cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Safety Performance of High-Occupancy-Vehicle Facilities: Evaluation of HOV Lane Configurations in California

Collision data from high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) facilities with two different types of access, continuous and limited, are examined in this paper. The findings show that HOV facilities with limited access offer no safety advantages over those with continuous access. Compared with continuous access HOV lanes, a higher percentage of collisions were concentrated on limited-access HOV lanes. Limited-access HOV lanes also had higher collision rates. Findings from investigating the relationship between collision rates in HOV lanes with respect to shoulder width, length of access, and proximity of access to neighboring ramps are also documented. These findings provide enhanced understanding about the effects of geometric factors on the collision rates in HOV lanes.
Growth hormone perturbations in fibromyalgia: a review.

Objective Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue, disrupted sleep, depression, and physical deconditioning. In this article, we review the literature on the normal activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-growth hormone-insulin-like growth factor-1 (HP-GH-IGF-1) axis and its perturbations in FM subjects. Methods Studies included in this review were accessed through an English language search of Cochrane Collaboration Reviews. Keyword MeSH terms included "fibromyalgia," "growth hormone" (GH), or "insulin-like growth factor-1" (IGF-1). Results Twenty-six studies enrolling 2006 subjects were reviewed. Overall, low levels of IGF-1 were found in a subgroup of subjects. Growth hormone stimulation tests often revealed a suboptimal response, which did not always correlate with IGF-1 levels. No consistent defects in pituitary function were found. Of the 3 randomized placebo controlled studies, only 9 months of daily injectable recombinant GH reduced FM symptoms and normalized IGF-1. Conclusions These studies suggest that pituitary function is normal in FM and that reported changes in the HP-GH-IGF-1 axis are most likely hypothalamic in origin. The therapeutic efficacy of supplemental GH therapy in FM requires further study before any solid recommendations can be made.
The Incompatibility of Omniscience and Intentional Action: A Reply to David P. Hunt

In ‘Omniprescient Agency’ ( Religious Studies 28, 1992) David P. Hunt challenges an argument against the possibility of an omniscient agent. The argument – my own in ‘Agency and Omniscience’ ( Religious Studies 27, 1991) – assumes that an agent is a being capable of intentional action, where, minimally, an action is intentional only if it is caused, in part, by the agent's intending. The latter, I claimed, is governed by a psychological principle of ‘least effort’, namely, that no one intends without antecedently feeling that (i) deliberate effort is needed to achieve desired goals, (ii) such effort has a chance of success, and (iii) it is yet contingent whether the effort will be expended and the goals realized. The goals can be anything from immediate intentional doings, tryings or basic actions, to remote and perhaps unlikely consequences of actions, e.g. global justice. The thrust of the principle is that it would be impossible for a wholly rational self-aware agent to intend without a background presumption of an open future as concerns the desired state and the means to it. But this presumption embodies a sense of contingency which, in turn, requires an acknowledged ignorance about what the future holds, otherwise the future would appear closed relative to present knowledge with the desired state presented as either guaranteed (necessary) or ruled out (impossible). Regardless whether this self-directed attitude is accurate, it follows that intentional action precludes complete knowledge of one's present and future. Consequently, no omniscient or omniprescient being can be an agent.
Lumping versus splitting: the need for biological data mining in precision medicine.

Biological data mining is playing an increasingly important role throughout the spectrum of biological and biomedical research with broad implications for the understanding of life science questions such as the tree of life and practical applications of such knowledge to improving human health. Perhaps nowhere is data mining needed more than the emerging discipline of precision medicine. The ability to predict individual risk of presenting with a disease or response to treatment is at the core of the concept of precision medicine, which is gaining ever-increasing levels of traction in the era of technology-driven measurement of biological systems. This has become especially important with the new Presidential initiative on precision medicine in the United States [1]. It is obvious to the readers of BioData Mining that this will require careful analyses of large and often complex data sets to best translate information into increasingly individ ualized risk. Here we ask why improved and appropriate data mining is not only positive but a vast improvement on most current analyses of genomic data. The answer lies to some extent in elucidating the present practice of -omic analyses and how we will need to expand it.
Gender difference analysis of political web forums: An experiment on an international islamic women's forum

As an important type of social media, the political Web forum has become a major communication channel for people to discuss and debate political, cultural and social issues. Although the Internet has a male-dominated history, more and more women have started to share their concerns and express opinions through online discussion boards and Web forums. This paper presents an automated approach to gender difference analysis of political Web forums. The approach uses rich textual feature representation and machine learning techniques to examine the online gender differences between female and male participants on political Web forums by analyzing writing styles and topics of interest. The results of gender difference analysis performed on a large and long-standing international Islamic women's political forum are presented, showing that female and male participants have significantly different topics of interest.
Klotho and the Aging Process

The klotho gene was originally identified as a putative age-suppressing gene in mice that extends life span when overexpressed. It induces complex phenotypes resembling human premature aging syndromes when disrupted. The gene was named after a Greek goddess Klotho who spun the thread of life. Since then, various functional aspects of the klotho gene have been investigated, leading to the identification of multiple novel endocrine axes that regulate various metabolic processes and an unexpected link between mineral metabolism and aging. The purposes of this review were to overview recent progress on Klotho research and to discuss a novel aging mechanism.
New crosslinkers for electrospun chitosan fibre mats. Part II: mechanical properties

Few studies exist on the mechanical performance of crosslinked electrospun chitosan (CS) fibre mats. In this study, we show that the mat structure and mechanical performance depend on the different crosslinking agents genipin, epichlorohydrin (ECH), and hexamethylene-1,6-diaminocarboxysulphonate (HDACS), as well as the post-electrospinning heat and base activation treatments. The mat structure was imaged by field emission scanning electron microscopy and the mechanical performance was tested in tension. The elastic modulus, tensile strength, strain at failure and work to failure were found to range from 52 to 592 MPa, 2 to 30 MPa, 2 to 31 per cent and 0.041 to 3.26 MJ m−3, respectively. In general, neat CS mats were found to be the stiffest and the strongest, though least ductile, while CS–ECH mats were the least stiff, weakest, but the most ductile, and CS–HDACS fibre mats exhibited intermediary mechanical properties. The mechanical performance of the mats is shown to reflect differences in the fibre diameter, number of fibre–fibre contacts formed within the mat, as well as varying intermolecular bonding and moisture content. The findings reported here complement the chemical properties of the mats, described in part I of this study.
Determinants of marital instability: A Cox-regression model

(1988). Determinants of marital instability: A Cox-regression model. Applied Economics: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 195-210.
What do residents learn by meeting with families of children with disabilities?: A qualitative analysis of an experiential learning module.

Purpose: Attitudes of medical providers towards persons with disabilities can affect the quality of care their patients receive. The authors evaluated an experiential learning module to investigate what Paediatric and Medicine/Paediatric residents at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital learn from visiting the homes of families with children who have disabilities.Methods: Families were recruited through a community-based parent organization. The families were instructed to discuss what it is like to have a child with a disability and to think about a primary message to give to residents during a 1–2 hour home visit. Since 1998, residents participated as part of the required Developmental Paediatrics rotation. They were instructed to write a one-page narrative description of their visit. The authors utilized the grounded theory of qualitative research and content analysis to count the key themes identified in the residents’ descriptions.Results: Twenty-four families and 63 residents participat...
Spectrophotometric and nmr analysis of the interaction of fluorinated mono- and bifunctional interacalators with DNA, poly(dA-dT), and poly(dG-dC)

We have synthesized and investigated the DNA binding properties of three fluorinated acridine derivatives—a monomer (I), a short dimer (II) and a long dimer (III). Only III has a sufficiently long chain bridging the two acridine nuclei to permit binding by bisintercalation. Analysis of the equilibrium and kinetic binding properties of these compounds to poly(dA-dT) demonstrates that they behave very similarly to their unfluorinated parent compounds. Helix extension, as determined by viscosity measurements, shows that both compounds I and II bind by monointercalation while III binds by bisintercalation. These results are confirmed by 19F-nmr analysis, which indicates, in particular, that the two chromophores of III share the same molecular environment as that of I in the presence of either calf thymus DNA or poly(dA-dT). Negative nuclear Overhauser effects in the presence of DNA indicate tight binding such that the motion of the ligands is governed by the polynucleotide dynamics. Optical titrations establish that in 4M NaCl, both I and III bind to calf thymus DNA, but no binding was observed with poly(dG-dC). This result is in contrast to those for dimers of ethidium, which show substantial binding to polynucleotides under high salt conditions. Nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, however, carried out at considerably higher concentrations, show that compound I does indeed bind to poly(dG-dC) under these high salt conditions, albeit weakly, and leads to a conversion of the polynucleotide from a left-handed to a right-handed conformation.
Ability of lambs to learn about novel foods while observing or participating with social models

We studied the influence of different social models on the intake of novel foods by lambs. The lambs were 6–7 weeks old during exposure to the novel foods. Lambs that ate novel foods for 16 min per day for 5 days with their mothers consumed about twice (P<0.05) as much of the foods after weaning as lambs that ate the foods with a dry ewe. Lambs exposed alone five times to the novel foods consumed about half (P<0.05) as much as lambs that ate with a dry ewe. Lambs did not learn to eat novel foods by observing, but not concurrently participating, while social models (mother, ewe) ate the foods. However, lambs that observed their mother eat and subsequently avoid a harmful food, ate less (P<0.05) after weaning than lambs that had observed the food only during exposure. Results were the same when lambs were tested 2 months later.
Acceptability and Psychometric Properties of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire Among Patients Undergoing Heart Valve Surgery : Validation and Comparison With SF-36

Abstract Background Health-related quality of life (HQOL) enhancement is a major objective of valvular surgery (VS), but assessments have been limited primarily to generic measures that may not be optimally responsive to intervention. Disease-specific instruments have been used in heart failure (HF), commonly associated with valve disease, but have been neither validated nor routinely applied among patients undergoing VS. Methods and Results We administered the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLHFQ) and SF-36 questionnaires preoperatively (T 0 ) to 50 patients undergoing VS and at 1 (T 1 ) and 6 months (T 2 ) after VS. Performance of MLHFQ was evaluated and compared with SF-36. MLHFQ completion rates were >98% (NS vs. SF-36); Cronbach's α was ≥0.9 (total score, dimensions), supporting internal reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis verified good model fit for physical/emotional domain items (relative chi-squares 2.0, both instruments), supporting structural validity. Spearman coefficients correlating MLHFQ with parallel SF-36 domains were moderate to high (0.6-0.9; P ≤ .001: T 0 -T 2 ), supporting convergent validity. Baseline HQOL was poorest in patients with HF ( P ≤ .05 [both instruments]), supporting criterion validity. Responsiveness (proportional HQOL change scores: T 0 vs. T 2 ) to VS was greater with MLHFQ vs. SF-36 ( P ≤ .002). Conclusions Among patients undergoing VS, the MLHFQ is highly acceptable and maintains good psychometric properties, comparing favorably with SF-36. These findings suggest its utility for measuring disease-specific HQOL changes after VS.
Microdistribution of tetrodotoxin in two species of blue-ringed octopuses (Hapalochlaena lunulata and Hapalochlaena fasciata) detected by fluorescent immunolabeling

Blue-ringed octopuses (genus Hapalochlaena) possess the potent neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX). We examined the microdistribution of TTX in ten tissues of Hapalochlaena lunulata and Hapalochlaena fasciata by immunolabeling for fluorescent light microscopy (FLM). We visualized TTX throughout the posterior salivary gland, but the toxin was concentrated in cells lining the secretory tubules within the gland. Tetrodotoxin was present just beneath the epidermis of the integument (mantle and arms) and also concentrated in channels running through the dermis. This was suggestive of a TTX transport mechanism in the blood of the octopus, which would also explain the presence of the toxin in the blood-rich brachial hearts, gills, nephridia, and highly vascularized Needham's sac (testes contents). We also present the first report of TTX in any cephalopod outside of the genus Hapalochlaena. A specimen of Octopus bocki from French Polynesia contained a small amount of TTX in the digestive gland.
Personal and Professional Reflections on Current HIV Care

Edited byJacquelyn H. Flaskerud, RN, PhD, FAANSchool of Nursing, University of California—Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USAThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2008) estimat...
Empirical Bayes conditional independence graphs for regulatory network recovery

Motivation: Computational inference methods that make use of graphical models to extract regulatory networks from gene expression data can have difficulty reconstructing dense regions of a network, a consequence of both computational complexity and unreliable parameter estimation when sample size is small. As a result, identification of hub genes is of special difficulty for these methods. Methods: We present a new algorithm, Empirical Light Mutual Min (ELMM), for large network reconstruction that has properties well suited for recovery of graphs with high-degree nodes. ELMM reconstructs the undirected graph of a regulatory network using empirical Bayes conditional independence testing with a heuristic relaxation of independence constraints in dense areas of the graph. This relaxation allows only one gene of a pair with a putative relation to be aware of the network connection, an approach that is aimed at easing multiple testing problems associated with recovering densely connected structures. Results: Using in silico data, we show that ELMM has better performance than commonly used network inference algorithms including GeneNet, ARACNE, FOCI, GENIE3 and GLASSO. We also apply ELMM to reconstruct a network among 5492 genes expressed in human lung airway epithelium of healthy non-smokers, healthy smokers and individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assayed using microarrays. The analysis identifies dense sub-networks that are consistent with known regulatory relationships in the lung airway and also suggests novel hub regulatory relationships among a number of genes that play roles in oxidative stress and secretion. Availability and implementation: Software for running ELMM is made available at http://mezeylab.cb.bscb.cornell.edu/Software.aspx. Contact: ramimahdi@yahoo.com or jgm45@cornell.edu Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Labor Organization and Public Policy in the American States

While the effort within the state politics literature to isolate the political determinants of public policy represents one of the most successful research programs in political science, researchers have in the main failed to consider the special role of labor organization in a capitalistic democracy Using cross-sectional and time-series data on a number of policy indicators, we demonstrate that the relative strength of the labor movement across the American states is one of the principal determinants of policy liberalism The implications for public policy and the study of American politics are discussed.
Using message passing for distributed programming: proof rules and disciplines

Des regles d'inference sont derivees pour prouver la justesse partielle des programmes concurrents utilisant la transmission de message. On considere deux types de transmission asynchrone de message: les «datagrammes» non fiables et les circuits virtuels fiables. Les regles de preuve montrent comment l'interference peut se produire et etre controlee
Improving treatment planning accuracy through multimodality imaging.

Abstract Purpose: In clinical practice, physicians are constantly comparing multiple images taken at various times during the patient's treatment course. One goal of such a comparison is to accurately define the gross tumor volume (GTV). The introduction of three-dimensional treatment planning has greatly enhanced the ability to define the GTV, but there are times when the GTV is not visible on the treatment-planning computed tomography (CT) scan. We have modified our treatment-planning software to allow for interactive display of multiple, registered images that enhance the physician's ability to accurately determine the GTV. Methods and Materials: Images are registered using interactive tools developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Automated methods are also available. Images registered with the treatment-planning CT scan are digitized from film. After a physician has approved the registration, the registered images are made available to the treatment-planning software. Structures and volumes of interest are contoured on all images. In the beam's eye view, wire loop representations of these structures can be visualized from all image types simultaneously. Each registered image can be seamlessly viewed during the treatment-planning process, and all contours from all image types can be seen on any registered image. A beam may, therefore, be designed based on any contour. Results: Nineteen patients have been planned and treated using multimodality imaging from November 1993 through August 1994. All registered images were digitized from film, and many were from outside institutions. Brain has been the most common site (12), but the techniques of registration and image display have also been used for the thorax (4), abdomen (2), and extremity (1). The registered image has been an magnetic resonance (MR) scan in 15 cases and a diagnostic CT scan in 5 cases. In one case, sequential MRs, one before treatment and another after 30 Gy, were used to plan the patient's initial fields and boost, respectively. Case illustrations are shown. Conclusions: We have successfully integrated multimodality imaging into our treatment-planning system, and its routine use is increasing. Multimodality imaging holds out the promise of improving treatment planning accuracy and, thus, takes maximum advantage of three dimensional treatment planning systems.
Red light activates a chloroplast‐dependent ion uptake mechanism for stomatal opening under reduced CO2 concentrations in Vicia spp.

Summary • Under red light in ambient CO 2 guard cells of faba bean ( Vicia faba ) fix CO 2 and accumulate sucrose, causing stomata to open. We examined whether at [CO 2 ] low enough to limit guard cell photosynthesis stomata would open when illuminated with red (R) or far-red (FR) light. • After illumination with R or FR in buffered KCl solutions, net stomatal opening was c . 3 µm (R and FR) in air containing 210‐225 µl l ‐1 CO 2 and was 5 µm (R) or 6.5 µm (FR) in air containing 40‐50 µl l ‐1 CO 2 . Opening was fully inhibited by 3(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1 dimethyl urea, the calmodulin antagonist W-7, the ser/thr kinase inhibitor ML-9, and sodium orthovanadate, but not by dithiothreitol, which inhibits formation of zeaxanthin, the blue light photoreceptor of guard cells. • Stomatal opening was accompanied by K + uptake and starch loss. Similar results were obtained when leaves were exposed to conditions designed to lower intercellular leaf [CO 2 ]. • These data suggest that the guard cell chloroplasts transduce reduced [CO 2 ], activating stomatal opening through an ion uptake mechanism that depends on chloroplastic photosynthetic electron transport and that shares downstream components of the blue light signal transduction cascade.
Optimal Allocation of Ground and Surface Water in Oahu: Water Wars in Paradise

Despite abundant rainfall and groundwater resources, the State of Hawaii has managed to erect so many barriers to efficient use that serious conflicts have erupted over use rights to water. In what is currently the most prominent battle, environmental and agricultural interests of windward Oahu are pitted against agricultural producers on the leeward side over the allocation of aqueduct water in the Koolau Mountains. To inform this debate, a model of conjunctive use is constructed and optimal allocation of ground, surface, and aqueduct water computed. Optimal use of the aqueduct water is as a substitute for groundwater. This postpones the eventual, expensive use of desalination, thus benefiting future users. By making use rights fully transferable and charging current users water’ s true opportunity cost, both windward and leeward users would be winners.
Law and Economics versus Economic Analysis of Law

This paper distinguishes law and economics – conceived as an equal partnership between two disciplines – and economic analysis of law, conceived as the application of economic reasoning to legal rules and institutions. I explore the difference by contrasting Robert Aumann’s economic analysis of a text from the Talmud with an analysis of the same text conducted from within the framework of law and economics. The paper demonstrates that law and economics and economic analysis of law offer complementary means for obtaining information about the social world.
Tools for Teaching Cognitive Psychology: Using Public Service Announcements for Education on Environmental Sustainability

To understand the relevance of cognitive psychology, students in a cognitive psychology course were required to complete a detailed plan for a public service announcement focusing on environmental issues. The final exam was a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation incorporating at least eight concepts from the course. Students in the course showed a significant decrease (p = .04) in their ecological footprints and an increase (p = .09) in their scores on the Environmental Values and Attitudes Scale.
Optimus: efficient realization of streaming applications on FPGAs

In this paper, we introduce Optimus: an optimizing synthesis compiler for streaming applications. Optimus compiles programs written in a high level streaming language to either software or hardware implementations. The compiler uses a hierarchical compilation strategy that separates concerns between macro- and micro-functional requirements. Macro-functional concerns address how components (modules) are assembled to implement larger more complex applications. Micro-functional issues deal with synthesis issues of the module internals. Optimus thus allows software developers who lack deep hardware design expertise to transparently leverage the advantages of hardware customization without crossing the semantic gap between high level languages and hardware description languages. Optimus generates streaming hardware that achieves on average 40x speedup over our baseline embedded processor for a fraction of the energy. Additionally, our results show that streaming-specific optimizations can further improve performance by 255% and reduce the area requirements by 16% in average. These designs are competitive with Handel-C implementations for some of the same benchmarks.
Understanding the Contest Between the EU and Russia in Their Shared Neighborhood

The Ukraine crisis has turned the EU and Russia from uneasy partners into rivals in the shared neighborhood. But the rivalry differs from traditional power politics as seen during the cold war. While the EU is not a serious competitor in the security field Russia is unable to present a credible alternative to integration into the Single Market. As a result competition is most pronounced at the level of discourse. “Othering” the EU has also been an aspect of Putin’s quest for legitimacy at home. That is a reason enough to expect that the contest between Moscow and Brussels will last.
Air-Inlet Valves for Steel Pipe Lines

An analytical basis is presented for determining the size and location of air-inlet valves in steel pipe lines in order to prevent their collapse due to external pressure. The allowable internal pr...
Characterization of Joint Wind and Ice Hazard in Midwestern United States

AbstractReliability-based design of infrastructure requires the probabilistic assessment of jointly occurring natural hazards. As infrastructure design practices evolve, it is important that multiple hazards be considered—for example, wind and storm surge in a hurricane, an earthquake generating a tsunami, or strong winds and high temperatures leading to wildfires. These jointly occurring hazards in some cases can be more devastating than a single hazard. This paper describes the assessment of two jointly occurring hazards: wind and ice. For locations in the United States, wind and ice [e.g., freezing rain (FR)] are hazards whose properties are of interest for the design of transmission lines and other energy infrastructure (e.g., wind turbines). Using archived meteorological data from measurement stations in the Midwest, occurrences of icing conditions and the wind speeds that accompany them were identified and input into a simple ice accretion model. Observations from wind speed and ice thickness were f...
Probing Behavior of the Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. I. Definitive Correlation of Electronically Recorded Waveforms with Aphid Probing Activities

The probing behavior of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), was studied in terms of voltage variations associated with the flow of liquids within its stylets. The voltage fluctuations which accompany salivation and ingestion were amplified and recorded on strip charts. The general and specific plant tissues contacted by the stylets correlate with 3 distinctive voltage patterns recorded in sequences during probes. These correlations were made by comparing several individual patterns and pattern sequences with positions of the aphid's stylets within secondary veinlet tissues of Vicia faba L. A distinctive curve pattern was always recorded when the stylets contacted phloem sieve elements. It was determined that pea aphids ingest fluids from the subepidermis, mesophyll parenchyma, phloem parenchyma, companion cells, phloem sieve elements, and xylem. It was possible to determine the tissue region contacted by A. pisum stylets during or following a sequence of curve patterns.
HCN hyperpolarization-activated cation channels strengthen virtual nicotinic EPSPs and thereby elevate synaptic amplification in rat sympathetic neurons

With the use of dynamic clamp to create virtual synapses, this study shows that hyperpolarization-activated cation current (h-current; Ih) strengthens fast excitatory postsynaptic potentials and sy...
Mechanism of secretion from the adrenal medulla. V. Retention of storage vesicle membranes following release of adrenaline.

Dopamine β-hydroxylase (EC 1.14.2.1) was used as a marker to follow the fate of the adrenal storage vesicles following the release of adrenaline. Neurogenic secretion of adrenaline induced by insulin produced a decrease in the adrenaline and dopamine β-hydroxylase contents of the gland. There was only a slight decrease in the enzyme activity of the particulate fraction obtained from lysed storage vesicles, but a marked decrease in the activity of the soluble fraction. Twenty-four hours after the administration of reserpine (1 mg/kg) to rabbits, changes in the dopamine β-hydroxylase activity were similar to those observed after insulin treatment, but the glands were more severely depleted of their catecholamines. After lower doses of reserpine (0.25 mg/kg), or if ganglionie transmission was blocked by chlorisondamine 1 hr prior to the administration of reserpine (1 mg/kg), there were significant decreases in the catecholamine content but no changes in the dopamine β-hydroxylase activity. These findings indicate that neurogenic secretion is characterized by release of the soluble content of the storage vesicles directly to the exterior of the cell and retention of the storage vesicle membranes within the cell. Interference only with time uptake or storage mechanism by reserpine results in depletion of the catecholamine content, but not of the intravesicular protein.
Nonlinear control of semi-active suspension systems: A Quasi-Linear Control approach

This paper treats the control design for semi-active suspension systems using the recently-developed theory of Quasi-Linear Control (QLC). The use of QLC facilitates handling actuator constraints in semi-active suspensions and the design of nonlinear output feedback laws. Our approach consists of three steps. First, a semi-active suspension control law is defined as a polynomial function of the velocity difference between the sprung and unsprung masses. Then, QLC is employed to stochastically linearize the polynomial function within the closed-loop system. Finally, using the linearized system, a constrained optimization problem is formulated and solved to generate the coefficients of the polynomial function. This approach leads to a nonlinear feedback control law, which explicitly takes into account the actuator constraints. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach as compared with clipped linear quadratic Gaussian control, which is an existing approach used in the literature.
Effects of Varying Levels of High‐Protein Distiller's Grains on Growth Performance of Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, and Post‐Extrusion Feed Pellet Characteristics

Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, remains the USA's largest aquaculture industry. However, in recent years, high feed prices have negatively impacted profitability. Production of ethanol as a biofuel has increased dramatically. Companies have modified their processes to enhance ethanol yield and these modified processes also increase the crude protein content of the byproduct. The object of this study was to evaluate this high-protein dried distiller's grains (HP-DDG) for its suitability in catfish diets. A total of 25 full-sibling channel catfish (7.1 ± 2.3 g) were randomly stocked into each of twelve 260-L polyethylene tanks to achieve 25 fish per tank. The control diet was similar to a commercial formulation. Experimental diets contained 20, 40, or 40% HP-DDG with added lysine (1% of total diet). There were three replicate tanks per diet. Fish were fed to apparent satiation twice daily for 9 wk. Average harvest weights for fish fed the 40% HP-DDG diet without lysine supplementation (57.0 g) were significantly smaller than that for fish fed the control diet (77.7 g). Average harvest weights of fish fed 20% HP-DDG (86.8 g) were significantly greater than that of fish fed either 40% HP-DDG (57.0 g) or 40% HP-DDG + lysine (73.7 g). There were no significant differences in feed conversion ratios or survivals among treatments, which overall averaged 1.1 and 99%, respectively. These data indicate that HP-DDG appears to be a suitable ingredient in channel catfish diets up to at least 20% of the total formulation. Data also indicate that inclusion levels of at least 40% HP-DDG are likely limiting in lysine.
Regulation of the DNA Damage Response by DNA-PKcs Inhibitory Phosphorylation of ATM

Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) regulates the DNA damage response as well as DNA double-strand break repair through homologous recombination. Here we show that ATM is hyperactive when the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PKcs) is chemically inhibited or when the DNA-PKcs gene is deleted in human cells. Pre-incubation of ATM protein with active DNA-PKcs also significantly reduces ATM activity in vitro. We characterize several phosphorylation sites in ATM that are targets of DNA-PKcs and show that phospho-mimetic mutations at these residues significantly inhibit ATM activity and impair ATM signaling upon DNA damage. In contrast, phospho-blocking mutations at one cluster of sites increase the frequency of apoptosis during normal cell growth. DNA-PKcs, which is integral to the non-homologous end joining pathway, thus negatively regulates ATM activity through phosphorylation of ATM. These observations illuminate an important regulatory mechanism for ATM that also controls DNA repair pathway choice.
Assessment of likelihood of failure using limited visual, basic, and advanced assessment techniques

Abstract Tree risk assessments can be categorized by their time, training, and equipment requirements. In arboriculture and urban forestry, practitioners must select a risk assessment method that is appropriate for the tree or trees to be assessed, available resources, and management objectives. While more detailed advanced risk assessment levels are believed to provide more accurate information regarding likelihood of failure (a component of tree risk), it is not clear how this additional information influences risk ratings. For this experiment we compared likelihood of failure ratings for trees assessed by 70 arborists using Level 1 (limited visual), Level 2 (basic), and Level 3 (advanced) risk assessment methods. Mean ratings did differ by level of assessment (P
Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences in Affective Processing and Expression

Abstract Emotions play a role in nearly everything we do and think. Understanding people and their interactions requires an understanding of emotion. And science can contribute to that understanding. Here, I cannot cover everything in the science of emotion, but cover enough to introduce the reader to an emerging new way of thinking about emotion that is an alternative to the traditional Basic Emotion Theory taught in textbooks. I contrast the new way with the traditional way by examining the subjective experience of emotion, information processing during emotion, and facial expressions of emotion.
Facts or Fantasies in the Chemistry Lecture Theatre

Towards the end of the eighteenth, and into the nineteenth century, subscription courses of chemistry lectures were established in Great Britain, not only for those intending to become doctors or chemists, but for a more general public. Indeed, such courses became fashionable pastimes. It is remarkable how many contemporary references there are to women not only attending these courses in Great Britain but commenting on the personal attributes of the lecturers. There are also a number of poems and cartoons which support the idea that these kinds of feelings existed.
Exogenous lipid uptake induces metabolic and functional reprogramming of tumor-associated myeloid-derived suppressor cells

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) promote tumor growth by blocking anti-tumor T cell responses. Recent reports show that MDSC increase fatty acid uptake and fatty acid oxidation (FAO) to supp...
Gain modeling and thermal management of optically pumped semiconductor lasers

Optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSL) have been replacing legacy gas lasers and solid state lasers for over a decade, due to their superior properties such as compactness, high efficiency, low noise, wavelength scalability, and power scalability. It has wide applications in life sciences, medical therapeutics, light show, and other scientific researches. In this work, we present a gain model and couple it to the thermal management of high power OPSL.
Modeling life course pathways from adverse childhood experiences to adult mental health.

Abstract Although the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adult mental health is becoming well established, less is known about the complex and multiple pathways through which ACEs exert their influence. Growing evidence suggests that adversity early in life conveys not only early impacts, but also augments risk of stress-related life course cascades that continue to undermine health. The present study aims to test pathways of stress proliferation and stress embodiment processes linking ACEs to mental health impairment in adulthood. Data are from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, a representative sample of Washington State adults ages 18 and over (N = 14,001). Structural equation modeling allowed for testing of direct and indirect effects from ACEs though low income status, experiences of adversity in adulthood, and social support. The model demonstrated that adult low income, social support and adult adversity are in fact conduits through which ACEs exert their influence on mental health impairment in adulthood. Significant indirect pathways through these variables supported hypotheses that the effect of ACEs is carried through these variables. This is among the first models that demonstrates multiple stress-related life course pathways through which early life adversity compromises adult mental health. Discussion elaborates multiple service system opportunities for intervention in early and later life to interrupt direct and indirect pathways of ACE effects.
Extending Multiple Diagram Navigation with Internal Diagram and Collection Connections

Multiple diagram navigation (MDN) uses multiple diagrams, maps, or charts to navigate a document collection. To support exploratory search scenarios, MDN provides unconventional overviews for the content and introduces novel navigational queries. In a Diagram-to-Content query, a user clicks on diagram elements to retrieve related collection documents. Diagram-to-Diagram queries allows users to select diagram element(s) to see related elements highlighted in other diagrams. Content-to-Diagram queries highlight diagram elements related to document(s) selected by the user. MDN depends on manually created connections between diagram elements and collection documents. Therefore, only a small portion of the targeted collection might be accessible from the diagrams. In this paper, we extend the domain of MDN diagram-to-content queries to reach related collection documents not directly connected to the diagrams. We focus on Wikipedia as a case study and a class of diagrams with specific characteristics. We exploit the Wikipedia hyperlink graph and internal diagram structures to provide a diagram-influenced ranking of Wikipedia pages. We tested different settings for our ranking algorithm using 12 diagrams from six domains. The results showed the strong influence of diagrams on ranking and reasonably high similarity between diagram elements selected by the user and the top-10-ranked pages.
Statistical Decision Models with Risk and Deviation

Statistical decision problems with deviation and risk measures naturally arise in various financial engineering applications such as portfolio selection, risk hedging, index tracking, and factor analysis. For example, Markowitz’s portfolio selection problem minimizes variance, or, equivalently, standard deviation, of the portfolio rate of return subject to a constraint on the expected value of the portfolio rate of return.
In search of the name.

Abstract Existing communications standards represent person name, date, time, and other ubiquitous attributes in various incompatible formats. The electronic medical record requires convergence of diverse representational systems toward a single communications standard or a harmonized group of standards. The obstacles to convergence include disparities in semantic definition, syntax, and communications protocols. To facilitate harmonization of existing standards, the message standards developers subcommittee of the ANSI HISPP (American National Standards Institute Healthcare Informatics Standards Planning Panel) has defined a set of common data types to facilitate semantic convergence. The authors present the general method used to develop the common data types. The derivation of the person name common data type is presented in detail. A general semantic model of the person name attribute is developed from observations of international usage conventions. A superset of the person name formats of the ACR-NEMA, ASTM, HL7, NCPDP, MEDIX, and X-12 standards is taken as the provisional starting point for a common data type definition. The convergence superset is compared with the general semantic model. Highly specialized and/or infrequently encountered sub components of the general model are combined into component complexes, thereby defining mappings to less rigorous representations. The ANSI HISPP common data types are specified for use in a demonstration of a prototype object-oriented HL7-DICOM HIS/PACS interface (between hospital information systems and imaging systems) at the 1993 Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
Chapter Five Cognition and Aging: A Theory of New Learning and the Use of Old Connections

Summary This chapter describes a detailed theory of perception, production and memory for language and applies it to the problem of cognitive decline in old age. Altering a single parameter in the theory (rate of priming) was shown to account for a wide range of established age differences in cognitive ability, and to suggest an alternative framework for understanding some findings which in the past have seemed contradictory. Examples of these findings are effects of age on learning, rate of processing (general slowing), and the tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon. The theory postulates different mechanisms for retrieving existing representations in memory vs. learning new or unique representations and predicts that new learning will be especially vulnerable to aging. Specifically, the theory predicts that age differences will increase with the number of new connections required in a memory task, but will diminish if already established connections are sufficient to accomplish the task. This prediction cuts across specific paradigms and theoretical distinctions and applies to a broad range of memory phenomena. By way of illustration, we review findings from experimental studies of encoding specificity, implicit versus explicit memory, and semantic versus episodic priming, and show how the observed pattern of age differences is consistent with disruption of new, learning and preservation of memory involving existing, connections. The theory also makes some interesting and, genuinely new predictions for future research that are, spelled out here, for example, an age-linked decline in the, detection of speech errors.
Microscopic Probing of BaTiO3 Ferroelectric Phase Transitions by EPR

The displacive (soft-mode) versus order-disorder (relaxator) behavior is assessed. First, static and dynamic scattering experiments are reviewed, followed by a summary of the two most recent experiments probing locally the octahedral Ti site with paramagnetic resonance of Fe3+ and Mn4+. These two experiments prove substantial order-disorder behavior.
Response to Cho and Liu, “Sampling from complicated and unknown distributions: Monte Carlo and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for redistricting”

Abstract A question of legal significance is whether an enacted map of political districts is “typical.” Recent work has used Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to produce null distributions of maps in order to answer this question. A recent article by Cho and Liu critiques one particular implementation of MCMC for redistricting, that of Fifield et al. The goal of the present commentary is to draw attention to two facts omitted by Cho and Liu that, if included, would have severely weakened their conclusions. In particular, Cho and Liu point out that Fifield et al.’s algorithm fails to approximate a known target distribution, but neglect Fifield et al.’s use of parallel and simulated tempering, which greatly improves the approximation. Secondly, Cho and Liu argue that it is overly difficult to detect when Markov chains have mixed; they neglect to mention diagnostics used for this exact purpose in Fifield et al.
Rethinking Media and Technology: What the Kennedy-Nixon Debate Myth Can Really Teach Us

The presumption that communication technologies – TV, the Internet, social media – have fundamentally changed society has a deep cultural resonance. Indeed, the predominant framework for theorizing “media” – within both the academy and in popular culture more broadly – is rooted in technological determinist presumptions. The primary goal of this article is to challenge this framework, to demonstrate the ways it is incompatible with critical theory, and to make as case for a method and tradition that more productively problematizes technology itself. Taking on one of the most repeated claims and examples for the “effects” of media technologies, the Kennedy-Nixon debate, the article makes a case that a limited, binary theoretical model has fundamentally influenced the deductions. What’s at stake here is how to properly theorize media technologies and propose solutions to social problems and issues.
Supporting Interest in Science Learning with a Social Robot

Education research offers strong evidence that social supports, learning interventions situated in meaningful social interaction, during learning can aid in developing interest and promote understanding for the content. However, children are often asked to complete homework tasks in isolation. To address this discrepancy, we build on prior work in social robotics to demonstrate the effectiveness of a socially adept robot, as compared to a socially neutral robot to generate situational interest and improve learning while reading a science textbook. We conducted a randomized controlled experiment (N = 63) of one reading interaction with either the socially adept or socially neutral robot. Our results show that children who read with a socially adept robot found the robot to be friendlier and more attractive, reported a higher level of closeness and mutual-liking for the robot, had higher situational interest, and made more scientifically accurate statements on a concept-map activity. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.