cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
8.1 Improved power-side-channel-attack resistance of an AES-128 core via a security-aware integrated buck voltage regulator

Power side-channel attacks (PSCA), e.g. Differential Power Analysis (DPA) and Correlation Power Analysis (CPA), are major threats to the security of crypto engines in SoC platforms. Circuit-level SCA countermeasures to achieve data-independent supply current patterns via implementation of crypto engines using non-conventional logic (complemented [1] or charge recovery [2]) and local switched-capacitor-based supply current equalization [3] have been demonstrated. The feasibility of using bandwidth-limited integrated low dropout regulators, multi-phase switched-capacitor VRs with phase-randomization and integrated inductive voltage regulators (IVR) to enhance PSCA resistance have been explored before via simulation studies [4]. In this paper, we demonstrate improved PSCA resistance offered by an on-die all-digital high-frequency IVR in 130nm CMOS [5] for a standard (unprotected) 128b Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) core designed in static CMOS logic. The IVR features a configurable digital proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, a digital discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) controller, and a loop randomization (LR) block, all of which are utilized to enhance PSCA resistance with minimal power/performance/area overheads, while maintaining adequate local voltage regulation and transient performance.
Unpacking a Liturgical Framing of Desire for the Purposes of Educational Research

Much of the public discourse on education arguably reinforces the assumption that most stakeholders share the same desires for teaching and learning—desires reflecting a liberal paradigm that stresses individualism, control, and efficiency. But there are other desires, and additional empirical research informed by a Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning could enrich this discourse. In my view, such research could benefit from a framework of desire compatible with the theory's central assumptions of learning as socially situated in cultural practices, teleological, and transformational. To this purpose, I offer a liturgical framing of desire put forth by James K. A. Smith, which treats humans as essentially desiring beings and defines desire as a potent force formed through participation in communal practices that orient practitioners' hearts (eros) toward particular futures (telos). I show how this framing satisfies key features of sociocultural theory and highlight two examples of how desire has be...
NMR Spectroscopy of Intracellular Sodium Ions in Living Cells

Na-23 NMR, in combination with extracellularly localized paramagnetic shift reagent dysprosium bis(tripolyphosphate), has emerged as a convenient and rapid method for studying intracellular sodium ions without contamination from extracellular ions. The unusually large paramagnetic hyperfine shifts in the frequency of the Na-23 resonance caused by this reagent are ascribed to its highly anionic nature as well as its ability to bind sodium ions in close proximity of the paramagnetic dysprosium. A sizeable pool of intracellular sodium ions may be NMR-invisible due to broadening of its resonance via nuclear quadrupolar interactions. Such interactions do not, in all cases, cause a 60% reduction in the intensity of the observed Na-23 signal due to broadening only of transitions involving the outer magnetic energy levels of the sodium nucleus. NMR-visible cell sodium responds to changes in tissue physiological state. Thus, insulin deficiency causes a decrease in the NMR-visible sodium in isolated cardiac myocytes, and blood lymphocytes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia contain only half the normal level of NMR-visible sodium ions. Changes in the NMR-visible sodium concentration may sometimes occur without a corresponding change in the total cell sodium content. NMR may, therefore, be a unique noninvasive technique in studies of the role of sodium ions in regulation.
FLEXIBLE DESIGN METHODOLOGY

A flexible design methodology is developed to minimize the effect of uncontrolled variation by modeling potential design and manufacturing corrections in the product development process. Using this flexibility methodology, the different defect modes and the likelihood of these defects occurring is evaluated. For every defect mode, all design change options are investigated including the cost and probability of selection. The expected cost of the initial design including design changes is determined, thus allowing development of improved, more flexible designs. The theoretical method is demonstrated using an example. The results indicate that small changes in design variables may reduce the likelihood and cost of future design changes, yet provide opportunity for downstream cost minimization.
The Global Standards Wars: Patent and Competition Disputes in North America, Europe and Asia

Over the past decade there has been an increasing number of disputes concerning the enforcement and licensing of patents covering technical standards. These disputes have taken on a global character and often involve litigation in North America, Europe and Asia. And while many of the parties are the same in actions around the world, courts and governmental agencies in different jurisdictions have begun to develop distinctive approaches to some of these issues. Thus, while areas of convergence exist, national laws differ on important issues including the availability of injunctive relief for FRAND-encumbered SEPs, the appropriate method for calculating FRAND royalties, the competition implications of violating a FRAND commitment, and the contours of the FRAND non-discrimination obligation. Thus, at least until greater international harmonization is achieved, firms doing business globally must remain particularly attuned to the evolving legal landscape in this area. This paper presents a brief overview of recent disputes that have arisen around the world with respect to the acquisition, enforcement and licensing of patents that are essential to technical interoperability standards.
The Ruelle Probability Cascades

In this chapter we will describe a remarkable family of random measures on a Hilbert space, called the Ruelle probability cascades, that play a central role in the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model, and the first three sections will be devoted to the construction of these measures and study of their properties. We will see that they satisfy certain special invariance properties, one of which, called the Ghirlanda–Guerra identities, will serve as a key link between the Ruelle probability cascades and the Gibbs measure in the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model. This connection will be explained in the last two sections, where it will be shown that, in a certain sense, the Ghirlanda–Guerra identities completely determine a random measure up to a functional order parameter. We will see in the next chapter that, as a consequence, the asymptotic Gibbs measures in the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick and mixed p-spin models can be approximated by the Ruelle probability cascades.
Nonequilibrium Steady States

In several places in this book we have encountered the notion of a nonequilibrium steady state. Because of statistical fluctuations a steady state, like an equilibrium state, should not be thought of as the state of a single system, but rather as the state of an ensemble. For example, in Section 4.7 we examined the coupled chemical reactions A + X → 2X and 2X → E. Using the canonical theory we discovered that, on the average, there are two densities of X which do not change as a function of time. One of these was ρx (1) = 0, which was found to be unstable to small perturbations, and the other was ρx (2) = k1/2k2, which is stable. The stable density is like an equilibrium density in that it supports a stationary probability distribution. In other words, associated with the time-independent average density ρ(2) x is a unique, stationary probability distribution that characterizes single-time averages in the steady-state ensemble. This situation turns out to be relatively common. Indeed, it has already arisen in our treatment of electrochemical reactions in Section 5.7, in our discussion of reaction-diffusion fluctuations in Section 6.6, and in the calculation of the light scattering spectrum from a temperature gradient in Section 6.8. In this chapter we consider the statistical thermodynamic description of stable nonequilibrium steady states in a more general setting. We begin in this section by characterizing the average statistical state
Model Transformation Using Multiobjective Optimization

Abstract The evolution of languages and software architectures provides a strong motivation to migrate/transform existing software systems. Thus, more attention is paid to the transformation aspects in model-driven engineering (MDE) along with the growing importance of modeling in software development. However, a major concern in MDE is how to ensure the quality of the model transformation mechanisms. Most of existing work in model transformation has relied on defining languages to express transformation rules. The main goal of existing transformation approaches is to provide rules generating target models, from source models, without errors. However, other important objective is how to minimize the complexity of transformation rules (e.g., the number of rules and number of matching in the same rule) while maximizing the quality of target models. In fact, reducing rule complexity and improving target model quality are important to (1) make rules and target models easy to understand and evolve, (2) find transformation errors easily, and (3) generate optimal target models. In this chapter, we consider the transformation mechanism as a multiobjective problem where the goal is to find the best rules maximizing target model quality and minimizing rule complexity. Our approach starts by randomly generating a set of rules, executing them to generate some target models. Of course, only solutions ensuring full correctness are considered during the optimization process. Then, the quality of the proposed solution (rules) is evaluated by (1) calculating the number of rules and matching metamodels in each rule and (2) assessing the quality of generated target models using a set of quality metrics. To this end, we use the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to automatically generate the best transformation rules satisfying the two conflicting criteria. We report the results of our validation using three different transformation mechanisms. The best solutions provided well-designed target models with a minimal set of rules.
Metastable Intermediates in Amorphous Titanium Oxide: A Hidden Role Leading to Ultra-Stable Photoanode Protection.

Metastable intermediates represent a non-equilibrium state of matter that may impose profound impacts to materials properties beyond our understandings of monolithic and equilibrium systems. Here, we report a discovery of hidden metastable intermediates in amorphous TiO2 thin films and their critical role in electrochemical damage. These intermediates have a non-bulk crystal-like structure and exhibit significantly higher electrical conductivity than both the amorphous and the crystalline phases. When these TiO2 films are applied to protect Si photoelectrochemical (PEC) photoanodes, the intermediates can induce localized high electrical currents that largely accelerate the etching of the TiO2 film and the Si electrode underneath. The intermediates can be effectively suppressed by raising their nucleation barrier via reducing the film thickness from 24 to 2.5 nm. The homogeneous amorphous TiO2-film-coated Si photoanodes achieved more than 500 h of PEC water oxidation at a steady photocurrent density of ove...
Pretreatment brain connectivity during positive emotion upregulation predicts decreased anhedonia following behavioral activation therapy for depression.

Abstract Background Neurobiological predictors of antidepressant response may help guide treatment selection and improve response rates to available treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD). Behavioral activation therapy for depression (BATD) is an evidence-based intervention designed to ameliorate core symptoms of MDD by promoting sustained engagement with value-guided, positively-reinforcing activities. The present study examined pre-treatment task-based functional brain connectivity as a predictor of antidepressant response to BATD. Methods Thirty-three outpatients with MDD and 20 nondepressed controls completed a positive emotion regulation task during fMRI after which participants with MDD received up to 15 sessions of BATD. We used generalized psychophysiological interaction analyses to examine group differences in pre-treatment functional brain connectivity during intentional upregulation of positive emotion to positive images. Hierarchical linear models were used to examine whether group differences in functional connectivity predicted changes in depression and anhedonia over the course of BATD. Results Compared to controls, participants with MDD exhibited decreased connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and right temporoparietal regions during upregulation of positive emotion. Within the MDD group, decreased connectivity of these regions predicted greater declines in anhedonia symptoms over treatment. Limitations Future studies should include comparison treatments and longitudinal follow-up to clarify the unique effects of BATD on neural function and antidepressant response. Conclusions Results are consistent with previous work showing BATD may be particularly effective for individuals with greater disturbances in brain reward network function, but extend these findings to highlight the importance of frontotemporoparietal connectivity in targeting symptoms of low motivation and engagement.
Is information technology hacking our happiness

ABSTRACTInternet platforms have revolutionized our lives, but only now are we beginning to see their dark side. Millions of adults lose productivity, sleep, and motivation through constant interrup...
The Validity of a Frustration Paradigm to Assess the Effect of Frustration on Cognitive Control in School-Age Children.

Abstract Irritability refers to a proneness for anger, and is a symptom of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Since irritability is associated with significant cross-sectional and longitudinal impairments, research on the behavioral and neural correlates of pediatric irritability in populations at-risk for significant irritability is of paramount importance. Irritability can be assessed in the laboratory using behavioral paradigms that elicit frustration. Few behavioral frustration paradigms have been designed to measure the effects of frustration on cognitive control. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to validate a behavioral frustration paradigm for use in school-age children which addressed some of the limitations of prior research. Participants included children, ages 8–12 years, who were either typically-developing (TD; n = 38) or diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 67), which provided a sample of children with a range of baseline irritability. All participants completed the Frustration Go/No-Go (GNG) task, and self-reported irritability was assessed using the Affective Reactivity Index. Results showed that across participants, self-reported frustration, commission error rate and tau all increased with the addition of frustration, with similar effect sizes in ADHD and TD groups. Further, self-reported irritability moreso than ADHD symptoms, predicted changes in self-reported frustration during the task. Together, these results support the construct validity of the Frustration GNG task as a means of assessing the effect of frustration on cognitive control. Clinical applications and future directions are discussed.
Management of Moderate Dysplasia of the Oral Cavity

Moderate dysplasia of the oral cavity has an intermediate propensity to progress to malignancy, but no biomarkers exist that accurately predict progression of a given lesion. Furthermore, no prospective randomized controlled trials have yet been conducted to determine optimal management of oral premalignant lesions. Management of moderate dysplasia therefore remains controversial. In this chapter, a review of the literature regarding observation and surgical excision of moderate dysplasia is presented. Data regarding the rates of malignant transformation of moderate dysplasia with or without surgical intervention are reviewed. Conflicting data regarding the effects of surgical intervention on subsequent malignant transformation and recurrent dysplasia are also examined. Lastly, evidence regarding the risks of “under-diagnosis” of dysplastic lesions, and the importance of this phenomenon in the context of management of moderate dysplasia, is discussed. The author concludes that, though the quality of available evidence is low, moderate dysplasia may be associated with an increased risk of subsequent malignant transformation. Surgical resection may be effective in reducing, but not eliminating, the risk of transformation. Furthermore, all patients with moderate dysplasia should undergo continued surveillance regardless of initial management strategy, given the persistent risks of recurrence and malignancy with or without surgical intervention.
Phylogenetic diversity efficiently and accurately prioritizes the conservation of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities

O_LILand degradation is a leading cause of biodiversity loss yet its consequences on freshwater ecosystems are poorly understood, exacerbating difficulties with assessing ecosystem quality and the effectiveness of restoration practices.nC_LIO_LIMany monitoring programs rely on macroinvertebrates to assess the biotic effects of degradation and/or restoration and management actions on freshwater ecosystems. The ratio of Observed (O) to Expected (E) macroinvertebrate taxa at a given site--O/E--is often used for this purpose, despite the amount of modeling and data required to generate expectations and difficulties quantitatively assessing the degree of degradation at a site.nC_LIO_LIDespite widespread use in academic biology, phylogenetic diversity is rarely applied in management, regardless of empirical correlations between phylogenetic diversity and management targets such as ecosystem structure and function.nC_LIO_LIWe use macroinvertebrate data from 1,400 watersheds to evaluate the potential for phylogenetic metrics to inform evaluations of management practices. These data have been collected since 1998, and have been used to determine the effectiveness of conservation management for the maintenance and restoration of riparian and aquatic systems.nC_LIO_LIPhylogenetic diversity detected degradation as effectively as O/E, despite not having baseline expectation data. Site disturbance, road density, and broader environmental drivers such as mean annual temperature strongly predicted site phylogenetic diversity, providing concrete management objectives to increase site health.nC_LIO_LISynthesis and applications. Management efforts targeted solely at taxonomic metrics, such as O/E, have been successfully used to manage sites. We show here that phylogenetic diversity metrics can support such efforts by providing additional information about the kind of species at sites. Given the ease with which such approaches can be applied, we call on others to use them to supplement existing prioritization schemes.nC_LI
Scaling Up Teleophthalmology for Diabetic Eye Screening: Opportunities for Widespread Implementation in the USA

We discuss opportunities to address key barriers to widespread implementation of teleophthalmology programs for diabetic eye screening in the United States (U.S.). Teleophthalmology is an evidence-based form of diabetic eye screening. This technology has been proven to substantially increase diabetic eye screening rates and decrease blindness. However, teleophthalmology implementation remains limited among U.S. health systems. Major barriers include financial concerns as well as limited utilization by providers, clinical staff, and patients. Possible interventions include increasingly affordable camera technology, demonstration of financially sustainable billing models, and engaging key stakeholders. Significant opportunities exist to overcome barriers to scale up and promote widespread implementation of teleophthalmology in the USA. Further development of methods to sustain effective increases in diabetic eye screening rates using this technology is needed. In addition, the demonstration of cost-effectiveness in a variety of billing models should be investigated to facilitate widespread implementation of teleophthalmology in U.S. health systems.
Perspective on Automation of Statistical Modeling Process for Battery Lifetime Prediction

Automating the process of statistical modeling would be substantially beneficial for the fields that rely heavily on expert statisticians. In this paper, a perspective is briefly provided on how to automate statistical modeling processes for the prediction of battery lifetime, especially on automating the step of feature engineering, to alleviate the considerable time and human intervention required by the current data-driven lifetime prediction methods. An example related to overpotential concept for early prediction is discussed to show that teach machines concepts the same way as humans are taught may be a promising way to enable the machine to gain anthropomorphic intelligence that is beneficial for automated feature engineering.
Anomaly of Toughness Behavior with Notch-Root Radius

The present investigation has studied the effects of notch-root radii on the Charpy apparent toughness of as-quenched and tempered 4340 steel as a function of (1) test temperature (liquid nitrogen and room temperature), (2) strain rate (high and slow strain rates corresponding to Charpy and plane-strain fracture toughness testing rates), and (3) grain size (25 and 250 μm). The toughness was evaluated by instrumented and slow-bend Charpy tests. Fracture surfaces were examined by scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that initially the toughness increased as the notch-root radius increased, but that after a critical notch-root radius was reached, the toughness dropped. The loss in toughness was coincident with a change to an intergranular fracture mode initiation. Also, the critical root radius at which the drop in toughness occurred was temperature and strain-rate dependent. These results are not in agreement with other published results, which always show increasing toughness with increasing notch root radius beyond a limiting root radius. These results and the limitation of the current theories are presented and discussed in this paper. A physical process for the intergranular fracture mode initiation is also discussed.
An over-pressure correction to the slug model for vortex ring circulation

The slug model provides a formula for the circulation of vortex rings formed by starting jets ejected from a nozzle or orifice in terms of the time history of the jet velocity. For rapidly initiated jets, however, the model under-predicts circulation by an amount that remains nearly constant as circulation increases. To remedy this shortcoming, the present study derives an equation for circulation directly from the governing equations for the flow, illustrating that the circulation can be expressed as the sum of a flux term, 67% for the data considered.
The Role of Anxiety in Smoking Onset, Severity, and Cessation-Related Outcomes: a Review of Recent Literature

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions globally and co-occurs with smoking at a markedly high rate. The present review offers a narrative overview of the most recent research on the role of anxiety in smoking onset, maintenance, and cessation-related outcomes. Additionally, given the rise in electronic cigarette use, we review the emerging literature on the influence of anxiety on e-cigarette use. Evidence across studies varied as to the role of anxiety or anxiety symptoms in smoking behavior. The most consistent findings suggested that those with anxiety are more likely to be a smoker, supporting a high rate of co-occurrence across these conditions. Less consistent evidence was observed for the association between anxiety and onset, indicators of severity, and cessation outcomes. Although there is robust evidence for an association between smoking and anxiety, there were considerable discrepancies for the precise role of anxiety in smoking onset, severity, and cessation outcomes. Future work utilizing more sophisticated methodologies is needed to identify causal relations as well as putative moderators and mediators of the anxiety–smoking relation.
Financial Dependents and Sentencing Outcomes in Federal District Courts: Variation by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex:

A voluminous literature has detailed disparities in punishment related to extra-legal characteristics such as race, ethnicity, and sex. However, less research has investigated the specific contexts...
Electrophoresis-Based Adaptive Tube Model Predictive Control of Micro- and Nanoparticles Motion in Fluid Suspension

In this paper, we present an adaptive tube model predictive control (MPC) scheme for the simultaneous manipulation of multiple micro- and nanoparticles using the precisely controlled electric field of a microfluidic device. Unknown variations of the particles’ mobilities and external disturbances are considered. The proposed strategy estimates the unknown mobilities of the particles online using the set membership identification method. Based on the estimate, the dynamic tubes of individual particles are constructed and used in the tube MPC to simultaneously position multiple particles while satisfying constraints. The manipulability and performance of the proposed controller are analyzed. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the controller to precisely, independently, and simultaneously manipulate multiple particles. The proposed scheme addresses the coupled actuation from the global electric field with separated dynamic tubes constructed for each particle.
Husserl, Model Theory, and Formal Essences

Husserl’s philosophy of mathematics, his metatheory, and his transcendental phenomenology have a sophisticated and systematic interrelation that remains relevant for questions of ontology today. It is well established that Husserl anticipated many aspects of model theory. I focus on this aspect of Husserl’s philosophy in order to argue that Thomasson’s recent pleonastic reconstruction of Husserl’s approach to essences is incompatible with Husserl’s philosophy as a whole. According to the pleonastic approach, Husserl can appeal to essences in the absence of a positive metaphysical account of their nature. I show, using central results from recent model theory, that the pleonastic approach undermines Husserl’s approach to formalization and categoricity, an effect that will ripple out from Husserl’s philosophy of mathematics into Husserl’s metatheory and transcendental phenomenology. The result is that Husserl cannot appeal to formal essences without metaphysical commitments. However, the very observations Thomasson makes about the nature of eidetic intuition in Husserl lead to a general strategy for responding to the problem. The article thus illustrates that the pleonastic and the model-theoretic routes for making Husserl relevant to present-day ontology are competing approaches, but I conclude that Husserl scholars seeking to set Husserl’s present-day relevance into sharp relief could do worse than to emphasize the model-theoretic nature of Husserl’s enterprise.
Strongyloides Stercoralis Infection: A Rare Cause of Acute Abdomen

A 30-year-old female presented to the emergency department with severe recurrent abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and a 50-pound unintentional weight loss within the past few years. After emigrating from Liberia to the United States in 2005, the patient was evaluated for similar complaints in the past and underwent exploratory laparotomies and partial small bowel resection with no significant improvement in symptoms. Computerized tomography (CT) of the abdomen showed intestinal inflammation and mesenteric edema. Small intestinal enteroscopy was unremarkable. Small intestinal biopsy showed larval round worms in intestinal crypts. Stool ova and parasite exam revealed larval forms of Strongyloides stercoralis. She was treated with ivermectin 200 mcg/kg daily for two days and recommended to return in four weeks to repeat stool exam to ensure complete parasite clearance.
Probabilistic Lipschitz Analysis of Neural Networks

We are interested in algorithmically proving the robustness of neural networks. Notions of robustness have been discussed in the literature; we are interested in probabilistic notions of robustness that assume it feasible to construct a statistical model of the process generating the inputs of a neural network. We find this a reasonable assumption given the rapid advances in algorithms for learning generative models of data. A neural network f is then defined to be probabilistically robust if, for a randomly generated pair of inputs, f is likely to demonstrate k-Lipschitzness, i.e., the distance between the outputs computed by f is upper-bounded by the \(k^{th}\) multiple of the distance between the pair of inputs. We name this property, probabilistic Lipschitzness.
Crossing Kingdoms: How the Mycobiota and Fungal-Bacterial Interactions Impact Host Health and Disease.

ABSTRACT The term “microbiota” invokes images of mucosal surfaces densely populated with bacteria. These surfaces and the luminal compartments they form indeed predominantly harbor bacteria. However, research from this past decade has started to complete the picture by focusing on important but largely neglected constituents of the microbiota: fungi, viruses, and archaea. The community of commensal fungi, also called the mycobiota, interacts with commensal bacteria and the host. It is thus not surprising that changes in the mycobiota have significant impact on host health and are associated with pathological conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this review we will give an overview of why the mycobiota is an important research area and different mycobiota research tools. We will specifically focus on distinguishing transient and actively colonizing fungi of the oral and gut mycobiota and their roles in health and disease. In addition to correlative and observational studies, we will discuss mechanistic studies on specific cross-kingdom interactions of fungi, bacteria, and the host.
A Combination 5-DOF Active Magnetic Bearing for Energy Storage Flywheels

Conventional active magnetic bearing (AMB) systems use several separate radial and thrust bearings to provide a five-degree of freedom (DOF) levitation control. This article presents a novel combination 5-DOF AMB (C5AMB) designed for a shaft-less, hub-less, high-strength steel energy storage flywheel (SHFES), which achieves doubled energy density compared to prior technologies. As a single device, the C5AMB provides radial, axial, and tilting levitations simultaneously. In addition, it utilizes low-cost and more available materials to replace silicon steels and laminations, which results in reduced costs and more convenient assemblies. Apart from the unique structure and the use of low magnetic grade material, other design challenges include shared flux paths, large dimensions, and relatively small air gaps. The finite-element method (FEM) is too computationally intensive for early-stage analysis. An equivalent magnetic circuit method (EMCM) is developed for modeling and analysis. Nonlinear FEM is then used for detailed simulations. Both permanent magnets (PMs) and electromagnetic control currents provide the weight-balancing lifting force. During the full-scale prototype testing, the C5AMB successfully levitates a 5440-kg and 2-m-diameter flywheel at an air gap of 1.14 mm. Its current and position stiffnesses are verified experimentally.
Prostate Cancer Mortality Associated with Aggregate Polymorphisms in Androgen-Regulating Genes: The Atherosclerosis Risk in the Communities (ARIC) Study

Genetic variations in androgen metabolism may influence prostate cancer (PC) prognosis. Clinical studies consistently linked PC prognosis with four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the critical androgen-regulating genes: 3-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD3B1) rs1047303, 5-alpha-reductase 2 (SRD5A2) rs523349, and solute carrier organic ion (SLCO2B1) rs1789693 and rs12422149. We tested the association of four androgen-regulating SNPs, individually and combined, with PC-specific mortality in the ARIC population-based prospective cohort. Men diagnosed with PC (N = 622; 79% White, 21% Black) were followed for death (N = 350) including PC death (N = 74). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95%CI adjusting for center, age, stage, and grade at diagnosis using separate hazards for races. A priori genetic risk score (GRS) was created as the unweighted sum of risk alleles in the four pre-selected SNPs. The gain-of-function rs1047303C allele was associated PC-specific mortality among men with metastatic PC at diagnosis (HR = 4.89 per risk allele, p = 0.01). Higher GRS was associated with PC-specific mortality (per risk allele: HR = 1.26, p = 0.03). We confirmed that the gain-of-function allele in HSD3B1 rs1047303 is associated with greater PC mortality in men with metastatic disease. Additionally, our findings suggest a cumulative effect of androgen-regulating genes on PC-specific mortality; however, further validation is required.
Virtual Solutions for Gathering Consumer Feedback on Food: A Literature Review and Analysis

Addressing consumer needs is key to success in new product development. Due to COVID-19, however, gathering feedback on food products has become challenging. Our preliminary research on the food industry revealed that the socially distanced lifestyle has deprived food practitioners of in-person testing platforms, inspiring our research questions. Although a myriad of virtual methods for food testing have been reported in the past two decades, the literature does not provide systematic assessment of their applicability. Therefore, in this review of 108 papers, we delineate the landscape of virtual technologies for food testing and present their practical implications. From our analysis, VR emerged as a promising tool, yet it was not being used by practitioners. Other technologies (e.g. flavor simulators) were too preliminary to be adopted in industry. Furthermore, the types of technologies were fragmented, leaving much room for cross-tech integration. Future research goals to address the gaps are discussed.
Assessment of sports nutrition knowledge, dietary intake, and nutrition information source in female collegiate athletes: A descriptive feasibility study.

Objective: This descriptive feasibility study aimed to assess dietary intake, sports nutrition knowledge, and nutrition information source in collegiate athletes. Participants: Fourteen indoor voll...
Evaluating a proposed modification of the Guttman rule for determining the number of factors in an exploratory factor analysis

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a widely used statistical method in which researchers attempt to ascertain the number and nature of latent factors that explain their observed variables. When conducting an EFA, researchers must choose the number of factors to retain – a critical decision that has drastic effects if made incorrectly. In this article, we examine a newly proposed method of choosing the number of factors to retain. In the new method, confidence intervals are created around each eigenvalue and factors are retained if the entire eigenvalue is greater than 1.0. Results show that this new method outperforms the traditional Guttman rule, but does not surpass the accuracy of Velicer’s minimum average partial (MAP) or Horn’s parallel analysis (PA). MAP was the most accurate method overall, although it had a tendency to underfactor in some conditions. PA was the second most accurate method, although it frequently overfactored. PA was also found to be sensitive to sample size and MAP was found to occasionally grossly overfactor; these findings had not previously been reported in the literature.
A Comparative Study of Community- and Nursing Home-Acquired Empyema Thoracis

OBJECTIVES: To compare the clinical presentation, microbiological features, and outcomes of patients with community-acquired empyema (CAE) with those of patients with nursing home-acquired empyema (NHAE). DESIGN: A retrospective observational study. SETTING: Three tertiary care centers. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred fourteen patients admitted from the community and 55 patients transferred from nursing homes. MEASUREMENTS: Baseline sociodemographic information, activities of daily living, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, and clinica, and microbiologic data were obtained. Outcome was assessed at hospital discharge and 6 months postdischarge. RESULTS: Patients admitted from nursing homes had a delayed presentation, with dyspnea, weight loss, and anemia as the predominant manifestation. Patients with CAE presented more acutely, with fever, cough, and chest pain. Anaerobic organisms were more commonly isolated from patients with NHAE. The success rate of nonsurgical intervention was significantly lower for the NHAE patients than for the CAE group (39% vs 63; P=.01). In-hospital mortality was not significantly different between the two groups (NHAE, 18%; CAE, 8%; P=.09). In a Cox regression analysis, preadmission functional status (hazard ratio (HR)=1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.19–1.4; P<.001) and surgical intervention (HR=0.47, 95% CI=0.24–0.92; P=.03) were the only variables highly correlated with long-term outcome. CONCLUSION: Patients admitted with NHAE have distinctly different clinical and microbiological presentation from that of patients with CAE. Because of the delayed presentation in patients with NHAE, medical treatment alone may be associated with higher rate of failure. Surgical therapy should be considered for selected cases, with the aim of improving long-term survival.
Contributions of corner singularities of the capacitances of interconnections wires

A significant problem in the computation of capacitance coefficients for microwave transmission and VLSI interconnection transmission systems is caused by the singularities in the electric field at the corners and edges of conductors. For two-dimensional models, a solution is given by the so called "Duncan Correction", which is based on polar expansion of the field. No such exact expansion exists in the three-dimensional case. Recent research has led to some appropriate asymptotic expressions for those singularities, and these are used to derive algorithms for correcting conventional capacitance computation. This correction accounts for the singularities at the corners of the conductors. Finally we present a few examples to illustrate the three-dimensional capacitance correction procedure and computational accuracy.
The Microeconomics and Macropolitics of Systemic Financial Crisis: Bankruptcy as a Point of Reference

There have been two major systemic financial crises during the past 15 years, one regionally focused (the Latin American and Asian Financial Crises), the other more global in its reach (the current Global Financial Crisis). Both crises resulted in broad proposals emanating from the G-22 or G-20 to revise the global financial architecture and reform financial and commercial laws. That the G-20 shifted its focus from corporations to consumers should come as no surprise given the origins of the current Global Financial Crisis in the US subprime mortgage crisis, which was itself widely viewed as a failure of consumer protection. More surprising, however, has been the G-20’s failure to include insolvency law reform, whether corporate or consumer, in its sights. This chapter explores the possible reasons for and consequences of this failure.
General Mikhail Kutuzov: one-eyed defender of Moscow.

General Mikhail Kutuzov was a charismatic Russian general, most remembered for his defense of Moscow against Napoleon. He was in and out of favor with the emperor, Alexander I, but in times of crisis, on more than one occasion he was called back to lead the Russian Forces. From the standpoint of ophthalmology, it is of interest that while fighting the Turks, Kutuzov sustained two separate severe head wounds that ultimately led to loss of sight in his right eye. A portrait of General Kutuzov hangs in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Kutuzov's birthplace. In the portrait Kutuzov is standing with his left side facing forward, presumably to hide his disfigured right eye. He lost the Battle of Austerlitz against Napoleon and at best gained a draw at the Battle of Borodino. Nevertheless, the latter battle was the beginning of the end for Napoleon's Grand Armee. They entered a deserted Moscow, part of Kutuzov's scorched earth policy that left no food or housing for the enemy, and with the Russian winter rapidly approaching, Napoleon began his long retreat from Russia. As with the German army, the harsh winter claimed many casualties while Kutuzov added to the French misery by harassing the retreating army from the rear. Of 450,000 French soldiers, only 10,000 returned to France.
Revealed comparative advantage and competitiveness in services: A study with special emphasis on developing countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competitiveness of selected services: business, financial, transport and travel services in developing countries in relation to that of the rest of the world based on three indices of revealed comparative advantage.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indices to measure developing countries' comparative advantages in selected services for the period 1998‐2003.Findings – Strong comparative advantages exist for many developing countries in transport, and travel services. There is substantial room for improvement in financial and business services. Trade liberalization and lack of adequate preparation appears to have resulted in a weakening of their comparative advantages over the years. However, their revealed comparative advantages remain, by and large, stable and do not show a fundamental shift in the structure of their comparative advantages.Originality/value – There are no studies examining developing coun...
Calcification‐Carbonation Method for Alumina Production by Using Low‐Grade Bauxite

Aluminum industry is one of the most important industries in China’s nonferrous metal metallurgy industry. With the development of output in alumina and the improvement of its production technology, China’s high quality bauxite resources are difficult to meet. Under this condition, “Calcification-Carbonation Method” was put forward to deal with middle-low grade bauxite and red mud by Northeastern University, the main purpose of this method is to change the balance phase of red mud into 2CaO•SiO2 and CaCO3 with hydrometallurgical process. Through treatment by “Calcification-Carbonation Method”, A/S of the new structure red mud lowed below to 0.5 and the Na content lowed below to 0.3%, the red mud could be used in cement industry directly. This paper mainly introduced the technological idea and principle of new method, process comparison and typical experiment results is given as well.
Can Gravitational Waves Be Detected in Quasar Microlensing

Studies of the lensed quasar ${\rm Q}0957+561 {\rm A,B}$ have shown evidence for microlensing in the brightness history of the quasar images. It had been suggested that a frequency offset between the brightness fluctuations in each of the two images might possibly be caused by gravitational radiation generated by a massive black hole binary at the center of the lensing galaxy. This paper demonstrates that the fluctuations produced by such a source of gravitational waves will be too small to account for the observed frequency offsets.
Serum anti-SS-B/La and IgA rheumatoid factor are markers of salivary gland disease activity in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Objective. To identify serologic markers of salivary gland disease activity in 43 patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome. Methods. Comparison of salivary gland biopsies (focus scores) and flow rates with serum concentrations of IgA and IgM rheumatoid factor (RF), total serum IgG, serum anti—SS-B/La antibodies, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Results. Serum anti—SS-B/La antibody levels correlated with focus scores (rs = 0.477, P < 0.0025). Serum IgA-RF concentrations correlated inversely with stimulated parotid gland salivary flow rates (rs = −0.394, P < 0.01). Conclusion. Measuring serum levels of anti—SS-B/La and IgA-RF would be useful when monitoring salivary responses in therapeutic trials, especially in patients with minimal salivary function.
The Hydrogen Dissociator

A performance analysis is presented for the hydrogen dissociator used in hydrogen masers to provide a beam of atomic hydrogen. An analysis of the discharge characteristics yields relations for electron temperature as a function of vessel size and gas pressure and for plasma density as a function of power input. Also a relation between ion impact energy at the wall and electron temperature is derived. For a typical dissociator (2" diameter, 0.1 Torr hydrogen pressure, and 4 watt input power) these relationships yield an electron temperature of 39,000°K, a plasma density of 1011 cm-3 and an ion impact energy of 20 volts. The dissociation rate is calculated using published cross-sections. Assuming a recombination rate of 4 × 10-3, the analysis yields an atomic hydrogen density of about 1014 cm-3, a degree of dissociation of 2%, and an atomic beam flux of 1.3 × 1018 cm-2 × sec-1 for the example quoted. This beam flux is in good agreement with estimated values for hydrogen masers. A coefficient for performance ? is derived for the hydrogen dissociator, defined as the ratio of atomic beam flux to discharge power consumption. It is shown that ? is a function of the electron temperature and has a maximum at 87,000°K. It is concluded from this analysis that the discharge in presently used hydrogen dissociators is well optimized given the pressure constraints of the system.
Climatic changes and the atmospheric radiocarbon level

Abstract Fluctuations in the atmospheric radiocarbon level observed by measurements of the radiocarbon content of tree-ring-dated-wood are caused by changes in the geomagnetic field and in the activity of the sun. There are also indications for correlations of these carbon-14 fluctuations with climatic changes. If one assumes that the observed correlations are significant, then one might suspect that major climatic changes have occurred during the eighth century B.C. and the thirty-third century B.C.
in vitro metabolism of azinphosmethyl in susceptible and resistant houseflies

Abstract The in vitro metabolism of [ 14 C-methoxy] or [ 32 P]azinphosmethyl by subcellular fractions of abdomens from a resistant and a susceptible strain of houseflies was studied. The degradative activity in both strains was associated with the microsomal and soluble fractions and required NADPH and glutathione, respectively. The resistant strain possessed higher activity for both the mixed-function oxidases and the glutathione transferase than the susceptible strain, and both systems appear to be important in the resistance mechanism. The mixed-function oxidases were involved in the oxidative desulfuration as well as the dearylation of azinphosmethyl. A glutathione transferase located in the soluble fraction catalyzed the formation of desmethyl azinphosmethyl and methyl glutathione. This enzyme also demethylated azinphosmethyl oxygen analog. Although the soluble fraction exhibited both glutathione S -alkyltransferase and S -aryltransferase activity against noninsecticidal substrates, no evidence of the transfer of the benzazimide moiety from azinphosmethyl to glutathione was obtained. Sephadex G-100 chromatography of the soluble enzymes revealed a common eluting fraction responsible for both types of transferase activity.