cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Police Murders An Examination of Historical Trends in the Killing of Law Enforcement Officers in the United States, 1947 to 1998

This study uses multivariate econometric and time series analysis techniques to examine historical trends in the felonious killing of law enforcement officers in the United States from 1947 to 1998. Of particular interest is the extent to which the correlates of police murder rates are characterized by historical specificity. We also focus on the ability of economic deprivation, deterrence, and social disorganization theories to explain trends in police murder rates across time. The findings of this study indicate (a) that police murder rates in the United States are characterized by distinct historical periods (1947 to 1971, 1972 to 1998) in which the structural correlates of police murder vary and (b) that both economic deprivation and deterrence theories are relevant for understanding trends in police murder although the effects of the latter are historically specific.
History in the interpretation of the pattern of p49a,f TaqI RFLP Y‐chromosome variation in Egypt: A consideration of multiple lines of evidence

The possible factors involved in the generation of p49a,f TaqI Y-chromosome spatial diversity in Egypt were explored. The object was to consider explanations beyond those that emphasize gene flow mediated via military campaigns within the Nile corridor during the dynastic period. Current patterns of the most common variants (V, XI, and IV) have been suggested to be primarily related to Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom political actions in Nubia, including occasional settler colonization, and the conquest of Egypt by Kush (in upper Nubia, northern Sudan), thus initiating the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. However, a synthesis of evidence from archaeology, historical linguistics, texts, distribution of haplotypes outside Egypt, and some demographic considerations lends greater support to the establishment, before the Middle Kingdom, of the observed distributions of the most prevalent haplotypes V, XI, and IV. It is suggested that the pattern of diversity for these variants in the Egyptian Nile Valley was largely the product of population events that occurred in the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene through the First Dynasty, and was sustained by continuous smaller-scale bidirectional migrations/interactions. The higher frequency of V in Ethiopia than in Nubia or upper (southern) Egypt has to be taken into account in any discussion of variation in the Nile Valley. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 17: 559–567, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Seismic response of simple structures using spring‐assisted sliding slabs with coulomb damping

Coulomb damping can be utilized effectively to reduce the dynamic response of structures subjected to seismic ground motions. To activate this damping, some parts of a vibrating structure are allowed to slide at rough interfaces. The dynamic response of structures provided with sliding interfaces at the base, between a floor slab and frame and in the cross bracings of a frame has been examined recently. In this paper, a simple slab sliding system provided with a spring to introduce a recovery mechanism and to reduce the sliding displacement requirement for low frequency structures has been examined. The equations of motion for this system are developed. An approach is presented to solve these coupled equations for earthquake induced ground motions. Structures with varying frequency and friction characterisics are considered and the numerical results are presented in response spectrum form. It is observed that, in low frequency structures, provision of a rather weak spring can reduce the sliding displacement requirements without significantly increasing the forces in the supporting frame and the acceleration input to supported secondary systems.
Geochemical constraints on the formation of Late Cenozoic ferromanganese micronodules from the central Arctic Ocean

In order to determine geochemical compositions of Late Cenozoic Arctic seawater, oxide fractions were chemically separated from 15 samples of hand-picked ferromanganese micronodules (50-300 pm). The success of the chemical separation is indicated by the fact that ~97% of the Sr in the oxide fraction is seawater-derived. Rare-earth element (REE) abundances of the Arctic micronodule oxide fractions are much lower than those of bulk Fe-Mn nodules from other ocean basins of the world (e.g., 33 vs. 145 ppm Nd), but the Arctic oxides are enriched in Ce relative to Nd (Ce,/Nd, = 2.2 f 0.5) and have convex-upward, shale-normalized REE patterns ( NdN/GdN =0.61 f 0.06, GdN/YbN = 1.5 + 0.2, NdN/Yb, = 0.9 f 0.2), typical of other hydrogenous and diagenetic marine Fe-Mn-oxides. Bulk sediment samples from the central Arctic Ocean have REE abundances and patterns that are characteristic of those of post-Archean shale. Non-detrital fractions (calcite +oxide coatings) of Recent Arctic foraminifera have REE abundances and patterns similar to those of Recent foraminifera from the Atlantic Ocean. Electron microprobe analyses (n = 178) of transition elements in 29 Arctic Fe-Mn micronodules from five different stratigraphic intervals of Late Cenozoic sediment indicate that oxide accretion occurred as a result of hydrogenetic and diagenetic processes close to the sediment-seawater interface. Transition element ratios suggest that no oxide accretion occurred during transitions from oxic to suboxic diagenetic conditions. Only K is correlated with Si and Al, and ratios of these elements suggest that they are associated with illite or phillipsite. Ca and Mg are correlated with Mn, which indicates variable substitution of these elements from seawater into the manganate phase. The geochemical characteristics of Arctic Fe-Mn micronodules indicate that the REEs of the oxide fractions were ultimately derived from seawater. However, because of minute contributions of Sr from siliciclastic detritus during diagenesis or during the chemical leaching procedure, Sr isotope compositions of the oxide fractions cannot be used to trace temporal changes in the *‘Sr/“Sr ratio of Arctic seawater or to improve the chronostratigraphy. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. Kevwords. 87Sr/86Sr; Arctic Ocean; Ferromanganese nodules; Marine sediments; Rare-earth elements
Does the perception of downloading speed influence the evaluation of web-based lectures?

Abstract Medical schools put little emphasis upon education on public health, even though public health has played an important role in this century. One way to harness its benefit in order to improve global health in the 21st century is to globally share lectures on public health through the Internet. We have developed the Supercourse comprising of web-based learning modules on epidemiology in a standardized format with the size of each web page less than 10 kilobytes. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted to investigate the association of the perception of the access speed to Web-based lectures by teachers with their perception of lecture quality. There were 223 teachers who rated the lectures: 72% were from North America or Western Europe, 40% had taught epidemiology, and 14% reported that the speed of access was slow. Odds ratio of above-average rating among those who reported that the speed of access was fast relative to those who reported that the speed of access was slow was 4.25 (2.03–8.91; P=0.001). The odds ratios were similar and significant after taking into account several other factors, including the variation of rating across lectures, region, and experiences in teaching epidemiology. The results indicate that the perception of the quality of Web-based lectures is related to the speed of access to a web page. The speed of access may be as important, if not more important, as the content itself. This suggests that, to share educational materials on the Web globally for teachers, one must consider not only the content, but also how people at local sites gain access to the Internet. Public Health (2001) 115, 152–156.
Online Classification in 3D Urban Datasets Based on Hierarchical Detection

One of the most significant problems in the area of 3D range image processing is that of segmentation and classification from 3D laser range data, especially in real-time. In this work we introduce a novel multi-layer approach to the classification of 3D laser scan data. In particular, we build a hierarchical framework of online detection and identification procedures drawn from sequential analysis namely the CUSUM (Cumulative Sum) and SPRT (Sequential Probability Ratio Test), both of which are low complexity algorithms. Each layer of algorithms builds upon the decisions made at the previous stage thus providing a robust framework of online decision making. In our new framework we are not only able to classify in coarse classes such as vertical, horizontal and/or vegetation but to also identify objects characterized by more subtle or gradual changes such as curbs or steps. Moreover, our new multi-layer approach combines information across scan lines and results in more accurate decision making. We perform experiments in complex urban scenes and provide quantitative results.
Hypoacetylation, hypomethylation, and dephosphorylation of H2B histones and excessive histone deacetylase activity in DU-145 prostate cancer cells.

Background Hypoacetylation on histone H3 of human prostate cancer cells has been described. Little is known about the modifications of other histones from prostate cancer cells.
TIM3 Mediates T Cell Exhaustion during Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

While T cell immunity initially limits Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, why T cell immunity fails to sterilize the infection and allows recrudescence is not clear. One hypothesis is that T cell exhaustion impairs immunity and is detrimental to the outcome of M. tuberculosis infection. Here we provide functional evidence for the development T cell exhaustion during chronic TB. Second, we evaluate the role of the inhibitory receptor T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain–containing-3 (TIM3) during chronic M. tuberculosis infection. We find that TIM3 expressing T cells accumulate during chronic infection, co-express other inhibitory receptors including PD1, produce less IL-2 and TNF but more IL-10, and are functionally exhausted. Finally, we show that TIM3 blockade restores T cell function and improves bacterial control, particularly in chronically infected susceptible mice. These data show that T cell immunity is suboptimal during chronic M. tuberculosis infection due to T cell exhaustion. Moreover, in chronically infected mice, treatment with anti-TIM3 mAb is an effective therapeutic strategy against tuberculosis.
Ways of worldmaking in Wikipedia: reality, legitimacy and collaborative knowledge making:

The on-going social construction of reality, according to Berger and Luckmann’s classic treatise, entails both an explanation of the social order which ascribes “cognitive validity to its objectivated meanings” and a justification of that order which provides “a normative dignity to its practical imperatives.” The implication is that our knowledge of social reality integrates cognitive facts and normative values to continuously legitimize that reality. We explore this integration of fact and value in an unexpected setting: the “talk pages” of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in which discussions of article creation are recorded. Our analysis of these discussions draws on Nelson Goodman’s Ways of Worldmaking, another classic on the social construction of reality, which catalogues strategies for producing a worldview. We utilize Goodman’s theories in four cases of Wikipedia article creation – two histories, “Iraq War” and “Afghanistan War,” and two biographies, “George W. Bush” and “Barack Obama” – all of ...
Simulation and Flight Software Development Using Model- Based Design with MATLAB and UML Tools

The last decade has seen a tremendous increase in t he development of algorithms and embedded software using graphical environments. The MathWorks Simulink product family has become the industry standard for dynamic simulation and Model Based Design of embedded systems. Simulink has proven to be an efficient tool for simulating and developing software for control algorithms and presently, many companies produce efficient embedded flight software applications using Simulink’s autoc oding capabilities. In recent years, MATLAB has developed the capability to generate C/C++ code directly from MATLAB mfiles. This paper shows how complex algorithms are developed in a UML environment designed to generate MATLAB code and are subsequently autocoded to generate C/C++ source code. Although Embedded MATLAB is not an object-oriented language, a UML graphical environment can be of great assistance when producing more structured applications in MATLAB.
Approximation through logic isolation for the design of quality configurable circuits

Intrinsic application resilience, a property exhibited by many emerging application domains, allows designers to optimize computing platforms by approximating selected computations within an application without any perceivable loss in its output quality. At the circuit level, this is often achieved by designing circuits that are more efficient but realize slightly modified functionality. Most prior efforts on approximate circuit design hardwire the degree of approximation into the implementation. This severely limits their applicability, as intrinsic resilience significantly varies both across and within applications, and often the same computation needs to be executed at different levels of accuracy when the application processes a different input or used in a different context. To address this limitation, in this work, we propose a new approach to design quality configurable circuits that are equipped to modulate their output accuracy and energy at runtime. Our approach, approximation through logic isolation, identifies portions of logic in the circuit that consume significant power, but contribute only minimally to output accuracy. One or more approximate modes of circuit operation are then enabled by isolating the identified logic (using muxes, latches or power gating cells) to benefit power while satisfying the desired output accuracy. We propose a systematic methodology to transform a given circuit into a quality-configurable circuit by applying the proposed technique. Our methodology generates a favorable energy-quality trade-off by deliberately creating opportunities for error compensation between multiple logic islands that are simultaneously isolated. This enables more aggressive approximation for a given output quality, leading to a superior power benefits. We evaluate the proposed methodology using a wide range of arithmetic circuits, complex modules and datapaths. The synthesized quality configurable circuits support 3 quality modes viz. accurate, <0.1% average error, and <0.2% average error. Power improvements achieved in the approximate modes are 8.4%–34.5% and 17%–51.5%, respectively.
Observation on effects of reducing rodent density by raising cats in rural areas of Mengzi City

Objective To learn about the effects of reducing rodent density by raising cats,and find the difference between villages which raise and don 't raise cats.Methods Two towns were selected respectively in mountainous areas and non-mountainous areas of Mengzi City by stratified random sampling method.In chosen towns,the villages with proportion of raising cats as 0%,25%,50%,74% and 100% were randomly selected to detect the rodent density.Results There was no relationship between cats raising and rodent density(P 0.05);The rodent density inside or outside room in Spring was higher than that in Autumn(P 0.05).Conclusions There was no relationship between cats raising and rodent density.
The Representation and Parametrization of Orthogonal Matrices.

Four representations and parametrizations of orthogonal matrices Q∈Rm × n in terms of the minimal number of essential parameters {φ} are discussed: the exponential representation, the Householder reflector representation, the Givens rotation representation, and the rational Cayley transform representation. Both square n = m and rectangular n < m situations are considered. Two separate kinds of parametrizations are considered: one in which the individual columns of Q are distinct, the Stiefel manifold, and the other in which only span(Q) is significant, the Grassmann manifold. The practical issues of numerical stability, continuity, and uniqueness are discussed. The computation of Q in terms of the essential parameters {φ}, and also the extraction of {φ} for a given Q are considered for all of the parametrizations. The transformation of gradient arrays between the Q and {φ} variables is discussed for all representations. It is our hope that developers of new methods will benefit from this comparative prese...
Adding Influencing Agents to a Flock

Many different animals, including birds and fish, exhibit a collective behavior known as flocking. Flocking behavior is believed by biologists to emerge from relatively simple local control rules utilized by each individual in a flock. Specifically, each individual adjusts its behavior based on the behaviors of its closest neighbors. In our work we consider the possibility of adding a small set of influencing agents, which are under our control, to a flock. Specifically, we advance existing work on adding influencing agents into a flock and begin to consider the case in which influencing agents must join a flock in motion. Following ad hoc teamwork methodology, we assume that we are given knowledge of, but no direct control over, the rest of the flock. As such, we use the influencing agents to alter the flock's behavior - for example by encouraging all of the individuals to face the same direction or by altering the trajectory of the flock. In this paper we define several new methods for adding influencing agents into the flock and compare them against existing methods.
Ultrasonic Propagation in Solid Methane

We present here a preliminary account of recent measurements of the velocity and attenuation of sound in solid methane, CH4. The work was motivated in part by studies of the proton magnetic resonance in CH4 by Thomas, Alpert, and Torrey.1 Using pulse methods, they measured the spin-lattice relaxation time T 1, and found that it exhibits an anomalous peak at 20.4°K, the temperature of the (upper) phase transition. Their results over the temperature region above and below the peak have been analyzed by Tomita,2 who derived a relationship between T1 and the average time τ c spent by a molecule in one of its equivalent orientations in the lattice before it flips to another. Near T λ , τ c ≈ 10-7 sec, corresponding to a frequency spectrum that extends over a range of several megacycles. We were led to a study of the sound velocity and attenuation at frequencies of this order of magnitude to look for evidence, direct or indirect, of coupling between the rotational motions of the molecules and the vibrations of the lattice. In this paper, we show that anomalies in both the velocity and absorption do in fact occur near the λ-point, and that the relaxation time characterizing the absorption is of the same order of magnitude as the molecular flipping time τ c . We have not yet been successful, however, in establishing a relationship between our results and those of the NMR investigations.
Phase diagram of RDX (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-s-triazine) at high pressures and temperatures

Abstract The phase diagram of RDX-h6 (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinito-s-triazine) and RDX-d6 has been studied by Raman spectroscopy to more than 13 GPa at 295 K and 7.5 GPa between 150 and 450 K. Two stable high pressure phases have been found. γ-RDX or RDX-III forms from α-RDX above 3.8 GPa below 380 K. β-RDX forms when α- or γ-RDX are heated, can be retained metastably at low temperatues, and may be related to a very unstable form occasionally recovered at ambient pressure. Deuterium isotopic substitution and shear increase the temperature where β-RDX begins to form on heating.
Grundlage des kernmagnetischen Resonanzeffekts

Einige Atomkerne — z. B. die am haufigsten vorkommenden Isotope von Kohlenstoff (12C) und Sauerstoff (16O) — besitzen keine magnetischen Eigenschaften. Andere — wie das am haufigsten vorkommende Wasserstoffisotop (1H; das Proton), Fluor (19F) und Phosphor — verhalten sich wie Magnete. Wenn sie in ein magnetisches Feld gebracht werden, nehmen sie eine bevorzugte Orientierung ein, namlich die der niedrigsten Energie, gerade wie eine Kompasnadel im magnetischen Feld der Erde. Diese drei Atomkerne besitzen, wie man sagt, ein magnetisches Dipolmoment.
[Clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical study of intra-abdominal non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma occurring in children].

Objective To study the clinicopathologic features, immunohistochemical findings, EBV and c-myc gene status of intra-abdominal non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma occurring in children. Methods Seventy-four cases of pediatric intra-abdominal non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma were retrieved from the archival file. The cases were classified according to the 2008 WHO classification. Tissue microarray including tumor tissues from all the 74 cases was produced. Immunohistochemical study ( SP method) for CD20, CD3, CD79a, CDIO, bcl-6, MUM1, bcl-2, CD43, CD38 and Ki-67 was performed. In-situ hybridization for Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA (EBER) and fluorescence in-situ hybridization for c-myc gene were also carried out. Results Amongst the 74 cases studied, 65 of them (87.8%) were Burkitt lymphoma (BL), 4 cases (5.4%) were diffuse large B-cell lympboma (DLBCL) and the remaining 5 cases (6.8% ) showed features in-between DLBCL and BL (DLBCL/BL). The patients often presented with abdominal pain, abdominal masses, ileus and intussusception. The ileocecal bowel wall and mesenteric lymph nodes were commonly involved. The lymphoma cells were of high histologic grade and suggested an aggressive clinical behavior. The staining for CD20 and CD79a were positive in all of the cases, while CD3 was negative. The positive rates of CD10, bcl-6, bcl-2, MUM1, CD43, CD38 and EBER in BL were 96.9% (63 cases), 95.4% (62 cases), 0 (0 case), 23.1% (15 cases), 70.8% (46 cases), 96.9% (63 cases) and 41.5% (27 cases) , respectively. Fifty-four cases carried translocation of c-myc gene. As for DLBCL, the positive cases of CD10, bcl-6, bcl-2, MUM1, CD43, CD38 and EBER were 3 cases, 2 cases, 3 cases, 2 cases,2 cases, 2 cases and 0 case, respectively. One of these cases showed c-myc gene translocation. Amongst the 4 cases of DLBCL, 2 of them belonged to germinal center B-cell-like subtype, while the remaining 2 cases were of non-germinal center B-cell-like subtype. The expression rates of CD10, bcl-6, bcl-2, MUM1, CD43, CD38 and EBER in DLBCL/BL were 5/5, 4/5, 0,3/5,5/5,3/5 and 0, respectively. Three of the cases were positive for c-myc gene translocation. Conclusions The majority of pediatric intra-abdominal non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma belonged to BL They have characteristic clinical presentation and sites of predilection and are often associated with an aggressive clinical behavior. Thorough morphologic assessment, immunohistochemistry and in-situ hybridization play an important role in subtyping this group of lymphoid malignancy. Key words: Child; Lymphoma,non-Hodgkin; Immunohistochemistry; In situ hybridization
On single-basis online asymptotic trajectory decomposition for control applications

In this paper, the problem of decomposing a trajectory online by using single basis function (and its time-shifted copies) for control applications is considered. Trajectory decomposition has been explored in control areas including fuzzy and neural-network control, system identification, and learning control, where a given trajectory is decomposed (approximated) by using a set of basis functions. This work aims to achieve online asymptotic trajectory approximation (where the trajectory to be decomposed is only partially known) by using only single basis function and its time-shifted copies without truncation. First, we consider the problem as a least-square minimization problem, then the issue of truncating basis functions in decomposition is resolved through a zero-period extension of the trajectory (i.e., extending the beginning of the trajectory at its initial value for a finite period). It is shown that the coefficients of the basis functions at the beginning portion of the extended period approach to zero as the extended period increases. Finally, a sectional interactive decomposition algorithm is proposed for online trajectory decomposition. Numerical example by using B-spline as the basis function is presented to demonstrate the proposed decomposition approach.
[Ingesta de hidratos de carbono y ácidos grasos de la dieta en sujetos con esquizofrenia y trastorno bipolar, y su asociación con parámetros antropométricos].

Background: People with psychiatric disorders have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and dyslipidemia. These comorbidities are associated with the underlying psychopathology and drug therapy. Aim: To determine the quality and quantity of carbohydrates and fatty acids in the diet and their association with anthropometric parameters in subjects with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Patients and Methods: We studied 30 patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders in treatment with atypical antipsychotics or mood stabilizers. Three 24-hour recall dietary surveys were carried out. Glycemic index, intake of carbohydrates and fatty acids (g/day) were calculated, and the ratio of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids was determined. Body mass index, waist circumference (WC) and body fat percentage were evaluated. Results: The average intakes of carbohydrates and fatty acids were 295 ± 111 and 73 ± 38 g/day respectively. The mean glycemic index was 59% ± 5.4, while the ratio of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids was 2: 1.4: 0.6. No association between dietary and anthropometric variables was found. Patients using second-generation antipsychotics had a significantly higher waist circumference those using mood stabilizing drugs. Conclusions: We found no association between the amount and quality of carbohydrate or fatty acid dietary intake and anthropometric parameters.
Acoustic Signal Processing for Anomaly Detection in Machine Room Environments: Demo Abstract

We present a system that uses acoustic signals to monitor equipment in commercial buildings, such as in machine rooms with HVAC system components. The system uses an ensemble of machine learning classifiers to effectively label signals as either "normal" or "abnormal". We collect audio clips from mobile devices in a machine room and an elevator shaft in the main building of IBM Research. We use these to learn the spectrum of normal sound signatures and identify abnormal sounds that fall outside this range. Abnormal sounds detected by the system are presented to the end user for anomaly confirmation. We also integrate a work-order system to automatically issue a repair work-order if the sound is abnormal.
Intrinsic magnetism and spontaneous band gap opening in bilayer silicene and germanene

It has been long sought to create magnetism out of simple non-magnetic materials, such as silicon and germanium. Here we show that intrinsic magnetism exists in bilayer silicene and germanene with no need to cut, etch, or dope. Unlike bilayer graphene, strong covalent interlayer bonding formed in bilayer silicene and germanene breaks the original π-bonding network of each layer, leaving the unbonded electrons unpaired and localized to carry magnetic moments. These magnetic moments then couple ferromagnetically within each layer while antiferromagnetically across two layers, giving rise to an infinite magnetic sheet with structural integrity and magnetic homogeneity. Furthermore, this unique magnetic ordering results in fundamental band gaps of 0.55 eV and 0.32 eV for bilayer silicene and germanene, respectively. The integration of intrinsic magnetism and spontaneous band gap opening makes bilayer silicene and germanene attractive for future nanoelectronics as well as spin-based computation and data storage.
Designing toughness and strength for soft materials

Soft materials, such as hydrogels, elastomers, and plastics, are pervasive in nature and society. For example, except for teeth, nails, and bones, all other components of the human body are hydrogels, and we eat, wear, and use soft materials as foods, clothes, shoes, and car tires, just to name a few, in our daily life. Although amorphous polymer chains endow soft materials with high flexibility or “softness,” they can also lead to inferior mechanical performances, such as low fracture toughness and low strength, frequently hampering applications and innovations of soft materials. Over recent years, intensive efforts have been devoted to the development of soft materials that possess extraordinary mechanical properties, especially by seeking inspiration from nature and biology. For instance, synthetic hydrogels can now be made much tougher than articular cartilages (1, 2) and more adhesive than mussel glues (3, 4). In PNAS, Wu et al. (5) report the fabrication of bioinspired fibers with both high toughness and high strength by drawing from a hydrogel at ambient temperatures and pressures. This nascent progress in the field raises a generic question. What are the fundamental principles for the design of soft materials to achieve certain mechanical properties in nature and engineered systems? Compared with hard materials such as steels and ceramics, which have been explored over centuries, such principles are still elusive in the field of soft materials. The goal of this commentary is to elucidate the design principles for soft materials that are both tough and strong, such as natural silks (6) and the hydrogel fibers synthesized by Wu et al. (5). I will show that three design principles are required for soft materials to achieve both high toughness and high strength: ( i ) high mechanical dissipation and stretchability, ( ii ) below flaw-sensitive length scale, and ( iii ) simultaneous stiffening and … [↵][1]1Email: zhaox{at}mit.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Investigating the impact of elevated acoustic output in B-mode harmonic imaging and harmonic motion tracking

Harmonic imaging techniques are widely used in B-mode abdominal imaging and motion tracking in shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) to reduce clutter and improve data quality. Harmonic imaging can be both signal-to-noise (SNR) and penetration depth (PD) limited, resulting in decreased diagnostic utility. This work evaluates B-mode harmonic imaging and SWEI harmonic tracking data quality between imaging sequences using a Mechanical Index (MI) within the FDA guideline of 1.9 and an elevated MI (1.9 < MI < 2.6), to determine if there is clinical benefit in exceeding the current FDA guideline for MI in the context of hepatic imaging.
A Different Path: Elizabeth and Big Ben in MRS. DALLOWAY

Falcetta, in her perceptive analysis of the geometries of space and time in Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, quotes Roger Fry's comments on cubism's inherent tendency to “introduc[e] at some point a complete...
Biological Pathways Impacting Cancer Survival: Exercise as a Countermeasure for the Development and Progression of Cachexia

This chapter will illustrate the signaling pathways that are influenced by exercise that could impact cancer patient survival as it relates to the treatment and prevention of cachexia. Cancer cachexia involves an unintentional body weight loss, which includes muscle and fat mass loss. Cachexia is most prevalent with cancers of the colon, lung and pancreas, and the development of cachexia coincides with increased patient morbidity, mortality, and a reduction in quality of life. This chapter will focus on the ability of exercise to improve an environment that involves suppressed anabolic signaling pathways, activated catabolic signaling pathways, and disrupted metabolic signaling. These changes will be considered in terms of the impact of processes involved in local and systemic metabolism. Exercise will be examined in respect to both acute changes and chronic exercise adaptations. Additionally, the complexity of this biological response as it pertains to the intensity and duration of exercise will be highlighted.
Behavior of a single neuron in a recurrent excitatory loop

A recurrent excitation loop was constructed by enabling each impulse from the slowly adapting stretch receptor organ SAO (crayfish) to trigger through an electronic circuit a brief stretch, or "tug," of the receptor. When applied independently, each tug influenced the discharge as would an EPSP. Recurrent excitation led to characteristic discharge timings; hence, even an isolated neuron can have intrinsic mechanisms that prevent positive feedback from freezing it in an extreme non-operational state. Such timings depended critically on the "phase", i.e., on the time elapsed between an SAO impulse and the tug. When the control discharge was stationary (because the SAO length remained invariant), phases of a few ms simply changed the pattern to one of doublets, and affected little the average rate. As the phase increased, bursts appeared, bursts and interburst intervals became more prolonged, and average rates increased. With the largest phases examined (40 ms), the discharge consisted of a slow alternation of high rate bursts, separated by long intervals. When the discharge was modulated (by 0.2/s sinusoidal length variation) with recurrent excitation, the peak-to-peak rate swing, i.e., the sensitivity, and the proportion of the cycle without afferent discharges increased, and the rate vs. length display was distorted even though remaining "loop-plus-extension." Changes were phase-dependent: for example, loops could have a sharp high peak at one phase and be flat-topped at another. When the interspike interval variability was exaggerated (by a length jitter superimposed upon either invariant or sinusoidally varying lengths), recurrent excitation exerted fewer, weaker and somewhat different effects: e.g., it reduced the overall intensity of the invariant cases and the peak-to-peak swing in the modulated one. The precise mechanisms of these results can only be conjectured at but are likely to involve an electrogenic pump, electromechanical interactions, topographical issues, as well as their interplays. The functional implications involve, for instance, the modulation of the intensity, duration and occurrence of the bursting patterns in oscillating functions (e.g., breathing, chewing, etc.).
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921)

With her faith in science, her understanding of the laws of nature, and her interests in philosophy and theology, Antoinette Brown Blackwell anticipated the complexities of biological inheritance now advanced by discoveries of DNA and gene therapy. She had a sense of the magnitude of the consequences that the emphasis on male-only representation of the species in biology would produce. Her feminism as well as her interest in the philosophy of science led her to question the state-of-the-science thinking of her day and to foresee positive possibilities which are now becoming actualized: inclusion of women in medical research as researchers and as subjects, medical studies on brain-function differences within and between the sexes, and interest in the caring functioning of the sexes. In her prodding Brown-Blackwell contributed to the philosophical canon. The kinds of issues she addressed indicate her to be a representative thinker of her Victorian age.
Distance Learning: Education or Economics?

Sir John Daniel, Vice Chancellor of the Open University in England, pronounced that American universities are in a crisis of access, flexibility and cost. His solution is that American Universities and Colleges should employ educational technologies that allow students to earn college degrees without visiting the college campus (distance learning). The argument is that distance learning is a cost-effective way of providing more students with access to higher education. Sir John's argument illustrates a crisis in neither access, flexibility, nor cost. On further inspection, distance learning degree programs appear to be a strategy for reducing the cost of higher education by replacing professors with computers and part-time teachers. This strategy offers limited educational benefits for the student and may present a financial danger to smaller colleges and universities, if they succumb to the pressure to develop distance, learning degree programs.
Risks of Chronic Hypnotic Use

Hypnotic drugs are consumed mainly by chronic users, who often take hypnotics for years continuously. Two studies of the American Cancer Society, each involving over 1 million subjects followed prospectively for 6 years, showed that hypnotic use predicted increased mortality after control for comorbidities. At least 8 other studies have also noted that hypnotic use predicts increased mortality. There is an epidemiologic consensus that hypnotic use is associated with increased risk of death. Chronic hypnotic use is also strongly associated with insomnia, poor function, and poor quality of life. There is considerable evidence that hypnotics may in part cause this increased morbidity, as well as automobile accidents and falls. In contrast, there is no persuasive evidence that long-term use of hypnotics produces any benefit. Available evidence is that the risks of chronic hypnotic use outweigh the benefits.
Advances in the Understanding of Binaural Information Processing: Consideration of the Stimulus as Processed

Progress made over the last 20 years within the broad field of binaural information processing has, in many ways, stemmed from a more sophisticated understanding of stimuli as processed as opposed to consideration of external, physical stimuli. The knowledge gained has permitted important advances in the understanding of specific, peripheral and/or central, mechanisms that underlie and constrain binaural capabilities. Many of the advances have stemmed from earphone-based studies concerning binaural detection, discrimination, and lateralization. The enterprise, taken together with advances in other areas of auditory research, has allowed for the development of more comprehensive and accurate, quantitative models of human binaural performance. At this juncture, it appears that progress in the future would be fostered by a more integrative approach in which common sets of parametrically constructed stimuli that have been proven to be theoretically diagnostic would be employed in “parallel” behavioral and neurophysiological investigations.
Taming performance variability

The performance of compute hardware varies: software run repeatedly on the same server (or a different server with supposedly identical parts) can produce performance results that differ with each execution. This variation has important effects on the reproducibility of systems research and ability to quantitatively compare the performance of different systems. It also has implications for commercial computing, where agreements are often made conditioned on meeting specific performance targets.Over a period of 10 months, we conducted a large-scale study capturing nearly 900,000 data points from 835 servers. We examine this data from two perspectives: that of a service provider wishing to offer a consistent environment, and that of a systems researcher who must understand how variability impacts experimental results. From this examination, we draw a number of lessons about the types and magnitudes of performance variability and the effects on confidence in experiment results. We also create a statistical model that can be used to understand how representative an individual server is of the general population. The full dataset and our analysis tools are publicly available, and we have built a system to interactively explore the data and make recommendations for experiment parameters based on statistical analysis of historical data.
Petitions of the Jewish Poor

In the medieval Islamic world, the petition served as the primary vehicle for appealing to governing authorities. Jews used the same device, particularly the poor seeking charity, although those petitions rarely followed the exact structure of the Islamic petition and usually were shorter. This essay offers an edition and a translation of a petition seeking charity that is unusually long and follows nearly completely the structure of the Islamic model.
Seeing through a scattering medium using a folded-wave coherence interferometer

We image through a thin scattering medium using a folded-wavefront interferometer. The method gives several improvements over speckle-correlation imaging, including separation of multiple objects and a field of view beyond the memory effect. © 2019 The Author(s)
Appendix D: Green’s Function for Periodic Pipe Flow

The Navier–Stokes equations governing the flow of a single incompressible fluid contain the pressure gradient as the local effect of the surface force per unit area. It is straightforward to derive the Poisson pde for the pressure and the associated boundary conditions. The Green’s function is one of the methods to solve the Poisson pde for the pressure and thus eliminate the pressure from the Navier–Stokes equations.
Plasma biomarkers of astrocytic and neuronal dysfunction in early- and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract Introduction We investigated plasma proteomic markers of astrocytopathy, brain degeneration, plasticity, and inflammation in sporadic early-onset versus late-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD and LOAD). Methods Plasma was analyzed using ultra-sensitive immuno-based assays from 33 EOAD, 30 LOAD, and 36 functionally normal older adults. Results Principle component analyses identified 3 factors: trophic (BDNF, VEGF, TGFβ), degenerative (GFAP, NfL), and inflammatory (TNFα, IL-6, IP-10, IL-10). Trophic factor was elevated in both AD groups and associated with cognition and gray matter volumes. Degenerative factor was elevated in EOAD, with higher levels associated with worse functioning in this group. Biomarkers of inflammation were not significantly different between groups and were only associated with age. Disucssion Plasma proteomic biomarkers provide novel means of investigating molecular processes in vivo and their contributions to clinical outcomes. We present initial investigations of several of these fluid biomarkers, capturing aspects of astrocytopathy, neuronal injury, cellular plasticity, and inflammation in EOAD versus LOAD.
The Welsh Clan That Transformed Orthopedic Surgery.

Modern orthopedic surgery arose from Hugh Owen Thomas (1834–1891) and Sir Robert Jones (1857–1933), uncle and nephew, two descendants of a family of bonesetters from North Wales and Liverpool, resp...
Talking points for the safe and effective alleviation of pain

Evidence suggests that the alleviation of pain is enhancedby a strong patient-clinician relationship and attending to a patient's social and mental health. There is a limited role for medication, opioids in particular. Orthopaedic surgeons can use comprehensive biopsychosocial strategies to help people recover and can work with colleagues who have the appropriate expertise in order to maximize pain alleviation with optimal opioid stewardship. Preparing patients for elective surgery and caring for them after unplanned injury or surgery can benefit from planned and practiced strategies based in communication science. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2020;102-B(9):1122-1127.
Electrochemically switchable polymerization from surface-anchored molecular catalysts

Redox-switchable polymerizations of lactide and epoxides were extended to the solid state by anchoring an iron-based polymerization catalyst to TiO2 nanoparticles. The reactivity of the molecular complexes and their redox-switching characteristics were maintained in the solid-state. These properties resulted in surface-initiated polymerization reactions that produced polymer brushes whose chemical composition is dictated by the oxidation state of the iron-based complex. Depositing the catalyst-functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles on fluorine-doped tin oxide resulted in an electrically addressable surface that could be used to demonstrate spatial control in redox-switchable polymerization reactions. By using a substrate that contained two electrically isolated domains wherein one domain was exposed to an oxidizing potential, patterns of surface-bound polyesters and polyethers were accessible through sequential application of lactide and cyclohexene oxide. The differentially functionalized surfaces demonstrated distinct physical properties that illustrated the promise for using the method to pattern surfaces with multiple, chemically distinct polymer brushes.
The New Zealand Police Peacekeeping Deployment in Timor-Leste

This chapter consists of a detailed case study of the involvement of the United Nations and the subsequent deployment of international peacekeepers to East Timor following civil war and regional conflict. The United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) from June to October 1999 was followed by numerous mission guideline modifications and the deployment of the New Zealand Police to East Timor, later called Timor-Leste. The New Zealand Police implemented “Operation TUITUIA” from 2006 to 2012, which evolved into the New Zealand Police Timor-Leste Community Policing Program. The role of the New Zealand Police in peacekeeping and police reform undertakings will be thoroughly examined.
Uncertainty assessment in watershed‐scale water quality modeling and management: 2. Management objectives constrained analysis of uncertainty (MOCAU)

[1] Watershed-scale water quality models are increasingly used to support management decision making. However, significant uncertainty in model output remains an unaddressed issue. In our first study, a framework for assessing the uncertainty in watershed modeling and management was developed, and the application of the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) approach was examined. The influence of subjective choices (especially the likelihood measure) in a GLUE analysis, as well as of availability of observational data, was investigated. On the basis of GLUE, we developed a new Bayesian approach of uncertainty analysis, specifically for management-oriented watershed water quality modeling, as introduced in this paper. The approach, named management objectives constrained analysis of uncertainty (MOCAU), inherits GLUE's equifinality ideology while explicitly considering management objectives and observational uncertainty. It has many unique features that have not been covered (or have not been explored in great detail) by previous GLUE studies. A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the performance of MOCAU. The results show that MOCAU can be applied efficiently, generating accurate uncertainty estimates for management applications. Subjective assumptions in the uncertainty analysis are explicit and realistic, on the basis of management objectives such as nonattainment frequency of water quality objectives. MOCAU also yields insights into watershed model structure improvement and strategic data collection to reduce uncertainty. Besides water quality modeling, MOCAU can also be applied to other complicated modeling problems where errors are significant, observational data is limited, and management objectives are involved.