cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Phase I Study of the Combination of Decitabine with Lenalidomide for Patients with High Risk (IPSS Int-2 or High) Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Abstract 5029 Background: Decitabine and lenalidomide have demonstrated single agent activity in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The addition of lenalidomide to decitabine in patients with high risk MDS may improve responses through distinct mechanisms. A phase I study of azacytidine and lenalidomide has previously demonstrated the feasibility of the combination of a hypomethylating agent with lenalidomide and did suggest higher response rates. (Sekeres M, et al. JCO 2010) Methods: We conducted a 3×3 cohort design. Patients with high risk MDS who had received prior hypomethylating agent were eligible for the study. Patients were treated with decitabine 20mg/m2 IV over 1 hour daily on days 1–5. Lenalidomide was escalated in each cohort using a dose of 5 mg po daily for 21 days in cohort 1 and 10 mg po daily for 21 days in cohort 2. Additional cohorts using 15 mg and 25 mg of lenalidomide are planned but have not yet been entered. Cycles were repeated every 28 days if count recovery was adequate. Toxicity was assessed by NCI CTCAE v3.0 criteria. Responses (a secondary objective) were assessed using IWSG criteria. Results: Seven patients have been entered into this study and are evaluable for toxicity and response. Median age is 74 years (69–77). Because of 1 death in cohort 1 (felt to be due to respiratory failure in a patient with severe COPD and not related to study drugs), the cohort was expanded to 6 patients. No other deaths occurred on study. One patient has been entered on cohort 2. No grade 3 or 4 toxicities were seen in the other 6 patients. Myelosuppression is common but does not appear to be worse than decitabine alone. In the 6 patients in which response could be assessed, there were 2 complete responses (CRs) and 3 partial responses (PRs). One patient progressed to AML after one cycle. Responses were seen in the 3 patients that had received prior treatment with hypomethylating agents (1 CR, 2 PR). Duration of responses ranged from 4 months to 16 months. Conclusion: The combination of decitabine and lenalidomide has been well tolerated in patients with high-risk MDS. The maximum tolerate dose has not been reached, although myelosupression is common. Good responses have been seen even in patients with prior treatment with a hypomethylating agent. Disclosures: Off Label Use: Decitabine in combination with lenalidomide for high risk myelodysplastic syndrome. Rizzieri:Celgene: Speakers Bureau.
Incidence, Age, and Gender of Children with Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP) Associated with Severe, Acquired ADAMTS13 Deficiency.

Abstract Abstract 2196 Introduction TTP associated with severe acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency has been rarely reported among children. Specific aims: [1] To identify all published reports of TTP associated with acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency in children Methods Systematic literature review using MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and CINAHL databases. Comprehensive search terms for TTP, HUS, and children were combined with the term, ADAMTS13. Bibliographies of selected articles were reviewed. Incidence was calculated using person-years of all children Results The systematic literature search identified 22 publications reporting 53 children with acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency. Their age and gender are presented in the Figure. Two-thirds of children were ages 9–17 years. Among the 18 children ages 0–8 years, 8 (44%) were girls; among the 35 children ages 9–17 years, 24 (69%) were girls. The relative frequency of the older children was greater than younger children (p=0.02). Although there were more girls than boys reported, the difference was not significant (p=0.13). From January 1, 1995 to June 30, 2012, 72 patients with acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency were enrolled in the Oklahoma TTP-HUS Registry; one patient was less than 18 years old. The calculated incidence for the Oklahoma Registry region was 0.10/106 children/year. Conclusion The Oklahoma Registry experience documents for the first time the incidence of TTP associated with acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency in children: 0.10/106 children/year, 6% of our previously calculated incidence rate of 1.74/106/year for all patients with TTP and acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency (J Thromb Haemost 2005;3:1432). The age and gender distribution of children in published case reports suggests that TTP associated with acquired ADAMTS13 deficiency in children is not a distinct juvenile disorder, but more likely a continuum of the spectrum of TTP in adults (J Thromb Haemost 2005;3:1432). Download : Download high-res image (22KB) Download : Download full-size image Disclosures: George: Alexion, Inc.: Consultancy; Baxter, Inc.: Consultancy; Amgen, Inc.: Consultancy, PI of clinical trial involving romiplostim, PI of clinical trial involving romiplostim Other, Research Funding. Terrell: Baxter, Inc.: Consultancy; Amgen, Inc.: Consultancy.
Fourth-grade children's dietary reporting accuracy by meal component: Results from a validation study that manipulated retention interval and prompts

We examined reporting accuracy by meal component (beverage, bread, breakfast meat, combination entree, condiment, dessert, entree, fruit, vegetable) with validation-study data on 455 fourth-grade children (mean age = 9.92 ± 0.41 years) observed eating school meals and randomized to one of eight dietary recall conditions (two retention intervals [short, long] crossed with four prompts [forward, meal-name, open, reverse]). Accuracy category (match [observed and reported], omission [observed but unreported], intrusion [unobserved but reported]) was a polytomous nominal item response variable. We fit a multilevel cumulative logit model with item variables meal component and serving period (breakfast, lunch) and child variables retention interval, prompt and sex. Significant accuracy category predictors were meal component (p < 0.0003), retention interval (p < 0.0003), meal-component × serving-period (p < 0.0003) and meal-component × retention-interval (p = 0.001). The relationship of meal component and accuracy category was much stronger for lunch than breakfast. For lunch, beverages were matches more often, omissions much less often and intrusions more often than expected under independence; fruits and desserts were omissions more often. For the meal-component × retention-interval interaction, for the short retention interval, beverages were intrusions much more often but combination entrees and condiments were intrusions less often; for the long retention interval, beverages were matches more often and omissions less often but fruits were matches less often. Accuracy for each meal component appeared better with the short than long retention interval. For lunch and for the short retention interval, children's reporting was most accurate for entree and combination entree meal components, whereas it was least accurate for vegetable and fruit meal components. Results have implications for conclusions of studies and interventions assessed with dietary recalls obtained from children.
Optical distortion correction of a liquid-gas interface and contact angle in cylindrical tubes

Objects inside cylindrical tubes appear distorted as seen outside the tube due to the refraction of the light passing through different media. Such an optical distortion may cause significant errors in geometrical measurements using optical observations of objects (e.g., liquid-gas interfaces, solid particles, gas bubbles) inside the tubes. In this study, an analytical method using a point-by-point correction of the optical distortion was developed. For an experimental validation, the method was used to correct the apparent profiles of the water-air interfaces (menisci) in cylindrical glass tubes with different tube diameters and wall thicknesses. Then, the corrected meniscus profiles were used to calculate the corrected static contact angles. The corrected contact angle shows an excellent agreement with the reference contact angles as compared to the conventional contact angle measurement using apparent meniscus profiles.
Shear-Parallel Mesoscale Convective Systems in a Moist Low-Inhibition Mei-Yu Front Environment

AbstractNumerical simulations are performed to investigate organized convection observed in the Asian summer monsoon and documented as a category of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) over the U.S. continent during the warm season. In an idealized low-inhibition and unidirectional shear environment of the mei-yu moisture front, the structure of the simulated organized convection is distinct from that occurring in the classical quasi-two-dimensional, shear-perpendicular, and trailing stratiform (TS) MCS. Consisting of four airflow branches, a three-dimensional, eastward-propagating, downshear-tilted, shear-parallel MCS builds upshear by initiating new convection at its upstream end. The weak cold pool in the low-inhibition environment negligibly affects convection initiation, whereas convectively generated gravity waves are vital. Upstream-propagating gravity waves form a saturated or near-saturated moist tongue, and downstream-propagating waves control the initiation and growth of convection within a pre...
“I Think It’s Pretty Much the Same, as It Should Be”: Perspectives of Inpatient Care Among Women Veterans:

The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the inpatient hospitalization experience for women veterans through in-depth interviews. Women veterans who were admitted for inpatient care on medical units within a university-affiliated VA hospital were invited to participate in a semistructured interview that inquired about their hospital experience, interactions with medical providers, and how being a woman veteran might affect this experience. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using constant comparative method until thematic saturation was achieved ( n = 25). Three themes, (a) Being a woman and a veteran: Intersecting identities, (b) Expecting equality and equity, and (c) Defining woman-centered inpatient care described the unique perspective and context for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) health care of women veterans. These findings provide insight and guidance to clinical practice and care delivery for women veterans, including training and interpersonal approaches medical providers can take to improve the hospital experience for women.
Ecology and Economics of Using Native Managed Bees for Almond Pollination

Native managed bees can improve crop pollination, but a general framework for evaluating the associated economic costs and benefits has not been developed. We conducted a cost-benefit analysis to assess how managing blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria Say [Hymenoptera: Megachildae]) alongside honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus [Hymenoptera: Apidae]) can affect profits for almond growers in California. Specifically, we studied how adjusting three strategies can influence profits: (1) number of released O. lignaria bees, (2) density of artificial nest boxes, and (3) number of nest cavities (tubes) per box. We developed an ecological model for the effects of pollinator activity on almond yields, validated the model with published data, and then estimated changes in profits for different management strategies. Our model shows that almond yields increase with O. lignaria foraging density, even where honey bees are already in use. Our cost-benefit analysis shows that profit ranged from -US$1,800 to US$2,800/acre given different combinations of the three strategies. Adding nest boxes had the greatest effect; we predict an increase in profit between low and high nest box density strategies (2.5 and 10 boxes/acre). In fact, the number of released bees and the availability of nest tubes had relatively small effects in the high nest box density strategies. This suggests that growers could improve profits by simply adding more nest boxes with moderate number of tubes in each. Our approach can support grower decisions regarding integrated crop pollination and highlight the importance of a comprehensive ecological economic framework for assessing these decisions.
Proton Pump Inhibitors: Review of Emerging Concerns

First introduced in 1989, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most widely utilized medications worldwide, both in the ambulatory and inpatient clinical settings. The PPIs are currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the management of a variety of gastrointestinal disorders including symptomatic peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and nonulcer dyspepsia as well as for prevention of gastrointestinal bleeding in patients receiving antiplatelet therapy. PPIs inhibit gastric acid secretion, and the most commonly associated adverse effects include abdominal pain, diarrhea, and headache. Although PPIs have had an encouraging safety profile, recent studies regarding the long-term use of PPI medications have noted potential adverse effects, including risk of fractures, pneumonia, Clostridium difficile diarrhea, hypomagnesemia, vitamin B12 deficiency, chronic kidney disease, and dementia. These emerging data have led to subsequent investigations to assess these potential risks in patients receiving long-term PPI therapy. However, most of the published evidence is inadequate to establish a definite association between PPI use and the risk for development of serious adverse effects. Hence, when clinically indicated, PPIs can be prescribed at the lowest effective dose for symptom control.
“A Very Dangerous Battleground”: How Abstinent Christian Men Select and Navigate Media in the Presence of Sexual Media Content

Abstinent Christian men are frequently challenged when selecting and navigating media due to the presence of sexual content that presents images and ideas not aligned with their sexual self-concept...
Effect of Acidity and Metal Ions on Water Movement Through Red Spruce

Field observations suggested that death of red spruce of all age classes in the northern coniferous forest of Camels Hump Mountain, Vermont could be due in part to inadequate movement of water through the trees. Short term laboratory experiments were conducted with young red spruce to evaluate the possibility that soil solutions and acidic metal ion solutions interfered with water movement. Highly acidic (pH 3.1) spring-collected soil solutions, but not the less acidic (pH 4.5) soil solutions collected in fall, reduced water movement. Aluminum, cadmium and lead ions, at concentrations close to those in spring-collected soil solutions, reduced transpirational water flow. The apparent absence of mycorrhizal associations of red spruce would further limit water uptake and it was found that acidity and metal ions repressed the growth of several species of mycorrhizal fungi.
On an ERDÖS’S Open Problem

In one of his books (“Analysis...”) Mr. Paul Erdos proposed the following problem: “The integer n is called a barrier for an arithmetic function f if m f (m) n for all m n . Question: Are there infinitely many barriers for v(n) , for some 0 ? Here v(n) denotes the number of distinct prime factors of n .” We found some results regarding this question, which results make us to conjecture that there is a finite number of barriers, for all 0 . Let R(n) be the relation: m v(m) n, m n .
Agonist-mediated activation of PLA2 initiates Ca2+ mobilization in intestinal longitudinal smooth muscle

Recent studies have shown that Ca2+ mobilization in longitudinal muscle is initiated by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-independent Ca2+ influx that acts as a trigger for Ca(2+)-induced Ca2R rel...
Nongonadal Estrogen and Endocrine Function During the Menopause

Estrogens are an integral component of a complex array of hormonal signals elaborated by the brain, pituitary, and ovary that direct the reproductive process in all mammalian species. In addition to their essential actions on tissues of the female reproductive tract, however, estrogens have more subtle but important actions on many other organs and tissues such as liver, bone, fat, and the vascular system in both sexes. Together with the knowledge that many tissues other than the gonads and placenta actively synthesize estrogens it is now evident that the traditional views gained by study of reproductive biology must be broadened. Indeed, the great diversity of chemical structures having estrogenic activity in both the animal and plant kingdoms suggests that the estrogenic signal may have arisen very early in evolution. Considering the strong but yet ill-defined association of estrogens with neoplastic transformation of target cells, the redundancy of mechanisms for regulating or negating estrogen action (protein binding, progesterone, androgens, and glucocorticoids) may reflect adaptive responses required to cope with a necessary evil. In order to understand the consequences of menopause and aging on estrogen-responsive tissues it is necessary to consider (1) nonovarian estrogen production in relation to other hormones, particularly androgens, (2) estrogen transport, and (3) the cellular mechanism of estrogen action. Each of these subjects will be addressed in turn. Physiological and psycholofical aspects of estrogen action, or lack therreof, are considered by colleagues elsewhere in this volume.
Streetscenes: towards scene understanding in still images

This thesis describes an effort to construct a scene understanding system that is able to analyze the content of real images. While constructing the system we had to provide solutions to many of the fundamental questions that every student of object recognition deals with daily. These include the choice of data set, the choice of success measurement, the representation of the image content, the selection of inference engine, and the representation of the relations between objects. The main test-bed for our system is the CBCL StreetScenes data base. It is a carefully labeled set of images, much larger than any similar data set available at the time it was collected. Each image in this data set was labeled for 9 common classes such as cars, pedestrians, roads and trees. Our system represents each image using a set of features that are based on a model of the human visual system constructed in our lab. We demonstrate that this biologically motivated image representation, along with its extensions, constitutes an effective representation for object detection, facilitating unprecedented levels of detection accuracy. Similarly to biological vision systems, our system uses hierarchical representations. We therefore explore the possible ways of combining information across the hierarchy into the final perception. Our system is trained using standard machine learning machinery, which was first applied to computer vision in earlier work of Prof. Poggio and others. We demonstrate how the same standard methods can be used to model relations between objects in images as well, capturing context information. The resulting system detects and localizes, using a unified set of tools and image representations, compact objects such as cars, amorphous objects such as trees and roads, and the relations between objects within the scene. The same representation also excels in identifying objects in clutter without scanning the image. Much of the work presented in the thesis was devoted to a rigorous comparison of our system to alternative object recognition systems. The results of these experiments support the effectiveness of simple feed-forward systems for the basic tasks involved in scene understanding. We make our results fully available to the public by publishing our code and data sets in hope that others may improve and extend our results. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
New world origin of canine distemper: Interdisciplinary insights.

Abstract Objective Canine distemper virus (CDV), human measles virus (HMV), and rinderpest virus (RPV) of cattle are morbilliviruses that have caused devastating outbreaks for centuries. This paper seeks to reconstruct the evolutionary history of CDV. Materials and methods An interdisciplinary approach is adopted, synthesizing paleopathological analysis of 96 Pre-Columbian dogs (750–1470 CE) from the Weyanoke Old Town, Virginia site, with historical reports, molecular analysis and morbilliviral epidemiology. Results Both measles (c.900CE) and rinderpest (c. 376 BCE) were first reported in Eurasia, while canine distemper was initially described in South America much later (1735 CE); there are no paleopathological indications of CDV in Weyanoke Old Town dogs. Molecularly, CDV is closely related to HMV, while viral codon usage indicates CDV may have previously infected humans; South American measles epidemics occurred prior to the emergence of canine distemper and would have facilitated HMV transmission and adaptation to dogs. Conclusions The measles epidemics that decimated indigenous South American populations in the 1500–1700 s likely facilitated the establishment of CDV as a canine pathogen, which eventually spread to Europe and beyond. Significance Understanding the historical and environmental conditions that have driven morbilliviral evolution provides important insights into potential future threats of animal/human cross-species infections. Limitations Interpreting historical disease descriptions is difficult and the archaeological specimens are limited. Molecular sequence data and codon usage analyses rely on modern viruses. Suggestions for further research Interdisciplinary approaches are increasingly needed to understand diseases of the past and present, as critical information and knowledge is scattered in different disciplines.
Answer to Additional Assigned Problems

A function f(t) that is not necessarily periodic but is reasonably well behaved can be represented in terms of an integral involving its Fourier transform.
eToxPred: a machine learning-based approach to estimate the toxicity of drug candidates.

The efficiency of drug development defined as a number of successfully launched new pharmaceuticals normalized by financial investments has significantly declined. Nonetheless, recent advances in high-throughput experimental techniques and computational modeling promise reductions in the costs and development times required to bring new drugs to market. The prediction of toxicity of drug candidates is one of the important components of modern drug discovery. In this work, we describe eToxPred, a new approach to reliably estimate the toxicity and synthetic accessibility of small organic compounds. eToxPred employs machine learning algorithms trained on molecular fingerprints to evaluate drug candidates. The performance is assessed against multiple datasets containing known drugs, potentially hazardous chemicals, natural products, and synthetic bioactive compounds. Encouragingly, eToxPred predicts the synthetic accessibility with the mean square error of only 4% and the toxicity with the accuracy of as high as 72%. eToxPred can be incorporated into protocols to construct custom libraries for virtual screening in order to filter out those drug candidates that are potentially toxic or would be difficult to synthesize. It is freely available as a stand-alone software at https://github.com/pulimeng/etoxpred .
Geometric and electronic structure of a crystallographically characterized thiolate-ligated binuclear peroxo-bridged cobalt(III) complex.

In order to shed light on metal-dependent mechanisms for O–O bond cleavage, and its microscopic reverse, we compare herein the electronic and geometric structures of O2-derived binuclear Co(III)– and Mn(III)–peroxo compounds. Binuclear metal peroxo complexes are proposed to form as intermediates during Mn-promoted photosynthetic H2O oxidation, and a Co-containing artificial leaf inspired by nature’s photosynthetic H2O oxidation catalyst. Crystallographic characterization of an extremely activated peroxo is made possible by working with substitution-inert, low-spin Co(III). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the frontier orbitals of the Co(III)–peroxo compound differ noticeably from the analogous Mn(III)–peroxo compound. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) associated with the Co(III)–peroxo is more localized on the peroxo in an antibonding π*(O–O) orbital, whereas the HOMO of the structurally analogous Mn(III)–peroxo is delocalized over both the metal d-orbitals and peroxo π*(O–O) orbital. With low-spin d6 Co(III), filled t2g orbitals prevent π-back-donation from the doubly occupied antibonding π*(O–O) orbital onto the metal ion. This is not the case with high-spin d4 Mn(III), since these orbitals are half-filled. This weakens the peroxo O–O bond of the former relative to the latter.
The 30-year dynamic of the softwood sawtimber stumpage market in Louisiana: insights from quarterly data from 1988 to 2017

Based on a 30-year quarterly data set, this paper examines the dynamics of the softwood sawtimber stumpage market in Louisiana, United States, from 1988 to 2017. Cointegration analysis and the vect...
An Atypical Fracture

An 81-year-old female with a past medical history of osteoporosis, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and gastroesophageal reflux disease presented to her family practice office in hospital follow-up of a right leg injury she sustained six weeks prior. She had a mechanical fall at home and was taken to the emergency department by ambulance, and underwent x-ray imaging (See Figure 1, 2). Her medications included daily carvedilol, lisinopril, ranitidine, and simvastatin, as well as an eight-year use of weekly oral alendronate. The patient suffered a right diaphyseal (mid-shaft) fracture of the femur and subsequently underwent orthopedic repair with open reduction and internal fixation. The patient was diagnosed with fragility fracture secondary to a history of osteoporosis and fall from standing. Upon discharge, she was kept on alendronate. The patient completed inpatient rehabilitation and later brought the following images to her primary care physician.
Flavins Act as a Critical Liaison Between Metabolic Homeostasis and Oxidative Stress in the Retina

Derivatives of the vitamin riboflavin, FAD and FMN, are essential cofactors in a multitude of bio-energetic reactions, indispensable for lipid metabolism and also are requisites in mitigating oxidative stress. Given that a balance between all these processes contributes to the maintenance of retinal homeostasis, effective regulation of riboflavin levels in the retina is paramount. However, various genetic and dietary factors have brought to fore pathological conditions that co-occur with a suboptimal level of flavins in the retina. Our focus in this review is to, comprehensively summarize all the possible metabolic and oxidative reactions which have been implicated in various retinal pathologies and to highlight the contribution flavins may have played in these. Recent research has found a sensitive method of measuring flavins in both diseased and healthy retina, presence of a novel flavin binding protein exclusively expressed in the retina, and the presence of flavin specific transporters in both the inner and outer blood-retina barriers. In light of these exciting findings, it is even more imperative to shift our focus on how the retina regulates its flavin homeostasis and what happens when this is disrupted.
Cultures and Concepts of Ice: Listening for Other Narratives in the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is marked not only by significant environmental changes massively distributed in space and time but also by a substantial proliferation of scientific data. From Intergovernmental P...
Fetal surgery for myelomeningocele.

The most common nonlethal malformation in the spectrum of neural-tube defects is myelomeningocele. This defect, caused by failure of the neural tube to close completely at about four weeks of gestation, occurs in approximately 1 in 2000 births. The extent and severity of the neurologic deficits (which include motor dysfunction in the legs and lack of bladder and bowel control) depend on the location of the lesion along the neuroaxis; the cord below the lesion is dysplastic. Myelomeningocele is often associated with the type II Chiari hindbrain malformation, a downward displacement of the cerebellar vermis into the cervical spinal canal, . . .
Simulated Dataset to Verify the Overlapping and Segregation Problem on Computer Vision Granullometry of Fertilizers

Abstract Fertilizers are an important tool for agriculture to correct the nutrients of the soil. Several analyses are made to guarantee the quality of this product. The particle size analysis indicates how well the fertilizer will penetrate in the soil by the size. The idea is to estimate the size of the grain during the production process. The production of fertilizers is a very complex production involving meters of pipes and conveyor belts where the grains are composed and transformed into the final product. The classic method to estimate the size is the mechanical sieving, an invasive and time-consuming method. A non-invasive and cost-effective method is the digital image processing (DIP) technique applied online in the production flow. In this case, a camera can be localized in the top of a conveyor belt capturing grain images directly during their composition. However, due to the number of grains (tons of grains) present on the image, this method depends on particle separation to avoid the particle segregation and grain overlapping on sampled images. In this work, we investigate how a digital image processing algorithm for particle size analysis of fertilizers is affected by the segregation and overlapping issues. We propose a grain surface simulator to create different scenarios of particle dispersion, a useful tool to speed up the process of creation of data-sets about fertilizers. The results show how the overlapping and segregation of grains influences in the particle size analysis by DIP, and how these interferences in extreme situations could generate biased results.
Editorial: The social dynamics of remittances and the pandemic

Migration is typically portrayed as an effective response to socio-economic hardship. Pushed by a lack of work at home and pulled by the promise of higher wages abroad, people relocate. When those moves succeed, migrants transfer money home (Yang, 2015). A logical, predictable system that is confirmed by evidence as well as World Bank figures noting migrants returned a record $689 billion globally in 2018; and while researchers expected the pandemic to push down wages, the decline to this point has been modest. Remittances continued apace and serve to cushion the impacts of the pandemic (Ratha et al., 2021). Nevertheless, the assumption that the decision to migrate is straight-forward misses how socially complex the processes can be, particularly during the pandemic (Pintor Sandoval and Bojorquez Luque, 2021, Marwah and Ramanayake 2021, Gupta et al., 2021).
Naturalizing cruelty

Cruelty is widely regarded to be a uniquely human trait. This follows from a standard definition of cruelty as involving the deliberate infliction of suffering together with the empirical claim that humans are unique in their ability to attribute suffering (or any mental state) to other creatures. In this paper I argue that this definition is not optimum for the purposes of scientific inquiry. I suggest that its intuitive appeal stems from our abhorrence of cruelty, and our corresponding desire to define cruelty in such a way that it is almost always morally wrong. Scientifically speaking this is an arbitrary condition that inhibits our attempt to study cruelty as a natural phenomenon. I propose a fully naturalized definition of cruelty, one that considerably expands the range of creatures and behaviors that may be conceived as cruel.
Pollution by Electrical Transmission

“Man may soon enter an era of energy pollution of the environment comparable, in public health and ecological implications, to the chemical pollution of today.”
SDIP3: structured and dynamic information push and pull protocols for distributed sensor networks

We propose and study a class of structured and dynamic information push and pull protocols for wireless sensor networks. For structured information dissemination, our study focuses on the impact of various information demand characteristics on dissemination along some type of backbone structures. Our exploration of dynamic information push and pull focuses on finding optimal strategies in a distributed manner without prior knowledge of information demand characteristics and/or with heterogeneous query distributions. Our theoretical analysis uses a simple grid structure, but the protocol is applicable to arbitrary network topologies. A distributed traffic information system is used as the context of study and the simulation study uses a microscopic traffic simulator to demonstrate some of the ideas discussed in the paper.
Microbiological Assay and Tissue Distribution of β-Thioguanine Deoxyriboside in Mice

A sensitive, precise microbiological assay has been developed for the determination of tissue distribution of β-thioguanine deoxyriboside, a new antitumor agent.
II–Peter Hylton

Section I of this essay discusses Quine's views about reference,, contrasting them with those of Russell. For the latter, our language and thought succeed in being about the world because of our acquaintance with objects; the relation of reference—roughly, the relation between a name and its bearer—is thus fundamental. For Quine, by contrast, the fundamental relation by which our language comes to be about the world, and to have empirical content, is that between a sentence and stimulations of our sensory surfaces; reference, while important, is a derivative notion. Section II shows how this view of reference as derivative makes possible the notorious Quinean doctrine of ontological relativity. Section III raises the issue of realism. It argues that somewhat different notions of realism are in play for Quine and for Russell—for Russell, objects, and our knowledge of objects, play the fundamental role, while for quine objectivity and truth are fundamental, with ontology being derivative.
Fuzzy based adaptive control for flexible-link manipulators actuated by piezoceramics

This paper presents an adaptive control scheme based on a fuzzy logic algorithm and its application to end-effector positioning of flexible-link manipulators. Here, a fuzzy based adaptive controller is considered due to its simplicity and the fact that it does not require expressing the controller in terms of the system parameters, as it is necessary in the case of self-tuning regulators. This controller is based on a functional fuzzy model where the consequents are crisp functions represent controllers designed for different operating regimes. The premise is constituted by the fuzzy subsets corresponding to the process parameters estimated in real time. The effectiveness of this new scheme is verified on a clamped free beam and a single-line flexible arm instrumented with piezoceramic sensors and actuators. It is shown that robust performance may be achieved in face of large parameter variations. >
Inequalities for Some Operator and Matrix Functions

In this note we generalize an inequality on determinants (Corollary 3 below) recently proved by Seiler and Simon [1] in connection with some estimates in quantum field theory. Our main result is Lemma 1.
Electron-optical phase shift of a Josephson vortex

The possibility of directly observing Josephson vortices in a superconducting material by transmission electron microscopy is here investigated. First, the anisotropic London equation for the magnetic field of a Josephsonvortex is solved in Fourier space. Then, from the knowledge of the magnetic field, the vector potential and the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift are derived. Finally, phase contrast image simulations are presented. It will be shown that, with current technology, the direct observation of a Josephson vortex is possible.
Dynamical decoupling with tailored wave plates for long-distance communication using polarization qubits

We address the issue of dephasing effects in flying polarization qubits propagating through optical fiber by using the method of dynamical decoupling. The control pulses are implemented with half-wave plates suitably placed along the realistic lengths of the single-mode optical fiber. The effects of the finite widths of the wave plates on the polarization rotation are modeled using tailored refractive index profiles inside the wave plates. We show that dynamical decoupling is effective in preserving the input qubit state with the fidelity close to unity when the polarization qubit is subject to the random birefringent noise in the fiber, as well the rotational imperfections (flip-angle errors) due to the finite width of the wave plates.
On discrete-time AGC amplifiers

Continuous automatic gain control (AGC) amplifiers have received much attention in the past due to their widespread usage in radar, sonar, communications, and other electronic systems. A reexamination of the AGC problem for the discrete-time counterpart is presented in this paper. It is shown that the appealing notion of merely equating the response with the sampled response of an analogous continuous model is often not satisfactory, especially when the response time is of the order of the sampling time. A general solution to the large-signal response of the discrete AGC amplifier involves a nonlinear difference equation and is solved by using a discrete Volterra series representation. Several feedback functions that have received attention in the past for continuous AGC amplifiers are considered: exponential, p th-law, and linear. In addition, a new configuration called "geometric feedback" is introduced that has certain desirable properties, namely, the feedback function can be tailored to give the desired large-signal transient response while the small-signal bandwidth remains independent of input level.
Productive Engagement Among Older Americans: Prevalence, Patterns, and Implications for Public Policy

ABSTRACT This study estimates the prevalence of productive engagement among adults aged 60 and over residing in the United States over a nine-year period. We analyze three waves of data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study, which allows the findings to describe the non-institutionalized older American population. Focusing upon five activities—formal paid employment, irregular paid work, unpaid volunteerism, caregiving, and informal assistance to others—we identify changes in the engagement rates, examine the extent to which engagement occurs through single or multiple concurrent activities, and document intra-individual patterns of engagement within and across forms of productive activity, including the continuity, initiation, and cessation of involvement. The findings reveal that late-life productive engagement is widespread, with the majority of older individuals involved in multiple forms of activity concurrently. Non–market-based activities such as caregiving, informal assistance, and volunteering...
Body-weight change and physical functioning among young old adults.

Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to examine if body weight change is a potential risk factor for the onset of functional impairment across time among various functional domains. Methods: Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, logistic regression models on the onset of functional impairment over three time points are estimated for young old adults. Results: Results indicate that weight gain is associated with greater risk of lower body mobility impairment. An increase in body mass index of greater than 5% increases the likelihood of the onset of lower body mobility functional impairment. Discussion: Study findings support the promotion of healthy weight management. Future studies in this area may want to investigate effective interventions that contribute to healthy weight maintenance among this cohort.
Somatic embryogenesis and plantlet regeneration from immature and mature tissues of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Abstract Source tree, explant developmental stage and plant growth regulator treatments were tested for their relationship to induction of somatic embryogenesis from different explanted tissues of sweetgum ( Liquidambar styraciflua ), a common hardwood tree of the southern US. Induction of indirect somatic embryogenesis from staminate inflorescence explants was related to all three independent variables. The highest induction frequencies were obtained from the least elongated inflorescences cultured on medium with 0.01 or 0.1 mg/l thidiazuron. While inflorescence explants from eight of nine source trees yielded embryogenic cultures, two trees were the source of the majority of the embryogenic cultures. Conversely, induction of direct somatic embryogenesis from seed explants was only related to fruit collection week, an index of explant developmental stage, with more immature seeds giving a higher frequency of induction than mature seeds. Culture on medium with 0.5 mg/l or 3 mg/l 2,4-D induced embryogenesis from seed explants. Proembryogenic masses (PEMs) derived from inflorescence tissues and seed tissues produced somatic embryos when transferred to basal medium supplemented with activated charcoal. Germination and conversion frequencies of the somatic embryos were not related to cold pretreatment. Germination frequency, which ranged as high as 90%, varied significantly among clones, while conversion frequency, with a maximum of 60%, did not.
What do Students Want in an Electromagnetics Course? [The GOLD Report]

Technology development in the field of wireless and RF systems has increased the need for a good understanding of basic concepts in the field of electromagnetics. Today, students want a more practically oriented approach to learning. The field of electromagnetics has become so broad that students seek a practical understanding of how to apply the theory they typically learn in a basic EM class. With the increase in tuition, students also expect to gain the utmost for the money they have spent. The author have summarized some of the things that students taking their first electromagnetics course want.
Experimental confirmation of nonlinear inverse scattering algorithms

Two fundamentally different nonlinear inversion techniques are implemented here to investigate the reconstruction of a dispersionless refractive profile from experimental reflection data. The first nonlinear technique used is approximate and based on the Riccati differential equation, and the second technique is exact and based on the Balanis integral equation. Neither of these techniques has been experimentally tested to date. Previous inversions have been applied to other methods and for the most part have been restricted to synthetic data. In this microwave experiment, band-limited frequency-domain reflection data are collected and used for the reconstruction of the refractive profile of a Plexiglas slab.
MGR: multi-level global router

Global routing faces an increasing problem size and urgent demand on improvement in solution quality. Despite of the recent developments of global routers, there exist only two types of choices: slow 3D routers with good solution quality or efficient 2D routers with relatively poor solution quality. We propose a multi-level 3D global router called MGR to fill the gap. MGR resorts to an efficient multi-level framework to reroute nets in the congested region on the 3D grid graph. Routing on the coarsened grid graph speeds up the global router while 3D routing introduces less vias. The powerful multi-level rerouting framework wraps three innovative routing techniques together: adaptive resource reservation in coarsening process, a new 3-terminal maze routing algorithm and network flow based solution propagation in uncoarsening process. As a result, MGR can achieve the solution quality close to 3D routers with comparable runtime of 2D routers.
Hydrido-oxo complexes of rhenium(V): synthesis, structure, spectroscopic properties, and reactions with acids and bases

The reaction of [ReH4(h 2 -H2)(Cyttp)]X (X� /SbF6 (1(SbF6)), OTf (1OTf)); Cyttp� /PhP(CH2CH2CH2PCy2)2, OTf� /O3SCF3) with neat acetone at reflux temperature affords the dihydrido-oxo complex [ReH2(O)(Cyttp)]X (X� /SbF6 (2(SbF6)), OTf (2(OTf))). The isotopomers [ReH2( 18 O)(Cyttp)]SbF6 (2- 18 O(SbF6)), [ReD2(O)(Cyttp)]SbF6 (2-d2(SbF6)), and [ReD2( 18 O)(Cyttp)]SbF6 (2d2, 18 O(SbF6)) were prepared, respectively, by treatment of 2(SbF6) with H2 O, D2 under photolysis, and D2 followed by H2 O. The structure of 2 (as 2(SbF6)/3/4MeOH) was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and shown to contain a meridionally-coordinated Cyttp and an oxo ligand approximately cis to each of the three phosphorus donor atoms (Re � /O � / 1.732(7) A ˚ ). The hydrido ligands were not located; however, their presence in the positions essentially cis and trans to the oxide in a severely distorted coordination octahedron of the metal is suggested by the elucidated molecular structure. The 1 H NMR signals at d � /1.04 (tt) and � /12.62 (dtd) and the IR n (ReH) absorptions at 2030 and 1716 cm � 1 provide strong evidence for this assignment. The IR n (Re 16 O) band of 2(SbF6) at 923 cm � 1 surprisingly shifts to 897 cm � 1 in 2-d2(SbF6). Similarly, the n (Re 18 O) of 2- 18 O(SbF6) at 887 cm � 1 moves to 854 cm � 1 in 2-d2, 18 O(SbF6). Changes are also observed for one of the d (ReH) absorptions of 2(SbF6) at 817 cm � 1 , which appears at 810 cm � 1 in 2- 18 O(SbF6). A simple analysis of the n (ReO) and d (ReH or ReD) vibrational frequencies suggests that a resonance interaction occurs between the n (ReO) and one of the d (ReH) modes. Complex 2(OTf) reacts at low temperature with KOH � /pyridine to form [Re(O)2(py)(Cyttp)]OTf, and with Li[BEt3H] in excess to give ReH5(Cyttp). Treatment of 2(OTf) with aqueous HCl in benzene yields a green solid which is formulated as [ReH2(OH)Cl(Cyttp)]OTf from spectroscopic evidence. # 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Expectancy, attention, and time.

Seven experiments examine the influence of contextual timing manipulations on prospective time judgments. Subjects judged durations of standard vs comparison time intervals in the context of a preceding induction (context) sequence. In some experiments, the rate of the induction sequence was systematically manipulated relative to the range of to-be-judged standard time intervals; in others, the induction sequence was omitted. Time judgments were strongly influenced by the rate of an induction sequence with best performance occurring when the standard time interval ended as expected, given context rate. An expectancy profile, in the form of an inverted U, indicated that time estimation accuracy declined systematically as a standard interval differed from a context rate. A similar expectancy profile emerged when the context rate was based on a harmonic subdivision (one-half) of an expected standard interval. Results are discussed in terms of various stimulus-based models of prospective time judgments, including those which appeal to attentional periodicities and entrainment.
The Influence of Phase Behavior on Surfactant Flooding

This study gives insight into the controversy regarding optimal design of surfactant slugs. Mathematical models that account for phase behavior, low interfacial tension, dispersion, and other mechanisms are used to derive conditions under which good oil recovery can be attained by miscibility alone, i.e., without the aid of low interfacial tensions. A comparison of oil recoveries attained by high vs. low oil content and high vs. low surfactant concentration slugs is made. (24 refs.)