cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Planning for Contracting/Aging Populations: Societal and Economic Ramifications

Many countries worldwide have below a population replacement birth rate (2.01) and/or an aging population. This has resulted in contracting populations with the degree of contraction varying between countries but resulting in similar predictable societal, economic, and to some degree political problems. Examples of countries with contracting populations are shown in Table 9.1.
A parametric study of crush initiators for a thin–walled tube

The structure of a vehicle surrounding the occupant compartment is designed to crush in an accident in order to limit the forces that are transmitted to its occupants. Crush initiators are stress concentrations that are incorporated into automobile frame members to ensure a stable collapse process and to limit peak loads. Using finite element analysis, a parametric study of the effects of crush initiator geometry on peak and mean crush forces of a thin–walled, square steel tube under axially loaded impact conditions was conducted. Three crush initiator shapes were examined: a transverse bead on two sides of the tube cross section, a diamond notch on each of the four comers, and a circular hole on the comers. For each shape, three sizes of initiators were analysed and compared with an unnotched baseline specimen with respect to the peak load and energy absorbed.
Bilateral Nephrolithiasis: Simultaneous Operative Management

AbstractA total of 14 patients with extensive bilateral nephrolithiasis underwent simultaneous bilateral lithotomy, in most instances through a single transabdominal incision. Anatrophic nephrolithotomy was performed on 25 kidneys, while 3 kidneys were approached in other ways without formal hypothermia and ischemia. There was no statistically significant change in the average preoperative and postoperative serum creatinine values (p >0.1). There were residual stone fragments in 2 of the 28 kidneys (7 per cent) and stones recurred in 3 others (11 per cent) during the followup period (average 12 months). Of the 14 patients 10 (71 per cent) had infected urine preoperatively and 9 (64 per cent) have been free of infection postoperatively. There were no operative deaths and the average postoperative hospital stay was 17.6 days. We herein demonstrate that bilateral renal surgery for stone removal in 1 operative session can be performed safely with results comparable to those of unilateral staged procedures usi...
Direct Photon Physics from R 806, R 807, R 808

In this paper I review the contributions of the groups R806, R807, and R808 to direct photon physics, starting with the early R806 systematic studies which clearly demonstrated the existence of high P t direct photon production, and ending with the recent gluon form factor determination from photon-jet correlations.
Mapping and measuring aeolian sand dunes with photogrammetry and LiDAR from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and multispectral satellite imagery on the Paria Plateau, AZ, USA

Abstract The Paria Plateau is a potentially important but relatively unstudied aeolian sand source area in the Grand Canyon region of Arizona, USA. This study used unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - based LiDAR and structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry to produce high-resolution topographic models of aeolian dunes on the plateau. We combined the dune topography data with a high-resolution satellite image maximum likelihood classification (producer's accuracy = 87.2%) to quantify potential aeolian sand source areas across the 958 km2 plateau. We mapped all the unvegetated active aeolian dunes on the plateau and estimate they contain 24 Tg of sand, and could, therefore, be a proportionately important regional sand source considering the annual sand loads of the downwind Paria River at its confluence with the Colorado River are generally
New Techniques for Coding Political Events across Languages

Data produced from text is one of the most important new resources for doing research in quantitative political science research. "Event data," which codes structured actor-event-target triples from text, is a particularly useful form of data. Most publicly available event datasets, though, are limited to English only, limiting their usefulness for studying many regions. We demonstrate new techniques for coding events in English, as well as in Arabic, a previously uncoded language. In order to generate language-specific political event data, "actor" and "verb" dictionaries are required for each specific language. Efficiently developing an accurate and extensive dictionaries is a difficult challenge. In this paper, we describe four different approaches we have used to solve the problem of producing dictionaries and how other researchers can use our ideas to develop dictionaries in a new language or new ontology. This work stems from an ongoing NSF RIDIR project, "Modernizing Political Event Data" which aims to produce multilingual event data and the software needed for researchers to produce custom datasets.
Fifth Order Mock Theta Functions: Elementary Identities

In Chapter 14, we reproduce Ramanujan’s last letter to Hardy. In it, Ramanujan’s ten fifth order mock theta functions are given in their original “three or four terms of the series” format. We repeat them here in standard notation. Because Ramanujan used the same notation for each of the two sets of five functions, to avoid ambiguity and to be consistent with the notation introduced by Watson [270], we have appended the subscript 0 to those members of the first family, and the subscript 1 to those members of the second family. First,
Characterization of second-order nonlinear optical properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (Conference Presentation)

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD), such as WS2 and MoS2, have been shown to exhibit large second order optical nonlinearity due to their non-centrosymmetric crystalline symmetry in few odd- and mono-layers, and resonance enhancement. Here we study the second-order nonlinear susceptibility of 2D TMDs through second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG). Using a wavelength-tunable femtosecond laser, we can characterize SHG of TMDs to obtain the second-order nonlinear susceptibility at multiple wavelengths. Along with the experimental studies, theoretical investigation of the second-order nonlinear susceptibility is also performed. With this we explore the estimation of the second-order nonlinear susceptibility of 2D TMD layered materials based on their first-order susceptibility through the experimental and theoretical verification of Miller’s Rule for these materials. Additionally, we characterize the second-order nonlinear susceptibility of 2D TMD alloys through the SFG spectroscopy.
Aircraft Conceptual Structural Design Using the AMMIT Structural Analysis Tool

Aircraft conceptual structural design is the process of developing and refining an idea for an aircraft into a feasible structural design. The process typically involves multiple evaluations of a single configuration and can require designers to examine thousands of concepts. Standard approaches to conducting structural analyses in this phase are either based on the use of historical or empirical data or often require significant expertise in structural analysis to perform these rapid assessments. The AMMIT structural analysis tool includes structural line models and handbook methods wrapped in a simple to use interface that can enable rapid, physics-based structural designs without requiring extensive structural expertise. The objectives of the present paper are to introduce AMMIT, describe the methods used in AMMIT, and present the results of the validation effort. Validation of the AMMIT methodology was performed on nine aircraft to determine the accuracy of the methods, highlight features of AMMIT, and guide future development of the methodology. Results of the validation effort indicated that AMMIT provides a prediction of primary structural weight for each aircraft with an acceptable level of error during the preliminary design phase with a minimal expenditure of computational resources.
Primary CNS Lymphoma Arising from the 4th Ventricle: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

A 65-year-old male with a history of ischemic strokes, seizures, and subarachnoid hemorrhage presented with a 4-week history of progressive diplopia, vertigo, nausea, and vomiting. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a 2.5 × 1.8 × 1.7 cm posterior fossa mass arising from the roof of the 4th ventricle extending into the cerebellar vermis. Posterior fossa craniotomy with stereotactic biopsy confirmed a locally invasive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) arising from the 4th ventricle is a rare extranodal manifestation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), with few cases documented in the literature. Review of available cases lends support that lymphoma arising from the 4th ventricle has a variable clinical presentation, occurs most commonly in immunocompetent males, and should be on the differential of any immunocompetent adult presenting with a posterior fossa mass. Optimal treatment modalities are based largely on phase 2 clinical trials, and recommended guidelines regardless of anatomic location should be adhered to.
Global Patterns of Submesoscale Surface Salinity Variability

AbstractSurface salinity variability on O(1–10) km lateral scales (the submesoscale) generates density variability and thus has implications for submesoscale dynamics. Satellite salinity measuremen...
A Requirement-Oriented Design of NFV Topology by Formal Synthesis

Computer networks today heavily depend on expensive and proprietary hardware deployed at fixed locations. Network functions virtualization (NFV), one of the fastest emerging topics in networking, reduces the limitations of these vendor-specific hardware with respect to the flexibility of network architecture and elasticity in handling varying traffic patterns. Many defense mechanisms against cyberattacks, as well as quality enhancing techniques have been proposed by leveraging the capabilities of the NFV architecture. NFV allows a flexible and dynamic implementation of virtual network functions in virtual machines running on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. These quality enhancing network functions often work as a filter to distinguish between a legitimate packet and an attack packet and can be deployed dynamically to balance the variable attack load. However, allocating resources to these virtual machines is an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we propose a solution to this problem and determine the number and placement of the virtual machines (VMs) hosted on COTS servers. We design and implement two separate automated frameworks for defense and quality maintenance that model the resource specifications, incoming packet processing requirements, and network bandwidth constraints. It uses satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) for modeling this synthesis problem and provides a satisfiable solution.
Sjögren's syndrome: Peripheral and autonomic nervous system involvement

Abstract Extraglandular manifestations are frequent in primary Sjogren's syndrome (SS) and are associated with significant morbidity, impaired quality of life, and, in some cases, increased mortality. Involvement of the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems is common and contributes substantially to the overall burden of illness. These manifestations may not only add to patient discomfort but also impair mobility and alter function of vital organs. A comprehensive neurologic evaluation including electrodiagnostic studies, nerve and/or skin biopsies, imaging, and/or testing of the autonomic nervous system is often necessary in SS to define the extent of neurologic disease and exclude other causes. Treatment depends on the severity, rapidity of onset, degree of functional impairment, and type of neuropathy.
Large-scale patterns of galaxy spin rotation show cosmological-scale parity violation and multipoles

The distribution of spin direction of ~6.4*10^4 spiral galaxies with spectra was examined. The analysis shows a statistically significant cosmological-scale asymmetry between galaxies with opposite spin direction. The data also reveals that the asymmetry changes with the direction of observation, and with the redshift. The redshift dependence shows that the distribution of the spin direction of galaxies becomes more homogeneous as the redshift gets higher. The data also show photometric differences between galaxies with opposite spin patterns. When normalizing the data by the redshift, the photometric asymmetry is eliminated. However, when normalizing the data by the magnitude, statistically significant differences in the redshift remain. These evidence suggest a violation of the cosmological isotropy and homogeneity assumptions. Fitting the distribution of the galaxy spin directions to a quadrupole alignment provides fitness with statistical significance >5 sigma, which grows to >8 sigma when just galaxies with $z>0.15$ are used. The data analysis process is fully automatic, and it is based on deterministic and symmetric algorithms with defined rules. It does not involve neither manual analysis of the data that can lead to human perceptual bias, nor machine learning that can capture human biases or other subtle differences that are difficult to identify due to the complex and non-intuitive nature of machine learning processes.
The various routes to functional regeneration in the central nervous system

The axolotl is a type of Mexican salamander with astonishing regenerative capacity1. In our recent paper, we identified a signaling heterodimer that is formed directly after injury in the glial cells adjacent to the injury in axolotls. The c-Fos and JunB genes forming this heterodimer are not unique to animals with high regenerative capacity but they are present in humans too. In this paper I propose perspectives on molecular control of regeneration and future directions that need to be taken to advance our understanding of regeneration at a molecular level. Karen Echeverri and her colleagues showed in their recent Communications Biology study that an unconventional Fos/Jun heterodimer regulates axon regeneration in axolotl. In this article, she emphasises the diverse mechanisms of regeneration in other species and discusses future work needed to understand how the nervous system can be regenerated.
Design and testing of a centrifugal fluidic device for populating microarrays of spheroid cancer cell cultures.

In current cancer spheroid culturing methods, the transfer and histological processing of specimens grown in 96-well plates is a time consuming process. A centrifugal fluidic device was developed and tested for rapid extraction of spheroids from a 96-well plate and subsequent deposition into a molded agar receiver block. The deposited spheroids must be compact enough to fit into a standard histology cassette while also maintaining a highly planar arrangement. This size and planarity enable histological processing and sectioning of spheroids in a single section. The device attaches directly to a 96-well plate and uses a standard centrifuge to facilitate spheroid transfer. The agar block is then separated from the device and processed. Testing of the device was conducted using six full 96-well plates of fixed Pa14C pancreatic cancer spheroids. On average, 80% of spheroids were successfully transferred into the agar receiver block. Additionally, the planarity of the deposited spheroids was evaluated using confocal laser scanning microscopy. This revealed that, on average, the optimal section plane bisected individual spheroids within 27% of their mean radius. This shows that spheroids are largely deposited in a planar fashion. For rare cases where spheroids had a normalized distance to the plane greater than 1, the section plane either misses or captures a small cross section of the spheroid volume. These results indicate that the proposed device is capable of a high capture success rate and high sample planarity, thus demonstrating the capabilities of the device to facilitate rapid histological evaluation of spheroids grown in standard 96-well plates. Planarity figures are likely to be improved by adjusting agar block handling prior to imaging to minimize deformation and better preserve the planarity of deposited spheroids. Additionally, investigation into media additives to reduce spheroid adhesion to 96-well plates would greatly increase the capture success rate of this device.
Differential equations: numerical solutions, model calibration, and sensitivity analysis

Abstract Numerical solutions to differential equations and optimization algorithms to estimate parameters are implemented in this unit. Sensitivity analysis is introduced to measure the effect of changes in the parameters on the model output as a means for system control, experimental design, and model validation. These tools are applied to the familiar logistic growth and tumor growth models in the background before being explored more deeply in systems with more complex interactions. A model of the Ebola virus, infected cells, and uninfected cells is used to understand the progression of each of these, and sensitivity analysis helps us determine which model parameters can be estimated from virus data. The classic SIR (susceptible, infected, removed) model is applied to the 2009 influenza pandemic, and vaccination strategies are tested. The growth of prostate cancer cells and the immune response are modeled, and ways the immune system can be used as cancer therapy are investigated. Models are used to study quorum sensing and to understand how extracellular conditions can lead to a switch such as bioluminescence. In the lab, a glucose–insulin feedback model is used to predict insulin behavior under several typical biological circumstances.
Coalescing investments in school mental health in South Carolina.

Background Improving child and adolescent mental health requires states and jurisdictions to invest in school mental health efforts. In recent years, there has been notable expansion and improvement in school mental health services in the state of South Carolina related to a number of investments that are cumulatively promoting capacity building. Methods This narrative overview examines the history of the school mental health movement in one southern state and details efforts by multiple key stakeholders that have coalesced to form a strong system for advancing school mental health. Results Resting on a strong university-community partnership, five separate initiatives are described that together provide enhanced workforce training and support and expansion of school mental health services. Themes of this work are identified with a goal of supporting and advancing the development of school mental health systems in the United States. Conclusion Strong collaborations and communication efforts both within the university setting and between partners in education and community settings, along with engaged funders keen to enhance well-being of children, youth, and families statewide have set the stage for the growth and expansion of school mental health services.
Outcomes of Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy With Ceftriaxone for Methicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus Bloodstream Infections-A Single-Center Observational Study.

Background Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections (BSIs) are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Ceftriaxone is convenient for outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), but data for this indication are limited. Methods Adult patients with methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) BSI discharged on OPAT with cefazolin, oxacillin, or ceftriaxone for at least 7 days were included. We compared outcomes of ceftriaxone vs either oxacillin or cefazolin. Ninety-day all-cause mortality, readmission due to MSSA infection, and microbiological failure were examined as a composite outcome and compared among groups. Rates of antibiotic switches due to intolerance were assessed. Results Of 243 patients included, 148 (61%) were discharged on ceftriaxone and 95 (39%) were discharged on either oxacillin or cefazolin. The ceftriaxone group had lower rates of intensive care unit care, endocarditis, and shorter duration of bacteremia, but higher rates of cancer diagnoses. There was no significant difference in the composite adverse outcome in the oxacillin or cefazolin group vs the ceftriaxone group (18 [19%] vs 31 [21%]; P = .70), comprising microbiological failure (6 [6.3%] vs 9 [6.1%]; P = .94), 90-day all-cause mortality (7 [7.4%] vs 15 [10.1%]; P = .46), and readmission due to MSSA infection (10 [10.5%] vs 13 [8.8%]; P = .65). Antibiotic intolerance necessitating a change was similar between the 2 groups (4 [4.2%] vs 6 [4.1%]; P = .95). Conclusions For patients with MSSA BSI discharged on OPAT, within the limitations of the small numbers and retrospective design we did not find a significant difference in outcomes for ceftriaxone therapy when compared with oxacillin or cefazolin therapy.
Longitudinal Molecular Imaging of Progesterone Receptor Reveals Early Differential Response to Endocrine Therapy in Breast Cancer with an Activating ESR1 Mutation

Activating mutations in the estrogen receptor (ER) alpha gene (ESR1) result in constitutive transcriptional activity in the absence of estrogen and is associated with endocrine resistance in metastatic ER+ breast cancer. It is not known how activating ESR1 mutations may alter the predictive values of molecular imaging agents for endocrine therapy response. This study investigated the effect of an activating ESR1 mutation on pre-treatment 18F-fluoroestradiol (18F-FES) uptake and early assessment of endocrine therapy response using 18F-FDG and 18F-fluorofuranylnorprogesterone (18F-FFNP) PET/CT imaging of tumor glucose metabolism and progesterone receptor (PR) expression, respectively. Methods: ER+PR+ T47D breast cancer cells expressing wild-type (WT)-ER or an activating ESR1 mutation, Y537S-ER, were used to generate tumor xenografts in ovariectomized female immunodeficient mice supplemented with 17β-estradiol. Tumor growth curves were determined in the presence or absence of estrogen and for ethanol vehicle control or fulvestrant treatment, a selective ER degrader. Pre-treatment 18F-FES uptake was compared between Y537S-ER and WT-ER tumors. Longitudinal PET/CT imaging with 18F-FFNP and 18F-FDG was performed before and 7 to 9 days after starting endocrine therapy with fulvestrant. Radiopharmaceutical uptake in Y537S-ER and WT-ER tumors were compared between baseline and follow-up scans. Statistical significance was determined using paired t-tests for longitudinal imaging and two-way ANOVA for 18F-FFNP tissue biodistribution assay. Results: Y537S-ER xenografts showed estrogen-independent growth, while WT-ER tumors grew only with estrogen. Fulvestrant treatment for 28 days significantly reduced tumor volumes for WT-ER, but only stabilized volumes for Y537S-ER. Baseline 18F-FES uptake was not significantly different between WT-ER and Y537S-ER tumors. Fulvestrant treatment induced a similar early metabolic response for both WT-ER and Y537S-ER tumors. 18F-FFNP uptake in WT-ER tumors was significantly reduced after 7 days of fulvestrant treatment; however, this reduction did not occur in Y537S-ER tumors which showed no significant change between baseline and follow-up PET/CT. Conclusion: Molecular imaging of PR expression dynamics could be a non-invasive approach for early identification of reduced effectiveness of endocrine therapy resulting from activating ESR1 mutations.
What Are the Priming and Ceiling Effects of One Experience Measure on Another

Patient-reported experience measures have notable ceiling effects which can hinder efforts to learn and improve. This study tested whether an iterative (Guttman-style) satisfaction questionnaire combined with instructions intended to give people agency to critique us primes responses on an ordinal scale and reduces ceiling effects. Among the 161 subjects randomly assigned to complete an iterative satisfaction questionnaire before or after an ordinal scale, there was no difference in mean satisfaction (no priming). The Guttman scale was more normally distributed and had slightly less ceiling effect when compared to the ordinal scale. Iterative satisfaction scales partially mitigate ceiling effects. The absence of priming suggests that attempts to encourage agency and reflection have limited ability to reduce ceiling effects, and alternative approaches should be tested.
Maximum Likelihood and IRLS Based Moving Source Localization With Distributed Sensors

In this article, we consider the problem of estimating the location and velocity of a moving source using a distributed passive radar sensor network. We first derive the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) using direct sensor observations, when the source signal is unknown and modeled as a deterministic process. Since the MLE obtains the source location and velocity estimates through a search process over the parameter space and is quite computationally intensive, we also developed an efficient algorithm to solve the problem using a two-step approach. The first step finds the time difference of arrival (TDOA) and frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) estimates for each sensor with respect to a reference sensor by using a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform and interpolation, while the second step employs an iterative reweighted least square (IRLS) approach with a varying weighting matrix to determine the source location and velocity. To benchmark the performance of the proposed methods, a constrained Cramer–Rao bound (CRB) for the considered source localization problem is derived. Numerical results show that the IRLS approach has a lower signal-to-noise ratio threshold phenomenon compared with several recent TDOA/FDOA-based methods, especially when the source is considerably farther away from some sensors than others, creating a larger disparity in the quality of sensors observations.
Comparison of Phase Conjugation in Laser Beams Propagating in Mono-static Links with Air and Water Turbulence

A recent theoretical prediction on the existence of the Enhanced BackScatter (EBS) effect in oceanic hrrbulence is confirmed experimentally. A comparison is also made between the laser beam EBS occurring in air and water hurbulence.
La computación uno a uno: nuevas perspectivas.

SINTESIS: Las iniciativas uno a uno han hecho posible que cerca de dos millones de computadoras portatiles hayan sido distribuidas a ninos en diversos paises iberoamericanos con fines educativos, sociales y economicos. A pesar de lo significativo de las inversiones no es posible por ahora evaluar los impactos de dichas iniciativas y sacar conclusiones. Esto podria deberse a una variedad de factores, tales como la brevedad de los plazos para la implementacion, la falta de metas claras y de compromiso para estudiar el impacto, asi como la escasez de herramientas de medicion. En este documento proponemos un nuevo modo de enfocar estas iniciativas, menos centrado en la tecnologia y mas en el aprendizaje. En vez de definir el concepto «uno a uno» como la proporcion de dispositivos digitales por nino, lo definimos como la relacion que tiene cada estudiante con su propio aprendizaje, en el que los dispositivos digitales se incluyen entre muchos otros factores que lo influencian. Por ultimo, explicitaremos las implicaciones que tiene este nuevo enfoque sobre las politicas y la gestion que rodean a las iniciativas que nos ocupan, con el objetivo de que sean mas integrales y tomen en consideracion, simultaneamente, la infraestructura, el contenido educativo, el apoyo pedagogico, el involucrarse de la comunidad y las politicas. Palabras clave: computacion uno a uno, TIC en la educacion, politicas educativas.
Deep Bayesian Nonparametric Factor Analysis.

We propose a deep generative factor analysis model with beta process prior that can approximate complex non-factorial distributions over the latent codes. We outline a stochastic EM algorithm for scalable inference in a specific instantiation of this model and present some preliminary results.
Age is associated with response to immune checkpoint blockade in advanced urothelial carcinoma

Introduction Urothelial cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy have varied response and survival. It has been shown that older age is associated with ICI response and survival in melanoma but a prior analysis of the Keynote-052 trial did not demonstrate significant differences in response or survival by age. Age and other biomarkers could help predict ICI response and survival to inform decisions about patient selection for ICI treatment. Methods The association of age with response and survival was analyzed in a set of 347 urothelial cancer patients treated with ICI from the IMvigor210 study (Mariathasan 2018). Data were divided into discovery (2/3) and validation (1/3) sets. From clinical metadata, elastic net modeling was used to assess the predictive value of age for response and survival. Results In urothelial cancer patients treated with ICI, the optimal age cut-point for analyses of both survival and response was calculated to be 72 years. Patients over 72 years old have significantly higher rates of response (p = 0.024) and survival (p = 0.043). In univariate analysis with age as a continuous variable, age is significantly correlated with response (p = 0.032) but not survival (p = 0.066). In multivariable analysis encompassing clinical metadata, age is selected by the final elastic net model of response (βage = 0.0184 [95% CI 0.0154,0.0213], AUC p_AUC = 0.0145). A model built using all clinical metadata including age did not show significantly improved fit in prediction of response compared to a model built with age omitted as a predictor variable (likelihood ratio test: p = 0.538). In multivariable analysis encompassing clinical metadata, age is not selected by the final elastic net model of survival (c-index_model = 0.658, p_c-index = 0.00592). Common predictive biomarkers of response, including tumor mutational burden, IFNG expression, and F-TBRS score (Mariathasan 2018) are not correlated with age, suggesting age's association with clinical benefit is independent of these features. Conclusions Among urothelial cancer patients treated with ICI, older patients have better response and survival. Age helps predict response to ICI, and age may be an important feature in a model of response from clinical metadata. We propose that age could serve as an important predictor of ICI response to better inform treatment selection in UC.
INTERNATIONAL AND TRANSRACIAL ADOPTIONS:TOWARD A GLOBAL CRITICALRACE FEMINIST PRACTICE?

The practice of international adoption places feminist legal scholars of family law in a quandary. Adopted orphaned and abandoned children in impoverished developing countries immigrate to the United States and Europe, gaining families and a higher standard of living. But these improved circumstances come at a cost. Their mothers suffer the effects of poverty while a wealthier woman gains a child at the birth mother's expense. International adoption raises not only sensitive class issues but also cultural and racial issues; so many of the adoptees are from Asia and Latin America, but their adoptive parents are white. This article questions whether a practice of international adoption based on the theory of "global critical race feminism" and crafted to reinforce the cultural and racial ties of adoptees can resolve conflicts between these perspectives. This new approach to international adoption, tied to notions of dual nationality, is predicated upon incentives and preferences for expatriates in the United States to adopt children from their countries of origin.
Why Does the United States Have the Best Research Universities? Incentives, Resources, and Virtuous Circles

Around 1875, the US had none of the world’s leading research universities; today, it accounts for the majority of the top-ranked. Many observers cite events surrounding World War II as the source of this reversal. We present evidence that US research universities had surpassed most countries’ decades before World War II. An explanation of their dominance must therefore begin earlier. The one we offer highlights reforms that began after the Civil War and enhanced the incentives and resources the system directs at research. Our story is not one of success by design, but rather of competition leading American colleges to begin to care about research. We draw on agency theory to argue that this led to increasing academic specialization, and in turn, to more precise measures of professors’ research output. Combined with sorting dynamics that concentrated talent and resources at some schools—and the emergence of tenure—this enhanced research performance.
Optimal Income Taxation with Adverse Selection in the Labour Market

This article studies optimal linear and non-linear redistributive income taxation when there is adverse selection in the labour market. Unlike in standard taxation models, firms do not know workers' abilities, and competitively screen them through non-linear compensation contracts, unobservable to the government, in a Miyazaki–Wilson–Spence equilibrium. Adverse selection leads to different optimal tax formulas than in the standard Mirrlees (1971) model because of the use of work hours as a screening tool by firms, which for higher talent workers results in a “rat race”, and for lower talent workers in informational rents and cross-subsidies. The most surprising result is that, if the government has sufficiently strong redistributive goals, welfare is higher when there is adverse selection than when there is not. Policies that endogenously affect adverse selection are discussed. The model has practical implications for the interpretation, estimation, and use of taxable income elasticities, which are central to optimal tax design.
Inclusion of Frailty Improves Predictive Modeling for Postoperative Outcomes in Surgical Management of Primary and Secondary Lumbar Spine Tumors.

Background Malignant spinal tumors are common, continually increasing in incidence as a function of improved survival times for patients with cancer. Using predictive analytics and propensity score matching, we evaluated the influence of frailty on postoperative complications compared with age in patients with malignant neoplasms of the lumbar spine. Methods We used the Nationwide Readmissions Database from 2016 and 2017 to identify patients with malignant neoplasms of the lumbar spine who received a fusion procedure. Patient frailty was queried using the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups. Propensity score matching for age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index, surgical approach, and number of levels fused was implemented between frail and nonfrail patients, identifying 533 frail patients and 538 nonfrail patients. The area under the curve (AUC) of each ROC served as a proxy for model performance. Results Frail patients reported significantly higher inpatient lengths of stay, costs, infection, posthemorrhagic anemia, and urinary tract infections (P Conclusions Frailty demonstrated a significant relationship with increased postoperative patient complications, length of stay, costs, and acute complications in patients receiving fusion following resection of a malignant neoplasm of the lumbar spine region. Frailty demonstrated better predictive validity of outcomes compared with patient age.
Adaptive Park-and-ride Choice on Time-dependent Stochastic Multimodal Transportation Network

In transportation networks with stochastic and dynamic travel times, park-and-ride decisions are often made adaptively considering the realized state of traffic. That is, users continue driving towards their destination if the congestion level is low, but may consider taking transit when the congestion level is high. This adaptive behavior determines whether and where people park-and-ride. We propose to use a Markov decision process to model the problem of commuters’ adaptive park-and-ride choice behavior in a transportation network with time-dependent and stochastic link travel times. The model evaluates a routing policy by minimizing the expected cost of travel that leverages the online information about the travel time on outgoing links in making park-and-ride decisions. We provide a case study of park-and-ride facilities located on freeway I-394 in Twin Cities, Minnesota. The results show a significant improvement in the travel time by the use of park-and-ride during congested conditions. It also reveals the time of departure, the state of the traffic, and the location from where park-and-ride becomes an attractive option to the commuters. Finally, we show the benefit of using online routing in comparison to an offline routing algorithm.
The "Target Sign" in a 46-Year-Old Patient with COVID-19 Pneumonia

COVID-19 has various imaging manifestations, most commonly peripheral ground-glass opacities with a basilar posterior predominance. Less common imaging manifestations include consolidations, findings typical of organizing pneumonia, such as "halo" or a "reverse halo" sign, and vascular enlargement. Our case describes a "target sign" on CT, which is uncommon but is increasingly being recognized. The target sign consists of a central nodular opacity with surrounding ground-glass opacity, then a surrounding relatively lucent ring, and a more peripheral ring of consolidation or ground-glass opacification. This may be the sequela of focal vascular enlargement, endothelial injury, microangiopathy, and perivascular inflammation. The case described involves a 46-year-old male who presented with subjective fevers, nonproductive cough, and hypoxia, subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19. CT imaging performed as part of initial work-up revealed multifocal ground-glass opacities scattered throughout the lung parenchyma, as well as multiple target sign lesions. Although it is a rare finding, the target sign, when present, may suggest the diagnosis of COVID-19.
Behavior Analysis and Mechanism: One Is Not the Other

Behavior analysts have been called mechanists, and behavior analysis is said to be mechanistic; that is, they are claimed to be aligned with the philosophy of mechanism. What this means is analyzed by (a) examining standard and specialized dictionary and encyclopedia definitions and descriptions of mechanism and its cognates and (b) reviewing contemporary representations of the mechanistic worldview in the literature on the philosophy of psychology. Although the term mechanism and its cognates are sometimes an honorific (e.g., “natural science”), their standard meanings, usages, and functions in society, science, psychology, and philosophy do not aptly characterize the discipline. These terms mischaracterize how behavior analysts conceptualize (a) the behavior of their subjects and the individuals with whom they work and (b) their own behavior as scientists. Discussion is interwoven throughout about the nature of terms and definitions in science.
A Systems Study:: The Comparisons of “Whole” and “Parts”

Undertakes a systems study, in the language of mathematics, of the concepts of “whole” and “part”. The concepts of linked systems, product systems, Cartesian product systems and inverse limit systems are used to study “wholeness”, and their factor systems are used and considered as “parts”. Discusses comparisons between models of “whole” and between “parts” and “whole”. Presents the application background and poses some open questions.
LSP at 50: Looking back, looking forward

Resumen en: Swales (1985) has suggested that 1962 marks "the beginning of the story" of LSP. If that is the case, then we celebrate during 2012 the 50th anniversary ...
Regeneration of the Vertebrate Lens and Other Eye Structures

Some vertebrates, especially amphibians, can regenerate the lens after lentectomy. Other structures, such as retina, can also be regenerated. The regeneration process is initiated by the pigment epithelial cells which can transdifferentiate to lens or retina. While a gene responsible for such events is not known, evidence has mounted implicating Hox genes and fibroblast growth factors as key regulators. Keywords: vertebrates; regeneration; eye; transdifferentiation
100 GHz GaAs MMIC sampling head

A room-temperature GaAs diode sampling head was fabricated which has an estimated bandwidth of 130 GHz. This speed is attained with a monolithic sampling bridge design which allows integration with a nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) strobe pulse generator on the same GaAs IC. The 4-ps falltime of the test NLTL measured by the diode sampler is shown. The sampler is within 0.5% of linearity from 0 to 0.4 V. The voltage conversion loss is less than 5% at 5 GHz while the power conversion loss is 43 dB due to the relatively high impedance of the equivalent time output. The minimum detectable voltage is 90 nV/ square root Hz. This sampling head IC, when packaged in a coplanar probe, will allow on-wafer measurements at frequencies in excess of 100 GHz. >
On Perfect and Adaptive Security in Exposure-Resilient Cryptography

We consider the question of adaptive security for two related cryptographic primitives: all-or-nothing transforms and exposure-resilient functions. Both are concerned with retaining security when an intruder learns some bits of a string which is supposed to be secret: all-or-nothing transforms (AONT) protect their input even given partial knowledge of the output; exposure-resilient functions (ERF) hide their output even given partial exposure of their input. Both of these primitives can be defined in the perfect, statistical and computational settings and have a variety of applications in cryptography. In this paper, we study how these notions fare against adaptive adversaries, who may choose which positions of a secret string to observe on the fly. In the perfect setting, we prove a new, strong lower bound on the constructibility of (perfect) AONT. This applies to both standard and adaptively secure AONT. In particular, to hide an input as short as log n bits, the adversary must see no more than half of the n-bit output. This bound also provides a new impossibility result on the existence of (ramp) secret-sharing schemes [6] and relates to a combinatorial problem of independent interest: finding "balanced" colorings of the hypercube. In the statistical setting, we show that adaptivity adds strictly more power to the adversary. We relate and reduce the construction of adaptive ERF's to that of almost-perfect resilient functions [19], for which the adversary can actually set some of the input positions and still learn nothing about the output. We give a probabilistic construction of these functions which is essentially optimal and substantially improves on previous constructions of [19, 5]. As a result, we get nearly optimal adaptively secure ERF's and AONT's. Finally, extending the statistical construction we obtain optimal computational adaptive ERF's, "public-value" AONT's and resilient functions.
Moral Empathy: The Necessity of Intersubjectivity and Dialogic Confirmation

Notable educational theorists have begun to call for the cultivation of empathy in moral education. In Releasing the Imagination: Essays in Education, the Arts and Social Change, Maxine Greene ties imagination directly to empathy. She tells us, “[o]ne of the reasons I have come to concentrate on imagination as a means through which we can assemble a coherent world is that imagination is what, above all, makes empathy possible.” Nel Noddings claims that, “[t]here is considerable evidence that a mature empathy — one that can reach into and feel with others, even those whose physical and moral conditions are very different from our own — may be our best protection against complete demoralization.” Deborah Meier posits two goals essential to any democratic education: the first is informed skepticism, the second, informed empathy. Moral philosopher John Deigh sounds a similar call for empathy in moral education. These advocates of empathy suggest that the value of empathy pertains to its connection to morality.
Regulate Microcredit to Protect Borrowers

Private for-profit companies are playing an ever-larger role in the microcredit industry. The volatile combination of profit seeking companies, minimal competition, and vulnerable, ill-informed, ill-educated borrowers has opened up dangerous potential for exploiting the poor. Expecting microcredit organizations to exercise self-restraint and self-regulation is naively optimistic and will not work. Regulation is needed to protect the microcredit clients in three areas: transparency, interest rate ceiling, and loan recovery practices.
Stereo-based elliptical head tracking

A novel algorithm for head-tracking based on stereo is presented in this paper. Employing stereo vision makes the tracker robust to many factors such as clutter, color and lighting variations, that affect contemporary head trackers. The head is modeled as an ellipse and tracking is performed on the foreground obtained by modeling depth. This is facilitated by using stereo vision. Further, we present a simple head size estimation technique that is critical for modeling considerable motion by the subject. The results obtained demonstrate the robustness of the head tracker and the accuracy of the head-size estimation technique. This would find extensive use in speaker tracking in smart rooms.
Measurement of Oxygen Radicals and Lipid Peroxidation in Neural Tissues

An important role for oxygen radical-mediated neuronal damage has been implicated in a number of acute and chronic neurodegenerative disorders. Particular interest has centered upon oxygen radical-induced, iron-catalyzed lipid peroxidation (LP) as the principal mechanism of the neuronal injury associated with oxygen radicals. Thus, there has been a growing interest in methods for monitoring increased oxygen radical levels as an index of oxidative stress as well as markers of LP-associated oxidative injury in a number of in vitro and in vivo model systems. This unit provides a detailed description of the salicylate trapping method for the measurement of the most highly reactive oxygen radical, the hydroxyl radical, as well as several direct or indirect methods for assessment of cellular LP in either cell cultures or in in vivo models.
Nonlinearities And Volatility Patterns In Corporate Earnings

This paper explores the stochastic properties of the quarterly earnings per share series for industrials, railroads and utilities since 1935. Evidence of stochastic dependency suggests modeling them as a conditionally heteroskedastic process. Changes in earnings tentatively reject the random walk hypothesis since future returns can be predicted from past information. The conditional variance is found to be sensitive to market advances and positively correlated with the conditional mean since the risk premium is statistically significant. Finally, volatility persistence appears to be high in all series.
SPIRALS, ROPES, AND FEATHERS

Rubber had important utilitarian, symbolic, and ritual roles in ancient Mesoamerica. Among the latter is the use of rubber balls as burnt offerings. This paper examines characteristic iconographic manifestations of rubber-ball offerings in Mesoamerican art. One of these, the spiral, seen in the Postclassic Maya codices, is shown to have had greater temporal and geographic distribution than previously thought. Another is the Standard Rubber Offering, a widespread motif in Mesoamerican art that links rubber balls to feathers and rope bindings. In considering why rubber balls were shown bound in rope, the paper examines the physical properties of natural rubber. Understanding the iconographic nuances of rubber balls as ritual offerings sheds new light on the symbolism of rubber balls in ballgame scenes and allows identification of certain images as rubber balls that were previously unrecognized.