cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessing the pathogenic potential of human Nephronophthisis disease-associated NPHP-4 missense mutations in C. elegans

A spectrum of complex oligogenic disorders called the ciliopathies have been connected to dysfunction of cilia. Among the ciliopathies are Nephronophthisis (NPHP), characterized by cystic kidney disease and retinal degeneration, and Meckel–Gruber syndrome (MKS), a gestational lethal condition with skeletal abnormalities, cystic kidneys and CNS malformation. Mutations in multiple genes have been identified in NPHP and MKS patients, and an unexpected finding has been that mutations within the same gene can cause either disorder. Further, there is minimal genotype–phenotype correlation and despite recessive inheritance, numerous patients were identified as having a single heterozygous mutation. This has made it difficult to determine the significance of these mutations on disease pathogenesis and led to the hypothesis that clinical presentation in an individual will be determined by genetic interactions between mutations in multiple cilia-related genes. Here we utilize Caenorhabditis elegans and cilia-associated behavioral and morphologic assays to evaluate the pathogenic potential of eight previously reported human NPHP4 missense mutations. We assess the impact of these mutations on C. elegans NPHP-4 function, localization and evaluate potential interactions with mutations in MKS complex genes, mksr-2 and mksr-1. Six out of eight nphp-4 mutations analyzed alter ciliary function, and three of these modify the severity of the phenotypes caused by disruption of mksr-2 and mksr-1. Collectively, our studies demonstrate the utility of C. elegans as a tool to assess the pathogenicity of mutations in ciliopathy genes and provide insights into the complex genetic interactions contributing to the diversity of phenotypes associated with cilia disorders.
An analytical technique for the analysis of airplane spin entry and recovery

The dynamic equations of motion for a spinning airplane are simplified to facilitate the analysis of spin entry and recovery maneuvers. Solutions of a nonlinear, first order equation for spin rate enable calculation of spin entry and recovery times and control required for recovery. The analysis is applied to a light airplane for which both aerodynamic data, rotory balance wind tunnel tests, and spin flight test data have been obtained. A comparison of predicted and actual transient spin responses is made which supports the validity of the analytical approach taken but which also illustrates the difficulty in obtaining accurate aerodynamic data for spinning airplanes. Certain normalized parameters of the reduced state spin equation suggest criteria for assessing the transient spin characteristics of light airplanes.
Amplifier induced crosstalk in multichannel optical networks

The effect of crosstalk introduced due to gain saturation in an optical amplifier when it is used for amplifying multiple channels in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) network employing ON-OFF keying with direct detection is studied. The system power penalty is quantified as a function of the amplifier input power, the number of channels, and the extinction ratio. >
Manufacturing information integration using an object-oriented knowledge framework

The information retrieval aspect of heterogeneous information systems is discussed. Most manufacturing facilities contain information bases which are independently designed. The information bases denote persistent fact databases as well as meta-databases, typically knowledge bases. In such an environment, improvement in manufacturing performance can be obtained by sharing data in a manufacturing complex. An approach to this end is to build a knowledge base architecture which can incorporate existing heterogeneous databases with nonconventional data types such as object-oriented databases, or rulebases. To capture the global view of manufacturing databases with the rich semantics of knowledge bases, an object-oriented data model is used as a canonical data model. Based on the proposed structure, various methods of information retrieval are described. A query language ODML is presented as a global query language. >
Energy transfer dynamics and impact sensitivity

In this paper we focus on the relation between impact sensitivity and energy transfer rates. When a crystal receives an impact, low frequency lattice vibrations (called phonons) are excited. Typical phonon frequencies are 0-200 cm[sup [minus]1]. This energy must then be converted to vibron frequencies (1000--2000 cm[sup [minus]1]) before bond breaking can occur. We derive a simple formula for the energy transfer rate in terms of the density of vibrational states and the vibron-phonon coupling. We are able to estimate the phonon upconversion rate in widely varying energetic materials such as TATB, HMX, and Pb styphnate by examining existing inelastic neutron scattering data. We find that the estimated energy transfer rates in pure unreacted material are strongly correlated with impact sensitivity.
An egocentric frame of reference in implicit motor sequence learning

We investigated which frame of reference is evoked during implicit motor sequence learning. Participants completed a typical serial reaction time task. In the first experiment, we isolated egocentric and allocentric frames of reference and found that learning was solely in an egocentric reference frame. In a second experiment, we isolated hand-centered space from other egocentric frames of reference. We found that for a one-handed sequencing task, the sequence was coded in an egocentric reference frame but not a hand-centered reference frame. Our results are restricted to implicit learning of novel sequences in the early stages of learning. These findings are consistent with claims that the neural mechanisms involved in motor skill learning operate in egocentric coordinates.
Recent Developments in Organizational Sociology

After more than two decades of turbulent change roughly, the period 1965-1985 the field of organizational studies has become somewhat less volatile. For a period of more than twenty years, and with increasing speed, one after another theoretical paradigm challenged existing knowledge and was, in turn, itself challenged. T1he first major new formulation positing that organizations structures were designed so as to best adapt to varying environments the contingency approach appeared in 1967. Thompson's (1967) interrelated propositions together with Lawrence and Lorsch's (1967) illustrative case studies provided an important base line theory recognizing the centrality of environmental forces in shaping organizational structures. Later theoretical developments have not undermined the strength of this open-systems conception but rather have redefined the parameters of environments, pushing them up and out: 'up' in the sense of elevating the level of analysis from focusing on a single organization and its immediate context to examining varying collections of organizations; and 'out' in widening the range of environmental factors taken into account. Thus, resource dependency shifted attention to the 'organization set' a collection of organizations exchanging vital resources and emphasized the use of political strategies, e.g. co-optation and coalitions, as a solution to economic problems such as dependency and uncertainty (Pfeffer 1972; Pfeffer & Salancik 1978). Population ecology focused on entire populations of organizations similar forms engaged in similar functions and stressed the inability of individual organizations to adapt rapidly to changing environments, with the result that one form was succeeded by another (Hannan & Freeman 1977; Aldrich 1979). Transactions costs economists argued that organizations attempt to locate their boundaries so as to reduce the costs of negotiating and enforcing exchange agreements with critical partners (Williamson 1975, 1985). Critical theorists challenged the assumption that organizational systems were designed to enhance efficiency, arguing that the division of labor reflects the outcome of struggles between those performing and those overseeing the work and that hierarchical structures are better explained as a means to preserve inequality and power rather than as a mechanism of :oordination and rational management (Braverman 1974; Edwards 1979). And institutional theorists broadened the agenda to examine cultural normative and cognitive processes producing homogeneity of forms within an 'organization field' diverse organizations interacting within a broad societal domain (Meyer & Rowan 1977; DiMaggio & Powell 1983; Powell & DiMaggio 1991).
THE VON BRAUN REACTION BETWEEN N-t-BUTYLAMIDES AND PHOSPHORUS OXYCHLORIDE. A CONVENIENT NITRILE SYNTHESIS

(1983). THE VON BRAUN REACTION BETWEEN N-t-BUTYLAMIDES AND PHOSPHORUS OXYCHLORIDE. A CONVENIENT NITRILE SYNTHESIS. Organic Preparations and Procedures International: Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 297-302.
2,2,2-Triphenyl-N-(2-pyridylmeth­yl)acetamide

The title compound, C26H22N2O, possesses normal geometric parameters and forms centrosymmetric dimeric associations via N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds.
Beyond the Big Picture: Gender Influences on Disaggregated and Domain-Specific Measures of Social Spending, 1980–1999

Three issues are central to, but underdeveloped in, theoretical debates about the welfare state. First, the array of welfare services is of equal, or greater, importance than welfare transfers; second, spending varies across substantively different domains; and third, the welfare state is profoundly shaped by gender. While a comprehensive body of research has provided many claims and critiques on these points, their potential for empirical examination has not been fully realized. This article addresses these points by analyzing development according to substantively disaggregated measures of welfare spending, as well as theorizing and testing explicit gender-relevant influences alongside established indicators. Results from cross-sectional and fixed-effect models indicate that established factors are particularly relevant for transfer spending, and much less so for services. Notably, gender measures emerge as strong determinants of services spending generally, but the specific impact of gender varies according to both the substantive spending domain and the aspect of gender being measured. The findings, overall, show strong support for the broader inclusion of gender, and the utility of moving beyond programmatic generalist approaches.
ACTH-Secreting Adenomas

Cushing’s syndrome refers to the clinical and biochemical manifestations due to hypercortisolism of any cause. Hypercortisolism may be due to (1) pharmacological administration of glucocorticoids or adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH); (2) excessive, autonomous secretion by an adrenal adenoma or carcinoma; (3) excessive adrenal secretion secondary to increased pituitary secretion of ACTH; or (4) excessive adrenal secretion secondary to the ectopic secretion of ACTH or possibly corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) by a neoplasm. Cushing’s disease specifically refers to the entity of excess ACTH secretion by the pituitary with resultant bilateral adrenal hyperplasia and hypercortisolism. Because therapeutic modalities for these entities are different, careful endocrinological and radiological evaluations are needed to differentiate between them.
The Distorted-Wave Method for Elastic Scattering and Atomic Excitation

We present the first-order distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) for electron and positron scattering from neutral atoms. Explicit formulae are derived for elastic and inelastic scattering (excluding ionization) for quasi one-electron neutral targets. The computer code DWBA1 for S-S and S-P transitions is described together with some sample input and output data.
Constructing Affirmatively Empowered Participatory Regimes: The Making of Public Space in Urban Popular Municipalities of Santiago, Chile

This article looks at the role that municipal governments are playing in crafting the citizenship grammars of grassroots organizations in low income and poor communities of Santiago. It considers the role of municipalities through the prism of the issue of “community development,” to understand how municipal social workers interact with grassroots organizational leaders to shape the way that “community development” is understood and discussed.
Justice Standard Determines Emotional Responses to Over-Reward

How do people feel when they benefit from an unfair reward distribution? Equity theory predicts negative emotion in response to over-reward, but sociological research using referential standards of justice drawn from status-value theory repeatedly finds positive emotional responses to over-reward. Researchers have proposed methodological explanations for these different findings, but we propose a theoretical explanation—that over-reward based on local comparisons with an interaction partner creates guilt and other negative emotions, while over-reward relative to an abstract justice standard leads to more positive emotion. We describe two experiments that address methodological explanations for the status value findings: (1) lack of tangible rewards and (2) lack of sufficiently large over-rewards. We find that people who are over-rewarded relative to their referential expectations still report less negative emotion and more positive emotion than those who receive expected rewards. We report results from a ...
Physiology of non-invasive respiratory support

Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is used in neonates to treat extrathoracic and intrathoracic airway obstruction, parenchymal lung disease and disorders of control of breathing. Avoidance of airway intubation is associated with a reduction in the incidence of chronic lung disease among preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome. Use of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) may help establish and maintain functional residual capacity (FRC), decrease respiratory work, and improve gas exchange. Other modes of non-invasive ventilation, which include heated humidified high-flow nasal cannula therapy (HHHFNC), nasal intermittent mandatory ventilation (NIMV), non-invasive pressure support ventilation (NI-PSV), and bi-level CPAP (SiPAP™), have also been shown to provide additional benefit in improving breathing patterns, reducing work of breathing, and increasing gas exchange when compared with nCPAP. Newer modes, such as neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA), hold the promise of improving patient-ventilator synchrony and so might ultimately improve outcomes for preterm infants with respiratory distress.
Transitions in Living Arrangements Among Older Mexican Americans: The Dynamics of Dependency and Disadvantage

This study examines the transition from independent living to a coresidential living arrangement across the late life course among older unmarried (i.e., widowed, divorced/separated, and single) Mexican Americans. Using 18 years’ worth of panel data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly, event history analyses revealed that age at migration, physical disability, and cognitive impairment were strong predictors of the transition to a coresidential living arrangement. Importantly, a decline in physical and cognitive abilities heightened the risk of transition to a coresidential living arrangement, net of time-variant measures of disability and impairment. These findings provide evidence for incorporating a dynamic approach to examining living arrangements across the late life course for Mexican-origin Hispanics living in the United States, with implications for policy and service providers.
The Impact of the 2011 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Duty Hour Reform on Quality and Safety in Trauma Care

Background In 2011, the ACGME limited duty hours for residents. Although studies evaluating the 2011 policy have not shown improvements in general measures of morbidity or mortality, these outcomes might not reflect changes in specialty-specific practice patterns and secondary quality measures. Study Design All trauma admissions from July 2009 through June 2013 at an academic Level I trauma center were evaluated for 5 primary outcomes (eg, mortality and length of stay), and 10 secondary quality measures and practice patterns (eg, operating room [OR] visits). All variables were compared before and after the reform (July 1, 2011). Piecewise regression was used to study temporal trends in quality. Results There were 11,740 admissions studied. The reform was not strongly associated with changes in any primary outcomes except length of stay (7.98 to 7.36 days; p = 0.01). However, many secondary quality metrics changed. The total number of OR and bedside procedures per admission (6.72 to 7.34; p Conclusions Although most major outcomes were unaffected, quality of care might have changed after the reform. Indeed, a consistent change in resource use patterns was manifested by substantial post-reform increases in measures such as bedside procedures and OR visits. No secondary quality measures exhibited improvements strongly associated with the reform. Several factors, including attending oversight, might have insulated major outcomes from change. Our findings show that some less-commonly studied quality metrics related to costs of care changed after the 2011 reform at our institution.
Sex Counseling for Impotence Among Cardiac Patients

AbstractSexual potency and adequacy are major concerns in the daily lives of American men and women. Individuals who have experienced a loss of health through coronary disease are particularly prone to develop problems in sexual function. Male cardiac patients should be considered a population-at-risk for impotence. Sex counseling is proposed as a component in the comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program.
The Generation of Nitrogen Radicals and Their Cyclizations for the Construction of the Pyrrolidine Nucleus

Publisher Summary Many of the conditions necessary for the incorporation of nitrogen centered radicals in synthesis have been met. Several precursors exists that can be used to generate monoalkyl and dialkyl aminium cation radicals as well as amidyl radicals under relatively mild conditions. An important advancement was the extension of Barton's pyridine-2-thioneoxycarbonyl group (PTOC) protocol to the production of various nitrogen centered radicals. The PTOC precursors to nitrogen radicals appear to be as useful as the PTOC ester precursors for carbon radicals, especially in light of the variety of trapping agents available to functionalize the product carbon radicals formed by cyclizations and addition reactions of nitrogen radicals. The relative rate constants for competitive reactions involving nitrogen radicals and, in some cases, absolute rate constants are known; these allow design of efficient nitrogen radical chain reactions. Based on the many ring constructions demonstrated in this chapter, it is expected that the applications of nitrogen radical reactions in synthesis will become more common.
"The Sheikh of Araby Rides a Cadillac": Popular Geoeconomic Imaginations, Positional Anxiety and Nouveau Riche Territories

In 20th century media coverage of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, reporters devoted an inordinately large amount of space to describing (often disapprovingly) how the people of that region utilized Cadillacs. Having been confronted with this puzzle in the archive (i.e. what work was being done by so frequently associating these territories with Cadillacs?), this paper argues that in popular imaginations, change in the world economy—especially the rise of “nouveau riche territories”—is often understood in terms of personified and objectified dramas of right/wrong, which perform the work of distinction. By drawing on an analysis of newspaper and magazine articles and bringing together consumption, psychoanalytic, and post-colonial literatures, this article makes two contributions to understanding how positional anxieties function transnationally: (1) by arguing that places like the Gulf States can have impacts on geoeconomic imaginations that far outpace their size, because these states and their people are seen to break the constellation of practices associated with having obtained the “good life”, thus creating a boundary between them and “normalcy”; and, (2) by demonstrating that stories of nouveau riche consumption gain force through interaction with psychically charged objects like Cadillacs, through a process called “extimacy”.
SP0118 Current Strategies of Primary and Secondary Fracture Prevention

Osteoporosis, characterised by a low bone mineral density and decreased bone quality, occurs frequently in the elderly. It is estimated that due to the ageing of the population, the number of fractures may rise 30—40% in Europe in the coming 15 years. For the primary prevention of fractures (in patients without a recent fracture) it is crucial to select those patients at high risk for fractures. Apart from ageing, low body mass, familary osteoporosis, elevated fall risk, and immobility, comorbidity (including inflammatory rheumatic diseases) and comedication (among which glucocorticoids) are also important risk factors. With FRAX it might useful to calculate the 10-years major- and hipfracture risk in individual patients. Primary prevention can be limited by suboptimal selection of patients, while adherence to treatment is another serious issue. The risk of a subsequent fracture is increased after an incident fracture; unfortunately the routinely performing of investigations to underlying osteoporosis (DXA) occurs only in minority of patients. This is even more striking since effective, relatively safe, and non-expensive drugs are available. One of the most attractive options is to start with a fracture liaison service, in with all patients 50 years and over with a recent fracture will be systematically investigated for low BMD and other risk factors for future fractures, such as elevated fall risk, secondary osteoporosis and vertebral fractures. Currently a working group is formulating a combined set of EULAR-EFORT recommendations not only on the surgical treatment of fractures, but also on the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis in patients 50 years and over with a recent fracture. We hope that these recommendations are helpful in daily practice for orthopaedics, reumatologists and others who are trying to optimalize the care of fracture patients Disclosure of Interest W. Lems Speakers bureau: Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Servier, Will Pharma, Novartis.
Outcomes of patients with type I endoleak at completion of endovascular abdominal aneurysm repair

Background Type I endoleak (TIE) during endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) is usually identified and treated intraoperatively. We evaluated the outcomes of patients who, despite possible treatment, had TIE at completion of EVAR. Methods We examined consecutive EVAR for nonruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) within the Vascular Study Group of New England database (2003-2012) and compared the outcomes of patients who had TIE at completion with those who did not. Outcomes included perioperative death, cardiac complication, reoperation, and 1-year mortality. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with perioperative mortality, as well as factors associated with TIE. Anatomic factors associated with TIE were not evaluated because of the limitations of the Vascular Study Group of New England database. Results Among the 2402 EVARs for nonruptured AAA in the Vascular Study Group of New England sample, 93% (n = 2235) were performed electively and 7% had (n = 167) symptomatic AAA. Eighty patients (3.3%) had TIE at completion of surgery. Patients with TIE were older (77.9 vs 73.9 years; P P = .004), larger endograft main body diameter (28.8 vs 27.2 mm; P P P = .002) and cardiac dysrhythmia (8.8% vs 3.2%; P = .02). In multivariable analysis, TIE was independently associated with increased odds of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR], 4.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-16.4; P = .03). Multivariable analysis revealed the following factors to be independently predictive of TIE: female gender (OR, 2.2, 95% CI, 1.3-3.7; P = .002), patients older than 70 years of age (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.1-3.8; P = .02), those with main body graft diameter >30 mm (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.6-4.3; P P Conclusions TIE occurred in 3% of patients at completion of EVAR with more than 90% resolved spontaneously at 1-year follow-up. It is associated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality and cardiac complication. Additional investigation is needed to further define anatomic factors associated with TIE and to improve perioperative outcomes of these at-risk patients.
Thymectomy for Myasthenia Gravis: Complete Stable Remission and Associated Prognostic Factors in Over 1000 Cases

The efficacy of thymectomy and the optimal surgical technique in the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG) remain controversial. Long-term outcomes are lacking and remission rates are based on small populations. We reviewed our institutional experience of thymectomy for MG focusing on long-term outcomes, complete stable remission (CSR), improvement of symptoms, after transcervical, transsternal, thoracotomy, and VATS thymectomy. A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database of 3017 patients from 1941-2013 with MG was performed. Patients who underwent thymectomy with follow-up data including age at the time of surgery, sex, date of onset of symptoms, date of surgery, Osserman classification before and after surgery, surgical technique, date of remission, and status at last follow-up were included in the analysis. CSR and prognostic factors were analyzed by crude rate, Kaplan-Meier estimate, chi-squared test, Wilcoxon test, and a Cox proportional model. Overall, 1002 thymectomy patients with complete data were analyzed, and 35.5% (n = 355) derived benefit from surgery. Crude rate CSR was 19% (n = 191) and an additional 16% (n = 164) symptomatically improved requiring less medication after thymectomy. Also, 58% (n = 580) were stable after resection, and 6.7% (n = 67) developed progressive disease. Kaplan-Meier estimates of CSR were 27.7%, 36.7%, and 47.3% at 10, 25, and 40 years, respectively. On multivariate analysis, transsternal technique, thymoma, and preoperative Osserman classification were significantly associated with failure to achieve CSR. Thymectomy provides long-term CSR in 47.3% of patients with long-term follow-up. Patients with MG should be offered thymectomy when possible.
Influence of wind speed and wave height on displacement response of single span overhead trestle bridge

To analyze the displacement response of the overhead trestle bridge subjected to different wind speeds and wave heights,the DES(detached eddy simulation) method and ALE(arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) method were employed to solve the response of the trestle bridge system during the fluid structure interaction.Results show that the wind mainly affects the wave loads on the trestle,and the higher the wind speed,the larger the displacement response; that the wave mainly increases the trestle's oscillation,and brings great disturbance to the air close to the trestle,which reduces the trestle's wind load;and that once the wave engenders and becomes higher,the displacement response increment caused by the wave load is larger than the reduction caused by the wind load,so the higher the wave,the larger the displacement response.However,when the wave height increases to high value,the wave load's influence becomes smaller than that of the wind load,and the displacement decreases along with the wave height increasement.
Pulse-noise approach for classical spin systems.

For systems of classical spins interacting with the bath via damping and thermal noise, an approach is suggested to replace the white noise by a pulse noise acting at regular time intervals $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}t$, within which the system evolves conservatively. The method is working well in the typical case of a small dimensionless damping constant $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ and allows a considerable speedup of computations by using high-order numerical integrators with a large time step $\ensuremath{\delta}t$ (up to a fraction of the precession period), while keeping $\ensuremath{\delta}t\ensuremath{\ll}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}t$ to reduce the relative contribution of noise-related operations. In cases when precession can be discarded, $\ensuremath{\delta}t$ can be increased up to a fraction of the relaxation time $\ensuremath{\propto}1/\ensuremath{\lambda}$ that leads to a further speedup. This makes equilibration speed comparable with that of the Metropolis Monte Carlo method. The pulse-noise approach is tested on single-spin and multispin models.
Practical Application Layer Emulation in Industrial Control System Honeypots

Attacks on industrial control systems and critical infrastructure assets are on the rise. These systems are at risk due to outdated technology and ad hoc security measures. As a result, honeypots are often deployed to collect information about malicious intrusions and exploitation techniques. While virtual honeypots mitigate the excessive cost of hardware-replicated honeypots, they often suffer from a lack of authenticity. In addition, honeypots utilizing a proxy to a live programmable logic controller suffer from performance bottlenecks and limited scalability. This chapter describes an enhanced, application layer emulator that addresses both limitations. The emulator combines protocol-agnostic replay with dynamic updating via a proxy to produce a device that is easily integrated into existing honeypot frameworks.
Can We Do Better by Ordinary Investors? A Pragmatic Reaction to the Dueling Ideological Mythologists of Corporate Law

In his essay, The Myth That Insulating Boards Serves Long-Term Value, Professor Lucian Bebchuk draws a stark dichotomy between so-called “insulation advocates” and proponents of shareholder-driven direct democracy. This Essay begins by rejecting this crude divide between “good” and “evil,” and focuses instead on the practical realities surrounding increases in stockholder power in an era where there is a “separation of ownership from ownership.” That separation arises because the direct stockholders of private companies are typically not end-user investors, but instead money managers, such as mutual funds or hedge funds, whose interests as agents are not necessarily aligned with the interests of long-term investors. These practical realities suggest that Bebchuk’s crusade for ever more stockholder power may not actually be beneficial to ordinary investors, and that his contention — that further empowering stockholders with short-term investment horizons will not compromise long-term corporate value — is far from proven. This Essay concludes with some thoughts on improvements that could be made in the system that we have. These suggestions are not radical in either direction and they do not involve rolling back the rights of stockholders. Rather, these suggestions recognize that the fiduciaries who wield direct voting power over corporations should do so in a manner faithful to the best interests of those whose money they control, include proposals to require activist investors to bear some of the costs they impose and to disclose more information about their own incentives so that the electorate can evaluate their motives, and provide incentives that better align the interests of money managers and ordinary investors toward sustainable, sound long-term corporate growth. Taken as a whole, these suggestions would create a more rational accountability system by making all of the fiduciaries for ordinary investors focus more on what really matters for investors, citizens, and our society as a whole — the creation of durable wealth through fundamentally sound economic activity.The article by Lucian Bebchuk to which this article responds — Bebchuk, "The Myth that Insulating Boards Serves Long-Term Value," Columbia Law Review, Volume 113, 2013, pp. 1637-1694 — is available on SSRN at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2248111
SUBNATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF KILLING IN RWANDA

Nearly one million people were killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Although scholars have theorized why this violence occurred, we know comparatively less about how it unfolded. Accordingly, this article assesses the determinants of subnational levels of killing in 142 Rwandan communes by relying on data from the Rwandan Ministry of Local Administration and Community Development, the National University of Rwanda, and the 1991 Rwandan census. Fixed effects analyses reveal that top-down and bottom-up factors coalesced to influence violence across Rwanda. The state orchestrated and implemented the violence, and more violence occurred near the extremist center of the country as well as where state actors met strong opposition. Local conditions also shaped the violence, however, and indicators of low community cohesion and social control are associated with comparatively more violence. When put together, a unique model is introduced that integrates state conflict theories and social control theories of crime to explain subnational killing during the genocide in Rwanda.
Effects of an Interprofessional Project on Students' Perspectives on Interprofessional Education and Knowledge of Health Disciplines

Context: Interprofessional education (IPE) is encouraged in health care education in the hope that it will improve communication among future health care professionals. In response, health professional education programs are developing IPE curricula. Objective: To determine if a multicourse interprofessional (IP) project impacted students' knowledge and views on other health care professions, as well as their attitudes toward IPE. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Four university classrooms. Patients or Other Participants: Eighty-one undergraduate students (32 men, 49 women) from 4 introductory courses (2 athletic training sections, 41 students; 1 health administration section, 19 students; and 1 nursing section, 21 students) participated in 2 surveys and an IP project. Main Outcome Measure(s): Participants completed a modified Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) questionnaire. The faculty assigned students to an IP group with representation from each discipline. Groups were inst...
Intermediate-Term Outcomes for Men with Very Low/Low and Intermediate/High Risk Prostate Cancer Managed by Active Surveillance

Purpose: We compare intermediate term clinical outcomes among men with favorable risk and intermediate/high risk prostate cancer managed by active surveillance.Materials and Methods: A total of 635 men with localized prostate cancer have been on active surveillance since 2002 at a high volume academic hospital in the United States. Median followup is 50.5 months (IQR 31.1–80.3). Time to event analysis was performed for our clinical end points.Results: Of the cohort 117 men (18.4%) had intermediate/high risk disease. Overall 5 and 10-year all cause survival was 98% and 94%, respectively. Cumulative metastasis-free survival at 5 and 10 years was 99% and 98%, respectively. To date no cancer specific deaths had been observed. Overall freedom from intervention was 61% and 49% at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Overall cumulative freedom from failure of active surveillance, defined as metastasis or biochemical failure after local therapy with curative intent, was 97% and 91% at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Of th...
A Competitive Rate Allocation Game

We introduce a competitive rate allocation game in which two receivers compete to forward the data from a transmitter to a destination in exchange for a payment proportional to the amount of forwarded data. At each time slot the channel from the transmitter to each receiver is an independent random variable with two states, high or low, affecting the amount of data that can be transmitted. Receivers make ”bids” on the state of their channel and the transmitter allocates rate accordingly. Receivers are rewarded for successful transmissions and penalized for unsuccessful transmissions. The goal of the transmitter is to set the penalties in such a way that even if the receivers are selfish, the data forwarded is close to the optimal transmission rate. We first model this problem as a single shot game in which the receivers know the channel probability distributions but the transmitter does not, and show that it is possible for the transmitter to set penalties so as to ensure that both receivers have a dominant strategy and the corresponding Price of Anarchy is bounded by 2. We show, moreover, that this is in a sense the best possible bound. We next consider the case when receivers have incomplete information on the distributions, and numerically evaluate the performance of a distributed online learning algorithm based on the well-known UCB1 policy for this case. From simulations, we find that use of UCB1 policy yields a performance close to the dominant strategy.
Start-to-end simulation of the shot-noise driven microbunching instability experiment at the Linac Coherent Light Source

The shot-noise driven microbunching instability can significantly degrade electron beam quality in x-ray free electron laser light sources. Experiments were carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to study this instability. In this paper, we present start-to-end simulations of the shot-noise driven microbunching instability experiment at the LCLS using the real number of electrons. The simulation results reproduce the measurements quite well. A microbunching self-heating mechanism is also illustrated in the simulation, which helps explain the experimental observation.
The relationship between social capital and potential resilience in individuals.

Objective: To examine the relationship between social capital and potential resilience at the individual level from the perspective of emergency management. Methods: The authors used an online survey tool to present various scales of measurement related to the variables of social capital and potential resilience. Results: It was predicted that social capital and demographics, such as income, would be positively related to potential resilience. Overall, results indicated that income ( β = 0.33, p < 0.01) and social capital ( β = 0.32, p < 0.01) were both significant predictors of potential resilience. Implications and future directions for research and practices are discussed.
A Graduate Medical Education Curriculum to Introduce the Concept of Cancer Survivorship.

Introduction The growing number of cancer survivors has expanded the need for physicians familiar with survivorship care outside the subspecialty of oncology. However, primary care providers have h...
Spinal Arteriovenous Fistula

A 53-year-old man presented with urinary retention, bilateral lower extremity weakness and numbness after a L2-L5 lumbar laminectomy 6 weeks prior. MRI of the lumbar region revealed spinal cord edema and dilated peri-medullary vessels on T2 images. DSA revealed early venous filling arising from the segmental T12 artery supplying the spinal cord, confirming the diagnosis. Spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas are the most common vascular malformation of the spine. The diagnosis is suspected when patients present with symptoms of spinal cord venous congestion. 1 Spinal cord edema may be at a distant location from the arteriovenous shunt. Treatment is by endovascular embolization or surgical occlusion of the intra-dural vein. 2
Delivering hurricane science: Data processing review of the CYGNSS mission

This paper reviews the telemetry downlink and data processing implementation currently in use for the eight spacecraft of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission (launched December 2016). The NASA CYGNSS mission aims to understand the coupling between ocean surface properties, moist atmospheric thermodynamics, radiation, and convective dynamics in the inner core of Tropical Cyclones (TCs). The mission is comprised of eight microsatellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) at an inclination of 35 degrees. The CYGNSS mission faces unique constraints with respect to telemetry downlink: there are eight satellites to juggle with limited staff (implying unstaffed passes are a necessity), cost constraints limit passes to ∼7 minutes once every two days (implying the downlink must be 100% utilized), and the onboard processor runs at 25 MHz (implying hardware must be utilized to off-load the software). In summary, a microsatellite must downlink the equivalent of 2500 digital photos every two days, using the horsepower of a 2001 Palm Pilot, in less time than it takes to cook a batch of cookies. The ground data processing must then package and deliver the science data cookies to the eager scientists as soon as possible so that it may be used to accurately update forecasting models. The CYGNSS Flight Software (FSW) telemetry downlink implementation is reviewed, including the observed on-orbit advantages, and the lessons learned that could have led to a better implementation. The implementation has now been shown to work well, and was able to avoid the complexity and resource requirements of integrating a third-party Application Programming Interface (API), such as CFDP, into the FSW. In addition to the flight segment implementation, the ground segment data processing of CYGNSS will also be assessed. The ground data processing must be robust: it must handle asynchronous data streams from each microsatellite ground pass, it must handle delivery of science and engineering data to their own unique end-user system, identify any data loss, support ingest of any re-downlinked data, and perform parallel data processing for all eight spacecraft. These implementations are reviewed, noting observed advantages and lessons learned.
Overcoming Sample Selection Bias in Variable Star Classification

With the fast-approaching deluge of photometric data from synoptic surveys, there is an urgent need for methods that quickly and automatically estimate accurate classification probabilities for newly observed sources from a small number of time-series measurements. In Richards et al. [Astrophys J 733:10, 2011, 10.1088/0004-637X/733/1/10], we proposed an end-to-end framework for photometric variable star classification using modern machine learning techniques and demonstrated its accuracy on a single well-studied data set. The methods in that paper assumed that the labeled (training) and unlabeled (testing) sets were drawn from the same underlying population distribution. This is rarely the case in studies of variable stars. Typically, well-understood (labeled) objects form a biased sample of intrinsically brighter, higher signal-to-noise stars. Additionally, data from older surveys are commonly employed to train classifiers that predict the labels of data from active surveys, even though these surveys usually have different characteristics. This problem is referred to in the statistics literature as sample selection bias. Here, I discuss various approaches to this problem and introduce the novel use of cutting-edge machine learning methods, such as co-training and active learning, to overcome sample selection bias in variable star classification. I compare the performance of these methods to standard techniques that ignore the sample selection bias problem. A framework for performing active learning for variable star classification tasks is detailed, and its favorable performance is demonstrated in classifying data from Hipparcos, OGLE, the All Sky Automated Survey, and other modern surveys.
The Data That Bind US

My family and I left Cuba in 1968. Since I was only three, I was unaware at that time of the complexities inherent in being part of that Diaspora, the brunt of which my parents bore in a dignified fashion while my brothers and I enjoyed the respective innocence of youth. Like most Cubans who fled during the President Lyndon Johnson administration, we left behind bitterness and resentment, not only with our government, but also with our very own family members.
Rate of Translation of a Ligand Molecule Along a DNA-Duplex Chain

In any decoding process of the genetic information in a biological system, there must be a specific ligand-DNA binding. Lac-repressor (a protein) of Escherichia coli, for example, must find a particular sequence called lac-operator in its long DNA chain to achieve a specific binding there. Because one cannot suppose any long-range force between these repressor and operator, we are compelled to consider that this is a diffusion-driven reaction. In 1970, the in-vitro kinetics of the association reaction of lac-repressor and lac-operator was examined by Riggs et al.[1], and the second-order rate constant was determined to be 7x109M−1sec−1, in aqueous solution at 24°C. This value was found to be more than one order of magnitude greater than that expected from the known diffusion constants of macromolecules. At that time, Riggs et al.[1] already presented an idea that the lac-repressor searches for the operator not by performing a three-dimensional random walk, but rather by binding to DNA and rolling or hopping along it, thus reducing the search for the operator to lower dimensions. Although they reached a rather negative conclusion on this idea at that time, it gradually became more significant. In 1981, for example, Winter et al.[2] have re-examined the repressor-operator kinetics in detail, and found that the rate constant depends not only on the ionic strength of the solution but also on the length of the DNA chain containing the operator. They showed that their experimental results are well explained by the above two-step mechanism (binding and then sliding), if the one-dimensional diffusion constant (D1) in the sliding is assumed to be 8x10−10 cm2/sec[2]. This D1 value corresponds to a random-walk rate of 108 base-pairs/sec, or one base-pair/μsec.[2] Thus, it is desirable to design an experiment in which one can directly observe such a translocation.
Predicting Task Completion from Rich but Scarce Data.

We present a data-driven model for predicting task completion in Project LISTEN’s Reading Tutor, which takes turns picking stories and listens to the child read aloud [1]. However, children do not always finish stories, and we would like to understand why, or at least detect when they are about to stop. So our EDM challenge is to learn a model to predict task completion – a widely used metric of dialogue systems’ performance. Such a model could help detect imminent disengagement in time to address it, and identify factors that influence task completion, including tutor behaviors, thereby providing useful guidance to make tutors engage students longer and more effectively.
OpenCDN: An ICN-based open content distribution system using distributed actor model

Building upon the results of recent works on understanding large-scale content distribution systems, we revisit CONIA, a Content-provider Oriented Namespace Independent Architecture for content delivery. The key idea of CONIA is to let any willing ISP or third party to participate as a content distribution network (CDN). In this paper, we propose a first step in the direction of an information-centric network-based open content distribution system (OpenCDN), that allows for better scalability, flexibility, and performance. In particular, we concentrate on the functions of the content store and routing elements (CSRs) that form the network substrate. We propose an actor-model driven programming model and a runtime system, which together we refer to as the OpenCDN platform. Using OpenCDN, content providers will have full control over building and managing the basic building blocks for the functionality of CSRs, and the flexibility on which content to cache, when to cache, and how to satisfy user requests.