cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Enhancement of platinum-induced cytotoxicity by O6-benzylguanine.

O(6)-Benzylguanine (O(6)-BG), a potent inactivator of the DNA repair protein O(6)-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT), is presently in clinical trials combined with alkylating agents that modify the O(6) position of DNA guanine residues, i.e., 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea and temozolomide. Previous work demonstrated that O(6)-BG also enhances the cytotoxicity of cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, and nitrogen mustards in Chinese hamster ovary cells. We have extended this study to include other clinically relevant agents that form interstrand and intrastrand cross-links including cisplatin and carboplatin. Pretreatment of a series of head and neck tumor cell lines (i.e., SQ20b, JSQ3, SCC25, SCC35, and SCC61), Chinese hamster ovary cells, and HT29 human colon tumor cells with O(6)-BG (100 micro M for 2 h before treatment and 2 h during treatment) resulted in a 2-fold decrease in the ED(50) of cisplatin and a concomitant increase in the percentage of cells undergoing apoptosis. The enhancement was independent of AGT activity. Similar enhancement was observed with carboplatin, but no enhancement was seen in AGT-deficient cell lines with radiation or temozolomide, demonstrating the dependence of the effect on bifunctional, cross-linking agents. Furthermore, levels of platinum on DNA after treatment with cisplatin increased 1.4-fold in SQ20b cells and 4.5-fold in JSQ3 cells immediately after treatment with O(6)-BG plus cisplatin and remained elevated for 48 h. Consistent with greater cytotoxicity and apoptosis is the approximately 2-fold higher amount of DNA damage when cells are treated with O(6)-BG plus cisplatin compared with cisplatin alone. Modulation of cisplatin therapy with O(6)-BG might improve the prognosis of patients with head and neck, ovarian, testicular, or lung cancer who are treated with this drug.
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: A New Era in an Old Campaign

On May 14, 1974 the President signed into law the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1974. This legislation renews and extends the Federal commitment to the fight against alcoholism. This article reviews the major provisions of the Act and suggests how it can be implemented.The Amendments incorporate features of the Model Uniform Act with an incentive for their adoption by the States, an historic first. The essential features include decriminalizing the drunkenness offense and assuring adequate treatment for all alcoholic people. The Amendments also strongly rule out discrimination against alcoholic people and protect the confidentiality of records.
"Expressive Cool" and the Paradox of Black and White Males' Neighborhood Socialization toward Education.

This study explores how linkages between adolescents’ educational attitudes and achievement vary according to race, expressive culture, and neighborhood collective socialization qualities. Specifically, the study examines (a) racial differences in how males’ educational attitudes relate to their academic performance (i.e., “attitude–achievement paradox”); (b) how the attitude–achievement paradox varies according to Black and White males’ expressive culture; and (c) the relation of collective socialization to racial differences in expressive cool, educational attitudes, and behavior. Using Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) data, I find that an attitude–achievement paradox among African Americans disappears when neighborhood collective socialization is considered; that expressive cool seems to have a stronger connection to adolescents’ achievement ideology rejection, and very little to their grade point average (GPA); and that neighborhood collective socialization decisively accounts...
Metabolism of Chrysene and Phenanthrene to Bay-Region Diol Epoxides by Rat Liver Enzymes

Liver microsomal metabolism of the weak carcinogen chrysene and the noncarcinogen phenanthrene are compared. In general, chrysene is a rather poor substrate whereas phenanthrene is a relatively good substrate for the cytochrome P-450-dependent monooxygenase system. With microsomes from 3-methylcholanthrene-treated rats, phenanthrene was metabolized at a rate of 7.6 nmoles/min/nmole of cytochrome P-450 as compared with a rate of only 1.5 with chrysene as substrate. Dihydrodiols were major metabolites for both substrates, accounting for 92%-96% of the metabolism of phenanthrene and 65%-76% of the metabolism of chrysene with microsomes from control and treated rats. The K-region 9,10-dihydrodiol is the major metabolite of phenanthrene, whereas the benzo-ring 1,2- and 3,4-dihydrodiols dominate the metabolism of chrysene from which very little K-region dihydrodiol was formed. For both hydrocarbons, microsomes from 3-methylcholanthrene-treated rats produced the (-)-[1R,2R]-dihydrodiol, which has a bay-region double bond, with ≥80% enantiomeric purity. With microsomes from phenobarbital-treated rats, the chrysene 1,2-dihydrodiol was only 10% enantiomerically pure. The (-)-[3R,4R]-dihydrodiols were the major enantiomers of phenanthrene and chrysene, whereas the (-)-[9S,1OS]-dihydriol predominated at the K-region of phenanthrene. Metabolism of the metabolically formed (-)-[1R,2R]-dihydrodiols of phenanthrene and chrysene by microsomes from 3-methylcholanthrene-treated rats resulted in the predominant formation in each case of a bay-region 1,2-diol-3,4-epoxide in which the benzylic hydroxyl group and oxirane oxygen are trans to each other (isomer-2). The respective 1,2-dihydrodiols were metabolized at the same rate as was chrysene. Thus, as had previously been observed for the metabolism of benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]anthracene, liver microsomal enzymes display high stereoselectivity in their formation of predominantly one of four possible stereoisomers of their respective bay-region diol epoxides. These diol epoxides from the four hydrocarbons are superimposable when their bay-regions are aligned.
Fern Flora of Dongguan,Guangdong,China

we used extensive fieldwork and specimen examination as the basis for a study of the fern flora of Dongguan,Guangdong.The characteristics were the following:(1)the tropical and subtropical families(24 families) and genera(50 genera) were dominant,which constituted 64.87%,75.76% and 61.60%of total genera.(2) The families and genera distribution patterns revealed the transitiveness of the elements from tropical to subtropical and distant relationship to the temperate zone.28.80% belonged to the temperate zone.The species distribution pattern showed transitiveness of the elements from tropical to temperate(3) The tropical Asian distribution and east Asian distribution types constructed the main of fern flora in Dongguan,which accounted for about 38.40% and 20.80%.(4) The flora of Dongguan ferns was much more closely allied to Shenzhen and the comparability with Mt.Leshan was lowest;on the total,Dongguan ferns were close to the surrounding areas.
Budget management and budget adjustment

Han Yu said:budget can make or break a business.The recognition of present enterprises on budget management reflects well this view.Taking measures from basic theoretical knowledge of budget management,taking basic drawing-up process as cutting-in point,states the necessity of budget adjustment,material adjustment methods and adjustment principles so as to emphasize the necessity of budget adjustment.
Which Symptoms Correlate the Most to Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in MS? (P2.175)

Objectives: (1) To report distribution of HRQoL responses in an outpatient MS clinic population, (2) to identify MS symptoms that correlate most with HRQoL. Background MS patients experience symptoms in many neurologic domains and have lower HRQoL compared to the general population. SymptoMScreen, a tool for multidimensional assessment of symptom severity in MS, could be used to study their impact on HRQoL. Methods Consecutive MS patients seen for clinical care in an outpatient specialty MS Center self-assessed their global health by answering the question used by World Health Organization (‘In general, how would you rate your health today?’ Ranked from ‘Very Good’ (5) to ‘Very Bad’ (1)). Patients concurrently completed symptoMScreen, an in-house developed validated battery of seven-point Likert-scales for 12 domains commonly affected by MS (mobility, dexterity, spasticity, pain, sensation, bladder, fatigue, vision, dizziness, cognition, depression, and anxiety). Pearson correlations between HRQoL and symptoMScreen were calculated; p<0.05 was considered significant. Results In our cohort of 439 MS patients (77[percnt] female, 82[percnt] RRMS, mean age=46.68 +/-11.52, disease duration=12.25 years +/-8.92), 15[percnt] ranked their health as ‘very good’, 39[percnt] ‘good’, 36[percnt] ‘moderate’, 9[percnt] ‘bad’ and 1[percnt] ‘very bad’; the average score was 3.57 (between ‘moderate’ and ‘good’). SymptoMScreen composite score inversely related to health (r=-0.66, p<.0001), indicating that worse symptoms across all domains associated with adverse self-rated health. All of the symptoMScreen individual domains significantly correlated with health, with highest correlations observed for fatigue (r=-0.61), cognition (-0.56), dexterity (-0.53), anxiety (-0.52), sensory (-0.52) and pain (-0.50). Conclusions Self-rating of global health correlated to ‘mental disability’ (fatigue, cognition, anxiety) to a greater extent than ‘physical disability’ (mobility, bladder, vision). These findings call into question the overwhelming emphasis on physical disability as the outcome measure in MS and suggest that ‘mental health’ is equally (or more) important to MS patients’ sense of well-being. Disclosure: Dr. Green has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kister has nothing to disclose.
Mangrove structure, litter and macroalgal productivity in a northern‐most forest of Florida

Rhizophora mangle L. dominated 10 overwash islands within Tampa Bay forming the northernmost mangrove forests on the west coast of Florida. The mean number of trees and basal area were 5040 trees ha-1 and 20.5 m2 ha-1, respectively. Basal areas ranged from 1.1 (Avicennia germinans (L.) Stern), to 2.6 m2 ha-1 (Laguncularia racemosa Gaertner), to 16.8 (R. mangle). Cockroach Bay mangroves are small (5.8–7.0 m tall) versus coastal forests of south Florida and the Caribbean. Total litter production for a 12 month period was maximal in September for fringing (7.4 g d wt m-2 d-1) and interior (8.7 g d wt m-2 d-1) areas with the two zones not being significantly different. Average litter fall (3.1 g d wt m-2 d-1) was similar to more tropical Caribbean mangals. Leaves accounted for 68 of the litter and reproductive material for 6, being similar to tropical riverine and overwash marine angiosperm communities on the Mexican coast. Although mangrove forests in Tampa Bay are small in stature and experience cold damage and occasional frosts, their litter fall is similar in biomass to that of more tropical mangals. However, their reproductive output is low based on litter fall versus more tropical mangals suggesting that the northern extension is less than optimum. Macroalgal diversity was low (10 species) as compared to Caribbean mangals. Macroalgal turf (0.8 g C m-2 d-1) and epiphyte communities of A.germinans pneumatophores (2.7 g C m-2 d-1) have productivity levels that are equal to or greater than those of Caribbean mangals.
First Room Temperature Chiral Anionic Liquid Forming Micelles and Reverse Micelles.

We report the first chiral surface active anionic liquid, T12M, derived from biodegradable tartaric acid, and its unusual properties. T12M features unprecedented combination of characteristics not found in other ionic liquids (ILs): (a) T12M is the first surface active ionic liquid that is fully chiral, by virtue of the presence of chirality in both anionic headgroup and the counterion; (b) T12M remains as room temperature IL for 3 days and then transforms to a semisolid with melting point at ∼55 °C. The d-spacings in solid T12M, and T12M lyophilized from its aqueous solution, are 13.89 and 14.54 A, respectively. (c) Tartaric acid is unconventional and unprecedented starting material for the synthesis of ILs. (d) T12M dissolves in both hydrogen bonding (water) and non-hydrogen bonding (chloroform) solvents and forms anionic chiral micellar aggregates (CMAs) and reverse-CMAs, at very low concentrations 0.32 mM and ∼10 mM, respectively. (e) CMAs of T12M adopt structures ranging from spherical to lamellar in...
Intra-abdominal manifestations of pleural mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a disease characterized by persistent and progressive disease within the hemithorax. However, after aggressive local-regional treatment using surgery, regional chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and systemic chemotherapy, metastases outside of the pleural space may become the chief obstacle to long-term survival. One possible direction of cancer dissemination is direct extension through the hemidiaphragm into the peritoneal space by the disease itself or as a result of diaphragm resection. In those patients who have isolated progression of disease within the peritoneal space, evaluation of their clinical condition using prognostic indicators is essential. Patients with a limited extent of disease and favorable radiologic findings by CT should be considered for cytoreductive surgery using peritonectomy procedures and perioperative combined intraperitoneal and systemic chemotherapy. Although few patients with pleural to peritoneal disease extension have been treated, some favorable long-term results suggest that selected patients should be thoroughly evaluated for disease control within the abdominal and pelvic space.
Improving the Performance of Implantable Sensors with Nitric Oxide Release

Abstract Directly monitoring physiological analytes on a continuous, real-time basis may lead to improved patient outcomes. Although the technology to fabricate robust miniature sensors has existed for decades, these sensors fail to accurately track the true physiological status of patients after implantation in the human body. Nitric oxide (NO) may be employed to mediate the biological response toward the implanted sensors allowing the sensors to accurately and reliably monitor analytes of interest such that therapeutic decisions could be made based on sensor readings. This chapter discusses details of the biological response that results in senor failure and why NO may help control this response. Three approaches for NO production (N-diazeniumdiolates, S-nitrosothiols, and catalytic NO generation from endogenous S-nitrosothiols) and NO releasing materials that utilize these approaches which have been applied in sensor fabrication are presented. NO releasing sensors have shown greatly enhanced performance in blood contacting and tissue contacting applications in vivo.
The preoperative and operative assessment of aortic regurgitation. Cineaortography vs. electromagnetic flowmeter.

Abstract Supravalvular Cineaortography, the most commonly employed procedure for the assessment of aortic regurgitation, is a semiquantitative technique. The surgeon's estimation of aortic regurgitation present at surgery may differ appreciably from the cineaortographic prediction. To evaluate the aortographic technique, a sine wave electromagnetic flowmeter was applied to the ascending aorta of 25 patients who underwent thoracotomy after Cineaortography had demonstrated aortic regurgitation graded 1+ to 4+ by conventional grading criteria. The percent of retrograde to forward aortic flow and the mean volume regurgitation (ml/diastole) was compared with the cineaortographic grade. In 5 patients with a cineaortographic grade of 1+, aortic retrograde flow ranged from 5 to 17 percent of forward flow and mean volume regurgitation from 3 to 13 ml/ diastole. Seven patients with a cineaortographic grade of 2+ had retrograde flow ranging from 8 to 75 percent with volume regurgitation ranging from 6 to 60 ml/diastole. In 12 patients with 3+ regurgitation, the retrograde flow varied from 17 to 86 percent of forward flow with a volume regurgitant range of 6 to 121 ml. The single patient with grade 4+ aortic regurgitation had a retrograde flow of 49 percent and a mean volume regurgitation of 31 ml. The severity of aortic regurgitation estimated by Cineaortography may differ greatly from that determined by quantitative flow measurement at the time of thoracotomy.
Eupnea, tachypnea, and autoresuscitation in a closed-loop respiratory control model.

A common challenge facing rhythmic biological processes is the adaptive regulation of central pattern generator (CPG) activity in response to sensory feedback. We apply dynamical systems tools to u...
Bionic SERS chip with super-hydrophobic and plasmonic micro/nano dual structure

Natural surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) chips based on plants or insects have gained increased attention due to their facile characteristics and low costs. However, such chips remain a major challenge for practical application because of poor reproducibility and stability as well as unavoidable damage to the surface structure during coating metal and uncontrolled dehydration. By using a simple wrinkling method, we develop a new route to fabricate a low-cost bionic SERS chip for practical detection. Inspired by the taro leaf, we fabricate a SERS chip with a super-hydrophobic and plasmonic micro/nano dual structure, and its structure parameters can be optimized. Compared with the natural taro-leaf SERS chip, our artificial chip exhibits Raman signals with an order of magnitude higher sensitivity (∼10−9 M) and enhancement factor (∼107) under the illumination of weak laser radiation, demonstrating that our SERS chip has great potential in biological detection. The excellent performances of our bionic SERS chip are attributed to a synergy of optimized micro-wrinkle and nano-nest, which is verified by experiment and simulation. We believe our bionic chip could be a promising candidate in practical application due to its merits such as simple fabricating process, optimizable structure, low cost, excellent homogeneity, high sensitivity, and stability.
Motivations for Mexican-US Migration: Does the Economy Matter?

This research examines Mexican immigrants’ motivations for crossing into the US to evaluate whether macroeconomic conditions affect these motivations. Using a data set of 44,017 Mexican migrants fr...
Molecular Structure Characterization of Riverine and Coastal Dissolved Organic Matter with Ion Mobility Quadrupole Time-of-Flight LCMS (IM Q-TOF LCMS).

Deciphering molecular structures of dissolved organic matter (DOM) components is key to understanding the formation and transformation of this globally important carbon pool in aquatic environments. Such a task depends on the integrated use of complementary analytical techniques. We characterize the molecular structure of natural DOM using an ion mobility quadrupole time of flight liquid chromatography mass spectrometer (IM Q-TOF LC/MS), which provides multidimensional structural information on DOM molecules. Geometric conformation of DOM molecules is introduced into molecular-level analysis via the ion mobility (IM) in the system, and an actual measurement of isomers is achieved for the first time. Our data show that natural DOM molecules from several south Texas rivers and adjacent coastal waters have smaller geometric conformation compared with standard biomolecules. Furthermore, about 10% of all DOM molecules resolved within the detection limit of IM-MS had at least one but no more than four isomers. ...
CHAPTER 181 – The Ubiquitin-Proteasome System

Protein ubiquitination is now recognized to be almost as pervasive as protein phosphorylation, and it would be impossible to enumerate here all the known instances in which ubiquitination is an important component of a cellular regulatory mechanism. Instead, a few illustrative examples will be briefly described. Perhaps the most widely appreciated function of ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis is in cell cycle control. Multiple, irreversible transitions in the cell cycle, including G1-to-S, metaphase-to-anaphase, and mitotic exit, require the timed degradation of specific positive or negative cell-cycle regulators. The ubiquitin-proteasome system provides the major route of degradation for most short-lived intracellular proteins in eukaryotes. Ubiquitin is a extraordinarily well-conserved 76-residue polypeptide that is found either free or covalently joined through its C-terminus to a variety of cytoplasmic, nuclear, and membrane proteins. Although the best defined function of ubiquitin is to direct substrate proteins to their destruction by the 26S proteasome, this is not its only role. In recent years, protein ubiquitination has also been shown to regulate endocytosis and intracellular trafficking of membrane proteins, modify proteins in signal transduction pathways, and alter activity of the ribosome. The purpose of this chapter is to give a general description of the ubiquitin-proteasome system, while highlighting some of the key regulatory pathways that depend on it.
Multiscale simulation of grain growth in nanocrystalline materials

Publisher Summary In this chapter, grain growth is used as a simple case study to illustrate a novel multiscale approach for the simulation of microstructural evolution in poly crystalline materials. By linking atomic-level, mesoscale, and continuum simulation methods, all the relevant length and time scales of the problem are incorporated. For the simple model case of grain growth, it illustrates a rigorous computational and theoretical framework that permits physical insights gained from atomic-level simulations to be transferred into the mesoscale and then linked to the continuum level. This transfer requires quantification of the results of the atomic-level simulations by formulation of a theoretical model. This then enables examination of the statistical mechanics of the process in a realistic system. It describes the way the effects of applied stress are incorporated into multiscale approach. By meshing the grain interiors in a way that the grain-interior nodes link up with the already discretized grain-boundary (GBs) and grain junctions delimiting each grain, the inhomogeneous stress distribution arising from some externally applied stress can be computed using the finite-element approach. In an elastically anisotropic system, these stresses provide a driving force for GB migration, in addition to or acting against the driving force because of the GB curvature.
It's Messy but Real: A Pilot Study of the Implementation of a Social Engagement Intervention for Children with Autism in Schools.

Social impairment represents one of the most challenging core deficits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and greatly affects children's school experiences; however, few evidence-based social engagement programs have been implemented and sustained in schools. This pilot study examined the implementation and sustainment of a social engagement intervention, Remaking Recess, for four elementary-aged children with ASD and four school personnel in two urban public schools. The improved peer engagement and social network inclusion outcomes suggest that Remaking Recess can be feasibly implemented in under resourced public schools with fidelity and has the potential to improve child outcomes for children with ASD.
Dynamic characteristics of sandwich composite with debonding

The article presents the results of experimental and finite element analyses of the flexural vibration behavior sandwich composite with different debonding ratios. Sandwich composite consists of two thin skins composed of E-glass fiber and epoxy resin bonded to lightweight and weaker core material of PVC foams. Experimental tests using the impulse technique were performed on the sandwich constituents and sandwich composites with different debonding lengths. The modal dynamic characteristics of sandwich composite were measured and discussed for each debonding ratio. A finite element modeling was used to determine the natural frequencies, modal shapes, and stress and strain fields for each element of sandwich composites for each debonding ratio. The modal strain energy approach was used to determine the contribution of energies dissipated of the core and the skins in the total dissipated energy and the global damping of the different sandwich composites. The results obtained by this approach are compared wi...
BOOK REVIEW-Partnerships the nonprofit way: what matters, what doesn’t,

Since the federal government devolved the implementation of public policy to the local level, for the last couple of decades nonprofit organizations have been increasingly involved in public policy...
Changing Students’ Perception of Mathematics Through Active Learning

In this paper we present results from a study of the effects of active learning on students’ perception of mathematics through their engagement, satisfaction, and perceived performance in the class. We use an active learning model, modified for underprepared STEM students, in our redesigned calculus course and compare students’ responses to those of students in traditionally taught sections of the same course. Our results show that introducing active learning has positively changed students’ perspective on mathematics in gateway mathematics courses. Students strongly agree that they are more engaged in the course and that the structure of active learning facilitates discussion in the classroom. Moreover, as we document student perceptions of learning and confirm the findings by disaggregating students’ exam performance both in an active learning and in a traditionally taught class, we find that the assessment result conducted confirmed students’ perception of improved learning.
Twitter as a Communication and Information Gathering Tool for Educators

Online social media and networking sites have emerged as prominent communication and information gathering tools of the twenty first century that users may access conveniently through a number of devices. With the new generation of learners being “digital natives” and the number of technological devices that are readily available to learners, new methods of instruction are being considered in classrooms around the world. A web-based instructional module was developed to instruct K-12 teachers about how to use Twitter, a social media, as a communication and information gathering tool. Surveys were used to gather participants’ perceptions about using Twitter in their profession as an educator. The results indicate that although teachers are likely to use Twitter to gather information and resources, there are varying reasons that cause teachers to hesitate using Twitter as a communication tool.
History of Surgical Oncology

The history of the special interest area within general surgery that is now called surgical oncology began long before this nomenclature was conceived. It seems fair to say that the therapeutic approach to cancer, or “oncology,” has been intimately linked to the field of surgery since ancient times. Certainly, it is only in the last 100 years that there has been any useful treatment to offer the cancer patient other than an operation. Even though the effect of radiation was discovered just before the turn of the last century, this modality was only of limited clinical value until about 50 years ago. As the anticancer drugs and various hormonal alterations appeared on the scene as therapy at about the same time, we must consider all but the most recent history of oncology to be a purely surgical story.
Abstract MS2-2: Targeting the cell cycle - Beyond CDK4/6 inhibition

Over the past several years three CDK4/6 inhibitors were approved for the treatment of metastatic ER+ breast cancer. This class of drug has had a major impact on patient outcomes and more recent analyses showed improvement in overall survival in addition to a significant delay in the need for chemotherapy and increase in progression free survival. Despite the remarkable clinical benefit, there are patients who have primary resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors and the majority of patients will ultimately develop resistance to this class of drugs. Multiple pre-clinical studies and some clinical data have provided insights to the mechanisms of resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors guiding the development of clinical trials after progression on a CDK4/6 inhibitor. In this presentation, I will review the mechanisms of resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors and the ongoing clinical trials investigating novel therapeutic strategies to enhance responses to CDK4/6 inhibitors and for treatment after the acquisition of resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors. Citation Format: R Jeselsohn. Targeting the cell cycle - Beyond CDK4/6 inhibition [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr MS2-2.
Nonlinear Adaptive Burn Control of Two-Temperature Tokamak Plasmas

Generating electricity by harnessing the energy released from nuclear fusion reactions is an emerging environmentally-friendly approach. A tokamak is a toroidal device where a hot ionized gas, or plasma, is magnetically confined at temperatures suitable for nuclear fusion. Future commercial tokamaks will require proper control of external actuators, such as particle injection and auxiliary heating, to regulate the density and temperature of burning (fusion producing) plasmas. This is known as burn control, and it is one of the greatest challenges in fusion reactors. Engineering limitations may force upcoming reactors, such as ITER, to operate at conditions where the thermonuclear reaction rate increases as the plasma temperature increases. Plasma operation necessitates active control schemes to precisely regulate the nonlinear burning plasma dynamics. Controllers based on linearized models may fail under large perturbations. Therefore, control designs that consider the nonlinearities of the multivariable plasma dynamics are indeed necessary. In this work, a control algorithm is proposed based on a nonlinear, volume- averaged, two-temperature model. This zero-dimensional (0D) model consists of particle and energy conservation equations. Since plasmas are highly complex systems, any reduced control- oriented model is bound to contain uncertainty. The considered model contains uncertainties in the relationship between the ion and electron temperatures, the plasma confinement scalings, and the particle recycling that results from plasma-wall interactions. Adaptive control laws are employed to stabilize the system despite these numerous uncertainties. A simulation study illustrates the effectiveness of the presented adaptive controller.
Differentially Private Collaborative Intrusion Detection Systems For VANETs.

Vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is an enabling technology in modern transportation systems for providing safety and valuable information, and yet vulnerable to a number of attacks from passive eavesdropping to active interfering. Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are important devices that can mitigate the threats by detecting malicious behaviors. Furthermore, the collaborations among vehicles in VANETs can improve the detection accuracy by communicating their experiences between nodes. To this end, distributed machine learning is a suitable framework for the design of scalable and implementable collaborative detection algorithms over VANETs. One fundamental barrier to collaborative learning is the privacy concern as nodes exchange data among them. A malicious node can obtain sensitive information of other nodes by inferring from the observed data. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving machine-learning based collaborative IDS (PML-CIDS) for VANETs. The proposed algorithm employs the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to a class of empirical risk minimization (ERM) problems and trains a classifier to detect the intrusions in the VANETs. We use the differential privacy to capture the privacy notation of the PML-CIDS and propose a method of dual variable perturbation to provide dynamic differential privacy. We analyze theoretical performance and characterize the fundamental tradeoff between the security and privacy of the PML-CIDS. We also conduct numerical experiments using the NSL-KDD dataset to corroborate the results on the detection accuracy, security-privacy tradeoffs, and design.
Migraines During Pregnancy and the Risk of Maternal Stroke.

This cohort study examines the extent to which hypertensive disorders mediate the association between migraines and maternal stroke.
The effect of music on pain sensitivity in healthy adults

Previous work suggests mediating effects of music on acute pain processing. This quasi-experimental pilot study examined the effects of music on experimental pain sensitivity. Healthy adults (N = 4...
An Innovative Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention to Mitigate SARS-CoV02 Spread: Probability Sampling to Identify and Isolate Asymptomatic Cases

Abstract Studies estimate that a substantial proportion of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs through individuals who do not exhibit symptoms. Mitigation strategies test only those who are moderately to severely symptomatic, excluding the substantial portion of cases that are asymptomatic yet still infectious and likely responsible for a large proportion of the virus’ spread (1-8). While isolating asymptomatic cases will be necessary to effectively control viral spread, these cases are functionally invisible and there is no current method to identify them for isolation. To address this major omission in COVID-19 control, we develop a strategy, Sampling-Testing-Quarantine (STQ), for identifying and isolating individuals with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 in order to mitigate the epidemic. STQ uses probability sampling in the general population, regardless of symptoms, then isolates the individuals who test positive along with their household members who are high probability for asymptomatic infections. To test the potential efficacy of STQ, we use an agent-based model, designed to computationally simulate the epidemic in the Seattle with infection parameters, like R0 and asymptomatic fraction, derived from population data. Our results suggest that STQ can substantially slow and decrease the spread of COVID-19, even in the absence of school and work shutdowns. Results also recommend which sampling techniques, frequency of implementation, and population subject to isolation are most efficient in reducing spread with limited numbers of tests. Significance Statement A substantial portion of SARS-CoV-2 infections are spread through asymptomatic carriers. Until a vaccine is developed, research indicates an urgent need to identify these asymptomatic infections to control COVID-19, but there is currently no effective strategy to do so. In this study, we develop such a strategy, a procedure called Sampling-Testing-Quarantine (STQ), that combines techniques from survey methods for sampling from the general population and testing and isolation techniques from epidemiology. With computational simulations, we demonstrate that STQ procedures can dramatically decrease and slow COVID-19 spread, even in the absence of widespread work, school, and community lockdowns. We also find particular implementation strategies (including sampling techniques, frequencies of implementation, and people who are subject to isolation) are most efficient in mitigating spread.
A ZPPNP[1] Lifting Theorem

The complexity class ZPPNP[1] (corresponding to zero-error randomized algorithms with access to one NP oracle query) is known to have a number of curious properties. We further explore this class in the settings of time complexity, query complexity, and communication complexity. • For starters, we provide a new characterization: ZPPNP[1] equals the restriction of BPPNP[1] where the algorithm is only allowed to err when it forgoes the opportunity to make an NP oracle query. • Using the above characterization, we prove a query-to-communication lifting theorem, which translates any ZPPNP[1] decision tree lower bound for a function f into a ZPPNP[1] communication lower bound for a two-party version of f. • As an application, we use the above lifting theorem to prove that the ZPPNP[1] communication lower bound technique introduced by Goos, Pitassi, and Watson (ICALP 2016) is not tight. We also provide a “primal” characterization of this lower bound technique as a complexity class.
Measurement and Data Recording of Aggression

A foundation of ABA treatment is objective, reliable, and valid measurement of client responses preceding, during, and following intervention. This chapter reviews measurement and data recording methods for documenting the effects of behavioral treatment with persons who demonstrate aggression. The authors describe design and implementation of these methods within clinical and research settings including operational definitions, construction of measurement protocols, assessing reliability, and summarizing data outcomes.
Analysis of Negative Capacitance-Based Broadband Impedance Matching for CMUTs

Tight integration of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays with integrated circuits can make active impedance matching feasible for practical imaging devices. In this article, negative capacitance-based impedance matching for CMUTs is investigated. Simple equivalent circuit model-based calculations show the potential of negative capacitance matching for improving the bandwidth along with electrical power transfer and acoustic reflectivity, but the model has limitations especially for acoustic reflectivity evaluation. For more realistic results, an experimentally validated CMUT array model is applied to a small 1-D CMUT array operating in the 5–15 MHz range. The results highlight the difference between electrical power transfer and acoustic reflectivity as well as the tradeoffs in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). According to the results, ideal negative capacitance termination matched to the CMUT capacitance provides the broadest bandwidth and highest SNR if acoustic or electrical reflections are of no concern. On the other hand, negative capacitance and resistance matching to minimize acoustic reflectivity provides both lower reflection and closer to ideal SNR as compared with electrical power matching. It is observed that acoustic matching also reduces acoustic crosstalk and improves array uniformity. While several challenges for integrated circuit implementation are present, negative capacitance-based impedance matching can be a viable broadband active impedance matching method for CMUTs operating in conventional and collapsed mode as well as other ultrasound transducers with mainly capacitive impedance.
The Plagiarism Trilogy

The time has come to talk of many things: Of plagiarism, and plagiarists, and the plagiary, of the noble lie of originality and the daydream of creativity, and why plagiarism is beautiful, and whether we are worthy of its beauty. Everyone hates a plagiarist. Plagiarism is the ultimate academic crime: unjustifiable, unforgivable, unpardonable. The plagiarist is the homo sacer of academia, a sacred outcast, forever accursed, not merely set apart from the fellowship of scholars, but erased from its memory. And yet the practice of law consists primarily of plagiarism. If lawyers aren’t plagiarizing, they’re committing malpractice. What is to be done? Legal pedagogy solves the problem by pretending it doesn’t exist. Plagiarism is the dirty secret we hide from law students, but expect them to discover after we induct them into the profession. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” I have also tasted that fruit, and it also caused my eyes to be opened. This is the story of my dalliance with plagiarism and what I learned from it.
Random intersections of thick Cantor sets

Let Cl, C2 be Cantor sets embedded in the real line, and let ci, T2 be their respective thicknesses. If rljr2 > 1, then it is well known that the difference set Ci C2 is a disjoint union of closed intervals. B. Williams showed that for some t C int(Cl C2), it may be that C] n (C2 + t) is as small as a single point. However, the author previously showed that generically, the other extreme is true; C-; n (C2 + t) contains a Cantor set for all t in a generic subset of Cl C2. This paper shows that small intersections of thick Cantor sets are also rare in the sense of Lebesgue measure; if T1lT2 > 1, then Ci n (C2 + t) contains a Cantor set for almost all t in Ci C2. If Cl, C2 are Cantor sets embedded in the real line, then their difference set is Ci-C2-{ x-yjxCC1C andy 0C2 }. The difference set has another, more dynamical, definition as c0-0c2 {t Ic i 2(C2t) 0 where C2 + t x + t I x c C0 } is the translation of C2 by the amount t. There are two reasons to say that the second definition is dynamical. First, it gives a dynamic way of visualizing the difference set; if we think of C0 as, being fixed in the real line and think of C2 as sliding across CO with unit speed, then C0 C2 can be thought of as giving those times when the moving copy of C2 intersects C1. Second, it has become a tool for studying dynamical systems. One Cantor set sliding over another one comes up in various studies of homoclinic phenomena, such as infinitely many sinks, [NI], antimonotonicity, [KKY], and Q-explosions, [PT1]; for an elementary explanation of this, see [GH, pp. 331-342] or [R, pp. 110-115]. This has led to a number of problems and results of the following form: Given conditions on the sizes of C0 and C2, what can be said of the sizes of either C 0-C2, or C1n(02 -1C t) for t E CO -C2. A wide variety of notions of size have been used, such as cardinality, topology, measure, Hausdorff dimension, limit capacity, and thickness; see for example [HKY], [KP], [MO], [PT2], [PS], [S], and [W]. In this paper we will be concerned with the thickness of C0 and C2, and our conclusion will be about the topology of C-l n (C2 + t) for almost every t E C-l -C2. It is not hard to show that the difference set of two Cantor sets Cl, C2 is always a compact, perfect set. So the simplest structure that we can expect C0 C2 to have is the disjoint union of closed intervals. There is a condition we can put on C0 and C2 that will guarantee this; if TI, -F2 are the thicknesses of C0, C2, and Received by the editors October 14, 1997. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 28A80; Secondary 58F99.
Where Researchers Fear to Tread: Interpretive Differences Among Testifying Experts in Child Sexual Abuse Cases

In this paper we address two areas of disagreement among researchers regarding the two most widely discussed areas of expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases: behavioral symptoms and the suggestibility of children. In the case of behavioral symptoms, observational research documenting symptoms among some non-abused children leads different researchers to different conclusions. Some believe that the existence of symptoms among non-abused children renders symptoms irrelevant, whereas others believe that symptoms may serve as evidence, but not conclusive evidence, that abuse has occurred. We argue that some symptoms (PTSD and sexualized behavior) are relevant evidence of abuse, but that experts should acknowledge the methodological limitations of observational research. In the case of suggestibility, laboratory research demonstrating that some children can be led to make false claims also leads researchers to disagree. We believe the laboratory research is often relevant in assessing the credibility of child witnesses, but that experts must acknowledge the potential differences between the research and the nature of interviewing and the dynamics of sexual abuse.
Surface field excitation by a magnetic point source on an impedance cylinder

An approximate uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) solution has been developed for the analysis of surface magnetic fields excited by a magnetic point source on an impedance cylinder. This solution is useful not only for the analysis of mutual coupling on an impedance cylinder with a uniform surface impedance or with a surface impedance patch, but also for the modeling of a thin material coating on a PEC circular cylinder. Analytically, the proposed UTD solution reduces to that of a PEC circular cylinder when the surface impedance goes to zero. This approximate solution compares well also with the eigenfunction solution, numerically. These comparisons confirm the validity of the solution.
A note on the empirical likelihood confidence band for hazards ratio with covariate adjustment

In medical studies comparing two treatments in the presence of censored data, the stratified Cox model is an important tool that has the ability to flexibly handle non-proportional hazards while allowing parsimonious covariate adjustment. In order to capture the cumulative treatment effect, the ratio of the treatment specific cumulative baseline hazards is often used as a measure of the treatment effect. Pointwise and simultaneous confidence bands associated with the estimated ratio provide a global picture of how the treatment effect evolves over time. Recently, Dong and Matthews (2012, Biometrics 68, 408-418) proposed to construct a pointwise confidence interval for the ratio using a plug-in type empirical likelihood approach. However, their result on the limiting distribution of the empirical likelihood ratio is generally incorrect and the resulting confidence interval is asymptotically undercovering. In this article, we derive the correct limiting distribution for the likelihood ratio statistic. We also present simulation studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Geographic variation in the incidence of treated end-stage renal disease.

To facilitate identification of geographic clusters of areas with high or low incidence of treated end-stage renal disease, the 1983 to 1988 incidence by county was studied among whites and nonwhites less than 60 yr of age in the United States. End-stage renal disease incidence counts for 1983 to 1988 were obtained from the United States Renal Data System data base and linked to the 1985 county population obtained from U.S. Census data. Maps were smoothed by the method adopted by the National Cancer Institute that smooths only according to variability of the local rates, ignoring geographic information on clustering of events. In addition to identifying specific counties with exceptionally high or low incidence, geographic patterns were observed with many similarities across whites and nonwhites: notably high rates of disease in areas of the Southwest, the Southeast and in counties with Native American reservations and low rates in the West and Northwest. On the basis of these findings, several hypotheses are presented to explain the observed variation in treated end-stage renal disease incidence rates.
The Social Implications of Enjoyment of Different Types of Music, Movies, and Television Programming

This study investigated how information about an individual's enjoyment of various genres of music, film, and TV programming could influence an observer's expectations of that individual. An online survey of young adults found that the influence of information about another person's genre preferences varied across genres. Enjoyment of some genres, including jazz music, film comedies, and television comedies, tended to raise expectations of the individual, whereas enjoyment of others, including heavy metal music, anime films, and television soap operas, tended to lower them. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to uses and gratifications perspectives as well as to previous qualitative research on audience reception.
Multiuser Diversity in Wireless Networks: A Diversity-Multiplexing Perspective

We derive a simple characterization of the diversity-multiplexing (D-MG) tradeoff in three multiuser scenarios -multiple access, broadcast and relay assuming channel knowledge at the transmitters. Specifically, we study the D-MG tradeoff of protocols in literature that opportunistically use the channel knowledge to maximize the information rate. We show that for the multiple access channel with K users, a feedback of log K" bits is sufficient to maximize the multiuser diversity gain. The multiuser diversity gains in all three channels are obtained without explicit cooperation between users.