cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Water residing on plants alters the L-band brightness of senescing corn

We analyzed the horizontally– and vertically–polarized L– band brightness of fields of senescing corn (maize) collected by the Passive and Active L–band System (PALS) over the Iowa Validation Site in September, 2008. A model for senescent corn more closely matched observations than a model for growing corn. When water residing on the vegetation in the form of intercepted precipitation was present the h–pol and v– pol brightness temperature increased. When dew was present the h–pol and v–pol brightness temperature decreased. These observations are consistent with a previously presented conceptual model despite the fact that this model was constructed from observations of growing corn.
Effect of diluents on poly (vinyl acetate) dynamics

Effet de diluants et de la temperature sur le mouvement segmentaire du PVac par spectroscopie RMN et RPE
Clinical predictors of bacterial versus aseptic meningitis in childhood.

Study objective: To assess the reliability of meningeal signs and other physical findings in predicting bacterial and aseptic meningitis at various ages. Design: Children requiring lumbar puncture were evaluated prospectively for meningeal signs and other physical parameters before lumbar puncture. Setting: Emergency department of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Participants: One hundred seventy-two children, aged 1 week to 17 years, with meningitis (53 bacterial and 119 aseptic). Measurements and main results: Nuchal rigidity was present in 27% of infants aged 0 to 6 months with bacterial meningitis versus 95% of patients 19 months or older ( P = .0001). Three percent of infants 0 to 6 months old with aseptic meningitis had nuchal rigidity versus 79% of patients 19 months or older ( P = .0005). Seventy-two percent of infants 12 months of age or younger with bacterial meningitis had at least one positive meningeal sign versus 17% of infants with aseptic meningitis ( P = .0001). Eighty-five percent of children older than 12 months with meningitis had at least one positive meningeal sign, 93% with bacterial meningitis, and 82% with aseptic meningitis. Conclusion: Despite a lack of meningeal signs, a high index of suspicion for meningitis is essential when evaluating the febrile infant 12 months of age or younger.
African Easterly Jet: Structure and Maintenance

This article investigates the African Easterly Jet (AEJ), its structure and the forcings contributing to its maintenance, critically revisiting previous work which attributed the maintenance of the jet to soil moisture gradients over tropical Africa. A state-of-the-art global model in a high-end computer framework is used to produce a 3-member 73-year ensemble run forced by observed SST to represent the Control run. The AEJ as produced by the Control is compared with the representation of the AEJ in the European Center for Medium Range Forecast Reanalyses (ERA-40) and other observational data sets and found very realistic. Five Experiments are then performed, each represented by sets of 3-member 22 year long (1980-2001) ensemble runs. The goal of the Experiments is to investigate the role of meridional soil moisture gradients, different land surface properties and orography. Unlike previous studies, which have suppressed soil moisture gradients within a highly idealized framework (i.e., the so-called bucket model), terrestrial evaporation control is here achieved with a highly sophisticated landsurface treatment and with an extensively tested and complex methodology. The results show that the AEJ is suppressed by a combination of absence of meridional evaporation gradients over Africa and constant vegetation, even if the individual forcings taken separately do not lead to the AEJ disappearance, but only its modification. Moreover, the suppression of orography also leads to a different circulation in which there is no AEJ. This work suggests that it is not just soil moisture gradients, but a unique combination of geographical features present only in northern tropical Africa, which causes and maintains the jet.
Ultrasonographic Findings in Peroneus Longus Tendon Rupture

We report the case of a 55-year-old man with left lateral ankle pain for 2 months after injury. Ultrasonography of the left ankle showed discontinuity of the peroneal longus tendon consistent with rupture. There are a few reports of transverse rupture of the peroneus longus; it is an uncommon injury of the lower extremity and difficult to diagnose. The use of ultrasonography to evaluate the ankle integrity in this case accurately identified the injury, which was subsequently confirmed at surgery.
The Supreme Court in the 21st Century

How does the Supreme Court serve the “common good”? What is the Court's responsibility, as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution, in our constitutional system of government? This essay explores that question with an eye on the recent performance of the Court in highly controversial and divisive cases. What explains the Court's decisions in cases involving such issues as campaign finance regulation, gun control, abortion, affirmative action, health care reform, voting rights, and even the 2000 presidential election? This essay argues that there is a right and a wrong way for the Supreme Court to interpret and apply the Constitution; and whereas the Warren Court properly understood its responsibilities, the Court in more recent decades has adopted a less legitimate and more troubling mode of constitutional interpretation.
The siren song of simple tools that predict mortality.

> It is in my opinion a most excellent thing for the physician to practice forecasting. > > — Hippocrates Hippocrates recognized that determining a patient's prognosis is one of physicians' most important responsibilities.[1][1] Although research on prognosis has been outpaced by that on
Article Publication Patterns of Academic Librarians: An Illinois Case Study

Charting the characteristics of librarian authors offers insight into the field by defining and describing the research patterns of the profession. This study looks at the journal articles published by academic librarians practicing in Illinois. It finds that women are publishing close to their numbers in the profession, that more articles are being written collaboratively than in the past, and that women are more likely to collaborate than men. It also shows that librarians publish primarily in library/information science journals and that librarians at large universities are more likely to publish than librarians at small colleges.
Fine‐scale environmental variation and structure of understorey plant communities in two old‐growth pine forests

Summary 1 Although it is well established that nitrogen and light play major roles in structuring plant communities across the landscape, it is not as clear how they structure communities within forest stands. Virtually nothing is known about within-stand structure of understorey communities of herbs and small shrubs in near-boreal forests. 2 We tested the hypothesis that fine-scale (5‐20 m) variability in N and light structure forest-floor plant communities in two old-growth mixed Pinus resinosa and Pinus strobus forests in north-eastern Minnesota, USA. 3 In each forest, all trees > 1.4 m tall were mapped on a 0.75‐1.0 ha area. A grid of subplots 5‐10 m apart was established (total n = 147), and N mineralization ( µ g g − 1 soil day − 1 ), soil depth (cm), light (% canopy openness), and percentage cover of all herbs and small shrubs were measured on each subplot. 4 Cluster analysis showed that the dominant understorey species fall into three groups. Group 1 is unrelated to N and light, and is negatively associated with a midstorey of the small tree Acer rubrum and the most abundant tall shrub Corylus cornuta . Group 2 reaches maximum abundance in places (mostly gaps) with relatively high light, but is unrelated to within-stand variation in N availability. Group 3 consists of a single species, Aster macrophyllus , and reaches maximum abundance in areas with low N availability and low abundance of Corylus , but higher than average abundance of P. strobus and Betula papyrifera overstorey trees. 5 N and light have a moderate influence on understorey plant community structure. The plant species do arrange themselves along N and light gradients, but the gradients are likely to be too narrow to allow the degree of differentiation seen at the landscape level. Spatial patterning of the species groups is probably influenced by other factors, including disturbance history, chance and neighbourhood effects such as clonal reproduction.
Human POLB Gene Is Mutated in High Percentage of Colorectal Tumors

Previous small scale sequencing studies have indicated that DNA polymerase β (pol β) variants are present on average in 30% of human tumors of varying tissue origin. Many of these variants have been shown to have aberrant enzyme function in vitro and to induce cellular transformation and/or genomic instability in vivo, suggesting that their presence is associated with tumorigenesis or its progression. In this study, the human POLB gene was sequenced in a collection of 134 human colorectal tumors and was found to contain coding region mutations in 40% of the samples. The variants map to many different sites of the pol β protein and are not clustered. Many variants are nonsynonymous amino acid substitutions predicted to affect enzyme function. A subset of these variants was found to have reduced enzyme activity in vitro and failed to fully rescue pol β-deficient cells from methylmethane sulfonate-induced cytotoxicity. Tumors harboring variants with reduced enzyme activity may have compromised base excision repair function, as evidenced by our methylmethane sulfonate sensitivity studies. Such compromised base excision repair may drive tumorigenesis by leading to an increase in mutagenesis or genomic instability. Background: Previous small scale studies indicate that DNA polymerase β variants are present in 30% of human tumors. Results: 40% of samples in a large human colorectal tumor collection harbor coding region variants, many of which exhibit altered function. Conclusion: Aberrant activity or fidelity phenotypes exhibited by variants may contribute to tumorigenesis. Significance: Expression of variants in human tumors plays a role in driving carcinogenesis.
SLIDING MODE WHEEL SLIP CONTROLLER FOR AN ANTILOCK BRAKING SYSTEM

A nonlinear control system that combines a sliding mode based optimiser and a proportional–plus–integral–plus–derivative (PID) controller is presented for a vehicle antilock brake system. The sliding mode optimiser performs an on–line search for the optimal wheel slip that corresponds to the vehicle's maximum deceleration. The PID controller and the sliding mode optimiser are coupled to regulate the vehicle's brake torque to control the wheel slip to its optimal value. The performance of the proposed control schemes is illustrated with simulation examples.
Out-phased array linearized signaling (OPALS): A practical approach to physical layer encryption

Traditional methods of securing communications rely on methods, such as encryption, which require coordination between the transmitter and the receiver. Physical layer encryption techniques propose exploiting transmit arrays to cover the transmitted signal with beamformed noise or to generate directional modulation to provide security without requiring coordination a priori between the transmitter and receiver. These techniques suffer from implementation difficulties such as high computational requirements and higher amplifier linearity requirements. In this paper we propose out-phased array linearized signaling (OPALS) which provides a practical approach to physical-layer encryption through spatial masking. Our approach modifies just the transmitter to employ the outphasing amplifier design to generate a unique masking signal to each element of an antenna array. This approach improves the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmitter, provides a high degree of confidentiality, and requires no coordination with or modification to the intended receiver.
Modulation of Spreading Depression by Changes in Extracellular pH

Spreading depression (SD) and related phenomena have been implicated in hypoxic-ischemic injury. In such settings, SD occurs in the presence of marked extracellular acidosis. SD itself can also gen...
The Economics of Total Maximum Daily Loads

This article begins by exploring the institutional and historical forces shaping the total maximum daily load (TMDL) approach from an economic perspective. Next, it discusses the suitability of applying various types of economic analyses and policy instruments to individual TMDLs or the TMDL program. Cost-effectiveness analysis is shown to be particularly amenable to and appropriate for application to individual TMDLs while pollution trading may offer a mechanism for achieving water quality goals at lower cost. The final section of the article presents a case study that documents a formal application of economic analyses to an actual TMDL.
The transformation of the South African Public Service: exploring the impact of racial and gender representation on organisational effectiveness

The transformation of the South African Public Service into a bureaucracy that is broadly representative of the population is one of the most significant public sector reforms to occur since the end of apartheid. Grounded in the theory of representative bureaucracy, this study examines demographic representation in the South African Public Service and how it impacts the organisational effectiveness of national departments. The empirical analysis is based on longitudinal data from 60 national departments from 2006 to 2013. The findings show that as these organisations become more representative by hiring a higher per cent of Africans, of Coloureds, and of Indians, they achieve a higher per cent of goals. The findings for gender representation are more mixed and show that female representation among most racial groups is unrelated to organisational effectiveness.
Effects of endothelin on in vitro renin secretion.

The ability of endothelin-1 (ET-1) to directly inhibit renal renin secretion in the presence of a renin stimulator is unknown, as is the mechanism of action of any renin inhibition. Thus direct eff...
The Cell-to-Cell Membrane Channel

I shall deal with a channel that spans two cell membranes. This channel was a solution to an ancient evolutionary problem: how to interconnect the cyberneting loops of information of different cells and to do so without mixing the information sources. The seeds for this problem were sown by evolution herself as she grew, during the first one and a half billion years: a hydrophobic membrane for the cells, a barrier to keep the hard-won informational molecules from drifting apart and to keep nonsense molecules from drifting in. The barrier was instrumental in the selection of cybernetically apt units in an aqueous environment and was absolutely necessary for Darwinian evolution of cells. But, over the next two billion years, the organismic times, it became an obstacle to multicellular organization. The problem was then how to get signal molecules across the hydrophobic barrier to interconnect the units without abolishing its primitive insulating function.
The Other Big Test: Why Congress Should Allow College Students to Borrow More Through Federal Aid Programs

Student loan borrowing has increased dramatically in recent years as the cost of pursuing higher education has risen. Because family incomes and the amount that students can borrow through federal loan programs have not kept pace, more students take out private education loans, which carry worse terms and fewer repayment options, from banks and other lenders. Graduates’ debts affect their life and career decisions in socially undesirable ways, and existing loan repayment assistance and forgiveness programs intended to ameliorate the burden do not address private loans. This article proposes significant increases in the amount students can borrow through federal loan programs, reducing or eliminating the need for private loans. Properly designed, the proposal also addresses the negative effects of debt on graduates’ life and career choices.
AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF ULTRASONIC SWAVE POLARIZATION BY TRANSMISSION THROUGH FRACTURED POROUS MEDIA

Potential of Swave near-surface surveys for optimal unconventional resource exploitation is envisaged based on inferences from an ultrasonic laboratory study. For instance successful horizontal drilling depends upon reliable subsurface characterization especially for such completions. Characteristic Swave propagation and polarization sensitivity to the existence of subsurface fractures, orientation and stress dependent variation in aperture i.e. Swave anisotropy, help reliably determine the directional dependence of permeability and infer maximum and minimum permeability directions for variations over time i.e. permeability anisotropy. In the study a reservoir analogue comprising six equallength sandstone slabs stacked, giving five parallel and horizontal fractures was used. In first stage permeability parallel and perpendicular to the fractures was determined for nine, vertically applied to cracks, successive incremental cyclical loading-unloading steps i.e. 0-900 Kg, and anisotropy of permeability over time was determined. Next stage of ultrasonic investigation involved single sourcereceiver combination for through transmission where 1MHz sensors were attached to the flat faces of analogue on the axis. The loading scheme remained same, and source-receiver relative orientation was varied from 0o through 180o in azimuthal increment of 30o for each loading and measurement step. The acquisition was done with the source orientation fixed parallel relative to fracture orientation. Analysis was performed in a time-lapse fashion given incremental loading. The results clearly demonstrate the general suitability of Swave survey in delineating near-subsurface. Reliable information of subsurface allows efficient development and exploitation of near-surface resources.
Updates of Adjuvant Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?

Pancreatic cancer represents the 4 th leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Surgical resection remains the only potential curative approach. Current standard adjuvant therapy is gemcitabine monotherapy for 6 months. This year several trials investigated other combinations with or without molecular target agents, with or without concurrent radiation attempting to optimize adjuvant therapy. Several abstracts presented at the 2010 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting are highlighted here and will be further discussed in this review article. Abstracts #4012, #4059, and TPS226 added immunotherapy to adjuvant treatment. Abstract #4034 demonstrated lack of efficacy by adding either cetuximab or bevacizumab to known adjuvant therapies. Abstract e14625 combined S-1 to gemcitabine and abstract #4113 demonstrated a positive correlation between symptoms and CA 19-9 levels with the length of survival. Image: Yale-New Haven Hospital. New Haven, CT, USA .
Preparation of catalytic ozonation membrane and analysis of humic acid removal mechanism

To further improve the effectiveness of membrane process and reduce membrane fouling,catalytic membranes were prepared with the phase transfer method in order to realize microfiltration coupling and catalytic ozonation for micro-polluted water treatment.The sol-gel method was used to prepare TiO2,and nano-sized particles at different heat treatment temperatures were added into the casting solution.The characteristics of catalytic membranes were investigated with X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),water flux,porosity,and contact angle.The membranes catalytic efficiency and membrane separation processes were also investigated.Rutile TiO2(namely PVDF/ TiO2-600) membrane achieved above 70% and 65% removal rate of humic acid(HA) and total organic carbon(TOC),respectively.The novel catalytic membrane exhibited good catalytic ozonation activity and anti-fouling property for HA removal,which demonstrated that catalytic ozonation membrane an emerging technique for water treatment.
Data transport mechanism on heterogeneous platform based on Grid

Open Grid Service Architecture is investigated.The mechanism for data transport based on GRID is thoroughly dealt with.According to these results,a prototype for data transport in GRID is designed and implemented,which can run on Windows/Linux.This prototype avoids running mode in command line and provides a friendly interface with users.
The Shaded (Recession) Chart: RecessionChart.xls and EconChart.xla

(i). A strongly good graph shows us everything we need to know just by looking at it. (ii). A weakly good graph shows us everything we need to know just by looking at it, once we know how to look. – Howard Wainer Quick Summary To access RecessionChart.xls , visit: http://www.depauw.edu/learn/macroexcel/excelworkbooks/Charting/RecessionChart.xls RecessionChart.xls uses real crude oil price data to demonstrate how to use the Econ Chart Enhancer add-in to create a time series with shaded bars based on U.S. recessions. It also uses World Top Incomes data to replicate a chart on U.S. income inequality with shaded bars when the top 10% earn 45% or more of total income. Proficiency with basic charting in Excel is required. The Econ Chart Enhancer add-in, filename EconChart.xla , available at http://www.depauw.edu/learn/macroexcel/exceladdins, enables enhancements to an existing chart, such as natural log scale (not merely Excel's base 10 log scale) and easily adding shaded bars for recession (or other) time periods. Download the add-in from the website and use the Add-Ins Manager to install it. Screencasts • http://vimeo.com/econexcel/howtoinstallexceladdin: shows how to install an add-in Excel via the Add-Ins Manager • http://vimeo.com/econexcel/realcrudeoilpricechart: charts real crude oil price over time • http://vimeo.com/econexcel/addrecessionbars: use the Econ Chart add-in to add recession bars to real crude oil price chart • http://vimeo.com/econexcel/shadedbarswhenpricefalls: more practice with the Econ Chart add-in • http://vimeo.com/econexcel/shadedbarsapplication: use the Econ Chart add-in to replicate a chart on income inequality Introduction Plotting a time series with shaded bars for recessionary periods has become a staple in financial literature. It is an effective way to show a second variable, such as the performance of the economy, while displaying more detail about a primary variable of interest. Unfortunately, it is not easy to create such a chart. Excel, however, can be tricked into doing it, and the complicated steps have been packaged into the Econ Chart add-in so the user can quickly add shaded areas to any chart. Common Problems for Students Installing the add-in requires use of the Add-Ins Manager. Students sometimes ignore all instructions and attempt simply to open the add-in file as if it were a conventional Excel workbook.
How I Became a Radiologist

My long-term plan was to follow the path of Professor Bobek; to become an internist examining my patients by x-ray and doing research. To get experience in radiology, I signed up in my fourth year of medical studies for the course of Diagnostic Radiology held by Dr. Frantisek Dulik, Chief of Radiology, at Pilsen Military Hospital. I was one of three students enrolled. Dr. Dulik was an experienced radiologist who taught us the practice of x-ray examinations. Seeing my great interest in radiology, he suggested that I let him know when I completed my basic military training. I did, and after 4 months as a physician at a battalion in Pilsen (interestingly at the same barracks where I was in Technische Nothilfe during the war), I was transferred to the Radiology Department of the Central Military Hospital in Prague. Dr. Dulik was the new Chief of Radiology there. It was on March 15, 1951, one day after the birth of our daughter Eva. My wife and daughter stayed with my parents in Pilsen.
Response to Cohen and Germain: Defining a Good Death.

Author(s): Meier, Emily A; Gallegos, Jarred V; Montross-Thomas, Lori P; Depp, Colin A; Irwin, Scott A; Jeste, Dilip V
Renovating McTaggart’s Substantial Self

It is an irony of contemporary philosophy of mind that that which does the explaining seems hell-bent on explaining itself away. Bundle theories of the self, seeking to explain it within familiar scientific parameters, tend to get tangled up in this methodological paradox. Substance theories, on the other hand, avoid losing the self, but do so at the cost of providing those who demand it no scientifically or naturalistically acceptable handle on the self—no way to analyze, manipulate and make predictions about the self. Responding to these problems, this paper explores and defends (with qualifications) McTaggart’s account of the self as a substantial person, mutually related to other substantial selves, which are all individuated from each other by determining correspondence relations among their perceptions.
A brainstem "mini-discharge" syndrome (anesthesia dolorosa).

Chronic pain consisting of anesthesia dolorosa secondary to bilateral interruption of the trigeminal nerves is presented as a brain stem reticular denervation syndrome. Electrothalamograms revealed fast frequency discharges in the mesothalamic prerubral and centermedian reticular formation. Mesothalamic electrical stimulation attenuated the discharges. Pain and other symptoms presumably of brainstem origin also were attenuated or abolished by therapeutic electrical stimulation twice daily. It is postulated that brain stem-represented behavioral generators are implicated by the reticular discharges in order to produce the complex symptomatology. Consequently the symptom complex is collectively identified as a brainstem “mini-discharge” syndrome. A theoretical discussion is presented to defend the thesis that reticular denervation-induced low threshold discharge system accounts for the episodic states of pain, dyskinesia, mood, and memory disturbances.
Cell Death and Liver Injuries in Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes chronic infection in most of the patients that it infects, and this chronic infection can lead to severe liver diseases including fatty liver, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV infection of hepatocytes can suppress the host innate immune response, and this suppression plays an important role in the establishment of chronic HCV infection. HCV can also induce the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines to cause chronic liver inflammation and cell death. It can also induce endoplasmic reticulum stress, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and hepatocellular proliferation and alter hepatic lipid metabolism. These combined effects of HCV can lead to chronic liver injury and hepatocellular carcinogenesis. In this chapter, we will review the interactions between HCV and its host cells.
Office-Based Otolaryngology

When one considers surgery of the head and neck, they generally think of an operating room in a large hospital. This traditional idea of surgery and anesthesia is understandable, but with the development of less invasive surgeries and “faster-acting” anesthetics with fewer hemodynamic side effects [1, 2], many surgeries have moved into a yet smaller environment, namely the private surgical office. This migration has not been sudden but rather stems from changes in health-care delivery that have been occurring over the past several decades.
A stiffly accurate integrator for elastodynamic problems

We present a new integration algorithm for the accurate and efficient solution of stiff elastodynamic problems governed by the second-order ordinary differential equations of structural mechanics. Current methods have the shortcoming that their performance is highly dependent on the numerical stiffness of the underlying system that often leads to unrealistic behavior or a significant loss of efficiency. To overcome these limitations, we present a new integration method which is based on a mathematical reformulation of the underlying differential equations, an exponential treatment of the full nonlinear forcing operator as opposed to more standard partially implicit or exponential approaches, and the utilization of the concept of stiff accuracy which ensures that the efficiency of the simulations is significantly less sensitive to increased stiffness. As a consequence, we are able to tremendously accelerate the simulation of stiff systems compared to established integrators and significantly increase the overall accuracy. The advantageous behavior of this approach is demonstrated on a broad spectrum of complex examples like deformable bodies, textiles, bristles, and human hair. Our easily parallelizable integrator enables more complex and realistic models to be explored in visual computing without compromising efficiency.
Revolt and Ambivalence: Music, Torture and Absurdity in the Digital Oratorio The Refrigerator

The digital oratorio The Refrigerator (2014) is a composition that reflects on my own experience of torture as a 17-year-old political prisoner during the Brazilian military dictatorship. This paper examines the existential and artistic contexts underlying the conception of the piece including the connection to my previous work. The investigation focuses on intermedia composition—electroacoustic music, live-electronics, audiovisual composition—and its relation to the subject of the torture. The paper aims, from a philosophical point of view, to build bridges between a phenomenological experience, the music, and the technology of sound synthesis. The Refrigerator expresses the conscious revolt struggling with the ambivalence of the torture and its acceptance as a path of illumination and transcendence. The experience of torture is approached from the perspective of Albert Camus’ philosophy of absurdity and the mythical character of Sisyphus, who embraces absurdity through his passion as much as through his suffering.
SINGLE MOMS AND DEADBEAT DADS: THE ROLE OF EARNINGS, MARRIAGE MARKET CONDITIONS, AND PREFERENCE HETEROGENEITY

Why do some men father children outside of marriage without providing support? Why do some women have children outside of marriage when they receive little support from fathers? Why is this behavior more common among Blacks than Whites? We estimate a dynamic equilibrium model of marriage, employment, fertility, and child support decisions. We consider the extent to which low earnings, marriage market conditions, and preference heterogeneity explain nonmarital childbearing, deadbeat fatherhood, and racial differences in these outcomes. We find the Blackâ€“White earnings gap and preference heterogeneity explain a substantial portion of racial differences, whereas marriage market conditions are less important.
Gown, Town, and Neighborhood Change: An Examination of Urban Neighborhoods with University Revitalization Efforts

Universities are expanding their missions to encompass neighborhoods and revitalization strategies, yet there is an inadequate understanding of how targeted neighborhoods have changed. This study c...
Lessons learned from New Orleans on vulnerability, resilience, and their integration

Abstract Vulnerability, resilience, and their relationship are at the forefront of new developments in disaster theory and research. The complex relationships between vulnerability and resilience are an area of interest to disaster theorists, researchers, and practitioners. In this chapter, we review the lessons learned about vulnerability and resiliency, and their relationships in the context of Vulnerability-plus (V+) theory. First, we examine evidence that supports V+ theory. We examine the empirical literature on vulnerability and resiliency in the Katrina disaster, with a special emphasis on evidence from the chapters in the present volume. Support for the assumptions of V+ theory are identified and summarized.
INTRACELLULAR TRANSPORT FLUXES—CAN THEY BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED?

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the attempts made to measure the movements of materials along, among, and by the peripatetic structures found in karyoplasm and cytoplasm. From an analytical point of view, there has been extensive work on separate and coupled diffusive and convective mechanisms that underlie transport. These studies have been made by investigators concerned with flow in complex chemical processes. They require determination of state variables such as chemical potential, mechanical stress, and macroscopic parameters such as diffusion and viscosity coefficients. Recent thermodynamic approaches to evaluate the stability of macromolecular associations in terms of weak bonding look sufficiently promising for providing some of the baseline data necessary for dynamic studies.
Local Glutamatergic and GABAergic Synaptic Circuits and Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors in the Hypothalamic Paraventricular and Supraoptic Nuclei

Burst generation and synchronization in the hypothalamus is controlled by a combination of the intrinsic membrane conductances and the synaptic organization of the hypothalamic neurons. The projected synaptic inputs as well as the local synaptic organization of the cells play a crucial role in generating patterned electrical activity and synchronizing activity among individual cells of a given population of hypothalamic neurons. The majority of the synaptic inputs to the hypothalamic paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic nuclei (SON) are mediated by glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)1,2, and a substantial proportion of these inputs appear to derive from local sources3,4,5. Given this, and the fact that the bursting patterns of neuroendocrine cells of the hypothalamus are sensitive to subtle changes in membrane potential and excitability, we hypothesize that local synaptic circuits in the hypothalamus and neuromodulatory inputs to hypothalamic neurons may be important for hypothalamic burst generation. To test these hypotheses, we studied the intrahypothalamic glutamatergic and GABAergic projections to neurons of the PVN and SON, and the neuromodulatory actions of glutamate via metabotropic glutamate receptors in these cells.
Strategies for Molecular Design Beyond the Millennium

When asked to open the 12th European Symposium on QSAR with some projections into the years ahead, I was immediately drawn to the words of Niels Bohr who changed the face of science so many years ago.
Quantitative Neuropathology in Alzheimer’s Mouse Models

Transgenic (Tg) mouse models of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) provide insight into the earliest changes observable as potential strategic targets by which to mount therapeutic interventions.Acomparison of the differentmousemodels to determine the earliest timeatwhich diffuse or compact amyloid deposits are detected versus other structural pathology indicates that multiple factors combine to produce highly variable courses across Tgmousemodels. Therefore, we sought to define the earliest time point atwhich alterations could be detected andwhether such changeswere progressive intwodifferentmousemodels, the ElanPDAPPmouse andthe original Tg2576mouse. In the Elan PDAPPmouse, Tg hippocampal volumes were statistically significantly smaller at 100 days but the volume differences did not progress. Furthermore, the volume loss was restricted to the dentate gyrus (DG), where the difference between Tg and wild-type (WT) brain was nearly 30% by 100 days. Amyloid deposition was not detected until six months of age. Subsequent studies confirmed that the outer molecular layer (OML) terminal projections of the lateral entorhinal cortex layer II neurons were the earliest and most consistent sites of synaptic dysfunction. With age, PDAPP WT mice eventually also showed loss of OML dendritic spines. In the Tg2576 mice, no hippocampal or cortical volumetric differences were detected, but OML dendritic spine analysis, electrophysiology and behavior were all affected (versus WT mice) by four months of age. Amyloid was not detectable until 15 months of age. Others have recently confirmed these observations on the dentate OML synapse loss in the older Tg2576 mouse. Thus, early neurotoxic fragments may make highly vulnerable synapses the earliest site pathology in these simulations of familial AD.
Rate Effects on Delamination Fracture Toughness of Graphite/Epoxy Composites

The effects of loading rate on interlaminar fracture toughness were investigated for two graphite/epoxy materials, one with a brittle matrix and the other with a toughened one. Mode I delamination fracture toughness was studied by means of uniform-width, width-tapered, and height-tapered double cantilever beam specimens. The specimens were loaded at various cross head rates corresponding to crack extension rates up to 26 m/s. It was found that for the brittle-matrix composite the energy release rate increases up to a certain crack velocity and thereafter it decreases. In the case of the toughened-matrix composite the energy release rate decreases monotonically with increasing crack velocity.
Berkshire's Disintermediation: Buffett's New Managerial Model

Berkshire Hathaway, among history’s largest and most successful corporations, shuns middlemen; its chairman, the legendary investor Warren Buffett, excoriates financial intermediaries. The acquisitive conglomerate rarely borrows money, retains brokers, or hires consultants. Its governance is lean, using an advisory board and bucking all forms of corporate bureaucracy. Berkshire’s shareholders also minimize the roles of intermediaries like stockbrokers and stock exchanges by trading little and holding for lengthy periods.By exploring Berkshire’s antipathy to intermediation, this article supports the view that public policy ought to make considerable room for companies to define their own internal business practices and that more companies ought to consider emulating aspects of Berkshire’s disintermediation. While Buffett’s legacy to date has been to lead two generations of value investors, Berkshire’s radically ingenious disintermediation has the potential to shape the next two generations of value managers, as argued in this paper and at greater length in the author’s recent book, Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values.
Bringing nuclear materials discovery and qualification into the 21st century.

Time horizons for nuclear materials development and qualification must be shortened to realize future nuclear energy concepts. Inspired by the Materials Genome Initiative, we present an integrated approach to materials discovery and qualification to insert new materials into service.
Strategic Nonconformity, State Corporate Income Taxes, And the TCJA: Part II

This essay analyzes ways that U.S. state governments can raise revenue by rethinking whether and how they conform to corporate income tax provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Precarious Work, Health, and African-American Men: A Qualitative Study on Perceptions and Experiences:

Precarious work has steadily grown in the United States since the rise of neoliberal policies. The continued expansion of this type of work has led to precarious employment as a recognized category...
Teaching the concept of Typified Situation to promote foreign language interaction in classroom instruction and study abroad

Abstract This multiple case study reports on how Marie and Yuan, both novice students of Italian, used the concept of the Typified Situation (TS) in target language interactions in a pre-departure classroom course and later during a study abroad trip to Florence, Italy. A TS is a pragmatically motivated interaction that reoccurs with a specific genre and register in a culture. Using concept-based language instruction (CBLI) to teach the TS, students were introduced to the semantic and lexico-grammatical patterns of what was happening (field), how participants interact (tenor), and through which means (mode), and the purposeful and sequential order in which these actions usually happen (genre) in the TS in Italian culture. A qualitative analysis of data from classroom instruction and study abroad revealed that the learners showed awareness of the TS concept in classroom tasks and study abroad interactions, recognized register variations, and interacted by making language choices depending on the context of the situation.
Artificial Intelligence education in medicine: Lessons from 'Hidden Figures'.

Dear Editor The book and subsequent movie adaptation ‘Hidden Figures’ (Shetterly 2016) offers many historical and educational insights on how black female mathematicians contributed substantially t...
The Yin and the Yang of Transformative Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity for scientists from diverse disciplines to collaboratively mitigate the singular calamity facing humanity this century. The ability of researchers to combine exponential advances in technology and scientific acumen has resulted in landmark discoveries in pediatric research and is surmounting the COVID-19 challenge. Several of these discoveries exist in a realm of research that is not classically "basic" or "clinical." Translational research characterizes this domain partially, but does not fully capture the integrated research approaches that have spurred these discoveries. Herein, we share our perspective on the common themes underpinning the basic and clinical research. We also highlight major differences in the scope, emphasis, approach, and limitations of basic and clinical research that impede multi-disciplinary approaches that facilitate truly transformative research. These differences in research thinking and methodology are ingrained during training wherein the limitations of the chosen discipline, and strengths of alternate disciplines are not adequately explored. Insular approaches are particularly limited in impacting complex diseases pathophysiology in the era of precision medicine. We propose that integration of -omics technologies, systems biology, adaptive clinical trial designs, humanized animal models, and precision pre-clinical model systems must be incorporated into research training of future scientists. Several initiatives from the NIH and other institutions are facilitating such broad-based "research without frontiers" training that paves the way for seamless, multi-disciplinary, research. Such efforts become "transformative" when scientific challenges are tackled in partnership with a willingness to share ideas, tackle challenges, and develop tools/models from the very beginning.
Impossible Tuning Made Possible: A New Expert Algorithm and Its Applications

We resolve the long-standing ``impossible tuning'' issue for the classic expert problem and show that, it is in fact possible to achieve regret $O\Big(\sqrt{(\ln d)\sumt \ell_{t,i}^2}\Big)$ simultaneously for all expert $i$ in a $T$-round $d$-expert problem where $\ell_{t,i}$ is the loss for expert $i$ in round $t$. Our algorithm is based on the Mirror Descent framework with a correction term and a weighted entropy regularizer. While natural, the algorithm has not been studied before and requires a careful analysis. We also generalize the bound to $O\Big(\sqrt{(\ln d)\sumt (\ell_{t,i}-m_{t,i})^2}\Big)$ for any prediction vector $m_t$ that the learner receives, and recover or improve many existing results by choosing different $m_t$. Furthermore, we use the same framework to create a master algorithm that combines a set of base algorithms and learns the best one with little overhead. The new guarantee of our master allows us to derive many new results for both the expert problem and more generally Online Linear Optimization.
Reply to Dushoff et al. and Pifarré i Arolas et al.: Age prioritization for COVID-19 vaccination does save lives and years of life.

In our PNAS brief report about COVID-19 vaccination priorities (1), we present a demographic analysis of characteristic age-specific schedules of COVID-19 death rates and show, contrary to widespread intuition, that the goals of maximizing lives saved per vaccination and of maximizing years of future life saved per vaccination are not in conflict. In our report, we take pains to emphasize that effects beyond the direct age-based effects that we model deserve consideration, including transmission dynamics—“indirect effects”—and wider ethical and biomedical implications. In their letter entitled “Transmission dynamics are crucial to COVID-19 vaccination policy” (2), Dushoff et al. reemphasize our point: Indirect effects deserve consideration. However, the word “crucial” in the letter title sounds like overstatement. The simulation study (3) cited by ref. 2 takes account of indirect as well as direct effects. Most of the optimal allocation strategies calculated there for minimizing deaths turn out to include priority for the oldest old (ref. 3, figures 9 and 10). In the even more comprehensive simulation study which we cited, Bubar et al. (4) state, “we … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: josh.goldstein{at}berkeley.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Two-Color Laser Induced Electron Emission from Biased Metal Surface

By solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, we construct an exact analytical solution for nonlinear ultrafast electron emission from a dc-biased metal surface illuminated by two-color laser fields. Our results show a large dc bias can significantly increase the photoemission current, while maintaining a strong current modulation with respect to the phase delay of the two-color lasers. Application of our model to time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy shows the dynamics of n-photon exited states depends strongly on the dc field.
Financial Sector Stress and Asset Prices: Evidence from the Weather Derivatives Market

I examine the impact of financial sector stress on asset prices in a novel setting: the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s weather derivatives market. The structure of the market allows me to disentangle price movements due to financial sector stress from price movements due to fundamentals. In normal times, contracts are priced near their actuarially fair value. During the recent financial crisis, contract prices one-month before maturity fall by 2.2%. This discount is equivalent to an annualized weather risk premium of 26%. Contract prices decline with increases in the TED spread and the VIX and the declines are greatest for high margin and high total risk contracts. Examining end users, I find the risk-sharing benefits of the weather derivatives market decrease during the crisis. The results provide causal evidence of the importance of financial sector stress in the pricing of financial contracts and its effect on risk sharing in the economy.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Generalized Linear Models with Covariate Measurement Error

Generalized linear models with covariate measurement error can be estimated by maximum likelihood using gllamm, a program that fits a large class of multilevel latent variable models (Rabe-Hesketh, Skrondal, and Pickles 2004). The program uses adaptive quadrature to evaluate the log likelihood, produc- ing more reliable results than many other methods (Rabe-Hesketh, Skrondal, and Pickles 2002). For a single covariate measured with error (assuming a classical measurement model), we describe a "wrapper" command, cme, that calls gllamm to estimate the model. The wrapper makes life easy for the user by accepting a simple syntax and data structure and producing extended and easily interpretable output. The commands for preparing the data and running gllamm can also be obtained from cme. We first discuss the case where several measurements are avail- able and subsequently consider estimation when the measurement error variance is instead assumed known. The latter approach is useful for sensitivity analy- sis assessing the impact of assuming perfectly measured covariates in generalized linear models. An advantage of using gllamm directly is that the classical co- variate measurement error model can be extended in various ways. For instance, we can use nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation (NPMLE) to relax the normality assumption for the true covariate. We can also specify a congeneric measurement model which relaxes the assumption that the measurements for a unit are exchangeable replicates by allowing for different measurement scales and error variances.