cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Accurate bandwidth measurement in xDSL service networks

In xDSL service networks, accurate bandwidth measurement is essential for network management and traffic engineering, such as isolating line faults and verifying guaranteed quality of service specifications, where ISP and xDSL service providers may be involved. Existing Internet bandwidth measurement techniques are not suitable because link asymmetry and ATM traffic shaping in xDSL deployments impact the accuracy of their measurements. In this paper, we present a novel stepwise algorithm for bandwidth measurement that performs accurately in xDSL service networks. The stepwise algorithm requires a smooth traffic generator since otherwise the accuracy would be affected by the ATM traffic shaping. A multi-packet technique is used to avoid explicit packet filtering. The scheme is lightweight in terms of implementation complexity and probe traffic overhead. The accuracy of the algorithm is demonstrated by laboratory and field experiments. The results show that the measurement errors in both upstream and downstream cases are within the range of 5% in a commercial ADSL service network tested under the following ATM network configurations: CBR, rt-VBR, and UBR service categories.
Anti-folate drug resistance in Africa: meta-analysis of reported dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) and dihydropteroate synthase (dhps) mutant genotype frequencies in African Plasmodium falciparum parasite populations

Background Mutations in the dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) and dihydropteroate synthase (dhps) genes of Plasmodium falciparum are associated with resistance to anti-folate drugs, most notably sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). Molecular studies document the prevalence of these mutations in parasite populations across the African continent. However, there is no systematic review examining the collective epidemiological significance of these studies. This meta-analysis attempts to: 1) summarize genotype frequency data that are critical for molecular surveillance of anti-folate resistance and 2) identify the specific challenges facing the development of future molecular databases.
Efficacy and toxicity of caspofungin in combination with liposomal amphotericin B as primary or salvage treatment of invasive aspergillosis in patients with hematologic malignancies

BACKGROUND Caspofungin (CAS) as salvage therapy for refractory invasive aspergillosis (IA) had a response rate of 45% among a heterogeneous group of patients. The use of CAS with other agents is appealing given its unique mechanism of action. Therefore, the authors retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of CAS plus liposomal amphotericin B (LipoAMB) in patients with documented (definite or probable) or possible IA. METHODS Patients were evaluable for outcome if they received CAS/LipoAMB for at least 7 days. Patients who received CAS and LipoAMB sequentially were excluded. All patients were evaluable for toxicity. Outcome was assessed weekly and at the end of therapy. Stable disease and progression were considered treatment failures. RESULTS Forty-eight patients with documented (n = 23) or possible (n = 25) IA were identified between March 2001 and December 2001. The majority of the patients (65%) received CAS/LipoAMB as salvage therapy for progressive IA despite 7 or more days of previous LipoAMB monotherapy. The overall response rate was 42%. No significant toxic effects were seen. Factors associated with failure at the end of therapy were documented IA (P = 0.03), significant steroid use before the study (P = 0.02), and duration of combination therapy for less than14 days (P =0.01). The response rate in patients with progressive documented IA was low (18%). CONCLUSIONS The CAS/LipoAMB combination is a promising preemptive therapy for IA and was generally well tolerated. This combination might have limited benefit as salvage therapy for documented IA. Cancer 2003;98:292–9. © 2003 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.11479
Expanded Geographical Range, New Host Accounts, and Observations of the Nematode Gyrinicola batrachiensis (Oxyuroidea: Pharyngodonidae) in Tadpoles

We describe the first account of the nematode Gyrinicola batrachiensis in the gastrointestinal tracts of tadpoles of Bufo terrestris, Gastrophryne carolinensis, Hyla femoralis, H. squirella, Rana heck- scheri, and R. utricularia. Infection by G. batrachiensis was also noted in tadpoles of R. catesbeiana and R. clamitans, species previously de- scribed as harboring these nematodes. These observations represent a major expansion of the known geographical range of G. batrachiensis to include the southeastern United States. In our study, female G. ba- trachiensis nematodes in ranid host species were didelphic, but females in B. terrestris tadpoles were monodelphic. Furthermore, only female nematodes were found in the latter host species. Such variations in nematode uterine morphology and sex ratios among these tadpole host species are in accordance with the apomictic and haplodiploid repro- ductive strategies previously reported for G. batrachiensis. These ob- servations also support a generalized pattern relating G. batrachiensis reproductive modes and the life cycles of their tadpole hosts.
Responses of Vestibular Nuclear Neurons to Macular Input

Publisher Summary Changes in afferent input from macular receptors, produced by tilting the head with respect to gravity, can modulate discharge rates of neurons in all 4 major vestibular nuclei. All second-order vestibular neurons studied in a recent investigation are found to respond to tilting in opposite directions with rate changes of opposite sign. Complex responses, including all possible combinations of rate increases and decreases, are obtained from higher-order neurons. The largest responses to tilting are exhibited by second-order neurons in Deiters' nucleus and the descending nucleus, indicating that these neurons receive extensive input from macular afferent fibers. In agreement with the known patterns of reflex responses to tilting, the average discharge rate of vestibulospinal tract neurons, projecting to the cervicothoracic spinal cord, has been found to increase during tilt toward the ipsilateral side and decrease during tilt toward the opposite side, whereas the average discharge rate of neurons projecting to the lumbo-sacral spinal cord increased during tilt in both directions. Analysis of this data has shown that the difference in response between the two neuronal populations is related to the anatomical organization of Deiters' nucleus but has failed to reveal the significance of the large variability of responses evoked by the same tilt stimulus.
Zusammenarbeit in interdisziplinären Rehabilitationsteams

8. Prinzip: Der Umgang mit Hirngeschadigten lost im familiaren Umfeld und im Rehabilitationsteam bestimmte emotionale Reaktionen aus. Das angemessene Management dieser Reaktionen ist von entscheidender Bedeutung fur den Rehabilitations-und Adaptationsprozess.
Competitive Dynamics: Competition as Action-Response

This note provides a guide for exploring interfirm rivalry through the dyadic lens and for predicting competitive responses using the awareness-motivation-capability perspective, with the goal of expanding strategists understanding and management of competitive engagements at the most basic level. Competitive dynamics is the analysis of competition at the action and response level to predict how a firm will act or react against opponents. Understanding engagements at this level is essential because this is where firms enact their strategies, test their opponents mettle and capabilities, defend their reputations, and signal their toughness--that is, where business rivalry occurs. The dyadic or pair-wise approach of competitive dynamics makes possible focused analysis that complements Michael Porters conventional industry structure and its extension, the strategic groups approach.
Advocating for the Adoption of West Virginia’s Substantial Burden Standard Across the Mining States

Horizontal severance deeds separate property above and below the surface of land. In such deeds, typically the property rights below belong to mineral owners while property rights above belong to farmers. In most states, common law trespass utilizes what is generally known as the reasonable necessity doctrine to account for the rights that each owner has to enjoy in connection with his respective property. This doctrine has evolved over time and establishes the degree of surface damage that mineral owners can cause in accessing minerals below without becoming liable to the surface owner for damages. Recently, West Virginia made its standard more rigorous by prohibiting mineral owners from substantially burdening the surface estate. If other mining states like Texas and Pennsylvania were to incorporate West Virginia’s heightened standard into their respective doctrines, then the farming industry may receive greater national protection. And, since farming is currently thriving, heightened protection may even lead to greater national economic growth.
Improving Self-Esteem in General Music

Positive self-esteem helps students succeed in and outside of music classrooms. High self-esteem is associated with a positive self-image and fine musicianship. Conversely, low self-esteem is associated with a negative self-image and poorer musicianship. Because students’ self-esteem may affect their participation in music classes, the music teacher should help students improve self-esteem while simultaneously building musical skills. Music experiences should take place in a safe environment with a trained music specialist who has a positive rapport with students and integrates their interests. Activities should be developmentally appropriate and adequately challenge students, while allowing for success. Researchers have demonstrated that singing, playing instruments, experiencing a variety of musical styles, moving, building musical knowledge, and creating can help students develop musical skills and improve their self-esteem.
Thermodynamic analysis of osmotic energy recovery at a reverse osmosis desalination plant.

Recent years have seen a substantial reduction of the specific energy consumption (SEC) in seawater reverse osmosis (RO) desalination due to improvements made in hydraulic energy recovery (HER) as well as RO membranes and related process technologies. Theoretically, significant potential for further reduction in energy consumption may lie in harvesting the high chemical potential contained in RO concentrate using salinity gradient power technologies. Herein, “osmotic energy recovery” (OER) is evaluated in a seawater RO plant that includes state-of-the-art RO membranes, plant designs, operating conditions, and HER technology. Here we assume the use of treated wastewater effluent as the OER dilute feed, which may not be available in suitable quality or quantity to allow operation of the coupled process. A two-stage OER configuration could reduce the SEC of seawater RO plants to well below the theoretical minimum work of separation for state-of-the-art RO-HER configurations with a breakeven OER CAPEX equival...
Halomethyl-metal compounds

Abstract The phenyl(dihalocarboalkoxymethyl)mercury compounds PhHgCCl 2 CO 2 CH 3 , PhHgCClBrCO 2 CH 3 , PhHgCBr 2 CO 2 CH 3 , PhHgCCl 2 CO 2 CH 2 CHCH 2 and PhHgCCl 2 CO 2 CMe 3 have been prepared by the reaction of phenylmercuric chloride, the appropriate dihaloacetic acid ester and Me 3 COK · Me 3 COH in THF at −50° to −65°. The first two mercurials were found to transfer ClCCO 2 CH 3 to olefins and to triethylsilane, while the third proved to be a source of BrCCO 2 CH 3 . The rather high stability of these mercury compounds, however, limits their application in the synthesis of carbomethoxy-substituted cyclopropanes.
Amyloid Cardiomyopathy: All that sparkles is Amyloid

A 73 year old female with no past medical history presented to our emergency department (ED) with gradually worsening shortness of breath for a few weeks. She denied any associated complaints of chest pain, palpitations or dizziness. On physical exam, the patient had bilateral rales at the lung bases. The electrocardiogram showed low voltage complexes with right bundle branch block and left anterior fascicular block (Figure 1). The laboratory work came back significant for an elevated BNP (1452 pg/ml) with a normal complete blood count, serum chemistry and negative cardiac biomarkers. The patient was treated with intravenous diuretics in the ED and admitted to a telemetry floor.
Parameter Optimization for HVDC Control System Based on PSCAD-MATLAB Combined Invocation

For optimizing the parameters of high voltage direct current transmission(HVDC) control system, we proposed a novel method based on PSCAD-MATLAB combined invocation. The possibility and basic principle of the combined invocation were discussed, and then the main optimizing procedure was described in detail. On the basis of the CIGRE HVDC benchmark model, we optimized the PI controller parameters of constant current control system at rectifier side by using the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm. Comparison between the primary parameters, parameters optimized by the optimal method based on transfer function, and parameters optimized by combined invocation based on the proposed method indicates that the proposed method effectively optimizes the parameters in the control system and improves both the systems transient and steady state performances through reflecting the actual performance of HVDC system accurately. The high global searching ability of the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm contributes to the improvement greatly. The proposed method is a valid reference for optimization of HVDC control systems.
A Dangerous Method: Sight Unseen

In A Dangerous Method , David Cronenberg turns his cinematic method inside out. By shifting his attention to the absence, loss, and emptiness of repression triumphant as intensively as he usually focuses on the shock, horror, and ambivalent ecstasy of repression overturned, Cronenberg sharpens the pain that characterizes his cinematic vision.
Recent Applications to Communications

Modern-day communication often involves multiple transmitters and receivers. These are related by something called a channel matrix. The challenge of coding theory here becomes one of finding well-spaced matrices instead of wellspaced vectors, which can be accomplished through some group theory or division ring theory. The second topic in this chapter is quasirandom (so-called low discrepancy) sequences, which are good for applications in the theory of algebraicgeometry codes and also in mathematical finance.
The life and legacy of Dr. Ransom Leland (‘Lee’) Baldwin V

Professor Ransom Leland (‘Lee’) Baldwin was born on September 21, 1935, in Meriden, Connecticut. Lee was the eldest of three children raised on the family dairy farm. He grew up milking dairy cows and this background led to his lifelong commitment to the dairy industry. Lee attended the University of Connecticut and earned a B.S. in animal industries.
Current trends and implications

Even a cursory examination cannot avoid observing the similarities in the development patterns of community policing in the four countries examined in this book. Police reform was initiated in reaction to — publicly exposed — internal police corruption (Walker, 1976), or as an attempt to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the police in its handling of crime and fear of crime, and responding to the local — neighbourhood-based — service needs of citizens (Kelling and Stewart, 1989). The unprecedented, genuine, reaching out to the community is a common characteristic — to one degree or another — to all the countries reviewed here, as if their police chiefs, inspector generals and other high police and public officials held an international conference and decided jointly to embark on community-oriented policing. It is clear that the new direction employs a significant transition in policing strategies and tactics from those of previous practices. What underlined all such widespread efforts was the search for a proper response to the perceived need to ‘improve relations with the community’.
Women and the Japanese Economic Performance

Much has been written about Japanese economic performance in the twentieth century, and especially over the past thirty years. Japanese economic growth is viewed by some as a ‘paradox’, given the seeming limitations on mobility of the labour force. This view, in my judgement, reflects misperceptions of the life-commitment (and nenko) system; in fact this system has a high degree of internal adaptability and has proven flexible also in innovative organisation of linkages of larger firms with the rest of the economy through various subcontracting arrangements. More recently there has been a tendency to marvel at the low level of unemployment in Japan, and various explanations of this aspect of Japanese performance have been expounded both in Japan and in the West. Among the most interesting explanations are the wage flexibility provided by the bonus system (recognition of which is begining to spread in the United States) and the proposition by some Japanese economists that there are strong culturally based protections of employment within the informal spheres of the economy. However, no assessment of the Japanese economic dynamism has systematically examined the roles of women in that performance, despite sociological and related studies about women in Japan and even about women at work.1
Bone Structure and Function

This chapter discusses the normal structure and function of the skeleton and the various ways it is regulated. The skeleton is both an organ and a type of connective tissue. Knowledge of its various identifiable parts greatly facilitates an understanding of skeletal function and also the disease processes that can occur. Normally, the major skeletal processes of resorption and formation are tightly coupled. This feature plays a role in the normal function of skeletal renewal. Disturbances of the remodeling cycle can be seen in a number of generalized skeletal disorders including metabolic bone disease and conditions such as Paget disease. This chapter discusses the macroscopic and microscopic anatomy of the skeleton as well as its biochemical makeup. It introduces the emerging information about the molecular control of bone cells and the skeletal processes.
Foreign Aid and Voting in International Organizations: Evidence from the International Whaling Commission (IWC)

I use a unique dispute between major aid donors in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to investigate whether donor nations change their aid giving in response to changes in aid recipients’ voting behavior inside international organizations (IOs). This relationship is difficult to pin down in most IOs because agenda items constantly change and donor coalitions fluctuate with them. I exploit the fact that the IWC has, on the one hand, seen two fixed aid donor blocs opposing each other for three decades over a single issue, but has on the other hand seen rich variation in both membership and voting behavior of aid recipient countries. Using an identification strategy that relates changes in bilateral aid to within-recipient variation in IWC voting-bloc affiliation and fixed cross-sectional variation in donors’ voting bloc, the evidence suggests that Japan rewards joining the pro-whaling bloc, and that countries who recently experienced aid reductions from the three big anti-whaling donors – the U.S., the U.K., and France – are more likely to join the pro-whaling bloc.
Estimating Incremental Validity Under Missing Data.

ABSTRACTA common form of missing data is caused by selection on an observed variable (e.g., Z). If the selection variable was measured and is available, the data are regarded as missing at random (MAR). Selection biases correlation, reliability, and effect size estimates when these estimates are computed on listwise deleted (LD) data sets. On the other hand, maximum likelihood (ML) estimates are generally unbiased and outperform LD in most situations, at least when the data are MAR. The exception is when we estimate the partial correlation. In this situation, LD estimates are unbiased when the cause of missingness is partialled out. In other words, there is no advantage of ML estimates over LD estimates in this situation. We demonstrate that under a MAR condition, even ML estimates may become biased, depending on how partial correlations are computed. Finally, we conclude with recommendations about how future researchers might estimate partial correlations even when the cause of missingness is unknown and...
Big Talk in the Little City: Grassroots Resistance by and for the Common/s

This chapter sets out to do two things. First and foremost, the authors tell the story of a grassroots reimagining of urban development and community as a site of radical democratic action in Geneva, NY, wherein a broad-based interracial coalition of progressive, left, Black nationalist, and civil rights activists mobilized to redress a neoliberal land-use initiative that aimed to legitimize the privatization of public spaces. Second, and intertwined, we situate this story in the contemporary literature on neoliberal urban development and how current protests and rebellions are offering new ways of thinking the relationship between public space, democratic ideals, and the educative potentiality of a renewed commons.
The Most Intense Electron-Scale Current Sheets in the Solar Wind

Previous analysis of magnetohydrodynamic-scale currents in high-speed solar wind near 1 AU suggests that the most intense current-carrying structures occur at electron scales and are characterized by average current densities on the order of $1~\mbox{pA}/\mbox{cm}^{2}$ . Here, this prediction is verified by examining the effects of the measurement bandwidth and/or measurement resolution on the analysis of synthetic solar wind signals. Assuming Taylor’s hypothesis holds for the energetically dominant fluctuations at kinetic scales, the results show that when $\nu_{c}\gg \nu_{b}$ , where $\nu_{c}$ is the measurement bandwidth and $\nu_{b} \approx 1/3~\mbox{Hz}$ is the break frequency, the average scale of the most intense fluctuations in the current density proxy is approximately $1/\nu_{c}$ , and the average peak current density is a weakly increasing function that scales approximately like $\nu_{c}^{0.1}$ .
Memory-Efficient Probabilistic 2-D Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter

High memory/storage complexity poses severe challenges to achieving high throughput and high energy efficiency in discrete 2-D FIR filtering. This performance bottleneck is especially acute for embedded image or video applications, that use 2-D FIR processing extensively, because real-time processing and low power consumption are their paramount design objectives. Fortunately, most of such perception-based embedded applications possess so-called “inherent fault tolerance”, meaning slight computing accuracy degradation has a little negative effect on their quality of results, but has significant implication to their throughput, hardware implementation cost, and energy efficiency. This paper develops a novel stochastic-based 2-D FIR filtering architecture that exploits the well-known probabilistic convolution theorem to achieve both low hardware cost and high energy efficiency while achieving very high throughput and computing robustness. Our ASIC synthesis results show that stochastic-based architecture achieves $L$ outputs per cycle with 97 and 81 percent less area-delay-product (ADP), and 77 and 67 percent less power consumption compared with the conventional structure and recently published state-of-the-art architecture, respectively, when the 2-D FIR filter size is $4 \times 4$ , the input block size is $L=4$ , and the image size is $512 \times 512$ .
An Intercepting API-Based Access Control Approach for Mobile Applications

Mobile device users employ mobile applications to realize tasks once limited to desktop devices, e.g., web browsing, media (audio, video), managing health and fitness data, etc. While almost all of these applications require a degree of authentication and authorization, some involve highly sensitive data (PII and PHI) that must be strictly controlled as it is exchanged back and forth between the mobile application and its server side repository/database. Role-based access control (RBAC) is a candidate to protect highly sensitive data of such applications. There has been recent research related to authorization in mobile computing that has focused on extending RBAC to provide a finer-grained access control. However, most of these approaches attempt to apply RBAC at the application-level of the mobile device and/or require modifications to the mobile OS. In contrast, the research presented in this paper focuses on applying RBAC to the business layer of a mobile application, specifically to the API(s) that a mobile application utilizes to manage data. To support this, we propose an API-Based approach to RBAC for permission definition and enforcement that intercepts API service calls to alter information delivered/stored to the app. The proposed intercepting API-based approach is demonstrated via an existing mHealth application.
Association of SDF1 inhibition with local control and relative cerebral blood volume of glioblastoma.

2058Background: Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor, with 75-85% of patients historically having recurrence within the original tumor site. We have shown in preclinic...
Multigroup Propensity Score Approach to Evaluating an Effectiveness Trial of the New Beginnings Program

We used a multigroup propensity score approach to evaluate a randomized effectiveness trial of the New Beginnings Program (NBP), an intervention targeting divorced or separated families. Two featur...
Si Oxidation and H2 Gassing During Aqueous Slurry Preparation for Li-Ion Battery Anodes

Si has the possibility to greatly increase the energy density of Li-ion battery anodes, though it is not without its problems. One issue often overlooked is the decomposition of Si during large scale slurry formulation and battery fabrication. Here, we investigate the mechanism of H2 production to understand the role of different slurry components and their impact on the Si oxidation and surface chemistry. Mass spectrometry and in situ pressure monitoring identifies that carbon black plays a major role in promoting the oxidation of Si and generation of H2. Si oxidation also occurs through atmospheric O2 consumption. Both pathways, along with solvent choice, impact the surface silanol chemistry, as analyzed by 1H–29Si cross-polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR FTIR). An understanding of the oxidation of Si, during slurry processing, provides a pathway toward improving the manufacturing of Si base...
Robust feature bundling

In this work we present a feature bundling technique that aggregates individual local features with features from their spatial neighborhood into bundles. The resulting bundles carry more information of the underlying image content than single visual words. As in practice an exact search for such bundles is infeasible, we employ a robust approximate similarity search with min-hashing in order to retrieve images containing similar bundles. We demonstrate the benefits of these bundles for small object retrieval, i.e. logo recognition, and generic image retrieval. Multiple bundling strategies are explored and thoroughly evaluated on three different datasets.
Analog Implicit Functional Testing using Supervised Machine Learning

Testing analog circuits is more difficult than digital circuits. The reasons for this difficulty include continuous time and amplitude signals, lack of well-accepted testing techniques and time and cost required for its realization. The traditional method for testing analog circuits involves measuring all the performance parameters and comparing the measured parameters with the limits of the data-sheet specifications. Because of the large number of data-sheet specifications, the test generation and application requires long test times and expensive test equipment. This thesis proposes an implicit functional testing technique for analog circuits that can be easily implemented in BIST circuitry. The proposed technique does not require measuring data-sheet performance parameters. To simplify the testing only time domain digital input is required. For each circuit under test (CUT) a cross-covariance signature is computed from the test input and CUT’s output. The proposed method requires a training sample of the CUT to be binned to the data-sheet specifications. The binned CUT sample cross-covariance signatures are mapped with a supervised machine learning classifier. For each bin, the classifiers select unique sub-sets of the cross-covariance signature. The trained classifier is then used to bin newly manufactured copies of the CUT. The proposed technique is evaluated on synthetic data generated from the Monte Carlo simulation of the nominal circuit. Results show the machine learning classifier must be chosen to match the imbalanced bin populations common in analog circuit testing. For sample sizes of 700+ and training for individual bins, classifier test escape rates ranged from 1000 DPM to 10,000 DPM.
NOVEL METHODS FOR RECOVERY OF MARINE KEROGEN AND BITUMEN

Publisher Summary The oceans and seas contain 2.6 x 1012 tons of organic matter, which is approximately equal to the world's resources of coal or peat. A large portion of this organic matter is entrapped among the conglomeration of mineral particles, shells and skeletons of marine organisms, and natural marine rocks forming the marine sediments. In its present state, the dissolved organic matter is inaccessible because of its prior adsorption by suspended mineral particles to form a firmly bonded, insoluble mass. The sources of marine organic matter are atmospheric and riverine introduction of pollutants, accidental spillages, decompositional debris of marine organisms, metabolic end products from natural biota, and the numerous forms of intermediates derived from the interaction among the various decomposed products of living organism. Thus, stable terrestrial organic molecules can be treated as end products or different stages in the geochemical diagenic process of simple bioorganic molecules. Because of the similarities in genesis, physical, and chemical properties between the marine and oil shale kerogens and between the marine bitumen and tar sands, both marine kerogen and bitumen have undergone serious consideration as alternative energy sources.
Psychiatry in Quest after Orientation

The traditional gap between scholarly studies of facts and principles on the one hand, and the practical solution of human problems concerning these facts, on the other hand, has in certain fields been considerably narrowed. The mathematical and empirical sciences have been able to directly apply their theories through universal techniques to the needs of human life. The classic discrepancy between theory and practice seems to have been overcome by the latter. Psychiatry, however, remains ambivalent about its ability to integrate psychiatric theory and practice. For example, in spite of enormous advances in the scientific study of human behavior and mental disorders over the past twenty-five years, public mental health services are in disarray.1 In addition, a proliferation of competing theoretical and treatment programs has emerged. Estimates indicate up to 200 or more “brand names” of psychotherapies.2 In 1984, an editorial in a leading medical journal, Lancet,.challenged the psychotherapies to demonstrate their effectiveness.3 The psychiatric field’s difficulties in extending its scientific advances to its practical domain partially lie in its dual nature. Psychiatry simultaneously belongs to the empirical study of mental illness and human behavior as well as to the humanistic study and treatment of the human mind and emotional suffering. In spite of psychiatry’s striving to achieve scientific universality in its practical usefulness, it still remains in reality much closer in its applications to art than to technique.4 [This fact generates considerable criticism and controversy.] The humanistic domain of psychiatry brings the scholar and the scientist into a confrontation between lived human experience and theoretical conjecture about it. In fact, reality keeps the scientific imagination in check. For example, empirical approaches provide inadequate solutions to the suffering of the homeless patients living on our country’s streets. Like any technical application of science to the practical needs of human life, psychiatry deals directly with the concrete: in concurrence with the concrete human person. However, while the technical application of science deals with the application of universal principles, psychiatry in radical contrast deals more often than not with unique concrete situations.5 For example, although depressive illness might exhibit core depressive symptoms, each individual experiences his or her sadness within a unique and highly personal social and psychological context. However, each situation is a unique and unrepeatable occasion for the practitioner to apply whatever the scientific theories may support. Groping for the appropriate attitude toward the psychiatric patient, the practitioner has to have clearly in mind an aim and a direction toward which to direct his treatment.
Patterns of care and treatment outcomes of patients with stage I esophageal cancer: A National Cancer Database analysis.

4035Background: The aim of this study was to examine current patterns of care and associated outcomes for patients with stage I esophageal cancer (EC) treated in the United States. Methods: The Nat...
Harnessing Macrophages for Vascularization in Tissue Engineering

In this review, we explore the roles of macrophages both in vessel development and in vascularization of tissue engineered constructs. Upon the implantation of tissue engineered constructs into the body, macrophages respond, invade and orchestrate the host’s immune response. By altering their phenotype, macrophages can adopt a variety of roles. They can promote inflammation at the site of the implanted construct; they can also promote tissue repair. Macrophages support tissue repair by promoting angiogenesis through the secretion of pro-angiogenic cytokines and by behaving as support cells for nascent vasculature. Thus, the ability to manipulate the macrophage phenotype may yield macrophages capable of supporting vessel development. Moreover, macrophages are an easily isolated autologous cell source. For the generation of vascularized constructs outside of the body, these isolated macrophages can also be skewed to adopt a pro-angiogenic phenotype and enhance blood vessel development in the presence of endothelial cells. To assess the influence of macrophages on vessel development, both in vivo and in vitro models have been developed. Additionally, several groups have demonstrated the pro-angiogenic roles of macrophages in vascularization of tissue engineered constructs through the manipulation of macrophage phenotypes. This review comments on the roles of macrophages in promoting vascularization within these contexts.
College Students and Nature: Differing Thoughts of Fear, Danger, Disconnection, and Loathing.

Despite the existence of a robust body of research that investigates human–nature connections, few scholars have examined what people tend to ponder when they think of nature. The objective of the study is to find out how college and university students think about nature. The study also seeks to identify which factors are most significant in influencing students’ thoughts about nature. This paper analyzes racial, gender, class, and academic differences in the way college students think about nature. The study of 287 American students found that respondents thought about a wide range of concepts and ideas when they contemplate nature. This article focuses on the demographic differences in thoughts about fear, danger, and loathing. This set of ideas has been the subject of scholarly research, and the findings presented herein contribute to this body of scholarship. The paper discusses both descriptive and multivariate techniques that are used to explore the topic. The study found that white students are less likely than racial/ethnic minorities to think about disconnection, predators, getting lost, loathsome or hateful places, fear, and danger when they think of nature. However, the results also show that it would be inaccurate to describe racial/ethnic minorities as universally fearful of and disconnected from nature. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that race is not the only explanatory variable that has significant impacts in multivariate models—the student’s academic interest has significant impacts on thoughts about natural hazards, disconnection, predators, human-made hazards, and loathsome or hateful places. Gender, age, parental education, and first-generation college attendance also has significant impacts on the dependent variables.
Perspective: Refined Grains and Health: Genuine Risk, or Guilt by Association?

Refined grain intake is widely assumed to be associated with adverse health outcomes, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and obesity. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommended that to improve dietary quality, the US population should replace most refined grains with whole grains. This recommendation was based largely on results from studies that examined dietary patterns, not separate food groups. A Western dietary pattern typically includes red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, French fries, and high-fat dairy products, as well as refined grains, and has been linked to increased risk of many chronic diseases. However, when evaluated as a distinct food category, 11 meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies, which included a total of 32 publications with data from 24 distinct cohorts, demonstrated that refined grain intake was not associated with all-cause mortality, T2D, CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, hypertension, or cancer. By contrast, consumption of red and processed meat was consistently associated with increased risk of these same health outcomes. Refined grain consumption up to 6-7 servings/d (1 serving = 30 g) was not associated with higher risk of CHD, T2D, hypertension, or all-cause mortality. Moreover, total grain intake was not associated with risk of CVD, CHD, stroke, or cancer, but was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality. Consequently, the recommendation to reduce refined grain intake based on results from studies linking a Western dietary pattern to numerous adverse health outcomes is contrary to a substantial body of published scientific evidence. Future research needs to better define refined grain intake to distinguish between staple grain foods and indulgent grain foods, and to better design randomized controlled trials to resolve discrepancies between results from observational studies and such trials with regard to determining the benefits of whole grains compared with refined grains.
The cryo-EM structure of human CST reveals a two-megadalton decameric assembly bound to telomeric DNA

The single-stranded DNA-binding CTC1-STN1-TEN1 (CST) complex is essential for telomere maintenance and genome-wide replication recovery, processes that are critical for genome stability. Here, we report the 2.95 A cryo-EM structure of human CST bound to telomeric single-stranded DNA, which unexpectedly assembles as a decameric supercomplex. The atomic model of the 134 kDa CTC1, built almost entirely de novo, reveals the overall architecture of CST and the DNA-binding anchor site. In situ arrangements of STN1 and TEN1 are revealed, with STN1 interacting with CTC1 at two separated sites, allowing allosteric mediation of CST decameric assembly. Surprisingly, CTC1 lacks the anticipated structural homology to yeast Cdc13 but instead shares similarity with a form of Replication Protein A. The atomic-resolution model of human CST provides crucial mechanistic understanding of CST mutations associated with human diseases. Moreover, the decameric form of CST suggests the intriguing possibility of ssDNA architectural organization similar to what the nucleosome provides for dsDNA.
Does Parents’ Union Instability Disrupt Intergenerational Advantage? An Analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa

The long arm of childhood, with its wide-ranging influence on individuals' life chances, highlights the importance of understanding the determinants of health in early life. Research has established that parents' education is a major determinant of childhood health, but children across the globe increasingly experience their parents' divorce and subsequent remarriage, raising questions of whether union instability alters these intergenerational processes. Does divorce and remarriage interfere with parents' education benefiting their young children's health? I explore this question in sub-Saharan Africa, a world region where parents' education plays a major role in protecting children against severe health risks, and where young children commonly experience parental divorce and remarriage. Moreover, sub-Saharan Africa features distinct family lineage systems, affording an opportunity to explore this question in both majority matrilineal and patrilineal contexts. Analyses of Demographic and Health Survey data on 271,292 children in 30 sub-Saharan African countries offer no evidence that the high levels of union instability in the region will weaken the health benefits of parents' education for future generations. Following divorce, children benefit from their biological parents' education to the same degree as children with married parents-a finding that is consistent across lineage contexts. Moreover, stepfathers' education corresponds with pronounced health benefits for their coresident stepchildren, particularly in patrilineal regions where these children benefit less dramatically from their mothers' education. Together, the study results offer a renewed sense of the importance of parents'-including stepfathers'-education for early childhood health across diverse family structures.
Speaking Clearly for the Hard of Hearing II: Acoustic Characteristics of Clear and Conversational Speech.

The first paper of this series (Picheny, Durlach, & Braida, 1985) presented evidence that there are substantial intelligibility differences for hearing-impaired listeners between nonsense sentences spoken in a conversational manner and spoken with the effort to produce clear speech. In this paper, we report the results of acoustic analyses performed on the conversational and clear speech. Among these results are the following. First, speaking rate decreases substantially in clear speech. This decrease is achieved both by inserting pauses between words and by lengthening the durations of individual speech sounds. Second, there are differences between the two speaking modes in the numbers and types of phonological phenomena observed. In conversational speech, vowels are modified or reduced, and word-final stop bursts are often not released. In clear speech, vowels are modified to a lesser extent, and stop bursts, as well as essentially all word-final consonants, are released. Third, the RMS intensities for obstruent sounds, particularly stop consonants, is greater in clear speech than in conversational speech. Finally, changes in the long-term spectrum are small. Thus, speaking clearly cannot be regarded as equivalent to the application of high-frequency emphasis.
Prospective assessment of Clostridioides (formerly Clostridium) difficile colonization and acquisition in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients

Background Patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) possess numerous risk factors for Clostridioides (formerly Clostridium) difficile infection (CDI) and experience a high rate of diarrhea. Colonization rates of Clostridium difficile vary greatly among subgroup analyses with recent studies demonstrating colonization rates in the blood and marrow transplant units up to nine times that of the general population. Methods The primary objectives of this study were to identify the rate of C difficile colonization and acquisition in HSCT patients admitted to the blood and marrow transplant unit. This was a prospective study that included all adult patients admitted for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Stool specimens were routinely collected on admission and weekly thereafter for a maximum of six samples per patient. Results Forty-two patients met inclusion criteria and had baseline samples available for analysis. The rate of C difficile colonization on admission was 24%, and an additional 9% of patients acquired the organism during admission. Twelve percent of patients developed CDI that was diagnosed clinically. Univariate analysis showed an increased risk of colonization for patients with three or more prior chemotherapy cycles. Conclusions Given high colonization rates coupled with high risk of CDI in this population, providers must be judicious when testing for CDI and interpreting test results for HSCT patients.
Detecting Early-warning signals in Time Series of Visits to Points of Interests to Examine Population Response to COVID -19 Pandemic

The objective of this paper is to examine population response to COVID-19 and associated policy interventions through detecting early-warning signals in time series of visits to points of interest (POIs). Complex systems, such as cities, demonstrate early-warning signals when they approach phase transitions responding to external perturbation, including crises, policy changes, and human behavior changes. In urban systems, population visits to POIs represent a state in the complex systems that are cities. These states may undergo phase transitions due to population response to pandemic risks and intervention policies. In this study, we conducted early-warning signal detection on population visits to POIs to examine population response to pandemic risks. We examined two early-warning signals, the increase of autocorrelation at-lag-1 and standard deviation, in time series of population visits to POIs in 17 metropolitan cities in the United States of America. The results show that: (1) early-warning signals for population response to COVID-19 were detected between February 14 and March 11, 2020 in 17 cities; (2) detected population response had started prior to shelter-in-place orders in 17 cities; (3) early-warning signals detected from the essential POIs visits appeared earlier than those from non-essential POIs; and 4) longer time lags between detected population response and shelter-in-place orders led to a less decrease in POI visits. The results show the importance of detecting early-warning signals during crises in cities as complex systems. Early-warning signals could provide important insights regarding the timing and extent of population response to crises to inform policy makers.
Th e Role of International Boundaries in Flood Hazard, Social Vulnerabilityand Disaster: A Bi-National Case Study of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila and Del Rio, Texas

Resumen en: Th is paper investigates vulnerability and fl ood hazard in two borderland communities. A model for assessing vulnerability is applied to U.S. and Mex...