cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Interventions for Academic Problems

The interventions in this chapter are designed to enhance academic skills in the areas of reading, written language, spelling, math, and organization skills. Many students with behavior problems also exhibit low academic skills and poor academic performance—either because their behavior has interfered with the learning of new skills, because they have learning disabilities, or both. Without basic academic skills, these students are destined for failure. Early identification of students who are at-risk for academic difficulties and behavioral problems and providing strategic intervention to address these problems is particularly important in helping them to achieve a successful school outcome.
Instrument Variable Methods for Studying Models of Economic Time Series

Abstract This paper considers instrumental variables methods for studying linear models-of economic time series. The instrumental variables used in estimating parameters are assumed to be uncorrelated with the disturbance vector but are not restricted to be strictly exogenous. A greatest lower bound on the asymptotic covariance matrices of a family of instrumental variables estimators is derived and characterized. This bound is then compared to bounds derived previously in both the econometrics literature and the engineering literature.
Cyclical blood flow restriction resistance exercise: a potential parallel to remote ischemic preconditioning?

Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) is characterized by the cyclical application of limb blood flow restriction and reperfusion and has been shown to protect vital organs during a subsequent isc...
In vivo characterization of the murine venous system before and during dobutamine stimulation: implications for preclinical models of venous disease.

Although widely used as a preclinical model for studying venous diseases, there is a scarcity of in vivo characterizations of the naive murine venous system. Additionally, previous studies on naive veins (ex vivo) have not included the influence of surrounding structures and biomechanical forces. Using MRI, we noninvasively quantified the cross-sectional area, cyclic strain, and circularity of the venous system in young and old, male and female C57BL/6 mice. We investigated the most common venous locations used to perform venous disease research: the common jugular vein, suprarenal inferior vena cava (IVC), infrarenal IVC, common iliac vein, and common femoral vein. Our results elucidate age-dependent changes in venous cross-sectional area, which varied by location. Maximum cyclic strain, a parameter of lumen expansion, showed 10% change across the cardiac cycle, approximately half the magnitude of arteries. Veins demonstrated noncircular shapes, particularly in the core vasculature. The cardiovascular stressor dobutamine had only a small impact on the venous system. Also, our data demonstrate that the peripheral veins tend to decrease in cross-sectional area and circularity with age. Conversely, the IVC tends to increase in size and circularity with age, with males exhibiting larger variability in response to dobutamine compared to females. This work provides a foundation for drawing age and sex comparisons in disease models, and represents the first in vivo characterization of the murine venous system at rest and during the application of a pharmacological exercise surrogate.
Aggregation of Aβ(17–36) in the Presence of Naturally Occurring Phenolic Inhibitors Using Coarse-Grained Simulations

Although some naturally occurring polyphenols have been found to inhibit amyloid β (Aβ) fibril formation and reduce neuron cell toxicity in vitro, their exact inhibitory mechanism is unknown. In this work, discontinuous molecular dynamics combined with the PRIME20 force field and a newly built inhibitor model are performed to examine the effect of vanillin, resveratrol, curcumin, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on the aggregation of Aβ(17-36) peptides. Four sets of peptide/inhibitor simulations are performed in which inhibitors (1) bind to Aβ(17-36) monomer (2) interfere with Aβ(17-36) oligomerization (3) disrupt a pre-formed Aβ(17-36) protofilament, and (4) prevent the growth of Aβ(17-36) protofilament. The single-ring compound, vanillin, slightly slows down but cannot inhibit the formation of a U-shaped Aβ(17-36) protofilament. The multiple-ring compounds, EGCG, resveratrol, and curcumin, redirect Aβ(17-36) from a fibrillar aggregate to an unstructured oligomer. The three aromatic groups of the EGCG molecule are in a stereo (nonplanar) configuration, helping it contact the N-terminal, middle, and C-terminal regions of the peptide. Resveratrol and curcumin bind only to the hydrophobic residues near peptide termini. The rank order of inhibitory effectiveness of Aβ(17-36) aggregation is as follows: EGCG > resveratrol > curcumin > vanillin, consistent with experimental findings on inhibiting full-length Aβ fibrillation. Furthermore, we learn that the inhibition effect of EGCG is specific to the peptide sequence, while those of resveratrol and curcumin are non-specific in that they stem from strong interference with hydrophobic side-chain association, regardless of the residues' location and peptide sequence. Our studies provide molecular-level insights into how polyphenols inhibit Aβ fibril formation, knowledge that could be useful for designing amyloid inhibitors.
String Vibrato: Research Related to Performance and Perception

This article presents a summary of our presentation that was invited by the Research Committee of ASTA and given at the 2009 ASTA National Conference in Atlanta. In this article we describe and discuss previous and current research studies concerning string vibrato performance and listeners’ perception of vibrato. Topics addressing performance aspects of vibrato include rates and widths, pitch center, initial direction, and continuity during slurs. Investigations that have used various approaches to determine the perceived pitch center of string vibrato are also summarized. We present suggestions for further investigation of vibrato in both the study of listener perception and performance practice and discuss pedagogical applications of research findings.
Vasoactive Drugs in Acute Care

Cardiovascular dysfunction is a common feature of pediatric critical illness. Infants and children with congenital or with acquired cardiovascular diseases may exhibit compromised hemodynamics that require careful consideration when deciding which medications to select or combine. Vasoactive drugs are a cornerstone in the therapy of medical or post-operative patients with cardiovascular dysfunction. This chapter provides an overview of the most commonly used vasoactive drugs.
Informativeness of operations on Z-numbers

Abstract The concept of a Z-number has a potential for many applications, especially in the realms of computation with probabilities and events described in natural language (NL). Of particular importance are applications in economics, decision analysis, risk assessment, prediction, anticipation, planning biomedicine and rule-based manipulation of imprecise functions and relations. The main critical problems that naturally arises in processing Z-information is informativeness of computation and reasoning with Z-information. An importance of informativeness issue for dealing with Z-numbers was first mentioned by Prof. L. Zadeh. Z-number is informative if its value has high specificity and same time arises a question what level of informativeness of a resulting Z-number sufficient for intelligent decision making. The existing literature devoted informativeness of computation with Z-numbers is quite scarce. All the existing works on computation of Z-numbers are characterized by increasing of entropy. In particular, these approaches are not able to account for informativeness of computation results. This study presents some results of investigations on informativeness of Z-number calculus by using concept of specificity and concept of horizontal membership functions. We propose a strategy for optimizing informativeness of Z-number operations with desired degree of specificity. Comparative analysis of different measures of specificity of Z-numbers is given. Validity of the proposed approach is illustrated in examples.
Evolution, Biolegal History, and the Deep Structure of Law

In this talk, I will discuss the role that evolutionary theory (and, in particular, the concept of a natural function) can play in contributing to what Owen Jones has dubbed "Biolegal History.” After setting out a general description of this project, and a number of theoretical desiderata that it should presumably meet, I will outline some of my own work, which aims to identify the structural features of the attitudes that breathe life into our legal practices, and give rise to our sense of legal obligation. In the process, I will pay some attention to integrating recent work by a number of other theorists (e.g., Jones, Kurzban, Robinson, Mikhail, and Guttentag) into this general account. On the descriptive side, this work should -- in my view -- be understood as posing a distinctive and underappreciated challenge to the psychological views commonly espoused by most economists (including most behavioral economists). I will, however, also discuss a very different problem that arises in this literature, concerning the appropriate way to picture the relationship between moral and legal obligations. In my view, this relationship has been misconstrued not only by economists but also by most moral and legal philosophers. I will explain why I think this problem arises so robustly, propose a way of resolving it, and then trace out a number of important normative consequences that should follow.
Abstract 16364: Physician Documentation Behaviors in Electronic Health Records as a Potential Source of Noise for Early Detection of Heart Failure

Introduction: Electronic health records (EHRs) are a potentially rich source of data for developing predictive models for early detection of heart failure (HF). But, EHR documentation can vary both...
Ivy League Experience: Increasing Care, Increasing Engagement.

The purpose of this personal narrative is to document initiatives that were designed and implemented to increase engagement and inclusivity for international students. The university campus of focus is a historically elite institution that enrolls one out of five international undergraduate students when compared to domestic peers. Initiatives focused on welcome events (i.e., orientation, campus tours, student panels) were implemented along with initiatives focused on student mental health and student wellness. Successful initiatives utilized campus resources such as university crisis and alert teams in addition to campus resources focused on counseling and student health.
Class-Wide Curricular Modification To Improve the Behavior of Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders.

We examined the effects of class-wide curricular modification on the engagement and challenging behaviors of students enrolled in a self-contained science class. Participants were six students between the ages of 13 and 14, all with labels of severe emotional disturbance in addition to a variety of other diagnoses. Class-wide curricular modifications consisted of providing opportunities for choice making and ensuring that activities were of high interest to students. Findings showed that the curricular modifications resulted in increased levels of engagement and decreased levels of problem behaviors. Results are discussed in the context of system-level behavior support within the school setting.
9.40 Impacts of Humans on River Fluxes and Morphology

Humans influenced rivers by changing land-use in drainage basins, by engineering and by climate change. Deforestation and land-use change have increased sediment loads 4–6 times in sensitive basins. 65% of the world's rivers biodiversity is under threat due to altered nutrient and trace element fluxes. Over 40% of global river discharge is intercepted by large reservoirs (≥0.5 km 3 ), trapping 26% of the sediment. Embankments cause fast incision, decrease of sinuosity and superelevation of the channelbelt. Minor flood risks are lessened, but dam breaks or levee breaches caused 52 major floods over the last 23 years. Pristine Arctic rivers show ∼10% discharge increase over 1977–2007.
Second Space: A Generative Model For The Blogosphere

Web graphs have been very useful in the structural and statistical analysis of the web. Various models have been proposed to simulate web graphs that generate degree distributions similar to the web. Real world blog networks resemble many properties of web graphs. But the dynamic nature of the blogosphere and the link structure evolving due to blog readership and social interactions is not well expressed by the existing models. In this research we propose a model for a blogger to construct blog graphs. We combine the existing preferential attachment and random attachment model to generate blog graphs which are type of scale-free networks. The blogger is modeled using read, write, idle states and finite read memory. The combination of these techniques helps in evolution of time stamped blog-blog and post-post network through citations within the blog-blog network. Other parameters like the growth function and the randomness in reading and writing posts help in the formation of graphs with different structural properties. We empirically show that these simulated blog graph exhibits properties similar to the real world blog networks in their degree distributions, degree correlations and clustering coefficient. We believe that this model will help researchers to evaluate and analyze the properties of the blogosphere and facilitate the testing of new algorithms.
Methods of Feasible Directions: A Review

Since the theoretical basis for the method of feasible directions (MFD) was originally developed by Zoutendijk in 1960’s, several basic variations and modifications of MFD were proposed and investigated. Even though faster algorithms for solving nonlinear programming problems exist, MFD has never been abandoned because of several important advantages such as the descent property, feasibility of all iterates, conceptual simplicity and overall computational efficiency. In fact, MFD is especially popular in the engineering community where it is heavily used in structural optimization and other engineering design optimization. In engineering design, it is extremely important to end up with a design which satisfies the hard specifications expressed by a set of inequalities. This paper reviews several typical methods of feasible directions and their variants: Zoutendijk’s MFD, Topkis — Veinott’s MFD, Pironneau — Polak’s MFD, Wiest — Polak’s MFD, Cawood — Kostreva’s MFD, Panier — Tits’ FSQP and a modified MFD. Then, the performances of three MFD: Pironneau — Polak’s MFD, Cawood — Kostreva’s MFD and the modified MFD are compared numerically and graphically. The results suggest that the modified MFD is more efficient than the other two MFD.
Increasing ambulatory treatment of pediatric minor burns-The emerging paradigm for burn care in children.

Abstract Introduction Innovations in topical burn treatment along with a drive toward value-based care are steering burn care to the outpatient setting. Little is known regarding what characteristics predict outpatient treatment of pediatric minor burns and whether there is a temporal trend toward this treatment paradigm. Methods A retrospective cohort study was performed using California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development linked emergency department and inpatient database (2005–2013). All patients under 18 years of age with a primary burn diagnosis were extracted. Using patient and facility level variables, we used regression modeling to evaluate predictors of outpatient burn treatment and temporal trends. Results There were 16,480 pediatric minor burn encounters during the period. 56.4% were male, 85.3% had Conclusion Older patients and those with more superficial burns were more likely to be treated as outpatients. Black and non-white Hispanic race was associated with inpatient admission. There is a growing trend toward ambulatory treatment of minor burns in the pediatric population. Further research is needed to assess whether outpatient treatment of pediatric minor burns results in greater readmissions.
Abdominal Contouring and Male Gender: Analysis of Complications Using the National Quality Improvement Program Database.

BACKGROUND Males represent a significant portion of patients undergoing abdominal contouring. Despite this, there are few studies examining the implication of gender on complications. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the association between gender and early postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing abdominal contouring procedures. METHODS The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database (2006-2016) was queried to identify subjects undergoing panniculectomy or abdominoplasty. Minor and major complications were identified. Operative time and length of hospital stay were evaluated. A logistic regression model was used to examine associations between patient gender and adverse outcomes. RESULTS Ten thousand four hundred seventy-three patients were identified. Of these, 4369 underwent abdominoplasties, and 6104 underwent panniculectomies. Males represented a higher percentage of the panniculectomy cohort (15.3% vs 9.2%). Males were older and generally had more comorbidities including diabetes, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and elevated body mass index. Males also had a higher American Society of Anesthesiologists classification (P < 0.001). In the abdominoplasty cohort, male gender is an independent risk factor for any complication (odds ratio [OR], 1.3; confidence interval [CI], 1.16-1.45; P < 0.001) and major complications (OR, 1.52; CI, 1.01-2.29; P = 0.043). In the panniculectomy cohort, male gender is also an independent risk factor for any complication (OR, 1.47; CI, 1.24-1.75; P < 0.001) and major complications (OR, 1.43; CI, 1.12-1.83; P < 0.001). Males also had a significantly longer operative times in this cohort (171.3 vs 157.5 minutes; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Male gender is independently associated with minor and major complications in these patient populations. With this knowledge, plastic surgeons may be better able to identify higher-risk individuals and educate patients on their risk profile.
A competence framework for artificial intelligence research

While over the last few decades AI research has largely focused on building tools and applications, recent technological developments have prompted a resurgence of interest in building a genuinely ...
Kinetic modeling of selenium reduction by a defined co-culture in batch reactors

Abstract The kinetics of Se(VI) reduction by a defined co-culture of a Se(VI)-reducing strain Shigella fergusonii TB42616 (TB) and a Se(IV)-reducing strain Pantoea vagans EWB32213-2 (EWB) was investigated in batch reactors. Se(VI) reduction was a two-stage process from Se(VI) to Se(IV) and then from Se(IV) to Se(0). Biokinetic parameters were optimized with a Monod-type kinetic model using batch pure culture data through the Robust Global Optimization Algorithm embedded in a computer package including yield coefficients, decay coefficients, maximum specific growth rates, and half-velocity constants. Se(VI) reduction by the defined co-culture was then simulated and verified over a range of culture compositions and initial Se(VI) concentrations, respectively. An inter-species inhibition term was incorporated into the model to illustrate the competition for Se(IV) between these two species during Se(VI) reduction in the co-culture. The results indicated that the incubation time corresponding to the peak level of Se(IV) increased with initial Se(VI) concentrations and a significant increase of Se(IV) accumulation with higher initial Se(VI) concentration. However, Se(IV) accumulation can be reduced with increasing population ratio of EWB to TB. The relatively high correlation coefficients suggested that the model was robust and applicable in simulating Se(VI) reduction by the defined co-culture.
A New Low-Capacitance High-Voltage-Tolerant Protection Clamp for High-Speed Applications

A new low-capacitance clamp is introduced for high-voltage-tolerant and high-speed interface applications. An embedded stacking architecture is proposed to address latch-up-immune design requirements without degradation in the electrostatic discharge (ESD) stress-handling capability, leakage, or capacitance. Thanks to a parallel current conduction path activated during ESD stress, a state-of-the-art failure threshold current per unit area is obtained for high-voltage-tolerant interface applications in sub-28-nm CMOS process technologies. The device design concept introduced in this article facilitates the implementation of compact, high-performance interface applications, extended in general to protection clamp devices requiring a higher holding voltage.
Associations between Trust of Healthcare Provider and Body Mass Index in Adolescents.

Adolescent obesity continues to be a serious concern around the world, placing young people at risk for chronic conditions and early death. Research has shown that social relationships are importan...
Robust Control under Uncertain Equilibrium States: Application to Magnetic Levitation Systems

A robust output derivative feedback controller is investigated for the local stabilization of dynamic systems under uncertain or unknown equilibrium states. The proposed controller is designed such that the closed-loop system exponentially converges to the equilibrium states of the system, even when the location of such equilibrium is unknown to the controller. For the case when norm-bounded dynamic uncertainty is present in the system model, robust stability conditions are derived in the linear matrix inequality form to guarantee the robust stability of the closed-loop system. The proposed solution is evaluated on a magnetic levitation system, in which two magnetic disk are to be levitated at an uncertain magnetic equilibrium. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed output derivative feedback controller.
Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics in the Candidate Magnetic Weyl Semimetal EuCd 2 As 2

Ultrafast optical pulses were used to search for light-induced topological changes in the candidate magnetic Weyl semimetal EuCd 2 As 2 , revealing signatures of coupling between spin and charge degrees of freedom which holds promise for device applications.
Spin-Relaxation Dynamics of E ′ Centers at High Density in SiO 2 Thin Films for Single-Spin Tunneling Force Microscopy

E' centers in amorphous silicon dioxide are paramagnetic, highly localized dangling-bond states with long spin-relaxation times. The authors study the E' center for use as a readout probe in force-detected single-spin tunneling force microscopy with atomic resolution, which is of interest for spin-based quantum information processing and spintronics. The observed spin dynamics suggest that this defect would be an excellent probe of individual spins, even at room temperature.
Leveraging the Existing Anesthesia Information Management System to Improve Anesthesia Quality Assurance Outcome Reporting.

INTRODUCTION Tracking measures of quality over time has been shown to improve care within institutions and across health systems. Perioperative quality assurance (QA) tracking by anesthesia departments in the Military Health System (MHS) has not used a uniform system integrated into the workflow of anesthesia providers. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that the use of the embedded QA outcome reporting feature in the anesthesia information management system (AIMS) increased the rate of reporting compared to the current paper reporting system in a military anesthesia department. MATERIALS AND METHODS An electronic outcome reporting mechanism embedded in the AIMS was activated as an alternative to paper QA outcome reporting. The proportion of anesthesia cases per month in a 12-month period with a reported QA outcome was compared to the previous year in which only the paper reporting system was used. The total number of cases in each time period with an outcome reported was compared using chi square for proportions, and systems were evaluated using the Statistical Process Control methodology. This project was evaluated and determined to be exempt from review by our institutional review board. RESULTS There was a 389.8% increase in the number of cases with a QA outcome reported after the implementation of the outcome reporting function integrated into the AIMS (χ2 = 207.72; P <.001, Table I). Systems before and after the intervention were stable, and special cause variation was noted only at the point of implementation of the electronic reporting system. Anesthesia providers were surveyed and felt that the addition of QA reporting to the AIMS made QA reporting more likely. CONCLUSIONS The use of an electronic QA outcome reporting method integrated into the AIMS dramatically increased the likelihood that a QA outcome would be reported. The decreased administrative burden of the integrated outcome reporting system was likely the primary reason for this increase. This study was limited by the fact that it was done in a single institution; however, the size and timing of the increase clearly indicate that the intervention was the reason for improved reporting. Electronic health record upgrades should consider incorporating QA reporting into the AIMS across the MHS. These measures could allow for system-wide improvement, evaluation, and evidence-based education on their own, but also by facilitating participation in the American Society of Anesthesiologists' Anesthesia Quality Institute's National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry. This report serves as a valuable example to institutions and perioperative leaders in the MHS of how to improve the robustness of perioperative QA reporting such that it could be used to validate and improve the value of care.
Improvements to the Success of Outbreak Investigations of Legionnaires' Disease: 40 Years of Testing and Investigation in New York State.

Since 1978, the New York State Department of Health's public health laboratory, Wadsworth Center (WC), in collaboration with epidemiology and environmental partners, has been committed to providing comprehensive public health testing for Legionella in New York. Statewide, clinical case counts have been increasing over time, with the highest numbers identified in 2017 and 2018 (1,022 and 1,426, respectively). Over the course of more than 40 years, the WC Legionella testing program has continuously implemented improved testing methods. The methods utilized have transitioned from solely culture-based methods for organism recovery to development of a suite of reference testing services, including identification and characterization by PCR and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). In the last decade, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has further refined the ability to link outbreak strains between clinical specimens and environmental samples. Here, we review Legionnaires' disease outbreak investigations during this time period, including comprehensive testing of both clinical and environmental samples. Between 1978 and 2017, 60 outbreaks involving clinical and environmental isolates with matching PFGE patterns were detected in 49 facilities from the 157 investigations at 146 facilities. However, 97 investigations were not solved due to the lack of clinical or environmental isolates or PFGE matches. We found 69% of patient specimens from New York State (NYS) were outbreak associated, a much higher rate than observed in other published reports. The consistent application of new cutting-edge technologies and environmental regulations has resulted in successful investigations resulting in remediation efforts. IMPORTANCE Legionella, the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease (LD), can cause severe respiratory illness. In 2018, there were nearly 10,000 cases of LD reported in the United States (https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/fastfacts.html; https://wonder.cdc.gov/nndss/static/2018/annual/2018-table2h.html), with actual incidence believed to be much higher. About 10% of patients with LD will die, and as high as 90% of patients diagnosed will be hospitalized. As Legionella is spread predominantly through engineered building water systems, identifying sources of outbreaks by assessing environmental sources is key to preventing further cases LD.
Grappling with Wicked Problems: Exploring Photovoice as a Decolonizing Methodology in Science Education.

In their work with teachers and community members in Kenya, Cassie Quigley and colleagues seek to localize the ‘wicked problems’ (Churchman in Manag Sci 14(4):141–142, 1967) of environmental sustainability through the use of decolonizing methods to challenge top-down approaches to solution-generation in the bountiful yet environmentally compromised Rift Valley. By contextualizing the study of sustainability in this way, science education research can assume the form of community engagement that is ultimately meaningful and maximally impactful to teachers, students, and to the local community. This type of engagement requires re-conceptualizing science knowledge, science practitioners, and science education, as well as moving from a focus on transmission of decontextualized knowledge toward activities embedded in particular places and in matters of local concern. Environmental issues, which at their heart are complex, contentious wicked problems, require a weighing in of multiple perspectives if attempts at resolution are to be sustained by the local community. In concert with Quigley and colleagues’ work with Kenyan teachers and community members exploring notions of environmental sustainability, this article frames the decolonizing methodology of photovoice using Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action to expand on theoretical underpinnings for inclusive deliberation of wicked environmental problems.
Waste Generation Models for Solid Waste Collection

This paper describes the development and subsequent application of econometric models to generate disaggregate predictions of residential waste loads. Both time and waste load estimates were developed, and districting plans generated from sample data for the Town of Brookline, Mass. Included are descriptions of the character of the system, the waste generation models, and sample districting outputs.
On Large Deviations of Gaussian Measures in Banach Spaces

Throughout this paper E will denote a separable Banach space and γ will be a full centered Gaussian measure on E. Define an operator S: E’ → E by S f = ∫ x f(x)γ(dx), and a scalar product γ on SE’ by $$ _\gamma =\int f(x)g(x)\gamma(dx) $$ The completion of S E’ with respect to the norm ∥x;∥γ = √ γ is denoted by Hγ and called the reproducing kernel Hilbert space of γ. Since $$||Sf||\leq _{||g||E^{*}\leq1}^ p [\int g^{2}(x)\gamma(dx)]^{1/2}\cdot ||Sf||_{\gamma} $$ Hγ can and will be viewed as a subset of E. For details on the construction and properties of the reproducing kernel Hilbert space we refer the reader to [2] or [5].
Monte Carlo Techniques for Primary Standards of Ionizing Radiation and for Dosimetry Protocols

This is a brief, highly biased, review of how Monte Carlo techniques of electron and photon transport have been applied to radiation dosimetry. The major emphasis is on radiotherapy dosimetry protocols and primary standards for air kerma.
Reduced parts single-phase series-parallel UPS systems with active filter capabilities

Three different topologies of single-phase series-parallel uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are discussed in this paper. The first topology is a conventional four-leg system. The two other topologies consist of two or three legs instead of four legs. All three systems have the effective capability of line current conditioning as well as load voltage regulation. Control methods and analysis of all three systems for different functions and operating modes are discussed. Simulation and experimental results are also presented to verify the theoretical analysis.
Summary abstract: Growth, properties and applications of epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films on Si

Abstract Earlier attempts to produce high quality thin films of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7− δ on Si substrates were thwarted by their reactivity and thermal expansion behavior. The collective research or several groups has demonstrated several epitaxial buffer layer systems including yttria-stabilized zirconia and MgO which allow the epitaxial growth of YBCO on Si without chemical reaction. Although direct epitaxy of YBCO on silicon may not be possible, buffer layers permit the growth of device quality YBCO films with critical current densities in excess of 10 6 A/cm 2 at 77 K. Methods have been developed to pattern these films in-situ by removing the buffer layer in selected areas to produce isolated superconducting mesas. The complications of thermally induced tensile stress have been eliminated through the use of silicon-on-sapphire instead of silicon. This work has revealed methods for controlling the in-plane epitaxy of YBCO films on zirconia via homoepitaxy and nucleation-initiating monolayers. A variety of application-oriented measurements and structures will be reported.
Structures of SH2 and SH3 domains

Abstract SH2 and SH3 domains are small protein modules of about 100 and 60 amino acids, respectively, that are found in many proteins involved in intracellular signal transduction. SH2 and SH3 domains mediate protein-protein interactions and modulate enzyme activity by their ability to bind to specific phosphorylated tyrosine residues or proline-rich sequences, respectively. The recent determination of the three-dimensional structures of several SH2 and SH3 domains has led to considerable progress in understanding their mechanism of action, and these structures are the focus of this review.
Congenital sublingual cystic swellings due to imperforate salivary ducts: Two case reports

Abstract Case histories of two patients with congenital sublingual cystic swellings due to imperforate submandibular salivary ducts are reported and show that congenital ranula-like lesions in the floor of the mouth can have an unusual differential etiology.
Listening to Lesbian Couples

Abstract Lesbian couples experience many strengths in relationship. This qualitative analysis focused on the communication competence of 10 long-term lesbian couples (dyads) together for 10 years or longer. They were interviewed jointly in two semi-structured interviews, methodologically using a combination of ethnography and phenomenology from a feminist perspective. The couples described a communication process that constructed and conveyed meaning. These dyads managed conflicts by avoiding contemptuous language and through negotiating skills. Additionally, they maintained an empathic attunement to each other by attending to nonverbals and respecting differences. This article explores these themes and provides implications for professionals working with all couples.
A Guide To Tax Policy Analysis: The Central Tendency of Federal Income Tax Liabilities In Distributional Analysis

The analysis of tax data is a time intensive and complicated process. Much time and effort are spent collecting income and tax data, compiling data sets and running statistical analyses. However, it appears that relatively little time and effort are spent actually understanding the data and how best to present results to the public of analyses of using tax data. This is evident in the overuse of averages and the simplistic classification of taxpayers into income ranges and quintiles by tax distribution tables that are often highly publicized. This study shows that the link between income and tax liability is much more tenuous that that often presumed and that a variety of other factors can greatly affect tax liability. Specifically, this report finds that, among other things: - Over 22 percent of all 1995 tax returns claimed zero tax liability - For calendar year 2000, the JCT estimates that 48.7 million out of 140.2 million taxpayers overall will have zero or negative federal income tax liability. - In four out of the five income groups examined, a majority of taxpayers had tax liabilities that were either 25 percent greater than the average or 25 percent less than the average tax liability for each income group. - In comparing federal income tax liabilities, distribution tables often misclassify and group millions of taxpayers into quintiles in which they have little tax liability in common. - Approximately 2.2 million taxpayers in the third quintile pay more in federal income taxes than 5.4 million taxpayers classified in the fourth quintile. - Over 3 million taxpayers in the fourth quintile pay more in federal income taxes than 4.1 million taxpayers classified in the fifth quintile.
Seeing the Missing Half

The Moon is our closest planetary neighbor and the only extraterrestrial body to which humans have traveled, yet many questions about its origin and early history remain unanswered. Four papers published in this issue by scientific teams of the Japanese SELENE (Kaguya) mission offer a new global view of the Moon that helps to elucidate how the Moon evolved to its present state. The Moon is lopsided: Its visible nearside (tidally locked to face the Earth) is covered with smooth, dark volcanic mare, whereas the farside mainly consists of more heavily cratered, bright highland material. The differences in crustal thickness and density, apparent surface age, composition, and volcanic activity between the two sides are variously ascribed to external causes (such as a giant impact) or to internal causes (such as core formation, mantle convection, and crustal differentiation). The key to resolving these questions will be better data.
Quantifying resiliency of smart power distribution systems with distributed energy resources

The purpose of smart grid projects worldwide is to revitalize the aging power system infrastructure, and make it more reliable, more resilient and more sustainable. Technological advances has led to diversity of power sources and lesser dependence on fossil fuels; however, it has also increased the complexity of control of the network, which may have a counter-effect on its resiliency and reliability. Also, weather induced power disruptions or targeted attacks on critical power system infrastructure have increased in numbers. Thus there is a need for formal metrics to quantify resiliency of the different distribution system, or different configurations of same network. This paper presents definitions of resiliency of power distribution system, and approach towards resilient design of future power distribution systems with distributed energy resources. These are eventually used to identify parameters for quantification of resiliency. Simulation results for several test cases have been presented to validate the developed resiliency metrics.
Human Biodiversity Conservation: A Consensual Ethical Principle

The “case for conserving disability” under discussion in the target article (Sparrow 2015) is most accurately expressed not as an imposition but as a consensual ethical principle. My “case” rests o...
A soft-contact and wrench based approach to study grasp planning and execution

Grasping research in robotics has made remarkable progress in the last three decades and sophisticated computational tools are now available for planning robotic grasping in complex environments. However, studying the neural control of prehension in humans is more complex than studying robotic grasping. The elaborate musculoskeletal geometries and complex neural inputs to the hand facilitate a symphonic interplay of power and precision that allows humans to grasp fragile objects in a stable way without either crushing or dropping them. Most prehension studies have focused on a planar simplification of prehension since planar analyses render the complex problem of prehension tractable with few variables. The caveat is that planar simplification allows researchers to ask only a limited set of questions. In fact, one of the problems with extending prehension studies to three dimensions is the lack of analytical tools for quantifying features of spatial prehension. The current paper provides a theoretical adaptation and a step-by-step implementation of a widely used soft-contact wrench model for spatial human prehension. We propose two indices, grasp caliber and grasp intensity, to quantitatively relate digit placement and digit forces to grasp stability. Grasp caliber is the smallest singular value of the grasp matrix and it indicates the proximity of the current grasp configuration to instability. Grasp intensity is the magnitude of the excessive wrench applied by the digits to counter perturbations. Apart from quantifying stability of spatial grasps, these indices can also be applied to investigate sensory-motor coupling and the role of perception in grasp planning.
17 Usefulness of the Pinnule Technique in Mycorrhizal Research

Publisher Summary This chapter is concerned with the determination of pinnule P status as a rapid and precise technique for monitoring the development of symbiotic effectiveness in the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal association. The key criteria to be considered in selecting indicator plants for the pinnule technique are: (1) they must have compound leaves, (2) they must grow reasonably rapidly, (3) they must be moderately to very highly dependent on vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and (4)they must have pinnules or subleaflets that detach readily from leaflets. Species that are marginally dependent on vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could serve as indicator plants, but the range of soil solution P levels at which they would be useful is limited. Further, the growth conditions are discussed in the chapter. The rule of thumb is that the health of the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis is intimately linked to the health of the host plant. Growth conditions must, therefore, be adjusted such that indicator plants will develop and grow normally in the presence of effective vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal endophytes. Phosphorus level is particularly critical because appears to be the most important regulator of the symbiosis.
Regulation of electron transfer processes affects phototrophic mat structure and activity

Phototrophic microbial mats are among the most diverse ecosystems in nature. These systems undergo daily cycles in redox potential caused by variations in light energy input and metabolic interactions among the microbial species. In this work, solid electrodes with controlled potentials were placed under mats to study the electron transfer processes between the electrode and the microbial mat. The phototrophic microbial mat was harvested from Hot Lake, a hypersaline, epsomitic lake located near Oroville (Washington, USA). We operated two reactors: graphite electrodes were polarized at potentials of -700 mVAg/AgCl [cathodic (CAT) mat system] and +300 mVAg/AgCl [anodic (AN) mat system] and the electron transfer rates between the electrode and mat were monitored. We observed a diel cycle of electron transfer rates for both AN and CAT mat systems. Interestingly, the CAT mats generated the highest reducing current at the same time points that the AN mats showed the highest oxidizing current. To characterize the physicochemical factors influencing electron transfer processes, we measured depth profiles of dissolved oxygen (DO) and sulfide in the mats using microelectrodes. We further demonstrated that the mat-to-electrode and electrode-to-mat electron transfer rates were light- and temperature-dependent. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, we determined that the electrode potential regulated the diffusivity and porosity of the microbial mats. Both porosity and diffusivity were higher in the CAT mats than in the AN mats. We also used NMR spectroscopy for high-resolution quantitative metabolite analysis and found that the CAT mats had significantly higher concentrations of osmoprotectants such as betaine and trehalose. Subsequently, we performed amplicon sequencing across the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of incubated mats to understand the impact of electrode potential on microbial community structure. These data suggested that variation in the electrochemical conditions under which mats were generated significantly impacted the relative abundances of mat members and mat metabolism.
LLAMA: Efficient graph analytics using Large Multiversioned Arrays

We present LLAMA, a graph storage and analysis system that supports mutability and out-of-memory execution. LLAMA performs comparably to immutable main-memory analysis systems for graphs that fit in memory and significantly outperforms existing out-of-memory analysis systems for graphs that exceed main memory. LLAMA bases its implementation on the compressed sparse row (CSR) representation, which is a read-only representation commonly used for graph analytics. We augment this representation to support mutability and persistence using a novel implementation of multi-versioned array snapshots, making it ideal for applications that receive a steady stream of new data, but need to perform whole-graph analysis on consistent views of the data. We compare LLAMA to state-of-the-art systems on representative graph analysis workloads, showing that LLAMA scales well both out-of-memory and across parallel cores. Our evaluation shows that LLAMA's mutability introduces modest overheads of 3–18% relative to immutable CSR for in-memory execution and that it outperforms state-of-the-art out-of-memory systems in most cases, with a best case improvement of 5x on breadth-first-search.
Pairwise sequence alignment below the twilight zone

Improved sequence alignment at low pairwise identity is important for identifying potential remote homologues in database searches and for obtaining accurate alignments as a prelude to modeling structures by homology. Our work is motivated by two observations: structural data provide superior training examples for developing techniques to improve the alignment of remote homologues; and general substitution patterns for remote homologues differ from those of closely related proteins. We introduce a new set of amino acid residue interchange matrices built from structural superposition data. These matrices exploit known structural homology as a means of characterizing the effect evolution has on residue-substitution profiles. Given their origin, it is not surprising that the individual residue-residue interchange frequencies are chemically sensible. The structural interchange matrices show a significant increase both in pairwise alignment accuracy and in functional annotation/fold recognition accuracy across distantly related sequences. We demonstrate improved pairwise alignment by using superpositions of homologous domains extracted from a structural database as a gold standard and go on to show an increase in fold recognition accuracy using a database of homologous fold families. This was applied to the unassigned open reading frames from the genome of Helicobacter pylori to identify five matches, two of which are not represented by new annotations in the sequence databases. In addition, we describe a new cyclic permutation strategy to identify distant homologues that experienced gene duplication and subsequent deletions. Using this method, we have identified a potential homologue to one additional previously unassigned open reading frame from the H. pylori genome.