cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Metal Production: A Time to Reflect

As keynote speaker at the TMS-AIME Extractive Metallurgy Luncheon, held March 8, 1983, Prof. Kellogg offered these thoughts on the remarkable advancement of the metals industry during his more than 40 years in the profession and also looked at challenges of the future. The luncheon was held in conjunction with the 112th AIME Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia.
Mesozoic sedimentary-basin development on the allochthonous Wrangellia composite terrane, Wrangell Mountains basin, Alaska: A long-term record of terrane migration and arc construction

The ∼7000 m of Upper Triassic–Upper Cretaceous strata of the Wrangell Mountains basin depositionally overlie the allochthonous Wrangellia composite terrane in south-central Alaska. New sedimentologic, compositional, and geochronologic data from these strata provide a record of the migration of the terrane from an intraoceanic setting at low paleolatitudes (∼12°N) to its present position along the continental margin of southern Alaska (∼61°N). We recognize several distinct stages of basin development: (1) Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic carbonate strata represent an intraoceanic carbonate platform built on a remnant volcanic arc at low paleolatitudes (∼12°N). (2) During the Middle to Late Jurassic, a subduction zone formed along the southern margin of the Wrangellia composite terrane, prompting development of an intraoceanic arc and backarc basin on top of the terrane. (3) A narrow thrust belt and retroarc foreland basin formed along the inboard margin of the arc during the latest Jurassic. The foreland basin and arc were subsequently folded, uplifted, and eroded during the latest Jurassic–Early Cretaceous as recorded by an angular unconformity and isotopic ages from clasts in conglomerate. Regional deformation of the foreland-basin strata, shortening and uplift of the Wrangellia composite terrane, and uplift and erosion of the Middle to Late Jurassic arc are interpreted to represent the initial collision between the terrane and the continental margin of western North America. (4) Following regional deformation, a new volcanic arc was constructed inboard (northward) of the Wrangell Mountains basin. Upper Lower to Upper Cretaceous siliciclastic strata were deposited by shallow- to deep-marine deposystems in a continental-margin forearc basin. Distributions of lithofacies types and formation-thickness changes across intrabasinal normal faults document synextensional deposition. (5) The final stage of basin development was characterized by shortening and coarse-grained sedimentation along a fault system that separated the trenchward (southern) margin of the forearc basin from the subduction complex. (6) The Wrangell Mountains basin arrived at its current position by northward translation along orogen-parallel strike-slip fault systems. Comparison of the sedimentary record of the Wrangell Mountains basin, located on the outboard margin of the Wrangellia composite terrane, with the sedimentary record of the Nutzotin basin, located along the inboard margin of the terrane, demonstrates distinct changes in the locations of depocenters, the timing of deformation, and the composition of sediment. Similar stratigraphic and structural variations characterize outboard and inboard segments of the Wrangellia composite terrane in southeastern Alaska and coastal British Columbia.
Learning consensus in adversarial environments

This work presents a game theory-based consensus problem for leaderless multi-agent systems in the presence of adversarial inputs that are introducing disturbance to the dynamics. Given the presence of enemy components and the possibility of malicious cyber attacks compromising the security of networked teams, a position agreement must be reached by the networked mobile team based on environmental changes. The problem is addressed under a distributed decision making framework that is robust to possible cyber attacks, which has an advantage over centralized decision making in the sense that a decision maker is not required to access information from all the other decision makers. The proposed framework derives three tuning laws for every agent; one associated with the cost, one associated with the controller, and one with the adversarial input.
Monoacylglycerols alter the lipid composition and molecular mobility of phosphatidylcholine bilayers: 13C NMR evidence of dynamic lipid remodeling.

The physical effects of monoacylglycerols (MAG) in small unilamellar vesicles composed of phosphatidyl- choline (PC), triolein, cholesterol, and varying amounts of monopalmitin and monoolein were studied by 13C-NMR. The signal to noise ratio of the carbonyls of PC and triolein were enhanced by the addition of 1,2di-( 1-W)palmitoylphospha- tidylcholine and tri-( 1-W)oleoylglycerol. The linewidths of the carbonyl- 42, choline methyl, olefinic carbon, and termi- nal methyl resonances were measured digitally from vesicles with 0 to 42 mol % of MAG. Significant increases in the linewidth of carbonyl (P < 0.05), olefinic and terminal methyl carbons (P < 0.01) of vesicles containing 42 mol % mo- nopalmitin indicated that these groups experienced re- stricted molecular mobility at high monopalmitin concentra- tions. However, more striking was the apparent displacement of triolein from the surface environment of PC bilayers to an oil-like environment in systems containing only 8 mol % monopalmitin. Displacement of triolein from the surface by monoolein occurred only above 15 mol %. Thus, saturated and monounsaturated monoacylglycerols, natural products of lipoprotein metabolism, dynamically alter both the lipid composition and molecular mobility of lipoprotein surfaces in distinct ways.-Boyle, E., D. M. Small, D. Gantz, J. A. Hamilton, and J. B. German. Monoacylglycerols alter the lipid composition and molecular mobility of phosphatidyl- choline bilayers: I3C NMR evidence of dynamic lipid remod- eling. J. Lipid Res. 1996. 37: 764-772. Monoacylglycerols (MAG) are major intermediates in fat metabolism. 2-Monoacylglycerols (BMAG), along with fatty acids, are produced by acyl position-specific triacylglycerol hydrolases during both the absorption of fat and the metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoprotein particles. The primary form of dietary fat, triglyceride, is hydrolyzed at the 1- and 3-ester linkages of the glycerol backbone to yield fatty acids and 2-MAG by a combina- tion of gastric and pancreatic lipases (reviewed in ref. 1). Diglycerides are also substrates for the hydrolases, and the end products of lipolysis are 2-MAG and fatty acids. During fat absorption, most of the 2-MAG pro- duced are subsequently used as substrates for the resyn- thesis of triglyceride (2). The resynthesis takes place in the enterocytes, where the triglyceride is then packaged into chylomicra for transport to the circulatory system
Home Country Taxation and the Theory of International Production

This paper addresses the taxation of foreign source income from the perspective of a multinational firm. It demonstrates how differences in home country fiscal regimes of multinational firms can lead to variations in the cost of transferring cash resources across the borders of national jurisdictions. In the framework of international production theory, it shows how the home country fiscal regime can be a source of ownership advantage when the firm creates an appropriate network of assets, liabilities and equity. Taxation is the link between some financial decisions to the theory of international production. Observations are taken from the tax calculations of three hypothetical multinational firms.
Fine-grained 3-D integrated circuit fabric using vertical nanowires

Continuous scaling of CMOS to sub-20nm technologies is proving to be challenging as MOSFETs are reaching fundamental limits and interconnection bottleneck is dominating IC power and performance. Migrating to fine-grained 3-D, to advance scaling, has been elusive due to incompatibility of CMOS in 3-D. We propose a new 3-D IC fabric, called Skybridge that addresses device, circuit, connectivity, heat management and manufacturing requirements in integrated 3D compatible manner. Our bottom-up evaluations accounting for material structures, manufacturing process, device, and circuit parasitics, reveal 60.5x density, and 16.5x performance/Watts benefits compared to CMOS for a 16-bit CLA. Experimental demonstration of the core device concept and key manufacturing steps mitigate technology risks.
Stabilisation of time-varying infinite delay control systems

Sufficient conditions are obtained for absolute stability of systems that are described by Lurie-type functional differential equations. It is assumed that the uncontrolled systems are unstable. The problem of Lurie consists of finding conditions for the feedback coefficients, and characterising the feedback function which make the trivial solutions of the functional differential equation stable. We assume that the system is completely controllable. The method is based on the use of Lyapunov functionals. A set of ‘easily verifiable’ sufficient conditions on the roots of certain ‘quasi-polynomial’ have been obtained. Systems of this kind are used for modelling a variety of control processes, including processes in biological systems.
Selectivity of liquid membrane ion-selective electrodes

The current status of describing the selectivity of liquid membrane ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) is reviewed. For ISEs that show Nernstian response toward all measured ions, the mixed ion response can often be described rigorously by a newly developed model that establishes required Nikolskii coefficients for a given target application. For ions of different charge, these obtained values are significantly different than predicted using the traditional Nikolskii–Eisenman equation. In contrast, for ISEs that show non-Nernstian responses toward highly discriminated ions, two different procedures are recommended, depending on the scope of the experiment. Selectivities obtained with the so-called matched potential method yield information about the apparent selectivity behavior of ISEs in real-world samples, irrespective of theoretical expectations, but can, for the very same reason, generally not be used to predict the empirical selectivity for different analytical situations. On the other hand, experimental procedures are presented that allow for the determination of fundamental Nikolskii coefficients of such membranes, i.e., Nernstian slopes can now often be obtained by carefully adjusting the experimental conditions. Such values more closely reflect the ion extraction behavior of the membrane and can be used for characterization and optimization purposes. Each of the procedures has its validity and the respective values should preferably be reported simultaneously.
Design and Operation of a Pressure-Controlled Inlet for Airborne Sampling with an Aerodynamic Aerosol Lens

Two pressure-controlled inlets (PCI) have been designed and integrated into the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) inlet system containing an aerodynamic aerosol lens system for use in airborne measurements. Laboratory experiments show that size calibration and mass flow rate into the AMS are not affected by changes in upstream pressure (P 0 ) of the PCI as long as the pressure within the PCI chamber (P PCI ) is controlled to values lower than P 0 . Numerous experiments were conducted at different P PCI , P 0 , and AMS lens pressures (P Lens ) to determine particle transmission efficiency into the AMS. Based on the results, optimum operating conditions were selected which allow for constant pressure sampling with close to 100% transmission efficiency of particles in the size range of ∼ 100–700 nm vacuum aerodynamic diameter (d va ) at altitudes up to ∼ 6.5 km. Data from an airborne field study are presented for illustration.
The Irish Constitution

The Constitution of the Irish Free State is the result of a political drama extending over a period of eight years. From the Ulster Rebellion and the Home Rule Act of 1914, the action has been tense and almost continuous. The threats and concessions of that time played into the hands of the radical Sinn Fein, and with the Easter Rebellion of 1916 it became evident that the issue was no longer one of home rule but of independence. The government at London, however, did not realize this until once more the traditional methods of settlement had been tried.
Acoustic Wave Microsensor Array for Tactile Sensing

Tactile perception is a critical requirement for surgery procedures such as minimally invasive surgery (MIS). In this study, an acoustic wave tactile sensor array for force and shear modulus sensing was investigated. This device can sense the magnitude of the applied force change and the tissue’s shear modulus change by means of detecting an electrical impedance change. The 6×6 array with a pitch of 1.3 mm was fabricated using a face-shear mode PMN-PT piezoelectric resonator which is highly sensitive to acoustic impedance load. External forces (0–5 N) were applied to the sensor and the electric impedance shift was measured. The sensitivity was found to be 56.87 Ohm/N. Imaging test results for different force and load stiffnesses were also obtained. The proposed tactile sensing technique is also favorable for a number of other biomedical applications including haptic sensors for the robotic surgery and artificial skin or fingers.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
MAGNETICALLY DAMPED THERMOCAPILLARY CONVECTIONS IN FLUID LAYERS IN MICROGRAVITY

In a former work, we employed linear stability theory to calculate the critical conditions for the onset of unsteady, periodic thermocapillary convection from a steady recirculating base state in electrically conducting fluid layers as a function of magnetic flux density. In that study, we only considered one Prandtl number as a representative case for all semiconductors. Here we extend that study by examining how the Marangoni number, wave number and frequency of the critical disturbance depend on Prandtl number at different magnetic flux densities. This study is related to floating-zone semiconductor crystal growth in a strong magnetic field. Periodic thermocapillary convections in the floating-zone melt lead to periodic growth speeds of the single crystal, in turn causing the characteristic periodic dopant striations. We present calculations of the frequency of the critical disturbance for properties of silicon and compare those calculations with experimental striation frequencies in a crystal grown by floating zone in a magnetic field.
Fully Synthetic Self-Adjuvanting α-2,9-Oligosialic Acid Based Conjugate Vaccines against Group C Meningitis

α-2,9-Polysialic acid is an important capsular polysaccharide expressed by serotype C Neisseria meningitidis. Its protein conjugates are current vaccines against group C meningitis. To address some concerns about traditional protein conjugate vaccines, a new type of fully synthetic vaccines composed of oligosialic acids and glycolipids was explored. In this regard, α-2,9-linked di-, tri-, tetra-, and pentasialic acids were prepared and conjugated with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA). Immunological studies of the conjugates in C57BL/6J mouse revealed that they alone elicited robust immune responses comparable to that induced by corresponding protein conjugates plus adjuvant, suggesting the self-adjuvanting properties of MPLA conjugates. The elicited antibodies were mainly IgG2b and IgG2c, suggesting T cell dependent immunities. The antisera had strong and specific binding to α-2,9-oligosialic acids and to group C meningococcal polysaccharide and cell, indicating the ability of antibodies to selectively target the bacteria. The antisera also mediated strong bactericidal activities. Structure-activity relationship analysis of the MPLA conjugates also revealed that the immunogenicity of oligosialic acids decreased with elongated sugar chain, but all tested MPLA conjugates elicited robust immune responses. It is concluded that tri- and tetrasialic acid-MPLA conjugates are worthy of further investigation as the first fully synthetic and self-adjuvanting vaccines against group C meningitis.
Abstract A067: Quality of initial activation of CD8 T cells specific for TRP1 determines long-term antitumor immunity

We used somatic cell nuclear transfer to generate two independent lines of transnuclear mice from CD8 T cells recognizing the endogenous melanoma antigen TRP1. These two lines, while having the same specificity, differ by 100 fold in their affinity for antigen. We previously reported that activated CD8 T cells from either TRP1high or TRP1low mouse lines have anti-tumor activity in vitro and can slow the progression of B16 melanoma in vivo to similar extents, suggesting that TCR affinity is not necessarily correlated with anti-tumor function. Here we first analyzed the mechanism of tumor control in our TRP1 model. In tumor-bearing mice receiving activated TRP1 cells by adoptive transfer, we examined tumor infiltrates and found 1) an increase in the CD8:Foxp3 ratio; 2) a decrease in myeloid suppressor cells; and 3) greatly increased expression of MHC class I and class II expression by the B16 tumor cells. B16 cells upregulate MHC expression in vitro in response to IFNγ; thus, we hypothesize that MHC expression on B16 cells in mice receiving TRP1 adoptive cell therapy is a signature of IFNγ production in the tumor. We further used a panel of altered peptide ligands to extend the range of TCR activation potentials in our TRP1 model. One ligand, K8, binds poorly to MHC class I yet stimulates robust proliferation, cytotoxicity and cytokine production from both TRP1high and TRP1low cells. Interestingly, K8-activated TRP1high and TRP1low cells fail to upregulate PD-1 expression. When adoptively transferred into tumor-bearing mice, K8-activated TRP1 cells delayed tumor growth to a similar extent as TRP1 cells activated by the reference peptide, yet mice receiving K8-activated cells had an increased chance of developing long-term memory. We show TRP1 tetramer+ CD44+ CD8+ T cells in K8-treated mice that survived both primary and secondary challenge with B16. Transcriptional profiling of K8 versus reference peptide activated TRP1 cells reveals a transcriptional program associated with anti-tumor immunity. Citation Format: Paul Tyler, Mariah Servos, Stephanie K. Dougan. Quality of initial activation of CD8 T cells specific for TRP1 determines long-term antitumor immunity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A067.
Paradigms lost: the persisting search for community in U.S. health policy.

Local communities have long played an important role in health and social policy in the United States. But the concept of community was strangely absent from the federal debate on health care reform in 1993 and 1994. I attribute this absence to the paradoxical nature of community as a frame for guiding policy making. The concept of community has broad appeal across the ideological spectrum, but this breadth masks a set of long-standing and powerful tensions that determine when communities are seen as appropriately given responsibility for addressing societal problems. This article reviews the historical evolution of the role of community in health policy, highlighting the ways in which various tensions emerged. It applies these perspectives to an analysis of the attitudes of the U.S. public and congressional staff in 1995. Data from two surveys demonstrate that support for community-based reforms is much lower for medical care than for other social needs, including some health-related concerns such as long-term care and the treatment of substance abuse. Statistical analyses suggest several possible explanations for the lower support for community-based medical care. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for future communitarian strategies designed to improve U.S. medicine or social policy.
Neuropsychology and the neurochemical lesion: evolution, applications and extensions.

The evolution of neuropsychology into a method for neurotoxic damage detection is reviewed. When neuropsychology is transformed into "neuropsychological toxicology", fundamental philosophical assumptions of the field are altered; the search for brain-behavior relationships must extend from structural damage into the analysis of neurochemical systems. The complementary relationship of human neuropsychology to basic toxicological and animal research is discussed. The great numbers of human "natural experiments" whose employment, medical history or substance abuse subjects them to contact with neurotoxic substances, suggest that there is a great need for expanded human investigations involving neuropsychological testing procedures in the service of research and clinical identification of neurotoxic syndromes. Further, it is argued that neurobehavioral procedures originally developed to detect industrial neurotoxic exposure will prove additionally useful assessing other brain-behavior disruptions mediated by neurochemistry or neurotoxicity rather than structural lesion. These frontiers include physical or emotional illness, substance abuse, effects of abused or prescription drugs as well as little-researched areas deserving of closer study, e.g., allergens or biotoxic exposure.
Congenital Anomalies and Abnormal Pubertal Development

Primary amenorrhea in girls is a frequent cause for referrals to the endocrinologist or gynecologist. History and physical examination provide important data regarding the chronicity of other pubertal milestones. Laboratory determinations contribute to understanding the hormonal milieu of the individual. Imaging studies can augment the physical findings and offer a clearer understanding of the internal reproductive organs. Pelvic imaging is specifically valuable in distinguishing idiopathic or functional causes of primary amenorrhea from structural causes. Genetic testing may be useful as an adjunct to understanding structural defects associated with disorders of sex development. Congenital anomalies account for a significant number of cases of primary amenorrhea and must be considered in the differential diagnosis, particularly in girls presenting with otherwise normal pubertal progression. This chapter will provide a case-based approach to appreciate the complexities of primary amenorrhea associated with congenital anomalies of the reproductive tract.
Vapor Shield Models for Fusion Reactors Plasma-Facing Components

Radiant heat flux is a dominant mechanism by which energy transfers from the high-temperature core plasma to the interior critical components of the fusion reactor, which result in surface ablation and sever damage to the components. A vapor layer develops at the surface and provides a self-shielding mechanism at the plasma-material interface. Two models for the energy transmission factor through the boundary layer were developed and incorporated in the electrothermal plasma capillary code to predict the effectiveness of these models in surface self-protection. The electrothermal plasma capillary discharge simulates the typical conditions of fusion reactors disruption and quench phase and has been shown to be an adequate technique to evaluate the erosion of plasma-facing component. First model treats the radiant heat transport as it is affected by the variation of the plasma opacity, in which the vapor shield efficiency depends on the plasma optical thickness and the mean plasma opacity. The second model defines the vapor shield by the ratio of the energy reaching the surface to the total radiant energy emitted by the plasma with the inclusion of the plasma kinetic energy. The code can predict the axial and temporal variation of the transmission factor at each time step and mesh point, and predicts the plasma parameters with the effectiveness of the vapor shield at the boundary layer. The code prediction with implementation of both models has been used to compare the results with earlier ones and with some experimental data. Code results are in good correlation with experimentally measured ablation data.
Effects of reduced tillage and fertilizer application method on plant growth, yield, and soil health in organic bell pepper production

Abstract Concerns over soil erosion and nitrate leaching have generated interest in cover crop-based reduced tillage systems. A 2-year field study was conducted in Ames, IA in 2013–14 and 2014–15 to compare cover crop-based no tillage (NT) and strip tillage (ST) with conventional tillage (CT) in production of organic bell pepper ( Capsicum annuum L.). Two fertility treatments – preplant fertilizer only, or application split between preplant and post-planting fertigation – which applied the same amount of total N (90 kg ha −1 ), were also evaluated. The experimental design was a split plot randomized complete block design with tillage as the whole plot (NT, ST, or CT) and fertility as the subplot treatment (preplant or split). A mixture of cereal rye and hairy vetch was seeded in September 2013 and September 2014 in all plots. The cover crop was terminated in mid-May using tillage in CT plots and in early June using a roller-crimper in NT and ST plots. Data were collected on plant growth, yield, soil temperature and moisture, weed suppression, nitrate leaching, and microbial biomass and diversity. Marketable yields were equal among tillage treatments in 2014, but higher for CT in 2015, with no difference between NT and ST. Preplant fertility increased yield in 2014, but yields were lower in the preplant fertility treatment in 2015. Leaf N concentration was higher in CT than NT and ST, but plant height, stem diameter, and dry weight were similar across all treatments. Soil temperature was generally highest for CT and higher in ST than NT in one out of three instances. Soil moisture was unaffected by tillage in 2014, but was higher under NT and ST from June to late-August in 2015. The rolled cover crop mulch in NT and ST plots effectively suppressed annual weeds during period between planting and the first weeding event, reducing weed biomass and density compared to CT. Nitrate-N concentration in leachate was reduced under NT and ST only during early sampling dates in 2014. Soil microbial biomass and diversity were similar among tillage treatments on most sampling dates, but consistently higher in the 0–7.5-cm than the 7.5–15-cm soil profile. Results indicate the potential for NT and ST yields to be comparable to CT, but temperature and nitrogen may limit yield under some circumstances. Though observed only periodically in this study, benefits of cover crops and reduced tillage to soil health and water quality make organic NT and ST systems promising in addressing current environmental concerns in agriculture.
Mechanistic assessments of NO oxidation turnover rates and active site densities on WO3-promoted CeO2 catalysts

Abstract The effects of NO, NO 2 and O 2 pressures on NO oxidation rates and UV-visible spectra are used here to assess the elementary steps and the number and type of redox-active sites involved in NO oxidation on CeO 2 promoted by contact with WO 3 domains. The reversible chemisorption of O 2 on vacancies ( ∗ ) and the subsequent dissociation of O 2 ∗ assisted by NO to form O ∗ and NO 2 are the kinetically-relevant steps on surfaces with O ∗ coverage set by NO−NO 2 equilibration. O 2 p → Ce 4 f ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) bands probe the rate constants for O 2 ∗ formation and desorption at catalytic conditions; their comparison with those derived from rate data confirms the mechanistic conclusions and the involvement of CeO 2 surfaces promoted by contact with WO 3 domains. These data allow an accurate assessment of the number and type of redox-active sites, thus allowing reactivity comparisons among catalysts based on turnover rates. The number of redox-active sites increased with increasing W surface density (2.1–9.5 W/nm 2 ), but NO oxidation turnover rates were essentially unchanged. These elementary steps and active structures differ markedly from those that mediate NO oxidation on Pt, PdO, RhO 2 and Co 3 O 4 catalysts. Turnover rates are similar on WO 3 /CeO 2 and Pt-based catalysts at practical temperatures of diesel exhaust treatment (∼500 K), but WO 3 /CeO 2 catalysts exhibit much higher rates based on catalyst mass (>10-fold), thus rendering useful as less costly and more resilient alternatives to noble metals. These findings illustrate a method to probe the number and type of redox-active sites and conceptual insights into the pathways that mediate the chemisorption and activation of O 2 by isolated vacancies and the subsequent dissociation of O O bonds by assistance from co-reactants.
Advances in ground modification with chemical additives: From theory to practice

Abstract This keynote paper describes recent advances in chemical stabilization with a particular focus on applications related to transportation infrastructure. Chemical stabilization advances ranging from stabilization design guidelines with incorporation of fundamental soil chemistry principles to novel chemical additives for future stabilization are covered. This paper focuses on chemical treatments of shallow to moderate subgrade depths for supporting transportation pavement infrastructure. A background summary of stabilization methods along with modifications to the current design practices is presented. This section is followed by a comprehensive experimental program on chemical treatments of expansive subsoils. Both clay mineralogy influence and durability issues are fully addressed. Stabilization leachate studies and their implication in relation to real field performance are also addressed. The final outcome of this research is a more comprehensive stabilization methodology that addresses soil types and performance based testing methodologies. The last two sections cover a brief summary of new treatments of immense interest to addressing sustainable elements in ground improvement practices.
Slanted Allusions: Marilyn Chin and Russell C. Leong

SLANTED ALLUSIONS charts how Marilyn Chin and Russell Leong deploy Chinese allusions to defy Chinese and American social mores. Disagreeing with scholars who consider Chinese references in Asian American literature inescapably Orientalist and with critics who advocate a wholesale reclamation of an Asian tradition, I track how these two poets retool indigenous expressions to convey two-way critiques. Chin turns a Tang poem into a feminist parable and transmutes traditional sites of female confinement into a creative room of one’s own. Leong spins a homophobic slur into a transnational term of compassion and turns an exotic proverb inscribed in the Huntington Library's Chinese garden into a testimonial about the exploitation of transpacific migrant laborers. The two poets reprise the wen-wu dyad—fighting through writing.
The “Paradoxical” Response of Schizophrenics to Sensory Deprivation: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation

Sensory deprivation appears to induce regression in “nonnal individuals,” and progression in schizophrenics. Psychoanalytic theory is used to explain the behaviors of schizophrenics following an experience void of sensory stimulation. Concepts and principles that can account for the regressive behavior of normals were utilized and found to be adequate and appropriate in explaining the integrative behaviors of schizophrenics to similar situations.
A vision for incorporating environmental effects into nitrogen management decision support tools for U.S. maize production

Meeting crop nitrogen (N) demand while minimizing N losses to the environment has proven difficult despite significant field research and modeling efforts. To improve N management, several real-time N management tools have been developed with a primary focus on enhancing crop production. However, no coordinated effort exists to simultaneously address sustainability concerns related to N losses at field- and regional-scales. In this perspective, we highlight the opportunity for incorporating environmental effects into N management decision support tools for U.S. maize production systems by integrating publicly available crop models with grower-entered management information and gridded soil and climate data in a geospatial framework specifically designed to quantify environmental and crop production tradeoffs. To facilitate advances in this area, we assess the capability of existing crop models to provide in-season N recommendations while estimating N leaching and nitrous oxide emissions, discuss several considerations for initial framework development, and highlight important challenges related to improving the accuracy of crop model predictions. Such a framework would benefit the development of regional sustainable intensification strategies by enabling the identification of N loss hotspots which could be used to implement spatially-explicit mitigation efforts in relation to current environmental quality goals and real-time weather conditions. Nevertheless, we argue that this long-term vision can only be realized by leveraging a variety of existing research efforts to overcome challenges in improving model structure, accessing field data to enhance model performance, and addressing the numerous social difficulties in delivery and adoption of such tool by stakeholders.
Quantitative Missense Variant Effect Prediction Using Large-Scale Mutagenesis Data

Large datasets describing the quantitative effects of mutations on protein function are becoming increasingly available. Here, we leverage these datasets to develop Envision, which predicts the magnitude of a missense variant's molecular effect. Envision combines 21,026 variant effect measurements from nine large-scale experimental mutagenesis datasets, a hitherto untapped training resource, with a supervised, stochastic gradient boosting learning algorithm. Envision outperforms other missense variant effect predictors both on large-scale mutagenesis data and on an independent test dataset comprising 2,312 TP53 variants whose effects were measured using a low-throughput approach. This dataset was never used for hyperparameter tuning or model training and thus serves as an independent validation set. Envision prediction accuracy is also more consistent across amino acids than other predictors. Finally, we demonstrate that Envision's performance improves as more large-scale mutagenesis data are incorporated. We precompute Envision predictions for every possible single amino acid variant in human, mouse, frog, zebrafish, fruit fly, worm, and yeast proteomes (https://envision.gs.washington.edu/).
Exposure Science: Ingestion

Ingestion exposure is the primary route for many agents, both chemical and biological. This article describes the characteristics of dietary and nondietary ingestion exposure and the importance of ingestion as a route of exposure for susceptible populations. A range of current methods used for measuring or developing estimates of dietary and nondietary ingestion exposure are identified and their strengths and weaknesses discussed. Much of the research on ingestion exposure has focused on children as a susceptible population and on metals and pesticides as the agents of concern. Areas where further research is needed include understanding ingestion exposure to other segments of the population and for other agents. Means for reducing exposure through the ingestion routes based on the current literature include education about improved hygiene practices and improved awareness of the sources of hazards in the environment that can be ingested.
Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning activates ribosomal protein S6 kinases and reduces brain swelling after intracerebral hemorrhage.

Background New protein synthesis is key to ischemic tolerance induced by preconditioning and ribosomal protein S6 kinases (p70 S6 K) are important enzymes in protein synthesis. Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning (HBOP) reduces ischemic brain damage. This study investigated if HBOP can activate p70 S6 K and increase new protein synthesis and if HBOP induces brain tolerance against brain swelling after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Methods There were two parts of the studies. 1) Rats received five consecutive sessions of HBOP. Twenty-four hours after HBOP, the rats had an ICH and were sacrificed one or three days later for brain edema measurement. 2) Rats received five sessions of HBOP or control pretreatment and were sacrificed for Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry of activated p70 S6 K and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Findings Five sessions of HBOP significantly reduced brain edema in the ipsilateral basal ganglia after ICH. Western blot analysis showed that HBOP activated p70 S6 K and increased HO-1 levels in the basal ganglia. Strong activated p70 S6 K immunoreactivity was also found in the basal ganglia. Conclusions Our results suggest activation of p70 S6 K may have a role in heat shock protein synthesis after HBOP and may contribute to HBOP-induced brain protection.
Intra-aortic Balloon Pumping and Other Circulatory Assist Devices

In the past two decades, there has been significant progress in the development of devices to assist the circulation of patients with heart failure. The concept of counterpulsation was first reported in 1961 (18). Counterpulsation with an intra-aortic balloon, rather than withdrawal and reinjection of blood, proved to be an effective method of increasing aortic diastolic pressure and is now in widespread use. An implantable chronic assist device was first reported in 1966 (39), but these devices remain experimental stages and have limited use.
Food habits, occurrence, and population structure of the bat ray, Myliobatis californica, in Humboldt Bay, California

The bat ray, Myliobatis californica, is the most common, large predatory fish in Humboldt Bay, California. To prevent bat ray predation on cultured oyster beds, much effort has focused on reducing their population. A 13 month study was conducted in Humboldt Bay to examine the rays' use of the bay, population structure, and feeding ecology. Bat rays are seasonally found in Humboldt Bay during the spring, summer, and early fall months. Adult rays were most abundant during the summer months, while numbers of juveniles increased through the summer and early fall, indicating that Humboldt Bay is an important pupping and nursery ground. Very few rays were found in the bay during the colder months of the year. This decline in abundance is attributed to cooler water temperatures (< 10° C). The stomach contents from 503 bat rays were examined. Overall, clams were the predominant prey item. The index of importance and Shannon-Weiner diversity index indicated that food habits of bat rays change with increasing size. Larger prey items and a wider variety of prey items were consumed as rays increased in size. Dietary importance of small clams and Crangon shrimp decreased with increasing ray size, while the importance of larger prey items (e.g. large clams, Cancer crabs, blue mud shrimp, echiuran worms) increased. Predation on oysters was rare. Differences between the diets of male and female rays of similar sizes were also observed.
Associating Microarray Data with a Survival Endpoint

In many microarray studies the primary objective is to identify, from a large panel of genes, those which are prognostic markers of a censored survival endpoint such as time to disease recurrence or death. These genes are considered prognostic in that their respective expressions are associated, in an appropriate sense, with the survival endpoint of interest. From a practical point of view, this requires not only specifying a appropriate measure of association and a suitable statistic thereof, but also, as the number of genes is large, proper handling of the consequential issue of multiplicity. In this paper, we will address the aforementioned issues by utilizing a general correlation measure and a non-parametric statistic, and by controlling the family-wise error rate by employing permutation resampling. Comprehensive simulation studies are conducted to investigate the statistical properties of the proposed procedure. The proposed procedure is demonstrated with microarray data.
Medication costs associated with early initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

The START Study randomly assigned 4685 persons with CD4+ counts >500 to either immediate treatment (2326 persons) or a group (2359) that had treatment delayed until the CD4+ count was 500 CD4 counts.
Prediction of Spatial Spectrum in Cognitive Radio using Cellular Simultaneous Recurrent Networks

In cognitive radio networks, it is desirable to determine radio spectrum usage in frequency, time, and spatial domains. Spectrum data improves cognitive radio network planning, sensing, routing, and security. Due to cost concerns, spectrum monitors are deployed sparsely in space, spectrum usage at nearby locations can be modeled for use in these applications. Previous work using neural networks for spatial spectrum prediction involved prior knowledge of transmitter locations as input to the models. In practical scenarios, the prior knowledge is not available. Hence, this work considers prediction of the spatial spectrum without knowing the transmitter location information. The prediction task is achieved by using a specialized recurrent neural network known as Cellular Simultaneous Recurrent Network (CSRN). Our investigation shows the proposed recurrent neural network operates in real-time and is generalized to offer spectrum estimations without further changes to the network, even when a transmitter location is changed. The experiments are conducted in a challenging indoor environment to assess the performance in a practical scenario. Our results suggest the CSRN can learn efficiently to predict signal across an indoor space while transmitters move to different locations. We perform a performance comparison of our proposed technique with an MLP based estimation method. Our analysis further suggests that the CSRN achieves comparable prediction accuracy to that of the MLP based method. The major advantage of the proposed CSRN based method is the ability to perform prediction from new radio configurations without retraining the network, and, hence is more suitable for a real-time practical environment.
National Failure of Surgical Staging for T1b Gallbladder Cancer.

Current guidelines recommend radical cholecystectomy with regional lymphadenectomy (RC-RL) for patients with T1b gallbladder cancer (GBC). However, the extent to which these guidelines are followed is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate current surgical practices for T1b GBC and their implications for overall management strategies and associated outcomes. This retrospective cohort study investigated patients identified from the National Cancer Data Base (2004–2012) with non-metastatic T1b GBC. The patients were categorized according to type of surgical treatment received: simple cholecystectomy (SC) or RC-RL. Among the patients who had lymph nodes pathologically examined, nodal status was classified as pN− or pN+. Use of any adjuvant therapy was ascertained. Overall survival (OS) was compared based on type of surgical treatment and nodal status. The cohort comprised 464 patients (247 SC and 217 RC-RL cases). The positive margin status did not differ between the two groups (6.1% for SC vs 2.3% for RC-RL; p = 0.128). For RC-RL, the pN+ rate was 15%. Adjuvant therapies were used more frequently in pN+ (53.1% vs 9.4% for pN−). By comparison, 10.9% of the SC patients received adjuvant therapy. The OS for RC-RL-pN− (5-years OS, 64.4%) was significantly better than for RC-RL-pN+ (5-years OS, 15.7%) or SC (5-years OS, 48.3%) (p < 0.001). Less than 50% of the patients with a T1b GBC primary tumor undergo the recommended surgical treatment. Given that 15% of these patients have nodal metastasis and in light of the previously described benefits of adjuvant therapy for node positive GBC, failure to perform RC-RL risks incomplete staging and thus undertreatment for patients with T1b GBC.
Clustered SplitsNetworks

We address the problem of constructing phylogenetic networks using two criteria: the number of cycles and the fit value of the network. Traditionally the fit value is the main objective for evaluating phylogenetic networks. However, a small number of cycles in a network is desired and pointed out in several publications. We propose a new phylogenetic network called CS-networkand a method for constructing it. The method is based on the well-known splitstree method. A CS-network contains a face which is k-cycle, k? 3 (not as splitstree). We discuss difficulties of using non-parallelogram faces in splitstree networks. Our method involves clustering and optimization of weights of the network edges. The algorithm for constructing the underlying graph (except the optimization step) has a polynomial time. Experimental results show a good performance of our algorithm.
System Design of a High-Temperature Downhole Transceiver: Part I – Receiver

The paper presents a system level design of a receiver for high-temperature downhole communications. The receiver achieves required specifications necessary to have flexibility between power consumption and performance. The budget analysis considering the minimum system specifications for downhole communication is done. The simulations are performed in AWR design environment software. The simulation results show that the receiver can support a data rate up to 68 Mbps at 250 °C using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation. Detailed simulation results and temperature effects on receiver specifications are included to prove its superior and reliable performance at high temperature using the 2.4 GHz – 2.5 GHz ISM band for the transceiver.
Su Shi and Zhao Lingrang: Brush Ideas of Wang Wei

The poet and painter Wang Wei (699-759) of the Tang dynasty (618-907) "had poetry in his painting and painting in his poetry." With that claim, Su Shi (1037-1101) linked painting with a prestigious literary genre. Although no one believed that painting held a status equal to poetry, eleventh-century appropriations of literary forms and allusions into painting were an important development in the history of Chinese culture. The literary turn elevated painting to an elite art.Connoisseurs of the eleventh and later centuries saw connections to Wang Wei in the paintings of Zhao Lingrang (active 1070-after 1100). Su Shi and Huang Tingjian (1045-1105) encouraged Zhao's efforts. The connoisseur Dong Qichang (1555-1636) of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), after carefully studying Summer Mist along the Lakeshore (Huzhuang qingxia tu 湖莊清夏圖), wrote in a colophon on the handscroll (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) that Zhao's composition thoroughly followed the brush ideas (bi yi 筆意) of Wang Wei.This essay argues that what Su Shi encouraged, what Zhao Lingrang created in Summer Mist, and what Dong Qichang observed was a relationship that transcended mere imitation of brushwork. Zhao's connection to Wang Wei was not stylistic, but rather was a matter of approach: Zhao was working like a literatus, thinking in poetic structures, and expressing his thoughts by painting literary metaphors. Poetic structure will be analyzed as well as three literary tropes: trees, gurgling stream, and the configuration of eight rocks.
Abstract 390: Automating a Cardiac Arrest Registry: Challenges and Opportunities

Introduction: A registry for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests facilitates cardiac arrest research, and emergency medical services (EMS) and community health quality improvement programs. Maintaining...
Online education: Practical, theory-based advice for the instructor

The arrival of the first edition of Online Education: Practical, Theory-Based Advice for the Instructor by Mona Engvig, Ph.D., could not be timelier as emergency remote learning and transitions to ...