cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reproducibility of arterial vascular compliance measurements

The reproducibility of the determination of systematic proximal and distal vascular compliance was evaluated prospectively in ten normotensive male subjects over an average 37-day interval between the initial and follow-up studies. Compliance values were calculated from a modified Windkessel model of the peripheral vasculature, utilizing parameters from the pulse contour analysis of the brachial artery waveform. There were no statistically significant differences in either hemodynamic variables (mean arterial pressure, cardiac output, heart rate, systematic vascular resistance) or vascular proximal or distal compliance between the study and restudy periods. Hemodynamic variables had regression coefficients in the 0.5-0.7 range, while proximal and distal compliance regression were 0.87 and 0.84, respectively. Thus, vascular compliance by pulse contour analysis is a reproducible measure of vascular status. >
Quick Response under Competition

We consider a manufacturer serving two competing retailers that sell their products over a single selling season. The retailers place their regular orders before the season starts. In addition to this initial order, quick response (QR) provides a retailer with an additional replenishment opportunity after demand uncertainty is resolved. The manufacturer determines the unit price for QR replenishment. We characterize the retailers’ ordering, and the manufacturer’s pricing decisions in equilibrium when none, only one, and both of the retailers have QR ability. We study how the profitability of the manufacturer, the retailers, and the channel depend on QR and competition. We find it may be optimal for the manufacturer to offer QR to only one of the ex ante identical retailers when demand variability is sufficiently, but not overly high. The manufacturer may also find it optimal to offer QR to both or none of the retailers, depending on demand variability. Finally, while QR ability is always attractive for a retailer when competition is ignored, we find QR may prove detrimental when its impact on competition is taken into account.
Segmenting blobs into subregions

A number of hypotheses about the conditions under which people perceive subregions in blob shapes are studied and found wanting. A new approach to blob segmentation is described and compared to other methods. The new approach is based on internal concavity metrics, which are defined over the Blum transform (augmented Voronoi diagram) of such shapes. The behavior of an internal concavity model is examined.
Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Cartilage injuries in children and adolescents are increasingly observed, with roughly 20% of knee injuries in adolescents requiring surgery. In the US alone, costs of osteoarthritis (OA) are in excess of $65 billion per year (both medical costs and lost wages). Comorbidities are common with OA and are also costly to manage. Articular cartilage's low friction and high capacity to bear load makes it critical in the movement of one bone against another, and its lack of a sustained natural healing response has necessitated a plethora of therapies. Tissue engineering is an emerging technology at the threshold of translation to clinical use. Replacement cartilage can be constructed in the laboratory to recapitulate the functional requirements of native tissues. This book outlines the biomechanical and biochemical characteristics of articular cartilage in both normal and pathological states, through development and aging. It also provides a historical perspective of past and current cartilage treatments and previous tissue engineering efforts. Methods and standards for evaluating the function of engineered tissues are discussed, and current cartilage products are presented with an analysis on the United States Food and Drug Administration regulatory pathways that products must follow to market. This book was written to serve as a reference for researchers seeking to learn about articular cartilage, for undergraduate and graduate level courses, and as a compendium of articular cartilage tissue engineering design criteria. Table of Contents: Hyaline Articular Cartilage / Cartilage Aging and Pathology / In Vitro / Bioreactors / Future Directions
Cultural Nationalists, Internationalists, and “Intra-nationalists'': Who's Right and Whose Right?

This paper examines some of the complex issues that relate to the management of “heritage,” primarily as such issues relate to Indigenous populations and communities. Numerous authors such as Aplin,Aplin, Heritage Identification, Conservation, and Management. Barkan and Bush,Barkan and Bush, Claiming the Stones. Brown,Brown, Who Owns Native Culture? and GreenfieldGreenfield, Return of Cultural Treasures. recognize the social, political, and symbolic aspects of heritage and discuss such issues in detail. This paper, therefore, does not approach the broader issues of heritage, but instead focuses on the intricacies of relationships between the various populations that attempt to exert control over particular aspects of heritage. While many authors recognize the role of cultural nationalists and cultural internationalists in the debate over heritage issues, I argue that Indigenous populations and other enclaves within nations— cultural “intranationalists”—comprise a new and growing voice in the debate.
Evaluation of a Visual DNA Probe for Enterotoxigenic E. coli Detection in Foods and Wastewater by Colony Hybridization

A visual DNA probe for the detection of enterotoxigenic E. coli (LT EEC) by colony hybridization was evaluated to determine its efficacy as a more restrictive, routine indicator method for foods and wastewater. The E. coli heat labile enterotoxin (LT) gene was used as the DNA probe to detect LT EEC. In control experiments the reliability of the probe was demonstrated with food spiked with LT EEC. Raw oysters and wastewater examined for naturally occurring LT EEC showed significant levels of probe positive isolates. Despite some problems, for example background noise associated with food type, the DNA probe proved satisfactory as a method for indicating the presence of enterotoxigenic Enterobacteriaceae .
Occupational Radiation Exposures at a Fusion Power Station

Fusion power stations utilizing the deuteriumtritium reaction may not result in significantly different occupational radiation exposures than are obtained currently at light water reactor (LWR) stations, even with modest advances in remote control technology. The primary reasons for this observation follow. Mobile activation products will be generated at about twice the rate of LWRs. A significantly greater amount of work in elevated radiation zones is associated with repair and maintenance of not only the blanket and first wall, but also the large number of diagnostic and auxiliary systems required for fusion that are not required for fission. The prevalence of tritium throughout most of the reactor complex and the fuels and materials cycle. Very few specific numbers can be estimated with reasonable certainty at present; however, the general picture of occupational hazards at fusion reactors is slowly taking a rough form.
Nanoscale Multireference Quantum Chemistry: Full Configuration Interaction on Graphical Processing Units

Methods based on a full configuration interaction (FCI) expansion in an active space of orbitals are widely used for modeling chemical phenomena such as bond breaking, multiply excited states, and conical intersections in small-to-medium-sized molecules, but these phenomena occur in systems of all sizes. To scale such calculations up to the nanoscale, we have developed an implementation of FCI in which electron repulsion integral transformation and several of the more expensive steps in σ vector formation are performed on graphical processing unit (GPU) hardware. When applied to a 1.7 × 1.4 × 1.4 nm silicon nanoparticle (Si72H64) described with the polarized, all-electron 6-31G** basis set, our implementation can solve for the ground state of the 16-active-electron/16-active-orbital CASCI Hamiltonian (more than 100,000,000 configurations) in 39 min on a single NVidia K40 GPU.
Sampling errors in satellite-derived infrared sea-surface temperatures. Part I: Global and regional MODIS fields

Abstract Long time series of accurate Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) are needed to resolve subtle signals that may be indicative of a changing climate. Motivated by the stringent requirements on SST accuracy required for Climate Data Records (CDR) we quantify sampling errors in satellite SSTs. Infrared sensors, including the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), have sampling errors caused by incomplete coverage primarily due to clouds and inter-swath gaps (gaps between successive swaths/orbits). Unlike retrieval errors, the sampling errors are introduced when calculating mean values and in generating gap-free SST fields. We generate MODIS-sampled SST fields by superimposing MODIS cloud masks on top of the Multi-scale Ultrahigh Resolution (MUR) SST field for the same day. Based on the MODIS-sampled fields, we calculate sampling errors at different temporal and spatial resolutions to examine the impacts at different scales. Our results indicate that sampling errors are significant, more so in the high latitudes, especially the Arctic. The 30°N–30°S zonal band is found to have the smallest errors; a notable exception is the persistent negative errors found in the Tropical Instability Wave area, where the mesoscale ocean–atmosphere interaction leads to a more frequently satellite sampling above the cold sections of the wave area. The global mean sampling error is generally positive and increases approximately exponentially with missing data fraction at a fixed averaging interval, while error variability is mainly controlled by SST variability. Areas with persistent cloud cover have large sampling errors in temporally averaged SSTs. We conclude that the sampling error can be an important or even dominant component of the error budget of mean and gap-free SST fields. Climate data generation and interpretation of satellite-derived SST CDRs and their application must be conducted with due regard to the sampling error.
Celebrating claude shannon [Spectral Lines]

While I was doing research for a biography of Claude Shannon's graduate advisor, Vannevar Bush, I learned that Bush's mentorship of Shannon in the fields of electrical engineering and applied math decisively influenced Shannon’s career choices and thus the history of computing and digital media. Early on, Bush recognized Shannon’s singular talents. In a 1939 letter, Bush described his then 23-year-old student as a peculiar "genius" poised "to accomplish something striking and even useful."
Oxygen Adsorption on and Oxidation of NiAl Surfaces

Oxygen adsorption on and the eventual oxidation of the (100), (110), and (111) surfaces of NiAl was studied extensively using a variety of surface sensitive techniques. While the initial rate of uptake at 22°C varied significantly with orientation and surface composition, in all cases it was possible to form an overlayer region containing the equivalent of several monolayers of oxygen. No ordered overlayers were observed. Information about the chemical bonding was obtained from changes in core-level binding energies. Examination of the Al 2p region showed evidence for two different oxide environments, depending on surface treatment. Comparison of these results with those for both Ni and Al clearly shows effects due to alloying.
Meritocracy 2.0: High-Stakes, Standardized Testing as a Racial Project of Neoliberal Multiculturalism.

High-stakes, standardized testing is regularly used within in accountability narratives as a tool for achieving racial equality in schools. Using the frameworks of “racial projects” and “neoliberal multiculturalism,” and drawing on historical and empirical research, this article argues that not only does high-stakes, standardized testing serve to further racial inequality in education, it does so under the guise of forms of anti-racism that have been reconstituted as part of a larger neoliberal project for education reform. This mix of neoliberalism, high-stakes testing, and official anti-racisms that are used to deny structural, racialized inequalities are a manifestation of what the author calls, “Meritocracy 2.0.”
Leveraging legacy code to deploy desktop applications on the web

Xax is a browser plugin model that enables developers to leverage existing tools, libraries, and entire programs to deliver feature-rich applications on the web. Xax employs a novel combination of mechanisms that collectively provide security, OS-independence, performance, and support for legacy code. These mechanisms include memory-isolated native code execution behind a narrow syscall interface, an abstraction layer that provides a consistent binary interface across operating systems, system services via hooks to existing browser mechanisms, and lightweight modifications to existing tool chains and code bases. We demonstrate a variety of applications and libraries from existing code bases, in several languages, produced with various tool chains, running in multiple browsers on multiple operating systems. With roughly two person-weeks of effort, we ported 3.3 million lines of code to Xax, including a PDF viewer, a Python interpreter, a speech synthesizer, and an OpenGL pipeline.
Endocrine Disorders of Growth

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of endocrine disorders of growth. It focuses on hormonal signals produced by one cell type, released into the circulation, and influencing the growth or the function of cells in target tissues. The chapter outlines the steps involved in characterization of abnormal growth, applies them to an individual with profoundly abnormal growth, and discusses alternative explanations for the growth disturbance. Study of individuals whose growth departs from normal has produced important insights into the contributions of hormonal signaling to normal growth. The evaluation of a person who is unusually small or large for his or her age begins with the characterization of the growth phenotype. It continues with the measurement of the hormones known to influence growth or the hormonal phenotype. The chapter emphasizes that measurement of circulating levels of the relevant hormones is crucial in defining the intermediate phenotype. This term denotes the characteristics that lie between the cause of the disorder and its observed effects on growth. Different sets of hormones influence growth at different stages, so one needs to be selective in choosing which hormones to assess. To illustrate the application of principles underlying analysis of growth disorders, the chapter considers the case of a young woman of extremely short stature. Finally the chapter presents a comparison of genetic disorders at different points in the growth hormone axis, highlighting the effects of deficiency of growth hormone and other Anterior Pituitary hormones.
The Listening Guide: A How-To Approach on Ways to Promote Educational Democracy

As qualitative researchers, our identities are inevitably mixed into our methodological approaches, and many of us secretly wonder about our roles and the quality of our listening. Researchers who ...
HIV Envelope Protein gp120 Stimulates Expression of Specific Chemokines in Lymphatic Endothelial Cells.

Abstract Lymphoid organs are the major anatomical home of HIV, where the virus replicates during both the acute and chronic phases of infections. In this regard, there are significantly more infected cells in lymph nodes (LNs) than in circulating blood, and these infected cells are a major reservoir of infectious HIV. Certain chemokines like CCL19 (MIP-3β) and CCL21 (SLC) play key roles in immune cell trafficking to LNs. They induce specific homing of naive T cells and dendritic cells into the T cell zone of secondary lymphoid organs. There, the T cells become activated by the dendritic cells. A network of channels composed of lymphatic endothelium exists in LNs that provides a route for this dendritic cell and T cell movement. To date, how this lymphatic endothelium may contribute to the pathogenesis of HIV infection has not been studied. This prompted us to investigate whether HIV may alter immune cell trafficking via interaction with this lymphatic network. Lymphatic endothelial cells (LEC) were separated from primary dermal microvascular endothelial cells. The phenotype of LEC was confirmed by immunostaining with specific lymphatic markers including VEGFR-3, LYVE-1, and podoplanin. Since HIV envelope proteins are presented to endothelial cells in the microenvironment, we studied the effects of X4 gp120 on LEC. Using a pathway specific cDNA array, we detected enhanced expression of a restricted repertoire of chemokines in LEC upon HIV-1 gp120 stimulation. Gp120 upregulated expression of the chemokine genes GRO-α, GRO-γ, MIP-3β, and SDF-1α and β in LEC. These chemokines can act to enhance T cell and dendritic cell homing to LNs. Furthermore, we also detected GRO-α, SDF-1, and SLC proteins in culture supernatants of the gp120-treated LEC. We did not observe upregulation of the chemokines RANTES and MCP-1 upon gp120 stimulation. Since dendritic cells mediate the HIV infectivity of CD4+ T cells by presenting HIV particles, our study suggests that HIV-1 gp120-induced production of a restricted repertoire of chemokines in LEC may accelerate the trafficking of infected dendritic cells to LNs and foster HIV infection in this reservoir.
Understanding Students’ Perspective and Use of Technology for Language Learning at Islamic Boarding School

Pesantren or Islamic Boarding school is one of the oldest Islamic Institutions in Indonesia, home to the the largest muslim population in the world. There are two types of pesantren, traditional (salafi) and modern (khalaf). In selected modern pesantren, students are obliged to communicate in Arabic and/ or English language as a part of their bilingual program. The implementation of English in daily conversation requires students to acquire high level of English proficiency. The purpose of this study is to provide insight of ESL acquisition and practice, technology use to enhance language learning, and future enhancement of language learning through students’ lenses. The writer distributed questionnaire and conducted focus group discussion to thirty Darul Ulum Islamic Boarding School students. The findings showed that while there are restrictions on the use of technology devices in pesantren, half of students feel that they have sufficient exposure to English through traditional teaching program. However, many students acknowledge that they have limited vocabulary that addresses to their daily lives, thus they would like to find more resources that accommodate this needs. Finally, based on the findings, this paper suggests that pesantren allows for more access to technology devices and diverse resources of ESL as well as availability of librarian or experts that can help students to use technology for learning efficiently.
Excited-State Dynamics of a Benzotriazole Photostabilizer: 2-(2′-Hydroxy-5′-methylphenyl)benzotriazole

A large number of common photostabilizers are based on the 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)benzotriazole structure. One common example is 2-(2′-hydroxy-5′-methylphenyl)benzotriazole, or TINUVIN-P. The excited-state dynamics of this molecule have been extensively characterized by ultrafast spectroscopies. These experiments have established that upon photoexcitation TINUVIN-P exhibits excited-state proton transfer followed by a remarkably fast internal conversion. We simulate the excited-state dynamics using ab initio multiple spawning (AIMS) and a complete active space configuration interaction (CASCI) wave function with a correction from density functional theory (DFT) to generate the potential energy surfaces. We predict ultrafast proton transfer on the order of 20 fs followed by simultaneous twisting and pyramidalization until a seam of conical intersection is reached. Near the intersection seam population transfer to the ground state is highly efficient. The process is best described as ballistic wavepacket motion...
SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST AND ELECTRICAL STORM: AN UNUSUAL PRESENTATION OF LYME CARDITIS

Lyme disease is a tick borne illness caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme carditis is a rare but potentially fatal complication seen in 4-10 % patients with Lyme disease. The predominant cardiac manifestation is AV conduction block with some patients manifesting signs and symptoms of perimyocarditis
Bank bailouts and corporate insider trading during the financial crisis of 2007–2009

Jagolinzer et al. (The information content of insider trades around government intervention during the financial crisis. Working paper, 2014) examine insider trading at banks that were bailed out by the U.S. taxpayers. They provide evidence that insiders of bailed-out banks profitably purchased their banks’ shares over a 9 month period after the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was announced in October 2008. They find that the purchases were profitable for up to 12 months after the purchases. However, Liu et al. (J Bank Finance 37:5048–5061, 2013) find that shareholder gains at the bailed out banks occurred only after the banks paid back the TARP funds, which in most cases occurred after 2010. In this paper we extend Jagolinzer et al.’s (2014) analysis to financial institutions that did not receive TARP funding as well as to non-financial firms. We find that insiders of the non-TARP financial and the non-financial firms traded their shares profitably after the TARP program was announced. Insider share purchases at these firms were highly profitable for up to 12 months after the purchases. However, insider purchases at the bailed-out banks were slightly profitable only for a month after the purchases, after which the shares that were bought declined in value. Our results for the TARP banks do not corroborate Jagolinzer et al.’s (2014) results, but are consistent with the evidence in Liu et al. (2013) and several other papers that examine the wealth effects of TARP program announcements and fund repayments.
Impact of dust accumulation on PV panel performance in the Saharan region

In this work, we present modeling the dust effect on the monocrystalline silicon Photovoltaic Panel (Sharp NT-R5E3E175W) in Saharan region (Adrar, Algeria) the model can be used to develop a simulation program. Its principle is based on the self-consistent iterative numerical solution of the Poisson and continuity and the transport equations. The discretization method used is that of finite differences. The parameters characterizing the solar cell such as short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, efficiency will be deducted from the simulated current-voltage characteristics. To validate the effectiveness of this numerical model, we will compare the simulation results with experimental measurements. Sufficient agreement was observed when we compared the experimental results of the photovoltaic panel.
Tumor-Activated Water-Soluble Photosensitizers for Near-Infrared Photodynamic Cancer Therapy

Current photosensitizers (PSs) for photodynamic therapy (PDT) are limited by their low water solubility and tendency to aggregate, low near-infrared (NIR) absorption, and low cancer selectivity. Here, we designed iodinated, water-soluble NIR boron dipyrromethene-based PSs to achieve image-guided and efficient PDT against cancer in vivo that is enhanced by leveraging tumor-specific pH-responsive activation. PEG2k5c-I and PEG2k5c-OMe-I localized to tumors and were activated by acidic pH in the tumor microenvironment to produce 1O2 and fluorescence for efficient PDT and effective cancer detection after intravenous administration. Upon NIR irradiation, these PSs exhibited strong NIR absorption at 660 and 690 nm, stable NIR emission at 692 and 742 nm, and high 1O2 quantum yields of 0.78 and 0.72 in acidic pH. PEG2k5c-I and PEG2k5c-OMe-I killed cancer cells upon irradiation of NIR light and were nontoxic without irradiation. Light-activated PDT treatment of breast cancer tumors in mice resulted in suppression o...
An Activity Switch in Human Telomerase Based on RNA Conformation and Shaped by TCAB1

Summary Ribonucleoprotein enzymes require dynamic conformations of their RNA constituents for regulated catalysis. Human telomerase employs a non-coding RNA (hTR) with a bipartite arrangement of domains—a template-containing core and a distal three-way junction (CR4/5) that stimulates catalysis through unknown means. Here, we show that telomerase activity unexpectedly depends upon the holoenzyme protein TCAB1, which in turn controls conformation of CR4/5. Cells lacking TCAB1 exhibit a marked reduction in telomerase catalysis without affecting enzyme assembly. Instead, TCAB1 inactivation causes unfolding of CR4/5 helices that are required for catalysis and for association with the telomerase reverse-transcriptase (TERT). CR4/5 mutations derived from patients with telomere biology disorders provoke defects in catalysis and TERT binding similar to TCAB1 inactivation. These findings reveal a conformational "activity switch" in human telomerase RNA controlling catalysis and TERT engagement. The identification of two discrete catalytic states for telomerase suggests an intramolecular means for controlling telomerase in cancers and progenitor cells.
Instructional Technology: Problems and Prospects

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND FACTORS INFLUENCING FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY The basic responses of the field of instructional technology to the contemporary forces of social change have reflected, primarily, a concern with technical accomplishment. Relatively little substantial progress has been made toward providing adequate solutions to the whole set of problems involving what to teach, to whom, and how. In the opinion of this writer, this situation is closely related to one of the broad problems underlying the future development of instructional technology--that of changing the dominant physical science concept of instructional technology to a behavioral science concept and changing the prevailing mode of thinking among educational practitioners as to how professional knowledge is produced and how it should be evaluated. Unless this problem is recognized and solved, instructional technology may be unable to cope with the educational challenge of the present or the future.
hERG (Human Ether-a-Go-Go Related Gene)

The hERG (human ether-a-go-go related gene) helps to maintain normal cardiac rhythm in humans. hERG encodes the ion channel underlying the rapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) which is critical for ventricular repolarization. Inhibition of hERG currents can induce delayed ventricular repolarization and QT prolongation, and is associated with induction of the potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmia, torsade de pointe. Established pharmaceutical agents have been found to inhibit hERG currents and produce QT prolongation and torsade de pointe, and have been withdrawn from the market. As a result, testing new chemical entities for hERG channel blockade prior to human clinical trials has been adopted by the pharmaceutical industry.
Patient Flow in an ICU

Many intensive care units (ICUs) face overcrowding. One response to this overcrowding is to bump ICU patients to other departments of the hopsital to make room for new patient arrivals. Such bumping clearly has the potential to reduce quality care. In this paper we develop a stochastic model of a single ICU with patient bumping. The purpose of this model is to enable planners to predict performance, in terms of bumping, under differing capacity and arrival patterns. We develop a new aggregation-disaggregation algorithm for this problem that enables us to keep track of the time in system for each patient despite the high dimensionality of the problem. Our approach allows for more accurate modelling of the system. We demonstrate the superior computational efficiency of our approach over traditional Gaussian Elimination.
“Heroes and Their Consequences”: 9/11, the War on Terror, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Characters and stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) regularly cross over from one medium and/or genre to another; narrative arcs occur sequentially, out of sequence, or concurrently and conventional binaries (e.g., protagonist/antagonist, good/evil, us/them) are deconstructed and subverted. This is not merely designed to cinematically adapt the complexity of the comic book universe but also simultaneously structure what trauma theorist Dominick LaCapra has termed a “working through”—in this instance, of the events of 9/11 (as first depicted as “The Battle of New York” in The Avengers) and the subsequent “war on terror.” This chapter explores how the trope of the superhero is re-imagined to address the complexities of twenty-first-century warfare and to interrogate issues of patriotism, drone strikes, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), grief, memorialization, politicization, mass surveillance, and civil liberties.
Radiolytic Degradation of Uranyl-Loaded Tributyl Phosphate by High and Low LET Radiation

ABSTRACTUnderstanding and characterizing the radiolytic degradation of solvents used for treatment of used nuclear fuel is an ongoing topic of research. In the work presented here, degradation constants for the radiolysis of tributyl phosphate (TBP) as a function of various process variables, such as the inclusion of nitric acid and uranyl ions on the TBP, were determined. Degradation constants were determined for both high linear energy transfer (LET) and low LET (gamma) radiation exposure. Results indicate that susceptibility to gamma radiolysis is roughly twice that of high LET and that acid uptake by TBP has little effect on the overall degradation for both high and low LET irradiations. The inclusion of a metal ion affects the degradation of TBP by forming complexes that absorb a portion of the energy deposited by radiation. These TBP–metal complexes break down during irradiation, and the degradation constants for the complex were found to be higher compared to free TBP, for both high and low LET rad...
Polyacrylonitrile-derived nanostructured carbon materials

Abstract An overview on polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-derived carbon nanomaterials is presented. Controlled synthesis of well-defined PAN by reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) techniques is discussed as a route to tailored carbon precursors of various architectures, such as block copolymers (BCPs) and organic-inorganic hybrids. Primary examples of different approaches to templating include the use of PAN-containing BCPs self-assembled on planar surfaces or in solution to yield: (i) bulk carbon films, (ii) discrete nano-objects and (iii) mesoporous copolymer-templated nanocarbons (CTNCs). Inorganic templates or electrospinning as a viable approach to ordered mesoporous carbons or carbon nanofibers are also discussed. Special attention is devoted to nitrogen doping in PAN-derived partially graphitic carbons and to the evaluation of nitrogen-enriched nanocarbons in energy conversion and storage applications such as supercapacitors, lithium-sulfur batteries, electrocatalysts, solar cells or CO2 sorbents.
A Mild, DNA-Compatible Nitro Reduction Using B 2 (OH) 4

A hypodiboric acid system for the reduction of nitro groups on DNA-chemical conjugates has been developed. This transformation provided good to excellent yields of the reduced amine product for a variety of functionalized aromatic, heterocyclic, and aliphatic nitro compounds. DNA tolerance to reaction conditions, extension to decigram scale reductions, successful use in a DNA-encoded chemical library synthesis, and subsequent target selection are also described.
Hylomorphism and Part-Whole Realism

Mereonominalism, holonominalism, and part-whole realism represent competing views on the metaphysics of parts and wholes. Mereonominalism claims that what parts exist is a function of the concepts ...
Attitudes About Wife-Beating and Incidence of Domestic Violence in India: An Instrumental Variables Analysis

This paper explores how spousal violence varies with respect to women’s attitudes regarding acceptability of violence. This association is important to investigate because increased justification of marital violence by women can reduce their likelihood of seeking help or fleeing the violent marriage, which in turn could increase their risk of facing spousal violence in the future. Using nationally representative data from India and after controlling for the potential endogeneity of women’s attitudes, results suggest a strong positive link between attitudes regarding violence and the incidence of violence. The findings highlight the difficulties confronted in dismantling the problem of marital violence.
Formalized Task Characterization for Human-Robot Autonomy Allocation

Humans and robots team together to perform tasks in various domains. Some tasks are easier to perform than others, but little work focuses on discovering the underlying mechanisms that affect perceived difficulty and task performance. To fill this gap, we propose a formalized approach to task characterization for human-robot teams using Taguchi design of experiments and conjoint analysis. With this, we conduct a 20 person study where participants operate a 6 degree of freedom robotic arm to perform manipulations defined by 6 kinematic features. We find that rotational features of a task contribute significantly more to decreased performance and increased difficulty than translational features. The participants also perform the activities with autonomy assistance. The data shows a reduction in the effect of these features on performance and difficulty when assistance is active. Furthermore, we examine when to trigger assistance based on thresholds set from outlier detection. The analysis indicates that rotational features and features leading to kinematic singularities are useful for triggering assistance.
Hospital utilization and expenditures among a nationally representative sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries 2 years after receipt of an Annual Wellness Visit.

Abstract Medicare's Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) provides an opportunity to link beneficiaries to cancer screenings and immunizations, however, research has not examined its effectiveness. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of receiving an AWV on outcomes while accounting for the healthy user effect. This study used 2013–2017 Medicare claims data to compare hospital utilization and total expenditures among a 5% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries with and without AWV use in 2014 (228,053 AWV users were propensity-score matched to 228,053 nonusers). Linear fixed effects regression models examined differences in study outcomes 12 and 24 months after AWV use, controlling for baseline differences in sociodemographics, health status, utilization, and accountable care organization attribution. The proportion of Medicare FFS beneficiaries that used the AWV increased from 13% in 2013 to 24% in 2017. Users of the AWV had a marginally significant reduction in Medicare spending 12 months (−$122, 95% CI −$256, $11, p = 0.073) and significant reductions (−$162, 95% CI, −$310, −$14, p = 0.032) 24 months after the visit, relative to non-users. However it remains unclear what is driving these savings as there was no change in hospital-related utilization and results may still be biased due to inherent differences between users and non-users. The AWV provides an opportunity for providers to focus on prevention and geriatric needs not covered in typical office visits. Practices adopting AWVs have noted increased revenue, more stable patient populations, and stronger provider-patient relationships. While utilization remains low, it is steadily increasing over time.
Building and validating a predictive model for DVM academic performance

Background: Predicting success in the veterinary curriculum with admissions variables is a longstanding interest of veterinary faculty. As linear models have consistently outperformed experts' opinions when making quantitative estimates, integrating them into admissions could both improve the outcome and reduce the burden of the admissions process. Aims and Objectives: To build and test linear models for predicting first year grade point average (GPA) and practice readiness in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program. Materials and Methods: The authors built and validated models for predicting first year GPA and clinical rotation performance using data from the college's application management system and internal records. Lasso regression was used to select the subset of variables that best predicted both first year GPA and clinical faculty's ratings of practice readiness. Results: Validated models indicated no application variables reliably predicted practice readiness. Only total undergraduate GPA, GRE verbal/quantitate score, reference letter positivity, and number of unexplained course withdrawals reliably predicted first year GPA. Conclusion: Selecting applicants who will be successful in the first year of the veterinary curriculum is an important objective, particularly given the challenges many students face during this part of the veterinary curriculum. The overarching goal of a veterinary curriculum, however, is to produce practice ready veterinarians, thus additional work must be done to improve our ability to identify applicants who will be poised for success upon graduation.
Dissociative adsorption of H2O onto a Pt thin film in direct contact with GaN (0001): Effect of electronic communications between catalyst and a semiconducting support

Abstract Heterogeneous catalysts that contain metal/semiconductor heterojunctions have been applied in numerous chemical transformations. While the involvement of these heterojunctions in catalytic processes has been recognized widely, limited information about their local chemical, geometrical, and electronic structures is available, particularly under catalytic operating conditions. Here, using Pt/GaN (0001) and Pt (111) as model systems, we investigated the interfacial chemistry of H2O/Pt under operando conditions using ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS). We found that H2O remains intact in its molecular form on pristine Pt (111) at room temperature; however, when a thin Pt film was brought into direct contact with a semiconductor, i.e., GaN (0001), electronic communications at the heterojunction were established and were observed spectroscopically. The build-up of hot carriers under steady-state X-ray photoexcitation drives the dissociative adsorption of H2O onto Pt at room temperature that otherwise does not proceed on bare Pt (111). H2O and its dissociation products, hydroxyls (OH) and surface oxides, were observed binding to surface Pt atoms under elevated pressures and/or temperatures, which in return altered the hot carrier transfer and therefore, the band alignment at the Pt/GaN interface, leading to the observed evolutions in Pt, O, and Ga core-level photoemission spectra. Our findings demonstrate that the selection of semiconducting supports can govern the outcome of a chemical transformation event directly; the catalytic performance and reaction pathway of metal (or oxides)-based catalysts can be modulated by electronic modifications at the catalyst/support interface and drive reactions that are kinetically sluggish or non-spontaneous.
HuR promotes miRNA-mediated upregulation of NFI-A protein expression in MDSCs during murine sepsis

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) contribute to high mortality rates during sepsis, but how sepsis induces MDSCs is unclear. Previously we reported that microRNA (miR)-21 and miR-181b reprogram MDSCs in septic mice by increasing levels of DNA binding transcription factor, nuclear factor 1 (NFI-A). Here, we provide evidence that miR-21 and miR-181b stabilize NFI-A mRNA and increase NFI-A protein levels by recruiting RNA-binding proteins HuR and Ago1 to its 3' untranslated region (3'UTR). We also find that the NFI-A GU-rich element (GRE)-binding protein CUGBP1 counters miR-21 and miR-181b dependent NFI-A mRNA stabilization and decreases protein production by replacing 3'UTR bound Ago1 with Ago2. We confirmed the miR-21 and miR-181b dependent reprogramming pathway in MDSCs transfected with a luciferase reporter construct containing an NFI-A 3'UTR fragment with point mutations in the miRNA binding sites. These results suggest that targeting NFI-A in MDSCs during sepsis may enhance resistance to uncontrolled infection.
Association of Glycated Hemoglobin Levels With Risk of Pancreatic Cancer

Importance New-onset diabetes after the age of 50 years is a potential indicator of pancreatic cancer. Understanding the associations between hyperglycemia, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, is key to developing an approach to early detection. Objective To assess the association of elevation in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) with the risk of pancreatic cancer. Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study was conducted using data collected from an integrated health care system in California. A total of 851 402 patients aged 50 to 84 years who had HbA1cmeasurements taken between 2010 and 2014 were identified as the base cohort, with 12 contemporaneous cohorts created based on varying HbA1cthresholds (ie, 6.1%, 6.3%, 6.5%, and 6.7%) and prior diabetes status. Data analysis was conducted from August 2018 to September 2019. Main Outcomes and Measures New cases of pancreatic cancer identified through cancer registry and California death files during a 3-year period. Three-year risk, incidence rate, sensitivity, number of patients needed to screen to detect 1 case, timing, and stage at diagnosis were determined. Results Among 851 402 patients in the base cohort, 447 502 (52.5%) were women, 255 441 (30.0%) were Hispanic participants, 383 685 (45.1%) were non-Hispanic white participants, 100 477 (11.8%) were Asian participants, and 88 969 (10.4%) were non-Hispanic black participants, with a median (interquartile range) age of 62 (56-69) years and a median (interquartile range) HbA1clevel of 6.0% (5.7%-6.6%). The incidence rate of pancreatic cancer was 0.45 (95% CI, 0.43-0.49) per 1000 person-years. After excluding prior diabetes as well as confirmation of new-onset hyperglycemia based on an HbA1clevel of 6.5%, a total of 20 012 patients remained, with 74 of 1041 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cases (7.1%) from the base cohort included. The rate of pancreatic cancer was 0.72 (95% CI, 0.32-1.42) per 1000 person-years among Asian patients, 0.83 (95% CI, 0.35-1.71) per 1000 person-years among non-Hispanic black patients, 0.84 (95% CI, 0.48-1.37) per 1000 person-years among Hispanic patients, and 2.37 (95% CI, 1.75-3.14) per 1000 person-years among non-Hispanic white patients. Overall, 42 of 74 cancers (56.8%) were diagnosed within 1 year of the index laboratory test. Among 1041 total cases, 708 (68.0%) had staging information available, of whom 465 (65.7%) had stage III or IV disease at diagnosis. In the base cohort, the number needed to undergo evaluation to identify a single case of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was 818 (95% CI, 770-869), with estimates ranging from 206 (95% CI, 160-264) to 600 (95% CI, 540-666) in the subcohorts. Conclusions and Relevance The findings of this study suggest that screening patients for pancreatic cancer based solely on elevation in HbA1clevel is unlikely to represent an effective strategy. Future efforts to identify a high-risk population based on changes in glycemic parameters should account for racial/ethnic differences.
Virtual Noon Conferences: Providing Resident Education and Wellness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted graduate medical education. Family medicine residents are now doing substantial clinical work and learning from home. We continued to offer academic half-day didactics virtually, but sensed a need for daily resident education and social support, so we implemented a virtual daily noon conference to address these needs. Methods The virtual noon conferences used web-based technology and had weekly organ system themes with consistent daily learning activities like cases and review questions. Four key components made the conferences collaborative and inclusive; they were led by residents, required minimal preparation by using available materials, were interactive, and promoted social connection with wellness activities. We evaluated the impact on resident-perceived knowledge and wellness over 6 weeks with weekly surveys for residents attending at least one conference that week and a postintervention survey. Results Of 66 responses to the weekly surveys, 98% agreed that noon conferences helped to increase knowledge and social connection. Of 46 total residents, 35 (76%) answered the postintervention survey, and all agreed that noon conferences helped to increase knowledge, were interactive, and increased social connection. Ninety-one percent favored continuing the noon conferences. More than three-quarters of postintervention survey respondents agreed that virtual noon conferences were equally or more beneficial compared to academic half days for both their education and well-being during the pandemic. Conclusions Virtual noon conferences have provided regular interactive learning and fostered resident well-being during the pandemic. They can supplement resident curriculum and wellness and can be easily adopted by other programs.
Sovereignty, citizenship and educating refugees in the United States:

Public education in the United States acts as a governmental tool of neoliberalism, through which state power and sovereignty are deployed and transformed in daily life. Here, I examine how the div...
Fast matrix algebra for Bayesian model calibration

In Bayesian model calibration, evaluation of the likelihood function usually involves finding the inverse and determinant of a covariance matrix. When Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are us...
The Time is Ripe to Include Considerations of the Effects on Families and Communities of Excessively Long Sentences

It is well established that the United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world. The fundamental cause of this incarceration mania is that the United States unjustifiably doles out scores of excessively lengthy prison terms. Comparatively, United States citizenry are not convicted of worse crimes, and thereby well-deserving of more protracted sentences than those living in other countries. Rather, our federal criminal justice system has historically manifested the belief, more than do our neighbors around the globe, that longer terms of incarceration will benefit society by reducing crime and effectively sanctioning immoral behaviors. The time is ripe for reconsideration of this ill-advised creed.