cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Intergovernmental Policy Networks: The Spider Web Model

To understand how government works it is first necessary to understand how the relationships between and among government are structured. Simple models of structure do not identify the variety of reasons governments work closely together or have policy that mirrors each others'. Complex models of structure often focus on individual policies or programs leaving little room for generalization or system-wide analysis. This paper identifies a structured, articulated model that keeps the power of the simplicity of earlier designs at the same time allowing for specificity in statements of relationship and ultimately testable results.
A Brief History of Mediated, Sensational and Virtual Geographies

Media geography is a convoluted and complex field of study – running the gamut of maps, movies, internet and social media – that tries to make sense of how we communicate our geographical imaginations. With this chapter, we tap into our own influences and discipline to map a brief trajectory of the field from the very specific focus of our interests in mediated, sensational, affective, digital and virtual geographies. Ours is just one story of the field, perhaps appropriately emanating from Southern California where we both live and where, arguably, the most powerful newspaper, television, film and internet media have held sway this last century. Our substantive interests are with film and digital media. Given this interest, we do not deal directly with newspaper, books, theatre or television, but their contexts are clearly reflected in our discussion. Nor do we follow strictly linear or historical trajectories to describe the field. Rather, we bounce between eras so as to highlight simultaneously our areas of interest and larger discursive tensions. Elsewhere, one of us argues that understanding disciplinary engagements and debates is an appropriate way of appreciating how we come to know the world because it maintains the tensions that propel creativities; although it may be pedagogically prudent to think of paradigm changes and the linear development of thought, in actuality at any one time there are a plethora of discursive tensions at play (Aitken and Valentine 2014).
Development of Computer Supervisory And Control System of Taipingwan Hydropower Plant Based On Wonderware IAS 2.1 System

In this article,circumstance of reform of computerized supervisory and control system of Taipingwan hydropower plant performed based on industrial application server 2.1(IAS 2.1) is introduced in brief.stressed items are mentioned as follow: analysis is made on environment and condition of Taipingwan hydropower plant;aanalysis is made on applied status and technical status of current computerized supervisory and control system;analysis is made on requirement on technology to industrial automation software applied to supervisory and control system project of Taipingwan hydropower plant;feasibility of software IAS 2.1 to be acted as platform is demonstrated with main technical features it present.A typical instance is provided for application in computerized synthetical supervisory and control of hydropower plant,special explaining is given to main aspects such as system structure,configured component,design of net,the role played in IAS 2.1,design of data engine which operate in primary or standby mode,etc.,that is helpful to know technical characteristic of computerized supervisory and control system of hydropower plant.After all,summarizing and refining is made to actual effect and running status of application.
Neuroanatomical Abnormalities in Boys with Idiopathic Autism Compared to Fragile X Syndrome

Researchers at Stanford University, CA, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, used voxel-based morphometric analyses, and multivariate pattern and clustering analyses to compare brain MRI studies in 165 young boys, aged 1.57-4.15 years, diagnosed with idiopathic autism (iAUT) or fragile X syndrome (FXS) and idiopathic developmentally delayed and normal controls.
Rumination about social stress mediates the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms during middle childhood

Although prior research has established a link between exposure to peer victimization and depressive symptoms, relatively little is known about the processes underlying this association. This study examined whether maladaptive responses to a novel social stressor - specifically, lower levels of problem solving or higher levels of rumination - mediate this association. Data were gathered from 130 children (64 boys, 66 girls; M age = 9.46, SD = .33) who participated in a laboratory social stressor task with an unfamiliar peer. Results indicated that prior exposure to peer victimization in the school context was associated with ruminative responses to the novel stressor, which mediated the association between victimization and depressive symptoms. These results indicate that ruminative responses to social stress outside of the victimization context may serve as one process explaining the association between victimization and heightened depressive symptoms.
Defective Inhibitory Signaling in CLL B Cells and Increased Recruitment of PI3K by c-Cbl in Zap-70+ CLL.

Abstract 1258 Poster Board I-280 Background An inhibitory signaling pathway involving sialic acid 9-O-acetyl esterase (SIAE), sialic acid binding lectins (Siglecs) particularly Siglec-2/CD22, the Lyn tyrosine kinase, and the SH2 domain containing tyrosine phosphatase, SHP-1, attenuates B cell receptor signaling and sets a threshold for B cell activation. A key step in the process is the requirement that SIAE access N-glycans on Siglec ligands and remove 9-O-acetyl groups from terminal αa2,6 linked sialic acid moieties. Siglec-ligand interaction is followed by phosphorylation of ITIM tyrosines on CD22 by Lyn, and the recruitment of SHP-1 by CD22 resulting in signal attenuation (Cariappa et al., J.Exp.Med.2009, 206, 125). While Lyn has both positive and negative signaling functions, knockout mice studies suggest that inhibitory functions are dominant. Previous studies have shown that CLL cells overexpress active Lyn at the protein level and that Lyn is localized to sites beyond the plasma membrane. Although cell surface expression of CD22 is reduced in CLL, it is not known if CD22 can be accessed in CLL cells by promiscuously active Lyn. We sought to ask if cancer progression in CLL involves the evolution of mechanisms to evade inhibitory signaling, thus tipping the balance towards positive, pro-proliferative signaling by Lyn. Methods CLL B cells from patient and control subjects were isolated. Immunoprecipitation and Western blot approaches were used to quantitate the total cellular levels of Lyn and CD22αa and β proteins at the protein level, the ratio of CD22 phosphorylated on an inhibitory tyrosine to total CD22, recruitment of SHP-1 by CD22, the activation of Syk, the expression of c-Cbl and the recruitment of PI3K by c-Cbl in CLL and control B cells. Results A modest decrease in total CD22αa and β proteins was observed in CLL but a dramatic reduction in the proportion of ITIM-phosphorylated CD22, and a reduction in the recruitment of SHP-1 by CD22 in CLL B cells. Decreased inhibitory signaling in CLL correlates with an increase in active Syk. An increase in c-Cbl protein levels was observed and an increased recruitment of p85PI3K was observed specifically in Zap-70 positive CLL. Conclusions Defective inhibitory signaling may contribute to disease progression in CLL. This defect probably results from the inability of CD22 to access 9-O-deacetylated ligands even in the presence of active Lyn. Enhanced constitutive BCR signaling prevails in all CLL patients but in Zap70+ CLL patients p85PI3K is more readily recruited by c-Cbl. Disclosures Hochberg: Biogen-Idec: Speakers Bureau; Genentech: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau; Enzon: Speakers Bureau.
A Smart Wearable Navigation System for Visually Impaired

Smart devices are becoming more common in our daily lives; they are being incorporated in buildings, houses, cars, and public places. Moreover, this technological revolution, known as the Internet of Things (IoT), brings us new opportunities. A variety of navigation systems has been developed to assist blind people. Yet, none of these systems are connected to the IoT. The objective of this paper is to implement a low cost and low power IoT navigation system for blind people. The system consists of an array of ultrasonic sensors that are mounted on a waist belt to survey the scene, iBeacons to identify the location, and a Raspberry Pi to do the data processing. The Raspberry Pi uses the ultrasonic sensors to detect the obstacles, and provide audio cues via a Bluetooth headset to the user. iBeacons will be deployed at different locations with each having a unique ID. In the cloud, there is a database for all the iBeacons attached with the corresponding information e.g. address and information about the place. The Raspberry Pi detects the iBeacon’s ID and sends it to the cloud, accordingly the cloud sends back the information attached to this ID to the Raspberry Pi that converts the text to audio and plays it via a Bluetooth headset to the user. Tests demonstrate that the system is accurate within the threshold radius and functions as a navigational assistant.
A Latent Profile Analysis of Aggression and Victimization Across Relationship Types Among Veterans Who Use Substances.

Objective:This study examined patterns of violence victimization and aggression in both intimate partner and nonpartner relationships among U.S. military veterans using latent profile analysis to identify subtypes of violence involvement.Method:Participants were 839 substance use treatment–seeking veterans (93% male) from a large Veterans Affairs Medical Center who completed screening measures for a randomized controlled trial.Results:Past-year violence involvement, including both intimate partner violence (IPV) and nonpartner violence (NPV), was common in the sample, although NPV occurred at somewhat higher rates. When we included either IPV or NPV aggression or victimization, more than 40% reported involvement with physical violence, 30% with violence involving injury, and 86% with psychological aggression. Latent profile analysis including both aggression and victimization in partner and nonpartner relationships indicated a four-profile solution: no/low violence (NLV; n = 377), predominantly IPV (n = 2...
Exploring the effects of ICTs, workforce, and gender on capacity utilization

ABSTRACTInformation and communication technologies (ICTs) investments come with expectations of increased productivity, but results from ICT impact studies are mixed. We look at workforce characteristics and female participation in the workforce and management and ICTs as contexts to investigate their impact on capacity utilization. This was accomplished by using the Technology, Organization, and Environment framework and regression analysis. The results illustrate the importance of a stable and skilled workforce, capable of leveraging the existing infrastructure. In addition, the pursuit of international certifications, formal employee training, female participation, and other factors affect capacity utilization. From the research findings, we identified eight research hypotheses for future investigations.
Molecular Identification of Bacteria in Intra-abdominal Abscesses Using Deep Sequencing.

Background Intra-abdominal abscesses are localized collections of pus, which generally arise from a breach in the normal mucosal defense barrier that allows bacteria from gastrointestinal tract, and less commonly from the gynecologic or urinary tract, to induce inflammation, resulting in an infection. The microbiology of these abscesses is usually polymicrobial, associated with the primary disease process. However, the microbial identity, diversity and richness in intra-abdominal abscesses have not been well characterized, due in part to the difficulty in cultivating commensal organisms using standard culture-based techniques. Methods We used culture-independent 16S rRNA Illumina sequencing to characterize bacterial communities in intra-abdominal abscesses collected by percutaneous drainage. A total of 43 abscess samples, including 19 (44.2%) Gram stain and culture-negative specimens, were analyzed and compared with results from conventional microbiologic cultures. Results Microbial composition was determined in 8 of 19 culture-negative samples and 18 of 24 culture-positive samples, identifying a total of 221 bacterial taxa or operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and averaging 13.1 OTUs per sample (interquartile range, 8-16.5 OTUs). Microbial richness for monomicrobial and polymicrobial samples was significantly higher than culture-negative samples (17 and 15.2 OTUs vs 8 OTUs, respectively), with a trend toward a higher microbial diversity (Shannon diversity index of 0.87 and 1.18 vs 0.58, respectively). Conclusions The bacterial consortia identified by cultures correlated poorly with the microbial composition determined by 16S rRNA sequencing, and in most cases, the cultured isolates were minority constituents of the overall abscess microbiome. Intra-abdominal abscesses were generally polymicrobial with a surprisingly high microbial diversity, but standard culture-based techniques failed to reveal this diversity. These data suggest that molecular-based approaches may be helpful for documenting the presence of bacteria in intra-abdominal abscesses where standard cultures are unrevealing, particularly in the setting of prior antibiotic exposure.
Measurement of H2'-C2' and H3'-C3' dipolar couplings in RNA molecules.

The quality of nucleic acid solution structures can be significantly improved using residual dipolar coupling data. However, many of the one-bond couplings that could be used for this purpose are difficult to measure. Conventional 2D experiments are often unable to reveal one-bond H2′-C2′ and H3′-C3′ couplings in large RNA molecules due to spectral overlap. Here we show how to use 3D HCcH-COSY and Relay HCcH-COSY to measure one-bond H2′-C2′ and H3′-C3′ couplings which improved the precision of the structures obtained recently for a 42 nucleotide RNA.
Research Methodologies in Science Education: The Qualitative-Quantitative Debate

(2002). Research Methodologies in Science Education: The Qualitative-Quantitative Debate. Journal of Geoscience Education: Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 78-86.
Equipping Bilingual Social Work Students from the inside Out: Cultural Sensitivity, Self-Awareness, and Language.

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the course design and strategies for a graduate-level Spanish social work practice course developed by faculty at a southern California MSW program. The primary focus of the course is to develop and improve clinical and professional vocabulary and, in the process, increase cultural knowledge and understanding. An overview of the curriculum design, along with a description of strategies, are presented. Elements of the model include (a) making the switch from English to Spanish; (b) understanding culture and assimilation; (c) language development-integration of Spanish clinical vocabulary; and (d) application, reflection, and evaluation.
Immediate loading vs. early/conventional loading of immediately placed implants in partially edentulous patients from the patients' perspective: A systematic review.

Objectives This systematic review aimed at answering the following PICO question: In patients receiving immediate (Type 1) implant placement, how does immediate compare to early or conventional loading in terms of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)? Material and methods Following search strategy development, the OVID, PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews databases were search for the relevant literature. All levels of evidence including randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective cohort studies, and case series of at least five patients were considered for possible inclusion. An additional manual search was performed by screening the reference lists of relevant studies and systematic reviews published up to May 2017. The intervention considered was the placement of immediate implant. Study selection and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers. Results The search yielded a list of 1,102 references, of which nine were included in this systematic review. The limited number of studies included and the heterogeneity of the data identified prevented the performance of a meta-analysis. Three studies, one of which was a randomized controlled trial, allowed the extraction of comparative data specific to the aim of the present systematic review. The remaining studies allowed only data extraction for one single treatment modality and were viewed as single cohort studies. Overall, irrespective of the PROMs chosen, patients' satisfaction was overall high with little difference between the two loading protocols. Moreover, studies indicated a positive impact on oral health-related quality of life following immediate implant placement and loading. Conclusions Within the limitations of the present systematic review, immediate implant placement and loading in single tooth edentulous space seems to be a well-accepted treatment modality from the patients' perspective and is worthy of consideration in clinical practice. However, the paucity of comparative data limits any definitive conclusions as to which loading protocol; immediate or early/conventional, should be given preference based on PROMs.
Effect of Surface Adsorbates on Carrier Transport in Graphene

Interaction of graphene with adsorbates on its surface was investigated by analyzing two important electrical parameters - graphene's carrier density and mobility, recorded simultaneously. NH3 and NO 2 molecules were exposed to the graphene separately as ionized donor and acceptor, respectively. With the exposure of NO 2 on the graphene, graphene's carrier density was observed to be increasing monotonically, and NH3 exposure showed an opposite behavior as expected. Even though gas molecules attached on the graphene supposed to be working as ionized impurity scattering centers, graphene's mobility did not drop for both cases - the mobility dropped with NO 2 exposure while it increased with NH3 exposure. To understand the mechanism, we proposed a theoretical model here which includes ionized impurities both from substrate and external adsorbates influencing the graphene's mobility change as one system. A strong donor C9H22N2 molecules' effect on the graphene was also examined. Its high electron donating effect transformed graphene from p-type to n-type, while the mobility change during the whole transformation still followed the proposed model which further verified the model's reliability.
Bingo Games: Turning Student Intuitions into Investigations in Probability and Number Sense

encourage practice in mental arithmetic and solving equations ingo is a game enjoyed by all ages. Community centers, schools, churches, and service organiza tions often have regularly scheduled bingo nights. Although bingo is sometimes called a game of chance, it has been used to raise money for special causes; to provide an enjoyable evening out; and in the classroom, to teach vocabulary, listening skills, mathematics facts, geography, language, and so on. Its history begins with the eighteenth century Italians, who played a similar game called lotto; a variation of the game, known by that name, still exists. In the nineteenth century, this game became popular in the United States and England, with the British renaming the game housey-housey. People in the United States began playing the game but called it keno, which comes from the French word quine, meaning set of five (Wykes 1964). In these games, the numbers selected for making the cards, as well as the shape of the grid, have varied. In the United States, a bingo card is a five-by-five grid displaying numbers from 1 through 75, with a free space in the center, as shown in figure 1.
Ultraviolet signatures of the multiphase intracluster and circumgalactic media in the ROMULUSC simulation

Quasar absorption-line studies in the ultraviolet (UV) can uniquely probe the nature of the multiphase cool-warm (10^4 10^6 K) X-ray emitting intracluster medium (ICM), 2) the stripping of metal-rich gas from the CGM, and 3) a multiphase structure of the ICM with a wide range of temperatures and metallicities. In this work, we present results from a high-resolution simulation of a ~10^14 solar mass galaxy cluster to study the physical properties and observable signatures of this cool-warm gas in galaxy clusters. We show that the ICM becomes increasingly multiphased at large radii, with the cool-warm gas becoming dominant in cluster outskirts. The diffuse cool-warm gas also exhibits a wider range of metallicity than the hot X-ray emitting gas. We make predictions for the covering fractions of key absorption-line tracers, both in the ICM and in the CGM of cluster galaxies, typically observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We further extract synthetic spectra to demonstrate the feasibility of detecting and characterizing the thermal, kinematic, and chemical composition of the cool-warm gas using H I, O VI, and C IV lines, and we predict an enhanced population of broad Ly-alpha absorbers tracing the warm gas. Lastly, we discuss future prospects of probing the multiphase structure of the ICM beyond HST.
Exploring the Impact of Contextual Information on Student Performance and Interest in Open Humanitarian Mapping

The opportunity to engage university students in authentic, open humanitarian mapping raises important questions about how to guide the quality and productivity of volunteer spatial contributions w...
Approximation I: Generalities

What are reasonable approaches to defining the notion of an approximation to P? We shall examine three (somewhat) different approaches.
Quantified Self and Personal Health Privacy Policy Limitations

As consumers increasingly integrate quantified self (QS) health and fitness tracking devices into their lives, the data they amass offer to not only help users live healthier lives, but also present opportunities for interested third parties to identify and target them based on their health-related behaviors. The intended and unintended consequences associated with the aggregation of personal health data collected by QS devices impact aspects of individual, social, organizational, cultural and even legal life. The current study investigates the influence of consumers’ motivations and behavioral-related traits on the use of QS health-tracking devices, health outcomes, and receptivity to tracking and sharing their personal health data. The incentives most desired by consumers in exchange for quantifying and sharing their personal health data include better quality care from health care providers, reduced health insurance rates, and cash or other monetary rewards (eMarketer, 2015). Significant incentives also exist for those parties who desire access to individuals’ personal health data. Clinicians seeking to improve communication and collaboration with their patients in order to promote preventative health care as well as employers seeking to promote “corporate wellness” with an eye on rising health insurance rates are chief among these. However, the practice of individuals sharing their quantified health data with employers introduces the opportunity for various forms of discrimination. Health insurers are also seeking access to this data in an effort to better predict rates and level out profits (Krol, 2015). An increasing number of health insurers are offering incentives for their members to wear fitness trackers, in addition to exploring punishments for any unhealthy behaviors recorded by these devices (Olson, 2014). Indeed, new rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allow employers to offer greater incentives to users for implementing healthy behaviors (Mientka, 2013). Other parties interested in acquiring individuals’ health data include marketers (who are already accessing many individuals’ QS health data via free apps in order to sell them a myriad of products related to health and fitness); as well as litigators, who recently set a precedent for using this information in legal defense strategies and are likely to consider other applications as policies permit (Olson, 2016). The current study investigates the influence of consumers’ motivations and behavioral traits on the use of QS health-tracking devices, health outcomes, and receptivity to tracking personal health data. Data indicate an overall good fit for the structural model tested. Expectancy outcomes related to health and gamification were found to play a significant role in device use and health outcomes. Health outcomes, neuroticism and conscientiousness were also found to be significant contributors related to individuals’ receptivity to tracking and sharing their personal health data.
An exploration of gender gap using advanced data science tools: actuarial research community

This paper explores the role of gender gap in the actuarial research community with advanced data science tools. The web scraping tools were employed to create a database of publications that encompasses six major actuarial journals. This database includes the article names, authors’ names, publication year, volume, and the number of citations for the time period 2005–2018. The advanced tools built as part of the R software were used to perform gender classification based on the author’s name. Further, we developed a social network analysis by gender in order to analyze the collaborative structure and other forms of interaction within the actuarial research community. A Poisson mixture model was used to identify major clusters with respect to the frequency of citations by gender across the six journals. The analysis showed that women’s publishing and citation networks are more isolated and have fewer ties than male networks. The paper contributes to the broader literature on the “Matthew effect” in academia. We hope that our study will improve understanding of the gender gap within the actuarial research community and initiate a discussion that will lead to developing strategies for a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable community.
Transition in the Acid-Base Component of Surface Free Energy of Ice upon the Premelting of its Second Molecular Bilayer

Molecular disordering of the ice surface occurs below the bulk melting temperature of 273 K, termed surface premelting. The topmost molecular layer begins gradually premelting at 200 K and has been...
An Investigation in Muscle Activity of Student’s Neck and Back in Various University Rooms

This study investigates the effects of three different sitting positions on neck and back of students in two various class layouts under class activities. One of the classrooms is traditional in which students sit parallel to the screen and the other one which is more recent one, seats are perpendicular to the screen. Sitting positions include seats in various part of classroom. In this approach, the activity of back muscle, Trapezius Pars descendens (TRP-UP), and neck muscle, Sternocleidomastoid (SCM), are explored. Results show that class layout has a significant effect on both SCM and TRP. Yet, students sitting positions has significant effect only on SCM. Moreover, based on questionnaires’ output, students feel more comfortable in both their neck and back, when they sit in the middle of traditional classes.
Toward a Comprehensive Model of Snow Crystal Growth: 10. On the Molecular Dynamics of Structure Dependent Attachment Kinetics

I examine the molecular dynamics of ice growth from water vapor, focusing on how the attachment kinetics can be augmented by edge-dependent surface diffusion. Although there are significant uncertainties in developing an accurate physical model of this process, it is possible to make some reasonable estimates of surface diffusion rates and admolecule density enhancements, derived from our basic understanding of ice-crystal growth processes. A quantitative model suggests that edge-dependent surface diffusion could substantially enhance terrace nucleation on narrow faceted surfaces, especially at the onset of surface premelting. This result supports our hypothesized mechanism for structure-dependent attachment kinetics, which readily explains the changes in snow crystal growth morphology with temperature depicted in the well-known Nakaya diagram. Many of the model features described here may be amenable to further quantitative investigation using existing computational models of the molecular structure and dynamics of the ice surface.
Medical claims paid by workers' compensation insurance among US Medicare beneficiaries, 1999–2016

BACKGROUND Workers' compensation claims among Medicare beneficiaries have not been described previously. To examine the healthcare burden of work-related injury and illness among Medicare beneficiaries, we assessed the characteristics, healthcare utilization, and financial costs among Medicare beneficiaries with claims for which workers' compensation was the primary payer. METHODS We extracted final action fee-for-service Medicare claims from 1999 to 2016 where workers' compensation had primary responsibility for claim payment and beneficiary, claim type, diagnoses, and cost information from these claims. RESULTS During 1999-2016, workers' compensation was the primary payer for 2,010,200 claims among 330,491 Medicare beneficiaries, and 58.7% of these beneficiaries had more than one claim. Carrier claims submitted by noninstitutional providers constituted the majority (94.5%) of claims. Diagnosis codes indicated 19.4% of claims were related to diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue and 12.9% were related to disease of the circulatory system. Workers' compensation insurance paid $880.4 million for these claims while Medicare paid $269.7 million and beneficiaries paid $37.4 million. CONCLUSIONS Workers' compensation paid 74% of the total amount to providers for these work-related medical claims among Medicare beneficiaries. Claim diagnoses were similar to those of all workers' compensation claims in the United States. Describing these work-related claims helps identify the healthcare burden due to occupational injury and illness among Medicare beneficiaries resulting from employment and identifies a need for more comprehensive collection and surveillance of work-related medical claims.
Treating the Hardest to Treat: Reframing the Hospital Admission as an Opportunity to Initiate Hepatitis C Treatment

Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is traditionally treated in the outpatient setting. Despite the excellent tolerability, shortened treatment duration, and high cure rates of newer direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), many vulnerable patients remain untreated due to issues with linkage to care. This study sought to reframe and establish the hospital admission as a unique opportunity to initiate antiviral treatment for patients with CHC, particularly those with psychosocial or linkage to care issues. Patients with untreated CHC were identified either on the Psychiatry or Med/Surg wards at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS). If found to be appropriate for treatment initiation, patients were started on antivirals during their hospitalization and followed closely while inpatient and after discharge to assess for sustained virologic response (SVR), treatment tolerability, and treatment completion. Overall, 36% (23) of potential treatment candidates were initiated on DAA treatment during their hospitalization. Of these patients, 91.3% had documented treatment completion with an intention-to-treat and modified intention-to-treat SVR rate of 91.3% and 100%, respectively. We establish the hospital admission as a valuable opportunity for HCV treatment initiation, yielding excellent treatment outcomes in those who would not otherwise be treated and achieved a modified intention-to-treat response rate of 100%.
Comparative Cross-National Analyses of Domestic Violence: Insights from South Asia:

Domestic violence is a global phenomenon impacting countless lives. However, most research on the topic is anchored in the Global North. Using South Asia as a case study, we encourage further devel...
Assistive Technology in Education: Conceptions of a Socio-technical Design Challenge

This article offers a socio-technical framing of assistive technology design for in-classroom use to enable a better understanding of how to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for learners with disabilities. By addressing social inequities in public education and recognizing user-centered design faults and inadequacies in the current implementation of assistive technology in the educational environment, this paper focuses on understanding the experiences of learners with disabilities. This article discusses challenges faced when adopting such technology and the effects of the current well-intentioned but flawed implementation of assistive technology. The authors highlight the limitations and shortcomings of the current approaches portrayed in previous research and educational practices. The article concludes with a call for a socio-technical approach to the adoption of assistive technology to augment the learning experience for a more inclusive atmosphere, and encourages a deeper appreciation for the interrelatedness between people, educational organizations, and technology.
Decision Making at Extreme Prematurity: Innovation in Clinician Education

Abstract Decision-making at extreme prematurity remains ethically and practically challenging and can result in parental and clinician distress. It is vital that clinicians learn the necessary skills integral to counseling and decision-making with families in these situations. A pedagogical approach to teaching counseling should incorporate adult learning theory, emphasize multidisciplinary team in-situ simulation that links to counseling clinicians' daily practice, and includes critical reflection, debriefing, and program assessment. Multiple educational strategies that train clinicians in advanced communication and decision-making offer promising results to optimize antenatal counseling and shared decision-making for families facing possible delivery at extreme prematurity. Continued process evaluation and innovation in these educational domains are needed while also assessing the effect on patient-centered outcomes.
Combining advanced formal hardware verification techniques

This dissertation combines formal verification techniques in an attempt to reduce the human effort required to verify large systems formally. One method to reduce the human effort required by formal verification is to modify general-purpose theorem proving techniques to increase the number of lemma instances considered automatically. Such a modification to the forward chaining proof technique within the ACL2 theorem prover is described. This dissertation identifies a decidable subclass of the ACL2 logic, the Subclass of Unrollable List Formulas in ACL2 (SULFA). SULFA is shown to be decidable, i.e., there exists an algorithm that decides whether any SULFA formula is valid. Theorems from first-order logic can be proven through a methodology that combines interactive theorem proving with a fully-automated solver for SULFA formulas. This methodology has been applied to the verification of components of the TRIPS processor, a prototype processor designed and fabricated by the University of Texas and IBM. Also, a fully-automated procedure for the Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT) of bit vectors is implemented by combining a solver for SULFA formulas with the ACL2 theorem prover's general-purpose rewriting proof technique. A new methodology for combining theorem proving and model checking is presented, which uses a unique "black-box'' formalization of hardware designs. This methodology has been used to combine the ACL2 theorem prover with IBM's SixthSense model checker and applied to the verification of a high-performance industrial multiplier design. A general-purpose mechanism has been created for adding external tools to a general-purpose theorem prover. This mechanism, implemented in the ACL2 theorem prover, is capable of supporting the combination of ACL2 with both SixthSense and the SAT-based SULFA solver. A new hardware description language, DE2, is described. DE2 has a number of unique features geared towards simplifying formal verification, including a relatively simple formal semantics, support for the description of circuit generators, and support for embedding non-functional constructs within a hardware design. The composition of these techniques extend our knowledge of the languages and logics needed for formal verification and should reduce the human effort required to verify large hardware circuit models.
A Mixed Cooperative Dual to the Nash Equilibrium

A mixed dual to the Nash equilibrium is defined for -person games in strategic form. In a Nash equilibrium every player’s mixed strategy maximizes his own expected payoff for the other players’ strategies. Conversely, in the dual equilibrium every players have mixed strategies that maximize the remaining player’s expected payoff. Hence this dual equilibrium models mutual support and cooperation to extend the Berge equilibrium from pure to mixed strategies. This dual equilibrium is compared and related to the mixed Nash equilibrium, and both topological and algebraic conditions are given for the existence of the dual. Computational issues are discussed, and it is shown that for each there exists a game for which no dual equilibrium exists.
Who Are the Giants on Whose Shoulders We Stand

Summary The scientific community is just that – a community – and the success/influence of any one individual likely reflects, at least in certain measure, the contributions made previously by others. This suggests that rather than merely ranking economists on the basis of raw citation counts, one might gain real insights about the giants laboring in relative obscurity by identifying who the authors of exceptionally influential papers drew their inspiration from. We identify the most-highly-cited (409) papers published in economics from 2001–2005, then examine who the authors of these high-impact papers drew from in terms of developing the ideas/arguments/applications presented in these papers. We find that a very small group of individuals had a comparatively large impact on the economics profession, in terms of influencing the subsequent work of authors of extraordinarily highly-cited papers. Further, there is relatively little consistency between our list of ‘giants’ and Nobel Prize winners in Economics.
Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Continuous Scales of the Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator: An Analysis Based on Twins Reared Apart

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was administered to a sample of 61 monozygotic twins reared apart (MZA), 49 dizygotic twins reared apart (DZA), and 92 spouses, who participated in the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA) from 1979 to 1995. Twins' scores on the continuous scales were subjected to behavior genetic model-fitting procedures. Extraversion-Introversion and Thinking-Feeling yielded heritabilities of about .60, consisting largely of nonadditive genetic variance. Sensing-Intuition and Judgment-Perception yielded heritabilities of about .40, consisting largely of additive genetic variance. Spouse correlations for three of the four scales were near zero and not statistically significant; one spouse correlation (Sensing-Intuition) was modestly positive and statistically significant.
A Bayesian Approach to Parameter Estimation in Simplex Regression Model: A Comparison with Beta Regression

Some variables are restricted to the open interval (0; 1) and several methods have been developed to work with them under the scheme of the regression analysis. Most of research consider maximum likelihood methods and the use of Beta or Simplex distributions. This paper presents the use of Bayesian techniques to estimate the parameters of the simplex regression supported on the implementation of some simulations and a comparison with Beta regression. We consider both models with constant variance and models with heteroscedasticity.
A23187 and red cells: Changes in deformability, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+ and ATP

A23187 allows red cells to accumulate Ca2+ and become rigid. Excess Mg2+ does not make cells rigid. A23187 also causes K+ efflux, even the absence of added calcium.
Macroscopic theory of optical phonons in superlattices

A macroscopic theory of optical-phonon modes in superlattices is developed. The Born-Huang equation is used with the inclusion of elastic force terms. The Hermiticity condition for the dynamical operator allows one to solve the eigenvalue problem uniquely without any particular boundary conditions at superlattice interfaces. The eigensolutions are classified according to their bulk and sheet sources and vortices. Eigenfrequencies and eigenvectors of confined bulk and interface modes are determined, and proven to form a complete orthonormal basis set. The results agree well with those from microscopic calculations, apart from certain singular wave vectors where a degeneracy takes place between confined bulk modes of equal polarizations or between confined and interface modes. The Fr\"ohlich interaction Hamiltonians are derived for both types of modes.
Out-of-focus intensity distribution: Effects of focal number and aberration

AbstractShock wave experiments contemplated on powerful CO2 lasers require uniform planar il-luminations over spot sizes much larger than the diffraction limit focal spot size of thefocusing optics. Cost as well as space considerations limit one's choice of optics toparabolic mirrors with focal lengths between 78 and 150 cm, and apertures to 35 cm. With-in these constraints one either modifies the incident laser energy distribution to modifythe focal spot shape, or works out of the focal plane. I analyze the latter option usinga fast Fourier method to calculate the intensity distributions for two focal lengths (78and 132 cm) and various measured optical distortions (Phase only) for the focusing op- tics. I found that a 78 cm element produced more uniform spots of diameter 500 um. The 132 cm element was less sensitive to focusing /positioning error than the 78 cm element.IntroductionIn many of the experiments that study the interaction of laser radiation with matter,one would like to have as uniform an irradiance as possible in order to define one quanti-ty rather than a range for the intensities. Another requirement, characteristic of shockwave experiments, is the desirability to generate plane shock waves. This is usually ac-complished by having the area of the shock wave much larger than the target thickness inthe direction of the travel of the shock. For CO2 lasers the areas contemplated are
Implications of NSTX lithium results for magnetic fusion research

Lithium wall coating techniques have been experimentally explored on NSTX for the last five years. The lithium experimentation on NSTX started with a few milligrams of lithium injected into the plasma as pellets and it has evolved to a lithium evaporation system which can evaporate up to ~ 100 g of lithium onto the lower divertor plates between lithium reloadings. The unique feature of the lithium research program on NSTX is that it can investigate the effects of lithium in H-mode divertor plasmas. This lithium evaporation system thus far has produced many intriguing and potentially important results; the latest of these are summarized in a companion paper by H. Kugel. In this paper, we suggest possible implications and applications of the NSTX lithium results on the magnetic fusion research which include electron and global energy confinement improvements, MHD stability enhancement at high beta, ELM control, H-mode power threshold reduction, improvements in radio frequency heating and non-inductive plasma start-up performance, innovative divertor solutions and improved operational efficiency.
A hierarchical power management strategy for multiple single-phase roadway microgrids

This paper proposes a centralized hierarchical power management strategy for multiple single-phase wind/solar generation-based roadway microgrids integrated into a three-phase utility distribution grid. The proposed power management strategy consists of a Central Power Management Controller (CPMC) operating at the distribution grid level to regulate the power flow between the distribution grid and the microgrids, a Supervisory Power Management Controller (SPMC) operating at the microgrid level for voltage and frequency control of each microgrid under the coordination of the CPMC, and a Local Power Management Controller operating at the unit level for power management of each individual unit under the coordination of the SPMC. An adaptive droop control is designed to precisely control the voltages and frequency of each microgrid. Simulation studies are carried out in MATLAB/Simulink to validate the proposed power management strategy for controlling multiple roadway microgrids in both grid-connected and island modes as well as the transition between different modes.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptom Levels and Romantic Relationship Quality in College Students

AbstractObjective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom levels in college undergraduates are associated with poorer romantic relationship quality, and to test whether emotion regulation difficulties, perceived stress, and hostile relationship conflict mediate this association. Participants: The sample consisted of 189 undergraduate students aged 18 to 25. Methods: Self-report measures of ADHD symptoms, relationship quality, and the proposed mediators were collected via online survey from May through August 2011. Results: Participants who reported clinically significant levels of both hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattentiveness (consistent with ADHD-C) had lower relationship quality than those whose self-reported symptoms indicated no ADHD diagnosis. Further, for women only, both hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive symptom levels were negatively associated with relationship quality. Emotion regulation problems and hostile relationship ...
The creationist challenge to science

The creationists want equal time for nonsense, and also want to eliminate current methods of teaching evolution and other sciences.
Hsf-1 and POB1 Induce Drug Sensitivity and Apoptosis by Inhibiting Ralbp1

Hsf-1 (heat shock factor-1) is a transcription factor that is known to regulate cellular heat shock response through its binding with the multispecific transporter protein, Ralbp1. Results of present studies demonstrate that Hsf-1 causes specific and saturable inhibition of the transport activity of Ralbp1 and that the combination of Hsf-1 and POB1 causes nearly complete inhibition through specific bindings with Ralbp1. Augmentation of cellular levels of Hsf-1 and POB1 caused dramatic apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cell line H358 through Ralbp1 inhibition. These findings indicate a novel model for mutual regulation of Hsf-1 and Ralbp1 through Ralbp1-mediated sequestration of Hsf-1 in the cellular cytoskeleton and Hsf-1-mediated inhibition of the transport activity of membrane-bound Ralbp1.
Toxicity of a rubber accelerator.

Abstract A toxicity profile for 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) and 2-(2-hydroxyethylmercapto)benzothiazole (HMBT) was determined utilizing cells in culture, mice and rabbits. The ethylene oxide reaction product of MBT (HMBT) was found to be more lethal than the parent compound in single-dose studies. The MBT was more toxic in repeated-dose studies. The most significant toxic effects were marked CNS stimulation, peripheral vasodilation, and salivation after acute dosing with both compounds, and a severe liver toxicity after subchronic dosing with MBT. There was little or no dermal toxicity from either compound on acute exposure.