cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of the department of defense’s field manual 3-11 in detecting, deterring and degrading the breach of a combat base by a human-borne with bioagent (HBBA): perceptions of security personnel

The department of defense’s FM 3-11 is among the military’s field manuals for preparing for, reacting to and recovering from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Since post 9-11, U.S. military service members have been deployed in the global war on terrorism. This study attempted to determine the effectiveness of the FM 3-11 in detecting, deterring or preventing a human-borne with bioagent (HBBA) terrorist breach at an entry control point (ECP). This time-specific, cross-sectional study disseminated a validated survey tool with Cronbach’s α > 0.82 to respondents who have had antiterrorism training and combat ECP experience. The return rate was greater than 75.0 %; however, many of the respondents failed to meet the inclusion criteria. Consequently, only 26 questionnaires were included in the sample. The results revealed that while over 60.0 % of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that biointelligence, the deployment of biodetectors and the use of biowarning systems could be effective in preventing an ECP breach by a terrorist with a bioagent, the use of protective equipment and immunization to decontaminate service members or other TTPs would never prevent a breach. A large percentage of respondents claimed that soldiers at the ECP lacked the devices or the knowledge to detect an HBBA at an ECP, and 72.0 % suggested modifying current ECP TTPs to include education, training and equipment for security personnel at military base ECPs. If obtained from appropriate sources and communicated to the personnel at the ECP in an effective or timely manner, the possible effectiveness of certain TTPs in the FM 3-11, specifically FM 3-11.86 (intelligence), might increase.
Human keratinocytes and tumor-derived cell lines express alternatively spliced forms of transforming growth factor-α mRNA, encoding precursors lacking carboxyl-terminal valine residues

The human transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-α) gene is thought to contain five introns and six exons, encoding a transmembrane precursor (proTGF-α) from which the mature polypeptide is released by proteolytic cleavage. We identified a novel 32-nucleotide exon (exon α) within intron 5 and an alternative splice acceptor site in exon 6, splitting exon 6 into two segments: 6A and 6B. Therefore, in addition to wild type (wt) proTGF-α mRNA, which skips exon α, two novel proTGF-α variants are produced: Variant I (VaI), skipping exons α and 6A, and Variant II (VaII) which includes exon α and skips exon 6A. The only significant difference between variant and wt proTGF-α proteins is that the two wt carboxyl-terminal valines are replaced in the variants by five or four other amino acids, respectively. Both variant TGF-α mRNAs were readily detected in human keratinocytes and tumor-derived cell lines. Their protein products were cleaved as efficiently as wt TGF-α in response to the calcium ionophore A23187. However, both variants (but not wt) reduced serum requirements for proliferation in CHO cells. In addition, VaII-expressing CHO cells (not VaI or wt) formed foci in monolayer cultures. These results suggest that variant TGF-α precursors induce autonomous growth.
SOME TECHNIQUES TO CALCULATE DESIGN CURRENTS IN SHELF AND STRATIFIED COASTAL WATERS

Increasing use of marine environments for (a) petroleum-related structures (both explorational and production), (b) subsea mining (e.g., sulfur and salt), (c) brine disposal from onshore salt domes excavated for oil storage, and (d) offshore waste disposal has necessitated more frequent and more accurate predictions of current speeds and directions in coastal and shelf waters. No analytical techniques for such predictions of wind- and density-driven currents in coastal waters are presented at all in the Shore Protection Manual (1973). Wiegel (1964), however, does discuss wind-driven currents, but offers no modern methodologies for their application to coastal and ocean engineering problems. Simple predictive models as outlined in this paper are especially valuable in feasibility studies, where the expense of a field measurement program is not yet justified. The prediction of oil spill trajectories is another important application for these procedures.
A Polarizable and Transferable PHAST CO2 Potential for Materials Simulation

Reliable PHAST (Potentials with High Accuracy Speed and Transferability) intermolecular potential energy functions for CO2 have been developed from first principles for use in heterogeneous systems, including one with explicit polarization. The intermolecular potentials have been expressed in a transferable form and parametrized from nearly exact electronic structure calculations. Models with and without explicit many-body polarization effects, known to be important in simulation of interfacial processes, are constructed. The models have been validated on pressure–density isotherms of bulk CO2 and adsorption in three metal–organic framework (MOF) materials. The present models appear to offer advantages over high quality fluid/liquid state potentials in describing CO2 interactions in interfacial environments where sorbates adopt orientations not commonly explored in bulk fluids. Thus, the nonpolar CO2-PHAST and polarizable CO2-PHAST* potentials are recommended for materials/interfacial simulations.
pH-Promoted Exponential Layer-by-Layer Assembly of Bicomponent Polyelectrolyte/Nanoparticle Multilayers

Exponential growth of layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled films is desirable because this method considerably increases the growth rate, resulting in much thicker films in a shorter period of time than is the case with normally linearly grown LbL thin films. For the first time, we demonstrate the exponential LbL (e-LbL) growth of poly(ethyleneimine)/SiO2 nanoparticles (PEI/SiO2) bicomponent thin films that consist mostly of SiO2 nanoparticles (over 90 wt % obtained by thermogravimetric analysis). These results are in contrast to earlier e-LbL studies, where the film thickness was made up mostly of the polyelectrolyte, with a very small percentage coming from the inorganic nanoparticles. Here, we show that the LbL growth of the PEI/SiO2 system significantly depends on the pH of the PEI and the SiO2 solutions. The e-LbL growth will only occur when the film is deposited with PEI at a high pH and SiO2 at a low pH. The exponential growth was characterized using a quartz crystal microbalance, atomic force microscopy...
Determinants of Red Cell Motion in the Microcirculation

In order for red blood cells (RBCs) to perform their function of oxygen transport and exchange, they must be able to flow through capillaries with diameters smaller than the major diameter of the RBC. Thus, the motion of RBCs in traversing the microcirculation necessitates their change of shape in response to hemodynamic forces. The remarkable RBC deformability is an important factor in keeping the viscous resistance of the normal blood at a low level and facilitating blood flow through the microcirculation.
Association analysis for oxalate concentration in spinach

Reducing oxalate content of spinach is a major breeding objective. The aim of this research was to conduct association analysis and identify SNP markers associated with oxalate concentration in spinach germplasm. A total of 310 spinach genotypes, including 300 USDA germplasm accessions and ten commercial cultivars, were used for the association analysis of oxalate concentration. Genotyping by sequencing was used to identify 841 SNPs among the genotypes examined for the association analysis. The distribution of oxalate concentration showed a near normal distribution with a wide range in concentrations from 647.2 to 1286.9 mg/100 g on a fresh weight basis and 53.4 to 108.8 mg/g on a dry weight basis. The range in oxalate concentration in spinach suggests that it is a complex quantitative trait which may be controlled by multiple genes, each with a minor effect among the tested spinach panel. Association analysis indicated that six SNP markers (AYZV02031464_116, AYZV02031464_117, AYZV02031464_95, AYZV02283363_2707, AYZV02287123_2830, and AYZV02296293_852) were associated with the oxalate concentration. The SNP markers may be useful for breeders to select germplasm for reduced oxalate concentrations in spinach breeding programs through marker-assisted selection.
Parties in Society: A Theoretical Overview

Political parties are major structures of politics in modern societies. In developing democracies they are universal phenomena. They are objects of intensive study, primarily because, as apparatuses of political action and social power, they engage in activities that may be of great consequence for the individual citizen and for the world in which that citizen lives. In order to understand parties and arrive at a useful way of thinking about them, we will discuss parties from three standpoints: their place in the political system, their nature as a special group, and their importance to democracy.
Continuity of Personality

There exists a largely unrecognized correspondence between two alter-native views of the nature of longitudinal continuity of behavior and the dual nature of the discipline of genetics. The significance of this corre-spondence lies in its heuristic value for conceptualizing the genetic basis of behavioral continuity and change. The two alternative perspectives on longitudinal continuity are probably apparent in contributions to this volume as well as earlier conceptualizations (e.g., Emde, 1978; Kagan, 1971, 1980; Lewis & Starr, 1979; McCall, 1977; Overton & Reese, 1981; Riegel, 1976; Wohlwill, 1973). At the risk of oversimplifying these contri-butions, two major themes of continuity can be discerned: (1) linear stability, in the sense of maintenance of rank order of interindividual or intraindividual differences in the same, related, or derivative behavioral dimensions; and (2) functional continuity at the level of behavioral systems, including continuity of goals of behavior across periods of reorga-nization. The latter view of continuity, rapidly gaining adherents because it offers explanations for change and emergent behavior as well as con-stancy, will be referred to as the organizational continuity perspective.
How Staff of Youth Programs Respond to Culture-Related Incidents: Nonengagement Versus Going "Full-Right-In".

Incidents in which program leaders confront issues of culture and race occur regularly in many youth programs. These incidents are important because they reflect powerful dimensions of youth’s live...
Young People and Violence

Violence is one of the leading causes of adolescent morbidity and mortality around the world. Young people are disproportionately represented among both the perpetrators and victims of violence. There are multiple factors within the contexts in which young people live, their families, schools, peer groups, neighborhoods, and sociopolitical environments, that predispose to and buffer against violence. Likewise, there are multiple preventive strategies that effectively address these factors and reduce violence involvement and injury. Youth violence can be prevented by applying science-based public health approaches to defining the problem, determining root causes, correlates, and modifiable risk and resilience factors, and designing, implementing, evaluating, disseminating, and sustaining effective interventions.
Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy, and Momentum Flux in Tsunami Waves during Breaking and Inundation

AbstractA plethora of studies in the last decade described tsunami hazards and studied their evolution from the source to the target coastline but mainly focused on coastal inundation and maximum r...
Klausenburg nach dem Krieg

Als ich im April 1945 in meine Heimatstadt zuruckkehrte, war ihr offizieller Name wieder Cluj. Das im September-Oktober 1944 befreite Nordsiebenburgen war an Rumanien zuruckgegeben worden. In den sechs Monaten nach dem Staatsstreich vom 23. August, bei dem Rumanien im Krieg die Seiten wechselte, folgten mehrere von Generalen gefuhrte Regierungen aufeinander. Alle diese Regierungen hatten nur begrenzte Vollmachten, da das Land von der Roten Armee kontrolliert wurde und die wirkliche Macht in den Handen von Marschall Malinowskis Truppen lag.
Silver engineered nanomaterials and ions elicit species-specific O2 consumption responses in plant growth promoting rhizobacteria.

Metal containing engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are now commonly used in various industrial and commercial applications. Many of these materials can be transformed during waste water treatment and ultimately enter terrestrial ecosystems via agriculturally applied biosolids. It is unclear how agriculturally important soil microbes will be affected by exposure to environmentally relevant, sublethal concentrations of ENMs and their transformation products (i.e., ions, aggregates, etc.). A method was developed, which puts O2 consumption responses in terms of viability, and tested by examining the toxic effects of Ag+, Zn2+, and Ni2+ ions on the plant growth promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) Bacillus amyloliquefaciens GB03. The method was then used to examine the toxicity of Ag+, as-synthesized polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated silver ENM (PVP-AgENMs), and 100% sulfidized AgENM on B. amyloliquefaciens GB03, and two additional PGPRs Sinorhizobium meliloti 2011, and Pseudomonas putida UW4. S. meliloti was found to have the highest LC50 for Ag+ and PVP-AgENMs (6.6 and 207 μM, respectively), while B. amyloliquefaciens and P. putida exhibited LC50's for Ag+ and PVP-AgENMs roughly half those observed for S. meliloti. The authors observed species-specific O2 consumption responses to ENM and ion exposure. PVP-AgENMs were less toxic than ions on a molar basis, and abiotic dissolution likely explains a significant portion of the observed toxic responses. Our results suggest microbes may exhibit distinct metabolic responses to metal and ENM exposure, even when similar LC50's are observed. These findings together illustrate the importance of understanding species-specific toxic responses and the utility of examining O2 consumption for doing so.
Towards Improving Predictive AAC using Crowdsourced Dialogues and Partner Context

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices typically rely on a language model to help make predictions or disambiguate user input. We investigate how to improve predictions in two-sided conversational dialogues. We collect and share a new corpus of crowdsourced everyday dialogues. We show how language models based on recurrent neural networks outperform N-gram models on these dialogues. We demonstrate further gains are possible using text obtained from an AAC user's communication partner, even when that text is partial or contains errors.
Lack of insurance is associated with lower probability of diagnostic imaging use among US trauma patients: An instrumental variable analysis and simulation

Background: Uninsured trauma patients have higher mortality than their insured counterparts. One possible reason is disparities in utilization of appropriate diagnostic imaging, including computed tomography (CT), X-ray, ultrasound (US), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We examined the association between lack of insurance and use of diagnostic imaging. Methods: Data come from the National Trauma Databank 2010-2015. Patients were determined uninsured if payment mode was self-pay or missing. The primary outcome was any diagnostic imaging procedure, and secondary outcomes included CT, X-ray, US, or MRI. Risk ratios (RRs) were adjusted for demographics, comorbidities, injury characteristics, facility characteristics. We also used the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as an instrumental variable (IV), with linear terms for year to account for annual trends in imaging use. Monte carlo simulations to test effect of hypothetical violations to IV assumptions of relevance, no direct effect, and no confounding. Results: Of 4,373,554 patients, 953,281 (21.8%) were uninsured. After adjusting, uninsured patients had lower chance of any imaging (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.98 to 0.98), x-ray (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.00), and MRI (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.83), and higher chance of ultrasound (RR 1.01, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.02). In IV analysis, uninsured status was associated with reduction in any imaging (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.70), tomography (RR 0.52, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.62) ultrasound (RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.65), and MRI (RR 0.19, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.37) and increased likelihood of x-ray use (RR 1.74, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.32). Simulations indicated that a direct effect RD of -0.02 would be necessary to produce observed results under the null hypothesis. Discussion: Our study suggests an association between insurance status and use of imaging that is unlikely to be driven by confounding or violations of IV assumptions. Mechanisms for this remain unclear, but could include unconscious provider bias or institutional financial constraints. Further research is warranted to elucidate mechanisms and assess whether differences in diagnostic imaging use mediate the association between insurance and mortality.
Partially Linear Functional Additive Models for Multivariate Functional Data

ABSTRACTWe investigate a class of partially linear functional additive models (PLFAM) that predicts a scalar response by both parametric effects of a multivariate predictor and nonparametric effects of a multivariate functional predictor. We jointly model multiple functional predictors that are cross-correlated using multivariate functional principal component analysis (mFPCA), and model the nonparametric effects of the principal component scores as additive components in the PLFAM. To address the high-dimensional nature of functional data, we let the number of mFPCA components diverge to infinity with the sample size, and adopt the component selection and smoothing operator (COSSO) penalty to select relevant components and regularize the fitting. A fundamental difference between our framework and the existing high-dimensional additive models is that the mFPCA scores are estimated with error, and the magnitude of measurement error increases with the order of mFPCA. We establish the asymptotic convergence ...
Early differential diagnosis methods of biliary atresia: a meta-analysis

To evaluate the accuracy of early differential diagnosis methods of biliary atresia in patients with infantile cholestasis. We searched PubMed, EMBASE and the Web of Science databases for articles evaluated the early differential diagnosis methods of biliary atresia. The methodological quality of each study was assessed with version 2 of the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Two reviewers extracted data independently. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR +), negative likelihood ratio (LR −), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) with 95% CIs were calculated to assess each diagnosis method. A total of 38 articles were included. Summary sensitivity and specificity were 77% (95% CI 74–80%) and 93% (95% CI 91–94%), respectively, for B-US in 23 studies; 96% (95% CI 92–98%) and 58% (95% CI 51–65%), respectively, for MRCP in five studies; 87% (95% CI 82–91%) and 78% (95% CI 74–82%), respectively, for acholic stool in seven studies; 84% (95% CI 78–89%) and 97% (95% CI 97–98%), respectively, for serum liver function test in seven studies; 96% (95% CI 94–97%) and 73% (95% CI 70–76%), respectively, for hepatobiliary scintigraphy in 18 studies; 98% (95% CI 96–99%) and 93% (95% CI 89–95%), respectively, for percutaneous liver biopsy in 11 studies. The accuracy rate of percutaneous liver biopsy is better than all of the noninvasive methods. Take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of the six methods, combination of multidisciplinary noninvasive diagnosis methods is the first choice for differential diagnosis of BA from other causes of neonatal cholestasis.
The Impact of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Postoperative Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Abstract Background Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) utilization is increasing in older Americans. The incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been steadily rising over the past few decades. In particular, COPD is being increasingly more common in patients undergoing revision TKA. The aim of this study is to identify the impact of COPD on postoperative complications for patients undergoing revision TKA. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data collected through the American College of Surgeons National Quality Improvement Program Database. All patients who underwent revision TKA between 2007 and 2014 were identified and stratified into groups based on COPD status. The incidence of adverse events after surgery was evaluated with univariate and multivariate analyses where appropriate. Results Patients with COPD were found to develop more postoperative complications, including deep wound infection, organ infection, wound dehiscence, pneumonia, reintubation, renal insufficiency, urinary tract infection, myocardial infarction, sepsis, and death. Patients with COPD were also shown to have to return back to the operating room and have an extended length of hospital stay. COPD was shown to be an independent risk factor for development of wound dehiscence, pneumonia, reintubation, renal insufficiency, and renal failure. Finally, COPD was identified as an independent risk factor for unplanned return to the operating room. Conclusion Patients with COPD have greater risk for postoperatively developing wound dehiscence, pneumonia, reintubation, renal insufficiency, and renal failure complications than those without COPD. While risks for independent complications remain relatively low, consideration of COPD status is an important factor to consider when selecting surgical candidates and preoperative risk assessment.
Zero Control Reference Materials for Infant Formula Methods Development

A zero control reference material (ZRM) for milk and soy-based infant formula was manufactured and characterized. The ZRM was free of retinyl palmitate and all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. The composition was similar to commercially available infant formula. The ZRM provides a valuable tool to ascertain method performance.
Epidemiology of post-traumatic limb amputation: a National Trauma Databank analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine the epidemiology and outcomes of posttraumatic upper (UEA) and lower extremity amputations (LEA). The National Trauma Databank version 5 was used to identify all posttraumatic amputations. From 2000 to 2004 there were 8910 amputated patients (1.0% of all trauma patients). Of these, 6855 (76.9%) had digit and 2055 (23.1%) had limb amputation. Of those with limb amputation, 92.7 per cent (1904/2055) had a single limb amputation. LEA were more frequent than UEA among patients in the single limb amputation group (58.9% vs 41.1%). The mechanism of injury was blunt in 83 per cent; most commonly after motor vehicle collisions (51.0%), followed by machinery accidents (19.4%). Motor vehicle collision occupants had more UEA (54.5% vs 45.5%, P < 0.001), whereas motorcyclists (86.2% vs 13.8%, P < 0.001) and pedestrians (91.9% vs 8.1%, P < 0.001) had more LEA. Patients with LEA were more likely to require discharge to a skilled nursing facility; whereas those with UEA were more likely to be discharged home. Traumatic limb amputation is not uncommon after trauma in the civilian population and is associated with significant morbidity. Although single limb amputation did not impact mortality, the need for multiple limb amputation was an independent risk factor for death.
Integrating Active Learning into Paleontology Classes

The educational benefits of replacing in-class lectures with hands-on activities are clear. Such active learning is a natural fit for paleontology, which can provide opportunities for examining fossils, analyzing data and writing. Additionally, there are a number of topics in the field that are exciting to geology majors and non-majors alike: very few can resist the lure of dinosaurs, huge meteor impacts, vicious Cretaceous sharks or a giant Pleistocene land mammal. However, it can seem difficult to introduce these techniques into a large general education class full of non-majors: paleontological specimens provide a natural starting point for hands-on classroom activities, but in a large class it is not always practical or possible to provide enough fossil material for all students. The Element introduces different types of active learning approaches, and then explains how they have been applied to a large introductory paleontology class for non-majors.
Dalfampridine benefits ambulation but not cognition in multiple sclerosis.

Background:Impaired cognition and ambulation are common in multiple sclerosis (MS). Dalfampridine is the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved medication to treat impaired ambulation in...
Plant Parasitic Nematodes of Virginia and West Virginia

The first plant parasitic nematode to cause alarm in Virginia and West Virginia was the wheat gall nematode, Anguina tritici, which was found in Rockingham County, Virginia in 1917 where it had been present for 10 years or more, causing a loss of 25–50%. A quarantine was threatened for Virginia, West Virginia and Georgia, but was not realized. It was eventually eradicated by using crop rotation and clean seed. Root knot nematodes became the second recognized plant parasitic nematode, and is the most prevalent and widespread plant nematode in these two states. They affect most of the major field crops such as tobacco, cotton, wheat, tomato, potato, peanut and pumpkin; damage crops that support livestock including alfalfa, soybean and corn and cause injury to crops that improve the quality of life like vegetables, grapes, fruit, nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and turfgrass. Although a bulletin was published warning about the occurrence of soybean cyst nematode in North Carolina and strict measures were put in place to prevent its spread to Virginia, it was too late and it rapidly became another important nematode. However, soybean cyst nematode is not a problem in West Virginia, because soybeans are not widely grown. In West Virginia, root knot, lesion, and dagger nematodes are the three most important genera. Fortunately, in both states, agriculture has adapted very well to the demands placed on it by growers, government and society. As both states continue to lose vast areas of farmland to urban sprawl, and less available fertile agricultural land remains for farming and more pressure is placed on utilizing sustainable practices, plant parasitic nematodes will remain an important factor that must be considered when implementing sustainable agricultural practices.
Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor is selectively expressed in cerebellum but not cerebellum-like structures of the elasmobranch fish, Leucoraja erinacea

Abstract The Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor type 1 protein (Ip3r1) performs an essential role for the induction of cerebellar long-term depression. Here, I describe the use of RT-PCR, qPCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry to assay Ip3r1 gene expression and localize Ip3r1 protein in the hindbrain of the elasmobranch fish, Leucoraja erinacea. Elasmobranchs are representatives of the most basal, yet extant lineage of gnathostomes, or jawed vertebrates. The cerebellum is a synapomorphy for gnathostomes and thus elasmobranch cerebellar physiology may serve as a proxy for the ancestral state of other jawed vertebrates. LeIp3r1 is selectively expressed in the cerebellum of the little skate and the resultant protein is localized to Purkinje cells. If Ip3r1 performs the same functions in the skate cerebellum as in the mammalian cerebellum, then parallel fiber-Purkinje cell long-term depression through Ip3r1 mediated intracellular calcium regulation may be a conserved feature of cerebellar physiology. Cerebellum and surrounding hindbrain regions termed cerebellum-like structures share a common developmental genetic toolkit. LeIp3r1 expression was lowly detected in cerebellum-like structures indicating that although generatively homologous, the cerebellum and cerebellum-like structures do not share a complete overlap of common expression. Because of the little skate's important phylogenetic placement, performing molecular methodologies to assay targeted gene expression and determine protein localization in the hindbrain can be valuable for our understanding of cerebellar evolution and comparative neural development.
An Experimental Study of Index Compression and DAAT Query Processing Methods

In the last two decades, the IR community has seen numerous advances in top-k query processing and inverted index compression techniques. While newly proposed methods are typically compared against several baselines, these evaluations are often very limited, and we feel that there is no clear overall picture on the best choices of algorithms and compression methods. In this paper, we attempt to address this issue by evaluating a number of state-of-the-art index compression methods and safe disjunctive DAAT query processing algorithms. Our goal is to understand how much index compression performance impacts overall query processing speed, how the choice of query processing algorithm depends on the compression method used, and how performance is impacted by document reordering techniques and the number of results returned, keeping in mind that current search engines typically use sets of hundreds or thousands of candidates for further reranking.
Carbon Dots: Diverse Preparation, Application, and Perspective in Surface Chemistry.

Carbon dots (CDs) are a novel class of nanoparticles with excellent properties. The development of CDs involves versatile synthesis, characterization, and various applications. However, the importa...
Nefarious Actors: An Agent-Based Analysis of Threats to the Democratic Process

Recent election cycles in the United States and in other democracies have often been accompanied by accusations of hacking, meddling, disinformation, and voter suppression by non-state actors as well as elected government officials. Such threats pose a grave danger to the perceived legitimacy of democratic elections and public trust in the institutions upon which representative democracy relies. This paper utilizes an agent-based modeling approach to simulate the impact of actions by nefarious state and non-state actors on voter turnout, trust in electoral democracy, misrepresentation, and the potential for political conflict. Through repeated simulation and the development of a landscape of plausible futures, this paper uncovers means by which the electoral process may be most sensitive to attack. Given that the potential erosion of trust in elections poses an existential threat to democracy itself, this paper should provide valuable insight for those who seek to preserve and protect the most fundamental elements of liberal democracy.
On the use of the dual process Langmuir model for binary gas mixture components that exhibit single process or linear isotherms

Two methodologies were developed to predict adsorption equilibria of a binary system when one of the components is described by the dual-process Langmuir (DPL) model and the other component is described by either the single process Langmuir (SPL) or linear isotherm (LI) model. Energetic site matching with the DPL–SPL model considered perfect positive (PP), perfect negative (PN) and unselective (US) correlations, and that with the DPL–LI model considered PP and PN correlations. A consistent set of single and binary isotherms for O2 and N2 on 5A zeolite were used to successfully demonstrate these concepts. For the DPL–SPL binary system, PP meant O2 adsorbed only on the N2 low energy site, PN meant O2 adsorbed only on the N2 high energy site, and US meant O2 adsorbed on both sites with the ratio of its saturation capacity on each site the same as that for N2. For this case, the PP model predicted the binary data well and correctly predicted that O2 only adsorbed on the low energy site of N2; the PN model predicted the data poorly and US was close but not as good as PP. The binary predictions from the DPL–SPL model that require only single component information to obtain the single component DPL and SPL parameters were nearly as good as those obtained from a non-predictive formulation similar to the US correlation but that utilized all the single and binary data to obtain the single component DPL and SPL parameters. For the DPL–LI binary system, with O2 having an affinity for only one site, PN meant O2 interacted solely with the high energy site of N2 and PP meant O2 interacted solely with the low energy site of N2; and because O2 exhibited a linear isotherm (i.e., the Henry’s law constants from the SPL parameters), it did not affect the adsorption of N2 on its sites, but N2 did affect the adsorption of O2 on its sites. For this case, the PP model predicted the binary data well and correctly predicted that O2 did not affect the adsorption of N2, but that N2 did affect the adsorption of O2 on the low energy site of N2; the PN model predicted the data poorly.
Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy and Brugada Syndrome: A Report of Two Cases

BACKGROUND Congenital myotonic dystrophy is a subtype of type 1 myotonic dystrophy presenting in the neonatal period. Cardiac involvement is commonly seen in patients with type 1 myotonic dystrophy beyond the neonatal period. Brugada syndrome is a conduction abnormality associated with a mutation in the sodium voltage-gated channel alpha subunit 5 (SCN5A) gene and has been described in adult patients with type 1 myotonic dystrophy. Two cases are presented of type 1 myotonic dystrophy in neonates, one who had family members with a confirmed diagnosis of Brugada syndrome. CASE REPORT Case 1: A female infant at 40 weeks gestational age, birth weight of 3,395 grams was born to a 40-year-old gravida 4, para 3 (G4P3) mother. The mother had previously been diagnosed with Brugada syndrome. Multiple family members were identified and diagnosed with type 1 myotonic dystrophy and Brugada syndrome. The infant is being monitored closely with a plan to perform genetic testing for Brugada syndrome if she develops cardiac conduction abnormalities. Case 2: A male infant at 37 weeks gestational age, with a birth weight of 2,900 grams, was born to a 24-year-old gravida 2, para 1 (G2P1) mother. He was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) secondary to poor respiratory effort and generalized hypotonia. Severe polyhydramnios was diagnosed during pregnancy. The mother had previously been diagnosed with type 1 myotonic dystrophy. CONCLUSIONS Infants with congenital myotonic dystrophy should be carefully monitored for both structural and conduction abnormalities of the heart, supported by genetic testing.
Macro-innovations: The Discipline of Scaling Adoption

Macro-innovations are those that help technologies and ideas diffuse into general usage. Much is written about great strategies and ground-breaking inventions. Yet successful entrepreneurs are those who are disciplined in the execution of tactics. A well-executed operation can overcome the shortfalls of a mediocre strategy. The roles of an entrepreneur and intrapreneur are very similar. An entrepreneur tries to make a change to an external system, while an intrapreneur does that for the internal system. Energy strategists need to know how to scale ideas, whether internally for organizational change or externally for market transformations. They need to interact with employees to adopt best practices, explain the benefits of Energy as Strategy to executives, and communicate compelling messages to a broad range of customers, investors, and stakeholders.
Designing a Virtual Client for Requirements Elicitation Interviews

[Context and motivation] Role-playing offer experiential learning through the simulation of real-world scenarios; for this reason, it is widely used in software engineering education. In Requirements Engineering, role-playing is a popular way to provide students hands-on experience with requirements elicitation interviews. [Problem] However, managing a role-playing activity to simulate requirements elicitation interviews in a class is time consuming, as it often requires pairing students with student assistants or fellow classmates who act as either customers or requirement analysts as well as creating and maintaining the interview schedules between the actors. To make the adoption of role-playing activities in a class feasible, there is a need to develop a solution to reduce instructors’ workload. [Principal ideas] To solve this problem we propose the use of VIrtual CustOmer (VICO), an intent-based, multimodal, conversational agent. VICO offers an interview experience comparable to talking to a human and provides a transcript of the interview annotated with the mistakes students made in it. The adoption of VICO will eliminate the need to schedule interviews as the students can interact with it in their free time. Moreover, the transcript of the interview allows students to evaluate their performance to refine and improve their interviewing skills. [Contribution] In this research preview, we show the architecture of VICO and how it can be developed using existing technologies, we provide an online rule-based initial prototype and show the practicality and applicability of this tool through an exploratory study.
von Willebrand Disease

von Willebrand disease (VWD) is the most prevalent bleeding disorder. A detailed evaluation of personal and family history of bleeding can help identify patients likely to have an inherited bleeding disorder. Understanding the inheritance patterns and presenting features of VWD is important as the basis for a systematic approach to the diagnosis of VWD. The different types of VWD vary in severity and frequency as well as medical management and response to treatment.
Botulinum Toxin Treatment in Urological Disorders

Botulinum toxin (BoNT) injection has been widely accepted by the urology and urogynecology medical communities as a safe and effective treatment for refractory urinary incontinence based on two decades of published literature. Currently, there are two approved genitourinary indications for botulinum toxin within the United States. OnabotulinumtoxinA (onaBoNTA) 200 units for the treatment of urinary incontinence due to detrusor overactivity associated with a neurologic condition (e.g., spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis) in adults who have an inadequate response to or are intolerant to an anticholinergic medication was approved by the FDA in 2011. In addition, onaBoNTA 100 units for the treatment of overactive bladder with symptoms of urinary incontinence, urgency, and frequency, in adult patients who have an inadequate response to or are intolerant to an anticholinergic medication was approved by the FDA in 2013. We will update the reader on the latest application of botulinum toxin for urologic indications with a focus on bladder injections as well as on potential uses of BoNT in the prostate and pelvic floor.
A new role for the synaptonemal complex in the regulation of meiotic recombination

Proper segregation during meiosis requires that homologs be connected by the combination of crossovers and sister chromatid cohesion. To generate crossovers, numerous double-strand breaks (DSBs) are introduced throughout the genome by the conserved Spo11 endonuclease. DSB formation and its repair are then highly regulated to ensure that homologous chromosomes contain at least one crossover and no DSBs remain prior to meiosis I segregation. The synaptonemal complex (SC) is a meiosis-specific structure formed between homologous chromosomes during prophase that promotes DSB formation and biases repair of DSBs to homologs over sister chromatids. Synapsis occurs when a particular recombination pathway is successful in establishing stable interhomolog connections. In this issue of Genes & Development, Mu and colleagues (pp. 1605-1618) show that SC formation between individual chromosomes provides the feedback to down-regulate Spo11 activity, thereby revealing an additional function for the SC.
Characterizing the chemical and sensory profiles of traditional American meads

The compositional and sensorial profiles of traditional American meads were determined using standard enological, volatile, and descriptive analyses. Forty-one commercial meads produced by 35 meaderies across 20 states were selected to encompass a broad product range. The meads were analyzed for ethanol content, residual sugar, pH, titratable acidity, acetic acid, and free and total sulfur dioxide. Forty-three volatile compounds (alcohols, esters, acids, terpenes, aldehydes, aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.) were tentatively identified using a nontargeted HS-SPME-GC-MS method. Ethyl octanoate, phenylethyl alcohol, ethyl decanoate, and ethyl acetate were the most relatively abundant volatile compounds across the sample set. A trained panel (n = 11) evaluated each mead using descriptive analysis and the chemical and sensory analyses were compared. Acidity, sweetness, and cloying and viscous mouthfeel sensations, and alcoholic heat were the most influential sensory attributes and were driven by titratable acidity, residual sugar, and ethanol content, respectively. Ethyl octanoate and ethyl decanoate were correlated with manure aroma, phenylethyl alcohol with yeast and green aromas, and ethyl acetate with citrus, solvent, and green olive aromas. This research further elucidates the empirical relationship between the chemical composition and sensory profiles of commercial meads. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This work provides the mead industry with further understanding of the compositional drivers of the sensory profiles of commercial meads and demonstrates product categories (dry, semi-sweet, sweet) do not necessarily indicate compositional or sensory attributes.
An Open Label Trial to Assess Safety of Losartan for Treating Worsening Respiratory Illness in COVID-19

Rationale: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can cause disruption of the renin-angiotensin system in the lungs, possibly contributing to pulmonary capillary leakage. Thus, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may improve respiratory failure. Objective: Assess safety of losartan for use in respiratory failure related to COVID-19 (NCT04335123). Methods: Single arm, open label trial of losartan in those hospitalized with respiratory failure related to COVID-19. Oral losartan (25 mg daily for 3 days, then 50 mg) was administered from enrollment until day 14 or hospital discharge. A post-hoc external control group with patients who met all inclusion criteria was matched 1:1 to the treatment group using propensity scores for comparison. Measures: Primary outcome was cumulative incidence of any adverse events. Secondary, explorative endpoints included measures of respiratory failure, length of stay and vital status. Results: Of the 34 participants enrolled in the trial, 30 completed the study with a mean age SD of 53.8 ± 17.7 years and 17 males (57%). On losartan, 24/30 (80%) experienced an adverse event as opposed to 29/30 (97%) of controls, with a lower average number of adverse events on losartan relative to control (2.2 vs. 3.3). Using Poisson regression and controlling for age, sex, race, date of enrollment, disease severity at enrollment, and history of high-risk comorbidities, the incidence rate ratio of adverse events on losartan relative to control was 0.69 (95% CI: 0.49-0.97) Conclusions: Losartan appeared safe for COVID-19-related acute respiratory compromise. To assess true efficacy, randomized trials are needed.
Day time and Nighttime Dust Event Segmentation using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Airborne dust is known to have detrimental effects on human health, the environment, and aviation. Earth-observing satellites have been used to monitor dust events using visible and infrared bands, but the presence of clouds and smoke makes it a difficult phenomenon to identify. Moreover, nighttime dust has similar radioactive properties to that of cooler underlying surfaces. We propose a dust detection algorithm that uses false color EUMETSAT Dust Red-Green-Blue (RGB) imagery (dust RGB). The false-color imagery aims to enhance the dust detection process in both daytime and nighttime by using band differences of GOES 16 satellite. A deep learning-based segmentation model is trained to detect dust using the same bands used to create the dust RGB imagery. The model has high accuracy in detecting dust events and does not require large amounts of training data. The model also performs well in both day time and night time situations.
Balancing development with conservation

Virtually any form of human activity has an effect on the environment. The application of science and technology to agriculture has vastly improved its productivity, offsetting the crisis of inadequate food supply predicted by Malthus in 1798. At the same time, the application of science and technology to medicine and public health, has also enabled an ever-increasing world population. The economic systems prevalent in many countries which focus on economic development rather than sustainability, which fuel insatiable desires for ‘worldly goods’ among an increasing population has brought environmental issues to the very forefront of academic, social and political discourse throughout the world. There are many contentious environmental issues facing Sri Lanka today including mining for sand and mineral resources, utilization of wetlands and conservation of forests. Conservation of forests is a particularly sensitive issue where the demands of the local communities for land can be in conflict with national priorities. Sri Lanka’s forest cover has declined from over 80% a hundred and forty years ago to around 20% today. On the other hand, Sri Lanka’s population has more than tripled over the last 70 years. These changes have contributed to many environment related problems including the tragic ongoing human-elephant conflict. Quite apart from the importance of forests as ecosystems, current research also suggests that loss of forest cover promotes outbreaks of zoonotic and vector borne diseases. The solutions to many environmental issues lie in using a scientific approach coupled to the use of technology, supported by a legal and administrative framework. The cleaning up of the river Thames in England which was considered “dead” in the 1960’s to one which today has over a 100 fish species is a good example of what can be achieved with such an approach. At a more fundamental level, to be able to balance development with environmental conservation, a change in perspective and a change of direction is needed. Humans need to see themselves as a part of nature. The definition of the word “Natural” in the Oxford English Dictionary; “……not made, caused by or processed by human kind….” is indicative of the deep-seated perception we have that humans are not a part of nature. The change of direction required is to consider seriously the need for sustainability in planning any development activity, taking heed of Mahatma Gandhi’s view that “There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s needs, but not for man’s greed”.