cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Drifter behavior on the Oregon-Washington Shelf during downwelling-favorable winds

Abstract Drifters released offshore of Oregon during predominantly downwelling favorable alongshore winds during three different deployments (October 1994, January 1998, and September 1998) display similar behavior: after being advected around in the offshore eddy field, they move onshore to a particular isobath and are advected poleward alongshore, without coming ashore. Numerical modeling results suggest that this may be due to downwelling circulation creating a marginally stable density gradient on the shelf inshore of the downwelling front, thereby increasing the vertical eddy diffusivity, which reduces the effective cross-shelf Ekman transport to nearly zero. The downwelling front itself is accompanied by a poleward jet, which carries drifters rapidly to the north. This behavior is consistent with previous modeling results.
FGF-21/FGF-21 receptor interaction and activation is determined by betaKlotho.

Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) is a metabolic regulator that can influence glucose and lipid control in diabetic rodents and primates. We demonstrate that βKlotho is an integral part of an activated FGF-21-βKlotho-FGF receptor (FGFR) complex thus a critical subunit of the FGF-21 receptor. Cells lacking βKlotho did not respond to FGF-21; the introduction of βKlotho to these cells conferred FGF-21-responsiveness and recapitulated the entire scope of FGF-21 signaling observed in naturally responsive cells. Interestingly, FGF-21-mediated effects are heparin independent suggesting that βKlotho plays a role in FGF-21 activity similar to the one played by heparin in the signaling of conventional FGFs. Moreover, in addition to conferring specificity for FGF-21, βKlotho appears to support FGF-19 activity and mediates the receptor selectivity profile of FGF-19. All together, these results indicate that βKlotho and FGFRs form the cognate FGF-21 receptor complex, mediating FGF-21 cellular specificity and physiological effects. J. Cell. Physiol. 215: 1–7, 2008. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Choosing blindly but wisely: differentially private solicitation of DNA datasets for disease marker discovery

Objective To propose a new approach to privacy preserving data selection, which helps the data users access human genomic datasets efficiently without undermining patients’ privacy. Methods Our idea is to let each data owner publish a set of differentially-private pilot data, on which a data user can test-run arbitrary association-test algorithms, including those not known to the data owner a priori. We developed a suite of new techniques, including a pilot-data generation approach that leverages the linkage disequilibrium in the human genome to preserve both the utility of the data and the privacy of the patients, and a utility evaluation method that helps the user assess the value of the real data from its pilot version with high confidence. Results We evaluated our approach on real human genomic data using four popular association tests. Our study shows that the proposed approach can help data users make the right choices in most cases. Conclusions Even though the pilot data cannot be directly used for scientific discovery, it provides a useful indication of which datasets are more likely to be useful to data users, who can therefore approach the appropriate data owners to gain access to the data.
Ability of First-Year Paramedic Students to Identify ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Injury on 12-Lead Electrocardiogram: A Pilot Study.

Introduction:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of first-year paramedic students to identify ST-segment elevation myocardial injury (STEMI) on 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) following a three-hour presentation by a board-certified emergency medicine physician experienced in ECG interpretation.Methods:Thirty-three first-year paramedic students with minimal to no experience in evaluating 12-lead ECGs were administered a pretest with 20 12-lead ECGs and were asked to evaluate each for: (1) presence of STEMI (STEMI identification); (2) if STEMI presents, ECG leads demonstrating ST-elevation (LEAD identification); and (3) if STEMI present, the anatomic distribution of the STEMI (ANATOMY identification). The students were randomized into two groups. Group 1 (16 students; control group) received a handout describing the evaluation of ECGs for STEMI, while Group 2 (17 students; experimental group) received the handout plus a threehour presentation on the evaluation of ECGs for STEMI. Following randomization, distribution of the STEMI handout and ECG STEMI presentation, a posttest with 20 new ECGs was administered to all participants. The pretest and posttest mean scores were compared between the two groups to determine if attendance at the presentation improved the paramedic students' abilities to evaluate and identify STEMI ECGs. Following the STEMI posttest, students in Group 1 were provided with the STEMI lecture. Students were retested with 20 new ECGs five months following the initial study to examine retention of the information taught.Results:The mean pre-test scores for the two groups (Group 1 vs Group 2, respectively) in STEMI identification (74.4 vs 75.6%; p = 0.79), lead identification (50.0 vs. 51.2%; p = 0.8) and anatomy identification (49.4 vs 51.8%; p = 0.60) were similar in all three categories. Post-test scores between Group 1 and Group 2 demonstrated statistically significant differences in STEMI identification (85.6 vs 92.4%; p <0.02), lead identification (73.4 vs 85.2%; p <0.02), and anatomy identification (65.9 vs 87.1%; p <0.01), with Group 2 demonstrating higher mean scores relative to Group 1 in all three categories. Comparison of mean initial pre-test and five-month retest scores for all students demonstrated statistically significant differences in STEMI identification (75.0 vs 87.4%; p <0.0001), lead identification (50.6 vs 82.2%; p <0.0001), and anatomy identification (50.6 vs 76.6%; p <0.0001).Conclusions:The ability of first-year paramedic students to accurately detect STEMI on prehospital 12-lead ECGs is enhanced by a structured ECG STEMI presentation provided by an emergency medicine physician, and these students maintained excellent retention of STEMI ECG skills over a five-month period.
Coal dust particle size survey of US mines

Abstract The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) conducted a joint survey to determine the range of coal particle sizes found in dust samples collected from intake airways of US coal mines. The last comprehensive survey of this type was performed in the 1920s. The size of the coal dust is relevant to the amount of rock dust required to inert the coal dust, with more rock dust needed to inert finer sizes of coal dust. Dust samples were collected by MSHA inspectors from several mines in each of MSHA's 10 bituminous Coal Mine Safety and Health Districts. Samples were normally collected in several intakes at each mine. The laboratory analysis procedures included acid leaching of the sample to remove the limestone rock dust, sonic sieving to determine the dust size, and low-temperature ashing of the sieved fractions to correct for any remaining incombustible matter. The results indicate that particle sizes of mine coal dust in intake airways are finer than those measured in the 1920s. This finer size coal dust in intake airways would require more incombustible matter to be effectively inerted than the 65% incombustible specified in current regulations.
A cross-sectional study of the association of age, race and ethnicity, and body mass index with sex steroid hormone marker profiles among men in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)

Objectives Since sex hormone markers are metabolically linked, examining sex steroid hormones singly may account for inconsistent findings by age, race/ethnicity and body mass index (BMI) across studies. First, these markers were statistically combined into profiles to account for the metabolic relationship between markers. Then, the relationships between sex steroid hormone profiles and age, race/ethnicity and BMI were explored in multinomial logistic regression models. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting The US Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). Participants 1538 Men, >17 years. Primary outcome measure Sex hormone profiles. Results Cluster analysis was used to identify four statistically determined profiles with Blom-transformed T, E, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and 3-α diol G. We used these four profiles with multinomial logistic regression models to examine differences by race/ethnicity, age and BMI. Mexican American men >50 years were associated with the profile that had lowest T, E and 3-α diol G levels compared to other profiles (p 2 ) and obese (>30 kg/m 2 ) men were most likely to be associated with the cluster with the lowest SHBG (p Conclusion The associations of sex steroid hormone profiles by race/ethnicity are novel, while the findings by age and BMI groups are largely consistent with observations from single hormone studies. Future studies should validate these hormone profile groups and investigate these profiles in relation to chronic diseases and certain cancers.
Hydrolysis of long-chain alkyl phosphates and phosphatidic acid by an enzyme purified from pig brain

SUMMARY Particulate preparations of rat and pig tissues have been found to catalyze the hydrolysis of lipid phosphates including many alcohol dihydrogen phosphates as well as phosphatidic acids. A soluble extract possessing these enzymatic activities has been prepared from a dried acetone extract of pig brain, and its properties are described. Evidence presented suggests that the enzyme catalyzing the hydrolysis of the alcohol dihydrogen phosphates studied here is identical with phosphatidic acid phosphatase.
Interactions of diet and immunity.

The evidence from laboratory, clinical, and epidemiological studies that diet affects immune function is compelling, although precise recommendations of dietary choices for optimum health and longevity cannot yet be stated. In part, this situation results from complex and sometimes contradictory data. Some of reasons for these difficulties may be summarized as follows. 1. Results obtained in vitro must be related to conditions which apply in vivo. 2. Data from uncontrolled studies on out bred animals (i.e., humans) must be compared to those obtained from controlled studies on defined strains. 3. Direct dietary effects on immunity are difficult to separate from the indirect effects of increased infection, which often accompanies malnutrition. 4. Effects on immune response are often delayed. 5. The immune system is complex and several components may be affected by a single dietary stimulus.
PKD1 Inhibits AMPKα2 through Phosphorylation of Serine 491 and Impairs Insulin Signaling in Skeletal Muscle Cells

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an energy-sensing enzyme whose activity is inhibited in settings of insulin resistance. Exposure to a high glucose concentration has recently been shown to increase phosphorylation of AMPK at Ser(485/491) of its α1/α2 subunit; however, the mechanism by which it does so is not known. Diacylglycerol (DAG), which is also increased in muscle exposed to high glucose, activates a number of signaling molecules including protein kinase (PK)C and PKD1. We sought to determine whether PKC or PKD1 is involved in inhibition of AMPK by causing Ser(485/491) phosphorylation in skeletal muscle cells. C2C12 myotubes were treated with the PKC/D1 activator phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), which acts as a DAG mimetic. This caused dose- and time-dependent increases in AMPK Ser(485/491) phosphorylation, which was associated with a ∼60% decrease in AMPKα2 activity. Expression of a phosphodefective AMPKα2 mutant (S491A) prevented the PMA-induced reduction in AMPK activity. Serine phosphorylation and inhibition of AMPK activity were partially prevented by the broad PKC inhibitor Go6983 and fully prevented by the specific PKD1 inhibitor CRT0066101. Genetic knockdown of PKD1 also prevented Ser(485/491) phosphorylation of AMPK. Inhibition of previously identified kinases that phosphorylate AMPK at this site (Akt, S6K, and ERK) did not prevent these events. PMA treatment also caused impairments in insulin-signaling through Akt, which were prevented by PKD1 inhibition. Finally, recombinant PKD1 phosphorylated AMPKα2 at Ser(491) in cell-free conditions. These results identify PKD1 as a novel upstream kinase of AMPKα2 Ser(491) that plays a negative role in insulin signaling in muscle cells.
Intersection AnticlineA New Petroleum Trap in Thrustfold Belts

An intersection anticline is a special kind of faultrelated fold formed in thrustfold belts. It was developed in structural transforming belts between the lateral, oblique and frontal ramps of the lower wall. The hanging wall strata plunged along a kink axis surface and formed the anticline structure The intersection anticline is characterized by both branchanticline in view of plan and asymmetric faultrelated fold in view of profile section As an example of intersection anticlines, the Arketuolaer anticline in outer Pamirs thrustfold belts is studied From the study, it is pointed out that this kind of anticline is a special hydrocarbon trap and is important to structural interpretation in petroleum exploration
Prostatic Urethral Lift: Worth the Hype?

Introduction The prostatic urethral lift (PUL) procedure is a minimally invasive, nonablative technique that opens the prostatic urethra via mechanical compression, without destruction or resection of prostatic tissue. We explore the safety, efficacy, and long-term durability of PUL and its ability to treat LUTS secondary to BPH. Furthermore, we will discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of the procedure and how urologists can use this information when treating BPH. Lastly, we will critically evaluate how PUL can play a role in BPH management.
An Overview of the Management of Thyroid Cancer

The management of thyroid cancer has changed substantially over the past several decades, largely as a result of our expanding knowledge of this unique group of tumors and the availability of newer diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Patients with thyroid cancer require the assistance of a diversified group of healthcare providers during literally every phase of their care, from the time of diagnosis to the extended period of follow-up. This book is a statement of the breadth of the collective knowledge and skills that are required to properly assist patients with these tumors. Our goal is to summarize, in a practical way, how patients with thyroid cancer are optimally managed and how the fabric of their care is carefully woven by a group of providers with specialized skills, each of whom adds a unique part to the patient’s overall care. Without this broad multidisciplinary approach, gaps may occur at every turn in management, which may pose serious obstacles to achieving the best long-term results for our patients. While it is true that the more differentiated forms of thyroid cancer are generally characterized by an indolent course with low morbidity and mortality and are among the most curable of cancers, patients are sometimes advised that 1
Impact of dynamic power supply noise induced by clock networks on clock jitter and timing margin

Timing closure on on-chip critical paths becomes more challenging as both data and clock jitter increase due to a large power supply noise. There have been intensive studies to model timing impact of power supply noise on the logic timing. Unlike the flip flops and combinational logics placed and routed randomly, the global networks including the clock buffers are usually custom design based so that they are placed regularly and densely. In the FPGAs, the multiple global networks up to 32 are routed in parallel as the chip size grows and number of transistors increase enormously. Since the clock buffers are placed very closely, a voltage drop of the power supply by the adjacent clock buffers switching makes the clock edge slow, when the clock edges of the victim and aggressors are aligned. This slowed down clock eats away setup the timing margin loss. The behavior of this noise impact is similar with signal to signal cross talk. In this paper, the supply noise impact due to the switching noise by the adjacent clock buffers is demonstrated by simulation and measurement. And it is described how to implement timing impact into STA (Static Timing Analysis) flow.
On the metric dimension of barycentric subdivision of Cayley graphs

In a connected graph G, the distance d(u, v) denotes the distance between two vertices u and v of G. Let W = {w 1, w 2, ···, w k} be an ordered set of vertices of G and let v be a vertex of G. The representation r(v|W) of v with respect to W is the k-tuple (d(v, w 1), d(v,w 2), ···, d(v, w k)). The set W is called a resolving set or a locating set if every vertex of G is uniquely identified by its distances from the vertices of W, or equivalently, if distinct vertices of G have distinct representations with respect to W. A resolving set of minimum cardinality is called a metric basis for G and this cardinality is the metric dimension of G, denoted by β(G). Metric dimension is a generalization of affine dimension to arbitrary metric spaces (provided a resolving set exists). In this paper, we study the metric dimension of barycentric subdivision of Cayley graphs Cay (Z n ⨁ Z 2). We prove that these subdivisions of Cayley graphs have constant metric dimension and only three vertices chosen appropriately suffice to resolve all the vertices of barycentric subdivision of Cayley graphs Cay (Z n ⨁ Z 2).
Stable Discoidal Bicelles: A Platform of Lipid Nanocarriers for Cellular Delivery

Bicellar mixtures have been used as alignable membrane substrates for the structural characterization of membrane-associated proteins. Most recently, it has been shown that bicelles can serve as nanocarriers to effectively deliver hydrophobic molecules to cancer cells with a 3- to 10-fold enhancement compared to that of chemically identical liposomes. In this chapter, a detailed preparation protocol, common structural characterization methods, the structural stability and the cellular uptake of bicellar nanodisks are discussed.
Designing healthy communities: Testing the walkability model

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT - Mexican government); Wilderness Society; University of Arizona
Simit: Turkey's National Bread

The simit, a sesame-covered bread resembling an oversized bagel, is Turkey9s unofficial national food. Traditionally sold and eaten on the street, it has been around since at least the Ottoman times. It has been documented in writings and illustrations for centuries; more recently, politicians have used simits as a measure of basic subsistence. Turkey has been cracking down on street food vendors though. And the simit has been facing competition from international snacks like pizza. And companies including Starbucks and the home-grown bakery chain Simit Sarayi have also been making it harder for more traditional simit-bakers and simit-sellers to survive.
Chapter 21: Behavioral Aspects of Portfolio Investments

Investors are inextricably linked to financial institutions, money managers, and the products they market. Mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), hedge funds, and pension funds manage or hold roughly $55 trillion in combined wealth. This chapter examines these topics with a behavioral finance approach, focusing on two main ideas: the performance and rationality of each group, and the behavioral biases that relate to individuals’ selection of particular investments within each group. Research indicates that actively managed mutual funds and hedge funds underperform passive investments. Pension funds generate alpha of roughly zero on a risk-adjusted basis. The fees involved in investing in such funds exacerbate the observed underperformance in mutual funds and hedge funds. Behavioral biases provide one perspective on sources of underperformance. Further, individuals exhibit a wide range of behavioral biases that may lead to suboptimal asset allocation, including the selection of mutual funds, ETFs, and hedge funds.
A penalized maximum likelihood approach to the adaptive learning of the spatial pooler permanence

Hierarchical Temporal Memory is a machine learning algorithm for spatio-temporal information processing. One of the key functional units in this algorithm is the spatial pooler, which has been demonstrated to be efficient in classification, dimensionality reduction and for preprocessing non-spatial inputs. Formalization of the spatial pooler is proposed in recent literature. In this work, we present a principled theoretical formulation of the spatial poolers underlying learning scheme. Constraints from the active connected and emmeshed columns in a spatial pooler are included in the analysis. It has been observed that locally adaptive learning enhanced the performance of the spatial pooler as a feature selector.
Spectral Radiance Modeling and Bayesian Model Averaging for Longwave Infrared Hyperspectral Imagery and Subpixel Target Identification

Hyperspectral imagery (HSI) exploitation typically requires spectral signatures for target detection and identification algorithms. As the longwave infrared (LWIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum is dominated by thermal emission, spectral radiance measurements are influenced by object temperature, and thus, estimates of target temperature may be necessary for emissivity retrieval to support these algorithms. Therefore, lack of accurate temperature information poses a significant challenge for HSI target detection and identification. Previous studies have demonstrated LWIR hyperspectral unmixing in both radiance and emissivity domains using in-scene target signatures. Here, a radiance-domain LWIR material identification algorithm for subpixel target identification of solid materials is developed by combining spectral radiance and linear mixing models with Bayesian model averaging. Application to experimental LWIR HSI illustrates that the algorithm effectively distinguishes between solid materials with a high degree of spectral similarity and reduces the probability of false alarms by at least one order of magnitude over a standard adaptive coherence estimator detector. Limits of identification are inferred from the imagery and found to depend on material type, target size, and target geometry. For the sensor and materials in this paper, the results imply that targets of nominally 5 m2 in size with strong spectral features can be identified for ground sampling distances (GSDs) on the order of 5–10 m (with abundances as low as ~10%) whereas blackbody-like materials are difficult to distinguish for GSDs larger than approximately 3 m.
LC-MS/MS assay for the quantitation of the ATR kinase inhibitor VX-970 in human plasma.

DNA damaging chemotherapy and radiation are widely used standard-of-care modalities for the treatment of cancer. Nevertheless, the outcome for many patients remains poor and this may be attributed, at least in part, to highly effective DNA repair mechanisms. Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated and Rad3-related (ATR) is a key regulator of the DNA-damage response (DDR) that orchestrates the repair of damaged replication forks. ATR is a serine/threonine protein kinase and ATR kinase inhibitors potentiate chemotherapy and radiation. The ATR kinase inhibitor VX-970 (NSC 780162) is in clinical development in combination with primary cytotoxic agents and as a monotherapy for tumors harboring specific mutations. We have developed and validated an LC-MS/MS assay for the sensitive, accurate and precise quantitation of VX-970 in human plasma. A dilute-and-shoot method was used to precipitate proteins followed by chromatographic separation with a Phenomenex Polar-RP 80A (4μm, 50×2mm) column and a gradient acetonitrile-water mobile phase containing 0.1% formic acid from a 50μL sample volume. Detection was achieved using an API 4000 mass spectrometer using electrospray positive ionization mode. The assay was linear from 3 to 5,000ng/mL, proved to be accurate (94.6-104.2%) and precise (<8.4% CV), and fulfilled criteria from the FDA guidance for bioanalytical method validation. This LC-MS/MS assay will be a crucial tool in defining the clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacology of VX-970 as it progresses through clinical development.
Hybridization of Lattice Resonances

Plasmon hybridization, the electromagnetic analog of molecular orbital theory, provides a simple and intuitive method to describe the plasmonic response of complex nanostructures from the combination of the responses of their individual constituents. Here, we follow this approach to investigate the optical properties of periodic arrays of plasmonic nanoparticles with multiparticle unit cells. These systems support strong collective lattice resonances, arising from the coherent multiple scattering enabled by the lattice periodicity. Due to the extended nature of these modes, the interaction between them is very different from that among localized surface plasmons supported by individual nanoparticles. This leads to a much richer hybridization scenario, which we exploit here to design periodic arrays with engineered properties. These include arrays with two-particle unit cells, in which the interaction between the individual lattice resonances can be canceled or maximized by controlling the relative positio...
Developing Online Modules for a “Health and Wellness” Course: Adapting Active Learning Strategies to the Online Environment:

Active learning refers to activities that engage students in the learning process. To make the learning process more active, instructors should add opportunities for reflection. However, reflection...
Modeling investigation of the nutrient and phytoplankton variability in the Chesapeake Bay outflow plume

Abstract The Chesapeake Bay outflow plume (CBOP) is the mixing zone between Chesapeake Bay and less eutrophic continental shelf waters. Variations in phytoplankton distribution in the CBOP are critical to the fish nursery habitat quality and ecosystem health; thus, an existing hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model for the bay and the adjacent coastal ocean was applied to understand the nutrient and phytoplankton variability in the plume and the dominant environmental drivers. The simulated nutrient and chlorophyll a distribution agreed well with field data and real-time satellite imagery. Based on the model calculation, the net dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and phosphorus (DIP) flux at the bay mouth was seaward and landward during 2003–2012, respectively. The CBOP was mostly nitrogen-limited because of the relatively low estuarine DIN export. The highest simulated phytoplankton biomass generally occurred in spring in the near field of the plume. Streamflow variations could regulate the estuarine residence time, and thus modulate nutrient export and phytoplankton biomass in the plume area; in comparison, changing nutrient loading with fixed streamflow had a less extensive impact, especially in the offshore and far-field regions. Correlation analyses and numerical experiments revealed that southerly winds on the shelf were effective in promoting the offshore plume expansion and phytoplankton accumulation. Climate change including precipitation and wind pattern shifts is likely to complicate the driving mechanisms of phytoplankton variability in the plume region.
A hybrid correlation analysis with application to imaging genetics

Investigating the association between brain regions and genes continues to be a challenging topic in imaging genetics. Current brain region of interest (ROI)-gene association studies normally reduce data dimension by averaging the value of voxels in each ROI. This averaging may lead to a loss of information due to the existence of functional sub-regions. Pearson correlation is widely used for association analysis. However, it only detects linear correlation whereas nonlinear correlation may exist among ROIs. In this work, we introduced distance correlation to ROI-gene association analysis, which can detect both linear and nonlinear correlations and overcome the limitation of averaging operations by taking advantage of the information at each voxel. Nevertheless, distance correlation usually has a much lower value than Pearson correlation. To address this problem, we proposed a hybrid correlation analysis approach, by applying canonical correlation analysis (CCA) to the distance covariance matrix instead of directly computing distance correlation. Incorporating CCA into distance correlation approach may be more suitable for complex disease study because it can detect highly associated pairs of ROI and gene groups, and may improve the distance correlation level and statistical power. In addition, we developed a novel nonlinear CCA, called distance kernel CCA, which seeks the optimal combination of features with the most significant dependence. This approach was applied to imaging genetic data from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC). Experiments showed that our hybrid approach produced more consistent results than conventional CCA across resampling and both the correlation and statistical significance were increased compared to distance correlation analysis. Further gene enrichment analysis and region of interest (ROI) analysis confirmed the associations of the identified genes with brain ROIs. Therefore, our approach provides a powerful tool for finding the correlation between brain imaging and genomic data.
Politicizing Disaster: The Politics of the Federal Response to 'Natural Disasters' from Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Maria (Proposed Roundtable Discussion)

The 2017 hurricane season in the Atlantic basin has unequivocally been the most active season in terms of tropical cyclonic activity since 2005 – the year that set the benchmark as far as the number of named storms are concerned. Punctuating the 2017 hurricane season, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria wreaked havoc Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other parts of the Caribbean. But there appears to be a marked difference in the robustness of the federal government’s response to the hurricanes that hit Texas and Florida (where the predominate media images of the victims of Harvey and Irma are white) versus Hurricane Maria, which devastated Spanish speaking Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens: however, the woefully inadequate, anemic response to the disaster by the Trump administration brings to mind the bumbling, disastrously incompetent relief efforts of the Bush administration following Hurricane Katrina. Katrina and Maria bear an unfortunate similarity: its victims are primarily people of color. Herein lies the connection: not only did the Bush White House badly mishandle the initial federal response on a multitude of levels, but they (along with their Republican surrogates) needlessly politicized the issue in a manner that has had lasting impacts on the nature of federal response to disaster ever since. A combination of racial politics, deep ideological divisions about the role of the federal government, and political dysfunction in Washington have characterized congressional and executive responses to every natural disaster since Katrina. This reality has prevented policymakers from learning the lessons it should have learned from Katrina – and paving the way for the federal government’s criminally incompetent and immoral response to the victims of Hurricane Maria. This roundtable discusses the plethora of issues involved regarding federal response to natural disasters from 2005 to 2017.
Long-term outcomes associated with triple-goal achievement in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Abstract Aims This study was designed to compare the risk of long-term health outcomes, including microvascular, macrovascular complications and mortality, across 4 cohorts: triple-goal, dual-goal, single-goal, and no-goal achievers. Methods A retrospective cohort of 53,120 patients with T2DM were identified (97.51% male, 61.49% whites) from the Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic medical records VISN 16 data warehouse (2004–2010). Propensity score weight (PSW) was used to balance demographic characteristics and complication history at baseline. The PSW adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) from Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare complications and all-cause mortality over an average of 4 years of follow-up. Results At baseline, 25.43% (13,507) patients achieved triple-goal, while 41.36% (21,972) and 26.37% (14,010) patients achieved dual-goal and single-goal, respectively. During the follow-up period, triple-goal achievement was associated with risk reductions of complications and all-cause mortality when compared to all other groups of achieving dual or single-goal. Across different combinations of dual-goal achievement, the cohort with LDL-C goal achievement had lower risk of complication events and mortality, compared to those that achieved other goals but failed to reach LDL-C goal. Conclusions Achievement of triple-goal was associated with better health outcomes among veterans with T2DM compared to those that did not, while LDL-C has more weight of influence. Multi-faceted treatment strategies targeting hypertension, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia may improve health outcome in veterans with T2DM.
Deciding to Act Corruptly

In the same way that the market supply and demand for a given good or service depend on individual supply and demand curves, corruption, while reflecting – and often reinforcing – broad, even systemic, institutional deficiencies within societies, also represents the amalgamation of the choices, priorities, and actions of individual actors. This paper argues that, in order to identify the social, economic, and political factors that contribute to the forms, magnitude, and character of corruption in a given context, it is critical to consider why and how individuals in that environment choose to act corruptly. It examines the complex, dynamic nature and causes of various forms of corruption by focusing on the conditions and incentives that either encourage or deter individuals from engaging in such illicit behaviors. Expanding on the rational choice model of criminal behavior, this paper considers how individuals assess expected costs and benefits when contemplating corrupt acts, including how heuristics and biases may produce predictable errors in perception, evaluation, and judgment that impact their ultimate decisions and behaviors. Recognizing the role of social factors in shaping individuals’ perceptions of both the magnitude and probability of related costs and benefits, it also analyzes the incidence of corruption as a frequency-dependent equilibrium. Specifically, it presents a dynamic, path-dependent model of corruption in which the decision of an individual to engage in such illicit behaviors is driven not only by her own personal experiences, values, and expectations, but also by her perceptions concerning the beliefs and behaviors of other members of her community. Interwoven throughout the paper are analyses of how such insights into individual decision-making can and should inform legal and non-legal initiatives to combat various forms of corruption.
Seed dispersal by birds and squirrels in the deciduous forests of the United States

Well over 60% of the woody plant species in the eastern deciduous forests of the United States are dispersed by vertebrates that eat fleshy fruits or scatterhoard seeds. Some of the metabolic and evolutionary costs and benefits to the organisms involved in these interactions are discussed. I limit my discussion to frugivory by birds and scatterhoarding of nuts by tree squirrels. I compare and make speculations about these two seed dispersal mechanisms, focusing on fruit and nut preferences by dispersal agents and seed dispersal into different habitat types. Finally, I offer evolutionary explanations for the patterns observed.
Current Understanding of Concussion: Treatment Perspectives

Concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) represents a significant portion of sport-related traumatic brain injury. Much research in the past decade has provided the medical community with an increased knowledge base focused on the biological pathophysiology surrounding trauma to the brain. Given this increased knowledge however current clinical standards of care remain unchanged. As a result many groups studying mTBI have called for increased research in the area of treatment for concussion or mTBI. Treatment strategies in mTBI have been researched across many disciplines of brain science. Treatments can be characterized by their pharmaceutical, nutriceutical, and psychological approach to therapeutic intervention. Each intervention should be examined for the treatment it provides and how it relates to structural and functional healing concepts in the acute, subacute, and chronic stages of healing. Using this knowledge, clinicians should be able to determine how these interventions may benefit the individual recovering from concussion. In addition, it may provide a platform for making critical “Return to Play” activity recommendations so the athlete can return safely to sports participation. The purpose of this chapter on treatment perspectives in the field of sports-related concussion is to provide clinicians and researchers with a summary of interventions across disciplines.
Adult Stem Cell Plasticity Revisited

Cell biologists have long realized that most cells do not live as long as the organisms they comprise; thus, cells in almost every tissue need to be renewed/replaced during the natural lifespan of the organism. Depending on the turnover rate of cells in any given organ, this process can be very frequent or very rare. Epithelial cells in the mouth and the GI tract are exposed to a variety of insults (such as heat, cold, extreme changes in pH, strong spices, etc.) and have a very fast turnover rate; nerve cells get wired during embryonal development and either do not turn over or have a very low turnover rate. The rest of the tissues are somewhere in between. This kind of tissue regeneration relies on undifferentiated tissue-specific stem cells (also known as somatic stem cells) that are found in all adult animals and humans and multiply by cell division. They replenish cells that die from old age and regenerate those that have been damaged.
Hypoxic Inhibition of Alveolar Fluid Reabsorption

Alveolar hypoxia occurs during ascent to high altitude and is also observed in patients with ARDS and acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, in which alveolar flooding is associated with a decrease in edema fluid clearance and increased mortality. The mechanisms that lead to the impairment of alveolar fluid clearance are not completely understood. Alveolar fluid reabsorption is accomplished mostly by active Na+ transport across the alveolar epithelium which creates an osmotic gradient responsible for the clearance of lung edema from the alveolar spaces. In vivo and in vitro hypoxia inhibits both the epithelial sodium channels, responsible for the apical sodium entry, and the basolateral Na,K-ATPase, responsible for Na+ extrusion. We have shown that acute hypoxia inhibits Na,K-ATPase function by promoting its endocytosis from the plasma membrane to intracellular compartments. This process is mediated by the generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) as shown by pharmacological and genetic approaches. Hypoxia and ROS promote the PKC-zeta dependent phosphorylation of the Na,K-ATPase alpha subunit triggering its endocytosis in a clathrin–AP2 dependent process. The phosphorylation occurs at the Ser-18 in the alpha subunit N-terminus, and mutation of this serine prevents both the decrease in function and the endocytosis. More prolonged hypoxia causes the ubiquitination and degradation of Na,K-ATPase. Thus, methods that counterbalance the inhibition of edema clearance during hypoxia and improve the lung’s ability to clear pulmonary edema are needed. As such, a better understanding of the mechanisms that increase Na,K-ATPase function, (i.e., activation of dopaminergic or adrenergic receptors, gene transfer) may lead to the development of therapeutic approaches to upregulate the Na-K-ATPase function and increase edema clearance.
Interactions between civil commitment and protective placement: an empirical assessment.

Summary of Specified Formal Criteria of the Prereformed and Reformed Clvll Commitment Law and Protective Placement Laws Prereform Postreform Civil Civil Protective commitment commitment placement Criteria 1. Substantive Disability which is likely to be permanent XB X Primary need for care/custody X X Proper subject for treatment X X Dangerous to self/others X Dangerous to self as evidenced by: Recent Overt X Threats, attempts, or acts X X Suicide X Serious bodily harm X Acts of omission X X Physical impairment X X Injury to self X X Serious harm X Dangerous to others as evidenced by: Recent Overt Threats, attempts or acts Acts of omission Homicidal behavior Violent behavior Serious physical harm Serious harm X X X X (continued) ‘Not stated specifically. ‘For purposes of clarity, reference to the 1984-85 statutes will be considered as the reformed civil commit- ment law. Discrepancies between this statute and the 1975 law will be noted throughout the ensuing discus- sion.
Optimal Cellular Traffic Offloading through Opportunistic Mobile Networks by Data Partitioning

In cellular traffic offloading through opportunistic mobile networks, existing schemes rely on the assumption that data can be entirely transmitted at each contact. However, transmission probability exponentially decreases as data size increases. That is, the contact duration in each contact might be insufficient for delivering large data. The objective of this paper is to find an optimal traffic offloading scheme through data partitioning so that the data delivery latency is minimized. There is a trade- off in data partitioning. Each small chunk in a path has a higher delivery probability than original data, and consequently, has a shorter delivery latency under the persistent transmission model with re-transmission. However, the destination needs to receive all the chunks in multiple paths to retrieve the data. A delay in any path will lead to a longer delivery latency. We formulate the optimal cellular traffic offloading problem and propose an approach to generate forwarding paths with possible heterogeneous data chunks. Specifically, we discuss the optimal solution for single-hop direct forwarding with multiple offloading helpers and optimal chunk sizes. Then, we propose using the node's social-feature to generate multiple edge-disjoint multi-hop forwarding paths. Extensive experiments on realistic traces show that our scheme achieves a much better performance than those without partitioning.
Sparse Discriminative Tensor Dictionary Learning for Object Classification

Dictionary learning methods aim to learn atoms that can best represent a signal class. In recent years, these methods have been extended to learn discriminative dictionaries such that the learned atoms are specific to each class enabling better classification accuracy. With the increase of high dimensional and multi-aspect data, there’s a growing need to extend dictionary learning algorithms for tensor type data. In this paper, we propose an efficient, separable and orthogonal dictionary structure for learning class-specific dictionaries for tensor objects. The proposed cost function tries to minimize the representation error as well as within-class scatter while putting a sparsity constraint on the learned representation. The algorithm is applied to different tensor object classification tasks with extensive evaluations of the effect of sparsity, discriminability and reconstruction error on classification accuracy.
Presidential Spouse Role: How A Thoughtful Policy Can Guide the Way

When you become a college president or chancellor, whether you like it or not, everyone close to you is part of your presidency. Many presidents bring family members with them to their presidency, ...
Discriminative Stimulus Effects and Metabolism of Ethanol in Rhesus Monkeys

BACKGROUND Animal models are an essential feature of drug and pharmacotherapy development for treating alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The rhesus macaque is a robust animal model for many aspects of AUDs particularly in exploiting individual differences in oral self-administration of ethanol (EtOH), endocrine orchestration of stress response, and menstrual cycle characteristics. However, the clearance rates of EtOH have not been reported in this species, and the GABAA and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor involvement in EtOH's discriminative stimulus effects has not been fully characterized. METHODS EtOH clearance rates following 2 doses of EtOH on separate days (0.5 and 1.0 g/kg, i.g.) were determined in 8 young adult male rhesus macaques. The EtOH was given by nasogastric gavage, and repeated blood samples were taken over 5 hours without sedation. Next, all subjects were trained on a 2-choice 1.0 g/kg EtOH (i.g.) versus water discrimination with a 60-minutes pretreatment period to capture peak blood EtOH concentration (BEC). Substitution testing was conducted with GABAA ligands pentobarbital (i.g. and i.m.) and midazolam (i.g.), as well as NMDA antagonist MK-801 (i.m.). RESULTS Peak BECs were 34 and 87 mg/dl for 0.5 and 1.0 g/kg doses, respectively, and occurred at 66 and 87 minutes following gavage. All GABAA and NMDA ligands tested resulted in responding on the EtOH-appropriate lever with the potency ranking of MK-801 (ED50 : 0.017 mg/kg) > midazolam (ED50 : 1.6 mg/kg) > pentobarbital (ED50 : 3.7 mg/kg) > EtOH (ED50 : 700 mg/kg, or 0.7 g/kg) in these subjects. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the compound discriminative stimulus effects of EtOH are highly consistent across species, providing further support for the rhesus macaque as strong model for pharmacotherapy development for AUD.