cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Repeated administration of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor attenuates nicotine taking in rats and smoking behavior in human smokers

Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death worldwide and current smoking cessation medications have limited efficacy. Thus, there is a clear need for translational research focused on identifying novel pharmacotherapies for nicotine addiction. Our previous studies demonstrated that acute administration of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) attenuates nicotine taking and seeking in rats and suggest that AChEIs could be repurposed for smoking cessation. Here, we expand upon these findings with experiments designed to determine the effects of repeated AChEI administration on voluntary nicotine taking in rats as well as smoking behavior in human smokers. Rats were trained to self-administer intravenous infusions of nicotine (0.03 mg kg(-1) per 0.59 ml) on a fixed-ratio-5 schedule of reinforcement. Once rats maintained stable nicotine taking, galantamine or donepezil was administered before 10 consecutive daily nicotine self-administration sessions. Repeated administration of 5.0 mg kg(-1) galantamine and 3.0 mg kg(-1) donepezil attenuated nicotine self-administration in rats. These effects were reinforcer-specific and not due to adverse malaise-like effects of drug treatment as repeated galantamine and donepezil administration had no effects on sucrose self-administration, ad libitum food intake and pica. The effects of repeated galantamine (versus placebo) on cigarette smoking were also tested in human treatment-seeking smokers. Two weeks of daily galantamine treatment (8.0 mg (week 1) and 16.0 mg (week 2)) significantly reduced smoking rate as well as smoking satisfaction and reward compared with placebo. This translational study indicates that repeated AChEI administration reduces nicotine reinforcement in rats and smoking behavior in humans at doses not associated with tolerance and/or adverse effects.
Perceived stress and anhedonia predict short-and long-term weight change, respectively, in healthy adults.

Abstract Objective Perceived stress; emotional eating; anhedonia; depression and dietary restraint, hunger, and disinhibition have been studied as risk factors for obesity. However, the majority of studies have been cross-sectional and the directionality of these relationships remains unclear. In this longitudinal study, we assess their impact on future weight change. Methods Psychological predictors of weight change in short- (6 month) and long-term (> 1 year) periods were studied in 65 lean and obese individuals in two cohorts. Subjects participated in studies of food intake and metabolism that did not include any type of medication or weight loss interventions. They completed psychological questionnaires at baseline and weight change was monitored at follow-up visits. Results At six months, perceived stress predicted weight gain (r2 = 0.23, P = 0.02). There was a significant interaction (r2 = .38, P = 0.009) between perceived stress and positive emotional eating, such that higher scores in both predicted greater weight gain, while those with low stress but high emotional eating scores lost weight. For long-term, higher anhedonia scores predicted weight gain (r2 = 0.24, P = 0.04). Depression moderated these effects such that higher scores in both predicted weight gain but higher depression and lower anhedonia scores predicted weight loss. Conclusion There are different behavioral determinants for short- and long-term weight change. Targeting perceived stress may help with short-term weight loss while depression and anhedonia may be better targets for long-term weight regulation.
Christian witness to institutions: Public missiology and power

In this article I examine witness to institutions through a sociological, theological, and missiological treatment of power. I show how witness to institutions has been problematic through the cent...
Equilibrium Structure and Schottky Barriers at Eras/Gaas Interfaces

The equilibrium structures as well as the electronic Schottky barriers for (100) Erbium-Arsenide/Gallium-Arsenide (ErAs/GaAs) arsenic and gallium terminated interfaces have been determined by ab-initio calculations using the local-density approximation and a full-potential linear-muffin-tin-orbital method. In both cases the arsenic sublattice was chosen to be continuous across the interface in accordance with experiments on Rutherford backscattering channeling. Band structures, densities of states, and charge density distributions were also determined for the interfaces. The comparison of the total supercell energies reveals that the gallium terminated (chain) interface is more energetically stable than the arsenic terminated (shadow) interface. It also shows that the equilibrium interface separation for the arsenic terminated interface corresponds to an ideal structure when arsenic forms undistorted face-centered cubic lattice. The separation in the gallium terminated interface is quite substantial and is 60% larger than that of the ideal situation. The model also predicts that no buckling of the ErAs interface monolayer will occur for either structure. The computed Schottky barriers for holes (after a semi-empirical quasiparticle self-energy correction) are 0.6 eV for the chain interface and 0.4 eV for the shadow interface.
Rhizophydium littoreum: a chytrid from siphonaceous marine algae ― an ultrastructural examination

The obligately marine phototactic chytrid described by Kazama and the chytrid Phlyctochytrium aestuarii Ulken are both placed in the genus Rhizophydium. A comparison shows that Kazama's isolate, the chytrid described by Porter and Smiley, and a new isolate from Codium are probably of the same species.
Development and tests of large-scale inclined direct shear apparatus

The shearing status for the landfill liner system located on the slope is different from that located on the bottom floor.A large-diameter inclined direct shear apparatus is designed to simulate liner shearing on various slopes.The comparative tests between the inclined and traditional direct shear apparatuses are conducted using the standard sand and the selected clay.It is found that both the displacement behavior and the shear strength of the standard sand and the selected clay obtained from the inclined and traditional direct shear tests are basically the same.More inclined shear tests are conducted for a composite liner interface between smooth HDPE geomembrane and compacted clay.All curves of the ratio of shear to normal stresses vs.the displacement under various vertical pressures show strain-softening behavior in the inclined shear test.The advantage of the inclined shear test is that more detailed shearing characteristics regarding changes of the normal and shear stresses on the shearing plane and the ratio of the shear to normal stresses can be investigated.
Content-aware load balancing for distributed backup

When backing up a large number of computer systems to many different storage devices, an administrator has to balance the workload to ensure the successful completion of all backups within a particular period of time. When these devices were magnetic tapes, this assignment was trivial: find an idle tape drive, write what fits on a tape, and replace tapes as needed. Backing up data onto deduplicating disk storage adds both complexity and opportunity. Since one cannot swap out a filled disk-based file system the way one switches tapes, each separate backup appliance needs an appropriate workload that fits into both the available storage capacity and the throughput available during the backup window. Repeating a given client's backups on the same appliance not only reduces capacity requirements but it can improve performance by eliminating duplicates from network traffic. Conversely, any reconfiguration of the mappings of backup clients to appliances suffers the overhead of repopulating the new appliance with a full copy of a client's data. Reassigning clients to new servers should only be done when the need for load balancing exceeds the overhead of the move. In addition, deduplication offers the opportunity for content-aware load balancing that groups clients together for improved deduplication that can further improve both capacity and performance; we have seen a system with as much as 75% of its data overlapping other systems, though overlap around 10% is more common. We describe an approach for clustering backup clients based on content, assigning them to backup appliances, and adapting future configurations based on changing requirements while minimizing client migration. We define a cost function and compare several algorithms for minimizing this cost. This assignment tool resides in a tier between backup software such as EMC NetWorker and deduplicating storage systems such as EMC Data Domain.
Absolute measurement of lithium vapor densities for ion-diode diagnostics

We have developed spectroscopic techniques tor measuring lithium vapor number densities in iondiode experiments requiring simple-to-interpret diagnostic measurements of neutral lithium densities in the 1013–1017-cm−3 range. A lithium heat pipe oven which allowed the observation of lithium vapor from two perpendicular directions was used to develop optical methods of measuring these high neutral lithium densities. Laser-excited fluorescence spectroscopy using dipole-forbidden single-photon and two-photon transitions was investigated as a quantitative diagnostic for measuring the required lithium number densities. In particular, the oven was used to study the dipole-forbidden 2s2 S to 3d2D transition in lithium at 319.6 nm and the two-photon allowed transition between the same levels at a wavelength of 639.2 nm.
Thermal safety through Limp Home Mode for intelligent Rear View Camera Systems

Multiprocessor SoCs (MPSoCs) are deployed in intelligent Rear View Camera Systems (iRVCS) for capture, analytics and display. iRVCS, mounted near the car's exterior surface, are subject to direct sunlight for prolonged time. At high junction temperatures (Tj) iRVCS completely shuts down for thermal protection resulting in complete loss of visibility. The paper focuses on techniques to detect such conditions and switch to a Limp Home Mode (LHM) with basic rear view visibility. When Tj reduces, it seamlessly switches back to original usecase. Results showed the switch takes < 350 milliseconds achieving 20–25% power savings (5°C cooler) at high ambient temperatures.
Critical Literacy and Multicultural Literature: Pedagogical Strategies for the Everyday Classroom

Empowering children with the knowledge to critically analyze text for messages related to power, privilege, and social inequality is essential for inspiring within them the desire to become informed and compassionate citizens, as well as agents of social change. To this end, the current chapter will provide elementary school educators with an instructional framework for guiding children to become critical consumers of knowledge, where students find comfort in actively questioning the vision, voice, and message presented in text, as opposed to succumbing to a writer’s point of view without thoughtful resistance. The pedagogical properties of critical literacy will be discussed as they relate to how children can be encouraged to challenge the ideas and concepts presented in text. Also, critical literacy will be discussed in relation to multicultural literature, which can provide a platform for exploring a variety of sociocultural and political issues with children. Multicultural literature is particularly useful for exploring issues related to the intersection of culture, ethnicity, gender, and other personal characteristics that impact an individual’s social standing in multiple contexts. Specific instructional strategies will be discussed as they relate to guiding children’s endorsement of an anti-biased perspective and egalitarian values. Educators could use the chapter to shape their social justice agendas and give children the gift of voice.
Brain Functional Connectivity Is Different during Voluntary Concentric and Eccentric Muscle Contraction

Previous studies report greater activation in the cortical motor network in controlling eccentric contraction (EC) than concentric contraction (CC) of human skeletal muscles despite lower activation level of the muscle associated with EC. It is unknown, however, whether the strength of functional coupling between the primary motor cortex (M1) and other involved areas in the brain differs as voluntary movements are controlled by a network of regions in the primary, secondary and association cortices. Examining fMRI-based functional connectivity (FC) offers an opportunity to measure strength of such coupling. To address the question, we examined functional MRI (fMRI) data acquired during EC and CC (20 contractions each with similar movement distance and speed) of the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle in 11 young (20-32 years) and healthy individuals and estimated FC between the M1 and a number of cortical regions in the motor control network. The major findings from the mechanical and fMRI-based FC analysis were that (1) no significant differences were seen in movement distance, speed and stability between the EC and CC; (2) significantly stronger mean FC was found for CC than EC. Our finding provides novel insights for a better understanding of the control mechanisms underlying voluntary movements produced by EC and CC. The finding is potentially helpful for guiding the development of targeted sport training and/or therapeutic programs for performance enhancement and injury prevention.
Expanding the Language Teacher Identity Landscape: An Investigation of the Emotions and Strategies of a NNEST

This article aims to broaden the scope of language teacher identity research by investigating the emotional demands on teachers-in-training and nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in particular. We examined how our focal NNEST participant, Puja, was confronted with and successfully negotiated numerous emotional challenges in her first year in a U.S. MATESOL program. Furthermore, we investigated the impact emotions had on her overall teacher identity development and how her growth as an educator was evident in her use of strategies. Following past research that viewed teacher emotions through a narrative lens (e.g., Barkhuizen, Benson, & Chik, ; De Costa, ), we created Puja's 'story' by analyzing data sources that included interviews, teaching observations, journal entries, and stimulated verbal and written reports. Our narrative construction focuses on the reflexive relationship between Puja's emotions and her subsequent identity development. While we acknowledge that emotional tensions are part of teachers' identity development (and potentially more so for NNESTs), Puja largely navigated emotional challenges in a positive manner. The article concludes with a call for new pedagogical models that help teachers develop their reflexivity and negotiate potential emotion-related challenges they might encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Mobile Apps for the Management of Diabetes

Approximately 29 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes. The increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and required intensity of disease management programs are straining health systems, especially in primary care where physicians often lack adequate time with patients. Mobile technologies (e.g., smartphones, wearable devices) provide highly scalable new approaches to T2D management. Approximately 77% of American adults have access to a smartphone regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity (1), and more than 50% of smartphone owners use their mobile devices to obtain health information (2). However, mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have been found to lack evidence-based support when functionalities and information provided in apps are compared with clinical guidelines for specific disease management (3). The objective of this study was to assess whether popular apps for diabetes management were of sufficient quality to complement clinical care. We used the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) (4), a reliable and validated scoring instrument of mHealth app quality, to assess the quality of the most popular free …
Comparative study of various cathodes for lithium ion batteries using an enhanced Peukert capacity model

Abstract Numerical models for battery management systems must be computationally efficient with enough accuracy for predictive usage when the vehicle is operating. For electric vehicles (EVs), this requires accounting for capacity offset, temperature dependency, and battery aging effects. This effort provides an enhanced formulation of Peukert's equation including temperature effects and the inclusion of an absolute capacity that is calibrated to five different cathodes (LiCoO2, LiCoNiAlO2, LiNiMnCoO2, LiMnNiO2, and LiFePO4) with two types of crystal structures (layered and olivine) from four manufacturers. After data collection using a Vencon battery analyzer and two thermistors measuring self-heating temperature swings, the results demonstrate that the model works relatively well in predicting the State of Charge curve. As expected, the capacity specific parameter is near unity when simulating low offset olivine compounds; whereas, the temperature dependent variable illustrates a wide-range of values with cobalt constituted chemistries on the higher end. Additionally, the model tends to perform better for non-spinel compounds and that manufacturer specified nominal capacities are around 95–99% of the model defined absolute capacity. Overall, the technique of separating current and temperature based phenomena and recognizing modeled patterns that align with current literature are useful steps in developing an efficient battery model.
Development of Zen Buddhism in China

There are two ways of telling a story. According to the traditional version, the origin and development of Zen Buddhism in China can be very easily and simply told. We are told that this school was founded by Bodhidharma who arrived at Canton in 520 or 526, and, having failed to persuade the Emperor Wu-ti of Liang to accept the esoteric way of thinking, went to North China where he founded the school of Ch’an or Zen (禅). Before his death, he appointed his pupil Hui-k’o (慧可) as his successor and gave him a robe and a bowl as insignia of apostolic succession. According to this tradition, Bodhidharma was the 28th Patriarch of the Buddhist Church in India and became the first Patriarch in China. Hui-k’o, the second Patriarch, was succeeded by Seng-ts’an (僧璨). After two more generations, two great disciples of the fifth Patriarch Hung-jen (弘忍), Shen-hsiu (神秀) and Hui-neng (慧能), differed in their interpretation of the doctrines of the school and a split issued. Shen-hsiu became the founder of the Northern or Orthodox School, while Hui-neng, an illiterate monk in Canton, claimed himself the successor to the Patriarchate of the school of Bodhidharma. This Southern School soon became very popular and Hui-neng has been recognized in history as the Sixth Patriarch from whose disciples have descended all the later schools of Zen Buddhism.
Clear Air Turbulence Detection Methods: A Review

Of the various methods proposed for CAT detection, only ground-based ultrasensitive radars have demonstrated partial success. However, their size and cost makes an operational system of doubtful economic feasibility. Nevertheless a limited system is proposed in the Appendix. It can now be predicted with some assurance that a 20 db improvement in sensitivity of airborne radars will permit CAT detection at a range of about 10 n. mi., although not with 100% confidence. Serious efforts should thus be made to advance radar technology sufficiently to provide the required improvement. Meanwhile we recommend the use of chaff to mark turbulent regions and appropriately modified existing airborne radars to measure the turbulence intensity. The radar-CAT research has also provided new insight into the nature of CAT. In particular, vertical wind shear in excess of 10−2 sec−1 appears to be a suitable criterion for its occurrence; while this generally implies Richardson (Ri) numbers less than 1, such a yardstick does not appear to improve the specification of CAT over that attainable with the shear alone. The implication is that any method capable of monitoring wind shear will be a valuable tool in CAT warnings. Also, the greater the thermal stability, the greater the possible shear and the more violent the CAT when it is finally released. This suggests that the magnitude of the refractivity structure constant C n 2 , and thus the radar reflectivity, should be a useful CAT indicator in the upper troposphere, but only at the time and place of its origin. The radar results also imply that ground-based bistatic radio tropo-scatter techniques should be at least equally effective in detecting CAT. These techniques also offer the promise of measuring winds and wind shear.
Waste to energy (WTE): an introduction

Abstract: Energy supply and waste management are great challenges that humans have faced for millennia. In order to meet these challenges in the future, it is necessary to progress to an atom economy where every atom is utilized in the best possible manner. This chapter provides an introduction to the subject, outlining the most important issues that must be considered.
An Inquiry into Population, Resources and Environment

Development assistance for population related activities, under attack during the 1980s, has received a boost in the 1990s as a result of growing environmental concerns. Whether the concern is about deforestation, water shortages, land degradation, food security, or global warming, it is conventional wisdom that population growth must be at least partially responsible. Dwindling resources are shared among ever increasing human numbers who dispose increasing quantities of waste into limited space. Hence population policies are seen as key to the conservation of resources and the protection of the environment.
Estimating network structure from unreliable measurements

Most empirical studies of networks assume that the network data we are given represent a complete and accurate picture of the nodes and edges in the system of interest, but in real-world situations this is rarely the case. More often the data only specify the network structure imperfectly: Like data in essentially every other area of empirical science, network data are prone to measurement error and noise. At the same time, the data may be richer than simple network measurements, incorporating multiple measurements, weights, lengths, or strengths of edges, node or edge labels, or annotations of various kinds. Here we develop a general method for making estimates of network structure and properties using any form of network data, simple or complex, when the data are unreliable, and give example applications to a selection of social and biological networks.
Normalized Matched Filter for Blind Interference Suppression

This paper proposes and analyzes a modification to the standard matched filtering operation utilized in filter-bank multicarrier spread spectrum (FB-MC-SS) communications. This modification minimizes the impact of interferers occupying any of the subcarrier bands without a priori knowledge of the interferers' location or power characteristics. A full analysis of its performance is presented which indicates its usefulness in environments where interference is likely to be experienced, such as when secondary users (SUs) underlay licensed users' bands. Whereas the standard matched filter proved to be ineffective for packet detection and timing acquisition in these harsh environments, making it the limiting factor in performance, the modified matched filter effectively removes the harmful effects of interferers.
Supervised parallel-in-time algorithm for long-time Lagrangian simulations of stochastic dynamics: Application to hydrodynamics

Abstract Lagrangian particle methods based on detailed atomic and molecular models are powerful computational tools for studying the dynamics of microscale and nanoscale systems. However, the maximum time step is limited by the smallest oscillation period of the fastest atomic motion, rendering long-time simulations very expensive. To resolve this bottleneck, we propose a supervised parallel-in-time algorithm for stochastic dynamics ( SPASD ) to accelerate long-time Lagrangian particle simulations. Our method is inspired by bottom-up coarse-graining projections that yield mean-field hydrodynamic behavior in the continuum limit. Here as an example, we use the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) as the Lagrangian particle simulator that is supervised by its macroscopic counterpart, i.e., the Navier-Stokes simulator. The low-dimensional macroscopic system (here, the Navier-Stokes solver) serves as a predictor to supervise the high-dimensional Lagrangian simulator, in a predictor-corrector type algorithm. The results of the Lagrangian simulation then correct the mean-field prediction and provide the proper microscopic details (e.g., consistent fluctuations, correlations, etc.). The unique feature that sets SPASD apart from other multiscale methods is the use of a low-fidelity macroscopic model as a predictor. The macro-model can be approximate and even inconsistent with the microscale description, but SPASD anticipates the deviation and corrects it internally to recover the true dynamics. We first present the algorithm and analyze its theoretical speedup, and subsequently we present the accuracy and convergence of the algorithm for the time-dependent plane Poiseuille flow, demonstrating that SPASD converges exponentially fast over iterations, irrespective of the accuracy of the predictor. Moreover, the fluctuating characteristics of the stochastic dynamics are identical to the unsupervised (serial in time) DPD simulation. We also compare the performance of SPASD to the conventional spatial decomposition method, which is one of the most parallel-efficient methods for particle simulations. We find that the parallel efficiency of SPASD and the conventional spatial decomposition method are similar for a small number of computing cores, but for a large number of cores the performance of SPASD is superior. Furthermore, SPASD can be used in conjunction with spatial decomposition for enhanced performance. Lastly, we simulate a two-dimensional cavity flow that requires more iterations to converge compared to the Poiseuille flow, and we observe that SPASD converges to the correct solution. Although a DPD solver is used to demonstrate the results, SPASD is a general framework and can be readily applied to other Lagrangian approaches including molecular dynamics and Langevin dynamics.
Biliary Tree and Gallbladder Pathology in HIV

AIDS cholangiopathy was first described in 1986 (Ko et al., Am J Gastroenterol 98(10):2176–2181, 2003). Patients typically present with right upper quadrant pain, fever, diarrhea, and weight loss, whereas pruritus and jaundice are uncommon features (Benhamou et al., Dig Dis Sci 38(6):1113–1118, 1993; Bouche et al., J Hepatol 17(1):34–39, 1993; Farman et al., Abdominal Imaging 19(5):417–422, 1994). This clinical entity is typically seen in patients with severely suppressed immune systems, and CD4 counts are frequently less than 50 cells/μL (Cello, Am J Med 86(5):539–546, 1989). Workup typically reveals a markedly elevated alkaline phosphatase, out of proportion to mildly elevated transaminases and bilirubin (Bouche et al., J Hepatol 17(1):34–39, 1993; Farman et al., Abdominal Imaging 19(5):417–422, 1994). This entity is associated with opportunistic infections; however, an etiology is discovered in less than half of cases (Cello and Rogers, Tech Gastrointest Endosc 4(2):86–89, 2002). The most commonly encountered etiologies include Cryptosporidium and Cytomegalovirus (Nash and Cohen, Gastroenterol Clin N Am 26(2):323–334, 1997). The frequency of the disease has decreased since the advent of antiretroviral therapy contributing to immune reconstitution (Enns, Am J Gastroenterol 98(10):2111–2112, 2003). ERCP with sphincterotomy is beneficial to relieve pain in many patients; however, it does not impact survival (Enns, Am J Gastroenterol 98(10):2111–2112, 2003). Reconstituting the immune system via ART is the mainstay of therapy. Some protease inhibitors themselves can affect the biliary system; atazanavir is still used frequently today and can place patients at risk for gallstone formation as well as a benign unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Jacques et al., Ann Pharmacother 44(1):202–206, 2010; Verdon et al., Clin Infect Dis 35(5):57–59, 2002).
Differences in hospitalizations, emergency room admissions, and outpatient visits among Mexican-American Medicare beneficiaries.

Few studies have investigated the healthcare utilization of Mexican-American Medicare beneficiaries. We used survey data that has been linked with Medicare claims records to describe the healthcare utilization of Mexican-American Medicare beneficiaries, determine common reasons for hospitalizations, and identify characteristics associated with healthcare utilization. Data came from wave five (2004/05) of the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly. The final sample included 1187 participants aged ≥75 who were followed for two-years (eight-quarters). Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate the probability of ≥1 hospitalization, emergency room (ER) admissions, and outpatient visits. The percentage of beneficiaries who had ≥1 hospitalizations, ER admissions, and outpatient visits for each quarter ranged from 10.12–12.59%, 14.15–19.03%, and 76.61–80.68%, respectively. Twenty-three percent of hospital discharges were for circulatory conditions and 17% were for respiratory conditions. Hospitalizations for heart failure and simple pneumonia were most common. Older age was associated with significantly higher odds for ER admissions (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.21–1.84) but lower odds for outpatient visits (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.57–0.96). Spanish language and female gender were associated with significantly higher odds for hospitalizations (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.14–2.06) and outpatient visits (OR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.43–2.33), respectively. Having a middle-school or higher level of education was associated with significantly lower odds for ER admissions (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.56–0.91). Participants who were deceased within two-years had significantly higher odds for hospitalizations (OR = 6.15, 95% CI = 4.79–7.89) and ER admissions (OR = 3.63, 95% CI = 2.88–4.57) than participants who survived at least three-years. We observed high healthcare utilization among Mexican-American Medicare beneficiaries. Forty percent of all hospitalizations were for circulatory and respiratory conditions with hospitalizations for heart failure and pneumonia being the most common. Older age, gender, education, language, and mortality were all associated with healthcare utilization. Continued research is needed to identify patterns and clusters of social determinants and health characteristics associated with healthcare utilization and outcomes in older Mexican-Americans.
Analysis of Test Data Tampering Attack on Manufacturing Testing

Manufacturing testing screens out defective chips. However, untrusted test environment raises several security/trust concerns. An attacker can tamper the test data to send defective/malicious chips to the market or reduce yield causing financial losses. In this paper, we investigate the adversarial tampering attack of the test data. We shed light on an untrusted test facility that targets reducing yield and deceiving the designer to spend more money on testing for diagnosis purposes. We assume the presence of design-for-security architectures to protect the Intellectual Property (IP) and hide the test data. We analyze the similarity between corrupted and simulated test data under faults. We show that even if the attacker fails to reverse engineer the original IP netlist or decrypt the test patterns and their responses, she/he can still deceive the designer by flipping few bits of the encrypted test patterns, which results in responses that comply with the simulated responses.
Direct numerical simulation of rotating ellipsoidal particles using moving nonconforming Schwarz-spectral element method

Abstract We present application of a highly-scalable overlapping grid-based nonconforming Schwarz-spectral element method (Schwarz-SEM) to study the dynamics of rotating ellipsoidal particles. The current study is one of the first to explore the effect of rotation on ellipsoidal particles using direct numerical simulation. The rotating ellipsoidal particles show substantial difference in the dynamics of the flow, when compared against non-rotating particles. This difference is primarily due to periodic attachment and separation of the flow to the surface of the particle for the rotating cases, which results in a higher drag on the particle when compared to the corresponding non-rotating cases. The dynamics is also different from a rotating spherical particle, where a steady shear layer develops near the surface of the sphere. For the rotating ellipsoidal particles, we observe that there is a phase-difference between the position of observed maximum and minimum drag, and the position of expected maximum and minimum drag (i.e., maximum and minimum projected area). A similar phase-difference is also observed for the lift force acting on the rotating ellipsoidal particles. The results presented here demonstrate the importance of explicitly modeling the shape and rotation of particles for studying dynamics of non-spherical particles. Finally, this study also validates the use of non-conforming Schwarz-SEM for tackling problems in fully resolved particulate flow dynamics.
Metabolic feedback inhibition influences metabolite secretion by the human gut symbiont bacteroides thetaiotaomicron

ABSTRACT Microbial metabolism and trophic interactions between microbes give rise to complex multispecies communities in microbe-host systems. Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta) is a human gut symbiont thought to play an important role in maintaining host health. Untargeted nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics revealed B. theta secretes specific organic acids and amino acids in defined minimal medium. Physiological concentrations of acetate and formate found in the human intestinal tract were shown to cause dose-dependent changes in secretion of metabolites known to play roles in host nutrition and pathogenesis. While secretion fluxes varied, biomass yield was unchanged, suggesting feedback inhibition does not affect metabolic bioenergetics but instead redirects carbon and energy to CO2 and H2. Flux balance analysis modeling showed increased flux through CO2-producing reactions under glucose-limiting growth conditions. The metabolic dynamics observed for B. theta, a keystone symbiont organism, underscores the need for metabolic modeling to complement genomic predictions of microbial metabolism to infer mechanisms of microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions. IMPORTANCEBacteroides is a highly abundant taxon in the human gut, and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta) is a ubiquitous human symbiont that colonizes the host early in development and persists throughout its life span. The phenotypic plasticity of keystone organisms such as B. theta is important to understand in order to predict phenotype(s) and metabolic interactions under changing nutrient conditions such as those that occur in complex gut communities. Our study shows B. theta prioritizes energy conservation and suppresses secretion of “overflow metabolites” such as organic acids and amino acids when concentrations of acetate are high. Secreted metabolites, especially amino acids, can be a source of nutrients or signals for the host or other microbes in the community. Our study suggests that when metabolically stressed by acetate, B. theta stops sharing with its ecological partners.
Same-Sex Couples and Cognitive Impairment: Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study.

OBJECTIVES We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive disparities among same-sex and different-sex couples in the United States. METHODS We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2016). The sample included 23,669 respondents (196 same-sex partners and 23,473 different-sex partners) aged 50 and older who contributed to 85,117 person-period records (496 from same-sex partners and 84,621 from different-sex partners). Cognitive impairment was assessed using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Mixed-effects discrete-time hazard regression models were estimated to predict the odds of cognitive impairment. RESULTS The estimated odds of cognitive impairment were 78% (p < .01) higher for same-sex partners than for different-sex partners. This disparity was mainly explained by differences in marital status and, to a much lesser extent, by differences in physical and mental health. Specifically, a significantly higher proportion of same-sex partners than different-sex partners were cohabiting rather than legally married (72.98% vs. 5.42% in the study sample), and cohabitors had a significantly higher risk of cognitive impairment than their married counterparts (odds ratio = 1.53, p < .001). DISCUSSION The findings indicate that designing and implementing public policies and programs that work to eliminate societal homophobia, especially among older adults, is a critical step in reducing the elevated risk of cognitive impairment among older same-sex couples.
War and remembrance: the story of the American battle monuments commission: by Thomas H. Conner, Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 2018, 334 pp., $50.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-8131-7631-4

As Thomas H. Conner observes near the beginning of this meticulously researched and skilfully written volume, service with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) has been a high honour tha...
Increased Aortic Stiffness and Left Ventricular Dysfunction Exist After Truncus Arteriosus Repair.

Background The purpose of this study was to determine whether aortic biomechanical properties are abnormal in children with repaired truncus arteriosus (TA) and to concurrently evaluate left ventricular (LV) function post-repair utilizing a novel platform for regional ventricular function. Methods Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) studies from 26 children (mean age: 15.6 ± 7.2 years) post-TA repair were compared with 20 normal controls (mean age: 14.7 ± 2.6 years). Parameters of aortic stiffness (pulse wave velocity and relative area change) were measured. Flow hemodynamic metrics (aortic regurgitant fraction, peak systolic flow, and peak systolic velocity) and LV function (volumetric data, ejection fraction, regional wall strain) were also compared. Results Ascending aortic pulse wave velocity was elevated and relative area change was decreased in TA patients compared with controls. Patients post-TA repair demonstrated elevated end diastolic and end systolic volumes in addition to decreased regional wall strain and increased mechanical dyssynchrony. LV functional changes were independent of aortic biomechanical properties. Conclusions Children with repaired TA have increased ascending aortic stiffness and altered LV function as measured by CMR imaging. Longitudinal studies and advanced CMR assessments are warranted to better determine the long-term potential for late aortic complications and to optimize both the medical and surgical management of these patients after TA repair.
On Generalized Expanded Blaum-Roth Codes.

Expanded Blaum-Roth (EBR) codes consist of $n\times n$ arrays such that lines of slopes $i$, $0\leq i\leq r-1$ for $2\leq r<n$, as well as vertical lines, have even parity. The codes are MDS with respect to columns, i.e., they can recover any $r$ erased columns, if and only if $n$ is a prime number. Recently a generalization of EBR codes, called generalized expanded Blaum-Roth (GEBR) codes, was presented. GEBR codes consist of $p\tau\times (k+r)$ arrays, where $p$ is prime and $\tau\geq 1$, such that lines of slopes $i$, $0\leq i\leq r-1$, have even parity and every column in the array, when regarded as a polynomial, is a multiple of $1+x^{\tau}$. In particular, it was shown that when $p$ is an odd prime number, 2 is primitive in $GF(p)$ and $\tau = p^j$, $j\geq 0$, the GEBR code consisting of $p\tau\times (p-1)\tau$ arrays is MDS. We extend this result further by proving that GEBR codes consisting of $p\tau\times p\tau$ arrays are MDS if and only if $\tau = p^j$, where $0\leq j$ and $p$ is any odd prime.
Calming Troubled Waters: Local Solutions

In 1861, the Ohio Supreme Court adopted the Absolute Use Rule to govern groundwater, essentially allowing landowners its unencumbered use. The opinion noted that the behavior of subterranean water was “occult and mysterious” and that it was beyond the competence of judges to determine its appropriate use. The Ohio court reversed course in 1984 and adopted the Reasonable Use Rule. By then, scientific knowledge had advanced to the point that the interconnected movement of water was more readily discoverable. The court noted that a primary goal of water law should be to conform to hydrologic fact. This Article explores the advance of scientific knowledge related to water pollution, which reveals the clear relationship between land use and water quality. It examines the Clean Water Act and concludes that, despite advances in scientific knowledge, federal law does not conform to scientific fact but remains mysteriously incapable of addressing much of the nation’s severe water pollution. Non-navigable waters, groundwater, and nonpoint sources, with minor exceptions, all fall outside the Clean Water Act’s regulatory scope, as currently interpreted. State governments, however, may use their reserved police powers to protect natural resources, including watersheds. Most state legislatures have delegated broad power to local governments to mitigate water pollution through the adoption of land use plans, zoning laws, and land use and public nuisance regulations. The Article describes a host of local government gap-filling strategies that protect water quality and explores a number of intermunicipal and intergovernmental collaborations that defy the many critics who warn against relying on localism to solve natural resource problems. It analyzes the principle of subsidiarity, which holds that responsibility for dealing with problems should be delegated to the most decentralized institution capable of addressing them. There is general agreement among most critics that, despite their limitations, local governments must play a key role in resource conservation, but that they need assistance. To accommodate the diversity of situations and the need for flexibility in approach, the Article constructs, explains, and recommends the Principle of Collaborative Subsidiarity as a strategic path for rectifying the fragmented nature of the nation’s system of water law.
Cisplatin and Carboplatin

Platinum-based agents belong to alkylating antineoplastic agents. They are the backbone of most chemotherapeutic regimens in many cancer types, including testicular cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, and head and neck cancer.
How detrimental could a via be

The vertical interconnects used in printed circuit boards, known as vias, are becoming increasingly critical to interconnect performance with ever increasing system data rates. To explore the effects of vias on system link performance, both simulations and measurements on test structures were implemented in a wide frequency range. The results indicate that proper via management is vital to the success of interconnect designs operating at multi-Gb/s data rates.
Rule-Based Ensemble Solutions for Regression

We describe a lightweight learning method that induces an ensemble of decision-rule solutions for regression problems. Instead of direct prediction of a continuous output variable, the method discretizes the variable by k-means clustering and solves the resultant classification problem. Predictions on new examples are made by averaging the mean values of classes with votes that are close in number to the most likely class. We provide experimental evidence that this indirect approach can often yield strong results for many applications, generally outperforming direct approaches such as regression trees and rivaling bagged regression trees.
Conversations in the crowd: Collecting data for task-oriented dialog learning

A major challenge in developing dialog systems is obtaining realistic data to train the systems for specific domains. We study the opportunity for using crowdsourcing methods to collect dialog datasets. Specifically, we introduce ChatCollect, a system that allows researchers to collect conversations focused around definable tasks from pairs of workers in the crowd. We demonstrate that varied and in-depth dialogs can be collected using this system, then discuss ongoing work on creating a crowd-powered system for parsing semantic frames. We then discuss research opportunities in using this approach to train and improve automated dialog systems in the future.
Technology Diffusion in Social Networks

Social networks form the basic structure for the diffusion of technologies throughout a society. We present a simple model of Morris [8] for this diffusion based on myopic best-response behavior of the agents and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for a new technology to inflitrate a network in which all agents are intially using an incumbant technology. We then discuss an extention of this model based on joint work with Kleinberg, Mahdian, and Wexler [6] which incorporates compatibility between technologies and discuss how this effects the diffusion. We find some surprising results: in some cases, for one technology to survive the introduction of another, the cost of adopting both technologies must be balanced within a narrow, intermediate range. We also extend our framework to the case of multiple technologies, where we find that a simple model captures the phenomenon of two firms adopting a limited "strategic alliance" to defend against a new, third technology.
Purification and Properties of the recBC DNase of Escherichia coli K-12

Abstract The deoxyribonuclease controlled by the recB and recC loci of Escherichia coli K-12 has been purified to near homogeneity. It is composed of two nonidentical polypeptide chains with a combined molecular weight of approximately 270,000. In the presence of ATP the enzyme hydrolyzes linear duplex or single stranded DNA in an exonucleolytic manner to 5'-phosphoryl-terminated oligonucleotides of an average length of 4.5. The enzyme can also cleave single stranded DNA endonucleolytically, being stimulated 7-fold by ATP in this reaction. However, no nuclease activity is observed on closed circular duplex DNA. In the course of exonuclease digestion more than 20 ATP molecules are hydrolyzed to ADP and inorganic phosphate for each DNA phosphodiester bond broken. There is no ATP hydrolysis in the absence of degradable DNA.