cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of Antioxidant Therapies in Transient Focal Ischemia in Mice

Background and Purpose—Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb) and α-lipoic acid (LA) are commercially available “antioxidant supplements” with a variety of actions that may be beneficial during acute stroke. These actions include inhibiting platelet and leukocyte activation and adhesion, reducing free radical generation, and increasing cerebral blood flow. Both EGb and LA have been shown to be neuroprotective in cell culture and global central nervous system ischemia models. In this study we investigated the neuroprotective efficacy of EGb and LA in a clinically relevant, transient focal central nervous system ischemic model. Methods—In the EGb study, 60 adult C57blk mice were randomized to treatment with EGb given orally (via gavage) for 7 days: low dose, 50 EGb mg/kg daily; high dose, 100 mg/kg daily; matched placebo. On day 7, reversible middle cerebral artery occlusion was produced by advancing a silicone-coated 8-0 filament into the internal carotid artery for 45 minutes followed by reperfusion. At 24 hours, th...
Testing a Collaborative Research Utilization Model to Translate Best Practices in Pain Management

While millions of dollars are being spent developing the seeds of research to improve the care we give to patients, significant barriers to using empirical evidence by health care professionals and policymakers still exist. The gap between what we know from research and what we use in practice is at the heart of the translation research problem. How do we get empirical knowledge uptake and use by clinicians in the fields of practice? In addition, how do we measure if practice changes are occurring? This article describes a program of translation research in which the intervention, called the Collaborative Research Utilization model, was developed and tested in four clinical studies over 18 years.
Ultrasmooth GaN Etched Surfaces Using Photoelectrochemical Wet Etching and an Ultrasonic Treatment

We have studied the effect of ultrasonic agitation on the surface of n‐type gallium nitride layers grown on sapphire that were subjected to a selective photoelectrochemical etch. Solutions of various concentrations of were used along with an ultraviolet lamp to oxidize the exposed surface, resulting in an anisotropic etch. Smooth surfaces with root‐mean‐square (rms) roughness of were obtained for a narrow range of etching conditions. It was found that this window could be extended by using etch conditions which produced "whisker" growth. Subsequent ultrasonic agitation was then used to remove these whiskers and obtain smoother surfaces with the best rms roughness values being . ©2000 The Electrochemical Society
Circulating, Imaging, and Genetic Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Risk Prediction

In the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, the study of biomarkers to identify at-risk individuals is an expanding field. Several developments have fueled this trend, including improved understanding of the pathophysiological processes underlying atherosclerosis, advances in imaging technology to enable the quantification of subclinical disease burden, and the identification of new genetic susceptibility variants for cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, the advent of high-throughput platforms for molecular profiling has increased the pace of biomarker discovery. The rising interest in biomarkers has been balanced by the recognition that standardized and rigorous statistical approaches are needed to evaluate the clinical utility of candidate risk markers. This article reviews the issues surrounding the evaluation of biomarkers, evidence from studies of existing biomarkers, and recent applications of biomarker discovery platforms.
Introduction: Race, Genetics, and Disease: Questions of Evidence, Matters of Consequence

This special issue of Studies of Science highlights ongoing debates concerning race, genomics, and disease. Some of the papers examine the production of disease etiology research, pharmaceutical drug response, or DNA genealogy tests, while others analyze institutional consequences and challenges arising from contemporary biomedicine, such as medical education and recruiting subjects for clinical research. In this introduction, we outline major issues that provide background and foreground for the specific studies that follow, and end with a brief description of the papers. First, we briefly outline the debates around contemporary genetics research on race, ancestry, population, and disease. Second, we describe genomics and disease research projects on the genetics of populations that provide the ground on which the past debates have played, as well as introduce very recent projects that may change the tenor of future debates. We discuss why some scientists argue that their research does not biologize race, while others argue that their findings do demonstrate racial differences. Finally, we relate these complex genomic sciences and their biopolitical debates to relevant STS themes.
Osteoporosis and Kyphoplasty

Questions from patients about analgesic pharmacotherapy and responses from authors are presented to help educate patients and make them more effective self-advocates. The topics addressed in this issue are osteoporosis and osteomalacia, with a discussion of conservative management, including kyphoplasty, vertebral augmentation, pain control, and quality of life.
Sinusitis and atopy in human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Sinusitis is increased in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. To determine the underlying mechanism(s), 37 HIV-positive patients were evaluated. HIV-negative controls included 21 with rhinosinusitis, 32 with atopy, and 16 without sinusitis. Twenty-two HIV-positive patients (59%) had sinusitis; 14 of them had AIDS. There was a significant association between sinusitis severity and stage of HIV infection (P < .05). IgE levels were higher in the HIV-positive patients, increased with disease progression, and were strongly correlated with sinusitis severity (P < .01). Of HIV-positive patients, 72% exhibited more than two positive skin tests compared with 24% of HIV-negative rhinosinusitis patients and 12.5% of controls (P < .05). Sinusitis is common in HIV-positive patients, especially those with AIDS. HIV causes an allergic diathesis with increased IgE levels and allergic reactivity. There is a significant correlation between IgE levels and sinusitis severity, suggesting sinusitis is part of this acquired atopic state.
Biological Notes on Some Species of the Melanoplus tribulus Species Group (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae) from the Southeastern United States with a Description of Two New Species.

Members of the Melanoplus tribulus species group are flightless grasshoppers that inhabit open forests and forest edges throughout a large portion of the eastern United States. Here distributional, habitat, and morphological information is provided for several species of the group from the southeastern United States, including Melanoplus morsei, Melanoplus tepidus, and Melanoplus vulnus. Two new species, Melanoplus harrisi and Melanoplus nossi are described.
Enhanced Growth of Primary Tumors in Cancer-Prone Mice after Immunization against the Mutant Region of an Inherited Oncoprotein

One major objective of tumor immunologists is to prevent cancer development in individuals at high risk. (TG.AC × C57BL/6)F1 mice serve as a model for testing the feasibility of this objective. The mice carry in the germline a mutant ras oncogene that has an arginine at codon 12 instead of glycine present in the wild-type, and after physical (wounding) or chemical promotion, these mice have a high probability for developing papillomas that progress to cancer. Furthermore, F1 mice immunized with Arg12 mutant ras peptide in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) develop T cells within 10 d that proliferate in vitro on stimulation with the Arg12 mutant ras peptide. Within 14 d, these mice have delayed-type hypersensitivity to the peptide. Immunization with CFA alone or with a different Arg12 mutant ras peptide in CFA induced neither response. To determine the effect of immunization on development of tumors, mice immunized 3 wk earlier were painted on the back with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate every 3 d for 8 wk. The time of appearance and the number of papillomas were about the same in immunized and control mice, but the tumors grew faster and became much larger in the mice immunized with the Arg12 mutant ras peptide. Thus, the immunization failed to protect against growth of papillomas. The peptide-induced CD4+ T cells preferentially recognized the peptide but not the native mutant ras protein. On the other hand, mice immunized with Arg12 mutant ras peptide and bearing papillomas had serum antibodies that did bind native mutant ras protein. Together, these studies indicate that active immunization of cancer-prone individuals may result in immune responses that fail to eradicate mutant oncogene–expressing tumor cells, but rather induce a remarkable enhancement of tumor growth.
Association of valproate-induced teratogenesis with histone deacetylase inhibition in vivo

Chemically induced birth defects are an important public health and human problem. Here we use Xenopus and zebrafish as models to investigate the mechanism of action of a well-known teratogen, valproic acid (VPA). VPA is a drug used in treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder but causes spina bifida if taken during pregnancy. VPA has several biochemical activities, including inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs). To investigate the mechanism of action of VPA, we compared its effects in Xenopus and zebrafish embryos with those of known HDAC inhibitors and noninhibitory VPA analogs. We found that VPA and other HDAC inhibitors cause very similar and characteristic developmental defects whereas VPA analogs with poor inhibitory activity in vivo have little teratogenic effect. Unbiased microarray analysis revealed that the effects of VPA and trichostatin A (TSA), a structurally unrelated HDAC inhibitor, are strikingly concordant. The concordance is apparent both by en masse correlation of fold-changes and by detailed similarity of dose-response profiles of individual genes. Together, the results demonstrate that the teratogenic effects of VPA are very likely mediated specifically by inhibition of HDACs.
Guided wave mode selection for inhomogeneous elastic waveguides using frequency domain finite element approach

This article describes the use of the frequency domain finite element (FDFE) technique for guided wave mode selection in inhomogeneous waveguides. Problems with Rayleigh-Lamb and Shear-Horizontal mode excitation in isotropic homogeneous plates are first studied to demonstrate the application of the approach. Then, two specific cases of inhomogeneous waveguides are studied using FDFE. Finally, an example of guided wave mode selection for inspecting disbonds in composites is presented. Identification of sensitive and insensitive modes for defect inspection is demonstrated. As the discretization parameters affect the accuracy of the results obtained from FDFE, effect of spatial discretization and the length of the domain used for the spatial fast Fourier transform are studied. Some recommendations with regard to the choice of the above parameters are provided.
Latest Developments for In Situ Measurements of Gas-Solid Interactions

The power of in situ observations at elevated temperatures to elucidate the details of gas-solid interactions was realized during the very early years of the advent of transmission electron microscope [1]. Of several designs developed between 1950 and 1970, the underlying approach of using a differential pumping system, as proposed by Swann and Tighe [2], has been further developed and is now widely used in commercially-available environmental transmission or scanning transmission electron microscopes (ETEM or ESTEM). In recent years ESTEM, has been successfully employed to reveal and understand the structural and chemical changes occurring in nanoparticles under reactive environments [3,4]. However, quantitative measurements of reaction rates and chemical changes are precluded by (a) the nanoscale region used for atomic imaging, (b) uncertainties in the actual temperature of the region under observation, and (c) the large amount of data to be analyzed. Here we present various technical and analytical methods we have developed to address these issues.
Space-time representation of people based on 3D skeletal data

First survey dedicated to human representations based on 3D skeleton data.Our survey is comprehensive and covers the most recent and advanced approaches.An insightful categorization and analysis of the 3D skeleton-based representations is provided. Spatiotemporal human representation based on 3D visual perception data is a rapidly growing research area. Representations can be broadly categorized into two groups, depending on whether they use RGB-D information or 3D skeleton data. Recently, skeleton-based human representations have been intensively studied and kept attracting an increasing attention, due to their robustness to variations of viewpoint, human body scale and motion speed as well as the realtime, online performance. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of existing space-time representations of people based on 3D skeletal data, and provides an informative categorization and analysis of these methods from the perspectives, including information modality, representation encoding, structure and transition, and feature engineering. We also provide a brief overview of skeleton acquisition devices and construction methods, enlist a number of benchmark datasets with skeleton data, and discuss potential future research directions.
Der Aufbruch zum Digitalen Unternehmen

Die Welt der Wirtschaft erfindet sich fortlaufend neu. Das nennt man Fortschritt. Aus dem Wortteil Schritt darf man dabei keinesfalls auf etwas Stetes, Gemachliches schliesen, Schritttempo etwa. Denn zurzeit laufen wir gerade durch eine Hochgeschwindigkeitsphase. So etwas gab es auch in der Vergangenheit auch immer schon mal. Laut Peter Drucker wiederholen sich solche Phasen grob alle 200 Jahre. Ausgelost wird das durch eine fundamentale Erfindung (Beispiele: Buchdruck, Dampfmaschine), in deren Folge etwa 50 Jahre spater grose, ursprunglich mit der Erfindung nicht absehbare Neuerungen stattfinden, die zu einer 50 Jahre wahrenden Phase groser gesellschaftlicher Veranderungen fuhrt.
Designing peptide sequences in flexible chain conformations to bind RNA: a search algorithm combining Monte Carlo, self-consistent mean field and concerted rotation techniques.

A search algorithm combining Monte Carlo, self-consistent mean field, and concerted rotation techniques was developed to discover peptide sequences that are reasonable HIV drug candidates due to their exceptional binding to human tRNAUUULys3, the primer of HIV replication. The search algorithm allows for iteration between sequence mutations and conformation changes during sequence evolution. Searches conducted for different classes of peptides identified several potential peptide candidates. Analysis of the energy revealed that the asparagine and cysteine at residues 11 and 12 play important roles in “recognizing” tRNALys3 via van der Waals interactions, contributing to binding specificity. Arginines preferentially attract the phosphate linkage via charge–charge interaction, contributing to binding affinity. Evaluation of the RNA/peptide complex’s structure revealed that adding conformation changes to the search algorithm yields peptides with better binding affinity and specificity to tRNALys3 than a prev...
Comparative perspectives on concepts of gender, ethnicity, and race

This essay examines, with broad strokes, the ways in which different historical experiences have given rise to varied understandings of equality based on gender, ethnicity, and race, contrasting concepts that have emerged in Liberia and other African contexts with US approaches. The essay evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the different conceptualizations for mobilization around women's rights, political power, and peace and shows that approaches that work in some contexts may fail in others because of the varied societal and historical orientations. More specifically, the essay argues that, in general, women's movements in societies that have emphasized “equality” over “difference” in gender relations have also tended to emphasize diversity and the importance of identity when it comes to racial and ethnic difference as well as other forms of difference. Conversely, women's movements in societies that have adopted a “difference” frame for understanding gender – understood here in the narrow sense o...
OOV Sensitive Named-Entity Recognition in Speech.

Named Entity Recognition (NER), an information extraction task, is typically applied to spoken documents by cascading a large vocabulary continuous speech recognizer (LVCSR) and a named entity tagger. Recognizing named entities in automatically decoded speech is difficult since LVCSR errors can confuse the tagger. This is especially true of out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words, which are often named entities and always produce transcription errors. In this work, we improve speech NER by including features indicative of OOVs based on a OOV detector, allowing for the identification of regions of speech containing named entities, even if they are incorrectly transcribed. We construct a new speech NER data set and demonstrate significant improvements for this task.
Effect of a cancer screening intervention conducted by lay health workers among inner-city women.

Introduction We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine if an in-home educational intervention conducted by lay health workers (LHWs) could increase adherence among low-income, inner-city, African-American women to breast and cervical cancer screening schedules. Methods We recruited 321 African-American women from diverse inner-city sources. After baseline interviews, they were randomly assigned to either the intervention (n = 163) or the control (n = 158) group. Those in the intervention group were visited in their homes up to three times by LHWs who provided a culturally sensitive educational program that emphasized the need for screening. Results Ninety-three (93) women in the intervention group and 102 in the control group completed the postintervention interview. For Pap smears, the increase in screening was similar in both groups. For clinical breast exams (CBEs), however, there was a modest increase in the intervention group. The improvement was greatest for mammography, for which there was a 10% to 12 % increase. Among women who were not on recommended schedules at baseline, the improvement was substantial and greater in the intervention group. Conclusions LHWs’ intervention appeared to improve the rate at which inner-city women obtained CBEs and mammograms, but had no effect on Pap smears. A high attrition rate weakened our ability to make conclusive statements about the exact impact of the intervention.
Electronic and geometric structures of various products of the Sc+ + H2O reaction

The products of the Sc + +H 2 S reaction were investigated by constructing ab-initio MCSCF and CI wave functions for various states of + ScS, + ScSH, Sc + SH 2 , HSc + SH, and H 2 ... + ScS. The geometries were optimized, and the energies computed. The ground-state reaction product is the H 2 ... + ScS electrostatic species (34.5 kcal/mol below Sc + +H 2 S) while the electrostatic product, Sc + SH 2 , is exoergic by only 11.4 kcal/mol
Surgery for Intractable Epilepsy

The outcome and implications of early surgery for epilepsy are reviewed from the literature by the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Miami Children’s Hospital, Miami, FA.
Tin/silver alloy nanoparticles for low temperature lead-free interconnect applications

A chemical reduction method was used to synthesize tin/silver alloy nanoparticles with various sizes and their thermal properties were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. Both the particle size dependent melting temperature and latent heat of fusion have been observed. The melting point can be achieved as low as 194 °C when the diameter of the nanoparticles is around 10 nm. The 64 nm (average diameter) SnAg alloy nanoparticle pastes showed good wetting properties on the cleaned copper foil surface and the intermetallic compounds formed. These low melting point SnAg alloy nanoparticles could be used for low temperature lead-free interconnect applications.
Ultrasound diagnosis of small asymptomatic bladder carcinoma in patients referred for gynecological scan.

AbstractWe report on 4 patients with bladder cancer detected during pelvic ultrasound for gynecological indications without urinary symptoms. Only 1 of the 4 patients had hematuria. All 4 patients were treated by cystoscopic excisional biopsy and no further operation was required. We stress that the bladder often is forgotten during pelvic ultrasound and that sonography is a sensitive, noninvasive tool to examine the bladder.
A20 An introduction to Nrf2, the master rheostat for antioxidant-inflammatory homeostasis

Endogenous production and exposure to oxidising molecules is continuous. The continuous production of antioxidants in cells maintain a normal healthy antioxidant-inflammatory balance. Nrf2 (NF-E2-related factor 2), is a transcription factor that regulates genes for antioxidant and repair enzymes that protect cells from oxidative stress. But, oxidative stress defined as a condition endangering health, is not required to elevate Nrf2 activity. Instead, in unstressed cells, Nrf2 activity increases and decreases within a normal range of antioxidants and oxidants produced by metabolism, which we refer to as redox homeostasis. Activation of Nrf2 accounts for both the enhanced synthesis of endogenous antioxidants and increased activities of antioxidant enzymes. Keap1 is the regulator of Nrf2 and actual sensor of oxidants. Nrf2 must also be phosphorylated to enter the nucleus where it then binds to specific sequences in DNA. The binding, activation of transcription, and the deactivation of Nrf2 are regulated through interactions partner transcription factors, c-Jun and small Mafs, and inhibitors of Nrf2-regulated gene expression, c-Myc and Bach1. Keap1 is also regulated by cytosolic proteins including p62 that can activate Nrf2 in a non-canonical manner. In prolonged exposure to oxidative or inflammatory stimuli that produce stress, Nrf2 activation is increased in an attempt to maintain redox homeostasis; however, constant stress can lead to a new steady state that we associate with chronic disease. In ageing, loss of the ability to activate Nrf2 may contribute to age-related pathologies including Huntington’s disease, other neurodegenerative diseases, and decreased resistance to environmental toxicants.
Insights from simple models for surface states in nanostructures

Surface passivation is of great technological importance due to the increasing miniaturisation of electronic devices. It has been known for many years that under certain conditions surface states can form; when they do so in a quantum well (QW) the result is an unbound (i.e., evanescent) state in the QW. Such surface states are generally undesirable, so a good physical understanding of them is important. A simple single-p-orbital valence band model is used with two types of surface passivation to examine surface states in a QW: (1) an energy upshift added to the terminal atoms; and (2) explicit passivation by an s-orbital on each end of the QW. These models show these unbound/evanescent QW states can occur in both models; that in them the wavefunction is bound to the terminal atoms; and that the existence of these states is connected to the effective valence-band offset between the terminal atoms and the bulk QW.
Building Bundles, Building Memories: Processes of Remembering in Adena-Hopewell Societies of Eastern North America

Over the past 20 years, archaeologists have grown increasingly interested in exploring the relationships between humans and things. In part, this focus on materiality has been fueled by the integration of modern philosophical perspectives and considerations of non-Western ontologies and the New Materialisms. In North America, much emphasis has been placed on exploring the relational aspects of American Indian ontologies in the past and present. In this article, I build upon these perspectives by integrating memory as an important infrastructure through which these relationships are cast and maintained. I refer to these memory-based practices as processes of remembering. I argue that identifying these discursive memory processes provides an opportunity to refine how we understand objects like bundles and the social process of bundling—one way archaeologists have framed complex human/thing relationships. I use an Adena-Hopewell burial mound from the Middle Woodland period in Eastern North America (ca. 200 BCE–CE 500) as a case study to illustrate how societies during this era were, at least in part, organized and sustained through the rituals involved in revising bundles of ancestors, objects, and memories of human action. I argue that bundling assemblages of the past managed social dissonance by stabilizing or transforming perceptions of kinship in social coalitions.
An Exploratory Analysis of Unhealthy and Abusive Relationships for Adults with Serious Mental Illnesses Living in Supportive Housing

Individuals living with serious mental illness are at high risk of chronic homelessness, victimization, and intimate partner violence. In recent years, supportive housing programs have emerged as one way to prevent homelessness and victimization for this population, while also expanding social interactions and social networks. In concert with a focal supportive housing program, this research conducted two focus groups with 18 individuals who have a serious mental illness diagnosis. The authors sought to answer the research question, "What are perceptions of healthy and unhealthy relationships among formerly homeless people with serious mental illness?" To this end, the eight-item questionnaire was created around dimensions of power and control, as well as relationship equality. Findings from an inductive thematic analysis reveal three broad families of themes (relationship ideals, lived experiences, and risk/resources in supportive housing), around which smaller themes and subthemes are organized. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are also discussed.
Sirolimus and Autophagy Inhibition in Lymphangioleiomyomatosis: Results of a Phase I Clinical Trial.

Background Animal and cellular studies support the importance of autophagy inhibition in lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). In a cohort of subjects with LAM, we tested the hypothesis that treatment with sirolimus and hydroxychloroquine (an autophagy inhibitor) at two different dose levels is safe and well tolerated. Secondary end points included changes in lung function. Methods This 48-week, two-center phase I trial evaluated the safety of escalating oral hydroxychloroquine doses (100-200 mg) given twice a day in combination with sirolimus to eligible patients ≥ 18 years old with LAM. Subjects received combination therapy for 24 weeks followed by an observation phase without taking study drugs for an additional 24 weeks. Results Fourteen patients provided written informed consent. Thirteen were treated in cohorts of three patients each with escalating hydroxychloroquine doses (200 and 400 mg) and an extension phase at the 400-mg dose. The most common adverse events were mucositis, headache, and diarrhea. No drug-related serious adverse events were reported. Secondary end points showed improvement in lung function at 24 weeks, with a decrease in lung function at the 48-week time point. When the higher dose of hydroxychloroquine was analyzed separately, FEV 1 and FVC remained stable at 48 weeks, but the 6-min walk distance showed a decrease toward baseline. Conclusions The combination of sirolimus and hydroxychloroquine is well tolerated, with no dose-limiting adverse events observed at 200 mg twice a day. Potential effects on lung function should be explored in larger trials. Trial Registry ClinicalTrials.gov; No.: NCT01687179; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov
Ultrasimple extremely broadband transient-grating frequency-resolved-optical-gating device

We demonstrate an ultrasimple, alignment-free, single-shot Transient-Grating Frequency-Resolved-Optical-Gating device using a mask to separate the input beam into three beams and a Fresnel biprism to cross and delay them.
Unemployment insurance in a three-state model of the labor market

Abstract The paper extends the model of Krusell et al. (2010) to study the welfare effects of unemployment insurance. The model unemployment insurance program includes four realistic features: 1) a 50% replacement rate up to a benefit cap; 2) finite duration of eligibility during a jobless spell; 3) limited eligibility; and 4) and an imperfectly monitored job search requirement. The model is parameterized to fit the size of scope of unemployment insurance in the United States. Removing unemployment insurance from the model leads to only a 0.1% consumption equivalent increase in average welfare. Simplifying assumptions about the structure of unemployment insurance, such as allowing all job losers to receive benefits, lead to much larger welfare effects similar to the effects found in the past literature. Understanding the welfare effects of unemployment insurance requires careful modeling of the structure of the program.
Multimodality Therapies: Methodologie Issues in Research and Practice

Methodologie problems limit the conclusions that can be drawn about the relative efficacy of treatments for children with attention deficit disorder. This article discusses several of these problems with respect to four common treatments for this disorder: medication, parent training, cognitive and behavioral therapy, and educational intervention.
Epidemiology of Alcoholic Liver Disease

Alcohol abuse is recognized as a major determinant of public health outcomes. The use of alcohol accounted for 5.9% of all deaths worldwide in 2012. Only in the twentieth century has alcohol been found to be a direct hepatotoxin. A dose dependent relationship has been described in many studies across many countries between the consumption of alcohol and the development of alcoholic liver disease.
Accelerated Aging in 4H-SiC as a Betavoltaic Semiconductor Using an Electron Beam System

Radiation tolerance and output power of 4H-SiC p-i-n diodes as a betavoltaic semiconductor are investigated. Accelerated electron aging experiments were conducted using a custom designed electron beam system. An electron beam with beam current of 10 μA and energy of 62 keV, the mean beta energy of Promethium-147, is focused on diodes for electron dosing. No output power degradation is observed with a dose of up to 3 × 1017 cm-2. The experiments have demonstrated that SiC p-i-n diodes are radiation hard with beta particles of 62 keV and dose of 1017 cm-2 or higher.
PP2A holoenzymes, substrate specificity driving cellular functions and deregulation in cancer

PP2A is a highly conserved eukaryotic serine/threonine protein phosphatase of the PPP family of phosphatases with fundamental cellular functions. In cells, PP2A targets specific subcellular locations and substrates by forming heterotrimeric holoenzymes, where a core dimer consisting of scaffold (A) and catalytic (C) subunits complexes with one of many B regulatory subunits. PP2A plays a key role in positively and negatively regulating a myriad of cellular processes, as it targets a very sizable fraction of the cellular substrates phosphorylated on Ser/Thr residues. This review focuses on insights made toward the understanding on how the subunit composition and structure of PP2A holoenzymes mediates substrate specificity, the role of substrate modulation in the signaling of cellular division, growth, and differentiation, and its deregulation in cancer.
A general model of demand-responsive transportation services: From taxi to ridesharing to dial-a-ride

Abstract The paper presents a general analytic framework to model transit systems that provide door-to-door service. The model includes as special cases non-shared taxi and demand responsive transportation ( DRT ). In the latter we include both, paratransit services such as dial-a-ride ( DAR ), and the form of ridesharing ( shared taxi ) currently being used by crowd-sourced taxi companies like Lyft and Uber. The framework yields somewhat optimistic results because, among other things, it is deterministic and does not track vehicles across space. By virtue of its simplicity, however, the framework yields approximate closed form formulas for many cases of interest.
Isotriviality is equivalent to potential good reduction for endomorphisms of PN over function fields

Abstract Let K = k ( C ) be the function field of a complete non-singular curve C over an arbitrary field k. The main result of this paper states that a morphism φ : P K N → P K N is isotrivial if and only if it has potential good reduction at all places v of K; this generalizes results of Benedetto for polynomial maps on P K 1 and Baker for arbitrary rational maps on P K 1 . We offer two proofs: the first uses algebraic geometry and geometric invariant theory, and it is new even in the case N = 1 . The second proof uses non-archimedean analysis and dynamics, and it more directly generalizes the proofs of Benedetto and Baker. We will also give two applications. The first states that an endomorphism of P K N of degree at least two is isotrivial if and only if it has an isotrivial iterate. The second gives a dynamical criterion for whether (after base change) a locally free coherent sheaf E of rank N + 1 on C decomposes as a direct sum L ⊕ ⋯ ⊕ L of N + 1 copies of the same invertible sheaf L .
Sentinel – 1 SAR Image Processing for Target Detection and Evaluation by using Bulgarian VTMIS

This paper describes some experimental results of sea target detection by Sentinel – 1 SAR imagery and in-situ validation by using terrestrial sensors (Radar and AIS) of the Vessel Traffic Management and Information System (VTMIS) of Bulgaria. Images of Western Black Sea region, provided by ESA Sentinels Scientific Data Hub for the period of April 1-st till May 30-th, 2018 are processed for automatic target detection. Detected targets are then compared with Radar and AIS data, collected by the Bulgarian port infrastructure company and its VTMIS. Database includes lists of integrated targets (Radar and AIS), Radar targets only (with no AIS transponder, small non-SOLAS vessels) and AIS targets only (outside coverage area of Radar surveillance subsystem).
Understanding Data Management Planning and Sharing: Perspectives for the Social Scientist

This chapter focuses on the access, sharing, and discovery of research data from the perspectives of two information professionals who frequently work with social science researchers at universities in the United States. It provides a macro-discussion about data management lifecycle and best practices, using data-sharing projects, platforms, and competencies as examples. Organized around the lifecycle, this chapter provides an overview of best practices in data management planning and sharing for social scientists. It will review the research data and sharing lifecycle as well as the relationship between social science researchers and librarians. It will conclude with how this partnership can assist in data collecting, sharing, and storing methods that comply with data management requirements.
Laparoscopic pyloromyotomy can be performed safely by senior pediatric surgery trainees without supervision at high volume centers.

Abstract Aim of the Study Pediatric surgery trainees at our institution perform 15 to 20 supervised laparoscopic pyloromyotomies during their junior year, and are allowed to perform the operation independently without supervision during their senior year. We reviewed the outcomes of laparoscopic pyloromyotomies performed by senior trainees operating without supervision and compared them to experienced pediatric surgeons. Method We did a retrospective reviewed of all unsupervised laparoscopic pyloromyotomies (n = 90) performed by the last 12 pediatric surgery fellows (2012–2018) during their senior year, and the most recent 90 consecutive laparoscopic pyloromyotomies performed by 9 experienced pediatric surgeons. Statistical significance was determined by T-test and Fisher's exact test. Data is expressed as mean (SD) or median (range). A p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results Mean age at surgery was 4.7 (SD: 1.6) and 5 (SD: 2.3) weeks in the trainees and surgeons group, respectively (p = 0.38). Mean operative time was 28 (SD: 13) minutes in the trainees group vs. 25 (SD: 10) minutes in the surgeons group (p = 0.09). Intraoperative complications occurred in 3 of 90 (2.7%) cases in the trainees group (three mucosal perforations, all detected during the operation, one repaired laparoscopically, two repaired open), and none in the surgeons group (p = 0.11). One postoperative complication requiring reoperation occurred in the trainees group (omentum eviscerated through an incision site), while none occurred in the surgeons group (p = 0.36). No incomplete pyloromyotomies occurred in either group. The median length of postoperative hospital stay was 1 (1 to 10) and 1 (1 to 6) days in the trainees and surgeons group, respectively (p = 0.63). Conclusion Senior trainees at high-volume training programs can perform unsupervised laparoscopic pyloromyotomies safely as a mean to promote surgical autonomy without compromising patient outcomes. Level of Evidence III
Rapid and transient enhancement of thalamic information transmission induced by vagus nerve stimulation.

Objective: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been FDA-approved as a long-term, therapeutic treatment for multiple disorders, including pharmacoresistant epilepsy and depression. Here we elucidate the short-term effects of VNS on sensory processing. Approach: We employed an information theoretic approach to examine the effects of VNS on thalamocortical transmission of sensory-related information along the somatosensory pathway. Main results: We found that VNS enhanced the selectivity of the response of thalamic neurons to specific kinetic features in the stimuli, resulting in a significant increase in the efficiency and rate of stimulus-related information conveyed by thalamic spikes. VNS-induced improvements in thalamic sensory processing coincided with a decrease in thalamic burst firing. Importantly, we found VNS-induced enhancement of sensory processing had a rapid onset and offset, completely disappearing one minute after cessation of VNS. The timescales of these effects indicate against an underlying mechanism involving long-term neuroplasticity. We found several patterns of VNS (tonic, standard duty-cycle, and fast duty-cycle) all induced similar improvements in sensory processing. Under closer inspection we noticed that due to the fast timescale of VNS effects on sensory processing, standard duty-cycle VNS induced a fluctuating sensory processing state which may be sub-optimal for perceptual behavior. Fast duty-cycle VNS and continuous, tonic VNS induced quantitatively similar improvements in thalamic information transmission as standard duty-cycle VNS without inducing a fluctuating thalamic state. Further, we found the strength of VNS-induced improvements in sensory processing increased monotonically with amplitude and frequency of VNS. Significance: These results demonstrate, for the first time, the feasibility of utilizing specific patterns of VNS to rapidly improve sensory processing and confirm fast duty-cycle and tonic patterns as optimal for this purpose, while showing standard duty-cycle VNS causes non-optimal fluctuations in thalamic state.
Impact of transmission tower-line interaction to the bulk power system during hurricane

Abstract A Hurricane is a severe weather event that has caused massive blackouts in the United States. Previous studies about a hurricane's impact on the power system were mainly conducted through statistical analysis. However, there is limited research that reveals the physical law governing power outage and system-level performance. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of transmission tower damage and failure on the performance of the power transmission network during a hurricane. To translate meteorological information to the input of the abstract power network, a fragility model of a transmission tower-line considering the coupling effect is developed. The computational efficiency in the fragility analysis is enhanced by wind speed convention and sample size selection. The effectiveness of the fragility model is investigated in a benchmark problem, which evaluates the performance of a synthetic transmission system (Texas 2000-bus power network) during Hurricane Harvey. The promising results indicate that: (1) from both the element and system level, the coupling effect between the transmission tower-line system is not negligible; (2) the computational efficiency of the fragility analysis can be significantly improved by wind speed conversion and sample size selection; (3) considering the tower-line interaction, the estimated damage to the power system matches the recorded damage from Hurricane Harvey.
The Non-Jewish Jew: Walter Lippmann and the Pitfalls of Journalistic “Detachment”

Walter Lippmann has been touted by historians as “the most wise and forceful spokesman for the ideal of objectivity” during the years when objectivity became journalism’s foundational professional ...
Atom-light entanglement for precise field sensing in the optical domain

Macroscopic arrays of cold atoms trapped in optical cavities can reach the strong atom-light collective coupling regime thanks to the simultaneous interactions of the cavity mode with the atomic ensemble. In a recent work [R. J. Lewis-Swan, D. Barberena, J. A. Muniz, J. R. K. Cline, D. Young, J. K. Thompson, and A. M. Rey, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 193602 (2020)] we reported a protocol that takes advantage of the strong and collective atom-light interactions in cavity QED systems for precise electric-field sensing in the optical domain. We showed that it can provide between 10 and 20 dB of metrological gain over the standard quantum limit in current cavity QED experiments operating with long-lived alkaline-earth atoms. Here, we give a more in depth discussion of the protocol using both exact analytical calculations and numerical simulations, and describe the precise conditions under which the predicted enhancement holds after thoroughly accounting for both photon loss and spontaneous emission, natural decoherence mechanisms in current experiments. The analysis presented here not only serves to benchmark the protocol and its utility in cavity QED arrays but also sets the conditions required for its applicability in other experimental platforms such as arrays of trapped ions.
Exiting Detroit for school: inequitable choice sets and school quality

Research has documented the complexity of parent decision-making within school choice marketplaces, including the ways in which individual preferences, social networks, and geography influence wher...
Monte Carlo Simulations of Delocalized Transitions

In this chapter we introduce Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of models based on delocalized transitions, and compare the MC results with the deterministic solutions of the corresponding differential equations. We present the R codes for fixed time interval MC methods to simulate CW-OSL, LM-OSL, TL, and ITL processes and discuss how luminescence processes can be described within the general framework of birth and death processes. Vectorized R codes are discussed, and we show how the speed of the R codes can be improved significantly by using vectorized commands. We provide the R codes for estimating the stochastic uncertainties (CV%) in a luminescence model, and present examples of luminescence phenomena as birth and death processes. We show an example of luminescence signals from a system of small clusters, as one may encounter in nanodosimetric materials. The chapter concludes with a Monte Carlo simulation of irradiation processes within the GOT model.
Engineering Educational Opportunity: Impacts of 1970s and 1980s Policies to Increase the Share of Black College Graduates with Major in Engineering or Computer Science

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. institutions of higher education began to address long-standing patterns of exclusion. Initial efforts to improve the access of black students to engineering education focused on six historically black engineering colleges, and evolved into a truly nationwide movement. Later, a larger group of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) expanded educational opportunities in engineering, computer science and other technical fields, "to prepare their students for expanded career choices." Geographic and institutional features of the higher education infrastructure led to differential impacts of these policies on students born in different states. A data panel assembled for the project links changes in educational opportunities to current outcomes. The panel includes more than 30 years of complete counts of the number of bachelor's degrees conferred in each field by each U.S. institution of higher education (collected by the U.S. Department of Education and the Engineering Manpower Commission), merged to current labor force data. These data facilitate description of the geography and timing of changes in opportunities for black college students to choose engineering or computer science college majors, and current labor market outcomes among those born in the right place and time to pursue careers in these fields.
Training 90° bimanual coordination at high frequency yields dependence on kinesthetic information and poor performance of dyadic unimanual coordination.

Abstract Two groups of participants were trained to be proficient at performing bimanual 90° coordination either at a high (2.5 Hz) or low (0.5 Hz) frequency with both kinesthetic and visual information available. At high frequency, participants trained for twice as long to achieve performance comparable to participants training at low frequency. Participants were then paired within (low-low or high-high) or between (low-high) frequency groups to perform a visually coupled dyadic unimanual 90° coordination task, during which they were free to settle at any jointly determined frequency to synchronize their rhythmic movements. The results showed that the coordination skill was frequency-specific. For dyads with one or both members who had learned the 90° bimanual coordination at low frequency, the performance settled at a low frequency (≈0.5 Hz) with more successfully synchronized trials. For dyads with both members who had learned the 90° bimanual coordination at high frequency, they struggled with the task and performed poorly. The dyadic coordination settled at a higher frequency (≈1.5 Hz) on average, but with twice the variability in settling frequency and significantly fewer synchronized trials. The difference between the dyadic coordination and bimanual tasks was that only visual information was available to couple the movements in the former while both kinesthetic and visual information were available in the latter. Therefore, the high frequency group must have relied on kinesthetic information to perform both coordination tasks while the low frequency group was well able to use visual information for both. In the mixed training pairs, the low frequency trained member of the pair was likely responsible for the better performance. These conclusions were consistent with results of previous studies.