cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Conceptual Study of Airfoil Performance Enhancements Using CFD

A conceptual study of performance enhancing devices for an airfoil is performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Two simple, passive devices are examined to explore alternate methods for stall control and lift-to-drag improvement. The motivation behind this research is to study effective techniques to improve performance with fewer drawbacks than previously existing methods. An evaluation scheme is presented to compute airfoil lift, drag and pitching moment for a range of angles-of-attack up to stall. NACA 641-212 singleelement and slatted airfoil CFD results are compared with experimental data to validate the computational model. Evaluations on the first conceptual design (Stall vane) show elimination of the separation at 15 degrees of angle-of-attack where the flow reversal normally starts at 86% - chord. A total drag increase of 22% is detected because of the sharp leading-edge of the device, but the main element drag has a reduction of 43%. The maximum lift coefficient does not show a significant change on the same model. The second device (Dimples) demonstrates the potential of lift-to-drag ratio improvement at the higher angle-of-attack. Further investigation is required to verify the results since the improvement is small.
Downlink Scheduling of Heterogeneous Traffic

Next generation wireless cellular networks will support a variety of quality-of-service (QoS) sensitive applications like streaming multimedia and high-speed data for downlink users. Channel and QoS aware downlink packet scheduling policies are going to play a key role in efficiently utilizing system resources and enhancing QoS experienced by end users. Schedulers specifically designed to support non-real-time delay tolerant services perform poorly for real-time delay sensitive services, and vice-versa. Scheduler design for supporting a heterogeneous mixture of real-time and non-real-time traffic is a relatively less studied problem. We propose a "quasi-stationary" approach to scheduling of hetergeneous traffic, which involves solving a stationary infinite horizon stochastic shortest-path problem at each scheduling instant. We thoroughly characterize the structural properties of the optimal control associated with the stationary problem, and leverage the intuition thus gained to construct a low-complexity heuristic scheduling policy. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheduler over benchmark schedulers like the exponential rule via link-level simulations.
Cholangiocarcinoma and brain lesions: an extremely rare finding

A 55-year-old man with a medical history of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma treated with gemcitabine and cisplatin with tumour chemoembolisation. However, the patient failed the initial therapy and was subsequently switched to fluorouracil and oxaliplatin with folinic acid. CT of the chest and abdomen showed new lesions consistent with metastatic disease in the liver and lungs and worsening ascites. In February 2013, the patient was admitted to the hospital because of progressive left upper extremity weakness and a mechanical fall. The …
Flat-combining NUMA locks

Multicore machines are growing in size, and accordingly shifting from simple bus-based designs to NUMA and CCNUMA architectures. With this shift, the need for scalable hierarchical locking algorithms is becoming crucial to performance. This paper presents a novel scalable hierarchical queue-lock algorithm based on the flat combining synchronization paradigm. At the core of the new algorithm is a scheme for building local queues of waiting threads in a highly efficient manner, and then merging them globally, all with little interconnect traffic and virtually no costly synchronization operations in the common case. In empirical testing on an Oracle SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server, a 256-way CC-NUMA machine, our new flat-combining hierarchical lock significantly outperforms all classic locking algorithms, and at high concurrency levels, provides up to a factor of two improvement over HCLH, the most efficient known hierarchical locking algorithm.
Critical Activities in the Front-End Planning Process

Previous research conducted by the Construction Industry Institute CII and others has demonstrated the value of front-end planning as it impacts project success. A recently completed research project funded by CII, described in this paper, examines ways to improve information flow through the front-end planning process. This paper focuses on one specific objective of this research project, namely to isolate and closely examine the information critical activities within the front-end planning process. The front-end planning process was carefully diagrammed as consisting of 33 distinct activities, each with its own information flow entities and interactions. Fifty-one questionnaire survey forms were analyzed to obtain data for the 33 activities that included activity duration, resources expended, and the extent to which information was available to perform the activity. The 51 projects were then grouped according to survey respondents' perceptions as to whether the front-end planning process was executed more or less effectively. An analysis of the data concluded with a degree of statistical significance that seven of the 33 activities have some impact on achieving project success. In addition, statistically significant differences were uncovered with respect to the extent that information was available for selected activities, and survey respondent perceptions with respect to how efficiently the activity was performed. These seven activities are involved in planning the following areas: Public relations, start up, quality and safety, the project execution plan, and project scope definition. Other activities for which information was frequently not available and/or for which considerable resources were expended relate to preliminary cost estimating and the development of a funding plan. A second survey form was forwarded to the original survey participants to obtain more specific information with respect to the information categories and interfaces associated with the critical activities that were identified in the original survey. This survey indicated problem areas including inadequate scope definition, risk identification and mitigation, minimal resource allocation for task execution, unclear definitions of roles and responsibilities, and inef- fective external communication mechanisms. DOI: 10.1061/ASCE0742-597X200824:266 CE Database subject headings: Planning; Construction Industry; Information management; Project management.
Mutational analysis of an archaeal minichromosome maintenance protein exterior hairpin reveals critical residues for helicase activity and DNA binding

Background The mini-chromosome maintenance protein (MCM) complex is an essential replicative helicase for DNA replication in Archaea and Eukaryotes. While the eukaryotic complex consists of six homologous proteins (MCM2-7), the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus has only one MCM protein (ssoMCM), six subunits of which form a homohexamer. We have recently reported a 4.35A crystal structure of the near full-length ssoMCM. The structure reveals a total of four β-hairpins per subunit, three of which are located within the main channel or side channels of the ssoMCM hexamer model generated based on the symmetry of the N-terminal Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus (mtMCM) structure. The fourth β-hairpin, however, is located on the exterior of the hexamer, near the exit of the putative side channels and next to the ATP binding pocket.
Evolutionary forces favoring intragroup coalitions among spotted hyenas and other animals

Coalitionary support in agonistic interactions represents cooperation because intervening in a fight is potentially costly to the donor of support but benefits the recipient. Here, we first review the characteristics of, and evolutionary forces favoring, intragroup coalitions in 49 species and find that patterns of intragroup coalition formation are remarkably similar between primates and nonprimates. We then test hypotheses suggesting kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and direct benefits as adaptive explanations for coalitionary interventions among adult female spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) belonging to a large social group in Kenya. As predicted by kin selection theory, females supported close kin most often, and the density (connectedness) of cooperation networks increased with genetic relatedness. Nevertheless, kinship failed to protect females from coalitionary attacks. We found no evidence of enduring alliances based on reciprocal support among unrelated adult females. Instead, donors generally minimized costs to themselves, intervening most often during low-intensity fights and when feeding opportunities were unavailable. Females also gained direct benefits from directing coalitionary attacks toward subordinates. Finally, females monitored the number of dominant bystanders in the "audience" at fights and modified their level of cooperation based on this knowledge. Overall, hyenas made flexible decisions regarding whether or not to intervene in fights, modifying their tendency to cooperate based on multiple types of information about their immediate social and ecological environments. Taken together, these findings indicate that the combined evolutionary forces of kin selection and direct benefits derived from reinforcing the status quo drive coalitionary interventions among adult female spotted hyenas. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.
A COMPARISON OF THE HYPOGLYCEMIC EFFECT OF INSULIN WITH SYSTEMIC VENOUS AND PORTAL VENOUS ADMINISTRATION.

Summary The hyperglycemic effect of insulin by prolonged intraportal and systemic infusion was measured in unanesthetized dogs with a modified portacaval transposition. There was no significant difference in response with the two routes of administration. The relation of these results to research directed to surgical therapy of diabetes is discussed.
High-Definition MPEG-4 AVC Traffic Analysis and Bandwidth Prediction

In this paper, we propose and evaluate the accuracy of two new MPEG-4 AVC video traffic models. The first predicts the size of the B-frames of MPEG-4 AVC compressed video. The second predicts the size of the group of pictures (GOP) of the MPEG-4 AVC compressed video. We also propose an enhancement to these models using a new scene change detector metric. These traffic models can be employed by a network scheduler to provision MPEG-4 AVC video bandwidth efficiently.
The Legal Precision of the Term ‘πάράkλητος’:

The Greek term πάράkλητος has often been loosely translated as ‘advocate’, with the assumption that it possesses a vague forensic quality. Hitherto, however, its precise meaning has been imperfectly understood, and there has been no cohesive legal definition for all of its appearances, especially those in the New Testament. This study examines all of the occurrences of the term πάράαkλητος, including previously overlooked attestations in the papyrological and epigraphical record. It argues that the term is a precise calque for the Latin legal term advocatus, meaning a person of high social standing who speaks on behalf of a defendant in a court of law before a judge. The article concludes by showing how this meaning is appropriate to the five appearances of παράkλητος in the Johannine corpus.
Expression Differentiation Is Constrained to Low-Expression Proteins over Ecological Timescales

Protein expression level is one of the strongest predictors of protein sequence evolutionary rate, with high-expression protein sequences evolving at slower rates than low-expression protein sequences largely because of constraints on protein folding and function. Expression evolutionary rates also have been shown to be negatively correlated with expression level across human and mouse orthologs over relatively long divergence times (i.e., ∼100 million years). Long-term evolutionary patterns, however, often cannot be extrapolated to microevolutionary processes (and vice versa), and whether this relationship holds for traits evolving under directional selection within a single species over ecological timescales (i.e., <5000 years) is unknown and not necessarily expected. Expression is a metabolically costly process, and the expression level of a particular protein is predicted to be a tradeoff between the benefit of its function and the costs of its expression. Selection should drive the expression level of all proteins close to values that maximize fitness, particularly for high-expression proteins because of the increased energetic cost of production. Therefore, stabilizing selection may reduce the amount of standing expression variation for high-expression proteins, and in combination with physiological constraints that may place an upper bound on the range of beneficial expression variation, these constraints could severely limit the availability of beneficial expression variants. To determine whether rapid-expression evolution was restricted to low-expression proteins owing to these constraints on highly expressed proteins over ecological timescales, we compared venom protein expression levels across mainland and island populations for three species of pit vipers. We detected significant differentiation in protein expression levels in two of the three species and found that rapid-expression differentiation was restricted to low-expression proteins. Our results suggest that various constraints on high-expression proteins reduce the availability of beneficial expression variants relative to low-expression proteins, enabling low-expression proteins to evolve and potentially lead to more rapid adaptation.
Impact of Infrastructure for Higher Education

Education is always a search for quality and excellence. It opens the horizon of the human mind full of prospects and possibilities, visions, and fulfilments. Today, the system as whole of higher education in India has grown. However, we fail to maintain quality along with growth. The quality of education depends upon the quality of teacher education. The age-old contents, methods, and teaching materials have made teacher education unattractive and delinked from its present objectives. Teacher education programmes should exhibit a positive approach in building up the knowledge base in fostering innovative, interactive transactions strategies, and in broadening continuous and comprehensive evaluation. All these add to build the profile of teachers’ confidence in the competitive world. They would exhibit a perfect blend of professionalism and value with enshrined personality, aiming for professional growth, and employability in a global prospective. Therefore, a sound programme of professional education of school and college teacher is essential for the qualitative improvement of education. Investment in teacher education can bring rich dividends, because the financial resources required are small when measured against the resulting improvement in the education of the millions of the boys and girls. The paper describes how the use of ICTs has facilitated access to higher education and teaching. In summary, ICTs do not merely reinforce the infrastructure of higher education but greatly increase our power to implement the academic ideal that knowledge is important. In summary, ICTs do not merely reinforce the infrastructure of higher education but greatly increase our power to implement the academic ideal that knowledge is important.
Differences in Residential Energy Use between US City and Suburban Households

Estiri H. Differences in residential energy use between US city and suburban households, Regional Studies. This paper applies path analysis to household-level data from the US residential sector to study differences in energy consumption between self-identified city and suburban households. Results show that, on average, suburban households consume more energy in residential buildings than their city-dweller counterparts. This variation in energy consumption is due to differences in: (1) characteristics of the household and the housing unit, independently, and (2) interactions between the household and housing characteristics in the city and suburban households. Findings of this study provide new insights into how regional policies can be implemented differently in suburbs and cities to reduce energy consumption.
Macrocheiloplasty. Principles and techniques.

Enlarged configuratioxs of one or both lips from hereditary and racial differences are common phenomena. Congenital anamolies and acquired malformatioxs are more unusual. The author reviews the principles of lip size reduction, and demonstrates photographically the serial steps necessary to accomplish that goal on the lower lip
A hybrid Brownian dynamics/constitutive model for yielding, aging, and rejuvenation in deforming polymeric glasses

We present a hybrid model for polymeric glasses under deformation that combines a minimal model of segmental dynamics with a beads-and-springs model of a polymer, solved by Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations, whose relaxation is coupled to the segmental dynamics through the drag coefficient of the beads. This coarse-grained model allows simulations that are much faster than molecular dynamics and successfully capture the entire range of mechanical response including yielding, plastic flow, strain-hardening, and incomplete strain recovery. The beads-and-springs model improves upon the dumbbell model for glassy polymers proposed by Fielding et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 048301) by capturing the small elastic recoil seen experimentally without the use of ad hoc adjustments of parameters required in the model of Fielding et al. With appropriate choice of parameters, predictions of creep, recovery, and segmental relaxation are found to be in good agreement with poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) data of Lee et al. (Science, 2009, 323, 231-234). Our model shows dramatic differences in behavior of the segmental relaxation time between extensional creep and steady extension, and between extension and shear. The non-monotonic response of the segmental relaxation time to extensional creep and the small elastic recovery after removal of stress are shown to arise from sub-chains that are trapped between folds, and that become highly oriented and stretched at strains of order unity, connecting the behavior of glassy polymers under creep to that of dilute polymer solutions under fast extensional flows. We are also able to predict the effects of polymer pre-orientation in the parallel or orthogonal direction on the subsequent response to extensional deformation.
Performing the Scriptures

This book began with literary theory. Drama, I suggested, is a dialogical genre and theatre is a dialogical edium. An examination of plays by Dryden and ‘Zarate’ and of a scenario by Artaud advanced my argument. I chose these works not because they stand out from other dramatic literature as paragons of dialogism but because they share a common historical referent: the conquest of Mexico. For the discovery and conquest of America was, in Todorov’s words, ‘the most astonishing encounter of our history’, a unique opportunity for dialogue between worlds largely squandered through the Spanish failure to conceptualize an otherness both equal and different. But even in this difficult historical context theatre proved to be a dialogical medium. Indigenous dramatizations of the theme of conquest in Mexico, whether under the auspices of the early Franciscan missionaries or as part of a still-vital folk tradition, have proved to be fruitful vehicles for what Bakhtin would call ‘communication between simultaneous differences’. The task now before me is to apply what I have learned of the dialogical theatre to the questions raised by Todorov concerning the ethics of cross-cultural encounter.
Symmetry as a Common Theme

Symmetry applies to everything from music to art to nature to math to science to beauty and to life. The aim of this chapter is to introduce symmetry in some familiar ways and the role symmetry plays in the structured brain. It is the key to how one think, reason, and creates. It is observed that one is always looking for symmetry relationships in space and time among patterns. This is not necessarily a conscious process, but one that is built into the structured brain. It is the ability to discern relationships and symmetries among patterns and transform them in time sequences without the presence of a physical image that forms the basis of the higher brain functions that is denoted as spatial-temporal reasoning. Another important and powerful concept in higher brain function is “broken” symmetry, which occurs in nature, in art, and in physics. The concept of broken symmetry or almost perfect symmetry is important in how our brains can recognize related patterns that perhaps are the common basis for music and spatial-temporal reasoning.
Model reduction for a class of singularly perturbed stochastic differential equations: Fast variable approximation

We consider a class of stochastic differential equations in singular perturbation form, where the drift terms are linear and diffusion terms are nonlinear functions of the state variables. In our previous work, we approximated the slow variable dynamics of the original system by a reduced-order model when the singular perturbation parameter ∊ is small. In this work, we obtain an approximation for the fast variable dynamics. We prove that the first and second moments of the approximation are within an O(∊)-neighborhood of the first and second moments of the fast variable of the original system. The result holds for a finite time-interval after an initial transient has elapsed. We illustrate our results with a biomolecular system modeled by the chemical Langevin equation.
Disrupting GluA2 phosphorylation potentiates reinstatement of cocaine seeking.

Abstract Addiction is associated with changes in synaptic plasticity mediated, in part, by alterations in the trafficking and stabilization of AMPA receptors at synapses within the nucleus accumbens. Exposure to cocaine can lead to protein kinase C–mediated phosphorylation of GluA2 AMPA subunits and this phosphorylation event leads to the internalization of GluA2-containing AMPARs, which are calcium-impermeable. However, it is not clear whether this internalization is necessary for the expression of addictive phenotypes. Utilizing a mouse with a point mutation within the GluA2 subunit c-terminus, the current study demonstrates that disrupting PKC-mediated GluA2 phosphorylation potentiates reinstatement of both cue-induced cocaine seeking and cocaine conditioned reward without affecting operant learning, food self-administration or cocaine sensitization. Electrophysiological recordings revealed increased GluA2-mediated AMPA transmission as evidenced by increased sEPSC amplitude without any changes in sEPSC frequency or rectification. In support of this increase in GluA2 activity mediating the augmented cocaine reinstatement, we found that accumbal overexpression of GluA2 recapitulated this behavioral effect in wildtype mice while not altering reinstatement behavior in the GluA2 K882A knock-in mice. In addition, disrupting GluA2 phosphorylation was associated with blunted long-term depression in the nucleus accumbens, mimicking the anaplasticity seen following cocaine self-administration. Taken together these results indicate that disrupting GluA2 phosphorylation and increasing GluA2-mediated transmission in the nucleus accumbens leads to increased vulnerability to cocaine relapse. Further, these results indicate that modulating GluA2-containing AMPAR trafficking can contribute to addictive phenotypes in the absence of alterations in GluA2-lacking receptors. These results highlight the GluA2 phosphorylation site as a novel target for the development of cocaine addiction therapeutics.
Relationship between Intelligence and Preferences to Work for Delayed Rewards

Summary.-After receiving information about either success oc failure on performing a task, 61 subjects in Grades 4 and 5 made choices between immediate, smaller rewards and delayed, larger rewards which were contingent upon successful performance on a task. A positive relationship between intelligence and preference to delay for groups given both success and failure was noted. The decision to delay reinforcements voluntarily for the purpose of gaining more desirable rewards in the future is an important area of inquiry. Preferences to delay gratifications have been reported to be related to social responsibility, age, intelligence, and modeling (Mischel, 1961; Mischel & Metzmer, 1962; Mischel & Bandura, 1965). However, these studies have employed only delay paradigms in which the subject has to wait to some criterion to receive the delayed rewards. The present study was designed to mirror more realistic situations where individuals have to perform some activity instrumental to the attainment of longrange goals. It was reasoned that the individual's intellectual skills would be a major determinant of decisions to delay in this type of situation. More specifically, it was reasoned that che influence of IQ on delay would be affected by prior success and failure on the contingent task. Sixty-one subjects, fourth and fifth grade pupils from Lincoln Trail Elementary School in Mahomet, Illinois, participated in this study. Their scores from the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test were obtained from school files. The mean intelligence score was 106.44 and the standard deviation, 16.82. Subjects performed eight trials on the Treatment Task which was a modified version of the Angle Matching Task of Crandall ( 1963). Subjects received false feedback either about cheir success or failure. Subjects were told that on the basis of scores collected from other children of their age a score of four or more meant that they had passed the test. A score below four meant that they had not passed the test. The successful group received feedback of success on six trials, while the failing group received feedback of failure on six trials. After these treatments, subjects made choices between immediate, smaller rewards and delayed, larger rewards. These procedures were similar to chose reported by Mischel and Staub (1965). Children were asked to choose very carefully be
ETB and epidermal growth factor receptor stimulation of wound closure in bovine corneal epithelial cells.

Purpose. To determine if there is a heterogeneous pattern of endothelin (ET) receptor subtype (i.e., ET A and ET B ) gene expression in the bovine corneal epithelium (BCE). To determine if ET receptor subtype stimulation increases the effectiveness of epidermal growth factor (EGF) to accelerate wound closure in a primary culture of bovine corneal epithelial cells (BCEC). Methods. In situ hybridization histochemistry was used to characterize ET A and ET B gene expression in the BCE. A wound closure assay evaluated wound healing rates in BCEC after 4 to 7 days in culture. [ 3 H] thymidine incorporation and MTT assay measured proliferation. Results. ET A gene expression was appreciably higher in the basal cells than in the suprabasal cells, whereas the pattern for ET B was reversed. Epidermal growth factor (5 ng/ml) maximally increased wound closure by 145% above the control. With 5 ng/ml EGF, either 10 -9 M ET-1 or 10 -8 M sarafotoxin-6-c (s-6-c) increased wound closure by an additional 39% (P < 0.001) above that measured with 5 ng/ml EGF alone. BQ123 (10 -7 M) did not alter any of these effects of ET-1 or s-6-c. Epidermal growth factor stimulated wound closure through a selective increase in proliferation. Neither ET-1 nor s-6-c alone had any effect on proliferation or migration. Conclusions. Both ET A and ET B genes are expressed in BCE. However, in BCEC only, ET B stimulation increases the effectiveness of EGF to stimulate wound closure. This response was caused by an increase in cell migration rather than proliferation because, after treatment with mitomycin C, neither ET-1 nor EGF stimulated wound closure.
It's Not about "You," It's about "Us": A Black Woman Administrator's Efforts to Disrupt White Fragility in an Urban School.

This case centers on a Black woman school administrator and efforts to disrupt Whiteness among an urban elementary school teaching staff. The case details the resistance she encounters while encour...
Effects of Optical Purity and Finite System Size on Self-Assembly of 12-Hydroxystearic Acid in Hexane: Molecular Dynamics Simulations

12-Hydroxystearic acid (12HSA) and its derivatives are well-known organogelators, and they play critical roles in a variety of applications. The overall aggregate structure of 12HSA is sensitive to the chirality at the 12th carbon, but a fundamental understanding of this dependence is lacking. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were conducted on microsecond long time scales for (1) (R)-12HSA, (2) (S)-12HSA, and (3) a 50/50 racemic mixture, each solvated at 12.5 wt % in explicit hexane. Self-assembly was accelerated by turning off alkyl chain dihedral gauche states and forcing the molecules to adopt an all-trans conformation. The stability of the resulting aggregates was tested by quenching them with access to gauche states restored. Ordered aggregates produced from optically pure (R)- and (S)-12HSA remained stable for at least 1 μs. The characteristic ordered structure observed is termed a “ring-of-rings” motif, and it contains two twisted six-membered ringlike bundles connected through acetic ...
Gnotobiotic Pigs: From Establishing Facility to Modeling Human Infectious Diseases

Gnotobiotic pigs have been increasingly recognized as a very valuable animal model system for the studies of microbiology and immunology. The number of functional gnotobiotic pig facilities remains low, however, mainly because of the technical complexity in establishing and maintaining the facility and the high costs involved. In this chapter, we will provide detailed descriptions on establishing and maintaining a gnotobiotic pig program, based on our hands-on experience, aiming to provide a technical instructional manual that can be used as guidance during the creation and maintenance of gnotobiotic pig facilities. We will also review the gnotobiotic pig models that have been well established for the studies of pathogenic human enteric viruses, bacteria, and fungi and the development and uses of novel gnotobiotic pig models, including using gnotobiotic pigs to study probiotics and prebiotics and developing human-gut-microbiota transplanted gnotobiotic pig models.
Resources and Extras

This chapter contains some mathematical material that you will likely have seen, but some may not have stayed with you. I have also relegated the detailed discussion of how one splits a node in a decision tree to this chapter.
Trophic signatures of seabirds suggest shifts in oceanic ecosystems

Pelagic ecosystems are dynamic ocean regions whose immense natural capital is affected by climate change, pollution, and commercial fisheries. Trophic level–based indicators derived from fishery catch data may reveal the food web status of these systems, but the utility of these metrics has been debated because of targeting bias in fisheries catch. We analyze a unique, fishery-independent data set of North Pacific seabird tissues to inform ecosystem trends over 13 decades (1890s to 2010s). Trophic position declined broadly in five of eight species sampled, indicating a long-term shift from higher–trophic level to lower–trophic level prey. No species increased their trophic position. Given species prey preferences, Bayesian diet reconstructions suggest a shift from fishes to squids, a result consistent with both catch reports and ecosystem models. Machine learning models further reveal that trophic position trends have a complex set of drivers including climate, commercial fisheries, and ecomorphology. Our results show that multiple species of fish-consuming seabirds may track the complex changes occurring in marine ecosystems.
Effect of the presence of the mammary gland on periparturient immunosuppression in dairy cows

Impaired immune function during the periparturient period contributes to the increased susceptibility of the cow to infectious disease around the time of calving. Changes in subpopulations of peripheral blood mononuclear cells during the immediate periparturient period 1 Reprinted with permission of J. of Dairy Science, 1999, 82 (2), 315-319 2 Graduate student. Department of Biomedical Sciences,lovi'a State University. 3 Primary researcher and author 4 USDA, Agricultural Research Service, National Animal Disease Center, Metabolic Diseases and Immunology Research Unit 5 Author for correspondence
“More Reassuring Noise in This Quiet World”: Narrative Intimacy and the Acousmatic Voice of Night Vale

Being an acousmatic presence—a disembodied voice—Cecil lends himself to an unusual relationship with the listener as often the only voice illustrating the goings-on of the odd desert town of Night Vale. And as this narrator, several things play into his distance from the listener: in-world he is a reporter, but is also an opinionated fallible person; as a narrative device there is audio’s natural and unusual intimacy; and in between those two spheres there is the fact that very little distinction is made between the character Cecil Palmer and his actor Cecil Baldwin. All of these forces shift his narrative distance, and it is through this lens that I illustrate how that distance affects the story and the listener, particularly in the events of Welcome to Night Vale’s second year’s Strex arc.
Impact of an integrated practice unit on the value of musculoskeletal care for uninsured and underinsured patients.

BACKGROUND Limited access to specialty care for uninsured and underinsured patients may be exacerbated by traditional fee-for-service approaches to care that incentivize volume and intensity of services over value of care. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a value-based integrated practice unit (IPU) on access to musculoskeletal care and surgical outcomes in a safety-net population. METHODS A new IPU was implemented on 6/1/2016 at an established safety-net clinic providing musculoskeletal care in central Texas to supplement existing musculoskeletal care provided through a fee-for-service model. This retrospective cohort study compared access and outcomes under the IPU to the parallel fee-for-service clinic through 3/31/2017, as well as the historical fee-for-service clinic from 8/1/2015 through 5/31/2016. Primary outcomes for access included number of referrals addressed; for surgical patients, length of stay, discharge destination, and 30-day readmission rates were assessed. RESULTS The baseline waitlist of 1401 referrals on 6/1/2016 was eliminated by 3/31/2017. Among patients undergoing hip or knee replacement, length of stay was 1.4 days compared to 2.6 days for patients referred to the parallel fee-for-service clinic (p < 0.001), and 92% were discharged home versus 89% (p = 0.46). The 30-day readmission rate for the IPU was 2.7%, which did not differ significantly from the HFFS (8.5%, p = 0.23) and PFFS (3.7%, p = 0.64) clinics. CONCLUSIONS An IPU increased access and improved short-term surgical outcomes in a population of uninsured and underinsured patients seeking musculoskeletal care. Additional studies of longer duration are needed to assess the sustainability of a value-based approach. IMPLICATIONS A value-based approach to musculoskeletal care may improve access and outcomes in safety-net patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III, retrospective cohort study.
Clinicians' cognitive biases: A potential barrier to implementation of evidence-based clinical practice

The uptake of new evidence in healthcare relies on clinicians’ willingness to change their clinical practice by implementing an evidence-based clinical intervention or deimplementing an obsolete, non-evidence-based practice. A number of barriers to change among health professionals have been identified including the way that clinicians make medical decisions. When clinicians judge situations, make decisions and solve problems, they routinely use cognitive shortcuts, also called ‘heuristics’, as well as internalised tacit knowledge (based on clinicians’ own experiences, exchange with colleagues, reading information and hearing from opinion leaders, patients, pharmaceutical representatives, and so on).1 Mental shortcuts can assist clinicians to process large amounts of information in a short time and are an important tool for experienced clinicians to make a correct diagnosis based on recognition of internalised patterns of signs of symptoms. They also have the potential, however, to prevent evidence-based decisions. Here, we will outline a number of cognitive biases that constitute potential barriers to the practice of evidence-based medicine and potential solutions to address and overcome these biases. It is unknown to which extent cognitive biases play a role in clinicians’ decision-making, but some evidence suggests that cognitive biases in medical decision-making might be common.2 In a study on anaesthesiology practice, of nine types of cognitive errors selected for observation, seven occurred in >50% of observed emergencies.2 The following cognitive biases typically influence clinicians’ decision-making regarding treatment and management of patients and are thus potential barriers to evidence-based clinical practice (figure 1). Figure 1 Illustrations of clinicians’ cognitive biases. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. ### Omission bias Omission bias is the tendency to judge actions that lead to harm as worse or less moral than equally harmful non-actions (omissions). The inclination is thus towards inaction following the principle of ‘do no harm’. Kahneman and Miller explained this bias in terms of norm theory: …
A Population Study of Health Status Among Sexual Minority Older Adults in Select U.S. Geographic Regions

Objective. This study seeks to examine the health disparities of sexual minority older adults. Method. We used a probability sample of adults older than 50 years in select U.S. regions from the 201...
Funding for Abstinence-Only Education and Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention: Does State Ideology Affect Outcomes?

Objectives. To examine the relationship between adolescent pregnancy–prevention and sexuality and abstinence-only education funding and adolescent birthrates over time. Also, to determine whether s...
Competitive Employment for Transition-Aged Youth with Significant Impact from Autism: A Multi-site Randomized Clinical Trial

This study reports the results of a multi-site, parallel block randomized clinical trial to expand the previous findings regarding the implementation of Project SEARCH plus ASD Supports (PS + ASD) on employment outcomes upon graduation from high school. Participants were 156 individuals with significant impact from ASD between the ages of 18–21. There was a significant difference between treatment and control groups with 73.4% of the treatment group acquiring competitive employment at or above minimum wage by 1-year after graduation compared to 17% of the control group for whom data was provided. At 1-year, employed treatment group participants worked an average of 21.2 h per week (SD = 9) for a mean hourly wage of $9.61 per hour (SD = $1.55). Clinical Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT03560453.
Real Option Analysis: Work in Progress, in Need of Progress

This chapter is openly polemical. This book would not exist if real options analysis (ROA) had progressed the way other fields of knowledge do. It did not. That has everything to do with the stifling impact of Black-Scholes on ROA. The modern form of financial option theory started around 1973 with Black-Scholes. The concept of real option was introduced soon afterward in 1977. After all these years, ROA is nowhere as developed as financial option theory. The difference of degree of advancement between the two is so huge that it begs to be explained. This is the theme of this chapter.
Time-Variant Hull Girder Reliability Considering Spatial Dependence of Corrosion Growth, Geometric and Material Properties

ABSTRACT The stochastic deterioration of ship structural elements is both time and spatially dependent. In this paper, a formulation of the time-variant ship hull girder reliability subjected to corrosion is proposed by taking into consideration the spatial variability of corrosion growth, geometric and material properties of structural ship elements. The joint probability distribution of the spatially dependent variables is constructed by the Gaussian, Gumbel, Clayton, and Frank copula. Monte Carlo simulation is used to compute the probability of hull failure. A ship hull girder is employed to illustrate the application of the developed method. The impact of the degree of dependence and the selected copula on the estimated failure probability is investigated. Results indicate that this probability can differ observably assuming different levels of spatial dependence and different dependence structures of corrosion growth, geometric and material properties produces little impact. In addition, a higher dependence of variables tends to produce higher probabilities of hull failure.
Detection and Quantification of Total and Pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Anadara subcrenata in the Zhoushan Archipelago.

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of total and pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Anadara subcrenata sampled from aquafarms and retail markets in the Zhoushan islands during June 2013 to March 2015, using the most probable number-polymerase chain reaction (MPN-PCR) method. Total V. parahaemolyticus was detected in 265 (83.86%) samples with the density 0.3 to 2400 MPN/g. In total, 30.70% and 17.41% of the samples exceeded 100 MPN/g and 1,000 MPN/g, respectively. Both highest positive rate (98.99%) and highest prevalence (median = 210.0 MPN/g) were recorded in summer. Samples from aquafarms had a higher positive rate and median than those from retail markets. Pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus was detected both in aquafarms and retail markets in all seasons but not in winter. Among the 265 tlh-positive samples, 20 (7.55%) of the samples harbored tdh, and 5 (1.89%) of the samples harbored both tdh and trh. These results indicate that the Zhoushan archipelago is severely contaminated with V. parahaemolyticus in Anadara subcrenata; these results are applicable in risk assessment and to control the risk of food-borne disease caused by V. parahaemolyticus.
Community resistance and discretionary strategies in planning sustainable development: The case of Colorado cities

How bureaucrats exercise administrative discretion is an enduring question in urban planning and democratic governance. Conflicts between urban planners’ professional recommendations and community stakeholders’ demands play out especially in the sustainable development context, where planners confront value conflicts between environmental, economic, and social goals. This article investigates the sources of community resistance to sustainable development and the discretionary strategies planners employ to persuade communities towards a more sustainable future. Utilizing a descriptive case study design, we examine four Colorado cities experiencing growth and community resistance to sustainable development practices. We find that while planners face community resistance from a multitude of sources, including developer pressures, NIMBYism and density concerns, and distrust of the planning profession, planners also work within their discretionary space using interdepartmental coordination, communication and outreach, data and evidence, rule changes, and neutral stewardship to encourage sustainable development. Implications for planning practice and future research are discussed.
Localizing the energy transition: Town-level political and socio-economic drivers of clean energy in the United States

Abstract This paper investigates the political and socio-economic drivers of energy transition at the local level in the United States. Using observations, public documents and semi-structured interviews from a sample of Connecticut (CT) towns, it explores why some local governments are more proactive than others in designing and implementing policies that promote renewable energy and greater energy efficiency. The research reveals that the type and configuration of policy champions matter in distinguishing among towns’ clean energy engagement levels. Those towns that can bring together elected, appointed and volunteer leaders who are active and passionate advocates for clean energy are generally more successful than others in carrying out clean energy policies. Leader towns are also those that have organized interest groups and businesses that support and work with the government in designing and implementing clean energy initiatives. The case studies further reveal that a town's wealth and education levels, but not its partisan affiliation, are important in shaping the will and capacity of town officials as well as of interest groups in society. Finally, the paper analyzes the institutional decision-making context and finds that while government type is not determinative, a town's bureaucratic capacity, measured in terms of the availability of specialized energy staff and energy task force, distinguishes leader towns from the rest. Developing a better understanding of the political will, government-society synergy, and institutional capacity is critical to a full accounting of the challenges and opportunities local governments face in clean energy transitions.
Three-Dimensional GRE T1ρ mapping of the brain using tailored variable flip-angle scheduling.

Purpose To introduce a new approach called tailored variable flip-angle (VFA) scheduling for SNR-efficient 3D T1ρ mapping of the brain using a magnetization-prepared gradient-echo sequence. Methods Simulations were used to assess the relative SNR efficiency, quantitative accuracy, and spatial blurring of tailored VFA scheduling for T1ρ mapping of brain tissue compared with magnetization-prepared angle-modulated partitioned k-space spoiled gradient-echo snapshots (MAPSS), a state-of-the-art technique for accurate 3D gradient-echo T1ρ mapping. Simulations were also used to calculate optimal imaging parameters for tailored VFA scheduling versus MAPSS, without and with nulling of CSF. Four participants were imaged at 3T MRI to demonstrate the feasibility of tailored VFA scheduling for T1ρ mapping of the brain. Using MAPSS as a reference standard, in vivo data were used to validate the relative SNR efficiency and quantitative accuracy of the new approach. Results Tailored VFA scheduling can provide a 2-fold to 4-fold gain in the SNR of the resulting T1ρ map as compared with MAPSS when using identical sequence parameters while limiting T1ρ quantification errors to 2% or less. In vivo whole-brain 3D T1ρ maps acquired with tailored VFA scheduling had superior SNR efficiency than is achievable with MAPSS, and the SNR efficiency improved with a greater number of views per segment. Conclusions Tailored VFA scheduling is an SNR-efficient GRE technique for 3D T1ρ mapping of the brain that provides increased flexibility in choice of imaging parameters compared with MAPSS, which may benefit a variety of applications.