cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Muscarinic receptor regulation of synaptic transmission in airway parasympathetic ganglia.

Muscarinic receptor regulation of synaptic transmission in guinea pig bronchial parasympathetic ganglia was evaluated with the use of intracellular recording of the intrinsic ganglion neurons. Methacholine (1 microM) decreased the amplitude of vagus nerve-stimulated fast excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSP) by 33 and 46% (at 0.8 and 8.0 Hz, respectively) but had no effect on the amplitude of the depolarizations evoked by a bath-applied nicotinic receptor agonist. Methoctramine (1 microM) inhibited methacholine9s effect on fEPSP but alone did not influence the magnitude of the fEPSP evoked by vagus nerve stimulation. Methacholine (10 microM) depolarized a subpopulation of neurons (approximately 4 mV), which was blocked by pirenzepine (0.1 microM). In other neurons, either no effect or a small (1-5 mV) hyperpolarization was noted. Cholinergic contractions of bronchial smooth muscle elicited by electrical field stimulation were potentiated by methoctramine to the same extent as those evoked by vagus nerve (preganglionic) stimulation. The data indicate that M2 receptor activation can lead to inhibition of presynaptic acetylcholine release and consequently a significant inhibition of synaptic transmission in bronchial parasympathetic ganglia. The physiological role of this neuromodulatory effect appears limited, however, when studied in the in vitro setting.
Research opportunities identified during the casualty analysis of the fishing vessel Arctic Rose

During the course of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center's analysis of the sinking of the fishing vessel Arctic Rose, a broad variety of stability issues were encountered that have not yet been addressed in the research community. The effect of freeboard on static and dynamic stability needs to be studied to ensure minimum reserve buoyancy and limit the effects of water on deck. The area of flooding stability, where a vessel's displacement, centers of gravity, and stability characteristics are constantly changing due to progressive flooding, needs to be further investigated. Time-domain analyses of progressive flooding in a seaway are needed, as are model tests of progressive flooding from the weather deck into interior spaces of a vessel. Additionally, a better understanding is needed of the behavior of the vessel between when the vessel capsizes due to loss of righting arm and sinks because flooding weight exceeds reserve buoyancy, and the attitude of a vessel as it falls through the water column to the ocean floor.
A hybrid 3D SEM reconstruction method optimized for complex geologic material surfaces

Reconstruction methods are widely used to extract three-dimensional information from scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. This paper presents a new hybrid reconstruction method that combines stereoscopic reconstruction with shape-from-shading calculations to generate highly-detailed elevation maps from SEM image pairs. The method makes use of an imaged glass sphere to determine the quantitative relationship between observed intensity and angles between the beam and surface normal, and the detector and surface normal. Two specific equations are derived to make use of image intensity information in creating the final elevation map. The equations are used together, one making use of intensities in the two images, the other making use of intensities within a single image. The method is specifically designed for SEM images captured with a single secondary electron detector, and is optimized to capture maximum detail from complex natural surfaces. The method is illustrated with a complex structured abrasive material, and a rough natural sand grain. Results show that the method is capable of capturing details such as angular surface features, varying surface roughness, and surface striations.
Estimating the Effects of Residential Mobility: A Methodological Note

ABSTRACTThis article reviews the methodological challenges of estimating a causal association between mobility and children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Utilizing a comprehensive set of empirical articles published in the past 25 years that employ quantitative methods, it describes the limitations of previous studies and the innovative ways that researchers have attempted to deal with them. The concept of mobility is inconsistently operationalized along four dimensions: school versus residential, distance, timing, and frequency. Imprecise operationalization conflates different forms of mobility, which have differential effects on development. Attempts to estimate a causal association between mobility and development suffer from three sources of bias: selection, contextual shifts, and contemporaneous instigating events. (a) Methods that account for unobserved differences between mobile and nonmobile children have consistently shown smaller or even positive effects of mobility. ...
On the Surface Heat of Charging

Calculation of the surface heat of charging for pure metals, for oxide coated metals and for monatomic films.\char22{}Two methods are pointed out for calculating the theoretically necessary reversible heat development or absorption accompanying the charging of the surface of a conductor. One method depends on a new relation ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{s1}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\eta}}_{s2}=kT\mathrm{ln}(\frac{{A}_{1}}{{A}_{2}})+\ensuremath{\epsilon}{P}_{21}$ between the surface heats, ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{s}$, of the two surfaces, the $A'\mathrm{s}$ of electron emission equations of the type $i=A{T}^{2}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{\ensuremath{-}\frac{b}{T}}$ and the Peltier heat at the interface between the conductors. The other method consists of a comparison of the cooling effect of electron emission and the latent heat calculated from the temperature variation of emission. Experimental evidence points to ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{s}=0$ (nearly), $A=60.2$ amps/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ ${\mathrm{deg}}^{2}$ (nearly) for all pure metals. Oxide coated filaments present a difficulty. For monatomic films the first method gives appreciable values of ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{s}$ and experimental data for use in the second method is lacking.
Lanthanide monopnictide nanoparticles within III-V semiconductors for photoconductive switches and other terahertz devices (Conference Presentation)

In recent years, there has been interest in lanthanide monopnictide (Ln-V) nanoparticles (especially ErAs) embedded within III-V semiconductors for photoconductive switches and photomixers for terahertz generation and detection. Photoconductive switches based on ErAs:GaAs have proven quite effective, especially when compared to conventional materials such as low temperature-grown GaAs (LT-GaAs) or radiation-damaged silicon on sapphire. At the same time, the ability to pump a photoconductive switch with 1064nm or 1550nm fiber-coupled lasers rather than titanium-sapphire lasers represents a critical step to wider adoption of terahertz spectroscopy and related technologies. Accordingly, we report on the growth and characterization of ErAs nanoparticles epitaxially embedded within GaBiXAs1-X. The incorporation of bismuth into III-V semiconductors has been shown to reduce the bandgap, and here, we demonstrate that such ErAs:GaBiAs nanocomposite materials have the requisite electrical and optical properties (i.e. appropriate bandgap, high dark resistance, high mobility, and short carrier lifetime) to be promising materials for photoconductive switches and photomixers operating at 1064nm and longer optical wavelengths. We will also discuss approaches to further extend this wavelength. Additionally, we will discuss our recent work on TbAs-containing materials in which the trap states associated with the nanoparticles can be saturated, providing carrier lifetimes that depend strongly on optical fluence. We believe these materials might provide a path to new terahertz device technologies.
Assessment of microRNA regulation of INCENP, KRT14, and KRT16 in lung cancer

5036 Background: MicroRNAs (miR) have been shown to play a role in regulation of genes important in carcinogenesis. INCENP plays an essential role for proper chromosome segregation and cytokinesis. KRT14 and KRT16 are overexpressed in some cancers, but not by microarray in lung cancer lines. Here we assess regulation of INCENP, KRT14, and KRT16 by miR-520e at the protein level in lung cancer lines. Methods: Baseline microarray gene expression and miR-520e expression guided cell line selection for validation experiments. Cells were transfected with miR-520e mimic and inhibitor. Western blotting (WB) for INCENP, KRT14, and KRT16 was performed. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was scored using H-scoring (scale 0-300; over 100 is expressed). "Correct" defines decrease in protein by mimic or increase in protein by inhibitor transfection; "incorrect" is the opposite result from that hypothesized; while "no change" defines no protein alteration. Results: By microarray, INCENP is 1 of the highest expressed genes, while KRT14 and KRT16 are 2 of the lowest expressed genes from 30 lung cancer lines. Baseline protein expression correlated with high or low microarray level, respectively, in 9 of 15 IHC stains and 11 of 15 WB. H157, Colo699, and H69 had low miR-520e levels, while H2122 and H358 had normal and high levels, respectively (Table). After mimic or inhibitor transfections, IHC staining was “correct” 5 of 30, “incorrect” 5 of 30, and “no change” in 20 of 30 possibilities. After mimic or inhibitor transfections in 23 available possibilities, WB was “correct” 8 of 23 and “no change” in 15 of 23 possibilities. Conclusions: WB appears to correlate better than IHC with microarray expression levels. For hypothesized miR regulation of protein, WB appears to correlate better than IHC. Imperfect results may be due to varying transfection efficiency and heterogeneity between cell lines. MiR-520e may play a role in lung cancer proliferation. Examination of clinically annotated patient samples may further define this miR’s role.
Application of paper spray ionization for explosives analysis

Rationale A desired feature in the analysis of explosives is to decrease the time of the entire analysis procedure, including sampling. A recently utilized ambient ionization technique, paper spray ionization (PSI), provides the possibility of combining sampling and ionization. However, an interesting phenomenon that occurs in generating negatively charged ions pose some challenges in applying PSI to explosives analysis. The goal of this work is to investigate the possible solutions for generating explosives ions in negative mode PSI. Methods The analysis of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), and 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) was performed. Several solvent systems with different surface tensions and additives were compared to determine their effect on the ionization of explosives. The solvents tested include tert-butanol, isopropanol, methanol, and acetonitrile. The additives tested were carbon tetrachloride and ammonium nitrate. Results Of the solvents tested, isopropanol yielded the best results. In addition, adding ammonium nitrate to the isopropanol enhanced the analyte signal. Experimentally determined limits of detection (LODs) as low as 0.06 ng for PETN, on paper, were observed with isopropanol and the addition of 0.4 mM ammonium nitrate as the spray solution. In addition, the explosive components of two plastic explosive samples, Composition 4 and Semtex, were successfully analyzed via surface sampling when using the developed method. Conclusions The analysis of explosives using PSI-MS in negative ion mode was achieved. The addition of ammonium nitrate to isopropanol, in general, enhanced the analyte signal and yielded better ionization stability. Real-world explosive samples were analyzed, which demonstrates one of the potential applications of PSI-MS analysis.
Abstract 349: Gene Regulatory Modules Regulate Cardiac Lineage Specification Revealed by Single-cell Rna Sequencing

Background: The molecular definition of the differentiation process is of intense interest for cardiovascular developmental biologists. With the advent of single cell technologies, a number of a tr...
Determinants of cholesterol screening and treatment patterns: Insights for decision-makers

Abstract Background: Adult cholesterol screening and treatment policies by the National Cholesterol Education Program recommend that physicians screen all adults aged ≥20. On the other hand, the American College of Physicians recommends that healthy young adult men aged >35 and premenopausal women aged >45 not be screened due to concerns about the cost of and health risks associated with overuse of pharmacologic therapy in lieu of lifestyle modification. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the type of treatment (lifestyle vs. pharmacologic) that physicians actually prescribe for individuals screened for elevated cholesterol. Methods: Self-report data were derived from the 1989–1990 cross-sectional survey of the Stanford Five-City Project on 1,883 Latino and Anglo men and women aged 20 to 74 years of age. A four-stage sequential design was conducted using multiple stepwise regression analyses with a significance cutpoint of P Results: Young adult men and women were significantly less likely to report ever having been screened (OR 1.02; 95% CI 1.07–1.09). Individuals of low socioeconomic status (SES) were also significantly less likely to report ever being screened (OR, 1.12; CI, 1.08–1.16), as were Latino men and women, regardless of age (OR 1.57; CI, 1.14–2.18). There were no significant differences in the pattern of physician care utilization among low SES or Latino individuals during the previous 12-month period. Among those under physician care to lower cholesterol, young adults were more likely to be prescribed lifestyle modification (OR, 0.95; CI, 0.92–0.98). Conclusions: Our results suggest that although young adults are less likely to be screened, if screened they are more likely to be prescribed lifestyle modification than pharmacologic treatment for elevated cholesterol. The lower prevalence of screening among low SES and Latino individuals suggests the need for policy discussions to reduce these disparities.
Individual-Specific Repertoires of Immune Cells SRCR Receptors in the Purple Sea Urchin (S. Purpuratus)

Invertebrates comprise the vast majority of contemporary animal species, yet their immune system been poorly characterized, especially at the molecular level (Klein, 1995). Nevertheless, invertebrates possess elaborate mechanisms to identify and eliminate life-threatening pathogens (reviews by: Smith and Davidson, 1992; Sima, 1993; Smith and Davidson, 1994; Hoffmann et al., 1996; Medzhitov and Janeway, 1998). While the evolutionary elaboration of anti-pathogen responses in a hostile environment seems inevitable, the evolution of invertebrate and vertebrate individuality determining systems presents an evolutionary enigma. A basic function of the vertebrate immune system is to maintain a representative “image” of the cells and molecules of which individuals consist, and to mediate in the conflict between cooperation and competition among individual cells. The development and elaboration of such molecular and cellular surveillance systems might have accompanied the emergence of multicellular animals, along with the evolution of higher levels of molecular and cellular complexity.
Person-Environment Fit, Substance Use Attitudes, and Early Adolescent Substance Use.

Background: Adolescent substance use is a national health concern. While the literature is clear on the prevalence of substance use during the adolescent developmental period, a dearth of literatur...
Particula: A simulator tool for computational rock physics of granular media

ABSTRACTGranular dynamics simulations provide insights to the contact-scale physics of loose sediments. However, simulations using identical spherical grains do not reflect characteristics observed...
RFID for Everyone: Design of an Easily-Accessible, Experimental UHF RFID Platform

This paper presents an expandable wireless sensing platform designed to exhibit similar functionality to high-performing RFID devices such as the Intel WiSP while remaining accessible as a learning tool. Towards this end, the platform is designed around components that are stocked by most component suppliers, and physically large enough to be soldered by hand. With an aim to bring more researchers into the RFID community, the system allows for a user to quickly perform wireless power transfer experiments, design and test low-power embedded firmware, quickly prototype backscatter communication protocols, and design fully-functional battery-free sensors. The platform runs a 16-bit MSP430 microcontroller and receives all power from a 915 MHz CW source. It has a measured sensitivity of −6 dBm where sufficient voltage (1.8 V) is harvested to turn on the MSP430 microcontroller. The reader for this system is a custom design that transmits a CW signal and allows output data to be easily seen with an oscilloscope.To showcase the effectiveness of the system, a battery-free sensor designed by a group of undergraduate students with no prior RFID experience is presented. The sensor is capable of wirelessly telemetering luminance.
Examining DACA Students’ Financial Experiences in College:

This study aims to gain a greater understanding of the financial experiences of students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status enrolled in college. The study uses a data set that...
Comment on "Observation of optical precursors in water".

A Comment on the Letter by Seung-Ho Choi and U. \"Osterberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 193903 (2004).
The new ETF Rule: Rethinking intraday indicative values

Abstract Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) currently disseminate Intraday Indicative Values (IIVs) every 15 seconds. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has removed this requirement in its recently adopted ETF rule, citing several accuracy problems with the measure. While retail investors might be left in the dark as a result, a more optimistic view would be to use the occasion to devise an improved “2.0 version” of IIVs. In that vein, this paper examines the possibility of reducing staleness by using prices based on midpoint quotes instead of last trades. The differences are quantified with an extensive set of daily ETF portfolios.
Mechanics of crack path selection in microtransfer printing: Challenges and opportunities for process control

Abstract Microtransfer printing is a manufacturing technique that relies on controlled selective delamination between two interfaces to transfer thin solid films and chips. Stamps in these processes are often designed to leverage strategies that modify the interfacial stress distribution at the stamp interface to achieve a specific adhesion response, however the effect of a modified stress distribution at the stamp interface on crack path selection between the two interfaces in the system is unclear. This paper investigates how the stress distribution beneath the stamp can affect the delamination path between the two interfaces in a microtransfer printing process using mechanics modeling. In general, altering the stress distribution at the stamp/chip interface also alters the stress distribution at the chip/substrate interface. For a sufficiently thin chip with no or small initial defects at the interfaces, the common approach of tuning adhesion by reducing the strength of stress singularity near the edge of the stamp does not provide a robust route to control the delamination path. An alternative stamp design strategy, guided by the singularity order of the stress distribution, is proposed and analyzed. In the proposed stamp design, the delamination path can be controlled through the stamp thickness and the application of a shear displacement. This work provides a fundamental understanding of the mechanics of the microtransfer printing process as well as guidance for designing successful microtransfer printing processes.
Examining motivational pathways from adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms to cannabis use: Results from a prospective study of veterans.

Objective: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is linked prospectively to cannabis; however, no study has examined mechanisms underlying this comorbidity. We examined 5 cannabis motives (i.e., coping with negative affect, sleep, social anxiety, perceived low risk of cannabis, and altered perception) as mediators of the prospective ADHD-cannabis relation. Method: Veterans reporting lifetime cannabis use (N = 361; 93% male; 80% White) completed three semiannual assessments. Prospective mediation models using structural equation modeling analyzed the indirect effects of baseline ADHD symptoms on 12-month cannabis use and problems via each motive at 6 months. Zero-inflated negative binomial models were employed for both manifest outcomes and ADHD symptoms and motives were each modeled as 1-factor latent variables. Results: Sleep motives was a robust mediator for cannabis use frequency in single mediator models and was marginally significant when examined simultaneously with other motives after accounting for baseline cannabis use, demographics, other substance use, and other psychopathology. Coping with negative affect was the only significant mediator of ADHD symptoms and subsequent cannabis problem severity. Conclusion: Among veterans with ADHD symptoms, sleep disturbance is a salient motive for cannabis use, whereas coping with negative affect is a proximal predictor of cannabis problems. Findings support addressing sleep disturbance in adults with ADHD symptoms and converge with extant literature demonstrating robust associations between coping motives and substance use problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Stacking weak lensing signals of SZ clusters to constrain cluster physics

We show how to place constraints on cluster physics by stacking the weak lensing signals from multiple clusters found through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect. For a survey that covers about 200 sq. deg. both in SZ and weak lensing observations, the slope and amplitude of the mass vs. SZ luminosity relation can be measured with few percent error for clusters at z~0.5. This can be used to constrain cluster physics, such as the nature of feedback. For example, we can distinguish a pre-heated model from a model with a decreased accretion rate at more than 5sigma. The power to discriminate among different non-gravitational processes in the ICM becomes even stronger if we use the central Compton parameter y_0, which could allow one to distinguish between models with pre-heating, SN feedback and AGN feedback, for example, at more than 5sigma. Measurement of these scaling relations as a function of redshift makes it possible to directly observe e.g., the evolution of the hot gas in clusters. With this approach the mass-L_SZ relation can be calibrated and its uncertainties can be quantified, leading to a more robust determination of cosmological parameters from clusters surveys. The mass-L_SZ relation calibrated in this way from a small area of the sky can be used to determine masses of SZ clusters from very large SZ-only surveys and is nicely complementary to other techniques proposed in the literature.
Margin-aware unsupervised domain adaptation for cross-lingual text labeling

Unsupervised domain adaptation addresses the problem of leveraging labeled data in a source domain to learn a well-performing model in a target domain where labels are unavailable. In this paper, we improve upon a recent theoretical work (Zhang et al., 2019b) and adopt the Margin Disparity Discrepancy (MDD) unsupervised domain adaptation algorithm to solve the cross-lingual text labeling problems. Experiments on cross-lingual document classification and NER demonstrate the proposed domain adaptation approach advances the state-of-the-art results by a large margin. Specifically, we improve MDD by efficiently optimizing the margin loss on the source domain via Virtual Adversarial Training (VAT). This bridges the gap between theory and the loss function used in the original work Zhang et al.(2019b), and thereby significantly boosts the performance. Our numerical results also indicate that VAT can remarkably improve the generalization performance of both domains for various domain adaptation approaches.
Not additive, not defined: mutual constitution in feminist intersectional studies:

The term ‘mutual constitution’ appears with regularity in scholarship on intersectionality, but what does it mean? We could not easily answer this question in the usual way – by reading books and a...
Systematic review of charged-particle therapy for chordomas and sarcomas of the mobile spine and sacrum.

Objective Long-term local control in patients with primary chordoma and sarcoma of the spine and sacrum is increasingly reliant upon en bloc resection with negative margins. At many institutions, adjuvant radiation is recommended; definitive radiation is also recommended for the treatment of unresectable tumors. Because of the high off-target radiation toxicities associated with conventional radiotherapy, there has been growing interest in the use of proton and heavy-ion therapies. The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature regarding these therapies. Methods The PubMed, OVID, Embase, and Web of Science databases were queried for articles describing the use of proton, combined proton/photon, or heavy-ion therapies for adjuvant or definitive radiotherapy in patients with primary sarcoma or chordoma of the mobile spine and sacrum. A qualitative synthesis of the results was performed, focusing on overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and disease-specific survival (DSS); local control; and postradiation toxicities. Results Of 595 unique articles, 64 underwent full-text screening and 38 were included in the final synthesis. All studies were level III or IV evidence with a high risk of bias; there was also significant overlap in the reported populations, with six centers accounting for roughly three-fourths of all reports. Five-year therapy outcomes were as follows: proton-only therapies, OS 67%-82%, PFS 31%-57%, and DFS 52%-62%; metastases occurred in 17%-18% and acute toxicities in 3%-100% of cases; combined proton/photon therapy, local control 62%-85%, OS 78%-87%, PFS 90%, and DFS 61%-72%; metastases occurred in 12%-14% and acute toxicities in 84%-100% of cases; and carbon ion therapy, local control 53%-100%, OS 52%-86%, PFS (only reported for 3 years) 48%-76%, and DFS 50%-53%; metastases occurred in 2%-39% and acute toxicities in 26%-48%. There were no studies directly comparing outcomes between photon and charged-particle therapies or comparing outcomes between radiation and surgical groups. Conclusions The current evidence for charged-particle therapies in the management of sarcomas of the spine and sacrum is limited. Preliminary evidence suggests that with these therapies local control and OS at 5 years are comparable among various charged-particle options and may be similar between those treated with definitive charged-particle therapy and historical surgical cohorts. Further research directly comparing charged-particle and photon-based therapies is necessary.
Outpatient Foley catheter induction protocol provides clinical and cost benefits.

BACKGROUND Obstetric induction procedures are expensive, and little is known of the specific difference in cost between inpatient and outpatient protocols for these procedures. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to examine the difference in health care costs, maternal and neonatal morbidity, and cesarean birth rates for inpatient versus outpatient Foley induction protocols. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a retrospective study using deliveries from 2013 to 2015 that received an outpatient or inpatient Foley catheter induction. Inductions were matched by race, parity, and maternal age. We used univariate and multivariate logistic regression to test the association between type of induction, length of stay, and cost. Maternal and neonatal factors and cesarean rates were also considered. RESULTS A total of 163 outpatient Foley inductions were matched 1:1 to inpatient inductions. Outpatient inductions were more likely to have a shorter length of hospitalization from admission to discharge (a 7.17-hour difference, 95% CI, 71.00, 77.59) and lower costs of hospitalization ($408 per patient, 95% CI, 4305, 4714). In the univariate analysis, there was no difference in rate of cesarean birth (OR 0.95, 95% CI, 0.61, 1.48). However, in the multivariate analysis, there was a decreased rate of cesarean for outpatient inductions (OR 0.5, 95% CI, 0.26, 0.97). CONCLUSIONS Outpatient Foley catheter induction appears to be a safe, cost-effective method for induction of labor. Generating protocols allowing patients to receive quality care in an outpatient setting is increasingly important in current health care environments.
Fast and Accurate Ophthalmic Medication Bottle Identification Using Deep Learning on a Smartphone Device.

Purpose To assess the accuracy and efficacy of deep learning models, specifically convolutional neural networks (CNNs), to identify glaucoma medication bottles. Design Algorithm development for predicting ophthalmic medication bottles using a large mobile image-based dataset. Participants A total of 3750 mobile images of 5 ophthalmic medication bottles were included: brimonidine tartrate, dorzolamide-timolol, latanoprost, prednisolone acetate, and moxifloxacin. Methods Seven CNN models were initially pretrained on a large-scale image database and subsequently retrained to classify 5 commonly prescribed topical ophthalmic medications using a training dataset of 2250 mobile-phone captured images. The retrained CNN models’ accuracies were compared using k-fold cross-validation (k = 10). The top 2 performing CNN models were then embedded into separate iOS apps and evaluated using 1500 mobile images not included in the training dataset. Main Outcome Measures Prediction accuracy, image processing time. Results Of the 7 CNN architectures, MobileNet v2 yielded the highest k-fold cross-validation accuracy of 0.974 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.966–0.980) and the shortest average image processing time at 3.45 (95% CI, 3.13–3.77) sec/image. ResNet V2 had the second highest accuracy of 0.961 (95% CI, 0.952–0.969). When the 2 app-embedded CNNs were compared, in terms of accuracy, MobileNet V2, with an image prediction accuracy of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.84–0.88), was significantly greater than ResNet V2, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.66–0.71) ( Table 1 ). Sensitivities and specificities varied between medications ( Table 1 ). There was no significant difference in average imaging processing time, 0.32 (95% CI, 0.28–0.36) sec/image and 0.31 (95% CI, 0.29–0.33) sec/image for MobileNet V2 and ResNet V2, respectively. Information on beta-testing of the iOS app can be found here: https://lin.hs.uci.edu/research/ . Conclusions We have retrained MobileNet V2 to accurately identify ophthalmic medication bottles and demonstrated that this neural network can operate in a smartphone environment. This work serves as a proof-of-concept for the production of a CNN-based smartphone application to empower patients by decreasing risk for error.
Elevated Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage in Cortical Neurons of Chemotherapy Patients.

The unintended neurologic sequelae of chemotherapy contribute to significant patient morbidity. Chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is observed in up to 80% of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy and involves multiple cognitive domains including executive functioning. The pathophysiology underlying CRCI and the neurotoxicity of chemotherapy is incompletely understood, but oxidative stress and DNA damage are highly plausible mechanisms based on preclinical data. Unfortunately, validating pathways relevant to CRCI in humans is limited by an absence of relevant neuropathologic studies of patient brain tissue. In the present study, we stained sections of frontal lobe autopsy tissue from cancer patients treated with chemotherapy (n = 15), cancer patients not treated with chemotherapy (n = 10), and patients without history of cancer (n = 10) for markers of oxidative stress (nitrotyrosine, 4-hydroxynonenal) and DNA damage (pH2AX, pATM). Cancer patients treated with chemotherapy had increased staining for markers of oxidative stress and DNA damage in frontal lobe cortical neurons compared to controls. We detected no statistically significant difference in oxidative stress and DNA damage by the duration between last administration of chemotherapy and death. The study highlights the potential relevance of oxidative stress and DNA damage in the pathophysiology of CRCI and the neurotoxicity of chemotherapy.
OMVPE regrowth of CH 3 I-vapor-etched GaAs

In experiments on the interrupted growth of GaAs by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE), we have compared the properties of two types of epilayers: those grown on CH3I-vapor-etched first epilayers and those grown on first epilayers that were either untreated or etched with H2SO4. The OMVPE growth and CH3I etching were performed in two different reactors, and each sample was briefly exposed to air immediately before being placed in the OMVPE reactor for growth of the second epilayer. For CH3I etch temperatures below 500° C, the two types of second epilayers are comparable in surface morphology, as characterized by Nomarski interference microscopy, and in optical quality, as characterized by low-temperature photoluminescence measurements. Electrical characterization by C-V depth profiling shows that electron accumulation at the regrowth interface is increased very little by CH3I etching. Such etching prior to regrowth eliminates most of the electron accumulation resulting from H2SO4 etching of the first epilayer.
Cloudopsy: An Autopsy of Data Flows in the Cloud

Despite the apparent advantages of cloud computing, the fear of unauthorized exposure of sensitive user data [3,4,8,13] and non-compliance to privacy restrictions impedes its adoption for security-sensitive tasks. For the common setting in which the cloud infrastructure provider and the online service provider are different, end users have to trust the efforts of both of these parties for properly handling their private data as intended. To address this challenge, in this work, we take a step towards elevating the confidence of users for the safety of their cloud-resident data by introducing Cloudopsy, a service with the goal to provide a visual autopsy of the exchange of user data in the cloud premises. Cloudopsy offers a user-friendly interface to the customers of the cloud-hosted services to independently monitor and get a better understanding of the handling of their cloud-resident sensitive data by the third-party cloud-hosted services. While the framework is targeted mostly towards the end users, Cloudopsy provides also the service providers with an additional layer of protection against illegitimate data flows, e.g., inadvertent data leaks, by offering a graphical more meaningful representation of the overall service dependencies and the relationships with third-parties outside the cloud premises, as they derive from the collected audit logs. The novelty of Cloudopsy lies in the fact that it leverages the power of visualization when presenting the final audit information to the end users (and the service providers), which adds significant benefits to the understanding of rich but ever-increasing audit trails. One of the most obvious benefits of the resulting visualization is the ability to better understand ongoing events, detect anomalies, and reduce decision latency, which can be particularly valuable in real-time environments.
Fatigue Growth of Initially Physically Short Cracks in Notched Aluminum and Steel Plates

Much of the fatigue life of engineering structures is spent initiating cracks at a notch and propagating one (or more) of these cracks into and through the notch stress field. Experimental results and empirical analysis suggest that early in this process the physically small crack sometimes propagates in a manner inconsistent with analysis based on linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). Available empirical adjustments for this apparent aberration postulate that the data can be made consistent with LEFM by the addition of a constant, with length dimensions, to the current crack length, resulting in a pseudo-crack. The present paper introduces and analyzes an extensive data set pertinent to this so-called short-crack problem. Included are results for notched plates made from two aluminum alloys and a steel. These plates, which contain either circular or one of two different elliptical notches, have been tested under load or displacement control and encompass both confined flow and gross-section yield. Results for crack lengths as small as 20 μm (0.0008 in.) are reported. Data presented and analyzed do indeed show trends which differ from those of LEFM analysis of so-called long cracks. More significantly, they show that the so-called short-crack behavior does not occur only for physically short cracks. Results presented indicate that cracks as large as 2.5 mm (0.1 in.) in the aluminum alloys and 1.25 cm (0.5 in.) in the steel also exhibit aberrations in their behavior as compared with longer-crack trends. Also, the results presented suggest that the data cannot be made consistent with the LEFM trend through the addition of a constant pseudo-crack length to the current crack size as has been suggested in one of the currently popular empirical models. It is postulated that the aberrations observed are a consequence of the failure of the LEFM-based analyses to recognize that crack growth in the plastic field of the notch is dominantly displacement-controlled local to the crack tip. Other relevant aspects of the problem are also discussed.
Subjective Ratings of Fatigue and Vigor in Adults With Hearing Loss Are Driven by Perceived Hearing Difficulties Not Degree of Hearing Loss.

Objectives Anecdotal reports and qualitative research suggests that fatigue is a common, but often overlooked, accompaniment of hearing loss which negatively affects quality of life. However, systematic research examining the relationship between hearing loss and fatigue is limited. In this study, the authors examined relationships between hearing loss and various domains of fatigue and vigor using standardized and validated measures. Relationships between subjective ratings of multidimensional fatigue and vigor and the social and emotional consequences of hearing loss were also explored. Design Subjective ratings of fatigue and vigor were assessed using the profile of mood states and the multidimensional fatigue symptom inventory-short form. To assess the social and emotional impact of hearing loss participants also completed, depending on their age, the hearing handicap inventory for the elderly or adults. Responses were obtained from 149 adults (mean age = 66.1 years, range 22 to 94 years), who had scheduled a hearing test and/or a hearing aid selection at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center Audiology clinic. These data were used to explore relationships between audiometric and demographic (i.e., age and gender) factors, fatigue, and hearing handicap scores. Results Compared with normative data, adults seeking help for their hearing difficulties in this study reported significantly less vigor and more fatigue. Reports of severe vigor/fatigue problems (ratings exceeding normative means by ±1.5 standard deviations) were also increased in the study sample compared with that of normative data. Regression analyses, with adjustments for age and gender, revealed that the subjective percepts of fatigue, regardless of domain, and vigor were not strongly associated with degree of hearing loss. However, similar analyses controlling for age, gender, and degree of hearing loss showed a strong association between measures of fatigue and vigor (multidimensional fatigue symptom inventory-short form scores) and the social and emotional consequences of hearing loss (hearing handicap inventory for the elderly/adults scores). Conclusions Adults seeking help for hearing difficulties are more likely to experience severe fatigue and vigor problems; surprisingly, this increased risk appears unrelated to degree of hearing loss. However, the negative psychosocial consequences of hearing loss are strongly associated with subjective ratings of fatigue, across all domains, and vigor. Additional research is needed to define the pathogenesis of hearing loss-related fatigue and to identify factors that may modulate and mediate (e.g., hearing aid or cochlear implant use) its impact.
Human Relations in Industry

"EIGHT HOURS TO WORK, eight hours to sleep, eight hours to be a human being (Mensch sein)," was the slogan under which Ernst Abbe introduced the eight-hour-day in the Zeiss Optical Factory in Jena, Germany in 1900.1 Abbe, the founder of the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Foundation), was a social reformer and philanthropist. He recognized early the fact that, even under very favorable social and working conditions like those established at his factory, the working man was still mostly a worker, very little a man, a human being. Even highly qualified work of mechanical precision had to undergo more and more the specialization process of division of labor and mechanization. To be a human being was considered by Ernst Abbe as a rightful demand of the industrial worker; but, at his time, he believed its realization possible only outside working hours. Human relations in industry have undergone three important changes in the last hundred years: (1) No separation between being a worker and being a human being in the traditional workshop where co-operation between master, journeyman and apprentice was the rule; (2) Purposive separation between being a worker and being a man under the conditions of mechanization and bureaucratization of industry; (3) Recognition of the worker as being a whole human personality whose rights and desires during working hours and outside have to be taken into consideration. Ernst Abbe, standing on the threshold between the first and second stages of this development, made an attempt at an individual solution of human relations in his own factory. Karl Mannheim designed a scheme for the purposive transition from the second to the third stage within the framework of planning social changes in our contemporary society. In the original optical workshop, founded in 1846, the relationship between Carl Zeiss and his fellow-workers had been the traditional one: he had worked and lived with them; no separation between being a worker and being a man. What Max Weber calls the "traditional domination" was based on the "everyday belief in the sacredness of traditions that have 1 See Ernst Abbe, Sozielpolitiscbe Sc/riften, Jena, 1906, p. 231; 1Hilda Weiss, Abbe ""d Ford, Berlin 1927, p. 13.
Reexamining the Quantum–Classical Relation: Semiclassical mechanics: Putting quantum flesh on classical bones

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't. Shakespeare , Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2 Introduction Semiclassical mechanics can be broadly understood as the theoretical and experimental study of the interconnections between classical and quantum mechanics. More narrowly, it is a field that uses classical quantities to investigate, calculate, and even explain quantum phenomena. Its methods involve an unorthodox blending of quantum and classical ideas, such as a classical trajectory with an associated quantum phase. For these reasons, semiclassical mechanics is often referred to as “putting quantum flesh on classical bones,” where classical mechanics provides the skeletal framework on which quantum quantities are constructed. There are three primary motivations for semiclassical mechanics: First, in many systems of physical interest, a full quantum calculation is cumbersome or even unfeasible. Second, even when a full quantum calculation is within reach, semiclassical methods can often provide intuitive physical insight into a problem, when the quantum solutions are opaque. And, third, semiclassical investigations can lead to the discovery of new physical phenomena that have been overlooked by fully quantum-mechanical approaches. Semiclassical methods are ideally suited for studying physics in the so-called mesoscopic regime, which can roughly be understood as the domain between the classically described macro-world and the quantum mechanically described micro-world. An area in which semiclassical studies have proven to be particularly fruitful is in the subfield of quantum chaos.
A theoretical study of internet congestion control: equilibrium and dynamics

In the last several years, significant progress has been made in modelling the Internet congestion control using theories from convex optimization and feedback control. In this dissertation, the equilibrium and dynamics of various congestion control schemes are rigorously studied using these mathematical frameworks. First, we study the dynamics of TCP/AQM systems. We demonstrate that the dynamics of queue and average window in Reno/RED networks are determined predominantly by the protocol stability, not by AIMD probing nor noise traffic. Our study shows that Reno/RED becomes unstable when delay increases and more strikingly, when link capacity increases. Therefore, TCP Reno is ill suited for the future high-speed network, which has motivated the design of FAST TCP. Using a continuous-time model, we prove that FAST TCP is globally stable without feedback delays and provide a sufficient condition for local stability when feedback delays are present. We also introduce a discrete-time model for FAST TCP that fully captures the effect of self-clocking and derive the local stability condition for general networks with feedback delays. Second, the equilibrium properties (i.e., fairness, throughput, and capacity) of TCP/AQM systems are studied using the utility maximization framework. We quantitatively capture the variations in network throughput with changes in link capacity and allocation fairness. We clarify the open conjecture of whether a fairer allocation is always more efficient. The effects of changes in routing are studied using a joint optimization problem over both source rates and their routes. We investigate whether minimal-cost routing with proper link costs can solve this joint optimization problem in a distributed way. We also identify the tradeoff between achievable utility and routing stability. At the end, two other related projects are briefly described.