cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
6.2: Presentation session: Keynote speaker and brain injuries and neuro-regeneration panel: “Getting AHEAD in HEAD Injuries”

Getting AHEAD IN HEAD Injuries — Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is becoming an increasingly frequent and complex part of our civilian and military populations. All aspects of care from pre-hospital to rehabilitation must be looked at to improve outcome. Earlier diagnosis with more specific treatment is essential for optimum recovery. I will review diagnosis and treatment TBI as it is practiced today at a Level 1 Trauma center. I will also review some of the exciting technologies that are being developed for both invasive and noninvasive monitoring of TBI. These technologies also have significant barriers that must be overcome before clinical application and we will discuss how we can work together to remove these barriers.
Examining a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game as a Digital Game-Based Learning Platform.

A concurrent triangulation mixed-method research design was used to investigate 19 casual gamers’ or non-gamers’ use of a popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Everquest 2, as an alternative pedagogical tool to support communicative use of the English language. This study poses that MMORPGs could serve as a virtually rich context for social interactions to aid development of communicative competence. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, surveys, and through gameplay observations in Taiwan and the United States. Analysis of interview recordings, survey data, and observational data focuses on how player-generated perceptions align with Yee's (2006) motivation components and Ryan and Deci's (2000) theoretical assumptions of self-determination theory. Results from quantitative data analysis showed that both male and female participants in this study prioritized the importance of relatedness in playing Everquest 2 to practice using English for communicative purposes. Qu...
A compact SPDT RF MEMS switch with high contact force

This paper presents the design, fabrication and measurements on a new metal-contact RF MEMS single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch with low sensitivity to stress gradients. The switch is based on a circular geometry with arc type springs, and results in high contact force, fast switching time, and excellent microwave performance to ≫ 30 GHz. To our knowledge, this is the smallest high-performance SPDT switches to-date (0.04 mm2).
Coagmento : A System for Supporting Collaborative Information Seeking

In this demo we introduce Coagmento , a tool for supporting interactive information seeking process of teams in various collaborative scenarios. Coagmento has been used in several laboratory and field studies to understand issues related to collaborative information seeking (CIS) and deriving lessons and guidelines for providing suita ble support for people working in collaboration for information-intensive projects. From its initial de sign, Coagmento has evolved through the introduction of new features and the support for both web-based as well as mobile systems. Using appropriate research methodologies, Coagmento has proven to be a useful tool for collecting behavioral data of users enabling researchers to be tter understand different dimensions of the collaborativ e process of teams as well as single users while sear ching information online.
Strategic IT Investments: The Impact of Switching Cost and Declining IT Cost

The declining cost of information technology (IT) over time provides the later entrant in information-intensive industries a cost advantage. On the other hand, the earlier entrant has the potential to build and retain its market share if consumers incur a cost in switching to the later entrant. We investigate the impact of a decline in the IT cost and the switching cost on IT investment strategies of firms. We find that a declining IT cost always hurts the early entrant's profit. The early entrant may assume an aggressive investment strategy or a defensive investment strategy in response to a decline in the IT cost, depending on whether the switching cost relative to the extent of decline in the IT cost is high or low, respectively. A decline in IT cost also hurts the later entrant's profit if the switching cost is high. A surprising result is that when the decline in the IT cost is higher than a critical value, a higher switching cost increases consumer surplus. When firms control the switching cost, the early entrant increases its investment in quality and switching cost and maintains its quality and its market-share leadership irrespective of the extent of decline in the IT cost.
Security enhancement in InfiniBand architecture

The InfiniBand/spl trade/ architecture (IBA) is a new promising I/O communication standard positioned for building clusters and system area networks (SANs). However, the IBA specification has left out security resulting in potential security vulnerabilities, which could be exploited with moderate effort. In this paper, we view these vulnerabilities from three classical security aspects: availability, confidentiality, and authentication. For better availability of IBA, we recommend that a switch be able to enforce partitioning for data packets for which we propose an efficient implementation method using trap messages. For confidentiality, we encrypt only secret keys to minimize performance degradation. The most serious vulnerability in IBA is authentication since IBA authenticates packets solely by checking the existence of plaintext keys in the packet. In this paper, we propose a new authentication mechanism that treats the invariant CRC (ICRC) field as an authentication tag, which is compatible with current IBA specification. When analyzing the performance of our authentication approach along with other authentication algorithms, we observe that our approach dramatically enhances IBA's authentication capability without hampering IBA performance benefit. Furthermore, simulation results indicate that our methods enhance security in IBA with marginal performance overhead.
144: Receptor occupancy and internalization of an anti-IL-7 receptor antibody

In vitro (or ex vivo) quantification of cellular parameters is often employed to inform systems models that define the relationship between drug exposure and response. We developed two flow cytometry based assays to evaluate the interaction between the IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) and an anti-IL-7R monoclonal antibody (Ab1). IL-7R occupancy and rate of internalization in the presence of Ab1 was determined using flow cytometry in monkeys and human whole blood. Two commercially available antibodies were used to detect IL-7R. One detected “free” and the other determined “total” receptor. Receptor internalization was measured ex vivo at various time points at 37 °C. The receptor occupancy assay was used in vivo following administration of Ab1 into cynomolgus monkeys at 0.3, 3, and 30 mg/kg. The amount of Ab1 bound to receptor and the total amount of receptor was quantified. The ex vivo receptor occupancy mean IC50 values in monkey and human whole blood were 5.64 ± 2.38 and 9.39 ± 1.54 ng/ml, respectively. The ex vivo rate of internalization of Ab1-IL-7R complex was characterized by a slope of 384 ± 24 and 2482 ± 319, for monkey and human, respectively. In the in vivo monkey study, no free IL-7R was detectable on the CD3 T cell surface at 0.25 h post-dose in all treatment groups. Free receptor levels returned to 78% on day 8 at 0.3 mg/kg, 55% on day 15 at 3 mg/kg, and 12% on day 15 at 30 mg/kg, compared to pre-dose levels. By Day 22, free IL-7R levels in all dose groups returned to their baseline. Ab1 treatment resulted in a significant reduction in total IL-7R. Effective biomeasures provide a link between species and the ex vivo and in vivo systems. Integration of these values into systems models reduces the number of model assumptions and increases the likelihood of success.
APPLICATION OF A CAPTURE-RECAPTURE METHOD (THE BERNOULLI CENSUS) TO HISTORICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY

Obstacles to historical epidemiologic research are formidable, especially for periods prior to the 19th century. Linguistic and paleographic difficulties are compounded by haphazard contemporary documentation and subsequent archival wastage, making real variations in disease frequency difficult to distinguish from record loss. This report investigates the application of a capture-recapture model, adapted from work on mobile animal populations, to this problem or archival loss. With the use of this technique, the original size of a psychiatric case population is estimated from incomplete extant enumerations. The cases are derived fron the Court of Wards and Liveries (1540-1660), the first statutory institution in England responsible for protecting persons legally incompetent due to mental disability. Documentation on this population survives in at least 10 record collections, the most extensive containing at best 82% of all original cases, the least extensive, 1%. Calculations based on extant files indicate a fourfold increase in the incidence of mental disability certifications between 1540-1549 and 1630-1639. The results of applying the Bernoulli census method to these materials eliminate biased archival loss as a plausible explanation for this rise. The origin of these changes in altered court policy or procedure, population growth, or increasing rates of mental disability awaits further investigation. While the Bernoulli census computations with historical data are mathematically equivalent ot those employed in recent epidemiologic applications, this specific data set prompts a conceptual revision of the Bernoulli model from capture to loss of random samples.
Effects of Conditional Heteroskedasticity on Estimates of Risk Aversion Coefficients

The consumption data exhibits conditional heteroskedasticity similar to those exhibited by stock market returns. I model the comovement of the time series of aggregate consumption and stock market return data using a Multivariate GARCH-in-mean framework. Using the time series of the variances and covariances I obtain, I estimate the risk aversion parameter in the context a conditional loglinearized version of the stochastic Euler equation. I find that time varying consumption volatility is important in statistically describing the time variation of excess returns.
The Algebra of Reflexive Relations

(1971). The Algebra of Reflexive Relations. Mathematics Magazine: Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 70-77.
Ammoniuretic Activity of Dog Plasma When Tested on the Urinary Bladder of Bufo marinus

AbstractHemibladders from the toad Bufo marinus were used in all experiments. A protein free preparation of plasma was made from dogs in metabolic acidosis, respiratory acidosis, and metabolic alkalosis. These plasma preparations were tested for ammoniuretic activity by placing them on the serosal side of the urinary hemibladders of Bufo marinus mounted in vitro. Both acidotic plasma preparations caused increased ammonia excretion into the mucosal media as compared to control hemibladders. Metabolic alkalotic plasma preparations did not produce significant ammoniuretic activity. Using paired hemibladders, the effect of metabolic acidotic plasma preparations showed increased ammoniuretic activity when compared to metabolic alkalotic plasma preparations (P < 0.05).
Evaluation on South China indica rice varieties resistant to rice bacterial leaf blight

The resistance of 28 rice varieties(combinations) selected from South China were identified with 10 isolates of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. obtained at home and abroad. Three varieties Baguizao, Baguixiang and Peizashanqing were of the widest spectrum resistance to 60% of the tested isolates. The spectrum resistance of the 13 varieties was under 30% and the percentage was 57%. Among them, Teyou63 and Guangyou No.4 were susceptible to all tested isolates. Indica rice varieties(combinations) showed good resistance to Philippine isolate P1 and China isolate Zhe173, but showed low resistant frequency to P2, P3 and were susceptible to P6 and 1358. It suggested that the resistant resources to P2, P3, P6 and 1358 etc. should be applied in resistant breeding.
Network-Managed Virtual Global Address Space for Message-driven Runtimes

Maintaining a scalable high-performance virtual global address space using distributed memory hardware has proven to be challenging. In this paper we evaluate a new approach for such an active global address space that leverages the capabilities of the network fabric to manage addressing, rather than software at the endpoint hosts. We describe our overall approach, design alternatives, and present initial experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness and limitations of existing network hardware.
An edible education in sustainable development : investigating chocolate manufacturing in a laboratory-based undergraduate engineering course

Green engineering, sustainability, and sustainable development are topics of great import to all engineering disciplines. To introduce students to these topics, hands-on experiments were developed for inclusion within a multi-disciplinary freshman engineering course. In these experiments, students learned to produce chocolate truffles and, ultimately, challenged to analyze and optimize the sustainability of the process with a cradle-to-gate and social life cycle assessments. Student analyses incorporated waste management strategies, overall energy and material consumption calculations, carbon reduction strategies, the use of engineering software, and the importance of fair trade in this industry. Eighty-nine freshman engineering students at Rowan University completed the experiments. Pre- and post-tests were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the course on increasing student knowledge of sustainability, of sustainable development, and of the impact engineers can have on socioeconomics. Preliminary results indicate that the course was effective in enhancing student knowledge and awareness of the social and environmental implications of chocolate manufacturing. A complete analysis and description are presented in this paper.
Field-based crop phenotyping

High-resolution multispectral aerial imaging was used to estimate winter wheat growth parameters.Visual ratings of emergence and spring stand were compared with data extracted from aerial images.A high correlation (r=0.86) between the ground-truth and aerial image data was observed.UAV-based sensing can be an alternative to standard methods for rapid field-based crop phenotyping. The physical growing environment of winter wheat can critically be affected by micro-climatic and seasonal changes in a given agroclimatic zone. Therefore, winter wheat breeding efforts across the globe focus heavily on emergence and winter survival, as these traits must first be accomplished before yield potential can be evaluated. In this study, multispectral imaging using unmanned aerial vehicle was investigated for evaluation of seedling emergence and spring stand (an estimate of winter survival) of three winter wheat market classes in Washington State. The studied market classes were soft white club, hard red, and soft white winter wheat varieties. Strong correlation between the ground-truth and aerial image-based emergence (Pearson correlation coefficient, r=0.87) and spring stand (r=0.86) estimates was established. Overall, aerial sensing technique can be a useful tool to evaluate emergence and spring stand phenotypic traits. Also, the image database can serve as a virtual record during winter wheat variety development and may be used to evaluate the variety performance over the study years.
Persistent Cytomegalovirus Infection in Amniotic Membranes of the Human Placenta.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the leading viral cause of birth defects, including microcephaly, neurological deficits, hearing impairment, and vision loss. We previously reported that epithelial cells in amniotic membranes of placentas from newborns with intrauterine growth restriction and underlying congenital HCMV infection contain viral proteins in cytoplasmic vesicles. Herein, we immunostained amniotic membranes from 51 placentas from symptomatic and asymptomatic congenital infection with HCMV DNA in amniotic fluid and/or newborn saliva, intrauterine growth restriction, preterm deliveries, and controls. We consistently observed HCMV proteins in amniotic epithelial cells (AmEpCs) from infected placentas, sometimes with aberrant morphology. Primary AmEpCs isolated from mid-gestation placentas infected with pathogenic VR1814 proliferated and released infectious progeny for weeks, producing higher virus titers than late-gestation cells that varied by donor. In contrast to intact virion assembly compartments in differentiated retinal pigment epithelial cells, infected AmEpCs made dispersed multivesicular bodies. Primary AmEpCs and explants of amniochorionic membranes from mid-gestation placentas formed foci of infection, and interferon-β production was prolonged. Infected AmEpCs up-regulated anti-apoptotic proteins survivin and Bcl-x L by mechanisms dependent and independent of the activated STAT3. Amniotic membranes naturally expressed both survivin and Bcl-x L , indicating that fetal membranes could foster persistent viral infection. Our results suggest strengthening innate immune responses and reducing viral functions could suppress HCMV infection in the fetal compartment.
The GATOR1 Complex Regulates Metabolic Homeostasis and the Response to Nutrient Stress in Drosophila melanogaster

TORC1 regulates metabolism and growth in response to a large array of upstream inputs. The evolutionarily conserved trimeric GATOR1 complex inhibits TORC1 activity in response to amino acid limitation. In humans, the GATOR1 complex has been implicated in a wide array of pathologies including cancer and hereditary forms of epilepsy. However, the precise role of GATOR1 in animal physiology remains largely undefined. Here, we characterize null mutants of the GATOR1 components nprl2, nprl3, and iml1 in Drosophila melanogaster We demonstrate that all three mutants have inappropriately high baseline levels of TORC1 activity and decreased adult viability. Consistent with increased TORC1 activity, GATOR1 mutants exhibit a cell autonomous increase in cell growth. Notably, escaper nprl2 and nprl3 mutant adults have a profound locomotion defect. In line with a nonautonomous role in the regulation of systemic metabolism, expressing the Nprl3 protein in the fat body, a nutrient storage organ, and hemocytes but not muscles and neurons rescues the motility of nprl3 mutants. Finally, we show that nprl2 and nprl3 mutants fail to activate autophagy in response to amino acid limitation and are extremely sensitive to both amino acid and complete starvation. Thus, in Drosophila, in addition to maintaining baseline levels of TORC1 activity, the GATOR1 complex has retained a critical role in the response to nutrient stress. In summary, the TORC1 inhibitor GATOR1 contributes to multiple aspects of the development and physiology of Drosophila.
Image and Text in Newar Buddhist Ritual Manuals

AbstractThis article addresses the relationships between text and image in a group of Newar Buddhist manuscripts from Nepal. While these manuscripts all describe essentially the same ritual, a version of the ubiquitous Vajradhātu maṇḍala, they do so in widely varying ways, serving more as practitioners’ notes than as a meticulously copied sacred text. In this context, words and drawings are employed complementarily to communicate both visual and ritual information, neither complete in itself. While one might expect the images to be straightforward illustrations of visual aspects of the texts, some images perform ritual functions entirely outside the text, while some textual passages convey far more specific and useful visual information than the associated illustrations. Furthermore, both text and image have complex relationships with the meditative visualizations and ritual practices ostensibly performed via the manuscripts. In the end, the illustrations perform multiple functions, including the protecti...
Terrestrial glint seen from deep space: Oriented ice crystals detected from the Lagrangian point

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft resides at the first Lagrangian point about one million miles from Earth. A polychromatic imaging camera onboard delivers nearly hourly observations of the entire sunlit face of the Earth. Many images contain unexpected bright flashes of light over both ocean and land. We construct a yearlong time series of flash latitudes, scattering angles, and oxygen absorption to demonstrate conclusively that the flashes over land are specular reflections off tiny ice platelets floating in the air nearly horizontally. Such deep space detection of tropospheric ice can be used to constrain the likelihood of oriented crystals and their contribution to Earth albedo. These glint observations also support proposals for detecting starlight glints off faint companions in our search for habitable exoplanets.
Case Report: Irreducible Ankle Fracture With Posterior Tibialis Tendon and Retinaculum, Deltoid Ligament, and Anteromedial Joint Capsule Entrapment

Irreducible ankle fractures are a relatively rare phenomenon. We present a case of a pronation abduction-type ankle fracture that was irreducible in the emergency room despite sedation. The patient was taken to the operating room, where the posterior tibialis tendon and retinaculum, deltoid ligament, and anteromedial capsule were found to be trapped within the joint. After removal of the tissue, alignment was restored. The patient did well clinically and was advanced to full weightbearing at 6 weeks. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of entrapment of all 4 anatomic structures, preventing closed reduction.
Being Present versus Having a Presence: Dimensions of Belonging for young People with Disabilities and their Families

Faith communities aspire to be places of healing, hope, and healthy relationships that bring life to every member. For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their f...
Self-Identification as a Pornography Addict: Examining the Roles of Pornography Use, Religiousness, and Moral Incongruence.

At present, the scientific community has not reached a consensus regarding whether or not people may be become addicted to or compulsive in use of pornography. Even so, a substantial number of peop...
Equal channel angular extrusion for bulk processing of Fe–Co–2V soft magnetic alloys, part I: Processing and mechanical properties

The soft magnetic alloy Fe–Co–2V, also known as Permendur-2V or Hiperco® 50A, was subjected to equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) at 750–850 °C using two processing routes. Hiperco is a trade name of Carpenter Technology Corporation. ECAE, which is a severe plastic deformation process, refined the grain size to about 1.5–3 µm, compared to 25–70 µm for the conventional Hiperco® bar. The fine-grain microstructure is homogenous throughout the ECAE material, from center to edge, due to the simple-shear ECAE process. Fine-grained Hiperco® has previously only been obtainable in the sheet form. ECAE resulted in yield and tensile strengths of 650–700 MPa and 900–1400 MPa, respectively, representing a 2–3-fold strength increase compared to the conventional bar. The yield strength was demonstrated to fit well to the Hall–Petch relationship established using previous reports on the strength of conventional bar and sheet materials. High ductility, up to 18%, was obtained in the ECAE processed billets and attributed primarily to the partially disordered bcc crystal structure upon quenching from ECAE.
Cellular Makeup of the Brain

Without going into detailed and complicated anatomy of the central nervous system and the various characteristics of specialized cells that make up different areas of the brain, one can broadly categorize the cellular makeup of the central nervous system.
Saturation and Stark-Splitting of Resonant Transitions in Stochastically Fluctuating Laser Fields of Arbitrary Bandwidth

The interaction of strong electromagnetic radiation with matter usually leads to nonlinear processes [1–23]. In fact, the presence of such nonlinearities may usefully be taken as the definition of “strong” radiation, at least in the sense the term is used in this paper. Examples are: Multi-photon excitation or ionization, harmonic generation or wave mixing, as well as the saturation of a bound-bound transition, even if a single-photon transition, as it is the saturation that introduces the non-linearity. A process that depends on the field non-linearly cannot be described in terms of the average intensity and spectrum of the radiation (first order correlation function) because in general higher order correlation functions are also involved [24]. The electron responds to more than just the total radiation; it “sees” the fluctuations of the field.
A Narrative Analysis Examining Influential Factors of a Minority Research and Training Program

The implementation of minority research and training programs at the postsecondary level has risen to close the educational achievement gap and generate a highly skilled and diverse science workfor...
Review: perspectives on renal and visceral protection during thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair

Open repair of a thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) is an extensive operation and associated with significant perioperative morbidities and mortality, in large part due to distal aortic ischemia secondary to aortic cross-clamping that is necessitated during repair. Distal aortic ischemia may manifest as complications of the kidneys and viscera. Postoperative renal complications range from temporarily elevated levels of creatinine resulting from impaired kidney function to acute renal failure necessitating dialysis that may persist after hospital discharge. Continued advances in the management and adjuncts associated with TAAA repair since the groundbreaking era of E.S. Crawford have led to improved postoperative outcomes following surgery, but the dramatic improvements seen in reducing rates of spinal cord deficits, mesenteric ischemia and other serious postoperative complications have not been seen in contemporary rates of postoperative renal failure. We provide an overview of the various surgical techniques and adjuncts as they relate to the management of visceral and renal ischemia.
Father-School Communication in Preschool and Kindergarten

This article describes the frequency, characteristics, and predictors of father-school communication in preschool and kindergarten in a sample of children “at risk” for school failure based on fami...
A New BOS: Burnout Syndrome in Lung Transplant Physicians

Purpose Burnout is common in all types of physicians, but little is known about burnout in lung transplant physicians. The purpose of this study was to explore burnout and its relationship to job factors and depression in lung transplant physicians. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study in September 2019 of lung transplant pulmonologists and surgeons worldwide. The survey included demographic and job characteristics, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), a screening tool for depression. The MBI included assessment of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA). Results Ninety lung transplantation pulmonologists and surgeons completed the survey. Physicians completing the survey were predominantly male (80%), pulmonologists (84.4%), and from the United States (73.3%). High emotional exhaustion is present in 42.2% of physicians, while high depersonalization was present in 15.6% and low personal accomplishment in 21.1%. Depression was present in 15.6% of responders. There was significant association between emotional exhaustion score and total score on the PHQ-2 (ρ=0.72, p Conclusion Emotional exhaustion is common in lung transplant physicians and is associated with depression and a negative impact on life. More experienced transplant physicians have higher emotional exhaustion than less experienced physicians. More information is needed to determine if certain characteristics such as resilience allow retention in the field of lung transplantation despite high burnout levels.
A concavity property of generalized complete elliptic integrals

We prove that, for p∈(1,∞) and β∈R, the function x↦β−log⁡1−xpKp(xp) is strictly concave on (0,1) if and only if β≥λ(p):=2p(p2−2p+2)(p−1)(2p2−3p+3), where Kp represents the generalized complete p-el...
Deep learning and automated Cell Painting reveal Parkinson’s disease-specific signatures in primary patient fibroblasts

Drug discovery for Parkinson’s disease (PD) is impeded by the lack of screenable phenotypes in scalable cell models. Here we present a novel unbiased phenotypic profiling platform that combines automation, Cell Painting, and deep learning. We applied this platform to primary fibroblasts from 91 PD patients and carefully matched healthy controls, generating the largest publicly available Cell Painting dataset to date. Using fixed weights from a convolutional deep neural network trained on ImageNet, we generated unbiased deep embeddings from each image, and applied these to train machine learning models to detect morphological disease phenotypes. Interestingly, our models captured individual variation by identifying specific cell lines within the cohort with high fidelity, even across different batches and plate layouts, demonstrating platform robustness and sensitivity. Importantly, our models were able to confidently separate LRRK2 and sporadic PD lines from healthy controls (ROC AUC 0.79 (0.08 standard deviation (SD))) supporting the capacity of this platform for PD modeling and drug screening applications.
Bitcoin Digital Currency and the Block Chain Technology: More Than Flash in the Pan – Say Good-Bye to Fiat Money?

The term "Bitcoin" conjures up a variety of associations, such as gamers in dark basements, technology enthusiasts in the San Francisco Bay Area, and deceitful, yet highly persuasive "businessmen" involved in Ponzi schemes. Although there is a sense of skepticism surrounding this novel technology, Bitcoin has overcome many negative stereotypes to revolutionize the monetary system. Big names like the New York Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs have recognized and praised the technology, and an increasing number of businesses like Tesla and Overstock.com are accepting bitcoin. Influential players internationally are endorsing Bitcoin, which validates the notion that Bitcoin—or at least the technology behind it—is not going away any time soon. Unlike the U.S. dollar and most other forms of legal tender, Bitcoin is a decentralized entity that removes the middleman from the equation. Instead of being a part of a system that is often tarnished by greed and human manipulation, Bitcoin is governed by mathematics and encryption processes. Admittedly, there are several issues with Bitcoin, such as its vulnerability to theft and fraud; however, there are many advantages to this currency. A more modern and possibly securer method of payment, Bitcoin is quicker and more economic than the archaic Visa and MasterCard, which were founded in the 1950s and 1960s, respectively, and haven't been updated since. While Bitcoin will not supplant the U.S. dollar due to an assortment of challenges, Bitcoin holds promise for the future of finance and consumerism. The Bitcoin technology of a block chain has already mobilized many financial institutions to embrace the emerging technology by piloting Bitcoin projects. It is not unrealistic to assume that there is a high potential for a system similar to Bitcoin to replace traditional fiat currency.
In situ crystallization and magnetic measurement of hexaferrite glass-ceramics

Glass-ceramic (GC) materials have the formability advantages of glasses and the opportunity for controlled crystallization of functional ceramic phases. Here, we obtain GCs containing the hard magnetic phase Sr-hexaferrite (SrFe12O19) from a borate glass. Ten compositions in the B2O3-Fe2O3-SrO system were explored, varying B2O3 and Sr/Fe ratio. Compositions forming glass on quenching, according to X-ray diffraction (XRD), were subsequently heat treated to promote crystallization. Three selected compositions were investigated with vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), thermal analysis, and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). Phases identified by XRD after air heat treatment included α-Fe2O3, Fe3O4, SrB2O4, and SrFe12O19. Glasses were also crystallized in situ in a VSM in an argon environment, measuring magnetic properties during heating to 650°C after in situ heat treatment at 800°C. In samples with SrFe12O19, wasp-waisted loops were observed. First order reversal curve (FORC) measurements confirmed low (magnetite) and high (Sr-hexaferrite) coercivity phases. Room temperature VSM measurements of argon in situ treated samples were compared with two ex situ air heat treated protocols. The microstructures of the three investigated air heat treated GC materials were completely different, and compositional position on the phase diagram appeared to influence crystallization progress. These results suggest that careful control of composition as well as heat treatment protocol including atmosphere is necessary for crystallization of desired magnetic phases. Also, VSM was confirmed to be sensitive to magnetic phases at low concentrations not visible to XRD.
Clustering Application for Data-Driven Prediction of Health Insurance Premiums for People of Different Ages

A health insurance premium is a monthly fee that is paid in a health plan to typically pay for medical, surgical, prescription drug and sometimes dental expenses incurred by the insured. Since 2010, the affordable care act has prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions and has allowed children to remain on their parents' insurance plans until they reached the age of 26. Creating the policy is a really important and challenging task. In order to determine health insurance premium quotes, there are several factors that have to be taken into consideration when defining a premium, such as pre-existing diseases, age, gender, family medical history, lifestyle, etc. In this paper, a combination of the K-means algorithm and the Elbow method is developed to accurately group people in an optimal number of clusters based on similarity. Based on this evaluation, the health insurance premium quote via the provided factors to predict the range of the health insurance premium quote for each group of people.
You Can’t Measure That…Can You? How a Catholic Seminary Approaches the Question of Measuring Growth in Human and Spiritual Formation:

The question of measuring growth in human and spiritual formation in Catholic seminaries has a history. In this article, we walk through three recent stages of that history to illuminate the potent...
Quantum Control of High-Order Harmonic Generation

We discuss the physical processes involved in the generation and optimization of extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray light though the process of high-order harmonic generation. We show that by manipulating the sub-optical-cycle attosecond dynamics of this process using optimized waveguide structures and pulse shapes, we can control the energy of the emitted photons, the phase matching of the conversion process, and the spatial and temporal coherence of the light. High-order harmonic generation is a useful source of short wavelength light with ultrashort time duration. Thus, optimization and manipulation of high-order harmonic generation demonstrates control of electron dynamics on attosecond time scales.
Esterase Activities of Human Carbonic Anhydrases B and C

Abstract Both human carbonic anhydrases B and C act as esterases on o- and p-nitrophenyl acetates. Enzyme C is the more active of the two for the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl acetate, and enzyme B for o-nitrophenyl acetate. The pH-activity curves are sigmoid, the esterase activity being very small below pH 6 and rising to a high level around pH 9; the inflection point lies at pH 7.3 for Enzyme B and at 6.8 for Enzyme C. The Km values are nearly independent of pH in all cases; thus the pH dependence curves appear to reflect the catalytic center activity. The reactions follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics over the range of substrate concentrations studied, but this range is limited to values less than the Km values, because of the limited solubility of the esters. Measurements in a stop-flow apparatus, at times from 10 msec to 2 sec, gave the same kinetic constants as those measured under steady state conditions. There was no evidence of an initial "burst" of release of nitrophenol. When the reactions were studied under the condition (E0) ≅ (S0) << Km, the process followed first order kinetics until hydrolysis was nearly complete. The data thus gave no evidence for the presence of an acyl intermediate; if such an intermediate exists it must be very rapidly hydrolyzed. Both enzymes are inhibited by monovalent anions, by acetazolamide, and by alcohols. Anion inhibition decreases with increasing pH, and so does the acetazolamide inhibition. The alcohol inhibition is not affected by pH. Enzyme B is somewhat more strongly inhibited by anions, but Enzyme C is much more strongly inhibited by alcohols and by acetazolamide. Only one site seems to be involved in the inhibition by either type of inhibitor. Competition for one site has been demonstrated between the anions and the alcohols. The inhibitions are reversible, and noncompetitive with respect to substrate. Since anion inhibition follows the lyotropic series, the binding site is believed not to be the zinc ion. Binding of anions by Enzyme B, and by zinc-free apoenzyme, has been demonstrated by an increase in pH of an isoionic solution caused by the addition of neutral salts. At low salt concentrations solutions of the apoenzyme show a lower change in pH than these of the holoenzyme, but at higher salt concentrations the values are very similar. Thus in 0.1 m KCl both the enzyme and apoenzyme bind approximately 6 chloride ions.
Winning the Job Placement Competition: Industry’s Message and Academia’s Response

Hospitality undergraduates enter today’s workforce plagued by the fear of procuring a job in their chosen hospitality career. Hospitality management graduates’ unemployment rate hovers around an estimated 6.0%. A multitude of studies have been done to examine and explore attractive knowledge, skills, and abilities and attributes needed from quality graduates, but a paucity of studies have been used to understand marketing and presenting tactics for future hospitality graduates. This study seeks to explore strategies and actions that are currently being utilized or that could be designed and implemented to improve hospitality students’ position in their competitive job market. When these favorable strategies and/or gaps are identified, attempts can be made to execute them in future academic programs, which can ultimately enhance hospitality management students’ job placement success. Academic programs can use this information to combat teaching issues that challenge the process of educating 21st-century mi...
Caught in the Middle? Worker Identity under New Participatory Roles

This paper assesses four theories of the determinants of work identities of workplace participants. Data come from a case study of the General Motors team concept assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. The findings indicate that Marxist theories of workplace control overestimate the extent to which management influences the identity of workplace participants. Some support was found for the Weberian perspective that work identity is determined by patterns of occupational mobility, yet strongest support was found for the Durkheimian focus on workplace norms. Implications are drawn regarding the meaning of employment in late modernity.
International Evidence on the Value of Product and Geographic Diversity

The author examines the effect of product and geographic diversification on firm value for a sample of 1,914 corporations in 18 countries. His results indicate that both product and geographic diversification destroy value at high levels of diversification, suggesting that agency and influence costs arising from the increased complexity outweigh the benefits of diversification at high levels. Geographic diversification is valuable at low levels, however. The author finds that insider ownership is associated with less diversification, across both product and geographic segments, suggesting that insiders view corporate diversification as value destroying.
Using an Interactive Website To Educate about Cultural Diversity and Societal Oppression.

This article discusses challenges that educators face in attempting to develop culturally competent social workers who understand the dynamics of oppression and embrace a commitment to promoting social justice. An educational model is described, focusing on the use of an interactive Web forum aimed at providing a safe vehicle for student dialogue. Usage patterns of the website are summarized and data from student evaluations are analyzed. The authors provide recommendations based on evaluating the use of computer technology to meet the challenges inherent in teaching and learning processes related to combining cultural diversity and societal oppression content.
Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education.

In recent years, advances in the study of temperament have identified a short list of temperament dimensions. These include positive emotionality/approach, fear, irritability/ frustration, attentional persistence and activity level. In this article, we review research on the first four of these dimensions, briefly linking them to underlying biological systems. We then apply our knowledge of temperament to teachers' approaches to children's mastery motivation, fear of novelty, and ego based anxiety. We argue that educators' training should include a basic understanding of the development of temperament as well as methods for assessing individual differences in children's emotional reactivity and attentional self- regulation. Recent increases in our understanding of temperament have created new ways for ap- proaching the education of the child. These approaches allow us to appreciate the ways in which children differ from another, and the positive contributions of this variability to the classroom and society. In this article, we begin with some introductory remarks on temperament and schooling. We then review results of studies identifying basic dimensions of temperament that can affect children's exploration, discovery, and learning as well as their discouragement, anger, and avoidance of potential sources of knowledge. We describe the structure of temperament as it has emerged from research during the past two decades, briefly linking this structure to theories of underlying biological systems. The structure of temperament that has emerged includes indivi- dual tendencies toward fear, angedfrustration, positive affect and approach, activity level, and effortful or executive attention. These emotional, energetic, and attentional systems have been conserved in evolution and are associated in theories of temperament with underlying neural networks and neurotransmitter activity. We consider implications of individual variability in these tendencies for the child's experiences in school. We discuss ways in which mastery motivation may be related to children's fear and avoidant tendencies, approach, and effortful control of emotion and action. Finally, we review implications of a temperamental understanding of children for the training of educators and the assessment of children. Temperament and Schooling
“For the liberty of the nine boys in Scottsboro and against Yankee imperialist domination in Latin America”: Cuba’s Scottsboro defense campaign

In the spring of 1931, death sentences imposed on nine young African Americans arrested on trumped-up rape charges in Scottsboro, Alabama, ignited a worldwide wave of protest. This article explores Cuba’s Scottsboro defense campaign and argues that Scottsboro protests were a means of criticizing rising anti-black racism on the island from within the narrow confines of permissible racial dialogue in Cuban society. Additionally, it contends that the communist-led defense campaign became a vehicle for a broad range of actors to condemn imperialism and participate in a wider pan-American surge in oppositional politics. Ultimately, popular outrage over the convictions and sentences boosted the communist party’s appeal in Cuba during a time of heightened restiveness on the island and cemented the ideological link between anti-racism and anti-imperialism for future generations of radical activists.
Accountable Care Organizations: A New New Thing with Some Old Problems

When pressed for evidence that the proposed health reform legislation will control costs, proponents invariably cite the numerous pilot programs and other innovations in Medicare payment policy contained in the bill. At first blush, the ACO model seems well designed to foster competition among providers. Not unlike health maintenance organizations and other integrated delivery forms, ACOs assume responsibility for coordinating care and thus have strong incentives to provide cost effective care and to do so in a manner that is transparent and hospitable to comparative shoppers. But at the same time, the path of ACO development could prove profoundly anti-competitive. The concern lies with the possible exacerbation of already-weak competitive conditions prevailing in provider markets. This essay, written at as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted, discusses competition policy issues associated with the Shared Savings Program.
Effects of Nonuniform Crystallinity on Stress Distributions in Cross-Ply Graphite/PEEK (APC-2) Laminates:

This paper presents analytical/computational results for the inplane stresses in a moderatly thick, cross-ply, graphite/PEEK (APC-2) laminate accounting for effects of nonuniform PEEK crystallinity across the plate's thickness. These effects are incorporated as crystallinity-induced variations in the longitudinal modulus E L , including its nonlinear dependence on strain.
Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities in States With Primary Versus Secondary Seat Belt Laws: A Time-Series Analysis

BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) remain a leading cause of U.S. injury-related deaths. Primary seat belt laws allow vehicle occupants to be ticketed solely for not wearing seat belts, and secondary laws allow ticketing only for failure to wear seat belts in the setting of other violations. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between MVC fatality rates and primary versus secondary seat belt laws. DESIGN: Retrospective time-series analysis. SETTING: United States, 2001 to 2010. PARTICIPANTS: MVC fatalities in occupants aged 10 years or older identified in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. MEASUREMENTS: Population-based rates of fatal crashes. RESULTS: There were 283 RESULTS: 183 MVC fatalities in occupants aged 10 years or older from 2001 to 2010 (overall rate, 13.0 per 100 000 persons). In 2001, the mean fatality rate was 14.6 per 100 000 persons, 16 states had primary seat belt laws, and 33 states had secondary laws. In 2010, the mean fatality rate was 9.7 per 100 RESULTS: 000 persons, 30 states had primary seat belt laws, and 19 states had secondary laws. In the multivariate regression model, states with primary seat belt laws had lower MVC fatality rates than states with secondary laws (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.78 to 0.90]). LIMITATION: Only fatalities were analyzed from the database, and the degree of law enforcement could not be ascertained. CONCLUSION: States with primary seat belt laws had lower rates of MVC fatalities than those with secondary laws. Adoption of primary seat belt laws may offer optimal occupant protection. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: None. Language: en