cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Challenges in chip/processor level thermal engineering

In order to continue on the path as charted by Gordon Moore, several improvements in CMOS performance are being implemented in some microprocessor chips. Four techniques are seen as advancements that helps in the continuation of the Moore's law. These include the use of silicon dioxide insulator, copper lithography replacing aluminium lines, low temperature cooling and finally double gate transistor. These four techniques for device improvement are actively being pursued or implemented in computer hardware designs. The thermal design goal is to limit the magnitude of the chip temperature rise above ambient temperature in order to ensure satisfactory electrical circuit operation and reliability. To further increase these challenges a new phenomena has recently been encountered. Given the radical sub threshold leakage currents and associated power induced by burn in voltages and temperatures, recent modeling analysis has predicted that the intense localized heating effect at burn in can cause regions of the chip to reach very high temperature, thereby further exacerbating the reliability.
Volume Transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current from Bottom Pressure Measurements

Abstract Meausrements from bottom pressure gauges located at the north and south sides of Drake Passage are used to extend the one-year time series of volume transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) given previously by Whitworth. A small error in that paper is corrected, and a revised transport time series is presented which shows the importance of including the transport in the northern and southern margins of Drake Passage. Direct measurements of vertical shear averaged across the passage, are in good agreement with geostrophic shear and suggest that the ACC is in geostrophic balance. Although most of the ACC transport is in the baroclinic field, transport fluctuations are mainly barotropic. Transport estimates based on pressure difference alone differ from the estimates of Whitworth by less than 10 × 106 m3 s−1. Fluctuations in transport of almost half of the mean value occur over periods as short as two weeks.
Impact of the Digital Age on Transforming Healthcare

Our modern society has been transformed by the arrival of the digital era – computers, communication and the impending era of cognitive computing. The roots of this digitalization transformation are deep and extensively distributed through our United States society, as well as globally. Healthcare likewise has evolved and is well launched down this digitalization journey. This chapter is written from the perspective of a practicing surgeon with over 25 years of experience, based in an academic medical center and who has also been actively engaged in EHR adoption locally as well as numerous international telehealth and EHR collaborations. The chapter reviews how our modern healthcare system has adopted six transformative core competencies – EHRs, communication, telemedicine, analytics, data/security, and the virtual point of care (healthcare takes place in the cloud). The aggregate result of these forces is immense lever forcing the transformation of healthcare far beyond economic reform as envisioned by federal policy changes. The digital era is an unstoppable and empowering driver of healthcare that will be best seen in the near future through advances in EHR functionality, streaming analytics, virtual care teams and remote monitoring. In this era of tremendous uncertainty in healthcare it is the digital evolution of our society throwing healthcare a proverbial digital lifeline of survival.
Three Quarters of a Century of Healing the Generations

1921–1996—three quarters of a century of healing the generations; of tending to the needs of those afflicted with disease, disability, loss of function, and pain; and of preventing physical problems confronting our citizenry. What a spectacular time this is for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) as we celebrate our diamond jubilee. The 75th anniversary is symbolized by the diamond—a pure, flawless stone of extreme hardness. The diamond connotes strength and durability; it represents on the one hand power and on the other hand beauty (Fig. 1). It has been indeed those qualities that have made this profession and this Association what they have been and what they will continue to be. Our history, our destiny, has been and will always be shaped by these qualities of resilience, skill, and magnificence.…
What Is War? Female Veterans’ Experiences of Combat in Iraq and Afghanistan

Many female service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan report experiencing some level of combat. However, female veterans may perceive combat and threat differently than their male counterparts. A feminist analysis of semistructured interviews was used to examine female veterans’ (N = 12) definitions of and experiences with combat. Participants described combat in three themes—experiencing combat-related events, witnessing combat-related events, and feeling threatened. Veterans also described a flexible definition of “combat veteran,” comparing their experiences to others’ to determine their status. This study has implications for practice, research, and policy on veterans, including broadening the assessment of combat.
Cognitive deficits distinguish patients with adolescent- and adult-onset schizophrenia

Recent studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia who have an adolescent-symptom onset (before age 21) have a worse clinical course and greater frequency of cerebral abnormalities than those with an adult-onset (after age 25). However, little is known about the neuropsychological functioning of these groups. A comprehensive neuropsychological examination was administered to groups of patients with schizophrenia with either an adolescent- or adult symptom-onset and a healthy control group. The adolescent-onset group performed worse than the adult-onset and control groups, particularly on measures of memory and executive function. The adult-onset group also performed worse than the controls, but to a lesser extent than did the adolescent-onset group. Results are discussed with reference to hypotheses that adolescent-onset schizophrenia represents a distinct neurodevelopmental disease entity.
Targeting neuroblastoma tumor-initiating cells: High-throughput screening strategies to identify novel chemotherapeutics

A205 Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common and deadly extra-cranial solid tumor in children. Although patient outcomes for many childhood tumors have improved over the last several decades, neuroblastoma survival rates have failed to improve. The poor prognosis for NB patients with advanced disease as well as the significant side effects of current treatments led us to investigate novel therapies for NB. Here, we describe a high-throughput screening strategy used to identify compounds that are specifically cytotoxic or cytostatic against NB tumor-initiating cells but not normal stem cells. We recently isolated candidate NB tumor-initiating cells (TICs) and hypothesize that TICs are related to SKPs (SKin-derived Precursors). Both SKPs and TICs originate from the neural crest, express similar neural crest markers, and differentiate in vitro into similar cell types. The availability of two neural crest stem cell sources, highly enriched TICs from the NB tumor and normal non-transformed progenitors from the skin of the same patient, affords us a unique opportunity for therapeutic target discovery. We have established a cell-based assay in which TICs from a multiple relapse NB patient and normal SKPs were tested in parallel against 3 bioactive small molecule libraries. Following confirmatory screens and IC50 determinations, we identified 47 compounds that selectively targeted NB TICs. These include DNA-damaging agents, Na+/K+ ATPase ion pump inhibitors, K+ channel blockers, as well as specific antagonists to PKC, NF-κB, and the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Interestingly, we also identified 4 compounds that have been successfully used to treat the NB patient. Secondary in vitro assays demonstrate that these compounds are cytotoxic against TICs from multiple NB patients while having little effect on normal stem cells. In addition, the identified compounds are more effective against NB TICs than established NB cell lines. Several compounds are currently being tested in vivo using murine neuroblastoma xenograft models. These results support of the robustness of our assay system and suggest that patient-specific therapeutics as well as novel molecular effectors of neuroblastoma can be identified using this assay.
A Collective Ionic Model for Na β-Alumina—Evidence From Conductivity Measurements Between 107–1013 Hz

It has recently been proposed1 that the ionic conductivity in β-aluminas involves a broad distribution of low energy modes and associated relaxation times. It is suggested that this distribution of modes arises from the strong ion-ion interactions known to exist in the β-aluminas. The model predicts features which are similar to those seen in amorphous materials: in particular, (i) a low temperature specific heat enhanced above that expected from T3 Debye behavior; (ii) an a-c conductivity which, at temperatures sufficiently low to inhibit diffusion, rises as σ~ωα (where α~l), which has a power law temperature dependence, and which saturates at high frequencies; (iii) a predicted coupling to the phonon modes associated with the mobile cations. The model is shown to compare well with recent experimental results of the ionic conductivity in Na β-alumina from 107 to 1013 Hz at 4.2 to 700K. There is evidence for all features noted in (ii) above including saturation at ~109 Hz and a temperature dependence (σ~T2) between 30 and 650K (for 109 ≲ ω ≲ 1011 Hz). The larqe 23 cm−1 width of the Na ion phonon mode observed at 65 cm−1 is also consistent with the model.
Cardiovascular status of female beagles exposed to air pollutants.

Cardiovascular status of beagle dogs was assessed after five years’ exposure to temperature- and humidity-conditioned filtered air, or to one of the following air pollutant treatments: raw auto exhaust (RAE); irradiated auto exhaust (IAE); oxides of sulfur (SOX); RAE + SOX; “low” nitric oxide and “high” nitrogen dioxide; and “high” NO and “low” NO2. Incidence of both electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic abnormalities suggested association between air pollution exposure and cardiac electrophysiologic dysfunction, which may or may not have pathologic basis, Incidences of pulmonary and systemic hypertension did not show association with air pollutant exposure. It is speculated that atherosclerosis was responsible for two myocardial infarctions observed, and that atherosclerotic process, if present, was potentiated by carbon monoxide, as has been reported in other animal species.
Clinical Application of Small Dosage Vecuronium on Taking out Trachea Foreing Matter in Babies and Infants

Objective:To discuss the feasibility and the safety of small dosage vecuronium on taking out the trachea foreign matter in babies and infants.Method:40 examples were randomly divided into two groups,In I group,vein compound anaesthesia and swallows the throat surface anaesthesia(20 examples),remaining breathe;II group for vein compound anaesthesia by small dosage vecuronium(20 examples),the trachea incubated.To observe the SPO2,SBP,DBP,HR,the trachea chokes cough,hold their breath the number of times,laryngospasm in two groups,and to make statistical processing.Results:There were obviously lower in SBP,DBP,the trachea choke cough,hold their breath the number of times and laryngospasm in II group than that in I group(P0.05).There were no statistical difference in SPO2 and the time of regain consciousness between two groups(P0.05).Conclusion:The clinical application of small dosage vecuronium on taking out the trachea foreign matter in babies and infants is feasible and safe.
Cell Surface Targets for Monoclonal Antibody Therapy in Lymphoid Neoplasms of Children and Adolescents.

Recently, monoclonal antibodies have become available for treatment of lymphoid neoplasms in adults, but have not been studied in children and adolescents. These monoclonal antibodies are directed against cell surface antigens CD20 (Rituximab, Ibritumomab-Tiuxetan, Tositumomab), CD22 (Epratuzumab), CD52 (CAMPATH-1H), HLA-DR Beta-chain (Hu1D10), CD23 (IDEC-152), and CD33 (Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin). The objective of this study is to identify cell surface targets eligible for monoclonal antibody therapy in lymphoid neoplasms of children and adolescents. This is a retrospective analysis of lymphoid neoplasms evaluated by flow cytometry immunophenotyping at a single institution from January 2002 to July 2004. All patients were less than 21 years old at primary diagnosis. Flow cytometry immunophenotyping employed a 3-color method. Fluorochrome-conjugated monoclonal antibodies were utilized to detect cell surface antigens: CD20, CD22, CD23 (Becton-Dickinson), and CD52 (CALTAG) conjugated with PE; HLA-DR and CD33 (Becton-Dickinson) conjugated with FITC. For this study, a cell surface antigen was interpreted as positive when neoplastic cells exhibited moderate or bright intensity staining, or interpreted as negative when staining was dim or absent. A total of 95 patients are included in this study. Demographic data: Age Table 1 CD22 was positive (usually bright intensity) in all Pre-B ALL and Burkitt Lymphoma specimens. CD20 was positive in all Burkitt Lymphoma (bright intensity) and in a subset of Pre-B ALL (usually moderate intensity) specimens. CD22 and CD20 were negative in Pre-T ALL/LBL specimens. In a subset, CD52 was positive (moderate to bright intensity) in nearly all specimens. HLA-DR was positive (moderate to bright intensity) in all Pre-B ALL and Burkitt Lymphoma specimens. In a subset, CD23 was negative in all specimens. Also, CD33 was negative in nearly all specimens. In conclusion, lymphoid neoplasms in children and adolescents have cell surface antigens that are eligible targets for currently available monoclonal antibody therapy. Patients with Pre-B ALL are candidates for therapy directed to CD22, CD52, HLA-DR, and a subset to CD20, but not to CD23 or CD33. Patients with Burkitt Lymphoma are eligible for therapy to CD20, CD22, CD52, and HLA-DR, but not CD23 or CD33. Patients with Pre-T ALL/LBL are eligible for therapy to CD52, but not CD20, CD22, HLA-DR, CD23 or CD33. These results indicate that future clinical therapeutic trials can be designed for children and adolescents with lymphoid neoplasms to evaluate monoclonal antibody therapy directed to CD20, CD22, CD52, or HLA-DR, employing single or multiple antibodies as a new modality, in addition to chemotherapy.
Optimal Entrenchment of Legal Rules

Should law respond readily to society’s evolving views, or should it remain fixed? This is the question of entrenchment, meaning the insulation of law from change through supermajority rules and other mechanisms. Entrenchment stabilizes law, which promotes reliance and predictability, but it also frustrates democratic majorities. This paper uses economic theory to study this tension. It argues that nearly all laws should be minimally entrenched. This is because bare majority rule can systematically harm society - even when voters are rational, and even when no intense minority is present. Then it argues that minimum entrenchment is conceptually straightforward but optimal entrenchment is not. It depends on factors like whether the costs of legal instability are variable or fixed and who has power to set the agenda. Existing scholarship ignores these factors, casting doubt on its prescriptions. The paper provides guidance for legal designers, and it has implications for constitutional law, including Article V, amendments, conventions, and judicial updating.
Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Risk According to Tumor Size

Purpose: Recent evidence suggests significantly discordant findings regarding tumor size and the metastasis risk in renal cell carcinoma cases. We present our experience with renal cell carcinoma. We evaluated the association between tumor size and the metastasis risk in a large patient cohort.Materials and Methods: Using our prospectively maintained nephrectomy database we identified 2,691 patients who were treated surgically for a sporadic renal cortical tumor between 1989 and 2008. Associations between tumor size and synchronous metastasis at presentation (M1 renal cell carcinoma) were evaluated with logistic regression models. Metastasis-free survival after surgery was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method in 2,367 patients who did not present with M1 renal cell carcinoma and were followed postoperatively.Results: Of the 2,691 patients 162 presented with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Only 1 of 781 patients with a tumor less than 3 cm had M1 renal cell carcinoma at presentation and tumor size was ...
Occipital Nerve Block

Occipital nerve block (ONB) allows blockade of nociceptive afferent fibers distributed over the occipital region, vertex, sides of the head, as well as upper cervical region, which is known to interact with the trigeminal complex. ONB may provide acute headache relief, abort an intractable headache cycle, or serve as part of prevention strategies for occipital neuralgia, migraine, cluster headaches, and other common headache disorders; ONB typically provides rapid pain relief, lasting days to weeks and months. ONB can be performed blindly or with ultrasound guidance. They are technically simple and well tolerated by patients and, if accurately performed, are remarkably safe.
Groups of Exponent Four

In [1], the author obtained an infinite family of finite 2-groups B n as the automorphism groups of an important class of Jordan algebras and gave a set of generators and relations for them.
2.12 Silk Biomaterials

Natural biopolymers have applications in a variety of applications, including sensing, bioengineering, drug delivery, and tissue regeneration. In this review, we highlight the recent advances and application developments using the natural biopolymer, silk fibroin, derived from the cocoons of the Bombyx mori silkworm. The work highlighted here showcases the versatility of B. mori silk fibers for generation of a wide variety of material formats, including porous sponges, thin films, tubular architectures, fibers, hydrogels, and microparticles. Emphasis is placed on the role of the silk in each system, demonstrating methods for generation of long-term in vitro culture, implantable materials, or printable inks.
A Collision Tumor Involving a Primary Leiomyosarcoma of the Lower Extremity and a Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Case Report.

CASE A 49-year-old man presented with a rapidly growing thigh mass. Histologic analyses demonstrated separate regions that were consistent with a collision tumor composed of a primary leiomyosarcoma and a metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma. After responding to chemotherapy, the patient underwent resection of the tumor and a total thyroidectomy; he was disease-free 9 years after the diagnosis. CONCLUSION A wide diagnostic differential and thorough histologic analysis are necessary in patients presenting with neoplasms of the extremities. A leiomyosarcoma may be a hospitable location for metastatic disease, and the presence of a collision tumor should be considered when pathology findings are equivocal.
New landscapes of conflict: land-use competition at the urban–rural fringe

Land-use conflict research generally focuses on conflicts where pre-existing opponents respond to the introduction of a new unwanted land-use. We select a 2008 land-use conflict to explore an under...
The Creolizing Subject: Race, Reason, and the Politics of Purity

How does our understanding of the reality (or lack thereof ) of race as a category of being affect our understanding of racism as a social phenomenon, and vice versa? How should we envision the aims andmethods of our struggles against racism? Traditionally, the Western political and philosophical tradition held that true social justice points toward a raceless future-that racial categories are themselves inherently racist, and a sincere advocacy for social justice requires a commitment to the elimination or abolition of race altogether. This book focuses on the underlying assumptions that inform this view of race and racism, arguing that it is ultimately bound up in a politics of purity-an understanding of human agency, and reality itself, as requiring all-or-nothing categories with clear and unambiguous boundaries. Racism, being organized around a conception of whiteness as the purest manifestation of the human, thus demands a constant policing of the boundaries among racialcategories.Drawing upon a close engagement with historical treatments of the development of racial categories and identities, the book argues that races should be understood not as clear and distinct categories of being but rather as ambiguous and indeterminate (yet importantly real) processes of social negotiation. As one of its central examples, it lays out the case of the Irish in seventeenth-century Barbados, who occasionallyunited with black slaves to fight white supremacy-and did so as white people, not as nonwhites who later became white when they capitulated to white supremacy.Against the politics of purity, Monahan calls for the emergence of a creolizing subjectivitythat would place such ambiguity at the center of our understanding of race. The Creolizing Subject takes seriously the way in which racial categories, in all of their variety and ambiguity, situate and condition our identity, while emphasizing our capacity, as agents, to engage in the ongoing contestation and negotiation of the meaningand significance of those very categories.
PivotWall: SDN-Based Information Flow Control

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) commonly use stepping stone attacks that allow the adversary to move laterally undetected within an enterprise network towards a target. Existing network security techniques provide limited protection against such attacks, because they lack intra-network mediation and the context of information semantics. We propose PivotWall, a network security defense that extends information flow tracking on each host into network-level defenses. PivotWall uses a novel combination of information-flow tracking and Software Defined Networking (SDN) to detect a wide range of attacks used by advanced adversaries, including those that abuse both application- and network-layer protocols. It further enables a variety of attack responses including traffic steering, as well as advanced mechanisms for forensic analysis. We show that PivotWall incurs minimal impact on network throughput and latency for untainted traffic and less than 58% overhead for tainted traffic. As such, we demonstrate the utility of information flow tracking as a defense against advanced network-level attacks.
The Limits of Homonormativity: Constructions of Bisexual and Transgender People in the Post-gay Era:

This article addresses limitations of homonormativity in the pursuit of sexual and gender equality. Based on 20 interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Christian women, we demonstrate how even peop...
Impact of heat stress during the follicular phase on porcine ovarian steroidogenic and phosphatidylinositol-3 signaling.

Environmental conditions that impede heat dissipation and increase body temperature cause heat stress (HS). The study objective was to evaluate impacts of HS on the follicular phase of the estrous cycle. Postpubertal gilts (126.0 ± 21.6 kg) were orally administered altrenogest to synchronize estrus, and subjected to either 5 d of thermal-neutral (TN; 20.3 ± 0.5 °C; n = 6) or cyclical HS (25.4 - 31.9 °C; n = 6) conditions during the follicular phase preceding behavioral estrus. On d 5, blood samples were obtained, gilts were euthanized, and ovaries collected. Fluid from dominant follicles was aspirated and ovarian protein homogenates prepared for protein abundance analysis. HS decreased feed intake (22%; P = 0.03) and while plasma insulin levels did not differ, the insulin:feed intake ratio was increased 3-fold by HS (P = 0.02). Insulin receptor protein abundance was increased (29%; P 0.05). Plasma and follicular fluid 17β-estradiol, progesterone, and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein concentrations as well as abundance of steroid acute regulatory protein, cytochrome P450 19A1, and multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 were not affected by HS (P > 0.05). HS increased estrogen sulfotransferase protein abundance (44%; P = 0.02), toll-like receptor 4 (36%; P = 0.05), and phosphorylated REL-associated protein (31%; P = 0.02). Regardless of treatment, toll-like receptor 4 protein was localized to mural granulosa cells in the porcine ovary. In conclusion, HS altered ovarian signaling in postpubertal gilts during their follicular phase in ways that likely contributes to seasonal infertility.
Measurement of volatile organic compounds by the US Environmental Protection Agency Compendium Method TO-17: Evaluation of performance criteria

Abstract An evaluation of performance criteria for US Environmental Protection Agency Compendium Method TO-17 for monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air has been accomplished. The method is a solid adsorbent-based sampling and analytical procedure including performance criteria for four merit parameters. These are: (1) the method detection limit (MDL); (2) the method precision; (3) the agreement between two samples taken at different flow-rates over the same time period [a distributed volume pair (DVP)]; and (4) audit accuracy. A two-adsorbent tube packing of Carbotrap and Carboxen 1000 (Supelco) was tested. Synthetic mixtures containing 41 compounds at concentrations of 10 ppb (v/v) or 2 ppb (v/v) each in humidified zero air, and indoor air from a personal residence, were sampled for 1-h periods during which 1-l and 4-l samples were obtained simultaneously. For synthetic samples, the MDL was determined to be ≤0.5 ppb (v/v) for 29 of the 41 compounds examined for samples at 47% relative humidity (RH), and for 27 of 41 compounds at 85% RH. The method precision at both 2 and 10 ppb (v/v) was ≤20% for 90+% of the samples using five sampling runs and the DVP samples were within 25% for 80% of the samples. For the indoor samples, 26 target compounds were tentatively identified and 12 unknowns were detected; all but 10% of these compounds met the DVP criteria.
A Dangerous and/or Useful Kingdom?

To destroy everything in a captured city, save perhaps the precious metals, was regarded as an act of high devotion to Yahweh. The Israelites were not alone in practicing, or claiming to practice, this kind of piety. —The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary, p. 127.
Pairing Symmetry in Cuprate Superconductors: Phase-Sensitive Tests

The discover of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) in the cuprates [1] has stimulated a great deal of re-thinking of some of the most basic concepts in condensed matter physics. Despite the progress that has been made in the studies of the superconducting and normal-state properties of cuprate superconductors, there is still no consensus on the extent to which such basic conventional paradigms as the concept of the Fermi liquid, or the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) [2] theory, can be used to understand the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity [3]. An important part of the HTS problem, the symmertry of the pair wavefunction in cuprates, was a controversial topic for more than a decade [4,5]. Recently, a new class of experiments have emerged to provide phase-sensitive tests of this symmertry, producing compelling evidence for a \({d_{{x^2} - {y^2}}}\)-wave pair state in several optimally hole- and electron-doped cuprate superconductors [6,7]. In this chapter, we will describe the fundamental aspects and present the main results of these novel phase-sensitive pairing symmetry probing experiments. The implications of the universally observed d-wave pairing for understanding various anomalous properties of the high-T c superconductors will be discussed. Potential applications of d-wave super conductivity in areas such as SQUIDs and quantum computers will be pointed out at the end of this chapter.
Integrating Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Meaning, dilemmas, and assessment

Across the world, states are establishing military cyber commands or similar units to develop offensive cyber capabilities. One of the key dilemmas faced by these states is whether (and how) to int...
Dysplasia in Gallbladder: What Should We Do?

Introduction On occasional cholecystectomies, pathologists encounter incidental dysplasia in the gallbladder mucosa in the sections submitted per protocol for histologic examination. If dysplasia is identified, additional sections are taken and/or the gallbladder is entirely submitted to rule out underlying adenocarcinoma. The aim of our study was to assess the incidence of subsequent identification of invasive adenocarcinoma on additional sections, after an incidentally detected dysplasia was noted on a routine cholecystectomy section. We also aimed to study the significance of the incidental detection of dysplasia and adenocarcinoma, as well as showing the association of gallbladder dysplasia to synchronous or metachronous dysplasia/neoplasia in the biliary tract. Material and methods Our study was approved by the Institutional Review Board. We retrospectively identified 41 consecutive cases of routine cholecystectomies from 1991 to 2017, which had no clinical suspicion of neoplasia, and did not have any identifiable mass lesion, but on histopathologic analysis, had neoplasia (adenocarcinoma in 4 cases, and dysplasia in 37 cases). The pathologies of all cases were reviewed, and the diagnosis and grade of dysplasia were confirmed. The clinical information was obtained from the electronic medical records. Results Of the 37 cases with dysplasia, 10 (27%) had high-grade dysplasia (HGD) and the remaining showed low-grade dysplasia (LGD). All 4 cases of adenocarcinoma had some gross abnormalities (such as porcelain gallbladder, or ruptured, thickened, and roughened walls, or a granular mucosa). In contrast, none of the 37 cases with dysplasia had any gross abnormality. In 24 (of 37) cases of dysplasia, additional sections were submitted (median 8; ranging from 2 to 29), and in 11 cases, the gallbladder was entirely submitted. None of these cases showed any additional pathologic finding on the extra sections. Interestingly, 7 cases with dysplasia (18.9%; 6 LGD and 1 HGD) were associated with a concomitant pancreatobiliary malignancy. For the remaining 30 cases, follow-up information was available in 16 cases (53.3%) with a mean follow-up of 76.5 months (ranging from 12 to 204 months). None of these showed any subsequent development of pancreatobiliary neoplasms. Conclusion Incidentally detected gallbladder dysplasia in a cholecystectomy specimen, without any gross abnormality, has almost no risk of a hidden invasive carcinoma. Although cholecystectomy is sufficient treatment for gallbladder dysplasia, in our study cohort, 18.9% of cases with incidental dysplasia in gallbladder had an associated pancreatobiliary carcinoma, which supports the hypothesis of multifocal neoplastic potential in the pancreatobiliary tree (also known as field effect). Although follow-up on 16 cases shows no subsequent development of any other pancreatobiliary neoplasm, this number is probably not enough to rule out a serial imaging follow-up of patients who have reported dysplasia in their gallbladder, to assess for subsequent development of neoplasia elsewhere in the pancreaticobiliary tree.
Storage stability of electrospun pure gelatin stabilized with EDC/Sulfo-NHS.

With the rapid development of biomimetic polymers for cell-based assays and tissue engineering, crosslinking electrospun nanofibrous biopolymer constructs is of great importance for achieving sustainable and efficient three-dimensional scaffold constructs. Uncrosslinked electrospun gelatin nanofibrous constructs immediately and completely dissolved in aqueous solutions due to their aqueous solubility and poor storage stability. Here, a novel and versatile approach for the fabrication and crosslinking of electrospun gelatin construct with tunable porosity and high aspect ratio nanofibers is presented. Uncrosslinked electrospun gelatin/genipin nanofibrous and pure gelatin nanofibrous constructs exhibited smooth surfaces that were well-defined, with a diameter in the range of 448 ± 364 nm and 257 ± 57 nm, respectively. Dehydrothermal, genipin-EDC/Sulfo-NHS, and EDC/Sulfo-NHS crosslinking approaches were examined to achieve insoluble gelatin nanofibrous constructs that were suitable for cell-based assays. Mechanical characterization demonstrated that the pure gelatin nanofibrous construct crosslinked via EDC/Sulfo-NHS exhibited an increased mechanical strength and stiffness and showed no dissolution in aqueous solutions and retained its fiber morphology. An excellent 1 month storage stability was demonstrated at 22, 4, -20, and -80°C (dehydrated) and at 4°C (hydrated). The as-crosslinked gelatin nanofibrous construct was highly biocompatible (90% cell viability), as demonstrated by the promoted proliferation of PC12 cells.
Blockchain, Business Supply Chains, Sustainability, and Law: The Future of Governance, Legal Frameworks, and Lawyers?

Blockchain technology has been hailed as the next disruptive leap forward in data sciences. Most legal scholarship related to the topic has focused on its relevance to finance, but it could revolutionize business supply chains. Specifically, blockchain-enabled solutions are expected to improve the reliability of data related to supply chains and to help businesses eliminate fraud, inefficiencies, waste, and harms to people and the environment. Despite the surrounding hype, this paper will explain why the promise of distributed electronic ledgers will only be realized in the context of effective governance and legal frameworks. This paper draws upon scholarly articles and the opinions of entrepreneurs actively engaged in bringing blockchain-enabled technologies to market to arrive at two sets of related conclusions. First, that the benefits of the technology — including its potential to help businesses prosper while eliminating societal and environmental harms — will only be realized in the context of enabling frameworks of law. Second, the author articulates how the role of the legal profession vis-a-vis business clients will evolve in the era of blockchain-enabled business supply chain optimization.
Deep Learning Benchmarks on L1000 Gene Expression Data

Gene expression data can offer deep, physiological insights beyond the static coding of the genome alone. We believe that realizing this potential requires specialized, high-capacity machine learning methods capable of using underlying biological structure, but the development of such models is hampered by the lack of published benchmark tasks and well characterized baselines. In this work, we establish such benchmarks and baselines by profiling many classifiers against biologically motivated tasks on two curated views of a large, public gene expression dataset (the LINCS corpus) and one privately produced dataset. We provide these two curated views of the public LINCS dataset and our benchmark tasks to enable direct comparisons to future methodological work and help spur deep learning method development on this modality. In addition to profiling a battery of traditional classifiers, including linear models, random forests, decision trees, K nearest neighbor (KNN) classifiers, and feed-forward artificial neural networks (FF-ANNs), we also test a method novel to this data modality: graph convolugtional neural networks (GCNNs), which allow us to incorporate prior biological domain knowledge. We find that GCNNs can be highly performant, with large datasets, whereas FF-ANNs consistently perform well. Non-neural classifiers are dominated by linear models and KNN classifiers.
Spectral geometric features for shapes

Abstract This chapter introduces a new method for extracting salient features from surfaces in the Laplace–Beltrami spectral domain instead of usual spatial domains. The local shape descriptor of a feature point is the Laplace–Beltrami spectrum of the spatial region associated to the points which are stable and distinctive. The defined salient spectral geometric features are invariant to spatial transforms such as translation, rotation, and scaling as well as isometric deformations and mesh triangulations. Hence, both global and partial matching can be achieved with these salient features. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method with many experiments and applications in this chapter.
Single-Crystal Synthesis and Characterization of Copper-Intercalated ZrTe5

Herein is presented the synthesis and characterization of copper-intercalated zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe5). ZrTe5:Cu0.05 crystals are synthesized by the chemical vapor transport method in a vac...
Secondary Effectiveness Factors and Solubility Effects for Catalytic Reactions in Series

Thiele moduli and effectiveness factors are powerful ways to account for mass transfer limitations on reactions occurring within porous catalyst particles. Effectiveness factors have been developed...
The Eichler Integral of E 2 and q -brackets of t -hook Functions

For functions \(f: \mathcal {P}\mapsto \mathbb {C}\) on partitions, Bloch and Okounkov defined a power series 〈f〉q that is the “weighted average” of f. As Fourier series in q = e2πiz, such q-brackets generate the ring of quasimodular forms, and the modular forms that are powers of Dedekind’s eta-function. Using work of Berndt and Han, we build modular objects from $$\displaystyle f_t(\lambda ):= t\sum _{h\in \mathcal {H}_t(\lambda )}\frac {1}{h^2}, $$ weighted sums over partition hook numbers that are multiples of t. We find that 〈ft〉q is the Eichler integral of (1 − E2(tz))∕24, which we modify to construct a function Mt(z) that enjoys weight 0 modularity properties. As a consequence, the non-modular Fourier series $$\displaystyle H_t^*(z):=\sum _{\lambda \in \mathcal {P}} f_t(\lambda )q^{|\lambda |-\frac {1}{24}} $$ inherits weight − 1∕2 modularity properties. These are sufficient to imply a Chowla-Selberg type result, generalizing the fact that weight k algebraic modular forms evaluated at discriminant D < 0 points τ are algebraic multiples of \(\Omega _D^k,\) the kth power of the canonical period. If we let \(\Psi (\tau ):=-\pi i \left (\frac {\tau ^2-3\tau +1}{12\tau }\right )-\frac {\log (\tau )}{2},\) then for t = 1 we prove that $$\displaystyle \begin{aligned} H_1^*(-1/\tau )-\frac {1}{\sqrt {-i\tau }}\cdot H_1^*(\tau )\in \overline {\mathbb {Q}}\cdot \frac {\Psi (\tau )}{\sqrt {\Omega _D}}. \end{aligned} $$
Realization of Robust Optical Physical Unclonable Function using a Silicon Photonic Quasicrystal Interferometer

We report the first optical physical unclonable function designed for robustness against fluctuations in optical angular/spatial alignment, polarization, and temperature, and introduce silicon photonic quasicrystal interferometry for secure hardware applications.
Thematic Analysis of Consumer Frauds and Scams Against Ethiopian Immigrants in the USA; A Phenomenological Case Study in Washington Seattle

The purpose of this study is to assess electronic consumer frauds and scams against vulnerable Ethiopian immigrants living in Seattle area. The research contributes to understanding the patterns and typologies of consumer frauds and scam specific to immigrants. The study looks at the physical, emotional, mental and economic impact of the fraud on the immigrants interviewed. Employment frauds, romance scam, and grandparent scam were common. The fraudsters and scammers contacted frequently the new entrants to the United States of America through unsolicited texting, fake e-mail, letting them click on unsecured ads link and social media. This study suggests on consumer protection laws and policy. This phenomenological study is based on in-depth interviews by the author with ten migrant victims. The demographic characteristics such as age, sex, level of education, and the form of employment, type, and level of financial knowledge were the leading risk factors of the phenomenon. Consumer product and services frauds and scams such as tax return service fraud, immigration service scam, ‘‘Microsoft tech support’’ scam, craigslist car sale scam, and ‘‘journal publish’’ scam took the lion share of the prevalence. The sufferers realized the phenomena as frauds and scams understanding activities on their debit card, e-mail, and mail-alert. Most respondents haven’t reported and not filed a complaint with the concerned legal bodies due to the determining factors and socio-economic and cultural constraints. Psychologically, they lost their faith and confidence in the world; lost their time and lost personal information privacy. These effects outweighed the material and monetary loss. As a result, the victims planned to use the traditional in-person deal instead of e-commerce businesses.
Social capital during the coronavirus pandemic: the value of corporate benevolence

In this paper, we explore market reaction to announcements of corporate donations associated with the COVID-19 crisis. Companies with larger firm size, higher leverage, higher institutional ownersh...
Methylotrophs in natural habitats: current insights through metagenomics

The focus of this review is on the recent data from the omics approaches, measuring the presence of methylotrophs in natural environments. Both Bacteria and Archaea are considered. The data are discussed in the context of the current knowledge on the biochemistry of methylotrophy and the physiology of cultivated methylotrophs. One major issue discussed is the recent metagenomic data pointing toward the activity of “aerobic” methanotrophs, such as Methylobacter, in microoxic or hypoxic conditions. A related issue of the metabolic distinction between aerobic and “anaerobic” methylotrophy is addressed in the light of the genomic and metagenomic data for respective organisms. The role of communities, as opposed to single-organism activities in environmental cycling of single-carbon compounds, such as methane, is also discussed. In addition, the emerging issue of the role of non-traditional methylotrophs in global metabolism of single-carbon compounds and the role of methylotrophy pathways in non-methylotrophs is briefly mentioned.
A model of perceived parenting, authenticity, contingent self-worth and internalized aggression among college students

Abstract The present study builds upon previous findings by examining parental psychological control in relation to two distinct traits of the self (i.e., authenticity and contingent self-worth) and internalized aggression. A model was proposed with authenticity and contingent self-worth as serial mediators of the relationship between parental psychological control and internalized aggression. Structural equation modeling demonstrated near perfect fit of the model. Parental psychological control was inversely related to authenticity, lower authenticity was related to higher contingent self-worth, and contingent self-worth was positively related to internalized aggression. Results are discussed within the context of previous findings and directions for future research are proposed.
A Primer for Writing Medical Data Base for the Clinical Decision Support System

Publisher Summary The Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) consists of computer programs to aid in the acquisition of patient data, and to suggest appropriate decisions on the basis of the data thus acquired. The decisions may be concerned with further data needed, procedures required, diagnoses, and treatments. This chapter presents rules and formats that enable a physician to specify the medical concepts for implementation by the system. The system operates as a repetitive process. The data are entered, decisions are made, and then more data are entered. The early decisions in patient care are concerned with questions such as what tests are to be performed and what additional data are to be required. The patient record is a basic component of any system for computer-assisted patient care. It is the file that contains the information about the patient. Decisions calculated by the computer for the patient, based on this information, are also part of the patient record. This record is displayed as “desired” on a printer or another device.
An in vitro assessment of the flow characteristics of spiral-ridged and smooth-walled JJ ureteric stents.

Objective To assess drainage through spiral-ridged and smooth-walled JJ ureteric stents (designed to ensure upper tract drainage) and thus determine whether drainage preferentially occurs around rather than through the spiral-ridged stent, promoting renal flow and potentially facilitating the passage of urinary stone fragments. Materials and methods A mechanical ureteric model was constructed to mimic the funnel characteristics of the renal pelvis. A motor pump was used to help simulate respiratory and skeletal movement, resulting in differential motion between the intraluminal stent and the surrounding ureteric wall. Tubes of varying internal diameters were used to simulate different sizes of ureter. Flow rates of standard 7 F smooth-walled stents were compared with 7 F spiral-ridged stents with and without occluded lumens, and with and without standardized excursions. Results Extraluminal flow (mean rates) with and without movements simulating respiratory excursions were significantly higher with the spiral stent for all stent diameters evaluated. All flow rates increased as the ureteric diameter increased. Total flow past the spiral stent was significantly greater than flow with the smooth-walled stent under all conditions tested. Flows measured around the spiral stent under conditions of excursion were the highest of all categories, 20-fold higher than in smooth-walled, closed, stationary stents. Conclusion Spiral-ridged JJ stents provided substantially greater flow in this in vitro model. Extraluminal flow was markedly increased with the spiral-ridged configuration. The difference in flow rates was more pronounced at the smaller pseudo-ureteric tube diameters, simulating dimensions found in clinical practice. The flow rate also was increased when the central lumen remained open, and was greater still when there was dynamic excursion with respiratory movements.
Viral entry mechanisms: the increasing diversity of paramyxovirus entry

The paramyxovirus family contains established human pathogens such as the measles virus and human respiratory syncytial virus, as well as emerging pathogens including the Hendra and Nipah viruses and the recently identified human metapneumovirus. Two major envelope glycoproteins, the attachment protein and the fusion protein, promote the processes of viral attachment and virus-cell membrane fusion required for entry. Although common mechanisms of fusion protein proteolytic activation and the mechanism of membrane fusion promotion have been shown in recent years, considerable diversity exists in the family relating to receptor binding and the potential mechanisms of fusion triggering.