cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
IMO PSPC Implementation And 15 Years of Target Useful Coating Life

The Performance Standard for Protective Coating (PSPC), adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Resolution MSC.215(82), became mandatory on 1 July 2008 (contract date of ship’s new construction) for dedicated seawater ballast tanks on all types of ships of not less than 500 gross tonnage and for double-side skin spaces arranged in bulk carriers of 150 m in length and upwards. In addition, a new PSPC requirement, stemming from the recent adoption of IMO Resolution MSC.288(87), will become effective 1 January 2013 (contract date of ship’s new construction) for the crude oil tanks of oil tankers of not less than 5,000 tonnes deadweight. Both PSPC standards set out a target useful coating life of 15 years, over which the coating is intended to remain in GOOD condition from initial coating application. The shipyard is responsible for implementing the requirements of the IMO PSPC during new construction. Before new construction starts, a Tripartite Agreement (TPA) on inspection procedures of the surface preparation and coating processes shall be agreed upon and signed by the owner, the shipyard and the coating producer. In addition to the selection of qualified and certified coating inspector(s), quality control of surface preparation, steel work and coating application at every phase of new construction, harmonized with the shipyard’s facilities and experience, is to be agreed upon for PSPC compliance. Those are reflected in good TPA and the final Coating Technical File (CTF). This is most important in order to achieve the target useful coating life. This paper will focus on the key elements relevant to shipyards during new construction that affect the useful coating life. Those elements are the Tripartite Agreement (TPA), qualified coating inspector, primary surface preparation, steel work, secondary surface preparation, erection and coating application condition. The standardization of shipyard new construction processes to the PSPC requirements has the potential for improving the quality of coating, and also provides an opportunity for better control of costs during construction and throughout the service life of the vessel.
Assessment of In Vitro Patellar Laxity in the Native Knee

Patellar instability is a frequent knee problem and relates to anterior knee pain [1–3]. Patellofemoral (PF) joint laxity is a multifactor problem that depends on the active stabilization from the quadriceps muscles, the passive stabilization from the ligaments and retinacular tissue in the PF joint, and the static stabilization from the articular geometries of the distal femur and patella. The purpose of this study was to use a novel patellar laxity instrument to measure patellar laxity and to assess subject-to-subject variation in patellar laxity.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Induction of Immune Responses in Patients with B-Cell Lymphoma against the Surface-Immunoglobulin Idiotype Expressed by Their Tumors

Abstract Background. The idiotypic determinants of the surface immunoglobulin of a B-cell lymphoma can serve as a clonal tumor-specific marker, which may have implications for immunotherapy. We sought to determine whether idiotype-specific immune responses against this autologous antigen could be induced in patients with B-cell lymphoma. Methods. Nine patients were selected who had minimal residual disease or a complete remission after chemotherapy. Each received a series of subcutaneous injections of the immunoglobulin derived from his or her tumor cells (immunoglobulin-idiotype protein), which had been conjugated to a protein carrier and mixed with an immunologic adjuvant. Results. In seven of the nine patients the injections induced sustained idiotype-specific immunologic responses of the humoral type (two patients), the cell-mediated type (four patients), or both (one patient). The use of an adjuvant was essential for these immune responses. The induced antibodies bound specifically to autologous immu...
Stages of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation

In this chapter, we provide information on each of the stages of conjoint behavioral consultation. These stages generally mirror those in traditional behavioral consultation (Bergan & Kratochwill, 1990); however, the entire process is conducted with parents, teachers, and, in some cases, other significant individuals (e.g., extended family, additional service providers) together. Because of this format, there may be important differences in the manner in which each stage of consultation is practiced. Before beginning the process with consultees, it may be useful to assess (formally or informally) the home and school systems to determine whether a conjoint approach is warranted. Chapter 3 suggests several cases where collaborative problem solving may need to be postponed until certain personal or interpersonal issues can be addressed. If the approach is initiated, it is important to set the stage for effective consultation by reviewing the goals and objectives of the model, roles and responsibilities of all parties, and procedural details of the interviews, data collection procedures, and intervention and evaluation components (see Sheridan & Kratochwill, 1992).
Behavioral modeling and optimal control of a vehicle mechanical drive system

This paper investigates the optimal power management of a vehicle powertrain that includes a diesel engine connected to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). A control-oriented, supervisory level powertrain model is developed using the interconnection of component dynamical/algebraic models applicable to power flow management. Of note, we perform a CVT power flow analysis and construct the corresponding power-flow-based model. Further, we introduce the use of Lyapunov energy functions into our modeling approach to mitigate solution singularities. Given the powertrain model, the paper sets forth power management based upon model predictive control that seeks to minimize vehicle velocity tracking error, fuel usage, and frictional braking, except during commanded deceleration, to avoid its use during positive engine power output. To demonstrate the validity of the approach, the controlled vehicle is simulated for a trapezoidal drive profile of 35 s. Results show that engine efficiency is greater than or equal to 30% for about 36% of the drive profile and velocity tracking 2-norm normalized error is about 1.5%.
A Network-Based Analysis of Team Coordination and Shared Cognition in Systems Engineering

This paper presents a network-based approach for analyzing team coordination and shared cognition in engineering design teams. The research setting is an Integrated Concurrent Engineering ICE laboratory in which teams of approximately 20 engineers are collocated to conduct rapid conceptual design of scientific spacecraft. A design structure matrix DSM of expected interactions is constructed from technical information flow data, and DSM representations of reported interactions are created using survey data from 10 ICE design teams. A comparative analysis of expected and reported interactions is used to calculate a metric of team coordination called socio-technical congruence STC. To examine shared cognition, pairwise shared mental models SMMs are measured using pre- and post-session surveys on system design drivers. Shared knowledge networks SMMs as edges are constructed, and team learning is measured as the change in network structure over time. Analysis reveals statistically significant correlations between team learning and each of three technical attributes system development time, launch mass, and mission concept maturity and between team learning and team coordination. These results indicate that team members learn most from each other when working on difficult or unfamiliar problems and when expected and reported interactions are aligned. The paper concludes that team coordination and the design product in ICE are not necessarily directly related to each other but that both are related to shared cognition. Although this study focuses on conceptual design, it lays the foundation for future work examining the role of team coordination and shared cognition in full-scale system development programs.
Combining probabilistic population codes

We study the problem of statistically correct inference in networks whose basic representations are population codes. Population codes are ubiquitous in the brain, and involve the simultaneous activity of many units coding for some low dimensional quantity. A classic example are place cells in the rat hippocampus: these fire when the animal is at a particular place in an environment, so the underlying quantity has two dimensions of spatial location. We show how to interpret the activity as encoding whole probability distributions over the underlying variable rather then just single values, and propose a method of inductively learning mappings between population codes that are computationally tractable and yet offer good approximations to statistically optimal inference. We simulate the method on some simple examples to prove its competence.
Adapting to data sparsity for efficient parallel PARAFAC tensor decomposition in Hadoop

Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) is used in many scientific disciplines to decompose multimodal datasets ('tensors') into principal factors to uncover multilinear relationships in the data. Today's popular implementations of PARAFAC are single-server solutions that do not scale well to big datasets. This paper presents the design, implementation, and testing of a Big Data-enabled Parallel PARAFAC algorithm written in Java and run via Hadoop. To optimize performance across diverse datasets, three computational modes have been implemented: (i) dense, (ii) sparse, and (iii) hybrid. The input tensor is first divided into slices for parallel processing, then a one-pass test is performed on each slice to determine its size and sparsity, and finally, the best mode for each slice is chosen to minimize the overall runtime. For tensors with non-uniform data density distributions, we demonstrate that a per slice selection of the computational mode minimizes the runtime compared to using the same mode for all slices. In one representative example, the runtime with auto-selected mode was 3% and 25% faster than pure hybrid and sparse mode executions, respectively, resulting in a faster execution of PARAFAC on Big Data tensors than previously possible.
The CBFb-SMMHC Oncoprotein Inhibits Binding of the Runx1 Runt Domain to DNA.

Abstract Core-binding factors (CBFs) are heterodimeric transcriptional factors consisting of a DNA-binding Runx1 (CBFα) subunit and a CBFβ subunit. Cbfβ allosterically increases the affinity of Runx1 for DNA ~2.5 fold. CBF subunits are encoded by four genes in mammals. RUNX1 (AML1), RUNX2, and RUNX3 encode for CBFα subunits, and CBFB encodes the CBFβ subunit. Homozygous disruption of either the Runx1 or the Cbfb genes in mice results in essentially identical phenotypes: midgestation embryonic lethality accompanied by extensive hemorrhaging and a profound block at the fetal liver stage of hematopoiesis. In humans, chromosomal rearrangements that disrupt the Runx1 and CBFB genes are associated with a significant percentage of leukemias. CBFβ is disrupted in acute myeloid leukemia by inv(16)(p13;q22), t(16;16), and del(16)(q22). These translocations result in the production of novel fusion proteins containing most of the CBFβ protein fused to the C-terminal coiled-coil domain from smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SMMHC) encoded by the MYH11 gene. A knock-in of the CBFB-MYH11 allele in mice resulted in embryonic lethality with a profound block in hematopoietic development, the same phenotype observed for the Runx1 and Cbfb knockouts. We recently demonstrated that the CBFβ-SMMHC fusion protein binds to the DNA binding Runt domain from Runx1 with both higher affinity and altered stoichiometry relative to native CBFβ. We also provided NMR-based evidence for multiple sites of contact between Runx1 and CBFβ-SMMHC, proving the role of the SMMHC sequence in creating this altered affinity. Here we demonstrate that CBFβ-SMMHC inhibits DNA binding of the Runx1 Runt domain by ~6-fold for the CD4 dual-site silencer element. Cross-saturation NMR mapping on the Runt domain in complex with CBFβ-SMMHC reveals that the SMMHC portion of the oncoprotein makes contacts with β-strands 1 and 2 in the Runt domain. We propose that the inhibition of DNA-binding and increased affinity combine to mediate the dysregulation of Runx-regulated genes caused by CBFβ-SMMHC. These results also clearly suggest that targeting of the CBFβ-SMMHC protein for drug development may well be a viable approach for the treatment of the associated leukemia.
No Wrong Door: Designing Systems to Foster Collaboration in Support of Child Development

The identification and treatment of child developmental disabilities is a complex process that may involve people with different professional backgrounds who struggle to collaborate on behalf of affected children. Information technology (IT) systems could help many diverse stakeholders collaborate, however the current literature does not provide clear guidance on how to design such systems. Models and theories relevant to collaboration could inform designs, yet are rarely used in the design process. My dissertation aims to demonstrate the use of these models and theories to create a system to support the complex child development support space.
Validating security protocols with cloud-based middleboxes

Residential networks pose a unique challenge for security since they are operated by end-users that may not have security expertise. Residential networks are also home to devices that may have lackluster security protections, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which may introduce vulnerabilities. In this work, we introduce TLSDeputy, a middlebox-based system to protect residential networks from connections to inauthentic TLS servers. By combining the approach with OpenFlow, a popular software-defined networking protocol, we show that we can effectively provide residential network-wide protections across diverse devices with minimal performance overheads.
Coordination Dynamics in Multihuman Multirobot Teams

As robots enter human environments, they will be expected to collaborate and coordinate their actions with people. In order for robots to become more fluent at this, particularly in groups, robots must be able to recognize, understand, and anticipate coordinated human activities. However, how robots engage in this process can influence the dynamics of the team, particularly in multihuman, multirobot situations. In this letter, we investigate how the presence of robots affects group coordination when both the anticipation algorithms they employ and their number (single robot or multirobot) vary. Our results suggest that group coordination is significantly affected when a robot joins a human-only group, and is further affected when a second robot joins the group and employs a different anticipation algorithm from the other robot. These findings suggest that heterogeneous behavior of robots in a multihuman group can play a major role in how group coordination dynamics stabilize (or fail), and may have implications for how we design future human–robot teams.
Cautery artifact understages urothelial cancer at initial transurethral resection of large bladder tumours.

Introduction: We sought to determine how frequently cautery (thermal) artifact precludes an accurate determination of stage at initial transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) of large bladder tumours. Methods: We queried our institution’s billing data to identify patients who underwent TURBT for large bladder tumours >5cm (CPT 52240) by two urologists at an academic centre from January 2009 through April 2013. Only patients who underwent initialstaging TURBT for urothelial cancer were included. Pathological reports were reviewed for stage, number of separate pathological specimens per TURBT, and presence of cautery artifact. Operative reports were reviewed for whether additional cold cup biopsies were taken of other suspicious areas of the bladder, resident involvement, and type of electrocautery. Results: We identified 119 patients who underwent initial staging TURBT for large tumours. Cautery artifact interfered with accurate staging in 7/119 (6%) of cases. Of these, six patients underwent restaging TURBT, with 50% percent experiencing upstaging to T2 disease. Tumour size, tumour grade, whether additional cold cup biopsies were taken, number of separate pathological specimens sent, and resident involvement were not associated with cautery artifact (all p>0.05). Bipolar resection had a higher rate of cautery artifact 5/42 (12%), compared to monopolar resection 2/77 (2.6%) approaching significance (p=0.095). Conclusions: Cautery artifact may delay accurate staging at initial TURBT for large tumours by understaging up to 6% of patients.
Evaluation of Intelligence, Achievement, Aptitude, and Interest

There are numerous tests and assessment methods covering the areas of ability, aptitude, achievement, and interest. The commonly accepted definitions of these terms are as follows. Ability is a person’s current power to perform a task. Aptitude, on the other hand, is defined as one’s potential to perform a task given maximum training and opportunity. Both of these concepts are intertwined with achievement, which is interpreted as the level that individuals demonstrate their current or past performance. As a concept, interest stands somewhat apart from the other terms. Interest is defined very closely to the word like. For example, a person may like (have an interest) in a sport but have no aptitude or ability in his or her interest. The measurements used in ability and aptitude tests have concentrated on academic or cognitive tasks, whereas interest surveys have typically concentrated on the world or work. One can then contrast these cognitive tests with interest tests. The most highly developed measurement devices in the cognitive domain are the intelligence tests. Because the history of the testing movement, contemporary issues, and debates concerning the future of the testing movement are most dramatically illustrated in relation to the assessment of intelligence, a major portion of this chapter will be devoted to the discussion of the assessment of intelligence, its historical development, current status, and future direction.
At the Core of Our Capacity to Act for a Reason: The Affective System and Evaluative Model-Based Learning and Control:

Recent decades have witnessed a sea change in thinking about emotion, which has gone from being seen as a disruptive force in human thought and action to being seen as an important source of situat...
O Marcador de Posse Alienável em Karirí: Um Morfema Macro-Jê Revisitado

This paper is a result of an ongoing project of lexical compilation and grammatical analysis of Kariri (also known as Kiriri), an extinct indigenous language from Northeast Brazil. Although two of its dialects are known only through short wordlists (Martius 1867), two of them were fairly welldocumented—Kipea (Mamiani 1877, 1942), on which this paper is based, and Dzubukua (Nantes 1896). Kariri has been included in the Macro-Je stock (Rodrigues 1986, 1999), although in rather hypothetical terms. However, in spite of the lack of comprehensive lexical comparison to date, recent studies have shown very suggestive cases of grammatical affinities between Kariri and other Macro-Je languages. One of them, first mentioned by Rodrigues (1992a: 386), is the existence, in Je, Maxakali, Bororo, and Kariri, of an apparently cognate morpheme marking alienable possession, although the evidence for the existence of this morpheme in Kariri provided then was quite cursory. The main purpose of the present work is to provide further support for the existence of the marker of alienable possession in Kariri. In addition, this paper briefly discusses the syntactic nature of genitive constructions containing such a morpheme and the existence, in the Je family, of another morpheme of similar functions, probably reconstructible for Proto-Je and cognate with a Tupi-Guarani prefix.
Methyl Linoleate and Methyl Oleate Bond Dissociation Energies: Electronic Structure Fishing for Wise Crack Products

The world depends on petroleum for everything from the plastics that contain our food to the natural gas that heats our homes to the gasoline that feed our cars’ engines. With rising prices of petroleum reflecting demand for this finite resource, attention has been turned to alternative sources of energy. Biodiesel, which exhibits many of the same properties as conventional diesel but is derived from biological sources, is an attractive alternative. Fats and oils are converted to biodiesel, fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), by transesterification. FAMEs are subsequently thermally cracked to form more lightweight transportation fuels such as natural gas, kerosene, and possibly gasoline. We aim to further understand the thermal cracking procedure, at an atomic level, in hopes that this may aid in future engineering of viable fuels. We will present our study on the effective computational modeling of bond dissociations in the FAMEs methyl linoleate and methyl oleate, which are the most common biodiesel produ...
Steric Pressure among Membrane-Bound Polymers Opposes Lipid Phase Separation

Lipid rafts are thought to be key organizers of membrane-protein complexes in cells. Many proteins thought to congregate in rafts have bulky polymeric components such as intrinsically disordered protein domains and polysaccharide chains. Therefore, understanding the interaction between membrane domains and membrane-bound polymers may provide insights into the roles rafts play in cells. Multiple studies of PEG-conjugated lipids have demonstrated that high concentrations of membrane-bound polymeric domains create significant lateral steric pressure. Furthermore, our recent work has shown that steric pressure on membrane surfaces can oppose the assembly of lipid domains. Based on these findings, this work investigates whether steric pressure among membrane-bound polymeric domains could oppose membrane phase separation. To address this question we created GUVs with a ternary composition (DPPC:DOPC:Chol), which separated into coexisting liquid ordered and disordered domains. DPPE-PEG lipids (1, 2, or 5 kDa PEG) were included at increasing molar concentrations. As the distance between PEG molecules on membrane surfaces decreased, the fraction of GUVs that phase separated decreased, suggesting that membrane-bound PEG chains opposed phase separation. Interestingly, for lipid mixtures with a Tm just above room temperature, domains were destabilized when the spacing among PEG chains was greater than their hydrodynamic diameter, suggesting that relatively little pressure was required. In contrast, when we examined GUVs with a Tm significantly above room temperature, domains were not destabilized until the PEG spacing was much less than their hydrodynamic diameter, suggesting that the polymer chains had to pass through the high pressure brush transition to drive lipid mixing. These results demonstrate that steric pressure among membrane-bound polymers can drive mixing of lipid domains and suggest that the ability of cellular lipid rafts to resist this pressure and concentrate polymeric domains likely depends heavily on their lipid composition.
Infinitesimal Theory of Smooth Loops

In this Chapter the fundamentals of the general infinitesimal theory of local smooth loops are introduced. We use an approach which is similar to the original approach used by S. Lie for Lie groups (with modifications), since, in order to understand the principal notions, one has to return to origins on the basis of differential equations. the differential equations of smooth loops are introduced and their infinitesimal theory is constructed generalizing Lie groups theory.
How Do We Get From Good to Great? The Need for Better Observation Studies of Creativity in Education.

Without quality research using observation methods, it is difficult to understand creativity processes in action, especially in the field of education. But, what is the current state of these studies? Based on a review of 37 extant studies, we found that observation is surprisingly under-utilized, and that more rigorous observation studies of creativity processes in education are needed.
High Frequency Small Signal Model for Inverse Charge Constant On-Time (IQCOT) Control

These days, constant on-time current mode (COTCM) control schemes are very popular in the multiphase voltage regulator (VR) controllers because of its higher light load efficiency and better small signal characteristics. The issue of these ripple based COTCM control in multiphase operation is that when the inductor current ripple becomes very small at certain duty cycles due to ‘ripple cancellation effect’, control becomes very noise sensitive. Recently, a novel non-ripple based ‘Inverse Charge Constant On-Time (IQCOT)’ control has been proposed which can operate seamlessly at ripple cancellation point in multiphase operation. This new control improves the transient response in single and multiphase operations too. However, a high frequency small signal model for this new IQCOT control is required for its high bandwidth control loop design. In this paper, a high frequency accurate small signal model for IQCOT control has been derived using describing function method. Form the derived model it is found that the quality factor (Q) of one double pole set varies with duty cycle change which makes the high bandwidth design very challenging for a wide duty cycle range. To overcome this challenge, an auto-tuning method for Q-value control is also proposed in this paper. The derived high frequency model and auto-tuning method are also verified by small signal bode plot simulation and test results.
Criminal Law and Addiction

This chapter demonstrates that, despite claims to expand the mitigating and excusing force of addiction based on burgeoning scientific research, existing Anglo-American criminal law is most consistent with the choice position. It argues that this is a defensible approach that is consistent with current science and with traditional justifications of criminal blame and punishment. The chapter discusses preliminary issues to avoid potential objections that the discussion adopts an unrealistic view of addiction. It provides a general explanation of the responsibility criteria of the criminal law and briefly addresses false or distracting claims about lack of responsibility. The chapter seeks to analyse of the criminal law’s doctrines about addiction to confirm that the criminal law primarily adopts a choice model and that addiction per se plays almost no role in responsibility ascriptions. It concludes with a general defense of present doctrine and practice, but briefly suggests beneficial liberalizing reforms.
Assessing Correlations of Perovskite Catalytic Performance with Electronic Structure Descriptors

Electronic structure descriptors are computationally efficient quantities used to construct qualitative correlations for a variety of properties. In particular, the oxygen p-band center has been us...
Discrimination in Ambient Air Pollution Monitoring

In the United States, ambient air quality is regulated through National Ambient Air Quality standards (NAAQS). Enforcement of these standards is delegated to state and sub-state regulators who are also tasked with designing their own monitoring networks for ambient pollution. Past work has found evidence consistent with strategic behavior: local regulators strategically avoid pollution hotspots when siting monitors. This paper assesses whether income and race have historically played a role in monitor siting decisions.
Secondary motifs enable concentration-dependent regulation by Rbfox family proteins

The Rbfox family of splicing factors regulate alternative splicing during animal development and in disease, impacting thousands of exons in the maturing brain, heart, and muscle. Rbfox proteins have long been known to bind to the RNA sequence GCAUG with high affinity, but just half of Rbfox CLIP peaks contain a GCAUG motif. We incubated recombinant RBFOX2 with over 60,000 transcriptomic sequences to reveal significant binding to several moderate-affinity, non-GCAYG sites at a physiologically relevant range of RBFOX concentrations. We find that many of these secondary motifs bind Rbfox robustly in vivo and that several together can exert regulation comparable to a GCAUG in a trichromatic splicing reporter assay. Furthermore, secondary motifs regulate RNA splicing in neuronal development and in neuronal subtypes where cellular Rbfox concentrations are highest, enabling a second wave of splicing changes as Rbfox levels increase.
SCADA systems: vulnerabilities and remediation

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, otherwise known as SCADA, is a system for gathering real time data, controlling processes, and monitoring equipment from remote locations. As more companies are implementing an open SCADA architecture through the Internet to monitor critical infrastructure components such as power plants, oil and gas pipelines, chemical refineries, flood control dams, and waste and water systems, vital systems are becoming increasingly open to attack. This paper provides an overview of SCADA, outlines several vulnerabilities of SCADA systems, presents data on known and possible threats, and provides particular remediation strategies for protecting these systems.
Residual stress formation and stability in bearing steels due to fatigue induced retained austenite transformation

Abstract In this work, for development and sustainability of compressive residual stresses (RS) in bearing steel materials is examined. Of particular interest is the role of retained austenite (RA) transformation in fatigue performance. Cyclic torsional loading was performed for a prescribed number of cycles at specific stress levels. Specimens were then examined using X-ray diffraction techniques to observe RS values and RA volume fraction. Based on the experimental results, an empirical model incorporating RA transformation and material relaxation was developed to predict RS formation. The results obtained from the model corroborate well with experimental measurements. Experimental results indicate that much of the RA present is not useful for generating compressive RS. However, by controlling applied loading, compressive RS can be generated and maintained throughout fatigue life. These findings were then translated into rolling contact fatigue (RCF) scenarios to identify loading conditions to maximize the benefits associated with RA transformation. The experimental and modeling results highlight the utility of RA transformation in increasing compressive residual stresses within the material, but emphasize the limitations of RA in the system.
Permanent Ingrown Toenails: Chemical and Surgical Procedures

Ingrown toenails are a significant source of pain and disability for patients. After assessment of the nail and tissue, treatment options ranging from conservative to surgical are considered. A basic partial nail avulsion is performed to remove the offending nail border and will often be followed by a chemical matrixectomy procedure to lessen the chance of recurrence. Surgical matrixectomies are also a consideration for patients with recurrent nail issues, while debulking procedures are useful when the skin is overlapping the nail edge.
The Price of Justice: An Analysis of the Costs That Are Appropriately Considered in a Cost-Based Vindication of Statutory Rights Defense to an Arbitration Agreement

In the wake of ATT (2) the comparative approach, which compares the costs of arbitration to the costs of proceeding in litigation; (3) the cost/benefit approach, which compares the costs of arbitration to the likelihood of the plaintiff's potential recovery; and (4) the incentive-based approach, which considers whether the plaintiffs or their potential attorneys have any incentive, given the costs involved, to pursue their claims. This Article concludes that the comparative approach is the only approach that is both grounded in the text of the Court's vindication of statutory rights jurisprudence and serves the purposes of the FAA and enforcing statutory rights.
Mechanisms for Direct Separation of Oil from Water with Hydrophobic Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors

Oil–water separation in membranes traditionally involves the transfer of water through the membrane. Instead, this study presents the novel approach of permeating insoluble oil through a hydrophobi...
Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for improving outpatient neuropalliative care: A qualitative study of patient and caregiver perspectives.

Background:COVID-19 has impacted persons with serious illness, including those with chronic, neurodegenerative conditions. While there are several reports on COVID-19’s impact on inpatient palliati...
Effect of Rapid Respiratory Virus Testing on Antibiotic Prescribing Among Children Presenting to the Emergency Department With Acute Respiratory Illness: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance There is high usage of antibiotics in the emergency department (ED) for children with acute respiratory illnesses. Studies have reported decreased antibiotic use among inpatients with rapid respiratory pathogen (RRP) testing. Objective To determine whether RRP testing leads to decreased antibiotic use and health care use among children with influenzalike illness (ILI) in an ED. Design, Setting, and Participants A randomized clinical trial among children aged 1 month to 18 years presenting to an ED with ILI from December 1, 2018, to November 30, 2019, was conducted. Data were analyzed March 23, 2020, to April 2, 2021. All children received a nasopharyngeal swab for RRP testing and were randomized 1:1 to the intervention group or control group (results not given, routine clinical care). Results were available in 45 minutes. Intention-to-treat analyses and modified intention-to-treat (clinician knows results) analyses were conducted using multivariable Poisson regression. Interventions Rapid respiratory pathogen test results given to clinicians. Main Outcomes and Measures Antibiotic prescribing was the primary outcome; influenza antiviral prescribing, ED length of stay, hospital admission, and recurrent health care visits were the secondary outcomes. Results Among 931 ED visits (intervention group, 452 children group and control group, 456 children after exclusion of those not meeting criteria or protocol violations), a total of 795 RRP test results (85%) were positive. The median age of the children was 2.1 years (interquartile range, 0.9-5.6 years); 509 (56%) were boys. Most children (478 [53%]) were Hispanic, 688 children (76%) received government insurance, and 314 (35%) had a high-risk medical condition. In the intention-to-treat intervention group, children were more likely to receive antibiotics (relative risk [RR], 1.3; 95% CI, 1.0-1.7), with no significant differences in antiviral prescribing, medical visits, and hospitalization. In inverse propensity-weighted modified intention-to-treat analyses, children with test results known were more likely to receive antivirals (RR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.6-4.5) and be hospitalized (RR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.4-2.5); there was no significant difference in antibiotic prescribing (RR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9-1.4). Conclusions and Relevance The use of RRP testing in the ED for ILI did not decrease antibiotic prescribing in this randomized clinical trial. There is a limited role for RRP pathogen testing in children in this setting. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT03756753
Delta-V-Based Analysis of Spacecraft Pursuit–Evasion Games

This work explores a ΔV-based approach to analyzing spacecraft pursuit–evasion games with large initial separation between the spacecraft. Reachable sets in semimajor axis, eccentricity, and inclin...
RESEARCH ARTICLE: Feasibility of virtual mock trials as a parallel teaching-assessment activity for student pharmacists at two American pharmacy programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Background: Student-pharmacists forced into remote-learning by the COVID-19 pandemic participated in a Virtual Mock Trial (VMT). Objectives: Feasibility of VMTs was assessed by evaluating student VMT performance, student perceptions on technology and overall experiences. Methods: The VMT was implemented via video conferencing technology in April 2020. Faculty-judges and student-jurors observed/rated student performance using pre-established rubrics. A post-VMT survey was administered electronically. Descriptive analyses were performed, and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were conducted to compare programmes. Results: Forty-six students from Programme A (East Coast, USA) and 89 from Programme B (West Coast, USA) participated in the VMTs. The faculty-judges’ evaluation scores for student performance ranged from 85.0% to 96.7%, while the student-jurors’ evaluation scores ranged from 68.3% to 100%. Student perceptions on the four categories regarding technology use all had means > 5 on a 7-Point Likert Scale. More than 79.0% of students rated their VMT experience positively (i.e. 6 or 7). Conclusions: VMT is feasible for the current pandemic remote-learning environment, and it could be replicated in other pharmacy or healthcare programmes to enrich students' active learning in virtual education.
Selective early loss of polypeptides in liver microsomes of CCl4-treated rats. Relationship to cytochrome P-450 content.

Abstract Treatment of rats with carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) resulted in early reproducible losses of either one or two specific polypeptides (depending on the inducing agent with which the animals had been treated) in the molecular weight range of the multiple forms of cytochrome P-450. The loss was correlated with a decrease in total cytochrome P-450 content in the microsome. The results of this study and those in the accompanying report indicate that CCl 4 was metabolized by a specific form of cytochrome P-450 (52,000 daltons), which was rapidly destroyed in the process. The early loss of this peptide occurred simultaneously with the previously demonstrated production of highly reactive trichloromethyl radicals (·CCl 3 ). This polypeptide, which was shown to disappear from liver microsomes following treatment of rats with CCl 4 , was demonstrated in the accompanying report to be the form of cytochrome P-450 specifically required for production of the highly reactive trichloromethyl radical in a reconstituted monooxygenase system.
Widespread variation in NSP1, a gene involved in rhizobium nodulation, across species of Acmispon (Fabaceae) from diverse habitats

GRAS proteins comprise a large family of genes that play important roles in regulating gene expression throughout all stages of plant development. The physiological and phylogenetic breadth of GRAS proteins known among model species suggests that they may be useful as molecular genetic markers in non-model species. For example, GRAS genes involved in regulating legume–rhizobium symbioses may reveal ecological and evolutionary variation in these relationships. In this study, we collected sequences from Nodulation Signaling Protein 1 (NSP1), a gene involved in the development of an infection thread through which rhizobia enter roots, in five species of Acmispon Raf. to quantify genetic variation within and between closely related species and to compare sequence divergence in NSP1 from Acmispon with other legumes. We found a high degree of similarity of NSP1 from Acmispon with homologues in other angiosperms. Thirty-two unique alleles were identified within Acmispon, and much of this variation reflects spati...
A phoneme model of English speech for the design of a parallel speech understanding system

A stochastic model of English speech is described that can be used to generate a stream of phonemically labeled frames with the same characteristics as real speech to be used during the design of new computer architectures. Specialized computer architectures to perform speech understanding in real time should incorporate information about the characteristics of English speech. The English speech model described can be used to simulate efficiently the performance of new architectures and eliminates the need for massive amounts of input speech data to determine architecture design parameters. A stochastic model is used to reproduce accurately the phoneme content of English speech, including the transition probabilities, the duration mean, and the duration variance of each phoneme and silence region. >
Optimizing irregular shared-memory applications for distributed-memory systems

In prior work, we have proposed techniques to extend the ease of shared-memory parallel programming to distributed-memory platforms by automatic translation of OpenMP programs to MPI. In the case of irregular applications, the performance of this translation scheme is limited by the fact that accesses to shared-data cannot be accurately resolved at compile-time. Additionally, irregular applications with high communication to computation ratios pose challenges even for direct implementation on message passing systems. In this paper, we present combined compile-time/run-time techniques for optimizing irregular shared-memory applications on message passing systems in the context of automatic translation from OpenMP to MPI. Our transformations enable computation-communication overlap by restructuring irregular parallel loops. The compiler creates inspectors to analyze actual data access patterns for irregular accesses at runtime. This analysis is combined with the compile-time analysis of regular data accesses to determine which iterations of irregular loops access non-local data. The iterations are then reordered to enable computation-communication overlap. In the case where the irregular access occurs inside nested loops, the loop nest is restructured. We evaluate our techniques by translating OpenMP versions of three benchmarks from two important classes of irregular applications - sparse matrix computations and molecular dynamics. We find that for these applications, on sixteen nodes, versions employing computation-communication overlap are almost twice as fast as baseline OpenMP-to-MPI versions, almost 30% faster than inspector-only versions, almost 25% faster than hand-coded versions on two applications and about 9% slower on the third.
The influence of protein adsorption on nanoparticle association with cultured endothelial cells

As materials are produced at smaller scales, the properties that make them especially useful for biological applications such as drug delivery, imaging or sensing applications also render them potentially harmful. There has been a reasonable amount of work addressing the interactions of biological fluids at material surfaces that demonstrates the high affinity of protein for particle surfaces and some looking at the role of particle surface chemistry in cellular associations, but mechanisms have been too little addressed outside the context of intended, specific interactions. Here, using cultured endothelium as a model for vascular transport, we demonstrate that the capacity of nanoparticle surfaces to adsorb protein is indicative of their tendency to associate with cells. Quantification of adsorbed protein shows that high binding nanoparticles are maximally coated in seconds to minutes, indicating that proteins on particle surfaces can mediate cell association over much longer time scales. We also remove many of the most abundant proteins from culture media which alters the profile of adsorbed proteins on nanoparticles but does not affect the level of cell association. We therefore conclude that cellular association is not dependent on the identity of adsorbed proteins and therefore unlikely to require specific binding to any particular cellular receptors.
An Internet‐style approach to wireless link errors

Wireless links differ from traditional ‘wired’ links in two ways that challenge the existing Internet. On wireless links packet loss or corruption due to transmission errors is not rare, which calls into question the standard Internet assumptions that transmission errors should be corrected by transport-level protocols at end systems and that end-to-end packet loss typically indicates network congestion. Also, the severity and location- dependent nature of these errors calls into question the meaning of ‘fair’ scheduling, per-flow quality of service, and even looser notions such as service level agreements, when applied to wireless links. An important question is whether the two unique problems posed by wireless links can be successfully addressed within the standard Internet architecture, as opposed to requiring new transport protocols designed specifically for wireless links or requiring wireless links to ‘fix up’ the operation of specific end-to-end protocols. We provide experimental evidence that a combination of protocol-blind link-level local error control, which lessens the damage, and error-sensitive link scheduling, which ensures sensible outcomes in response to link capacity loss, provides a good operating environment while adhering to traditional Internet design practices. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cost-effectiveness of Elective cesarean delivery in human immunodeficiency virus-infected women

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of an elective cesarean delivery strategy in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected women receiving zidovudine therapy to prevent perinatal transmission. Methods: A decision-analysis model was constructed to compare two delivery strategies in HIV-infected women: usual care and recommendation for elective cesarean delivery. The model followed a hypothetical cohort of 7000 HIV-infected pregnant women in the United States who were receiving zidovudine therapy for 1 year. The third-party payer perspective was taken. Cost of delivery method with and without complications and lifetime medical care cost for pediatric HIV infection were considered. The main outcome measure was cases of perinatal HIV transmission prevented. Results: Compared with the usual care strategy, the elective cesarean delivery strategy resulted in an additional 3486 cesarean deliveries each year, prevented 142 cases (52.4%) of perinatal HIV transmission, and resulted in incremental overall cost savings to society of $5.3 million per year ($37,284 saved per case of perinatal transmission prevented). With other estimates held constant, the elective cesarean delivery strategy would not be cost saving when the baseline perinatal HIV transmission rates were all reduced by 43.3%. Conclusions: Elective cesarean delivery in HIV-infected women receiving zidovudine is one management strategy for prevention of perinatal HIV transmission and can be cost saving. However, if other strategies, such as use of combination antiretroviral therapy and/or measurement of viral load, result in at least 50% reduction of the baseline perinatal HIV transmission rates, elective cesarean delivery will not be cost saving.
Integration and management challenges for multi-nanosatellite missions

The need for launch opportunities for nanosatellite missions is ever increasing as the number of nanosatellites in development increases. Nanosatellites are typically launched as secondary, also known as auxiliary payloads, on missions to minimize launch costs. This creates managerial and technical challenges for integrating multiple nanosatellite programs as auxiliary payloads with primary missions. The priority of the integration team is to minimize impacts and risks to the primary spacecraft and the launch vehicle that are present with auxiliary satellites. Early identification of requirements for nanosatellites and their deployment devices is necessary to increase the opportunity for success of a nanosatellite rideshare mission. This paper discusses management and integration challenges for nanosatellite missions that are launched as auxiliary payloads on United States launch vehicles and techniques for addressing these challenges.