cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parallel adaptive numerical simulation of dry avalanches over natural terrain

High fidelity computational simulation can be an invaluable tool in planning strategies for hazard risk mitigation. The accuracy and reliability of the predictions are crucial elements of these tools being successful. We present here a new simulation tool for dry granular avalanches using several new techniques to create a highly accurate tool with a combination of good models and numerical methodologies. Highlights of our methodology are the use of a depth averaged model of the conservation laws and an adaptive grid Godunov solver to solve the resulting equations The software is designed to run on distributed memory supercomputers and make use of digital elevation data dynamically i.e. refine the grid and input data to finer resolutions to better capture flow features as the flow evolves. Our simulations are validated using quantitative and qualitative comparisons to tabletop experiments and data from field observations. Our software is freely available and can be used on a range of hardware from inexpensive desktop computers to the largest supercomputers.
Detection and Duration of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus in Semen, Serum, Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells, and Tissues from Yorkshire, Hampshire, and Landrace Boars

Because transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) can occur through boar semen, it is important to identify persistently infected boars. However, even for boars given the same PRRSV strain and dose, variability in the duration of viral shedding in semen has been observed, sug- gesting that host factors are involved in PRRSV persistence. To determine whether there are host genetic factors, particularly litter and breed differences related to the persistence of PRRSV, 3 litters from 3 purebred swine breeds were used for this study. It was also determined whether PRRSV could be detected for a longer period of time in serum, semen, or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and if PRRSV could still be detected in tissues after these antemortem specimens were PRRSV negative for a minimum of 2-3 weeks. Three Hamp- shire, 3 Yorkshire, and 2 Landrace PRRSV-naive boars were obtained and inoculated intranasally with a wild- type PRRSV isolate (SD-23983). All boars within each breed were from the same litter, and litters were within 9 days of age. Serum and PBMC were collected twice weekly from each boar and analyzed for the presence of PRRSV by virus isolation and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Serum was also used to obtain virus neutralization titers and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay S/P values. Semen was collected twice weekly from 7 of 8 boars and analyzed by PCR. After all specimens were PRRSV negative for a minimum of 2-3 weeks, each boar was euthanized, and 21 tissues plus saliva, serum, feces, and urine were collected. All postmortem specimens were evaluated by virus isolation. Specimens that were PRRSV negative by virus iso- lation were then evaluated by PCR. The mean number of days ( 6SD) for the duration of PRRSV shedding in semen was 51 6 26.9 days, 7.5 6 4.9 days, and 28.3 6 17.5 days for Landrace, Yorkshire, and Hampshire boars, respectively. Because of small sample sizes and large SDs, the differences in duration of PRRSV shedding in semen between breeds were not considered significant. However, the trend suggested that Yorkshire boars were more resistant to PRRSV shedding in semen than were Landrace boars, requiring further investigation using a larger numbers of boars. PRRSV was detected for a longer period in semen than in serum or PBMC in 4 of 7 boars. Viremia could be detected for a longer period in serum than in PBMC in 6 of 8 boars. After a minimum of 2-3 weeks of PRRSV-negative serum, semen, and PBMC, PRRSV could still be detected in the tonsil of 3 of 8 boars by virus isolation, indicating that boars still harbor PRRSV within the tonsil even though antemortem specimens are PRRSV negative.
An improved cerulean fluorescent protein with enhanced brightness and reduced reversible photoswitching

Cyan fluorescent proteins (CFPs), such as Cerulean, are widely used as donor fluorophores in Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments. Nonetheless, the most widely used variants suffer from drawbacks that include low quantum yields and unstable flurorescence. To improve the fluorescence properties of Cerulean, we used the X-ray structure to rationally target specific amino acids for optimization by site-directed mutagenesis. Optimization of residues in strands 7 and 8 of the β-barrel improved the quantum yield of Cerulean from 0.48 to 0.60. Further optimization by incorporating the wild-type T65S mutation in the chromophore improved the quantum yield to 0.87. This variant, mCerulean3, is 20% brighter and shows greatly reduced fluorescence photoswitching behavior compared to the recently described mTurquoise fluorescent protein in vitro and in living cells. The fluorescence lifetime of mCerulean3 also fits to a single exponential time constant, making mCerulean3 a suitable choice for fluorescence lifetime microscopy experiments. Furthermore, inclusion of mCerulean3 in a fusion protein with mVenus produced FRET ratios with less variance than mTurquoise-containing fusions in living cells. Thus, mCerulean3 is a bright, photostable cyan fluorescent protein which possesses several characteristics that are highly desirable for FRET experiments.
Impact of rack-level compaction on the data center cooling ensemble

The growing energy consumption of computer data centers has recently received increased economic and environmental scrutiny. A significant portion of typical data center energy consumption can be apportioned to the cooling infrastructure. This paper shows the impact of heat load within the data center on the efficiency of the data center cooling ensemble, as measured in terms of a 'grand' Coefficient of Performance of the ensemble (COPG). The paper begins by developing an expedient, semi-empirical model of the cooling infrastructure in an actual data center in Bangalore, India. These predictions are compared to experimental measurements at various levels of the ensemble, with good agreement between predicted and measured values. Having validated the model, the impact of replacing low-density racks with high-density blades into the data center is explored. For the test case considered in this paper, it is found that consolidation leads to greater efficiency of the infrastructure components, causing COPG to increase by about 15%. The paper concludes by quantifying the impact of this consolidation on the total cost-of-ownership (TCO). For the test case, the consolidation results in improved utilization of the infrastructure, thus effectively reducing the burdened TCO (per Watt of computation) by up to 30%.
Materials Interaction in Cofired Platinum /Alumina High Density Feedthrough for Implantable Neurostimulator Applications

Neurostimulator applications will require much higher I/O feedthrough density for hermetic implantable enclosures, often greater than 100 I/O. This work evaluates the development of high-density platinum via structure cofired in alumina. The platinum was observed to melt when cofired at 1550°C, almost 200°C below its melting point, independent of the particle size (nano to micron size particles) or particle morphology. An analysis of the effect of particle size (nano to micron size Pt), firing atmosphere (air, hydrogen, inert), firing temperatures, intermetallic reactions and additives to control thermal expansion and adhesion strength was performed to evaluate and minimize this exothermic reaction. The interaction of platinum and alumina has been evaluated using X-ray diffraction and SEM.
Constraining NOx emissions using satellite NO2 measurements during 2013 DISCOVER-AQ Texas campaign

Abstract Reliable emission inventories are key to precisely model air pollutant concentrations. The relatively large reduction in NO x emissions that is well corroborated by satellite and in-situ observations over southeast Texas has resulted in discrepancies between observations and regional model simulations based on the National Emission Inventory (NEI) provided every three years in U.S. In this study, a Bayesian inversion of OMI tropospheric NO 2 is conducted to update anthropogenic sources of NEI-2011 and soil-biogenic sources from BEIS3 (Biogenic Emission Inventory System version 3) over southeast Texas and west Louisiana during the 2013 DISCOVER-AQ Texas campaign. Results reveal that influences of the a priori profile used in OMI NO 2 retrieval play a significant role in inconsistencies between model and satellite observations, which should be mitigated. A posteriori emissions are produced using the regional Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model associated with Decoupled Direct Method (DDM) sensitivity analysis. The inverse estimate suggests a reduction in area (44%), mobile (30%), and point sources (60%) in high NO x areas (ENO x > 0.2 mol/s), and an increase in soil (∼52%) and area emissions (37%) in low NO x regions (ENO x x regions are attributed to both uncertainty of the priori and emissions policies, while increases in area and soil-biogenic emissions more likely resulted from under-estimation of ships emissions, and the Yienger- Levy scheme used in BEIS respectively. In order to validate the accuracy of updated NO x emissions, CMAQ simulation was performed and results were evaluated with independent surface NO 2 measurements. Comparing to surface monitoring sites, we find improvements (before and after inverse modeling) for MB (1.95, −0.30 ppbv), MAB (3.65, 2.60 ppbv), RMSE (6.13, 4.37 ppbv), correlation (0.68, 0.69), and IOA (0.76, 0.82). The largest improvement is seen for morning time surface NO 2 for which RMSE and MB are reduced considerably by ∼60% (5.05 to 2.07 ppbv) and 109% (3.49 to −0.3 ppbv). However, under-prediction of model NO 2 in Houston on 09/25–09/26 likely resulting from unprecedented local NO x sources from the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) becomes more evident. Overall, results show that use of OMI tropospheric NO 2 columns can substantially reduce the uncertainty of bottom-up emissions for a regional study which should be extended to larger domains (e.g. entire U.S. or North America).
Orientation Disruption of Euxoa messoria (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Males with Synthetic Sex Attractant Components: Field and Flight Tunnel Studies

Disruption of orientation of Euxoa messoria male moths to traps baited with a synthetic sex attractant or virgin females was studied under two field designs. In both designs, the atmosphere in the test sites was permeated with (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (Z11–16:Ac), (Z)-7-hexadecenyl acetate (Z7–16:Ac), and (Z)-9-hexadecenyl acetate (Z9–16:Ac), each compound singly or as a ternary blend. In 81-m2 test plots, effective (>89%) disorientation of males occurred, using the blend or Z11–16:Ac alone; Z7–16:Ac and Z9–16:Ac, tested singly, were ineffective. In the other test sites, where the disruptants were released from rubber septa in close proximity to the monitoring trap, disorientation resulted from both the blend and Z7–16:Ac alone; Z11–16:Ac was ineffective under these conditions. Studies of male behavioral responses to these components in a flight tunnel showed that Z11–16:Ac is a long-range attractant whereas Z7–16:Ac primarily effects close-range flight and landing. No behavioral effect could be attributed to Z9–16:Ac. Results of flight tunnel responses and visual observations of field test sites accounted for the disruption results obtained.
Optical properties of GaSe and Ga S x Se 1 − x mixed crystals

Reflectivity and wavelength-modulated reflectivity measurements on GaSe and $\mathrm{Ga}{\mathrm{S}}_{x}{\mathrm{Se}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}$ mixed crystals are presented for energies ranging from 3 to 6 eV. Additional electroreflectance measurements are used to investigate the excitonic character of the structure at 3.4 eV in GaSe. The results are discussed on the basis of a new pseudopotential band-structure calculation for GaSe. The prominent spectral structures of GaSe are identified in terms of location in $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}$ space and atomic character of the states involved in the transitions. The main structures in the optical-response function of GaSe are found to result from excitations of the Ga-Ga bond and from atomiclike transitions between nonbonding Se $p$ and $s$ states. These main transitions are located in $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}$ space close to symmetry determined "special $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}$ points." The observed mixed-crystal spectra can be decomposed into three classes of transitions which exhibit zero, intermediate, and strong energy shifts with anion substitution. Theoretically, the three classes of transitions are found to take place between states with zero or little, intermediate, and large charge concentrations on the anion sites. Thus, the characteristic energy shifts, observed experimentally can directly be related to atomic spectral properties of sulphur and selenium.
Anthropogenic change in savannas and associated forest biomes

Savannas are multi-layered tree–grass–forb systems which exhibit a high level of diversity in vegetation structure and arrangement, and complex ecosystem functions dependent upon highly seasonal cl...
Surveillance of influenza in Gangyuan,2009-2010

Objective To learn about the epidemic pattern of influenza and subtype distribution of influenza virus in Guangyuan and provide scientific evidence for influenza prevention and control.Methods The data of influenza-like illness(ILI) and etiological surveillance results and the information of outbreak during 2009-2010 in Guangyuan were collected and analyzed by using descriptive method.Results A total of 8702 ILI cases were reported by sentinel hospitals from May 2009 to April 2010,the average proportion of ILI cases in outpatients was 2.95%.Totally 327 samples were taken from ILI cases and the positive rate of etiological detection was 59.02%.During 2009-2010,2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus was predominant,accounting for 70.98%,followed by seasonal influenza A(H3) virus(15.54%).A total of 15 outbreaks were reported during this period,most occurred in primary/middle schools and correctional facilities.Conclusion 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) was the predominant subtype in Guangyuan during 2009-2010 and the epidemic peak was in September 2009.
Analysis of Socialization Situation of the Micro-public Welfare in the Era of Micro-blog

With the development of modern science and technology in China,the construction of spiritual civilization has been further extensively improved.Micro-blog,another high-tech product of the internet age,while providing people with the mutual exchange and interaction as a platform,has also created opportunities for the socialization of the micro-public welfare concept.At the beginning,on the basis of the research in the development of micro-public welfare concept,this article proposes a concept under the current situation: the advocacy of everyone's involvement and self-management,the establishment of thinking and living a public welfare way,the realization of a social welfare ideal through everyone's effort.Then,this article describes and analyzes the status quo of the socialization of public welfare in modern China from multiple perspectives.Based on the Altruism theory and Basic Hierarchy of Needs theory,it analyzes the deep-seated reasons of the socialization of micro-public welfare from various points of views,and comes to a conclusion that the socialization of the concept of micro-public welfare fits the concept of modern life thinking,and it helps to gradually internalize the public morality and valuation quality.In the closing part,this article summarizes the social value that the socialization of the micro-public welfare concept has generated.
Whole-body vibration as a potential countermeasure for dynapenia and arterial stiffness

Age-related decreases in muscle mass and strength are associated with decreased mobility, quality of life, and increased cardiovascular risk. Coupled with the prevalence of obesity, the risk of death becomes substantially greater. Resistance training (RT) has a well-documented beneficial impact on muscle mass and strength in young and older adults, although the high-intensity needed to elicit these adaptations may have a detrimental or negligible impact on vascular function, specifically on arterial stiffness. Increased arterial stiffness is associated with systolic hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, and myocardial ischemia. Therefore, improvements of muscle strength and arterial function are important in older adults. Recently, whole-body vibration (WBV) exercise, a novel modality of strength training, has shown to exhibit similar results on muscle strength as RT in a wide-variety of populations, with the greatest impact in elderly individuals with limited muscle function. Additionally, WBV training has been shown to have beneficial effects on vascular function by reducing arterial stiffness. This article reviews relevant publications reporting the effects of WBV on muscle strength and/or arterial stiffness. Findings from current studies suggest the use of WBV training as an alternative modality to traditional RT to countermeasure the age-related detriments in muscle strength and arterial stiffness in older adults.
Guest-host interactions in zeolites as studied by NMR spectroscopy: implications in synthesis, catalysis and separations

The intermolecular forces between occluded organic molecules and the atoms that bound the pores of zeolite structures determine the catalytic activity and diffusivity of the guest molecules. These organic-inorganic forces are also a crucial aspect of the process of structure-direction in zeolite synthesis. A molecular understanding of guest-host interactions can often be deduced by using NMR spectroscopy to study the rotational motion of the occluded molecules. This contribution is an overview of systems where NMR, particularly deuterium NMR, has been used to quantify the forces which exist between occluded organic molecules and the zeolite structure. Systems that are relevant to synthesis, separations, and catalysis are discussed. The works presented show that NMR is a powerful tool for studying guest-host interactions in zeolitic materials. A molecular level understanding of the nature and relative importance of the various forces discussed should lead to a more rational basis for the selection and development of zeolitic materials used in catalytic and adsorption applications.
The Cost of the Text

Prominent scholars have suggested that the major reason why constitutional decision making departs from the wording of enacted constitutional clauses more often than statutory decision making departs from the wording of enacted statutory clauses is that the U.S. Constitution has a large share of broadly worded clauses, such that constitutional text under-determines constitutional interpretation. I suspect that two other factors do more to account for the observed difference. One is the greater role of judicial precedent in constitutional interpretation, which results largely from the mere fact that the U.S. Code is orders of magnitude more extensive and more prolix than the U.S. Constitution and therefore gives rise to many more questions of first impression. The other is that constitutional cases are more apt than statutory cases to make judges feel that there is something big to lose from a decision that is unfortunate on its merits. The desire to avoid deeply unfortunate results is a major driver of a decision maker's willingness to buck preexisting authority, including the authority of enacted texts. Put another way, judges depart from texts when the cost of adhering to those texts is high. And the propensity of American legal practice to make the highest-stakes issues into issues of constitutional law means that the costs of unfortunate decisions are liable to skew high in constitutional contexts.
When Indomethacin Fails: Additional Treatment Options for “Indomethacin Responsive Headaches”

Indomethacin has been used for the treatment of headache disorders since the 1960’s, shortly after it was introduced as a treatment for pain and joint swelling in rheumatologic conditions. A subgroup of primary headache disorders, often refractory to other pharmacologic treatment such as triptans and the usual non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, was noted to be exquisitely and absolutely responsive to the analgesic effects of indomethacin. These disorders have been better characterized over the past decade and classified into primary headache disorders of paroxysmal hemicrania (PH) and hemicrania continua (HC). Since the current ICHD-3 beta requires response to indomethacin as a diagnostic criterion, studies on alternative treatments in HC and PH generally occur in patients with intolerance to its gastro-intestinal side effects rather than loss of analgesia effectiveness. More rarely, the development of new headaches have been reported in chronic indomethacin use. In these settings, other classes of medications such as selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (celecoxib), anti-epileptic agents (topiramate), calcium channel blockers (verapamil, flunarizine), melatonin, and local nerve blocks with anesthetic and steroids have been shown to be effective in case reports and series. We review the literature and provide our clinical recommendations on alternative therapies for the “indomethacin-responsive headaches”.
Characterizing volumes of kidney segments in Streptozotocin induced diabetic rat model utilizing 4D contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Diabetic Kidney Disease is a disease that if left uncontrolled may eventually lead to end stage kidney disease. Clinicians utilize biomarkers, such as albuminuria and serum creatinine, to identify diabetic populations at risk for kidney disease, but these markers often lag behind histologic disease. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) presents a potential tool to identify at risk patients, begin early intervention and prevent development and progression of kidney disease. Utilizing 4D CEUS, we observed the progressive effect of diabetes in a rodent streptozotocin (STZ) model, over a 12-week period. The following describes the experimental protocol and image process for characterization of the kidneys. Image datasets estimated total volume changes accurately in comparison to water-displacement volume measurements. Treated animals displayed an increase in total volume, as expected. Individual cortical and medullary volumes were estimated using the same datasets and showed a greater increase in medullary than cortical volumes. Further investigation is required to validate CEUS as a tool for early DKD diagnosis.
Mesenteric vascular dysregulation and intestinal inflammation accompanies experimental spinal cord injury

Cervical and high thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) drastically impairs autonomic nervous system function. Individuals with SCI at thoracic spinal level 5 (T5) or higher often present cardiovascula...
A unified approach to the kinematic synthesis of five-link, four-link, and double-wishbone suspension mechanisms with rack-and-pinion steering control:

This paper presents a unified approach to the problem of dimensional synthesis of the five-link, four-link, and three-link (double-wishbone) suspension mechanisms with a rack-and-pinion steering in...
Injury Threshold of Rectus Capitis Muscles at the Atlanto-occipital Joint

Abstract Objective The objective of this study was to collect muscle stiffness data from the 4 rectus capitis (RC) muscles to better understand their role in stabilizing the atlanto-occipital joint. The passive load displacement properties of these muscles have not been previously reported. Methods Rectus capitis muscles were removed from 3 unembalmed head and neck specimens. Passive length-force (stiffness) data were collected by using a servo-controlled hydraulic test machine. Multivariate analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction was used to assess the significance of the differences among passive stiffness within the elastic region of each muscle and the load and strain at the yield points. Results Rectus capitis lateralis (RCL) muscles failed at significantly higher levels of load and strain compared with the other 3 pairs of muscles. Passive stiffness of both RCL and RC anterior muscles was significantly higher than the other 2 pairs of muscles. Conclusion The anatomic location of the RCL muscles, along with their high levels of passive stiffness, would be expected to facilitate the maintenance of atlanto-occipital joint congruence during normal daily activities. The level at which the RC posterior minor muscles failed could put them at risk of a strain injury during a rear end motor vehicle accident. Diagnostic and treatment protocols that apply forces to the upper cervical spine should be tailored to consider the patient's age, gender, and history of previous injuries to avoid overstretching RC muscles.
Supporting precision medicine by data mining across multi-disciplines: an integrative approach for generating comprehensive linkages between single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and drug-binding sites.

Motivation: Genetic variants in drug targets and metabolizing enzymes often have important functional implications, including altering the efficacy and toxicity of drugs. Identifying single nucleotide variants (SNVs) that contribute to differences in drug response and understanding their underlying mechanisms are fundamental to successful implementation of the precision medicine model. This work reports an effort to collect, classify and analyze SNVs that may affect the optimal response to currently approved drugs. Results: An integrated approach was taken involving data mining across multiple information resources including databases containing drugs, drug targets, chemical structures, protein–ligand structure complexes, genetic and clinical variations as well as protein sequence alignment tools. We obtained 2640 SNVs of interest, most of which occur rarely in populations (minor allele frequency < 0.01). Clinical significance of only 9.56% of the SNVs is known in ClinVar, although 79.02% are predicted as deleterious. The examples here demonstrate that even if the mapped SNVs predicted as deleterious may not result in significant structural modifications, they can plausibly modify the protein–drug interactions, affecting selectivity and drug-binding affinity. Our analysis identifies potentially deleterious SNVs present on drug-binding residues that are relevant for further studies in the context of precision medicine. Availability and Implementation: Data are available from Supplementary information file. Contact: yanli.wang@nih.gov Supplementary information: Supplementary Tables S1–S5 are available at Bioinformatics online.
Bayesian quantile regression joint models: Inference and dynamic predictions:

In the traditional joint models of a longitudinal and time-to-event outcome, a linear mixed model assuming normal random errors is used to model the longitudinal process. However, in many circumstances, the normality assumption is violated and the linear mixed model is not an appropriate sub-model in the joint models. In addition, as the linear mixed model models the conditional mean of the longitudinal outcome, it is not appropriate if clinical interest lies in making inference or prediction on median, lower, or upper ends of the longitudinal process. To this end, quantile regression provides a flexible, distribution-free way to study covariate effects at different quantiles of the longitudinal outcome and it is robust not only to deviation from normality, but also to outlying observations. In this article, we present and advocate the linear quantile mixed model for the longitudinal process in the joint models framework. Our development is motivated by a large prospective study of Huntington's disease where primary clinical interest is in utilizing longitudinal motor scores and other early covariates to predict the risk of developing Huntington's disease. We develop a Bayesian method based on the location-scale representation of the asymmetric Laplace distribution, assess its performance through an extensive simulation study, and demonstrate how this linear quantile mixed model-based joint models approach can be used for making subject-specific dynamic predictions of survival probability.
Law, Innovation, and Collaboration in Networked Economy and Society

Over the past 25 years, social science research in diverse fields has shifted its best explanations of innovation from (a) atomistic invention and development by individuals, corporate or natural, to networked learning; (b) market-based innovation focused on material self-interest to interaction between market and nonmarket practices under diverse motivations; and (c) property rights exclusively to interaction between property and commons. These shifts have profound implications for how we must think about law and innovation. Patents, copyrights, noncompete agreements, and trade secret laws are all optimized for an increasingly obsolete worldview. Strong intellectual property impedes, rather than facilitates, innovation when we understand that knowledge flows in learning networks, mixing of market and nonmarket models and motivations, and weaving of commons with property are central to the innovation process.
Tracing Microfinancial Value Chains: Beyond the Impasse of Debt and Development

The global expansion of the microfinance sector demands new conceptual work that recognizes microfinance9s simultaneous imbrication in profit-oriented global finance and socially oriented development programs. Drawing from our respective areas of specialization in Latin America and South Asia, and an extensive review of the literature, we posit here that microfinance is best understood as a global industry, with traceable value chains. Microfinancial value chains are vertically organized by hierarchical relations of power, and populated by diverse actors performing various forms of gendered and class-stratified labor. Our conception of microfinance draws attention to the industry9s reliance on the devalued labor of women, and the influence of class and geographic divisions on the functioning of microfinancial chains at all levels. Our chain-oriented conceptualization disrupts prevailing paradigms for studying microfinance by allowing us to analyze exactly where, and under what conditions, value is extracted across multiple global sites.
Repeated healing of delamination damage in vascular composites by pressurized delivery of reactive agents

Abstract Recurrent self-healing of fracture damage in fiber-reinforced composites was accomplished by incorporating internal vascular networks for repeated delivery of reactive liquid components to an internal delamination. Double cantilever beam specimens containing embedded microvascular channels were repeatedly fractured and healed by pumping individually sequestered epoxy and amine based healing agents to the fracture plane. The effect of various pumping parameters and component delivery ratios on in situ mixing of the healing agents and the resulting healing efficiency is reported. Confocal Raman spectroscopy was used to quantify the extent of mixing of healing agents within the fracture plane. Using an optimized healing agent delivery scheme, ten cycles of fracture and healing were achieved with, on average, 55% and as high as 95%, recovery of the virgin critical strain energy release rate.
Perioperative complications increase the risk of venous thromboembolism following bariatric surgery.

Abstract Background Morbidly obese patients are at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) following surgery. This study explores the impact of a perioperative complication on the risk of VTE after bariatric surgery. Methods Patients who underwent bariatric surgery were identified from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program dataset (2012–2014). The 17 most common perioperative complications were analyzed by multivariate regression analysis to determine the effect of complications on the risk of VTE. Results The postoperative incidence of VTE was 0.5% (n = 59,424 bariatric surgeries). The average time to diagnosis of VTE was 11.6 days. 80% of VTE events occurred after discharge. A major complication occurred prior to VTE in 22.6% of patients. The more complications experienced by an individual patient, the more likely they were to experience VTE. Unadjusted thirty-day mortality increased 13.89-fold following VTE (p Conclusions Postoperative complications significantly increase the risk of VTE following bariatric surgery.
Web-accessible molecular modeling with Rosetta: The Rosetta Online Server that Includes Everyone (ROSIE)

The Rosetta molecular modeling software package provides a large number of experimentally validated tools for modeling and designing proteins, nucleic acids, and other biopolymers, with new protocols being added continually. While freely available to academic users, external usage is limited by the need for expertise in the Unix command line environment. To make Rosetta protocols available to a wider audience, we previously created a web server called Rosetta Online Server that Includes Everyone (ROSIE), which provides a common environment for hosting web-accessible Rosetta protocols. Here we describe a simplification of the ROSIE protocol specification format, one that permits easier implementation of Rosetta protocols. Whereas the previous format required creating multiple separate files in different locations, the new format allows specification of the protocol in a single file. This new, simplified protocol specification has more than doubled the number of Rosetta protocols available under ROSIE. These new applications include pKa determination, lipid accessibility calculation, ribonucleic acid redesign, protein-protein docking, protein-small molecule docking, symmetric docking, antibody docking, cyclic toxin docking, critical binding peptide determination, and mapping small molecule binding sites. ROSIE is freely available to academic users at http://rosie.rosettacommons.org.
A Cryogenic Hydrogen Maser Operating at 10K

A cryogenic hydrogen maser has been designed and constructed which operates at temperatures near 10 K with a surface of frozen neon in the atom storage region. Cryogenic operation is expected to improve masers performance by orders of magnitude over room-temperature masers in frequency standard applications. The maser has an atom storage region and microwave cavity made from three pieces of single crystal sapphire. The neon surface is expected to be isothermal and stable to within 1 mK during operation. The sapphire is contained within a copper enclosure which is surrounded by magnetic shields and cooled by conduction to a helium-cooled copper plate. The helium cooling to the plate is in the form of cold helium gas flowing through a tube attached to the plate. The internal vacuum of the maser is maintained by a helium-cooled cryopump located between the hydrogen atom source and the transition. Atomic hydrogen is supplied by an effusive discharge operated at liquid nitrogen temperatures. The maser has operated as a self-excited oscillator and most of the required cryogenic characteristics have been experimentally verified. At temperatures near 10 K a stability of 1 mK was achieved for periods exceeding ninety minutes.
The ozonolysis of isoprene in a cryogenic buffer gas cell by high resolution microwave spectroscopy

We have developed a method to quantify reaction product ratios using high resolution microwave spectroscopy in a cryogenic buffer gas cell. We demonstrate the power of this method with the study of the ozonolysis of isoprene, CH2C(CH3)–CHCH2, the most abundant, non-methane hydrocarbon emitted into the atmosphere by vegetation. Isoprene is an asymmetric diene, and reacts with O3 at the 1,2 position to produce methyl vinyl ketone (MVK), formaldehyde, and a pair of carbonyl oxides: [CH3CO–CHCH2 + CH2OO] + [CH2O + CH3COO–CHCH2]. Alternatively, O3 could attack at the 3,4 position to produce methacrolein (MACR), formaldehyde, and two carbonyl oxides [CH2C(CH3)–CHO + CH2OO] + [CH2O + CH2C(CH3)–CHOO]. Purified O3 and isoprene were mixed for approximately 10 seconds under dilute (1.5–4% in argon) continuous flow conditions in an alumina tube held at 298 K and 5 Torr. Products exiting the tube were rapidly slowed and cooled within the buffer gas cell by collisions with cryogenic (4–7 K) He. High resolution chirped pulse microwave detection between 12 and 26 GHz was used to achieve highly sensitive (ppb scale), isomer-specific product quantification. We observed a ratio of MACR to MVK of 2.1 ± 0.4 under 1 : 1 ozone to isoprene conditions and 2.1 ± 0.2 under 2 : 1 ozone to isoprene conditions, a finding which is consistent with previous experimental results. Additionally, we discuss relative quantities of formic acid (HCOOH), an isomer of CH2OO, and formaldehyde (CH2O) under varying experimental conditions, and characterize the spectroscopic parameters of the singly-substituted 13C trans-isoprene and 13C anti-periplanar-methacrolein species. This work has the potential to be extended towards a complete branching ratio analysis, as well towards the ability to isolate, identify, and quantify new reactive intermediates in the ozonolysis of alkenes.
An enterprise cybersecurity strategy for federal critical infrastructure modernization

Federal systems are constantly faced with risks due to the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. Cyber threats can cause anything from degradation of system functionality to data theft. Depending on the criticality of the Federal system, a cyber-event could be catastrophic, causing a significant financial loss to the Federal government, potentially impacting the privacy or safety of the American public, thus being categorized as Critical Infrastructure. In the past year, modernization of Federal systems has gained much attention. In 2017, The Executive Office of President finalized a report on the Federal IT Modernization [1], as well as the Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure [2]. In many cases, Federal Critical Infrastructure may often be comprised of legacy systems, which consist of aging technologies, program languages or hardware. The cost of the sustainment and operation of legacy assets will continue to increase over time and become more difficult to protect, as outdated technologies become obsolete or unsupported. The existence of legacy technology may also limit the ability of the adoption of new capabilities. To address these issues, Federal agencies must incrementally reduce the usage of legacy assets through modernization. The Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 or MGT Act was passed by the House of Representatives on May 17, 2017, and was recently passed into law on December 12, 2017. The MGT Act of 2017 is a bipartisan effort, which calls for agencies to modernize their aging systems. The MGT Act builds upon the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), creating the FITARA scorecard, a grading system used to monitor the modernization efforts of Federal agencies and empower CIOs to take action. The score is calculated based on CIO performance, risk management, data center optimization and other factors. In the latest FITARA Scorecard released in November of 2017, both the DOD and DOT scored an F+. The FITARA Scorecard presents insight into the current state of modernization of Federal systems; however, the scoring system may not fully encompass the considerations needed to address the challenges faced by Critical Infrastructure, such as the National Airspace System.
Transport by Vector Fields with Kolmogorov Spectrum

We study a model of turbulent transport described by the motion in a Gaussian random velocity field with Kolmogorov spectrum. The field is assumed to be divergence-free, homogeneous in time and space, and Markovian in time. The molecular viscosity defines the cutoff in the Fourier space, thus regularizing the vector field of the pure infinite-Reynolds-number Kolmogorov spectrum by vector fields with smooth realizations. We provide an asymptotic bound on the effective diffusivity of the finite-Reynolds number fields as R→∞. Namely, with macroscopic parameters of the system fixed and the viscosity tending to zero, the effective diffusivity is bounded above by a constant which does not depend on the Reynolds number.
Holmes, Coase & Blackmail

From beginning to end, the Holmes-versus-Milverton story is peppered with law. At the start, for example, law determines when Watson can tell the story at all. And it is a legal document that Milverton – an infamous blackmailer – is reading moments before his timely end. The story also features a distinctive type of lawlessness – at least by modern standards – that runs through the “Canon” (the 60 Holmes stories with an Arthur Conan Doyle byline): a blackmailer is almost always confronted by, and is often killed by, a blackmail victim exerting deadly force. Holmes has no objection to victims (at least some of them) killing their blackmailers, as he explains when asked by Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard to help search for suspects in the Milverton killing: “Well, I am afraid I can’t help you, Lestrade,” said Holmes. “The fact is that I knew this fellow Milverton, that I considered him one of the most dangerous men in London, and that I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge. No, it’s no use arguing. I have made up my mind. My sympathies are with the criminals rather than with the victim, and I will not handle this case.” Holmes is endorsing vigilantism, a dubious stance for a sophisticated proponent of justice. Had he had access to the scholarship of economist-to-be Ronald Coase, and had he been more mindful of judicial opinion about blackmail in his own day, Holmes might have described the Milverton killing differently.
Psychological and Spiritual Predictors of Domains of Functioning and Effectiveness of Short-Term Missionaries:

The present study investigated how psychopathology, current object relations, and spiritual development relate to short-term missionary performance and psychological distress. Forty short-term miss...
Cloning Animals by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transplantation

Production of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer/cloning offers a range of opportunities in agriculture, genetic conservation, basic and applied research, and human medicine. The major obstacle to using reproductive cloning for large-scale applications is the low efficiency of the technique, especially at generating healthy live offspring. In this article, the conceptual bases for cloning animals are described and potential applications and methodological aspects of the technique are indicated.
Reproducibility of minimum rim width and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness using the Anatomic Positioning System in glaucoma patients

ABSTRACT Objective To determine the test−retest repeatability of minimum rim width and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness measurements obtained by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography using the Anatomic Positioning System protocol in glaucoma patients and controls. Also, to assess the ability of the minimum rim width and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness to diagnose glaucoma in 2 circular peripapillary locations. Methods Spectral domain optical coherence tomography scans of the optic nerve head were obtained twice during the same visit using the Anatomic Positioning System eye-tracking protocol. The minimum rim width and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness were measured at 3 circular diameters (3.5 mm, 4.1 mm, and 4.7 mm). Intraclass correlation coefficients and area under the receiver operating characteristic were calculated for these parameters. Results A total of 36 glaucomatous eyes and 59 control eyes were included in the analysis. The intraclass correlation coefficients of minimum rim width and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness global measurement for 3.5 mm and 4.1 mm circles ranged between 0.98 and 1.00 and for 4.7 mm circle was between 0.76 and 1.00. The minimum rim width had an area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.97, while the retinal nerve fibre layer thickness measurements had an area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.95, 0.95, and 0.96 for the 3.5 mm, 4.1 mm, and 4.7 mm circles, respectively. Conclusions The minimum rim width and retinal nerve fibre layer thickness measurements using the Anatomic Positioning System protocol had overall excellent reproducibility and diagnostic performance. Using this protocol and the novel minimum rim width parameter may be useful in more accurate diagnosis and follow-up of patients with glaucoma.
Influence of Nonuniform Box Beam Dimensions and Bridge Transverse Slope on Environmentally Induced Stresses in Adjacent Box Beam Bridges

AbstractThe service life of adjacent box beam bridges is curtailed by the corrosion of reinforcement in the girders and spalling of concrete. This damage is attributed primarily to infiltration of ...
Homicide clearances during pre- and post-U.S. crime drop eras: the role of structural predictors and demographic shifts, 1976–2015

Increased attention to the U.S. crime drop has heightened awareness of the rise and fall in homicide rates over time, and the role structural and demographic characteristics have played in these sh...
Concentrations of pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants in groundwater downgradient from large on-site wastewater discharges

Large subsurface treatment systems (LSTS) and rapid infiltration basins (RIB) are preferred onsite wastewater treatments compared to direct discharge of treated wastewater to streams and adjacent facilities. Discharge of these wastewater treatments may result in contaminant loading to aquifers that also serve as drinking water sources downgradient from the discharge site. Until recently, few studies have characterized the contribution of micropollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, fragrances, flame retardants, etc.) to receiving aquifers. We conducted a pilot project to characterize the occurrence of micropollutants in groundwater downgradient from 7 on-site treatment systems in Minnesota, USA: 5 community LSTS and 2 municipal RIB. One downgradient monitoring well was sampled three times at each facility over one year. Of 223 micropollutants analyzed, 35 were detected. Total sample concentrations ranged from 90 to 4,039 ng/L. Sulfamethoxazole (antibiotic) was detected in all samples at concentrations from 7 to 965 ng/L. Other pharmaceuticals (0.12-1,000 ng/L), organophosphorus flame retardants (10-500 ng/L), and other anthropogenic chemicals (4-775 ng/L) were also detected. The numbers and concentrations of micropollutants detected were inversely related to dissolved oxygen and depth to water. Ratios of pharmaceutical concentrations to human-health screening values were <0.10 for most samples. However, concentrations of carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole exceeded screening values at two sites. Study results illustrate that large on-site wastewater systems designed to discharge to permeable soil or shallow groundwater effectively deliver pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants to groundwater aquifers and could contribute micropollutants to drinking water via water supply wells.