cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Nitrification and GAC Filtration on Copper and Lead Leaching in Home Plumbing Systems

Nitrification and granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration impact leaching of lead/copper to potable water under typical home plumbing configurations. GAC filters removed the disinfectant and caused rapid establishment of nitrification in chloraminated systems. The potential adverse consequences of whole house GAC filters deserve increased scrutiny in chloraminated systems. The lower pH values from nitrification and other microbes during overnight stagnation in pipes can markedly increase (up to 800%) lead and copper contamination of water.
Integrating concepts from accounting, American history and English literature: A cluster course approach

Abstract Using the common themes of (1) value assessment, and (2) interpretation of reality, the authors present a cluster course model to better integrate liberal arts and business courses. This approach enables students to achieve a depth of knowledge in the primary course for which they are enrolled while achieving breadth of knowledge in other areas by exploring connections among academic disciplines. The cluster course model also promotes analysis, synthesis, evaluation and application of knowledge gained in one area of study to different disciplines. The authors encourage experimentation with this model as a means of improving students' abilities to integrate knowledge from different disciplines, promote curriculum coordination, and encourage a faculty's professional growth.
Effects of Acamprosate on Attentional Set‐Shifting and Cellular Function in the Prefrontal Cortex of Chronic Alcohol‐Exposed Mice

Background The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) inhibits impulsive and compulsive behaviors that characterize drug abuse and dependence. Acamprosate is the leading medication approved for the maintenance of abstinence, shown to reduce craving and relapse in animal models and human alcoholics. Whether acamprosate can modulate executive functions that are impaired by chronic ethanol (EtOH) exposure is unknown. Here we explored the effects of acamprosate on an attentional set-shifting task and tested whether these behavioral effects are correlated with modulation of glutamatergic synaptic transmission and intrinsic excitability of mPFC neurons. Methods We induced alcohol dependence in mice via chronic intermittent EtOH (CIE) exposure in vapor chambers and measured changes in alcohol consumption in a limited access 2-bottle choice paradigm. Impairments of executive function were assessed in an attentional set-shifting task. Acamprosate was applied subchronically for 2 days during withdrawal before the final behavioral test. Alcohol-induced changes in cellular function of layer 5/6 pyramidal neurons, and the potential modulation of these changes by acamprosate, were measured using patch clamp recordings in brain slices. Results Chronic EtOH exposure impaired cognitive flexibility in the attentional set-shifting task. Acamprosate improved overall performance and reduced perseveration. Recordings of mPFC neurons showed that chronic EtOH exposure increased use-dependent presynaptic transmitter release and enhanced postsynaptic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor function. Moreover, CIE treatment lowered input resistance, and decreased the threshold and the after hyperpolarization of action potentials, suggesting chronic EtOH exposure also impacted membrane excitability of mPFC neurons. However, acamprosate treatment did not reverse these EtOH-induced changes cellular function. Conclusions Acamprosate improved attentional control of EtOH exposed animals, but did not alter the concurrent changes in synaptic transmission or membrane excitability of mPFC neurons, indicating that these changes are not the pharmacological targets of acamprosate in the recovery of mPFC functions affected by chronic EtOH exposure.
Optimal motion planning for a class of hybrid dynamical systems with impacts

Hybrid dynamical systems with impacts typically have controls that can influence the time of the impact as well as the result of the impact. The leg angle of a hopping robot is an example of an impact control because it can influence when the impact occurs and the direction of the impulse. This paper provides a method for computing an explicit expression for the first derivative of a cost function encoding a desired trajectory. The first derivative can be used with standard optimization algorithms to find the optimal impact controls for motion planning of hybrid dynamical systems with impacts. The resulting derivation is implemented for a simplified model of a dynamic climbing robot.
Chlamydia pneumoniae Uses the Mannose 6-Phosphate/Insulin-Like Growth Factor 2 Receptor for Infection of Endothelial Cells

Several mechanisms for attachment and entry of Chlamydia have been proposed. We previously determined that the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia trachomatis is glycosylated with a high-mannose oligosaccharide, and a similar structure inhibited the attachment and infectivity of C. trachomatis in epithelial cells. Because insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) was shown to enhance the infectivity of Chlamydia pneumoniae but not C. trachomatis in endothelial cells, a hapten inhibition assay was used to analyze whether the mannose 6-phosphate (M6P)/IGF2 receptor that also binds M6P could be involved in infection of endothelial cells (HMEC-1) by Chlamydia. M6P and mannose 6-phosphate-poly[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-acrylamide] (M6P-PAA) inhibited the infectivity of C. pneumoniae AR-39, but not C. trachomatis serovar UW5 or L2, while mannan inhibited the growth of C. trachomatis, but not C. pneumoniae. Using metabolically labeled organisms incubated with cells at 4°C (organisms attach but do not enter) or at 37°C (organisms attach and are internalized), M6P-PAA was shown to inhibit attachment and internalization of C. pneumoniae in endothelial cells but did not inhibit attachment or internalization of C. trachomatis serovar E or L2. These findings indicate that C. pneumoniae can utilize the M6P/IGF2 receptor and that the use of this receptor for attachment and entry differs between C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis.
Total least squares approach for frequency estimation using linear prediction

The resolution of the estimated closely spaced frequencies of the multiple sinusoids degrades as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal becomes low. This resolution can be improved by using the total least squares (TLS) method in solving the linear prediction (LP) equation. This approach makes use of the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the augmented matrix for low rank approximation to reduce the noise effect from both the observation vector and the LP data matrix simultaneously. Comparison is made to the principle eigenvector (PE) method of Tufts and Kumaresan, both on theoretical and experimental grounds. The TLS algorithm exhibits superior performance over the PE method where low rank approximation is applied to the data matrix only.
Extreme longevity in freshwater mussels revisited: sources of bias in age estimates derived from mark–recapture experiments

SUMMARY 1. There may be bias associated with mark–recapture experiments used to estimate age and growth of freshwater mussels. Using subsets of a mark–recapture dataset for Quadrula pustulosa, I examined how age and growth parameter estimates are affected by (i) the range and skew of the data and (ii) growth reduction due to handling. I compared predictions from von Bertalanffy growth models based on mark–recapture data with direct observation of mussel age and growth inferred from validated shell rings. 2. Growth models based on a dataset that included observations from a wide range of length classes (spanning ‡ the upper 50% of the population length range) produced only slightly biased age estimates for small and medium-sized individuals (overestimated by 1–2 years relative to estimates from validated shell rings) but estimates became increasingly biased for larger individuals. Growth models using data that included only observations of larger animals (< the upper 50% of length range) overestimated age for all length classes, and estimated maximum age was two to six times greater than the maximum age observed in the population (47 years). Similarly, growth models using a left-skewed dataset overestimated age. 3. Reductions of growth due to repeated handling also resulted in overestimates of age. The estimated age of mussels that were handled in two consecutive years was as much as twice that of mussels that were handled only once over the same period. Assuming a constant reduction in the annual rate of growth, handling an individual for five consecutive years could result in an estimated age that is five times too high. 4. These findings show that mark–recapture methods have serious limitations for estimating mussel age and growth. A previous paper (Freshwater Biology, 46, 2001, 1349) presented longevity estimates for three mussel species that were an order of magnitude higher than estimates inferred from shell rings. Because those estimates of extreme longevity were based on mark–recapture methods and subject to multiple, additive sources of bias, they cannot be considered accurate representations of life span and cannot be used to conclude that traditional methods of bivalve ageing by interpretation of shell rings are flawed.
Graphical human interface to a neutral beam system

A color graphics system has been designed and implemented as the human interface to a 120KV, 60 amp neutral beam source being built at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for Tokamak Fusion Test Reactors. The system is based upon a 64 × 64 touch panel and allows a number of control and high level analysis displays to be brought up on any of three monitors. Included among the displays are a “Super-oscilloscope” package, a data acquisition timing package, numerical control displays and pictograms. The system succeeds in being very friendly and easy to learn for the operator. All control is via the touch panel and a set of six knobs and two keypads.
Undergraduate athletic training students' influences on career decisions after graduation.

Context: Career opportunities for athletic training students (ATSs) have increased substantially over the past few years. However, ATSs commonly appear to be opting for a more diversified professi...
Synchronous haptic experience and self-other boundaries in human computer interaction

The boundaries of the self may be manipulated to incorporate objects in the physical sense (e.g., the rubber hand illusion) and other people in the conceptual sense (e.g., the enfacement effect). Synchronous stimulation has been used to manipulate both physical and conceptual self boundaries. Although the literature offers many discussions of the metaphoric overlap between self and other, experimental study of the embodied aspects of this phenomenon has been lacking. This study consequently manipulated multimodal stimulation to test factors potentially affecting self-other overlap in a user-actor human computer interaction (HCI). As HCI progresses from information design to experience design, from inelegant artifacts to ambient intelligence, an embodied perspective can inform the interaction of technology and the body, affect, and social cognition. The independent variables in the experiment were: (1) the presence or absence of a haptic device (neck massager) on the participant; (2) the presentation of one of two videos, in which an actor expressed either energy or calmness while wearing the haptic device; and (3) the preand post-intervention time factor. The experiment measured the effect of these variables on the following dependent variables: (1) heart rate; (2) skin conductance; (3) energetic arousal; (4) calmness; and (5) interpersonal closeness to the actor. The results showed a main effect for time for all dependent variables. Regardless of haptic device or video content, heart rate decreased, skin conductance increased, self-reported calmness increased, self-reported energetic arousal decreased, and self-reported interpersonal closeness to the actor increased. A three-way interaction effect was evident for the measures of calmness and interpersonal closeness. The greatest reported increase in calmness occurred in the haptic-energy video condition. The greatest reported increase in interpersonal closeness also
Anti-PD1 Following Ipilimumab for Mucosal Melanoma: Durable Tumor Response Associated with Severe Hypothyroidism and Rhabdomyolysis

Treatment with fully human monoclonal antibodies against programmed death 1 (PD1) receptor has shown great promise for a number of advanced malignancies. Although inflammatory adverse events have been well described with anti-CTL antigen 4 (CTLA4) therapy, experience with the range of adverse effects of anti-PD1 remains comparatively limited. Here, we report on a patient with advanced mucosal melanoma who received four doses of MK-3475, a fully human monoclonal antibody against PD1, and experienced a durable near-complete response but developed severe hypothyroidism, rhabdomyolysis, and acute kidney injury. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported of a patient with advanced mucosal melanoma who responded to anti-PD1 therapy. With the promising antitumor effects of anti-PD1 in a wide array of tumors, we expect an increasing number of patients to be exposed to anti-PD1 therapies. Recognition of infrequent presentations of adverse events such as elevated creatine kinase levels and thyroid disorders in patients who receive anti-PD1 therapy is important.
Social and Genetic Influences on Adolescent Religious Attitudes and Practices

The authors explore the contributions of social and genetic influences to religious attitudes and practices in a population-based sample of 11-18 year olds and their mothers who responded to a Religious Attitudes and Practices Inventory and Religious Rearing Practices Inventory respectively. Contrary to genetic studies examining adult religious behavior, genetic influences were small, accounting for only 10 percent of the variance. Rather, the effects of the social environment were much larger, greater than 50 percent, and a majority of offspring similarity was explained by familial rearing. In light of the divergent finding between adolescents and adults, one supporting a socialization model and the other a genetic model, the importance of integrating genetic and social science methodology for complex social behaviors is discussed.
Molecular Diversity Of Vascular Potassium Channel Isoforms

1. One essential role for potassium channels in vascular smooth muscle is to buffer cell excitation and counteract vasoconstrictive influences. Several molecular mechanisms regulate potassium channel function. The interaction of these mechanisms may be one method for fine-tuning potassium channel activity in response to various physiological and pathological challenges. 2. The most prevalent K+ channels in vascular smooth muscle are large-conductance calcium- and voltage-sensitive channels (maxi-K channels) and voltage-gated channels (Kv channels). Both channel types are complex molecular structures consisting of a pore-forming alpha-subunit and an ancillary beta-subunit. The maxi-K and Kv channel alpha-subunits assemble as tetramers and have S4 transmembrane domains that represent the putative voltage sensor. While most vascular smooth muscle cells identified to date contain both maxi-K and Kv channels, the expression of individual alpha-subunit isoforms and beta-subunit association occurs in a tissue-specific manner, thereby providing functional specificity. 3. The maxi-K channel alpha-subunit derives its molecular diversity by alternative splicing of a single-gene transcript to yield multiple isoforms that differ in their sensitivity to intracellular Ca2+ and voltage, cell surface expression and post- translational modification. The ability of this channel to assemble as a homo- or heterotetramer allows for fine-tuning control to intracellular regulators. Another level of diversity for this channel is in its association with accessory beta-subunits. Multiple beta-subunits have been identified that can arise either from separate genes or alternative splicing of a beta-subunit gene. The maxi-K channel beta-subunits modulate the channel's Ca2+ and voltage sensitivity and kinetic and pharmacological properties. 4. The Kv channel alpha-subunit derives its diverse nature by the expression of several genes. Similar to the maxi-K channel, this channel has been shown to assemble as a homo- and heterotetramer, which can significantly change the Kv current phenotype in a given cell type. Association with a number of the ancillary beta-subunits affects Kv channel function in several ways. Beta-subunits can induce inactivating properties and act as chaperones, thereby regulating channel cell-surface expression and current kinetics.
Comparison of written and oral examinations in a baccalaureate medical-surgical nursing course

Abstract Nursing students traditionally have been evaluated with an objective written examination. This method has shown some benefits and disadvantages. This project examined the value of oral examinations in evaluating nursing students. Five groups of students were evaluated with different forms of testing, some with only written tests, others with only oral examinations, some with a combination of both types of evaluations. The results showed that oral examinations can effectively evaluate the student’s comprehension and application of clinical information in a clinical situation, as shown in higher test results, compared with oral written examinations, and positive student comments. Oral examination can be as effective or more effective in evaluating student understanding of medical/surgical content and its application in clinical situations.
Resolution of refractory symptoms of secondary erythermalgia with intermittent epidural bupivacaine.

Abstract Background and Objectives: Erythermalgia is a rare disorder characterized by erythema, edema, elevated skin temperature, and burning pain of the hands and/or feet. The etiology of primary erythermalgia is idiopathic while secondary erythermalgia is associated with autoimmune and rheumatologic factors. Symptoms are typically refractory to medical management. We report the use of epidural bupivacaine as a treatment option for secondary erythermalgia. Case Report: A 28-year-old woman presented with secondary erythromelalgia that was characterized by severe pain, swelling, and erythema. Medical management failed and a lumbar epidural dosed with bupivacaine was used. This resulted in complete resolution of the patient's symptoms. Conclusion: Intermittent epidural bupivacaine may provide treatment of the refractory symptoms of secondary erythermalgia. Reg Anesth Pain Med 2001;26:488-490.
The role of plantar cutaneous sensation in unperturbed stance

Considerable evidence shows that sensation from the feet and ankles is important for standing balance control. It remains unclear, however, to what extent specific foot and ankle sensory systems are involved. This study focused on the role of plantar cutaneous sensation in quasi-static balance control. Iontophoretic delivery of anesthesia was used to reduce the sensitivity of the forefoot soles. In a follow-up experiment, subjects received intradermal injections of local anesthetic into the entire weight-bearing surface of the foot soles. Properties of the center-of-foot-pressure (COP) trajectories and ground reaction shear forces were analyzed using stabilogram-diffusion analysis and summary statistics. Effects of foot-sole anesthesia were generally small and mostly manifested as increases in COP velocity. Magnitude of COP displacement was unaffected by foot-sole anesthesia. Forefoot anesthesia mainly influenced mediolateral posture control, whereas complete foot-sole anesthesia had an impact on anteroposterior control. During bipedal stance, statistically significant effects of foot-sole anesthesia on COP were present only under eyes-closed conditions and included increases in COP velocity (11-12%) and shear force root-mean-square (13%), the latter indicating increases in body center-of-mass accelerations due to the foot-sole anesthesia. Similar effects were seen for unipedal stance in addition to an increase in anteroposterior COP median frequency (36%). Changes in stabilogram-diffusion parameters were confined to the short-term region suggesting that sensory information from the foot soles is mainly used to set a relevant background muscle activity for a given posture and support surface characteristic, and consequently is of little importance for feedback control during unperturbed stance. In general, this study demonstrates that plantar sensation is of moderate importance for the maintenance of normal standing balance when the postural control system is challenged by unipedal stance or by closing of the eyes. The impact of reduced plantar sensitivity on postural control is expected to increase with the loss of additional sensory modalities such as the concomitant proprioceptive deficits commonly associated with peripheral neuropathies.
Exploiting parallel networks using dynamic channel scheduling

Many researchers have been focusing on the outcomes and consequences of the rapid increase and proliferation of mobile wireless technologies. If it is not already the case, it will soon be rare for a user to be in a situation where absolutely no network connection exists. In fact, through numerous devices, users will soon expect to be connected in all places at all times. Through the great variety and increase in the capabilities of these devices, it is not a surprise to find a single user with many connection opportunities. As a result, we believe that the next major evolution of wireless mobile networks will be in the exploitation of multiple network connections in parallel. Due to network heterogeneity, the major challenge in such situations is to determine the way that these networks can be utilized to better serve different network applications. In this work, we propose a dynamic channel scheduling mechanism that adapts to the state of the available channels to provide more efficient usage of network connectivity. We do so by observing channel throughput, creating a set of channel usage combinations, and then choosing the most efficient combination. We evaluate an implementation of the proposed mechanism using emulation. Our results show that under realistic conditions our dynamic approach greatly improves cost delay metrics, and the overall user-perceived performance compared to a more static approach.
The Role of Iron in Oxygen-Mediated Toxicities

The transition metal iron is capable of catalyzing redox reactions between biomolecules and oxygen that would not occur if catalytically active iron were not present. Although these biological oxidations (which are known collectively as "oxidative stress") have been implicated in numerous toxicities, the exact role of the iron catalyst remains to be elucidated. This review focuses on our current understanding of the role of iron in oxidative stress, discussing biologically relevant sources, biochemical forms, and reaction mechanisms of iron as a catalyst of biomolecular oxidations. Specific toxicities in which alterations in normal iron metabolism is thought to overwhelm the body's antioxidant defense system are presented, and future treatment regimens involving novel antioxidant drugs are discussed.
Local discontinuous Galerkin methods for nonlinear dispersive equations

We develop local discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods for solving nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations that have compactly supported traveling waves solutions, the so-called "compactons". The schemes we present extend the previous works of Yan and Shu on approximating solutions for linear dispersive equations and for certain KdV-type equations. We present two classes of DG methods for approximating solutions of such PDEs. First, we generate nonlinearly stable numerical schemes with a stability condition that is induced from a conservation law of the PDE. An alternative approach is based on constructing linearly stable schemes, i.e., schemes that are linearly stable to small perturbations. The numerical simulations we present verify the desired properties of the methods including their expected order of accuracy. In particular, we demonstrate the potential advantages of using DG methods over pseudospectral methods in situations where discontinuous fronts and rapid oscillations co-exist in a solution.
Simulation of Drug-Loaded Nanoparticles Transport Through Drug Delivery Microchannels

Ocular drug delivery is a complex and challenging process and understanding the transport characteristics of drug-loaded particles is very important for designing safe and effective ocular drug delivery devices. In this paper, we investigated the effect of the microchannel configuration of the microdevice, the size of drug-loaded nanoparticles (NPs), and the pressure gradient of fluid flow in determining the maximum number of NPs within a certain outlet region and transportation time of drug particles. We employed a hybrid computational approach that combines the lattice Boltzmann model for fluids with the Brownian dynamics model for NPs transport. This hybrid approach allows to capture the interactions among the fluids, NPs, and barriers of microchannels. Our results showed that increasing the pressure gradient of fluid flow in a specific type of microchannel configuration (tournament configuration) effectively decreased the maximum number of NPs within a certain outlet region as well as transportation time of the drug loaded NPs. These results have important implications for the design of ocular drug delivery devices. These findings may be particularly helpful in developing design and transport optimization guidelines related to creating novel microchannel configurations for ocular drug delivery devices.
On power transmission of LC ladder filters using active inductor realizations

Simple expressions for power transmission are given for gyrator-C realizations of grounded and floating inductors used in ladder filters. It is shown that even if the parameters of the gyrators are such that they are not passive, the power transmission from the filter input to the filter output is very nearly constant in the filter passband.
Impact of Anatomical and Socioeconomic Factors on Timing of Urological Consultation for Boys With Cryptorchidism

Purpose: Cryptorchidism is a common finding in infants and young boys. Early repair lessens the extent of testicular injury. We hypothesized that anatomical and socioeconomic factors affect the timing of consultation and treatment for boys with cryptorchidism.Materials and Methods: Under an institutional review board approved protocol we reviewed the records at a single institution of children who underwent exploration for unilateral or bilateral cryptorchidism. Demographic and anatomical factors were recorded.Results: The median age of 677 boys at consultation and surgery was 20.3 and 28.9 months, respectively. Median age at consultation for boys with nonpalpable and palpable testicles was 12.3 and 20.9 months, respectively (p = 0.03). Boys with a concomitant penile anomaly had a younger median age at consultation than boys without a penile anomaly (8.5 vs 20.3 months, p 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that ...
Biomechanical Control of Bone Growth and Development: A Histologic and Tetracycline Study

SYNOPSIS IN INTERLINGUALE REGULATION BIOMECHANIC DEL CRESCFNTIA E DEL DISVELOPPAMENTO OSSEE : UN STUDIO HISTOLOGIC E A TETRACYCLINA.—Le leges del structura ossee formulate per Frost esseva usate pro predicer le configurationes del displaciamento al superficie ossee durante le crescentia de costas human e de mandibulas animal in situationes in que characteristic modos de causar un deformation del osso per fortias muscular existe cognoscitemente in vivo e naturalmente e in situationes in que tal modos de causar deformationes habeva essite create experimentalmente in vivo. Le typo de displaciamento in le superficies studiate e le diversitates causate per le etate del individuo e le maturitate de su skeleto esseva predicite a bon successo in cata-un de cinque situationes.
Quality Factor Boosting via Mechanically-Coupled Arraying

A mechanical circuit-based approach for boosting the Q of a vibrating micromechanical resonator has been demonstrated whereby a low Q resonator is embedded into a mechanically-coupled array of much higher Q resonators to raise its functional Q by a factor approximately equal to the number of resonators in the array. Using this method, the low Q of 7,506 exhibited by a support-loss-limited 60- MHz wine-glass disk resonator by itself was effectively raised by about 9X to 63,207 when emp laced into a mechanically-coupled array of eight very high-g wine-glass disks that then form a composite resonator. The availability of such a circuit-based Q-enhancement technique has far reaching implications, especially considering the possibility of raising the functional Q of a piezoelectric resonator by merely mechanically coupling it to an array of much higher Q capacitively-transduced ones to simultaneously obtain the most attractive characteristics of both technologies: low impedance from the piezo-device and high-g from the capacitive ones. Furthermore, the methods of this work stand to enhance the manufacturing repeatability of micromechanical resonator-based products, since they present a convenient method for en suring g's greater than a specified threshold value, even when some resonator's Q's are lower than it.
Performance of Quality Assurance Procedures for an Applied Climate Information System

Abstract Valid data are required to make climate assessments and to make climate-related decisions. The objective of this paper is threefold: to introduce an explicit treatment of Type I and Type II errors in evaluating the performance of quality assurance procedures, to illustrate a quality control approach that allows tailoring to regions and subregions, and to introduce a new spatial regression test. Threshold testing, step change, persistence, and spatial regression were included in a test of three decades of temperature and precipitation data at six weather stations representing different climate regimes. The magnitude of thresholds was addressed in terms of the climatic variability, and multiple thresholds were tested to determine the number of Type I errors generated. In a separate test, random errors were seeded into the data and the performance of the tests was such that most Type II errors were made in the range of ±1°C for temperature, not too different from the sensor field accuracy. The study...
Academic Freedom in the Heartland: Rights Consciousness and the United States Supreme Court

In late 2013, the Kansas Board of Regents proposed a social media policy, a policy which the board eventually unanimously approved. The policy authorized “the chief executive officer of a state university…to suspend, dismiss or terminate from employment any faculty or staff member who makes improper use of social media.” A strong and unified condemnation of the policy followed, led primarily by the faculty of those institutions and their various faculty governance organizations. This conflict between the free speech rights of academics and the governing authority of government and university administrations in the state of Kansas was neither the first nor last such conflict; U.S. courts had already established a doctrine over the free speech rights of public employees. Therefore, this conflict presents an opportunity to observe how the judicial establishment and definition of rights affects subsequent political conflict and discourse. The conflict over the social media policy adopted by the Kansas Board of Regents raises questions of whether the established judicial articulations of free speech in an academic setting shaped the efforts of Kansas faculty in opposition to this policy and the crafting of the policy itself.
Imperfect Signals and Product Safety Disclosure: A Shepherd's Dilemma

We study dynamic markets where product safety is unobserved by consumers. Perfect, but costly, audits and an exogenous noisy signal can provide information regarding seller type. Without the noisy signal, sellers do not disclose product safety without auditing. If audits are too expensive, a pooling equilibrium can result in consumption of unsafe goods. Even a noisy quality signal perfectly identifies unsafe goods by giving sellers incentives to disclose type without audits. Introducing a signal helps buyers, but its effect on sellers is ambiguous. Even if sellers benefit, they always suffer from increases in precision.
The dynamics of circulant and near-circulant systems

Point mass systems in which the interaction matrix is a symmetric circulant occur in a wide variety of physical situations. In many cases also the interaction matrix, while not being a circulant, may differ only slightly from one. The dynamics of both exact and near-circulant systems are analysed in the present paper. In particular the influence of a perturbative interaction on an exact system, which is intrinsically degenerate, is studied using an action-angle formulation. A specific application of interest is presented.
Do Strategic Alliances, Acquisitions, and R&D Investments Act as Complements or Substitutes?

This paper studies possible complementarities and substitution effects between such strategic choices as alliances, acquisitions and internal R&D investments. The findings indicate that a firm’s absorptive capacity affects the presence of complementarities and substitution effects among those strategic choices. Firms with high absorptive capacity exhibit substitution effects between alliances and acquisitions and between alliances and internal R&D investments. Firms with high absorptive capacity also exhibit complementarities between acquisitions and additional R&D investments. These results were obtained from panel data of large and medium U.S. companies spanning the years 1998- 2009. The results are robust to the use of different measures of performance: profitability, market-tobook value, and sales growth. This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of absorptive capacity for the optimal choice of inter-organizational strategy vs. greater internal R&D investments.
Catastrophic Inundation from Sea Level Rise and its Policy Implication

A 1.5 m sea level rise by 2100 will cause calamitous inundation to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties and the Everglades in South Florida. Inundation processes are non-linear: inundation is gradual before reaching a tipping point, and speeds up rapidly afterwards due to the regional topography. Accelerated sea level rise will cause the tipping point to be reached sooner by amplifying non-linear processes, and must be considered in policy-making.
Moisture content and moisture quantity of sweated chicken eggs in 2 storage environments

Abstract There are instances where shell eggs may be moved from refrigeration into ambient temperature with high humidity, such as before wash and during transportation. Under these conditions, it is of concern that bacteria on wet eggs can grow and migrate through the shell pores into the egg. Objectives of this experiment were: 1) to compare 3 methods of quantifying condensate on eggs and 2) to quantify condensate on refrigerated shell eggs at 2 temperatures (22°C and 32°C). For objective 1, 270 fresh shell eggs (3 replications, 90 eggs per replication) were stored at 4°C, 60% relative humidity (RH), then placed at 22°C, 60% RH for 1 h. After this time, 30 pre-weighed eggs were randomly selected and weighed. Thirty eggs were thoroughly wiped with pre-weighed paper towels to collect condensate. Thirty eggs were evaluated with a pinless moisture meter for quantifying egg condensate, which was found to be an ineffective method. There was no difference in quantifying egg condensation by egg weight or weight of moisture absorbed on a paper towel (0.2% vs. 0.19% percentage gain mL condensation/egg surface area) (P > 0.05). For objective 2, 104 fresh eggs formed condensation at 2 temperatures (22°C and 32°C, 60% RH). Each egg weight was continuously recorded from the beginning of condensation formation to the point where the egg reached a constant weight. There was a difference found in the time it took for an egg to reach maximum condensation (11 min at 32°C, 17 min at 22°C), as well as completely dry (25 min at 32°C, 34 min at 22°C) between the 2 temperatures (P
Measuring Buffer-Gas Pressure in Sealed Glass Cells: An Assessment of the KSK Technique

In alkali rf-discharge lamps used for optical pumping in atomic clocks and magnetometers, a buffer-gas (Kr or Xe) allows electrons to extract energy from an rf-field, and these energized electrons eventually produce alkali resonant light. Contrary to naive intuition, rf-discharge lamps can lose their noble-gas buffer over time. Recently, we began a long-term experimental program to better understand the mechanism of noble-gas loss in rf-discharge lamps, and needed a nondestructive means of measuring buffer-gas pressure changes in sealed glass cells. For this purpose, we settled on the Kazantsev, Smirnova, and Khutorshchikov (KSK) technique, which is based on inferring buffer-gas pressure from the collision shift of an alkali ground-state hyperfine transition frequency ${\nu _{\rm{hfs}}}$ . Here, we discuss the basic KSK technique and two modifications that we have implemented for its improvement: use of a diode laser for optical pumping, and extrapolation of ${\nu _{\rm{hfs}}}$ to zero magnetic field. Testing our system’s long-term performance with a very low pressure reference cell (i.e., 3.3 torr Xe), we find a reproducibility of 0.2% and an absolute accuracy of 5%. Further, our systematic drift is less than 1 mtorr/month.
Reflections on modern doctoring.

The conditions of assumptions about medical work are now being questioned, reexamined, and transformed, but without the benefit of empirical studies. The new conditions are changes in the organization of practice; the new assumptions hold that organization determines physician behavior and the quality of care that once was promised by properly educated physicians alone. Large numbers of medical practitioners—now approaching 60 percent—have moved into group practices of various forms, as corporate group organization becomes the major mode of medical work. Technology is a second powerful influence on modern medical work. The care of the individual has become a more divided task and, under the best of circumstances, a collective collaboration, as has the doctor-patient relationship as well. The doctor's job can be viewed as a large and varied number of decisions that are discretionary, based on the physician's individual judgment.
Intraoperative Imaging and Navigation

Intraoperative computer guidance systems have been introduced into orthopedic surgery over the last 20 years, specifically in total joint arthroplasty, spine surgery, and trauma. More recently, utilization of navigation has expanded to orthopedic oncological surgery, and its utilization has been leveraged in several different ways to improve outcomes. Available studies support several roles for navigation in tumor surgery: it can assist in tumor resection in dangerous anatomic areas, such as the pelvis, sacrum, and spine; in facilitation of minimally invasive approaches to benign lesions that do not require extensive resection such as osteoid osteoma; in periarticular resection and limb-salvaging reconstruction for tumors that would traditionally be treated with arthroplasty or amputation; and in novel reconstruction techniques that allow for safe hardware placement, as well as optimization of prosthetic design and fit. While more research and technological development is needed to further improve the utilization of navigation in these ways, results to date are promising. This chapter explores the various capabilities of computer-assisted surgery and its applications for the orthopedic tumor surgeon in managing metastatic disease to the skeleton.
Immunoscintigraphy in Colorectal Cancer: Surgeon's Perspective:

External immunoscintigraphy (IS) is a new imaging tool to diagnose, stage and follow-up solid malignancies. Monoclonal antibodies are raised to tumor-associated antigens, radiolabeled and when injected in the patient localize to the tumor. Detection is with nuclear medicine gamma camera. In colorectal cancer, immunoscintigraphy can be beneficial to the surgeon. With primary colorectal carcinoma, IS detects synchronous primaries, identifies lymph node metastasis, determines extent of disease and detects occult metastasis. Postoperatively, in high-risk patients (Dukes B2, B3 and C lesions) IS assists in the follow-up for recurrence. Particular advantage with IS is seen in pelvic, mesenteric and retroperitoneal recurrences. Rising serum CEA and negative conventional cross-sectional imaging can often be clarified as to site of disease with IS. IS contributes significantly to surgical decision making with alterations in management based on radiolabeled monoclonal antibody scans in 25-32% of primary and recurrent colorectal cancer cases.
Genomics: A matched set of frog sequences

A whole-genome duplication that occurred around 34 million years ago in the frog Xenopus laevis made generating a genome sequence for this valuable model organism a challenge. This obstacle has finally been overcome. See Article p.336 Xenopus laevis, also known as the African clawed frog or platanna, is an important model organism that is used in the study of vertebrate cell and developmental biology. It is a palaeotetraploid—the product of genome duplications that occurred many millions of years ago. This makes X. laevis ideal for the study of polyploidy, but has greatly complicated genome sequencing. Here an international research collaboration reports the X. laevis genome sequence and compares it to that of the related X. tropicalis. Their analyses confirm that X. laevis is an allotetraploid and distinguishes two subgenomes that evolved asymmetrically—one often retained the ancestral state and the other was subject to gene loss, deletion, rearrangement and reduced expression. The two diploid progenitor species diverged about 34 million years ago, combining to form an allotetraploid about 18 million years ago.
The symplectic non-squeezing properties of mass subcritical Hartree equations

Abstract We prove the non-squeezing properties of all mass subcritical Hartree equations on R d ( d ≥ 2 ). The result is achieved by elaborating and generalizing some of the techniques in [13] , [14] by Killip–Visan–Zhang, and two major ingredients are the weak well-posedness for a sequence of changing equations and approximation to an infinite dimensional problem by finite dimensional problem.
PerfRanker: prioritization of performance regression tests for collection-intensive software

Regression performance testing is an important but time/resource-consuming phase during software development. Developers need to detect performance regressions as early as possible to reduce their negative impact and fixing cost. However, conducting regression performance testing frequently (e.g., after each commit) is prohibitively expensive. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose PerfRanker, the first approach to prioritizing test cases in performance regression testing for collection-intensive software, a common type of modern software heavily using collections. Our test prioritization is based on performance impact analysis that estimates the performance impact of a given code revision on a given test execution. Evaluation shows that our approach can cover top 3 test cases whose performance is most affected within top 30% to 37% prioritized test cases, in contrast to top 65% to 79% by 3 baseline techniques.
Examining the intersection of housing and educational options in a regulated school choice plan

The study examines assumptions in 1 urban district’s regulated choice plan and explores relationships between school performance and housing options of economically disadvantaged families. We use l...
Hearing Your Voice is Not Enough: An Articulatory Gesture Based Liveness Detection for Voice Authentication

Voice biometrics is drawing increasing attention as it is a promising alternative to legacy passwords for mobile authentication. Recently, a growing body of work shows that voice biometrics is vulnerable to spoofing through replay attacks, where an adversary tries to spoof voice authentication systems by using a pre-recorded voice sample collected from a genuine user. In this work, we propose VoiceGesture, a liveness detection system for replay attack detection on smartphones. It detects a live user by leveraging both the unique articulatory gesture of the user when speaking a passphrase and the mobile audio hardware advances. Specifically, our system re-uses the smartphone as a Doppler radar, which transmits a high frequency acoustic sound from the built-in speaker and listens to the reflections at the microphone when a user speaks a passphrase. The signal reflections due to user's articulatory gesture result in Doppler shifts, which are then analyzed for live user detection. VoiceGesture is practical as it requires neither cumbersome operations nor additional hardware but a speaker and a microphone that are commonly available on smartphones. Our experimental evaluation with 21 participants and different types of phones shows that it achieves over 99% detection accuracy at around 1% Equal Error Rate (EER). Results also show that it is robust to different phone placements and is able to work with different sampling frequencies.
Die Verteilung von Natrium und Chlorid

Bevor wir auf die Verteilung dieser verbreiteten Ionen eingehen, sollten wir uns vielleicht noch etwas mit der Wasserverteilung befassen. Daruber ein besonderes Kapitel voranzustellen, erscheint hier unzweckmasig, denn man kann dieses Problem kaum aus dem Zusammenhang mit der Ionenverteilung losen.
Multiscale three-dimensional CFD modeling for PECVD of amorphous silicon thin films

Abstract The development of a three-dimensional, multiscale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is presented here which aims to capture the deposition of amorphous silicon thin films via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The macroscopic reactor scale and the microscopic thin film growth domains which define the multiscale model are linked using a dynamic boundary which is updated at the completion of each time step. A novel parallel processing scheme built around a message passing interface (MPI) structure, in conjunction with a distributed collection of kinetic Monte Carlo algorithms, is applied in order to allow for transient simulations to be conducted using a mesh with greater than 1.5 million cells. Due to the frequent issue of thickness non-uniformity in thin film production, an improved PECVD reactor design is proposed. The resulting geometry is shown to reduce the product offset from ∼ 25 nm to less than 13 nm using identical deposition parameters.
Advances in atmospheric temperature profile measurements using high spectral resolution lidar

This paper reports the atmospheric temperature profile measurements using a University of Wisconsin-Madison High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) and describes improvements in the instrument performance. HSRL discriminates between Mie and Rayleigh backscattering [1]. Thermal motion of molecules broadens the spectrum of the transmitted laser light due to Doppler effect. The HSRL exploits this property to allow the absolute calibration of the lidar and measurements of the aerosol volume backscatter coefficient. Two iodine absorption filters with different line widths are used to resolve temperature sensitive changes in Rayleigh backscattering for atmospheric temperature profile measurements.
Coloring Whiteness: Acts of Critique in Black Performance

Coloring Whiteness is a well-deserving recipient of honorable mentions for the American Theatre and Drama Society’s 2015 John W. Frick Award and the American Society for Theatre Research’s 2015 Err...