cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Identifying ecologically relevant scales of habitat selection: diel habitat selection in elk

Although organisms make resource selection decisions at multiple spatiotemporal scales, not all scales are ecologically relevant to any given organism. Ecological patterns and rhythms such as behavioral and climatic patterns may provide a consistent method for identifying ecologically relevant scales of habitat selection. Using elk (Cervus canadensis) as an example species, we sought to test the ability of behavioral patterns to empirically partition diel scales for modeling habitat selection. We used model selection to partition diel scales by shifts in dominant behavior and then used resource selection probability functions to model elk habitat selection hierarchically at diel scales within seasons. Model selection distinguished four diel temporal partitions following elk crepuscular behavioral patterns: dawn, midday, dusk, and night. Across seasons, model-averaged coefficients indicated that elk shifted from selecting grassland cover at dawn/dusk, to selecting for greater canopy and forest cover at midday, and then to areas with greater herbaceous biomass at night. Top models changed between diel intervals in spring and fall but stayed the same across diel intervals in winter and summer. In winter, elk selected for southern aspects during midday, for unburned areas at dawn/dusk, and for areas burned within 1–3 yr at dawn/dusk and night. In spring, elk selected for northern aspects and for areas burned within 1–3 yr at midday, for areas farther from roads at dawn/dusk and midday, and for areas farther from water at midday. In summer, elk changed diel preferences for fewer covariates: At dawn/dusk and midday, elk selected for areas farther from water and avoided forest cover, and at night, elk selected for areas burned within 1–3 yr. In fall, elk selected for areas burned the previous year at dawn/dusk and night, for higher elevations at midday, and for areas closer water at night. Using behavioral patterns to identify ecologically relevant scales can help identify overlooked habitat requirements such as diel changes in preference for fire history, forage availability, and cover. We show that the ecological relevancy of a given scale (e.g., a diel temporal scale) can change throughout a given extent (e.g., across seasons).
Determining quality refining rice mill location with disruption risks

The events of disaster caused the disruptions in supply networks. In 2011, Thailand also witnessed one of the worst floods in 50 years. This event reminds decision makers to consider all uncertainties when they decide to determine their facility locations of quality refining rice. Facility locations for quality refining rice play an important role for the logistic system cost especially for transportation cost. With these quality refining rice facilities, Thai's rice can capture niche market in today's fierce competition. This paper presents scenario planning models to address the uncertainty of travel distances and rice productions. The results show that only Bangkok, Chachoengsao, and Samut Prakan are common solutions from scenario planning models.
Simulating the Ridesharing Economy: The Individual Agent Metro-Washington Area Ridesharing Model (IAMWARM)

The ridesharing economy is experiencing rapid growth and innovation. Companies such as Uber and Lyft are continuing to grow at a considerable pace while providing their platform as an organizing medium for ridesharing services, increasing consumer utility as well as employing thousands in part-time positions. However, many challenges remain in the modeling of ridesharing services, many of which are not currently under wide consideration. In this paper, an agent-based model is developed to simulate a ridesharing service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. The model is used to examine levels of utility gained for both riders (customers) and drivers (service providers) of a generic ridesharing service. A description of the Individual Agent Metro-Washington Area Ridesharing Model (IAMWARM) is provided, as well as a description of a typical simulation run. We investigate the financial gains of drivers for a 24 hour period under two scenarios and two spatial movement behaviors. The two spatial behaviors were random movement and Voronoi movement, which we describe. Both movement behaviors were tested under a stationary run conditions scenario and a variable run conditions scenario. We find that Voronoi movement increased drivers’ utility gained but that emergence of this system property was only viable under variable scenario conditions. This result provides two important insights: The first is that driver movement decisions prior to passenger pickup can impact financial gain for the service and drivers, and consequently, rate of successful pickup for riders. The second is that this phenomenon is only evident under experimentation conditions where variability in passenger and driver arrival rates are administered.
An affordable solution for authenticated communications for enterprise and personal use

The top complaint received by both the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission is illegal robocalling. One of the issues enabling illegal robocalling is the relative ease of a bad actor to spoof, or lie, about who is calling. Specifically, the bad actor can set their Caller ID, or the number that is displayed when one receives a phone call, to whatever they want. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the SIP Forum, and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) have been jointly working on a solution, called STIR, to provide authentication services for the asserted caller ID. However, the focus of that work, particularly by the joint ATIS/SIP Forum Network-Network Interconnect Work Group, has been on service providers doing the authentication and verification. This article describes an implementation of the STIR technology targeted for small enterprise and consumer use. Our implementation is the first to be suitable for the enterprise environment. It is extremely lightweight and affordable, while still providing necessary security and integrity. We deployed our implementation in an enterprise environment, building upon the open source Kamailio SIP server.
Bone toughening through stress-induced non-collagenous protein denaturation

Bone toughness emerges from the interaction of several multiscale toughening mechanisms. Recently, the formation of nanoscale dilatational bands and hence the accumulation of submicron diffuse damage were suggested as an important energy dissipation processes in bone. However, a detailed mechanistic understanding of the effect of this submicron toughening mechanism across multiple scales is lacking. Here, we propose a new three-dimensional ultrastructure volume element model showing the formation of nanoscale dilatational bands based on stress-induced non-collagenous protein denaturation and quantify the total energy released through this mechanism in the vicinity of a propagating crack. Under tensile deformation, large hydrostatic stress develops at the nanoscale as a result of local confinement. This tensile hydrostatic stress supports the denaturation of non-collagenous proteins at organic–inorganic interfaces, which leads to energy dissipation. Our model provides new fundamental understanding of the mechanism of dilatational bands formation and its contribution to bone toughness.
Role of Epstein-Barr virus infection in SLE: gene-environment interactions at the molecular level

A paper by Harley et al in Nature Genetics provides an important new perspective on the mechanisms by which infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can promote autoimmunity and, in particular, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).1 An interest in the role of EBV in lupus pathogenesis has a long history beginning in the 1970s with observations that patients with SLE have increased titres of anti-EBV antibodies.2 Subsequent studies have strengthened the link between EBV and SLE as well as other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis (MS).3 To many investigators, the question has not been whether EBV infection can lead to autoimmunity but rather how since the evidence for causality appears high. Like other autoimmune diseases, SLE is likely the outcome of an encounter of a genetically susceptible individual with an environmental trigger such as an infection. With EBV, classic epidemiology faces a major challenge since infection with this virus, a member of the herpes family, is almost invariable in the adult population.3 While the study of disease associations in children can be informative because of their lower infection rate,4 it is difficult if not impossible to sort adults into infected and uninfected bins to investigate disease associations. Furthermore, it is always possible that abnormalities that predispose to autoimmunity also predispose to infection with EBV, complicating the situation further. Given the limitations of epidemiology, investigators have explored other mechanisms by which EBV can trigger disease. One of the …
Characteristics of visual fidelity in the virtual environment

This paper provides an overview of the literature on the visual system, placing special emphasis on those visual characteristics regarded as necessary to produce adequate visual fidelity in virtual environments. These visual cues apply to the creation of various virtual environments including those involving flying, driving, sailing, or walking. A variety of cues are examined, in particular, motion, color, stereopsis, pictorial and secondary cues, physiological cues, texture, vertical development, luminance, field-of-view, and spatial resolution. Conclusions and recommendations for research are also presented.
ARTHROSCOPIC ACROMIOPLASTY: Current Status

Impingment is a chronic syndrome characterized by microtrauma, which causes progressive injury to the rotator cuff tendon. In recent years, arthro- scopic subacromial decompression/acromioplasty has been frequently used for the treatment of impingement syndrome and is quickly becoming the preferred surgical treatment when conservative modalities fail. Arthroscopic acromioplasty offers many benefits over open acromioplasty, including better cosmesis, lessened preoperative morbidity, a more complete intraoperative examination, and a hastened, early rehabilitation program.
Research in Operations Management and Information Systems Interface

Owing to its multidisciplinary nature, the operations management (OM) and information systems (IS) interface distinguishes itself from the individually focused perspective of both fields. The number and depth of contributions in this department can help both disciplines advance to better address important theoretical and practical challenges of the business world. In this paper, we study the characteristics of problems at the interface between OM and IS, and review past work that has been instrumental in setting the tone and direction of research at this interface. We extend our discussion to provide directions for future research at the OM and IS interface in the domains such as smart city management, healthcare, deep learning and artificial intelligence, fintech and blockchain, Internet of Things and Industry 4.0, and social media and digital platforms.
Administration of certain sedative drugs is associated with variation in sonographic and radiographic splenic size in healthy cats.

Ultrasonography and radiography are standard diagnostic tests for cats with suspected splenic disease, however published information on outside sources of variation are currently lacking. The purpose of this prospective, randomized, crossover group study was to evaluate effects of common sedative drugs on the sonographic and radiographic characteristics of the spleen in healthy cats. Fifteen healthy adult research cats were randomly assigned into one of three groups corresponding to different sequences of administration of five sedative drugs/drug combinations (acepromazine; butorphanol; dexmedetomidine; midazolam and butorphanol (MB); and dexmedetomidine, butorphanol, and ketamine (DBK)), administered at 1-week intervals. At each visit, three-view abdominal radiographic and ultrasonographic examinations were performed prior to sedation and repeated 15-30 min and 2-3 h post sedation. Two board-certified radiologists (one ACVR and one ACVR/ECVDI) evaluated the anonymized and randomized images. Acepromazine resulted in significantly increased sonographic and radiographic splenic measurements from baseline, which remained significantly increased 2-3 h post sedation. The mean magnitude of this change ranged from 0.9 mm (tail height, SD 1.4 mm) to 1.8 mm (body height, SD 1.7 mm) for ultrasound, and was 2.2 mm (ventrodorsal width, SD 2.3 mm) for radiographs. With butorphanol, there was no significant change in splenic size. For dexmedetomidine, MB, and DBK, there was a trend toward increased splenic size from baseline to the first post-sedation timepoint, which was statistically significant for radiographic measurements, although not for ultrasound. Findings indicated that acepromazine should be avoided prior to imaging while butorphanol may be used when sedation is needed in cats presenting for potential splenic disease.
Systematic interpretation and structured reporting for pelvic magnetic resonance imaging studies in patients with endometriosis: value added for improved patient care

Endometriosis is a chronic, multifocal disease, which can lead to pain or subfertility. Treatments are tailored toward the therapeutic goals of the individual patient; either to improve a specific pain symptom or optimize fertility. Management of endometriosis is complex, and best implemented by a comprehensive, multidisciplinary team of physicians and health care providers. The role of the radiologist in the management of endometriosis is becoming increasingly important as more centers move toward utilizing female pelvic MR studies to diagnose, delineate or follow endometriosis lesions. The radiologist must communicate pertinent, actionable findings from these studies in a manner that is clear and concise. Structured radiologic reports (SRR) add value in that they provide organized, clear, and comprehensive information from imaging studies, ensuring reports include essential items required for decision-making. In this paper, we review our MR imaging protocol and present the structured radiologic report implemented at our institution by our multidisciplinary endometriosis care team. Imaging features of endometriosis at each site specified in the structured report are summarized. The importance of each element included in the structured report from a management perspective is highlighted.
Policy and the Future

Turning what we think we know about the future into public policy is not easy. This chapter delves, if shallowly, into this contentious topic. Specific focuses of the chapter are technology assessment (with autonomous vehicles as a running example), the roles and limitations of free markets, and sustainability. The chapter discusses the disruptive impacts of wild cards and black swans.
The Judicial Implementation of Statutes: Three Stories About Courts and the Americans with Disabilities Act

This article uses the example of the Americans with Disabilities Act to probe the distinctive features of court-based implementation of public policy.
Boron Neutron Capture Therapy of Glioblastoma Multiforme Using the p-Boronophenylalanine-Fructose Complex and Epithermal Neutrons

The amino acid analog p-boronophenylalanine (BPA) has been under investigation at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) as a neutron capture agent for BNCT of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) for the past six years. BPA, delivered orally, is effective in BNCT of the intracerebral 9L rat gliosarcoma1. Histologic examination of the brains of long-term BNCT survivors showed scar tissue replacing the tumor with no serious damage to the contiguous normal brain2. A series of 17 patients undergoing surgical removal of tumor (GBM or melanoma) received BPA orally as the free amino acid. Favorable tumor/blood boron concentration ratios were obtained but the absolute amount of boron in the tumor would have been insufficient for BNCT3. BPA can be solubilized at neutral pH by complexation with fructose4. BPA-fructose (BPA-F) is administered intravenously (iv) for thermal neutron-based BNCT of melanoma in Japans. Intraperitoneal (ip) injection of the soluble BPA-F complex produces much higher tumor boron concentrations in the rat intracerebral 9L gliosarcoma than were previously possible using oral administration of BPA. Higher boron concentrations have allowed higher radiation doses to be delivered to the tumor while maintaining the dose to the normal brain vascular endothelium below the threshold of tolerance. This resulted in long-term survival of over 90% of BNCT-treated rats6. Surviving rats show no obvious neurologic deficit. We have measured the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the various high-linear energy transfer (LET) components of the total BNCT dose in both tumor and normal tissues. Our data indicate a therapeutic ratio (tumor dose/normal tissue dose) in excess of 5:1 (Coderre et al., these proceedings). A biodistribution study of iv BPA-F in patients with high-grade gliomas is reported elsewhere in these proceedings (Bergland et al.,these proceedings).
Direct Evidence of Local pH Change and the Role of Alkali Cation during CO 2 Electroreduction in Aqueous Media

We report, for the first time, utilizing a rotating ring-disc electrode (RRDE) assembly for detecting changes in the local pH during aqueous CO2 reduction reaction (CO2 RR). Using Au as a model catalyst where CO is the only product, we show that the CO oxidation peak shifts by -86±2 mV/pH during CO2 RR, which can be used to directly quantify the change in the local pH near the catalyst surface during electrolysis. We then applied this methodology to investigate the role of cations in affecting the local pH during CO2 RR and find that during CO2 RR to CO on Au in an MHCO3 buffer (where M is an alkali metal), the experimentally measured local basicity decreased in the order Li+ > Na+ > K+ > Cs+ , which agreed with an earlier theoretical prediction by Singh et al. Our results also reveal that the formation of CO is independent of the cation. In summary, RRDE is a versatile tool for detecting local pH change over a diverse range of CO2 RR catalysts. Additionally, using the product itself (i.e. CO) as the local pH probe allows us to investigate CO2 RR without the interference of additional probe molecules introduced to the system. Most importantly, considering that most CO2 RR products have pH-dependent oxidation, RRDE can be a powerful tool for determining the local pH and correlating the local pH to reaction selectivity.
Outcomes of hypoplastic left heart syndrome: analysis of National Inpatient Sample Database 1998-2004 versus 2005-2014.

Neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) were identified from the National Inpatient Sample dataset for the years 1998–2014. These patients were stratified into two chronological groups, past group (1998–2005) and recent group (2006–2014). A total of 20,649 neonates with HLHS were identified. Of them, 9179 (44.5%) were born in the past group and 11,470 (55.5%) in the recent group. Median birth weight was significantly less in the recent group (2967 g vs. 3110 g, p = 0.005). The patients in the recent group had more patients with low birth weight ( < 2.5 kg) and prematurity (8.7% vs 7.6% and 12.7% vs. 4.3%., respectively). In addition, recent group had more comorbidities including chromosomal anomalies, total anomalous pulmonary venous return, and kidney anomalies (5.6% vs. 3.6%, 2.3% vs. 1.7%, and 5.6% vs. 3.6%, respectively, p < 0.001); these were associated with a higher rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation utilization (9.2% vs. 4.5%, p < 0.001). Consequently, median length of stay was longer in the recent group (8 vs. 6 days, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Despite the higher frequency of comorbidities in recent group, the mortality rates decreased by 20% (from 25.3% to 20.6%, p < 0.001). Balloon atrial septostomy was performed less frequently in the recent group (23.3% vs. 16.1%, p < 0.001).
Circulating Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Preterm Birth: A Pilot Case-Control Study.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are by-products from microbial metabolism of fibers with anti-inflammatory effects. SCFAs may mitigate inflammatory conditions such as obesity through modulation of histone acetylation. Lipid metabolism and inflammation play critical roles during pregnancy. However, few studies have examined maternal SCFAs in relation to pregnancy outcomes. This pilot study examined plasma SCFAs in spontaneous preterm birth. This study used stored plasma from an existing cohort to measure seven (proponic acid, methanoic acid, butanoic acid, isovaleric acid, pentanoic acid, methylpropylbutanoic and methylbutanoic acids) SCFAs in 20 women with spontaneous preterm delivery (< 37 weeks gestation) and 30 women with a healthy term delivery (≥ 37 weeks gestation). All women had singleton pregnancies and provided serum at the time of admission to labor and delivery. SCFAs were measured by purge and trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. SCFAs were log transformed. Logistic regression with penalized likelihood approach examined associations between SCFAs and preterm birth, adjusting for age, BMI, and race. We also explored if SCFAs had a linear association with pre-pregnancy BMI. Propionic acid had a negative association with preterm birth [odds ratioadj: 0.56, 95% confidence interval 0.41–0.86). There was a negative association between propionic acid and BMI after adjustments (β = −0.14, p = 0.0011). No other associations were found. Lower levels of propionic acid were associated with preterm birth and correlated with higher BMI. Larger studies should explore if circulatory SCFAs protect against inflammatory pathways during pregnancy and are associated with adverse outcomes when measured earlier in pregnancy.
Shared Decision Making for the Emergency Provider: Engaging Patients When Seconds Count.

Introduction Physicians need to be able to communicate the myriad of management options clearly to patients and engage them in their health care decisions, even in the fast-paced environment of the...
Photon-Number Resolution using Superconducting Tapered Nanowire Detector

We show that a superconducting nanowire with an integrated impedance-matching taper can resolve photon numbers. The taper increases the nanowire detector's output amplitude and makes it sensitive to the number of single-photon-induced hotspots.
Bright High-Purity Quantum Emitters in Aluminum Nitride Integrated Photonics

Solid-state quantum emitters (QEs) are fundamental in photonic-based quantum information processing. There is strong interest to develop high-quality QEs in III-nitride semiconductors because of th...
Association of Medicaid-Focused or Commercial Medicaid Managed Care Plan Type With Outpatient and Acute Care.

Importance Enrollment in Medicaid managed care plans has increased rapidly, particularly in national commercial insurance plans. Whether the type of managed care plan is associated with the use of health services for Medicaid beneficiaries is unknown. Objective To compare the use of outpatient and acute care between Medicaid enrollees randomly assigned to a national commercial managed care plan or a local Medicaid-focused managed care plan. Design, setting, and participants This natural experiment of a cohort of Medicaid enrollees randomly assigned to 2 managed care plans in a Northeastern US state was conducted from June 30, 2009, to June 30, 2013. Statistical analysis was performed from September 1, 2019, to August 30, 2020. Interventions Assignment to a Medicaid-focused insurance plan or a commercial managed care plan. Main outcomes and measures Outpatient visits, emergency department visits, and total inpatient and ambulatory care-sensitive hospitalizations. Results A total of 8010 patients were included in the analysis: 4737 were assigned to a Medicaid-focused plan (2795 female [59.0%]; mean [SD] age, 17.8 [3.2] years) and 3273 to a commercial managed care plan (1915 female [58.5%]; mean [SD] age, 17.9 [3.3] years). Those randomly assigned to the Medicaid-focused plan had a mean (SD) of 6.67 (9.18) annual outpatient visits per person, and those assigned to the commercial plan had a mean (SD) of 8.36 (11.77) annual outpatient visits per person (adjusted absolute difference, 1.72 [95% CI, 1.31-2.13]; 22% relative difference). The increased use of outpatient visits in the commercial plan was associated with an increase in specialty care visits (mean [SD], 2.34 [6.31] visits in Medicaid-focused plan vs 3.75 [9.32] visits in commerical plan; adjusted absolute difference, 1.43 visits [95% CI, 1.25-1.56 visits]; 61% relative difference). Mean (SD) annual emergency department visits were 0.49 (1.39) per person in the Medicaid-focused plan and 0.51 (1.40) in the commercial plan (adjusted absolute difference, 0.02 [95% CI, -0.02 to 0.05]). Mean (SD) annual inpatient admissions were 0.067 (0.45) per person in the Medicaid-focused plan and 0.069 (0.53) in the commercial plan (adjusted absolute difference, 0.003 [95% CI, -0.01 to 0.02]). Plan assignment was not significantly associated with ambulatory care-sensitive admissions. Results were consistent in instrumental variables analyses that accounted for disenrollment and switching. Conclusions and relevance Compared with Medicaid managed care enrollees assigned to a Medicaid-focused plan, those assigned to a commercial plan had more outpatient visits, particularly for specialty care, but had similar rates of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. These findings suggest that the type of managed care plan may be associated with health services use and spending among Medicaid beneficiaries and that random assignment may help states understand how well different plans perform for enrollees.
Intrusion rheology in grains and other flowable materials

The interaction of intruding objects with deformable materials arises in many contexts, including locomotion in fluids and loose media, impact and penetration problems, and geospace applications. Despite the complex constitutive behaviour of granular media, forces on arbitrarily shaped granular intruders are observed to obey surprisingly simple, yet empirical 'resistive force hypotheses'. The physics of this macroscale reduction, and how it might play out in other media, has however remained elusive. Here, we show that all resistive force hypotheses in grains arise from local frictional yielding, revealing a novel invariance within a class of plasticity models. This mechanical foundation, supported by numerical and experimental validations, leads to a general analytical criterion to determine which rheologies can obey resistive force hypotheses. We use it to explain why viscous fluids are observed to perform worse than grains, and to predict a new family of resistive-force-obeying materials: cohesive media such as pastes, gels and muds.
Destabilizing the privilege of the knower to establish forms of solidarity: Reflections on conducting fieldwork with vulnerable communities in India and Romania:

In this article, I interrogate the researcher’s role in conducting ethnographic and qualitative fieldwork with vulnerable communities and argue that increased epistemological reflexiveness is neede...
Technical and Economic Feasibility Assessment of a Cloud-Enabled Traffic Video Analysis Framework

Computer vision techniques are expected to significantly improve the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS), which are anticipated to be a key component of future Smart City frameworks. Powered by computer vision techniques, the conversion of existing traffic cameras into connected “smart sensors” called intelligent video analysis (IVA) systems has shown the great capability of producing insightful data to support ITS applications. However, developing such IVA systems for large-scale, real-time application deserves further study, as the current research efforts are focused more on model effectiveness instead of model efficiency. Therefore, we have introduced a real-time, large-scale, cloud-enabled traffic video analysis framework using the NVIDIA DeepStream and NVIDIA Metropolis. In this study, we have evaluated the technical and economic feasibility of our proposed framework to help traffic agency to build IVA systems more efficiently. Our study shows that the daily operating cost for our proposed framework on Google Cloud Platform is less than $0.14 per camera, and that, compared with manual inspections, proposed framework achieves an average vehicle-counting accuracy of 83.7% on sunny days.
Prophylactic or Early Use of Eculizumab and Graft Survival in Kidney Transplant Recipients With Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome in the United States: Research Letter.

Introduction:Among kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) due to atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), recurrence is associated with poor allograft outcomes. ...
PERFORMANCE OF DRY HYDROPONIC SYSTEM ON CULTIVATION OF GREEN LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa L.)

Dry hydroponic is an emerging system and gaining popularity among some hydroponic businesses, yet investigation on its performance has not been reported. Purpose of this research is to evaluate and compare performance of dry hydroponic system to floating and wick systems on green leafy lettuce cultivation. The experiment used Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with factorial arrangement. Two factors, hydroponic systems and aerator usages, were implemented. The hydroponic systems included Dry, Wick and Floating systems, while the use of aerator were with and without aerators. All treatment combinations consisted of 3 replicates. Parameters to be observed were nutrient solution parameters (pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, water consumption), plant parameters (height, stem diameter, leaf width, number of leaves, leaf thickness, and canopy area, shoot fresh weight, water content, some chemical contents). Data sets were analyzed using analysis of variance followed by a least significant Difference (LSD) test at level of 5%. Results showed that the interaction between the hydroponic system and the use of aerators were not significantly different for all parameters observed. The hydroponic systems were not significantly different too. The use of aerator was significant for the nutrient solution parameters (pH and Dissolved Oxygen), water content, and phosphorus contents of leaves. In conclusion, Dry Hydroponic System has the same performances as compared to floating and wick systems.
Importance of Local Data and Resource Allocation for Effective Successful Public Health Interventions to Reduce COVID-19 Transmission: Commentary on COVID-19 Medical Vulnerability Indicators: A Predictive Local Data Model for Equity in Public Health Decision-Making

The article, COVID-19 Medical Vulnerability Indicators: Predictive Local Data Model for Equity in Public Health Decision-Making (2021), is an important contribution to identifying and prioritizing the needs of Los Angeles' public healthcare in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis [...].
Estimating the Effect of the New York State Nurse Practitioners Modernization Act on Care Received by Medicaid Patients.

The demand for primary care services may surpass the supply of primary care providers, exacerbating challenges with access, quality, and cost in the U.S. health care system. Expanding the supply of...
Monoclonal antibody requires immunomodulation for efficacy against Acinetobacter baumannii infection.

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are gaining significant momentum as novel therapeutics for infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We evaluated the mechanism by which anti-bacterial MAb therapy protects against Acinetobacter baumannii infections. Anti-capsular MAb enhanced macrophage opsonophagocytosis and rescued mice from lethal infections by harnessing complement, macrophages, and neutrophils, yet the degree of bacterial burden did not correlate with survival. Furthermore, MAb therapy reduced pro-inflammatory (IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines, which correlated inversely with survival. Although disrupting IL-10 abrogated the survival advantage conferred by the MAb, IL-10-knockout mice treated with MAb could still survive if TNFα production was suppressed directly (via anti-TNFα neutralizing antibody) or indirectly (via macrophage depletion). Thus, even for a MAb that enhances microbial clearance via opsonophagocytosis, clinical efficacy required modulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. These findings may inform future MAb development targeting bacteria that trigger the sepsis cascade.
Base Station Antenna Uptilt Optimization for Cellular-Connected Drone Corridors

The concept of drone corridors is recently getting more attention to enable connected, safe, and secure flight zones in the national airspace. To support beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations of aerial vehicles in a drone corridor, cellular base stations (BSs) serve as a convenient infrastructure, since such BSs are widely deployed to provide seamless wireless coverage. However, antennas in the existing cellular networks are down-tilted to optimally serve their ground users, which results in coverage holes if they are also used to serve drones. In this letter, we consider the use of additional uptilted antennas at cellular BSs and optimize the uptilt angle to minimize outage probability for a given drone corridor. Our numerical results show how the beamwidth and the maximum drone corridor height affect the optimal value of the antenna uptilt angle.
Effect of cleaning corn on mycotoxin concentration and nursery pig growth performance.

Mycotoxins are naturally produced hazards that result from molds grown on cereal grains and other commodities. These molds may produce carcinogenic mycotoxins, which can be harmful to humans and animals. Removing broken kernels has been demonstrated to reduce mycotoxin concentration, but with high variability. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to quantify the magnitude of natural mycotoxin concentration that may be reduced by cleaning corn. Two loads of corn that were naturally contaminated with mycotoxins were procured. Corn for Experiment 1 was contaminated with aflatoxin (1,074 parts per billion; ppb), fumonisin (8.3 parts per million; ppm), and ochratoxin A (206 ppb), while corn for Experiment 2 was contaminated with only fumonisin (5.5 ppm). Corn was cleaned by mechanical sieving. For each experiment, corn was divided into twenty 150 kg runs. Runs were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental treatments: 1) no screen 2) 12.7 mm screen, 3) 4.8 mm screen, and 4) 12.7 + 4.8-mm screen. The corn cleaner was sanitized between runs. Three 5 kg corn samples were collected from each run, and analyzed for mycotoxin concentration. In Experiment 1, cleaning reduced (P 0.10) ochratoxin A. The resultant screenings had nearly four times the aflatoxin (4,224 ppb) and 7.5 times the fumonisin concentration (60.4 ppm) as the uncleaned corn. In Experiment 2, cleaning reduced (P 0.19) nursery pig growth performance. Pelleting improved (P < 0.0001) gain to feed ratio (G:F) by 7.6% compared to mash diets. These data suggest that cleaning is an effective method to legally reduce aflatoxin and fumonisin concentration, but does not impact animal growth performance. Screenings should be used cautiously when feeding to animals.
HeteroSAS: A Heterogeneous Resource Management Framework for "All-in-the-Air" Social Airborne Sensing in Disaster Response

Social airborne sensing (SAS) is emerging as a new sensing paradigm that leverages the complementary aspects of social sensing and airborne sensing (i.e., UAVs) for reliable information collection. In this paper, we present HeteroSAS, a heterogeneous resource management framework for "all-in-the-air" SAS in disaster response applications. Current SAS approaches use UAVs to only capture data, but carry out computation on ground-based processing nodes that may be unavailable in disaster scenarios and thus consider a single model of UAV along with only one type of task (i.e., data capture). In this paper, we explore the opportunity to exploit the complementary strengths of different UAV models to accomplish all stages of sensing tasks (i.e., data capturing, maneuvering, and computation) exclusively "in-the-air". However, several challenges exist in developing such a resource management framework: i) handling the uncertain social signals in presence of the heterogeneity of UAVs and tasks; and ii) adapting to constantly changing cyber-physical-social environments. The HeteroSAS framework addresses these challenges by building a novel resource management framework that observes the environment and learns the optimal strategy for each UAV using techniques from multi-agent reinforcement learning, game theory, and ensemble learning. The evaluation with a real-world case study shows that HeteroSAS outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of detection effectiveness, deadline hit rate, and robustness on heterogeneity.
FRICTIONS AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF INVENTORY TO SHAREHOLDER WEALTH

Shareholder wealth effects associated with inventory are examined. Initial results indicate a positive and significant relation between shareholder wealth and inventory. Additional findings suggest that operating conditions, financial constraints, and working capital behavior influence the value of inventory. These findings are consistent with tactical and strategic decisions influencing managers to hold inventory. Overall, the results suggest that shareholders price the strategic advantages accompanying inventory.
Taxation of Debt Collection and Cancellation

T HE PURPOSE Of this article is to examine and analyze some of the income tax consequences arising from the payment, collection, compromise or cancellation of contractual rights and obligations. Several common factual situations will be discussed, and under each heading the tax position of the creditor and the debtor will be distinguished. In the interests of more detailed study of a fairly limited subject matter, factual situations involving the foreclosure of mortgages and repossessions under installment sale or deferred payment contracts are not discussed. The author defers to the numerous sources in which those special problems are ably treated.? I
I-Girders Method Used to Support Existing Railway Operations During Highway Underpass Construction

In metropolitan areas, when a highway underpass project is being planned to go beneath an existing railway corridor, there are a number of concerns that could have an impact on the project. For example, will the underpass construction impact the existing railway operations? How to maintain the construction safety in both rail and highway operations? This paper brings construction technology using I-girder systems to provide a solution for highway underpass projects constructing beneath the existing rail corridors. The I-girder systems have been proved as a reliable method for highway underpass construction without the interruption of railway operations. This type of I-girder systems has been widely used in several countries as a temporary “bridge” structure in support of dynamic rail movements during underpass construction. Depending on the spans of underpass structures, a contractor can decide the number of I-girder units to be assembled and installed on site. This paper describes the construction procedures of the I-girder systems installation and daily inspection processes. A case study is used to demonstrate the applicability of I-girder systems in ensuring underpass construction smoothly while maintaining existing railway operations in a safety manner. During the construction of underpass, the contractor encountered geotechnical issues that had a severe impact on the construction safety and the integrity of foundation. This paper further discusses strategies that were used to mitigate the potential building collapses and foundation failures. It is concluded the method of I-girder systems is capable of supporting railway dynamic movements during highway underpass construction.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
AN APPROACH TO THE ESTIMATION OF THE SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES AND RADIATION BUDGETS OF CITIES

The principles of radiation geometry and the Lambertian assumption are employed to construct a numerical model of the multiple reflection effects within an urban canyon of variable geometry and surface materials. The canyon model is used to estimate the reflection coefficients for the direct and diffuse short-wave and incoming longwave radiative fluxes and the longwave emissivity of an urban surface. The procedures described are applied to various land-use zones in Columbus, Ohio, for the solstices and equinoxes. The diurnal variation of shortwave reflection coefficients is illustrated; daily values generally increase from the CBD to the residential suburbs. Longwave radiative properties differ little between zones. Radiation budgets are synthesized for each land-use type, assuming negligible atmospheric pollution, and are compared with those for appropriate rural surfaces. Net longwave radiation varies little between zones but net shortwave and net radiation decrease from the CBD to the residential areas...
On the Calibration and Performance of a Spreading Resistance Probe

In this paper, techniques are presented for material standards selection for calibration purposes, materials and calibration block preparation, and techniques for data collection and processing for the spreading resistance probe. A description of the variation with time of the calibration of a spreading resistance probe is presented. Problems encountered with characterization of high resistivity p-type silicon are discussed, and examples of the probe performance in the characterization of germanium are also presented.
Re-evaluation of spent nuclear fuel assay data for the Three Mile Island unit 1 reactor and application to code validation

Abstract Destructive radiochemical assay measurements of spent nuclear fuel rod segments from an assembly irradiated in the Three Mile Island unit 1 (TMI-1) pressurized water reactor have been performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Assay data are reported for five samples from two fuel rods of the same assembly. The TMI-1 assembly was a 15 × 15 design with an initial enrichment of 4.013 wt% 235U, and the measured samples achieved burnups between 45.5 and 54.5 gigawatt days per metric ton of initial uranium (GWd/t). Measurements were performed mainly using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after elemental separation via high performance liquid chromatography. High precision measurements were achieved using isotope dilution techniques for many of the lanthanides, uranium, and plutonium isotopes. Measurements are reported for more than 50 different isotopes and 16 elements. One of the two TMI-1 fuel rods measured in this work had been measured previously by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and these data have been widely used to support code and nuclear data validation. The recent measurements performed by ORNL provided an important opportunity to independently cross check results against previous measurements performed at ANL. These measurements serve to improve confidence in the data, to verify reported uncertainties, and to investigate previous anomalies noted in the plutonium measurements. The measured nuclide concentrations are used to validate burnup calculations using the SCALE nuclear systems modeling and simulation code suite. These results show that the new measurements provide reliable benchmark data for computer code validation.
SPDEs in $L_q( ( 0,\tau ] , L_p)$ Spaces

Existence and uniqueness theorems are presented for evolutional stochastic partial differential equations of second order in $L_p$-spaces with weights allowing derivatives of solutions to blow up near the boundary. It is allowed for the powers of summability with respect to space and time variables to be different.
Genetic influences on clinical mastitis and its relationship with milk yield, season and stage of lactation

Abstract Milk yield and clinical mastitis records were collected from 1672 cows in 24 dairy herds in southern England. The incidence of mastitis in each of the first two lactations was statistically analysed for herd, 305-day milk yield, length of lactation, age at first calving, season of calving and stage of lactation. A subset of the data, relating to 890 cows, the daughters of 34 sires, was used to obtain estimates of heritability of the incidence of mastitis. Genetic correlations between milk yield and mastitis were also calculated. The average incidence of mastitis was found to be 16% in the first lactation and 20% in the second. Variation in the incidence of mastitis could, for a large part, be attributed to variation amongst herds. The incidence of mastitis in sire groups varied significantly in the first lactation, but not in the second. Averaging over both lactations, the heritability estimate for incidence of mastitis was 0.12±0.09. There were significant positive correlations among herds between the incidence of mastitis and 305-day milk yield, but genetic correlations were, on the whole, small. The level of mastitis incidence did not change with increasing milk yield in cows which lactated for at least 305 days, but it did increase slightly with increasing milk yield in cows which lactated for shorter periods. Season of calving had little effect on the overall incidence of mastitis during a lactation, although cows which calved in winter tended to have mastitis earlier in lactation than those which calved during the other half of the year. About two fifths of cases occurred on average before 30 days post-calving. The incidence of mastitis in the second lactation seemed to vary according to age at first calving particularly in those cows calving for the first time in summer.
Protooncogene expression in subpopulations of cells front leukemia patients

Protooncogenes are under intense investigation be- cause of their central role in the regulation of prolifer- ation and differentiation. Until recently, identification of protooncogene expression in leukemia cells has been dependent on RNA analysis via Northern blot or dot blot methodologies (2,12-14,161. Recently, methods utilizing monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry for assessing intracellular levels of myc and myb protein have been described (4,7). These methods provide in- formation on the expression of these genes in the cell population as a whole. Analysis of expression in sub- populations of cells would be possible if light scatter patterns (forward versus orthogonal light scatter) could be maintained. These patterns, however, are de- stroyed by the use of detergents to permit entry of the antibodies into the cells. In this paper, we describe a technically simple method which permits preservation of the light scatter of cells thereby allowing evaluation of myc and/or myb expression in cell subpopulations obtained from leuke- mia patients. This method appears to be superior to the permeabilization method described earlier to preserve light scatter for blood cell work (8).
Lymphocyte stimulation by yeast phase Histoplasma capsulatum in presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome.

Presumed ocular histoplasmosis syn­ drome is a disorder characterized by peripapillary pigment disturbance, a hemorrhagic subretinal neovascularization of the posterior pole, and peripheral areas of chorioretinal atrophy.1'2 Epidemiologic studies using skin tests to histoplasmin suggest a relationship to the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum.2 We studied the skin sensitivity, antibody levels, and lym­ phocyte stimulation test for H. capsula­ tum in patients with presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome, in patients with systemic histoplasmosis, and normal individuals. Presumed ocular histoplas­ mosis syndrome is related to the yeast form of H. capsulatum, but not the mycelial form; the lymphocyte stimulation test may be a valuable aid in monitoring the course of the disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS