cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Long-term evolution of glycerol intolerance syndrome.

The two diagnostic tools used, ultrasonography and serum thyroglobulin determinations, were found to give complementary information about the presence and the functional state of the thyroid gland. In our athyroid patients, the absence of thyroid tissue on ultrasound evaluation was confirmed by undetectable serum Tg levels; conversely, Tg was measurable in serum when thyroid glands were visualized by sonography. In the five infants with hypoplastic thyroids glands, serum Tg levels varied widely, showing the existence of functioning thyroid tissue, although not to such a degree as to give normal serum hormone values. In these patients during thyroxine therapy, there was normalization of T4 and TSH values, with a reduction in Tg levels. A physiologic decrease of serum Tg levels has been reported during the first year of life? Our data are in accordance with the results of two recent reports ~,2 comparing serum Tg levels with thyroid scintigraphic findings in hypothyroid infants; we were able to document a similar good correlation between serum Tg levels and thyroid ultrasound data. This observation may have practical diagnostic relevance: if our results are confirmed in a larger series, the combined serum Tg assay and thyroid ultrasound evaluation may gain wide acceptance for the differential diagnosis of congenitally hypothyroid infants detected through neonatal screening programs. Thyroid ultrasound is a simple, sensitive, and noninvasive diagnostic tool that would be ideal for evaluating thyroid anatomy in early life and before therapy, possibly substituting for radionuclide scans. The functional information provided by serum Tg levels should be complemented by morphologic data obtained with ultrasound or radionuclide scan. In hypothyroid infants with undetectable serum Tg levels but with normally placed thyroid tissue, l the discordance between Tg assay and morphologic thyroid examination suggest a biosynthetic defect of thyroid hormone production ~ or a lack of thyroid stimulation caused by hypothalamic or pituitary defects.
60 GHz CMOS Amplifiers Using Transformer-Coupling and Artificial Dielectric Differential Transmission Lines for Compact Design

57-65 GHz differential and transformer-coupled power and variable-gain amplifiers using a commercial 90 nm digital CMOS process are presented. On-chip transformers combine bias, stability and input/interstage matching networks to enable compact designs. Balanced transmission lines with artificial dielectric strips provide substrate shielding and increase the effective dielectric constant up to 54 for further size reduction. Consequently, the designed three-stage power amplifier occupies only an area of only 0.15 mm2. Under a 1.2 V supply, it consumes 70 mA and obtains small-signal gains exceeding 15 dB, saturated output power over 12 dBm and associated peak power-added efficiency (PAE) over 14% across the band. The variable-gain amplifier, based on the same principle, achieved a peak gain of 25 dB with 8 dB of gain variation.
Strategic voting in the California recall election

Given people’s interest in all things California, the novelty of the recall mechanism, and the presence of a bona fide action hero in the race, it is not surprising that the 2003 California recall election attracted an inordinate amount of national attention. The circus-like atmosphere should not, however, obscure the interesting implications of the recall election for our understanding of the broader phenomenon of strategic voting. We argue that partisans faced two different strategic voting scenarios in California, with Democrats confronting a slightly more subtle set of criteria and circumstances than Republicans. Drawing on individual-level survey data designed to gauge candidate affect and second-choice preferences, we find that strategic voting was common (although by no means unanimous) among those whose preferences placed them in a position to cast such a strategic vote.
Seebeck coefficient measurements of lithium isotopes

Abstract Lithium, owing to its many advantages, is of immense interest to the fusion community for its use as plasma facing component (PFC) material. Various experiments are under progress in the Center for Plasma Material Interactions (CPMI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) aimed at understanding the plasma–lithium interactions. In one such experiment called Solid/Liquid Lithium Divertor Experiment (SLiDE), it was recently observed that the flow of liquid lithium in the presence of magnetic fields is dominated by thermoelectric Magnetohydrodynamic (TEMHD) effects. To describe these results accurately, a knowledge of the thermoelectric properties of lithium is essential. For this purpose, an apparatus to measure the Seebeck coefficient of lithium was developed. Using this apparatus, the Seebeck coefficient of lithium as a function of temperature has been obtained. The Seebeck coefficient of lithium-7 is found to gradually increase from 11 μV/K to 25 μV/K, as the temperature is raised from 25 °C to 240 °C. These measurements are in good agreement with Kendall’s thermoelectric measurements on natural Li. Furthermore, using the same apparatus, the thermoelectric curve of lithium-6 is obtained and for the first time are reported in this paper.
Computationally light forehead segmentation from thermal images

Thermal images are often paired with visible spectrum images captured simultaneously—as surface features are easier to identify with proper illumination—to determine the thermal feature locations. Not all thermal images are necessarily recorded this way, yet determining salient feature regions is beneficial to other tasks. The forehead region is useful to the field of vital signs analysis and the goal of this work is automatically identifying the forehead region solely from thermal images. The anatomy of the forehead and its thermo-dynamic properties lend itself to minimizing the variance of a facial thermogram. Experiments conducted indoors on 32 subjects under normal, exercise and pain conditions. The proposed solution identifies the forehead region with 90–95% accuracy in 80ms or less, without initialization or training data, and can be easily implemented in parallel.
Tracking pointers with path and context sensitivity for bug detection in C programs

This paper proposes a pointer alias analysis for automatic error detection. State-of-the-art pointer alias analyses are either too slow or too imprecise for finding errors in real-life programs. We propose a hybrid pointer analysis that tracks actively manipulated pointers held in local variables and parameters accurately with path and context sensitivity and handles pointers stored in recursive data structures less precisely but efficiently. We make the unsound assumption that pointers passed into a procedure, in parameters, global variables, and locations reached by applying simple access paths to parameters and global variables, are all distinct from each other and from any other locations. This assumption matches the semantics of many functions, reduces spurious aliases and speeds up the analysis.We present a program representation, called IPSSA, which captures intraprocedural and interprocedural definition-use relationships of directly and indirectly accessed memory locations. This representation makes it easy to create demand-driven path-sensitive and context-sensitive analyses.We demonstrate how a program checker based on IPSSA can be used to find security violations. Our checker, when applied to 10 programs, found 6 new violations and 8 previously reported ones. The checker generated only one false warning, suggesting that our approach is effective in creating practical and easy-to-use bug detection tools.
A Comparison of the Stability of Beverage Cloud Emulsions Formulated with Different Gum Acacia‐ and Starch‐Based Emulsifiers

The performance of several hydrocolloids (3 gum acacias, 1 modified gum acacia, and 3 modified starches) in stabilizing beverage emulsions and corresponding model beverages was investigated employing different core materials, emulsifier usage levels, and storage temperatures. Concentrated emulsions were prepared using orange terpenes or Miglyol 812 (comprising medium-chain triglycerides, MCT) weighted 1:1 with ester gum, stored at 25 or 35 degrees C, and analyzed on days 0, 1, and 3. On day 3, model beverages were made from each emulsion, stored at both temperatures, and analyzed weekly for 4 wk. Stability of concentrated emulsions was assessed by measuring mean particle size and by visual observations of ringing; beverage stability was judged similarly and also by loss of turbidity. Particle size measurements showed concentrated emulsions containing gum acacia or modified gum acacia with either core material were stable over 3 d storage at both temperatures whereas those made with modified starches were not, destabilization being faster at 35 degrees C. Beverages based on orange terpenes, in contrast to Miglyol, yielded smaller mean particle sizes, both on manufacture and during storage, regardless of hydrocolloid used. Visual observations of ringing generally supported this finding. Modified gum acacia was evaluated at both recommended and higher usage levels, stability increasing in the latter case. In general, all gum acacia and modified gum acacia emulsifiers were superior in stability to those based on modified starches, at either temperature, for orange terpene-based beverages. In Miglyol-based beverages, similar results were seen, except 1 modified starch performed as well as the gum acacia products.
Molecular Pathways: MERTK Signaling in Cancer

MERTK is a receptor tyrosine kinase of the TAM (Tyro3, Axl, MERTK) family, with a defined spectrum of normal expression. However, MERTK is overexpressed or ectopically expressed in a wide variety of cancers, including leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer, glioblastoma, melanoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, gastric cancer, pituitary adenomas, and rhabdomyosarcomas, potentially resulting in the activation of several canonical oncogenic signaling pathways. These include the mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathways, as well as regulation of signal transducer and activator of transcription family members, migration-associated proteins including the focal adhesion kinase and myosin light chain 2, and prosurvival proteins such as survivin and Bcl-2. Each has been implicated in MERTK physiologic and oncogenic functions. In neoplastic cells, these signaling events result in functional phenotypes such as decreased apoptosis, increased migration, chemoresistance, increased colony formation, and increased tumor formation in murine models. Conversely, MERTK inhibition by genetic or pharmacologic means can reverse these pro-oncogenic phenotypes. Multiple therapeutic approaches to MERTK inhibition are currently in development, including ligand "traps", a monoclonal antibody, and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Global Intermodal Tank Container Management for the Chemical Industry

The scale of the global chemical industry is enormous: in 2003, the total value of global production exceeded US$1.7 trillion. International logistics is especially crucial to the high-value chemicals industry, since raw materials sources, production facilities, and consumer markets are distributed globally. Fluctuating demand, imbalanced trade flows, and expensive transportation equipment necessitate dynamic asset management. This paper focuses on asset management problems faced by tank container operators, and formulates an operational tank container management problem as a large-scale multi-commodity flow problem on a time-discretized network. By integrating container routing and repositioning decisions in a single model, total operating costs and fleet sizes can be reduced. A computational study verifies this hypothesis.
Rethinking the Meaning of Biological Information

Throughout the history of molecular biology, the primary meaning of biological information has been taken from the image of a word-based linguistic code. I want to argue that the metaphor of such a code does not begin to capture either the variety or the richness of the processes by which nucleotide sequences inform biological processes. Current research demonstrates that nucleotide sequences inform not only development but also heredity and evolution, and they do so in all sorts of ways. Even though they do not exhaust the varieties of biological information employed in these processes, I claim that the power of DNA sequences to inform these processes is richer and perhaps far greater than the conventional understanding of genetic information permits, indeed richer than what any of our images of simple linguistic codes or of senders and receivers permits. Rather than a tape in a Turing machine or a message or signal sent through the generations, DNA is first and foremost a physicochemical structure with a range of potential uses by the physicochemical arsenal of biological cells that is so large as to expose the poverty of our most familiar metaphors. Recognition of this fact leads us to conclude that DNA is both more and less than we thought—more because it carries both symbolic and non-symbolic information and less because accepting that fact undermines its radical distinction from other biological molecules.
Monitoring free flow traffic using vehicular networks

We present DTMon, a dynamic traffic monitiroing system using vehicular networks, and analyze its performance in free flow (i.e., non-congested) traffic. DTMon uses roadside infrastructure to gather and report current traffic conditions to traffic management centers and equipped vehicles. We analyze how traffic characteristics such as speed, flow rate, percentage of communicating vehicles, and distance from the DTMon measurement point to the roadside infrastructure affects the amount and quality of data that can be gathered and delivered. We evaluate five different methods of delivering data from vehicles to the roadside infrastructure, including pure vehicle-to-vehicle communication, store-and-carry, and hybrid methods. Methods that employ some amount of store-and-carry can increase the delivery rate, but also increase the message delay. We show that with just a few pieces of roadside infrastructure, DTMon can gather high-quality travel time and speed data even with a low percentage of communicating vehicles.
Numerical Simulations of Nine-Building Portions of a Typical City

This paper summarizes research conducted in the first half of FY 2005 under High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) Challenge Project C-83 "Evaluation and Retrofit for Blast Protection in Urban Terrain." This is a 6-month extension to the Challenge Project originally scheduled to end at the end of FY 2004. The ERDC is continuing the development of improved models for predicting the blast environment for high-explosive detonations in urban terrain. This is an integrated experimental analytical program, where high performance computing (HPC) simulations are used to assist in designing experiments. The experiments are used to validate the numerical simulations, and the validated numerical simulations are used to help in understanding the phenomenology associated with blast in urban terrain. The experimental and numerical research is used to develop engineering models that can be used to quickly predict effects of adjacent buildings on the blast load on a building of interest. The primary focus of FY 2005 research was the simulation of blast environment for two different sets of nine buildings. Each nine-building configuration includes the two-building configuration simulated and tested previously. This report summarizes the effects of the additional seven buildings on the loads applied to the two buildings originally tested.
Overview of the Commentaries on “The Changing Landscape of Employee Rewards: Observations and Prescriptions”

This article first summarizes key themes from a recent article by Gerald Ledford that was published in Organizational Dynamics. That article reviewed changes in employee reward systems during the p...
The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond – By Barry Eichengreen

In this work, Barry Eichengreen attempts to unravel a puzzle: why did Europe exhibit such remarkable economic growth following the Second World War, only seemingly to run out of breath in the early...
On the determination of boundaries to manipulator workspaces

Abstract The accumulation of two independent, broadly applicable formulations for determining the boundary to manipulator workspaces, presented elsewhere, are compared in this paper. Insights gained from one method are used to explain behavior exhibited in the other. Results are also compared and validated. A numerical formulation based on continuation methods is used to map curves that are on the boundary of a manipulator workspace. Analytical criteria based on row rank deficiency criteria of the manipulator's analytical Jacobian are used to map a family of one-dimensional solution curves on the boundary. The other formulation, based on a similar rank-deficiency criteria, yields analytic boundaries parametrized in terms of surface patches on the boundary. Results concerning the applicability of the numerical method to open- and closed-loop systems are compared with those limited to the open-loop for the analytical method. Conclusions regarding the behavior of the manipulator on geometric entities characterized by singular curves, higher-order bifurcation points, and surfaces inside the workspace are drawn. Applicability of both methods and their limitations are also addressed.
Unstable radii in muscular blood vessels

A model of a muscular blood vessel in equilibrium that predicts stable and unstable control of radius is presented. The equilibrium wall tension is modeled as the sum of a passive exponential funct...
Defending against wormhole attacks in mobile ad hoc networks

In ad hoc networks, malicious nodes can deploy wormhole attacks to fabricate a false scenario on the proximity relationship among mobile nodes. A classification of the attacks according to the format of the wormholes is proposed. This forms a basis to identify the detection capability of various approaches. An analysis shows that earlier approaches focus on the prevention of wormholes among neighbors that trust each other. As a more generic approach, we present an end-to-end scheme that can detect wormholes on a multi-hop route. Only the trust between the source and the destination is assumed. The mechanism uses geographic information to detect anomalies in neighbor relations and node movements. To reduce the computation and storage overhead, we present a scheme called cell-based open tunnel avoidance (COTA) to manage the information. COTA requires a constant space for every node on the path and the computation overhead increases linearly to the number of detection packets. We prove that the savings do not deteriorate the detection capability. Various schemes to control communication overhead are studied. The simulation and experiments on real devices show that the proposed mechanism can be combined with existent routing protocols to defend against wormhole attacks. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Peer Behavior and Mother-Infant Interaction in Maltreated Children

Our interest in maltreated infants stems from two concerns: one theoretical, the other practical. From a theoretical point of view we are interested in the interdependence of early social experiences, more specifically, the effect of the mother-child relationship on other social relationships. From a practical point of view, we are interested in how one might intervene in the lives of maltreated children so as to ameliorate the potentially harmful effects of a poor parent-child relationship.
The Performance of a Cyclone with an Eccentric Outlet Pipe

The performance of a cyclone, of which the outlet pipe was eccentric to the cyclone axis, was investigated by experiments. The inserted length of outlet pipe, the eccentric distance and direction were changed. It was found that:1) When the eccentricity was above 10%, the pressure drops and the collection efficiency decreases.2) When the outlet pipe was not inserted into the cyclone chamber, the pressure drop and the collection efficiency decreased more than when it was inserted.
Differentiating Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma and Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis of the Temporal Bone by Imaging Appearance.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Rhabdomyosarcoma and Langerhans cell histiocytosis are malignant lesions that can affect the skull base with similar radiographic characteristics on CT and MR imaging. We hypothesized that location within the temporal bone determined radiographically can provide useful adjunctive information in differentiating these distinct neoplasms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis and rhabdomyosarcoma by using an imaging data base and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes at a tertiary care academic medical center. Cross-sectional images were reviewed by a neurotologist and neuroradiologist, who evaluated the location of the lesions and scored each subsite—middle ear, mastoid, petrous apex, retrosigmoid/posterior fossa—on a scale of 0 (no involvement), 1 (partial), or 2 (complete involvement). RESULTS: We identified 12 patients representing 14 cases of Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and 9 patients representing 9 cases of rhabdomyosarcoma. For patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis, mastoid involvement was rated 23/28 (82%) compared with 6/18 (33%) with rhabdomyosarcoma (P = .001). Langerhans cell histiocytosis was present in only the anterior portion of the temporal bone (petrous apex and middle ear) in 1 case (7.1%) and in the anterior portion of the temporal bone only in 5/9 (55%) cases of rhabdomyosarcoma (P = .018). The cortical bone was more commonly involved in Langerhans cell histiocytosis, 11/28 (39%) of cases compared with 2/18 (11%) cases in rhabdomyosarcoma (P CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that lesions involving only the anterior portion of the temporal bone (petrous apex and middle ear) are more likely to be rhabdomyosarcoma. Lesions involving the mastoid are more likely to be Langerhans cell histiocytosis. This difference in primary location may be helpful in predicting the pathology of these lesions on the basis of imaging.
Epidemiological characteristics of mumps in Haidian district,Beijing,2005-2012

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics of mumps in Haidian in Beijing and provide scientific evidence for the control and prevention of mumps.Methods Descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the incidence data of mumps in Haidian District collected from National Disease Reporting Information System from 2005 to 2012.Results A total of 3063 mumps cases occurred in Haidian District from 2005 to 2012 with the average annual incidence of16.58 per 100,000.Most cases were in age group of 2-8 years,accounting for 67.14% of the total.The incidence in age group of 5 years was highest; The area clustering of the disease was obvious,the incidences were high in townships of Sijiqing,Qinghe,Zhongguancun and Tiancunlu located in zone joining town and country where large number of floating population lived.Students and children in child care settings were affected mostly,the cases among them accounted for 73.41%.The disease mainly occurred during April-June in a year.The cases under the age of 15 in immunized people accounted for 64.72%.The difference of occurring of fever,parotid pain,headache,bilateral parotid enlargement and complication as well as the duration of fever were significant between the cases with different immunization history.Conclusion People under the age of 15 is the central concern to prevent epidemic mumps.We need to enhance the immune coverage among them.Although mumps vaccine may fail to prevent the disease,the clinical symptoms can be mitigated.In addition,the further study on the efficiency of mumps vaccine should be conducted.It is necessary to strengthen the disease surveillance and improve the publicity of preventing and controlling this disease.
Making Progress on Foreign Aid (Please cite this paper as the following: Qian N. 2014. Making Progress on Foreign Aid. Annu. Rev. Econ. 3: Submitted. Doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-080614-115553)

Foreign aid is one of the most important policy tools that rich countries use for helping poor countries to improve population well-being and facilitate economic and institutional development. The empirical evidence on its benefits is mixed and has generated much controversy. This paper presents descriptive statistics which show that foreign aid to very poor countries accounts for very little of total global aid; reviews the evidence that foreign aid is often determined by the objectives of donor countries rather than the needs of recipient countries; argues that the evidence on the impact of aggregate foreign aid is hindered by problems of measurement and identification, which are partly due to the heterogenous nature of aid; and discusses recent studies using natural and randomized experiments to examine narrowed definitions of aid on more disaggregated outcomes.
Along-strike diachroneity in deposition of the Kailas Formation in central southern Tibet: Implications for Indian slab dynamics

The Oligocene–Miocene Kailas Formation is exposed along strike for ∼1300 km within the southernmost Lhasa terrane. In this study, we documented the sedimentology, structure, and age of this unit exposed between 87°E and 90°E. Within this region, the Kailas Formation is composed of continental deposits dominated by conglomerate and sandstone, with lesser volumes of siltstone and paleosols. These rocks were deposited nonconformably on Gangdese Batholith and related volcanic rocks along their northern boundary, whereas to the south, the south-dipping Great Counter Thrust places them in contact with Xigaze forearc and melange units. We interpret the Kailas Formation to have been deposited in alluvial-fan and fluvial environments with sediment principally derived from the north. Based on sedimentology and structural relationships, we interpret these rocks to have formed in a north-south extensional setting. New zircon U-Pb ages from volcanic tuffs and flows show that Kailas Formation deposition is younger to the east: Deposition occurred between 26 Ma and 24 Ma in western Tibet (81°E), at 25–23 Ma north of Lazi (87.8°E), at 23–22 Ma near Dazhuka (89.8°E), and as late as 18 Ma southwest of Lhasa (92°E). Overall, basin development propagated eastward at a rate of ∼300 mm/yr. This pattern and rate of propagation are similar to that of the temporal-spatial distribution of adakitic and ultrapotassic magmatism within the Lhasa terrane to the north, which has been interpreted as a record of slab breakoff. Magmatism lags several million years behind Kailas basin development at most locations. We interpret the Kailas basin to have formed as the result of Indian slab shearing and breakoff, which began in western Tibet around 26 Ma and reached eastern Tibet by ca. 18 Ma.
Colorectal Cancer: Genetics is Changing Everything.

Cancer is fundamentally a genetic disease caused by mutational or epigenetic alterations in DNA. There has been a remarkable expansion of the molecular understanding of colonic carcinogenesis in the last 30 years and that understanding is changing many aspects of colorectal cancer care. It is becoming increasingly clear that there are genetic subsets of colorectal cancer that have different risk factors, prognosis, and response to treatment. This article provides a general update on colorectal cancer and highlights the ways that genetics is changing clinical care.
Optimal ROC-Based Classification and Performance Analysis under Bayesian Uncertainty Models

Popular tools to evaluate classifier performance are the false positive rate (FPR), true positive rate (TPR), receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve, and area under the curve (AUC). Typically, these quantities are estimated from training data using simple resampling and counting methods, which have been shown to perform poorly when the sample size is small, as is typical in many applications. This work takes a model-based approach in classifier training and performance analysis, where we assume the true population densities are members of an uncertainty class of distributions. Given a prior over the uncertainty class and data, we form a posterior and derive optimal mean-squared-error (MSE) FPR and TPR estimators, as well as the sample-conditioned MSE performance of these estimators. The theory also naturally leads to optimal ROC and AUC estimators. Finally, we develop a Neyman-Pearson-based approach to optimal classifier design, which maximizes the estimated TPR for a given estimated FPR. These tools are optimal over the uncertainty class of distributions given the sample, and are available in closed form or can be easily approximated for many models. Applications are demonstrated on both synthetic and real genomic data. MATLAB code and simulations results are available in the online supplementary material.
Adverse early life environment increases hippocampal microglia abundance in conjunction with decreased neural stem cells in juvenile mice.

Abstract Background Adverse maternal lifestyle resulting in adverse early life environment (AELE) increases risks for neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring. Neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with impaired neurogenesis and neuro-inflammation in the hippocampus (HP). Microglia are neuro-inflammatory cells in the brain that regulate neurogenesis via toll-like receptors (TLR). TLR-9 is implicated in neurogenesis inhibition and is responsible for stress-related inflammatory responses. We hypothesized that AELE would increase microglia cell count and increase TLR-9 expression in juvenile mouse HP. These increases in microglia cell count and TLR-9 expression would be associated with decrease neural stem cell count and neuronal cell count. Methods We developed a mouse model of AELE combining Western diet and a stress environment. Stress environment consisted of random change from embryonic day 13 (E13) to E17 as well as static change in maternal environment from E13 to postnatal day 21(P21). At P21, we measured hippocampal cell numbers of microglia, neural stem cell and neuron, as well as hippocampal TLR-9 expression. Results AELE significantly increased total microglia number and TLR-9 expression in the hippocampus. Concurrently, AELE significantly decreased neural stem cell and neuronal numbers. Conclusions AELE increased the neuro-inflammatory cellular response in the juvenile HP. We speculate that increased neuro-inflammatory responses may contribute to impaired neurogenesis seen in this model.
Comparison of Four Procedures to Detect Listeria spp. in Foods.

A comparison was made of four procedures to detect Listeria spp. in two food categories. The study comprised 309 assays, 71 on milk from both infected and uninfected cows, and 238 on ten types of fresh vegetables. A sample was considered positive if it could be detected by at least a single method and if isolates could be confirmed as Listeria spp. The procedures detected 98-100% of the positive milk samples. Recovery from vegetable samples ranged from 45 to 86%, probably because of low levels of Listeria spp. in the presence of mixed flora. The ELISA procedure of the Organon Teknika® corporation detected 68% of the 44 positive vegetable samples; the GENE-TRAK®DNA probe, 45%; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) culture procedure, 75%; and the FDA probe procedure, 86%. Recovery was higher with LiCl-phenylethanol-moxalactam agar (FDA probe procedure) than with modified McBride Agar (FDA culture procedure).
Are School Districts Allocating Resources Equitably? The Every Student Succeeds Act, Teacher Experience Gaps, and Equitable Resource Allocation

Ongoing federal efforts support equalizing access to experienced educators for low-income students and students of color, thereby narrowing the “teacher experience gap.” I show that while high-pove...
The state of advanced measurement and verification technology and industry application

Abstract With the expansion of advanced metering and increased use of energy analytics tools, the energy efficiency community has begun to explore the application of advanced measurement and verification (or ‘M&V 2.0′) technologies. Current literature recognizes their promise, but does not offer in-depth assessment of technical underpinnings. This paper assesses the state of the technology and its application. Sixteen commercially available technologies were characterized and combined with a national review of their use.
Quasiparticle band gaps and optical spectra of strained monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides

Employing the first-principles many-body perturbation theory, we report the excited-state properties, i.e., quasiparticle energy and excitonic effects, of strained monolayer 2H-phase transition-metal dichalcogenides, including ${\mathrm{MoS}}_{2}, {\mathrm{MoSe}}_{2}, {\mathrm{WS}}_{2}$, and ${\mathrm{WSe}}_{2}$. Beyond previous studies that considered uniaxial or biaxial strain, we cover arbitrarily axial strains and find complicated variations of quasiparticle band gaps, band-edge energies, direct-indirect gap transitions, and exciton energies. These results provide a complete picture for straining engineering of electronic structures and optical spectra of two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides. Particularly, combined with high spatial-resolution optical measurements, our calculated results are essential for identifying local strain distribution and understanding the widely observed inhomogeneous free-carrier distributions and photoluminescence in realistic two-dimensional materials.
"Who Really Killed Cock Robin": Aesthetic Meaning Making in Preservice Teacher Training.

ABSTRACTThis storied account details a reflective inquiry of dance as an instructional tool in a preservice teacher training program. The case study follows a children’s literature class as they use movement/dance as a way of making meaning in teacher selected literature. Student teachers learned basic movement concepts through BEST (Body, Energy, Space, Time). Following the Kennedy Center definition of arts integration, the participants examined how dance/movement could be used to make meaning in a literary context. They were taken step by step through one way of integrating movement/dance and text, and then led a small of groups of fifth graders through the same or similar process. Through an examination of their responses to journal prompts, and classroom discussions, this article highlights the journey of understanding embarked upon by both the researcher and the participants.
The Sensitivity Analysis of “Inexact” Multicriteria Decisions

We elaborate a view of sensitivity analysis as a decision analysis activity. Our two main results concern: 1) a formal concept of “inexact” riskless preference; and 2) illustrative mathematical optimization problems for identifying “large” subsets of value function parameter values that preserve the preferability of a prescribed decision alternative.
Simple-VPN: Simple IPsec Configuration

The IPsec protocol promised easy, ubiquitous encryption. That has never happened. For the most part, IPsec usage is confined to VPNs for road warriors, largely due to needless configuration complexity and incompatible implementations. We have designed a simple VPN configuration language that hides the unwanted complexities. Virtually no options are necessary or possible. The administrator specifies the absolute minimum of information: the authorized hosts, their operating systems, and a little about the network topology; everything else, including certificate generation, is automatic. Our implementation includes a multitarget compiler, which generates implementation-specific configuration files for three different platforms; others are easy to add.
Cracking the Corwin Conundrum and Other Mysteries Regarding Shareholder Approval of Mergers and Acquisitions

This article responds to the Delaware Supreme Court’s important decision in Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings, which declared that an informed and un-coerced shareholder vote in favor of a merger should lead courts to look skeptically at claims that directors breached their fiduciary duty in making the deal. The article will address the unintended consequences, unanswered questions and outright conundrum created by Corwin. The article’s central insight is that courts need to understand what shareholder approval is really telling us in light of the limited choice that shareholders have in front of them when voting on a proposed merger.
Origin of Anisotropic Molecular Packing in Vapor-Deposited Alq3 Glasses

Anisotropic molecular packing is a key feature that makes glasses prepared by physical vapor deposition (PVD) unique materials, warranting a mechanistic understanding of how a PVD glass attains its structure. To this end, we use X-ray scattering and ellipsometry to characterize the structure of PVD glasses of tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3), a molecule used in organic electronics, and compare our results to simulations of its supercooled liquid. X-ray scattering reveals a tendency for molecular layering in Alq3 glasses that depends upon the substrate temperature during deposition and the deposition rate. Simulations reveal that the Alq3 supercooled liquid, like liquid metals, exhibits surface layering. We propose that the layering in Alq3 glasses observed here as well as the previously reported bulk dipole orientation are inherited from the surface structure of the supercooled liquid. This work significantly advances our understanding of the mechanism governing the formation of anisotropic struct...
Analyzing Population Density Disparity in China with GIS-automated Regionalization: The Hu Line Revisited

The famous ‘Hu Line’, proposed by Hu Huanyong in 1935, divided China into two regions (southeast and northwest) of comparable area size but drastically different in population. However, the classic Hu Line was derived manually in absence of reliable census data and computational technologies of modern days. It has been subject to criticism of lack of scientific rigor and accuracy. This research uses a GIS-automated regionalization method, termed REDCAP (Regionalization with Dynamically Constrained Agglomerative Clustering and Partitioning), to reconstruct the demarcation line based on the 2010 county-level census data in China. The results show that the logarithmic transformation of population density is a better measure of attributive homogeneity in derived regions than density itself, and produces two regions of nearly identical area size and greater contrast in population. Specifically, the revised Hu Line by Hu Huanyong in 1990 had the southeast region with 94.4% of total population and 42.9% of total land, and our delineation line yields a southeast region with 97.4% population and 50.8% land. Therefore, the population density ratio of the two regions is 27.1 by our line, much higher than the ratio of 22.4 by the Hu Line, and thus outperforms the Hu Line in deriving regions of maximum density contrast with comparable area size. Furthermore, more regions are delineated to further advance our understanding of population distribution disparity in China.
Genetics in Sjögren's syndrome: where we are and where we go.

Sjogren's syndrome is a complex autoimmune disease that involves dysregulation of immune responses that preferentially target exocrine glands. Systemic manifestations vary and may involve nearly every organ system. Genetic studies to date are in their infancy relative to other autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, each with more than 100 genetic associations now established. However, recent work in SS has successfully established associations that shed light on pathophysiology and implicate aberrant innate and adaptive immune responses. In this review, we provide an overview of genetic approaches used to identify risk variants in SS, discuss major findings and their relevance to SS, and describe the future directions that are likely to lead to understanding fundamental causes of this disease and new opportunities for improving clinical care.
Experimental characterization of polymeric membranes for selective ion transport

Ion selective separations are becoming increasingly important in many water and energy applications. Ion exchange membranes could address these separation challenges, but advanced understanding of the structure-property relationships that connect polymer chemistry and membrane morphology to selectivity properties is needed. Membrane-based ion separations can be driven by concentration or electric field driving forces, and selectivity is generally defined as counter-ion to counter-ion selectivity or counter-ion to co-ion selectivity. Characterization techniques depend on the definition of selectivity of interest. This review discusses those definitions of selectivity and the methods used to characterize ion selectivity in membranes. Additionally, need for additional data, opportunities for high throughput analysis, and opportunities for connecting molecular simulations with experimental data are discussed.
Electrets: A Remedy for Partial Discharge Caused by Power Electronics Switching

In this article, a novel approach that mitigates partial discharge (PD) by neutralizing local electric fields with the incorporation of electrets is presented. The surface charge density requirement of electret films that enable electric field neutralization is derived and numerical analysis is performed to validate them. The fabrication process of electrets is introduced, and we experimentally demonstrate the electret films reducing PD caused by the high dv/dt of power electronics switching voltage stimuli for the first time. The PD measurements of an uncharged polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film and a charged PVDF (electret) film are compared as a function of the rise time of square voltage stimuli. In addition, we compare the PD inception voltage of the two films while maintaining dv/dt at a constant value to regulate the impact of capacitive current pulses falsely being detected as PD. The results show great promise in the electret-based approach and suggest that further development of the technology may be able to completely solve PD that has been both chronic and emerging issues in the power industry.
Adeno-Associated Virus-Mediated Gene Therapy in the Mashlool, Atp1a3Mashl/+, Mouse Model of Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood.

Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) is a devastating autosomal dominant disorder caused by ATP1A3 mutations, resulting in severe hemiplegia and dystonia spells, ataxia, debilitating disabilities, and premature death. Here, we determine the effects of delivering an extra copy of the normal gene in a mouse model carrying the most common mutation causing AHC in humans, the D801N mutation. We used an adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) vector expressing the human ATP1A3 gene under the control of a human Synapsin promoter. We first demonstrated that intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of this vector in wild-type mice on postnatal day 10 (P10) results in increases in ouabain-sensitive ATPase activity and in expression of reporter genes in targeted brain regions. We then tested this vector in mutant mice. Simultaneous intracisterna magna and bilateral ICV injections of this vector at P10 resulted, at P40, in reduction of inducible hemiplegia spells, improvement in balance beam test performance, and prolonged survival of treated mutant mice up to P70. Our study demonstrates, as a proof of concept, that gene therapy can induce favorable effects in a disease caused by a mutation of the gene of a protein that is, at the same time, an ATPase enzyme, a pump, and a signal transduction factor.
CT-measured Cortical Volume Ratio Is an Accurate Alternative to Nuclear Medicine Split Scan Ratio Among Living Kidney Donors.

BACKGROUND The 125I-iothalamate clearance and 99mTc diethylenetriamine-pentaacetic acid (99mTc-DTPA) split scan nuclear medicine studies are used among living kidney donor candidates to determine measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) and split scan ratio (SSR). The computerized tomography-derived cortical volume ratio (CVR) is a novel measurement of split kidney function and can be combined with predonation estimated GFR (eGFR) or mGFR to predict postdonation kidney function. Whether predonation SSR predicts postdonation kidney function better than predonation CVR and whether predonation mGFR provides additional information beyond predonation eGFR are unknown. METHODS We performed a single-center retrospective analysis of 204 patients who underwent kidney donation between June 2015 and March 2019. The primary outcome was 1-y postdonation eGFR. Model bases were created from a measure of predonation kidney function (mGFR or eGFR) multiplied by the proportion that each nondonated kidney contributed to predonation kidney function (SSR or CVR). Multivariable elastic net regression with 1000 repetitions was used to determine the mean and 95% confidence interval of R2, root mean square error (RMSE), and proportion overprediction ≥15 mL/min/1.73 m2 between models. RESULTS In validation cohorts, eGFR-CVR models performed best (R2, 0.547; RMSE, 9.2 mL/min/1.73 m2, proportion overprediction 3.1%), whereas mGFR-SSR models performed worst (R2, 0.360; RMSE, 10.9 mL/min/1.73 m2, proportion overprediction 7.2%) (P < 0.001 for all comparisons). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that predonation CVR may serve as an acceptable alternative to SSR during donor evaluation and furthermore, that a model based on CVR and predonation eGFR may be superior to other methods.
Real-world effectiveness of long-acting injectable antipsychotics to reduce 90-day and annual readmission in psychotic disorders: insights from a state psychiatric hospital.

BACKGROUND To evaluate the effectiveness of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI-a) in reducing the 90-day and annual readmission rates in schizophrenia inpatients. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study and included 180 adult patients with psychotic disorders discharged from 2018 to 2019 at a state psychiatric hospital. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the differences between the readmit and nonreadmit cohorts. Logistic regression model was used to measure the odds ratio (OR) for 90-day and annual readmission and was controlled for potential readmission risk factors. RESULTS A lower proportion of patients receiving LAI-a were readmitted within 90-day (28.6%) and 1-year (32.4%) periods. Patients receiving LAI-a had lower odds of association for 90-day (OR 0.36, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.139-0.921) and annual (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.131-0.954) readmissions compared to those discharged on oral antipsychotics. A higher proportion of inpatients who received fluphenazine LAI had 90-day (25%) and annual (18.2%) readmissions compared to other LAI-a. CONCLUSION Utilization of LAI-a in patients with psychotic disorders can decrease both 90-day and annual psychiatric readmissions by 64% to 65%. Physicians should prefer LAI-a to reduce the readmission rate and improve the quality of life, and decrease the healthcare-related financial burden.
Review of books by J. Corcoran and D. M. Steinberg

The two books under discussion, written by Dominique Moyse Steinberg and Jacqueline Corcoran, are particularly welcome within the current context of social work education. Before commenting on the ...