cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Lymphocyte Recovery on Lymphocyte Typing Results

This study examines the relationship between percent recovery of lymphocytes and T- and B-cell typing results. Lymphocytes were recovered from heparinized whole blood by density gradient centrifugation. T- and B-cells were enumerated by spontaneous sheep rosetting and direct fluorescent antibody staining for surface immunoglobulin, respectively. The findings indicate that at low recovery levels (<80%) there is a significant increase in variability of lymphocyte typing results and a significant increase in IgG-bearing B-lymphocytes. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed. These results suggest that lymphocyte typing results should be interpreted in relation to recovery level and that recovery levels of ≥80% are desirable.
Distributed Graph Path Queries Using Spark.

Graphs are increasingly being used as the data structure of choice to represent interactions between heterogeneous entities. Graph path querying is a primary operation in the network graph space, for both real time querying and inferential analysis. The rate and volume of interconnected data being generated warrants efficient distributed solutions to manage and query network graphs in a scalable fashion. Existing distributed solutions have proposed several optimization techniques, including intelligent joins and partial evaluations to process path queries. However, the former relies on comprehensive indices while the latter involves extensive driver-side processing to combine the partial results, neither of which is efficient for processing large graphs. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed graph path query processing system using the Apache Spark framework.
A Prospective Comparison of Urinary Tract Infections in Patients Treated with Either Clean Intermittent Catheterization or Urinary Diversion

Clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) has replaced urinary diversion as the treatment of choice for patients with neurogenic bladder. Yet, no well controlled studies are available assessing the efficacy of CIC over ileal loop diversion (ILD). Consequently, a one-year pospective study was carried out comparing short-term patient morbidity, infection rates, and bacterial organisms in 33 children with meningomyelocele. Twenty-four of the children were treated with CIC whereas nine children had an ILD. A minimum of four cultures per year were obtained on each patient. Patients maintained on CIC had 36.8% of their cultures positive for bacteriuria whereas children with ILD had 61.8% of their cultures positive (P less than .001). The incidence of bacteriuria associated with clinical signs and symptoms was similar in both groups. Four of 24 children treated with CIC had sterile urine whereas none of the children with ILD were persistently free from bacteriuria. Only five of 24 children receiving CIC had 50% or more of their cultures positive as contrasted with seven of nine children with an ILD (P less than .01). Escherichia coli accounted for approximately one third of organisms recovered from infected urine in both groups. Although the short-term morbidity associated with both treatment modalities is similar, the incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in children maintained on CIC is significantly less than in children with ILD. Whether this factor plays a role in determining long-term morbidity is a subject for further study.
The binary consistency checking scheme and its applications to seismic horizon detection

For a given set of n tuples, the binary consistency checking scheme generates a subset wherein no two elements intersect. The application of this scheme is illustrated by two problems in seismic horizon detection; seismic skeletonization and loop tying. After a brief introduction to seismic interpretation, these two examples are used to demonstrate how to cast an application problem into the formulism of the scheme. A comparison of this scheme to the dynamic programming approach to string matching due to S.Y. Lu (1982) is included. >
Tradeoffs Between Information and Ordinal Approximation for Bipartite Matching

We study ordinal approximation algorithms for maximum-weight bipartite matchings. Such algorithms only know the ordinal preferences of the agents/nodes in the graph for their preferred matches, but must compete with fully omniscient algorithms which know the true numerical edge weights (utilities). Ordinal approximation is all about being able to produce good results with only limited information. Because of this, one important question is how much better the algorithms can be as the amount of information increases. To address this question for forming high-utility matchings between agents in \(\mathcal {X}\) and \(\mathcal {Y}\), we consider three ordinal information types: when we know the preference order of only nodes in \(\mathcal {X}\) for nodes in \(\mathcal {Y}\), when we know the preferences of both \(\mathcal {X}\) and \(\mathcal {Y}\), and when we know the total order of the edge weights in the entire graph, although not the weights themselves. We also consider settings where only the top preferences of the agents are known to us, instead of their full preference orderings. We design new ordinal approximation algorithms for each of these settings, and quantify how well such algorithms perform as the amount of information given to them increases.
Redistribution of H atoms in the upper atmosphere during geomagnetic storms

Geocoronal H emission data acquired by NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission are analyzed to quantify the H density distribution over the entire magnetosphere ionosphere thermosphere region in order to investigate the response of the atmospheric system as a whole to geomagnetic storms. It is shown that at low and mid latitudes the H density averaged over storm times in the thermosphere-exosphere transition region decreases by ∼30%, while the H density at exospheric altitudes above ∼1-2RE increases by up to ∼40% relative to quiet times. We postulate that enhanced ion-neutral charge exchange in the topside ionosphere and inner plasmasphere is the primary driver of the observed H redistribution. Specifically, charge exchange reactions between H atoms and ionospheric/plasmaspheric O+ leads to direct H loss, while those between thermal H and H+ yield kinetically energized H atoms which populate gravitationally bound satellite orbits. The resulting H density enhancements in the outer exosphere would enhance the charge exchange rates in the ring current and the associated energetic neutral atom production. Regardless of the underlying mechanisms, H redistribution should be considered as an important process in the study of storm-time atmospheric evolution, and the resultant changes in the geocoronal H emissions potentially could be used to monitor geomagnetic storms.
Good Choice, Bad Judgment: How Choice Under Uncertainty Generates Overoptimism.

We examine a fundamental feature of choice under uncertainty: Overestimating an alternative makes one more likely to choose it. If people are naive to this structural feature, then they will tend to have erroneously inflated expectations for the alternatives they choose. In contrast to theories of motivated reasoning, this theory suggests that individuals will overestimate chosen alternatives even before they make their choice. In four studies, we found that students and managers exhibited behavior consistent with naivete toward this relationship between estimation error and choice, leaving them overoptimistic about their chosen alternatives. This overoptimism from choosing positive error is exacerbated when the true values of the alternatives are close together, when there is more uncertainty about the values of alternatives, and when there are many alternatives to choose from. Our results illustrate how readily overoptimism emerges as a result of statistical naivete, even in the absence of a desire to j...
ASAP: prioritizing attention via time series smoothing

Time series visualization of streaming telemetry (i.e., charting of key metrics such as server load over time) is increasingly prevalent in modern data platforms and applications. However, many existing systems simply plot the raw data streams as they arrive, often obscuring large-scale trends due to small-scale noise. We propose an alternative: to better prioritize end users' attention, smooth time series visualizations as much as possible to remove noise, while retaining large-scale structure to highlight significant deviations. We develop a new analytics operator called ASAP that automatically smooths streaming time series by adaptively optimizing the trade-off between noise reduction (i.e., variance) and trend retention (i.e., kurtosis). We introduce metrics to quantitatively assess the quality of smoothed plots and provide an efficient search strategy for optimizing these metrics that combines techniques from stream processing, user interface design, and signal processing via autocorrelation-based pruning, pixel-aware preaggregation, and on-demand refresh. We demonstrate that ASAP can improve users' accuracy in identifying long-term deviations in time series by up to 38.4% while reducing response times by up to 44.3%. Moreover, ASAP delivers these results several orders of magnitude faster than alternative search strategies.
Taken by Storm: Hurricanes, Migrant Networks, and U.S. Immigration

How readily do potential migrants respond to increased returns to migration? Even if origin areas become less attractive vis-a-vis migration destinations, fixed costs can prevent increased migration. We examine migration responses to hurricanes, which reduce the attractiveness of origin locations. Restricted-access U.S. Census data allows precise migration measures and analysis of more migrant-origin countries. Hurricanes increase U.S. immigration, with the effect increasing in the size of prior migrant stocks. Large migrant networks reduce fixed costs by facilitating legal immigration from hurricane-affected source countries. Hurricane-induced immigration can be fully accounted for by new legal permanent residents (“green card” holders).
Finite Time Identification in Unstable Linear Systems

Identification of the parameters of stable linear dynamical systems is a well-studied problem in the literature, both in the low and high-dimensionalsettings. However, there are hardly any results for the unstable case, especially regarding finite time bounds. For this setting, classical results on least-squares estimation of the dynamics parameters are not applicable and therefore new concepts and technical approaches need to be developed to address the issue. Unstable linear systems arise in key real applications in control theory, econometrics, and finance. This study establishes finite time bounds for the identification error of the least-squares estimates for a fairly large class of heavy-tailed noise distributions, and transition matrices of such systems. The results relate the time length (samples) required for estimation to a function of the problem dimension and key characteristics of the true underlying transition matrix and the noise distribution. To establish them, appropriate concentration inequalities for random matrices and for sequences of martingale differences are leveraged.
Predicting Critical Heat Flux With Multiphase CFD: 4 Years in the Making

United States. Department of Energy. Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors
Research in the age of numerical simulation

Most creative intellectual activity is directed toward abstracting some universal aspect ("truth") from human experience. This is true whether the intellectual activity is in the domain of "arts," "literature," or "science." A liberal arts education brings an appreciation for the universality of intellectual activity and the realization that what we do in "science" differs not so greatly from our colleagues' endeavors in the humanities. We are both in pursuit of the same thing-"universal truth," although the form of that "truth" differs. Great art abstracts as an image "truth" in human experience or the world around us. Great literature abstracts "truth" in human experience into a narrative of human activity. Great poetry minimizes that narrative to artful language. Great music abstracts "truth" in human activity in many ways, e.g., psychological drama in the case of opera (Verdi, Othello; Schoenberg, Erwartung; Bartok, Bluebeard's Castle) or, in the case of abstract music, evokes the human experience through "association," much as abstract art.
How Uncertainty in Field Measurements of Ice Nucleating Particles Influences Modeled Cloud Forcing

AbstractField and laboratory measurements using continuous flow diffusion chambers (CFDCs) have been used to construct parameterizations of the number of ice nucleating particles (INPs) in mixed-phase and completely glaciated clouds in weather and climate models. Because of flow nonidealities, CFDC measurements are subject to systematic low biases. Here, the authors investigate the effects of this undercounting bias on simulated cloud forcing in a global climate model. The authors assess the influence of measurement variability by constructing a stochastic parameterization framework to endogenize measurement uncertainty. The authors find that simulated anthropogenic longwave ice-bearing cloud forcing in a global climate model can vary up to 0.8 W m−2 and can change sign from positive to negative within the experimentally constrained bias range. Considering the variability in the undercounting bias, in a range consistent with recent experiments, leads to a larger negative cloud forcing than that when the v...
Neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio as a prognostic indicator in head and neck cancer: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Background The purposes of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to investigate the relationship between the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and prognosis in head and neck cancer. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis were done to investigate the role of NLR in overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), disease-free survival (DFS), and progression-free survival (PFS). Results For qualitative analysis, 33 cohorts with over 10 072 patients were included. For quantitative analysis, 15 studies were included with 5562 patients. The pooled data demonstrated that an elevated NLR significantly predicted poorer OS and DSS. Conclusion An elevated pretreatment NLR is a prognostic marker for head and neck cancer. It represents a simple and easily obtained marker that could be used to stratify groups of high-risk patients who might benefit from adjuvant therapy.
Patterns of Rebellion: A Model with Three Heterogeneous Challengers

This article proposes a dynamic model of rebellion, where three players individually decide to challenge their common adversary. It is formally demonstrated that the pattern of rebellion is determined endogenously, depending on the challengers’ resolve and strength. In other words, a challenger with more resolve and/or strength tends to fight earlier than others do.
Multiscale Poroviscoelastic Compressive Properties of Mouse Supraspinatus Tendons Are Altered in Young and Aged Mice

Rotator cuff disorders are one of the most common causes of shoulder pain and disability in the aging population but, unfortunately, the etiology is still unknown. One factor thought to contribute to the progression of disease is the external compression of the rotator cuff tendons, which can be significantly increased by age-related changes such as muscle weakness and poor posture. The objective of this study was to investigate the baseline compressive response of tendon and determine how this response is altered during maturation and aging. We did this by characterizing the compressive mechanical, viscoelastic, and poroelastic properties of young, mature, and aged mouse supraspinatus tendons using macroscale indentation testing and nanoscale high-frequency AFM-based rheology testing. Using these multiscale techniques, we found that aged tendons were stiffer than their mature counterparts and that both young and aged tendons exhibited increased hydraulic permeability and energy dissipation. We hypothesize that regional and age-related variations in collagen morphology and organization are likely responsible for changes in the multiscale compressive response as these structural parameters may affect fluid flow. Importantly, these results suggest a role for age-related changes in the progression of tendon degeneration, and we hypothesize that decreased ability to resist compressive loading via fluid pressurization may result in damage to the extracellular matrix (ECM) and ultimately tendon degeneration. These studies provide insight into the regional multiscale compressive response of tendons and indicate that altered compressive properties in aging tendons may be a major contributor to overall tendon degeneration.
TARGET ZONE FOR BALANCING OF TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTIES USING LOAD SENSOR TECHNOLOGY: A PROOF OF CONCEPT

INTRODUCTION Soft tissue balancing in knee arthroplasty remains an art. To make it a science reliable quantification and reference values for soft tissue tension and contact loads are necessary. This study intends to prove the concept of a compartmental load safe target zone as a clinical tool for balancing total knee arthroplasties by studying the relationship between post- balancing compartmental load distribution and patient satisfaction at 6 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this prospective non-randomised clinical series of 102 patients (110 knees), medial and lateral loads were recorded intra-operatively using a tibial liner load sensor system. All knees were balanced using specific algorithm sequences with a goal of equal distribution between compartments. A safe target zone area was defined on a scatterplot graph displaying lateral versus medial loads. Individual points on the graft were coded with their satisfaction score at 6 months. RESULTS Eighty-two (82) cases satisfied the study criteria and were analysed. The boundaries of the safe zone were defined by combining absolute and relative load values. Fifty-seven (57) knees fitted in the defined zone and 25 lied outside. Excellent satisfaction scores were 4.2 times more likely to be in the safe zone. Poor scores were twice more likely to lie outside the zone. In the zone the median satisfaction score was 36/40, whereas outside the zone it fell to 31/40. DISCUSSION Load balancing of knee arthroplasty is a useful clinical tool. Early studies by a developing group showed increased satisfaction rates. One problem remains the subjectivity of testing at the time of surgery. Other studies have also pointed to the difficulty in defining a target zone for balancing. Using specific ligamentous balance algorithms it is now possible to predictably achieve a balanced load differential within 15 lbs between compartments. In this paper, we have demonstrated in a prospective series that a target zone can be defined as an area rather than a single ideal value. Within this zone satisfaction scores reach 90–95%. Of all excellent results there are 4.2 more within the zone than outside. Balancing a knee arthroplasty to medial and lateral compartment load values defined by a safe target zone can therefore be predictive of patient satisfaction.
Housing Demand During the Boom: The Role of Expectations and Credit Constraints

I use a life-cycle model of housing demand to infer expectations about house prices and home equity requirements for the housing boom of the 2000s from observed household choices. Expectations and credit constraints are separately identified from the intensive and extensive margins of housing demand. The main results are that (1) expected price growth was close to average long-run growth, (2) home equity requirements were lax initially, but tightened after the bust, and (3) subjective uncertainty about future price growth was large. Given the option to default on mortgage debt, greater price uncertainty leads to higher optimal household leverage.
School Absenteeism through the Transition to Kindergarten

ABSTRACTUsing nationally representative data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 Cohort (n = 2,798), this study examined patterns of absenteeism and their consequences through the transition to kindergarten. Overall, children were less likely to be absent in kindergarten than from Head Start at ages 3 and 4. Absenteeism was fairly stable across these early years, but children who experienced two years of Head Start were less likely to be absent in kindergarten than their classmates who only attended the program for one year. Ultimately, absenteeism at both ages 3 and 4 was associated with lower math and literacy achievement. However, children who experienced two years of Head Start and were more frequently absent demonstrated greater language development through the end of kindergarten as compared with children who only attended the program for one year. Policy implications are discussed in light of the complexity of early childhood education attendance in the United States.
Take Action Now: Motivational Framing and Action Requests in Climate Advocacy

ABSTRACTThis article explores similarities and differences between Internet-mediated climate change advocacy organizations and their legacy counterparts. It relies on a content analysis of advocacy emails produced by Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, League of Conservation Voters, Climate Reality Project, 1Sky, and 350.org. The study finds differences and similarities in strategic Internet use, including greater emphasis by climate groups on high threshold, offline actions; greater emphasis by legacy groups on low threshold, online actions; and high reliance by both framings that demand accountability from political elites. Implications for Internet-mediated and climate advocacy are discussed.
New insights in low-energy electron-fullerene interactions

Abstract The robust Regge-pole methodology has been used to probe for long-lived metastable anionic formation in Cn (n = 20, 24, 26, 28, 44, 70, 92 and 112) through the calculated electron elastic scattering total cross sections (TCSs). All the TCSs are found to be characterized by Ramsauer-Townsend minima, shape resonances and dramatically sharp resonances manifesting metastable anionic formation during the collisions. The energy positions of the anionic ground states resonances are found to match the measured electron affinities (EAs). We also investigated the size-effect through the correlation and polarization induced metastable resonances as the fullerene size varied from C20 through C112. The C20 TCSs exhibit atomic behavior while the C112 TCSs demonstrate strong departure from atomic behavior attributed to the size effect. Surprisingly C24 is found to have the largest EA among the investigated fullerenes making it suitable for use in organic solar cells and nanocatalysis.
Distinct Co-Modulation Rules of Synapses and Voltage-Gated Currents Coordinate Interactions of Multiple Neuromodulators.

Multiple neuromodulators act in concert to shape the properties of neural circuits. Different neuromodulators usually activate distinct receptors but can have overlapping targets. Therefore, circuit output depends on neuromodulator interactions at shared targets, a poorly understood process. We explored quantitative rules of co-modulation of two principal targets of neuromodulation: synapses and voltage-gated ionic currents. In the stomatogastric ganglion of the male crab Cancer borealis, the neuropeptides proctolin (Proc) and the crustacean cardioactive peptide (CCAP) modulate synapses of the pyloric circuit and activate a voltage-gated current (IMI) in multiple neurons. We examined the validity of a simple dose-dependent quantitative rule, that co-modulation by Proc and CCAP is predicted by the linear sum of the individual effects of each modulator up to saturation. We found that this rule is valid for co-modulation of synapses, but not for the activation of IMI, in which co-modulation was sublinear. The predictions for the co-modulation of IMI activation were greatly improved if we assumed that the intracellular pathways activated by two peptide receptors inhibit one another. These findings suggest that the pathways activated by two neuromodulators could have distinct interactions, leading to distinct co-modulation rules for different targets even in the same neuron. Given the evolutionary conservation of neuromodulator receptors and signaling pathways, such distinct rules for co-modulation of different targets are likely to be common across neuronal circuits. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We examine the quantitative rules of co-modulation at multiple shared targets, the first such characterization to our knowledge. Our results show that dose-dependent co-modulation of distinct targets in the same cells by the same two neuromodulators follows different rules: co-modulation of synaptic currents is linearly additive up to saturation, whereas co-modulation of the voltage-gated ionic current targeted in a single neuron is nonlinear, a mechanism that is likely generalizable. Given that all neural systems are multiply modulated and neuromodulators often act on shared targets, these findings and the methodology could guide studies to examine dynamic actions of neuromodulators at the biophysical and systems level in sensory and motor functions, sleep/wake regulation, and cognition.
Three-Dimensional Atomic Force Microscopy: Interaction Force Vector by Direct Observation of Tip Trajectory

The prospect of a robust three dimensional atomic force microscope (AFM) holds significant promise in nanoscience. Yet, in conventional AFM, the tip-sample interaction force vector is not directly accessible. We scatter a focused laser directly off an AFM tip apex to rapidly and precisely measure the tapping tip trajectory in three dimensional space. This data also yields three dimensional cantilever spring constants, effective masses, and hence, the tip-sample interaction force components via Newton's second law. Significant lateral forces representing 49% and 13% of the normal force (Fz = 152 +/- 17 pN) were observed in common tapping mode conditions as a silicon tip intermittently contacted a glass substrate in aqueous solution; as a consequence, the direction of the force vector tilted considerably more than expected. When addressing the surface of a lipid bilayer, the behavior of the force components differed significantly from that observed on glass. This is attributed to the lateral mobility of the lipid membrane coupled with its elastic properties. Direct access to interaction components Fx, Fy, and Fz provides a more complete view of tip dynamics that underlie force microscope operation and can form the foundation of a three-dimensional AFM in a plurality of conditions.
Singular-Phase Optical Sensing with Topologically-Protected Tamm Interfacial States in Planar Nanostructures

We demonstrate an ultra-thin planar perfect absorber based on the excitation of a topologically-protected interfacial optical state and test its performance as a sensitive optical sensor in both the amplitude and phase detection schemes.
Do values explain the low employment levels of Muslim women around the world? A within‐ and between‐country analysis

Using worldwide data from the World Values Survey (WVS) gathered in 2010-2014, we examine two distinct ways in which Islam may be associated with women's employment. We show that, within their countries, Muslim women are less likely to be employed than women of other religions. We also examine between-country differences and find that, net of education and family statuses, the employment levels of women living in countries that are 90-100 per cent Muslim are not significantly different than those living in countries that are only 0-20 per cent Muslim. Then we test a prevailing view: that Islam discourages gender egalitarian values, and that these values - held by women themselves or people around them - explain why Muslim women are less likely to be employed than women of other religions within their own countries. Despite the rich measures of values in the WVS and a large sample, we find no evidence that values explain any of the lower employment of Muslim women, mainly because values have little or no effect on women's employment. Thus, we conclude that most of the world's gap in employment between Muslim women and other women is within-country and is not explained by gender ideology. Future research should examine alternative hypotheses, including ethno-religious discrimination.
Nonlinear Optics at the Few Photon Level

Through use of Rubidium-filled photonic band-gap fibers, nonlinear optics at the few-photon level is achieved through either cross-phase or cross-absorption modulation. This indicates that our system can be applied to weak-nonlinearity based quantum computing.
A three-dimensional immersed boundary method for non-Newtonian fluids

ABSTRACT Fluid-structure-interaction (FSI) phenomenon is common in science and engineering. The fluid involved in an FSI problem may be non-Newtonian such as blood. A popular framework for FSI problems is Peskin's immersed boundary (IB) method. However, most of the IB formulations are based on Newtonian fluids. In this letter, we report an extension of the IB framework to FSI involving Oldroyd-B and FENE-P fluids in three dimensions using the lattice Boltzmann approach. The new method is tested on two FSI model problems. Numerical experiments show that the method is conditionally stable and convergent with the first order of accuracy.
Structured Encryption and Leakage Suppression

Structured encryption (STE) schemes encrypt data structures in such a way that they can be privately queried. One aspect of STE that is still poorly understood is its leakage. In this work, we describe a general framework to design STE schemes that do not leak the query/search pattern (i.e., if and when a query was previously made).
Any press is good press? The unanticipated effects of Title IX investigations on university outcomes

Abstract Since 2011, when the landmark “Dear Colleague” letter declared that the Department of Education (DoE) would use equal-access requirements of federal law to remediate sexual assault on college campuses, 458 investigations have been opened. This letter was withdrawn in 2017 and it remains uncertain how the DoE will handle the issue in the future. We examine the effects of the investigations arising from the 2011 policy change on university outcomes. We find that applications and enrollment increase in response to Title IX investigations, for both males and females. We find little evidence of effects on degree completion or donations.
On Efficient External-Memory Triangle Listing

Discovering triangles in large graphs is a well-studied area; however, both external-memory performance of existing methods and our understanding of the complexity involved leave much room for improvement. To shed light on this problem, we first generalize the existing in-memory algorithms into a single framework of 18 triangle-search techniques. We then develop a novel external-memory approach, which we call Pruned Companion Files (PCF), that supports operation of all 18 algorithms, while significantly reducing I/O compared to the common methods in this area. After finding the best node-traversal order, we build an implementation around it using SIMD instructions for list intersection and PCF for I/O. This method runs 5-10 times faster than the available implementations and exhibits orders of magnitude less I/O. In one of our graphs, the program finds 1 trillion triangles in 237 seconds using a desktop CPU.
Treepedia 2.0: Applying Deep Learning for Large-Scale Quantification of Urban Tree Cover

Recent advances in deep learning have made it possible to quantify urban metrics at fine resolution, and over large extents using street-level images. Here, we focus on measuring urban tree cover using Google Street View (GSV) images. First, we provide a small-scale labelled validation dataset and propose standard metrics to compare the performance of automated estimations of street tree cover using GSV. We apply state-of-the-art deep learning models, and compare their performance to a previously established benchmark of an unsupervised method. Our training procedure for deep learning models is novel; we utilize the abundance of openly available and similarly labelled street-level image datasets to pre-train our model. We then perform additional training on a small training dataset consisting of GSV images. We find that deep learning models significantly outperform the unsupervised benchmark method. Our semantic segmentation model increased mean intersection-over-union (IoU) from 44.10% to 60.42% relative to the unsupervised method and our end-to-end model decreased Mean Absolute Error from 10.04% to 4.67%. We also employ a recently developed method called gradient-weighted class activation map (Grad-CAM) to interpret the features learned by the end-to-end model. This technique confirms that the end-to-end model has accurately learned to identify tree cover area as key features for predicting percentage tree cover. Our paper provides an example of applying advanced deep learning techniques on a large-scale, geo-tagged and image-based dataset to efficiently estimate important urban metrics. The results demonstrate that deep learning models are highly accurate, can be interpretable, and can also be efficient in terms of data-labelling effort and computational resources.
Multicenter Validation of the Vasoactive-Ventilation-Renal Score as a Predictor of Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation After Neonatal Cardiac Surgery.

Objectives:We sought to validate the Vasoactive-Ventilation-Renal score, a novel disease severity index, as a predictor of outcome in a multicenter cohort of neonates who underwent cardiac surgery.Design:Retrospective chart review.Setting:Seven tertiary-care referral centers.Patients:Neonates define
A spatio-temporal kernel density estimation framework for predictive crime hotspot mapping and evaluation

Abstract Predictive hotspot mapping plays a critical role in hotspot policing. Existing methods such as the popular kernel density estimation (KDE) do not consider the temporal dimension of crime. Building upon recent works in related fields, this article proposes a spatio-temporal framework for predictive hotspot mapping and evaluation. Comparing to existing work in this scope, the proposed framework has four major features: (1) a spatio-temporal kernel density estimation (STKDE) method is applied to include the temporal component in predictive hotspot mapping, (2) a data-driven optimization technique, the likelihood cross-validation, is used to select the most appropriate bandwidths, (3) a statistical significance test is designed to filter out false positives in the density estimates, and (4) a new metric, the predictive accuracy index (PAI) curve, is proposed to evaluate predictive hotspots at multiple areal scales. The framework is illustrated in a case study of residential burglaries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2011, and the results validate its utility.
Computer-integrated management of yarn manufacturing

A yarn manufacturing enterprise includes many diverse components such as process machinery, material handling equipment, computers, software, databases, communications networks, and people. Integrating all of these components is necessary for continuous improvement of operations and to develop a competitive advantage. This paper describes the elements of a spinning enterprise and a methodology for integrating it. The methodology is based on business planning and structured engineering techniques focused on developing a competitive advantage. Methods of collecting plant-floor data, transmitting it by means of networks and developing an enterprise database are discussed. >
Demand for health insurance: Evidence from the California and Washington ACA exchanges.

Abstract I estimate demand for health insurance using consumer-level data from the California and Washington ACA exchanges. I use the demand estimates to simulate the impact of policies targeting adverse selection, including subsidies and the individual mandate. I find (1) own-premium elasticities of − 7.2 to − 10.6 and insurance coverage elasticities of − 1.1 to − 1.2 ; (2) limited response to the mandate penalty amount, but significant response to the penalty's existence, suggesting consumers have a “taste for compliance”; (3) mandate repeal slightly increases consumer surplus because the ACA's price-linked subsidies shield most consumers from premium increases resulting from repeal and some consumers are not compelled to purchase insurance against their will; and (4) mandate repeal decreases consumer surplus if ACA subsidies are replaced with vouchers that expose consumers to premium increases. The economic rationale for the mandate depends on the extent of adverse selection and the presence of other policies targeting selection.
Garment-based EMG system for intra-spacesuit biomechanics analysis

The mechanism of astronaut injuries inside rigid spacesuits is not well understood, due to difficulty visualizing intra-spacesuit body motions. An alternative method is to record muscle activation signals with electromyography (EMG); however, the conventional EMG procedure requires bulky, extensive electrode/wire setup and is susceptible to signal noise. To address these challenges for aerospace applications of EMG, we designed a garment-based system to collect EMG data from upper body muscle activities inside spacesuits. Constructed with form-fitting textiles and careful management of on-garment tensions, our garment provides a viable non-invasive EMG study solution that maximizes applicability and subject mobility while resisting motion artifacts. The functionality and usability of our design was also validated with a human subject test, which showed standard-quality signal, easy don/doff process, minimal electrode/wire setup, and simple wire bulk management, as opposed to the conventional methods.
Two-Dimensional Grain Boundary Networks: Stochastic Particle Models and Kinetic Limits

We study kinetic theories for isotropic, two-dimensional grain boundary networks which evolve by curvature flow. The number densities $$f_s(x,t)$$ for s-sided grains, $$s =1,2,\ldots $$ , of area x at time t, are modeled by kinetic equations of the form $$\partial _t f_s + v_s \partial _x f_s =j_s$$ . The velocity $$v_s$$ is given by the Mullins–von Neumann rule and the flux $$j_s$$ is determined by the topological transitions caused by the vanishing of grains and their edges. The foundations of such kinetic models are examined through simpler particle models for the evolution of grain size, as well as purely topological models for the evolution of trivalent maps. These models are used to characterize the parameter space for the flux $$j_s$$ . Several kinetic models in the literature, as well as a new kinetic model, are simulated and compared with direct numerical simulations of mean curvature flow on a network. The existence and uniqueness of mild solutions to the kinetic equations with continuous initial data is established.
Development and Validation of the Workplace Dignity Scale

As organizational scholars have become critically attuned to human flourishing in the workplace, interest in workplace dignity has grown rapidly. Yet, a valid scale to measure employees’ perception...
Bourgain discretization using Lebesgue-Bochner spaces

AbstractWe study the Lebesgue-Bochner discretization property of Banach spaces Y , which ensures that the Bourgain discretization modulus for Y has a good lower estimate. We prove that there exist spaces that do not have the Lebesgue-Bochner discretization property, and we give a class of examples of spaces that enjoy this property.
Brain Computer Interface Using Motor Imagery and Facial Expressions to Control a Mobile Robot

The paper presents a study on brain computer interface (BCI) using motor imagery (MI) and facial expressions to control a mobile robot. Traditionally, only MI signals are used in BCI applications. In this paper a hybrid approach of using both MI and facial expression stimulations for BCI is proposed. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals were acquired using a sensor system and processed for several MI and facial expressions to extract characteristic features. The features were used to train support vector machine (SVM) based classifiers and the trained classifiers were used to recognize test signals for correct identification of MI and facial expressions. A system was developed to implement the BCI using MI and facial expressions to control a mobile robot. Results of robot control using MI and facial expressions, individually and together are presented for comparison. The combined features from MI and facial expression stimulations were found to give better performance than MI and facial expressions used individually.
Anti-fatigue-fracture hydrogels

The emerging applications of hydrogels in devices and machines require hydrogels to maintain robustness under cyclic mechanical loads. Whereas hydrogels have been made tough to resist fracture under a single cycle of mechanical load, these toughened gels still suffer from fatigue fracture under multiple cycles of loads. The reported fatigue threshold for synthetic hydrogels is on the order of 1 to 100 J/m2. We propose that designing anti-fatigue-fracture hydrogels requires making the fatigue crack encounter and fracture objects with energies per unit area much higher than that for fracturing a single layer of polymer chains. We demonstrate that the controlled introduction of crystallinity in hydrogels can substantially enhance their anti-fatigue-fracture properties. The fatigue threshold of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with a crystallinity of 18.9 weight % in the swollen state can exceed 1000 J/m2.
Customary International Law and the Rule Against Taking Cultural Property as Spoils of War

Many countries seek to regain lost cultural property that was taken as spoils of war during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some scholars, however, regard such claims as baseless in public international law of this period. This article carries out an intertemporal law analysis and argues that the rule against such plunder was indeed founded in the laws and customs of war in the eighteenth century, became well established in the nineteenth century, and further developed in the twentieth century. If the plundered works exist and are identifiable, restitution is the only remedy for violation of this rule. This article aims to provide the legal grounds for restitution claims and thus provide the first steps for victim States to regain their lost cultural property.
Fundamentals of Logic, Reasoning, and Argumentation: An Evidence-Supported Curriculum Targeting Scientific Literacy to Increase Public Understanding and Engagement in Science

The purpose of this article is to present an evidence-supported curriculum covering the fundamentals of logic, reasoning, and argumentation skills to address the emphasized basic knowledge, skills, and abilities required to be scientifically literate, which will prepare the public to understand and engage with science meaningfully. An analytic-synthetic approach toward understanding the notion of public is taken using a theoretical biomimetics framework that identifies naturally occurring objects or phenomena that descriptively captures the essence of a construct to facilitate creative problem- solving. In the present case, the problem being solved is how to reconcile what is meant by public, how it ought to be interpreted, determining the diverse levels of confidence in science that exist, and various understandings of science all with one another. The results demonstrate there is an inherent denotative-connotative inconsistency in the traditional notion of public that can be explicated through the concept of a fractal allowing for comprehension of the relationship between public confidence in, and understanding of, science.
Evaluating Large-Scale STEM Outreach Efficacy with a Consistent Theme: Thermodynamics for Elementary School Students

A biannual chemistry demonstration-based show named “Energy and U” was created to extend the general outreach themes of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and a college education with a specific goal: to teach the first law of thermodynamics to elementary school students. The effectiveness of the program was analyzed using a clicker survey system for over 12 000 visiting students. The fraction of the students that correctly answered the question “Is it possible to create energy?” increased from 14% immediately before the show to 89% immediately after the show. Students who had seen the show at least 5 months prior were twice as likely to correctly answer at the beginning of the show, demonstrating longer-term lesson retention. Interestingly, similar trends were observed for the adult chaperones that accompanied the students and participated in the clicker survey. A statistically significant difference (>99% confidence interval) was noted between the students’ responses to the ...
Cell Cycle Models

The models for cell cycle regulation and cell cycle analysis are discussed as microscopic or macroscopic models. Keywords: cell-cycle analysis; regulation
Range Medians

We study a generalization of the classical median finding problem to batched query case: given an array of unsorted nitems and k(not necessarily disjoint) intervals in the array, the goal is to determine the median in eachof the intervals in the array. We give an algorithm that uses O(nlogk+ klogklogn) comparisons and show a lower bound of i¾?(nlogk) comparisons for this problem. This is optimal for k= O(n/logn).
Liver adenoma associated with oral contraceptive pill administration

The increased risk of tumor development with long periods of oral contraceptive use the regression of benign adenomas after pill withdrawal and new tumor development after reinstitution of oral contraceptives strengthen the association between oral contraceptive ingestion and development of benign liver adenomas. A case is reported of a patient with liver adenoma who had been taking the oral contraceptive Ovulen 21 continuously from 1964-1975 in whom an elevated serum alkaline phosphatase activity measured on an extract of the tumor was increased when compared with the patients uninvolved liver and electrophoresis revealed a dense alkaline phosphatase band which remained at the origin. However the tumor alkalise phosphatase was not resistant to heat and urea denaturation as would be expected with a true variant alkaline phosphatase. As the present report indicates liver adenomas resected electively have a good prognosis. Although increased alkaline phosphatase activity led to the diagnosis in the present case only a few patients have had abnormal liver function tests; thus screening patients on oral contraceptives with routine tests of liver function is not likely to detect many patients with benign hepatic tumors. Some patients will require evaluation with liver scans and arteriography to exclude the diagnosis. Further study of patients with these tumors is warranted in order to clarify the spectrum and pathogenesis of liver abnormalities seen in users of oral contraceptives.