cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Decoding Epileptogenesis in a Reduced State Space

We describe here the recent results of a multidisciplinary effort to design a biomarker that can actively and continuously decode the progressive changes in neuronal organization leading to epilepsy, a process known as epileptogenesis. Using an animal model of acquired epilepsy, we chronically record hippocampal evoked potentials elicited by an auditory stimulus. Using a set of reduced coordinates, our algorithm can identify universal smooth low-dimensional configurations of the auditory evoked potentials that correspond to distinct stages of epileptogenesis. We use a hidden Markov model to learn the dynamics of the evoked potential, as it evolves along these smooth low-dimensional subsets. We provide experimental evidence that the biomarker is able to exploit subtle changes in the evoked potential to reliably decode the stage of epileptogenesis and predict whether an animal will eventually recover from the injury, or develop spontaneous seizures.
Total Betti numbers of modules of finite projective dimension

The Buchsbaum-Eisenbud-Horrocks Conjecture predicts that if M is a non-zero module of finite length and finite projective dimension over a local ring R of dimension d, then the i-th Betti number of M is at least d choose i. This conjecture implies that the sum of all the Betti numbers of such a module must be at least 2^d. We prove the latter holds in a large number of cases.
Cytogenetic features of human trophoblast cell lines SWAN-71 and 3A-subE.

Immortalization of primary cells with telomerase is thought to maintain normal phenotypic properties and avoid chromosomal abnormalities and other cancer-associated changes that occur following simian virus 40 tumor antigen (SV40 Tag) induced immortalization. However, we report that the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT)-immortalized SWAN-71 trophoblast cell line has a near pentaploid 103∼119,XXXX[cp20] karyotype. Additionally, DNA typing analysis indicated that SWAN-71 cells have acquired microsatellite instability. In comparison, the post-crisis SV40-transformed trophoblast cell line 3A-subE was hypertriploid 69∼81,XX[cp20]. Both cell lines contained multiple specific clonal rearrangements. These findings emphasize the need to monitor for genetic instability in hTERT-immortalized cells.
Predicting Hospital Re-Admissions from Nursing Care Data of Hospitalized Patients

Readmission rates in the hospitals are increasingly being used as a benchmark to determine the quality of healthcare delivery to hospitalized patients. Around three-fourths of all hospital re-admissions can be avoided, saving billions of dollars. Many hospitals have now deployed electronic health record (EHR) systems that can be used to study issues that trigger readmission. However, most of the EHRs are high dimensional and sparsely populated, and analyzing such data sets is a Big Data challenge. The effect of some of the well-known dimension reduction techniques is minimized due to presence of non-linear variables. We use association mining as a dimension reduction method and the results are used to develop models, using data from an existing nursing EHR system, for predicting risk of re-admission to the hospitals. These models can help in determining effective treatments for patients to minimize the possibility of re-admission, bringing down the cost and increasing the quality of care provided to the patients. Results from the models show significantly accurate predictions of patient re-admission.
Computational dynamics of a 3D elastic string pendulum attached to a rigid body and an inertially fixed reel mechanism

A high fidelity model is developed for an elastic string pendulum, one end of which is attached to a rigid body while the other end is attached to an inertially fixed reel mechanism which allows the unstretched length of the string to be dynamically varied. The string is assumed to have distributed mass and elasticity that permits axial deformations. The rigid body is attached to the string at an arbitrary point, and the resulting string pendulum system exhibits nontrivial coupling between the elastic wave propagation in the string and the rigid body dynamics. Variational methods are used to develop coupled ordinary and partial differential equations of motion. Computational methods, referred to as Lie group variational integrators, are then developed, based on a finite element approximation and the use of variational methods in a discrete-time setting to obtain discrete-time equations of motion. This approach preserves the geometry of the configurations, and leads to accurate and efficient algorithms that have guaranteed accuracy properties that make them suitable for many dynamic simulations, especially over long simulation times. Numerical results are presented for typical examples involving a constant length string, string deployment, and string retrieval. These demonstrate the complicated dynamics that arise in a string pendulum from the interaction of the rigid body motion, elastic wave dynamics in the string, and the disturbances introduced by the reeling mechanism. Such interactions are dynamically important in many engineering problems, but tend be obscured in lower fidelity models.
THE ACETABULAR SIDE: A POTPOURRI OF OPTIONS

Recent advancements in biomaterial technology have created novel options for acetabular fixation in primary total hip arthroplasty (THA). For example, cementless acetabular fixation has become the preferred option, however, there is continued debate concerning whether long-term survivorship is comparable to that of cemented component fixation. Many doubts previously associated with early cementless designs have been addressed with newer features such as improved locking mechanisms, enhanced congruity between the acetabular liner and the shell, and the inclusion of highly cross-linked ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Additionally, there has been increased utilization of new porous metals, titanium mesh, and hydroxyapatite (HA) coated implants. However, several retrieval studies have indicated that porous-coated cementless acetabular components can exhibit poor bony ingrowth. Many surgeons in Europe favor cemented fixation, where registry data is favorable for this interface. A surgeon9s decision to use a cemented or cementless acetabular component is typically dependent on factors such as patient bone stock, surgical training, and experience. With the frequency of THAs expected to increase, it is particularly important for orthopaedic surgeons to be familiar with appropriate preoperative planning and component selection in an effort to achieve optimal outcomes. Therefore, this talk will outline and describe the options currently available for cementless and cemented acetabular fixation in primary total hip arthroplasty.
Studies of Final-State Interactions via Helicity Asymmetries in Exclusive Pseudoscalar Meson Photoproduction off Deuteron

Exclusive meson photoproduction off deuteron is a great tool to study final-state interactions (FSI) between the hadrons produced in the scattering of the incident photon off one of the target nucleons and the spectator nucleon. FSI in the reaction \(\gamma d\rightarrow K^+\varLambda n\) allow to access the dynamics of \(\varLambda n\) elastic scattering and provide a method of studying the hyperon-nucleon (YN) interaction. Also, as deuteron is often used as a neutron target, FSI contribute to the reaction dynamics in addition to the quasi-free mechanism and their understanding is critical for the estimate of observables off the free neutron. Here we show preliminary results for beam-helicity asymmetries for the reactions \(\mathbf {\gamma } d\rightarrow K^+\varLambda n\) and \(\mathbf {\gamma } d\rightarrow p\pi ^+\pi ^- n\) and their evolution over the spectator-nucleon momentum. The data were obtained with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). We show how to kinematically select an event sample dominated by a specific FSI mechanism. We also discuss a method to extract polarization observables for photoproduction off the free nucleon using the helicity asymmetries for reactions off the deuteron.
Stabilization of iodine-doped polyacetylene in aqueous solutions

The conductivity decay which typically accompanies the storage of iodine-doped polyacetylene even in inert atmospheres can be significantly suppressed by immersion of the doped polymer in aqueous chloride containing solutions in which the chloride ion concentration is 1.0 M or greater.
Food and nutrient exposures: What to consider when evaluating epidemiologic evidence

Nutritional epidemiology is the science concerned with conducting research into the relation between diet and disease risk. The public has a great deal of interest in this issue. Much of that interest, however, is fueled by the publication of sensationalized, startling, and often contradictory health messages. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion in both the scientific press and the public or lay press about the nature of nutritional epidemiology, its strengths, and its limitations. The purpose of this article is to discuss these strengths and limitations. It is hoped that clarification of these issues can help lead to a resolution of the research community's and lay public's misunderstandings about nutritional epidemiology research.
A game model of competition between a new good producer and a remanufacturer using negative advertising

In this paper we analyze the strategic interaction between a new good producer and a remanufacturer who use negative advertising on television (TV) to compete for a greater share of the market for a particular good. Government regulations limit the total amount of negative advertising time either firm can buy. The two rival firms choose how much negative advertising time to buy simultaneously. Our analysis of this duopolistic interaction leads to four results. First, we provide the normal form representation of the game between the new good producer and the remanufacturer. Second, we specify the best response functions of the two firms. Third, we determine the pure strategy Nash equilibrium of the game under study and point out that this equilibrium is unique. Finally, we ascertain the amount of negative advertising time the two firms would buy if they could come to a binding agreement to curtail this kind of advertising.
A fast causal profiler for task parallel programs

This paper proposes TASKPROF, a profiler that identifies parallelism bottlenecks in task parallel programs. It leverages the structure of a task parallel execution to perform fine-grained attribution of work to various parts of the program. TASKPROF’s use of hardware performance counters to perform fine-grained measurements minimizes perturbation. TASKPROF’s profile execution runs in parallel using multi-cores. TASKPROF’s causal profile enables users to estimate improvements in parallelism when a region of code is optimized even when concrete optimizations are not yet known. We have used TASKPROF to isolate parallelism bottlenecks in twenty three applications that use the Intel Threading Building Blocks library. We have designed parallelization techniques in five applications to increase parallelism by an order of magnitude using TASKPROF. Our user study indicates that developers are able to isolate performance bottlenecks with ease using TASKPROF.
On the max-cut of sparse random graphs

We consider the problem of estimating the size of a maximum cut (Max-Cut problem) in a random Erdős-Renyi graph on n nodes and ⌊cn⌋ edges. It is shown in Coppersmith et al. that the size of the maximum cut in this graph normalized by the number of nodes belongs to the asymptotic region [c/2+0.37613c,c/2+0.58870c] with high probability (w.h.p.) as n increases, for all sufficiently large c. The upper bound was obtained by application of the first moment method, and the lower bound was obtained by constructing algorithmically a cut which achieves the stated lower bound. In this paper, we improve both upper and lower bounds by introducing a novel bounding technique. Specifically, we establish that the size of the maximum cut normalized by the number of nodes belongs to the interval [c/2+0.47523c,c/2+0.55909c] w.h.p. as n increases, for all sufficiently large c. Instead of considering the expected number of cuts achieving a particular value as is done in the application of the first moment method, we observe that every maximum size cut satisfies a certain local optimality property, and we compute the expected number of cuts with a given value satisfying this local optimality property. Estimating this expectation amounts to solving a rather involved two dimensional large deviations problem. We solve this underlying large deviation problem asymptotically as c increases and use it to obtain an improved upper bound on the Max-Cut value. The lower bound is obtained by application of the second moment method, coupled with the same local optimality constraint, and is shown to work up to the stated lower bound value c/2+0.47523c. It is worth noting that both bounds are stronger than the ones obtained by standard first and second moment methods. Finally, we also obtain an improved lower bound of 1.36000n on the Max-Cut for the random cubic graph or any cubic graph with large girth, improving the previous best bound of 1.33773n.
Holocene slip rates along the San Andreas Fault System in the San Gorgonio Pass and implications for large earthquakes in southern California

The San Gorgonio Pass (SGP) in southern California contains a 40-km long region of structural complexity where the San Andreas Fault (SAF) bifurcates into a series of oblique thrust faults with unknown slip history. We combine new 10Be exposure ages (Qt4:8600 (+2100,-2200) and Qt3: 5700 (+1400,-1900) y.b.p.) and a radiocarbon age (1260 ± 60 y.b.p.) from late Holocene terraces with scarp displacement of these surfaces to document a Holocene slip rate of 5.7 (+2.7,-1.5) mm/yr combined across two faults. Our preferred slip rate is 37-49% of the average slip rates along the SAF outside the SGP (ie. Coachella Valley and San Bernardino sections), and implies that strain is transferred off the SAF in this area. Earthquakes here most likely occur in very large, through-going SAF events at a lower recurrence than elsewhere on the SAF, so that only ~ one third of SAF ruptures penetrate or originate in the pass.
Regularized M-estimators with nonconvexity: statistical and algorithmic theory for local optima

We provide novel theoretical results regarding local optima of regularized M-estimators, allowing for nonconvexity in both loss and penalty functions. Under restricted strong convexity on the loss and suitable regularity conditions on the penalty, we prove that any stationary point of the composite objective function will lie within statistical precision of the underlying parameter vector. Our theory covers many nonconvex objective functions of interest, including the corrected Lasso for errors-in-variables linear models; regression for generalized linear models with nonconvex penalties such as SCAD, MCP, and capped-l 1; and high-dimensional graphical model estimation. We quantify statistical accuracy by providing bounds on the l1-, l2-, and prediction error between stationary points and the population-level optimum. We also propose a simple modification of composite gradient descent that may be used to obtain a near-global optimum within statistical precision estat in log(1/estat) steps, which is the fastest possible rate of any first-order method. We provide simulation studies illustrating the sharpness of our theoretical results.
Can ultrastrong coupling change ground state chemical reactions

Recent advancements on the fabrication of organic micro- and nanostructures have permitted the strong collective light-matter coupling regime to be reached with molecular materials. Pioneering works in this direction have shown the effects of this regime in the excited state reactivity of molecular systems and at the same time have opened up the question of whether it is possible to introduce any modifications in the electronic ground energy landscape which could affect chemical thermodynamics and/or kinetics. In this work, we use a model system of many molecules coupled to a surface-plasmon field to gain insight on the key parameters which govern the modifications of the ground-state Potential Energy Surface. Our findings confirm that the energetic changes per molecule are determined by effects which are essentially on the order of single-molecule light-matter couplings, in contrast with those of the electronically excited states, for which energetic corrections are of a collective nature. Still, we reve...
Post-traumatic epilepsy associations with mental health outcomes in the first two years after moderate to severe TBI: A TBI Model Systems analysis

Abstract Purpose Research suggests that there are reciprocal relationships between mental health (MH) disorders and epilepsy risk. However, MH relationships to post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) have not been explored. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess associations between PTE and frequency of depression and/or anxiety in a cohort of individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI who received acute inpatient rehabilitation. Methods Multivariate regression models were developed using a recent (2010–2012) cohort (n = 867 unique participants) from the TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) National Database, a time frame during which self-reported seizures, depression [Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9], and anxiety [Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)] follow-up measures were concurrently collected at year-1 and year-2 after injury. Results PTE did not significantly contribute to depression status in either the year-1 or year-2 cohort, nor did it contribute significantly to anxiety status in the year-1 cohort, after controlling for other known depression and anxiety predictors. However, those with PTE in year-2 had 3.34 times the odds (p = .002) of having clinically significant anxiety, even after accounting for other relevant predictors. In this model, participants who self-identified as Black were also more likely to report clinical symptoms of anxiety than those who identified as White. PTE was the only significant predictor of comorbid depression and anxiety at year-2 (Odds Ratio 2.71; p = 0.049). Conclusions Our data suggest that PTE is associated with MH outcomes 2 years after TBI, findings whose significance may reflect reciprocal, biological, psychological, and/or experiential factors contributing to and resulting from both PTE and MH status post-TBI. Future work should consider temporal and reciprocal relationships between PTE and MH as well as if/how treatment of each condition influences biosusceptibility to the other condition.
Performance sensitivity and fairness of ECN-aware 'modified TCP'

The paper discusses how explicit congestion notification (ECN) can be used to devise an Internet congestion control mechanism that is more rapidly reactive and allows best-effort flows to rapidly adjust to fluctuations in available capacity. Our ECN-mod protocol involves simple modifications to TCP behavior and leverages more aggressive marking-based router feedback. Simulations show that ECN-mod is better than TCP NewReno for both persistent sources and Web-style intermittent traffic sources, and makes the link utilization significantly less sensitive to the variation in the number of active flows. Simulations also show that, while ECN-mod flows obtain a larger portion of the available capacity than conventional best-effort traffic, they do not starve or significantly penalize such TCP-based flows.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was recognized as a distinct clinical entity in 1981 and was characterized by unexplained opportunistic infections and an aggressive form of Kaposi's sarcoma. High risk groups for contracting AIDS include homosexual men, parenteral drug users, hemophiliacs, recipients of blood and blood products, and heterosexual contacts of such individuals. Immunologic abnormalities associated with AIDS include lymphopenia, functional T-cell deficits, B-lymphocyte defects, and various serologic abnormalities. The causative virus has been identified as the human T-lymphotropic virus/lymphadenopathy associated virus (HTLV-III/LAV). AIDS represents the severe end of the clinical spectrum of infection with HTLV-III/LAV. Other manifestations are asymptomatic carriage, generalized lymphadenopathy, and a set of non-specific symptoms, termed the AIDS-related-complex (ARC). Although seen predominantly in the United States, AIDS has a world-wide occurrence. No known therapy for AIDS exists. Research efforts are being directed at antiviral therapy, immunorestoration and the development of a vaccine.
Univariate and Multivariate Analyses of 5-Year Survival, Recurrence and Inguinal Node Metastases in Stage I and II Vulvar Carcinoma

Ninety-seven patients with FIGO stage I and II vulvar carcinoma were analyzed for 5-year survival, inguinal node metastases (N = 61), and recurrence. Factors analyzed included stage, tumor grade, depth of invasion, presence or absence of tumor cell confluence, presence or absence of lymphatic/vascular space invasion, lesion size, and lymph node metastases. It was concluded that conservative surgery in patients otherwise suitable for surgery should consist of a wide, local excision of the vulvar lesion in conjunction with ipsilateral inguinal node resection if the tumor measured less than or equal to 1 cm in diameter and had a depth of invasion of less than or equal to 1 mm. All other stage I or II patients require radical vulvectomy and bilateral inguinal lymphadenectomy.
Predicting Silk Fiber Mechanical Properties through Multiscale Simulation and Protein Design.

Silk is a promising material for biomedical applications, and much research is focused on how application-specific, mechanical properties of silk can be designed synthetically through proper amino acid sequences and processing parameters. This protocol describes an iterative process between research disciplines that combines simulation, genetic synthesis, and fiber analysis to better design silk fibers with specific mechanical properties. Computational methods are used to assess the protein polymer structure as it forms an interconnected fiber network through shearing and how this process affects fiber mechanical properties. Model outcomes are validated experimentally with the genetic design of protein polymers that match the simulation structures, fiber fabrication from these polymers, and mechanical testing of these fibers. Through iterative feedback between computation, genetic synthesis, and fiber mechanical testing, this protocol will enable a priori prediction capability of recombinant material mech...
Off-forward gluonic structure of vector mesons

The spin-independent and transversity generalized form factors (GFFs) of the $\ensuremath{\phi}$ meson are studied using lattice QCD calculations with light quark masses corresponding to a pion mass ${m}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}\ensuremath{\sim}450(5)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}$. One transversity and three spin-independent GFFs related to the lowest moments of leading-twist spin-independent and transversity gluon distributions are obtained at six nonzero values of the momentum transfer up to $1.2\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{Ge}\mathrm{V}}^{2}$. These quantities are compared with the analogous spin-independent quark GFFs and the electromagnetic form factors determined on the same lattice ensemble. The results show quantitative distinction between the spatial distribution of transversely polarized gluons, unpolarized gluons, and quarks and point the way towards further investigations of the gluon structure of nucleons and nuclei.
Analysis of Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis-Related Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infections

Abstract The outcomes of all continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis-related infections due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 33) were analyzed and compared with the outcomes of infections due to all other microorganisms (n = 663) over a seven-year period. There were 16 catheter infections (exit site or tunnel infection or both), seven episodes of peritonitis, and 10 episodes of catheter infections associated with peritonitis due to P. aeruginosa. Catheters were removed in 58 percent (19 of 33) of the infections due to P. aeruginosa, but in only 16 percent (104 of 663) of the infections due to other organisms (p
Functioning Oxyphil Cell Adenomas of Parathyroid Gland: Immunoperoxidase Evidence of Hormonal Activity in Oxyphil Cells

Functional oxyphil adenomas of parathyroid gland are rare. Several studies have suggested that these tumors consist of a mixed cell population and that the transitional oxyphil cells and/or chief cells are the main source of parathormone, while the fully developed oxyphil cells have minimal or no hormonal activity. This report describes light, ultrastructural, and immunocytochemical features of six parathyroid adenomas, and confirms that these neoplasms are composed of a mixed cell population. It also demonstrates that the oxyphil cells have strong hormonal activity and therefore can play a significant role in the pathogenesis of hyperparathyroidism.
Multilayer Concentrated Windings for Axial Flux PM Machines

Coreless axial flux machines are of interest because of the absence of stator core losses and cogging torque. These machines generally employ concentrated windings. One of the challenges with such a winding is that the torque producing MMF component that corresponds to the fundamental of the magnet excitation is accompanied by substantial asynchronous components. These harmonics cause losses in the rotor core and magnets, which can become significant at high speeds. This paper proposes a new multilayer winding arrangement to eliminate the non-torque producing MMF components. This winding is applied to a 12-coil 16-pole coreless axial flux machine. The efficacy of the winding is established by 3-D finite-element analysis.
Topological quadrupolar semimetals

Conventional topological semimetals are characterized by the energy momentum separation of the bulk nodes in the energy spectrum. Here, the authors demonstrate a few types of topological semimetals that are gapped in the bulk, but host one or a half of a Dirac semimetal on multiple surfaces. They show that these semimetals can be characterized by the bulk nodes in the hybrid Wannier spectrum, rather than the energy spectrum. This works points to a new direction in studying the higher order topology in semimetallic systems.
THE EFFECTS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES ON ADVERSE OPIOID OUTCOMES

As more states enact laws liberalizing marijuana use and the U.S. opioid epidemic surges to unprecedented levels, understanding the relationship between marijuana and opioids is growing increasingly important. Using a unique self‐constructed marijuana dispensary dataset, I estimate the impact of increased marijuana access on opioid‐related harms. I exploit within‐ and across‐state variation in dispensary openings and find county‐level prescription opioid‐related fatalities decline by 11% following the opening a dispensary. The estimated dispensary effects are qualitatively similar for opioid‐related admissions to treatment facilities. These results are strongest for males and suggest a substitutability between marijuana and opioids.
Semi-supervised clustering with partial background information

Incorporating background knowledge into unsupervised clustering algorithms has been the subject of extensive research in recent years. Nevertheless, existing algorithms implicitly assume that the background information, typically specified in the form of labeled examples or pairwise constraints, has the same feature space as the unlabeled data to be clustered. In this paper, we are concerned with a new problem of incorporating partial background knowledge into clustering, where the labeled examples have moderate overlapping features with the unlabeled data. We formulate this as a constrained optimization problem, and propose two learning algorithms to solve the problem, based on hard and fuzzy clustering methods. An empirical study performed on a variety of real data sets shows that our proposed algorithms improve the quality of clustering results with limited labeled examples.
A Diffusion-Model-Based Supply-Side Offer Agent

Worldwide energy markets have been on a path toward deregulation for several decades. These markets have proven to be difficult to design and run because of their repetitive nature and the externalities provided by reliable grid operation. In a deregulated market environment, our experiments suggest that market participants will pursue their own profit-maximizing objective rather than use an objective that reflects social benefit. Multiagent simulation is useful for gaining insights into market participant behavior under various rules. In this way, market rules can be tested for efficacy and efficiency. In this paper, an agent based on a double-layer diffusion model developed elsewhere is tested and its effectiveness reported
On the category adjustment model: another look at Huttenlocher, Hedges, and Vevea (2000)

Huttenlocher, Hedges, and Vevea (2000) (Why do categories affect stimulus judgment? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 220-241) introduce the category adjustment model (CAM). Given that participants imperfectly remember stimuli (which we refer to as “targets”), CAM holds that participants maximize accuracy by using information about the distribution of the targets to improve their judgments. CAM predicts that judgments will be a weighted average of the imperfect memory of the target and the mean of the distribution of targets. Huttenlocher, Hedges, and Vevea (2000) report on three experiments and conclude that CAM is “verified.” We attempt to replicate Experiment 3 from Huttenlocher et al. (2000). We analyze judgment-level data rather than averaged data. We find evidence of a bias toward a set of recent targets rather than a bias toward the running mean. We also do not find evidence of the joint hypothesis that participants learned the distribution of targets and employed this information in their judgments. The judgments in our dataset are not consistent with CAM. We discuss how the apparent defects in HHV – including dividing by zero – went unnoticed and how such mistakes can be avoided in future research. Finally, we hope that the techniques that we employ will be used to test other datasets that are currently regarded as consistent with CAM or any Bayesian model of judgment.
Assessing Quality of Program Environments for Children and Youth with Autism: Autism Program Environment Rating Scale (APERS)

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Autism Program Environment Rating Scale (APERS), an instrument designed to assess quality of program environments for students with autism spectrum disorder. Data sets from two samples of public school programs that provided services to children and youth with autism spectrum disorder were utilized. Cronbach alpha analyses indicated high coefficients of internal consistency for the total APERS and moderate levels for item domains for the first data set, which was replicated with the second data set. A factor analysis of the first data set indicated that all domain scores loaded on one main factor, in alignment with the conceptual model, with this finding being replicated in the second data set. Also, the APERS was sensitive to changes resulting from a professional development program designed to promote program quality.
Primordial clays on Mars formed beneath a steam or supercritical atmosphere

On Mars, clay minerals are widespread in terrains that date back to the Noachian period (4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago). It is thought that the Martian basaltic crust reacted with liquid water during this time to form hydrated clay minerals. Here we propose, however, that a substantial proportion of these clays was formed when Mars' primary crust reacted with a dense steam or supercritical atmosphere of water and carbon dioxide that was outgassed during magma ocean cooling. We present experimental evidence that shows rapid clay formation under conditions that would have been present at the base of such an atmosphere and also deeper in the porous crust. Furthermore, we explore the fate of a primordial clay-rich layer with the help of a parameterized crustal evolution model; we find that the primordial clay is locally disrupted by impacts and buried by impact-ejected material and by erupted volcanic material, but that it survives as a mostly coherent layer at depth, with limited surface exposures. These exposures are similar to those observed in remotely sensed orbital data from Mars. Our results can explain the present distribution of many clays on Mars, and the anomalously low density of the Martian crust in comparison with expectations.
An educational intervention to enhance nurse practitioner role transition in the first year of practice.

ABSTRACTBackground and Purpose:Role transition is a natural process that occurs when the registered nurse pursues additional education to become a nurse practitioner (NP). Role transition generates feelings of anxiety and insecurity, leading to a longer and more tumultuous adjustment. This study inv
A Bound on Expected Stock Returns

We present a suffi cient condition under which the prices of options with different strike prices written on a particular stock can be used to calculate a lower bound on the expected returns of that stock. The suffi cient condition imposes a restriction on a combination of the stock’s systematic and idiosyncratic risk. The lower bound is forward-looking and can be calculated on a high-frequency basis for stocks with liquid option trading. We estimate the lower bound empirically for constituents of the S&P 500 index and study its cross-sectional properties. We find that the bound increases with beta and decreases with size. The bound also provides an economically meaningful signal on future realized stock returns.
How patient experience informed the SafeMed Program: Lessons learned during a Health Care Innovation Award to improve care for super-utilizers

Abstract • Program theory of change must account for the lived experiences of medically and socially complex patients in order to affect dysfunctional patterns of acute care utilization. • Mental and emotional health, access to self-management resources, and patient-provider communication are key issues of importance to super-utilizing patients. • Transformation of didactic, patient education sessions to interactive, self-management support group sessions achieved success in improving patient engagement. • Lack of collaboration and compliance-oriented healthcare culture are primary threats to successful implementation of innovative healthcare delivery programs. • Linkage and navigation roles of healthcare staff are important in improving patient access to existing community resources, but further health system investments are required to effectively integrate community-based and social services into care delivery. • Peer support interventions are underutilized but hold great promise for addressing behavioral health needs of medically and socially complex patients.
Estimating individualized treatment rules for ordinal treatments

Precision medicine is an emerging scientific topic for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual patient characteristics. It is an important direction for clinical research, and many statistical methods have been proposed recently. One of the primary goals of precision medicine is to obtain an optimal individual treatment rule (ITR), which can help make decisions on treatment selection according to each patient's specific characteristics. Recently, outcome weighted learning (OWL) has been proposed to estimate such an optimal ITR in a binary treatment setting by maximizing the expected clinical outcome. However, for ordinal treatment settings, such as individualized dose finding, it is unclear how to use OWL. In this article, we propose a new technique for estimating ITR with ordinal treatments. In particular, we propose a data duplication technique with a piecewise convex loss function. We establish Fisher consistency for the resulting estimated ITR under certain conditions, and obtain the convergence and risk bound properties. Simulated examples and an application to a dataset from a type 2 diabetes mellitus observational study demonstrate the highly competitive performance of the proposed method compared to existing alternatives.
Multilateral aggregation-theoretic monetary aggregation over heterogeneous countries

We derive fundamental theory for measuring monetary service flows aggregated over countries within a multicountry area. We develop three increasingly restrictive approaches: (1) the heterogeneous agents approach, (2) the multilateral representative agent approach, and (3) the unilateral representative agent approach. These results are being used by the European Central Bank in construction of its Divisia monetary aggregates database, with convergence from the most general to the more restrictive approaches expected as economic convergence within the area proceeds. Our theory permits monitoring the effects of policy over a multicountry area, while also monitoring the distribution effects of policy among the countries.
Bandits with Knapsacks

Multi-armed bandit problems are the predominant theoretical model of exploration-exploitation tradeoffs in learning, and they have countless applications ranging from medical trials, to communication networks, to Web search and advertising. In many of these application domains, the learner may be constrained by one or more supply (or budget) limits, in addition to the customary limitation on the time horizon. The literature lacks a general model encompassing these sorts of problems. We introduce such a model, called bandits with knapsacks, that combines bandit learning with aspects of stochastic integer programming. In particular, a bandit algorithm needs to solve a stochastic version of the well-known knapsack problem, which is concerned with packing items into a limited-size knapsack. A distinctive feature of our problem, in comparison to the existing regret-minimization literature, is that the optimal policy for a given latent distribution may significantly outperform the policy that plays the optimal fixed arm. Consequently, achieving sublinear regret in the bandits-with-knapsacks problem is significantly more challenging than in conventional bandit problems.We present two algorithms whose reward is close to the information-theoretic optimum: one is based on a novel “balanced exploration” paradigm, while the other is a primal-dual algorithm that uses multiplicative updates. Further, we prove that the regret achieved by both algorithms is optimal up to polylogarithmic factors. We illustrate the generality of the problem by presenting applications in a number of different domains, including electronic commerce, routing, and scheduling. As one example of a concrete application, we consider the problem of dynamic posted pricing with limited supply and obtain the first algorithm whose regret, with respect to the optimal dynamic policy, is sublinear in the supply.
A social history of American technology

A Social History of American Technology, Second Edition, tells the story of American technology from the tools used by its earliest inhabitants to the technological systems--cars and computers, aircraft and antibiotics--that we are familiar with today. Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Matthew H. Hersch demonstrate how technological change has always been closely related to social and economic development, and examine the important mutual relationships between social history and technological change. They explain how the unique characteristics of American cultures and American geography have affected the technologies that have been invented, manufactured, and used throughout the years--and also the reverse: how those technologies have affected the daily lives, the unique cultures, and the environments of all Americans.
From quiescent bureaucracy to “undocumented wonder”: Explaining the Indian Election Commission's expanding mandate

Public institutions in the developing world are often characterized by institutional capture or decay. Yet, India’s Election Commission has become one of its most powerful regulatory bodies. The Election Commission has overseen the completion of 16 national and 350 state elections since 1952. It is one of the most widely-celebrated and trusted public institutions in India, enjoys substantial powers, and conducts some of the longest elections in the world. We use a process-tracing approach to explain the EC’s surprising expansion of mandate, arguing that in a federal democracy: 1) when institutional constraints are weakened; 2) when state-based actors demand a competent and neutral arbiter; and 3) when entrepreneurial bureaucratic actors take advantage of moments of political opportunity, those aspects of the bureaucracy that can credibly meet these demands are able to successfully expand their powers. Changes in Model Code Implementation and Election Duration attest to the Election Commission’s broader role. The Election Commission’s experience suggests that a weak executive can facilitate the strengthening of state institutions and that, under federalism, state-based electoral forces can produce strong national institutions.
Computation of a Best Subset in Multivariate Analysis

In this paper, it is shown that some of the efficient procedures used to select “good” regressions in multiple regression may also be used in multivariate analysis. In addition, a new algoritym is proposed that is a compromise between examining all possible subsets and other procedures such as stepwise which do not guarantee an optimum solution.
Special Education Teachers' Perceptions and Intentions Toward Data Collection.

Although data-based decision making is an evidence-based practice, many special educators have difficulty applying the practice within daily routines. We applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB...
Joint Audit Engagements and Client Tax Avoidance: Evidence from the Italian Statutory Audit Regime

ABSTRACT Under the Italian statutory audit regime, three individual accountants are jointly appointed to audit each client's annual financial statements and sign off on the tax return. These indivi...
Continuous-Trait Probabilistic Model for Comparing Multi-species Functional Genomic Data

Summary A large amount of multi-species functional genomic data from high-throughput assays are becoming available to help understand the molecular mechanisms for phenotypic diversity across species. However, continuous-trait probabilistic models, which are key to such comparative analysis, remain under-explored. Here we develop a new model, called phylogenetic hidden Markov Gaussian processes (Phylo-HMGP), to simultaneously infer heterogeneous evolutionary states of functional genomic features in a genome-wide manner. Both simulation studies and real data application demonstrate the effectiveness of Phylo-HMGP. Importantly, we applied Phylo-HMGP to analyze a new cross-species DNA replication timing (RT) dataset from the same cell type in five primate species (human, chimpanzee, orangutan, gibbon, and green monkey). We demonstrate that our Phylo-HMGP model enables discovery of genomic regions with distinct evolutionary patterns of RT. Our method provides a generic framework for comparative analysis of multi-species continuous functional genomic signals to help reveal regions with conserved or lineage-specific regulatory roles.
Accurate and Efficient Video De-Fencing Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Temporal Information

De-fencing is to eliminate the captured fence on an image or a video, providing a clear view of the scene. It has been applied for many purposes including assisting photographers and improving the performance of computer vision algorithms such as object detection and recognition. However, the state-of-the-art de-fencing methods have limited performance caused by the difficulty of fence segmentation and also suffer from the motion of the camera or objects. To overcome these problems, we propose a novel method consisting of segmentation using convolutional neural networks and a fast/robust recovery algorithm. The segmentation algorithm using convolutional neural network achieves significant improvement in the accuracy of fence segmentation. The recovery algorithm using optical flow produces plausible de-fenced images and videos. The proposed method is experimented on both our diverse and complex dataset and publicly available datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art performance for both segmentation and content recovery.
Use of mobile phase additives for the elution of bispecific and monoclonal antibodies from phenyl based hydrophobic interaction chromatography resins.

Abstract Hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) is routinely used in the purification of biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies. However, hydrophobic proteins can be difficult to elute resulting in low recovery of product thereby complicating early phase process development and potentially excluding the use of HIC resins for their manufacture. Mobile phase additives such as hexylene glycol and arginine facilitate protein elution from resins including HIC; therefore, these additives were evaluated toward the recovery and purification of bispecific and monoclonal antibodies from Phenyl Sepharose HP and Capto Phenyl ImpRes resins. The influences of gradient versus step elution as well as superficial linear velocity on product quality were evaluated. Improved protein recovery and reduction of both soluble product aggregate and host cell protein were observed for the tested antibodies with both hexylene glycol and arginine. Furthermore, the impact of salt removal from the HIC load on protein-resin binding was examined providing opportunities to minimize processing time. This method was successfully scaled using a Phenyl Sepharose HP (5 cm i.d. × 20.0 cm) and Capto Phenyl ImpRes (3.2 cm i.d. × 21.4 cm) column demonstrating potential for manufacturing purposes.
Structural basis of Toxoplasma gondii perforin-like protein 1 membrane interaction and activity during egress

Intracellular pathogens must egress from the host cell to continue their infectious cycle. Apicomplexans are a phylum of intracellular protozoans that have evolved members of the membrane attack complex and perforin (MACPF) family of pore forming proteins to disrupt cellular membranes for traversing cells during tissue migration or egress from a replicative vacuole following intracellular reproduction. Previous work showed that the apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii secretes a perforin-like protein (TgPLP1) that contains a C-terminal Domain (CTD) which is necessary for efficient parasite egress. However, the structural basis for CTD membrane binding and egress competency remained unknown. Here, we present evidence that TgPLP1 CTD prefers binding lipids that are abundant in the inner leaflet of the lipid bilayer. Additionally, solving the high-resolution crystal structure of the TgPLP1 APCβ domain within the CTD reveals an unusual double-layered β-prism fold that resembles only one other protein of known structure. Three direct repeat sequences comprise subdomains, with each constituting a wall of the β-prism fold. One subdomain features a protruding hydrophobic loop with an exposed tryptophan at its tip. Spectrophotometric measurements of intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence are consistent with insertion of the hydrophobic loop into a target membrane. Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing we show that parasite strains bearing mutations in the hydrophobic loop, including alanine substitution of the tip tryptophan, are equally deficient in egress as a strain lacking TgPLP1 altogether. Taken together our findings suggest a crucial role for the hydrophobic loop in anchoring TgPLP1 to the membrane to support its cytolytic activity and egress function.