cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Methods for lowering nitrosamine levels in cigarette smoke and likely effect on lung cancer rate

B142 Gritz et al. (Cancer Epi Biom Prev 16:859, 2007) call for increased research to reduce risk of lung cancer in smokers, but do not mention question of safer cigarettes, which offer most immediate promise for reducing risk of lung cancer. Most smoking-related lung cancer is almost certainly induced by chemical carcinogens, especially tobacco-specific nitrosamine (TSNA) 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), both of which can induce lung cancer in animals. Cigarettes show large world-wide variations in TSNA content, with highest levels in U.S.A. Cigarette TSNA and nitrate levels were strongly correlated, suggesting that TSNA arise from reaciton of amines with nitrate-derived nitrite in tobacco. TSNA level was not correlated with tar content of mainstream cigarette smoke. Most evidence indicates that TSNA in cigarette smoke arise by transfer of TSNA (which are somewhat volatile) in cigarettes. Hence lowering TSNA levels in cigarettes should reduce smokers’ exposure to TSNA. Mean TSNA content was 2.8 μg/g Swedish snuff (“ethan snus”) compared to 33 μg/g for all U.S. snuff brands. Apparently, TSNA level in snus are low mainly because it is manufactured by heating freshly picked tobacco leaves with steam, which produces relatively sterile and dry tobacco, whereas U.S. cigarette and snuff tobacco is stored for weeks in moist curing barns. Storage causes proliferation of bacteria that reduce nitrate to nitrite, which can produce nitrosamines by bacteria-catalyzed or chemical nitrosation. Also, snus is kept refrigerated in stores selling the product. Previous efforts to reduce risk by marketing low-tar low-nicotine cigarettes failed because cigarettes were smoked more intensely or more often to maintain blood nicotine levels. Recent increased prevalence of lung adenocarcinoma compared to lung squamous cell carcinoma could be due to reduction of PAH but not TSNA levels in filter cigarettes. Therefore, to lower TSNA levels in cigarettes, we should (a) reduce application of nitrate fertilizer to tobacco plants, (b) use tobacco strains that produce low TSNA yields and, especially, (c) cure and store tobacco by methods used for snus. Such measures are unlikely to lower incidence of smoking-induced deaths from heart disease, stroke and emphysema, which cause most deaths due to smoking and are probably not due to TSNA or PAH. However, these changes may prevent a large proportion of deaths due to lung cancer (160.000/year in U.S.A.). I thank Steven S. Hecht (Univ. Minn. Cancer Center, Minneapolis, MN) for advice and help with literature.
Varied System Geometry and Noise Implementation Applied to Nonlinear Model Tracking

The following is a study in nondestructive health monitoring wherein the physical system being studied is excited near resonance and mapped through its transition from health to failure. The system studied is a slender cantilever beam excited near its second natural frequency. For this study, no damage is initiated and so it comes in contrast to the more common techniques where the damage type and location allow for an element of control in instrumentation and analysis. The method implemented allows for health monitoring in situ, so it does not require stopping the event to do system testing, as is the case for many common approaches. Moreover, this method, implements a nonlinear model of the physical system, avoiding false flags that can be problematic for linear-based methods when applied to systems demonstrating healthy nonlinear behavior. The method, known as Nonlinear Model Tracking (NMT) uses a theoretical model of the system that includes a cubic nonlinear stiffness term. Experimentally, stimulus and response data are collected and used in Continuous Time-based system identification to estimate the system’s nonlinear stiffness coefficient. Harmonic fitting to the two recorded data sets allow for robust performance in the presence of noise and variations in the system geometry show that, even in cases where the nonlinear model is not accurate for the system being studied, the method works consistently. In many of the tests the method gives premonition of failure hours in advance, which would in many real world scenarios, gives users time to react safely. This study focusses particularly on varying inputs to the system and attempting to map changes in parameter estimation to stages of damage.Copyright © 2016 by ASME
Defining “Research” in Rural Healthcare Ethics

In their article “Rural Healthcare Ethics: Is There a Literature?,” Nelson, Lushkov, Pomerantz, and Weeks contend that bioethicists have paid too little attention to the unique ethical issues which...
Dopamine antagonists for treatment resistance in autism spectrum disorders: review and focus on BDNF stimulators loxapine and amitriptyline

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Drug development and repurposing are urgently needed for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and psychiatric comorbidity, which often presents as aggression and self-injury.Areas covered: We review dopamine antagonists, including classical and atypical, as well as unconventional antipsychotics in ASD. The older antipsychotic loxapine is discussed in terms of preliminary albeit limited evidence in ASD. Emerging promise of amitriptyline in ASD is discussed, together with promising BDNF effects of loxapine and amitriptyline.Expert opinion: In ASD, pharmacotherapy and specifically dopamine antagonist drugs are often prescribed for challenging behaviors including aggression. The novel antipsychotics risperidone and aripiprazole have received most study in ASD and are FDA-approved for irritability in children with ASD over age 5 years; individuals with ASD are prone to weight gain, Type II diabetes and associated side effects. Low dose loxapine has properties of classical and ...
Searching for charged Higgs bosons with boosted top and boosted bottom jets

At moderate values of tanβ , a supersymmetric charged Higgs boson H ± is difficult to find due its small cross section and large backgrounds. Using realistic boosted tagging rates, we present preliminary predictions for the reach for TeV-scale charged Higgs bosons at 14 TeV and 100 TeV colliders in top-Higgs associated production. We conclude that moderate values of tanβ will be possible to probe at a 100 TeV collider.
Navy Bean and Rice Bran Intake Alters the Plasma Metabolome of Children at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease

Abnormal cholesterol in childhood predicts cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in adulthood. Navy beans and rice bran have demonstrated efficacy in regulating blood lipids in adults and children; however, their effects on modulating the child plasma metabolome has not been investigated and warrants investigation. A pilot, randomized-controlled, clinical trial was conducted in 38 children (10 ± 0.8 years old) with abnormal cholesterol. Participants consumed a snack for 4 weeks containing either: no navy bean or rice bran (control); 17.5 g/day cooked navy bean powder; 15 g/day heat-stabilized rice bran, or; 9 g/day navy beans and 8 g/day rice bran. Plasma metabolites were extracted using 80% methanol for global, non-targeted metabolic profiling via ultra-high performance liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Differences in plasma metabolite levels after 4 weeks of dietary intervention compared to control and baseline were analyzed using analysis of variance and Welch’s t-tests (p≤0.05). Navy bean and/or rice bran consumption influenced 71 plasma compounds compared to control (p≤0.05), with lipids representing 46% of the total plasma metabolome. Significant changes determined for 18 plasma lipids in the navy bean group and 10 plasma lipids for the rice bran group compared to control, and 48 lipids in the navy bean group and 40 in the rice bran group compared to baseline, support the hypothesis that consumption of these foods impact blood lipid metabolism with implications for reducing CVD risk in children. Complementary and distinct lipid pathways were affected by the diet groups, including acylcarnitines and lysolipids (navy bean), sphingolipids (rice bran), and phospholipids (navy bean + rice bran). Navy bean consumption decreased free fatty acids associated with metabolic diseases (palmitate and arachidonate) and increased the relative abundance of endogenous anti-inflammatory lipids (endocannabinoids, N-linoleoylglycine, 12,13-diHOME). Several diet-derived amino acids, phytochemicals, and cofactors/vitamins with cardioprotective properties were increased compared to control and/or baseline, including 6-oxopiperidine-2-carboxylate (1.87-fold), N-methylpipecolate (1.89-fold), trigonelline (4.44- to 7.75-fold), S-methylcysteine (2.12-fold) (navy bean), salicylate (2.74-fold), and pyridoxal (3.35- to 3.96-fold) (rice bran). Findings from this pilot study support the need for investigating the effects of these foods for longer durations to reduce CVD risk. Trial registration: clinicaltrails.gov (identifier NCT01911390).
Examining the Effectiveness of Video Instruction on Teaching Daily Living Skills to Adolescents and Young Adults With Intellectual Disability

Independently performing essential daily living skills enables individuals to become more self-sufficient adults. Those with intellectual disability (ID) tend to require direct instruction and repetition to successfully aquire everyday tasks. Many adults with ID continue to show deficits in this domain, affecting independent living abilities (Luftig & Muthert, 2005). Video-based instruction holds promise in increasing autonomous functioning while decreasing reliance on staff. This review of the literature examines the effectiveness of using video instruction (VI) to teach daily living skills to adolescents and young adults with ID. Acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of target skills are examined across the literature. A total of 12 empirical articles on VI were reviewed, all published between 2006-2017. Findings support the use of VI when teaching daily living skills to adolescents and adults with mild or moderate ID. Implications for research and practice are offered.
High Throughput Affinity Purification and Mass Spectrometry to Determine Protein Complex Interactions

Affinity purification, or immunoprecipitation, followed by mass spectrometry (AP/MS or IP/MS, respectively) is a proper and powerful method to analyze protein complexes. Technological capabilities of mass spectrometry instrumentation have dramatically improved over the last decade, and now allow routine detection of high- and low-abundance components in composite protein mixtures, expanding our ability to use co-immunoprecipitation to study cellular regulatory protein interaction networks. In this review, we summarize several key efforts and accomplishments in applying mass spectrometry towards mapping of a proteome-wide interactome. Emerging high-throughput studies begin to etch a ‘systems biology’ view of protein-protein interactions, where modularity and interconnectivity of cellular protein machinery are unequivocally revealed. Yet, major challenges still remain in the application of high-throughput (HT) affinity purification for studies in higher organisms, particularly in human cells, and in addressing persistent issues associated with analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of massive IP/MS data. We describe some of the conceptual and practical challenges of the HT-IP/MS approach, and discuss feasible solutions in context of the protein complexes involved in transcriptional regulation.
Angiotensin II: a new therapeutic option for vasodilatory shock

Angiotensin II (Ang II), part of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS), is a potent vasoconstrictor and has been recently approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration in high-output shock. Though not a new drug, the recently published Angiotensin II for the Treatment of High Output Shock (ATHOS-3) trial, as well as a number of retrospective analyses have sparked renewed interest in the use of Ang II, which may have a role in treating refractory shock. We describe refractory shock, the unique mechanism of action of Ang II, RAS dysregulation in shock, and the evidence supporting the use of Ang II to restore blood pressure. Evidence suggests that Ang II may preferentially be of benefit in acute kidney injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome, where the RAS is known to be disrupted. Additionally, there may be a role for Ang II in cardiogenic shock, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor overdose, cardiac arrest, liver failure, and in settings of extracorporeal circulation.
Assessing an architecture's ability to support feature evolution

Enabling rapid feature delivery is essential for product success and is therefore a goal of software architecture design. But how can we determine if and to what extent an architecture is "good enough" to support feature addition and evolution, or determine if a refactoring effort is successful in that features can be added more easily? In this paper, we contribute a concept called the Feature Space, and a formal definition of Feature Dependency, derived from a software project’s revision history. We capture the dependency relations among the features of a system in a feature dependency structure matrix (FDSM), using features as first-class design elements. We also propose a Feature Decoupling Level (FDL) metric that can be used to measure the level of independence among features. Our investigation of 17 open source projects shows that files within each feature space are much more likely to be changed together, hence each feature space forms a meaningful maintainable unit that should be treated separately. The data also show that the history-based FDL is highly correlated a structure-based maintainability metric: Decoupling Level (DL). When we examine a project’s evolution history, we see that if a system is well-modularized, it is more likely that features can be added independently. For shorter periods of time, however, FDL and DL may not be consistent, e.g., when the addition of new features deviates from the designed architecture or does not involve parts of the system that have architecture flaws. In such cases, FDL and FDSM can be used to monitor potential architecture degradation caused by improper feature addition.
An Experiment to Characterize the Decomposer Community Associated with Carcasses (Sus scrofa domesticus) on Oahu, Hawaii.

Pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) carcasses were decomposed on the soil surface of a terrestrial habitat on the island of Oahu,Hawaii to begin characterizing the decomposer community. Results showed that carcasses can decompose rapidly on Oahu, primarily due tothe activity of fly larvae, with~80% of mass lost by 8 days (~220 ADD) postmortem. Scavenging was conducted exclusively by the smallIndian mongoose (Herpestes javanicus), first feeding on larvae then feeding on the remains. Carcasses were habitats of warm temperature, littleto no oxygen, slightly acidic/neutral pH, and high sodium concentration. Larval masses selected for a microbial community comprised of multi-ple bacterial taxa from phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, particularly generaClostridium,Proteus, andProvidencia. These larval masseswere well established from 3 to 8 days (~90 to~220 ADD) postmortem. These data provide helpful, novel insight into the structure and activ-ity of carcass decomposer communities on Oahu.
Temporal and Geographic Patterns of Social Media Posts About an Emerging Suicide Game.

Abstract Purpose Rates of suicide are increasing rapidly among youth. Social media messages and online games promoting suicide are a concern for parents and clinicians. We examined the timing and location of social media posts about one alleged youth suicide game to better understand the degree to which social media data can provide earlier public health awareness. Methods We conducted a search of all public social media posts and news articles on the Blue Whale Challenge (BWC), an alleged suicide game, from January 1, 2013, through June 30, 2017. Data were retrieved through multiple keyword search; sources included social media platforms Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Tumblr, as well as blogs, forums, and news articles. Posts were classified into three categories: individual “pro”-BWC posts (support for game), individual “anti”-BWC posts (opposition to game), and media reports. Timing and location of posts were assessed. Results Overall, 95,555 social media posts and articles about the BWC were collected. In total, over one-quarter (28.3%) were “pro”-BWC. The first U.S. news article related to the BWC was published approximately 4 months after the first English language U.S. social media post about the BWC and 9 months after the first U.S. social media post in any language. By the close of the study period, “pro”-BWC posts had spread to 127 countries. Conclusions Novel online risks to mental health, such as prosuicide games or messages, can spread rapidly and globally. Better understanding social media and Web data may allow for detection of such threats earlier than is currently possible.
Deaf Women's Health: Adherence to Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Recommendations

Introduction No prevalence studies on cancer screening adherence among Deaf women have been conducted in the past decade. Current data on breast and cervical cancer screening are needed from Deaf women who adhered or did not adhere to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force screening guidelines. The objectives of this study were to assess whether disparities for cancer screening adherence persist for Deaf women compared with the general population and whether racial and ethnic disparities for adherence exist among Deaf women. Methods Data for adherence to Pap (n=529, Deaf women; n=1,119, hearing women) and mammogram screening (n=324, Deaf women; n=1,086, hearing women) were drawn from the Health Information National Trends Survey in American Sign Language (Deaf women; February–August 2017 and October 2017–May 2018) and the Health Information National Trends Survey 5, Cycle 1, data set (hearing women; January–May 2017). Data were analyzed in 2018. Propensity score model of the weighed samples estimated the probability of adherence among the entire sample and within the sample of Deaf women for each screening test. Results About 78% (n=415) of age-eligible Deaf women and 85% (n=956) of age-eligible hearing women adhered to Pap screening recommendations (p Conclusions This is a call to action for targeted, accessible health promotion interventions for age-eligible Deaf women to increase adherence to cervical cancer screening.
Uncertainty and previvors’ cancer risk management: understanding the decision-making process

ABSTRACTWomen who test positive for a BRCA genetic mutation, but who have not been diagnosed, or 'previvors,' experience intense, chronological risk-related uncertainty. Women’s risk management med...
Thermal properties of sweet sorghum bagasse as a function of moisture content

In this study, we examined the relationship between thermal properties and moisture content of sweet sorghum bagasse. A KD2 Pro Thermal Properties Analyzer was used to measure the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric specific heat of sweet sorghum bagasse across a range of moisture contents (8.52% - 28.62% w.b.). The thermal conductivity of sweet sorghum bagasse ranged from 0.0921 to 0.1096 W m -1 K -1 and increased with increase in moisture content through the range of 8.52% - 28.62% w.b. The thermal diffusivity ranged from 0.1225 to 0.1596 mm 2 s -1 and increased with moisture content through the range of 8.52% - 28.62% w.b. The volumetric specific heat of sweet sorghum bagasse ranged from 0.7537 to 0.6869 MJ m -3 K -1 and decreased with moisture content through the range of 8.52% - 28.62% w.b. Quantitative empirical equations incorporating moisture content and room temperature dependent terms were developed to predict thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric specific heat of sweet sorghum bagasse between 8.52% and 28.62% (w.b.) moisture content. The models are valid within the limits of the parameters used in the experiments.
Agile gamification: activities and techniques to create a winning learning environment

This tutorial will present tools and activities to add gamification to your software engineering or systems analysis and design courses that utilize agile development methodologies. The tutorial will provide a brief pedagogical overview of gamification as a method to entice students and imprint important agile concepts on the student psyche.
Navigating the Ship of Theseus from typology to cartography

Taxonomy is the business of describing and naming organismal diversity. What that means exactly must shift as our conceptual framework shifts (as it did during the time of Darwin) and as what we are able to see shifts as a result of technological assists. We are at a moment of profound conceptual and technological change. Here I give some personal thoughts on three top questions in taxonomy. Are traditional naming conventions compatible with massive cryptic genetic discontinuity? Can we agree on what we are delimiting and naming? Can we excite public interest without typology?
APOE Alleles and Diet in Brain Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

The APOE gene alleles modify human aging and the response to the diet at many levels with diverse pleotropic effects from gut to brain. To understand the interactions of APOE isoforms and diet, we analyze how cellular trafficking of apoE proteins affects energy metabolism, the immune system, and reproduction. The age-accelerating APOE4 allele alters the endosomal trafficking of cell surface receptors that mediate lipid and glucose metabolism. The APOE4 allele is the ancestral human allele, joined by APOE3 and then APOE2 in the human species. Under conditions of high infection, uncertain food, and shorter life expectancy, APOE4 may be adaptive for reducing mortality. As humans transitioned into modern less-infectious environments and longer life spans, APOE4 increased risks of aging-related diseases, particularly impacting arteries and the brain. The association of APOE4 with glucose dysregulation and body weight promotes many aging-associated diseases. Additionally, the APOE gene locus interacts with adjacent genes on chromosome 19 in haplotypes that modify neurodegeneration and metabolism, for which we anticipate complex gene-environment interactions. We summarize how diet and Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk are altered by APOE genotype in both animal and human studies and identify gaps. Much remains obscure in how APOE alleles modify nutritional factors in human aging. Identifying risk variant haplotypes in the APOE gene complex will clarify homeostatic adaptive responses to environmental conditions.
Emergency Center Curbside Screening During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that has placed a significant burden on health care systems in the United States. Michigan has been one of the top states affected by COVID-19. Objective: We describe the emergency center curbside testing procedure implemented at Beaumont Hospital, a large hospital in Royal Oak, MI, and aim to evaluate its safety and efficiency. Methods: Anticipating a surge in patients requiring testing, Beaumont Health implemented curbside testing, operated by a multidisciplinary team of health care workers, including physicians, advanced practice providers, residents, nurses, technicians, and registration staff. We report on the following outcomes over a period of 26 days (March 12, 2020, to April 6, 2020): time to medical decision, time spent documenting electronic medical records, overall screening time, and emergency center return evaluations. Results: In total, 2782 patients received curbside services. A nasopharyngeal swab was performed on 1176 patients (41%), out of whom 348 (29.6%) tested positive. The median time for the entire process (from registration to discharge) was 28 minutes (IQR 17-44). The median time to final medical decision was 15 minutes (IQR 8-27). The median time from medical decision to discharge was 9 minutes (IQR 5-16). Only 257 patients (9.2%) returned to the emergency center for an evaluation within 7 or more days, of whom 64 were admitted to the hospital, 11 remained admitted, and 4 expired. Conclusions: Our curbside testing model encourages the incorporation of this model at other high-volume facilities during an infectious disease pandemic.
Patient and Physician Perspectives on Training to Improve Communication Through Secure Messaging

Purpose To incorporate the perspectives of both patients and providers into the development of training to improve the exchange of secure messages through a patient portal, as well as identify mana...
TransCarotid Revascularization with Dynamic Flow reversal versus Carotid Endarterectomy in the Vascular Quality Initiative Surveillance Project.

OBJECTIVE To compare the outcomes of TransCarotid Artery Revascularization with flow reversal (TCAR) to the gold standard carotid endarterectomy (CEA) using data from the Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative TCAR Surveillance Project. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA TCAR is a novel minimally invasive procedure for carotid revascularization in high-risk patients that is associated with significantly lower stroke rates compared with carotid artery stenting via the transfemoral approach. METHODS Patients in the United States and Canada who underwent TCAR and CEA for carotid artery stenosis (2016- 2019) were included. Propensity scores were calculated based on baseline clinical variables and used to match patients in the two treatment groups (n=6,384 each). The primary endpoint was the combined outcome of perioperative stroke and/or death. RESULTS No significant differences were observed between TCAR and CEA in terms of in-hospital stroke/death [TCAR,1·6% vs.CEA,1·6%, RR (95% CI):1·01(0·77-1·33), P=·945], stroke [1·4% vs.1·4%, RR(95%CI):1·02(0·76-1·37), P=·881], or death [0·4% vs.0·3%, RR (95%CI):1·14 (0·64-2·02), P =·662]. Compared to CEA, TCAR was associated with lower rates of in-hospital myocardial infarction [0·5% vs. 0·9%, RR (95%CI):0·53 (0·35-0·83), P =·005], cranial nerve injury [0·4% vs.2·7%, RR(95%CI):0·14(0·08-0·23), P<·001], and post-procedural hypertension [13% vs.18·8%, RR(95% CI):0·69(0·63-0·76), P <·001]. They were also less likely to stay in the hospital for more than one day [26·4% vs.30·1%, RR (95%CI):0·88(0·82-0·94), P<·001]. No significant interaction was observed between procedure and symptomatic status in predicting postoperative outcomes. At one year, the incidence of ipsilateral stroke or death was similar between the two groups [HR (95%CI):1·09(0·87-1·36), P=·44]. CONCLUSIONS This propensity-score matched analysis demonstrated significant reduction in the risk of postoperative myocardial infarction and cranial nerve injury after TCAR compared to CEA, with no differences in the rates of stroke/death.
Expectant Management of a Critically Ill Pregnant Patient with COVID-19 with Good Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes.

Background Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is responsible for a global pandemic that has significantly affected New York City. There is limited data about COVID-19 infection in pregnancy, especially in critically ill patients. Case A 30-year-old female who presented at 26 weeks gestation with acute severe respiratory distress that required intubation and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. We had a high suspicion of COVID-19 disease despite repeated negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing, with eventual positive COVID IgG antibody testing. Through an integration of obstetrical knowledge, critical care, and comparing outcomes from similar cases in the literature, we decided to expectantly manage her pregnancy and did not recommend administration of antenatal steroids. She was extubated after 23 days of mechanical ventilation and recovered from her respiratory illness. She had a full-term spontaneous vaginal delivery of a baby boy at 39 weeks gestation with excellent maternal and fetal outcomes at delivery. Conclusion In the face of COVID-19, a new disease with unclear maternal and fetal outcomes to date, a collaboration of care teams is essential to navigate through the challenging decisions made, including timing of delivery, treatment options, and administration of steroids. Our paper is unique as there is no other published case report of a critically ill pregnant patient with COVID-19 in which delivery was deferred, and a full recovery was observed, with a vaginal delivery at term.
A two-year study on the phenology, host and habitat associations, and pathogens of Haemaphysalis longicornis in Virginia, U.S.A.

Understanding the abiotic and biotic variables affecting tick populations is essential for studying the biology and health risks associated with vector species. We conducted a study on the phenology of exotic Haemaphysalis longicornis (Asian longhorned tick) at a site in Albemarle County, Virginia. We assessed the importance of available wildlife hosts, habitats, and microclimate variables such as temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed on this exotic tick9s presence and abundance. In addition, we determined the prevalence of selected tick-borne pathogens potentially transmitted by H. longicornis. We determined that the seasonal activity of H. longicornis was slightly different from previous studies in the northeastern United States. We observed nymphal ticks persist year-round but were most active in the spring, followed by a peak in adult activity in the summer and larval activity in the fall seasons. We also observed a lower probability of detecting H. longicornis in field habitats and the summer months. In addition, we detected H. longicornis on several wildlife hosts, including coyote (Canis latrans), eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), raccoon (Procyon lotor), Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), woodchuck (Marmota monax), and a Peromyscus sp. This is the first detection of this tick on a rodent host important to the epidemiology of tick-borne pathogens of humans and animals. Finally, we continued to detect the exotic piroplasm parasite, Theileria orientalis Ikeda, in H. longicornis as well as other pathogens, including Rickettsia felis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (AP-1), and a Hepatozoon sp. previously characterized in Amblyomma americanum. These represent some of the first detections of arthropod-borne pathogens native to the United States in host-seeking H. longicornis. These data increase our understanding of H. longicornis biology in the United States and provide valuable information into the future health risks associated with this tick and pathogens.
Evidence on the speed of convergence to market efficiency

Abstract Daily returns for stocks listed on the New York Exchange (NYSE) are not serially correlated while order imbalances on the same stocks are highly persistent. These empirical facts can be reconciled if sophisticated investors react to order imbalances within the trading day by undertaking enough countervailing trades to remove serial dependence over a daily horizon. How long does this actually take? The pattern of intra-day serial dependence reveals that it takes more than five minutes but less than sixty minutes.
Economic, environmental and grid-resilience benefits of converting diesel trains to battery-electric

Nearly all US locomotives are propelled by diesel-electric drives, which emit 35 million tonnes of CO2 and produce air pollution causing about 1,000 premature deaths annually, accounting for approximately US$6.5 billion in annual health damage costs. Improved battery technology plus access to cheap renewable electricity open the possibility of battery-electric rail. Here we show that a 241-km range can be achieved using a single standard boxcar equipped with a 14-MWh battery and inverter, while consuming half the energy consumed by diesel trains. At near-future battery prices, battery-electric trains can achieve parity with diesel-electric trains if environmental costs are included or if rail companies can access wholesale electricity prices and achieve 40% use of fast-charging infrastructure. Accounting for reduced criteria air pollutants and CO2 emissions, switching to battery-electric propulsion would save the US freight rail sector US$94 billion over 20 years. More efficient and cheaper battery technology has the potential to transform not just automobile but other kinds of transport. Popovich et al. do a techno-economic analysis of battery-electric trains and find potential for both economic benefits and emissions reduction.
Proceedings of the 15th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking

Welcome to Beijing and to ACM MobiCom 2009, the 15th Annual Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking. MobiCom has become the premier venue for top quality research in mobile computing and networking, and the entire organizing committee has attempted to assemble for you a top-notch technical program consisting of papers, posters, demos, keynote lectures and a panel on cutting-edge topics in wireless networking and mobile computing. We hope you have a stimulating, enjoyable, and fruitful experience at the conference! The centerpiece of the conference, the technical program, consists, as in past years, a thought-provoking mixture of systems and theory papers. These span the gamut of topics in wireless networking, touching upon mobile phones, mesh networks, body area networks, infrastructure-based wireless networks, and on-chip wireless communication! The technical program consists of 30 papers, selected from 282 submissions received from 30 countries worldwide, after a thorough two-stage review process in which we received a total of 956 reviews, or about 3.4 reviews on average per paper! At the program committee meeting in Los Angeles, we discussed 65 papers before converging on the final program. There were two features of the review process that deserve mention. First, we selected an associate technical program committee consisting of junior academic researchers, as well as senior researchers from industry and government labs. They brought valuable perspective to the second-stage of the review process. Second, a group of researchers in Asia organized a shadow technical program committee. The shadow PC process was designed to expose junior researchers in Asia to submissions to a top notch conference. Its process was completely decoupled from the main technical program, and did not influence the selection of the papers for the technical program. Paper authors were given the option of choosing to have their papers reviewed by the shadow PC, and about half the submitted papers elected to do so. If the technical program is a success, it will be entirely due to the efforts of a very energetic group of researchers who formed the main technical program committee (TPC)! Each TPC member reviewed nearly 25 papers, participated in constructive electronic discussions before the program committee meeting, and attended or called into the TPC meeting from different parts of the globe. The meeting itself was infused with vigorous debate and thoughtful discussion, and remained lively till the very end, an indication of the TPC's dedication to upholding MobiCom's reputation as the premier mobile computing and networking conference! Coordinating the logistics of a TPC meeting for a top-tier conference is a difficult endeavor, and we could not have done it without the help of Gertrude Lewis and Justin Collins.
Do Broad-based Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and Stock Options Help the Best Firms Do Even Better?

This article analyses the linkages among group incentive methods of compensation (broad-based employee ownership, profit sharing and stock options), labour practices, worker assessments of workplace culture, turnover and firm performance in firms that applied to the ‘100 Best Companies to Work For in America’ competition from 2005 to 2007. Although employers with good labour practices self-select into the 100 Best Companies firms sample, which should bias the analysis against finding strong associations among modes of compensation, labour policies and outcomes, we find that employees in the firms that use group incentive pay more extensively participate more in decisions, have greater information sharing, trust supervisors more and report a more positive workplace culture than in other companies. The combination of group incentive pay with policies that empower employees and create a positive workplace culture reduces voluntary turnover and increases employee intent to stay and raises return on equity.
Creating unique customer experiences: the new business model of cross-enterprise integration

The manufacturing industry today is challenged with the task of designing new products that create value added experiences unique to every customer. Internet enabled cross-enterprise integration in product development will be the critical capability that will help executives overcome this challenge. This paper, which is based on research from in-depth interviews with senior executives in leading global manufacturing companies, describes best practices of leading manufacturers in cross-enterprise integration. It provides a road map for executives to conduct collaborative real-time product development through virtual relationships with their business partners located anywhere in the world. Ultimately, it serves as a useful tool for manufacturing executives who are striving to capture a larger share of customer wallet through integration-enabled product innovation.
Canonical package problem solved using six different codes

A major difficulty faced by package engineers in solving package problems is the reconciliation of results generated from multiple analysis techniques. Consider a signal integrity analysis of a net using 2D codes to characterize the long signal line (transmission line) portions and 3D LC or full-wave codes to characterize the discontinuity portions. Since the discontinuity must be modeled with an attached section of signal line to properly reflect the surroundings, an inconsistency results if these codes yield different results for the signal line portion. In this paper, we demonstrate a suite of tools and a package analysis methodology that provides the user with the consistency in results needed to assure correct subsequent simulation. A package structure involving two signal lines situated between a pair of mesh reference planes is solved using six different techniques ranging from static 2D to static 3D to full-wave 3D. The analysis methodology and code formulation are shown to yield results that closely agree between the approaches.
The CIA and the New York Times: An unanswered question

Abstract The author surveys a mysterious contact between CIA psychological warfare official Joseph Bryan III and New York Times officials in 1951, noting the need for further research into the relationship between the Agency and the media and the Agency and the FBI.
Erythroid progenitors circulating in the blood of adult individuals produce fetal hemoglobin in culture

Erythroid colonies, raised from erythroid stem cells circulating in the peripheral blood of normal adult individuals, synthesize considerable amounts of fetal hemoglobin. In cultures from persons with sickling disorders, amounts of hemoglobin F that are known to inhibit sickling in vivo are produced. The results provide evidence that primitive erythroid progenitors are able to express the hemoglobin F production program and that cultures of mononuclear cells of the adult blood can be used to investigate the mechanisms involved in regulation of gamma-globin gene switching.
Friends, Neighbors, and Boundaries

I’ll forgo the usual primer on Developmental Systems Theory (DST) for this little intervention: as a perspective, however, it will be holographically present, and some of its features will be made explicit along the way. Instead, I’ll just sketch some problems I’ve been thinking about, all of which circle around the theme of boundaries in organism-environment systems. For reasons that will become evident, in addressing the developmental systems framework I speak only for myself. The friends and neighbors of my title are obviously theoretical ones. They are so not so much different groups—the categories certainly overlap—as they are different aspects of our collegial relationships. Friends should be understood as enemies of my enemy, those with whom we make common cause. They are by our side at some scholarly barricade or other, perhaps engaging in the critiques of biological or social determinism that were part of my own academic development, or more recently of a variety of genecentrisms, adaptationism, representationalism, or the dominant strains of evolutionary psychology. 1 Such friends and allies tend to encounter each other on panels, in edited volumes, at workshops; on the page they often line up in the same citation-laden parentheses. The question of neighbors arises afterward, on the way home from the barricades, perhaps, when a united front is no longer necessary and you gaze at
Glycosaminoglycan deposition in engineered cartilage: Experiments and mathematical model

Functional cartilaginous constructs for scientific research and eventual tissue repair were cultivated in bioreactors starting from chondrocytes immobilized on polymeric scaffolds. The scaffolds gradually degraded as the cells regenerated tissue matrix consisting of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and type II collagen. To facilitate data interpretation and optimize cultivation conditions, a mathematical model was developed which yields the concentrations of oxygen and GAG as functions of time and position in growing tissue. Calculated GAG concentrations were qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with profiles measured via high-resolution image processing of tissue samples cultured at two different oxygen tensions for various periods of time.
Chlorpyrifos-Treated Crops in the Vicinity of Surface Water Contamination in the San Joaquin Valley, California, USA

Due to frequent contamination of streams in the San Joaquin Valley, California, USA, with the insecticide chlorpyrifos, researchers are working to identify crop-specific management practices that will reduce the offsite movement of this compound into surface waters. To guide this effort, crops treated with chlorpyrifos in the vicinity of contaminated streams were identified; walnut, alfalfa, and almond were the primary crops identified. Use was higher on walnut and almond, but due to irrigation practices offsite movement in surface runoff may be more likely from alfalfa. Based on these findings, development of management practices to reduce off-site movement of chlorpyrifos in irrigation runoff from treated alfalfa fields is recommended.
Avoiding stability-induced inefficiencies in BDF methods

Abstract Time-dependent partial differential equations are often treated by semidiscretization and the resulting problem solved using existing ordinary differential equation software restricted to low-order formulas. For certain classes of problems, the Backward Differentiation Formulas (BDF) are often dismissed due to their poor stability behavior near the imaginary axis for orders three and above. We explain why and for what problems this happens, what the appropriate tactic should be, and why this is not the tactic taken by most automatic codes. We present an idea that avoids this inefficiency in one automatic code.
A 2-dimensional feedback control system

THERE is a class of control systems whose objective is to control precisely and maintain a relationship between several dimensions. A simple example of this type of system is the contour-cutting lathe-tool control where the cutting edge of the tool is made to trace out a path in two dimensions, one in the direction of the bed movement and the other in the direction of the tool feed. One approach to the synthesis of a system to control the movement of the tool is to cause the bed to progress either at constant speed or at a programmed speed consistent with the particular cutting operation being performed. In any case, the movement in one dimension of the tool movement is open-cycle and the burden of following the prescribed path is placed entirely on the system which controls the depth movement of the tool. The latter control is usually closed-cycle and the system must have dynamic response to maintain the tool position to within given specifications as the bed is moved in its programmed path.
Computational Cost of Image Registration with a Parallel Binary Array Processor

The application of a simulated binary array processor (BAP) to the rapid analysis of a sequence of images has been studied. Several algorithms have been developed which may be implemented on many existing parallel processing machines. The characteristic operations of a BAP are discussed and analyzed. A set of preprocessing algorithms are described which are designed to register two images of TV-type video data in real time. These algorithms illustrate the potential uses of a BAP and their cost is analyzed in detail. The results of applying these algorithms to FLIR data and to noisy optical data are given. An analysis of these algorithms illustrates the importance of an efficient global feature extraction hardware for image understanding applications.
Self-control, attachment, and deviance among Hispanic adolescents

Abstract Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime has received considerable empirical attention since its publication in 1990. Implicitly embedded in self-control theory is its cross-cultural applicability, though this is seldom examined. In this study, self-control theory was tested in a novel cultural setting (San Juan, Puerto Rico) and in relation to maternal attachment. The analysis relied on data collected from a self-report survey administered to a sample of Puerto Rican adolescents attending public school in Dorado, Puerto Rico, part of metropolitan San Juan. Results indicated that maternal attachment was related to self-control and that both attachment and self-control independently predict deviant behavior. Further analyses revealed only partial support for the ability of low self-control to mediate the effects of attachment on deviant behavior, contrary to the general theory's predictions. Study limitations, directions for future research, and policy implications are also discussed.
Usurious Piety: The Cash Waqf Controversy in the Ottoman Empire

Among the various institutions and practices singled out as distinctly Ottoman contributions to Islamic civilization, one has drawn surprisingly little comment and analysis. Neither so eye-catching as the devsirme system nor as fundamental as the kanun, it still emerges as an important factor in Ottoman, thence Islamic, history. This is the legitimized practice of usurious piety, the waqf al-nuqūd (pl. awqaf al-nuqud), the establishment of a trust with money the interest from which might pay the salary of a teacher, or preacher, or even unashamedly pass into the pocket of the founder of the trust.
An Analytical Model on the Execution of Transactional Memory

In this paper, we develop an analytical model of the execution of transactional memory (TM) systems. This model employs queuing theory to analyze the impact of an essential set of TM design parameters including the conflict rate, number of checkpoints, and implementation overhead, etc. The model is validated via extensive experiments. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the model, we further study the performance impact of two factors. Our study shows that, for a given TM-based program, the frequency of performing checkpoint can be carefully chosen to minimize the mean transaction completion time. Our study also demonstrated the importance of reducing implementation overhead.