cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bypassing Congressional Committees: Parties, Panel Rosters, and Deliberative Processes

Although scholars have examined committee rosters extensively, no study has considered the relationship between the ideological composition of panels and their participation in bill drafting. I thus ask: Which committees are frequently excluded from legislative deliberations? Does the composition of committees affect the degree to which they contribute to bill development? Using DW-NOMINATE data, I calculate ideological scores for congressional panels between 1989 and 2010 to see whether certain committees are routinely bypassed. I find that moderate panels, polarized panels, and panels with moderate chairs are often excluded, while extreme committees in the majority direction tend to retain bill-writing duties.
Analysis of analog and digital records of the 1982 Arkansas earthquake swarm

Abstract The Arkansas swarm is the largest earthquake swarm ever recorded in the Central or Eastern United States. Three-component digital and single-component analog recordings for 88 earthquakes occurring during a 12-day period provide a quality data set of manageable proportions for study of the swarm9s seismic properties. These 88 earthquakes occurred within a small volume of about 45 km 3 at depths from 4 to 7 km. Composite focal mechanisms indicate predominantly strike-slip motion with the P axis oriented NE-SW. Seismic wave velocity studies indicate that significant temporal and spatial variations of seismic wave velocities are present. The V p /V s ratio ranges from as low as 1.59 to as high as 1.78 with the majority of values falling between 1.67 to 1.70. An anomalous region immediately north of the center of swarm activity is found where both the P - and S -wave velocities and V p /V s ratio increase dramatically starting about 1 day before the 5 July M d = 3.8 event. Two strong secondary arrivals between the direct P and S arrivals can be clearly identified, especially at stations NNW of the activity. These secondary arrivals must be converted P waves from S waves incident on two deep discontinuities. The above observations are compatible with a small, highly heterogeneous swarm source volume within which the ambient stress regime can vary rapidly in both time and space. Some identified clustering and V p / V s changes are clearly precursory to the major events of the sequence but no simple, repeating pattern is evident in this restricted data sample.
Novel Contact Structure for Ultra-thin YBCO Films

The buried contact structure, where electrodes contact the side of c-axis YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO), was fabricated against ultra-thin film used as a channel layer of superconducting field effect transistor (SuFET). Utilizing in situ process, which includes of focused ion beam (FIB) etching and in situ deposition of electrode, and annealing in pure ozone, we could reduce the specific contact resistance (Rs). The YBCO thickness dependence of Rs was observed in the range of 5-30nm-thick YBCO film. Adoption of YBCO electrodes suppressed this YBCO thickness dependence of Rs ,and Rs of 3×10−8 Ωcm2 for 5nm-thick YBCO was obtained. The YBCO thickness dependence was estimated to be produced by poor crystallinity and oxygen deficiency originated by internal stress.
Health-Risk Behaviors among Long-Term Hematopoietic Cell Transplant (HCT) Survivors: A Report from the Bone Marrow Transplant Survivor Study.

Abstract Health-risk behaviors such as smoking could potentially interact with therapeutic exposures, increasing the risk of long-term sequelae, and have been understudied after HCT. The current study characterizes self-reported health-risk behaviors in 886 adult HCT survivors, who underwent HCT for hematologic malignancies or other diagnoses at City of Hope or University of Minnesota between 1974 and 1998, were 21 years (yr.) or older at HCT, and had survived two or more yr. after HCT. Stem cell donor type included autologous (n=428), related donor (n=372) and unrelated donor (n=86). Median age at HCT was 38.2 yr.; median age at survey, 46.3 yr.; and median length of follow-up, 6.5 yr.; 55% were males. Study participants completed a 255-item health questionnaire that contained items on health-risk behaviors, including current or past smoking (ever smoked at least 100 cigarettes); alcohol use (women: >7 drinks/week; men: >14/week); exercise ( 20-minute exercise); and having ever had a mammogram for women >40 yr. at survey. Of the 886 survivors, 44% reported ever having smoked (median age at initiation 17 yr., range 8–41) and 14% reported being current smokers. Factors associated with smoking initiation included white race (RR=1.85, 95%CI, 1.3–2.7), and annual household income $20-60,000 compared with >$60,000 [RR=1.4 (1.0–1.9)]. Median age at smoking cessation was 32 yr. (16–60), and factors included higher yearly household income [>$60,000: RR=1.6 (1.1–2.3)], age 18 yr. at smoking initiation [RR=1.58 (1.2–2.1)], and smoking rate ≤10 cigarettes /day [RR=1.54 (1.2–2.0)]. Excessive alcohol consumption was reported by 5% of the cohort, and lower income ( 40 yr. had received a mammogram ever. Reported risk behaviors among survivors were compared to those of 311 siblings with similar age, sex, and race distributions. No differences were identified between survivors and siblings in the prevalence of smoking initiation, excessive alcohol use, or frequent exercise. However survivors were more likely to stop smoking [RR=1.38 (1.1–1.8)] when compared with siblings, and female survivors ≥40 yr. were more likely than siblings to report a mammogram [RR=3.26 (1.3–8.4)]. In conclusion, 14% of the survivors report current tobacco use, and the large majority of long-term HCT survivors report less than recommended amounts of physical activity. However, when compared with the sibling comparison group, the rates of smoking cessation are higher among survivors, and survivors are more likely to report having undergone at least one mammographic screening. These health-risk behaviors may provide targets for future interventions to minimize the prevalence of preventable health complications in this vulnerable population.
Juvenile Mussel and Abalone Predation by the Lined Shore Crab Pachygrapsus crassipes

ABSTRACT Major rocky intertidal predators in the northeast Pacific such as sea stars, whelks, and birds can consume foundation species such as mussels and thereby affect zonation patterns and diversity in these habitats. Predation specifically on juvenile intertidal invertebrates can also substantially impact population dynamics and influence community structure. The lined shore crab Pachygrapsus crassipes (Randall, 1840) is an abundant denizen of sheltered and exposed intertidal habitats in the northeast Pacific from Canada to Mexico. This study examined potential P. crassipes predation on juvenile mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), whelks [Nucella ostrina (Gould, 1852)], and abalone [Haliotis rufescens (Swainson, 1822)] due to conflicting reports on the diet of this species. Crabs consumed more juvenile mussels and abalone than seaweed (Ulva lactuca) and fed preferentially on the smallest mussels (6- to 10-mm size class). Further experiments showed that predation on mussels by P. crassipes was highly ...
An Exploratory Study of Marital and Quality of Life Ratings Among Male Spouses of Military Members

The purpose of this article is to present the current demographics and both marital and quality of life ratings of a small group of males who are married to current Active Duty service members. Males married to service members make up only 5% of the military spouse population, but numbering close to 100,000, the group is large enough to have specific and significant needs. Gender assumptions play a large role in the experience of male military spouses and should be considered when designing military family programs. Many research studies done on active duty spouses are either done on females specifically, or male responses are too few to be statistically significant. Respondents had been married for an average of 10 years, had been dating their spouses for an average of 2 years prior to marriage, and more than half of the respondents had no prior military history of their own. Results of this study showed that respondents generally had medium to high levels of both marital satisfaction and interpersonal dependency, high levels of life satisfaction, and low levels depressive symptoms including feeling down, depressed or hopeless. This data is likely not representative of the larger male spouse population, as respondents had high levels of education and income, which could lead to fewer stressors. Although this data did not indicate a high level of distress among male military spouses, military family organizations should offer programs specifically aimed at including male spouses in order to increase family cohesion and reduce marital conflict which could result in improved mission readiness.
Abstract 430: Race Dependent Effects of C Reactive Protein on the Vasomotor Modulators ET1 and NO in HUVECs

Background: Chronic inflammation and elevated levels of C reactive protein (CRP) can lead to reduced bioavailability of endothelium relaxing factors such as Nitric Oxide (NO) and increased production of vasoconstrictive pro-inflammatory agents such as endothelin-1 (ET1). African Americans (AA) have impaired vasodilatory capabilities evident through reduced NO bioavailability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential differential racial effect of CRP on ET1 and NO. METHODS: AA and Caucasian (C) Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) were cultured and treated with 0, 25, 50, and 100μg/mL CRP. The secretion of ET1 and NO in HUVEC culture medium supernatant was assessed by ELISA and a modified Griess assay, respectively. Results: At baseline (0μg/mL CRP) there were no significant differences between AA and C in ET1 (457.5 ± 44.8 vs 420.6 ± 34.8 pg/mL) or NO (8.0 ± 1.4 vs 7.4 ± 1.2 μmol/L). Differences (p≤.05) were found at 50μg/mL CRP between ET1 and NO between C and AA HUVECs (ET1: 566.7 ± 17.7 vs 595.8 ± 73.6 pg/mL) (NO: 0 ± 0 vs 1.1 ± 1.0 μmol/L). There was a significant increase in ET1 in the AA HUVECs from 0μg/mL (457.5 ± 44.8 pg/mL) to 25μg/mL CRP (546.8 ± 39.8 pg/mL) while NO decreased significantly in AA HUVECs from 0μg/mL (8.0 ± 1.4 μmol/L) to 25μg/mL (0.5 ± 0.2 μmol/L), 50μg/mL (1.1 ± 1.0 μmol/L), and 100μg/mL CRP (0.1 ± 0.1 μmol/L). C HUVECs showed significant changes in ET1 between 0μg/mL (420.6 ± 34.8 pg/mL) and 50μg/mL CRP (566.7 ± 17.7 pg/mL) and in NO from 0μg/mL CRP (7.4 ± 1.2 μmol/L) to 25μg/mL (0.8 ± 0.5 μmol/L), 50μg/mL (0 ± 0 μmol/L), and 100μg/mL (0.9 ± 0.6 μmol/L). Without the influence of race, significant increases in ET1 production occurred from 0μg/mL CRP (439.0 ± 39.8 pg/mL) to 25μg/mL (512.0 ± 38.9 pg/mL) (p ≤ 0.001) and 50μg/mL CRP (581.2 ± 45.6 pg/mL) and significant decreases in NO (p ≤ 0.001) from 0μg/mL CRP (7.7 ± 1.3 μmol/L) to 25μg/mL CRP (0.6 ± 0.4 μmol/L), 50μg/mL CRP (0.5 ± 0.5 μmol/L), and 100 μg/mL CRP (0.5 ± 0.3 μmol/L). Conclusions: Our data show that differential CRP induced ET1 and NO production does not appear to contribute to the difference in hypertension prevalence between AA and C. Further investigation is needed to determine the cause of the racial differences in Hypertension between African Americans and Caucasians.
On the differential security of multivariate public key cryptosystems

Since the discovery of an algorithm for factoring and computing discrete logarithms in polynomial time on a quantum computer, the cryptographic community has been searching for an alternative for security in the approaching post-quantum world. One excellent candidate is multivariate public key cryptography. Though the speed and parameterizable nature of such schemes is desirable, a standard metric for determining the security of a multivariate cryptosystem has been lacking. We present a reasonable measure for security against the common differential attacks and derive this measurement for several modern multivariate public key cryptosystems.
Abstract 14726: Right Ventricular Strain Analysis May Be Useful in Differentiating Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy From Left Anterior Descending Coronary Artery Disease

Background: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) is a transient form of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction triggered by significant physiological stress and associated with a distinctive pattern of region...
Gene Therapy Methods and Their Applications in Neurological Disorders

Abstract Gene therapy is broadly defined as using nucleic acids as a treatment for disease, including replacing defective genes with normal ones. Gene therapy approaches to diseases of the nervous system are very important as treatments for these often-devastating disorders are limited or not available at all. Gene therapies are being tested in human clinical trials and also provide powerful research tools. A better understanding of the currently available gene therapy methods, including gene delivery vehicles, expression systems, and gene regulation tools, is critical for the success of a gene therapy project and for developing new gene therapy strategies. In this chapter, we describe viral and nonviral vectors for gene delivery into the central nervous system, including advantages, shortcomings, and applications of these vectors. We also introduce tools for regulating transgene expression, including optogenetics and Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs. We will discuss strategies of gene overexpression, gene silencing, and genome editing. We also provide examples of application of each strategy in animal models or clinical trials of neurological diseases such as lysosomal storage diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Our goal is to present an overview of methods used in gene therapy so that neurological researchers can choose the appropriate tools for research projects and for development of new gene therapies.
Multifaceted Transportation Performance Integrating Mobility, Safety, Air Quality, Physical Activity and Public Health

Background While mobility, safety, and environmental friendliness have been major interests in transportation systems, recently people have started to pay more attention to public health related to transportation. Emphasis has been shifted from mobility and convenience to environmental friendliness and public health. However, traditional performance measures are insufficient in addressing such changes. Therefore, there is a need to provide a multifaceted approach to integrate such performance measures. Method This study proposed an assessment framework that integrates four aspects: mobility or network performance, traffic safety, environmental impact, and physical activity. In order to demonstrate its applicability, the proposed framework was employed and tested in Michigan as a case study. Data in individual categories were collected and analyzed. Delay costs, metabolic equivalent (MET), the number of crashes, and concentration of O3 were used as performance measures representing network performance, physical activity, safety, and environmental impact, respectively. Result Using the multifaceted assessment framework, this study compared performance measures by region (Bay Region, Grand Region, Metro Region, North Region, Southwest Region, and University Region) in Michigan. The result with data in 2015 showed that the Metro region, the most populated area in Michigan, was weaker than other reasons with respect to network performance, traffic safety and physical activity. By producing a multidimensional spider diagram, the strengths and weaknesses of each region's transportation performance results were analyzed and visualized. The results demonstrated its capacity to present multifaceted performance measures and their relative performances among regions. Conclusion This study proposed an integrated approach and presented a case example using the observed data in Michigan. The method was useful researchers understanding transportation performances in a comprehensive manner integrating multifaceted measures. The approach is expected to help decision-makers in developing traffic management strategies by allowing analyses of traffic-related public health strategies based on traffic exposure measures. In order to examine the effects of alternative strategies, performance measures could be derived from activity-based travel demand models or simulations. Simulation-based assessments can serve as a decision supporting tool for evaluating and/or selecting various treatment options for public health strategies prior to actual implementation. The application of activity-based travel demand models makes it possible to quantify various measures in the proposed approach by providing the effects of alternative strategies.
The Financial Innovation Process: Theory and Application

What is "financial innovation," and why should we care about it? This question has become increasingly important in the wake of the recent financial crisis, yet the nature of financial innovation remains poorly understood. Drawing on the "New Institutional Economics" literature, this article contends that financial innovation should be understood first and foremost as a process of change, a change in the type and variety of available financial products to be sure, but also a change in financial intermediaries (such as banks) and in markets, themselves. It argues that this reframing has important policy implications for the economics of regulating the financial innovation process and for understanding the dynamics of modern financial markets in general. As an illustration of these ideas, this article undertakes a critical analysis of a rule that would require banks that deal in over-the-counter derivatives to transfer the management of certain risks associated with these instruments to a highly regulated thirdparty called a centralized clearing party. This rule has been proposed in Europe and was recently adopted in the United States by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This article argues that this rule is properly viewed as an attempt to regulate the process of financial innovation itself and that, when viewed in this light, the rule is neither as modest nor as obviously superior to the status quo as its adherents claim. Finally, this article sketches two alternatives to this rule that seek to navigate the trade-offs of what the article refers to as the "new" economics of financial regulation.
Gender, Geography, and Rural Justice

This Article argues that a more grounded and nuanced understanding of women's lived realities requires legal scholars to engage geography. Because spatial aspects of women's lives implicate inequality and moral agency, they have direct relevance to an array of legal issues. The Article thus deploys the tools of critical geographers--space, place, and scale--to inform law and policy-making about an overlooked population for whom spatiality can be a profoundly influential force: rural women.
KITCHER ON THEORY CHOICE

Etude de l'analyse du choix d'une theorie rationnelle au sein d'une communaute scientifique, developpee par P. Kitcher a partir de la theorie du jeu dans son ouvrage intitule «The advancement of science» (1993). Mesurant le role de la notion de diversite cognitive dans la demonstration des structures sociales non-epstemiques de la science, l'A. montre que l'argument anti-constructiviste de Kitcher repose sur une approche insatisfaisante du calcul idealiste et sur une utilisation non-pertinente de l'equilibre de Nash comme solution au modele qu'il envisage
The future of the dental profession: perspectives from Oral Health in America: a report of the Surgeon General.

"The intent of this first-ever Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health is to alert Americans to the full meaning of oral health and its importance to general health and well-being" (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Thus began the introductory message from the Secretary for Health and Human Services to Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General, released in May 2000. The centerpiece of the charge was to "define, describe, and evaluate the interaction between oral health and general health and well-being through the life span in the context of changes in society" (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). To address this charge, the report was science-based, prevention and health promotion-oriented, and focused on all life stages. Although the report stressed oral health, not the dental profession, the report's messages and themes are relevant to current and future dental practice, education, research, and to dentistry's role in the healthcare system.
The Biochemistry and Metabolic Regulation of Carbon Metabolism and CO2 Fixation in Purple Bacteria

Purple photosynthetic bacteria exhibit great diversity in the metabolism of simple carbon compounds. In this chapter, the reactions and metabolic schemes that the organisms, particularly purple nonsulfur bacteria, employ to break down and/or assimilate one-carbon, two-carbon, three-carbon, and four-carbon compounds and sugars is examined. Knowledge of the biochemistry and physiology of carbon metabolism and its molecular control has benefited somewhat from the application of recombinant DNA approaches, yet there are significant gaps in our understanding of how catabolic and anabolic reaction sequences are integrated. By contrast, great advances have been made relative to the biochemistry of CO2 fixation, due primarily to recent enzymological, molecular, and structural studies of the key enzyme, Rubis CO. Indeed the enzyme from Rhodospirillum rubrum has become the paradigm for such work. The ability to prepare recombinant enzymes that catalyze additional key steps of CO2 fixation should result in similar advances concerning these proteins in the future. Facile genetic manipulation of mutant Rhodobacter and Rhodospirillum strains has already resulted in the uncovering of alternative CO2 assimilatory routes that replace the Calvin cycle, and prospects for gaining an understanding of the biochemistry and molecular control of both schemes should follow. The latter studies probably would not be possible with other organisms, further attesting to the versatility of the purple nonsulfur bacteria for investigating basic metabolic processes. This chapter considers the current state of our knowledge of carbon dioxide fixation and carbon metabolism in purple bacteria.
Comparing the Information Needs and Experiences of Undergraduate Students and Practicing Engineers

Abstract Practicing engineers and undergraduate engineering and technology students seek and use information differently within the research and design process. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted by librarians at Purdue University and information specialists at Caterpillar Inc. to analyze self-reported information habits and challenges of both user populations. The authors created surveys containing similar questions for each user group, using a framework that asked participants to think about their information needs and use during a recent engineering project. The survey questions discerned users' confidence in their information abilities, and their preferences and barriers for finding and using information. The results of this study reveal differences between students and engineers and are informative for both academic and corporate librarians. Key findings affirm previous research that novices are more confident in their abilities than experts. Additionally, the findings suggest undergraduates prefer quick, easy to digest content like online videos and news, while engineers are more likely to learn by consulting a colleague or other subject expert, and through reading journals and trade literature. While students rated themselves as more confident information users, engineers reported working in a more complex information landscape, which includes internal document management systems and numerous places to look for technical information. Findings within this paper can inform the development of information literacy curricula that better parallels the corporate environment, and can give corporate librarians insight into how recent graduates may expect to interact with information in a new work environment.
Prediction of autogenous shrinkage in concrete from material composition or strength calibrated by a large database, as update to model B4

In modern concretes, the autogenous shrinkage, i.e., the shrinkage of sealed specimens, is much more important than it is in traditional concretes. It dominates the shrinkage of thick enough structural members even if exposed to drying. A database of 417 autogenous shrinkage tests, recently assembled at Northwestern University, is exploited to develop empirical predictive equations, which improve significantly those embedded in RILEM Model B4. The data scatter is high and the power law (time)0.2 is found to be optimal for times ranging from hours to several decades of years, as the test data give no hint of upper bound. Statistics of data fitting yields the approximate dependence of the power law parameters on the water-cement and aggregate-cement ratios, cement type, additives such as the blast furnace slag and silica fume, and curing type and duration. Alternatively, the power law parameters can be reasonably well predicted from the compression strength alone. Since some database entries do not report all these composition parameters and others do not report the compressive strength, and since the concrete strength is often the only material property specified in design, two types of models are formulated—composition based, and strength based. Both are verified by statistical comparisons with individual tests, and optimized by nonlinear statistical regression of the entire database, so as to minimize the coefficient of variation of deviations from the data points normalized by the overall data mean. The regression is weighted so as to compensate for the bias due to crowding of data in the short-time range. Statistical comparisons with the prediction models in the JSCE code, Eurocode and CEB MC90-99 code (identical to fib Model Code 2010) show the present model to give significantly better data fits. Finally it is emphasized that, in presence of external drying and creep, accurate predictions will require treating the autogenous shrinkage as a consequence of pore humidity drop caused jointly by self-desiccation due to hydration and by moisture diffusion, and solving the time evolution of humidity profiles. The present model is proposed as an update for the autogenous shrinkage formula in model B4, although recalibration of the whole B4 would be needed.
Across-Species Scaling of Monoclonal Antibody Pharmacokinetics Using a Minimal PBPK Model

Purpose To examine the across-species scalability of monoclonal antibody (mAb) pharmacokinetics (PK) and assess similarities in tissue distribution across species using a recently developed minimal PBPK (mPBPK) model.
Barriers and opportunities for climate change education: The case of Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas

AbstractThis article reports on a survey of the general public and science teachers in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, to identify major barriers and opportunities for climate change education and action...
Trends in Prescribed Central Nervous System Depressant Medications Among Adults Who Regularly Consume Alcohol: United States 1999 to 2014.

Background Although the risks of using central nervous system depressant (CNS-D) medications with alcohol are well documented, little is known about trends in prescribed use of these medications among individuals who regularly consume alcohol (i.e., trends in "concurrent use"). We examined changes in the prevalence of prescribed CNS-D medications among individuals who drank alcohol on 52 or more occasions in the past year ("regular drinking"). CNS-D medications included sedative-hypnotics (subclassified as anxiolytics or sleep medications) and opioids. Methods We used 8 cross-sectional cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2000 to 2013-2014) from participants aged 20 and older (n = 37,709). We used log-binomial regression to examine (i) prevalence trends of prescribed CNS-D medication use, (ii) trend differences by drinking status, and (iii) correlates of CNS-D medication use. Results Among those who drink regularly, the relative annual increase in prevalence of sedative-hypnotic use was 5.3% (95% CI: 2.7 to 7.9): Anxiolytic and sleep medication use increased annually by 3.7% (95% CI: 0.8 to 6.7) and 11.2% (95% CI: 6.5 to 16.0), respectively. Opioid use trends among those who drink regularly were not statistically significant but were nonlinear. Differences in CNS-D medication trends between those who drink regularly and those who drink infrequently/abstain were not statistically significant. Those who drink regularly were less likely than those who drink infrequently/abstain to use opioids (adjusted relative risk [ARR]: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.60 to 0.78) and anxiolytics (ARR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.81), but not sleep medications (ARR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.80 to 1.35). Those aged 40 and older were 2 to 5 times as likely as those aged 20 to 29 to use sedative-hypnotics. Conclusions Among those who drink regularly, the prevalence of prescribed sedative-hypnotic use increased and prescribed opioid use remained common. These trends indicate that a substantial portion of the population is at risk of alcohol-related adverse drug reactions-particularly those aged 40 and older.
Predicting the Future: Parental Progeny Investment in Response to Environmental Stress Cues.

Environmental stressors can severely limit the ability of an organism to reproduce as lifespan is decreased and resources are shifted away from reproduction to survival. Although this is often detrimental to the organism’s reproductive fitness, certain other reproductive stress responses may mitigate this effect by increasing the likelihood of progeny survival in the F1 and subsequent generations. Here we review three means by which these progeny may be conferred a competitive edge as a result of stress encountered in the parental generation: heritable epigenetic modifications to nucleotides and histones, simple maternal investments of cytosolic components, and the partially overlapping phenomenon of terminal investment, which can entail extreme parental investment strategies in either cytosolic components or gamete production. We examine instances of these categories and their ability to subsequently impact offspring fitness and reproduction. Ultimately, without impacting nucleotide sequence, these more labile alterations may shape development, evolution, ecology and even human health, necessitating further understanding and research into the specific mechanisms by which environmental stressors are sensed and elicit a corresponding response in the parental germline.
Host plant preference of Melanotus communis (Coleoptera: Elateridae) among weeds and sugar cane varieties found in Florida sugar cane fields

The corn wireworm, Melanotus communis (Gyllenhal) (Coleoptera: Elateridae), is an important soil insect pest of Florida sugar cane (Saccharum spp.; Poaceae). The objective of this study was to determine the host plant preference of M. communis adults and larvae to weeds and sugar cane varieties found in Florida sugar cane fields. Three sugar cane varieties, 3 grass weeds, and 3 broadleaf weeds were tested for their attraction to the insects in free choice tests. After a 24 h exposure to whole plant extracts (juices), most adults were found in sugar cane varieties, followed by grass weeds, then broadleaf weeds. After a 48 h exposure to chopped roots in muck soil, most larvae were found in sugar cane varieties, followed by grass weeds, then broadleaf weeds. After a 48 h exposure to chopped roots in sandy soil, most larvae were found in sugar cane varieties, followed by broadleaf weeds, then grass weeds. Our data show that in free choice tests, both M. communis adults and larvae prefer sugar cane over weeds present in Florida sugar cane fields. Resumen El gusano del maiz, Melanotus communis (Gyllenhal) (Coleoptera: Elateridae), es una plaga importante de la cana de azucar (Saccharum spp.; Poaceae) en la Florida. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la preferencia de la planta hospedera de los adultos y larvas de M. communis a las malezas y variedades de cana de azucar que se encuentran en los campos de cana de azucar de la Florida. Se probaron tres variedades de cana de azucar, 3 pastos-malezas y 3 malezas de hoja ancha por su atraccion hacia los insectos en pruebas de libre eleccion. Despues de una exposicion de 24 h a extractos de plantas enteras (jugos), la mayoria de los adultos se encontraron en variedades de cana de azucar, seguidos de los pastos-malezas y luego malezas de hoja ancha. Despues de una exposicion de 48 h a las raices cortadas en el suelo de lodo, la mayoria de las larvas se encontraron en variedades de cana de azucar, seguidas de los pastos-malezas y luego las malezas de hoja ancha. Despues de una exposicion de 48 h a las raices picadas en el suelo arenoso, la mayoria de las larvas se encontraron en variedades de cana de azucar, seguidas por los pastos-malezas y luego por las malezas con hojas anchas. Nuestros datos muestran que en las pruebas de libre eleccion, tanto los adultos como las larvas de M. communis prefieren la cana de azucar en lugar de las malezas presentes en los campos de cana de azucar en la Florida. Key Words: wireworms; click beetles; ecology; Saccharum View this article in BioOne https://doi.org/10.1653/024.102.0213
Vibration Based Energy Scavenging System for Battery Powered Sensor Networks

In recent times, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has played an important role for applications in the biomedical, commercial, and military fields. Progress in the Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) made it possible to make sensors that are compact and easy to install, but while this does prove effective in some respects, these sensors operate on batteries that needs replacement regularly. For this reason, an alternative supply of power is necessary to run the sensors more efficiently. This paper proposes that road vibrations can be used to scavenge energy to fuel the batteries, which would then supply power to the sensors. The concept of electromagnetic induction is applied to convert traffic-induced road vibrations into electrical energy. This paper focalizes the process of obtaining maximum output from low vibrations by using a repulsive stack arrangement of magnets rather than a single magnet while still keeping the size of the energy scavenger compact. The output voltages for road vibrations occurring at different frequencies were tested, results have shown that using a repulsive stack approach provided an increase in output voltage when compared to that of a single magnet.
Static & Dynamic Appointment Scheduling with Stochastic Gradient Descent

This paper considers the optimization of static and dynamic appointments for a sequence of customers with random processing times served by a single agent. In the static case, the problem is to find the appointment times for the customers that minimize the expected weighted sum of idle time of the agent, waiting time of the customers, and overtime of the agent. The dynamic formulation is original. It limits cascading delays by using warning times, which are defined relative to the start of a previous job, to tell customers when to arrive for their job. The problem in this formulation is to find the warning times which minimize the aforementioned objective. We outline an algorithmic framework based on infinitesimal perturbation analysis (IPA) and stochastic gradient descent (SGD) that can be used to solve both problems. For the static case, we show that the SGD method converges to a global minimizer with no assumptions on the joint distribution of the processing durations. For the dynamic case, we construct a warning time schedule which provably outperforms the static scheme under certain conditions. We give empirical evidence of the efficacy of both approaches using both synthetic data as well as data collected from a year of elective surgeries at a local hospital. Our results suggest the validity of the dynamic formulation as a more cost-efficient solution than the static formulation to the appointment scheduling problem.
Management and Outcomes of Isolated Axillary Artery Injury: A Five-Year National Trauma Data Bank Analysis.

Background The aim of this study is to evaluate recent national trends in the clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients with isolated axillary artery injuries. Methods The National Trauma Data Bank was queried to identify records submitted from 2011 to 2015 that contained an ICD-9-CM diagnosis code for an injury to axillary artery (903.01) and an external cause of injury code indicating blunt or penetrating trauma. Records that contained a diagnosis code for an injury to an additional blood vessel (900.00–903.00, 903.2–904.9), an injury to a nonupper extremity or unclassifiable body region, or whose operative management could not be discerned were excluded. The final study sample included 221 patients with isolated axillary artery injury. The patient's clinical management was the primary outcome of interest. The study sample was stratified by trauma type, and descriptive statistics were performed on all variables. Results Seventy-one percent of patients received operative management. Patients with penetrating injury were 24% more likely to be managed operatively than bluntly injured patients (76.9% vs. 62.1%, P = 0.0178). In operatively managed patients, the open repair rate was 82.8% and endovascular repair rate was 10.2%. Graft repair was performed most often (28.0%), followed by placement of a temporary intravenous shunt (17.8%) and surgical occlusion (10.2%). Surgical vessel occlusion was significantly more likely to be performed on patients with penetrating injury than with blunt injury (14.6% vs. 1.9%, P = 0.0124). Patients with penetrating injury had significantly shorter median emergency department length of stay (87.0 min vs. 152.0 min, P Conclusions Axillary artery injury is more often caused by penetrating trauma. Despite introduction of novel endovascular techniques, the majority of patients with isolated axillary artery injury are managed using open repair. Penetrating axillary artery injury is significantly more likely to be managed using open repair and by surgical occlusion. Patients with blunt injury have higher complication rates and longer hospital length of stays. The mortality rate is lower than previously published.
Schematic reaction-theory model for nuclear fission

The $K$-matrix formalism is applied to a schematic model for nuclear fission. The purpose is to explore the dependence of observables on the assumptions made about the configuration space and nucleon interaction in the Hamiltonian of the fissile nucleus. As expected, branching ratios in induced fission are found to depend sensitively on the character of the residual interaction, whether it is pairing in form or taken from a random ensemble. On the other hand, the branching ratio is not much affected by the presence of additional configurations that do not introduce new fission paths.
Short-Term, Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program in Japan

Context Although cultural competencies in athletic training education exist, there are limited international athletic training educational opportunities available. Study abroad experiences help stu...
Microbial community composition is affected by press, but not pulse, seawater intrusion

Tidal freshwater marshes (TFMs) are threatened by seawater intrusion, which can affect microbial communities and alter biogeochemical processes. Here, we report on Seawater Addition Long Term Experiment (SALTEx), a manipulative field experiment that investigated continuous (press) and episodic (pulse, 2 months/yr) inputs of brackish water on microbial communities in a TFM. After 2.5 years, microbial diversity was lower in press treatments than in control (untreated) plots. Sulfate reducers increased in response to both press and pulse treatments whereas methanogens did not differ among treatments. Our results suggest that microbial communities in TFMs are resilient to episodic events, but that continuous seawater intrusion may alter bacterial diversity in ways that affect ecosystem functioning.
Chapter 23 – Potatoes and Human Health

The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is cultivated in much of the world as a nutritious, convenient, shelf-stable food. Research findings have clashed, though, regarding the health benefits and possible hazards of potato consumption. Popular low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets have eschewed the potato for being “fattening.” Controversies about the potato's value to human health have spurred debates on whether public subsidies for fresh potato purchase should be prohibited. On the other hand, potato offers a myriad of healthful compounds. The potato is a satisfying, nutritious, and inexpensive vegetable. This chapter focuses on potato health benefits.
Too Common to Count? "Mild" Sexual Assault and Aggression among U.S. College Women.

National estimates indicate that approximately 1 in 5 women will experience sexual assault during her time in college. However, measures of assault often exclude “mild” experiences, such as inciden...
Twelve tips to stimulate creative problem-solving with design thinking

Design thinking is increasingly applied in healthcare and health professions education to generate innovative solutions to difficult problems. The design thinking framework helps individuals approach problems with a user-centered focus; the emphasis is on understanding the user experience, their challenges, and possible design solutions that are aligned with their needs. In this twelve tips paper, we describe strategies that health professions educators can use to prepare for, conduct, and support design thinking. These strategies may also be useful to learners, practitioners, and organizations to address complex problems.
Spatial and temporal pattern of wildfires in California from 2000 to 2019

The environmental pollution, property losses and casualties caused by wildfires in California are getting worse by the year. To minimize the interference of wildfires on economic and social development, and formulate targeted mitigation strategies, it is imperative to understand the scale and extent of previous wildfire occurrences. In this study, we first investigated the temporal distributions of past wildfires in California divided by size and causes and analyzed the changes observed in the past two decades against the last century. The trend of wildfires in different time scales (yearly and monthly), as well as the distribution of wildfires across different spatial scales (administrative units, climate divisions in California from 2000 to 2019) were also studied. Furthermore, to extract the significant variables on the risk of wildfire occurrence, multivariate analyses of environmental and human-related variables with wildfire densities were carried out. The results show that the wildfire density distribution of the burned area in California conforms to the characteristics of the Pareto distribution. Over the past two decades, the frequency of small (< 500 acres), human-caused wildfires has increased most rapidly, and they are widely distributed in central and western California. The wildfire season has lengthened and the peak months have been advanced from August to July. In terms of the variables related to the risk of wildfire occurrence, the temperature, vapor pressure deficit, grass cover, and the distance to roads are crucial. This study reveals the relationship between environmental and social background conditions and the spatial-temporal distribution of wildfires, which can provide a reference for wildfire management, the formulation of future targeted wildfire emergency plans, and the planning of future land use in California.
Benchmarking of Data-Driven Causality Discovery Approaches in the Interactions of Arctic Sea Ice and Atmosphere.

The Arctic sea ice has retreated rapidly in the past few decades, which is believed to be driven by various dynamic and thermodynamic processes in the atmosphere. The newly open water resulted from sea ice decline in turn exerts large influence on the atmosphere. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the causality between multiple atmospheric processes and sea ice variations using three distinct data-driven causality approaches that have been proposed recently: Temporal Causality Discovery Framework Non-combinatorial Optimization via Trace Exponential and Augmented lagrangian for Structure learning (NOTEARS) and Directed Acyclic Graph-Graph Neural Networks (DAG-GNN). We apply these three algorithms to 39 years of historical time-series data sets, which include 11 atmospheric variables from ERA-5 reanalysis product and passive microwave satellite retrieved sea ice extent. By comparing the causality graph results of these approaches with what we summarized from the literature, it shows that the static graphs produced by NOTEARS and DAG-GNN are relatively reasonable. The results from NOTEARS indicate that relative humidity and precipitation dominate sea ice changes among all variables, while the results from DAG-GNN suggest that the horizontal and meridional wind are more important for driving sea ice variations. However, both approaches produce some unrealistic cause-effect relationships. Additionally, these three methods cannot well detect the delayed impact of one variable on another in the Arctic. It also turns out that the results are rather sensitive to the choice of hyperparameters of the three methods. As a pioneer study, this work paves the way to disentangle the complex causal relationships in the Earth system, by taking the advantage of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence technologies.
Association among trust in health care providers, friends, and family, and vaccine hesitancy.

Abstract A health care provider’s vaccination recommendation is one of the most important factors influencing parents’ decisions about whether to vaccinate their children. Unfortunately, vaccine hesitancy is associated with mistrust of health care providers and the medical system. We conducted a survey of 2440 adults through the RAND American Life Panel in 2019. Respondents were asked to rate their trust in pediatricians, OB/GYNs, doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, friends and family for information about childhood vaccines. Respondents were also asked about willingness to vaccinate a hypothetical child as a measure of vaccine hesitancy. We used principal component analysis to characterize variance in responses on trust items and logistic regression to model the relationship between trust and vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with: (1) lower overall trust; (2) reduced trust in OB/GYNs and pediatricians and greater trust in doulas, midwives, and lactation consultants; and (3) greater trust in friends and family.
A patterns catalog for RTSJ software designs

The Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) [1] offers new features for scheduling and memory management, enabling new software design possibilities. In this survey, we provide descriptions of design patterns [5] for use with these RTSJ features . We discuss a pattern which integrates scoped memory usage with periodic real-time threads. The factory pattern is extended to accommodate RTSJ memory areas. Patterns for recycling immortal memory, and for extending the lifetime of a scope are presented.