cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A NEW KINEMATIC DISTANCE ESTIMATOR TO THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

The distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) can be directly determined by measuring three of its properties: its radial velocity field, its mean proper motion, and the position angle ph of its photometric line of nodes. Statistical errors of ~2% are feasible based on proper motions obtained with any of several proposed astrometry satellites, the earliest possibility being the Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME). The largest source of systematic error is likely to be in the determination of ph. I suggest two independent methods to measure ph, one based on counts of clump giants and the other on photometry of clump giants. I briefly discuss a variety of methods to test for other sources of systematic errors.
Phonon spectra of the A15 compounds V3Si, V3Ge and V3Ga

Abstract The total phonon densities of states and their partial contributions arising from the sublattices have been calculated from a microscopic model at 300 K for V 3 Si , V 3 Ge and V 3 Ga . Most of the features of the experimental results of Schweiss et al. 6 obtained by incoherent inelastic neutron scattering are reproduced qualitatively. For V 3 Si over most of the spectral range the total density of states arises from the contribution of the V sublattices, whereas the Si sublattices give rise only to a narrow band optical mode peak. For V 3 Ge and V 3 Ga the spectral distribution of the partial densities of states of both types of sublattices are comparable over the entire frequency range, except for the high frequency optic mode tail. The low and high temperature limits of the calculated Debye temperatures are in satisfactory agreement with the available thermal data.
Poincar\'e et les quanta

We present some reflections concerning two papers by H. Poincare concerning the theory of quanta.
A boundary element method analysis of electrostatics in a tank during filling operations

Electrostatic charging inside a tank is analysed numerically using the boundary integral method. The electrostatic charge is transmitted to the tank through a charged liquid. Profiles for the charge density and potential are obtained in the tank during the filling operation. The analysis is based on the equation governing the transport of charge and Poisson's equation. The results are characterized by two dimensionless parameters, the dimensionless Debye length given by the Debye length divided by the height of the tank, and the number Pe defined as a Peclet number. The results show where the maximum charge density and potential occur and give a prediction of when during the filling operation a hazardous situation may occur.
Effects of Commercial Thinning on Breeding Bird Populations in Western Hemlock Forests

Bird populations and habitat structure were compared between three commercially thinned and three unthinned western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) stands to assess short-term effects of commercial thinning on breeding bird communities. Thinning reduced the density of small trees and snags (≤30 cm dbh), but did not affect the density of large trees or snags (>30 cm dbh). The overstory canopy was more open and cover of forbs, grasses and seedlings was higher in thinned than unthinned stands. Winter wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes), dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), chestnut-backed chickadees (Parus rufescens) and red-breasted nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) were more abundant in thinned than unthinned stands, but total bird density did not differ between thinned and unthinned stands. Commercial thinning thus enhances habitat conditions for some bird species while having minimal effects on other bird species.
Obstructive choledocholithiasis requiring intervention in a three week old neonate: A case report and review of the literature

The discovery of cholelithiasis in neonates is often incidental, however obstructing common bile duct stones are rare. Herein we report the case of a 3 week old neonate who presented with obstructive choledocholithiasis. The patient was treated conservatively with antibiotics and ursodeoxycholic acid but did not improve. He was therefore taken to surgery for cholecystectomy and stone extraction. The operation was successful and his transaminases and bilirubin levels declined. Trials of conservative management can be attempted in asymptomatic infants with choledocholithiasis. However, failure of the stone to pass or ongoing signs of cholecystitis should be met with operative intervention to remove the obstruction.
Correlation of Methane Activation and Oxide Catalyst Reducibility and Its Implications for Oxidative Coupling

We investigate methane activation over a range of metal-oxide surfaces. Density functional theory calculations are used to correlate the C–H bond activation energy to the surface reducibility (oxygen vacancy formation energy, work function). The correlation includes several reducible and nonreducible metal-oxides, doped CeO2, doped TiO2, ZnO, and doped MgO, and also holds for various oxidation states of TbOx, different surface facets of TiO2, and variation of Hubbard U parameter for CeO2. We find a linear correlation between the C–H activation reaction energy, ·CH3 adsorption energy, and the oxygen vacancy formation energy of pure/doped metal-oxides, making surface reducibility a descriptor for predicting catalyst activity and selectivity against further oxidation of the ·CH3 radical.
Abstract 361: Clinical Utility and Impact of Revised Continuous Cardiac Telemetry in Identifying Life Threatening Arrhythmias

Background: Continuous cardiac telemetry (CCT) is used to provide immediate awareness of life-threatening rhythm disorders. When used too widely, many patients (pts) who do not need CCT receive this service, while when used too restrictively; this may place pts at risk. Methods: In March 2013, Christiana Care Health System revised CCT utilization standards based on risk stratification per 2004 AHA guidelines. We retrospectively and randomly examined daily call logs from central monitoring department (CMD) for 2625 monitored non-ICU pts during two separate months, November 2012 (old system, 1323 pts) and June 2013 (new system, 1322 pts). The calls were categorized as emergent (EC) and non EC as per pre-determined criteria. Life-threatening rhythms were defined as sustained ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation and asystole. Results: The revised CCT system reduced total number of monitored pts by 23% and total no of calls by 44% over a 30 day period. EC frequency was 1.1% for the entire study. There was a single potentially life threatening arrhythmia among the 7200 calls from 2645 pts (ventricular tachycardia that self-terminated in 32 seconds). Only 14% of total EC led to a change in management within 1 hour. Conclusion: In these non-ICU patients, it was rare that CCT provided an alert to a life-threatening arrhythmia. Arrhythmias leading to treatment changes within 1 hour were also uncommon. Guideline driven use of CCT decreases the overuse of monitors. Low rate of truly emergent arrhythmias in contemporarily managed patients reveals this to be safe. ![][1] [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif
Opening Teachers’ Eyes to Doing Race in Social Studies

Doing Race in Social Studies: Critical Perspectives applies a critical race theory (CRT) lens to social studies in order to bridge CRT theory to practices and pedagogies that acknowledge and explor...
The Basic Principal-Agent

In a basic principal-agent setting, the principal contracts an agent to perform a service function and the agent chooses the level of his capacity (his ‘effort’) in response to the contract offer and subsequently its effect on the principal’s revenue stream. We assume that the principal’s equipment unit generates revenue at an expected rate of r > 0 $ per unit of uptime. The unit runs for a random period of time before failing, and remains in the failed state until it is repaired. To address the recurring maintenance and equipment failures the principal contracts an agent who subsequently installs a repair capacity and repairs the principal’s equipment when it fails.
Cost-Effective Design Solutions for Enhancing PRAM Reliability and Performance

Phase change RAM (PRAM) is an emerging memory technology that has fast read access time, low standby power, and high storage density. Multi-level Cell (MLC) PRAM has even higher storage density but suffers from low reliability and long write latency. This paper investigates a set of cost-effective design solutions for enabling MLC PRAM to be used as a mainstream memory technology. Earlier, we had proposed a multi-level scheme to improve reliability through circuit level and architecture level tuning—the corresponding scheme is referred to as baseline. In this paper, we show how tuning the programming current profile at the device level helps reduce the error rates even further and enables the use of an even lower cost error control coding (ECC) to achieve the same level of reliability. We use a PRAM + DRAM hybrid memory configuration to analyze the tradeoffs between programming energy, IPC, and memory lifetime. We show that for the SPEC2006 and DeCapo benchmarks, a hybrid memory designed with 1 GB PRAM and 8 MB DRAM can achieve either longer lifetime or lower energy (compared to the baseline scheme) by tuning the programming current profile. For instance, if a BCH ( t = 2) ECC unit is used, we can increase RESET programming pulse width to enhance memory lifetime by a factor of 10; for a fixed memory lifetime constraint of 106 PRAM WRITE cycles, we can tune the programming current profile to achieve 27 percent memory energy saving with no loss in IPC.
Positive Definite Matrices

(1970). Positive Definite Matrices. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 77, No. 3, pp. 259-264.
The role of sirtuins in the regulation of metabolic homeostasis in skeletal muscle.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To discuss recent findings regarding the role of the histone deacetylase sirtuin SirT1 in anabolic and catabolic signaling pathways in skeletal muscle. RECENT FINDINGS Since its discovery as a regulator of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ-coactivator 1α transcriptional activity, SirT1 has received much attention for its role in the regulation of tissue-specific and whole body regulation of metabolic processes. Although these early seminal discoveries identified SirT1 as a central player in metabolism, it is only more recently that we have begun to understand the complexities of SirT1 signaling. In addition to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorgamma-coactivator 1α, SirT1 has been found to regulate the activity and/or transcription of protein kinase B, mammalian target of rapamycin, forkhead box O 1 and 3a and myogenic determination factor, all of which are central players in the regulation of energy status in skeletal muscle, via actions on catabolic and anabolic signaling. SUMMARY SirT1-mediated regulation of skeletal muscle metabolism (and indeed, whole body metabolism) likely occurs at numerous levels, from cell membrane receptors to transcription factors and histones. The end result of these regulatory actions of SirT1 is to maintain cellular homeostasis.
Femtosecond electron imaging of defect-modulated phonon dynamics

Precise manipulation and control of coherent lattice oscillations via nanostructuring and phonon-wave interference has the potential to significantly impact a broad array of technologies and research areas. Resolving the dynamics of individual phonons in defect-laden materials presents an enormous challenge, however, owing to the interdependent nanoscale and ultrafast spatiotemporal scales. Here we report direct, real-space imaging of the emergence and evolution of acoustic phonons at individual defects in crystalline WSe2 and Ge. Via bright-field imaging with an ultrafast electron microscope, we are able to image the sub-picosecond nucleation and the launch of wavefronts at step edges and resolve dispersion behaviours during propagation and scattering. We discover that the appearance of speed-of-sound (for example, 6 nm ps(-1)) wavefronts are influenced by spatially varying nanoscale strain fields, taking on the appearance of static bend contours during propagation. These observations provide unprecedented insight into the roles played by individual atomic and nanoscale features on acoustic-phonon dynamics.
A case for system support for concurrency exceptions

In this position paper we argue that concurrency errors should be fail-stop. We want to put concurrency errors in the same category as division-by-zero, segmentation fault in unmanaged languages and cast exceptions in managed languages. This would make nondeterminism in multithreaded execution be much more manageable. Concurrency exceptions would improve the debugging process during development and make crashes due to concurrency errors that happen in the field be more descriptive. Our goal in this paper is to justify our position, propose a general approach to concurrency exceptions and discuss system requirements and implications. Specifically, we discuss the semantics of concurrency exceptions at the language level, their implications in the compiler and runtime systems, how they should be delivered and, finally, how they are enabled by efficient architecture support.
Isolation, characterization, and synthesis of an immunoregulatory metabolite of niridazole: 1-thiocarbamoyl-2-imidazolidinone.

An immunoactive substance, called niridazole immunoregulatory factor (NIF), has been isolated in chromotographically pure form from the urine of patients treated with the antihelminthic drug, niridazole. The isolate was shown to be a single compound which displayed ultraviolet, infrared, proton magnetic resonance, and mass spectral properties consistent with the structure, 1-thiocarbamoyl-2-imidazolidinone, a previously unreported metabolite of niridazole. The structural assignment was confirmed by chemical synthesis of 1-thiocarbamoyl-2-imidazolidinone from 2-chloroethylisocyanate and thiourea. Both the isolated and the synthetic compounds had identical spectral characteristics and suppressed delayed contact hypersensitivity of mice to 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene at an optimal dose range of 10-10 to 10-11 g/kg.
Race, ethnicity, and osteoporosis

Ethnicity and race are important factors influencing the incidence of osteoporosis. Highest fracture rates are found among white women. Rates in black women are about 50% lower than white women with rates in Hispanic and Asian women generally about 25% lower than rates in white women. Gender differences in fractures rates are greatest among Whites. Areal bone mineral density (aBMD) is highest among black women and it is estimated that about one-third of the lower fracture rates in black women may be accounted for by their higher bone mineral density (BMD). aBMD is also higher in Hispanic women compared to white women. Asian and white women have similar aBMD but some data suggest that volumetric BMD and cortical thickness is greater in Asians than Whites, which may contribute to their lower fracture rates. Ethnic differences in hip geometry, such as, hip axis length, also contributes to differences in fracture rates. There is, however, consistency of risk factors for fracture across ethnicity including older age, lower aBMD, previous history of fracture, and history of two or more falls. In addition, women with the greatest number of risk factors have the highest risk of fracture irrespective of ethnicity. Across ethnic and racial groups, more women experience fractures than the combined number of women who experience invasive breast cancer, coronary heart disease, or stroke in 1 year. There is also evidence that outcomes of fracture differ by ethnicity. Despite lower hip fracture rates, black women are more likely to die after their hip fracture, have longer hospital stays, and are less likely to be ambulatory at hospital discharge. Ethnic and racial disparities exist in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of osteoporosis. Prevention efforts should target all women, especially, if they have multiple risk factors.
Dynamic modeling and simulation of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure device

High performance electric motor drive systems are used in the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. This paper proposes dynamic modeling and control of a CPAP device. Both electrical and mechanical components of the model are developed in this paper. a closed loop permanent magnet motor drive based on the Field Oriented Control (FOC) is implemented to provide the required pressure and flow to the patient in different breathing patterns. Extensive simulations are carried out to evaluate the electric motor drive system performance under different patient conditions.
Hybrid Energy Storage with Supercapacitor for Cost-Efficient Data Center Power Shaving and Capping

Recent studies have proposed to dynamically reshape the power demand curve of a data center (i.e., power shaving) with energy storage devices, particularly uninterruptible power supply (UPS) batteries. Power shaving can be used to limit the peak power demand in a data center, in order to reduce both the power infrastructure investment (i.e., cap-ex ) and the electricity bills (i.e., op-ex ). However, power shaving requires the UPS batteries to be frequently charged/discharged, which is known to compromise the battery lifetime and availability. This paper presents a detailed quantitative study that explores different options to integrate supercapacitor (SC) with batteries for cost-efficient energy storage. Compared with batteries, SC allows more charge/discharge cycles and has a higher power density, which are desirable for fast power shaving. However, SC also has undesirable characteristics (e.g., relatively high self-discharging rate and cost). Therefore, we quantitatively compare three possible energy storage options (i.e., Battery-only , SC-only , and Battery+SC ) in detail, with different SC self-discharging rate assumptions. SC options ( SC-only and Battery+SC ) are shown to be more cost-efficient designs, saving the energy storage cost by 34 percent, on average, compared with Battery-only . For a 10 MW data center in a 10-year period, the savings can be converted to $3 M in total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction by allowing more servers to be deployed. In addition, we also propose the integration of energy storage with dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) to cap the peak power demand (i.e., power capping). Specifically, we comparatively study four power capping algorithms and discuss their applicable scenarios. Finally, we introduce our proof-of-concept SC physical testbed and present preliminary hardware testing results.
Irreversible binding of tolmetin glucuronic acid esters to albumin in vitro.

Tolmetin glucuronide (TG), extracted and purified from human urine, was incubated with albumin in vitro. The degradation profile and irreversible binding to protein were investigated and kinetic parameters calculated. Standard conditions were as follows: TG, 30 µg/ml; human serum albumin (HSA), 3%; pH 7.45; 37°C. Lower pH enhanced TG stability and reduced both the extent and the rate of irreversible binding. HSA also increased TG stability, compared to protein-free buffer, but the opposite was observed with bovine serum albumin (BSA). With BSA, irreversible binding was much less, but the rate of adduct formation was the same as with HSA. Essentially fatty acid free HSA behaved similarly to HSA. Preincubation of HSA with warfarin, or diazepam, or an excess of tolmetin, did not influence irreversible binding significantly. In buffer, acyl migration led predominantly to one isomer. This isomer bound irreversibly to HSA, although more slowly and to a lesser extent than the β1-isomer. Incubation of TG with poly-L-lysine also resulted in irreversible binding but to a lesser extent than with HSA. Our results suggest that there is more than one binding mechanism, with the preferential pathway a function of the isomers present and the experimental conditions.
Donor CD4+ T Cells That Possess Both Allo- and Autoreactivity in Transplants Mediate Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease.

Abstract 3555 Poster Board III-492 Chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) is considered an autoimmune-like disease mediated by donor CD4+ T cells, but the role and origin of the autoreactive T cells remain controversial. Here, we report that, in a chronic GVHD model of MHC-matched DBA/2 (H-2d) donor to BALB/c (H-2d) host, donor spleen cells induced autoimmune-like chronic GVHD in thymectomized allogeneic BALB/c but not in syngeneic DBA/2 recipients. The spleen cells from the former but not the latter recipients induced autoimmune-like disease in the secondary DBA/2 recipients, indicating that autoreactive donor CD4+ T cells from transplants are expanded and contribute to chronic GVHD pathogenesis. In addition, we found that both auto- and alloreactive donor CD4+ T cells generated from primary chronic GVHD recipients via serial in vivo and in vitro expansion proliferated to donor and host DC stimulation and both induced autoimmune-like disease in syngeneic and allogeneic recipients. Furthermore, the clonal expansion and TCR spreading of the autoreactive T cells in chronic GVHD recipients were following the alloreactive T cells, as revealed by TCR-spectrum typing and skewing of TCR-CDR3 length; No dual TCR was expressed by the donor-type T cells with both allo- and autoreactivity; and the autoreactive hybridoma T clones proliferated to stimulation by both syngeneic and allogeneic DCs. Taken together, these results demonstrate that donor CD4+ T cells that possess both allo- and autoreactivity in transplants are expanded in recipients and contribute to chronic GVHD pathogenesis, and the allo- and autoreactivity of the donor T cells can be mediated by a single TCR. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Strain differences in CD8 T cell expansion revealed in vivo during LCMV infection and ex vivo by TCR stimulation (VIR6P.1176)

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection of C57BL6 (B6) mice induces dramatic virus-specific CD8 T cell expansion. Comparison of B6 and 129-Sve (129) mouse strain responses demonstrated that the magnitude of total LCMV-specific CD8 T cell expansion was much lower in the 129 mice. The difference occurred even though viral titers and proportions of CD8 T cells specific for the three immunodominant epitopes of LCMV were similar. A higher type 1 IFN response was associated with the enhanced expansion in the B6 mice, and the responding CD8 T cells in B6 as compared to 129 mice had elevated levels of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 4 but lower levels of the STAT1 molecule used to mediate inhibition of proliferation. The magnitude of the response was significantly diminished in B6 but not 129 mice genetically altered to block in IFN responsiveness, i.e. IFN receptor or STAT1 deficient, such that overall CD8 T cell expansion was now similar in both strains. Culture studies with purified cells demonstrated that in comparison to B6, 129 CD8 T cells had poor proliferative potential when stimulated through the TCR. Thus, intrinsic mechanisms linked to genetic differences regulate the magnitude of CD8 T cell proliferation. The data suggest that these differences have consequences for type 1 IFN requirements in shaping the magnitude of the response and overall immunity to viral infections. Supported by the National Institutes of Health, USA.
Practical implementation of Channelized Hotelling Observers: Effect of ROI size.

Fundamental to the development and application of channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) models is the selection of the region of interest (ROI) to evaluate. For assessment of medical imaging systems, reducing the ROI size can be advantageous. Smaller ROIs enable a greater concentration of interrogable objects in a single phantom image, thereby providing more information from a set of images and reducing the overall image acquisition burden. Additionally, smaller ROIs may promote better assessment of clinical patient images as different patient anatomies present different ROI constraints. To this end, we investigated the minimum ROI size that does not compromise the performance of the CHO model. In this study, we evaluated both simulated images and phantom CT images to identify the minimum ROI size that resulted in an accurate figure of merit (FOM) of the CHO’s performance. More specifically, the minimum ROI size was evaluated as a function of the following: number of channels, spatial frequency and number of rotations of the Gabor filters, size and contrast of the object, and magnitude of the image noise. Results demonstrate that a minimum ROI size exists below which the CHO’s performance is grossly inaccurate. The minimum ROI size is shown to increase with number of channels and be dictated by truncation of lower frequency filters. We developed a model to estimate the minimum ROI size as a parameterized function of the number of orientations and spatial frequencies of the Gabor filters, providing a guide for investigators to appropriately select parameters for model observer studies.
Promoting Seniors' Health With Home Care Aides: A Pilot.

Purpose Regular physical activity (PA) benefits older adults. However, frail older adults lack opportunities to be physically active. This pilot study aimed to test and enhance the feasibility of a PA program delivered by home care aides (HCAs) for community-dwelling older adults in a Medicaid-funded home care setting and to generate preliminary efficacy and cost data. Design and Methods HCAs were trained to deliver a brief motivational enhancement and three chair-bound movements to motivate their older clients to do PA daily and to help maintain their independence in the community. Mixed methods were used to evaluate clients' function and health before and after the 4-month intervention. Results Clients' daily activity function and health outcomes (physical fitness, self-rated health, pain interference, and fear of falling) improved significantly. The program was well-received by clients (N = 54) and their HCAs (N = 46) as indicated by high retention rates among client participants (93%) and remarks provided by clients. Implications Building PA into the everyday care of older adults and the routine work of HCAs is feasible. The intervention has the potential for further implementation and dissemination.
Automation-Culture-Environment Based Systems Analysis of Transplant Production

Regeneration of plant materials under controlled environment has been an important process for commercial production or research purposes. The end products, and therefore the production requirements, vary depending on the primary goal of the process. One form of the end product is a transplant for delivery from its regenerative environment to another maturation environment for further growth and development. Such a transplant production system includes hardware and software components which can be categorized as: automation, culture or environment (ACE). Automation deals with information processing and task execution, culture relates to plant growth and development, and environment encompasses surrounding conditions of plants. Systems analysis is a technique emphasizing the understanding of the objectives of a system as a whole, and facilitating the derivation of solutions to pertinent questions deemed critical to the achievement of these system objectives. While the knowledge about individual components within a system is of great importance, the interactions among components frequently determine the workability of the integrated system. Systems level study ensures the investigation and understanding of compatibility among components. This article presents the mechanism of systems analysis, describes the essence of ACE as applicable to transplant production, and proposes an approach to applying ACE based systems analysis to transplant production planning, design and operation.
Indigeneity, gender and class in decision-making about risks from resource extraction

Proposed copper-nickel mines in Northern Minnesota are an emblematic case of participatory environmental justice dynamics in contested decision-making processes around new risky forms and sites of ...
Percolation-based Network Adaptability Under Correlated Failures

Percolation theory has been studied to investigate network resilience by identifying a critical value of node occupation probability where a giant component (i.e., a largest component in a network) represents high network resilience. However, the concept of network resilience studied in percolation theory has been limited to measuring network fault-tolerance in the presence of failures/attacks. In this work, we take a step to extend the concept of network resilience beyond fault-tolerance by introducing network adaptability. We consider a tactical network where a node is executing multiple tasks by belonging to multiple task groups. In this type of tactical networks, a node is limited with its resource while aiming to maximize its resource utilization and task execution without being overloaded. We investigate network resilience and resource utilization of the tactical network where the network is attacked by either infectious or non-infectious attacks. To mitigate the impact of the failed/attacked nodes in the network, we propose a suite of the proposed adaptation strategies to deal with correlated, cascading failures caused by overloaded nodes due to increased workload introduced by other failed nodes. We conduct a comparative performance analysis of the set of proposed adaptation strategies and a baseline scheme with no adaptation based on metrics including a size of a giant component, node resource utilization, a number of active tasks in execution, and adaptation cost. Our simulation results show that a large size of a giant component does not necessarily ensure high resource utilization of nodes and task performance in the given tactical network.
Nano Satellite Propulsion using FEEP Thrusters

A Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP) system for nano-satellite propulsion is discussed. The feasibility of the technology is considered, taking into account both the nano-satellite and the FEEP thruster. In order to meet short-term nano-satellite applications, the emphasis is to understand performance capabilities of the total system in a LEO mission. This is achieved by considering the available technology, development and cost of launch for nano-satellite(s) as well as FEEP propulsion system requirements in order to meet those demands. FEEP propellant (Cesium and Rubidium) contamination is identified as one of the major problems with this propulsion system.
Clay Tobacco Pipes and Coffee Cup Sherds in the Archaeology of the Middle East: Artifacts of Social Tensions from the Ottoman Past

Nearly all discussion in historical archaeology exploring issues of consumption and commodities is focused on the Euro-American world. This paper contributes data from archaeological investigations in the Middle East for exploring modern consumption. Commodities of pleasure, such as tobacco and coffee, entered Middle Eastern social life after the fifteenth century and greatly impacted the cultural landscape of the Middle East, entangling the peoples of the region into larger socio-political arenas. Examples from provincial corners of the Ottoman Empire illustrate the potential of historical archaeology for uncovering the material self-definition of peoples in the Middle East and for breaking down perceived divisions between components of the modern world.
A Heuristic Method for Identifying Scam Ads on Craigslist

Craigslist is a popular online customer-to-customer marketplace, which has attracted millions of consumers for trading and purchasing secondhand items. Because of the high financial return that sellers could gain from using this site and the anonymity option that the website provides to its users, Craigslist is highly subject to fraudulent activities. The primary objective of this study is to detect scam ads on Craigslist. Based on the related literature and our observations of ads collected from the platform, we develop a heuristic method for identifying scam ads. We evaluate the proposed heuristics by conducting an experiment and performing additional data analyses using real data. The results provide preliminary evidence for efficacy of the heuristics developed in this study.
Modal Damping Estimation: An Alternative for Hilbert Spectral Analysis

This paper proposes a novel approach for modal damping estimation from system oscillatory responses. It is well-known that the signal frequency can be estimated accurately by using time-frequency distributions. Accordingly, a dual function is defined based on the signal to be analyzed, whose frequency is the damping of the original signal. As the next step, Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD) as the most prominent quadratic time-frequency distribution is applied for estimating the instantaneous frequency of the dual function which is equivalent to the damping factor of the original signal. The proposed method can be considered as a substitute for Hilbert Spectral Analysis (HSA). As will be seen, by rejecting the effect of fluctuations and noise on the mode amplitude, the proposed method provides an excellent estimate of damping. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated using simulations in the Kundur test power system as well as by using real phasor measurement unit (PMU) data from the western power interconnection.
“I Wish They Had Asked”: a Qualitative Study of Emotional Distress and Peer Support During Internship

Interns are vulnerable to emotional distress and burnout. Little is known about the extent to which interns’ well-being can be influenced by peer support provided by their senior residents. To elucidate contributors to interns’ emotional distress and ways that peer support from senior residents may impact intern well-being. Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews conducted December 2017–March 2018. Second year residents (n = 11) in internal medicine at a major academic medical center during the data collection period. Constructivist grounded theory approach in which transcripts were analyzed in an iterative fashion using constant comparison to identify themes and to create a conceptual model. The investigators identified three themes around emotional distress and two themes around resident peer support. Distress was a pervasive experience among participants, caused by a combination of contextual factors that decreased emotional resilience (e.g., sleep deprivation) and acute triggers (e.g., patient death) that led to an abrupt increase in distress. Participants grappled with identity reconciliation throughout internship. Reaching clinical competency reinforced self-efficacy for participants. With regard to peer support, participants recalled that resident support was ad hoc, primarily involving task support and debriefing traumatic events. Participants reflected that their intern experiences shaped their supervisory support style once they became senior residents; they did not perceive any formalized, systematic approach to supporting interns. We propose a model illustrating key points at which near-peers can make an impact in reducing interns’ distress and suggest strategies they can use. Given the substantial role peer learning plays in intern development, senior residents can impact their interns by normalizing emotions, allowing vulnerability, and highlighting the importance of self-care. A formalized peer support skill-building curriculum for senior residents may empower them to provide more effective support as part of their supervisory efforts.
Pharmacological Dilutional Therapy Using the Vasopressin Antagonist Tolvaptan for Young Patients With Cystinuria: A Pilot Investigation.

Abstract Objective To perform a pilot study of short-term safety, tolerability, and impact on urinary stone risk parameters of the vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist tolvaptan (which increases urinary excretion of free water) among adolescents and young adults with cystinuria. Materials and Methods We enrolled cystinuria patients age 12-25 years. Subjects were treated for 4 days at low-dose tolvaptan (0.3 mg/kg/day, maximum 30 mg) and 4 days at high dose (0.6 mg/kg/day, maximum 60 mg). Twenty-four-hour urine collections were done at baseline, day 3-4 of the dosing period, day 7-8 of the dosing period, and 3-6 days after washout. Primary outcome was cystine capacity (mg/L, target capacity > 0). Secondary outcomes included other urinary/serum parameters, tolerability, and thirst response. Results Two females (17, 23 years) and 2 males (13, 24 years) were enrolled. Cystine capacity respectively went from baseline of −312, −82, −353, and −628 mg/L to 97, 111, 75, and −3 mg/L on high dose (Figure 1). Twenty-four-hour volume went from 1.96, 3.0, 2.1, and 0.91 L to 11.74, 6.5, 9.9, and 2.8 L on high dose (Figure 2). There were no abnormalities in serum electrolytes or liver enzymes. Subjects did experience extreme thirst (9/10 on visual scale), but none discontinued treatment or reduced dose. Conclusion Dilutional therapy with tolvaptan increased both cystine capacity and urinary volumes. This treatment approach has the potential to reduce recurrence of stones in this population. Further investigation should study longer term effects and safety, and determine optimal dosing to improve tolerability.
Multiresolution Detection of Persistent Scatterers: A Performance Comparison Between Multilook GLRT and CAESAR

Persistent scatterers (PS) interferometry tools are extensively used for the monitoring of slow, long-term ground deformation. High spatial resolution is typically required in urban areas to cope with the variability of the signal, whereas in rural regions, multilook shall be implemented to improve the coverage of monitored areas. Along this line, SqueeSAR and later Component extrAction and sElection SAR (CAESAR) were introduced for the monitoring of both persistent and (decorrelating) distributed scatterers (DS). Multilook generalized likelihood ratio test (MGLRT) is a detector derived in the context of tomographic SAR processing that has been investigated for a fixed multilook degree. In this work, we address MGLRT and CAESAR in the multiresolution context characterized by a spatially variable multilook degree. We compare the two schemes for the multiresolution selection of PS and DS, highlighting the pros and cons of each scheme, particularly the peculiarities of CAESAR that have important implications at the implementation stage. A performance analysis of both detectors in case of model mismatch is also addressed. Experiments carried out with data acquired by the COSMO-SkyMed constellation support both the theoretical argumentation and the results achieved by resorting to Monte Carlo simulations.
Hardware-Accelerated Dual-Split Trees

Bounding volume hierarchies (BVH) are the most widely used acceleration structures for ray tracing due to their high construction and traversal performance. However, the bounding planes shared between parent and children bounding boxes is an inherent storage redundancy that limits further improvement in performance due to the memory cost of reading these redundant planes. Dual-split trees can create identical space partitioning as BVHs, but in a compact form using less memory by eliminating the redundancies of the BVH structure representation. This reduction in memory storage and data movement translates to faster ray traversal and better energy efficiency. Yet, the performance benefits of dual-split trees are undermined by the processing required to extract the necessary information from their compact representation. This involves bit manipulations and branching instructions which are inefficient in software. We introduce hardware acceleration for dual-split trees and show that the performance advantages over BVHs are emphasized in a hardware ray tracing context that can take advantage of such acceleration. We provide details on how the operations needed for decoding dual-split tree nodes can be implemented in hardware and present experiments in a number of scenes with different sizes using path tracing. In our experiments, we have observed up to 31% reduction in render time and 38% energy saving using dual-split trees as compared to binary BVHs representing identical space partitioning.
A Comparison of the Pathway Tools Software with the Reactome Software.

This document compares SRI's Pathway Tools (PTools) software with the Reactome software. Both software systems serve the pathway bioinformatics area, including representation and analysis of metabolic pathways and signaling pathways. The comparison covers pathway bioinformatics capabilities, but does not cover other major facets of Pathway Tools that are completely absent from the Reactome software: Pathway Tools genome-informatics capabilities, regulatory informatics capabilities, and table-based analysis tools (SmartTables). Our overall findings are as follows. (1) PTools is significantly ahead of Reactome in its basic information pages. For example, PTools pathway layout algorithms have been developed to an advanced state over several decades, whereas Reactome pathway layouts are illegible, omit important information, and are created manually and therefore cannot scale to thousands of genomes. (2) PTools is far ahead of Reactome in omics analysis. PTools includes all of the omics-analysis methods that Reactome provides, and includes multiple methods that Reactome lacks. (3) PTools contains a metabolic route search tool (searching for paths through the metabolic network), which Reactome lacks. (4) PTools is significantly ahead of Reactome in inference of metabolic pathways from genome information to create new metabolic databases. (5) PTools has an extensive complement of metabolic-modeling tools whereas Reactome has none. (6) PTools is more scalable than Reactome, handling 18,000 genomes versus 90 genomes for Reactome. (7) PTools has a larger user base than Reactome. PTools powers 17 websites versus two for Reactome. PTools has been licensed by 10,800 users (Reactome licensed user count is unknown).
Computational assessment of smooth and rough parameter dependence of statistics in chaotic dynamical systems

Abstract An assumption of smooth response to small parameter changes, of statistics or long-time averages of a chaotic system, is generally made in the field of sensitivity analysis, and the parametric derivatives of statistical quantities are critically used in science and engineering. In this paper, we propose a numerical procedure to assess the differentiability of statistics with respect to parameters in chaotic systems. We numerically show that the existence of the derivative depends on the Lebesgue-integrability of a certain density gradient function, which we define as the derivative of logarithmic SRB density along the unstable manifold. We develop a recursive formula for the density gradient that can be efficiently computed along trajectories, and demonstrate its use in determining the differentiability of statistics. Our numerical procedure is illustrated on low-dimensional chaotic systems whose statistics exhibit both smooth and rough regions in parameter space.
The Neuroscience Community Has a Role in Environmental Conservation.

We previously argued that the neuroscience community has a role in environmental conservation because protection of biodiversity and the specialized behavioral adaptions of animals is essential to understanding brain structure and function. Preserving biodiversity and the natural world is also linked to human mental health and broadens our insight on the origins of psychiatric disorders like stress, anxiety and depression. The study of neuroscience has become a global scientific pursuit that involves thousands of researchers and has an economic impact in the billions of dollars. As a group of biomedical research scientists, neuroscientists have the knowledge base and public credibility to convincingly promote sustainable environmental actions and policies. Here, we outline several key areas in which we as a neuroscience academic community can participate to preserve a rich global biodiversity and confront the environmental crises that lie before us. Significance Statement Biodiversity and the global environment are currently undergoing unprecedented threats stemming from climate change and other sources of environmental stress that are rapidly leading toward widespread habitat loss and species extinction. These events endanger not only plant and animal species, but human health and well-being. Environmental conservation limits habitat degradation that leads to disease from pollution, brain injury through neurotoxicity, and mental illness. Therefore, the neuroscience community has a direct stake in working for the protection and preservation of a rich global environmental biodiversity. By promoting sustainable actions, policies and approaches to biomedical research, neuroscientists can and should have a leadership role in developing strategies that will benefit the environment and human health.
Multicenter randomized comparative trial of Micromedex, Micromedex with Watson, or Google to answer drug information questions.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare pharmacy students’ ability to correctly answer drug information questions using Micromedex with Watson, Micromedex without Watson, or Google. Methods: This multicenter randomized trial compared pharmacy student responses to drug information questions using Micromedex with Watson, Micromedex without Watson, or Google from January to March of 2020. First- to fourth-year pharmacy students at two institutions were included. The primary outcome was the number of correct answers. Secondary outcomes were the time taken to answer the questions and differences in number of correct answers by pharmacy student year and institution. Results: The analysis included 162 participants: 52 students in the Micromedex group, 51 students in the Watson group, and 59 students in the Google group. There was a significant difference among groups in the total number of questions answered correctly (p=0.02). Post-hoc analysis revealed that participants in the Micromedex group answered more questions correctly than those in the Google group (p=0.015). There were no significant differences between Micromedex and Watson groups (p=0.52) or between Watson and Google groups (p=0.22). There was also no difference in time to complete the questions among groups (p=0.72). Conclusion: Utilizing Google did not save students time and led to more incorrect answers. These findings suggest that health care educators and health sciences librarians should further reinforce training on the appropriate use of drug information resources.
Should Hemoglobin A1C Be Routinely Measured in Patients with CKD

In the study by Trivin et al. ([1][1]) in this issue of CJASN , hemoglobin A1C is explored as a novel risk factor for two important adverse outcomes—death and ESRD—among patients without diabetes and with CKD. Specifically, Trivin et al. ([1][1]) examined the association between hemoglobin A1C
Effect of US Policies on Offshore Oil Leasing, 1983-2006: A Random Parameter Logit Regression Analysis

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of Minerals Management Service policy on Outer Continental Shelf leasing between 1983 and 2006. We apply a discrete choice model to a large, recently-developed spatial data set and focus on the effect of increased royalties on offshore production. We focus on offshore policies subsequent to 1983 with a flexible Random Parameters Logit model. Oil prices, net income, distance, geographical proxies and weather variables influence bidding in expected ways. We include the second moment of parameter distributions to avoid erroneous conclusions about the effects of government policy on bidding. Key Words: Random Parameter Logit, Oil Policy, Outer Continental Shelf