cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Exploiting distance based similarity in topic models for user intent detection

One of the main components of spoken language understanding is intent detection, which allows user goals to be identified. A challenging sub-task of intent detection is the identification of intent bearing phrases from a limited amount of training data, while maintaining the ability to generalize well. We present a new probabilistic topic model for jointly identifying semantic intents and common phrases in spoken language utterances. Our model jointly learns a set of intent dependent phrases and captures semantic intent clusters as distributions over these phrases based on a distance dependent sampling method. This sampling method uses proximity of words utterances when assigning words to latent topics. We evaluate our method on labeled utterances and present several examples of discovered semantic units. We demonstrate that our model outperforms standard topic models based on bag-of-words assumption.
Dynamical systems that perform the singular value decomposition

Abstract A dynamical system is presented whose solutions are shown to converge exponentially to the singular value decomposition of a given matrix provided that its singular values are distinct. This system has potential application to certain problems in adaptive control and adaptive filtering; it is one of several techniques that employ dynamical systems to perform tasks done conventionally with the techniques of numerical linear algebra.
Graphene oxide as a two-dimensional surfactant

Graphene oxide (GO) is a nonstoichiometric two-dimensional material obtained from the chemical oxidation and exfoliation of graphite, which has recently attracted intense research interest as a precursor for bulk production of graphene. GO has long been believed to be hydrophilic due to its dispersibility in water. Recent work in our group, however, has found that GO is actually a two-dimensional amphiphile; the edge of the sheet-like material is hydrophilic, while the basal plane of the material contains more hydrophobic graphitic nanodomains. To prove the concept, we demonstrate GO’s surface activity at an air-water interface, as well as its utility in dispersing insoluble aromatic materials such as toluene, graphite, and carbon nanotubes in water. As a colloidal surfactant which can be converted to a conducting material, GO presents unique possibilities for aqueous solution processing of organic electronic materials.
Reactions in the System Li2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2: II, Phase Equilibria in the High-Silica Region

Liquidus and subsolidus relationships were determined for compositions lying on the 65 and 75% SiO2 planes in the quaternary tetrahedron. From these data and from additional data on several compositions not lying on these two planes, a picture of the probable positions of the phase volumes and quaternary invariant points was formulated. Solid solution effects in quartz and in β-spodumene, the polymorphism of MgSiO3, the phase relationships along the join Li2O -MgO ° SiO2-Li2O. Al2O3.2SiO2, and the location of the β-spodumene-mullite boundary were briefly investigated as subsidiary problems during the course of the work. The significance of the data with respect to ceramic bodies and glazes is discussed.
Integrative Literature Review: Performance Interventions That Assist Chinese Expatriates’ Adjustment and Performance: Toward a Conceptual Approach:

China continues to rapidly grow globally. As China’s global presence continues to grow, the use of Chinese expatriates around the world will seemingly grow as well. However, little attention is pai...
Geophysical and Geochemical Constraints at Converging Plate Boundaries?Part I: Dehydration in the Downgoing Slab

Summary Geochemical constraints based upon compositions and mechanisms of formation and eruption of island arc volcanic rocks strongly suggest hydrous conditions in the region of primary magma generation. The source of most of the water is probably dehydration of the oceanic crust during underthrusting. Chemical reactions involving dehydration of representative oceanic crustal assemblages absorb enough heat to possibly negate any frictional heat which may be generated along the Benioff-Wadati zone in the upper 75 to 100 km of the underthrust zone. Calculations of thermodynamic parameters of relevant reactions at elevated pressures and temperatures show that N 50cal of heat are absorbed per gramme of oceanic crust dehydrated. The result of this heat absorption is suppression of isotherms not only in the oceanic crustal section of the downgoing slab but also in the overlying mantle wedge. Therefore, low heat fiow measured from the trenches to the volcanic arcs may be caused in part by the heat-sink effect of dehydration in the downgoing slab. The water released by dehydration either remains in the slab promoting its melting and the generation of andesitic primary magmas and/or escapes into the overlying wedge of mantle promoting its melting and the generation of the basaltic or andesitic primary magmas. The major thermal effect of the released water is to cool the wedge overlying the slab. The progressive geochemical changes in arc volcanism both in space and time may be controlled by the thermal conditions at the downgoing slab-peridotite wedge interface.
A technique for software module specification with examples

This paper presents an approach to writing specifications for parts of software systems. The main goal is to provide specifications sufficiently precise and complete that other pieces of software can be written to interact with the piece specified without additional information. The secondary goal is to include in the specification no more information than necessary to meet the first goal. The technique is illustrated by means of a variety of examples from a tutorial system.
Integration of flexible embedded control system design into the mechanical engineering curriculum

This paper describes a plan to enhance the dynamic systems and automatic controls component of the mechanical engineering curriculum at Kansas State University. The plan requires modification of existing courses and introduction of new courses and a laboratory. The objective is to prepare our engineering graduates to design dynamic physical systems which include intelligent sensors and actuators and embedded control systems. The planned changes are presented in contrast to our present curriculum. Modification of two courses and the addition of two courses are described. A new integrated control systems laboratory which will serve the two new and modified courses is detailed. Seven experimental systems are being built by teams of undergraduate honors research students. The development plan of the courses and labs is presented. This paper provides the details of the experimental equipment, the nature of the technology being disseminated, and the visions behind the development direction taken to realize the laboratory.
Epizootic of BEak DEformitiEs among WilD BirDs in alaska: an EmErging DisEasE in north amErica?

ABSTRACT. The sudden appearance of a large cluster of animals with gross abnormalities may signal a significant change in an ecosystem. We describe an unusual concentration of beak deformities that appear to have arisen rapidly within Alaska and now extend southward along the Pacific Coast. In Alaska we have documented 2,160 Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and 435 individuals of 29 other species of birds, primarily during the past decade, with grossly overgrown and often crossed beaks. The annual prevalence of beak abnormalities among adult Black-capped Chickadees in south-central Alaska varied from 3.6% to 9.7% and averaged 6.5 ± 0.5% between 1999 and 2008. Only 0.05 ± 0.05% of nestlings and 0.3 ± 0.2% of juveniles <6 months old had abnormal beaks, which suggests that this is either a latent developmental or an acquired condition. We documented 80 cases in which a Black-capped Chickadee captured with an apparently normal beak was subsequently recaptured with a beak abnormality and 8 cases ...
Immediate versus deferred initiation of androgen deprivation therapy in prostate cancer patients with PSA-only relapse

5003 Background: The optimal timing to start androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in patients with rising PSA as the only sign of relapse is unknown. ASCO guidelines state “the critical issue is to d...
Laser Ion Acceleration from the Interaction of Ultra-Intense laser Pulse with thi foils

The discovery that ultra-intense laser pulses (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}) can produce short pulse, high energy proton beams has renewed interest in the fundamental mechanisms that govern particle acceleration from laser-solid interactions. Experiments have shown that protons present as hydrocarbon contaminants on laser targets can be accelerated up to energies > 50 MeV. Different theoretical models that explain the observed results have been proposed. One model describes a front-surface acceleration mechanism based on the ponderomotive potential of the laser pulse. At high intensities (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}), the quiver energy of an electron oscillating in the electric field of the laser pulse exceeds the electron rest mass, requiring the consideration of relativistic effects. The relativistically correct ponderomotive potential is given by U{sub p} = ([1 + I{lambda}{sup 2}/1.3 x 10{sup 18}]{sup 1/2} - 1) m{sub o}c{sup 2}, where I{lambda}{sup 2} is the irradiance in W{micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2} and m{sub o}c{sup 2} is the electron rest mass.At laser irradiance of I{lambda}{sup 2} {approx} 10{sup 20} W{micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2}, the ponderomotive potential can be of order several MeV. A few recent experiments--discussed in Chapter 3 of this thesis--consider this ponderomotive potential sufficiently strong to accelerate protons from themore » front surface of the target to energies up to tens of MeV. Another model, known as Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), describes the mechanism as an electrostatic sheath on the back surface of the laser target. According to the TNSA model, relativistic hot electrons created at the laser-solid interaction penetrate the foil where a few escape to infinity. The remaining hot electrons are retained by the target potential and establish an electrostatic sheath on the back surface of the target.« less
Pulse shapes with reduced interference via optimal band-limited functions

A new method for the design of pulse shapes for digital communications is presented. This method utilizes a class of band-limited basis functions that are optimal in achieving simultaneous energy concentration in both frequency and time domains. We illustrate the advantage of the method by constructing signaling pulses for OFDM systems in the presence of inter carrier interference (ICI). The resulting pulses are compared to other pulses in terms of the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and symbol error rate (SER). A relatively simple design method yields pulses that are better than the the well known sine and raised-cosine pulses and comparable to another pulse recently proposed in the literature.
Lagrangian Parcel Volume Method for Particle Surface Flux

In order to simulate engine or airfoil icing effects, it is necessary to be able to track the path and concentration of water particles; this will allow for a better representation of water impingement and ice accretion. To accomplish this with a feasible amount of computing power, advances must be made in numerical techniques. Expanding on previous work which developed a Lagrangian Parcel Volume (LPV) method to evaluate particle concentrations for various two-dimensional (2-D) steady flows, the present study investigates the use of an LPV method to determine the mass flux in steady 2-D flows. Predictions were found to exhibit accuracy and efficiency comparable to other methods for predicting mass flux. When realistic flow conditions, such as particle-size distributions and nonlinear drag, were considered, predictions were found to agree well with experimental data near the centerline and impingement limits; at intermediate regions along the cylinder, calculations were found to underpredict impact efficiencies.
Effects of the Insect Growth Regulator Hydroprene on Diapausing Alfalfa Weevils

Hydroprene, when topically applied, terminated sexual diapause of adult Hypera postica (Gyllenhal). Significant changes in gonadal development, oviposition, and feeding were related to the concentration applied. A 1-μg amount of hydroprene terminated diapause in 15% of weevils, did not influence testis size, produced small increases in ovary size, instigated atypical oviposition in 10% of females, and increased feeding for 27 days. A five-μg amount terminated diapause in 37% of weevils, produced moderate increases in testis and ovary size, instigated atypical oviposition in 20% of females, and increased feeding for 27 days. A 10-μg amount terminated diapause in 66% of weevils, produced large increases in testis and ovary size, instigated atypical oviposition in 60% of females, and increased feeding for 37 days. A 50-μg amount terminated diapause in 100% weevils, produced large increases in testis and ovary size, instigated typical oviposition in 90% of females but with reduced egg fertility, and increased feeding for 49 days.
Warring with words: narrative and metaphor in politics

The study of rhetoric is one of our oldest scientific pursuits, with foundations laid over 2000 years ago by the ancient Greeks. Given this, it might seem strange how central the study of language ...
Predation and reduced grazing interact to reduce recruitment and population growth in Black Brant

ABSTRACT Dynamics of avian populations may be governed by a complex interaction between immediate effects of predation and longer-term trophic feedbacks between individuals and their foods. We used a long-term study of uniquely marked Black Brant geese (Branta bernicla nigricans) to estimate recruitment into the breeding population. We related recruitment to nest success, which directly affects recruitment 2 to 3 years later. We also assessed similarly time-lagged relationships between recruitment and number of nests in the colony, a measure of local density, and pre-fledging and first-year survival, the latter of which is strongly influenced by growth conditions and food availability for young of the year. We assessed relationships between number of recruits and explanatory variables in 2 sets of models, which either included or excluded a linear trend across years in numbers of recruits. The best-performing models in each model set explained a substantial proportion of the variation in numbers of recrui...
Web Services Gateway: Taking Advantage of the Cloud

Cloud computing has many advantages and is being used increasingly as an efficient and safe solution for web based services. This on-demnd self-service provides network access to a shared pooi of redundant computing resources. Software applications are being developed in the cloud and there are demands for the interoperability of these applications. A common way to meet this demand is the development of Web services applications, taking advantage of Service-oriented architecture principles. These loosely coupled Web base components pose some security challenges. This paper examines Security as a Service SECaaS solutions, as well to propose a new approach to security management in the cloud.
Electric dipole coupling in optical cavities and its implications for energy transfer, up-conversion, and pooling

Resonant energy transfer, energy transfer up-conversion, and energy pooling are considered within optical cavities to elucidate the relationship between exciton dynamics and donor-acceptor separation distance. This is accomplished by using perturbation theory to derive analytic expressions for the electric dipole coupling tensors of perfect planar and rectangular channel reflectors---directly related to a number of important energy-transfer processes. In the near field, the separation dependence along the cavity axis is not influenced by the cavity and is essentially the same as for three-dimensional free space. This is in sharp contrast with the reduced sensitivity to separation found in idealized low-dimensional settings. The cavity dynamics only correspond to their reduced-dimensional counterparts in the far field where such excitonic processes are not typically of interest. There is an intermediate regime, though, where sufficiently small cavities cause a substantial decrease in separation sensitivity that results in one component of the dipole-dipole coupling tensor being much larger than those of free space.
Building Privacy into the Infrastructure: Towards a New Identity Management Architecture

We are at risk of becoming digitally transparent to both government and the private sector. As it is increasingly obvious that US law is not going to prevent the destruction of personal privacy, we urgently need better privacy tools, baked into the way we do transactions. A partial, but significant, privacy enhancement would be a new Identity Management Architecture (IMA) enabling multiple privacy-protective transaction-empowered digital personae per user. Each persona (or ‘nym if you prefer) would have the ability to communicate, and at least a limited ability to transact, in a manner that would not be linkable, or least very difficult to link, to the real identity of the user. By using a variety of personae for online transactions, reading, and communication, users would defeat — or at least vastly reduce the effectiveness — of commercial and perhaps also governmental profiling.The problem is that an IMA that enables privacy enhanced personae is most unlikely to reach wide acceptance unless it is designed in a manner that makes it easy to use. It will not receive US governmental acceptance unless it also reduces the extent to which the personae can be used to break laws and evade contractual obligations. This paper thus discusses the legal and political considerations that might inform a requirements document for such an IMA with special reference to US law and likely US government reaction. It includes a survey of laws that parties engaging in or enabling anonymous or pseudonymous transactions should consider, and concludes with discussion of several critical design decisions including transnational credentials, the possibility of identity escrow for transactional personae, and speculation as to how personae might fare in the marketplace.The timeliness of this proposal is demonstrated by David Chaum’s recent announcement of new privacy protocol, PrivaTegrity, that contains most of the features needed to engineer a privacy-enhanced IMA that might be acceptable to law enforcement. The need for some action, whether based on PrivaTegrity or otherwise, is very great — so critical that it may time to accept the previously unthinkable, and accept some form of identity escrow as part of the IMA.
Will the Real Sport Historians Please Stand Up?: Shadow Boxing with an Absent Presenter

In June 2014, the Journal of American History published a special issue focused on sports history that, in part, contended that trained historians are better prepared to study sport history than those earning PhDs in other areas. While some contributors to the special issue celebrated the growth of the field, others lamented its lack of respect from their colleagues. My assessment is framed within the broader interdisciplinary field of kinesiology and argues that scholars in both history and kinesiology ought to be engaged in the conversation about the state of the field. These tensions related to academic qualifications and location of the field in history or kinesiology departments as the field grows are not new; nor are they are unique to sport history. Among my conclusions are the recognition of the multiple ways those in sport history can engage with broader audiences, as well as other inclusionary practices, to help foster relationships with our colleagues across the disciplines. Further, sport historians should also take some pride in the history of the field and the efforts of past sport historians who, in the face of colleagues who disrespected their area of study, ignored it and forged ahead, just as scholars do today.
Assessment and management of personality disorders

Patients with personality disorders are common in primary care settings; caring for them can be difficult and frustrating. The characteristics of these patients' personalities tend to elicit strong feelings in physicians, lead to the development of problematic physician-patient relationships, and complicate the task of diagnosing and managing medical and psychiatric disorders. These chronic, inflexible styles of perceiving oneself and interacting with others vary widely in presentation. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., these styles are categorized into three clusters based on their prominent characteristics: cluster A, the odd or eccentric (e.g., paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal); cluster B, the dramatic, emotional, or erratic (e.g., antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic); and cluster C, the anxious or fearful (e.g., avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive). Knowledge of the core characteristics of these disorders allows physicians to recognize, diagnose, and treat affected patients. The goal of management is to develop a working relationship with patients to help them receive the best possible care despite their chronic difficulties in interacting with physicians and the health care system. Effective interpersonal management strategies exist for these patients. These strategies vary depending on the specific diagnosis, and include interventions such as the use of specific communication styles, the establishment of clear boundaries, limit setting on the patients' behavior and use of medical resources, and provision of reassurance when appropriate. Additionally, medications may be useful in treating specific symptoms in some patients.
Adaptation of vascular pressure-flow-volume hysteresis in isolated rabbit lungs

Hysteresis within two pairs of variables describing the state of the lung vascular system [pulmonary arterial pressure (Ppa) and flow (Q) and Ppa and change in vascular volume (delta Vvasc)] was investigated in isolated plasma-perfused rabbit lungs. Q was increased and decreased stepwise, in series of five cycles each, while pulmonary venous pressure (Ppv) and lung volume were held constant. Changes in Vvasc were estimated from changes in fluid volume of the venous reservoir. The relationships within pairs of variables over each complete cycle were described by loops whose areas and widths were used to quantify the hysteresis. In successive cycles, these parameters decreased toward constant values (limit cycles), most of the change occurring by the second cycle. Areas of Ppa-delta Vvasc loops correlated closely with areas of Ppa-Q loops over all five cycles of a series. For Ppa-Q loops, the ratio of average pressure-width to total pressure excursion decreased from 0.15 initially to around 0.05 in the fifth cycle. It was concluded that the relationships between Ppa and Q and Ppa and delta Vvasc are markedly sensitive to vascular pressure or flow history.
College students with autism spectrum disorders: A growing role for adult psychiatrists

ABSTRACTObjective: Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are increasingly attending college. This case report highlights the nature of the psychiatric difficulties these individuals may face and the potential role for college mental health practitioners. Participants: A case of a female student with ASD presenting with significant inattentive symptoms. Methods: The authors describe the unique features of this patient's clinical presentation, discuss relevant diagnostic considerations, and make recommendations about how to best approach treatment. Results: This student presented with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which were first relevant during her time at college, owing to increased demands on planning and other executive functions. She was eventually responsive to treatment with a stimulant, but had more side effects early on. Conclusions: As individuals with ASD attend college, their mental health needs will require treatment. However, such treatment draws on a...
The Being of Illusion

Particular problems connected with the notion of a ground for appearance, if Being is taken to be all there is.
Soft error resilience of Big Data kernels through algorithmic approaches

As the volume of data generated each day continues to increase, more and more interest is put into Big Data algorithms and the insight they provide.? Since these analyses require a substantial amount of resources, including physical machines, power, and time, reliable execution of the algorithms becomes critical. This paper analyzes the error resilience of a select group of popular Big Data algorithms and shows how they can effectively be made more fault-tolerant. Using KULFI ( http://github.com/quadpixels/kulfi , 2013) and the LLVM (Proceedings of the 2004 international symposium on code generation and optimization (CGO 2004), San Jose, CA, USA, 2004) compiler for compilation allows injection of artificial soft faults throughout these algorithms, giving a thorough analysis of how faults in different locations can affect the outcome of the program. This information is then used to help guide incorporating fault tolerance mechanisms into the program, making them as impervious as possible to soft faults.
Evaluation of upper body kinematics and muscle activity during milking attachment task

Abstract The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of udder height on upper body kinematics and muscle activity during a simulated attachment task in a parallel parlor set up, and the effects of udder access method (back or side) on the task biomechanics. Twenty males performed the task under conditions that simulated three udder heights and two udder access methods. The muscular load and kinematics during the task confirmed that milking is a physically demanding task. Trunk flexion angle increased with decreasing udder height, and the erector spinae activation was higher when the udder was below shoulder height compared to at or above. Compared to accessing the udder from side of the cow (herringbone parlor style), accessing from behind (Parallel parlor style) was associated with lower trunk flexion, greater shoulder horizontal adduction, lower shoulder elevation, and greater anterior deltoid activation. Milking in herringbone parlor style and with the udder at or above shoulder level may help reduce strain on the trunk/neck.
Differences in the Early Writing Development of Struggling Children Who Beat the Odds and Those Who Did Not

ABSTRACTWe used mixed methods to examine differences in the early writing development of children, identified as at risk of literacy difficulties, in the context of Reading Recovery (RR). From an extant dataset of 24 children, we identified those who made fast progress (n = 6) and those who did not (n = 8). We studied change over time in the sources of information they used and problem-solving actions they took over the course of the intervention. We developed a writing rubric to analyze videos of writing interactions (280 min) and written messages (N = 674). Results demonstrated that the fast-progress group had higher end of intervention ratings for multiple dimensions of writing. HLM analysis showed that the fast-progress group had higher rates of growth in their use of sources of information (spelling and letter-sound relationships) and observable problem-solving behaviors. Fast- and slow-progress groups did not differ in what they wrote but, for both groups, dips in legibility coincided with increased...
Lookahead Bayesian Optimization with Inequality Constraints

We consider the task of optimizing an objective function subject to inequality constraints when both the objective and the constraints are expensive to evaluate. Bayesian optimization (BO) is a popular way to tackle optimization problems with expensive objective function evaluations, but has mostly been applied to unconstrained problems. Several BO approaches have been proposed to address expensive constraints but are limited to greedy strategies maximizing immediate reward. To address this limitation, we propose a lookahead approach that selects the next evaluation in order to maximize the long-term feasible reduction of the objective function. We present numerical experiments demonstrating the performance improvements of such a lookahead approach compared to several greedy BO algorithms, including constrained expected improvement (EIC) and predictive entropy search with constraint (PESC).
Total bone uptake in management of metastatic carcinoma of the prostate.

AbstractThe status of patients with skeletal metastases from prostatic carcinoma was determined from a quantitative uptake and retention measurement of the bone scanning radiopharmaceutical 99mtechnetium-methylene diphosphonate. Whole body counts were performed 5 minutes and 24 hours after intravenous administration of 99mtechnetium-methylene diphosphonate, and were expressed as the percentage uptake by the skeleton at 24 hours. Skeletal uptake determinations were done in 29 patients with prostatic cancer (17 with osseous metastases) who were evaluated at 3 to 6-month intervals. Group 1 consisted of patients who responded to therapy and achieved remission, group 2 included patients with relapse or progressive disease, group 3 consisted of those with metastases who were in remission for longer than 6 months and group 4 included those without evidence of any bony metastases. The baseline mean ± standard deviation 24-hour skeletal uptake values were 46.1 ± 12.0 per cent in group 1, 34.3 ± 13.9 per cent in gr...
Linkages between Children's Social and Academic Competence: A Longitudinal Analysis.

The relation between social and academic competence was examined in a group of school-age children (N = 163) using structural equation modeling to determine the direction of influence between these two domains across time. A model posing that a reciprocal relation exists between the two domains was tested. The two nested models within the reciprocal model were also tested. To test these models, social acceptance as well as prosocial and aggressive behaviors were assessed by teachers and peers, and children's academic achievement was measured by language and math report-card grades and work skills. Results supported the reciprocal model, indicating that academic achievement directly influenced social competence from both first to second and second to third grade, and social competence was reciprocally related to academic achievement from second to third grade. Implications of these findings for the education process are discussed.
Electric and Magnetic Fields of the Brain

Electroencephalography (EEG) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provide two noninvasive methods to learn about the spatial and temporal behavior of neuronal currents. In this tutorial chapter we present the physics and mathematics needed to interpret such measurements. The frequencies present in neuronal activity are sufficiently low that Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetism can be approximated by omitting the terms involving time derivatives. In this ‘quasistatic’ approximation the electric and magnetic fields follow the time dependence of the neuronal current. The “Forward Problem” consists of solving for these fields on the surface of the scalp and just outside the head, for any assumed neuronal current distribution. It requires a knowledge of the ‘head model’, namely the shapes and electrical conductivities of the main head compartments, i.e., the brain, skull, and scalp, and possibly the cerebrospinal fluid. Analytical and numerical methods for doing this are discussed. In the “Inverse Problem” one tries to deduce the neuronal current distribution from EEG and/or MEG measurements on human subjects. The factors that contribute to the non-uniqueness of the solution are discussed, and the methods that are actually employed to obtain current distributions are described. The standard procedure is to assume one or more current distributions, solve the forward problem for each one, and compare them with the data. Various criteria for calculating how well they agree are discussed.
Mississippi Bug Blues: An Outreach Program of the Mississippi Entomological Museum

ABSTRACT The Mississippi Bug Blues program is an outreach division of the Mississippi Entomological Museum that focuses mainly on invasive species. During the last four years the program has reach 81,726 individuals across classroom and staffed table displays. Additionally, the program has a webpage and social media accounts. Reports of number of individuals reached during the last four years are given as is a breakdown of the events attended during the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
A Narrative Approach to Terminating Therapy

Increasing the diversity of strategies for facilitating meaningful termination of therapy may be useful to practitioners in a number of settings including those conducting group guidance in the sch...
Pseudovascular squamous cell carcinoma with eosinophil-rich stroma

Pseudovascular squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a rare variant of SCC characterized by acantholysis and necrosis with preservation of vascular-like cords and spaces mimicking glands or vascular differentiation. Only three cases of this variant in the oral cavity have been reported in the literature. However, none of these cases were eosinophil-rich, which is considered to be a good prognostic indicator for conventional SCC. We report one case of an eosinophil-rich pseudovascular adenoid SCC in the oral cavity. A 38-year-old previously healthy African-American female presented with an enlarging inner left cheek mass with overlying ulcer of 2 months duration. A computed tomography scan with contrast demonstrated a large irregularly outlined peripherally enhancing mass located between the anterior margin of the ramus of the left mandible and maxilla protruding outward. An incisional biopsy was performed followed by a wide local excision 3 weeks later. She recovered well postoperatively but refused to follow-up chemoradiation therapy. Six months later, she presented with altered mental status secondary to hypercalcemia from bony metastases. She was discharged to a hospice facility as per her family's request. Histologic sections of the specimens revealed a diffuse hypercellular pleomorphic ill-circumscribed lesion with extensive necrosis. The viable areas exhibited slit vascular-like spaces and micropapillary architectural patterns with stromal eosinophilia. Focal small cellular nests with features of SCC were present. Immunohistochemistry displayed positivity for vimentin, p53, AE1/AE3 and CAM 5.2 (focally positive). All tumor cells were negative for desmin and CD34.
Optimal Trajectory and Length of S2 Alar Iliac Screws: A 3-Dimensional Computed-aided Design Study.

Study design A radiographic study of computed tomography scans of the pelvis converted to 3-dimensional imaging. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the optimal length and trajectory of S2 alar iliac (S2AI) screws. Summary of background data Solid pelvic fixation is a necessary component in thoracolumbar deformity surgery to protect sacral fixation and promote arthrodesis. The S2AI technique has been promoted as a way to reduce hardware prominence and instrumentation issues associated with traditional iliac fixation. Materials and methods In total, 64 of 100 patients randomly selected from our institution's spine registry were able to be converted to 3-dimensional imaging. Virtual screws were then placed in the optimal position for an S2AI screw on each side of the pelvis. The lateral and inferior angles were measured off-axial and sagittal planes, respectively. The distances from the notch and the remaining available screw length were also recorded. Results The average patient age was 38±16 years. The average lateral angle was 42.5±2.0 degrees and the inferior angle was 18.2±1.8 degrees. The screws fit bilaterally in all 64 patients without cortical breach. The remaining available screw distance was measured in all patients and found to be 40.5±8.7 mm. The average distance from the sciatic notch was 13.8±4.1 mm. Men had significantly more potential screw length when compared with women. Conclusions We found an average inferior angle of 18.2 degrees, which is less than the previously described angle range of 20-40 degrees. These findings suggest that an ideal trajectory may be significantly different than the previously described trajectory. We found that with the optimal trajectory, a 100 mm screw can fit in all patients without concern for cortical breach of the pelvis or violation of the hip joint.
Tight Weight-dependent Competitive Ratios for Online Edge-weighted Bipartite Matching and Beyond

We consider the general problem of selling a limited inventory of items to heterogeneous customers who arrive sequentially, and analyze the competitive ratio under adversarial arrivals. Previous work in this area, motivated by online matching, advertising, and assortment problems, has considered the case where each item can be sold at only a single price. This work has culminated in two classes of algorithms: "balance'' algorithms, which achieve the best-possible competitive ratio of 1-1/e in an asymptotic large-inventory ("small bids") regime; and "ranking'' algorithms, which achieve the best-possible competitive ratio of 1-1/e in the deterministic case of online matching. In this paper, we extend both of these classes of results to allow for items to have multiple feasible prices. Our algorithms introduce the idea of "booking limits'' from revenue management and integrate them into the multiplicative penalty functions used for online matching and allocation problems. Our algorithms achieve the best-possible weight-dependent competitive ratios, which depend on the sets of feasible prices given in advance. To establish this tightness, we show that by optimizing our additive "value function'' used to make allocation decisions, the resulting objective value is the same as that of an adversary's optimization problem for designing a weighted upper-triangular graph. Our "balance'' algorithm and its analysis further use a randomly-perturbed version of this value function; aside from being asymptotically optimal, they improve the best-known dependence of the competitive ratio on the starting inventory amounts.
Structure of the Cdc48 segregase in the act of unfolding an authentic substrate

The cellular machine Cdc48 functions in multiple biological pathways by segregating its protein substrates from a variety of stable environments such as organelles or multi-subunit complexes. Despite extensive studies, the mechanism of Cdc48 has remained obscure, and its reported structures are inconsistent with models of substrate translocation proposed for other AAA+ ATPases (adenosine triphosphatases). Here, we report a 3.7-angstrom-resolution structure of Cdc48 in complex with an adaptor protein and a native substrate. Cdc48 engages substrate by adopting a helical configuration of substrate-binding residues that extends through the central pore of both of the ATPase rings. These findings indicate a unified hand-over-hand mechanism of protein translocation by Cdc48 and other AAA+ ATPases.
Identification and characterization of fracture in metals using machine learning based texture recognition algorithms

Abstract Manual identification of brittle and ductile fracture regions in fractographic images of metals is cumbersome, time-consuming, and can be a subjective process. A supervised machine learning classifier in conjunction with a texture recognition algorithm is employed in this study to automatically identify the fracture type and evaluate their area fractions in fractographic images. The texture is a unique visual characteristic possessed by an object in an image that distinguishes it from the other objects. In the context of this study, both brittle and ductile fracture is assumed to possess unique textures. To quantify texture, Local Binary Pattern (LBP) texture quantification algorithm is employed in this study and the corresponding set of statistical metrics referred to as textural features are evaluated from both ductile and brittle fracture training images. These textural features are then used to train Linear Discriminant Analysis machine learning classifier whose performance is assessed using cross-validation technique. The trained algorithm is then deployed to identify the brittle and ductile fracture regions in fractographic images that are not used for training purposes. In this study, five different fractographic images of structural steels are used for validation purposes, and the fracture type is successfully identified.
Towards scalable edge-native applications

Latency-sensitive edge-native applications may be the key to commercial success of edge infrastructure. However, success in the form of widespread deployment of such applications poses its own challenges. These applications are edge-dependent by definition, and therefore cannot simply fail over to the cloud if the edge is overloaded. In this paper, we propose an adaptation-based strategy to allow scaling up the number of concurrent edge-native applications on a resource-limited cloudlet and wireless network. We demonstrate up to 40% reduction in offered load with minimal impact on latency on a variety of cognitive assistance tasks over non-adaptive approaches. Our approach is able to gracefully degrade and maintain quality of service for a subset of applications in the face of severely loaded conditions.
Retrospective cohort study of the relationship between systolic blood pressure variability and multiple sclerosis disability

Objective To examine the relationship between visit-to-visit systolic blood pressure (SBP) variability and patient-reported outcome measure of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Design A retrospective cohort study of individuals with MS who completed a patient-determined disease steps (PDDS) scale between 2011 and 2015 at an MS specialty clinic. Participants Individuals with MS for whom both a completed PDDS scale and ≥3 SBP measures within the prior 12 months of the survey were available. Main outcome measure Participants were grouped into three classes of disability (no or mild (PDDS 0–1), moderate (2–3), severe (4–7)). SBP variability was calculated as within-subject SD using all SBP measures taken during the past 12 months. SBP variability was analysed by Tertile groups. Results Ninety-two subjects were included in this analysis. Mean PDDS score was 2.22±1.89. Compared with subjects in Tertile 1 (lowest variability), the odds of being in a higher disability group was 3.5 times higher (OR=3.48; 95% CI: 1.08 to 11.25; p=0.037) in Tertile 2 and 5.2 times higher (OR=5.19; 95% CI: 1.53 to 17.61; p=0.008) in Tertile 3 (highest variability), independent of mean SBP, age, sex, race/ethnicity, body mass index and comorbidities (p for trend=0.008). Mean PDDS scores were 1.52±1.18 in Tertile 1, 2.73±1.02 in Tertile 2 and 2.42±0.89 in Tertile 3 after adjusting for the same covariates. Conclusions Our results show a significant gradient relationship between SBP variability and MS-related disability. More research is needed to determine the underlying pathophysiological relationship between SBP variability and MS disability progression.
Correlation between the temperature evolution of the interfacial region and the growing dynamic cooperativity length scale.

We study experimentally the temperature evolution of the thickness of the interfacial layer, Lint(T), between bulk matrices and the surface of nanoparticles in nanocomposites through broadband dielectric spectroscopy. Analyses revealed a power-law dependence between the logarithm of structural relaxation time in the interfacial layer, τint(T), and the Lint(T): lnτint(T)/τ0∝Lintβ(T)/T, with τ0 ∼ 10−12 s, and β index ∼0.67 at high temperatures and ∼1.7 at temperatures close to the glass transition temperature. In addition, our analysis revealed that the Lint(T) is comparable to the length scale of dynamic heterogeneity estimated from previous nonlinear dielectric measurements and the four-point NMR [ξNMR(T)], with Lint(T) ∼ ξNMR(T). These observations may suggest a direct correlation between the Lint(T) and the size of the cooperatively rearranging regions and have strong implications for understanding the dynamic heterogeneity and cooperativity in supercool liquids and their role in interfacial dynamics.
Clinical analysis of children acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Objective To analysis the clinical characteristics and the long-term effect of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).Methods From 2005 to 2010,80 newly diagnosed ALL children were enrolled and treated with protocol based on ALL-BFM2002.The five-years overall survival (OS)and event-free survival(EFS) were analyzed by the method of Kaplan-Meier.Results For the 80 patients,male to female ratio is 1.22∶1.The median age was 4.3 years.33 were in standard risk(41.2％),37 were in medium risk(46.3％),and 10 were in high risk(12.5％).22 had white blood cell count ≥20 x 109/L(27.5％).three patients with BCR-ABL translocation(3.8％),one patient with MLL gene rearrangement(1.3％),17 patients with TEL-AML translocation (21.3％).During induction therapy,79 patients (98.8 ％) achieved complete remission(CR).The five-years OS and EFS were (85.9 ± 4.0) ％ and (79.2 ± 4.7) ％ respectively.The five-years EFS:SR group (86.6 ± 6.4) ％,IR group (81.1 ± 6.4) ％,HR group (48.0 ± 16.4) ％.The difference among risk groups was statistically significant(x2 =7.03,P ＜0.05).12 patients relapsed(15.0％),the median time from diagnosis to relapse was 23.5 months.11 patients died (13.8 ％).Conclusion According to stratification by risk factors and risk-adapted therapy,the quality of ALL children's life had improved. Key words: Acute, lymphoblastic, Leukemia; Children; Event-free survival
Detecting and prosecuting contract cheating with evidence – a “Doping Test” approach

Contract cheating – outsourcing student assignments for a fee – presents a growing threat to the integrity of higher education. As contract cheating is based on students purchasing assignments that are original (albeit not created by the student), traditional plagiarism detection tools remain insufficient to detect contract cheating. Part of the problem is that proving contract cheating is difficult. As a result, instructors may find it hard to prosecute students (i.e. put them through university academic dishonesty proceedings). To help address the problem, this conceptual paper builds upon extant scholarship on contract cheating and argues that a novel evidence-based approach is needed. Such an approach should allow instructors to detect and prosecute cases of contract cheating effectively and efficiently. The paper then presents an outline of such an approach and calls it the “Doping Test” approach as it mimics some aspects of doping testing in professional sport.
Miscorrection Mitigation for Generalized Integrated Interleaved BCH Codes

The generalized integrated interleaved (GII) codes nest BCH sub-codewords to form codewords of more powerful BCH codes. They can achieve hyper-throughput decoding with excellent error-correcting performance and are among the most suitable codes for next-generation memories. However, the new storage class memories require high code rate and short codeword length. In this case, the sub-codewords have small correction capability. The miscorrections of the sub-codewords lead to much more severe degradation on the GII error-correcting performance compared to the miscorrections of classic BCH codes. This letter investigates the miscorrections in GII decoding. Three low-complexity methods are developed to identify and mitigate the miscorrections by utilizing the nested syndromes, adding one single parity to each sub-codeword, and keeping track of the error locator polynomial degree. Besides, formulas for estimating the miscorrection rates are given. Using the proposed mitigation methods, the actual GII decoding performance becomes very close to that of the case without any miscorrections.