cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Managing the Environment: Who's in Charge—

Environmental management in a democratic society must take into consideration the diverse views of all persons who may be affected by management decisions if it is to be successful. Although it is widely assumed that environmental management is an objective process, the view is presented that there are different rationales from which management can be approached, all of which are based on subjective value judgments by the individual. Thus there is no a priori reason why any one management rationale should be preferable to another; this depends on an individual value judgment. The major problem of environmental management is the dilemma posed by the need to protect the environment and the difficulty in reconciling the various rationales so a consensus can be reached.
Differentially Private Hypothesis Testing, Revisited.

Hypothesis testing is different from traditional applications of differential privacy in that one needs an accurate estimate of how the noise affects the result (i.e. a $p$-value). Previous approaches to differentially private hypothesis testing either used output perturbation techniques that generally had large sensitivities (hence risked swamping the data with noise), or input perturbation techniques that resulted in highly unreliable $p$-values (and hence invalid statistical conclusions). In this paper, we develop a variety of practical hypothesis tests that address these problems. Using a different asymptotic regime that is more suited to hypothesis testing with privacy, we show a modified equivalence between chi-squared tests and likelihood ratio tests. We then develop differentially private likelihood ratio and chi-squared tests for a variety of applications on tabular data (i.e., independence, homogeneity, and goodness-of-fit tests). An open problem is whether new test statistics specialized to differential privacy could lead to further improvements. To aid in this search, we further propose a permutation-based testbed that can allow experimenters to empirically estimate the behavior of new test statistics for private hypothesis testing before fully working out their mathematical details (such as approximate null distributions). Experimental evaluations on small and large datasets using a wide variety of privacy settings demonstrate the practicality and reliability of our methods.
Molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance in chronic kidney disease

Insulin resistance refers to reduced sensitivity of organs to insulin-initiated biologic processes that result in metabolic defects. Insulin resistance is common in patients with end-stage renal disease but also occurs in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), even when the serum creatinine is minimally increased. Following insulin binding to its receptor, auto-phosphorylation of the insulin receptor is followed by kinase reactions that phosphorylate insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), and Akt. In fact, low levels of Akt phosphorylation (p-Akt) identify the presence of the insulin resistance that leads to metabolic defects in insulin-initiated metabolism of glucose, lipids, and muscle proteins. Besides CKD, other complex conditions (e.g., inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic acidosis, aging, and excess angiotensin II) reduce p-Akt resulting in insulin resistance. Insulin resistance in each of these conditions is due to the activation of different E3 ubiquitin ligases, which specifically conjugate ubiquitin to IRS-1 marking it for degradation in the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS). Consequently, IRS-1 degradation suppresses insulin-induced intracellular signaling, causing insulin resistance. Understanding mechanisms of insulin resistance could lead to therapeutic strategies that improve the metabolism of patients with CKD.
Gender and Green Governance: The Political Economy of Women’s Presence Within and Beyond Community Forestry by Agarwal, Bina

Following her earlier work, A Field of One’s Own (1995), Bina Agarwal again offers readers a comprehensive analysis of environmental issues from a gendered perspective. Agarwal and her team gathere...
Adaptive Update Workload Reduction for Moving Objects in Road Networks

Location-Based Service (LBS) in road networks has many dazzling applications. Under the context of road networks, while many approaches have been proposed to speed up the location-based queries, to the best of our knowledge, none of them pays attention to the updating protocol, which is a vital aspect directly impacting the system performance. In this paper, we focus on designing adaptive updating protocol to reduce the updating workload between moving objects and the database server. We build an effective motion model, called Road-Network Safe Range (RNSR) for each object. The RNSR enables large space tolerance for the moving objects. Extensive experiments using real-world dataset justify that our proposals apparently cut down the system updating workload while still guarantee a certain query accuracy.
Unsteady Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Flight

Small autonomous or remotely piloted air vehicles offer new capabilities in agility and maneuverability. A variety of missions have been proposed for these vehicles that require aggressive maneuvers and unique take-off and landing capabilities. From an unsteady aerodynamics point of view these capabilities expand the parameter space toward the high rotation rate and acceleration, and low Reynolds number region of the envelope. In this paper we review recent experimental results, numerical simulations and theoretical analysis of relevant unsteady aerodynamics problems. It is shown that unsteady effects can significantly increase lift generation during maneuvers. Vortex dynamics and other relevant physical processes which contribute to unsteady force generation will be discussed. Simple theoretical models that provide reasonably accurate estimates of unsteady aerodynamic forces are reviewed.
“Malevolent, Callous, or Selfish”? Experiential Teaching and the Ethics of Student Deception:

One of the greatest gifts of writing frequent editorials is the ability to discuss in a very timely way topics that arise within the management education community. A recent series of posts on the OBTS-L discussion list got us thinking (and talking) about trust and ethics in experiential teaching. The exchange began with a request for the name of an Academy of Management MED Best Paper winner that described an exercise in which instructors manipulate students to highlight the value of collective bargaining and union representation. The discussion list poster described a series of steps undertaken by the authors to create an experience that has the potential to replicate the collective organizing process. What intrigued us about the subsequent listserv exchange were postings that focused on the dynamics of the teacher–student relationship and assertions that there seemed to be something unethical about “fooling” students in the pursuit of learning. The first posted response questioned whether the learning purpose was worth the cost of the trust damage done to the students by the instructor (who frightened and angered them based on a deception), and another wondered whether the activity would “pass IRB.” Once the article was identified, one post noted that the developers of the exercise, Daphne Taras and Piers Steel, talk specifically in their article about the trade-offs they faced with the approach and how they carefully manage their relationship with students (Taras & Steel, 2007). The major trade-off for
Research of calcium carbonate scaling prediction on oil gathering and sewage system

Scale occurrence is one of the most serious problems in the process of gathering of oilfield produced water encountered in,it is necessary to scientifically and accurately predict scaling types and trends,in order to avoid the adverse effects caused by scaling.Field can take corresponding measures for anti-scaling and descaling through the results.Gathering and sewage system is in the scaling in Daqing Oilfield,water quality indicators;appearance and composition of characteristics scale of each node were analyzed.Results showed that water quality of the gathering and sewage system trends CaCO3,scale was a carbonate,organic matter,silicate and iron hydroxide mixed fouling,etc.,the main component was calcium carbonate.Using stability index method(SAI) to predict calcium carbonate scaling tendency,and predict maximum amount of scaling.The results showed that stability index 4.0SAI5.0,100PTB250.Calcium carbonate scaling is severe.
Lyme Disease: A Review for the Otolaryngologist:

Lyme disease is an important consideration in the differential diagnosis of patients seen by the otolaryngologist. Facial paralysis is the most common sign. The otolaryngologist may also see patients with temporal mandibular joint pain, cervical lymphadenopathy, facial pain, headache, tinnitis, vertigo, decreased hearing, otalgia and sore throat. The incidence is increasing and known to be endemic to certain areas of the United States and abroad. This paper reviews the various ways Lyme disease appears to the otolaryngologist. Three cases along with a discussion including epidemiology, vector, animal host relationship, clinical manifestations and pathophysiology are included. The literature is reviewed and the treatment discussed.
Standard Binary Logistic Regression Model

The logistic regression model is a type of predictive model that can be used when the response variable is binary—for example: live/die; disease/no disease; purchase/no purchase; win/lose. In short, we want to model the probability of getting a certain outcome, in effect modeling the mean of the variable (which is the same as the probability in the case of binary variables). A logistic regression model can be applied to response variables with more than two categories; however, those cases, though mentioned in this text, are less common. This chapter also addresses the fact that the logistic regression model is more effective and accurate when analyzing binary data as opposed to the simple linear regression. We present three significant problems that one may encounter if the linear regression model was fitted to binary data: 1. There are no limits on the values predicted by a linear regression, so the predicted response (mean) might be less than 0 or greater than 1, which is clearly outside the realm of possible values for a response probability. 2. The variance for each subpopulation is different and therefore not constant. Since the variance of a binary response is a function of the mean, then if the mean changes from subpopulation to subpopulation, the variance will also change. 3. Usually, the response is not a linear function of the input variable not in the data scale. Especially, as we have come to rely heavily on linear relationships, although it is not appropriate in these cases.
Joint Energy-Bandwidth Allocation for Multiuser Channels With Cooperating Hybrid Energy Nodes

In this paper, we consider the energy-bandwidth allocation for a network of multiple users, where the transmitters each powered by both an energy harvester and conventional grid, access the network orthogonally on the assigned frequency band. We assume that the energy harvesting state and channel gain of each transmitter can be predicted for $K$ time slots a priori . The different transmitters can cooperate by donating energy to each other. The tradeoff among the weighted sum throughput, the use of grid energy, and the amount of energy cooperation is studied through an optimization objective, which is a linear combination of these quantities. This leads to an optimization problem with O( $N^2K$ ) constraints, where $N$ is the total number of transmitter–receiver pairs, and the optimization is over seven sets of variables that denote energy and bandwidth allocation, grid energy utilization, and energy cooperation. To solve the problem efficiently, an iterative algorithm is proposed by using the Proximal Jacobian alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The optimization subproblems corresponding to Proximal Jacobian ADMM steps are solved in the closed form. We show that this algorithm converges to the optimal solution with an overall complexity of O( $N^2K^2$ ). Numerical results show that the proposed algorithms can make efficient use of the harvested energy, grid energy, energy cooperation, and the available bandwidth.
Scrapie Prions, Amyloid Plaques, and a Possible Link with Alzheimer’s Disease

Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) are caused by prions which are different from both viruses and viroids. Prions have a protein required for infectivity, but no nucleic acid has been found within them. Prion proteins and a cellular homologue are encoded by a cellular gene and not by a nucleic acid within the infectious prion particle. A cellular homologue of the prion protein has been identified. The role of this homologue in metabolism is unknown. Prion proteins aggregate into rod-shaped particles that are histochemically and ultrastructurally identical to amyloid. Extracellular collections of prion proteins form amyloid plaques in scrapie- and CJD-infected brains. Within the plaques, amyloid filaments are composed in part of prion proteins. Elucidating the molecular difference between the prion protein and its cellular homologue may be important in understanding the chemical structure and replication of prions.
Overview of iron metabolism in health and disease

Iron is an essential element for numerous fundamental biologic processes, but excess iron is toxic. Abnormalities in systemic iron balance are common in patients with chronic kidney disease and iron administration is a mainstay of anemia management in many patients. This review provides an overview of the essential role of iron in biology, the regulation of systemic and cellular iron homeostasis, how imbalances in iron homeostasis contribute to disease, and the implications for chronic kidney disease patients.
Minimal alteration in muscle lipid genes following stabilized weight loss

Variations in skeletal muscle peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), carntine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1), perilipin protein 2 (PLIN2), and adipose tissue triglyceride lipase (ATGL), and comparative gene identification-58 (CGI-58) have been described as playing important roles in the metabolic regulation of lipid oxidation, and may influence intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) and muscle lipid droplet size (LDS). While acute changes in caloric balance and/or aerobic capacity may affect lipid metabolism, the influence of sustained weight loss derived from caloric restriction with weight loss (CWL) compared with exercise training with weight loss (EWL) on the abovementioned parameters has not been fully elucidated. Using a combination of metabolic feeding and/or supervised exercise training, we evaluated the influence of stabilized weight loss elicited by CWL compared with EWL without the confounding influence of acute alterations in caloric balance on molecular markers of mitochondrial metabolism and lipid droplet size in middle-aged overweight individuals with impaired glucose tolerance. There were no significant changes in PGC-1α, CPT-1, PLIN2, ATGL and, CGI-58 messenger RNA (mRNA) in CWL and EWL. While there were no changes in ATGL mRNA in CWL, there was a strong trend (P = 0.05) for the ΔATGL mRNA in EWL with stabilized weight loss. There were no significant changes in IMCL or LDS within skeletal muscle in CWL or EWL, respectively. In conclusion, under the conditions of chronic caloric balance following dietary or exercise-based interventions, mediators of mitochondrial function, IMCL and LDS, were largely unaffected. Future studies should focus on intervention-based changes in protein expression and/or phosphorylation and the relationship to physiological endpoints.
Using Plickers as an Assessment Tool in Health and Physical Education Settings

Written tests are one of the most common assessment tools classroom teachers use today. Despite its popularity, administering written tests or surveys, especially in health and physical education s...
Sociology: Moral dialogues and normative change

Abstract Moral dialogues are one mechanism of cultural change, allowing communities to resolve conflicts and revise the fundamental norms and values governing their members’ relationships. This essay illustrates the moral dialogue process with the debates over sexual harassment in the Trump era. Victimized women launched a transnational “megalogue” that pervaded politics, business, entertainment, academia, and other spheres. It transformed norms, institutions, and enforcement of acceptable behavior in employment and in public, resulting in a new shared moral understanding. However, the fact that the President is not punished for immorality demonstrates that normative change ultimately requires the rule of law.
Trichloroethene (TCE) hydrodechlorination by NiFe nanoparticles: Influence of aqueous anions on catalytic pathways.

Amending bulk and nanoscale zero-valent iron (ZVI) with catalytic metals significantly accelerates hydrodechlorination of groundwater contaminants such as trichloroethene (TCE). The bimetallic design benefits from a strong synergy between Ni and Fe in facilitating the production of active hydrogen for TCE reduction, and it is of research and practical interest to understand the impacts of common groundwater solutes on catalyst and ZVI functionality. In this study, TCE hydrodechlorination reaction was conducted using fresh NiFe bimetallic nanoparticles (NiFe BNPs) and those aged in chloride, sulfate, phosphate, and humic acid solutions with concurrent analysis of carbon fractionation of TCE and its daughter products. The apparent kinetics suggest that the reactivity of NiFe BNPs is relatively stable in pure water and chloride or humic acid solutions, in contrast to significant deactivation observed of PdFe bimetallic particles in similar media. Exposure to phosphate at greater than 0.1 mM led to a severe decrease in TCE reaction rate. The change in kinetic regimes from first to zeroth order with increasing phosphate concentration is consistent with consumption of reactive sites by phosphate. Despite severe kinetic effect, there is no significant shift in TCE 13C bulk enrichment factor between the fresh and the phosphate-aged particles. Instead, pronounced retardation of TCE reaction by NiFe BNPs in deuterated water (D2O) points to the importance of hydrogen spillover in controlling TCE reduction rate by NiFe BNPs, and such process can be strongly affected by groundwater chemistry.
Whatever happened to sevoflurane

This issue of the Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia contains the article by Crawford et al. entitled "Haemodynamic and organ blood flow responses to sevoflurane during spontaneous ventilation in the rat: a dose response study." The salient point of the paper is the conclusion that in this model, sevoflurane maintains both cardiovascular stability and organ blood flow to a remarkably salubrious degree. Other investigations have produced similar results in animals attesting that this inhalational anaesthetic appears to produce less cardiovascular sequelae than other inhalation anaesthetics at equipotent concentrations. The readers may well query "if this inhalation anaesthetic is so good, where has it been all these years?" Sevoflurane has been knocking around for over 15 yr since first synthesized and described by Wallin etal. l from Baxter-Travenol laboratories. The first volunteer trials (Phase I trials) were conducted by Holaday and Smith 2 over ten years ago. These trials proceded very well and the investigators gave sevoflurane high marks at this early stage. Analysis of the reasons why the halogenated inhalation anaesthetic is not now available for clinical use is complex. Sevoflurane received early investigative interest about the same time that isoflurane was in its last stages of development. On the surface, isoflurane had many salient features to recommend it over sevoflurane, a potential commercial as well as clinical rival. First, isoflurane is biotransformed to a far lesser extent than sevoflurane. Approximately 1% of absorbed isoflurane is metabolized contrasted to approximately 3% sevoflurane. Since isoflurane was marketed to replace enflurane (also metabolized to a degree similar to sevoflurane), the lack of biotransformation of isoflurane was a cardinal virtue promoting acceptance by anaesthetists. This, after all, was the decade in which biotransformation of halogenated anaesthetics was determined to be a b~te noire. Methoxyflurane renal toxicity and halothane hepatic toxicity had been coupled to breakdown of the anaesthetic molecules by the liver to undesirable products. Another di s -
Activation of C-H Bonds: Stoichiometric Reactions

The activation of hydrocarbon C-H bonds by way of oxidative addition and other pathways has been found to be possible with a wide variety of homogeneous transition metal complexes. Studies have provided detailed information about the intermediates involved and the mechanism(s) of activation. Thermodynamic and kinetic selectivities have been established with several reactive metal fragments. An overview of these developments is given and new examples of complexes that activate C-H bonds are also described.
The role of carbohydrate in the biological function of human chorionic gonadotropin.

The binding sites or the so-called receptors for polypeptide and glycoprotein hormones such as insulin (1), glucagon (2), adrenocorticotropin (3), human chorionic gonadotropin (4–6), luteinizing hormone (7–9), and follicle stimulating hormone (10, 11) are located on the plasma membranes of the target cells. The binding is characterized by the high degree of affinity and hormonal specificity, which suggests that the binding sites must have highly specific chemical structures. It is not clearly understood whether all of the sites are equivalent. Moyle and Ramachandran have suggested the presence of more than one type of receptor on Leydig cells for LH with different affinities for the hormone; the sites which induce steroidogenesis have higher affinity than those which stimulate the accumulation of cyclic AMP (12). That the receptors are protein in nature is indicated by their properties after solubilization from the corpora lutea or interstitial tissue from testes with nonionic detergents (13). It is not known, however, whether the receptors are composed of one or several proteins or if any prosthetic groups such as lipids or polysaccharides are also present. The precise chemical elucidation of the receptors must await until all of its components are identified and purified.
APPLICATION OF THE DISCRETE VORTEX METHOD TO FLOW OVER STRUCTURES

ABSTRACT The discrete vortex method is a numerical method for simulating time dependent, two-dimensional flows. This method is extended to vibrating bodies in fluid. It is applied to problems in steady flow, flow with transverse perturbation, oscillation in still fluid, and flow-induced vibration to provide a general assessment of its validity and applicability. Direct comparison is made with experimental data.
Effects of Foliar Redox Status on Leaf Vascular Organization Suggest Avenues for Cooptimization of Photosynthesis and Heat Tolerance.

The interaction of heat stress with internal signaling networks was investigated through Arabidopsis thaliana mutants that were deficient in either tocopherols (vte1 mutant) or non-photochemical fluorescence quenching (NPQ; npq1, npq4, and npq1 npq4 mutants). Leaves of both vte1 and npq1 npq4 mutants that developed at a high temperature exhibited a significantly different leaf vascular organization compared to wild-type Col-0. Both mutants had significantly smaller water conduits (tracheary elements) of the xylem, but the total apparent foliar water-transport capacity and intrinsic photosynthetic capacity were similarly high in mutants and wild-type Col-0. This was accomplished through a combination of more numerous (albeit narrower) water conduits per vein, and a significantly greater vein density in both mutants relative to wild-type Col-0. The similarity of the phenotypes of tocopherol-deficient and NPQ-deficient mutants suggests that leaf vasculature organization is modulated by the foliar redox state. These results are evaluated in the context of interactions between redox-signaling pathways and other key regulators of plant acclimation to growth temperature, such as the C-repeat binding factor (CBF) transcription factors, several of which were upregulated in the antioxidant-deficient mutants. Possibilities for the future manipulation of the interaction between CBF and redox-signaling networks for the purpose of cooptimizing plant productivity and plant tolerance to extreme temperatures are discussed.
The Effect of Different Environmental Conditions on the Viability of Naegleria fowleri Amoebae

Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba found in soil and freshwater environments, is the causative agent of Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis. Infection occurs when amoebae enter the nasal cavity, attach to the nasal mucosa and travel along olfactory neurons towards the olfactory bulb. Upon reaching the central nervous system, the amoebae replicate very rapidly and can cause death in 3-10 days. Little is known about the conditions in which the amoeba can survive in the environment. We have tested conditions beyond the known boundaries on the viability of amoebae by introducing them into moderate and extreme salinity, pH, and temperatures. Our data shows that although viability expectedly decreases towards each of these extreme conditions, their tolerance was much greater than anticipated, including viability in moderate salinity, a wide pH range, and temperatures higher than the previously reported 45 °C.
Patterns in the Use of Axillary Operations for Patients with Node-Positive Breast Cancer After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A National Cancer Database (NCDB) Analysis

The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z1071 and Sentinel Neoadjuvant (SENTINA) trials of sentinel node biopsy for node-positive breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) demonstrated false-negative rates that varied on the basis of surgical technique. This study evaluated trends in axillary operations before and after publication of these trials. This study analyzed patients from National Cancer Database (NCDB) with clinical T0 through T4, N1 and N2, M0 breast cancer who received NAC from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2015 and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SNB) or axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). The patients were divided into the following groups: SNB, ALND, and (SNB + ALND). Of the 32,036 evaluable patients identified in this study. 5565 had SNB, 19,930 had ALND, and 6541 had SNB + ALND. Compared with the ALND group, the SNB group was younger, had more invasive ductal cancers, and had lower clinical T- and N-stage disease (p < 0.001). The patients in the SNB group had a higher rate of estrogen receptor-positive and triple-negative breast cancers, but a lower rate of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive cancer (p < 0.001). The nodal pathologic complete response (PCR) rate, defined as no residual invasive cancer, was 66.5% in the SNB group and 33.1% in the ALND group. Since 2013, the rate of ALND has decreased from 88.7 to 77.1% in both community and academic institutions (p < 0.001). Since publication of the ACOSOG Z1071 and SENTINA trials, the national rates of ALND in node positive breast cancer treated with NAC have decreased despite reported false-negative SNB rates and lack of prospective outcome data regarding the oncologic safety of ALND omission.
Historical Wig Styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s

Historical Wig Styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s, 2nd edition, is a guide to creating beautiful, historically accurate hairstyles for theatrical productions and events. This volume covers hairstyles from Ancient Egypt through Romantic/Biedermeier styles of the 1820s and 30s. Chapters begin with an overview of historic figures who influenced the look of each period and their styles, followed by step-by-step instructions and photographs showing the finished look from every angle. The book also explores the necessary supplies and styling products needed to create the perfect coif, tips for proper wig handling, a brief history of the makeup for each historical period, and basic styling techniques useful when working with wigs or real hair. New hairstyles featured in this edition include: - Ancient Egyptian male dreadlocks - Ancient Grecian male curls - Ancient Roman braided goddess - Braided Medieval lady - Regency hairstyle with a Classical influence With over 1,000 full-color images and detailed instructions on how to create iconic hairstyles and makeup, Historical Wig Styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s, 2nd edition, is an excellent resource for professional costume designers and wig makers, as well as for students of Costume Design and Wig Making and styling courses.
Creating Structured, Linked Geographic Data from Historical Maps: Challenges and Trends

Historical geographic data are essential for a variety of studies of cancer and environmental epidemiology, urbanization, and landscape ecology. However, existing data sources typically contain only contemporary information. Historical maps hold a great deal of detailed geographic information at various times in the past. Yet, finding relevant maps is difficult, and the map content is not machine-readable. This chapter presents the challenges and trends in building a map processing, modeling, linking, and publishing framework. The framework will enable querying historical map collections as a unified and structured spatiotemporal source in which individual geographic phenomena (extracted from maps) are modeled (described) with semantic descriptions and linked to other data sources (e.g., DBpedia). This framework will allow making use of historical geographic datasets from a variety of maps, efficiently, over large geographic extents. Realizing such a framework poses significant research challenges in multiple fields in computer science including digital map processing, data integration, and the Semantic Web technologies, and other disciplines such as spatial, social, and health sciences. Tackling these challenges will not only advance research in computer science and geographic information science but also present a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary research.
Disease-associated mutations in TRPM3 render the channel overactive via two distinct mechanisms

Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 3 (TRPM3) is a Ca2+ permeable non-selective cation channel activated by heat and chemical agonists such as pregnenolone sulfate and CIM0216. TRPM3 mutations in humans were recently reported to be associated with intellectual disability and epilepsy; the functional effects of those mutations however were not reported. Here we show that both disease-associated mutations of TRPM3 render the channel overactive, but likely via different mechanisms. The Val to Met substitution in the S4-S5 loop induced a larger increase in basal activity and agonist sensitivity at room temperature than the Pro to Gln substitution in the extracellular segment of S6. In contrast, heat activation was increased more by the S6 mutant than by the S4-S5 segment mutant. Both mutants were inhibited by the TRPM3 antagonist primidone, suggesting a potential therapeutic intervention to treat this disease.
Chapter 16 – RF Testing

Publisher Summary This chapter explores radiofrequency (RF) testing in general and points to various aspects that need to be considered to make consistent measurements—be it on the bench or in production. It also discusses RF test methods for specifications of circuit components as well as complex system-level specifications such as I-Q imbalance, modulation error ratio, and bit error rate (BER). As RF technology advances, it is becoming more important to resort to innovative techniques to keep testing costs down. The scope of test engineering is not limited to the knowledge of test software and tester resources, and it has become imperative for engineers to be well versed with the system design and modeling aspects so that they can make educated decisions to create an efficient test plan. As test development proceeds, it is necessary to verify the software even before the devices are fabricated. This requires modeling of the DUT in order to verify the software beforehand. In the nanometer era that we are entering, the process variation is greater than ever before. Currently, designers attempt to reduce the effect of this variation for each specification; however, the specification spreads are much larger than that of their earlier counterparts. Hence, the test setup and measurement system needs to be robust enough to work over this wider range of specifications.
Probing Sulfur Chemical and Electronic Structure with Experimental Observation and Quantitative Theoretical Prediction of Kα and Valence-to-Core Kβ X-ray Emission Spectroscopy.

An extensive experimental and theoretical study of the Kα and Kβ high-resolution x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) of sulfur-bearing systems is presented. This study encompasses a wide range of org...
The Roots of Great Innovation

What is the relationship between a city’s entrepreneurial climate and the sustainability of arts and culture nonprofits? Business, the arts, and innovation do not exist in isolation. New York Times writer David Brooks (2011) opined, “The roots of great innovation are never just in the technology itself.” The significance and value of the arts as community assets has sparked public intervention to leverage the arts to generate a variety of instrumental benefits. The arts were famously positioned as being of significant value for knowledge workers, the creative class, and the entrepreneurs powering the knowledge economy. This has been portrayed, largely, as a one-way relationship in which the arts benefit cities economic pursuits. Such depictions fail to consider the influence of open systems and recognize how communities simultaneously influence the population of arts and culture organizations. This paper asks, “How do entrepreneurship levels affect the population dynamics of arts and culture nonprofits?” The interactions between the formation and exit of nonprofit arts organizations and entrepreneurial climate of the 50 US states for the period from 1989 to 2012 are analyzed using negative binomial regression. Higher entrepreneurial climates are associated with lower incidences of nonprofit arts and culture formations and lower exits. The implications of this and opportunities for additional research are discussed.
Reducing instruments in a vitrectomy surgical tray: cost savings and results from a major academic hospital.

Unused or rarely used instruments in standard surgical trays can unnecessarily increase costs. Prior studies have demonstrated the practicality and cost savings of reduced instrument tray sizes in various subspecialties. This study describes results and estimated cost savings from a reduced instrument tray used for vitrectomy surgery at a large, tertiary academic medical center. Common usage patterns of vitrectomy instruments by one retina surgeon were reviewed and a reduced instrument vitrectomy tray was created and implemented in successive vitrectomy surgeries. Need for opening the previously utilized larger tray was recorded. Estimated cost savings of the new trays were calculated based upon per instrument sterilization, processing, and instrument replacement costs. New vitrectomy trays including just 7 instruments (89% reduction compared to original trays) were created and implemented in 189 successive cases. The original tray was never opened. Estimated cost savings from saved sterilization and processing resources is approximately $9588 per year. Assuming 5- and 10-year lifespan per instrument, annual cost avoidance is projected at $7886 and $15,772, respectively. Other indirect benefits relevant to healthcare quality were also noted. A reduced instrument tray can be successfully implemented for vitrectomy surgery and can result in significant indirect benefits as well as direct cost savings from reduced sterilization costs. Our study highlights the substantial impact made by evaluating the usage pattern and making appropriate instrument tray changes for just one retina surgeon. Applying these same methods to other surgeons and specialties can have significant implications on healthcare costs and quality.
In Reply: Perinatal depression.

We thank Dr. Laflamme for her insightful letter regarding our article. We wholeheartedly agree that earlier contact with obstetric-care providers, such as during “fourth trimester” contact, is ideal. We also encourage all obstetric providers to screen at least at the 6-week in-person postpartum
Coherent Structures Modulate Atmospheric Surface Layer Flux-Gradient Relationships

Since its inception in the 1940s, Monin-Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), which relates turbulent fluxes to mean vertical gradients in the lower atmosphere, has become ubiquitous for predicting surface fluxes of quantities transported by the flow in numerical weather, climate, and hydrological forecasting models. Despite its widespread use, MOST does not account for the effects of large coherent structures in the flow, which modulate the amplitude of turbulent fluctuations, and are responsible for a large fraction of the total transport. Herein, we demonstrate that the incorporation of the large-scale streamwise velocity u_{l}(x,t)=G_{δ}⋆u(x,t), where G_{δ} is a low-pass filtering kernel, into dimensional analysis leads to an additional dimensionless parameter α(x,t), which captures the modulating influence of these structures on flux-gradient relationships. Atmospheric observations and large-eddy simulations are used to demonstrate that observed deviations from MOST can indeed be explained by this new parameter; coherent structures induce an alternating loading and unloading of the mean velocity gradient near the surface.
Regularized graph convolutional networks for short text classification

Short text classification is a fundamental problem in natural language processing, social network analysis, and e-commerce. The lack of structure in short text sequences limits the success of popular NLP methods based on deep learning. Simpler methods that rely on bag-of-words representations tend to perform on par with complex deep learning methods. To tackle the limitations of textual features in short text, we propose a Graph-regularized Graph Convolution Network (GR-GCN), which augments graph convolution networks by incorporating label dependencies in the output space. Our model achieves state-of-the-art results on both proprietary and external datasets, outperforming several baseline methods by up to 6% . Furthermore, we show that compared to baseline methods, GR-GCN is more robust to noise in textual features.
Advanced Capabilities in Laser Surface Polishing and Functionalization at the National Research Council of Canada

Present report introduces some of most valuable achievements and developments of laser surface polishing and laser surface functionalization F technologies at the National Research Council of Canada over the past five years.
Agency Costs, Information and Portfolio Disclosure by Mutual Funds

In response to the alleged trading and marketing abuses in the mutual fund industry, the SEC recently adopted a new rule requiring more frequent portfolio disclosure in order to reduce agency costs and improve information for fund investors. This study investigates both the determinants and the potential effects of portfolio disclosure frequency by comparing funds providing quarterly voluntary disclosure to funds providing only mandatory semiannual disclosure using a sample of U.S. equity funds from 1985 to 1999. Our results indicate that disclosure frequency is primarily determined at the fund family level. We find that fund families with higher expense ratios, higher portfolio risk, higher likelihood of committing fraud and higher turnover, tend to disclose their holdings less frequently. These characteristics are likely proxies for a fund family's agency problems and/or informational advantage. To differentiate between the agency effect (i.e. the potential benefits of frequent disclosure to investors are higher for funds with agency problems) and the information effect (i.e. the potential costs of frequent disclosure are higher for funds with informational advantage), we examine the relation between disclosure frequency and future fund performance conditioned upon fund investment skills. We use past performance as a proxy for fund investment skills. We expect the agency effect to outweigh the information effect for unskilled funds and vice versa for skilled funds. Our findings show a significant asymmetric relation between disclosure frequency and future fund performance for past winners and losers. Within the bottom quintile of past performance, funds with semiannual disclosure significantly underperform funds with quarterly disclosure, indicating the dominance of the agency effect over the information effect. Within the top quintile of past performance, funds with semiannual disclosure significantly outperform funds with quarterly disclosure, indicating the dominance of the information effect over the agency effect We analyze the relation between disclosure frequency and fund new money to examine whether investors reward frequent disclosure. Controlling for other fund characteristics, we find higher new money growth for funds providing more frequent disclosure, especially among poor-performance funds.
Change in Blood and Benign Breast Biomarkers in Women Undergoing a Weight-Loss Intervention Randomized to High-Dose ω-3 Fatty Acids versus Placebo.

The inflammation-resolving and insulin-sensitizing properties of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) fatty acids have potential to augment effects of weight loss on breast cancer risk. In a feasibility study, 46 peri/postmenopausal women at increased risk for breast cancer with a body mass index (BMI) of 28 kg/m2 or greater were randomized to 3.25 g/day combined EPA and DHA (ω-3-FA) or placebo concomitantly with initiation of a weight-loss intervention. Forty-five women started the intervention. Study discontinuation for women randomized to ω-3-FA and initiating the weight-loss intervention was 9% at 6 months and thus satisfied our main endpoint, which was feasibility. Between baseline and 6 months significant change (P Prevention Relevance: This study examines biomarkers of response that may be modulated by omega-3 fatty acids when combined with a weight-loss intervention. While focused on obese, postmenopausal women at high risk for development of breast cancer, the findings are applicable to other cancers studied in clinical prevention trials.
Differences in Physiological and Perceptual Responses to High Intensity Interval Exercise Between Arm and Leg Cycling.

This study compared changes in oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration (BLa), affective valence, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) between sessions of high intensity interval exercise (HIIE) performed on the arm (ACE) and leg cycle ergometer (LCE). Twenty three active and non-obese men and women (age and BMI = 24.7 ± 5.8 yr and 24.8 ± 3.4 kg/m2) initially underwent graded exercise testing to determine VO2max and peak power output (PPO) on both ergometers. Subsequently on two separate days, they performed ten 1 minute intervals of ACE or LCE at 75 %PPO separated by 1 min of active recovery at 10 %PPO. Gas exchange data, HR, and perceptual responses were obtained continuously and blood samples were acquired pre- and post-exercise to assess the change in BLa. VO2max and PPO on the LCE were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than ACE (37.2 ± 6.3 mL/kg/min vs. 26.3 ± 6.6 mL/kg/min and 259.0 ± 48.0 W vs. 120.0 ± 48.1 W). Mean VO2 (1.7 ± 0.3 L/min vs. 1.1 ± 0.3 L/min, d = 2.3) and HR (149 ± 14 b/min vs. 131 ± 17 b/min, d = 2.1) were higher (p < 0.001) in response to LCE versus ACE as was BLa (7.6 ± 2.6 mM vs. 5.3 ± 2.5 mM, d = 2.3), yet there was no difference (p = 0.12) in peak VO2/HR. Leg cycling elicited higher relative HR compared to ACE (81 ± 5 vs. 75 ± 7 %HRmax, p = 0.01) although there was no difference in relative VO2 (63 ± 6 vs. 60 ± 8 %VO2max, p = 0.09) between modes. Affective valence was lower during LCE versus ACE (p = 0.003), although no differences in enjoyment (p = 0.68) or RPE (p = 0.59) were demonstrated. Overall, HIIE performed on the cycle ergometer elicits higher relative oxygen uptake and blood lactate concentration and a more aversive affective valence, making these modes not interchangeable in terms of the acute physiological and perceptual response to interval based exercise.
Scalable Graph Embedding LearningOn A Single GPU.

Graph embedding techniques have attracted growing interest since they convert the graph data into continuous and low-dimensional space. Effective graph analytic provides users a deeper understanding of what is behind the data and thus can benefit a variety of machine learning tasks. With the current scale of real-world applications, most graph analytic methods suffer high computation and space costs. These methods and systems can process a network with thousands to a few million nodes. However, scaling to large-scale networks remains a challenge. The complexity of training graph embedding system requires the use of existing accelerators such as GPU. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid CPU-GPU framework that addresses the challenges of learning embedding of large-scale graphs. The performance of our method is compared qualitatively and quantitatively with the existing embedding systems on common benchmarks. We also show that our system can scale training to datasets with an order of magnitude greater than a single machine's total memory capacity. The effectiveness of the learned embedding is evaluated within multiple downstream applications. The experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the learned embedding in terms of performance and accuracy.
Bridging the gap: gerontology and social work education.

ABSTRACT The following study was implemented to explore the potential for a four-week curriculum module in gerontological social work education to positively impact students' practice-related knowledge concerning older adults, as well as their attitudes toward elderly persons and interest in working with them. Pertinent literature was reviewed to conceptualize the building of a gerontology curriculum module that could be integrated into a pre-existing social work course. The module's design and content were reflective of its primary goal, which was to educate students about salient aspects of social work knowledge, skill, and practice with older adults utilizing experiential methods. Data analysis revealed a significant increase in students' knowledge of aging (t = 12.23, df = 106, p < 0.01), significant decline in students' ageist attitudes (t = 3.34, df = 106, p < 0.01), and an increased interest in working with older adults as clients (z = 3.162, p < 0.05). Given the pending unprecedented growth in t...