cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Adjusting Patent Damages for Nonpatent Incentives

Nonpatent innovation policies—including direct spending on grants and procurement, innovation prizes, and R&D tax incentives—are a significant part of innovation policy in practice and are attracting growing attention from legal scholars. When market-based patent incentives undervalue certain inventions, innovation is most efficiently incentivized by using these policies as complements, but in some cases, allowing researchers to claim nonpatent incentives in addition to patent rewards results in significant overcompensation. There are a few potential solutions to this reward-stacking problem, including limiting the patentability of inventions that have received significant alternative rewards, or conditioning nonpatent transfers on some relinquishment of patent rights. When the lost patent rewards are far more valuable than the nonpatent incentives, these solutions might be broader than the problem. This symposium contribution presents and evaluates an additional solution: reducing patent damages to account for the nonpatent rewards (including ex ante risk reduction) an invention has already received. Such an approach could improve not only the incentive side of innovation policy, but also the allocation side, by reducing deadweight loss while maintaining incentives to innovate. The ability of patent damages doctrine to help mediate between different bodies of innovation law is a benefit of recent proposals for patent damages reform that has thus far been overlooked.
Removing the needle from the haystack: Enrichment of Wolbachia endosymbiont transcripts from host nematode RNA by Cappable-seq™

Efficient transcriptomic sequencing of microbial mRNA derived from host-microbe associations is often compromised by the much lower relative abundance of microbial RNA in the mixed total RNA sample. One solution to this problem is to perform extensive sequencing until an acceptable level of transcriptome coverage is obtained. More cost-effective methods include use of prokaryotic and/or eukaryotic rRNA depletion strategies, sometimes in conjunction with depletion of polyadenylated eukaryotic mRNA. Here, we report use of Cappable-seq™ to specifically enrich, in a single step, Wolbachia endobacterial mRNA transcripts from total RNA prepared from the parasitic filarial nematode, Brugia malayi. The obligate Wolbachia endosymbiont is a proven drug target for many human filarial infections, yet the precise nature of its symbiosis with the nematode host is poorly understood. Insightful analysis of the expression levels of Wolbachia genes predicted to underpin the mutualistic association and of known drug target genes at different life cycle stages or in response to drug treatments is typically challenged by low transcriptomic coverage. Cappable-seq resulted in up to ~ 5-fold increase in the number of reads mapping to Wolbachia. On average, coverage of Wolbachia transcripts from B. malayi microfilariae was enriched ~40-fold by Cappable-seq. Additionally, this method has an additional benefit of selectively removing abundant prokaryotic ribosomal RNAs.The deeper microbial transcriptome sequencing afforded by Cappable-seq facilitates more detailed characterization of gene expression levels of pathogens and symbionts present in animal tissues.
Setting Students Up for Success: A Short Interactive Workshop Designed to Increase Effective Study Habits.

Introduction Research shows that students generally utilize ineffective learning techniques such as massed practice and rereading. We developed an interactive workshop to teach first-year medical s...
Differential associations of metabolic risk factors on cortical thickness in metabolic syndrome

Abstract Objective Metabolic syndrome (MetS) refers to a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. While sizable prior literature has examined associations between individual risk factors and quantitative measures of cortical thickness (CT), only very limited research has investigated such measures in MetS. Furthermore, the relative contributions of these risk factors to MetS-related effects on brain morphology have not yet been studied. The primary goal of this investigation was to examine how MetS may affect CT. A secondary goal was to explore the relative contributions of individual risk factors to regional alterations in CT, with the potential to identify risk factor combinations that may underlie structural changes. Methods Eighteen participants with MetS (mean age = 59.78 years) were age-matched with 18 healthy control participants (mean age = 60.50 years). CT measures were generated from T1-weighted images and groups were contrasted using whole-brain general linear modeling. A follow-up multivariate partial least squares correlation (PLS) analysis, including the full study sample with complete risk factor measurements (N = 53), was employed to examine which risk factors account for variance in group structural differences. Results Participants with MetS demonstrated significantly reduced CT in left hemisphere inferior parietal, rostral middle frontal, and lateral occipital clusters and in a right hemisphere precentral cluster. The PLS analysis revealed that waist circumference, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides, and glucose were significant contributors to reduced CT in these clusters. In contrast, diastolic blood pressure showed a significantly positive association with CT while systolic blood pressure did not emerge as a significant contributor. Age was not associated with CT. Conclusion These results indicate that MetS can be associated with regionally specific reductions in CT. Importantly, a novel link between a risk factor profile comprising indices of obesity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and diastolic BP and localized alterations in CT emerged. While the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these associations remain incompletely understood, these findings may be relevant for future investigations of MetS and might have implications for treatment approaches that focus on specific risk factor profiles with the aim to reduce negative consequences on the structural integrity of the brain.
Contemporary outcomes for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms using endovascular balloon control for hypotension

Abstract Objective Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) continues to portend significant mortality, despite ruptured endovascular aneurysm repair (rEVAR), enhanced perioperative care, and endovascular balloon control (EBC) for hypotension. We review our academic institution's experience using a protocol of EBC for all hypotensive patients, irrespective of type of repair. Methods A retrospective review was conducted of 66 cases of rAAA treated at a single academic institution from 2007 to 2016 using EBC for hypotensive patients. Demographics, comorbidities, intraoperative parameters, and clinical outcomes were recorded. Patients were studied with respect to hemodynamic status, rEVAR, or ruptured open aortic repair in the setting of EBC for hypotension. Results rEVAR was performed in 43 patients (65%) and ruptured open aortic repair in 23 patients (35%). rAAA was treated in 51 men (77%). Mean rAAA size was 7.6 mm, and mean age of the patients was 73 years. Perioperative survival was 82%. Overall survival at 30 days, 1 year, and 5 years was 71%, 65%, and 52%. Blood transfusion and severe hypotension were significant predictors of mortality at 30 days on multivariable analysis (odds ratio of 1.2 [ P = .08] and 39 [ P = .03], respectively). Severe hypotension was defined as a mean arterial blood pressure P = .003), with a significant difference between groups that persisted at 1 year (85% vs 51%; P = .008) and 5 years (66% vs 51%; P = .017). Conclusions Good midterm outcomes for moderately hypotensive and normotensive patients can be obtained using an EBC protocol for hypotension with a regionalized transport system directly to the operating room. Severely hemodynamically unstable rAAA patients still pose a significant challenge despite mitigation of hypotension by EBC, suggesting that survival may be compromised by factors other than hypotension alone. We still advocate for the use of EBC for all hypotensive patients as part of a defined rAAA protocol before definitive repair.
Self-Organizing Map Convergence

Self-organizing maps are artificial neural networks designed for unsupervised machine learning. Here in this article, the authors introduce a new quality measure called the convergence index. The c...
Elastic instability and secondary flow in cross-slot flow of wormlike micellar solutions

Abstract In this work, we focus on modeling the flow of wormlike micellar solutions in a cross-slot device. In particular, we investigate the role that the breakage of wormlike micelles plays in the formation of lip vortices and the development of an asymmetric elastic instability. The cross-slot induces a planar elongational flow field around the stagnation point in the center of the geometry, and a shear-dominated flow in the inlet and outlet arms. The extensional flow can induce the emergence of a bifurcation, in which the symmetric flow undergoes an instability and becomes asymmetric at sufficiently large flow rates. We further show that this instability can be completely suppressed by creating micelles that are easier to break under imposed stretching. Furthermore, at larger flow rates, unlike comparable simulations of polymer solutions, the asymmetric flow remains steady in agreement with experiments. In addition, the shear flow can induce the formation of a recirculation region in the inlet arm along the channel wall directly upstream of the corner. In particular, we reveal the possibility of controlling the vortex regions via flow-induced breakage; as the chains become easier to break, the degree of shear thinning increases and the size of the vortices decreases. Ultimately, our predictions show that chain scission plays an important role in altering fluid flow.
Risk factors and clinical impact of perioperative neurological deficits following thoracolumbar arthrodesis.

Abstract Objectives The rates of arthrodesis performed in the United States and globally have increased tremendously in the last 10–15 years. Amongst the most devastating complications are neurological deficits including spinal cord injury, nerve root irritation, and cauda equine syndrome. The primary purpose of this study is to understand the risk factors for perioperative neurological deficits in patients undergoing thoracolumbar fusion. Patients and methods Data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample between the years of 1999–2011 was analyzed. Patients were between the ages of 18 and 80 who had thoracolumbar fusion. Excluded were patients who underwent the procedure as a result of trauma or a malignancy. A list of covariates, including demographic variables, preoperative and postoperative variables that are known to increase the risk of perioperative neurological deficits were compiled. Statistical analysis utilized univariate and multivariate logistic regression for comparisons between these covariates and the proposed outcomes. Results The analysis of 37,899 patients yielded an overall rate of perioperative neurological deficits and mortality of 1.20% and 0.27%, respectively. Risk factors for perioperative neurological deficits included increasing age (OR 1.023 95% CI 1.018–1.029), Van Walraven 5–14 (OR 1.535 95% CI 1.054–2.235), and preoperative paralysis (OR 2.551 95% CI 1.674–3.886). Furthermore, the data showed that being 65 years old or older doubled the risk for perioperative deficit (OR 1.655, CI 1.248–2.194, p Conclusions This population based study found that increasing age, higher comorbid burden, and preoperative paralysis increased the risk of perioperative neurological deficits while female gender and hypertension were found to be protective.
Diversity of Molecular Recognition: The Combining Sites of Monoclonal Anti Spin Label Antibodies

Physical chemistry includes the study of how atoms come together to form molecules, and how combinations of molecules can interact with one another to form aggregates, crystals, and macromolecules. One of the most challenging problems in the area of macromolecules is the problem of protein structure, the problem of finding the “code” that specifies how a given amino acid sequence gives rise to a three-dimensional protein structure, such as an enzyme, with a highly specific biochemical function. This problem has been already attacked with considerable success using NMR methods, through studies of the folding-unfolding of polypeptides and proteins.1 Another important facet of the problem of protein structure, and the evolution of protein structures, concerns the manner in which amino acid sequences corresponding to exons, are assembled as structural units (“modules”) to form three-dimensional structures with specific functions.2
Die optimale, altersabhängige Erneuerungspolitik in Systemen mit Erneuerungszeitverteilungen

Wir wollen in diesem Abschnitt ein Verfahren entwickeln, mit dem das soeben skizzierte Erneuerungsproblem trotz seiner komplizierten Wechselwirkungen durch stochastisch-dynamische Programmierung uber einen endlichen Semi-MARKOV-Entscheidungsprozes bei sehr allgemeiner Bewertungsstruktur zu losen ist.
Thermo-oscillatory convection

Average thermal convection of an incompressible fluid performing high-frequency oscillations in a straight channel at rest is considered. It is shown that the Stokes layers play an important role in the excitation of average flows, in addition to the classical thermovibrational mechanism. Skin-layer flow generation is identified as a mechanism additional to the thermovibrational mechanism whose contribution is determined by the relative oscillation amplitude: it can have both a destabilizing and a stabilizing effect, depending on the amplitude.
From Latin American immigrant to hispanic citizen : The role of social capital in seeking U.S. citizenship*

Objective. Burgeoning citizenship rates in the past five years are attributable to an increased propensity to naturalize among more recent cohorts from developing countries, particularly from Latin America. We evaluate the intention to naturalize for a key subgroup of Latin American immigrants: those who adjusted to legal status via the main legalization program of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Methods. We merge 3,117 responses from the 1989 and 1992 wave of the Legalized Person Survey (LPS) with a data set we have constructed on characteristics of the eighty-three Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in which the respondents resided. We then estimate the probability of an LPS respondent expressing the intention to seek U.S. citizenship. Results. Our analyses indicate that social capital repertoires, measured as linkages to a variety of home and host country institutions, have significant effects on the likelihood that Latin American immigrants intend to become U.S. citizens, with capital and social investments in sending communities reducing those intentions, and capital and social investments anchored in the United States enhancing naturalization aspirations. Conclusions. While financial and social investments in the home country reduce the odds of intending to naturalize for IRCA beneficiaries, financial and social connections to the United States are substantial and facilitate the plan to become U.S. citizens. These aspirations are further facilitated by the ways in which Latin American immigrants are situated in geographic space in metropolitan U.S. communities
Bootstrapping Parameter Space Exploration for Fast Tuning

The task of tuning parameters for optimizing performance or other metrics of interest such as energy, variability, etc. can be resource and time consuming. Presence of a large parameter space makes a comprehensive exploration infeasible. In this paper, we propose a novel bootstrap scheme, called GEIST, for parameter space exploration to find performance-optimizing configurations quickly. Our scheme represents the parameter space as a graph whose connectivity guides information propagation from known configurations. Guided by the predictions of a semi-supervised learning method over the parameter graph, GEIST is able to adaptively sample and find desirable configurations using limited results from experiments. We show the effectiveness of GEIST for selecting application input options, compiler flags, and runtime/system settings for several parallel codes including LULESH, Kripke, Hypre, and OpenAtom.
New Solutions for Procurement Finance

Digital transformation has allowed exploiting new solutions to support the increasing need for procurement finance in support of the digital transformation and the globalization. The new solutions support the full procure-to-pay process: from ordering and tendering to credit and financing, to the payment, and the support to the preparation and collection. In terms of ordering, the portals and the e-marketplace are particularly relevant. Thanks to an omnichannel approach, it is possible to access an application everywhere, with any device, anywhere, and anytime. Risk management is providing a great support to the credit and financing transactions. Great signs of progress are taking place in the field of advance payments and in particular in the foreign exchange market. Finally, the processes are more and more dematerialized and moving to the cloud. The benefits are easier access, simpler storing, and availability at all the times and everywhere.
Multiscale Coupled Electro-Thermal Simulations of Electron Devices

We present here a fully coupled flux-based electro-thermal simulation package. We simulate the electrical characteristics using a full-band Cellular Monte Carlo approach (CMC), which calculates the heat generation rate within each computational cell directly from the energy exchanged through electron-phonon scattering events. We then use this calculated generation rate in a flux-based thermal solver producing physically realistic temperature maps for both optical and acoustic modes by solving a Poisson-like equation for each respectively. The resulting temperature map is then used to update scattering rates reflecting the local temperature in each individual cell. In addition, temperature-dependent thermal conductivities are included using the Kirchhoff Transformation, which implicitly includes the temperature dependence in a new apparent temperature variable while allowing us to solve a Poisson-like linear elliptical partial differential equation.
Time Scale Considerations in the Characterization of Melting and Freezing in Microclusters

In spite of their size, some microclusters exhibit distinct solid and liquid forms, according to diffraction and simulation studies. Both isothermal and isoergic simulations show that several free Ar N clusters exhibit sharp but unequal freezing and melting temperatures, displaying a kind of phase change different from any conventional phase transition characteristic of bulk matter. Between the freezing and melting temperatures, two “phases” exist in dynamic equilibrium. This coexistence is consistent with a quantum statistical model of cluster melting and freezing. However no experiments have yet been devised to test this picture. Practical considerations aside, in devising appropriate experiments, one must take into account inherent time scale constraints on experiments capable of exhibiting the coexistence phenomenon without ambiguity. These constraints have been determined from computer simulations and are given explicitly for several 2- and 3-dimensional Ar N systems. Extensions to other, experimentally more fruitful systems are also briefly discussed.
"I Had Let Everyone, Including Myself, Down": Illuminating the Self-Forgiveness Process among Female College Students.

The self-forgiveness process may be considered emotionally taxing among college students. The current study explored college students’ past intrapersonal transgressions (n = 88) through two outcome...
“Nobody Wanted to Kill It”: The Rise and Fall of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven

ABSTRACTThe rise and fall of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven exposes some issues when religious faith is merged with consumable products. Christian media are marketed in part as serving ministeri...
Bioinspired Mineralizing Microenvironments Generated by Liquid-Liquid Phase Coexistence

Living organisms direct the location, structure, and properties of biominerals by tightly controlling reactant concentration profiles, biopolymer identity and availability, and other aspects of rea...
Build a Better Bootstrap and the RAWR Shall Beat a Random Path to Your Door: Phylogenetic Support Estimation Revisited

Motivation: The standard bootstrap method is used throughout science and engineering to perform general-purpose non-parametric resampling and re-estimation. Among the most widely cited and widely used such applications is the phylogenetic bootstrap method, which Felsenstein proposed in 1985 as a means to place statistical confidence intervals on an estimated phylogeny (or estimate "phylogenetic support"). A key simplifying assumption of the bootstrap method is that input data are independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.). However, the i.i.d. assumption is an over-simplification for biomolecular sequence analysis, as Felsenstein noted. Special-purpose fully parametric or semi-parametric methods for phylogenetic support estimation have since been introduced, some of which are intended to address this concern. Results: In this study, we introduce a new sequence-aware non-parametric resampling technique, which we refer to as RAWR ("RAndom Walk Resampling"). RAWR consists of random walks that synthesize and extend the standard bootstrap method and the "mirrored inputs" idea of Landan and Graur. We apply RAWR to the task of phylogenetic support estimation. RAWR9s performance is compared to the state of the art using synthetic and empirical data that span a range of dataset sizes and evolutionary divergence. We show that RAWR support estimates offer comparable or typically superior type I and type II error compared to phylogenetic bootstrap support as well as GUIDANCE2, a state-of-the-art purpose-built fully parametric method. Additional simulation study experiments help to clarify practical considerations regarding RAWR support estimation. We conclude with thoughts on future research directions and the untapped potential for sequence-aware non-parametric resampling and re-estimation. Availability: Data and software are publicly available under open-source software and open data licenses at: https://gitlab.msu.edu/liulab/RAWR-study-datasets-and-scripts.
A Case Study Evaluating the Efficacy of an Ad Hoc Hospital Collection Device for Fentanyl in Infant Oral Fluid.

Neonatal drug exposure is currently assessed using meconium, urine, blood, hair, or umbilical cord tissue/blood. Due to the invasiveness, challenges, and limitations of collection, and/or analytical difficulties of these matrices, oral fluid may be a more desirable matrix in diagnosing opioid exposure and risk for opioid withdrawal in neonatal abstinence syndrome. Traditional oral fluid collection devices are not viable options as they are too large for neonates' mouths and may contain chemicals on the collection pad. Unstimulated and stimulated infant oral fluid samples have been used for therapeutic drug monitoring as an alternative matrix to blood. The objective of this study was to assess the viability of a simple oral fluid collection system using a sterile foam-tipped swab rinsed in phosphate-buffered saline. Two infants were administered fentanyl for post-operative pain relief while hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at the Children's Hospital of Richmond of Virginia Commonwealth University. Oral fluid samples were collected at 16 h, 2 days, and/or 7 days following the start of intravenous infusion of fentanyl. Samples were analyzed by ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for fentanyl and norfentanyl after solid-phase extraction. In one of the three samples tested, fentanyl and norfentanyl were detected at concentrations of 28 and 78 ng/mL, respectively. Based on the infusion rate, the theoretical oral fluid fentanyl concentration at steady state was calculated to be 33 ng/mL.
Analysis and Comparison of the Interior Permanent Magnet Motor Design with Different Magnetic Materials

Looking into the current tendencies of manufacturing Interior Permanent Magnets (IPM) motors, it is possible to see a lack of standardization since the materials used in every motor affect its performance and cost of production. This is due to the rare-earth metals used for the motor magnets. This paper studies these motors and modifies them, too find the reaction of the motor performance with rare-earth magnets used in the electrical vehicles, such as Neodymium, and replace them with different materials to check the motor efficiency.
A taxonomic revision of the Archipini of the Caribbean (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae, Tortricinae).

The Archipini fauna of the Caribbean is revised to include 33 species. Most previously described species occurring in the region are redescribed and figured, with 13 new species: Argyrotaenia brownisp. nov., A. crypticasp. nov. (including A. c. crypticassp. nov. and A. c. praeteritanassp. nov.), A. paradiseisp. nov., A. razowskianasp. nov., Claduncaria rawlinsanasp. nov., Cla. praedictanasp. nov., Cla. tainosp. nov., Clepsis davisisp. nov., Cle. deronisp. nov., Cle. jamesstewartisp. nov., Cle. peroniaesp. nov., Mictocommosis lesleyaesp. nov., and Mictopsichia nyhllindasp. nov. Three new combinations are proposed: Claduncaria mesosignaria (Razowski, 1999), comb. nov. (including Argyrotaenia thamaluncus Razowski, 1999, syn. nov.), Claduncaria minisignaria (Razowski, 1999), comb. nov., and Claduncaria chalarostium (Razowski & Becker, 2000b), comb. nov., stat. nov.Argyrotaenia granpiedrae Razowski & Becker, 2010 is reduced to subspecies rank under Argyrotaenia ceramica Razowski, 1999, resulting in Argyrotaenia ceramica granpiedrae Razowski & Becker, 2010, stat. nov. Four new synonymies are proposed: Clepsis labisclera Razowski & Becker, 2010, syn. nov. as junior synonym of Claduncaria maestrana Razowski & Becker, 2010; Clepsis pinaria Razowski & Becker, 2010, syn. nov. as junior synonym of Clepsis peritana (Clemens, 1860); and Argyrotaenia neibana Razowski, 1999, syn. nov. and A. ochrochroa Razowski, 1999 syn. nov. as junior synonyms of Argyrotaenia amatana (Dyar, 1901). Males of Argyrotaenia felisana Razowski, 1999, A. nuezana Razowski, 1999, and Claduncaria minisignaria (Razowski, 1999), comb. nov. are described for the first time; females of Argyrotaenia jamaicana (Razowski & Becker, 2000a) and Claduncaria ochrochlaena (Razowski, 1999) are described for the first time. The concept of Claduncaria is expanded and its diagnosis is modified to more clearly define its generic boundaries. A unique external sexual coupling mechanism in Claduncaria is discussed. Keys to the genera and species of Caribbean Archipini, distribution maps, a regional checklist, and Neighbor-joining and Maximum Likelihood trees based on COI barcode data are provided. Phylogenetic relationships among Caribbean Archipini are briefly discussed.
Virtual Reality to Train Preservice Teachers

Many teacher preparation programs include field experiences in order to expose preservice teachers to the complexity and unpredictability of the classrooms in which they will be expected to practice. The application of virtual reality (VR) has received considerable research and popular attention. During construction of understanding in preservice teacher education, the focus of VR is on the learner’s control of the learning processes, and VR must be designed in such a way as to complement real-life experience and make use of authentic tasks. The purpose of this study is to investigate, compare, and characterize interactive VR-based preservice teacher clinical teaching environments with those of real-life teaching environments. Fifty-four students were randomly assigned to either clinical field condition or VR conditions. Results suggest that the main effect of the condition VR versus real-life is not statistically significant in terms of the retrospective engagement survey, psychological measures, and composite neuroimaging. The use of the VR allows preservice teachers to learn from modeled real-life situations for transfer of theory into practice. This transfer of theory into practice can provide preservice teachers with a means to engage with classroom interaction in a soft-failure environment.
The Opacity of Proportionality in International Courts: Could Categories Clarify?

This article argues that, although proportionality has flimsy foundations in international courts, it nevertheless has utility. It takes issue with universalist champions of proportionality because they often assume that reasons can have universally consistent weight and that, as such, international judges can weigh them. Instead, international courts should occupy a legal space that neither enhances nor inhibits beliefs about what is right. With an eye toward cases of non-instrumental public morals and cases in which ‘right’ is intrinsic or internal to a group rather than external or dependent upon a state or government, this article argues that the opacity of proportionality undermines its utility in non-instrumental right adjudication. While proportionality undoubtedly has utility in international adjudication, it is obfuscated by the opacity of its application. In other words, proportionality’s utility must be more clearly located. Thus, after identifying proportionalities of hierarchy, morality, and principle, this article suggests that, because ‘proportionality’ is not a single definable thing, international courts should employ a categorical approach in deciding when to employ proportionality.
Neuro-cognitive development of semantic and syntactic bootstrapping in 6- to 7.5-year-old children.

Abstract The present study examined the longitudinal relations of brain and behavior from ages 6–7.5 years old to test the bootstrapping account of language development. Prior work suggests that children's vocabulary development is foundational for acquiring grammar (e.g., semantic bootstrapping) and that children rely on the syntactic context of sentences to learn the meaning of new words (e.g., syntactic bootstrapping). Yet, little is known about the dynamics underlying semantic and syntactic development as children enter elementary school. In a series of preregistered and exploratory analyses, we tested how semantic and syntactic behavioral skills may influence the development of brain regions implicated in these processes, i.e. left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis, IFGop), respectively. Vice-a-versa, we tested how these brain regions may influence the development of children's semantic and syntactic behavioral skills. We assessed semantic (N = 26) and syntactic (N = 30) processes behaviorally and in the brain when children were ages 5.5–6.5 years old (Time 1) and again at 7–8 years old (Time 2). All brain-behavior analyses controlled for T1 autoregressive effects and phonological memory. Exploratory hierarchical regression analyses suggested bi-directional influences, but with greater support for syntactic bootstrapping. Across the analyses, there was a small to medium effect of change in variance in models where semantics predicted syntax. Conversely, there was medium to large change in variance in models where syntax predicted semantics. In line with prior literature, results suggest a close relationship between lexical and grammatical development in children ages 6–7.5 years old. However, there was more robust evidence for syntactic bootstrapping, suggesting that acquisition of phrase structure in school age children may allow for more effective learning of word meanings. This complements prior behavioral studies and suggests a potential shift in the early reliance on semantics to later reliance on syntax in development.
Applying the Health Belief Model for Investigating the Impact of Political Affiliation on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake.

Vaccination is likely the most effective approach to protect people from COVID-19. However, partisan differences have persisted for COVID-19 vaccine uptake.The purpose of this study is to understan...
The effect of age on short-term outcomes after abdominal surgery for pelvic organ prolapse.

OBJECTIVES: To compare perioperative morbidity and 1-year outcomes of older and younger women undergoing surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP). DESIGN: Prospective ancillary analysis. SETTING: Academic medical centers in National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Colpopexy and Urinary Reduction Study. PARTICIPANTS: Women with POP and no symptoms of stress incontinence. INTERVENTION: Abdominal sacrocolpopexy with randomization to receive Burch colposuspension for treatment of possible occult incontinence or not. MEASUREMENTS: Perioperative complications and Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification and quality-of-life (QOL) questionnaires (Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory, Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire, and Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) preoperatively, immediately postoperatively, and 6 weeks and 3 and 12 months postoperatively). RESULTS: Three hundred twenty-two women aged 31 to 82 (21% aged ≥70), 93% white. Older women had higher baseline comorbidity (P<.001) and more severe POP (P=.003). Controlling for prolapse stage and whether Burch was performed, there were no age differences in complication rates. Older women had longer hospital stays (3.1±1.0 vs 2.7±1.5 days, P=.02) and higher prevalence of incontinence at 6 weeks (54.7% vs 37.2%, P=.005). At 3 and 12 months, there were no differences in self-reported incontinence, stress testing for incontinence, or prolapse stage. Improvements from baseline were significant on all QOL measures but with no age differences. CONCLUSION: Outcomes of prolapse surgery were comparable between older and younger women except that older women had slightly longer hospital stays.
Time for T.

Genetic defects responsible for cleft lip and cleft palate are only now beginning to be uncovered. Mutations in the gene encoding a T-box transcription factor have been identified as the cause of the rare X-linked syndrome cleft palate with tongue-tie. And in another study, heterozygotes for a defective allele for a cell adhesion molecule, which is responsible for a rare clefting syndrome when homozygous, have been found at higher than expected incidence in sporadic forms of clefting.
Greedy approximation algorithms for finding dense components in a graph

We study the problem of finding highly connected subgraphs of undirected and directed graphs. For undirected graphs, the notion of density of a subgraph we use is the average degree of the subgraph. For directed graphs, a corresponding notion of density was introduced recently by Kannan and Vinay. This is designed to quantify highly connectedness of substructures in a sparse directed graph such as the web graph. We study the optimization problems of finding subgraphs maximizing these notions of density for undirected and directed graphs. This paper gives simple greedy approximation algorithms for these optimization problems. We also answer an open question about the complexity of the optimization problem for directed graphs.
Direct Binding of Cholesterol to the Purified Membrane Region of SCAP: Mechanism for a Sterol-Sensing Domain

Mammalian cells control their membrane composition by regulating the vesicular transport of membrane-bound sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to Golgi. Transport is blocked by cholesterol, which triggers SCAP, the SREBP escort protein, to bind to Insigs, which are ER retention proteins. The cholesterol trigger mechanism is unknown. Using recombinant SCAP purified in detergent, we show that cholesterol acts by binding with high affinity and specificity to the 767 amino acid octahelical membrane region of SCAP. This octahelical region contains a conserved pentahelical sterol-sensing domain found in six other polytopic membrane proteins. We show that the membrane domain of SCAP is a tetramer and that cholesterol binding is inhibited by cationic amphiphiles, raising the possibility of allosteric regulation by positively charged phospholipids. The current studies show that cells control their cholesterol content through receptor-ligand interactions and not through changes in the physical properties of the membrane.
Integrated Information Repository for Risk Assessment of Embankment Dams: Requirements Identification for Evaluating the Risk of Internal Erosion

AbstractDams are continuing to age and deteriorate that affect the service life of the dams in the U.S. Risk assessment is required to understand the behavior of dams and to prioritize the remedial...
Rapid onset of cervical cancer in an upper socioeconomic group

In this series of 130 patients with cervical cancer, 25% had a short interval of less than 3 years from negative cytologic screenings to finding of cancer. In the short interval group, the peak age was 30 to 35 years, but lesions also developed in younger women and in women aged 60 years and older. The majority of lesions were still in situ, a lesser number had microinvasion and two had invasive squamous carcinoma. The usually accepted risk factors, low socioeconomic group, multiparity, and poor hygiene, did not prevail in all cases. Some patients had no history of pregnancy. They were not considered to be in a low socioeconomic group and poor hygiene was not an apparent feature. In view of the rapid onset of cervical cancer in some patients, even those not considered to be at high risk, annual screening is recommended for all age groups.
Low-power, serial interface for power-constrained devices

Low-power digital interfaces are a crucial component of reconfigurable systems. We have designed a SPI-compatible, four-wire interface and state machine for use in dynamically scaled voltage systems. The interface features an activity enable signal and latch enable signal on every eighth-bit in order to minimize the total switching power consumed by the interface. The interface also allows for addressing for disparate systems across the IC to share a common bus without contention.
Population delimitation across contrasting evolutionary clines in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus)

Despite current interest in population genetics, a concrete definition of a “population” remains elusive. Multiple ecologically and evolutionarily based definitions of population are in current use, which focus, respectively, on demographic and genetic interactions. Accurate population delimitation is crucial for not only evolutionary and ecological population biology, but also for conservation of threatened populations. Along the Pacific Coast of North America, two contrasting patterns of geographic variation in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) converge within the state of Oregon. Populations of these mice diverge morphologically across an east–west axis, and they diverge in mitochondrial DNA haplotypes across a north–south axis. In this study, we investigate these geographically contrasting patterns of differentiation in the context of ecological and evolutionary definitions (paradigms) of populations. We investigate these patterns using a new and geographically expansive sample that integrates data on morphology, mitochondrial DNA, and nuclear DNA. We found no evidence of nuclear genetic differentiation between the morphologically and mitochondrially distinct populations, thus indicating the occurrence of gene flow across Oregon. Under the evolutionary paradigm, Oregon populations can be considered a single population, whereas morphological and mitochondrial differentiations do not indicate distinct populations. In contrast, under the ecological paradigm morphological differentiation indicates distinct populations based on the low likelihood of demographic interactions between geographically distant individuals. The two sympatric but mitochondrially distinct haplogroups form a single population under the ecological paradigm. Hence, we find that the difference between evolutionary and ecological paradigms is the time-scale of interest, and we believe that the more chronologically inclusive evolutionary paradigm may be preferable except in cases where only a single generation is of interest.
PARAGON: an approach for parallelization of power system contingency analysis using Go programming language

SUMMARY With the recent emphasis on N-k contingency analysis (CA) and expansion of power systems, the computational demand of CA has greatly increased to ensure power system security. The serial execution platforms are proving to be insufficient to cater to this demand. This paper presents PARAGON, an efficient approach for parallelization of power system contingency analysis using Go programming language. PARAGON uses Google's Go language to parallelize CA over multiple cores using goroutines. The main contribution of this paper is implementation of work-stealing scheduler on widely used multicore processors using concurrent programming language, which can be easily adopted by power system control centers to accelerate legacy codes. Simulations have been performed using a large power system with hundreds of contingencies, and contingency analysis has been parallelized using 2, 4, 8, 12, and 16 cores. The results show that PARAGON provides large computational advantage over serial execution and also outperforms a conventional scheduling technique, namely master-slave scheduling. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Interleukin-12 is not essential for silicosis in mice.

Silicosis features foci of inflammation where macrophages and lymphocytes precede and accompany fibroblast proliferation, alveolar epithelial hyperplasia, and increased deposition of connective tissue matrix material. In the mouse following silica inhalation there is recruitment of natural killer-, B-, and CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes to the alveolar spaces, enlargement of bronchial-associated lymphoid tissues (BALT), and aggregation of lymphocytes surrounding small airways and blood vessels. A substantial fraction of the recruited lung lymphocytes produce interferon-γ (IFN-γ), and IFN-γ gene-deleted mice develop less silicosis than wild-type mice. Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is an important pathway for driving the adaptive immune response towards a TH1-like phenotype. We hypothesized that IL-12 might stimulate lymphocyte activation and the up-regulation of IFN-γ, and consequently be an essential mediator for silicosis. C57Bl/6 wild-type (WT) and IL-12 deficient (IL-12 KO) mice were exposed to sham-air or crystobalite silica (61 mg/m3) by inhalation for 5 hours/day for 12 days and then studied from 1 to 112 days after exposure. Mice exposed to sham-air had normal lung histology at all time points. WT mice exposed to titanium dioxide (72 mg/m3) showed pulmonary macrophage recruitment but no increase in lung collagen. Both WT and IL-12 KO mice exposed to silica showed similar progressive lung pathology, increased wet lung weight and increased total lung collagen (hydroxyproline). IL-12 p35 mRNA was not increased in either strain after silica exposure; IL-12 p40 mRNA was up-regulated after silica in WT mice and constitutively absent in the IL-12 KO mice. IL-18 mRNA was not increased after silica exposure. The expression of IL-15 (an important driver for innate immunity, Natural Killer cell activation, and IFN-γ production) was abundant in air-exposed mice and was increased slightly in the lungs of mice with silicosis. The axis of IL-12 driving IFN-γ production is not essential for the full manifestations of silicosis in mice exposed to a crystobalite silica aerosol.
Morality Politics and New Research on Transgender Politics and Public Policy

These days news plays an important role in society as a information deliverer but on the other hand it sometimes causes injury to business interests by false reports. However, it is not simple to set a standard of judging the illegality due to the characteristic trait of news for the public interest. The Korean civil law has solved the problem regarding the scope of protection through excluding injury of legal rights from legal components that is generally required in torts. Considering the abstract meaning of business interests, however, another problem of illegality judgement remains. Business interests as legal interests of tort law is not easy to be defined because of its metaphysical concept. However, this concept may include detailed and general business practices, as well as the reputation of the undertaking estimated to be important in recent years. But liabilities of torts should be limited by applying “business relation” not so as to excessively extended. Here, the concept of “business relation” can be classified into “target relation”, “relation inevitability” and “typical risk”. And also, there is another hard work which is an issue of calculating the damages by injury of a business interests. Legalization in Germany and Japan and a study of concretization of U.S. is enough arguable to suggest in this article.
Effect of opiates, anesthetic techniques, and other perioperative factors on surgical cancer patients.

Background Opioid pharmacotherapy is often used to treat cancer pain. However, morphine and other opioid-like substance use in patients with cancer may have significant adverse consequences, including the suppression of both innate and acquired immune responses. Although studies have examined the possibility that regional anesthesia attenuates the immunosuppressive response of surgery, the effects of morphine and other opioid-related substances on tumor progression remain unknown. Methods This article presents an evidence-based review of the influence of opioids and anesthetic technique on the immune system in the context of cancer recurrence. The review focuses on the field of regional anesthesia and the setting of surgical oncologic procedures. The method for perioperative pain management and the technique of anesthesia chosen for patients in cancer surgery were explored. Results General anesthetics have been indicated to suppress both cell-mediated immunity and humoral immunity. Evidence suggests that intravenous opioids suppress the immune system. However, the mechanisms by which anesthetics and analgesics inhibit the immune system are not understood. Compared with the alternatives, regional analgesia offers reduced blood loss and superior postoperative analgesia. Because of these advantages, the use of regional analgesia has increased in oncologic surgeries. Conclusion Immune responses from all components of the immune system, including both the humoral and cell-mediated components, appear to be suppressed by anesthetics and analgesics. The clinical anesthesiologist should consider these factors in the application of technique, especially in cancer surgery.
The Reform Movement and the Quiet Crisis in Gifted Education.

The reform movement in education appears to focus on the ways in which schools are organized and managed rather than on the interaction that takes place among teachers, students, and the material t...