cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multi-Level Sampling Interval Approach to Control Charts

Whenever one designs a control chart procedure, the proper choice of a sampling interval must reflect the expected time the process is in control before an assignable cause occurs and produces a change in the process. Yet, the expected time in control u..
The Effects of Offender Age and Offender-Victim Relationship on Modus Operandi Strategies to Lure the Victim

Research on the modus operandi (“method of operation”) of child sexual abuse (CSA) offenders has been useful in informing successful prevention programs (LeClerc, 2009). However, a gap in the literature regarding the strategies offenders use to lure potential CSA victims still remains. The present study seeks to examine the effects of offendervictim relationship and offender age on the use of strategies to lure victims for the purpose of committing CSA. Data for this study is taken from a larger investigation which included 854 identified adolescent and adult CSA offenders from nine different states. A 2 X 2 MANCOVA analysis revealed significant group differences for the each of the subgroups of interest in their use of threats and coercion to lure victims for the purpose of committing CSA. More specifically, it was found that adolescent CSA offenders utilize threats and coercion with a greater frequency than adult CSA offenders and intra-familial CSA offenders utilize threats and coercion with a greater frequency than extra-familial CSA offenders. Follow up analyses at the item level indicated group differences on multiple items (i.e., specific strategies) comprising the subscales used. The implications of these findings for treatment and prevention work in this area are discussed, as are policy impacts. Finally, suggestions for future research are provided.
Contemporary Muslim Families: Research and Practice

This research project was undertaken to provide family professionals with the basic information necessary to work appropriately with Muslim families. The Muslim population represents 4–6 million people in the United States, yet it is significantly underrepresented in the family literature. Qualitative analysis of focus groups and interviews revealed multiple key findings. Emergent themes include an interest in gender respect rather than gender equity, the importance of extended family, the centralism of Islam in daily life and the qualified acceptance of professional interventions. Implications for practice are discussed.
Unintended pregnancy among female soldiers presenting for prenatal care at Madigan Army Medical Center.

More than half of all pregnancies in this country are unintended at the time of conception. Although women make up 13% of the U.S. Army, there are no epidemiological studies of unintended pregnancy in U.S. Army soldiers. This descriptive study was conducted to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with unintended pregnancy in female soldiers presenting for prenatal care at Madigan Army Medical Center. All soldiers presenting for prenatal care from mid-February 1996 through mid-February 1997 were asked to fill out an anonymous, 12-page written questionnaire. All but one soldier (99.7%) agreed to participate (N = 347). Overall, 55% of soldiers presenting for prenatal care reported that their pregnancies were unintended at the time of conception. The majority of officers (60%) and noncommissioned officers (65%) reported that their pregnancies were intended. In contrast, only 39% of the junior enlisted soldiers reported that their pregnancies were intended at the time of conception. The majority of women (62%) who reported that their pregnancies were unintended were not using any form of birth control during the month they conceived. The most common reason for not using birth control was the stopping of contraception because of side effects. The most common contraceptive method used by those women who reported birth control use during the month they conceived was the male condom. The majority of pregnancies among junior enlisted soldiers presenting for prenatal care at Madigan Army Medical Center are unintended. Prevention programs should target this subpopulation of soldiers and address knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to the use of contraception among those at risk for unintended pregnancy.
Management of Locally Advanced Thyroid Cancer

Cancer staging allows patients to be stratified based on aggressiveness of their disease and provides important prognostic information to both the patient and clinician. The tumor-nodal-metastasis (TNM) system from the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) is the most commonly used staging system for many cancers, including thyroid cancer, and has been shown to predict differentiated thyroid cancer-related death [1]. While most patients with thyroid carcinoma have well-differentiated tumors that have an excellent prognosis, there are certain characteristics that carry a worse prognosis, including older age, larger primary tumor size, aggressive tumor histology, extrathyroidal tumor extension (ETE), and distant metastasis [2].
Mycosis Fungoides Involving the Dorsal Tongue.

Mycosis fungoides (MF) is a rare cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) which can cause significant morbidity. ​During​ ​the​ ​disease course, ​​ ​it​ ​classically​​ ​will​ ​progress​ ​through​ ​three​ ​clinical​ ​stages​ ​in​ ​the​ ​skin​: ​ ​patch-,​ ​plaque-,​ ​and tumor-stage.​ The early stages exhibit​ ​various​ ​histopathological​ ​mimics​ ​that​ ​often​ ​lead​ ​to misdiagnosis.​ It rarely affects the oral cavity. Oral MF is historically associated with poor prognosis. We present a rare case of MF afflicting the dorsal tongue and extremities of a 72-year-old male.
EmerGence: A Delay Tolerant Web Application for Disaster Relief

The number and intensity of natural disasters have drastically increased in recent years and are anticipated to continue doing so. In addition to directly threatening human lives, disasters cripple communication and electric infrastructure, compounding the negative impact on humans, as observed for instance during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico [1]. This inevitably puts more strain on the remaining infrastructure resulting in failure of many people to effectively communicate. In this work, we have developed a progressive web application, EmerGence, designed to leverage opportunistic internet connectivity to relay messages from individuals trapped in disaster-hit areas. EmerGence works by bypassing the crippled/downed communication infrastructure to connect disaster victims with needed resources (both human and material) through a combination of a new web development concept called the Progressive Web App (PWA) and served by an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)
A report on two large collections of the squat lobster Munidopsis platirostris (Decapoda, Anomura, Munidopsidae) from the Caribbean, with notes on their parasites, associates, and reproduction

The reproduction and parasite associates of the squat lobster Munidopsis platirostris (A. Milne Edwards and Bouvier, 1894) were investigated based on collections made in the Bahamas and Curacao wit...
Collagen and gelatin from marine by-products.

Publisher Summary Collagen is one of the major structural components of both vertebrates and invertebrates, and is found widely in skin, bone, and other connective tissues. Gelatin, on the other hand, is a class of protein fractions that have no existence in nature, but are derived from the parent protein collagen, by procedures involving the destruction of cross-linkages between polypeptide chains of collagen along with some level of breakage of polypeptide bonds. Most commercial collagen and gelatin are obtained from mammals, mainly from bovine bone, bovine hide, and porcine skin. In recent years, studies on collagen and gelatin obtained from seafood processing by-products have drawn extensive interest, in part due to the requirements for kosher and halal food product development and the consumers' concern for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, “mad cow disease”) in products from mammals. This chapter discusses the manufacture of collagen and gelatin from seafood processing by-products; chemical, physical, and nutritional properties of marine collagen and gelatin; and food and non-food applications of collagen and gelatin. The non-food uses of collagen and gelatin are in the pharmaceutical industry, photographic industry, and other technical fields such as paper manufacture and printing processes.
Wearable Sensor Applications: Processing of Egocentric Videos and Inertial Measurement Unit Data

There has been a proliferation of smartphones, smart watches, and wearable sensors, making them ubiquitous in our daily lives. Mobile sensors have found widespread use due to their ever-decreasing cost, ease of deployment, and ability to provide continuous monitoring as opposed to sensors installed at fixed locations. Various techniques have been proposed for fall detection, gait analysis, activity monitoring, and heart rate and sleep sensing by wearable sensors and mobile phones. Compared to works that use inertial measurement unit (IMU) data or static cameras installed in the environment, there has been relatively less work using egocentric videos, meaning providing the first-person view from wearable cameras. Moreover, most of the existing studies on egocentric videos are based on only one sensor modality, namely the camera. There have been even fewer approaches that combine egocentric video data with IMU data. In this chapter, we will describe three different applications using wearable cameras together with IMU data. First, we will present an overview of a fall detection system using wearable devices, e.g., smartphones and tablets, equipped with cameras and accelerometers. Since the portable device is worn by the subject, monitoring is not limited to confined areas, and extends to wherever the subject may travel, as opposed to static sensors installed in certain rooms. Second, we will present an autonomous and robust method for counting footsteps, and tracking and calculating stride length by using both accelerometer and camera data from smartphones or Google™ glass. To provide higher precision, instead of using a preset stride length, the proposed method calculates the distance traveled with each step by using the camera data. This method is compared with the commercially available accelerometer-based step counter apps. The results show that the proposed method provides a significant increase in accuracy, and has the lowest average error rate both in number of steps taken and the distance traveled. Finally, we will provide an overview of a robust and autonomous method to detect activities with more details and context by using accelerometer and egocentric video data obtained from a smartphone.
Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence and Cost-Reduction Strategies Among Elderly Cancer Survivors with Self-Reported Symptoms of Depression

How depression affects the medication cost burden for elderly cancer survivors has not been well studied. This study aims to investigate whether depression is associated with higher rates of cost-related medication nonadherence, and cost-reduction strategies among the elderly cancer survivors. Self-reports from survey files of the 2015 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey-Medicare database were used to identify elderly cancer patients aged 65 years and older with and without depression. The 2 outcomes were cost-related nonadherence (CRN) and adoption of cost-reduction strategies. Bivariate analysis was used to describe the sample. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the impact of depression on CRN and the use of cost-reduction strategies, after controlling for all other covariates. Among the 3765 elderly cancer survivors identified, 523 (14%) reported depression. In the group with depression, 26% reported CRN compared with 12% of the group without depression; 71% of individuals with depression reported having cost-reduction strategies while 65% of individuals with no depression reported such activity. In adjusted analyses, individuals with depression were significantly more likely to report CRN (adjusted odds ratio, 1.84; 95% confidence interval 1.33-2.54) and cost-reduction strategies (adjusted odds ratio, 1.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.76). Depression was associated with higher probabilities of both CRN and the adoption of cost-reduction strategies, indicating that depression can exacerbate the medication cost burden for elderly cancer survivors. It is important to detect and manage depression in elderly cancer survivors to reduce CRN and cost-reduction strategies.
Network-on-Chip Design Guidelines for Monolithic 3-D Integration

Monolithic three-dimensional (M3D) integration is viewed as a promising improvement over through-silicon-via-based 3-D integration due to its greater inter-tier connectivity, higher circuit density, and lower parasitic capacitance. With M3D integration, network-on-chip (NoC) communication fabric can benefit from reduced link distances and improved intra-router efficiency. However, the sequential fabrication methods utilized for M3D integration impose unique interconnect requirements for each of the possible partitioning schemes at transistor, gate, and block granularities. Further, increased cell density introduces contention of available routing resources. Prior work on M3D NoCs has focused on the benefits of reduced distances, but has not considered these process-imposed circuit complications. In this article, NoC topology decisions are analyzed in conjunction with these M3D interconnect requirements to provide an equivalent architectural comparison between M3D partitioning schemes.
Improving clinical outcomes with lower motor voltage (≤3 V) during stage 1 sacral neuromodulation for interstitial cystitis or bladder pain syndrome.

AIMS We desire to evaluate whether utilization of ≤3 V (new experimental approach) vs the traditional four or more volts for lead motor response during stage 1 sacral neuromodulation may impart an improvement in voiding and pain parameters. METHODS An observational, retrospective, double cohort review was conducted of 179 female patients who experienced medically recalcitrant interstitial cystitis (IC) or bladder pain syndrome (BPS) between January 2002 and January 2013. Group A included 105 women with a motor response of ≤3 V; group B was comprised of 65 women with a motor response at ≥4 V for medically recalcitrant IC or BPS. Patients completed a 3-day pre- and postoperative voiding diary, visual analog pain (VAP) scale, pain urgency frequency (PUF), and Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I) questionnaire. RESULTS The mean (standard deviation) follow-up in months was 120.1 ± 33.3 in group A and 116.3 ± 29.2 in group B (P < .45). A successful conversion from stage 1 to stage 2 showed statistically significant improvement for group A compared with group B (95.4% vs 73.8% conversion rate; P < .001). The success rate also favored group A, with 87.6% success compared with 66.2% for group B (P < .002). Group A mean postoperative VAP scores improved over group B with 3.3 ± 1.2 compared with 5.0 ± 0.8 (P < .001). Group A mean postoperative PUF scores were 10.2 ± 2.7 and group B 14.7 ± 3.5, (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS In the ≤3 V patient cohort, a compelling, significant statistical improvement was noted in most clinical voiding parameters, including the VAP, PGI-I, and performance questionnaires.
Musical instrument directivity measurements

Over the past several decades, researchers have developed various techniques to measure directional radiation patterns of musical instruments. After summarizing and categorizing several of them, this presentation will focus on recent developments made by the authors to measure directivities with high angular resolution. The frequency-dependent patterns of 16 played musical instruments were acquired using 2522 unique microphone positions over a sphere in an anechoic chamber. This led to associated frequency-dependent spherical-harmonic expansions with readily shareable coefficients. Several steps were implemented to improve and validate the measurements, and make their costs manageable. The presentation will discuss key results and future directions.Over the past several decades, researchers have developed various techniques to measure directional radiation patterns of musical instruments. After summarizing and categorizing several of them, this presentation will focus on recent developments made by the authors to measure directivities with high angular resolution. The frequency-dependent patterns of 16 played musical instruments were acquired using 2522 unique microphone positions over a sphere in an anechoic chamber. This led to associated frequency-dependent spherical-harmonic expansions with readily shareable coefficients. Several steps were implemented to improve and validate the measurements, and make their costs manageable. The presentation will discuss key results and future directions.
Quality Assurance for Small Fields

Small-field dosimetry is challenging, and improper measurement practices have been implicated in several radiosurgery misadministrations. Detector response changes as a function of field size because of the loss of lateral charged particle equilibrium, source occlusion, volume averaging, and the difference between the detector composition and water. The understanding of these effects for candidate detectors is crucial to obtaining measurement data of sufficient accuracy for commissioning and on-going quality assurance of treatment planning systems. Stereotactic field diodes, synthetic diamonds, and plastic scintillation detectors are well suited to the collection of output factors, depth doses, and beam profiles. Radiochromic film is appropriate for patient-specific quality assurance. Clinics should use independent reviews of small-field dosimetry whenever possible.
Monitoring and analysis of total α and total β levels in drinking water around Qinshan Nuclear Power Plsnt in 2018

Objective To ascertain the background levels of total α and total β radioactivity in drinking water around Qianshan Nuclear Power Plant (QNPP). Methods Under the National Health and Wellness Committee′s program, 11 monitoring points within 30 km of QNPP were selected in Haiyan County in 2018. The samples of raw water, factory water and tap water were collected in the first half and the second half of the year, respectively, and determined and analyzed according to Standard Examination Methods for Drinking Water - Radiological Parameters (GB/T 5750.13-2006). The total α and total β levels in the tested drinking water were evaluated under the Standards for Drinking Water Quality (GB 5749-2006) . Results A total of 22 water samples were collected from 11 sampling points in April and September 2018, respectively. The residue rate obtained after drinking water was dried varied, dependent on different types of water, which could be up to 0.033 7%. The total α levels in different types of water ranged from 0.008 to 0.04 Bq/L, averaged on (0.015±0.009) Bq/L, whereas the total β levels ranged from 0.014 to 0.320 Bq/L with an average of (0.188±0.068) Bq/L. There was statistically significant difference in total α levels between raw water and factory water (Z=-2.286, P 0.05). The background levels of total α and total β radioactivity in 93 drinking water samples in 2016 and 2017 were also investigated, combined with a total of 115 water samples from different water bodies in 2018. There was statistically significant difference in total α and total β levels in tap water between 2017—2016 and 2018 (Z= -2.976, -2.031, P<0.05), between 2016 and 2017 (Z=-2.042, -3.214, P<0.05) and between 2017 and 2018 (Z=-20.112, -2.511, P<0.05). Conclusions The operation of nuclear power plant has no impact on radioactivity level in drinking water around QNPP. The drinking water around QNPP is safe. Key words: Drinking water; Radioactive level; Residue rate
EUS-FNA, ancillary studies and their clinical utility in patients with mediastinal, pancreatic, and other abdominal lesions.

BACKGROUND Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is an important modality to obtain tissue diagnosis from mediastinal, pancreatic, and intra-abdominal lesions in close proximity to the pulmonary and gastrointestinal tract. It is considered to be a relatively safe, rapid, and minimally invasive technique with low complication rates. AIMS To determine the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and outcome of EUS-FNA, with histological correlation where applicable. METHODS Data of all 1059 consecutive patients who underwent EUS-FNA from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2017 at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore was reviewed in this retrospective study. The major sites that were targeted for EUS-FNA were pancreatic (423), mediastinal (376), and other abdominal lesions (260). RESULTS The average number of passes per patient was 2.22. Rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) was adequate in 969 patients (91.4%). Concordance between ROSE and final cytology was 99.5%. Follow-up was available in 810 patients (76.4%). The overall diagnostic yield was 94.3%. Ancillary studies, including immunohistochemical stains and flow cytometry, helped to increase the diagnostic yield from 78.1% to 94.3%. The overall sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and diagnostic accuracy for EUS-FNA were 94.8%, 98.6%, 99.9%, 65.5%, and 95.1%, respectively. Seven of 1059 patients (0.6%) developed complications. CONCLUSION EUS-FNA is a very sensitive and specific diagnostic tool with a minimal complication rate. Ancillary studies helped to increase the sensitivity, as well as the diagnostic yield.
Immediate feedback assessment technique (IF-AT) quizzes and student performance in microeconomic principles courses

In this study, the authors investigate the impact of the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) on student learning outcomes in principles of microeconomics classes. The IF-AT enables stud...
2,200-Year tree-ring and lake-sediment based snowpack reconstruction for the northern Rocky Mountains highlights the historic magnitude of recent snow drought

Abstract In recent decades, Rocky Mountain accumulated snowpack levels have experienced rapid declines, yet long-term records of snowpack prior to the installation of snowpack observation stations in the early and mid 20th century are limited. To date, a small number of tree-ring based reconstructions of April 1 Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) in the northern Rocky Mountains have extended modern records of snowpack variability to ∼1200 C.E. Carbonate isotope lake sediment records, provide an opportunity to further extend tree-ring based reconstructions through the Holocene, providing a millennial-scale temporal record that allows for an evaluation of multi-scale drivers of snowpack variability, from internal climate dynamics to orbital-scale forcings. Here we present a ∼2200 year preliminary reconstruction of northern Rockies snowpack based on δ18O measurements of sediment carbonates collected from Foy Lake, Montana. We explore the statistical calibration of lake sediment δ18O to an annually resolved snowpack reconstruction from tree rings, and develop an approach to assess and quantify potential sources of error in this reconstruction approach. The sediment-based snowpack reconstruction shows strong low-frequency variability in snowpack over the last two millennia with few snow droughts approaching the magnitude of recent snowpack declines. Given the growing availability of high-resolution, carbonate-rich lake sediment records, such reconstructions could help improve our understanding of how snowpack conditions varied under previous climatic events (mid-Holocene climate optimum ca. 9−6 ka), providing critical insights for anticipating future snowpack conditions.
Soil aggregate-mediated microbial responses to long-term warming

Abstract Soil microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a combination of growth and respiration, which may respond differently to climate change depending on physical protection of soil carbon (C) and its availability to microbes. In a mid-latitude hardwood forest in central Massachusetts, 27 years of soil warming (+5 °C) has resulted in C loss and altered soil organic matter (SOM) quality, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we hypothesized that long-term warming reduces physical aggregate protection of SOM, microbial CUE, and its temperature sensitivity. Soil was separated into macroaggregate (250–2000 μm) and microaggregate (
Lidar Essential Beam Model for Accurate Width Estimation of Thin Poles

While Lidar beams are often represented as rays, they actually have finite beam width and this width impacts the measured shape and size of objects in the scene. Here we investigate the effects of beam width on measurements of thin objects such as vertical poles. We propose a model for beam divergence and show how this can explain both object dilation and erosion. We develop a calibration method to estimate beam divergence angle. This calibration method uses one or more vertical poles observed from a Lidar on a moving platform. In addition, we derive an incremental method for using the calibrated beam angle to obtain accurate estimates of thin object diameters, observed from a Lidar on a moving platform. Our method achieves significantly more accurate diameter estimates than is obtained when beam divergence is ignored.
O desdobramento da tragédia da política no Brasil

O artigo apresenta uma discussao sobre a trajetoria politica recente do Brasil. Para isso, apresentam-se as transicoes desde o impeachment contra a presidenta Rousseff ate a vitoria eleitoral de Jair Bolsonaro. A analise se centra nas carateristicas dos diferentes momentos politicos, em particular, na agenda de politicas publicas. A natureza das transicoes esta explicada com base no jogo das elites politicas e economicas. O artigo recupera tambem elementos positivos que poderiam, potencialmente, gerar um contraponto a ideologia reacionaria dos movimentos no poder desde o golpe parlamentar de 2016.
Interpolating Predictors in High-Dimensional Factor Regression

This work studies finite-sample properties of the risk of the minimum-norm interpolating predictor in high-dimensional regression models. If the effective rank of the covariance matrix $\Sigma$ of the $p$ regression features is much larger than the sample size $n$, we show that the min-norm interpolating predictor is not desirable, as its risk approaches the risk of trivially predicting the response by 0. However, our detailed finite-sample analysis reveals, surprisingly, that this behavior is not present when the regression response and the features are {\it jointly} low-dimensional, following a widely used factor regression model. Within this popular model class, and when the effective rank of $\Sigma$ is smaller than $n$, while still allowing for $p \gg n$, both the bias and the variance terms of the excess risk can be controlled, and the risk of the minimum-norm interpolating predictor approaches optimal benchmarks. Moreover, through a detailed analysis of the bias term, we exhibit model classes under which our upper bound on the excess risk approaches zero, while the corresponding upper bound in the recent work arXiv:1906.11300 diverges. Furthermore, we show that the minimum-norm interpolating predictor analyzed under the factor regression model, despite being model-agnostic and devoid of tuning parameters, can have similar risk to predictors based on principal components regression and ridge regression, and can improve over LASSO based predictors, in the high-dimensional regime.
Tribological Characterization of Gradient-density Polyacrylamide Hydrogel Surfaces

The contact and frictional response of a hydrogel is dependent on the polymer structure at the gel surface. Recent work has shown that different mold materials in contact with the gel during polymerization will affect the resulting polymer density. The tribological response of a gel with a ‘brushy’ less-dense polymer surface has not been thoroughly studied. Our goal was to perform a suite of tribological experiments to better understand the response of the less-dense layer. In this work, we conducted indentation, creep, and sliding experiments with various loads, speeds, and probe materials to determine the impact of the less-dense layer on the contact and frictional behavior of polyacrylamide hydrogels. We additionally used micro-fluorescent particle exclusion to measure the contact areas throughout each experiment. Indentation revealed a non-Hertzian regime for the first 13–29 µm after first contact that has a weaker force response for a given indentation depth. Creep experiments showed that the surface layer relaxes poroelastically, with water exudation occurring within the gradient layer despite the low contact pressures. Friction was highly speed-dependent, with faster sliding speeds decreasing friction to values as low as 0.01; transient behavior was not seen for most of the experiments, suggesting that the surface layer is capable of quick water re-uptake when out of contact. We have provided a deeper understanding of the contact and frictional response of this gradient-density surface layer, which will prove useful for hydrogel designs requiring ultra-low friction in a dynamic application.
Pathways Through Which Health Literacy Is Linked to Parental Oral Health Behavior in an American Indian Tribe

Background Health literacy (HL) is the "ability to find, understand, evaluate and put information to use to improve decision making and, ultimately, improve health and quality of life." Parents with limited HL are less likely to follow recommended parental oral health behaviors. Purpose We tested a theoretical framework designed to clarify mechanisms through which HL may influence parental oral health behavior. The framework proposed that HL: (a) has a direct effect on parental oral health knowledge, beliefs (i.e. self-efficacy; perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers), and behavior; (b) influences beliefs indirectly through knowledge; and (c) influences behavior indirectly through knowledge and beliefs. Methods We analyzed cross-sectional data from a randomized controlled trial designed to reduce dental decay in American Indian children (N = 521). Parents completed survey questions assessing sociodemographic characteristics, HL, and parental oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. Path analysis was used to test the framework. Results HL exerted significant direct effects on knowledge and beliefs but not behavior. HL had significant indirect effects on all beliefs through knowledge. Significant indirect effects of HL on behavior occurred through self-efficacy (estimate: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.42, 1.83, p = .005), perceived barriers (estimate: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.29, 1.43, p = .010), knowledge to self-efficacy (estimate: 0.57, 95% CI: .31, 0.98, p = .001), and knowledge to perceived barriers (estimate: 0.24, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.47, p = .012). Conclusions HL exerted an indirect effect on parental oral health behavior, with knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers being the primary constructs linking HL to behavior.
Coping in the Time of COVID-19: Buffering Stressors With Coping Strategies

Policies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are negatively impacting the psychological well-being of the general population. This cross-sectional study explores the associations of coping strategies ...
Simulating and benchmarking neutron total scattering instrumentation from inception of events to reduced and fitted data

In the design and realization of modern neutron scattering instrumentation, particularly when designing beamline concepts from the ground up, it is desirable to fully benchmark against realistically simulated data. This is especially true for total scattering beamlines, where the future deliverable data is to be analysed in both reciprocal- and real-space representations, and needs must be carefully balanced to ensure sufficient range, resolution and flux of the instrument. An approach to optimize the design of neutron scattering instrumentation via a workflow including ray-tracing simulations, event-based data reduction, heuristic analysis and fitting against realistically simulated spectra is demonstrated here. The case of the DISCOVER beamline concept at the Spallation Neutron Source is used as an example. The results of the calculations are benchmarked through simulation of existing instrumentation and subsequent direct comparison with measured data. On the basis of the validated models, the ability to explore design characteristics for future beamline concepts or future instrument improvements is demonstrated through the examples of detector tube size and detector layout.
Chapter 3 Economic and econometric models

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses models used in econometrics. Models play a major role in all econometric studies, whether theoretical or applied. Defining econometrics as the branch of economics concerned with the empirical estimation of economic relationships, models, together with data, represent the basic ingredients of any econometric study. The theory of the phenomena under investigation is developed into a model that is further refined into an econometric model. This model is then estimated on the basis of data pertaining to the phenomena under investigation using econometric techniques. The investigation of economic and econometric models indicates that there is a wide range of models and applications. There are many approaches to modeling, and even in the standard linear stochastic algebraic model of econometrics there are many alternative specifications available. These models have been applied in many different areas—in fact, in virtually all areas of economics and in some related social sciences. The models have been used for various purposes, including structural analysis, forecasting, and policy evaluation.
The impact of stellar clustering on the observed multiplicity of super-earth systems: outside-in cascade of orbital misalignments initiated by stellar flybys

A recent study suggests that the observed multiplicity of super-Earth (SE) systems is correlated with stellar clustering: stars in high phase-space density environments have an excess of single-planet systems compared to stars in low density fields. This correlation is puzzling as stellar clustering is expected to influence mostly the outer part of planetary systems. Here we examine the possibility that stellar flybys indirectly excite the mutual inclinations of initially coplanar SEs, breaking their co-transiting geometry. We propose that flybys excite the inclinations of exterior substellar companions, which then propagate the perturbation to the inner SEs. Using analytical calculations of the secular coupling between SEs and companions, together with numerical simulations of stellar encounters, we estimate the expected number of "effective" flybys per planetary system that lead to the destruction of the SE co-transiting geometry. Our analytical results can be rescaled easily for various SE and companion properties (masses and semi-major axes) and stellar cluster parameters (density, velocity dispersion and lifetime). We show that for a given SE system, there exists an optimal companion architecture that leads to the maximum number of effective flybys; this results from the trade-off between the flyby cross section and the companion's impact on the inner system. Subject to uncertainties in the cluster parameters, we conclude that this mechanism is inefficient if the SE system has a single exterior companion, but may play an important role in "SE + two companions" systems that were born in dense stellar clusters.
Exemplar-Controllable Paraphrasing and Translation using Bitext.

Most prior work on exemplar-based syntactically controlled paraphrase generation relies on automatically-constructed large-scale paraphrase datasets, which are costly to create. We sidestep this prerequisite by adapting models from prior work to be able to learn solely from bilingual text (bitext). Despite only using bitext for training, and in near zero-shot conditions, our single proposed model can perform four tasks: controlled paraphrase generation in both languages and controlled machine translation in both language directions. To evaluate these tasks quantitatively, we create three novel evaluation datasets. Our experimental results show that our models achieve competitive results on controlled paraphrase generation and strong performance on controlled machine translation. Analysis shows that our models learn to disentangle semantics and syntax in their latent representations, but still suffer from semantic drift.
Treatment delays in older women with nonmetastatic breast cancer treated at minority-serving hospitals.

122Background: Almost 60% of breast cancer in the U.S. occur in women aged >65, but these women are less likely to receive guideline-concordant care. Given existing treatment disparities by race/et...
On the Global Convergence of Gradient Descent for multi-layer ResNets in the mean-field regime

Finding the optimal configuration of parameters in ResNet is a nonconvex minimization problem, but first-order methods nevertheless find the global optimum in the overparameterized regime. We study this phenomenon with mean-field analysis, by translating the training process of ResNet to a gradient-flow partial differential equation (PDE) and examining the convergence properties of this limiting process. The activation function is assumed to be $2$-homogeneous or partially $1$-homogeneous; the regularized ReLU satisfies the latter condition. We show that if the ResNet is sufficiently large, with depth and width depending algebraically on the accuracy and confidence levels, first-order optimization methods can find global minimizers that fit the training data.
Chapter 3 – Electronic Commerce in Action

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of online auctions, which is a straightforward, yet revolutionary business concept. It brings traditional auctions to the Web by providing services to a geographically dispersed customer base and thus increases significantly the number of goods and services auctioned. Based on the brokerage business model, auctions bring buyers and sellers together in a virtual marketplace. Most of the revenue is generated by collecting commissions from the seller, buyer, or both. Auctions bring together buyers and sellers with similar interests, who are geographically dispersed. Individuals who have expertise in certain areas can find attractive deals using online auctions for resale purposes. Online auction companies allow users to include a description of a product or service and a bid price to be auctioned for a limited time on their virtual auction sites. No inventories, delivery services, or money transactions are involved in this service. For these reasons, this business model offers enormous profits for leading auctioneers.
Pediocin production by recombinant lactic acid bacteria.

Production of the anti-listerial bacteriocin, pediocin, by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) transformed with the cloning vector pPC418 (Ped+, 9.1 kb) was influenced by composition of media and incubation temperature. Maximum pediocin production, tested against Listeria innocua, by electrotransformants of Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis was measured in tryptone/lactose/yeast extract medium after 24 h growth at 30 °C, while incubation at 40 °C was optimum for Ped+ transformants of Streptococcus thermophilus and Enterococcus faecalis. The amount of pediocin produced by S. thermophilus in skim milk and cheese whey supplemented with 0.5% yeast extract was estimated as 51 000 units ml−1 and 25 000 units ml−1, respectively. Pediocin production remained essentially unchanged in reconstituted skim milk or whey media diluted up to 10-fold. The results demonstrate the capacity of recombinant strains of LAB to produce pediocin in a variety of growth media including skim milk and inexpensive cheese whey-based media, requiring minimum nutritional supplementation.
Frequency Domain Identification Experiment on a Large Flexible Structure

Recent experiences in the field of flexible structure control in space have indicated a need for on-orbit system identification to support robust control redesign to avoid in-flight instabilities and maintain high spacecraft performance. This paper highlights an automated frequency domain system identification methodology recently developed to fulfill this need. The methodology is focused to support 1) the estimation of system quantities useful for robust control analysis and design, 2) experiment design tailored to performing system identification in a typically constrained on-orbit environment 3) the automation of operations to reduce "human in the loop" requirements. A basic overview of the methodology is presented first, followed by an experimental verification of the approach performed on the JPL/AFAL test-bed facility.
PREVALENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF AN ULTRASONOGRAPHIC COLONIC MUSCULARIS HYPERECHOIC BAND PARALLELING THE SEROSAL LAYER IN DOGS

The muscularis layer of the canine colon has been reported to appear homogeneously hypoechoic on ultrasonography. A hyperechoic band in the muscularis layer paralleling the serosal surface has been observed by authors in routine canine abdominal ultrasound examinations. The purpose of this prospective and retrospective cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of this lesion, characterize its ultrasonographic and postmortem histologic features, and correlate its presence with clinical signs of gastrointestinal disease. In the prospective study, all dogs that underwent routine abdominal ultrasonography by one of two observers during a 4-week period were included without any exclusion criteria. One observer reviewed ultrasound images and recorded the presence or absence of this lesion and its distribution, e.g. focal ( 2 cm long). In the retrospective study, all dogs that had both abdominal ultrasonography and necropsy from January 2011 to December 2013 were included without any exclusion criteria. Histologic examinations were performed by two observers and Masson's trichrome stain was used to identify fibrous collagen. Prevalence for the hyperechoic band was 32% in the prospective and 4.8% in the retrospective sample populations, respectively. The hyperechoic band appeared as diffuse, focal, or a combination of both. Histologic sections were available for six dogs. In a few cases, the lesion corresponded to the presence of fibrous tissue in the myenteric plexus or in the tunica muscularis. None of the dogs had a history of diarrhea. Findings supported the hypothesis that a colonic muscularis hyperechoic band paralleling the serosal layer in dogs could be a normal variant rather than a marker of disease.
Multicenter Comparison of Emergency Release Group A versus AB Plasma in Blunt‐Injured Trauma Patients

Introduction Group AB plasma, the traditional universal donor plasma product, is a limited resource. We compared outcomes of Group A plasma transfusion in comparison to AB. Methods Analysis of blunt-injured patients who received emergency release plasma from was performed. Multivariable logistic regression was utilized to identify associations with morbidity and mortality. Results There were 191 patients; 115 Group A and 76 Group AB. No differences were seen in age, sex, plasma transfusions, uncrossmatched red blood cells (RBCs), and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). Patients who received Group A plasma had significantly lower Injury Severity Score, chest Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), and scene transfer rate but not head AIS, or abdomen AIS. In addition, significant differences were noted in terms of blood products transfused within 24 hours in those receiving Group A over AB. Development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), but not mortality, was higher within the AB cohort. No hemolytic or transfusion associated-ARDS reactions were noted in either group. ARDS; RBC transfusion volumes and head AIS were independently associated with mortality. Conclusion Utilization of Group A plasma for emergency blood resuscitation is a safe option which may alleviate potential shortages of AB plasma.
Viajantes europeus nas colônias italianas

The purpose of this study is to analyze the letters written by a European traveler who came to Rio Grande do Sul on a religious mission in order to verify the conditions of spirituality in the Italian colonies. This traveler was an apostolic entrepreneur, considered as a strategist by his religious order. The study of his letters opens the possibility to know his impressions of the Italian colonies and the strategies outlined for the foundation of the Capuchin mission in Rio Grande do Sul. The letters were taken from the book "A Igreja e os Capuchinhos do Rio Grande do Sul", from 1895-1909, written by Father Bruno Gillonnay. They consist of fifteen letters, ranging from the departure of Bordeaux, landing in Rio Grande Port, arrival in Porto Alegre, the route to Garibaldi, the impressions that the foreigner had of the Italian colonies and the way he describes them to his superiors, explaining the free land and the future work that they would have to settle these colonies.
Advanced intensity-modulation continuous-wave lidar techniques for ASCENDS CO2 column measurements

Global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements for the NASA Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) space mission are critical for improving our understanding of global CO2 sources and sinks. Advanced Intensity- Modulated Continuous-Wave (IM-CW) lidar techniques are investigated as a means of facilitating CO2 measurements from space to meet the ASCENDS measurement requirements. In recent numerical, laboratory and flight experiments we have successfully used the Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation technique to uniquely discriminate surface lidar returns from intermediate aerosol and cloud contamination. We demonstrate the utility of BPSK to eliminate sidelobes in the range profile as a means of making Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) column CO2 measurements in the presence of optically thin clouds, thereby eliminating the need to correct for sidelobe bias errors caused by the clouds. Furthermore, high accuracy and precision ranging to the surface as well as to the top of intermediate cloud layers, which is a requirement for the inversion of column CO2 number density measurements to column CO2 mixing ratios, has been demonstrated using new hyperfine interpolation techniques that takes advantage of the periodicity of the modulation waveforms. This approach works well for both BPSK and linear swept-frequency modulation techniques. The BPSK technique under investigation has excellent auto-correlation properties while possessing a finite bandwidth. A comparison of BPSK and linear swept-frequency is also discussed in this paper. These results are extended to include Richardson-Lucy deconvolution techniques to extend the resolution of the lidar beyond that implied by limit of the bandwidth of the modulation, where it is shown useful for making tree canopy measurements.