cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Your Money or Your Life: Interpreting the Federal Act Against Patient Dumping

“Patient dumping” is medical non-practice. Patient dumping involves hospital refusing to provide emergency care to patients because of their inability to pay. Instead of receiving treatment, the indigent, uninsured patient is turned away or shuffled across town to the nearest public hospital. The latter practice is euphemistically referred to as an “economic transfer.” In 1986, Congress gave victims of patient-dumping a weapon with which to fight back: a provision of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (COBRA) creating a private right of action to patients who have been refused emergency care. Your Money or Your Life, widely cited by courts as well as legal commentators, was the first law review article seeking to interpret the Act. The article examines numerous sources of interpretation, including the statutory language, legislative history both before and after enactment, federal regulations proposed to implement portions of the Act, analogies drawn from general tort principles and other remedial statutory schemes, and the policies sought to be furthered by the anti-dumping legislation. The article begins by reviewing the scope of and reasons for the patient-dumping problem, and the inadequacy of available state law remedies to victimized patients.
Preliminary Thoughts on the Economics of Witness Preparation

The conventional wisdom, reflected in certain advertisements that lampoon lawyers, is that personal injury lawyers are the most likely practitioners to encourage witnesses to falsify injuries and evidence, so as to make winning cases out of losers. This article presents a variety of reasons for questioning this belief and argues instead that false testimony, witness coaching, and related abusive acts are more likely to occur in cases where other forms of discovery abuse are common, namely, in complex multi-party commercial lawsuits that involve high stakes. The empirical literature on the conduct of personal injury lawyers and lawsuits shows (1) that attorneys reject most requests for representation, (2) that most rejections occur because of weak liability facts or insufficient damages, (3) that attorneys have few conversations with clients and invest few resources in most cases, and (4) that testimony is taken in a minority of filed cases. These findings are inconsistent with the suggestion that personal injury lawyers frequently engage in extensive witness preparation. The article also develops a simple model of incentives to invest resources that obtain when lawyers handle portfolios of cases. The treatment is informal.
Opto-electronics in defense applications

Photonic technologies play a significant role in many military applications; sensing, communications and delivering energy on targets. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) photonics programs have made major contributions to advancing technology for these applications. In this presentation I will discuss DARPA's past and present programs, and our strategies for future investments in Photonics.
Host Relations in Species of Diplodia and Similar Genera

A number of fungi recently sent for study by H. S. Fawcett included 29 specimens of what the writer .regards as Diplodia sarmentorurn Fries. These specimens were on various species of citrus and came from Brazil, Sicily and California. Study of this material led to a reexamination of all the slides of this fungus in the herbarium of the Bureau of Plant Industry, including the type and authentic specimens cited in the synonomy,1 and to reading some recent literature, including those parts of Grove's 2 second volume, which deal with this and the closely related fungi which I have studied. Grove's concept of the host relations of these fungi is almost diametrically opposite to mine. Since this question must enter into almost every determination of a specimen it may be worthwhile to restate the evidence on which my opinion is based, regretting that in one of the various earlier papers on this group I have not more fully and more coherently presented this evidence and especially that I can no longer discuss this personally with the gracious and distinguished author of the volumes which in his own words " set before the English speakig reader, for the first time in his own language, and so far as it is illustrated by the British species of the group, a panoramic view of the skilful structure erected by the inimitable genius of Saccardo, some fifty years ago, to include them all in one scheme." Grove's conclusion, as stated in his opening discussion (p. 32) of the genus, is: "The majority of the species of Diplodia and Botryodiplodia are extremely similar to one another, especially in
The role of high blood penicillin levels achieved with caronamide in penetrating the blood-brain barrier.

Abstract High penicillin levels in the cerebrospinal fluid were produced in normal individuals by a method designed to produce high, sustained blood levels. In three instances the presence of the antibiotic was still demonstrable in the spinal fluid fourteen hours after the last intravenous injection of penicillin.
A Modified Babylonian Algorithm

One may infer (Mainzer, p. 44) from the nature of their approximations that the Babylonians had discovered the following algorithm for a sequence x1, x2,... of successively improving approximations to v/;. The sequence is defined inductively as x1 = x and Xk = (xk1 + x/xkl1)/2 for k ? 2. In the case of C2, their best approximation was the fourth term of this sequence rounded to two sexagesimal places. It was accurate to within 10-6. The choice of x1 is flexible, but for the purposes of our exposition x1 = x is best. For the Babylonians it was important that Xk was rational if x was, and so could easily be approximated in decimal notation. Modern calculus texts efficiently treat this algorithm as a special case of the Newton-Raphson method, but one could object to this treatment on the grounds that it obscures the fact that the convergence of Xk to Cx is an easier consequence of algebra than of calculus, and it does not justify the fact that the convergence is quadratic (one usually states this to the students as "the number of significant digits is better than doubled by proceeding from Xk to Xk+1,' but seldom is it proven to freshmen). Finally it does not address the issue of the non-uniformity of convergence of the sequence x1, x2, ... to Cx/. That fact justifies the normal strategy of conditioning x by multiplying or dividing it by a suitably chosen perfect integer square to obtain a number larger than 1 and less than or equal to (say) 10, and then applying the algorithm to the result. We propose the following modification of the Babylonian algorithm for finding square roots as a good means of illucidating the above points.
Bladder Function in Children with Meningomyelocele: Comparison of Cine-Fluoroscopy and Urodynamics

AbstractWe have assessed 60 children on an outpatient basis with cine-fluoroscopy combined with urodynamics. Bladder and rectal pressure together with sphincter electromyography were measured during bladder filling under fluoroscopy, which was followed by measurement of rectal pressure and sphincter electromyography during voiding under fluoroscopy. Comparison of the x-ray studies and urodynamics showed that the cystogram alone was not a reliable indicator of detrusor function. The sphincter electromyogram during voiding must be interpreted in the face of intra-abdominal pressure changes owing to straining or Crede’s maneuver. Residual urine estimations and the appearance of the bladder outflow on fluoroscopy were better parameters of outflow obstruction than sphincter electromyography.
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveys: IV. The descriptive epidemiology of exercise.

Telephone interview data from aggregated state surveys showed that about 21 percent of the U.S. adult population expends ≥3 kcal/kg-day in vigorous leisure-time exercise. Three kilocalories per kilogram-day is equivalent to the amount commonly recommended to maximally reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease. Approximately 36 percent of the U.S. population reported no vigorous leisure-time exercise. Men, younger persons, and the more highly educated were most likely to expend ≥3 kcal/kg-day, but for no subgroup did the rate exceed 30 percent. People who did not smoke, were not obese, and who did wear seat belts are also more likely to expend energy in vigorous leisure-time exercise. The prevalence of alcohol misuse is similar for all exercise categories. The proportion of people who expend ≥3 kcal/kg-day is unrelated to self-reported occupational physical effort. Given the established and presumed benefits of physical activity, a substantial portion of the U.S. population would probably benefit from regular, vigorous, leisure-time exercise.
The cotyledon cell wall and intracellular matrix are factors that limit iron bioavailability of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Strategies that enhance the Fe bioavailability of the bean are of keen interest to nutritionists, bean breeders and growers. In beans, the cotyledons contain 75–80% of the total seed Fe, most of which appears to be located within the cotyledon cells. The cotyledon cell walls are known to be resistant to digestion in the stomach and the upper small intestine. Therefore, given the above and the general belief that the primary site for human Fe absorption is the upper small intestine, the present study was designed to determine if the cotyledon cell walls represent a barrier to Fe absorption from the bean. To do so, we utilized high pressure to rupture bean cotyledon cells. The iron bioavailability of cooked bean samples was assessed using an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture model. Microscopy analyses confirmed that the cotyledon cell walls are highly resistant to pepsin, the low pH of the stomach, and the pancreatic enzymes, indicating that the walls are a barrier to Fe absorption from the bean. Relatively high intracellular pressure (>4000 psi) was required to initiate cell wall rupture. Surprisingly, the lysis of cotyledon cells did not result in a consistent or strong enhancement of bioavailable Fe, suggesting that the liberated intracellular starch and protein influenced the Fe bioavailability by creating a matrix that inhibited the exchange of Fe with the cell transport mechanism. Such observations warrant further pursuit in vivo as the confirmation of these effects would reshape strategies to enhance Fe absorption from beans.
High-level viruria as a screening tool for BK virus nephropathy in renal transplant recipients.

Background Although early monitoring of BK virus infection in renal transplant patients has led to improved outcomes over the past decade, it remains unclear whether monitoring for viremia is the best screening tool for BK virus nephropathy (BKVN).
Dual MPC with Reinforcement Learning

Abstract An adaptive optimal control algorithm for systems with uncertain dynamics is formulated under a Reinforcement Learning framework. An embedded exploratory component is included explicitly in the objective function of an output feedback receding horizon Model Predictive Control problem. The optimization is formulated as a Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Program and it is solved to e-global optimality. The iterative interaction between the action specified by the optimal solution and the approximation of cost functions balances the exploitation of current knowledge and the need for exploration. The proposed method is shown to converge to the optimal policy for a controllable discrete time linear plant with unknown output parameters.
Constitutive response of calcium-silicate-hydrate layers under combined loading

Calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) is the main hydration product for ordinary Portland cement (OPC) materials that exhibits a layered structure containing interfaces that controls the system response to shear deformation at the nanometer scale. In this work, we used molecular statics simulations to study the mechanical behavior of an atomistic model of C-S-H under combined loading conditions that are typical of structural applications of these materials. Combined loading is implemented by first compressing or stretching the atomistic structure to impose an external hydrostatic pressure, and then loading the system through both heterogeneous and homogeneous shear deformation. By utilizing two different shear methodologies, we were able to isolate the interface behavior from the bulk response. Our results show several qualitative similarities with that of macroscale cementitious materials including pressure sensitivity of the maximum shear strength and strength asymmetry in compression and tension. This indicates that the well-known cohesive-frictional behavior of cementitious materials is fundamental to interfaces between C-S-H grains at the nanoscale. Comparing differences in our results with nanoindentation experiments motivate future investigations of the effect of C-S-H particle size and morphology on strength scaling properties at the mesoscale. These mesoscale model interactions should include the normal-stress or pressure dependency that we observe.
Performance improvement of edge-triggered sequential circuits

The paper presents a novel delay insertion method to improve the performance of edge-triggered sequential circuits through clock skew scheduling. Clock skew scheduling (CSS) is performed on synchronous circuits in order to increase the maximum operating frequency. With CSS, the original circuit topology is preserved while the clock distribution network is modified to satisfy an optimal clock skew schedule. The paper proposes a circuit modification technique consisting of delay insertion into logic paths in order to improve the minimum possible clock period. In experiments, improvements of up to 90% are observed over the zero clock skew, flip-flop based circuits for the selected ISCAS'89 suite of benchmark circuits.
HippogriffDB: balancing I/O and GPU bandwidth in big data analytics

As data sets grow and conventional processor performance scaling slows, data analytics move towards heterogeneous architectures that incorporate hardware accelerators (notably GPUs) to continue scaling performance. However, existing GPU-based databases fail to deal with big data applications efficiently: their execution model suffers from scalability limitations on GPUs whose memory capacity is limited; existing systems fail to consider the discrepancy between fast GPUs and slow storage, which can counteract the benefit of GPU accelerators.In this paper, we propose HippogriffDB, an efficient, scalable GPU-accelerated OLAP system. It tackles the bandwidth discrepancy using compression and an optimized data transfer path. HippogriffDB stores tables in a compressed format and uses the GPU for decompression, trading GPU cycles for the improved I/O bandwidth. To improve the data transfer efficiency, HippogriffDB introduces a peer-to-peer, multi-threaded data transfer mechanism, directly transferring data from the SSD to the GPU. HippogriffDB adopts a query-over-block execution model that provides scalability using a stream-based approach. The model improves kernel efficiency with the operator fusion and double buffering mechanism.We have implemented HippogriffDB using an NVMe SSD, which talks directly to a commercial GPU. Results on two popular benchmarks demonstrate its scalability and efficiency. HippogriffDB outperforms existing GPU-based databases (YDB) and in-memory data analytics (MonetDB) by 1-2 orders of magnitude.
Longevity regulation in flies: a role for p53.

The p53 gene is justly famous for its role as a tumor suppressor. Loss of its function through structural alterations (inactivating mutations, deletions) occurs in roughly half of all human cancers, making it the most frequently mutated cancer-associated gene [1]. Yet p53 does not function only to suppress cancer, as p53 homologues are present in short-lived invertebrates such as worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) and flies (Drosophila melanogaster) that do not develop cancer [2]. p53 is known as the "guardian of the genome" and plays an important role in maintaining genomic integrity in response to cellular damage and stress [3]. In response to DNA damage, p53 is activated and can induce cell cycle arrest of actively dividing cells, allowing time for repair of damage before re-entry into the cell cycle. In other cases, where damage is extensive, p53 can induce apoptosis, preventing the propagation of damaged or dysfunctional cells. It is likely that p53 protects flies and worms primarily by regulating apoptosis during embryogenesis. Yet p53 may play another role in flies as a longevity regulator, as illustrated by a paper by Helfand and colleagues in this issue [4].
Triple FRET Imaging of Non-Muscle Myosin II Localization in Migrating Cells

Non-muscle myosin II (NMII) is critical for cell migration because myosin motors drive cell contraction by regulating pulling forces on actin filaments. Myosin regulatory light chain phosphorylation leads to stress fiber assembly and fiber contraction. It is undetermined if NMII phosphorylation increases or decreases during cell migration due to the inherent complexity of myosin regulation. Single metric approaches for illuminating the roles of these proteins have been unsuccessful in determining where the proteins are active simultaneously in the same cell. Our lab has developed two Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) biosensors to make dynamic measurements of myosin activity. Our NMII phosphorylation sensor together with our myosin light chain phosphatase (MLCP) sensor are able to measure myosin activity in a single cell. Mutations were introduced into both sensors to change the homotransfer and reflect conformational changes that indicate activation. In order to optimize the myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) sensor, KCl was added to determine the range of min/max. During the migration process, changes in NMII phosphorylation, MLCK, and MLCP activity were observed through the use of three separate FRET biosensors transfected together into living cells. We are able to track MLCP, MLCK, and NMII phosphorylation in the same pathway with high accuracy of spatial and temporal resolution. Our data suggests differential regulation of MLCK and MLCP in along a moving membrane. This allows for a more sophisticated understanding of the intermediate and long-term action of myosin phosphorylation during cell migration.
The Changing Nature of the Just War Tradition: How Our Changing Environment Ought to Change the Foundations of Just War Theory

It is becoming ever more apparent how quickly and dramatically our environment is changing. That changing environment must, in turn, change the way we think about just war theory. When examining jus ad bellum, jus in bello, jus post bellum, and a novel set of considerations referred to as jus para bellum, it becomes apparent that there exists an urgent need for changes not only to the content of just war principles, but also to the principles themselves.
Intrinsic motivation and organizational identification among on-demand workers.

On-demand firms provide services for clients through a network of on-demand workers ready to complete specific tasks for a set contractual price. Given such on-demand work is defined by payment on short-term contracts with no obligation for continued employment, there is little reason to believe on-
Comparing infovis designs with different information architecture for communicating complex information

In this paper, we explore the connections of information architecture (IA) with information visualization (InfoVis) through the discussion of different visualization designs used to demonstrate the occupations pursued by college students after graduation. In examining this topic, we used different information architectures to compare three visualization layouts based on the same data. The three layouts included one published visualization and two visualization designs developed by the researchers. We then used eight IA principles to compare how these visualizaitons communicate the complex relationship between majors, occupations, and their related characteristics in relation to the career paths of students.
Solid transport rate in the vapor-solvent growth system ZnS:I☆

Abstract Measurements of the rate of solid transport have been carried out in the system ZnS:I with two different sealed-tube geometries. The cubic ZnS crystals obtained are comparable in size and quality to those grown from HC1. With increasing pressure, the transport mechanism is at first diffusion—then convection controlled. In the range of diffusive flow, the pertinent theory for multireaction multi-component systems is in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.
Adventures in Living Like a Victorian

An aspiration of any English course is to have students use readings and class discussions to shape their understanding of the world. This chapter details a project aimed at more deliberately creating the opportunity for such thoughtfulness, and being more deliberate in having students apply concepts from class readings to real-life concerns. One of the best ways to engage students in applying course concepts is to follow the old adage of “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.” Asking students to “live like a Victorian” in specific ways and journal about their experiences helps them both better understand nineteenth-century living conditions and better understand their own. Through a series of these assignments, students find that living like a Victorian helps us better understand how we live today.
Continuous Estimation Using Context-Dependent Discrete Measurements

This paper considers the problem of continuous state estimation from discrete context-based measurements. Context measurements provide binary information as obtained from the system's environment, e.g., a medical alarm indicating that a vital sign is above a certain threshold. Since they provide state information, these measurements can be used for estimation purposes, similar to standard continuous measurements, especially when standard sensors are biased or attacked. Context measurements are assumed to have a known probability of occurring given the state; in particular, we focus on the probit function to model threshold-based measurements, such as the medical-alarm scenario. We develop a recursive context-aware filter by approximating the posterior distribution with a Gaussian distribution with the same first two moments as the true posterior. We show that the filter's expected uncertainty is bounded when the probability of receiving context measurements is lower bounded by some positive number for all system states. Furthermore, we provide an observability-like result—all eigenvalues of the filter's covariance matrix converge to 0 after repeated updates if and only if a persistence of excitation condition holds for the context measurements. Finally, in addition to simulation evaluations, we applied the filter to the problem of estimating a patient's blood oxygen content during surgery using real-patient data.
Preserving Liberty in Mass Society: Locke and the 2016 Presidential Election

Lockean liberalism stands or falls by the distinction between government and society, also called the public and the private. Only if this distinction is maintained can the immutable right of men and women to choose those with whom they associate be maintained, whether the choice pertains to business, education, religion, etc. This distinction between the public and the private has always been threatened by sincere, but misguided, attempts to secure justice. This chapter explains the source of the present danger and how a desire to maintain that aged Lockean distinction led to the election of Donald Trump. The election of Donald Trump represented the victory of an electorate still devoted to the private, however tenuously or confusedly. The chapter contains an examination of economics, immigration, and religious liberty in an attempt to show the gulf and agreement between Locke and Trump.
Conclusions and caveats from studies of managed forest carbon budgets

Abstract Forests are a critical component of the global carbon (C) budget, whether in their natural state or actively managed. While deforestation is a primary driver affecting forest C sources and sinks, the role of actively managed forests has gained appreciation and study by scientists and policymakers in recent decades. Implementation of active management regimes typically results in initial C losses, depending on the baseline used for comparison. There is strong evidence to support the long-term C benefits of actively managed forests compared to their unmanaged counterparts, however, when harvested biomass is efficiently used for wood products and to replace fossil fuels. Temporal, spatial, management, and land use factors, as well as the conceptual scope of assessments, all influence conclusions drawn regarding forest C budgets. Individual stand dynamics are sometimes used to assess C implications of management regimes, for example, even though forested landscapes buffer such dynamics and offer a more accurate, long-term picture. Managers must confront tradeoffs among C benefits and other environmental and economic values, but it is important to recognize that forested landscapes, even those with a high proportion of actively managed forest, most often contain substantial areas set aside and protected or managed with low intensity due to logistic, economic, and environmental considerations or certification and best management practice requirements. Emissions associated with management practices, harvesting, biomass transport, and product manufacturing should be accounted for in C budget assessments even though evidence suggests they comprise a small percentage of C sequestered in actively managed stands. Harvesting and other practices can reduce C stored in forest floors and soil but studies worldwide show responses too inconsistent to form the basis of default assumptions. Often overlooked are C benefits resulting from the role of active management in reducing susceptibility to wildfire, pests, and disease and in providing economic incentives that can deter forest conversion to urban development and other land uses that have substantial and permanent impacts on C storage and emissions.
Rare Query Expansion Through Generative Adversarial Networks in Search Advertising

Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) have achieved great success in generating realistic synthetic data like images, tags, and sentences. We explore using GAN to generate bid keywords directly from query in sponsored search ads selection, especially for rare queries. Specifically, in the query expansion (query-keyword matching) scenario in search advertising, we train a sequence to sequence model as the generator to generate keywords, conditioned on the user query, and use a recurrent neural network model as the discriminator to play an adversarial game with the generator. By applying the trained generator, we can generate keywords directly from a given query, so that we can highly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of query-keyword matching based ads selection in search advertising. We trained the proposed model in the clicked query-keyword pair dataset from a commercial search advertising system. Evaluation results show that the generated keywords are more relevant to the given query compared with the baseline model and they have big potential to bring extra revenue improvement.
REGIONAL CONFLICT AND MILITARY SPENDING IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

[In the paper that follows, we have desired to have a look at the problem of militarization and its growth in relation to economic development of poor countries from the perspective of a scholar who has grown up in such a country and is extremely sensitive to its needs. We have not asked for a critical evaluation of studies that have been done. Almost invariably these studies have used theories, methods and tools designed by scholars in advanced countries — theories, methods and tools inappropriate for attacking problems of development or non-development in a great number of cultures so different from those of developed countries. The fact that so many contradictory and inconclusive findings are recorded in these studies already suggests the need for a completely fresh approach. Perhaps this paper by Chatterji may assist in meeting this need. (eds.)]
Between the Ethical and the Political: The Difference of Ambiguity

Taking up Beauvoir’s theories of intentionality and ambiguity, largue that patriarcy misreads the relationship between the ethical and the political, that we need to reconsider this relationship and that a just politics of liberation must remember its debt to the ethical moment of the gift.
Identification of False-Positive CK-MB Activity in an Elderly Patient

An unusual occurrence of an aberrant CK-MB activity in an elderly female patient is described. The CK-MB-like activity present in serum samples from this patient was definitively identified as an immunoglobulin A complex of CK-MM (macro CK, type 1) using CK isoenzyme agarose gel electrophoresis after pretreating the patient’s serum sample with either anti-immunoglobulin A antiserum or anti-CK-M antibody reagent.
Hydrological Cycle and Water Budgets

The Earth's geology, its atmosphere, and the phenomenon of life have been profoundly influenced by water through geological time. One manifestation of this influence is the hydrological cycle, a continuous exchange of water among the lithosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. The present-day hydrological cycle is characterized by a vigorous circulation of an almost insignificant fraction, about 0.01%, of the total water existing on the Earth. Almost all beings on land require freshwater for sustenance. Yet, remarkably, they have evolved and proliferated depending on the repeated reuse of such a small fraction of available water. The partitioning of water among the components of the hydrological cycle at a given location constitutes water balance. Water-balance evaluations are of philosophical interest in comprehending the geological and biological evolution of the Earth and of practical value in environmental and natural-resource management on various scales. The purpose here is to outline the essential elements of the hydrological cycle and water budgets relevant to inland waters and aquatic ecosystems.
On the structure of starch-iodine

It was previously shown that the combination of resonance Raman and iodine-129 Moessbauer spectroscopy, aided by studies of appropriately selected model compounds, can be used effectively to elucidate polyiodide structure in low-dimensional mixed valence materials. These techniques are applied to a study of the structure of starch-iodine. Unambiguous evidence is provided that the predominant polyiodide species within the amylose helix is I/sub 5//sup -/. (JSR)
Pixaura: supporting tentative decision making when selecting and sharing digital photos

Current advances in digital technology promote capturing and storing more digital photos than ever. While photo collections are growing in size, the amount of time that can be devoted to viewing, managing, and sharing digital photos remains constant. Photo decision-making and selection has been identified as key to addressing this concern. After conducting exploratory research on photo decision-making including a wide-scale survey of user behaviors, detailed contextual inquiries, and longer-term diary studies, Pixaura was designed to address problems that emerged from our research. Specifically, Pixaura aims to bridge the gap between importing source photos and sharing them with others, by supporting tentative decision-making within the selection process. For this experience, the system incorporates certain core elements: 1) flexibility to experiment with relationships between photos and groups of photos, 2) the ability to closely couple photos while sharing only a subset of those photos, and 3) a tight connection between the photo selection and photo sharing space.
Mandatory Health Care Provider Counseling For Parents Led To A Decline In Vaccine Exemptions In California

Receipt of childhood vaccinations in the US has been declining, and outbreaks of preventable infectious diseases have become more common. In response, in 2014 California implemented a policy change...
Modeling the Benefits of Cooperative Drafting: Is There an Optimal Strategy to Facilitate a Sub-2-Hour Marathon Performance?

During a race, competing cyclists often cooperate by alternating between leading and drafting positions. This approach allows them to maximize velocity by using the energy saved while drafting, a technique to reduce the overall drag by exploiting the leader’s slipstream. We have argued that a similar cooperative drafting approach could benefit elite marathon runners in their quest for the sub-2-hour marathon. Our aim was to model the effects of various cooperative drafting scenarios on marathon performance by applying the critical velocity concept for intermittent high-intensity running. We used the physiological characteristics of the world’s most elite long-distance runners and mathematically simulated the depletion and recovery of their distance capacity when running above and below their critical velocity throughout a marathon. Our simulations showed that with four of the most elite runners in the world, a 2:00:48 (h:min:s) marathon is possible, a whopping 2 min faster than the current world record. We also explored the possibility of a sub-2-hour marathon using multiple runners with the physiological characteristics of Eliud Kipchoge, arguably the best marathon runner of our time. We found that a team of eight Kipchoge-like runners could break the sub-2-hour marathon barrier. In the context of cooperative drafting, we show that the best team strategy for improving marathon performance time can be optimized using a mathematical model that is based on the physiological characteristics of each athlete.
Learning schatten-von neumann operators

We study the learnability of a class of compact operators known as Schatten--von Neumann operators. These operators between infinite-dimensional function spaces play a central role in a variety of applications in learning theory and inverse problems. We address the question of sample complexity of learning Schatten-von Neumann operators and provide an upper bound on the number of measurements required for the empirical risk minimizer to generalize with arbitrary precision and probability, as a function of class parameter $p$. Our results give generalization guarantees for regression of infinite-dimensional signals from infinite-dimensional data. Next, we adapt the representer theorem of Abernethy \emph{et al.} to show that empirical risk minimization over an a priori infinite-dimensional, non-compact set, can be converted to a convex finite dimensional optimization problem over a compact set. In summary, the class of $p$-Schatten--von Neumann operators is probably approximately correct (PAC)-learnable via a practical convex program for any $p < \infty$.
Regional Musculoskeletal Syndromes and the Use of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound

Regional musculoskeletal pain is a common complaint. Knowledge of clinical anatomy and careful clinical evaluation is key to delineating the cause of pain. Despite careful clinical examination, it may be difficult to pinpoint the pathoanatomical basis of pain. The advent of musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) has provided a means of visualizing soft tissues and using dynamic movements to correlate the source of pain. This chapter highlights the typical features and clinical examination of common causes of regional musculoskeletal pain and addresses the role of ultrasound in these conditions.
Phaeohyphomycotic Rhinitis Caused by Bipolaris hawaiiensis in a Horse.

Abstract This case represents the first reported case of Bipolaris hawaiiensis infection in an equid, and its aggressive clinical course. This case provides important descriptive and prognostic information for horses diagnosed with phaeohyphomycotic rhinitis. A 19-year-old American Quarter Horse mare was presented for second opinion of stertor and exercise intolerance of four-month duration. Endoscopy revealed generalized, proximal nasal edema, and computed tomography identified a soft tissue mass eroded through the rostral nasal bone. Biopsy of the mass was identified as a fungal granuloma caused by B. hawaiiensis resulting in chronic invasive fungal rhinitis. Treatment options were limited because of invasive infection, financial constraints, fungal sensitivity results, and published accounts of in vivo behavior of the organism. The infection progressed, resulting in euthanasia. In this case of equine phaeohyphomycosis, B. hawaiiensis was likely traumatically introduced into the patient’s nasal cavity. Its aggressive nature in an apparently immunocompetent patient is noteworthy, in the face of surgical debridement and attempted medical therapy. Therapeutic decisions were challenging in this case based on limited in vivo efficacy data in equids, pharmacokinetic challenges with available antifungal agents, and client-driven limitations regarding management of airway restriction.
Novel role of proton-secreting epithelial cells in sperm maturation and mucosal immunity.

Epithelial cells are immune sensors and mediators that constitute the first line of defense against infections. Using the epididymis, a model for studying tubular organs, we uncovered a novel and unexpected role for professional proton secreting “clear cells” in sperm maturation and immune defense. The epididymal epithelium participates in the maturation of spermatozoa, via the establishment of an acidic milieu, and transfer of proteins to sperm cells, a poorly characterized process. We show that proton-secreting “clear cells” express mRNA transcripts and proteins that are acquired by maturing sperm, and that they establish close interactions with luminal spermatozoa via newly described “nanotubes”. Mechanistic studies show that injection of bacterial antigens in vivo induces chemokine expression in clear cells, followed by macrophage recruitment into the organ. Injection of an inflammatory intermediate mediator (IFN-gamma) increased Cxcl10 expression in clear cells, revealing their participation as sensors and mediators of inflammation. The functional diversity adopted by clear cells might represent a generalized phenomenon by which similar epithelial cells decode signals, communicate with neighbors, and mediate mucosal immunity, depending on their precise location within an organ.
Inversion and Diasporas: Decolonizing Racialized Sexuality Transnationally

This work explores decolonizing a multifaceted construction of sexuality, by uncovering colonial Latin American constructions of race and gender, in dialogue with how religion has been a force of this construction. In a process of building a critique to theologies that identified with power structures, Liberation Theologies argued that “the poor” become a category of subjects. Yet, without the multilayered ways in which such a broad category was constructed in the context of Latin America, I contend that decolonization projects can dismiss how systems of power in Latin America were constructed on the backs of black and brown people, their labor and exploitation through a violent sexual history. This history continues to figure in their critique of power structures.
A highly efficient control framework for centralized residential charging coordination of large electric vehicle populations

Abstract The potential for widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) brings with it the potential for negative impacts on the electric grid from electric vehicle charging. Uncoordinated PEV charging may increase electricity demand during peak hours, which could create concerns for the grid as the number of PEVs increases. Therefore, it is important to coordinate charging to alleviate potential negative impacts. Centralized charging coordination is preferred by grid operator over distributed control strategies because it can systematically allocate energy across a large population of PEVs and achieve global coordination benefits. However, centralized methods presented in the literature to date require prohibitively expensive computational resources and lack realistic PEV charging models. As a result, they cannot achieve the efficiency and accuracy required to implement charging coordination in the real world. This paper introduces a highly efficient receding horizon control framework that enables dynamic charging coordination for large PEV populations. A two-stage hierarchical optimization routine is proposed that aggregates individual PEV charging flexibility to reduce the computational complexity of the optimization process. The control framework is based on high-fidelity, validated charging system models and charging behavior models derived from a real-world data set of residential charging activities collected from thousands of charging stations over multiple years. Case studies illustrate that the proposed charging control framework is capable of effectively coordinating the charging of millions of PEVs using a standard desktop computer.
Response to comment on "The fragility of alkali silicate glass melts: Part of a universal topological pattern"

Abstract In their Comment, Wilkinson and Mauro (WM) raise the issue that our coarse-graining interpretation of the fragility in network forming glasses lacks the first derivative quality inherent in their temperature-dependent constraint theory (TDCT). In response, we clarify this issue and acknowledge that both approaches are in conflict and each is struggling for validation. As something of a way forward, we challenge proponents of TDCT to resolve a puzzle in the fragility trends of simple binary alkali oxide glasses.
The changing landscape of perinatal regionalization

Regionalization, which emphasizes matching patient needs with the capabilities of the hospital in which care is provided, has long been a recommended approach to reducing neonatal morbidity and mortality. Over the past decade, research methods surrounding the measurement and evaluation of such programs have improved, thus strengthening arguments for implementation of these strategies. However, regionalization policies vary widely across regions and between countries, with potential impacts on neonatal outcomes as well as costs of care. It is important to account for geographic and other regional differences when determining the feasibility of regionalization for a specific region, as certain areas and populations may need particular consideration in order for regionalization policies to be successful.
Navigating Tensions of Research and Teaching: Biology Graduate Students’ Perceptions of the Research–Teaching Nexus within Ecological Contexts

Graduate students represent both a significant component of the instructional team for biology departments as well as being students themselves learning to become academics. However, little is known about how biology graduate students perceive the relationships among their academic roles, particularly research and teaching. The present study used a cross-sectional survey to elicit the perceptions biology graduate students hold about the relationship between research and teaching. This work is an important first step in understanding the socialization processes of graduate students. Findings indicated that the majority of biology graduate students (65.5% of n = 255) hold synergistic perceptions of research and teaching. This is in spite of the mixed messages that biology graduate students hear about this relationship, including both "Teaching detracts from research" and "Teaching supports research." Findings from this study have implications for multiple stakeholders in graduate education, including professional developers who need to be cognizant of the messages that are received and internalized by biology graduate students while engaged in professional development opportunities. Results also suggest that work is needed to address how messages are prioritized and internalized during graduate school.
The Nab2 RNA binding protein promotes sex-specific splicing of Sex lethal in Drosophila neuronal tissue

The Drosophila polyadenosine RNA binding protein Nab2, which is orthologous to a human protein lost in a form of inherited intellectual disability, controls axon projection, locomotion, and memory. Here we define an unexpectedly specific role for Nab2 in regulating splicing of ~150 exons/introns in the head transcriptome and link the most prominent of these, female retention of a male-specific exon in the sex determination factor Sex-lethal (Sxl), to a role in m6A-dependent mRNA splicing. Genetic evidence indicates that aberrant Sxl splicing underlies multiple phenotypes in Nab2 mutant females. At a molecular level, Nab2 associates with Sxl pre-mRNA and ensures proper female-specific splicing by preventing m6A hypermethylation by Mettl3 methyltransferase. Consistent with these results, reducing Mettl3expression rescues developmental, behavioral and neuroanatomical phenotypes in Nab2 mutants. Overall these data identify Nab2 as a required regulator of m6A-regulated Sxl splicing and imply a broader link between Nab2 and Mettl3-regulated brain RNAs.
Utility of the INTERMACS Database on Studying Psychosocial Risk Factors in LVAD Patients

Purpose Guidelines recommend psychosocial evaluation on all patients undergoing left ventricular assist device (LVAD) evaluation; however, universal criteria have not been established. Lack of universal guidelines makes determining candidacy in high-risk patients difficult and often subjective. Previous studies have utilized the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) database to study the impact of high-risk psychosocial factors on outcomes in patients receiving LVADs. We aimed to study the reliability of the INTERMACS database on identifying patients with psychosocial risk factors through comparison with chart review. Methods A retrospective review was performed utilizing the INTERMACS database to identify patients with high-risk psychosocial factors prior to LVAD implantation from 2009-2019. Psychosocial factors included history of alcohol abuse, history of illicit substance use disorder, history of repeated non-compliance, and limited social support. Each patient identified as having a high-risk psychosocial factor in the INTERMACS database underwent chart review in the electronic medical record to further evaluate for the presence of these factors prior to implantation. Results In the INTERMACS database 89/426 (21%) of patients were noted to have a high-risk psychosocial factor. 45% vs 42.6% had a history of alcohol abuse, 36% vs 18% had a history of substance use disorder, 10% vs 19% had a history of repeated non-compliance, and 18% vs 19% had limited social support when comparing INTERMACS with chart review respectively (Table 1). Conclusion The INTERMACS database is an important tool necessary to collect and analyze information in patients who receive LVADs. The discrepancy between INTERMACS data and our chart review illustrates the need for universal psychosocial definitions and increased granularity when collecting psychosocial data when evaluating patients for LVAD implantation to more accurately study their impact on outcomes.
Guard of Honor against Misogyny and White Supremacy

No critical study of James Gould Cozzens or of the American literature of his generation has ever quoted this description of the life that a smart, sensitive, educated woman of the mid-1940s was ob...