cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The older cleft palate patient. (A clinical otologic-audiologic study.).

A clinical study of 100 randomly selected cleft lip and/or palate adult patients, ages 14 to 77 years. Forty-nine out of 100 were otologically normal. Forty-two out of 100 were audiologically normal. A negative history of past ear disease is not an accurate screening method for abnormality. Auditory impairments (27 out of 58) suggesting a sensori-neural loss were found in relatively young adults. Is there a progressive degenerative sensori-neural hearing impairment in congenital cleft disease? Thirty-one out of 58 had conductive losses: these were correlated with the otologic findings on examination. Twenty-three out of 100 had had palatal pharyn-goplasty. The surgical procedure to reduce hypernasality probably does not aggravate the Eustachian tubal dysfunction. Approximately 50 percent of the congenital cleft lip and/or palate adults continue to have ear problems, probably for their lifetime.
Maternal Vitamin D Deficiency Is Associated with Bacterial Vaginosis in the First Trimester of Pregnancy

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a highly prevalent vaginal infection that is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Vitamin D exerts an influence on the immune system and may play a role in BV. The objective of this study was to examine the association between maternal vitamin D status and the prevalence of BV in early pregnancy. Women (n = 469) enrolled in a pregnancy cohort study at 80 nmol/L. There was a dose-response association between 25(OH)D and the prevalence of BV. The prevalence declined as 25(OH)D increased to 80 nmol/L, then reached a plateau. Compared with a serum 25(OH)D concentration of 75 nmol/L, there were 1.65-fold (95% CI: 1.01, 2.69) and 1.26-fold (1.01, 1.57) increases in the prevalence of BV associated with a serum 25(OH)D concentration of 20 and 50 nmol/L, respectively, after adjustment for race and sexually transmitted diseases. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with BV and may contribute to the strong racial disparity in the prevalence of BV.
A prospective study of dietary fat consumption and endometriosis risk

background: Endometriosis is a prevalent but enigmatic gynecologic disorder for which few modifiable risk factors have been identified. Fish oil consumption has been associated with symptom improvement in studies of women with primary dysmenorrhea and with decreased endometriosis risk in autotransplantation animal studies. methods: To investigate the relation between dietary fat intake and the risk of endometriosis, we analyzed 12 years of prospective data from the Nurses’ Health Study II that began in 1989. Dietary fat was assessed via food frequency questionnaire in 1991, 1995 and 1999. We used Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for total energy intake, parity, race and body mass index at age 18, and assessed cumulatively averaged fat intake across the three diet questionnaires. results: During the 586 153 person-years of follow-up, 1199 cases of laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis were reported. Although total fat consumption was not associated with endometriosis risk, those women in the highest fifth of long-chain omega-3 fatty acid consumption were 22% less likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis compared with those with the lowest fifth of intake [95% confidence interval (CI) ¼ 0.62– 0.99; P-value, test for linear trend (Pt) ¼ 0.03]. In addition, those in the highest quintile of trans-unsaturated fat intake were 48% more likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis (95% CI ¼ 1.17–1.88; Pt ¼ 0.001). conclusion: These data suggest that specific types of dietary fat are associated with the incidence of laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis, and that these relations may indicate modifiable risk. This evidence additionally provides another disease association that supports efforts to remove trans fat from hydrogenated oils from the food supply.
Expansive homeomorphisms and indecomposable subcontinua

A continuum X is k-cyclic if given any e> 0, there is a finite open cover U of X such that mesh(U ) 0a nd everyx, y ∈ X there exists an integer n such that d(h n (x), h n (y)) > e. We prove that if X is a k-cyclic continuum that admits an expansive homeomorphism, then X must contain an nondegenerate indecomposable subcontinuum.
Mechanism controlling permeability change in clays due to changes in pore fluid

When a water-saturated clayey soil is leached with an organic fluid such as heptane, it has been found that under some conditions the hydraulic conductivity (or the permeability) increases manyfold. While it is generally agreed that physicochemical changes (e.g., compression of double-layer thickness) and the consequent alterations to the internal fabric (e.g., shrinkage of clusters) are responsible in most cases for such an increase, the underlying mechanism is not clearly understood. Two possible mechanisms are (1) formation of a few macrocracks due to shrinkage of clusters and (2) uniform increase in intercluster porosity throughout the volume of the soil due to shrinkage of clusters. The objective of the study presented here is to examine the most plausible mechanism of permeability increase caused by leaching. With the aid of Olsen’s permeability equation based on the cluster model, Poiseuille’s law for laminar fluid flow between two parallel plates, physicochemical theories, and experimental permeability data, it is shown that the formation of macrocracks is the most plausible mechanism of permeability increase.
Synthesis of 2,5-thiazole butanoic acids as potent and selective αvβ3 integrin receptor antagonists with improved oral pharmacokinetic properties

We describe a series of 2,5 thiazole containing compounds, which are potent antagonists of the integrin alpha(v)beta3 and show selectivity relative to the other integrins, such as alpha(IIb)beta3 and alpha(v)beta6. These analogs were demonstrated to have high bioavailability relative to other relative heterocyclic analogs.
Structures and unimolecular chemistry of M(Pro2-H)+ (M = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) by IRMPD spectroscopy, SORI-CID, and theoretical studies

M(Pro2-H)+ complexes were electrosprayed and isolated in an FTICR cell where their unimolecular chemistries and structures were explored using SORI-CID and IRMPD spectroscopy. These experiments were augmented by computational methods such as electronic structure, simulated annealing, and atoms in molecules (AIM) calculations. The unimolecular chemistries of the larger metal cation (Ca2+, Sr2+ and Ba2+) complexes predominantly involve loss of neutral proline whereas the complexes involving the smaller Mg2+ and transition metal dications tend to lose small neutral molecules such as water and carbon dioxide. Interestingly, all complexes involving transition metal dications except for Cu(Pro2-H)+ lose H2 upon collisional or IRMPD activation. IRMPD spectroscopy shows that the intact proline in the transition metal complexes and Cu(Pro2-H)+ is predominantly canonical (charge solvated) while for the Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+ complexes, proline is in its zwitterionic form. The IRMPD spectra for both Mg(Pro2-H)+ and Mn(Pro2-H)+ are concluded to have contributions from both charge-solvated and canonical structures.
Elementary Students' Physical Activity Levels and Behavior When Using Stability Balls.

OBJECTIVE Physical activity is positively related to improved student behaviors. Stability balls have been used as interventions to affect student behavior. The objective of this study was to determine whether the use of stability balls elicits more physical activity than the use of regular chairs and whether stability balls positively influence behavior. METHOD Participants (n = 43 fourth graders) sat on stability balls during class and wore accelerometers. Eight were randomly selected for behavioral observations using momentary time sampling. RESULTS Significant decreases in accelerometer counts were found. No obvious difference for on-task behaviors was found between students using stability balls and those using chairs. CONCLUSION Stability balls do not necessarily elicit more physical activity than do chairs; however, students accumulate light-intensity physical activity when using them. Classroom behavior was not detrimentally affected by stability ball use; thus, stability balls do not appear to detract from the classroom instructional atmosphere.
Behavior and damage of the Washington Monument during the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake

This paper investigates the potential causes of the damage to the Washington Monument sustained from the 2011 Mineral, Virginia (USA), earthquake through time-history dynamic analysis. Ambient vibration fi eld test data were obtained and utilized to calibrate a fi nite element model of the structure and its foundation. The impact of the foundation modeling and the uncertainties associated with the material properties of the stone and iron, in the absence of in situ material testing, were investigated through several parametric studies, in which the material property values are permuted at three (upper, average, and lower) levels to bound the predicted dynamic characteristics of the structure. Because ground-motion data recorded in the Washington, D.C., area during the earthquake are scarce, the ground motion at the Washington Monument site was simulated using an angular transformation of the recorded ground motions in Reston, Virginia, deconvoluted to the bedrock level and upward propagation of the rotated motions to the ground surface based on soil profi les in Reston and the Washington Monument site provided by the U.S. Geological Survey. The fi nite element model of the Washington Monument shaft subjected to these bidirectional earthquake records showed high acceleration amplifi cation at the observation level, as well as tensile stress concentration at the ~107 m level. These observations correlate with the damage observed in the pyramidion section and upper levels of the Washington Monument shaft following the 2011 Virginia earthquake. Shahidi, S.G., Pakzad, S.N., Ricles, J.M., Martin, J.R., Olgun, C.G., and Godfrey, E.A., 2015, Behavior and damage of the Washington Monument during the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, in Horton, J.W., Jr., Chapman, M.C., and Green, R.A., eds., The 2011 Mineral, Virginia, Earthquake, and Its Signifi cance for Seismic Hazards in Eastern North America: Geological Society of America Special Paper 509, p. 235–252, doi:10.1130/2015.2509(13). For permission to copy, contact editing@geosociety.org. © 2014 The Geological Society of America. All rights reserved. on November 29, 2014 specialpapers.gsapubs.org Downloaded from
Toxicity and reductions in intracellular calcium levels following uptake of a tetracycline antibiotic in Arabidopsis.

Plant responses to natural stresses have been the focus of numerous studies; however less is known about plant responses to artificial (i.e., man-made) stress. Chlortetracycline (CTC) is widely used in agriculture and becomes an environmental contaminant when introduced into soil from manure used as fertilizer. We show here that in the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), root uptake of CTC leads to toxicity, with growth reductions and other effects. Analysis of protein accumulation and in vivo synthesis revealed numerous changes in soluble and membrane-associated proteins in leaves and roots. Many representative proteins associated with different cellular processes and compartments showed little or no change in response to CTC. However, differences in accumulation and synthesis of NAD-malic enzyme in leaves versus roots suggest potential CTC-associated effects on metabolic respiration may vary in different tissues. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) analysis indicated reduced levels...
Identification of M Centers in InP

Simple atomic models are proposed for three metastable centers in InP, which have been called “M centers”. All undergo “large lattice relaxation” and emit or absorb multiple electrons on changing atomic configuration. The one which has been most thoroughly studied is called M and is introduced by MeV electron irradiation. The second, called M:P, is present in as grown device quality InP and is a problem for MISFET devices. The third, called M:Fe, is present in Fe doped InP that has been processed at high T to produce a p+ region. Our model for M consists of a V In − P In + defect complex in one configuration and 2P In + + V P + in the other configuration. Transformation between these two configurations occurs by nearest neighbor hopping of a P atom between vacant sites. The “negative U” character of the M center is a simple consequence of the P atom hop. Our model for the M:P center is a V P + one configuration and a V In − In P − in the other, the transformation occurs by In atom hopping. For the M:Fe center we tentatively propose Fe In − + V In − in one configuration and Fe In − V P + P In + for the other, the transformation again occurring by P atom hopping. It is also possible that the Fe occupies a bond centered interstitial position, Fe bc −2 , in the first configuration and Fe In − V P + in the second, the transformation occurring by Fe atom motion. A distinction between these two possibilities can be made with a pressure dependence measurement. It is noted that the activation energies for these transformations support the Ballistic Model for vacancy migration.
Red cell factor in renal damage from hypertonic solutions.

SummaryLaparotomy was performed on 36 mongrel dogs. The aorticorenal segment was isolated and perfused with either blood or plasma. One ml/kg of 12.5% sodium chloride or 25% urea in 0.9% saline was...
Settlement Patterns in Two Regions of the Southern Maya Lowlands

The Izabal zone is a physiographic region located near the southeastern frontier of the southern Maya lowlands. Its environment is compared with that of northeast Peten, a second region of the same culture area. Prehistoric settlement patterns of the 2 regions are compared and differences in distribution of settlements, estimated population densities and types of settlements are noted. These differences are related to various environmental and cultural factors.
Radiological Protection of Medical Exposure Is a Hot Topic for Modern Society to Pay More Attention and Strengthen Research

The ecological environment where human beings live is full of natural radiation, and at the same time various artificial sources of ionizing radiation are constantly developed and widely used. The largest and doomed-to-increase artificial source of ionizing radiation comes from medical services with purposes of physical examination or radiotherapy. We are in the time of rapid development and wide spread of radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy, and should give full attention to and conscientiously strengthen radiological protection in medical services, which becomes a major public health issue attracting all the public in the development of modern society. The Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine with a successful history of 30 years should take it for granted to pay close attention to the issue.
Laminin-111 Peptides Conjugated to Fibrin Hydrogels Promote Formation of Lumen Containing Parotid Gland Cell Clusters

Previous studies showed that mouse submandibular gland cells form three-dimensional structures when grown on Laminin-111 gels. The use of Laminin-111 for tissue bioengineering is complicated due to its lack of purity. By contrast, the use of synthetic peptides derived from Laminin-111 is beneficial due to their high purity and easy manipulation. Two Laminin-111 peptides have been identified for salivary cells: the A99 peptide corresponding to the α1 chain from Laminin-111 and the YIGSR peptide corresponding to the β1 chain from Laminin-111, which are important for cell adhesion and migration. We created three-dimensional salivary cell clusters using a modified fibrin hydrogel matrix containing immobilized Laminin-111 peptides. Results indicate that the YIGSR peptide improved morphology and lumen formation in rat parotid Par-C10 cells as compared to cells grown on unmodified fibrin hydrogel. Moreover, a combination of both peptides not only allowed the formation of functional three-dimensional salivary cell clusters but also increased attachment and number of cell clusters. In summary, we demonstrated that fibrin hydrogel decorated with Laminin-111 peptides supports attachment and differentiation of salivary gland cell clusters with mature lumens.
The anisotropic tensors

We consider an nth order Cartesian tensor with components ai1i2...in (i p = 1, 2, 3) in the rectangular Cartesian coordinate system x i (i = 1, 2, 3) and components a* i1i2…in in the rectangular Cartesian coordinate system x *, where x i and x*i are related by the orthogonal transformation
Aorto-coronary bypass in Jehovah's Witnesses. Report of 36 patients.

Hemodilution technique for cardiopulmonary bypass with the use of bloodless prime has reduced the need for massive blood transfusion in open-heart surgery, including aorto-coronary bypass procedures. Thirty-six Jehovah's Witness patients who had expressed religious convictions against blood transfusion underwent aorto-coronary bypass operations. The mortality rate was 5.5 per cent (2 patients). Neither death was related to the lack of blood transfusions. The hospital stay and the recovery time of all the other patients was also not affected by withholding blood. The excellent short- and long-term results of this particular group paralleled those observed in our series of over 2,500 other patients who have undergone coronary bypass surgery since 1969. About 30 per cent of these patients, who were not Jehovah's Witnesses, did not require blood transfusions, while the remainder averaged less than 2 units per patient. Our results with the Jehovah's Witness patients encourage us in our policy of avoiding blood transfusions whenever possible in all operations. Further justification for our conservative attitude is given by the current shortage of blood in relation to a projected continuous increase of aorto-coronary bypass procedures in the future.
The Challenge of Philosophical Anthropology

The philosophical study of man has been part of the philosopher’s vocation since the age of the ancient Greeks, receiving a decisive expression in the timeless challenge of the Socratic maxim, “Know thyself.” Since this early age of philosophical reflection the challenge of philosophical anthropology has accumulated more and more stringent demands. In the development of ancient and medieval thought, and even during much of the modern age, the philosophy of man was able to enjoy a high degree of conceptual insularity. The special sciences of man had not yet come of age. Psychology, sociology, ethnology, psychoanalysis, political science, and economics had not yet achieved a state of self-consciousness. Insofar as topics currently discussed in these special disciplines were addressed, they were defined within the purview of explicit philosophical and theological ruminations. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, however, these special human sciences came into their own, and in doing so they presented philosophical anthropology with a new and increasingly difficult challenge. The rapid development of the human sciences, particularly in our time, has produced a plethora of methodologies and models of man that seem bereft of either common origin or common goal.
Mechanisms of Ceramide-Mediated Apoptosis

Studies over the last few years have established the existence of a signal transduction pathway mediated by ceramide (Fig. 1) whereby the action of a number of extracellular agents and insults such as tumor necrosis factor α, 1α-25-dihydroxy vitamin D3, NGF, γ interferon, Fas ligands, and dexamethasone result in activation of sphingomyelinases which act on membrane sphingomyelin and cause the accumulation of ceramide (1–4). In turn, different lines of investigation are beginning to implicate ceramide as an important mediator of the antiproliferative effects of these agents in the various cell systems. For example, in HL-60 cells, ceramide induces cell differentiation and growth suppression (5,6). In Molt-4 leukemia cells, ceramide induces cell cycle arrest (7,8), whereas in multiple cell systems ceramide induces programmed cell death (apoptosis) (9–13). In this chapter, we discuss the role and mechanism of ceramide induced apoptosis.
Surface Chemistry of GaP(001) and InP(001) in Contact with Water

We report the results of total-energy density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of (001) surfaces of InP and GaP in contact with gas-phase and liquid water. Both pristine and oxygen-rich surfaces (representing a submonolayer native surface oxide) are considered. We find that gas-phase binding of water on pristine mixed-dimer δ(2×4) reconstructions of InP/GaP(001) is comparable to the solvation energy of liquid water, and that the barriers for room-temperature dissociation are high. In the presence of a submonolayer surface oxide, water binding and dissociation instead become strongly exothermic and proceed with almost no barrier. In this case, the surface chemistry at the interface with liquid water differs significantly from that of gas-phase water adsorption due to the formation of strong, low-barrier hydrogen bonds between surface adsorbates and water molecules. Water dissociation on the oxygen-rich surface is accompanied by extremely rapid local proton hopping between hydr...
Emerging role of checkpoint blockade therapy in lymphoma.

Following the successful application of immune checkpoint blockade therapy (CBT) in refractory solid tumors, it has recently gained momentum as a promising modality in the treatment of relapsed lym...
Weekly Formative Exams and Creative Grading Enhance Student Learning in an Introductory Biology Course

A course format with a creative grading scheme and weekly formative midterms produced large gains in student success with test items requiring higher-order cognitive skills. This format is designed...
Metasurface quantum-cascade laser with electrically switchable polarization

Dynamic control of a laser’s output polarization state is desirable for applications in polarization sensitive imaging, spectroscopy, and ellipsometry. Using external elements to control the polarization state is a common approach. Less common and more challenging is directly switching the polarization state of a laser, which, however, has the potential to provide high switching speeds, compactness, and power efficiency. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to achieve direct and electrically controlled polarization switching of a semiconductor laser. This is enabled by integrating a polarization-sensitive metasurface with a semiconductor gain medium to selectively amplify a cavity mode with the designed polarization state, therefore leading to an output in the designed polarization. Here, the demonstration is for a terahertz quantum-cascade laser, which exhibits electrically controlled switching between two linear polarizations separated by 80°, while maintaining an excellent beam with a narrow divergence of ∼3°×3° and a single-mode operation fixed at ∼3.4 THz, combined with a peak power as high as 93 mW at a temperature of 77 K. The polarization-sensitive metasurface is composed of two interleaved arrays of surface-emitting antennas, all of which are loaded with quantum-cascade gain materials. Each array is designed to resonantly interact with one specific polarization; when electrical bias is selectively applied to the gain material in one array, selective amplification of one polarization occurs. The amplifying metasurface is used along with an output coupler reflector to build a vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser whose output polarization state can be switched solely electrically. This work demonstrates the potential of exploiting amplifying polarization-sensitive metasurfaces to create lasers with desirable polarization states—a concept which is applicable beyond the terahertz and can potentially be applied to shorter wavelengths.
Rethinking Ability and Disability in the Work of Johan van der Keuken

Taking in equal measure from the pragmatically orientated work of Michael Schillmeier, and Siebers’ notion of ‘disability as ability’, this chapter argues for the importance of personhood in the work of the late Dutch documentarist Johan van der Keuken. Using Herman Slobbe: Blind Child 2 (1966) and moments from Face Value (1991) and Amsterdam Global Village (1994) as case studies, this chapter argues that the filmmaker celebrated forms of defiance and resistance that worked against socially accepted stereotypes. Yet this also incorporated an experiential sense of beauty that has been described by Dissanayake as a form of ‘making special’, extrapolating the extraordinary from the ordinary. It is for this reason that van der Keuken’s work transcends the able/disabled divide and remains relevant today.
Increasing System Failure Analysis Effectiveness Through Architecture Modeling

Abstract This research demonstrated that the quality of the classic Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) method could be improved through the use of system architecture models. While existing work demonstrates use of simplified system models in FTA using methods that combine existing tools, this research uniquely addresses the value of using a single tool to generate stochastic behavior models of more complex systems, together with their normal and failure mode events, from existing system specification documents. Use of a single tool is desirable for organizations wishing to limit investment and simplify management of architecture data and analysis. The Innoslate tool is used show how classic failure analysis methods such as FTA can be emulated in the Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) design process. For a simple demonstration example, a fault tree is distilled from behavior models captured in action diagrams. A comparison of the classic FTA approach with the model based approach shows potential for increase in failure analysis accuracy and efficiency.
Hypertension, Genes, and Environment: Challenges for Prevention and Risk Prediction.

Article, see p 653 Despite substantial progress in treatment and control, hypertension still accounts for 10% of the population attributable risk for all-cause mortality in most societies.1 In addition to better pharmacological control, a preventive population approach is needed because the lifetime incidence of hypertension is 90%, and the years spent with a high normal blood pressure (BP) also have vascular consequences. Unfortunately, the challenge of primary prevention has not even been seriously addressed, at least in the United States.2 Therefore, much research on BP is an attempt to move forward from the traditional, and some might say antiquated, approach of repeated measurements of a patient’s BP, estimation of average risk based on data from published studies, followed by life-long therapy with daily medications. Enthusiasts of the precision medicine paradigm argue that prediction of risk based on genetic susceptibility, coupled with individualized choices of therapy, will add great efficiency to the management of high BP. To address that question, in this issue of Circulation , Pazoki and colleagues3 compared the relative impact of lifestyle factors on BP versus a suite of 314 risk alleles in a cohort of 277 000 persons in the UK Biobank. The main finding was a systolic BP difference of 3.5 mm Hg in the high- versus low-risk tertiles of risk, which was equivalent for both lifestyle factors and genetic risk. As expected, clinical events tracked the BP gradient. The broad overlap of BPs across the risk strata will mean that perhaps half of patients could be misclassified and therefore both measures have little predictive …
Rapamycin increases oxidative metabolism and enhances metabolic flexibility in human cardiac fibroblasts

Inhibition of mTOR signaling using rapamycin has been shown to increase lifespan and healthspan in multiple model organisms; however, the precise mechanisms for the beneficial effects of rapamycin remain uncertain. We have previously reported that rapamycin delays senescence in human cells and that enhanced mitochondrial biogenesis and protection from mitochondrial stress is one component of the benefit provided by rapamycin treatment. Here, using two models of senescence, replicative senescence and senescence induced by the presence of the Hutchinson-Gilford progeria lamin A mutation, we report that senescence is accompanied by elevated glycolysis and increased oxidative phosphorylation, which are both reduced by rapamycin. Measurements of mitochondrial function indicate that direct mitochondria targets of rapamycin are succinate dehydrogenase and matrix alanine aminotransferase. Elevated activity of these enzymes could be part of complex mechanisms that enable mitochondria to resume their optimal oxidative phosphorylation and resist senescence. This interpretation is supported by the fact that rapamycin-treated cultures do not undergo a premature senescence in response to the replacement of glucose with galactose in the culture medium, which forces a greater reliance on oxidative phosphorylation. Additionally, long-term treatment with rapamycin increases expression of the mitochondrial carrier protein UCP2, which facilitates the movement of metabolic intermediates across the mitochondrial membrane. The results suggest that rapamycin impacts mitochondrial function both through direct interaction with the mitochondria and through altered gene expression of mitochondrial carrier proteins.
Gamow-Teller β-decays and M1 γ-rays in A = 4N+2 nuclei

Abstract Recent measurements of Gamow-Teller β-transitions for the A = 4 N +2 series of nuclei up to A = 30 are summarized and compared in strength to the analogous M1 γ-rays in the T z = 0 nuclei. An approximate sum rule for the Gamow-Teller strengths is proposed and compared with the data.
Cultural Re-Location and the Appropriation of Underrepresented Voices

This chapter addresses the present status of the National Council for the Social Studies theme People, Places, and Environments and indicates directions the theme may need to take in EC-12 and university-level education to promote equity within educational contexts. This chapter aligns to a movement away from “social studies” towards “social education”. Traditionally, the former is understood to emphasize third person, imposed, objective perspectives of “the world” that are to be learned and recounted, while the latter focuses on the immediate, the subjective, the normative, and the local communities and individuals that compromise the ever-changing social fabric of “our worlds”.
Machine learning for text selection with expressive unit-selection voices.

We show that a ranking model produced by machine learning outperforms two baselines when applied to the task of selecting texts for use in creating a unit-selection synthesis voice with good domain coverage. The model learns to predict the estimated utility of an utterance based on features relating it to the utterances selected so far and a corpus of target utterances. Our analyses indicate that our discriminative approach continues to work well even though the presence of rich prosodic and nonprosodic features significantly expands the search space beyond what has previously been handled by greedy methods.
NanoCAGE-XL: An Approach to High-Confidence Transcription Start Site Sequencing

Identifying the transcription start sites (TSS) of genes is essential for characterizing promoter regions. Several protocols have been developed to capture the 5' end of transcripts via Cap-Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) or linker-ligation strategies such as Paired-End Analysis of Transcription Start Sites (PEAT), but often require large amounts of tissue. More recently, nanoCAGE was developed for sequencing on the Illumina GAIIx to overcome this limitation. In this chapter, we present the nanoCAGE-XL protocol, the first publicly available adaptation of nanoCAGE for sequencing on recent ultra-high-throughput platforms such as Illumina HiSeq-2000. NanoCAGE-XL provides a method for precise transcription start site identification in large eukaryotic genomes, even in cases where input total RNA quantity is very limited.
FULT: Fast User-Level Thread Scheduling Using Bit-Vectors

This paper describes FULT, a user-level thread scheduling system that uses bit-vectors to represent runnable threads. This system is aimed at efficient support of event driven task scheduling. We show a significant reduction in the cost of signal and wait primitives, high scalability, and similar performance for task spawning and other operations, compared conventional task schedulers that use work queues.
Visual Object Networks: Image Generation with Disentangled 3D Representations

Recent progress in deep generative models has led to tremendous breakthroughs in image generation. While being able to synthesize photorealistic images, existing models lack an understanding of our underlying 3D world. Different from previous works built on 2D datasets and models, we present a new generative model, Visual Object Networks (VONs), synthesizing natural images of objects with a disentangled 3D representation. Inspired by classic graphics rendering pipelines, we unravel the image formation process into three conditionally independent factors---shape, viewpoint, and texture---and present an end-to-end adversarial learning framework that jointly models 3D shape and 2D texture. Our model first learns to synthesize 3D shapes that are indistinguishable from real shapes. It then renders the object's 2.5D sketches (i.e., silhouette and depth map) from its shape under a sampled viewpoint. Finally, it learns to add realistic textures to these 2.5D sketches to generate realistic images. The VON not only generates images that are more realistic than the state-of-the-art 2D image synthesis methods but also enables many 3D operations such as changing the viewpoint of a generated image, shape and texture editing, linear interpolation in texture and shape space, and transferring appearance across different objects and viewpoints.
Irrelevance of magnetic proximity effect to spin-orbit torques in heavy-metal/ferromagnet bilayers

The magnetic proximity effect (MPE) is a well-established magnetic phenomenon that occurs at certain heavy-metal (HM)/ferromagnet (FM) interfaces. However, there is still an active debate as to whether the presence of a MPE affects spin transport through such a HM/FM interface. Here we demonstrate that the MPE at Pt/Co and $\mathrm{A}{\mathrm{u}}_{0.25}\mathrm{P}{\mathrm{t}}_{0.75}/\mathrm{Co}$ interfaces can be enhanced substantially by thermal annealing protocols. From this ability, we show that the MPE has no discernible influence on either the dampinglike or the fieldlike spin-orbit torques exerted on the FM layer due to the spin Hall effect of the HM layer, indicating a minimal role of the MPE compared to other interfacial effects, e.g., spin memory loss and spin backflow.
A Prototype Cosmic-ray Muon Tomography System for Dry Storage Cask Monitoring

Cosmic-ray muon tomography has been studied for various applications. It was proved to be a good non-destructive assay technique for high-Z materials. In this work, we present two version of a prototype muon imaging system for monitoring spent nuclear fuel content inside dry storage casks. The prototype system contains four identical position-sensitive muon detectors, forming two muon trackers. The system v1 has been built up. The system v2 is under construction. The test results will be presented in near future.
An Overview of Cloud Networks and Datacenters Centralization

Cloud networks are kept evaluating and evolving in recent times due to their performance and efficiency, deployment critics, and costs. Recent progress has been quested for more efficiency and high scalability of cloud networks. The improvement over geographic distribution of cloud facilities in performance and resilience has already been supported and produced in the cloud network overlay protocols and advanced IaaS services, which are more reliable and high-performance. This paper gives an overview of cloud networks and distributed services as well as a summary of some cloud network overlay protocols and datacenter distribution features, such as virtual network segmentation, incremental deployment, multipath and load balancing, and multicast.
Electrodesiccation and Curettage

Curettage alone or in combination with electrodesiccation has been used for the treatment of skin cancer. While the curette was developed in the 1870s, electrodesiccation was first used in 1911 by Clark when a high-voltage, low-current electrode was applied to the skin and resulted in drying of tissue. It was not until later that the combination of curettage and electrodesiccation gained acceptance for low-risk lesions such as superficial and nodular basal cell carcinomas.
Predicting Metal–Support Interactions in Oxide-Supported Single-Atom Catalysts

Single-atom catalysts (SACs), containing under-coordinated single metal atoms bound to the surface of supports, are promising heterogeneous catalysts due to their intrinsic catalytic properties and...
Genetic algorithm-based inverse design of elastic gridshells

An initially two-dimensional grid of elastic rods may be actuated into a three-dimensional shell-like structure, through buckling, when the end-points of the rods are constrained to a shrunk boundary. The shape of the 3D gridshell is a joint result of elasticity and geometric constraint. We develop a discrete differential geometry-based model of elastic gridshell to investigate their form-finding process. Even though the forward process from 2D footprint to 3D gridshell can be captured by physics-based simulation, the inverse problem of obtaining the original footprint given the 3D deformed shape still lacks a generalized method. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm (GA)-based inverse design method to explore the planar footprint of an elastic gridshell as well as the corresponding geometric constraints. Geometric features extracted from the original planar form are encoded into various chromosomes to constitute a population in every generation. With the fitness function constructed based on the deviation of the candidate solution from the 3D target shape, the population evolves gradually until the individual of the smallest fitness value representing the optimal footprint and final boundary constraints is found under seven predefined geometric constraints. Given a series of representative target shapes, e.g., hemispherical cap, paraboloid structure, Gaussian curve shape, and semi-ellipsoid, their original footprints are quantified using a network of 10 elastic rods. Excellent agreement is obtained between the prescribed 3D shape and the simulated buckled structures as small fitness value is obtained and little difference between them is observed, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed GA-based inverse design method.
The Role of Scandal in American Politics

Scandals have long influenced American politics and fascinated the public, the media, and—to some extent—academics. The study of presidential scandals offers a unique opportunity to observe aspects of power that do not obviously exist at other times. Political scandals, defined as transgressions by public officeholders against existing norms or other standards, if exposed, may result in denunciation by some and damage to the reputations of these officeholders, possibly leading to further sanctions. For the most part, presidents have responded to scandals by cooperating with investigations or by repelling such investigations through a variety of means that fall under the heading of “stonewalling.” The third type of response that is introduced in this chapter, a “backfire,” consists of creating a counter-scandal designed to misdirect attention away from the original scandal in the hopes of deflecting or erasing any damage to a president or presidency.
Optimizing Telemedicine Technologic Infrastructure with Animal Models: A Case in Telecystoscopy

Background: Rapid evolution of telemedicine technology requires procedures in telemedicine to adapt frequently. An example in urology, telecystoscopy, allows certified advanced practice providers t...
Comorbid neuropathological diagnoses in early vs late-onset Alzheimer's disease

Copathologies play an important role in the expression of the AD clinical phenotype and may influence treatment efficacy. Early-onset AD (EOAD), defined as manifesting before age 65, has been viewed as a relatively pure form of AD with a more homogenous neuropathological substrate. We sought to compare the frequency of common neuropathological diagnoses in a consecutive autopsy series of 96 patients with EOAD (median age of onset = 55 years, 44 females) and 48 with late-onset AD (LOAD) (median age of onset = 73 years, 14 females). The UCSF Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank database was reviewed to identify patients with a primary pathological diagnosis of AD. Prevalence and stage of Lewy body disease (LBD), limbic age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), argyrophilic grain disease (AGD), hippocampal sclerosis (HS), cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), vascular brain injury (VBI) and aging-related tau astrogliopathy (ARTAG) were compared between the two cohorts. We found at least one non-AD pathological diagnosis in 98% of patients with EOAD (versus 100% of LOAD), and the number of comorbid diagnoses per patient was lower in EOAD than in LOAD (median=2 versus 3, Mann-Whitney Z=3.00, p=0.002). LBD and CAA were common in both EOAD and LOAD (CAA: 86% versus 79%, Fisher exact p=0.33; LBD: 49% versus 42%, p=0.48, respectively), although amygdala-predominant LBD was more commonly found in EOAD than LOAD (22% versus 6%, p=0.02). In contrast, LATE (35% versus 8%, p<0.001), HS (15% versus 3%, p=0.02), AGD (58% versus 41%, p=0.052), and VBI (65% versus 39%, p=0.004) were more common in LOAD than EOAD, respectively. The number of copathologies predicted worse cognitive performance at the time of death on MMSE (1.4 points/pathology (95%CI [-2.5, -0.2]) and Clinical Dementia Rating - Sum of Boxes (1.15 point/pathology, 95%CI [0.45, 1.84]), across the EOAD and the LOAD cohorts. Prevalence of at least one ApoE e4 allele was similar across the two cohorts (52%) and was associated with a greater number of copathologies (+0.42, 95%CI [0.01, 0.82], p=0.04), independent of age of symptom onset. Our findings suggest that non-AD pathological diagnoses play an important role in the clinical phenotype of EOAD with potentially significant implications for clinical practice and clinical trials design.
White Supremacy as an Existential Threat: A Response to Rita Floyd’s The Morality of Security: A Theory of Just Securitization

Rita Floyd’s The Morality of Security: A Theory of Just Securitization is an important and insightful book that delineates a theory of just securitization (modified from the jus ad bellum and jus in bello criteria in just war theory) involving three sets of principles governing the just initiation of securitization, just conduct of securitization, and just desecuritization. This book is a much- needed addition to the security studies and just war literature. Here, I apply Floyd’s just securitization theory (JST) to the threat posed by white supremacy to African Americans. I argue that white supremacy meets Floyd’s definition of an objective existential threat, potentially justifying the resort to securitization by African Americans. In Section 1, I argue that African Americans constitute a non-state group, before demonstrating in Section 2 that white supremacy poses an objective existential threat to this group, meeting the criterion of just cause in Floyd’s JST. In Section 3, I show that, given the failure of legal challenges and democratic processes to mitigate this threat, African Americans may be justified in resorting to extraordinary measures to combat the threat of white supremacy, including “whatever most reasonable persons would agree constitutes exceptional means and actions ... non-state state groups within states. securitization can take the form of secession, civil disobedience, acts of sabotage and resistance”. Applying Floyd’s JST to the threat of white supremacy demonstrates the value of her approach for thinking about securitization outside the traditional foci of security studies but, as I discuss in my conclusion, also reveals limitations in her theory, particularly in relation to the criterion of reasonable chance of success when applied to non-state groups resisting an unjust state.
Exploring an Unexamined Source of Racial Disparities in Juvenile Court Involvement: Unexcused Absenteeism Policies in U.S. Schools:

This two-part study explored whether discrimination encoded into U.S. school absenteeism policies leads to racially minoritized students being overrepresented in the juvenile court system. First, w...
Comparison of corticospinal tract integrity measures extracted from standard versus native space in chronic stroke.

Abstract Background Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) are measures derived from diffusion-weighted imaging that represent the integrity of the corticospinal tract (CST) after stroke. Some studies of the motor system after stroke extract FA and MD from native space while others extract from standard space making comparison across studies challenging. New method The purpose was to compare CST integrity measures extracted from standard versus native space in individuals with chronic stroke. Twenty-four individuals with stroke underwent diffusion-weighted imaging and motor impairment assessment. The spatial location of the CST was identified using four commonly utilized approaches; therefore, our results are applicable to a variety of approaches. Results FA extracted from standard space (FAstd) was significantly different from FA extracted from native space (FAnat) for all four approaches; FAstd was greater than FAnat for three approaches. The relationship between ipsilesional CST FA and UE FM was significant for all approaches and similar regardless of extraction space. MDstd was significantly different from MDnat for most approaches, however, the directionality of the differences was not consistent. Comparison with existing method(s) Our study shows that extraction space influences diffusion-based microstructural integrity values (FA and MD) of the CST in individuals with stroke, which is important when considering methods for aggregating CST integrity data across studies. The relationship between CST integrity and motor impairment appears to be robust to extraction space. Conclusions The differences we identified are important for comparing FA and MD values across studies that use different extraction space. Our results provide context for future meta-analyses of diffusion-based metrics of CST integrity in individuals with stroke.