cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Spatial Patterns of Larceny and Aggravated Assault in Miami–Dade County, 2007–2015

The combination of crime mapping and geospatial analysis methods has enabled law enforcement agencies to develop more proactive methods of targeting crime-prone neighborhoods based on spatial patterns, such as hot spots and spatial proximity to specific points of interest. In this article, we investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of the neighborhood crimes of aggravated assault and larceny in 297 census tracts in Miami–Dade County from 2007 to 2015. We use emerging hot spot analysis (EHSA) to identify the spatial patterns of emerging, persistent, continuous, and sporadic hot spots. In addition, we use geographically weighted regression to analyze the spatial clustering effects of sociodemographic variables, poverty rate, median age, and ethnic diversity. The hot spots for larceny are much more diffused than those for aggravated assaults, which exhibit clustering in the north over Liberty City and Miami Gardens and in the south near Homestead, and the ethnic heterogeneity index has a moderate and p...
An Expanded View of Complex Traits: From Polygenic to Omnigenic

A central goal of genetics is to understand the links between genetic variation and disease. Intuitively, one might expect disease-causing variants to cluster into key pathways that drive disease etiology. But for complex traits, association signals tend to be spread across most of the genome—including near many genes without an obvious connection to disease. We propose that gene regulatory networks are sufficiently interconnected such that all genes expressed in disease-relevant cells are liable to affect the functions of core disease-related genes and that most heritability can be explained by effects on genes outside core pathways. We refer to this hypothesis as an “omnigenic” model.
In the Quest of Protecting Financial Investors

Financial investors remain exposed to investment, financial, and accounting fraud as well as loss of profitability, despite the dictates of the SOX Act of 2002. The most challenging aspect of corporate management is the unexpected nature of an emerging, existing, or an inherent investment or financial risk. Guided by the evolution of fraud theory, this exploratory case study’s purpose was to identify and explore the financial management strategies that corporate financial managers need to adequately protect investors. Twenty participants from a population group of corporate auditors of Fortune 1000 corporations provided input for this study. Data from the interviews were analyzed through coding, reviewing, categorizing, and combining common statements. The research findings included themes of knowledge and types of risks; the impact of financial fraud and risks on investment; the impact of accounting, auditing, and financial reporting standards; as well as financial management training to minimize audit expectations. These themes formed the focus of exploring the financial management strategies that corporate financial managers need to adequately protect investors and investments.
Collective Leadership: Principals’ Decision Influence and the Supportive or Inhibiting Decision Influence of Other Stakeholders:

Purpose: Using the collective leadership framework, this study examines (a) how principals perceive their own influence and that of other key stakeholders in various school decisions and (b) how pr...
The Role of State Policy in Ensuring Access, Achievement, and Attainment in Education:

This volume focuses on the importance of state policy for ensuring equity in postsecondary access, achievement, and attainment. America has a federalist system of education that gives states signif...
Highly-efficient parallel convolution acceleration by using multiple GPUs

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a powerful tool in machine learning area. However, the convolution computation is time-consuming, which limited the application on embedded system. In this paper, we introduce a parallel convolution acceleration implementation by using multiple GPUs Mali-T628 MP6 on embedded system Odroid XU4 and have tested its time reduction and GPU utilization. The result show that the execution time is reduced 25.8% on average.
Early colorectal cancer detection on routine CT to improve patient's 5-year survival.

593Background: Prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) is greatly influenced by stage at diagnosis. Early colorectal cancer can be subtle on CT scans showing only mild wall thickening, small polyps, o...
THE LOW TEMPERATURE FLOW STRESS OF BODY-CENTRED CUBIC MATERIALS

Abstract A first-principles interatomic potential for potassium has been used to compute the Peierls stress for a rigid screw dislocation at OK as a detailed function of orientation for uniaxial tension and compression. The calculated relative orientation dependence is markedly different from that observed in body-centred cubic transition metals, but is in reasonable agreement with experiments performed on potassium. The calculated magnitude of the Peierls stress, however, is uniformly a factor of three too large. Some possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.
Chemistry of Selenium and Tellurium Atoms

The chemistry of chalcogen atoms has been extensively studied for oxygen and sulfur, but only sparingly for selenium and even less for tellurium. This chapter surveys the limited literature available on selenium and tellurium atom reactions in the gas phase with comparisons to analogous reactions of oxygen and sulfur when appropriate. Upon searching the literature, we were surprised to find selenium and tellurium included in so few of the published comparisons of chalcogen atom reactions. These omissions must spring largely from a sparsity of data on selenium and tellurium reactions owing to the substantial difficulties in production and preservation of selenium and tellurium compounds. An example of such problems is discussed in our publication concerning determination of impurities in commercially prepared carbon diselenide and its purification.1 The noxious nature and handling problems of many selenium and tellurium compounds have also hampered research by imposing requirements for protective handling techniques.
Why smokers avoid cigarette pack risk messages: Two randomized clinical trials in the United States.

Abstract Background Message avoidance (e.g., trying not to look at the message) may be motivated by reactance, a maladaptive rejection of the message. An alternative view is that avoidance indicates that a message is eliciting fear and other negative affect, thereby increasing the likelihood of behavioral change. We sought to identify which psychological mechanism—reactance or fear and other negative affect—explains message avoidance. We also examined whether avoidance was associated with more forgoing or butting out of cigarettes. Method Trial 1 randomly assigned 2149 adult U.S. smokers to receive either pictorial warnings (intervention) or text-only warnings (control) on their cigarette packs for four weeks in 2014 and 2015. Trial 2 randomly assigned 719 adult U.S. smokers to receive either messages about toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke (intervention) or messages about not littering cigarette butts (control) for three weeks in 2016 and 2017. Negative affect included fear, anxiety, disgust, sadness, and guilt. Reactance included perceived threat to freedom, anger, and counterarguing. Results Intervention messages led to greater message avoidance in both trials (both p Conclusions Smokers may avoid cigarette pack risk messages because they evoke aversive types of emotion. These studies add to a growing body of evidence that, in the context of cigarette pack messages, avoidance is not a form of defensive processing but instead a sign of deeper processing.
Liquid Biopsy in Gastrointestinal Cancers.

Liquid biopsy is the sampling of any biological fluid in an effort to enrich and analyze a tumor’s genetic material. Peripheral blood remains the most studied liquid biopsy material, with circulating tumor cells (CTC’s) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) allowing the examination and longitudinal monitoring of a tumors genetic landscape. With applications in cancer screening, prognostic stratification, therapy selection and disease surveillance, liquid biopsy represents an exciting new paradigm in the field of cancer diagnostics and offers a less invasive and more comprehensive alternative to conventional tissue biopsy. Here, we examine liquid biopsies in gastrointestinal cancers, specifically colorectal, gastric, and pancreatic cancers, with an emphasis on applications in diagnostics, prognostics and therapeutics.
Safety and feasibility of contained uterine morcellation in women undergoing laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Widespread concerns have been raised regarding the safety of power morcellation of uterine specimens because of the potential to disseminate occult malignancy. We sought to assess the safety and feasibility of contained manual uterine morcellation within a plastic specimen bag among women with uterine neoplasms. A retrospective single-institution descriptive cohort study was conducted from 2003 to 2014. Patients with leiomyoma and/or uterine malignancy who underwent minimally invasive surgery with contained uterine manual morcellation were identified from surgical logs. Demographic data, pathology results, operative details and adjuvant treatments were abstracted. Eighty-eight patients were identified; 35 with leiomyoma and 53 with endometrial cancer. The mean age was 48 and 60, respectively. Uterine size/weight was greater in women with leiomyoma compared to those with cancer (15.1 weeks/448 g vs. 10.7 weeks/322 g). Mean operative time was 206 min (range 115–391) for leiomyoma cases and 238 min (range 131–399) for cancer cases. Median length of stay was 1 day (range 0–3 days). There were no cases of occult leiomyosarcoma and all specimens were successfully manually morcellated within a bag. There were no intraoperative complications. Thirty-day postoperative complications occurred in 7 patients, including one readmission for grade (G) 1 vaginal cuff separation after intercourse, G1 port-site hematoma (1), G2 port-site cellulitis (1), G2 vaginal cuff cellulitis (2), G2 bladder infection (2), G2 pulmonary edema (1), and G1 musculoskeletal injury (1). Contained uterine hand morcellation is a feasible procedure with low peri-operative complication rates that allows for minimally invasive surgical procedures for women with large uterine neoplasms. Further evaluation is needed to assess survival outcomes for uterine malignancies.
Use of GelMA for 3D printing of cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts.

Aim To 3D print heart tissue, one must understand how the main two types of cardiac cells are affected by the printing process. Materials & methods Effects of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) concentration, extruder pressure and duration of UV exposure on survival of cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts were examined using lactate dehydrogenase and LIVE/DEAD assays, bioluminescence imaging and morphological assessment. Results & conclusion Cell survival within 3D printed cardiomyocyte-laden GelMA constructs was more sensitive to extruder pressure and GelMA concentrations than within 3D fibroblast-laden GelMA constructs. Cells within both types of constructs were adversely impacted by the UV curing step. Use of mixed cell populations and enrichment of bioink formulation with fibronectin led to an improvement of cardiomyocyte survival and spreading.
U.S. stock market crash risk, 1926–2010

Abstract This paper examines how well alternate time-changed Levy processes capture stochastic volatility and the substantial outliers observed in U.S. stock market returns over the past 85 years. The autocorrelation of daily stock market returns varies substantially over time, necessitating an additional state variable when analyzing historical data. I estimate various one- and two-factor stochastic volatility/Levy models with time-varying autocorrelation via extensions of the Bates (2006) methodology that provide filtered daily estimates of volatility and autocorrelation. The paper explores option pricing implications, including for the Volatility Index (VIX) during the recent financial crisis.
Effect of cooperative team size on coordination in adaptive multi-agent systems

In recent work, we utilized convergent cross mapping (CCM) to quantify coordination in a multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) paradigm by measuring causal influence between pairs of agents in a joint task. CCM was originally developed to detect causal influences within ecological systems, and as we previously demonstrated, it can be used to measure causal dependencies between pairs of time-series data. While this work has provided important insight into the coordination between 2 teammates, it is not clear how such coordination scales with the number of agents working together with a shared goal. Within a predator-prey pursuit environment, the current study investigates the influence that an incremental increase in number of predator agents has on the inherently causal relationship between predators working together to pursue a single prey. We hypothesize that averaged CCM values will decrease with increasing number of predators due to a redistribution of coordination across all predator agents. This work provides a quantitative assessment for the fundamental influence that number of cooperative agents has on the causal relationship between agents working together on a joint task, and insight into coordinated group behaviors.
Investigating EUV radiochemistry with condensed phase photoemission

In EUV, photoelectrons and secondary electrons play indispensable roles in the chemistry of photoresist. An accurate understanding of electron related processes provides foundation for targeted engineering of resists and other EUV materials. As chemistry is initiated by secondary electrons, acquiring the electron energy distribution inside an actual photoresists is important for improving the efficiency of chemical activation. We demonstrate that condensed phase photoemission spectroscopy can be used as a tool for interrogating electrons in resist and electrons owing from underlayers to resists. The electron energy distribution, albeit different from that measured with condensed phase photoemission spectroscopy, can be recovered computationally. The computational approach involves Monte Carlo simulations using the energy resolved scattering mean free path and the photoemission energy spectra as inputs.
APPENDIX 1L Introduction of Plasmid DNA into Cells

This appendix presents a procedure for transformation using calcium chloride, and also an alternate procedure for one-step preparation and transformation of competent cells.
Community detection in bipartite networks with stochastic block models.

In bipartite networks, community structures are restricted to being disassortative, in that nodes of one type are grouped according to common patterns of connection with nodes of the other type. This makes the stochastic block model (SBM), a highly flexible generative model for networks with block structure, an intuitive choice for bipartite community detection. However, typical formulations of the SBM do not make use of the special structure of bipartite networks. Here we introduce a Bayesian nonparametric formulation of the SBM and a corresponding algorithm to efficiently find communities in bipartite networks which parsimoniously chooses the number of communities. The biSBM improves community detection results over general SBMs when data are noisy, improves the model resolution limit by a factor of $\sqrt{2}$, and expands our understanding of the complicated optimization landscape associated with community detection tasks. A direct comparison of certain terms of the prior distributions in the biSBM and a related high-resolution hierarchical SBM also reveals a counterintuitive regime of community detection problems, populated by smaller and sparser networks, where nonhierarchical models outperform their more flexible counterpart.
Integration of highly anisotropic multiferroic BaTiO3─Fe nanocomposite thin films on Si towards device applications

Integration of highly anisotropic multiferroic thin films on silicon substrates is a critical step towards low-cost devices, especially high-speed and low-power consumption memories. In this work, an oxide–metal vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) platform has been used to successfully demonstrate self-assembled multiferroic BaTiO3–Fe (BTO–Fe) nanocomposite films with high structural anisotropy on Si substrates. The effects of various buffer layers on the crystallinity, microstructure, and physical properties of the BTO–Fe films have been explored. With an appropriate buffer layer design, e.g. SrTiO3/TiN bilayer buffer, the epitaxial quality of the BTO matrix and the anisotropy of the Fe nanopillars can be improved greatly, which in turn enhances the physical properties, including the ferromagnetic, ferroelectric, and optical response of the BTO–Fe thin films. This unique combination of properties integrated on Si offers a promising approach in the design of multifunctional nanocomposites for Si-based memories and optical devices.
The Impact of Preoperative Mental Health and Depression on Outcomes After Total Ankle Arthroplasty

BACKGROUND Preoperative mental health and depression have been shown to negatively impact patient-reported outcome measures after a broad array of orthopaedic procedures including total ankle arthroplasty. The hypothesis for this study was that decreased Short Form (SF)-36 Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores will modulate the impact of depression on patient-reported outcome measures after total ankle arthroplasty. METHODS All patients undergoing primary total ankle arthroplasty between January 2007 and December 2016 who were enrolled into a prospective outcomes study and who had at least 1-year minimum study follow-up were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were separated into 4 groups based on the presence or absence of an SF-36 MCS score of <35 points and diagnosis of depression. SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS) and MCS scores, Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA) function and bother components, and visual analog scale (VAS) pain were collected preoperatively and in the 1 to 2-year follow-up. The Wilcoxon rank sum was used to assess differences in outcomes by depression and low preoperative MCS scores. Multivariable models were then constructed to evaluate between-group differences in change scores according to preoperative SF-36 MCS scores and a diagnosis of depression, with adjustment for baseline patient and treatment characteristics. RESULTS Patients with depression and those with low preoperative MCS scores had significantly worse final outcome scores along with reduced improvement in SF-36 PCS and VAS pain scores compared with patients without these risk factors. Among patients with depression, low preoperative MCS scores helped to differentiate patients with poor final outcome scores. Similarly, in patients with low preoperative MCS scores, depression helped to differentiate patients with poor final outcome scores. CONCLUSIONS Although patients achieved significant improvements in functional outcomes regardless of cohort, decreased preoperative mental health modulated the impact of depression on outcomes. Patients with diminished preoperative mental health and depression are at an increased risk for sustaining smaller improvements in outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Corruption and Inequality at the Crossroad: A Multi-Method Study of Bribery and Discrimination in Latin America

How does corruption interact with inequality? To answer this question, we employ a field experiment that examines the manner in which police officers in a major Latin American city respond to socioeconomic distinctions when requiring a bribe. In this experiment, multiple automobile drivers commit identical traffic violations across a randomized sequence of crossroads which are monitored by transit police. We identify the effect of citizens' perceived wealth on officers' propensity to solicit bribes and on the size of the bribes that they solicit. We complement our experimental results with qualitative findings from interviews with police officers. Our core finding is that officers are more likely to target lower class individuals and let more affluent drivers off with warnings. The qualitative results suggest that officers associate wealth with the capacity to exact retribution and therefore are more likely to demand bribes from poorer individuals. We conclude that a multi-method approach provides a richer account of corrupt behavior than that found in most contemporary research.
Magnesium and Magnesium Alloy Powder Processing Towards the Development of Near Shape Structural Materials

Near shape forming of magnesium (Mg) alloys offers a significant opportunity for structural material lightweight. In this work, conventional press and sinter near shape processing has been applied to commercial AZ91D and pure Mg powders. Results indicate these powders are reasonably compressible achieving green densities of 88 to 98% ρTh with limited cracking. Sintering of these compacted powders is challenging and requires both solid state and transient liquid phase mass transport apparently due to the inherent powder particle surface oxide layer. Resultant press and sintered materials are characterized for density, porosity distribution, hardness, microstructure, and phase development. Throughout this effort, specific attention is paid to the affect oxygen, as an adsorbed contaminant and a surface thin film, presents as an impediment to solid and transient liquid state densification. Results of this work are intended to advance near shape processing of Mg alloy and Mg powders for potential structural applications.
Schrödinger's What Is Life? at 75.

2019 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Erwin Schrodinger's What Is Life?, a short book described by Roger Penrose in his preface to a reprint of this classic as "among the most influential scientific writings of the 20th century." In this article, I review the long argument made by Schrodinger as he mused on how the laws of physics could help us understand "the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism." Though Schrodinger's book is often hailed for its influence on some of the titans who founded molecular biology, this article takes a different tack. Instead of exploring the way the book touched biologists such as James Watson and Francis Crick, as well as its critical reception by others such as Linus Pauling and Max Perutz, I argue that Schrodinger's classic is a timeless manifesto, rather than a dated historical curiosity. What Is Life? is full of timely outlooks and approaches to understanding the mysterious living world that includes and surrounds us and can instead be viewed as a call to arms to tackle the great unanswered challenges in the study of living matter that remain for 21st century science.
An Ensemble Multi-View Federated Learning Intrusion Detection for IoT

The rise in popularity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has attracted hackers to develop IoT-specific attacks. The microservice architecture of IoT devices relies on the Internet to provide their intended services. An unguarded IoT network makes inter-connected devices vulnerable to attacks. It will be a tedious and ineffective process to manually detect the attacks in the network, as the attackers frequently upgrade their attack strategies. Machine learning (ML)-assisted approaches have been proposed to build intrusion detection for cybersecurity automation in IoT networks. However, most such approaches focus on training an ML model using a single view of the dataset, which often fails to build insightful knowledge and understand each feature’s impact on the ML model’s decision-making ability. As such, the model training with a single view may result in an incomplete understanding of patterns in large feature-set datasets. Moreover, the current approaches are mainly designed in a centralized manner in which the raw data is transferred from the edge devices to the central server for training. This, in turn, may expose the data to all kinds of attacks without adhering to the privacy-preserving of data security. Multi-view learning has gained popularity for its ability to learn from different data views and deliver efficient performance with more distinguished predictions. This paper proposes a federated learning-based intrusion detection approach, called MV-FLID, that trains on multiple views of IoT network data in a decentralized format to detect, classify, and defend against attacks. The multi-view ensemble learning aspect helps in maximizing the learning efficiency of different classes of attacks. The Federated Learning (FL) aspect, wherein the device’s data is not shared to the server, performs profile aggregation efficiently with the benefit of peer learning. Our evaluation results show that our proposed approach has higher accuracy compared to the traditional non-FL centralized approach.
Perceived locus of control for clutter: Reported reasons for clutter in adults with and without hoarding symptoms

OBJECTIVES The goal of the current investigation was to expand on previous work on reasons for saving/discarding in the context of hoarding by examining individuals' perceived locus of control for household clutter. METHODS Participants were asked to list their perceived reasons for clutter and assign each reason a percentage rating reflecting the extent to which they judged the reason to be responsible for their household clutter. RESULTS Lack of time was an almost universally endorsed reason for clutter. Clinically severe hoarding levels were associated with lower responsibility ratings for time-related reasons and increased endorsement of distress-related reasons. CONCLUSIONS Future research should examine whether insight level affects how individuals with clinically severe hoarding perceive the locus of control for household clutter. PRACTITIONER PONITS Perception of lack of time may influence individuals' sense of locus of control for their household clutter levels. Hoarding severity is associated with being more likely to attribute distress around discarding or decision making as the reason for clutter.
Getting Ready: A Relationship-Based Approach to Parent Engagement in Early Childhood Education Settings

Relationships are important to the developmental success of young children. Specifically, strong relationships between parents and their young children provide a foundation for lifelong healthy growth and development. Furthermore, partnerships between parents and other adults, including educators, who are actively involved in children’s lives also support positive developmental trajectories. Distinct from programming focused on parent involvement, partnership-based interventions encourage active connection and collaboration between parents and educators. Getting Ready is one such early childhood parent engagement intervention that promotes children’s learning and development by enhancing relationships and strengthening partnerships among families and early childhood educators.
The problem of germ cell determinants.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the problem of germ cell determinants, it emphasized that the underlying mechanism involved in the origin, deposition, and mode of expression of all localized tissue-determining substances in the oocyte may be similar. The differentiation and organization within the oocyte, whether it involves so-called germ cell determinants, yolk deposition, polarity, or symmetry, depend basically on the nature of the information stored in the genes, and upon a suitable cytoplasmic environment in which they may normally and sequentially express themselves during the development and life cycle of the organism. The experimental studies of chromatin diminution are given. Molecular aspects of chromatin elimination in Ascaris lumbricoides have recently been investigated specifically with respect to a comparison of the informational content of Ascaris cells before and after chromatin elimination. These studies indicate that chromatin elimination in Ascaris leads to a quantitative difference in information content of the somatic cell line versus the germ cell line.
Creativity and Intelligence

Consideration of the relationship between creativity and intelligence during this past half-century has occupied the attention of psychologists with varied perspectives (e.g., Cattell, 1963a; Coler, 1963; Guilford, 1950, 1959, 1968, 1981; MacKinnon, 1962; Roe, 1951, 1963; Terman, 1954, 1955; Torrance, 1960, 1967). Scientists working in a variety of other disciplines from genetics to engineering (see Simonton, 1984, 1985; Taylor & Barron, 1963) also have been intrigued by the contribution of intelligence to creative discovery and invention. And philosophers from Aristotle and Plato to Immanuel Kant, Brand Blanshard, and Jacques Maritain (citing here only those of Western civilization) (Rothenberg & Hausman, 1976) have pondered the origin of creativity and its relationship to rational thought. Professionals and lay people alike are fascinated by the topic, and, even more so, by the consequences of applying creative effort and/or intelligent action, and by the implications for their nurturance and educability. This chapter will provide a brief overview of past perspectives regarding the nature and extent of a relationship between creativity and intelligence and will propose and support a view of the two phenomena as integrated in optimal mental performance.
Dietary habits and esophageal cancer

Cancer of the esophagus is an underestimated, poorly understood, and changing disease. Its overall 5-year survival is less than 20%, even in the United States, which is largely a function of a delay in diagnosis until its more advanced stages. Additionally, the epidemiologic complexities of esophageal cancer are vast, rendering screening and prevention limited at best. First, the prevalence of esophageal cancer is unevenly distributed throughout the world. Second, the two histological forms (squamous cell and adenocarcinoma) vary in terms of their geographic prevalence and associated risk factors. Third, some populations appear at particular risk for esophageal cancer. And fourth, the incidence of esophageal cancer is in continuous flux among groups. Despite the varied prevalence and risks among populations, some factors have emerged as consistent associations while others are only now becoming more fully recognized. The most prominent, scientifically supported, and long-regarded risk factors for esophageal cancer are tobacco, alcohol, and reflux esophagitis. Inasmuch as the above are regarded as important risk factors for esophageal cancer, they are not the sole contributors. Dietary habits, nutrition, local customs, and the environment may be contributory. Along these lines, vitamins, minerals, fruits, vegetables, meats, fats, salted foods, nitrogen compounds, carcinogens, mycotoxins, and even the temperature of what we consume are increasingly regarded as potential etiologies for this deadly although potentially preventable disease. The goal of this review is to shed light on the less known role of nutrition and dietary habits in esophageal cancer.
Borrelia miyamotoi infection in nature and in humans

Borrelia miyamotoi is a relapsing fever Borrelia group spirochete that is transmitted by the same hard-bodied (ixodid) tick species that transmit the agents of Lyme disease. It was discovered in 1994 in Ixodes persulcatus ticks in Japan. B. miyamotoi species phylogenetically cluster with the relapsing fever group spirochetes, which usually are transmitted by soft-bodied (argasid) ticks or lice. B. miyamotoi infects at least six Ixodes tick species in North America and Eurasia that transmit Lyme disease group spirochetes and may use small rodents and birds as reservoirs. Human cases of B. miyamotoi infection were first reported in 2011 in Russia and subsequently in the United States, Europe and Japan. These reports document the public health importance of B. miyamotoi, as human B. miyamotoi infection appears to be comparable in frequency to babesiosis or human granulocytic anaplasmosis in some areas and may cause severe disease, including meningoencephalitis. The most common clinical manifestations of B. miyamotoi infection are fever, fatigue, headache, chills, myalgia, arthralgia, and nausea. Symptoms of B. miyamotoi infection generally resolve within a week of the start of antibiotic therapy. B. miyamotoi infection should be considered in patients with acute febrile illness who have been exposed to Ixodes ticks in a region where Lyme disease occurs. Because clinical manifestations are nonspecific, etiologic diagnosis requires confirmation by blood smear examination, PCR, antibody assay, in vitro cultivation, and/or isolation by animal inoculation. Antibiotics that have been used effectively include doxycycline for uncomplicated B. miyamotoi infection in adults and ceftriaxone or penicillin G for meningoencephalitis.
Analgesia in obstetrics: The effect of analgesia on uterine contractility and fetal heart rate

Abstract The problem of finding effective pain relief for the patient in labor, without hindering the progress of labor or harming the fetus, has been a much explored and discussed endeavor of obstetricians for many years. Using the methods of Caldeyro-Barcia, Alvarez, and Pantle, 64 patients were carefully studied using pentazocine, meperidine, caudal block, and saddle block analgesia. The effect of these analgesic agents on labor and fetal heart rate were analyzed. All analgesia except the caudal methods increased uterine contractility. Only saddle block had a significant effect on fetal heart rate. Using these data and others gleaned from the literature, a hypothesis concerning the role of epinephrine and of the autonomic nervous system in the control of uterine contractility is discussed.
Exploring Intercollegiate Athletic Department–Community Partnerships Through the Lens of Community Service Organizations

Institutions of higher education are increasingly engaging in partnerships with local communities. Within a sport context, the creation of the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills Program has emphasized partnerships between athletic departments and local community service organizations (CSOs). Prior studies, however, have used student-athletes rather than the partnership as the unit of analysis, so the attitudes and experiences of community partners remain overlooked. This study explored active relationships with a high-profile NCAA Division I athletic department in the Southeast through the lens of the CSOs. Four major themes emerged for the community partners’ motives and perceived benefits in their relationship with the athletic department: (a) increased volunteer capacity, (b) opportunities to create long-term impact and lasting relationships with student-athletes, (c) ability to extend their mission through educational opportunities, and (d) monetary or in-kind donations. Overall, interviewees perceived their relationship with the athletic department to be characterized by ambiguity and ineffective communication.
EFFECTS of ELECTRICITY ON MICROORGANISMS: A REVIEW

Although the idea of electrical treatment of foods for microbial control is not new, the data available on nonthermal effects of electricity are limited and inconclusive. an understanding of such effects would be useful in developing new methods for microbial inactivation. the present review discusses a number of different methods of electrical treatment and their nonthermal effects on microorganisms. Subjects discussed include electric pasteurization of milk, electrohydraulic shock, electroporation, and electroconductive heating. Information relating to mechanisms contributing to microbial death is summarized and discussed.
Dependence of the sister-chromatid exchange-inducing abilities of inorganic selenium compounds on the valence state of selenium.

Abstract Inorganic selenium (Se) compounds having Se of different valence states were tested for their abilities to induce sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs) in human whole blood cultures. The Se compounds tested (and their Se valence states) were: sodium selenide (Se 2− ), selenium dioxide (Se 4+ ), selenium (Se 0 ), sodium selenate (Se 6+ ), and sodium selenite (Se 4+ ). Human whole blood cultures were exposed to concentrations of these compounds ranging from 1.12 × 10 −6 –8.00 × 10 −5 M for the final 18 h of the 96-h incubation period. Only sodium selenate failed to induce SCEs at high concentrations. Of the 4 SCE-inducing Se compounds studied selenium was the most potent inducer of SCEs, and sodium selenite was the least effective SCE-inducing agent. The SCE-inducing abilities of the Se compounds in decreasing order of their effectiveness were: selenium > selenium dioxide > sodium selenide > sodium selenite > sodium selenate.
A new method for Viterbi decoder simulation using importance sampling

Each simulation run simulates a single error event-that is, a subsequence of incorrect trellis branching decisions-and importance sampling is used to emphasize important nontrivial error events. The fundamental principles of the error event simulation method in conjunction with importance sampling are reviewed. The importance sampling background for coded communications systems is discussed in the context of block codes, because it is easier to present the fundamentals of importance sampling without the additional complexities of Viterbi decoding. The details of the error event simulation method for Viterbi decoders and numerical examples that demonstrate this method are presented. These numerical examples involve both hard and soft decision decoding for the ideal additive Gaussian noise channel. The technique is shown to provide markedly improved efficiency. >
Fluorescence lifetime and time-resolved polarization anisotropy studies of acyl chain order and dynamics in lipid bilayers

The time-resolved fluorescence intensity and anisotropy decays of cis- and trans-parinaric acids and phosphatidylcholines labeled with trans-parinaric acid have been characterized in bilayers formed by several phosphatidylcholines and by dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine-cholesterol mixtures, at several temperatures. Both a conventional free-running nitrogen flashlamp and the novel synchrotron source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) were used as excitation sources for a modified single photon counting fluorescence lifetime apparatus. The measured emission decay kinetics of both isomers of parinaric acid were biexponential in all but one of the lipid systems examined. The fluorescence anisotropy of parinaric acid was large and constant in gel phase lipids, but showed a very rapid (approximately 2 GHz) decay of large amplitude in fluid lipids. In all lipid systems studied, the fluorescence anisotropy decayed to a nonzero asymptote, in striking contrast to the behavior observed in viscous solvent solutions. The asymptotic anisotropy was used to calculate an "order parameter" of the emission transition dipole. The value of the order parameter is quite close to that obtained by deuterium NMR. Cholesterol increased the order parameter measured in fluid dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine but did not substantially affect the rate of angular relaxation. Experiments conducted with trans-parinaroylphosphatidylcholines yielded results virtually identical with those obtained with trans-parinaric acid.
Competitive colonization betweenPseudomonas species in sterile soils

When introduced as pairs into irradiated, sterile soils, aPseudomonas fluorescens strain prevented optimal colonization by aP. putida strain. The addition ofP. putida to sterile soil already populated byP. fluorescens impeded growth ofP. putida in that soil. However, addingP. fluorescens to soil populated withR. putida did not prevent growth ofP. fluorescens and caused a decrease in the titer ofP. putida. This “preemptive colonization/exclusion” phenomenon was also observed between two isogenic strains. The degree of exclusion depended on the amount of time between the inoculation of the two strains and which organism was introduced first. These results suggest competition for similar “niches” in soils and a hierarchy of fitness among pseudomonads sharing a soil environment. Autoclaving of the soil removed the competitive colonization betweenPseudomonas spp. observed in irradiated soils. The competitive colonization of irradiated soils by these twoPseudomonas sp. was reflected in their relative survival when introduced into nonsterile soil.
Dynamic Failure of a Lamina Meshwork in Cell Nuclei under Extreme Mechanical Deformation

The nuclear lamina is a structural protein meshwork at the inner nuclear membrane. It confers mechanical strength to the cell's nucleus and also sustains the overall structural integrity of the cell. The rupture of nuclear lamina is involved in many physiologically extreme conditions, such as cell division, genetic disease, and injury. Yet, its rupture mechanisms and processes are largely unknown and failure models commonly used for engineer- ing materials cannot be directly applied due to the complex hierarchical structure. Here, we use a multiscale modeling technique to investigate the dynamic failure of the nuclear lamina meshwork from the bottom up. We find that flaws or cracks in the nuclear lamina act as seeds for catastrophic failure that propagate rapidly upon very large deformation. Fracture occurs via crack propagation at intersonic speeds, and greater than the Rayleigh-wave speed predicted as a limit by classical fracture theory but smaller than the longitudinal wave speed. Our analysis shows that nanoscale secondary structural changes in protein filaments such as the alpha-beta transition and intermolecular sliding explain this macroscale phenomenon. Based on a simple model, we discover that the crack propagation speed is governed by the square root of the ratio of the tangent material moduli in (Ex) and perpendicular (Ey) to the crack propagation direction, vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffix=Ey p where the relative levels of applied strains in the x- and y-direction control the crack speed.
Mass renormalization by instantons and the strong CP problem.

Renormalization of the current masses of light quarks by instantons is considered. It is shown that the entire low-energy current mass of the $u$ quark can be generated by this nonperturbative mass renormalization. In this case, the absence of $\mathrm{CP}$ nonconservation in the strong interactions is an automatic consequence.
Tissue microarrays – automated analysis and future directions

Tissue microarrays have rapidly become a vital tool in the analysis of protein biomarkers on large patient cohorts. Composed of hundreds of miniature histologic tissue cores taken from patient tumors and arrayed in a grid pattern, tissue microarrays have great potential for automation. However, unlike DNA/RNA expression arrays, they contain spatial information, such that successful automation requires both the ability to quantitate and localize biomarkers within the tissue. This review traces tissue microarray analysis from the simplest of systems (visual inspection) to dedicated, automated quantitative analyzers capable of localizing biomarkers to sub-cellular compartments. It focuses on the importance of automating the process of tissue microarray analysis, while commenting on the inherent problems associated with both manual and automated analysis. Finally, it discusses the future of automated tissue microarray analysis, emphasizing the many areas of development and potential improvement.
Equilibrium shapes of strained islands with non-zero contact angles

Abstract The equilibrium morphology of a strained island on an elastic substrate is determined. The island is assumed to partially wet the substrate (Volmer–Weber growth) and thus makes a non-zero contact angle with the surface. Both isotropic and anisotropic misfit strain are allowed. Two- and three-dimensional equilibrium island shapes are determined by using expressions for the elastic strain energy in the small-slope approximation. In this limit, the problem can be reduced to a singular integral-differential equation for the island thickness. We find that when there is a non-zero contact angle, all island shapes, for a given ratio of the elastic stress to surface energy, attain a form that is independent of the specific contact angle under an appropriate scaling. We show that for islands with non-zero contact angles, as the island volume increases, the shape approaches the geometry of a completely wetting island. But when the volume decreases, these islands approach a point while islands with a zero contact angle, approach a finite length line segment of zero volume. Multiple-hump equilibrium shapes are found. Single-humped islands are shown to have a lower chemical potential than multiple-humped islands, implying that they are the most stable. This conclusion is shown to be consistent with a stability analysis of the two-dimensional case. The effects of a tetragonal misfit strain on the three-dimensional island shape is investigated.
Absolute frequency measurement of a CO2/OsO4 stabilized laser at 28.8 THz

A cw carbon dioxide laser operating on the 10 μm R(0)I transition (28.832 THz) was frequency stabilized by a servo lock to the saturated absorption dip of the Q(15) transition of 188OsO4. The laser frequency was measured with a cesium-clock-based frequency chain. In addition, the absorption line frequencies Q(14) of 188OsO4 and sQ(4,3) of 15NH3, were measured relative to the frequency of Q(15).
A Mouse Model Validates the Utility of Electrocochleography in Verifying Endolymphatic Hydrops

Endolymphatic hydrops (ELH) is a disorder of the inner ear that causes tinnitus, vertigo, and hearing loss. An elevated ratio of the summating potential (SP) to the action potential (AP) measured by electrocochleography has long been considered to be the electrophysiological correlate of ELH-related clinical conditions, such as Meniere’s disease, but in vivo confirmation and correlation between an elevated SP/AP ratio and ELH has not yet been possible. Confirming this relationship will be important to show that elevated SP/AP ratio is indeed diagnostic of ELH. Here, we sought to confirm that an elevated SP/AP ratio is associated with ELH and test the hypothesis that severity of ELH and hearing loss would also correlate with the SP/AP ratio in vivo using the PhexHyp-Duk/Y mouse model of postnatal ELH. In addition, we describe a minimally invasive approach for electrocochleography in mice. Auditory brainstem responses and electrocochleography data were collected from controls and PhexHyp-Duk/Y mutants at postnatal day 21 and the mice (all male) were euthanized immediately for cochlear histology. Our results show that (1) the SP/AP ratio was significantly elevated in mice with histological ELH compared to controls, (2) the SP/AP ratio was not correlated with the severity of histological ELH or hearing loss, and (3) the severity of hearing loss correlated with the severity of histological ELH. Our study demonstrates that an elevated SP/AP ratio is diagnostic of ELH and that the severity of hearing loss is a better predictor of the severity of ELH than is the SP/AP ratio.
Moduli of super Riemann surfaces

The basic properties of super Riemann surfaces are presented, and their supermoduli spaces are constructed, in a manner suitable for the application of algebro-geometric techniques to string theory.
Rebuttal of comments by Bandyopadhyay and Ray Chaudhuri on the paper “Astrophysical exclusion of photon-neutrino weak coupling”

Abstract The astrophysical arguments presented y Bandyopadhyay and Ray Chaudhuri against the author's negative result of a test of Bandyopadhyay's theory of photon-neutrino coupling are shown to be incorrect or irrelevant. The evidence adduced by them as supposedly favoring the theory is actually evidence against it, when properly examined.