cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analysis on Frequency Control Characteristics of Variable Speed Wind Turbines and Coordinated Frequency Control Strategy of Wind Farm

Due to the weak coupling between variable speed wind turbines(VSWTs) and synchronized main networks,the system equivalent rotation inertia and primary frequency control ability are decreased with the continuously increasing wind power penetration.To solve the problems,VSWT with additional frequency control is studied.The dynamic characteristics of input mechanical power and output active power of VSWT during the frequency response process are analyzed,and the relationship between the active power increment and the duration of VSWT participating in the system frequency regulation is quantified.A coordinated frequency control strategy of wind farm is proposed.According to the control strategy,the VSWTs can participate in frequency regulation depending on the coordination of wind speed,power increment and duration.Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.It not only makes full use of the frequency regulation ability of VSWTs but also avoids the negative effects participating in the system frequency regulation.
Coherent Parametric Contours for Interactive Video Object Segmentation

Interactive video segmentation systems aim at producing sub-pixel-level object boundaries for visual effect applications. Recent approaches mainly focus on using sparse user input (i.e. scribbles) for efficient segmentation, however, the quality of the final object boundaries is not satisfactory for the following reasons: (1) the boundary on each frame is often not accurate, (2) boundaries across adjacent frames wiggle around inconsistently, causing temporal flickering, and (3) there is a lack of direct user control for fine tuning. We propose Coherent Parametric Contours, a novel video segmentation propagation framework that addresses all the above issues. Our approach directly models the object boundary using a set of parametric curves, providing direct user controls for manual adjustment. A spatiotemporal optimization algorithm is employed to produce object boundaries that are spatially accurate and temporally stable. We show that existing evaluation datasets are limited and demonstrate a new set to cover the common cases in professional rotoscoping. A new metric for evaluating temporal consistency is proposed. Results show that our approach generates higher quality, more coherent segmentation results than previous methods.
Demonization Deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

While there has been much literature on the substantive issues of deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, relatively little emphasis has been placed on demonization as a relational barrier in peace talks. This chapter applies the framework of “demonization deadlock” to the case study, examining how demonization, as one factor among many, has complicated negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Normand shows how allegations of “shaking hands with the Devil,” “no partner for peace,” and “with us or against us” featured during the various attempts at “waging peace.” She argues that demonization appeared both as an outcome of events on the ground and as a contributor to stalling the peace talks. The chapter concludes by proposing “de-demonization” as a remedy for diplomatic deadlock in the conflict.
Análisis del Género Discursivo Aplicado a la Clasificación Automática de la Polaridad en Comentarios sobre Productos

La alfabetizacion esta inexorablemente vinculada a la practica de cualquier disciplina academica. La habilidad para usar de forma adecuada el registro linguistico y las convenciones retoricas del genero de investigacion es importante para lograr el exito academico y el desarrollo profesional en la carrera de los investigadores. Por eso, cuando los estudiantes se integran en una comunidad de practica investigadora tienen que llegar a dominar no solo las caracteristicas lexico-gramaticales … propias del lenguaje academico, sino tambien las convenciones discursivas particulares de cada comunidad disciplinar. Esta investigacion tiene dos objetivos generales. En primer lugar, la creacion de un corpus de trabajos academicos de investigacion escritos en catalan, de bachillerato y master universitario, en las disciplinas de biologia e historia. Este corpus llamado TARBUC (Treballs Academics de Recerca de Batxillerat i Universitat en Catala) esta digitalizado y disponible para la comunidad investigadora. En segundo lugar, caracterizar a partir de este corpus el desarrollo de la escritura academica en momentos diferentes de la historia educativa de los estudiantes. Para ello se presentan dos estudios. En el estudio 1, se compara transversalmente un corpus de trabajos de investigacion de bachillerato y de final de master universitario en las disciplinas de biologia e historia, ambos escritos en catalan. En el estudio 2, se compara longitudinalmente trabajos de investigacion de final del master universitario, en catalan, y de articulos publicados en ingles en la disciplina de biologia. En concreto, se caracteriza el registro y el meta-discurso. Se analiza el registro por medio de las siguientes caracteristicas lexico-gramaticales: (i) la diversidad lexica, (ii) la densidad lexica, (iii) la complejidad sintactica. Respecto al meta-discurso, se examina la funcion meta-discursiva interaccional a traves de los marcadores linguisticos, que senalan, por una parte, la voz textual del escritor para involucrarse con su texto, la postura (stance), y, por otra, los que utiliza el escritor para involucrar al lector, la afiliacion (engagement). Las implicaciones de estos resultados se discuten en terminos linguisticos, cognitivos y socioculturales y sugieren que la capacidad de desplegar el registro linguistico y las convenciones retoricas, de forma adecuada a una comunidad discursiva especifica, es en si mismo un proceso prolongado.
Bilateral Testicular Germ Cell Tumors in the Era of Multimodal Therapy

Objective To characterize the incidence, presentation, management, and relapse of a large population of bilateral testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) from a single institution. Patients and Methods We identified bilateral TGCT diagnosed between January 1989 and February 2014. We categorized synchronous and metachronous TGCT, noting time between first and second TGCT, histology (seminoma vs nonseminoma [NSGCT]), stage, and treatments. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates characterized relapse. Results Of 5132 patients with TGCT, 128 (2.5%) had bilateral TGCT. Bilateral TGCT increased over time—1.7% in 1989-1994 up to 3.8% in 2010 to February 2014. The 35 (27%) synchronous cases of TGCT had 20 (57%) concordant seminoma, 5 (14%) concordant NSGCT, and 10 (29%) discordant NSGCT. The 93 (73%) metachronous cases had median time interval to second TGCT of 73 months (range: 5 months-28.6 years). Compared with first TGCT, 39 (42%) had discordant histology, 29 (31%) had concordant seminoma, and 25 (27%) had concordant NSGCT. Stage at first tumor was statistically similar to second TGCT (second stage I, II, II in 69%, 22%, 10%). Increasing duration between first and second TGCT was not associated with higher stage (II or III) at second TGCT (P = .09). Treatment at first tumor was not associated with stage at second tumor. Relapse following bilateral diagnosis was 16.8% (95% confidence interval 10.5%-26.2%) at 5 years. Conclusion Incidence of bilateral TGCT increased with >25% of metachronous TGCT presenting ≥10 years after first TGCT; possible causes include increased survivorship and referral bias. Stage was statistically similar at first and second tumor; stage at second tumor was not associated with time interval between tumors or prior treatment modality at first tumor.
Optical Transition Radiation Imaging of 120 GeV Protons Used for Antiproton Production at FNAL

An optical transition radiation (OTR) detector has been installed in the FNAL AP-1 pre-target beamline to image OTR from 120 GeV protons used for antiproton production. This detector will be used to measure protons-on-target beam profiles at high intensities where the present secondary emission monitor (SEM) will not operate. This detector will complement the AP-1 beam instrumentation that includes 2 toroids, 6 secondary emission monitors, 9 beam position monitors (BPM), 24 beam loss monitors (BLM) and a resistive wall monitor (RWM). The AP-1 beamline is a 120 GeV high-intensity fixed-target proton beamline with the following beam parameters: a maximum expected beam intensity of 1e13 protons/spill, spill rate of 1.9 seconds, and a spill length 1.6 musec. Commissioning of the OTR system is proceeding and initial results are presented.
Conclusion: Revisiting Old Questions

This Chapter is a concluding one with three main points. The first one is a recapitulation of the work done up to this stage, tracing the elaboration of the theoretical challenge in the second chapter, where it is shown that imperialist ideology refers to the civilizing mission with its racist prejudices that was put forward to justify the formal colonial imperialism. The third chapter followed the idea of humanitarian intervention from the just war theory to the recent concept of Responsibility to Protect in order to see how founded is the claim that humanitarian intervention is a neocolonialism. The fourth and fifth chapters tried to respond to these criticisms from Rawls’s and Habermas’s accounts of human rights, but they were not satisfying. Hence Chap. 6 elaborated a multilevel conception of human rights that proved to offer a better way to approach these challenges. The other two points revisit old questions related to human rights, namely, the issue of relativism and the quest for human rights universality. On both subjects, the multilayer conception of human rights opens another path to address these issues, especially stressing that, although important, they are not prerequisite conditions for human rights effectiveness.
Exploring the Factors Associated With the Disaster Preparedness of Human Service Organizations Serving Persons With Disabilities

ABSTRACTThis study explores the factors associated with disaster preparedness among nonprofit human service organizations (HSOs) serving persons with a disability. By using secondary data, the representatives of 232 nonprofit HSOs in seven states answered questions about disaster preparedness during telephone interviews. The results indicated that many organizations lack specific policies regarding shelter, evacuation assistance, and transportation services for persons with disabilities. The study’s findings also indicated that the disability conditions of clients, collaboration with governmental organizations, disaster services capacity, and organizational size are significantly associated with HSOs’ disaster preparedness. Practical implications for nonprofit managers and policymakers are discussed.
Electron postmastectomy chest wall plus comprehensive nodal irradiation technique using Electron Monte Carlo dose algorithm

Abstract For left-sided postmastectomy patients requiring chest wall plus comprehensive nodal irradiation, sometimes traditional techniques such as partial wide tangents or electron/tangents combination are not feasible due to abnormal chest wall contour or heart position or unusually wide excision scar. We developed electron chest wall irradiation technique using Electron Monte Carlo (EMC) dose algorithm that will achieve heart sparing with acceptable ipsilateral lung dose, minimal contralateral lung, and breast dose. Ten left-sided postmastectomy patients with very challenging anatomy were selected for this dosimetry study. The en face electron fields were designed from a single isocenter and gantry angle with different energy beams using different cutouts that matched on the skin. Smaller energy was used in the central thin chest wall part and higher energy in the medial internal mammary nodes (IMN) area, superior part of the thick chest wall, and/or axillary nodal area. The electron fields were matched to the photon supraclavicular field in the superior region. Daily field junctions were used to feather the match lines between all the fields. Electron field dose calculations were done with Monte Carlo. Five patients' chest wall fields were planned with 6/9MeVcombination, 1 with 6/12 MeV, 2 with 9/12 MeV, 1 with 9/16 MeV, and 1 with 6/9/12 MeV. Institutional criteria of prescription dose of 50 Gy for target volumes and normal tissue dose were met with this technique in spite of the challenging anatomy. Mean heart dose averaged 3.0 Gy ± 0.8 Gy. For ipsilateral lung, V20Gy and V5Gy averaged 33.2% ± 4.5% and 64.6% ± 9.6%, respectively. For contralateral lung, V5Gy averaged 5.1% ± 5.0%. For contralateral breast, V5Gy averaged 3.3% ± 3.1%. The electron chest wall irradiation technique using EMC dose algorithm can provide adequate dose coverage to the chest wall, IMNs, and/or axillary nodes while achieving heart sparing with acceptable ipsilateral lung dose, minimal contralateral lung, and breast dose.
SiC as a Potential FET Gate Insulator

Gate insulators for 111-V compound semiconductors are more difficult to fabricate than those for silicon. Thus, an exploration for a suitable insulator is continuing. SiC films grown by dc triode sputtering in an ultra high vacuum system appear to meet all the necessary criteria except for the fact that the resistance is somewhat low. Trying to determine the properties of these films is not always an easy task. The sputtered SiC films are hard, protective coatings. The important properties are electrical in nature and were measured by measuring the current-voltage characteristics, the complex impedance-frequency characteristics, and the complex impedance-voltage characteristics.
Improving Value Through Standard and Systematic Data Collection

Identifying high-value management strategies is increasingly important in a health care system with finite resources. This review describes the importance of robust data collection in determining treatment outcomes and valuations using examples in otolaryngology. There has been a shift in both health care systems and US government payers toward providing health care with significant benefit at reasonable cost. Systematic data collection has been employed in multiple areas of otolaryngology to measure outcomes and quantify the value of many interventions. Multiple methods exist to investigate the value of treatment strategies, including cost effectiveness analysis and applying appropriateness criteria. Robust data collection is the foundation of outcomes research and enables the assessment of the value of a treatment strategy. With current health care trends, providing high-value care will become all but mandatory across otolaryngology and other medical fields.
Effects of Vasodilation in Heart Failure With Preserved or Reduced Ejection Fraction: Implications of Distinct Pathophysiologies on Response to Therapy

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare hemodynamic responses to vasodilator therapy in patients with heart failure (HF) and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) versus HF and reduced e...
Legal Tools for Reducing Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Erie

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie have reached crisis proportions in recent summers, causing substantial economic and environmental damage and threatening public health. The prime culprit is excessive phosphorus entering Lake Erie and its tributaries. To date federal and state law have proven ineffective in achieving the needed reductions in phosphorus loading, especially from nonpoint sources. This article describes the complex set of legal tools now available under federal and Ohio law to control the key point and nonpoint sources of phosphorus, identifies gaps and weaknesses in the existing legal regime, and makes recommendations for using these legal tools more effectively and for improving the law to combat the HABs problem.
Idiopathic Priapism in the Newborn

Priapism in children usually results directly or indirectly from an underlying cause. Secondary priapism is extremely rare in neonates and idiopathic priapism has not been described previously.
Management of Humoral Primary Immunodeficiencies in Pediatrics

Children affected by humoral immunodeficiencies need a multidisciplinary medical approach. Immunoglobulin replacement therapy has a crucial role. In the last decades, subcutaneous immunoglobulin treatment has drastically changed patients’ quality of life. Many other strategies that contribute to a global management of the disease have to be applied. Respiratory physiotherapy represents the other pillar of the care of these patients. Optimal management also includes prevention strategies in order to avoid systemic complications. Treatment needs to be coordinated with a defined follow-up schedule in a pediatric immunology center. The follow-up should be in line with current recommendations but, at the same time, tailored to the needs of the specific patient.
The Validity of an Oculus Rift to Assess Postural Changes During Balance Tasks.

Objective To investigate whether shifts in head position, measured via an Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD), is a valid measure of whole-body postural stability. Background The inverted single-link pendulum model of balance suggests shifts in whole-body center of mass can be estimated from individual body segments. However, whether head position describes postural stability such as center-of-pressure (COP) remains unclear. Method Participants (N = 10) performed six conditions while wearing an HMD and performing a previously validated virtual reality (VR)-based balance assessment. COP was recorded with a Wii Balance Board force plate (WBB), while an HMD recorded linear and angular head displacement. Visual input was presented in the HMD (stable scene, dark scene, or dynamic scene) and somatosensory information (with or without foam) was varied across each condition. The HMD time series data were compared with the criterion-measure WBB. Results Significant correlations were found between COP measures (standard deviation, range, sway area, velocity) and head-centered angular and linear displacements (roll, pitch, mediolateral and anteroposterior directions). Conclusions The Oculus Rift HMD shows promise as a measure of postural stability without additional posturography equipment. These findings support the application of VR HMD technology for assessment of postural stability across a variety of challenging conditions. Application The human factors and ergonomic benefit of such an approach is in its portability, low cost, and widespread availability for clinic and home-based investigation of postural disturbances. Fall injury affects millions of people annually, so assessment of fall risk and treatment of the underlying causes has enormous public health benefit.
Photonic Neuromporphic Computing with Electrooptic Nonlinear Activation

We report on using the transfer function of electrooptic absorption modulators as nonlinear activation functions of photonic neurons and show 95% accuracy of MNIST classification inference on an AlexNet in optical artificial neural networks.
Poor People, Poor Planet: The Psychology of How We Harm and Heal Humanity and Earth

Right now millions of desperately impoverished people are starving in Africa, Asia, and other lands as climate change has accelerated drought and depletion of their water resources, land quality, and access to basics for survival. Right now thousands more find themselves displaced from their homes after severe storms, raging rivers, or rising seas have devastated their communities or wildfires have burned their lands, destroying their houses, crops, and livelihoods. Right now extreme heat waves are testing both the mental and physical health of the most vulnerable among us, including the malnourished, the elderly, the young, and the isolated.
A Correlation-Based Portfolio Performance Measure

The authors develop a new correlation-based portfolio performance measure: the return of a portfolio minus the risk-free rate divided by the average of the portfolio return’s coefficient of determination matrix. This measure informs an investor how skilled the manager is in achieving a high return with respect to correlation risk as well as how skilled the manager is in applying diversification benefits. The authors derive several extensions of the correlation ratio. The authors also show that correlation of correlation is a sensible and informative concept for manager evaluation. TOPICS:Portfolio construction, performance measurement, statistical methods
The evolution of adjuvant radiation therapy for early-stage and locally advanced breast cancer.

Adjuvant radiation therapy is often delivered after breast cancer surgery, both in the post-lumpectomy and post-mastectomy settings. Standard fractionation whole breast irradiation (SF-WBI), which is typically delivered over 5-7 weeks, was previously considered the standard of care. More recent data has helped to establish hypofractionated whole breast irradiation (HF-WBI), which consists of a 3-4 week regimen, as a new standard of care. This article provides an overview of the major randomized trials that support the routine use of HF-WBI for the majority of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery for early-stage breast cancer. Newer data on the use of a hypofractionated approach in the post-mastectomy setting, as well as ongoing randomized trials addressing this topic, are also discussed.
Lattice-Constrained Stratified Sampling for Point Cloud Levels of Detail

In the last several years, airborne topographic light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has emerged as an important remote-sensing technology supporting a wide variety of applications. In that time, researchers have conducted studies to determine the optimal sampling densities required to support their respective applications. This natural progression of experimentation and analysis has resulted in several recommended sampling density stratifications for LiDAR point cloud products. Recognizing the need for point clouds of varying sample densities provides at least two motivations for creating level of details (LOD) for high-resolution point clouds. First, from the perspective of LiDAR data consumers, there is a desire to use the coarsest sampling that supports the application to reduce procurement costs, storage constraints, and processing times. Second, from the perspective of LiDAR data providers, there is a desire to collect data once at the highest supported fidelity to minimize recollection costs and redundancy in data holdings. In this article, we present an approach for generating point cloud LODs by constraining samples to regular discrete lattices to optimize the coverage of the volumes represented by each sample. We compare our approach to the two most common point cloud sampling methods: random sampling and rectangular lattice sampling. We discuss two approaches for representing the point cloud LODs. Finally, we propose an extension of our sampling approach for processing single-photon and Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GmAPD) LiDAR.
Structural, daylighting, and energy performance of perforated concrete shell structures

Abstract In this work, a computational interdisciplinary design approach is used to integrate assessment of the structural and environmental performance of perforated concrete shell structures. Design parameters that co-exist in these disciplines and relevant performance criteria are identified. Questions result: how do these design parameters affect performance? What is the tradeoff between performance in each? Computer-aided design tools are used for form generation and performance assessment. Statistical analyses are used to study the sensitivity of performance to each parameter. Finally, the perforation ratio is found to be the most significant parameter affecting both disciplines; a value ≤ 10% to 20% is recommended for shell structures when translucent glazing is installed without shades in a Boston-type climate.
Lemierre’s Syndrome Complicated by Epidural Abscess (P5.121)

Objective: We report a case of Lemierre’s syndrome complicated by epidural abscess and weakness. Background: Lemierre’s syndrome classically presents as oropharyngeal infection that spreads to the nearby soft tissue structures and internal jugular veins where thrombophlebitis and thrombus formation can occur. Fusobacterium necrophorum is the pathogen most commonly implicated in Lemierre’s syndrome, but other pathogens have been reported. Epidural abscess leading to neurological weakness is a rare complication that requires aggressive medical and surgical interventions. Design/Methods: Case report. Results: A 55 year-old woman with history of cervical myelopathy status post anterior cervical discectomy and fusion presented with sore throat for two weeks associated with worsening neck pain and right arm weakness. Neurological exam was significant for right arm weakness. Magnetic resonance imaging with gadolinium contrast showed prevertebral/retropharyngeal abscess extending from the skull base down to the level of C7 and thrombi in the bilateral internal jugular veins. There was also epidural abscess spanning from C2–C7. Blood cultures identified methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and she was diagnosed with Lemierre’s syndrome. She was started on empiric broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics and underwent surgical drainage of the retropharyngeal abscess, debridement of the epidural abscess, and posterior cervical decompression and arthrodesis. The patient had clearance of the infecting organism with improvement of neurological deficits. Conclusions: We report a case of Lemierre’s syndrome associated with epidural abscess, an infrequently reported complication of the disease. Our case demonstrates that aggressive measures including intravenous antibiotics and surgical intervention can lead to a successful outcome. Disclosure: Dr. Shimamoto has nothing to disclose. Dr. Liang has nothing to disclose. Dr. Syed has nothing to disclose.
The Evolving Understanding of Racial Disproportionality and Disparities

Racial disproportionality and disparities have been observed in the child welfare system for nearly 50 years, yet persist as unresolved problems. Although progress has been made, attention to disproportionality and disparities has decreased in recent years and what has been observed as a problem for decades is now viewed by some as an acceptable status quo. This is due in large part to debates about the underlying causes of racial disproportionality, with some contending that this is caused largely by poverty and other risk factors external to child welfare systems, while others contend that issues of racial bias within child welfare systems lead to these persistent inequities. This debate has not only hindered efforts to address disproportionality, it has distracted from the real problem of racism that supports and maintains disproportionality, both within child welfare systems and within broader society. This chapter discusses how the understanding of disproportionality and disparities has evolved over time, and presents a framework for understanding disproportionality and disparities that focuses on racism as the overarching cause of these problems. This understanding of racism as the overarching cause of disproportionality and disparities is essential to focus our attention on the real problem we must address in our efforts to achieve racial equity in child welfare systems.
Comparison of 2 gonadorelin formulations and 2 luteolytic agents on pregnancy rates in beef cattle synchronized with a 5-d CO-Synch + CIDR program

Improving reproductive performance in beef cattle is paramount to maximize beef operations productivity and sustainability. Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteolytic agents (dinoprost tromethamine and cloprostenol sodium) are commercially available to be used in synchronization programs to allow timed artificial insemination (TAI) of cattle. Recently, a Synchronization Pack™ (Parnell) containing a combination of cloprostenol sodium and gonadorelin acetate was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to be used in TAI synchronization programs in both beef and dairy cattle. However, little research-based evidence on the pregnancy rates that can be achieved in beef cattle using these hormones is available. The objective of the present study was to compare the effect of 2 gonadorelin formulations and 2 luteolytic agents (PGF) injected as part of a 5 day CO-Synch + CIDR program on fixed TAI (FTAI) pregnancy rates (PR) in beef cattle.
An Integrated Assessment of Livelihood Opportunities of Wetland Dependent Communities of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Wetlands cover nearly 5% of the total land area of Nepal. Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR), a Ramsar Site of international significance, is not only an important protected area for globally threatened species but also important for its multi-functional role that provides a diverse range of ecosystem goods and services, especially provisioning services from forests and wetlands, to the indigenous wetland dependent communities. The research method primarily comprised of in-depth and semi-structured interviews amongst the wetland dependent communities of KTWR. Given the high level of poverty in the buffer zone communities and limited alternative livelihood opportunities, pressure on the reserve is increasing and the management investment is insufficient, which has accelerated degradation of vital ecosystem services thereby imposing further constraints on wetland conservation goals. Hence, this paper aims to look at the the existing state of livelihoods of wetland dependent communities of Koshi Tappu Widlife Reserve by the existing socio-economic status and analyzing factors affecting the dependency of local inhabitants on wetland resources through identification, inventorization, quantification and valuation of existing goods and services rendered by wetlands. People’s dependency on wetland resources is very high. The primary source of livelihood of wetland dependent communities is wetland-based products and services. The study has revealed that dependency on wetland resources is very high amongst the ethnic communities (67%). About 54% of the surveyed respondents harvest fish from the reserve followed by pater (Typha Latifolia) collection (16.8%), khar grass (Sacchrum spp) collection (12.6%) and firewood collection (8.4%). The study found that fuelwood, fodder, fish, singara and sal leaf carried high economic values to the wetland dependent communities. Going by the ethnic composition, indigenous communities earned as much as NRs 8000 per year from the sale of such wetland products. Although non-use values and some components of regulatory services were not considered in the study, findings clearly highlight the vital importance of economic benefits generated from the reserve for the well-being of wetland dependent communities. The study concludes by providing a set of recommendations such as mobilizing local communities for effective conservation, generating wetland education and awareness, capacity building and institutional strengthening by giving high priority for their long-term sustainability and protection of ecosystem services.
HIPAA at 25 - A Work in Progress.

HIPAA at 25 — A Work in Progress HIPAA is best viewed as a framework of evolving regulation that’s revised periodically in response to demands of biomedical innovation and public health in the digi...
Nuclei of pleochroic halos in biotites of some Sierra Nevada granitic rocks.

Sierra Nevada granite halos in biotite nuclei, discussing relation between biotite zircon content and halo production
Crimes Against Humanity: Emergence in Positive International Law

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. – M achiavelli , T he P rince (1537). Early History The genesis of CAH is in the Preambles of the First Hague Convention of 1899 on the Laws and Customs of War and expanded in the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907 and in their annexed Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Preambles of the two conventions used the term “laws of humanity” and based their prescriptions on these inarticulated humanistic values. Until 1945 the words used in the Preambles of the two Hague Conventions were the only references in conventional international law from which to draw on in formulating the term “crimes against humanity.” Though the Hague Conventions concerned war crimes in a very specific sense, these crimes derived from the larger meaning of violations of “the laws of humanity.” Thus, these words were intended to provide an overarching concept to protect against unspecified violations whose identification in positive international law was left to future normative development. As the predecessor to the 1907 Hague Convention, the 1899 Hague Convention was the first comprehensive international instrument to develop rules derived from the customary practices of states in time of war.
How many species of Diacyclops? New taxonomic characters and species richness in a freshwater cyclopid genus (Copepoda, Cyclopoida)

The genus Diacyclops Kiefer, 1927 emend. Morton (1985) includes more than 100 species, widely distributed in all kinds of freshwater environments, and is the richest genus in the family Cyclopidae. Traditionally, Diacyclops species were defined according to differences in a few morphological characters; some characters (number of antennulary segments, segmentation pattern of swimming legs) are useful only in the separation of species groups, others (length of caudal rami and caudal setae) are highly variable even within the same population. During the study of the D. languidoides-group, minute morphological characters were used to differentiate between species (spinulation pattern and setation of antennary basis, setation and aesthetasc shape of male antennule, setation of mandibulary palp and maxilliped, shape of leg 4 basis) which allow to identify several valid species up to now concealed under the name ‘Diacyclops languidoides’ (Lilljeborj, 1901). The coexistence of up to six congeneric species in the same sampling area: (a) supports the validity of the proposed taxonomic characters, (b) demonstrates that species richness may be highly underestimated in freshwater cyclopoid assemblages in absence of good taxonomic practice; and (c) requires an ecological explanation of species coexistence. The role of morphologically based taxonomy in order to solve general problems of distributional ecology and theoretical biology is explored.
Relation of food intake behaviors and obesity development in young common marmoset monkeys.

Objective: Increasing prevalence of childhood obesity and associated risks of adult type disease have led to worldwide concern. It remains unclear how genetic predisposition, environmental exposure to obesogenic food, and developmental programming interact to lead to overweight and obese children. The development of a nonhuman primate model of obesity, and particularly juvenile obesity, is an important step to elucidating the factors associated with obesity and evaluating intervention strategies. Design and Methods: Infant marmosets were followed from birth to 12 months of age. Feeding phenotypes were determined through the use of behavioral observation, solid food intake trials, and liquid feeding trials monitored via lickometer. Results: Marmosets found to be obese at 12 months of age (more than 14%body fat) start consuming solid food sooner and initiate more time off of care givers. These individuals developed stable feeding phenotypes that included being more efficient consumers during liquid intake trials, drinking more grams of diet per contact with the licksit. Conclusions: The weaning process appears to be particularly important in the development of feeding phenotypes and the development of juvenile obesity for the marmosets, and thus this is the time that should be focused upon for intervention testing in both nonhuman primates and children.
Type I interferon negatively regulates acute IL-5 and IL-13 expression in human memory Th2 cells (IRM6P.717)

IFN-α/β is a potent antiviral cytokine that induces the expression of hundreds of interferon-sensitive genes (ISGs). ISGs are positively regulated by IFN-α/β signaling and collectively interfere with various aspects of viral replication. Although the positive regulatory aspects of IFN-α/β signaling through STAT activation have been studied at length, less is known about its role as a negative regulator. Previously, we demonstrated that IFN-α/β suppresses Th2 development in human naive CD4+ T cells by negatively regulating GATA3 expression, leading to the suppression of Th2 cytokines. In the current study, we found that IFN-α/β also suppressed Th2 cytokine expression from fully committed Th2 cells responding to recall antigen stimulation. Human memory CD4+ T cells acutely stimulated in the presence of IFN-α showed suppressed IL-5 and IL-13 gene expression, however, IL-4 expression was unaffected. Nuclear run-on studies demonstrated that IFN-α signaling suppressed de novo transcription of IL-5 and IL-13, which did not require new protein synthesis. Our data suggest that IFN-α/β was able to acutely repress specific genes by directly inhibiting their transcription. We are assessing direct STAT2 binding by ChIP-Seq, which will identify cis-regulatory regions necessary for gene repression at these cytokine promoters. Taken together, these results demonstrate that IFN-α/β is a key negative regulator of the Th2 response in humans.
Equilibrium and negotiation in multiple resource auctions

The application of economic ideas to control electronic technology is an emerging design paradigm. In network and computational settings, divisible auctions are a viable tool for regulation of services such as bandwidth and processing share. Often, the performance of an agent in the system depends simultaneously on the allocation received from several resources. In this paper, we investigate the extension of a proportionally fair divisible auction to the case where agents' utilities have complementarities across multiple resources. We show the existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium under various symmetry conditions. We propose a negotiation algorithm and prove that under relaxation, the scheme is locally stable for particular agent characterizations.
Sol–gel synthesis of La0.6Sr0.4CoO3−x and Sm0.5Sr0.5CoO3−x cathode nanopowders for solid oxide fuel cells

Nanopowders of La(0.6)Sr(0.4)CoO(3-x) (LSC) and Sm(0.5)Sr(0.5)CoO(3-x) (SSC) compositions, which are being investigated as cathode materials for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC) with La(Sr)Ga(Mg)O(3-x) (LSGM) as the electrolyte, were synthesized by low-temperature sol-gel method using metal nitrates and citric acid. Thermal decomposition of the citrate gels was followed by simultaneous DSC/TGA methods. Development of phases in the gels, on heat treatments at various temperatures, was monitored by x-ray diffraction. Solgel powders calcined at 550 to 1000 C consisted of a number of phases. Single perovskite phase La(0.6)Sr(0.4)CoO(3-x) or Sm(0.5)Sr(0.5)CoO(3-x) powders were obtained at 1200 and 1300 C, respectively. Morphological analysis of the powders calcined at various temperatures was done by scanning electron microscopy. The average particle size of the powders was approx.15 nm after 700 C calcinations and slowly increased to 70 to 100 nm after heat treatments at 1300 to 1400 C.
An integrated system that unifies multiple shape from texture algorithms

This paper describes an approach which integrates several conflicting and corroborating shape-from-texture methods in a single system. The system uses a new data structure, the augmented texel, which combines multiple constraints on orientation in a compact notation for a single surface patch. The augmented texels initially store weighted orientation constraints that are generated by the system's several independent shape-from-texture components. These texture components, which run autonomously and may run in parallel, derive constraints by any of the currently existing shape-from-texture approaches e.g. shape-from-uniform-texel-spacing. For each surface patch the augmented texel then combines the potentially inconsistent orientation data, using a Hough transform-like method on a tesselated gaussian spheres, resulting in an estimate of the most likely orientation for the patch. The system then defines which patches are part of the same surface, simplifing surface reconstruction. This knowledge fusion approach is illustrated by a system that integrates information from two different shape-from-texture methods, shape-from-uniform-texel-spacing and shape-from-uniform-texel-size. The system is demonstrated on camera images of artificial and natural textures.
Assessing elaborated hypotheses: an interpretive case-based reasoning approach

Identifying potential terrorist threats is a crucial task, especially in our post 9/11 world. This task is performed by intelligence analysts, who search for threats in the context of an overwhelming amount of data. We describe AHEAD (Analogical Hypothesis Elaborator for Activity Detection), a knowledge-rich post-processor that analyzes automatically-generated hypotheses using an interpretive case-based reasoning methodology to help analysts understand and evaluate the hypotheses. AHEAD first attempts to retrieve a functional model of a process, represented in the Task-Method-Knowledge framework (Stroulia & Goel, 1995; Murdock & Goel, 2001), to identify the context of a given hypothesized activity. If retrieval succeeds, AHEAD then determines how the hypothesis instantiates the process. Finally, AHEAD generates arguments that explain how the evidence justifies and/or contradicts the hypothesis according to this instantiated process. Currently, we have implemented AHEAD's case (i.e., model) retrieval step and its user interface for displaying and browsing arguments in a human-readable form. In this paper, we describe AHEAD and detail its first evaluation. We report positive results including improvements in speed, accuracy, and confidence for users analyzing hypotheses about detected threats.
Hyper-Raman-active soft mode in Pb ( Mg 1 ∕ 3 Nb 2 ∕ 3 ) 0.73 Ti 0.27 O 3

Hyper-Raman measurements on $\mathrm{Pb}{({\mathrm{Mg}}_{1∕3}{\mathrm{Nb}}_{2∕3})}_{0.73}{\mathrm{Ti}}_{0.27}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ (PMN-27%PT) in a temperature range between $513\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ and $873\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ revealed the existence of two vibrational modes below $50\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and a central peak. Both modes soften with decreasing temperature. The squared frequency of the lower frequency mode shows linear temperature dependence and approaches zero at $571\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. This mode has been assigned ${T}_{2u}$ symmetry. Its displacements only involve lead-oxygen bonds and do not affect the dielectric behavior. The higher frequency mode has been assigned ${T}_{1u}$ symmetry and is responsible for the ferroelectric phase transition in pure lead titanate. Below $570\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ this mode strongly couples to the central peak and shows a pronounced nonlinear decrease in the vibrational frequencies and increase in mode strength with decreasing temperature. The central peak is the dominant feature in the vibrational spectrum below $570\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. The critical behavior is supported by the temperature dependence of the mode coupling parameters, the central peak, and the hyper-Rayleigh peak.
Variability of the surface radiation budget over the United States from 1996 through 2011 from high-quality measurements

[1] Sixteen years of high-quality surface radiation budget (SRB) measurements over seven U.S. stations are summarized. The network average total surface net radiation increases by +8.2 Wm−2 per decade from 1996 to 2011. A significant upward trend in downwelling shortwave (SW-down) of +6.6 Wm−2 per decade dominates the total surface net radiation signal. This SW brightening is attributed to a decrease in cloud coverage, and aerosols have only a minor effect. Increasing downwelling longwave (LW-down) of +1.5 Wm−2 per decade and decreasing upwelling LW (LW-up) of −0.9 Wm−2 per decade produce a +2.3 Wm−2 per decade increase in surface net-LW, which dwarfs the expected contribution to LW-down from the 30 ppm increase of CO2 during the analysis period. The dramatic surface net radiation excess should have stimulated surface energy fluxes, but, oddly, the temperature trend is flat, and specific humidity decreases. The enigmatic nature of LW-down, temperature, and moisture may be a chaotic result of their large interannual variations. Interannual variation of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ONI index is shown to be moderately correlated with temperature, moisture, and LW-down. Thus, circulations associated with ENSO events may be responsible for manipulating (e.g., by advection or convection) the excess surface energy available from the SRB increase. It is clear that continued monitoring is necessary to separate the SRB's response to long-term climate processes from natural variability and that collocated surface energy flux measurements at the SRB stations would be beneficial.
Determinants of mating frequency in the spiny orbweaving spider, Micrathena gracilis (Araneae: Araneidae)

Male Micrathena gracilis require two copulations, separated by a dismount, in order to inseminate both reproductive tracts of the female. We examined several factors that might influence a male's copulatory success. Web structure influenced male courtship and dismount tactics, but not copulatory frequency. The presence of another male reduced the likelihood of a given male copulating with both tracts, a limitation mediated by sexual responsiveness of the female. Mating status of the female did influence copulatory frequency; males were less likely to copulate a second time with nonvirgin females. In summary, males modify mating activities to reduce predation by females, to reduce intermale competition, and to avoid expending gametes when there is little chance of fertilization. Females influence males by predatory activities, mediated through web structure, and enhancing sperm competition among males.