cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Second Harmonic Generation of Bacteriorhodopsin and Its Application for Three-Dimensional Optical Memory

A novel three-dimensional optical memory system based on a light transducing protein, bacteriorhodopsin, is investigated. The system uses the nonlinear optical properties of bacteriorhodopsin to accomplish reading and writing operations. A nondestructive method of reading information in three-dimensional optical memory that uses second harmonic generation is demonstrated. This method has the advantage of fast speed, is nondestructive, and has the potential for parallel access.
Pegylated interferon pharmacokinetics and self-reported depressive symptoms during antiviral treatment for chronic hepatitis C.

Background: Pegylated interferon-2a (PegIFN-2a)+ribavirin treatment for chronic hepatitis C is often associated with depressive symptoms. Previous studies have failed to explore whether PegIFN-2a pharmacokinetic variability plays an etiologic role in PegIFN-2a-induced mood disorders. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the association between trough PegIFN-2a concentration at treatment week 4 (“PegIFN-2a Cmin4”) and an increase in depressive symptoms. Methods: Using data from Virahep-C, the association between PegIFN-2a Cmin4 and the following depression outcomes were evaluated using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D): (1) change in CES-D score from baseline to week 12; (2) greatest difference in CES-D score between baseline and weeks 4, 12, or 24; and (3) occurrence of severe depressive symptoms (CES-D greater than 23) at weeks 4, 12, or 24. One post-hoc analysis examined whether PegIFN-2a exposure during the first week of treatment was associated with change in CES-D score from baseline to week 4. Results: No significant associations between PegIFN-2a Cmin4 and the depression outcomes were observed (p>0.05). Exploratory analyses suggest a possible relationship between PegIFN-2a exposure during the first week of therapy and CES-D score change from baseline to week 4 (p=0.03). Conclusions: PegIFN-2a concentration levels from baseline to week 4 do not predict the onset and severity of depressive symptoms during 24 weeks of antiviral therapy; however PegIFN-2a levels during the first week of treatment may predict depressive symptoms in the first 4 weeks, earlier than anticipated and warrants further exploration.
Fiscal Implications of City-City Consolidations

There is a rich literature on the fiscal implications of municipal consolidations. Almost all of it is focused on city–county consolidations. City–city consolidations, although rare, are an even better setting to test the claim that municipal consolidation reduces local government taxing and spending. We examine this claim with data from six city–city consolidations since 1985. We find that, in fact, most city–city consolidations result in higher taxing and higher spending on core operations and salaries. Consolidation produced lower overall spending in three of the six jurisdictions, but mostly because it was accompanied by lower intergovernmental revenues and changes in debt management. All this suggests the economic theory of consolidation would be more salient if it considered a broader array of benefits and costs that are not directly reflected in tax and spending rates.
Statutory Protection for Renters: Classification of State Landlord–Tenant Policy Approaches

AbstractThere are many federal, state, and local laws governing the landlord–tenant relationship. Yet scholars know little about their variety and what impact differences among jurisdictions have on renters and rental housing markets. This article examines state-level landlord–tenant policy approaches to determine whether there is significant policy variation and whether states illustrate identifiable policy types. Using cluster and discriminant analysis, this research creates a typology of landlord–tenant policy approaches, finding three distinctive approaches: protectionist, probusiness, and contradictory. This research indicates there is significant variation among state landlord–tenant statutory policies, although states’ laws generally reflect one of three philosophies. These results are important for future studies on rental housing because treating all state rental environments the same masks important differences in rental experiences across states. As an illustration, this article finds that rent...
How many vendors does it take to screw down a price? a primer on competition

When creating a private market to provide a public good, government agencies can influence the market's competitive characteristics. Markets have predictable, often counter-intuitive, behaviors. Attempts to foster competition can increase or decrease costs, depending on the specific details of the procurement situation and the specific implementation. We modeled impacts of competition where there are economies of scale and government is obligated to purchase a fixed total quantity of a good. This model estimates cost savings from several alternative plans for a buyer exploring competitive procurement. The results indicate the approximate magnitude of changes in cost that would be associated with changes in the market structure within which such procurement occurs.
TaskFolder: Dynamic and Fine-Grained Workload Consolidation for Mobile Devices

Despite the resource-constrained environment associated with mobile devices, the Android task scheduler tries to spread the workload equally among all CPU cores. While this is a sensible use of resources in desktop or server environments, it is inefficient for mobile devices, because they usually have lower computing demand and require single-user-perceptible performance guaran-tees. As a result, spreading tasks to all cores does not improve per-formance, increases energy consumption, and can cause perfor-mance issues when multiple mobile virtual machines attempt to engage as many cores as possible. To address this problem, we propose TaskFolder, a multi-core management scheme implemented on top of the task scheduler. TaskFolder attempts to compute the minimum number of cores required to perform the current workload without sacrificing per-formance, and schedules tasks to only that minimal number of cores. This number is called the Core Concurrency and is calculated based on past task dynamics. Experimental results of a case study show that TaskFolder saves an average of 19% and up to 48% of CPU power over a set of mobile applications on the latest Intel mobile platform.
Preventing Corporate Fiascos: Understanding Corporate Decisions

This chapter is on the decision domain in the conceptual model and is inspired by Albert Camus’s statement that “Life is a collection of choices” and Antonio Damasio’s statement that most human decisions are emotion-driven. Although we are interested in all decisions, we pay more attention to the second: (1) rational decisions via decision analysis and modern quantitative methods in decision science; (2) irrational decisions as investigated in decision neuroscience and decision neuroeconomics. We attempt to understand corporate decisions from the decision makers' perspective, their view of the world. We explore the use of George Kelly’s personal construct theory (PCT) and his repertory grid (RG) technique for the understanding and measuring the criticality of decisions made by the responsible parties.
Protein-Based Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

The tunable mechanical and structural properties of protein-based hydrogels make them excellent scaffolds for tissue engineering and repair. Moreover, using protein-based components provides the option to insert sequences associated with promoting both cellular adhesion to the substrate and overall cell growth. Protein-based hydrogel components are appealing for their structural designability, specific biological functionality, and stimuli-responsiveness. Here we present highlights in the field of protein-based hydrogels for tissue engineering applications including design requirements, components, and gel types.
An Evaluation of Contraception Education and Health Promotion Applications for Patients.

Abstract Purpose Patients use mobile applications (apps) to obtain information about health, including contraception. Providers and health educators may also use apps designed for patients to aid in patient education during the clinical encounter or recommend apps for patient use. Individuals may have a difficult time remaining updated on the number and quality of available apps. The objective of this study is to identify and evaluate contraception apps for patient education and health promotion, so that providers and health educators may recommend accurate apps to patients. Methods We systematically searched the Apple iTunes Store using contraception search terms. A master list of apps was created and the apps were divided into categories and subcategories according to intended audience and purpose. Contraception apps for patient education and health promotion were selected and also checked for availability in the Google Play Store. We evaluated these identified apps using an adapted APPLICATIONS scoring system. Findings Forty-eight apps were identified from the original search. Nineteen of these were excluded because they did not open on an iPhone or iPad, were no longer available, or did not contain educational material on contraception. We excluded 11 additional apps that contained inaccurate information. We evaluated 18 apps. The mean score was 10.6 out of 17 possible points with a range of 7 to 15 points. Conclusions Many apps provide contraception information for patients, but some apps are inaccurate. Few apps provide comprehensive information on all available methods, including effectiveness, side effects, and contraindications.
Prologue to Without Copyrights: Piracy, Publishing, and the Public Domain

This Prologue introduces Without Copyrights: Piracy, Publishing, and the Public Domain (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), an interdisciplinary and historical study of the American public domain — a vast and unique literary commons assembled from the legal have-nots of foreign authorship and reflecting the isolationist policies of a developing nation in quest of instant and assured culture. The American public domain was nothing less than an aggressively legislated commons, an invitation to “piracy” that served the interests of the printing trade, book manufacturers, and an increasingly literate populace. For the first century of federal copyright protection and well into the twentieth century, the American public domain grew substantially through the influx of new works by foreign-domiciled authors. By operation of the copyright law, these works were claimed, almost as soon as they were issued abroad, by a preternaturally premature, or forced, commons. Only the countervailing practice of trade courtesy — an informal, norms-based practice voluntarily engaged in by American publishers — restored a precarious order to the publishing scene by imitating the main features of copyright law and permitting both publishers and authors to benefit, though inconsistently, from the wholly informal exclusive rights that trade courtesy recognized. The Prologue goes on to preview the book’s exploration of the same forces — copyright law, legalized piracy, and trade courtesy — as they shaped the production and consumption of transatlantic modernism in the United States in the twentieth century. After examining the poet Ezra Pound’s carefully elaborated proposals for American copyright reform and his studiously ambivalent attitudes towards authors’ legal rights and disseminative piracy, the book settles into a sustained exploration of the impact of U.S. copyright law on James Joyce’s Ulysses, tracing the loss of that work’s American copyright, the unauthorized but legal depredations of Samuel Roth, the international protest launched by Joyce and his supporters against Roth, and the lawsuit that Joyce waged against Roth in the New York courts in 1927-28. The concluding chapter of the book examines the efforts by Joyce, the publisher Bennett Cerf, and the attorney Morris L. Ernst to free Ulysses from the obscenity strictures that prevented its issuance by a legitimate American publisher. My perspective, however, is not the familiar one of focusing on the legal strategies and arguments that persuaded Judge John M. Woolsey to declare Joyce’s masterpiece to be safe for admission to the United States. Rather, I tell the much less familiar story of how the uncopyrighted status of Ulysses in America created new legal obstacles for Random House, and how Cerf and Joyce shrewdly resurrected and repurposed the nineteenth-century practice of trade courtesy to fend off what both had feared would be a feeding frenzy of lawful piracy following Judge Woolsey’s removal of the last legal barrier — obscenity law — to the free dissemination of what was widely believed to be a public-domain text.
Enhanced Immune Reconstitution and Function by CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells Following Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Regulatory T cells (Treg), defined phenotypically by CD4+CD25+ expression, reduce the incidence and severity of acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in murine models of major-MHC mismatched hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), presumably by dampening the proliferation and activation of mature effector T cells. It is unclear whether the effect of Treg on effector T cells is a selective or nonselective process or if Treg regulate the process of intrathymic and peripheral T cell maturation and selection following HCT, particularly given the intrinsic link of GvHD and immune reconstitution. The current study assessed the impact of Treg on the quantitative and functional lymphoid reconstitution in a murine model of major-MHC mismatched HCT. Treg (5x10 5 ) from the spleen and lymph nodes of FVB/N (H2q) mice were co-transplanted into lethally irradiated Balb/c (H2d) host along with wild-type FVB/N T-cell depleted bone marrow (TCD-BM) cells (5x10 6 ) and splenocytes (1.25x10 6 ) (Tcon), the latter to induce GvHD. Chimerism studies were performed on day 14 and 40 post-transplantation to measure the level of donor immune reconstitution. At both time points, total lymphoid reconstitution was delayed in the GvHD control group and enhanced in the recipients transplanted with Treg (p-values=0.0005 on day 14,
Application of Genetic Algorithm to Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch

Abstract This paper presents an improved genetic algorithm (IGA) to solve optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD). The parameters of GA, mutation probability, crossover and coding technique, are improved to make GA a practical algorithm in the optimization of real-life large scale systems. The results of ORPD by IGA are compared with the results obtained using a conventional gradient-based optimization method. The comparison shows that GA is better than the conventional method in solving ORPD problem.
Miniature cavity for in situ millimeter wave gas sensing: N2O and CH3OH detection

Abstract The Fabry-Perot cavity in a miniature pulsed Fourier transform millimeter-wave spectrometer operating between 94 and 104 GHz is characterized in detail. The new device measures gas or volatile composition in situ and has a nominal volume of 12 cm3, which is 200 times smaller than cavities operating at comparable frequencies in laboratory gas spectrometers. Scans of mode amplitude are presented as a function of mirror spacing and transmitter frequency. Primary (TEM00) and secondary (TEM10) modes are both observed and are matched to an eigenmode calculation. The modes are well-behaved and have quality factors in the range of 1000–6000, which is a desirable compromise between field strength and mode width. Measurements of pulse bandwidth versus duration agree with time-bandwidth product predictions. Measurements of rotational transitions in N2O and CH3OH are plotted at various pressures and collisional broadening is resolved at mTorr pressures. Through these gas detections, we demonstrate that it is possible to significantly reduce the size of cavity spectrometers for in situ deployment. The new device opens new possibilities for molecular sensing in pollution monitoring, planetary science, and other fields.
Interpreting the Medical Literature.

From the title Interpreting the Medical Literature, readers might expect to find another book like the User's Guides to the Medical Literature [1, 2] and question the necessity of such a similar volume. The purpose of Gehlbach's book, however, despite its title, is to provide basic descriptions of various research study designs that readers can then use to interpret the medical literature. While intended originally for medical students and clinicians, the book is relevant to any researcher, practitioner, or student in the health sciences. This fourth edition updates all previous ones by updating its references and examples, as well as expanding on the content. The initial chapter as well as the final two chapters stay true to the title by discussing the reasons to read articles, the problems caused by information overload, the approaches to skimming and then analyzing articles, the purposes and usefulness of different document types (e.g., case studies versus letters to the editor versus reviews), and the need for critically reviewing and interpreting the material. Like the other chapters, these introductory and concluding sections offer useful tables and checklists as well as references for follow-up. Five chapters cover study design, one chapter covers collecting data, and five more cover analyzing and interpreting data. Each chapter begins with an overview of a concept followed by an in-depth discussion including the benefits and challenges of each method. Numerous “real life” examples along with tables and diagrams allow readers to begin applying the theory while reviewing the literature and to judge for themselves if authors have used and identified methods correctly. Additionally, Gehlbach includes discussions of ethics, challenges, and implications in choosing different research study designs. Summaries at the end of most chapters contain checklists or lists of questions for readers to use when analyzing studies in the literature. These summaries and checklists are among the most useful sections of this book. Despite a somewhat pontifical tone in the introductions and conclusions of each chapter, Gehlbach's enthusiasm for the subject matter shines through in the discussions. He clarifies murky terminology and makes research design and statistical analysis understandable to those with little or no experience. He uses both analogies and real life examples to make the subject matter more readable. Embedded in the preface, the statement “the emphasis remains on a basic understanding of study design, on the way subjects are selected and organized for study and the implications for the validity of results” (p. ix) summarizes the approach and strength of this book. Interpreting the Medical Literature meets its stated purpose.
Filter-based control of an H-Bridge inverter with output LC filter

This paper presents a filter-based control scheme for an H-Bridge inverter with output LC filter. This approach relies only on a single output voltage measurement to reduce the system cost as well as measurement noise and disturbance injected by output current and/or inductor current measurements. To reduce the controller sensitivity to the system parameters, the proposed controller is developed for unknown system parameters. A Lyapunov stability analysis is utilized to demonstrate system stability. Experimental results demonstrate excellent voltage regulation, insensitivity to load variations, and low output voltage distortion as well as the stability of the system under both linear and nonlinear loads.
Survival of Geocoris punctipes Say (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) Following Exposure to Selected Reduced-Risk Insecticides

Survival of Geocoris punctipes Say adults following exposure to azadirachtin, spinosad, thiamethoxam, diazinon, and imidacloprid was assessed in laboratory assays and greenhouse tests. In the laboratory assays, adults were continuously exposed for 48 h to filter papers treated with the individual insecticides. Survival was greatest following exposure to the untreated control (100 ± 0.0%), azadirachtin (95.0 ± 2.2%), and imidacloprid (81.7 ± 7.9%). Mean (± SEM) survival following exposure to spinosad (55.0 ± 11.2%) and thiamethoxam (46.6 ± 3.3%) was significantly lower, whereas diazinon killed all adults within 12 h of exposure. In the greenhouse tests, adults were continuously exposed to bush beans, Phaseolus vulgaris L., foliage treated with the individual insecticides. Mean (± SEM) survival following 144 h of continuous exposure to treated foliage was 97.5 ± 2.5% for the untreated control, 92.5 ± 5.3% for azadirachtin, 92.5 ± 3.7% for diazinon, 72.5 ± 8.4% for imidacloprid, 70.0 ± 8.4% for spinosad, and...
Distributed Large-Scale Co-Simulation for IoT-Aided Smart Grid Control

An important goal of smart grid is to leverage modern digital communication infrastructure to help control power systems more effectively. As more and more Internet of Things (IoT) devices with measurement and/or control capability are designed and deployed for a more stable and efficient power system, the role of communication network has become more important. To evaluate the performance of control algorithms for inter-dependent power grid and communication network, a test bed that could simulate inter-dependent power grid and communication network is desirable. In this paper, we demonstrate the design and implementation of a novel co-simulator, which would effectively evaluate IoT-aided algorithms for scheduling the jobs of electrical appliances. There are three major features of our co-simulator: 1) large-scale test is achieved by distributed modules that are designed based on a Turing-indistinguishable approach; 2) remote servers or test devices are controlled by local graphical user interface (we only need to configure the simulator on a local server); 3) a software virtual network approach is employed to emulate real networks, which significantly reduces the cost of real-world test beds. To evaluate our co-simulator, two energy consumption scheduling algorithms are implemented. Experimental results show that our co-simulator could effectively evaluate these methods. Thus our co-simulator is a powerful tool for utility companies and policy makers to commission novel IoT devices or methods in future smart grid infrastructure.
Comparative Performance and Model Agreement of Three Common Photovoltaic Array Configurations

Three grid-connected monocrystalline silicon arrays on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Gaithersburg, MD have been instrumented and monitored for 1 yr, with only minimal gaps in the data sets. These arrays range from 73 kW to 271 kW, and all use the same module, but have different tilts, orientations, and configurations. One array is installed facing east and west over a parking lot, one in an open field, and one on a flat roof. Various measured relationships and calculated standard metrics have been used to compare the relative performance of these arrays in their different configurations. Comprehensive performance models have also been created in the modeling software pvsyst for each array, and its predictions using measured on-site weather data are compared to the arrays' measured outputs. The comparisons show that all three arrays typically have monthly performance ratios (PRs) above 0.75, but differ significantly in their relative output, strongly correlating to their operating temperature and to a lesser extent their orientation. The model predictions are within 5% of the monthly delivered energy values except during the winter months, when there was intermittent snow on the arrays, and during maintenance and other outages.
Social Studies Skills or Something Else? An Analysis of How the “Essential Social Studies Skills and Strategies” Reflects Social Studies Instruction

This article describes the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) collection of “Essential Social Studies Skills and Strategies” in terms of common approaches to social studies teaching and...
Introduction: “You, Elie Wiesel, and Paris Hilton”

Human rights advocacy integrates mass media and popular culture as central strategic features of outreach, fund-raising, and movement-building efforts. What was an agitated rallying cry for fairness and justice is now also a key component of the mainstream moral imagination. Particularly as embodied in the work of major transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), human rights have become integrated as products of privileged lifestyles, accommodating rather than challenging structures of inequality. To engage in human rights advocacy today is to participate in a practice once proprietary to iconoclasts and lawyers but now subsumed within daily rituals of consumers and television audiences. The practice has in fact been incorporated into habits of average individuals in a way that makes the performance commonplace and undisruptive to everyday life.
Classical Logic—Semantics

Defining the semantics of any higher-order logic is relatively complicated. Since modalities add special complexities, it is fortunate I can discuss underlying classical issues before bringing them into the picture. In this Chapter the “real” notion of higher-order model is defined first, and truth in them is characterized. Then Henkin’s modification of these models is considered—sometimes these are called general models—as well as a non-extensional version of them.
Technical Note: Retrospective reduction in systematic differences across scanner changes by accounting for noise floor effects in diffusion tensor imaging.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine if retrospective correction for noise floor effects can reduce systematic differences and improve reproducibility across major scanner changes. Changes in scanner configuration can negatively impact quantitative MRI studies by introducing systematic differences between measurements that are due to the instrument, not biology. Noise floor rectification is a potential source of systematic differences in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). METHODS Healthy volunteers were scanned before and after a major scanner change at four sites. DTI-based measures of tissue microstructure were calculated using a standard approach that ignores noise floor effects and using a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) approach that accounts for the noise floor. Voxelwise estimates of systematic differences and reproducibility were evaluated. RESULTS Accounting for noise floor effects can reduce the extent of systematic differences and can improve reproducibility. However, when signal levels are high, accounting for the noise floor can have a deleterious effect. An empirical metric constructed to reflect the magnitude of noise floor effects signal-to-noise-floor ratio (SNFR). The MLE approach improves reproducibility for SNFR < 3. CONCLUSIONS Accounting for noise floor effects can boost the robustness of DTI measurements in the presence of scanner changes, potentially improving the reliability of DTI for studies of neurological disease.
Vaginal douching as a risk factor for acute pelvic inflammatory disease

OBJECTIVE To conduct a population-based evaluation of vaginal douching as a risk factor for acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), emphasizing timing, frequency, and reasons for douching. METHODS A population-based case-control study was conducted at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, a staff-model health maintenance organization located in western Washington state. The cases (N = 131) were women 18-40 years of age who experienced a first episode of clinically diagnosed acute PID. Both hospitalized and ambulatory-care patients were identified. Medical records were reviewed for clinical inclusion criteria and for additional evidence of inflammation/infection. Controls (N = 294) were chosen from a population-based series of randomly selected women from a concurrent Group Health study of ectopic pregnancy. Of the women identified, 72.4% of cases and 73.4% of controls agreed to participate. RESULTS Relative to women who reported never having douched, women who douched during the previous 3 months had a risk of PID of 2.1 after controlling for other measured risk factors (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-3.9). Women who douched at least once a week had a higher estimated risk (odds ratio 3.9, 95% CI 1.4-10.9) than those who douched less often (odds ratio 1.8, 95% CI 1.0-3.4). The risk was highest in the small group of women who gave infection as the reason for douching (odds ratio 7.9, 95% CI 2.6-24.2). However, exclusion of this group did not eliminate the association among the remaining women (odds ratio 3.0, 95% CI 1.0-9.1 for douching at least once a week). CONCLUSION These population-based data lend added support to the hypothesis that vaginal douching can predispose a woman to PID.
An Observer-Free Output Feedback Cooperative Control Architecture for Linear Multiagent Systems with Event-Triggering

An event-triggering methodology is proposed on an observer-free output feedback cooperative control scheme for linear multiagent systems in order to schedule the exchanged information between the agents depending upon error exceeding user-defined thresholds for reducing wireless network utilization. Specifically, the cooperative control scheme is designed for continuous-time, minimum phase, and high-order linear multiagent systems in the context of a containment problem (i.e., outputs of the follower agents converge to the convex hull spanned by those of the leader agents). The proposed observer-free output feedback cooperative control scheme with event-triggering guarantees follower agents' system stability and performance, and also does not yield to a Zeno behavior. An illustrative numerical example complements the proposed theoretical contribution.
A Philosophical Primer for Your First Global Anesthesia Experience

There are few publications regarding practical important philosophical considerations to international anesthesia work. Most of the literature in this realm is aimed at trainees or are logistical recommendations. Clarity of mission can provide guidance and benchmarks for managing challenging situations that may unduly influence the overall experience of a global health trip. Much of that clarity can come from authentic exchanges with your colleagues from the under-resourced region in question. We intend to provide a framework and some core principles for organizing thoughts and interactions before, during, and after your first global anesthesia experience.
Sensorineural hearing loss and volatile organic compound metabolites in urine.

Purpose: Oxidative stress in the auditory system contributes to acquired sensorineural hearing loss. Systemic oxidative stress, which may predict auditory oxidative stress, can be assessed by measuring volatile organic compound metabolite concentrations in urine. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine if hearing decreased in those with higher concentrations of urinary volatile organic compound metabolites. Materials and methods: Audiometric, demographic, and metabolite concentration data were downloaded from the 2011–2012 cycle of the U.S. National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. Participants were first grouped by reported noise exposure. For each metabolite, an analysis of covariance was used to look for differences in age-adjusted hearing loss among urinary volatile organic compound metabolite concentration groups. Participants were grouped into quartiles based on concentration for each metabolite separately because many individuals were at the lower limit of concentration detection for several metabolites, leading to a non-normal distribution. Results: Age-adjusted high-frequency pure-tone thresholds were significantly (FDR?<?0.05) increased by about 3 to 4?dB in high concentration quartile groups for five metabolites. All five metabolites were glutathione-dependent mercapturic acids. The parent compounds of these metabolites included acrylonitrile, 1,3 butadiene, styrene, acrylamide, and N,N-dimethylformamide. Significant associations were only found in those with no reported noise exposure. Conclusions:Urinary metabolites may help to explain susceptibility to oxidative stress-induced hearing loss.
Universal Low Tidal Volume: Early Initiation of Low Tidal Volume Ventilation in Patients with and without ARDS

Lung protective ventilation using 6 mL/kg of ideal body weight is the standard of practice in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The use of low tidal volume ventilation was associated with decreased morbidity and mortality in the ARMA trial [1]. The use of low tidal volume of 6 mL/kg of predicted body weight (PBW) conferred a mortality reduction of 22% [1]. A recent large epidemiologic study, LUNG SAFE, demonstrated that not only is ARDS underdiagnosed, there is also a significant delay in recognition [2]. There is growing evidence in support of the use of low tidal volume ventilation as early as possible in patients with acute respiratory failure, both with and without ARDS [3, 4]. Given that as many as half of the patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) come directly from the emergency department (ED) [5], and many others come to the ICU after major surgery, it is important to understand ventilator practices for patients in the ED and operating rooms and how these practices in the early part of mechanical ventilation may be important to the later outcomes of patients.
Stream-based memory access specialization for general purpose processors

Because of severe limitations in technology scaling, architects have innovated in specializing general purpose processors for computation primitives (e.g. vector instructions, loop accelerators). The general principle is exposing rich semantics to the ISA. An opportunity to explore is whether richer semantics of memory access patterns could also be used to improve the efficiency of memory and communication. Two important open questions are how to convey higher level memory information and how to take advantage of this information in hardware. We find that a majority of memory accesses follow a small number of simple patterns; we term these streams (e.g. affine, indirect). Streams can often be decoupled from core execution, and patterns persist long enough to express useful behavior. Our approach is therefore to express streams as ISA primitives, which we argue can enable: prefetch stream accesses to hide memory latency, semi- binding decoupled access to remove address computation and optimize the memory interface, and finally inform cache policies. In this work, we propose ISA-extensions for decoupled-streams, which interact with the core using a FIFO-based interface. We implement optimizations for each of the aforementioned opportunities on an aggressive wide-issue OOO core and evaluate with SPEC CPU 2017 and CortexSuite[1], [2]. Across all workloads, we observe about 1.37x speedup and energy efficiency improvement over hardware stride prefetching.
High-leverage social, emotional and behavioural practices for students with disabilities in inclusive settings

The use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is a tenant of effective instruction for students with disabilities in general and special education classrooms. In fact, it is essential that teachers us...
An exploratory review of the literature evaluating nonclinical fellowship programs

Fellowship programs offer career development opportunities, provide experiential training, and can be used to recruit personnel to address specific challenges facing the public health workforce. Given the potential influence fellowships have on the future public health workforce, it is important to understand and articulate the results of such programs and to identify areas of improvement to meet current workforce needs. The purpose of this literature review was to identify common practices used to evaluate nonclinical fellowship programs. After a search of the internet and selected databases, we screened titles and abstracts using predetermined selection criteria. We then conducted a detailed review of selected papers to extract information about program characteristics (program description, sector, and program length) and evaluation characteristics (primary evaluation type, framework for evaluation, data collection methods, and respondent populations) from 33 papers. We found a limited number of published papers on the evaluation of nonclinical fellowship programs, and most focused on outcomes associated with fellows or alumni. The most useful papers for our purposes clearly described the evaluation framework that guided the evaluation.
Tunable Wave Energy Converter Using Variable Inertia Flywheel

Axisymmetric heaving point absorbers are popular wave energy converters because of their easy deployment and insensitivity to incident wave directions. These devices are designed ideally to resonate with the incident wave to achieve high power output. However, as the device resonant frequency deviates from the dominant frequency of ever-changing irregular waves, the performance drops drastically. To solve this problem and as a complement to existing measures, we propose a mechanism, named variable inertia flywheel, to directly manipulate the equivalent mass of the point absorber, thus altering the system resonance frequency and power absorption bandwidth. We use a flywheel with symmetrically placed mass spring dampers in a ballscrew-based power take-off system. With its variable inertia and mass amplification effect, we can economically and dynamically adapt the system equivalent mass and corresponding parameters with small mass spring dampers. Apart from the passive configuration, we also propose the semi-active and active configurations to further enhance the performance and broaden the functionality scope of the proposed power take-off system. Numerical studies have revealed the dynamics of variable inertia flywheel, and have validated its adaptivity to varying wave conditions and its potential for increasing power output of point absorbers in both regular and irregular waves.
Abstract P57: Risk Factors for Incidentally Discovered Silent Brain Infarcts and White Matter Disease in a Real World Cohort Identified by Artificial Intelligence

Introduction: Silent brain infarcts (SBIs) and white matter disease (WMD) are highly prevalent and associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke in patients with traditional stroke risk factors...
Abstract P08: Adenosine-based cancer immunotherapy for COVID-19

Cancer immunotherapy has shaped the way in which we design cancer treatments, introducing the paradigm of taking advantage of our immune system to fight cancer. We propose that the same concept could be applied to infectious diseases and, especially, to those that hamper the immune system like COVID-19. It is well known that an adaptive immune response is able to eradicate viral infections and CD8+ T-cells are key in such anti-viral response. Furthermore, several studies reported that the number of CD8+ T-cells is reduced in COVID-19 patients since the beginning of SARS-CoV-2 infection and further decreased in severe cases. CD8+ T-cells often show signs of exhaustion, loss of T-cell functions and suppression in COVID-19 patients, suggesting that hampering CD8+ T-cells could be a way by which SARS-CoV-2 infection progresses. Importantly, the number of CD8+ T cells appears to re-increase in patients that are recovering from COVID-19, suggesting that CD8+ T-cells could be a key factor that determines whether our body can recover from the disease. We propose that therapies that boost CD8+ T cells could be effective in clearing SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19. To test this, we will take advantage of the adenosine-mediated immunomodulation. Adenosine, an ATP metabolite that is produced during inflammation, hypoxia and in the tumor microenvironment, was found to suppress the immune response through activation of adenosine receptors present on immune cells. Small molecules antagonists that block one of these receptors, adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) antagonists, are currently being studied to boost anti-cancer T-cell mediated immune responses. Our data show that treatment with an A2AR antagonist restores and stabilizes Notch1, a key pathway for T-cell functions, along with production of INF-gamma and Granzyme B and proliferation in CD8+ T-cells. As a proof of concept, our data indicates that treatment with an A2AR antagonist increases CD8+ T-cells anti-cancer response in tumor-derived organoids, suggesting that the treatment boosts CD8+ T-cells-mediated immune response. Ongoing work aims to test whether the A2AR antagonist treatment restores several parameters of T-cell function that are specifically modified in COVID-19. This analysis will help to predict the action of the A2AR antagonist on T-cells in vivo and we ultimately aim to test this treatment in a mouse model for COVID-19. Overall, our work could introduce a new paradigm and new therapies for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Citation Format: Giulia Monticone, Alistair Ramsay, Lucio Miele. Adenosine-based cancer immunotherapy for COVID-19 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer; 2021 Feb 3-5. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2021;27(6_Suppl):Abstract nr P08.
The Role of White Matter in the Neural Control of Swallowing: A Systematic Review

Background: Swallowing disorders (dysphagia) can negatively impact quality of life and health. For clinicians and researchers seeking to improve outcomes for patients with dysphagia, understanding the neural control of swallowing is critical. The role of gray matter in swallowing control has been extensively documented, but knowledge is limited regarding the contributions of white matter. Our aim was to identify, evaluate, and summarize the populations, methods, and results of published articles describing the role of white matter in neural control of swallowing. Methods: We completed a systematic review with a multi-engine search following PRISMA-P 2015 standards. Two authors screened articles and completed blind full-text review and quality assessments using an adapted U.S. National Institute of Health's Quality Assessment. The senior author resolved any disagreements. Qualitative synthesis of evidence was completed. Results: The search yielded 105 non-duplicate articles, twenty-two of which met inclusion criteria. Twenty were rated as Good (5/22; 23%) or Fair (15/22; 68%) quality. Stroke was the most represented diagnosis (n = 20; 91%). All studies were observational, and half were retrospective cohort design. The majority of studies (13/22; 59%) quantified white matter damage with lesion-based methods, whereas 7/22 (32%) described intrinsic characteristics of white matter using methods like fractional anisotropy. Fifteen studies (68%) used instrumental methods for swallowing evaluations. White matter areas commonly implicated in swallowing control included the pyramidal tract, internal capsule, corona radiata, superior longitudinal fasciculus, external capsule, and corpus callosum. Additional noteworthy themes included: severity of white matter damage is related to dysphagia severity; bilateral white matter lesions appear particularly disruptive to swallowing; and white matter adaptation can facilitate dysphagia recovery. Gaps in the literature included limited sample size and populations, lack of in-depth evaluations, and issues with research design. Conclusion: Although traditionally understudied, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that white matter is critical in the neural control of swallowing. The reviewed studies indicated that white matter damage can be directly tied to swallowing deficits, and several white matter structures were implicated across studies. Further well-designed interdisciplinary research is needed to understand white matter's role in neural control of normal swallowing and in dysphagia recovery and rehabilitation.
Use of Video Education Interventions to Increase Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Cancer Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review.

Background Less than 5% of eligible adult cancer survivors participate in cancer clinical trials. Survivors identifying as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are less likely to participate in clinical trials compared to those identifying as non-Hispanic White. Common barriers to BIPOC participation are lack of knowledge, lack of access, and mistrust. These barriers are all factors in the disparities observed in BIPOC cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Clinical trials need adequate BIPOC representation to garner generalizable findings that can reduce or eliminate cancer disparities associated with the social construct of race. Aim This systematic review examined the use of video education interventions to impact BIPOC survivor participation in clinical trials. Methods Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, Cochrane, PsycInfo, and CINAHL databases were queried for articles that described or tested video interventions aimed at increasing adult, BIPOC survivor clinical trial participation. Two authors independently screened articles for inclusion, appraised quality, and abstracted relevant data. All authors synthesized the data into themes through discussion and consensus. Results The search yielded 2,512 articles. Seven selected articles described six distinct interventions. Although the six interventions reduced barriers to participation in clinical trials, their findings varied on Black and Hispanic survivors' readiness to enroll and participate in trials. Four themes emerged: (a) cultural sensitivity is needed in video development and delivery; (b) video content should be aimed to educate and change attitudes about clinical trials; (c) video interventions are feasible and acceptable; and (d) video interventions affect outcomes on intention or actual enrollment. Linking evidence to action Video interventions are well-received by BIPOC survivors and may improve representation in clinical trials. Yet, video interventions are underutilized. More studies are needed to establish best practices for video interventions aimed at diversifying clinical trial participation as widening cancer disparities and rapidly changing cancer care continue to emerge.
Nonprofit Financial Resilience: Recovery from Natural Disasters.

Nonprofits operate in increasingly complex and turbulent environments. However, few studies have explored nonprofits’ resilience during natural disasters. This study uses Hurricane Katrina as a case study to explore whether nonprofits can regain their original financial performance after significant natural disasters and what organizational capacities and abilities influence their ability to bounce back. The results show that recovery is slow, taking between three and five years for half of the nonprofits in the sample. Recovery depends on factors such as organizational size, equity, surplus, and commercial revenue. This study enriches the nonprofit financial health literature and reveals that the factors associated with financial resilience are different from those that predict financial vulnerability.
The Methods and Surprises of Sociological Theory: Ideas, Postulates, Predictions, Distributions, Unification

This chapter discusses the methods and surprises of sociological theory. We examine five theoretical activities: (1) assembling key ideas, including the Mertonian starting ideas; (2) crafting postulates and establishing their properties; (3) deducing implications, including novel predictions; (4) linking individuals and societies, obtaining new probability distributions; and (5) unifying distinct theories. These activities require a body of methods, and they produce discoveries—the great surprises.