cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Which “Socratic Method”? Models of Education in Plato’s Dialogues

Socrates has long been thought to be a teacher, both by his ancient admirers and detractors, and by a host of writers since then who, with John Stuart Mill, have regarded him as a paradigm of the teacher’s art, “the head and prototype of all subsequent teachers of virtue.”1 A key part of Socrates’ appeal as teacher has been the perception that he is the proponent and practitioner of an educational theory, the eponymic “Socratic method.” Reconstructed primarily from the depiction of Socrates in Plato’s philosophical dialogues,2 this “Socratic method” has become a commonplace of educational theory, a catchphrase to which a variety of thinkers declare allegiance or target for attack. While subject to different lines of development and application, “Socratic method” typically designates the pedagogy in which the teacher coaches and cajoles students to take an active role in the learning process by asking probing, leading questions and strategically guiding discussion.3 It is little surprise that this model of educational practice has spawned an extensive literature, for it raises basic questions about the goals and emphases most suitable for education, and sketches an approach for educational practice.4 Understood in this way, the significance of “Socratic method” lies in its practical value as a catalyst for reflection about pedagogy.
Cooperative learning and personality types

We examine whether student personality type helps explain differences in students’ course perceptions across sections that varied only in the usage of cooperative learning. We use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to classify students based on their preferred ways to take in information. We then compare the perceptions of students engaged in cooperative learning with perceptions of students engaged in independent problem-solving for each personality type. Despite the less positive impression of some personality types regarding cooperative learning activities, we find that these activities facilitated increased interaction among certain types of students who might not otherwise interact with classmates.
Examining the Linearity of Transition State Scaling Relations

The dissociation of strong bonds in molecules shows large variations in the geometric structure of the transition state depending on the reactivity of the surface. It is therefore remarkable that the transition state energy can be accurately described through linear relations such as the Bronsted-Evans–Polanyi relations. Linear scaling relations for adsorbates with fixed structure can be understood in terms of bond order conservation but such arguments should not apply to transition states where the geometric structure varies. We have investigated how to relate the concepts from linear adsorption energy scaling to transition state energies. We expect that strong deviations from linearity only occur for very early or very late transition states. According to the Sabatier principle, the rate-limiting step of the best catalysts is not expected to be in either of these regions. Our results therefore support the use of linear transition state scaling relations for the optimization of catalysts.
The Role of Indoor and Outdoor Occupations in the Seroepidemiology of Legionella pneumophila

Exposure to disturbed soil has been postulated as a source of L. pneumophila in relation to outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease [1]. Using serum samples from 588 healthy individuals engaged in indoor and outdoor occupations in Ohio, we performed indirect fluorescent antibody tests for L. pneumophila serogroups 1 and 2. Reciprocal and geometric mean titers were compared between indoor and outdoor occupational groups. We found 19.2 of the outdoor workers to be positive (titer, greater than or equal to 1:128) for serogroups 1 and 2, whereas 20.7% and 16.3% of the indoor workers were positive for serogroups 1 and 2, respectively. The differences in seropositivity were not statistically significant between occupations when the data were evaluated by sex, race, geographic area, and age. An analysis of the variance and a comparison of the two proportions were used to test the data and geometric mean titers were tested by Student's t-test. All of the differences were not significant at a level of P less than or equal to 0.05. Combining the data from the two groups of workers resulted in 19.9% and 17.9% seropositivity in the total study population for serogroups 1 and 2, respectively. These findings demonstrated that the presence of antibodies to L. pneumophila serogroups 1 and 2 in this non-epidemic-related study was comparable to or higher rates in epidemic-related studies [1]. The present study defines what may be an endemic level of L. pneumophila in Ohio and demonstrates geographic variations in the seropositivity rates [2]. Our results also support the findings of Muldoon et al., who found that seroconversion may occur early in children and also may be maintained in adults over a long interval[3].
Significance of Quantifying Uncertainties in Probabilistic Modeling and a Possible Approach to Select the Best: A Study Using SPT- and CPT-Based Liquefaction Case Histories

There have been several statistical methods developed to evaluate the probability of seismically induced soil liquefaction. Among these methods, the logistic regression has been the most widely used method to model the probability of liquefaction using the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) and Cone Penetration Test (CPT) based case histories. However, the predicted probabilities using logistic regression can be different based on the uncertainties related to distribution of explanatory variables, significance of coefficient of explanatory variables, and distribution of liquefaction to non-liquefaction case histories. In this paper, a possible approach has been developed to select the logistic regression model that best addresses these uncertainties for SPT and CPT based case histories using various statistical tests. This approach is developed for the most updated CPT based case histories from Ku et al. (2012), and SPT based case histories from Idriss et al. (2010). Further, the logistic regression model is compared with the existing probabilistic models for CPT and SPT based case histories. This study shows that without considering the aforementioned uncertainties, the probability values can be significantly different and can give false sense of risk of liquefaction for a particular site of interest.
Effect of glucose and osmolality on gastric emptying in newborns

Osmolality of oral glucose-electrolyte solutions may be reduced without altering caloric content if glucose oligosaccharides (GOS) are substituted for glucose. To evaluate the effect of glucose vs GOS on gastric emptying in newborns, GOS were substituted for glucose in a 400 mosm glucose solution to reduce osmolality to 200 or 300 mosm. To assess the effect of osmolality alone on gastric emptying, a 200 mosm glucose solution was increased to 300 or 400 mosm by adding the nonmetabolized pentose xylose. Effect of glucose concentration alone was assessed by comparing 200 vs 400 mosm glucose solutions. On the second day of life, six groups of 5 healthy term newborns were fasted 3 hours. Sixty cc of the test solution containing 5g/1 polyethylene glycol 5000 (PEG) as a marker was instilled into the stomach. After 28 minutes, 3 mg of phenol red was instilled and allowed to equilibrate for 2 minutes. Contents were then aspirated and assayed for PEG and phenol red. The following milliliters of original solution remained in the stomach: We conclude that osmolality does not effect gastric emptying in the range of 200-400 mosm in newborns and substitution of glucose by GOS will not enhance gastric emptying of infant formulas or infant glucose-electrolyte preparations.
Instructional Vignettes in Publication and Journalism Ethics in Radiology Research: Assessment via a Survey of Radiology Trainees

Rationale and Objectives The aim of the present study was to assess the potential usefulness of written instructional vignettes relating to publication and journalism ethics in radiology via a survey of radiology trainees. Materials and Methods A literature review was conducted to guide the development of vignettes, each describing a scenario relating to an ethical issue in research and publication, with subsequent commentary on the underlying ethical issue and potential approaches to its handling. Radiology trainees at a single institution were surveyed regarding the vignettes' perceived usefulness. Results A total of 21 vignettes were prepared, addressing institutional review board and human subjects protection, authorship issues, usage of previous work, manuscript review, and other miscellaneous topics. Of the solicited trainees, 24.7% (16/65) completed the survey. On average among the vignettes, 94.0% of the participants found the vignette helpful; 19.9 received prior formal instruction on the issue during medical training; 40.0% received prior informal guidance from a research mentor; and 42.0% indicated that the issue had arisen in their own or a peer's prior research experience. The most common previously experienced specific issue was authorship order (93.8%). Free-text responses were largely favorable regarding the value of the vignettes, although also indicated numerous challenges in properly handling the ethical issues: impact of hierarchy, pressure to publish, internal politics, reluctance to conduct sensitive conversations with colleagues, and variability in journal and professional society policies. Conclusion Radiology trainees overall found the vignettes helpful, addressing commonly encountered topics for which formal and informal guidance were otherwise lacking. The vignettes are publicly available through the Association of University Radiologists (AUR) website and may foster greater insights by investigators into ethical aspects of the publication and journalism process, thus contributing to higher quality radiology research.
Implementation of Multirule Quality Control Procedures

Multirule quality control procedures employ combinations of individual quality control rules to increase the probability of error detection without increasing the probability of false rejections to unacceptable levels. Performance characteristics of several example multirule procedures are described, and general recommendations are made for their selection and use. Multistage quality control procedures tailor the control rules employed to the frequency of errors expected during a given phase of analyzer operation. During analyzer startup, sensitive rules are employed; after acceptable analyzer performance is demonstrated, less sensitive rules are used for routine monitoring. As they tend to deteriorate quality control rule performance, between-run variations should be minimized.
Meso -Scale Burner using Combustion inside Porous Inert Media

A heat recirculating combustor with flame stabilized in the interior of a Porous Inert M edia (PIM) is used to achieve stable combustion of methane over a range of reactant flow rates and equivalence ratios. The fuel and air mixture was introduced in an annulus surrounding the combustion chamber. The reactants were preheated by heat transfer from the product gases exiting the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber has a volume of 19 cm 3 , the heat release rate ranged from 290 W to 1.16 kW , t he reactant flow velocit y varied from 0.5 m/s to 2.0 m /s and the equivalence ratio was in the range of 0.51 to 0.57. High degree of reactant pre heating was achieved resulting in super -adiabatic temperature of the product gas in the middle region of the combustor. The thermal analysis of the combustor showed that the heat loss from the system was within 11% at reactant flow velocity of 2 m/s . The CO and NOx emission were always less than 200 ppm, indicating clean burning of the fuel at various operating conditions.
Protection Tactics for Traditional Knowledge of Regional Nationalities under the Background of WTO & its Influence to Sustainable Development of Regional Ethnic Economics

Intangible assets composed by the traditional knowledge heritage of regional nationalities is an important resources of productive forces for the development of regional ethnic economy,so the scholars of ethnology and intellectual property rights have a historical mission to probe into a kind of appropriate and green protection tactics for traditional knowledge legacy of regional nationalities and its gene resources,and the tactics should bring such intangible asset into a role in the sustainable development of regional and national economy.This article gives the protection tactics an immediate operating way and objective.
Determination on dehydroacetic acid in food

A method for the extraction of dehydroacetic acid in various foods by steam distillation method was established.And then dehydroacetic acid was determinated by high performance liquid chromatographic(HPLC).Separation was carried out on a column of C18(5 μm,250 mm×4.6 mm) at the temperature of 30 ℃ with methanol +0.02 mol/L ammonium acetate(v/v,5+95) as mobile phase.The detection wavelength was 306 nm.The results showed a good linear relationship between the peak area and the concention(r=0.9996),the recoveries for dehydroacetic acid products were 92.6%~104%,and the relative standard deviation was 0.69%~3.53% for different kinds of food.The limit of detection was approximately 0.008 g/kg.The procedure described here was simple,selective,accurate,without of organic solvent consumption.The pretreatment method was especially suitable for high fat and high oil samples to better meet the requirements of sample analysis.
Fragility of network-forming glasses: A universal dependence on the topological connectivity

The fragilities of over 150 different network-forming glass melts are shown to conform to a common dependence on just one parameter: the connectivity of the weakest network structure present in the associated glass solid. This includes both nonoxide network-forming chalcogenide melts as well as a variety of alkali oxide glasses, and spans a broad range of connectivity, ϕ, from polymeric structures (ϕ=2) to overconstrained random networks with connectivities well in excess of the rigidity threshold (ϕ(C)=2.4). A theoretical framework for the origin of this universal pattern is offered within the context of entropic models of the glass transition.
Stimulation of proximal convoluted tubule phosphate transport by epidermal growth factor: signal transduction

The present study investigated the signal-transduction pathway responsible for the epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation of phosphate transport (JPhos) in the rabbit proximal convoluted tubule ...
Characterization of vasoactive intestinal peptide receptors on rat alveolar macrophages

In view of the evidence that vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) may modulate acute inflammatory injury in the lung, we investigated the presence and characteristics of VIP receptors on alveolar macrophages (AMs). We examined the binding of monoiodinated [Tyr(125I)10]-labeled VIP (125I-VIP) to rat AMs (> 96% pure), obtained from Sprague-Dawley rats by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). At 23 degrees C, the interaction of 125I-VIP with AMs was rapid, reversible, saturable, and linearly proportional to the number of cells. At equilibrium, the binding was competitively inhibited by 10(-11)-10(-6) M of native peptide [half-maximal inhibition (IC50) = 0.53 +/- 0.34 nM, n = 8], with evidence for two classes of binding sites: one with a high affinity (Kd = 0.20 +/- 0.09 nM) and a low capacity (1,190 +/- 640 sites/cell) and another with a low affinity (Kd = 43.2 +/- 13.8 nM) and a high capacity (51,700 +/- 14,000 sites/cell). VIP-related peptides inhibited the binding with the order of potency: VIP > peptide histidine isoleucine > helodermin >> secretin; glucagon was ineffective. In the presence of 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, VIP dose dependently stimulated adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate accumulation in intact AMs, with maximal stimulation (6.3 times basal level) at 1 nM, and half-maximal accumulation at 0.23 +/- 0.11 nM VIP (Kd for high-affinity sites). For determination of the mass of the VIP receptor, 125I-VIP was covalently bound to AMs with the cross-linking agent dithiobis succinimidyl propionate. Autoradiographic studies after sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of solubilized affinity-labeled cells revealed a single major band of M(r) 76,400. We conclude that VIP binds to specific receptors on rat AMs that are coupled to adenylate cyclase, through which VIP may modulate inflammatory responses within the lung.
Vaccine efficacy determination.

The "Gold standard" in vaccine testing is the randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind efficacy trial. Once a protective immune mechanism is defined, e.g., from an efficacy trial, vaccine performance can then be judged by serologic parameters. Although immunogenicity studies can provide important information, in many instances the answer has to come from efficacy trials. For rare diseases like meningococcal disease, these trials are expensive and difficult to conduct. It is therefore incumbent to learn as much as possible from each trial. Issues in pre-licensure studies include: vaccine selection, site selection, trial design, assignment to treatment and control groups, definition and surveillance for endpoints (cases, adverse reactions), identification of surrogate markers for protection, and utilization of monitoring committees.
Stroke sensitivity in the aged: Sex chromosome complement vs. gonadal hormones

Stroke is a sexually dimorphic disease. Elderly women not only have higher stroke incidence than age-matched men, but also have poorer recovery and higher morbidity and mortality after stroke. In older, post-menopausal women, gonadal hormone levels are similar to that of men. This suggests that tissue damage and functional outcomes are influenced by biologic sex (XX vs. XY) rather than the hormonal milieu at older ages. We employed the Four Core Genotype (FCG) mouse model to study the contribution of sex chromosome complement and gonadal hormones to stroke sensitivity in aged mice in which the testis determining gene (Sry) is removed from the Y chromosome, allowing for the generation of XX males and XY females. XXF, XXM, XYF, XYM and XYwt aged mice were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). XXF and XXM mice had significantly larger infarct volumes than XYF and XYM cohorts respectively. There was no significant difference in hormone levels among aged FCG mice. XXF/XXM mice also had more robust microglial activation and higher serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines than XYF/XYM cohort respectively. We concluded that the sex chromosome complement contributes to ischemic sensitivity in aged animals and leads to sex differences in innate immune responses.
Initial validation of a complete GATE model of the Siemens Inveon trimodal imaging system

A detailed GATE model of the Siemens Inveon trimodal platform has been developed. Fully incorporating the PET, SPECT and CT data acquisition subsystems, this model enables feasibility studies of new imaging applications as well as the creation of a baseline against which empirical data can be compared. This paper provides initial validation of the model.
Muslim masculinities: what is the prescription of the Qur’an?*

AbstractOrientalist art and literature have historically associated Islam with violence, but since the 1990s, this association gathered greater depth. Muslim men started to be stereotyped as terrorists, and various armed Muslim groups further cemented this stereotype. Although committing violence, for religion or other causes, is not limited to Muslim men, recent developments reinforced the popular notion that Islam encourages male violence. This paper examines the message of Muslim masculinities conveyed in the Qur’an – the sacred text that is regarded by Muslims as the word of God and as the highest authority for moral guidance. The content analysis of the Qur’an reveals at least five salient character traits that may be taken as prescriptions of masculinities. These traits – submissiveness, altruism, righteousness, steadfastness and combativeness – however, are not only overlapping but are also contradictory, depending on the institutional context in which the people are acting, as well as their religi...
The Role of Denitrification in Stormwater Detention Basin Treatment of Nitrogen

The nitrogen (N) cycling dynamics of four stormwater basins, two often saturated sites (“Wet Basins”) and two quick draining sites (“Dry Basins”), were monitored over a ∼ 1-year period. This study paired stormwater and greenhouse gas monitoring with microbial analyses to elucidate the mechanisms controlling N treatment. Annual dissolved inorganic N (DIN) mass reductions (inflow minus outflow) were greater in the Dry Basin than in the Wet Basin, 2.16 vs 0.75 g N m–2 yr–1, respectively. The Dry Basin infiltrated a much larger volume of water and thus had greater DIN mass reductions, even though incoming and outgoing DIN concentrations were statistically the same for both sites. Wet Basins had higher proportions of denitrification genes and potential denitrification rates. The Wet Basin was capable of denitrifying 58% of incoming DIN, whereas the Dry Basin only denitrified 1%. These results emphasize the need for more mechanistic attention to basin design because the reductions calculated by comparing inflow...
An Electron Beam Generated Plasma Reactor for Decomposition of Halogenated VOCs

An electron beam generated plasma reactor was used for the decomposition of carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, 1,1-dichloroethane, toluene, and Freon 113. 99% decomposition of most compounds is achieved in the reactor. The energy requirements for decomposition of these compounds are given, and these results are discussed in terms of the electron capture rate coefficients and the plasma chemistry of the molecules.
Recent Findings on Liquefaction Triggering in Clean and Silty Sands during Earthquakes

AbstractThis is the written version of the H. Bolton Seed Medal Award Lecture presented at the ASCE Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Congress in Phoenix, Arizona, February 14–17, 2016. It di...
Two Objections to the Eliminativist Research Program

Eliminative materialist philosophers, like Paul and Patricia Churchland, argue that the common use of mental state language is confused. They hold that neurological descriptions of mental states, more accurate and scientifically rigorous than “folk psychology”, should replace mental state language in a serious research program. In this paper, I argue that eliminative materialism instead poses an awkward and unwieldy research program. I take a computational functionalist position in order to demonstrate the way that mathematical descriptions of natural phenomena are useful in a scientific research program, and that mental states are in principle amenable to mathematical descriptions and modeling. I then argue that the eliminativist cannot avail herself of the same resources.
Project Success: A Cultural Framework:

This paper presents results of a qualitative study of the adoption of Project Management (PM) practices in an Information Technology (IT) division of a large manufacturing company. Structured inter...
Somatostatin and the Endocrine Pancreas

Somatostatin is a 14-amino acid polypeptide originally isolated from the ovine hypothalamus by Guillemin and his co-workers at The Salk Institute (Brazeau et al. 1973). Because of its ability, at nanomolar concentrations, to inhibit the secretion of growth hormone and its presence in the hypothalamus of all species examined, it was believed to be a specific hypothalamic hormone (growth hormone release-inhibiting factor) analogous to prolactin release-inhibiting factor (Guillemin & Vale, 1975). Recent studies, however, indicate that somatostatin may have more extensive biologic importance. There is now considerable evidence that it exists outside the brain and hypothalamus—most notably in the small intestine (Polak et al. 1975, and Rufener et al. 1975b), stomach (Polak et al. 1975, Rufener et al. 1975b, and Arimura et. al. 1975), and D cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans (Polak et al. 1975, Rufener et al. 1975b, Arimura et al. 1975, Luft et al. 1974, Dubois 1975, Orci et al. 1975, Rufener et al. 1975a, Patel et al. 1975, and Goldsmith et al. 1975).
CHAPTER 6 – Differentiation Drill and Implicit Differentiation

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a brief overview of implicit differentiation. The precise theorem that guarantees that implicit differentiation is correct is complicated because the functional dependence of one variable on the other is not clear. Despite the theoretical complication, the method of general implicit differentiation is easy to use, provided differentiate can be done with respect to letters other than x. The chapter presents the method of general implicit differentiation. Given an implicit equation between variables u and v (possibly with parameters), F(u,v) = G(u,v).
Calculus of Variations, Symmetries, and Conservation Laws

In this chapter we shall start with one of the oldest and most useful branches of mathematical physics, the calculus of variations. After giving the fundamentals and some examples, we shall investigate the consequences of symmetries associated with variational problems. The chapter then ends with Noether’s theorem, which connects such symmetries with their associated conservation laws. All vector spaces of relevance in this chapter will be assumed to be real.
GPU Accelerated Ray Tracing for the Beta-Barrel Detection from Three-Dimensional Cryo-EM Maps

Cryo-electron microscopy is a technique that is capable of producing high quality three-dimensional density maps of proteins. The identification of secondary structures from within these proteins is important to help understand the protein’s overall structure and function. One of the more commonly found secondary structures is the \(\beta \) barrel. In previous papers, we presented a novel approach utilizing a genetic algorithm and ray tracing to identify and isolate \(\beta \) barrels from the density maps. However, one key limitation of that approach was the computational cost of ray tracing portion. In this paper, we applied parallel processing and graphical processing units (GPU) to increase the performance of the ray tracing. We tested this method on both experimental and simulated cryo-EM density maps. The results suggest that we were successful in speeding up our method significantly using parallelization and graphical processing units.
A pilot study to assess the accuracy of “intuition” in analyzing post chemotherapy (chemo) residual retroperitoneal (RP) masses in patients (pts) with non seminomatous germ cell tumor (NSCGCT).

e16535Background: About half of the pts operated for residual RP mass after chemo for NSGCT do not benefit from surgery because the residual mass contains only necrosis. We sought to assess the acc...
A novel approach for the prediction of viscosity of water + alkanediols mixtures

Abstract The reaction rate theory for viscosity modeling has been widely applied for decades. In this study, it is demonstrated that when a function containing the reciprocal of the excess energy of flow of several aqueous solutions of alkanediol is plotted against the mole fraction of the water, there is a universal common intercept that is independent of the alkanediol and the temperature. This common intercept is found to be valid in the temperature range of (283.15 K–338.15 K). The alkanediols studied include 1,2-ethanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butanediol, and 1,5-pentanediol. This methodology allows an accurate prediction of the viscosity of binary water-alkanediol mixtures using a single viscosity data point of the mixture at the temperature of interest. The proposed methodology was shown capable of modeling the primary data set in the temperature range of (293.15K-303.15K) with an average absolute percent deviation (AAPD) between 1.5 and 2.6 for all of the systems tested. In addition, the methodology was also shown capable of predicting the secondary data set in the expanded temperature range of (283.15K-338.15K) with an overall AAPD of 4.0.
Maternal Food Memories in Lin Cheng-sheng's 27°C: Loaf Rock and Eric Khoo's Recipe: A Film on Dementia

Elderly mothers pick pineapple in Taiwanese fields and cook curry rice in a Singaporean hawker stand in Lin Cheng-sheng9s biopic, 27°C: Loaf Rock, and Eric Khoo9s telefilm, Recipe: A Film on Dementia, respectively. Both 2013 Chinese language films employ flashbacks to portray maternal food memories. Lin and Khoo depict food as comforting and possessing a unique ability to stimulate long-term memory to counter the short-term memory loss symptomatic of this form of dementia. The gustatory and the olfactory act directly upon the limbic brain, which houses emotions. In depicting Alzheimer9s sufferers and their responses to food, 27°C and Recipe fight for causes. Lin calls attention to the marginalized in his portrayal of the mother succumbing to the disease from the perspective of her son—a character based on contemporary Taiwanese baker Wu Pao-chun, who overcame the adversity of impoverishment to win the world famous Master9s de la Boulangerie and found prestigious eponymous bakeries. Parallel to its role in individual memory, food preserves cultural memory. Analogous to culinary arts, cinema, which is made for consumption, combines art and science, embodies culture, and incorporates tradition and innovation, as I show in this comparative study.
Does MR enterography offer added value after a recent CT in the evaluation of abdominal pain in Crohn's disease patients?

Abstract Purpose To determine if there is added value in performing MR enterography shortly after a contrast-enhanced CT of the abdomen and pelvis in patients with Crohn's disease presenting with acute abdominal pain. Materials and methods A total of 45 consecutive patients who underwent MRE examination Results There were no significant differences in detection of various findings associated with Crohn's disease between modalities. These findings included abscess, fistula, bowel wall thickening, free fluid, stricture, and bowel obstruction. There was moderate interobserver agreement with CT (Kappa: 0.52, 95% CI: [0.4–0.6]) and fair with MRE (Kappa: 0.36, 95% CI:[0.3 = 0.5]). Conclusion The routine use of MRE after a diagnostic CT should be avoided, as it provides no additional valuable information, at the expense of extra patient risks, discomfort, and higher health care costs.
An Event-Driven AR-Process Model for EEG-Based BCIs With Rapid Trial Sequences

Electroencephalography (EEG) is an effective non-invasive measurement method to infer user intent in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems for control and communication, however, these systems often lack sufficient accuracy and speed due to low separability of class-conditional EEG feature distributions. Many factors impact system performance, including inadequate training datasets and models’ ignorance of the temporal dependency of brain responses to serial stimuli. Here, we propose a signal model for event-related responses in the EEG evoked with a rapid sequence of stimuli in BCI applications. The model describes the EEG as a superposition of impulse responses time-locked to stimuli corrupted with an autoregressive noise process. The performance of the signal model is assessed in the context of RSVP keyboard, a language-model-assisted EEG-based BCI for typing. EEG data obtained for model calibration from 10 healthy participants are used to fit and compare two models: the proposed sequence-based EEG model and the trial-based feature-class-conditional distribution model that ignores temporal dependencies, which has been used in the previous work. The simulation studies indicate that the earlier model that ignores temporal dependencies may be causing drastic reductions in achievable information transfer rate (ITR). Furthermore, the proposed model, with better regularization, may achieve improved accuracy with fewer calibration data samples, potentially helping to reduce calibration time. Specifically, results show an average 8.6% increase in (cross-validated) calibration AUC for a single channel of EEG, and 54% increase in the ITR in a typing task.
“Models” of the fatigue process: Nonlinear effects, statistical aspects of material behavior, load history and manufacturing variables are emphasized to illustrate the difficulty involved in making any quantitative prediction of fatigue life or fatigue strength of a structure

Some of the instabilities in behavior of material and the structural readjustments that occur to alter the relationships between load and peak stress are discussed by visualizing each level of observation as a type of idealized “model” representing the structural behavior. Nonlinearities and chance effects occur in making predictions from models on the atomistic or crystalline scale to those of specimens, structural components, or full-scale structures. These nonlinear effects, together with the statistical aspects of material behavior, load history, and manufacturing variables, are emphasized to illustrate the difficulty in present-day practice of making any quantitative prediction of fatigue life or fatigue strength of the final product.
ISPD 2019 Initial Detailed Routing Contest and Benchmark with Advanced Routing Rules

Detailed routing becomes the most complicated and runtime consuming stage in the physical design flow as technology nodes advance. Due to the inaccessibility of advanced routing rules and industrial designs, it is hard to conduct detailed routing academic researches using the modern real-world designs. ISPD18 hosts the first detailed routing contest [1] and releases a set of benchmarks synthesized by industrial tools with practical routing rules. ISPD18 contest spurs detailed routing researches and provides students the opportunity to become familiar with the industrial designs and rules. On top of ISPD18 detailed routing contest, we host another detailed routing contest in ISPD19 [2] to consider several advanced routing rules and make the contest problem one step closer to the real-world routing challenges in advanced technology nodes. ISPD19 detailed routing contest encourages participants to use double-cut vias to improve yield and result quality. In addition, in order to drive the development of efficient routing frameworks, the deterministic multithreading feature is encouraged but optional in this contest.
Public Libraries and the Opioid Crisis, Part 1: Context and Commitment

Public libraries have been significantly affected by the opioid crisis. The fact that patrons can enter libraries freely and do not need a reason to be there has resulted in overdoses occurring in ...
Physicochemical data of p-cresol, butyric acid, and ammonia

There is a renewed interest in treating odorous contaminants such as butyric acid, p-cresol, and ammonia that are emitted from animal farming operations. However, developing newer treatment technologies require quantitative information regarding the properties of the target pollutants. Therefore, in this communication, baseline data related to physicochemical and thermodynamic properties of butyric acid, p-cresol, and ammonia were predicted using computational chemistry. Density functional theory was employed via B3LYP functional coupled with polarized 6-31G (d) basis set without any solvent effects using Gaussian 16W and GaussView6. The predicted baseline properties collected here are expected to be useful to scientists and engineers working in environmental mitigation technologies in developing treatment processes and make the animal agricultural industry environmental friendly and sustainable.
The Planar Motion of a Trojan Asteroid

The planar motion of an asteroid in an orbit close to that of Jupiter is considered within the framework of the restricted circular three-body problem. The solution is derived asymptotically to second order using the two-variable expansion procedure for the case of small Jupiter-sun mass ratio. It is shown that the solution derived under the assumption of small Jupiter-sun mass ratio becomes singular for orbits that approach Jupiter. The nature of the singularity is exhibited as a guide for future work valid for this case. The results are given in explicit form for the coordinates as functions of time including both short and long periodic terms. Finally, the present solution is specialized to the family of long periodic Trojan orbits about the sun-Jupiter libration points.
Moderating Effects of Paraffin Wax on Interactions between Polyphosphoric Acid and Bitumen Constituents

Despite the merits of using polyphosphoric acid (PPA) in modification of bitumen, its desirable stiffening effect on bitumen is totally composition-dependent. While asphaltenes and resins are corre...
Seckel syndrome presenting with complete heart block

Seckel syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by facial dysmorphic features known as bird-headed dwarfism. Only about 100 cases have been reported. Cardiac anomalies have been described as a potential association with Seckel syndrome. We report a 21-year-old woman with Seckel syndrome and epilepsy who presented with status epilepticus. She was hypotensive and bradycardic. Her electrocardiogram showed complete heart block. She was placed on transcutaneous pacer with no response. A transvenous pacemaker was placed before inserting a suitable permanent pacemaker for her size. This is the third case of complete heart block associated with Seckel syndrome and raises concern about the potential association.
Impurity band conduction in Si-doped β-Ga2O3 films

By combining temperature-dependent resistivity and Hall effect measurements, we investigate donor state energy in Si-doped β-Ga2O3 films grown using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. High-magnetic field (H) Hall effect measurements (–90 kOe ≤ H ≤ +90 kOe) showed non-linear Hall resistance for T < 150 K, revealing two-band conduction. Further analyses revealed carrier freeze out characteristics in both bands yielding donor state energies of ∼33.7 and ∼45.6 meV. The former is consistent with the donor energy of Si in β-Ga2O3, whereas the latter suggests a residual donor state. This study provides critical insight into the impurity band conduction and the defect energy states in β-Ga2O3 using high-field magnetotransport measurements.
Hypoxia ameliorates brain hyperoxia and NAD+ deficiency in a murine model of Leigh syndrome.

Abstract Leigh syndrome is a severe mitochondrial neurodegenerative disease with no effective treatment. In the Ndufs4−/− mouse model of Leigh syndrome, continuously breathing 11% O2 (hypoxia) prevents neurodegeneration and leads to a dramatic extension (~5-fold) in lifespan. We investigated the effect of hypoxia on the brain metabolism of Ndufs4−/− mice by studying blood gas tensions and metabolite levels in simultaneously sampled arterial and cerebral internal jugular venous (IJV) blood. Relatively healthy Ndufs4−/− and wildtype (WT) mice breathing air until postnatal age ~38 d were compared to Ndufs4−/− and WT mice breathing air until ~38 days old followed by 4-weeks of breathing 11% O2. Compared to WT control mice, Ndufs4−/− mice breathing air have reduced brain O2 consumption as evidenced by an elevated partial pressure of O2 in IJV blood (PijvO2) despite a normal PO2 in arterial blood, and higher lactate/pyruvate (L/P) ratios in IJV plasma revealed by metabolic profiling. In Ndufs4−/− mice, hypoxia treatment normalized the cerebral venous PijvO2 and L/P ratios, and decreased levels of nicotinate in IJV plasma. Brain concentrations of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) were lower in Ndufs4−/− mice breathing air than in WT mice, but preserved at WT levels with hypoxia treatment. Although mild hypoxia (17% O2) has been shown to be an ineffective therapy for Ndufs4−/− mice, we find that when combined with nicotinic acid supplementation it provides a modest improvement in neurodegeneration and lifespan. Therapies targeting both brain hyperoxia and NAD+ deficiency may hold promise for treating Leigh syndrome.
Kinetic Explanations for the Sequence Biases Observed in the Nonenzymatic Copying of RNA Templates

The identification of nonenzymatic pathways for nucleic acid replication is a key challenge in understanding the origin of life. We have previously shown that nonenzymatic RNA primer extension using 2-aminoimidazole (2AI) activated nucleotides occurs primarily through an imidazolium-bridged dinucleotide intermediate. The reactive nature and preorganized structure of the intermediate increase the efficiency of primer extension but remain insufficient to drive extensive copying of RNA templates containing all four canonical nucleotides. To understand the factors that limit RNA copying, we synthesized all ten 2AI-bridged dinucleotide intermediates and measured the kinetics of primer extension in a model. The affinities of the ten dinucleotides for the primer/template/helper complexes vary by over 7,000-fold, consistent with nearest neighbor energetic predictions. Surprisingly, the reaction rates at saturating intermediate concentrations still vary by over 15-fold, with the most weakly binding dinucleotides exhibiting a lower maximal reaction rate. Certain noncanonical nucleotides can decrease sequence dependent differences in affinity and primer extension rate, while monomers bridged to short oligonucleotides exhibit enhanced binding and reaction rates. We suggest that more uniform binding and reactivity of imidazolium-bridged intermediates may lead to the ability to copy arbitrary template sequences under prebiotically plausible conditions.
Reinforcement Learning for General LTL Objectives Is Intractable.

In recent years, researchers have made significant progress in devising reinforcement-learning algorithms for optimizing linear temporal logic (LTL) objectives and LTL-like objectives. Despite these advancements, there are fundamental limitations to how well this problem can be solved that previous studies have alluded to but, to our knowledge, have not examined in depth. In this paper, we address theoretically the hardness of learning with general LTL objectives. We formalize the problem under the probably approximately correct learning in Markov decision processes (PAC-MDP) framework, a standard framework for measuring sample complexity in reinforcement learning. In this formalization, we prove that the optimal policy for any LTL formula is PAC-MDP-learnable only if the formula is in the most limited class in the LTL hierarchy, consisting of only finite-horizon-decidable properties. Practically, our result implies that it is impossible for a reinforcement-learning algorithm to obtain a PAC-MDP guarantee on the performance of its learned policy after finitely many interactions with an unconstrained environment for non-finite-horizon-decidable LTL objectives.
A Thermodynamic Theory of Solid Viscoelasticity. Part 3: Nonlinear Glassy Viscoelasticity, Stability Constraints, Specifications

This paper, the last in the series, continues developing the nonlinear constitutive relations for non-isothermal, compressible, solid viscoelasticity. We initially discuss a single integral approach, more suitable for the glassy state of rubber-like materials, with basic functionals involved in the thermodynamic description for this type of viscoelasticity. Then we switch our attention to analyzing stability constraints, imposed on the general formulation of the nonlinear theory of solid viscoelasticity. Finally, we discuss specific (known from the literature or new) expressions for material functions that are involved in the constitutive formulations of both the rubber-like and glassy-like, complementary parts of the theory.
Identifying Cost-Effective Predictive Rules of Amyloid-β Level by Integrating Neuropsychological Tests and Plasma-Based Markers

Background: Detecting participants who are positive for amyloid- (A) pathology is germane in designing prevention trials by enriching for those cases that are more likely to be amyloid positive. Existing brain amyloid measurement techniques, such as the Pittsburgh Compound B-positron emission tomography and cerebrospinal fluid, are not reasonable first-line approaches limited by either feasibility or cost. Objective: We aimed to identify simple and cost-effective rules that can predict brain A level by integrating both neuropsychological measurements and blood-based markers. Method: Several decision tree models were built for extracting the predictive rules based on the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort. Results: We successfully extracted predictive rules of A level. For cognitive function variables, cases above the 45th percentile in total cognitive score (TOTALMOD), above the 52nd percentile of delayed word recall, and above the 70th percentile in orientation resulted in a group that was highly enriched for amyloid negative cases. Conversely scoring below the 15th percentile of TOTALMOD resulted in a group highly enriched for amyloid positive cases. For blood protein markers, scoring below the 57th percentile for apolipoprotein E (ApoE) levels (irrespective of genotype) enriched two fold for the risk of being amyloid positive. In the high ApoE cases, scoring above the 60th percentile for transthyretin resulted in a group that was >90% amyloid negative. A third decision tree using both cognitive and blood-marker data slightly improved the classification of cases. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that the integration of the neuropsychological measurements and blood-based markers significantly improved prediction accuracy. The prediction model has led to several simple rules, which have a great potential of being naturally translated into clinical settings such as enrichment screening for AD prevention trials of anti-amyloid treatments.
Basic Principles of Biopsy

Biopsy of a possible malignant bone sarcoma is the final most important planning procedure prior to the initiation of treatment. The overall goal of the biopsy is to obtain diagnostic tissue in the least invasive way possible. This will minimize possible complications. Very specific techniques must be followed in order to minimize these complications. Specialized training in performing a biopsy for a malignant bone tumor is of utmost performance to diminish risk of the biopsy and minimize the amount of tissue that must be resected with the definitive treatment procedure. When the physician follows standard algorithms in performing the biopsy, the risk of complications is decreased by 5-fold. This procedure is best performed in the setting of a multidisciplinary tertiary treatment center with involvement from a radiologist, pathologist, and subspecialty trained surgeon.