cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
When Optimized N-Detect Test Sets are Biased: An Investigation of Cell-Aware-Type Faults and N-Detect Stuck-At ATPG

Cell-aware faults have previously been proposed to more effectively detect defects within gates. At the same time, n-detect test sets that provide multiple detections of each stuck-at fault are often used to maximize the detection of unmodeled defects. However, n-detect test sets are often not particularly effective at fortuitously detecting all untargeted cell-aware faults. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of different types of n-detect ATPG test sets for efficiently detecting difficult cell-aware-type faults and explain why optimizing test sets for n- detect using stuck-at faults while still keeping pattern counts low can actually bias those test sets against the detection of some cell-aware type faults. We then investigate the addition of cell-aware top-off patterns for cell-aware-type faults that are shown to be functionally relevant through good state simulation, allowing such faults to be prioritized when testing resources are limited.
Participatory Populism Theory and Evidence from Bolivarian Venezuela

Two apparently contradictory features have characterized the group of left-wing populists who have come to power in Latin America in recent years. First, these leaders share a tendency to centraliz...
IR and Sims Study of Hydrogen Diffusion in RF Sputter Deposited Boron Doped a-Si:H and Undoped a-Ge:H

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and IR measurements of long range deuterium motion in rf sputter deposited (rf sp) p-doped a-Si:H and undoped a-Ge:H are compared to recently published results on undoped rf sp a-Si:H, which exhibited strongly power-law time dependent diffusion constants (exponent α= 0.75±0.1) in films of as-deposited content of di-H and tri-H bonds (usually associated with microvoids) Ndo –4–5 at.%. In pdoped a-Si:H samples where Ndo-l.8–3.8at.%, the diffusion is much faster, but the exponent is similar. In undoped a-Ge:H exhibiting a stretch vibration band indicative of mono-H bonding only, the diffusion is about one order of magnitude faster than in undoped a-Si:H, and α = 0.23. The results are discussed in relation to both the multiple trapping (dispersive) and defect mediated diffusion models.
Ecological, Evolutionary, and Physical Factors Influencing Aquatic Animal Respiration

Compared to air-breathers, animals that respire aquatically have limited access to O2 and their habitats are more subject to hypoxia. Because O2 diffuses more slowly through water than air, animals in water experience greater diffusion boundary layer effects on respiratory gas diffusion. While ventilation and specialized exchange surfaces mitigate O2 diffusion limitations on respiration, most animal phyla, particularly those confined to aquatic habitats, lack these. Diffusion limitation influences the ontogeny of aquatic animals and may have also shaped Precambrian metazoans. In spite of a more limited O2 access, aquatic animals display a much greater spectrum of respiratory adaptation, ranging from the loss of Hb in icefishes to the independent evolution, invention, and acquisition of Hb in many invertebrates confined to hypoxic habitats. Three features of aquatic respiratory systems distinguishing them from aerial systems are the widespread occurrence of integumental respiration, the frequent presence of combined respiratory and feeding surfaces, and the profound effect of hypoxia on shaping respiratory adaptation, both in shallow water and in the deep sea.
Discovery of highly soluble antibodies prior to purification using affinity-capture self-interaction nanoparticle spectroscopy

Self-association of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) at high concentrations can result in developability challenges such as poor solubility, aggregation, opalescence and high viscosity. There is a significant unmet need for methods that can evaluate self-association propensities of concentrated mAbs at the earliest stages in antibody discovery to avoid downstream issues. We have previously developed a method (affinity-capture self-interaction nanoparticle spectroscopy, AC-SINS) that is capable of detecting weak antibody self-interactions using unusually dilute mAb solutions (tens of µg/ml). Here we optimize and implement this assay for characterization of unpurified and highly dilute mAbs directly in cell culture media. This assay was applied to screen 87 mAbs obtained via immunization. Our measurements reveal a wide range of self-associative propensities for mAbs that bind to the same antigen and which differ mainly in their complementarity-determining regions. The least associative mAbs identified by AC-SINS were confirmed to be highly soluble when purified and concentrated by three to five orders of magnitude. This approach represents a key advance in screening mAb variants using unpurified antibody samples, and it holds significant potential to both improve initial candidate selection as well as to guide protein engineering efforts to improve the properties of specific mAb candidates.
Rebuttal: Shallow and deep scratch tests as powerful alternatives to assess the fracture properties of quasi-brittle materials

Abstract We recall the principles of Dimensional Analysis. We do not violate the principle of geometrical similarity: the Size Effect Law can be applied to dissimilar specimens when the energy release function is known. By considering a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional similitude case, we can predict the fracture toughness using scratch tests. Finally, we recall our Scratch Fracture Mechanics model that was validated via an exhaustive campaign of numerical simulations. In sum, whether deep or shallow, the ductile-to-brittle transition in scratch tests is governed by the out-of-plane width and the width-to-depth ratio.
Endothelins activate Ca2+-gated K+ channels via endothelin B receptors in CD-1 mouse erythrocytes

Cell dehydration mediated by Ca2+-activated K+ channels plays an important role in the pathogenesis of sickle cell disease. CD-1 mouse erythrocytes possess a Ca2+-activated K+ channel (Gardos chann...
Comments on “Towards a new behaviorism” by Peter Harzem

(2000). Comments on “Towards a new behaviorism” by Peter Harzem. European Journal of Behavior Analysis: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 115-120.
First-principles calculations of the electronic and geometrical structures of neutral [Sc,O,H] molecules and the monocations, ScOH0,+ and HScO0,+

Using multireference configuration interaction and coupled-cluster methodologies, with quadruple-ζ basis sets, we explored the potential energy surfaces of the ground and excited states of the neutral and cationic triatomics [Sc,O,H](0,+). In its ground state, the neutral species is trapped into either a linear ScOH or a bent HScO conformation; these two minima are approximately equal in energy and separated by a barrier of 40 kcal/mol. The linear ScOH structure is preferred by the excited states of the neutral species and by all of the electronic states of the charged molecular systems that we studied in this work. Both ScOH and ScOH(+) present ionic characters, Sc(+)OH(-) and Sc(2+)OH(-), similar to those found for the isovalent ScF(0,+) species. The HScO(0,+) structures are obtained by covalent or dative interaction of hydrogen and ScO(0,+). For most of the minima located in this work, we calculated geometries, vibrational frequencies, binding energies, excitation energies, and dipole moments. Our numerical results agree well with existing experimental data.
Waves in an Annular Entrance Channel

Waves propagating in a curved channel are examined analytically and with a variety of parabolic and spectral models. The results show that the wide angle parabolic method is reasonably robust, but not exact, while a spectral method based on trigonometric functions is superior to a Chebyshev polynomial method. Angular spectrum models are discussed and shown to be equivalent to an eigenfunction expansion in the crosschannel direction.
133 Physiology of the Airway and its Control

Nature, Key Functions, Neural Control & Clinical Impact. The airway is a dynamic conduit, extending from the nose to the air sacs. Its key functions include protection, volume maintenance and ventilation, which are coordinated with other motor acts. Neural control of motor output provides airway defense as a first priority, with rapid protection of the lower airway being afforded by laryngeal closure and central apnea. During breathing, stability of airway volume (patency) and gas flow with ensuing gas exchange are also controlled centrally via coordination of motor activities that interact with physiochemical (structural) mechanisms. Sensors rapidly relay information about all key motor functions and, if required, this monitoring results in within-breath pattern adaptations. Neural control of the airway is not only dynamic but varied, with many motor output patterns noted during development and in different physiological (e.g. sleep) and pathological states. The clinician uses this knowledge to interpret breathing patterns as normal or abnormal, and uses this synthesis to direct both investigation of the airway and/or its central control and therapy. Review aims This talk will describe nasal functions for protection and airway patency obstructive sleep apnea and the effects of CPAP therapy coordination of sucking, nutritive and non-nutritive swallowing in breathing laryngeal muscle functions in eupnea, sighs, grunting, incremental breathing and gasping lower airway patency and hysteresis matching of conducting and parenchymal airways central control of breathing and the impact of changes in breathing with behavioral state
Vancomycin-resistant enterococcal infections in bone marrow transplant recipients

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections have been increasingly reported in immunosuppressed individuals over the past decade. Emergence of this pathogen in the bone marrow transplantation (BMT) setting, in the form of bacteremia or positive stool cultures, is of concern because of lack of effective antimicrobial therapy. We report episodes of vancomycin-resistant E. faecium bacteremia in two patients undergoing BMT including the first case of VRE meningitis observed in this setting. Since the outcome in these patients undergoing matched unrelated donor BMT was fatal, we believe that routine screening for VRE in high risk patients should be considered. Management of VRE carrier state in BMT candidates is unclear at present.
A Comparative Study of the Activity of Cefamandole and Other Cephalosporins and Analysis of the β-Lactamase Stability and Synergy of Cefamandole with Aminoglycosides

The antibacterial activity of cefamandole against 445 clinical isolates was investigated and compared with the activity of other known cephalosporins (cephalothin, cephaloridine, cephalexin, and cefazolin) and of two penicillins (ampicillin and carbenicillin). Cefamandole was the most active antibiotic against isolates of Citrobacter, Enterobacter, and Shigella, and its activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacteroides, and some members of the Enterobacteriaceae was comparable to that of the other antibiotics tested. The stability of cefamandole with respect to beta-lactamase was investigated and compared with that of cephalothin, cefazolin, and cephalexin. Cefamandole was stable with respect to the beta-lactamases of Enterobacter and some other members of the Enterobacteriaceae. No significant correlation was found between the antibacterial activity and the beta-lactamase stability of cefamandole, except with Enterobacter. The synergistic activity of cefamandole combined with gentamicin or amikacin was demonstrated by killing-curve techniques, isobolograms, and susceptibility data. Although 12%--46% of the isolates were synergistically inhibited by either combination, antagonism was not observed. No correlation between the hydrolysis of cefamandole by beta-lactamase and the synergistic activity of cefamandole combined with amikacin was demonstrated.
Designing a Public Access Ombuds Office: A Case Study of Virginia's Freedom of Information Advisory Council

Five states have established public access ombuds programs to provide education and resolve disputes related to open government laws. Virginia’s Freedom of Information Advisory Council was the first of these programs, created in 2000 to serve as an independent resource for citizens, government and news media on public access matters. A case study of the council was conducted, primarily consisting of depth interviews with sources who have had close dealings with the program since it was created. The consensus of these sources was that the Freedom of Information Advisory Council has been effective in its education and dispute resolution missions, serving as an impartial agency for disputants to turn to for education, guidance and informal advice. Sources described a program that was thoughtfully designed and implemented, with strong leadership and stakeholder support, helping it to build credibility as an important resource in public access matters. While the council does not conduct investigations, thus serving as more of a “quasi-ombuds” than a “classic ombuds,” the experience of Virginia’s council can serve as an example for other jurisdictions considering dispute resolution options in open government laws.
A National Bank for Genetic Data of Disappeared Children in Argentina: Task up to 2050

Between the years 1975 and 1983 in Argentina, hundreds of children were kidnapped with their parents or were born during the imprisonment of their mothers in secret detention camps and were then given to persons or families generally connected with the repression body. As demostrated by the investigating Committee, the Democratic Government set forth to investigate human rights violations during the said period, this monstruosity was the product of a deliberate, organic and systematic plan put into execution by the Military Dictatorship in order to produce terror among the people and achieve their objectives. In general, the parents of these children are still missing.(1)
Signal processing for digital recording on patterned media

The exponential growth of storage density in magnetic hard disk recording is threatened by the superparamagnetic limit which sets an upper bound to the number of bits per unit area that can be reliably stored. In this paper, a new media for recording called patterned media is described. Some of the signal processing challenges which occur in both writing and reading data are explored. Emphasis is placed on the situation where there is inter-track interference, that is, where the read head senses signals from both the desired track and from neighboring tracks.
Development of a Mobile Robotic Phenotyping System for Growth Chamber-based Studies of Genotype x Environment Interactions

Abstract: To increase understanding of the interaction between phenotype and genotype x environment to improve crop performance, large amounts of phenotypic data are needed. Studying plants of a given strain under multiple environments can greatly help to reveal their interactions. To collect the labor-intensive data required to perform experiments in this area, a Mecanum-wheeled, magnetic-tape-following indoor rover has been developed to accurately and autonomously move between and inside growth chambers. Integration of the motor controllers, a robot arm, and a Microsoft Kinect (v2) 3D sensor was achieved in a customized C++ program. Detecting and segmenting plants in a multi-plant environment is a challenging task, which can be aided by integration of depth data into these algorithms. Image-processing functions were implemented to filter the depth image to minimize noise and remove undesired surfaces, reducing the memory requirement and allowing the plant to be reconstructed at a higher resolution in real-time. Three-dimensional meshes representing plants inside the chamber were reconstructed using the Kinect SDK’s KinectFusion. After transforming user-selected points in camera coordinates to robot-arm coordinates, the robot arm is used in conjunction with the rover to probe desired leaves, simulating the future use of sensors such as a fluorimeter and Raman spectrometer. This paper reports the system architecture and some preliminary results of the system.
Reduced order model based state feedback control of Doubly Fed Induction Generators

A state feedback control strategy for Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIGs) is investigated. Both the rotor side converter and grid side converter control of DFIG has been designed using the proposed state feedback control technique. A comparison between the traditional PI based vector control (VC) of DFIG with the proposed form of control has also been presented. It has been shown that this methodology helps in easier controller design for DFIG, exhibits competitive performance in terms of low interaction between power and voltage control and provides better system damping. The simulation results for a system connected to a grid through a transmission line have been presented and the capabilities of the proposed controller are discussed.
Industry Payments to Physicians for Opioid Products, 2013-2015.

Objectives. To identify payments that involved opioid products from the pharmaceutical industry to physicians.Methods. We used the Open Payments program database from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to identify payments involving an opioid to physicians between August 2013 and December 2015. We used medians, interquartile ranges, and ranges as a result of heavily skewed distributions to examine payments according to opioid product, abuse-deterrent formulation, nature of payment, state, and physician specialty.Results. During the study, 375 266 nonresearch opioid-related payments were made to 68 177 physicians, totaling $46 158 388. The top 1% of physicians received 82.5% of total payments in dollars. Abuse-deterrent formulations constituted 20.3% of total payments, and buprenorphine marketed for addiction treatment constituted 9.9%. Most payments were for speaking fees or honoraria (63.2% of all dollars), whereas food and beverage payments were the most frequent (93.9% of all payments). Phy...
Automatic target recognition in missing data cases

Automatic target recognition (ATR) is the process where computer algorithms are used to detect and classify objects or regions of interest in sensor data [1]. ATR algorithms have been developed for a broad range of sensors, including electro-optic (EO), infrared (IR), and microwave sensors (radar). A key advantage of microwave radar is its utility for all weather and time of day compared with other types of sensors. One limitation of many radar systems' ATR performance is the poor spatial resolution in the range and cross-range dimensions. While the range resolution of the microwave radar system can be straightforwardly improved by increasing the system's radio frequency bandwidth, superior cross-range (or azimuth) resolution requires an increase in antenna size. In order to achieve resolution similar to EO or IR systems, an enormous antenna must be used for transmission and reception, hindering microwave radar system's general applicability to ATR problems. However, by operating a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the large antenna requirement can be overcome, and very fine cross-range resolution can be obtained with a modest "real" aperture antenna. Indeed, SAR has been used to generate high-resolution 2-D or 3-D object images at a variety of different microwave frequencies. In particular, wideangle SAR images can contain important features of an object from a diverse set of observation angles collected by a radar system orbiting around a target or scene. These feature-rich wide-angle SAR images are useful for ATR due to their high resolution and comprehensive coverage of the target. Interference, jamming, or data dropouts, however, are commonplace in practical SAR environments, and result in an incomplete data set. These missing and corrupted data cause substantial degradation in the generated SAR imagery, hampering their utility for subsequent ATR processing especially when data-independent image formation algorithms are used. A prime example of these difficulties is operating a SAR system in the very high frequency (VHF) or ultrahigh frequency (UHF) bands, where the spectrum is frequently crowded [2].
Positioning Helper Nodes to Improve Robustness of Wireless Mesh Networks to Jamming Attacks

Wireless communication systems are susceptible to both unintentional interference and intentional jamming attacks. For mesh and ad-hoc networks, interference affects the network topology and can cause the network to partition, which may completely disrupt the applications or missions that depend on the network. Defensive techniques can be applied to try to prevent such disruptions to the network topology. Most previous research in this area is on improving network resilience by adapting the network topology when a jamming attack occurs. In this paper, we consider making a network more robust to jamming attacks before any such attack has happened. We consider a network in which the positions of most of the radios in the network are not under the control of the network operator, but the network operator can position a few ``helper nodes'' to add robustness against jamming. For instance, most of the nodes are radios on vehicles participating in a mission, and the helper nodes are mounted on mobile robots or UAVs. We develop techniques to determine where to position the helper nodes to maximize the robustness of the network to certain jamming attacks aimed at disrupting the network topology. Using our recent results for quickly determining how to attack a network, we use the harmony search algorithm to find helper node placements that maximize the number of jammers needed to disrupt the network.
Advances in regional anaesthesia: A review of current practice, newer techniques and outcomes

Advances in ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia and introduction of newer long acting local anaesthetics have given clinicians an opportunity to apply novel approaches to block peripheral nerves with ease. Consequently, improvements in outcomes such as quality of analgesia, early rehabilitation and patient satisfaction have been observed. In this article we will review some of the newer regional anaesthetic techniques, long acting local anaesthetics and adjuvants, and discuss evidence for key outcomes such as cancer recurrence and safety with ultrasound guidance.
Lactobacillus Mucosal Vaccine Vectors: Immune Responses against Bacterial and Viral Antigens

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been utilized since the 1990s for therapeutic heterologous gene expression. The ability of LAB to elicit an immune response against expressed foreign antigens has led to their exploration as potential mucosal vaccine candidates. LAB vaccine vectors offer many attractive advantages: simple, noninvasive administration (usually oral or intranasal), the acceptance and stability of genetic modifications, relatively low cost, and the highest level of safety possible. Experimentation using LAB of the genus Lactobacillus has become popular in recent years due to their ability to elicit strong systemic and mucosal immune responses. This article reviews Lactobacillus vaccine constructs, including Lactobacillus species, antigen expression, model organisms, and in vivo immune responses, with a primary focus on viral and bacterial antigens.
Fish and Wildlife in Mukilteo's Japanese and Big Gulch

Urban streams and their associated riparian zones in western Washington contain important fish and wildlife habitat. This report summarizes the results of two seasons of in-stream salmon spawner surveys from November and December 2013 and 2014 and three years of wildlife surveys using tracking and camera traps from January 2012 to December 2014. Students from the Learn and Serve Environmental Anthropology Field (LEAF) School at Edmonds Community College conducted the surveys in Japanese and Big Gulches in response to requests from the City of Mukilteo and Snohomish County Airport. The surveys demonstrate that adult coho have returned to Japanese Gulch for the third year in a row after the completion of a significant stream restoration project removing four major barriers to salmon migration. The surveys confirm reports of salmon (both coho and chum) returning to spawn in Big Gulch and provide the first evidence of coho pre-spawn mortality in this stream. The surveys add six news species to lists of known fish and wildlife using Japanese Gulch and confirm an additional 27 species reported by other sources. This report initiates a new list of 34 species documented in Big Gulch, 30 of which had not been reported in other consulted sources. Collectively, the surveys demonstrate the ecological value of these two urban streams as fish and wildlife habitat. With contributions from 122 students, faculty, staff, and community members over a three year period, this project also demonstrates the value of citizen science and community engagement to the education of community college students and the endeavors of municipalities to protect fish and wildlife habitat.
Modellierungsprobleme bei der Maschinellen Unterstützung Eines Vorgehensmodells

Die sturmische Entwicklung der letzten 10 bis 15 Jahren im Bereich der elektronischen Datenverarbeitung ermoglichte die rasch zunehmende Automatisierung der Informationsverarbeitung im Unternehmen, brachte aber auch mit sich, das die Entwicklung von Anwendungen komplexer, schwerer uberschaubar und arbeitsintensiver wurde [BALZERT_82, IBM_86b].
Advancing cognitive agent-based modeling: personifying the agents

The Social Sciences study human aspects of society (history, culture, religion, language, etc.) using scientific methods that include quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. A good tool for examining global events is agent-based modeling because this paradigm facilitates the representation of emergent behaviors of actors in a complex system, and it allows for an observation of the evolution of that system over time. Agent-based modeling is intrinsically social in that the actions and characteristics of the Agents are influenced by the actions and characteristics of the other Agents in the social system. This, in turn, calls attention to the developing the key component: the Agent. This study proposes a Social Sciences methodology to objectively personify Agents and it provides a demonstration of Agent personification can facilitate a more incisive look at Agent behavior.
Taiwan’s 1991 second national assembly election

The author assesses Taiwan’s fifth competitive national election and its first ever nonsupplementary election. The electorate picked a “new” National Assembly, absent those elected on the mainland before 1949 or later appointed to fill vacancies. The election was a major victory for the ruling Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) affording it perhaps its first real mandate — a product of the KMT’s good reputation for engineering economic development and in recent years political development as well (since it was largely responsible for getting the “elder parliamentarians” to retire). In addition, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party made a mistake by putting Taiwan independence into the platform. Two other parties contested the election but failed to win a significant number of votes. The new National Assembly will amend the nation’s Constitution which will make some important changes in Taiwan’s polity.
Mechanistic Analysis of Physicochemical Cues in Promoting Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Metabolism

We have previously reported that a porous membrane of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) enables significant augmentation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) proliferation and differentiation. The interaction between hPSCs and the PET surface induces β-catenin-mediated wingless/integrated (Wnt) signaling, leading to upregulation of the expression of adhesion molecules in hPSCs. In this study, we sought to unveil mechanisms underlying the role of the PET membrane in hPSC self-renewal and metabolism. We discovered that physicochemical cues of the PET membrane considerably alter hPSC metabolism by increasing the cell yield and suppressing the generation of toxic byproduct, indicating an effective cell self-renewal and a less apoptotic culture environment in the membrane culture system. Furthermore, we discovered that a caspase-8 medicated apoptotic pathway plays a profound role in obstructing hPSCs grown on a traditional tissue culture plate (TCP). Treating hPSCs seeded on a TCP surface with a caspase-8 inhibitor significantly suppressed cellular apoptotic pathway and improved cell proliferation and metabolism. Our experimental results provided valuable insights into signal pathways influencing hPSC self-renewal during routine maintenance and expansion, which would shed light on large-scale preparation of hPSCs for clinical applications.
Isotropic positive definite functions on spheres generated from those in Euclidean spaces

In this thesis, author have reviewed the classical characterizations of isotropic positive definite functions on Euclidean spaces and spheres, and had applied them to develop a construction of isotropic positive de nite functions on spheres. However, this construction only works when the dimension of the sphere is odd. The next work is to develop isotropic positive de nite functions on all spheres.
Agglomeration: Economic and Environmental Impacts

Urbanization is taking place at an unprecedented pace and scale in China, India, and many other emerging economies. This will have profound impacts on the world economy and environment. This review...
The PARK Framework for Automated Analysis of Parkinson's Disease Characteristics

There are about 900,000 people with Parkinson's disease (PD) in the United States. Even though there are benefits of early treatment, unfortunately, over 40% of individuals with PD over 65 years old do not see a neurologist. It is often very difficult for these individuals to get to a physician's office for diagnosis and subsequent monitoring. To address this problem, we present PARK, Parkinson's Analysis with Remote Kinetic-tasks. PARK instructs and guides users through six motor tasks and one audio task selected from the standardized MDS-UPDRS rating scale and records their performance via webcam. An initial experiment was conducted with 127 participants with PD and 127 age-matched controls, in which a total of 1,778 video recordings were collected. 90.6% of the PD participants agreed that PARK was easy to use, and 93.7% mentioned that they would use the system in the future. We explored objective differences between those with and without PD. A novel motion feature based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of optical flow in a region of interest was designed to quantify these differences in the collected video recordings. Additionally, we found that facial action unit AU4 (brow lowerer) was expressed significantly more often, while AU12 (lip corner puller) was expressed less often in various tasks for participants with PD.
Thank God for My Successes (Not My Failures): Feeling God's Presence Explains a God Attribution Bias

Little research has investigated attributional biases to God for positive and negative personal events. Consistent with past work, we predicted that people who believe in God will attribute success...
Role of Precipitation Partitioning in Litter Biogeochemistry Open image in new window

Passage of precipitation though the plant canopy can conceivably affect litter decomposition in two ways; reduction in quantity of precipitation and alteration of throughfall chemistry. In many ecosystems, interception ratios are of the magnitude to possibly reduce decomposition rates due to moisture limitations. Simulations indicate that these are especially likely to limit decomposition at higher temperatures, lower monthly precipitation rates, and in the presence of evergreen canopies. However, this review has not located any experiments that directly test the hypothesis that canopy interception can reduce litter decomposition. There have been many observational surveys and experiments with different objectives, such as evaluation effects of climatic change and at least three have noted decreased decomposition rates with partial exclusion of throughfall. Canopy removal by clearcutting or thinning generally reduce decomposition rates because of temperature and moisture effects. The most definite effect of throughfall chemistry on litter decomposition is its effects on immobilization of N and P in litter during the early stages. The two studies that directly address the effects of throughfall on litter decomposition showed that simulated throughfall containing inorganic nutrients increased the uptake of N and P and speeds up the rates of net mineralization but only one showed a difference in mass loss. Studies using fertilization of litter have shown mixed results in its effect on decomposition rate. There is an extremely diverse array of organic substances in throughfall that could hypothetically cause priming effects or even inhibitory effects (e.g. polyphenols). However, these substances are also present in freshly senesced litter and maybe in higher concentration in litter. However, experiments using realistic concentrations characteristic of throughfall appear to be lacking.
TiO2-based photocatalytic conversion processes: insights from in situ infrared spectroscopy

Abstract In situ infrared spectroscopy (IR) allows direct observation of the evolution of adsorbed species as well as photogenerated conduction/trapped electrons on TiO2 under reaction environment in transmission, diffuse reflectance, and attenuated total reflectance modes. This chapter will cover the design of in situ IR cells for mechanistic investigation of gas–solid photocatalytic reactions using photocatalytic oxidation of ethanol as an example. We will discuss the approaches for in situ IR studies, analysis of IR data, and elucidation of reaction pathways involved with photogenerated electrons. The approaches described in this chapter can be extended for investigating mechanisms of a wide range of gas–solid catalytic reactions.
Network-Based Single-Cell RNA-Seq Data Imputation Enhances Cell Type Identification

Single-cell RNA sequencing is a powerful technology for obtaining transcriptomes at single-cell resolutions. However, it suffers from dropout events (i.e., excess zero counts) since only a small fraction of transcripts get sequenced in each cell during the sequencing process. This inherent sparsity of expression profiles hinders further characterizations at cell/gene-level such as cell type identification and downstream analysis. To alleviate this dropout issue we introduce a network-based method, netImpute, by leveraging the hidden information in gene co-expression networks to recover real signals. netImpute employs Random Walk with Restart (RWR) to adjust the gene expression level in a given cell by borrowing information from its neighbors in a gene co-expression network. Performance evaluation and comparison with existing tools on simulated data and seven real datasets show that netImpute substantially enhances clustering accuracy and data visualization clarity, thanks to its effective treatment of dropouts. While the idea of netImpute is general and can be applied with other types of networks such as cell co-expression network or protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, evaluation results show that gene co-expression network is consistently more beneficial, presumably because PPI network usually lacks cell type context, while cell co-expression network can cause information loss for rare cell types. Evaluation results on several biological datasets show that netImpute can more effectively recover missing transcripts in scRNA-seq data and enhance the identification and visualization of heterogeneous cell types than existing methods.
Dynamic 30-day readmission prediction for cancer patients via clinical embeddings.

2040Background: Existing models typically predict unplanned 30-day readmission for cancer patients at discharge1. Performing prediction dynamically during hospital stay may allow earlier interventi...
Phenotypes of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in Adults

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), first described by Northway in 1967, is a process of neonatal lung injury that is most strongly associated with prematurity. The "old" form of the disease associated with the oxidative damage and volutrauma from perinatal mechanical ventilation has been increasingly supplanted by a "new" form resulting from interrupted growth of the lung at earlier stages of fetal development. Given the significant improvement in the survival of children with BPD since the 1980s, many more of these patients are living into adulthood and are being seen in adult pulmonary practices. In this review, we present three brief vignettes of patients from our practice to introduce three of the major patterns of disease seen in adult survivors of BPD, namely, asthma-like disease, obstructive lung disease, and pulmonary hypertension. Additional factors shown to affect the lives of adult BPD survivors are also discussed. Finally, we discuss insights into the process of transitioning these complex patients from pediatric to adult pulmonary practices. As survivors of BPD enter adulthood and continue to require specialty pulmonary care, awareness of the disease's varied manifestations and responses to treatment will become increasingly important.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF CONE BEAM COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY USE IN DIAGNOSIS OF MEDICATION-RELATED OSTEONECROSIS OF THE JAW

Background Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is an adverse drug reaction, marked by bone destruction. Most studies have focused on its diagnosis and management. Objective The aim of this review was to explore the role of CBCT in MRONJ diagnosis. Materials and Methods The following databases were searched: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Trip, and Cochrane Library. Search terms were “osteonecrosis,” “medication-related,” “radiography,” “bone resorption,” and “CBCT.” The search for publications from 2003 onward yielded 395 articles (case reports, case series, studies, and systematic reviews). However, only 11 articles met our inclusion criteria. Results The 11 articles with 168 cases were included in a full-text qualitative analysis. Females comprised 66.6% of cases. Mean patient age was 58.5 years. CBCT findings included osteolytic lesions, osteosclerosis, sequestra, and sinus mucosal thickening. The most frequent location was the posterior mandible (62.6%). Stage 1 was most often reported (36.4%). The most frequent precipitating event was extraction (75%). Of the included cases, 52.4% were oncologic cases, and 23.8% were osteoporosis cases. Of the patients, 72.7% had taken antiresorptive medications and 4.5% antiangiogenics. Administration was mostly oral (45%). Several studies included management; 90% of articles reported antibiotic and chlorhexidine use, and 10% reported surgical intervention. Discussion CBCT is a reliable tool in the detection and staging of MRONJ. It is reported to offer advantages over multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) with regard to radiation exposure and is superior to 2-dimensional imaging in the detection of MRONJ features.
Association of Virtual Surgical Planning With External Incisions in Complex Maxillectomy Reconstruction.

Importance Maxillectomy can commonly be performed through a transoral approach, but maxillectomy defect reconstruction can be difficult to precisely design, contour, and inset through this approach. Objective To evaluate whether the use of virtual surgical planning (VSP) and 3-dimensional (3-D) modeling is associated with a decrease in the requirement of lateral rhinotomy (LR) for patients undergoing total and partial maxillectomy reconstruction. Design, setting, and participants This retrospective cohort study was conducted among patients undergoing subtotal or total maxillectomy with microvascular free flap reconstruction with or without VSP and 3-D modeling at a single tertiary care academic medical center between January 1, 2008, and October 3, 2019. Interventions Maxillectomy and free flap reconstruction with or without VSP. Main outcomes and measures Necessity of LR or other external incision for contouring, placement, and fixation of reconstruction as well as surgical complications. Results Fifteen patients (12 men [80%]; mean age, 64 years) underwent maxillectomy with free flap reconstruction without VSP. Eight patients (53%) in this group underwent total maxillectomy, and 4 patients in this group (27%) underwent partial maxillectomy. Twenty-three patients (18 men [78%]; mean age, 58 years) underwent maxillectomy with free flap reconstruction and VSP and 3-D modeling. Twelve of these patients (52%) underwent total maxillectomy, and 11 (48%) underwent partial maxillectomy. Lateral rhinotomy was necessary for 1 patient (4%) in the VSP group vs 12 patients (80%; 95% CI, 54%-98%) in the pre-VSP group. There were no LR complications in the VSP group vs 6 in the pre-VSP group. Among both groups, 14 patients underwent fibula free flap, 22 patients underwent subscapular system free flap, and 2 patients underwent cutaneous or osteocutaneous radial forearm free flap. There were no flap failures in the LR group and 1 flap failure in the group without LR. Conclusions and relevance This cohort study suggests that the use of VSP and 3-D modeling for maxillectomy reconstruction is associated the a decrease in the need for external incisions without compromising reconstructive flap utility.
Classroom to casa: supporting students who are emerging bilinguals

A substantial achievement gap, with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students falling behind native-English-speaking White peers, has been widely documented in research as well as govern...
Assessing hospital electronic health record vendor performance across publicly reported quality measures.

OBJECTIVE Little is known regarding variation among electronic health record (EHR) vendors in quality performance. This issue is compounded by selection effects in which high-quality hospitals coalesce to a subset of market leading vendors. We measured hospital performance, stratified by EHR vendor, across 4 quality metrics. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used data on 1272 hospitals in 2018 across 4 quality measures: Leapfrog Computerized Provider Order Entry/EHR Evaluation, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare Star Ratings, Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) score, and Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) ratio. We examined score distributions and used multivariable regression to evaluate the association between vendor and score, recovering partial R2 to assess the proportion of quality variation explained by vendor. RESULTS We found significant variation across and within EHR vendors. The largest vendor, vendor A, had the highest mean score on the Leapfrog Computerized Provider Order Entry/EHR Evaluation and HRRP ratio, vendor G had the highest Hospital Compare score, and vendor F had the highest HAC score. In adjusted models, no vendor was significantly associated with higher performance on more than 2 measures. EHR vendor explained between 1.2% (HAC) and 7.6 (HRRP) of the variation in quality performance. DISCUSSION No EHR vendor was associated with higher quality across all measures, and the 2 largest vendors were not associated with the highest scores. Only a small fraction of quality variation was explained by EHR vendor choice. CONCLUSIONS Top performance on quality measures can be achieved with any EHR vendor; much of quality performance is driven by the hospital and how it uses the EHR.
Multi-element full-duplex FSO transceiver design using optimum tiling

Abstract With ever-growing demand of high-speed mobile data and in vision of smart cities, optical wireless, a.k.a. free-space optical (FSO), communication deem to be a critical technology due to its significantly faster data transfer rate, higher security, lower costs, and reduced power usage. These beneficial effects have led to interest in exploring FSO technologies for mobile platforms such as drone-based cell tower to provide Internet services to remote areas, or even for wireless communications on the ground with jammed radio channels as in battlefields. Direct line-of-sight (LOS) is required to establish secure directional FSO communication (FSOC) links which are highly susceptible to random and erratic movements of the mobile nodes as well as the turbulence in the free-space medium. The performance of FSOC links can be improved by designing multi-element tiling of the laser-based transceivers which is capable of in-band full-duplex (IBFD) communication. In this work, we propose a genetic algorithm framework to explore optimized multi-element FSO transceiver tiling patterns to ensure maximal signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) and minimize the effects of vibration of the mobile platform and atmospheric turbulence.
Inhibiting endocytosis in CGRP+ nociceptors attenuates inflammatory pain-like behavior.

The advantage of locally applied anesthetics is that they are not associated with the many adverse effects, including addiction liability, of systemically administered analgesics. This therapeutic approach has two inherent pitfalls: specificity and a short duration of action. Here, we identified nociceptor endocytosis as a promising target for local, specific, and long-lasting treatment of inflammatory pain. We observed preferential expression of AP2α2, an α-subunit isoform of the AP2 complex, within CGRP+/IB4- nociceptors in rodents and in CGRP+ dorsal root ganglion neurons from a human donor. We utilized genetic and pharmacological approaches to inhibit nociceptor endocytosis demonstrating its role in the development and maintenance of acute and chronic inflammatory pain. One-time injection of an AP2 inhibitor peptide significantly reduced acute and chronic pain-like behaviors and provided prolonged analgesia. We evidenced sexually dimorphic recovery responses to this pharmacological approach highlighting the importance of sex differences in pain development and response to analgesics. The authors show the endocytotic adaptor subunit called AP2A2 is differentially expressed in CGRP+ nociceptors. Locally inhibiting nociceptor endocytosis with a lipidated AP2 inhibitor peptide reduces acute and chronic pain-like behaviour in mice and rats, indicating prolonged analgesia.
Comparing integrated electromyographic and anthropometric predictor variables on inertial resistance exercise performance

Volunteers provided data comparing two classes (integrated electromyography, anthropometry) of predictor variables to explain the variance associated with calf press performance done against inertial resistance. Subjects performed three 3-set 10-repetition workouts, each starting with body mass and body surface area determinations. During the first and last repetitions per set, integrated electromyography (IEMG) was collected from the lateral and medial gastrocnemius (LG, MG), and soleus (SOL). Multivariate regression revealed all prediction equations were significant ( p< 0.05). For tenth repetition dependent variables, anthropometry explained more variance than did IEMG; perhaps due to greater series elastic element involvement of the musculotendinous unit, less motor unit recruitment may have occurred. IEMG was generally more correlated to first than tenth repetition dependent variables. Among IEMG variables, SOL data explained more variance seen with tenth repetition concentric variables; yet correlations between dependent measures and MG data were usually high for first repetition eccentric, but low for tenth repetition, variables. The diverse levels of variance explained among independent variable classes illustrate pronounced differences in what they contribute to performance, and within IEMG variables suggests considerable anatomical/histochemical differences among the triceps surae.