cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Air‐water gas exchange by waving vegetation stems

Exchange between wetland surface water and the atmosphere is driven by a variety of motions, ranging from rainfall impact to thermal convection and animal locomotion. Here, we examine the effect of wind-driven vegetation movement. Wind causes the stems of emergent vegetation to wave back and forth, stirring the water column and facilitating air-water exchange. To understand the magnitude of this effect, a gas transfer velocity (k600-value) was measured via laboratory experiments. Vegetation-waving was studied in isolation by mechanically forcing a model canopy to oscillate at a range of frequencies and amplitudes matching those found in the field. The results show that stirring due to vegetation-waving produces k600-values from 0.55 cm/hr to 1.60 cm/hr. The dependence of k600 on waving amplitude and frequency are evident from the laboratory data. These results indicate that vegetation-waving has a non-negligible effect on gas transport; thus it can contribute to a mechanistic understanding of the fluxes underpinning biogeochemical processes.
Some Aspects of African Agricultural Development

Although statistics pertaining to agriculture in Africa have to be treated with great caution, the following data amply demonstrate the significance of agriculture in the overall economic setting (see Table 1). Available evidence based on national output estimates, derived within recent years, confirms the overwhelming importance of agriculture in the economies of almost all countries that fall in this region. In fact, the agricultural component is estimated to make up more than half the value of the gross domestic product of all West Africa and most of East Africa; it constitutes around one-fifth of the value of the gross domestic product of the former Belgian Congo and the Central African Federation, both of which have large mining sectors in their national income. Agricultural exports dominate foreign trade of all these economies except the two mineral-producing areas. In other countries agricultural exports range from 99 per cent of the value of all exports in the Sudan, 90 per cent from Nigeria and former French West Africa, more than 90 per cent from British East Africa, and 46 per cent from former French Equatorial Africa.2
Intelligent Network Control Using Object-Oriented Term-Rewriting.

In this paper, we describe the theoretical framework that allows us to use of the expert system shell CLIPS to define the network model in the Distribution Management System (DMS) for the Indonesian State Power system (PLN). The rules defining the behavior of the system are developed using the framework of Object-Oriented Term-Rewriting (OOTR) in order to guarantee the asynchronous character of the program’s execution. Furthermore, we can provide syntactic tests that allow us to guarantee non-interaction between rules in our systems so that we can combine both the rules for power propagation in the network, and the rules for the intelligent control of the network in a safe and uniform fashion.
Identification of Putative Receptors for the Novel Adipokine CTRP3 Using Ligand-Receptor Capture Technology.

C1q TNF Related Protein 3 (CTRP3) is a member of a family of secreted proteins that exert a multitude of biological effects. Our initial work identified CTRP3’s promise as an effective treatment for Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Specifically, we demonstrated that mice fed a high fat diet failed to develop NAFLD when treated with CTRP3. The purpose of this current project is to identify putative receptors which mediate the hepatic actions of CTRP3. Methods We used Ligand-receptor glycocapture technology with TriCEPS™-based ligand-receptor capture (LRC-TriCEPS; Dualsystems Biotech AG). The LRC-TriCEPS experiment with CTRP3-FLAG protein as ligand and insulin as a control ligand was performed on the H4IIE rat hepatoma cell line. Results Initial analysis demonstrated efficient coupling of TriCEPS to CTRP3. Further, flow cytometry analysis (FACS) demonstrated successful oxidation and crosslinking of CTRP3-TriCEPS and Insulin-TriCEPS complexes to cell surface glycans. Demonstrating the utility of TriCEPS under these conditions, the insulin receptor was identified in the control dataset. In the CTRP3 treated cells a total enrichment of 261 peptides was observed. From these experiments 5 putative receptors for CTRP3 were identified with two reaching statistically significance: Lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP-1) and Lysosome membrane protein 2 (LIMP II). Follow-up Co-immunoprecipitation analysis confirmed the association between LAMP1 and CTRP3 and further testing using a polyclonal antibody to block potential binding sites of LAMP1 prevented CTRP3 binding to the cells. Conclusion The LRC-TriCEPS methodology was successful in identifying potential novel receptors for CTRP3. Relevance The identification of the receptors for CTRP3 are important prerequisites for the development of small molecule drug candidates, of which none currently exist, for the treatment NAFLD.
Alternating individual and group idea generation: Finding the elusive synergy

Abstract Three experiments were designed to test the efficacy of ideation procedures that involved alternation of individual and group idea generation sessions (hybrid brainstorming) as compared to traditional individual and group ideation. The hybrid condition led to the best performance in terms of number of ideas generated. This effect was strongest in comparison to the group condition. A meta-analytic comparison involving all three experiments indicated that the hybrid condition outperformed both the alone and the group conditions. Since after each group idea exchange session there was an enhancement in the number of ideas generated in the alone session, the pattern of performance in the hybrid condition supported the cognitive perspective of group creativity (Nijstad & Stroebe, 2006; Paulus & Brown, 2007). Social cues in the form of the co-presence of other participants in the alone condition, the addition of practice sessions to all conditions, and an additional phase did not change the pattern of results. The results of the experiments support the original suggestion by Osborn (1953) that the most effective brainstorming process is one that involves a variation in individual and group ideation.
Speaker load diagnostics for switching automotive audio amplifiers

Audio amplifiers deliver a large amount of power from a supply to a speaker transducer which converts it to sound energy. The Achilles heel of an audio amplifier IC is its connection to the outside world, i.e. the path to the speaker and the speaker itself. Fault conditions in the speaker and the path to it can result in safety hazards when the signal power gets misdirected, say into a short. In this paper, we explore the detection of such scenarios to pre-empt catastrophic events using the implementation of load diagnostics in the TAS5421 from Texas Instruments — the automotive industry's first class-D eCall amplifier.
Congruency, Adaptivity, Modularity, and Personalization: Four Experiments in Teaching Introduction to Computing

In January 2017, Georgia Tech launched a new online section of its CS1301: Introduction to Computing class. The course, offered both as a for-credit course to on-ground students and as an open MOOC, built on four unique design principles: congruency, adaptivity, modularity, and personalization. In this short paper, we describe the background of the course, the definitions of these design principles, and their application to the course design.
Implementing the Precautionary Principle

The precautionary principle has become an increasingly important component of environmental policy, considered by the European Union to be a general principle of international law. As the precautionary principle has gained prominence, policy analysts have devoted increasing attention to the issue of implementation. Nevertheless, the practical implications of the principle remain unclear. In this article, I argue that the principle has a plausible core meaning that yields a well-defined regulatory approach. The most non controversial norm apparently embodied in the precautionary principle requires that scientific uncertainty should not disadvantage those individuals who might be physically harmed by the potential hazard. This norm justifies environmental regulations based on the risk assessment reasonably preferred by potential victims. That assessment can be combined with standard economic methodology to quantify the injury cost of the potential hazard. That cost can then be evaluated pursuant to the regulatory procedure for known hazards. The resultant decision rule protects potential victims from the adverse consequences of scientific uncertainty as required by the norm apparently embodied in the precautionary principle. The decision rule requires a reasonable basis for the risk assessment adopted by potential victims. In applying the requirement of reasonableness, which determines the appropriate use of scientific evidence, regulators should be able to derive adequate guidance from the rules of international trade, as illustrated by the emerging case law that interprets the World Trade Organization Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. Although the decision rule is not allocatively efficient in important settings, such inefficiency should not be controversial as a matter of welfare economics, because the distributive objective embodied in the precautionary principle cannot be attained by the standard compensatory or transfer mechanisms-the tax and tort systems. In important contexts, though, the decision rule selects allocatively efficient precautions. Consequently, the decision rule is unlikely to be fully satisfactory for either the proponents or critics of the precautionary principle. My objective, however, is not to defend a particular conception of the principle. Rather, for the debate over the precautionary principle to be fruitful, it must move from generalities to the particularized guidance required for principled regulation. A concrete proposal for implementation is a step in that direction.
Stable and Unstable Manifolds

In this chapter, we discuss the stable and unstable manifolds of an equilibrium point and of a fixed point. Stable and unstable manifolds are a useful tool for both the theorist and the simulator of nonlinear systems. As we shall see, under the proper conditions, the structure of the manifolds indicates the presence of Smale horseshoes which, in turn, implies sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
Autonomously Acquiring Instance-Based Object Models from Experience

A key aim of current research is to create robots that can reliably manipulate objects. However, in many applications, general-purpose object detection or manipulation is not required: the robot would be useful if it could recognize, localize, and manipulate the relatively small set of specific objects most important in that application, but do so with very high reliability. Instance-based approaches can achieve this high reliability but to work well, they require large amounts of data about the objects that are being manipulated. The first contribution of this paper is a system that automates this data collection using a robot. When the robot encounters a novel object, it collects data that enables it to detect the object, estimate its pose, and grasp it. However for some objects, information needed to infer a successful grasp is not visible to the robot’s sensors; for example, a heavy object might need to be grasped in the middle or else it will twist out of the robot’s gripper. The second contribution of this paper is an approach that allows a robot to identify the best grasp point by attempting to pick up the object and tracking its successes and failures. Because the number of grasp points is very large, we formalize grasping as an N-armed bandit problem and define a new algorithm for best arm identification in budgeted bandits that enables the robot to quickly find an arm corresponding to a good grasp without pulling all the arms. We demonstrate that a stock Baxter robot with no additional sensing can autonomously acquire models for a wide variety of objects and use the models to detect, classify, and manipulate the objects. Additionally, we show that our adaptation step significantly improves accuracy over a non-adaptive system, enabling a robot to improve its pick success rate from 55 to 75% on a collection of 30 household objects. Our instance-based approach exploits the robot’s ability to collect its own training data, enabling experience with the object to directly improve the robot’s performance during future interactions.
Wide-field nano-scale imaging on a chip

: Wide-field imaging facilitates the detection of rare events and reduces imaging time for large-area samples. Nano-scale imaging enables the detection and enumeration of individual nanoparticles and sub-cellular bioparticles. Uniting these two capabilities in a compact and field-portable on-chip imaging platform through lensfree holographic microscopy provides deep submicron resolution with high sensitivity over fields of view in the range 10–1800 mm2 – approximately 150–2700 times larger than a typical 40 × objective field of view. High resolution is achieved via a pixel super-resolution approach, while high sensitivity is obtained via a sample preparation procedure that generates self-assembled nanolenses around individual nanoparticles and viruses. The foundations of these computational imaging approaches, along with their methodology and results, are discussed.
Self-Reference-Based Hardware Trojan Detection

Outsourcing of the chip product chain makes hardware vulnerable to be attacked. For example, an attacker who has access to hardware fabrication process can alter the genuine hardware with the insertion of concealed hardware elements [hardware Trojan (HT)]. Therefore, microelectronic circuit HT detection becomes a key step of chip production. A self-reference-based power-analysis microelectronic circuit HT detection methodology is proposed in this paper. The detection method is implemented in 90-nm CMOS process. Based on simulation results, our proposed technique can detect HTs with areas that are 0.013% of the host-circuitry. ISCAS benchmarks are used to evaluate efficiency of the developed method.
Secrets of the Síd: The Supernatural in Medieval Irish Texts

To the early medieval Irish, the non-Christian Otherworld—the sid—was at once familiar and exotic. Its immortal creatures moved in and out of human reality, unseen; its portals lay concealed in the ancient religious monuments and placenames of local landscapes. Early medieval authors (ca 650–800 CE) conveyed the complexities of this inherited Otherworld in vernacular tales of otherworldly folk set in the Iron Age past of their ancestors. Although scholars have debated the relative Christian or “pagan” nature of Irish otherworldly literature and its locations, in fact, the sid and its folk were neither—they were supernatural. Tales of the sid attest to the pace and texture of religious change in early medieval Ireland, and sketch the ways that ordinary people made and remade their religion on the ground.
PbS/CdS Core-Shell Quantum Dots Suppress Charge Transfer and Enhance Triplet Transfer.

Here, we observe that a sub-monolayer CdS shell on PbS quantum dots (QDs) enhances triplet energy transfer (TET) by suppressing competitive charge transfer from QDs to molecules. The CdS shell increases the linear photon upconversion quantum yield (QY) from 3.5% for PbS QDs to 5.0% for PbS/CdS QDs when functionalized with a tetracene acceptor, 5-CT. While transient absorption spectroscopy reveals that both PbS and PbS/CdS QDs show the formation of the 5-CT triplet (with rate constants of 5.91 ±0.60 ns-1 and 1.03 ±0.09 ns-1 respectively), ultrafast hole transfer occurs only from PbS QDs to 5-CT. Although the CdS shell decreases the TET rate, it enhances TET efficiency from 60.3± 6.1% to 71.8 ±6.2% by suppressing the hole transfer process. In addition, the CdS shell prolongs the lifetime of the 5-CT triplet and thus enhances TET from 5-CT to the rubrene emitter, further bolstering the upconverison QY.
Possessive Places: Spatial Routines and Glacier Oracles in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca

This article examines the notions of personhood and property underlying relationships between humans and places in the Rio Negro watershed of the central Peruvian Andes. Through offerings, dreams, ...
Readmission Patterns After GI Cancer Hospitalizations: The Medical Versus Surgical Patient

Purpose:Readmission within 30 days has been used as a metric for quality of care received at hospitals for certain diagnoses. In the era of accountability, value-based care, and increasing cancer costs, policymakers are looking into cancer readmissions as well. It is important to describe the readmission profile of patients with cancer in the most clinically relevant approach to inform policy and health care delivery that can positively impact patient outcomes.Patients and Methods:We conducted a retrospective cohort study using linked Texas Cancer Registry and Medicare claims data. We included elderly Texas residents diagnosed with GI cancer and identified risk factors for unplanned readmission using generalized estimating equations, comparing medical with surgical cancer-related hospitalizations.Results:We analyzed 69,693 hospitalizations from 31,736 patients. The unplanned readmission rate was higher after medical hospitalizations than after surgical hospitalizations (21.6% v 13.4%, respectively). Share...
Methodological factors as a potential source of discordance between self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity and related constructs.

Abstract There is a consistent but poorly understood finding that self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity are weakly correlated or uncorrelated. There are many possible explanations for this observation, including differences in how these instruments are administered and scored. The present study examined the utility of alternative scoring algorithms for self-report measures that aim to identify participants' peak impulsivity (or self-control), informed by estimates of item difficulty from Item Response Theory (IRT) analyses. College students were administered self-report questionnaires (Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale [ZSS], Barratt Impulsiveness Scale [BIS-11], behavioral measures related to risk-taking and impulsivity (Balloon Analog Risk Task [BART], Experiential Discounting Task [EDT]), and the substance use module of a clinical interview (past-six-month alcohol and marijuana use). IRT analyses were conducted on self-report measures to estimate item difficulty. Scoring algorithms ranked items by difficulty and scored items based on consecutive items endorsed or denied. A maximal scoring algorithm increased the concordance between the BIS-11 and BART (r = 0.08 vs. −0.07), but there was no evidence of increased incremental validity for substance-use. Findings suggest that methodological factors may help explain the poor concordance of self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity, but the magnitude of these correlations remained quite small. Further, alternative scoring algorithms were correlated with substance use but did not explain any variance that was distinct from typical algorithms. Future directions are discussed for elucidating the discrepancy between self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity-related constructs, such as using large self-report item pools to develop computer adaptive tests.
Managing childhood cancer survivors at risk for stroke: Practice norms and areas of controversy.

124Background: Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) treated with cranial radiation (CR) are at increased risk for stroke. There is no evidence to guide stroke prevention strategies for CSS. We aimed to...
Solution Conformation and Segmental Flexibility of Immunoglobulins

The immune response is highly complex and is regulated by an interwoven network of feedback mechanisms in which antibody molecules play a central role. One of the major functions of antibody is to initiate biological effector functions after binding to specific antigens. These effector functions are varied and include: (1) recognition of incoming antigen by specific memory cells, leading to differentiation of the small B lymphocyte to an antibody-producing plasma cell; (2) complement activation, which has several end results, e.g., cell lysis, as well as elaboration of chemotactic and inflammatory factors; (3) immediate hypersensitivity, which involves release of histamine from mast cells and basophils; (4) T-cell helper and suppressor functions, which control the immune response; (5) cell-mediated immunity. All these processes share in common the specific combination of antibody and antigen (the recognition step), which then triggers more general biochemical events (the biological effector steps). In the case of T-cell function, the role of immunoglobulin (Ig) has not been firmly established, but there is recent evidence for an Ig-like molecule on the surface of T cells that can bind antigen (reviewed by Marchalonis, 1975).
Emotions in the Ether: Strategies for Effective Emotional Expression in Text-Messages

This essay offers an exploration of the practice of emotional expression in text-messages, and gives recommendations concerning how best to signify emotion when communicating with text-messages. Emotions can be shown in text-messages in two ways: With words and with orthography. Two potential problems associated with expressing emotions in text-messages are ambiguity of tone and disinhibited communicative behavior. Two of the advantages of expressing emotions in text-messages are ease of contact between interlocutors and the control text-message senders have over their messages. When the two methods of expressing emotion in text-messages are understood, the two problems are avoided, and the two benefits are embraced, text-messages can be more effective tools for sharing emotional meaning– and thus more effective tools for personal connection.
Institutional, Subcultural, and Individual Determinants of Same-Sex Sexual Contact Among College Women

While the collegiate hookup literature identifies the prevalence and conditions under which women engage in same-sex sexual behaviors, less is understood about the macro- and mesolevel features of ...
Cystic and Encapsulated Atypical Thymoma (World Health Organization Type B3).

Objectives Eight cases of encapsulated and cystic atypical thymomas (World Health Organization type B3) are presented. Methods Cases were identified after review of more than 500 thymomas. Histologic material from surgical resections was evaluated. Results The patients are seven men and one woman aged 43 to 71 years. Seven patients presented with nonspecific symptoms while one mass was found on autopsy. The tumors were 4 to 6 cm in greatest dimension and showed prominent cystic changes with an epithelial proliferation arranged in sheets and cords. Increased mitotic activity and nuclear pleomorphism were not identified. All tumors were encapsulated. Immunohistochemical studies showed the tumor cells positive for keratin cocktail, keratin 5/6, and p63. Clinical follow-up was available in five patients. All were alive without recurrence. Conclusions These cases represent an unusual variant of atypical thymoma that can be misdiagnosed as thymic carcinoma or multilocular thymic cyst. Awareness of this histologic growth pattern is important for accurate diagnosis.
Does distance matter? Examining the distance effect on tourists’ multi-attraction travel behaviors

The purpose of this study was to examine the difference in the multi-attraction travel behavior patterns of short-haul and long-haul tourists in Incheon, South Korea. A network t-test analysis and ...
Spectroscopic study of the pH dependent interaction of an achiral molecular photo-switch with poly-Glutamic acid

Abstract In this manuscript we present a spectroscopic study of the supramolecular interaction of photo-switchable 4,4′-Azobenzene dicarboxylic acid (ADA) with L and D poly-Glutamic acid (Poly-Glu). ADA is water-soluble and undergoes photo-isomerisation between trans and cis geometries when irradiated with UV and visible light. Non-covalent assembly of the photo-switch with the polypeptide is induced by reducing the pH of an aqueous solution containing both the ADA and Poly-Glu and characterized with circular dichroism (CD) and UV–vis spectroscopy. The properties of the aggregates depend on multiple factors such as the molecular conformation of the photo-switch, which is selected with UV and visible light, the pH of the solution and the manner in which the pH is reduced (rapid vs. slow reduction). The polypeptide acts as a chiral template for trans-ADA chromophores as demonstrated by the appearance of an induced CD signal of the achiral photo-switch in the presence of Poly-L-Glu at reduced pH. In neutral aqueous solutions trans-ADA can be photo-isomerised to cis-ADA, however, its aggregated form loses this capability. In contrast to the trans geometry, CD and UV–vis spectroscopy show that Poly-Glu is unable to function as a chiral template during the aggregation of cis-ADA. Nevertheless, the polymer is able to induce chirality when cis-ADA aggregates are photo-isomerised to the trans form by irradiation with visible light, as shown by the appearance of an induced CD signal. Distinct differences observed in the CD and UV–vis spectra depending on the mode of pH reduction, indicates that assembly occurs under hierarchical control.
Enforcing Compliance: The Case of Automatic License Suspensions

Non-incarcerative punishments such as fines are widely used, but the deterrence and distributional effects of this class of punishments depend crucially on the consequences for punishment noncompliance. I provide new evidence on the importance of these noncompliance costs using a unique natural experiment in Washington that first eliminated and then reinstated automatic driver's license suspensions as a penalty for noncompliance with traffic offenses. The shift in noncompliance costs created by automatic license suspensions lead to large increases in compliance, fine-repayment and total punishment with a stronger effect in low-income zip-codes, but also suggestive declines in traffic accidents among low-income drivers.
The Impact of Diabetic Conditions and AGE/RAGE Signaling on Cardiac Fibroblast Migration

Diabetic individuals have an increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease due to stiffening of the left ventricle (LV), which is thought to occur, in part, by increased AGE/RAGE signaling inducing fibroblast differentiation. Advanced glycated end-products (AGEs) accumulate within the body over time, and under hyperglycemic conditions, the formation and accumulation of AGEs is accelerated. AGEs exert their effect by binding to their receptor (RAGE) and can induce myofibroblast differentiation, leading to increased cell migration. Previous studies have focused on fibroblast migration during wound healing, in which diabetics have impaired fibroblast migration compared to healthy individuals. However, the impact of diabetic conditions as well as AGE/RAGE signaling has not been extensively studied in cardiac fibroblasts. Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine how the AGE/RAGE signaling pathway impacts cell migration in non-diabetic and diabetic cardiac fibroblasts. Cardiac fibroblasts were isolated from non-diabetic and diabetic mice with and without functional RAGE and used to perform a migration assay. Cardiac fibroblasts were plated on plastic, non-diabetic, or diabetic collagen, and when confluency was reached, a line of migration was generated by scratching the plate and followed by treatment with pharmacological agents that modify AGE/RAGE signaling. Modification of the AGE/RAGE signaling cascade was done with ERK1/2 and PKC-ζ inhibitors as well as treatment with exogenous AGEs. Diabetic fibroblasts displayed an increase in migration compared to non-diabetic fibroblasts whereas inhibiting the AGE/RAGE signaling pathway resulted in a significant increase in migration. The results indicate that the AGE/RAGE signaling cascade causes a decrease in cardiac fibroblast migration and altering the pathway will produce alterations in cardiac fibroblast migration.
Phase I trial of autologous cMET-directed CAR-t cells administered intravenously in patients with melanoma & breast carcinoma.

10035Background: Advanced relapsed/refractory melanoma and metastatic triple-negative breast cancer are lethal diseases for which effective therapies are limited. We conducted a pilot phase I clini...
Characterizing the Ice-Ocean Interface of Icy Worlds: A Theoretical Approach

Abstract We investigate the structure and evolution of multiphase ice-ocean interfaces (‘mushy layers’) and the implications for the geophysics and habitability of ice-ocean worlds. Understanding the potential diversity of these multiphase layers across solar system bodies provides insight into the potential rates and mechanisms of heat and solute transport between their respective oceans and ice shells - which remain largely unconstrained. Additionally, variations in mushy layer properties may drive diverse geophysical processes unique to individual bodies or that may vary regionally on an individual icy world. We explore mushy layer evolution by analytically solving for the thickness of a simplified ice-ocean mushy layer system. We investigate two dynamic regimes, one driven by molecular diffusion and one driven by convection of brine within the mushy layer. We analyze the impact of gravity, thermal gradient, and ocean composition on the thickness of mushy layers. Additionally, a perturbation analysis is carried out to investigate the existence of mushy layer steady states. We show that stable mushy layers exist when ice shells are thickening, suggesting that mushy layers are likely persistent and common features of growing ice shells and accretionary regions of ice-ocean worlds.
Abrogation of survival disparity between Black and White individuals after the USPSTF′s 2012 prostate‐specific antigen–based prostate cancer screening recommendation

Background In May 2012, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer (PCa), assigning it a grade D. This decision then was modified in 2018 to a grade C for men aged 55 to 69 years. The authors hypothesized that changes in screening practices would reduce survival outcomes for both Black and White men but maintain racial discrepancies in outcomes. Methods Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, the authors examined PCa-specific survival based on race and year of diagnosis. The period between January 2010 and December 2012 was categorized as the pre-USPSTF era, whereas the period between January 2014 and December 2016 was classified as the post-USPSTF era. The year 2013 was considered the transition year and was excluded from the analysis. Results A total of 49,388 men were identified in the pre-USPSTF era who were diagnosed with PCa, approximately 83.7% of whom were White and 16.3% of whom were Black. In the post-USPSTF era, a total of 41,829 men were diagnosed with PCa, approximately 82.7% of whom were White and 17.3% of whom were Black. When compared with the pre-USPSTF era, men diagnosed in the post-USPSTF era were found to have more adverse clinical features. In the pre-USPSTF era, White men were less likely to die of PCa than Black men. This survival disparity between White and Black men was no longer observed in the post-USPSTF era. Conclusions In men diagnosed with PCa between 2014 and 2016, a survival disparity between White and Black men was not observed due to a decrease in survival among White men while the survival of Black men remained steady.
Teaching the Design and Fabrication of RPD Frameworks With a Digital Workflow: A Preclinical Dental Exercise.

Introduction The conventional method for teaching removable partial denture (RPD) design using a pencil drawing on a solid cast has always been the basis for teaching RPD design in most dental scho...
Erfahrungen bei der quantitativen Analyse von flüchtigen organischen Mikroverunreinigungen in Luft

Die halbautomatische Probenaufgabe auf die Kapillartrennsaule bei der routinemasigen Trennung und Identifizierung von Luftverunreinigungen im Bereich von 10−4 bis 10−8 Vol.-% sowie Aspekte der quantitativen Analyse dieser Proben werden beschrieben. Im Routinebetrieb sind Retentionsindizes mit einer Genauigkeit von 0,3 bis 0,6 Einheiten reproduzierbar. Die relative Streuung der Konzentrationsmessungen liegt bei 4,5%.
Mexico's Energy Regime Reforms: Rescission Risk, Mitigation, and Dispute Resolution

In July 2017, an international consortium of energy companies from the United States, Mexico, and the United Kingdom announced a significant crude oil discovery in shallow waters off the east coast of Mexico. This discovery is not only the fifth largest global oil discovery in the last five years and perhaps one of the top shallow-water fields discovered in the past twenty years, but, as “‘the first offshore exploration well drilled by the private sector in Mexico's history[,]”’ it has historical significance as well. This important find was made possible pursuant to recent landmark reforms to Mexico's energy legal regime that now allow foreign investors to participate in Mexico's energy sector. Prior to these reforms, Mexico's energy industry was among the most tightly controlled in the world, closely associated with national sovereignty. Indeed, many consider the Mexican petroleum expropriation of 1938 to be “the apogee of Mexican resource nationalism ... [and] a patriotic triumph” that is celebrated as Oil Expropriation Day, a national holiday, each March 18th. Resource nationalism, sometimes expressed in its extreme form as expropriation, is a systemic risk for private international oil companies. Given the historical precedent in Mexico for the use of expropriation within the energy sector, and with the recent upsurge in expropriations of foreign-owned oil assets in Bolivia, Ecuador, Russia, and Venezuela, the Mexican government's approach to dispute resolution was a critical factor for foreign investors eager to take advantage of the Mexican energy reforms. While the reform package does authorize parties to exploration and production (E&P) contracts to agree upon alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including arbitration, it also contains a controversial unilateral rescission exception that could greatly impact foreign investors This article will briefly review the history of oil production in Mexico and the governing legal regime in Part I, and in Part II, the recent reforms to that regime thereto. Part III will consider the reform's dispute resolution provisions and administrative rescission. Part IV will offer possible mechanisms by which foreign investors might mitigate the risk of administrative rescission to protect their investment in the Mexican energy sector. The final reflections of this article will focus upon the status and current success of Mexico's attempts to attract large international companies to invest significant amounts of capital and assets into Mexico's energy industry, despite concerns related to unilateral rescission.
Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness for Prevention of Severe Influenza-Associated Illness Among Adults in the United States, 2019-2020: A Test-Negative Study.

Background Influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) against a spectrum of severe disease, including critical illness and death, remains poorly characterized. Methods We conducted a test-negative study in an intensive care unit (ICU) network at 10 United States hospitals to evaluate VE for preventing influenza-associated severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) during the 2019-2020 season, which was characterized by circulation of drifted A/H1N1 and B-lineage viruses. Cases were adults hospitalized in the ICU and a targeted number outside the ICU (to capture a spectrum of severity) with laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated SARI. Test-negative controls were frequency-matched based on hospital, timing of admission, and care location (ICU vs non-ICU). Estimates were adjusted for age, comorbidities, and other confounders. Results Among 638 patients, the median (interquartile) age was 57 (44-68) years; 286 (44.8%) patients were treated in the ICU and 42 (6.6%) died during hospitalization. Forty-five percent of cases and 61% of controls were vaccinated, which resulted in an overall VE of 32% (95% CI: 2 to 53%), including 28% (-9% to 52%) against influenza A, and 52% (13% to 74%) against influenza B. VE was higher in adults 18-49 years old (62%; 95% CI: 27% to 81%) than those 50-64 years old (20%, -48% to 57%) and ≥65 years old (-3%; 95% CI: -97% to 46%) (p=0.0789 for interaction). VE was significantly higher against influenza-associated death (80%, 95% CI: 4% to 96%) than non-fatal influenza illness. Conclusions During a season with drifted viruses, vaccination reduced severe influenza-associated illness among adults by 32%. VE was high among young adults.
A Markov Decision Process Workflow for Automating Interior Design

We present a novel workflow based on artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to automate interior design processes. We discuss the essential steps for creating an intelligent agent that can automatically perceive the design environment (perception) and produce design ideas (action). In the first step, we use photographs or video images to model three-dimensional coordinates and exact positions of surface points on objects inside the interior space. We then convert the collected spatial data to a set or cloud of points. To fully model the interior space, we create either a triangulated surface or a mesh from the points and then transform it into a detailed building information model (BIM). Last, we apply texture data to either the 3D surface/mesh or the building information model. In the second step, we develop a sequential decision-making model based on Markov decision process for the intelligent agent to make design decisions in the BIM environment. We apply the proposed workflow to a case study with 512 possible design options, conduct experiments with 20 participants where design decisions are made based on AI insights, and perform statistical analysis on the experiment results. Our findings show the proposed workflow is capable of improving participants’ satisfaction by only searching through on average 5.1% of all possible design options. Also, across all performance measures, design decisions proposed by the AI system outperform designs made randomly.
Longitudinal analysis of human humoral responses after vaccination with a live attenuated V. cholerae vaccine

Vibrio cholerae is a bacterial pathogen which causes the severe acute diarrheal disease cholera. Given that a symptomatic incident of cholera can lead to long term protection, a thorough understanding of the immune response to this pathogen is needed to identify parameters critical to the generation and durability of immunity. To approach this, we utilized a live attenuated cholera vaccine to model the response to V. cholerae infection in 12 naive subjects. We found that this live attenuated vaccine induced durable vibriocidal antibody titers that were maintained at least one year after vaccination. Similar to what we previously reported in infected patients from Bangladesh, we found that vaccination induced plasmablast responses were primarily specific to the two immunodominant antigens lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and cholera toxin (CT). Interestingly, the magnitude of the early plasmablast response at day 7 predicted the serological outcome of vaccination at day 30. However, this correlation was no longer present at later timepoints. The acute responses displayed preferential immunoglobulin isotype usage, with LPS specific cells being largely IgM or IgA producing, while cholera toxin responses were predominantly IgG. Finally, CCR9 was highly expressed on vaccine induced plasmablasts, especially on IgM and IgA producing cells, suggesting a role in migration to the gastrointestinal tract. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that the use of a live attenuated cholera vaccine is an effective tool to examine the primary and long-term immune response following V. cholerae exposure. Additionally, it provides insight into the phenotype and specificity of the cells which likely return to and mediate immunity at the intestinal mucosa. A thorough understanding of these properties both in peripheral blood and in the intestinal mucosae will inform future vaccine development against both cholera and other mucosal pathogens. Trial Registration: NCT03251495.
Handbook of Optical Materials

CRYSTALLINE MATERIALS Introduction Physical Properties Optical Properties Mechanical Properties Thermal Properties Magnetooptic Properties Electrooptic Properties Elastooptic Properties Nonlinear Optical Properties GLASSES Introduction Commercial Optical Glasses Specialty Optical Glasses Fused Silica Fluoride Glasses Chalcogenide Glasses Magnetooptic Properties Electrooptic Properties Elastooptic Properties Nonlinear Optical Properties Special Glasses POLYMERIC MATERIALS Optical Plastics Index of Refraction Nonlinear Optical Properties Thermal Properties Engineering Data METALS Physical Properties of Selected Metals Optical Properties Mechanical Properties Thermal Properties Mirror Substrate Materials LIQUIDS Introduction Water Physical Properties of Selected Liquids Index of Refraction Nonlinear Optical Properties Magnetooptic Properties Commercial Optical Liquids GASES Introduction Physical Properties of Selected Gases Index of Refraction Nonlinear Optical Properties Magnetooptic Properties Atomic Resonance Filters APPENDICES Safe Handling of Optical Materials Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Mineralogical or Common Names for Optical Materials Abbreviations for Methods of Preparing Optical Materials and Thin Films Fundamental Physical Constants Units and Conversion Factors
Provability in TBLL: A Decision Procedure

We prove the decidability of the Tensor-Bang fragment of linear logic and establish an upper (doubly exponential) bound.
Towards a Methodology for Robust Parameter Identification

The paper considers the problem of estimating, from experimental data, real parameters for a model with uncertainty in the form of both additive noise and norm bounded perturbations. Such models frequently arise in robust control theory, and a framework is introduced for the consideration of experimental data in robust control analysis problems. If the analysis tools applied include robust stability tests for real parameter variations (real ?), then the framework can be used to address the problem of "robust" parameter identification. While the techniques discussed here can quickly become computationally overwhelming when applied to physical systems and real data, the approach introduces a new way of looking at the identification problem and may be helpful in arriving at a more tractable methodology.
Barth and Anselm: God, Christ and the Atonement

This article considers God, Christ and the atonement in the work of Anselm and Barth. It identifies key points of agreement regarding God's self-assigned identity and the importance of dyothelitism; it discerns a marked divergence of opinion with respect to the atonement. Anselm construes the atonement in terms of a gift that Christ offers on behalf of sinful humankind. Barth, on the other hand, presents a view of atonement that builds on his revolutionary doctrine of election. He describes the cross as an event in which sin is ‘burned up’, cancelled and overcome within the time and space of God's being.
Strain coupling of diamond nitrogen vacancy centers to nanomechanical resonators

We fabricate high quality factor diamond cantilevers containing nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers. Strain-mediated coupling of the NV spin to the displacement of a mechanical mode is observed in optically detected electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements.
Gaussian Random Fields on Sub-Manifolds for Characterizing Brain Surfaces

This paper provides analytical methods for characterizing the variation of the shape of neuro-anatomically significant substructures of the brain in an ensemble of brain images. The focus of this paper is on the neuro-anatomical variation of the “shape” of 2-dimensional surfaces in the brain. Brain surfaces are studied by building templates that are smooth sub-manifolds of the underlying coordinate system of the brain. Variation of the shape in populations is quantified via defining Gaussian random vector fields on these sub-manifolds. Methods for the empirical construction of Gaussian random vector fields for representing the variations of the substructures are presented. As an example, using these methods we characterize the shape of the hippocampus in a population of normal controls and schizophrenic brains. Results from a recently completed study comparing shapes of the hippocampus in a group of matched schizophrenic and normal control subjects are presented. Bayesian hypothesis test is formulated to cluster the normal and schizophrenic hippocampi in the population of 20 individuals.
Potential of low temperature CMOS with normal and superconductive interconnect

The potential of high-T/sub c/ superconductive interconnects in CMOS-based digital systems is examined theoretically using system simulation, a new design tool for electronic packages and systems. A 1.5- mu m-technology CMOS processor, with 500000 circuits partitioned into 25 chips packaged as a single multichip module, is examined. The best implementation with superconductive interconnects at 77 K has a cycle time of 9.6 ns, which is about six times faster than the baseline design with normal metal (Al, Cu) interconnects at 300 K. >
Enzymology of human cytosolic sulfotransferases.

Conjugation of many xenobiotics, drugs, and endogenous compounds with a sulfonate moiety is an important reaction in their biotransformation. Sulfation of these compounds generally results in a decrease in biological activity and an increase in their urinary excretion. However, in certain instances, sulfation results in bioactivation to reactive electrophilic or therapeutically active forms. At least four cytosolic sulfotransferases (STs) have been identified and characterized from human tissues. These enzymes are two forms of phenol ST (PST), the phenol-sulfating and the monoamine-sulfating forms of PST (P-PST and M-PST, respectively), an estrogen sulfotransferase (EST), and a hydroxysteroid ST, dehydroepiandrosterone ST (DHEA-ST). Although four cytosolic STs have been well characterized in human tissues, evidence is accumulating for the presence of allelic forms or additional distinct forms of the STs in human tissues. The STs possess distinct but overlapping substrate specificities, and all of the STs ...