cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the drought response of CMIP5 models using global gross primary productivity, leaf area, precipitation, and soil moisture data

Realistic representation of vegetation's response to drought is important for understanding terrestrial carbon cycling. We evaluated 9 Earth System Models from the historical experiment of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) for the response of gross primary productivity (GPP) and leaf area index (LAI) to hydrological anomalies. Hydrological anomalies were characterized by the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and surface soil moisture anomalies (SMA). GPP and LAI in models were on average more responsive to SPI than in observations revealed through several indicators. First, we find higher mean correlations between global annual anomalies of GPP and SPI in models than observations. Second, the maximum correlation between GPP and SPI across 1-24 month timescales is higher in models than observations. And finally we found stronger excursions of GPP to extreme dry or wet events. Similar to GPP, LAI responded more to SPI in models than observations. The over-response of models is smaller if evaluated based on SMA instead of SPI. LAI responses to SMA are inconsistent among models, showing both higher and lower LAI when soil moisture is reduced. The timescale of maximum correlation is shorter in models than the observation for GPP and the markedly different response timescales among models for LAI indicate gaps in understanding how variability of water availability affects foliar cover. The discrepancy of responses derived from SPI and SMA among models, and between models and observations calls for improvement in understanding the dynamics of plant-available water in addition to how vegetation responds to these anomalies.
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG

Abstract Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG is one of the most well-studied probiotics in the market. Since its discovery in 1985 by Sherwood Gorbach and Barry Goldin, it has been applied to various conditions and disease states in clinical trials and found to exert a multitude of benefits to the host, including improvements in diarrheal illness, infant allergic conditions, weight gain, and respiratory pathology, among others. Importantly, it has been used safely for many years, and much is understood about its biology and interaction with the host.
Spatial variation of atmospheric nitrogen deposition and critical loads for aquatic ecosystems in the Greater Yellowstone Area.

Abstract Current and historic atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has impacted aquatic ecosystems in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). Understanding the spatial variation in total atmospheric deposition (wet + dry) of N is needed to estimate air pollution deposition critical loads for sensitive aquatic ecosystems. This is particularly important for areas that have an increasing contribution of ammonia dry deposition to total N (TN), such as the GYA. High resolution geostatistical models and maps of TN deposition (wet + dry) were developed using a variety of techniques including ordinary kriging in a geographic information system, to evaluate spatial variability and identify areas of elevated loading of pollutants for the GYA. TN deposition estimates in the GYA range from
Organized labor, audit quality, and internal control

Abstract This study investigates whether labor union strength is associated with the quality of audits and internal control. Labor unions have reason to demand high quality audits and strong systems of internal control because they rely on financial information in collective bargaining negotiations. However, organized labor creates incentives for managers to procure lower quality audits and provide weaker internal control in order to hold greater influence over the content of the financial information that unions receive. I provide evidence that union strength is associated with higher audit quality and better internal control. Specifically, I find that union strength is associated with higher audit fees, fewer audit failures, and fewer material weaknesses.
Posttreatment DSC-MRI is Predictive of Early Treatment Failure in Children with Supratentorial High-Grade Glioma Treated with Erlotinib

The role of perfusion imaging in the management of pediatric high grade glioma is unclear. We evaluated the ability of dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) to determine grade, evaluate post-treatment response and predict treatment failure. In this study 22 patients with high-grade glioma underwent biopsy and were treated with concurrent and sequential radiotherapy and erlotinib as part of a phase I/II clinical trial (NCT00124657). Preradiotherapy, immediate postradiotherapy, 6‑month and treatment failure DSC MR images were reviewed, registered, and processed for the ratio of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral blood volume (CBV). Processed, derived perfusion, and T1-weighted images (T1WI), T2WI, and fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRI sequences were used for segmentation and extraction of tumor perfusion parameters at all time points. Patient, tumor, treatment, and outcome data were summarized and related to perfusion data. Regional CBF in tumors increased from diagnosis to postradiotherapy, while they decreased to levels below those at diagnosis from postradiotherapy to 6‑month follow-up. At 6 months, the median regional CBF was higher in tumors that progressed (median 1.16) than in those that did not (median, 0.95; P < 0.05). Patients with regional CBF ratios above 1.4 at diagnosis had shorter survival times than did those with regional CBF ratios below 1.4 (P = 0.77). Tumors with a regional CBV above 1.15 at the postradiotherapy (1–3 months) follow-up scan were associated with an earlier time to death than that of tumors with a regional CBV below 1.15 (P < 0.05). Posttreatment perfusion characteristics are prognostic and may help predict survival. Overall, perfusion MRI is useful for managing pediatric high-grade glioma and should be incorporated into future clinical trials.
Towards real-time segmentation of 3D point cloud data into local planar regions

This article describes an algorithm for efficient segmentation of point cloud data into local planar surface regions. This is a problem of generic interest to researchers in the computer graphics, computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics community where it plays an important role in applications such as object recognition, mapping, navigation and conversion from point clouds representations to 3D surface models. Prior work on the subject is either computationally burdensome, precluding real time applications such as robotic navigation and mapping, prone to error for noisy measurements commonly found at long range or requires availability of coregistered color imagery. The approach we describe consists of 3 steps: (1) detect a set of candidate planar surfaces, (2) cluster the planar surfaces merging redundant plane models, and (3) segment the point clouds by imposing a Markov Random Field (MRF) on the data and planar models and computing the Maximum A-Posteriori (MAP) of the segmentation labels using Bayesian Belief Propagation (BBP). In contrast to prior work which relies on color information for geometric segmentation, our implementation performs detection, clustering and estimation using only geometric data. Novelty is found in the fast clustering technique and new MRF clique potentials that are heretofore unexplored in the literature. The clustering procedure removes redundant detections of planes in the scene prior to segmentation using BBP optimization of the MRF to improve performance. The MRF clique potentials dynamically change to encourage distinct labels across depth discontinuities. These modifications provide improved segmentations for geometry-only depth images while simultaneously controlling the computational cost. Algorithm parameters are tunable to enable researchers to strike a compromise between segmentation detail and computational performance. Experimental results apply the algorithm to depth images from the NYU depth dataset which indicate that the algorithm can accurately extract large planar surfaces from depth sensor data.
Effect of Amitraz on Colorado Potato Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Feeding, Development and Survival

Effects of amitraz, a formamidine insecticide, were studied in Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), populations from Minnesota, North Dakota and Virginia. Contact exposure or ingestion of leaves dipped in 4000 ppm amitraz was not lethal to adults. However, adult feeding was reduced 50% upon exposure to 90 ppm amitraz, a rate 3.2× the suggested field rate. LC50s determined by exposure of larvae to treated foliage were greater than LC50s determined by immersing larvae. Egg hatch was not reduced by application of ≤ 1840 ppm amitraz. In field trials, amitraz reduced defoliation as effectively as esfenvalerate, the insecticide of choice when the...
Early Events in Neutrophil Chemotactic Factor Interaction

ABSTRACT The earliest event in the reaction of chemotactic factors with neutrophils is the binding of the chemoattractant with its cell surface receptor. In studies of the synthetic, chemotactic formylpeptides, we have interpreted the specificity of their reaction with the neutrophil receptor in terms of a model of the binding site that envisages five critical areas of interaction. The other early event we have considered is the changes in the translocation of the cations, Na + , K + , H + and Ca 2+ that chemotactic factors induce in neutrophils.
Precision Medicine in Prostate Cancer: Approach to the Patient

The advent of genomic discoveries and decreasing cost of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has ushered in a new era of precision medicine. The early effects of this paradigm shift in oncology are beginning to impact patient care and thus increase the relevance of a discussion on the approach to patients with prostate cancer (PC). Bringing the application of precision medicine to the clinic raises new challenges related to informed consent prior to testing, effectively communicating the results of cancer genomic testing to the patient, understanding and managing the patient’s expectations, and working with the patient to select the best treatment options based on genomic tests (or not). This introductory chapter will cover the approach to men with PC undergoing genomic testing of their tumors.
The Education of Playful Boys: Class Clowns in the Classroom.

This longitudinal study identified degrees of playfulness in 278 kindergarten-aged children, and followed them through their next three school years to determine how playfulness was viewed by the children themselves, their classmates, and teachers. Perceptions of the social competence, disruptiveness, and labeling as the class clown, were assessed from all perspectives in each of first through third grades. Hierarchical linear modeling was conducted to account for the nesting of the data (children within classrooms within schools) and for the lack of independence between the measures. A central finding confirmed extant literature in that gender differences were dominant, with playful boys regarded as distinct from their less playful counterparts, while no such discrepancies appeared for girls. Playful boys were increasingly negatively regarded as rebellious and intrusive and were labeled as the “class clown” by their teachers. These findings were in direct contrast with children’s self-perceptions and those of their peers, who initially regarded more playful boys as appealing and engaging playmates. The data further revealed that the playful boys were stigmatized by their teachers, and this was communicated through verbal and nonverbal reprimands, and classmates assimilated this message and became increasingly denigrating of the playful quality in the boys. In stark contrast, girls’ playfulness levels were not a consideration in ratings by teachers or peers at any grade, nor did their classroom behaviors show significant variation. These negative perceptions were likely transferred by teachers to peers and to the children themselves, whereupon they changed their positive perceptions to be increasingly negative by third grade. The results contribute to the literature by demonstrating that playfulness in boys (but not girls) is often associated with the ‘class clown’ designation, and is viewed as an increasingly lethal characteristic in school classrooms, where compelling efforts are undertaken to discourage its expression and persistence.
The Second Career—Science Education

By 1963, Robert Karplus had turned his professional interests to the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS). Together with Herb Thier, he worked almost exclusively on elementary school science materials for the rest of the 1960’s. He did maintain his professional activity in physics as a member of the physics faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, but his last productive year in theoretical physics was 1962 and he co-authored just two theoretical physics papers after that. From 1963 until his cardiac arrest in 1982, Karplus worked exclusively in science education.
Quadratic Forms and Change of Basis

This chapter focuses on quadratic forms. A quadratic form in n variables is a polynomial function of x 1 …, x n that is homogeneous and of second degree. It is a sum of monomials of the form ax p x q ( p , q = 1, 2,… n ). When p = q , a square term is gotten of the form ax p 2 ; the other terms are cross-product terms. If q is a quadratic form in n variables x 1 ,… x n , the matrix of q is the matrix ( a pq ) where a pp = the coefficient of x p 2 in the polynomial and a pq = half the coefficient of x p x q in the polynomial. To each quadratic form from R n to R n , there corresponds a symmetric linear function f from R n to R n .
Multipotentiality: A Statistical Theory of Brain Function—Evidence and Implications

Most contemporary theories of brain function, strongly influenced by anatomical tradition, conceive of relatively discrete localization of sensory and motor function. In conditioning, new movements constitute the responses learned to the conditioned stimulus or signal for the behavior. As a logical consequence of the assumption that sensory perception is mediated by a localized sensory system and that movement is controlled by a localized motor system, most theories of learning are “connectionistic.” That is, they assume that the crucial event that takes place in learning is establishment of a pathway between the nerve cells in the brain that respond to the sensory cue and the nerve cells that control the learned response (Gerard, 1961; Hebb, 1949; Konorski, 1967). Memory of what was learned is composed of the connections newly established or facilitated during learning. Remembering consists of activity in these special pathways. Responses are determined by such activity.
Manifestations of Parity Violations in Atomic and Molecular Systems

The conservation of parity is just a fancy way of saying that there is no fundamental way of distinguishing left from right. Another way of putting it is that the mirror image of any experiment may be performed. To paraphrase Feynman and L. Frank Baum (Feynman, 1963, 1965; Baum, 1900): In the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard opened up the left side of the tin woodman’s breast and put in a heart. Suppose we communicated with an alien Wizard who was made of matter, obeyed the same laws as we, and was in a closed palace. Suppose we asked it to construct a tin woodman. We could give it all of the instructions up to which side to put the heart.
Suicide ideation and self-efficacy to avoid suicidal action among psychiatrically hospitalized military personnel.

Abstract Individuals with suicide ideation require self-efficacy to avoid engagement in suicidal behaviors. Low self-efficacy has been examined as a risk indicator for suicidal behaviors. The Self-Efficacy to Avoid Suicidal Action (SEASA) scale assesses self-efficacy to resist suicidal urges and was originally evaluated in a sample of adults receiving treatment for substance use disorders. The goal of this study was to explore the link between suicide ideation and self-efficacy to avoid suicidal action among a high-risk group of psychiatric inpatients. Military personnel psychiatrically hospitalized following a suicide-related event (N = 139) completed a modified version of the SEASA and provided a full history of suicidal behaviors. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Severity of worst time point suicide ideation, endorsement of any current suicide ideation, and history of multiple lifetime suicide attempts were associated with lower self-efficacy to avoid suicidal action. Self-efficacy to avoid engagement in suicidal action is a belief that can be strengthened and practiced within evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy for suicide prevention. Thus, providers are encouraged to target this type of self-efficacy in case conceptualization and treatment planning. Future research on how self-efficacy to avoid suicidal action can be effectively measured are needed.
Predictive Modeling for Advanced Virtual Metrology: A Tree-Based Approach

The rapid development of industry 4.0 has promoted the extensive adoption of big data analytics for manufacturing industry. In this domain, virtual metrology is a critical technique that is able to reduce manufacturing cost over a large amount of practical applications. In this paper, we propose a novel tree-based approach for simultaneous feature selection and predictive modeling to facilitate efficient virtual metrology. The proposed method accurately identifies multiple feature sets and then chooses the best candidate to minimize modeling error. As demonstrated by the experimental results based on two industrial examples, the proposed method can achieve higher modeling accuracy and find a more complete feature set than the conventional approach implemented with orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP).
NAÇÕES COM/SEM FRONTEIRAS: O NEOLIBERALISMO E O PROBLEMA DO PERTENCIMENTO NA ÁFRICA – E ALÉM / NATIONS WITH/OUT BORDERS: NEOLIBERALISM AND THE PROBLEM OF BELONGING IN AFRICA, AND BEYOND

O artigo aborda perspectiva antropologica e de dialogo com a area do Direito, uma vez que busca analisar a possivel porosidade das fronteiras na Africa do Sul – e outros paises - frente a imigracao. Para tanto, parte da nao-fixacao de fronteiras geograficas como caracteristica principal do corpo politico de Neure, bem como da filosofia Schmittiana. A construcao do tema perpassa, ainda, pela analise do processo historico que contribui para a nocao de nacionalidade heterodoxa.
Refractory status epilepticus as a predictor of tumor progression and poor prognostic indicator (P6.144)

Objective: To evaluate four neuro-oncology cases presenting with refractory status epilepticus (RSE) between 2015–2017 and specific brain tumor characteristics: tumor type, location, seizure-at-diagnosis, time to progression (TTP), and time to death (TTD). Background: New-onset seizures are commonly documented in newly diagnosed brain tumors. However, secondary epilepsy is limited by definitive brain tumor treatment, with patients often weaned off anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). Presentation of status epilepticus is a poor prognostic indicator likely associated with tumor progression. There are limited data to guide clinical decision-making including AED choice, cancer treatment, and prognostication. Design/Methods: RSE was defined as failure to control seizure with initial benzodiazepine plus a second line intravenous-AED, and is associated with a >60% mortality. Tumor progression was determined radiographically in accordance with current RANO/iRANO criteria. Cases include two primary brain tumors (gliosarcoma, oligodendroglioma) and two CNS metastases (non-small cell lung cancer, malignant melanoma). Results: All patients presented with seizure-at-diagnosis, of which, two were continued on AEDs long-term. All lesions were supratentorial. Primary brain tumors involved one lobe, and metastatic lesions were multi-focal. Tumor progression was confirmed in all cases at time of- or within 3.75 days of RSE. Notably, all patients subsequently underwent additional aggressive (surgery or cytotoxic anti-cancer therapeutic) measures. Two patients died within 20 weeks of RSE, 75% of patients suffered permanent neurologic deficits, and one patient remains on quadruple AED therapy. Conclusions: In conclusion, RSE heralds a high morbidity and mortality, yet the clinical focus in brain tumor patients remains directed toward more aggressive tumor control, albeit without clear survival or quality-of-life benefits. This small case-series is part of a larger ongoing retrospective review and presages the need for further survivorship research in the area. This work stratifies clinical risk factors that predict morbidity/mortality and drives the discussion surrounding appropriateness for palliative considerations in progressed brain tumor patients after RSE. Disclosure: Dr Vanino has nothing to disclose. Dr. Correll has nothing to disclose. Dr. Gatson has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Novocure (Optune).
Communication-efficient Distributed Solutions to a System of Linear Equations with Laplacian Sparse Structure

Two communication-efficient distributed algorithms are proposed to solve a system of linear equations $Ax=b$ with Laplacian sparse $A$ . A system of linear equations with Laplacian sparse $A$ can be found in many applications, e.g., the power flow problems and other network flow problems. The first algorithm is based on the gradient descent method in optimization and the agents only share two parts of the system state instead of that of the whole system state, which saves significant communication. The two parts shared by every agent through a communication link are the state information of its own and its neighbor connected by the communication link. The second method is obtained from an approximation to the Newton method, which converges faster. It requires twice as much communication as the first one but is still communication-efficient due to the low dimension of each part shared between agents. The convergence at a linear rate of both methods is proved.
All-in-One Urban Mobility Mapping Application with Optional Routing Capabilities

To create safer and less congested traffic operating environments researchers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have fostered a vision of cooperative sensing and cooperative mobility. This vision is realized in a mobile application that combines visual data extracted from cameras on roadway infrastructure with a user’s coordinates via a GPS-enabled device to create a visual representation of the driving or walking environment surrounding the application user. By merging the concepts of computer vision, object detection, and mono-vision image depth calculation, this application is able to gather absolute Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates from a user’s mobile device and combine them with relative GPS coordinates determined by the infrastructure cameras and determine the position of vehicles and pedestrians without the knowledge of their absolute GPS coordinates. The joined data is then used by an iOS mobile application to display a map showing the location of other entities such as vehicles, pedestrians, and obstacles creating a real-time visual representation of the surrounding area prior to the area appearing in the user’s visual perspective. Furthermore, a feature was implemented to display routing by using the results of a traffic scenario that was analyzed by rerouting algorithms in a simulated environment. By displaying where proximal entities are concentrated and showing recommended optional routes, users have the ability to be more informed and aware when making traffic decisions helping ensure a higher level of overall safety on our roadways. This vision would not be possible without high speed gigabit network infrastructure installed in Chattanooga, Tennessee and UTC’s wireless testbed, which was used to test many functions of this application. This network was required to reduce the latency of the massive amount of data generated by the infrastructure and vehicles that utilize the testbed; having results from this data come back in real-time is a critical component.
Endoscopic Management: Interventions at the Pylorus

Gastroparesis is a functional disorder of the stomach defined by delayed gastric emptying, in the absence of mechanical obstruction. Classically subdivided into diabetes associated, postsurgical, medication induced, and idiopathic, gastroparesis produces persistent nausea, vomiting, early satiety, bloating, and abdominal pain. The mainstays of therapy are dietary modification, as well as prokinetic and antiemetic medications. However, the progressive nature of gastroparesis in many patients suggests that medically nonresponsive gastroparesis may eventually develop. An array of surgical options exist, but recent endoscopic advances have made the pylorus a therapeutic target to improve gastric emptying. Here reviewed is the anatomic structure and physiologic function of the pylorus. Evidence for endoscopic interventions including balloon dilation of the pylorus, transpyloric stenting, injection of botulinum toxin at the pylorus, and an emerging therapy within the realm of intramural surgery-peroral endoscopic myotomy (POP) are reviewed.
Fit Fly: A Case Study on Interconnect Innovation through Parallel Simulation

To meet the demand for exascale-level performance from high-performance computing (HPC) interconnects, many system architects are turning to simulation results for accurate and reliable predictions of the performance of prospective technologies. Testing full-scale networks with a variety of benchmarking tools, including synthetic workloads and application traces, can give crucial insight into what ideas are most promising without needing to physically construct a test network.While flexible, however, this approach is extremely compute time intensive. We address this time complexity challenge through the use of large-scale, optimistic parallel simulation that ultimately leads to faster HPC network architecture innovations. In this paper we demonstrate this innovation capability through a real-world network design case study. Specifically, we have simulated and compared four extreme-scale interconnects: Dragonfly, Megafly, Slim Fly, and a new dual-rail-dual-plane variation of the Slim Fly network topology.We present this new variant of Slim Fly, dubbed Fit Fly, to show how interconnect innovation and evaluation---beyond what is possible through analytic methods---can be achieved through parallel simulation. We validate and compare the model with various network designs using the CODES interconnect simulation framework. By running large-scale simulations in a parallel environment, we are able to quickly generate reliable performance results that can help network designers break ground on the next generation of high-performance network designs.
Carnivalizing Other’s Misery: From Human Ice Cream Sundae to Polar Plunge to Ice Bucket Challenge:

Reflecting on Shing-Ling Chen’s experience of being a Leukemia child’s mother encountering others’ seemingly hurtful support of her misery, the authors address the ethics of having fun activities a...
Child Maltreatment Fatality Review: Purposes, Processes, Outcomes, and Challenges:

Better understanding of the causes and circumstances of maltreatment deaths of children is needed to prevent tragedy. The purpose of this article is to facilitate understanding of child maltreatment fatality review processes and their outcomes. A literature review was conducted through searches of the databases PubMed, PsycINFO, and EMBASE and through citations in publications. Over 165 publications were reviewed and 55 were selected for inclusion. Papers were from the United States, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, France, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China. These were included if they described fatality review goals, authority, procedures, and outcomes. Although we searched databases on a continual basis during the preparation of this review, we could have missed publications, particularly those in newspapers and journals that are not included in large-scale databases or cited in other articles. Improvement of fatality review requires diligence by individuals and organizations that provide information to the reviewers. Among challenges to the review process are varying criteria for review, misclassifications of the manner of death, inadequate or incomplete forensic and medical investigations, lack of information about the perpetrator, diversity of the community, concealment of the cause of death by parents or other caregivers, and disagreement among reviewers about the results of their inquiries. Institutional challenges are also present, which include the need for funding, privacy issues on obtaining information, updating reviewer training, lack of follow-up by institutional authorities on the recommendations of the reviews, and research facilitating the review of maltreatment fatalities.
Disbelonging and unruly return in the performance art of Wura-Natasha Ogunji

This article examines the theme of disbelonging via unruly return in the performance art of Nigerian American artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji. Specifically looking to Ogunji's 2012 series Mo gbo mo bran...
Using the Learning Assistant Model in an Undergraduate Business Analytics Course

Undergraduate business students, like many other undergraduate majors, are often apprehensive about the quantitative courses required to earn their degree. Active learning methods, including flippe...
A TALE OF STRANGE BIOPROSTHETIC VALVE ENDOCARDITIS: AN UNCOMMON PRESENTATION OF MITRAL VALVE ENDOCARDITIS WITH LACTOCOCCUS GARVIEAE

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a known complication of heart valve disorders. There is no consensus on whether bioprosthetic valves are associated with more episodes of IE in comparison to mechanical valves. Here, we present IE with a rare organism in a patient with bioprosthetic mitral valve. A 71
Does Common Ownership Explain Higher Oligopolistic Profits

A stylized fact that lurks in the background of the recent literature on common ownership is the parallel increase in the profitability of oligopolistic industries and common ownership. Some have argued that the growth in common ownership has caused the increase in oligopoly profits and have proposed a variety of policy responses. This paper briefly reviews the available evidence and finds it unconvincing. It then provides an overview of the evidence that concentration and profitability have increased, considers alternative explanations, and suggests that the emergence of “superstar” firms -- and not the growth in common ownership – could be a fundamental driver of the parallel increase in concentration and profitability.
Use of Early Onset Sepsis Calculator Improves Breastfeeding Rates in Newborns Born to Mothers with Chorioamnionitis

Background: A successful breastfeeding relationship begins in the hospital. For newborns born to mothers with chorioamnionitis, traditional practice models include admission to the neonatal intensive care unit after delivery for blood cultures, antibiotic administration and observation. This practice model disrupts uninterrupted skin to skin at delivery and rooming in, potentially impacting exclusive breastfeeding rates during the newborn stay. However, recent studies have shown the safety of using an early onset sepsis calculator as a decision support tool to decrease the number of newborns born to mothers with chorioamnionitis requiring blood cultures and …
Synthesis of carbon from waste coconutshell and their application as filler in bioplast polymer filaments for 3D printing

Abstract Environmental friendly plastics offer suitable alternatives to the hazardous non-degradable plastics. In this work, we explored biodegradable plastic created from BIOPLAST GF 106/02/PLA 75/25 blend (BPB) with carbon nanoparticles (CCSP10) derived from waste coconut shell. The CCSP nanoparticles were synthesized using high temperature/pressure reactor and characterized using analytical tools such as Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy to investigate the properties of as prepared carbon nanoparticles. The neat BIOPLAST GF 106/02 (BP) polymer and carbon infused BP polymer composite filaments were created from solvent based blending and extruded into filaments. The filament specimens were then characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), tensile and electrical conductivity tests. The influence of extrusion and monodispersed size reduced particles have potentially increased the mechanical strength by altering the structure of the polymer blends. The polymer composite filaments of BPB infused with 0.2 wt %, 0.6 wt %, and 1 wt % carbon nanoparticles show increased mechanical strength. The tensile strength increased by 50% compared to neat BP filaments with the increase in carbon nanoparticles content up to 0.6 wt% and then decreased due to agglomeration of particles. TGA showed that the presence of CCSP resulted in additional decomposition and decreased weight loss. The electrical conductivity tests proved that increasing the filler content increased the conductivity. These filaments are designed for 3D printing of polymer composite applications.
Increasing Reliability of Participatory Sensing for Utility Pole Condition Assessment Using Fuzzy Inference

AbstractAging infrastructure has become a safety issue for local communities. For example, aging and deteriorating utility poles in strong winds have a high risk of falling onto roads, adjacent hou...
Trust, Beliefs and Cooperation: Excavating a Foundation of Strong Economies

We use a two-phase experimental design to study how systematically manipulated beliefs about trust and trustworthiness can promote or deter cooperation. We use decisions in an initially played trust game to create five environments that differ in the information subjects have about the relative trust/trustworthiness of fellow group members when they make a voluntary contribution decision in our experiment’s second phase. We find that perceived high trusting environments are treated equivalently to ones of perceived high trustworthiness, with both positively affecting subjects’ first-order beliefs about the cooperativeness of group-mates, and in consequence, leading to higher contributions. Our results indicate that people cooperate more and hence produce more together in an environment of high trust/trustworthiness, indicating one channel through which trust helps to grow the economic pie.
CINES: Explore Citation Network and Event Sequences for Citation Forecasting

Citations of scientific papers and patents reveal the knowledge flow and usually serve as the metric for evaluating their novelty and impacts in the field. Citation Forecasting thus has various applications in the real world. Existing works on citation forecasting typically exploit the sequential properties of citation events, without exploring the citation network. In this paper, we propose to explore both the citation network and the related citation event sequences which provide valuable information for future citation forecasting. We propose a novel \em Citation Network and Event Sequence (CINES) Model to encode signals in the citation network and related citation event sequences into various types of embeddings for decoding to the arrivals of future citations. Moreover, we propose atemporal network attention and three alternative designs of \em bidirectional feature propagation to aggregate the retrospective and prospective aspects of publications in the citation network, coupled with the citation event sequence embeddings learned by a \em two-level attention mechanism for the citation forecasting. We evaluate our models and baselines on both a U.S. patent dataset and a DBLP dataset. Experimental results show that our models outperform the state-of-the-art methods, i.e., RMTPP, CYAN-RNN, Intensity-RNN, and PC-RNN, reducing the forecasting error by 37.76% - 75.32%.
State- and Provider-Level Racism and Health Care in the U.S.

Introduction This study examines the associations between state-level and provider sources of racism and healthcare access and quality for non-Hispanic Black and White individuals. Methods Data from 2 sources were integrated: (1) data from the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Consumer Survey of Health Care Access (2014–2019), which included measures of self-reported healthcare access, healthcare quality, and provider racial discrimination and (2) administrative data compiled to index state-level racism. State-level racism composite scores were calculated from federal sources (U.S. Census, Department of Labor, Department of Justice). The data set comprised 21,030 adults (n=2,110 Black, n=18,920 White) who needed care within the past year. Participants were recruited from a national panel, and the survey employed age–insurance quotas. Logistic and linear regressions were conducted in 2020, adjusting for demographic, geographic, and health-related covariates. Results Among White individuals, more state-level racism was associated with 5% higher odds of being able to get care and 6% higher odds of sufficient time with provider. Among Black individuals, more state-level racism was associated with 8% lower odds of being able to get care. Provider racial discrimination was also associated with 80% lower odds of provider explaining care, 77% lower odds of provider answering questions, and 68% lower odds of sufficient time with provider. Conclusions State-level racism may engender benefits to healthcare access and quality for White individuals and may decrease access for Black individuals. Disparities may be driven by both White advantage and Black disadvantage. State-level policies may be the actionable levers of healthcare inequities with implications for preventive medicine.
Discussion on "Bayesian Regression Tree Models for Causal Inference: Regularization, Confounding, and Heterogeneous Effects" by Hahn, Murray and Carvalho

Hahn et al. (2020) offers an extensive study to explicate and evaluate the performance of the BCF model in different settings and provides a detailed discussion about its utility in causal inference. It is a welcomed addition to the causal machine learning literature. I will emphasize the contribution of the BCF model to the field of causal inference through discussions on two topics: 1) the difference between the PS in the BCF model and the Bayesian PS in a Bayesian updating approach, 2) an alternative exposition of the role of the PS in outcome modeling based methods for the estimation of causal effects. I will conclude with comments on avenues for future research involving BCF that will be important and much needed in the era of Big data.
Masticatory muscle architectural correlates of dietary diversity in Canidae, Ursidae, and across the order Carnivora.

Carnivorans represent extreme ecomorphological diversity, encompassing remarkable variation in form, habitat, and diet. The relationship between the masticatory musculature and dietary ecology has been explored in a number of carnivoran lineages, including felids and the superfamily Musteloidea. In this study, we present novel architectural data on two additional carnivoran families - Ursidae and Canidae - and supplement these previous studies with additional felid, musteloid, herpestid, hyaenid, and viverrid taxa (a total of 53 species across 10 families). Gross dissection data were collected following a standardized protocol - sharp dissection followed by chemical digestion. Summed jaw adductor forces were also transformed into bite force estimates (BF) using osteologically-calculated leverages. All data were linearized, log-transformed, and size-adjusted using two proxies for each taxon - body mass and cranial geometric mean - to assess relative scaling trends. These architectural data were then analyzed in the context of dietary ecology to examine the impact of dietary size and dietary mechanical properties. Muscle mass, physiological cross-sectional area and BF scaled with isometry or positive allometry in all cases, whereas fascicle lengths scaled with isometry or negative allometry. With respect to diet, body mass adjusted fascicle lengths were strongly correlated with dietary size in musteloids, but not in any other lineage. The relationship between size-adjusted BF and dietary mechanical properties was also significant within musteloids, and across the sample as a whole, but not within other individual lineages. This interfamilial trend may reflect the increased morphological and dietary diversity of musteloids relative to other carnivoran groups. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Screening of Minimalist Noncanonical Sites in Duplex DNA and RNA Reveals Context and Motif-Selective Binding by Fluorogenic Base Probes

We hypothesize that programmable hybridization to noncanonical nucleic acid motifs may be achieved by macromolecular display of binders to individual noncanonical pairs (NCPs). As each recognition element may individually have weak binding to an NCP, we developed a semi-rational approach to detect low affinity interactions between selected nitrogenous bases and noncanonical sites in duplex DNA and RNA. A set of fluorogenic probes was synthesized by coupling abiotic (triazines, pyrimidines) and native RNA bases to thiazole orange (TO) dye. This probe library was screened against duplex nucleic acid substrates bearing single abasic, single NCP, and tandem NCP sites. Probe engagement with NCP sites was reported by 100-1000× fluorescence enhancement over background. Binding is strongly context-dependent, reflective of both molecular recognition and stability: less stable motifs are more likely to bind a synthetic probe. Further, DNA and RNA substrates exhibit entirely different abasic and single NCP binding profiles. While probe binding in the abasic and single NCP screens was monotonous, much richer binding profiles were observed with the screen of tandem NCP sites in RNA, in part due to increased steric accessibility. In addition to known binding interactions between the triazine melamine (M) and T/U sites, the NCP screens identified new targeting elements for pyrimidine-rich motifs in single NCPs and 2×2 internal bulges. We anticipate that semi-rational approaches of this type will lead to programmable noncanonical hybridization strategies at the macromolecular level.
Control of radiofrequency ablation in ex vivo human liver tissue using 3D echo decorrelation imaging feedback

Limitations of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment for nonresectable liver cancer could potentially be overcome by monitoring and controlling RFA to confirm complete treatment. Echo decorrelation imaging has been shown to predict local thermal ablation and to successfully control ablation in animal liver and tumor tissue, both ex vivo and in vivo. Toward translation of this monitoring and control approach to clinical liver tumor ablation, this study investigated control of RFA in ex vivo human liver tissue using 3D echo decorrelation imaging. Human liver tissue, including postmortem normal liver as well as explanted cirrhotic and fatty liver, was ablated using a clinical RFA system. During ablation, 3D echo decorrelation images were constructed from paired sequential volumes of acquired echo data. For controlled RFA trials, ablation was ceased automatically after cumulative echo decorrelation, spatially averaged within a spherical ROI matching the planned ablation zone, exceeded a predetermined threshold. This control algorithm was tested in $N=6$ controlled ablation trials, of which 5 attained the predetermined decorrelation threshold. 3D echo decorrelation maps were compared to segmented ablation zones, using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. To assess the effect of image-based feedback control on treatment reliability, ablation volumes and rates, as well as Dice coefficients for measured vs. targeted ablation zones, were statistically compared for controlled vs. uncontrolled trials. Results suggest potential for 3D echo decorrelation imaging as a monitoring and control approach for clinical ablation of liver tumors.
Nanostructured selenium anti-cancer coatings for orthopedic applications

Abstract: This chapter presents a comprehensive study of the potential of nanometer structured selenium for decreasing cancer cell functions. Specifically, in this study, selenium nanoclusters were coated on orthopedic implant metals (such as titanium and stainless steel). The coatings were fully characterized using techniques such as electron scanning microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and contact angle measurements. Most importantly, compared with uncoated metals, the coatings on orthopedic metals promoted healthy bone cell functions. Moreover, cancerous bone cell functions were inhibited on selenium nanocluster coatings compared to uncoated metals. This study also examined the possible mechanisms of the promoted healthy bone-cell properties of selenium nanocluster coatings on metals. It was shown that the increased nanometer roughness of the selenium coated surfaces promoted the adsorption of fibronectin (which is one of the most important cell adhesive proteins that regulate interactions between osteoblasts and an implant surface). The experimental results of protein adsorption were complemented by results from computer simulation. The anti-cancer properties of selenium nanocluster coatings were attributed to selenium released from the coatings into cell culture media to induce cellular thiol depletion which caused cell death in cancerous osteosarcoma cells. In conclusion, this work demonstrates a number of promising directions for using nanometer scale structured selenium in diverse biomedical applications (including bone-promoting and cancer-inhibiting).
Forecasts and Adaptation

For many environmental problems, economics adaptation will likely be the primary means by which potential damages are avoided. How and by how much humans adapt to environmental risks, therefore, is a question of paramount importance. This paper uses a novel dataset documenting the introduction of forecasts of an important, global driver of climate variation—El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)—to derive the first well identified estimates of total adaptation in a climate exposed industry. The primary results indicate that for the setting under consideration, risks from ENSO events can be almost entirely mitigated given 3 months of advance warning. This adaptation comes from a combination of daily and annual actions. In sum, the results point both to the ability for individuals in some settings to mitigate their own environmental risks given high quality information.
A Network Filter for Social Learning: Evidence from Equity Research

When are decision makers able to learn from others? I argue that actors occupying network positions that enable social learning gain a competitive advantage. I show that the accuracy of security an...
Growing stars: A laboratory analysis of network formation

Abstract Efficient information dispersion occurs with star networks, where small numbers of agents gather information for distribution to larger groups. Previous studies have shown that ex ante heterogeneity in payoff incentives among agents is sufficient for reliable star formation ( Goeree et al., 2009 ). Using laboratory experiments, we show stars reliably emerge among ex ante homogeneous agents under specific institutional environments. Our results help to explain why star networks emerge frequently among homogeneous groups, particularly rural farming communities ( Conley and Udry, 2010 ). Our findings have implications for developing countries where it is crucial to create mechanisms to promote efficient information sharing.