cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A switching strategy for multiple-input DC-DC converters

This paper presents and analyzes a switching strategy for multiple-input converters (MICs). With this technique, the effective duty ratio of each switch is an integer multiple of a common-duty-ratio (CDR), which is generated at a higher frequency by frequency division. In general, the frequency of the common duty ratio is dictated by power-budgeting requirements—a higher CDR frequency corresponds to more flexibility with respect to power budgeting. Switching functions can then be generated with relative ease for MICs that have a large number of input legs. Another benefit of this scheme is that it allows an MIC's output voltage to be stabilized by adjusting all the effective duty ratios of its input-leg switches at once. This stabilization is achieved by employing the CDR as the only control variable, irrespective of the number of input legs. Essentially, the strategy transforms an MIC into an equivalent single-input single-output (SISO) system for analysis, which simplifies controller design. Without loss of generality, this technique is demonstrated by analyzing a multiple-input buck-boost (MIBB) converter. A PI-controller is shown to stabilize the MIC's operating point. The analysis is verified by simulations and experiments.
Neural network architecture for 3D object representation

The paper discusses a neural network architecture for 3D object modeling. A multi-layered feedforward structure having as inputs the 3D-coordinates of the object points is employed to model the object space. Cascaded with a transformation neural network module, the proposed architecture can be used to generate and train 3D objects, perform transformations, set operations and object morphing. A possible application for object recognition is also presented.
Response to Acidity: The MondoA–TXNIP Checkpoint Couples the Acidic Tumor Microenvironment to Cell Metabolism

Cancer cells reprogram their metabolism toward aerobic glycolysis, which produces lactate to generate an acidic microenvironment. Acidosis-driven activation of the MondoA transcription factor results in its activation of thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP), which is a potent repressor of aerobic glycolysis. We propose a checkpoint function for the MondoA–TXNIP axis that normalizes glycolytic flux in response to a low pH microenvironment.
Relay selection for optimal delay anonymity tradeoff in anonymous networks

An analytical framework is presented to integrate link padding mechanisms to the functioning of intermediate relays in anonymous networks such that a desired degree of anonymity- secrecy of source destination pairs- is achieved against timing analysis without adding significant latency. In particular, the relays for routing and the degree of link padding at each relay are chosen to optimize the tradeoff between anonymity from timing analysis, as measured by Shannon entropy of source destination pairs, and the average latency. Optimization of the tradeoff is shown to require exponential complexity, and a suboptimal algorithm is presented that is shown numerically to perform close to the optimal, but only requires linear complexity. In addition, an incremental optimization is presented for a new user to be added optimally to an existing system without altering the prevalent routes.
Structural Similarities and Differences between Two Functionally Distinct SecA Proteins, Mycobacterium tuberculosis SecA1 and SecA2.

While SecA is the ATPase component of the major bacterial secretory (Sec) system, mycobacteria and some Gram-positive pathogens have a second paralog, SecA2. In bacteria with two SecA paralogs, each SecA is functionally distinct, and they cannot compensate for one another. Compared to SecA1, SecA2 exports a distinct and smaller set of substrates, some of which have roles in virulence. In the mycobacterial system, some SecA2-dependent substrates lack a signal peptide, while others contain a signal peptide but possess features in the mature protein that necessitate a role for SecA2 in their export. It is unclear how SecA2 functions in protein export, and one open question is whether SecA2 works with the canonical SecYEG channel to export proteins. In this study, we report the structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis SecA2 (MtbSecA2), which is the first structure of any SecA2 protein. A high level of structural similarity is observed between SecA2 and SecA1. The major structural difference is the absence of the helical wing domain, which is likely to play a role in how MtbSecA2 recognizes its unique substrates. Importantly, structural features critical to the interaction between SecA1 and SecYEG are preserved in SecA2. Furthermore, suppressor mutations of a dominant-negative secA2 mutant map to the surface of SecA2 and help identify functional regions of SecA2 that may promote interactions with SecYEG or the translocating polypeptide substrate. These results support a model in which the mycobacterial SecA2 works with SecYEG. Importance SecA2 is a paralog of SecA1, which is the ATPase of the canonical bacterial Sec secretion system. SecA2 has a nonredundant function with SecA1, and SecA2 exports a distinct and smaller set of substrates than SecA1. This work reports the crystal structure of SecA2 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the first SecA2 structure reported for any organism). Many of the structural features of SecA1 are conserved in the SecA2 structure, including putative contacts with the SecYEG channel. Several structural differences are also identified that could relate to the unique function and selectivity of SecA2. Suppressor mutations of a secA2 mutant map to the surface of SecA2 and help identify functional regions of SecA2 that may promote interactions with SecYEG.
Pretrial hippocampal θ-state differentiates single-unit response profiles during rabbit trace eyeblink conditioning

Eyeblink conditioning given in the explicit presence of hippocampal θ results in accelerated learning and enhanced multiple-unit responses, with slower learning and suppression of unit activity under non-θ conditions. Recordings from putative pyramidal cells during θ-contingent training show that pretrial θ-state is linked to the probability of firing increases versus decreases rather than to the magnitude of such responses. These findings suggest that the learning facilitation during θ may be due to the recruitment of additional neurons that increase their firing rate during trials.
Regulation of Latin American’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector: Success or Failure?

In the mid-1980s a movement towards privatization and de-regulation of the telecommunications sector was begun. The sector has been privatized in most countries and subjected to regulatory reform. The major reform occurred in the late 1990s. Since then the internet and cellular-mobile industries have advanced significantly. Mobile service has exploded, particularly in the developing world. This has changed the dynamics of the industry dramatically. This paper empirically evaluates the reforms twenty-plus years after they have been implemented in selected Latin American countries using cross-country analysis. Earlier studies did not account for the regulatory environment nor cover the entire ICT sector. This paper empirically evaluates the impact of regulation in selected Latin American countries. The results are only suggestive, but not conclusive – that weaker regulation supports investment in the ICT sector due to higher prices for the service.
Uptake of pyrene by NaCl, NaNO3, and MgCl2 aerosol particles.

Photoelectric charging experiments measure heterogeneous uptake coefficients for pyrene on model marine aerosol particles, including NaCl, NaNO3, and MgCl2. The analysis employs a multilayer kinetic model that contains adsorption and desorption rate constants for the bare aerosol surface and for pyrene-coated surfaces. First coating the aerosol particles with a pyrene layer and following the desorption using both t-DMA and photoelectric charging yields the desorption rate constants. Separate experiments monitor the increase in surface coverage of initially bare aerosol particles after exposure to pyrene vapor in a sliding-injector flow tube. Analyzing these data using the multilayer model constrained by the measured desorption rate constants yields the adsorption rate constants. The calculated initial heterogeneous uptake coefficient, γ0(295 K), is 1.1 × 10–3 for NaCl, 6.6 × 10–4 for NaNO3, and 6.0 × 10–4 for MgCl2. The results suggest that a free energy barrier controls the uptake rate rather than kinema...
An experimental study of the effect of stenosis upon the respiratory changes induced by muscular exercise.

Dyspnea from muscular exercise results when the increased respiratory demands can no longer be met without effort. In the present series of experiments the ability to meet these demands was artificially restricted by having a normal individual (A. W. H.) breathe through small apertures. For this purpose two perforated corks were used, the diameters of the bores being 8 mm. and 6 mm. respectively. The first of these caused no effort so long as the subject of the experiments was at rest. It caused moderate respiratory effort when stairs were climbed at the rate of approximately 80 per minute. The second caused slight effort at rest and considerable distress during stair climbing. The latter culminated in discontinuance of the exercise after two or three minutes.During rest, the respiratory rate was not influenced by the milder obstruction but in some experiments was somewhat slowed by the more marked obstruction. During exercise, the respiratory rate was definitely slowed by each, average figures being: wit...
Heritage nation vs heritage language: Towards a more nuanced rhetoric of ‘heritage’ in Italian language pedagogy:

Language programs in the US frequently invoke the notion of heritage in order to spark student interest in language learning. The idea is that acquisition of a particular language can connect a student to their past in ways that can empower them and give them a richer appreciation of their own ethnic background. This article addresses this ‘appeal to heritage’ approach to the promotion of language learning, in relation to Italian. I discuss the disconnect between the language of the classroom on the one hand and true Italian-American linguistic heritage on the other. My purpose is to facilitate an informed discussion of linguistic reality, which is that many members of the Italian diaspora descend from ancestors who were monolingual dialettofoni. I argue that the facts of linguistic diversity in Italy and dialect heritage in the US should be central to any discourse which aims to promote the learning of Italian as a gateway to our students’ pasts. While there is no question that knowledge of Standard Ital...
Examining the effects of saccade execution and handedness on proactive interference.

Proactive interference is the phenomenon by which previously-learned information impairs recall of more recently-learned information. The present experiment was conducted to investigate two factors that may affect the occurrence of proactive interference. The first of these factors is saccade execution. Saccade execution has been shown in numerous studies to improve performance on a wide range of memory tasks. The second factor was people’s consistency of handedness, a term referring to the strength of people’s tendency to use one hand (right or left) over the other. Although the results of the primary analyses were inconclusive, further exploration of the data led to the proposition that saccades increase memory performance when no interference effect is induced, but may reduce performance when there is an interference effect. These results, although not significant in the expected way, still showed hints of interesting results.
Sporadic Hemiplegic Migraine: A Separate Entity

The clinical characteristics of 105 patients with sporadic hemiplegic migraine (SHM) were compared with those of patients with migraine with typical aura (MA) and patients with familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) in a study at the Danish Headache Center, Glostrup Hospital, Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, and the John F Kennedy Institute, Denmark.
104 ADAPTATIONS IN EXCITATION-CONTRACTION COUPLING IN CARDIAC-SPECIFIC NA+/CA2+ EXCHANGER KNOCKOUT MICE

The Na+/Ca2+-exchanger (NCX1) is regarded to be the main Ca2+ extrusion mechanism of the cardiomyocyte. We have recently introduced a murine model with a cardiac-specific knockout (KO) of NCX1 that is viable to adulthood and does not exhibit compensatory changes in protein expression levels (Henderson et al., 2004). In the present study, we have used the patch clamp technique and the fluorescent Ca2+ indicator fura-2 to characterize adaptations of excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling in isolated adult ventricular myocytes from these KO mice. Resting Ca2+ concentration (WT: 109621 nM; KO: 81613 nM) and caffeine-induced Ca2+ transients (a measure of SR Ca2+ load; WT: 583676 nM; KO: 584635 nM) did not differ between KO (n=9) and WT (n=9; p=N.S.). To measure Ca2+ extrusion capability of the cells in the absence of SR Ca2+ uptake, we applied caffeine (5 mM) for 8s while monitoring the Ca2+ transient. In WT cells, the caffeine-induced Ca2+ transient was decreased to 50% of its peak within 2.460.4s (n=11). In KO myocytes, [Ca2+] decreased by only 1965% after the full 8s of caffeine (n=11), similar to WT in the presence of 10 mM Ni+ to block NCX activity (n=4). In WT but not KO cells, rapid removal of bath Na+ (1s) and depolarization of cells to +80 mV (1s) induced Ca2+ entry via reverse Na+/Ca2+ exchange (n=5). Peak L-type Ca2+ current (ICa) during voltage clamps from 230 to 40mV was decreased in KO myocytes (4.060.4 pA/pF; n=4) as compared to WT (9.661.5 pA/pF; n=7; p≤0.05). Despite the different ICa the corresponding Ca2+ transient amplitude was similar (KO: 456668 nM; WT: 518673 nM; p≥0.05), yielding an increase in the gain of E-C coupling in KO (115611 nM/(pA/pF)) as compared to WT (4765 nM/(pA/pF); p≤0.001). These findings suggest that there is no compensatory alternative Ca2+ extrusion mechanism in NCX1 KO myocytes. Rather, Ca2+ influx is limited by a decrease in ICa and contractility is maintained by an increased E-C coupling gain.
Experiences with Conductor

Conductor is a prototype distributed adaptation service that was developed to demonstrate the value and feasibility of distributed adaptation. To be successful, Conductor must allow desirable and effective adaptations to be deployed in a manner that improves the performance of application-level protocols. Moreover, performance should be improved in a manner that is important to the user. This chapter provides evidence of Conductor’s effectiveness and the viability of distributed adaptation.
von Willebrand Disease: Differential Diagnosis and Diagnostic Approach to Specific Subtypes

A diagnosis of VWD is based on three main criteria, personal bleeding, family bleeding, and reduced VWF (Rodeghiero 2014; Lillicrap Blood 2013; 122: 3735–40), yet a diagnosis of VWD remains difficult for several reasons. First, mucosal bleeding symptoms, such as bruising, epistaxis, and menorrhagia, typical of VWD are common in the general population. Second, genetic studies from four large genotype-phenotype epidemiologic studies indicate a large variety of VWF mutations which account for a variety of functional defects (Goodeve et al. Blood 2007; 109: 112–121, Haemophilia 2014; 20 Suppl 4: 50–53; Lillicrap Blood 2013; 122: 3735–40). This variability requires many functional assays to define the disorder. Thirdly, diagnosis is further complicated by lack of standardization and assay and cutoff variability.
Relationship of Physical Intimate Partner Violence with Mental Health Diagnoses in the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample.

Abstract Objectives: We examined associations of physical intimate partner violence (PIPV) with selected mental health disorders using a nationally representative sample of emergency department (ED) discharges corresponding to men and women (18–64 years) from the 2010 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. Methods: PIPV was determined using International Classification of Disease, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) external cause of injury code E967.3 (battering by spouse or partner). ICD-9-CM clinical classification of discharge diagnoses was used to identify mental health disorders. Multivariable logistic regression models were constructed to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORadj) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: PIPV prevalence was estimated at 0.36 per 1000 ED discharges. The strongest correlates of PIPV were alcohol-related (ORadj = 3.02, 95% CI: 2.62–3.50), adjustment (ORadj = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.56–3.58), intentional self-harm (ORadj = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.05–1.89), anxiety (OR...
“It's just broken branches”: Child welfare-affected mothers' dual experiences of insecurity and striving for resilience in the aftermath of complex trauma and familial substance abuse

Abstract The voices of mothers of color who have been affected by the child welfare system are typically marginalized and are largely left unheard. Yet, attending to their experiences may yield a wealth of strategies for system change and for other women to change their path or avoid child welfare system involvement altogether. Using augmented qualitative analytic methods from two phenomenological studies that utilized the life histories approach, the current study lifts up the voices of 15 women of color with past child welfare involvement as foster youth (and, for many, as mothers). The study findings highlight experiences within two broad themes: a) immense insecurity; and b) resilience, across domains in the lives of child welfare affected women. The mothers in this study share their insights into the aftermath of complex trauma and substance abuse within their families, particularly the relational, housing, and financial insecurity it wreaked as well as how they garnered resilience through perseverance, faith and empathy, and establishing stable homes. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are discussed.
Mediating Asia| Pressing the Issue: Sino-American Discourse on the Proper Role of the Media, Past and Present

Sino-American discourse on the nature of the press as a social institution is a historical subject in addition to one for our times. This article locates today’s Sino-American discourse on the role of the media in a broad historical context before observing the degree to which the globalization of media technologies has complicated what for a century was typically a confrontational discourse between the two countries over the appropriate role of the press in society. It reveals that China and the United States sparred over that question from the early 20th century forward and that each country has served as a foil for the other insofar as attitudes about the media, as well as media practices, have been articulated and justified.
A performance analysis of ensemble averaging for high fidelity turbulence simulations at the strong scaling limit

Abstract We analyze the potential performance benefits of estimating expected quantities in large eddy simulations of turbulent flows using true ensembles rather than ergodic time averaging. Multiple realizations of the same flow are simulated in parallel, using slightly perturbed initial conditions to create unique instantaneous evolutions of the flow field. Each realization is then used to calculate statistical quantities. Provided each instance is sufficiently de-correlated, this approach potentially allows considerable reduction in the time to solution beyond the strong scaling limit for a given accuracy. This paper focuses on the theory and implementation of the methodology in Nek5000, a massively parallel open-source spectral element code.
Loss of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase induces glycolysis and promotes apoptosis resistance of cancer stem-like cells: an important role in hexavalent chromium-induced carcinogenesis

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) compounds are confirmed human carcinogens for lung cancer. Our previous studies has demonstrated that chronic exposure of human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells to low dose of Cr(VI) causes malignant cell transformation. The acquisition of cancer stem cell-like properties is involved in the initiation of cancers. The present study has observed that a small population of cancer stem-like cells (BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC) exists in the Cr(VI)-transformed cells (BEAS-2B-Cr). Those BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC exhibit extremely reduced capability of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis resistance. BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC are metabolic inactive as evidenced by reductions in oxygen consumption, glucose uptake, ATP production, and lactate production. Most importantly, BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC are more tumorigenic with high levels of cell self-renewal genes, Notch1 and p21. Further study has found that fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP1), an rate-limiting enzyme driving glyconeogenesis, was lost in BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC. Forced expression of FBP1 in BEAS-2B-Cr-CSC restored ROS generation, resulting in increased apoptosis, leading to inhibition of tumorigenesis. In summary, the present study suggests that loss of FBP1 is a critical event in tumorigenesis of Cr(VI)-transformed cells.
The virtual environment performance assessment battery vepab: Development and evaluation1

The Virtual Environment Performance Assessment Battery VEPAB is a set of tasks developed to support research on training applications of virtual environment VE technology. VEPAB measures human performance on vision, locomotion, tracking, object manipulation, and reaction time tasks performed in three-dimensional, interactive VEs. It can be used to provide a general orientation for interacting in VEs and to determine both entry level performance and skill acquisition of users. In addition, VEPAB allows comparison of task performance, side effects and aftereffects, and subjective reactions across different VE systems. By providing benchmarks of human performance, VEPAB can promote continuity in training research involving different technologies, separate research facilities, and dissimilar subject populations. This paper describes the development of VEPAB and summarizes the results of two experiments, one to test the sensitivity of the tasks to differences between input control devices and the other to examine practice effects.
Stream Ecology: An Historical and Current Perspective

Stream ecology is coming of age. It has progressed from descriptive studies to the testing of general theoretical constructs in ecology and the formulation of new concepts in less than 25 years. Stream ecology can now make significant contributions to the development and testing of general ecological theory. As can be judged from the title of this book, our purpose is three fold: (1) to call attention to this new dimension in stream ecology, (2) to indicate the type of work that is currently being done by stream workers who are addressing basic ecological questions, and (3) to suggest new directions for future emphasis.
The Many Times of Death

Professor Wartofsky is right to emphasize that we are social and historical beings who lose our being if we are abstracted from our specific societies and histories. He is also right when he says that criteria by which we determine when we are dead are significant in the processes by which we form ourselves and give ourselves identity. If, for example, we abstract our deaths from our social and individual history, we build into our society a severance of our lives and deaths from our own specificity and concreteness. We make a schizzy kind of alienation for ourselves, sew it into the fabric of our lives, and make certain that we will not be able to feel attuned to our own lives in the ways in which we live and die them.
Study of an Industrial Multi-Agent Framework with an Application to Multirobots Fire-rescue Simulation

This paper presents the authors’ experience in implementing a multi-agent system created for communication and coordination purposes among mobile robots. The complete system described here is an industrial application focused and aimed at integrating robots, environment and user agents via an agent platform. The work bridges the gap between robots and a JAVA based agent platform. A scenario based multi-robot firerescue simulation is used as a study example. The scenario can be rewritten to suit different industrial requirements. The multiagent framework and its control hierarchy is discussed, path planning with object-avoidance issue is addressed. The actual simulation demonstrates feasibility of this type of agent based system integration. Future work would focus on integration of environment and user agents.
Looking for Efficiency: How Online News Structure and Emotional Tone Influence Processing Time and Memory:

The research reported here investigates how news story structure and emotional tone affect news story processing efficiency. Two theoretical frameworks employing the forced-choice paradigm and the ...
Meshfree Simulations for Additive Manufacturing Process of Metals

We present a meshfree direct numerical simulation (DNS) capability for the additive manufacturing (AM) process of metals based on the hot optimal transportation meshfree (HOTM) method. The HOTM method is a meshfree thermomechanical Lagrangian computational framework for material behaviors under extreme thermomechanical loading conditions. It combines the optimal transportation meshfree (OTM) method and the variational thermomechanical constitutive updates. In the HOTM method, the linear momentum and energy conservation equations are solved simultaneously in a monolithic way. A phase-aware constitutive model is developed to predict the melting/solidification phase change of metals and multiphase mixing during the AM process automatically. The HOTM method is validated in the simulations of the laser welding process over Inconel 625 bare plate by applying heat flux models for the laser beam, the convective heat loss, and radiation heat loss. The performance measurements of the simulation results, including the melt pool geometric dimensions and cooling rates, are comparable to the experimental data measured in the AM benchmark tests. The influence of various laser powers and laser scanning speeds on the melt pool thermodynamics is also studied.
A Highly Linear OTA-Free VCO-Based 1-1 MASH $\Delta\Sigma$ ADC

In this paper, a new voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)-based 1-1 MASH delta–sigma ADC structure is presented. The proposed architecture does not require any operational transconductance amplifier-based analog integrators or integrating capacitors. Second-order noise shaping is achieved by using a VCO as an integrator in the feedback loop of the first stage and an open-loop VCO quantizer in the second stage. Simple digital circuitry extracts the phase quantization error of the first stage as a pulse signal that is applied to the second stage. The input of the first VCO is a very small amplitude signal, and the input of the second VCO is a two-level PWM signal. Therefore, the VCO non-linearity does not limit the overall ADC performance, mitigating the need for the power hungry linearization methods. The proposed idea was simulated at the transistor level, and the results verify the analysis.
Applications of a Motion Compensation Stabilized Vertical Array of Hydrophones

When a vertical array of hydrophones is used to determine the location of a submerged acoustic source in the ocean, performance is limited by the quality of the data, especially when there is interference from ambient noise and other sources or when there are uncertainties in the parameters of the environment. High-quality data may be obtained by anchoring a vertical array on the seafloor, but this time-consuming approach does not allow frequent deployments and mobility. By using motion compensation to eliminate the vertical motion of an array that is deployed from a surface platform, it may be possible to obtain high-quality data with a rapidly deployable system. Other applications that could benefit from this capability include the geoacoustic inverse problem of estimating the parameters of the sediment and studying the effects of horizontal diffraction and horizontal multi-paths for global-scale problems.
Parents’ Beliefs about High School Students’ Spatial Abilities: Gender Differences and Associations with Parent Encouragement to Pursue a STEM Career and Students’ STEM Career Intentions

In the present study, we investigated whether parents’ beliefs about their high school aged adolescents’ spatial abilities (i.e., spatial visualization, mental manipulation, and navigation abilities) differed based on their child’s gender. We also examined whether these beliefs related to parents’ encouragement of their child to pursue a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) career as well as students’ actual STEM major and career intentions. Data were collected from 117 pairs of U.S. high school students and one of their parents. We found that parents of young men thought their child had higher mental manipulation and navigation abilities than did parents of young women, even after statistically controlling for adolescents’ actual spatial abilities. Parents who perceived that their child had higher mental manipulation ability were more likely to encourage their child to pursue a STEM career, and those students were more likely to report that they intended to pursue a STEM career. These findings suggest that parents’ beliefs about how good their child is at spatial tasks may be based more strongly on gender stereotypes than on their child’s actual spatial abilities. Helping to make parents aware of these beliefs could be a potential lever of intervention to increase women’s participation in STEM careers.
A new scalable algorithm for computational optimal control under uncertainty

Abstract We address the design of optimal control strategies for high-dimensional stochastic dynamical systems. Such systems may be deterministic nonlinear systems evolving from random initial states, or systems driven by random parameters or random noise. The objective is to provide a validated new computational capability for optimal control which will be achieved more efficiently than current state-of-the-art methods. The new framework utilizes direct single or multi-shooting discretization, and is based on efficient vectorized gradient computation with adaptable memory management. The algorithm is demonstrated to be scalable to high-dimensional nonlinear control systems with random initial condition and unknown parameters. Numerical applications are presented and discussed for stochastic path planning problems involving models of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, and for distributed control of a nonlinear advection-reaction-diffusion equation.
Patient Assistance Programs: Easing the Burden of Financial Toxicity During Cancer Treatment

Background As the cost of cancer treatment escalates, patients with cancer are facing an increased financial burden because of their financial obligations for coinsurance, deductibles, and co-payments. Objectives This article describes how clinical nurses who are supporting patients on their cancer journey are positioned to offer guidance to help alleviate financial burden associated with drug costs by enrolling patients in patient assistance programs (PAPs). Methods Details are provided about how PAPs work and how a basic knowledge of healthcare coverage terminology, assessment tools, interview techniques, and interprofessional collaboration can contribute to successfully accessing PAPs. Findings PAPs are sponsored by multiple sources and can be identified using web-based resources. For patients who meet eligibility criteria, assistance in the form of PAPs can reduce the impact of financial toxicity related to cancer treatment.
Built for unity: assessing the impact of team composition on team cohesion trajectories

Team cohesion is a critical factor for team effectiveness. Cohesion is a dynamic emergent state, demonstrating important changes as a function of the interactions among team members. Given the important role of individual differences for impacting the quality of social interactions as well as the resulting appraisals of individuals, it is not surprising that a plethora of studies find significant relationships between team composition and team cohesion. Unfortunately, knowledge of how individual difference composition influences changes in cohesion over time is still lacking. Therefore, drawing on theories on the development of interpersonal relationships, we tested predictions regarding the role of team personality and goal orientation for shaping the longitudinal trajectories of social and task cohesion. More specifically, we used a highly interdependent laboratory simulation to assess the differential impact that individual differences have on the initial status (i.e., intercept) and change (i.e., slope) in cohesion over time. Growth curve modeling results suggest support for our predictions that different individual differences uniquely predict the intercepts and slopes of task and social cohesion. Implications for the composition and intervention of teams are discussed.
Thermodynamics of formation of Y-Ni alloys

The Gibbs free energies, enthalpies, and entropies of phase formation were determined for nine Y-Ni intermediate phases from electromotive force measurements. With CaF2 solid electrolyte, emf measurements were made over the temperature range 900 to 1225 K. The Gibbs energies of formation per mole of Y reactant were found to be nearly constant for the four Y-poor phases; this is in keeping with the close structural relationship among these four phases. The Gibbs energies of formation of the Y-Ni phases at 973 K have been compared with those of the Th-Fe, Th-Co, Th-Ni, La-Co, La-Ni, Y-Fe, and Y-Co systems, and an increasing bond strength with increasing number of bonding electrons is evident. Comparison of the experimental values for the enthalpies of formation of the Y-Ni phases has been made with values predicted by the Miedema model and by the Watson-Bennett model. Both predictions yield values that are within ±50 pet of the experimental values which is the range of scatter that is normally expected from these simple models.
Measuring the Demand for Land Under Sorting and Matching

This paper investigates nonparametric identification of demand in markets with two-sided sorting. We consider any situation where the price of a good depends on the sorting of buyers. Specifically, we consider the case where willingness to pay for local amenities differs by income group and monopolistic landlords use a pricing rule based on marginal cost and price elasticities. We first show that generally demand parameters cannot be identified, thus all identification is based on a priori exclusion restrictions or functional form on demand or pricing rules. One example is that if cost shifters are assumed additively separable in marginal cost, then the model can be identified. Such restrictions may be warranted in specific research questions, but researchers should consider and be clear about the implicit additional structure placed on the model.
Is what's past, Prologue?

Abstract : A written language and a transportable recording medium were key elements in the advancement of humankind. Five thousand years ago the Sumerians, using their cuneiform system of writing, recorded business transactions as well as epic poetry on clay tablets. For the thousand of years that have followed we have improved upon our methods of communication with others and upon how we prepare, organize, store, and share our collective knowledge. Now the Internet and the World Wide Web application operating together are causing a fundamental change in the way we have done things for millennia. We are engulfed by this new environment that is, from an historical perspective, merely in its infancy. This paper presents twelve premises regarding the digital environment that are not only reminders of major changes that are occurring, but that also serve as "bumper stickers" for others to consider as they examine this new environment.
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Atypical Presentation and Diagnostic Pitfall in the Workup of Isolated Thrombocytosis

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is one of the classic types of myeloproliferative neoplasms. It typically manifests with leukocytosis, but rarely with isolated thrombocytosis. Here we describe a unique case of isolated thrombocytosis as an initial presentation of CML in a 21-year-old woman, where the BCR-ABL1 fusion gene was detected in bone marrow (BM) aspiration and biopsy specimen after a negative peripheral blood (PB) fluorescence in situ hybridization testing. It is crucial to pursue workup for patients with isolated thrombocytosis through testing for the presence of the BCR-ABL fusion gene or the Philadephia chromosome in both PB and the BM in order to distinguish CML from essential thrombocythemia.
Secular change in morphological cranial and mandibular trait frequencies in European Americans born 1824–1987

Objectives Secular change in cranial and postcranial morphometrics and morphological traits has been documented in several studies. However, to date, few studies have addressed temporal changes occurring in the expression of cranial morphological traits commonly used in ancestry estimation. This study examines secular change in the expression of 23 cranial and mandibular morphological traits; accounting for age-at-death, sex, and year-of-birth. Materials & methods Data were collected on 23 morphological cranial and mandibular traits for European American individuals (19-97 years of age) from the Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection (n = 518) and the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection (n = 602). Individuals were divided into six birth-year cohorts: 1824-1849 (Cohort 1), 1850-1874 (Cohort 2), 1875-1899 (Cohort 3), 1900-1924 (Cohort 4), 1925-1949 (Cohort 5), and 1950-1987 (Cohort 6). Results Statistical analyses, including Pearson's chi-square, correspondence analysis, and ordinal regression, demonstrate that secular changes have occurred in 11 traits, including: anterior nasal spine (ANS); malar tubercle (MT); nasal bone contour (NBC); postbregmatic depression (PBD); supranasal suture (SPS); transverse palatine suture (TPS); zygomaticomaxillary suture (ZS); ascending ramus shape (ARS); gonial angle flare (GAF); mandibular tori (MDT); and posterior ramus edge inversion (PREI), with changes occurring in both sexes for ANS, MT, TPS, ZS, GAF, MDT, and PREI. Significant changes in trait expression were found predominately between Cohorts 3 and 4, and Cohorts 4 and 5. While the sex of an individual affected the expression of ANS, MT, NBC, PBD, SPS, ZS, ARS, GAF, and PREI, age-at-death only affected MT and PREI. Discussion This study demonstrates that secular change in morphological cranial and mandibular traits has occurred over the last two centuries in European Americans, with the most considerable change appearing at the turn of the twentieth century. Changes in morphological trait expression over a relatively short period of time correspond with changes seen in craniometric analyses and correlate with the industrialization of society and environmental and cultural changes, such as medical advancements, nutrition, and population health/stress.
Bioluminescence Methodology for Ion Channel Studies.

As key players in cell function, ion channels are important targets for drug discovery and therapeutic development against a wide range of health conditions. Thus, developing assays to reconstitute ion channel macromolecular complexes in physiological conditions and screen for chemical modifiers of protein-protein interactions within these complexes is timely in drug discovery campaigns. For most ion channels, expressing their pore-forming subunit in heterologous mammalian cells has now become a routine procedure. However, reconstituting protein-channel complexes in physiological environments is still challenging, limiting our ability to identify tools and probes based on allosteric mechanisms, which could lead to more targeted and precise modulation of the channel function. Here, we describe the assay development steps to stably reconstitute the interaction between voltage-gated Na+ (Nav) channel Nav1.6 and its accessory protein, fibroblast growth factor 14 (FGF14) using the split-luciferase complementation assay (LCA), followed by assay miniaturization and optimization in 384-well plates for in-cell high-throughput screening (HTS) against protein-channel interactions. This optimized LCA can subsequently be used for rapid estimation of hit potency and efficacy via dose-dependency studies, enabling ranking of hits prior to more labor-intensive validation studies. Lastly, we introduce the methodology for rapid functional hit validation studies using semi-automated planar patch-clamp electrophysiology. Our robust, in-cell HTS platform can be adapted to any suitable ion channel complex to explore regulatory pathways of cellular signaling using kinase inhibitors, as well as to screen small molecules for probe development and drug repurposing toward new targets/areas of medicine. Overall, the flexibility of this assay allows users to broadly explore therapeutic options for channelopathy-associated diseases at a fast pace, enabling rapid hypothesis generation in early phase drug discovery campaigns and narrowing down targets prior to more labor-intensive in vivo studies.
On tackling reverse convex constraints for non-overlapping of unequal circles

We study the unequal circle-circle non-overlapping constraints, a form of reverse convex constraints that often arise in optimization models for cutting and packing applications. The feasible region induced by the intersection of circle-circle non-overlapping constraints is highly non-convex, and standard approaches to construct convex relaxations for spatial branch-and-bound global optimization of such models typically yield unsatisfactory loose relaxations. Consequently, solving such non-convex models to guaranteed optimality remains extremely challenging even for the state-of-the-art codes. In this paper, we apply a purpose-built branching scheme on non-overlapping constraints and utilize strengthened intersection cuts and various feasibility-based tightening techniques to further tighten the model relaxation. We embed these techniques into a branch-and-bound code and test them on two variants of circle packing problems. Our computational studies on a suite of 75 benchmark instances yielded, for the first time in the open literature, a total of 54 provably optimal solutions, and it was demonstrated to be competitive over the use of the state-of-the-art general-purpose global optimization solvers.
Perceived Versus Objective Change in Walking Ability in Peripheral Artery Disease: Results from 3 Randomized Clinical Trials of Exercise Therapy

Background In people with lower-extremity peripheral artery disease, the effects of exercise on patient-reported outcomes remain unclear. Methods and Results Four hundred four people with peripheral artery disease in 3 clinical trials were randomized to exercise (N=205) or a control group (N=199) and completed the 6-minute walk and the Walking Impairment Questionnaire distance score (score 0-100, 100=best) at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Compared with the control group, exercise improved 6-minute walk distance by +39.8 m (95% CI, 26.8-52.8, P<0.001) and the Walking Impairment Questionnaire distance score by +7.3 (95% CI, 2.4-12.1, P=0.003). In all, 2828 individual Walking Impairment Questionnaire distance score questions were completed at baseline and follow-up. Among participants who perceived no change in ability to walk 1 or more distances between baseline and follow-up, 6-minute walk improved in the exercise group and declined in the control group (+26.8 versus -6.5 m, P<0.001). Among participants who perceived that their walking ability worsened for 1 or more distances between baseline and follow-up, the 6-minute walk improved in the exercise group and declined in the control group (+18.4 versus -27.3 m, P<0.001). Among participants who reported worsening calf symptoms at follow-up, the exercise group improved and the control group declined (+28.9 versus -12.5 m, P<0.01). Conclusions In 3 randomized trials, exercise significantly improved the 6-minute walk distance in people with peripheral artery disease, but many participants randomized to exercise reported no change or decline in walking ability. These findings suggest a significant discrepancy in objectively measured walking improvement relative to perceived walking improvement in people with peripheral artery disease. Registration Information clinicaltrials.gov. Identifiers: NCT00106327, NCT01408901.
Facilitating Injustice: The Complicity of Social Workers in the Forced Removal and Incarceration of Japanese Americans, 1941-1946: Yoosun Park, New York: Oxford University Press, 2020, 430pp., ISBN: 978-0199765058, (hardcover), $45

In February, 1942, two months after the Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order (EO) 9066, authorizing the forced removal and incarceration of ...
An Innovative Attack Modelling and Attack Detection Approach for a Waiting Time-based Adaptive Traffic Signal Controller.

An adaptive traffic signal controller (ATSC) combined with a connected vehicle (CV) concept uses real-time vehicle trajectory data to regulate green time and has the ability to reduce intersection waiting time significantly and thereby improve travel time in a signalized corridor. However, the CV-based ATSC increases the size of the surface vulnerable to potential cyber-attack, allowing an attacker to generate disastrous traffic congestion in a roadway network. An attacker can congest a route by generating fake vehicles by maintaining traffic and car-following rules at a slow rate so that the signal timing and phase change without having any abrupt changes in number of vehicles. Because of the adaptive nature of ATSC, it is a challenge to model this kind of attack and also to develop a strategy for detection. This paper introduces an innovative "slow poisoning" cyberattack for a waiting time based ATSC algorithm and a corresponding detection strategy. Thus, the objectives of this paper are to: (i) develop a "slow poisoning" attack generation strategy for an ATSC, and (ii) develop a prediction-based "slow poisoning" attack detection strategy using a recurrent neural network -- i.e., long short-term memory model. We have generated a "slow poisoning" attack modeling strategy using a microscopic traffic simulator -- Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) -- and used generated data from the simulation to develop both the attack model and detection model. Our analyses revealed that the attack strategy is effective in creating a congestion in an approach and detection strategy is able to flag the attack.
Reframing aging in dermatology: The role of the dermatologist in healthy aging

Abstract Dermatology is often tasked with balancing the clinical appearance of aging skin with the reality of what healthy aging means. In this article, we review some of the core principles of healthy aging and explore common misconceptions, both from patients and physicians, regarding aging. Recognition of the basics of healthy aging and awareness of these aging myths can empower providers to advise patients accurately and productively regarding their aging goals.
Pedagogical Hope between Presence and Promise

What specific imprint does Christianity give to the philosophical elaboration of personalism? Initially, we introduce a reflective reread on Christian personalist thought in ongoing pedagogical discourse, in particular through the paradigmatic concept of hope. Returning to the traditional concept of ‘person’ and to its philosophical-ontological legacy, this essay discusses the dynamic of the teacher-student educational relationship. In this context, this paper attempts to show that the educator manifests his being a person of hope through his educative presence and respect for the promise.