cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Position and force control of a multifingered hand: a comparison of fuzzy logic to traditional PID control

In this paper we will discuss the control of a five-fingered, 18 degree of freedom, tendon driven robot hand known as the Atlas Anthrobot. Developing a traditional PID controller for this hand has proved difficult because the behavior of the tendon drive system produces is highly nonlinear. This nonlinear nature of the system however does suggest it as a candidate for fuzzy control. Along these lines we have developed a PID control system and a fuzzy control system for the hand which are both capable of simultaneously controlling the position of the fingertips and the amount of force exerted through a contact point on the fingertip. In this paper we will present a comparison between the two systems in order to generally make statements about the appropriateness of each controller for controlling complicated tendon driven devices such as our robot hand. >
The Incorporation of Real Time Imaging into Clinical Practice

The quest to improve the accuracy of radiotherapy delivery began right after the introduction of radiotherapy in the early 1900s. Some of the initial data for external beam radiation therapy of head and neck tumors was reported in the 1960s confirming the improved clinical efficacy with periodic portal films. This has led to bony landmark verification with periodic portal film verification.
FRIENDLY OR UNFRIENDLY PERSUASION The Effects of Violations of Expectations by Males and Females

Expectancy theory suggests that people develop normative expectations about appropriateness of communication behavior that differ for males and females. Support was found for an interaction hypothesis predicting that males would be expected to use more verbally aggressive persuasive message strategies and would negatively violate expectations and be less persuasive when they deviated from such strategies. Moreover. females are expected to be less verbally aggressive and use more prosocial message strategies and are penalized for deviations from such an expected strategy. Manipulvltion checks indicated that people have clear differences in expected strategy use by males and females and that neither the psychological sex role nor biological sex of receivers alters ihose expectations. Results are discussed in terms of similarity to prior language research, as an extension of expectancy theory and as added knowledge about the effects of specific compliance-gaining message strategies.
The Influence of Functional Relations on Spatial Term Selection

Expressions describing the spatial relation between two objects can be interpreted from a perspective defined by the objects (intrinsic) or by the viewer or the environment (deictic-extrinsic) Identifying the factors that govern the selection of one perspective over another is an important step in understanding the interaction between language and perception In two experiments, we explored the influence of a functional relation between two objects on the formulation of a spatial expression relating the objects Both rating and production tasks showed that people preferred to use intrinsic descriptions in the presence of a functional relation and deictic-extrinsic descriptions in the absence of such a relation These results suggest that contextual aspects of the scene influence spatial term selection
Modeling the human component in computer-based business simulations

From the perspective that business simulations are tools that aid teaching, this model comprises four functions: concave exponential, convex exponential, logistic, and cusp catastrophe. The functions determine the effects of recruitment cost, benefits cost, training cost, and wage cost on the productivity of new hires, as well as rate of attrition, productivity of trained employees, and size of the labor pool. A simulation (CEO) allowing participants to change both the variables and the parameters of these functions has been developed. Tactical decisions involve variables; strategic decisions involve parameters. These functions allow a clear distinction to be made between the two types of decisions.
Circular Cone-beam Micro-CT for Small Animal Imaging with Truncated Data

We applied a backprojection filtration (BPF) algorithm to small animal imaging with transversely truncated projection data acquired by our prototype circular cone-beam micro-CT system. For comparison of the reconstructed images with and without truncation data, we used a mouse as the subject and scanned whole mouse without data truncation. One of the legs was chosen as a region-of-interest (ROI), and data truncation was manually made by chopping off other projection area than ROI projection from the data at each view. Feldkamp-Davis-Kress (FDK) algorithm was also used to reconstruct the image from both nontruncated and truncated cone-beam data for comparison. The BPF algorithm successfully reconstructed the ROI image from truncated data with comparable image quality of that reconstructed from nontruncated data, while FDK algorithm reconstructed the ROI image with typical truncation artifacts.
Propagation of an MHD Shock in the Vicinity of a Magnetic Neutral Sheet

The acceleration of solar cosmic rays in association with certain solar flares is known to be highly correlated with the propagation of an MHD shock through the solar corona (Svestka, 1976). The spatial structure of the sources of solar cosmic rays will be determined by those regions of the corona which are accessible to the flare-induced shock. The regions to which the flare shock is permitted to propagate are determined by the large scale magnetic field structure in the corona. McIntosh (1972, 1979) has demonstrated that quiescent filaments form a single continuous feature (a “baseball stitch”) around the surface of the sun. It is known that helmet streamers overlie quiescent filaments (Pneuman, 1975), and these helmet streamers contain large magnetic neutral sheets which are oriented essentially radially. Hence the magnetic field structure in the low solar corona is characterized by a large-scale radial neutral sheet which weaves around the entire sun following the “baseball stitch”. There is therefore a high probability that as a shock propagates away from a flare, it will eventually encounter this large neutral sheet.
On-Line Control Of Surface Contamination During Gas Tungsten Arc Welding

The objective of this research is to apply infrared sensing techniques, artificial intelligence, and robotics to improve the welding process by on-line identification and mitigation of weld plate surface contamination. A method of in-process detection of surface contaminants during the gas tungsten arc welding of steel plate has been developed, and rudimentary corrective actions have been implemented to demonstrate closed-loop control. The study employed on-line IR sensing techniques to dynamically monitor the thermal field in front of the molten pool during the welding process. Changes in thermal pattern and in the area under thermal scans taken perpendicular to the weld seam were then used by the controlling computer to identify undesirable surface contaminants. Appropriate corrective actions were generated and employed to displace the contaminants from the welding path. A computer routine was developed that recognized changes in the thermal patterns due to surface contaminants and implemented corrective procedures. The results of this study will aid in the elimination of weld defects due to surface contamination and hence will increase the reliability and productivity of the welding process.
Interdecadal variability of ENSO in 21 IPCC AR4 coupled GCMs

20 th Century (20C3M) simulations are analyzed using wavelet analysis. The results show that the state-of-the-art CGCMs display a wide range of skill in simulating the interdecadal variability of ENSO. The 21 models can be categorized into three groups. The first group (8 models) shows an oscillation with a constant period shorter than the observed ENSO period, and sometimes with a constant amplitude. The second group (5 models) does not produce many statistically significant peaks in the ENSO frequency band, but usually produces one or two prominent peaks (episodes) at period longer than 6 years. The third group (8 models) displays significant interdecadal variability of ENSO in both amplitude and period. Among them, only the MPI model reproduces the observed eastward shift of the westerly anomalies in the low-frequency regime. Citation: Lin, J.-L. (2007), Interdecadal variability of ENSO in 21 IPCC AR4 coupled GCMs, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L12702,
Nefarious Uses of Bacterial Toxins

Bacterial toxins represent some of the deadliest molecules known to man. Over the ages, evolution has led to precision engineering of these toxins such that only minute quantities of certain bacterial toxins are capable of eliciting lethal outcomes for humans. Many vaccines are inactivated bacterial toxins, which stimulate an immune response to protect the recipient from that toxin-producing pathogen. Regrettably, the power of bacterial toxins has also been harnessed for destructive purposes. Toxins and toxin-producing bacteria that are thought to pose major risks to the public are Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax in humans and animals, Yersinia pestis, which is the causative agent of plague, and botulinum toxin. Continued studies on the basic molecular properties of bacterial toxins will provide insight to develop novel antitoxin therapies, such as the recent recognition that nontoxic forms of bacterial toxins can act in a dominant-negative manner to neutralize toxin action. The potential utilization of pathogenic bacteria and their toxins for criminal acts is a formidable problem that requires a concerted effort on the part of the scientific community. Scientific research has the promise of leading to the development of vaccines and therapeutics that will make biological agents useless in the hands of terrorists.
DETERMINISTIC FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FILL TUBE SURROGATE TARGETS FOR OMEGA EXPERIMENTS USING A POLYMER STALK

Equipment and techniques have been developed for the fabrication of fill tube surrogate targets for OMEGA experiments. The fill tube is attached manually by heating 4000 MW poly-α-methylstyrene in a fixed reservoir, which can be touched onto the capsule surface and pulled into the shape of a fill tube. The joint is uniform and robust with diameters no less than 20 μm. A series of surrogate fill tubes can be achieved by modifying temperature and technique with a diameter reproducibility within 5 μm. After attachment, the capsules are mounted onto a calibrated stage to trim the length of the surrogate to specifications. Characterizing the surrogates involved positioning the polymer stalk to measure the fillet diameter, stalk diameter, and length at orthogonal orientations. Details of the heating and pulling techniques will be discussed as well as a description of the polymer reservoir.
Quasi-optimality of adaptive finite element methods for controlling local energy errors

A rich theory demonstrating convergence and optimality of adaptive finite element methods (AFEM) has been developed in recent years. In this work we prove optimality of AFEM which are designed to control local energy errors in elliptic partial differential equations. Because errors propagate globally in FEM, controlling local errors requires controlling both local energy solution properties and global error contributions (pollution errors) which may be measured in a weaker norm such as the $$L_2$$L2 norm. We define adaptive methods which control both of these error components and prove that they converge with the best possible rate over all possible refinements of the initial mesh. These results are valid for Poisson's problem on convex polyhedral domains in arbitrary space dimension. Our theory establishes AFEM optimality for several adaptive marking strategies which rigorously control pollution effects. We also present numerical examples that illustrate our theory and confirm that local energy AFEM without pollution control can fail to yield optimal meshes.
Circadian regulation of CREB transcription factor in mouse esophagus

Very little is known about the circadian regulation of cell entry into the S and M phases of the cell cycle. Yet, in the mouse esophagus, a seven- to ninefold increase in DNA synthesis coincides with nocturnal feeding. The phosphorylation of the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), a transcriptional factor, may regulate hypothalamic circadian rhythms in the brain. Here, we investigate the circadian regulation of CREB and Ser-133-phospho-CREB (PCREB) in the mouse esophagus by immunocytochemical and biochemical methods. We found that, during the dark phase, coincident with the onset of feeding and increased DNA synthesis, esophageal CREB and PCREB expression decreased. Although CREB-like immunoreactivity (CREB-lir) was expressed in many different cell types, it was concentrated in the mucosa, particularly in the replicating basal cell layer. The injection of epidermal growth factor, at a dosage known to maximally stimulate esophageal DNA synthesis in a 4- to 8-h period, rapidly decreased PCREB levels within 10 min of injection. We speculate that PCREB-lir may be involved in the circadian regulation of cell cycle events in the intact mouse esophagus.
The Influence of Solution Properties on the Deposition of Particles from Liquid Media onto Silicon Wafer Surfaces

Measurements were made of the deposition of negatively-charged particles (soda-lime glass) and positively-charged particles (aminopropyl glass) from liquid solutions onto silicon wafers with a native oxide. The effects of ionic strength and the pH of the solution on the magnitude and the mechanism of particle deposition were determined by measuring the number of deposited particles in the presence of KC1, KOH and HC1 in a concentration range from 10−5 M to 10−1 M. The results are compared to deposition measurements made in 18 MΩ deionized water. Increasing ionic strength can reduce the particle deposition in systems where a double layer attraction exists, but increase the particle deposition in systems experiencing a double layer repulsion. The influence of pH on deposition was found to depend strongly upon the isoelectric point of both the particle and the wafer. The results of deposition experiments can be readily interpreted in terms of the potential energy of interaction which exists between the particles and the wafer surfaces.
Reticulocyte Survival in Sickle Cell Anemia: Effect of Cyanate

Cyanate prevents sickling in vitro and apparently prolongs the survival of 51Cr-tagged sickle erythrocytes in vivo. Cautious interpretation is required because the effects of cyanate on 51Cr binding to sickle and fetal hemoglobin-containing red cells are unknown, and comparison of the effect of cyanate on sickle red cell survival to control red cell survival must be performed sequentially. We have studied the survival of sickle reticulocytes utilizing radioactive amino acids that are incorporated into hemoglobin. Two informed adult patients with sickle cell disease were studied. In each study, two 50-ml samples of blood were incubated separately with 14C- and 3H-leucine for 2 hr, after which 50 mM cyanate was added to one aliquot for 1 hr. The cells were then washed and reinfused. Frequent venous samples were obtained, and the specific activities of 14C and 3H in the hemoglobin were followed. The t ½ of the carbamylated cells was tripled, but remained below normal. This method provides a generally useful measurement of the influence of drugs bound to red cells on reticulocyte lifespan. The labels are incorporated into the hemoglobin molecule of the reticulocyte, and simultaneous comparison of the survivals of the same cohort of drug-treated and control cells is achieved.
Evaluation of a Model for Predicting Fast-Reactor Fuel-Pin Deformations

A computer program has been developed and used to validate and adjust models for predicting fuel-pin deformations. An existing computer program, DEFORM, was combined with a clad swelling model to b...
Whitefringed Beetles: An Artificial Diet for Adults

Adult whitefringed beetles, Graphognathus spp., can be maintained in the laboratory by providing fresh leaves of almost any field or garden plant. However, oviposition is greatly influenced by food. Young et al. (1950) observed that beetles fed cocklebur, giant ragweed, peanut, soybean, and strawberry began laying eggs soon after emergence and laid large numbers per beetle, while those fed on the foliage of blackberry, cowpea, kudzu, lespedeza, Mexican clover, pecan, and tobacco laid fewer eggs. Those fed grasses laid few eggs and had a brief life span. Bass and Barnes (1969) found fresh alfalfa leaves to be an adequate diet for laboratory maintenance of whitefringed beetle adults.
A Case of Multifocal Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma

The diagnosis of micropapillary thyroid cancer, in concert with thyroid cancer in general, has been increasing in frequency. Many cases of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTM) are multifocal in nature. The prognosis for the majority of patients with multifocal PTM is excellent. We explore clinical factors which appear to correlate with disease aggressiveness and should be considered during the treatment decision making process. Extent of thyroid surgery, utilization of radioactive iodine ablation and level of TSH suppression should reflect overall prognosis with an eye towards avoiding potential overtreatment.
Leading in Multiple Dimensions: A Cognitive Frame Account of Public Virtue

This chapter presents a normative account of ethical leading as an agent centered form of public virtue. In this account public virtue involves an individual who uses focused reflection and judgment that rely on a disciplined pattern of self-awareness. Self-aware leaders intentionally work through four cognitive dimensions of public action. The ethical success of leading depends heavily upon addressing the four dimensions. As an account of virtue it assumes individual leaders accept personal responsibility for the consequences that flow from their action. This responsibility obligates leaders to structure their thinking to account for ethical and political facets that shape long term resilient policy and institutional outcomes. The dimensions work like mental models or frames that can be learned with experience and that structure cognitive, emotional and perceptual judgments. The chapter integrates traditional understandings of virtue as habit and practice with modern cognitive understandings of how the mind and mental frames work. Individuals can strengthen their public virtue by adopting these four mental dimensions as an integrated frame and use them to discipline their thinking. The four dimensions can give content to virtuous reflection, and two masked real life examples illustrate how public virtue can look in practice.
Science as a Way of Knowing: From Protein Machines to Evidence-Based Decisions

The 2016 Lasker∼Koshland Special Achievement Award will be presented to Bruce Alberts for a lifetime career of outstanding scientific discovery and inspiring leadership and mentorship in promoting fundamental research, science education, and rational, evidence-based values worldwide.
A long shadow

Networking skills are conventionally treated as a form of human capital shaped by individual attributes. In this study, we investigate the relationship between cultural capital, techno-capital and networking skills among college students. Based on a survey of a sample of college students, we identify that socialization into various cultural genres in an early age equips individuals with the cultural knowledge, attitude, and disposition to network skillfully. Second, we find that digital competency can contribute to networking skills. In particular, digital cultural production, in other words, actively engaging in creative online expression of one's cultural taste, is positively related to greater networking skills. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. This study examines the relationship between cultural capital, techno-capital and networking skills among college students.Techno-competency, or operational and critical digital literacy skills, is positively related to networking skills.Engaging in digital content production has a positive influence on networking skills among college students.Socialization into diverse cultural genres from an early age can contribute to networking skills among college students.This study points to a mechanism by which techno-capital may contribute to upward social mobility for disadvantaged students.
TGF-β Family Signaling in the Control of Cell Proliferation and Survival

The transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family controls many fundamental aspects of cellular behavior. With advances in the molecular details of the TGF-β signaling cascade and its cross talk with other signaling pathways, we now have a more coherent understanding of the cytostatic program induced by TGF-β. However, the molecular mechanisms are still largely elusive for other cellular processes that are regulated by TGF-β and determine a cell's proliferation and survival, apoptosis, dormancy, autophagy, and senescence. The difficulty in defining TGF-β's roles partly stems from the context-dependent nature of TGF-β signaling. Here, we review our current understanding and recent progress on the biological effects of TGF-β at the cellular level, with the hope of providing a framework for understanding how cells respond to TGF-β signals in specific contexts, and why disruption of such mechanisms may result in different human diseases including cancer.
Relationship between risk factor control and vascular events in the SAMMPRIS trial

Objective: The Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) study is the first stroke prevention trial to include protocol-driven intensive management of multiple risk factors. In this prespecified analysis, we aimed to investigate the relationship between risk factor control during follow-up and outcome of patients in the medical arm of SAMMPRIS. Methods: Data from SAMMPRIS participants in the medical arm (n = 227) were analyzed. Risk factors were recorded at baseline, 30 days, 4 months, and then every 4 months for a mean follow-up of 32 months. For each patient, values for all risk factor measures were averaged and dichotomized as in or out of target. Results: Participants who were out of target for systolic blood pressure and physical activity, as well as those with higher mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non–high-density lipoprotein, were more likely to have a recurrent vascular event (stroke, myocardial infarction, or vascular death) at 3 years compared to those who had good risk factor control. In the multivariable analysis, greater physical activity decreased the likelihood of a recurrent stroke, myocardial infarction, or vascular death (odds ratio 0.6, confidence interval 0.4–0.8). Conclusions: Raised blood pressure, cholesterol, and physical inactivity should be aggressively treated in patients with intracranial atherosclerosis to prevent future vascular events. Physical activity, which has not received attention in stroke prevention trials, was the strongest predictor of a good outcome in the medical arm in SAMMPRIS. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00576693.
Political Corruption and Public Activism: An Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Analysis

We study a two-population evolutionary game that models the role of public activism as a deterrent to political corruption. In particular, suppose that politicians can choose whether or not to engage in corruption, lowering the public good in exchange for personal gain, and citizens can choose whether or not to engage in public activism for corruption reform, influencing the rate of detection and severity of punishment of corrupt politicians. We study the Nash equilibria of this game and also conduct static and dynamic evolutionary analyses.
Expensing and Interest in the GOP Blueprint: Good Deal? Good Idea?

November’s election thrust to the fore the tax reform Blueprint released last June by House GOP leaders. One of the plan’s key features, which has received surprisingly little attention, is its treatment of business investment. Outlays for plant, equipment and other business assets would be immediately deductible, rather than depreciated over time, while interest costs would be deductible only to the extent of interest income. This plan to replace net interest deductions with expensing of capital outlays is likely to hurt most businesses — some significantly — and so is likely to face a growing chorus of objections in coming months as this becomes clear to business leaders. Moreover, claims made about this part of the Blueprint’s positive impact on the economy — that it will reduce distortion and encourage investment — are subject to significant caveats and are, in some cases, contradicted by the conceptual understructure of the plan itself.
Trade and investment in Southeast Asian development

Expansion of foreign trade and investment has been a vital factor underlaying the high economic growth of the Southeast Asian economies over the last ten years. As East and Southeast Asian economies continue to deregulate and prosper, trade and investment flows are becoming increasingly interconnected within the region. The character of this regional economic integration, however, has shifted recently. The role of the Japanese has declined while that of China and the overseas Chinese has boomed. Whereas China has absorbed huge amounts of foreign investment, investment to the Southeast Asian economies appears to be weakening significantly. This weakening of investment is occurring just as many Southeast Asian countries struggle to uppgrade the technical levels of their production of goods and services to accommodate the rising wages and income levels that are fundamental to sustained and broad-based increases in standards of living throughout the region.
Amniotic Membrane Grafts to Reduce Pterygium Recurrence.

Purpose To demonstrate the long-term outcome of pterygium surgery with adjunctive amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) and intraoperative mitomycin C (MMC) in a large case series. Methods Medical records were retrieved for this noncomparative retrospective study of all patients who had pterygium excision with adjunctive AMT and intraoperative MMC, from October 2010 to June 2016 with at least 6 months of follow-up. Results There were a total of 556 eyes of 535 patients (291 males and 244 females) with average age of 51.9 ± 13 years who had pterygium excision (527 primary and 29 recurrent). For an average follow-up period of 17.3 ± 0.8 months (range 6-74 months), corneal recurrence occurred in 20 eyes (3.6%) and conjunctival recurrence in 12 (2.2%) in a total of 32 eyes (5.8%). Eleven eyes (2%) underwent reoperation. Other complications included granuloma (0.5%), diplopia (1.1%), and steroid-induced ocular hypertension (4.3%). Conclusions Adjunctive use of AMT and short exposure of MMC can reduce recurrence after pterygium surgery. The procedure is less tedious and less time consuming, resulting in early recovery while saving the conjunctiva for future surgeries.
Family conflict is associated with longitudinal changes in insular-striatal functional connectivity during adolescent risk taking under maternal influence

Maternal presence has marked effects on adolescent neurocognition during risk taking, influencing teenagers to make safer decisions. However, it is currently unknown whether maternal buffering changes over the course of adolescence itself, and whether its effects are robust to individual differences in family relationship quality. In the current longitudinal study, 23 adolescents completed a risk-taking task under maternal presence during an fMRI scan before and after the transition to high school. Behavioral results reveal that adolescent risk taking increased under maternal presence across a one-year period. At the neural level, we found that adolescents reporting higher family conflict showed longitudinal increases in functional coupling between the anterior insula (AI) and ventral striatum (VS) when making safe decisions in the presence of their mother, which was associated with increased real-world risk taking. These findings show that individual differences in family relationship quality undermine effective development of AI-VS connectivity resulting in increased risk taking.
Impatience Is a Virtue: Revisiting Disorder in High-Performance Log Analytics

There is a growing interest in processing real-time queries over out-of-order streams in this big data era. This paper presents a comprehensive solution to meet this requirement. Our solution is based on Impatience sort, an online sorting technique that is based on an old technique called Patience sort. Impatience sort is tailored for incrementally sorting streaming datasets that present themselves as almost sorted, usually due to network delays and machine failures. With several optimizations, our solution can adapt to both input streams and query logic. Further, we develop a new Impatience framework that leverages Impatience sort to reduce the latency and memory usage of query execution, and supports a range of user latency requirements, without compromising on query completeness and throughput, while leveraging existing efficient in-order streaming engines and operators. We evaluate our proposed solution in Trill, a high-performance streaming engine, and demonstrate that our techniques significantly improve sorting performance and reduce memory usage – in some cases, by over an order of magnitude.
Bridging Psychology and Mathematics Education: Reflections on Boundary Crossing

Collaborations between psychology and mathematics education have the potential to yield progress on critical questions about the teaching and learning of mathematics. In this paper, we describe our experience of collaborating at this boundary. We have found that collaboration has many benefits: it strengthens the research, it is professionally enriching, and it brings novel perspectives to disciplinary communities. However, collaboration is also challenging, because different views about the nature of knowledge and the aims of inquiry can be difficult to bridge. Collaboration can also raise difficult questions about professional identity. We consider several factors that are critical to success in interdisciplinary collaboration, including methodological openness, a broad view of what constitutes “basic” and “applied” research, and an appreciation for diverse perspectives and varying levels of analysis. We close by offering some advice for others who wish to collaborate at the boundary of psychology and mathematics education.
INHIBITION OF MITOGEN INDUCED BLAST TRANSFORMATION BY MALE GENITAL COMPONENTS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the inhibition of mitogen-induced blast transformation by male genital components. Human and guinea pig seminal plasma can cause specific and nonspecific inhibition of in vitro cell-mediated immune (CMI) responses. Following experimental or natural sensitization to spermatozoa, a specific antibody and a CMI response occurs. In a study described in the chapter, human peripheral blood lymphocytes were isolated from whole heparinized blood, drawn from normal donors, using Ficoll–Hypaque gradient centrifugation. The cells obtained were used for the microblast transformation and leukocyte inhibition tests procedures. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)- and spontaneous-induced blast transformation were found to be significantly inhibited by 100 and 400 μg/ml human seminal plasma. The degree of the inhibition of PHA and concanavalin A-induced blast transformation by human spermatozoa is decreased by saturating the spermatozoa active sites with higher amounts of mitogens. Male genital components are immunosuppressive if used in the in vitro CMI systems. These components have antigenic specificity and concurrent suppressive properties, which can mitigate against documentation of immune responses to them.
Stability of Gauss–Radau Pseudospectral Approximations of the One-Dimensional Wave Equation

We first extend the stability analysis of pseudospectral approximations of the one-dimensional one-way wave equation \frac{\partial u}{\partial x}=c(x) \frac {\partial u}{\partial x} given in (11) to general Gauss–Radau collocation methods. We give asufficient condition on the collocation points for stability whichshows that classical Gauss–Radau ultraspherical methods are perfectly stable while their Gauss–Lobatto counterpart is not. When the stability condition is not met we introduce a simple modification of the approximation which leads to better stability properties. Numerical examples show that long term stability may substantially improve.
Data-dependent permutation techniques for the analysis of ecological data

Two distribution-free permutation techniques are described for the analysis of ecological data. These methods are completely data dependent and provide analyses for the commonly-encountered completely-randomized and randomized-block designs in a multivariate framework. Euclidean distance forms the basis of both techniques, providing consistency with the observed distribution of data in many ecological studies.
Combining brachytherapy and immunotherapy to achieve in situ tumor vaccination: A review of cooperative mechanisms and clinical opportunities

Abstract As immunotherapies continue to emerge as a standard component of treatment for a variety of cancers, the imperative for testing these in combination with other standard cancer therapies grows. Radiation therapy may be a particularly well-suited partner for many immunotherapies. By modulating immune tolerance and functional immunogenicity at a targeted tumor site, radiation therapy may serve as a method of in situ tumor vaccination. In situ tumor vaccination is a therapeutic strategy that seeks to convert a patient's own tumor into a nidus for enhanced presentation of tumor-specific antigens in a way that will stimulate and diversify an antitumor T cell response. The mechanisms whereby radiation may impact immunotherapy are diverse and include its capacity to simultaneously elicit local inflammation, temporary local depletion of suppressive lymphocyte lineages, enhanced tumor cell susceptibility to immune response, and immunogenic tumor cell death. Emerging data suggest that each of these mechanisms may display a distinct dose–response profile, making it challenging to maximize each of these effects using external beam radiation. Conversely, the highly heterogenous and conformal dose distribution achieved with brachytherapy may be optimal for enhancing the immunogenic capacity of radiation at a tumor site while minimizing off-target antagonistic effects on peripheral immune cells. Here, we review the immunogenic effects of radiation, summarize the clinical rationale and data supporting the use of radiation together with immunotherapies, and discuss the rationale and urgent need for further preclinical and clinical investigation specifically of brachytherapy in combination with immunotherapies. Harnessing these immunomodulatory effects of brachytherapy may offer solutions to overcome obstacles to the efficacy of immunotherapies in immunologically “cold” tumors while potentiating greater response in the context of immunologically “hot” tumors.
Sub- $\mu$ V rms -Noise Sub- $\mu$ W/Channel ADC-Direct Neural Recording With 200-mV/ms Transient Recovery Through Predictive Digital Autoranging

Integrated recording of neural electrical potentials from the brain poses great challenges due to stringent dynamic range requirements to resolve small-signal amplitudes buried in noise amidst large artifact and stimulation transients, as well as stringent power and volume constraints to enable minimally invasive untethered operation. Here, we present a 16-channel neural recording system-on-chip with greater than 90-dB input dynamic range and less than 1- $\mu \text{V}_{\mathrm {rms}}$ input-referred noise from dc to 500 Hz, at 0.8- $\mu \text{W}$ power consumption, and 0.024-mm2 area per channel in a 65-nm CMOS process. Each recording channel features a hybrid analog–digital second-order oversampling analog-to-digital converter (ADC), with the biopotential signal coupling directly to the second integrator for high conversion gain and dynamic offset subtraction in the digital domain. This bypasses the need for high-pass filtering pre-amplification in neural recording systems, which often leads to signal distortion. The integrated ADC-direct neural recording offers record figure-of-merit with a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of the combined front end and ADC of 1.81, and a corresponding power efficiency factor (PEF) of 2.6. Predictive digital autoranging of the binary quantizer further supports rapid transient recovery while maintaining fully dc-coupled operation. Hence, the neural ADC is capable of recording ${\le}$ 0.01-Hz slow potentials as well as recovering from $\ge$ 200-mVpp transients within ${\le}$ 1 ms that are important prerequisites to effective electrocortical recording for brain activity mapping. In vivo recordings from marmoset primate frontal cortex demonstrate its unique capabilities in resolving ultra-slow local field potentials indicative of subject arousal state.
Value-Based Health Care in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Abstract Value-based health care is finding increasing importance in medical care. This manuscript reviews the concept of value-based health care and its application to pediatric patients with cardiac complaints in the emergency department.
Building the Foundation in Early Infancy, 1–6 Months

The foundations of social-emotional development are based in the primary caregiving relationship. In the first months of life, development in this area is primarily influenced by the infant’s relationship(s) with his primary caregiver(s), and in turn these relationships are influenced by the infant’s development and behavior. This chapter briefly reviews typical infant development month by month and the bi-directional impact of the relationship and infant behavior on social-emotional development. The ways in which multiple individuals and systems can influence parenting decisions typically formulated during this age period, such as breastfeeding, sleep arrangements, and childcare placement, are highlighted. The chapter ends with a brief review of the assessment process and social-emotional assessment tools that can be used with very young infants and their caregivers.
Algorithms for Determining the Genus of a Graph and Related Problems

Abstract There are now algorithms for determining whether a graphG is embeddable in a surface of genus g (Filotti (1978), Filotti and Miller (1979)). Such algorithms run in time 0(nαg), where n is the number of vertices of the graph. The algorithms provide an embedding if there is one. In this talk I shall discuss improvements to these algorithms and their relations to other problems in topological graph theory.
Investigating the tumor-immune microenvironment in an autochthonous murine model of cholangiocarcinoma.

53Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the most common liver malignancy within the biliary tree with increasing incidence and poor survival. Although surgical resection can be curative, prognosi...
Patient Orientation Affects Lead-Tip Heating of Cardiac Active Implantable Medical Devices during MRI.

Radiofrequency-induced lead tip heating for left-sided cardiac devices can be reduced by changing from a supine head-first to a supine feet-first patient orientation.
Witness to Marvels: Sufism and Literary Imagination

There is a vast body of imaginal literature in Bengali that introduces fictional Sufi saints into the complex mythological world of Hindu gods and goddesses. Dating to the sixteenth century, the stories—pīr katha—are still widely read and performed today. The events that play out rival the fabulations of the Arabian Nights, which has led them to be dismissed as simplistic folktales, yet the work of these stories is profound: they provide fascinating insight into how Islam habituated itself into the cultural life of the Bangla-speaking world. In Witness to Marvels, Tony K. Stewart unearths the dazzling tales of Sufi saints to signal a bold new perspective on the subtle ways Islam assumed its distinctive form in Bengal. “The tales that are the subject of Tony K. Stewart’s book depict a Bengal that is miraculously hybrid, innocent of the estrangements of the modern era. This is essential reading for everyone interested in precolonial South Asia.” AMITAV GHOSH, author of The Great Derangement “This is a work of great erudition; the sophisticated analysis is testament to Stewart’s deep engagement with Bengal’s religious, cultural, and literary histories.” FARINA MIR, University of Michigan “While inspiring readers to acquire fresh methodological and analytical tools for studying religion and region, history, and aesthetics, this triumph of a book also causes us to pause and marvel at the art of translation. This is nothing less than a standard-setter in the studies of South Asia, Islam, and literature.” SYED AKBAR HYDER, University of Texas at Austin TONY K. STEWART is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities at Vanderbilt University and a specialist in the religions and literatures of early modern Bengal. His works include The Final Word: The Caitanya Caritamrta and the Grammar of Religious Tradition and Fabulous Females and Peerless Pīrs: Tales of Mad Adventure in Old Bengal. Islamic Humanities, 2
Evaluating Snake Density Using Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) Telemetry and Spatial Capture–Recapture Analyses for Linear Habitats

Many snake species are elusive and difficult to study in field settings. As such, little is known about their population ecology despite conservation needs for many species. Advances in field techniques and statistical methods can improve our understanding of snake ecology. We used passive integrated transponder (PIT) telemetry to track Nerodia sipedon (Northern Watersnakes, n = 94) and Regina septemvittata (Queensnakes, n = 119) in six low-order streams in central Kentucky, USA from June to October 2016. We assessed snake density, spatial scale of detection, and detection probability using PIT tag relocations and spatial capture–recapture methods for linear habitats. Specifically, we modeled population density as a function of individual stream and land cover type, spatial scale of detection as a function of sex, and detection probability as a function of sex and time-varying covariates. Individual streams were a better predictor of snake density than land cover type; density estimates ranged from 6 ± 3 N. sipedon/km (mean ± standard error) to 107 ± 17 N. sipedon/km and 6 ± 5 R. septemvittata/km to 63 ± 10 R. septemvittata/km. Female R. septemvittata had a larger spatial scale of detection (55 ± 4 m) than male R. septemvittata snakes (40 ± 4 m). Spatial scale of detection did not differ between sexes for N. sipedon (females: 40 ± 4 m; males: 35 ± 3 m). The combination of PIT telemetry and spatial capture–recapture analyses can effectively estimate population densities and other population parameters for snakes and other reptiles and amphibians associated with linear habitats.
Developing Circular-Polarized Beamforming Techniques on Volumetric Random Arrays with Arbitrarily Oriented Array Elements

This paper proposes a circularly polarized beamforming technique on volumetric random arrays with each antenna aligned deliberately. This technique seeks to advance the capabilities of spatially distributed antenna systems on mobile platforms. Sixteen microstrip patch antennas grouped as the tested array are adopted to investigate the fidelity of the developed beamforming technique. Each array element is distributed randomly and rotated freely to emulate the real mobile environment. Detailed and systematic beamforming procedures are provided and illustrated.
Chapter 7 – Manufacturing Environmental Laws, Directives, and Challenges

The Design and Manufacturing of optoelectronics technology and related components used in fiber optics data communication products are significantly influenced by the emergence of new international environmental, ecodesign and chemical legislative directives. These dynamic laws and regulations propose to limit or eliminate heavy metals, chemicals, and other environmental pollutants used in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electric equipment, which have been linked to lasting environmental impacts and human health effects. This chapter discusses the leading environmental law and directives, including the European Union’s (EU) Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Ecodesign Directive for Energy-related Products (ErP), Japanese J-Moss certification, and more. Detailed descriptions include both country-specific regulations (China, European Union) and specific regulations in various US states (such as New York and California).
Open-source multi-year power generation, consumption, and storage data in a microgrid

Open-source, high resolution power consumption data are scarce. We compiled, quality controlled, and released publicly a comprehensive power dataset of parts of the University of California, San Diego microgrid. The advanced microgrid contains several distributed energy resources (DERs), such as solar power plants, electric vehicles, buildings, a combined heat and power gas-fired power plant, and electric and thermal storage. Most datasets contain 15-min averages of real and reactive power from 1 January, 2015 until 29 February, 2020. We also include Python codes to fill missing data and flag and replace potentially erroneous data. The extensive dataset of conventional and new DERs is designed to accelerate research and development work in the area of sustainable microgrids.
Enhanced mixture interpretation with macrohaplotypes based on long-read DNA sequencing.

Deconvoluting mixture samples is one of the most challenging problems confronting DNA forensic laboratories. Efforts have been made to provide solutions regarding mixture interpretation. The probabilistic interpretation of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiles has increased the number of complex mixtures that can be analyzed. A portion of complex mixture profiles, particularly for mixtures with a high number of contributors, are still being deemed uninterpretable. Novel forensic markers, such as Single Nucleotide Variants (SNV) and microhaplotypes, also have been proposed to allow for better mixture interpretation. However, these markers have both a lower discrimination power compared with STRs and are not compatible with CODIS or other national DNA databanks worldwide. The short-read sequencing (SRS) technologies can facilitate mixture interpretation by identifying intra-allelic variations within STRs. Unfortunately, the short size of the amplicons containing STR markers and sequence reads limit the alleles that can be attained per STR. The latest long-read sequencing (LRS) technologies can overcome this limitation in some samples in which larger DNA fragments (including both STRs and SNVs) with definitive phasing are available. Based on the LRS technologies, this study developed a novel CODIS compatible forensic marker, called a macrohaplotype, which combines a CODIS STR and flanking variants to offer extremely high number of haplotypes and hence very high discrimination power per marker. The macrohaplotype will substantially improve mixture interpretation capabilities. Based on publicly accessible data, a panel of 20 macrohaplotypes with sizes of ~ 8 k bp and the maximum high discrimination powers were designed. The statistical evaluation demonstrates that these macrohaplotypes substantially outperform CODIS STRs for mixture interpretation, particularly for mixtures with a high number of contributors, as well as other forensic applications. Based on these results, efforts should be undertaken to build a complete workflow, both wet-lab and bioinformatics, to precisely call the variants and generate the macrohaplotypes based on the LRS technologies.