cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterizing Processors for Energy and Performance Management

A processor executes a computing job in a certain number of clock cycles. The clock frequency determines the time that the job will take. Another parameter, cycle efficiency or cycles per joule, determines how much energy the job will consume. The execution time measures performance and, in combination with energy dissipation, influences power, thermal behavior, power supply noise and battery life. We describe a method for power management of a processor. An Intel processor in 32nm bulk CMOS technology is used as an illustrative example. First, we characterize the technology by H-spice simulation of a ripple carry adder for critical path delay, dynamic energy and static power at a wide range of supply voltages. The adder data is then scaled based on the clock frequency, supply voltage, thermal design power (TDP) and other specifications of the processor. To optimize the time and energy performance, voltage and clock frequency are determined showing 28% reduction both in execution time and energy dissipation.
Advances in the management of castration resistant prostate cancer

Docetaxel based chemotherapy showed survival benefit and emerged as the mainstay of treatment for castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in 2004. However, therapeutic options have expanded rapidly since 2011. The spectrum of new agents is broad and includes drugs that target the androgen axis (enzalutamide, abiraterone), immunotherapy (sipuleucel-T), bone seeking radionuclides (radium-223), and second line chemotherapy (cabazitaxel). In addition, new agents have been developed to reduce skeletal related events (denosumab). Given that docetaxel was the standard first line treatment for metastatic CRPC, the newer oral agents that affect the androgen axis were initially approved in the post-docetaxel setting. However, subsequent randomized trials have led to their approval in the pre-chemotherapy setting as well. Patients with CRPC are clinically heterogeneous, ranging from patients who are asymptomatic and do not have metastases to those with substantial symptoms and both bony and visceral metastases. CRPC is a clinically challenging disease entity, therefore, with a wide array of treatment options and multiple possible sequencing combinations depending on the individual patient. This review will summarize the findings of the randomized trials that led to the approval of the therapies for CRPC. It will also discuss recent guidelines and provide suggestions for sequencing of drugs based on the best available evidence.
PHAP: Password based Hardware Authentication using PUFs

Hardware security is gaining significant importance with more emphasis on integrated circuit identification and authentication. To facilitate this process, Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) have been proposed as a viable solution. Many of the existing PUF based authentication protocols help to authenticate the device and does not authenticate the user. Here, we present Password based Hardware Authentication using PUF (PHAP), a system that can distinguish between a trusted party and an adversary based on a simple user password during authentication. The hardware authentication is accomplished by providing a seed to a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) in PHAP, whose output will serve as the final challenge for a PUF block. The seed is obtained by interleaving a shared secret key (session password) with an initial PUF response corresponding to the challenge sent by trusted authority for authentication. We also show that the time difference between real time execution of the system by a trusted party and simulation time by an adversary can be very large which is an attractive property of the new Simulation Possible but Laborious (SIMPL) systems. Our simulation results show that the probability of an adversary successfully attacking the system (by predicting user/session password) is very low (<;10-6%) for a given tmax (10 ms), where tmax is the time within which the response must be computed for valid authentication.
Tier 2 response to intervention in secondary mathematics education

Response to intervention (RtI) is increasingly being used in elementary and secondary schools both to provide early intervention and support to struggling students and to identify students who may ...
Review of Randomized Controlled Trials of Massage in Preterm Infants

Preterm birth affects about 10% of infants born in the United States. Massage therapy is being used in some neonatal intensive care units for its potential beneficial effects on preterm infants. This article reviews published randomized controlled trials on the effects of massage in preterm infants. Most studies evaluating the effect of massage in weight gain in premature infants suggest a positive effect on weight gain. Increase in vagal tone has been reported in infants who receive massage and has been suggested as a possible mechanism for improved weight gain. More studies are needed on the underlying mechanisms of the effects of massage therapy on weight gain in preterm infants. While some trials suggest improvements in developmental scores, decreased stress behavior, positive effects on immune system, improved pain tolerance and earlier discharge from the hospital, the number of such studies is small and further evidence is needed. Further studies, including randomized controlled trials, are needed on the effects of massage in preterm infants.
Event-related potentials reflect impaired temporal interval learning following haloperidol administration

Signals carried by the mesencephalic dopamine system and conveyed to anterior cingulate cortex are critically implicated in probabilistic reward learning and performance monitoring. A common evaluative mechanism purportedly subserves both functions, giving rise to homologous medial frontal negativities in feedback- and response-locked event-related brain potentials (the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the error-related negativity (ERN), respectively), reflecting dopamine-dependent prediction error signals to unexpectedly negative events. Consistent with this model, the dopamine receptor antagonist, haloperidol, attenuates the ERN, but effects on FRN have not yet been evaluated. ERN and FRN were recorded during a temporal interval learning task (TILT) following randomized, double-blind administration of haloperidol (3 mg; n = 18), diphenhydramine (an active control for haloperidol; 25 mg; n = 20), or placebo (n = 21) to healthy controls. Centroparietal positivities, the Pe and feedback-locked P300, were also measured and correlations between ERP measures and behavioral indices of learning, overall accuracy, and post-error compensatory behavior were evaluated. We hypothesized that haloperidol would reduce ERN and FRN, but that ERN would uniquely track automatic, error-related performance adjustments, while FRN would be associated with learning and overall accuracy. As predicted, ERN was reduced by haloperidol and in those exhibiting less adaptive post-error performance; however, these effects were limited to ERNs following fast timing errors. In contrast, the FRN was not affected by drug condition, although increased FRN amplitude was associated with improved accuracy. Significant drug effects on centroparietal positivities were also absent. Our results support a functional and neurobiological dissociation between the ERN and FRN.
Cognitive functioning and quality of life following chemotherapy in pre- and peri-menopausal women with breast cancer.

The purpose of the study was to prospectively examine changes in subjective and objective cognitive functions and quality of life (QOL) for pre- and peri-menopausal women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer and to explore potential predictors of cognitive changes. Participants were assessed as follows: prior to chemotherapy (T1), after cycle 3 (T2), within 2–3 weeks of completing adjuvant chemotherapy (T3) (N = 20), and 8+ years later (T4; n = 18). Objective cognitive function was measured with the High Sensitivity Cognitive Screen (T1, T3, T4). Subjective measures for cognitive function, depressive symptoms, fatigue, and mental and physical QOL were assessed at all time points. Estradiol levels were measured at T1, T2, and T3. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognition and the MD Anderson Cancer Symptom Inventory item for neuropathy were administered at T4. No significant changes in objective cognitive function were found. However, participants reported decreased cognitive function over the course of treatment accompanied by depressive symptoms and fatigue. Depression and fatigue returned to near-baseline levels at T4, but over half of the participants continued to report mild to moderate depression. Estradiol levels were not associated with cognitive function. Neuropathy and higher body mass index (BMI) were associated with persistent cognitive complaints at T4 (adjusted R 2 = 0.712, p = 0.001). Higher QOL was correlated with better subjective cognitive function (r = 0.705, p = 0.002) and lower body mass index (r = − 0.502, p = 0.017) at T4. Further investigation of BMI, neuropathy, and depressive symptoms as predictors of persistent cognitive dysfunction following chemotherapy for breast cancer is warranted.
On the Signal Processing Operations in LIGO signals

This article analyzes the data for the five gravitational wave (GW) events detected in Hanford(H1), Livingston(L1) and Virgo(V1) detectors by the LIGO collaboration. It is shown that GW170814, GW170817, GW151226 and GW170104 are very weak signals whose amplitude does not rise significantly during the GW event, and they are indistinguishable from non-stationary detector noise. LIGO software implements cross-correlation funcion(CCF) of H1/L1 signals with the template reference signal, in frequency domain, in a matched filter, using 32 second windows. It is shown that this matched filter misfires with high SNR/CCF peaks, even for very low-amplitude, short bursts of sine wave signals and additive white gaussian noise(AWGN), all the time. It is shown that this erratic behaviour of the matched filter, is due to the error in signal processing operations, such as lack of cyclic prefix necessary to account for circular convolution. It is also shown that normalized CCF method implemented in time domain using short windows, does not have false CCF peaks for sine wave and noise bursts. It is shown that the normalized CCF for GW151226 and GW170104, when correlating H1/L1 and template, is indistinguishable from correlating detector noise and the template. It is also shown that the normalized CCF for GW151226 and GW170104, when correlating H1/L1 and template, is indistinguishable from correlating H1/L1 and bogus chirp templates which are frequency modulated(FM) waveforms which differ significantly from ideal templates. Similar results are shown with LIGO matched filter, which misfires with high Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) for bogus chirp templates.
Transethnic Evaluation Identifies Low-Frequency Loci Associated With 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations

Context Vitamin D inadequacy is common in the adult population of the United States. Although the genetic determinants underlying vitamin D inadequacy have been studied in people of European ancestry, less is known about populations with Hispanic or African ancestry. Objective The Trans-Ethnic Evaluation of Vitamin D (TRANSCEN-D) genomewide association study (GWAS) consortium was assembled to replicate genetic associations with 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations from the Study of Underlying Genetic Determinants of Vitamin D and Highly Related Traits (SUNLIGHT) meta-analyses of European ancestry and to identify genetic variants related to vitamin D concentrations in African and Hispanic ancestries. Design Ancestry-specific (Hispanic and African) and transethnic (Hispanic, African, and European) meta-analyses were performed with Meta-Analysis Helper software (METAL). Patients or other participants In total, 8541 African American and 3485 Hispanic American (from North America) participants from 12 cohorts and 16,124 European participants from SUNLIGHT were included in the study. Main outcome measures Blood concentrations of 25(OH)D were measured for all participants. Results Ancestry-specific analyses in African and Hispanic Americans replicated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in GC (2 and 4 SNPs, respectively). An SNP (rs79666294) near the KIF4B gene was identified in the African American cohort. Transethnic evaluation replicated GC and DHCR7 region SNPs. Additionally, the transethnic analyses revealed SNPs rs719700 and rs1410656 near the ANO6/ARID2 and HTR2A genes, respectively. Conclusions Ancestry-specific and transethnic GWASs of 25(OH)D confirmed findings in GC and DHCR7 for African and Hispanic American samples and revealed findings near KIF4B, ANO6/ARID2, and HTR2A. The biological mechanisms that link these regions with 25(OH)D metabolism warrant further investigation.
Characterization of bone morphology in CCN5/WISP5 knockout mice

CCN5/WISP2 is part of the CCN family of matricellular proteins, but is distinct in that it lacks the C-terminal (CT) domain. Although CCN5 has been shown to impact cell proliferation and differentiation in vitro, its role in vivo is unclear. We therefore generated mice using ES cells developed by the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP) in which exons 2-5, which encode the all of the conserved protein coding regions, are replaced by a lacZ cassette. Ccn5 LacZ/LacZ mice were viable and apparently normal. Based on previous studies showing that CCN5 impacts osteoblast proliferation and differentiation, we performed an analysis of adult bone phenotype. LacZ expression was examined in adult bone, and was found to be strong within the periosteum, but not in trabecular bone or bone marrow. Micro-CT analysis revealed no apparent changes in bone mineral density (BMD) or bone tissue volume (BV/TV) in Ccn5 LacZ/LacZ mice. These studies indicate that CCN5 is not required for normal bone formation, but they do not rule out a role in mechanotransduction or repair processes. The availability of Ccn5 LacZ mice enables studies of CCN5 expression and function in multiple tissues.
A Mirroring-Assisted Channel-RAID5 SSD for Mobile Applications

Simply applying an existing redundant array of independent disks (RAID) technique to enhance data reliability within a single solid-state drive for safety-critical mobile applications significantly degrades performance. In this article, we first propose a new RAID5 architecture called channel-RAID5 with mirroring (CR5M) to alleviate the performance degradation problem. Next, an associated data reconstruction strategy called mirroring-assisted channel-level reconstruction (MCR) is developed to further shrink the window of vulnerability. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with channel-RAID5 (CR5), CR5M improves performance up to 40.2%. Compared with disk-oriented reconstruction, a traditional data reconstruction scheme, MCR on average improves data recovery speed by 7.5% while delivering a similar performance during reconstruction.
The Role of Growth Factors in Collateral Development

At least eleven angiogenic peptides have been characterized during the last decade, including seven members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family (1), transforming growth factor a (2), transforming growth factor l3 (3), angiogenin (4), platelet derived endothelial cell growth factor (5), and vascular endothelial growth factor (6,7,8). Diverse in their biochemical and biological characteristics, these peptides exert a number of effects on vascular target cells. Acting in concert on endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts, they are believed to modulate blood vessel homeostasis under normal conditions. In addition, an important role has been ascribed to these peptides in embryonic development, (9,10,11,12,13,14), and in pathologic conditions such as angiogenesis associated with wound healing (15,16) and tumor formation (17). These peptides are described in various chapters of this book, and are the subject of several recent reviews (1,18,19,20,21,22,23). It is likely that growth factors play a significant role in coronary collateral formation as well; however, their interrelationships and functions in vivo remain obscure, and a satisfactory mechanism has yet to be advanced to explain their actions (24 25).
Cell Cycle and Differentiation in the Cardiovascular System

The control of cardiac myocyte growth is a highly regulated, developmentally dependent process. Cardiac myocytes rapidly proliferate during fetal life but exit the cell cycle soon after birth in mammals. Although the extent to which adult cardiac myocytes are capable of cell cycle reentry is controversial and whether species-specific differences exist, it appears that the vast majority of adult cardiac myocytes are terminally differentiated. The recent identification of endogenous cardiac stem cells capable of giving rise to cardiac myocyte-like cells may account for some of the previous discrepancies in published studies as to the proliferative potential of cardiac myocytes and challenge the dogma that the heart is a terminally differentiated organ. This chapter will review the recent advances that have been made in identifying candidate factors and signaling pathways that are involved in mediating cardiac cell cycle and proliferation.
Deployment and Smokeless Tobacco Use Among Active Duty Service Members in the U.S. Military.

INTRODUCTION The prevalence of smokeless tobacco use among U.S. active duty service members has been much higher than in the U.S. general population. The association between deployment and smokeless tobacco use has not been well studied. We investigated the association between deployment and smokeless tobacco use among U.S. active duty service members. We also evaluated the modification effects from other factors related to smokeless tobacco use on the deployment-smokeless tobacco use association. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eligible active duty service members stationed at two military installations (Fort Bragg, NC, USA and Lackland Air Force Base, TX, USA) were recruited from July 2015 to May 2016. Each participant completed a self-administered questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between deployment and smokeless tobacco use and estimated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Stratified analysis was performed to evaluate modification effects from other commonly known factors related to smokeless tobacco use in military, specifically, cigarette smoking status, use among family members (family history of use), perception of harm, and use among military peers. RESULTS Out of 2,465 study participants who completed the questionnaire, 548 were smokeless tobacco users. Service members who had been deployed to a combat zone had 1.39 fold (95% CI = 1.03-1.87) increased odds of using smokeless tobacco than those who never deployed to a combat zone. The odds of smokeless tobacco use among those who had been deployed once, twice, three times and four or more times to a combat zone were 1.27 (95% CI = 0.91-1.78), 1.30 (95% CI = 0.85-1.99), 2.49 (95% CI = 1.45-4.28), and 2.88 (95% CI = 1.71-4.86), respectively, with a significant dose-response trend (p for trend <0.0001). Further, subjects who served in combat units during deployment exhibited more than two-fold increased odds of use as compared with those who had never been deployed (OR = 2.03, 95% CI = 1.41-2.93). In stratified analysis, the association between deployment and smokeless tobacco use was only present among subjects who never smoked cigarettes, those without family history of smokeless tobacco use, and those who had low perception of harm of use. CONCLUSIONS Military deployment was associated with smokeless tobacco use among active service members. However, the influence of military deployment on smokeless tobacco use was not equally strong on all service members. Subjects who never smoked cigarettes, who had no family history of use and who had low perception of harm were the most susceptible subgroups to deployment-related smokeless tobacco use. This study has implications to identify high-risk subgroups to reduce smokeless tobacco use in the U.S. military.
Benchmarking and Optimization of Gradient Boosted Decision Tree Algorithms

Gradient boosting decision trees (GBDTs) have seen widespread adoption in academia, industry and competitive data science due to their state-of-the-art performance in many machine learning tasks. One relative downside to these models is the large number of hyper-parameters that they expose to the end-user. To maximize the predictive power of GBDT models, one must either manually tune the hyper-parameters, or utilize automated techniques such as those based on Bayesian optimization. Both of these approaches are time-consuming since they involve repeatably training the model for different sets of hyper-parameters. A number of software GBDT packages have started to offer GPU acceleration which can help to alleviate this problem. In this paper, we consider three such packages: XGBoost, LightGBM and Catboost. Firstly, we evaluate the performance of the GPU acceleration provided by these packages using large-scale datasets with varying shapes, sparsities and learning tasks. Then, we compare the packages in the context of hyper-parameter optimization, both in terms of how quickly each package converges to a good validation score, and in terms of generalization performance.
The Expansion of the US Military’s Civilian Periphery and Corollary Progressive Changes in US Military Law

To varying degrees, soldiers and civilians have always been together on the field of battle. Civilians have sometimes been unwilling victims, but sometimes they have gone to war as willing camp followers, or as unlawful combatants. Military conventions and laws have placed these civilians in distinct categories, each category seen as deserving of special punishments or protections. In this chapter, I argue that there is a connection between progressive updates to military law and the expanded role of civilians on the battlefield as an adjunct to uniformed military personnel. Military law shows signs of becoming a viable code for Western people generally, as opposed to a code for people who, voluntarily or not, have been placed in a special legal category apart (e.g. that of soldier). US military law may remain socially conservative in its character, but to a Western sensibility the most egregious and jarring manifestations of this conservatism have been recently removed, in the name of social progress. Ironically, this step toward social progress has made it more feasible, from a cultural and legal point of view, to place more civilians (already acting as de facto soldiers in certain situations) under military authority as de jure soldiers, with the limited rights of the soldiers they support.
Annual Research Review: Pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder from a neurodevelopmental network perspective

Background Experiencing traumatic stress is common and may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a number of children and adolescents. Research using advanced imaging techniques is beginning to elucidate some of the neurobiological correlates of the traumatic stress response in youth. Methods This paper summarizes the emerging network perspective of PTSD symptoms and reviews brain imaging research emphasizing structural and functional connectivity studies that employ magnetic resonance imaging techniques in pediatric samples. Results Differences in structural connections and distributed functional networks such as the salience, default mode, and central executive networks are associated with traumatic and severe early life stress. The role of development has been relatively underappreciated in extant studies though there is evidence that critical brain regions as well as the structural and functional networks implicated undergo significant change in childhood and these typical developmental differences may be affected by traumatic stress. Conclusions Future research will benefit from adopting a truly developmental approach that considers children's growth as a meaningful effect (rather than simply a covariate) interacting with traumatic stress to predict disruptions in the anatomical, functional, and connective aspects of brain systems thought to underlie the network of PTSD symptoms. Linking symptom networks with neurodevelopmental network models may be a promising avenue for future work.
Stochastic Gradient Descent and Its Variants in Machine Learning

Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is a fundamental algorithm which has had a profound impact on machine learning. This article surveys some important results on SGD and its variants that arose in machine learning.
Methodology for Assessment of Uncertain Input Data for a Level-3 PRA Analysis of a Nuclear Reactor Accident using MACCS2

MACCS2 [1] is a probabilistic accident consequence code that estimates the risks from the operation of nuclear installations, based on the postulated frequencies and severities of potential accidents. The risk estimates provide one of many inputs for judgments on risk acceptability and ways to reduce the excess conservatism in offsite consequence calculations. The uncertainty associated with these risk estimates has an important role in guiding efforts to reduce risks.
Regulation of Adaptive Immune Cells by Sirtuins

It is now well-established that the pathways that control lymphocyte metabolism and function are intimately linked, and changes in lymphocyte metabolism can influence and direct cellular function. Interestingly, a number of recent advances indicate that lymphocyte identity and metabolism is partially controlled via epigenetic regulation. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as changes in DNA methylation or histone acetylation, have been found to alter immune function and play a role in numerous chronic disease states. There are several enzymes that can mediate epigenetic changes; of particular interest are sirtuins, protein deacetylases that mediate adaptive responses to a variety of stresses (including calorie restriction and metabolic stress) and are now understood to play a significant role in immunity. This review will focus on recent advances in the understanding of how sirtuins affect the adaptive immune system. These pathways are of significant interest as therapeutic targets for the treatment of autoimmunity, cancer, and transplant tolerance.
Exercise stress testing: A valuable tool to predict risk and prognosis

Abstract Exercise stress testing (EST) assesses patient's cardiovascular response to exercise by estimating cardiac output through measurement of the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2), maximal heart rate and oxygen pulse, a surrogate of stroke volume. For children with cardiovascular disease, EST is a valuable diagnostic tool that can be used to evaluate exercise intolerance, assess disease severity, and better understand the etiology of symptoms. This article will review the important role that EST has in children with acquired and congenital cardiac disease, and its utility in assessing clinical status, determining risk and prognosis, and guiding future therapies.
The number of independent sets in hexagonal graphs

We derive the tightest known bounds on η = 2ν, where ν is the growth rate of the logarithm of the number of independent sets on a hexagonal lattice. To obtain these bounds, we generalize a method proposed by Calkin and Wilf. Their original strategy cannot immediately be used to derive bounds for η, due to the difference in symmetry between square and hexagonal lattices, so we propose a modified method and an algorithm to derive rigorous bounds on η. In particular, we prove that 1.546440708536001 ≤ η ≤ 1.5513, which improves upon the best known bounds of 1.5463 ≤ η ≤ 1.5527 given by Nagy and Zeger. Our lower bound matches the numerical estimate of Baxter up to 9 digits after the decimal point, and our upper bound can be further improved by following our method.
The Fickle Financiers of elections? The impact of moving on individual contributions

What is the effect of a change in geographic location on the behavior of campaign donors? Looking at people who move presents a unique opportunity to assess the ways in which political behavior is ...
La communication en tant que champ d’études

Cet essai pose la theorie de la communication en tant que champ dialogique – dialectique en s’appuyant sur deux principes : le modele constitutif de la communication en tant que metamodele et la theorie en tant que pratique metadiscursive. L’argument au cœur de l’essai est que toutes les theories de la communication sont pertinentes au regard d’un monde vivant concret dans lequel « communication » est un mot riche de sens. Chaque tradition de la theorie de la communication fait rhetoriquement appel a certaines croyances courantes sur la communication et decoule de ces croyances ; en meme temps, chaque tradition remet en question d’autres croyances. Les complementarites et les tensions entre les traditions generent un metadiscours theorique qui croise et, en fin de compte, nourrit le metadiscours pratique de la vie quotidienne ayant cours dans la societe. Dans cet essai, les traditions de theorie de la communication rhetorique, semiotique, phenomenologique, cybernetique, psychosociologique, socioculturelle et critique sont organisees en un schema provisoire du champ. Ces traditions sont caracterisees par leur maniere particuliere de definir la communication et les problemes de communication, leur lexique metadiscursif et les lieux communs metadiscursifs auxquels elles font appel ou qu’elles remettent en question. Des topois pour l’argumentation a travers les traditions sont proposes et des consequences pour le travail theorique de meme que pour les pratiques disciplinaires dans le champ de la communication sont discutees.
Calculation of multi-group migration areas in deterministic transport simulations

Abstract Recent work on the Cumulative Migration Method (CMM) has demonstrated that it is possible to define multi-group transport cross sections directly from Monte Carlo spectral calculations by utilizing edits of the energy-dependent neutron migration areas. However, it is difficult to demonstrate that downstream deterministic transport calculations actually preserve Monte Carlo migration areas. This paper addresses this issue by: 1) demonstrating the relationship of migration area with the concept of mean squared displacement, 2) deriving, and validating vs. Monte Carlo, an analytic expression for computing one-group migration areas for a homogeneous medium with energy-independent cross sections, 3) deriving, and validating vs. Monte Carlo, an analytic expression for computing multi-group migration areas for a homogenized medium with energy-dependent cross sections, and 4) rigorously proving that energy condensation of multi-group transport cross section must be inverse flux weighted in order to preserve Monte Carlo neutron migration areas.
Separating Symmetric and Asymmetric Password-Authenticated Key Exchange

Password-Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) is a method to establish cryptographic keys between two users sharing a low-entropy password. In its asymmetric version, one of the users acts as a server and only stores some function of the password, e.g., a hash. Upon server compromise, the adversary learns \(H(\mathsf {pw})\). Depending on the strength of the password, the attacker now has to invest more or less work to reconstruct \(\mathsf {pw} \) from \(H(\mathsf {pw})\). Intuitively, asymmetric PAKE seems more challenging than symmetric PAKE since the latter is not supposed to protect the password upon compromise. In this paper, we provide three contributions: Separating symmetric and asymmetric PAKE. We prove that a strong assumption like a programmable random oracle is necessary to achieve security of asymmetric PAKE in the Universal Composability (UC) framework. For symmetric PAKE, programmability is not required. Our results also rule out the existence of UC-secure asymmetric PAKE in the CRS model. Revising the security definition. We identify and close some gaps in the UC security definition of 2-party asymmetric PAKE given by Gentry, MacKenzie and Ramzan (Crypto 2006). For this, we specify a natural corruption model for server compromise attacks. We further remove an undesirable weakness that lets parties wrongly believe in security of compromised session keys. We demonstrate usefulness by proving that the \(\varOmega \)-method proposed by Gentry et al. satisfies our new security notion for asymmetric PAKE. To our knowledge, this is the first formal security proof of the \(\varOmega \)-method in the literature. Composable multi-party asymmetric PAKE. We showcase how our revisited security notion for 2-party asymmetric PAKE can be used to obtain asymmetric PAKE protocols in the multi-user setting and discuss important aspects for implementing such a protocol.
Decomposition of CO2 in a solar-gliding arc plasma reactor: Effects of water, nitrogen, methane, and process optimization

Abstract The decomposition of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a primary step towards its utilization in chemical synthesis processes that can help mitigate atmospheric CO2 emissions and fulfill the need for fuels and chemicals. The synergistic utilization of solar and electrical energy is investigated in a solar - gliding arc (glidarc) plasma system for the decomposition of CO2. The approach exploits the highly reactive species and radicals present in gliding-arc plasmas (a form of nonequilibrium electrical discharge) and the absorption of solar energy by the plasma towards enhancing reaction kinetics involved in gas-phase atmospheric pressure CO2 decomposition. Solar-glidarc plasma processing is investigated using undiluted CO2 and mixtures of CO2 with water vapor (CO2 saturated with water vapor), nitrogen, and methane. A two-phase Design Of Experiments (DOE) approach is followed to guide the investigation and analyze experimental results: phase 1 to identify the significance of the main parameters of the solar-glidarc reactor operation, and phase 2 to evaluate the optimal operating conditions towards maximizing CO2 decomposition. The results reveal that the CO2:CH4 (7:1) mixture yielded the maximum CO2 conversion of 49%, followed by 44% by the CO2-N2 (1:7) gas mixture. In contrast, the undiluted CO2 and CO2-H2O experiments show maximum CO2 conversions of 5% and 3%, respectively, and energy efficiencies of 15% and 12%, respectively. The optimal performance of the solar-glidarc reactor is attained with the CO2-N2 gas mixture, reaching a maximum energy efficiency of 70% and CO2 conversion of 44%.
Assessing the integration outcomes of African immigrants in the United States

The paper uses data from the American Community Survey to explore the impact of pre-departure characteristics and class of entry on the integration of Nigerian- and Somali-born immigrants into US s...
Film in History Education: A Review of the Literature.

This article charts the ways in which film has been included in history education over time and the research that has accompanied this. Through an analysis of historical development, current strand...
Kalman-Filter-based particle tracking on parallel architectures at Hadron Colliders

Power density constraints are limiting the performance improvements of modern CPUs. To address this we have seen the introduction of lower-power, multi-core processors such as GPGPU, ARM and Intel MIC. To stay within the power density limits but still obtain Moore's Law performance/price gains, it will be necessary to parallelize algorithms to exploit larger numbers of lightweight cores and specialized functions like large vector units. Track finding and fitting is one of the most computationally challenging problems for event reconstruction in particle physics. At the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), for example, this will be by far the dominant problem. The need for greater parallelism has driven investigations of very different track finding techniques such as Cellular Automata or Hough Transforms. The most common track finding techniques in use today, however, are those based on the Kalman Filter. Significant experience has been accumulated with these techniques on real tracking detector systems, both in the trigger and offline. They are known to provide high physics performance, are robust, and are in use today at the LHC. We report on porting these algorithms to new parallel architectures. Our previous investigations showed that, using optimized data structures, track fitting with Kalman Filter can achieve large speedups both with Intel Xeon and Xeon Phi. We report here our progress towards an end-to-end track reconstruction algorithm fully exploiting vectorization and parallelization techniques in a realistic experimental environment.
Performance Optimization of a Low-Altitude Skid-to-Turn Vehicle

The problem of performance optimization of a skid-to-turn vehicle is studied. The objective is to minimize the time required to steer the vehicle from an initial state at a nonzero altitude to a gr...
Performance of the DETECT Algorithm for Pulmonary Hypertension Screening in a Systemic Sclerosis Cohort.

Objective Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is one of the leading causes of mortality in systemic sclerosis (SSc). This study was undertaken to assess predictive accuracies of the DETECT algorithm and the 2015 European Society of Cardiology/European Respiratory Society (ESC/ERS) guidelines in SSc patients who underwent right-sided heart catheterization (RHC) for pulmonary hypertension (PH) evaluation. Methods Patients with SSc who had diagnostic RHC, had no PH or had PAH, and had available data on variables to allow application of the DETECT and 2015 ESC/ERS guidelines were included for analysis. PH classification was based on hemodynamics using the 2018 revised criteria and extent of lung fibrosis shown on high-resolution computed tomography. Sensitivity and predictive accuracies of the DETECT algorithm and 2015 ESC/ERS guidelines were calculated, including analysis of subjects with a diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLco) of ≥60% predicted. Results Sixty-eight patients with SSc had RHC, of whom 58 had no PH and 10 had PAH. The mean age was 60.0 years, and 58.8% had limited cutaneous SSc. The DETECT algorithm had a sensitivity of 1.00 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.69-1.00) and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 1.00 (95% CI 0.80-1.00), whereas the 2015 ESC/ERS guidelines had a sensitivity of 0.80 (95% CI 0.44-0.97) and an NPV of 0.94 (95% CI 0.81-0.99). In patients with a DLco of ≥60% (n = 27), the DETECT algorithm had a sensitivity of 1.00 (95% CI 0.29-1.00) and an NPV of 1.00 (95% CI 0.59-1.00), whereas the 2015 ESC/ERS guidelines had a sensitivity of 0.67 (95% CI 0.09-0.99) and an NPV of 0.94 (95% CI 0.71-1.00). Conclusion The DETECT algorithm has high sensitivity and NPV for diagnosis of PAH, including among individuals with a DLco of ≥60%.
VR-Electricians: Immersive storytelling for attracting students to the electrical construction industry

Abstract Although it is projected to have significant employment growth in the electrical construction industry, there are not enough young people to join the workforce. It is indispensable for the future of work in construction to explore emerging technologies and effectively attract the younger generation to the construction industry. This paper explores the innovative use of 360-degree immersive environments powered by virtual electricians to tell success stories of the electrical construction trades on the field (VR-Electricians) and understand how such an immersive storytelling approach can attract young people to join the industry. A pretest-posttest design was used for the VR-Electricians assessment. VR-Electricians was found to significantly enhance several aspects of students’ attitude towards the electrical construction industry. VR-Electricians was also rated as a highly usable and easy-to-use system. The outcomes of this study provide construction researchers and practitioners an understanding of how immersive storytelling can be used as a powerful technology-mediated method for attracting students to their field.
Endothelial mechanotransduction in cardiovascular development and regeneration: emerging approaches and animal models

Abstract Living cells are exposed to multiple mechanical stimuli from the extracellular matrix or from surrounding cells. Mechanoreceptors are molecules that display status changes in response to mechanical stimulation, transforming physical cues into biological responses to help the cells adapt to dynamic changes of the microenvironment. Mechanical stimuli are responsible for shaping the tridimensional development and patterning of the organs in early embryonic stages. The development of the heart is one of the first morphogenetic events that occur in embryos. As the circulation is established, the vascular system is exposed to constant shear stress, which is the force created by the movement of blood. Both spatial and temporal variations in shear stress differentially modulate critical steps in heart development, such as trabeculation and compaction of the ventricular wall and the formation of the heart valves. Zebrafish embryos are small, transparent, have a short developmental period and allow for real-time visualization of a variety of fluorescently labeled proteins to recapitulate developmental dynamics. In this review, we will highlight the application of zebrafish models as a genetically tractable model for investigating cardiovascular development and regeneration. We will introduce our approaches to manipulate mechanical forces during critical stages of zebrafish heart development and in a model of vascular regeneration, as well as advances in imaging technologies to capture these processes at high resolution. Finally, we will discuss the role of molecules of the Plexin family and Piezo cation channels as major mechanosensors recently implicated in cardiac morphogenesis.
Improving User Relocatability, Practicality, and Deployment in the Web Stream Customizer System

We present improvements to a Web middleware system that supports flexible Web content and stream customizations such as filtering, compression, encryption, remote caching, and remote buffering, especially applicable for wireless Web access. The new extensions provide support for user relocation, and make the system more practical by emphasizing the use of a personal server for running customization modules and for maintaining user configuration and application data, in addition to the selected use of third party servers to bolster performance, increase fault tolerance, and satisfy special security requirements.
Principles of Multidimensional Adaptive Testing

Tests used to measure individual differences are often designed to provide comprehensive information along several dimensions of knowledge, skill, or ability. For example, college entrance exams routinely provide separate scores on math and verbal dimensions. Some colleges may elect to base qualification on a compensatory model, where an applicant’s total score (math plus verbal) must exceed some specified cutoff. In this instance, the individual math and verbal scores may provide useful feedback to students and schools about strengths and weaknesses in aptitudes and curriculum. In other instances, colleges may elect to base qualification on a multiple-hurdlemodel, where the applicant’s scores on selected components must exceed separate cutoffs defined along each dimension. For example, a college may elect to have one qualification standard for math knowledge and another standard for verbal proficiency. Applicants may be required to meet one or the other, or both standards, to qualify for entrance. In all these instances, it is useful and important for the individual component scores to possess adequate psychometric properties, including sufficient precision and validity.
Improved ephemerides of the Galilean satellites

Over 4800 earth-based observations of Jupiter's Galilean satellites have been analyzed in order to develop improved ephemerides of the satellites for the Voyager mission, using the new theory of motion of the Galilean satellites. Included are over 1700 eclipses of the satellites by Jupiter spanning the interval 1878-1974, 85 mutual events (eclipses and occultations) observed in 1973, and over 2900 exposures on photographic plates from 1967-1978. The resulting ephemerides (labeled E-2) were employed for the Voyager I encounter and are in error by less than 200 km at the time of Jupiter close approach. A very small (0.066 deg) amplitude of the Laplacian free libration is indicated by the data.
Reduced mitochondrial coupling in vivo alters cellular energetics in aged mouse skeletal muscle

The mitochondrial theory of ageing proposes that the accumulation of oxidative damage to mitochondria leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and tissue degeneration with age. However, no consensus has emerged regarding the effects of ageing on mitochondrial function, particularly for mitochondrial coupling (P/O). One of the main barriers to a better understanding of the effects of ageing on coupling has been the lack of in vivo approaches to measure P/O. We use optical and magnetic resonance spectroscopy to independently quantify mitochondrial ATP synthesis and O2 uptake to determine in vivo P/O. Resting ATP demand (equal to ATP synthesis) was lower in the skeletal muscle of 30-month-old C57Bl/6 mice compared to 7-month-old controls (21.9 +/- 1.5 versus 13.6 +/- 1.7 nmol ATP (g tissue)(-1) s(-1), P = 0.01). In contrast, there was no difference in the resting rates of O2 uptake between the groups (5.4 +/- 0.6 versus 8.4 +/- 1.6 nmol O2 (g tissue)(-1) s(-1)). These results indicate a nearly 50% reduction in the mitochondrial P/O in the aged animals (2.05 +/- 0.07 versus 1.05 +/- 0.36, P = 0.02). The higher resting ADP (30.8 +/- 6.8 versus 58.0 +/- 9.5 micromol g(-1), P = 0.05) and decreased energy charge (ATP/ADP) (274 +/- 70 versus 84 +/- 16, P = 0.03) in the aged mice is consistent with an impairment of oxidative ATP synthesis. Despite the reduced P/O, uncoupling protein 3 protein levels were not different in the muscles of the two groups. These results demonstrate reduced mitochondrial coupling in aged skeletal muscle that alters cellular metabolism and energetics.
Psychobiosoziale Intervention bei Autismus

A multitude of interventions is offered for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, only few have demonstrated scientific evidence, and even the evaluated methods need further examination of their mechanisms and scope. This article provides a brief summary of the premises and principles of successful psychobiosocial ASD intervention. ABA, TEACCH, PECS, social skills and cognitive training are described as examples for established approaches to ASD. Training of μ-suppression using neurofeedback and reanimation of the fusiform gyrus and amygdala using computer-aided facial affect recognition training are introduced as neurobiologically based ASD interventions.
Electroblotting from Polyacrylamide Gels

Transferring proteins from polyacrylamide gels onto retentive membranes is now primarily used for immunoblotting. A second application that was quite common up to about a decade ago was electroblotting of proteins for N-terminal and internal sequencing using Edman chemistry. This unit contains procedures for electroblotting proteins from polyacrylamide gels onto a variety of membranes, including polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) and nitrocellulose. In addition to the commonly used tank or wet transfer system, protocols are provided for electroblotting using semidry and dry systems. This unit also describes procedures for eluting proteins from membranes using detergents or acidic extraction with organic solvents for specialized applications.
Comparative studies of excitations and resonances in H-, Ps-, and e++H systems.

The hyperspherical close coupling method for general Coulomb three-body systems is used to examine {ital e}{sup {minus}}+H, {ital e}{sup +}+Ps, and {ital e}{sup +}+H collisions to investigate how the excitation cross sections and resonances depend on the masses, the charges, and the quantum statistics of the system. Hyperspherical potential curves are used to help unravel the nature of Feshbach resonances, shape resonances, and overlapping resonances in these systems.