cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Creating GIS-Based Planning Tools to Promote Equity Through Green Infrastructure

The Philadelphia Water Department, now known as Philadelphia Water (PW), has been coordinating with other city and private and non-profit stakeholders to install green infrastructure (GI) across the city as a means of addressing stormwater runoff as well as promoting social, economic, and environmental benefits such as improved health, job creation, and carbon sequestration. While many planning tools exist to assist in the development of green infrastructure projects, recent critiques have highlighted limitations in their considerations of non-environmental concerns, and several new planning tools have been proposed that use indexes and other need-based approaches to account for a wider range of potential program impacts. Even these new ideas, however, fail to systematically account for the possibility that not only desired GI benefits but also the impacts of specific GI projects may vary considerably from place to place. Based on our experiences with a community advisory board working to assess co-benefits of GI, we propose the inclusion of more interactive methods for incorporating community perspectives on the benefits of GI into GI planning methodologies to make them both more equitable and more responsive to community needs.
Ignition and combustion behavior of mechanically activated Al–Mg particles in composite solid propellants

Abstract Metallized propellants typically produce large agglomerates that result in two-phase flow losses. Tailoring composite metal fuel particles can improve ignition and combustion characteristics while reducing product droplet sizes. In this work, mechanically activated (MA) aluminum (Al) and magnesium (Mg) powders are synthesized, characterized and compared to magnalium (Mag) alloy, neat Al, neat Mg and their physical mixtures (PM) at the same 1:1 mass ratio as MA and Mag powders. CO2 laser ignition tests showed that the MA powders are more reactive than those of Mag and exhibit particle fragmentation upon ignition. Mag powders only show fragmentation and microexplosions at high heating rates. The burning rates of the ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene composite propellants containing MA powders were the highest, compared to Mag, neat Al, PM and neat Mg in decreasing order. High-speed imaging of the propellants and product collection showed that MA, Mg and Mag powders produce much smaller agglomerates than neat Al or PM at lower pressures due to fragmentation and Mg vaporization. However, the microexplosion tendency of the MA and Mag particles in the propellants was reduced at higher pressures due to reduced vapor bubble growth. Out of all the materials investigated, MA particles provide the best combination of burning rate and product sizes.
Fibrolase, an Active Thrombolytic Enzyme in Arterial and Venous Thrombosis Model Systems

Pharmacologic dissolution of an established thrombus has become an accepted therapeutic approach for many patients who develop thrombotic occlusive disease (1). Intravenous infusion of plasminogen activators, including recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA), urokinase (UK), streptokinase (SK), and anisoylated plasminogen streptokinase-activator complex (APSAC), is effective in restoring blood flow in occluded arteries and veins (1,2). SK, APSAC, and UK activate circulating plasminogen as well as fibrin-bound plasminogen within the thrombus. The widespread systemic activation of the fibrinolytic system, leads to the depletion of α2-antiplasmin (α2-AP), and generation of free plasmin that degrades several plasma proteins, including fibrinogen, and factors V and VIII. On the other hand, rt-PA and recombinant single-chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator (scu-PA), activate plasminogen preferentially on the fibrin surface, where the fibrin associated plasmin is protected from rapid inactivation by α2-AP. Despite the availability of fibrin-specific thrombolytic agents, currently available therapy has a number of important limitations. A significant percentage (25–30%) of patients with acute myocardial infarction are resistant to reperfusion within 90 minutes despite the use of the most potent thrombolytic agents or combinations (3) and systemic fibrinogenolysis with accompanying bleeding is encountered frequently (4). Further, 10–30% of patients experience acute coronary reocclusion following thrombolytic therapy (5). There is also a small but significant risk of neurological complications (6) including stroke (7) and intracranial hemorrhage (8). Additionally, there is concern about the rapidly acting plasma inhibitor of t-PA, PAI-1 (9), which is significantly increased in myocardial infarction (10), and may, with other factors, predispose patients to reinfarction (11).
Teachers’ Knowledge of Distribution

To teach statistics effectively teachers need to have a well-developed knowledge of distribution. As a key concept in an intricate web of statistical knowledge, distribution depends on, and is depended on by many other statistical concepts. Various frameworks have been developed as researchers strive to describe the cognitive development of knowledge of distribution. Considering the professional learning continuum that a teacher needs to traverse, research studies are reported that have focused, from the perspective of teachers as learners, on the development of teacher knowledge of distribution both before teaching and while teaching. Recommendations are made for teacher learning and future research into teachers’ knowledge of distribution.
Tax Reform Then and Now

The U.S. tax structure has been reformed and simplified many times in the last 30 years but the need for reform and simplification remains greater than ever. (For a detailed summary of recent tax acts see C.E. Steuerle, 1992, 2004). Should the tax structure be built on a foundation of comprehensive income or on comprehensive consumption? (Examples of excellent tax reform analysis are Bradford, 1984 and Aaron and Gale, 1996.) Should wealth transfer taxes be inheritance taxes, estate taxes or repealed entirely? Should payroll taxes apply to all earned income or should the tax base be capped? These are all tax issues upon which reasonable people can differ. Unanimity of thought is not expected. But there is at least one area of tax reform upon which even those of opposing economic philosophies can agree.
Agropyron and Psathyrostachys

Wheatgrass encompasses five genera, and wildrye species belong to three genera of the tribe Triticeae. These grasses have wide distribution in the temperate regions of the world. Thus, they are highly variable in morphological traits, ecological adaptation, geographic distribution, and genomic constitutions. Consequently, wheatgrass and wildrye grasses possess valuable traits, such as resistance to biotic stresses (diseases and insect pests), tolerance to abiotic stresses (cold, heat, drought, salinity, and toxic minerals, etc.), and nutritional contents (grain proteins). Species of various known genome constitutions (P, St, Ns, E, ESt, StH, StY, StHY, StWY, NsXm, and StHNsXm) in the perennial Triticeae have been successfully crossed with wheat. Some perennial Triticeae grasses were intentionally being used as tertiary genetic resources for wheat improvement via chromosome engineering techniques since 1950s. However, from this review, it is evident that, due to their closer genome relationships with the ABD genomes of wheat, the genomes E and St in the genus Thinopyrum are more likely involved in gene transfers from perennial Triticeae to wheat. Furthermore, linkage drags are limiting the usefulness of many early-day alien gene transfers. With the advent of new molecular techniques to clone targeted desirable functional genes and precision chromosomal manipulation to enhance gene recombination, we may overcome this major problem in utilizing alien genes in wheat breeding. But before that time comes, many tasks need to be done. The preservation and evaluation of the biodiversity in wheatgrass and wildrye species should be an ongoing effort. Molecular research on perennial Triticeae grasses needs to be accelerated to catch up with that on annual cereal crops. New uses of wheatgrasses and wildryes, such as perennial wheat and biofuel crops, should be exploited. The scientific knowledge and tools developed from the fundamental research will benefit both cereal and forage breeding.
Operational support systems — the global dimension

Global activity in the telecommunications industry is increasing as operators look to expand into overseas markets, a trend that is currently being accelerated by the rationalisation of the information technology (IT), telecommunications and entertainment industries. This paper gives an overview of BT‘s global operational support systems (OSS) strategy and ambitions.
The Use of Geospatial Information Technology to Advance Safer College Campuses and Communities

In this collaboration between university researchers and practitioners from two adjacent law enforcement jurisdictions, crime incidents are examined for spatio-temporal trends stretching across jurisdictional borders. The goal of the partnership is to increase the safety of students both on and off campus by identifying crime clusters which enables proactive policing efforts specifically targeted to high crime areas. The applied research confirms spatial and temporal crime clusters across a shared boundary. The implications for this partnership suggest that researchers and multiple law enforcement jurisdictions can work together to identify and solve community problems. In this chapter, background information is presented on research-practitioner partnerships, campus crime, student victimization and the Clery Act, and the goals and objectives of the collaboration. After presenting three analyses on data gathered over the first year, policing and research implications are discussed.
Current and Future Treatment Guidelines for HIV

Combination antiretroviral therapy (CART), consisting of 3 drugs with at least two different viral targets, has changed HIV/AIDS from an invariably lethal disease to a manageable one [1]. As potent antiretroviral combination therapy has improved the disease-free survival of HIV-infected individuals, adding millions of years of additional life to those receiving these drugs [2].
Creation Vs. Techne: The Inner Conflict of Art

Three foundational concepts can be extracted from the modern idea of “art”: the ancient concept of “techne” (becoming the corner stone to the history of the notion of “art,” representing skillful manual labor and indicating a specific knowledge), the concept of “creation” (as a result of the Renaissance synthesis), and the “institution” or “system” of “arts” as a modern social construct (based on the eighteenth century developments). In this paper I address the first two concepts as opposite concepts that, despite their contrast, became incorporated into the modern idea of “art.” The conflict between “techne” and “creation” manifests itself historically in the gradual disappearance of “techne” and its relevance to the practice of modern art while, conversely, the rise of “creation” becomes the relevant descriptor of the artistic act. The only solution to the inner conflict on which the modern concept of “art” is based involves the disappearance of particular art practices producing material artworks (objects). Thus, the concept of art “creation” becomes a subversive principle within the field of “art,” leading to the overcoming of all aspects of “techne” concept, in order to enable “full” actualization of “creation” as a metaphysical and axiological category.
Immunologic Aging and Lymphoid Involution

Publisher Summary This chapter elaborates the immunologic aging and lymphoid involution. The lymphoid system undergoes striking age-related changes. This occurs during adulthood and senescence as well as during development. Morphologically changes with aging consist of thymic involution, a degree of lymphocyte depletion in the peripheral lymphoid organs, sometimes accompanied by plasmocellular conversion and the appearance of increased numbers of reticuloendothelial cells in tissues. The humoral response in old animals including man shows qualitative as well as quantitative changes, such as a shift in the balance of IgM, and IgG antibodies formed in response to antigen. The response to nonspecific stimulation is also age dependent. A correlation with an age-related decrease of immune responsiveness and ease of induction of tolerance to soluble antigens may also exist. It is postulated that the biologic effects of an age-related decline in immune function are profound. The concurrence of diseases associated with old age and disordered immune function makes resolution of the mechanisms involved of fundamental importance.
A Taxonomic Checklist and Relative Abundance of the Mosquitoes of New York City.

ABSTRACT This is the 1st time that a comprehensive checklist of the mosquitoes of New York City has been compiled. This list is based on an arrayed collection of 2.3 million mosquitoes trapped and identified from 1,369 locations in the city between 2000 and 2017. Forty-seven species and 6 subspecies were identified belonging to 9 mosquito genera. Culex pipiens was the most prevalent species, most frequently encountered throughout the city. Over time, species diversity in the genus Aedes has increased from 10 species in the 1930s to 23 species in the recent surveys (2000–17). Invasive species Aedes albopictus and Ae. japonicus japonicus, which were rare in 2000, are now well established in all 5 boroughs of the city.
Effects of the sustainable forestry initiative fiber sourcing standard on the average implementation rate of forestry best management practices in Georgia, United States

Abstract Much of the discourse on the sustainability of forestry resources revolves around certified forestland. It is typically assumed that certified forestland is the hallmark of sustainable forestry. This reasoning has led to a general perception that uncertified forestlands are not sustainably managed. In this regard, the role of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Fiber Sourcing Standard is instrumental in promoting sustainable forest management on uncertified forestlands. We used an advanced spatial approach to determine the influence of the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard over space and time on Georgia's forestlands. We also assessed differences in the implementation rate of forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) in Georgia on harvested sites located within the sourcing radius of mills certified to SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard relative to those harvest sites located outside the sourcing radius of certified mills. Our results suggest that the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard affects 80% or more of total forestland in Georgia. We also found that the average BMP implementation rate on harvested sites located within the sourcing radius (about 65 km) of certified mills is about 2% higher relative to harvested sites located outside the sourcing radius of such mills over time. Our results indicate that the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard is helping in ensuring sustainability of forestlands in Georgia, as forestry BMPs are an important indicator of sustainable forest management. We hope our results will bring clarity to the overall sustainability of uncertified forestlands in Georgia and other forested regions in North America in the context of global private forest governance systems like the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard.
Ultra-High-Frequency Reprogramming of Individual Long-Term Hematopoietic Stem Cells Yields Low Somatic Variant Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Summary Efficiency of reprogramming of human cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has remained low. We report that individual adult human CD49f+ long-term hematopoietic stem cells (LT-HSCs) can be reprogrammed into iPSCs at close to 50% efficiency using Sendai virus transduction. This exquisite sensitivity to reprogramming is specific to LT-HSCs, since it progressively decreases in committed progenitors. LT-HSC reprogramming can follow multiple paths and is most efficient when transduction is performed after the cells have exited G0. Sequencing of 75 paired skin fibroblasts/LT-HSC samples collected from nine individuals revealed that LT-HSCs contain a lower load of somatic single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and indels than skin fibroblasts and accumulate about 12 SNVs/year. Mutation analysis revealed that LT-HSCs and fibroblasts have very different somatic mutation signatures and that somatic mutations in iPSCs generally exist prior to reprogramming. LT-HSCs may become the preferred cell source for the production of clinical-grade iPSCs.
Pleiotropy informed adaptive association test of multiple traits using genome-wide association study summary data

Genetic variants associated with disease outcomes can be used to develop personalized treatment. To reach this precision medicine goal, hundreds of large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted in the past decade to search for promising genetic variants associated with various traits. They have successfully identified tens of thousands of disease-related variants. However, in total these identified variants explain only part of the variation for most complex traits. There remain many genetic variants with small effect sizes to be discovered, which calls for the development of (a) GWAS with more samples and more comprehensively genotyped variants, for example, the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program is planning to conduct whole genome sequencing on over 100 000 individuals; and (b) novel and more powerful statistical analysis methods. The current dominating GWAS analysis approach is the "single trait" association test, despite the fact that many GWAS are conducted in deeply phenotyped cohorts including many correlated and well-characterized outcomes, which can help improve the power to detect novel variants if properly analyzed, as suggested by increasing evidence that pleiotropy, where a genetic variant affects multiple traits, is the norm in genome-phenome associations. We aim to develop pleiotropy informed powerful association test methods across multiple traits for GWAS. Since it is generally very hard to access individual-level GWAS phenotype and genotype data for those existing GWAS, due to privacy concerns and various logistical considerations, we develop rigorous statistical methods for pleiotropy informed adaptive multitrait association test methods that need only summary association statistics publicly available from most GWAS. We first develop a pleiotropy test, which has powerful performance for truly pleiotropic variants but is sensitive to the pleiotropy assumption. We then develop a pleiotropy informed adaptive test that has robust and powerful performance under various genetic models. We develop accurate and efficient numerical algorithms to compute the analytical P-value for the proposed adaptive test without the need of resampling or permutation. We illustrate the performance of proposed methods through application to joint association test of GWAS meta-analysis summary data for several glycemic traits. Our proposed adaptive test identified several novel loci missed by individual trait based GWAS meta-analysis. All the proposed methods are implemented in a publicly available R package.
Input-Aware Flow-Based Computing on Memristor Crossbars With Applications to Edge Detection

Sneak paths in nanoscale memristor crossbars have traditionally been viewed as a problem in the use of memristor crossbars as non-volatile replacements of traditional volatile RAM memories. We show that the sneak paths in a memristor crossbar can be employed to perform computation that exploits device-level parallelism. Our computation can be performed in the memory and does not require data to be moved between a processor and a memory unit – thereby, avoiding the von Neumann bottleneck. We demonstrate the potential of our approach by applying it to a basic problem in computer vision: edge detection in an image. Our results show that the flow-based computing approach on nanoscale memristor crossbars can be used to obtain high-quality approximations of edge detection. We have synthesized multiple $8\times 8$ crossbar circuits for this purpose – a single crossbar circuit for detecting edges between all possible pixel pairs with ~85% accuracy, and another family of input-aware crossbars with higher performance over real-world images. The family of input-aware crossbars together performs approximate edge detection for a subset of pixel pairs obtained from analyzing the BSD500 database, and the resultant images are of a quality comparable to exact edge detection.
From Analog Dollars to Digital Dimes: A Look into the Performance of US Newspapers

The Web has been publicly available for more than 20 years, and US newspapers’ experiment with this particular platform has been going on for nearly as long. Motivated initially by high hopes for t...
Effect of Appended S-Block Metal Ion Crown Ethers on Redox Properties and Catalytic Activity of Mn-Nitride Schiff Base Complexes: Methane Activation.

Using density functional theory (DFT), the effects of appended s-block metal ion crown ethers upon the redox properties of the following nitridomanganese(V) salen complexes were investigated: [(sal...
Bricks in the wall: the politics of housing in Europe

Housing has important economic, political, and social ramifications for Western Europe and beyond. Despite its importance in shaping economic and political outcomes, however, housing remains in the...
Quantifying exposure to running for meaningful insights into running-related injuries

The very term ‘running-related overuse injury’ implies the importance of ‘use’, or exposure, to running. Risk factors for running-related injury can be better understood when exposure to running is quantified using either external or internal training loads. The advent of objective methods for quantifying exposure to running, such as global positioning system watches, smartphones, commercial activity monitors and research-grade wearable sensors, make it possible for researchers, coaches and clinicians to track exposure to running with unprecedented detail. This viewpoint discusses practical issues surrounding the use and analysis of data from such devices, including how wearable devices can be used to assess both internal and external training loads. We advocate for an integrative approach where data from multiple sources are used in combination to directly measure exposure to running in diverse settings.
PAIN AND DEPRESSION AFFECT SELF-REPORTED STRESS RATINGS IN ADULTS WITH AND WITHOUT FIBROMYALGIA

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition characterized by tenderness, fatigue, stiffness, joint pain, and physical and emotional distress. Depression is common, as well, and stress may be perceived as more severe. The current study examines perceived stress in adults ages 50 and older with and without FM. It was hypothesized that individuals with FM and/or depression would subjectively rate stressors as more severe compared to those without. Ninety-four participants (53% with FM, 78% female) aged 50 to 93 (M = 67.72, SD = 9.26) were administered an updated version of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to assess amount of stress experienced in the past year. The difference between the SRRS pre-determined values and participants’ subjective ratings was calculated. Lower difference scores indicated that self-reported severity exceeded standardized values. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that older adults and men were less likely to report exaggerated stressor severity (p < .05). Controlling for age and gender, individuals with FM were significantly more likely to report stressor severity far above standardized severity scores (p < .05). Results also revealed that both depression and chronic pain impact stress ratings, but impact is significantly greater for depression (p < .001). When controlling for depression, FM impact is no longer significant, suggesting that depression is a stronger predictor of subjective stress. The findings emphasize the importance of stress management and lifestyle changes to reduce the likelihood of depression and stress perception in individuals experiencing chronic pain.
Would You Rather Teleport or Spend Some Time Commuting? Investigating Individuals’ Teleportation Preferences

Abstract The “teleportation test” is a unique question—used in some travel behavior research since the 2000s—to examine individuals’ perceptions towards travel time and affinities for travel. It gives people a hypothetical choice between teleporting or spending some time traveling. All studies (using different methods, including focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires) have consistently reported high teleportation preferences (about 70%). Yet, few correlates of teleportation preferences (especially sociodemographic and perceptual characteristics) have been investigated. Using data from an online questionnaire of 648 commuters in Portland, Oregon, this study investigated factors affecting individuals’ teleportation preferences. While generally representative of the area’s commuters, the sample did have higher shares of high-income workers and people using active modes or transit. Overall, 62% of respondents preferred to teleport than to spend some time commuting. Results from binary logit models identified actual commute duration, typical mode of travel, and “ideal” travel time (but no demographic attributes) as major predictors of preferences to teleport. As expected, people with longer commute durations had a greater desire to teleport, whereas bicyclists and pedestrians more often preferred to commute. People with longer ideal travel times had a greater affinity to commute and were less keen to teleport. Analysis of follow-up questions exploring reasons for respondents’ answers suggested that most “teleporters” were motivated by saving time to do other things, while most “commuters” found parts of their commutes to be enjoyable or productive. Findings from this study are consistent with related studies in implying that a teleportation preference does not necessarily represent zero ideal travel time or viewing travel time as wasted. Finally, this study discusses several travel behavior policy implications of the teleportation test, along with limitations and areas for future research.
Chapter 2 – Gene Regulatory Networks

Gene regulatory network (GRN) theory defines the principal structural and functional properties of genomic control programs in animals. Here we provide an introductory overview, specifying the components of GRNs, and focusing on higher level design features such as hierarchy, modular organization, and the unidirectionality of these encoded regulatory systems. We consider two major aspects of GRN output, the generation of regulatory states that in turn determine all downstream genetic functions, and the Boolean nature of spatial gene expression that underlies developmental process. The genomic regulatory transactions linked together in GRNs are executed by cis-regulatory modules, and their combinatorial information processing function deeply affect GRN organization. This chapter further includes a first principles quantitative treatment of network dynamics, which rationalizes the measurable kinetics of accumulation of transcriptional products and permits computational assessment of the outputs of regulatory gene cascades. Current GRN theory devolves from multiple earlier roots which we very briefly trace.
Development and Implementation of Clinical Outcome Measures for Automated Collection Within Specialty Pharmacy Practice

BACKGROUND: Johns Hopkins Specialty Pharmacy Services recognized the need to identify and develop standardized collection methods for clinical outcome measures (COMs) to demonstrate program quality...
Digitally mapping the human behaviorome

Researchers and practitioners in numerous fields yearn to understand human behavior and use that knowledge to improve the quality of life for individuals and populations. Until recently, theories of behavior and its relationship with genetics, health, and the environment have been based on selfreport or human-observed information. Given the meteoric rise of pervasive and machine learning technologies, researchers now have the necessary tools to map a personalized human behaviorome.Despite these recent technology advances, we still face numerous challenges that limit our current ability to learn reliable, complete personal profiles. The ability to perform machine learning-based behavior observation and analysis in uncontrolled environments, where the physical twin lives, is a fundamental requirement. This capability is not only a key to understanding the relationship between behavior and its influences, but also represents an unmet need.In this talk, we highlight methods that have been designed at the WSU CASAS lab to lay the foundation for digitally mapping a human behaviorome. We mention hurdles that were faced along the way, which unexpectedly created new research opportunities. We also tour some of the applications of the human behaviorome that the group is exploring, specifically to impact health and quality of life for adults as they age.
Water and Ecological Ethics in the Anthropocene

Today, there is wide theoretical agreement and international recognition of the ideal that access to, and prudent use of, freshwater is ethically significant to all humankind and to the biosphere as a whole. Therefore, clear and explicit thinking concerning ethics and values must guide decision making concerning water resources and their stewardship. Somewhat less progress has yet been made, however, on identifying the requisite ethical principles and standards and clarifying their rationale. The aim of this chapter is to assess the contribution that an Earth-system perspective and a relational ethics of interdependence can make to that conversation and to global water trusteeship and governance.
Stereotactic radiotherapy of appropriately selected meningiomas and metastatic brain tumor beds with gamma knife icon versus volumetric modulated arc therapy.

Purpose To determine if the gamma knife icon (GKI) can provide superior stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) dose distributions for appropriately selected meningioma and post-resection brain tumor bed treatments to volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Materials and methods Appropriately selected targets were not proximal to great vessels, did not have sensitive soft tissue including organs-at-risk (OARs) within the planning target volume (PTV), and did not have concave tumors containing excessive normal brain tissue. Four of fourteen candidate meningioma patients and six of six candidate patients with brain tumor cavities were considered for this treatment planning comparison study. PTVs were generated for GKI and VMAT by adding 1 mm and 3 mm margins, respectively, to the GTVs. Identical PTV V100% -values were obtained for the GKI and VMAT plans for each patient. Meningioma and tumor bed prescription doses were 52.7-54.0 in 1.7-1.8 Gy fractions and 25 Gy in 5 Gy fractions, respectively. GKI dose rate was 3.735 Gy/min for 16 mm collimators. Results PTV radical dose homogeneity index was 3.03 ± 0.35 for GKI and 1.27 ± 0.19 for VMAT. Normal brain D1% , D5% , and D10% were lower for GKI than VMAT by 45.8 ± 10.9%, 38.9 ± 11.5%, and 35.4 ± 16.5% respectively. All OARs considered received lower maximum doses for GKI than VMAT. GKI and VMAT treatment times for meningioma plans were 12.1 ± 4.13 min and 6.2 ± 0.32 min, respectively, and, for tumor cavities, were 18.1 ± 5.1 min and 11.0 ± 0.56 min, respectively. Conclusions Appropriately selected meningioma and brain tumor bed patients may benefit from GKI-based SRT due to the decreased normal brain and OAR doses relative to VMAT enabled by smaller margins. Care must be taken in meningioma patient selection for SRT with the GKI, even if they are clinically appropriate for VMAT.
Investigation on the Mass Distribution and Chemical Compositions of Various Ionic Liquids-Extracted Coal Fragments and Their Effects on the Electrochemical Performance of Coal-Derived Carbon Nanofibers (CCNFs)

Coal-derived carbon nanofibers (CCNFs) have been recently found to be a promising and low-cost electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors. However, the knowledge gap still exists between holistic understanding of coal precursors derived from different solvents and resulting CCNFs’ properties, prohibiting further optimization of their electrochemical performance. In this paper, assisted by laser desorption/ionization (LDI) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) technologies, a systematic study was performed to holistically characterize mass distribution and chemical composition of coal precursors derived from various ionic liquids (ILs) as extractants. Sequentially, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that the differences in chemical properties of various coal products significantly affected the surface oxygen concentrations and certain species distributions on the CCNFs, which, in turn, determined the electrochemical performances of CCNFs as electrode materials. We report that the CCNF that was produced by an oxygen-rich coal fragment from C6mimCl ionic liquid extraction showed the highest concentrations of quinone and ester groups on the surface. Consequentially, C6mimCl-CCNF achieved the highest specific capacitance and lowest ion diffusion resistance. Finally, a symmetric carbon/carbon supercapacitor fabricated with such CCNF as electrode delivered an energy density of 21.1 Wh/kg at the power density of 0.6 kW/kg, which is comparable to commercial active carbon supercapacitors.
Seroprevalence of the Newer Enterovirus Types A71,A90 and B87 in Healthy Individuals in Shandong Province,China

This study aimed to investigate antibody levels of the newer human enteroviruses(EV)A71,A90,and B87 in the population of Shandong Province,and provide a scientific basis for the development of prevention and control measures.In this study,serum specimens were collected from 400 individuals living in Yantai city,Shandong Province in 2010.EV-A71,A90,and B87 antibodies were detected using neutralization tests,and the results were analyzed by statistical methods.It was found that the positive neutralizing antibody rates of EV-A71,A90 and B87in the population were 46.0%,8.8%,and 47.0%,respectively.Their geometric mean titers(GMT)were 1∶5.20,1∶1.49,and 1∶4.02,respectively.Positive antibody rates for EV-A71 and EV-B87 were lowest in the 1~ yr and 7~ mo age groups,respectively.Positive rates increased gradually with age,and become consistent in the population aged 5years.Positive antibody rates of EV-A90 were consistent across all age groups.Maternal antibody levels of EVA71 declined rapidly after birth,and the increase in seroprevalence among 3~7years old children implied that most EV-A71 infections occurred in preschool and early elementary school children.High positive antibody rates of EV-B87 in healthy individuals,especially children,implied that there may be an immune barrier within the general population.The population monitoring of EV-A90 should be strengthened,as its positive antibody rate is low.
The Role of Natural Experiments in Advancing Public Health Science and Practice

From the preamble to the World Health Organization's constitution, which defines health as a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,"1 to recent discussions about the aspirations of public health that grapple with the social and economic forces that shape health,2,3 public health aspires to create a world that generates health and the opportunity for all to flourish and reach their potential There is good evidence that children exposed to air pollution have worse respiratory systems 7 However, that evidence, borne out through a range of observational studies, has limited potential to influence policy that is specifically about coal-fired power plants related to health improvement Using wind data, population data, particulate matter 2 5 definitions, and zip code-level rates of emergency department asthma visits for children younger than four years between 2009 and 2017, and applying difference-in-difference methods-a useful analytic approach for such studies-the authors showed that asthma hospitalizations decreased by 12% in zip codes close to the plants that were closed compared with zip codes that were farther away
Damage detection in intra-ply glass/carbon laminated composites under Mode-I and Mode-II fracture loadings

Abstract A comprehensive experimental investigation was performed to understand damage detection capabilities of intra-ply glass/carbon composites embedded with carbon nanotubes under mode-I and mode-II fracture. Novel modified four circumferential probes were employed on fracture test specimens to capture piezo-electrical response. The effect of three different laminate orientations (G-0-C-90, C-0-G-90, and G-45-C-45) on both mode-I and mode-II fracture initiation toughness and the electrical-fracture response were discussed. C-0-G-90 demonstrated higher mode-I fracture toughness, while G-0-C-90 composites exhibited higher mode-II fracture toughness. The fracture toughness values were related with scanning electron microscopy images and electrical response was correlated well with the crack dynamics.
MC 2 -RAM: An In-8T-SRAM Computing Macro Featuring Multi-Bit Charge-Domain Computing and ADC-Reduction Weight Encoding

In-memory computing (IMC) is a promising hardware architecture to circumvent the memory walls in data-intensive applications, like deep learning. Among various memory technologies, static random-access memory (SRAM) is promising thanks to its high computing accuracy, reliability, and scalability to advanced technology nodes. This paper presents a novel multi-bit capacitive convolution in-SRAM computing macro for high accuracy, high throughput and high efficiency deep learning inference. It realizes fully parallel charge-domain multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) within compact 8-transistor 1-capacitor (8T1C) SRAM arrays that is only 41% larger than the standard 6T cells. It performs MAC with multi-bit activations without conventional digital bit-serial shift-and-add schemes, leading to drastically improved throughput for high-precision CNN models. An ADC-reduction encoding scheme complements the compact sram design, by reducing the number of needed ADCs by half for energy and area savings. A $576 \times 130$ macro with 64 ADCs is evaluated in 65nm with post-layout simulations, showing 4.60 TOPS/mm2 compute density and 59.7 TOPS/W energy efficiency with 4/4-bit activations/weights. The MC2 - RAM also achieves excellent linearity with only 0.14 mV (4.5% of the LSB) standard deviation of the output voltage in Monte Carlo simulations.
Genetic Predisposition to Mesothelioma: What Are the Biological Mechanisms and What Are the Clinical Characteristics of These Mesotheliomas?

Mesothelioma has been for many years the example of a malignancy induced exclusively by exposure to the environmental carcinogen asbestos. In recent years additional fibers, erionite and antigorite for example, and therapeutic ionizing radiation have been shown to cause mesothelioma. Most importantly, molecular genetic studies conducted by our team revealed that inactivating mutations of the BAP1 gene predispose individuals to mesothelioma. At times these mutations cause mesothelioma in combination with exposure to asbestos or to other carcinogens. Recent studies revealed that at least 12% of mesotheliomas develop in carriers of germline BAP1 mutations or, less frequently, of mutations of other tumor suppressor genes: these patients have a prolonged survival of 5 or more years. Thus mesothelioma has now become the preferred model to study gene x environment (GxE) interaction in human cancer. Genetic testing has become routine for mesothelioma patients in most major research hospitals and it is hoped that soon all patients will be tested to identify possible germline mutations as well tumor-specific mutations that can inform therapy. Moreover, family members of patients carrying BAP1 mutations can be tested, and if positive for mutations, they can be enrolled in early detection clinical trials that are often life-saving.
Chapter I Substrate Specificities of Aminopeptidases: A Specific Method for Microbial Differentiation

Publisher Summary The substrate specificities of aminopeptidases in various species of bacteria, parasites, and fungi have been shown to be radically different. These differences have been used to distinguish closely related species and even strains of the same species. The aminopeptidase (arylamidase) procedure is based upon the enzymatic liberation of fluorescent β-naphthylamine (βNA) from a nonfluorescent L-amino-acid-β-naphthylamide. This allows quantitative and qualitative measurements as fluorescence is linear. Bacteria, fungi, and parasites are differentiated on their ability to enzymatically hydrolyze a series of L-amino-acid-βNAs producing a specific, characteristic profile. Differentiation by substrate specificity of the aminopeptidases complements and sometimes supercedes morphological and cultural identification techniques. It does not suffer from data interpretational difficulties that are sometimes caused by interfering chemical constituents in electrophoretic, chromatographic, serological, or phosphorescent techniques. The chapter presents preparation of cell-free aminopeptidases from Enterobacteriaceae and profile determination with cell-free aminopeptidases. The use of cell-free aminopeptidases in place of an in vivo cellular source of the enzymes, although somewhat more cumbersome, it has the advantage of giving a more complete profile. Some amino-acid-βNAs are not transported into the cell for hydrolysis. Both methods produce different, although completely reproducible profiles.
Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics

With this monograph, Diane Larsen-Freeman and Lynne Cameron unveil a complex systems approach to applied linguistics in the first book-length introduction to the topic. Stirrings of a shift in this direction have begun to appear in Larsen-Freeman’s publications this past decade (e.g., 1997, 2002). Expanding on those early papers, this work is intended “to open the conversation” (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008, p. 255) about complex systems among applied linguists; however, it is not intended to be the last word. As such, it is a rich introduction for teachers, researchers, and students who want to foreground a dynamic worldview in their theory and method for understanding complex systems. This book begins a new chapter in the intellectual history of applied linguistics by repositioning our understandings and making change central. At the very least, the development of a complex systems approach to applied linguistics at the hands of two well-respected applied linguists, each with distinguished publications records, is cause enough to engage with its ideas.
A PCM/VCR speech database exchange format

The use of PCM/VCR technology is described for use as a storage and exchange medium for speech databases. In order to provide a limited amount of digital data, use is made of a recorded modem signal for ASCII character string headers associated with the speech tokens. This format can be used to store field recordings of speech material for subsequent digitization, for transfer of speech database material between laboratories and in implementing automated testing of speech recognition devices.
Making Markets in the Welfare State: The Politics of Varying Market Reforms

1. Introduction 2. Markets and politics 3. The rise of markets 4. Health care markets 5. Education markets 6. Markets in elderly care 7. Conclusion.
Reduction of Twenty-Four-Hour Gastric Acidity With Combination Drug Therapy in Patients with Duodenal Ulcer

Four "extra-effort" drug regimens were tested to determine which most nearly eliminated 24-hr gastric acidity in 8 patients with duodenal ulcer. The regimens included two 300 mg cimetidine tablets with meals and at bedtime; one 300 mg cimetidine tablet plus an anticholinergic drug with meals and at bedtime; 300 mg cimetidine with meals and at bedtime plus liquid antacid 1 and 3 hr after meals and at bedtime; and 300 mg cimetidine, an anticholinergic drug, and antacid, taken simultaneously as each meal was finished and at bedtime. No regimen completely eliminated gastric acidity. However, compared to standard cimetidine therapy (300 mg four times daily) which led to a median 24-hr pH of 2.6, each "extra-effort" regimen except cimetidine plus an anticholinergic was significantly better in reducing gastric acidity. During the daytime hours, cimetidine with meals plus antacid 1 and 3 hr after meals was most effective (median pH 5.0). However, the more convenient regimen of cimetidine, an anticholinergic drug, and antacid was almost as effective (median pH 4.3). None of the "extra-effort" regimens was significantly more effective than standard cimetidine therapy during the hours of sleep.
Basis Options Delta Hedging

The difference between a basis option pricing model on futures or forward contracts, assuming both underlying futures contracts follow geometric Brownian motion, and a basis option pricing model on futures contracts, assuming both underlying securities follow arithmetic Brownian motion are non material from a risk management perspective. We show this by demonstrating that the differences in the deltas and gammas of the two models are not materially different. This being the case, the normal assumption on the underlying futures contracts can be made easing the risk management computational burden.
Finding the Muse: A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions of Artistic Creativity

Acknowledgements 1. Social reality and the space of creativity 2. To be an artist 3. In the company of others 4. Creativity and the market 5. The dream of artistic freedom 6. The conditions of creativity Appendix: the Artists Project References Index.
Preterm Birth Risk Assessed by a New Method of Classifikation Using Selective Partial Matching

In the United States, 8–12% of all newborns are delivered preterm, i.e., before 37 weeks of gestation. Most existing methods to assess preterm birth are based on risk scoring. These methods are only between 17% and 38% predictive in determining preterm birth. Hence there is need for data mining and knowledge discovery in database for predicting birth outcomes in pregnant women. This paper presents a new approach to classification (diagnosis) using selective partial matching. It is shown that our approach is more stable and, in general, more accurate than the method used so far. Our other result shows that classification based on more specific rules is worse.
Q Vectors, Bicistronic Retroviral Vectors for Gene Transfer

We have developed a retroviral vector that incorporates unique features of some previously described vectors. This vector includes: 3' long terminal repeats (LTRs) of the self-inactivating class; a 5' LTR that is a hybrid of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) enhancer and the mouse sarcoma virus promoter; an internal CMV immediate early region promoter to drive expression of the transduced gene and the neomycin phosphotransferase selectable marker; an expanded multiple cloning site and an internal ribosome entry site. An SV40 ori was introduced into the vector backbone to promote high copy number replication in packaging cell lines that express the SV40 large T antigen. We demonstrate that these retroviral constructs, designated Q vectors, can be used in applications where high viral titers and high level stable or transient gene expression are desirable.
Assembly-ready brain microelectrode arrays

The capabilities of wire electrical discharge machining as a method of constructing microelectrode arrays are highlighted, and new assembly procedures based on this technique are presented. Particular attention is paid to the design of the connection between the mechanical array and the front-end electronics, a problem that is common to the construction of all microelectrode array assemblies.