cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modeling instantaneous intonation for speaker identification using the fundamental frequency variation spectrum

In recent years, the field of automatic speaker identification has begun to exploit high-level sources of speaker-discriminative information, in addition to traditional models of spectral shape. These sources include pronunciation models, prosodic dynamics, pitch, pause, and duration features, phone streams, and conversational interaction. As part of this broader thrust, we explore a new frame-level vector representation of the instantaneous change in fundamental frequency, known as fundamental frequency variation (FFV). The FFV spectrum consists of 7 continuous coefficients, and can be directly modeled in a standard Gaussian mixture model (GMM) framework. Our experiments indicate that FFV features contain useful information for discriminating among speakers, and that model-space combination of FFV and cepstral features outperforms cepstral features alone. In particular, our results on 16kHz Wall Street Journal data show relative reductions in error rate of 54% and 40% for female and male speakers, respectively.
Successful Adjustment in Indian Industry: the Case of Ludhiana's Woolen Knitwear Cluster

Abstract This paper examines the case of adjustment in a labor-intensive export industry (woolen knitwear) to understand how traditional sectors in developing regions cope with external crises and rise above them. India's woolen knitwear industry, concentrated in Ludhiana, recently survived two crises—the collapse of its largest export market (the former Soviet Union), and the simultaneous opening up of the domestic market to freer trade. After an unusually short downturn, the cluster not only recovered rapidly, but is increasingly diversifying into more demanding and competitive external markets. Four factors are key to explaining this surprisingly resilient recovery. First, the best performing firms had a strong and simultaneous presence in dynamic segments of the domestic market alongside exports. This generated key organizational learning, and built managerial and production capacities that helped firms adapt quickly to more demanding markets later. Second, an important feature of the learning relationship between first-time exporters and their foreign buyers was the small-scale nature of contracts and a “customization of fit” between the producer and the feedback-giving intermediary. Third, better performing firms paid equal if not greater attention to making organizational changes in their work practices than to the purchase of new equipment. Fourth, the embedded nature of production networks, and the government's past programs to assist local firms have indirectly helped create a dynamic middle-tier of locally-rooted exporters who appear to be leading the cluster's transformation and modernization.
Orientation maps: techniques for visualizing rotations (a consumer's guide)

The set of possible orientations of a rigid three-dimensional object is a topological space with three degrees of freedom. This paper investigates the suitability of various techniques of visualizing this space. With a good technique the natural distance between orientations will be represented fairly accurately, and distortion to the "shape" of a collection of orientations induced by the change of refererence orientation will be minor.The traditional Euler-angle parameterization fails on both counts. Less well-known techniques exploit the fact that there is a rotation that takes the reference orientation to a given one. The given orientation is represented as a point along the axis of this rotation. The distance of this point from the origin is determined by some scaling function of the magnitude of that rotation. Five natural scaling functions are studied. None is perfect, but several are satisfactory.
The Medium-Term Labor Market Returns to Community College Awards: Evidence From North Carolina

Abstract This paper examines the relative labor market gains for first-time college students who entered the North Carolina Community College System in 2002–2003. We compare the returns to diplomas, certificates, and degrees to the returns to some college credits. The authors also investigate the returns to subject field, transfer, and the early trajectories of wages. The analysis is based on student-level administrative records from college transcripts, Unemployment Insurance wage data, and the National Student Clearinghouse data across 830,000 students between 2001 and 2010. Findings from this study confirm those from earlier work: The returns to certificates and diplomas were weak, but associate and bachelor's degrees yielded very strong returns; even small accumulations of credits had labor market value; and the health sector credentials had extremely high returns. Returns were higher for female than for male students. Despite the Great Recession, the returns to college remain strong over the late 2000s.
“Where the Danger Lies”: Race, Gender, and Chinese and Japanese Exclusion in the United States, 1870–19241

Race too often is used as the explanatory variable for understanding immigration exclusion, marginalizing the significance of race making, ethnic differentiation, and gender construction in particular. This article explores these processes by examining exclusionary policies implemented against Chinese and Japanese immigrants from the mid- 1870s to 1924, the year the National Origins Act was passed. Politicians, intellectuals, and moral reformers used a gendered logic - the construction of idealized gender norms, roles, and sexual propriety and the attachment of these meanings to male and female bodies - to distinguish Japanese immigrants from the Chinese immigrants they followed, allowing for ethnic differentiation and dissimilar policies. The convergence toward exclusion rested on a racialized logic - the construction and attachment of inferior status and meanings to immigrant groups through discourse, formal and informal categorization, or social closure - which claimed that the Japanese were unassimilable and racially undesirable like the Chinese. Exclusionists focused on the immigrant women, decrying their sexual and gender impropriety as evidence of the groups' threats to the sanctity of white families, which imperiled the nation. Gender and race both mattered in these logics and their meanings were constructed as their salience interconnected.
Heterozygosity for a mutation in Brca1 or Atm does not increase susceptibility to ENU-induced mammary tumors in ApcMin/+ mice

The proteins encoded by BRCA1 and ATM may be important in DNA repair and maintenance of genomic integrity. Women heterozygous for a mutation in BRCA1 have an increased incidence of breast cancer. Some evidence also suggests that female carriers of ATM mutations may be susceptible to breast cancer. However, mice carrying one mutant allele of Brca1 or ATM are not highly susceptible to breast cancer. We proposed that heterozygosity for a mutant allele of Brca1 or ATM may confer a decreased ability to repair DNA damage. Such a defect might lead to a heightened sensitivity to tumor development in susceptible animal models. Therefore, mice predispose to mammary tumor development might show an increased susceptibility if they also carry an ATM or Brca1 mutation. C57BL/6J (B6) MIN/+ mice are predisposed to mammary and intestinal tumors and exposure to the point mutagen ethylnitrosourea (ENU) markedly increases mammary tumor multiplicity and incidence. To test our hypothesis, B6.MIN/+ male mice were crossed with 129S6/SvEvTac females heterozygous for a mutant allele of either Brca1 or ATM. Female progeny from each cross were treated with ENU and followed for tumor development. Only MIN/+ F1 females developed mammary tumors and heterozygosity for a mutant Brca1 or ATM allele had no effect on mammary or intestinal tumor incidence and multiplicity. These results suggest that heterozygosity for a mutation in Brca1 or ATM: does not affect MIN-induced tumorigenesis in mice under these conditions. Additionally, exposure to a somatic point mutagen does not increase tumor development in mice carrying Brca1 or ATM mutations.
Hydrogeologists honored for service

Joseph F. Poland and Stanley W. Lohman, retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrogeologists, were honored at the recent annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Orlando, Fla., with the 1985 Award for Distinguished Service in Hydrology. The first award, in 1984, was given posthumously to George Burke Maxey. The award is based on “history of sustained creditable service to the hydrogeologic profession.” In August, Poland also received the American Water Resources Association's Honorary Member Award, which recognizes individuals with eminence in a branch of water resources science and technology.
Taxicabs as Public Transportation in Boston, Massachusetts:

In many American cities, the taxicab is an important but frequently overlooked public transportation mode and represents a significant opportunity to provide mobility in many places where conventional mass transit cannot do so cost-effectively. This paper investigates the taxicab and its role as a form of public transportation and uses the taxicab system in Boston, Massachusetts, to study the mode's function in the city as well as its relationship to other forms of transportation. The central inquiry of this paper is when and where the taxicab operates as a complement or a substitute to Boston's mass transit system and which factors appear to affect its fulfillment of each role. Taxicab activity in Boston is analyzed with trip-level data recorded for Boston taxicabs during the past 2 years, mapping of taxicab activity, and specification of regression models that illuminate significant relationships between the taxicab, transit access, and other characteristics of the urban environment. Evidence suggests t...
A Case for Scaling HPC Metadata Performance through De-specialization

Lack of a highly scalable and parallel metadata service is the Achilles heel for many cluster file system deployments in both the HPC world and the Internet services world. This is because most cluster file systems have focused on scaling the data path, i.e. providing high bandwidth parallel I/O to files that are gigabytes in size. But with proliferation of massively parallel applications that produce metadata-intensive workloads, such as large number of simultaneous file creates and large-scale storage management, cluster file systems also need to scale metadata performance. To realize these goals, this paper makes a case for a scalable metadata service middleware that layers on existing cluster file system deployments and distributes file system metadata, including the namespace tree, small directories and large directories, across many servers. Our key idea is to effectively synthesize a concurrent indexing technique to distribute metadata with a tabular, on-disk representation of all file system metadata.
Toward a broader understanding of aldosterone in congestive heart failure

Discovered some 50 years ago, aldosterone (ALDO) has come to be recognised as a mineralocorticoid hormone with well-known endocrine properties in epithelial cells that contribute to the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure. This includes Na
Repertory Grid as a Means to Compare and Contrast Developmental Theorists

This article reports on the use of a repertory grid as a tool for studying conceptual systems in line with Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory. Using 7-point construct continua, students rated...
Effects of Cognitive Training on Change in Accuracy in Inductive Reasoning Ability

We investigated cognitive training effects on accuracy and number of items attempted in inductive reasoning performance in a sample of 335 older participants (M = 72.78 years) from the Seattle Longitudinal Study. We assessed the impact of individual characteristics, including chronic disease. The reasoning training group showed significantly greater gain in accuracy and number of attempted items than did the comparison group; gain was primarily due to enhanced accuracy. Reasoning training effects involved a complex interaction of gender, prior cognitive status, and chronic disease. Women with prior decline on reasoning but no heart disease showed the greatest accuracy increase. In addition, stable reasoning-trained women with heart disease demonstrated significant accuracy gain. Comorbidity was associated with less change in accuracy. The results support the effectiveness of cognitive training on improving the accuracy of reasoning performance.
GPR40 and GPR120 fatty acid sensors are critical for postoral but not oral mediation of fat preferences in the mouse

In addition to orosensory signals, postoral actions of fat stimulate appetite and condition flavor preferences, but the gut sensors mediating these responses are unknown. Here, we investigated the role of the fatty acid sensors GPR40 and GPR120 in postoral and oral preferences for a soybean oil emulsion (Intralipid). Mice were trained to drink a flavored solution (CS+) paired with intragastric (IG) oil infusions and another flavored solution (CS−) paired with water infusions. Knockout (KO) mice missing GPR40 or GPR120 sensors increased their CS+ intake in one-bottle tests (1 h/day) but less so than wild-type (WT) mice. The KO mice also preferred the CS+ to CS− in a two-bottle test, but the preference was attenuated in GPR40 KO mice. Double-knockout (DoKO) mice missing both GPR40 and GPR120 displayed attenuated stimulation of CS+ intake and only a marginal CS+ preference. The DoKO mice developed a more substantial CS+ preference when tested 24 h/day, although weaker than that of WT mice. The DoKO mice also consumed less of the CS+ paired with IG Intralipid, as well as less Intralipid in oral tests. However, DoKO mice, like GPR40 KO and GPR120 KO mice did not differ from WT mice in their preference for Intralipid over water at 0.001%-20% concentrations. In contrast to prior results obtained with mice missing the CD36 fatty acid sensor, these findings indicate that, together, GPR40 and GPR120 play a critical role in the postoral stimulation of appetite by fat but are not essential for oral fat preferences.
Bispectra and Cross-Bispectra of Temperature, Salinity, Sound Velocity and Density Fluctuations with Depth off Northeastern Japan

Abstract Off northeastern Japan, depth profiles of temperature, salinity, sound velocity and density show considerable structure between 30 and 240 m. The structure is asymmetric with respect to the mean and the amplitudes are 10 times larger here than in similar latitudes in the mid-Pacific. By partitioning the observed series into mean and perturbation series, it is possible to compute the bispectrum and the bicoherence for each variable, as well as the cross-bispectrum and the cross-bicoherence for different variables. The computations were carried out for the wavenumber plane bounded by |k1|≤167 cpkm, cycles per kilometer (cpkm), |k2|≤167 cpkm, |k1 + k2|≤167 cpkm, with an areal resolution of 48.2 (cpkm)2. The “third-power density” of the bispectra decreases toward the Nyquist wavenumber by about three orders of magnitude. The rate of decrease is not constant, but depends upon both wavenumber and direction. There is no statistically significant structure superimposed upon the slopes. The absence of pro...
Adjudicating TRIPS for development

This book chapter considers the development impact of the decision to subject the international intellectual property standards established by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) to the mandatory dispute resolution process of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This decision has had two important consequences for developing countries. First, it has contributed to the creation of a “pro intellectual property climate” in which countries have foregone flexibilities to which they would otherwise be entitled. Second, it has also led adjudicators to miss the unique need for internal balancing associated with intellectual property, resulting in overly restrictive interpretation of TRIPS flexibilities. For the least-developed countries (LDCs), the loss of flexibilities is particularly problematic.This chapter seeks to revive the special and differential provisions available to developing and LDCs in WTO dispute resolution to counter this loss of flexibilities. Specifically, it recommends using a little-known provision of the Dispute Settlement Understanding, Article 24.1, to benefit LDCs in TRIPS disputes. The chapter argues that Article 24.1 could and should be used in TRIPS disputes to provide LDCs with greater flexibility in implementing their obligations under the treaty, including through a more lenient standard of review, shifting the burden of proof with respect to exceptions and limitations, and requiring injury as part of a prima facie case against an LDC.
Taser Induced Bulk Defects in Single Crystal Silicon Below the Melting/Vaporization Thresholds

Highly focused Q-switched Nd:YAG fundamental (1.06 micron wavelength IR) and second harmonic (0.53 micron wavelength green) laser pulses have been shown to produce bulk defects in single crystal silicon at peak power densities below the vaporization threshold for the IR and below the melting threshold for the green. The defects decrease the excess minority carrier lifetime as measured by junction leakage, junction step recovery, the MOS CV method, bipolar transistor current gain, and pn junction photocurrent. Green pulses have no effect on the thermal oxide dielectric strength or pn junction breakdown voltage at power densities up to the melting threshold. IR pulses begin to lower the junction breakdown voltage below the vaporization threshold and oxide dielectric strength is drastically lowered at or slightly below this threshold. The defect density decreases exponentially into the crystal with effective ranges of 0.7 micron and 1.7 microns for the green and IR respectively. IR absorption is very nonlinear near the vaporization peak power density threshold. The defects are a point type; are unchanged by a subsequent 400°C anneal; and are completely removed by an 800°C anneal. The results suggest seme detrimental effects of laser processing of silicon intergrated circuits as well as some new potential applications.
Determination of Resonance Raman Cross-Sections for Use in Biological SERS Sensing with Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a promising technique for in vivo bioanalyte detection, but accurate characterization of SERS biosensors can be challenging due to difficulties in differentiating resonance and surface enhancement contributions to the Raman signal. Here, we quantitate the resonance Raman cross-sections for a commonly used near-infrared SERS dye, 3,3'-diethylthiatricarbocyanine (DTTC). It is typically challenging to measure resonance Raman cross-sections for fluorescent dye molecules due to the overwhelming isoenergetic fluorescence signal. To overcome this issue, we used etalon-based femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy, which is intrinsically designed to acquire a stimulated Raman signal without strong fluorescence or interference from signals resulting from other four-wave mixing pathways. Using this technique, we found that the cross-sections for most of the resonantly enhanced modes in DTTC exceed 10(-25) cm(2)/molecule. These cross-sections lead to high signal magnitude SERS signals from even weakly enhancing SERS substrates, as much of what appears to be a SERS signal is actually coming from the intrinsically strong resonance Raman signal. Our work will lead to a more accurate determination of SERS enhancement factors and SERS substrate characterization in the biologically relevant near-infrared region, ultimately leading to a more widespread use of SERS for biosensing and bioimaging applications.
Secondary traumatic stress and empowerment among social workers working with family violence or sexual assault survivors

SummaryThe impact of secondary traumatic stress on social workers can be profound. The study reported here examined the relationship between psychological empowerment and secondary traumatic stress among social workers who provide services to family violence or sexual assault survivors on a regular basis. The study participants (N =154) were recruited from the National Association of Social Workers in the United States; data were collected through mail surveys. Psychological empowerment was defined as having a sense of competency, impact, self-determination, and meaning in one’s organization as the person performs work.FindingsSocial workers who demonstrated higher levels of psychological empowerment experienced lower levels of secondary traumatic stress controlling for sociodemographic variables. Among the control variables, experiencing more personal traumatic events predicted higher levels of secondary traumatic stress.ApplicationsThe findings imply that social service organizations can help social wor...
Selective Aptamers for Detection of Estradiol and Ethynylestradiol in Natural Waters

We used in vitro selection to identify new DNA aptamers for two endocrine-disrupting compounds often found in treated and natural waters, 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE). We used equilibrium filtration to determine aptamer sensitivity/selectivity and dimethyl sulfate (DMS) probing to explore aptamer binding sites. The new E2 aptamers are at least 74-fold more sensitive for E2 than is a previously reported DNA aptamer, with dissociation constants (Kd values) of 0.6 μM. Similarly, the EE aptamers are highly sensitive for EE, with Kd of 0.5–1.0 μM. Selectivity values indicate that the E2 aptamers bind E2 and a structural analogue, estrone (E1), equally well and are up to 74-fold selective over EE. One EE aptamer is 53-fold more selective for EE over E2 or E1, but the other binds EE, E2, and E1 with similar affinity. The new aptamers do not lose sensitivity or selectivity in natural water from a local lake, despite the presence of natural organic matter (∼4 mg/L TOC). DMS probing suggests tha...
Evidence for the functional significance of multiple renin forms.

Malvin, R.L., S.A. Katz, and S.H. Kim, Evidence for the functional significance of multiple renin forms. Chinese J. Physiol. 34(1): 81-91, 1991. Our laboratory demonstrated the existence of 6 forms of renin, (F1-F6) each with a unique isoelectric point (p1). We ascribe the heterogeneity to differences in glycosylation. This heterogeneity has been demonstrated to exist in all animals studied in our laboratory, across a wide evolutionary scale. Multiple forms have been found in fish, amphibians, birds and mammals, including humans. We have been able to demonstrate that hepatic inactivation of the renin forms in humans is different for each form. Isolation and purification of the forms allowed injection of a single form into rats. IV infusion of F4 resulted in a significant natriuresis and diuresis, while the other forms had no significant renal effects. However, if the same forms were infused into the cerebroventricles at a much lower dose, F6 caused a natriuresis. Pretreatment with converting enzyme inhibitor abolished that effect. We were able to show that Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) exhibited a renin profile that was altered in a predictable way and was significantly correlated with their blood pressure. The hepatic clearance of each form was also different, so that the forms have different half lives. These data support the hypothesis that renin heterogeneity is dependent upon glycosylation and is functionally significant.
Recent data on results of isolated kidney or combined kidney/liver transplantation in the U.S.A. for primary hyperoxaluria.

Renal transplant for primary hyperoxaluria (PH) has been problematic. K/L-Tx is used almost exclusively in Europe. In USRDS data 235 patients had PH diagnosed at ESRD, another 47 found later. Since 1994, there were 176, since our modern management protocol, 96 under age 55. Of 82 non-K/L-Tx, 40 of 49 were alive after K-Tx, 14 of 33 without Tx. By lifetable analysis, survival was better for K-Tx (85% at 5 yrs, 75% at 10 yrs) than for non-Tx patients (40% at 5 yrs, 75% at 10 yrs) (P < .001). First Tx graft lifetable survival was 70% for LRD, 50% for CAD Tx at 3 yrs, both 40-45% at 5 years (N.S.). Twenty-eight K/L-Tx PH patients from the UNOS database had projected survival 50% at 5 yrs. Overall, transplant is better for patient survival than no transplant. While curative, K/L-Tx still has considerable risk in the U.S., but could follow failed K-Tx. Confirmation of PH and ruling out B6 sensitivity must precede K/L-Tx to justify its risk. Post Tx management for K/L-Tx must follow protocols developed to prevent oxalate recurrence for K-Tx.
Building up the tension between the epithelial and stromal compartment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

In recent years, pancreatic cancer-associated stroma has been the topic of a number of studies that have proposed stromal components as promising, but still controversial, targets for novel therapeutic strategies. A new study describes how epithelial TGF-β signalling deficiency and consequential STAT3 activation act as key players in modulating the desmoplastic reaction, with implications for both clinical outcome and future drug development
High Fructose Corn Syrup-55 Alters Hepatic Metabolism to Increase Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Female Sprague-Dawley Rats

Studies have reported that high fructose intake promotes de novo lipogenesis (DNL). In turn, DNL stimulation can promote non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a metabolic condition that can pr...
The Ethical Implications of Kant’s First Critique

To read Kant’s mature (post-critical) ethics if to journey through a philosophical purgatory. His intention is to construct a pure moral philosophy and, to this end, he seeks nothing less than to cleanse ethics from ‘that lax and even mean habit of thought which seeks for its principles amongst empirical motives and laws’, which ‘substitutes for morality a bastard patched up from limbs of various derivations, which looks like anything one chooses to see in it, only not like virtue to one who had once beheld her in her true form’.1 These are strong sentiments for the supposedly cool and dispassionate sage of Konigsberg. In order to understand the disdain with which he views the prospect of those ethics that are grounded in our experience of the phenomenal world, it is necessary to know something of the role he assigns to empirical motives and laws in his own system of philosophy.
Politics and Governance

If there is only one agent (or one representative agent), then as we have seen in Chapter 5, most economic analysis boils down to a calculus exercise in constrained maximization. For example, making a decision between current consumption and current investment (i.e., between current and future consumption) leads to the Hamiltonian formalism of capital theory as described in detail by Weitzman (2003).1 Single-agent economies (or societies) can be described with relatively straightforward mathematics because there are no competing interests, no externalities, no strategic interactions, and no collective decisions that have to be made by individuals with different endowments, preferences, values, or world-views.
Minority Stress and Depressive Symptoms Familism, Ethnic Identity, and Gender as Moderators

This study examined familism, ethnic identity (search and commitment), and gender as moderators in the associations between two minority stressors (perceived discrimination and acculturative stress) and depressive symptoms in college students of Mexican ancestry (N = 207) at a Hispanic-serving institution. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we examined main effects and interactions of minority stress variables with hypothesized moderators. Results indicated that familism buffered the positive association between acculturative stress and depressive symptoms. Ethnic identity search and commitment showed gender-specific moderation effects in that a strong ethnic identity search or commitment was protective for women but not for men, when considerable amounts of acculturative stress were experienced. Ethnic identity search also showed gender-specific moderation effects on the association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of examining cultural ...
Transoral robotic surgery for management of cervical unknown primary squamous cell carcinoma: Updates on efficacy, surgical technique and margin status ☆

Abstract Importance Management of cervical unknown primary squamous cell carcinoma (CUP) has evolved with the introduction of transoral robotic surgery (TORS). Objectives 1. To describe the efficacy of TORS lingual and palatine tonsillectomy in identifying the primary site of malignancy. 2. To explore how the extent of surgery affects diagnostic yield. 3. To report margin status of TORS resections. Design, setting and participants A retrospective, single-center cohort study utilizing a prospectively collected database of CUP patients in a high-volume tertiary referral center. Patient underwent operative laryngoscopy plus TORS as clinically indicated. Main outcomes and measures Primary end point was successful identification of the primary. The extent of surgery and margin status were also examined. Results From 2010–2016, 64 patients with CUP were treated. The primary tumor was found in 51 patients (80%). Fourteen patients (22%) were identified with operative laryngoscopy alone. Fifty patients underwent TORS lingual tonsillectomy ± palatine tonsillectomy with 37 primary tumors identified (74%). The primary was located in the lingual tonsil in 32 patients (86%) and palatine tonsil in 5 patients (10%, p Conclusion and relevance Operative laryngoscopy with TORS is efficacious, localizing the primary in 80% of patients. If a margin was positive, it was most commonly the deep margin. This study provides valuable information that can help standardize surgical technique, further increasing the diagnostic yield and decreasing the negative margin rate of TORS for CUP.
Michelle Bachelet: Engendering Chile’s Democratization

Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first woman president, concluded her first term in office (2006–2010) with an 84 percent approval rating but was constitutionally prevented from seeking immediate reelection. After serving as the first Executive Director of UN Women in New York and 40 years after the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, Bachelet regained the presidency in 2013 facing another woman, Evelyn Matthei, who represented the political right. The chapter analyzes the significance of Bachelet’s political leadership and gender-related policies calling attention to Chile’s historical trajectory and post-transition record, widely considered a model of economic and democratic stability.
Evaluation of PV limits for plastic bearing materials

Polymeric bearing materials are usually operated below a limit of sliding severity expressed as the PV limit, where P is the average contact pressure and V is the surface sliding speed. In principle the PV limit should relate to the occurrence of melting on the polymer surface but cannot be derived from the physical properties of the polymer. The thermal properties of the counterface material and the manner of formation of transfer film appear to be as important in controlling the rate of wear as the softening temperature of the polymer. The influence of surface finish is not yet clear.
Estimating the costs of state mandates: the county law enforcement and justice system in arizona

This article addresses the problems and opportunities of on-site cost estimation of state mandates on the law enforcement and justice system in five Arizona counties. On-site cost estimation was time consuming and costly, involving a great deal of travel with numerous return visits to conduct hundreds of interviews with county staff throughout 68 departments. Estimates are based on qualitative as well as quantitative data and thus limited to conveying a general sense of the costs of carrying out a mandate in a given year. On-site data collection also provided opportunities to gain new perspectives on the workings of the law-justice system, on state-county funding arrangements, on the need to view the law-justice system as an interrelated whole, and on the utility of considering community value along with costs of the law-justice system.
Eris: Coordination-Free Consistent Transactions using Network Multi-Sequencing

Distributed storage systems aim to provide strong consistency and isolation guarantees on an architecture that is partitioned across multiple shards for scalability and replicated for fault-tolerance. Traditionally, achieving all of these goals has required an expensive combination of atomic commitment and replication protocols — introducing extensive coordination overhead. Our system, Eris, takes a very different approach. It moves a core piece of concurrency control functionality, which we term multi-sequencing, into the datacenter network itself. This network primitive takes on the responsibility for consistently ordering transactions, and a new lightweight transaction protocol ensures atomicity. The end result is that Eris avoids both replication and transaction coordination overhead: we show that it can process a large class of distributed transactions in a single round-trip from the client to the storage system without any explicit coordination between shards or replicas. It provides atomicity, consistency, and fault-tolerance with less than 10% overhead — achieving throughput 4.5–35x higher and latency 72–80% lower than a conventional design on standard benchmarks.
Two new stephanoceratid ammonites from the Aalenian-Lower Bajocian (Middle Jurassic, Dorset, UK) and their phylogenetic significance

Abstract Two new species of stephanoceratid ammonites are erected: Stephanoceras (Riccardiceras) eoeteosum sp. nov. and Stephanoceras (Skirroceras) englandi sp. nov. from the Inferior Oolite Formation of Dorset, UK. They represent the first and last members of a chronocline of serpenticonic morphospecies. The stratigraphical position of Rhytostephanus rhytus Buckman is reviewed, necessitating a change in the faunal horizon scheme. The term mesoconch is proposed for use in describing microsomic macroconchs, the function of which is considered. Names applied to morphospecies and their uses are reviewed. The role of conservation is discussed in respect of preserving Dorset Inferior Oolite exposures.
Mechanisms of Benzene Toxicity

Benzene is a ubiquitous pollutant in the environment and in many workplaces. It is known to produce aplastic anemia, leukemia, chromosomal damage, and immunotoxicity. This discussion will consider mechanisms by which benzene produces decrements in bone marrow function, alters the production of cytokines, and impairs the hematopoietic system. Methods of evaluating bone marrow function such as cell counting techniques, colony forming units assays, cytokine assays, and the [59Fe] uptake technique will be summarized. Mechanisms involving covalent binding of reactive metabolites to protein and DNA which can explain the occurrence of aplastic anemia will be discussed. Implications for benzene induced leukemia and the relationship to chromosome damage will be examined. Current interest in interactions among benzene metabolites leading to toxic effects observed with benzene will be analyzed. Finally, areas where new research is needed will be proposed.
Matching and Catching

The following are traditional examples illustrating the meaning of the participles in the title.
Quantum Phenomena and the Double-Slit Experiment

The aim of this chapter is to introduce, in concrete physical terms, quantum phenomena, by which I, again, mean those physical phenomena in considering which Planck’s constant h cannot be neglected. I shall do so by way of the double-slit experiment, a paradigmatic or, it is sometimes argued, even the paradigmatic quantum experiment, in which the famously strange features of quantum phenomena manifest themselves. This experiment and the way it reflects such key features of quantum phenomena as the uncertainty relations and the probabilistic nature of our quantum predictions are considered in Sections 2.1 and 2.2. Sections 2.3 and 2.4 discuss two other experiments that are closely related to the double-slit experiment: the delayed-choice experiment, due to John A. Wheeler, and the quantum eraser experiment, due to Marlan Scully and his coworkers. Section 2.5 uses the quantum eraser experiment to establish the fundamental difference between classical and quantum physics by considering the repetition of the identically prepared experiments in each domain.
Development, Stress, and Role Restructuring

Much of the impetus for the accelerating emergence of adolescent stress research flows from a growing recognition that the outcomes associated with exposure to stress are highly prevalent among adolescents. These unfortunate consequences are illustrated most poignantly by the high rate of suicide among young people. Suicide is currently the third leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults (USDHHS, 1986), and these rates are increasing (Murphy & Wetzel, 1980). Reports also document high (Albert & Beck, 1975; Kandel & Davies, 1982; Kaplan, Hong, & Weinhold, 1984; Schoenbach, Kaplan, Wagner, Grimson, & Miller, 1983; Teri, 1982) and increasing prevalence rates (Klerman & Weissman, 1989) of depression in adolescent and young-adult populations, and this disorder, significant in and of itself, also figures prominently as a risk factor for suicide (Neinstein, 1984; Sommer, 1984; Wells, Deykin, & Klerman, 1985). In addition, high rates of substance use and abuse among adolescents may reflect attempts of youth to cope with stressful life experiences or with emotional distress (Huba, Wingard, & Bentler, 1980) and thus are another element in an overall picture of heightened risk at this stage of life. Although these stress-related mental health conditions are important objects of inquiry in their own right, it is equally important to identify the mechanisms through which stress arises in the lives of adolescents, the subject of this chapter.
Effect of cryopreservation of teeth on the structural integrity of dentin.

Abstract The autotransplantation of teeth after cryopreservation has become an increasingly viable method for whole tooth replacement. While the immediate success rates are quite high, damage introduced by cryopreservation within the dentin or enamel could be detrimental to the durability of these teeth. Objective to determine whether cryopreservation alters the microstructure of dentin or causes a reduction of its resistance to mechanical failures. Methods Third molars were obtained from young donors (18≤ age ≤30 yrs) and subjected to a cryopreservation protocol involving storage for 10 days in cryoprotectant solution at −196 °C. After treatment, the mid-coronal dentin was characterized in terms of its elastic modulus, strength and fatigue behavior. Scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to evaluate the microstructure and integrity of collagen after cryopreservation. Results There was no significant difference in the elastic modulus or flexural strength between dentin from the cryopreserved and non-cryopreserved (control) teeth. However, the cryopreservation treatment caused a significant decrease in the fatigue strength of dentin with respect to the controls, with average reduction of nearly 20%. While there were no differences apparent in the collagen matrix or fracture surfaces between the cryopreserved and control groups, the microstructure of dentin from the cryopreserved teeth exhibited unique features and damage that appear to have caused the decrease in durability. Significance Autotransplantation of cryopreserved teeth may be a viable option for whole tooth restorations, but hidden damage within the dentin could render these teeth more susceptible to mechanical failures by fatigue and fracture.
Cathodal Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation Selectively Decreases Impulsivity after Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats.

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often results in chronic psychiatric-like symptoms. In a condition with few therapeutic options, neuromodulation has emerged as a promising potential treatment...
Collaboration techniques facilitate student learning

Collaboration is a significant tool that many CS faculty have used to encourage and assist student growth. But there are serious problems with collaboration in a classroom setting. This panel will discuss the following questions, and share some best practices that have helped with student collaboration. 1.) What are the skills and attitudes students need to learn from team participation? 2.) What can professors do to teach our students the value of real collaboration for more effective student learning? 3.) What can we as faculty, and what can collaboration tools, do to enable collaboration readiness? The panel will address concerns that collaboration brings out good aspects and difficulties in a classroom setting. The panel will share their experiences with enabling effective student collaboration, especially, ways we can separate grading from project work, enough to facilitate the team-work process, but not so separate that students see the team projects as irrelevant.
Instrumentation for Stone Disease

As endourologists, the procedures we perform are tied closely together with the equipment we use. The surgeon’s skill and expertise are essential, but without the right tools for the job, the procedures will be either much more difficult or not possible at all. Therefore, having a comprehensive understanding of capital equipment including camera and video systems, endoscopes, and lithotrites is essential. Furthermore, there has been a vast expansion in the number of disposable products used including different types of guidewires and stone baskets, ureteral access sheaths, and now even single-use endoscopes. Understanding what devices are available and how they might aid in different situations will help arm endourologists with the knowledge and tools to be able to care best for their patients.
Valid or Voodoo: A Qualitative Study of Attorney Attitudes Towards Risk Assessment in Sentencing and Plea Bargaining

Prior research largely has explored judicial attitudes toward risk assessment in sentencing. Little is known about how other court actors, specifically, prosecutors and defense attorneys, make use of risk information at sentencing hearings and during plea negotiations. Here, we report a qualitative study on the use of risk assessment by prosecutors and defense attorneys in Virginia. A prior quantitative study (n=70) pointed to a statistically significant difference in how prosecutors and defense attorneys regard the role of recidivism risk in sentencing hearings and in plea bargaining. Based on the results of the quantitative study, we collected follow-up qualitative data via interview (n=30) to explain this unexpected difference. Three themes emerged from the interviews: Who is the lawyer’s identified client? (With prosecutors choosing the general public and defense attorneys choosing the particular defendant); Does past behavior strongly predict future behavior? (With prosecutors being more likely than defense attorneys to believe it does; and Is the Nonviolent Risk Assessment a statistically valid tool for assessing recidivism risk? (With prosecutors and defense attorneys equally likely to believe that the tool was no more valid than their own intuitive professional experience. Virginia is regarded as one of the leading innovators in the use of risk assessment. Thus, as more states and the federal government adopt a risk-based approach to sentencing, studies on Virginia can provide useful guidance on the implementation process.
Long-term responders to PD-1 blockade in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

9549Background: Long-term response – the plateau of the survival curve – is the transcendent benefit from PD-1 blockade. However, only a subset of responses achieve substantial durability. The freq...
Emergency Department Response to Explosive Incidents: Scope of the Problem and Operational Considerations

This chapter provides a broad introduction to critical emergency department operations in response to an explosion-related mass casualty incident (MCI). The hospital’s emergency department will be the primary receiving location for victims of an explosive incident, and key hospital preparations are important to reduce the morbidity and mortality of arriving patients. A hospital’s ability to properly respond is directly dependent on its surge capacity, training, equipment, and partnerships. Hospital disaster plans should include specific explosive incident responses, and hospitals should perform regular exercises and drills to prepare. Staff recall, patient throughput, decontamination, security, supplies, and non-emergency department personnel are important factors that may affect surge capacity and should each be addressed prior to an event.
Extensions to the Proximal Distance of Method of Constrained Optimization.

The current paper studies the problem of minimizing a loss $f(\boldsymbol{x})$ subject to constraints of the form $\boldsymbol{D}\boldsymbol{x} \in S$, where $S$ is a closed set, convex or not, and $\boldsymbol{D}$ is a fusion matrix. Fusion constraints can capture smoothness, sparsity, or more general constraint patterns. To tackle this generic class of problems, we combine the Beltrami-Courant penalty method of optimization with the proximal distance principle. The latter is driven by minimization of penalized objectives $f(\boldsymbol{x})+\frac{\rho}{2}\text{dist}(\boldsymbol{D}\boldsymbol{x},S)^2$ involving large tuning constants $\rho$ and the squared Euclidean distance of $\boldsymbol{D}\boldsymbol{x}$ from $S$. The next iterate $\boldsymbol{x}_{n+1}$ of the corresponding proximal distance algorithm is constructed from the current iterate $\boldsymbol{x}_n$ by minimizing the majorizing surrogate function $f(\boldsymbol{x})+\frac{\rho}{2}\|\boldsymbol{D}\boldsymbol{x}-\mathcal{P}_S(\boldsymbol{D}\boldsymbol{x}_n)\|^2$. For fixed $\rho$ and convex $f(\boldsymbol{x})$ and $S$, we prove convergence, provide convergence rates, and demonstrate linear convergence under stronger assumptions. We also construct a steepest descent (SD) variant to avoid costly linear system solves. To benchmark our algorithms, we adapt the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and compare on extensive numerical tests including problems in metric projection, convex regression, convex clustering, total variation image denoising, and projection of a matrix to one that has a good condition number. Our experiments demonstrate the superior speed and acceptable accuracy of the steepest variant on high-dimensional problems. Julia code to replicate all of our experiments can be found at this https URL.
Estimation, Data Generators, and Optimal Contract

This paper considers the problem of using monetary transfers to incentivize data generation in data markets. A principal who collects multiple agents' (data generators') data to estimate the unknown state by a fixed estimator attempts to use a data-dependent transfer to incentivize high-quality data generation. The fact that the outcome of the estimation, the prediction error, is not contractable creates difficulty for incentive control even if there is unlimited liability. I propose a contract using subsample estimation to discipline agents' behavior that can implement the first-best actions under mild conditions, for example, if the principal uses a linear unbiased estimator. The implementation result is robust even if the principal has no knowledge about agents' belief structures and worries about strategic uncertainty. The informational robustness makes it possible to apply the result in the joint design problem, where the estimator is endogenously chosen, under a Bayesian or minimax objective.