cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modeling and Control of Microelectronics Materials Processing

Abstract Major advances in modeling and control will be required to meet future technical challenges in microelectronics manufacturing. This paper reviews the recent applications of mathematical modeling to unit operations such as chemical vapor deposition and plasma etching. Important characteristics of these processes are identified, and the transition from multiwafer reactors to single wafer reactors is discussed. The implementation of closed-loop control on key unit operations in microelectronics manufacturing has been extremely limited due to a lack of suitable on-line measurements. There is considerable promise for application of modem control and optimization techniques in manufacture of integrated circuits.
Glomerulocystic Kidney Disease. Report of an Adult Case

A case of glomerulocystic kidney disease (GCK) in an adult is reported. The patient described here had no other congenital malformations, and there was no family history of renal disease. The histopathologic findings support the glomerular origin of GCK. This case illustrated that GCK may be associated with stable renal function for many years. In view of this, GCK should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cystic kidney disease in the adult.
Sonography of Renal Inflammatory Disease

The sonographic findings and differential diagnoses of a wide spectrum of acute and chronic renal inflammatory processes are reviewed. These include focal and diffuse forms of bacterial nepbritis, pyonephrosis, intra- and extrarenal abscess, renal tuberculosis and fungal infection, xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis, and renal parenchymal malakoplakia. The role of ultrasound in the diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with these diseases is discussed.
Closed ASL Interpreting for Online Videos

Deaf individuals face great challenges in today's society. It can be very difficult to be able to understand different forms of media without a sense of hearing. Many videos and movies found online today are not captioned, and even fewer have a supporting video with an interpreter. Also, even with a supporting interpreter video provided, information is still lost due to the inability to look at both the video and the interpreter simultaneously. To alleviate this issue, we came up with a tool called closed interpreting. Similar to closed captioning, it will be displayed with an online video and can be toggled on and off. However, the closed interpreter is also user-adjustable. Settings, such as interpreter size, transparency, and location, can be adjusted. Our goal with this study is to find out what deaf and hard of hearing viewers like about videos that come with interpreters, and whether the adjustability is beneficial.
Semen Analysis of Patients who had Orchidopexy at or After Seven Years of Age

Semen analysis was performed in 142 men who had undergone orchidopexy at age 7-13 1/2 years, 119 for unilateral cryptorchidism and 23 for bilateral cryptorchidism. Fertility potential was related to the original position of the testes: most men who had had unilateral cryptorchidism or bilateral undescended testes in the superficial inguinal pouch produced normal or acceptable semen, whereas those who had had bilateral canalicular or abdominal testes were azoospermic.
Technique of Creation of a Continent Internal Ileal Reservoir (Kock Pouch) for Urinary Diversion

Kock and associates have made a major contribution to the urologic surgical armamentarium by developing a method to create a continent internal urinary reservoir out of ileum. This innovative procedure now offers patients requiring cystectomy for bladder cancer or cutaneous urinary diversion for any reason a real alternative to the standard ileal conduit, which requires wearing an external appliance. Operative technique, including some modifications developed by the authors, is presented.
Comparison of Oral Iron Supplement Formulations for Normalization of Iron Status Following Roux-EN-y Gastric Bypass Surgery: a Randomized Trial.

The evidence behind recommendations for treatment of iron deficiency (ID) following roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) lacks high quality studies. Academic, United States The objective of the study is to compare the effectiveness of oral iron supplementation using non-heme versus heme iron for treatment of iron deficiency in RYGB patients. In a randomized, single-blind study, women post-RYGB and iron deficient received non-heme iron (FeSO4, 195 mg/day) or heme iron (heme-iron-polypeptide, HIP, 31.5 to 94.5 mg/day) for 8 weeks. Measures of iron status, including blood concentrations of ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and hemoglobin, were assessed. At baseline, the mean ± standard deviation for age, BMI, and years since surgery of the sample was 41.5 ± 6.8 years, 34.4 ± 5.9 kg/m2, and 6.9 ± 3.1 years, respectively; and there were no differences between FeSO4 (N = 6) or HIP (N = 8) groups. Compliance was greater than 94%. The study was stopped early due to statistical and clinical differences between groups. Values before and after FeSO4 supplementation, expressed as least square means (95% CI) were hemoglobin, 10.8 (9.8, 11.9) to 13.0 (11.9, 14.0) g/dL; sTfR, 2111 (1556, 2864) to 1270 (934, 1737) μg/L; ferritin, 4.9 (3.4, 7.2) to 15.5 (10.6, 22.6) μg/L; and sTfR:ferritin ratio, 542 (273, 1086) to 103 (51, 204); all p 0.05). In accordance with recommendations, oral supplementation using FeSO4, but not HIP, was efficacious for treatment of iron deficiency after RYGB.
Inhibiting oestrogen signalling in pulmonary arterial hypertension: sex, drugs and research.

Inhibition of oestrogen signalling in PAH is currently being studied clinically but several questions remain http://ow.ly/G7xK30cPN5M
The Affordable Care Act and Ambulance Response Times

This study contributes to the literature on the capacity challenges faced by health care providers after insurance expansions by examining the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and ambulance response times. Exploiting temporal and geographic variation in the implementation of the ACA as well as pre-treatment differences in uninsured rates, we estimate that the expansions of private and Medicaid coverage under the ACA combined to slow ambulance response times by an average of 24%. We conclude that, through extending coverage to individuals who, in its absence, would not have availed themselves of emergency medical services, the ACA added strain to emergency response systems.
HT-eQTL: integrative expression quantitative trait loci analysis in a large number of human tissues

Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis identifies genetic markers associated with the expression of a gene. Most existing eQTL analyses and methods investigate association in a single, readily available tissue, such as blood. Joint analysis of eQTL in multiple tissues has the potential to improve, and expand the scope of, single-tissue analyses. Large-scale collaborative efforts such as the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) program are currently generating high quality data in a large number of tissues. However, computational constraints limit genome-wide multi-tissue eQTL analysis. We develop an integrative method under a hierarchical Bayesian framework for eQTL analysis in a large number of tissues. The model fitting procedure is highly scalable, and the computing time is a polynomial function of the number of tissues. Multi-tissue eQTLs are identified through a local false discovery rate approach, which rigorously controls the false discovery rate. Using simulation and GTEx real data studies, we show that the proposed method has superior performance to existing methods in terms of computing time and the power of eQTL discovery. We provide a scalable method for eQTL analysis in a large number of tissues. The method enables the identification of eQTL with different configurations and facilitates the characterization of tissue specificity.
Exploring Relationships Between Writing & Broader Outcomes With Automated Writing Evaluation

Writing is a challenge, especially for at-risk students who may lack the prerequisite writing skills required to persist in U.S. 4-year postsecondary (college) institutions. Educators teaching postsecondary courses requiring writing could benefit from a better understanding of writing achievement and its role in postsecondary success. In this paper, novel exploratory work examined how automated writing evaluation (AWE) can inform our understanding of the relationship between postsecondary writing skill and broader success outcomes. An exploratory study was conducted using test-taker essays from a standardized writing assessment of postsecondary student learning outcomes. Findings showed that for the essays, AWE features were found to be predictors of broader outcomes measures: college success and learning outcomes measures. Study findings illustrate AWE’s potential to support educational analytics – i.e., relationships between writing skill and broader outcomes – taking a step toward moving AWE beyond writing assessment and instructional use cases.
PlinyCompute: A Platform for High-Performance, Distributed, Data-Intensive Tool Development

This paper describes PlinyCompute, a system for development of high-performance, data-intensive, distributed computing tools and libraries. \emphIn the large, PlinyCompute presents the programmer with a very high-level, declarative interface, relying on automatic, relational-database style optimization to figure out how to stage distributed computations. However, in the small, PlinyCompute presents the capable systems programmer with a persistent object data model and API (the "PC object model'') and associated memory management system that has been designed from the ground-up for high performance, distributed, data-intensive computing. This contrasts with most other Big Data systems, which are constructed on top of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and hence must at least partially cede performance-critical concerns such as memory management (including layout and de/allocation) and virtual method/function dispatch to the JVM. This hybrid approach---declarative in the large, trusting the programmer's ability to utilize PC object model efficiently in the small---results in a system that is ideal for the development of reusable, data-intensive tools and libraries.
Impaired muscle relaxation and mitochondrial fission associated with genetic ablation of cytoplasmic actin isoforms

While α-actin isoforms predominate in adult striated muscle, skeletal muscle-specific knockouts (KOs) of nonmuscle cytoplasmic βcyto - or γcyto -actin each cause a mild, but progressive myopathy effected by an unknown mechanism. Using transmission electron microscopy, we identified morphological abnormalities in both the mitochondria and the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) in aged muscle-specific βcyto - and γcyto -actin KO mice. We found βcyto - and γcyto -actin proteins to be enriched in isolated mitochondrial-associated membrane preparations, which represent the interface between mitochondria and sarco-endoplasmic reticulum important in signaling and mitochondrial dynamics. We also measured significantly elongated and interconnected mitochondrial morphologies associated with a significant decrease in mitochondrial fission events in primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts lacking βcyto - and/or γcyto -actin. Interestingly, mitochondrial respiration in muscle was not measurably affected as oxygen consumption was similar in skeletal muscle fibers from 12 month-old muscle-specific βcyto - and γcyto -actin KO mice. Instead, we found that the maximal rate of relaxation after isometric contraction was significantly slowed in muscles of 12-month-old βcyto - and γcyto -actin muscle-specific KO mice. Our data suggest that impaired Ca2+ re-uptake may presage development of the observed SR morphological changes in aged mice while providing a potential pathological mechanism for the observed myopathy.
Monoclonal gammopathies: Electronic subspecialty consultation.

IMPORTANCE Electronic consultation (e-consult) is an important component of care for patients in the Veterans Health Administration who require subspecialty consultation but not urgent face-to-face evaluation. Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is a common reason for e-consult. While often benign, MGUS requires careful evaluation and persistent surveillance over time. OBJECTIVE To identify areas to improve MGUS care delivery by e-consult. METHODS We performed a retrospective review of our e-consult database and identified a cohort of 152 MGUS patients triaged for e-consult over a 5-year period (2010-2014). RESULTS The median time to completion of an e-consult was 2 days. Ninety-six percent of MGUS e-consults had a hemoglobin >10 g/dL, and 90% had a creatinine <2 mg/dL. While the majority of e-consults were low risk, paraprotein surveillance varied over time and tracked with consult utilization. With a median follow-up of 44 months, there were 6 documented progression events, representing a mean rate of progression of 1% per year. CONCLUSIONS E-consult is a helpful mechanism for the evaluation of MGUS, reducing the need for outpatient appointments. However, timely risk stratification and persistent surveillance over time are critical for e-consult to work well.
Exotic superconductivity with enhanced energy scales in materials with three band crossings

Three band crossings can arise in three-dimensional quantum materials with certain space group symmetries. The low energy Hamiltonian supports spin one fermions and a flat band. We study the pairing problem in this setting. We write down a minimal BCS Hamiltonian and decompose it into spin-orbit coupled irreducible pairing channels. We then solve the resulting gap equations in channels with zero total angular momentum. We find that in the s-wave spin singlet channel (and also in an unusual d-wave `spin quintet' channel), superconductivity is enormously enhanced, with a possibility for the critical temperature to be linear in interaction strength. Meanwhile, in the p-wave spin triplet channel, the superconductivity exhibits features of conventional BCS theory due to the absence of flat band pairing. Three band crossings thus represent an exciting new platform for realizing exotic superconducting states with enhanced energy scales. We also discuss the effects of doping, nonzero temperature, and of retaining additional terms in the $\mathbf{k}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathbf{p}$ expansion of the Hamiltonian.
Structural Basis for Transcript Elongation Control by NusG Family Universal Regulators

Summary NusG/RfaH/Spt5 transcription elongation factors are the only transcription regulators conserved across all life. Bacterial NusG regulates RNA polymerase (RNAP) elongation complexes (ECs) across most genes, enhancing elongation by suppressing RNAP backtracking and coordinating ρ-dependent termination and translation. The NusG paralog RfaH engages the EC only at operon polarity suppressor (ops) sites and suppresses both backtrack and hairpin-stabilized pausing. We used single-particle cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine structures of ECs at ops with NusG or RfaH. Both factors chaperone base-pairing of the upstream duplex DNA to suppress backtracking, explaining stimulation of elongation genome-wide. The RfaH-opsEC structure reveals how RfaH confers operon specificity through specific recognition of an ops hairpin in the single-stranded nontemplate DNA and tighter binding to the EC to exclude NusG. Tight EC binding by RfaH sterically blocks the swiveled RNAP conformation necessary for hairpin-stabilized pausing. The universal conservation of NusG/RfaH/Spt5 suggests that the molecular mechanisms uncovered here are widespread.
Random Node Pair Sampling-Based Estimation of Average Path Lengths in Networks

This article describes how the average path length APL of a network is an important metric that provides insights on the interconnectivity in a network and how much time and effort would be require...
A dissipatively stabilized Mott insulator of photons.

Superconducting circuits are a competitive platform for quantum computation because they offer controllability, long coherence times and strong interactions—properties that are essential for the study of quantum materials comprising microwave photons. However, intrinsic photon losses in these circuits hinder the realization of quantum many-body phases. Here we use superconducting circuits to explore strongly correlated quantum matter by building a Bose–Hubbard lattice for photons in the strongly interacting regime. We develop a versatile method for dissipative preparation of incompressible many-body phases through reservoir engineering and apply it to our system to stabilize a Mott insulator of photons against losses. Site- and time-resolved readout of the lattice allows us to investigate the microscopic details of the thermalization process through the dynamics of defect propagation and removal in the Mott phase. Our experiments demonstrate the power of superconducting circuits for studying strongly correlated matter in both coherent and engineered dissipative settings. In conjunction with recently demonstrated superconducting microwave Chern insulators, we expect that our approach will enable the exploration of topologically ordered phases of matter. Engineered dissipation is used to stabilize a Mott-insulator phase of photons trapped in a superconducting circuit, providing insights into thermalization processes in strongly correlated quantum matter.
HOPS-dependent endosomal fusion required for efficient cytosolic delivery of therapeutic peptides and small proteins.

Protein therapeutics represent a significant and growing component of the modern pharmacopeia, but their potential to treat human disease is limited because most proteins fail to traffic across biological membranes. Recently, we discovered a class of cell-permeant miniature proteins (CPMPs) containing a precisely defined, penta-arginine (penta-Arg) motif that traffics readily to the cytosol and nucleus of mammalian cells with efficiencies that rival those of hydrocarbon-stapled peptides active in animals and man. Like many cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), CPMPs enter the endocytic pathway; the difference is that CPMPs containing a penta-Arg motif are released efficiently from endosomes, while other CPPs are not. Here, we seek to understand how CPMPs traffic from endosomes into the cytosol and what factors contribute to the efficiency of endosomal release. First, using two complementary cell-based assays, we exclude endosomal rupture as the primary means of endosomal escape. Next, using an RNA interference screen, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and confocal imaging, we identify VPS39—a gene encoding a subunit of the homotypic fusion and protein-sorting (HOPS) complex—as a critical determinant in the trafficking of CPMPs and hydrocarbon-stapled peptides to the cytosol. Although CPMPs neither inhibit nor activate HOPS function, HOPS activity is essential to efficiently deliver CPMPs to the cytosol. CPMPs localize within the lumen of Rab7+ and Lamp1+ endosomes and their transport requires HOPS activity. Overall, our results identify Lamp1+ late endosomes and lysosomes as portals for passing proteins into the cytosol and suggest that this environment is prerequisite for endosomal escape.
Vulnerability and policy responses in the face of natural resource discoveries and climate change: introduction

This special issue contributes to the natural resource economics literature by shining a light on the specific challenges and opportunities faced by developing countries that have recently become dependent on natural resources or are particularly exposed to climate change. It is composed of five studies on countries from all regions of the developing world, involving a variety of natural resources and policy issues. Four of the five studies illustrate how computable general equilibrium models are particularly well-suited, despite their relatively limited past use, to the analysis of natural resources. All five studies are led by researchers based in these countries, providing unique insights into the specific local context. The studies underscore the extreme vulnerability that the introduction of significant natural resource revenues and climate change can create in developing countries. They also show how the choice of appropriate policies to avoid the resource curse varies according to country-specific economic conditions.
Diffusiophoresis of a charged drop

Diffusiophoresis describes the motion of colloids in an electrolyte or non-electrolyte solution where there is a concentration gradient. While most of the studies of diffusiophoresis focus on the motion of solid particles, soft objects such as drops and bubbles are also known to experience diffusiophoresis. Here, we investigate the diffusiophoresis of charged drops in an electrolyte solution both analytically and experimentally. The drop is assumed to remain spherical. An analytical solution of the diffusiophoretic velocity of drops is obtained by perturbation methods. We find that the flow inside the drop is driven by the tangential electric stress at the interface and it directly influences the diffusiophoretic speed of the drop. Using charged oil droplets, we measure the drop speed under solute concentration gradients and find good agreement with the analytical solution. Our findings have potential applications for oil recovery and drug delivery.
Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

In this article, I jointly investigate the political and the economic effects of immigration, and study the causes of anti-immigrant sentiments. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to U.S. cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s, and instrument immigrants’ location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. I find that immigration triggered hostile political reactions, such as the election of more conservative legislators, higher support for anti-immigration legislation, and lower redistribution. Exploring the causes of natives’ backlash, I document that immigration increased natives’ employment, spurred industrial production, and did not generate losses even among natives working in highly exposed sectors. These findings suggest that opposition to immigration was unlikely to have economic roots. Instead, I provide evidence that natives’ political discontent was increasing in the cultural differences between immigrants and natives. Results in this article indicate that, even when diversity is economically beneficial, it may nonetheless be socially hard to manage.
Automated Distributed Electric Vehicle Controller for Residential Demand Side Management

Electric vehicles (EVs) are recently gaining traction in the power sector due to various challenges and opportunities they provide to utility operators. For electric utilities that incorporate demand side management (DSM) programs, EVs could become either a burden or an advantage depending on their charging control strategy and the signaling of the DSM program. This paper proposes a decentralized fuzzy-based controller to successfully integrate and coordinate the charging of EVs that ensures fair charging of EVs at different point of connections (POCs) in the distribution grid where voltage conditions might not be the same. The controller operates in an autonomous mode that reduces the monetary cost of the communication overhead and preserves bandwidth. The proposed controller takes into consideration the owner requirements in terms of energy needed and time to charge, the voltage at the POC with the grid, and the pricing signal coming from the utility. The controller is tested under different DSM programs that exist in the literature. This paper also proposes a new DSM program that is capable of benefiting from EVs as prosumers that can provide grid services. The controller's performance was validated through MATLAB simulations that showed the controller's ability to successfully coordinate the charging of EVs in a fair manner and achieve flat system peaks without any rebound effect. The controller was also successfully tested in the presence of voltage control units, such as capacitor banks, and in the presence of distributed generations.
Development and validation of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for detection and quantification of flunisolide in tissue culture medium.

A robust, sensitive, and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method capable of quantifying flunisolide in the tissue culture matrix was developed and validated. Both flunisolide and dexamethasone (internal standard) were extracted from tissue culture medium, with 5% fetal bovine serum, 1% nonessential amino acids, and 1% penicillin/streptomycin by simple liquid-liquid extraction. The analytes were chromatographically separated (10 ng/mL for flunisolide) using a C8 column (4.6 mm × 150 mm; 5 µm particle size). The mobile phase was comprised of methanol:water (80:20 v/v). The analytes were separated at baseline within 2.5 min. using a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Mass spectrometry detection was carried out in negative atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mode. The calibration curves for the analyte were linear over the range of 10-200 ng/mL (R2 ≥ 0.9968, n = 6). The inter and intra-batch mean percent accuracy ranged within 97.7-110.6% and the precision range was 3.5-10.4% (% coefficient of variation ≤ 15%). Stability studies revealed that the analyte was stable in the matrix for at least six hours at room temperature and at the end of three successive freeze and thaw cycles. The method reported here is specific for flunisolide quantification was also used in monolayer efflux assay using CaCo2 cell lines, which will eventually aid P-glycoprotein transport studies for flunisolide.
Spatial Variable Selection and An Application to Virginia Lyme Disease Emergence

Lyme disease is an infectious disease, that is, caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. In the United States, Lyme disease is one of the most common infectious diseases. Th...
A q -analogue for Euler’s evaluations of the Riemann zeta function

We provide a q-analogue of Euler’s formula for $$\zeta (2k)$$ for $$k\in {\mathbb {Z}}^+$$ . The result generalizes a recent result of Sun who obtained q-analogues of $$\zeta (2)=\pi ^2/6$$ and $$\zeta (4)=\pi ^4/90$$ . This also extends an earlier result of the present author who obtained a q-analogue of $$\zeta (6)=\pi ^6/945$$ .
Automatic Event Salience Identification

Identifying the salience (i.e. importance) of discourse units is an important task in language understanding. While events play important roles in text documents, little research exists on analyzing their saliency status. This paper empirically studies Event Salience and proposes two salience detection models based on discourse relations. The first is a feature based salience model that incorporates cohesion among discourse units. The second is a neural model that captures more complex interactions between discourse units. In our new large-scale event salience corpus, both methods significantly outperform the strong frequency baseline, while our neural model further improves the feature based one by a large margin. Our analyses demonstrate that our neural model captures interesting connections between salience and discourse unit relations (e.g., scripts and frame structures).
Data Lakes, Clouds, and Commons: A Review of Platforms for Analyzing and Sharing Genomic Data

Data commons collate data with cloud computing infrastructure and commonly used software services, tools, and applications to create biomedical resources for the large-scale management, analysis, harmonization, and sharing of biomedical data. Over the past few years, data commons have been used to analyze, harmonize, and share large-scale genomics datasets. Data ecosystems can be built by interoperating multiple data commons. It can be quite labor intensive to curate, import, and analyze the data in a data commons. Data lakes provide an alternative to data commons and simply provide access to data, with the data curation and analysis deferred until later and delegated to those that access the data. We review software platforms for managing, analyzing, and sharing genomic data, with an emphasis on data commons, but also cover data ecosystems and data lakes.
External Force Field Modeling for Autonomous Surface Vehicles

Operating in the presence of strong adverse forces is a particularly challenging problem in field robotics. In most robotic operations where the robot is not firmly grounded, such as aerial, surface, and underwater, minimal external forces are assumed as the standard operating procedures. The first action for operating in the presence of non-trivial forces is modeling the forces and their effect on the robots motion. In this work an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV), operating on lakes and rivers with varying winds and currents, collects wind and current measurements with an inexpensive custom-made sensor suite setup, and generates a model of the force field. The modeling process takes into account depth, wind, and current measurements along with the ASVs trajectory from GPS. In this work, we propose a method for an ASV to build an environmental force map by integrating in a Gaussian Process the wind, depth, and current measurements gathered at the surface. We run extensive experimental field trials for our approach on real Jetyak ASVs. Experimental results from different locations validate the proposed modeling approach.
Assessing aerosol indirect effect on clouds and regional climate of East/South Asia and West Africa using NCEP GFS

Aerosols can act as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei, resulting in changes in cloud droplet/particle number/size, and hence altering the radiation budget. This study investigates the interactions between aerosols and ice clouds by incorporating the latest ice clouds parameterization in an atmospheric general circulation model. The simulation shows a decrease in effective ice cloud crystal size corresponding to aerosol increase, referred to as the aerosol first indirect effect, which has not been comprehensively studied. Ice clouds with smaller particles reflect more shortwave radiation and absorb more infrared radiation, resulting in radiation change by 0.5-1.0 W/m2 at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). The TOA radiation field is also influenced by cloud cover change due to aerosol-induced circulation change. Such aerosol effects on precipitation highly depend on the existence of a deep convection system: interactions between aerosols and ice clouds create dipole precipitation anomalies in the Asian monsoon regions; while in West Africa, enhanced convections are constrained by anticyclone effects at high levels and little precipitation increase is found. We also conduct an experiment to assess interactions between aerosols and liquid clouds and compare the climatic effects with that due to ice clouds. Radiation and temperature changes generated by liquid clouds are normally 1-2 times larger than those generated by ice clouds. The radiation change has a closer relationship to liquid cloud droplet size than liquid cloud cover, in contrast with what we find for ice clouds.
Fermi, Wind, and SOHO Observations of Sustained Gamma-Ray Emission from the Sun

We report on the linear relationship between the durations of two types of electromagnetic emissions associated with shocks driven by coronal mass ejections: sustained gamma-ray emission (SGRE) and interplanetary type II radio bursts. The relationship implies that shocks accelerate ~10 keV electrons (for type II bursts) and >300 MeV protons (for SGRE) roughly over the same duration. The SGRE events are from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi satellite, while the type II bursts are from the Radio and Plasma Wave Experiment (WAVES) on board the Wind spacecraft. Here we consider five SGRE events that were not included in a previous study of events with longer duration (>5 hours). The five events are selected by relaxing the minimum duration to 3 hours. We found that some SGRE events had a tail that seems to last until the end of the associated type II burst. We pay special attention to the 2011 June 2 SGRE event that did not have a large solar energetic particle event at Earth or at the STEREO spacecraft that was well connected to the eruption. We suggest that the preceding CME acted as a magnetic barrier that mirrored protons back to Sun.
Healthcare, Health, and Income

The medicalization model of poverty leads us to devote considerable resources to treating the healthcare problems caused by poverty while neglecting the root cause of those problems - the poverty itself. Treating symptoms rather than causes is far less effective than treating causes. When correctly understood, poverty is a major public health problem that needs to be addressed directly with effective anti-poverty programs. Only then can we properly serve the healthcare needs of the poor.
High-quality genome sequences of uncultured microbes by assembly of read clouds

Although shotgun metagenomic sequencing of microbiome samples enables partial reconstruction of strain-level community structure, obtaining high-quality microbial genome drafts without isolation and culture remains difficult. Here, we present an application of read clouds, short-read sequences tagged with long-range information, to microbiome samples. We present Athena, a de novo assembler that uses read clouds to improve metagenomic assemblies. We applied this approach to sequence stool samples from two healthy individuals and compared it with existing short-read and synthetic long-read metagenomic sequencing techniques. Read-cloud metagenomic sequencing and Athena assembly produced the most comprehensive individual genome drafts with high contiguity (>200-kb N50, fewer than ten contigs), even for bacteria with relatively low (20×) raw short-read-sequence coverage. We also sequenced a complex marine-sediment sample and generated 24 intermediate-quality genome drafts (>70% complete, 90% complete, <5% contaminated). Our approach allows for culture-free generation of high-quality microbial genome drafts by using a single shotgun experiment.
Evaluating prose style transfer with the Bible

In the prose style transfer task a system, provided with text input and a target prose style, produces output which preserves the meaning of the input text but alters the style. These systems require parallel data for evaluation of results and usually make use of parallel data for training. Currently, there are few publicly available corpora for this task. In this work, we identify a high-quality source of aligned, stylistically distinct text in different versions of the Bible. We provide a standardized split, into training, development and testing data, of the public domain versions in our corpus. This corpus is highly parallel since many Bible versions are included. Sentences are aligned due to the presence of chapter and verse numbers within all versions of the text. In addition to the corpus, we present the results, as measured by the BLEU and PINC metrics, of several models trained on our data which can serve as baselines for future research. While we present these data as a style transfer corpus, we believe that it is of unmatched quality and may be useful for other natural language tasks as well.
The value of mHealth for managing chronic conditions

Chronic conditions place a high cost burden on the healthcare system and deplete the quality of life for millions of Americans. Digital innovations such as mobile health (mHealth) technology can be used to provide efficient and effective healthcare. In this research we explore the use of mobile technology to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. There is ample empirical evidence in the healthcare literature showing that patients who use mHealth observe improvement in their health. However, an analytical study that quantifies the benefit of using mHealth is lacking. The benefit of using mHealth depends on many factors such as the current health condition of the patient, pattern of disease progression, frequency of measurement and intervention, the effectiveness of intervention, and the cost of measuring. Stochastic modeling is a suitable approach to take these factors into consideration to evaluate the benefit of mHealth. In this paper, we model the disease progression with the help of a Markov chain and quantify the benefits of measuring and intervention taking into consideration the above-mentioned factors. We compare two different modes for measuring and intervention, mHealth mode and conventional office visit mode, and evaluate the impact of these factors on health outcome.
The Properties of the Solar Corona and Its Connection to the Solar Wind

The corona is a layer of hot plasma that surrounds the Sun, traces out its complex magnetic field, and ultimately expands into interplanetary space as the supersonic solar wind. Although much has b...
World Health Organization (WHO)/International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) grading in fine-needle aspiration biopsies of renal masses.

Background Utilization of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy for the evaluation of renal masses has been increasing at our institution. At times diagnostic material on direct smears is superior to that in the cell block/core biopsy, therefore assigning an accurate nuclear grade in the cytopathology report would provide useful prognostic information. Methods Search of the pathology database identified renal FNAs performed during an 11-year period (2006-2017). Corresponding core biopsies and resections were identified. Cases with a diagnosis of primary renal neoplasia on FNA, core biopsy, and/or resection were included. Two pathologists reviewed all cases and assigned a World Health Organization (WHO)/International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) grade to each FNA, core biopsy, and resection case. Results A total of 162 kidney FNAs were identified. Primary renal neoplasia was diagnosed in 137 cases on core biopsy/resection. Among diagnostic FNAs of clear cell RCC and papillary RCC with core biopsy/resection specimens for re-review (n = 52), reviewers assigned a concordant WHO/ISUP grade to 83% (43/52) of cases. Among 9 cases with discrepant scores, all had a discrepancy of 1 grade and were undergraded on FNA. Using a two tier grading system (low vs. high grade), reviewers assigned a concordant grade to 88% (46/52) of cases. Among 6 cases with discrepant scores, all were classified as low grade (WHO/ISUP grade 2) on FNA versus high grade (WHO/ISUP grade 3) on resection. Conclusion The WHO/ISUP grade assigned on FNA shows good concordance with subsequent resection/core specimens (83%), with all discrepant cases being undergraded by one grade.
TFP, News, and "Sentiments:" The International Transmission of Business Cycles

We propose a novel identification scheme for a non-technology business cycle shock, that we label "sentiment." This is a shock orthogonal to identified surprise and news TFP shocks that maximizes the short-run forecast error variance of an expectational variable, alternatively a GDP forecast or a consumer confidence index. We then estimate the international transmission of three identified shocks – surprise TFP, news of future TFP, and "sentiment" – from the US to Canada. The US sentiment shock produces a business cycle in the US, with output, hours, and consumption rising following a positive shock, and accounts for the bulk of short-run business cycle fluctuations in the US. The sentiment shock also has a significant impact on Canadian macro aggregates. In the short run, it is more important than either the surprise or the news TFP shocks in generating business cycle comovement between the US and Canada, accounting for up to 50% of the forecast error variance of Canadian GDP and about one-third of Canadian hours, imports, and exports. The news shock is responsible for some comovement at 5-10 years, and surprise TFP innovations do not generate synchronization.
A comprehensive computational study of adatom diffusion on the aluminum (1 0 0) surface

Abstract The complexity of adatom diffusion on the Al (1 0 0) surface is reflected by the existence of several low-energy non-trivial atomic exchange or vacancy formation mechanisms involving concerted motion of several (3–7) atoms. Interestingly, these mechanisms have energy barriers lower than or comparable to that of the simple (and intuitive) hopping mechanism commonly observed on other surface facets. While prior studies mainly used classical potentials to understand diffusion processes active on Al (1 0 0) surface, here we use accurate (and expensive) density functional theory (DFT) computations to estimate barriers associated with nine low-energy and non-trivial adatom diffusion mechanisms. We find that there exist several exchange mechanisms with energy barriers less than or equal to that of the trivial hop mechanism. Furthermore, several of the atomic exchange mechanisms have barriers within 0.2 eV of that of the simple hop, thereby highlighting mechanisms that can be relevant during surface/crystal growth. Our results paint a highly complex picture of the diffusion landscape on Al (1 0 0) and provide insights into how such mechanisms may contribute toward large length- and time-scale surface phenomena. The results presented in this work may also have implications for other fcc metals. Further, we show that some of the commonly used interatomic potentials fail to accurately capture the details of adatom diffusion on Al (1 0 0). The presented benchmark DFT dataset can thus be utilized to parameterize/retrain such potentials.
Dose reductions in ibrutinib therapy are not associated with inferior outcomes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

AbstractIbrutinib is a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor that has shown remarkable efficacy in the treatment of CLL. Current guidelines recommend lifelong administration at a fixed daily dose...
Firm internal network, environmental regulation, and plant death

Abstract This article examines the role of a firm’s internal network in determining plant shutdown decisions in response to environmental regulations. Using unique plant-level data for U.S. manufacturing industries from 1990 to 2007, we find evidence that, in response to increasingly stringent environmental regulations at the county level, multi-plant firms do exercise their greater flexibility in adjusting production, relative to single-plant firms. Specifically, in regulated counties, the likelihood of a plant shutting down is higher for multi-plant firms. Moreover, we measure the firm internal network effect at the local, neighborhood, and the wider-area levels, as defined by the number of affiliated plants clustered in different regional levels. Their effects on plant closure decisions for dirty subsidiaries vary with the network level. We further decompose the neighborhood network into those in regulated and unregulated neighborhood counties, and examine how these network metrics are associated with closure decisions of dirty plants affiliated with multi-plant firms. The presence of more sibling plants residing in neighboring counties that are free from regulatory controls are associated with a higher closure probability of dirty plants in a regulated county.
Multimodality in Aerodynamic Wing Design Optimization

The application of gradient-based optimization to wing design could potentially reveal revolutionary new wing concepts. Giving the optimizer the freedom to discover novel wing designs may increase ...
Improved synthesis of β-ketoenamine-linked covalent organic frameworks via monomer exchange reactions

β-Ketoenamine-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs) offer excellent structural versatility and outstanding aqueous stability, but their stability complicates obtaining samples with high crystallinity and surface areas. In contrast, imine-linked COFs are often isolated with superior materials quality. Here we synthesize several β-ketoenamine-linked COFs, including two unreported structures, with unmatched crystallinity and high surface areas by preparing the corresponding imine-linked COF and exchanging its triformylbenzene monomers with triformylphloroglucinol.
Tainted portfolios: How impairment accounting rules restrict security sales

Contrary to claims that fair value accounting exacerbated banks’ securities sales during the recent financial crisis, we present evidence that suggests – if anything – that the current impairment accounting rules served as a deterrent to selling. Specifically, because banks must provide evidence of their “intent and ability” to hold securities with unrealized losses, there are strong incentives to reduce, rather than increase, security sales when market values decline to avoid “tainting” their remaining securities portfolio. Validating this concern, we find that banks incur greater other-than-temporary impairment (OTTI) charges when they sell more securities. We then find that banks sell fewer securities when their security portfolios have larger unrealized losses (and thus larger potential impairment charges), and these results are concentrated in banks with homogenous securities portfolios, expert auditors, more experienced managers, and greater regulatory capital slack. Overall, our results suggest that – contrary to critics’ claims – the accounting rules appear to have reduced banks’ propensity to sell their securities during the financial crisis.
Buyer Uncertainty About Seller Capacity: Causes, Consequences, and a Partial Solution

Employers in an online labor market often pursue workers with little capacity to take on more work. The pursuit of low-capacity workers is consequential, as these workers are more likely to reject ...
Embodiment in Socially Interactive Robots

Socially interactive robots provide entertainment, information, and/or assistance; this last category is typically encompassed by socially assistive robotics. In all cases, such robots can achieve their primary functions without performing functional physical work. This monograph reviews the existing work that explores the role of physical embodiment in socially interactive robots. This class consists of robots that are not only capable of engaging in social interaction with humans, but are using primarily their social capabilities to perform their desired functions. This monograph explores the embodiment hypothesis that physical embodiment has a measurable effect on performance and perception of social interactions in socially interactive robotics. It presents a thorough review of existing work and analyzes existing results and approaches to embodiment to determine the current state of the embodiment hypothesis. This monograph is a comprehensive and in depth overview of embodiment in socially interactive robots that is a starting point for researchers and students beginning their own research in the area.
Chapter 2 – Discretization of the Domain

This chapter presents the details of discretization or modeling methods used to represent a continuous region or body using a finite number of smaller pieces or elements. The considerations in selecting the shape, size, number, and configurations (or orientations) of the elements are explained. Bar and beam elements for one-dimensional problems; triangle, rectangle, and quadrilateral elements for two-dimensional problems; tetrahedron, hexahedron, and rectangular prism elements for three-dimensional problems; and curved bar, curve-sided triangle, curved-faced tetrahedron, curve-faced hexahedron, axisymmetric triangular ring element, and curved shell elements for modeling curved domains are shown along with their use in practical engineering problems. The discretization process that involves selection of type, size, and number of elements to be used; location of nodes; and node numbering schemes are presented. Finite representation of infinite bodies, node numbering schemes to reduce the bandwidth of the resulting matrices, and automatic mesh generation methods are also discussed.