cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Supporting Computer Science Curriculum: Exploring and Learning Linked Lists with iList

We developed two versions of a system, called iList, that helps students learn linked lists, an important topic in computer science curricula. The two versions of iList differ on the level of feedback they can provide to the students, specifically in the explanation of syntax and execution errors. The system has been fielded in multiple classrooms in two institutions. Our results indicate that iList is effective, is considered interesting and useful by the students, and its performance is getting closer to the performance of human tutors. Moreover, the system is being developed in the context of a study of human tutoring, which is guiding the evolution of iList with empirical evidence of effective tutoring.
Correlation of toxicity with the air-solution adsorption properties of Pahutoxin

Abstract Surface tension measurements on Pahutoxin and β-acetoxycholine myristate, a synthetic toxin closely related to Pahutoxin, are reported. Molly kill-time is correlated with the air-solution surface pressure and toxin surface excess.
The application of laser process technology to thin film packaging

Laser process technologies have been developed which are well suited to the manufacture of thin-film electronic packages. The authors discuss three technologies-laser ablation, laser-assisted metal etching, and laser chemical vapor deposition-and how they may be used in polymer and metal patterning. The history of the technologies, process and tooling considerations, and specific applications are presented. >
Staleness vs. waiting time in universal discrete broadcast

In this paper we study the distribution of dynamic data over a broadcast channel to a large number of passive clients. The data is simultaneously distributed to clients in the form of discrete packets, each packet captures the most recent state of the information source. Clients obtain the information by accessing the channel and listening for the next available packet. This scenario, referred to as discrete broadcast, has many practical applications such as the distribution of stock information to wireless mobile devices and downloading up-to-date battle information in military networks. Our goal is minimize the amount of time a client has to wait in order to obtain a new data packet, i.e., the waiting time of the client. We show that we can significantly reduce the waiting time by adding redundancy to the schedule. We identify universal schedules that guarantee low waiting time for any client, regardless of the access pattern. A key point in the design of data distribution systems is to ensure that the transmitted information is always up-to-date. Accordingly, we introduce the notion of staleness that captures the amount of time that passes from the moment the information is generated, until it is delivered to the client. We investigate the fundamental trade-off between the staleness and the waiting time. In particular, we present schedules that yield lowest possible waiting time for any given staleness constraint
PTEN Regulates Mdm2 Expression through the P1 Promoter

MDM2 is an oncoprotein that controls tumorigenesis through both p53-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Mdm2 mRNA level is transcriptionally regulated by p53 in response to stress such as DNA damage, and its protein level and subcellular localization are post-translationally modulated by the AKT serine/threonine kinase. Previous studies showed that PTEN, a dual specificity phosphatase that antagonizes phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT signaling, is capable of blocking MDM2 nuclear translocation and destabilizing the MDM2 protein. Results from our current study demonstrate an additional role for PTEN in regulating MDM2 functions; PTEN modulates Mdm2 transcription and isoform selection by negatively regulating its P1 promoter. In Pten-null cell lines and prostate cancer tissues, Mdm2 P1 promoter activity is up-regulated, resulting in increased L-Mdm2 expression and enhanced p90(MDM2) isoform production. Furthermore, PTEN controls Mdm2 P1 promoter activity through its lipid phosphatase activity, independent of p53. Thus, our results provide a novel mechanism for PTEN in controlling MDM2 oncoprotein functions.
Impaired mitochondrial trafficking in Huntington's disease

Impaired mitochondrial function has been well documented in Huntington's disease. Mutant huntingtin is found to affect mitochondria via various mechanisms including the dysregulation of gene transcription and impairment of mitochondrial function or trafficking. The lengthy and highly branched neuronal processes constitute complex neural networks in which there is a large demand for mitochondria-generated energy. Thus, the impaired mitochondrial trafficking in neuronal cells may play an important role in the selective neuropathology of Huntington's disease. Here we discuss the evidence for the effect of the Huntington's disease protein huntingtin on the intracellular trafficking of mitochondria and the involvement of this defective trafficking in the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease.
Public Health in U.S. and West African Cities, 1870–1900

(1994). Public Health in U.S. and West African Cities, 1870–1900. The Historian: Vol. 56, No. 4, pp. 685-698.
Understanding Mars's Past Fluvial Geomorphology through Comparative Planetology

There is no question that in the distant past, Mars was a planet teeming with liquid water, and the planet may have been hospitable enough to support life. The evidence of this past water is written all over Mars's dusty surface. The geomorphological features signal past fluvial activity. Using comparative planetology, such features can be compared to similar phenomena on Earth in order to draw conclusions regarding Mars' fluvial past and future.
The Toxicity of Torture: The Cultural Structure of US Political Discourse of Waterboarding

Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 21 hearings held by the US Congress in 2007 and 2008, this manuscript examines the discursive work that proponents and opponents of waterboarding used to maintain and challenge the legitimacy of the practice. The juxtaposition reveals that US political discourse of waterboarding orients to a long-standing cultural coding of torture as antithetical to liberal democracy. Specifically, I show that proponents defend waterboarding by narrating its use within a sequence of instrumentally rational actions that begins with the capture of a terrorist, involves the unsuccessful use of traditional interrogation techniques followed by waterboarding, and concludes with the collection of intelligence that frustrates terroristic activities. In this sequence, waterboarding appears to be a last resort in the pursuit of a legitimate state goal. Opponents of waterboarding, conversely, emphasize the practice’s illiberal qualities, arguing that waterboarding produces compliant detainees who will say anything to end their torture. Opponents also describe the physical horrors associated with torture and compare waterboarding to practices employed by notorious illiberal regimes. I demonstrate that these opposing depictions of waterboarding derive their resonance from a single cultural code that legitimates instrumentally rational expressions of state violence and abhors ferocious, repressive forms. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the study of torture, state violence, and human rights.
Human Capital Productivity: A New Concept for Productivity Analysis

The concept of human capital, defined as the discounted value of future earnings, has a long history in economics. But human capital has never been directly linked to productivity. This article makes an attempt to bring the concepts of human capital and labour productivity together by introducing a new term, human capital productivity, which is defined as the ratio between an index of discounted future output and an index of human capital. While still in its very early stages of conceptual development and without empirical estimates, the concept of human capital productivity may contribute significantly to our understanding of the role human capital plays in potential output growth.
Demonstrations of transient conduction heat flux phenomena for the engineering laboratory

The main objective of this paper is to present two different experiments that have been developed to successfully demonstrate transient heat conduction phenomena. The first experiment illustrates the approximate measurement of transient local heat flux within a solid wall subjected to a surface quench. It utilizes a unique type of conduction apparatus that has been under development in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Kansas State University (KSU), which overcomes many of the difficulties normally associated with laboratory demonstrations of steady-state and transient heat conduction. The second experiment involves a moving laser heat source used in a metal cutting operation. Measurements of the transient temperature history resulting from the moving laser heat source are compared directly with predictions from conduction theory. The unique industrial manufacturing facilities available on the campus of KSU make possible the practical engineering laboratory demonstration of this important process. Each experiment offers features not normally available from commercial heat transfer apparatus.
Transform Coding for Hardware-accelerated Volume Rendering

Hardware-accelerated volume rendering using the GPU is now the standard approach for real-time volume rendering, although limited graphics memory can present a problem when rendering large volume data sets. Volumetric compression in which the decompression is coupled to rendering has been shown to be an effective solution to this problem; however, most existing techniques were developed in the context of software volume rendering, and all but the simplest approaches are prohibitive in a real-time hardware-accelerated volume rendering context. In this paper we present a novel block-based transform coding scheme designed specifically with real-time volume rendering in mind, such that the decompression is fast without sacrificing compression quality. This is made possible by consolidating the inverse transform with dequantization in such a way as to allow most of the reprojection to be precomputed. Furthermore, we take advantage of the freedom afforded by offline compression in order to optimize the encoding as much as possible while hiding this complexity from the decoder. In this context we develop a new block classification scheme which allows us to preserve perceptually important features in the compression. The result of this work is an asymmetric transform coding scheme that allows very large volumes to be compressed and then decompressed in real-time while rendering on the GPU.
Computing long- and short-range interactions with ring-based algorithms on homogeneous and heterogeneous systems

We analyze a ring algorithm for the computation of long-range interactions, and a modified version, which uses a box-assisted approach with linked lists, for the computation of short-range interactions. The general problem is exemplified considering the computation and the histogram of distances between points in a set. The algorithms, originally developed for homogeneous parallel systems, where they yield a nearly linear speed-up, are moved to heterogeneous systems (e.g. NOW). The main part of our work analyzes performance obtainable on such systems using a virtual ring of processes and assigning to each node a number of processes proportional to its relative speed. Following our analysis, we implemented a computer simulator which allows to investigate some interesting properties of ring algorithms and to predict with a good accuracy the experimental results. Simulations and trials show that the use of multiple processes per node greatly reduces load unbalancing, which is the major cause of performance loss, without a significant context switching overhead, allowing good performance even on highly heterogeneous systems. The short-range interaction problem is interesting, since by varying the neighbour size we are able to vary the computation to communication ratio of the algorithms The proposed analysis is general and applies to any regular data-parallel ring-based application.
Automated region selection for analysis of dynamic cardiac SPECT data

Dynamic cardiac SPECT using Tc-99m labeled teboroxime can provide kinetic parameters (washin, washout) indicative of myocardial blood flow. A time-consuming and subjective step of the data analysis is drawing regions of interest to delineate blood pool and myocardial tissue regions. The time-activity curves of the regions are then used to estimate local kinetic parameters. In this work, the appropriate regions are found automatically, in a manner similar to that used for calculating maximum count circumferential profiles in conventional static cardiac studies. The drawbacks to applying standard static circumferential profile methods are the high noise level and high liver uptake common in dynamic teboroxime studies. Searching along each ray for maxima to locate the myocardium does not typically provide useful information. Here we propose an iterative scheme in which constraints are imposed on the radii searched along each ray. The constraints are based on the shape of the time-activity curves of the circumferential profile members and on an assumption that the short axis slices are approximately circular. The constraints eliminate outliers and help to reduce the effects of noise and liver activity. Kinetic parameter estimates from the automatically generated regions were comparable to estimates from manually selected regions in dynamic canine teboroxime studies.
THE EVOLUTION OF A STRUCTURED RELATIVISTIC JET AND GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOW LIGHT CURVES

We carry out a numerical hydrodynamical modeling for the evolution of a relativistic collimated outflow as it interacts with the surrounding medium and calculate the light curve resulting from synchrotron emission of the shocked fluid. The hydrodynamic equations are reduced to one-dimensional by assuming axial symmetry and integrating over the radial profile of the flow, thus considerably reducing the computation time. We present results for a number of different initial jet structures, including several different power laws and a Gaussian profile for the dependence of the energy per unit solid angle, � , and the Lorentz factor, C, on the angle from the jet symmetry axis. Our choice of parameters for the various calculations is motivated by the current knowledge of relativistic outflows from gamma-ray bursts and the observed afterglow light curves. Comparison of the light curves for different jet profiles with gamma-ray burst afterglow observations provides constraints on the jet structure. One of the main results we find is that the transverse fluid velocity in the comoving frame (vt) and the speed of sideways expansion for smooth jet profiles is typically much smaller than the speed of sound (cs) throughout much of the evolution of the jet; vt approaches cs when C along the
We be jammin': an update on pectin biosynthesis, trafficking and dynamics

Pectins are complex polysaccharides that contain acidic sugars and are major determinants of the cohesion, adhesion, extensibility, porosity and electrostatic potential of plant cell walls. Recent evidence has solidified their positions as key regulators of cellular growth and tissue morphogenesis, although important details of how they achieve this regulation are still missing. Pectins are also hypothesized to function as ligands for wall integrity sensors that enable plant cells to respond to intrinsic defects in wall biomechanics and to wall degradation by attacking pathogens. This update highlights recent advances in our understanding of the biosynthesis of pectins, how they are delivered to the cell surface and become incorporated into the cell wall matrix and how pectins are modified over time in the apoplast. It also poses unanswered questions for further research into this enigmatic but essential class of carbohydrate polymers.
A PILOT STUDY TO MEASURE THE CARING EFFICACY of Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Abstract Caring in professional nursing, often described as the essence of nursing, has gained increasing attention over the past several decades. Many programs claim to be based on a caring philosophy and practice. Despite the expectation that graduates of nursing programs will develop relationships with their patients and practice within a caring framework, evaluation of caring competencies is not well developed. The purpose of this pilot study was to measure the self-reported caring competency of baccalaureate nursing students using the Coates Caring Efficacy Scale (CES) (1). Students from prenursing courses to final semester seniors completed the CES (N = 193). Mean scores in this cross-section of students were higher than those reported by Coates for novice student nurses, but slightly lower than those Coates reported for comparable baccalaureate seniors. Final semester seniors identified their families as making the greatest contribution to their development of caring; only a few reported the influe...
Feminist Legal Theory

Feminism is not anchored in any one discipline. IT presents a theory of gender and challenges the assertions and assumptions of gender-neutrality and objectivity in received disciplinary knowledge. Because gender is theoretically relevant to almost all human endeavors, it is also relevant to almost all disciplines.This paper discusses some of the diverging viewpoints of feminism in approaching the study and critique of the law. Part I highlights the schism in feminism surrounding gender difference. Some feminists viewed acknowledging gender difference as essential to confront facially neutral rules that could nonetheless generate inequalities. Others feared that highlighting gender difference could be counterproductive, and thus focused on gender neutrality to combat discrimination.Part II discusses the divergent ways in which feminism engages the public/private dichotomy, particularly in relation to dependency.
Online Discussions Across Three Universities: Student Participation and Pedagogy

From PowerPoint presentations to web-based quizzes to entire classes taught online, technological changes have had a strong influence on pedagogical practices. The initial research into the pedagogical effectiveness of these emerging technologies suggests there are many ways in which they might be useful (Boschmann 1995; Hiltz 1994; Palloff and Pratt 2001). In this paper, we examine student participation on a structured online discussion group that spanned three universities and address two research questions: what explains student participation in online discussion groups and how effective are these groups as pedagogical tools? To address these topics, we draw upon our use of online discussions as a class assignment during the fall semester of 2000. First, we examine previous research and generate several expectations about student behavior and attitudes.
The Robertson River Igneous Suite (Blue Ridge Province, Virginia) — Late Proterozoic anorogenic (A-type) granitoids of unique petrochemical affinity

Detailed field mapping and petrochemical analysis indicate that the previously defined Robertson River Formation encompasses a suite of A-type granitoids and felsites that intruded Middle Proterozoic gneisses in the core of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium in northern Virginia. Constituent granitoids in the northern portion of the suite include the herein named (from oldest to youngest): Laurel Mills Granite (LMG), Cobbler Mountain Alkali Feldspar Quartz Syenite (CMAS), Amissville Alkali Feldspar Granite (AAG), and Battle Mountain Complex (BMC). The Robertson River Igneous Suite includes both subsolvus (LMG) and hyper-solvus assemblages, ranges from predominantly metaluminous (LMG, CMAS) to peralkaline (AAG, BMC) in composition, and displays mineralogic and bulk chemical affinities to A-type granites described from other localities. The suite exhibits a broad range in Ga/Al, Nb, Y, Zr, and Zn that corresponds closely to published values for the Younger Granites of Nigeria, which have been shown to represent anorogenic magmatic activity related to extensional tectonics. The extreme enrichment in Ga, Zr, Nb, and Zn in both suites is probably indicative of a petrologic history involving extensive F complexing, consistent with the presence of abundant fluorite and F-bearing amphiboles. Marked depletion in Sr and variable Rb/Sr ratios suggest extensive plagioclase fractionation, which is consistent with the presence of this mineral as a liquidus phase in the earliest intrusive unit of the suite. Although the generation of A-type melts does not necessarily indicate an anorogenic or rifting tectonic environment, the unique geochemical characteristics and marked similarity to the demonstrably anorogenic Younger Granites of Nigeria are consistent with the interpretation that the Robertson River Igneous Suite records an extensive period of anorogenic magmatism associated with the early phase of Late Proterozoic rifting of Laurentia.
Spinal (saddle block) anesthesia in obstetrics

Abstract A series of 719 consecutive cases of spinal (saddle block) anesthesia in labor and delivery have been analyzed and the results presented in detail. The procedure has been found to be safe, simple and precise; and the degree of success has been high. The rate of operative interference in delivery was not significantly increased. Complications attributable to the anesthetic procedure have not been a problem. The benefits to the fetus in early spontaneous respiration have been striking. There has been no increase in the fetal or maternal morbidity or mortality.
Chapter 7 – Finding Common Ground: The APT Model of Creativity and Metatheoretical Approaches to Understanding Creativity

Although creativity is largely domain specific, it makes sense to include both domain-general and domain-specific elements in a composite theory of creativity that encompasses all domains. Even the most domain-general theories of creativity today acknowledge the importance of domain-specific elements – domain specificity is now a mainstream part of creativity theory – but these theories generally do so without stipulating how these different elements, with varying degrees of domain specificity, interact. A more useful theory needs to show how domain-general and domain-specific factors can together influence creativity in specific domains and the kinds of overlaps can be expected between creative performance in different domains. One such theory is the APT model that James Kaufman and I proposed. The APT model is a hierarchical model that considers multiple levels of domain specificity together with some more domain-general factors and explains how those factors from different levels interact.
Effects of Experimental Income on Demand for Potentially Real Cigarettes

Introduction Cigarette demand, or the change in cigarette consumption as a function of price, is a measure of reinforcement that is associated with level of tobacco dependence and other clinically relevant measures, but the effects of experimentally controlled income on real-world cigarette consumption have not been examined. Methods In this study, income available for cigarette purchases was manipulated to assess the effect on cigarette demand. Tobacco-dependent cigarette smokers (n = 15) who smoked 10-40 cigarettes per day completed a series of cigarette purchasing tasks under a variety of income conditions meant to mimic different weekly cigarette budgets: $280, approximately $127, $70, or approximately $32 per week. Prices of $0.12, $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00 per cigarette were assessed in each income condition. Participants were instructed to purchase as many cigarettes as they would like for the next week and to only consume cigarettes purchased in the context of the study. One price in 1 income condition was randomly chosen to be "real," and the cigarettes and the excess money in the budget for that condition were given to the participant. Results Results indicate that demand elasticity was negatively correlated with income. Demand intensity (consumption at low prices) was unrelated to income condition and remained high across incomes. Conclusions These results indicate that the amount of income that is available for cigarette purchases has a large effect on cigarette consumption, but only at high prices.
Analysis of Glycated Peptides by Neutral-loss-triggered CID MS~3 Spectrometry

Identification of the glycated sites in proteins plays an important role in the field of protein glycation. In the present study, we have established a CID neutral-loss-triggered MS 3 method to analyze the glycated sites in proteins. ESI-CID-MS was used to stimulate multi-site cleavage in glycated Amadori peptides. MS 3 scans triggered by neutral losses of 3H 2 O and 3H 2 O + HCHO produced similar results in terms of glycated peptide identification. However, neutral loss of 3H 2 O resulted in more accurate glycated peptide identification in multi-stage activation experiments. The results showed that the K227 was more easily glycated by D-glucose when compared with the K229 in ovalbumin under dry heating conditions. Overall, the multi-stage activation approach could identify the glycation site in peptides with one glycosylation site.
Phylogenetic diversity reveals hidden patterns related to population source and species pools during restoration

Summary A phylogenetic perspective of community assembly can reveal new insights into how variation within dominant species interacts with the local species pool to influence the structure of restored plant communities. Many studies have examined the effect of dominant species in structuring plant communities, but few have investigated their effect on phylogenetic diversity (PD). We established grassland in a post-agricultural field using two population sources (cultivars and local ecotypes) of three dominant grasses (Sorghastrum nutans, Andropogon gerardii and Schizachyrium scoparium) with three unique pools of subordinate species that varied in PD but not taxonomic or life-form diversity. We tested the effect of the population source treatment on two metrics of community PD (net relatedness index [NRI] and nearest taxon index [NTI]) during the first 4 years of restoration. The NRI measures the overall pairwise phylogenetic distance between all pairs of taxa in a community. By contrast, NTI measures the pairwise distance between closely related taxa in a community. Population sources had a transitory effect on community phylogenetic structure over time. Local ecotypes decreased the abundance of closely related eudicots, monocots (low +NRI and +NTI values) and volunteer species (−NTI) more than cultivars. However, population sources did not affect ecologically conservative species (i.e. species with intermediate-to-poor ecological tolerance and a high degree of fidelity to prairie habitats). Thus, cultivars might have a positive effect on community phylogenetic diversity more than local ecotypes by decreasing the abundance of a phylogenetically diverse community of less closely related volunteer species. Differences in PD of seed mixes were maintained in the community of high-fidelity species, but did not affect PD of the unsown (volunteer) species in the assembling community. Synthesis and applications. This is the first experiment to show consequences of using different seed sources on phylogenetic diversity (PD) in grassland restoration. Phylogenetics can reveal the effects of population sources on the abundance of volunteer species not evident through traditional analyses of species diversity. The PD of seed mixes or establishing communities, or other assessments of phylogenetic relationships, by restoration practitioners is recommended as a metric to allow consequences of the evolutionary patterns among species to be included in conservation planning. Increased accessibility of phylogenetic tools will allow the application of PD in restoration monitoring.
Separation of Cell Populations Synchronized in Cell Cycle Phase by Centrifugal Elutriation

Publisher Summary This chapter describes techniques for separating cell populations synchronized in cell cycle phase by centrifugal elutriation. Centrifugal elutriation imposes two opposing forces on mixed cell populations to facilitate their fractionation into subpopulations. Compared to other methods of separation, such as fluorescence-activated cell sorting or unit gravity separation, centrifugal elutriation is by far the most gentle and the most rapid in manipulation and separation of the cell populations. Both means of analysis demonstrated that sequential fractions of elutriated cells represent sequential cell cycle phases as determined by the analysis of cell volume, DNA content, and ability to incorporate thymidine during five sequential 1-h periods following return to culture. Growth medium and elutriation medium are used per standard protocols for the growth of HeLa cells. If different cell lines are to be elutriated, appropriate media should be substituted. Place the lower washer and spring on top of the rotor followed by the outer ring and rotating seal. Note that the screw threads on the top assembly are reversed. Lightly tighten the top and check that the outer ring spins freely.
Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers, Revised and Expanded

Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers, Second Edition discusses the essential principles, operating characteristics, and current technology of the main fiber laser and amplifier devices based on rare-earth-doped silica and fluorozirconate fibers. Covering all aspects of this revolutionary technology, the book reviews fiber fabrication methods and the basic spectroscopic properties of rare-earth ions in glasses, concentrates on the most important fiber laser sources, examines several advances in fiber amplifiers, and analyzes new findings and improvements in single-frequency operation, frequency tenability, broadband fiber sources, and blue-green and far-infrared fiber lasers.
Upscaling tower-observed turbulent exchange at fine spatio-temporal resolution using environmental response functions

Abstract Eddy-covariance measurements are widely used to develop and test parameterizations of land-atmosphere interactions in earth system models. However, a fundamental challenge for model-data comparisons lies in the scale mismatch between the eddy-covariance observations with small (10−1–101 km2) and temporally varying flux footprint, and the continuous regional-scale (102–104 km2) gridded predictions made in simulations. Here, a new approach was developed to project turbulent flux maps at regional scale and hourly temporal resolution using environmental response functions (ERFs). This is based on an approach employed in airborne flux observations, and relates turbulent flux observations to meteorological forcings and surface properties across the flux footprint. In this study, the fluxes of sensible heat, latent heat and CO2 integrated over a 20 × 20 km2 target domain differed substantially from the tower observations in their expected value (+27%, −9%, and −17%) and spatio-temporal variation (−22%, −21%, and −3%, repsectively) ERF systematic uncertainties are bound within −11%, −1.5% and +16%, respectively, indicating that tower location bias might be even more pronounced for heat and CO2 fluxes than currently detectable. The ERF-projected fluxes showed general agreement with independent observations at a nearby tower location. Lastly, advantages and limitations of ERF compared to other scaling approaches are discussed, and pathways for improving model-data synthesis utilizing the ERF scaling method are pointed out.
Assessing Reproducibility in Faunal Analysis Using Blind Tests: A case Study From Northwestern North America

Abstract Zooarchaeologists have long recognized that assigning taxonomic identifications to animal remains is a subjective process, and recent studies have highlighted the need for data quality assurance standards in archaeofaunal research. Our study contributes to this growing interest in quality assurance by presenting simple quantitative methods for assessing the reproducibility of analytic results through blind reanalysis of animal remains that we developed during analysis of fishbone from Cḯxwicən, a large Native American village on the coast of Washington State, U.S.A. Given the large scale of the Cḯxwicən project – over 112,000 fish remains were documented by five different analysts over three years – there was a real possibility that inconsistencies in laboratory practices affected analytic results (e.g., number of identified specimens, taxa present and relative abundance, elements identified, burning frequencies). To evaluate the reproducibility of the Cḯxwicən fishbone data, and the possibility of “protocol drift” – changes in how specimens and bone modifications were identified over the course of analysis – we reanalyzed samples of fish remains that were previously documented during three discrete stages (beginning, middle, and end) of the Cḯxwicən project. The original data and the reanalysis results show close agreement in each stage, with only minor differences in the numbers of recorded specimens, taxonomic representation at family- and finer taxonomic levels, and body part representation assessed for a single taxonomic order. Identifying burning on bone was not very reproducible. Reproducibility studies such as this are useful for highlighting ambiguous identification criteria (e.g., in taxonomic assignment, bone modification), and could stimulate dialog among researchers about ways to address such issues in future studies. Increasing the implementation of these, and other, widely applicable methods should improve zooarchaeological data quality and stimulate further research on quality assurance in archaeology overall.
Highly-scalable, low-crosstalk architecture for ring-based optical space switch fabrics

A ring-based switch architecture that combines the Clos network with populated switch-and-select stages is proposed, achieving significantly reduced crosstalk compared to other non-blocking architectures. Detailed physical-layer simulation results show a 128×128 switch exhibits a power penalty of 18dB, improving >10dB compared to the Benes switch.
Ordered Ramsey theory and track representations of graphs

We introduce an ordered version of Ramsey numbers for hypergraphs using linearly ordered vertex sets. In this model, we obtain bounds on the ordered Ramsey numbers of the k-uniform hypergraph whose edge set consists of the sets of k consecutive vertices in the linear order on the vertex set. The upper and lower bounds are towers of the same height. We apply these bounds to study the minimum number of interval graphs whose union is the line graph of the n-vertex complete graph, proving the conjecture of Heldt, Knauer, and Ueckerdt that this number grows with n. In fact, the growth rate is between Ω( log logn log log logn) and O(log log n).
Can Traditional Ethical Theory Meet the Challenges of Feminism, Multiculturalism, and Environmentalism?

This paper aims to evaluate thechallenges posed to traditional ethical theoryby the ethics of feminism, multiculturalism,and environmentalism. I argue that JamesSterba, in his Three Challenges to Ethics,provides a distorted assessment by trying toassimilate feminism, multiculturalism, andenvironmentalism into traditional utilitarian,virtue, and Kantian/Rawlsian ethics – which hethus seeks to rescue from their alleged``biases.'' In the cases of feminism andmulticulturalism, I provide an alternativeaccount on which these new critical discourseschallenge the whole paradigm or conception ofethical inquiry embodied in the tradition.They embrace different questions, goals, toolsof analysis, and wider audiences, typicallyignored or marginalized by traditionalethicists.I illustrate my argument through briefinterpretations of writers such as Susan Okin,Catharine Mackinnon, Sandra Bartky, JohnStoltenberg, Richard Wasserstrom, AnthonyAppiah, Charles Mills, Will Kymlicka, CharlesTaylor, and Martha Nussbaum. In many of thesecases, I suggest that they provide us with newways of being ethicists.In the case of environmentalism, I defend amore conservative and negative assessment.Sterba embraces authors such as Peter Singer,Tom Regan, and Paul Taylor in order to advancean environmentalist ethic of ``speciesequality/impartiality'' and ``biocentricpluralism.'' Here I argue that the traditionalKantian/Rawlsian ethics – which Sterba hopesto accommodate – actually provides compellingmoral reasons for rejecting his principles of``species impartiality'' and biocentricpluralism. Moreover, Rawlsian ethics canprovide a more coherent, consistent, andplausible account of environmental issues thanSterba's brand of environmental ethics. Iargue that in practice, his ethics concedeswhat it denies in theory – namely, the specialvalue which inheres in human beings.As such, environmental ethics, unlike feminismand multiculturalism, poses very little in theway of a credible challenge or alternative totraditional ethics.
Relaxation of the Cosmological Constant

We present a classical field theory which has a long epoch resembling the Friedmann universe despite the presence of a large negative cosmological constant. In its most plausible realization the model involves a massive third-rank antisymmetric-tensor gauge field. To be consistent with standard cosmology the mass must be extremely small and the only reasonable mechanism for generating it is a semiclassical tunneling effect.
Effects of Protein Supplementation on Performance and Recovery in Resistance and Endurance Training

There is robust evidence which shows that consuming protein pre- and/or post-workout induces a significant rise in muscle protein synthesis. It should be noted, however, that total daily caloric and protein intake over the long term play the most crucial dietary roles in facilitating adaptations to exercise. However, once these factors are accounted for, it appears that peri-exercise protein intake, particularly in the post-training period, plays a potentially useful role in terms of optimizing physical performance and positively influencing the subsequent recovery processes for both resistance training and endurance exercise. Factors that affect the utility of pre- or post-workout feeding include but are not necessarily limited to: training status (e.g., novice vs. advanced, or recreational vs. competitive athlete), duration of exercise, the number of training sessions per day, the number of competitive events per day, etc. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, consuming protein post-workout represents an opportunity to feed; this in turn contributes to one's total daily energy and protein intake. Furthermore, despite recent suggestions that one does not "need" to consume protein during the immediate (1 h or less) post-training time frame, it should be emphasized that consuming nothing offers no advantage and perhaps even a disadvantage. Thus, based on performance and recovery effects, it appears that the prudent approach would be to have athletes consume protein post-training and post-competition.
A functional proteomics platform to reveal the sequence determinants of lysine methyltransferase substrate selectivity

Lysine methylation is a key regulator of histone protein function. Beyond histones, few connections have been made to the enzymes responsible for the deposition of these posttranslational modifications. Here, we debut a high-throughput functional proteomics platform that maps the sequence determinants of lysine methyltransferase (KMT) substrate selectivity without a priori knowledge of a substrate or target proteome. We demonstrate the predictive power of this approach for identifying KMT substrates, generating scaffolds for inhibitor design, and predicting the impact of missense mutations on lysine methylation signaling. By comparing KMT selectivity profiles to available lysine methylome datasets, we reveal a disconnect between preferred KMT substrates and the ability to detect these motifs using standard mass spectrometry pipelines. Collectively, our studies validate the use of this platform for guiding the study of lysine methylation signaling and suggest that substantial gaps exist in proteome-wide curation of lysine methylomes.
An integrative model for in-silico clinical-genomics discovery science.

Human Genome discovery research has set the pace for Post-Genomic Discovery Research. While post-genomic fields focused at the molecular level are intensively pursued, little effort is being deployed in the later stages of molecular medicine discovery research, such as clinical-genomics. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the relevance and significance of integrating mainstream clinical informatics decision support systems to current bioinformatics genomic discovery science. This paper is a feasibility study of an original model enabling novel "in-silico" clinical-genomic discovery science and that demonstrates its feasibility. This model is designed to mediate queries among clinical and genomic knowledge bases with relevant bioinformatic analytic tools (e.g. gene clustering). Briefly, trait-disease-gene relationships were successfully illustrated using QMR, OMIM, SNOMED-RT, GeneCluster and TreeView. The analyses were visualized as two-dimensional dendrograms of clinical observations clustered around genes. To our knowledge, this is the first study using knowledge bases of clinical decision support systems for genomic discovery. Although this study is a proof of principle, it provides a framework for the development of clinical decision-support-system driven, high-throughput clinical-genomic technologies which could potentially unveil significant high-level functions of genes.
Climate-smart mining: A conference report on the World Bank’s facility launch

Abstract The World Bank launched its Climate-Smart Mining Facility in May 2019 at a conference at its headquarters in Washington, DC. The conference program included high level speeches from Bank and multinational mining firm executives. The design of the new Facility demonstrates the evolving concept of responsible mining. In contrast to an earlier corporate social responsibility approach rooted in sustainable development norms, climate-smart mining is driven by a global climate urgency discourse that aims to mobilize billions of new dollars for primary mining activities in developing nations. After reviewing the literature on climate change and critical minerals, this article describes the conference and how the new Facility exemplifies important tensions in the balancing of primary and secondary extraction in the search for critical minerals for climate change solutions.
Corticosteroid Injections May Increase Retear and Revision Rates of Rotator Cuff Repair: A Systematic Review

Purpose To synthesize the clinical outcome data of preoperative and postoperative corticosteroid injections (CIs) and their effect on rotator cuff repairs (RCRs). Methods A systematic review was performed to identify studies that reported the results or clinical outcomes of RCRs in patients receiving either preoperative or postoperative CIs. The searches were performed using MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and Embase, and studies were chosen following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines. Results A total of 11 studies were included with data for 176,352 shoulders: 6 studies involving 175,256 shoulders with data regarding preoperative CIs, 4 studies involving 1,096 shoulders with data regarding postoperative CIs, and 1 study with 212 shoulders containing preoperative and postoperative data. Preoperative CIs were found in 3 studies to increase the risk of revision surgery when administered within 6 months (odds ratio [OR], 1.38-1.82) and up to 1 year (OR, 1.12-1.52) prior to RCR, with revision rates in 2 studies being highest when patients received 2 or more injections (OR, 2.12-3.26) in the prior year. Postoperative CIs reduced pain and improved functional outcomes in 5 studies without increasing the retear rates (5.7%-19% for CI and 14%-18.4% for control) in most studies. Conclusions CIs provide benefit by relieving pain and improving functional outcome scores. However, repeated preoperative CIs may increase retear rates and the likelihood of revision surgery. A lower frequency of CI and longer preoperative waiting period after CI should be considered to decrease such risks. Postoperative CIs several weeks after RCR do not appear to increase retear rates. Level of Evidence Level IV, systematic review of Level I through IV studies.
Disparities in receipt of complete diagnostic evaluation to confirm myelodysplastic syndromes.

7555Background: A complete diagnostic evaluation (CDE), including bone marrow (BM) biopsy, cytogenic testing, FISH panel, and/or flow cytometry, is widely accepted as a prerequisite for histopathol...
Query Free Adversarial Transfer via Undertrained Surrogates

Deep neural networks have been shown to be highly vulnerable to adversarial examples---minor perturbations added to a model's input which cause the model to output an incorrect prediction. This vulnerability represents both a risk for the use of deep learning models in security-conscious fields and an opportunity to improve our understanding of how deep networks generalize to unexpected inputs. In a transfer attack, the adversary builds an adversarial attack using a surrogate model, then uses that attack to fool an unseen target model. Recent work in this subfield has focused on attack generation methods which can improve transferability between models. We show that optimizing a single surrogate model is a more effective method of improving adversarial transfer, using the simple example of an undertrained surrogate. This method transfers well across varied architectures and outperforms state-of-the-art methods. To interpret the effectiveness of undertrained surrogate models, we represent adversarial transferability as a function of surrogate model loss function curvature and similarity between surrogate and target gradients and show that our approach reduces the presence of local loss maxima which hinder transferability. Our results suggest that finding good single surrogate models is a highly effective and simple method for generating transferable adversarial attacks, and that this method represents a valuable route for future study in this field.
Dietary Interventions to Prevent or Delay Alzheimer's Disease: What the Evidence Shows.

A variety of potentially modifiable risk factors have been investigated in an attempt to delay/prevent Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Among these, dietary regimens and nutritional supplements have been most extensively studied. The purpose of this article is to critically review recent evidence for the Mediterranean/MIND diets along with the use of various vitamins and popular herbal supplements, including curcumin, Ginkgo biloba, and fish oil, among others. The Mediterranean and MIND diets are supported by observational studies performed in community settings, especially in the group with high adherence to the Mediterranean diet and with moderate–high adherence to the MIND diet. Randomized controlled trials of various vitamins and supplements have, in general, not shown statistically significant results, although there has been some promising evidence for vitamin D supplementation and curcumin use. There is sufficient data to recommend the Mediterranean and MIND diets to delay the onset of AD. It is judicious to supplement vitamin D, especially in deficient patients, and to consider the use of curcumin to improve cognitive performance. Future research should focus on larger, controlled trials in diverse populations.