cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quantitative and Qualitative Differences in Proatherogenic NKT Cells in Apolipoprotein E–Deficient Mice

Background—Atherosclerosis is a disease marked by lipid accumulation and inflammation. Recently, atherosclerosis has gained recognition as an autoimmune-type syndrome characterized by increased activation of the innate and acquired immune systems. Natural killer T (NKT) cells have characteristics of both conventional T cells and NK cells and recognize glycolipid antigens presented in association with CD1d molecules on antigen-presenting cells. The capacity of NKT cells to respond to lipid antigens and modulate innate and acquired immunity suggests that they may play a role in atherogenesis. Methods and Results—We examined the role of NKT cells in atherogenesis and how the atherosclerotic environment affects the NKT cell population itself. The data show that CD1d-deficiency in male apolipoprotein E– deficient (apoE 0 ) mice results in reduction in atherosclerosis, and treatment of apoE 0 mice with -galactosylceramide, a potent and specific NKT cell activator, results in a 2-fold increase in atherosclerosis. Interestingly, we demonstrate that -galactosylceramide–induced interferon- responses and numbers of NKT cells in apoE 0 mice show age-dependent qualitative and quantitative differences as compared with age-matched wild-type mice. Conclusions—Collectively, these findings reveal that hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis have significant effects on NKT cell responses and that these cells are proatherogenic. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2004;24:2351-2357.)
Effect of Low-Calcium Rickets on Dentin and Bones in Guinea Pigs Treated with Large or Small Doses of Vitamin C

SYNOPSIS IN INTERLINGUALE EFFECTOS RESULTANTE DE RHACHITIS A CARENTIA DE CALCIUM INTRA LE DENTINA E LE OSSOS DE PORCOS DE INDIA TRACTATE CON GRANDE O MICRE DOSES DE VITAMINA C.-In le majoritate del animales mantenite con dietas a basse contento de calcium supplementate per 50 mg de acido ascorbic per die, alterationes typic de rhachitis se disveloppava in le ossos e le dentes (latitude anormal de osteoides, excesso del latitude in le cartilagine epiphysee, calcification globular de dentina, e latitude anormal de predentina). In porcos de India mantenite con dietas rhachitogenic con le augmento de micre doses diurne de vitamina C, nulle alterationes typic de rhachitis appareva in le ossos e nulles in le dentes. Tamen, esseva notate sub iste conditiones un reduction del ossification enchondral, insimul con osteoporosis e myelophthisis.
Postural effects of vestibular-mediated sympathetic activation.

to the editor: We read with great interest the article by Abe et al. ([1][1]). These authors investigated the important interaction of the vestibulosympathetic reflex and baroreflexes in maintaining arterial blood pressure during postural changes in the rat. It was reported that the vestibular
Saving Private Ramírez: The Patriarchal Voice of Republican Motherhood in Mexico

I first read about a woman named Agustina Ramirez while doing research on nineteenthcentury Mexican political culture in the Coleccion Porfirio Diaz in Mexico City. Buried among the 470,000 pieces of correspondence that Diaz received as president, two brief letters by Jalisco Governor Ramon Corona caught my eye. In October 1889, Corona asked Diaz to grant a pension to two grandchildren of a woman he called, ‘the only heroine that Mexico had during the [French] Intervention’. Dismissing the sacrifices made by thousands of other women who defended Mexico during the Intervention (1862–67), Corona argued that these two children deserved state aid because their grandmother, Agustina Ramirez, had lost twelve sons in defence of the patria.1 That last part shocked me. Twelve sons? All of them killed in combat against the French? How could that have happened? How come she was not universally recognised as a national hero? Why was she not standing next to Benito Juarez in villages and cities across the country? And then I thought to myself, how much might Steven Spielberg pay for a screenplay like this? While I continued with my original project, I also began to look for more information about Agustina Ramirez, a search that has produced more questions than answers. In this essay I want to share her story with a wider audience and also to share the journey that I have travelled to try to answer some of the questions that surround her. The fact is that searching for Agustina Ramirez has induced a self-consciousness that makes me somewhat uncomfortable. While I realise that historians always interpret the past and are therefore inescapably present in their own work, in this case my reading of Agustina Ramirez will say as much about me as it does about her. This idea, of course, is a central contribution of feminist methodologies where authorship cannot hide behind false claims of objectivity, neutrality, or ‘fact’. For that reason I want to acknowledge that, after compiling a great deal of material from archives in Mazatlan, Culiacan, Mexico City and Washington, DC, I am really no closer to someone we might call the historical Agustina Ramirez. To be honest, I am not certain if there ever was a single woman by that name who lost twelve sons in battles against the French. But neither do I believe that her story is somehow ‘untrue’. Instead, I would insist that the questions of ‘real’ or ‘invented’, ‘myth’ or ‘history’, do not fundamentally matter. For even if Ramirez was not born in the nineteenth century, she exists now, in the stories people tell about her, in the sketches and statues of her image,
A Behavioral/Systems Approach to the Neuroscience of Drug Addiction

Drug addiction is likely to affect all of our lives, with any luck not through our own actions but probably because of one or more of our family and friends. Now firmly entrenched as a brain disease ([Leshner, 1999][1]; [Wise, 2000][2]), drug addiction is among the most costly such diseases in
Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids in Blood and Breast Tissue of High-Risk Women and Association with Atypical Cytomorphology

The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, especially the long-chain eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) + docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to arachidonic acid (AA) ratio, is inversely associated with breast cancer risk. We measured the association between cytologic atypia, a biomarker for short-term risk of breast cancer development, and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid intake and levels in blood and breast tissue. Blood and benign breast tissue, sampled by random periareolar fine-needle aspiration (RPFNA), was obtained from 70 women at elevated risk for breast cancer. Self-reported dietary intake was assessed by the NCI9s Food Frequency Questionnaire. The fatty acid composition of five lipid compartments, red blood cell, plasma and breast phospholipids, and plasma and breast triaclyglycerides (TAG), was analyzed by gas chromatography as weight percent. Median daily intakes of EPA+DHA and total omega-3 fatty acids were 80 mg and 1.1 g, respectively. The median total omega-3:6 intake ratio was 1:10. Compared with women without atypia, those with cytologic atypia had lower total omega-3 fatty acids in red blood cell and plasma phospholipids and lower omega-3:6 ratios in plasma TAGs and breast TAGs (P
Androgen activity, ischaemic heart disease and risk factors among men in NHANES III

Aim Observationally, low serum testosterone among men is associated with cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors, but it is unclear whether raising endogenous androgens would be protective. To clarify the role of androgens, the association of two different androgen biomarkers (serum testosterone and androstanediol glucuronide) with cardiovascular disease risk factors and mortality was examined in a nationally representative sample of US men. Research design and methods Multivariable linear and proportion hazards regression were used to examine the adjusted associations of serum testosterone and androstanediol glucuronide with cardiovascular disease risk factors and death from major cardiovascular diseases in 1460 men from NHANES III phase 1 (1988–1991) followed-up through 2006. Results Serum testosterone and androstanediol glucuronide were weakly correlated (0·13). Serum testosterone was associated with healthier values of most cardiovascular disease risk factors but not with death from ischaemic heart disease or stroke, adjusted for age, education, race/ethnicity, smoking and alcohol use. Similarly adjusted, androstanediol glucuronide was associated with unhealthier values of some cardiovascular risk factors and death from ischaemic heart disease (hazard ratio 1·16, 95% confidence interval 1·003–1·33 per standard deviation). Conclusions Androgen biomarkers had inconsistent associations with cardiovascular disease risk factors and ischaemic heart disease. Androstanediol glucuronide, rather than serum testosterone, had associations with cardiovascular disease risk factors more similar to those seen in randomized controlled trials of testosterone therapy, with corresponding implications for raising androgens.
Flow increases superoxide production by NADPH oxidase via activation of Na-K-2Cl cotransport and mechanical stress in thick ascending limbs.

Superoxide (O2−) regulates renal function and is implicated in hypertension. O2− production increases in response to increased ion delivery in thick ascending limbs (TALs) and macula densa and mech...
Additional Indicators to Measure New HIV Diagnoses: A Response to Chow et al.

To the Editors: The recent letter by Chow et al1 is a welcomed addition to the discussion about new indicators to measure and understand the HIV epidemic. They propose a new HIV diagnosis rate to put the number of diagnoses each year in the context of the size of the population living with HIV. We agree that it is important to look beyond the absolute numbers, in this case new HIV diagnoses (or notifications), and understand them in the overall context of increasing HIV prevalence trends. A nuanced understanding of new diagnoses is particularly relevant in light of the updated 2020 National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which sets the goal of serostatus awareness for 90% of all persons living with HIV (PLWH).2 In the case of the United States, the number of new HIV diagnoses has remained relatively stable from 2009 to 2012, ranging approximately ranging from 44,000 to 47,000, whereas HIV prevalence has increased from 1,161,800 to 1,218,400 over the same period.3,4 To further understand recent trends in HIV diagnosis, we believe that there is an additional method to analyze new HIV diagnoses that provides useful insight into how effective testing services are in reaching the remaining undiagnosed PLWH. As previously described by Holtgrave,5 we propose that dividing the number of new HIV diagnoses in a given year by the number of undiagnosed PLWH in the previous year is a useful previously underused HIV indicator. Using the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologic data,3,4 we determined the number of new HIV diagnoses in a given year divided by the number of undiagnosed PLWH in the previous year using the formula: Table ​Table11 displays our input parameters and results. Available data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed us to examine this measure from 2009 to 2012. We report that the percentage of new HIV diagnoses in a given year to undiagnosed PLWH in the previous year was 26.0% in 2009, 25.9% in 2010, 26.1% in 2011, and 27.7% in 2012. TABLE 1 Annual HIV Diagnoses in Context of Previous Year Prevalence of Undiagnosed HIV Seropositivity Our analysis suggests that not only does the number of new HIV diagnoses remain roughly constant over the 4-year study period, but also that approximately 26% of individuals unaware of their serostatus are being newly diagnosed each year (Table ​(Table1).1). When this indicator is approximately constant over time, it signals that we must redouble our efforts to ensure full implementation of existing testing guidelines,5,6 as well as innovate new clinical and community testing strategies to reach an increasing proportion of undiagnosed PLWH. If we can achieve these steps, then we will continue our progress toward realizing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy goal regarding serostatus awareness for PLWH.
Nasogastric tube feeding in infants on peritoneal dialysis

Enteral nutritional support is an important component of the care provided to infants receiving long-term peritoneal dialysis. In the majority of published experiences on this subject, the use of t...
Making Information Technology Investments in Purchasing: Motivations and Outcomes

In this study we develop a conceptual model that depicts the antecedents of information technology investments used to support the purchasing function and the impact of such investments on interfirm communications patterns, relationship quality, and purchasing performance. Our test of the model found that the impact of IT investments on performance is fully mediated by communications, frequency, communications intimacy, and relationship quality variables.
Nucleic acid changes in tumor-bearing mice.

Summary1. The nucleic acid content of various tissues has been determined in mice of the Swiss and dba strains bearing transplanted sarcoma 180 (Crocker), in dba mice bearing malignant melanoma S-91, and in Swiss mice bearing spontaneous mammary tumors. 2. In the mice with transplanted tumors, an increase in the pentose nucleic acid (RNA) and desoxypentose nucleic acid (DNA) content of the liver and lung was observed, whereas the kidneys showed a similar rise in the DNA. In the mice with mammary tumors, the most marked increase was found in the lung nucleic acids. 3. The changes of the nucleic acids in the dba mice could be related to the size and the rate of growth of the tumor. 4. The ratio RNA/ DNA in the tumor usually dropped with the growth of the tumor. This drop is attributed to a decreased concentration of RNA in both the necrotic and non-necrotic portions of the tumor, whereas the DNA content dropped only in the necrotic portion. 5. The nucleic acids, purines, and pyrimidines in malignant melanom...
The influence of social context and body size on action judgments for self and others.

Judgments of affordances, the potential actions that an observer can carry out within an environment, require observers to relate information about their body to information in the environment. Although humans can accurately judge affordances for others, it is unknown whether other people's capability to act influences one's own affordance judgments. Based on theoretical accounts and recent empirical evidence highlighting the importance of social information in perception and action, we hypothesized that the action capabilities of another person would influence one's own affordance judgments. Participants judged their own and another's ability to pass through an aperture in 3 experiments that varied the differences in body sizes between the participant and another agent using naturally occurring body size differences or an artificial large body suit. RESULTS showed an influence of the other's body size on self-affordance judgments only when the participant and the other agent remained in their natural body size (Experiment 3), but not when the body size differences between the participant and the other agent were extreme because of the body suit (Experiments 1 and 2). (PsycINFO Database Record Language: en
Internal modeling of relay protection IEDs

An internal modeling of object-oriented relay protection intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) is discussed in this paper. The modeling transfers object-oriented description of IEDs to program-oriented sequential table interface description by configuration software. The design of configuration software is based on the relevance and restriction between objects and the association for program organization units. An example of power system element protection modeling is given to illustrate the method.
Clinical analysis of 197 patients with critical severe acute respiratory syndrome in Beijing areas

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of critical severe acute respiratory syndrome Methods The clinical date of 197 patients with critical SARS in Beijing were studied retrospectively Results The 197 patients included 95 males and 102 females,aged 18～86 The past history,the age,difficult breath,second fever,lymphocyte count dropping,abnormality of artery blood gas,subsets of T lymphocyte,myocardium enzyme step-up and some physiological predicators,X-ray chest radiography,abnormality of EKG and incidence rate of complication had significantly difference in critical SARS,compared with those mild cases Conclusion The above-mentioned signs correlated with the patient's severity of the SARS Correct judgement of the severity is important
The management of persistent pediatric skin problems.

Skin disease poses an additional problem not usually found in diseases of other systems because the skin is visible, making support and counseling of the parents important. This article deals specifically with management of disorders such as fungus infections of the scalp, acne, urticaria, staphylococcal infection, among others.
Salvage of the reproductive potential of women with anomalous development of the Müllerian ducts: 1868-1968-2068.

This discussion will be confined to four major problems associated with Mullerian anomalies: absence of the vagina (1) without or (2) with uterine development and (3) incomplete fusion of the Mullerian ducts with obstruction to one side and (4) incomplete fusion without obstruction. The discussion will review these disorders as they were known in 1868 and their contemporary management and submit our projection for 2068.
Has Criminology Awakened From Its “Androcentric Slumber”?

This is a decades-old question. In 1988, Daly and Chesney-Lind suggested that criminology was awakening from its “androcentric slumber” thanks to feminist critiques. This article looks at the histo...
Initial study of Schroedinger eigenmaps for spectral target detection

Spectral target detection refers to the process of searching for a specific material with a known spectrum over a large area containing materials with different spectral signatures. Traditional target detection methods in hyperspectral imagery (HSI) require assuming the data fit some statistical or geometric models and based on the model, to estimate parameters for defining a hypothesis test, where one class (i.e., target class) is chosen over the other classes (i.e., background class). Nonlinear manifold learning methods such as Laplacian eigenmaps (LE) have extensively shown their potential use in HSI processing, specifically in classification or segmentation. Recently, Schroedinger eigenmaps (SE), which is built upon LE, has been introduced as a semisupervised classification method. In SE, the former Laplacian operator is replaced by the Schroedinger operator. The Schroedinger operator includes by definition, a potential term V that steers the transformation in certain directions improving the separability between classes. In this regard, we propose a methodology for target detection that is not based on the traditional schemes and that does not need the estimation of statistical or geometric parameters. This method is based on SE, where the potential term V is taken into consideration to include the prior knowledge about the target class and use it to steer the transformation in directions where the target location in the new space is known and the separability between target and background is augmented. An initial study of how SE can be used in a target detection scheme for HSI is shown here. In-scene pixel and spectral signature detection approaches are presented. The HSI data used comprise various target panels for testing simultaneous detection of multiple objects with different complexities.
Improving estimation efficiency for semi-competing risks data with partially observed terminal event

ABSTRACTSemi-competing risks data arise when two types of events, non-terminal and terminal, may be observed. When the terminal event occurs first, it censors the non-terminal event. Otherwise the terminal event is observable after the occurrence of the non-terminal event. In practice, it can be hard to ascertain all terminal event information after the non-terminal event. Yu and Yiannoutsos [(2015), ‘Marginal and Conditional Distribution Estimation from Double-Sampled Semi-Competing Risks Data’, Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 42, 87–103] considered a setting when the terminal event is ascertained via double sampling from only a subset of patients who experienced the non-terminal event. They discussed estimation for marginal and conditional distributions under this double sampled semi-competing risk data framework. We propose a more efficient estimation method in the same setting by fully utilising the non-terminal event information. The efficiency gain can be substantial as observed in our simulatio...
Learning and using hand abstraction values for Parameterized Poker Squares

We describe the experimental development of an AI player that adapts to different point systems for Parameterized Poker Squares. After introducing the game and research competition challenge, we describe our static board evaluation utilizing learned evaluations of abstract partial Poker hands. Next, we evaluate various time management strategies and search algorithms. Finally, we show experimentally which of our design decisions most significantly accounted for observed performance.
Towards acceleration of deep convolutional neural networks using stochastic computing

In recent years, Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) has become the dominant approach for almost all recognition and detection tasks and outperformed humans on certain tasks. Nevertheless, the high power consumptions and complex topologies have hindered the widespread deployment of DCNNs, particularly in wearable devices and embedded systems with limited area and power budget. This paper presents a fully parallel and scalable hardware-based DCNN design using Stochastic Computing (SC), which leverages the energy-accuracy trade-off through optimizing SC components in different layers. We first conduct a detailed investigation of the Approximate Parallel Counter (APC) based neuron and multiplexer-based neuron using SC, and analyze the impacts of various design parameters, such as bit stream length and input number, on the energy/power/area/accuracy of the neuron cell. Then, from an architecture perspective, the influence of inaccuracy of neurons in different layers on the overall DCNN accuracy (i.e., software accuracy of the entire DCNN) is studied. Accordingly, a structure optimization method is proposed for a general DCNN architecture, in which neurons in different layers are implemented with optimized SC components, so as to reduce the area, power, and energy of the DCNN while maintaining the overall network performance in terms of accuracy. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can find a satisfactory DCNN configuration, which achieves 55X, 151X, and 2X improvement in terms of area, power and energy, respectively, while the error is increased by 2.86%, compared with the conventional binary ASIC implementation.
A Thermal-Balanced Variable-Sized-Bin-Packing Approach for Energy Efficient Multi-Core Real-Time Scheduling

In this paper, we study the problem of how to schedule real-time tasks on multi-core platforms to maximize the energy efficiency under a peak temperature constraint. Different from the traditional load-balancing approach, we propose energy saving solutions under the ``thermal balancing'' heuristic, which can effectively avoid hotspots and maximize the throughput. We first establish and formally prove a lower bound of energy when scheduling a periodic task set on a multi-core platform using the thermal-balancing approach. Considering the NP-nature of this problem, we formulate the problem as a variable-sized-bin-packing~(VSBP) problem and develop a partitioning heuristic. We further introduce an enhanced algorithm to improve the quality of the solution. The experimental results show up to 256.4\%~improvement of the energy efficiency and an average 9.95\% higher feasibility than the traditional load balancing approach.
Why Convex Optimization Is Ubiquitous and Why Pessimism Is Widely Spread

In many practical applications, the objective function is convex. The use of convex objective functions makes optimization easier, but ubiquity of such objective function is a mystery: many practical optimization problems are not easy to solve, so it is not clear why the objective function—whose main goal is to describe our needs—would always describe easier-to-achieve goals. In this paper, we explain this ubiquity based on the fundamental ideas about human decision making. This explanation also helps us explain why in decision making under uncertainty, people often make pessimistic decisions, i.e., decisions based more on the worst-case scenarios.
Global Atmospheric Teleconnections and Multidecadal Climate Oscillations Driven by Southern Ocean Convection

AbstractA 1000-yr control simulation in a low-resolution coupled atmosphere–ocean model from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) family of climate models shows a natural, highly regular multidecadal oscillation between periods of Southern Ocean (SO) open-ocean convection and nonconvective periods. It is shown here that convective periods are associated with warming of the SO sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and more broadly of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) SSTs and atmospheric temperatures. This SO warming results in a decrease in the meridional gradient of SSTs in the SH, changing the large-scale pressure patterns, reducing the midlatitude baroclinicity and thus the magnitude of the southern Ferrel and Hadley cells, and weakening the SO westerly winds and the SH tropical trade winds. The rearrangement of the atmospheric circulation is consistent with the global energy balance. During convective decades, the increase in incoming top-of-the-atmosphere radiation in the SH is balanced by an incre...
The significance of Luther for the crises of today: On the occasion of the 500 years of the Reformation

The 500 anniversary of the event that marks the beginning of the Reformation is an opportunity to revisit some of its radical claims. Among them is that liberation and salvation are related but distinct. As long as we honor the distinction, honored will be the shape Luther’s figure is transfigured into the mold of contemporary crises. It is about presence, regardless of the fact whether Luther is named or not. At the break of the 21st century, the most significant social phenomenon is arguably migration. The Reformer viewed migration in two diametrically different ways. This difference pertains to the two perspectives that inform Luther’s theology. One pertains to our relationship to God and detachment from the entrapments of the world. The other refers to our life in the world, particularly as it concerns the economy. About a century and a half ago, in the high of industrial capitalism, Karl Marx found in Luther the basic clue to analyze the emergence of capital. This article presents thus an analysis of a treatise of Luther on usury that Marx discusses at length in the first volume of Das Kapital. As it was for Marx, Luther’s transfiguration happens in the voices of protest and resistance today.
Single fiber temperature probe configuration using anti-Stokes luminescence from Cr:GdAlO3

Single-photon excitation of anti-Stokes-shifted emission from a thermographic phosphor allows operation of a luminescence decay-based single fiber temperature probe with negligible interference from background fiber-generated Raman scattering. While single fiber probe configurations for luminescence-based fiber optic thermometers offer advantages of simple design, compactness, and superior emission light collection efficiency, their effective use has been limited by interference from Raman scattering in the fiber probe and excitation delivery fiber that produces distortion of the luminescence decay that follows the excitation pulse. The near elimination of interference by background fiber-generated Raman scattering was demonstrated by incorporating a Cr-doped GdAlO3 (Cr:GdAlO3) thermographic phosphor as the sensing element at the end of a single fiber luminescence decay-based thermometer and detecting anti-Stokes-shifted luminescence centered at 542 or 593 nm produced by 695 nm excitation. Measurements were performed using both silica (up to 1150 °C) and single-crystal YAG (up to 1200 °C) fiber-based thermometers. Selection of emission detection centered at 542 nm greatly benefited the YAG fiber probe measurements by practically eliminating detection of otherwise significant luminescence from Cr3+ impurities in the YAG fiber. For both the silica and YAG fiber probes, the relative benefit of adopting single-photon excitation of anti-Stokes-shifted luminescence was evaluated by comparison with results obtained by conventional 532 nm excitation of Stokes-shifted luminescence.
A developmental theory for Aristotelian practical intelligence

AbstractIn Aristotelian virtue theories, phronesis is foundational to being good, but to date accounts of how this particularly important virtue can emerge are sketchy. This article plumbs recent t...
How the Abstract Becomes Concrete: Irrational Numbers are Understood Relative to Natural Numbers and Perfect Squares

Mathematical cognition research has largely emphasized concepts that can be directly perceived or grounded in visuospatial referents. These include concrete number systems like natural numbers, integers, and rational numbers. Here, we investigate how a more abstract number system, the irrationals denoted by radical expressions like 2, is understood across three tasks. Performance on a magnitude comparison task suggests that people interpret irrational numbers (specifically, the radicands of radical expressions) as natural numbers. Strategy self-reports during a number line estimation task reveal that the spatial locations of irrationals are determined by referencing neighboring perfect squares. Finally, perfect squares facilitate the evaluation of arithmetic expressions. These converging results align with a constellation of related phenomena spanning tasks and number systems of varying complexity. Accordingly, we propose that the task-specific recruitment of more concrete representations to make sense of more abstract concepts (referential processing) is an important mechanism for teaching and learning mathematics.
The Nonidentity Problem and the Two Envelope Problem: When is One Act Better for a Person than Another?

The nonidentity problem and the two envelope problem have in common an ongoing resistance to intuitive analysis. They also share certain structural features. I argue that the two problems proceed under the same error, imagining subjects to draw haphazardly from a potpourri of actual and expected values to generate results about betterness and harm rather than, as we naturally do and always should, drawing in a more discriminating way from a more orderly array. When we play by the same set of rules in calculating the values that we then compare, we, in particular, become able to discern (1) harm in just the cases in respect of which one important type of nonidentity problem has long been thought to show “no harm done” and (2) no harm done in the two envelope problem, which purports to show “harm done” when the subject refuses endlessly to switch from one envelope to another and back again.
The Effects of Land Use Policies on Modular Home Construction: A Comparative Case Study of Three Counties in Massachusetts

The primary objective of this comparative case study is to identify the law and policy barriers to modular home construction in Massachusetts with a particular focus on restrictive covenants and municipal land use policies. This is a comparative case study of 3 counties in Massachusetts including Dukes County, Nantucket County, and Barnstable County. The three counties in the study were chosen on the basis that they share the same population range of 10,000- 20,000, and the similar cost of construction for new homes ranging $200,000-$600,000 from 2007-2009. A Registry of Deeds search was also conducted from 2003-2013 to identify any restrictive covenants that prohibit on the mode of construction during this timeframe.The main findings in the study conclude there are no law and policy barriers to modular home construction in the three counties in the case study. Modular homes must be built to the same standard as site-built homes according to the Massachusetts State Building Code, which is the only building code in Massachusetts. The study also concluded there is a lack of awareness of modular homes being a viable building option, which leads to the discrimination of modular homes. Creating an awareness that modular homes have evolved into an equally comparable product in relation to site-built homes is the key element to the future success of modular home construction. The research also concludes that restrictive covenants are not a barrier to modular home construction in the three counties in Massachusetts. The Registry of Deeds search did not identify any restrictive covenants that prohibit on the mode of construction from 2003-2013. The continuation of this study in other counties in Massachusetts, other New England states, and into the southern part of the country will bring the modular home industry closer to an answer in rectifying the restrictive covenant dilemma that currently exists in the south.
Longitudinal structural connectivity in the developing brain with projective non-negative matrix factorization

Understanding of early brain changes has the potential to investigate imaging biomarkers for pre-symptomatic diagnosis and thus opportunity for optimal therapeutic intervention, for example in early diagnosis of infants at risk to autism or altered development of infants to drug exposure. In this paper, we propose a framework to analyze longitudinal changes of structural connectivity in the early developing infant brain by exploring underlying network components of brain structural connectivity and its changes with age. Structural connectivity is a non-negative sparse network. Projective non-negative matrix factorization (PNMF) offers benefits in sparsity and learning fewer parameters for non-negative sparse data. The number of matrix subcomponents was estimated by automatic relevance determination PNMF (ARDPNMF) for brain connectivity networks for the given data. We apply linear mixed effect modeling on the resulting loadings from ARDPNMF to model longitudinal network component changes over time. The proposed framework was validated on a synthetic example generated by known linear mixed effects on loadings of the known number of bases with different levels of additive noises. Feasibility of the framework on real data has been demonstrated by analysis of structural connectivity networks of high angular resonance diffusion imaging (HARDI) data from an ongoing neuroimaging study of autism. A total of 139 image data sets from high-risk and low-risk subjects acquired at multiple time points have been processed. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the framework to analyze connectivity network properties as a function of age and the potential to eventually explore differences associated with risk status.
Payer and race/ethnicity influence length and cost of childhood cancer hospitalizations.

Background Health disparities related to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and insurance status impact quality, access, and health outcomes for children. Medicaid is a proxy for poverty and restricted access to health care. The goal of this study was to determine if there are discrepancies in the length and cost of hospitalizations between admissions covered by Medicaid or commercial insurance for pediatric patients with cancer. Methods Childhood cancer-related admissions were identified from the 2012 Kids Inpatient Database (KID) using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth revision. Length of hospitalization and cost of hospitalization were compared among hospitalizations paid by Medicaid or commercial insurance. Total admission charges were converted to costs using cost-to-charge ratios, and survey weighting methods were used for all analyses. Linear multiple regression models for both length of hospitalization and cost were developed to include patient-level factors (race, sex, age, diagnosis, reason for admission). Results In 2012, there were 104 597 childhood cancer-related admissions. Hospitalizations paid by Medicaid were significantly longer than those paid by commercial insurance. Hispanic ethnicity was associated with higher cost of hospitalization regardless of payer, and black race was associated with higher costs within the Medicaid population. Conclusions This analysis identifies differences in healthcare utilization for pediatric cancer-related admissions paid for by Medicaid compared with commercial insurance. Prolonged hospitalizations and increased costs create burdens on children and their families, medical delivery systems, and third-party payers. Further exploration into the causes of these disparities is warranted.
Neutron Capture Cross Sections from Surrogate Reaction Data and Theory: Connecting the Pieces with a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo Approach

The neutron capture cross section for 90Zr(n, γ) has recently been determined using surrogate 92Zr(p, dγ) data and nuclear reaction theory (J.E. Escher et al., Phys Rev Lett 121:052501, 2018). That work employed an approximate fitting method based on Bayesian Monte Carlo sampling to determine parameters needed for calculating the 90Zr(n, γ) cross section. Here, we improve the approach by introducing a more sophisticated Markov-Chain Monte Carlo sampling method (W.K. Hastings, Biometrika 57:97, 1970). We present preliminary results.
Enhanced Ferromagnetic Order in Sr4Mn3O3(GeO4)3 Featuring Canted [MnO4]∞ Spin Chains of Mixed-Valent Mn(III)/Mn(IV). Aliovalent Substitution of the Sr4-xLnxMnIII2+xMn IV1-xO3(GeO4)3 Solid-Solution.

Crystals of Sr4-xLnxMn3O3 (GeO4)3 (x = 0; x ≈ 0.15 for Ln: La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy; x ≈ 0.3 for Ln: Gd) are grown by solid state reactions of SrO, Ln2O3, MnO2 and Mn2O3, and GeO2 in a eutectic CsCl/SrCl2 flux (700 °C, 4 d).
Role of selenium in the chemoprevention of cancer.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the role that selenium (Se) compounds play in the inhibition or slowing of the induction of cancer by chemicals and other agents. Se has been implicated in many aspects of agriculture, nutrition, toxicology, and medicine. Se has been suspected of being a carcinogen and that Se, both from a nutritional consideration as well as the administration of selenium compounds, affects the rate of growth of established tumors. Selenium compounds in the diet or water have shown to be effective inhibitors of carcinogenesis in experimental animals exposed to increasing number of chemical carcinogens, including 3-methyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene, dimethylbenzanthracene, 2-acetylaminofluorene, 172-dimethylhydrazine, and methylazoxy- methanol acetate. There are several epidemiological studies suggesting an increased incidence of colon, mammary, and perhaps other forms of cancer associated with low levels of environmental Se or with Se deficiencies. Postulated roles or mechanisms that may be involved in the inhibition of carcinogenesis by Se are: (1) a reduction in the mutagenicity of cancer causing chemical, (2) effects on carcinogen metabolism, and (3) protection against oxidative damages.
Assessing Indoor Environmental Control Practices by Race/Ethnicity Among Children With Asthma in 14 US States and Puerto Rico, 2013–2014

Introduction In the United States, children in Puerto Rico and non-Hispanic black children in the mainland US have a higher burden of asthma than non-Hispanic white children in the mainland US. We examined indoor environmental control (IEC) practices that reduce asthma triggers, by race/ethnicity among children in the mainland US and Puerto Rico. Methods We used 2013 and 2014 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Asthma Call-back Survey Child Questionnaire from 14 states and Puerto Rico to measure the association between race/ethnicity and IEC practices, adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, among children identified as ever receiving an asthma diagnosis. Racial/ethnic groups were compared in 14 US states using aggregated data. Separate analyses compared IEC practices for children diagnosed with asthma in Puerto Rico with children of all races/ethnicities diagnosed with asthma in 14 states. Results Among households in 14 US states that had a child with asthma, non-Hispanic black children were more likely than non-Hispanic white children to use an air purifier (36.8% vs 25.2%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-3.2) and avoid pets in the bedroom (87.9% vs 58.3%; aOR = 4.5; 95% CI, 2.3-8.8). Children in Puerto Rico were more likely than children in 14 states to use dust mite-impermeable pillow covers (53.7% vs 36.4%; aOR = 3.6; 95% CI, 1.8-7.1) and mattress encasements (60.3% vs 30.3%; aOR = 2.4; 95% CI, 1.2-4.8). Conclusion IEC practices such as using air purifiers, pillow covers, mattress encasements, and avoiding pets in the bedroom vary by race/ethnicity among children with asthma. These findings show that vulnerable populations are using IEC practices, but asthma prevention and control measures should continue to be assessed.
Overvoltage Mitigation through Volt-VAR Control of Distributed PV Systems

The increasing penetration of distributed PV systems challenges the distribution system voltage profile. When the system loading level is relatively low on a sunny day, the reverse power flow is expected to be large and the bus voltage is likely to exceed the upper bound. This paper conducts a sensitivity study on the Volt- VArcontrol of distributed PV systems for mitigating the overvoltage problem. The distribution system components, including the ZIP load, shunt capacitor and onload tap changer, are fully considered. The simulation study indicates that the Volt-VArcontrol can effectively reduce the daily maximum bus voltage and slightly reduce the network power loss. In addition, this control scheme does not require additional VAR compensation and communication devices. Therefore, it has great potential in future distribution systems if the PV penetration keeps increasing.
Prevalence of Disability Associated With Head Injury With Loss of Consciousness in Adults in the United States: A Population-Based Study.

OBJECTIVE To provide nationally representative prevalence estimates of disability associated with prior head injury with loss of consciousness in the United States and to examine associations between prior head injury and disability. METHODS This was a cross-sectional analysis of 7,390 participants ≥40 years of age in the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). Head injury with loss of consciousness was assessed by self-report. Domains of disability were assessed with a standardized structured questionnaire and measured grip strength. Logistic and linear regression models adjusted for demographic, socioeconomic/behavioral, and medical comorbidity variables were used. Multiple imputation was used to account for missing covariate data. RESULTS Mean age of participants was 58 years; 53% were female; 71% were non-Hispanic White; and 16% had a history of head injury with loss of consciousness. Overall, participants with a history of head injury had higher prevalence of disability in at least 1 domain of functioning compared to individuals without head injury (47.4% vs 38.6%, p < 0.001), with the highest prevalence of disability in the domains of mobility and work productivity. In fully adjusted models, head injury was significantly positively associated with disability in all domains assessed on the standardized questionnaire (all p < 0.05). Participants with head injury had greater grip strength (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS We found that 47.4% of individuals ≥40 years of age in the United States with a history of head injury are living with disability in at least 1 domain of functioning, corresponding to 11.4 million affected individuals. This significant burden of disability suggests that efforts are needed to improve functioning among individuals with head injury.
Understanding Why Candidates Fail to Complete Their Thesis or Dissertation

Perhaps it would seem highly unlikely that a graduate student, after successfully completing all of the requirements of their academic degree program leading up to the thesis or dissertation research project, would fail to complete this last “hurdle” in the journey.
A Global Update on the Markets for Motors, Drives, and Motor-Driven Equipment

This chapter highlights the findings of the latest analysis by IHS Markit on the global markets for low-voltage (LV) motors, variable frequency drives (VFDs), and motor-driven equipment, such as pumps, fans, and compressors. It will summarize how these markets are segmented by technology, geographic region, industry sector, and other emerging trends. In addition to presenting market data, the presentation will include an analysis of the current competitive environment for these products, including market shares of leading suppliers. A discussion on the impact of recent and impending energy-efficiency regulation initiatives will also be included in this presentation. Specifically, emerging and lesser-used technologies like permanent magnet motors, sensors, and other energy-saving methods will be assessed in order to show how commonplace these promising products are adopted. The main goal of this presentation will be to help the reader understand how much of a disconnect exists between government-led agendas and market-generated demand. Has the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and similar initiatives such as Industry 4.0 become more pressing a topic for end users compared to a more efficient component or even a more efficient motor-driven system?
Organization, Structure and Function of the Photochemical Apparatus in Phycobilin and Chlorophyll b-containing Oxygen-evolving Photosynthetic Organisms

We compared the stoichiometric ratios of PSII and PSI reaction centers in the photosynthetic apparatus of Anacystis nidulans and Spinacea oleracea, spectrophotometrically [Melis/Brown, 1980] from the amplitude of the light-induced absorbance change at 320 nm (Q) and at 700 nm (P700). A comparison of the relative Chl/P700, Chl/Q and Q/P700 ratios is given in Table 1. The results clearly show that in blue-green algae PSI is predominant while PSII is more abundant in grana-containing higher plants.
Regulation of CO2 Fixation by the Ribulose 1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase in the Chloroplast

Photosynthetic CO2 fixation in the intact leaf is regulated by the activity of the enzyme, ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco). The activity depends on the amount of enzyme active sites having formed the activator carbamate in the presence of CO2 and Mg+2. CO2 first binds to inactive Rubisco to form the enzyme-activator CO2 complex (E-C) which is stabilized with Mg+2 to give the active enzyme-activator CO2-Mg+2 complex (E-C-M). E-C-M leads to carboxylation or oxygenation by first binding ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) followed by attack by either CO2 or O2 (1).
Preferential utilization of cellobiose by Thermomonospora curvata

Thermomonospora curvata was cultivated on mineral salts medium containing glucose and cellobiose under conditions that increasingly favored the uptake of glucose. In each case cellobiose was utilized in preference to glucose and induced β-glucosidase and endoglucanase activity. [14C]glucose metabolism studies indicated that cellobiose was not cleaved by extracellular β-glucosidase and transported as glucose. No evidence of cellobiose phosphorylase or a cellobiose-specific phosphoenolpyruvate-phosphotransferase system was observed.