cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Employing Service Orientation to Enable Training as a Service in the U.S. Army

Currently many training systems acquired, fielded and sustained by the U.S. Army are unable to seamlessly comply with a continuously evolving and often complex computational environment. The current state of such training systems must advance to a Training as a Service (TaaS) future state in order to adapt to a volatile defense budget, conform to policy updates, and enhance the training capabilities afforded to the War fighter. TaaS will transform current Army training applications into distributed web-based services, allowing them to be accessible across any location via thin client workstations and wireless mobile devices. The motivation behind this migration is coming from the Common Operating Environment (COE) Architecture Guidance published by the U.S. Army Chief Information Officer and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology. In order to achieve the COE objectives, the Army recently launched a pilot study on the Common Training Instrumentation Architecture (CTIA). CTIA is the foundation architecture of the Army's Live Training Transformation (LT2) Product Line that provides software infrastructure and services to live training product applications. This paper describes the migration of CTIA to TaaS using a specific set of modern computing technologies that will enable rapid delivery of training capabilities across servers, mobile devices, and heterogeneous platforms. Specifically service-oriented architecture (SOA) and cloud computing are considered which can satisfy the requirements of the TaaS and COE, and meet user demands for an enhanced training experience. Furthermore, this paper discusses the approach taken to elicit the future needs of the Army's live training community, and how cloud computing and SOA are leveraged to meet required capabilities. Lastly, this paper discusses some unique considerations on SOA-related security issues.
The roles of risk assessment in the control of invasive vertebrates.

Vertebrate pest species are an economically and ecologically important subset of the broader environmental problem of invasive alien species. Risk assessment has been shown to be a useful paradigm for identifying and comparing potential solutions to environmental problems in a variety of contexts, including problems associated with invasive species. Here I briefly review the important components of the risk assessment paradigm, and discuss potential applications of risk assessment approaches to several aspects of the control of invasive vertebrate pest species, including import and export controls to prevent establishment, evaluation of control measures for established species, and assessment of the severity of potential non-target impacts of control measures. Risk assessment can contribute to the solution of vertebrate pest problems by connecting science to policy and management decisions, by identifying and alleviating values-based controversies, and by integrating public participation and stakeholder involvement into science-based decision-making.
Toward an Analytic Framework of Interdisciplinary Reasoning and Communication (IRC) Processes in Science

Students need to think and work across disciplinary boundaries in the twenty-first century. However, it is unclear what interdisciplinary thinking means and how to analyze interdisciplinary interactions in teamwork. In this paper, drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives and empirical analysis of discourse contents, we formulate a theoretical framework that helps analyze interdisciplinary reasoning and communication (IRC) processes in interdisciplinary collaboration. Specifically, we propose four interrelated IRC processes—integration, translation, transfer, and transformation, and develop a corresponding analytic framework. We apply the framework to analyze two meetings of a project that aims to develop interdisciplinary science assessment items. The results illustrate that the framework can help interpret the interdisciplinary meeting dynamics and patterns. Our coding process and results also suggest that these IRC processes can be further examined in terms of interconnected sub-processes. We also d...
The Physician: Roles and Characteristics

The major health problems of many children today differ considerably from those of the past. Advances in understanding, prevention, and treatment have lessened the time spent on many of the serious and life-threatening conditions associated with such problems as malnutrition and infectious diseases. Today a “new morbidity” for children and adolescents centers on school underachievement, developmental disabilities, and psychosocial and behavioral disorders. Incorporating this new morbidity into medical care has major implications for the role of physicians and the way they conduct their practices (Costello, Edelbrock, Costello et al., 1988).
What the Abortion Disclosure Cases Say About the Constitutionality of Persuasive Government Speech on Product Labels

This article addresses the uncertain constitutional status of government compelled disclosure requirements imposed on commercial speech. In Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, 471 U.S. 626 (1985), the Supreme Court held that, while commercial speech restrictions are subject to intermediate scrutiny review under Central Hudson, at least certain types of disclosure requirements would be subject to more lenient rational basis review. Many had assumed that Zauderer’s deferential review applied to disclosure requirements imposed to promote legitimate regulatory objectives including, but not limited to, preventing consumers from being deceived by unsupplemented commercial speech. As new requirements that cigarette labels provide larger and more graphic health warnings illustrate, these regulatory purposes may include achieving the public health objective of reducing demand for the product on which the information must be placed. But the Supreme Court’s recent interpretations expanding the free speech protection of commercial and corporate speakers from government regulations that take the form of restricting their speech create uncertainty as to whether and how these changes in the jurisprudence of speech restrictions will modify the authority of governments to achieve their legitimate regulatory objectives by means of information disclosure requirements imposed on commercial speech. Yet this apparent uncertainty in the commercial speech jurisprudence has an odd and inconsistent counterpart. At the same time that members of the Court have suggested that disclosure requirements imposed on commercial speech for purposes other than preventing consumer deception may be constitutionally suspect, in the analogous context of the abortion service, the Court has applied deferential rational basis review to uphold selective and persuasive disclosure requirements that were imposed for purposes other than correcting potentially misleading speech. This piece identifies the symmetry between the two lines of cases, and to points out that, so long as the informed consent to abortion precedent remains unchanged, it is controlling in the context of commercial speech disclosures. Deferential rational basis scrutiny applies to judicial evaluations of information disclosure mandates imposed on product labels and other types of commercial speech, even if the government’s purpose is something other than preventing consumer deception and even if the information is obviously selected and presented to persuade.
Three New Species and New Records of Elmas (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Xanthopygina) from South America with a Reanalysis of the Phylogenetic Relationships Among the Species of Elmas

Three new species of the xanthopygine staphylinid genus Elmas are described: Elmas strigiformis Ashe & Chatzimanolis (Brazil), Elmas elassoides Ashe & Chatzimanolis (Bolivia), and Elmas similis Ashe & Chatzimanolis (Brazil). The habitus and structural illustrations are provided for their recognition. Previously published keys for identification are modified to incorporate the new species. The phylogenetic relationships are reanalyzed based on addition of the three new species, revision and recoding of 32 previously used characters, deletion of E. modesta (known only from females) from the analysis, and addition of eight new characters. Phylogenetic analysis based on four xanthopygine outgroups and 19 species of Elmas yielded four equally parsimonious trees of length = 135, C.I. = 45, and R.I. = 74. Major results of the phylogenetic analysis are Elmas is robustly monophyletic; E. strigella and E. strigiformis are sister species, and together they are sister to all other known Elmas species; Elmas elassos is sister to Elmas elassoides + Elmas similis; E. spinosus is sister to the sister-group pair of E. falini + E. gigas; and E. windorsi and E. costaricensis are sister groups. New records of Elmas lescheni document the presence of Elmas in Colombia for the first time.
The importance of paying attention to sleep.

Introduction to the September 2008 issue of Virtual Mentor on the theme of sleep medicine. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Community resource messenger: a mobile system and design exploration in support of the urban homeless

Access to computers, to mobile phones, and to data connectivity has opened new avenues of interaction and created expectations about the flattening of society brought about by these new modes of production. These technologies have enabled us to recognize many forms of community—from close knit social groups to individuals who merely co-habit public spaces—and to support interaction with each other in novel ways. The notion that modern digital technology holds promises of democratization by expanding access to information and broadening modes of knowledge production often fails to acknowledge that these benefits rely upon devices and infrastructure whose availability reflect socioeconomic contours; that the technologies that enable information access can also reinforce rather than obviate marginality due to barriers to access and suitability. This assessment points to opportunities for better understanding and better designing technologies for the marginalized or dispossessed. The research presented in this dissertation discusses the findings from empirical, theoretical, and design based investigations of technology use with the urban homeless. The empirical work provides a foundation for understanding current technology practices among the homeless and their care providers. The theoretical investigation develops Deweyan publics as a novel frame for participatory design. The design-based investigation presents findings from the design and deployment of the Community Resource Messenger at a shelter for homeless mothers. The results of this research shed light on impact of social computing platforms on social service provision and on the ways the staff and residents used the Community Resource Messenger as a resource for identifying common issues and taking action to contend with those issues.
What Makes a Bystander Stand By? Adolescents and Bullying.

The current study sheds some light on the extent to which adolescents say they are experiencing bullying, what they think they would do when confronted with bullies, and what they have actually done in the past when witnessing bullying. Results from a survey of 1,742 adolescents indicates even young adolescents have already experienced verbal, social and physical bullying. When faced with an actual case of bullying, adolescents were more likely to assist if they were older and better informed about community resources. Adolescents do not believe their own abuse history makes them more or less willing to help others, but the findings show adolescents who have experienced abuse themselves are more likely to intervene, regardless of the type of bullying.
IN VITRO SYNTHESIS OF STEROIDS BY EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED CYSTIC OVARIES.

SummaryOvarian cysts were experimentally induced by injecting hypothyroid rats with human chorionic gonadotropin. Cystic ovarian tissue synthesized in vitro a large quantity of 20α-hydroxypregn-4-en-3-one but estrogen synthesis was low.
The Case for Weapons in Space: A Geopolitical Assessment

Discussion of the geopolitical context of outer space, with particular reference to Chinese and American strategies.
The blood-retinal barrier: structure and functional significance

Formation and maintenance of the blood-retinal barrier is required for proper vision and loss of this barrier contributes to the pathology of a wide number of retinal diseases. The retina is responsible for converting visible light into the electrochemical signal interpreted by the brain as vision. Multiple cell types are required for this function, which are organized into eight distinct cell layers. These neural and glial cells gain metabolic support from a unique vascular structure that provides the necessary nutrients while minimizing interference with light sensing. In addition to the vascular contribution, the retina also possesses an epithelial barrier, the retinal pigment epithelium, which is located at the posterior of the eye and controls exchange of nutrients with the choroidal vessels. Together the vascular and epithelial components of the blood-retinal barrier maintain the specialized environment of the neural retina. Both the vascular endothelium and pigment epithelium possess a well-developed junctional complex that includes both adherens and tight junctions conferring a high degree of control of solute and fluid permeability. Understanding induction and regulation of the blood-retinal barrier will allow the development of therapies aimed at restoring the barrier when compromised in disease or allowing the specific transport of therapies across this barrier when needed. This chapter will highlight the anatomical structure of the blood-retinal barrier and explore the molecular structure of the tight junctions that provide the unique barrier properties of the blood--retinal barrier.
Clinical pathology and prognosis of henoch-schonelin purpura nephritis in children

Objective To analyze the relationship between the clinical and pathological features and prognosis of Henoch-Schonelin purpura nephritis (HSPN) in children. Methods The clinical pathological features and prognosis of children with HSPN was analyzed retrospectively, and their association was investigated. Clinical outcomes were grades as the following: 1.Normal:in which patients were symptom free with normal urinalysis; 2.Minor urinary abnormality: in which patients had proteinuria (1g/24h)with or without hematuria,and with no hypertension or increased serum creatinine; 3.Deterioration, in which patients had proteinuria (1g/24h) and gross hematuria accompanied with hypertension or renal insufficiency. Results The prognosis of HSPN in children was associated with the clinical pathological features. Type Ⅱ usually had better prognosis than type Ⅲ. Among all the patients, renal rubulointerstitial lesions (TILs) without TIL accounted for 16.3%, those with mild TIL accounted for 55.9%, moderate TIL accounted for 22.1%, Severe TIL was about 5.7%. With the increase of the severity of TIL, hypertension became worse, while renal function and renal tubular function was decreased. TIL was closely correlated to serum creatinine(Scr) concentration (P 0.01). TIL was closely correlated to crescents and glomerulosclerosis. Conclusion The prognosis of HSPN in children is correlated with the clinical and pathological features. Classification combined clinical and pathological features is a good predictive factor for the progress of the disease. With the increase of the severity of hypertension, proteinuria, crescents, glomerulosclerosis and TIL, the prognosis of HSPN is poor. TIL, in particular, may be an important indicator for the progress of HSPN.
Analysis On The prevalent Factors Of AIDS In Zongyang County

Objective To study the epidemiologic characteristics of AIDS in zongyang county,analyze the prevalent factors,and provide a scientific basis for the department concerned formulating related measures.Methods Materials of AIDS cases and HIV case epidemiological survey obtained from AIDS direct reporting network system were collected and analyzed by descriptive epidemiological method.Results Since the first case of HIV found in Zongyang in 2005,so far,a total of 40 HIV positives had been found,and 30 of them were males,the others were females,their ages ranged from 20 to 40.Among 40 HIV positives,30 cases were farmers or migrant workers.And there were 38 cases infected by heterosexual contact.Conclusion The incidece of AIDS in Zongyang was increasing year by year,and the sexual contact became the main transmission route,the infection of HIV was spreading from high-risk populations to the general population,So extensive participation of whole society and the implementation of integrated control measures were necessary at present.
The S3 Gallop

The third heart sound (S3) most commonly appears in individuals under the age of forty. A pathologic presentation occurs more often in older individuals in volume-overloaded states, such as heart failure. This diastolic gallop is produced by rapid deceleration of transmitral blood flow as it strikes a noncompliant left ventricle. The change in velocity causes reverberations that produce the sound. An S3 is best detected in a quiet room with the bell of the stethoscope placed at the apex while the patient is in the left lateral decubitus position. A positive finding may have several implications depending on the clinical context. Most often an S3 is a sign of reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and therefore left ventricular dysfunction. In aortic stenosis, tricuspid regurgitation and mitral regurgitation the presence of a third heart sound is a sign of severe disease. Similarly, the prognosis for a heart failure patient with an S3 is worse. Treatment is aimed at alleviating the underlying disease process through medical or surgical intervention.
An accelerated framework for the classification of biological targets from solid-state micropore data

Micro/nanoscale devices that detect biological targets especially for early cancer diagnosis generate large datasets.Challenges like high background noise, slow analysis, and low signal-to-noise ratio make data analysis significantly tedious.A novel algorithm is implemented on GPU that automates the rapid detection of biological targets in larger datasets.The machine-learning approach records events, computes features and classifies future pulses into their respective types.The approach detects cells with an accuracy of 70% and demonstrates a speedup of 3-4X over serial implementation. Micro- and nanoscale systems have provided means to detect biological targets, such as DNA, proteins, and human cells, at ultrahigh sensitivity. However, these devices suffer from noise in the raw data, which continues to be significant as newer and devices that are more sensitive produce an increasing amount of data that needs to be analyzed. An important dimension that is often discounted in these systems is the ability to quickly process the measured data for an instant feedback. Realizing and developing algorithms for the accurate detection and classification of biological targets in realtime is vital. Toward this end, we describe a supervised machine-learning approach that records single cell events (pulses), computes useful pulse features, and classifies the future patterns into their respective types, such as cancerous/non-cancerous cells based on the training data. The approach detects cells with an accuracy of 70% from the raw data followed by an accurate classification when larger training sets are employed. The parallel implementation of the algorithm on graphics processing unit (GPU) demonstrates a speedup of three to four folds as compared to a serial implementation on an Intel Core i7 processor. This incredibly efficient GPU system is an effort to streamline the analysis of pulse data in an academic setting. This paper presents for the first time ever, a non-commercial technique using a GPU system for realtime analysis, paired with biological cluster targeting analysis.
Modeling Long-Term Deformations of Unbound Pavement Materials Using the Miniaturized Pressuremeter Creep Data

This research was undertaken to study the predictive capability of the pressuremeter test for characterizing in situ creep behavior of unbound pavement layers. Although the creep potential of granular pavement materials is less pronounced than fine-grained soils, consideration of actual creep deformations in the pavement evaluation process will improve long-term pavement performance. In this investigation, the long-term deformations determined from laboratory one-dimensional creep tests were compared with those investigated by field pressuremeter tests. The pressuremeter test consisted of inflating a cylindrical probe incrementally up to a given stress level, and then maintaining the pressure constant for a 5-min single stage. During this stage, radial deformations of the soil cavity were recorded at each 30-s interval. The one-dimensional creep test was performed on remolded soil specimens through applying a constant stress level for 7 days. Comparison of creep parameters deduced from pressuremeter and creep tests data was based on the Singh–Mitchell creep model. The results showed that the average strain rates derived from in situ pressuremeter data are valid, and compare well with those predicted from the laboratory creep test. Thus, the pressuremeter device can be employed to assess field strain–time behavior of pavement systems in a fast and reliable approach.
Effects of Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Carbon on The Ductility of Cast Molybdenum

High purity molybdenum ingots containing controlled amounts of a single impurity element (oxygen, nitrogen, or carbon) were prepared. These ingots were tested for ductility by bending test specimens at various temperatures. The relationship between the plastic behavior of the ingots and their chemical composition has been determined.
Euclidean time formulation for the superstring ensembles: Perturbative canonical ensemble with Neveu-Schwarz $B$-field backgrounds

We derive the Euclidean time formulation for the equilibrium canonical ensemble of the type IIA and type IIB superstrings, and the $\text{spin}(32)/{\mathrm{Z}}_{2}$ heterotic string. We compactify on ${R}^{8}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{T}^{2}$, and twist by the Neveu-Schwarz sector antisymmetric 2-form $B$-field potential, spontaneously breaking supersymmetry at low temperatures, while preserving the tachyon-free low-energy gravitational field theory limit. We verify that the super partners of the massless dilaton-graviton multiplet obtain a mass which is linear in the temperature. In addition, we show that the free energy for the superstring canonical ensemble at weak coupling is always strongly convergent in the ultraviolet, high-temperature, regime dominated by the highest mass level number states. We derive the precise form of the exponential suppression as a linear power of the mass level, which erases the exponential Hagedorn growth of the degeneracies as the square root of mass level number. Finally, we close a gap in previous research giving an unambiguous derivation of the normalization of the one-loop vacuum energy density of the $\text{spin}(32)/{Z}_{2}$ perturbative heterotic string theory. Invoking the O(32) type IB-heterotic strong-weak duality, we match the normalization of the one loop vacuum energy densities of the $T$-dual O(32) type IA open and closed string with that of the $\text{spin}(32)/{Z}_{2}$ heterotic string on ${R}^{9}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{S}^{1}$, for values of the compactification radius, ${R}_{[\mathrm{O}(32)]}$, ${R}_{\mathrm{IB}}\ensuremath{\gg}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{\ensuremath{'}1/2}$, with ${R}_{\mathrm{IA}}l{\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{\ensuremath{'}1/2}$. We show that the type IA thermal solitonic winding spectrum is a simple model for finite temperature pure QCD, transitioning above the critical duality phase transformation temperature to the deconfined ensemble of thermally excited IB gluons.
The Impact of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act on the Field of Ophthalmology.

Purpose To analyze the impact of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) on the field of ophthalmology. Design A perspective on the effects of MACRA's Quality Payment Program after analysis of the proposed rule, final rule, and commentary submitted by relevant stakeholders. Results Physicians will need to use 1 of 2 payment structures: Merit-Based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS) or Alternative Payment Models (APMs). APMs and MIPS will focus on bundling payments and reimbursing based on "fee-for-service-plus" models, which take into account clinical outcomes, coordination of care, clinical improvement, and electronic information exchange and security. APMs have substantial advantages, with eligible participants receiving a bonus and a higher rate of annual adjustment over the program's life. For most ophthalmology practices, MIPS may be more appropriate owing to its broader applicability and the current paucity of APMs for ophthalmologists. Conclusion The Quality Payment Program is a substantial improvement over the negative adjustments under the repealed Substantial Growth Rate model. Ophthalmologists will likely use the MIPS system; however, its comparatively lower reimbursements, as well as its cost, quality, and other reporting measures, may prove problematic.
The weakly nonlinear magnetorotational instability in a local geometry

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is a fundamental process of accretion disk physics, but its saturation mechanism remains poorly understood despite considerable theoretical and computational effort. We present a multiple-scales analysis of the non-ideal MRI in the weakly nonlinear regime—that is, when the most unstable MRI mode has a growth rate asymptotically approaching zero from above. Here, we develop our theory in a local, Cartesian channel. Our results confirm the finding by Umurhan et al. that the perturbation amplitude follows a Ginzburg–Landau equation. We further find that the Ginzburg–Landau equation will arise for the local MRI system with shear-periodic boundary conditions, when the effects of ambipolar diffusion are considered. A detailed force balance for the saturated azimuthal velocity and vertical magnetic field demonstrates that, even when diffusive effects are important, the bulk flow saturates via the combined processes of reducing the background shear and rearranging and strengthening the background vertical magnetic field. We directly simulate the Ginzburg–Landau amplitude evolution for our system, and demonstrate the pattern formation our model predicts on long scales of length- and timescales. We compare the weakly nonlinear theory results to a direct numerical simulation of the MRI in a thin-gap Taylor Couette flow.
Mucosal Lesions in Skin of Color

Mucosal surfaces are unique clinically and histologically. Certain diseases are more common or more noticeable in the mucosa of people with skin of color. Occasionally, there is ethnic variation in disease outcome as well. This section will focus on lesions within the oral mucosa.
Australian Academic Librarians’ Experience of Evidence Based Practice Involves Empowering, Intuiting, Affirming, Connecting, Noticing, and Impacting

A Review of: Miller, F., Partridge, H., Bruce, C., Yates, C., & Howlett, A. (2017). How academic librarians experience evidence-based practice: A grounded theory model. Library & Information Science Research, 39(2), 124-130. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.04.003 Abstract Objective – To explore and enhance the understanding of how Australian library and information science (LIS) practitioners experience or understand evidence based practice (EBP) within the context of their day-to-day professional work. Design – Constructivist grounded theory methodology. Setting – University libraries in Queensland, Australia. Subjects – 13 academic librarians. Methods – Researchers contacted academic librarians by email and invited each participant to take part in a 30-60 minute, semi-structured interview. They designed interview questions to allow participants to explain their process and experience of EBP. Main results – This study identified six categories of experience of EBP using a constructivist grounded theory analysis process. The categories are: Empowering; Intuiting; Affirming; Connecting; Noticing; and Impacting. Briefly, empowering includes being empowered, or empowering clients, colleagues, and institutions through improved practice or performance. Intuiting includes being intuitive, or using one’s own intuition, wisdom, and understanding, of colleagues and clients’ behaviours to solve problems and redesign services. Affirming includes being affirmed through sharing feedback and using affirmation to strengthen support for action. Connecting includes being connected, and building connections, with clients, colleagues, and institutions. Noticing includes being actively aware of, observing, and reflecting on clients, colleagues, and literature within and outside of one’s own university, and noticing patterns in data to inform decision-making. Impacting includes being impactful, or having a visible impact, on clients, colleagues, and institutions. Together, these categories represent a model that explains the nature of academic librarians’ experiences of EBP. The theory describes academic librarians' experiences as complex and highly contextualized phenomena. There is no clear relationship between these categories, as data analysis did not generate a specific hierarchy of categories. Conclusion – Based on the research findings the authors hypothesize that their study is one of a growing number of studies that has begun to establish an empirical basis for EBP in the LIS profession.
The Institutional Champions: Case Studies (I, II, III, and IV)

Patnaik presents the protagonists of his ‘institutional social change’ to lend credence to his propositions. Significantly, all four of his protagonists are ordinary, rather less-than ordinary women from the marginalised sections of society. Nonetheless, these are women with extraordinary grit and the desired attributes to function as successful change agents. The author narrates each of their stories in the context of his 15-stage model framework of institutional convening to show how the champions steered the change process and dealt with power asymmetries to ensure community participation for the creation of politically, socially, and economically equitable societies in some of the poorest regions of India. The author also underlines the vital role of non-government organizations, who did some handholding of the champions to ensure the success of government programmes.
Bid caps in large contests

Abstract We study the effect of rigid and flexible bid caps on contestants' aggregate costs and aggregate bids in all-pay contests with a large number of heterogeneous contestants and prizes. We show that rigid caps always decrease aggregate costs, whereas flexible caps have essentially no effect on aggregate costs. Rigid caps decrease aggregate bids when costs are linear or concave, but increase aggregate bids under some conditions when costs are convex. Flexible caps always decrease aggregate bids.
Are optical trocars free of complications

Optical view trocars provide an acceptable level of safety for port entry during minimally invasive surgery. Nevertheless, this technique is not exempt from potential complications. These can range from a minor subcutaneous insufflation that will not require any further treatment to abdominal aorta injuries.
Sometimes Merely as a Means: Why Kantian Philosophy Requires the Legalization of Kidney Sales

Several commentators have tried to ground legal prohibitions of kidney sales in some form of Kant's moral arguments against such sales. This paper reconsiders this approach to justifying laws and policies in light of Kant's approach to law in his political philosophy. The author argues that Kant's political philosophy requires that kidney sales be legally permitted, although contracts for such sales must remain unenforceable. The author further argues that Kant's approach to laws, such as those governing kidney distribution, was formed in part by considering and rejecting an assumption frequently employed in the bioethics literature, namely, that legal duties can be grounded directly in moral duties. The author explains some of Kant's reasons for rejecting this assumption and concludes that arguments pertaining to the legality of kidney sales developed on the basis of Kant's moral philosophy should no longer be considered tenable.
Osteoporosis Is Common and Undertreated Prior to Total Joint Arthroplasty.

Abstract Background Osteoporosis is common in total joint arthroplasty (TJA) patients and likely contributes to the increasing incidence of periprosthetic fracture. Despite this, the prevalence of osteoporosis in patients undergoing elective TJA is inadequately studied. We hypothesize that preoperative osteoporosis is underrecognized and undertreated in the TJA population. The purpose of this study is to report preoperative osteoporosis screening rates and prevalence prior to TJA and rates of pharmacologic osteoporosis treatment in the TJA population. Methods This is a retrospective case series of 200 consecutive adults (106F, 94M) aged 48-92 years who underwent elective TJA (100 total hip, 100 total knee) at a single tertiary-care center. Charts were retrospectively reviewed to determine preoperative osteoporosis risk factors, prior dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) testing, and prior osteoporosis pharmacotherapy. Fracture risk was estimated using the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool and the National Osteoporosis Foundation criteria for screening and treatment were applied to all patients. Results One hundred nineteen of 200 patients (59.5%) met criteria for DXA testing. Of these 119, 21 (17.6%) had DXA testing in the 2 years prior to surgery, and 33% had osteoporosis by T-score. Forty-nine patients (24.5%) met National Osteoporosis Foundation criteria for pharmacologic osteoporosis treatment, and 11 of these 49 received a prescription for pharmacotherapy within 6 months before or after surgery. Conclusion One quarter of TJA patients meet criteria to receive osteoporosis medications, but only 5% receive therapy preoperatively or postoperatively. This lack of preoperative osteoporosis screening and treatment may contribute to periprosthetic fracture risk.
Rotation equivariant and invariant neural networks for microscopy image analysis

Motivation Neural networks have been widely used to analyze high-throughput microscopy images. However, the performance of neural networks can be significantly improved by encoding known invariance for particular tasks. Highly relevant to the goal of automated cell phenotyping from microscopy image data is rotation invariance. Here we consider the application of two schemes for encoding rotation equivariance and invariance in a convolutional neural network, namely, the group-equivariant CNN (G-CNN), and a new architecture with simple, efficient conic convolution, for classifying microscopy images. We additionally integrate the 2D-discrete-Fourier transform (2D-DFT) as an effective means for encoding global rotational invariance. We call our new method the Conic Convolution and DFT Network (CFNet). Results We evaluated the efficacy of CFNet and G-CNN as compared to a standard CNN for several different image classification tasks, including simulated and real microscopy images of subcellular protein localization, and demonstrated improved performance. We believe CFNet has the potential to improve many high-throughput microscopy image analysis applications. Availability and implementation Source code of CFNet is available at: https://github.com/bchidest/CFNet. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
DeepSEA: a language for certified system software

Writing certifiably correct system software is still very labor-intensive, and current programming languages are not well suited for the task. Proof assistants work best on programs written in a high-level functional style, while operating systems need low-level control over the hardware. We present DeepSEA, a language which provides support for layered specification and abstraction refinement, effect encapsulation and composition, and full equational reasoning. A single DeepSEA program is automatically compiled into a certified ``layer'' consisting of a C program (which is then compiled into assembly by CompCert), a low-level functional Coq specification, and a formal (Coq) proof that the C program satisfies the specification. Multiple layers can be composed and interleaved with manual proofs to ascribe a high-level specification to a program by stepwise refinement. We evaluate the language by using it to reimplement two existing verified programs: a SHA-256 hash function and an OS kernel page table manager. This new style of programming language design can directly support the development of correct-by-construction system software.
Gold nanoparticles inhibit activation of cancer-associated fibroblasts by disrupting communication from tumor and microenvironmental cells.

Abstract Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a major constituent of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and an important contributor to cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. Regulation of CAF activation is a promising strategy to influence cancer outcomes. Here, we report that ovarian cancer cells (OCs) and TME cells promote the activation of ovarian CAFs, whereas gold nanoparticles (GNPs) of 20 nm in diameter inhibit the activation, as demonstrated by the changes in cell morphology, migration, and molecular markers. GNPs exert the effect by altering the levels of multiple fibroblast activation or inactivation proteins, such as TGF-β1, PDGF, uPA and TSP1, secreted by OCs and TME cells. Thus, GNPs represent a potential tool to help understand multicellular communications existing in the TME as well as devise strategies to disrupt the communication.
Arny: A Study of a Co-creative Interaction Model Focused on Emotion Feedback

This paper presents an AI-based co-creative system in which the interaction model focuses on emotional feedback, that is, the decisions about the creative contribution from the AI agent is based on the emotion detected in the human co-creator. In human-human collaboration, gestures, verbal communications, and emotional responses are among the general communication strategies used to shape the interactions between the collaborators and negotiate the contributions. Emotional feedback allows human collaborators to passively communicate their experience and their perception of the process without distracting the flow of the task. In human-human co-creative collaboration, participants interact and contribute to the task based on their perception of the collaboration over time. In designing human-AI co-creative collaboration, we address two challenges: (1) perceiving the user’s cognitive state to determine the dynamics of collaboration, such as whether the system should lead, follow, or wait, and (2) deciding what the agent should contribute to the artifact. This paper presents a model of an AI agent that addresses these challenges and the results of our study of participants that interact with the co-creative agent.
Association of Follow-Up After an Emergency Department Visit for Mental Illness with Utilization Based Outcomes

Follow-up within 30 days of an emergency department (ED) visit for mental illness is a new and widely-used quality measure. However, no empirical evidence validates associations between follow-up and subsequent utilization based outcomes. Using Massachusetts all payer claims data, we identified insured individuals with an ED visit for mental illness. Multivariate regression analysis estimated associations between follow-up within 30 days after an ED visit for mental illness with costs, hospitalizations, and additional ED visits in 180 days following the index visit. 63,814 index ED visits were included (56.5% female, mean [SD] age 38.0 [12.1] years, 48% Medicaid covered). 31% of index ED principal diagnoses were for major depressive disorder, 3% schizophrenia, 5% bipolar disorder, 34% anxiety disorder, 0.6% post-traumatic stress disorder, 8% other psychoses, and 19% other mental illness diagnoses. Only 33% of patients had a follow-up visit for mental illness within 30 days. Adjusted regression analyses show timely follow-up is associated with increased costs in the 180 days after (average marginal effect = $1622; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1459, 1786), an increased probability of inpatient hospitalization (2.7 percentage points; 95% CI 0.021, 0.032), and a small reduction in the probability of at least one additional ED visit (− 1.7 percentage points; 95% CI − 0.026 to 0.009). Overall follow-up rates are low; follow-up within 30 days of an ED visit for mental illness is associated with increased costs and increased probability of hospitalization in the follow-up period. It is not known whether increased rates of utilization improve patient outcomes, potentially by receiving appropriate more intensive care.
PFICs Gone Wild

This article discusses the U.S. tax rules for passive foreign investment companies, or PFICs. The historical development leading up to the enactment of the PFIC rules in 1986 is examined. Unexpected tax consequences resulting from the PFIC rules are analyzed in detail. Recommendations to modify the rules so that they do have such onerous consequences follow, concluding that the PFIC rules cannot be sufficiently fixed and should be repealed.
Patterns of virus growth across the diversity of life.

Although viruses in their natural habitats add up to less than 10% of the biomass, they contribute more than 90% of the genome sequences [1]. These viral sequences or 'viromes' encode viruses that populate the Earth's oceans [2, 3] and terrestrial environments [4, 5], where their infections impact life across diverse ecological niches and scales [6, 7], including humans [8-10]. Most viruses have yet to be isolated and cultured [11-13], and surprisingly few efforts have explored what analysis of available data might reveal about their nature. Here, we compiled and analyzed seven decades of one-step growth and other data for viruses from six major families, including their infections of archaeal, bacterial and eukaryotic hosts [14-191]. We found that the use of host cell biomass for virus production was highest for archaea at 10%, followed by bacteria at 1% and eukarya at 0.01%, highlighting the degree to which viruses of archaea and bacteria exploit their host cells. For individual host cells, the yield of virus progeny spanned a relatively narrow range (10-1000 infectious particles per cell) compared with the million-fold difference in size between the smallest and largest cells. Furthermore, healthy and infected host cells were remarkably similar in the time they needed to multiply themselves or their virus progeny. Specifically, the doubling time of healthy cells and the delay time for virus release from infected cells were not only correlated (r = 0.71, p < 10-10, n = 101); they also spanned the same range from tens of minutes to about a week. These results have implications for better understanding the growth, spread and persistence of viruses in complex natural habitats that abound with diverse hosts, including humans and their associated microbes.
Significant conversations, significant others: intimate dialogues about teaching statistics

This article features a collaborative autoethnography of its two authors: we are instructors, also life partners, whose teaching of statistics has been transformed through significant, intimate con...
A virtual sub-internship for otolaryngology-head and neck surgery

Objective During the COVID-19 pandemic, away rotations were suspended for safety purposes. This led to the development of online interactive learning modules for students, now known as virtual sub-internships (VSIs). To date, VSIs within otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (OHNS) have been limited in their description and design. Study design Cross-sectional survey. Setting ACGME-accredited OHNS residency program. Methods Our curriculum for an OHNS VSI is presented. Based on the model used by our OHNS residency program, the VSI consisted of a 2-week block of activities and interactive small-group discussions. A post-VSI feedback survey was distributed to participants; results are reported. Results Six 2-week VSI sessions were administered. Twenty-one individuals participated from all US regions, median 4 individuals per session. Fifteen participants (71.4%) completed the feedback survey. Of survey respondents, 20% lacked a home OHNS residency program, and no respondents' home-programs featured a VSI. All respondents were satisfied with the schedule and organization of the VSI, and 73.3% (11 of 15) felt it was of appropriate duration. All respondents reported a high degree of familiarity with the program, with a greater (86.7%) or equal (13.3%) level of interest in applying to the residency program as a result of participating in the VSI. Conclusion This VSI curriculum offers a well-received virtual learning experience for medical students applying to OHNS residency. It provides an opportunity for programs to expand their appeal to potential applicants who may otherwise be restricted in their ability to travel.
Variance in Response to Vaccination of Dairy Cows with Recombinant Arcanobacterium pyogenes pyolysin, by Breed

Arcanobacterium pyogenes is a common inhabitant of the mucous membranes of dairy cattle. This organism is an opportunistic pathogen, associated with suppurative infections of the skin, joints and visceral organs, as well as abortion and mastitis. A. pyogenes secretes pyolysin, a hemolytic exotoxin which is both an important virulence factor and a host protective antigen. The object of this study was to determine whether vaccination of dairy cows with recombinant pyolysin would result in production of a neutralizing antibody response against pyolysin, with the ultimate goal of designing a vaccine against A. pyogenes mastitis. Brown Swiss and Holstein cows were included in the vaccination trial, to determine whether breed influenced response to the vaccine.
Locating Muslim Cinema(s)

The project of locating Muslim cinemas is an inherently open-ended endeavor that serves more as a disciplinary provocation than as a clearly defined and finite task. The four essays collected here ...