cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficient Update of Indexes for Dynamically Changing Web Documents

Recent work on incremental crawling has enabled the indexed document collection of a search engine to be more synchronized with the changing World Wide Web. However, this synchronized collection is not immediately searchable, because the keyword index is rebuilt from scratch less frequently than the collection can be refreshed. An inverted index is usually used to index documents crawled from the web. Complete index rebuild at high frequency is expensive. Previous work on incremental inverted index updates have been restricted to adding and removing documents. Updating the inverted index for previously indexed documents that have changed has not been addressed. In this paper, we propose an efficient method to update the inverted index for previously indexed documents whose contents have changed. Our method uses the idea of landmarks together with the diff algorithm to significantly reduce the number of postings in the inverted index that need to be updated. Our experiments verify that our landmark-diff method results in significant savings in the number of update operations on the inverted index.
Urine Albumin-to-Creatinine Ratio: A Marker of Early Endothelial Dysfunction in Youth.

Context: The urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) is a useful predictor of cardiovascular (CV) events in adults. Its relationship to vascular function in children is not clear. Objective: We investigated whether UACR was related to insulin resistance and endothelial function, a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, in adolescents across the spectrum of glucose regulation. Participants: Participants were 58 adolescents: 13 normal weight (NW), 25 overweight with normal glucose tolerance (OW-NGT), and 20 overweight with prediabetes (OW-PreD). Interventions: Interventions included oral glucose tolerance test, hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp with determination of insulin sensitivity (IS), endothelial function assessment by peripheral arterial tonometry determination of the reactive hyperemia index (RHI), body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry), and abdominal fat distribution (magnetic resonance imaging). Primary Outcome Measure: Fasting UACR was determined. Results: The 3 groups did not diff...
Saltation impact as a means for raising dust on Mars

Experiments were conducted under atmospheric pressures appropriate for Earth and Mars to determine the efficiency of sand in saltation as a means for raising dust into the atmosphere under wind speeds which would otherwise be too low for dust entrainment. Experiments involving intimate mixtures of sand and dust (1:1 ratio by mass) showed that after an initial flurry of activity of a few seconds duration, the bed stabilized with little movement of either sand or dust. In contrast, sands set into saltation upwind fro= dust beds were efficient in injecting the dust into suspension, with low-pressure Martian conditions being some five times more efficient than terrestrial conditions. This result is attributed to the higher kinetic energies of the saltating grains on Mars, which is a consequence of the higher velocities of the grains. These results suggest that sands saltating across dust beds on Mars are an effective means for setting dust into suspension.
Overwintering development, growth, and feeding of larval Euphausia superba in the Antarctic marginal ice zone

Seasonal extent of pack ice has enormous influence on the Antarctic ecosystem. An investigation of the marginal ice zone in winter took place in the Scotia-Weddell Seas, a major nursery ground for the Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. Krill larvae were abundant at the ice edge and on the undersurfaces of ice floes where the pack ice provided greater concentrations of food and a superior refuge compared to the water column. Larval development and growth, which is dependent on food supply, progressed steadily from June through August. In early June, furcilia stages F3-F5 were most abundant but, by August, F6s and juveniles predominated. Krill molted about every 20 d and growth rates (0.07 mm d-‘) were similar to reported summer rates. Gut fullness indicated that 98% of the larvae were feeding both day and night. Ingestion rates based on gut pigments, however, were inadequate to meet respiratory requirements. Dietary analysis revealed that in addition to diatoms, larvae ingest protozoans and possibly detritus. Ifheterotrophic C is considered, larval krill feeding on sea ice biota could ingest sufficient C to support observed growth. Seasonal pack ice coverage over nursery grounds thus plays an important role in the overwintering of larval krill.
Differential effects of acetaminophen pretreatment on hepatic aflatoxin B1-DNA binding, cellular proliferation, and aflatoxin B1-induced hepatic foci in rats and hamsters

Effects of acetaminophen (AAP) pretreatment on hepatic aflatoxin B1 (AFB(1))-DNA binding, cellular proliferation, and AFB(1)-induced glutathione S-transferase placental form (GST-P) positive hepatocytes and foci have been examined in young male rats and hamsters. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) dosing of 600mg AAP 3h before AFB(1) i.p. injection showed three-fold more AFB(1)-DNA binding in hamsters and 40% less binding in rats. Cell proliferation analyzed by bromodeoxyuridine incorporation was not significant (0.4-0.6%) 24-96h after AAP (600mg) treatment of rats; however, proliferation was stimulated and was maximum (11%) in hamsters at 72h after AAP treatment. Dosing of rats with AFB(1) alone at 0.5 or 2.5mg level gave an appreciable number of GST-P positive minifoci (two to nine cells) with a few foci larger than 100 microm; pretreatment with AAP (300 or 600mg) 48h before 0.5 or 2.5mg AFB(1) had no effect on the number and focal area of foci. In hamsters, 1 or 2mg AFB(1) alone yielded GST-P positive hepatocytes without any minifoci. Pretreatment with AAP (600mg) 48 or 72h before 1 or 2mg AFB(1) produced increases in both GST-P positive hepatocytes and minifoci. Thus, marked changes are observed after AAP pretreatment in hamsters compared to rats.
Concentration dependent effect of calcium on brain mitochondrial bioenergetics and oxidative stress parameters.

Mitochondrial dysfunction following traumatic brain and spinal cord injury (TBI and SCI) plays a pivotal role in the development of secondary pathophysiology and subsequent neuronal cell death. Previously, we demonstrated a loss of mitochondrial bioenergetics in the first 24 h following TBI and SCI initiates a rapid and extensive necrotic event at the primary site of injury. Within the mitochondrial derived mechanisms, the cross talk and imbalance amongst the processes of excitotoxicity, Ca2+ cycling/overload, ATP synthesis, free radical production, and oxidative stress damage ultimately leading to mitochondrial damage followed by neuronal cell death and loss of behaviors. Mitochondria are one of the most important organelles that regulate for intracellular calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis; and are equipped with a tightly regulated Ca2+ transport system. However, owing to the lack of consensus and the link between the downstream effects of calcium in published literature, we undertook a systematic in vitro study for measuring concentration dependent effects of calcium (100-1000 nmols/mg mitochondrial protein) on mitochondrial respiration, enzyme activities, reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) generation, membrane potential (∆Ψ) and oxidative damage markers in isolated brain mitochondria. We observed a dose- and time-dependent inhibition of mitochondrial respiration by calcium without influencing mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) and NADH dehydrogenase (Complex I) enzyme activities. We observed dose-dependent decreased production of hydrogen peroxide and total ROS/RNS species generation by calcium and no significant changes in protein and lipid oxidative damage markers. These results may shed new light on the prevailing dogma of the direct effects of calcium on mitochondrial bioenergetics, free radical production and oxidative stress parameters that are primary regulatory mitochondrial mechanisms following neuronal injury.
One appraisal of composite shielding

Weight is at a premium when designing for space applications. Equipment housings must be as light as possible and still meet both structural and electromagnetic shielding requirements. The favorable strength to weight properties of composite materials are well known. To reduce the weight of space avionics equipment, Honeywell initiated a program to examine the suitability of composite materials, for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. The composite material investigated was an epoxy resin, filled 40% by weight with carbon fibers. The volume resistivity of the composite material was estimated to be 100 Omega -cm. The results of this investigation show that for some applications, composite materials may be used for EMI shielding without degrading EMI performance. >
Propagation of Rhododendron chapmanii by Stem Cuttings

Two experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of propagating Chapman's rhododendron (Rhododendron chapmanii A. Gray) by rooting stem cuttings. In the first experiment, semi-hardwood t...
Geriatric trauma: An opportunity for proactive palliative care.

Mrs. Harrison is an 89 year old widow living independently in the community. In early 2015, she experienced a series of falls over a two month period, with the last resulting in hospitalization for a clavicle fracture and a small subdural hematoma. Her recovery was slow and her functional status was significantly diminished. When Mrs. Harrison expressed her fear and anxiety of the future to Judy, her primary nurse, Judy informed Mrs. Harrison of the geriatric palliative care service. Judy explained that the service could address physical and emotional concerns in a way that could facilitate Mrs. Harrison’s health care decisions. During her hospitalization, Mrs. Harrison and her family received a geriatric palliative care consultation. Based on the consultation, Mrs. Harrison elected to move to an assisted living facility where she had friends and where her family could visit on a regular basis. The facility that she chose allows her to ‘age in place’ by providing levels of service and assistance based on her individual needs. At age 89, Mrs. Harrison has no cognitive impairment, but notes that she has lost weight, is unable eat as much as she used to, cannot walk without her walker, and sleeps more during the day. Mrs. Harrison’s story of advancing frailty is one among hundreds that occur every day across the U.S. Her frailty is an indicator that she is in the final phase of her life, yet public understanding about aging and frailty is sorely lacking. As frontline clinicians providing bedside care, nurses are often best equipped to identify elders who are at risk of functional decline and death. Hospitalization presents an opportunity for advocacy in which nurses can trigger processes that can optimize future trajectories for frail elders. In the bestselling book, Being Mortal,1 Atul Gawande provides vivid insight into the struggles and challenges associated with
The Search for Trust Evidence

Trust Evidence addresses the problem of how devices or systems should mutually assess trustworthiness at the onset and during interaction. Approaches to Trust Evidence can be used to assess risk, for example, facilitating the choice of threat posture as devices interact within the context of a smart city. Trust Evidence may augment authentication schemes by adding information about a device and its operational context. In this paper, we discuss Intel’s 3-year collaboration with university researchers on approaches to Trust Evidence. This collaboration included an exploratory phase that looked at several formulations of Trust Evidence in varied contexts. A follow-up phase looked more specifically at Trust Evidence in software runtime environments, and whether techniques could be developed to generate information on correct execution. We describe various research results associated with two key avenues of investigation, programming language extensions for numerical Trust Evidence and an innovative protected module architecture. We close with reflections on industry-university researcher collaborations and several suggestions for enabling success.
Cost Sharing in Higher Education: Tuition, Financial Assistance, and Accessibility in a Comparative Perspective

Cost sharing in higher education is the assumption by parents and students of a portion of the costs of higher education - costs that in many na- tions, at least until recently, have been borne predominantly or even exclusively by governments, or taxpayers. The author presents empirical evidence of, and various theoretical justifications for, increasing cost sharing throughout the world in the forms of tuitions and fees, the diminishing real value of student maintenance grants, and an increasing reliance on private forms of higher education. Resistance to cost sharing, both ideological and strategic, is also analysed. The author discusses policy alternatives such as grants versus loans and the criteria for an appropriate tuition level, as well as the impact of cost shar- ing on enrolment behaviour. He concludes that increased cost sharing is proba- bly inevitable, less on the basis of the classical neoliberal economic claim for greater equity and efficiency than on the basis of the sheer need for revenue and the increasing priority of alternative claims on public treasuries. Sociologický casopis/Czech Sociological Review, 2003, Vol. 39, No. 3: 351-374
A novel regulator controls Clostridium difficile sporulation, motility and toxin production

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic pathogen that forms spores which promote survival in the environment and transmission to new hosts. The regulatory pathways by which C. difficile initiates spore formation are poorly understood. We identified two factors with limited similarity to the Rap sporulation proteins of other spore-forming bacteria. In this study, we show that disruption of the gene CD3668 reduces sporulation and increases toxin production and motility. This mutant was more virulent and exhibited increased toxin gene expression in the hamster model of infection. Based on these phenotypes, we have renamed this locus rstA, for regulator of sporulation and toxins. Our data demonstrate that RstA is a bifunctional protein that upregulates sporulation through an unidentified pathway and represses motility and toxin production by influencing sigD transcription. Conserved RstA orthologs are present in other pathogenic and industrial Clostridium species and may represent a key regulatory protein controlling clostridial sporulation.
Abstract 3923: Growth hormone activates ERK via EGFR, not IGF-IR, to potentiate estrogen-dependent breast cancer cell proliferation

Estrogen receptor (ER) and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor (IGF-IR) interact and activate one another in breast cancer cells, and ER can up-regulate components of the IGF-I signaling pathway. Therapeutic strategies co-targeting ER and IGF-IR in ER-positive breast tumors have been developed, yet clinical trials of anti-IGF-IR therapies have not been as successful as had been hoped. Although growth hormone (GH) is implicated in having a role in breast cancer, its effects are often attributed to the actions of IGF-I. Since inhibition of IGF-IR can cause an increase in circulating levels of GH, we considered the possibility that GH may act directly on the tumor itself thus explaining the limited efficacy of anti-IGF-IR therapy in breast cancer. Therefore, we sought to determine whether GH has direct, IGF-I-independent effects on breast cancer. We demonstrate in T47D human breast cancer cells that while GH alone only weakly stimulates cell proliferation, it significantly enhances estradiol (E2)-stimulated proliferation. Inhibition of IGF-IR reduced E2-stimulated proliferation, confirming previous findings. Remarkably, GH+E2 overcame the IGF-IR blockade to promote proliferation. This indicates that GH not only acts in an IGF-I-independent manner, but can bypass IGF-IR inhibitors to restore E2 action on proliferation. Furthermore, we found that both epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and ERK were required for proliferation stimulated by GH and E2, and that GH uses EGFR to activate ERK even in the presence of the IGF-IR inhibitor. Expression of proliferation genes up-regulated by GH+E2 treatment was abrogated by the EGFR and MEK inhibitors, but not by the IGF-IR inhibitor. Thus, we propose that while E2-stimulated proliferation requires IGF-IR, EGFR, and ERK, the presence of GH allows E2 to bypass the requirement for IGF-IR while remaining dependent on EGFR and ERK. Furthermore, we have found that GH can potentiate E2 stimulation of ER target gene transcription and this is dependent on ERK, but not on IGF-IR. Taken together, these findings indicate that GH not only can act directly on breast cancer cells independently of IGF-I, but can bypass IGF-IR blockade to stimulate ERK and potentiate E2 activity on proliferation and gene regulation. A better understanding of the interactions between GH and E2 will contribute to the development of novel drugs or improved combination therapies targeting the GH/IGF/E2 axis in breast cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3923. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3923
Fauna in decline: Management risks

In their Policy Forum “Wildlife decline and social conflict” (25 July, p. [376][1]), J. S. Brashares et al. claim that a decline in the resource base will increase exploitation effort and slave labor. Using fisheries to illustrate this claim, the authors conjecture that a stock decline increases
Issues Related to the Use of Time Series in Model Building and Analysis: Review Article

Time series are used in many studies for model building and analysis. We must be very careful to understand the kind of time series data used in the analysis. In this review article, we will begin with some issues related to the use of aggregate and systematic sampling time series. Since several time series are often used in a study of the relationship of variables, we will also consider vector time series modeling and analysis. Although the basic procedures of model building between univariate time series and vector time series are the same, there are some important phenomena which are unique to vector time series. Therefore, we will also discuss some issues related to vector time models. Understanding these issues is important when we use time series data in modeling and analysis, regardless of whether it is a univariate or multivariate time series.
Consequences of HIV prevention interventions and programs : spectrum, selection, and quality of outcome measures

The outcome measures employed in an HIV prevention intervention study should match the research and policy questions at hand. If the question is 'did the intervention work to prevent HIV infection?', then seroincidence data may be insufficient. However, if the question is 'why did the intervention work?', then more detailed behavioral data are necessary (and sometimes behavior change itself is the real goal of an intervention study). Given the wide range of questions asked by HIV prevention policy makers, funders and researchers, a spectrum of outcome measures is needed across HIV prevention intervention studies. These include measures of behavioral determinants, HIV-related risk behaviors, HIV incidence (and other biologic markers), morbidity, mortality, and cost-effectiveness factors (such as cost per quality-adjusted life year saved). In this paper, we review the range of outcome measures used and needed in these intervention studies. Particular attention is paid to the psychometric properties of self-reported behavior change measures of sexual behavior and substance use. Additional emphasis is placed on the role of cost-effectiveness measures in intervention studies. A general framework is proposed for conceptualizing the array of outcome measure possible for any given HIV prevention intervention study.
CCD Based Fiber-Optic Spectrometer Detection

Highly sensitive and cost effective measurement tools are required in biotechnology research and applications. Fluorescence provides very simple, cost effective, and sensitive methods in most of the biosensor techniques. Spectrometer is an essential tool for any kind of spectroscopic measurements. A charged coupled device (CCD)-based fiber optic spectrometer is highly compact, light weight, and an extremely easy to use tool. In this chapter, we have described the use of CCD-based fiber-optic spectrometers in detection of fluorescence signal from a fiber-optic-based sensor. The method can easily be extended to fluorescence detection in any other application.
The effects of degree of dark cutting on tenderness and sensory attributes of beef.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of degree of dark cutting (DC) on the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor attributes of beef. During carcass grading at a large U.S. commercial beef harvesting facility, DC carcasses (n = 160) and matching normal control (NC) carcasses (n = 160) were selected. Longissimus lumborum (LL) pH was determined and DC carcasses were classified as severe (severe dark cutter [SEDC]; mean pH = 6.9; n = 40), moderate (moderate dark cutter [MODC]; mean pH = 6.6; n = 40), mild (mild dark cutter [MIDC]; mean pH = 6.4; n = 40), or shady (shady dark cutter [SHDC]; mean pH = 6.1; n = 40). Strip loins were obtained from the left carcass sides, vacuum-packaged, and aged at 1°C. Slice shear force (SSF) was measured (14 d postmortem) fresh (never frozen), and trained descriptive sensory analysis of tenderness, juiciness, and flavor was measured (13 d postmortem) on frozen/thawed LL steaks. Cooked SSF pieces were frozen and used for western blotting of desmin to determine extent of postmortem proteolysis. Thaw and cook loss decreased as intensity of DC increased, with SEDC having the lowest loss (1.83 and 10.1%, respectively) compared with NC (3.37 and 14.9%, respectively). Slice shear force was higher (P < 0.05) for SHDC (25.6 kg) and MIDC (22.9 kg) compared with SEDC (16.8 kg), MODC (19.4 kg), and NC (17.8 kg). Sarcomere length was shorter (P < 0.05) between DC class (1.66, 1.67, 1.71, and 1.73 μm for SEDC, MODC, MIDC, and SHDC, respectively) and NC (1.86 μm). Postmortem proteolysis of desmin was greater (P < 0.05) for NC compared with all DC classes (59.83% vs. 49.20, 40.31, 42.07, and 43.30% for SEDC, MODC, MIDC, and SHDC, respectively). Trained sensory panel ratings for tenderness differed (P < 0.05) among DC class with SEDC (6.51) the most tender followed by MODC (6.04) and then MIDC (5.19), whereas SHDC (4.66) and NC (4.93) were the toughest. Juiciness ratings differed (P < 0.05) among each DC class (5.9, 5.7, 5.4, and 5.2 for SEDC, MODC, MIDC, and SHDC, respectively), with no difference between MIDC or SHDC compared with NC (5.23). Fat-like, rancid, heated oil, chemical, and musty/earthy/hummus flavors increased (P < 0.05) whereas metallic, sour, and salty flavors decreased as severity of DC increased. This study showed DC and NC differed in LL tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. The direction and/or magnitude of those differences were greatly dependent on severity of DC. Steaks with intermediate pH (SHDC and MIDC) are most likely to be tough and are regularly included in U.S. Select and U.S. Choice product lines.
One surgeon's experience with surgical contouring of the neck.

This article reviews the experience of-a conservative plastic surgeon in his attempts to improve neck contour over a 22-year period. Fifteen case studies are illustrated.
Swift's A Meditation upon a Broomstick

(1990). Swift's A Meditation upon a Broomstick. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews: Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 163-165.
Resonance Absorption and the Resonance Disadvantage Factor

The origin of the so-called resonance disadvantage factor was investigated from the point of view of the incomplete recovery of the flux at off- resonance energies and the decrease in the surface flux due to the failure of the narrow resonance approximation in the moderator. The flux recovery was studied by age theory for a typical rectangular lattice of the uranium in graphite and the effect upon the absorption by the 6.7-ev resonance of U/sup 238/ was found to be of the order of magnitude of 2% or less. The second problem was studied by solving for the spaceenergy flux by iteration. Sizeable corrections were found to be necessary for the low-lying resonances of U/sup 238/ in graphite. An approximate analytical formula was presented for this correction. (auth)
Include the Observer in the Wave Function

The classical dynamics of Einstein’s closed universe (idealized for simplicity to be empty except as excited by gravitational waves) is analyzed in no way more economically than by the standard Hamilton-Jacobi method. In it the essential ideas are (1) a spacelike 3-geometry, (3) G; (2) an infinite-dimensional superspace S, each point (or collection of equivalent points) of which stands for one and only one (3) G; (3) a Hamilton-Jacobi function S (dimensions of action) or wave-phase S/ℏ (measured in radians) that propagates through superspace, S = S((3) G), according to the standard Einstein-Hamilton-Jacobi equation of A. Peres; (4) a ‘constructive interference’ between this family of wave crests and other families of wave crests (obeying the same EHJ equation) that picks out (U. Gerlach) ‘Yes’ points (constructive interference) in superspace from ‘No’ points (destructive interference); (5) definition through these ‘Yes’ points of a ‘leaf of history’ slicing through superspace; and (6) identification of this leaf of history with a particular spacetime (4) G that satisfies Einstein’s field equation. Thus, every spacelike slice through this (4) G is a ‘Yes’ (3) G, and conversely. When one goes from classical theory to quantum theory, one goes from S((3) G) to ψ((3) G), with the approximate correspondence: ψ ∼ (slowly varying amplitude) exp (iS/ℏ). When one enriches the content of the theory from pure Einstein geometrodynamics to geometry plus particle-fields and other fields, one still has every degree of freedom of the universe included in the independent variables upon which ψ depends. Therefore the observer himself would seem to be included in ψ. However, so to ‘include the observer in’ makes insuperable difficulties of principle, which are described. One has to accept that physics never permits a complete prediction, but only a forecast of a correlation between events (E. P. Wigner). One is led to recognize that a wave function ‘encompassing the whole universe’ is an idealization, formalistically perhaps a convenient idealization, but an idealization so strained that it can be used only in part in any forecast of correlations that makes physical sense. For making sense it seems essential most of all to ‘leave the observer out of the wave function’.
Intellectualism and Political Impotence

How can we educate a man to believe in freedom, when at the same time we deprive him of his conviction that he has every right to live and to survive ? In connection with this task of educating our youth (and some of our colleagues, too, who stand in even more need of instruction) to espouse the cause of freedom, the masochism of the western world, which seems to possess a diabolical attraction for some of our contemporaries and which I have described in a previous article, plays the sinister role of an antithesis. Whatever concepts and schools of thought we may evolve or resuscitate in order to arm ourselves for the intellectual fight for freedom, no sooner do they come into contact with other ideas propagated by western masochism than an insidious type of relativity intervenes which loosens the link between thought and the realm of action — the bond that personal decision alone can forge and preserve.1
Attention Augmented Convolutional Networks

Convolutional networks have been the paradigm of choice in many computer vision applications. The convolution operation however has a significant weakness in that it only operates on a local neighborhood, thus missing global information. Self-attention, on the other hand, has emerged as a recent advance to capture long range interactions, but has mostly been applied to sequence modeling and generative modeling tasks. In this paper, we consider the use of self-attention for discriminative visual tasks as an alternative to convolutions. We introduce a novel two-dimensional relative self-attention mechanism that proves competitive in replacing convolutions as a stand-alone computational primitive for image classification. We find in control experiments that the best results are obtained when combining both convolutions and self-attention. We therefore propose to augment convolutional operators with this self-attention mechanism by concatenating convolutional feature maps with a set of feature maps produced via self-attention. Extensive experiments show that Attention Augmentation leads to consistent improvements in image classification on ImageNet and object detection on COCO across many different models and scales, including ResNets and a state-of-the art mobile constrained network, while keeping the number of parameters similar. In particular, our method achieves a $1.3\%$ top-1 accuracy improvement on ImageNet classification over a ResNet50 baseline and outperforms other attention mechanisms for images such as Squeeze-and-Excitation. It also achieves an improvement of 1.4 mAP in COCO Object Detection on top of a RetinaNet baseline.
Climate adaptation shaped by subtle to moderate allele frequency shifts in loblolly pine

Understanding the genomic basis of local adaptation is crucial to determine the potential of long- lived woody species to withstand changes in their natural environment. In the past, efforts to dissect the genomic architecture in gymnosperms species have been limited due to the absence of reference genomes. Recently, the genomes of some commercially important conifers, such as loblolly pine, have become available, allowing whole-genome studies of these species. In this study, we test for associations between 87k SNPs, obtained from whole-genome re-sequencing of loblolly pine individuals, and 270 environmental variables and combinations of them. We determine the geographic location of significant alleles and identify their genomic location using our newly constructed ultra-dense 26k SNP linkage map. We found that water availability is the main climatic variable shaping local adaptation of the species, and found 492 SNPs showing significant associations with climatic variables or combinations of them. Our results suggest that adaptation to climate in the species might have occurred by many changes in the allele frequency of alleles with moderate to small effect sizes, and by the smaller contribution of large effect alleles in genes related to moisture deficit, temperature and precipitation. Genomic regions of low recombination and high population differentiation harbored SNPs associated with principal components but not with individual climatic variables, suggesting climate adaptation might have evolved as a result of different selection pressures acting on groups of genes associated with an aspect of climate rather than on individual climatic variables. Keywords: GEA, loblolly pine, local adaptation, high-density linkage map
Time- and momentum-resolved tunneling spectroscopy of pump-driven nonthermal excitations in Mott insulators

We present a computational technique to calculate time- and momentum-resolved nonequilibrium spectral density of correlated systems using a tunneling approach akin to scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The important difference is that our probe is extended, basically a copy of the sample, allowing one to extract the momentum information of the excitations. We illustrate the method by measuring the spectrum of a Mott-insulating extended Hubbard chain after a sudden quench with the aid of time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group calculations. We demonstrate that the system realizes a nonthermal state that is an admixture of spin and charge density wave states, with corresponding signatures that are recognizable as in-gap subbands. In particular, we identify a band of excitons and one of stable antibound states at high energies that gains enhanced visibility after the pump. We do not appreciate noticeable relaxation within the time scales considered, which is attributed to the lack of decay channels due to spin-charge separation. These ideas can be readily applied to study transient dynamics and spectral signatures of correlation-driven nonequilibrium processes.
Study on Grid-connected Renewable Energy Grid Code Compliance

Since requirements for renewable power are set in grid codes, power plant operators should take the responsibility to guarantee grid code compliance, and system operators on the other hand should evaluate the effect of specific power plants on power system operation in various situations. Non-compliance of power plants with grid code may lead to subsidy curtailment even after its disconnection from the grid. In order to unify the understanding level and measurement scale of grid code compliance, objective and systematic standards about compliance testing and assessment are necessary. The objective of renewable power testing is to outline measurement methods for the determination of reliable and comparable data for power generating units and plants based on state-of-the-art technology. The process of testing the electrical behavior of renewable power plants meet specific technical requirements in grid codes is also needed to be specified. Generally, grid compliance test of renewable energy mainly includes power quality test, control performance test, low-voltage ride through test, voltage/frequency response test and anti-islanding protection test. It is available to test the capability of the whole renewable plant for the performance of power quality and control performance. Some items such as low-voltage ride through test, voltage/frequency response test or anti-islanding protection test that can not be tested for the entire power plant for the reasons that the capacity of test facilities does not as large as the entire plant or testing will cause an unacceptable impact on the grid. Therefore testing the wind turbine or PV power unit then making the simulation to assess grid compliance of the whole plant is well alternative method. This paper provides an introduction about the study on grid code compliance testing of renewable energy grid integration on both technologies and standardization aspects, and tries to explore potential challenge caused by the integration of RE generation into power systems in compliance testing methods used by different countries, the future study on technologies and standardization are introduced.
Association of occupational exposures with ex vivo functional immune response in workers handling carbon nanotubes and nanofibers.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between carbon nanotube and nanofiber (CNT/F) exposure and ex vivo responses of whole blood challenged with secondary stimulants, adjusti...
Prevention as Intervention: Reducing Incident Delirium in Heart Failure.

BACKGROUND Delirium, an acute confusional state, is a health problem complicating the course of illness of hospitalized and ICU patients, including acute decompensated heart failure patients. The use of prevention protocols will necessitate education of clinicians, as an interdisciplinary team is developed. OBJECTIVE Assess the impact of a 1-hour lecture and PowerPoint educational program on delirium and prevention protocols on nurses' knowledge. METHODS A literature review was conducted on delirium risk in heart failure, prevention, and education. Nurses participated in a 1-hour nursing educational intervention on delirium prevention using lecture and PowerPoint. RESULTS Results demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the means of the pre- and post- assessment scores, t (19) = 5.29, p = .00004 < ∝ = 0.05. McNemar's tests showed statistically significant differences in the in the pre- and post- assessment questions numbered 1, p = 0.001 and 3, p = 0.031. CONCLUSIONS Effective education, driven by the severity of outcomes and high healthcare costs, will increase nursing knowledge of delirium prevention, thereby permitting nurses to tailor delirium prevention strategies consistent with high-quality nursing care. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Nurses, who are equipped to tailor individual prevention strategies, will be strong advocates for the safety, mental and physical health of heart failure patients.
Are Passive Institutional Investors Engaged Monitors or Risk-Averse Owners? Both!

We differentiate the effects of passive institutional investors, which mainly refer to index funds that adopt a passive portfolio strategy, on firms’ innovation activities and innovation strategies. Relying on plausibly exogenous variation in passive institutional ownership generated by Russell 1000/2000 index reconstitutions, we find that, with larger passive institutional ownership, while firms’ countable innovation activities increase, they shift their innovation strategies by focusing more on exploitation of existing knowledge instead of exploring new technology. Enhanced monitoring by passive institutional investors through active votes could explain their positive effects on firms’ innovation activities. Increasing risk aversion on the part of passive institutional investors appears the underlying force that drives firms’ shift to incremental innovation. Our paper uncovers a subtle relation between institutional investors and innovation, which is largely ignored by earlier studies.
A New Carrier based Precharging Technique for Single-Phase Odd-Level Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converters (FCMCs)

During the start-up procedure of Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter (FCMC), all the flying-capacitors needs to be charged to the appropriate voltage levels. This paper presents a novel carrier based technique for the precharging of flying-capacitors in single-phase odd-level FCMCs. A new set of modified phase shifted carrier signals are derived for precharging. These carrier signals when compared to zero modulation signal, ensures the synthesisation of sufficient number of zero-voltage switching states of the converter. The proposed precharging technique is detailed using a five-level FCMC which can be generalized further to any odd-level FCMC. An elaborate loss analysis of the proposed precharging technique is presented. Extensive simulation studies are done to validate the claims made and the corresponding results are provided.
Statistical Aspects of Dynamic Loads

In many dynamic stress problems, the knowledge of the physical phenomena is not precise enough to justify exact predictions with respect to the results of each individual observation. On the one hand, the loading is never exactly known, and on the other, the physical system may be so complicated that detailed calculations for the prediction of dynamic responses are difficult and the numerical results are often uncertain. In such cases the physical data can be regarded as a set of statistical data of random processes. Logical statements of the forcing functions are therefore statistical. The chief object of an analysis is then to draw valid inferences about the statistical statements of the responses. In this paper the statistical theory is illustrated by the gustand landing-load problems. A method of determining the mean intensity of the dynamic response is presented. Through a study of the distribution of the extreme values, an "envelope" representing the most probable largest stress (or other response quantities of interest) at any point in the structure can be found. Such an envelope, if used as a basis for specifying the design stresses, can be regarded as one that yields, in the long run, a uniform factor of safety over the entire structure with respect to a random forcing function. The probability of exceeding a given maximum stress being known, the life expectancy of an aircraft can be determined as a function of the specified load intensity and vice versa.
UMass at TREC WEB 2014: Entity Query Feature Expansion using Knowledge Base Links

Entity linking tools predict links between entity mentions in text and knowledge base entries. In this work we leverage the rich semantic knowledge available through these links to understand relevance of documents for a query. We focus on the ad hoc task on the category A subset and demonstrate the benefit of entity-centric approaches even for non-entity queries like “dark chocolate health benefits”.
Relationship of cerebral blood flow and metabolism to neurological symptoms.

Publisher Summary The past two decades have seen the gradual decline of the attitude of pessimism with which the physician approached the problem of treating patients with clinically proven cerebrovascular disease. The chapter discusses thr work done by early investigators to develop methods for measuring CBF and metabolism and the efforts of the numerous workers in our laboratory to refine and improve upon these methods. Experimental animals are first used, and if the techniques proved reliable and appropriate, they are applied to the study of patients with cerebrovascular disease. The second section discusses the results of such studies in experimental animals and human subjects. The techniques and certain of the special devices are also found to be applicable in the study of other neurological disorders such as epilepsy, and the results of these applications are discussed. However, this section deals with the physiology and pathophysiology of cerebrovascular function in health and disease in light of results from experiments in animals and studies in the patient with stroke. The third and final section is concerned with present concepts of medical and surgical treatment of patients with cerebrovascular disease or stroke.
Anti-HIV, anti-inflammatory and safety profile of the PDB microbicide candidate (HUM8P.342)

Topical microbicides (vaginal gels) are one mechanism to prevent sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). We show here that a new class of microbicides, abasic phosphorothioate 2’ deoxyribose backbone (PDB) oligomers, has significant anti-HIV-1 activities in human PBMC cell cultures when either the virus or cells are pre-incubated with the compound. HIV infection is also inhibited in an explant model of human cervical tissue. A second function of PDB other than its anti-HIV activity is its capacity to inhibit HIV-triggered TLR7/9 activation. PDB suppresses the release of HIV-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines in cultures of human PBMC and ectocervical tissues. We also demonstrated that PDB is safe and non-toxic in in vitro cell cultures and in an in vivo murine vaginal toxicity model. The effect of PDB is stable as this compound retains activity at pH 4.4 and after transition to a neutral pH, following incubation with biological fluids (seminal plasma, vaginal fluids) and a normal vaginal flora Lactobacillus strain. PDB does not affect the growth of Lactobacillus strains. Phosphorothioate 2’ deoxyribose oligomers are novel microbicide candidates with dual-acting anti-HIV and anti-inflammatory activities and an excellent safety and stability profile.
Transport of amino acids by placenta

Abstract Placental transport has been studied in vivo in the guinea pig and in vitro with guinea pig and human placenta. Following the infusion of the nonmetabolized amino acid, AIB- 14 C, into pregnant guinea pigs for 2 to 4 hours, the fetal plasma concentration of the amino acid exceeded that in the maternal plasma. The concentration of the amino acid in maternal placenta (decidua) exceeded that in the maternal plasma. The concentration in the fetal placenta was higher than in both the maternal and fetal plasma, suggesting that transport may involve at least two steps, concentrative uptake into the placenta and release into fetal plasma. Perfusion of guinea pig placenta in situ, following removal of the fetus, demonstrated the primary role of the placenta in establishing a concentration gradient toward the fetus. It was also demonstrated that the amino acid was transferred across the placenta in both directions, apparently more rapidly toward the fetus than in the reverse direction. In vitro experiments with guinea pig and human placenta revealed concentrative uptake of the amino acid. This was decreased by metabolic poisons. The isolated villus of human placenta concentrated the amino acid more effectively than did placental slices. Insulin increased uptake into human placenta but not into guinea pig placenta. Growth hormone, lactogenic hormone, estradiol, estrone sulfate, and oxytocin produced no measurable response.
A study of calligraphic skill by virtual brush-writing with haptic device: Hidden Markov modeling of writing strokes

Handwritten characters involve much variant appearance by each individual. Especially, brush-writing, such in Japanese or Chinese calligraphy, is very skillful action, since the writer is required to activate the calligraphic technique, such as the pullout, the stop, and flick, with softness of the brush. In this article, we implemented a virtual brush-writing system with the pen-style haptic device which enables human-computer interaction through the touch with force-feedback. The system provides the reaction force against the virtual paper, and records the brush stroke by means of brush-tip position and pressure during the virtual writing. In order to describe the strokes by each writer, we utilized Hidden Markov model (HMM). It is regarded as that the observation sequence and hidden state, in terms of HMM, are corresponding to the stroke (pressure and velocity sequence) and the calligraphic technique. The model was trained by the stroke of six writers, and these models were experimentally verified for classification and evaluation of the similarity among the strokes of each writer. It might be considered that the likelihood through the HMM parameters suggests the measure of calligraphic skill of writer.
Redox potential of GSH/GSSG couple: assay and biological significance.

Publisher Summary Redox-signaling mechanisms function in cell regulation and growth control. Agents altering glutathione (GSH) concentration affect the transcription of detoxification enzymes, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. GSH, GSH S-conjugates, and its disulfide form (GSSG), or the redox state of the GSH/GSSG couple provide a mechanistic control or signal for functional changes. A loss or oxidation of GSH occurs in association with differentiation both in vitro and in vivo and during apoptosis. In contrast, increases in GSH and/or a reduction of the GSH/GSSG pool is associated with growth stimulation by nutrients and growth factors. Thus, the balance of GSH and GSSG may not only reflect oxidative stress but may reflect changes in redox signaling and control. The most widely used indicator of the redox state of the GSH pool is the ratio of GSH to GSSG. The cellular balance of GSH and GSSG provides a dynamic indicator of oxidative stress. Although GSH is synthesized continuously and has various fates in cells, these rates are generally slow relative to the turnover by the oxidation-reduction cycle. The activity of the GSSG reductase is dependent on GSSG concentration. During acute oxidative stress, GSH concentration decreases and the associated increase in GSSG concentration results in an increased turnover of the GSH/GSSG cycle.