cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sleep disturbance and obsessive-compulsive symptoms: Results from the national comorbidity survey replication

A small body of developing research has found evidence for sleep disturbance in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and links between sleep disturbance and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) in unselected samples. However, the link between sleep disturbance and OCS is yet to be examined in a nationally representative sample. Furthermore, the extent to which the link between sleep disturbance and OCS is accounted for by symptoms of depression remains unclear. To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined the relationship between sleep disturbance and OCS in a nationally representative sample. Participants were assessed in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R; n = 2073). Consistent with predictions, results revealed that individuals with sleep disturbance reported increased OCS severity compared to individuals without sleep disturbance. Further, sleep disturbance severity was associated with OCS severity, even when controlling for depression (and other anxiety-related disorders). This study is the first to link sleep disturbance and OCS in a nationally representative sample, and these findings highlight the unique role of sleep disturbance in the experience of OCS. Future research is necessary to delineate specific mechanisms that may account for this relationship.
The Entropies of Adsorbed Molecules

Adsorbed molecules are involved in many reactions on solid surface that are of great technological importance. As such, there has been tremendous effort worldwide to learn how to predict reaction rates and equilibrium constants for reactions involving adsorbed molecules. Theoretical calculation of both the rate and equilibrium constants for such reactions requires knowing the entropy and enthalpy of the adsorbed molecule. While much effort has been devoted to measuring and calculating the enthalpies of well-defined adsorbates, few measurements of the entropies of adsorbates have been reported. We present here a new way to determine the standard entropies of adsorbed molecules (Sad0) on single crystal surfaces from temperature programmed desorption data, prove its accuracy by comparison to entropies measured by equilibrium methods, and apply it to published data to extract new entropies. Most importantly, when combined with reported entropies, we find that at high coverage, they linearly track the entropy ...
Broca’s Area Asymmetry and Language Deficits in Autism

The asymmetry of frontal language cortex in boys with autism, previously reported, was investigated further in a sample of 22 boys with autism compared to 9 boys with specific language impairment (SLI) and 11 normal controls, in a study at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Taxonomic Status of Short-Tailed Shrews (Blarina) in Illinois

Five hundred and twenty-one short-tailed shrews, genus Blarina , from Illinois together with 125 from South Dakota, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, were studied using multivariate analyses of morphometric characters. Two groups of shrews are readily distinguishable with no overlap in size. There are two places of sympatry in southern Illinois. The two groups represent the species Blarina brevicauda and Blarina carolinensis . Within the range of B. brevicauda , there is clinal variation from Ohio, across Illinois, to Iowa and South Dakota, but there is sufficient reason to recognize two subspecies, B. b. kirtlandi and B.b. brevicauda .
Drop-out behaviour and fertility table analysis of pregnancy rates

The life table analysis of infertility study data uses information from patients who drop out and are lost to follow-up. The fact that drop-out patients were not pregnant when last seen has been taken to be useful information that has been entered into the calculation of cumulative pregnancy rates for the population as a whole. However, drop-out patients who subsequently achieve pregnancy have motivations to return to their physician for follow-up, while those who do not become pregnant usually remain lost to follow-up. This can result in a systematic error toward reporting an excess of pregnancies, raising the apparent fecundity rates and plateau values. This study was undertaken to investigate the potential magnitude of these errors. Computer simulations of hypothetical infertility treatments using large cohorts (n = 32 000) were undertaken. Varying assumptions were made regarding post-treatment monthly fecundity rates, 'cure rates', drop-out rates and the percentage of pregnant drop-outs who would return to their physician after achieving pregnancy. Using a range of clinically reasonable assumptions, very large deviations from ideal behaviour were noted in the direction of elevated cumulative pregnancy rates. The non-ideal behaviour was most apparent with lower fecundity rates, lower 'cure rates', higher drop-out rates and higher pregnant drop-out return rates. A change in the method of data collection to minimize the impact of this bias in infertility studies is proposed. This method of active data collection is a departure from that used in classical life table studies and therefore the method is titled the 'fertility table method' in order to avoid confusion.
De-noising of Magnetic Orientation System Based on Wavelet Transform

The performance of magnetic orientation system is seriously affected by distortion noise.Based on description of working principle of magnetic orientation system and analysis on the production and characteristics of noise in magnetic orientation system,the wavelet transform is introduced into the magnetic orientation system for de-noising.In this paper,the wavelet soft-threshold function is proposed to de-noise the magnetic orientation signal.First,the statistical properties of signal and noise in the wavelet transform are analyzed,and based on the difference of statistical properties,the processing of soft-threshold function on wavelet transform coefficients of signal is done,then those coefficieats with their modulus maxima decreasing with scale increase are extracted and kept,while the coefficients with their modulus maxima having nothing to do with the scale filtered out,thus achieving the purpose of filtering out the noise in the signal.The simulation results show that this algorithm could de-noise the magnetic orientation signal and effectively enhance the performance of magnetic orientation system.
Adenosine-induced Left Ventricular Functional Changes and Its Relationship With Myocardial Ischemia Evaluated With Gated SPECT

To investigate the relationship between myocardial ischemia during adenosine stress testing and the changes in left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) measurements after stress and rest geted myocardial perfusion imaging.104 patients suspecting myocardial ischemia underwent adenosine stress-rest protocol and gated single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT).Perfusion analysis was performed with a 17-segment model.Myocardial ischemia were assessed with 5-point scale.Summed stress score(SSS),summed rest score(SRS) and summed difference score(SDS=SSS-SRS) were calcurated.An SSS score exceeding 3 points was considered positive for coronary artery disease,and SDS greater than 2 indicated resersiable ischemia.Resting and poststress LVEFs correlated significantly,and there was no significant difference between stress and rest(t=-0.655,P0.05).However,patients with reversible ischemia had significant differences in poststress versus resting LVEF,EDV and ESV.In patients with stress-induced perfusion ischemia,the LVEF after stress was significantly lower than the rest.LVEF descending in adenosine imaging indicated myocardial ischemia.
From the Peaceful Atom to the Peaceful Explosion: Indo-French Nuclear Relations During the Cold War, 1950-1974

The paper explores technological collaboration between the French and Indian Atomic Energy Commissions, using new archival documents to expose how shared opposition to U.S. information censorship and the desire to preserve foreign policy independence fostered nuclear collaboration between the two nations.
Stevenson and the Historical Romance

Frank Swinnerton’s critical study of Robert Louis Stevenson, published in the autumn of 1914, just after the Great War began, alarmed lovers of Stevenson (who had died only twenty years before). Swinnerton had noted that Stevenson’s ‘charm’, made manifest in the ease with which he made and kept friends who acted as counsellors and agents (‘No man was ever richer in well-wishers’),1 interfered with the development of an objective view of the merits of his fiction. That in itself was a disturbing observation. But what Stevenson’s ‘extraordinarily good friends’ did not want was precisely the kind of ‘objective’ view of Stevenson’s creative accomplishments that led Swinnerton to complain of the ‘lack of central or unifying idea’ and the ‘poverty of imagined character’ in the romances, and to conclude that, ‘although their literary quality is much higher, the romances — with the possible exception of Kidnapped — are inferior to the work of Captain Marryat.’2
The Role of Lipids and Lipid Metabolism in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Abstract Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) constitutes a major cause of visual morbidity. Efforts have been extended to determine the mechanisms underlying AMD pathogenesis and to develop treatments and preventive measures. This chapter reviews the relevant literature on the role of lipids and lipid metabolism on the pathogenesis of AMD with a focus on both animal and human studies. Dietary omega-3 fatty acid and the role of lipoproteins in the eye are particularly emphasized. However, though evidence suggests possible benefits to higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids in the prevention of AMD, these recommendations have yet to be fully vetted with properly developed double-blind, randomized control trials.
Testing a Matching Hypothesis for Emerging Adults in Project MATCH: During-Treatment and One-Year Outcomes

Objective:Compared with older adults, emerging adults (18-29 years old) entering treatment typically have less severe alcohol use consequences. Also, their unique clinical presentations (e.g., modest initial abstinence motivation) and developmental contexts (e.g., drinking-rich social networks) may make a straightforward implementation of treatments developed for adults less effective. Yet, this has seldom been examined empirically. This study was a secondary analysis of Project MATCH (Matching Alcoholism Treatments to Client Heterogeneity) data examining (a) overall differences between emerging adults and older adults (≥30 years old) on outcomes during treatment and at 1-year follow-up, and (b) whether emerging adults had poorer outcomes on any of the three Project MATCH treatments in particular.Method:Participants were 267 emerging adults and 1,459 older adults randomly assigned to individually delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational enhancement therapy (MET), or 12-step facilitation ...
Probing the Aggregation Mechanism of Gold Nanoparticles Triggered by a Globular Protein

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are advancing a number of areas. Meanwhile, the inevitable contact of AuNPs with surrounding biomolecules has been realized to “negatively” impact the nanoparticle (NP) function, biological environment, and even public health. Understanding the mechanisms of the NP–biomolecule interaction often leads to revealing the pathways toward the negative, deleterious effects. It is therefore essential to know the undesirable pathways so that these unwanted effects can be reduced by blocking or rerouting these pathways. A fundamental step to understand the interaction mechanism is to elucidate the changes in protein structure and dynamics and in NP properties upon the contact of AuNPs and protein, at the molecular level. However, it is challenging to probe these areas experimentally due to the large size and the complexity of the protein–nano interface. Here we report the use of a unique approach, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, to probe the structure and dynamics of a...
Mesoionic pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidinones: Discovery of dicloromezotiaz as a lepidoptera insecticide acting on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors1,2

A novel class of mesoionic pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidinones has been discovered with exceptional insecticidal activity controlling a number of insect species. In this communication, we report the part of the optimization program that led to the identification of dicloromezotiaz as a potent insecticide to control a broad range of lepidoptera. Our efforts in discovery, synthesis, structure-activity relationship elucidation, and biological activity evaluation are also presented.
Improving radiation oncology providers’ workload and performance: Can simulation-based training help?

Abstract Purpose To help with ongoing safety challenges in radiation therapy (RT), the objective of this research was to develop and assess the impact of a simulation-based training intervention on radiation oncology providers' workload and performance during treatment planning and quality assurance (QA) tasks. Methods and materials Eighteen radiation oncology professionals completed routine treatment planning and QA tasks on 2 clinical scenarios in a simulation laboratory as part of a prospective institutional review board–approved study. Workload was measured at the end of each assessment/scenario using the NASA Task-Load Index. Performance was quantified based on procedural compliance (adherence to preset/standard QA tasks), time-to-scenario completion, and clinically relevant performance. Participants were then randomized to receive (vs not receive) simulation-based training intervention (eg, standardized feedback on workload and performance) and underwent repeat measurements of workload and performance. Pre- and postintervention changes in workload and performance from participants who received (vs did not receive) were compared using 2-way analysis of variance. Results Simulation-based training was associated with significant improvements in procedural compliance ( P = .01) and increases in time-to-scenario completion ( P Conclusion Simulation-based training may be a tool to improve procedural compliance of RT professionals and to acquire new skills and knowledge to proactively maintain RT professionals' preoccupation with patient safety.
Investigating physical solutions in the architectural design of distributed ship service systems

Abstract The design of distributed ship service systems, or distributed systems, integrates concepts of vessel layout, system functionality, and the distributed systems configuration. Understanding the design relationships between these concepts is a critical aspect of investigating and developing design requirements. Thus, in the design of complex naval vessels, the distributed systems configuration, called the physical solution, must be considered in early-stage design activities to ensure that emergent functional requirements are achievable and affordable. To address this, we propose a novel perspective for modeling and investigating physical solutions in the architectural design of distributed ship service systems. Our approach uses scalable network representations of vessel layout and functional relationships within systems to stochastically generate ensembles of distributed system solutions. Ensembles are then evaluated to determine system characteristics, bringing physical solution information into early-stage requirement elucidation. We demonstrate our approach using concept-level vessel knowledge to identify distributed system characteristics, and show the method's usefulness in understanding complex distributed systems design relationships.
Source parameters of the Pt. Mugu, California, earthquake of February 21, 1973

abstract Strong-motion recordings at Port Hueneme and Pasadena, at hypocentral distances of 24 and 80 km, respectively, have been fit with a number of commonly used dislocation models. The most satisfactory model is a fault in which rupture spreads circularly from the focal point (Savage, 1966). The derived model shows bilateral rupture with a lower bound on the moment of 1.5 × 10 24 dyne-cm. With an assumed rupture velocity of 3.1 km/sec the stress drops are in the range of 50 to 200 bars. The moment of the initial rupture is well determined, but much uncertainty can exist in the other fault parameters. For example, if the rupture velocity is 1.55 km/sec, an equally good fit to the Port Hueneme record can be achieved, but a stress drop close to 4000 bars is required. The area of the initial rupture is smaller than the area outlined by the aftershock distribution. There is evidence in the Port Hueneme record that the rupture process involved a multiple earthquake, which would help explain the inconsistency between the initial slip area and the area shown by aftershocks. Studies of one-dimensional wave propagation through the sediments beneath the Port Hueneme station suggest that the surface motions have been amplified by a factor of about 2.8 compared with an equivalent bedrock recording, although the wave forms have not been distorted significantly. The observed motions were compensated for the effect of the sediments before the model fitting. A comparison of different dislocation models shows that rupture propagation effects are important in fitting the observed motions and that if the finite extent of the rupture surface is accounted for, the ω −2 high-frequency decay of the displacement spectrum often attributed to the Haskell dislocation model should be closer to ω −3 .
Geographical Clusters and Predictors of Rabies in Three Southeastern States.

Abstract The rabies virus causes progressive encephalomyelitis that is fatal in nearly 100% of untreated cases. In the United States, wildlife act as the primary reservoir for rabies; prevention, surveillance, and control costs remain high. The purpose of this study is to understand the current distribution of wildlife rabies in three southeastern states, with particular focus on raccoons as the primary eastern reservoir, as well as identify demographic and geographic factors which may affect the risk of human exposure. This ecologic study obtained county-level rabies surveillance data from state health departments and the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife services for North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia from 2010 to 2013. A spatial statistical analysis was performed to identify county clusters with high or low rates of raccoon rabies in the three states. Potential demographic and geographic factors associated with these varying rates of rabies were assessed using a multivariable ne...
Socioeconomic disparities in the thoracic trauma population

Abstract Background Health-care disparities based on socioeconomic status have been well documented in the trauma literature; however, there is a paucity of data on how these factors affect outcomes in patients experiencing severe thoracic trauma. This study aims to identify the effect of insurance status and race on patient mortality and disposition after thoracic trauma. Methods The National Trauma Data Bank was queried from 2007 to 2012 for patients with sternal fractures, rib fractures, and flailed chest. Demographics data were examined for the cohort based on insurance status. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used, controlling for patient comorbidities, age, injury severity score, and associated injuries, to determine the impact of race and insurance status on length of stay, mortality, and discharge disposition. Results A total of 152,655 thoracic traumas were included in our analysis. As compared to privately insured patients, uninsured patients with thoracic trauma were 1.9 times more likely to die (odds ratio [OR]: 1.91, confidence interval [CI]: 1.76-2.09) and 4.6 times more likely to leave against medical advice (OR: 4.61, CI: 3.14-6.79). When compared to Caucasians, Hispanics had slightly higher in-hospital mortality (OR: 1.14, CI: 1.02-1.27), but there was no survival difference seen in black patients (OR: 0.95, CI: 0.86-1.05). Conclusions Insurance status appears to have a more significant effect on thoracic trauma patient outcomes than race, but substantial socioeconomic disparities were seen in this patient population. Further studies are needed to show reproducibility of our findings and to investigate the impact of universal health care and expansion of insurance availability on thoracic trauma outcomes. Level of evidence Level 3, economic/decision.
Formulation and Iso-Geometric Analysis of Scalar Integral Equations for Electromagnetic Scattering

Traditional integral equation-based models for field scattering start with defining an equivalent current on the surface of an object and then conditions on the tangential components of the fields. These models are restatements of the equivalence theorem. More recent trend has been to develop systems of equations that rely on scalar quantities (both sources and observables). In this paper, we present three different scalar integral equations. The first integral equation is well conditioned at low frequencies, the second is a well-conditioned Fredholm integral equation of the second kind, and the third is a linear combination the first two. We examine the properties of these integral equations using spectral analysis for spherical geometries. Iso-geometric analysis method, developed recently by some of the authors, is used to solve these equations for noncanonical geometries. Numerical examples provided show the spectral properties and performance of the proposed approach for scattering from perfectly conducting objects.
Mixed-phenotype large granular lymphocytic leukemia: a rare subtype in the large granular lymphocytic leukemia spectrum

Large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGLL) is a chronic proliferation of cytotoxic lymphocytes in which more than 70% of patients develop cytopenia(s) requiring therapy. LGLL includes T-cell LGLL and chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer (NK) cells. The neoplastic cells in LGLL usually exhibit a single immunophenotype in a patient, with CD8-positive/αβ T-cell type being the most common, followed by NK-cell, γδ T-cell, and CD4-positive/αβ T-cell types. We investigated a total of 220 LGLL cases and identified 12 mixed-phenotype LGLLs (5%): 7 cases with coexistent αβ T-cell and NK-cell clones and 5 with coexistent αβ and γδ T-cell clones. With a median follow-up of 48 months, the clinicopathological characteristics of these patients seemed similar to those of typical LGLL patients. Treatment was instituted in 9 patients, and 5 patients (55%) attained complete hematologic response or partial response. The therapeutic response rate of this cohort is comparable to the reported overall response rate of 40% to 60% in typical LGLL patients. Three patients who did not receive any treatment had progressive or persistent cytopenias. Interestingly, inverted proportions of 2 clones at disease recurrence were identified in 4 patients (36%) and stable clonal proportions in 7 patients (64%). Mixed-phenotype LGLL is rare, and this study underscores the importance of recognizing this rare type of LGLL in patients who may benefit from LGLL treatment.
Assessment of Patients with Suspected Coronary Artery Disease

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the single greatest cause of morbidity and mortality for men and women in the United States despite the reduction in mortality that has been seen over recent years. This underscores the importance of early identification of patients most at risk for the development of coronary artery disease. Stress myocardial perfusion imaging has been validated as an efficient non-invasive modality in the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD). Although extremely useful, the efficacy of MPI is dependent on appropriate utilization and testing should be performed when the results will significantly affect clinical management. While the evaluation of patients with no known CAD requires careful selection, the identification of “at risk” patients provides important management data.
Cost‐effectiveness of hepatitis C–positive donor kidney transplantation for hepatitis C–negative recipients with concomitant direct‐acting antiviral therapy

Pilot studies suggest that transplanting hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive donor (D+) kidneys into HCV-negative renal transplant (RT) recipients (R-), then treating HCV with direct-acting antivirals (DAA) is clinically feasible. To determine whether this is a cost-effective approach, a decision tree model was developed to analyze costs and effectiveness over a 5-year time frame between 2 choices: RT using a D+/R- strategy compared to continuing dialysis and waiting for a HCV-negative donor (D-/R-). The strategy of accepting a HCV+ organ then treating HCV was slightly more effective and substantially less expensive and resulted in an expected 4.8 years of life (YOL) with a cost of ≈$138 000 compared to an expected 4.7 YOL with a cost of ≈$329 000 for the D-/R- strategy. The D+/R- strategy remained dominant after sensitivity analyses including the difference in RT death probabilities or acute rejection probabilities between using D+ vs D- kidney; time that D-/R- patients waited for RT; dialysis death probabilities while waitlisted for RT in the D-/R- strategy; DAA therapy expected cure rate; costs of transplant, immunosuppressives, DAA therapy, dialysis, or acute rejection. The D+/R- strategy followed by treatment with DAA is less costly and slightly more effective compared to the D-/R- strategy.
The Landscape of US Lung Cancer Screening Services

Background Low adoption of lung cancer screening is potentially caused by inadequate access to a comprehensive lung cancer screening registry (LCSR), currently a requirement for reimbursement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. However, variations in LCSR facilities have not been extensively studied. Methods We applied a hierarchical clustering method to a comprehensive database integrating state-level LCSR facility density, defined as the number of facilities per 100,000 at-risk persons, lung cancer outcomes including mortality and stage-specific incidence, and socioeconomic and behavioral factors. Results We found three distinct clusters of LCSR facilities roughly corresponding to the northern (cluster 1), southeastern (cluster 2), and southwestern (cluster 3) states. The southeastern states had the lowest total number of facilities (67 ± 44 in cluster 2, 74 ± 69 in cluster 1, 80 ± 100 in cluster 3), the slowest increase in facilities (23 ± 20 in cluster 2, 26 ± 28 in cluster 1, 27 ± 32 in cluster 3) between 2016 and 2018, and the highest lung cancer burden and current smokers. They ranked second in terms of facility density (2.9 ± 1.0 in cluster 3, 3.8 ± 1.3 in cluster 2, 6.3 ± 2.8 in cluster 1) and increase in facility density (1.1 ± 0.3 in cluster 3, 1.3 ± 0.7 in cluster 2, 2.5 ± 2.5 in cluster 1). Conclusions We found substantial state-level variability in LCSR facilities tied to lung cancer burden, socioeconomic characteristics, and behavioral characteristics. Given the known risk factors of lung cancer, correcting a suboptimal distribution of screening programs will likely lead to improved lung cancer outcomes.
Cultivating Genre Awareness in the University Writing Classroom

Though genre theory has been central to discussions in writing scholarship for 30 years, it is not as central in other academic fields. This poster is based on a Masters thesis project which studies genre theory, genre awareness, and professorsâ curricular choices via interviews with Writing Intensive (WI) faculty and an analysis of WI course syllabi and writing assignments. Overall data reveals that professors are asking students to write primarily for an audience of their professors and that writing is used primarily to measure their studentsâ understanding of course content, though some faculty do focus on genre and rhetorical awareness to a lesser degree. These findings suggest that classroom practices donât align with composition and genre scholarship, nor with the values professors espouse themselves. Further, writing in this way does not prepare students to write in other contexts for other purposes, audiences, and genres. This poster seeks to raise genre awareness among faculty, so that they might cultivate such an awareness for students. It also recommends faculty consider using genre analysis that recognizes writing as a dynamic social act of negotiation in the classroom. Further recommendations are made to help faculty raise genre awareness in the ways they situate writing assignments and feedback for students.
Comparing Statistics of Maximum Likelihood, Gardner, and Band Edge Filter Timing Recovery

The signal delivered to a receiver is a distorted, time jittered, noisy version of a waveform created by the transmitter as a weighted sum of time offset known bandwidth limited symbol wave shapes. The receiver forms a locally generated estimate of the symbol clock frequency and phase aligned with the optimal sample time instances of the receiver’s correlator wave shape. Many techniques have been developed for timing recovery, the most well-known being Maximum Likelihood, Gardner, and Band Edge. We examine and compare important statistics of the three processes and discuss their influence on the timing synchronization process.
Approaches to the synthesis of heptitol derivatives via iron-mediated stereocontrolled functionalization of cycloheptatrienone.

Stereocontrolled reduction of tropone-Fe(CO){dollar}{bsol}sb3{dollar} (1){dollar}{bsol}sp*{dollar} followed by alcohol protection gives the ((trialkylsilyl)-oxy) cycloheptatriene complex (2). Osmylation of 2 proceeds with complete stereoselectivity to give the protected trihydroxycycloheptadiene complex 3, treatment of which with acid in presence of methanol gives the symmetrically substituted trioxygenated diene complex 4. Demetallation of these complexes, followed by stereocontrolled diene oxygenation and ring cleavage, provides methodology for the construction of heptitol derivatives. Conversion of complex 4 to ether substituted dienyl-Fe(CO){dollar}{bsol}sb3{dollar} cationic complexes 5 and 6 were studied. These complexes react with nuclophiles to give diene-, enediyl- or dienyl-Fe(CO){dollar}{bsol}sb2{dollar}L complexes depending on the nature of spectator ligand and the nucleophile. Extension of the stereocontrol functionalization by nucleophilic additions to the corresponding cycloocta-1,3-dieneiron complexes 6 and 7 was attempted. Unlike the cyclohepta-1,3-dieneiron complexes the eight membered ring complexes were difficult to handle and 1,4-difuncionalization could not be achieved on these complexes by successive nucleophilic additions. An alternate route involving electrophilic addition to the triene 10 followed by nucleophilic addition on the di enyl salt 11 thus generated was successful for synthesizing doubly functionalized cyclooctadiene complexes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) ftn{dollar}{bsol}sp*{dollar}Please refer to dissertation for diagrams.
“Walking Gently on the Earth”: An Interview with Nana Firman on Islamic Environmental Ethics

This paper explores Islamic interpretations that contribute to understandings of the importance of protecting the environment and living a “green” lifestyle. These concepts are explored within the wider sphere of eco-theology. In addition to an exploration of these concepts in general, this paper specifically aims to understand how Muslims interpret their role in environmental stewardship. Its focus is an interview with Nana Firman, GreenFaith’s Muslim director and the co-director of the Islamic Society of North America’s Green Mosque Initiative. This interview provides the basis for explorations into a faith-based environmental activism in the Muslim American community.
Learning and Recognizing 3D Objects from Multiple Views in a Neural System

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on learning and recognizing 3D objects from multiple views in a neural system. In this approach of designing a 3D object recognition system, clues from biology and psychology are taken to develop an architecture that supports the learning of representations for 3D objects from view sequences and allows subsequent experience to refine the learned representations. The computations are cast as a set of simultaneous coupled differential equations, rather than as algorithmic procedures. The implementation is modular in the sense that the sets of coupled equations (that is, networks) are interconnected so that information flows from one network to another via feed forward and feedback connections between them. Similar learning principles can be realized by analog electronic devices. The attributes of an object's appearance that are extracted by the network architecture are increasingly abstract as higher levels of the architecture are activated. The portion of the image that is fixated is first reduced to a feature set, then the effects of position are eliminated, followed by the effects of orientation and scale, followed by the effects of foreshortening and per­spective (to some extent), and followed by the effects of the particular vantage point. The computational load is distributed throughout the modules.
Sarcoid-like Histiocytic Proliferations in Patients With Lymphoma Can Be FDG-avid Concerning for Refractory or Recurrent Disease

Abstract Sarcoidosis has been shown to be associated with increased risk of development of several malignancies including lymphomas. On the other hand, “sarcoid-like reactions” in the absence of other clinical signs of sarcoidosis, have also been described in patients who had been treated with chemotherapy for a wide variety of malignancies. In this article, we report 3 cases who had PET-CT scans concerning for recurrence of the disease after receiving therapy for lymphoma. Upon further investigation, patients were found to have FDG avidity secondary to sarcoid-like reactions, rather than a recurrence of the lymphoma. Although PET imaging is extremely useful in the management of lymphoma, they need to be interpreted with caution. Any FDG avid finding that is suspicious for recurrence need to be thoroughly investigated, likely with histologic confirmation.
Honeycrisp: large-scale differentially private aggregation without a trusted core

Recently, a number of systems have been deployed that gather sensitive statistics from user devices while giving differential privacy guarantees. One prominent example is the component in Apple's macOS and iOS devices that collects information about emoji usage and new words. However, these systems have been criticized for making unrealistic assumptions, e.g., by creating a very high "privacy budget" for answering queries, and by replenishing this budget every day, which results in a high worst-case privacy loss. However, it is not obvious whether such assumptions can be avoided if one requires a strong threat model and wishes to collect data periodically, instead of just once. In this paper, we show that, essentially, it is possible to have one's cake and eat it too. We describe a system called Honeycrisp whose privacy cost depends on how often the data changes, and not on how often a query is asked. Thus, if the data is relatively stable (as is likely the case, e.g., with emoji and word usage), Honeycrisp can answer periodic queries for many years, as long as the underlying data does not change too often. Honeycrisp accomplishes this by using a) the sparse-vector technique, and b) a combination of cryptographic techniques to enable global differential privacy without a trusted party. Using a prototype implementation, we show that Honeycrisp is efficient and can scale to large deployments.
Post-disaster communalism: land use, ownership, and the shifting ‘publicness’ of urban space in recovery

Disasters disrupt the functions and meanings of urban spaces, often prompting changes in their ownership, management, and use. This study examines two such disaster events: riverine flooding in Lex...
Dangerously Divided: How Race and Class Shape Winning and Losing in American Politics

As America has become more racially diverse and economic inequality has increased, American politics has also become more clearly divided by race and less clearly divided by class. In this landmark book, Zoltan L. Hajnal draws on sweeping data to assess the political impact of the two most significant demographic trends of last fifty years. Examining federal and local elections over many decades, as well as policy, Hajnal shows that race more than class or any other demographic factor shapes not only how Americans vote but also who wins and who loses when the votes are counted and policies are enacted. America has become a racial democracy, with non-Whites and especially African Americans regularly on the losing side. A close look at trends over time shows that these divisions are worsening, yet also reveals that electing Democrats to office can make democracy more even and ultimately reduce inequality in well-being.
Characterizing fear of weight gain and sensitivity to weight gain in individuals seeking weight loss treatment

Weight concern, including fear of weight gain and sensitivity to weight gain, is indicative of disordered eating in individuals with underweight or healthy weight. It is unknown, however, whether or how these constructs present in individuals with excess weight, particularly among those with binge-eating disorder (BED). This study sought to characterize fear of weight gain and sensitivity to weight gain and examine their relationship with disordered eating and depression symptoms, in individuals seeking weight loss treatment, both with and without BED. Adults seeking weight loss treatment in an urban primary care clinic (N = 131) completed the Eating Disorder Examination interview and Beck Depression Inventory. Height and weight were collected. Clinical levels of fear of weight gain and sensitivity to weight gain were present in this sample. Individuals with BED reported experiencing fear of weight gain (48.6%), significantly more than those without BED (20.9%); both groups reported similar and clinically elevated sensitivity to weight gain. Both constructs were related to greater levels of disordered eating and depression symptoms, at times based on BED status. Fear of weight gain was associated with overvaluation of weight and shape for those without BED only. Objective and subjective bulimic episodes were unrelated to fear of weight gain or sensitivity to weight gain, regardless of BED status. Fear of weight gain and sensitivity to weight gain were common in this sample and may be maladaptive, as evidenced by associations with elevated eating psychopathology. Future studies should examine these variables within larger samples and should employ longitudinal designs. Level III: case–control analytic study.
DeepTrust: An Automatic Framework to Detect Trustworthy Users in Opinion-based Systems

Opinion spamming has recently gained attention as more and more online platforms rely on users' opinions to help potential customers make informed decisions on products and services. Yet, while work on opinion spamming abounds, most efforts have focused on detecting an individual reviewer as spammer or fraudulent. We argue that this is no longer sufficient, as reviewers may contribute to an opinion-based system in various ways, and their input could range from highly informative to noisy or even malicious. In an effort to improve the detection of trustworthy individuals within opinion-based systems, in this paper, we develop a supervised approach to differentiate among different types of reviewers. Particularly, we model the problem of detecting trustworthy reviewers as a multi-class classification problem, wherein users may be fraudulent, unreliable or uninformative, or trustworthy. We note that expanding from the classic binary classification of trustworthy/untrustworthy (or malicious) reviewers is an interesting and challenging problem. Some untrustworthy reviewers may behave similarly to reliable reviewers, and yet be rooted by dark motives. On the contrary, other untrustworthy reviewers may not be malicious but rather lazy or unable to contribute to the common knowledge of the reviewed item. Our proposed method, DeepTrust, relies on a deep recurrent neural network that provides embeddings aggregating temporal information: we consider users' behavior over time, as they review multiple products. We model the interactions of reviewers and the products they review using a temporal bipartite graph and consider the context of each rating by including other reviewers' ratings of the same items. We carry out extensive experiments on a real-world dataset of Amazon reviewers, with known ground truth about spammers and fraudulent reviews. Our results show that DeepTrust can detect trustworthy, uninformative, and fraudulent users with an F1-measure of 0.93. Also, we drastically improve on detecting fraudulent reviewers (AUROC of 0.97 and average precision of 0.99 when combining DeepTrust with the F&G algorithm) as compared to REV2 state-of-the-art methods (AUROC of 0.79 and average precision of 0.48). Further, DeepTrust is robust to cold start users and overperforms all existing baselines.
Why Contact Tracing Efforts Have Failed to Curb Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Transmission in Much of the United States.

By late April 2020, public discourse in the U.S. had shifted toward the idea of using more targeted case-based mitigation tactics (e.g., contact tracing) to combat COVID-19 transmission while allowing for the safe "re-opening" of society, in an effort to reduce the social, economic, and political ramifications associated with stricter approaches. Expanded tracing-testing efforts were touted as a key solution that would allow for a precision approach, thus preventing economies from having to shut down again. However, it is now clear that many regions of the U.S. were unable to mount robust enough testing-tracing programs to prevent major resurgences of disease. This viewpoint offers a discussion of why testing-tracing efforts failed to sufficiently mitigate COVID-19 across much of the nation, with the hope that such deliberation will help the U.S. public health community better plan for the future.
CPM: A general feature dependency pattern mining framework for contrast multivariate time series

Abstract With recent advances in sensor technology, multivariate time series data are becoming extremely large with sophisticated but insightful inter-variable dependency patterns. Mining contrast dependency patterns in controlled experiments can help quantify the differences between control and experimental time series, however, overwhelms practitioners’ capability. Existing methods suffer from determining whether the differences are caused by the intervention or by different states. We propose a novel Contrast Pattern Mining (CPM) framework to find the intervention-related differences by jointly determining and characterizing the dynamic states in both time series via multivariate Gaussian distributions. Under the CPM framework, we not only propose a new covariance-based contrast pattern model, but also integrate our previous proposed partial correlation-based model as a special case. An efficient generic algorithm is developed to optimize various CPM models by adjusting one of the sub-routines. Comprehensive experiments are conducted to analyze the effectiveness, scalability, utility, and interpretability of the proposed framework.
Safety and Efficacy of an Enhanced Recovery Protocol After Hepatic Resection.

Enhanced recovery protocols (ERPs) have shown to improve outcomes in multiple specialties and were recently applied to hepatic resections. The objective of this study was to determine the safety an...
New names and new combinations for hypnalean mosses

Several nomenclatural changes in the Hypnales are proposed in order to purify the circumscription of Pseudotaxiphyllum and Taxiphyllum. Three species of Pseudotaxiphyllum (P. falcifolium, P. homomallifolium and P. richardsii) do not fit well in any current genus, or belong to distinctive subgeneric lineages, which necessitates the description of novel taxa (Margrethypnum gen. nov., Redfearnia gen. nov., and Taxiphyllum subgen. Parataxiphyllum subgen. nov.). A fourth species, Pseudotaxiphyllum distichaceum [≡ Stereodon distichaceus], is transferred to Longiella, leaving only species that produce branch-like gemmae in Pseudotaxiphyllum. Five species of Taxiphyllum are transferred to other genera: T. fluitans and T. gabonense to Ectropothecium, T. laevifolium [≡ E. laevifolium] to Phyllodon, T. ligulaefolium [≡ Glossadelphus ligulaefolius] to Mittenothamnium, and T. torrentium [≡ Amblystegium torrentium] to Bryocrumia. A 50-taxon ITS-based phylogeny is included for illustrative purposes. Plagiothecium sect. Stansvikia is established to accommodate a group of medium-sized to large, glossy, autoicous species with an austral oceanic distribution. Included taxa are P. subantarcticum sp. nov. [= P. Donianum sensu Mitten 1869] from Tierra del Fuego, P. falklandicum, P. georgicoantarcticum, P. georgicoantarcticum var. antarcticum comb. nov. [≡ Hypnum antarcticum] from the Kerguelen Islands, and P. novae-seelandiae. Phylogenetically, sect. Stansvikia belongs to the core of the genus and is related to both sect. Plagiothecium and sect. Leptophyllum (P. lucidum s.l.).
Design of a Sophisticated Driver Drowsiness Detection System

This paper will examine the design lifecycle of an interface that is used to detect and react to the driver's drowsiness. Specifically, it will focus on understanding and improving such interfaces, with the ultimate goal of providing better detection and alert systems to drivers who experience symptoms of drowsiness. The updated interface is expected to provide both passive and active assistance to drivers who experience such symptoms. For the purpose of this project, we will use surveys, think-alouds, evaluation of existing UI, and analysis of product reviews as our preferred needfinding approaches. Our main prototypes include a textual prototype and a wireframe prototype. We also included a verbal prototype, which can be found in Appendix I. For our evaluation planning, we selected a qualitative approach and a predictive approach. The final results of our paper show that most drivers are eager to use a reliable and accurate drowsiness detection system like the one we built.
Self-assembly behavior of oligo(ethylene glycol) substituted polycaprolactone homopolymers

Amphiphilic homopolymers are gaining importance due to their easy synthesis compared to copolymers and their ability to assemble into various nanostructures. The majority of reported amphiphilic homopolymers have a non-biodegradable backbone, are charged, and are dependent on pH for assembly. In this work, we report the self-assembly behavior of non-ionic amphiphilic poly(γ-oligo(ethylene glycol)-e-caprolactone) homopolymers (PMExCL, x = 2, 3, and 4), and a novel poly(N-dodecyl-N-(2-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethoxy)ethyl)-7-oxoxepane-4-carboxamide (PME3DDCL) homopolymer. These synthesized amphiphilic homopolymers readily self-assembled forming micelles in a polar environment. PMExCL also exhibited thermoresponsivity; hence, several parameters that affect the thermoresponsivity of these polymers were studied, such as degree of polymerization, concentration, heating rate, and length of oligo(ethylene glycol) side chains. The size, morphology, and thermodynamic stability were investigated, and the micelles were loaded with eugenol to explore the possibility of using the micelles for drug encapsulation. These self-assembled homopolymers hold promise for vast applications, particularly in the biomedical field.