cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The impacts of isolation, canopy size, and environmental conditions on patterns of understory species richness in an oak savanna

Fragmentation and habitat loss have transformative effects on landscapes. Like many savanna communities worldwide, California oak savannas (Quercus spp.) have experienced extensive anthropogenic clearing, increasing the isolation of individual trees. Isolation and tree size may have consequences for populations of understory plants, but this has never been evaluated in a temperate savanna community. I address two questions: (1) How does the presence of oak trees affect site-level species richness? (2) What landscape and/or local attributes are associated with trees that contribute many species to a site? Vegetation and environmental attributes in the understory of isolated oaks and in surrounding grassland were surveyed at four sites in California, USA. I counted the number of species occurring in plots underneath and at the edge of each tree that were absent from surrounding plots in open grassland (‘oak-associated species’). I used species-area curves to evaluate the contribution of oaks to site-level species richness. The importance of crown area, isolation, environmental heterogeneity, and understory soil fertility on species occurrences was assessed using linear mixed models. At two of the four sites, oaks increased site species richness by 23–57 %. At the southernmost site, understory soil fertility and isolation were negatively related to oak-associated species. Across all four sites, trees with larger crown area had more oak-associated species. Savanna oaks are important structuring forces for landscape plant species richness, especially in dry locations. Large trees may be especially important for conserving diverse understories. These positive effects, however, are not always negatively influenced by isolation.
Iodine levels in drinking water in iodine deficiency and high iodine areas in Zibo city

Objective To look into the current distribution of iodine deficiency areas in Zibo city and to guide the re-defined iodine deficiency areas in order to supplement iodine scientifically.Methods 8 iodine deficiency counties(cities,districts),and 1 high iodine counties(cities,districts) were investigated in Zibo city according to"Supplement iodized salt to eliminate the hazard of iodine deficiency management regulations".One to three samples were collected from water source which was used by the majority of local residents in 8 iodine deficiency areas and iodine concentration was tested by As3+-Ce4+ catalyzing spectrophotometry.Results A total of 3 676 water samples were collected.The median water iodine was 2.0 μg/L,64.71%(88/136) of the township(town) met criteria for the classification of iodine deficiency areas(water iodine10 μg/L),26.47%(36/136)of the township(town) water iodine moderate(water iodine 10~150 μg/L),and 8.82%(12/136)of the township(town) should be defined as high iodine areas(water iodine150~300 μg/L).However,in high iodine areas,9.26%(5/54) township(town) met criteria for the classification of iodine deficiency areas,35.19%(19/54) of the township(town) water iodine moderate,55.56%(30/54) should be defined as high iodine areas.Conclusions The deficiency and high iodine areas should be taken appropriate measures.The township(town) should be set as the smallest place to supply salt with different range of iodine content.
Electroconvulsive Therapy Intervention for Parkinson's Disease

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy is an established means to improve function in a variety of psychiatric and neurologic conditions, particularly for patients who remain treatment-refractory. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that sometimes does not respond well to conventional pharmacotherapies. Reports have indicated that electroconvulsive therapy may be an effective and safe treatment for those patients with Parkinson’s disease who are not optimally responding to first-line treatments. Despite these reports, however, electroconvulsive therapy is not often used by clinicians in patients with treatment-resistant Parkinson’s disease, perhaps due to stigma, lack of knowledge regarding its safety and efficacy, and/or inability to predict the duration of therapeutic benefit. Objective: Our objective was to determine if the available literature on ECT supports it as a safe and effective treatment option in patients with treatment-refractory Parkinson’s disease. Conclusion: Motoric improvement induced by electroconvulsive therapy has been documented for decades in persons with Parkinson’s disease. Efficacy and safety are reported following electroconvulsive therapy in people with Parkinson’s disease who have sub-optimal response to medicines or experience the “on/off” phenomenon to L-dopa. Electroconvulsive therapy is an effective option for acute and maintenance treatment of Parkinson’s disease in select patients. Inability to predict how long the beneficial effects of ECT therapy will last in patients with Parkinson’s disease may be a reason why this treatment is underutilized by clinicians. More research is warranted to clarify parameters for application and duration of therapeutic benefit in individuals with difficult-to-treat Parkinson’s disease.
Twenty-five years of increasing use of pediatric dental services.

Data from a continuing series of surveys by the national Interview Survey confirm further increases in use of pediatric dental services through 1989. The surveys show that by 1989 almost a third of children between two and four years of age visited a dentist in the previous year. For children between two and fourteen, and between five and fourteen, 60.5 percent and 69.5 percent, respectively, had visited a dentist in the previous year. Most significant has been the decrease in the percent of children who never visited a dentist, in the past twenty-five years. In the mid 1960s, approximately a quarter of children between five and fourteen years had never visited a dentist. Twenty-five years later, the percentage was reduced to 8.6 percent. There were also decreases in the percent of very young children (less than five years and between two and four): 78 percent and 55 percent, respectively, in the 1980s. There are, however, major reasons for concern. The percentage of children living in poverty continued to increase in the 1990s. In 1990 cases of measles, mumps, rubella, and pertussis increased. Twenty-two countries had lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. Increasing rates of nursing caries and fluorosis are appearing.
Polymerization of deoxyhemoglobin CHarlem (beta 6 Glu replaced by Val, beta 73 Asp replaced by Asn). The effect of beta 73 asparagine on the gelation and crystallization of hemoglobin.

Abstract The kinetics of aggregation and the solubility of deoxy Hb† C Harlem ( α 2 β 2 6 Val, 73 Asn) in concentrated phosphate buffers were studied in comparison with those of deoxy Hb S and deoxy Hb A. Deoxy Hb C Harlem aggregated with a clear exhibition of a delay time. The length of the delay and aggregation times and the degree of the aggregation depended upon the initial hemoglobin concentration. The initial hemoglobin concentration required for the aggregation of deoxy Hb C Harlem was approximately 200% of its solubility, a value much higher than that required for the aggregation of deoxy Hb S (120%). With the same hemoglobin concentration, the delay time for the aggregation of deoxy Hb C Harlem was approximately 100 times longer than that of deoxy Hb S. The logarithmic plotting of the delay time versus hemoglobin concentration in 1.8 m -phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) showed linear lines with a slope ( n ) of 4.0 for deoxy Hb C Harlem . In contrast to the results for the aggregation of deoxy Hb S, n values for deoxy Hb C Harlem were unchanged with phosphate concentrations varying from 1.2 m to 2.0 m . The solubilities of deoxy Hb S and deoxy Hb C Harlem were increased exponentially by lowering the pH of the medium, with the increase being more conspicuous for Hb C Harlem . The gels (or aggregates) of Hb C Harlem were converted to crystals at a rate much faster than were those of Hb A and Hb S. The kinetics for gelation and crystallization of deoxy Hb C Harlem can be explained by the following scheme, where nuclei G and nuclei C are formed before gelation and crystallization, respectively. Monomenc deoxy Hb The hemoglobin concentration required for the crystallization of deoxy Hb C Harlem was about ten times lower than that required for deoxy Hb A. The solubility of deoxy Hb C Harlem after aggregation was about twice that of deoxy Hb S, suggesting that the substitution of Asn for Asp at the β73 residue inhibits the formation of nuclei G and accelerates the formation of nuclei C.
U.S. Renewables Portfolio Standards: 2016 Annual Status Report

Author(s): Barbose, Galen L | Abstract: Berkeley Lab’s annual status report on U.S. renewables portfolio standards (RPS) provides an overview of key trends associated with U.S. state RPS policies. The report, published in slide-deck form, describes recent legislative revisions, key policy design features, compliance with interim targets, past and projected impacts on renewables development, and compliance costs. The 2019 edition of the report presents historical data through year-end 2018 and projections through 2030. Key trends from this edition of the report include the following: • Evolution of state RPS programs: States continue to refine and revise their RPS policies. Among other significant changes since the start of 2018, ten states enacted higher RPS targets (CA, CT, DC, MA, MD, NE, NJ, NM, NV, and NY), in most cases setting targets equal to at least 50% of retail sales. One state (OH) reduced its RPS targets. • Historical impacts on renewables development: Roughly half of all growth in U.S. renewable electricity (RE) generation and capacity since 2000 is associated with state RPS requirements, though not all of that is strictly attributable to RPS policies. Nationally, the role of RPS policies has diminished over time, representing just under 30% of all U.S. RE capacity additions in 2018. However, within particular regions—especially the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and to a lesser extent the West—RPS policies continue to serve a central role in motivating RE growth. • Future RPS demand and incremental needs: RPS demand growth will require roughly a 50% increase in U.S. RE generation by 2030, equating to 73 GW of new RE capacity. To meet future RPS obligations, U.S. non-hydro RE generation will need to reach 17% of electricity sales by 2030 (compared to 12% today), though other drivers will also continue to influence RE growth. • RPS target achievement to-date: States have generally met their interim RPS targets in recent years, with only a few exceptions reflecting unique, state-specific policy designs. • REC pricing trends: Prices for NEPOOL Class I RECs fell in 2018, before rebounding in early 2019, while PJM Tier I REC prices have remained relatively flat. Price trends for solar RECs vary by state, with the highest prices in DC, MA, and NJ. • RPS compliance costs and cost caps: RPS compliance costs—which reflect only a sub-set of all impacts—totaled $4.7 billion in 2018, equating to 2.6% of average retail electricity bills in RPS states, compared to $4.0 billion and 1.7% of retail bills in 2017. Cost increases from rising RPS targets have been offset to some degree by falling RE costs and REC prices.
Designer Systems of Systems: A Rational Integrated Approach of System Engineering to Tailored Aerodynamics, Aeroelasticity, Aero-viscoelasticity, Stability, Control, Geometry, Materials, Structures, Propulsion, Performance, Sizing, Weight, Cost

This chapter [Portions of the analysis and results of this continuing research project were presented at the Fourth International Conference on Inverse Problems, Design and Optimization (IPDO–2013), Albi, France (Hilton and D’Urso, Paper ID 06290, 2013).] reports on a comprehensive optimized inverse analysis protocol that has been formulated at the complex multifunctional, multiphysics and multidisciplinary total system of systems (SoS) level leading to trans-disciplinary convergence for the entire designer vehicle with provisions for optimized/tailored aerodynamics, stability, control, materials, structures, propulsion, performance, sizing, weight, cost, etc. The protocol for these inverse problems is based on a generalized calculus of variations approach, including but not limited to Lagrange multipliers.
A programming system for sensor-driven scientific applications

Technical advances are leading to a pervasive computational ecosystem that integrates computing infrastructures with embedded sensors and actuators, and giving rise to a new paradigm for monitoring, understanding, and managing natural and engineered systems – one that is information/data-driven. This research investigates a programming system that can support such end-to-end sensor-based dynamic data-driven applications. Specifically, it enables these applications at two levels. First, it provides programming abstractions for integrating sensor systems with computational models for scientific and engineering processes and with other application components in an end-to-end experiment. Second, it provides programming abstractions and system software support for developing in-network data processing mechanisms. The former supports complex querying of the sensor system, while the latter enables development of in-network data processing mechanisms such as aggregation, adaptive interpolation and assimilation, both via semantically meaningful abstractions. For the latter, we explore the temporal and spatial correlation of sensor measurements in the targeted application domains to tradeoff between the complexity of coordination among sensor clusters and the savings that result from having fewer sensors for in-network processing, while maintaining an acceptable error threshold. Experimental results show that the proposed in-network mechanisms can facilitate the efficient usage of constraint resources and satisfy data requirement in the presence of dynamics and uncertainty. The research presented in this thesis is evaluated using two application scenarios: (1) the management and optimization of an instrumented oil field; and (2) the management and optimization of an instrumented data center. In the first scenario, the programming abstractions and systems software solutions enable end-to-end management processes for detecting and tracking reservoir changes, assimilating and inverting data for determining reservoir properties, and providing feedback to enhance temporal and spatial resolutions and track other specific processes in the subsurface. The overall goal is to ensure near optimal operation of the reservoir in terms of profitability, safety and/or environmental impact. In the second scenario, the autonomic instrumented data center management system addresses power consumption, heat generation and cooling requirements of the data center, which are critical concerns especially as the scales of these computing environments grow. Experimental results show that the provided programming system reduces overheads while achieving near optimal and timely management and control in both application scenarios.
Surface damage growth mitigation on KDP/DKDP optics using single-crystal diamond micro-machining ball end mill contouring

A process to stabilize laser-initiated surface damage on KDP/DKDP optics by micromachine contouring using a single-crystal diamond ball nose end mill is shown to mitigate damage growth for subsequent laser shots. Our tests show that machined circular contours on output surfaces of uncoated doubler (KDP) and tripler (DKDP) crystals are stable for laser exposures at 351nm, ~8ns pulses at ~12J/cm2 fluences. Other tests also confirmed that the machined contours on the output surface of an uncoated tripler are stable for combined 1053nm and 351nm, ~8ns pulses at ~12J/cm2 total fluences (~6J/cm2 each wavelength) for greater than 100 shots. Laser damage tests have also been conducted on an array of machined contours on the output surface of an AR coated tripler at 351nm, ~1ns pulses up to ~8J/cm2 fluences. The machined shapes have been as large as 1.5 mm in diameter and 0.25 mm deep, and as small as 250 microns in diameter and 25 microns deep. Both Gaussian and conical shaped contours have been successfully tested. Computer modeling and measurement of laser beam propagation through the actual contoured shapes have been conducted to confirm downstream intensification is manageable.
Designing Catalytic Sites on Surfaces with Optimal H-Atom Binding via Atom Doping Using the Inverse Molecular Design Approach.

It remains a general challenge to computationally design optimal catalytic structures based on earth-abundant metals for hydrogenation. Here, we demonstrate an effective computational approach based on inverse molecular design to deterministically design optimal catalytic sites on the Cu(100) surface through the doping of Fe and/or Zn, and a stable Zn-doped Cu(100) surface was found with minimal binding energy to H atoms. By the calculations at the level of density functional theory, the optimized catalyst sites are verified to be valid on the Cu(100) surface in an infinite periodic system. We analyze the electronic structure cause of the optimal binding sites using the analysis of the density of states. In addition, we use a Cu29Zn3 atomic cluster, where such an optimum catalytic site is valid on the Cu(100) surface, to understand the role of doped Zn atoms on lowering the H atom binding energy. We found that in the atomic cluster, the atomic orbitals of surface Zn-atoms show less participation in the bi...
Overview of the ASSETS 2016 conference

This year was the 18th edition of the ACM SIGACCESS International Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2016)1, which took place in October in Reno, Nevada, USA. The ASSETS conference is the premier computing research conference exploring the design, evaluation, and use of computing and information technologies to benefit people with disabilities and older adults. We set a new attendance record for ASSETS, with 173 participants from across the globe. In addition to a rich technical program, an increase in industrial sponsorship allowed the conference to support several receptions, including an event at the National Automobile Museum in Reno.
Medical apps used during advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

Abstract Background and purpose The purpose of this study was to determine what type of medical applications (apps) are being used by fourth-year students during advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). Educational activity and setting Recent doctor of pharmacy school graduates were surveyed pertaining to their use of medical apps on APPEs, frequency of use for select apps, willingness to buy apps and at what cost, and their perceived importance on using medical apps in their pharmacy practice. The survey concluded by inquiring if medical apps should be taught in the pharmacy curriculum. Findings Ninety of 132 recent graduates responded to the survey and over 97% of the students used medical apps on their APPEs. Lexicomp®, UpToDate® and the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Risk calculator were the most frequently used applications during APPEs. Of those surveyed, 83% believe that medical apps should be taught in pharmacy school. Discussion and summary Medical apps are frequently used on APPEs. It may be prudent to teach students how to use and evaluate medical apps before going on experiences so that students and patients can get the most benefit from these tools.
Permethrin treated clothing to protect outdoor workers: evaluation of different methods for mosquito exposure against populations with differing resistance status.

Minimizing arthropod exposure (e.g. mosquito and tick bites) is vital to protect health of outdoor workers. Personal protective measures can help protect against exposure. Here, the quantity of per...
Tau uptake in agrammatic primary progressive aphasia with and without apraxia of speech.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia (agPPA) is a heterogeneous diagnosis wherein some individuals have apraxia of speech (AOS). When agPPA includes AOS, a tauopathy is the likely underlying pathology. Recently, [18F]AV-1451 was developed for the in-vivo assessment of tau. In this study, we compared patterns of tau tracer uptake in patients with agPPA with and without AOS. METHODS Nine patients with agPPA (four without AOS) underwent tau positron emission tomography imaging with [18F]AV-1451. Uptake of [18F]AV-1451 was assessed as cortical to cerebellar crus ratio (standard uptake value ratio) in cortical regions of interest measured using the MCALT atlas and compared voxel-wise in SPM12. Each patient was age- and sex-matched to three controls. RESULTS The agPPA without AOS showed uptake in the left frontal and temporal lobes, whereas agPPA with AOS showed uptake in the bilateral supplementary motor areas, frontal lobes, precuneus and precentral gyrus relative to controls. The left precentral gyrus had uptake in agPPA with AOS relative to those without AOS. CONCLUSIONS This cross-sectional study suggests that [18F]AV-1451 uptake in the precentral gyrus is implicated in AOS in agPPA.
HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL INTERACTIONS IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Abstract There are many avenues for interaction and integration in complex systems of humans, processes and technologies. Among the ingredients that influence this integration are organizational leadership and culture, individual and organizational information processing, decisionmaking and learning, and the approaches that individuals and organizations use for the detection, diagnosis, and correction of errors. These contribute to the processes through which planning leads to actions and results. We examine some of these many considerations here. A major objective is provision of linkages between individual and organizational learning, and individual and organizational error commission, detection, diagnosis, and correction.
Agent-Based Probabilistic Models of Social Interaction

Multi-agent simulation is a powerful tool for studying real-world interactions and identifying influential factors that determine the emergent dynamics of social systems. While they are often partially validated using theories from the social sciences or correspondences with real-world data, it is usually difficult to accurately characterize real-world population phenomena with these models. This can be limiting in applications involving large, distributed systems, for example, if we want to know how the opinions of users are evolving over time in a social network. Social media provides an expansive and readily available dataset for analyzing such models, but very rarely are there compatibilities with the textual information available on social media and the latent characteristics that simulated agents exhibit. To develop more effective agent-based approach to modeling interaction and expression patterns on social media, we propose a probabilistic analysis framework in which the internal state of the agent and some contextual situation influences the textual content of their post. We investigate several text-based models that can be validated by and used to analyze social media corpora.
Lattice sine-Gordon model

We obtain nonperturbative results on the sine-Gordon model using the lattice field technique. In particular, we employ the Fourier accelerated hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm for our studies. We find the critical temperature of the theory based on autocorrelation time, as well as the finite size scaling of the ``thickness'' observable used in an earlier lattice study by Hasenbusch et al. We study the entropy, which is smooth across all temperatures, supportive of an infinite order transition. This system has a well-known duality with the massive Thirring model, which can play the role of a toy model for Montonen-Olive duality in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang Mills theory, since it relates solitons to elementary field excitations. Our research lays a groundwork for such study on the lattice.
A reply to "Aligning airway management strategy with resuscitation priorities for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest" by Burjek et al.

We thank Drs. Burjek and colleagues for their thoughtful review of the Pragmatic Airway Resuscitation Trial (PART) (1) (ref for Burjek et al .). We agree that strategies to reduce cognitive load during airway management are important and potentially beneficial. However, several points are worth clarification.
The role of executive cash bonuses in providing individual and team incentives

Abstract Given CEOs’ substantial equity portfolios, much recent literature on CEO incentives regards cash-based bonus plans as largely irrelevant, begging the question of why nearly all CEO compensation plans include such bonuses. We develop a new measure of bonus plan incentives and show that performance sensitivities are much greater than prior estimates. We also test hypotheses regarding the role of bonuses in providing executives with individualized and team incentives. We find little evidence supporting the individualized incentives hypotheses but find consistent evidence that bonus plans appear to be used to encourage mutual monitoring and to facilitate coordination across the top management team as a whole.
Empagliflozin-induced Diabetic Ketoacidosis Unmasking a Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis.

Empagliflozin is a sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor that inhibits renal glucose reabsorption through an insulin-independent mechanism. This class of drugs is used in the management of type 2 diabetes. A 49-year-old female with type 2 diabetes treated with empagliflozin presented to the emergency department in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This case report details the series of events leading to the diagnosis of drug-induced DKA, which led to a change in the patient’s diagnosis from type 2 diabetes to type 1 diabetes.
Synthesis of a novel tetrapyrrolic macrolactam and its activity towards Uro'gen III synthase†

A novel macrocyclic tetrapyrrolelactam 8, analog of a putative intermediate, has been synthesized. Its very low inhibitory effect on Uro'gen III synthase renders it unlikely to be a low-energy transition-state analog.
Performance of a Clinical Decision Support Tool to Identify PICU Patients at High Risk for Clinical Deterioration

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the translation of a paper high-risk checklist for PICU patients at risk of clinical deterioration to an automated clinical decision support tool. DESIGN Retrospective, observational cohort study of an automated clinical decision support tool, the PICU Warning Tool, adapted from a paper checklist to predict clinical deterioration events in PICU patients within 24 hours. SETTING Two quaternary care medical-surgical PICUs-The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. PATIENTS The study included all patients admitted from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015, the year prior to the initiation of any focused situational awareness work at either institution. INTERVENTIONS We replicated the predictions of the real-time PICU Warning Tool by retrospectively querying the institutional data warehouse to identify all patients that would have flagged as high-risk by the PICU Warning Tool for their index deterioration. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The primary exposure of interest was determination of high-risk status during PICU admission via the PICU Warning Tool. The primary outcome of interest was clinical deterioration event within 24 hours of a positive screen. The date and time of the deterioration event was used as the index time point. We evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the performance of the PICU Warning Tool. There were 6,233 patients evaluated with 233 clinical deterioration events experienced by 154 individual patients. The positive predictive value of the PICU Warning Tool was 7.1% with a number needed to screen of 14 patients for each index clinical deterioration event. The most predictive of the individual criteria were elevated lactic acidosis, high mean airway pressure, and profound acidosis. CONCLUSIONS Performance of a clinical decision support translation of a paper-based tool showed inferior test characteristics. Improved feasibility of identification of high-risk patients using automated tools must be balanced with performance.
SMART-Q: An Integrative Pipeline Quantifying Cell Type-Specific RNA Transcription

Accurate RNA quantification at the single-cell level is critical for understanding the dynamics of gene expression and regulation across space and time. Single molecule FISH (smFISH), such as RNAscope, provides spatial and quantitative measurements of individual transcripts, therefore, can be used to explore differential gene expression among a heterogeneous cell population if combined with cell identify information. However, such analysis is not straightforward, and existing image analysis pipelines cannot integrate both RNA transcripts and cellular staining information to automatically output cell type-specific gene expression. We developed an efficient and customizable analysis method, Single-Molecule Automatic RNA Transcription Quantification (SMART-Q), to enable the analysis of gene transcripts in a cell type-specific manner. SMART-Q efficiently infers cell identity information from multiplexed immuno-staining and quantifies cell type-specific transcripts using a 3D Gaussian fitting algorithm . Furthermore, we have optimized SMART-Q for user experiences, such as flexible parameters specification, batch data outputs, and visualization of analysis results. SMART-Q meets the demands for efficient quantification of single-molecule RNA and can be widely used for cell type-specific RNA transcript analysis.
Why Did the Original Jones Criteria Not Emphasize Streptococcal Infection

Abstract T. Duckett Jones’ 1944 Jones Criteria for the diagnosis of Acute Rheumatic Fever did not require preceding group A streptococcal infection despite widely accepted strong evidence by Alvin Coburn and others. We reviewed relevant literature, previously unknown 1943 T. D. Jones correspondence, and Coburn's autobiography and archival material. New information concerning the fraught Jones-Coburn personal relationship very likely explains Jones’ unwillingness to accept Coburn's 1931 discovery of the crucial streptococcal link. Shortly after Jones’ 1954 death, the Jones Criteria were revised to emphasize the essential streptococcal role. Despite clear evidence in his correspondence that Jones fully understood the strength of the group A Streptococcal-Rheumatic Fever link before 1944, he failed to acknowledge this in the original Jones Criteria and denied it to his death in 1954. This episode demonstrates how interpersonal relationships have the potential to interfere with acceptance of new medical data.
Design and Assessment of a Single-size Semi-soft Assistive Mitten for People with Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries

Assistive orthotics have the potential to augment the grasping capabilities of individuals with limited hand functionality. People with a cervical-level spinal cord injury (SCI) lack direct control of semi-flaccid, curled fingers on both hands, which often precludes independent donning and doffing of orthotics, thus limiting their use in daily life. This paper presents a novel orthotic designed to improve hand functionality while facilitating independent daily use for individuals with cervical SCI: the Single-size Semi-soft Assistive Mitten (SSAM). This device utilizes a slim dorsal leaf spring and underactuated cable drive to passively open and actively close the hand, in a way that is robust to variations in hand size. This mitten is intended to improve ease of donning and doffing, as the device is attached to all fingers at once. A prototype is developed based on simulation studies, and grasping performance of the proposed design is validated with five healthy subjects. Successful grasping trials, along with positive user feedback, suggest that the SSAM has a comfortable and intuitive design for long-term, independent use and will enable future studies into feasibility of daily use for people with SCI.
Self-Optimizing Wireless Networks on Structures

This brief proposes half-duplex wireless networks that use acoustic guided waves traveling on or through structures for physically-secure long-range power and data telemetry. It also develops a protocol for such networks to optimize their power and data delivery to compensate for slowly-varying factors like temperature and structural damage. Specifically, near-maximum power point tracking (nMPPT) is implemented by searching for the optimal transmission frequency in complex acoustic channels. Binary frequency shift keying (BPSK) modulated on the power waveform is proposed for downlink. A power-efficient fast uplink is achieved by using Non Return to Zero - Inverted (NRZ-I) data encoding. Data security is naturally ensured by the unique channel responses defined by the transceivers’ physical locations. Miniature smart sensor nodes with a quiescent power of 4.8 $\mu \text{W}$ and a peak power of $\sim 200~\mu \text{W}$ have been developed for such sparse networks. The proposed half-duplex telemetry approach is experimentally evaluated on a structural health monitoring (SHM) test bed and achieves a power transfer of $\sim 181.8~\mu \text{W}$ at 0.5 m and a BER of 10−4 for a 80 bps downlink driven at 20 $\text{V}_{pp}$ , and a BER of 10−4 for a 2 Mbps uplink driven at $\sim 2~\text{V}_{pp}$ .
Carbon Dioxide Laser Resurfacing for Rhinophyma: A Case Report and Discussion of the Literature.

Rhinophyma, an unsightly and obstructive skin lesion of the nasal area, can be difficult to treat. Numerous modalities have been tried, including medical, excision, and ablation, with various tools and results. In the present report, we have demonstrated the use of the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser on the nose of a 56-year-old man, with excellent cosmetic results even at 59 months after treatment. Discussion of the disease entity and the advantages and disadvantages of the different treatment options are presented. Given the results shown in our patient, we believe that CO2 laser ablation should be a standard treatment of rhinophyma, given its practicality, predictability, and excellent outcomes.
Authority Work, Catalogers, and Contemporary Authors: Results of an Online Survey

The article presents the results of an online survey, which was designed to examine the relationships between catalogers and contemporary authors during the process of establishing authorized acces...
The interplay between bandgap renormalization and Burstein-Moss effect for multilayered Al:ZnO/ZnO metamaterial

Multilayered Al:ZnO/ZnO metamaterial, a material that exhibits unique optical properties such as hyperbolic dispersion, attracted a high research interest due to its low optical loss and high conductivity. Combination of the optical gain and strong anisotropy for the Al:ZnO/ZnO metamaterial provide novel opportunities to control spontaneous emission. High doping concentrations (1020- 1021 cm-3 ) for Al:ZnO/ZnO require the inclusion the effect of the band filling. While ZnO has a large bandgap of ~3.3 eV, it has been suggested that in Al:ZnO the Burstein-Moss effect results in an increase in bandgap and thus a decrease in emitted wavelength, which may partially explain the suppression of visible photoluminescence and increase in ultraviolet photoluminescence observed in highly doped Al:ZnO. Here, we investigated the interplay between bandgap renormalization and band filling (Burstein-Moss effect). The results of our calculations show that the energy shift due to the Burstein-Moss effect (blue-shift) and bandgap renormalization (redshift) strongly depends on carrier concentration in multilayered Al:ZnO/ZnO. We found that the energy blue-shift due to BursteinMoss compensates the red-shift from the bandgap renormalization when a carrier concentration reaches 1020 cm-3 .
Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs: by James Sullivan, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2019, 264 pp., $24.95 (hardback), 978-0190660307

Protest music has been an interesting and relevant topic for hundreds of years, focusing on events such as civil rights, environmental issues, and war. The book jacket for Which Side Are You On? 20...
DDX3X and DDX3Y are redundant in protein synthesis

DDX3 is a DEAD-box RNA helicase that regulates translation and is encoded by the X- and Y-linked paralogs DDX3X and DDX3Y. While DDX3X is ubiquitously expressed in human tissues and essential for viability, DDX3Y is male-specific and shows lower and more variable expression than DDX3X in somatic tissues. Heterozygous genetic lesions in DDX3X mediate a class of developmental disorders called DDX3X syndrome, while loss of DDX3Y is implicated in male infertility. One possible explanation for female-bias in DDX3X syndrome is that DDX3Y encodes a polypeptide with different biochemical activity. In this study, we use ribosome profiling and in vitro translation to demonstrate that the X- and Y-linked paralogs of DDX3 play functionally redundant roles in translation. We find that transcripts that are sensitive to DDX3X depletion or mutation are rescued by complementation with DDX3Y. Our data indicate that DDX3X and DDX3Y proteins can functionally complement each other in human cells. DDX3Y is not expressed in a large fraction of the central nervous system. These findings suggest that expression differences, not differences in paralog-dependent protein synthesis, underlie the sex-bias of DDX3X-associated diseases.
Two-loop QCD corrections for 2 to 2 parton scattering processes

A summary is presented of the most recent matrix elements for massless 2 to 2 scattering processes calculated at two loops in QCD perturbation theory together with a brief review on the calculational methods and techniques used.
Psychometric properties of the assessment of COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors

Abstract Developing psychometrically validated assessment tools to examine social and intergroup processes related to COVID-19 is fundamental for creating interventions that reduce the spread of this virus Thus, this manuscript aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new measure, Assessment of COVID-19 Attitudes and Behaviors (ACAB), that assesses COVID-19-related attitudes (e g , about physical distancing, xenophobia), behaviors (e g , helping others versus prioritizing own needs), and beliefs (e g , about others? roles in spreading COVID-19) We used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA, CFA) to provide factor analytic support and Fisher's r-to-z transformation to provide construct validity evidence EFA revealed and CFA confirmed a four-factor structure of social distancing adjustment, self-prioritization, prosocial behaviors, and belief in conspiracies Fisher's r-to-z transformation provided evidence for the construct validity of the four factors This psychometrically validated instrument will enhance social science researchers? ability to accurately identify and explicate psychological processes related to COVID-19
Older but Not Wiser: the Age-Driven Changes in Neutrophil Responses during Pulmonary Infections.

Elderly individuals are at an increased risk of life-threatening pulmonary infections. Neutrophils are a key determinant of the disease course of pathogen-induced pneumonia. Optimal host defense balances initial robust pulmonary neutrophil responses to control pathogen numbers, ultimately followed by resolution of inflammation to prevent pulmonary damage. Recent evidence suggests that phenotypic and functional heterogeneity in neutrophils impacts host resistance to pulmonary pathogens. Apart from their apparent role in innate immunity, neutrophils also orchestrate subsequent adaptive immune responses during infection. Thus, the outcome of pulmonary infections can be shaped by neutrophils. This review summarizes the age-driven impairment of neutrophil responses and the contribution of these cells to the susceptibility of the elderly to pneumonia. We describe how aging is accompanied by changes in neutrophil recruitment, resolution and function. We discuss how systemic and local changes alter neutrophil phenotype in aged hosts. We highlight the gap in knowledge of whether these changes in neutrophils also contribute to the decline in adaptive immunity seen with age. We further detail the factors that drive dysregulated neutrophil responses in the elderly and the pathways that may be targeted to re-balance neutrophil activity and boost host resistance to pulmonary infections.
Ionic liquid enables highly efficient low temperature desalination by directional solvent extraction.

Seawater desalination plays a critical role in addressing the global water shortage challenge. Directional Solvent Extraction (DSE) is an emerging non-membrane desalination technology that features the ability to utilize very low temperature waste heat (as low as 40 °C). This is enabled by the subtly balanced solubility properties of directional solvents, which do not dissolve in water but can dissolve water and reject salt ions. However, the low water yield of the state-of-the-art directional solvent (decanoic acid) significantly limits its throughput and energy efficiency. In this paper, we demonstrate that by using ionic liquid as a new directional solvent, saline water can be desalinated with much higher production rate and thus significantly lower the energy and exergy consumptions. The ionic liquid identified suitable for DSE is [emim][Tf2N], which has a much (~10×) higher water yield than the currently used decanoic acid. Using molecular dynamics simulations with Gibbs free energy calculations, we reveal that water dissolving in [emim][Tf2N] is energetically favorable, but it takes significant energy for [emim][Tf2N] ions to dissolve in water. Our findings may significantly advance the DSE technology as a solution to the challenges in the global water-energy nexus. Directional Solvent Extraction is an emerging non-membrane desalination technology for sea water desalination but is limited by throughput and energy efficiency. Here, the authors demonstrate that the production rate and energy efficiency can be increased by using ionic liquids as directional solvent.
Larval development and survival of pond-breeding anurans in an agricultural landscape impacted more by phytoplankton than surrounding habitat

The destruction of freshwater habitat is a major contributor to biodiversity loss in aquatic ecosystems. However, created or restored wetlands could partially mitigate aquatic biodiversity loss by increasing the amount of available habitat across a landscape. We investigated the impact of surrounding terrestrial habitat and water quality variables on suitability for two species of pond-breeding amphibians (bullfrogs [Lithobates catesbeianus] and Blanchard's cricket frogs [Acris blanchardi]) in created permanent wetlands located on an agricultural landscape. We examined tadpole growth and survival in field enclosures placed in ponds surrounded by agricultural, forested, or grassland habitats. We also evaluated the potential for carryover effects of the aquatic environment on terrestrial growth and overwinter survival of cricket frog metamorphs. We found that habitat adjacent to ponds did not predict tadpole growth or survival. Rather, phytoplankton abundance, which showed high variability among ponds within habitat type, was the only predictor of tadpole growth. Cricket frogs emerged larger and earlier from ponds with higher phytoplankton abundance; bullfrogs were also larger and at a more advanced developmental stage in ponds with higher levels of phytoplankton. Overwinter survival of cricket frogs was explained by size at metamorphosis and there were no apparent carryover effects of land use or pond-of-origin on overwinter growth and survival. Our results demonstrate that created ponds in human-dominated landscapes can provide suitable habitat for some anurans, independent of the adjacent terrestrial habitat.
Politically Motivated Avoidance in Social Networks: A Study of Facebook and the 2020 Presidential Election:

This study considers politically motivated unfriending/unfollowing on Facebook in the lead up to the 2020 Presidential election. As social media has grown more central to public discourse, it has b...
Towards a Better Air Assisted Flare Design for Low Flow Conditions: Analysis of Radial Slot and Flow Effects

Abstract Numerical investigation of flow field characteristics of air injected through an inclined radial slot into a crossflowing stream has been studied for gas flaring applications. CFD is used to simulate turbulent mixing between the inclined slot jet and the crossflowing stream. The slot injection angle with respect to the crossflow, the slot jet velocity, and the slot height were varied in this study. Velocity profiles obtained from the simulations were compared to measured profiles. Simulation results showed that the centerline upflow axial velocities increased with decreasing injection angle and increasing slot height. Results also showed that decreasing injection angle increased the horizontal penetration of the jet flow into the crossflow stream.
Liquid-metal-based phase shifter with reconfigurable EBG filling factor

A phase shifter based on reconfigurable filling factors (FF) in a 1D electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure is presented. The device is capable of different gradations in phase shift, using liquid metal to fill or evacuate holes in the defected ground plane of a microstrip line. The design consists of three cascaded EBG lattices, each consisting of 4 circles with a FF of 0.17, 0.25, and 0.37 respectively. When actuated, a per-element phase shift of 1.8, 5.7, and 9.4 degrees at 5.6 GHz is introduced. A total of 67.2 degrees of phase shift can be achieved with an average insertion loss of 1.1 dB.
Capital Account Liberalization and the Real Exchange Rate in Chile

After the failure of the early 1980s, a second attempt at capital account liberalization was gradually carried out in Chile during the 1990s, this time in parallel with increased exchange rate flexibility. Capital account regulations were applied to support the independent monetary policy committed to the inflation target, while the exchange rate was quasi-pegged within a band that targeted the real exchange rate (RER). Still, the policy framework directed at stabilizing the RER appears to have been of limited effectiveness, with the surges and sudden-stops in capital flows playing an important role in RER dynamics. Foreign exchange market intervention appears not to have affected the RER while reserve requirement appears to have exerted a depreciating effect. Government spending and import tariffs, appear to be significant tools to moderate the real appreciation thus providing one additional reason for adopting a countercyclical fiscal policy and accelerating trade openness when a country is facing strong capital inflows.
Goal-Directed Design for Proactive and Intelligent Device Collaboration

Tomorrow’s ubiquitous computing environment will be filled with intelligent devices: on your person, in your office, car, and home, on the street, in stores, museums and restaurants, ..., just about anywhere you can think of. These devices could potentially talk to one another in ad-hoc networks. But what will they talk about? This paper describes a goal directed design paradigm within agent oriented programming for intelligent devices that respond to and make use of other like-minded devices, without presupposing what is out there.
B ---> D* l nu with 2+1 flavors

We present a calculation of the form factor for B {yields} D*l{nu} using a 2+1 improved staggered action for the light quarks (on the MILC configurations), and the Fermilab action for the heavy quarks. The form factor is computed at zero recoil using a new double ratio method which yields the form factor more directly than previous approaches.