cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Biofilm formation is not required for early-phase transmission of Yersinia pestis

Early-phase transmission (EPT) is a recently described model of plague transmission that explains the rapid spread of disease from flea to mammal host during an epizootic. Unlike the traditional blockage-dependent model of plague transmission, EPT can occur when a flea takes its first blood meal after initially becoming infected by feeding on a bacteraemic host. Blockage of the flea gut results from biofilm formation in the proventriculus, mediated by the gene products found in the haemin storage (hms) locus of the Yersinia pestis chromosome. Although biofilms are required for blockage-dependent transmission, the role of biofilms in EPT has yet to be determined. An artificial feeding system was used to feed Xenopsylla cheopis and Oropsylla montana rat blood spiked with the parental Y. pestis strain KIM5(pCD1)+, two different biofilm-deficient mutants (ΔhmsT, ΔhmsR), or a biofilm-overproducer mutant (ΔhmsP). Infected fleas were then allowed to feed on naive Swiss Webster mice for 1–4 days after infection, and the mice were monitored for signs of infection. We also determined the bacterial loads of each flea that fed upon naive mice. Biofilm-defective mutants transmitted from X. cheopis and O. montana as efficiently as the parent strain, whereas the EPT efficiency of fleas fed the biofilm-overproducing strain was significantly less than that of fleas fed either the parent or a biofilm-deficient strain. Fleas infected with a biofilm-deficient strain harboured lower bacterial loads 4 days post-infection than fleas infected with the parent strain. Thus, defects in biofilm formation did not prevent flea-borne transmission of Y. pestis in our EPT model, although biofilm overproduction inhibited efficient EPT. Our results also indicate, however, that biofilms may play a role in infection persistence in the flea.
M-type potassium channels modulate Schaffer collateral-CA1 glutamatergic synaptic transmission

Previous studies have suggested that muscarinic receptor activation modulates glutamatergic transmission. M-type potassium channels mediate the effects of muscarinic activation in the hippocampus, and it has been proposed that they modulate glutamatergic synaptic transmission. We tested whether M1 muscarinic receptor activation enhances glutamatergic synaptic transmission via the inhibition of the M-type potassium channels that are present in Schaffer collateral axons and terminals. Miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) were recorded from CA1 pyramidal neurons. The M1 receptor agonist, NcN-A-343, increased the frequency of mEPSCs, but did not alter their amplitude. The M-channel blocker XE991 and its analogue linopirdine also increased the frequency of mEPSCs. Flupirtine, which opens M-channels, had the opposite effect. XE991 did not enhance mEPSCs frequency in a calcium-free external medium. Blocking P/Q- and N-type calcium channels abolished the effect of XE991 on mEPSCs. These data suggested that the inhibition of M-channels increases presynaptic calcium-dependent glutamate release in CA1 pyramidal neurons. The effects of these agents on the membrane potentials of presynaptic CA3 pyramidal neurons were studied using current clamp recordings; activation of M1 receptors and blocking M-channels depolarized neurons and increased burst firing. The input resistance of CA3 neurons was increased by the application of McN-A-343 and XE991; these effects were consistent with the closure of M-channels. Muscarinic activation inhibits M-channels in CA3 pyramidal neurons and its efferents – Schaffer collateral, which causes the depolarization, activates voltage-gated calcium channels, and ultimately elevates the intracellular calcium concentration to increase the release of glutamate on CA1 pyramidal neurons.
The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City

The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City Ara Wilson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004)
Informative cluster sizes for subcluster-level covariates and weighted generalized estimating equations.

Williamson et al. (2003)’s cluster-weighted generalized estimating equations (CWGEE) are effective at adjusting for bias due to informative cluster sizes for cluster-level covariates. We show that CWGEE may not perform well, however, for covariates that can take different values within a cluster if the numbers of observations at each covariate level are informative. On the other hand, inverse probability of treatment weighting accounts for informative treatment propensity but not for informative cluster size. Motivated by evaluating the effect of a binary exposure in presence of such types of informativeness, we propose several weighted generalized estimating equation estimators, with weights related to the size of a cluster as well as the distribution of the binary exposure within the cluster. Choice of the weights depends on the population of interest and the nature of the exposure. Through simulation studies, we demonstrate the superior performance of the new estimators compared to existing estimators such as from GEE, CWGEE, and inverse probability of treatment weighted GEE. We demonstrate the use of our method using an example examining covariate effects on the risk of dental caries among small children.
Exploiting Idle Communication Power to Improve Wireless Network Performance and Energy Efficiency

As a family of wireless local area network (WLAN) protocols between physical layer and higher-layer protocols, IEEE 802.11 has to accommodate the features and requirements of both ends. However, current practice has addressed the problems separately and is far from being satisfactory. On one end, due to varying channel conditions, WLANs have to provide multiple data channel rates to support various signal qualities. A low channel rate station not only suffers low throughput, but also significantly degrades the throughput of other stations. On the other end, TCP is not energy efficient running on 802.11. In a TCP session, a wireless network interface (WNI) has to stay awake to generate timely acknowledgments, and hence, the energy is wasted by channel listening during idle awake time. In this paper, considering the needs of both ends, we utilize the idle communication power of the WNI to improve the throughput and energy efficiency of stations in WLANs with multiple channel rates. We characterize the energy efficiency as energy per bit, instead of energy per second. Based on modeling and analysis, we propose a data forwarding mechanism and an energy-aware channel allocation mechanism. In such a system, a high channel rate station relays data frames between its neighboring stations with low channel rates and the Access Point, improving their throughput and energy efficiency. Different from traditional relaying approaches, our scheme compensates for the energy consumption for data forwarding. The forwarding station obtains additional channel access time from its beneficiaries, leading to the increase of its own throughput without compromising its energy efficiency. We implement a prototype of our proposed system and evaluate it through extensive experiments. Our results show significant performance improvements for both low and high channel rate stations.
A simple frequency rate estimator

Frequency-rate estimation of a linearly frequency modulated signal is addressed. A simple estimation procedure that yields accurate estimates for moderately high signal-to-noise ratios is proposed. By transforming the original sequence into a sequence that is the phase data differenced twice, the problem becomes equivalent to estimating a constant in colored noise. Computer simulations verify the expected performance and show that the estimator achieves the Cramer-Rao bound for signal-to-noise ratios above 8 dB. >
Reverse translation of phase I biomarker findings links the activity of angiotensin-(1-7) to repression of hypoxia inducible factor-1α in vascular sarcomas.

In a phase I study of angiotensin-(1–7) [Ang-(1–7)], clinical benefit was associated with reduction in plasma placental growth factor (PlGF) concentrations. The current study examines Ang-(1–7) induced changes in biomarkers according to cancer type and investigates mechanisms of action engaged in vitro. Plasma biomarkers were measured prior to Ang-(1–7) administration as well as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 hours after treatment. Tests for interaction were performed to determine the impact of cancer type on angiogenic hormone levels. If a positive interaction was detected, treatment-induced biomarker changes for individual cancer types were assessed. To investigate mechanisms of action, in vitro growth assays were performed using a murine endothelioma cell line (EOMA). PCR arrays were performed to identify and statistically validate genes that were altered by Ang-(1–7) treatment in these cells. Tests for interaction controlled for dose cohort and clinical response indicated a significant impact of cancer type on post-treatment VEGF and PlGF levels. Following treatment, PlGF levels decreased over time in patients with sarcoma (P = .007). Treatment of EOMA cells with increasing doses of Ang-(1–7) led to significant growth suppression at doses as low as 100 nM. PCR arrays identified 18 genes that appeared to have altered expression after Ang-(1–7) treatment. Replicate analyses confirmed significant changes in 8 genes including reduction in PlGF (P = .04) and hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) expression (P < .001). Ang-(1–7) has clinical and pre-clinical activity for vascular sarcomas that is linked to reduced HIF-1α and PlGF expression.
Some Observations on Copula Regression Functions

The main objective of this article is to introduce an alternative way of looking at regression analysis by using copulas. To achieve our objective we work on copula regression function, study its properties, and discuss advantages that will come out from our approach.
Synthesis of Copoly(amino acids) as Potential Biomaterials by Diphenyl Phosphoryl Azide

A convenient chemical synthesis of copoly(amino acids) as poten tial biomaterials is described. Direct copolycondensations of α-amino acids us ing diphenyl phosphoryl azide (DPPA) as condensation agent were carried out in the presence of triethylamine (TEA) as a base. The amino acids used were β-benzyl-L-aspartate (Asp.Bz), γ-benzyl-L-glutamate (Glu.Bz), L-phenylalanine (Phe), and O-benzyl-L-tyrosine (Tyr.OBz). Copoly(amino acids) with weight- average molecular weights up to 28,000 were obtained in reasonable yields. Bimodal molecular weight distribution was observed in all the cases. Both the overall yield of the product and the yield of high molecular weight fraction are influenced by [DPPA]/[Monomer] and [TEA]/[Monomer] ratios. No significant solvent effect was observed.
Volume Collapse in Solids

Isostructural phase transitions have been observed in several rare earth compounds, and we recently studied a model(l) exhibiting such a transition as the force λ per surface atom was varied. The Hamiltonian (appropriate to a constant λ ensemble) was $$ H = \Sigma _i \frac{{Pi^2 }} {{2m}} + \Sigma _{ } \{ \frac{1} {2}kx_{ij}^2 + (\Delta + \gamma x_{ij} )(n_i + n_j ) + \lambda x_{ij} \} {\text{ }} $$ (1) The second sum is over nearest-neighbor bonds on a simple cubic lattice, nj is either 0 or l (corresponding, e.g. to f6 and f5d states of a Sm++ ion in SmS). xij is the projection of the difference of the displacements of atoms i and j on the unit vector from the equilibrium positions j to i at λ = T = 0. As discussed in. Ref. l, H incorporates the physical effect of the change in ionic size when the electronic state is changed.
Comparative Review of Fascicularis-group Species of Macaques (primates: Macaca)

Abstract The fascicularis group of macaques comprises four species: Macaca fascicularis, M. mulatta, M. cyclopis, and M. fuscata. The geographic ranges of M. fascicularis and M. mulatta are parapatric or marginally sympatric, with the former species widely distributed in insular and peninsular Southeast Asia and the latter species widely distributed in southern Asia; M. cyclopis is restricted to Taiwan, and M. fuscata is restricted to the Japanese archipelago. The four species in this group are compared with respect to pelage, external measurements and proportions, cranial characters, caudal vertebrae, molecular biology and genetics, natural history, and reproductive anatomy and behavior. In these species, head and body length and skull length generally increase with latitude, and tail length generally decreases with latitude; in shorter-tailed species, the number and length of caudal vertebrae is progressively reduced. Morphology of the glans penis in fascicularis-group species is uniquely derived among ...
Near-field imaging of small perturbed obstacles for elastic waves

Consider an elastically rigid obstacle which is buried in a homogeneous and isotropic elastic background medium. The obstacle is illuminated by an arbitrary time-harmonic elastic incident wave. This work is concerned with an inverse obstacle scattering problem for elastic waves, which is to reconstruct the obstacle's surface from the displacement field measured at a circle surrounding it. The surface of the obstacle is assumed to be a small and smooth perturbation of a disk. Based on the Helmholtz decomposition, the displacement field is split into its compressional and shear parts. A coupled system of boundary value problems is derived for the decomposed scalar potentials by using the transparent boundary conditions. Utilizing the transformed field expansion method, we reduce the coupled system into to a successive sequence of one-dimensional two-point boundary value problems which are solved in closed forms. The inverse problem is linearized by dropping high order terms in the power series expansion and an explicit reconstruction formula is obtained. Moreover, a simple nonlinear correction algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy of the reconstructions. Ample numerical examples show that, using this method, it is possible to reconstruct the surface with subwavelength resolution.
Hearing the noise the challenges of human genome variation in genetic testing.

The completion of the Human Genome Project was a landmark achievement that revealed the reference deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence for our own genome. Almost immediately, it became clear that there was no single “reference” DNA sequence, as even the approximately one-half dozen human DNA
El impacto de la crisis, estabilización y ajuste estructural sobre las mujeres en Lima, Perú

Economic adjustment and stabilization policies have been implemented in several Latin America countries struck by high inflation and debt crises. Recent literature on development has suggested that the negative effects on the poor in these countries, particularly poor women. However, these are not empirical studies available and the link between the crisis and the female sex is not always obvious. This study attempts to contribute to the literature in this field by analyzing the situation of women in Lima. The conclusions indicate that the economic crisis is undoubtedly severe for everyone, but particularly so for the women of Lima, Peru.
The Law of the Word: Dictionary Shopping in the Supreme Court

This article undertakes a critical evaluation of the Supreme Court's use of dictionaries. It does so by describing and applying principles of lexicography to show that dictionaries are not as authoritative, precise, or scholarly as we and the Justices often assume. Modern lexicographers see their task as describing how speakers of English use words. They do not seek or claim to prescribe how language should be used. Although modern dictionaries rely in part on other dictionaries' definition, they also develop an ongoing citation file, a collection of potential entries based on a variety of sources. Because of the constant change and growth of language, however, dictionaries are inevitably out of date by the time they are published. Moreover, definitions, which are abstracted from the survey of usages, are subject to stringent constraints on length. Technical vocabulary poses a particular challenge. Legal dictionaries, while they try to fill the gap in general dictionaries regarding specialized use of common terms, have their own limits. Black's Law Dictionary, for example has used judicial opinions as its primary citation source. The article applies such insights from lexicography to the Supreme Court's use of dictionaries in a number of cases, including Chisom v. Romer, National Organization for Women. v. Scheidler, MCI Telecommunications v. American Telephone and Telegraph, and Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities.
Use of Microwaves for Nondestructive Material Inspection

Wideband S-parameter measurements have been used to investigate the properties of electrically non-conductive materials using a vector network analyzer. Using S{sub 21} scattering parameters, amplitude and phase shift measurements were taken for a variety of both homogeneous and heterogeneous materials. With these initial S-parameter measurements as a reference, surface defects were modeled on the test samples and the S-parameter measurements were reevaluated. The effect of varying levels of moisture absorption in certain materials was also investigated. The results of this study indicate that there is indeed potential for the use of a vector network analyzer as a nondestructive testing tool to evaluate the structural integrity and/or moisture content of electrically non-conductive materials through the transmission of microwave energy.
205 IMMERSIVE HIGH-FIDELITY SIMULATOR-BASED TEACHING FOR ANESTHESIOLOGY NURSING STUDENTS RESULTS IN STEADY PERFORMANCE PATTERNS IN TRAINEES.

Purpose The purpose of this project was to develop an immersive high-fidelity simulator-based, context-specific course for training anesthesia nursing students to effectively function in the stressful operating room (OR) environment. Methods Teaching sessions occurred in a fully equipped virtual OR. We used a student-focused high-fidelity simulator-based method of teaching based on the principles of adult learning. The following interactive scenarios comprised the course: simple intravenous induction into anesthesia, thermal injury with smoke inhalation, multiple trauma with tension pneumothorax and internal bleeding, intraoperative wheezing due to bronchial asthma exacerbation, intraoperative anaphylactic reaction, malignant hypothermia, and intraoperative septic shock. Students9 critical thinking and clinical interventions determined the outcomes of the cases. To produce steady changes in clinical behaviors, we exposed the students to each case multiple times slightly modifying the patients9 profiles. The students perceived each case as a new one. We assessed performance by direct observation and filling out case-specific assessment forms. The students worked on cases in random order as many times as was needed to develop steady clinical behavioral patterns that reflected best clinical practices. We followed each session with a guided debriefing during which the students reflected on their performances. Results As the course progressed, we observed several phenomena in students9 behavior: developing of suspension of disbelief during the sessions, more objective assessment of personal skills and knowledge, more effective management of the OR stress, more efficient disintegrating complex problems into the smaller components, more effective prioritizing of objectives in a dynamically changing environment, shifting from external to internal gratification, internalization of clinical concepts and demonstrating steady behavioral patterns resulting in the successful outcomes of simulated cases. Conclusion Multiple exposures to the authentic dynamic and highly interactive simulation cases in the immersive environment result in steady improvement of clinical behaviors. Our future plans include expanding the variety of cases and developing the instruments to objectively measure clinical performances.
"Tell It Like It Really Is": A Case of Online Content Creation and Sharing Among Older Adult Bloggers

While the majority of older adults are now active online, they are often perceived as passive consumers of online information rather than active creators of content. As a counter to this view, we examine the practices of older adult bloggers (N=20) through in-depth interviews. We study this group of older adults as a unique case of content creation and sharing. We find that the practice of creating and sharing through blogging meets several important psychological and social needs for older adults. Specifically, blogging supports the development of identity in older adulthood; fosters self-expression that supports older adults' values; provides meaningful engagement during retirement; and enables a sense of community and social interaction that is important for wellbeing in late-life. We argue for a focus on designing for late-life development and detail opportunities for online systems to better support the dynamic experience of growing older through online content creation and sharing.
Building robust neighborhoods for manifold learning-based image classification and anomaly detection

We exploit manifold learning algorithms to perform image classification and anomaly detection in complex scenes involving hyperspectral land cover and broadband IR maritime data. The results of standard manifold learning techniques are improved by including spatial information. This is accomplished by creating super-pixels which are robust to affine transformations inherent in natural scenes. We utilize techniques from harmonic analysis and image processing, namely, rotation, skew, flip, and shift operators to develop a more representational graph structure which defines the data-dependent manifold.
Serum lymphocytotoxic and lymphocytophilic antibody activity in inflammatory bowel disease.

Lymphocytotoxic activity was detected in 10 of 58 sera from patients with Crohn’s disease and in 2 of 18 sera obtained from subjects with chronic ulcerative colitis. These lymphocytotoxic sera showed no clearcut HL-A specificity and were considerably more cytotoxic for normal lymphocytes than for those obtained from Crohn’s disease or chronic ulcerative colitis. No apparent relationship could be established between the presence of lymphocytotoxic activity in individual sera and the proportions or absolute numbers of peripheral blood T or B lymphocytes, or in the clinical activity of disease. Three sera from patients with Crohn’s disease showed striking lymphocytophilic activity increasing 2- to 7-fold the proportions of normal peripheral blood lymphocytes bearing surface Ig when incubated in their presence.
‘Ourika mania’: interrogating race, class, space, and place in early nineteenth-century France

The Duchess de Duras heard about a little black girl who had, in 1788, been purchased as a house pet by the Governor of Senegal and given to his uncle, Monsieur de Beauvau. In 1820, the Duchess beg...
The Influence of Friedrich von Wieser on Joseph A. Schumpeter

Within the last year I have been privileged to work on the careers and contributions of Friedrich von Wieser and Joseph A. Schumpeter. I have worked with W. E. Kuhn, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to secure his translation (and forthcoming publication) of Wieser’s Das Gesetz der Macht (The Law of Power), for which I have written an introduction. In addition, I have written a critique of Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, given as two lectures in March 1982 at the University of Notre Dame in a series devoted to a reconsideration of the book on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary.
649 Injury information seeking for a national sample of mothers with young children

Background News coverage of injury research appears to be a useful way to disseminate critical paediatric injury information and recommendations. Yet, little is known about how and whether or not parents access news articles and understand them. Methods Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of n = 1,081 mothers of children Results The majority of participants preferred to use the Internet as the first choice for injury information although this varied by topic; 64% bicycle helmets, 63% car safety seats, and 48% poison prevention. When compared to mothers with more than a high school education, those with high school or less were less likely to list Internet and more likely to list health care providers, or friends/family as their first choice for information about bicycle helmets (p = 0.007), car sears (p = 0.012), and poison prevention (p Conclusions Findings suggest that the Internet may be an effective way to disseminate messages, including news stories, about injury prevention. While it is clear that many mothers have the potential to access injury prevention messages that are covered by the news media or are available through various internet sources, we need to learn more about attention to messages, as well as the ability to understand messages they may read, view, or hear. Future research should focus on media effects to study the link between exposure to news media and injury outcomes, and to expand the work to all caregivers (not just mothers).
Mission-period settlement structure: A test of the model at san martín de Timucua

Beginning in 1968, the Florida Division of Historical Resources sponsored several small-scale testing programs of Spanish mission sites in northern Florida. A formal model of Mission-period settlement structure emerged from those excavations. However, more recent excavations involving large block exposures at a few mission compounds have shown settlement structure to be more complex, and less regular, than modeled. Such is the case at San Martin de Timucua. Recent excavations there have demonstrated that the imposition of the preexisting model on results from previous limited excavations has resulted in misinterpretations of structure architecture and function as well as site layout. These results demonstrate that long-term commitments to extensive excavations will be necessary to understand intrasite settlement patterns in Florida missions.
Exploring the Ensemble of Classifiers for Sentimental Analysis: A Systematic Literature Review

Text classification is a well-known machine learning approach to simplify the domain-specific investigation. Therefore, it is commonly utilized in the field of sentimental analysis to achieve the particular business goals. Different ensemble approaches are frequently introduced to unify the desired classifiers for the improvement of sentimental classification. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study is available yet that investigate and summarize the leading ensemble approaches, classifiers, features, tools and datasets altogether in the domain of sentimental analysis. Therefore, in this paper, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is performed to identify 31 studies published during 2008--2016. Subsequently, 14 modern ensemble techniques, 26 leading classifiers, 15 benchmark datasets, 19 prominent features and 8 tools are presented in the context of sentimental analysis. This investigation certainly benefits the scholars and industrial experts of the domain while deciding the right choices according to the given requirements.
Disentangling High Fat, Low Carb, and Healthy Aging

Dietary interventions are simple, non-invasive tools that can be utilized to improve health and lifespan. In this issue, Roberts et al. (2017) and Newman et al. (2017) reveal the physiological benefits of feeding mice ketogenic diets and suggest different underlying mechanisms that may promote healthy aging.
Contact Reduces Immigration-Related Fears for Leftist but Not for Rightist Voters:

How does contact with nonnatives affect immigration-related fears? While there is strong general support for the argument that intergroup contact decreases intergroup prejudice and fear, previous research arrives at mixed conclusions when applying this argument to the study of natives’ attitudes toward immigrants. We propose that people’s preexisting partisan affinities condition the effect of contact, which may explain the mixed findings. Building on the literature on motivated reasoning, we argue that contact reduces immigration-related threats among leftist voters, but have a threat-increasing or no effect among rightist voters. We find support for our argument using original surveys conducted in two very different contexts: the United States and Germany.
The Architecture of Ethnographic Knowledge: Narrowing Down Data and Contexts in Search of Sociological Cases:

Building ethnographic knowledge is a tacit epistemic process involving two steps: narrowing down the framework through which ethnographers hold constant empirical units as social relationships of t...
Nonthermal ice nucleation observed at distorted contact lines of supercooled water drops.

Ice nucleation is the crucial step for ice formation in atmospheric clouds and therefore underlies climatologically relevant precipitation and radiative properties. Progress has been made in understanding the roles of temperature, supersaturation, and material properties, but an explanation for the efficient ice nucleation occurring when a particle contacts a supercooled water drop has been elusive for over half a century. Here, we explore ice nucleation initiated at constant temperature and observe that mechanical agitation induces freezing of supercooled water drops at distorted contact lines. Results show that symmetric motion of supercooled water on a vertically oscillating substrate does not freeze, no matter how we agitate it. However, when the moving contact line is distorted with the help of trace amounts of oil or inhomogeneous pinning on the substrate, freezing can occur at temperatures much higher than in a static droplet, equivalent to $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{10}$ increase in nucleation rate. Several possible mechanisms are proposed to explain the observations. One plausible explanation among them, decreased pressure due to interface curvature, is explored theoretically and compared with the observational results quasiquantitatively. Indeed, the observed freezing-temperature increase scales with contact line speed in a manner consistent with the pressure hypothesis. Whatever the mechanism, the experiments demonstrate a strong preference for ice nucleation at three-phase contact lines compared to the two-phase interface, and they also show that movement and distortion of the contact line are necessary contributions to stimulating the nucleation process.
The ‘Bayesics’ of Ranked Set Sampling

Ranked set sampling can be useful when measurements are expensive but units from the popu- lation can be easily ranked. In this situation one may draw k units from the population, rank them, select one on which to make the expensive measurement, draw another k units, rank them, select one, and so on. The method was originally suggested by McIntyre (1952) in connection with pasture yields and is obviously applicable in other situations as well. Dell and Clutter (1972) and Patil et al. (1994) explain the basics from a classical point of view. Our aim is to examine the procedure from a Bayesian point of view, determine whether ranked set sampling provides advantages over simple random sampling and explore some optimality questions
Spin lattices of walking droplets

This paper is associated with a video winner of a 2017 APS/DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion Award for work presented at the DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion. The original video is available from the Gallery of Fluid Motion, https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2017.GFM.V0018
Rising Inequality and Shifting Class Boundaries in South Korea in the Neo-Liberal Era

Having maintained a relatively equitable pattern of income distribution throughout the period of rapid economic development, South Korea has experienced a drastic increase of inequality over the pa...
Virtual Memory Structures Facilitating Memory BIST Insertion In Complex SoCs

In the emerging era of large scale SoCs comprised from complex IPs, typically designed for AI and Automotive applications, it is essential to embrace an innovative approach to overcome DFT challenges. One of these challenges is to provide a fast time to market solution. This solution must be generic, scalable, robust and Functional Safety (FuSa) aware. To accomplish this challenge, a generic Virtual Memory Wrapper (VMW) and a Virtual Memory Container (VMC) are introduced. These structures provide highly parametrized and scalable design, accompanied by a push-button memory BIST insertion flow. This innovative approach allows full decoupling between Functional & Test design aspects of a complex SoC.
PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES IN LATE-LIFE DEPRESSION AND MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

Introduction Previous research has shown links between depression, personality factors, and cognitive decline. For example, Alzheimer's patients show higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion as compared to cognitively normal older adults as stated in a meta-analysis conducted by D'lorio et al. (2018). Elsewhere, one study found older adults who transitioned from cognitively normal aging to mild cognitive impairment experienced an increase in neuroticism and depression as well as a decrease in openness (Caselli et al., 2018). The current study examined personality differences between older adults with major depression and non-depressed cognitively normal controls and depressed patients with and without mild cognitive impairment. Based off of prior work using a different sample, we hypothesized higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion between patients and controls. We further hypothesized that patients with memory impairment (amnestic MCI) would exhibit decreased conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, and agreeableness and increased neuroticism compared to patients without memory impairment, a pattern of performance similar to AD patients. Methods Data from the Neurobiology of Late-Life Depression (NBOLD) study were used. Individuals were either depressed patients or never-depressed controls. We further divided patients and controls into cognitively normal or mild cognitive impairment groups using psychometric criteria from Bondi and Jak (ref). Personality, depression, and cognition were assessed using the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) cognitive battery, respectively. A t-test for independent samples and a general linear modeling via MANOVA with covariates were conducted to examine group differences between patients and controls as well as between patients with amnestic MCI and without amnestic MCI. Results Patients (N=117) showed higher levels of neuroticism (F=90.33, p= Conclusions There are statistically significant personality differences in neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness between patients and controls, indicating an interaction between depression and personality factors. Older adults with depression and memory impairment reported less sociability and less openness to new experiences compared to older adults with depression and no memory impairment. Future studies should examine whether early changes in personality are a marker of cognitive decline in older adults with major depression. This research was funded by: This research was supported by The Leo and Anne Albert Charitable Trust and NIMH Grant R01 MH108578. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Health Career Opportunity Programs, Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative.
Chapter 3 – Communications Strategies

When managing a large-scale genomics research project, effective communication is vital. A well thought-out communications plan to strategically disseminate relevant information to stakeholders is the surest way to achieve communications goals. A detailed communications plan can ensure a coherent, unified message from all collaborators and helps shape public opinion and discussions about the project. This involves identifying the audience(s), determining messages to convey to them, and choosing tactics used to communicate the messages. An eight-step method for communicating messages is presented in this chapter: 1. Audiences: Who are the audiences and stakeholders? 2. Challenges: What are their concerns? 3. Consideration: Are the audience’s concerns valid? 4. Messaging: What should be said in response? 5. Tactics: What is the best way to reach the audience? 6. Priority: Which audiences and messages are most important? 7. Tactic Evaluation: Were the communications messages received? 8. Strategy Evaluation: Are the tactics working?
Ask Again: Including Gender Identity in Longitudinal Studies of Aging

Information on transgender people’s health, and especially their experiences of aging, is lacking, including from major longitudinal studies of aging like the Health and Retirement Study and its sister studies in the Gateway to Global Aging Data project. This paper surveys the state of gender data collection among major longitudinal studies and finds that all but one fail to collect adequate information on participants’ gender to determine participants’ gender identities. It identifies the unique challenges that population-wide longitudinal data collection poses to current best practices for identifying transgender survey participants and proposes a modified “two-question model”: one question for sex assigned at birth and a second for gender identity, both of which offer 3 responses.
Emotion prediction errors guide socially adaptive behaviour.

People make decisions based on deviations from expected outcomes, known as prediction errors. Past work has focused on reward prediction errors, largely ignoring violations of expected emotional experiences—emotion prediction errors. We leverage a method to measure real-time fluctuations in emotion as people decide to punish or forgive others. Across four studies (N = 1,016), we reveal that emotion and reward prediction errors have distinguishable contributions to choice, such that emotion prediction errors exert the strongest impact during decision-making. We additionally find that a choice to punish or forgive can be decoded in less than a second from an evolving emotional response, suggesting that emotions swiftly influence choice. Finally, individuals reporting significant levels of depression exhibit selective impairments in using emotion—but not reward—prediction errors. Evidence for emotion prediction errors potently guiding social behaviours challenge standard decision-making models that have focused solely on reward. Heffner et al. show that violations of emotion expectations—emotion prediction errors—motivate social choice, such as punishing norm transgressors. Emotion prediction errors often outperformed reward prediction errors in predicting choice and were selectively impaired in those at risk of depression.
CATAN: Chart-aware temporal attention network for adverse outcome prediction

There is an increased adoption of electronic health record systems by a variety of hospitals and medical centers. This provides an opportunity to leverage automated computer systems in assisting healthcare workers. One of the least utilized but rich source of patient information is the unstructured clinical text. In this work, we develop CATAN, a chart-aware temporal attention network for learning patient representations from clinical notes. We introduce a novel representation where each note is considered a single unit, like a sentence, and composed of attention-weighted words. The notes in turn are aggregated into a patient representation using a second weighting unit, note attention. Unlike standard attention computations which focus only on the content of the note, we incorporate the chart-time for each note as a constraint for attention calculation. This allows our model to focus on notes closer to the prediction time. Using the MIMIC-III dataset, we empirically show that our patient representation and attention calculation achieves the best performance in comparison with various state-of-the-art baselines for one-year mortality prediction and 30-day hospital readmission. Moreover, the attention weights can be used to offer transparency into our model’s predictions.
Safe-Zone Schools and Children with Undocumented Parents

Growing concerns about the mental health and educational implications of intensified interior immigration enforcement on children in mixed-status households have led many school districts across the country to adopt “safe-zone” policies aimed at supporting their students’ well-being and academic progression. Using preliminary data from a binational survey conducted on US-born children in mixed-status households who have experienced or are at risk of parental deportation, we exploit the geographic variation in the adoption of safe-zone policies to assess if, and how, the policies might shield students from the negative impacts of intensified interior immigration enforcement. We find that heightened immigration enforcement has a detrimental impact on children’s educational performance, whereas safe zones help mitigate such effects. Overall, the results advance our understanding of the costs that immigration policies impose on migrants and US citizens alike, as well as the benefits of local sanctuary policies.
Comparison of the Neuromuscular Effects of SZ1676, SZ1677 and Vecuronium in Beagle Dogs

The neuromuscular (NM) effects of SZ1676 1-[3α,17s-bis(acetyloxy)-2s-(1,4-dioxa-8-azaspiro[4,5]dec-8-yl)-5α-androstan-16s-yl]-1-(2-propenyl)-pyrrolidinium Br., its 3-OH derivative, SZ1677 and vecuronium were compared in beagle dogs.
Characterization of glyphosate resistance in cloned Amaranthus palmeri plants

Glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth from Georgia (GA), USA, possesses multiple copies of the gene that encodes 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), the enzyme target site of this herbicide. The cloned plants of glyphosate-resistant and glyphosate-susceptible Palmer amaranth biotypes from Mississippi (MS), USA, and GA were evaluated for glyphosate injury (digital imaging) in leaf disc bioassays. Four groups (three resistant groups: two from MS [G and R] and one from GA [C7]; one susceptible group from GA [C3]) were chosen for cloning to facilitate long-term studies. After exposure to glyphosate (1.0 mmol L–1, 144 h), the level of injury (mean value) was low in the resistant groups, while a higher level of injury was found in the susceptible group. However, the individual injury values within all groups varied widely. The mean EPSPS gene copy number of these groups was G ≥ R > C7 >>> C3. However, a higher copy number did not always convey increased resistance in these bioassays. When the copy number was high (>20), 81.5% of the bioassayed plants exhibited little or no injury and only ∼20% were significantly injured, while 50% of the plants with a low copy number (<20) remained healthy. Overall, no strong statistical correlation of the copy number versus injury occurred in these cloned plants and no statistical relationship of resistance and copy number with the sex of the MS plants was observed. The results suggest that although an elevated copy number of the EPSPS gene can instill resistance, other mechanisms might contribute to the overall glyphosate resistance of Palmer amaranth in these plants.
Coming Off the Bench: Legal and Policy Implications of Proposals to Allow Retired Justices to Sit by Designation on the Supreme Court

Senator Patrick Leahy recently introduced a bill that would override a New-Deal-era federal statute forbidding retired justices from serving by designation on the Supreme Court of the United States. The Leahy bill would authorize the Court to recall willing retired justices to substitute for recused justices. This Article uses the Leahy bill as a springboard for considering a number of important constitutional and policy questions, including: whether the possibility of 4-4 splits justifies substitution of a retired justice for an active one; whether permitting retired justices to substitute for recused justices would violate Article III’s requirement that there be “one Supreme Court;” and whether the ethical limitations on extra-judicial activities should be the same for active and retired judges and justices. In addition to relying on published material, the authors draw on information gleaned from their interview with retired Justice John Paul Stevens, who was the original source of the Leahy proposal.
The prevention of discitis during discography.

Abstract Background context Because of the severe complications, discitis represents the most feared complication stemming from discography. Varying needle techniques have been used to prevent discitis, and evidence for the use of intravenous (IV) and/or intradiscal antibiotics is conflicting and often lacking. Consequently, no consensus has been formed for disc infection prevention during discography. Purpose The objectives of this review are to summarize and integrate all the available basic science, animal, and clinical evidence regarding prevention of infection from discography and to develop areas of future research. Study design A comprehensive review of the literature dealing with discitis stemming from discography was conducted. Methods The MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases were searched focusing on prospective and retrospective studies and published case reports on the prevention of discitis. A meta-analysis could not be completed because of the scarcity of data and published randomized controlled trials. Results Of the seven articles that specifically focused on the prevention of discitis, no randomized or controlled trials were located. Two prospective, nonrandomized trials, three retrospective case series, and two literature reviews have been published, but no consensus has been formed for the prevention of discitis during discography. Fifteen articles focused on penetration, efficacy, and dosage of antibiotics into intervertebral discs for the prevention of discitis. There are 14 additional articles that report incidences of discitis. Conclusions Based on the available clinical evidence, IV or intradiscal antibiotics during discography have not been conclusively shown to decrease the rate of discitis over sterile technique alone. Animal model research supports prophylactic antibiotic use when used before iatrogenic inoculation of intervertebral discs. Both single- and double-needle techniques when used with stylettes are superior to nonstyletted techniques.