cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A model predictive control equalization transmitter for asymmetric interfaces in 28nm FDSOI

An all-digital nonlinear transmit-side equalization technique based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) is presented. The MPC equalizer performs an online optimization subject to eye height constraints at the RX using transmit waveform as a variable. Compared to existing TX equalization schemes such as IIR or Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding, MPC has been shown to achieve the best eye performance for any type of channel, especially when the control signal resolution is low, with minimal overhead at the RX. A simplified Direct Search algorithm and architecture optimization techniques are proposed to realize the MPC equalizer for high-speed links. A 20-tap MPC transmitter has been implemented in 28nm FDSOI technology. For a multidrop channel, the equalizer achieves opening of a closed eye at 4.5Gb/s for PAM2 and 6Gb/s for PAM4 mode.
Abstract WMP115: Interventional Therapy for Brain AVMs Before and After ARUBA

Introduction: The ARUBA Trial (2014) concluded that medical management alone is superior to medical management plus interventional therapy in the management of unruptured brain arteriovenous malfor...
Introduction to the Special Issue on Supply Chain Finance

This special issue, which surveys the most recent research in supply chain finance, is motivated by the success of the third â€œSupply Chain Finance & Risk Management Workshop,â€ which was held at the Olin Business School of Washington University in St. Louis, on May 14-15, 2017. The Editors wanted a more timely access to the latest research on supply chain finance and supply chain risk management. It is well-known, that due to review process lead times, articles published in traditional journals can take 2 to 3 years. The idea of producing an edited volume, which would include the latest articles on the topics above appealed not only to the workshop participants but also to other active members of the iFORM (Interface of Finance, Operations, and Risk Management) research community. Foundations and Trends in Technology, Information and Operations Management provides an ideal outlet for such a volume.
Metropolitan Governance Capacity and Climate Change Planning : Assessing Metropolitan Responses

With political inaction at the federal level in the U.S., there is increased attention on the importance of planning for climate change at the metropolitan level, where implementation of climate change policies would occur. This study reports on a survey of 25 regional planning organizations that was conducted to examine the extent to which regional planning organizations have adopted climate change plans and to identify the factors that impact their ability to take metropolitan level action in regards to climate change initiatives. The findings revealed a majority of regional planning organizations are involved in climate change planning in some way, largely due to existing efforts in complementary policy domains. Based on the findings, a multi-level framework is developed for assessing the institutional capacity of metropolitan governance capacity in climate change policy and planning. Employing this framework would allow regional planning organizations to assess their capacity to address climate change...
Ultraviolet Diffraction Assisted Image Correlation (UV-DAIC) for Single-Camera 3D Strain Measurement at Extreme Temperatures

Diffraction Assisted Image Correlation (DAIC) measures three-dimensional (3D) full-field deformations using a single camera. This is accomplished by placing transmission diffraction gratings between the specimen and camera to produce multiple views of the specimen at different angles. The angle at which the image appears depends on the wavelength of light used for illumination, the pitch of the gratings being used, and the diffraction order of the image. In this work, DAIC is modified for use at a higher range of temperatures by using ultraviolet (UV) light for illumination and filtering out the visible spectrum light emitted by high temperature samples. These images were then used for 3D displacement and strain measurements using stereo digital image correlation (3D-DIC). This method was first tested at room temperature by comparing results to known deformation applied as rigid body motion. It was then demonstrated to be effective in making displacement and strain measurements up to a temperature of 900 °C.
Friendships Overcome Ignorance and Misconceptions: Teacher Candidates’ Exposure to a Foreign Culture in an Online Cross-national e-pals Project

The cross-national pedagogical e-pal project was implemented between teacher candidates in the United States and the United Arab Emirates with the purpose of expanding teacher candidates’ perspectives on culture. During the five weeks of the intervention, in teams of three, participants had informal online conversations and discussed schooling scenarios to illuminate and articulate their decision-making. In this study, the teacher candidates’ views were captured in pre- and post-surveys, in their posts, and in their reflection responses. All data were analyzed to understand the change in their views on their culture and their partner’s culture as well as any newly developed perspectives on culture. The findings indicated a shift in their views toward a more in-depth understanding of cultures.
Searching for Possible Ancestors of RNA: The Self-Assembly Hypothesis for the Origin of Proto-RNA

There are currently two main schools of thought regarding the origins of RNA. In one school, RNA is considered to be a product of nonenzymatic, prebiotic reactions. In the other, RNA is considered to be a product of chemical and/or biological evolution. The numerous challenges to demonstrating a plausible prebiotic synthesis of RNA support the hypothesis that life started with an ancestral RNA-like polymer, or proto-RNA. If RNA is an “invention” of early life, then it is logical to assume that identifying the chemical structure of proto-RNA, and intermediate pre-RNAs, would require exploration of a seemingly insurmountable number of possible proto-RNA building blocks and prebiotic reactions. Here we report progress toward finding a proto-RNA that is the product of molecular self-assembly. Results obtained thus far demonstrate that seemingly minor changes to the structure of the extant building blocks of RNA (e.g., the substitution of uracil by barbituric acid) alleviate several long-standing problems associated with finding a prebiotic synthesis for RNA.
Identification of leiomyosarcoma circulating tumor DNA through ultra-low passage whole genome sequencing and correlation with tumor burden: A pilot experience.

11565Background: Detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a new approach for identifying oncogenic mutations, measuring disease burden, clinical prognostication, and assessing resp...
Distributed Predictive Control Scheme for Grid-Tied Cascaded Multilevel Impedance Source Inverter with LVRT Capability

This paper presents a decoupled power control scheme for grid-tied single-phase quasi-impedance-source cascaded multilevel inverter (qZS-CMI) for photovoltaic (PV) applications. The proposed control scheme for the grid-tied qZSI-CMI is based on finite-set model predictive control (MPC) to harvest the desired active power from PV modules with ability to provide ancillary services for the grid. The proposed control scheme has two modes of operation: normal grid mode and low voltage ride through (LVRT) mode. In normal grid mode, the controller commands the qZS-CMI to operate at global maximum power point (MPP). The proposed technique regulates the impedance network elements' voltage and current according to the MPP of PV panels and grid voltage/current requirements. In LVRT mode, the controller commands the qZS-CMI to provide the required reactive power for grid during voltage sag as an ancillary service from the inverter as imposed by grid codes. The main features of the proposed system include: global MPP operation during normal grid condition, LVRT capability during grid voltage sag, mitigation of the PV modules mismatch on overall energy harvesting, and seamless transition between normal grid and LVRT modes of operation. Several real-time experiments are conducted to verfiy the system performance with transients in both solar irradiance and the grid voltage.
Do Epistemic Uncertainties Allow for Replacing Microstructural Experiments with Reconstruction Algorithms

A novel problem in computational materials modeling is addressed: “Are the computational microstructure reconstruction techniques reliable enough to replace experiments?” Here, “reliable” computati...
Resilience of Multi-robot Systems to Physical Masquerade Attacks

The advent of autonomous mobile multi-robot systems has driven innovation in both the industrial and defense sectors. The integration of such systems in safety-and security-critical applications has raised concern over their resilience to attack. In this work, we investigate the security problem of a stealthy adversary masquerading as a properly functioning agent. We show that conventional multi-agent pathfinding solutions are vulnerable to these physical masquerade attacks. Furthermore, we provide a constraint-based formulation of multi-agent pathfinding that yields multi-agent plans that are provably resilient to physical masquerade attacks. This formalization leverages inter-agent observations to facilitate introspective monitoring to guarantee resilience.
Diferenças fatais: suicídio, raça e trabalho forçado nas Américas

This essay examines the relationship between race and suicide in the Americas. I show how ideas about suicide helped generate and reinforce multiple forms of racial difference and demonstrate how colonial ideas survived long after independence and the abolition of slavery, often in new forms. The extant historiography on suicide emphasizes moral, religious, and medico-legal responses to self-destruction. Less attention has been paid to race or to the brutal fact, widely acknowledged (though rarely discussed in depth) by scholars of slavery, that forced servitude also made suicide a quintessentially economic issue – a threat to planters’ and traders’ bottom line and a threat to production. As slavery and forced labor became dominant global value systems that determined who counted as human, the ability to perish by one’s own hand became a means for making that determination. Eventually, exceptional stories of heroic suicide by native or black martyrs became part of national narratives, but that process depended on the decoupling of selfdestruction and economic production, which helped turn acts once seen as threats to colonial foundations into stories of sacrifice and national birth. Over time, and despite significant changes, self-destruction consistently functioned as a durable marker of racial differentiation.
Radionuclide incorporation in negative thermal expansion α-Zr(WO4)2: A density functional theory study

Abstract The incorporation of uranium, plutonium and technetium in the negative thermal expansion (NTE) α - Zr ( WO 4 ) 2 has been investigated within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). It is found that the vacancy formation energies of the charged vacancies are overall larger than that of its counterpart neutral Frenkel defects and Schottky defects. DFT calculations suggest that U and Pu substitutions for the Zr site are preferred in α - Zr ( WO 4 ) 2 . In case of Tc substitution, both Tc(IV) for the Zr site and Tc(VII) for the W site are considered under oxygen-poor and oxygen-rich conditions, while Tc(VII) substitution can be improved significantly by including Y2O3 (charge compensation).
Enabling sublingual peptide immunization with molecular self-assemblies.

Abstract Short peptides are poorly immunogenic when delivered sublingually – under the tongue. Nanomaterial delivery of peptides could be utilized to improve immunogenicity towards designed sublingual vaccines, but nanomaterials have not been widely successful in sublingual vaccines owing to the challenges of transport through the sublingual mucosa. Here, we report that the sublingual immunogenicity of peptides is negligible, even in the presence of sublingual adjuvants or when PEGylated, but can be dramatically enhanced by assembly into supramolecular polymer-peptide nanofibers bearing low-molecular weight PEG, optimally between 2000 and 3000 Da. Neither PEGylation nor a sublingual adjuvant were capable of rendering peptides immunogenic without assembly into nanofibers. We found that PEG decreased nanofiber interactions with mucin and promoted longer residence time at the sublingual immunization site. Parallel investigations with shortened nanofibers indicated that the size of the assemblies had a surprisingly negligible influence over sublingual immunogenicity. In mice, optimized formulations were capable of raising strong and highly durable systemic antibody responses, antibodies in the upper respiratory and reproductive tracts, and systemic antigen-specific T-cell responses. These nanofiber-based sublingual vaccines were effective with both protein and nucleotide adjuvants and raised responses against both a model peptide epitope and a peptide epitope from M. tuberculosis. Further, PASylation (modification of nanofibers with peptide sequences rich in Pro, Ala, and Ser) could be substituted for PEGylation to also achieve sublingual immunogenicity. These findings indicated that surface properties supersede nanomaterial size in modulating sublingual nanomaterial immunogenicity, having important implications for the design of synthetic sublingual vaccines.
A Real Time Event Detection, Classification and Localization Using Synchrophasor Data

With an increasing number of extreme events, grid components and complexity, more alarms are being observed in the power grid control centers. Operators in the control center need to monitor and analyze these alarms to take suitable control actions, if needed, to ensure the system's reliability, stability, security, and resiliency. Although existing alarm and event processing tools help in monitoring and decision making, synchrophasor data along with the topology and component location information can be used in detecting, classifying and locating the event, which is the focus of this work. Phasor Measurement Unit's (PMU's) data quality issue is also addressed before using data for event analysis. The developed algorithms include statistic, clustering, and Maximum Likelihood Criterion (MLE) based anomaly detection, Density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) for event detection and physics-based rule/ decision tree for event classification. Further, topology information, statistical techniques, and graph search algorithms are used for event localization. Developed algorithms have been validated with satisfactory results for IEEE 14 bus and 39 Bus as well as with real PMU data from the western US interconnection (WECC).
Twilighted Homegrown Systems: The Experience of Six Traditional Electronic Health Record Developers in the Post-Meaningful Use Era.

Objectives This study aimed to understand if and how homegrown electronic health record (EHR) systems are used in the post–Meaningful Use (MU) era according to the experience of six traditional EHR developers. Methods We invited informatics leaders from a convenience sample of six health care organizations that have recently replaced their long used homegrown systems with commercial EHRs. Participants were asked to complete a written questionnaire with open-ended questions designed to explore if and how their homegrown system(s) is being used and maintained after adoption of a commercial EHR. We used snowball sampling to identify other potential respondents and institutions. Results Participants from all six organizations included in our initial sample completed the questionnaire and provided referrals to four other organizations; from these, two did not respond to our invitations and two had not yet replaced their system and were excluded. Two organizations (Columbia University and University of Alabama at Birmingham) still use their homegrown system for direct patient care and as a downtime system. Four organizations (Intermountain Healthcare, Partners Healthcare, Regenstrief Institute, and Vanderbilt University) kept their systems primarily to access historical data. All organizations reported the need to continue to develop or maintain local applications despite having adopted a commercial EHR. The most common applications developed include display and visualization tools and clinical decision support systems. Conclusion Homegrown EHR systems continue to be used for different purposes according to the experience of six traditional homegrown EHR developers. The annual cost to maintain these systems varies from $21,000 to over 1 million. The collective experience of these organizations indicates that commercial EHRs have not been able to provide all functionality needed for patient care and local applications are often developed for multiple purposes, which presents opportunities for future research and EHR development.
Straws Don't Suck: Are Straws Dangerous after Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery?

Objective Patients undergoing endoscopic endonasal surgery have historically been restricted from using straws postoperatively, due to the concern that this activity generates negative pressure. The objective of this study is to evaluate the pressure dynamics in the sinonasal cavity associated with the use of a straw. Methods Intracranial pressure catheters were placed in the nasal cavity of 20 healthy individuals. Pressure measurements were then recorded while participants drank liquids of different viscosities from a cup and from a straw. Measurements were recorded with and without subjects occluding their nose to simulate postoperative nasal obstruction. Results The average pressure in the nasal cavity while drinking water from a cup was −0.86 cmH2O, from a straw was −1.09 cmH2O, and while occluding the nose and using a straw was −0.81 cmH2O. The average pressure in the nasal cavity while drinking a milkshake from a cup was −0.98 cmH2O, from a straw was −1.88 cmH2O, and while occluding the nose and using a straw was −1.37 cmH2O. There was no statistically significant difference in pressure measurements when comparing either task or consistency (p > 0.05). Conclusion Straw use is not associated with the generation of significant negative pressure in the nasal cavity. The pressure generated when drinking from a straw is not significantly different from that of drinking from a cup. This data suggest that straw use may be safe for patients following endoscopic skull base surgery, but further investigation is warranted.
Limb lengthening in the treatment of posteromedial bowing of the tibia

Abstract Purpose Posteromedial bowing of the tibia is an uncommon but recognized congenital lower extremity deformity in children that can lead to limb length discrepancy (LLD) and residual angulat...
Neonatal and infant immunity for tuberculosis vaccine development: importance of age-matched animal models.

Neonatal and infant immunity differs from that of adults in both the innate and adaptive arms, which are critical contributors to immune-mediated clearance of infection and memory responses elicited during vaccination. The tuberculosis (TB) research community has openly admitted to a vacuum of knowledge about neonatal and infant immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, especially in the functional and phenotypic attributes of memory T cell responses elicited by the only available vaccine for TB, the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. Although BCG vaccination has variable efficacy in preventing pulmonary TB during adolescence and adulthood, 80% of endemic TB countries still administer BCG at birth because it has a good safety profile and protects children from severe forms of TB. As such, new vaccines must work in conjunction with BCG at birth and, thus, it is essential to understand how BCG shapes the immune system during the first months of life. However, many aspects of the neonatal and infant immune response elicited by vaccination with BCG remain unknown, as only a handful of studies have followed BCG responses in infants. Furthermore, most animal models currently used to study TB vaccine candidates rely on adult-aged animals. This presents unique challenges when transitioning to human trials in neonates or infants. In this Review, we focus on vaccine development in the field of TB and compare the relative utility of animal models used thus far to study neonatal and infant immunity. We encourage the development of neonatal animal models for TB, especially the use of pigs.
Human Health Effects of Exposure to Nitrate, Nitrite, and Nitrogen Dioxide

Human exposure to nitrogen (N) pollution via nitrate in food and water and nitrogen oxides in the ambient air is reviewed. Increased risks of myocardial infarction, respiratory problems, and asthma have been linked to higher exposures to nitrogen oxides in ambient air. Excess nitrate/nitrite exposure in food and water may be harmful to human health by: (1) its contribution to the endogenous formation of N-nitroso compounds, demonstrated carcinogens and teratogens in animal models; (2) its potential role in methemoglobinemia; and (3) in high doses, its ability to competitively inhibit iodine uptake and induce changes in the thyroid. High nitrate levels in drinking water have been linked to methemoglobinemia in infants (“blue baby syndrome”) and children. In 2006, an International Agency for Research on Cancer expert panel concluded that ingested nitrate/nitrite under conditions that result in endogenous nitrosation is probably carcinogenic to humans; subsequent studies have continued to support this conclusion. Maternal exposures to higher nitrate levels in drinking water have been associated with a variety of adverse pregnancy outcomes. In contrast, maternal dietary intake of nitrate/nitrite has not been associated with birth defects in offspring unless coupled with prenatal nitrosatable drug exposure. Further research is indicated on the beneficial and harmful effects of nitrate on human health. Given what is currently known about the harmful effects of nitrogen oxides and ingested nitrate/nitrite, it appears prudent to support measures to reduce nitrogen emissions in the atmosphere and to continue to maintain current limits and guidelines on nitrate concentration in drinking water.
The Vaccine Supply Chain: A Call for Resilience Analytics to Support COVID-19 Vaccine Production and Distribution

Pharmaceutical companies, upstream suppliers, associated logistics providers, health workers, regulatory agencies, public health experts and ultimately the medical practitioners and general public have been navigating an increasingly globalized vaccine supply chain; any disruption to the supply chain may cause cascading failure and have devastating consequences. The COVID-19 pandemic has already highlighted the lack of resilience in supply chains, as global networks fail from disruptions at single nodes and connections. As the race for a COVID-19 vaccine continues, the importance of not only an efficient supply chain but a resilient vaccine supply chain capable of reliable production and reaching target populations despite likely but currently unknown disruptions is imperative. Proactively applying resilience analytics to vaccine supply chain models will increase the probability that vaccination programs meet their goals. Without such a network in place for manufacture and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, even the most efficacious and safe vaccine will not prove viable. Through an overview of the existing vaccine and pharmaceutical supply chain publications focusing on resilience, as well as recent papers reporting modeling of resilience in supply chains across multiple fields, we find that models for supply chain resilience are few and most of them are focused on individual dimensions of resilience rather than on comprehensive strategy necessary for scaling up vaccine production and distribution in emergency settings. We find that COVID-19 resulted in a wave of interest to supply chain resilience, but publications from 2020 are narrow in focus and largely qualitative in nature; evidence-based models and measures are rare. Further, publications often focus exclusively on specific portions of the specific supply chain of interest, excluding associated supporting networks, such as transportation, social and command and control (C2) necessary for vaccine production and equitable distribution. This lack of network analysis is a major gap in the literature that needs to be bridged in order to create methods of real-time analysis and decision tools for the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain. We conclude that a comprehensive, quantitative approach to network resilience that encompasses the supply chain in the context of other social and physical networks is needed in order to address the emerging challenges of a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination program. We further find that the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the necessity of positioning supply chain resilience within a multi-network context and formally incorporating temporal dimensions into analysis through the NAS definition of resilience—plan, absorb, recover, adapt—to ensure essential needs are met across all dimensions of society. Modeling and analyzing vaccine supply chain resilience ensures that value is maintained should disruptions occur.
Plasmon-Induced CO2 Conversion on Al@Cu2O: A DFT Study

In plasmonic catalysis, localized surface plasmons can be leveraged to drive chemical reactions. This approach is promising for catalyzing many challenging reactions at relatively low temperatures ...
Beginning secondary science teachers’ implementation of process skills, inquiry, and problem-based learning during the induction years: a randomised controlled trial

The beginning years of a teacher's career are among the most challenging and complex. Content-specific induction programmes can help teachers navigate these early years of teaching and build their ...
Audiences’ Mediated Contact with Black Characters in Scripted Television and Support for Racialized Social Issues

Within scripted television programs, portrayals of Black characters have improved in both quantity and quality over the past few years. Research suggests that these various television characterizat...
Comparison of clinical and echocardiographic features of first and second waves of COVID-19 at a large, tertiary medical center serving a predominantly African American patient population.

As clinicians have gained experience in treating patients with the novel SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus, mortality rates for patients with acute COVID-19 infection have decreased. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has identified the African American population as having increased risk of COVID-19 associated mortality, however little is known about echocardiographic markers associated with increased mortality in this patient population. We aimed to compare the clinical and echocardiographic features of a predominantly African American patient cohort hospitalized with acute COVID-19 infection during the first (March–June 2020) and second (September–December 2020) waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to investigate which parameters are most strongly associated with composite all-cause mortality. We performed consecutive transthoracic echocardiograms (TTEs) on 105 patients admitted with acute COVID-19 infection during the first wave and 129 patients admitted during the second wave. TTE parameters including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LVGLS), right ventricular global longitudinal strain (RVGLS), right ventricular free-wall strain (RVFWS), and right ventricular basal diameter (RVBD) were compared between the two groups. Clinical and demographic characteristics including underlying co-morbidities, biomarkers, in-hospital treatment regimens, and outcomes were collected and analyzed. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to determine variables associated with all-cause mortality. There were no significant differences between the two waves in terms of age, gender, BMI, or race. Overall all-cause mortality was 35.2% for the first wave compared to 14.7% for the second wave (p < 0.001). Previous medical conditions were similar between the two waves with the exception of underlying lung disease (41.9% vs. 29.5%, p = 0.047). Echocardiographic parameters were significantly more abnormal in the first wave compared to the second: LVGLS (− 17.1 ± 5.0 vs. − 18.9 ± 4.8, p = 0.02), RVGLS (− 15.7 ± 5.9% vs. − 19.0 ± 5.9%, p < 0.001), RVFWS (− 19.5 ± 6.8% vs. − 23.2 ± 6.9%, p = 0.001), and RVBD (4.5 ± 0.8 vs. 3.9 ± 0.7 cm, p < 0.001). Stepwise multivariable logistic analysis showed mechanical ventilation, RVFWS, and RVGLS to be independently associated with mortality. In a predominantly African American patient population on the south side of Chicago, the clinical and echocardiographic features of patients hospitalized with acute COVID-19 infection demonstrated marked improvement from the first to the second wave of the pandemic, with a significant decrease in all-cause mortality. Possible explanations include implementation of evidence-based therapies, changes in echocardiographic practices, and behavioral changes in our patient population. Mechanical ventilation and right-sided strain-based markers were independently associated with mortality.
The Earth of the Wretched: Restoring the Vegetal Voice in Yamina Mechakra’s La Grotte éclatée

Yasmina Mechakra’s first novel, La Grotte eclatee, is a deeply moving and at times surreal testimony to the horrors of war and its aftermath. Through her use of a female, orphaned narrator, Mechakr...
Ileal sodium-dependent bile acid transporter gene, dietary fat intake, and the risk of colorectal adenomas

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 4599 Epidemiological and experimental studies have suggested that bile acids, particularly secondary bile acids, may be involved in the development of colorectal cancer. The ileal sodium-dependent bile acid transporter (ISBT) plays an important role in the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids. Previously, we reported a possible association between two sequence variations in SLC10A2 , the gene encoding ISBT, and colorectal adenomas, particularly for the C→ T nucleotide transition in codon 169 of exon 3. These original results were based on the first phase of a case-control study of adenomas. The second and final phase of this study has been completed and we report here results from the second phase that essentially confirm our earlier report (e.g. among all subjects, the C→T transition is associated with adenomas,odds ratio (OR) = 1.62 (0.69-3.82), and among AA homozygotes for the 171S mutation, the OR for the C→T transition = 1.81 (0.73-4.48). Considering data from both phases of the study, the odds ratios for the C→T transition overall and among AA homozygotes for the 171S mutation are 1.86 (1.13-3.07) and 2.16 (1.28-3.66), respectively. Dietary fat increases biles acid levels. Combining data from both phases of the study also enabled us to explore the possibility that effects of SLC10A2 genotype are modified by intake of fat. Among subjects with a low intake of saturated fat (less than median intake), the OR for the C→T transition is 1.32 (0.66-2.64), whereas the corresponding OR among subjects with a saturated fat intake above the median was 2.60 (1.23-5.48). Confirmation of our original observation and the suggestion of a modifying effect of fat intake lend support to the validity of the association between the SLC10A2 gene and risk of adenomas and, by implication, the bile acid hypothesis.
Differentiating NMO and MS-Associated Optic Neuritis by MRI (S63.002)

OBJECTIVE: To differentiate MRI characteristics of optic neuritis associated with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS). BACKGROUND: Optic neuritis is a common presenting feature of both neuromyelitis optica and multiple sclerosis. Distinguishing between NMO and MS is important in guiding differing treatments, but biomarkers of NMO and MS can be absent early in the disease process. We looked for differences in MRI characteristics of optic neuritis associated with NMO and MS that may contribute to the diagnostic workup. DESIGN/METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 26 NMO and 26 MS patients presenting to the Johns Hopkins Hospital or Clinic with MRI-confirmed acute optic neuritis. MRIs were assessed to identify the location and longitudinal extent of each lesion. For the purposes of this study, the optic nerve was divided into retrobulbar, canicular, pre-chiasmal, chiasmal, and optic tract. RESULTS: There are distinct differences in MRI characteristics between NMO- and MS-associated optic neuritis. The majority of NMO lesions were longitudinally extensive involving at least two optic nerve segments (75%, versus 33% in MS, p=0.003) and 57% of NMO patients had lesions involving > 3 segments (versus 7% in MS: p=0.000), whereas MS lesions were more commonly focal in one optic nerve segment. NMO lesions were also more likely to be bilateral (25%, versus 0% in MS; p=0.010) and involve the optic chiasm (25%, versus 7% in MS; p=0.143) and tracts (18%, versus 4% in MS; p=0.193). Conversely, MS lesions were more likely to be localized anteriorly in the retrobulbar and/or canicular optic nerve (70%, versus 36% in NMO; p=0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Optic neuritis in NMO has a distinct pattern on MRI as compared with MS and can help differentiate these two neuroinflammatory diseases at presentation. Compared to MS, NMO lesions in the optic nerve involve the posterior optic nerves and are longitudinally extensive. Study Supported by: Disclosure: Dr. Mealy has received personal compensation for activities with Novartis as an advisory board member. Dr. Whetstone has nothing to disclose. Dr. Calabresi has received personal compensation for activities with Abbott and Vertex. Dr. Calabresi has received research support from Bayer, Abbott, Novartis, Biogen Idec, and Vertex. Dr. Levy has received personal compensation for activities with ApoPharma Inc. as a speaker. Dr. Levy has received research support from ApoPharma Inc.
Evaluation of Foliar Fungicides and Insecticides on Soybeans

Introduction Use of foliar fungicides and insecticides are an effective strategy for managing foliar diseases of soybean. There are many different fungicides and insecticides available for use currently in Iowa. Iowa State University personnel assessed the success of fungicides and insecticides across Iowa. This study was conducted at six locations: Sutherland (NW), Kanawha (NC), Nashua (NE), Ames (central), Crawfordsville (SE), and Lewis (SW) research farms (Figure 1).
Markov Models and Social Analysis

Many social science processes such as consumer behavior patterns, mobility patterns, friendship formations, networks, voting patterns, environmental management such as patient movements between hospitals are best analyzed by Markov models. Four specific examples are examined. Discrete time processes are called Markov chains, and continuous time processes are Markov processes. The basic models are described and some properties are provided.
The Best of Both Worlds: Integrating Textual and Visual Command Interfaces for Mars Rover Operations

A Mars rover is a complex system, and driving one is a complex endeavor. Rover drivers must be intimately familiar with the hardware and software of the mobility system and of the robotic arm. They must rapidly assess threats in the terrain, then creatively combine their knowledge of the vehicle and its environment to achieve each day's science and engineering objectives. To help the Mars Exploration Rover project's rover drivers meet their goals, the software we developed to drive the rovers - the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program, or RSVP - combines two representations of command sequences, one textual and one using three-dimensional graphics. Changes to one representation are instantly reflected in the other, and the combination's advantages exceed the mere sum of the parts: the different representations offer different levels of abstraction, engage different areas of the driver's brain, and complement each other's strengths. This combination plays a crucial role in simplifying a complex feat of interplanetary exploration
Ras Isoforms Conformational Clustering and Community Networks Studies: Simulating Ras with Accelerated Molecular Dynamics

Ras is a small GTPase that acts as a molecular switch and is involved in multiple cellular signaling pathways. The catalytic domains of the three major isoforms, H-, K-, and N-Ras share an identica...
Max Weber's Sociology of Law Applied to a Case of Judicial Intervention into State-Sanctioned Inmate Abuse

Applying Weber's classical sociology of law as the theoretical lens, the author revisits a famous judicial intervention (Ruiz v. Estelle 1980) aimed at curtailing the cruel and unusual punishment suffered by indigent and uneducated inmates and perpetrated by prison staff and inmate overseers, known as "building tenders." Marquart and Crouch (1984; 1985) and Ekland-Olson (1986) wrote case studies of this intervention into the activity at a unit of an American state prison system on data they obtained from participant observation, formal and informal interviews with correctional officers and inmates, and institutional documents (e.g. log books, memos and inmate records). The following article follows the outline of the series of events described in these cases and adds a Weberian explanation of the changing forms of justice that are both rational and irrational, formal and substantive.
The number of Na+ channels in cultured chick muscle is increased by ARIA, an acetylcholine receptor-inducing activity

ARIA is a glycoprotein purified from chick brain on the basis of its ACh receptor-inducing activity (ARIA). In this study we present evidence that ARIA increases the number of voltage-gated sodium channels in chick muscle as well as the number of ACh receptors (AChRs). Exposure of chick myotubes to ARIA increased by twofold the number of 3H-saxitoxin binding, an effect that is comparable to the increase of AChRs assayed by 125I-alpha-bungarotoxin (125I-alpha-BTX) binding. We also documented effects of ARIA on myoblasts: the number of 125I-alpha-BTX binding sites in the mononucleated muscle cells was increased by 1.5-fold, and the peak TTX-sensitive inward currents increased by the same amount. No change was detected in the voltage dependence of channel activation, in mean channel current, or in mean channel open time. Thus, the Na+ channel is the first molecule, other than AChR subunits, whose expression has been shown to be induced by ARIA. Since sodium channels are concentrated at motor end plates, our results provide circumstantial evidence that ARIA may regulate several genes expressed at developing neuromuscular junctions. Moreover, the finding that ARIA's effects extend to mononucleated myoblasts suggests that this protein may be important during the earliest stages of muscle formation and innervation.
Navigation to multiple local transportation futures: cross-interrogating remembered and recorded drives

This paper describes findings from a three country, twenty-four participant study consisting of two in-home and in-car ethnographic interviews, separated by a month during which participants created videos, and their cars were GPS tracked and their Android smartphone data collected during and surrounding their driving times. We demonstrate how an ethnographic research approach that cross-interrogates data produced by GPS sensors, smart phone application monitoring, ethnographic interviews and participant-produced videos maps out a rich design space for future automotive user interfaces. These findings redefine the design space for automotive user interfaces and interactive vehicular interactions by recording real necessities, joys and pain points that people experience when using their cars.
Recollections of Kirk Bryan: A biographical sketch

To appreciate Kirk Bryan fully, one had to know him personally. His forte was relationships with people. He was a people's person from beginning to end. In the words of one observer, "he exuded human warmth." Kirk's scientific work was substantial but his still greater contribution to geomorphology was the host of able students he taught, inspired, and motivated. Although now passing from the scene, these people at their zenith were among the leaders in geomorphological research and teaching in North America. One of the higher honors attainable by scientists in the United States is the National Medal of Science, established by the Congress in 1959. Through 1991, 304 awards had been made, only 6 of which were to earth scientists. Out of that 6, one third were Kirk's students, a small statistic to be sure, but impressive testimony to Kirk's influence on budding scientists. It was about ten years after I finished graduate work at Harvard before I realized that Kirk was the best college teacher I had ever had. Kirk was so highly intuitive in his reasoning that many of his ideas seemed to float down from the heavens. This bothered me and created skepticism concerning many of his pronouncements. Consequently, I spent long hours searching the literature and developing my own thoughts with the objective of proving the good professor wrong. In most instances I ended up concluding that he was right, but I never understood why until I worked things out for myself. It finally dawned on me that Kirk had forced me to self-educate. I have since concluded that training students to self-educate should be a major objective of any college education -- hence my high regard for him as an educator.
AIDS and the Provision of Drug User Treatment

The emergence of AIDS has triggered significant change in drug user treatment practices. The vast majority of programs are involved in some aspects of AIDS prevention counseling, large numbers encourage HIV testing, and an increasing number of programs offer on-site testing. Resources available to drug user treatment for AIDS prevention will likely depend on the perceived threat of AIDS to the larger community, and the public's belief in the capacity of treatment programs to reduce that threat. Programs will likely face often contradictory demands regarding service delivery. They may be asked to increase client flow while also retaining clients more effectively, providing aftercare, and working with the client's sexual partner(s). It will be the role of program administrators to provide for staff recruitment, retention, and support in an increasingly difficult environment. Alternative treatment settings will need to be explored for those intravenous drug users who cannot or will not enter existing treatme...
A General Extended Surface Analysis Method

An earlier paper by the authors presented an algorithm for analyzing certain arrays of extended surface, in terms of the heat transfer properties and geometries of the individual fins comprising the array. This paper identifies the subclass of arrays susceptible to such analysis as trees, in the graph theoretic sense, and extends the technique by deriving general equations for efficiently analyzing a perfectly arbitrary configuration of fins.
The Schwarz alternating sinc domain decomposition method

Abstract The overlapping sinc-collocation domain decomposition method combined with the Schwarz alternating technique is developed for two-point boundary-value problems for second-order ordinary differential equations with singularities. The discrete system is formulated and the solution technique is described. It is shown that this method has an exponential convergence rate even in the presence of singularities. The details of the convergence proof are given for a sinc-collocation method applied to second-order, two-point boundary-value problems when the original domain is divided into two subdomains. The extension to multiple domains is then straightforward. The analytical results are illustrated with a numerical example that exhibits the exponential convergence rate.
Evaporation from a packed bed of porous particles into superheated vapor

Abstract An experimental and computational study of evaporation into superheated steam from porous particles, which form a packed bed, is performed. The goal of the study is to develop a predictive model of the drying process in packed beds with steam as the drying medium. The direct experimental measurement using load cells of the weight of alumina particles of various diameters in a packed bed during the drying process produced a complete continuous drying curve. A range of experimental conditions are examined, and a correlating equation for the overall heat transfer coefficient developed. Evaporation from a single spherical porous particle is modeled as occurring at a receding liquid/vapor interface within the particle. The drying process in a single particle is assumed to be thermally controlled. The single particle model is incorporated into an overall model for drying in a packed bed. The model predicted overall and local drying rates, as well as transient temperature distributions in the packing. The results of this study indicate that drying in a packed bed of significant depth occurs in three phases. The three phases of drying correspond to periods where the entire bed is in the constant drying rate regime, portions of the bed have entered the falling rate regime, and the entire bed is in the falling rate regime, respectively. The existence of these phases of drying are confirmed by both measured temperature distributions and measured drying rates. Predictions of the overall drying rate from the model show favorable agreement with measured drying curves.
The time dependent growth of H2OH2SO4 aerosols by heteromolecular condensation

A theory for the time-dependent growth of solution droplets by heteromolecular condensation is presented. The theory is applied to the growth of H2O-H2SO4 aerosols for relative humidities less than 100 per cent. Growth curves (droplet radius as a function of time) for different values of relative humidity are evaluated.
Monomorphisms of finitely generated free groups have finitely generated equalizers

The authors' approach to Gersten's graphical model of an automorphism is generalized to prove the theorem of the title, resolving a conjecture of Stallings.
The effects of induced cold torpor and time of year on blood coagulation in Pseudemys scripta elegans and Chrysemys picta belli.

1. 1. During a consecutive 13-month period, whole blood coagulation times, prothrombin clotting times and the Hicks-Pitney test for thromboplastin generation were determined for new groups of cold-torpid and room-temperature Pseudemys and Chrysemys turtles. 2. 2. Significant differences in the above-mentioned measurements were found between the two species and the two environmental temperatures. 3. 3. The prothrombin clotting times of Chrysemys turtles were higher than those of Pseudemys turtles during each month of the 13-month study. 4. 4. The low levels of thromboplastin generation suggest that turtles may bypass the plasma coagulation system and rely on vasoconstriction and rapid liberation of tissue thromboplastin when injured.
Research Digest: Assessing Biobehavioral States in Individuals With Profound Disabilities: An Alternative To Traditional Approaches

The purpose of this article is to provide a summary of seminal research and recent articles directly related to the assessment of biobehavioral states in individuals with profound disabilities, to discuss the implications of the research findings included, and to present some recommendations for further investigations.