cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inflation and marginal cost: on the importance of their covariance

Many researchers have found that estimating the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) using the output gap to proxy for real marginal cost tends to produce a counter-intuitive coefficient sign in the model, whereas using the labour income share produces the expected coefficient sign. This article investigates the potential cause of this puzzle: What causes these differing signs for the coefficient for real marginal cost? We find that this coefficient sign crucially depends on the covariance between inflation and marginal cost. Moreover, this covariance in turn critically depends on the cyclicality of the marginal cost proxy that is used.
Debt Peonage in the Cotton South After the Civil War

This condition of affairs in the South introduced a vast credit system whose tremendous evils and exorbitant exactions have brought poverty and bankruptcy to thousands of families. As a policy, it is vindictive in its subtle sophistry; as a system, it has crushed out all independence and reduced its victims to a coarse species of servile slavery.…
The postmortem distribution of vardenafil (Levitra) in an aviation accident victim with an unusually high blood concentration.

Vardenafil (Levitra) is one of the most widely prescribed treatments for erectile dysfunction. This report presents a rapid and reliable method for the identification and quantification of vardenafil in postmortem fluids and tissues, applies this method to a postmortem case, and describes the distribution of vardenafil in various fluids and tissues. This procedure utilizes sildenafil-d 8 , which is structurally closely related to vardenafil, as an internal standard for more accurate and reliable quantitation. The method incorporates solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (MS) and MS-MS-MS utilizing an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion trap MS in the positive chemical ionization mode. Solid-phase extraction proved to be exceptionally efficient providing recoveries that ranged from 94% to 97%. The limit of detection for vardenafil was determined to be 0.19 ng/mL. The linear dynamic range for this compound was 0.39-200 ng/mL. This method was successfully applied to postmortem fluid and tissue specimens obtained from an aviation accident victim. The distribution of vardenafil in various fluids and tissues and the unusually high concentration of vardenafil in the victim's blood are examined.
Stimulated-emission pumping for state-selective initiation of unimolecular reactions

Stimulated-emission pumping is successfully applied to the study of unimolecular dissociation dynamics of HFCO → HF + CO in a pulsed jet. Dissociative levels of the ground electronic state are prepared by stimulated-emission pumping, and the CO fragments formed from these levels are probed by vacuum-ultraviolet laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. The rotational energy distribution of the CO fragments indicates modest differences between the dissociation dynamics of HFCO and those of H2CO. However, the Doppler width of CO fragments from HFCO indicates that the total kinetic energy of the fragments from HFCO is ~65% of total available energy, the same fraction as in the dissociation of H2CO. The linewidths of the dissociative levels are also measured with high-resolution fluorescence-dip-detected stimulated-emission pumping spectroscopy.
Fluid shear- and time-dependent modulation of molecular interactions between PMNs and colon carcinomas

This study compares the effects of fluid shear on the kinetics, adhesion efficiency, stability, and molecular requirements of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) binding to two colon adenocarcinoma c...
XAS of trace element coordination in natural sediments at ambient and cryogenic temperatures

Abstract The molecular coordination of trace levels of Zn (1–2 wt%) in natural sediments from an acid mine drainage and of V, Cr, and Mn (10–300 ppm) from weathered hydrothermal soils was examined by synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at ambient and cryogenic (≈10 K) temperatures. XAFS analyses of mine drainage sample spectra show that, with increased weathering, Zn coordination changes from a sulfide phase in its host mineral, sphalerite (ZnS), to coordination indicative of hydroxide phases. In samples with silica, carbonate, and iron-hydroxide phases (3–54 wt% Fe(OH)3), the local atomic Zn environment changes with the total amount of bulk iron hydroxide, bu Zn is not incorporated into carbonate or silica phases. Analysis of pre-edge and K-edge spectral features of very low concentrations of V, Cr, and Mn in oxidized, kaolinite-rich soils from hydrothermal areas indicates reduced valences states for these ions (V3+, 4+, Cr3+, Mn2+) and suggests trapping of metals under paleo-reducing conditions during clay formation.
Generic open theism and some varieties thereof

The goal of this paper is to facilitate ongoing dialogue between open and non-open theists. First, I try to make precise what open theism is by distinguishing the core commitments of the position from other secondary and optional commitments. The result is a characterization of ‘generic open theism’, the minimal set of commitments that any open theist, qua open theist, must affirm. Second, within the framework of generic open theism, I distinguish three important variants and discuss challenges distinctive to each. The significance of this approach is that it helps avoid conflating arguments bearing on specific versions of open theism with arguments pertaining to open theism simpliciter.
High-energy amplitudes of Yang-Mills theory in arbitrary perturbative orders

In this paper, we give a summary of our work on perturbative calculations of high-energy amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory. Using the model of SU(2) with an isodoublet of Higgs bosons, we calculate the leading real part and the leading imaginary part of the vector-meson-vector-meson scattering amplitude in the 2nd through 10th orders. We also calculate two sets of diagrams to all perturbative orders: the ladder diagrams and the multi-meson-exchange diagrams. The leading terms of the amplitude of $I=1$ (one unit of isospin exchanged) come from the ladder diagrams only and are shown to add up to a Regge-pole term corresponding to the Reggeization of the vector meson. The above results are shown to generalize easily to other non-Abelian gauge field theories. The extension to the process of fermion-fermion scattering is also straightforward, and we give a proof that these amplitudes are asymptotically proportional to the corresponding ones in vector-meson-vector-meson scattering. The 2nd- through 10th-order calculations show the following features: (i) All factors of $\mathrm{ln}s$ come from integration over longitudinal momenta. (ii) All divergent integrals over the transverse momenta cance. (This has been explicitly verified up to the 8th order only.) The 2nd- through 10th-order results suggest to us a recursion formula which determines to all perturbative orders the leading terms of the scattering amplitudes. Summing up these leading terms, we found the following: (a) For the amplitude of $I=0$ (no exchange of isospin), the sum of the leading terms exceeds the Froissart bound, representing a fixed branch point at ${J}_{0}=1+[\frac{(2\mathrm{ln}2)}{{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}}]{g}^{2}$ in the plane of the angular momentum. (b) For the amplitude of $I=2$ (two units of isospin exchanged), the sum of leading terms at $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$ has a branch point at ${J}_{2}=2{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}(0)\ensuremath{-}1$, where ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}$ is the Regge trajectory on which the vector meson lies. (c) From (a) and (b) we have $\ensuremath{\infty}g{J}_{0}g1g{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}(0)g{J}_{2}$. The qualitative features of high-energy scattering in Yang-Mills theories are therefore exactly the same as those in QED. In particular, the violation of the Froissart bound by summing leading terms in all these cases indicates the necessity of a calculational program to go beyond summing leading terms.
Global analysis of yeast mRNPs

Proteins regulate gene expression by controlling mRNA biogenesis, localization, translation and decay. Identifying the composition, diversity and function of mRNA-protein complexes (mRNPs) is essential to understanding these processes. In a global survey of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mRNA-binding proteins, we identified 120 proteins that cross-link to mRNA, including 66 new mRNA-binding proteins. These include kinases, RNA-modification enzymes, metabolic enzymes and tRNA- and rRNA-metabolism factors. These proteins show dynamic subcellular localization during stress, including assembly into stress granules and processing bodies (P bodies). Cross-linking and immunoprecipitation (CLIP) analyses of the P-body components Pat1, Lsm1, Dhh1 and Sbp1 identified sites of interaction on specific mRNAs, revealing positional binding preferences and co-assembly preferences. When taken together, this work defines the major yeast mRNP proteins, reveals widespread changes in their subcellular location during stress and begins to define assembly rules for P-body mRNPs.
Dealing with Death: Medical Students' Experiences with Patient Loss

This article explores medical students' experiences and coping strategies when confronting patient loss in their 3rd and 4th years of their programs. Much of the literature on the impact of patient...
Influence of a sympathomimetic amine on masticatory and trapezius pain/pressure thresholds and electromyographic levels.

Objectives. This study examined the influence of terbutaline, a β-adrenergic sympathomimetic amine on pain/pressure thresholds in the index fingers and masseter and trapezius muscles and electromyographic activity in trapezii. Study design. In a randomized and double-blind controlled trial, 20 asymptomatic female subjects were assigned to receive either an injection of terbutaline or sterile water before collection of pain/pressure thresholds and electromyographic levels. Repeated analysis of variance and paired t tests were calculated to test for baseline and postinjection differences between groups. Results. No significant baseline or postinjection group differences in pain/pressure thresholds or electromyographic were detected. Conclusions. β-adrenergic sympathomimetic stimulation does not influence pain/pressure thresholds or electromyographic activity in the masselet and trapezius muscles or pain/pressure thresholds in the index fingers. These results suggest that development of painful muscle conditions is not caused by elevations of sympathetic activity.
Observation of optical phase amplification in three wave mixing

We present the first measurement of the amplification of optical phase in a phase-sensitive optical parametric amplifier.
A Test of Radio-Transmitter Effects on Parental Investment and Productivity in the Northern Cardinal

Abstract. Researchers often attach radio transmitters and other devices to free-living birds without a clear understanding of the possible consequences for their study organisms or their data. Although transmitters may affect parental investment (nest defense and offspring provisioning), this possibility has received little attention. We tested this hypothesis by placing mock radio transmitters on male Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) and comparing their behavior to that of uncaptured birds and procedural controls. Birds with transmitters defended their nests less vigorously than did uncaptured birds but did not modify their provisioning effort. This behavioral modification appears to have ultimately influenced predation rates, as nests of birds with transmitters had lower daily survival rates and were less likely to fledge offspring. Control birds that were captured, handled, and bled had intermediate levels of nest defense and productivity that were statistically indistinguishable from those o...
Social Competence and Behavior Problems in Premature Children at School Age

Social competence and behavior problems of 87 children born weighing less than 1501 g were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist when the children were 7 to 8 years old. Both premature boys and girls had significantly lower Social Competence scores than the normative samples of their respective sexes. Only premature boys had significantly higher Behavior Problems scores, with significantly higher scores on behaviors associated with conduct disorders. Premature children in each of three social class groups had significantly lower Social Competence scores and higher Behavior Problems scores than normative children. Furthermore, there was an interaction between prematurity and social class on Behavior Problems scores, with the greatest discrepancy in scores between premature and normative children in the lower-class group. Relative to other predictors, IQ score best explained Social Competence scores and family stability best explained Behavior Problems scores in the premature sample.
Endocrine rhythms in the brown bear (Ursus arctos): Evidence supporting selection for decreased pineal gland size.

Many temperate zone animals adapt to seasonal changes by altering their physiology. This is mediated in large part by endocrine signals that encode day length and regulate energy balance and metabolism. The objectives of this study were to determine if the daily patterns of two important hormones, melatonin and cortisol, varied with day length in captive brown bears (Ursus arctos) under anesthetized and nonanesthetized conditions during the active (March–October) and hibernation periods. Melatonin concentrations varied with time of day and season in nonanesthetized female bears despite exceedingly low nocturnal concentrations (1–4 pg/mL) in the active season. In contrast, melatonin concentrations during hibernation were 7.5-fold greater than those during the summer in anesthetized male bears. Functional assessment of the pineal gland revealed a slight but significant reduction in melatonin following nocturnal light application during hibernation, but no response to beta-adrenergic stimulation was detected in either season. Examination of pineal size in two bear species bears combined with a phylogenetically corrected analysis of pineal glands in 47 other species revealed a strong relationship to brain size. However, pineal gland size of both bear species deviated significantly from the expected pattern. Robust daily plasma cortisol rhythms were observed during the active season but not during hibernation. Cortisol was potently suppressed following injection with a synthetic glucocorticoid. The results suggest that melatonin and cortisol both retain their ability to reflect seasonal changes in day length in brown bears. The exceptionally small pineal gland in bears may be the result of direct or indirect selection.
Environmental Control: A Methodology for Planning Change in Public Housing

The dilemma of large scale public housing is that on the one hand it is perhaps the only reasonable option available to cities for sheltering people in high density, low income areas while on the other hand it represents an unhappy solution which is costly both from an economic and social standpoint and which often exaggerates many of the problems it was intended to solve. The present paper represents, in part, a report1 of the activities of a group of architects, social scientists and housing officials concerned with the problem of improving the physical and social environment of a housing project in Dallas, Texas. Although work on the Dallas project is far from finished the majority of the planning process has been completed. The present paper examines this process and other related experiences as a basis for improving planning strategies with future projects.
Larynx and Hypopharynx Cancer

Larynx cancer is the most common cancer of the head and neck. Risk factors include tobacco, alcohol, betel and areca nuts, and deficiencies of iron, vitamin B12, and vitamin C. Larynx subsites: Supraglottis: suprahyoid and infrahyoid epiglottis, aryepiglottic folds, arytenoids, and false cords. Glottis: true vocal cords (TVCs) including the anterior and posterior commissures. Subglottis: extends from the lower boundary of the glottis to the inferior aspect of the cricoid cartilage.
Policymaking in Post-Earthquake Haiti: A Real-Time Classroom Simulation

In this paper, I argue that real-time simulations - that is, simulations based on real world events that are still in progress - are a particularly effective form of classroom simulation, which capture the elements of urgency and uncertainty that are often missing from fictional or historical case study simulations. Specifically, I contend that real-time simulations help students to engage with the material in a more personal and immediate way than traditional role play exercises. Moreover, real-time simulations are realistically unpredictable, because the information that students use to make decisions is uncertain, incomplete and ever-changing. After discussing the theoretical benefits of real-time simulations, the paper describes an example from an undergraduate course on international development at Knox College, which focuses on the issue of international aid in post-earthquake Haiti. Based on the results of pre- and post-simulation surveys administered to participants in the course, I argue that real-time simulations like the one described here constitute a promising teaching tool for instructors of political science and international relations.
Governments, Financial Markets, and International Human Rights: The State’s Role as Shareholder

The role of state-sponsored entities as participants in the financial markets is often overlooked in the human rights discourse. This paper will examine the role of the state in financial markets not as the lawmaker, regulator, or utilizer of hard power, but as an equity investor of publicly-traded companies. In particular, the study will consider how government organs such as public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds can pursue international human rights objectives and impact international affairs.
A Comparative Study of Different Strategies for Predicting Software Quality.

Various methods have been developed for improving the quality of a software product, especially for high-assurance and missioncritical software systems. One commonly used approach is software quality modeling, in which software practitioners utilize software metrics and defect data collected during the software development process to build defect prediction models that will help to find poor-quality program modules. Those modules predicted to be fault-prone will receive more inspection and testing, thereby improving their quality. Efficacy of defect prediction models is influenced by relevance between software metrics and fault data. Usually not all software metrics in data repositories contribute equally to the occurrence of faults. Choosing the most important metrics (features) prior to the model training process is needed to improve the effectiveness of defect predictors. In this paper, we study 18 filter-based feature selection techniques and evaluate their effectiveness through a case study performed on 16 different software data sets. Among the 18 techniques, six of them are standard filter-based methods, while 11 of them are threshold-based feature selection (TBFS) techniques proposed by our research team recently. The last one is based on signal to noise ratio (S2N), which is a widely used concept in electrical and communication engineering, but which is rarely used in feature selection. The experimental results demonstrate that the TBFS techniques perform similarly to the standard techniques and the S2N technique shows significantly better performance than the other 17 approaches.
Ballroom Dance Linking Serious Leisure to Successful Aging

Objective This study explored ballroom dance as serious leisure and successful aging in a sample of community-dwelling older adults.Methods Qualitative procedures were used to explore stories of ba...
Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy of Zn1−xFexSe films

Thin single-crystalline films of the diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) Zn 1-x Fe x Se (0 < x ≤ 0.22) have recently been grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) [1]. The films were deposited on GaAs(100) substrates in a vertical axisymmetric stagnation-flow reactor equipped with a specially designed split inlet to minimize pre-reactions between the group II and VI precursors. The precursors were (CH 3 ) 2 Zn:N(C 2 H 5 ) 3 , Fe(CO) 5 and H 2 Se diluted in H 2 carrier gas. The Zn 1-x Fe x Se films were grown at 393°C, 120 Torr and VI/II = 1.11. These conditions were found to yield very high quality ZnSe films. Film growth rates ranged from 3.54 μm/h for x = 0.22 to 4.11 μm/h for x = 0.09 and are significantly (up to an order of magnitude) higher than the typical rates obtained by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The epilayers were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, reflectance, absorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies (XPS) and by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It appears that MOVPE is a suitable technique for growing high quality epitaxial Zn 1-x Fe x Se films and is very attractive for efficient growth of thick (several microns) DMS films for Faraday magneto-optical applications.
Faith is Confidence: The Implication of Psychosocial Components in Faith-Based Educational Programs on Expressive Communication Skills of Adult Learners

ABSTRACTFaith-based programs for adult learners have environmental factors that differentiate them from non-faith based programs, but explicit empirical studies evaluating the impact of the psychosocial factors have been lacking in the literature. This study comparatively examines the achievement level of expressive communication skills as measured through writing in general education development (GED) program participants who were adult learners in faith-based and non-faith based programs. The article will discuss the context of faith from the literature, impact of psychosocial environmental factors, and provide implications for curriculum design for faith-based academic programs while addressing the research question of whether faith-based GED programs have an impact on the achievement of expressive communication levels of students compared to non-faith-based GED programs.
The Monte Carlo method

In this chapter we introduce the Monte Carlo method, a remarkably powerful approach that is the basis for three chapters in this text. For the purposes of this chapter, Monte Carlo provides an alternative to molecular dynamics for providing thermodynamic information about a material. It differs from molecular dynamics in that it is based on a direct evaluation of the ensemble average, as discussed in Appendix G, and thus cannot yield direct dynamical information, at least as described for the version of Monte Carlo in this chapter. The Monte Carlo method was devised at Los Alamos in the 1940s to solve multidimensional integrals and other rather intractable numerical problems [227]. The method is based on statistical sampling and is called Monte Carlo in recognition of the very famous casinos there. It is not called Monte Carlo because of gambling – at least not entirely – it is named Monte Carlo at least in part because of its remarkable ability to solve intractable problems. INTRODUCTION What is the Monte Carlo method? As first employed, it was a way to solve complicated integrals. As a simple example, Monte Carlo is used to evaluate the one-dimensional integral 1n( x ) dx in Figure 7.1a. First, a region that includes the function to be integrated is defined. Random points in that region are chosen via a random-number generator. The integrated function is just the fraction of the points that fall below the curve multiplied by the area of the sampled region.
I Hear Islam Singing: Shahab Ahmed's What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic *

At the time of Shahab Ahmed's untimely death on 17 September 2015, he left behind many admiring colleagues, students, friends, and family, as well as a weighty tome of monumental significance— What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic . It is tragic when an author's first book is published posthumously, perhaps even more so in this case given that Ahmed's work is poised to have a pervasive influence on the field of Islamic Studies and has already garnered numerous accolades. Like a supermassive celestial body, this dense book exerts an irresistible attraction and alters the intellectual trajectory of those drawn into its orbit. What Is Islam? poses difficult questions no one in the field can ignore, even if one disagrees with its premises, methods, or conclusions. We are collectively the poorer for being unable to engage directly with the author in the many discussions that are sure to be provoked by the book's meteoric impact.
Soul Pain: The Hidden Toll of Working With Survivors of Physical and Sexual Violence

This study extends prior research on vicarious traumatization and emotion management by exploring a deeper, more life-altering effect of working with traumatized clients—namely, “soul pain.” Analys...
The Lombard effect observed in speech produced by cochlear implant users in noisy environments: A naturalistic study

The Lombard effect is an involuntary response speakers experience in the presence of noise during voice communication. This phenomenon is known to cause changes in speech production such as an increase in intensity, pitch structure, formant characteristics, etc., for enhanced audibility in noisy environments. Although well studied for normal hearing listeners, the Lombard effect has received little, if any, attention in the field of cochlear implants (CIs). The objective of this study is to analyze speech production of CI users who are postlingually deafened adults with respect to environmental context. A total of six adult CI users were recruited to produce spontaneous speech in various realistic environments. Acoustic-phonetic analysis was then carried out to characterize their speech production in these environments. The Lombard effect was observed in the speech production of all CI users who participated in this study in adverse listening environments. The results indicate that both suprasegmental (e.g., F0, glottal spectral tilt and vocal intensity) and segmental (e.g., F1 for /i/ and /u/) features were altered in such environments. The analysis from this study suggests that modification of speech production of CI users under the Lombard effect may contribute to some degree an intelligible communication in adverse noisy environments.
Variations in State Sex Offender Statutes: Implications for U.S. Higher Education:

State sex offender statutes have been shown to vary widely in the United States. The rules found in some state statutes targeting registered sex offenders who are students or employees at higher ed...
Pathologic Remodeling of Endoneurial Tubules in Human Neuromas.

BACKGROUND Laminins are extracellular matrix proteins that participate in endoneurial tubule formation and are important in the regeneration of nerves after injury. They act as scaffolds to guide nerves to distal targets and play a key role in neurite outgrowth. Because there is evidence that laminin architecture affects nerve regeneration, we evaluated endoneurial tubules by examining the laminin structure in clinical samples from patients with nerve injuries. METHODS In a retrospective review of eight nerve injury cases, we evaluated nerve histology in relation to clinical history and injury type. The immunohistochemical delineation of the laminin structure in relationship with the neuroma type was performed. RESULTS Five cases of upper-trunk stretch injuries-four from childbirth injury and one from a motorcycle accident-and three cases of nerve laceration leading to neuroma formation were examined. In the upper-trunk stretch injuries, avulsed nerves demonstrated no neuroma formation with a linear laminin architecture and a regular Schwann cell arrangement, but increased fibrous tissue deposition. For neuromas-in-continuity after a stretch injury, laminin immunohistochemistry demonstrated a double-lumen laminin tubule, with encapsulation of the Schwann cells and axonal processes. Nerve laceration leading to stump neuroma formation had a similar double-lumen laminin tubule, but less severe fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS In nerve injuries with regenerative capacity, endoneurial tubules become pathologically disorganized. A double-lumen endoneurial tubule of unclear significance develops. The consistency of this pattern potentially suggests a reproducible pathophysiologic process. Further exploration of this pathophysiologic healing may provide insight into the failure of programmed peripheral nerve regeneration after injury.
PALO bounds for reinforcement learning in partially observable stochastic games

Abstract A partially observable stochastic game (POSG) is a general model for multiagent decision making under uncertainty. Perkins’ Monte Carlo exploring starts for partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) (MCES-P) integrates Monte Carlo exploring starts (MCES) into a local search of the policy space to offer an elegant template for model-free reinforcement learning in POSGs. However, multiagent reinforcement learning in POSGs is tremendously more complex than in single agent settings due to the heterogeneity of agents and discrepancy of their goals. In this article, we generalize reinforcement learning under partial observability to self-interested and cooperative multiagent settings under the POSG umbrella. We present three new templates for multiagent reinforcement learning in POSGs. MCES for interactive POMDP (MCESIP) extends MCES-P by maintaining predictions of the other agent’s actions based on dynamic beliefs over models. MCES for multiagent POMDP (MCES-MP) generalizes MCES-P to the canonical multiagent POMDP framework, with a single policy mapping joint observations of all agents to joint actions. Finally, MCES for factored-reward multiagent POMDP (MCES-FMP) has each agent individually mapping joint observations to their own action. We use probabilistic approximate locally optimal (PALO) bounds to analyze sample complexity, thereby instantiating these templates to PALO learning. We promote sample efficiency by including a policy space pruning technique and evaluate the approaches on six benchmark domains as well as compare with the state-of-the-art techniques, which demonstrates that MCES-IP and MCES-FMP yield improved policies with fewer samples compared to the previous baselines.
JUSTICE AND RIGHTS: A STUDY IN RELATIONSHIP

This paper deals with a few aspects of the relationship between the concepts of justice and rights along historical and, occasionally, analytical dimensions. A close connection between these notions is often assumed. In the fifth chapter of Utilitarianism [21], for instance, John Stuart Mill purports to explain the stringency of the demands of justice on the grounds that justice is correlated with that part of morality which is concerned with rights. More recently, Gregory Vlastos has maintained that “an action is just if, and only if, it is prescribed exclusively by regard for the rights of all whom it affects substantially” ([28], p. 53). And still more recently, Ronald Dworkin has asserted that our “intuitions about justice” presuppose that “people have rights … ” ([12], p. xii). Although there is ample historical precedent for such statements, I want to consider some older sources concerning which it may be difficult to establish what the precise connection between these notions is. In some respects we shall be dealing with a special case of a general problem in the methodology of the history of ideas.
Ultrasonic Sensing Simulation of CdTe Single Crystal Growth

Today’s infrared detector arrays consist of Hg1-xCdxTe deposited upon lattice matched Cd1-xZnxTe substrate wafers. Very high quality Cd1-xZnxTe crystals must be grown so that substrate wafer defects do not degrade the detector’s performance. Usually, the Cd1-xZnxTe crystals are grown by a Bridgman technique in which a charge is melted in a cylindrical quartz ampoule and slowly withdrawn from the hot zone (at ~ 1100°C) of a furnace.1 The best quality crystal is obtained from material solidified under plane front conditions.2 This is difficult to achieve, and a need has arisen for insitu sensing of the growth process to characterize, and ultimately control, the interface shape.
Gestational trophoblastic disease.

Background. Gestational trophoblastic disease consists of a group of interrelated diseases, including molar pregnancy, placental site trophoblastic tumor, and choriocarcinoma. Methods. Advances in the diagnosis and management of gestational trophoblastic diseases over the past 5 years were reviewed. Results. Molar pregnancy is now categorized as complete or partial on the basis of gross and microscopic histopathologic and karyotypic findings. Early detection of persistent gestational trophoblastic tumor (GTT) depends on careful postmolar gonadotropin follow-up and consideration of the diagnosis for any woman of reproductive age with unexplained gynecologic and/or systemic symptoms. Triple therapy with methotrexate, actinomycin D, and cyclophosphamide was once the preferred treatment for patients with high risk metastatic GTT but induced remission in only about 50%. Treatment with etoposide, methotrexate, actinomycin D, cyclophosphamide, and vincristine is now the preferred regimen for treatment of high risk metastatic GTT and has been shown to induce remission in about 70% of patients. Conclusions. Important advances have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with gestational trophoblastic disease, and patients can be reassured that they can anticipate normal reproductive functioning.
Violations of the proportional hazards assumption in randomized phase III oncology clinical trials.

2543Background: The hazard ratio is the most common measure of treatment effect in oncology trials, but many trials commonly violate the underlying Cox proportional hazards assumption. We aimed to ...
Blood pressure-induced physiological strain variability modulates wall structure and function in aorta rings.

Vascular smooth muscle cells respond to mechanical stretch by reorganizing their cytoskeletal and contractile elements. Recently, we showed that contractile forces in rat aorta rings were maintained when the rings were exposed to 4 h of physiological variability in cycle-by-cycle strain, called variable stretch (VS), mimicking beat-to-beat blood pressure variability. Contractility, however, was reduced when the aorta was exposed to monotonous stretch (MS) with an amplitude equal to the mean peak strain of VS. Objective Here we reanalyzed the data to obtain wall stiffness as well as added new histologic and inhibitor studies to test the effects of VS on the extracellular matrix. Main results The results demonstrate that while the stiffness of the aorta did not change during 4 h MS or VS, nonlinearity in mechanical behavior was slightly stronger following MS. The inhibitor studies also showed that mitochondrial energy production and cytoskeletal organization were involved in this fluctuation-driven mechanotransduction. Reorganization of β-actin in the smooth muscle layer quantified from immunohistochemically labeled images correlated with contractile forces during contraction. Histologic analysis of wall structure provided evidence of reorganization of elastin and collagen fibers following MS but less so following VS. The results suggested that the loss of muscle contraction in MS was compensated by reorganization of fiber structure leading to similar wall stiffness as in VS. Significance We conclude that muscle tone modulated by variability in stretch plays a role in maintaining aortic wall structural and mechanical homeostasis with implications for vascular conditions characterized by a loss or an increase in blood pressure variability.
Harnessing Maize Biodiversity

The phenotypic and genetic diversity of maize worldwide is remarkable. This chapter summarizes decades of studies of the genetic diversity of maize populations from different parts of the world, methods used to group maize into informal hierarchies, and how these groupings partition genetic and trait variation. The USA is the most important maize-producing nation, but the genetic diversity of USA maize is small relative to the available worldwide variation. Tropical maize harbors more genetic variation, but is not adapted to growing in temperate environments. Two distinct approaches to tapping the global reservoir of maize diversity to improve USA and other temperate region maize crops are outlined. One approach, allele mining, involves discovery of alleles with large favorable effects on traits in exotic germplasm, followed by marker-aided backcrossing or gene editing to introduce specific unique alleles into elite breeding populations. Alternatively, for traits conditioned mostly by many small-effect polygenes, rapid genomic selection for adaptation followed by combining ability within pure exotic populations could be used to create adapted and improved versions of exotic populations before they are crossed to elite adapted inbreds to make new breeding populations.
A critical evaluation of the role of robotic-assisted surgery in complex pediatric urology cases.

The authors of this manuscript should be commended for undertaking this difficult work. Complex robotic reconstruction is no easy task and the collaboration at their institution and willingness to advance this technology should be positively recognized. Some of the key factors to examine critically with utilization of new surgical technology to established “historical” operative norms include success and complications, convalescence, cost and cosmesis. In that regard let’s evaluate these individually.
Abstract 3971: MEK inhibitors limit inflammatory cytokine production and modulate the immune response in the setting of Cholangiocarcinoma.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CC) is a rare but aggressive cancer of the bile ducts with a five-year survival rate of only 2% in patients with metastatic disease. MAP kinase signaling is important in the pathogenesis of CC and serves as a key regulator of cell proliferation and survival. Our data indicate this pathway is constitutively active in several CC cell lines and accompanied by production of immunomodulatory cytokines including IL-6, MCP-1 and GM-CSF. Cobimetinib is a potent and selective inhibitor of MEK that has been utilized clinically in patients with advanced CC. Although MEK inhibitors (MEKi) have been studied in a variety of solid tumors, the mechanisms by which they act upon CC cells are not completely defined. These agents have modest single agent activity in CC, and their impact in combination with immunotherapy is under active investigation. We hypothesized that MEKi can modulate cytokine and chemokine expression from CC tumors, thereby complementing immunotherapy in this aggressive disease. Using a novel panel of human CC cell lines, we demonstrated a variable impact of cobimetinib on in vitro cell proliferation, with a reduction in viability no greater than 35%. However, MEKi reproducibly limited cytokine (GM-CSF and IL-1β) and chemokine (MIP-1α) production from human CC cell lines in vitro. The ability of cobimetinib to limit MAPK signal transduction in these cells was confirmed via immunoblot. These data complement prior published observations by Ebert et al.in 2016 indicating that single agent MEKi is sufficient to elicit T cell infiltration into tumors. We have completed enrollment of a Phase II clinical trial (NCT03201458) evaluating the efficacy of cobimetinib in combination with the PD-L1 inhibitor, atezolizumab. An extensive series of correlative studies are underway in peripheral blood and tumor biopsies to examine the impact of cobimetinib on modulating cytokine and chemokine signatures in the context of PD-L1 targeted therapy. These data will provide new insight into the impact of MEK inhibitors as a complement to immunotherapy in a disease that is refractory to most conventional therapies. Citation Format: Amanda N. Ruggieri, Matthew R. Farren, Mark Yarchoan, Nilofer S. Azad, Lauren Dennison, Bassel El-Reyes, Gregory B. Lesinski. MEK inhibitors limit inflammatory cytokine production and modulate the immune response in the setting of Cholangiocarcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3971.
A measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks.

Heavy-tailed networks are often characterized in the literature by their degree distribution's similarity to a power law. However, many heavy-tailed networks in real life do not have power-law degree distributions, and in many applications the scale-free nature of the network is irrelevant so long as the network possesses hubs. Here we present the Cooke-Nieboer index (CNI), a non-asymptotic measure of the heavy-tailedness of a network's degree distribution which does not presume a power-law form. The CNI is easy to calculate, and clearly distinguishes between networks with power-law, exponential, and symmetric degree distributions.
Meter-Scale Seafloor Geodetic Measurements Obtained from Repeated Multibeam Sidescan Surveys

We calibrate a technique to use repeated multibeam sidescan surveys in the deep ocean to recover seafloor displacements greater than a few meters. Displacement measurements from seafloor patches (3...
Quantification of flow through intracranial arteriovenous malformations using Angiographic Parametric Imaging (API)

Purpose: Intracranial arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are severe neurovascular diseases in which the arterial branches of an area of the brain communicate directly with venous circulation through a network of dilated vasculature (nidus) which significantly increases the risk of hemorrhage. Treatment plans typically incorporate direct embolization with liquid materials delivered via micro-catheters under fluoroscopy. Currently, the progression and success of this procedure are qualitatively evaluated using digitally subtracted angiographic (DSA) sequences. This study sought to validate the use of Angiographic Parametric Imaging (API) for quantitative analysis of the hemodynamic changes caused by embolization treatment using imaging biomarkers. Materials and Methods: 36 patients with AVMs were selected randomly from a list of patients with known symptoms at presentation. For each, at least one set of frontal and lateral angiograms were analyzed using API. Parametric maps were calculated for five imaging biomarkers, including time to peak (TTP), mean transit time (MTT), time to arrival (TTA), peak height (PH), and area under the curve (AUC). Regions of interest (ROIs) were selected over the feeding arteries, AVM nidus, and draining veins. Average ROI parameters were calculated and changes in flow due to embolization were quantified through a percent change analysis. Results were verified using correlation coefficients across AVM vasculature at multiple sites following normalization. Results: Frontal to lateral correlation coefficients; TTP, 0.54±0.07; MTT, 0.24±0.09; TTA 0.60±0.06; PH, 0.33±0.08; AUC, 0.22±0.09. Nidus to principle draining vein (PDV) correlation coefficients; TTP, 0.75±0.03; MTT, 0.64±0.04; TTA, 0.80±0.02; PH, 0.32±0.06; AUC, 0.68±0.04. PH and AUC values affected by DSA inversion. Conclusions: The study concludes that the API software is reliable in determining the flow parameters throughout the AVM, provided that the selected ROI is consistent between frontal and lateral scans and DSA selection is optimal.
Surgical Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: An Electrophysiologist’s Perspective

The experience and insight obtained during surgical ablation of all types of arrhythmias was formative for electrophysiology and catheter ablation. The early surgical ablation experience provided proof of concept as well direct operative observation of anatomy and pathophysiologic mechanisms. For atrial fibrillation (AF), surgical ablation anticipated many of the problems that catheter ablation subsequently encountered, although these lessons were not promptly appreciated. Rather than competition, greater cooperation and communication between surgeons and electrophysiologists in the future would be more likely to enhance understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of AF.
Introduction: Planning Analysis Methods

Planning is a profession that is concerned with shaping our living environment. Frenchman (The profession of city planning. Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 2000) observes that the profession of planning is alive and more plans have been made recently than ever before.
Probe-target hybridization depends on spatial uniformity of initial concentration condition across large-format chips

Diverse assays spanning from immunohistochemistry (IHC), to microarrays (protein, DNA), to high-throughput screens rely on probe-target hybridization to detect analytes. These large-format 'chips' array numerous hybridization sites across centimeter-scale areas. However, the reactions are prone to intra-assay spatial variation in hybridization efficiency. The mechanism of spatial bias in hybridization efficiency is poorly understood, particularly in IHC and in-gel immunoassays, where immobilized targets are heterogeneously distributed throughout a tissue or hydrogel network. In these systems, antibody probe hybridization to a target protein antigen depends on the interplay of dilution, thermodynamic partitioning, diffusion, and reaction. Here, we investigate parameters governing antibody probe transport and reaction (i.e., immunoprobing) in a large-format hydrogel immunoassay. Using transport and bimolecular binding theory, we identify a regime in which immunoprobing efficiency (η) is sensitive to the local concentration of applied antibody probe solution, despite the antibody probe being in excess compared to antigen. Sandwiching antibody probe solution against the hydrogel surface yields spatially nonuniform dilution. Using photopatterned fluorescent protein targets and a single-cell immunoassay, we identify regimes in which nonuniformly distributed antibody probe solution causes intra-assay variation in background and η. Understanding the physicochemical factors affecting probe-target hybridization reduces technical variation in large-format chips, improving measurement precision.
Inclusion of economic outcomes in NCI grants: A portfolio analysis.

7047Background: While new interventions have improved cancer screening, treatment, and survivorship, the costs and other economic impacts of interventions may affect their uptake and availability. ...
ELECTRICITY: An Efficient Multi-Camera Vehicle Tracking System for Intelligent City

City-scale multi-camera vehicle tracking is an important task in the intelligent city and traffic management. It is quite challenging with large scale variance, frequent occlusion and appearance variance caused by viewing perspective difference. In this paper, we propose ELECTRICITY, an efficient multi-camera vehicle tracking system with aggregation loss and fast multi-target cross-camera tracking strategy. The proposed system contains four main modules. Firstly, we extract tracklets under single camera view through object detection and multi-object tracking modules which shared the detection features. After that, we match the generated tracklets through a multicamera re-identification module. Finally, we eliminate isolated tracklets and synchronize tracking ids according to the re-identification results. The proposed system wins the first place in the City-Scale Multi-Camera Vehicle Tracking of AI City 2020 Challenge (Track 3) 1 with a score of 0.4585.
Training Chaplains to Provide Communication-Board-Guided Spiritual Care for Intensive Care Unit Patients.

Background: Chaplain-led communication-board-guided spiritual care may reduce anxiety and stress during an intensive care unit (ICU) admission for nonvocal mechanically ventilated patients, but cli...