cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
218: Bedside Ultrasound Evaluation of Tendon Injuries

Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the overall accuracy of bedside extremity tendon ultrasound performed by emergency physicians in the emergency department. We also sought to investigate whether or not bedside tendon ultrasonography can be used to expedite the diagnosis and discharge planning in patients with suspected tendon injuries. Methods: This was a prospective study conducted at 2 academic level 1 trauma centers. Thirty-four patients were enrolled and underwent a comprehensive physical examination of the injured extremity, followed by a bedside ultrasound evaluation to look for tendon disruption. Results of the tendon ultrasound were compared against the findings seen during wound exploration in the emergency department, wound exploration in the operating room, or results from an extremity magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: There were 6 finger injuries, 11 hand injuries, 6 arm injuries, 6 forearm injuries, and 5 lower extremity injuries. Of the 34 total patients, 4 patients had partial tendon injuries, 9 suffered from 100% tendon laceration or rupture, and 21 had no tendon injury noted on exploration or MRI. Bedside ultrasound had a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 100%, 95%, and 97%, respectively. Physical examination had a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 100%, 76%, and 85%, respectively. Average time to bedside ultrasound was 46.3 minutes compared with 138.6 minutes for wound irrigation and exploration, MRI, or surgery consultation. Conclusion: Bedside ultrasound is more sensitive and specific than physical examination for detecting tendon lacerations, and takes less time to perform than traditional wound exploration techniques or MRI.
Balanced X chromosome inactivation patterns in the Rett syndrome brain

In Rett syndrome (RTT), an X-linked disorder essentially limited to females, neurological development goes awry. Causing this disarray in neuronal function is a mutated form of a protein known as methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2). Because the MECP2 gene is subject to X chromosome inactivation (XCI) in females, a number of studies have addressed whether the percentage of cells inactivating the normal vs. mutant chromosome in heterozygous females influences the phenotypic outcome of MECP2 mutations. Because most of these studies measured XCI in peripheral blood, however, interpretation of the results requires the assumption that XCI patterns in blood are representative of those in the brain, the primarily affected tissue. Here, we have analyzed the MECP2 sequence and XCI status in 13 brains of RTT patients. Mutations were identified in nine of the cases, with eight of these representing C to T transitions at CpG dinucleotides, and one being a novel frameshift mutation (765delA). Patterns of XCI were balanced in 10 of 10 cases for which the assay was informative. As previous studies have shown that a majority of RTT patients have balanced XCI patterns in peripheral blood, our results suggest that the pattern in blood is an accurate indicator of XCI patterns in the brain for a majority of cases, but there are some notable exceptions that this study may help explain. Given the correlation between balanced XCI and classic RTT, these results suggest that a certain percentage of neurons expressing the mutant MECP2 gene may be required for RTT to become manifest. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Club Sports: Maximizing Positive Outcomes and Minimizing Risks

Today’s college students are getting involved outside the classroom in record numbers. One area that has witnessed massive growth is the realm of club sports. A New York Times article estimated that nearly two million students across the nation actively participate in club sports (Pennington, 2008). With so many students clamoring for these programs it is essential for institutions of higher education too understand what exactly a club sport is, and how it differs from its cousins, varsity sports and intramural sports. It is also important to recognize the many positive outcomes that can be a product of club sports. Club sports have the potential to support the educational mission of colleges and universities and can play an integral role in student success (Roberts, Miller, & Wells, 2003, p. 11). They can also contribute to student’s pride in their institution and may play a factor in their willingness to give back after graduation. It is also important to identify the many areas of potential risk that e...
Disaster Recovery Service Delivery: Toward a Theory of Simultaneous Government and Voluntary Sector Failures

This article introduces a theory of government and voluntary sector failure in the context of disaster relief and recovery. It theorizes that government and voluntary sectors will fail based on the...
Autoradiographic analysis of normal trophoblastic proliferation.

Analysis of the cell cycle has been made possible by the introduction of high resolution autoradiographic techniques with tritiated thymidine, a specific DNA precursor. This article reports a study of the cell cycle of normal early trophoblast. Placental tissue, made available by therapeutic abortion, was maintained in organ culture. The tissue was exposed to tritiated thymidine for variable periods of time and autoradiographs were prepared by the dipping method of Messier and Leblond. By using grain counts, timing of labeled mitosis, and the appearance of label in various cells, the typical cell cycle for trophoblast was formulated. The duration of DNA synthesis was approximately 5 1/2 hours. G1, phase was 7 hours and G2 was 2 hours. The generation time was 15 hours and turnover time 3 to 4 days.
An Overview of Hot- and Warm-Forming of Al-Mg Alloys

Al-Mg alloys exhibit remarkable hot and warm ductilities, which have made the 5000-series alloys a critical part of commercial hot gas-pressure forming operations for the transportation industry. A review of the metallurgical and practical engineering reasons for this success is presented, and new understanding for behaviors in these materials, expected to impact future advances in hot- and warm-forming technology, are described. The excellent formabilities in this material class are fundamentally attributable to two deformation mechanisms, grain-boundary-sliding and solute-drag creep. However, a number of failure mechanisms ultimately limit final ductility and formability. These include cavitation, flow localization and microstructure evolution. The interplay of these mechanisms is discussed in terms of the potential to improve processing windows in forming operations.
Preparation and Study of Colloidal CdO Nanoparticles by Laser Ablation in Polyvinylpyrrolidone

Nanoparticles NPS of cadmium oxide CdO were generated by laser ablation of a solid target (cadmium) in polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) solution. CdO colloidal nanoparticles have been synthesized by laser ablation Nd:YAG (1064 nm, 100 pulses, pulse energy= 400 mJ) when the solid target CdO was immersed in PVP. Structure, topography and optical properties of the CdO nanoparticles NPS have been studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscope (AFM) and the UV-Vis absorption respectively.
Control of Transmission Eigenchannels by Modifying the Geometry of Turbid Media

We manipulate light transport in a disordered waveguide by tailoring the boundary shape. The spatial structure of transmission channels is deterministically and significantly modified, enabling an efficient control of energy deposition inside the turbid medium.
Krawtchouk matrices from the Feynman path integral and from the split quaternions

An interpretation of Krawtchouk matrices in terms of discrete version of the Feynman path integral is given. Also, an algebraic characterization in terms of the algebra of split quaternions is provided. The resulting properties include an easy inference of the spectral decomposition. It is also an occasion for an expository clarification of the role of Krawtchouk matrices in different areas, including quantum information.
Integration of gender-transformative interventions into health professional education reform for the 21st century: implications of an expert review

Gender discrimination and inequality in health professional education (HPE) affect students and faculty and hinder production of the robust health workforces needed to meet health and development goals, yet HPE reformers pay scant attention to these gender barriers. Gender equality must be a core value and professional practice competency for all actors in HPE and health employment systems. Peer-review and non-peer-review literature previously identified in a review of the literature identified interventions to counter gender discrimination and inequality in HPE and tertiary education systems in North America and the Caribbean; West, East, and Southern Africa; Asia; the Middle East and North Africa; Europe; Australia; and South America. An assessment considered 51 interventions addressing sexual harassment (18), caregiver discrimination (27), and gender equality (6). Reviewers with expertise in gender and health system strengthening rated and ranked interventions according to six gender-transformative criteria. Thirteen interventions were considered to have transformational potential to address gender-related obstacles to entry, retention, career progression, and graduation in HPE, when implemented in core sets of interventions. The review identified one set with potential to counter sexual harassment in HPE and two sets to counter caregiver discrimination. Gender centers and equal employment opportunity units are structural interventions that can address multiple forms of gender discrimination and inequality. The paper’s broad aim is to encourage HPE leaders to make gender-transformative reforms in the current way of doing business and commit to themselves to countering gender discrimination and inequality. Interventions to counter gender discrimination should be seen as integral parts of institutional and instructional reforms and essential investments to scale up quality HPE and recruit and retain health workers in the systems that educate and employ them. Implementation challenges spanning financial, informational, and cultural barriers need consideration. The application of core sets of interventions and a strong learning agenda should be part of ongoing HPE reform efforts.
J. R. Randolph Middle School

Kyle and Addie quietly passed each other in the west hall on the second floor of Randolph Middle School, every day between 1:47 – 1:50 p.m. Kyle walked to math, her favorite subject, while Addie walked to P.E. dreading it. Kyle and Addie did not know one another.
Design and Realization of Data Warehouse for Coastal Restoration

The goal of this paper is to propose a practical data warehouse model for the coastal restoration analysis. Coastal restoration practitioners are developing new and innovative ways to increase the efficiency and success of restoration efforts. These new methods range considerably in their scale of application, from addressing small, site-specific issues, to having a larger, regional or national focus. The proposed design of the data warehouse improves the decision capabilities of the existing independent coastal restoration decision support systems. The unified model also allows flexibility of adding new restoration projects in future. In this paper, we first try to identify the data warehousing design implications, and propose a multidimensional spatial model that supports the analyses. We then present sample queries, and define measures by which the coastal restoration data model can be evaluated.
Effect of single dose intraoperative IV acetaminophen in pediatric tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy

Abstract Background A number of different treatment regimens have been described for post-operative pain management for pediatric tonsillectomy following the widespread discontinuation of the use of codeine due to safety concerns. However, the literature is lacking with regard to the relative efficacy of the treatment regimens. This study is designed to determine the effectiveness of an intraoperative dose of intravenous acetaminophen for pediatric tonsillectomy pain management. Methods Records were reviewed for pediatric patients undergoing tonsillectomy with a single surgeon between 2012 and 2014. Pain scores, need for narcotic analgesics, and recovery times were reviewed for up to 24 postoperative hours. Patients were grouped based on whether they received an intraoperative dose of intravenous acetaminophen (Group 1) or did not receive it (Group 2). The primary outcome measure was pain score during the 24-h post-operative period. Secondary outcome measures include need for narcotic medications for breakthrough pain in the recovery room and time spent in the recovery room and hospital. Results 350 patients were included, of which 116 received an intraoperative dose of intravenous acetaminophen. Patients in Group 1 had lower pain scores during the second postoperative hour (1.27 vs. 2.06, p = 0.008). No significant differences were noted for pain scores during postoperative hours 1 or 3–24. Patients in Group 1 spent less time in the Recovery Room (59.08 min vs. 69.5 min, p = 0.016) but more time in the hospital (24.54 h vs. 19.66 h, p = 0.030). There was no difference between the groups based on whether the patients received narcotics for breakthrough pain in the recovery room (79.3% vs. 70.9%, p = 0.094). Conclusion Intraoperative intravenous acetaminophen may lead to improved pain scores in the early postoperative period and decreased time in the recovery room, but this group also had a longer hospital stay. This information should instigate randomized controlled trials of this intervention.
Atomic secrets and the red scare

Almost everyone has heard of the "Oppenheimer affair". It took place between 1953–54 when the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, was subjected to a humiliating show trial by the Atomic Energy Commission and subsequently permanently stripped of his security clearance. But most people, including most historians of science, know little else about the fate of the scientific community in the "red scare" period that stretched from the end of the Second World War to the excesses of the McCarthy era. Jessica Wang's 1) book is important, ground-breaking and compelling because, for the first time, it critically and carefully studies American scientists' encounters with anti-communism in the period leading up to the Oppenheimer affair.
Incorporating food web dynamics into ecological restoration: a modeling approach for river ecosystems.

Restoration is frequently aimed at the recovery of target species, but also influences the larger food web in which these species participate. Effects of restoration on this broader network of organisms can influence target species both directly and indirectly via changes in energy flow through food webs. To help incorporate these complexities into river restoration planning, we constructed a model that links river food web dynamics to in-stream physical habitat and riparian vegetation conditions. We present an application of the model to the Methow River, Washington, USA, a location of on-going restoration aimed at recovering salmon. Three restoration strategies were simulated: riparian vegetation restoration, nutrient augmentation via salmon carcass addition, and side channel reconnection. We also added populations of nonnative aquatic snails and fish to the modeled food web to explore how changes in food web structure mediate responses to restoration. Simulations suggest that side channel reconnection may be a better strategy than carcass addition and vegetation planting for improving conditions for salmon in this river segment. However, modeled responses were strongly sensitive to changes in the structure of the food web. The addition of nonnative snails and fish modified pathways of energy through the food web, which negated restoration improvements. This finding illustrates that forecasting responses to restoration may require accounting for the structure of food webs, and that changes in this structure, as might be expected with the spread of invasive species, could compromise restoration outcomes. Unlike habitat-based approaches to restoration assessment that focus on the direct effects of physical habitat conditions on single species of interest, our approach dynamically links the success of target organisms to the success of competitors, predators, and prey. By elucidating the direct and indirect pathways by which restoration affects target species, dynamic food web models can improve restoration planning by fostering a deeper understanding of system connectedness and dynamics.
The US Commercial Nuclear Power Plants and Their Potential Risks

This chapter will lay a foundational knowledge regarding commercial nuclear power plants in the USA and their potential risks. This chapter will primarily cover the historical development of the US commercial nuclear power plants and their significance in American history. Further, it will also cover commercial nuclear power plants which are currently in operations throughout the USA. A discussion on risks associated with US commercial nuclear power plants will follow, in addition to covering some of the inevitable risks associated with nuclear power plant facilities. Finally, it proposes a conceptual framework to minimize the risks stemming from the US commercial nuclear power plants for the future of risk management as it pertains to nuclear power.
Abstract B66: Novel adjuvant therapy for obesity-related cancers

Obesity incidence has reached alarming levels, particularly in minority populations: African American (AA) and Latinos. The risk of develop several cancers (i.e., breast, pancreatic and endometrial cancers) is strongly correlated to obesity. One of the essential factors involved in this relationship is leptin, the major adipokine secreted by adipose and tumor cells. Leptin is a mitogenic, proangiogenic, antiapoptotic and inflammatory factor that induces tumor growth and metastasis. Leptin has also been shown to increase cancer stem cell population and drug resistance in tumors. We have produced a potent and specific antagonist (LPrA2) that blocks leptin signaling and impairs its effects on cancer cells. LPrA2 conjugated to iron-oxide nanoparticles (IONP-LPrA2) shows enhanced bioavailability (half-life 8x higher) and inhibition effectiveness on leptin signaling in cancer cells. It is hypothesized that IONP-LPrA2 could serve as an adjuvant that increases effectiveness and allows the reduction of dosage of chemotherapeutic drugs, particularly in obesity contexts. Breast (E0771-TAM tamoxifen resistant, Py-8119, MDA-MB231, HCC1806 and MCF-7) and pancreatic cancer cells (Panc-1, BxPC-3, MiaPaca2), and their derived tumorspheres were treated with leptin, chemotherapeutics (Cisplatin, Doxorubicin, Paclitaxel and Gemcitabine) and IONP-LPrA2. Additionally, E0771-TAM and Py-8119 cells, and MDA-MB231 and Panc-1 tumorspheres were inoculated in C57BL/6J female mice (obese and lean) and female and male CD1 nu/nu mice. The mice were treated with IONP-LPrA2 during 4 weeks. Leptin induced proliferation and cell cycle progression in all cancer cells tested. Leptin also increased the number and size of breast and pancreatic cancer tumorspheres, and the levels of cancer stem cell (ALDH1, CD44, CD24, ESA), and chemoresistant (ABCB1) and pluripotent (NANOG) markers. IONP-LPrA2 treatment increased the effects of chemotherapeutics on cancer cells, and delayed tumor onset and growth. These data suggest that leptin is a mitogenic factor that increases cancer aggressiveness and survival. IONP-LPrA2 is a promising chemotherapeutic adjuvant, especially for patients suffering from obesity-related cancers. Citation Format: Pierre Candelaria, Tia Harmon, Adriana Harbuzariu, Antonio Rampoldi, Crystal Lipsey, Mckay Mullen, Ann Kurian, Courtney Dill, Cynthia Tchio, Danielle Daley-Brown, Shakeyla Nunez, Viola Lanier, Ruben Rene Gonzalez-Perez. Novel adjuvant therapy for obesity-related cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B66.
Outcomes Following Possible Undiagnosed Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Contemporary Analysis.

Objectives Existing literature suggests that patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and “sentinel” aSAH symptoms prompting health care evaluations prior to aSAH diagnosis are at increased risk of unfavorable neurologic outcomes and death. Accordingly these encounters have been presumed to be unrecognized opportunities to diagnose aSAH, and the worse downstream outcomes representative of the added risks of delayed diagnoses. We sought to reinvestigate this paradigm among a contemporary cohort of patients with aSAH. Methods A case-control cohort was retrospectively assembled among patients diagnosed with aSAH between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2013 within an integrated healthcare delivery system. Patients with a discrete clinical evaluation for headache or neck pain within 14 days prior to formal aSAH diagnosis were identified as cases, and the remaining patients served as controls. Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores at 90 days and 1 year were determined by structured chart review. Multivariable logistic regression controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, presence of intracerebral or intraventricular hemorrhage at diagnosis, and aneurysm size was used to compare adjusted outcomes. Sensitivity analyses were performed using varying definitions of favorable neurologic outcomes, a restricted control subgroup of patients with normal mental status at hospital admission, inclusion of additional cases that were diagnosed outside of the integrated health system, and exclusion of patients without evidence of subarachnoid blood on initial non-contrast cranial computed tomography at the diagnostic encounter (i.e. “CT-negative” SAH). Results 450 patients with aSAH were identified, 46 (10%) of whom had clinical evaluations for possible aSAH-related symptoms in the 14 days preceding formal diagnosis (cases). In contrast to prior reports, no differences were observed among cases as compared to control patients in adjusted odds of death or unfavorable neurologic status at 90 days (0.35, 95%CI 0.11-1.15; 0.59, 95%CI 0.22-1.60, respectively) or at 1 year (0.58, 95%CI 0.19-1.73; 0.52, 95%CI 0.18-1.51, respectively). Likewise, neither restricting the analysis to a control subgroup of patients with normal mental status at hospital admission, varying the dichotomous definition of unfavorable neurologic outcome, inclusion of cases diagnosed outside the integrated health system, or exclusion of patients with CT-negative SAH resulted in significant adjusted outcome differences. Conclusion In a contemporary cohort of patients with aSAH, we observed no statistically significant increase in the adjusted odds of death or unfavorable neurologic outcomes among patients with clinical evaluations for possible aSAH-related symptoms in the 14 days preceding formal diagnosis of aSAH. While these findings cannot exclude a smaller risk difference than previously reported, they can help refine decision analyses and testing threshold determinations for patients with possible aSAH. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Are validated patient-reported outcomes used on children in pediatric otolaryngology? A systematic review

Abstract Objectives Review the pediatric otolaryngology literature to 1) identify studies in which children completed patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures and 2) appraise the psychometric quality and validity of these PROs as they apply to pediatrics. Methods In October 2016, a systematic review was performed by two reviewers on PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE for all otolaryngology-related studies that utilized PROs in children. Inclusion criteria included articles that required children (age Results Interrater agreement was very good (κ = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85–0.98). Out of 316 articles retrieved, 11 met inclusion criteria. Eight PROs were identified. Six PROs were tested for validity and three of these PROs were tested for validity specifically within children. The most frequently utilized PRO was the Pediatric Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire. Two studies (18.2%) utilized PROs within the scope of their validation. Seven studies (63.6%) used PROs outside the scope of their validation. Two studies (18.2%) used non-validated PROs. Conclusions Patient-reported outcomes have become an integral part of research and quality improvement. There is a relative paucity of PROs directed towards children in pediatric otolaryngology and some studies utilized PROs that were not validated or not validated for use in this age group. Future efforts to design and validate more instruments may be warranted.
Radiotheranostics in Cancer Diagnosis and Management

Theranostics is the systematic integration of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics; radiotheranostics refers to the use of radionuclides for the paired imaging and therapy agents.
Dependence on subconcussive impacts of brain metabolism in collision sport athletes: an MR spectroscopic study

Long term neurological impairments due to repetitive head trauma are a growing concern for collision sport athletes. American Football has the highest rate of reported concussions among male high school athletes, a position held by soccer for female high school athletes. Recent research has shown that subconcussive events experienced by collision sport athletes can be a further significant source of accrued damage. Collision sport athletes experience hundreds of subconcussive events in a single season, and these largely go uninvestigated as they produce no overt clinical symptoms. Continued participation by these seemingly uninjured athletes is hypothesized to increase susceptibility to diagnoseable brain injury. This study paired magnetic resonance spectroscopy with head impact monitoring to quantify the relationship between metabolic changes and head acceleration event characteristics in high school-aged male football and female soccer collision sport athletes. During the period of exposure to subconcussive events, asymptomatic male (football) collision sport athletes exhibited statistically significant changes in concentrations of glutamate+glutamine (Glx) and total choline containing compounds (tCho) in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and female (soccer) collision sport athletes exhibited changes in glutamate+glutamine (Glx) in primary motor cortex. Neurometabolic alterations observed in football athletes during the second half of the season were found to be significantly associated with the average acceleration per head acceleration events, being best predicted by the accumulation of events exceeding 50 g. These marked deviations in neurometabolism, in the absence of overt symptoms, raise concern about the neural health of adolescent collision-sport athletes and suggest limiting exposure to head acceleration events may help to ameliorate the risk of subsequent cognitive impairment.
Recursive Descent Parsing

We have encountered grammars a number of times. We started our discussions of what a computation is by looking at grammars. We defined languages by devising grammars for defining them. We translated right-linear grammars into transition graphs and then into VLSI circuits. In this chapter, we study programs for parsing input strings, that is, programs that determine whether a given input string can be derived from a given grammar. In the case of right-linear grammars, we had a severe restriction on the grammar: every rule has a left-hand side of exactly one nonterminal and a right-hand side of a sequence of zero or more terminals followed by at most one nonterminal. This restriction corresponds to finite machines. In this chapter, the restriction is less severe. The left-hand side is still restricted to be one nonterminal but the right-hand side is unrestricted. This class of grammars is called the class of context-free grammars. Later on, we have to impose further restrictions to admit efficient parsing algorithms; in fact, we discuss only one parsing strategy. This strategy is called top-down parsing. We give an implementation in the form of a set of recursive procedures, and then the parsing method is sometimes referred to as parsing by recursive descent. This method is limited to grammars that satisfy the LL(1) condition, which is discussed later. We begin by discussing the parsing method in the context of the domino game, and we have a look at its implementation in the form of a set of recursive procedures. We explore the theoretical limitations, and we discuss ways of improving the practical feasibility of this method.
Diffusion-driven kernel design and algorithms for dynamic shape analysis

With the rapidly development of 3D data acquisition, a massive collection of dynamic shapes emerge and become ubiquitous in various real-world applications. It results in the urgent need of techniques for dynamic shape analysis and processing. Accordingly, a large body of literature has been dedicated to this study, in which heat diffusion and related tools are frequently used. This dissertation concentrates on kernels and algorithms derived from the diffusion theory, with the purpose of developing new techniques for dynamic shape analysis. Bivariate kernels represent point-to-point relations on manifolds. We introduce three kernels: geodesic Gaussian, admissible diffusion wavelet, and Mexican hat wavelet. The geodesic Gaussian is a Gaussian with geodesic metric, which is isometric invariant. It is a good approximation to the heat kernel at small scales. For large scales, we propose an efficient computing by a pyramid structure and the semi-group property. The admissible diffusion wavelet comes from diffusion wavelets. It is constructed in a bottom-up fashion by a diffusion operator and its dyadic powers. It can extract details of a function at different scales. The Mexican hat wavelet is defined as the negative first derivative of the heat kernel with respect to time. It is a solution to the heat equation with the Laplace-Beltrami operator as initial condition. We explore applications of these kernels in dynamic shape analysis, including feature detection, multiscale approximation, shape representation, geometry processing, etc. Functions generated by multiple kernels further enrich the kernel family. We present heat kernel coordinates, together with a complete solution for dense registration of partial nonrigid shapes. The coordinates consist of heat kernels from a set of features, and their magnitudes serve as priorities in registration. Based on diffusion wavelets, we propose the probability-density-function distance. It measures probability distributions rather than single points, which makes it resilient to small perturbations. For applications, we apply it to local coordinates and volumetric image registration. Together with some collaborators, we extend our work to anisotropic kernels and more algorithms, which demonstrate the wide application scope of the diffusion theory. At the end, we conclude this dissertation, by comparing the proposed kernel functions, discussing some remaining challenges, and envisioning broader applications.
Anomalous Discharge Product Distribution in Lithium-Air Cathodes

Using neutron tomographic imaging, we report for the first time the three-dimensional spatial distribution of lithium products in electrochemically discharged lithium-air cathodes. Neutron imaging finds a nonuniform lithium product distribution across the electrode thickness, with the lithium species concentration being higher near the edges of the Li-air electrode and relatively uniform in the center of the electrode. The experimental neutron images were analyzed in context of results obtained from 3D modeling that maps the spatiotemporal variation of the lithium product distribution using a kinetically coupled diffusion based transport model. The origin of such anomalous behavior is due to the competition between the transport of lithium and oxygen and the accompanying electrochemical kinetics. Quantitative understanding of these effects is a critical step toward rechargeability of Li-air electrochemical systems.
Compilation Techniques for Power, Energy, and Thermal Management

In addition to hardware and operating system directed techniques, compilerdirected power, energy, and thermal management has gained increasing importance. This chapter discusses the potential benefits of compiler-based approaches to solve the power/energy/thermal management problem. The ability of the compiler to reshape program behavior through aggressive, whole program optimizations, and to predict future program behaviors can give it an advantage over hardware and operating systems techniques. This chapter introduces several optimization metrics, together with state-of-the-art optimizations that target these
Reye’s Syndrome and Related Chemical Toxicity

We have examined the contribution of the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) to mitochondrial injury in Reye’s syndrome, Jamaican vomiting sickness, valproic acid toxicity, and related disorders. These disorders occur predominantly in children and are characterized by vomiting, acute hepatic failure, and coma. Strong evidence suggests hepatic injury in Reye’s syndrome is caused by mitochondrial dysfunction. Brain and liver mitochondria become swollen and pleomorphic, with decreased matrix density and loss of cristae (Partin et al., 1971; Sherratt, 1986; Sinniah and Baskaran, 1981). In Reye’s syndrome the extent of these structural changes correlates with the severity of the illness, especially in comatose patients, where mitochondrial alterations are consistently profound (Lichtenstein et al., 1983). Metabolic alterations in Reye’s-related disorders are also an indication of mitochondrial injury. Persistent high fever and high overall metabolic rate suggest a pattern of mitochondrial uncoupling with increased respiratory rates but decreased ATP formation by oxidative phosphorylation. Ureagenesis and oxidation are suppressed, causing hyperammonemia and increased serum dicarboxylic and free fatty acids. Mitochondrial enzymes of gluconeogenesis and the citric acid cycle are also depleted, contributing to hypoglycemia.
Carbene capture in a myoglobin mutant

Metalloprotein activity can be tuned by altering first- and second-sphere interactions with the metal ion or ions. Here, a non-canonical haem axial ligand is introduced into a myoglobin variant, modulating both. The resulting enhancement of cyclopropanation activity illustrates the utility of expanding the suite of available amino acids for biocatalyst engineering.
The Impact of Substrates on the Performance of Top-Gate p-Ga203 Field-Effect Transistors: Record High Drain Current of 980 mA/mm on Diamond

For high power devices, monolithic $\beta$ -Ga203 has been identified as an emerging ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material because it has a large bandgap of 4.8 eV and a high breakdown electric field of 8 MV/cm [1]. $\beta$ -Ga203 has also the potential to realize low-cost large-size native bulk substrates by melt-grown methods [2], [3]. However, the output power density and the maximum drain current density of $\beta$ -Ga203 devices can be seriously limited due to its low thermal conductivity $(\kappa$ of 10–25 W/m·K and self-heating effect (SHE) [4], [5]. If the heat from the channel cannot be well dissipated through the substrate, SHE can lead to significant channel temperature increase, thus degrade the device performance and the long-term reliability [6]. In order to overcome this material constraint, we explored nano-membrane transferring technique and studied $\beta$ -Ga203 nano-membrane field-effect transistors (FETs) on different foreign substrates such as sapphire $(\kappa=40\ \mathrm{W}/\mathrm{m}\cdot \mathrm{K})$ and Si0 2 /Si $(\kappa=1.5\ \mathrm{W}/\mathrm{m}\cdot \text{K for}\ 270\ \text{nm SiO}_{2})$ and compared the impact of these substrates on the device performance [7]–[9]. In this work, furthermore, we demonstrate the first B-Ga203 Fet on a diamond substrate with an extremely high thermal conductivity of $1,000\sim 2,200\ \mathrm{W}/\mathrm{m}\cdot \mathrm{K}$ [10] and compare with devices on a sapphire or Si0 2 /Si substrate.
Making sense of pragmatic and charismatic leadership stories: Effects on vision formation

Abstract For some time, it has been argued that stories articulated by leaders are an important vehicle for exercising influence, but stories of leadership might also serve as a means for developing leadership potential. One critical activity involved in leadership is vision formation, which involves constructing and communicating a future state that guides followers in “making sense” of complex organizational events. Like leader visions, analyzing stories also, by nature, evokes sensemaking processes. As a result, analyzing stories of leadership may provide a natural means for practicing the art of sensemaking. In the present investigation, undergraduates were asked to read six short stories about incidents of either pragmatic or charismatic leadership in business settings. After reading each story, questions were asked to encourage sensemaking of story events, causes, and emotions. Participants were subsequently asked to formulate visions for leading a secondary school –– a transfer task. It was found that stronger visions were produced when participants were asked to analyze both story events and the causes of these events. The implications of these findings for the use of leadership stories in leader development initiatives are discussed.
In memory of Charles Kao Kuen

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Charles Kao Kuen, the father of optical fiber, passed away on September 23, 2018, in Hong Kong, after battling Alzheimer's disease for years. He was 84. Known for his groundbreaking achievements involving the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication, Kao won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009, the Japan Prize in 1996, the Faraday Medal in 1989, and the Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 1985. Born in 1933 in Shanghai, his family left Shanghai when he was fourteen for Hong Kong in 1948. He studied at St. Joseph's College, a Catholic high school, for five years. He graduated in 1957 from Woolwich Polytechnic (now the University of Greenwich) in London with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. He received his PhD in electrical engineering at the University College, London in 1965. Kao worked in the private sector at the ITT Corporation. In 1987 Kao became the vice-chancellor (equivalent to the president) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong for nine years.
Alvimopan Significantly Reduces Length of Stay and Costs Following Colorectal Resection and Ostomy Reversal Even Within an Enhanced Recovery Protocol

BACKGROUND:Alvimopan accelerates GI recovery after colorectal resection. Data on real-world cost-effectiveness have been mixed.OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to evaluate if adding alvimopan to an enhanced recovery pathway reduces length of stay.DESIGN:Patients undergoing colorectal resection or ostomy r
Role of Work and Family Enrichment in the Relationship between Environment factors and Outcomes in Work And Non-Work Domains

Recently, researchers have started to draw a theory to explain the positive dynamics or work-familyenrichment between work and family domains. Current study uses the Resources-Gain- Development model to attempt to explain work and family enrichment dynamics among academic faculty. Results found support for nearly all hypotheses, confirming that support in work and family domains played a crucial role in work and family enrichment which in turn led to positive outcomes in both domains.Contributions to literature and future research are discussed.
Worst-case amplification of disturbances in inertialess flows of viscoelastic fluids

Abstract Amplification of deterministic disturbances in inertialess channel flows of viscoelastic fluids is studied by analyzing the frequency responses from spatio-temporal body forces to the velocity fluctuations. In strongly elastic flows, we show that velocity fluctuations can exhibit significant amplification even in the absence of inertia. Our analysis demonstrates that streamwise-constant disturbances are the most amplified. Explicit expressions are established for the worst-case amplification of velocity fluctuations arising from different components of the body forces. These show that amplification from the wall-normal and spanwise forces to the streamwise velocity component scales quadratically with the Weissenberg number. The underlying physical mechanism involves stretching of polymer stress fluctuations by a background shear, which is a close analog of the vortex titling mechanism that is responsible for amplification in inertial flows of Newtonian fluids.
Dissolving into the sea: cinematic migrants and the problem of agency

Films about irregular migration to Europe that centre on the Mediterranean sea crossing often unwittingly strengthen the regime of migrant (in)visibility furthered by sensationalist media, which in...
Defeating hidden audio channel attacks on voice assistants via audio-induced surface vibrations

Voice access technologies are widely adopted in mobile devices and voice assistant systems as a convenient way of user interaction. Recent studies have demonstrated a potentially serious vulnerability of the existing voice interfaces on these systems to "hidden voice commands". This attack uses synthetically rendered adversarial sounds embedded within a voice command to trick the speech recognition process into executing malicious commands, without being noticed by legitimate users. In this paper, we employ low-cost motion sensors, in a novel way, to detect these hidden voice commands. In particular, our proposed system extracts and examines the unique audio signatures of the issued voice commands in the vibration domain. We show that such signatures of normal commands vs. synthetic hidden voice commands are distinctive, leading to the detection of the attacks. The proposed system, which benefits from a speaker-motion sensor setup, can be easily deployed on smartphones by reusing existing on-board motion sensors or utilizing a cloud service that provides the relevant setup environment. The system is based on the premise that while the crafted audio features of the hidden voice commands may fool an authentication system in the audio domain, their unique audio-induced surface vibrations captured by the motion sensor are hard to forge. Our proposed system creates a harder challenge for the attacker as now it has to forge the acoustic features in both the audio and vibration domains, simultaneously. We extract the time and frequency domain statistical features, and the acoustic features (e.g., chroma vectors and MFCCs) from the motion sensor data and use learning-based methods for uniquely determining both normal commands and hidden voice commands. The results show that our system can detect hidden voice commands vs. normal commands with 99.9% accuracy by simply using the low-cost motion sensors that have very low sampling frequencies.
Trusted cloud: how to make the cloud more secure

Cloud computing is growing because of cost advantages and convenience it offers to customers. However, security and privacy continue to be major concerns. We wish to guard against a powerful adversary who can compromise the CloudOS, and uses all privileges of the CloudOS to compromise the integrity and confidentiality of user applications. Secure hardware and/or small trusted hypervisors are the main weapons in our arsenal to guard against such powerful adversaries. Secure hardware (such as Intel SGX) enables user mode applications to package code and data into regions that are isolated from all other software running on the machine. Isolated regions can also be implemented with a small trusted hypervisor. However, it is an open research question as to how entire cloud services can be built using trusted hardware as a primitive, while maintaining a small TCB, providing good performance and end-to-end security guarantees. The Trusted Cloud project at Microsoft Research explores ways to answer this question, and it builds on techniques spanning hardware, OS, compilers and verification tools. In this talk, I will describe our efforts on architecting trusted and more secure cloud services using these principles.
Modernism and Time Machines

Modernism and Time Machines places the fascination with time in canonical works of twentieth-century literature and art side-by-side with the rise of time-travel narratives and alternate histories in popular culture. Both modernism and this cardinal trope of science fiction produce a range of effects and insights that go beyond the exhilarations of simply sliding back and forth in history. Together the modernist time-obsession and the fantasy of moving in time help us to rethink the shapes of time, the consistency of timespace and the nature of history.
What Are Women Being Advised by Mentors When Applying to Surgery

Despite an increase in percentage of women entering the surgical field, women tend to favor certain surgical subspecialties. The purpose of this study was to investigate how surgeons advise trainees in pursuit of a surgical career. An 18-question survey was administered to members of the American College of Surgeons through their monthly newsletter NewScope. Respondents were asked to identify subspecialties that they would consider to be most receptive to men or women and how they would advise men and women pursuing a surgical specialty. There were 663 respondents, of which the majority (n = 465, 70.99%) were male. When asked if participants had a role model in medical school, 61.10 per cent had male role models/mentors, whereas only 7.96 per cent had female role models/mentors. Among the 23 surgical subspecialties listed, the top five specialties viewed as receptive for women were breast surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, plastic surgery, ophthalmology, and GS. Surgical specialty and gender of the respondent played a role in how surgeons advised men and women trainees, especially in specialties that traditionally have less female representation. There is inherent gender-based bias in advisement of trainees that may affect surgical specialty choice. Surgeon gender, age, and surgical specialty could be predictors as to how trainees are advised.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Decision to Stop the Adaptive COVID-19 Trial: On Solid Ethical and Scientific Grounds

On April 29, the National Institute of Health disclosed the preliminary findings of the ACTT-1 (Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial) ([NCT04280705][1]), the first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). ACTT was designed as an
The Destruction of a Shrine to Brahma in Bangkok and the Fall of Thaksin Shinawatra: The Occult and the Thai Coup in Thailand of September 2006

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