cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Two decades of persisting income-disparities in dental caries among U.S. children and adolescents

OBJECTIVE To describe trends in income disparities in dental caries among U.S. children and adolescents during two decades of fluctuating economic growth. METHODS Data were from National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys conducted in 1988-1994, 1999-2004, and 2011-2014. The number of tooth surfaces with dental caries experience per child was computed for three age groups: 2-5, 6-11, and 12-17 years. Absolute and relative measures of inequality compared caries experience in families below the poverty level with families where income was at least three times the poverty threshold. RESULTS Conspicuous, inverse income gradients in dental caries were observed at each time period and in each age group. However, there was no consistent trend or statistically significant change in the degree of inequality between survey periods. CONCLUSIONS Persisting income disparities in dental caries among U.S. children and adolescents challenge public health dentistry to redouble efforts to redress the inequity.
Discharge breastmilk feeding rates in asymptomatic term newborns admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for maternal chorioamnionitis.

Purpose: To compare discharge breastmilk feeding rates among asymptomatic term newborns receiving 48-hour versus >48-hour antibiotics in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and a cohort of well...
Engineering Intravenously Administered Nanoparticles to Reduce Infusion Reaction and Stop Bleeding in a Large Animal Model of Trauma

Bleeding from traumatic injury is the leading cause of death for young people across the world, but interventions are lacking. While many agents have shown promise in small animal models, translating the work to large animal models has been exceptionally difficult in great part because of infusion-associated complement activation to nanomaterials that leads to cardiopulmonary complications. Unfortunately, this reaction is seen in at least 10% of the population. We developed intravenously infusible hemostatic nanoparticles that were effective in stopping bleeding and improving survival in rodent models of trauma. To translate this work, we developed a porcine liver injury model. Infusion of the first generation of hemostatic nanoparticles and controls 5 min after injury led to massive vasodilation and exsanguination even at extremely low doses. In naive animals, the physiological changes were consistent with a complement-associated infusion reaction. By tailoring the zeta potential, we were able to engineer a second generation of hemostatic nanoparticles and controls that did not exhibit the complement response at low and moderate doses but did at the highest doses. These second-generation nanoparticles led to cessation of bleeding within 10 min of administration even though some signs of vasodilation were still seen. While the complement response is still a challenge, this work is extremely encouraging in that it demonstrates that when the infusion-associated complement response is managed, hemostatic nanoparticles are capable of rapidly stopping bleeding in a large animal model of trauma.
Sheep Models of Postinfarction Left Ventricular Remodeling

This chapter describes various sheep models that faithfully and consistendy reproduce major manifestations of adverse postinfarction left ventricular remodeling following acute myocardial infarctions in patients. The models are produced by simply occluding coronary arteries that supply 21 to 24 percent of the left ventricular mass in different, specific locations. The advantages of these large animal models are illustrated by studies of early and late reperfusion of ischemic myocardium and studies restraining infarct or mitral annular expansion on the remodeling process.
Task-induced brain state manipulation improves prediction of individual traits.

Recent work has begun to relate individual differences in brain functional organization to human behaviors and cognition, but the best brain state to reveal such relationships remains an open question. In two large, independent data sets, we here show that cognitive tasks amplify trait-relevant individual differences in patterns of functional connectivity, such that predictive models built from task fMRI data outperform models built from resting-state fMRI data. Further, certain tasks consistently yield better predictions of fluid intelligence than others, and the task that generates the best-performing models varies by sex. By considering task-induced brain state and sex, the best-performing model explains over 20% of the variance in fluid intelligence scores, as compared to <6% of variance explained by rest-based models. This suggests that identifying and inducing the right brain state in a given group can better reveal brain-behavior relationships, motivating a paradigm shift from rest- to task-based functional connectivity analyses. Decoding or predicting cognitive traits from brain activity is an exciting prospect. Here, the authors show that task-based functional connectivity better predicts intelligence-related measures than rest-based connectivity, suggesting that cognitive tasks amplify individual differences in trait-relevant circuitry.
The Visual Tradition and the Closure of the Optical Revolution

This chapter examines how the optical revolution ended. The visual tradition played a critical role in bringing the optical revolution to a close, but not through settling the debate. With its emphasis upon the intrinsic role of the eye in optical experiments, the visual tradition nurtured a group of interdisciplinary researches within the field of optics, including physiological optics, photometry, photography and the making of so- called “philosophical toys.” Due to the proliferation of specializations around the mid nineteenth century, physical optics was no longer the central domain of optics, and both sides in the debate became apathetic about the question of the nature of light. The debate between the particle and the wave theory was not settled but became unimportant and insignificant to the members of the optical community, and closure of the “optical revolution” took the form of proliferation of disciplines.
Overview of the Carbonic Anhydrase Family

The purpose of this collection of chapters is to provide a glimpse of where the carbonic anhydrase (CA) field is. This book is by no means fully inclusive, as only a few of the lead researchers around the world contributed; it serves only to show that the CA field is still pushing the boundaries of research as it has done since its discovery, and will do for a long time to come.
Seismological Constraints on the Structure of the Earth's Core

Our knowledge of the Earth’s core has improved dramatically since its discovery, and this chapter attempts to provide a review of the current understanding as constrained by seismological observations. We also illustrate difficulties in studying this region, and uncertainties in the constraints. A short discussion of seismic data used to investigate the core is followed by sections focusing on properties of the outer core, the inner-core boundary, and the inner core. The range of observed values for compressional and shear wave speeds, density, and attenuation are presented.
Price Dynamics in Domestic Energy Markets

The authors produce a baseline scenario for long-run trends and short-run dynamics in domestic electricity markets based on trend analysis of energy input prices and then compare actual price paths in wholesale electricity markets for the early twenty-first century to the baseline. Deviations from the baseline scenario are explained in terms of market design, network externalities, and exogenous shocks to input and output markets. The authors’ key finding is that institutional design is far more important in the price discovery process than is often recognized and that the ‘financialization’ of domestic energy markets has had an unintended impact on wholesale electricity prices that may explain levels of perceived volatility and the absence of noticeable price trends affecting those markets.
Inertia of Institutional Investors

We examine institutional investors' tendency to remain unchanged in their portfolio positions for an extended period, called portfolio inertia. Studying 40 million investor-stock quarterly observations, we document that institutional investors do not trade a single share in one of five stocks in their portfolio for at least a quarter of the year. Our analysis shows that institutional investors with high inertia are likely to underperform in the future. Portfolio sorting and the Fama-MacBeth regression analyses also show that stocks with high inertia of institutional investors are likely to underperform in the future, undermining investors' overall performance. We investigate several behavioral biases as potential drivers of inertia and find no evidence of distraction, overconfidence, and disposition effects. We find investors' tendency to sell stocks with salient price movements and recency bias best explains the inertia.
Expression of calcineurin in relation to the embryonic diapause process in the silkworm, Bombyx mori.

Abstract Calcineurin (CN) is a Ca2+/calmodulin-activated serine/threonine protein phosphatase that is essential for translating Ca2+ signals into changes in cell function and development. In the present study, we investigated changes in CN expression during the process of embryonic diapause in the silkworm, Bombyx mori. An immunoblot analysis showed that Bombyx eggs contained a 59-kDa catalytic A subunit (CNA), a 19-kDa regulatory B subunit (CNB), and a 27-kDa calcipressin; the CNA, CNB, and calcipressin were found to undergo differential changes between diapause and developing eggs during the diapause process. In developing eggs, protein levels of CNA and calcipressin were high during the first stages and then gradually decreased with embryonic development. However, CNB protein levels showed inverse temporal changes, with increased levels being detected during later embryonic stages of developing eggs. In diapause eggs, protein levels of CNA and calcipressin remained at relatively high levels during the first 8 days after oviposition, but CNB levels remained at low levels. CN enzymatic activity was directly determined and results showed that it remained at low levels in diapause eggs during the first 8 days after oviposition. However, in developing eggs, CN enzymatic activity sharply increased during the first several days, reached a peak during middle embryonic development, and then greatly decreased 5 or 6 days before hatching. Examination of temporal changes in mRNA expression levels of CNB also showed differences between diapause and HCl-treated eggs. These results demonstrated that protein levels of CNA, CNB, and calcipressin, transcriptional levels of CNB, and CN enzymatic activity between diapause and developing eggs are differentially regulated, and these regulated changes are likely related to the embryonic diapause process of B. mori.
Reaction of 1-substituted pyrroles with N-fluorodibenzenesulfonimide: Effect of halogen on electrophilic substitution by addition-elimination

The reaction of 1-substituted pyrroles (1-methyl, 1-ethyl and 1-phenyl) with N-fluorodibenzenesulfonimide (NFSi) gave N-(1-substituted 1H-pyr- rol-2-yl)dibenzenesulfonimides as products by addition elimination. Defluorination of NFSi was the only competing reaction. In contrast the reaction of 1-t-butylpyrrole with NFSi gave a mixture of fluoropyrroles. This is attributed to a steric interaction between the t-butyl group and the phenyl groups on NFSi. N-Chlorodibenzenesulfonimide was found to dechlorinate under all conditions studied and it was not possible to compare its reactivity with that of NFSi. The results of this study support our hypothesis that the observation of addition-elimination in pyrroles is related to the π-electron donating ability of the halogen initially introduced into the ring
Conjugate Addition Reactions of α-Aminoalkylcuprates with α,β-Alkenyl-, α,β-Alkynyl-, α,β−β,γ-Allenyl-, and α,β−γ,δ-Dienyl Carboxylic Acid Derivatives, Nitriles, and Sulfoxides

α-Aminoalkylcuprates prepared from α-lithio carbamates and CuCN·2LiCl participate in 1,4-addition reactions with α,β-unsaturated esters, thiol esters, imides, and nitriles in poor to excellent yields depending upon the electron-withdrawing substituent and the substitution pattern of the unsaturated substrate. These reagents also undergo conjugate addition reactions with α,β-alkynyl esters, sulfoxides, and nitriles and with α,β−β,γ-unsaturated allenyl esters. Excellent stereocontrol is achieved in the conjugate additions of α-aminoalkylcuprates to the allenyl esters, while poor stereoselectivity results in the conjugate additions to the alkynyl derivatives. Deprotection and cyclization of the alkynyl adducts affords pyrrolin-2-ones, while similar treatment of the allenyl adducts affords 4-alkylidine- pyrrolidin-2-ones and pyrrolizidinones.
Interference Testing for Atmospheric HOx Measurements by Laser-induced Fluorescence

Accurate OH and HO2 (collectively called HOx) measurements by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) may be contaminated by spurious signals from interfering atmospheric chemicals or from the instrument itself. Interference tests must be conducted to ensure that observed OH signal originates solely from ambient OH and is not due to instrument artifacts. Several tests were performed on the Penn State LIF HOx instrument, both in the laboratory and in the field. Theseincluded measurements of the instrument's zero signal by using either zero air or perfluoropropylene to remove OH, examination of spectral interferences from naphthalene, sulfur dioxide, and formaldehyde, and tests of interferences by addition of suspected interfering atmospheric chemicals, including ozone, hydrogen peroxide, nitrous acid, formaldehyde, nitric acid, acetone, and organic peroxy radicals (RO2). All tests lacked evidence ofsignificant interferences for measurements in the atmosphere, including highly polluted urban environments.
ICWA's Pre-Existing Custody Requirement: A Flexible Approach to Better Protect the Interests of Indian Fathers, Tribes and Children

In June, 2013 the Supreme Court issued its second decision regarding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (Adoptive Couple). The ICWA provides that an Indian parent’s parental rights cannot be terminated unless the parent’s “continued custody” of the child will likely cause “serious emotional or physical damage to the child.” In Adoptive Couple, the Court found that ICWA’s language of “continued custody” required pre-existing custody for the Act’s protections to apply. This paper argues that ICWA’s pre-existing custody requirement should not automatically bar unwed Indian fathers without earlier physical custody.In Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1989 that the ICWA safeguards tribes’ interests in Indian children and children’s interests in their tribes. Prior to 2013, most states applied ICWA’s protections to any custody proceeding involving an Indian child. Holyfield, state case precedents, and state legislation support the proposition that Indian fathers with no pre-existing physical custody should not be automatically excluded from ICWA protections. This helps ensure that courts consider the tribes’ interests in Indian children alongside Indian children’s interest in a relationship with their tribe.Adoptive Couple represents an extreme case where there was no meaningful prior parental relationship. Finding that the unwed biological Indian father made no meaningful steps to assume the responsibility of parenthood and abandoned the child before birth, the Court found that there was no custody to evaluate so that ICWA’s protections did not apply. While ICWA requires “continued custody,” this paper suggests “continued custody” is not limited to physical custody. This paper posits that where a non-physical custody Indian father demonstrates efforts to assume parenthood, “continued custody” should exist so that ICWA’s protections apply.
The (anti-)social gift? Mauss’s paradox and the triad of the gift:

Marcel Mauss’s discussion of the gift relies on a paradox: although gift-giving is the foundational act of building a society, in order for a gift to be circulated, society must be always-already p...
Contaminant Subsidies to Riparian Food Webs in Appalachian Streams Impacted by Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining.

Selenium is highly elevated in Appalachian streams and stream organisms that receive alkaline mine drainage from mountaintop removal coal mining compared to unimpacted streams in the region. Adult ...
Education Quality Assessment in China: What We Learned From Official Reports Released in 2018 and 2019

Purpose:This article intended to introduce the recent Chinese compulsory education quality assessment.Design/Approach/Methods:The article summarized education policy documents relevant to the recen...
UAV-Based Far-Field Antenna Pattern Measurement Method for Polarimetric Weather Radars: Simulation and Error Analysis

Continuing advances and the availability of relatively inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf UAV systems allow the development of in-situ antenna measurement systems for a wide variety of operating frequencies and applications. This paper presents a simulation framework and error analysis that provides a guideline for in-situ far-field (FF) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based antenna measurements of operational and research antennas for polarimetric weather radar systems. The analysis includes system design trade-offs which allow the evaluation of antenna measurement errors due to UAV position, gimbal orientation, and extraneous error sources that can be present in a UAV-based field-testing scenario. Results analyzed for all cases provide error bounds and limitations for two example characterization schemes. The UAV-based antenna measurement system simulation and analysis suggests and supports the feasibility of such a system for antenna characterization and polarimetric calibration of antennas in the near future.
Adoption of the Transradial Approach for Neurointerventions: A National Survey of Current Practitioners.

Abstract Objectives The transradial approach (TRA) is technically feasible for both diagnostic and therapeutic neurointerventions. It improves patient comfort and is not associated with increased procedural complications when compared to the transfemoral approach (TFA). To date, no studies have looked at barriers to adoption of TRA in the neurointerventionalist community. This study aims to obtain neurointerventionalist perspectives on their adoption of TRA. Materials and Methods Online survey distributed to neurointerventionalists. Results A total of 55 neurointerventionalists, 52 of whom utilized TRA, responded to our survey. Overall, participants were not concerned about TRA's technical feasibility for diagnostic or therapeutic neurointerventions or about procedural complications. Most of our cohort adopted TRA due to its increased patient comfort and to reduce access site complications. In-institution interventionalists were strongly perceived to be the most effective method of teaching TRA when compared to other methods. Catheters and equipment issues were reported by about 30% of our cohort as a barrier to TRA adoption. Conclusions The neurointerventionalist community largely perceives TRA to be technically feasible and was not concerned about its procedural complications. In-person institutionalists are strongly perceived to be the most effective method of teaching the approach. A significant barrier to adoption seems to be related to catheters and equipment issues.
Single Incision, Dual Window Approach for a Comminuted Distal Radius Fracture

Introduction Complex distal radius fractures often involve a fragment of the volar-ulnar articular surface and the radial styloid. The volar ulnar corner of the distal radius is an important constraint to volar translation of the carpus and thus requires stable fixation to prevent wrist displacement. The traditional volar Henry approach often requires undue tension on the median nerve while retracting for access to the ulnar aspect of the radius. To protect the median nerve from iatrogenic injury and to improve exposure of the surgical site, we propose a single incision, dual window approach to the distal radius for complex bi-columnar fractures. Methods This technique combines the trans-Flexor Carpi Radialis (FCR) approach with a subcutaneous dissection to the ulnar aspect of the wrist. This window utilizes the interval between the ulnar neurovascular bundle and the carpal tunnel contents. Results This technique allows the surgeon to work through either window and thus visualize and directly fixate the various fracture fragments. We have treated complex articular distal radius fractures associated with ulnar communition with this novel technique and it has provided direct reduction with improved fragment access. The surgical technique, a case presentation and results are detailed in this report. Conclusion This case report has demonstrated that complex bi-columnar fractures of the distal radius can be effectively approached and fixated with a single incision dual window approach.
Lack of calcium rich foods in the diet, low knowledge on calcium level recommendations and severe food insecurity predicts low calcium intake among Vietnamese women.

Abstract Objective To assess nutrition knowledge related to osteoporosis and calcium, osteoporosis health beliefs, dietary calcium intake and household food insecurity among adult women in Vietnam. Methods Two hundred fifty-one women aged 30–65 years living in a rural district in Hanoi -Vietnam were recruited. A questionnaire was used to collect information on nutrition knowledge related to osteoporosis and calcium intake, health beliefs, household food security, and dietary calcium intake. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and regressions. Results Majority of the participants did not know calcium recommendations (95%) and recommended daily servings of calcium-rich foods (60%). In addition, majority of the participants (83.7%) were not aware of osteoporosis risk factors. Slightly less than half of the participants (46.2%) reported that they would have difficulties changing their current diets to consume more calcium rich foods. Half of the participants (50.4%) reported being food insecure, with 22% of them reporting having severe food insecurity. Mean dietary calcium intake was 534.5 mg/day, of which milk and dairy products contributed only 4%. Nutrition knowledge, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy were positively associated with calcium intake (p Conclusions The results of this study showed calcium intake among the participating Vietnamese women was lower than the national recommendation, indicating the need for nutrition programs and promotions to increase calcium intake. These programs should aim at increasing awareness on national calcium recommendations and skills to obtain and consume calcium-rich foods while considering development of safety nets for food insecure households, as pertaining to adequate dietary calcium intake.
The Long-Term Effect of Competition on Public School Achievement: Evidence from the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program.

Despite a vast literature on school vouchers, less is known about their long-term competitive effects on public schools. The current paper examines the competitive effect of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, the largest single voucher program in the US, on math and ELA proficiency rates in public schools in the last eight years. Exploiting school vouchers' market share as the primary measure of competition, I use two-way fixed effects regression and event study framework to examine the competitive effect. Results indicate that, although competition has a positive effect in the earlier years, it is detrimental in the long term, suggesting that the program created a “voucher shock” that led to an improvement in the short term. However, in the long term, the proficiency rates in public schools that faced higher competition fell and never increased again. The trend of voucher recipients who have prior public-school attendance revealed that the worsening proficiency rates in the public schools that face higher competition were driven by the departure of relatively high achieving students, suggesting that school vouchers inspire sorting. The results are robust to alternative specifications that use the variation in the interaction between the market share of vouchers and geospatial measures of private school density.
Neuron-specific coding sequences are the most highly conserved in the mammalian brain

Abstract Neurons have become highly diverse in cell size, morphology, phenotype and function in mammalian evolution, whereas glial cells are much less varied in size and types across species. This difference in diversity suggests that neuron-specific protein-coding gene sequences have admitted more variation in evolution, that is, are less evolutionarily conserved than those expressed in glial cells. We calculated values of dN/dS from Ensembl98 for coding sequences expressed specifically in neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia and endothelial cells in the brain across 92 mammalian species with reference to either mouse or human. Surprisingly, we find that protein-coding sequences that are specifically expressed in neurons are far less variable than those specific to other cell types in the brain. We next analyzed phastCons values for the same genes and found that neuron-specific promoter sequences are at least as conserved as other cell type-specific promoter sequences. Moreover, neuron-specific coding sequences are as highly conserved across mammalian species as ATPase coding sequences, the benchmark of evolutionary conservation, followed by heart and skeletal muscle-specific sequences. Neuronal diversity in mammalian evolution thus arises despite high levels of negative selection on neuron-specific protein-coding sequences. We propose that such strong evolutionary conservation is imposed by excitability, which continually exposes cells to the risk of excitotoxic death, and speculate that variability of neuronal cell sizes arises as a consequence of variability in levels of activity, possibly constrained by energy supply to the developing brain. Significance Statement The majority of cells in the mammalian body, including glial cells in the brain, maintain a constant size across species from mice to elephants. The exception is neurons, whose size varies over 100- fold both within each brain and across species, often becoming larger in larger brains. What evolutionary mechanism allows neurons to be so exceptionally diverse in size? We show that neuron-specific genes are some of the most highly conserved in mammalian evolution, which implicates alternate causes of diversity in neuronal cell size beyond heritable genetics. We propose a novel direction of research into how neuronal cell size diversity might be a self-organized response to variations in levels of activity, which are an exclusive property of excitable cells like neurons.
Classification of high-dimensional data with spiked covariance matrix structure.

We study the classification problem for high-dimensional data with $n$ observations on $p$ features where the $p \times p$ covariance matrix $\Sigma$ exhibits a spiked eigenvalues structure and the vector $\zeta$, given by the difference between the whitened mean vectors, is sparse with sparsity at most $s$. We propose an adaptive classifier (adaptive with respect to the sparsity $s$) that first performs dimension reduction on the feature vectors prior to classification in the dimensionally reduced space, i.e., the classifier whitened the data, then screen the features by keeping only those corresponding to the $s$ largest coordinates of $\zeta$ and finally apply Fisher linear discriminant on the selected features. Leveraging recent results on entrywise matrix perturbation bounds for covariance matrices, we show that the resulting classifier is Bayes optimal whenever $n \rightarrow \infty$ and $s \sqrt{n^{-1} \ln p} \rightarrow 0$. Experimental results on real and synthetic data sets indicate that the proposed classifier is competitive with existing state-of-the-art methods while also selecting a smaller number of features.
Brain β-amyloid links the association of change in BMI with cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults

Background We tested the hypothesis that indices of AD and related dementia (ADRD) pathologies may explain associations between change in BMI and cognitive decline in old age. Methods We used data from 436 older decedents participating in a prospective longitudinal cohort study who had undergone annual cognitive and BMI assessments and postmortem collection of indices of twelve brain pathologies. We identified ADRD brain pathologies associated with BMI range, a previously published metric of change in BMI. We employed sigmoidal mixed-effect models of cognitive decline to examine the associations of change in BMI and cognitive decline with and without terms for ADRD brain pathologies. Results Average age at baseline was 78.6 years, SD=6.5 years with 64% female. On average nine cognitive assessments were obtained with average age at death 88.4 years (SD=6.2 years). Change in BMI as measured by BMI range was associated with cognitive decline (θ2=0.260). β-amyloid, hippocampal sclerosis, and substantia nigra neuronal loss were associated with BMI range. β-amyloid strongly attenuated the association of BMI range with cognitive decline. Hippocampal sclerosis showed only partial attenuation of the association of BMI range and cognitive decline and nigral neuronal loss did not attenuate this association. Conclusion Changes in BMI and cognitive decline in older adults may be affected by similar mechanisms underlying the accumulation of brain pathologies like β-amyloid in aging brains. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying these associations may provide novel targets for developing interventions that maintain brain health and metabolic homeostasis in old age.
The Herbrand Manifesto

The traditional semantics for relational logic (sometimes called Tarskian semantics) is based on the notion of interpretations of constants in terms of objects external to the logic. Herbrand semantics is an alternative that is based on truth assignments for ground sentences without reference to external objects. Herbrand semantics is simpler and more intuitive than Tarskian semantics; and, consequently, it is easier to teach and learn. Moreover, it is stronger than Tarskian semantics. For example, while it is not possible to finitely axiomatize integer arithmetic with Tarskian semantics, this can be done easily with Herbrand semantics. The downside is a loss of some common logical properties, such as compactness and inferential completeness. However, there is no loss of inferential power—anything that can be deduced according to Tarskian semantics can also be deduced according to Herbrand semantics. Based on these results, we argue that there is value in using Herbrand semantics for relational logic in place of Tarskian semantics. It alleviates many of the current problems with relational logic and ultimately may foster a wider use of relational logic in human reasoning and computer applications.
CTS 2015 plenary speech: Agile at PayPal: A transformation towards leaner and more productive work collaboration

As Agile methods were introduced for managing software development process, leaner ways of working are becoming a practical approach to run entire enterprise. PayPal has recently transformed its large distributed engineering organization, from traditional waterfall development process to an Agile and leaner collaborative working style. Together with technology platform innovation, we have seen tremendous changes and improvements on ways that teams collaborate and coordinate, and impacts on time to market. A cross-functional reorganization, brought the actual physical locations closer for all relevant parties including Product, QA, Engineering, and UED, which dramatically reduced daily collaboration cost across different office locations and time zones. In this keynote, I will share our experience of Lean/Agile transformation, tools and technology platforms adopted to support leaner collaboration, and lessons learnt. Hope it would help provide some insights for further research work on improving collaborative work in software companies.
Property-Based Approaches to Design Rules for Reduced Toxicity

The sections in this article are Possible Approaches to Systematic Design Guidelines for Reduced Toxicity Analogy with Medicinal Chemistry Do Chemicals with Similar Toxicity Profiles Have Similar Physical/Chemical Properties? Proposed Design Guidelines for Reduced Human Toxicity Considerations for Reducing Human Absorption Example: Reducing Carcinogenicity by Decreasing Oral Bioavailability Using Property Guidelines to Design for Reducing Acute Aquatic Toxicity Predicting the Physicochemical Properties and Attributes Needed for Developing Design Rules Solvent-Related Properties Hydrophobicity Solubility pKa Electronic Properties Orbital Energies Molecular Dipole Moment and Polarizability Molecular Surface Area Conclusion Keywords: design rules; property guidelines; reduced toxicity; safer chemicals; green chemistry
Manin triples and $N=2$ superconformal field theory

This work was inspired by the article of Parkhomenko, who drew attention to the central role played in the work of Spindel, Sevrin, Troust and van Proyen, by Manin triples. These authors have shown how to associate to a Manin triple an $N=2$ superconformal field theory (the work of Kazama-Suzuki is a special case of their results). In this paper, we construct a deformation of their theory, with continuously varying central charge, analogous to the Fock representations of the Virasoro algebra with stress-energy tensor $-(\phi')^2/2+\alpha\phi''$.
A monthly quality assurance procedure for 3D surface imaging

A procedure for periodic quality assurance of a video surface imaging system is introduced. AlignRT is a video camera-based patient localization system that captures and compares images of a patient's topography to a DICOM-formatted external contour, then calculates shifts required to accurately reposition the patient. This technical note describes the tools and methods implemented in our department to verify correct and accurate operation of the AlignRT hardware and software components. The procedure described is performed monthly and complements a daily calibration of the system.
LATEX human motion planning based on recursive dynamics and optimal control techniques

The 3D simulation of human activity based on physics, kinematics, and dynamics in terrestrial and space environments, is becoming increasingly important. Virtual humans may be used to design tasks in terrestrial environments and analyze their physical workload to maximize success and safety without expensive physical mockups. Previously (J. Lo and D. Metaxas, 1999), we presented an efficient optimal control and recursive dynamics based animation system for simulating and controlling the motion of articulated figures, and implemented the approach to several experiments where the simplified articulated models which has serial/closed-loop chain structures with only small degree-of-freedom (less than seven) each. The computation time is from a few minutes up to 4 hours based on the complexity of the model and how close the initial guess of the motion trajectory is to the optimal solution. The paper presents an improved method which can deal with more complicated kinematic chains (tree structures), as well as larger degree-of-freedom serial/closed-loop chain structures. Motion planning is done by first solving the inverse kinematic problem to generate possible trajectories, which gives us a better initial guess of the motion trajectory than the previous one, and then by solving the resulting nonlinear optimal control problem. For example, minimization of the torques during a simulation under certain constraints is often applied and has its origin in the biomechanics literature. Examples of activities shown are chinup and dipdown in different terrestrial environments as well as zero-gravity self orientation and ladder traversal.
Effects of Discrete Time Delays and Parameters Variation on Dynamical Systems

Delay Differential Equations (DDE's) have received considerable attention in recent years. While most of these articles focused on the effects of the time delays on the stability of the equilibrium points and on the bifurcation that they may raised, very few papers address the key roles that system parameters play on if and how the discrete delays induce stability changes of the equilibria and produce bifurcations near such equilibria. In this article we focus on that question in a general setting, that is, if you have a system of DDE's with one or multiple discrete time delays, what are the results of changing the system parameters values on the effects of the discrete time delays on the dynamic of the system. We present general results for one equation with one and two delays and study a specific example of one equation with one delay. We then establish the procedure for n equations with multiple delays and do a specific example for two equations with two delays. We compute the steady states and analyze their stability as both chosen bifurcation parameters, the discrete time delay ...
A Protease Inhibitor Specifically Inhibits Growth of HPV-Infected Keratinocytes

Protease inhibitors have been known to exhibit anticarcinogenic activity in a variety of model systems, although the biological target(s) and mechanism remain enigmatic. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the primary etiological agent of cervical cancer. Here we show that a nuclear chymotrypsin-like protease activity (NCLPA), which appears to be involved in transformation in several different experimental models, is significantly elevated in keratinocytes infected with high-risk HPV. Further, we demonstrate a marked growth inhibition of organotypic raft cultures, which is specific for cells infected with high-risk HPV types, using a chloromethyl ketone inhibitor previously shown to be relatively selective for the NCLPA. Surprisingly, this HPV-dependent inhibitory effect is independent of any alterations in the NCLPA. This finding has clear implications for the development of novel therapeutics specifically targeted to cervical dysplasias with HPV-infected cells.
Revision of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to distal bypass for failed weight loss.

Abstract Background Weight loss failure after proximal Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) occurs in ≤35% of cases. No consensus has been reached on the best revisional operation for these patients. Our objective was to review our data on the conversion to distal gastric bypass at a university-affiliated private practice in the United States. Methods A retrospective review was completed of 29 patients from 2002 to 2009 who had undergone conversion of RYGB to distal gastric bypass because of failure to lose weight, defined as a body mass index >35 kg/m 2 or a percentage of excess weight loss of Results The average excess weight loss and body mass index were significantly improved from 26.6% and 48.1 kg/m 2 before revision to 60.9% and 35.3 kg/m 2 at 1 year and 68.8% and 31.5 kg/m 2 at 5 years. Of the 29 patients, 6 developed protein calorie malnutrition requiring parenteral nutrition, and 1 required reversal. Diabetes had completely resolved with the additional weight loss. Conclusion Revision of RYGB to distal gastric bypass can allow patients to achieve sustainable weight loss similar to what they were seeking from their primary surgery. From the results of the present series, the operation was safe, with no perioperative mortality or anastomotic complications. The development of protein calorie malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies is real, and patients require close monitoring and follow-up.
Approximation algorithms for load-balanced virtual backbone construction in wireless sensor networks

Inspired by the backbone concept in wired networks, a Virtual Backbone (VB) is expected to benefit routing in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). A Connected Dominating Set (CDS) based VB is a competitive approach among the existing methods used to establish VBs in WSNs. Most existing works focus on constructing a Minimum-sized CDS (MCDS), a k-connected m-dominating CDS, a minimum routing cost CDS or a bounded-diameter CDS. However, few works consider the load-balance factor. In this work, the size and the load-balance factors are both taken into account when constructing a VB in WSNs. Specifically, three NP-hard problems are investigated in the paper, namely, the MinMax Degree Maximal Independent Set (MDMIS) problem, the Load-Balanced Virtual Backbone (LBVB) problem, and the MinMax Valid-degree non-Backbone node Allocation (MVBA) problem. Furthermore, their approximation algorithms and comprehensive theoretical analysis of the approximation factors are presented. Finally, our theoretical analysis and the simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithms outperform the existing state-of-the-art approaches.
The influence of success and failure experiences on perceptual whole-part preferences

Changes in perceptual part-whole preferences as a function of experienced success and experienced failure were investigated. All Ss went through one testing session in which their perceptual preference was established. Forty-two Ss of the experimental group went through two additional testing sessions, one in which success and another in which failure experiences were induced. Parallel sets of a Two-Alternative Perception Test were used after each session to measure part or whole preferences. The Ss of the control group were administered the three sets of the perception test at intervals of one week, with situations kept constant. Results of a three-way analysis of variance (p<0.0001) supported the hypotheses of success situations favoring whole perceptions and of failure situations favoring part perceptions. Highly significant correlations (p<0.01) were found between the three testing sessions of the Ss in the control group, indicating stability of perceptual part-whole preferences over time, with situations held constant.
Macroscopic static field inhomogeneity in the human brain during MRI examination

The macroscopic static field inhomogeneity is not only the source of MR signal loss in gradient echo based imaging techniques, but also the source of geometrical image distortion as well as a limitation of spectral resolution. This piece of information is useful for both active shimming coil design and clinical imaging application. In order to further understand the spatial variation of the macroscopic background static field in human brain during MRI examination, this static field inhomogeneity was measured from the adult human volunteers with a volumetric imaging scheme, which was based on a 3D gradient echo technique with two consecutive gradient echoes. All the human volunteers were scanned in supine position using a birdcage headcoil on a 1.5 T clinical whole body scanner. We have constructed a high resolution 3D static field map over the brain volume. All experimental results have shown consistently that there are mainly two spots in the brain tissue volume exhibiting relatively severe static magnetic field inhomogeneity . They are normally located in the brain areas in the inferior frontal lobe immediately anterior to the nasal cavity and in the inferior temporal lobe above the ear canals, where air spaces exist in the vicinity. At those locations, the observed offset frequency in the proton resonance reached about 50 Hz over 5 mm distance along the z direction at 1.5 Tesla, corresponding to 1.5 ppm/cm locally.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
“Same/different” symbol use by pigeons

Pigeons learned to respond at one spatial position when a pair of stimuli matched and at a different spatial position when they mismatched. All birds were then transferred to novel stimuli on an orthogonal dimension. For the positive-transfer group, the correct positions for matching and mismatching stimuli remained as they were during training. For the negative-transfer group, the correct positions were reversed. In Experiment 1, the birds were trained with shape stimuli and transferred to hue stimuli. Significant group differences were found, in spite of considerable stimulus-specific learning. In Experiment 2, when the same birds (counterbalanced for Experiment 1 transfer group) were transferred to steady-intermittent stimuli, even larger group differences were found. The data indicate that pigeons have some capacity for representing the concepts “same” and “different” with arbitrary stimuli (i.e., symbols). The data further suggest that distinctions that have been made between matching/oddity transfer tasks and same/different tasks may be procedural rather than conceptual.
Multiple subpial transections in the language cortex

Summary Multiple subpial transections (MST) were made in language cortex in three patients with medically refractory partial epilepsy. All patients were mapped with extra-operative stimulation using subdural grids over the dominant temporal, frontal and parietal convexity. Two patients had anterior temporal lobectomy and MST in posterior language cortex. One patient who had undergone a previous frontal tumour resection had only MST over the frontoparietal convexity, including frontal and parietal language areas. Both patients with MST in the posterior language cortex had postoperative language dysfunction, which had improved significantly by 9 months after surgery. The patient with MST in frontoparietal language areas had improved language functions immediately postoperatively. The two men with anterior temporal lobectomies and MST are seizure-free at 1 year follow-up and the woman with fronto-parietal MST has had a >70% reduction in seizure frequency at 1 year follow-up.
Relationship between 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and All-cause and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality

Abstract Background Observational studies have suggested a strong relationship between 25(OH)D and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. A few studies also have described a nonlinear trend for this relationship in population subgroups, but less is known about this relationship in healthy adults. We examined the presence of a nonlinear relationship between 25(OH)D and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality among healthy adults. Methods We examined 10,170 participants (≥18 years of age) using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data (2001-2004) combined with National Death Index for vital status information through December 2006. Cox proportional hazard models with spline (single knot at population median of 25[OH]D) were fit to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality for each 10-unit increase in serum 25(OH)D. Models were adjusted for demographic and conventional cardiovascular disease risk factors. Results Mean age of study participants was 46.6 (20.5) years, while median (interquartile range) 25(OH)D was 21 (15-27) ng/mL. After a median follow-up of 3.8 years (range 2.8-4.9), 509 all-cause and 184 cardiovascular diseases-related deaths were observed. In univariate analysis, 25(OH)D decreased hazards of all-cause (HR 0.59; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.77) and cardiovascular disease (HR 0.56; 95% CI, 0.38-0.82) mortality below but not above its population median. In adjusted models, 25(OH)D retained the inverse association for all-cause (HR 0.54; 95% CI, 0.35-0.84) and cardiovascular disease (HR 0.50; 95% CI, 0.26-0.98) mortality below but not above its population median. Conclusions We found an inverse association between 25(OH)D and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in healthy adults with serum 25(OH)D levels of ≤21 ng/mL. Clinical trials for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with 25(OH)D supplementation may target healthy adults with serum 25(OH)D levels of ≤21 ng/mL to validate these findings.