cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Relating Retinal Ganglion Cell Function and Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer (RNFL) Retardance to Progressive Loss of RNFL Thickness and Optic Nerve Axons in Experimental Glaucoma

The retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) consists primarily of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons, which progressively degenerate in glaucoma, resulting in thinning and disappearance of axon bundles from the RNFL. Retinal nerve fiber layer defects may represent one of the earliest glaucomatous structural abnormalities manifest in clinical examination of the ocular fundus,1–3 yet such defects can elude detection and are difficult to quantify by clinical examination or flash photography.4,5 Advances in ophthalmic imaging technology such as scanning laser polarimetry (SLP)6,7 and optical coherence tomography (OCT)8 enable finer scrutiny and quantification of RNFL integrity. Indeed, the benefits of these imaging techniques have led to their rapid incorporation into the clinical regimen for glaucoma diagnosis and management, along with standard measures of vision function such as automated perimetry.9–11 However, there are few studies that relate clinical surrogate measures such as RNFL thickness or retardance directly to histological measurements of RNFL thickness,12–14 RGC soma counts,15,16 or optic nerve axon counts.17–19 Therefore the first purpose of the present study was to compare the magnitude of longitudinal change for in vivo measurements of RNFL thickness, retardance, and specific measures of RGC function to the magnitude of RGC axon loss obtained by complete (100%) postmortem counts of each orbital optic nerve in a nonhuman primate (NHP) model of experimental glaucoma (EG). The second purpose of the present study was to perform a cross-sectional analysis of the same longitudinal data in order to compare the relative degree of change measured by each in vivo measure. Specifically, it is thought that RNFL retardance measured by SLP reflects the integrity of axonal cytoskeletal ultrastructure,20–24 which might become disrupted prior to axon loss and bundle thinning and thus represent an important biomarker of early-stage injury.21,25 We have tested this hypothesis previously in two different ways using longitudinal data from NHP EG. In the first of these studies, we found that RNFL retardance alterations measured by SLP and RGC functional loss measured specifically by multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) were present at (or before) the onset of posterior deformation of the optic nerve head (ONH) surface and prior to thinning of the peripapillary RNFL measured by spectral-domain OCT (SDOCT).26 In a subsequent study, we found that the onset of RNFL retardance alterations preceded the onset of RNFL thinning in ∼80% of EG eyes and with a lead time of ∼3 months.27 Here we extend the test of this hypothesis by comparing the magnitude of longitudinal change for RNFL retardance and RGC function to the magnitude of longitudinal RNFL thickness change at the final available time point (when axon counts are also obtained).
Impact of Transportation Changes on Price Structures in City Milk Markets

The sporadic occurrence of price wars in city milk markets since World War II raises the question of underlying causes. This article suggests that these are to be found in the great advances in transportation. The ability to move milk rapidly and cheaply over great distances has made individual cities and their environs less meaningful as separate and distinct markets. Within the city, the use of private cars for shopping has made stores more important in selling milk. As a result, milk distributors within each city can no longer determine prices by themselves. They must reckon with the competition of distantly based milk distributors and they must also share their price‐making powers with retail outlets in the city. Instability of prices is seen as a symptom of a period of transition during which business enterprises are expanded and reorganized to cope with the changed market situation.
Temporary Barriers to Reduce the Effects of Rubbernecking

Driver distraction is an area of research which concerns both public safety and research. Much work has been completed on distractions inside the vehicle; however, distracting scenarios outside of ...
Plugging the ‘Leaky Bucket’ of Early Career Science Teacher Attrition through the Development of Professional Vision

The demand for a qualified, competent, and stable K12 science teaching workforce is being emphasized now more than ever. Widespread dissemination and discussion of reports from the National Academies (Augustine, 2005; Committee & Medicine, 2010), President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technnology (PCAST; Lander & Gates Jr., 2010), and even directly from the White House (Larson, 2012) attest to this fact.
Frequency and Type of Reinstruction Strategies Used by Paraprofessionals and Licensed Teachers in Elementary Physical Education Settings

Unqualified paraprofessionals are teaching many elementary physical education (PE) programs around the United States. These teachers have neither the experience nor the education to provide quality instruction to students. Few researchers have identified the essential nature of teacher feedback in teaching motor skills, and it has been hypothesized teachers with little training may be less likely to give effective feedback to students. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency and type of reinstruction strategies used by paraprofessionals and licensed teachers in elementary PE settings using a modified self-assessment feedback instrument (SAFI). Two licensed PE teachers and two paraprofessionals from the same school district in the western United States were observed four times using the SAFI tool. All 20 lessons were analyzed to understand the differences in the type and frequency of feedback between licensed PE teachers and paraprofessionals. ANOVA results indicate a significant difference between the type and frequency of feedback given by the groups. Overall, licensed teachers most commonly employed a constructive criticism strategy for providing feedback (43.6%), and paraprofessionals primarily engaged in behavior modification (75.1%). Additionally, licensed PE teachers gave more than twice as much feedback as paraprofessionals. These findings make clear the crucial nature of undergraduate PETE programs in providing licensed teachers with the skills and experience necessary to deliver appropriate feedback in elementary PE settings. Policy makers must be aware of the discrepancies between unqualified individuals and specialists to make the best policy decisions for students.
Ultrasound and the Pregnant Patient

Ultrasound is widely used in all medical specialties. There are multiple reasons for the increased use of ultrasound including its ease of use, point-of-care determination, and rapid confirmation of clinical diagnoses. Ultrasound is a valuable tool that can assist in the diagnosis and treatment of obstetric patients for both obstetric and non-obstetric conditions. In this review, we will describe the common applications for point-of-care ultrasound in the perioperative period including intravenous placement and guidance for vascular access, head and neck evaluation (airway exam, difficult airway), lung and chest evaluation (pleural effusions, pneumonia), echocardiography (transthoracic echocardiography and transesophageal echocardiography), evaluation of gastric contents, postoperative pain management (transversus abdominis plane block) and regional anesthesia, neuraxial (spinal and epidural conduction), bladder volume estimation, and trauma evaluation (focused assessment with sonography in trauma) exam for detection of intraperitoneal fluid and hemorrhage.
Unexplored Archaeal Diversity in the Great Ape Gut Microbiome.

ABSTRACT Archaea are habitual residents of the human gut flora but are detected at substantially lower frequencies than bacteria. Previous studies have indicated that each human harbors very few archaeal species. However, the low diversity of human-associated archaea that has been detected could be due to the preponderance of bacteria in these communities, such that relatively few sequences are classified as Archaea even when microbiomes are sampled deeply. Moreover, the universal prokaryotic primer pair typically used to interrogate microbial diversity has low specificity to the archaeal domain, potentially leaving vast amounts of diversity unobserved. As a result, the prevalence, diversity, and distribution of archaea may be substantially underestimated. Here we evaluate archaeal diversity in gut microbiomes using an approach that targets virtually all known members of this domain. Comparing microbiomes across five great ape species allowed us to examine the dynamics of archaeal lineages over evolutionary time scales. These analyses revealed hundreds of gut-associated archaeal lineages, indicating that upwards of 90% of the archaeal diversity in the human and great ape gut microbiomes has been overlooked. Additionally, these results indicate a progressive reduction in archaeal diversity in the human lineage, paralleling the decline reported for bacteria. IMPORTANCE Our findings show that Archaea are a habitual and vital component of human and great ape gut microbiomes but are largely ignored on account of the failure of previous studies to realize their full diversity. Here we report unprecedented levels of archaeal diversity in great ape gut microbiomes, exceeding that detected by conventional 16S rRNA gene surveys. Paralleling what has been reported for bacteria, there is a vast reduction of archaeal diversity in humans. Our study demonstrates that archaeal diversity in the great ape gut microbiome greatly exceeds that reported previously and provides the basis for further studies on the role of archaea in the gut microbiome.
CHAPTER IX – Linearity Analysis

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses linearity analysis, the major objective of which is to characterize the sensor transfer function. A remote target can be characterized in four nearly independent domains—spatial, spectral, temporal, and polarization. It therefore follows that the calibration must characterize the sensor responsivity in these four domains. The responsivity of a spectroradiometer is a multivariable functional relationship between the incident flux and the instrument output. All the relative terms are defined on the basis of a linear response. Thus, where each of these terms is evaluated theoretically or experimentally, it is assumed that the sensor output signal is linearly related to input flux. It is necessary to linearize the data before evaluating the terms. Many detector–preamplifier systems tend to be nonlinear over part of the useful dynamic range. Also, various nonlinear schemes are occasionally used to extend the dynamic range of systems. It is the shape of the transfer function that must be obtained, rather than its absolute value. It is very convenient to model the relative transfer function as a mathematical equation that describes the entire dynamic range of the sensor output. The absolute transfer function differs from the relative transfer function by a constant. The chapter also discusses the problems that arise in the interpretation of transfer function data.
Hypergeometric Identities Associated with Statistics on Words

We show how combinatorial arguments involving a variety of statistics on words can produce nontrivial identities between hypergeometric series in two variables. We establish relationships to the Rogers-Fine identity, Heine’s second transformation, and mock theta functions. Finally, we show that any hypergeometric series of a certain form can be interpreted in terms of generalized statistics on words.
Paleocene Wilcox cross-shelf channel-belt history and shelf-margin growth: Key to Gulf of Mexico sediment delivery

Abstract Shelf margins prograde and aggrade by the incremental addition of deltaic sediments supplied from river channel belts and by stored shoreline sediment. This paper documents the shelf-edge trajectory and coeval channel belts for a segment of Paleocene Lower Wilcox Group in the northern Gulf of Mexico based on ~ 400 wireline logs and ~ 300 m of whole cores. By quantitatively analyzing these data and comparing them with global databases, we demonstrate how varying sediment supply impacted the Wilcox shelf-margin growth and deep-water sediment dispersal under greenhouse eustatic conditions. The coastal plain to marine topset and uppermost continental slope succession of the Lower Wilcox shelf-margin sediment prism is divided into eighteen high-frequency (~ 300 ky duration) stratigraphic sequences, and further grouped into 5 sequence sets (labeled as A-E from bottom to top). Sequence Set A is dominantly muddy slope deposits. The shelf edge of Sequence Sets B and C prograded rapidly (> 10 km/Ma) and aggraded modestly ( 80 m/Ma) characterizes Sequence Sets D and E, which is associated with smaller (9–10 m thick on average) and isolated channel belts. This stratigraphic trend is likely due to an upward decreasing sediment supply indicated by the shelf-edge progradation rate and channel size, as well as an upward increasing shelf accommodation indicated by the shelf-edge aggradation rate. The rapid shelf-edge progradation and large rivers in Sequence Sets B and C confirm earlier suggestions that it was the early phase of Lower Wilcox dispersal that brought the largest deep-water sediment volumes into the Gulf of Mexico. Key factors in this Lower Wilcox stratigraphic trend are likely to have been a very high initial sediment flux to the Gulf because of the high initial release of sediment from Laramide catchments to the north and northwest, possibly aided by modest eustatic sea-level fall on the Texas shelf, which is suggested by the early, flat shelf-edge trajectory, high amalgamation of channel belts, and the low overall aggradation rate of the Sequence Sets B and C.
Nationwide trends in medical expenditures among adults with epilepsy: 2003-2014.

Abstract Objective Healthcare expenditure among adults with epilepsy is high. There is a paucity of published data on trends in the nationwide economic impact of epilepsy. This study examines trends in healthcare expenditures and components in U.S. adults with epilepsy between 2003 and 2014. Methods We analyzed 12 years of data representing a weighted sample of 1,942,413 U.S. adults aged ≥ 18 years with epilepsy using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC), 2003–2014 data. We used a novel two-part model (adjusting for demographic, comorbidity, and time) to estimate the incremental healthcare expenditures by epilepsy status. Pre and post Affordable Care Act era costs were compared. Results Overall unadjusted annual mean medical expenditures for patients with epilepsy was $15,324. Individuals with epilepsy had nearly three times higher overall unadjusted mean expenditure than those without epilepsy ($15,324, 95%CI: 2778–17,871 vs. $5824, 95%CI: 5722–5926). The unadjusted annual mean medical expenditure decreased over time from $17,994 (95% CI $10,754–$25,234) in 2003/2006 to $13,848 (95% CI: $11,371–$16,324) in 2011/2014; a trend driven primarily by a decrease in inpatient expenditures from $5613 to $4113. Having a diagnosis of epilepsy increased health expenditure by $8598 which was 2.5 to 6 times greater than the equivalent incremental health expenditures for other selected comorbidities. Healthcare expenditure among adults with epilepsy was $4083 lower in the post- Affordable Care Act. Conclusion Over the last decade, individuals with epilepsy incurred significantly higher medical expenditures than those without epilepsy, but overall healthcare expenditure decreased over time due to a decrease in inpatient expenditures.
Where are the Women? Legal Traditions and Descriptive Representation on the European Court of Justice

What constrains the representation of women on the European Court of Justice (ECJ)? In this paper, we investigate how gender-based double standards can diminish the likelihood that the member state...
The Underrated Risks of Tamoxifen Drug Interactions

Tamoxifen is a prodrug, and most of the therapeutic effect in treating breast cancer stems from its metabolite, endoxifen. Since cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 is the most important enzyme in the production of endoxifen, drugs that inhibit CYP2D6 would be expected to reduce tamoxifen efficacy. In addition to drug–drug interactions (DDI) involving CYP2D6, there is growing evidence that enzyme inducers can substantially alter the disposition of endoxifen, reducing tamoxifen efficacy. Although the clinical evidence on the impact of CYP2D6 inhibitors on tamoxifen efficacy is mixed, there were serious flaws in many of the studies. Thus, there is a reasonable chance that CYP2D6 inhibitors do in fact inhibit tamoxifen efficacy. Tamoxifen has extraordinarily complex pharmacokinetics, with more than a dozen drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters involved in its disposition. Enzyme inducers may increase the activity of several of these pathways, including phase II enzymes, ABC transporters, and various CYP enzymes other than CYP2D6. Based on current clinical evidence, one could argue that enzyme inducers are potentially more dangerous than CYP2D6 inhibitors in patients taking tamoxifen. Moreover, early evidence suggests that the combination of CYP2D6 inhibitors plus enzyme inducers may produce catastrophic inhibition of tamoxifen efficacy. One could argue that, given the available evidence, an agnostic “wait and see” position on tamoxifen DDI is ethically untenable, and that many women with breast cancer are currently being subjected to an unnecessary risk of cancer recurrence. Specific recommendations to reduce the risk of adverse tamoxifen DDI are offered for consideration.
Aeroelastic problems of Rotorcraft

In this chapter we will examine a number of aeroelastic phenomena associated with helicopters and other rotor or propeller driven aircraft. Certain areas have been selected for treatment to illustrate some significant stability problems which are associated with the design of helicopters. The approach to be followed employs simplified modelling of various problems such that physical insight into the nature of the phenomena can be obtained. In general a complete and precise formulation of many of the problem areas discussed is highly complex and the reader is referred to the literature for these more detailed formulations.
Interconvertible Enzyme Cascades in Metabolic Regulation

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on interconvertible enzyme cascades in metabolic regulation. The cascades involved in the cyclic covalent modification of interconvertible enzymes are fundamentally different from the irreversible, unidirectional cascades of proteolytic enzymes such as are involved in blood coagulation and complement fixation. When triggered by appropriate stimuli, the latter cascades respond in an explosive manner to produce an avalanche of product needed to meet an occasional biological emergency. However, having fulfilled this function, the cascades are terminated abruptly in response to an entirely different set of autoregulatory signals that lead to self-destruction of the catalytic process. In effect, these unidirectional cascades are contingency systems that serve as biological switches that can be turned on or off intermittently to meet emergency situations. In contrast, the covalent modification of an interconvertible enzyme is a dynamic process in which the coupling of two opposing cascades leads to continual cyclic activation and inactivation of the enzyme. Such cascades are more properly designed for controlled amplification of primary stimuli, as is needed in the regulation of key enzymes in metabolism.
Can the cost savings of eliminating urine microscopy in biochemically negative urines be extended to the pediatric population

The authors determined the value of performing urine microscopy on biochemically negative urine specimens in a pediatric population. Four reactions of the Chemstrip-9TM (Biodynamics, Inc., Indianapolis, IN) were used as biochemical indicators, namely, protein, occult blood, leukocyte esterase, and nitrite. Out of 1,016 urine specimens thus studied, 310 were true positive. Eleven specimens reacted biochemically in the absence of significant microscopic findings (false positive), 668 specimens were negative by the Chemstrip-9 and were either negative microscopically or had less than five white blood cells (WBCs) per high power field (HPF) and were considered true negatives. Twenty-seven specimens had negative biochemical indicators, in spite of positive microscopy; of these specimens, only seven had more than ten WBCs per HPF, 17 had five to ten WBCs per HPF, and three had five to ten red blood cells per HPF. The sensitivity of the four parameters for predicting significant microscopy of urinary sediment is 91% and the specificity is 98%. The predictive value of a negative result is 96.1%, and that of a positive result is 96.5%. The authors therefore conclude that urine microscopy is unnecessary in biochemically negative urine specimens from pediatric patients who are asymptomatic for urinary tract disease.
Between a Rock and a Soft Place: Finding Creativity in the Face of Oppression

The essay identifies several ways in which an artist’s identities intersect with the creativity from which artistic expression emerges. It considers the juxtaposition of theories of social construction and those of agency, testing these theories against narratives of artists in South Africa as they dealt with the history of apartheid and its aftermath. The essay begins with a presentation of ideas of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka concerning the process by which the creative forces of the logos of life surface in individual human agents with a double-sidedness of social embeddedness and revolt. The narratives of South African black artists are then investigated for elements of socially constructed historical identities (pre-colonial, colonized, and post-colonialist) and then for traces of individually constructed identities (artist, individual, co-creator of the new South Africa). The investigation uncovers a wide variety of identities, mixed and mobile, rather than finding any one identity predominating.
Multi-agent learning in non-cooperative domains

Motivation Previous work in coordination (Bond & Gasser 1988) on multi-agent systems are specific either to cooperative or non-coperative problem domains. Previous work in learning in multi-agent systems have considered agents operating to solve a cooperative task with explicit information sharing and negotiations (Wei 1993, Tan 1993). In a companion paper (Sen, Sekaran, & Hale 1994) we describe a general purpose system which describes a cooperative domain in which two agents work together on a joint task without explicit sharing of knowledge or information. The focus of this poster is to extend this approach to a non-cooperative domain, where the agents have conflicting goals. The strength of this work lies in the fact that there is no explicit knowledge exchange between the agents and no dependencies on agent relationships.
Fe2MnGe: A hexagonal Heusler analogue

Abstract We synthesized bulk polycrystalline samples of Fe2MnGe using arc-melting and vacuum annealing. Our experimental investigations revealed that Fe2MnGe crystallizes in a hexagonal DO19 phase at room temperature, in analogy with its “parent” compound Fe3Ge. We find a large saturation magnetization, even larger than that predicted for the tetragonal phase, of approximately 5 μ B /f.u. at T = 5 K, with a Curie temperature of Tc∼505 K. The large moment and magnetocrystalline anisotropy, along with the possibility of half-metallicity presents Fe2MnGe as a strong candidate for spin-transfer-torque RAM and other spintronic applications. We do not find evidence for the cubic or tetragonal phases predicted by first-principles theory during these investigations. However, our neutron diffraction investigations were suggestive of a low temperature structural transformation.
Bortezomib overcomes the negative impact of CXCR4 mutations on survival of Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia patients

TO THE EDITOR: Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) is a rare lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma associated with immunoglobulin M monoclonal gammopathy.[1][1] The majority of patients carry the L265P mutation in MYD88,[2][2] whereas 40% of patients carry mutations in CXCR4.[3][3] Mutation status has an
Corbis & Copyright?: Is Bill Gates Trying to Corner the Market on Public Domain Art?

Art has the power to stir our emotions, evoke a physical response, and transport us to a different world. It can inspire and transform us. For all of those precious qualities, the public relies upon knowing that once the artist’s exclusive rights to the artwork elapse, the “art must ultimately belong to us all.” The notion that artwork eventually belongs to the public is paramount because art, like books and music, represents a collective experience that helps define what it means to be human. Thus, once the artist has enjoyed her exclusive rights to that art, it should belong to no one individual, but to everyone. This article argues that Corbis’s copyright claim in its digitized reproductions of public domain art is suspect and concludes by discussing the ramifications for the public domain when Corbis asserts copyright protection for its public domain digital copies. Given the power and influence that Bill Gates and his company Corbis have on the market for public domain art, it behooves the public to be aware of this issue.
Transmission Electron Microscopy Study on Microstructure of Degraded CdTe Mini-Modules

In this paper, we employ transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) to study the structure and chemistry of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar cells with different extents of degradation. The studied regions originate from the same photovoltaic mini-module, which was subjected to one-sun light exposure at a temperature of 100 °C for 400 h to induce light and heat degradation. EDS maps reveal a discontinuous CdS layer and particles rich in O and S but Te-depleted within the CdTe absorber layer after the light and heat stress. These features could act as enhanced recombination centers, resulting in decreased photovoltaic conversion efficiency. Additionally, the most degraded CdTe sample shows a strong accumulation of Na precisely localized in the discontinuous part of the CdS layer. The local Na concentration is determined to be ∼16 at.%. In addition, appreciable Na accumulation is observed at the soda-lime glass/transparent conductive oxide interface in both degraded CdTe solar cells. The microstructure of the baseline CdTe mini-module with no stress was also investigated to demonstrate that the structure difference was caused by the light- and heat-induced degradation, instead of module fabrication. These results highlight the need to control the distribution of Na in fielded CdTe modules to sustain long-term high-power output.
Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, and a World of Surprises

In recent years, progress has been made toward artificial intelligence (AI) creativity, which I define as the production of highly novel, yet appropriate, ideas, problem solutions, or other outputs...
Do Infants in the First Year of Life Expect Equal Resource Allocations

Recent research has provided converging evidence, using multiple tasks, of sensitivity to fairness in the second year of life. In contrast, findings in the first year have been mixed, leaving it unclear whether young infants possess an expectation of fairness. The present research examined the possibility that young infants might expect windfall resources to be divided equally between similar recipients, but might demonstrate this expectation only under very simple conditions. In three violation-of-expectation experiments, 9-month-olds (N = 120) expected an experimenter to divide two cookies equally between two animated puppets (1:1), and they detected a violation when she divided them unfairly instead (2:0). The same positive result was obtained whether the experimenter gave the cookies one by one to the puppets (Experiments 1-2) or first separated them onto placemats and then gave each puppet a placemat (Experiment 3). However, a negative result was obtained when four (as opposed to two) cookies were allocated: Infants looked about equally whether they saw a fair (2:2) or an unfair (3:1) distribution (Experiment 3). A final experiment revealed that 4-month-olds (N = 40) also expected an experimenter to distribute two cookies equally between two animated puppets (Experiment 4). Together, these and various control results support two broad conclusions. First, sensitivity to fairness emerges very early in life, consistent with claims that an abstract expectation of fairness is part of the basic structure of human moral cognition. Second, this expectation can at first be observed only under simple conditions, and speculations are offered as to why this might be the case.
Sovereign Resistance to Federal Immigration Enforcement in State Courthouses

The federal government has maintained its supremacy over the enactment of immigration laws for over a century. Enforcement of those laws, however, is increasingly a matter of cooperative federalism -- or uncooperative, as the case may be. In response to a recent trend of state and local resistance to President Trump’s stepped-up enforcement regime, immigration authorities have a new strategy: Storm the courts. Increasingly, federal immigration agents are targeting state courthouses, typically in plain clothes, without identification and without warrants, to carry out largely civil apprehensions of unauthorized immigrants. This unprecedented practice, in some cases involving unconstitutional tactics, impairs the ability of immigrant litigants, witnesses and their families to seek and pursue justice in state courts. An unusual alliance of district attorneys and Legal Aid lawyers are speaking out and walking out of courts in protest. Activists and scholars together are looking for legal strategies to curb the practice. This article identifies the normative underpinnings of maintaining courthouses as sensitive locations and illuminates the Constitutional claims that states and individuals may explore to resist or restrain federal immigration authorities from state courts.
A Positivity Preserving Moving Mesh Finite Element Method for the Keller–Segel Chemotaxis Model

In this paper, we present an efficient adaptive moving mesh finite element method for the numerical solution of the Keller–Segel chemotaxis model. The mesh points are continuously redistributed by a coordinate transformation defined from the computational domain to the physical domain to concentrate the grid nodes in regions of large solution variations in the physical domain. The Keller–Segel equations are discretized using an implicit-explicit finite element method using piecewise polynomials defined on triangular meshes. The spatial discretization scheme is designed with a positivity preserving property, if the initial solutions of the physical model are positive then the computed solutions stay positive at all time levels. Several numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method for solving Keller–Segel model. The numerical results show that the proposed method can reduce the computational cost while improving the overall accuracy of the computed solutions of the Keller–Segel model.
Critics and Critiques of Scientific Pollyannaism

Throughout the history of the Western sciences, critiques of empiricism and the ideological values that underlie scientific Pollyannaism have been offered. This chapter reviews historical evidence for bias-questioning practices central to Hellenistic and, later, Enlightenment philosophies, as well as the systematic discrediting of eugenic sciences. Contemporary scholarship related to the political and social use of emotions, especially optimism and self control, is noted. The neoliberal values that underlie the scientific and academic “happiness industry” are systematically evaluated.
InAsSb-based heterostructures for infrared light modulation

We demonstrate the strong modulation of the long wave infrared transmission of GaInSb/InAsSb/AlInAsSb heterostructures under carrier injection. This results in the population of states in the conduction band of the narrow-gap layer and changes the absorption and refractive index over a broad wavelength range. At λ = 8.6- μ m, a single-pass intensity modulation depth up to 9% was demonstrated at T = 77 K for a 1-μm–thick InAs0.58Sb0.42 absorber. By modeling the structure, we show that this corresponds to the electron quasi-Fermi level rising up to 30 meV above the conduction band edge. Due to the strong band-to-band absorption, the change in the quasi-Fermi level is accompanied by a modulation of the refractive index by up to 0.06 in the spectral range below the energy gap of the alloy. This change is orders of magnitude greater than what is achievable in conventional electro-optic materials and allows, for example, the external intensity modulation of long-wave infrared laser sources with a high extinction ratio and a nanosecond-scale time response. Low power requirements make it possible to develop arrays of integrated devices for optical beam steering and shaping.
Curing Prejudice through Representative Bureaucracies: Evidence From A Natural Experiment in Israeli Medical Clinics

Representative bureaucracies are associated with economic development, improved organizational performance, and increased institutional trust and cooperation, amongst minorities. Nonetheless, the extent to which such representation shapes majority attitudes towards minorities is unclear. Building on the representative bureaucracy and intergroup contact literatures, I develop a theory of prejudice reduction through bureaucratic representation, which I test with a natural experiment leveraging the random assignment of patients to doctors across 21 medical clinics in Israel. Doing so, I demonstrate that representative bureaucracies which facilitate brief intergroup contact between Arab doctors and Jewish patients can improve majority-group perceptions of minorities. Contact with an Arab doctor reduces Jewish patients’ social distance by approximately a fifth of a standard deviation, and increases Jewish patients’ perceptions about the feasibility of peace by approximately a tenth of a standard deviation. My theory and evidence demonstrate how representative bureaucracies improve intergroup relations through a mechanism of positive intergroup contact.
Re-Reading the Emergence of the Subject English: Disrupting NCTE’s Historiography

This article disrupts dominant narratives of English’s curriculum history in order to draw attention to configurations of knowledge and self-disciplinary practices that have fallen outside of English education’s historiography. It begins with a reading of three histories sanctioned by the National Council of Teachers of English (e.g. Applebee, 1974; Hook, 1979; Lindemann, 2010) in which history has been constituted as celebratory and complicit in maintaining education’s grand narratives. It then draws from the work of Foucault, cultural histories of education, and the new curriculum history to reexamine English education’s first programmatic texts that were published between 1896 and 1912. This analysis examines how the English curriculum was represented as a disciplinary technology that should attune youths’ minds and souls to a range of norms and ideals, foster youths’ capacities for self-governance, and constitute racial and national imaginaries. The goal of the article is to disrupt progressive readings of the field’s history so that scholars and educators might scrutinize ethical and political commitments of the subject English that have been overlooked or obscured by NCTE’s historiography.
A sure way to improve your dictation.

The article explains the merits of dictating notes in the exam room with the patient present, as a way to increase efficiency and improve patient care.
Strategyproof Facility Location Mechanisms with Richer Action Spaces.

We study facility location problems where agents control multiple locations and when reporting their locations can choose to hide some locations (hiding), report some locations more than once (replication) and lie about their locations (manipulation). We fully characterize all facility location mechanisms that are anonymous, efficient, and strategyproof with respect to the richer strategic behavior for this setting. We also provide a characterization with respect to manipulation only. This is the first, to the best of our knowledge, characterization result for the strategyproof facility location mechanisms where each agent controls multiple locations.
Management of preseptal and orbital cellulitis for the primary care physician

Preseptal cellulitis and postseptal (orbital) cellulitis represent a spectrum of orbital infections which a primary care provider and ophthalmologist may see during practice. Most often these conditions occur through spread from the sinuses, though there are a variety of other inciting factors. These conditions can both present with erythema and edema, but a complete and thorough exam can help a practitioner differentiate the two. Patients should be treated with targeting the most common pathogens and followed very closely by their providers. This article will discuss the anatomy, pathogenesis, risk factors, diagnosis, management and prognosis of preseptal and orbital cellulitis.
An Interactive Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum for Third-Year Medical Students to Promote Student and Patient Wellness.

Introduction Although lifestyle intervention and behavior modification are effective in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease, few medical schools provide specific training in stress mana...
The social ecology of childhood and early life adversity.

An increasing prevalence of early childhood adversity has reached epidemic proportions, creating a public health crisis. Rather than focusing only on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as the main lens for understanding early childhood experiences, detailed assessments of a child’s social ecology are required to assess “early life adversity.” These should also include the role of positive experiences, social relationships, and resilience-promoting factors. Comprehensive assessments of a child’s physical and social ecology not only require parent/caregiver surveys and clinical observations, but also include measurements of the child’s physiology using biomarkers. We identify cortisol as a stress biomarker and posit that hair cortisol concentrations represent a summative and chronological record of children’s exposure to adverse experiences and other contextual stressors. Future research should use a social–ecological approach to investigate the robust interactions among adverse conditions, protective factors, genetic and epigenetic influences, environmental exposures, and social policy, within the context of a child’s developmental stages. These contribute to their physical health, psychiatric conditions, cognitive/executive, social, and psychological functions, lifestyle choices, and socioeconomic outcomes. Such studies must inform preventive measures, therapeutic interventions, advocacy efforts, social policy changes, and public awareness campaigns to address early life adversities and their enduring effects on human potential.
The role of students' motivation in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions

This study conducted a content analysis of online discussions to understand the nature of computer-supported collaborative learning and discover how students' motivation, which is a crucial factor to the success of collaborative learning, relates with their interaction and knowledge construction in peer-moderated online discussions. Discussion contents from 23 students in an online class were analysed. The results indicated that perceived value, competence and autonomy were critical factors that influenced lower level interactions; intrinsic motivation was the critical factor that influenced the individualistic elaboration interactions, whereas relatedness was the critical factor that influenced the collaborative elaboration interactions. The results also indicated that autonomy and relatedness were the critical factors that influenced the moderation behaviours. The findings suggest that teachers in online classes should promote students' motivation, and more importantly, scaffold student moderators in meaningful learning during peer-moderated online discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Upper airway stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea: The surgical learning curve

Objectives/Hypothesis To determine the effect of surgeon experience with an upper airway stimulation (UAS) system on surgical time and complication rates. Study Design Retrospective review. Methods Surgical procedure times and complication rates observed in patients implanted at 22 study centers as part of a phase III, multicenter surgical trial of upper airway nerve stimulation therapy for obstructive sleep apnea were reviewed. Results The study included 126 subjects who were predominantly male (83%), with a mean age of 54.5 years (range = 31–80 years), and the mean body mass index was 28.4 ± 2.6. There were an average of 5.7 (range = 1–22) surgical implants per site, with an average surgical time of 2.52 ± 0.98 hours (range = 1.08–6.0 hours). The surgical implant time decreased significantly with surgeon experience, from 2.98 ± 1.18 hours for a surgeon's first implant (n = 22) to 2.08 ± 0.55 hours for the fifth implant (n = 10, P = .025). Surgical time was inversely correlated with the site implant number (rho = −0.334, P < .001). Procedure-specific complications were uncommon and self-limited and did not decrease appreciably with increasing experience. Conclusions Surgical time for implantation of the UAS system decreased significantly after the first five implants and then stabilized. The rate of surgical complications did not decrease with surgeon experience, although this may be attributable to the low overall rate of serious surgical complications and low number of implants at some centers. Level of Evidence 4 Laryngoscope, 126:501–506, 2016
Mercury–mercury tunneling junctions: Part II. Structure and stability of symmetric alkanethiolate bilayers and their effect on the rate of electron tunneling

Abstract We have investigated electrical properties of symmetric alkanethiolate bilayer junctions formed by contacting two hanging mercury drop electrodes each coated initially with a single alkanethiolate monolayer. Using potentiodynamic, current transient and ac impedance methods, we have shown that the initial, largely all-trans structure of the bilayers becomes disordered with time as a result of the van der Waals and coulombic forces squeezing the junction. Chain disorder involves both gauche defects and chain intercalation at the mid plane of the bilayer. We showed that the latter progress more rapidly for junctions formed with longer alkanethiols. To characterize the strength of the electronic coupling across these junctions, we measured the decay constant β for the native bilayers featuring largely all-trans conformation and for the disordered junctions. The former was obtained from fast scan (50–500 V s−1) j–V experiments and yielded β=1.29 per CH2 group (corresponding to β=1.0 A−1). Impedance measurements were used to investigate properties of the disordered junctions. Electron tunneling resistance and junction capacitance were measured simultaneously. The plot of the logarithm of junction resistance measured at zero voltage bias versus thickness gave β=1.6 A−1. These measurements demonstrate that the efficiency of electron tunneling decreases substantially when alkanethiolate chains become disordered.
Soviet non-fuel mineral resources : Surplus or scarcity?☆

Abstract The USSR has long been regarded as a resource-rich country with no need for external sources of non-fuel mineral resources. Increasingly, however, it is beginning to appear that such an assessment of the Soviet non-fuel mineral resource picture is overly optimistic. The Soviet mineral industry is beset by a variety of problems which complicate the extraction and utilization of needed minerals. The USSR remains a resource-rich country, but the difficulties it encounters exploiting its resources are multiplying. This article examines the Soviet aluminium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, platinum, titanium and zinc industries, and offers views of the Soviet resource future in each area.
SUSY Dark Matter with Universal and Non-Universal Soft Breaking Masses

Predictions for rates for detecting SUSY dark matter are given within the framework of supergravity grand unification models with R-parity. Here the dark matter candidate is the lightest neutralino for almost the entire parameter space and event rates range from (10−5 to 10) events/kg da. Effects produced by non-universal soft breaking masses are discussed.
Joint Control and Redemption Rights in Venture Capital Contracts

In most venture capital financed firms, neither the VC nor the manager has exclusive authority over some of the key corporate decisions. For example: the decision whether the firm should undertake an IPO or be sold to a larger rival usually requires the approval of both the manager and the VC. This contradicts a strong prediction in the theoretical literature that joint control is suboptimal. In this paper, I show that assigning control jointly to both the agents, and specifying a harsh penalty (such as liquidation) if they fail to reach an agreement, is sometimes better than assigning control exclusively to one of the agents. A key factor is the firm's "financial slack" - the difference between its expected cash flows and its required investments and monitoring costs. Joint control is the optimal control allocation when the firm has low financial slack and a reasonable collateral value, and when the VC's liquidity constraints and cost of monitoring the firm are high. Most VC-financed firms fit this description.
Postcolonial Ecofeminism in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

This article foregrounds Arundhati Roy’s postcolonial ecofeminist perspective in her novel The God of Small Things (1997). Roy has become recognized as an environmental and political activist through her criticism of postcolonial India’s maldevelopment. Although she is cynical about state-sponsored development projects, her criticism is focused not on the idea of development per se, but on the hierarchy of dualisms that legitimizes the exploitation of nature by the human, of women by men and of the oppressed by the powerful. The God of Small Things interrogates the ways such hierarchies operate through mechanisms such as patriarchical ideology and an apparently rational economic logic. Roy’s critique of environmental exploitation in postcolonial India reveals the interconnectedness of ecological deterioration and oppression based on gender, class and race. Such exploitation calls for an examination of postcolonial environment issues from an ecofeminist viewpoint. The convergence of postcolonialism with ecofeminism – what is here called postcolonial ecofeminism – is exemplified in Roy’s novel.
(E)‐Methyl 2,4‐Pentadienoate

[1515-75-9] C6H8O2 (MW 112.14) InChI = 1S/C6H8O2/c1-3-4-5-6(7)8-2/h3-5H,1H2,2H3/b5-4+ InChIKey = LJDLNNZTQJVBNJ-SNAWJCMRSA-N (electron-poor diene capable of cycloaddition reactions with activated dienophiles to form carbocyclic1 and heterocyclic2 compounds; metal-promoted [6 + 4] cycloadditions3 and metal-promoted chain extensions4) Physical Data: bp 55–57 °C/14 mmHg. Solubility: sol most organic solvents. Form Supplied in: colorless liquid. Analysis of Reagent Purity: NMR. Preparative Methods: Wittig alkenation of Acrolein with (Methoxycarbonylmethylene)triphenylphosphorane;5 reaction of Malonic Acid with acrolein, followed by esterification.6 Purification: distillation. Handling, Storage, and Precautions: polymerizes easily.