cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Spread-Identity mechanisms for DOS resilience and Security.

The explosive growth in wireless (and wired) networking technologies and services indicates that multiple means of network connectivity will become available in the near future. For example, stationary and mobile hosts currently support Internet access via wired LANs, Wireless LANs/PANs (e.g., 802.11x, 802.15) or wide area wireless cellular phone and data networks (like GSM). In essence, heterogeneous multi-homing is now a necessity for all hosts (mobile or non-mobile). In order to tap the full potential of such heterogeneous multi-homing, we introduce the novel Spread Identity (SI) communications paradigm. Therein, the concept of multi-homing is extended to allow each interface to simultaneously assume multiple addresses and dynamically acquire and release them as needed which is tantamount to Spreading Identity at the network( IP) level and has fundamental implications for security. In this paper we show how the spread Identity mechanisms can effectively (1) Mitigate DDOS attacks by rate-limiting the number of name-resolution responses. (2) Quickly detect and neutralize resource-overload type DDOS attacks that cannot be prevented by rate-limiting (3) Enable surviving the remaining types of DDOS attacks by quenching destination addresses they target (in essence by changing the Identity) (4) and preventing future attack flows by returning NULL addresses, and re-directing the attackers against one-another. We demonstrate that Spread Identity mechanisms can also be leveraged to bolster the security of single sourceto- destination flows. SI mechanisms can attain the same level of security as that of a single link with Strong Security Infrastructure (SSI) at a lower cost (in terms of the infrastructure required and the encryption effort needed). The fundamental concept of Spreading-Identity revealed herein is more general and potentially applicable to other scenarios beyond Internet/Electronic communications.
Human Services Education: Social Responsibility And Helping Others

To determine if experimental Family and Community Services occupational classes were resulting in improved attitudes toward social responsibility and helping others, students were tested before and after a semester of course work plus on-the-job experience. Traditional Family Living classes served as control groups. Attitude scales titled Helping Others and Social Responsibility-Social Action were used to measure attitudes. Analysis of variance and covariance were utilized to determine the significance of difference within and between groups. Independent variables were sex, educational aspiration, and extracurricular in volvement. There were no significant differences between the Family and Community Living classes and the Family Living classes on pre- or posttest scores or change in scores for Social Responsibility or Helping Others. There were significant differences in pre- and posttest scores for the two attitude scales for the independent variables of sex, extracurricular involvement, and educational aspiration. For both scales, females scored higher than males, college-bound than noncollege-bound, and involved than noninvolved students. It is rec ommended that curriculum and educational strategies be planned to provide experiences to improve attitudes toward social responsibility and helping others for males, noncollege- bound and noninvolved students, and preservice home economics teachers. Additional re search relating to other variables is also recommended.
A Framework for Online Inversion-Based 3D Site Characterization

Our goal is to develop the capability for characterizing the three-dimensional geological structure and mechanical properties of individual sites and complete basins in earthquake-prone regions. Toward this end we present a framework that integrates in situ field testing, observations of earthquake ground motion, and inversion-based modeling.
Novel, Bedside, Tissue Factor–Dependent Clotting Assay Permits Improved Assessment of Combination Antithrombotic and Antiplatelet Therapy

Background—Because optimal use of combinations of antiplatelet and antithrombotic drugs requires improved methods for assessment of therapeutic efficacy, we developed an assay designed to increase sensitivity that is based on initiation of clotting by tissue factor in minimally altered whole blood. Methods and Results—Blood samples were obtained from healthy subjects, and the contact pathway of coagulation was inhibited with corn trypsin inhibitor (a specific factor XIIa inhibitor without effect on other coagulation factors). Clotting was initiated with relipidated tissue factor and detected with a Hemochron ACT instrument. Results were reproducible with samples from 25 healthy volunteers (mean time to clot, 125±17 seconds). Blood was also exposed to pharmacological concentrations of antithrombotic and antiplatelet agents in vitro. Heparin (0.25 anti-IIa/Xa U/mL) prolonged the time to clot by 2.4-fold (172 seconds, P<0.05); hirudin (1.0 anti-IIa U/mL), by 3-fold (250 seconds P<0.05); and enoxaparin (0.6 a...
Wikipedia as a Data Source for Political Scientists: Accuracy and Completeness of Coverage

In only 10 years, Wikipedia has risen from obscurity to become the dominant information source for an entire generation. However, any visitor can edit any page on Wikipedia, which hardly fosters confidence in its accuracy. In this article, I review thousands of Wikipedia articles about candidates, elections, and officeholders to assess both the accuracy and the thoroughness of Wikipedia's coverage. I find that Wikipedia is almost always accurate when a relevant article exists, but errors of omission are extremely frequent. These errors of omission follow a predictable pattern. Wikipedia's political coverage is often very good for recent or prominent topics but is lacking on older or more obscure topics.
Origin of tetrapods inferred from their mitochondrial DNA affiliation to lungfish.

Summary. This paper shows that questions o f an unexpected phylogenetic depth can be addressed by the study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences. For decades, it has been unclear whether coelacanth fishes or lungfishes are the closest living relatives of land vertebrates (Tetrapoda). Segments of mtDNA from a lungfish, the coelacanth, and a ray-finned fish were sequenced and compared to the published sequence of a frog mtDNA. A tree based on inferred amino acid replacements, silent transversions, and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) substitutions showed with statistical confidence that the lungfish m t D N A is more closely related to that of the frog than is the m t D N A of the coelacanth. This result appears to rule out the possibility that the coelacanth lineage gave rise to land vertebrates; hence, morphological characters that link the latter two groups are possibly due to convergent evolution or reversals and not to common descent. Besides supporting the theory that land vertebrates arose from an offshoot of the lineage leading to lungfishes, the molecular tree facilitates an evolutionary interpretation of the morphological differences among the living forms. It would appear that the common ancestor of lungfishes and tetrapods already possessed multiple morphological traits preadapting their locomotion, circulation, and respiration for life on land.
Stability analysis of high-order delta-sigma modulation for ADC's

A model for /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ A/D modulators that allows stability analysis using linear methods is described. This model draws out the dependence of stability on system parameters such as integrator gains and delays as well as the dependence on dynamic characteristics such as input amplitude, transients, and initial conditions. In addition, high-order systems are found to be prone to a previously unrecognized source of instability, saturation limit cycles. Stabilizing high-order systems requires controlling the saturation limit cycles, minimizing the integrator delays, and the proper choice of integrator gains. The dominant means of stabilizing high-order systems, however, is identified to be the use of multi-bit quantization since this transforms the nature of the system rather than just restricting the region of operation. >
Evolution and resolution in FEL code CODCOM

Abstract We describe inefficiencies of the quasi-fast Hankel transform method for optical source problems. Then we adopt the Gauss-Laguerre technique and describe how the finite representation determines its resolution. These results are summarized in a few formulas. Finally we describe transmission through an aperture with this technique.
Calcium transients in growth cones and axons of cultured Helisoma neurons in response to conditioning factors

Accumulating evidence indicates that cytosolic calcium levels regulate growth cone motility and neurite extension. The purpose of this study was to determine if intracellular calcium levels also influence the initiation of neurite extension induced by growth-promoting factors. An in vitro preparation of axotomized neurons that can be maintained in the absence of growth-promoting factors was utilized. The distal axons of cultured Helisoma neurons plated into defined medium do not extend neurites until they are exposed to Helisoma brain-conditioned medium. This provided the opportunity to study the intracellular changes associated with neurite extension. Cytosolic calcium levels were monitored with the calcium-sensitive dye fura 2 at the distal axon. In control medium calcium levels in the distal axon were constant. However, transient elevations in cytosolic calcium in the axonal growth cone occurred after addition of conditioned medium and coincident with the initiation of neurite extension. Application of calcium channel blockers showed that the transients resulted from calcium influx across the neuronal membrane. The transients, however, were not required for neurite extension, although they did influence the rate and extent of neurite outgrowth. Simultaneous extracellular patch recordings demonstrated that the calcium transients were correlated temporally with an increase in rhythmic spontaneous electrical activity of cells, suggesting that conditioned medium influences ionic membrane properties of these neurons. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Research Focus: Significance of large-displacement, low-angle normal faults

Low-angle normal faults (LANFs or detachment faults; dip <30°) are a major class of faults that became widely accepted by earth scientists only in the late twentieth century. Continental LANFs were mapped for nearly 100 yr (e.g., [Ransome et al., 1910][1]) but typically were interpreted as odd
FPGA-Based Analog Functional Measurements for Adaptive Control in Mixed-Signal Systems

A field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA)-based built-in self-test (BIST) approach that is used for adaptive control in mixed-signal systems is presented. It provides the capability to perform accurate analog functional measurements of critical parameters such as the third-order intercept point, frequency amplitude and phase responses, and noise figure. The results of these measurements can then be used to adaptively control the analog circuitry for calibration and compensation. The BIST circuitry consists of a direct digital synthesizer-based test pattern generator and a multiplier/accumulator-based output response analyzer. The BIST approach has been implemented in an FPGA-based mixed-signal system and used for actual analog functional measurements. The BIST measurements agree quite well with the results obtained with the traditional analog test equipment. The proposed BIST circuitry provides a unique means for high-performance adaptive control in mixed-signal systems.
Geochemical Signatures of Paleodepositional and Diagenetic Environments: A STEM/AEM Study of Authigenic Clay Minerals from an Arid Rift Basin, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (East African Rift) exposes a 100 m thick Plio-Pleistocene sequence of dominantly volcaniclastic sediments deposited in a 50 km wide closed basin containing a playa lake. A scanning transmission electron and analytical electron microscopy (STEM/AEM) study of authigenic clay minerals in sediments from representative depositional environments in the basin (pyroclastic fan, fluvial plain, wetland, lake margin and lake basin) was undertaken to determine whether clay compositions and textures could provide unique geochemical fingerprints characteristic of source area (Plio-Pleistocene trachytic volcanics vs. Precambrian quartzose-feldspathic basement) or paleoenvironmental conditions. Our study shows that compositional signatures obtained by clay minerals during early pedogenesis are inherited from their parent source rocks. Sediments sourced from volcanics contain highly disordered, dioctahedral smectite. Those sourced from Precambrian basement are similar, but are more Al-rich. Subsequent neoformation in the pedogenic (soil) or diagenetic (lake-margin, lake) environments results in the modification of original clay mineralogy, compositions, and textures, and unique paleoenvironmental fingerprints are acquired. Soils developed on the distal pyroclastic fan contain smectite with more Fe(III) and Mg than smectite from the proximal pyroclastic fan sediments. A trend of decreasing Al and increasing Mg content occurs in smectite compositions in samples from the fluvial to lake-margin and lake environments as a result of partial replacement of original dioctahedral Al-rich smectite by neoformed trioctahedral Mg-rich smectite (stevensite). Neoformed celadonite replaces smectite in the most saline lake sediments. The STEM/AEM data collectively indicate that diagenesis in the saline-alkaline lake results in the replacement of Al-rich dioctahedral smectite by Mg-rich trioctahedral smectite (stevensite) and Mg- and Al-rich celadonite. Thus, determination of clay mineral compositions at a basin-wide scale provides a useful tool for interpreting the spatial distribution of depositional and diagenetic environments.
Temporal Pattern of Food Intake Not a Factor in the Retardation of Aging Processes by Dietary Restriction

Long-term dietary restriction programs which retard aging processes in rodents usually involve meal eating rather than the nibbling pattern of food intake of ad libitum fed rodents. Thus, the possibility arises that the antiaging action may at least in part result from an altered temporal pattern of food intake. This possibility was investigated using male F344 rats maintained on the following dietary regimens: Group A rats fed ad libitum; Group B rats fed 60% the ad libitum intake in a single meal at 1500 h; Group B-2 rats fed 60% of the ad libitum intake in two meals (0700 h and 1500 h). The diurnal pattern of plasma corticosterone concentration differed among the groups as did that of the plasma glucose concentration. The median length of life and age of tenth percentile survivors were similar for Group B and B-2 rats and much greater than those for Group A rats. Both modes of dietary restriction influenced age-associated disease processes in a similar fashion. Thus, although the temporal pattern of food intake influenced circadian rhythms of food-restricted rats, it did not significantly affect the antiaging action.
The Relationship Between Stages of Change and Outcome in Couple Therapy

Individuals who present for couple therapy may not be equally prepared to change. To explore the impact of readiness to change in couple therapy, this study examined the relationship between individual stage of change, dropout, and therapy outcomes in a sample of 469 individuals from 290 couples in marital therapy. Findings indicated that women were more distressed and more motivated to change than men, and that men were more variable in terms of readiness to change. Individual stage of change was unrelated to dropout or outcome.
Social relationships, leisure activity, and health in older adults.

Objective: Although the link between enhanced social relationships and better health has generally been well established, few studies have examined the role of leisure activity in this link. This study examined how leisure influences the link between social relationships and health in older age. Method: Using data from the 2006 and 2010 waves of the nationally representative U.S. Health and Retirement Study and structural equation modeling analyses, we examined data on 2,965 older participants to determine if leisure activities mediated the link between social relationships and health in 2010, controlling for race, education level, and health in 2006. Results: The results demonstrated that leisure activities mediate the link between social relationships and health in these age groups. Perceptions of positive social relationships were associated with greater involvement in leisure activities, and greater involvement in leisure activities was associated with better health in older age. Conclusion: The contribution of leisure to health in these age groups is receiving increasing attention, and the results of this study add to the literature on this topic, by identifying the mediating effect of leisure activity on the link between social relationships and health. Future studies aimed at increasing leisure activity may contribute to improved health outcomes in older adults.
Investigating Depression Severity in the Working toward Wellness Study

This paper describes several additional analyses and results that go beyond the basic impact findings from the evaluation of the Working toward Wellness (WtW) program in Rhode Island. WtW was a one-year telephone care management intervention for depressed parents who were Medicaid recipients. To encourage individuals with depression to seek treatment from mental health professionals, the WtW program randomly assigned depressed Medicaid recipients to a program group, which had access to telephone care management for up to a year, or to a control group, which had access to the usual mental health services available to Medicaid recipients. Results from the study found that telephone care management modestly increased in-person treatment for depression during the year of the intervention but not after that point. No impacts on average depression severity were observed for the sample as a whole.To understand which individuals showed reduced depression over time, the paper examines the relationship between participants’ characteristics and changes in depression scores from baseline to six months and to eighteen months. The results do not, however, suggest a clear means of targeting services like WtW to those who are least likely to improve on their own. Other than baseline depression severity, few participant characteristics were found to be associated with reduced depression over time. This suggests that most subgroups of participants could have benefited from a more effective intervention.Also, because only about 40 percent of the study population participated in in-person mental health treatment, the paper examines which factors contributed to receiving treatment and the intensity of that treatment. The results suggest that a number of factors were associated with seeking mental health treatment. In particular, treatment occurred more frequently for those who were more severely depressed, those who were not working at baseline, white sample members, and those who had received treatment for depression prior to random assignment. This may suggest providing more resources and supports to encourage those groups to receive treatment who are least likely to participate, for whom the program might make a larger difference. It may also suggest excluding individuals with prior treatment for depression from future studies of similar interventions.Lastly, because the eighteen-month results showed that there were significantly fewer program group members in the very severely depressed group, the paper investigates which baseline characteristics are associated with being very severely depressed at follow-up. It was found that although some characteristics are associated with having severe depression at follow-up, the impacts on depression severity for this high-risk subgroup are not statistically significant.
The Darfur Atrocities Documentation Project: A Precedent for the Future? A Perspective from Washington, DC

The Darfur Atrocities Documentation Project was both a great success and a disturbing failure. The Project and the report, “Documenting Atrocities in Darfur,” had great value in at least three respects. First, the Project played a pivotal role in the United States government’s declaration of genocide in Darfur. Second, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s and President George Bush’s evocations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in response to the report helped to keep Darfur on Washington’s political agenda. Third, the field interviews and timely analysis of data in mid-2004 showed that a determination of genocide can be made before it is too late to respond. Despite all this, the Darfur Atrocities Documentation Project led to virtually no action to stop the genocide. The combination of high-level attention and near complete lack of action bodes poorly for future efforts to respond effectively to ongoing mass killing.
Reporting Discretion, Market Discipline, and Panic Runs

This paper investigates the economic consequences of a financial institution’s reporting discretion in the context of bank runs. A fundamental-based run imposes market discipline on insolvent institutions, but a panic-based run shuts down institutions that could have survived with better coordination among investors. We augment a bank-run model with the financial institution’s discretion over reporting to investors. We show that reporting discretion reduces panic runs, but excessive reporting discretion weakens the market discipline. Moreover, one institution’s opportunistic use of reporting discretion exerts a negative externality on others.
Association of market, organizational and financial factors with the number, and types of capital expenditures.

Background: Prior literature provides only a descriptive view of the types and numbers of capital expenditures made by hospitals. Purposes: This study conducted an empirical analysis to assess simultaneously what market, organizational, and financial factors relate to the number of capital projects as well as the specific types: medical equipment, expansion, and maintenance projects. Methodology/Approach: Sampling California hospital capital expenditure data from 2002 to 2007, this study aggregated the number of capital projects by each type of capital investment decision: medical equipment, expansion, and maintenance/renovation per hospital. Using ordinary least squares regression, this study evaluated the association of these factors with these types of capital investment projects. Findings: This study found that hospitals capturing a greater share of the market, maintaining high levels of liquidity, and operating with more than 350 beds invested in a greater number of capital projects per hospital as well as medical equipment and expansionary projects per hospital. Practical Implications: Within the state of California, the demand for health care services within a hospital market as well as cash and investment reserves were key drivers in the hospital CEOs and boards' decision to increase their capital purchases. The types of purchases included capital outlays related to medical equipment, such as CT scanners, MRIs, and surgical systems, and revenue-generating expansionary projects, such as new bed towers, hospitals wings, operating and emergency rooms, and replacement hospitals from 2002 to 2007.
Organizational Leadership Satisfaction and Productivity: A Comparative Analysis*

Questionnaire responses were collected from nearly 400 managers in the six divisions of a manufacturing organization, along with company data on division performance. Analysis of aggregate scores f...
Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cell Culture Methods and Induction of Differentiation into Endothelial Cells

The study of stem cell behavior and differentiation in a developmental context is complex, time-consuming, and expensive, and for this reason, cell culture remains a method of choice for developmental and regenerative biology and mechanistic studies. Similar to ES cells, iPS cells have the ability to differentiate into endothelial cells (ECs), and the route for differentiation appears to mimic the developmental process that occurs during the formation of an embryo. Traditional EC induction methods from embryonic stem (ES) cells rely mostly on the formation of embryoid body (EB), which employs feeder or feeder-free conditions in the presence or absence of supporting cells. Similar to ES cells, iPS cells can be cultured in feeder layer or feeder-free conditions. Here, we describe the iPS cell culture methods and induction differentiation of these cells into ECs. We use anti-mouse Flk1 and anti-mouse VE-cadherin to isolate and characterize mouse ECs, because these antibodies are commercially available and their use has been described in the literature, including by our group. The ECs produced by this method have been used by our laboratory, and we have demonstrated their in vivo potential. We also discuss how iPS cells differ in their ability to differentiate into endothelial cells in culture.
Convex subspace representation learning from multi-view data

Learning from multi-view data is important in many applications. In this paper, we propose a novel convex subspace representation learning method for unsupervised multi-view clustering. We first formulate the subspace learning with multiple views as a joint optimization problem with a common subspace representation matrix and a group sparsity inducing norm. By exploiting the properties of dual norms, we then show a convex min-max dual formulation with a sparsity inducing trace norm can be obtained. We develop a proximal bundle optimization algorithm to globally solve the minmax optimization problem. Our empirical study shows the proposed subspace representation learning method can effectively facilitate multi-view clustering and induce superior clustering results than alternative multiview clustering methods.
The Washington Group’s Contribution to Disability Statistics and a Look to the Future

The Washington Group has been in existence for 13 years and has developed and tested question sets that will produce internationally comparable disability statistics. The questions are now being adopted by National Statistical Offices, other government bodies, non-governmental organizations and academia. Over the next several years the Washington Group will put its efforts into developing materials and providing technical assistance that will facilitate the inclusion of the questions in as many data collections as possible. Assistance will also be provided in the analysis and dissemination of the data produced. New question sets focusing on the environment and participation will be developed and tested. Workgroups have also been organized to address issues of mental health and other sources of disability information such as administrative records and data registries. The information generated from the full battery of data collection tools will give governments and organizations with an interest in disability the ability to monitor whether persons with disability are fully participating in society.
Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance: Institutions, economic theory, and economic performance

We cannot see, feel, touch, or even measure institutions; they are constructs of the human mind. But even the most convinced neoclassical economists admit their existence and typically make them parameters (implicitly or explicitly) in their models. Do institutions matter? Do tariffs, regulations, and rules matter? Does government make a difference? Can we explain the radical change in economic well-being when we step across the boundary between the United States and Mexico? What makes markets work or not work? Does honesty in exchange make a difference; does it pay? I hope that the analysis of the previous chapters has provided a convincing framework to shed light on the consequences of institutions. But I wish to assert a much more fundamental role for institutions in societies; they are the underlying determinant of the long-run performance of economies. If we are ever to construct a dynamic theory of change – something missing in mainstream economics and only very imperfectly dealt with in Marxian theory – it must be built on a model of institutional change. Although some of the pieces of the puzzle are still missing, the outline of the direction to be taken is, I believe, clear. In the sections that follow I (1) specify what changes must be made in neoclassical theory to incorporate institutional analysis into that theory, (2) outline the implications for the static analysis of economic performance, and (3) explore the implications of institutional analysis for the construction of a dynamic theory of long-run economic change.
Increased aerobic capacity reduces susceptibility to acute high-fat diet-induced weight gain.

Objective Aerobic capacity is the most powerful predictor of all-cause mortality in humans; however, its role in the development of obesity and susceptibility for high-fat diet (HFD)-induced weight gain is not completely understood. Methods Herein, a rodent model system of divergent intrinsic aerobic capacity [high capacity running (HCR) and low capacity running (LCR)] was utilized to evaluate the role of aerobic fitness on 1-week HFD-induced (45% and 60% kcal) weight gain. Food/energy intake, body composition analysis, and brown adipose tissue gene expression were assessed as important potential factors involved in modulating HFD-induced weight gain. Results HCR rats had reduced 1-week weight gain on both HFDs compared with LCR. Reduced HFD-induced weight gain was associated with greater adaptability to decrease food intake following initiation of the HFDs. Further, the HCR rats were observed to have reduced feeding efficiency and greater brown adipose mass and expression of genes involved in thermogenesis. Conclusions Rats with high intrinsic aerobic capacity have reduced susceptibility to 1-week HFD-induced weight gain, which is associated with greater food intake adaptability to control intake of energy-dense HFDs, reduced weight gain per kcal consumed, and greater brown adipose tissue mass and thermogenic gene expression.
Mechanics of earthquakes

Friction of faults is often unstable, and slip occurs rapidly as a rupture dynamically propagates over the fault surface. These sudden motions generate seismic waves and this is the mechanism of the most common and important type of earthquake. Seismicity is thus the short-timescale phenomenon of brittle tectonics. In this chapter we discuss the dynamics of faulting and review the most important attributes of earthquakes from the point of view of the rupture process. Historical development During most of human history, people's notion of the origin of earthquakes lay within the realm of mythology. Several of the schools of ancient Greek philosophy considered earthquakes to be natural phenomena, although their speculations on the matter relied heavily on imagination and do not bear much relationship with modern theories (see Adams (1938) for an excellent historical account of thinking on this topic from the Greeks up through the Renaissance). The idea that earthquakes represent an elastic reaction to geological phenomena was promulgated first by Hooke in his Discourse on Earthquakes , published in 1668. It was not until the middle and latter part of the nineteenth century that instrumental measurements began to be made and note taken of the geological associations of earthquakes. Lyell (1868) considered earthquakes to be an important agent in Earth dynamism, and was aware of both faulting and permanent changes in elevation brought about by them.
Nonlocal Galileons and Self-Acceleration

Abstract A certain class of nonlocal theories eliminates an arbitrary cosmological constant (CC) from a universe that can be perceived as our world. Dark energy then cannot be explained by a CC; it could however be due to massive gravity. We calculate the new corrections, which originate from the nonlocal terms that eliminate the CC, to the decoupling limit Lagrangian of massive gravity. The new nonlocal terms also have internal field space Galilean symmetry and are referred here as “nonlocal Galileons.” We then study a self-accelerated solution and show that the new nonlocal terms change the perturbative stability analysis. In particular, small fluctuations are now stable and non-superluminal for some simple parameter choices, whereas for the same choices the pure massive gravity fluctuations are unstable. We also study stable spherically symmetric solutions on this background.
Sensorimotor learning and information processing by Bayesian internal models

Fundamental to effective brain-machine interface and neuroprosthesis designs is an understanding of how sensory and motor information are encoded, integrated and adapted by the nervous system. Special session "Neural Information Processing by Bayesian and Internal Models" expounds two current theories of sensorimotor integration which posit that neural information may be encoded centrally as an "internal model" of the environment or as a stochastic state-space model that modulates the activity of spiking neurons. Underlying both theories is a possible role for Bayes' rule - as suggested by the recent findings that the brain may employ Bayesian internal models during certain types of sensorimotor learning in order to optimize task-specific performance and that the emergent activity of certain neural ensembles may be modeled as joint Bayesian point processes. These emerging concepts of neural signal processing have far-reaching implications in applications from rehabilitation engineering to artificial intelligence.
Errors During Elongation Can Cause Translational Frameshifting

In general, the translational machinery more efficiently eliminates frameshift errors than any other sort. It is actually difficult to estimate the frequency of these errors because the system used to measure them probably introduces specific sites which stimulate frameshifting much more efficiently than at random sites in mRNAs, as discussed below. We can only guess what the rate of frameshifting is at any randomly chosen codon, but it is certainly much lower than the value 5 τ 10−5 quoted in chapter 2. What this means is that the process of translational elongation is fundamentally structured so that the ribosome may not alter its reading frame. This perhaps should have been expected. In the theoretical discussions of the coding problem Crick et al 8 proposed that genes were read into proteins by successive reading of three-base, nonoverlapping codons on an unpunctuated mRNA—specifically stating that “(t)here are not special ‘commas’ to show how to select the right triplets.” The concept of an unpunctuated code explained the behavior of frameshift mutations. Once the frame were disrupted by the insertion or deletion of a base, translation continued in that frame reading a series of codons not present in the normal gene until encountering a nonsense codon in that frame and terminating translation.26 If, as Crick et al contended, the identity of the protein produced depended entirely on the selection of the site of initiation, with slavish, mechanical reading of successive codons following, then the translational machinery must include on a very fundamental level a mechanism for ensuring this repetitive reading of adjacent triplets. It follows that the occurrence of these errors might be expected to be very low since the structure of the ribosome evolved to preclude them.
Technology Based Treatment for UreteroPelvic Junction Obstruction

Abstract Surgical management of ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) has historically been performed with open pyeloplasty. With the advent of endourology, laparoscopy, and robotics, minimally-invasive techniques have been described and accepted as alternatives to open surgery. Each of these approaches has its own advantages and disadvantages, equipment needs, degree of invasiveness, and experience of the treating urologist. Advocates and critics have their own say as to their preferred technique. In this article, we review the chronological evolution of these techniques and discuss their current role in the management of UPJO.
The Market Process and Uber

In this chapter, Uber’s business model is explained. It is a technology platform with different groups of customers. The one group has excess and idle capacity and would like to engage with it in market exchange. The other group has a demand for using that capacity and is ready to pay for it. As a technology platform, Uber intermediates these two groups. In doing so, Uber verticalizes some aspects of that intermediation, for example by preselecting who might offer a ride and who might want one, by presetting prices, by instituting quality control, and by implementing policies geared at increasing transparency.
‘They were constantly on the losing side of things’: the pedagogical power of an African-American teacher candidate bearing witness in teacher education

AbstractThe stories of students and teacher candidates of Color (Just as singular racial/ethnic identities are capitalized (i.e. African-American, Asian, Latina, Native American etc.), I capitalize Color to honor the various identities that many ‘non-white’ people hold near and dear. I recognize the nuances in doing so- such as the reality that the term ‘people of Color’ actually erases identity while the term also highlights a shared experience (though also nuanced) of being ‘non-white’ in a white supremacist society.) hold powerful lessons and insights for teacher education programs and educational reform efforts. Yet, rarely do educators and policy-makers solicit or critically engage the educational narratives of these stakeholders. In particular, research confirms that we know little about how students’ of Color educational experiences are impacted by race(ism) and culture and how those experiences subsequently inform their ideas about teaching. This study, framed by critical race theory (CRT), examin...
Peacebuilding: A Social Cohesion Approach

In this chapter, Cox and Sisk present and define the concept of social cohesion, particularly in relation to the literatures on peacebuilding, and religious and ethnic fragmentation. Much of the literature on peacebuilding in deeply divided societies concludes that peacebuilding efforts are fraught with dilemmas, trade-offs, and conundrums with a significant risk that some types of programs, policies, and initiatives designed to foster social cohesion may result in more harm than good. Cox and Sisk introduce an innovative, country-level assessment guide on social cohesion and development cooperation that serves as the basis for comparative case-study analysis of peacebuilding efforts in seven deeply divided societies, including Guatemala, Kenya, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka.
High-precision piezo-ejection ocular microdosing: Phase II study on local and systemic effects of topical phenylephrine.

Aim: Conventional eyedropper-delivered volumes (25–50 µl) exceed the eye's usual tear-film volume (7 µl) and precorneal reservoir capacity, risking overflow and ocular/systemic complications. Piezoelectric high-precision microdosing may circumvent these limitations. Results & methodology: In this masked, nonrandomized, cross-over study, subjects (n = 12) underwent pupil dilation with topical phenylephrine (PE) administered by 32-µl eyedropper (2.5% or 10% formulation) and 8-µl electronic microdosing (10% formulation). Microdosing with PE-10% achieved comparable peak dilation as 10% eyedropper-delivery and superior dilation to 2.5% eyedropper-delivery (p = 0.009) at 75 min. Microdosing significantly reduced 20-min plasma PE levels versus PE10% eyedropper; neither treatment altered heart rate/blood pressure. Eye irritation occurred significantly less frequently with microdosing than PE10% eyedrops. Conclusion: Piezo-ejection PE microdosing achieves comparable biological effect as eyedropper dosing; reduced ...
Singleton Variants Dominate the Genetic Architecture of Human Gene Expression

The vast majority of human mutations have minor allele frequencies (MAF) under 1%, with the plurality observed only once (i.e., "singletons"). While Mendelian diseases are predominantly caused by rare alleles, their role in complex phenotypes remains largely unknown. We develop and rigorously validate an approach to jointly estimate the contribution of alleles with different frequencies, including singletons, to phenotypic variation. We apply our approach to transcriptional regulation, an intermediate between genetic variation and complex disease. Using whole genome DNA and RNA sequencing data from 360 European individuals, we find that singletons alone contribute ~23% of all cis-heritability across genes (dwarfing the contributions of other frequencies). We then integrate external estimates of global MAF from worldwide samples to improve our inference, and find that average cis-heritability is 15.3%. Strikingly, 50.9% of cis-heritability is contributed by globally rare variants (MAF
Reassessing the fulfillment of alliance commitments in war

Leeds et al. (2000) report that military alliance commitments are honored in war around 75% of the time. We update and extend data on alliance reliability from 1816 to 2003. Our analysis reveals a ...
Differential perceptions of a hypothetical sexual assault survivor based on race and ethnicity: Exploring victim responsibility, trauma, and need for social support.

Objective: Explore the ways in which a sample of college women interpret racially/ethnically coded vignettes to understand their perceptions of responsibility and trauma experienced by a hypothetic...
Book Review: Making America Work, by Jonathan Barry Forman

Except for a few snotty remarks of the sort a reviewer has to make to keep his union card, this review praises Jonathan Barry Forman's monumental Making America Work (2006). Forman is concerned about (1) perverse incentives that keep Americans from working to full capacity or, in some cases, from working at all; and (2) increasing economic inequality in the United States, where the distribution of work's rewards doesn't seem to correspond to any reasonable, non-market-based conception of justice. Forman advances six integrated proposals, all breathtaking in their scope, to revamp the tax system, the welfare system, Social Security, pensions, health care, and labor markets. Although the set of proposals is not perfect (what is?), Forman's work is so thoughtful and wide-ranging that he has elevated the national discussion.
Sustained Attention and the Effects of Distraction in Underachieving Second Grade Children

The relationship between attention deficits and learning problems was studied in thirty-three second grade children. Impairment in sustained attention, the effects of auditory distractors upon sust...
Concentrated emulsions as novel fat replacers in reduced-fat and low-fat Cheddar cheeses. Part 1. Rheological and microstructural characterization

Abstract The effects of concentrated emulsions as a fat replacer in reduced-fat (15% fat) and low-fat (6% fat) Cheddar cheese microstructural and rheological properties were determined. Concentrated emulsions were prepared by adding a fish gelatin–gum arabic mixture at pH 5.0 and 3.6 to olive oil at W:O = 30:70 (w/w). Cheddar cheeses containing the emulsions were produced by adding the emulsions to skim milk after adding starter culture and before renneting and subsequent cheesemaking. Two control cheeses at each fat level were produced with either olive oil or cream. Confocal laser scanning microscopy showed that concentrated emulsions acted as casein matrix breakers by making large pockets of aggregated emulsion droplets. Emulsion-containing cheeses exhibited lower rigidity under compression compared with controls. However, aging and emulsion addition had no significant effect on cheese mechanical spectra.
TGF‐β receptor I inhibitor enhances response to enzalutamide in a pre‐clinical model of advanced prostate cancer

BACKGROUND Prostate cancer progression is navigated by the androgen receptor (AR) and transforming-growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling. We previously demonstrated that aberrant TGF-β signaling accelerates prostate tumor progression in a transgenic mouse model of prostate cancer via effects on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), driving castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). METHODS This study examined the antitumor effect of the combination of TGF-β receptor I (TβRI) inhibitor, galunisertib, and FDA-approved antiandrogen enzalutamide, in our pre-clinical model. Age-matched genotypically characterized DNTGFβRII male mice were treated with either galunisertib and enzalutamide, in combination or as single agents in three "mini"-trials and the effects on tumor growth, phenotypic EMT, and actin cytoskeleton were evaluated. RESULTS Galunisertib in combination with enzalutamide significantly suppressed prostate tumor growth, by increasing apoptosis and decreasing cell proliferation of tumor cell populations compared to the inhibitor as a monotherapy (P < 0.05). The combination treatment dramatically reduced cofilin levels, actin cytoskeleton regulator, compared to single agents. Treatment with galunisertib targeted nuclear Smad4 protein (intracellular TGF-β effector), but had no effect on nuclear AR. Consequential to TGF-β inhibition there was an EMT reversion to mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) and re-differentiation of prostate tumors. Elevated intratumoral TGF-β1 ligand, in response to galunisertib, was blocked by enzalutamide. CONCLUSION Our results provide novel insights into the therapeutic value of targeting TGF-β signaling to overcome resistance to enzalutamide in prostate cancer by phenotypic reprogramming of EMT towards tumor re-differentiation and cytoskeleton remodeling. This translational work is significant in sequencing TGF-β blockade and antiandrogens to optimize therapeutic response in CRPC.
Differences in mortality among patients with acute leukemia admitted on weekends as compared to weekdays.

6576Background: The association between weekend admissions and patient outcomes has been widely reported for several acute illnesses. However, this is the first study using a nationwide database to...
Physics-based prognostics of lithium-ion battery using non-linear least squares with dynamic bounds

Abstract Real-time health diagnostics/prognostics and predictive maintenance/control of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are essential to reliable and safe battery operation. This paper presents a physics-based (or mechanistic) approach to Li-ion battery prognostics, which enables online prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) with consideration of multiple concurrent degradation mechanisms. In the proposed approach, robust online prediction of RUL is achieved by employing a non-linear least squares method with dynamic bounds that traces the evolution of individual degradation parameters. The novelty of this approach lies in its ability to incorporate mechanistic degradation analysis results into RUL predictions using nonlinear models. Results from a simulation study with eight Li-ion battery cells demonstrate that the mechanistic prognostics approach produces more accurate RUL predictions than a traditional capacity-based prognostics approach in 78 of the 80 cases considered (97.5% of the time). Additionally, it is shown that the use of dynamic bounds ensures a low level of uncertainty in the prediction throughout the entire life of a cell.