cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Scale Covariant Theory of Gravitation and Astrophysical Applications

A scale-covariant theory of gravitation is presented which is characterized by a set of equations that are complete only after a choice of the scale function is made. Special attention is given to gauge conditions and units which allow gravitational phenomena to be described in atomic units. The generalized gravitational-field equations are derived by performing a direct scale transformation, by extending Riemannian geometry to Weyl geometry through the introduction of the notion of cotensors, and from a variation principle. Modified conservation laws are provided, a set of dynamical equations is obtained, and astrophysical consequences are considered. The theory is applied to examine certain homogeneous cosmological solutions, perihelion shifts, light deflections, secular variations of planetary orbital elements, stellar structure equations for a star in quasi-static equilibrium, and the past thermal history of earth. The possible relation of the scale-covariant theory to gauge field theories and their predictions of cosmological constants is discussed.
A distortion of sample size

The costs and needs of health care continue to increase in a down-trending economy. Pharmaceutical companies have pared down their sales forces; it is hypothesized that fewer field representatives are leaving fewer sample medications. We have surveyed sample medications (and their average wholesale price costs) given to our allergy practice during the last 12 years and first 4 months of 2009 (Table 1).1,2 This calendar year, we estimate that the pharmaceutical industry is extrapolated to give our practice $340,000 worth of samples and an additional $65,000 in free vouchers. Comparisons to past years must take into account not only escalating drug costs but also that our practice has oscillated between 1 and 2 physicians and 1 and 2 nurse practitioners straddling 2 to 3 offices.3 Taking all factors (eg, inflation, type of health care professional, practice locations) into account, we estimate that the number of donated samples has decreased 25%. The provision of 1 drug, fluticasone propionate (Advair) decreased substantially in sample volume from $125,000 to $88,000 when comparing 2005 with 2009. This difference was made up for by other drugs in its class entering the marketplace. In addition, vouchers for free medication, noticeably on the rise, made the total amount of medicine given relatively stable. The corporate strategy of sampling seems healthy, albeit changing. Sample medications, often maligned,4,5 remain a key marketing vehicle for pharmaceutical companies and an important adjunct to help patients experience a drug before incurring its cost. Sample medications may also help indigent patients with acute care needs and help bridge them to patient assistance programs that supply medications for chronic disease states. One nonprofit organization, TheDispensary ofHope (www. dispensaryofhope.org), has provided a conduit for interested physicians of all types to contribute a portion of their samples to less fortunate individuals. To date, samples worth upwards of $20,000,000 have been given and, in turn, forwarded to both uninsured and underinsured patients in 7 states who earn less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Pharmaceutical companies’ contributions remain significant over time and, although somewhat less relative to the past, may be more meaningful than ever to patients at this time.
The Extracellular Nature of Enamel in the Rat

Developing incisal enamel of the rat has been examined in sections with the electron microscope. Staining the sections with heavy metal and sandwiching them has revealed details hitherto unvisualized because of low contrast and destruction by the electron beam. In particular, it is seen that the cell membrane always lies between the ameloblast and the enamel and therefore that enamel is extracellular and not intracellular. Implications of this with regard to the possible keratinous nature of enamel matrix are discussed.
High-rate space-time layered OFDM

We derive a layered space-time scheme for multi-antenna orthogonal frequency-division multiplexed transmissions over frequency-selective channels. Compared with existing alternatives, the proposed scheme can attain very high spectral efficiency as well as improved performance. Enhanced diversity gains document its superior performance that is also tested by simulation.
Teacher-Mediated Facilitation of Engagement by Children with Developmental Delays in Inclusive Preschools

This study investigated the effects of naturalistic, teacher-mediated intervention strategies on increasing levels of active engagement in young children with developmental delays. All interventions occurred in the context of ongoing child-selected play activities in inclusive preschool classrooms that used developmentally appropriate practices. Results showed that the intervention strategies were effective in increasing the level of active engagement in identified areas of need for all three children. Additional data on classroom ecological factors suggest that classroom social and ecological characteristics important to developmentally appropriate practices were maintained during intervention sessions. Checklists on the acceptability of the intervention to classroom teachers and parents are discussed.
Impact of computer-mediated, obesity-related nutrition education interventions for adolescents: a systematic review.

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate recent research regarding the use of computer-based nutrition education interventions targeting adolescent overweight and obesity. Methods Online databases were systematically searched using key words, and bibliographies of related articles were manually searched. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied and included studies evaluated for their ability to achieve their objectives and for quality using the Nutrition Evidence Library appraisal guidelines for research design and implementation. Results Of the 15 studies included, 10 were randomized controlled trials. Two studies targeted weight loss, 2 targeted weight maintenance, and 11 targeted dietary improvement with or without physical activity. At least half of in-school (60%) and nonschool interventions (80%) exhibited significantly positive effects on nutrition- or obesity-related variables. Small changes in diet, physical activity, knowledge, and self-efficacy were shown; however, few results were sustained long term. Conclusions Recommendations included application of health behavior theory and computer tailoring for feedback messages. Future research should include thorough description of intervention content (messages, theory, multimedia, etc.), application of rigorous methodology, as well as consideration of covariates such as parental involvement and gender. With further research and evidentiary support, this approach to obesity-related nutrition education has the potential to be successful.
Factors Contributing to Teachers' Judgments about Students and Decisions about Grouping Students for Reading Instruction:

In a policy-capturing study of the planning of reading instruction, teachers and student teachers read descriptions of 32 hypothetical students who varied on five dimensions: standardized reading achievement score, self-correction of errors during oral reading, class participation, social competence, and classroom behavior. They judged each student's probable mastery of the reading curriculum and impact on classroom life, placed the students in three reading groups, and described the reading groups and strategies used to form these groups. While most participants used the academic cues in judging mastery and forming reading groups and the nonacademic cues in estimating impact on classroom life, decision policies differed with respect to the number of cues used and size of each cue's effect. Some variability in cue use was ex- plained by teaching experience and conceptions of reading. For example, teachers' policies were more complex than those of student teachers for the mastery and grouping decisions. However, no differences were apparent for the impact judgment. Additional insight into differences in grouping strategies was provided by participants' written descriptions of reading groups and strategies used to form these groups. The conceptualization of teaching as a process of decision making has been utilized in recent years for both research (cf. Borko, Shavelson and Stern, 1981; Shavelson and Stern, 1981; Shulman and Elstein, 1975) and instructional (cf. Good and Brophy, 1980; Sherman, 1980) purposes. In fact, it has been suggested (Shavelson, 1973) that decision making is the basic teaching skill. Within a decision-making perspective the teacher is seen as an active agent who makes decisions that guide his or her actions in the classroom. These decisions are made by integrating information about students, the subject matter, availability of instructional materials and other relevant aspects of the
Security issues and Ada runtime support

This paper reports on an investigation of the security issues related to Ada runtime support. First, the need to use Ada features requiring runtime support is motivated. The paper then describes how the Ada runtime library in the development environment is transformed to become the Ada runtime system in the operational environment. Key security requirements, such as protection of the runtime library in the development environment, and design of a security architecture in the operational environment are examined. The paper concludes that further research is required along with the actual development of trusted Ada runtime systems. >
Cloning of the Full-Length Rhesus Cytomegalovirus Genome as an Infectious and Self-Excisable Bacterial Artificial Chromosome for Analysis of Viral Pathogenesis

Rigorous investigation of many functions encoded by cytomegaloviruses (CMVs) requires analysis in the context of virus-host interactions. To facilitate the construction of rhesus CMV (RhCMV) mutants for in vivo studies, a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) containing an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) cassette was engineered into the intergenic region between unique short 1 (US1) and US2 of the full-length viral genome by Cre/lox-mediated recombination. Infectious virions were recovered from rhesus fibroblasts transfected with pRhCMV/BAC-EGFP. However, peak virus yields of cells infected with reconstituted progeny were 10-fold lower than wild-type RhCMV, suggesting that inclusion of the 9-kb BAC sequence impeded viral replication. Accordingly, pRhCMV/BAC-EGFP was further modified to enable efficient excision of the BAC vector from the viral genome after transfection into mammalian cells. Allelic exchange was performed in bacteria to substitute the cre recombinase gene for egfp. Transfection of rhesus fibroblasts with pRhCMV/BAC-Cre resulted in a pure progeny population lacking the vector backbone without the need of further manipulation. The genomic structure of the BAC-reconstituted virus, RhCMV-loxP(r), was identical to that of wild-type RhCMV except for the residual loxP site. The presence of the loxP sequence did not alter the expression profiles of neighboring open reading frames. In addition, RhCMV-loxP(r) replicated with wild-type kinetics both in tissue culture and seronegative immunocompetent macaques. Restriction analysis of the viral genome present within individual BAC clones and virions revealed that (i) RhCMV exhibits a simple genome structure and that (ii) there is a variable number of a 750-bp iterative sequence present at the S terminus.
SSRD+: A Privacy-aware Trust and Security Model for Resource Discovery in Pervasive Computing Environment

SSRD is a secure resource discovery model for devices running in a pervasive computing environment. SSRD is based on a lightweight trust model. SSRD+ is an extension of the existing SSRD model. In SSRD+, we enhance the trust model by adding dynamic trust relationship and also specifying behavioral characteristics that determine the level of trust among devices. We also add a risk model to address challenges posed by the pervasive and ad hoc nature of the network. These models work together to make the entire discovery process lightweight and secure. In this paper we present details of the trust and risk models. We illustrate the design and implementation of SSRD+ as a whole that optimally explores resources without degrading the performance of the devices while ensuring user security and privacy.
The Interaction of the American Military, Medicine, and Society

This research article focuses on how the technical and social aspects of the American military serve to shape the course of medical development. Historical trends in this interaction are presented with a timeline of American military medicine from the Civil War to present day military campaigns. The modern situation is then outlined and explained, followed by a reinterpretation of this modern situation using ideas learned in the historical timeline. Finally, current and future solutions for long-term veteran care are addressed. Together, these topics reveal that, although military conflicts do often result in the progression of medical techniques, this progression is heavily skewed toward the development of more acute solutions, such as anesthesia, aseptic technique, and plastic surgery, and tends to neglect chronic care. Because of this fact, there seems to be a trend in interaction of the United States military and civilian medicine that results in inadequate long-term care for many veterans.
Inference theory for volatility functional dependencies

We develop inference theory for models involving possibly nonlinear transforms of the elements of the spot covariance matrix of a multivariate continuous-time process observed at high frequency. The framework can be used to study the relationship among the elements of the latent spot covariance matrix and processes defined on the basis of it such as systematic and idiosyncratic variances, factor betas and correlations on a fixed interval of time. The estimation is based on matching model-implied moment conditions under the occupation measure induced by the spot covariance process. We prove consistency and asymptotic mixed normality of our estimator of the (random) coefficients in the volatility model and further develop model specification tests. We apply our inference methods to study variance and correlation risks in nine sector portfolios comprising the S&P 500 index. We document sector-specific variance risks in addition to that of the market and time-varying heterogeneous correlation risk among the market-neutral components of the sector portfolio returns.
Specificity of enhanced immunological sensitization of mice following injections of antigens and specific antisera.

SummaryAn enhanced antibody response to bovine serum albumin and fluid tetanus toxoid was found in mice when these antigens were injected in slight antigen excess with specific heterologous antisera. The specificity of the enhanced response was limited to specific antigens in complex. An enhanced response was also demonstrated to rabbit gamma globulin by testing the capacity of passively immunized mice to degrade I131-labeled RGG at an accelerated rate.
Narrative Unmoored: Photography, Orientalism, and Geopolitics in Roberto Arlt's “La cadena del ancla”

This essay offers a reading of “La cadena del ancla,” a short story that Roberto Arlt wrote as a journalist while on assignment in Morocco during the mid-1930s, from the perspective of postcolonial studies and visual culture. While focusing on the themes of espionage and revenge, it analyzes Orientalist storytelling as a praxis of writing alongside history, through which the Argentine writer documented the rivalry between global colonial powers in 1935. By examining the main characters’ displacement along the coast of North Africa, from Tangier to Cairo, the essay aims to open up the lines of interconnectivity between photography and narrative, visual arts and Mediterranean geopolitical flows. Arlt engages a “repertoire of Orientalism” by interpolating what Graham Huggan has called the “postcolonial exotic,” but he also subverts it by inviting history into the pages of his short story. When read with a postcolonial understanding of the writer's travels, Arlt's visual projection of his experiences in Spain...
Keeping FLSA's Promises: The Third Circuit Extends the Law's Reach to More Joint Employers, Successors, and Supervisors in Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network

_Thompson_ extended the FLSA’s reach in the Third Circuit to cover more employers, a positive development that comports with the text and underlying policies of the FLSA. _Thompson_ also has important implications in light of the unprecedented growth in subcontracting and other multi-layered employment relationships because it will subject more of these relationships to FLSA’s protections.
The Law of Nature and the Natural Condition of Mankind

Hobbes held that the universe consists of nothing but matter in motion — or at rest. He claimed that human psychology may be reduced to physical laws. The opening chapters of Leviathan are devoted to illustrating and confirming this thesis. He also held that people can understand human nature by introspection, arguing (as Montaigne and Descartes had argued) that by examining our own thoughts and passions we may discover truths about the thoughts and passions of everyone (Lev Introduction 2). His political doctrines were based upon his theory of human nature — a theory which De Corpore (on body, or matter) and De Homine (on man) were intended to vindicate, but which (in Hobbes’ opinion) was sufficiently confirmed by self-examination and by everyday experience. It was because his political theory was grounded in principles evident from experience that Hobbes felt able to publish De Cive before the other two parts of his philosophical trilogy (DC preface to the reader, 10, 19).
Patient Specific Characteristics Are an Important Factor That Determines the Risk of Acute Grade ≥ 2 Rectal Toxicity in Patients Treated for Prostate Cancer with IMRT and Daily Image Guidance Based on Implanted Gold Markers.

Aim: To model acute rectal toxicity in Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer using dosimetry and patient specific characteristics. Methods: A database of 79 prostate cancer patients treated with image guided IMRT was used to fit parameters of Lyman-Kutcher-Burman (LKB) and logistic regression Normal Tissue Complications Probability (NTCP) models to acute grade ≥ 2 rectal toxicities. We used a univariate regression model to find the dosimetric index which was most correlated with toxicity and a multivariate logistic regression model with machine learning algorithm to integrate dosimetry with patient specific characteristics. We used Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) to quantify the predictive power of models. Results: Sixteen patients (20.3%) developed acute grade≥2 rectal toxicity. Our best estimate (95% confidence interval) of LKB model parameters for acute rectal toxicity are exponent n=0.13 (0.1-0.16), slope m=0.09 (0.08–0.11), and threshold dose TD50=56.8 (53.7-59.9) Gy. The best dosimetric indices in the univariate logistic regression NTCP model were D25% and V50Gy. The best AUC of dosimetry only modeling was 0.67 (0.54, 0.8). In the multivariate logistic regression two patient specific variables were particularly strongly correlated with acute rectal toxicity, the use of statin drugs and PSA level prior to IMRT, while two additional variables, age and diabetes were weakly correlated. The AUC of the logistic regression NTCP model improved to 0.88 (0.8, 0.96) when patient specific characteristics were included. In a group of 79 patients, 40 took Statins and 39 did not. Among patients who took statins, (4/40)=10% developed acute grade ≥2 rectal toxicity, compared to (12/39)=30.8% who did not take statins (p=0.03). The average and standard deviation of PSA distribution for patients with acute rectal toxicity was 5.77 2.27 tox PSA = ± and it was 9.5 7.8 notox PSA = ± for the remainder (p=0.01). Conclusions: Patient specific characteristics strongly influence the likelihood of acute grade ≥ 2 rectal toxicity in radiation therapy for prostate cancer.
A randomized, open-label pilot of the combination of low-level laser therapy and lorcaserin for weight loss

Obesity is a significant public health problem and innovative treatments are needed. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the preliminary efficacy and safety of a combined treatment of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) and lorcaserin on weight loss, health quality of life (QOL) measures, and cardiovascular risk factors. Forty-five overweight and obese adult participants with a body mass index (BMI) >26.9 and <40 were randomized to receive LLLT, lorcaserin, or a combination of the two therapies. All study participants received treatment for 3 months and were followed for 3 months post-treatment. Participants were recruited from June 2014 through September 2014. The majority of the 44 participants accrued to this study were female (84 %) with an average age of 43.9 years (range 22 to 64 years). Most participants (93 % LLLT alone, 87 % LLLT + lorcaserin) completed at least 80 % of the LLLT treatments. From baseline to end of treatment, significant reductions in waist circumference were noted for each treatment group (-2.3 ± 4.1 cm, -6.0 ± 7.3 cm, and -4.0 ± 5.5 cm for LLLT, lorcaserin and combination respectively); however, the reduction in body weight was only significant in those receiving lorcaserin and combination treatment (-0.4 ± 1.5 kg, -1.3 ± 1.2 kg and -1.3 ± 1.3 kg). No significant differences were noted between the groups. Self-reported satisfaction was higher in the lorcaserin versus the LLLT group. This small pilot demonstrates that when combined with behavioral intervention, Lorcaserin and LLLT may be effective components of a comprehensive approach to the treatment of overweight and obesity in the clinical setting. Further studies with larger sample size and longer duration of treatment and follow-up are needed to further address efficacy. Trial registration: NCT02129608 . Registered June 15, 2014.
Use of Angle-Independent M-Mode Sonography for Assessment of Diaphragm Displacement.

Objectives Sonographic assessment of diaphragm displacement has conventionally been conducted with M-mode sonography via an anterior subcostal approach. This method is subject to measurement errors when diaphragm displacement is not in line with the M-mode plane. We aimed to compare measurements obtained by offline angle-independent (anatomic) M-mode sonography with conventional M-mode sonography. Methods Fifty healthy adults were imaged with conventional and angle-independent M-mode sonography of the bilateral hemidiaphragms at 60% maximal inspiratory capacity using an inspiratory spirometer. Results Left hemidiaphragm displacement was successfully imaged by conventional M-mode sonography in only 70% (n = 35), as lung expansion obscured imaging, whereas 92% (n = 46) were assessable by angle-independent M-mode sonography. All right hemidiaphragm displacement could be assessed. Conventional M-mode results were higher than angle-independent M-mode results on the right (mean ± SD, 4.9 ± 1.4 versus 4.6 ± 1.2 cm, respectively; P= .003) and left (5.4 ± 1.3 versus 4.6 ± 1.0 cm; P < .001). Displacement values were different for right versus left hemidiaphragms on conventional M-mode sonography (mean difference, 0.6 ± 0.2 cm; P = .005), with only mild agreement (R2 = 0.35; P < .001). There was no laterality seen in the diaphragm displacement on angle-independent M-mode sonography (mean difference, 0.1 ± 0.1 cm; P = .47), with good agreement (R2 = 0.76; P < .001). Conclusions Angle-independent M-mode sonography leads to better visualization and assessment of the left hemidiaphragm. It records lower displacement than conventional M-mode sonography in the bilateral diaphragms, likely because of fewer orientation and translation errors. Future study is indicated to assess the clinical utility of angle-independent M-mode sonography in a population with diaphragm dysfunction.
Runtime Techniques to Mitigate Soft Errors in Network-on-Chip (NoC) Architectures

As aggressive scaling continues to push multiprocessor system-on-chips (MPSoCs) to new limits, complex hardware structures combined with stringent area and power constraints will continue to diminish reliability. Waning reliability in integrated circuits will increase the susceptibility of transient and permanent faults. There is an urgent demand for adaptive error correction coding (ECC) schemes in network-on-chips to provide fault tolerance and improve overall resiliency of MPSoC architectures. The goal of adaptive ECC schemes should be to maximize power savings when faults are infrequent and increase application speedup by boosting fault coverage when faults are frequent. In this paper, we propose runtime adaptive scrubbing (RAS), a novel multilayered error correction and detection scheme with three modes of operation enabled by an area-efficient configurable encoder for encoding packets on the switch-to-switch (s2s) layer, thus preventing faults from accumulating up the network stack and onto the end-to-end layer. As fault rates fluctuate we propose a dynamic methodology for improving fault localization and intelligently adapt fault coverage on demand to sustain graceful network degradation. RAS successfully improves network resiliency, fault localization, and fault coverage as compared to traditional static s2s schemes. Simulation results demonstrate that static RAS improves network speedup by 10% for Splash-2/PARSEC benchmarks on a $8 \times 8$ mesh network while reducing area overhead by 14% and incurring on an average 6.6% power penalty by boosting fault tolerance when fault rates increase. Further, our dynamic RAS scheme maintains 97.88% of network performance for real applications while incurring 20% power penalty.
Management of Patients With Stage I Lung Cancer.

The treatment of stage I non–small-cell lung cancer has advanced markedly over the past century. The transition from therapeutic nihilism with ensured mortality to radical surgery with pneumonectomy to rational oncologic-based resection has resulted in dramatically improved outcomes and reduced morbidity. The superiority of anatomic resection with lobectomy over sublobar resection for fit patients with stage I disease, where more than one half of all patients should expect to be cured, is backed by level 1 evidence. Minimally invasive approaches have further decreased morbidity and mortality, and prospective trials continue to assess whether sublobar resection is appropriate in more select circumstances for tumors < 2 cm. Interest in studying the patient at high risk for complications after lobectomy has been spurred by recent advances in surgical, radiotherapy, and ablative treatment options. In particular, provocative results with stereotactic body radiotherapy have led to rapid adoption in clinical pra...
Pyogenic Flexor Tenosynovitis in an Infant.

Pyogenic flexor tenosynovitis is a rare though well known infectious process of the flexor tendon sheath of the hand. This condition is generally diagnosed in adults by the observance of the four Kanavel signs. Application of the Kanavel signs to diagnosis in the pediatric population, however, is of unknown utility. We present the case of a 13-month-old male with pyogenic flexor tenosynovitis who presented with all four of the Kanavel signs.
ALDH2*2 and peer drinking in East Asian college students.

ABSTRACTBackground: The ALDH2*2 allele (A-allele) at rs671 is more commonly carried by Asians and is associated with alcohol-related flushing, a strong adverse reaction to alcohol that is protective against drinking. Social factors, such as having friends who binge drink, also contribute to drinking in Asian youth. Objectives: This study examined the interplay between ALDH2*2, peer drinking, and alcohol consumption in college students. We hypothesized that the relationship between ALDH2*2 and standard grams of ethanol per month would vary based on the level of peer drinking. Methods: Subjects (N = 318, 63.25% female) were East Asian college students in the United States who reported drinking alcohol. Data were from the freshman year of a university survey that included a saliva DNA sample. ALDH2*2 status was coded ALDH2*2(+) (A/G and A/A genotypes) and ALDH2*2(−) (G/G genotype). Peer drinking was students’ perception of how many of their friends “got drunk”. Results: Main effects of ALDH2*2(−) and having ...
Autism, Attention, and Alpha Oscillations: An Electrophysiological Study of Attentional Capture

Abstract Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with deficits in adaptively orienting attention to behaviorally relevant information. Neural oscillatory activity plays a key role in brain function and provides a high-resolution temporal marker of attention dynamics. Alpha-band (8–12 Hz) activity is associated with both selecting task-relevant stimuli and filtering task-irrelevant information. Methods The present study used electroencephalography to examine alpha-band oscillatory activity associated with attentional capture in 19 children with ASD and 21 age- and IQ-matched typically developing children. Participants completed a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm designed to investigate responses to behaviorally relevant targets and contingent attention capture by task-irrelevant distractors, which either did or did not share a behaviorally relevant feature. Participants also completed 6 minutes of eyes-open resting electroencephalography. Results In contrast to their typically developing peers, children with ASD did not evidence posterior alpha desynchronization to behaviorally relevant targets. Additionally, reduced target-related desynchronization and poorer target detection were associated with increased ASD symptomatology. Typically developing children also showed behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of contingent attention capture, whereas children with ASD showed no behavioral facilitation or alpha desynchronization to distractors that shared a task-relevant feature. Lastly, children with ASD had significantly decreased resting alpha power, and for all participants increased resting alpha levels were associated with greater task-related alpha desynchronization. Conclusions These results suggest that in ASD underresponsivity and impairments in orienting to salient events within their environment are reflected by atypical electroencephalography oscillatory neurodynamics, which may signify atypical arousal levels and/or an excitatory/inhibitory imbalance.
Nudging and other ways of steering choices

By structuring choices wisely, governments can get people to make better choices without limiting their freedom.
Initial Calibrations and Wind Tunnel Test Results for an In-Flow Reference Array Using New In-Flow Acoustic Sources in Four Array Mount Configurations

This paper describes efforts to develop a small in-flow phased microphone array as a reference acoustic sensor and quantify its level-measurement accuracy with new in-flow calibration sources. The devices can be applied to a wide variety of in- and out-of-flow measurement applications and test facilities. Recent tests of the array and two calibration sources in the NASA Anechoic Chamber and Army 7- by 10-foot Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center demonstrated that the array was functional over a frequency range of 2 to 100 kilohertz for emission angles of 92 degrees, 108 degrees, and 120 degrees, and Mach numbers of 0, 0.15, and 0.25. The array and calibration sources were then used to assess the relative effects of array installation on background noise and level measurement accuracy by locating the array in the flow (strut- and wall-mounted) as well as outside the flow behind a porous wall screen and a free shear layer. The wind tunnel array measurements were compared with anechoic chamber measurements using discrete microphones at the same source distance and emission angles. At 92 degrees, the noise floor and attenuation spectra were comparable (within 5 decibels) for each installation from 2 to 30 kilohertz. At higher angles, the array installation behind the Kevlar screen had the lowest noise floor at M = 0.15 and 0.25. The array installation 10 inches (maximum available distance) behind a free shear layer had higher background noise that is typically reduced to a lower level by moving the array back further from the flow. For emission angles greater than 92 degrees, both the Kevlar and free shear layer installations exhibited stronger attenuations in measured level, beginning at lower frequencies than either the wall- or strut-mount configurations. Additional array and calibration source units of the same design are being tested at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Langley Research Center in their aeroacoustic research facilities in an effort to improve measurement accuracy and repeatability.
Supersonic Cluster Beams: An Alternative Approach to Surface Science

Rapid advances in the art of generating and probing supersonic metal cluster beams are beginning to show the outlines of a new approach to surface science. The new approach involves the study of small, bare clusters in the high vacuum of a molecular beam apparatus in much the same way that the more conventional type of surface science uses perfect single crystals in an ultra high vacuum surface machine. In both cases the object of study is a highly idealized model of the real polycrystalline surfaces of practical importance, but in the case of the new cluster beam approach, this model has the advantage of a far more immediate connection to high level ab initio theory. As an example of this new molecular cluster approach to surface science, dissociative chemisorption experiments are described for D2 and N2 on small clusters of a variety of transition metals.
ANNUALIZED RETURNS OF VENTURE-BACKED PUBLIC COMPANIES CATEGORIZED BY STAGE OF FINANCING: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF IPOS IN THE LAST THREE DECADES

Although the national media has given increased attention to the venture capital process, misconcep­ tions continue to proliferate. One often hears about the incredible capital gains of IPO share prices. This paper refutes the myth that investors demand very high rates of return to compensate for the risks involved in financing ventures. The paper investigates actual performance of 3,063 Initial Public Offerings of companies that were backed by venture capital from 1968 until 1998 stratified by current actively and inactively traded compa­ nies and by stages of financing. The main findings are that annualized returns .are different for current active­ ly and inactively traded firms and for many of the stages of financing but that they are much lower than the ones reported by the media and the venture capital literature.
Lipoatrophic diabetes and other related syndromes.

Millions of Americans are afflicted by obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Obesity is characterized by increased body adiposity and leads to insulin resistance. Paradoxically, some conditions that are characterized by a paucity of fat also cause insulin resistance, namely the syndromes of lipoatrophy (Fig. 1). The resemblance between the metabolic abnormalities of these two extreme states of adiposity emphasizes the importance of fat tissue in energy homeostasis. This review focuses on the syndromes of lipodystrophy and lipoatrophy that are at the lean extreme of the spectrum and which are characterized by near-complete absence of fat.
Portals and policy: implications of electronic access to U.S. federal government information and services

This chapter evaluates the emerging electronic "portal" model of information and service delivery to U.S. citizens, businesses, and government agencies. The portal model is being used as a technology framework in the U.S. Federal government to carry out the electronic government strategies set out in the President's Management Agenda for 2002 and the subsequent 24 electronic government initiatives included in the Budget of the United States Government for 2003 and the E-Government Strategy. FirstGov.gov is the official Federal government portal for all information and services delivered by the Federal executive agencies. The legal and organizational framework for FirstGov, based on an in-depth case study, is presented and evaluated as a model for future electronic government initiatives.
Research and clinical services in Chinese aphasia: A recent update.

Background: Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world, with a total of approximately 1.2 billion native speakers worldwide. Living with aphasia negatively affects one’s quality of lif...
Patient-clinician communication and oral chemotherapy adherence.

e18849Background: Cancer care increasingly includes oral chemotherapy. We summarize the literature on patient-clinician communication and patient adherence to curative oral chemotherapy, and explor...
Exploring the efficacy of an electronic symptom assessment and self-care intervention to preserve physical function in individuals receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy

Impaired physical function due to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) symptoms may lead to diminished quality of life. However, even with the knowledge of the effects of CIPN on physical function, clinicians infrequently assess and manage CIPN. Interventions that prioritize the early identification of CIPN to provide prompt treatment may reduce the impact of CIPN on physical function. The purpose of this paper is to compare self-reported physical function in individuals receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy between Electronic Symptom Assessment-Cancer (ESRA-C) intervention group (e.g., opportunity for symptom screening, self-care recommendations, communication coaching, and symptom tracking) and control group participants (i.e., electronic assessment alone). Secondary outcomes include pain intensity, sensory/motor CIPN, depression, fatigue, and insomnia. The data used in this paper are a subset of a randomized controlled trial that examined the impact of the ESRA-C intervention on symptom distress in individuals receiving cancer treatment. Since the interest in this analysis is on the effects of neurotoxic chemotherapy on physical function, subjects were included if they received platinum and/or taxane-based chemotherapy and completed the baseline and end-of-treatment measures. Participants completed standardized questionnaires of physical function, CIPN, fatigue, depression, pain intensity, and insomnia prior to treatment, 3–6 weeks after treatment initiation, and after the completion of treatment. Changes in mean scores are compared between groups using linear mixed models adjusting for age. Intervention group participants reported significantly less reduction in physical functioning (baseline: 87.4/100; end-of-treatment: 84.5/100) relative to the control (baseline: 90.2/100; end-of-treatment: 81.8/100) (p = 0.011). For secondary measures, significantly less depression (p = 0.005) was observed in the intervention group as compared to the control, but otherwise, there were no between-group differences. Among participants who received high cumulative doses of neurotoxic chemotherapy, the intervention group reported significantly less severe sensory (p = 0.007) and motor CIPN (p = 0.039) relative to the control. Use of the ESRA-C intervention led to less reduction in physical function in comparison to the control in individuals receiving neurotoxic chemotherapy. Further research is needed to confirm our findings and to identify how electronic symptom assessment technology may mediate physical function preservation. ClinicalTrials.Gov NCT00852852 . Registered 27 February 2009.
Inference for the Number of Topics in the Latent Dirichlet Allocation Model via Bayesian Mixture Modeling

In latent Dirichlet allocation, the number of topics, T, is a hyperparameter of the model that must be specified before one can fit the model. The need to specify T in advance is restrictive. One w...
Identifying and addressing training deficiencies in the examination of cryptorchidism—a quality improvement study

Summary Background Accurate and timely diagnosis of cryptorchidism by primary care providers (PCPs) is critical to oncologic and fertility outcomes. Physical exam is the mainstay of diagnosis, but little is known about PCPs’ skills in examining cryptorchid patients. Patients referred to surgeons for cryptorchidism often have normal or retractile testes on exam, and delayed or missed diagnosis of cryptorchidism may contribute to advanced age at surgical intervention. Previous studies on cryptorchidism have not investigated the baseline training, confidence, and/or exam skills of providers. Objective The authors aimed to define baseline training and provider confidence in the exam of cryptorchid patients and to improve examiner confidence using bedside teaching with a pediatric urologist. Secondarily, baseline training and confidence were correlated to skill. Study design Medical students, family medicine, pediatrics, and urology residents, and pediatric attendings completed surveys on baseline training and self-reported confidence in the examination of cryptorchid patients at an academic institution from 2017 to 2018. N.G.K. (pediatric urologist) proctored examinations of cryptorchid patients and provided standardized grades and individualized feedback. Surveys were readministered after 3 months. Non-parametric comparison tests were performed to determine intervention effect and compare subgroups. Results Ninety-two respondents participated. 62% reported little to no formal training on the scrotal exam, 50% were self-taught, and 20% defined undescended testis incorrectly. Confidence increased with level of training, comparing attendings to residents to students (P Discussion Significant training deficiencies exist in the examination of cryptorchid patients. A single proctored exam with a pediatric urologist can improve provider confidence and may improve exam skills. A rotation with pediatric urology, including proctored exams of cryptorchid patients, has become standard practice for pediatric trainees at the authors institution as a result of this study. Conclusions While further studies are required to assess the effectiveness of bedside teaching and its impact on accurate and timely diagnosis of cryptorchidism, implementation of the authors quality improvement recommendations at other teaching institutions would help address training deficiencies in the examination of cryptorchid patients. Download : Download high-res image (59KB) Download : Download full-size image Summary figure . Self-reported confidence in exam before and after proctored session.
Exploratory Search with Sentence Embeddings.

Exploratory search aims to guide users through a corpus rather than pinpointing exact information. We propose an exploratory search system based on hierarchical clusters and document summaries using sentence embeddings. With sentence embeddings, we represent documents as the mean of their embedded sentences, extract summaries containing sentences close to this document representation and extract keyphrases close to the document representation. To evaluate our search system, we scrape our personal search history over the past year and report our experience with the system. We then discuss motivating use cases of an exploratory search system of this nature and conclude with possible directions of future work.
Resetting and Updating

A core element of adaptive groundwater management is revisiting and reassessing basin conditions, in order to determine whether aggregate levels of pumping can be sustained or need to be adjusted. Conflict is likely to arise if basin yield that is available for use has to be reset downward and pumpers have to share in the reduction. In the 2010s, the reevaluation of Chino Basin’s yield resulted in a recommended downward adjustment, which triggered a lengthy process of difficult negotiation which included court filings. Another downward adjustment was made in 2020. Also during 2018–2020, Chino Basin leaders and stakeholders undertook updates to the Optimum Basin Management Program (OBMP), and the development of a Storage Management Plan in light of numerous changes that have occurred since 2000. This chapter covers these recent episodes in Chino Basin’s experience with the realities of adaptive management.
Sleep disruptions and bone health: what do we know so far?

Purpose of review This review briefly summarizes the growing body of literature addressing the skeletal consequences of sleep and circadian disruption. Recent findings The most recent data in the field suggest that the diurnal variation in bone turnover markers are because of endogenous circadian rhythmicity linked to clock genes in all bone cells; in a small human intervention study, cumulative sleep restriction with concurrent circadian disruption negatively alter bone turnover markers in a way that could explain the lower BMD and increased fracture risk identified in some prior night shift work studies; abnormal sleep duration and obstructive sleep apnea are associated with low BMD and increased fracture risk in some but not all studies. Summary Normal physiology and some animal and human intervention studies suggest that sleep and circadian disruptions, such as night shift work, abnormal sleep durations and obstructive sleep apnea are detrimental to skeletal health. However, additional research in this area is needed to determine, which sleep/circadian disturbances are most detrimental to skeletal health, the reversibility of such impairments, and underlying mechanisms.
Biomarker analysis of phase (Ph) IB trial of radium-223 (Rad) and niraparib (Nira) in patients (Pts) with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) (NiraRad).

5036Background: Rad is an alpha particle emitter that causes DNA double strand breaks and has been FDA-approved for use in mCRPC pts with bone metastases. PARP-1 activity critically supports androg...
Military Transportation in State Freight and Defense Community Plans

The US Department of Defense (DoD) makes extensive use of the US multimodal transportation network to move material for operational support, keep facilities supplied, and move personnel. Federal ag...
Early Complications of Ulnar Collateral Ligament Repair With Collagen-Coated Suture Tape Augmentation.

Background:Recent innovative techniques have led to renewed interest in ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) repair. Although early outcome data regarding the clinical outcome of overhead athletes under...
Sequential Randomized Smoothing for Adversarially Robust Speech Recognition.

While Automatic Speech Recognition has been shown to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks, defenses against these attacks are still lagging. Existing, naive defenses can be partially broken with an adaptive attack. In classification tasks, the Randomized Smoothing paradigm has been shown to be effective at defending models. However, it is difficult to apply this paradigm to ASR tasks, due to their complexity and the sequential nature of their outputs. Our paper overcomes some of these challenges by leveraging speech-specific tools like enhancement and ROVER voting to design an ASR model that is robust to perturbations. We apply adaptive versions of state-of-the-art attacks, such as the Imperceptible ASR attack, to our model, and show that our strongest defense is robust to all attacks that use inaudible noise, and can only be broken with very high distortion.