cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Toward a Human Emulator: A Framework for the Comprehensive Computational Representation of Human Cognition

In recent years, Sandia National Laboratories has undertaken a program of research and development with the goal to attain a realistic computational representation of human cognition, a “human emulator.” Realism requires that the representation address cognitive, and organic factors (e.g., stress, arousal, fatigue). Near-term application is envisioned in training and evaluation with long-term potential for broad application across a spectrum of technologies. This paper describes the conceptual framework that has been developed and implemented in an initial prototype. Specifically, this framework emphasizes a computational instantiation of Naturalistic Decision Making with an underlying foundation based on human neurophysiology.
Multiphoton Excitation of Relativistic Cyclotron Resonance and Phase Bistability

Due to relativistic nonlinear effects large amplitude cyclotron motion of a free electron can be excited by two laser beams with frequencies much higher than the cyclotron frequency Ω. The laser frequencies can differ either by Ω(three-photon resonance) or 2Ω (four-photon resonance). The excited cyclotron motion displays a hysteretic resonance based solely on the relativistic mass-effect. In the case of four-photon resonance, the system exhibits novel kind of optical bistability which can be described as phase bistability. The power of laser radiation required to observe these effects is very low and could be obtained using cw regime of e.g. He-Ne (for three-photon resonance) or CO2 (for four-photon resonance) lasers.
Analysis on AIDS related knowledge,attitude and behavior among the different crowds in Shangcai Country of Henan Province

Objective:To investigate the knowledge, attitude and behavior associated with AIDS among the different popu- lation groups in Shangcai, and to provide evidence for the development of intergrated control measures. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with questionnaire was conducted among villagers of 15-49, middle school students, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and commercial sex workers (CSW) by two-stage cluster sampling or convenience sampling methods. The data were analyzed by SPSS11.5. Results: 442 villagers, 772 middle school students, 369 PLWHA and 150 CSW were investigated. The right ratios of the five knowledge of AIDS questions among the four population groups were 72.2% , 84.6%, 95.9% and 85.3%, respectively, and there were significant differences among the four ratios ( χ2=80.73,P0.001). The rates of the four crowds who were willing to continue affiliating with the infecting-HIV was 77.8%, 77.6%, 98.4% and 52.7% , respectively. The percentage of the PLWHA who had sexual behaviors in the past 3 months was 71.5%, with the rate of using condoms 92.0%. The using-condoms rate of the nearest once commercial sexual behaviors of the CSW was 86.7%, and hadn’t injected drugs in the past 6 months. Conclusion: The misapprehend toward HIV/AIDS is still exist a mong different crowds, there are still some dangerous behaviors spreading HIV. The suggestion that the educations of different and behavior intervention should be carried out aiming at different crowds for preventing AIDS.
A method for preparing natural joints of rock mass based on 3D scanning and printing techniques and its experimental validation

Failure to prepare the rockmass sample with joints of the same surface morphology as those of natural joints has long been infesting the mechanical experiment on the structural surfaces of rock mass.With the latest development of the 3D printing technique and the rapid surface scanning technique,a new method is developed for producing the joint specimens containing the joint surfaces similar to those of natural rockmass.In the proposed method,a 3D scanner is first used to obtain the point cloud data related to the surface topography of joints of natural rockmass;then the virtual specimen model containing natural joints and related surface morphology information is reconstructed,and finally the PLA mould with the joint surfaces is produced using the 3D printing technique.The shear specimens are prepared by pouring the similar material into the PLA mould.Three types of rockmass joint surfaces are copied with the proposed procedure;and a series of measurements and shear tests are conducted on the made joint specimens.The results indicate that:(1) the proposed method can copy accurately the joint morphology from the originally natural joint;(2) among the three types of rockmass joint specimens,the displacement-force curves of the specimens are very close to each other,showing that the consistency of the made specimens containing joint surfaces is satisfied under the identical conditions;(3) by comparing the joint surface contour before shearing to that after shearing,it is found that the shear-induced failure occurs heterogeneously.
Kierkegaard and Jung on the Self

Is it possible for theology and psychology to complement each other in their respective visions of the self? To answer this question some correlations can be drawn between a theology such as Soren ...
A study on price-discrimination for robust social coordination

System-level efficiency often depends greatly on the choices of the system's users. For example, congestion in traffic networks is often the result of self-interested choices made by individual drivers or users. An important research focus involves characterizing road tolls that bring users' incentives in line with the system planner's goals. Recent results have proposed methods of computing tolls that rely on very little instance-specific information, e.g. network topology or users' value-of-time. Unfortunately, these existing methods require very large tolls, which may be impractical for a number of reasons. In this paper, we study price-discrimination as a possible means to social coordination; that is, we propose a model in which a system planner has a limited ability to disaggregate a user population into a number of groups on the basis of users' value-of-time, and charge different tolls to different groups. We show that even without access to problem-specific information, it is possible to incentivize arbitrarily-low-congestion flows by discriminating finely enough. Second, we provide a general method of adapting standard taxation techniques to discriminatory settings and we analytically characterize the resulting efficiency gains. Finally, we look specifically at parallel-network, affine-cost routing games, and show how to derive the congestion-minimizing discriminatory taxation functions and prove upper-bounds on the inefficiencies resulting from this method.
Multi-Attribute Decision Trees and Decision Rules

Among the numerous learning tasks that fall within the field of knowledge discovery in databases, classification may be the most common. Furthermore, top-down induction of decision trees is one of the most popular techniques for inducing such classification models. Most of the research in decision tree induction has focused on single attribute trees, but in this chapter we review multi-attribute decision trees induction and discuss how such methods can improve both the accuracy and simplicity of the decision trees. As an example of this approach we consider the recently proposed second order decision tree induction (SODI) algorithm, which uses conjunctive and disjunctive combinations of two attributes for improved decision tree induction in nominal databases. We show via numerical examples that in many cases this generates more accurate classification models and easier to interpret decision trees and rules.
Absence of a Postantibiotic Effect in Experimental Left-Sided Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Endocarditis Treated with Imipenem with or Without Gentamicin

In ongoing experiments, the pharmacodynamic effects of antibotics have been evaluated in the rat model of aortic valve Pseudomonas aeruginosa endocarditis.
Match 2017: Blindsided or Fumbled?

The field of otolaryngology has historically enjoyed extreme interest among residency applicants. However, in the past few years, the number of applicants has precipitously dropped, so that there i...
The metabolism of herbicides by plants and soils

The importance of the ability of organisms to metabolize exogenous chemicals is gaining increasing recognition. It is now demonstrated that such metabolism is of fundamental significance not only in the mode of action of such chemicals, the plants resistance to effect of applied chemicals but also determines the amount of such chemical that may be left on crops harvested for human utilization (Freed et al. 1961). In addition, the wide scale of utilization of chemicals as pesticides, and the wholesale discharge of organic chemicals such as detergents or effluents from manufacturing plants into the atmosphere or water results in wide scale contamination of man’s environment. Metabolism of these contaminants by plants and micro-organisms of the soil provides a means of reducing the level of exposure to man. For the foregoing reasons, then, an understanding of the metabolism of such chemicals by plant and soil takes on a greater importance.
Do All Morbidly Obese Patients Have a “Difficult” Airway?

There has long been held an acceptance that morbidly obese patients present problems with airway management. This chapter will highlight arguments that both agree with and challenge this assumption. Recent studies question the correlation between elevated BMI and difficult direct laryngoscopy, probably because excess adipose tissue has a variable distribution among MO patients. The reader will be able to identify a subset of MO patients where difficult airway management is indeed expected. In such patients, maximizing oxygenation is of primary importance. This chapter will therefore also highlight best practice in terms of preoxygenation and recruitment maneuvers which minimize atelectasis. Suggested alternatives to direct laryngoscopy that achieve rapid intubation will be recommended.
Pharmacological management of pain in older persons.

OBJECTIVE Evaluate the efficacy and safety of pharmacological pain management treatments to minimize adverse events and optimize pain relief. DATA SOURCES Symposium presentation based on clinical practice and research and current clinical guidelines. CONCLUSIONS Pain is a common problem among elderly long-term care residents and is vastly undertreated. Even when pain medication is prescribed, often residents do not receive the most appropriate drug, or prescribers fail to adjust the dose and frequency of administration to tailor therapy to the individual's compromised physiology and needs. This places elders at risk, for not only unnecessary suffering, but also for drug toxicity. Consultant pharmacists are in a key position to identify underuse and inappropriate use of analgesic drugs and assist prescribers with individualizing each resident's medication regimen to provide optimal therapeutic outcomes.
Increased phloridzin content associated with russeting in apple (Malus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.) fruit

Phloridzin is a phenolic compound unique to apple (Malus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.) and its wild relatives. Since its discovery, phloridzin has been researched for its nutraceutical properties, including anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and antioxidant activities, making phloridzin a potential target for nutritional improvement in new apple cultivars. However, phloridzin accumulates at significantly lower concentrations in fruit than in vegetative tissues and seeds. In ‘Golden Delicious’ and its sports, we observed higher phloridzin content in peels of sports with a cuticle disorder termed russet. In russeted apples, the smooth, waxy fruit cuticle is partially or entirely replaced by a corky layer, induced through environmental and genetic effects. To understand the variation of phloridzin content and fruit russet in apple fruit, we surveyed 108 accessions with variation in russeting from the USDA-ARS Malus germplasm collection in Geneva, NY. Russeting in apple fruit ranged from 0 to 100%, and phloridzin content ranged from 24.3 to 825.0 μg/g in peels. Mean phloridzin content varied significantly between russeting groups; in groups with light (0–5%), medium–high (70–80%), and high (90–100%) russeting mean phloridzin content was 115.2, 591.2, and 378.8 μg/g, respectively. We observed that genetic factors and russeting are strong predictors of phloridzin content in peels, but not fruit flesh or leaves. Conversely, other peel phenolics are negatively associated with russeting. We observed variable phloridzin content related to russet incidence during fruit development in ‘Golden Delicious’ (low to medium russet) and its sports, ‘Empress Spur’ (low russet), ‘Razor’ (complete russet), and ‘Sergeant Russet’ (medium to high russet).
Quantifying human mobility resilience to extreme events using geo-located social media data

Mobility is one of the fundamental requirements of human life with significant societal impacts including productivity, economy, social wellbeing, adaptation to a changing climate, and so on. Although human movements follow specific patterns during normal periods, there are limited studies on how such patterns change due to extreme events. To quantify the impacts of an extreme event to human movements, we introduce the concept of mobility resilience which is defined as the ability of a mobility system to manage shocks and return to a steady state in response to an extreme event. We present a method to detect extreme events from geo-located movement data and to measure mobility resilience and transient loss of resilience due to those events. Applying this method, we measure resilience metrics from geo-located social media data for multiple types of disasters occurred all over the world. Quantifying mobility resilience may help us to assess the higher-order socio-economic impacts of extreme events and guide policies towards developing resilient infrastructures as well as a nation’s overall disaster resilience strategies.
Prospective randomized controlled pilot study on the effects of almond consumption on skin lipids and wrinkles.

Author(s): Foolad, Negar; Vaughn, Alexandra R; Rybak, Iryna; Burney, Waqas A; Chodur, Gwen M; Newman, John W; Steinberg, Francene M; Sivamani, Raja K | Abstract: ObjectiveAlmonds are a rich source of fatty acids and antioxidants, and their supplementation is known to significantly modulate serum lipids. The effects of almond on the skin's lipid barrier and the appearance of wrinkles have not yet been elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of almond consumption on facial sebum production and wrinkles.MethodsThis was a prospective, investigator-blinded, randomized controlled trial in which subjects consumed 20% of their daily energy consumption in either almonds or a calorie-matched snack for 16 weeks. This study was completed at the UC Davis Dermatology clinic. Participants were a volunteer sample of generally healthy postmenopausal females with Fitzpatrick skin types 1 and 2. A facial photograph and image analysis system was used to obtain standardized photographs and information on wrinkle width and severity at 0, 8, and 16 weeks. Measurements of transepidermal water loss and sebum production were also completed at 0, 8, and 16 weeks.ResultsFifty healthy postmenopausal females were recruited, 31 participants were enrolled, and 28 completed the study. Under photographic analysis, the almond group had significantly decreased wrinkle severity and width compared with the control group at 16 weeks (p l .02). Changes in skin barrier function were nonsignificant, measured by the transepidermal water loss (p = .65) between the almond and control groups relative to baseline after 16 weeks. No adverse effects were reported.ConclusionOur study demonstrates that daily almond consumption may reduce wrinkle severity in postmenopausal females to potentially have natural antiaging benefits.
Bmf Facilitates Protein Degradation and Reduces Beclin1 Ubiquitination to Inhibit Autophagy Independent of mTOR

Abstract Previous observations suggested that Bcl-2 modifying factor (Bmf) affects autophagy but the underlying mechanisms were unknown. The present studies show that Bmf inhibited the initiation and flux of autophagy in a manner that is independent of the mTOR pathway and inhibition of mTOR increased Bmf expression to temper the autophagic cell death. In mice, emphysema was observed in Bmf-deficient mice, suggesting that Bmf suppresses autophagic cell death of alveolar type II cells. Bmf deficiency increased ubiquitination of Beclin1 with K63 chains and released Beclin1 from Bcl-2. However, Bmf deficiency also increased the levels of polyubiquitinated proteins in general. In mice, Bmf-deficiency robustly increased p62 levels in all tissues analyzed, but LC3-II levels were reduced only in the hearts of old mice. Also, Bmf-deficiency caused persistent mucous cell metaplasia in mice exposed to allergen and increased levels of polyubiquitinated Muc5ac in differentiated airway epithelial cells. The reduction of ubiquitinated proteins was mediated by the BH3- and dynein binding-domains of Bmf. Together, these findings show that the primary role of Bmf is to reduce protein levels and affects K63- and K48-ubiqutination.
Marianne Moore and Ac-/cident

Moore’s use of precision is complicated by her religious outlook. On the one hand, her poetry shows she has a sharp eye for precise detail in the natural world. On the other hand, her precision often leaves readers puzzled by the presence in her poems of ambiguity, paradox, and mystery. A useful way of approaching Moore is to invoke the Aristotelian distinction between substance (the essential being of an object) and accident (the inessential features). Moore’s poems celebrate the human ability to perceive the substance beneath the accidental qualities, while at the same time cautioning that we live in a fallen world where human perceptions are flawed. Unalloyed precision can exist only on a supernatural plane.
Screening For Depression With Retrospectively Harvested Private Versus Public Text

Depression is the leading cause of disability, often undiagnosed, and one of the most treatable mood disorders. As such, unobtrusively diagnosing depression is important. Many studies are starting to utilize machine learning for depression sensing from social media and Smartphone data to replace the survey instruments currently employed to screen for depression. In this study, we compare the ability of a privately versus a publicly available modality to screen for depression. Specifically, we leverage between two weeks and a year of text messages and tweets to predict scores from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, a prevalent depression screening instrument. This is the first study to leverage the retrospectively-harvested crowd-sourced texts and tweets within the combined Moodable and EMU datasets. Our approach involves comprehensive feature engineering, feature selection, and machine learning. Our 245 features encompass word category frequencies, part of speech tag frequencies, sentiment, and volume. The best model is Logistic Regression built on the top ten features from two weeks of text data. This model achieves an average F1 score of 0.806, AUC of 0.832, and recall of 0.925. We discuss the implications of the selected features, temporal quantity of data, and modality.
Intangibles: A Puffing of the Wares?

This paper examines the issue of perceived value generated by the assignment of financial value to intangibles in financial reporting. In particular, values assigned to Goodwill and other intangibles in mergers and acquisitions are examined, and the impact of such intangible valuations as a potential misperception/misdirection as to true underlying entity value is examined.
“I don't want to be known for that:”The role of temporality in online self-presentation of young gay and bisexual males

Abstract Self-presentation, the social process by which people reveal information about themselves and perform the social roles that structure everyday interactions, has been significantly altered by today's social technologies. Where Goffman's influential self-presentation framework focused on in-person, real-time role performances, today's technologies routinely involve viewing text and visual content aggregated over time and linked to an individual's persistent online identity, the capacity for both ephemeral and more permanent content, and novel modes of audience engagement such as liking and commenting. These new socio-technical affordances not only allow for novel behaviors, but also alter the temporal dynamics of the self-presentation process in ways that are not well understood. In this paper we address this gap through an interview study of 32 young gay and bisexual male (GBM) Instagram users in the United States. Results extend our understanding of the relationship between social technology affordances and the temporal dynamics of self-presentation. We show how participants drew on Instagram's affordances for identity persistence, content persistence and audience engagement to slow down or speed up their role performances to particular audiences, to increase the visibility of their performances without appearing overtly to seek attention, and to make their audience at any given point in time a part of the performance seen by future audiences.
Percutaneous Closure of Aortic and Mitral Paravalvular Leaks—Diagnostic and Therapeutic Considerations

Paravalvular leak (PVL) represents a suboptimal procedural outcome resulting in an eccentric regurgitant jet following surgical or transcatheter aortic or mitral valve replacements. In this review, the role of integrated imaging modalities, including transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, for the diagnosis and evaluation of aortic and mitral PVL is comprehensively discussed. Interventional procedures for aortic or mitral PVL using various percutaneous closure devices are reviewed. Clinical outcomes of percutaneous closure of PVL in aortic and mitral valves are summarized. PVL occurs in 6% to 15% of aortic valve and 7% to 17% of mitral valve procedures. Percutaneous device closure of PVL has shown an improved survival benefit. Successful reduction in PVL is associated with improved clinical outcomes. Multimodal imaging and inter-disciplinary discussion are essential for a high success rate of percutaneous closure of PVL. Further research on the pathophysiology of PVL and factors affecting complications are needed. A PVL closure device with various available shapes might be helpful for increasing procedural success rates.
An approximate best prediction approach to small area estimation for sheet and rill erosion under informative sampling

The National Resources Inventory, a longitudinal survey of characteristics related to natural resources and agriculture on nonfederal U.S. land, has increasingly received requests for substate estimates in recent years. We consider estimation of erosion in subdomains of the Boone-Raccoon River Watershed. This region is of interest for its proximity to intensively cropped areas as well as important waterbodies. The NRI application requires a small area prediction approach that can handle nonlinear relationships and appropriately incorporate survey weights that may have nontrivial relationships to the response variable. Because of the informative design, the conditional distribution required to define a standard empirical Bayes predictor is unknown. We develop a prediction approach that utilizes the approximate distribution of survey weighted score equations arising from a specified two-level superpopulation model. We apply the method to construct estimates of mean erosion in small watersheds. We investigate the robustness of the procedure to an assumption of a constant dispersion parameter and validate the properties of the procedure through simulation.
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in a Multistate Academic Medical Center.

Abstract Objective To estimate the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies in health care personnel. Methods The Mayo Clinic Serology Screening Program was created to provide a voluntary, two-stage testing program for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to health care personnel. The first stage used a dried blood spot screening test initiated on June 15, 2020. Those participants identified as reactive were advised to have confirmatory testing via a venipuncture. Venipuncture results through August 8, 2020, were considered. Consent and authorization for testing was required to participate in the screening program. This report, which was conducted under an institutional review board–approved protocol, only includes employees who have further authorized their records for use in research. Results A total of 81,113 health care personnel were eligible for the program, and of these 29,606 participated in the screening program. A total of 4284 (14.5%) of the dried blood spot test results were "reactive" and warranted confirmatory testing. Confirmatory testing was completed on 4094 (95.6%) of the screen reactive with an overall seroprevalence rate of 0.60% (95% CI, 0.52% to 0.69%). Significant variation in seroprevalence was observed by region of the country and age group. Conclusion The seroprevalence for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies through August 8, 2020, was found to be lower than previously reported in other health care organizations. There was an observation that seroprevalence may be associated with community disease burden.
Integer Lattice Gas with a sampling collision operator for the fluctuating Diffusion Equation

We developed an integer lattice gas method for the fluctuating diffusion equation. Such a method is unconditionally stable and able to recover the Poisson distribution for the microscopic densities. A key advance for integer lattice gases introduced in this paper is a new sampling collision operator that replaces particle collisions with sampling from an equilibrium distribution. This can increase the efficiency of our integer lattice gas by several orders of magnitude.
Mindful Partnering: Introducing a Theoretical Construct and Testing Psychometric Properties of the Mindful Partnering Measure

Although evidence suggests many benefits of mindfulness, interpersonal forms of mindfulness are understudied. We present the conceptualization of a novel theoretical construct, mindful partnering, ...
Gallium Infiltration of Porous Metal Foams

We investigate several strategies for achieving low-void infiltration of liquid gallium into porous metal foams. While there is good representation in the literature of infiltrating low melting point (LMPM) alloys into foams, similar success with gallium alloys has yet to be documented. These foams can serve dual roles of containing the liquid phase change material through capillary forces as well as providing conductivity enhancement through the conductive metallic network. Several strategies, including mechanical injection, acid-assisted oxide reduction, and electrowetting are explored. Thermal characterization of the foams is performed and effective properties presented. Suggestions for future improvements to reduce void fraction are discussed.
Extended Static Hypothermic Preservation In Cardiac Transplantation: A Case Report.

ABSTRACT Background The donor shortage poses a major limitation to use of heart transplantation. Novel strategies such as use of expanded-criteria donors with prolonged ischemia times are being employed to address this need. Recent developments in static hypothermia have allowed for the safe use of cardiac allografts with prolonged ischemic times. Case Report We present the case of a 68-year-old woman with valvular cardiomyopathy refractory to medical therapy who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation with a cardiac allograft exposed to elevated ischemic times. This was achieved through use of the federally approved SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System for transportation of the allograft. This method of static hypothermic organ preservation allowed for a 330-minute total ischemic time, including 283 minutes of storage within the preservation system. The patient tolerated the procedure well and was discharged on postoperative day 10, with excellent graft function and no evidence of rejection 3 months postoperatively. Conclusions Though traditionally ischemic times of 240 minutes or less are recommended for cardiac allografts, we demonstrate, to our knowledge, the longest reported ischemic time of 330 minutes via use of a novel method of static hypothermia for organ preservation. The recipient had an excellent outcome postoperatively, demonstrating the potential for this new organ preservation system to expand the donor pool and improve access and use of heart transplantation.
Apollo: scalable and coordinated scheduling for cloud-scale computing

Efficiently scheduling data-parallel computation jobs over cloud-scale computing clusters is critical for job performance, system throughput, and resource utilization. It is becoming even more challenging with growing cluster sizes and more complex workloads with diverse characteristics. This paper presents Apollo, a highly scalable and coordinated scheduling framework, which has been deployed on production clusters at Microsoft to schedule thousands of computations with millions of tasks efficiently and effectively on tens of thousands of machines daily. The framework performs scheduling decisions in a distributed manner, utilizing global cluster information via a loosely coordinated mechanism. Each scheduling decision considers future resource availability and optimizes various performance and system factors together in a single unified model. Apollo is robust, with means to cope with unexpected system dynamics, and can take advantage of idle system resources gracefully while supplying guaranteed resources when needed.
Recombinant Ig-like transcript 3-Fc modulates T cell responses via induction of Th anergy and differentiation of CD8+ T suppressor cells.

The Ig-like transcript (ILT)3 is crucial to the tolerogenic activity acquired by dendritic cells exposed to allospecific T suppressor (Ts) cells. We have explored the immunomodulatory property of the extracellular region of ILT3 using a cytoplasmic deletion mutant of ILT3 (ILT3δ), expressed as membrane-bound ILT3 on KG1 cells, and a rILT3-Fc fusion protein. We found that both membrane-bound and soluble ILT3 inhibited T cell proliferation in primary and secondary MLC inducing anergy in CD4 + Th cells and suppressing the differentiation of IFN-γ-producing CD8 + CTL. Furthermore, membrane-bound and soluble ILT3 induced the differentiation of CD8 + FOXP3 + Ts cells in primary 7-day MLC. The suppressive activity of these CD8 + Ts cells is alloantigen specific and mediated by their capacity to induce the up-regulation of ILT3 and down-regulation of costimulatory molecules such as CD86 in APC from the stimulator used for priming, but not on control HLA-mismatched APC. Our finding that ILT3-Fc has potent immunosuppressive activity in vitro and that it acts on T cells only upon activation suggests the possibility that this agent may be of use for specific suppression of the immune response in autoimmunity or transplantation.
Teaching for Creativity as Human Development toward Self-Actualization: The Essence of Authentic Learning and Optimal Growth for All Students

Enhancing creativity is an important issue worldwide, but it is perceived and addressed differently from a population to another. Creativity is considered as an essential life skill, a major component of human intelligence, and the most important topic in the education of the gifted and talented students. Nations rely on youth to use their skills at the highest level possible to contribute to improving all life aspects including solving problems creatively, developing genuine innovations, and leading communities to productivity. Literature indicates that creativity should be nurtured in all students to become successful continued learners, and in gifted students to facilitate their talent development and extend their growth in optimal ways. This paper further discusses the nature of creativity, proposes a broad conceptualization of creativity based on the humanistic approach and positive psychology, and suggests teaching practices for fostering creativity in the general classroom.
Online Labor Markets: An Informal Freelancer Economy

In this report, we discuss three aspects of online labor markets. First, we give an overview of the current state of major online marketplaces that offer intermediary services for buyer companies and IT professionals with a focus on one marketplace in particular – Freelancer. Second, we show some findings on the measurable economic benefits online labor markets provide to companies that outsource IT services (measured with consumer surplus) and what factors contribute to higher buyer satisfaction. Third, we offer a novel perspective on the frictions that exist in the micro-level interactions between buyer companies and service providers given the global nature of these markets and how reputation signals can alleviate these frictions. Finally, we offer practical implications and recommendations for companies that use these marketplaces to outsource IT services to professionals across the globe.
Learning in conflict: revisiting the role of perception

Purpose – Highlights the importance of the perception process in interest‐based negotiation.Design/methodology/approach – This is a viewpoint paper.Findings – Perception determines what counts as goals, rewards and interference in the conflict process.Practical implications – Conflict management practitioners must understand that perception determines conflict reality for the participants, rather than just a version of reality.Originality/value – The author highlights the importance of the perception process in interest‐based negotiation.
Using auditory saliency to understand complex auditory scenes

In this paper, we present a computational model for predicting pre-attentive, bottom-up auditory saliency. The model determines perceptually what in a scene stands out to observers and can be used to determine what part of a complex auditory scene is most important. The vision equivalency of this is visual saliency as defined by Koch and others [1]. The model is based on inhibition of features obtained from auditory spectro-temporal receptive fields (STRFs) and produces results that match well with preliminary psychoacoustic experiments. The model does well in predicting what is salient for some common auditory examples and there is a strong correlation between scenes chosen as salient by the model and scenes that human subjects selected as salient.
Attitudes toward colorectal cancer screening tests.

OBJECTIVE: To examine patient and physician preferences in regard to 5 colorectal cancer screening alternatives endorsed by a 1997 expert panel, determine the impact of patient and physician values regarding certain test features on screening preference, and assess physicians’ perceptions of patients’ values. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: A general internal medicine practice at an academic medical center in 1998. PARTICIPANTS: Patients (N=217; 76% response rate) and physicians (N=39; 87% response rate) at the study setting. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients preferred fecal occult blood testing (43%) or colonoscopy (40%). In patients for whom accuracy was the most important test feature, colonoscopy (62%) was the preferred screening method. Patients for whom invasive test features were more important preferred fecal occult blood testing (76%; P<.001). Patients and physicians were similar in their values regarding the various test features. However, there was a significant difference between physicians’ perceptions of which test features were important to patients compared with the patients’ actual responses (P<.001). The largest discrepancy was for accuracy (patient actual 54% vs physician opinion 15%) and discomfort (patient actual 15% vs physician opinion 64%). CONCLUSIONS: Patients have distinct preferences for colorectal cancer screening tests that are associated with the importance placed on certain test features. Physicians incorrectly perceive those factors that are important to patients. Physicians should incorporate patient values in regard to certain test features when discussing colorectal cancer screening with their patients and when eliciting their screening preferences.
Testing a theory for the effect of latitude on the persistence of eddy‐driven jets using CMIP3 simulations

[1] The effect of latitude on the persistence of north–south shifts in the position of the jet is investigated in 37 CMIP3 integrations over four forcing scenarios. The persistence of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) decreases when the mean jet is located closer to the pole. An asymmetry is shown whereby the equatorward-shifted jet is more persistent than the poleward-shifted jet. The sphericity of the earth inhibits wave breaking on the poleward flank of the jet which decreases the feedback between the eddies and the mean-flow and yields a wider, less self-sustaining jet. The results suggest a decrease in e-folding time of the SAM of 3 days per degree of poleward shift of the jet. The mechanism described explains why models with jets too far equatorward relative to observations over-predict the timescale of the SAM and suggests that these models will also exaggerate poleward shifts of jets associated with global warming.
The Matrix Template Library: A Unifying Framework for Numerical Linear Algebra

The traditional approach to writing basic linear algebra routines is a combinatorial affair. There are typically four precision types that need to be handled (single and double precision real, single and double precision complex), several dense storage types (general, banded, packed), a multitude of sparse storage types (the Sparse BLAS Standard Proposal includes 13 [1], as well as row and column orientations for each matrix type. It is no wonder the NIST implementation of the Sparse BLAS [5] contains over 10,000 routines and an automatic code generation system.
Gene Expression During the Development of Bacteriophage φ29 III. Analysis of Viral-Specific Protein Synthesis with Suppressible Mutants

Fifty-four suppressible mutants of bacteriophage φ29 have been isolated with a variety of mutagens and assigned to eight complementation groups. Viral-specific protein synthesis in UV light-irradiated, nonsuppressing Bacillus subtilis 60084 was analyzed with exponential acrylamide gels. Four additional φ29 proteins which were undetected on ordinary acrylamide gels are reported in this paper. Five phage φ29 proteins have been unambiguously assigned to specific cistrons. Two cistrons had pleiotropic effects on viral protein synthesis. Mutants in cistrons I or II were unable to synthesize DNA in nonsuppressing bacteria. Mutants in cistron I were unable to attach viral chromosomes to the host cell membrane, and the protein responsible for this function has been identified. The other viral protein playing a role in phage φ29 DNA synthesis is also identified and assigned to cistron II. Mutants in cistron II can attach viral chromosomes to membrane, but cannot synthesize DNA in nonsuppressing bacteria.
Effects of coffee and caffeine anhydrous on strength and sprint performance

Caffeine and coffee are widely used among active individuals to enhance performance. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effects of acute coffee (COF) and caffeine anhydrous (CAF) i...
Effects of series resistance and inductance on solar cell admittance measurements

Abstract Admittance measurements have been performed on a variety of 0.43 cm2 area, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) polycrystalline thin film solar cells for frequencies (f) ranging from 1 kHz to 1 MHz and bias voltages (V) ranging from −2.0 to 0.2 V. The bulk of these measurements are not presented here. To extend the usefulness of these measurements, and in particular, to extract information about traps, it is first necessary to account for frequency-dependent effects associated with the series resistance and inductance. Such is the purpose of this paper. The complex admittance of a four-element circuit is calculated and compared with measurements on two typical CIGS solar cells. The model circuit consists of a capacitance C in parallel with a resistance r, with this combination in series with a resistor R and inductor L. C accounts for the depletion capacitance of the diode, and R and r account for series and shunt resistances typically observed in solar cell current-voltage measurements. The series inductance was introduced to account for observed resonance effects in the admittance measurements. Model calculations are shown to be in good agreement with measurements on devices. For our cells, measurements above 300 kHz are seldom useful, as these frequencies are in the regime where series R and L dominate the behavior of the circuit. We find-measurements in the 10–50 kHz range to be most appropriate for determining charge densities from C–V scans.
Nodal dynamics, not degree distributions, determine the structural controllability of complex networks.

Structural controllability has been proposed as an analytical framework for making predictions regarding the control of complex networks across myriad disciplines in the physical and life sciences (Liu et al., Nature:473(7346):167–173, 2011). Although the integration of control theory and network analysis is important, we argue that the application of the structural controllability framework to most if not all real-world networks leads to the conclusion that a single control input, applied to the power dominating set, is all that is needed for structural controllability. This result is consistent with the well-known fact that controllability and its dual observability are generic properties of systems. We argue that more important than issues of structural controllability are the questions of whether a system is almost uncontrollable, whether it is almost unobservable, and whether it possesses almost pole-zero cancellations.
Simulated Predictions of Insect Phenological Events Made by Using Mean and Median Functional Lower Developmental Thresholds

A computer-simulated study was conducted to determine whether mean or median functional lower developmental thresholds and required degree-days were superior for predicting the dates on which insect phenological events occurred. In addition, these simulations allowed us to determine if the type of year (weatherwise) influenced those predictions. Results indicated that when median functional lower developmental thresholds and required degree-days were used their predictions were closer to the dates on which the phenological events occurred than were predictions that were made using mean thresholds and required degree-days. Also, the predictions of phenological events made when using median functional lower developmental thresholds and required degree-days were not strongly influenced by the type of year. However, the influence of type of year was quite strong when predictions were made when using mean thresholds and required degree-days. The variability in predictions that were made when using median functional lower developmental thresholds and required degree-days was greater than the variability in predictions that were made when using mean thresholds and required degree days. However, the increased variability was caused by many predictions being closer to, rather than farther from, the actual dates on which the phenological events occurred. Based on these findings, we suggest that median functional lower developmental thresholds, along with median required degree-days, be considered for use when predicting insect phenological events in the field.
Performance analysis of image transmission over wireless communication channels

The transmission of real-time images and video over wireless communication channels is still a challenge problem. Digital compressed images are sensitive to bit errors which are typical in wireless communications. Moreover, the bandwidth at the air interface is currently a limiting factor because the first and second generation of mobile phone standards mainly support voice communications. In this paper, we present our study of real-time image traffic over a radio link -- the aim of this research is for videophone applications. In this study, we use the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) to compress images and a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) link to transfer images over wireless communication channels. The results of the experiment show that it is possible to transfer 4 QCIF images per second over a CD MA link with minor degradation in image quality. This study was investigated by the VLSI Signal, Image and Video Processing Research Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
What good is SWIR? Passive day comparison of VIS, NIR, and SWIR

This paper is the first of three papers associated with the military benefits of SWIR imaging. This paper describes the benefits associated with passive daytime operations with comparisons of SWIR, NIR, and VIS bands and sensors. This paper includes quantitative findings from previously published papers, analysis of open source data, summaries of various expert analyses, and calculations of notional system performance. We did not accept anecdotal findings as acceptable benefits. Topics include haze and fog penetration, atmospheric transmission, cloud and smoke penetration, target and background contrasts, spectral discrimination, turbulence degradation, and long range target identification. The second and third papers will address passive night imaging and active night imaging.
Effects of Varying Dispersion Parameter of Poisson-Gamma Models on Estimation of Confidence Intervals of Crash Prediction Models

In estimating safety performance, the most common probabilistic structures of the popular statistical models used by transportation safety analysts for modeling motor vehicle crashes are the traditional Poisson and Poisson—gamma (or negative binomial) distributions. Because crash data often exhibit overdispersion, Poisson—gamma models are usually the preferred model. The dispersion parameter of Poisson—gamma models had been assumed to be fixed, but recent research in highway safety has shown that the parameter can potentially be dependent on the covariates, especially for flow-only models. Given that the dispersion parameter is a key variable for computing confidence intervals, there is reason to believe that a varying dispersion parameter could affect the computation of confidence intervals compared with confidence intervals produced from Poisson—gamma models with a fixed dispersion parameter. This study evaluates whether the varying dispersion parameter affects the computation of the confidence interval...
Improving facility planning with decision technology systems

Facility planning is a complex process that requires art, science, and technology. Several methodologies have been generated to facilitate this process. Computer information systems (CIS) have been developed to deliver these methodologies and to provide knowledge relevant for effective facility planning. Since accurate decisions are required at each step of the process, the development effort has focused on CISs that support decision-making.