cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
China's HEU and Plutonium Production and Stocks

This article discusses the history of China's production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons and uses new public information to estimate the amount of highly enriched uranium and plutonium China produced at its two gaseous diffusion plants and two plutonium production complexes. The new estimates in this article are that China produced 20 ± 4 tons of HEU, 2 ± 0.5 tons of plutonium, and currently has stockpiles of about 16 ± 4 tons of HEU and 1.8 ± 0.5 tons of plutonium available for weapons. The values for China's fissile material production are at the low end of most previous independent estimates, which range from 17–26 tons of highly enriched uranium and 2.1–6.6 tons of plutonium. These new estimates would be significant to assess China's willingness to join a fissile material cutoff treaty and a multilateral nuclear disarmament.
A tale of two papers: Early contributions to coupled oscillator array theory

The author describes circumstances surrounding the writing of two early papers in the theory of coupled-oscillator arrays.
Citation pattern matching algorithms for citation-based plagiarism detection: greedy citation tiling, citation chunking and longest common citation sequence

Plagiarism Detection Systems have been developed to locate instances of plagiarism e.g. within scientific papers. Studies have shown that the existing approaches deliver reasonable results in identifying copy&paste plagiarism, but fail to detect more sophisticated forms such as paraphrased plagiarism, translation plagiarism or idea plagiarism. The authors of this paper demonstrated in recent studies that the detection rate can be significantly improved by not only relying on text analysis, but by additionally analyzing the citations of a document. Citations are valuable language independent markers that are similar to a fingerprint. In fact, our examinations of real world cases have shown that the order of citations in a document often remains similar even if the text has been strongly paraphrased or translated in order to disguise plagiarism.This paper introduces three algorithms and discusses their suitability for the purpose of citation-based plagiarism detection. Due to the numerous ways in which plagiarism can occur, these algorithms need to be versatile. They must be capable of detecting transpositions, scaling and combinations in a local and global form. The algorithms are coined Greedy Citation Tiling, Citation Chunking and Longest Common Citation Sequence. The evaluation showed that if these algorithms are combined, common forms of plagiarism can be detected reliably.
Advancing the Study of Violence Against Women Using Mixed Methods: Integrating Qualitative Methods Into a Quantitative Research Program

A mixed methods approach, combining quantitative with qualitative data methods and analysis, offers a promising means of advancing the study of violence. Integrating semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis into a quantitative program of research on women's sexual victimization has resulted in valuable scientific insight and generation of novel hypotheses for testing. This mixed methods approach is described and recommendations for integrating qualitative data into quantitative research are provided.
An apoptosis‐differentiation program in human polymorphonuclear leukocytes facilitates resolution of inflammation

Human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) are an essential part of innate immunity and contribute significantly to inflammation. Although much is understood about the inflammatory response, the molecular basis for termination of inflammation in humans is largely undefined. We used human oligonucleotide microarrays to identify genes differentially regulated during the onset of apoptosis occurring after PMN phagocytosis. Genes encoding proteins that regulate cell metabolism and vesicle trafficking comprised 198 (98 genes induced, 100 genes repressed) of 867 differentially expressed genes. We discovered that complex cellular pathways involving glutathione and thioredoxin detoxification systems, heme catabolism, ubiquitin-proteasome degradation, purine nucleotide metabolism, and nuclear import were regulated at the level of gene expression during the initial stages of PMN apoptosis. Eleven genes encoding key regulators of glycolysis, the hexose monophosphate shunt, the glycerol-phosphate shuttle, and oxidative phosphorylation were induced. Increased levels of cellular reduced glutathione and gamma-glutamyltransferase and glycolytic activity confirmed that several of these metabolic pathways were up-regulated. In contrast, seven genes encoding critical enzymes involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation, which can generate toxic lipid peroxides, were down-regulated. Our results indicate that energy metabolism and oxidative stress-response pathways are gene-regulated during PMN apoptosis. We propose that changes in PMN gene expression leading to programmed cell death are part of an apoptosis-differentiation program, a final stage of transcriptionally regulated PMN maturation that is accelerated significantly by phagocytosis. These findings provide new insight into the molecular events that contribute to the resolution of inflammation in humans.
Elevated CO2 Reduces Losses of Plant Diversity Caused by Nitrogen Deposition

The interactive effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and elevated nitrogen (N) deposition on plant diversity are not well understood. This is of concern because both factors are important components of global environmental change and because each might suppress diversity, with their combined effects possibly additive or synergistic. In a long-term open-air experiment, grassland assemblages planted with 16 species were grown under all combinations of ambient and elevated CO2 and ambient and elevated N. Over 10 years, elevated N reduced species richness by 16% at ambient CO2 but by just 8% at elevated CO2. This resulted from multiple effects of CO2 and N on plant traits and soil resources that altered competitive interactions among species. Elevated CO2 thus ameliorated the negative effects of N enrichment on species richness.
Endogenic heat from Enceladus' south polar fractures: New observations, and models of conductive surface heating

Linear features dubbed “tiger stripes” in the south polar region of Enceladus have anomalously high heat fluxes and are the apparent source of the observed plume. Several explanations for the observed activity have been proposed, including venting from a subsurface reservoir of liquid water, sublimation of surface ice, dissociation of clathrates, and shear heating. Thermal modeling presented in this work, coupled with observations from the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument, seeks to elucidate the underlying physical mechanism by constraining vent temperatures and thermal emission sources, using a model in which the observed thermal signature results primarily from conductive heating of the surface by warm subsurface fractures. The fractures feed surface vents, which may themselves contribute to the observed thermal emission. Model variables include vent temperature, presence of a surface insulating layer, vent width, time-variable heat input, and heat sources other than the central vent. Results indicate
Regulatory mechanisms in cell-mediated immune responses. I. Regulation of mixed lymphocyte reactions by alloantigen-activated thymus-derived lymphocytes.

Regulatory effects of alloantigen-activated thymus-derived lymphocytes in mixed lymphocyte reactions have been demonstrated. Mice were injected into foot pads with allogeneic spleen cells; 4 days following sensitization spleen or regional lymph node cells from these animals were treated with mitomycin C and incorporated into MLR as regulator populations syngeneic to the responder cell type. Activated spleen cells suppressed MLR responses 60–90% whereas activated lymph node cells from the same animals enhanced MLR responses. Suppression by activated spleen cells was not due to cytotoxic effects nor to altered kinetics of the proliferative response. Studies of splenic suppressor cell generation in vivo revealed peak activity four days after alloantigen stimulation with no activity demonstrable at 7 days or at later times. Suppressor cell activity was abrogated by treatment with anti-θC3H serum and complement, and was not alloantigen specific.
Albuterol Delivery During Noninvasive Ventilation

HYPOTHESIS: Albuterol delivered during noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation is affected by use of a nebulizer or metered-dose inhaler (MDI) and whether the leak port is in the hose or the mask. METHODS: A lung model that simulated spontaneous breathing at 20 breaths/min was used. A bi-level positive-airway-pressure ventilator (Respironics S/T30) was set for an inspiratory positive airway pressure of 15 cm H2O and an expiratory positive airway pressure of 5 cm H2O. The tidal volume delivered was 0.4 L. Two mask types were used: one in which the leak port was incorporated into the circuit, and another in which the leak port was incorporated into the mask. The nebulizer was filled with 4 mL, which contained 5 mg of albuterol, connected via a T-piece directly to the mask, and operated at 8 L/min for 15 min. For the MDI studies, a spacer was placed between the mask and the circuit, and an MDI was actuated into the spacer, either synchronized with the initiation of inhalation or during the exhalation phase (4 actuations separated by > 15 s in each case). Albuterol was washed from the filter and measured with ultraviolet spectrophotometry. RESULTS: With the nebulizer, significantly more albuterol was delivered to the filter when the leak port was in the circuit (p 0.001). Significantly more albuterol was delivered with the nebulizer than with the MDI (p < 0.001). The efficiency of albuterol delivery (percent delivered) was similar for nebulizer and MDI with the leak port in the circuit (p 0.57), but better with the MDI with the leak port in the mask (p 0.001). Albuterol delivery was significantly less when the MDI was actuated during exhalation (p 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Albuterol delivery with noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation was affected by the type of aerosol delivery device, by the location of the leak port, and by actuating the MDI at the proper time in the respiratory cycle. Key words: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, mask ventilation, metered-dose inhaler, nebulizer, noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation. [Respir Care 2005;50(12):1649–1653. © 2005 Daedalus Enterprises]
Report on Political Science Grant Support from the National Science Foundation

The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation provides support for basic empirical and theoretical research on political institutions and processes. The goal of the program is to facilitate the development of scientific theory and knowledge on political behavior, the operation of political systems, and the actions of governments. The program seeks to meet this goal by supporting research on a very wide range of substantive topics falling under the rubric of politics. As part of its long-range planning, the program attempts to identify areas of intellectual growth for program emphases. In making funding decisions, however, the determining factor is the scientific merit of the proposed work rather than topical or methodological closeness to the major emphases in program plans.
Stochastic search methods for nash equilibrium approximation in simulation-based games

We define the class of games called simulation-based games, in which the payoffs are available as an output of an oracle (simulator), rather than specified analytically or using a payoff matrix. We then describe a convergent algorithm based on a hierarchical application of simulated annealing for estimating Nash equilibria in simulation-based games with finite-dimensional strategy sets. Additionally, we present alternative algorithms for best response and Nash equilibrium estimation, with a particular focus on one-shot infinite games of incomplete information. Our experimental results demonstrate that all the approaches we introduce are efficacious, albeit some more so than others. We show, for example, that while iterative best response dynamics has relatively weak convergence guarantees, it outperforms our convergent method experimentally. Additionally, we provide considerable evidence that a method based on random search outperforms gradient descent in our setting.
Thermal-to-electric energy conversion of a nanoporous carbon

Abstract As two nanoporous carbon electrodes are soaked by an electrolyte solution and placed at different temperatures, a significant transient potential was measured, providing a novel mechanism for thermal-to-electric energy conversion.
Does Venture Capital Require an Active Stock Market

The United States has both an active venture capital industry and well-developed stock markets. Japan and Germany have neither. We argue here that this is no accident -- that venture capital can flourish especially -- and perhaps only -- if the venture capitalist can exit from a successful portfolio company through an initial public offering (IPO), which requires an active stock market. Understanding the link between the stock market and the venture capital market requires understanding the contractual arrangements between entrepreneurs and venture capital providers especially the importance of exit by venture capitalists and the opportunity, present only if IPO exit is possible, for the venture capitalist and the entrepreneur to enter into an implicit contract over control, in which a successful entrepreneur can reacquire control from the venture capitalist by using an IPO as the means of exit. Note: This article is a shortened version of Black and Gilson, "Venture Capital and the Structure of Capital Markets: Banks versus Stock Markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 47, pp. 243-277, 1998. A nearly final version of the longer article is available on SSRN at http://ssrn.com/abstract=46909
Axisymmetric swirling flow around a vortex breakdown point

The structure of an axisymmetric and inviscid swirling flow around a vortex breakdown point is analysed. The model assumes that a free axisymmetric bubble surface is developed in the flow with a stagnation point at its nose. The classical Squire-Long equation for the stream function ψ(x,y) (where y = r2/2) is transformed into a free boundary problem for the solution of y(x, ψ). The development of the flow is studied in three regions: the approaching flow ahead of the bubble, around the bubble nose and around the separated bubble surface. Asymptotic expansions are constructed to describe the flow ahead of and behind the stagnation point in terms of the radial distance from the vortex axis and from the bubble surface, respectively. In the intermediate region around the stagnation point, the flow is approximated by an asymptotic series of similarity terms that match the expansions in the other regions. The analysis results in two possible matching processes. Analytical expressions are given for the leading term of the intermediate expansion for each of these processes. The first solution describes a swirling flow around a constant-pressure bubble surface, over which the flow is stagnant. The second solution represents a swirling flow around a pressure-varying bubble surface, where the flow expands along the bubble nose. In both solutions, the bubble nose has a parabolic shape, and both exist only when H’ > 0 (where H’ is the derivative at the vortex centre of the total head H with the stream function ψ, and can be determined from the inlet conditions). This result is shown to be equivalent to Brown & Lopez's (1990) criterion for vortex breakdown. Good agreement is found in the region around the stagnation point between the pressure-varying bubble solution and available experimental data for axisymmetric vortex breakdown.
Passage Rates and Timing of Bird Migration in Montana

Abstract Rates and timing of bird passage in the proposed Norris Hill Wind Resource Area (NHWRA) and vicinity in southwestern Montana were investigated using two marine surveillance radars between August 1995 and August 1996. The scanning radar array displayed movements in a horizontal plane within 360° while the vertical radar displayed altitudes of birds in and out of the NHWRA to the east and west. Radars were also used to record raptor movements within NHWRA in summer. Spatio-temporal profile of migration was determined by adjusting observed numbers of events by detection probability by radar, derived from point- and line-transect bird sampling techniques. Autumn migration was more protracted than vernal migration. Altitude of birds flying in and within 2 km east and west of NHWRA averaged 209 m in autumn and 388 m in spring. Higher altitudes in spring were a function of birds ascending after leaving Ennis Lake, whereas birds were descending to visit the lake in autumn. More birds passed over valleys ...
@ Caltech: Art, Science, and Technology, 1969–1971

In 1969, the vision of a handful of professors at California Institute of Technology resulted in an initiative to bring artists and scientists together to “see what happens.” The experiment embodied insurgent notions of that era—ideas that would once again become manifest a generation later in the young 21st century’s art-science fusion. Out of this venture came hints of new visual vocabularies and ways of making, as well as an awareness of fault lines between the two cultures. To one young student who found his way into it, the Caltech experience became a transforming moment.
Rad7 E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Attenuates Polyubiquitylation of Rpn10 and Dsk2 Following DNA Damage in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

During Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) in the yeast S. cerevisiae, ubiquitylation of Rad4 is carried out by the E3 ubiquitin ligase that includes Rad7-Elc1-Cul3 and is critical to optimal NER. Rad7 E3 activity targets Rad4 for degradation by the proteaseome but, in principle, could also trigger other DNA damage responses. We observed increased nuclear ubiquitin foci (Ub-RFP) formation in S. cerevisiae containing a Rad7 E3 ligase mutant (rad7SOCS) in response to DNA damage by benzo[a]pyrenediolepoxide (BPDE) in dividing cells. Immunoblots reveal that ubiquitin conjugates of Rpn10 and Dsk2 accumulate in greater abundance in rad7SOCS compared to RAD7 in dividing cells in response to BPDE which makes Rpn10 and Dsk2 candidates for being the ubiquitylated species observed in our microscopy experiments. Microscopy analysis with strains containing Dsk2-GFP shows that Dsk2-GFP and Dsk2-GFP/Ub-RFP colocalized in nuclear foci form to an increased extent in a rad7SOCS mutant background in dividing cells than in a RAD7 wild-type strain. Further, Dsk2-GFP in the rad7SOCS strain formed more foci at the plasma membrane following BPDE treatment in dividing cells relative to strains containing RAD7 or a rad7Δ deletion mutant. In response to a different agent, UV irradiation, levels of ubiquitylated proteins were increased in rad7SOCS relative to RAD7, and the proteasomal deubiquitylase subunit, Rpn11 was even monoubiquitylated in the absence of damaging agents. Together these data show that Rad7 E3 activity attenuates ubiquitylation of proteins regulating the shuttling of polyubiquitylated proteins to the proteasome (Dsk2 and Rpn10) and removal of ubiquitin chains just prior to degradation (Rpn11). Since Rad7 E3 ligase activity has been shown to increase ubiquitylation of its target proteins, yet our results show increased ubiquitylation in the absence of Rad7 E3, we suggest that Rad7 E3 action regulates ubiquitin ligase and deubiquitylase (DUB) activities that act on Rpn10, Dsk2 and Rpn11.
The fictionalisation of history in Maïssa Bey's Entendez-vous dans les montagnes …

ABSTRACTIf the insertion of photographs in literary texts could constitute, by its nature, the irrefutable proof of the famous Barthes’ ‘it-has-been’ assertion regarding the existence of a present/absent object, then the photograph which opens Maissa Bey's novel complicates the relationship between the factual and the fictional, the personal and the collective, in a context where the reconstruction of the past, especially if it is an unspeakable one, that has long been repressed, is a painful endeavour. In this study, I will demonstrate that the interference created by interlacing the visual and the textual, which makes the text simultaneously fictional and autobiographical, is maintained throughout the novel. Bey uses a variety of narrative techniques that allow her to confront, even allusively, the meandering past, and to dissect some of its aspects in order to understand the consequences of that which she testifies in the present. This junction also provides the necessary distance that is needed to com...
A Progression to Transfer RIRD to the Natural Environment

Response interruption and redirection has been shown to be effective for decreasing vocal stereotypy, but treatment effects in the natural environment have yet to be documented in the literature. A recent review indicated the paucity of studies that implemented response interruption and redirection during typically occurring activities or for sessions longer than 5–10 min. One method to promote generalization across settings may be stimulus control procedures. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the progression of the intervention from a highly structured to a more natural setting, and across longer durations. We also investigated the extent to which a signal could acquire stimulus control over stereotypy. Although we were unable to bring stereotypy under the inhibitory control of a signal alone, we maintained low levels of stereotypy in the natural environment and ultimately extended sessions up to 30 min. Clinical implications and areas for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Efficient surface expression of platelet GPIIb-IIIa requires both subunits

Platelet membrane GPIIb-IIIa is a member of the integrin family of heterodimeric adhesion receptors. Processing and export of certain leukocyte and melanoma integrins is disrupted in cells lacking one subunit. We found that surface expression of GPIIb-IIIa, measured by fluorescent activated cell sorting or by surface labeling, required cotransfection of both subunits. In contrast, surface expression was not detected when the subunits were transfected individually. Immunoprecipitation of metabolically labeled transfected cells confirmed the presence of comparable levels of intracellular protein in all cases. When both subunits were transfected, post-translational cleavage of Pro-GPIIb to yield GPIIb heavy chain was also seen, while transfection with GPIIb alone resulted in coprecipitation of Pro-GPIIb with a second band that may be an endogenous beta subunit. Pro-GPIIb in these transfectants was not processed to yield GPIIb heavy chain. When transfected into COS cells alone, transiently expressed GPIIIa remained intracellular and did not appear to complex with any endogenous proteins. Thus, surface expression of processed GPIIb-IIIa depends on the presence of both subunits; the coordinate reduction of both subunits observed in some cases of Glanzmann's thrombasthenia may result from mutation affecting only one.
Adult Liver Stem Cells

In mammals, the adult liver contains many cell types of various embryological origins. Nevertheless, the terms liver stem cell and hepatic stem cell are used only for precursors of the two epithelial liver cell types; the hepatocytes and the bile duct epithelial cells. Therefore, only hepatocyte and bile duct stem cells are described here.
Cryoprotectants Protect Lipopolysaccharide Molecules of the Outer Membrane of Escherichia coli B from Freeze-Damage.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) molecules of the outer membrane (OM) of Escherichia coli B were damaged by freezing and thawing as evidenced by lysozyme lysis of cells frozen in water and their inability to adsorb LPS-specific phages. Permeating cryoprotectants, i.e., glycerol and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), protected this damage effectively, as the frozen cells were resistant against lysis by lysozyme and were able to adsorb phages. In contrast, non-permeating cryoprotectants, i.e., polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and dextran, protected LPS molecules so that frozen cells were resistant against the lytic effect of lysozyme but were not able to adsorb specific phages effectively. Although all four cryoprotectants protected cells against viability loss due to freezing, survival was much higher with glycerol and DMSO than with PVP and dextran. The non-permeating cryoprotectants likely formed a physical barrier around the cell surface, whereas the permeating cryoprotectants did not form such a barrier.
In situ reprogramming to transdifferentiate fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes using adenoviral vectors: Implications for clinical myocardial regeneration

Objective The reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into induced cardiomyocyte-like cells improves ventricular function in myocardial infarction models. Only integrating persistent expression vectors have thus far been used to induce reprogramming, potentially limiting its clinical applicability. We therefore tested the reprogramming potential of nonintegrating, acute expression adenoviral (Ad) vectors.
Seeking a Philosophical Perspective

This chapter examines the importance of developing a philosophical perspective to address the problem addiction, in contrast to other approaches in the fields of behavioral psychology, sociology, and medicine. The philosophical approach arises primarily from the phenomenological methodology of Martin Heidegger, although other thinkers, literary figures, and psychotherapists assume prominence throughout the investigation.
THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION AND THE UNSECURED CREDIT MARKET

The information technology (IT) revolution coincided with the transformation of the U.S. unsecured credit market. Households' borrowing increased rapidly and there was an even faster increase in bankruptcy filings. A risk of default model with asymmetric information and costly screening is introduced to study this period. When information costs are high, the design of contracts under private information prevents some households from borrowing with a risk of default. As information costs drop, households borrow more and bankruptcy filings increase. Quantitative exercises suggest that the IT revolution may have played an important role in the transformation of the unsecured credit market. (JEL E43, E44, G33)
An Inhibitory Learning Approach to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents

Although exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficacious for childhood anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), many youth do not adequately respond to treatment. Extinction learning is an important process in exposure-based CBT. However, youth with anxiety disorders and OCD exhibit impairments in extinction processes that are best characterized by deficits in inhibitory learning. Therefore, the utilization of strategies to optimize inhibitory learning during exposures may compensate for these deficits, thereby maximizing extinction processes and producing more robust treatment outcomes for exposure-based CBT. This paper reviews several strategies to optimize inhibitory learning in youth with anxiety disorders and OCD, and presents practical examples for each strategy. This paper also highlights the difference between inhibitory learning-based exposures and prior conceptual approaches to exposure therapy in clinical practice. It concludes with a discussion of future directions for clinical research on inhibitory learning and exposure-based CBT in youth.
Pediatric Pontine Cavernous Malformations: The Presigmoid, Posterior Petrosal Approach.

Background Brainstem cavernous malformations (cavernomas) in children have a high risk of hemorrhage and neurological deterioration. This risk is magnified if the child has a genetic predisposition for cavernoma formation. The surgical management is challenging and carries a significant risk of morbidity. Objective To describe the feasibility of a posterior petrosal approach to brainstem cavernomas in a pediatric population. Methods A single institution operative experience with this technique was reviewed; 2 cases were identified and are technically described here with supportive figures and illustrations, as well as a focused literature review. Results Two pediatric cases with multiple symptomatic hemorrhages from large expanding pontine cavernomas were identified. Both cavernomas were resected through a presigmoid posterior petrosal approach. While this approach is well described in the adult literature for ventral brainstem lesions, its description for the treatment of pontine cavernomas in the pediatric populations is scarce. Conclusion This study demonstrates the utility and feasibility of the posterior petrosal approach in two pediatric patients at different points in cranial base development.
Ultrafast Imaging of Carrier Transport across Grain Boundaries in Hybrid Perovskite Thin Films

For optoelectronic devices based on polycrystalline semiconducting thin films, carrier transport across grain boundaries is an important process in defining efficiency. Here we employ transient absorption microscopy (TAM) to directly measure carrier transport within and across the boundaries in hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite thin films for solar cell applications with 50 nm spatial precision and 300 fs temporal resolution. By selectively imaging sub-bandgap states, our results show that lateral carrier transport is slowed down by these states at the grain boundaries. However, the long carrier lifetimes allow for efficient transport across the grain boundaries. The carrier diffusion constant is reduced by about a factor of 2 for micron-sized grain samples by the grain boundaries. For grain sizes on the order of ∼200 nm, carrier transport over multiple grains has been observed within a time window of 5 ns. These observations explain both the shortened photoluminescence lifetimes at the boundaries as we...
Unsupervised Learning with Stein's Unbiased Risk Estimator.

Learning from unlabeled and noisy data is one of the grand challenges of machine learning. As such, it has seen a flurry of research with new ideas proposed continuously. In this work, we revisit a classical idea: Stein's Unbiased Risk Estimator (SURE). We show that, in the context of image recovery, SURE and its generalizations can be used to train convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for a range of image denoising and recovery problems without any ground truth data. Specifically, our goal is to reconstruct an image $x$ from a noisy linear transformation (measurement) of the image. We consider two scenarios: one where no additional data is available and one where we have measurements of other images that are drawn from the same noisy distribution as $x$, but have no access to the clean images. Such is the case, for instance, in the context of medical imaging, microscopy, and astronomy, where noise-less ground truth data is rarely available. We show that in this situation, SURE can be used to estimate the mean-squared-error loss associated with an estimate of $x$. Using this estimate of the loss, we train networks to perform denoising and compressed sensing recovery. In addition, we also use the SURE framework to partially explain and improve upon an intriguing results presented by Ulyanov et al. in "Deep Image Prior": that a network initialized with random weights and fit to a single noisy image can effectively denoise that image. Public implementations of the networks and methods described in this paper can be found at this https URL.
Neuromuscular Problems in Foot and Ankle: Evaluation and Workup

It is essential to determine the functional goals of the patient during the workup and treatment planning stages of neuromuscular disorders involving the foot and ankle. Accurate diagnosis, and informed discussion of treatment options, must be in the context of the patient's disease, cognition, comorbidities, functional attributes, and family environment. A thorough history and physical examination aid in appropriate diagnostic workup and optimal orthopedic management of each patient. In this article, general considerations in the workup of suspected neuromuscular disorders and issues pertinent to specific congenital and acquired neuromuscular disorders affecting foot and ankle function are reviewed.
Predator Switching and the Interpretation of Animal Choice Behavior: The Case for Constrained Optimization

The past decade has seen considerable debate over the choice of methodology appropriate for the analysis of animal behavior. Unquestionably, the dominant approach uses a variety of optimization methods as a basis for modeling behavior.
Smart sentencing guidelines: The effect of marginal policy changes on recidivism

Abstract Public appeals regarding criminal justice have shifted somewhat from “tough on crime” to “smart justice” that is more lenient when tradeoffs merit it. Among other considerations, smart sentencing policy depends on how sentence severity affects recidivism. Using administrative data on two common non-violent felonies committed by adults in Michigan, we measure the effect of sentences on offenders' future criminal activity. Discontinuities in the legislative guidelines that constrain sentences chosen by Michigan judges provide exogenous variation in sentence severity. Harsher sentences generated by sentencing guidelines significantly reduce recidivism by felony shoplifters but not repeat drunk drivers. Recidivism falls most for young, male offenders from Southeast Michigan and varies non-monotonically with prior criminal record. Because of such heterogeneity, any empirical strategy measures a local average treatment effect relevant to a particular population of offenders. Contrary to our main results, we find no evidence that harsher sentences induced by judge assignments reduce recidivism in our sample. When sentencing guidelines provide the primary practical policy lever, “smart justice” should incorporate directly relevant empirical evidence that accounts for offense- and offender-specific tradeoffs between public safety and the public budget.
Blast from the past: a novel complication of bronchopulmonary dysplasia

A 43-year-old Caucasian woman presented to her primary care physician for a retirement physical exam. She endorsed mild dyspnoea on exertion, but denied chest pain, cough or shortness of breath at rest. On physical exam, lungs were clear bilaterally with good air movement in all fields. Chest radiograph was normal except for a 6 mm nodular density noted in the right lower lobe. A non-contrast CT scan of the chest was performed revealing a 2 mm calcified granuloma. In addition, there were global, mild and uniform paraseptal emphysematous changes throughout the pleural surfaces of the lungs and the fissures (figures 1 and 2). Pulmonary work-up including spirometry, carbon monoxide diffusing …
Emotional Expressivity in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objective There is a prevailing notion that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit intense negative and attenuated positive emotions, although the empirical evidence regarding their emotional expressiveness (EE) is limited. Given the importance of emotions in shaping social and cognitive development, we examined intensity and valence of EE and links between EE and autism severity and parent-reported temperament in ASD. Method Toddlers (aged 21.2 months) with ASD (n = 43), developmental delay (DD, n = 16), and typical development (TD, n = 40) underwent standardized probes designed to induce anger, joy, and fear. Intensity of EE through facial and vocal channels were coded offline. Autism severity and temperament were quantified using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule–2 (ADOS-2) and Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ). Results The ASD group exhibited less intense fear compared to both the DD and TD groups, more intense anger than DD but not TD, with no differences in joy intensity. All groups showed similar levels of incongruous negative EE. Intensity of fear and anger were not associated with severity of autism symptoms, but lower intensity of joy was related to greater autism severity. Expressed fear and joy were associated with temperament. Conclusion The study provides no support for a negative emotionality bias in ASD. Instead, toddlers with ASD display a muted response to threat and an accentuated response to goal blockage, whereas the ability to express positive emotions appears intact. Negative emotionality and social disability dimensions are independent. The study demonstrates the complexity of EE in ASD and motivates investigations into underlying mechanisms as well as its role in shaping complex phenotypes of affected children.
Silicon Surface Passivation by Laser Processing a Sol–Gel TiOx Thin Film

Silicon surface passivation is highly important for solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. In order to achieve a high-performance, low-cost, room-temperature, and nonvacuum surface passivati...
The accordion is mightier than the sword: analysing the comedy music counterculture expressed through the works of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic

Comedic representations of the counterculture have been primarily investigated in literature, television, and film studies across the world, though music depictions of these movements remain relati...
Partial redundancy in HPC systems with non-uniform node reliabilities

We study the usefulness of partial redundancy in HPC message passing systems where individual node failure distributions are not identical. Prior research works on fault tolerance have generally assumed identical failure distributions for the nodes of the system. In such settings, partial replication has never been shown to outperform the two extremes(full and no-replication) for any significant range of node counts. In this work, we argue that partial redundancy may provide the best performance under the more realistic assumption of non-identical node failure distributions. We provide theoretical results on arranging nodes with different reliability values among replicas such that system reliability is maximized. Moreover, using system reliability to compute MTTI (mean-time-to-interrupt) and expected completion time of a partially replicated system, we numerically determine the optimal partial replication degree. Our results indicate that partial replication can be a more efficient alternative to full replication at system scales where Checkpoint/Restart alone is not sufficient.
Utilizing Mask R-CNN for Detection and Segmentation of Oral Diseases

In this paper, we demonstrate the application of Mask-RCNN, the state-of-the-art convolutional neural network algorithm for object detection and segmentation to the oral pathology domain. Mask-RCNN was originally developed for object detection, and object instance segmentation of natural images. With this experiment, we show that Mask-RCNN can also be used in a very specialized area such as oral pathology. While the number of oral diseases are numerous and varied in the form of Thrush, Leukoplakia, Lichenplanus, etc., we limited our scope to the detection and instance segmentation of two of the most commonly occurring conditions, herpes labialis (commonly referred to as “cold sore“ and aphthous ulcer (commonly referred to as “canker sore“ This paper aims at detecting and segmenting cold sores and canker sores only. As always, no computer based detection system can be 100% reliable. An accurate diagnosis by a trained health care professional is necessary since several conditions of the mouth including oral cancer may mimic canker sores.
Obese adults walk differently in shoes than while barefoot.

Abstract Background Some comparisons between walking gait of obese and non-obese adults have been made during barefoot conditions, and others while shod. Methodological differences, footwear conditions, and gait speed disparities among the research done on overweight individuals were the factors motivating the present study. Research question The present study was designed to compare gait kinematics and kinetics of obese adults between two footwear conditions (barefoot versus shod) at a set walking speed. Methods Ten obese (body mass index > 30 kg.m−2), but otherwise healthy adults (age = 26 ± 3 years, height = 1.79 ± 0.10 m, mass = 108.46 ± 13.25 kg) participated in this study. Ground reaction forces and 3D kinematic data were simultaneously collected as participants walked overground at 1.5 m.s−1 in barefoot and shod conditions. Results Walking barefoot reduced ankle, knee, and hip ranges of motion, and stride length, stance time, and double support time were also reduced. Kinetic outcomes included smaller peak vertical and anterior-posterior ground reaction forces and knee joint moments while barefoot. Significance Footwear condition significantly influences key gait variables in obese adults. Conflicting conclusions from previous investigations of gait in obese adults may be a consequence of differing footwear conditions.
Engineers Without Borders

The trend towards globalization affects engineering educators on three interrelated dimensions: a dramatically new landscape of world economy, the next generation of engineering job, and the education of the “next gen” engineer.
Consumer characteristics associated with perceptions of live Christmas trees.

Abstract Customers at choose-and-cut Christmas tree farms were surveyed for opinions about live Christmas tree characteristics. In general, consumers differed little in their opinions reflecting preferences for a live Christmas tree regardless of their demographic or socioeconomic profile. The only group which frequently differed in its perceptions were customers aged 61 years and older. This group may require special attention and adjustment in services provided by choose-and-cut operators such as special assistance in carrying tree to the vehicle or even an offer of tree delivery to the customer's residence. Otherwise, operators can base their evaluation of services needed on the observed demographic characteristics such as gender and age.
The Governance Turn in Information Privacy Law

The governance turn in information privacy law is a turn away from a model of bureaucratic administration of individual control rights and toward a model of collaborative governance of shared interests in information. Collaborative information governance has roots in the American pragmatic philosophy of Peirce, James and Dewey and the 1973 HEW Report that rejected unilateral individual control rights, recognizing instead the essential characteristic of mutuality of shared purposes that are mediated through information governance. America’s current information privacy law regime consists of market mechanisms supplemented by sector-specific, risk-based laws designed to foster a culture of compliance. Prior to the GDPR, data protection law compliance in Europe was more honored in the breach than the observance, so the EU’s strengthening of its bureaucratic individual control rights model reveals more about the EU’s democratic deficit than a commitment to compliance. The conventional “Europe good, America bad” wisdom about information privacy law obscures a paradox: if the focus shifts from what “law in the books” says to what “law in action” does, it quickly becomes apparent that American businesses lead the world with their efforts to comply with information privacy law, so “America good, Europe bad” might be more accurate. Creating a federal legislative interface through which regulators and voluntary, consensus standards organizations can collaborate could break the current political stalemate triggered by California’s 2018 EU-style information privacy law. Such a pragmatic approach to information governance can safeguard Americans’ continued access to the benefits of innovation and economic growth as well as providing risk-based protection from harm. America can preserve its leadership of the global information economy by rejecting EU-style information privacy laws and building instead a flexible, dynamic framework of information governance capable of addressing both privacy and disclosure issues simultaneously.
Fabrication of Uniform Nanoparticulate Gold through Potential-Modulated Electrochemical Deposition and Dissolution of Silver in Ionic Liquids

Nanoparticulate gold (NPG) has been successfully produced from polycrystalline Au by a novel method based on potential-modulated electrochemical deposition and dissolution of silver in an ionic liquid bath comprising of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and silver nitrate at elevated temperatures. Cyclic voltammetric measurements exhibit that the potential cycles between −1.0 and 0.75 V versus a silver pseudo reference electrode can drive the electrochemical deposition and dissolution of silver onto and away from the Au electrode. Scanning electron microscope studies show that the NPG resulting from the potential cycles has very narrow particle size distribution with an average diameter of approximately 50 nm and is free of elemental Ag residue. As compared to a bulk Au electrode, the NPG electrode demonstrates substantially enhanced electrochemical responses. It exhibits a seven-time higher electro-catalytic activity toward the electrooxidation of nitrite in acidic media.
Securing Power Distribution Grid Against Power Botnet Attacks

A botnet is a collection of internet-facing devices that are compromised and controlled by a malicious hacker. In this paper, we propose an attack utilising a botnet of high-wattage internet-facing devices, which we call a power botnet. Power botnet attacks can decrease the reliability of power supply, damage the power quality and even cause catastrophic consequences in power distribution grid. To study the effects on power distribution systems, we simulate three different types of power botnet attacks using OpenDSS, and show the change of OLTC lifespans under attacks. We then use deep learning methods to detect these attacks. We show successful detection for two of these attacks and a low detection rate for the third attack. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to consider power botnet attacks, and leverage deep learning methods to detect these attacks on power distribution grids. Future work such as detection schemes for more complicated power botnet attacks will be developed based on the results of this work.
Vice Chair for Education: Twelve Roles to Provide a Framework for Success.

Rationale and Objectives An increase in the administrative work in our healthcare system has led to an increase in the number of administrative positions in radiology departments. Many of these are Vice Chair roles, including Vice Chair for Education (VCEd). The responsibility of this position has expanded, often far beyond the original definition. This article defines the role and expectations of the Vice Chair for Education and provides suggestions for success. Materials and Methods This article will review 12 vital roles that a Vice Chair for Education must play to be an effective advocate for radiology education within a department. Results Key attributes of an educational leader are delineated, divided into 12 areas or roles. Conclusion This article summarizes key leadership skills needed by Vice Chairs for Education in order for them to be effective in their role.