii on aquatic macroinvertebrates in temperate forest headwater streams

The ecology of headwater streams is tightly linked to the riparian zone through organic matter subsidies which are highly susceptible to alteration due to biological invasion. Lonicera maackii is a non-native shrub that is a highly successful invader of headwater stream riparian zones in the American Midwest. We assessed effects on benthic macroinvertebrates across a gradient of invasion intensity from references sites with minimal invasion to a site that had a very heavy invasion. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled throughout the year and compositional differences were assessed using Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling ordination, and by comparing the prevalence of sensitive (Ephemeroptera, Plectoptera, and Trichoptera: EPT) and tolerant (Chironomidae) macroinvertebrate taxa. We found strong evidence of variation among macroinvertebrate communities across the invasion gradient (ANOSIM R = 0.215, P = 0.004) and particularly strong separation between one of our reference sites with minimal invasion and the site with the heaviest invasion. Analysis of EPT taxa indicated a significant overall effect and pairwise comparisons indicated that the site with the heaviest invasion had the lowest percentage of sensitive taxa (P < 0.05). Our analysis of chironomids did not yield a statistically discernable effect, although the pattern of the data suggest higher dominance in the site with the heaviest invasion. These stream-scale results bolster prior laboratory and field experiments and provide evidence that terrestrial invasion of L. maackii impacts the benthic community present in headwater streams. These results provide impetus to re-focus stream management recommendations to include practices that control invasive plants in riparian forests.
Intermittent GPS-aided VIO: Online Initialization and Calibration

In this paper, we present an efficient and robust GPS-aided visual inertial odometry (GPS-VIO) system that fuses IMU-camera data with intermittent GPS measurements. To perform sensor fusion, spatiotemporal sensor calibration and initialization of the transform between the sensor reference frames are required. We propose an online calibration method for both the GPS-IMU extrinsics and time offset as well as a reference frame initialization procedure that is robust to GPS sensor noise. In addition, we prove the existence of four unobservable directions of the GPS-VIO system when estimating in the VIO reference frame, and advocate a state transformation to the GPS reference frame for full observability. We extensively evaluate the proposed approach in Monte-Carlo simulations where we investigate the system's robustness to different levels of GPS noise and loss of GPS signal, and additionally study the hyper-parameters used in the initialization procedure. Finally, the proposed system is validated in a large-scale real-world experiment.
Operative Management of a Nonunion at the Superior Angle of the Scapula: A Case Report.

CASE We present the case of a 40-year-old man with a fracture to the superior angle of the scapula who was treated nonoperatively for 10 months-leading to a symptomatic nonunion. The patient underwent reconstruction of the nonunion for a painful shoulder and was followed clinically for 3 years. He demonstrated major improvement in function and symptoms. CONCLUSION Nonunions of the scapular superior angle can be effectively managed with surgical reconstruction.
Immune gustatory processing: immune responses to drugs shape peripheral taste signals

Taste sensations are considered to be an important factor for detecting and digesting food to maintain good nutrition and leading a healthy lifestyle. Many medications produce altered taste perceptions, which then leads to a direct effect on food-related behaviors. Considering that taste disturbances of patients with have long been observed but never understood, ongoing taste research has identified cellular mechanisms of a variety of drugs that cause taste impairments in cancer patients. These findings facilitate a better understanding of the paradigm that immune responses initiated by drugs can alter taste signal transduction pathways during sensory information processing in taste buds. Inevitably, these findings also may facilitate the development of taste modifiers, which ameliorate taste disturbances associated with the chemotherapy on the compensation of taste sensations for losses in medications.
C. Elegans Establishes Germline Versus Soma by Balancing Inherited Histone Methylation

Embryos undergo extensive reprogramming at fertilization to prevent the inappropriate inheritance of histone methylation. In C. elegans, this reprogramming is mediated by the H3K4me2 demethylase, SPR-5, and the H3K9 methyltransferase, MET-2. In contrast to this reprogramming, the H3K36 methyltransferase, MES-4, maintains H3K36me2/3 at germline genes between generations to help re-establish the germline. To determine whether the MES-4 germline inheritance system antagonizes spr-5; met-2 reprogramming, we examined the interaction between these two systems. We find that the developmental delay of spr-5; met-2 mutant progeny is associated with ectopic H3K36me2/3 and the ectopic expression of MES-4 targeted germline genes in somatic tissues. Furthermore, the developmental delay is dependent upon MES-4 and the H3K4 methyltransferase, SET-2. We propose that the MES-4 inheritance system prevents critical germline genes from being repressed by maternal spr-5; met-2 reprogramming. Thus, the balance of inherited histone modifications is necessary to distinguish germline versus soma and prevent developmental delay.