cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Research Notes: A COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE SUPERVISORY BEHAVIOR DESCRIPTION QUESTIONNAIRE (SBDQ) AND THE REVISITED LEADER BEHAVIOR DESCRIPTION QUESTIONNAIRE (LBDQ-FORM XII)

The article examines a study of the concurrent validity of two Ohio State leadership scales, the supervisory behavior description questionnaire and the revised leader behavior description questionn...
The Use of Breastfeeding as a Contraceptive

Breastfeeding generally is considered an ineffective method of birth control. Yet, in non‐Western cultures breastfeeding has been shown to be a beneficial method for spacing births. The physiological effect of breastfeeding on ovulation, breastfeeding patterns that delay the return of ovulatory activity, and the practice of fertility awareness during the postpartum period are reviewed. Guidelines are suggested for assessing, teaching, and referring women desiring to use breastfeeding as a contraceptive method.
The methodology for the early identification of students at risk for failure in a professional degree program

Abstract Objective A 2013 mandate for publicly posted progression rates has focused attention on pharmacy attrition rates. This study describes a process to systematically identify reasonably valid indicators of students who are likely to fail to progress. The primary objective was to develop a methodology to discover a variable or model of variables that would identify students at risk for failure prior to the end of the second semester. Methods The marker selected to represent failure was failure to graduate within four years from matriculation. Variables from Wingate University's pre-pharmacy admissions data such as Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT), grade point averages, and interview scores combined with first-year pharmacy school academic performance on tests and grades were analyzed for 398 students matriculated between 2004 and 2009. The data were analyzed using correlations, binary logistic regression, and cross-tabulation. Odds ratios were computed. Results Of these students, 22 failed to graduate or failed to graduate on time. The strongest indicators that these students would eventually fail to graduate on time was their score on the first exam in an integrated science course (odds ratio=6.1), the first semester course grade in the same course (odds ratio=18.8), their semester one grade point average (GPA) below 3.0 (odds ratio=17.6), and their semester two cumulative GPA below 3.0 (odds ratio=35.8). Conclusion A professional pharmacy program can use readily available data and a scientifically sound methodology to identify students who are at a significantly higher risk for failure to graduate on time.
Commentary On: "Surgical Smoke - A Health Hazard in the Operating Theatre: A Study to Quantify Exposure and a Survey of the Use of Smoke Extractor Systems in UK Plastic Surgery Units".

In this study, Hill et al. attempt to answer these questions through an intriguing preclinical study. 10 The investigators quantified the mass of tissue converted into a smoke plume over a period of 2 months by determining the duration of diathermy use and additionally attempted to determine the prevalence of surgical smoke evacuators in plastic surgery units in the United Kingdom. They utilised a novel method of determining the number of device activations and the total duration of activation of devices. This was achieved by accessing built-in service functions of the device. It gave very precise measurements of cutting and coagulation. However, it should be noted that the investigators did not evaluate desiccation and fulguration functions. Also, many plastic surgeons use bipolar electrocautery, which has not been evaluated in this paper. Regarding results, the authors used this experimental data along with the number and duration of activation to estimate the mass of tissue destroyed during the 44 operating days, and extrapolated that to provide descriptive analysis of the amount of tissue destroyed per day. If we extrapolate these findings, taking into consideration that 1 g of tissue creates a surgical smoke plume with the mutagenic effect of smoking 6 unfiltered cigarettes, 8,9 a total of approximately 27–30 unfiltered cigarettes would need to be smoked in the operating room per day to produce equivalent mutagenicity. This finding emphasises the importance of evacuation of smoke plumes. However, it should be noted that this finding is based on mea
Asymmetric Synthesis of N‐tert‐Butoxycarbonyl α‐Amino Acids. Synthesis of (5S,6R)‐4‐tert‐Butoxycarbonyl‐5,6‐Diphenylmorpholin‐2‐one

Ethylbromoacetate Di-tert-butyl carbonate p-Toluenesulfonic acid Benzeneethanol, beta amino-alpha phenyl- Ethyl-N-(1′2-diphenyl-2-hydroxyethyl)glycinate Ethyl N-tert-butyloxycarbonyl-N-(1′2′-diphenyl-2-hydroxyethyl)glycinate (5S,6R)-4-tert-Butyloxycarbonyl-5,6-diphenymorpholin-2-one 4-Morpholinecarboxylic acid, 6-oxo-2,3-diphenyl, 1,1, dimethylethyl-2-one Keywords: asymmetric synthesis; alpha-amino acids; waste disposal; lactones; morpholine; bromination; stereoselective coupling; organometallic reagents
Metal‐acetylacetonate chelate crosslinked gels

Polymers containing pendant acetylacetonate (acac) groups suitable for crosslinking through metal complex formation are described. Diene-based copolymers, polystyrene, and polydimethylsiloxane, each containing a measurable number of acac groups distributed along the chains, were synthesized. The polymers were studied both for the amount of acac ligand and for their crosslinking reactions with selected transition metals by ultraviolet (UV) second-derivative spectroscopy. The UV analyses of the polymer systems were compared with their monomer analogs, and the results confirm that the crosslinking chelation reactions of polymer compounds are similar to those of model compounds. Homogeneous chelate crosslinking conditions were developed by using transition-metal salts such as Cu(laurate)2, Fe(laurate)3, and Cr(laurate)3 in solvents such as chloroform and benzene. Polymeric ligands containing 1–5% acac in solution at various concentrations were reacted to form both inter- and intramolecular crosslinkages. The kinetic stability of the chelate crosslinks has been studied by a unique ligand exchange–gel solubility relationship.
Amending the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Bill to Harness Individual Behavior

This article attempts to answer a question about the design of Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) that has not received significant attention: How should Congress engage individuals in the effort to address climate change? Individuals outside of their work are responsible for one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the U.S. has a higher per capita energy consumption rate than virtually any other country. The article recommends a broad range of provisions, including public participation, targets and timetables, numerous forms of public information, and a variety of incentives and pathways for individual action. The purpose of such provisions is to complement, not substitute for, provisions addressing major emitters. A congressional effort to engage individuals would take advantage of some of the nation's key strengths - individual initiative, engaged citizenship, and collective sense of purpose. Such legislation would more likely be at least equal to the challenge in front of us.
Latency versus Complementarity: Margenau and Bohr on Quantum Mechanics

H. Margenau a propose une interpretation de la mecanique quantique qui differe de celle de Bohr, essentiellement par la substitution a l'idee de complementarite du concept de " latence " (les proprietes physiques seraient latentes plutot qu'inassignables au sens ou l'impliquent les relations d'incertitude d'Heisenberg). L'A. compare les deux interpretations, a la fois sur le plan physico-mathematique et sur le plan philosophique| l'A. conclut contre les pretentions de Margenau en faveur de sa theorie, et montre la quasi-equivalence des deux systemes d'interpretation
Here to Stay — Beyond the Rough Launch of the ACA

With time and administrative care, the ACA can be implemented successfully. For the next several years, political battles will determine the law's fate, but over the longer term, its success will depend on elected officials' responses to emerging challenges.
Optimization of Finite-Difference Boundary Stencils for Improved Viscous Stability

The Tam and Webb Dispersion Relation Preserving (DRP) scheme is a robust and accurate spatial differencing method that is widely used in Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA). When used for wall-bounded viscous flow problems, the allowable time step for the DRP scheme becomes excessively small compared to the allowable time step for the periodic viscous problem. In this work, the effect of boundary stencils and the numerical implementation of viscous boundary conditions on the numerical stability of the DRP scheme are investigated. Several strategies for improving the viscous stability limit of the DRP scheme are demonstrated.
Aerodynamic Simulation of Wake Encounter for Aircraft Close Formation Operations (Invited)

In this study, the rolling moment coefficient of a following unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) induced by wake vortices from a leading UAV is analyzed and studied. Numerical simulation results are compared to the results from an analytical vortex lattice method. Then a complete UAV mesh is built and used to calculate the influence by a pair of wake vortices created by the leading UAV in real flight scenario. The paper provides an estimate of the vortex roll hazard assessment for the following UAV in close formation operations.
Transmission characteristics of highly-nonlinear-fiber-based Raman amplifier for CWDM systems

We have developed a discrete fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) utilizing highly nonlinear fiber for 4-channel CWDM systems. By using FRA, we have successfully achieved the transmissino over single mode fiber with the length of 150km.
Survey on the mosquito distribution of residential area in Benxi city

Objective To grasp the structure and distribution of mosquito species in the residential area,and provide scientific basis for mosquito control. Methods Light trap method.Results The species structure of mosquito in the residential area of Benxi city included Culex pipiens pallens,Aedes vexans,Anopheles sinensis and Aedes koreicus.Culex pipiens pallens was the predominant species of mosquito in the urban residential area,occupying 95.45% of the total urban mosquito trap.Aedes vexans was the predominant species of mosquito in the rural residential areas,occupying 79.71% of the total rural mosquito trap.No Encephalitis B communication media Culex tritaeniorhynchus was found through supervision in the residential area.The density of mosquito species in the rural area was higher than that in the urban area obviously.The maximum activity of mosquito in Benxi city occured from the first ten days of August to the first ten days of September annually.Conclusion The first ten days from August to the first ten days of September annually is suitable for the residential area of Benxi city to enhance prevention and treatment work of mosquito.The urban residential area mainly take Culex pipiens pallens as target,and the rural residential area mainly take Aedes vexans as target.
MORPh: mobile OLED-friendly recording and playback system for low power video streaming

Even with the adoption of the latest OLED technology, the display panel remains one of the most power-hungry components in smart-phones. Existing attempts for OLED power optimization have mainly focused on modifying the content that is shown on the display during the playback phase, requiring significant overhead in terms of image analysis and modification. While such methods are effective, they overlook opportunities present during the camera recording phase, where utilization of already determined camera parameters could reduce or eliminate the image processing overhead. Hence, we proposed MORPh, a cross-layer optimization system for OLED. We first analyze three fundamental parameters extracted from the smartphone camera and their impact on OLED power consumption and visual quality. We then define corresponding metrics to assess power optimization potentials, and propose a set of algorithms that optimize camera recording to be more OLED friendly. Finally, the proposed schemes are realized as part of a video recording and playback application on an existing Android smartphone. The experiments results indicate power saving of 7.3%∼39.7%, and 20.3% on average while maintaining perceived visual quality.
Alegorías de una hermandad atormentada: Haití en la literatura dominicana

The violent controversy provoked in the aftermath of the much-decried 168-13 Constitutional Court ruling that stripped of their nationality thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent made it clear that the need to dismantle old paradigms representations of Haiti and Haitians in Dominican popular imagination has become more imperative than ever. This article reviews some of the tropes used to construct Haiti since its revolution in 1804 and argues that these tropes have coexisted with discourses and practices promoting fraternity, solidarity and peaceful coexistence. This alternative paradigm is embodied in the figure of Jacques Viau Renaud (1941-1965), a Haitian poet who resided in the Dominican Republic and a combatant who gave his life for the defense of Dominican democracy and sovereignty during the U.S. occupation in 1965.
Anger and Hate Groups: The Importance of Structural Inequality for the Sociology of Emotions and Social Movement Research

This paper explores the connections between social structural inequality, emotions, and social movement participation. The activities and ideologies of a diverse family of hate groups are treated as a social movement. The interplay between the structural, cultural, and emotional origins of this movement is spelled out. The central emotions shared by these groups are anger and hate, which stem from the perception that whites occupy subordinate positions in society relative to a growing number of undeserving "nonwhites." This theme recurs in hate group discourse and forms a fundamental part of the movement's ideology but it also regenerates the emotional dynamics that seed discontent and mobilization. This study joins a growing body of research that incorpo­rates emotions into theoretical models of social movements.
Structuring of Nanoparticles Confined Between a Silica Microsphere and an Air Bubble

This chapter contributes to the understanding of effects of confining surface deformability on the interaction within thin liquid films of colloidal nanoparticles. The influence of surfactant on the surface deformability and then on the structuring of the nanoparticles is investigated. The oscillatory force caused by the layering of the nanoparticles is detected between the AFM microsphere probe and an air bubble, and the oscillatory wavelength that reflects the interlayer distance of the nanoparticles is found to scale with colloidal nanoparticle concentration as \(\phi ^{-1/3}\). Under constant experimental conditions (AFM probe radius, bubble size, Debye length and contact angle), the bubble stiffness is found to increase linearly with surface tension, while the oscillatory wavelength is not affected by the bubble deformability. In addition, cationic surfactant C\(_{16}\) TAB display a different behavior on the retraction part of the force curve, in which a pronounced adhesion force is observed. This phenomenon might be attributed to the hydrophobic effect caused by the monolayer formation of cationic surfactant on the silica sphere surface. Thus a stable thin film of colloidal nanoparticles is assumed to be formed between the silica microsphere and the bubble when strong repulsive interaction exists.
MR Enterography of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Endoscopic Correlation

MR enterography and endoscopy with histopathologic sampling are complementary diagnostic modalities used to manage IBD. Familiarity with the endoscopic correlates of the imaging findings and with the underlying pathologic processes of IBD can aid in interpretation of MR enterographic findings.
Working memory capacity, mind wandering, and creative cognition: An individual-differences investigation into the benefits of controlled versus spontaneous thought

Should executive control, as indicated by working memory capacity (WMC) and mind-wandering propensity, help or hinder creativity? Sustained and focused attention should help guide a selective search of solution-relevant information in memory and help inhibit uncreative, yet accessible, ideas. However, unfocused attention and daydreaming should allow mental access to more loosely relevant concepts, remotely linked to commonplace solutions. Three individual-differences studies inserted incubation periods into 1 or 2 divergent thinking tasks and tested whether WMC (assessed by complex span tasks) and incubation-period mind wandering (assessed as probed reports of task-unrelated thought [TUT]) predicted postincubation performance. Retrospective self-reports of Openness (Experiment 2) and mind-wandering and daydreaming propensity (Experiment 3) complemented our thought-probe assessments of TUT. WMC did not correlate with creativity in divergent thinking, whereas only the questionnaire measure of daydreaming, but not probed thought reports, weakly predicted creativity; the fact that in-the-moment TUTs did not correlate with divergent creativity is especially problematic for claims that mind-wandering processes contribute to creative cognition. Moreover, the fact that WMC tends to strongly predict analytical problem solving and reasoning, but may not correlate with divergent thinking, provides a useful boundary condition for defining WMC’s nomological net. On balance, our data provide no support for either benefits or costs of executive control for at least 1 component of creativity.
Homelessness among formerly incarcerated African American men: contributors and consequences

This article critically analyses the existing literature on the contributors and consequences of homelessness among formerly incarcerated African American men. Offered is a discussion of a conceptu...
Simulation results for localization and mapping algorithms

The main goal of this research was to use simulation to compare the performances of three simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms and show the superiority of one algorithm's performance over the performance of the other two algorithms. The superior algorithm from the simulation experiments may be used to test an unmanned ground vehicle's (UGV's) capability to explore the complex subterranean environment for various Department of Defense (DOD) missions. Using simulation shows the performance of these algorithms and aids in the development of a robotic platform that has the capability to perform the localization and mapping of subterranean environments in a cost effect manner. Simulation, using the robotic simulator STAGE, provided a platform to implement multiple algorithms easily in multiple topologies and to compare the performance of three algorithms: CoreSLAM, Gmapping, and HectorSLAM, in a cost effective manner without an actual robot.
Optimal experimental design in canonical expansions with applications to signal compression

In this paper, we introduce an experimental design framework for Karhunen-Loeve compression. This method based on the concept of mean objective of uncertainty determines the best unknown parameter of the covariance matrix to be estimated first in order to improve the quality of the compressed signal. Moreover, we find the closed-form solution to the intrinsically Bayesian robust Karhunen-Loeve compression that is required for experimental design and provides the optimal signal compression on average relative to the uncertainty class of covariance matrices. We verify the performance of the proposed experimental design method for the case in which the covariance matrix consists of disjoint blocks.
Toward Improving Quality of End-of-Life Care: Encoding Clinical Guidelines and Standing Orders Using the Omaha System

Background End-of-life care (EOLC) relieves the suffering of millions of people around the globe each year. A growing body of hospice care research has led to the creation of several evidence-based clinical guidelines for EOLC. As evidence for the effectiveness of timely EOLC swells, so does the increased need for efficient information exchange between disciplines and across the care continuum. Aims The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using the Omaha System as a framework for encoding interoperable evidence-based EOL interventions with specified temporality for use across disciplines and settings. Methods Four evidence-based clinical guidelines and one current set of hospice standing orders were encoded using the Omaha System Problem Classification Scheme and Intervention Scheme, as well as Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine—Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT). The resulting encoded guideline was entered on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and made available for public use on the Omaha System Guidelines website. Results The resulting EOLC guideline consisted of 153 interventions that may enable patients and their surrogates, clinicians, and ancillary providers to communicate interventions in a universally comprehensible way. Linking Evidence to Action Evidence-based interventions from diverse disciplines involved in EOLC are described within this guideline using the Omaha System. Because the Omaha System and clinical guidelines are maintained in the public domain, encoding interventions is achievable by anyone with access to the Internet and basic Excel skills. Using the guideline as a documentation template customized for unique patient needs, clinicians can quantify and track patient care across the care continuum to ensure timely evidence-based interventions. Conclusions Clinical guidelines coded in the Omaha System can support the use of multidisciplinary evidence-based interventions to improve quality of EOLC across settings and professions.
Carbon Nanocomposite for Reliable Seal Applications in High-Temperature, High-Pressure, Corrosive Environments

Achieving a reliable seal in the extremely harsh environments of high pressure, high temperature (HPHT), and corrosive fluids has been highly demanded in various industries, including oil and gas, aerospace, chemicals, and nuclear, etc. Traditional seal materials such as rubber or plastic often fail to achieve reliable sealing due to thermal degradation under hot, wet, and corrosive conditions. Metal-to-metal seals also show limited success due to their low elasticity and weak acid corrosion resistance at HT. This paper presents a novel carbon-based nanocomposite that exhibits a temperature rating higher than 300 °C, filling a technical gap of high-temperature sealing materials in extremely corrosive environments. The composition-microstructure-property relationship and superior seal performance of this novel nanocomposite will be discussed.
Introduction: On Money, Psychology, and Affect in Bernard Shaw’s Writing

The project of recovering a material psychology from Bernard Shaw’s writing—and of deploying related theoretical insights in assessing the nature of affect in his work and thought more generally—necessitates articulations between four discourses that are most often considered individually and more than sufficiently complicated in their own right: economics, psychology, affect theory, and, perhaps surprisingly, performance studies. In addition, when juxtaposed to each other and pressed into the service of critical exegesis, these discourses might lead to even greater confusion. For these reasons, this chapter, first, outlines the premises of this undertaking and then, second, deploys Shaw’s 1905 story “The Theatre of the Future” as a primer for later readings of the five novels that Shaw wrote between 1879 and 1883.
Cortical surface strain estimation using stereovision

We present a completely noninvasive technique to estimate soft tissue surface strain by differentiating three-dimensional displacements obtained from optical flow motion tracking using stereo images. The implementation of the strain estimation algorithm was verified with simulated data and its application was illustrated in three open cranial neurosurgical cases, where cortical surface strain induced by arterial blood pressure pulsation was evaluated. Local least squares smoothing was applied to the displacement field prior to strain estimation to reduce the effect of noise during differentiation. Maximum principal strains (e1) of up to 7% were found in the exposed cortical area on average, and the largest strains (up to ∼18%) occurred near the craniotomy rim with the majority of e1 perpendicular to the boundary, indicating relative stretching along this direction. The technique offers a new approach for soft tissue strain estimation for the purpose of biomechanical characterization.
The Impact of Microsurgical Repair of Subclinical and Clinical Varicoceles on Total Motile Sperm Count: Is There a Difference?

OBJECTIVE To determine if subclinical varicocele repair produces similar results to palpable varicocele repair. METHODS Retrospective review was performed on 190 infertile men who underwent a microsurgical varicocele repair by two surgeons from 2009 to 2017. Improvement in total motile sperm count (TMC) that enables men limited to in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intrauterine insemination (IUI) to undergo IUI or natural conception (upgrade) is clinically meaningful. Using TMC, men were grouped into three pre- and postoperative categories: IVF, (TMC 9 million). Changes in category after varicocele repair were assessed. We compared the proportion of men in each category with clinical varicoceles to those with subclinical varicoceles. RESULTS Men with clinical and subclinical varicoceles had improvements in TMC after surgery (change in TMC of 9.3 ± 19.5, 7.7 ± 22.6 million, P < 0.001 for both, respectively). There was no difference in TMC improvement between men with clinical and subclinical varicoceles (P = 0.66). Of men initially limited to IVF, 11% improved to IUI, and 38% to natural pregnancy. Of patients starting in IUI category, 22% transitioned to natural pregnancy category. No difference exists in the proportion of men who "upgraded" between palpable or subclinical varicoceles. CONCLUSION Men with subclinical varicoceles have similar, clinically meaningful improvement in TMC after varicocele repair compared with men with palpable varicoceles.
Validation of Compression Index Approximations Using Soil Liquid Limit

The list of published empirical models for approximating the compression index of fine-grained soils in terms of its liquid limit continues to grow. Many such expressions are justified based on high correlation coefficients using limited test data sets. Significant measures such as standard errors are often omitted. Some published models are applicable to fine-grained soils, organic soils or all soils. Most of the published models are based on traditional linear regression which ignores data outliers. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) regression are being used to develop more reliable models but often ignores data outliers. Although ANN is a valuable tool, it is data driven and the quality and quantity of the data impact developed models. Over the past five years, significant data was collected from published articles from reputable journals and conferences. A total of 1906 data points relating soil compression index to its liquid limit were analyzed using Robust Bi-Square regression to reduce the impact of data outliers. Published models rely on traditional regression analysis. The results indicate several published data sets involving liquid limits of less than 16 while others included data that plotted above the U-line in the Plasticity Chart. Such data points are impossible to exist in engineering practice. Using MATLAB and the Robust Bi-Square regression, the authors developed new regression models with high correlations and low standard errors that relate the compression index of fine-grained soils to its liquid limit. The proposed models are more reliable than those developed using traditional regression technique which ignore data outliers and often involve incorrect data. The proposed Robust regression models were compared with published empirical approximations that are based on traditional regression methods to establish validity and reliability.
Fifty Years of Global Justice: Five Theses

The subject of “global justice” did not exist in the literature of transatlantic political philosophy 50 years ago. Today, it is a focus of vigorous philosophical discussion. The paper offers five theses about the linkage between the origins of the literature in the political and philosophical ferment of the late 1960s and the state of the philosophical literature today.
Clinical utility and concordance of upper urinary tract cytology and biopsy in predicting clinicopathological features of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma

Five percent of urothelial carcinoma occurs in the upper urinary tract (UUT), a challenging location to biopsy. We aim to evaluate concordance between biopsy, cytology, and resection specimens in a large upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) cohort. One hundred seventeen UTUC resections with UUT biopsy and/or cytology specimens from 2000 to 2016 were retrieved; pathologic material was re-reviewed, evaluated for concordance, and correlated with clinical information. Fourteen percent of preoperative biopsies, including 8 from the renal pelvis and 6 from the ureter, lacked neoplastic diagnoses. Seventy-seven percent of diagnostic biopsies included subepithelial tissue; 11% demonstrated reclassification of grade and 30% demonstrated reclassification of invasion status. Twenty-six percent of renal pelvis UTUC and 36% of ureter UTUC were invasive only on resection. Of 18 UTUCs reclassified from noninvasive high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma to invasive high-grade papillary urothelial carcinoma, 39% had prior radical cystectomy (versus 8% invasive UTUC and 11% noninvasive UTUC with concordant biopsies). Most high-grade UTUC (88%) and some low-grade UTUC (58%) resections had abnormal cytology results. Biopsy-resection pairs with concordant invasion status and pairs with discordant invasion status showed similar rates of recurrence (38% versus 38%) and metastasis (25% versus 27%). Fourteen percent of UUT biopsies lacked diagnostic neoplastic material. Grade concordance between biopsy and resection was high (89%), but 30% of cases showed invasion only on resection. Subepithelial tissue was less commonly present in ureter biopsies, particularly from the midureter or proximal ureter. UTUC in patients with prior cystectomy were more likely to show invasion on resection but not biopsy.
An Information-theoretic Approach for Automatically Determining the Number of State Groups When Aggregating Markov Chains

A fundamental problem when aggregating Markov chains is the specification of the number of state groups. Too few state groups may fail to sufficiently capture the pertinent dynamics of the original, high-order Markov chain. Too many state groups may lead to a non-parsimonious, reduced-order Markov chain whose complexity rivals that of the original. In this paper, we show that an augmented value-of-information-based approach to aggregating Markov chains facilitates the determination of the number of state groups. The optimal state-group count coincides with the case where the complexity of the reduced-order chain is balanced against the mutual dependence between the original- and reduced-order chain dynamics.
Opportunities for graduate studies in acoustics within the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln

A number of faculty in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) conduct research in acoustics and mentor graduate students. Within the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, based at UNL’s Scott Campus in Omaha, Lily Wang and Erica Ryherd are active in architectural acoustics and noise (http://nebraskaacousticsgroup.org ). In Civil Engineering, Jinying Zhu (also based on UNL’s Scott Campus in Omaha) focuses in structural acoustics, using ultrasonic waves for concrete evaluation. In Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Joseph Turner (based at UNL’s City Campus in Lincoln) studies ultrasound propagation through complex media for quantitative characterization of materials/microstructure (http://quisp.unl.edu ). UNL is additionally home to an active student chapter of the Acoustical Society of America, the first to be founded in 2004. This poster will summarize the graduate-level acoustics courses and lab facilities at UNL within the College of Engineering, as well as the research interests and achievements of our faculty, graduates, and students.A number of faculty in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) conduct research in acoustics and mentor graduate students. Within the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, based at UNL’s Scott Campus in Omaha, Lily Wang and Erica Ryherd are active in architectural acoustics and noise (http://nebraskaacousticsgroup.org ). In Civil Engineering, Jinying Zhu (also based on UNL’s Scott Campus in Omaha) focuses in structural acoustics, using ultrasonic waves for concrete evaluation. In Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Joseph Turner (based at UNL’s City Campus in Lincoln) studies ultrasound propagation through complex media for quantitative characterization of materials/microstructure (http://quisp.unl.edu ). UNL is additionally home to an active student chapter of the Acoustical Society of America, the first to be founded in 2004. This poster will summarize the graduate-level acoustics courses and lab facilities at UNL within the College of Engineering,...
The Futility and Necessity of Human Rights in an Era of Carceral Hyperinflation

The prison is linked to a multiplicity of social institutions and forces, including struggles inside the state. The notion of human rights is typically invoked by educated elites with a stake in applying supportive social treatment (the feminine Left hand of the state) in opposition to rival agencies who purport to resolve social problems through disciplinary sanctions (the masculine Right hand). Human rights discourses veil the catastrophic conditions of mass detention in Latin America. Yet, they also serve a guide and goad. Practical steps Chilean authorities should put into practice include reducing the use of prison and prison overcrowding, improving physical conditions and integrating public services, elevating the status and quality of prison staff, and moving responsibility for prison to the Ministry of Social Development.
Genetic Counseling for Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a genetically heterogenous disease with approximately 10% of cases attributed to a germline gene mutation. Family history of PC increases the risk of developing the disease two- to threefold when a single first-degree relative is affected. However, current genetic testing strategies identify a germline mutation in less than a third of suspected hereditary cases, while the remaining two-thirds or more without a causative mutation are considered to have a familial form of the disease. Familial pancreatic cancer (FPC) is defined as at least two first-degree relatives with pancreatic cancer, but some authors are more inclusive and consider three or more relatives of any degree in this classification.
TextMap: A general purpose visualization system

Abstract Human language is a versatile tool for communicating mental models between speakers of a language. This paper presents the TextMap system, a logic-based system for generating visuospatial representations from textual input. TextMap combines a minimalistic parser with a simple model counting mechanism to automatically extract coordinate information from propositional Horn-logic knowledge bases encoding spatial predications. The system is based on a biologically inspired low-level bit vector mechanism, the activation bit vector machine (ABVM). It does not require an ontology apart from a list of which tokens indicate relations. Its minimalism and simplicity make it a general purpose visualization or imagery tool. The paper describes the TextMap application architecture as well as the key algorithms forming the ABVM core. The system is evaluated with respect to a larger case study of a geographic layout of 13 cities demonstrating capabilities as well as current shortcomings for a complex scenario of a human mental map description.
Varifocal Occlusion-Capable Optical See-through Augmented Reality Display based on Focus-tunable Optics

Optical see-through augmented reality (AR) systems are a next-generation computing platform that offer unprecedented user experiences by seamlessly combining physical and digital content. Many of the traditional challenges of these displays have been significantly improved over the last few years, but AR experiences offered by today's systems are far from seamless and perceptually realistic. Mutually consistent occlusions between physical and digital objects are typically not supported. When mutual occlusion is supported, it is only supported for a fixed depth. We propose a new optical see-through AR display system that renders mutual occlusion in a depth-dependent, perceptually realistic manner. To this end, we introduce varifocal occlusion displays based on focus-tunable optics, which comprise a varifocal lens system and spatial light modulators that enable depth-corrected hard-edge occlusions for AR experiences. We derive formal optimization methods and closed-form solutions for driving this tunable lens system and demonstrate a monocular varifocal occlusion-capable optical see-through AR display capable of perceptually realistic occlusion across a large depth range.
Ammonia Oxidizers as Biological Health Indicators of Elevated Zn and Cu in Poultry Litter Amended Soil

Ammonia-oxidixing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) mediate the first and rate-limiting step of nitrification and are responsive to agricultural management practices. These two attributes make them ideal indicators of biological soil health. We conducted a laboratory incubation study to determine their response to elevated levels of zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in poultry litter treated soil at three substrate concentrations: 0 (low), 50 (medium) and 100 (high) mg ammonium ($$ {\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+} $$-N) kg−1 soil. Nitrification potential (NP) was measured to characterize changes in their function in which 1-octyne was used to separate their contributions. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to measure their abundance by targeting amoA. Increasing Zn from 21 to 250 mg kg−1 resulted in large reductions in AOB (78%) and AOA (85%) abundance at the high $$ {\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+} $$ level over 28 days. Likewise, increasing Cu from 20 to 120 mg kg−1 significantly reduced AOB (92%) and AOA (63%) abundance at the high $$ {\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+} $$ level over 28 days. The relative contribution of AOB to NP was significantly higher than that of AOA in both Zn (~60%) and Cu (~70%) treated soils despite the numerical dominance of AOA over AOB. Overall, results indicate that elevated levels of Zn and Cu depressed AOB and AOA abundance and function and that their effect was dependent on availability of $$ {\mathrm{NH}}_4^{+} $$. The results also indicated that AOB are functionally more important than AOA under elevated Zn and Cu concentrations and that management practices to improve N use efficiency should focus on AOB under this condition.
Novel Drug Treatments for Ewing Sarcoma

Ewing sarcoma is the second most common bone cancer seen in children and adolescents. Previous reports have demonstrated that the main driver of malignancy in this disease is an aberrant transcription factor that is expressed by gene fusions between the EWSR1 gene and an ETS family transcription factor such as FLI1 or ERG. Here we review recent preclinical and clinical advances in drug development for the treatment of Ewing sarcoma. We also discuss the rationale for promising combination therapies that have been considered in the interest of developing treatments for Ewing sarcoma. The main driver of malignancy in this disease is EWS-FLI1. There have been valiant efforts to develop targeted therapies targeting EWS-FLI1, epigenetic factors, factors that affect transcription and the repurposing of previously approved drugs has also been of interest. The underlying mechanisms of how EWS-FLI1 contributes to malignancy in Ewing sarcoma have been extensively studied. Through these observations, EWS-FLI1 targeting and inhibition of aberrant transcription of downstream targets has been proposed as a potential pharmacologic treatment. Improved understanding of how newly developed compounds affect this disease, keeping associated toxicities in mind have led to structure activity relationship studies that have demonstrated improved efficacy and toxicity when treating at the preclinical level. Although there have been many challenges translating these promising results in the clinic, there are further studies ongoing to improve these efforts.
Surging seas, rising fiscal stress: Exploring municipal fiscal vulnerability to climate change

Abstract Recent disasters and growing concerns about climate change have spurred calls for cities to retreat from and avoid developing in coastal areas. Instead, cities have doubled down on waterfront development. We ask why and with what implications, using the U.S. state of Massachusetts as a case study. By overlaying data on sea level rise, land use, and property taxes, we find a few coastal cities may lose significant levels of municipal revenues to long-term sea level rise, while others face negligible impacts. Coastal municipalities are cognizant of their risks yet continue to site redevelopment projects in flood-vulnerable areas to meet present-day budgetary needs. Moreover, they resist efforts to align property values and insurance premiums with climate risks, as reforms only hasten lost taxes. Left unchanged, existing land use and fiscal policies incentivize municipalities to make short-term decisions with accelerating climate risks over time. This creates new dynamics of fiscal stress that can increase regional inequality and vulnerability to climate change. The study highlights the need for dialogue among researchers and policymakers in the U.S. and internationally on the nexus between land use planning, government administration, and climate change as these tensions likely exist wherever local governments rely on land-based finance.
Holes in the Safety Net: Federalism and Poverty Chapter 5: State Tax Takeaways

While the aggregate tax system is mildly progressive, state and local tax systems are notably regressive. The lowest 95 percent of all income earners pay on average a higher percent of their income in state and local taxes than their share of aggregate income. By comparison, the top 5 percent of all income earners pay a lower percent of their income in state and local taxes than their aggregate share of household income. As a result, the lowest quartile of income earners pays a higher effective tax rate than the highest 1 percent of all income earners. The ratio of effective state and local tax rates for lowest income to highest income taxpayers is as high as 7 times in Wyoming, Washington and Florida. None of these states has an income tax so they rely heavily on regressive consumption tax revenues. For state and local governments this is a no-win race to the bottom because as income becomes increasingly concentrated among the wealthy, consumption and state and local tax revenues decrease. This chapter reviews the basic components of state and local tax systems focusing on their many regressive attributes and make suggestions on how states might improve them. American has fifty state tax laboratories plus the District of Columbia that offer a myriad of dynamic time-tested tax structures. Nearly every state currently taxes lower-income families at a higher effective tax rate than higher income families. On average, the lowest income families are paying state and local taxes at an effective rate that is twice as high as the rate that the top 1 percent of income households enjoy. “Identifying state tax trends serves a dual purpose: first, as a leading indicator providing a sense of what we can expect in the coming months and years, and second, as a set of case studies, placing ideas into greater circulation and allowing empirical consideration of what has and has not worked.” As state and local governments continue to confront tax reform in these resource challenging times this chapter serves as a guide for front line progressive tax innovations, justice, and equity for all.
Dodecagonal quasicrystals of oil-swollen ionic surfactant micelles

A delicate balance of noncovalent interactions directs the hierarchical self-assembly of molecular amphiphiles into spherical micelles that pack into three-dimensional periodic arrays, which mimic intermetallic crystals. Herein, we report the discovery that adding water to a mixture of an ionic surfactant and n-decane induces aperiodic ordering of oil-swollen spherical micelles into previously unrecognized, aqueous lyotropic dodecagonal quasicrystals (DDQCs), which exhibit local 12-fold rotational symmetry and no long-range translational order. The emergence of these DDQCs at the nexus of dynamically arrested micellar glasses and a periodic Frank-Kasper (FK) σ phase approximant sensitively depends on the mixing order of molecular constituents in the assembly process and on sample thermal history. Addition of n-decane to mixtures of surfactant and water instead leads only to periodic FK A15 and σ approximants with no evidence for aperiodic order, while extended ambient temperature annealing of the DDQC also reveals its transformation into a σ phase. Thus, these lyotropic DDQCs are long-lived metastable morphologies, which nucleate and grow from a stochastic distribution of micelle sizes formed by abrupt segregation of varied amounts of oil into surfactant micelles on hydration. These findings indicate that molecular building block complexity is not a prerequisite for the formation of aperiodic supramolecular order, while also establishing the generic nature of quasicrystalline states across metal alloys and self-assembled micellar materials.
From Infrastructure to Social Appropriation of Public Access Computing: an Assessment of ICT Policy in Colombia.

This paper presents an overview of the national policies related to public access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in Colombia. Public access to ICT, through venues such as libraries, telecenters and cybercafes, can be a powerful driver to bridge the digital divide and to contribute to social and political equality and change. While the country was one of the region’s pioneers in regard to ICT policy, and has exhibited an unusual degree of public consultation, citizens’ participation, and emphasis on social issues beyond basic infrastructure and connectivity, many challenges remain to ensure equitable access and effective social appropriation of ICT to contribute to human development in the country. The government’s interest in public access to ICT, as exhibited by the Compartel and other telecenter initiatives, is unique in the Americas, and it complements the telecenter initiatives sponsored by non-profit and other social organizations; furthermore, public libraries are playing an increasingly strong role in offering public access to ICT, bolstered by the recently passed Libraries Act of 2010. By bringing together the trajectory and contributions of government policies and social organizations in the country, this paper presents a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the public policy environment in Colombia, and how it is enabling (or hindering) the use of ICT for human development and social change.