cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Key Resources for Community College Student Success Programming

This chapter provides an overview of organizations and other entities focused on assisting community college staff, faculty, and administrators in developing and promoting student success outcomes. We provide a listing of relevant web resources related to programming and conclude with a summary of suggested readings.
THE EMBRYOLOGY AND EPIDEMIOLOGY OF BLADDER EXSTROPHY

In 1987, the International Clearing House for Birth Defects estimated that classic bladder exstrophy occurred at a rate of 1 in 30,000 live births.1 In a more recent study published in 1994, the University of Pittsburgh estimated classic bladder exstrophy to occur once in 25,000 live births in the Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. areas.2 The University Hospital in Lund, Sweden recently cited an incidence of 1 in 33,500 live births.3
A review of implicit and explicit substance self-concept as a predictor of alcohol and tobacco use and misuse

ABSTRACTBackground: This paper provides an overview of the self-concept as it relates to substance use. Self-concept has a long history in psychological theory and research; however, substance self-concept (e.g., viewing one’s self as a drinker or smoker) is an understudied area of research with the potential to expand existing conceptualizations of substance use, addiction, and prevention and treatment efforts, and should receive greater research attention. Objectives: First, we review and provide a theoretical framework of substance self-concept that draws from dual process models and distinguishes between implicit and explicit self-concept. Next, we summarize key findings related to substance use in the extant literature, focusing on alcohol and tobacco (smoking). Results: Across both substances, there is converging evidence that substance self-concept is associated with substance use outcomes, including quantity and frequency of use and problems associated with use, and that change in substance self-c...
Global Disparities in Surgical Care

Five billion people do not have access to safe, quality, timely, and affordable surgical care. The field of global surgery has made great progress to increase awareness surrounding global disparities in surgical care and the global burden secondary to surgical diseases. However, much work remains to be done in actually providing access to safe surgical care around the world. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) suffer the majority of this burden. Only 6% of the surgical operations performed annually occur in these countries, which make up over 30% of the world’s population. In 2015, the long-standing efforts of countless organizations and global initiatives were rewarded as the World Health Assembly (WHA) formally recognized the role of emergency and essential surgical care and anesthesia as part of universal health coverage. As enthusiasm and support for the field continue to grow, the global surgery community is uniting behind the common goal of providing universal surgical care to those in need, regardless of the obstacles and challenges that stand in the way.
Decade-scale oceanographic fluctuation in Monterey Bay, California, 1989–2011

Abstract Monterey Bay, California, has been sampled by ship at 2–3 week intervals during 1989–2011. Here we present the resulting time series of temperature, salinity, nitrate, chlorophyll and primary production over the 23-year record and correlate the nonseasonal anomalies and four Pacific Basin-scale climate indices. About half of Monterey Bay variability was captured by the seasonal cycle while half remained in the anomalies. Correlations revealed strong associations between temperature, salinity and nitrate, and weaker correlations between these anomalies and euphotic zone-integrated chlorophyll and primary production. Sub-euphotic zone physical and particularly nitrate anomalies were better predictors of the euphotic zone biological variables than were their surface anomalies. The strongest correlations between temperature, salinity and nitrate anomalies occurred in spring and summer (e.g. during upwelling). Conversely, spring and summer nitrate were less well correlated with the biological variables than during the remaining months due to nonlinearity in the biological response. Lagged cross-correlations generally showed decreasing correlation with increasing lag (0–12 months). The Monterey Bay anomalies were then correlated with four Pacific Basin-scale climate indices --- the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the El Nino Modoki Index (EMI), and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO). Temperature, salinity and nitrate were well-correlated to the indices (accounted for 20–25% of the variance) whereas chlorophyll and primary production were weakly- and often insignificantly-correlated with the indices (accounted for 4–10% of the variance). The MEI was most strongly and the EMI least strongly (usually insignificantly) correlated with the anomalies. Most indices were also significantly cross-correlated over the observation period. Seasonally, the MEI produced strong winter and weaker summer associations with temperature, salinity and nitrate, and weak negative correlations with the biological anomalies all year. The PDO showed similar but weaker associations. The EMI correlations were weak but revealed seasonal cycles similar in phasing to those of the MEI. The NPGO exhibited positive relationships with salinity, nitrate and the biological anomalies, all peaking in summer and fall, and a weak negative association with temperature. Index-leads-anomaly correlations did not generally strengthen with lag (0–12 months). All the anomalies exhibited trends, with temperature decreasing and salinity, nitrate and the biological anomalies increasing. Except for 200 m temperature, these trends were significant and substantial, with surface nitrate and euphotic-zone integrated chlorophyll and primary production increasing 1.69 uM, 7.27 mg m −2 and 510 mgC m −2 d −1 per decade, respectively. These Monterey Bay trends are consistent with other California Current results and Pacific Basin index trends over the same period, indicating that Monterey Bay fluctuates with the California Current and North Pacific Basin.
Behavior Control and Public Concern

The behavior control exercised by one person over another is becoming increasingly recognized. The present paper deals with some of the concerns typically expressed in regard to this issue. It is suggested that although there are realistic reasons for concern this can not deter mankind from controlling one another. Debate concerning the morality of behavior control should therefore be replaced with experimentation designed to better determine the behaviors necessary for approximating a more reinforcing survival for all. It is concluded that controlled human behavior is an existing fact which can not be altered and individuals concerned with personal freedom should at least consider that perhaps the only meaningful form of behavioral freedom must be based on a knowledge of the factors which, indeed, control us.
The ManageMed Screening: An Interdisciplinary Tool for Quickly Assessing Medication Management Skills

Proper management of one's own medications can be a crucial skill for maintaining independent living, perhaps especially for elderly persons who tend to take many medications and have multifaceted ...
Fosaprepitant for the Management of Refractory Pain in a Patient with Cancer-Related Dermatomyositis

Abstract Objective: Optimal pain management often requires multiple pharmacological interventions with the goal of disrupting the pain-signaling pathway and targeting the underlying pathophysiology. Off label use of nonpain medications may have a role in treating refractory pain syndromes. Background: We report a case of a 60-year-old female with refractory nociceptive and neuropathic pain. Conventional therapies were either ineffective or fraught with side effects. Given the underlying inflammatory nature of her pain syndrome, and the role of substance P (SP) in pain transmission and modulation, we decided to use fosaprepitant, an SP and neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor antagonist. The patient tolerated fosaprepitant and experienced acceptable analgesia without compromising her mental functioning. Design: Study and analysis of a case of a patient with refractory mixed, nociceptive, and neuropathic pain syndrome treated with fosaprepitant. Results and Discussion: Fosaprepitant is a potentially novel adjuvant t...
Endoscopic versus open great saphenous vein harvesting for femoral to popliteal artery bypass

Abstract Objective Conflicting data exist on outcomes of open vein harvest (OVH) and endoscopic vein harvest (EVH) for infrainguinal bypass. The purpose of this study was to compare outcomes between OVH and EVH in femoral to popliteal artery bypasses. Methods A retrospective review was performed of all patients undergoing common femoral to popliteal artery bypass with great saphenous vein between January 1997 and June 2014. Bypasses using arm or composite vein were excluded, as were those performed for popliteal artery aneurysms or trauma. Harvest was typically performed by dedicated surgical assistants. Patients were analyzed by either OVH or EVH of vein. The primary outcome was primary patency. Secondary outcomes included assisted primary and secondary patency and major wound complications. Statistical analysis was performed for categorical and continuous variables with life-table and survival statistics for long-term outcomes. Results In the study time, 505 patients underwent femoral-popliteal bypass; 262 patients and 280 limbs met the inclusion criteria. OVH was performed on 194 (69%) limbs and EVH on 86 (31%). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of demographics, comorbidities, and preoperative Rutherford classification. Mean follow-up was 34 months. Six of 13 operators (46%) used both harvest techniques. At 5 years, OVH demonstrated higher rates of primary patency compared with EVH (62.8% vs 47%; P = .006) and higher rates of assisted primary patency (81.2% vs 64.3%; P = .003). Secondary patency was not significantly different between groups. The average number of graft interventions was less frequent with EVH, although this trend was not statistically significant (0.1 OVH vs 0.3 EVH; P = .1). EVH also had a lower rate of major wound complications per limb (n = 16; 8% OVH vs 0% EVH; P = .004). Conclusions OVH was associated with superior primary and assisted primary patencies compared with EVH at 5 years, yet OVH was associated with higher wound complications. Surgeons should weigh the risk of wound complications vs decreased primary and primary assisted patency when deciding which method to use for vein harvest.
Early predictors of weight loss in a 1‐year behavioural weight‐loss programme

Objective Identifying early predictors of weight loss is key for developing personalized treatment. However, few individual factors have been identified that predict weight loss during intervention, other than early weight loss itself. Methods Women with overweight or obesity (n = 186, mean ± SD age 50.0 ± 10.6 years, body mass index 34.0 ± 4.2 kg m-2) participated in the Portion-Control Strategies Trial, a 1-year randomized controlled weight-loss trial with three intervention groups. Early changes in eating behaviours and psychological factors were evaluated by questionnaires at baseline and Month 1. The influence of these early changes on the trajectory of weight loss from baseline to Months 3 and 12 was assessed by random coefficients models. Results Although there were no differences in weight loss between intervention groups at the end of the trial, certain individual factors were shown to predict both early weight loss at Month 3 and longer-term weight loss at Month 12. Across all participants, increases in dietary restraint and healthy lifestyle ratings in the first month predicted more rapid weight loss from baseline to Month 3 (P < 0.05) and also predicted more rapid weight loss and slower regain from baseline to Month 12 (both P < 0.01). Early attendance and changes in disinhibition were not associated with subsequent weight loss. Conclusions Changes in psychological and behavioural measures, such as restraint, in the first month of weight loss intervention predicted longer-term weight loss in women. Early additional support or tailored treatment could promote long-term success by reinforcing these behaviours.
Security Vulnerability and Patch Management in Electric Utilities: A Data-Driven Analysis

This paper explores a real security vulnerability and patch management dataset from an electric utility in order to shed light on characteristics of the vulnerabilities that electric utility assets have and how they are remediated in practice. Specifically, it first analyzes the distribution of vulnerabilities over software, assets, and other metric. Then it analyzes how vulnerability features affect remediate actions.
Efficient Rate-distortion Approximation and Transform Type Selection using Laplacian Operators

Rate-distortion (RD) optimization is an important tool in many video compression standards and can be used for transform selection. However, this is typically very computationally demanding because a full RD search involves the computation of transform co-efficients for each candidate transform. In this paper, we propose an approach that uses sparse Laplacian operators to estimate the RD cost by computing a weighted squared sum of transform coefficients, without having to compute the actual transform coefficients. We demonstrate experimentally how our method can be applied for transform selection. Implemented in the AV1 encoder, our approach yields a significant speed-up in encoding time with a small increase in bitrate.
Endocrine Effects of Simulated Complete and Partial Aortic Occlusion in a Swine Model of Hemorrhagic Shock.

Introduction Low distal aortic flow via partial aortic occlusion (AO) may mitigate ischemia induced by resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA). We compared endocrine effects of a novel simulated partial AO strategy, endovascular variable aortic control (EVAC), with simulated REBOA in a swine model. Materials and methods Aortic flow in 20 swine was routed from the supraceliac aorta through an automated extracorporeal circuit. Following liver injury-induced hemorrhagic shock, animals were randomized to control (unregulated distal flow), simulated REBOA (no flow, complete AO), or simulated EVAC (distal flow of 100-300 mL/min after 20 minutes of complete AO). After 90 minutes, damage control surgery, resuscitation, and full flow restoration ensued. Critical care was continued for 4.5 hours or until death. Results Serum angiotensin II concentration was higher in the simulated EVAC (4,769 ± 624 pg/mL) than the simulated REBOA group (2649 ± 429) (p = 0.01) at 180 minutes. There was no detectable difference in serum renin [simulated REBOA: 231.3 (227.9-261.4) pg/mL; simulated EVAC: 294.1 (231.2-390.7) pg/mL; p = 0.27], aldosterone [simulated EVAC: 629 (454-1098), simulated REBOA: 777 (575-1079) pg/mL, p = 0.53], or cortisol (simulated EVAC: 141 ± 12, simulated REBOA: 127 ± 9 ng/mL, p = 0.34) concentrations between groups. Conclusions Simulated EVAC was associated with higher serum angiotensin II, which may have contributed to previously reported cardiovascular benefits. Future studies should evaluate the renal effects of EVAC and the concomitant therapeutic use of angiotensin II.
Research on Power Knowledge Model Based on Group Wisdom

This study described the plan of knowledge management and crowd innovation for Jiangsu electric company based on literature analysis on crowd innovation research and investigation of the company’s innovation state as well as its electric service. A knowledge management system was designed for all the experts in electric field, all the workers and the customers in order to achieve crowd innovation. This system was designed based on the consideration of innovation process, evaluation and motivation, and it is implemented with the Web 2.0 technology.
Goodwill, going concern, stocks and flows: A prescription for moral analysis

This paper projects the decision making dilemma faced by managers when assessing moral consequences associated with planning proposals. A case is made for viewing the results of moral behavior as a capital asset. Accepting the idea that moral business behavior proportionally influences the firm's goodwill value, the author advances the recommendation that current U.S. accounting practices become involved with determining the moral wellness of the firm. The suggestion is made that stocks and flows are useful concepts in the development of a financial information system that incorporates benefits associated with morally accepted behavior. As a necessary part of the going concern operational strategy, a case is made for the preservation and advancement of the firm's moral capital. Overall, the intent of this paper is to offer a proposal which links moral behavior with financial decision making.
Acceptance and Commitment Training for reducing inflexible behaviors in children with autism

Abstract Acceptance and Commitment Training has been employed to increase behavioral flexibility in only a handful of studies with children with autism. In the current study, we conducted a direct contingency functional analysis of the inflexible behavior of three children with autism and developed a function-based treatment. Upon finding that this intervention was either inefficient or ineffective, we conducted a secondary functional assessment of indirect (verbal) contingencies and employed a 4-h Acceptance and Commitment Training to decrease inflexible behaviors and increase manding for rule changes. All three children responded to the treatment, results maintained at follow up, and showed generality in the presence of siblings. Guidelines for the use of Acceptance and Commitment Training when treating behaviors slated for reduction are discussed.
Adapting Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports for Secure Juvenile Justice Settings: Improving Facility-Wide Behavior.

The popularity and success of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in public schools across the United States has led professionals to advocate for its implementation in secure juv...
A Skin Rejection Grading System for Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation in a Preclinical Large Animal Model.

Background.The Banff Criteria have been accepted as a system for grading histological rejection in graft skin in human vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA). Preclinical swine hindlimb transplantation models have an important role in translational studies in VCA. However, unified grading
AFM characterization of the interaction of PriA helicase with stalled DNA replication forks

ABSTRACT In bacteria, the restart of stalled DNA replication forks requires the PriA DNA helicase. PriA recognizes and remodels abandoned DNA replication forks performing the DNA unwinding in 3’ to 5’-direction and facilitates loading of the DnaB helicase onto the DNA to restart replication. The single stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) is typically present at the abandoned forks, but there is gap in the knowledge on the interaction between SSB and PriA protein. Here, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to visualize the interaction of PriA with DNA substrates in the absence or presence of SSB. Results show that in the absence of SSB, PriA binds preferentially to a fork substrate with a gap in the leading strand. Preferential binding occurs only on forked DNA structures as 5’- and 3’-tailed duplexes were bound equally well. Furthermore, in the absence of SSB, PriA bound exclusively to the fork regions of substrates. In contrast, fork bound SSB loads PriA onto the duplex DNA arms of forks. When the fork has a gap in the leading strand, PriA localizes to both the parental and lagging strand arms. When the gap is present in the lagging strand, PriA is loaded preferentially onto the leading strand arm of the fork. Remodeling of PriA requires a functional C-terminal domain of SSB.
Politics and trust in Ebola vaccine trials The case of Ghana.

Vaccine trials for infectious diseases take place in a milieu of trust in which scientists, regulatory institutions, and volunteers trust each other to play traditional roles. This milieu of trust emerges from a combination of preexisting linkages embedded in the local and national political context. Using the case of failed vaccine trials in Hohoe, Ghana, we explore this milieu of trust by employing the concept of tandems of trust and control, with a particular focus on the perceived characteristics of the disease and the linkages formed. An analysis of qualitative interviews collected in Hohoe following the West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016 shows that the trust/control nexus in vaccine trials precedes the implementation of those trials, while both the characteristics of Ebola and the political context shaped the formation and breakdown of relationships in the trial network.
Optimal conditions for pre-shearing thixotropic or aging soft materials

Pre-shearing is widely recognized as a necessary step to guarantee repeatability in rheological studies of thixotropic or aging soft materials. When one-directional pre-shear protocols are used, unrecovered elastic strain which leads to biased material states that are not always relaxed because of the build-up of structure during the relaxation process. We propose a way of guaranteeing unbiased material states by incorporating recovery steps, consisting of steps of strain opposing the initial direction of shearing, into any pre-shear protocol. Using such a multi-step pre-shear protocol, we show that it is possible to produce identical results from shearing in the positive and negative directions for the same magnitude of rate after pre-shearing. We further show how this idea of unbiased material states can be used to obtain unbiased results for other fundamental rheological experiments such as flow curves and frequency sweeps. By performing the new pre-shear protocol for every single measurement point of a flow curve or frequency sweep, it is possible to obtain data which is not affected by previous data collection, which leads to material responses with simple and clear shear histories.
Fast Disjunctive Candidate Generation Using Live Block Filtering

A lot of research has focused on the efficiency of search engine query processing, and in particular on disjunctive top-k queries that return the highest scoring k results that contain at least one of the query terms. Disjunctive top-k queries over simple ranking functions are commonly used to retrieve an initial set of candidate results that are then reranked by more complex, often machine-learned rankers. Many optimized top-k algorithms have been proposed, including MaxScore, WAND, BMW, and JASS. While the fastest methods achieve impressive results on top-10 and top-100 queries, they tend to become much slower for the larger k commonly used for candidate generation. In this paper, we focus on disjunctive top-k queries for larger k. We propose new algorithms that achieve much faster query processing for values of k up to thousands or tens of thousands. Our algorithms build on top of the live-block filtering approach of Dimopoulos et al, and exploit the SIMD capabilities of modern CPUs. We also perform a detailed experimental comparison of our methods with the fastest known approaches, and release a full model implementation of our methods and of the underlying live-block mechanism, which will allows others to design and experiment with additional methods under the live-block approach.
Crafting rhetorical precedent: the paradox of the LGBT asylum seeker in the Matter of Toboso-Alfonso

The 1990 Board of Immigration Appeals case, the Matter of Toboso-Alfonso, was the first to establish lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as eligible for asylum in the United State...
Macroscopic Description: Hydrodynamic Limit

By taking the moments of the kinetic equation, one can read off the system for observable macroscopic quantities—the density and momentum. However, the obtained macroscopic system of equations suffers from the classical lack of closure. The monokinetic dynamics resolves this problem resulting in the famous pressureless Euler alignment system (EAS). The goal of this chapter is to provide a rigorous derivation of the EAS from the kinetic description under a special scaling of a strong local alignment force.
New PTIN User Fee: IRS Announcement Despite Ongoing Remand Litigation

The IRS recently announced its intention to reimpose a practitioner tax identification number (PTIN) user fee for the 2020 tax season. The proposed regulation requires tax practitioners to pay $21 (plus a vendor fee) to obtain or renew their PTINs. The new fee is a marked reduction from the previous cost of $33, which itself had been a significant reduction from the original PTIN fee of $50 (plus the vendor fee). Despite the proposed reduction, however, the issue of what is a “reasonable” charge for the issuance or renewal of a PTIN is still currently before the D.C. District Court for resolution. Under the circumstances, it seems premature for the IRS to have unilaterally announced a new PTIN fee.
Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas in China: Science, Law and the Obdurate Party-State

The recent increase in scholarly and other professional interest in environmental policy in China is quite remarkable. It is almost as remarkable as the persistent inability of that literature, despite the generally high quality, impressive disciplinary range, and diverse national origins of the contributions, to settle on any clear or widely shared understanding of how environmental policy in China works, or why it works the way it does. The essay reviews recent important contributions to the literature.
FxRLS Algorithms Based Active Control of Impulsive Noise With Online Secondary Path Modeling

Active noise control algorithms undergo stability problems in the presence of impulsive noise. This paper investigates such algorithms with online secondary path modeling for impulsive noise and varying acoustic paths. The paper presents three methods for active noise control, along with improved online secondary path modeling. Firstly, the filtered x recursive least square algorithm is applied for both active noise control and online secondary path modeling. This method gave faster convergence, improved stability, and modeling accuracy as compared to existing ones. The filtered x recursive least square algorithm is not robust for abruptly changing acoustic paths. To overcome this problem another method that uses modified gain filtered x recursive least square algorithm for active noise control is presented. Furthermore, it is observed that modified gain filtered x recursive least square achieves the desired performance with overheads of increased complexity. Thus, a hybrid method is proposed which has less computational complexity than the rest methods with no compromise on active noise control system performance.
Eating Disorder Symptomatology Among Adolescents Presenting for Bariatric Surgery Candidacy: Examining Differences by Sex and Racial Minority Status

Research on adolescent bariatric surgery candidates is limited by insufficient inclusion of ethnic minorities and males, and lack of consideration of the full spectrum of disordered eating behaviors (i.e., restriction, compensatory behaviors [e.g., purging], overeating/binge eating behaviors). The current study investigated differences in the full range of disordered eating behaviors across sex and ethnicity among adolescents seeking bariatric surgery. Teaching hospital, United States. Data were collected using retrospective chart review of 79 adolescent bariatric surgery candidates (59% female, 46.8% Hispanic, MBMI = 50.2, SDBMI = 10.0, Mage = 17.3, SDage = 2.02) who had completed the self-reported Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5 at intake. Approximately 33% of study participants met self-reported criteria for an eating disorder, with 35% endorsing binge eating behaviors and 50% endorsing compensatory behaviors. Few differences in behavior frequencies were observed across sex or racial/ethnic status. Findings underscore the importance of assessing the full spectrum of disordered eating behaviors among adolescent bariatric surgery candidates.
Estimating the distribution of carotenoid coloration in skin and integumentary structures of birds and extinct dinosaurs.

Carotenoids are pigments responsible for most bright yellow, red, and orange hues in birds. Their distribution has been investigated in avian plumage, but the evolution of their expression in skin and other integumentary structures has not been approached in detail. Here, we investigate the expression of carotenoid-consistent coloration across tissue types in all extant, non-passerine species (n= 4,022) and archelosaur outgroups in a phylogenetic framework. We collect dietary data for a subset of birds and investigate how dietary carotenoid intake may relate to carotenoid expression in various tissues. We find that carotenoid-consistent expression in skin or non-plumage keratin has a 50 percent probability of being present in the most recent common ancestor of Archosauria. Skin expression has a similar probability at the base of the avian crown clade, but plumage expression is unambiguously absent in that ancestor and shows hundreds of independent gains within non-passerine neognaths, consistent with previous studies. Although our data do not support a strict sequence of tissue expression in non-passerine birds, we find support that expression of carotenoid-consistent color in non-plumage integument structures might evolve in a correlated manner and feathers are rarely the only region of expression. Taxa with diets high in carotenoid content also show expression in more body regions and tissue types. Our results may inform targeted assays for carotenoids in tissues other than feathers, and expectations of these pigments in non-avian dinosaurs. In extinct groups, bare-skin regions and the rhamphotheca, especially in species with diets rich in plants, may express these pigments, which are not expected in feathers or feather homologues. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The Impact Rating Agency Reputation on Local Government Bond Yields

Using a large data sample of 58,562 new municipal issues covering the period from 1984 to 2002, we examine whether the quality of advice provided by a financial advisor affects new issue interest costs. We find that higher-quality financial advisors are associated with statistically significant decreases in new issue yields. The effect of advisor quality on yields is more pronounced for revenue, negotiated, and opaque bond issues than for general obligation and competitively sold issues. However, issuers of revenue or negotiated bonds are more likely to choose a low-quality advisor.
MindMiner: A Mixed-Initiative Interface for Interactive Distance Metric Learning

We present MindMiner, a mixed-initiative interface for capturing subjective similarity measurements via a combination of new interaction techniques and machine learning algorithms. MindMiner collects qualitative, hard to express similarity measurements from users via active polling with uncertainty and example based visual constraint creation. MindMiner also formulates human prior knowledge into a set of inequalities and learns a quantitative similarity distance metric via convex optimization. In a 12-subject peer-review understanding task, we found MindMiner was easy to learn and use, and could capture users’ implicit knowledge about writing performance and cluster target entities into groups that match subjects’ mental models. We also found that MindMiner’s constraint suggestions and uncertainty polling functions could improve both efficiency and the quality of clustering.
Geldanamycin induces heat shock proteins in brain and protects against focal cerebral ischemia.

Geldanamycin (GA), a benzoquinone ansamycin, binds Hsp90 in vitro, releases heat shock factor (HSF1) and induces heat shock proteins (Hsps). Because viral and transgenic overexpression of Hsps protects cells against ischemia in vitro, we hypothesized that GA would protect brain from focal ischemia by inducing Hsps in vivo. Adult male Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to 2-hour middle cerebral artery occlusions (MCAO) using the suture technique followed by 22-h reperfusions. GA or vehicle was injected into the lateral cerebral ventricles (i.c.v) 24 h before ischemia. Geldanamycin at 1 µg/kg decreased infarct volumes by 55.7% (p < 0.01) and TUNEL-positive cells by 30% in cerebral cortex. GA also improved behavioral outcomes (p < 0.01) and reduced brain edema (p < 0.05). Western blots showed that the 1 µg/kg GA dose induced Hsp70 and Hsp25 protein 8.2-fold and 2.7-fold, respectively, by 48 h following administration. Immunocytochemistry showed that GA induced Hsp70 in neurons and Hsp25 in glia and arteries in cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and other brain regions. GA reduced co-immunoprecipitation of HSF1 with Hsp90 in brain tissue homogenates, promoted HSE-binding of HSF in brain nuclear extracts using gel shift assays, and increased luciferase reporter gene transcription for the Hsp70 promoter in PC12 cells. The data show that geldanamycin protects brain from focal ischemia and that this may be due, at least in part, to geldanamycin stimulation of heat shock gene transcription.
Modular Infrastructure for Rapid Flight Software Development

This slide presentation reviews the use of modular infrastructure to assist in the development of flight software. A feature of this program is the use of model based approach for application unique software. A review of two programs that this approach was use on are: the development of software for Hover Test Vehicle (HTV), and Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Experiment (LADEE).
A Review of “The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality”

In the past decade, the number of books, formal academic research, and college and seminary classes on spirituality, spiritual formation, and spiritual disciplines has continued to expand. Students...
Preliminary Report on Selection and Breeding of Honeybees for Alfalfa Pollen Collection

SUMMARYSome colonies of honeybees on alfalfa collect a much higher percentage of alfalfa pollen than others. The possibility of genetic differences between colonies was investigated. Colonies collecting high and low percentages of alfalfa pollen were first selected. Daughters of queens from three ‘high’ and three ‘low’ colonies were inseminated from their brothers, and colonies headed by queens of these six lines were tested. Colonies headed by sister queens were more similar in the proportion of alfalfa pollen they collected than were those headed by unrelated queens. This suggests heritability of the factor studied. On the other hand no correlation was found with colonies headed by the mother queens, nor between those headed by the mother queens in the first and the second year. Queens from ‘high’ and ‘low’ lines were selected for mating and testing in 1964.
Control and anticontrol of chaos

This article offers an overview on some commonly concerned issues related to control and anticontrol of chaos. Similar to conventional systems control, the concept of controlling chaos is first to mean suppressing chaos in the sense of stabilising chaotic system responses. The process of chaos control is now understood as a transition between chaos and order and, sometimes, from chaos to chaos, depending on the application of interest. Anticontrol of chaos, in contrast to the main stream of ordering or suppressing chaos, is to make a nonchaotic dynamical system chaotic, or to retain/enhance the existing chaos of a complex system. Anticontrol of chaos has emerged as a theoretically attractive and potentially useful new subject in system control theory and time critical or energy-critical high-performance applications.
Time-lapse change in anisotropy in Japan's near surface after the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake

[1] We apply seismic interferometry to strong-motion records to detect the near-surface (i.e., an upper few hundred meters deep) change in anisotropy caused by the MW9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake on 11 March 2011. We show that the earthquake increased the difference between fast and slow shear-wave velocities arising from shear-wave splitting in most parts of northeastern Japan, but it did not significantly change fast shear-wave polarization directions in the near surface. Through monitoring of anisotropy and shear-wave velocity, we find that the changes in anisotropy and velocity partially recover with time; they are, however, still different from the pre-event values after nine months. The comparison of the spatial distribution between changes in anisotropy and velocity indicates the changes in anisotropy and velocity are generally correlated, especially in the northeastern Honshu (the main island in Japan). The change in the largest principal stress direction weakly correlates with the change in anisotropy.
Brain Networks of Motor Behavior Assessed by Principal Component Analysis

Network-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow during execution and learning of reaching movements to visual targets using principal component analysis (PCA) of H215O/PET subtraction images were examined. Ten healthy control subjects were studied while moving their right hand on a digitizing tablet from a central location to equidistant targets in synchrony with a 1/sec tone over a 90-sec scan. Success was signaled when the correct target was reached in a time window centered on the tone. A sensory control without movement (S, scrambled visual and auditory display) and three movement conditions were examined: Ml, movements to predictable targets; M2, adaptation to a rotated hand-path display; and M3, discovered target sequence by trial and error using visuospatial working memory. Improvement in spatial and timing errors and a global performance score were computed for each test. Subtraction images were analyzed by the subprofile scaling model (SSM) with principal component analysis to identify regional covariance patterns. Individual scores for pattern expression in SSM were correlated with changes in errors and performance scores. M1-S: Improvements in spatial accuracy were predicted by pattern-related increases on the contralateral striatum and caudate covarying with reductions in contralateral premotor, lateral prefrontal cortex, and SMA. M2-M1: Adaptive changes in mean direction errors were predicted by network-related increases on the contralateral SMA and pre-SMA with covariant decreases in contralateral putamen. M3-M1: Rate of sequence learning was correlated with increased activation in ipsilateral hippocampal and perihippocampal areas and reductions in an ipsilateral striatum and medial prefrontal regions. Specific aspects of motor learning are expressed by distinct brain networks that are evident using SSM/PCA of subtraction [15O]water/PET images.
Feeding and a serotonergic interneuron activate an identified autoactive salivary neuron in Limax maximus

1. 1. A single neuron is found in each buccal ganglion of the giant garden slug, Limax maximus, which is autoactive and has an axon in both the ipsilateral and contralateral salivary nerve. 2. 2. This neuron, the bilateral salivary neuron (BSN), is a slow bursting neuron and is presynaptic to some of the secretory acinar cells of the salivary gland. 3. 3. Increases in BSN action potential frequency and saliva flow during the generation of feeding motor program are shown, as is the relationship of BSN activity to that of other salivary neurons. 4. 4. BSN is affected synaptically by the serotonergic metacerebral giant cell.
Development and evaluation of a gas chromatographic method for the determination of triazine herbicides in natural water samples

Abstract A multi-residue method is described for the determination o triazine herbicides in natural water samples. The technique uses solvent extraction followed by gas chromatographic separation and detection employing nitrogen-selective devices. Seven compounds can be determined simultaneously at a nominal detection limit of 0.1 μg/L in a 1-litre sample. Three different natural water samples were used for error analysis via evaluation of recovery efficiencies and estimation of overall method precision. As an alternative to liquid-liquid partition (solvent extraction) for removal of compounds of interest from water, solid-phase extraction (SPE) techniques employing chromatographic grade silicas with chemically modified surfaces have been examined. SPE is found to provide rapid and efficient concentration with quantitative recovery of some triazine herbicides from natural water samples. Concentration factors of 500 to 1000 times are obtained readily by the SPE technique.
Word recognition as a function of retrieval processes

The influence of organization on recognition was assessed using three types of recognition tasks. A triple-recall procedure provided a criterion for classifying individual items according to different degrees of organization. Recognition performance was found to parallel that of recall, when tested 1 week later. There was poor, but above chance, discrimination for items that were not accessed during recall. For recalled items, recognition improved as the degree of retrievability increased.
Anisotropic scattering in three-dimensional differential approximation for radiation heat transfer

Abstract The differential approximation is extended to account for anisotropic scattering in invariant three-dimensional form. A moment method using polyadic Legendre functions establishes that pressure cross-sections should take precedence over extinction cross-sections for treating radiation heat transfer in an absorbing, emitting, and scattering medium, and that use of these cross-sections accounts for the extent of preferred forward or backward scattering. The resulting generalized differential approximation is discussed in several simple example problems.
Bosak, Dauphas, Fiore, Maloof, and Schoof receive 2011 James B. Macelwane medals: Citation for Nicolas Dauphas

Tanja Bosak, Nicolas Dauphas, Arlene M. Fiore, Adam C. Maloof, and Christian Schoof were awarded the 2011 James B. Macelwane Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 7 December 2011 in San Francisco, Calif. The medal is for “significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by an outstanding young scientist.”
The impact of terminal complement blockade on the efficacy of induction with polyclonal rabbit antithymocyte globulin in living donor renal allografts.

Abstract Background Eculizumab, a potent inhibitor of terminal complement activation, appears promising in reducing early antibody-mediated rejection in positive crossmatch kidney transplantation. However, its concomitant use with polyclonal rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG) might reduce the efficacy of rATG. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of eculizumab on the efficacy of rATG in vivo and determine the role of complement in rATG-induced lymphocyte cell depletion. Patients and methods Thirty-six kidney transplant recipients were classified into 3 groups according to induction regime: anti-IL-2 receptor antibody alone induction group (basiliximab, n = 8); rATG induction (n = 20), and rATG + eculizumab induction group (n = 8). Peripheral blood T-cell subsets and NK cells were measured 3–4 days after transplant (after 3 doses of rATG). Results Compared to anti-IL-2 receptor antibody induction group, both groups treated with rATG demonstrated significant depletion of all T-cell subsets (CD3-positive cells) (P Conclusions This small-sample size study suggests that peripheral T cells are depleted by rATG in the presence of terminal complement inhibition. However, eculizumab appears to have a mild inhibitory effect on peripheral blood T-cell depletion by rATG in kidney transplant recipients.
Optical parallel logic based on magneto-optic spatial light modulator

Abstract The implementation of sixteen optical parallel boolean logic gates using two magneto-optic spatial light modulators are described. The experimental results are also presented.
HIV infection: Continuing education for health professionals

In future years, it will become common for individuals in essentially every health profession to be involved in the care of a person infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Educators face the task of preparing future health providers as well as ensuring career entry knowledge to practicing practitioners. This paper discusses education programs concerning HIV disease in relation to methods of presentation, program content, and presentation considerations. Various resources available to those planning HIV education programs also are described.
Testing claims about volcanic disruption of a potential geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

[1] Yucca Mountain is a potential repository site for high-level radioactive waste. We examine claims that the frequency of future basaltic dike intersection could be 1 × 10−6/yr or higher (i.e., on average, one penetration every million yrs). These claims fail simple tests at four time scales. Spatial-temporal models that predict intrusion frequencies >2 × 10−7/yr are overly pessimistic because no dikes have been found in the 13 Myr-old potential repository footprint. More realistic models are developed by considering this non-detection of dikes and by applying probabilistic hazard assessments based on known patterns of Pleistocene volcanism. Using a hazard assessment code, we estimate the frequency of dike intersection at 5.4 × 10−8/yr with an upper 95% confidence bound of 9.8 × 10−8/yr.
Constrained Coding for Context-Free Languages with Applications to Genetic Sequence Modelling

Constrained coding is a combinatorial technique for converting unrestricted sequences into sequences with a predefined set of properties. Traditionally, applications of this coding technique are confined to sequences drawn from regular languages. Nevertheless, there exist many families of words that cannot be described within this narrow setting. We propose to reformulate and extend a set of results from constrained coding theory in order to analyze sequences from context- free languages. For the purpose of computing the capacity of the context-free constraints, we use the DSV (Delest-Schutzenberger-Viennot) theory for grammars and attribute grammars. We illustrate the new approach on a problem related to enumerating RNA secondary structures that satisfy certain stability requirements.
Protecting Medical Privacy: Challenges in the Age of Genetic Information

This article examines the privacy issues that arise from the convergence of two trends: the computerization of medical records, and the increasingly detailed level of personal genetic information that will potentially be placed within the electronic medical record. The article discusses the privacy and public policy implications for medical care, group identity, and familial relationships arising from the transition toward electronic medical records which will increasingly contain highly detailed genetic information. As such, the article focuses on the confidentiality of the electronic medical record, the increasing prevalence and sophistication of genetic testing and analysis, and the implications of electronic genetic information.