cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Poor Relief in England, 1350–1600: Support for the parish poor

During the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, poor relief within the parishes developed more fully. Of 119 parishes whose churchwardens’ accounts were used between 1554 and 1598, seventy-one (60 percent) reported some activity on behalf of the poor. Although statutes of 1555 and 1563 modified the foundational Edwardian legislation of 1552 in limited ways, and although acts of 1572 and 1576 created new institutions at the county level, the expansion in parish involvement with the poor derived not from new laws but rather from the concerns of local people. Churchwardens experimented with techniques for generating and awarding funds to their poorer neighbors, especially children, and they served as legal spokespersons for the parish, representing it at ecclesiastical visitations and in court cases involving assistance to the poor. We can rarely determine the full level of parish involvement, however, for in some churches the wardens worked alongside Collectors for the Poor, who submitted separate but highly perishable accounts. Collectors for the Poor have received no more than passing mention in previous studies. The sources used here show that Collectors were at work in 208 parishes by 1598, a number that is probably a small fraction of the total number. Their duties were complex, time consuming, and capable of creating ill-will. Perhaps in consultation with the churchwardens and minister, they had to decide which parishioners would contribute to the poor on a regular schedule, and in some parishes they imposed fixed assessments that might be resented or resisted. The Collectors were to report anyone who refused to pay to the churchwardens, who would in turn ask for the help of the bishop or Justices of the Peace (JPs) in forcing them to contribute. The Collectors also determined which parishioners should receive assistance and how much they should get, probably requiring visits to their homes to assess the level of need. Their decisions involved subjective value judgments about an individual’s or family’s sources of income, ability to work, and the reasons for poverty: whether the result of circumstances outside their control or due to their own idleness or wastefulness. In many parishes early in Elizabeth’s reign and in smaller parishes even later, the assistance given by Collectors might be limited to short-term help for people with particular problems, similar to the aid given by churchwardens. Increasingly, however, Collectors moved towards ongoing weekly payments for a subset of the poor deemed unable to support themselves. In addition to distributing the money, Collectors had to submit written accounts every quarter and sometimes carry out tasks normally assigned to the churchwardens, including pursuing legal action on behalf of the poor. It is no wonder that men tried to avoid an office that brought no pay and little prestige in return.
Precise time mode multiplier using digital primitives and passive components

This paper describes the implementation of a new architecture to multiply signals with time-mode representations. The exponential relationship between voltage and time in an RC circuit is utilized to implement time-mode logarithmic and exponential functions needed to realize a time-mode analog of the translinear principle. Addition of time-mode variables is achieved through the natural progression of time equal to the sum of the input times. By combining these two techniques, an analog multiplier can be implemented almost exclusively with passive circuits and digital primitives. Therefore, the circuit performance could benefit from CMOS scaling trends. A circuit level implementation in a 180nm CMOS process achieves 0.26% linearity error and consumes 9.5pJ per operation. Both behavioral and post layout simulation results are presented.
Bureaucracy in the Hebrew Bible: A Neglected Source of Public Administration History

Histories of public administration have tended to give minor attention to the Bible. This can partly be attributed to the Bible's unique role as a document revered as being of divine origin, which might discourage secular scholarly inquiry. Another explanation focuses on the lack of originality in Israelite bureaucracy compared to those of other sophisticated empires of that era, such as Egypt. The limited scholarship in the area focuses on the Bible's unique intellectual contributions, its timeless stories about ethical dilemmas and its interesting details about administrative structures and offices. This essay seeks to identify and summarize the major descriptions of public administration contained in the Hebrew Bible and to encourage additional inquiries in this subject area.
Physical Screening Predictors for Success in Completing Air Force Phase II Air Liaison Officer Aptitude Assessment.

ABSTRACTObjectives: Air Liaison Officer Aptitude Assessment (AAA) attrition is often associated with a lack of candidate physical preparation. The Functional Movement Screen, Tactical Fitness Assessment, and fitness metrics were collected (n = 29 candidates) to determine what physical factors could predict a candidate s success in completing AAA. Methods: Between-group comparisons were made between candidates completing AAA versus those who did not (p < 0.05). Upper 50% thresholds were established for all variables with R2 < 0.8 and the data were converted to a binary form (0 = did not attain threshold, 1 = attained threshold). Odds-ratios, pre/post-test probabilities and positive likelihood ratios were computed and logistic regression applied to explain model variance. Results: The following variables provided the most predictive value for AAA completion: Pull-ups (p = 0.01), Sit-ups (p = 0.002), Relative Powerball Toss (p = 0.017), and Pull-ups × Sit-ups interaction (p = 0.016). Conclusion: Minimum reco...
A survey of proteomic biomarkers for heterotopic ossification in blood serum

Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a significant problem for wounded warriors surviving high-energy blast injuries; however, currently, there is no biomarker panel capable of globally characterizing, diagnosing, and monitoring HO progression. The aim of this study was to identify biomarkers for HO using proteomic techniques and blood serum. Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) was used to generate a semi-quantitative global proteomics survey of serum from patients with and without heterotopic ossification. Leveraging the iTRAQ data, a targeted selection reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (SRM-MS) assay was developed for 10 protein candidates: alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, alpha-2 type I collagen, collagen alpha-1(V) chain isoform 2 preprotein, bone sialoprotein 2, phosphatidate phosphatase LPIN2, osteomodulin, protein phosphatase 1J, and RRP12-like protein. The proteomic survey of serum from both healthy and disease patients includes 1220 proteins and was enriched for proteins involved in the response to elevated platelet Ca+2, wound healing, and extracellular matrix organization. Proteolytic peptides from three of the ten SRM-MS proteins, osteocalcin preprotein, osteomodulin precursor, and collagen alpha-1(v) chain isoform 2 preprotein from serum, are potential clinical biomarkers for HO. This study is the first reported SRM-MS analysis of serum from individuals with and without heterotopic ossification, and differences in the serum proteomic profile between healthy and diseased subjects were identified. Furthermore, our results indicate that normal wound healing signals can impact the ability to identify biomarkers, and a multi-protein panel assay, including osteocalcin preproprotein, osteomodulin precursor, and collagen alpha-1(v) chain isoform 2 preprotein, may provide a solution for HO detection and monitoring.
Art Filled Social Studies Resources: Considering the Books of Jeannie Baker

A review of the wordless books of author Jeannie Baker and their relevance to social studies teaching internationally.
The Clinical Picture in Slow Virus Diseases: A Review

The degenerative slow virus diseases are classified by whether the causative virus is conventional or unconventional. The conventional viruses are those whose elementary body consists of either RNA or DNA and is contained within a protein coat. These viruses cause slow infection because of an abnormality in the ability of the virus to replicate itself normally, as is the case in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or because of an abnormality in the host's immune response, as in progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The conventional viruses have not yet been shown to be transmissible. The unconventional viruses are infectious agents which have properties not usually shown by conventional viruses. They induce slowly evolving diseases which share common neuropathic changes . These viruses cause the subacute spongiform virus encephalopathies. In humans they are responsible for kuru, the familial and sporadic forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and familial Alzheimer's disease. Similar transmissible diseases have been found to occur naturally in animals, and there is some feeling that in certain individuals, notably farmers, the virus causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may be transmitted from sheep and goats (2).
Reflecting on Journal Traditions and Policies on the Way to the Future

The Journal has adjusted its policies and practices to keep pace with the needs and interests of the chemical education community. Traditions persist for years until changes cause them to evolve or to be replaced: some examples of this are cited. For journal publication in the future, new concerns arise as policies and practices meet new developments. In recent times, readers have become more interested in open access to journal content and even potential journal content. The current Journal policy about prior publication and tools for open access are discussed.
Twyman effects in thin curved optics

The Twyman effect refers to the fact that, when a thin optical plate has one side ground, the plate bends with the ground side becoming convex, i.e. as if the ground side is in a residual compressive stress. Such deformation often shows up as “power” on form measurements of the other (usually polished) plate surface. For thin flat optics, Twyman effects become important at aspect ratios of 1:25 or thinner. In this case, the optic bends throughout its surface with a constant curvature, i.e. bending extends over the whole surface. Here we discuss Twyman effects for mildly or highly curved thin axisymmetric optics such as cylinders, spheres, and shallow lenses or mirrors. We also outline extensions to more complex geometries, such as ogives. We show that the deformation in thin curved optics is significantly different from flat plates: In curved optics, deformation consists of a simple stretching contribution, valid over the largest portion of the optic, plus a complex, spatially-dependent bending contribution in a boundary layer, valid near the free edges of the optic.
Retrospective cohort analysis on pancreatic enzyme substitution in very low birthweight infants with postnatal growth failure

Objective To evaluate the effects of pancreatic enzyme substitution (PES) in selected very low birthweight (VLBW) infants with poor postnatal growth despite intensified nutritional support. Design Retrospective historic cohort study with matched controls. Setting Single level III neonatal intensive care unit. Patients Infants with a gestational age at birth Interventions PES 15–93 mg/g fat with enteral feeds. Main outcome measures The difference in SD score (SDS) differences for weight during the 7 days before and after onset of PES and weight gain in g/kg/d. Data are presented as median (P10–P90). Results Gestational age was 26.6 (24.4–29.9) weeks in enzyme substituted versus 26.4 (24.7–29.9) weeks in matched controls, and birth weight was 648(420–950)g versus 685(453–949)g. SDS differences for weight improved after onset of PES by 0.18(−0.12 to 0.53) in PES infants versus −0.04(−0.31 to 0.44) in controls. Weight gain increased in the PES group from 13.6 (4.2–22.9) g/kg/day in the week before to 19.0 (10.9–29.1) g/kg/day in the week after the onset of PES. There was no difference in weight gain in substituted subgroups receiving formula/pasteurised human milk versus unpasteurised human breast milk or who had pancreatic-specific elastase-1 concentrations in stool >200 µg/g versus ≤200 µg/g. No adverse effects were noted. Conclusions PES in selected VLBW infants with growth failure despite intensified enteral nutritional support was associated with a significant increase in weight gain in the first 7 days of PES.k
Gravitational One-Body Problem

Newton’s laws of motion and gravity come together to explain the motion of planets around the Sun, plus a wide range of other astrophysical systems. In this chapter we study a system in which the source of gravity (e.g., the Sun) is stationary and a single object (e.g., a planet) is in motion. While Newton’s third law tells us that a planet’s gravitational pull must also cause the Sun to move, the Sun is so much more massive than any planet that its motion can be neglected as a first approximation.
Gd-Zn Alloys as Active Magnetic Regenerator Materials for Magnetic Refrigeration

Stoichiometric GdZn crystallizes in the cubic CsCl-type crystal structure and has been reported to order ferromagnetically at 270 K. Experimental measurements of the magnetization and heat capacity of GdZn as a function of temperature and magnetic field confirm the ordering temperature and the type of magnetic order. The calculated magnetocaloric effect (in terms of the adiabatic temperature rise, ΔT ad , and the isothermal magnetic entropy change, ΔS mag ) peaks at 270 K and reaches values of 6.5 K (−7 J/kg K) and 10.5 K (−11 J/kg K) for magnetic field changes of 0 to 5 and 0 to 10 T, respectively. The maximum magnetocaloric effect in GdZn is approximately 30% smaller than that observed in pure Gd, which is consistent with the amount of non-magnetic Zn in the intermetallic compound. Modeling of the magnetocaloric effect of different two-phase alloy compositions, including the eutectic composition alloy (50 mol.% GdZn + 50 mol.% Gd), indicates that Gd-Zn alloys with less than 50 at.% (∼30 wt.%) Zn can be used as high performance active magnetic regenerator materials. Both Gd and GdZn are magnetically soft showing negligible magnetic hysteresis. The behavior of ΔT ad and |ΔS mag | can be adjusted between two boundary conditions: (1) ΔT ad and |ΔS mag | decreasing almost linearly from ∼300 and ∼270 K, and (2) ΔT ad and |ΔS mag | remaining practically constant over the range ∼300 to ∼270 K. This ability to adjust the magnetocaloric effect properties allows one a flexibility in designing different refrigeration cycles and highly effective regenerator materials. A possible application for these alloys is for climate control magnetic refrigeration devices and refrigerators/freezers. Alloying Gd with Zn significantly reduces melting temperature of the alloys (the eutectic alloy melts at ∼860°C) compared to that of pure Gd (1313°C) and also improves the ductility over the GdZn intermetallide. This should simplify their fabrication into useful shapes (spheres, thin sheets, wires, etc.) for magnetic regenerator beds.
PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN LEVELS AFTER DEFINITIVE IRRADIATION FOR CARCINOMA OF THE PROSTATE

AbstractProstate specific antigen (PSA) levels were determined in 78 patients judged clinically to be free of disease at intervals of 36 or more months (range 38 to 186 months, median 87 months) after completion of irradiation therapy by 125iodine implantation or external beam radiation. Of this select group of patients 38% had undetectable serum PSA levels (0.5ng./ml. or less) and 38% had PSA levels that were within normal limits (4.0ng./ml. or less). All stages and grades were represented. Undetectable PSA levels were only rarely found (3%) in patients with carcinoma of the prostate before treatment.In 24 of these 78 patients a negative biopsy of the irradiated prostate had been obtained 18 to 42 months after treatment. When the PSA level was drawn, which ranged from 7 to 16 years after treatment, an equal percentage of these biopsied patients had either an undetectable, normal or elevated level.Irradiation is able to decrease PSA to undetectable levels in some patients with prostatic carcinoma. Whether...
It Takes a Village: Multidisciplinary Approach to Screening and Prevention of Pediatric Sleep Issues

Sleep is essential to human development. Poor sleep can have significant effects on cognition, learning and memory, physical and behavioral health, and social-emotional well-being. This paper highlights the prevalence of common pediatric sleep problems and posits that a multidisciplinary approach to the assessment and intervention of sleep problems is ideal. Primary care providers are often the first professionals to discuss sleep issues with youth and families. However, dentists, otolaryngologists, childcare providers, school personnel, and behavioral health providers have a vital role in screening and prevention, providing intervention, and monitoring the progress of daily functioning. The strengths of this approach include better provider-to-provider and provider-to-family communication, streamlined assessment and intervention, earlier identification of sleep issues with more efficient referral, and longer-term monitoring of progress and impact on daily functioning. Barriers to this approach include difficulty initiating and maintaining collaboration among providers, limited provider time to obtain the necessary patient permission to collaborate among all multidisciplinary providers, lack of financial support for consultation and collaboration outside of seeing patients face-to-face, geographic location, and limited resources within communities. Research investigating the utility of this model and the overall impact on pediatric patient sleep issues is warranted and strongly encouraged.
Metasurface flat optics: Unifying semiconductor manufacturing and lens making (Conference Presentation)

Metasurfaces provide a new basis for recasting optical components into thin planar elements, easy to optically align and control aberrations, leading to a major reduction in footprint, system complexity and cost as well as the introduction of new optical functions.1, 2, 3. Their planarity allows for fabrication routes directly in line with conventional processes of the mature integrated circuit (IC) industry.1 I foresee great technological and scientific penetration of CMOS compatible metasurface-based optical components, ranging from metalenses4-6 to novel polarization optics7, 8. Camera modules for high volume applications, such as cell phones, will be the greatest beneficiaries. The technology required to mass produce metasurfaces dates back to the early 1990s, when the feature sizes of semiconductor manufacturing became smaller than the wavelength of light, advancing in stride with Moore’s law. This provides the possibility of unifying two industries: semiconductor manufacturing and lens-making, whereby the same technology used to make computer chips is used to make metalenses and other optical components, based on metasurfaces. A major obstacle for this to happen had to be overcome. With metasurfaces, the data describing large designs are faced with the challenge of enormous file sizes due to having millions or billions of individual microscopic metaelements (necessitated by the subwavelength size criterion) described over macroscopically large device areas. This extremely high data density over large areas generates unmanageably large total file sizes, limiting the fabrication of optical components such as metalenses to sizes no larger than a few millimeters. Using our new scalable metasurface layout compression algorithm (METAC) that exponentially reduces design file sizes (by 3 orders of magnitude for a centimeter diameter lens) and stepper photolithography, we have recently shown the design and fabrication of metalenses with extremely large areas, up to centimeters in diameter and beyond.9 Finally I envision a future of digital optics based on metasurfaces with increased density of optical components and functionalities per metasurface; it is tempting to speculate that an empirical law might govern its growth, akin to Moore’s Law for digital electronics. References: 1. F. Capasso, Nanophotonics DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2018-0004 (2018) 2. N. Yu et al. Science 334, 333 (2011) 3. N. Yu and F. Capasso Nature Materials 13, 139 (2014) 4. M. Khorasaninejad et al. Science 352, 1190 (2016) 5. M. Khorasaninejad and F. Capasso, Science 358, 8100 (2017) 6. W-T. Chen et al. Nature Nanotechnology (2018) doi:10.1038/s41565-017-0034-6 7. J. P. B. Mueller et al. Physical Review Letters 118, 113901 (2017) 8. J. P. B. Mueller et al. Optica 3, 42 (2016) 9. A. She et al. Optics Express 26, 1573 (2018)
Reprint of: Prevention and Control of Hypertension: JACC Health Promotion Series.

Abstract Hypertension, the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, originates from combined genetic, environmental, and social determinants. Environmental factors include overweight/obesity, unhealthy diet, excessive dietary sodium, inadequate dietary potassium, insufficient physical activity, and consumption of alcohol. Prevention and control of hypertension can be achieved through targeted and/or population-based strategies. For control of hypertension, the targeted strategy involves interventions to increase awareness, treatment, and control in individuals. Corresponding population-based strategies involve interventions designed to achieve a small reduction in blood pressure (BP) in the entire population. Having a usual source of care, optimizing adherence, and minimizing therapeutic inertia are associated with higher rates of BP control. The Chronic Care Model, a collaborative partnership among the patient, provider, and health system, incorporates a multilevel approach for control of hypertension. Optimizing the prevention, recognition, and care of hypertension requires a paradigm shift to team-based care and the use of strategies known to control BP.
Stability and strain-driven evolution of β' precipitate in Mg-Y alloys

Abstract Alloying Mg with rare-earth elements, such as Nd, Gd, or Y, enables hardening from the precipitation of metastable coherent phases during aging at low temperatures. While the aging potential of binary Mg-Nd alloys is relatively limited due to the nucleation of coarse β 1 and β precipitates at the expense of the strengthening β’’’ precipitates, binary Mg-Y alloys exhibit exceptional stability of the strengthening coherent β S ’ phase when aged at 200 o C. Through combination of high-resolution characterization, density functional theory calculations, and finite-element elasticity studies, we demonstrate that the strengthening β S ’ phase is thermodynamically stable at low temperatures (as opposed to metastable as in other Mg-RE binaries) and that misfit strains play a key role in not only controlling precipitate structure and morphology but also their unusual evolution into an interconnected network.
Experiences with rehabilitation and impact on community participation among adults with physical disability in Colombia: perspectives from stakeholders using a community based research approach

Despite representing 70 million people in Latin America, access to comprehensive rehabilitation and participation in the community remains a challenge for persons with disability (PWDs) in the region. Through enactment of the Disability Law, Colombia has made improvements to recognize and address some of the barriers for PWDs, including access to comprehensive rehabilitation. However access remains limited with significant disconnect between perspectives of various stakeholders and the needs of the population. We examined the unique perceptions on access to comprehensive rehabilitation services and participation of PWDs. We also explored the perspective of caregivers of PWDs, rehabilitation professionals, and other stakeholders on the experiences of PWDs. Our goal was to identify gaps in the implementation of comprehensive rehabilitation programs, and barriers to access resources for comprehensive rehabilitation or services that would impact participation of PWDs. Qualitative study conducted in 2017. Data was collected from a purposive sample of adults with physical disability, aged 18–44 years, who had received rehabilitation services at a local partner organization and with different backgrounds and experiences with disability. Purposive sampling was also conducted with caregivers, rehabilitation professionals, and other stakeholders. Socio-demographic information was collected and semi-structured interviews were conducted by a research team member, recorded, transcribed and analyzed using a thematic analysis method to identify main themes related to our aim. CES University ethical review board approved this study. Thirty-two participants were interviewed: eight were male, 42.1 ± 11.1 years old, and 44% (n = 14) were PWDs. Three main themes were identified among all the participants: the meaning of rehabilitation, challenges to access services, and participation. Challenges to access services had three sub-themes: barriers to personal mobility, perceptions and knowledge on disability, and navigating the system. The main focus of rehabilitation as perceived by stakeholders is still on functional rehabilitation. If healthcare personnel is better trained on disability and if those with disabilities are actively involved in the developing these programs, the focus may evolve to a comprehensive and equitable rehabilitation process that fosters full participation.
Tourism in Hawaii 1776–2076

Well, you have heard from the weather forecasters (also known as meteorologists) and now you are going to get something from a climatologist. The speakers before me—economists all—gave you their versions of what happened last year and what might happen next year concerning tourism in Hawaii. I was relieved to see that there was not only no agreement among the panelists about what might happen, but also no agreement on what had happened! That warmed my heart because I am going to share with you a much bigger picture—some thoughts about tourism in Hawaii from 1776 to 2076.
Year of astronomy: Mankind's place in the Universe.

Technological developments in astronomy have long helped to answer some of the greatest questions tackled by humanity, recounts Owen Gingerich.
Perceptions of Active Shooter Prevention and Preparation Strategies in Pennsylvania: Links to Self-Protective Behavior

In this study, I document how members of the public perceive active shooter risk in their communities and their perceptions of the effectiveness of common efforts to prevent and respond to active shooters. I further investigate how news media exposure shapes these perceptions. I applied Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to explore how perceptions and news media exposure might shape self-protective actions taken by individuals and their households. Data were obtained in 2019 from a cross-sectional, state-representative sample of 668 Pennsylvania adults who completed a web survey. Those who perceived higher community active shooter risk and those who felt community prevention and preparation efforts were effective were more likely to take self-protective steps themselves. Increased news exposure through apps, social media, family and friends was associated with increased perceived risk and effectiveness of prevention and preparation strategies. These results suggest that self-selected news and news through personal ties are linked to active shooter perceptions while other news mediums, like television or radio broadcasts, are not. News exposure was largely unrelated to self-protection. Those who felt community efforts were effective in prevention or preparation, however, were more likely to take self-protective actions. This finding indicates that community efforts may be more influential than news media in directing personal behavior.
The Metabolomics of Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review

Background:Chronic pain is a significant public health problem in the United States, affecting approximately 100 million people. Yet there is a lack of robust biomarkers for clinical use in chronic...
Reduced Alcohol Use Is Sustained in Patients Provided Alcohol-Related Counseling During Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy for Hepatitis C.

Patients with chronic hepatitis C and risky/harmful alcohol use experience poor outcomes. Granular data evaluating whether alcohol counseling during hepatitis C treatment impacts longitudinal alcohol consumption are lacking. To evaluate whether provider-delivered counseling in the context of direct-acting antiviral hepatitis C treatment associates with decreased longitudinal alcohol consumption. We performed secondary data analysis from the Hep ART study including adults with hepatitis C who underwent provider-delivered counseling during direct-acting antiviral treatment between October 2014 and September 2017. Demographics and disease characteristics were summarized. Alcohol consumption, abstinence, and heavy drinking were evaluated in periods before, during, and after direct-acting antiviral treatment. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association of alcohol consumption with each 12-week time period for all patients and a subsample with cirrhosis. One hundred twenty-three patients were included; 41 had cirrhosis. Most patients were male (74.0%) and Black (58.5%). Alcohol consumption improved during direct-acting antiviral treatment and was notably sustained ( 24 weeks after treatment 15.29 g/day less, p = 0.0001). The subsample with cirrhosis showed similar results (during treatment 13.21 g/day less, p = 0.0001; > 24 weeks after treatment 7.69 g/day less, p = 0.0001). Patients with chronic HCV and risky/harmful alcohol use given provider-delivered alcohol-related counseling during HCV treatment sustain decreased alcohol consumption patterns during and after treatment.
Elliptic operators and maximal regularity on periodic little-Hölder spaces

We consider one-dimensional inhomogeneous parabolic equations with higher-order elliptic differential operators subject to periodic boundary conditions. In our main result we show that the property of continuous maximal regularity is satisfied in the setting of periodic little-Holder spaces, provided the coefficients of the differential operator satisfy minimal regularity assumptions. We address parameter-dependent elliptic equations, deriving invertibility and resolvent bounds which lead to results on generation of analytic semigroups. We also demonstrate that the techniques and results of the paper hold for elliptic differential operators with operator-valued coefficients, in the setting of vector-valued functions.
Should Chemistry Education Be Doing More to Support the Teaching of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

New technologies that have been deployed to create vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are predicated on using cellular machinery that implements the central dogma of molecular biology, genetic information flow. While the overall system for this process encompasses emergent ideas beyond the molecular basis of genetics, important components of the system are chemical in nature. With the importance of fostering widespread acceptance of vaccines for public health becoming more apparent, the potential need for enhanced teaching and learning around the chemistry of the central dogma that extends beyond the traditional “home” of this concept in biochemistry and molecular biology classrooms is worthy of consideration.
Alternative RNA structures formed during transcription depend on elongation rate and modify RNA processing

Most RNA processing occurs co-transcriptionally. We interrogated nascent pol II transcripts by chemical and enzymatic probing and determined how the "nascent RNA structureome" relates to splicing, A-I editing and transcription speed. RNA folding within introns and steep structural transitions at splice sites are associated with efficient co-transcriptional splicing. A slow pol II mutant elicits extensive remodeling into more folded conformations with increased A-I editing. Introns that become more structured at their 3' splice sites get co-transcriptionally excised more efficiently. Slow pol II altered folding of intronic Alu elements where cryptic splicing and intron retention are stimulated, an outcome mimicked by UV, which decelerates transcription. Slow transcription also remodeled RNA folding around alternative exons in distinct ways that predict whether skipping or inclusion is favored, even though it occurs post-transcriptionally. Hence, co-transcriptional RNA folding modulates post-transcriptional alternative splicing. In summary, the plasticity of nascent transcripts has widespread effects on RNA processing.
A Case Report on Vaping Related Interstitial Airspace Disease in a Teenager

In this case, we present a unique case presentation of vaping associated lung injury and treatment approaches. A 17-year-old previously healthy male was admitted to the hospital for intractable & persistent vomiting, fever, cough, abdominal pain, and intermittent diarrhea and dehydration. He presented with severe chest pain and O2 desaturations up to 80% on room air. An infectious (including a Nasopharyngeal swab), GI, and cardiac workup was completed and was negative except for elevated inflammatory markers with a C-reactive protein (CRP) of 261 mg/L, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of 53 mm/hr and a d-dimer of 0.93 mcg/ml. Chest X-ray showed diffuse multifocal infiltrates. The patient was treated with ceftriaxone, and azithromycin initially for a suspected pneumonia. He was also started on 4L of nasal cannula O2 supplementation. Due to persistent hypoxic respiratory failure, worsening respiratory distress clinically, with tachypnea and retractions, and lab findings of elevated d-dimer, a chest CT was performed to rule out a pulmonary embolism (PE). Computed Tomography (CT) findings were negative for PE but notable for diffuse airspace opacities, primarily within the lower lobes, with a ground-glass appearance concerning for ARDS. Upon further investigation of the social history, the patient admitted to vaping nicotine products for the past 4 years and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products within the last several months. He was immediately started on Prednisone 30mg BID for a diagnosis of E-cigarette or Vaping Product Use Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) and started showing clinical improvement. The patient was able to be weaned off of supplemental oxygen to room air and clinical symptoms of respiratory distress began to improve over the next 24 hours.
Working Paper Containing Excerpts of Several Leading Upcoming Books Being Written by the Author Thileni Rasadarie Dodangodage Wickramaratne and Some Excerpts of a Book Proposal by the Said Author

In this Working Paper containing excerpts of my Upcoming books I critique the economic growth theory of Robert Solow and I newly introduce my simple production function where income is a function of demand and state the application of differential equations to the calculation of economic growth. In these excerpts I also demonstrate econometric model building and calculation of probability with my own examples of coin tossing and dice rolling.
Temporal patterns of physical activity in successful weight loss maintainers.

Individuals successful at weight loss maintenance engage in high amounts of physical activity (PA). Understanding how and when weight loss maintainers accumulate PA within a day and across the week may inform PA promotion strategies and recommendations for weight management. We compared patterns of PA in a cohort of weight loss maintainers (WLM, n = 28, maintaining ≥13.6 kg weight loss for ≥1 year, BMI 23.6 ± 2.3 kg/m2), controls without obesity (NC, n = 30, BMI similar to current BMI of WLM, BMI 22.8 ± 1.9 kg/m2), and controls with overweight/obesity (OC, n = 26, BMI similar to pre-weight loss BMI of WLM, 33.6 ± 5.1 kg/m2). PA was assessed during 7 consecutive days using the activPALTM activity monitor. The following variables were quantified; sleep duration, sedentary time (SED), light-intensity PA (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA), and steps. Data were examined to determine differences in patterns of PA across the week and across the day using mixed effect models. Across the week, WLM engaged in ≥60 min of MVPA on 73% of days, significantly more than OC (36%, p < 0.001) and similar to NC (59%, p = 0.10). Across the day, WLM accumulated more MVPA in the morning (i.e., within 3 h of waking) compared to both NC and OC (p < 0.01). WLM engaged in significantly more MVPA accumulated in bouts ≥10 min compared to NC and OC (p < 0.05). Specifically, WLM engaged in more MVPA accumulated in bouts of ≥60 min compared to NC and OC (p < 0.05). WLM engage in high amounts of MVPA (≥60 min/d) on more days of the week, accumulate more MVPA in sustained bouts, and accumulate more MVPA in the morning compared to controls. Future research should investigate if these distinct patterns of PA help to promote weight loss maintenance.
On streaming-dating convergence: Music-mediated self-presentations on Tinder:

This study takes a cultural anthropological approach to address the use of music taste as an instrument of self-presentation on online dating platforms by examining the partnership between Spotify ...
Puerto Rican Farmers' Obstacles Toward Recovery and Adaptation Strategies After Hurricane Maria: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Adaptive Capacity

Farmers across the globe are experiencing compounding shocks that make evident the need to better understand potential drivers and barriers to strengthen adaptive capacity. This is especially true in the context of a disaster, where a disruption in the natural and built environment hinders livelihood strategies and exposes the underlying dynamics that perpetuate vulnerability to natural hazards. As such, the interconnections of structural and individual attributes must be considered when evaluating adaptive capacity. This paper uses a convergent mixed-methods approach to assess Puerto Rican farmers’ actual and intended adoption of adaptation practices, in light of the obstacles they faced towards recovery after 2017’s category four Hurricane Maria, to contribute to better understanding adaptive capacity. This study uses data from 405 farmers across Puerto Rico (87% response rate), surveyed eight months after Maria by agricultural agents of the Extension Service of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Quantitative data was assessed through negative binomial regressions (actual adoption) and generalized linear models (intended adoption), while qualitative data (reported obstacles) were analyzed through thematic analysis. This study found that almost half of farmers adopted an adaptation practice after Maria, and that in many cases, broader structures, such as systems of governance, farmers’ social networks, and infrastructure, affect adaptive capacity more than individual perceptions of capacity. Future adaptation strategies and interventions, especially in the context of disaster, should consider the extent to which structural factors hinder individuals’ ability to prepare for, respond, and recover from the impacts of these shocks. Our results show that there might be opportunity to enact new systems in light of catastrophic events, but this does not solely depend on individual actions. The mixed-methods approach used can inform future studies in better assessing adaptive capacity from a standpoint that incorporates individual and structural components.
Did Steve Forbes scare the US municipal bond market

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship of the daily spread between taxable and municipal securities to a daily indicator of the likelihood of a tax reform that would eliminate the preference now accorded to municipal securities, the ‘flat tax.’ The probability of tax reform is proxied by the market price of the shares of Steve Forbes, a champion of the flat tax, in the Iowa Electronic Market. We find evidence that the indicator of tax reform’s prospects was correlated with a decline in the spread on five and ten-year maturity bonds, although not for 30-year maturity bonds. The correlations do not, however, survive in first-difference form, suggesting either that Forbes’ prospects did not immediately affect expectations of future tax policy, that the correlations are coincidental rather than causal, or that the decreased signal-to-noise ratio obscures a real, but small, causal relationship.
Memory efficient ray tracing with hierarchical mesh quantization

We present a lossily compressed acceleration structure for ray tracing that encodes the bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) and the triangles of a scene together in a single unified data structure. Total memory consumption of our representation is smaller than previous comparable methods by a factor of 1.7 to 4.8, and it achieves performance similar to the fastest uncompressed data structures. We store quantized vertex positions as local offsets to the leaf bounding box planes and encode them in bit strings. Triangle connectivity is represented as a sequence of strips inside the leaf nodes. The BVH is stored in a compact quantized format. We describe techniques for efficient implementation using register SIMD instructions (SSE). Hierarchical mesh quantization (HMQ) with 16 bits of accuracy achieves an average compression rate of 5.7: 1 in comparison to a BVH and an indexed face set. The performance impact is only 11 percent for packet tracing and 17 percent for single ray path tracing on average.
Improving the fidelity of contextual data layouts using a Generalized Barycentric Coordinates framework

Contextual layouts preserve the context of the data with the associated attributes (variables). However, their linear mapping causes errors in the layout - similar data points and variable nodes may not map to similar regions, and vice versa. In this paper, we first unify the various data layout schemes and choose the Generalized Bary-centric Coordinates (GBC) plot as the standard way to describe them. Second, we propose three algorithms - distance spaced lay-out, iterative error reduction, and force directed adjustment - to reduce the layout error of variables to variables, data to variables and data to data, respectively. We find that the combination of these three algorithms can yield large improvements in the layout error and so achieve a more comprehensive layout. Third, we describe an interface, the GBC Error Explorer, which allows users to explore the error using a variety of visualization schemes combined with some interactions.
Defining time in a minimal hippocampal CA3 model by matching time-span of associative synaptic modification and input pattern duration

This paper quantifies the time shifting of neuronal codes in a sparse, randomly connected neural network model of hippocampal region CA3. As this network is trained to learn a sequence, the neurons that encode portions of this sequence characteristically fire earlier and earlier over the course of training. Here we systematically investigate the effects of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-governed time-span of synaptic associativity on this shifting process and how this time-span interacts with the duration of each successive external input. The results show that there is an interaction between this synaptic time-span and externally applied pattern duration such that the early shifting effect approaches a maximum asymptotically and that this maximum is very nearly produced when the e-fold decay time-span of synaptic associativity is matched to the duration of individual input patterns. The performance of this model as a sequence prediction device varies with the time-span selected. If too long a time-span is used, overly strong attractors evolve and destroy the sequence prediction ability of the network. Local context cell firing-the learned repetitive firing of neurons that code for a specific subsequence - also varies in duration with these two parameters. Importantly, if the associative time-span is matched to the longevity of each individual external pattern and if time-shifting and local context length are normalized by this same external pattern duration, then time-shifting and local context length are constant across simulations with different parameters. This constancy supports the idea that real time can be mapped into a network of McCulloch-Pitts neurons that lack a time scale for excitation and resetting.
Coronary Artery Bypass is Superior to Drug-Eluting Stents in Multivessel Coronary Artery Disease

Percutaneous intervention for the treatment of multivessel coronary artery disease continues to displace coronary artery bypass graft surgery. But controlled trials of percutaneous intervention versus coronary bypass, in meta-analysis, have shown a significant survival advantage for coronary bypass. Studies of bare metal stents have not presented any data to prompt reversal of this conclusion for all but the small portion of patients most suited for stenting. Drug-eluting stents have no survival advantage compared with bare metal stents. Data from real-world registries have shown that the current therapy of multivessel disease patients has resulted in a relative excess mortality of as much as 46% in patients with initial stenting compared with patients with initial coronary bypass. Ethical considerations demand that patients with multivessel disease be informed of the documented mortality benefit of coronary bypass graft surgery.
Ciliary targeting of olfactory CNG channels requires the CNGB1b subunit and the kinesin-2 motor protein, KIF17.

Summary Nonmotile cilia on olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) compartmentalize signaling molecules, including odorant receptors and cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels, allowing for efficient, spatially confined responses to sensory stimuli [1–3]. Little is known about the mechanisms of the ciliary targeting of olfactory CNG channels, composed of three subunits: CNGA2, CNGA4, and CNGB1b [4]. Recent reports suggest that subunit composition of the retinal CNG channel influences localization, leading to disease [5, 6]. However, the mechanistic role of subunits in properly targeting native olfactory CNG channels remains unclear. Here, we show that heteromeric assembly with CNGB1b, containing a critical carboxy-terminal motif (RVxP), is required for ciliary trafficking of olfactory CNG channels. Movement of proteins within the cilia is governed by intraflagellar transport (IFT), a process that facilitates bidirectional movement of cargo along microtubules [7, 8]. Work in C. elegans has established that heterotrimeric and homodimeric kinesin-2 family members play a critical role in anterograde transport [9–11]. In mammalian systems, the heterotrimeric KIF3a/KIF3b/KAP-3 complex plays a clear role in IFT; however, no role has been established for KIF17, the mammalian homolog of OSM-3 [12]. Here, we demonstrate that KIF17 is required for olfactory CNG channel targeting, providing novel insights into mechanisms of mammalian ciliary transport.