cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Manual versus computer-automated semen analyses. Part II. Determination of the working range of a computer-automated semen analyzer.

Objective To determine the accuracy and precision of a computer-automated semen analyzer (CASA; Hamilton-Thorne Research, Beverly, MA) over a wide range of sperm concentrations. Design Prospective study using comparative measurements of sperm concentration and motility were performed using manual and CASA methods of analyses. Setting A hospital-based Andrology laboratory. Patients Male partners of couples undergoing infertility evaluation. Main Outcome Measures Measurements of sperm concentration in the range of 1 to 200 × 10 6 /mL were performed using hemacytometers and CASA-analyzed 20 MicroCell counting chambers (Conception Technologies, Inc., La Jolla, CA). Accuracy was assessed by comparison to the hemacytometer ("gold standard"). The MicroCell counting chambers also were used for manual and CASA sperm motility determinations. Results The CASA-analyzed 20 Microcell Chamber most precisely determined sperm concentration in the 1 to 200 × 10 6 /mL range (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.94). The hemacytometer was least precise (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.91). There was a high degree of correlation between the manually and CASA-analyzed MicroCell Chambers in the sperm concentration range of 20 to 149 × 10 6 /mL. Above and below this range, correlation was lower. Motility was determined most precisely using the CASA-analyzed 20 MicroCell Chamber. Conclusions The Hamilton-Thorne CASA used with the 20 MicroCell Chamber is a precise and accurate method for determining sperm concentration and motility of semen specimens with concentrations in the 20 to 149 × 10 6 /mL range. This same combination of CASA and MicroCell Chamber provides precise sperm motility results.
Phase-transfer catalyzed cycloaddition to prepare new l-aryl-sulfonyl-2-aroylcyclopropanes II

The title compounds containing trifluoroethoxy groups in the aryl sulfonyl rings and aroyl rings have been synthesized. The biological activity of the title compounds have increased compared to nonfluorinated analogs.
Management of the dorsal vein complex during radical retropubic prostatectomy

An understanding of the prostatic dorsal venous anatomy allows dissection of the prostatic apex in a manner that results in minimal bleeding while preserving the rhabdosphincter, urethra, and neurovascular bundles during radical retropubic prostatectomy. This article reviews the pertinent venous anatomy of the prostatic apex. A surgical technique is described that allows secure venous control and that has resulted in consistently low blood loss and an allogeneic transfusion rate of less than 1% of patients.
Serum endotoxin, tumor necrosis factor, and interleukin-6 response to total hip arthroplasty

The purpose of this study was to determine if endotoxin, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and interleukin 6 (IL-6) increased in patients during or after total hip arthroplasty. Endotoxin is absorbed from the gut lumen and stimulates macrophages to make TNF. TNF is one of the stimuli for the increased production of IL-6. All three entities cause fever. If an increase takes place in any of the three, it could contribute to the commonly observed postop fever in total hip patients. Five serum samples were obtained from 12 patients: preoperatively; after the acetabular component was seated intraoperatively; in the recovery room; day 1 postoperatively; and day 3 postoperatively. IL-6 and TNF were measured using monoclonal antibody tests and endotoxin was measured with a chromogenic limulus amoebocyte lysate assay. A statistically significant increase in all three parameters was demonstrated. Endotoxin peaked intraoperatively or in the recovery room, TNF tended to peak in the recovery room, and the peak in IL-6 was more variable. Ten patients had a concomitant postoperative fever.
Use and Abuse of Fractals

The problem with a good name for a new (or resurrected) field, particularly one such as fractal theory which can be visually dramatic and practised without much background and sophistication, is that uninformed proselytising and inappropriate use can raise unrealistic expectations as to its relevance and applicability. Catastrophe theory is another example: its overzealous mathematical practitioners did considerable harm to the cause of interdisciplinary science. Although chaos and fractal theory have been proposed by some as biological panaceas fortunately there are enough realists to counter this view and generally keep them in perspective.
REMARKS ON A VOLTERRA EQUATION

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the remarks on a Volterra partial differential equation. The real Volterra equation is of the form, , where 0 ≤ t ≤ ∞. It also presents the asymptotic behavior as t → ∞ of solutions of Volterra equation. The equation under certain hypotheses has arisen in a variety of applications. If in addition to the hypotheses, g(x) is nondecreasing, then there exists at most one solution.
When Mr. Fap Meets the Gals

Fusobacteria are found to be overrepresented in the colorectal tumor microenvironment. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Abed et al. (2016) describe a novel homing mechanism by which fusobacteria localize to tumors by recognizing a host polysaccharide (Gal-GalNAc) on cancer cells using a fusobacterial lectin, Fap2.
Dehydration of 2-Octanol over Ca-doped CeO2 Catalysts

Vapor-phase catalytic dehydration of 2-octanol was investigated over CeO2-CaO mixed oxides at 300°C and atmospheric pressure. Ca doping to a molar composition of 75Ce25Ca increased the activity for 2-octanol dehydration, while further increases in Ca content detrimentally affected conversion. Catalyst surface area and pore volume increased with increasing Ca content in CeO2-CaO mixed oxides. Hydrogen TPR profiles indicate that the partially reduced state of surface ceria (i.e., Ce3+), which increases with increasing Ca loading, might play an important role in promoting activity. This is analogous to our earlier work [Appl. Catal. A: Gen. 394(2011) 105-116] on low temperature water-gas shift, where a promoting effect of Ca-doping was observed with ceria supported Pt catalysts. In that case, TPR, TPR-XANES, and DRIFTS measurements indicated that Ca enhanced both O-mobility and reducibility of ceria by weakening the Ce-O bond.
Effect of a Reminder Statement on Echocardiography Reports on Referrals for Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators for Primary Prevention

Numerous trials show the benefit of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) for primary prevention in patients with low ejection fraction (EF), a class I indication. However, underutilization is well documented. We retrospectively reviewed charts to see whether placing a reminder statement into echocardiogram reports for appropriate patients increased adherence to guidelines. From January through June 2013, a brief reminder of the ICD guidelines was automatically inserted into echocardiogram reports with EF ≤ 35% (reminder period). Charts were reviewed to determine if these patients (1) were referred to Electrophysiology (EP) within 6 months of the index echo and (2) received an ICD within 6 months of EP referral. Chart review of all patients who had an echocardiogram performed between March and August 2012 with an EF ≤ 35% provided a control period. More patients were referred to EP in the reminder period compared with control period, 68% (54 of 80) versus 51% (53 of 104), p = 0.03. There was also a higher rate of discussions in the reminder period between patients and physicians about ICD therapy (71% vs 54%, p = 0.02). Among patients appropriate for ICD, 52% of patients during the reminder period received an ICD versus 38% of patients during the control period (p = 0.11). A simple reminder statement on echocardiography reports led to a significant improvement in appropriate EP referrals and a trend toward increased ICD implantation in appropriate patients.
Gifts and influence: Conflict of interest policies and prescribing of psychotropic medications in the United States

The pharmaceutical industry spends roughly 15 billion dollars annually on detailing - providing gifts, information, samples, trips, honoraria and other inducements - to physicians in order to encourage them to prescribe their drugs. In response, several states in the United States adopted policies that restrict detailing. Some states banned gifts from pharmaceutical companies to doctors, other states simply required physicians to disclose the gifts they receive, while most states allowed unrestricted detailing. We exploit this geographic variation to examine the relationship between gift regulation and the diffusion of four newly marketed medications. Using a dataset that captures 189 million psychotropic prescriptions written between 2005 and 2009, we find that uptake of new costly medications was significantly lower in states with marketing regulation than in areas that allowed unrestricted pharmaceutical marketing. In states with gift bans, we observed reductions in market shares ranging from 39% to 83%. Policies banning or restricting gifts were associated with the largest reductions in uptake. Disclosure policies were associated with a significantly smaller reduction in prescribing than gift bans and gift restrictions. In states that ban gift-giving, peer influence substituted for pharmaceutical detailing when a relatively beneficial drug came to market and provided a less biased channel for physicians to learn about new medications. Our work suggests that policies banning or limiting gifts from pharmaceutical representatives to doctors are likely to be more effective than disclosure policies alone.
Technology, Curtailment, and Transmission: Innovations and Challenges Facing Today's U.S. Wind Energy

Today, evolving technologies have enabled scientific breakthroughs in innovative wind turbine designs, including taller wind turbine towers and longer blades. These breakthroughs will enable utility-scale wind turbines to reach higher into the atmosphere, access stronger winds, and produce greater amounts of renewable energy than their smaller cousins. This is why the Southeastern United States and other areas with historically low wind speeds may become the new frontier for new wind farm development.For the proliferation of taller turbines in non-wind-rich areas, though, the value proposition for installing these turbines must make economic sense. Currently, there are several key obstacles that may hinder and threaten the ability of wind farm projects with taller turbines to be profitable: increased capital expenditures and exposure to new potential liabilities and hazards, curtailment, and lack of sufficient electric transmission structure. This paper explores each of the above issues, examining the challenges the United States wind industry faces that arise from technological innovations, curtailment, and energy conveyance. It also discusses why legal ingenuity and developing increased public support for new wind projects and new clean energy transmission lines will play a crucial role in accelerating the growth of renewable energy generation, deployment, and usage in the Southeastern United States and elsewhere.
Prose Genre and the Emergence of Modern Economic Reasoning in Eighteenth-Century Britain

The eighteenth century is typically identified as the period in which modern economic thought emerged. The influence of new scientific methodologies led to the conceptualization of the economy as a system of interrelated components and forces governed by natural laws. Epistemological authority also came from the incorporation of a specific narrative structure and kinds of evidence. This chapter shows how these developments were influenced not just by seventeenth-century debates about the nature of scientific knowledge, but by changes in how language, discourse, and textual genre were understood. Discussions of linguistic and textual representation appear in early writings on economic topics. These writers participated in a struggle for discursive power encoded in debates about the nature of systematic analysis. Eventually, this lead to a particular narrative form being identified as “scientific” and, therefore, authoritative. This transformation came about only gradually, though. Even at the end of the eighteenth century, multiple forms of economic reasoning competed for legitimacy.
Sparse Contextual Task Learning and Classification to Assist Mobile Robot Teleoperation with Introspective Estimation

This report proposes a novel approach to learn from demonstrations and classify contextual tasks the human operator executes by remotely controlling a mobile robot with joystick, aiming to assist mobile robot teleoperation within a shared autonomy system in a task-appropriate manner. The proposed classifier is implemented with the Gaussian Process (GP). GP is superior in uncertainty estimation when predicting class labels (i.e. the introspective capability) over other state-of-art classification methods, such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), which is probably the most widely used approach on this topic to date. Moreover, to keep the learned model sparse to limit the amount of storage and computation required, full GP is approximated with a state-of-art Sparse Online Gaussian Process (SOGP) algorithm, to maintain scalability to large datasets without compromising classification performance. The proposed approach is extensively evaluated on real data and verified to outperform the baseline classifiers both in classification accuracy and uncertainty estimation in predicting class labels, while maintaining sparsity and real-time property to scale with large datasets. This demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed approach for online use in real applications.
Apolipoprotein E as a novel therapeutic neuroprotection target after traumatic spinal cord injury

Apolipoprotein E (apoE), a plasma lipoprotein well known for its important role in lipid and cholesterol metabolism, has also been implicated in many neurological diseases. In this study, we examined the effect of apoE on the pathophysiology of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). ApoE-deficient mutant (apoE-/-) and wild-type mice received a T9 moderate contusion SCI and were evaluated using histological and behavioral analyses after injury. At 3days after injury, the permeability of spinal cord-blood-barrier, measured by extravasation of Evans blue dye, was significantly increased in apoE-/- mice compared to wild type. The inflammation and spared white matter was also significantly increased and decreased, respectively, in apoE-/- mice compared to the wild type ones. The apoptosis of both neurons and oligodendrocytes was also significantly increased in apoE-/- mice. At 42days after injury, the inflammation was still robust in the injured spinal cord in apoE-/- but not wild type mice. CD45+ leukocytes from peripheral blood persisted in the injured spinal cord of apoE-/- mice. The spared white matter was significantly decreased in apoE-/- mice compared to wild type ones. Locomotor function was significantly decreased in apoE-/- mice compared to wild type ones from week 1 to week 8 after contusion. Treatment of exogenous apoE mimetic peptides partially restored the permeability of spinal cord-blood-barrier in apoE-/- mice after SCI. Importantly, the exogenous apoE peptides decreased inflammation, increased spared white matter and promoted locomotor recovery in apoE-/- mice after SCI. Our results indicate that endogenous apoE plays important roles in maintaining the spinal cord-blood-barrier and decreasing inflammation and spinal cord tissue loss after SCI, suggesting its important neuroprotective function after SCI. Our results further suggest that exogenous apoE mimetic peptides could be a novel and promising neuroprotective reagent for SCI.
A Note on Mitigating the Adverse Scale Effects Associated With Daily Driving Restrictions

This paper investigates the role of additional regulation in mitigating the ‘adverse scale effect’ associated with daily driving restrictions, which has become a popular regulatory tool used to control episodic air pollution internationally, especially in developing countries. We find that although an annual vehicle registration tax reduces the incentive to purchase additional vehicles among households whose sole purpose for doing so is to ‘cheat’ the restriction (i.e., the ‘adverse scale effect’), it does so with an external cost. The cost occurs because households whose purpose for purchasing an additional vehicle is not to cheat the restriction are given the same disincentive with the tax. We show how simple one- and two-stage lotteries can be used to not only discriminate between cheater and non-cheater households (in particular, to avoid providing a disincentive to the latter type of household), but also to provide an even stronger disincentive to the former.
Nanoparticles-in-Microsphere Oral Delivery Systems (NiMOS) for Nucleic Acid Therapy in the Gastrointestinal Tract

With increased understanding in the genetic basis of diseases, there is tremendous excitement in development of therapeutic strategies that directly affect gene function in the cells and tissues of interest. Gene and RNA interference (RNAi) therapies have great potential to address multiple types of diseases, including many in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Efficient oral delivery and target-specific intracellular localization of the nucleic acid construct are major challenges to effective gene and RNAi therapy. Over the last several years, we have evaluated multicompartmental nucleic acid-encapsulated solid polymeric nanoparticles further encased in microsphere delivery systems (NiMOS) for oral gene and RNAi therapy. Using reporter and therapeutic plasmid DNA, we show the preclinical potential of this technology in local transfection, transgene expression, and therapeutic efficacy using inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) model. Further evidence is provided with oral delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) for silencing proinflammatory genes, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) and cyclin-D1, in IBD model. Lastly, several other forms of multicompartmental delivery systems, including water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) multiple emulsion and nanoparticles-in-emulsion (NiE) formulations are also discussed in the context of nucleic acid delivery.
Dibromocarbene and Other Carbenes

The success of phase transfer cyclopropanations with dichlorocarbene naturally stimulated a search for related examples. Numerous trihalomethanes besides chloroform were subjected to phase transfer conditions in the expectation that a wide variety of dihalocyclopropanes would result. Notable among these attempts is the phase transfer generation of dibromocarbene which is discussed in Sects. 4.2–4.5. In addition to the miscellany of dihalocarbenes, the principal successes have been in the formation of sulfur containing (Sect. 4.6) and unsaturated carbenes (Sect. 4.7).
SOME BIOCHEMICAL ASPECTS OF HORMONE EVOLUTION

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses several molecular approaches used for the study of hormonal evolution. In the case of insulin, pro-insulin messenger RNA fractions from islet tissues have been identified by their translation in cell-free protein synthesizing systems to yield material that is reactive with insulin antisera. The study of evolutionary relationships among cells that produce secretory proteins, such as insulin or glucagon, can be undertaken via the comparative analyses of the primary structures of the product molecules and, wherever possible, also via the studies of their secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures. An interesting alternative approach to the studies of hormonal evolution would be via the comparative studies of the structures of their respective messenger RNA molecules or even of their structural genes in the chromosomal DNA. Current methods for the molecular hydridization of DNA and RNA permit direct comparisons to be made among the genomes of various species.
The Innovative North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation

The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (the NACEC or CEC) is an innovative international environmental institution in three important ways. It is the first international organization created to address the environmental aspects of economic integration. It is a regional environmental institution with powerful tools and almost unlimited jurisdiction. And it provides unprecedented opportunities for participation by civil society at the international level. In each of these respects, the Commission addresses critical international concerns. The effort to reconcile environmental protection and economic integration has become one of the flashpoints of international discourse; although rarely raised before 1990, since then environmental objections to trade and investment agreements have nearly prevented ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, contributed to the abandonment of talks aimed at a Multilateral Agreement on Investment, and helped lead to the 1999 Seattle riots that accompanied the failed effort to begin a new round of World Trade Organization negotiations. At the same time, the international community has become more aware of the interdependence of ecological systems and the need for international institutions to protect the environment. Despite the proliferation of environment policies effectively and the handful of regional environmental organizations are relatively powerless. With respect to economic integration and environmental protection, as well as many other areas of international cooperation, nations are struggling to respond to the demands of their citizens to participate in the development and implementation of international policies that affect them. The Commission is important because it provides creative answers to each of these issues. Its answers may or may not prove satisfactory but, either way, the lessons to be drawn from its experience should be of great value to all those trying to reconcile environmental protection and economic integration, to promote stronger regional and global environmental organizations, and to find ways for civil society to participate in international policy. The agreement creating the CEC has already been used as a model for bilateral agreements between Canada and Chile and between the United States and Jordan. Surprisingly, however, the Commission has received relatively little scholarly attention. Although political scientists and lawyers have described its relationship to NAFTA and have analyzed its submissions procedure, there are few comprehensive analyses of how it is fulfilling, or failing to fulfill, its mandates. This book is intended to fill that gap.
Softening the Stressed Giant Titin in Diabetes Mellitus

Abnormal left ventricular (LV) relaxation and increased diastolic stiffness are important features of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF); the 2 major contributors to LV diastolic function are the cardiomyocytes and the extracellular matrix.1 Cardiomyocytes govern LV relaxation and are a determinant of LV chamber distensibility. Increased cardiomyocyte stiffness can be caused by sarcomeric myofilaments; the focus of the work by Hopf et al2 is on the role of the myofilament titin, a major contributor to diastolic stiffening in HFpEF.3,4 Approximately 1/3 of HFpEF patients have diabetes mellitus (DM), and Hopf et al2 provide important insights in the insulin-related signaling pathways that modify titin’s stiffness in HFpEF patients with DM. Article, see p 342 The extensible I-band region of titin comprises (1) tandem immunoglobulins segments, (2) the PEVK (proline-glutamic acid-valine-lysine-rich element), and (3) the N2B-Us (a unique sequence [Us] that is part of the N2B element).5 Titin’s stiffness can be modulated through differential mRNA splicing that gives rise to stiff and compliant titin isoforms.6 Upregulation of compliant isoforms occurs in pathological conditions, presumably to counteract fibrosis.7 Upregulating compliant titin can be experimentally accomplished by targeting RBM20 (RNA-binding motif protein 20), and this normalizes titin’s stiffness in models with diastolic dysfunction.8,9 Posttranslational modification of titin also alters titin’s stiffness.10 S4010 and S4099 in N2B-Us can be phosphorylated, resulting in a reduction of titin stiffness, whereas phosphorylation of the S11878 and S12022, located in the PEVK segment, results in increased stiffness. Previous studies have shown that increased cardiomyocyte stiffness in DM is a consequence of deranged titin phosphorylation, but the pathways connecting insulin deficiency to altered titin phosphorylation have not been established. Hopf et al2 shed light on the signaling pathways involved and, importantly, provide potential therapeutic …
Finger Replantation Optimization Study (FRONT): Update on National Trends.

Purpose Traumatic digit amputations have an adverse impact on patients’ daily living. Despite experts advocating for digit replantation , studies have shown a continued decrease in rate of replantation. We performed a national-level investigation to examine the recent trend of practice for digital replantation. Methods We used the National Inpatient Sample database under the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project to select adult patients with traumatic digit amputation from 2001 to 2014. We calculated the rate of attempted and rate of successful digit replantation per year, subcategorizing for digit type (thumb or finger) and for hospital type (rural, urban nonteaching, or urban teaching). We also analyzed the pattern of distribution of case volume to each hospital type per year. We used 2 multivariable logistic regression models to investigate patient demographic and hospital characteristics associated with the odds of replantation attempt and success. Results Among the 14,872 adult patients with a single digit amputation from 2001 to 2014, only 1,670 (11.2%) underwent replantation. The rate of replantation attempt trended down over the years for both thumb and finger injuries at all hospital types, despite increasing proportions of cases being sent to urban teaching hospitals where they were more than twice as likely to undergo replantation. The rate of successful replantation stayed stable for the thumb at 82.9% and increased for fingers from 76.1% to 82.4% over the years. Patients were more likely to undergo replantation if they had private insurance or a higher level of income. Neither hospital case volume nor hospital type was predictive of successful replantation. Conclusions Although more single-digit amputations were treated by urban teaching hospitals with higher likelihood to replant, the downward trend in rate of attempt regardless of hospital type demonstrates that concentration of case volume is not the solution to reverse the declining trend. Clinical relevance Financial aspects of digit replantation need to be considered from both the patients’ and the surgeons’ perspectives to improve delivery of care for digit replantation.
Testimony Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Professor Rebecca Ingber testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Her testimony focused on Judge Kavanaugh's national security and international law jurisprudence, in particular, the court's role in considering international law constraints on the President's war powers, and the potential effects of this judicial approach on executive power.
Enabling Ground Based Materials Analysis and Identification Using Reflectance Spectroscopy

This paper discusses radiance and wavelength calibration methods for field portable spectroradiometers and presents typical protocols for deriving spectroradiometer signal to noise ratio (SNR) for measurements performed in the lab as well using solar illumination. The paper presents how the selection of the light source and its irradiance, or the signal, affects the SNR measurement, a quantity often used to compare spectroradiometers. This paper will also present a method to determine noise equivalent spectral radiance, or NEdL, or a quantity proportional with the noise experienced by the user, and why it determines spectroradiometer performance in the field. Paper will also discuss the impact of spectral resolution on reflectance measurements between 350 and 2,500 nm. We will also discuss factors affecting spectrometer resolution function and how fixed array spectrometers differ from rotating grating spectrometers. Finally, we will discuss how improved resolution in the visible to near infrared (VNIR) region of the spectrum is important in resolving spectral features of rare earth minerals.
Judicial Invalidation of the Affordable Care Act

Since its enactment in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has provided meaningful coverage for millions of Americans, reformed the national health insurance and health care delivery infrastructure, and assured basic public health services through core funding. Enforcing the ACA has also entailed a multitude of political and legal challenges including (1) dozens of failed attempts by Congress to repeal its provisions, (2) multiple federal regulatory waivers, and (3) considerable judicial adjustments. On December 14, 2018, federal district court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the entire ACA is unconstitutional. The decision in Texas v. United States was anticipated for months. If upheld on appeal, it could spell the end of every protection, program, subsidy, and incentive framed in the ACA not otherwise waived or dismantled by prior or current administrations. This commentary explains the core premises for the court’s decision, disputes its legal foundations, and assesses future law and policy options for courts, Congress, and Americans facing the loss of popular ACA protections and benefits.
Abstract 137: Using an Electronic Clinical Support Tool to Improve Anticoagulation in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation/Flutter

Background: It is estimated that atrial fibrillation (AF) impacts between 2.7 to 6.1 million American adults, and this is expected to double by 2050. The outpatient performance measures of the 2016...
The development of synthetic thermal image generation tools and training data at FLIR

The importance of training data in the development of highly accurate target classifiers/detectors is critical as the industry transitions from proof of concept to the deployment of intelligent sensors into autonomous driving systems in the commercial transportation market and automatic target recognition into military systems. We describe the development of synthetic thermal image generation software, its application in network training and target classifier performance results.
Supporting peripherals in intermittent systems with just-in-time checkpoints

Batteryless energy-harvesting devices have the potential to be the foundation of applications for which batteries are infeasible. Just-In-Time checkpointing supports intermittent execution on energy-harvesting devices by checkpointing processor state right before a power failure. While effective for software execution, Just-In-Time checkpointing remains vulnerable to unrecoverable failures involving peripherals(e.g., sensors and accelerators) because checkpointing during a peripheral operation may lead to inconsistency between peripheral and program state. Additionally, a peripheral operation that uses more energy than a device can buffer never completes, causing non-termination. This paper presents Samoyed, a Just-In-Time checkpointing system that safely supports peripherals. Samoyed correctly runs user-annotated peripheral functions by selectively disabling checkpoints and undo-logging. Samoyed guarantees progress by energy profiling, dynamic peripheral workload scaling, and a user-provided software fallback routine. Our evaluation shows that Samoyed correctly executes peripheral operations that fail with existing systems, achieving up to 122.9x speedup by using accelerators. Samoyed preserves the performance benefit of Just-In-Time checkpointing, showing 4.11x mean speedup compared to a recent possible alternative. Moreover, Samoyed’s unique ability to profile energy and to dynamically scale large peripheral operations simplifies programming.
Non-linear Uses of Op-Amps

In the previous chapter, the op-amp was used as a linear amplifier. A real op-amp has limitations that can be exploited to make useful circuits in which the op-amp is no longer linear. These applications use the very high gain of the op-amp along with the limited output range to create new circuits. Of particular interest is use as a comparator.
Visual Risk Literacy in “Flatten the Curve” COVID-19 Visualizations

This article explores how “flatten the curve” (FTC) visualizations have served as a rhetorical anchor for communicating the risk of viral spread during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning from the pre...
Dispersion curve regression – assisted wideband local wavenumber analysis for characterizing three-dimensional (3D) profile of hidden corrosion damage

Abstract Corrosion as common damage in civil, petrochemical, nuclear, and aerospace structures affects the integrity and safety of the structures and may lead to catastrophic failures. This paper presents dispersion curve regression-assisted local wavenumber analysis method, which can analyze the time–space wavefield containing wideband information of wave-damage interaction and further extract the structural information carried by such wavefield for characterizing hidden corrosion damage in an isotropic plate. To acquire the time–space wavefield, a noncontact scanning laser Doppler vibrometer is used. In our analysis method, the acquired time–space wavefield is firstly processed to generate a local wavenumber function. The derived wavenumber function is further analyzed with a dispersion curve regression step, which searches in a set of theoretical frequency-wavenumber dispersion curves for different plate thicknesses and identifies the optimal plate thickness whose theoretical curve best matches the frequency-wavenumber relation contained in the local wavenumber function. By this means, a 3D profile including both in plane and thickness dimensions of the structure can be constructed for corrosion visualization and quantification. The experimental study demonstrates that our method can quantify the profile of hidden uniform corrosion in metal plates in terms of its in-plane shape and size as well as its out-of-plane depth in the subwavelength scale. Moreover, compared to previous Lamb wave-based corrosion inspection methods, our technique allows for noncontact 3D characterization of hidden corrosion from a far distance to the structure. We believe this work will inspire new 3D damage quantification methods that are based on wavefield analysis as well as enable potential applications for the quantification of hidden corrosion in civil, petrochemical, nuclear, and aerospace structures.
Detecting a conditional extreme value model

In classical extreme value theory probabilities of extreme events are estimated assuming all the components of a random vector to be in a domain of attraction of an extreme value distribution. In contrast, the conditional extreme value model assumes a domain of attraction condition on a sub-collection of the components of a multivariate random vector. This model has been studied in Heffernan and Tawn (JRSS B 66(3):497–546, 2004), Heffernan and Resnick (Ann Appl Probab 17(2):537–571, 2007), and Das and Resnick (2009). In this paper we propose three statistics which act as tools to detect this model in a bivariate set-up. In addition, the proposed statistics also help to distinguish between two forms of the limit measure that is obtained in the model.
Object recognition under occlusion revisited: elucidating algorithmic advantages of recurrent computation

Recurrent connections are ubiquitous in the visual system, yet their role is less understood compared to that of feedforward visual processing. Occluded object recognition, an ethologically critical cognitive capacity, is thought to rely crucially on recurrent processing of visual information. Understanding how occluded object recognition depends on recurrent connections is thus of great importance. Here, using deep neural networks as our main tool, we performed comprehensive, controlled computational experiments to elucidate the potential role and necessity of recurrent computation in this task. While our comparison of neural network architectures revealed that sufficiently deep feedforward networks could easily outperform recurrent ones, contrary to previous studies, at the same time we found evidence that recurrent networks learn to ″explain away″ occlusion by leveraging information about the occluder, without being explicitly trained to do so. Furthermore, inspired by recent experimental studies, we demonstrated that a deep network model incorporating biologically inspired features was capable of faithfully reconstituting corrupted representations, even for heavily occluded objects, by taking global contexts into account through recurrent iterations. Lastly, we examined how occlusion shapes internal representations of neural networks optimized for object recognition. Although representations of occlusion-trained and non-occlusion-trained networks were nearly indistinguishable for unoccluded images, they exhibited highly divergent representations for occluded images. Our work sheds new light on computational roles of recurrent connections, a pervasive component of biological circuits, and how ethologically relevant conditions may strongly reshape neural representations supporting key cognitive functions.
Test Characteristics of Abdominal Computed Tomography for the Diagnosis of Gastro-gastric Fistula in Patients with Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass.

Gastrogastric fistulae (GGF) occur in 1–6% of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) patients. Many patients undergo abdominal computed tomography (CT) as an initial test owing to its wide availability; however, CT diagnostic accuracy for GGF is unclear. Our aim was to evaluate test characteristics of abdominal CT compared to upper gastrointestinal series (UGI) and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) for diagnosing GGF using surgery as a gold standard. Retrospective review of RYGB patients who underwent abdominal CT with oral contrast within 1 year. Demographics, weight parameters, and symptoms were collected. Surgery within 1 year of the diagnostic tests was included as the gold standard comparison. Primary outcomes included CT sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and diagnostic accuracy (DA) for GGF. One hundred thirty-seven patients were included, where 42 (30.1%) had positive CT and 95 (69.3%) had negative CT for GGF. Compared to surgical confirmation, CT abdomen with PO contrast had sensitivity of 73.1% (59–84.4), specificity of 95.2% (88.3–98.7), PPV 90.5% (77.4–97.3), NPV of 85.1% (76.3–91.2), and DA 89.7%. UGI series had sensitivity of 58.5% (42.1–73.7), specificity of 98.8% (93.5–99.9), PPV of 96% (79.7–99.9), NPV of 82.8% (73.9–89.7), and diagnostic accuracy (DA) of 85.4%. EGD had sensitivity of 78.3% (63.6–89.1), specificity of 98.8% (93.5–99.9), PPV 97.3 (85.8–99.9), and DA 91.5%. There were no significant differences in diagnostic test characteristics among modalities. Abdominal CT with oral contrast has similar diagnostic test characteristics to UGI and EGD at detecting GGF when using surgical diagnosis as a gold standard.
Auer, Chevron and the Future of Kisor

To most observers’ surprise, the Auer doctrine, which provides that agencies’ interpretation of their own regulations should receive deference from reviewing courts, survived reconsideration by the Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie. This Article argues courts and commentators, including the Justices who wrote the various opinions in Kisor, have misconstrued the Auer doctrine by treating it as an abstract legal principle, rather than as part of the administrative enforcement process. Doing so reveals that Auer is not a separate rule, but a necessary implication of the dominant decision in this field, Chevron U.S.A. v. NRDC. It operates as an application of Chevron at the enforcement stage of administrative action, where the rules that have been granted Chevron deference are applied to specific situations. In addition to being an essential component of the Chevron doctrine at the operational level, Auer is also derived from Chevron’s conceptual advances in redefining agency interpretation of law, redefining the idea of ambiguous statutory language, and redefining the relationship between reviewing courts and administrative agencies. The Article explicates these features of Chevron, and then shows that the Auer doctrine is derived from them. It is therefore an element of Chevron in theory as well as in practice.
Intracranial approach for sub-second monitoring of neurotransmitters during DBS electrode implantation does not increase infection rate

Introduction: Currently, sub-second monitoring of neurotransmitter release in humans can only be performed during standard of care invasive procedures like DBS electrode implantation. The procedure requires acute insertion of a research probe and additional time in surgery, which may increase infection risk. We sought to determine the impact of our research procedure, particularly the extended time in surgery, on infection risk. Methods: We screened 607 DBS electrode implantation procedures performed at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center between January 2011 through October 2020 using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for infection. During this period, 116 cases included an IRB approved 30-minute research protocol, during the DBS electrode implantation surgery, to monitor sub-second neurotransmitter release. We used Fisher9s Exact test (FET) to determine if there was a significant change in the infection rate following DBS electrode implantation procedures that included, versus those that did not include, the neurotransmitter monitoring research protocol. Results: Within 30-days following DBS electrode implantation, infection was observed in 7 (1.43%) out of 491 procedures that did not include the research procedure and 2 (1.72%) of the 116 procedures that did include the research procedure. Total infection rates (i.e., not constrained by 30-day time window) for all non-research cases was 28/491 (5.70%) and only 4/116 (3.45%) for research inclusive cases. Notably, all types of infection observed were typical of those expected for DBS electrode implantation. Conclusion: Total infection rates are not statistically different in patients who performed the research procedure (3.45% vs. 5.70%; p = 0.4872, FET) and not statistically different across research and non-research groups within 30-days following the research procedure (1.72% vs. 1.43%; p = 0.684, FET). Our results demonstrate that the research procedures used for sub-second monitoring of neurotransmitter release in humans can be performed without increasing the rate of infection.
A Comment on the Supposed Paradoxes of a Mathematical Interpretation of the Logic of Trials

This symposium has renewed discussion of the apparent paradox of at- tempting to apply mathematical probabilities to the logic of trials. Brought to academic attention by the stimulating work of L. Jonathan Cohen,' the debate reflects a more general controversy over the virtues of quantifying legal decision making. In this brief comment I do not intend to take sides either in this debate or in the more general controversy. I want only to draw attention to a weakness in the legal interpretations which underlie much of the debate.
Oxidative metabolism in plant/bacteria interactions: characterization of a unique oxygen uptake response of potato suspension cells

Abstract Plant suspension cells have been shown to respond to bacteria or microbial elicitors by producing active oxygen as well as increasing oxygen uptake. Here we characterize a unique two stage oxygen uptake response of potato suspension cells to heat-killed bacteria. Stage 1 occurred within minutes after the addition of heat-killed bacteria; the potato suspension cells responded with a rapid increase in oxygen uptake and reached a steady state approximately 50% greater than the initial basal rate. Stage 2 began 20–30 min after this new steady state was achieved and was characterized by a slow increase in the oxygen uptake rate over the remaining 90 min period. Calculation of the total oxygen consumption by the plant cells indicated that only a small fraction of the increased oxygen uptake was due to the concomitant production of reactive oxygen species. The protein kinase inhibitor, K-252, inhibited the oxygen uptake response by 80–90%, suggesting the involvement of protein phosphorylation in the oxygen uptake response. The alternate oxidase inhibitor, SHAM, inhibited the elicited oxygen uptake response by about 25% while a combination of SHAM and KCN almost completely blocked respiration as well as the elicited response. The data indicate that mitochondrial respiration and, in particular, the alternate oxidase, play a significant role in the elicited oxygen uptake response of potato cells.
In vitro studies of the rabbit immune system. I. Hemolytic plaque-forming response of dissociated spleen cells from normal and primed rabbits.

Abstract The conditions for the in vitro generation of primary and secondary immune responses by rabbit spleen cells to sheep red blood cell (SRBC) antigen have been examined. Spleen cells from many normal and all previously immunized rabbits are capable of producing in vitro plaque-forming cell (PFC) responses when cultured as dissociated cell suspensions in the presence of antigen. Primed spleen cells generate approximately 100 times the number of PFCs obtained in normal cultures with a shorter lag period. Both types of cultures demonstrate a period of exponential increase in PFCs during which the doubling time is 12–14 hr. This increase occurs after 1 day of culture of spleen cells from primed rabbits and after 4 days of culture of spleen cells from unprimed rabbits. The PFCs which arise in cultures of primed cells appear not to be the progeny of those generated in vivo but to be derived from an increased number of PFC precursors. Repeated immunization of the spleen cell donor is required to produce significant numbers of indirect (IgG) PFC or indirect precursors; most of the PFC found after a single immunization in vivo or in vitro are direct (IgM). There is no evidence for conversion of IgM to IgG PFC in vitro . This system should provide a means for further identification of the cellular interactions involved in the immune response of the rabbit.