cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Broad-Host-Range Expression Vectors with Tightly Regulated Promoters and Their Use To Examine the Influence of TraR and TraM Expression on Ti Plasmid Quorum Sensing

Experiments requiring strong repression and precise control of cloned genes can be difficult to conduct because of the relatively high basal level of expression of currently employed promoters. We report the construction of a family of vectors that contain a reengineered lacIq-lac promoter-operator complex in which cloned genes are strongly repressed in the absence of inducer. The vectors, all based on the broad-host-range plasmid pBBR1, are mobilizable and stably replicate at moderate copy number in representatives of the alpha- and gammaproteobacteria. Each vector contains a versatile multiple cloning site that includes an NdeI site allowing fusion of the cloned gene to the initiation codon of lacZα. In each tested bacterium, a uidA reporter fused to the promoter was not expressed at a detectable level in the absence of induction but was inducible by 10- to 100-fold, depending on the bacterium. The degree of induction was controllable by varying the concentration of inducer. When the vector was tested in Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a cloned copy of the traR gene, the product of which is needed at only a few copies per cell, did not confer activity under noninducing conditions. We used this attribute of very tight and variably regulatable control to assess the relative amounts of TraR required to activate the Ti plasmid conjugative transfer system. We identified levels of induction that gave wild-type transfer frequencies, as well as levels that induced correspondingly lower frequencies of transfer. We also used this system to show that the antiactivator TraM sets the level of intracellular TraR required for tra gene activation.
A comparison of pancreaticoduodenectomy and duodenum-preserving head resection for the treatment of chronic pancreatitis

Abstract Background For chronic pancreatitis, European prospective trials have concluded that duodenum-preserving head resections (DPHR) are associated with less morbidity and similar pain relief and quality of life (QoL) outcomes compared with pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). However, DPHR procedures are seldom performed in North America. Methods Patients undergoing PD or DPHR for unremitting pain secondary to chronic pancreatitis were retrospectively identified. Quality of life was assessed cross-sectionally using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality-of-Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) and pancreatic cancer-specific supplemental module (QLQ-PAN26). Results Eighty-one patients underwent either a Whipple PD (n= 59) or a DPHR (Bern, Beger or Frey procedure, n= 22) for the treatment of pain caused by chronic pancreatitis over a 5-year period. The characteristics of patients undergoing DPHR and PD procedures were similar. Duration of procedure (360 min vs. 245 min), duration of hospital stay (12.0 days vs. 9.5 days) and estimated blood loss (535 ml vs. 214 ml) were all significantly less for DPHR patients (P Conclusions Duodenum-preserving head resection is equally as effective as PD in relieving pain and improving QoL in chronic pancreatitis patients, and involves a shorter hospital stay and less blood loss.
Phosphorus sorption characteristics of intertidal marsh sediments along an estuarine salinity gradient

The phosphate sorption capacity of intertidal vegetated marsh sediments was measured along a salinity gradient in the Cooper River estuary, South Carolina. The phosphate sorption capacity of the surface sediments (0‐10 cm) of a freshwater marsh was higher than the sorption capacity of sediments from brackish and saline marshes, and surface sediments had greater sorption capacity than subsurface (10‐20 cm) sediments. These trends were opposite that of available phosphorus, which increased downstream and with depth. Freshwater marsh sediments trap phosphorus in a less-bioavailable form as evidenced by the low zero equilibrium phosphorus concentration (ZEPC) of the ambient sediment and low exchangeable phosphorus found there. Soil ZEPC values were similar to the in situ mean pore-water phosphate concentrations, which shows that sorption has a major effect on the spatial distribution of pore-water phosphorus along the estuarine salinity gradient. The magnitude of phosphorus sorption by the freshwater marsh sediments greatly reduced the pore-water phosphate concentration, while the phosphorus sorption properties of brackish and salt marsh sediments maintained in situ equilibrium pore-water phosphorus concentrations at surplus levels (with respect to its availability to plants). These differences in P sorption properties of the sediments can be explained on the basis of their physical and chemical characteristics. For instance, approaching the sea, the surface area of sediments declined, with freshwater marsh sediments (0‐10 cm) supporting 8.5 3 higher surface area than the salt marsh sediments. However, the sorption capacity of freshwater sediments was 333 greater than that of salt marsh sediments, which indicates that other properties such as sediment mineral composition are important. The concentrations of important elements such as Al and Fe in sediments also declined downstream. The results suggest that the differences in phosphorus exchange properties among these marshes are a function of sediment type and sedimentary concentrations of Fe and Al. These in turn are related to the changes in ionic strength and associated parameters (e.g., pH) and physical sorting mechanisms.
Interest Rate Risk Management of Bank Holding Companies: An Examination of Trade-offs in the Use of Investment Securities and Interest Rate Swaps

This paper examines the extent to which bank holding companies trade-off the use of investment securities and interest rate swaps when managing interest rate risk inherent in their core business. We find that both securities and swaps are used to hedge interest rate risk and that these two types of financial instruments are used as substitute hedging mechanisms. Our evidence suggests that the FASB's current proposal limiting hedge accounting treatment to derivative financial instruments may not reflect how banks manage interest rate risk. In addition, the discrepancy in accounting treatment may lead banks to prefer one of these two types of financial instruments.
Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

It is estimated that approximately 164,000 cases of lung cancer will occur in 2000 (1) with 84% of the patients (138,000 individuals) having non-small cell lung cancer. (NSCLC) (2). The number of deaths due to non-small cell lung is virtually equal to the combined total deaths of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer, which are the second, third, and fourth leading causes of deaths in the United States (1). A large percentage, approximately 44%, of non-small cell lung cancer patients will have locally advanced disease (stage IIIa/b) (3). Previously, radiation therapy has been the sole treatment modality for this group ofpatients. Although this treatment provides palliation of dyspnea, cough, hemoptysis, pain, and other symptoms from locally advanced disease, the overall five year survival is approximately 5% (4-6). The disappointing long term survival in stage III NSCLC is due to both recurrent local regional disease and to the development of distant metastases. The results of efforts to develop more effective local treatment are discussed in chapter, while studies in which chest radiation was combined with systemic therapy are reviewed here.
Characterization of Zns-GaP Naon-composites

It proved possible to produce consistent, high-quality nanocrystalline ZnS powders with grain sizes as small as 8 nm. These powders are nano-porous and are readily impregnated with GaP precursor, although inconsistently. Both crystal structure and small grain size of the ZnS can be maintained through the use of GaP. Heat treatment of the impregnated powders results in a ZnS-GaP composite structure where the grain sizes of the phases are on the order of 10--20 nm. Conventional powder processing should be able to produce optically dense ceramic compacts with improved mechanical properties and suitable IR transmission.
Genetic Studies of Resistance in Maize (Zea mays L.) to Goss's Bacterial Wilt and Blight (Clavibacter michiganense ssp. nebraskense)

We used interchange (chromosomal reciprocal translocation) stocks to identify chromosome arms with genes affecting resistance to C.m. ssp. nebraskense. A series of chromosome 9 waxy endosperm-marked interchange stocks in the resistant inbred M14 were crossed onto the susceptible inbred A632
Time-dependent Estimation of Mars Science Laboratory Surface Heating from Simulated MEDLI data

There are substantial uncertainties in the computational models currently used to predict the heating environment and the Thermal Protection System (TPS) material response during Mars entry. Flight data is required to quantify and possibly reduce such uncertainties as well as improve current computational tools. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) suite will provide a comprehensive set of flight data which will include subsurface temperature measurements of its PICA heatshield at different locations. Accurate reconstruction of MSL surface heat flux from the flight data is a critical step in reducing these uncertainties. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the time-dependent estimation of MSL surface heating from simulated MEDLI subsurface temperature data using inverse methods in the presence of random and bias measurement and model errors. The surface heat flux is indirectly reconstructed by estimating the discretized surface heat transfer coefficient profile as a function of time. Whole-time domain least-squares methods in conjunction with the Tikhonov regularization technique are applied to this problem. The analysis is performed for the instrument plugs at the lowest and highest heating locations. The performance of the estimation methods and the accuracy of the reconstructed surface conditions are investigated under different types of errors in the measurements such as random noise and thermocouple lag. Furthermore, the effect of material property bias on the estimation of surface conditions is also studied.
“What's Wrong with Grandma?” Depictions of Alzheimer's Disease in Children's Storybooks

Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects the entire family system, including young children. Yet there are few resources to help children understand AD. Storybooks are used to educate children about other diseases and may be useful in AD as well. In this study, we examined the depiction of AD in 33 English-language children's storybooks written specifically about AD. As a group, storybooks present AD as a brain disease, but provide little information about the diagnostic process or treatments. Clinical presentations are diverse among characters with AD, and no single book presents a comprehensive depiction of the cognitive, behavioral, affective, and functional symptoms of the disease. In fact, the prevalence of some symptoms in this "population" of storybook characters diverges substantially from epidemiological reports. Books designed to familiarize children about AD should be comprehensive and accurate. Current resources, while useful, could be improved to ensure health literacy about AD in young children.
Preliminary Design of Three-Dimensional Flapping Wings from a Wake-Only Energetics Model

In this paper we present a low delity approach for designing biologically-inspired apping wings. The large apping wing kinematics parameter space prevents the routine use of full physics and geometry simulations for preliminary parameter space exploration. We propose the use of lower geometric and ow physics delity representations to determine initial apping kinematics and energetics estimates. The rst computational tool is a wake-only aerodynamics/energetics model that nds optimal apping kinematics ( apping amplitude, apping frequency, forward-aft apping wing motions, etc.) for minimum power ight. Following the determination of optimal parameters for apping ight, we propose a modi ed doublet-lattice numerical method for determining the minimum power apping wing shapes from the wake-only method results. In the examples we focus on tuning the spanwise distribution of wing twist (about the leading edge) to achieve the desired wake circulation distribution, but our methodology is general enough to be applied to many di erent wing morphing strategies (eg: camber adjustment). We base our examples on a medium sized fruit bat, Cynopterus brachyotis and compare, where feasible our results to nature.
Gastric Secretion of Iodide at Low Serum Iodide Levels

SummaryThe secretion of iodide in acid and alkaline gastric juice at low serum iodide levels was studied in pouch dogs using radio-iodide as a tracer. The concentration of iodide in the gastric juice was found to be independent of the pH of the gastric secretion, but it was influenced by the rate of gastric secretion. High concentration ratios for iodide were obtained at low rates of secretion and low concentration ratios at high rates of secretion.
A Meta-Modeling Approach for Capturing Recurrent Uses of Moodle Tools into Pedagogical Activities

Teacher’s expertise on using Learning Management Systems (LMS) is tightly coupled to how they design their online courses. The GraphiT project aims to help teachers in specifying of pedagogically sound learning scenarios that can be technically executable for automatically setting-up the related LMS course. We intend to provide teachers with LMS-specific instructional design languages and editors. To achieve this goal, we have to raise the LMS semantics in order to enrich the pedagogical expressiveness of the produced models. We propose a specific LMS-centered approach for abstracting the low-level and turning these semantics into higher-level pedagogical building blocks. We present and illustrate our propositions focused on Moodle. In this paper, we focus on the first abstraction level: identifying pedagogical activities according to recurrent uses of Moodle activities.
Color duplex sonographically guided obliteration of pseudoaneurysm

Over a 21 month period, 112 patients were seen in the vascular laboratory for evaluation and therapy of possible pseudoaneurysm. Pseudoaneurysm was confirmed by color flow sonographic imaging in 31 patients. Twenty-eight of these patients underwent sonographically monitored extrinsic manual compression to induce thrombosis and subsequent obliteration. Complete manual thrombosis was achieved in 17 patients while partial thrombosis with subsequent spontaneous closure developed in three patients, for a total success rate of 71% (20/28). In eight patients attempts to thrombose the pseudoaneurysm failed (29%). Induction of thrombosis by manual compression was successful in the presence of oral and intravenous anticoagulants. No therapeutic complications were encountered. Under proper sonographic guidance, the technique of manual obliteration of pseudoaneurysms provides a safe and effective alternative to surgical intervention.
Government Spending and Taxation

Just as businessmen borrow from banks or intending house-owners borrow from building societies, both central and local government have to borrow money to meet their obligations and commitments, arranging to repay their loans either on a short-term basis within two to three years, or at a date perhaps fifteen or twenty years in the future.
International technology transfer in small business: a new paradigm

International technology transfers are growing in recent years as trade barriers are lowered and repatriation of income laws are relaxed in many developing countries. Simultaneously, there have been great improvements in logistics and communications. These developments have transformed the conventional international technology transfer processes. This paper reviews the traditional processes of international technology transfer. The process is illustrated with two case studies, and their problems are briefly discussed. The paradigm of the process and its weaknesses in the present are discussed. With the help of a recent case study involving small businesses the paper presents a new paradigm for technology transfer. Some important features of this paradigm are – small firms can actively seek to sell their technology only, and the crucial role played by the international communication technology.
Feature Representation and Extraction for Image Search and Video Retrieval

The ever-increasing popularity of intelligent image search and video retrieval warrants a comprehensive study of the major feature representation and extraction methods often applied in image search and video retrieval. Towards that end, this chapter reviews some representative feature representation and extraction approaches, such as the Spatial Pyramid Matching (SPM) , the soft assignment coding, the Fisher vector coding , the sparse coding and its variants, the Local Binary Pattern (LBP) , the Feature Local Binary Patterns (FLBP) , the Local Quaternary Patterns (LQP), the Feature Local Quaternary Patterns (FLQP) , the Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) , and the SIFT variants, which are broadly applied in intelligent image search and video retrieval .
Mapping Ordinances and Tweets using Smart City Characteristics to Aid Opinion Mining

This research focuses on mining ordinances (local laws) and public reactions to them expressed on social media. We place particular emphasis on ordinances and tweets relating to Smart City Characteristics (SCCs), since an important aim of our work is to assess how well a given region heads towards a Smart City. We rely on SCCs as a nexus between a seemingly infinite number of ordinances and tweets to be able to map them, and also to facilitate SCC-based opinion mining later for providing feedback to urban agencies based on public reactions. Common sense knowledge is harnessed in our approach to reflect human judgment in mapping. This paper presents our research in ordinance and tweet mapping with SCCs, including the proposed mapping approach, our initial experiments, related discussion, and future work emerging therein. To the best of our knowledge, ours is among the first works to conduct mining on ordinances and tweets for Smart Cities. This work has a broader impact with a vision to enhance Smart City growth.
Impact of Online Content on Attitudes and Buying Intentions

User generated content (UGC) is an important source of information to consumers, yet prior research has not fully explored how certain aspects of the content, specifically the tone, perception of quality and source credibility influence attitudes and intentions to buy. This study investigates how the tone of UGC influences perceived content quality, source credibility, attitudes and consumer intentions to buy. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the study also seeks to understand how consumer expertise moderates the impact of perceived content quality and perceived source credibility on attitudes and intentions to buy. Using a survey and vignette with 209 participants, the results of the study indicate that the tone of the content influences attitudes and intentions to buy; more importantly, consumer expertise moderates the impact of perceived source credibility and perceived content quality on attitudes. The results inform practice on what dimensions of UGC are salient to changes in attitudes.
Injuries and deaths from collecting war souvenirs in Operation Desert Storm

Data were collected on 22 patients who sustained injuries or death from collecting war souvenirs during Operation Desert Storm from December 1990 to May 1991. Nine of 16 patients injured and 3 of 6 patients killed were non-combat arms personnel. Non-combat personnel closely followed combat units, and subsequently were exposed to unexploded ordnance. Combat and non-combat personnel should be warned that innocent-appearing material on or near a battlefield may be an explosive device. They should be instructed concerning the types of ordnance used, as well as the dangers of unexploded ordnance. Language: en
Reflections from the U.S.–Mexico borderlands on a “border-rooted” paradigm in higher education:

This essay proposes an alternative approach to Latino student success through a “border-rooted” paradigm shift in post-secondary education. A “border-rooted” paradigm reflects the local socio-cultural and historical epistemologies that impact post-secondary education, and how space and place impacts educational settings that serve Latino students.
Chapter 7 – Polycomb Mechanisms and Epigenetic Control of Gene Activity

Polycomb mechanisms target the key genes controlling all the major differentiation pathways and cell fates. At the same time, they orchestrate the varieties of signals from other cells, from growth factors, morphogens, or external stimuli that condition a cell’s response. Polycomb complexes generate two kinds of histone modifications: H2A ubiquitylation and H3K27 methylation, that are thought to serve instructive roles, controlling and targeting the repressive functions. The methylation function also serves as a memory of the previous state of a target gene and is responsible for the epigenetic features of Polycomb repression. Despite the vast amount learned about Polycomb complexes, two key features are still poorly understood: how they are recruited and how they effect repression. This review summarizes the basic features of these mechanisms and surveys current ideas of the role they play in guiding the trajectory from embryonic stem cells to terminally differentiated cells.
David Oliver: The stress of sending patients home.

“Look! It’s that’s bloody doctor who said he could go home.” I heard those words directed at me in the local supermarket. I was shopping with my wife, and it was said in a threatening way, designed to be overheard, by what sounded like a middle aged man. The experience was unsettling. We left the shop, not looking up to see who’d said it, and to this day I don’t know. I mentioned this story over dinner to some other senior hospital doctors, who all described similar experiences in hospital corridors or doorways, or in public places during their leisure time. That same week NHS Digital released national figures, the first in five years, on rates of emergency readmission to hospital within 30 days.1 This followed concerted lobbying from Healthwatch England, which said that transitions from hospital—and the communication processes and aftercare surrounding them—were a consistent …
Do neighborhood social processes moderate the etiology of youth conduct problems

Background Prior work has robustly suggested that social processes in the neighborhood (i.e. informal social control, social cohesion, norms) influence child conduct problems (CP) and related outcomes, but has yet to consider how these community-level influences interact with individual-level genetic risk for CP. The current study sought to do just this, evaluating neighborhood-level social processes as etiologic moderators of child CP for the first time. Methods We made use of two nested samples of child and adolescent twins within the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR): 5649 families who participated in in the Michigan Twins Project (MTP) and 1013 families who participated in the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development (TBED-C). The neighborhood social processes of informal social control, social cohesion, and norms were assessed using neighborhood sampling techniques, in which residents of each twin family's neighborhood reported on the social processes in their neighborhood. Standard biometric GxE analyses evaluated the extent to which they moderated the etiology of CP. Results The 'no moderation' model provided the best fit to the data in nearly all cases, arguing against neighborhood social processes as etiologic moderators of youth CP. Conclusions The neighborhood social processes evaluated here do not appear to exert their effects on child CP via etiologic moderation. The documented links between neighborhood social processes and child CP are thus likely to reflect a different etiologic process. Possibilities include environmental main effects of neighborhood social processes on child CP, or genotype-environment correlations.
UNIT B2.3 Nulling Signal of a Slice, Slice Select Profile, and Radiofrequency Power

This unit discusses nulling of remaining signal from a RF pulse prior to the next RF pulse. This is to avoid mixing leftover signal with the signal generated from the next RF pulse. The slice select profile is also discussed in detail. The power of the RF pulse and its limit imposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also discussed.Normal.
Silicon Technologies for the Next Age of Wireless Connectivity

This paper talks about 5G mmWave applications, how 5G new radio standards are driving increasing radio complexity and cost, and what are the technology requirements of mmWave applications. It talks about Phased Arrays and Front End Modules, gives a brief overview of different types of beam forming architectures for phased array antenna systems, followed by impact of semiconductor technology on the number of phased array elements. The paper concludes with technologies to meet the requirements of 5G mmWave Applications.
Risk and fun: Dan Kiley’s interior landscape for the Ford Foundation

In December 1968, from aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft, US astronaut Bill Anders photographed a radiant blue earth floating above the gray lunar horizon. Although the primary objective of the Apollo...
A smartphone case method: reimagining social relationships with smartphone data in the U.S. context of Harlem

Young people are living their lives online and offline, but research rarely incorporates both in a synchronous way. This paper explores a way to address this issue through the use of smartphone dat...
Panoramic Video Separation with Online Grassmannian Robust Subspace Estimation

In this work, we propose a new total variation (TV)-regularized robust principal component analysis (RPCA) algorithm for panoramic video data with incremental gradient descent on the Grassmannian. The resulting algorithm has performance competitive with state-of-the-art panoramic RPCA algorithms and can be computed frame-by-frame to separate foreground/background in video with a freely moving camera and heavy sparse noise. We show that our algorithm scales favorably in computation time and memory. Finally we compare foreground detection accuracy and computation time of our method versus several existing methods.
Germinal center formation, immunoglobulin production and hindlimb nociceptive sensitization after tibia fracture.

Abstract Emerging evidence suggests that Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is in part a post-traumatic autoimmune disease mediated by an adaptive immune response after limb injuries. We previously observed in a murine tibial fracture model of CRPS that pain-related behaviors were dependent upon adaptive immune mechanisms including the neuropeptide-dependent production of IgM for 5 months after injury. However, the time course of induction of this immune response and the demonstration of germinal center formation in lymphoid organs has not been evaluated. Using the murine fracture model, we employed behavioral tests of nociceptive sensitization and limb dysfunction, serum passive transfer techniques, western blot analysis of IgM accumulation, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) of lymphoid tissues and immunohistochemistry to follow the temporal activation of the adaptive immune response over the first 3 weeks after fracture. We observed that: 1) IgM protein levels in the skin of the fractured mice were elevated at 3 weeks post fracture, but not at earlier time points, 2) serum from fracture mice at 3 weeks, but not 1 and 2 weeks post fracture, had pro-nociceptive effects when passively transferred to fractured muMT mice lacking B cells, 3) fracture induced popliteal lymphadenopathy occurred ipsilateral to fracture beginning at 1 week and peaking at 3 weeks post fracture, 4) a germinal center reaction was detected by FACS analysis in the popliteal lymph nodes from injured limbs by 3 weeks post fracture but not in other lymphoid tissues, 5) germinal center formation was characterized by the induction of T follicular helper cells (Tfh) and germinal center B cells in the popliteal lymph nodes of the injured but not contralateral limbs, and 6) fracture mice treated with the Tfh signaling inhibitor FK506 had impaired germinal center reactions, reduced IgM levels, reduced nociceptive sensitization, and no pronociceptive serum effects after administration to fractured muMT mice. Collectively these data demonstrate that tibia fracture induces an adaptive autoimmune response characterized by popliteal lymph node germinal center formation and Tfh cell dependent B cell activation, resulting in nociceptive sensitization within 3 weeks.
Let the Church Say…: One Congregation’s Views on How Churches Can Improve Mental Health Beliefs, Practices and Behaviors among Black Americans

African Americans have historically turned to the Black Church in times of trouble and/or need, including when experiencing mental health problems as they often seen as having spiritual causes. The purpose of this study was to better understand what church members believe to be the Black church’s role in addressing mental health issues. Surveys were administered online to members of a Midwestern church and included questions about respondents’ mental health and service use histories and thoughts about church-based mental health services. A thematic analysis was performed on qualitative responses from 393 participants explaining why they supported a church-based counseling center. Findings suggest Black churches are positioned to address the unmet mental health needs of Black Americans, reduce mental health stigma in Black and/or Christian communities, and deliver culturally-appropriate, community-based mental health services to these groups.
Legislation, Linguistics, and Location: Exploring Attitudes on Unauthorized Immigration

Contemporary discourse on domestic immigration policy varies widely based on political affiliation, linguistics, and regional differences. This experimental study aimed to concurrently investigate three social psychological bases of attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants in the USA: political ideology, social labels, and social context. Participants were 744 adults, recruited from “New York Community College” (“NYCC”/urban) and “New Jersey Community College” (“NJCC”/suburban), who were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: “illegal” vs. “undocumented.” Participants completed a scale measuring their attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants with the embedded label manipulation, followed by the General System Justification scale, and culminating with demographic items. Results demonstrated that whereas social context and political ideology both contributed significantly to the regression model, the social labels did not. Both high system justification and political conservatism predicted negative attitudes, but the latter effect was stronger for suburban students. Post hoc analyses revealed a significant difference between suburban and urban students in the frequency of the social labels “illegal” and “undocumented” heard and seen among family members, friends, and the media. Implications are discussed with a focus on system justification as an explanatory theory for immigration attitudes, as well as contextual effects for it.
Reconfigurable Balanced Dualband Bandstop Filter

This paper introduces a novel architecture of reconfigurable balanced (differential) dualband bandstop filter (BSF). In differential mode (DM), each symmetrical bisection of the filter incorporates in-series cascade of two tunable dualband bandstop sections whereas high CMRR is achieved by loading open stubs to the symmetry plane of the branch line structure. To validate the proposed topology, a microstrip prototype is designed and fabricated. Both simulation and measured results show a good agreement with each other.
Is there referral bias in outcomes of septal myectomy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Abstract Purpose To determine the potential impact of referral bias on short- and long-term outcomes following septal myectomy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Methods We reviewed 2303 adult patients who underwent transaortic septal myectomy for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from January 1993 to April 2016. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to their permanent address: local (state) residents (n = 324), regional (surrounding 5 states) patients (n = 515), and national (outside 5 states) patients (n = 1464). Results Patient groups were similar for age, sex, preoperative New York Heart Association class, and left ventricular ejection fraction. Local patients had increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus (13%, 11%, 8%; P = .006), coronary artery disease (25%, 21%, 19%; P = .031), severe chronic lung disease (2.3%, 1.9%, 0.4%; P Conclusions Compared with distant referrals, local patients who undergo septal myectomy at our institution have more comorbid conditions, and require more concomitant surgical procedures. Despite these differences, referral patterns did not impact early or late outcomes following transaortic septal myectomy.
Does Directed Innovation Mitigate Climate Damage? Evidence from US Agriculture

This paper studies how innovation reacts to climate change and shapes its economic impacts, focusing on US agriculture. We show in a model that directed innovation can either mitigate or exacerbate climate change's economic damage depending on whether new technology is on average a substitute for or complement to favorable climatic conditions. To empirically investigate the technological response to climate change, we combine data on the geography of agricultural production, shifting temperature distributions, and crop-specific temperature tolerance to estimate crop-specific exposure to damaging extreme temperatures; we then use a database of crop-specific biotechnology releases and patent grants to measure technology development. We first find that innovation has re-directed toward crops with increasing extreme-temperature exposure and show that this effect is driven by types of agricultural technology most related to environmental adaptation. We next find that US counties' exposure to climate-induced innovation significantly dampens the local economic damage from extreme temperatures, and estimate that directed innovation has offset 20% of the agricultural sector's climate damage since 1960 and could offset 15% of projected damage in 2100. These findings highlight the vital importance, but incomplete effectiveness, of endogenous technological change as a systemic adaptive response to climate change.
As You Start a Career in Academic Medicine: Priming for Success

After finishing a residency or a fellowship in ophthalmology, as in other specialties of medicine, one can choose either a career in academic medicine or private practice. While some aspects of starting a new position in both tracks are similar, other aspects can differ significantly. For instance, the job search for both tracks may be affected by available positions that year, location, family situation, and salary. Both tracks will require dedication, time, and continued learning and improvement of our skills as physicians. On the other hand, those seeking the academic medicine track will have unique considerations such as research and teaching opportunities, academically supportive environment, and needs of a subspecialist, among others. Academic medicine is not for everyone. One needs to work as a part of a large organization, often with rigid structure and many rules and regulations and is affected by other departments and other organizational issues that are outside of your control. However, for those who choose to pursue it, there can be immense reward, satisfaction, and opportunities. This chapter focuses on successfully starting out an academic career. It includes tasks to consider even before starting a job search, including introspection of self as well as goal setting of one’s career. We will review aspects to consider such as negotiation, finding mentors, knowing promotion process, asking for protected time for academic endeavors, and prioritizing self-care and family life. Above all else, know that we are blessed to be in a profession that allows many options, to have fun while helping others, educating the future generations, and contributing to the growth of our field.
Energy-Efficient Networks-on-Chip Architectures: Design and Run-Time Optimization

Networks-on-Chip (NoC) architectures have become the mainstream communication backbone of high-end processors and systems-on-chip (SoCs) after their introduction in the early 2000s. This success can be attributed mainly to their ability to satisfy the ever-increasing communication demands with superior energy-efficiency compared to traditional approaches. More specifically, NoCs provide low communication latencies (e.g., fast response in data centers) and high throughput (e.g., large data rates in graphics applications). Performance is a necessary condition, but it is not sufficient for their widespread adaption. They also need to minimize their contribution to the overall power dissipation, energy consumption, and cost while meeting the performance goals. This chapter reviews the design and run-time approaches developed to enable energy-efficient NoC architectures and future trends. It discusses both the traditional approaches and more recent proposals for 3D, wireless, and optical NoCs. Finally, it concludes by analyzing the trends in new workloads and future needs for NoCs.
Energy Policies and Environmental Leadership Among Michigan’s Local Governments

This report presents information from Michigan local government officials regarding local energy issues and policies. In addition, the report looks at local officials’ opinions on environmental leadership in local government. These findings are based on statewide surveys of local government leaders in the Spring 2019 wave as well as comparisons to the Fall 2010 and Fall 2013 waves of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS).
Dynamical transitions of the actomyosin cortex can trigger single cell morphogenesis

Morphogenetic changes driven by actomyosin contractile forces are well-characterized at the tissue level. At the single cell level, shape changes steered by actomyosin contractile forces include mitotic rounding and cytokinetic furrow ingression. In some cases, more complex shape transitions associated with spatial patterning of the cortex were observed. The actomyosin cortex was widely studied using active gel frameworks, and stabilized contractile instabilities were shown to generate patterns, but whether complex shapes can emerge from these cortical patterns is not established. Here we show that complex morphogenetic changes at the single cell level can accompany cortical patterns, using a minimal active gel model. For sufficiently low membrane-cortex drag, an initially homogeneous cortex spontaneously develops stripes associated with stable furrows, similar to furrowing observed in cells. Our work suggests that controlled cortical instability can trigger morphogenesis at the cellular level.
Ensemble Learning for Detecting Attacks and Anomalies in IoT Smart Home

The expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has also given rise to an increasing number of destructive attacks that pose severe threats to exposed IoT devices. As such, IoT technologies involve a number of privacy and security challenges. Anomalies in the IoT environment often lead to unexpected disruptions or sensor failures in a machine, and may facilitate opportunities of intrusion by an attacker. Thus, it is crucial to observe the unexpected events from sensor signals. In this paper, the performance of an ensemble machine learning model is compared against the traditional learning approach for attack and anomaly detection in a smart home IoT environment on a categorical DS2oS traffic traces dataset. After training each model with the training dataset, we combine the best models using the AdaBoost ensemble learning approach in order to obtain optimized results for anomaly detection. This paper discusses various evaluation models and metrics, along with a clear description of training process. We also compare our results with other similar existing models. Finally, we discuss challenges and future work.
Neighborhood walkability and body mass index in African American cancer survivors: The Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors study.

BACKGROUND Extant evidence links neighborhood walkability with obesity-related health in the general population. This association likely exists in cancer survivors, but research is limited. Furthermore, a disproportionate obesity burden in African American cancer survivors warrants subgroup-specific analyses. METHODS This study analyzed data from 2089 African American cancer survivors participating in the Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors (ROCS) cohort. On the basis of built environment data summarized within 1-km radial buffers around census block centroids, a multidimensional neighborhood walkability index (NWI) was constructed. Survivors' residential addresses at Detroit ROCS enrollment were geocoded, and addresses were linked to NWI scores via the census block of residence. At study enrollment, survivors reported height and weight; these data were used to calculate their body mass index (BMI). Associations between NWI quartiles and BMI overall and by cancer type, biological sex, and physical activity engagement were evaluated. RESULTS BMI was found to be inversely associated with increasing NWI quartile (P for trend < .01). This inverse relationship was observed in men (P for trend < .01) and in survivors reporting any regular physical activity (P for trend < .01). CONCLUSIONS This study's findings suggest that among African American cancer survivors, higher neighborhood walkability is associated with lower BMI. As health care systems in the United States increasingly consider the role of the neighborhood environment in their patients' health, these findings provide additional evidence supporting health systems' incorporation of neighborhood walkability as an obesity-related health indicator for this cancer survivor subgroup and potentially for cancer survivors from other vulnerable populations.
Modeling the relationships between historical redlining, urban heat, and heat-related emergency department visits: An examination of 11 Texas cities:

Place-based structural inequalities can have critical implications for the health of vulnerable populations. Historical urban policies, such as redlining, have contributed to current inequalities i...
High affinity human Fc specific monoclonal antibodies for capture kinetic analyses of antibody-antigen interactions.

We recently demonstrated that capturing human monoclonal antibodies (hmAbs) using high affinity anti-human Fc (AHC) antibodies allows reliable characterization of antibody-antigen interactions. Here, we characterized six human Fc specific mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and compared their binding profiles with three previously characterized goat AHC polyclonal antibodies (pAbs), exhibiting properties of a good capture reagent. All six mouse AHC mAbs specifically bound with high affinity to the Fc region of hIgG subclasses (hIgG1, hIgG2, and hIgG4) and to 43 different hIgG variants, containing substitutions and/or mutations in the hinge and/or Fc region, that have been reported to exhibit modified antibody effector function and/or pharmacokinetics. Biacore sensor surfaces individually derivatized with mouse AHC mAbs exhibited >2.5-fold higher hIgG binding capacity compared to the three goat AHC pAb surfaces and reproducibly captured hIgG over 300 capture-regeneration cycles. The results of the capture kinetic analyses performed on 31 antibody-antigen interactions using surfaces derivatized with either of the two highest affinity AHC mAbs (REGN7942 or REGN7943) were in concordance with those performed using goat AHC pAb surfaces. Our data demonstrate that AHC mAbs with properties similar to REGN7942 and REGN7943 are highly valuable reagents to perform capture kinetic analyses of antibody-antigen interactions on optical biosensors.
Anatomy of the Trigeminal Nerve

Abstract The “story” of the trigeminal nerve complex is a rich and multifaceted one. It involves details of the peripheral distribution and functionality of its three divisions, how their fibers originate and/or are connected to and conveyed within central pathways of the brain, and the common lesions and disorders associated with this nerve. It is also a story that has intersected over the years with advances in surgical, clinical, and imaging technologies, unlocking mysteries of the disorders of this nerve, leading to advances in treatments and outcomes. This chapter reviews the relevant literature on all these fronts to provide a contemporary understanding of the clinical anatomy of this important, complex cranial nerve.
The Analytic Hierarchy Process

Thomas Saaty was a pioneers in the field of Operations Research. He authored the first Mathematical Methods of Operations Research textbook and the first queueing textbook.
The Development of Worldwide Sustainability Reporting Assurance

This research investigates the development of assured sustainability reports (SRs) during this century's first decade. More specifically, it presents basic descriptive data on a sample of 148 SRs published in 2006 and 2007 and contrasts this sample with the sample discussed in Mock et al. 2007. The prior study examined a sample of 130 assured SRs issued between 2002 and 2004. Both samples provide information about the nature of SRs, allowing us to investigate important questions such as which countries and industries are more likely to have an assurance statement, what levels of assurance are provided, and what factors affect the level of assurance provided. In addition to providing descriptive data relative to the above questions, we run logistic regressions where the dependent variable is whether a Big 4 firm provided the assurance for both periods being considered. Some important differences are observed related to whether the assurance provided applies to both the quantitative and qualitative assertions made in the report (significantly negatively associated with the Big 4 in the 2002–2004 period, but not significant in 2006–2007), whether the report uses symbols to identify assured statements (significantly positively associated with the Big 4 in the 2002–2004 period, but not significant in 2006–2007), and whether the procedures used are disclosed (not significant in 2002–2004, but significantly positively associated with the Big 4 in 2006–2007).
Democratization and International Border Agreements

Does the removal of salient external threats foster democratization? Recent research proposes an affirmative answer but either fails to examine democratization at the monadic level, to consider small-scale democratization, or to account for factors known to influence the democratization process. The current study addresses this deficit by (re)examining democratization during the period 1919–2006. The findings suggest a strong relationship between border settlement and democratization. A state that settles all of its interstate borders democratizes; any outstanding unsettled borders, however, prevent significant democratization. Furthermore, although border settlement contributes to democratization, it does not significantly affect democratic regime change. This empirical evidence cumulatively specifies a more precise relationship between external threat and democratization than previous work and thereby contributes directly to the recent debate between the territorial and democratic peace theories. It als...