cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Crust and upper mantle structure in the northwest Basin and Range province

abstract Seismic waves from nuclear explosions and from well-located local earthquakes have been recorded along several profiles through western Nevada, southeast Oregon, and eastern California. P n delay times from these data and from additional travel times of NTS explosions recorded across the western Nevada seismic network have been interpreted in terms of varying crustal thickness of the western Great Basin. Our interpretation of these data implies that the crust thins from greater than 32 km thick in the vicinity of Mono Lake to 20 to 22 km thick over a broad region in northwest Nevada. The P n headwave propagates to a distance of about 550 km with a velocity of 7.8 km/sec. At distances greater than 600 km a low velocity (7.44 km/sec), larger amplitude phase is observed. This phase may result from long-period energy diffracting into a shadow zone. A prominent, high-velocity second arrival following P n by 1 to 2 sec in the distance range 340 to 475 km, is interpreted as a reflection from the base of the lithosphere at 60 to 70-km depth.
Sensitivity Analysis of Composite Patch Design Parameters under Low Velocity Impact Loading Conditions

Composite patches are bonded to damaged or undamaged aerospace structure as a means to improve or restore damage tolerance and load-carrying capacity. While this repair and reinforcement method is currently demonstrated on structures around the globe, design and analysis methodologies that account for the high variability in design parameters, material properties, and loading conditions are lagging behind its implementation. In order to achieve safe and optimized patch design, a comprehensive understanding of the effects of uncertainty on patch performance is essential. One aspect of patch performance of particular concern is internal damage that is not visible, but could propagate and cause patch and consequentially structural failure. To investigate the damage tolerance of patched structure subjected to low-velocity impact loading and to quantify the effects of uncertainty on performance, a 3D high fidelity finite element model of a patched structure was developed and validated. This model of a metal plate with a composite patch that is adhesively bonded captures multiple damage mechanisms including composite damage, delamination between composite layers, adhesive disbond, and plastic deformation of the metal. Computational simulation with this model is performed to study damage tolerance under low-velocity impact with respect to uncertain input parameters to determine the sensitivity of patch performance relative to these parameters.
A Comparative Study of Iodine and Potassium Perchlorate Metabolism in the Laying Hen 1. Incorporation of I-131 in Chicken Ova

Abstract The uptake of 131I in chicken ova was studied for 3 hours after a single intramuscular dose. There was uptake as early as 10 minutes and it continued throughout the 3 hours in spite of a rapid decrease in blood activity. The fast growing ova, weighing 0.5 to 2.0 grams, were the most efficient in the uptake of 131I per unit weight. Autoradiograms of the topographic distribution of 131I showed a peripheral deposition. When multiple doses were given, concentric rings in the growing ovocytes were seen.
A Young Woman With Bilateral Breast Cancer: Identifying a Genetic Cause and Implications for Management

Breast cancer is a common manifestation of an underlying genetic susceptibility to cancer, and 5% to 10% of all breast cancers are associated with a germline mutation in a known risk allele. Detection of mutations has implications for targeted screening and prevention strategies for probands, and for genetic counseling and testing of their family members. This report presents a case involving a 35-year-old woman with no family history of breast or ovarian cancer who presented with a palpable right breast lump. Imaging revealed multiple bilateral breast masses and right axillary adenopathy, and core needle biopsies showed invasive ductal carcinoma in both the right and left breast. This report discusses the appropriate genetics evaluation for a patient with bilateral breast cancer at a young age, including testing for mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, followed, if negative, by consideration of testing for mutations in TP53 (Li-Fraumeni syndrome). Given the specialized counseling and testing needs of patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and the implications for targeted screening strategies if a mutation is found, referral to a cancer genetics expert is strongly recommended.
Web Spam detection based on structural and temporal information

A novel framework was proposed to combine structural information and temporal information together for Spam detection.Targeting at detecting some popularity spamming technologies,a group of well-designed structural and temporal features was extracted from a series of link graphs of four successive months,and train a set of classifiers to distinguish normal websites from spam websites.Experiments on a real-world dataset show that the proposed method is quite effective for Web Spam detection.
Redesigning Secure Protocols to Compel Security Checks Transcript of Discussion

So my talk today is "Redesigning Secure Protocols to Compel Security Checks". To set up the problem: a lot of secure protocols require certain checks to be performed. You write up the protocol, that's perhaps your fiction And then later we have an implementation, that's fact, one way or the other. And there are certain checks that are supposed to be in these protocols.
High Risk Human Papillomavirus Testing: Guidelines for Use in Screening, Triage, and Follow-up for the Prevention and Early Detection of Cervical Cancer

The changes in cervical cytology characterization agreed on by the Bethesda committee meeting in 2001 created a category of atypical findings that has caused some management confusion. By description, the characterization of cervical cytology as only atypical implies a less worrisome prognosis. However, more than 40% of high-grade (CIN II or III or cancer) will be discovered within this category. The development and Food and Drug Administration approval of the Hybrid Capture 2 (HC-2; Digene Corporation, Gaithersburg, MD) for detecting high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) subtypes and the subsequent level I evidence supporting use of this test in the triage of women with atypical cytology has revolutionized the management of this cytology. With this success has come numerous additional uses for HR-HPV testing in the treatment and follow-up of women with a variety of cytologic abnormalities. This article reviews the literature on uses of HR-HPV testing in this population, with reference to currently accepted guidelines.
'Syndrome X': is it a significant cause of hypertension? Affirmative.

A number of biologic actions of insulin lend credence to the hypothesis that insulin resistance can produce hypertension, perhaps by stimulating a hyperkinetic circulation. But it may do so only in lean individuals.
A Diverse Low Cost High Performance Platform for Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Applications

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming more and more popular. Lot of the ADAS applications such as Lane departure warning (LDW), Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Automatic Cruise Control (ACC), Auto Emergency Braking (AEB), Surround View (SV) that were present only in high-end cars in the past have trickled down to the low and mid end vehicles. Lot of these applications are also mandated by safety authorities such as EUNCAP and NHTSA. In order to make these applications affordable in the low and mid end vehicles, it is important to have a cost effective, yet high performance and low power solution. Texas Instruments (TI's) TDA3x is an ideal platform which addresses these needs. This paper illustrates mapping of different algorithms such as SV, LDW, Object detection (OD), Structure From Motion (SFM) and Camera-Monitor Systems (CMS) to the TDA3x device, thereby demonstrating its compute capabilities. We also share the performance for these embedded vision applications, showing that TDA3x is an excellent high performance device for ADAS applications.
Cardiac Fibrosis Alters Calcium Sensitivity and Myofilament Relaxation

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) accounts for at least half of the patients with heart failure, but there are no proven therapies for these patients. There is a need to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in this heterogeneous patient population. Studies have shown an increase in myocardial fibrosis and collagen content in patients with HFpEF. It is not clear whether or how fibrosis alters myocyte cellular contraction. We used a previously published model of cardiac fibrosis with macrophage-targeted overexpression of urokinase plasminogen activator (SR-uPA mice) to determine the effect of fibrosis on myofilament function and cardiomyocyte contraction. We measured the passive stiffness and contractile properties of demembranated papillary muscle preparations as well as activation and relaxation parameters of isolated myofibrils from WT and SR-uPA mice. Our results showed an increase in passive stiffness in SR-uPA compared to WT mice when the demembranated preparations were stretched to 24% from baseline length (∼SL=2.0 μM). The SR-uPA +/o mice also show an increase in Ca2+ sensitivity (pCa50=5.69±0.04 vs. 5.55±0.03, P<0.05) compared to WT mice. Myofibrils from these mice show preserved tension and rate of activation. However, there is prolonged slow phase of relaxation (69±3 vs. 58±2 ms, P<0.05) with reduced rates of both slow (1.6±0.2 vs. 1.2±0.2 s-1, P<0.05) and fast (15.1±1.8 vs. 7.0±0.6 s-1, P<0.05) phases of relaxation. In order to elicit the mechanism of this difference we performed western blot analysis and there were no differences in myosin isoform or troponin I phosphorylation level at Ser23/24. Our preliminary data suggest slower relaxation of myofibrils could be compensatory for the increased stiffness, to maintain ventricular relaxation kinetics. We are currently collecting data to characterize the contraction and relaxation parameters of intact cells.
Examining the Effectiveness of an Academic Language Planning Organizer as a Tool for Planning Science Academic Language Instruction and Supports

To engage in the practices of science, students must have a strong command of science academic language. However, content area teachers often make academic language an incidental part of their lesson planning, which leads to missed opportunities to enhance students’ language development. To support pre-service elementary science teachers (PSTs) in making language planning an explicit part of their science lessons, we created the Academic Language Planning Organizer (ALPO). The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the ALPO on two levels: first, by examining participants’ interactions with the ALPO as they identified academic language features, objectives and supports; and second, by exploring the ways that participants translated identified language supports to planned science activities. Findings indicated that, when using the ALPO, PSTs identified clear language functions and relevant vocabulary terms, and also frequently developed clear, observable and measurable language objectives. When lesson planning, PSTs were largely successful in translating previously identified language supports to their lesson plans, and often planned additional language supports beyond what was required. We also found, however, that the ALPO did not meet its intended use in supporting PSTs in identifying discourse and syntax demands associated with specific academic language functions, suggesting that revisions to the ALPO could better support PSTs in identifying these academic language demands. Implications for supporting PSTs’ planning for and scaffolding of science academic language use are presented.
The colony stimulating factors for the management of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia

Neutropenia jest bez wątpienia najciezszym i obarczonym najwiekszym ryzykiem powiklaniem chemioterapii. W polowie lat 60. XX wieku odkryto czynniki stymulujące wzrost kolonii (CSFs, colony stimulating factors ). Znalazly one zastosowanie w leczeniu nowotworow, przede wszystkim w celu przyspieszenia odnowy szpiku kostnego po chemioterapii, co skraca okres trwania ciezkiej neutropenii i redukuje ryzyko infekcji bakteryjnej i grzybiczej. Najbardziej przekonujące dowody na uzycie CSFs w leczeniu nowotworow dotyczą zastosowania tych preparatow w profilaktyce gorączki neutropenicznej po mielotoksycznej chemioterapii. Na początku chemioterapii przeciwnowotworowej, tak dobierano schematy dawek, aby pozwolic na odnowe szpiku kostnego przed kolejną dawką chemioterapii. Jednak, w przypadku zastosowania hematopoetycznych czynnikow wzrostu, mozliwa staje sie taka zmiana schematow leczenia, ze mozna zastosowac standardowe dawki cytostatykow w schematach przyspieszonych, na przyklad w okresach krotszych niz 3 tygodnie. Zastosowanie czynnikow stymulujących wzrost koloni w profilaktyce neutropenii wywolanej chemioterapią opiera sie na zrozumieniu fizjologicznych procesow regulujących produkcje i rozmieszczeniu granulocytow obojetnochlonnych w organizmie w warunkach prawidlowych i w odpowiedzi na infekcje. Dostepnośc CSFs wyraźnie poprawila leczenie pacjentow nowotworowych. Byc moze kolejne nowości dotyczące zastosowania tych preparatow, bedą prowadzic do dalszej poprawy leczenia przeciwnowotworowego w najblizszej przyszlości.
High sodium continuous veno-venous hemodialysis with regional citrate anticoagulation and online dialysate generation in patients with acute liver failure and cerebral edema.

Introduction: Acute liver failure is associated with a high mortality rate. Induction of plasma hypertonicity with mannitol or hypertonic saline remains the cornerstone in the management of resultant cerebral edema. Significant disadvantages of this approach include poor or unpredictable control of serum sodium concentration and volume expansion, among others. Methods: We used high sodium continuous veno-venous hemodialysis with regional citrate anticoagulation and online dialysate generation to accurately control the serum sodium in eleven patients with acute liver failure, renal failure, and cerebral edema. We used a Fresenius 2008 K/K2 machine in hemodialysis mode to deliver a blood flow of 60 ml/minute and dialysate flow of 400 ml/minute. Our previously published protocol results in complete removal of infused citrate by the dialyzer. On-line clearance calculations were used to model the time required to reach the target serum sodium. Findings: All patients achieved serum sodium within 2 mEq/L of target without fluctuations or rebound. Nine patients survived without requiring liver transplantation and two died despite reaching the prescribed serum sodium target. We did not encounter any citrate toxicity. Discussion: We describe a novel approach for delivering continuous osmotherapy to patients with acute liver failure, renal failure, and cerebral edema. In comparison to standard therapy, the described modality enables precise titration of serum sodium without undesirable fluctuations in extracellular fluid volume. A particular advantage is zero delivery of citrate to this vulnerable group of patients with acute liver failure.
Engaging students in roles of proof

Abstract de Villiers (1990) suggested five roles of proof important in the professional mathematics community that may also serve to meaningfully engage students in learning proof: verification, explanation, systematization, discovery, and communication. We investigate written reflections on an end-of-semester assignment from undergraduates in an inquiry-based transition to proof course, where students reflected on instances during the semester when they engaged in the five roles of proof. We present the types of activities students recalled as influential to their engagement in the roles of proof (presenting, discussing, conjecturing, working on problem sets, and critiquing) and describe how students perceived these activities as influential to their engagement in the roles of proof. We provide student quotations highlighting these activities and offer implications for both research and practice.
Progress in Myelodysplastic Syndromes: Clinicopathologic Correlations and Immune Checkpoints.

Abstract Background Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of clonal neoplasms characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis. Hypomethylating agent (HMA) therapy is one of the mainstays of MDS therapy. Failure of HMA therapy is related to poor outcome; hence, new therapeutic approaches are warranted in these patients. In MDS, the immune system has a pivotal role in modulation of hematopoiesis and clonal expansion. In neoplastic conditions, immune checkpoint (PD-1 and CTLA4 molecules) hide tumor cells from immune surveillance. Identification of the pattern of expression of these molecules in MDS provides an interesting alternative within clinical trials. Materials and Methods We describe the clinicopathologic correlations by morphology, immunohistochemistry (PD-L1) and flow cytometry immunophenotypic analysis in an MDS patient treated with immune checkpoint PD-1 inhibitor. Results Bone marrow (BM) morphology, differential counts and aberrant flow markers were assessed before and after anti PD-1 inhibitor therapy. At baseline, BM showed severe trilineage dysplasia with decreased granulopoiesis; after therapy, BM showed normal trilineage hematopoiesis. A decrease in PD-L1 expression, by manual and automatic analysis, was also noted from 15% to 5% after 26 months of treatment. The findings correlated with the recovery of peripheral blood counts and transfusion independency. Conclusion BM morphology and PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry can be used to assess treatment response in immune checkpoints therapy.
Abstract 21380: RBM39 is Vital for Maternal Obesity-Induced Fetal Sheep Cardiac Contractile Dysfunction by Regulating Myocardial Autophagy

Maternal obesity becomes pandemics in 21st century. Previous epidemiological studies on humans suggested that obesity during pregnancy could result in increased incidences of cardiovascular disease...
Effects of six weeks of electronic cigarette use on smoking rate, CO, cigarette dependence, and motivation to quit smoking: A pilot study.

Abstract Objectives Switching from combustible tobacco cigarettes to electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) may or may not help smokers to reduce cigarette consumption and toxicant exposure. This pilot study investigated the effects of asking smokers to switch to e-cigs for 6 weeks on smoking, exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) concentration, dependence, and motivation to quit smoking. Methods Non-treatment seeking daily smokers (n = 18) were given free e-cigs and instructed to use them instead of smoking cigarettes for 6 weeks. Smokers were assessed at baseline, weekly for 6 weeks, and at 8 and 10 weeks for cigarettes/day, e-cig use, CO, cigarette dependence, and Contemplation Ladder. Results All participants completed 6 weeks; 17 completed 10 weeks. At Week 6, cigarettes/day were reduced by two-thirds and CO by 45% from baseline (p's Conclusions Results show preliminary evidence for beneficial effects of short-term switching to e-cigs by non-treatment seeking smokers in terms of reduced smoke toxicant exposure and cigarette dependence, and increased motivation to quit, all maintained at least 4 weeks after free e-cigs were no longer provided.
Verifying Relative Error Bounds Using Symbolic Simulation

In this paper we consider the problem of formally verifying hardware that is specified to compute reciprocal, reciprocal square root, and power-of-two functions on floating point numbers to within a given relative error. Such specifications differ from the common case in which any given input is specified to have exactly one correct output. Our approach is based on symbolic simulation with binary decision diagrams, and involves two distinct steps. First, we prove a lemma that reduces the relative error specification to several inequalities that involve reasoning about natural numbers only. The most complex of these inequalities asserts that the product of several naturals is less-than/greater-than another natural. Second, we invoke one of several customized algorithms that decides the inequality, without performing the expensive symbolic multiplications directly. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a next-generation Intel® processor design and report encouraging time and space metrics for these proofs.
The Communicative Bases of Social Inequality

The experience of the last decade has shown that in spite of extensive legislation and positive efforts on the part of public agencies and industry, attempts to integrate minority groups into the economy and to encourage free and equal participation in public affairs have been far from successful. In most Western industrial societies ethnically or culturally distinct individuals are grossly overrepresented among the poorest and least educated sectors of the population. They tend to be the first to suffer from economic fluctuations and the last to be affected by welfare programs and measures designed to correct inequities in employment and access to public resources. Moreover, when minority groups do enter the public arena, their contributions and abilities are likely to go unrecognized, and their demands for recognition are misunderstood.
Economic impacts of avian influenza disease control strategies in the USA due to Texas outbreaks

We compared the economic consequences of imposing quarantine with and without adding vaccination in controlling avian influenza (AI) outbreaks. We evaluated the benefits using a partial equilibrium, US agricultural sector model and found that the strategies were not significantly different in their benefits if consumer demand was not reduced by concerns over the outbreak. However, we did find impacts differed when the outbreak was associated with a consumer demand reduction. Specifically, under a scenario where consumers reduced demand by 20%, the quarantine with vaccination strategy was found to dominate the quarantine only strategy. In contrast, we found the quarantine only strategy was relatively more cost-effective when there was no demand reduction.
Diagnostic Accuracy of Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology for Discrimination of Squamous Cell Carcinoma from Adenocarcinoma in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective To determine the accuracy with which morphology alone can distinguish adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in non-small cell lung cancer. Methods We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis. Three data bases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus) were searched for studies on the diagnostic accuracy of subtyping non-small cell lung cancer. Accuracy data was abstracted and synthesized using bivariate mixed effects logistic regression as implemented in the midas package in Stata 14. Heterogeneity was assessed using the Higgins I2. Results We included 17 studies (2,235 cases). Most studies had a low risk of bias. The pooled diagnostic accuracy for cytological diagnosis of adenocarcinoma resulted in a sensitivity of 63% (48-76%) and specificity of 95% (87-98%). The I2 values were 93 and 88% for sensitivity and specificity, respectively. The pooled diagnostic accuracy for the cytological diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma resulted in a sensitivity of 84% (79-88%) and a specificity of 90% (84-94%). The I2 values were 69 and 86% for sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Conclusion Accuracy varies widely by study and summary estimates do not provide a useful representation of accuracy. Squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed more accurately than adenocarcinoma.
Antibody immunity and natural resistance to cryptococcosis.

The encapsulated fungus Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) causes cryptococcal meningitis (CM). There are ~180,000 deaths per year worldwide attributed to CM, which is the most common cause of meningitis in adults with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV infection with advanced immunodeficiency is the most important predisposing risk factor for CM, highlighting the critical role that T cell mediated immunity plays in disease prevention. Numerous studies in the past decade demonstrate that antibody immunity also plays a role in resistance to CM, although its role has taken more time to establish. In mice, B cells reduce early dissemination from lungs to brain, and naive mouse IgM can enhance fungal containment in the lungs. In concert with these findings, human studies show that patients with CM have lower IgM memory B cell levels and/or different serological profiles than controls. In this article, we review recent data on the role that B cells and/or antibody-based immunity play in host defense against Cn and natural resistance to CM.
Mechanisms of gemcitabine oral absorption as determined by in situ intestinal perfusions in mice.

Abstract Gemcitabine is a widely used chemotherapeutic drug that is administered via intravenous infusion due to a low oral bioavailability of only 10%. This low oral bioavailability is believed to be the result of gemcitabine’s low intestinal permeability and oral absorption, followed by significant presystemic metabolism. In the present study, we sought to define the mechanisms of gemcitabine intestinal permeability, the potential for saturation of intestinal uptake, and the transporter(s) responsible for mediating the oral absorption of drug using in situ single-pass intestinal perfusions in mice. Concentration-dependent studies were performed for gemcitabine over 0.5–2000 μM, along with studies of 5 μM gemcitabine in a sodium-containing buffer ± thymidine (which can inhibit concentrative (i.e., CNT1 and CNT3) and equilibrative (i.e., ENT1 and ENT2) nucleoside transporters) or dilazep (which can inhibit ENT1 and ENT2), or in a sodium-free buffer (which can inhibit CNT1 and CNT3). Our findings demonstrated that gemcitabine was, in fact, a high-permeability drug in the intestine at low concentrations, that jejunal uptake of gemcitabine was saturable and mediated almost exclusively by nucleoside transporters, and that jejunal flux was mediated by both high-affinity, low-capacity (Km = 27.4 µM, Vmax = 3.6 pmol/cm2/s) and low-affinity, high-capacity (Km = 700 µM, Vmax = 35.9 pmol/cm2/s) transport systems. Thus, CNTs and ENTs at the apical membrane allow for gemcitabine uptake from the lumen to enterocyte, whereas ENTs at the basolateral membrane allow for gemcitabine efflux from the enterocyte to portal venous blood.
The effects of prosody on sentence comprehension: evidence from a neurotypical control group and seven cases of chronic stroke.

ABSTRACTBoth prosody and sentence structure (e.g., canonical versus non-canonical) affect sentence comprehension. However, few previous studies have examined a possible interaction between prosody ...
Supply Chain Awareness and NGO Effectiveness: An Attention-based View

There has been little investigation as to how supply chain management (SCM) relates to the effectiveness of non-profit organizations. In this study, we develop the concept of supply chain awareness...
Engineering functional inorganic nanobiomaterials: controlling interactions between 2D-nanosheets and enzymes

A better understanding of the enzyme-nanosheet interface is imperative for the design of functional, robust inorganic nanobiomaterials and biodevices, now more than ever, for use in a broad spectrum of applications. This feature article discusses recent advances in controlling the enzyme-nanosheet interface with regards to α-zirconium(IV) phosphate (α-ZrP), graphene oxide (GO), graphene, and MoS2 nanosheets. Specific focus will be placed on understanding the mechanisms with which these materials interact with enzymes and elaborate on particular ways to engineer and control these interactions. Our main discoveries include: (1) upon adsorption to the nanosheet surface, a decrease in the entropy of the enzyme's denatured state enhances stability; (2) proteins are used to create biophilic landing pads for increased enzyme stability on many different types of nanosheets; (3) proteins and enzymes are used as exfoliants by shear force to produce biofunctionalized nanosheet suspensions; and (4) bionfunctionalized nanosheets exhibit no acute toxicity. Recognizing proper methods to engineer the interface between enzymes and 2D-nanosheets, therefore, is an important step towards making green, sustainable, and environmentally conscious inorganic bionanomaterials for sensing, catalysis and drug delivery applications, as well as towards the successful manipulation of enzymes for advanced applications.
Adaptive Behavior: Tests and Assessment Issues.

Increased emphasis has been placed on including an evaluation of adaptive behavior in the assessment of children considered mildly mentally retarded. Reasons for this increased emphasis are reviewe...
Adding Financial Incentives to Online Group-Based Behavioral Weight Control: An RCT.

Introduction Internet-delivered behavioral weight control is promising for expanding the reach and availability of weight management, but online programs produce lower weight losses than typically achieved in person. Financial incentives have been shown to increase weight losses. This study examined whether adding financial incentives for self-monitoring and achieving target weight losses increases weight losses attained in a fully online, group-based behavioral weight management program compared with the same program alone. Study design This study was an RCT. Setting/participants Adults with overweight and obesity (n=418; 91% female; 28% minority) were recruited from 2 clinical centers. Intervention The intervention was a 24-session online group-based behavioral weight control program with weekly synchronous chat sessions (Internet-only) or the same program with weekly financial incentives for self-monitoring body weight and dietary intake daily and for achieving target weight losses at 2 and 6 months (Internet + incentives). Main outcome measures This study measured weight loss at 6 months and treatment engagement (attendance, self-monitoring of body weight, dietary intake, and physical activity). Data were collected between February 2016 and August 2018, and analyses were completed in 2019. Results Participants randomized to the Internet + incentives group lost more weight (−6.4 [SD=5.5] kg) than those in the Internet-only group (−4.7 [SD=6.6] kg; p Conclusions Adding financial incentives to a program delivered fully online increases weight losses compared with the program alone and can achieve weight losses comparable to in-person programs, offering potential for substantial geographic reach. Trial registration This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT02688621.
Frontiers in the Gilded Age: Adventure, Capitalism, and Dispossession from Southern Africa to the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, 1880–1917 (The Lamar Series in Western History): by Andrew Offenburger, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2019, xvi + 299 pp., Illustrations, maps, table, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, $45.00

Borderlands studies is an ever-expanding field that now includes global borders, social and economic transactions, on both land and sea. Even with this explosion of borderlands studies, nearly all ...
TLC: temporal logic of distributed components

Distributed systems are critical to reliable and scalable computing; however, they are complicated in nature and prone to bugs. To manage this complexity, network middleware has been traditionally built in layered stacks of components.We present a novel approach to compositional verification of distributed stacks to verify each component based on only the specification of lower components. We present TLC (Temporal Logic of Components), a novel temporal program logic that offers intuitive inference rules for verification of both safety and liveness properties of functional implementations of distributed components. To support compositional reasoning, we define a novel transformation on the assertion language that lowers the specification of a component to be used as a subcomponent. We prove the soundness of TLC and the lowering transformation with respect to a novel operational semantics for stacks of composed components in partially synchronous networks. We successfully apply TLC to compose and verify a stack of fundamental distributed components.
Improved Quantum Circuits via Intermediate Qutrits

Quantum computation is traditionally expressed in terms of quantum bits, or qubits. In this work, we instead consider three-level qutrits. Past work with qutrits has demonstrated only constant factor improvements, owing to the log2(3) binary-to-ternary compression factor. We present a novel technique, intermediate qutrits, to achieve sublinear depth decompositions of the Generalized Toffoli and other arithmetic circuits using no additional ancilla—a significant improvement over linear depth for the best qubit-only equivalents. For example, our Generalized Toffoli construction features a 70× improvement in two-qudit gate count over a qubit-only decomposition. This results in circuit cost reductions for important algorithms like quantum neurons, Grover search, and even Shor’s algorithm. Using a previously developed simulator with near-term noise models, we demonstrate for these models over 90% mean reliability (fidelity) for the Toffoli construction, versus under 30% for the qubit-only baseline. For our other constructions, such as the Incrementer, the A + B adder and the +K adder, we demonstrate the power of intermediate qutrits in producing asymptotic depth improvements with no additional ancilla. Together, these results suggest qutrits offer a promising path toward scaling quantum computation.
Tri-window compensator for loads with non-periodic current

Abstract This paper presents a new technique for the compensation of non-periodic load current. The method provides control references for three co-located devices, each corresponding to one moving calculation window and one decomposed part of the compensated current. They are slow compensator with high power rating, large calculation window, and low switching frequency; fast compensator with lower power rating, shorter calculation window, and higher switching frequency; and the reactive compensator which is an ordinary static VAR compensator (SVC). A fuzzy based adaptive window is proposed for the slow compensator to find the optimum window for different load characteristics. The technique is evaluated using real-world data and controller hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) implementation.
Constructing the Right to Vote

The right to vote is foundational to our democracy, but it lacks a strong foundation. Voting rights litigants are constantly on their heels, forever responding to state-imposed impediments. In this regard, the right to vote is decidedly reactive: directed and defined by those seeking to limit the right, rather than by those who advocate for it. As a consequence, the right to vote is both deeply fragile and largely impersonal. It is fragile because voters must reckon with flimsy electoral bureaucracies that are susceptible to meltdown from both intentional efforts to limit the franchise and systemic strain. The right to vote is impersonal because, with few exceptions, it is shaped through litigation, rather than comprehensive consideration of voters’ circumstances and needs. To address these weaknesses, this Article champions the idea that a robust right to vote must be constructed. Unlike most other rights, the right to vote relies on governments to build, fund, and administer elections systems. This obligation is not ancillary to the right to vote; it is foundational to it. Drawing from state constitutional law, electoral management theory, federalism scholarship, and rarely examined consent decrees, we argue that a constructed right to vote incorporates three essential features: electoral adequacy (including the right to adequate funding of elections, the right to competent management, and the right to democratic structures), voting rights legislation tailored to individuals’ experiences, and voting rights doctrines that require states to build their elections systems in rights-promoting ways.
A Quality Improvement Project to Improve Influenza Vaccination Rates Among Employees at an Onsite Employer-Based Health Clinic.

BackgroundIn the United States, millions of people contract the flu each year. Immunization has been shown to provide the best protection against the flu. Increasing flu vaccination rates can reduc...
Non-invasive monitoring of arthritis treatment response via targeting of tyrosine-phosphorylated annexin A2 in chondrocytes.

Background The development and optimization of therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is currently hindered by a lack of methods for early non-invasive monitoring of treatment response. Annexin A2, an inflammation-associated protein whose presence and phosphorylation levels are upregulated in RA, represents a potential molecular target for tracking RA treatment response. Methods LS301, a near-infrared dye-peptide conjugate that selectively targets tyrosine 23-phosphorylated annexin A2 (pANXA2), was evaluated for its utility in monitoring disease progression, remission, and early response to drug treatment in mouse models of RA by fluorescence imaging. The intraarticular distribution and localization of LS301 relative to pANXA2 was determined by histological and immunohistochemical methods. Results In mouse models of spontaneous and serum transfer-induced inflammatory arthritis, intravenously administered LS301 showed selective accumulation in regions of joint pathology including paws, ankles, and knees with positive correlation between fluorescent signal and disease severity by clinical scoring. Whole-body near-infrared imaging with LS301 allowed tracking of spontaneous disease remission and the therapeutic response after dexamethasone treatment. Histological analysis showed preferential accumulation of LS301 within the chondrocytes and articular cartilage in arthritic mice, and colocalization was observed between LS301 and pANXA2 in the joint tissue. Conclusions We demonstrate that fluorescence imaging with LS301 can be used to monitor the progression, remission, and early response to drug treatment in mouse models of RA. Given the ease of detecting LS301 with portable optical imaging devices, the agent may become a useful early treatment response reporter for arthritis diagnosis and drug evaluation.
Evaluation of Habitat Characteristics and the Appropriate Scale for Evaluating Diurnal Habitat Selection of Wintering American Woodcock in Louisiana

Migratory bird species pose serious management challenges because it is difficult to determine habitats utilized during their entire life cycles. As American woodcock populations have experienced long-term declines, wintering habitat management has become increasingly important. Past studies on woodcock have relied predominantly on Very High Frequency (VHF) telemetry, which require an observer to manually track them to gather location information. Our study employed both Global Positioning System (GPS) and VHF tags on woodcock to gather high resolution movement data in order to evaluate habitat use and compare VHF and GPS approaches to habitat sampling. We simulated a VHF approach to tracking the same individuals from the GPS tag data (spanning 252 bird-days) and utilized vegetation samples from our VHF tracked birds to evaluate use and random paired location sampling. We found that many random locations fell within the Minimum Convex Polygons (MCP) as defined via the GPS tags (average diurnal MCP size was 0.04 ha). Overall, our results suggest that evaluating resource selection by woodcock requires discerning the appropriate scale(s) of habitat selection via the identification of the spatial and temporal components underlying individual movement ecology.
Warmonger: Inflicting Denial-of-Service via Serverless Functions in the Cloud

We debut the Warmonger attack, a novel attack vector that can cause denial-of-service between a serverless computing platform and an external content server. The Warmonger attack exploits the fact that a serverless computing platform shares the same set of egress IPs among all serverless functions, which belong to different users, to access an external content server. As a result, a malicious user on this platform can purposefully misbehave and cause these egress IPs to be blocked by the content server, resulting in a platform-wide denial of service. To validate the Warmonger attack, we ran months-long experiments, collected and analyzed the egress IP usage pattern of four major serverless service providers (SSPs). We also conducted an in-depth evaluation of an attacker's possible moves to inflict an external server and cause IP-blockage. We demonstrate that some SSPs use surprisingly small numbers of egress IPs (as little as only four) and share them among their users, and that the serverless platform provides sufficient leverage for a malicious user to conduct well-known misbehaviors and cause IP-blockage. Our study unveiled a potential security threat on the emerging serverless computing platform, and shed light on potential mitigation approaches.
Aplikativna socialna geografija: upravljanje prostorskega planiranja in raziskovalne perspektive na področju "teorije prakse"

Why are there still problems concerning the management of spatial changes? Are spatial development projects really unique or are there typical patterns, which occur regularly? Is there a possibility to generalise such principles towards a 'theory of practice', which will be able to provide better management strategies for spatial development?
Ulrich Barnhoefer, Moon-Jung Kim, and Mattan Erez A Low Power, Passively Cooled 2000 cd/m 2 Hybrid LED-LCD Display

In this paper, we describe a hybrid LED-LCD screen that delivers the same image peak-brightness at 1/2 to 1/20th the power consumption per unit LCD screen area compared to conventional designs. Our architecture is based on an adaptive, spatially controlled LED backlight and a unique algorithm that decomposes the displayed image into LED and LCD components in order to minimize power consumption. In addition to the efficiency gained over current displays, our implementation is also suited for high dynamic range applications, achieving a peak brightness of 2000 cd/m2 with a 20,000:1 contrast ratio. We introduce, for the first time, implementation details of a spatially adaptive LED-LCD display and describe a novel thermal and electrical design. Our display is comprised of a standard FR4 PCB populated with an array of individually controlled high brightness LEDs, their associated control electronics mounted, and a LCD panel. The use of standard PCB (no metal core) is made possible by carefully designing efficient driver electronics (76% efficiency), introducing thermal channels to a large integrated heat sink implemented as part of the PCB, and employing power-reducing decomposition algorithms. Our prototype is completely passively air cooled, silent, and light
OPTIONS ON THE MINIMUM OR THE MAXIMUM OF TWO RISKY ASSETS Analysis and Applications

This paper provides analytical formulas for European put and call options on the minimum or the maximum of two risky assets. The properties of these formulas are discussed in detail. Options on the minimum or the maximum of two risky assets are useful to price a wide variety of contingent claims of interest to financial economists. Applications discussed in this paper include the valuation of foreign currency debt, option-bonds, compensation plans, risk-sharing contracts, secured debt and growth opportunities involving mutually exclusive investments.
Expansions in Statistical Mechanics as Part of the Theory of Partial Differential Equations

We study perturbations of gaussian processes using a partial differential equation in (infinitely) many variables which describes what infinitesimal change in the perturbation compensates an infinitesimal change in the covariance. We derive a series representation for the solution by iterating an integral equation form of the flow equation and show that the series is majorised for short times by a corresponding solution of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation when the initial data is bounded and analytic. The resulting series solutions are generalizations of the Mayer expansion in statistical mechanics. This approach gives a remarkable identity for “connected parts” and accurate estimates which include criteria for convergence of iterated Mayer expansions.
Distributed Robotic Radiation Mapping

We develop a control scheme to coordinate a group of mobile sensors for radiation mapping of a given planar polygon region. The scheme is based on the concept of information surfing, where navigation is done by following information gradients, taking into account sensing performance as well as dynamics of the observed process. The control scheme steers mobile sensors to locations at which they maximize the information content of their measurement data. The resulting controllers depend on both time, sensor measurements and local robot configurations, and the approach exploits the asymptotic properties of mutual information to offer an invariance-type stability result for a time-varying distributed cooperative system.
Pioglitazone attenuates hypertension and inhibits growth of renal arteriolar smooth muscle in rats

Hypertension is frequently associated with insulin resistance. We evaluated the effects of pioglitazone, an agent that increases insulin sensitivity, on the development of hypertension in the Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl-S) rat and in the one-kidney, one-clip Sprague-Dawley rat. We also evaluated the effects of pioglitazone on growth of cultured preglomerular renal arteriolar smooth muscle cells. In Dahl-S rats fed a 3% NaCl diet, tail systolic blood pressures and direct arterial pressures were lower (P < 0.05) in pioglitazone-treated (20 mg/kg daily by gavage for 3 wk) than in control rats (n = 10 rats/group). In one-kidney, one-clip Sprague-Dawley rats, systolic blood pressures were also lower in pioglitazone-treated animals (P < 0.0001). In vitro, proliferation of arteriolar smooth muscle cells was stimulated (P < 0.01) by insulin, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and fetal calf serum (FCS); pioglitazone (5 microM) reversibly inhibited (P < 0.01) insulin-, EGF-, and FCS-induced proliferation. Pioglitazone (0.01-100 microM) also inhibited insulin- (1 mU/ml), EGF- (100 ng/ml), and 5% FCS-induced [3H]thymidine incorporation in a concentration-dependent manner (P < 0.01). Thus pioglitazone attenuated the development of hypertension in the Dahl-S rat and the one-kidney, one-clip rat. The ability of pioglitazone to inhibit growth of vascular smooth muscle may contribute to its hypotensive effect.
Cannabis Indica in 19th-Century Psychiatry

The author presents a stuck of the history and usage of cannabis indicus (the 19th-century pharmacological term referring to the plant we today call cannabis sativa indica). His review of the drug's physiological and psychological effects reveals that most of the effects reported in the 1960s were known to writers of the 19th century, when the drug was alternately considered a cure for and a cause of insanity.