cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Another Remark on the Alternative Expectation Formula

Students in a calculus-based probability course will often see the expectation formula for nonnegative continuous random variables in terms of the survival function. This alternative expectation formula has a wide spectrum of applications. It is natural to ask whether there is a multivariate version of this formula. This note gives an affirmative answer by establishing such a formula using two different approaches. The two approaches employed in this note correspond to the two approaches for the univariate case. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Highlighting Human Form and Motion Information Enhances the Conspicuity of Pedestrians at Night

Exploring how biological motion can make pedestrians more conspicuous to drivers at night, one-hundred-and-twenty participants were driven along an open-road route at night and pressed a button whenever they recognized that a pedestrian was present. A test pedestrian wearing black clothing alone or with 302 cm2 of retroreflective markings in one of four configurations either stood still or walked in place on an unilluminated sidewalk. Participants' response distances were maximal for the full biological-motion configuration and remained surprisingly long when convenient subsets of reflective markers were positioned on the pedestrian's ankles and wrists. When the pedestrian wore a reflective vest, the responses were no better than when he wore no reflective markings. The biological-motion advantage actually results from interacting form-perception and motion-perception mechanisms. These results confirm that basic perceptual phenomena-observers' sensitivity to human form and motion can be harnessed to reduce an important problem of traffic safety.
When Tenderness Should Replace Technology: The Role of Perinatal Hospice

Increasing use of antenatal screening and genetic testing has created the circumstance of a woman who finds herself pregnant with a fetus that is known to be unsound. Some practitioners have become so concerned about the prospect of the less-than-perfect fetus that they have projected their personal desires into the care that they provide, thereby eliminating the possibility of following the natural history of the pregnancy. To serve the needs of these patients, a perinatal hospice service has been created.
Stable isotope assessment of temporal and geographic differences in feeding ecology of northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) and their prey.

We investigated the feeding ecology and foraging location of migrating and nursing northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) adult females and migrating juvenile males from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, using carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis of fur seal skin and whole potential prey. Post-parturient and lactating females had mean δ15N values significantly (0.8‰) higher than pregnant, migratory females, and δ13C values that were not significantly different. Two opportunistically collected, migrating, nulliparous females had mean δ13C values 1.1‰ lower than migrating, pregnant females, and δ15N values that were not different. Pregnant, migratory females had mean δ13C values significantly (~1.5‰) higher than migratory juvenile males, and mean δ15N values significantly (~0.6–1.6‰) higher than migratory juvenile males. The exception was one group of juvenile males from St. Paul Island with mean δ15N values that were not significantly different from migrating females. The mean δ15N values of pregnant females indicate they were feeding at a higher trophic level than juvenile males during migration. The higher mean δ13C values for pregnant females suggest they were feeding coastally during the spring migration, while juvenile males and nulliparous females were feeding offshore. The higher δ15N values for post-parturient, lactating females over migrating, pregnant females point to either a trophic shift in diet over time, or a more likely 15N-enrichment due to negative nitrogen balance caused by the nutritional stress of lactation and the feeding/fasting regime experienced by females. Similar mean δ13C values for migrating and breeding-season females indicate that both groups were feeding in coastal, on-shelf domains during their respective time periods. Similar mean δ15N values for nulliparous and pregnant females indicate they were feeding at similar trophic levels despite indications of feeding in separate ecosystems during migration. Using a δ15N shift of 2–3‰ per trophic level, we made general inferences about the trophic levels at which northern fur seals were feeding. The interpretation of our δ15N data indicates that migrating pregnant females, lactating females and the majority of migrating juvenile males consumed prey with mean δ15N values between 14.2‰ and 15.2‰, 15.1‰ and 16.1‰, and 13.6‰ and 14.6‰, respectively. Probable fur seal prey was analyzed as well. Walleye pollock showed progressive 15N and 13C-enrichments with age. Mean δ15N and δ13C values of 3- to 4-year-old fish were ~6.0‰ and 1.1‰ higher, respectively, than values for 0-age pollock. Atka mackerel also showed isotopic enrichment with age. The δ15N and δ13C values of large fish were 0.8‰ and 0.3‰ higher, respectively, than values for smaller fish.
Determination of whole‐brain oxygen extraction fractions by fast measurement of blood T2 in the jugular vein

The oxygen extraction fraction of the brain reports on the balance between oxygen delivery and consumption and can be used to assess deviations in physiological homeostasis. This is relevant clinically as well as for calibrating blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI responses. Oxygen extraction fraction is reflected in the arteriovenous difference in oxygen saturation fraction (Y(v) - Y(a) ), which can be determined from venous T(2) values when arterial oxygenation is known. A pulse sequence is presented that allows rapid measurement (<1 min) of blood T(2) s in the internal jugular vein. The technique combines slice-saturation and blood inflow to attain high signal-to-noise ratio in blood and minimal contamination from tissue. The sequence is sensitized to T(2) using a nonselective Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill T(2) preparation directly after slice saturation. Fast scanning (pulse repetition time of about 2 sec) is possible by using a nonselective saturation directly after acquisition to rapidly achieve steady-state longitudinal magnetization. The venous T(2) (for 10 msec Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill interecho time) for normal volunteers was 62.4 ± 6.1 msec (n = 20). A calibration curve relating T(2) to blood oxygenation was established using a blood perfusion phantom. Using this calibration, a whole-brain oxygen extraction fraction of 0.37 ± 0.04 was determined (n = 20), in excellent agreement with literature values.
Metric-Resolution 2D River Modeling at the Macroscale: Computational Methods and Applications in a Braided River

Metric resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of rivers now make it possible for multi-dimensional fluid mechanics models to be applied to characterize flow at fine scales that are relevant to studies of river morphology and ecological habitat, or microscales. These developments are important for managing rivers because of the potential to better understand system dynamics, anthropogenic impacts, and the consequences of proposed interventions. However, the data volumes and computational demands of microscale river modeling have largely constrained applications to small multiples of the channel width, or the mesoscale. This report presents computational methods to extend a microscale river model beyond the mesoscale to the macroscale, defined as large multiples of the channel width. A method of automated unstructured grid generation is presented that automatically clusters fine resolution cells in areas of curvature (e.g., channel banks), and places relatively coarse cells in areas lacking topographic variability. This overcomes the need to manually generate breaklines to constrain the grid, which is painstaking at the mesoscale and virtually impossible at the macroscale. The method is applied to a braided river with an extremely complex channel network configuration and shown to yield an efficient fine resolution model. The sensitivity of model output to grid design and resistance parameters is also examined as it relates to analysis of hydrology, hydraulic geometry and river habitats and the findings reiterate the importance of model calibration and validation.
Distributed nonlinear filtering of partially observed Markov chains over WSNs: Truncating the ADMM

In this work, we study stability of distributed non-linear filtering of Markov chains with finite state space, partially observed in conditionally Gaussian noise. We propose a filtering scheme, which relies on the distributed evaluation of the likelihood part of the centralized nonlinear filter and is based on a particular specialization of the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) for fast average consensus. Assuming the same number of consensus steps between any two consecutive noisy measurements, our main contribution is summarized in the full characterization of a minimal number of iterations, such that the distributed filter remains uniformly stable with a prescribed accuracy level, within a finite operational horizon, T and across all sensors. Our main result shows that e-stability of the distributed filtering process depends only loglinearly on T and (roughly) the size of the network. If this loglinear bound is fulfilled, any additional consensus iterations will further incur a fully quantified exponential decay in the consensus error. Our bounds are universal, in the sense that they are independent of the structure of the HMM under consideration.
Prostaglandin E2/cyclooxygenase pathway in human skeletal muscle: influence of muscle fiber type and age

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) produced by the cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway regulates skeletal muscle protein turnover and exercise training adaptations. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) define the PGE2/COX pathway enzymes and receptors in human skeletal muscle, with a focus on type I and II muscle fibers; and 2) examine the influence of aging on this pathway. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the soleus (primarily type I fibers) and vastus lateralis (proportionally more type II fibers than soleus) of young men and women (n = 8; 26 ± 2 yr), and from the vastus lateralis of young (n = 8; 25 ± 1 yr) and old (n = 12; 79 ± 2 yr) men and women. PGE2/COX pathway proteins [COX enzymes (COX-1 and COX-2), PGE2 synthases (cPGES, mPGES-1, and mPGES-2), and PGE2 receptors (EP1, EP2, EP3, and EP4)] were quantified via Western blot. COX-1, cPGES, mPGES-2, and all four PGE2 receptors were detected in all skeletal muscle samples examined. COX-1 (P < 0.1) and mPGES-2 were ∼20% higher, while EP3 was 99% higher and EP4 57% lower in soleus compared with vastus lateralis (P < 0.05). Aging did not change the level of skeletal muscle COX-1, while cPGES increased 45% and EP1 (P < 0.1), EP3, and EP4 decreased ∼33% (P < 0.05). In summary, PGE2 production capacity and receptor levels are different in human skeletal muscles with markedly different type I and II muscle fiber composition. In aging skeletal muscle, PGE2 production capacity is elevated and receptor levels are downregulated. These findings have implications for understanding the regulation of skeletal muscle adaptations to exercise and aging by the PGE2/COX pathway and related inhibitors.
Effects of Transmembrane Hydraulic Pressure on Performance of Forward Osmosis Membranes

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging membrane separation process that continues to be tested and implemented in various industrial water and wastewater treatment applications. The growing interests in the technology have prompted laboratories and manufacturers to adopt standard testing methods to ensure accurate comparison of membrane performance under laboratory-controlled conditions; however, standardized methods might not capture specific operating conditions unique to industrial applications. Experiments with cellulose triacetate (CTA) and polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) FO membranes demonstrated that hydraulic transmembrane pressure (TMP), common in industrial operation of FO membrane elements, could affect membrane performance. Experiments were conducted with three FO membranes and with increasing TMP up to a maximum of 50 psi (3.45 bar). The feed solution was a mixture of salts and the draw solution was either a NaCl solution or concentrated seawater at similar osmotic pressure. Results revealed that TMP minimally affected water flux, reverse salt flux (RSF), and solute rejection of the CTA membrane. However, water flux through TFC membranes might slightly increase with increasing TMP, and RSF substantially declines with increasing TMP. It was observed that rejection of feed constituents was influenced by TMP and RSF.
Quantitative Determination of Serum Haptoglobin: A Simple and Rapid Method

A haptoglobin assay method based on the principle that cyanmethemoglobin is protected from denaturation in acidic medium when complexed to haptoglobin is presented. The method is simple and yields a result in slightly more than one hour.
Application of MOSTB precise advection pump in drilling fluid and completion fluid evaluation

The design considerations, structure and basic principle, and its creative points of MOSTB precise advection pump are described, and mainly focused on its application in the permeability gradient testing instrument. The intelligent permeability gradient testing instrument is used for evaluating the reser voir protection results with drilling fluid and completion fluid in the hole. The instrument is mainly consisted of the precise advection pump, core holder of multiple pressure testing, data collecting system, and computer and software processing system, etc. , in which the precise advection pump is the key instrument. The parameters of flow rate can be transmitted to the computer through R-232 communication port, and electric balance or measuring cylinder for outlet measuring can be omitted as the set value of the precise advection pump is the outlet flow rate, with a error of less than 1%. The pump is used to measure the core permeability and permeability recovery from multiple points, and then optimize the drilling fluid and completion fluid formulations good for reservoir protection. The pump has such advantages as high displacement pressure (60 MPa) , high flow rate resolution (0. 01mL/min), small surge on displacement pressure (0. 01 MPa), regulated flow rate transmission, easy operation, small volume and cost effective.
Mathematical Modeling and Attempts to Eliminate Measles: A Tribute to the Late Professor George Macdonald

In 1983, 5 years after the inception of an aggressive national measles elimination strategy, the United States experienced its lowest level of reported numbers of cases of measles. This accomplishment was the result of an effective vaccination strategy coupled with surveillance and control efforts by local, state, and national public health agencies. After 1983, however, the reported number of measles cases slowly increased until 1989, when the number exceeded that of 1979, the first full year of the National Measles Elimination Program. In 1990, we are experiencing epidemics throughout the United States and expect the reported number of cases of measles to exceed that of 1989. In this context, we felt it was timely to reflect on this experience in light of previous measles control efforts. In particular, we looked back to the contributions of Professor George Macdonald, which were critical to the successful elimination of measles from The Gambia in 1969. As we enter the last decade of this century, the sensible merging of mathematics and epidemiology in useful models, and the appropriate use of such models for planning, offers the best hope for achieving the elimination of measles either in this or the next century.
SU-F-T-409: Modelling of the Magnetic Port in Temporary Breast Tissue Expanders for a Treatment Planning System

Purpose: To model the magnetic port in the temporary breast tissue expanders and to improve accuracy of dose calculation in Pinnacle, a commercial treatment planning system (TPS). Methods: A magnetic port in the tissue expander was modeled with a radiological measurement-basis; we have determined the dimension and the density of the model by film images and ion chamber measurement under the magnetic port, respectively. The model was then evaluated for various field sizes and photon energies by comparing depth dose values calculated by TPS (using our new model) and ion chamber measurement in a water tank. Also, the model was further evaluated by using a simplified anthropomorphic phantom with realistic geometry by placing thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD)s around the magnetic port. Dose perturbations in a real patient's treatment plan from the new model and a current clinical model, which is based on the subjective contouring created by the dosimetrist, were also compared. Results: Dose calculations based on our model showed less than 1% difference from ion chamber measurements for various field sizes and energies under the magnetic port when the magnetic port was placed parallel to the phantom surface. When it was placed perpendicular to the phantom surface, the maximum difference was 3.5%, while average differences were less than 3.1% for all cases. For the simplified anthropomorphic phantom, the calculated point doses agreed with TLD measurements within 5.2%. By comparing with the current model which is being used in clinic by TPS, it was found that current clinical model overestimates the effect from the magnetic port. Conclusion: Our new model showed good agreement with measurement for all cases. It could potentially improve the accuracy of dose delivery to the breast cancer patients.
The Behavior of Noon Sakinah and Nunation in Quranic Recitation: An Optimality Account

“Natural classes” refer to the set of sound patterns that go together in phonological processes. This paper provides an analysis of the phonological behavior of noon sakinah and nunation /n/ in Quranic recitation based on natural class generalization within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). In some instances, the OT account may be accurate than traditional analysis. It provides evidence that natural classes derive from the nature of the set of markedness constraints, and that gutturals must constitute a natural class. The principal source of evidence for these proposals is that gutturals, unlike other places of articulation, do not induce nasal assimilation.
Impediments to Reform in European Post-Communist Defense Institutions

This article argues two key points. First, that Western democratic and communist defense and military concepts are antithetical and includes an explanation of why this is the case. Second, evidence is provided to demonstrate that legacy concepts are very much both actively and passively evident in European post-communist defense institutions. Consequently, it is argued that absent systematic efforts to expose and challenges the legitimacy of existing legacy concepts (and their accompanying assumptions and institutional logic), these institutions will continue to exist at best in a state of conceptual incoherence, and at worse as zombie organizations; not dead, but certainly lacking any manifestations of life.
VirusSeeker, a computational pipeline for virus discovery and virome composition analysis

The advent of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has vastly increased our ability to discover novel viruses and to systematically define the spectrum of viruses present in a given specimen. Such studies have led to the discovery of novel viral pathogens as well as broader associations of the virome with diverse diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, severe acute malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. Critical to the success of these efforts are robust bioinformatic pipelines for rapid classification of microbial sequences. Existing computational tools are typically focused on either eukaryotic virus discovery or virome composition analysis but not both. Here we present VirusSeeker, a BLAST-based NGS data analysis pipeline designed for both purposes. VirusSeeker has been successfully applied in several previously published virome studies. Here we demonstrate the functionality of VirusSeeker in both novel virus discovery and virome composition analysis.
Unchaining Richelieu's Monster: A Tiered Revenue-Based Copyright Regime

This article proposes a tiered revenue-based copyright regime, which would require copyright holders to select one of two different copyright terms. The first tier would provide a fixed, nonrenewable copyright term of 10-14 years, while the second tier would offer a one-year copyright term that could be indefinitely renewed as long as the work is successful enough to meet or exceed a revenue threshold. A tiered revenue-based copyright regime will break the gridlock between copyright proponents lobbying for longer copyright terms and public domain advocates insisting that terms are already remarkably excessive. It will entice Hollywood to set copyright orphans free and to accept dramatically reduced copyright terms for most artwork in exchange for gaining longer protection for the most successful commercial works. It will require all artists seeking copyright protection to register each work and will immediately transfer all works that are not registered—most newly created noncommercial art and all existing orphans—to the public domain. It will increase the speed at which the overwhelming majority of commercial art moves into the public domain, because artists selecting the first tier would have only 10-14 years of copyright protection—a much shorter term than current law provides. Moreover, it will free much of the commercial art in the second tier within one or a few years of copyright registration, for the revenue-based annual renewal system will be a final filter to ensure that only the most profitable works continue to stand aloof from the commons.
Public use of Information about Smoke Emissions: Application of the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model

In the last few decades, the number of people living in fire-prone ecosystems has increased, placing more people and private property at risk to future fire events. Substantial research has demonst...
Tracing single-cell histories

DNA mutations accumulate at a steady pace across the human genome, passing from one generation to another. On the basis of the degree of shared mutations, a genealogical relationship can be reconstructed from ancient and modern individuals, allowing one to go back hundreds of thousands of years in human evolutionary history ( 1 ). Instead of comparing individuals, on pages 550 and 555 of this issue, Bae et al. ( 2 ) and Lodato et al. ( 3 ), respectively, assessed the rate of DNA mutation in single cells from developing and aging human brains, revealing mutational histories in neurodevelopment, aging, and neurodegeneration. These approaches also have implications for understanding complex diseases that could result from somatic mutations that arise later in life, such as cancer.
Treating refractory depression in Parkinson's disease: a meta-analysis of transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often accompanied by clinically identified depression. Providing effective pharmacotherapies that concomitantly treat both motor and psychological symptoms can pose a challenge to physicians. For this reason, alternatives to standard anti-depressant treatments, such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), have been evaluated within the Parkinson’s population. A literature search was conducted on the PubMed database for all studies that evaluated rTMS as a treatment in patients with both depression and PD. A meta-analysis was performed on all studies that reported mean pre- and post-rTMS depression inventory scores. Widely used depression inventories included both self-report and clinician-administered measures. Effect size for individual study groups and across all studies was calculated. Six of 7 studies meeting inclusion criteria reported significantly improved depression scores, large effect sizes, and significant p-values. Total weighted average effect size was calculated at 1.32 across all study groups that applied rTMS. Across all but one study, rTMS appears to effectively reduce depression scores among self-reported and clinician administered inventories. The total weight average effect size showed that, when considering study sample sizes and degree of findings, this form of neurostimulation can relieve PD patients of their depressive symptoms. Further, rTMS is a promising alternative to traditional anti-depressant therapies when treating refractory depression in patients with PD.
Automatic Groups and Amalgams — A Survey

Automatic and aysnchronously automatic groups were invented by J.W. Cannon, D.B.A. Epstein, D.F. Holt, M.S. Patterson and W.P. Thurston in [CEHPT] a few years ago. The primary objective of this paper is to report, without proofs, on a number of new results about such groups. (Proofs will appear elsewhere, in due course.) Most of these results are concerned with the construction of new automatic and asynchronously automatic groups from old by means of amalgamated products. Our secondary objective here is to survey a little of the theory of automatic groups and the like, keeping the account reasonably self-contained.
Covalent vaccination with Trypanosoma cruzi Tc24 induces catalytic antibody production

Trypanosoma cruzi 24 (Tc24) is a recently described B-cell superantigen (BC-SAg) expressed by all developmental stages of T. cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. BC-SAgs are immunoevasins that interfere with the catalytic response available to a subset of natural antibodies comprising the preimmune (innate) repertoire. Electrophilic modifications of BC-SAgs facilitate the formation of highly energetic covalent reactions favouring B-cell differentiation instead of B-cell downregulation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to convert the inhibitory signals delivered to B-cells with specificity for Tc24 into activating signals after conjugating electrophilic phosphonate groups to recombinant Tc24 (eTc24). Covalent immunization with eTc24 increased the binding affinity between eTc24 and naturally nucleophilic immunoglobulins with specificity for this BC-SAg. Flow cytometric analyses demonstrated that eTc24 but not Tc24 or other electrophilically modified control proteins bound Tc24-specific IgM+ B-cells covalently. In addition, immunization of mice with eTc24 adjuvanted with ISA720 induced the production of catalytic responses specific for Tc24 compared to the abrogation of this response in mice immunized with Tc24/ISA720. eTc24-immunized mice also produced IgMs that bound recombinant Tc24 compared to the binding observed for IgMs purified from non eTc24-immunized controls. These data suggest that eTc24 immunization overrides the immunosuppressive properties of this BC-SAg.
A Proof-of-Concept Model Demonstration of System Level Cyber Attacks on Availability

In this study we have modeled a cyber security situation and demonstrated the system level effects using system dynamics PoC (Proof-of-Concept) model. We modeled a hypothetical Company's Information Technology infrastructure and simulated a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack on one part of the system in an effort to see how other parts of the system were affected. To validate our simulation model, we developed a cybersecurity testbed and conducted a cyber-attack on one application and observed its impact on the whole system. The results indicate that by using known vulnerabilities and the current knowledge about infrastructure and security controls, the system dynamic cyber security simulation modeling allows an organization to imitate the attacker activities and helps to assess and mitigate the system's risk exposure.
Anesthetic MS-222 Eliminates Nerve and Muscle Activity in Frogs Used for Physiology Teaching Laboratories.

Frogs are routinely used in physiology teaching laboratories to demonstrate important physiological processes. There have been recent directives that promote the use of the anesthetic MS-222 (trica...
Adoption of improved biomass stoves and stove/fuel stacking in the REACCTING intervention study in Northern Ghana

Abstract In order to support transitions away from open-fire cooking and toward cleaner household energy systems, a better understanding of users’ technology adoption patterns and preferences is needed. This paper highlights key factors influencing use of two types of biomass-burning stoves provided through the REACCTING (Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technology in Northern Ghana) randomized intervention study. We examine traditional and improved stove use over a two year follow up period, finding that the more basic rocket stove was used at a higher rate than the higher-tech gasifier stove. While stove use patterns varied by stove group, region, primary cook occupation, and socioeconomic status, use of traditional stoves remained high across most groups. Users perceived that improved stoves were less suitable for cooking a staple dish, Tuo Zaafi (TZ), and technical problems (e.g., battery failures with the gasifier stove) also limited the effectiveness of the intervention. Moving forward, household energy policies should prioritize a range of technologies that have potential to meet local needs while delivering meaningful health and/or environmental benefits, recognizing that stove and fuel “stacking” is likely to persist. A greater focus on markets and enabling environments is needed to support sustainable and scalable energy transitions.
Factitious: Large Scale Computer Game to Fight Fake News and Improve News Literacy

This case study describes a game designed to serve as new literacy education tool, playful polling system for research audience perceptions. The game underwent two primary designer iterations. As a result of design changes and renewed political chatter about fake news, the game's second iteration gathered more than 500,000 plays. The data collected reveals useful patterns in understanding news literacy and the perception of play experiences. This data of more than 45,000 players, indicates that the older the person the better they are at identifying fake news, until the approximate age of 70. It also indicates that higher education correlates to better performance at identifying real news from fake, although the time it takes to do so varies. This case study demonstrates the potential for such game designs to collect data useful to non-game contexts.
Employer Postcrisis Image Restoration: Implications for Recruitment:

A crisis can severely tarnish a company’s image and attempts to restore the damaged image may negatively affect postcrisis recruitment efforts. Because company image plays an important role in job ...
Genomics of periodontal disease and tooth morbidity

In this review we critically summarize the evidence base and the progress to date regarding the genomic basis of periodontal disease and tooth morbidity (ie, dental caries and tooth loss), and discuss future applications and research directions in the context of precision oral health and care. Evidence for these oral/dental traits from genome-wide association studies first emerged less than a decade ago. Basic and translational research activities in this domain are now under way by multiple groups around the world. Key departure points in the oral health genomics discourse are: (a) some heritable variation exists for periodontal and dental diseases; (b) the environmental component (eg, social determinants of health and behavioral risk factors) has a major influence on the population distribution but probably interacts with factors of innate susceptibility at the person-level; (c) sizeable, multi-ethnic, well-characterized samples or cohorts with high-quality measures on oral health outcomes and genomics information are required to make decisive discoveries; (d) challenges remain in the measurement of oral health and disease, with current periodontitis and dental caries traits capturing only a part of the health-disease continuum, and are little or not informed by the underlying biology; (e) the substantial individual heterogeneity that exists in the clinical presentation and lifetime trajectory of oral disease can be identified and leveraged in a precision medicine framework or, if unappreciated, can hamper translational efforts. In this review we discuss how composite or biologically informed traits may offer improvements over clinically defined ones for the genomic interrogation of oral diseases. We demonstrate the utility of the results of genome-wide association studies for the development and testing of a genetic risk score for severe periodontitis. We conclude that exciting opportunities lie ahead for improvements in the oral health of individual patients and populations via advances in our understanding of the genomic basis of oral health and disease. The pace of new discoveries and their equitable translation to practice will largely depend on investments in the education and training of the oral health care workforce, basic and population research, and sustained collaborative efforts..
Sensitivity analysis in kinetic Monte Carlo simulation based on random set sampling

Abstract Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) is an event-driven simulation mechanism to model the evolution of material systems according to discrete events instead of continuous time. The accuracy and robustness of KMC prediction due to parameter uncertainty can be assessed by sensitivity analysis. Here, a reliable kinetic Monte Carlo (R-KMC) mechanism is presented to perform the on-the-fly sensitivity analysis, which greatly reduces the computational load of traditional second-order Monte Carlo for KMC sensitivity analysis. In the new mechanism, interval probability or random set sampling is applied. A multievent sampling algorithm is developed to simulate events with imprecise rates. A new sampling scheme to consider correlations between events is also formulated to assess the effect of model-form uncertainty. The weak convergence of the R-KMC toward traditional KMC is demonstrated. Three reaction networks are analyzed to demonstrate the new R-KMC mechanism.
E.P.R. of free radicals in an adamantane matrix

Benzyl radicals and the isoelectronic azabenzyl radicals were prepared in an adamantane matrix and their isotropic E.P.R. spectra observed and analysed. The proton hyperfine splittings were assigned by specific deuteration and by analogy with the benzyl radical. The spin density distribution is strongly affected by non-symmetrical nitrogen substitution, but is only weakly affected by symmetrical substitution. INDO calculations on the radicals predict only small deviations from the benzyl radical spin density distribution for all of the azabenzyl radicals. However, the trends in the experimental values can be rationalized in terms of the electronegativity difference between carbon and nitrogen and its effect on the molecular orbitals of benzyl radical. Furthermore the observed trend in the g values not only lends support to this view of the structure but also allows estimation of the approximate energy of the first nπ* excited states.
Alcohol Use Disorders Are Associated With a Unique Impact on Airway Epithelial Cell Gene Expression.

Background Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and cigarette smoking both increase risk for development of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), likely through adverse effects on proximal airway mucociliary clearance and pathogen recognition. Smoking-related alterations on airways gene expression are well-described, but little is known about the impact of AUDs. We measured gene expression in human airways epithelial cells (AECs), hypothesizing that AUDs would be associated with novel differences in gene expression that could alter risk for CAP. Methods Bronchoscopy with airway brushings were performed in participants with AUDs and controls to obtain AECs. An Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test was used to define AUD. RNA was extracted from AECs, and mRNA expression data were collected on an Agilent micro-array. Differential expression analyses were performed on the filtered and normalized data with correction for multiple testing. Enrichment analyses were performed using clusterProfiler. Results Expression data from 19 control and 18 AUD participants were evaluated. After adjustment for smoking, AUDs were associated with significant differential expression of 520 AEC genes, including genes for ribosomal proteins and genes involved in protein folding. Enrichment analyses indicated significant differential expression of 24 pathways in AUDs, including those implicated in protein targeting to membrane and viral gene expression. Smoking-associated AEC gene expression differences mirrored previous reports, but differed from those associated with AUDs. Conclusions AUDs have a distinct impact on AEC gene expression that may influence proximal airway function independent of smoking. Alcohol-associated alterations may influence risk for CAP through modifying key mechanisms important in protecting proximal airways integrity.
The Presentation and Long-Term Preservation of the Oral Histories in the Houston Asian American Archive

The complex, multi-part interviews in the Houston Asian American Archive are created by a rotating group of students, with training, direction, and oversight provided by Dr. Anne Chao (HAAA Program Manager, a part-time position), and support by the Fondren Library. These digital oral histories include full transcripts, consent forms, photographs, and associated analog ephemera, as well as files which provide time-syncing and indexing data to enhance user interaction with the interviews. Tracking of these interviews as they are developed into their multiple parts uses cloud-based online tools and storage options that are available to anyone, while preservation of the final online versions and access to them are enabled via Rice University’s institutional repository. This article will explore the complex system used to provide robust online preservation and access to complex oral histories using undergraduate student work, part-time faculty and library support, cloud-based tools and storage, and space in an institutional repository. Challenges in maintaining this system will also be explored.
Cross‐flow microfiltration for isolation, selective capture and release of liposarcoma extracellular vesicles

We present a resource-efficient approach to fabricate and operate a micro-nanofluidic device that uses cross-flow filtration to isolate and capture liposarcoma derived extracellular vesicles (EVs). The isolated extracellular vesicles were captured using EV-specific protein markers to obtain vesicle enriched media, which was then eluted for further analysis. Therefore, the micro-nanofluidic device integrates the unit operations of size-based separation with CD63 antibody immunoaffinity-based capture of extracellular vesicles in the same device to evaluate EV-cargo content for liposarcoma. The eluted media collected showed ∼76% extracellular vesicle recovery from the liposarcoma cell conditioned media and ∼32% extracellular vesicle recovery from dedifferentiated liposarcoma patient serum when compared against state-of-art extracellular vesicle isolation and subsequent quantification by ultracentrifugation. The results reported here also show a five-fold increase in amount of critical liposarcoma-relevant extracellular vesicle cargo obtained in 30 min presenting a significant advance over existing state-of-art.
Differences in Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors, and Perceived Accessibility and Availability Barriers between Midwestern Rural and Urban Adults

This study compared rural vs urban eating and physical activity (PA) behaviors and perceived barriers. Analyses revealed rural adults cooked more at home, ate out less at restaurants (5.59 vs 4.91 ...
BuDDI: A Declarative Bloom Language for CALM Programming.

Coordination protocols help programmers of distributed systems reason about the effects of transactions on the state of the system, but they're not cheap. Coordination protocols may involve multiple rounds of communication, which can hurt system responsiveness. There exist many efforts in distributed computing for managing the coordination-performance trade-off. More recent is a line of work that characterizes the class of workloads for which coordination is not necessary for consistency: namely, logically monotonic programs. In this paper, we present a case study of logical monotonicity in workloads typical to computational biology. We leverage the Bloom language to write efficient distributed programs, and compare their performance to equivalent programs written in UPC++, a popular language for writing distributed programs. Additionally, we leverage Bloom's analysis tools to identify points-of-coordination, and use our own experience using Bloom to recommend some higher-level abstractions for users without strong distributed computing backgrounds.
New Spectroscopic Results on Subluminous Stars, V

Determination of temperature and surface gravity by colors and hydrogen-line profiles have been carried out for hot halo stars. A narrow horizontal branch is found stretching to above 40000 K; the hot O subdwarfs show a nearly vertical sequence, dropping towards the hot white dwarfs.
A high frequency ultrasound actuated synthetic-aperture array

An actuated synthetic-aperture array system is described that is capable of overcoming the technical difficulties in manufacturing an ultrasonic phased array in the 30 to 70 Mhz frequency range. The system is capable of generating images using a linear array of transducers which are of equal quality compared to a 64-element phased array while. The array was rapidly and precisely positioned with a piezoelectric actuator. The image was formed utilizing a synthetic aperture (SA) approach rather than electronic beamforming. The SA image was further refined by application of a deconvolution algorithm.
Application and evaluation of entomopathogens for citrus pest control

Originally from Southeast Asia, citrus has been introduced into many arid or humid, subtropical to tropical regions around the world where it is cultivated in a diverse array of quasi-permanent tree-crop plantings that range from small interplanted hillside patches to vast monocultural enterprises (Webber, 1948). Numerous arthropods infest citrus and some are considered serious pests locally or more globally either because of the direct damage they cause or because they transmit or otherwise facilitate important plant pathogens (e.g., the brown citrus aphid, Toxoptera citricida, vectors the citrus tristeza virus (CTV), Poprawski et al., 1999).
State Income Tax Preferences for the Elderly

This research investigates the evolution of state income tax preferences for the elderly over the last 25 years. Documenting how various types of income tax preferences have changed reveals that state tax policies are not simply mimicking federal tax law. It also shows a divergence in how the different types of state preferences have evolved. We therefore construct a summary measure using representative household profiles created from the Current Population Survey and the TAXSIM calculator for the period 1977-2002. Both our descriptive and econometric analyses point to state tax competition as a likely explanation for the recent patterns in state income tax preferences for the elderly.
Gray-Level Transformations

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Overview of Gray-level (Point) Transformations Examples of Point Transformations Specifying the Transformation Function Tutorial 8.1: Gray-level Transformations Problems ]]>
Management of Dysphonia After Radiation Therapy

Radiation-induced dysphonia can develop after radiation for primary laryngeal cancer or when the larynx is in the radiation field for nonlaryngeal malignancy. The effects are dose dependent and lead to variable degrees of dysphonia in both short- and long-term follow-up. Rehabilitation of the irradiated larynx can prove frustrating but can be facilitated through behavioral, pharmacologic, or surgical interventions.
Effects of clay minerals on the aggregation and subsequent settling of marine Synechococcus

Cyanobacteria are considered to play an important role in the oceanic biological carbon pump, especially in oligotrophic regions. But as single cells are too small to sink, their carbon export has to be mediated by aggregate formation and possible consumption by zooplankton producing sinking fecal pellets. Here, we study the aggregation and subsequent settling of the ubiquitous marine picocyanobacterium Synechococcus as a model organism in roller tanks and investigate the effects of the clays kaolinite and bentonite in a series of concentrations. We found that (1) Synechococcus cells formed aggregates as large as 1.4 mm in diameter that sank at velocities of up to 440 m d 21 and 660 m d 21 with and without ballasting clays, respectively; (2) clay minerals increased the number and reduced the size of aggregates, and their ballasting effects increased the excess density and sinking velocity of aggregates; (3) kaolinite, with its lower cation exchange capacity, resulted in smaller and slower sinking aggregates compared to bentonite; and (4) based on our experimental conditions, Synechococcus could potentially export carbon 2–3 times of that contained in their cells via aggregation, likely due to the scavenging of transparent exopolymer particles and dissolved organic matter. The presented results have relevance for our understanding of the role of cyanobacteria in the ecology and biogeochemistry in today’s ocean and also elucidate mechanisms of carbon export in the early Proterozoic ocean.
Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 MAC Protocol over a WLAN with Capture Effect

In this paper, we use a discrete Markov chain model to analyze the throughput of CSMA/CA protocol in a wireless local area network considering the capture phenomenon, which means the packet with the strongest power may capture the receiver even in the presence of other overlapping packets. The model of capture effect over the theoretical throughput of CSMA/CA protocol in the presence of path loss, shadowing, and Rayleigh fading is obtained and compared with the model without the capture effect.
The Dynamics of Alignment: Insights from a Punctuated Equilibrium Model

Several prior articles have emphasized the importance of alignment between business and information system (IS) strategies, and between business and IS structures. Seeking to advance our understanding of alignment, we examine the dynamics of changes in alignment through strategy/structure interactions in the business and IS domains. More specifically, we address the following question:In what ways does alignment evolve over time? Changes in the strategic IS management profile (which includes business strategy, IS strategy, business structure, and IS structure) over time are examined using a punctuated equilibrium model, involving long periods of relative stability, or evolutionary change, interrupted by short periods of quick and extensive, or revolutionary, change. Case studies of changes in business and IS strategies and structure over long time periods in three organizations suggest that the punctuated equilibrium model provides a valuable perspective for viewing these dynamics.The cases suggest that a pattern of alignment may continue over a long period, because either the level of alignment is high or the managers do not recognize the low alignment as a problem. Revolutions, involving changes in most or all dimensions of the strategic IS management profile, interrupt the evolutionary changes. However, organizations hesitate to make such revolutionary changes in strategic IS management profiles. Complete revolutions apparently require a combination of strong triggers. Finally, post-revolution adjustments to one dimension of the strategic IS management profile seem to follow revolutionary changes.