cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An Intelligent Mobile Robot Navigation Technique Using RFID Technology

This paper presents an innovative mobile robot navigation technique using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Navigation based on processing some analog features of an RFID signal is a promising alternative to different types of navigation methods in the state of the art. The main idea is to exploit the ability of a mobile robot to navigate a priori unknown environments without a vision system and without building an approximate map of the robot workspace, as is the case in most other navigation algorithms. This paper discusses how this is achieved by placing RFID tags in the 3-D space so that the lines linking their projections on the ground define the ldquofree waysrdquo along which the robot can (or is desired to) move. The suggested algorithm is capable of reaching a target point in its a priori unknown workspace, as well as tracking a desired trajectory with a high precision. The proposed solution offers a modular, computationally efficient, and cost-effective alternative to other navigation techniques for a large number of mobile robot applications, particularly for service robots, such as, for instance, in large offices and assembly lines. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated through a number of computer simulations considering testbeds of various complexities.
A hydrogeochemical model for stream chemistry, Cascade range, Washington, U.S.A.

A simple mixing model demonstrates that chemical variations in Cascade surface waters reflect flow from three general zones: alpine areas, forested colluvial slopes, and seasonally saturated areas. The chemistry of weathering solutions in alpine portions of the Williamson Creek catchment (North Cascade Range) results from alteration of plagioclase, hornblende, and biotite to kaolinitic material and vermiculite. Surface and shallow groundwater in forested portions of the catchment reflect these reactions, dissolution of small quantities of carbonate, and biologic activity. Both at-a-point and downstream chemical variations are explained quantitatively by the volume of water that originates in each of the hydrogeochemical source areas. Water from the forested colluvial slopes is most significant on an annual basis. However, summer low-flow is a mixture of colluvial waters and dilute solutions from the alpine zone, whereas 10 to 30 per cent of peak flow in snowmelt and rainstorms is produced from seasonally saturated areas. Poor concentration/discharge (C/Q) correlations, typical of Cascade rivers, result from mixing of significant C/Q relations for water leaving each source area. Model predictions could be substantially improved by better data for the effects of temperature, water-contact time, and biologic cycling on the chemistry of soil water from forested zones.
How Often Do Students Working in Two-Person Teams Report that Work Was Shared Equitably?.

There are many reasons to assign group projects but determining the grade for each individual working in a group can be problematic. Self and peer assessments of contributions to a group project can be used to adjust individual grades. Most studies of such assessments have considered teams with three to seven members. This study documents the degree of congruence between self and peer assessments of contributions to a project assigned to teams of two people. The majority of students (88.6%) assigned equal credit to themselves and to their partner. Only 16.2% of students had their grades adjusted by the assessment process and most of those adjustments were small. These findings may alleviate concerns of instructors and students about the fairness of assigning individual grades to students working on a project in teams of two.
DMSO/CS2 Mixture: A Solvent System for Desorption of Polar and Nonpolar Paint Solvents From Activated Charcoal

Automotive coating operations use a number of organic solvents that can be classified as alcohols, ketones, esters, ethers, amines, and hydrocarbons. Airborne concentrations of these compounds can be measured by various analytical methods, published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, by collection on a sorbent tube. Activated charcoal is commonly used as a sorbent because of its broad application, simplicity, and ease of desorption. One of the disadvantages of charcoal tubes for collection of volatile organic compound emissions from automotive painting operations is that each class of compounds must be collected and analyzed independently because of differences in the desorption techniques. An analytical method that measures all of these compounds in a single test procedure is described.
RUBASTEM: a method for testing VHDL behavioral models

Verification of high-assurance system designs before they are fabricated on chips reduces time and money costs related to chip testing. Test benches, which are used in simulating and verifying VHDL designs, need to perform efficiently and effectively. Test automation through the automated generation of test patterns increases the efficiency and effectiveness of behavioral verification. We apply heuristic rules to generate test cases for VHDL behavioral designs. Their aim is to increase code coverage. They are based on control-flow and data-flow analysis. We applied the RUle-BAsed Software TEsting Method (RUBASTEM) to small, medium, and large examples. The results of RUBASTEM showed that this method achieves higher branch coverage.
Pinning techniques for low-floor detection/decoding of LDPC-Coded partial response channels

There is a well-known error-floor phenomenon associated with iterative LDPC decoders which has delayed the use of LDPC codes in certain communication and storage systems. Error floors are known to generally be caused by so-called trapping sets, subsets of code bits which induce a subgraph in a codepsilas Tanner graph that have the effect of locking up the decoder. In earlier work, the authors proposed three decoder-based techniques that lower the LDPC error floors on binary-input AWGN channels. In this paper, we introduce two techniques that lower the error-rate floors for LDPC-coded partial response (PR) channels, which are applicable to magnetic and optical storage. The techniques involve, via external measures, ldquopinningrdquo one of the bits in each problematic trapping set and then letting the iterative decoder proceed to correct the rest of the bits. We present two classes of pinning solutions: (1) a pre-pinning technique which fixes (pins) selected trapping set bits prior to transmission and (2) a post-pinning approach which utilizes information from outer BCH decoders to pin bits in trapping sets. Our simulations on PR1 and EPR4 channels demonstrate that the floor for the code chosen for this study, a 0.78(2048,1600) quasi-cyclic LDPC code, is lowered by orders of magnitude, beyond the reach of simulations.
Assessing educational validity of the Morbidity and Mortality Conference: A pilot study

Abstract Purpose To assess inter-rater agreement in perceptions of cases presented during Morbidity & Mortality conference (M&M) and changes associated with initiation of a modified M&M. Methods Faculty, residents, fellows, and students at weekly M&M between June 2001 and March 2002 voluntarily completed an anonymous questionnaire after each M&M case presentation, which asked: if the complication was avoidable (yes/no/not sure), if consensus was reached among participants (yes/no/not sure), the primary cause of the complication (diagnostic error, technical error, judgment error, nature of disease, other), when the primary cause occurred (preoperatively, intraoperatively, postoperatively), and which, if any, of 16 listed actions could prevent similar future problems. On September 24, 2001, the conference was lengthened and modified. Data collected before (n = 30 cases) and after M&M modification (n = 46 cases) were compared. Results A total of 76 cases were evaluated for a total of 860 completed forms. In 57 cases (75%), majority opinion (ie, ≥50% of participants) indicated that the complication resulted from either nature of disease (n = 32, 41%), or error in diagnosis (n = 5, 7%), technique (n = 8, 11%) or judgment (n = 12, 17%). There was no clear majority for the remainder of the cases. Relative to cases presented prior to M&M modification, for those presented post-modification, the majority perceived that consensus was reached more often (96% of cases vs. 70% of cases, p Conclusions The variability in questionnaire responses suggests that an evaluation instrument such as that reported here can be useful in assessing educational needs, quantifying the efficacy of case presentations, and assessing the effects of modifications to conference content and structure. Modifying M&M in accordance with published recommendations appears to improve case analysis and consensus among participants.
Thyroid receptor plasticity in striated muscle types: effects of altered thyroid state

This study examined nuclear thyroid receptor (TR) maximum binding capacity (Bmax), dissociation constant (K d), and TR isoform (α1, α2, β1) mRNA expression in rodent cardiac, “fast-twitch white,” “...
Evolution of Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases—Analysis of Unique Domain Architectures and Phylogenetic Trees Reveals a Complex History of Horizontal Gene Transfer Events

Phylogenetic analysis of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) of all 20 specificities from completely sequenced bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic genomes reveals a complex evolutionary picture. Detailed examination of the domain architecture of aaRSs using sequence profile searches delineated a network of partially conserved domains that is even more elaborate than previously suspected. Several unexpected evolutionary connections were identified, including the apparent origin of the beta-subunit of bacterial GlyRS from the HD superfamily of hydrolases, a domain shared by bacterial AspRS and the B subunit of archaeal glutamyl-tRNA amidotransferases, and another previously undetected domain that is conserved in a subset of ThrRS, guanosine polyphosphate hydrolases and synthetases, and a family of GTPases. Comparison of domain architectures and multiple alignments resulted in the delineation of synapomorphies-shared derived characters, such as extra domains or inserts-for most of the aaRSs specificities. These synapomorphies partition sets of aaRSs with the same specificity into two or more distinct and apparently monophyletic groups. In conjunction with cluster analysis and a modification of the midpoint-rooting procedure, this partitioning was used to infer the likely root position in phylogenetic trees. The topologies of the resulting rooted trees for most of the aaRSs specificities are compatible with the evolutionary "standard model" whereby the earliest radiation event separated bacteria from the common ancestor of archaea and eukaryotes as opposed to the two other possible evolutionary scenarios for the three major divisions of life. For almost all aaRSs specificities, however, this simple scheme is confounded by displacement of some of the bacterial aaRSs by their eukaryotic or, less frequently, archaeal counterparts. Displacement of ancestral eukaryotic aaRS genes by bacterial ones, presumably of mitochondrial origin, was observed for three aaRSs. In contrast, there was no convincing evidence of displacement of archaeal aaRSs by bacterial ones. Displacement of aaRS genes by eukaryotic counterparts is most common among parasitic and symbiotic bacteria, particularly the spirochaetes, in which 10 of the 19 aaRSs seem to have been displaced by the respective eukaryotic genes and two by the archaeal counterpart. Unlike the primary radiation events between the three main divisions of life, that were readily traceable through the phylogenetic analysis of aaRSs, no consistent large-scale bacterial phylogeny could be established. In part, this may be due to additional gene displacement events among bacterial lineages. Argument is presented that, although lineage-specific gene loss might have contributed to the evolution of some of the aaRSs, this is not a viable alternative to horizontal gene transfer as the principal evolutionary phenomenon in this gene class.
Comparison of five methods for the measurement of left ventricular ejection time

Abstract Left ventricular ejection time (ET) is a parameter frequently used in the noninvasive evaluation of systolic function. 1 This parameter is usually obtained from the carotid pulse. The capability for recording the carotid pulse, however, is not readily available in all echocardiographic systems. Thus, alternative methods such as the M-mode tracing of the aortic valve or Doppler echocardiographic recordings of aortic flow have been substituted for the carotid pulse. 2–4 Little information currently exists as to whether these alternative methods give equivalent measurements of ET. The present study compared ET measured by the carotid pulse to 4 alternative methods and evaluated intra-and interobserver variability of each of these methods.
Representing Defense : Democratic Control of the Defense Budget in the United States and Western Europe

There is nowsubstantial evidence that defense spending decisions in the United States are influenced by citizen preferences. However, there is little time-series evidence for countries other than t...
Pediatric Maxillary and Mandibular Tumors

Pediatric maxillary and mandibular tumors offer considerable challenges to otolaryngologists, oral surgeons, pathologists, and radiologists alike. Because of the close proximity to vital structures, appropriate steps toward a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan are of paramount importance. This article reviews the most common causes of pediatric jaw masses and discusses diagnostic and therapeutic considerations and recommendations.
The Effect of Space-Dependent Thermal Conductivity on the Steady Central Temperature of a Cylinder

A transformation is presented that enables the center temperature of a cylinder to be expressed in terms of an integral of the peripheral temperature distribution for heat conduction with spacedependent thermal conductivity. Its predictions agree with exact answers and with numerical solutions obtained with finite difference methods for four test cases. The new result can be applied to a two-dimensional floating random-walk Monte Carlo procedure which previously was restricted to the case of constant thermal conductivity. @DOI: 10.1115/1.1418701#
Stability and Eccentricity for Two Planets in a 1:1 Resonance, and Their Possible Occurrence in Extrasolar Planetary Systems

The nonlinear stability domain of Lagrange's celebrated 1772 solution of the three-body problem is obtained numerically as a function of the masses of the bodies and the common eccentricity of their Keplerian orbits. This domain shows that this solution can be realized in extrasolar planetary systems similar to those that have been discovered recently with two Jupiter-size planets orbiting a solar-size star. For an exact 1 : 1 resonance, the Doppler shift variation in the emitted light would be the same as for stars that have only a single planetary companion. But it is more likely that in actual extrasolar planetary systems there are deviations from such a resonance, raising the interesting prospect that Lagrange's solution can be identified by an analysis of the observations. The existence of another stable 1 : 1 resonance solution that would have a more unambiguous Doppler shift signature is also discussed.
Woodland-to-forest transition during prolonged drought in Minnesota after ca. AD 1300

Interactions among multiple causes of ecological perturbation, such as climate change and disturbance, can produce “ecological surprises.” Here, we examine whether climate–fire–vegetation interactions can produce ecological changes that differ in direction from those expected from the effects of climate change alone. To do so, we focus on the “Big Woods” of central Minnesota, USA, which was shaped both by climate and fire. The deciduous Big Woods forest replaced regional woodlands and savannas after the severity of regional fire regimes declined at ca. AD 1300. A trend toward wet conditions has long been assumed to explain the forest expansion, but we show that water levels at two lakes within the region (Wolsfeld Lake and Bufflehead Pond) were low when open woodlands were transformed into the Big Woods. Water levels were high instead at ca. 2240–795 BC when regional fire regimes were most severe. Based on the correlation between water levels and fire-regime severity, we infer that prolonged or repeated d...
Avoidance of Needle Rust Fungus By Larval Sawfly On Pinyon Pine

Larvae of the sawfly Neodiprion edulicolus fed on needles of Pinus edulis and were abundant below 1,850 m in elevation at sites near Sunset Crater, Arizona. Coleosporium needle rust, in contrast, infected P. edulis above 1,850 m in elevation and rarely occurred on the same trees as did N. edulicolus. Larval sawfly transferred to P. edulis above 1,850 m fed less frequently on infected twigs and moved off twigs more quickly when transferred to infected trees. Though the negative interactions involved only a small percentage of larval sawfly and rust fungus during this study, the interaction might become more significant in the future if sawflies spread to higher elevations in response to changes in climate or habitat.
Do tax and expenditure limits hinder the condition of public infrastructure? The case of the nation's system of bridges

Tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) imposed on state and local governments is a popular policy approach to limit the growth in government. At the same time these limits may hinder the ability of state and local governments to provide services and make investments in public infrastructure. We test the relationship between state-level TEL restrictiveness and the United State’s network of highway bridges. We generally find that more restrictive TELs have a weak negative impact on the percentage of bridges deemed structurally deficient but a positive impact on the percentage of bridges deemed functionally obsolete. The states with the most restrictive TELs, those that restrict both revenues and expenditures, tend to have a smaller share of their bridges that are either structurally deficient of functionally obsolete.
Magnetic variations in the reconnaissance of sedimentary basins: Field procedure and generalized inversion of short‐period data from the Rio Grande rift

The magnetic variation (MV) technique employs magnetic transients from natural sources in the magnetosphere to delineate geologic structures in the earth’s interior based on their electrical properties. By measuring only the magnetic field at each site, and not the electric field as required for magnetotelluric (MT) studies, a site can be set up quickly, and often in places which might be quite unsuitable for MT measurements. This generally allows one to execute MV surveys in culturally developed areas or in rugged and logistically difficult terrain at much closer site spacings than those used for conventional MT surveys. Procedures for acquiring and processing MV field data are straightforward, as are methods for inverting data to obtain plausible geophysical models. Using a new 2-D generalized inverse algorithm which employs singular value damping of the Lanczos (or SVD) inverse, we apply the MV technique to determine the basement topography beneath a sequence of 11 remote referenced MV sites from an ea...
Shapes of dominant transition paths from single-molecule force spectroscopy

Recent single molecule measurements of biomolecular folding achieved the time resolution sufficient for observation of individual transition paths. This note discusses several ways in which transition path ensembles can be statistically analyzed to extract a single, “typical” transition path. Analytical approximations derived here for such a transition path further allow one to estimate dynamical parameters (such as the intramolecular diffusion coefficient) directly from the transition path shapes.
Experimental goitre and iodin in natural waters in relation to distribution of goitre

White rats of 30 gram weight were placed on a diet containing about or less than .006 milligram of iodin in 50 grams of dry foodstuff in addition to distilled water. Controls were placed on the same diet except for one day a week when they drank water containing .01 per cent. iodin. At the end of about three months those receiving the iodin had thyroid glands one-half to two-thirds the weight of those receiving no iodin.The United States is divided into four zones based on the number of goiters too large for wearing military collars per 1,000 drafted men. The amount in parts per billion of iodin in drinking water is also given:Zone I—Goitre, 1-30. Iodin, 0.1-1. Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, parts of Utah, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.ZONE II-Goitre, 5-15. Iodin, .015-1.2. Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, parts of California, Utah, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.ZONE III-Goitre, 1-5. Iodin, .06-9. Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illin...
Design of Target Control System for Small Arms Shooting Training Based on ATmega32

This paper researchs the target control system for a small arms shooting training support system.The rise and down control of shooting target,collection and disposal of shooting information.are realized.In this paper,correlative main content is introduced,including general architecture of target control system and characteristic of AVR.Furthermore,the hardware circuit design of control system and corresponding firmware development are described emphatically.
Gene Interactions in Evolution

Because gene products work together in developmental and biochemical pathways gene interactions are nearly universal. These interactions have been termed ‘physiological genetic effects,’ which are genetic effects measured against a standard genetic background. From an evolutionary perspective ‘statistical genetic effects’ are more important. Statistical genetic effects are genetic effects measured as a deviation from the population mean, and most importantly, genetic variance components measured in a population. Although physiological gene interactions are nearly universal, variance components attributable to gene interactions tend to be small. Among populations statistical gene interactions may make a large contribution to population differentiation, contributing to both differentiation of population means, and to differentiation of genetic effects.
Responses of non-eye-movement central vestibular neurons to sinusoidal yaw rotation in compensated macaques after unilateral semicircular canal plugging

This is the first manuscript to describe the physiology of central vestibular neurons after occlusion of the semicircular canals unilaterally (unilateral canal plugging) and highlights similarities...
Making Their Own Path: Preservice Teachers’ Development of Purpose in Social Studies Teacher Education

AbstractDespite a solid body of research on rationale development in social studies teacher education, little research exists exploring how social studies preservice teachers’ purposes develop over time. This article presents four examples of social studies preservice teachers as they grappled with developing a purpose for teaching social studies. In-depth interviews and artifacts from across the program were analyzed to focus on the nuanced ways in which their purposes developed. Their stories provide concrete examples that illustrate rationale development in social studies teacher education. Each shows a different view on developing or not developing a unified purpose for their work as a social studies teacher. We found that explicit attention to purpose throughout coursework was an important aspect in their development. Without a deeper exploration and understanding of how individual purposes develop, we miss in social studies teacher education the opportunity to reimagine and reconsider how programs e...
Progressive MIMO-OFDM reception over time-varying underwater acoustic channels

MIMO-OFDM has been actively studied for high data rate communications over the bandwidth-limited underwater acoustic (UWA) channels. Unlike existing receivers that treat the intercarrier interference (ICI) as additive noise, in this paper we deal with ICI explicitly together with the co-channel interference (CCI) due to parallel transmissions in MIMO-OFDM. The proposed receiver has the following components: 1) compressed-sensing (CS) based sparse channel estimation, 2) soft-input-soft-output MMSE/Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) detector for interference mitigation, and 3) nonbinary LDPC decoding. These components are integrated under a progressive receiver framework, where the receiver starts with low-compleixty ICI-ignorant processing, and then progresses to ICI-aware processing with increasing ICI levels. In addition to simulation, we use real data from the MACE10 experiment, in which the transmitter was slowly moving, to verify the system performance. Simulation and experimental results show that explicitly addressing ICI and CCI significantly improves the performance of MIMO-OFDM in underwater acoustic systems.
The Ethics of Actuality in the Scripting of Enrique Rosas’s The Gray Automobile

DePaoli examines Enrique Rosas’s The Gray Automobile prose-based treatment and film, focusing on the difficulties of making ethical judgements regarding actuality in nonfiction film, where the conditions of actuality are fluid and complex issues of power and genre traverse the line between fact and fiction. DePaoli demonstrates how historical and archival research can inform ethical analysis. Released in 1919, Rosas’s film reached global attention because of its blend of fact and fiction (reality and fabrication), including footage of a real firing squad execution. By showing Rosas’s oscillation between reality and fabrication, DePaoli explores the ethical implications associated with the nonfiction film elements in Rosas’s prose-based treatment and in the surviving film.
Matching cause-related marketing campaign to culture

ABSTRACTThe goal of this study was to identify links between cultures (high- vs. low-context culture) and the effectiveness of a cause-related marketing (CRM) claim. First, the effect of culture on types of appeals’ (informational vs. emotional vs. combination of informational and emotional) effectiveness was investigated by conducting a multivariate analysis of variance. Employing a path model, the study examined the mediating effect of perceived credibility on the influence of the cultural congruence within attitude toward CRM. The results indicated that culture influenced the effectiveness (CRM attitude, credibility perception, and purchase intention) of type of CRM appeal. The main contribution of this study lies in its analysis of the validity of the interactive affect–cognition relationship effects on CRM message effectiveness across cultures. This study hopes to provide insight into whether differences in cultural values result in perceptual differences, thus necessitating the use of different CRM ...
Filtering association rules in Gene Ontology based on term specificity

Gene Ontology (GO) is one of the most widely used ontology databases, and provides a framework to elucidate biological roles of genes or gene products by semantic analysis. GO contains terms in a structured format within three domains: biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components. GO also provides extensive annotation data across most model species. Recent studies in analysis of GO and annotation data have confronted two major challenges. The first is the increasing complexity of ontology structures. The second is the inconsistency of annotation data. In this study, we explore association rule mining to curate GO data and to achieve consistent annotations. We propose a novel specificity measure for GO terms, called VICD. This measure adopts the integrative concept of induced sub-ontologies and vectors of information content distance. By pairwise cross-ontology association rule mining, we discover specific association rules using the selected GO terms with high specificity. When we compare the VICD measure to the information content, the experimental results show that VICD scores have more positive correlations with the specificity values from other commonly referred measures than information contents. We also demonstrate that our approach generates more consistent association rules across species by using VICD scores than using information contents.
Changes in leaf epicuticular wax load and its effect on leaf temperature and physiological traits in wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.) exposed to high temperatures during anthesis

The physiological functions of epicuticular wax (EW) include reflectance of irradiation and the reduction of water loss. When a plant experiences stressful conditions, most notably, high irradiance and temperature, damage to the photosynthetic apparatus can occur and is signalled by a decrease in the Fv/Fmax ratio. In this study, we examined the influence of increased EW on physiological function in terms of chlorophyll fluorescence (ChFl), stomatal conductance (gs), leaf temperature and spectral reflectance indices (SRI) of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars. The wheat cultivars were subjected to high temperature stress (HT) (38–40°C) under greenhouse conditions when the primary inflorescence was fully emerged to determine its effect on leaf EW deposition. Leaf temperature depression (LTD) was generally lower in control (2.3°C—2012, 0.94°C—2013) compared to HT stress (3.13°C—2012, 4.05°C—2013). Cultivars in control (0.69 to 0.74 Fv/Fmax) had significantly higher ChFl compared to HT (0.58 to 0.74 Fv/Fmax). HT treatment resulted in higher EW (1.28—2012, 4.59 mg dm−2—2013) compared to control treatment (1.04—2012 to 4.56 mg dm−2—2013). Leaves devoid of EW showed significant variation among cultivars at reproductive stages for water index (WI), normalized phaeophytinization index (NPQI) and simple ratio index (SRI). In HT stress conditions, significant correlations were observed between EWL and SRI only at 3DAFE (days after full emergence), suggesting that increased EWL induced by HT and irradiation in early development may provide relief and prevent grain loss. EWL significantly associated with the physiological traits ChFl, gs, LTD and spike temperature depression (SpTD). These observations suggest that EWL may lessen the effect of high irradiance, thereby, effectively adjusting stomatal conductance, ChFl and leaf temperature, limiting the risk of over excitation of photosystem II.
Large, Reversible, and Coherent Domain Spacing Dilation Driven by Crystallization under Soft Lamellar Confinement

Crystallization within lamellar block copolymer microdomains, at temperatures above the glass transition of the amorphous block—a form of “soft”, one-dimensional confinement—is investigated in a series of hydrogenated diblocks of norbornene and hexafluoroisopropanol-substituted norbornene, abbreviated hPN-hPHFAN. Crystallization results in a large (up to 23%) increase in the lamellar period (d), but in contrast to a multitude of previous reports—where large changes in d signify breakout of the crystallites from the microdomains, such that the initial and final domain structures and orientations bear no coherent relationship to each other—the hPN crystallites in hPN-hPHFAN remain confined within the microphase-separated lamellae, as revealed by small-angle X-ray scattering on highly oriented flow-aligned specimens. As the d-spacing dilates, the lamellae contract affinely in the lateral directions (as measured by confocal optical microscopy on a millimeter-scale flow-aligned specimen); dimensional changes i...
Does Contracting Pay for Managerial Workers? The Role of Contracting in the Careers of Managers

Against a backdrop of growth in the managerial workforce and increasing interest in alternative working arrangements, we argue that tensions exist between the nature of managerial work and independ...
Graft Choice in Isolated Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis of Rates of Recurrent Instability and Patient-Reported Outcomes for Autograft, Allograft, and Synthetic Options.

Purpose To determine whether graft selection or patient age affects the following after isolated medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) reconstruction: (1) rates of recurrent instability, (2) rates of postoperative complications (other than instability), and (3) subjective symptom improvement. Methods A systematic search identified studies reporting outcomes for isolated MPFL reconstruction. Rates of recurrent instability, subjective Kujala knee function scores, and complications were tabulated. Symptom improvement was defined as change in Kujala score (preoperative evaluation to final follow-up). Results Forty-five studies were included with 27 documented cases of recurrent instability among 1,504 patients (1.8%); instability rates ranged from 0% to 20.0% overall; among autograft in adults, 0% to 11.1% (1.4%, 18/1,260); among autograft in adolescents, 0% to 20% (10.0%, 8/80); among allograft, 0% (0/65 cases); and among synthetic, 0% to 3.3% (1.3%, 1/76). Among autograft choices in adults, rates of recurrent instability were low; recurrence with gracilis ranged from 0% to 11.1% (0.9%, 1/116); with semitendinosus, 0% to 6.3% (0.6%, 4/676); with quad or patellar tendon, 0% (0/65); and with adductor tendon, 5.6% to 8.3% (6.7%, 2/30). Complication rates ranged from 0% to 34.4%. All included studies reported significant improvement in Kujala scores after surgery ( P Conclusions Autograft is not superior to allograft or synthetic grafts for isolated reconstruction of the MPFL, and rates of recurrent instability are generally low. Isolated MPFL reconstruction can provide significant symptom relief regardless of graft selection, although there is a bias toward reporting better than expected results among smaller studies. Pediatric patients and patients treated with adductor tendon autograft have higher recurrent instability rates. While caution should be used in making definitive recommendations secondary to the small number of allograft and synthetic studies, selection of graft type based on surgeon preference, comfort, and prior experience remains appropriate. Level of Evidence Level IV, systematic review of Level I to IV studies.
Optimal K-node disruption on a node-capacitated network

This paper examines a network disruption model from the perspective of a network attacker, who wishes to identify the subset of $$ K $$ nodes to disable on a node-capacitated directed flow network (e.g., air transport) such that the disrupted flow is maximized. Such models can also be used by a network defender who wishes to identify the nodes whose disruption would have the greatest impact on network performance. In this problem, the system flow is constrained not only by the disruption to nodes, but also by the limited capacity on nodes that are not disrupted. This paper presents multiple mixed-integer linear programming formulations for this problem, including a novel path-based formulation, and novel multi-commodity flow-based formulations. Computational testing is provided, demonstrating that the multi-commodity based formulation is able to solve relatively large-sized network instances, with the best performance obtained by a two-step procedure that utilizes an approximation to obtain an initial solution for the provably-optimal multi-commodity flow based formulation.
Application of the SB distribution to the simulation of correlated lumber properties data.

With the emergence of probabilistic design procedures, the need for precise knowledge of the entire probability distributions of load effects and material resistance has never been greater. In order to evaluate these distributions, simulation techniques have provided a reliable and cost and time effective alternative to large scale destructive testing. With the use of the Johnson's SB probability distribution, a closed-form, analytic procedure has been developed to model the inherent variability in strength, given some nondestructively evaluated parameter. This modeling procedure serves as the basis of a verified simulation process to predict a strength distribution, given a probability distribution of the NDE parameter. The approach presented here, represents a closed-form, analytic solution to a problem which has heretofore been treated in a more subjective fashion. This simulation procedure is complemented by a stratified sampling scheme.
Decentralized Energy Management of Hybrid Energy Storage on MVDC Shipboard Power System

Shipboard power systems are adopting new types of emerging pulsed loads. Due to the different advantages proposed by MVDC onboard power system, MVDC system will be the dominant system in future maritime. However, there is a need to provide proper control to manage the energy flow and ensure quick response under different loading conditions, taking into consideration the presence of the pulsed loads. This paper proposes a decentralized energy management for the onboard hybrid energy storage devices. The objective of the algorithm is to maintain the voltage of the MVDC bus, ensure proper power sharing while taking the nature of the storage devices into consideration. The actions taken by the controller are decided based on local inputs only. The controller is validated on MVDC ship power system through MATLAB/SIMULIK.
Association of FMO3 Variants with Blood Pressure in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Flavin containing monooxygenase 3 [FMO3] encodes dimethylaniline monooxygenase [N-oxide-forming] 3, which breaks down nitrogen-containing compounds, and has been implicated in blood pressure regulation. Studies have reported conflicting results of the association of a common nonsynonymous variant, E158K (rs2266782), with hypertension. We examined the associations of E158K, along with rare and low frequency exonic variants (minor allele frequency [MAF]<5%) in FMO3 with hypertension, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). We included 7,350 European Americans and 2,814 African Americans in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study with exome sequencing of FMO3. The association of FMO3 variants with SBP and DBP was tested using single variant and gene-based tests followed by the replication or interrogation of significant variants in ancestry-specific cohorts based on Bonferroni corrected thresholds. E158K had significant association with higher SBP in African Americans in ARIC (p=0.03), and two low frequency variants had significant association with higher SBP in African Americans (rs200985584, MAF 0.1%, p=0.0003) and European Americans (rs75904274, MAF 1.7%, p=0.006). These associations were not significant with additional samples: E158K in a meta-analysis of SBP of African ancestry (N=30,841, p=0.43) that included ARIC participants and the two low frequency variants in an independent ancestry-specific exome sequencing study of blood pressure (rs200985584, p=0.94; rs75904274, p=0.81). Our study does not support the association of E158K and low frequency variants in FMO3 with blood pressure and demonstrates the importance of replication in genetic studies.
Visual Reliance During Speech Recognition in Cochlear Implant Users and Candidates

Adults with cochlear implants (CIs) are believed to rely more heavily on visual cues during speech recognition tasks than their normal-hearing peers. However, the relationship between auditory and visual reliance during audiovisual (AV) speech recognition is unclear and may depend on an individual’s auditory proficiency, duration of hearing loss (HL), age, and other factors. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether visual reliance during AV speech recognition depends on auditory function for adult CI candidates (CICs) and adult experienced CI users (ECIs). Participants included 44 ECIs and 23 CICs. All participants were postlingually deafened and had met clinical candidacy requirements for cochlear implantation. Participants completed City University of New York sentence recognition testing. Three separate lists of twelve sentences each were presented: the first in the auditory-only (A-only) condition, the second in the visual-only (V-only) condition, and the third in combined AV fashion. Each participant’s amount of “visual enhancement” (VE) and “auditory enhancement” (AE) were computed (i.e., the benefit to AV speech recognition of adding visual or auditory information, respectively, relative to what could potentially be gained). The relative reliance of VE versus AE was also computed as a VE/AE ratio. VE/AE ratio was predicted inversely by A-only performance. Visual reliance was not significantly different between ECIs and CICs. Duration of HL and age did not account for additional variance in the VE/AE ratio. A shift toward visual reliance may be driven by poor auditory performance in ECIs and CICs. The restoration of auditory input through a CI does not necessarily facilitate a shift back toward auditory reliance. Findings suggest that individual listeners with HL may rely on both auditory and visual information during AV speech recognition, to varying degrees based on their own performance and experience, to optimize communication performance in real-world listening situations.
Early structure formation in primordial black hole cosmologies

Cold dark matter (CDM) could be composed of primordial black holes (PBH) in addition to or instead of more orthodox weakly interacting massive particle dark matter (PDM). We study the formation of the first structures in such $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{PBH}$ cosmologies using $N$-body simulations evolved from deep in the radiation era to redshift 99. When PBH are only a small component of the CDM, they are clothed by PDM to form isolated halos. On the other hand, when PBH make most of the CDM, halos can also grow via clustering of many PBH. We find that the halo mass function is well modelled via Poisson statistics assuming random initial conditions. We quantify the nonlinear velocities induced by structure formation and find that they are too small to significantly impact CMB constraints. A chief challenge is how best to extrapolate our results to lower redshifts relevant for some observational constraints.
Trust in Group Decisions: a scoping review.

Trust is a critical component of competency committees given their high-stakes decisions. Research from outside of medicine on group trust has not focused on trust in group decisions, and “group trust” has not been clearly defined. The purpose was twofold: to examine the definition of trust in the context of group decisions and to explore what factors may influence trust from the perspective of those who rely on competency committees through a proposed group trust model. The authors conducted a literature search of four online databases, seeking articles published on trust in group settings. Reviewers extracted, coded, and analyzed key data including definitions of trust and factors pertaining to group trust. The authors selected 42 articles for full text review. Although reviewers found multiple general definitions of trust, they were unable to find a clear definition of group trust and propose the following: a group-directed willingness to accept vulnerability to actions of the members based on the expectation that members will perform a particular action important to the group, encompassing social exchange, collective perceptions, and interpersonal trust. Additionally, the authors propose a model encompassing individual level factors (trustor and trustee), interpersonal interactions, group level factors (structure and processes), and environmental factors. Higher degrees of trust at the individual and group levels have been associated with attitudinal and performance outcomes, such as quality of group decisions. Developing a deeper understanding of trust in competency committees may help these committees implement more effective and meaningful processes to make collective decisions.
Analysis of Conflict Diffusion Over Continuous Space

This study illustrates an innovative application of methods in spatial statistics to study the diffusion of conflict events. We investigate how spatial processes of conflict events vary with different characteristics of the events and actors involved in the events. Actor-level attributes have often been ignored in existing empirical studies, which could lead to insufficient modeling of conflict processes and patterns. Due to recent technological and systems advances, conflict events can now be analyzed using data measured at the event (point) level, rather than relying on aggregated units. Our research contributions are twofold. First, through the case of South Sudan, we demonstrate how intensity and covariance functions, defined by the log-Gaussian Cox process model, can be used to explore the complex underlying diffusion mechanism under various characteristics of conflict events. Second, our findings add to the explanation for the process of conflict diffusion. Our analysis reveals that battles with territorial gains for one side tend to diffuse over larger distances than battles with no territorial change, and that conflicts with longer duration exhibit stronger spatial dependence.
Police Brutality and Mistrust in Medical Institutions

People bring the social contexts of their lives into the medical encounter. As a social determinant of health, police brutality influences physical and mental health. However, negative experiences with institutions such as law enforcement might decrease trust in other institutions, including medical institutions. Mistrust might limit engagement with the healthcare system and affect population health. This study investigates the relationship between police brutality and medical mistrust and assesses whether it varies by race. Data were obtained from a 2018 cross-sectional survey of adults living in urban areas in the USA (N = 4389). Medical mistrust was regressed on police brutality (experiences and appraisal of negative encounters with the police), controlling for socio-demographics, health status, and healthcare access. Means of mistrust were predicted by racial group after including interactions between police brutality and race. Respondents who had negative encounters with the police, even if they perceived these encounters to be necessary, had higher levels of medical mistrust compared to those with no negative police encounters. Police brutality increased mistrust for all racial groups. Conditions outside the medical system such as experiencing police brutality impact relationships with the medical system. Given that clinicians are in a unique position of having access to firsthand information about the struggles and injustices that shape their patients’ health, advocating for systemic change on behalf of their patients might build trust.