cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Representations and Response Models for Polarizable Force Fields.

For classical simulations of condensed-phase systems, such as organic liquids and biomolecules, to achieve high accuracy, they will probably need to incorporate an accurate, efficient model of conformation-dependent electronic polarization. Thus, it is of interest to understand what determines the accuracy of a polarizable electrostatics model. This study approaches this problem by breaking polarization models down into two main components: the representation of electronic polarization and the response model used for mapping from an inducing field to the polarization within the chosen representation. Among the most common polarization representations are redistribution of atom-centered charges, such as those used in the fluctuating charge model, and atom-centered point dipoles, such as those used in a number of different polarization models. Each of these representations has been combined with one or more response models. The response model of fluctuating charge, for example, is based on the idea of elect...
Phylogenetic Approach to Studying Developmental Evolution: A Model Clade Approach

Increasingly robust species phylogenies, made possible by unprecedented amounts of DNA sequence data generated across the tree of life along with technological advances in gene expression and function analyses, allow us for the first time to merge data about phenotypic, developmental, and genetic changes across nearly any available group of organisms for a wide variety of traits. Recent years have also seen a marked increase in the number of non-model species used in Evo-Devo studies. We propose here a 'model clade' approach, where developmental and molecular studies are performed on multiple species across a clade with well-supported species phylogeny and multiple shifts in character traits, as a method for examining Evo-Devo more thoroughly than is possible by individual comparisons of non-model to model species.
Data analytics in health promotion

Healthcare delivery is moving rapidly towards customized, patient-centered care.Machine learning is used to segment and classify total joint replacement surgery patients.Classification models accurately predict the cluster assignment to new patients.Results provide insight into patient behaviors and attributes to improve health promotion.Helps clinicians, health marketers and patients move toward value-based healthcare. Providing insight into healthcare consumers' behaviors and attitudes is critical information in an environment where healthcare delivery is moving rapidly towards patient-centered care. We apply a two-stage methodology using both supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods to a patient data set from the electronic medical records of an academic medical center located in central Pennsylvania. The data are from patients who had total joint replacement surgery between December 2013 and September 2015. Two clustering methods and four classification algorithms were applied to the data set. Patients cluster into six distinct health market segments from which the cluster assignment is used as the response variable in supervised learning to classify patients. The classification model accurately predicts the cluster assignment for out-of-sample patients, while offering insight into patient behaviors and attributes to help clinicians, health marketers, and healthcare consumers move toward the goal of patient-centered and value-based healthcare.
Dependence of the critical temperature in overdoped copper oxides on superfluid density

The physics of underdoped copper oxide superconductors, including the pseudogap, spin and charge ordering and their relation to superconductivity, is intensely debated. The overdoped copper oxides are perceived as simpler, with strongly correlated fermion physics evolving smoothly into the conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer behaviour. Pioneering studies on a few overdoped samples indicated that the superfluid density was much lower than expected, but this was attributed to pair-breaking, disorder and phase separation. Here we report the way in which the magnetic penetration depth and the phase stiffness depend on temperature and doping by investigating the entire overdoped side of the La2-xSrxCuO4 phase diagram. We measured the absolute values of the magnetic penetration depth and the phase stiffness to an accuracy of one per cent in thousands of samples; the large statistics reveal clear trends and intrinsic properties. The films are homogeneous; variations in the critical superconducting temperature within a film are very small (less than one kelvin). At every level of doping the phase stiffness decreases linearly with temperature. The dependence of the zero-temperature phase stiffness on the critical superconducting temperature is generally linear, but with an offset; however, close to the origin this dependence becomes parabolic. This scaling law is incompatible with the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer description.
Impact of Fall Prevention on Nurses and Care of Fall Risk Patients

Purpose of the study Falls are common events for hospitalized older adults, resulting in negative outcomes both for patients and hospitals. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has placed pressure on hospital administrators by identifying falls as a "never event", resulting in a zero falls goal for many hospitals. Staff nurses are responsible for providing direct care to patients and for meeting the hospital no falls goal. Little is known about the impact of "zero falls" on nurses, patients and the organization. Design and methods A qualitative study, using Grounded Dimensional Analysis (GDA) was conducted to explore nurses' experiences with fall prevention in hospital settings and the impact of those experiences on how nurses provide care to fall risk patients. Twenty-seven registered nurses and certified nursing assistants participated in in-depth interviews. Open, axial and selective coding was used to analyze data. A conceptual model which illustrates the impact of intense messaging from nursing administration to prevent patient falls on nurses, actions nurses take to address the message and the consequences to nurses, older adult patients and to the organization was developed. Results Intense messaging from hospital administration to achieve zero falls resulted in nurses developing a fear of falls, protecting self and unit, and restricting fall risk patients as a way to stop messages and meet the hospital goal. Implications Results of this study identify unintended consequences of fall prevention message on nurses and older adult patients. Further research is needed understand how nurse care for fall risk patients.
Honor in the face of shame: the semiotics of the American flag at political-sex-scandal press conferences

AbstractPolitical sex scandals occurred in rapid succession from 2004 to 2011 in the U.S. The press conferences that followed received significant interest from the national press and public. Interestingly, a general pattern occurred where politicians who resigned at the press conference displayed an American flag and wore a lapel pin, while those who remained in office did not. After conducting a semiotic analysis of eight popular-press images, we argue that the absence of the American flag indicates a separation of personal scandal from the office, and the presence of the flag indicates that personal transgression has public consequences as embodied by the politician’s resignation. Furthermore, the politician’s desire for control over his public representation may inversely impact his concern for social presence and media richness in the U.S. Removal of the visual presence (lower media richness) will also have an impact on the visual literacy or the holistic nature of the event’s visual language. After ...
Design Sensitivities of Components Using Nonlinear Reduced-Order Models and Complex Variables

This work-in-progress paper explores the use of complex variables to define the design sensitivities of high-speed aircraft components modeled by nonlinear reduced-order models (NLROMs). Extreme conditions are expected to be seen by high-speed flight vehicles and it is anticipated that portions of the structure are likely to exhibit significant nonlinearity in their response. Accurate prediction of the path-dependent response requires direct time-integration of nonlinear models. Large finite element models of the structural components would require prohibitively large amounts of computer time to properly simulate. Methodologies have been proposed that use NLROMs to model the component level, dynamic response. The nonlinear ROMs are linear modal models that have been coupled through the addition of nonlinear modal stiffness terms. The nonlinearity in these models is sensitive to the connectivity of the components with the assembly. Recent work has investigated the use of complex variables to update NLROMs based on the boundary stiffness of the adjoining structure. This paper will explore complex methods to determine component design sensitivities to the thermal expansion and stiffness of the surrounding structure.
A revision of the Solomonius -group of the stinkbug tribe Halyini (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae: Pentatominae)

The Solomonius-group is a well-defined group of genera nested within the pentatomine tribe Halyini. The group contains 31 species, 20 of which are new to science. Species are classified into seven genera: Anchises Stal, Auxentius Horvath, Babylas Horvath, Brizica Walker, Elemana Distant, Epitoxicoris gen. nov., and Solomonius gen. nov. The genus Neoptolemus Horvath syn. nov. is synonymized with Brizica Walker. All species are described or redescribed and illustrated. Identification keys to all genera and species are provided. New species recognized are: Auxentius clandestinus sp. nov., Au. nigriculus sp. nov., Au. quasimodooides sp. nov., Au. vulgaris sp. nov. Au. zephyrius sp. nov., Brizica flyensis sp. nov., Br. sphaeroides sp. nov., Br. tubercularis sp. nov., Br. vandoesburgi sp. nov., Epitoxicoris allisonae sp. nov., Ep. trimaculatus sp. nov., Solomonius browni sp. nov., S. grossi sp. nov., S. laminaphallicus sp. nov., S. lestoni sp. nov., S. malaitaensis sp. nov., S. micrometallicus sp. nov., S. rideri sp. nov., S. schaeferi sp. nov., and S. viatorius sp. nov. Neoptolemus assimilis Horvath syn. nov. is synonymized with Br. proximus (Schouteden). The following new combinations are proposed within the Solomonius-group: Brizica exiguus (Distant) comb. nov., Br. humeralis (Horvath) comb. nov., Br. proximus (Schouteden) comb. nov., Solomonius foetidus (Signoret, 1861) comb. nov., S. ornatula (Distant) comb. nov., and S. viridula (Distant) comb. nov. A lectotype is designated for Solomonius foetidus (Signoret, 1861). One species is transferred out of the Solomonius-group of genera, resulting in a new combination, Baracellus distinctus (Schoutedon) comb. nov.
Role of Imaging in Response Assessment and Individualised Treatment for Sarcomas

The first systematic response evaluation criteria were established by WHO, based on the tumor size changes shortly after the computed tomography (CT) technique became available to the daily practice. RECIST, a simplified version of WHO criteria, and its newer version, RECIST1.1 are the currently available international response evaluation criteria in solid tumors and remains based on tumor size changes. While the introduction of molecularly targeted drugs has significantly improved the survival in patient with sarcomas, the evaluation of tumor response has become more complicated. Increasing number of studies have reported the lack of shrinkage in responding tumors and raised concerns of significant underestimation of responses using RECIST. The first such observation was made on gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) treated with imatinib. In GISTs responding to imatinib, the degree of contrast enhancement on CT typically decreases significantly compared with the baseline, and, regardless of whether tumors shrink, heterogeneous hyperattenuating tumors become homogeneous hypoattenuating tumors with a smaller enhancing solid component. In current oncology practice, CT is a widely accepted method of evaluating tumor response. CT images are relatively simple to acquire and can be reasonably reproduced with no significant technical obstacles. FDG-PET is highly sensitive and specific in identifying responding sarcomas. It has mostly been used as a problem solver and for those with marginally resectable GIST. More recently, the utility of whole body MRI is undergoing exploration. This article discusses the traditional size-based response evaluation criteria, and introduces new evidence based response evaluation based on changes in morphology in addition to changes in tumor size on CT images, and whole body imaging is introduced at the end.
Supervised fitness walking for osteoarthritis of the knee improved functional status and reduced pain

Source Citation Kovar PA, Allegrante JP, MacKenzie R, et al. Supervised fitness walking in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. A randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 1992 Apr 1;116:5...
Vitamin E and Alzheimer’s Disease—Is It Time for Personalized Medicine?

For the last two decades, it has been hotly debated whether vitamin E—the major lipid-soluble antioxidant, which functions to maintain neurological integrity—is efficacious as a therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. Several factors key to the debate, include (1) which of the eight naturally-occurring vitamin E forms should be used; (2) how combination treatments affect vitamin E efficacy; and (3) safety concerns that most-recently resurfaced after the results of the Selenium and vitamin E Cancer prevention trial SELECT prostate cancer trial. However, with the advent of new genetic technologies and identifications of vitamin E-modulating single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we propose that clinical trials addressing the question “Is vitamin E an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease” should consider a more focused and personalized medicine approach to designing experiments. An individual’s naturally-occurring SNP variants may indeed influence vitamin E’s therapeutic effect on Alzheimer’s disease.
Techniques and applications of quantum and classical statistical mechanics

Doctoral Thesis of Fredrick N. Michael, PhD 2002. The PhD thesis covers a dual track candidacy. The first relating to condensed matter theoretical physics, nanometer scale structures, transport, interactions and fields where quantum effects dominate. We obtain detailed descriptions via NEGF non equilibrium Green's functions of quantum non equilibrium transport, coupling of materials, effects of external fields that model spintronics, ballistic transport, and quantum multilayered structures in general. The second part of the thesis applies the Non extensive entropy and statistics of C. Tsallis to complex and random systems. Specifically we find a nearly perfect stochastic, and statistics of the US S&P500 Standard and Poor's high frequency 500 stocks index and extrapolate to open complex systems inclusive of financial markets in general. Additionally having obtained a highly accurate stochastic differential equation(s) and PDE partial differential equation of the financial market, we generalize the Black-Scholes derivatives pricing theory and formula to the nonextensive statistics accounting for accuracy of the description of the trajectory of the underlying random assets and therefore a highly accurate European style option pricing formula.
Pool: Scalable On-Demand Secure Computation Service Against Malicious Adversaries

This paper considers the problem of running a long-term on-demand service for executing actively-secure computations. We examined state-of-the-art tools and implementations for actively-secure computation and identified a set of key features indispensable to offer meaningful service like this. Since no satisfactory tools exist for the purpose, we developed Pool, a new tool for building and executing actively-secure computation protocols at extreme scales with nearly zero offline delay. With Pool, we are able to obliviously execute, for the first time, reactive computations like ORAM in the malicious threat model. Many technical benefits of Pool can be attributed to the concept of pool-based cut-and-choose. We show with experiments that this idea has significantly improved the scalability and usability of JIMU, a state-of-the-art LEGO protocol.
The corpse as novelistic form: Knausgaard’s deconstruction of Proustian memory

ABSTRACTThough critics have called Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle the novelistic equivalent of self-obsessed digital media, I argue that his copious use of autobiographical detail actually decenters the subject and, in doing so, reworks Proustian memory for the contemporary age. The novel’s details are, in fact, too excessive to be the account of a remembering, sense-making subject. Unlike Roland Barthes’ realist objects, which are only there to signify “we are the real,” Knausgaard’s particular variety claims to be “real” subjective experience without the remembering subject—the anti-Proust and anti-memory. His realism does not depend on involuntary recollection of the past, but rather implies its irreversible loss to all but the unfailing smartphone camera. The Recherche also distorts subjective experience; as Adorno argues, the shadow of a divine rather than human subject directs Proust’s form. But in My Struggle, realist description points to neither. It is the logic of the corpse—devoid of the pur...
Building a Predynastic: The Construction of Predynastic Galleys

In the mid-1890s, William Matthew Flinders Petrie put forth interpretations for the decorations on late prehistoric Egyptian ceramics, one motif of which he understood as a “galley.” This interpretation was soon thereafter questioned by naval specialist Cecil Torr who instead interpreted the motif as an enclosure. Despite intense debate between Petrie, Torr, and other colleagues, Petrie’s galley interpretation became solidified in mainstream Egyptological thought at the beginning of the 1920s. However, a fresh look at Petrie’s arguments and the evidence on which they are based, reveals some problems with his galley interpretation, rarely questioned in modern scholarship. Study of the discussion's historiography reveals that Petrie’s interpretation became established based not on evidence, but rather on the personalities of the key players in the debate. Modern anthropological frameworks such as Peircean semiotics can instead offer new possibilities for approaching these decorations.
PET radiometals for antibody labeling

Recent advances in molecular characterization of tumors have made possible the emergence of new types of cancer therapies where traditional cytotoxic drugs and nonspecific chemotherapy can be complemented with targeted molecular therapies. One of the main revolutionary treatments is the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that selectively target the disseminated tumor cells while sparing normal tissues. mAbs and related therapeutics can be efficiently radiolabeled with a wide range of radionuclides to facilitate preclinical and clinical studies. Non-invasive molecular imaging techniques, such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET), using radiolabeled mAbs provide useful information on the whole-body distribution of the biomolecules, which may enable patient stratification, diagnosis, selection of targeted therapies, evaluation of treatment response, and prediction of dose limiting tissue and adverse effects. In addition, when mAbs are labeled with therapeutic radionuclides, the combination of immunological and radiobiological cytotoxicity may result in enhanced treatment efficacy. The pharmacokinetic profile of antibodies demands the use of long half-life isotopes for longitudinal scrutiny of mAb biodistribution and precludes the use of well-stablished short half-life isotopes. Herein, we review the most promising PET radiometals with chemical and physical characteristics that make the appealing for mAb labeling, highlighting those with theranostic radioisotopes.
Why Purchase When You Can Repurpose? Using Crosswalks to Enhance User Access

The Mansfield Library subscribes to the Readex database U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 (full-text historic reports of Congress and federal agencies). Given the option of purchasing MARC records for all 262,000 publications in the Serial Set or making use of free access to simple Dublin Core records provided by Readex, the library opted to repurpose the free metadata. The process that the Mansfield Library used to obtain the Dublin Core records is described, including the procedures for crosswalking the metadata to MARC21 and batch loading the bibliographic records complete with holdings information to the local catalog. This report shows that we successfully achieved our goals of dramatically increasing access to Serial Set material by exposing metadata in the local catalog and discusses the challenges we faced along the way. We hope that others tasked with the manipulation of metadata will be able to use what we learned from this project.
Examining the Insular Frontier in South Carolina: Research Directions and Archaeological Hypotheses

This chapter highlights the frontier process in terms of the subsystemic organization of 18th century British colonial culture. Eleven archaeological hypotheses have been formulated to present the characteristics of the frontier process in terms of the subsystemic organization of 18th century British colonial culture. Each hypothesis specifies the types of activities that are likely to be associated with the various aspects of insular frontier change. Each hypothesis indicates expected changes in one or more of the three subsystems that play important roles in the organization of colonial societies. These hypotheses describe the insular frontier process as a cross-cultural phenomenon, applicable generally to the study of overseas agricultural colonization. To define this process in terms of the particular case of the South Carolina frontier, it is necessary to further deduce a series of test implications for each hypothesis.
Effect of enforced expression of cxcl8 by hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells on niche interactions and hematopoietic progenitor cells in adult zebrafish.

7070Background: Cxcl8 is an angiogenic chemokine that is highly expressed in a subset of patients with MPN or clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), a finding which is associated w...
Polarization Entanglement Quantum Key Distribution with Covert Classical Communications

By using a covert classical communication channel for error reconciliation in QKD systems, higher SKRs are capable of being achieved. Assuming transmission over a 30km maritime channel, our previous results for the selection of optimum wavelength for use are re-examined.
Endoscopic management of pancreatic fluid collections

Pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs) are common complications of acute pancreatitis. Asymptomatic collections do not require drainage while symptomatic or infected collections should be drained. Drainage can be performed surgically, percutaneously, or endoscopically. Recent studies have shown that endoscopic drainage of PFCs is equivalent or superior to surgical or percutaneous drainage, with less complications. Advances in tools and technology coupled with increasing expertise in management of PFCs has resulted in minimally invasive endoscopic drainage, by endosonographic guidance, being the preferred approach. New larger diameter lumen apposing metal stents (LAMS) have simplified the process of drainage. LAMS have also made performing direct endoscopic necrosectomy for walled-off necrosis (WON) easier. Technique, duration, frequency, and tools used for direct endoscopic necrosectomy are variable. Performing PFC drainage requires adequate and fundamental knowledge of diagnostic and basic therapeutic EUS.
An Adaptive Exponentially Weighted Moving Average-type Control Chart to Monitor the Process Mean

Abstract Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts are typically used for faster detection of shifts in the process mean, relative to a Shewhart control chart, when the degree of shift is small. Normal guidelines suggest using a small (large) value of the weighting constant, λ, for detecting smaller (larger) shifts in the process mean. Prior research has suggested that the choice of λ should depend on the observed data and have considered the use of a weighting constant, that varies and adapts as monitoring continues and new data are collected. One such adaptive control chart, called the AEWMA chart, utilizes a rather computationally complex scheme to determine the weighting constant λ and it requires knowledge of the size of the shift, to specify whether it is “small” or “large”. A complex two-phase optimization scheme is then solved to yield “good solutions”. As an alternative, we propose an adaptive EWMA-type control chart that does not require knowledge of the degree of the shift. Further, the computational scheme is easier and completed in one stage. The performance of the proposed chart is studied using simulations, where the degree of the shift in the process mean is varied over a wide range of values. Based on the average run length (ARL), as a performance measure, the proposed chart is demonstrated to perform uniformly better than the traditional EWMA chart with a constant weight. The proposed chart also performs better than the AEWMA chart for moderate to large shifts.
Dissertations must evolve to remain relevant.

A monograph is an entirely outdated requirement in an age when publications and presentations are used as a measure of PhD students’ performance in all other settings, argues Mark Martin Jensen, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering. It’s time to replace dissertations with something useful.
Functionalizing magnet additive manufacturing with in-situ magnetic field source

Abstract Additive manufacturing via 3-D printing technologies have become a frontier in materials research, including its application in the development and recycling of permanent magnets. This work addresses the opportunity to integrate magnetic field sources into 3-D printing process in order to enable printing, alignment of anisotropic permanent magnets or magnetizing of magnetic filler materials, without requiring further processing. A non-axisymmetric electromagnet-type field source architecture was designed, modelled, constructed, installed to a fused filament commercial 3-D printer, and tested. The testing was performed by applying magnetic field while printing composite anisotropic Nd-Fe-B + Sm-Fe-N powders bonded in Nylon12 (65 vol.%) and recycled Sm-Co powder bonded in PLA (15 vol.%). Magnetic characterization indicated that the degree-of-alignment of the magnet powders increased both with alignment field strength (controlled by the electric current applied to the magnetizing system) and the printing temperature. Both coercivity and remanence were found to be strongly dependent on the degree-of-alignment, except for printing performed below but near the Curie temperature of Nd-Fe-B (310 ° C). At applied field of 0.15 kOe, Sm-Co and hybrid Nd-Fe-B/Sm-Fe-N printed samples showed degrees-of-alignment of 83 % and 65 %, respectively. The variations in coercivity were consistent with previous observations in bonded magnet materials. This work verifies that integration of magnetic field sources into 3-D printing processes will result in magnetic alignment of particles while ensuring that other advantages of 3-D printing are retained.
Shing-Tung Yau's work on the notion of mass in general relativity

The notion of mass or energy has been one of the most challenging problems in general relativity since Einstein's time. As is well known from the equivalence principle, there is no well-defined concept of energy density for gravitation. On the other hand, when there is asymptotic symmetry, concepts of total energy and momentum can be defined. This is the ADM energy-momentum and the Bondi energy-momentum when the system is viewed from spatial infinity and null infinity, respectively. These concepts are fundamental in general relativity but there are limitations to such definitions if the physical system is not isolated and cannot quite be viewed from infinity where asymptotic symmetry exists.The positive energy conjecture states that the total energy of a nontrivial isolated physical system must be positive. This conjecture lies in the foundation of general relativity upon which stability of the system rests.This long standing conjecture had attracted many physicists and mathematician,but only very special cases were verified up until the seventies.
A(DP)$^2$SGD: Asynchronous Decentralized Parallel Stochastic Gradient Descent with Differential Privacy

As deep learning models are usually massive and complex, distributed learning is essential for increasing training efficiency. Moreover, in many real-world application scenarios like healthcare, distributed learning can also keep the data local and protect privacy. A popular distributed learning strategy is federated learning, where there is a central server storing the global model and a set of local computing nodes updating the model parameters with their corresponding data. The updated model parameters will be processed and transmitted to the central server, which leads to heavy communication costs. Recently, asynchronous decentralized distributed learning has been proposed and demonstrated to be a more efficient and practical strategy where there is no central server, so that each computing node only communicates with its neighbors. Although no raw data will be transmitted across different local nodes, there is still a risk of information leak during the communication process for malicious participants to make attacks. In this paper, we present a differentially private version of asynchronous decentralized parallel SGD (ADPSGD) framework, or A(DP)$^2$SGD for short, which maintains communication efficiency of ADPSGD and prevents the inference from malicious participants. Specifically, R{e}nyi differential privacy is used to provide tighter privacy analysis for our composite Gaussian mechanisms while the convergence rate is consistent with the non-private version. Theoretical analysis shows A(DP)$^2$SGD also converges at the optimal $\mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{T})$ rate as SGD. Empirically, A(DP)$^2$SGD achieves comparable model accuracy as the differentially private version of Synchronous SGD (SSGD) but runs much faster than SSGD in heterogeneous computing environments.
Augustine’s Principled Realism

This chapter argues that Augustine was a “principled realist.” A guarded pessimism about human nature and a non-utopian view of community life explain his realism: his spiritual and moral values make him a principled one. This negativity about human nature, even if you disagree with Augustine’s theology, is empirically confirmed by an honest assessment of human history. After briefly discussing how Plato’s metaphysics informs his politics, I organize my argument around three themes: Augustine’s critique of those who blamed Rome’s fall on the adoption of Christianity, his justification for using force against the Donatists, and his acceptance of war, which he seeks to limit though principles now accepted as seminal to the development of modern just war theory in the west.
Pharmacokinetics of Synthetic Cathinones Found in Bath Salts in Mouse Brain and Plasma Using High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Approximately 10 years ago, “bath salts” became popular as legal alternatives to the psychostimulants cocaine and the amphetamines. These products contained synthetic cathinones, including 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethcathinone (methylone). Most preclinical investigations have only assessed the effects of these synthetic cathinones independently; however, case reports and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) studies indicate that bath salts contain mixtures of these substances. In this study, we examine the pharmacokinetic interactions of the drug combination. We hypothesized that combined exposure to MDPV, mephedrone, and methylone would result in increased drug concentrations and enhanced total drug concentrations when compared to individual administration. Adolescent male Swiss–Webster mice were injected intraperitoneally with either 10 mg/kg MDPV, 10 mg/kg mephedrone, 10 mg/kg methylone, or 10 mg/kg combined MDPV, mephedrone, and methylone. Following injection, brains and plasma were collected at 1, 10, 15, 30, 60, and 120 min. Drugs were extracted via solid-phase extraction, and concentrations were determined using a previously published high-pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method. All drugs crossed the blood–brain barrier quickly. For methylone, the maximal concentration (Cmax) and the total drug exposure [as represented by the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)] were significantly higher when combined with mephedrone and MDPV in both matrices (2.89-fold increase for both Cmax and AUC with combined treatment). For mephedrone, the Cmax was unchanged, but the AUC in brain was increased when in combination by approximately 34%. Interestingly, for MDPV, the Cmax was unchanged, yet the AUC was higher when MDPV was administered individually (there was a 62% decrease in AUC with combined treatment). The pharmacokinetics of methylone, mepedrone, and MDPV are altered when the drugs are used in combination. These data provide insight into the consequences of co-exposure to synthetic cathinones in popular bath salt products.
Delta-Screening: A Fast and Efficient Technique to Update Communities in Dynamic Graphs

Detecting communities in time-evolving/dynamic networks is an important operation used in many real-world network science applications. While there have been several proposed strategies for dynamic community detection, such approaches do not necessarily take advantage of the locality of changes. In this paper, we present a new technique called Delta-Screening (or simply, $\Delta$ -screening) for updating communities in a dynamic graph. The technique assumes that the graph is given as a series of time steps, and outputs a set of communities for each time step. At the start of each time step, the $\Delta$ -screening technique examines all changes (edge additions and deletions) and computes a subset of vertices that are likely to be impacted by the change (using the modularity objective). Subsequently, only the identified subsets are processed for community state updates. Our experiments demonstrate that this scheme, despite its ability to prune vertices aggressively, is able to generate significant savings in runtime performance (up to 38× speedup over static baseline and $5 \times$ over dynamic baseline implementations), without compromising on the quality. We test on both real-world and synthetic network inputs containing both edge additions and deletions. The $\Delta$ -screening technique is generic to be incorporated into any of the existing modularity-optimizing clustering algorithms. We tested using two state-of-the-art clustering implementations, namely, Louvain and SLM. In addition, we also show how to use the $\Delta$ -screening approach to delineate appropriate intervals of temporal resolutions at which to analyze a given input network.
Patient Satisfaction with a Psychology Consultation-Liaison Service at an Academic Medical Center.

One to two-thirds of all medically admitted patients have comorbid psychiatric concerns. To address the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional factors that affect medical hospitalization, psychological or psychiatric consultation-liaison (CL) services are consulted. The current study was designed to understand patient satisfaction with a CL psychology service and how it was associated with satisfaction with overall hospitalization, taking into consideration relevant factors. Adults medically admitted to an academic teaching hospital (N = 220), who were seen at least once by the CL psychology service, completed satisfaction and demographic questionnaires. Most patients reported being satisfied with the CL psychology service, with women reporting higher satisfaction than men. Satisfaction with the CL psychology service was associated with satisfaction with overall hospitalization, but did not differ based on age, race/ethnicity, education, income, length of stay, number of visits, or presence of psychiatric diagnosis. The results suggest that CL psychology services may contribute to improving overall patient experience.
Computational Storage to Increase the Analysis Capability of Tier-2 HEP Data Sites

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produces collision data at 100 PB/year which needs to be stored and analyzed for high energy physics (HEP) theories. We reconsider the design choices of HEP data centers and evaluate different upgrade options to improve their analysis capacity.Results show that computational storage to be the cost-effective and power-efficient upgrade option. Computational disks in the storage cluster deliver a 9.3-fold speedup for Higgs Boson analysis. This exceeds the speedup from all other upgrades considered (faster network: 100 to 1000 Gbps, upgrade from HDDs to SSDs).
Validation of SATURN; an Inexpensive, Freely-available, and Fully Self-administered Cognitive Screening Test. (209)

Objective: To develop and validate a free, public domain, automatically scored, and self-administered cognitive screening test. Background: Cognitive screening tests improve detection of dementia in the outpatient setting, and are helpful in select inpatient settings. Barriers to widespread screening include provider time investment and training (for test administration and scoring). We therefore developed Self-Administered Tasks Uncovering Risk of Neurodegeneration (SATURN) for inexpensive ( Design/Methods: SATURN is a thirty-point test including orientation, word recall, and math items adapted from the Saint Louis University Mental Status test, modified versions of the Stroop and Trails tasks, and other assessments of visuospatial function and memory. We recruited English-speaking neurology clinic patients and their partners aged 50–89 years. After taking SATURN and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), participants answered a brief survey including demographics and test preferences. For patients recruited from dementia clinics (n=17), clinical status was quantified with the clinical dementia rating scale (CDR), and compared to SATURN and MoCA scores (for care partners, CDR=0). SATURN and the MoCA were also compared to one-another. Results: Twenty-four patient-partner dyads (n=47) were recruited. Four patients with moderate-to-severe dementia (CDRglobal ≥ 2.0) were not scorable based on pre-defined reading proficiency criteria. For the remaining (n=43) participants, (52% women; age (mean±sd) 65.9±9.8 years) SATURN and MoCA scores were highly correlated (r=0.90; p Conclusions: SATURN is a freely available (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.02v6wwpzr) and fully self-administered cognitive screening test. Since it performs well compared to CDR ratings and MoCA scores in patients who can read, it may enjoy widespread use. Disclosure: Dr. Bissig has nothing to disclose. Dr. Erten-Lyons has received research support from Glaxo-Smith Kline. Dr. Lutsep has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kaye has nothing to disclose.
Exploring the Characteristics of a Salesperson Social Schema

This paper represents an initial study into the effects of consumers’ cognitive representation of the social category "salesperson." The two studies describe in some detail the contents of the "car salesperson" social stereotype and provide an initial test of the ability of certain salesperson characteristics to activate this stereotype. More specifically, study 2 shows how certain salesperson characteristics can affect the perceived "typicalness" of a salesperson. Implications for salespeople and future research are also discussed.
Current therapeutic strategies for inflammation following traumatic spinal cord injury.

Damage from spinal cord injury occurs in two phases – the trauma of the initial mechanical insult and a secondary injury to nervous tissue spared by the primary insult. Apart from damage sustained as a result of direct trauma to the spinal cord, the post-traumatic inflammatory response contributes significantly to functional motor deficits exacerbated by the secondary injury. Attenuating the detrimental aspects of the inflammatory response is a promising strategy to potentially ameliorate the secondary injury, and promote significant functional recovery. This review details how the inflammatory component of secondary injury to the spinal cord can be treated currently and in the foreseeable future.
Microsystems packaging from milli to microscale to nanoscale

So called "packaging", in the past, played two roles: (1) provide I/O connections to the semiconductor devices so the IC is tested and ready for board assembly. This is called IC packaging and (2) integrate components into systems to form end product systems such as cell phones, PDAs, Laptops. This is called systems packaging. Both the above IC and systems packaging are accomplished by interconnections or wiring at the package or board level so far. Packaging is currently at milliscale in manufacturing, microscale in development and nanoscale in research. In future, the role of packaging is more than interconnections. The IC devices themselves began to integrate more and more transistors and functions, leading to what the community have been calling SOC or system-on-chip with multiple systems functions in a single chip. This can be called horizontal or 2D integration of IC blocks toward system-level functionality. The community began to realize, however, that such an approach presents design complexity and fundamental limits for computing, and integration limits for wireless systems, over the long run. This led to 3D packaging approaches, often referred to as SIP or system-in-package. Both these are the latest and most leading-edge technologies pushing the IC integration in two and three dimensions. But they both have one major shortcoming. They depend on CMOS processing and hence are limited by what can achieved with CMOS. The SIP and SOC approaches, while providing major opportunities in both miniaturization and integration for advanced portable and desktop electronic products, are limited by CMOS processes. A new concept called SOP or system-on-package being pioneered by Georgia Tech PRC - where the package, and not the board, is the entire system. SOP addresses the shortcomings of both SOC and SIP in two ways: optimize silicon for what it is good for, and the package for what it is best at, by means of IC/package/system co-design, while doing so, SOP optimizes both for cost, performance, miniaturization and reliability. The package, in this concept, therefore overcomes both computing limitations and integration limitations of SOC and SIP. It does this by having global wiring as well as RF and optical component integration in the package level, and not in the chip. The SOP, therefore, includes embedded digital, RF and optical components and functions built into a highly miniaturized package, module or board for emerging convergent systems of tomorrow. This Moore's Law for systems integration is akin to Moore's Law for ICs pushing component density by a factor of 100 to 10,000 by means of microscale thin film component integration in the short term to nanoscale integration in the long term.
Opportunities for accelerating commercial development via effective partnering

Since 1980, by a series of laws and executive orders, the resources in federal laboratories have been made increasingly available to private industry via technology transfer efforts in support of the National Competitiveness Objectives. The author explains how these resources can be accessed, with particular emphasis on Los Alamos National Laboratory. >
Secure internet voting protocol for overseas military voters

Overseas military members are known to be disenfranchised at a far higher rate than traditional voters. This fact stems from problems associated with the traditional vote-by-mail absentee process, which does not mesh well to the military member's frequent address changes, mail delivery in combat environments, and the simple delay in the two way mail system. Initiatives by the Federal Voting Assistance Program aim to improve voting capabilities for U.S. military members. Among these initiatives are the efforts to provide a complete system allowing the military voter the ability to receive and cast voted ballots directly over the Internet. This paper proposes a communication protocol to securely provide this voting option to our military voters while maintaining integrity in the U.S. election process.
Some additional results about polymorphisms in models of an additive quantitative trait under stabilizing selection

The existence of two stable, symmetric (allelic frequency 0.5 in each locus) polymorphic states is demonstrated for a two-locus model of an additive quantitative trait under strong Gaussian selection. Linkage disequilibrium at one of the states is negative whereas it is positive at the other state. For a three-locus model, it is shown that in order to maintain a stable polymorphism in all three loci, selection must be sufficiently but not exces- sively strong relative to recombination. Also, positive linkage disequilibrium can be maintained in a three-locus model under stabilizing selection that is not very strong.
Rho GTPases and the Downstream Effectors Actin-related Protein 2/3 (Arp2/3) Complex and Myosin II Induce Membrane Fusion at Self-contacts *

Actin regulation is required for membrane activities that drive cell adhesion and migration. The Rho GTPase family plays critical roles in actin and membrane dynamics; however, the roles of the Rho GTPase family are not limited to cell adhesion and migration. Using micron-sized obstacles to induce the formation of self-contacts in epithelial cells, we previously showed that self-adhesion is distinct from cell-to-cell adhesion in that self-contacts are eliminated by membrane fusion. In the current study, we identified Rho GTPases, RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42, as potential upstream regulators of membrane fusion. The RhoA downstream effector myosin II is required for fusion as the expression of mutant myosin light chain reduced membrane fusion. Furthermore, an inhibitor of the Arp2/3 complex, a downstream effector of Rac1 and Cdc42, also reduced self-contact-induced membrane fusion. At self-contacts, while the concentration of E-cadherin diminished, the intensity of GFP-tagged Arp3 rapidly fluctuated then decreased and stabilized after membrane fusion. Taken together, these data suggest that the Arp2/3 complex-mediated actin polymerization brings two opposing membranes into close apposition by possibly excluding E-cadherin from contact sites, thus promoting membrane fusion at self-contacts.