cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Traits of Dominant Animals

This chapter emphasizes various mechanisms that demonstrate the complex nature of dominance. It points out that alpha individuals vary, and that their dominance may be expressed to control as well as tolerate subordinates or completely control subordinates in a despotic fashion. This chapter elaborates on relationships between members of social groups, pointing out that animals aggregate for a wide variety of reasons. Yet, aggregations and expressions of dominance and aggression are best defined in social species.
MRI-guided needle steering for targets in motion based on Fiber Bragg Grating sensors

The diagnosis and percutaneous treatment of prostate cancer require clinicians to accurately place needles into prostate tissue. However, the clinical targets often do not remain fixed while inserting the needles due to the displacement and deformation of the prostate. For magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guidance, we developed a needle-steering method that enables reaching moving targets inside the prostate. A surgical needle with integrated Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors was designed to reconstruct the actual needle shape during insertion in the computer-assisted navigation system. The original needle-steering method for fixed targets is presented and its deficiency in reaching moving targets is discussed. Experimental results suggest that using the original method, one can accurately place the needle in the fixed targets, but the positioning error is considerably increased if the target is moved. In this study, we improved the original method to compensate for the inevitable tissue displacements. The experimental results show that with the developed method, the user can reduce the error in reaching the target. In particular, the improvement in the accuracy of needle steering operated by a novice user illustrates both the efficacy and user-friendliness of the proposed method.
Reliability and diagnostic validity of a joint vibration analysis device

This observational study was designed to evaluate the reliability and diagnostic validity of Joint Vibration Analysis (JVA) in subjects with bilateral disc displacement with reduction and in subjects with bilateral normal disc position. The reliability of selecting the traces was assessed by reading the same traces at an interval of 30 days. The reliability of the vibrations provided by the subjects was assessed by obtaining two tracings from each individual at an interval of 30 min. The validity compared the Joint Vibration Analysis parameters against magnetic resonance imaging as the reference standard. The data were analyzed with exploratory factor analysis. The short- term reliability of the Joint Vibration Analysis outcome variables showed excellent results. Implementing factor analysis and a receiver operating characteristic as analytical methods showed that six items of the Joint Vibration Analysis outcome variables could be scaled and normalized to a composite score which presented acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity with a receiver operating characteristic of 0.8. This study demonstrated that the composite score generated from the Joint Vibration Analysis variables could discriminate between subjects with bilateral normal versus bilateral displaced discs.
Social and Environmental Conditions Intensifying Male Competition for Resources, Status, and Mates Lead to Increased Male Mortality

Sex differences in human mortality rates emerge from a complex interaction of genetic heritage and developmental environment, incorporating genetic, physiological, psychological, social, and environmental factors whose influences and interconnections are best understood in an integrative evolutionary life history framework. Across mammals, males allocate greater investment to reproductive effort at the expense of investment in somatic effort and more investment in mating effort at the expense of investment in parenting effort compared to female life history. Thus, the generally higher male mortality rates result from the trade-off between reproductive competitiveness and longevity. Men on average have riskier behavioral patterns and greater physiological susceptibility than women, dying at higher rates from behavioral and most nonbehavioral causes across the life span. The magnitude of the sex difference in mortality in developed nations peaks when males sexually mature and enter into mating competition. Sex differences in investment towards parenting and mating competition are ultimately responsible for sex differences in mortality rates, and the intensity of male mating competition predicts the extent to which male mortality rates exceed those for females. In humans, male competition for mates includes competition for resources and social status utilized to attract and retain mates. Social and environmental conditions intensifying such male competition lead to increased male mortality.
Luminescent sensors based on metal-organic frameworks

Abstract Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a fascinating class of highly porous materials composed of metal ions/clusters and organic linkers, which promise great potential in numerous fields. Recently, the use of MOFs as luminescent sensors has been extensively explored due to their unique crystallinity, tunable porosity and structural diversity. In this review, we intend to highlight some of recent studies in this active research area and update the database of various luminescent MOF-based sensors on the basis of different sensing targets including ions, organic molecules, and gases, and temperature.
Survivorship and Cannibalism in Lyctocoris campestris (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae): Effects of Density, Prey Availability, and Temperature

Availability of prey was an important factor for cannibalism in Lyctocoris campestris (F.). Cannibalistic predation in L. campestris nymphs was density dependent irrespective of prey level or space...
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender of Faculty Members in APA‐ and CACREP‐Accredited Programs: Changes Over Five Decades

This study examined changes in race, ethnicity, and gender of faculty members in APA- and CACREP-accredited counseling programs over 5 decades based on the year of their degree. Of those faculty members working in accredited programs who graduated in the 1960s/1970s, 26.7% were female, 5.6% were racially diverse, and 1.7% were Latina/o. Of those who graduated 5 decades later, 63% were female, 18% were racially diverse, and 4.9% were Latina/o. Implications are discussed. Este estudio examino los cambios en raza, etnicidad y sexo de los miembros del profesorado en programas de consejeria acreditados por la APA y CACREP a lo largo de 5 decadas basados en el ano de graduacion del profesor. De aquellos miembros del profesorado trabajando en programas acreditados que se graduaron en las decadas de los 60 y 70, el 26.7% fueron mujeres, el 5.6% racialmente diversos y el 1.7% latinos. De aquellos que se graduaron 5 decadas despues, el 63% fueron mujeres, el 18% racialmente diversos y el 4.9% latinos. Se discuten las implicaciones.
DNA methylation profile, histone modification code and CTCF content within aberrantly silenced vs. transcriptionally active human von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) Locus.

3628 Kruppel-like transcription factors have been linked to cell growth regulation and tumorigenesis in a number of systems. In the intestinal epithelium, expression of KLF5 (IKLF/BTEB2) is limited to proliferating crypt cells, indicating a growth promoting role. However, we have found that, while KLF5 is growth promoting in non-transformed intestinal epithelial cells, it is growth inhibitory in colon tumor-derived and transformed cells, indicating that this factor has both growth promoting and tumor suppressive properties in the intestine. This idea is consistent with our previous observation that KLF5 mRNA is downregulated in APCmin mouse and human familial adenomatous polyposis adenomas. A tumor suppressive role for KLF5 is likely to be common in epithelial cancers since this factor has been implicated as a tumor suppressor in prostate and breast, where its gene locus at chromosome 13q21 is commonly deleted. While deletion of this chromosome region is found in multiple cancer types, it is not observed in colon cancer, pointing to other mechanisms for downregulation of KLF5 in intestinal tumors. One mechanism involves downregulation of KLF5 mRNA which correlates with enhanced cell growth and tumorigenicity in the HCT116/HCT116B syngeneic colon cancer cell lines. However, analysis of other colon tumor cell lines and a syngeneic model of intestinal tumor progression indicated that loss of mRNA could not fully account for the loss of KLF5 protein, pointing to post-translational mechanisms of downregulation during tumor progression. Use of the proteasome inhibitor, MG132 indicated that this involves enhanced turnover of the protein. High levels of proteasome-dependent downregulation were seen in all human colon cancer cells tested, but not in non-transformed intestinal epithelial cells, indicating that it is a common mechanism for KLF5 loss during colon cancer progression. The utilization of multiple mechanisms for downregulation of KLF5 emphasizes the importance of reduced expression of this factor in intestinal tumorigenesis and points to potential targets for therapy. This work was supported by the Roswell Park Alliance foundation and the Roswell Park CCSG core grant CA16056.
Un viejo, un nuevo desafío: el antilibertarianismo global

Un espectro esta atormentando al mundo: el espectro de los movimientos antilibertarios radicales, cada uno luchando con los demas como escorpiones en una botella y todos compitiendo para ver cual puede desmantelar las instituciones de la libertad mas rapido. De diversas maneras, tales movimientos estan desafiando los valores y principios libertarios en el mundo, especialmente en Europa, en los Estados Unidos y en partes de Asia, pero su influencia se siente en todas partes.
Learning-Constrained Enhancement of Cellular Networks Capacity

Every year, mobile operators spend hundreds of millions of dollars to improve their cellular capacities. Capacity improvements typically aim at adding carriers, frequency bands, radios, antenna systems, small cells, and sectors. In many cases, traffic load associated with special events push cellular sectors to their breakpoints defined as thresholds of access attempts leading to user access failures. Often times, mobile operators manually handle special events by dedicating human resources to them instead of deploying automated solutions. In this paper, we first use a pair of supervised learning approaches to model cellular network capacity measured in terms of total number of users carried as a function of user access attempts. Relying on our modeling results, we then predict the associated breakpoints of sectors as functions of user access attempts. Next, we formulate an optimization problem to maximize network capacity subject to constraints of user quality and predicted breakpoints. Among a number of alternatives, we propose a novel variant of simulated annealing referred to as Block Coordinated Descent Simulated Annealing (BCDSA) to solve the problem. Our performance measurements show that BCDSA offers dramatically improved algorithmic success rates as well as the best utility, runtime, and confidence range characteristics compared to alternative solutions.
Micromechanics of active metal matrix composites with shape memory alloy fibers

ABSTRACT The effective thermomechanical response of Active Metal Matrix Composites (AMMC) with Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) fibers is modeled in the present work. A modification to Tanaka's exponential model (Tanaka, 1986) of the thermomechanical response of SMA is introduced to account for stress induced transformation strains under tension as well as compression. The model is also generalized to the three dimensional case in a consistent way with the thermodynamics approach of Boyd and Lagoudas (1994). A detailed procedure for the incremental implementation of the SMA constitutive equations is described. The SMA constitutive model is then employed in a computational finite element analysis scheme for tetragonal and hexagonal periodic arrangements of SMA fibers to obtain the effective response of elastoplastic matrix / active fiber composites. The overall thermomechanical response and shape memory behavior of AMMC is analyzed, and in particular the effect of recoverable transformation strains in the SMA fibers on the yield strength of these composites.
In Vitro Measurement of Phagocytosis and Killing of Cryptococcus neoformans by Macrophages

Macrophages are pivotal cells in immunity against a wide range of pathogens. Their most important property, as suggested by their name, is to ingest pathogens, leading to their killing, the release of inflammatory mediators and antigen processing. On the other hand, macrophages can also be exploited by microbes as a niche for survival in the host, as exemplified by Cryptococcus neoformans. This encapsulated yeast is an important cause of meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised people, particularly those with AIDS. Using culture and microscopy techniques, we present here methods that can be used to quantify phagocytosis of C. neoformans and its killing by macrophages, as well as the viability of the phagocyte after interaction.
Algorithmics in intensity-modulated radiation therapy

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is a modern cancer treatment technique aiming to deliver a prescribed conformal radiation dose to a target tumor while sparing the surrounding normal tissues and critical structures. In this chapter, we consider a set of combinatorial and geometric problems that arise in IMRT planning and delivery: (1) the static leaf sequencing problem, (2) the static leaf sequencing with error control problem, (3) the field splitting problem, (4) the dose simplification problem, (5) the dynamic leaf sequencing problem, and (6) the single-arc leaf sequencing problem. We discuss new efficient algorithms for these problems. The main ideas of the algorithms are to exploit the underlying geometric and combinatorial properties of the problems and transform them into graph problems such as shortest paths, optimal matchings, maximum flows, multicommodity demand flows, or linear programming problems. Some open problems and promising directions for future research are also given.
EQUICONTINUITY, ABSOLUTE CONTINUITY AND WEAK COMPACTNESS IN MEASURE THEORY

This chapter presents some results concerning equicontinuity, absolute continuity, and weak compactness in measure theory. A δ-ring is a ring closed under countable intersections. The σ-ring (δ-ring) generated by is denoted by σ( ) (δ ( )). A set K ⊂ fa( , X) is equicontinuous or uniformly strongly additive if m(A n ) → 0 uniformly with respect to m ∈ K whenever the A n are disjoint. The chapter presents a theorem involving equicontinuity and absolute continuity and presents various applications of this theorem. If K ⊂ fa( , X), the following two assertions are equivalent: (1) K is equicontinuous, and (2) there exists a bounded control measure μ such that K ≤ μ uniformly.
Technological game changers: convergence, hype, and evolving supply chain design

Abstract Paper aims Poor supply chain design cost Boeing, Chipotle, Lego, and Toyota billions in revenues, capitalization, and reputational value. This paper introduces a purposive, systematic supply chain design process, identifies economic disrupters, and describes how a proactive approach to supply chain design can support and propel visionary business models. Originality The paper introduces punctuated equilibrium as a critical lens to evaluate how technological disrupters will transform supply chain design and the development of Industry X.0. Converging game changers will place more companies at existential risk, making it essential to identify potential trigger events and how they might change the competitive rules. Research method Conceptual development following over 100 interviews with companies during a 10 year longitudinal study. Main findings Emerging technologies promise/threaten to transform the economy on the scale of the industrial and information revolutions. We discuss how each technology might influence supply chain design. Individually, each technology represents a game changer. Their convergence requires purposive supply chain design to shape the emergence of Industry X.0. Implications for theory and practice Managers who employ astute scanning and nuanced scenario analysis will position their companies to not only identify inflection points but also accurately assess the timing of the transformation. This skill set will be critical to designing and developing a supply chain able to support and propel visionary business models.
Development and Angiographic Use of the Rabbit VX2 Model for Liver Cancer.

The rabbit VX2 tumor is an animal model commonly utilized for translational research regarding hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the field of Interventional Radiology. This model employs an anaplastic squamous cell carcinoma that is easily and reliably propagated in the skeletal muscle of donor rabbits for eventual harvest and allograft implantation into the liver of naive recipients. This tumor graft rapidly grows within the liver of recipient rabbits into an angiographically identifiable tumor characterized by a necrotic core surrounded by a viable hypervascular capsule. The physical size of the rabbit anatomy is sufficient to facilitate vascular instrumentation allowing for the application and testing of various interventional techniques. Despite these benefits, there exists a paucity of technical resources to act as a concrete reference for researchers working with the model. Herein, we present a comprehensive visual outline for the technical aspects of development, growth, propagation, and angiographic utilization of the rabbit VX2 tumor model for use by novice and experienced researchers alike.
Fostering Student Excitement for Marine Engineering in Fundamental Engineering Courses

A new, project-based-learning course, Quantitative Engineering Analysis, has been created and delivered at Olin College of Engineering that integrates introductory-level mathematics, physics, and engineering. The course focuses on developing students’ knowledge, skills, and confidence in using quantitative analysis as part of the engineering design process. The course structure is built around multidisciplinary projects; one of which involves the design of a boat and draws on the fundamentals of marine engineering and naval architecture to teach core engineering concepts such as vector calculus and rigid-body mechanics. The project is designed to foster a high level of student engagement by placing it in the context of an exciting, relevant, and tangible engineering challenge. Details of the course materials are presented including project instructions and collaborative in-class and individual out-of-class assignments. Results from the design-challenge portion of the project and a student reflection present evidence that course goals were successfully accomplished. Through the process of analyzing, designing, building, and testing a hull design, students are introduced to concepts from marine engineering that would typically not be found in a first year course. By using a marine engineering inspired problem to frame the course module, students are exposed to this vast area at a very early stage in their career-potentially increasing interest in further study or professions in the field.
B Cell Responses: Cell Interaction Dynamics and Decisions

B cells and the antibodies they produce have a deeply penetrating influence on human physiology. Here, we review current understanding of how B cell responses are initiated; the different paths to generate short- and long-lived plasma cells, germinal center cells, and memory cells; and how each path impacts antibody diversity, selectivity, and affinity. We discuss how basic research is informing efforts to generate vaccines that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies against viral pathogens, revealing the special features associated with allergen-reactive IgE responses and uncovering the antibody-independent mechanisms by which B cells contribute to health and disease.
Tumor Neoantigens: When Too Much of a Good Thing Is Bad

Immunotherapy has been the most effective in tumors with high mutational burden. However, a recent study in Cell by Wolf et al. demonstrates that high intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) for cancer neoantigens paradoxically attenuates anti-tumor immune responses, suggesting a need to quantify ITH to improve patient selection for checkpoint blockade therapy.
Understanding phylogenies: Constructing and Interpreting Phylogenetic trees

Interpretation of phylogenetic trees is fundamental in understanding the relationships between organisms, their traits or characteristics, their ecology and even their genomic and developmental biology. As trees appear more often in basic texts, many students, and even their teachers, clearly understand little of how they are constructed and even less about what can be inferred from them about the history of the representatives analyzed. Not only are these trees a source of confusion on what they do tell us, often non-specialists infer things wrongly or, worse, others misuse them in an attempt to negate the validity of evolutionary theory. In this brief introduction, I attempt to give a synopsis of basic tree-building methods, and more importantly demonstrate interpretation and dispel some common misconceptions about them.
Developing and Teaching with a Diverse Children’s Literature Collection at an Urban Public College: What Teacher Education Students Know and Ways Their Knowledge Can Grow about Diverse Books

Knowledge of diverse and multilingual undergraduate/graduate teacher education students’ reading experiences and awareness of diverse children’s literature can inform academic librarians’ book coll...
A RANSAC-based method for detecting post-assembly defects in aircraft interiors

Automated assembly and testing have been key players in the automotive industry in the last few decades, due to the pivotal role of economy of scale possible in that industry. Until now, comparable efforts have not materialized in the civil aerospace industry. A visual inspection methodology for testing of aircraft interiors is presented here. It aims at increasing the level of automation during aircraft testing post-assembly, providing methodologies and technologies for the inspection of both the cabin and the cargo area in single aisle aircrafts. Its expected outcomes are related to a reduction of testing execution time and costs. Additionally, automated testing procedures will increase the level of decisions consistency and reliability, by considering the human factor and addressing the tasks that cause cognitive fatigue after prolonged periods of time. Early experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
A crowd of emotional voices influences the perception of emotional faces: Using adaptation, stimulus salience, and attention to probe audio-visual interactions for emotional stimuli

Correctly assessing the emotional state of others is a crucial part of social interaction. While facial expressions provide much information, faces are often not viewed in isolation, but occur with concurrent sounds, usually voices, which also provide information about the emotion being portrayed. Many studies have examined the crossmodal processing of faces and sounds, but results have been mixed, with different paradigms yielding different results. Using a psychophysical adaptation paradigm, we carried out a series of four experiments to determine whether there is a perceptual advantage when faces and voices match in emotion (congruent), versus when they do not match (incongruent). We presented a single face and a crowd of voices, a crowd of faces and a crowd of voices, a single face of reduced salience and a crowd of voices, and tested this last condition with and without attention directed to the emotion in the face. While we observed aftereffects in the hypothesized direction (adaptation to faces conveying positive emotion yielded negative, contrastive, perceptual aftereffects), we only found a congruent advantage (stronger adaptation effects) when faces were attended and of reduced salience, in line with the theory of inverse effectiveness.
Towards physics responsible for large-scale Lyman-$\alpha$ forest bias parameters

Using a series of carefully constructed numerical experiments based on hydrodynamic cosmological SPH simulations, we attempt to build an intuition for the relevant physics behind the large scale density ($b_\delta$) and velocity gradient ($b_\eta$) biases of the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. Starting with the fluctuating Gunn-Peterson approximation applied to the smoothed total density field in real-space, and progressing through redshift-space with no thermal broadening, redshift-space with thermal broadening and hydrodynamicaly simulated baryon fields, we investigate how approximations found in the literature fare. We find that Seljak's 2012 analytical formulae for these bias parameters work surprisingly well in the limit of no thermal broadening and linear redshift-space distortions. We also show that his $b_\eta$ formula is exact in the limit of no thermal broadening. Since introduction of thermal broadening significantly affects its value, we speculate that a combination of large-scale measurements of $b_\eta$ and the small scale flux PDF might be a sensitive probe of the thermal state of the IGM. We find that large-scale biases derived from the smoothed total matter field are within 10-20\% to those based on hydrodynamical quantities, in line with other measurements in the literature.
Commentary: The Role of Internal Communication in Fostering Employee Advocacy: An Exploratory Study:

Employee advocacy has become a buzzword that has captured the interest of organizations. Despite the increased attention, employee advocacy is an understudied topic in the public relations literatu...
DIY: Assessing the Correctness of Natural Language to SQL Systems

Designing natural language interfaces for querying databases remains an important goal pursued by researchers in natural language processing, databases, and HCI. These systems receive natural language as input, translate it into a formal database query, and execute the query to compute a result. Because the responses from these systems are not always correct, it is important to provide people with mechanisms to assess the correctness of the generated query and computed result. However, this assessment can be challenging for people who lack expertise in query languages. We present Debug-It-Yourself (DIY), an interactive technique that enables users to assess the responses from a state-of-the-art natural language to SQL (NL2SQL) system for correctness and, if possible, fix errors. DIY provides users with a sandbox where they can interact with (1) the mappings between the question and the generated query, (2) a small-but-relevant subset of the underlying database, and (3) a multi-modal explanation of the generated query. End-users can then employ a back-of-the-envelope calculation debugging strategy to evaluate the system’s response. Through an exploratory study with 12 users, we investigate how DIY helps users assess the correctness of the system’s answers and detect & fix errors. Our observations reveal the benefits of DIY while providing insights about end-user debugging strategies and underscore opportunities for further improving the user experience.
Client, clinician, and administrator factors associated with the successful acceptance of a telehealth comprehensive recovery service: A mixed methods study.

The coronavirus disease 2019 SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) crisis and subsequent social distancing recommendations resulted in increased use of telehealth within recovery-oriented behavioral health services (RS). Populations with serious mental illness (SMI) rely on psychosocial treatment, care coordination, and pharmacotherapy to achieve recovery goals and increase community engagement. This program evaluation of a group-based RS used mixed methods to better understand the multiple factors that contributed to successful telehealth conversion. Clients' service utilization over an 18-week period was collected to determine acceptance and the client characteristics associated with utilization (n = 72). Clients completed a treatment satisfaction questionnaire that was distributed ten weeks following telehealth conversion. Qualitative interviews explored staff perspectives on factors that impacted conversion, acceptance, and utilization. Initial staff skepticism gave way to acceptance, while the demands of resourcefulness, flexibility, and competency were emphasized. Clients' treatment utilization remained stable, while the number of missed/cancelled sessions were less frequent over time, especially for clients with a history of psychosis. Clients reported high overall satisfaction, but a preference for in-person treatment. Within this clinic serving middle to high socioeconomic status (SES) clients, clinicians and clients alike found the virtual group-based RS to be feasible and acceptable while in-person treatment was not an option.
Rethinking Damages for Lost Earning Capacity in a Professional Sports Career: How to Translate Today’s Athletic Potential into Tomorrow’s Dollars

This article delves into the theoretical and practical aspects of proving damages for lost earning capacity in a professional sports career. While the law affords plaintiffs recovery for lost earning capacity damages if they can prove their damages under the amorphous standard of “reasonable certainty,” courts for the most part have failed to delineate any standards for deciphering those particular athlete-plaintiffs who possess the requisite level of athletic skill and potential to be allowed recovery for lost future earnings in a professional sport career. This article addresses how an athlete’s earning potential can be assessed and the various factors that go into the assessment, and in this context the author proposes that it is helpful to think about earning potential on a range that defines low, middle and high categories of athletic potential. The author describes the athlete’s burden of proof as a two-step process. Step one entails proving that the defendant’s conduct did in fact cause the plaintiff a lost or diminished chance of future earnings as an athlete (the factual cause link). Step two entails proving the amount of the lost or diminished chance with reasonable certainty. The author addresses the complexities of the factual causation analysis, including how the loss of chance doctrine and the traditional but for test can be applied to establish the factual cause link, and how evidence and expert witness testimony can be used to meet both burdens of proof and satisfy the admissibility standard of Federal Rule of Evidence 702. Finally, the author explains the methodology, data compilations and calculations he used as an expert witness to estimate Andy Oliver’s lost future earnings in his lawsuit against the NCAA, which highlights the complexities involved in proving lost earning capacity damages of top draft prospect amateur athletes.
Regional comparisons of COVID reporting rates, burden, and mortality age-structure using auxiliary data sources

We correct common assumptions about COVID burden and disease characteristics in high-income (HIC) versus low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries by augmenting widely-used surveillance data with auxiliary data sources. We constructed an empirically-based model of serological detection rates to quantify COVID reporting rates in national and sub-national locations. From those reporting rates, we estimated relative COVID burden, finding results that contrast with estimates based on case counts and modeling. To investigate COVID mortality by age in an LMIC context, we utilized a unique morgue study of COVID in Lusaka alongside the population attributable fraction method to account for HIV comorbidity. We calculated the comorbidity-corrected age-adjusted mortality curve in Lusaka and found it significantly skewed toward younger age groups as compared to HICs. This unexpected result recommends against the unexamined use of HIC-derived parameterizations of COVID characteristics in LMIC settings, and challenges the hypothesis of an age-structure protective factor for COVID burden in Africa. Indeed, we found overall COVID burden to be higher in Lusaka than in HICs. Concurrent with high COVID burden, many LMICs have high prevalence of other public health issues such as HIV, which compete for limited health investment resources. Given differences in age-structure, comorbidities, and healthcare delivery costs, we provide a case study comparing the cost efficacy of investment in COVID versus HIV and found that even in a high HIV prevalence setting, investment in COVID remains cost-effective. As a whole, these analyses have broad implications for interpretations of COVID burden, modeling applications, and policy decision-making. Significance Statement The analyses presented here demonstrate the power of auxiliary COVID data sources to fill information gaps, particularly for LMICs. Our results reveal differences in COVID surveillance and disease dynamics between HICs and LMICs that challenge common perceptions and assumptions about COVID in these respective contexts. We show the divergence of COVID reporting rates between HICs and LMICs and the effects on relative estimated burden. Contradicting common modeling practices, our analysis demonstrates that the age-structure of COVID mortality cannot be accurately generalized from HICs to LMICs. We find higher COVID burden in LMIC contexts than HICs particularly in younger age groups and show that investment in COVID is cost-effective even in light of other public health concerns.
Analyzing Head Pose in Remotely Collected Videos of People with Parkinson’s Disease

We developed an intelligent web interface that guides users to perform several Parkinson’s disease (PD) motion assessment tests in front of their webcam. After gathering data from 329 participants (N = 199 with PD, N = 130 without PD), we developed a methodology for measuring head motion randomness based on the frequency distribution of the motion. We found PD is associated with significantly higher randomness in side-to-side head motion as measured by the variance and number of large frequency components compared to the age-matched non-PD control group (p = 0.001, d = 0.13). Additionally, in participants taking levodopa (N = 151), the most common drug to treat Parkinson’s, the degree of random side-to-side head motion was found to follow an exponential-decay activity model following the time of the last dose taken (r = −0.404, p = 6e-5). A logistic regression model for classifying PD vs. non-PD groups identified that higher frequency components are more associated with PD. Our findings could potentially be useful toward objectively quantifying differences in head motions that may be due to either PD or PD medications.
Executive and Attentional Resting-State Hubs of the Human Cortical Connectome Revealed by a Causal Discovery Method for Data-Driven Effective Connectivity Analysis

We introduce a data-driven causal discovery method (Greedy Adjacencies and Non-Gaussian Orientations; GANGO) for calculating a "causal connectome" of directed connectivity from resting-state fMRI data and characterizing hubs of directed information transfer across the human cortex. Prominent hubs of the causal connectome were situated in attentional (dorsal attention) and executive (frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular) networks. These hub networks had distinctly different connectivity profiles. Attentional networks shared incoming connections with sensory regions and outgoing connections with higher cognitive networks, while executive networks primarily connected to other higher cognitive networks and had a high degree of bidirected connectivity. Virtual lesion analyses accentuated these findings, demonstrating that attentional and executive hubs are points of critical vulnerability in the human causal connectome. These data highlight the central role of attention and executive control networks in the human cortical connectome and set the stage for future applications of data-driven causal ("effective") connectivity analysis in psychiatry.
Genetic Peroxisomal Disorders: GC-MS and SIM-GC-MS Detection Of Pipecolic and Phytanic Acids

Peroxisomal disorders are a heterogeous group of genetic diseases caused by mutations which can account either for a generalized loss of peroxisomal functions, or for impairment of only a few or a single peroxisomal function. Elevated serum pipecolic acid concentration is common feature in neonatal adrenoleukodistrophy, Refsum disease (infantile form) and Zellweger syndrome1. Conversion of lysine to pipecolic acid seems to be the predominant catabolic route for lysine in rat brain, instead of the conversion to saccharopine which occurs in the liver, kidney and fibroblasts2. Patients with the cerebrohepato- renal syndrome of Zellweger seem to have a reduced ability to dispose of pipecolic acid as compared to normals2. Hyperpipecolatemia in Zellweger syndrome seems to occur postpartum, and the major manifestations of the disease evident at birth may not be related to pipecolatemia3. Pipecolic acid is described to have an inhibitory activity on the central nervous system, possibly through inhibition of GABA reuptake, thus exhibiting a GABA-like inhibitory effect14.
Development of GERAM, A Generic Enterprise Reference Architecture and Enterprise Integration Methodology

The IFAC/IMP Task Force on Architectures for Enterprise Integration has developed an initial proposal for its Generic Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology (GERAM). The report briefly describes GERAM and the plans of the Task Force for its further development.
Comparative analysis of extreme acid survival in Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella flexneri, and Escherichia coli

Several members of the family Enterobacteriaceae were examined for differences in extreme acid survival strategies. A surprising degree of variety was found between three related genera. The minimum growth pH of Salmonella typhimurium was shown to be significantly lower (pH 4.0) than that of either Escherichia coli (pH 4.4) or Shigella flexneri (pH 4.8), yet E. coli and S. flexneri both survive exposure to lower pH levels (2 to 2.5) than S. typhimurium (pH 3.0) in complex medium. S. typhimurium and E. coli but not S. flexneri expressed low-pH-inducible log-phase and stationary-phase acid tolerance response (ATR) systems that function in minimal or complex medium to protect cells to pH 3.0. All of the organisms also expressed a pH-independent general stress resistance system that contributed to acid survival during stationary phase. E. coli and S. flexneri possessed several acid survival systems (termed acid resistance [AR]) that were not demonstrable in S. typhimurium. These additional AR systems protected cells to pH 2.5 and below but required supplementation of minimal medium for either induction or function. One acid-inducible AR system required oxidative growth in complex medium for expression but successfully protected cells to pH 2.5 in unsupplemented minimal medium, while two other AR systems important for fermentatively grown cells required the addition of either glutamate or arginine during pH 2.5 acid challenge. The arginine AR system was only observed in E. coli and required stationary-phase induction in acidified complex medium. The product of the adi locus, arginine decarboxylase, was responsible for arginine-based acid survival.
Through the Student's Eyes: Working in the Shadows.

David R. Block, a first-year medical student at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, reflects on his first day of gross anatomy and what it means to embark on a medical education. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Teamwork and ABET Review: A Template for Assessment

The latest methodology for ABET accreditation of engineering and technology programs requires the assessment of, among other things, teamwork skills. However, determining and assessing the skills of the team members is problematic. To be effective, engineers and technologists must work in teams to reduce the knowledge load, to share the work so that it may be completed in a timely fashion and to provide a means for error checking. Each of these reasons requires a particular skill set. It is natural to assess for an ABET review the extent to which these skill sets are being taught in a curricula. But what skill sets should be assessed. In this paper critical skills that differentiate working in teams from working in groups are identified. These skill sets can then be used as a template in constructing an assessment methodology for “teamwork”.
Defining Capacity: Balancing the Competing Interests of Autonomy and Need

This Essay addresses the question of capacity - the basic threshold determination that pervades all areas of the law. An individual must have the requisite level of capacity to consent to sex, refuse medical treatment, enter into a contract, marry, divorce, relinquish parental rights, execute a will, make a gift, donate organs, vote, serve on a jury, stand trial, and even to hire a lawyer. The standards regulating determinations of capacity are not monolithic. An individual may lack the capacity to contract, but may have the requisite capacity to write a will or to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. As individuals, we each have a strong personal interest in how the law separates those of us with capacity from those of us without. The determination of incapacity represents a crucial dividing line between legal subjects and those who are the object of legal protections. On one side are individuals who are not only empowered to act and to make legally binding decisions, but who will be held legally responsible for their actions and decisions. On the other side are those individuals who are deemed to have no agency, no decision-making authority and who are, therefore, held blameless, or at least not responsible, for their actions and decisions.Part II reviews the differing standards of capacity. Part III examines two instances where recent legal reforms attempt to preserve individual autonomy: state guardianship laws and the 2002 amendments to Rule 1.14. These reforms reflect a distrust of the supposedly benevolent exercise of the state's parens patraie authority and seek to restrain state power. Part IV presents the outsider critique of capacity doctrine with an emphasis on the way capacity standards evaluate non-normative life choices and silence marginalized identities and identifications. This section focuses on individuals in same-sex relationships or individuals who identify as gay or lesbian. The Conclusion suggests that our tendency to venerate abstract principles of autonomy may lead us to overlook the reality of need and mistake the ideal of liberty as a synonym for human dignity. The law's uncritical endorsement of autonomy interests reinscribes a liberal fiction of autonomy that ignores the real-life experiences of a great many (if not all) individuals.
CO Poisoning of Ethylene Hydrogenation over Pt Catalysts: A Comparison of Pt(111) Single Crystal and Pt Nanoparticle Activities

The ethylene hydrogenation reaction was studied on two platinum model catalyst systems in the presence of carbon monoxide to examine poisoning effects. The catalysts were a Pt(111) single crystal and lithographically fabricated platinum nanoparticles deposited on alumina. Gas chromatographic results for Pt(111) show that CO adsorption reduces the turnover rate from 101 to 10-2 molecules/Pt site/s at 413 K, and the activation energy for hydrogenation on the poisoned surface becomes 20.2 ± 0.1 kcal/mol. The activation energy for ethylene hydrogenation over Pt(111) in the absence of CO is 10.8 kcal/mol. The Pt nanoparticle system shows the same rate for the reaction as over Pt(111) in the absence of CO. When CO is adsorbed on the Pt nanoparticle array, the rate of the reaction is reduced from 102 to 100 nmol/s at 413 K. However, the activation energy remains largely unchanged. The Pt nanoparticles show an apparent activation energy for ethylene hydrogenation of 10.2 ± 0.2 kcal/mol in the absence of CO and 11.4 ± 0.6 kcal/mol on the CO-poisoned nanoparticle array. This is the first observation of a significant difference in catalytic behavior between Pt(111) and the Pt nanoparticle arrays. It is proposed that the active sites at the oxide--metal interface are responsible for the difference in activation energies for the hydrogenation reaction over the two model platinum catalysts.
The Worst Test of Truth: The "Marketplace of Ideas" as Faulty Metaphor

Dissenting in Abrams v. United States, Justice Holmes proclaimed that “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” Economic markets have since become a pervasive metaphor for free speech. This Article critiques the basic argument that underlies this metaphor: that speech should be “free” because markets are “free,” and because free markets produce “truth.” These assertions about markets are taken for granted, but they portray markets and market regulation inaccurately. Economic markets thus provide a poor analogy for the deregulation of speech. First Amendment jurisprudence invokes the supposed truth-finding function of markets to argue that competition, not law, should distinguish the true from the false. Thus, the law should also refrain from attempting to equalize the relative strength of competing speakers. The Supreme Court relied on the “anti-equalizing” principle — and the marketplace metaphor — to strike down restrictions on corporate political spending in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). The assumptions of the metaphor are inconsistent with theory and experience, however. Economic markets do not produce normative or empirical “truth.” Existing regulatory law reflects this understanding. Mail fraud law and securities regulation, for example, assume that markets are particularly bad at identifying the truth, and thus information is more aggressively regulated in the market context than in other contexts. Economic regulation also assumes that markets require some degree of “equalizing.” Antitrust law and insider-trading law, for example, treat certain types of advantages as impediments that must be corrected in order to ensure that markets remain competitive. The marketplace metaphor has proven effective in defending unpopular speech. It has also (perhaps inadvertently) contributed to the general pervasiveness of free-market rhetoric and ideology in legal discourse. But the metaphor is based on a normative vision of unregulated markets, and not on market theory or experience. Thus it is ultimately little more than an antiregulatory assertion that provides no insights into how the law should deal with speech or markets.