cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Role of Early Adopter Bias for New Technologies in Robot Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy

Purpose: We determined the potential influence of an early adopter bias in patients undergoing robot assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.Materials and Methods: We compared baseline demographic, clinical and health related quality of life characteristics of patients undergoing 3 different surgical procedures for clinically localized prostate cancer following the introduction of robot assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy at our institution. Patients included in this analysis were participating in a prospective health related quality of life study using the SF-12® and Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite validated questionnaires.Results: Of 402 patients 159 (39%) underwent robot assisted laparoscopic, 144 (36%) underwent radical perineal and 99 (25%) underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy. There were no statistically significant associations between procedure type and patient age (p = 0.267), race (p = 0.725), number of medical comorbidities (p = 0.490), income (p = 0.056) and level of education (p = ...
REACTION OF CLAYS WITH ORGANIC CATIONS IN PRODUCING REFRACTORY INSULATION

Slips prepared in certain ways with some organic compounds shrink only slightly after casting so that their shape and porosity are not lost on drying or later firing. This provides a possible method of producing refractory insulation without final sawing to shape. The compounds effective in producing such porous clay bodies are certain amines or other organic cations, in which one or more large hydrocarbon groups are attached to the basic nitrogen atom. The results of studies concerned with molding and other problems connected with production of insulating refractories by this process are given.
Distribution of prospective glutamatergic, glycinergic, and GABAergic neurons in embryonic and larval zebrafish.

Zebrafish are an excellent model for studies of the functional organization of neuronal circuits, but little is known regarding the transmitter phenotypes of the neurons in their nervous system. We examined the distribution in spinal cord and hindbrain of neurons expressing markers of transmitter phenotype, including the vesicular glutamate transporter (VGLUT) genes for glutamatergic neurons, the neuronal glycine transporter (GLYT2) for glycinergic neurons, and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65/67) for GABAergic neurons. All three markers were expressed in a large domain in the dorsal two-thirds of spinal cord, with additional, more ventral expression domains for VGLUT2 and GAD/GABA. In the large dorsal domain, dual in situ staining showed that GLYT2-positive cells were intermingled with VGLUT2 cells, with no dual-stained neurons. Many of the neurons in the dorsal expression domain that were positive for GABA markers at embryonic stages were also positive for GLYT2, suggesting that the cells might use both GABA and glycine, at least early in their development. The intermingling of neurons expressing inhibitory and excitatory markers in spinal cord contrasted markedly with the organization in hindbrain, where neurons expressing a particular marker were clustered together to form stripes that were visible running from rostral to caudal in horizontal sections and from dorsomedial to ventrolateral in cross sections. Dual labeling showed that the stripes of neurons labeled with one transmitter marker alternated with stripes of cells labeled for the other transmitter phenotypes. The differences in the distribution of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in spinal cord versus hindbrain may be tied to differences in their patterns of development and functional organization. J. Comp. Neurol. 480:1–18, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Search for the Top Quark in the Electron + Jets + Soft Muon Channel at D0

The top quark is required in the standard model as the weak isospin partner of the b quark and is the only unobserved quark in three generations of quarks. At the Tevatron, the top quark is expected to be produced in pairs via the strong interactions. Almost all top quarks will decay into a b quark and a W boson, which decays in tum to pairs of leptons or quarks. In this analysis, we concentrated on the electron +jets final state where one W decays into an electron and neutrino and the other W decays into a pair of quarks. To suppress the background arising from production of a high-PT W accompanied by jets, we tagged the b quarks through their semileptonic decays with muons in the final state. This thesis includes detailed discussions on the W + jet event identification, muon tagging criteria, background estimates, and efficiency studies. Based on a data sample with integrated luminosity of 13.5 ± 1.6 $pb^{-1}$ from the 1992-93 running period, two $t\bar{t}$ candidate events were observed with an expected background of 0.60 ± 0.15 events, which yields a small excess of events over expected background. In combination with all D0 top quark analyses with approximately 50 $pb^{-1}$ of data accumulated by the D0 detector during the period 1992-1995, we observed 17 events with an expected background of 3.9 ± 0.6. The probability of an upward fluctuation of the background to 17 or more events is 2x$l0^{-6}$. This leads to the conclusion that production of the top quark has been observed in pjj collisions with a center of mass energy of 1.8 Te V.
Using scanned electron beams for testing microstructure isolation and continuity

Scanned electron beams provide a superior method of testing for isolation and continuity in integrated circuit microstructures by observing the voltage contrast generated by charge storage on isolated nodes. The authors discuss how such beams can be used to test, ICs during the manufacturing steps to insure proper pattern transfer and isolation and, to a more limited degree, continuity. The method uses the electron beam as the active probe to both drive and test the device. Under the proper conditions, the beam can deposit charge on nodes of the IC. Nodes which are isolated change potential and exhibit voltage contrast with respect to the nodes that are fixed in potential. Thus, the beam also instantly reads out the success or failure of the isolation of a node. Examples are shown from silicon-on-insulator (SOI) mesas and from novel test structures for checking patterning fidelity in polysilicon and metal layers. >
Acceleration of the frame algorithm

Shows how polynomial acceleration techniques which have been developed for the solution of large linear systems can be employed to improve and accelerate the frame algorithm. These methods permit a reduction in the number of necessary iterations by an order of magnitude when the frame algorithm is slow. The author gives several examples from the theory of irregular sampling, from wavelet theory and from Gabor theory where these methods are probably mandatory for efficient reconstruction. >
Inference of allelopathy is complicated by effects of activated carbon on plant growth.

Summary • Allelopathy can play an important role in structuring plant communities, but allelopathic effects are often difficult to detect because many methods used to test for allelopathy can be confounded by experimental artifacts. The use of activated carbon, a technique for neutralizing allelopathic compounds, is now employed in tests for allelopathy; however, this technique also could produce large experimental artifacts.  In three independent experiments, it was shown that adding activated carbon to potting media affected nutrient availability and plant growth. For most species tested, activated carbon increased plant biomass, even in the absence of the potentially allelopathic agent.  The increased growth corresponded to increased plant nitrogen content, likely resulting from greater nitrogen availability. Activated carbon also affected nitrogen and other nutrient concentrations in soil media in the absence of plants.  The observed effects of activated carbon on plant growth can confound its use to test for allelopathy. The detection of allelopathy relies on the difference between plant growth in medium with carbon and that in medium without carbon in the presence of the potentially allelopathic competitor; however, this difference may be biased if activated carbon alters soil nutrient availability and plant growth even in the absence of the focal allelopathic agent.
Pregnancy following amputation of the cervix.

Abstract A series of 864 women are being followed subsequent to amputation of the cervix. Of 193 women who were menstruating at the time of operation, 20 have conceived, 17 inadvertently, and 3 deliberately since, in these 3, the cervix was excised in the management of secondary infertility. There were 2 abortions in the first trimester, one fetal loss secondary to cervical incompetence in the second trimester, and 18 healthy babies resulting from vaginal delivery at term. It is concluded that excision biopsy of the cervix by a modified Sturmdorft amputation technique does not increase the hazard during future childbearing.
The dragon morphs

Seligsohn talks about China's energy use and carbon emissions. Not only is China now the largest overall energy consumer in the world, it has surged ahead to become the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. However, a remarkable change is now taking place in China. Quietly, over the last decade, it has turned its factories around, with a view to cleaning up the skies above. China is no eco-saint, but it has recognized the enormous benefits of using fuel more efficiently. After the massive growth of the last 15 years, its emissions are starting to slow. It's still early days, but China's coal use has already peaked, and a greenhouse gas peak may not be far behind.
Variance-based clustering methods and higher order data transformations and their applications

Two approaches have been proposed in statistical and machine learning communities in order to address the problem of uncovering clusters with complex structure. One approach relies on the development of clustering criteria that are able to accommodate increasingly complex characteristics of the data. The other approach is based on simplification of structure of data by mapping it to a different feature space via a non-linear function and then clustering in the new space. This dissertation covers three related studies: development of a novel multi-dimensional clustering method, development of non-linear mapping functions that leverage higher-order co-occurrences between features in boolean data, and applications of these mapping functions for improving the performance of clustering methods. In particular, we treat clustering as a combinatorial optimization problem of finding a partition of the data so as to minimize a certain criterion. We develop a novel multi-dimensional clustering method based on a statistically-motivated criterion proposed by J. Neyman for stratified sampling from one-dimensional data. We show that this criterion is more reflective of the underlying data structure than the seemingly similar K-means criterion when second order variability is not homogeneous between constituent subgroups. Furthermore, experimental results demonstrate that generalization of the Neyman's criterion to multi-dimensional spaces and development of the associated clustering algorithm allow for statistically efficient estimation of the grand mean vector of a population. In the framework of the mapping-based approach to discovering complex cluster structures, we introduced a novel adaptive non-linear data transformation termed Unsupervised Second Order Transformation (USOT). The novelties behind USOT are (a) that it leverages in a unsupervised manner, higher-order co-occurrences between features in boolean data, and (b) that it considers each feature in the context of probabilistic relationships with other features. In addition, USOT has two desirable properties. USOT adaptively selects features that would influence the mapping of a given feature, and preserves the interpretability of dimensions of the transformed space. Experimental results on text corpora and financial time series demonstrate that by leveraging higher-order co-occurrences between features, clustering methods achieved statistically significant improvements in USOT space over the original boolean space.
Sustained Neuroprotection From a Single Intravitreal Injection of PGJ2 in a Nonhuman Primate Model of Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy

Purpose. Prostaglandin J2 (PGJ2) is neuroprotective in a murine model of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). After assessing for potential toxicity, we evaluated the efficacy of a single intravitreal (IVT) injection of PGJ2 in a nonhuman primate model of NAION (pNAION).
An application of the clumped binomial model to the analysis of clustered attribute data

This paper is concerned with the statistical analysis of situations where the experimental units are clusters of subjects, each of whom is classified with respect to the presence of a particular (binary response) attribute. For this purpose, the clumped binomial probability model is used to define an underlying mean rate parameter in terms of which the effects of certain treatments as well as cluster size itself can be investigated. The resulting methodology involves a synthesis of certain maximum likelihood and weighted least squares procedures; it is illustrated for a three-dimensional contingency table pertaining to numbers of deaths in litters of baby mice.
A Big Bird effect? The interaction among public broadcasting, public subsidies, and political knowledge

Policymakers in industrialized democracies often debate the efficacy of subsidizing public broadcasters. Surprisingly however, past media and politics research analyzing the effects of public broadcasting on political knowledge does not isolate the effect of subsidies and instead treats all public broadcasters as equals. This study theorizes that subsidized public broadcasters have to worry less about competing with entertainment-oriented commercial broadcasters for advertising revenue than their unsubsidized peers. As a result, they can focus on providing more comprehensive public affairs coverage instead of only worrying about attracting the largest possible audience. To test this theory, I use Eurobarometer data measuring knowledge, media consumption, and demographic variables from 14 countries. I find that watching public broadcasting increases knowledge levels among citizens, while decreasing gaps in knowledge between citizens caused by varying levels of education, income, gender, and political interest. However, as predicted, these benefits only occur in countries that provide significant subsidies for their public broadcasters.
Advances in High Temperature Phosphor Thermometry for Aerospace Applications

Phosphor thermometry has been used for many years for non-contact temperature measurements in hostile environments. Aerospace systems are particularly prone to adverse high temperature environments, including large blackbody background, vibration, rotation, fire/flame, pressure, or noise. These environments often restrict the use of more common thermocouples or infrared thermometric techniques. Temperature measurements inside jet turbines, rocket engines, or similar devices are especially amenable to fluorescence techniques. Often the phosphor powders are suspended in binders and applied like paint or applied as high temperature sprays. Thin coatings will quickly assume the same temperature as the surface to which they are applied. The temperature dependence of phosphors is a function of the base matrix atoms and a small quantity of added activator or “dopant” ions. Often for high temperature applications, the selected materials are refractory and include rare earth ions. Phosphors like Y3Al5O12 (YAG) doped with Eu, Dy, or Tm, Y2O3 doped with Eu, or similar rare earth compounds, will survive high temperatures and can be configured to emit light that changes rapidly in lifetime and intensity. Recently, a YAG:Cr phosphor paint emitted fluorescence during short duration tests in a high Mach number hydrogen flame at 2,200 °C. One of the biggest challenges is to locate a binder material that can withstand tremendous variations in temperature in an adverse aerospace environment. This presentation will give research results applicable to the use of phosphors for aerospace thermometry. Emphasis will be placed on the selection of phosphor and binder combinations that can withstand high temperatures.
Analysis on the monitoring results of nitrite content of the cooked meat in Xinxiang City for years 2011 to 2013

Objective This study was carried out in order to understand the situation of nitrite in cooked meat products in the market of Xinxiang city.Methods The monitoring results of the cooked meat samples were counted and analyzed in 2011-2013 year for three consecutive years.Results Among of the 421 cooked meat products samples of three consecutive years,the qualification rate of nitrite content was 79.3 %.The total qualified rate of the nitrite content of cooked chicken and cooked duck was97.1 %and 96.4 %,respectively.But for the cooked beef and cooked pork were only 76.9 %and 72.7 %.Conclusions Nitrite was used above the standard value and abused in meat products in the market of Xinxiang City,especially cooked beef and cooked pork.It was proposed that the relevant departments should paid attention to this situation,and strengthened the supervision,to improve the food safety of cooked meat products.
Model-based Inversion for Flash Thermography

Pulse or flash thermography is a method of nondestructive evaluation that finds subsurface flaws in materials by observing a heat pulse and subsequent cooldown using a thermal camera. A fundamental constraint of pulse thermography is lateral heat diffusion that tends to blur the shapes of defects. It can be difficult to interpret the thermal image sequence from a pulse thermography test. This paper presents a model-based inversion for pulse thermography that uses the known physics of heat conduction to as a basis for representing the recorded thermal image sequence. The technique provides a means to solve for the reflectivity distribution of defects across multiple layers, such as delaminations in a composite material. The layer reflectivity distributions provide a compact and concrete representation of the thermal image sequence. The technique gives excellent interpretability and resolution with minimal noise gain. Model-based inversion is demonstrated on several carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) specimens.
Current and Future Soil Research

The study of soils in Wisconsin is ongoing. All 72 counties of the state have been mapped at a resolution of 1:30,000 or finer. Official soil descriptions and extent maps are available for all 740 series identified in the state. Primary laboratory characterizations are available for more than 1000 pedons in the state. So the soil conditions have been well mapped and there is considerable information available. In this chapter, we will discuss the need to update the information and discuss some ways how this can be done. In addition, we will discuss some soil research areas that in our view need attention.
SUBSEQUENT ARM INJURY RISK FOLLOWING REHABILITATION AND RETURN TO SPORT

Background Reports of return to play(8–80%) and subsequent injury(15–30%) are variable following arm injuries in baseball players with no known risk factors. Objective We aimed to prospectively examine the influence of injury history, return to sport criteria, and baseball participation as risk factors in youth and adolescent baseball players returning to sport following rehabilitation. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Youth through adolescent baseball leagues. Patients (or Participants) Injured baseball players (n=60;age=15.3±2.5 months) were followed for atleast 1 year (15.8±9.6 months) after returning to sport. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) All players9 ROM, strength and outcome scores were measured and met predetermined criteria for return to sport. Players were surveyed monthly for participation, competition level, and the development of injuries. All subsequent injuries were verified as overuse time-loss injuries by team athletic trainer, physical therapist, or physician. Main Outcome Measurements Bivariate correlations were used to evaluate the relationship between injury history, return to sport criteria, and baseball participation. Forward stepwise logistic regression using significant (r>.25; P Results Seven players reported an injury prior to the index injury. Twenty players suffered a subsequent time-loss arm injury. Development of a subsequent arm injury was correlated with previous injury(r=.45; P =0.002) and advancing one competitive level(r=.32; P =0.01). The final regression model revealed that players reporting an prior injury to the index injury were 20.5 (1.8–147.5 95% CI) times greater risk of a subsequent overuse arm injury than in players without a previous injury history. Conclusions Injury history and advancing competition levels increases the risk of a subsequent arm injury despite achievement of evidence based return to sport criteria. Clinicians should consider counseling and monitoring of youth and adolescent baseball players returning back to sport, especially after multiple arm injuries.
Investigating the relationships among college students' satisfaction, addiction, needs, communication apprehension, motives, and uses & gratifications with Snapchat

Snapchat is a popular communication mode for college students. In this study, 475 college students reported their communication behaviors regarding their Snapchat use and other variables related to Snapchat, such as addiction and needs. Results indicated that college students are satisfied using Snapchat. Findings showed that there was a significant relationship between participant needs (entertainment and functional) with Snapchat addiction, intensity, and exhibitionism. Further, there is a relationship between participant needs (entertainment and functional) with communication apprehension (social media and Snapchat). Snapchat offers functional features that meet need of high apprehension individuals.Snapchat is used because it is fun and practical.As needs are met, users' satisfaction with Snapchat increases.
Econocast.net: Pencasts to supplement the undergraduate economics curriculum

URL: http://www.econocast.netWe developed Pencast video lessons to complement six undergraduate economics courses that form the core curriculum for undergraduate economics, including introductory m...
Comparing Radiographic Progression of Bone Healing in Gustilo IIIB Open Tibia Fractures Treated With Muscle Versus Fasciocutaneous Flaps

Objectives:To investigate how muscle and fasciocutaneous flaps influence the progression of bone healing in acute Gustilo IIIB tibia fractures.Design:Retrospective Chart Review.Setting:Urban Academic Level I Trauma Center.Patients/Participants:Between 2006 and 2016, 39 patients from a database of op
Laser Heater Shaping for Microbunching Instability Suppression in Free Electron Lasers

We present two laser heater shaping solutions based on Laguerre-Gaussian and discrete beamlet array distributions that significantly outperform current microbunching instability suppression approaches in free-electron lasers.
A Converse Lyapunov Theorem with Applications to Iss-Disturbance Attenuation 1

Abstract This work provides a generalization of a converse Lyapunov theorem for systems that do not have the regularity property on the invariant sets. As an application, we provide Lyapunov-function like necessary and sufficient characterizations for the problem of ISS-disturbance attenuation.
Stents Used in Conjunction with Thoracic Aortic Endografting

Stents are metallic scaffolding used to permanently dilate a lesion to restore or preserve the patency of a vessel. Stents are primarily used to treat dissections after angioplasty, residual stenosis (>30%), pressure gradient (>10 mmHg systolic), target vessel occlusion, and recurrence of disease. Based on the method of deployment vascular stents are divided into two main categories: balloon-expanded or self-expanding.
Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas in Children: Treatment (An Update)

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a devastating childhood malignancy. The tumors are diagnosed radiographically and symptomatically. Biopsy is not recommended. The pathology is almost always a WHO grade II, III, or IV astrocytoma. Patients present with less than 6 months of cranial nerve defects, ataxia, and/or long tract signs. Radiographically, tumors are hypointense on T1, hyperintense on T2 and have an infiltrating mass that occupies at least 2/3 of the pons. The standard of care for treatment of a DIPG is radiation therapy. Neither surgery nor chemotherapy has been found to improve survival for these children. The average survival from diagnosis is 8–12 months.
Principles of Genetic Counseling for Psychiatric Liaisons

Medical genetics is a specialty that draws from and, increasingly, influences virtually every other branch of medicine and many of the basic sciences. Our growing understanding of the genetic basis not only of a few relatively rare diseases but of numerous birth defects and many of the common ills of mankind has led to an explosion of knowledge about the human genome that has far-reaching implications for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
The post-traumatic response in children and adolescents.

Each year in the United States more than 3 million children and adolescents experience some form of traumatic event, which is producing a public health crisis. The responses of children to trauma share broad similarities to those of traumatized adults as well as some differences related to the plasticity of the developing brain and the child’s imaginative responses to the trauma of others. Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) are viewed as the maladaptive persistence of a previously adaptive set of mental and physiologic responses to the trauma, organized as malignant memories. Because PTSD may be preventable, professional activities should extend beyond assessment and treatment to include public education aimed at preventing violence and children’s exposure to it. There may be a critical period for treatment following a trauma, after which interventions may be less effective.
The Limited Economic Case for Subsidies Regulation

The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development has assembled a task force on Rethinking International Subsidy Disciplines. This paper, prepared for the task force, considers the economic case for general disciplines on subsidies by WTO member states. It considers the two principal economic arguments for such disciplines – the possibility that subsidies create negative international externalities for other nations, and the possibility that subsidies disciplines can tie the hands of member governments in a manner that discourages government waste. It concludes that a compelling case can be made for prohibiting new subsidies to import-competing industries that undermine negotiated market access concessions. The economic case for disciplines that go beyond this principle is weak for a variety of theoretical and practical reasons, although industry or sector-specific limits on subsidies may be useful in some instances.
Evolving mach 3.0 to a migrating thread model

We have modified Mach 3.0 to treat cross-domain remote procedure call (RPC) as a single entity, instead of a sequence of message passing operations. With RPC thus elevated, we improved the transfer of control during RPC by changing the thread model. Like most operating systems, Mach views threads as statically associated with a single task, with two threads involved in an RPC. An alternate model is that of migrating threads, in which, during RPC, a single thread abstraction moves between tasks with the logical flow of control, and "server" code is passively executed. We have compatibly replaced Mach's static threads with migrating threads, in an attempt to isolate this aspect of operating system design and implementation. The key element of our design is a decoupling of the thread abstraction into the execution context and the schedulable thread of control, consisting of a chain of contexts. A key element of our implementation is that threads are now "based" in the kernel, and temporarily make excursions into tasks via upcalls. The new system provides more precisely defined semantics for thread manipulation and additional control operations, allows scheduling and accounting attributes to follow threads, simplifies kernel code, and improves RPC performance. We have retained the old thread and IPC interfaces for backwards compatibility, with no changes required to existing client programs and only a minimal change to servers, as demonstrated by a functional Unix single server and clients. The logical complexity along the critical RPC path has been reduced by a factor of nine. Local RPC, doing normal marshaling, has sped up by factors of 1.7-3.4. We conclude that a migrating-thread model is superior to a static model, that kernel-visible RPC is a prerequisite for this improvement, and that it is feasible to improve existing operating systems in this manner.
The BRCT domains of the BRCA1 and BARD1 tumor suppressors differentially regulate homology-directed repair and stalled fork protection

Summary The BRCA1 tumor suppressor preserves genome integrity through both homology-directed repair (HDR) and stalled fork protection (SFP). In vivo, BRCA1 exists as a heterodimer with the BARD1 tumor suppressor, and both proteins harbor a phosphate-binding BRCT domain. Here, we compare mice with mutations that ablate BRCT phospho-recognition by Bard1 (Bard1S563F and Bard1K607A) or Brca1 (Brca1S1598F). Brca1S1598F abrogates both HDR and SFP, suggesting that both pathways are likely impaired in most BRCA1 mutant tumors. Although not affecting HDR, the Bard1 mutations ablate poly(ADP-ribose)-dependent recruitment of BRCA1/BARD1 to stalled replication forks, resulting in fork degradation and chromosome instability. Nonetheless, Bard1S563F/S563F and Bard1K607A/K607A mice, unlike Brca1S1598F/S1598F mice, are not tumor prone, indicating that HDR alone is sufficient to suppress tumor formation in the absence of SFP. Nevertheless, because SFP, unlike HDR, is also impaired in heterozygous Brca1/Bard1 mutant cells, SFP and HDR may contribute to distinct stages of tumorigenesis in BRCA1/BARD1 mutation carriers.
Vocal Signals of Sexual Motivation in Male and Female Rodents

Rodents produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) under different social contexts, including courtship and reproduction. The present review aims to summarize the behavioral, bioacoustical, and physiological evidence that USV are reliable signals of sexual motivation in both male and female rodents. USV are actively produced by both sexes during sexual interactions, contrary to earlier assumptions. Male-typical and female-typical vocal behaviors can be identified. Calling rates and acoustic parameters, such as call duration, frequency, and energy, can be modulated rapidly over time by motivational state and sexual context. USV produced in response to sexual context could be regulated by the brain on a moment-to-moment basis through non-classical mechanisms of steroid action. Finally, I provide some practical considerations for the acoustic and statistical analyses of these vocal signals. USV can be used as signals of sexual motivation in both sexes to study brain and hormonal mechanisms underlying sexual behavior or sexual differentiation.
A 6 $\mu$ W ±50 ppm/°C ±1500 ppm/V 1.5 MHz $RC$ Oscillator Using Self-Regulation

A low power RC relaxation oscillator with very low voltage and temperature sensitivities is presented. Supply sensitivity is reduced by using a self-regulation loop that biases the oscillator near its zero-voltage coefficient point. Fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process, the prototype 1.5-MHz oscillator consumes 6 $\boldsymbol {\mu }\text{W}$ from 1-V supply and achieves better than ±50 ppm/°C and ±1500 ppm/V temperature and voltage sensitivities, respectively.
The Effects of Progesterone Administration on Hepatic Endoplasmic Reticulum: An Electron Microscopic and Biochemical Study

It is now well known that there are tiny membrane-limited channels ramifying throughout the cytoplasm of most cells. Porter (24) was the first to describe this lace-like reticulum of membranes with the electron microscope. Because of its association with the endoplasmic portion of the cell rather than the ectoplasm, it was referred to as the “endoplasmic reticulum” (25,26). In 1955, Fawcett (7) noted that two forms of the endoplasmic reticulum existed in the hepatic parenchymal cell. One form consisted of a system of membranes studded with ribosomes (rough-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum) and the other consisted of only a membranous network (smooth-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum).
Synthesis and bioluminescence of thioluciferin.

Abstract The firefly luciferin analog thioluciferin (S-luc) was synthesised as a key element of bioluminescent reporters for oxidation state and thiol/disulfide equilibria. It shows blue-shifts in absorption and fluorescence compared to luciferin, and is a modest luciferase substrate. These features are attributed to a π-system that is less conjugated than luciferin.
Lead and Zinc Extractive Metallurgy Research in the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy

The Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy has performed graduate research in zinc and lead extractive metallurgy over its history. Presented is an overview of some of the past and current research on this topic, and this includes as follows: galena leaching with fluosilicic acid; soda ash reduction of galena; characteristics of sodium-iron-silicate slags; computational fluid dynamic modeling of a secondary lead reverberatory furnace; vacuum distillation of complex lead bullion; hydrogen partial reduction of zinc ferrites; and evaluation of zinc process jarosite, ferrites, and leach precipitates for by-product recovery.
Rapid COVID-19 vaccine development.

Finding the fastest pathway to vaccine availability includes the avoidance of safety pitfalls
Governance ≠ Leadership: What Blockchain and AI Won't Do for Corporate Lawyers

This is a contribution to the Journal of Corporation Law’s 2020 symposium on blockchain technology and corporate governance. The thesis is that blockchain technology is well suited to the monitoring function in corporate governance; that monitoring as the primary function of corporate governance is a particularly legal conception; and that the business conception of governance has far more to do with leadership, strategy, and operations. If the legal and business conceptions of governance tend to be ships passing in the night (at least in this somewhat exaggerated rendering), it is because prevailing economic and legal theoretical models have a difficult time incorporating human qualities that underlie leadership, intuition, insight, and creativity. Law schools have long taught litigation skills and transactional skills have come into vogue as well. Teaching leadership to aspiring business lawyers is the next challenge.
Interdisciplinarity and International Education: Creating Opportunities for Collaboration in Design Research and Practice

Globalization has led to an increasing interest in international collaborations in higher education to help students develop a stronger awareness of how their professions are practiced overseas. These study-abroad experiences fit well with the goals of interdisciplinarity, since they both share the same agenda of encouraging students to gain a more expansive and inclusive perspective on their disciplines. This paper discusses the creation and implementation of an educational opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students in design fields that was intended to simultaneously encourage interdisciplinary and international awareness. The participating students, from a major US university, studied design and operation factors related to construction projects in Jordan, with an emphasis on sustainable design and the ecological impacts throughout the buildings’ life cycles. This endeavor helped the students to become more aware of practical and cultural design issues in the international context, while interacting with a diverse interdisciplinary team to learn about varied aspects of the construction process. While visiting their study sites in Jordan, the students were also able to participate in immersive cultural and ecological activities to deepen their appreciation of local contextual factors in design.
Sentiment Analysis of Amazon Product Reviews

Sentiment analysis allows computer programs to identify subjective information from a document with the help of text analysis, computational linguistics, and machine learning methods. Sentiment analysis models are trained to detect polarity within a text (e.g. positive or negative opinion), whether it’s a whole document, paragraph, or a single sentence. In this research, both traditional machine learning methods, such as Naive Bayes analysis and Support Vector Machines, as well as deep learning models such as Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) are built, tested and compared in terms of their effectiveness to detect the correlation between Amazon product reviews and the star rating given by customers. By comparing these models, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the role they can play in sentiment analysis. This understanding can be used to better understand people’s feelings when making business decision in applications like e-commerce.
Regional comparison of self-reported late pregnancy cigarette smoking to mass spectrometry analysis.

Objective To report a more accurate prevalence estimate of late pregnancy nicotine exposures. Study design A cross-sectional study during a 2-month period in 2019. Participants were women delivering in any of the six county maternity hospitals who consented to universal drug testing at the time of delivery as part of routine hospital admission. Results Of 2531 tested samples, 18.7% tested positive for high levels of cotinine indicating primary smoking or other primary use of tobacco products. Together, 33.0% of the study population tested positive for nicotine exposure during late pregnancy compared to vital records which reported 8.2% cigarette smoking during the third trimester of pregnancy and 10.5% cigarette smoking at any time during pregnancy through maternal self-report. Conclusion Captured vital birth smoking measures vastly underreport actual primary exposures to nicotine products. Vital birth data also fail to capture secondhand exposures which constitute a significant proportion of the population.
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics – Synthetic Brain in Action

Artificial intelligence is a theory. It is the development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks that would require human intelligence. Examples of these tasks are visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. The base object in this reference is the agent who is the "actor” taking birth in the software and culminating itself in the hardware body. The connection between those two is that the control of the robot is a software agent that reads data from the sensors decides what to do next and then directs the effectors to act in the physical world. The aim of this paper is to provide basic, background information on two emerging technologies: artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics and their scope in India. Thus, a first major feature of these two disciplines is product diversity. In addition, it is possible to characterize them as disruptive, enabling and interdisciplinary.
Hibernation behavior of a federally threatened ground squirrel: climate change and habitat selection implications

Hibernation is an adaptation to survive periods of stress, from food limitation or harsh thermal conditions. A key question in contemporary ecology is whether rare, range-restricted species can change their behavior in response to climate change (i.e., through behavioral plasticity). The northern Idaho ground squirrel, Urocitellus brunneus (A. H. Howell, 1928), is a federally threatened species that hibernates for approximately 8 months per year within the bounds of its small range in central Idaho, USA. Changes in temperature, snow accumulation, and summer precipitation, all brought about as a result of climate change, may reduce survival or fecundity of northern Idaho ground squirrels if they cannot adapt to these climate changes. Hibernating species can respond to climate-change-induced thermal challenges in two ways: change their hibernation physiology and behavior (i.e., emergence date or number of torpor bouts) or alter their environment (i.e., change hibernacula depth or location). We explored a suite of intrinsic and extrinsic factors to document the extent to which they influenced hibernation behavior of northern Idaho ground squirrels. Emergence date was positively associated with snowpack and negatively associated with mean winter temperature. Mean minimum skin temperature was negatively associated with canopy closure and slope of a squirrel's hibernaculum. Duration of the heterothermal period, number of euthermic bouts, and total time spent euthermic were positively associated with body mass. Immergence date and duration of the longest torpor bout were negatively associated with body mass. Warmer temperatures and less snow accumulation in the winter—caused by climate change—likely will cause altered emergence dates. Our results suggest that any future climate-induced changes in snowfall, ambient temperature, food availability, or habitat likely will impact survival of this rare ground squirrel, because such changes will cause changes in hibernation behavior, percent mass loss during hibernation, and duration of the active season when small mammals are more susceptible to predation.
Approaches to Land Use Planning and Zoning Among Michigan's Local Governments

This report presents the opinions of Michigan’s local government leaders on issues related to land use planning and zoning, including use of master plans and capital improvements plans (CIPs), staff or external contractors associated with planning and zoning, perceived benefits to land use planning, and more. These findings are based on statewide surveys of local government leaders in the Fall 2017 wave of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS).
Artificial Psychosocial Framework for Affective Non-player Characters

Video game designers express a need for a tool to create a human-like Non-Player Character (NPC) that makes contextually correct decisions against inputs performed at unforeseen times. This tool must be able to integrate with the designer’s current game engine, such as the Unreal Engine. To make an NPC more human-like, we use psychology theories, specifically, emotions in decision making, such as the ideas proposed by A. Damasio. This approach allows an NPC’s psychology to connect directly to the underlying intrinsic motivations that drive players. This paper presents the “Artificial Psychosocial Framework” (APF) and defines a new class of NPC known as an “Affective NPC” (ANPC). APF utilizes an ANPC’s personality, perceptions, and actions to generate emotions, which influences the social relationship they have with other ANPCs. Additionally, APF considers the generation of emotions as an ambivalent hierarchy and classifies the representation of a personality and social relation. APF can work in tandem with existing AI techniques, such as Fuzzy Logic, Behavior Trees, Utility Theory, and Goal-Oriented Action Planning, to provide an interface for developers to build emotion-centric gameplay. APF is a library for designers to use as a plug-in to a familiar game engine, such as the Unreal Engine. On the macro-level, APF uses the “Cognitive Appraisal Theory” (CAT) of emotions. On the micro-level, psychological models are chained together to determine the emotional state and social relation. The personality of an ANPC is represented by the Big Five: “Openness, Consciousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism,” also called the OCEAN model. The emotions of an ANPC are described by the “Ortony, Clore, and Collins” (OCC) model. The social relation between ANPCs uses the “Liking, Dominance, Solidarity, and Familiarity” (LDSF) model. This paper demonstrates APF by simulating a scenario from the “Dennis the Menace” setting, where each Dennis is an ANPC with a different personality mapped to a Myers-Briggs type indicator. The results demonstrate how a different personality profile will cause varying emotional states, responses, and actions for the two simulated ANPCs in the same simulated scenario.
Analysis of Current Meter Data for Predicting Pollutant Dispersion

Publisher Summary Although, current meter data are frequently collected during the design of major ocean outfalls, the data are rarely subjected to extensive analyses to aid in the design of these systems. An exception to this occurred during oceanographic investigations for outfalls proposed for the City of San Francisco, California. In this case, current meter data collected were subjected to fairly extensive analyses that aided considerably in the design and prediction of performance of the outfalls. The purpose of this chapter is to present the results of some of these analyses. An analysis of currents measured near a proposed ocean outfall is presented to examine the effects of the currents on the design and transport of the discharged sewage. The currents have been discussed in terms of their low, tidal, and high-frequency content. It has been shown that the tidal currents affect the wastewater on time scales of minutes to hours after release from the diffuser. The high-frequency content affects the wastewater on time scales of hours, primarily through turbulent diffusion. The low-frequency currents affect the long-term buildup of pollutants. For very long periods of days to months or even years, the buildup of pollutants in the vicinity of the discharge is governed by the low-frequency currents. Two distinct periods of low-frequency current behavior existed. There were fairly rapid currents to the northwest, during which rapid flushing of the discharge site existed. These currents would be well approximated by the first component of a multiple principal component analysis. During the other periods, which can last for several weeks, the currents were slow and poorly defined.
Cholestyramine treatment in early life: Immediate and delayed effects on arterial cholesteryl ester metabolizing enzymes in the rabbit☆

Abstract Feeding of cholestyramine-enriched diet to weaned normocholesterolemic rabbits resulted in: (a) lowering of plasma cholesterol and (b) distinctly decreased activity of aortic acyl-CoA cholesterol acyl transferase with no changes in aortic acid and neutral cholesteryl esterase activity. At 9 weeks after cessation of cholestyramine treatment enhanced activity of both aortic esterases were noted despite normalization of plasma cholesterol. No evidence for the presence of plasma factor influencing esterases activity was found in lipoprotein-free serum from cholestyramine-treated animals. These studies show that cholestyramine treatment in early life causes immediate and delayed changes in rabbit arterial cholesteryl ester metabolizing enzymes.
Static techniques to improve power efficiency of branch predictors

In this paper, we illustrate the application of two static techniques to reduce the activities of the branch predictor in a processor leading to its significant power reduction We introduce the use of a static branch target buffer (BTB) that achieves the similar performance to the traditional branch target buffer but which eliminates most of the state updates thus reducing the power consumption of the BTB significantly We also introduce a correlation-based static prediction scheme into a dynamic branch predictor so that those branches that can be predicted statically or can be correlated to the previous ones will not go through normal prediction algorithm This reduces the activities and conflicts in the branch history table (BHT) With these optimizations, the activities and conflicts of the BTB and BHT are reduced significantly and we are able to achieve a significant reduction (43.9% on average) in power consumption of the BPU without degradation in the performance.