cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF IMPUTATION METHODS FOR INCOMPLETE DATASETS

In this study, we compare the performance of four different imputation strategies ranging from the commonly used Listwise Deletion to model based approaches such as the Maximum Likelihood on enhancing completeness in incomplete software project data sets. We evaluate the impact of each of these methods by implementing them on six different real-time software project data sets which are classified into different categories based on their inherent properties. The reliability of the constructed data sets using these techniques are further tested by building prediction models using stepwise regression. The experimental results are noted and the findings are finally discussed.
Sperm aneuploidy among Chinese pesticide factory workers: scoring by the FISH method.

Background A study of the prevalence of sperm aneuploidy among pesticide factory workers was conducted in Anhui, China. Methods We recruited 75 men: 32 subjects from a large pesticide-manufacturing plant and 43 subjects from a nearby textile factory free of pesticide exposure. Each subject met the following criteria: age of 20–40 years; continuous work in the plant for 3 months prior to the study, no congenital anomalies or acquired disease of the external genitalia and no history of recent febrile illness or mumps. Within one hour after collection from each subject, semen was evaluated in terms of several parameters and smear slides were prepared. Results Exposure assessment revealed that workers in the pesticide plant were exposed to ethyl parathion or methamidophos, each of which is a potent organophosphate pesticide, at a median level of 0.02 mg/m3 (8-hour time weighted average as measured by personal pump) while workers in the control plant had no such occupational exposure. Twenty-nine semen slides (13 from the exposed group and 16 from the unexposed group) were randomly chosen for aneuploidy scoring by the three-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method with scorers being unaware of exposure status. Median semen parameters were as follows for exposed (and unexposed) men: abstinence period, 3 days (4 days); sperm concentration, 52.8×106/ml (53.1×106/ml); proportion of sperm with normal motility, 50.5% (61.3%); and proportion of sperm with normal morphology, 59% (61.5%). The specific chromosome abnormalities of interest were disomy for chromosome 18 and the three different types of sex chromosome disomy (i.e. XX, XY, YY disomy). The crude proportion of all aneuploidy combined was 0.30% and 0.19% for sperm from exposed and unexposed men, respectively. Poisson regression with overdispersion adjustment yielded significantly different crude risks of aneuploidy – 3.03 and 1.94 per 1,000 sperm from exposed and unexposed men, respectively – giving a rate ratio of 1.56 (95% CI, 1.06–2.31). The regression coefficients remained statistically significant after adjustment for inter-technician variability giving a rate ratio of 1.51 (95% CI, 1.04–2.20). Conclusions We conclude that occupational exposure to organophosphate pesticides moderately increases the prevalence of sperm aneuploidy. Am. J. Ind. Med. 36:230–238, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
A synthon for chiral glycolate enolate (rochcoor'): a camphor-based oxazoline

Abstract Alkylations of the anion 7a derived from a camphor-based oxazoline proceed in good yield. Hydrolysis affords the corresponding α-hydroxy acids in high ee.
Applied aspects of the instructional bias effect in verbal overshadowing

SUMMARY Previous studies have demonstrated that instructional manipulation of a participant witness’s response criterion on a description task can lead to verbal overshadowing in performance on a subsequent lineup identification task. The current set of experiments attempts to replicate this instructional bias effect in verbal overshadowing and extend the paradigm to include variations in lineup presentation format (Experiment 1) and repeated descriptions prior to identification (Experiment 2). The instructional bias effect is found to persist despite the ‘sequential’ presentation of lineup members and across repeated recall of a target face 1 week later. Furthermore, both experiments demonstrated that incorrect details generated by participants were predictive of subsequent inaccuracy on the identification task. Both theoretical and applied aspects of the instructional bias effect in verbal overshadowing are discussed. Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Verbal descriptions of a perpetrator represent a very important component to both the preliminary and the long-term investigation of a crime. In fact, law enforcement officers generally attempt to obtain descriptions rather swiftly following onset of the investigation, and these descriptions are often distributed to officers for the identification of potential suspects in the vicinity of the crime. In addition, person descriptions subsequently provide a means for estimating the congruence between a witness’s initial recall of the perpetrator and the physical characteristics of the suspect that is eventually apprehended. Although often discounted by psychological research (Pigott and Brigham, 1985; Wells, 1985; Yarmey, 1986), it is this congruence that the US Supreme Court has advocated as an indicator of the validity of eyewitness testimony in Neil v. Biggers (1972). Owing to the notion that verbal descriptions represent at least some characteristics of person memory, however, researchers have frequently encouraged their use when constructing lineups for eyewitnesses (Luus and Wells, 1991) and when conducting subsequent tests of lineup fairness (Brigham et al., 1999). It is the peculiar nature of this relationship between the verbal description and subsequent lineup identification of a perpetrator that the current studies (and this special issue) seek to address. A variety of studies have examined the relationship between description and identification performance with respect to eyewitness memory for faces. In his review, Sporer (1996) notes that although verbal description and visual identification performance appear
Clinical outcomes after closed, staged, and open forefoot amputations

Background Surgical approaches for forefoot osteomyelitis include amputation with immediate wound closure or resection followed by either staged re-resection and wound closure or local care of the open wound for secondary healing. This study evaluated the effectiveness of closed, staged, and open forefoot amputations in preventing major leg amputation and identified those variables that are associated with successful limb preservation. Methods From July 2002 to June 2004, 208 patients with forefoot osteomyelitis or gangrene underwent minor amputation according to a standard treatment algorithm. Wounds with limited cellulitis underwent immediate wound closure (CLOSED), wounds with marginally viable soft tissue underwent open amputation followed by wound closure at 2 to 7 days (STAGED), and wounds with tenosynovitis or extensive necrosis underwent debridement with no attempt at wound closure (OPEN). Patient demographics, need for further operative interventions, time to complete healing, and progression to major amputation were recorded. Results With four subjects lost to follow-up, 204 patients (98%) (94 CLOSED, 56 STAGED, and 54 OPEN) were monitored to complete healing, major amputation, or death. OPEN amputations had a significantly reduced initial healing rate (37%, P P Conclusions Although open amputation of extensive forefoot infections frequently requires repeat operative interventions and a prolonged time to complete healing, this approach provides limb salvage rates approaching those observed for less invasive infections amenable to immediate closure. Staged closure offers an improved time to healing without negatively impacting the risk of major limb amputation. Independent of their initial operative approach, these patients frequently progress to early leg amputation.
Real-time data fusion technique for validation of an autonomous system

We describe a data fusion technique suitable for use in validation of a real-time autonomous system. The technique is based on the Dempster-Shafer theory and Murphy's rule for beliefs combination. The methodology is applied for fusing the learning stability estimates, provided by an online neural network monitoring methodology, into a single probabilistic learning stability measure. The case study shows that our data fusion technique is capable of handing real-time requirements and provides unique, meaningful results for interpreting the stability information provided by the online monitoring system.
Use of Dummy Variables in Testing for Equality between Sets of Coefficients in Linear Regressions: A Generalization

(1970). Use of Dummy Variables in Testing for Equality between Sets of Coefficients in Linear Regressions: A Generalization. The American Statistician: Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 18-22.
The Transformation of Tropical Storm Agnes into an Extratropical Cyclone. Part II: Moisture, Vorticity and Kinetic Energy Budgets

Abstract Moisture, vorticity and kinetic energy budgets are constructed to diagnose the transformation of tropical storm Agnes (June 1972) into an extratropical cyclone in this second of two papers on Agnes. The vertical motions and divergent wind components used in the computations are taken from the solution of the nonlinear balance model described in Part I [DiMego and Bosart (1982)]. The budget equations are formulated in a quasi-Lagrangian reference frame centered with respect to the moving surface cyclone for several storm volumes. The results are displayed spatially as well as in time-section format. Synoptic-scale transport and moisture convergence dominate the moisture budget and all terms together define well the areas of observed precipitation. Both budget and model-computed precipitation, particularly the latter, underestimate the observed precipitation. The discrepancy is attributed to the sub-grid scale convective processes and model underestimation of the divergent wind components. Advectio...
Application Technique and Irrigation Method Affect Imidacloprid Control of Silverleaf Whiteflies (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on Poinsettias

Subirrigation systems are increasingly used to water and fertilize greenhouse crops. They also appear to be well suited for the application of systemic pesticides. We conducted two studies to look at interactive effects of imidacloprid application technique and irrigation method on plant uptake of imidacloprid and whitefly control. Drench applications of imidacloprid resulted in much higher concentrations in the leaves than applications to the bottom of pots after 14 d. However, imidacloprid efficacy in subirrigated plants was better if the imidacloprid was applied to the bottom of the pot than when an equal amount was applied as a drench. In drip-irrigated plants, imidacloprid efficacy was greater after a drench than after an application to the bottom of the pots. A second study showed that drench applications to drip-irrigated plants result in high imidacloprid concentrations in the bottom of the canopy, whereas bottom applications to subirrigated plants result in a more even distribution of imidacloprid throughout the plant. Surprisingly, the high leaf imidacloprid concentrations in the bottom layer of drip-irrigated plants did not result in improved whitefly control. Imidacloprid efficacy was better in subirrigated, bottom-treated plants than in drip-irrigated, drenched plants. Overall, results from these studies indicate that imidacloprid is very effective when applied to the bottom of subirrigated pots.
Using Simulation to Design Choreography for a Cardiopulmonary Arrest Response

Abstract This article illustrates the use of simulation as a collaborative problem-solving and design tool using resuscitation as an exemplar. To address the issue of poor-quality in-hospital resuscitation efforts, a research study was designed to assess methods of improving nurses' retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation priorities. Central to this project was developing choreography to help nurses' work synergistically to achieve the American Heart Association goals for resuscitation. The study team used simulation to develop and refine the ideal steps for the first few minutes of a cardiac arrest. The resultant video of this choreography was used as a core component of the training in the research study.
Soil Conservation Measures in River Basin Planning

Development of Soil Conservation Service program in river basin planning emphasizing maximum beneficial use of all resources of basin, including farms, ranches, forested areas, and small communities that are located in tributary areas of major streams; effect of land treatment measures on erosion and resultant sediment yield, on water yield, and on flood peaks; design features of floodwater retarding dam.
Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia: Updates and Outcomes

Management of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) remains challenging. Despite advances in technologic and therapeutic strategies such as high-frequency mechanical ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide (iNO), and delayed surgical repair, the condition continues to carry a substantial mortality risk. In recent years, with increasing prenatal identification of fetuses affected by CDH, more effort has been directed toward strategies allowing in utero intervention, with the goal of improving survival. Unfortunately, a universally successful fetal treatment for CDH remains elusive. Over the past several decades, collective knowledge has markedly increased regarding the range of short- and long-term morbidities experienced by CDH survivors, and medical care has evolved as understanding of the disease has progressed. Affected patients demand and deserve a multidisciplinary approach, both in the inpatient arena and follow-up setting, with experts in neonatology, surgery, pulmonology, cardiology, and neurodevelopment working together to optimize outcomes. This article reviews the basic pathophysiology behind CDH, describes recent updates in the field, and outlines the long-term outcomes for these fascinating and complex patients.
The PDA Revolution

Authors desiring to contribute to “Technology and Education” should forward submissions to Richard Dehn, MPA, PA-C, University of Iowa, PA Program, 5167 Westlawn, Iowa City, IA 32242. E-mail: richard-dehn@uiowa.edu. Both visual and written media will be considered for publication. Visual media should be accompanied by a brief narrative. Theresa Hegmann, MPAS, PA-C University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
Dental therapy practice patterns in Minnesota: a baseline study.

Objectives A chronic shortage of dentists, the importance of oral health, and the lack of access to care led to the introduction of a new oral health practitioner in Minnesota, the dental therapist. Dental therapy graduates from the University of Minnesota have been in practice since 2012. To date, there has been no formal study of how they have been incorporated into dental practice. The purpose of this study was to obtain baseline knowledge of dental therapists' practice patterns in Minnesota and determine if dentists' patterns of work changed after a dental therapist was employed. Methods Four dental practices were sampled purposefully to obtain various practice types and geographic locations within Minnesota. Secondary data were collected from practice management software databases in each practice between January-March, 2015. Data were used to describe the work undertaken by dental therapists, the types of patients seen and payer mix. Additionally, data from 6 months before and after employment of the dental therapist were collected to determine whether dentists' practice patterns changed after a dental therapist was employed. Results Dental therapists were employed full-time, seeing an average of 6.8 patients per day. No distinct pattern emerged with regard to ages of patients seen by dental therapists. Dental therapists saw up to 90% of uninsured patients or patients on public assistance. Restorative services across practices comprised an average of 68% of work undertaken by dental therapists. Dentists delegated a full range of procedures within the dental therapy scope of practice indicating trust and acceptance of dental therapists. Dentists in two practices began to take on more complex dental procedures after a dental therapist joined the practice. Conclusion Dental therapists are treating a high number of uninsured and underinsured patients, suggesting that they are expanding access to dental care in rural and metropolitan areas of Minnesota. Dentists appear to have an adequate workload for dental therapists and are delegating a full range of procedures within their scope of practice. Dentists performed fewer restorative and preventive procedures after a DT was hired.
Do Suicides From the Golden Gate Bridge Cluster

Suicides from popular venues (known as “hotspots”) are often publicized and may result in imitation by subsequent suicides that may lead to clustering of the suicides over time. In order to examine whether the suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge showed clustering, data from the 224 suicides during 1999–2009 were analyzed using the Anderson-Darling Test was run on the data against a null hypothesis of a negative exponential distribution (as would be generated by a homogenous Poisson process). It was found that the data were almost a perfect fit for the Poisson distribution and so showed no evidence of clustering beyond that expected to occur by chance alone. This indicates that there was no imitation or contagion in the suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge.
The man can’t bust our movies: buying and selling the counterculture with Zabriskie Point (1970)

This article examines the link between the advertising images represented within Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (MGM, 1970) and the strategies employed for the film’s own marketing and pr...
Active State Tracking With Sensing Costs: Analysis of Two-States and Methods for $n$-States

Active state tracking is needed in object classification, target tracking, medical diagnosis, and estimation of sparse signals among other various applications. Herein, active state tracking of a discrete-time, finite-state Markov chain is considered. Noisy Gaussian observations are dynamically collected by exerting appropriate control over their information content, while incurring a related sensing cost. The objective is to devise sensing strategies to optimize the tradeoff between tracking performance and sensing cost. A recently proposed Kalman–like estimator by Zois et al. is employed for state tracking. The associated mean–squared error and a generic sensing cost metric are then used in a partially observable Markov decision process formulation, and the optimal sensing strategy is derived via a dynamic programming recursion. The resulting recursion proves to be nonlinear, challenging control policy design. For two-state systems with scalar measurements, properties of the related cost functions are derived and sufficient conditions are provided regarding the structure of the optimal control policy enabling characterization of when passive state tracking is optimal. To overcome the associated computational burden of the optimal sensing strategy, two lower complexity strategies are proposed, which apply to $n$ –state systems with vector measurements. The performance of the proposed strategies is illustrated in a wireless body sensing application, where cost savings as high as $70\%$ are demonstrated for a $3\%$ detection error with respect to a static equal allocation sensing strategy.
Housing Investment and Consumption in Urban China

In the People's Republic of China, urban housing has been mainly constructed and managed by local governments and public-owned enterprises. This paper enriches the existing literature in two main areas. First, using a rich and unique data set on urban housing in 1991-1994, the paper examines disparities in housing construction and consumption across Chinese cities. Second, the paper rigorously tests factors that determine Chinese urban housing investment and consumption. The empirical findings suggest that the public sector still plays a crucial role in urban housing in China, though some market-oriented factors have started to influence housing investment and consumption.
Scalia and the Secret History of School Choice

Beginning with the Everson decision in 1947, the Supreme Court based its Establishment Clause jurisprudence about public aid to private (often religious) schools on an interpretation of the Virginia Assessment Controversy in 1784–1785. But that interpretation was seriously flawed, and the analogy the Court drew to school aid was misleading. The Virginia proposal targeted funds to ministers and teachers, and no other private activities, and its express purpose was to support religion. State and federal aid programs addressed by the Court went to schools for the purpose of improving educational opportunities (and saving money for the public schools), and distributed funds on a neutral basis, neither favoring nor disfavoring religion. In the early nineteenth century, public funds supported a broad range of schools, most of them religious in character, and Congress followed the same approach in its first major aid-to-education program, the Freedmen’s Bureau Act. Almost no one regarded these programs as raising a problem of church-state separation. These neutral programs came to an end only because of the rising tide of anti-Catholicism, which led many Americans to favor concentrating public funds on generically Protestant public schools. It is the public school monopoly on public support—not school choice—that genuinely resembles an establishment.
Economic impacts of urban flooding in South Florida: Potential consequences of managing groundwater to prevent salt water intrusion.

Abstract High-value urban zones in coastal South Florida are considered particularly vulnerable to salt water intrusion into the groundwater-based, public water supplies caused by sea level rise (SLR) in combination with the low topography, existing high water table, and permeable karst substrate. Managers in the region closely regulate water depths in the extensive South Florida canal network to control closely coupled groundwater levels and thereby reduce the risk of saltwater intrusion into the karst aquifer. Potential SLR adaptation strategies developed by local managers suggest canal and groundwater levels may have to be increased over time to prevent the increased salt water intrusion risk to groundwater resources. However, higher canal and groundwater levels cause the loss of unsaturated zone storage and lead to an increased risk of inland flooding when the recharge from rainfall exceeds the capacity of the unsaturated zone to absorb it and the water table reaches the surface. Consequently, higher canal and groundwater levels are also associated with increased risk of economic losses, especially during the annual wet seasons. To help water managers and urban planners in this region better understand this trade-off, this study models the relationships between flood insurance claims and groundwater levels in Miami-Dade County. Via regression analyses, we relate the incurred number of monthly flood claims in 16 Miami-Dade County watersheds to monthly groundwater levels over the period from 1996 to 2010. We utilize these estimated statistical relationships to further illustrate various monthly flood loss scenarios that could plausibly result, thereby providing an economic quantification of a “too much water” trade-off. Importantly, this understanding is the first of its kind in South Florida and is exceedingly useful for regional-scale hydro-economic optimization models analyzing trade-offs associated with high water levels.
The Short-Term Deterrent Effect of Executions: An Analysis of Daily Homicide Counts:

Does capital punishment exert any deterrent effect on homicide, above and beyond the effects of noncapital punishment? We hypothesized that potential deterrent effects should be strongest within a ...
Protein-Protein Interaction in the -Omics Era: Understanding Mycobacterium tuberculosis Function

An important challenge for TB investigators in the postgenomic era is to integrate distinct functional strategies to study the molecular mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) virulence. However, the biological function of the majority of Mtb genes is unknown. This has revealed the need for an approach to convert raw genome sequence data into functional information. In the past decade, the yeast two-hybrid system (Y2H) has contributed significantly towards studying TB virulence and persistence, but has several drawbacks. Recently, several mycobacterial protein–protein interaction (PPI) technologies have been reported that helped propose functions for unknown proteins through “guilt by association” and will be discussed in this chapter. We will examine the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of these systems and how these technologies can be used to dissect ­signaling, drug resistance, and virulence pathways. We will also discuss how ­mycobacterial PPI technologies can be exploited to force proteins to interact and for the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors against protein complexes. In sum, by characterizing Mtb PPIs on a genomic scale, it will be possible to assemble ­physiologically relevant protein pathways in mycobacteria, the outcome of which will be invaluable for determining virulence mechanisms and the function of previously uncharacterized proteins.
A computational unification of cognitive control, emotion, and learning

Existing models that integrate emotion and cognition generally do not fully specify why cognition needs emotion and conversely why emotion needs cognition. In this thesis, we present a unified computational model that combines an abstract cognitive theory of behavior control (PEACTIDM) and a detailed theory of emotion (based on an appraisal theory), integrated in a theory of cognitive architecture (Soar). The theory of cognitive control specifies a set of required computational functions and their abstract inputs and outputs, while the appraisal theory specifies in more detail the nature of these inputs and outputs and an ontology for their representation. We argue that there is a surprising functional symbiosis between these two independently motivated theories that leads to a deeper theoretical integration than has been previously obtained in other computational treatments of cognition and emotion. We use an implemented model in Soar to test the feasibility of the resulting integrated theory, and explore its implications and predictive power in several task domains. With this integration, we then explore a possible functional benefit of emotion; namely, as an intrinsic motivator of reinforcement learning. This integration leads to other reinforcement learning extensions, such as automatic setting of the learning and exploration rate parameters.
Quantitative Anatomic Analysis of the Transcallosal-Transchoroidal Approach and the Transcallosal-Subchoroidal Approach to the Floor of the Third Ventricle: An Anatomic Study.

Objective To compare transcallosal-transchoroidal and transcallosal-subchoroidal approaches to the ipsilateral and contralateral edges of the floor of the third ventricle using quantitative analyses. Methods Five formalin-fixed cadaveric human heads (10 sides) were examined under the operating microscope. Quantitative measurements (area of surgical freedom and angle of attack) were obtained using 3-T magnetic resonance imaging and a StealthStation image guidance system. The limits of the surgical approaches were shown by touching a probe to 6 designated points on the floor of the third ventricle. Results The transchoroidal approach provided greater surgical freedom than the subchoroidal approach to access ipsilateral and contralateral middle landmarks at the edges of the floor of the third ventricle in both longitudinal and horizontal planes (P ≤ 0.03). No significant difference between the 2 approaches was found in accessing the anterior and posterior landmarks of the third ventricle in each plane. The surgical freedom to the contralateral anterior, middle, and posterior landmarks was greater than to the ipsilateral landmarks in both the transchoroidal and subchoroidal approaches. Conclusions The transcallosal-transchoroidal approach, compared with the transcallosal-subchoroidal approach, may provide better exposure and require less retraction for removal of ipsilateral or contralateral lesions located in the midbrain or hypothalamus and situated near the floor of the third ventricle. The contralateral transcallosal approach with either the transchoroidal or subchoroidal approach may provide good surgical freedom for removal of lesions located near the floor of the third ventricle, such as lesions in the midbrain.
Understanding East Asian Graduate Students’ Socio-cultural and Psychological Adjustment in a U.S. Midwestern University

In this study, we explore East Asian graduate students’ socio-cultural and psychological adjustment in a U.S. Midwestern University. Eight participants were interviewed about their acculturation challenges as well as their effective coping strategies. Data were analyzed using open-coding techniques and five themes emerged: three themes summarized the challenges, including challenges due to cultural differences, lack of support in a foreign environment, and financial stress; and the other two themes that described the coping strategies were utilizing external resources and developing self-adjustment strategies.
Native English speakers and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ performance and notetaking in a Doctor of Pharmacy health systems course

Abstract Background Academic pharmacy programs continue to diversify in student population. While the challenges of non-native language speakers have been opined, there is scant research on their performance in comparison with native language speakers nor is there much information on differences in the processes used in academic preparation, such as on note-taking. Objective The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify differences in test performance between native English speakers and students for whom English is a foreign language (EFL) in a health systems PharmD course, and (2) examine differences between these two groups in note-taking attitudes and behaviors. Methods Students' self-reported data as native English-speaking or EFL were acquired from the University Office of Admissions. Students’ performance was measured on examinations covering lecture content, with independent-sample t tests discerning differences on all 3 examinations. T-tests were also used to ascertain differences on examination scores by student race/ethnicity and on differences in their response to a survey on attitudes, behaviors, and satisfaction with note-taking. Results EFL students scored significantly lower on the latter two examinations and on the average of the three examinations by over 7%. EFL students reported lower satisfaction with the accuracy and completeness of their notes and indicated that peers were less likely to borrow their notes. They also reported being more likely to be distracted in class by peers’ laptop note-taking, even though there were many similarities between the two groups in how they approached note-taking. Conclusions EFL student performance was lower than that of native English speakers on examinations. EFL students were less satisfied with the quality of their notes. Further research is needed to identify effective strategies for improving the learning experience of EFL students. Academic administration can identify mechanisms to facilitate a learning environment conducive for their success.
Towards a More Nuance Understanding of White Teachers of English Learners: Increasing Capacity and Capabilities

Predicated on the idea that race, racialization, and racism are major factors that shape language teaching and learning, this paper draws on the second wave White teacher identity studies to argue for a more nuanced understandings on White monolingual teachers’ racial identities by exploring their perspectives on English learners’ (ELs’) learning experiences by asking the following research questions: (1) From the EL teachers’ perspectives, what contribute to EL’s struggles in school? (2) What effects do the EL teachers’ perspective have on ELs’ school experiences? (3) Are there any consistencies or inconsistencies among the participants’ perspectives and what do they mean? The findings report that tensions and contradictions arising from inconsistencies across the participants’ perspectives as well as within each teacher’s perspective reflect co-existence of race evasive and race conscious identities that in turn can serve as an important locus to transform their perspectives toward more equitable pedagogical practices for ELs.
Cathy Meadows: A Central Figure in Protocol Analysis

This anecdotal note describes Cathy Meadow’s leadership role in formal specification and verification of cryptographic protocols. Cathy has been a central figure in protocol analysis through her significant research and successful efforts to bring researchers together to form a unified, cohesive, and effective community to design and evaluate cryptographic protocols.
A Generalization Regarding The Extremes of a Trigonometrique Function

After a passionate lecture of this book (Mathematics plus literature!) I stopped at one of the problems explained here.
Clinical Dilemmas in Anticoagulation: Extremes of Weight, Renal Disease, Recent Bleeding, and Surgery

Clinical trials of antithrombotic agents enrolled thousands of patients and form the basis of current recommendations for therapy. However, many patients with thrombosis were not adequately represented in clinical trials. These would include patients at extremes of weight, those with renal disease, those with recent bleeding, and those who need surgery. This chapter reviews many challenging clinical situations such as anticoagulation in those with renal disease and restarting anticoagulation after bleeding. Recommendations are made based on the limited data available.
Basic Primer for Finances in Academic Adult and Pediatric Pulmonary Divisions

The finances of academic medical centers (AMCs) are complex and rapidly evolving. This financial environment can have important effects on faculty expectations, compensation, and the work environment. This article describes the commonly used concepts and models related to financial decision-making in Pulmonology and Critical Care divisions across AMCs in the United States. Faculty clinical productivity is often measured by work relative value units, which are set nationally for a discrete piece of physician work and attempt to equilibrate aspects of care across specialties. The expected clinical productivity and salary for a given faculty member are often determined relative to one or more national benchmarks developed from data submitted by departments and schools across the country. The most commonly used benchmarks include those from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Medical Group Management Association. Changes to the paradigm of fee for service reimbursement are beginning to change physician compensation and incentive structures. In addition, research and education are key academic missions for faculty. It is important to understand the limitations of extramural research funding and implications for the support of research infrastructure. Measurements of productivity within education have been less codified, but some centers are attempting to create educational relative value units similar to those used in clinical productivity. In summary, faculty should understand basic concepts of finances. This knowledge includes a common set of terms and concepts that can help all faculty understand basic financial considerations in their work and lead to success for their divisions.
Robustness in machine learning explanations: does it matter?

The explainable AI literature contains multiple notions of what an explanation is and what desiderata explanations should satisfy. One implicit source of disagreement is how far the explanations should reflect real patterns in the data or the world. This disagreement underlies debates about other desiderata, such as how robust explanations are to slight perturbations in the input data. I argue that robustness is desirable to the extent that we're concerned about finding real patterns in the world. The import of real patterns differs according to the problem context. In some contexts, non-robust explanations can constitute a moral hazard. By being clear about the extent to which we care about capturing real patterns, we can also determine whether the Rashomon Effect is a boon or a bane.
Exploring the landscape of Buckingham potentials for silica by machine learning: Soft vs hard interatomic forcefields

Interatomic forcefields for silicate glasses often rely on partial (rather than formal) charges to describe the Coulombic interactions between ions. Such forcefields can be classified as "soft" or "hard" based on the value of the partial charge attributed to Si atoms, wherein softer forcefields rely on smaller partial charges. Here, we use machine learning to efficiently explore the "landscape" of Buckingham forcefields for silica, that is, the evolution of the overall forcefield accuracy as a function of the forcefield parameters. Interestingly, we find that soft and hard forcefields correspond to two distinct, yet competitive local minima in this landscape. By analyzing the structure of the silica configurations predicted by soft and hard forcefields, we show that although soft and hard potentials offer competitive accuracy in describing the short-range order structure, soft potentials feature a higher ability to describe the medium-range order.
The Agenda for the Next Generation of Health Care Information Technology

To make the transition to value-based health care, health care information technology systems must be transformed to enable data collection, data sharing, and usability by patients and providers.
Drug delivery device for the inner ear: ultra-sharp fully metallic microneedles

Drug delivery into the inner ear is a significant challenge due to its inaccessibility as a fluid-filled cavity within the temporal bone of the skull. The round window membrane (RWM) is the only delivery portal from the middle ear to the inner ear that does not require perforation of bone. Recent advances in microneedle fabrication enable the RWM to be perforated safely with polymeric microneedles as a means to enhance the rate of drug delivery from the middle ear to the inner ear. However, the polymeric material is not biocompatible and also lacks the strength of other materials. Herein we describe the design and development of gold-coated metallic microneedles suitable for RWM perforation. When developing microneedle technology for drug delivery, we considered three important general attributes: (1) high strength and ductility material, (2) high accuracy and precision of fabrication, and (3) broad design freedom. We developed a hybrid additive manufacturing method using two-photon lithography and electrochemical deposition to fabricate ultra-sharp gold-coated copper microneedles with these attributes. We refer to the microneedle fabrication methodology as two-photon templated electrodeposition (2PTE). We demonstrate the use of these microneedles by inducing a perforation with a minimal degree of trauma in a guinea pig RWM while the microneedle itself remains undamaged. Thus, this microneedle has the potential literally of opening the RWM for enhanced drug delivery into the inner ear. Finally, the 2PTE methodology can be applied to many different classes of microneedles for other drug delivery purposes as well the fabrication of small scale structures and devices for non-medical applications. Graphical Abstract Fully metallic ultra-sharp microneedle mounted at end of a 24-gauge stainless steel blunt syringe needle tip: (left) Size of microneedle shown relative to date stamp on U.S. one-cent coin; (right) Perforation through guinea pig round window membrane introduced with microneedle.
Tracking of multiple chromosomal loci in 3D throughout live mammalian cell nuclei

The organization and dynamics of the genome regulate DNA replication, DNA repair, and gene expression. Here, we developed a methodology for studies of 3D organization and dynamics of the nucleome over time scales ranging from milliseconds to hours, and length scales ranging from tens of nanometers to micrometers. We achieve unprecedented 3D track lengths throughout the mammalian nucleus by combining a novel labeling scheme using nanobody ArrayG/N fusions of dSpCas9 targeted to specific DNA loci; light sheet illumination for gentle imaging of live cells with high contrast; and point spread function engineering for parallel detection of multiple loci in 3D.
Problem Loans in the Caribbean: Determinants, Impact and Strategies for Resolution

The high level of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the Caribbean has been, in large part, a legacy of the global financial crisis, but their persistence owes much to the weak economic recovery in the region, as well as to structural obstacles to their resolution. A comprehensive strategy is needed to address these impediments to sever the adverse feedback loops between weak economic activity and weak asset quality. This paper finds that NPLs are a drag on Caribbean growth and macro-financial links are strong: a deterioration in asset quality hinders bank lending and dampens economic activity, undermining, in turn, efforts to resolve problem loans. A multifaceted approach is needed, involving a combination of macro- economic policies to support growth and employment; strong supervisory frameworks to ensure macro-financial stability and create incentives for resolution; efforts to address informational gaps and deficiencies in insolvency and debt-enforcement frameworks; and development of markets for distressed loans. The institutional capacity constraints require coordination of reforms within the region and support from international organizations through capacity-building.
Human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells and their extracellular vesicles modulate lipopolysaccharide activated human microglia.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are driven by neuroinflammation triggered by activated microglial cells; hence, the phenotypic regulation of these cells is an appealing target for intervention. Human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAD-MSCs) may be a potential therapeutic candidate to treat NDs given their immunomodulatory properties. Evidence suggests that the mechanism of action of hAD-MSCs is through their secretome, which includes secreted factors such as cytokines, chemokines, or growth factors as well as extracellular vesicles (EVs). Recently, EVs have emerged as important mediators in cell communication given, they can transfer proteins, lipids, and RNA species (i.e., miRNA, mRNA, and tRNAs) to modulate recipient cells. However, the therapeutic potential of hAD-MSCs and their secreted EVs has not been fully elucidated with respect to human microglia. In this study, we determined the therapeutic potential of different hAD-MSCs doses (200,000, 100,000, and 50,000 cells) or their secreted EVs (50, 20, or 10 µg/ml), on human microglial cells (HMC3) that were activated by lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), an activation marker of HMC3 cells, was prevented when they were cocultured with hAD-MSCs and EVs. Moreover, hAD-MSCs inhibited the secretion of proinflammatory factors, such as IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1, while their secreted EVs promoted the expression of anti-inflammatory mediators such as IL-10 or TIMP-1 in activated microglia. The present data therefore support a role for hAD-MSCs and their secreted EVs, as potential therapeutic candidates for the treatment of NDs.
A Markov Renewal Chain Model for Forecasting Earthquakes in Bangladesh Region

In this paper, we have proposed a Weibull Markov renewal process to model earthquakes occurred in and around Bangladesh from 1961 to 2013. The process assumes that the sequence of earthquakes is a Markov chain and the sojourn time distribution is a Weibull random variable that depends only on two successive earthquakes. We estimated the parameters of the models along with transition probabilities using the maximum likelihood method. The transient behavior of earthquake occurrences was investigated in details and probability forecasts were calculated for different lengths of time interval using the fitted model. We also investigated the stationary behavior of earthquake occurrences in the Bangladesh region.
Extensible Pattern Matching in an Extensible Language

Pattern matching is a widely used technique in functional languages, especially those in the ML and Haskell traditions, where it is at the core of the semantics. In languages in the Lisp tradition, in contrast, pattern matching it typically provided by libraries built with macros. We present match, a sophisticated pattern matcher for Racket, implemented as language extension. using macros. The system supports novel and widely-useful pattern-matching forms, and is itself extensible. The extensibility of match is implemented via a general technique for creating extensible language extensions.
S5 for Aristotelian Actualists

Aristotelian Actualism is the conjunction of the theses that absolutely everything is actual, that individuals are neither reducible to nor dependent on independently identified properties, and that some individuals are genuine contingent existents. Robert Adams and Gregory Fitch, two prominent proponents of Aristotelian Actualism, have argued that this view has a consequence that any modal logic stronger than M, and so any modal logic in which symmetry and reflexivity are frame conditions, is inadequate. We argue that this is incorrect.
Live to tell: Narratives of methamphetamine-using women taken hostage by their intimate partners in San Diego, CA

Abstract Background Hostage-taking, an overlooked phenomenon in public health, constitutes a severe form of intimate partner violence and may be a precursor to female homicide within relationships characterized by substance use. Criminal justice studies indicate that most hostage incidents are male-driven events with more than half of all cases associated with a prior history of violence and substance use. Methamphetamine use increases a woman's risk of partner violence, with methamphetamine-using individuals being up to nine times more likely to commit homicide. As homicide is the most lethal outcome of partner violence and methamphetamine use, this study aims to characterize the potential role of hostage-taking within these intersecting epidemics. Methods Methamphetamine-using women enrolled in an HIV behavioural intervention trial ( FASTLANE-II ) who reported experiences of partner violence were purposively selected to participate in qualitative sub-studies ( Women's Study I & II ). Twenty-nine women, ages 26–57, participated in semi-structured interviews that discussed relationship dynamics, partner violence, drug use and sexual practices. Results Findings indicated four cases of women being held hostage by a partner, with two women describing two separate hostage experiences. Women discussed partner jealousy, drug withdrawal symptoms, heightened emotional states from methamphetamine use, and escalating violent incidents as factors leading up to hostage-taking. Factors influencing lack of reporting incidents to law enforcement included having a criminal record, fear of partner retaliation, and intentions to terminate the relationship when the partner is incarcerated. Conclusion Educating women on the warning signs of hostage-taking within the context of methamphetamine use and promoting behaviour change among male perpetrators can contribute to reducing the risk of homicide. Furthermore, bridging the gap between health services and law enforcement agencies and providing comprehensive services that address the needs of methamphetamine-using women in violent relationships can prevent or minimize potential harm to vulnerable women.