cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Towards privacy-preserving recognition of human activities

A smart room of the future is expected to facilitate intelligent interaction with its occupants while respecting their privacy. Although standard video cameras can be used to learn where the occupants are and what they do, they raise privacy concerns. While this can be mitigated by severely reducing camera resolution, it will also impact the utility of the camera network. This work investigates and quantifies the tradeoff between camera resolution and action recognition accuracy. Rather than building a physical testbed to carry out this study, we use a graphics engine to simulate a room with 5 cameras, and to animate avatars using skeletal movements of real users captured by a Kinect v2 camera. We study resolutions from 100×100 pixels down to 1×1 using a state-of-the-art action recognition method at higher resolutions and we propose a new approach at ultra-low resolutions. In extensive simulations, we conclude that on a dataset of 12 individuals performing 4 actions our algorithm applied to single-pixel data performs very close to the state-of-the-art method applied to 100×100 data, suggesting that reliable action recognition can be achieved without compromising occupant's identity.
How I treat erythema nodosum.

When confronted with a patient with erythema nodosum, what should the physician do? First, he should pinpoint the cause. Is it an infection, or is it drug-induced? Once he determines this, he can e...
Alternative form of Dempster's rule for binary variables: Research Articles

This article develops an alternative form of Dempster's rule of combination for binary variables. This alternative form does not only provide a closed form formula for efficient computation but also enables researchers to develop closed form analytical formulas for assessing risks such as information security risk, fraud risk, audit risk, independence risk, and so on involved in assurance services. We demonstrate the usefulness of the alternative form in calculating the overall information security risk and also in developing an analytical model for assessing fraud risk. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 20: 789–797, 2005.
A Survey on Occupational Exposure and Preventive Measures in Medical Staff of Shanghai

[Objective]To investigate the occupational environment and the incidence rates of occupational injury and infection among medical staff,so as to provide basis for healthcare reform and further development in China.[Methods]Medical staff at various levels in 13 Shanghai hospitals across different categories were selected by a stratified random sampling strategy and invited to complete a structured questionnaire in the period of March 2011 to May 2011.[Results]Four hundred and forty-two participants were enrolled to the survey,among which nursing staff accounted for 40.5% and participants from tertiary hospitals accounted for 50.7%.The utilization rate of personal protective equipment was 86.5%,and 59.7% of injury involving blood contamination objects reported tracing and testing the source of the contamination after injured by sharp instruments involoving blood contamination,in which the most common blood contamination was positive hepatitis B(36.2%).The nursing staff accounted for 50.8% and the tertiary hospital medical staff accounted for 45.1% among all the injury incidences,respectively.Only 47.3% of injured staff reported to the authority.[Conclusion]Unsafe behaviors widely occur among the medical staff investigated.Their self-protective ability and awareness are yet to be improved,especially nursing staff in tertiary hospitals.Effective actions should be implemented to protect them from occupational injury and infection.
Classical and Contemporary Islamic Perspectives on Religious Plurality

This chapter takes a conceptual approach to the topic, providing an overview of Islamic resources for theologies of religious diversity while surveying some major and representative Muslim approaches to the existence of religious diversity, both classical and contemporary.
Dynamic data-driven and model-based recursive analysis for estimation of battery state-of-charge☆

Abstract This paper addresses estimation of battery state-of-charge (SOC) from the joint perspectives of dynamic data-driven and model-based recursive analysis. The proposed SOC estimation algorithm is built upon the concepts of symbolic time series analysis (STSA) and recursive Bayesian filtering (RBF) that is a generalization of the conventional Kalman filtering. A special class of Markov models, called × D -Markov (pronounced as cross D -Markov) machine, is constructed from a symbolized time-series pair of input current and output voltage. A measurement model of SOC is developed based on the features obtained from the × D -Markov machine. Then, a combination of this measurement model and a low-order model of the SOC process dynamics is used for construction of the RBF. The proposed algorithm of SOC estimation has been validated on (approximately periodic) experimental data of (synchronized) current-voltage time series, generated from a commercial-scale lead-acid battery system.
Fast Algorithms for Spherical Harmonic Expansions

An algorithm is introduced for the rapid evaluation at appropriately chosen nodes on the two-dimensional sphere $S^2$ in ${\mathbb R}^3$ of functions specified by their spherical harmonic expansions (known as the inverse spherical harmonic transform), and for the evaluation of the coefficients in spherical harmonic expansions of functions specified by their values at appropriately chosen points on $S^2$ (known as the forward spherical harmonic transform). The procedure is numerically stable and requires an amount of CPU time proportional to $N^2 (\log N) \log(1/\epsilon)$, where $N^2$ is the number of nodes in the discretization of $S^2$, and $\epsilon$ is the precision of computations. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated via several numerical examples.
Intracellular Nanoparticle Dynamics Affected by Cytoskeletal Integrity

The cell interior is a crowded chemical space, which limits the diffusion of molecules and organelles within the cytoplasm, affecting the rates of chemical reactions. We provide insight into the relationship between non-specific intracellular diffusion and cytoskeletal integrity. Quantum dots entered the cell through microinjection and their spatial coordinates were captured by tracking their fluorescence signature as they diffused within the cell cytoplasm. Particle tracking revealed significant enhancement in the mobility of biocompatible quantum dots within fibrosarcoma cells versus their healthy counterparts, fibroblasts, as well as in actin destabilized fibroblasts versus untreated fibroblasts. Analyzing the displacement distributions provided insight into how the heterogeneity of the cell cytoskeleton influences intracellular particle diffusion. We demonstrate that intracellular diffusion of non-specific nanoparticles is enhanced by disrupting the actin network, which has implications for drug delivery efficacy and trafficking.
“C’mon, Get Happy”: The Commodification of Linguistic Stereotypes in a Volkswagen Super Bowl Commercial:

This article examines a national Volkswagen commercial, broadcast on American television during the 2013 Super Bowl, and the intense public debate that met it. It shows a cheerful European American...
How Can MRI Help with Decision-Making?

Football athletes are subjected to a myriad of injuries inherent to this dynamic, fast-paced sport. Being the most widely played sport in the world, orthopedic surgeons frequently encounter common injuries to footballers. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are potentially severe injuries that may threaten the career of these athletes. It may affect players from all ages, from recreational weekend athlete to world-class professional players. The interaction between cleats and the play surface, opponent contact, individual characteristics, and style of play all play a role in the occurrence of ACL tears. Its treatment, however, can be divided in two major categories: operative and non-operative. Although ACL reconstruction is considered by many as the gold-standard treatment for patients who want to return to football, there are situations when non-operative treatment may suffice. The decision of the appropriate timing to return to play is subject of much attention and discussion, and graft tears are daunting injuries that may jeopardize an athlete’s career. There is increasing interest to drive the scientific decision-making process that would aid doctors, athletic trainers, agents, managers, and footballers to tailor the rehabilitation process to each athlete, allowing return to pre-injury level of play. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may provide invaluable information in assessing the healing and maturation process of reconstructed ACL graft. It is a noninvasive tool which may provide insight into the biomechanical properties of the graft itself. This chapter will explore the best available scientific evidence in using MRI to assess ACL healing and graft maturation during rehabilitation, as an additional tool to guide ACL-injured footballers to safely return to competition.
Revisiting the Economics of Privacy: Population Statistics and Confidentiality Protection as Public Goods

A complete archive of the data and programs used in this paper is available via http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.345385.
Use of Human Brain Cell Aggregates for AIDS Research in the Nervous System

Since human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is species-specific, how we study the neuropathogenesis of this infection is open to different approaches. Neuroscientists have historically utilized primary dissociated neural cells from rats and immortalized human neural cell lines (neuroblastoma and glioma) to study mechanisms associated with brain dysfunction. This is due in part to the technical difficulties involved in primary human neuronal cultures. While primary neural cells from rat can serve as a model for neural cell metabolism, species differences may limit the interpretation and extrapolation of the findings from neural cells to the human brain. Therefore, immortalized human cell lines have been widely used and have the advantage of being easy to maintain and able to produce abundant amounts for experimentation. However, the use of human neural tumor cell lines may not represent the normal environment.
From Vision to the Implementation of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative

All natural and living systems are governed by atomic and molecular behavior at the nanoscale. Research is now seeking systematic approaches to create revolutionary new products and technologies by control of matter at the same scale. Fundamental discoveries and potential implications of nanotechnology to wealth, health and peace have captured the imagination of scientists, industry and government experts. The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has become a top national priority in science and technology in U.S. for fiscal year 2001, with a Federal nanotechnology investment portfolio of $422 million. Nanotechnology is expected to have a profound impact on our economy and society in the earlier 21st century. The vision, research and development strategy, and timeline of NNI are presented by using several recent scientific discoveries and results from industry.
Stereoscopic Properties of the Human Visual System

It is not appropriate in this book to deal exhaustively with the anatomy of the visual system; there are many excellent sources for this material [1,2]. Here we will review only the salient points.
A Performance Comparison of LBE Based Coexistence Protocols for LAA and Wi-Fi

Long Term Evolution (LTE) deployment in the unlicensed spectrum is considered a promising solution to overcome spectrum shortage. To ensure fair coexistence among unlicensed users, two Load Based Equipment (LBE) access technologies are introduced in European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard. However, it is not clear whether the two LBE protocols can ensure fair channel access between unlicensed Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) and Wi-Fi users. To this end, renewal theory based analytical models are developed to study the performance of these two LBE random access protocols. Specifically, the throughput performance of Wi-Fi users and LAA users is first derived and compared. Our results show that both options may not achieve throughput fairness among Wi-Fi and LAA users if the key protocol parameters are not fine tuned. Generally option A favors Wi-Fi users, while option B favors LAA users. To improve the fairness performance, channel access parameters in both protocols should be adapted to network conditions in order to achieve the best coexisting performance in terms of both fairness and network throughput. The analysis provides important guidance for the implementation of Listen-before-Talk based access mechanisms in LAA. Extensive simulations using NS-3 are conducted to validate the accuracy of the models.
Novel self-healing CFRP composites with high glass transition temperatures

Abstract Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites were fabricated using a novel intrinsically healable isocyanurate-oxazolidone (ISOX) thermosetting matrix. After multiple delamination events, repeatable strength recovery of the composites has been demonstrated with a first healing efficiency up to 85% after thermal treatment. The healing mechanism results from transformation of the isocyanurate with epoxide groups to yield new oxazolidone rings at the fracture surface. This novel ISOX polymer utilizes commercial diglycidyl ether of bisphenol F (DGEBF) and toluene diisocyanate to produce a high cross-link density thermoset with a glass transition temperature (Tg) up to 285 °C, and 99.5% of the composite weight remains at 300 °C. The strength and stiffness of the composites are comparable with an engineering grade polymer matrix composite typically used in aerospace applications and the thermal stability places the materials in the polybismaleimide performance region although with greater toughness. This polymer exhibits the highest Tg of any self-healing material reported and is composed of low cost reactants, which gives the polymer great potential to function as a major component of an advanced structural composite for extreme environments.
Residents' Preferences and Performance of Three Techniques for Ultrasound-Guided Central Venous Cannulation After Simulation Training.

Background: Obtaining central venous cannulation of the internal jugular vein is an important skill for physicians to master. To our knowledge, no studies to date have examined residents9 preferences or the safety of the oblique approach compared to other approaches. This study compared medical residents9 preferences for and performance of ultrasound-guided central venous access using the transverse, longitudinal, and oblique approaches. Methods: Emergency medicine and internal medicine residents (n = 72) at an urban community hospital participated in a central venous access course. To assess the residents9 preferences, residents were asked to rank the transverse, longitudinal, and oblique approaches as first, second, or third. In addition to preference, skin-to-vein time, carotid artery puncture, and successful completion on the first attempt during a final skills analysis were measured. Results: During the final skills analysis, the majority (87.5%) of residents preferred the transverse approach. The oblique approach had a significantly larger proportion of failures of technique than the transverse approach (P = 0.02). No significant differences in successful cannulation on the first attempt, skin-to-vein time, or carotid artery puncture among the 3 approaches were found during the final skills assessment. Conclusion: The majority of residents preferred the transverse approach to the longitudinal and oblique approaches. Although no significant differences among the 3 approaches were found in performance measures, more failures of technique occurred with the oblique approach. This study suggests that novices may require in-depth training and supervision to become proficient with the oblique approach.
Realistic Fiction and Literature: The Influence of Believable Characters on Readers

What we think and what we read has more influence on our political attitudes as adults. Much of our political information comes from literature. The amount of time the average person spends watching television becomes a dominant force to how we view the world. We see books such as Harry Potter and the Wizard of Oz tell a story that is brings a message on the political landscape of a nation, as Dorothy’s party returns after killing the Witch of the West, the Wizard keeps them waiting, then puts them off. Short stories and novels that make the reader feel that they are getting to know real people dealing with believable situations can be considered literature that is realistic fiction. This type of fiction has been found in the stories of fiction shows that the impact of characters has a direct influence on reader’s decision-making and world view. This is due to creating characters that are realistic to the people and situations found in society today.
ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME IN FIRST TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY: TO STENT, BYPASS, OR LEAVE ALONE?

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is the most common cause of ACS in pregnancy, more frequent post-partum. Events in early pregnancy are uncommon and challenging to manage A 39-year-old female at 15 weeks of gestation (G3P2), with essential hypertension, anxiety disorder and marijuana
Disposal of Radioactive Waste

In this chapter, different methods of disposal of radioactive waste adopted in nuclear medicine are elaborately discussed, namely, decay-in-storage, disposal into sewage, incineration, and transfer to authorized recipients. Sewer disposal and incineration are restricted by maximum permissible concentration limit allowed by the NRC in the sewer and the air. Transfer of radioactive waste to authorized recipients requires a manifest, which gives the details of shipment such as type and quantity of material, date, etc. Disposal of sealed sources and cadavers with radioactivity is mentioned.
Do crop price expectations matter? An analysis of groundwater pumping decisions in Western Kansas

Abstract The Ogallala Aquifer is the main water resource for irrigated agricultural production in much of Western Kansas. It is hypothesized that as crop price expectations increase, producers will apply more water to increase yields in order to maximize profit. Using field-level panel data on groundwater pumped for irrigation in Western Kansas, this paper examines whether irrigated producers’ groundwater pumping decisions are consistent with the profit maximization framework by empirically testing if crop price expectations have a positive impact on the quantity of groundwater pumped. In general, the empirical results indicate that crop price expectations have no statistically significant impact on the quantity of groundwater pumped per acre. This suggests that groundwater pumping decisions are not consistent with the profit maximization framework and that irrigated producers consider groundwater as a fixed input possibly due to limited availability of groundwater in the area. Our econometric analysis also suggests that only a small portion of rainfall is effective.
Advances in fish passage in the Great Lakes basin

Abstract Addressing the impact of dams and other water control structures on fish communities and aquatic ecosystems is a major concern for fisheries managers in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Although nature-like and technical fishways (i.e., vertical slot, pool and weir, Denil) and, when suitable, barrier removals have been implemented across the basin, these fish passage applications are vastly outnumbered by barriers to fish movement. Lowermost barriers are the first structure that blocks fish passage within a tributary; and, in the Laurentian Great Lakes, they present a unique situation where restricting access to upstream habitat is a major component of a half a century long strategy to control invasive sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus. Solutions for passage at lowermost barriers must therefore consider alternative management actions surrounding increased connectivity and invasive species control. These actions are underlined by the primary management objective of enhancing production/diversity of native and recreationally desirable fishes. This review surveys the current state of fish passage technologies deployed in the Laurentian Great Lakes and other fish passage solutions under development, providing a reference for resource managers making decisions about barriers and fish passage that are critical for invasive species control and fishery restoration.
Fat and fat-free mass index references in children and young adults: assessments along racial and ethnic lines

Background Fat-free mass index (FFMI) and fat mass index (FMI) are superior to BMI and fat percentage in evaluating nutritional status. However, existing references fail to account for racial/ethnic differences in body composition among children. Objectives Our goal was to produce age-based normative references for FFMI and FMI in children for specific racial/ethnic groups. Methods Body composition, weight, and height were measured in 1122 normal healthy children aged 2-21 y. Bone mineral content measured by DXA, total body water by deuterium dilution, and total body potassium by whole-body γ counting were combined to calculate fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) using equations based on the Reference Child and Adolescent models. FFMI and FMI were calculated by dividing FFM and FM by height squared, respectively. After outlier removal, the LMS (Lambda-Mu-Sigma) function within R's GAMLSS package was used to produce age-based FFMI and FMI growth curves for black (B), white (W), and Hispanic (H) children for each sex. Combined models were produced in cases where outcomes did not differ by race/ethnicity. Resulting models were compared with previously published FFMI and FMI models. Results FFMI and FMI models based on 1079 children, aged 2-21 y, were created for both sexes. FFMI models for B children showed higher values throughout. W and H children were combined to produce FFMI models for each sex. H boys were modeled individually for FMI, whereas W and B boys were combined. FMI models for girls were created for each race/ethnicity. Models agreed well with those based on children from the United Kingdom of comparable race/ethnicity. Conclusions Race/ethnicity-specific references for FFMI and FMI will increase the accuracy of health and nutrition status assessment in children over race/ethnicity-generic references. The models allow the calculation of SD scores to assess health and nutrition status in children.
PQS-Induced Outer Membrane Vesicles Enhance Biofilm Dispersion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Bacterial biofilms are major contributors to chronic infections in humans. Because they are recalcitrant to conventional therapy, they present a particularly difficult treatment challenge. Identifying factors involved in biofilm development can help uncover novel targets and guide the development of anti-biofilm strategies. Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes surgical site, burn wound, and hospital acquired infections, and is also associated with aggressive biofilm formation in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. A potent but poorly understood contributor to P. aeruginosa virulence is the ability to produce outer membrane vesicles (OMV). OMV trafficking has been associated with cell-to-cell communication, virulence factor delivery, and the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. Because OMVs have almost exclusively been studied using planktonic cultures, little is known about their biogenesis and function in biofilms. Our group has shown that the Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal (PQS) induces OMV formation in P. aeruginosa, and in other species, through a biophysical mechanism that is also active in biofilms. Here, we demonstrate that PQS-induced OMV production is highly dynamic during biofilm development. Interestingly, PQS and OMV synthesis are significantly elevated during dispersion, compared to attachment and maturation stages. PQS biosynthetic and receptor mutant biofilms were significantly impaired in their ability to disperse, but this phenotype could be rescued by genetic complementation or exogenous addition of PQS. Finally, we show that purified OMVs can actively degrade extracellular protein, lipid, and DNA. We therefore propose that enhanced production of PQS-induced OMVs during biofilm dispersion facilitates cell escape by coordinating the controlled degradation of biofilm matrix components.
Retrospective analysis of pedicle screw accuracy for patients undergoing spinal surgery assisted by intraoperative computed tomography (CT) scanner AIRO® and BrainLab© navigation

Abstract Minimally invasive spine surgery techniques for pedicle screw instrumentation are being more frequently used. They offer shorter operative times, shorter hospital stays for patients, faster recovery, less blood loss, and less damage to surrounding tissues. However, they may rely heavily on fluoroscopic imaging, and confer radiation exposure to the surgeon and team members. Use of the AIRO Mobile Intraoperative CT by Brainlab during surgery is a way to eliminate radiation exposure to staff and may improve accuracy rates for pedicle screw instrumentation. We designed a retrospective analysis of our first 12 patients who had a total of 59 pedicle screws inserted when we began to incorporate the AIRO iCT scanner to our surgical workflow. During pedicle screw insertion, projection images were saved, and compared to CT scans gone at the end of the case. We measured the distances between the projected and postprocedural screw locations, at both the screw tips and tulip heads. We observed a mean of 2.8 mm difference between the projection and postprocedural images. None of the screws inserted had any clinically significant complications, and no patient required revision surgery. Overall, iCT guided navigation with the AIRO system is a safe adjunct to spinal surgery. It decreased operator and staff radiation exposure, and helped facilitate successful MIS surgery without fluoroscopic imaging. Additional studies and research can be done to further improve accuracy and reliability.
Measuring functional independence in design with deep-learning language representation models

Abstract Measuring functional coupling in complex systems is an important task for good design practice, though historically it has been an art of subjective judgement. With the recent advancements in Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing, functional requirements (FRs) and design parameters (DPs), which are expressed as words and sentences, can be represented in a vector space. The sentence embedding model, BERT, was used in this paper to vectorize FRs and DPs, to calculate functional independence and to study how metrics for functional coupling measurement can be enhanced. It was found that semantic similarity among FRs and DPs, represented in vector space, could be used to compute quantitative values for metrics of functional independence. It was also found that design cases where coupling was unambiguous yielded the best results, while cases where laws of physics needed to define the FR-DP relationship did not transliterate well to the natural language used to express the FR-DP highlighted the limitations of the model in its current state. This study, however, demonstrates a great opportunity to develop a robust, fine-tuned design language representation model for accurately measuring functional independence as a part of our effort to enhance design intelligence.
Reformed Aesthetics and Disability Ethics: The Potential Contribution of Nicholas Wolterstorff

Nicholas Wolterstorff has presented an account of justice that has important implications for disability. He does not ground rights in intellectual capacities. Instead, rights are justly owed by vi...
Twenty-five years of increasing inequality among family Forest landowners in the United States

Abstract Family forest landowners own 39% of forestland in the United States. Here, we report that inequality in the distribution of family forestland, as measured by the Gini Index, has increased since 1993. The increase is not driving primarily by forest fragmentation, as the literature suggests, but instead by an 81% increase in area in tracts of more than 500 acres, especially in the Southern United States.
Wild Libya: narratives of violence on Egypt’s Western border

In February 2015, Islamic State militants in Libya murdered 21 Coptic Christian migrant workers in an execution-style ceremony. The response, which included the violent retaliation of the Egyptian ...
Dermal fibroblasts and triple-negative mammary epithelial cancer cells differentially stiffen their local matrix

The bulk measurement of extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness is commonly used in mechanobiology. However, past studies by our group show that peri-cellular stiffness is quite heterogeneous and divergent from the bulk. We use optical tweezers active microrheology (AMR) to quantify how two phenotypically distinct migratory cell lines establish dissimilar patterns of peri-cellular stiffness. Dermal fibroblasts (DFs) and triple-negative human breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 (MDAs) were embedded within type 1 collagen (T1C) hydrogels polymerized at two concentrations: 1.0 mg/ml and 1.5 mg/ml. We found DFs increase the local stiffness of 1.0 mg/ml T1C hydrogels but, surprisingly, do not alter the stiffness of 1.5 mg/ml T1C hydrogels. In contrast, MDAs predominantly do not stiffen T1C hydrogels as compared to cell-free controls. The results suggest that MDAs adapt to the bulk ECM stiffness, while DFs regulate local stiffness to levels they intrinsically prefer. In other experiments, cells were treated with transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), glucose, or ROCK inhibitor Y27632, which have known effects on DFs and MDAs related to migration, proliferation, and contractility. The results show that TGF-β1 alters stiffness anisotropy, while glucose increases stiffness magnitude around DFs but not MDAs and Y27632 treatment inhibits cell-mediated stiffening. Both cell lines exhibit an elongated morphology and local stiffness anisotropy, where the stiffer axis depends on the cell line, T1C concentration, and treatment. In summary, our findings demonstrate that AMR reveals otherwise masked mechanical properties such as spatial gradients and anisotropy, which are known to affect cell behavior at the macro-scale. The same properties manifest with similar magnitude around single cells.
Metal Flux Growth of Praseodymium Iron Carbides Featuring FeC3 Units

Reactions of iron and carbon in a Pr/Ni eutectic flux have yielded three new Pr/Fe/C carbometalate compounds. Pr14Fe6C13 forms in tetragonal space group P42/mnm; Pr26Fe19C29 forms in orthorhombic s...
Measurement of structural change in co-expression networks from cancer gene expression data

Profiling progression and development of cancer is an important step for informing clinical decisions in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cancer. The hallmarks of cancer progression are well established; for example, many studies have concluded that surveillance of gene expression relationships during cancer progression would inform diagnostic and treatment decisions. Differential network analysis offers a systems-level insight into cancer progression from a high-level point of view, and once further understood, could become a transformative approach for measuring cancer progression. In this work, we investigate an approach to measure pairwise change in network topology between cancer stages for four cancers, including thyroid carcinoma, colon and rectum adenocarcinoma, stomach adenocarcinoma, and kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma. We use a network-based approach to describe systems-level views of how a network model changes over the course of a four-stage disease progression in these cancers and examine how mutation rate corresponds to network structure. Lastly, we present a case study in comparing primary versus metastatic tumour network structure. The results of this study demonstrate the applicability of such an approach and provide insights into next steps that are needed for differential network comparison in cancer.
LightningStrike: (in)secure practices of E-IoT systems in the wild

The widespread adoption of specialty smart ecosystems has changed the everyday lives of users. As a part of smart ecosystems, Enterprise Internet of Things (E-IoT) allows users to integrate and control more complex installations in comparison to off-the-shelf IoT systems. With E-IoT, users have a complete control of audio, video, scheduled events, lightning fixtures, shades, door access, and relays via available user interfaces. As such, these systems see widespread use in government or smart private offices, schools, smart buildings, professional conference rooms, hotels, smart homes, yachts, and similar professional settings. However, even with their widespread use, the security of many E-IoT systems has not been researched in the literature. Further, many E-IoT systems utilize proprietary communication protocols that rely mostly on security through obscurity, which has perhaps led many users to mistakenly assume that these systems are secure. To address this open research problem and determine if E-IoT systems are vulnerable, we focus on one of the core E-IoT components, E-IoT communication buses. Communication buses are used by E-IoT proprietary protocols to connect multiple E-IoT devices (e.g., keypads and touchscreens) and trigger pre-configured events upon user actions. In this study, we introduce LightningStrike, the implementation of four proof-of-concept attacks that demonstrate several weaknesses in E-IoT proprietary communication protocols through communication buses. With LightningStrike, we show that it is feasible for an attacker to compromise E-IoT systems using E-IoT communication buses. We demonstrate that popular E-IoT proprietary communication protocols are susceptible to Denial-of-Service, eavesdropping, impersonation, and replay attacks. As E-IoT systems control physical access, safety components, and emergency equipment, an attacker with a low level of knowledge and effort can easily exploit E-IoT vulnerabilities to impact the security and safety of users, smart systems, and smart buildings worldwide.
Cognitive assessment using the Rapid Assessment for Developmental Disabilities, Second Edition (RADD-2).

BACKGROUND Individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) often have severe impairments and maladaptive behaviours that make it difficult to reliably assess their cognitive abilities. Given these challenges, the Rapid Assessment of Developmental Disabilities, Second Edition (RADD-2), was designed to measure general cognitive ability in this population. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the battery's psychometric properties when used with individuals with DD who have challenging behavioural and psychiatric conditions and for those who have limited verbal skills. METHOD The cognitive and adaptive behaviour skills of 193 children and adults with DD and considerable medical, behavioural and/or psychiatric problems were evaluated using the first and second editions of the RADD, Kaufmann Brief Intelligence Test - 2nd Edition, and Scales of Independent Behaviour - Revised Edition. Medication side effects and challenging behaviours were assessed using the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist. RESULTS There were no floor or ceiling effects on the RADD-2. Both the nonverbal index and total scores had strong concurrent validity with other abbreviated tests of intellectual ability and good discriminant validity from measures of adaptive behaviour and medication side effects. RADD-2 scores also had strong criterion validity as they successfully differentiated between all levels of intellectual functioning. Age and sex did not differentially affect RADD-2 performance, and the co-occurrence of psychiatric conditions did not negatively affect performance. The only medical condition associated with lower RADD-2 performance was epilepsy. CONCLUSIONS The RADD-2 can quantify the differential cognitive abilities of individuals with DD, even for those with minimal communication skills, challenging behaviours or severe medication side effects that can typically complicate assessment. This brief cognitive battery can be used to measure changes due to interventions, on the one hand, and progression of neurological disease, on the other.
Determination of Safe Depth and Lateral Distance of Unsupported Excavation Near Mat Foundation in Cohesive Soils Using PLAXIS

ABSTRACT Deep excavations are essential to harbor urban needs of the present age. The excavation of pits for foundation construction in an already limited space in urban centers poses damage to the neighboring structures. In this study, two mat foundations on two different types of clay soils have been modeled in PLAXIS to determine the maximum depth of excavation and the minimum safe distance of the excavation pit from these mat foundations. The failure modes under consideration are excessive settlement, angle of distortion of the mat foundation, and pit face failure. A co-relation to determine the safe maximum depth of unsupported excavation pit and minimum horizontal distance from adjacent mat foundation is presented based on results from 195 models. The ratio of critical unsupported excavation depth and critical horizontal distance from an existing building first drops to 1:3 in all cases and then rises in a non-linear manner. The modes of failures at various stages have been highlighted based on 44 critical cases.
From University to Multiversity to Omniversity: HEIs as Hubs for Dynamic Development

Omni: in all ways or places; Omniverse: a universe that is spacio-temporally four-dimensional (Merriam-Webster)
The Autonomous Global Enterprise: On the Role of Organizational Law Beyond Asset Partitioning and Legal Personality

Today, an economic enterprise can insulate its assets within itself. It can disperse its assets among enterprises, each an independent juridical person. It can exist independent of its shareholders. It can own itself. It can exist independent of the regulation of any singular political community. It can choose the set of regulations to which it wishes to subject clusters of assets. It can regulate itself. For the economic enterprise able to disperse assets and operations worldwide, for the enterprise that can access capital markets throughout the globe, the essential role of law of economic organizations appears to be to enhance the ability of the multinational economic enterprise to become an autonomous and self regulating entity. This short essay serves as an introduction to the construction of a theory of institutional autonomy from out of a century of debate about the nature of economic entities. The essay first re-examines the asset partitioning ideas of Hansman and Kraakman the context of the multinational enterprise. It suggests that asset partitioning can be usefully understood as fleshing out the contours of the way in which organizational law shapes enterprise autonomy for creditors. The essay then re-examines the corporate personality analysis of Iwai to suggest that in a global context, Iwai's insights suggest the possibility of enterprise autonomy from shareholders. The essay then considers the perverse utility of the ancient territorial principle and the principle of regulatory hierarchy. Applied in a global context these principles suggest the possibility of enterprise autonomy from the state. Pulling these three puzzle pieces together, the essay suggests that the nexus of multinational enterprises and globalization provides a foundation for the emergence of self-conscious autonomous self-regulating economic entities.
Twin Study Contributions to Understanding Ontogeny

The genetic contribution to individual differences in development during infancy and childhood can be estimated with a twin study. Keywords: twins; ontogeny; heritability; children
A WordNet Based Rule Generalization Engine for Meaning Extraction System

This paper presents a rule based methodology for efficiently creating meaning extraction systems. The methodology allows a user to scan sample texts in a domain to be processed and to create meaning extraction rules that specifically address his or her needs. Then it automatically generalizes the rules using the power of the WordNet system so that they can effectively extract a broad class of information even though they were based on extraction from a few very specific articles. Finally, the generalized rules can be applied to large databases of text to do the translation that will extract the particular information the user desires. A recently developed mechanism is presented that uses the strategy of over-generalizing to achieve high recall (with low precision) and then selectively specializing to bring the precision up to acceptable levels.
Parenting in West Indian Families: Relationship to their Literacy Beliefs and Practices

This study explored whether authoritarian parenting may help explain the poor literacy outcomes among USVI children. Forty-one West Indian mothers of young children were interviewed and completed questionnaires assessing authoritarian childrearing attitudes; warm parent-child relationships; and literacy beliefs and practices. High adult control and warmth were not significantly related in this sample, and each dimension differentially predicted literacy variables. Mothers endorsing higher levels of adult control believed that children learn to read at a later age, and engaged in more direct reading instruction. Mothers who reported warmer relationships were more likely to read with their child for fun. Future research is needed that directly examines how general and domain-specific features of parenting relate to literacy outcomes in VI children.
Building community? The characteristics of America's most civic cities

A tremendous amount is known about individual civic and political participation. Those who participate are more educated, more affluent and easier to mobilize. Yet, the social value of participation lies not in its individual impact but in democratically meaningful units such as local governments. Little is known about why some communities display vibrant patterns of participation while others are characterized by disengagement. This paper furthers this understanding by examining what corporate, political and nonprofit leaders in 10 America's cities see as fostering their civic life. This study finds that institutional factors unite those cities with the highest levels of participation. These include a strong corporate presence, mechanisms for mobilization, a strong community identity, public spaces, good government and investment in youth. This serves as a basis for fostering pro-civic policies. This is a practitioner-oriented paper that while grounded in research is designed to foster policy solutions rather than prove casual mechanisms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thermal conductance enhancement of particle-filled thermal interface materials using carbon nanotube inclusions

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are widely used in high power integrated circuits. This work introduces multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into a silicone composite filled with metal particles, resulting in a TIM with higher thermal conductivity. Anomalous increase in thermal conductivity is found starting at a CNT volume fraction of 1.4% for a composite filled with 40% nickel particles and at 2.2% for a composite filled with 30% nickel particles. The measured thermal conductivities are interpreted using closed-form models to account for the interactions between the CNTs and the metal particles, interactions which can be characterized by the percolation theory. The results reported here are promising for developing TIMs with higher thermal conductivities and better compliance and wetting properties.
Hemispheric Lateralization, Cerebral Dominance, Conjugate Saccadic Behavior and Their Use in Identifying the Creatively Gifted:

In an effort to establish new means of locating the gifted creative productive thinker, an investigation of current brain research in the areas of hemispheric lateralization, cerebral dominance and conjugate saccadic behavior is analyzed. Although some promise of its possible use in future research dealing with this particular group of gifted population exists, innumerable questions have also been raised.
In Situ Spectroscopy in the Presence of Convective Flow under Steady‐State Conditions: A Unified Mathematical Formalism

A generalized mathematical treatment is presented that enables a quantitative analysis of various in situ spectroscopi.c experiments involving detection of solution-phase species generated at the surface of rotating disk and ring-disk, channel, and tube-type electrodes under steady state. This theory is valid for experimental conditions easily realizable in the laboratory and is only applicable to first-order irreversible heterogeneous electron-transfer processes without complications derived from homogeneous phase reactions. Illustrations of the advantages of this formalism are provided, including a rederivation of equations obtained by other authors, an analytic route to the solution of the rotating disktransparent ring electrode, and various aspects of normal incidence reflection absorption spectroscopy at rotating ring and ring-disk electrodes. The results were in excellent agreement with those of other workers (when available), and in some cases, yielded better accuracy than solutions generated by digital simulation techniques reported in the literature.
Evaluation of Remote Sensors For Exploration Geomorphology: ABSTRACT

Remote-sensor imagery embraces black and white aerial photography--including black and white infrared photography and various film-filter combinations--color aerial photography, color infrared aerial photography, thermal infrared, and radar. For the 3 general types of geomorphic exploration techniques--drainage analysis, tonal analysis, and fracture analysis--no single remote sensor is best. Terrain, vegetative cover, and extent of human activity influence the selection of imagery for analysis. Black and white and color photography seem best for routine surface--drainage analysis, especially of low-order streams. Thermal infrared and color infrared give considerable information on groundwater-discharge locations and soil-drainage characteristics. Radar imagery allows excellent mapping of higher order drainage patterns of large areas, and is least affected by vegetative cover. Tonal anomalies are best seen on black and white infrared and black and white panchromatic photography. Color photography is less useful for this technique, and color infrared is poor to unusable, especially in grass-covered regions. Thermal infrared is very poor, and radar cannot be used for tonal studies in exploration geomorphology. Fracture-trace analysis is done best on stereo-aerial photography of all types, and least well on thermal-infrared and radar imagery. Lineament analysis is done best on aerial photographic mosaics, and particularly well on radar. Radar and aerial photographic mosaics are well-suited for regional studies, as are images from satellites; aerial photographs and thermal infrared imagery are best for local, detailed studies. End_of_Article - Last_Page 790------------
A monkey chair for temporary restraint with minimal human contact

Abstract The apparatus combines the general features of earlier chair designs with the advantage of not requiring direct handling of the monkey. The restraining procedure is rapid and subjects suffer little stress or discomfort.