cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chromosomal Instability in Cultured Mouse Hematopoietic Cells Associated with Oxidative Stress

Abstract 4819 Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that give rise to all blood cell types are important vehicles for cell-based and gene therapies. After isolation from the bone marrow, HSCs are often cultured in laboratory settings for purposes of ex vivo expansion, gene transduction, and bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of various disorders of the blood and immune systems. While undergoing proliferation and differentiation in vitro , test tube and dish culturing can potentially induce genomic instability in HSCs due to prolonged culturing periods or the exposure to increased levels of oxygen. Here we demonstrate that in vitro culturing outside their bone marrow niches, HSCs may change even under very short durations of time. Lineage − Scal-1 + c-Kit + (LSK) cells that are enriched with HSCs revealed significant levels of genomic instability in culture, as evidenced by the emergence of aneuploidy cells. To further determine the effects of in vitro culturing conditions, whole bone marrow cells were cultured in a hypoxic environment of 2–3% oxygen, mimicking conditions inside the body9s bone marrow. In this case, cells proved to undergo less genetic alterations. Proper dosages of the antioxidant N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) similarly decreased occurrences of chromosomal changes. Furthermore, in vitro normoxic culture-induced chromosomal instability was enhanced in aged hematopoietic cells compared to that in young hematopoietic cells due to noted increased oxidative stress in aged cells. These results reveal that in vitro cell culturing does indeed cause genomic instability in hematopoietic cells. Reduced oxygen levels and additions of antioxidants can be employed as a possible agent to lower oxidative stress and decrease chances of transformation. Additionally, since hematopoietic cells are commonly developed in laboratory settings before transplantation for patient treatment, our findings raise a concern for using cultured hematopoietic cells for therapeutic purposes. Note: Alice Liu and William Qu contributed equally to this work. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Help-seeking stigma in Asian American college women: the role of disordered eating cognitions and psychological inflexibility

Help-seeking stigma is considered a major obstacle to seeking professional psychological services in Asian American college women. Informed in part by objectification theory and the psychological flexibility model of behavior change, the present cross-sectional study examines the role of disordered eating cognition and psychological inflexibility in help-seeking stigma among a sample of Asian American college women (N = 257). More specifically, this study examined whether disordered eating cognitions and psychological inflexibility would mediate the association between psychological distress and stigma tolerance for seeking psychological services in this group. Results revealed that both greater disordered eating cognition and greater psychological inflexibility were associated with lower stigma tolerance, and each of them uniquely mediated the association between greater psychological distress and lower stigma tolerance. These findings suggest that disordered eating cognitions and avoidance-based coping and beliefs may contribute to help-seeking stigma and its association with psychological distress. Limitations of the study and the directions of future research are discussed.
Prognostic Indicators in Severely ADAMTS13 Deficient TMA Patients.

Previous studies have shown that severe ADAMTS13 deficiency in TMA is associated with lower platelet counts, a greater number of plasma exchange procedures, and a higher rate of relapse compared to non-severely-deficient ADAMTS13. To further explore prognostic factors in TMA, we retrospectively analyzed associations between several pre-TPE laboratory analytes and the number of TPE procedures in a large cohort of surviving TMA patients. We evaluated TMA patients with severely deficient ( 2-fold more TPE procedures (median 6.5 TPE) than CRP>1.0 ng/dL (median 15 TPE) (p=0.0026). By contrast, there was no relationship between platelet count, Hct or CRP level and the number of TPE in ADAMTS13-N patients. However, evidence of sepsis (elevation of both PCT and CRP) was present in 40% of ADAMTS13-N patients, but was not associated with number of TPE procedures. No ADAMTS13-D patient had elevated PCT. In conclusion, lower pre-TPE platelet counts, higher Hcts and higher CRP levels were associated with significantly greater numbers of TPE in ADAMTS13-D TMA. By contrast, no laboratory parameter was associated with number of TPE in ADAMTS13-N patients. ADAMTS13 levels combined with other laboratory parameters may therefore be helpful in the prognosis, resource management, and guidance of adjunctive therapy in TMA. In addition, rapid assays such as PCT may allow early identification of sepsis in TMA patients, which may not have prognostic significance, but could prompt antibiotic treatment that may enhance outcome. The distinct difference in prognostic factors between ADAMT13-D and ADAMTS13-N patient subsets further supports the pathogenic importance of ADAMTS13 in TMA.
Fanconi anemia: correlating central nervous system malformations and genetic complementation groups.

Congenital central nervous system abnormalities in children with Fanconi anemia are poorly characterized, especially with regard to specific genetic complementation groups. To characterize the impact of genetic complementation groups on central nervous system anatomy. Through chart review we identified 36 patients with Fanconi anemia with available brain MRIs at the University of Minnesota (average age, 11.3 years; range, 1–43 years; M:F=19:17), which we reviewed and compared to 19 age- and sex-matched controls (average age, 7.9 years; range, 2–18 years; M:F=9:10). Genotypic information was available for 27 patients (15 FA-A, 2 FA-C, 3 FA-G, and 7 FA-D1 [biallelic mutations in BRCA2 gene]). Of the 36 patients, 61% had at least one congenital central nervous system or skull base abnormality. These included hypoplastic clivus (n=12), hypoplastic adenohypophysis (n=11), platybasia (n=8), pontocerebellar hypoplasia (n=7), isolated pontine hypoplasia (n=4), isolated vermis hypoplasia (n=3), and ectopic neurohypophysis (n=6). Average pituitary volume was significantly less in patients with Fanconi anemia (P<0.0001) than in controls. Basal angle was significantly greater in Fanconi anemia patients (P=0.006), but the basal angle of those with FA-D1 was not significantly different from controls (P=0.239). Clivus length was less in the Fanconi anemia group (P=0.002), but significance was only observed in the FA-D1 subgroup (P<0.0001). Of the seven patients meeting criteria for pontocerebellar hypoplasia, six belonged to the FA-D1 group. Patients with Fanconi anemia have higher incidences of ectopic neurohypophysis, adenohypophysis hypoplasia, platybasia and other midline central nervous system skull base posterior fossa abnormalities than age- and sex-matched controls. Patients with posterior fossa abnormalities, including pontocerebellar hypoplasia, are more likely to have biallelic BRCA2 mutations.
Marital Interactions, Family Intervention, and Disagreements: A Daily Diary Study in a Low-income Sample

Little research has examined associations between low-income married couples’ daily interactions and severity of disagreements. Similarly, few researchers have considered how family-strengthening interventions for low-income couples may affect the quality of daily interactions and associations between interactions and conflict experiences. This study aims to fill these gaps in the literature by leveraging daily diary data from a random assignment study of a family-strengthening intervention with low-income husbands and wives 30 months postenrollment. Married couples randomly assigned to the intervention participated in 10 weeks of relationship education services. Control group couples received no services. Thirty months postrandom assignment, participants reported on the severity of daily marital disagreements over a 15-day period, as well as their positive and negative emotions during inter-spousal interactions. Multi-level models demonstrated associations between reports of emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements. In addition, wives assigned to the family strengthening program reported fewer negative emotions during interactions at follow-up than wives in the control condition. Finally, negative associations between positive emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were stronger for wives assigned to the intervention, while positive associations between negative emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were weaker for wives assigned to the intervention. Implications for future research and intervention development are discussed.
Internet Use and Public Programs Participation: Evidence from Chile

The interest for ICT-related issues has notably increased in the last decades, leading to a flourishing of studies on their impact on many dimensions. Despite the consensus about the importance of ICT effects at micro level, there is lack of analysis on the existence, magnitude and direction of these effects. This article aims to contribute to the literature by performing an analysis of the relationship between Internet use and information diffusion at household level in Chile. By using data from National Household Surveys, we estimate the effect of Internet use at household level on the probability of obtaining a scholarship for young students in the household. The results suggest that ICT use is significantly and positively correlated with the probability of primary students to be granted by a scholarship program, illustrating how ICT improves communication access and participation in social programs. Given that ICT diffusion is largely determined by socio-economic dimensions, the results also illustrate how ICT could reinforce pre-existing inequalities. This highlights the need for proactive public policies in addressing the digital divide.
Deep N-well induced latch-up challenges in bulk FinFET technology

DNW-induced latch-up characteristics and their temperature-dependence are investigated in bulk FinFET technology. DNW-enclosed NMOS in PNPN and PNPNPN structures causes low latch-up immunity with detrimental high-temperature degradation. Varied methods are explored for holding voltage improvement. In summary, the shunting-resistance reduction through process-design co-optimization plays a critical role in solving DNW-induced latch-up challenges in FinFET technology.
Characterizing the WISE-selected heavily obscured quasar population with optical spectroscopy from the Southern African Large Telescope

James O. Freedman Presidential Scholars Program; Dartmouth E.E. Just Program; National Science Foundation [1515364]; Faculty Early Career Development Program [1554584]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NNX16AN48G, NNX15AP24G]; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; National Science Foundation; U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
Reponse to Send et al. telomere length in newborns is related to maternal stress during pregnancy.

We were initially very enthusiastic about the recent report by Send and colleagues [1], particularly given its consistency with previous studies [2]. However, more careful reading revealed several critical concerns with significant relevance to the field. First, although the authors report sex differences in cord blood telomere length (TL), they fail to account for this in their analytic models. A significant difference by sex in the primary outcome (i.e., TL) necessitates, at the very least, controlling for sex analytically in all models. This is especially important given the robust evidence of sex differences in prenatal programming across species and offspring outcomes [3, 4]. Furthermore, the authors fail to report the race/ethnicity frequencies of their cohort, aside from Caucasians, and do not control for race in analyses, despite reported race differences in TL [5]. The second concern is of TL measurement methodology. While it is important that the authors address TL differences resulting from DNA isolation kit, the actual comparison of samples is unclear. The authors report longer cord blood TL with the Chemagen module isolated DNA relative to the Qiagen GmbH, however only 14 DNA samples were isolated using Qiagen GmbH. It is unknown if the same cord blood samples were extracted using both methods and then assayed or if a simple t-test was conducted. Secondly, the authors report significant batch effects for the qPCR assays, yet fail to offer explanation. If 128 samples were repeated on two separate occasions, perhaps a correction factor could be used. In addition, only a coefficient of variation (CV) was reported for the 128 repeated samples, no CV was reported for the entire TL database, and no threshold of quality was reported, a standard quality control outcome. Furthermore, while the authors residualized newborn TL for batch effects, the same standard of genomic DNA from the K562 cell line was used and therefore an indication of the batch variability may be determined by differences in the standard curves suggesting that the batch effect was the result of user error or in reagents (which is unlikely) used between plates. In short, although the conceptual framework for the report by Send and colleagues [1] has merit, the methodology regarding TL measurements and the failure to control for infant sex, given significant differences, is puzzling. Defining the true relationship between TL and maternal prenatal stress has substantial significance, both for our understanding of the biological mechanisms through which early adversity is embedded and because telomere attrition across the life span is related to initial TL [6]. With the explosive growth in telomere studies, researchers need to ensure the most stringent methodologic assays and statistical analyses, ideally using significant sample sizes and longitudinal data to protect against false positive findings and intra-assay variability.
A SOFTWARE TESTING ASSESSMENT TO MANAGE PROJECT TESTABILITY

The demand for testing services is, to a large extend a “derived demand” influenced directly by the manner in which prior developed activities are undertaken. The early stages of a structured software development life cycle (SDLC) project can often run behind schedule, shrinking the time available for performing adequate testing especially when software release deadlines have to be met. This situation fosters the need to influence pre-testing activities and manage the testing effort efficiently. Our research examines how to measure testability of a SDLC project before testing begins. It builds on the “design for testability” perspective by introducing a “manage for testability” perspective. Software testability focuses on whether the activities of the SDLC process are progressing in ways that enable the testing team to find software product defects if they exist. To address this challenge, we develop a software testing assessment. This assessment is designed to provide testing managers with information needed to: (1) influence pre-testing activities in ways that ultimately increase testing efficiency and effectiveness, and (2) plan testing resources to optimize efficient and effective testing. We developed specific software testing assessment measures through interviews with key informants. We present data collected for the measures for large-scale structured software development projects to illustrate the assessment’s usefulness and application.
Abstract 4152: Synergistic gold nanostar-mediated photothermal and immunotherapy for cancer metastasis treatment

Cancer has become a severe thread to human health resulting in more than eight million deaths each year. Cancer metastasis is the main mechanism in more than 90 percent of cancer deaths. However, current therapeutic options including chemotherapy and radiation therapy have limited therapeutic effects to treat cancer metastasis. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel methods for cancer treatment. Our group has developed a unique method to synthesize star-shaped gold nanoparticles, gold nanostars (GNS), without using toxic surfactant, which is very suitable for in vivo applications. The synthesized GNS has tip-enhanced plasmonics and tunable strong in the near-infrared “tissue optical window”, enabling it a superior photon-to-heat nanotransducer. The GNS nanoparticles accumulate preferably into tumor with enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect after intravenous administration. We have applied GNS for photothermal therapy with 808 nm laser to specifically ablate tumor. Here we report a new cancer treatment method by combing nanophotothermal therapy and anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy. Immunogenic cell death is often insufficient to trigger effective anti-cancer immunity due to the presence of immunosuppressive factors occurring in the tumor microenvironment such as hypoxia, impaired leukocyte trafficking and inhibitory immune checkpoint signaling. The GNS-mediated photothermal ablation can reduce hypoxia and improve leukocyte trafficking to the tumor. In addition, the administration of anti-PD-L1 antibody reverses another critical immunosuppression factor. Experiment results using a mouse bladder cancer model demonstrated that the combined photothermal and immunotherapy have synergistic effect and can not only eradicate primary tumors with laser treatment but also distant metastasis without laser treatment. Furthermore, delayed rechallenge in the cured mice didn9t result in new tumor generation, indicating that our combined therapy induced memorized immune response against cancer. The combined GNS-mediated photothermal therapy and anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy has promise to improve therapeutic effect on not only primary tumor but also cancer metastasis. Citation Format: Yang Liu, Paolo Maccarini, Gregory M. Palmer, Brant A. Inman, Tuan Vo-Dinh. Synergistic gold nanostar-mediated photothermal and immunotherapy for cancer metastasis treatment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4152.
Elderly Immigrants in Rural America: Trends and Characteristics

Older immigrants are the fastest growing subgroup of the elderly in the United States, and they differ considerably from older native-born Americans in their settlement, socioeconomic characteristics, health status, and living arrangements. Although 95 % of older immigrants lived in metropolitan areas between 2006 and 2008, their numbers in rural areas are increasing rapidly and that trend should continue in the years ahead. This chapter looks at how older immigrants in rural, or nonmetropolitan, and metropolitan areas differ, focusing in particular on patterns for 11 national and regional, foreign-born groups. Drawing on decennial and American Community Survey data, the chapter tracks changes in the composition of older immigrants in recent decades as immigration has picked up and shows that most of the older immigrants settled in rural areas are more assimilated than their metropolitan counterparts. With the exception of older Mexicans, the rural elderly are more likely than their metropolitan counterparts to have lived in the United States for several years, to live independently or in households where at least one native lives, to be English fluent, and to be more educated and better off economically than older natives. Older Mexicans, in contrast, who constitute the largest group of elderly from a single origin, are a disadvantaged population relative to other immigrant groups. Analyses of the elderly immigrant population should take population diversity into account.
Addressing solar power plant heat transfer fluid degradation: Experimental measurements of hydrogen transport properties in binary eutectic biphenyl/diphenyl ether

Abstract High-temperature decomposition of receiver field heat transfer fluids (HTFs) can cause hydrogen build-up in the receiver annulus of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) parabolic trough power plants. This build-up increases the receiver thermal losses and results in a decline in power output. Prior numerical work has shown that removal of hydrogen from the head space gas (HSG) in the plant expansion tanks can be an effective mitigation strategy. This approach requires a matching molar rate of hydrogen coming out of solution from liquid HTF into the HSG. Simulations show that the driving force introduced by removing hydrogen from the HSG results in sufficiently large hydrogen transport rates solely across the surface interface (with no active mixing or bubbling). However, uncertainties in Henry’s Law Constant and especially mass transfer coefficient require obtaining experimental data to back up the simulations. This paper presents an experimental procedure and measured data for Henry’s Law Constant and interface mass transfer coefficient for hydrogen absorbing in the binary eutectic mixture biphenyl/diphenyl ether as HTF. To the best of our knowledge, the experiment is the first of its kind to derive these two parameters in a relatively inexpensive, straightforward, and rapid manner, with moderate accuracy (about ±15% uncertainty). Measurements were taken at different temperatures, pressures, HTF mixing rates, HTF aging, and HSG compositions. The design of the experiment was based on literature review and numerical models simulating the transient and equilibrium behavior of the hydrogen/HTF system at laboratory-scale conditions. Values measured for Henry’s Law Constant are around 400 bar/(mol/L), and they decrease slightly with increasing temperature. Both this magnitude and temperature dependency agree with correlations found in literature. The mass transfer coefficient measured for pure hydrogen dissolving in HTF ranges from 5 × 10−7 mol/(s·mbar·m2) (for 100 °C) to 4 × 10−6 mol/(s·mbar·m2) (for 293 °C). These values and strong temperature dependency agree with theoretical model predictions. HTF aging and mixing rate had negligible impact on the mass transfer coefficient. Lowering the hydrogen HSG pressure slightly increased the mass transfer coefficient (up to 10%). The presence of nitrogen significantly increased the mass transfer coefficient (up to 100%).
Becoming an Insider and an Outsider in Post-Disaster Fukushima.

In this essay, Karou Miyazawa reflects on how she was both insider and outsider during her fieldwork in Fukushima, Japan, between 2013 and 2016, after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant explosion devastated the region. During her time in Fukushima, Miyazawa experienced the emotions of community members as well as her own, which were rooted in specific individual and collective memories. While her nostalgic memories of home pulled her inside the community, community members' anger and skepticism toward researchers, which stemmed from memories of the wartime atomic bombings, pushed her outside the community. Based on this experience, Miyazawa has reconceptualized agency as one's ability to be susceptible to various emotions that circulate in the community and to move toward and/or away from insider and outsider positions. This new approach allows researchers to recognize the agency of their participants, form dialogic relationships with them, and collaboratively give testimonies over the ...
Microwave synthesis of 1-aryl-1H-pyrazole-5-amines

Abstract A microwave-mediated synthesis of 1H-pyrazole-5-amines utilizing 1 M HCl at 150 °C was developed in order to provide products in a matter of minutes with minimal purification. Most reactions are complete in only 10 min and can be isolated via a simple filtration without the need for further purification by column chromatography or recrystallization. This method tolerates a range of functional groups and can be performed on milligram to gram scales.
Gene expression profiling reveals differential patterns between microcystic congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation and congenital lobar emphysema.

Abstract Introduction Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM), especially type-III, shares similar sonographic features with congenital lobar emphysema (CLE) in routine ultrasound scan. Thus, prenatal differentiation of CLE from a microcystic CCAM is challenging and difficult in practice. Discovery of molecular biomarkers has important clinical significance. Methods We profiled gene expression in lung tissue from four CCAM type-III and five CLE subjects by microarray. A bioinformatic tool was used for signal pathways enrichment analysis. Further, quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to verify the results. Results A total of 426 genes were identified to be significantly differentially expressed (fold-change >2.0, q value Conclusions CCAM type-III and CLE have differential gene expression patterns. Our pilot study may gain a deeper understanding of the organogenetic origins and pathogenesis of these conditions. The suggestive candidates may serve as potential biomarkers for definitive diagnosis of congenital cystic lung lesions and eventually to treat them appropriately.
Ruptures, repairs, and reflections: contributions of Jeremy Safran.

Jeremy D. Safran’s contributions to our understanding of the complexities of the therapeutic relationship, and its role in the process of patient change in psychotherapy, have been profound. In this paper, we briefly summarize the evolution of his thinking about the alliance and highlight how his ambivalence about this construct contributed to his seminal work delineating rupture resolution models, defined as negotiated intersubjective processes between patient and therapist that are the very essence of the therapeutic process for some patients. Responding to strains in the alliance throughout the rupture resolution process is critical and is an aspect of the treatment model that trainees find most challenging. A clinical example is included to illustrate how Jeremy’s attempts at metacommunicating about his experience with a frustrated patient initiated a productive shift in the process that also contributed to additional ruptures, requiring a simultaneous focus on the strained alliance.
A Doctor’s Touch: What Big Data in Health Care Can Teach Us About Predictive Policing

We take two professions — police officers and doctors — and place their experiences with big data in dialogue. Policing and medicine, while naturally different in some obvious respects, actually both need to grapple with a lot of the same moral, social, and legal questions that come with adopting big data programs. This because, as we discuss below, both professions generally possess a monopoly over an acute societal vulnerability, be it safety or health, and have accordingly developed a set of settled internal norms to shape individual discretion in service of each respective function. We place the professions side-by-side and try to distill certain insights from the perspective of three key stakeholders — practitioners, policymakers, and the polity.
Why did the stegosaurus have plates, or is biology second-rate because it thinks in terms of ends?

There is something distinctively different about explanation in the biological sciences, as opposed to explanation in the physical sciences. In the former one has functional arguments, arguments making reference to what Aristotle called “final causes.” As in: “The function of the plates on the back of the Stegosaurus was to keep the body at a constant temperature.” Since the Scientific Revolution, such explanations have been forbidden in the physical sciences. Does this then mean that biology is second rate, as is suggested by many including Immanuel Kant? It is argued that the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection explains why there is need of functional explanation in biology and that once this point is grasped, there is no reason to judge biology second rate.
Average Reciprocity of Advantage

The concept of “average reciprocity of advantage,” or “in-kind compensation,” is often invoked in property theory but rarely analyzed. The concept’s most familiar application is in defenses of the government’s imposing certain burdens on property owners without paying monetary compensation for the owners’ resulting loss. The government’s action is said to be justified on the grounds that each burdened owner simultaneously benefits from other owners’ bearing the same burden, and this reciprocity makes the burdened owners whole. This paper argues that the classic paradigm of average reciprocity of advantage is best understood as arising from a regulation’s having solved a coordination problem — reaching a result that all parties objectively should have favored but was unattainable through private ordering because of impediments to bargaining — thereby leaving all affected parties better off by their own lights. However, the conditions necessary for such a situation to arise are quite stringent, and when they not satisfied, as is likely often to be the case, the diversity of property owners’ interests and risk tolerances makes it unlikely that the restriction’s reciprocal benefits will dependably make burdened owners whole. Thus, appeals to reciprocal advantage or in-kind compensation will not reliably be able to do the justificatory work asked of them. Nevertheless, this paper argues, it does not follow that in-kind compensation is irrelevant to justifying property regulations. Such a conclusion would itself be inconsistent with broadly and deeply held convictions about regulations’ legitimate scope. Instead, the presence of reciprocal advantages derives its importance not from an illusory potential to make burdened property owners whole, but rather from reciprocity’s role in preserving the respect due to civic equals. The extent to which reciprocal advantages are conferred upon the burdened party can serve as a proxy for the risk of exploitation in the imposition of that burden, and thus can help determine whether those burdens are properly understood as participation in a shared project of civic governance or merely as a naked imposition of power for the benefit of others.
Relationships Among Facets of Narcissism, Symptoms of Eating Disorders, and Symptoms of Muscle Dysmorphia

Previous research exploring the relationship between muscle dysmorphia, drive for muscularity, and disordered eating behaviors in relation to personality characteristics, particularly narcissism, h...
Making a case for Göbekli Tepe in evolutionary psychology: Comment on Henley (2020).

Gobekli Tepe holds great significance for psychology. However, we think its place in the history of psychology is still very unclear. More clarity may come by giving evolutionary psychology priority over Gobekli Tepe for the time being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Raythena: a vertically integrated scheduler for ATLAS applications on heterogeneous distributed resources

The ATLAS experiment has successfully integrated HighPerformance Computing resources (HPCs) in its production system. Unlike the current generation of HPC systems, and the LHC computing grid, the next generation of supercomputers is expected to be extremely heterogeneous in nature: different systems will have radically different architectures, and most of them will provide partitions optimized for different kinds of workloads. In this work we explore the applicability of concepts and tools realized in Ray (the high-performance distributed execution framework targeting large-scale machine learning applications) to ATLAS event throughput optimization on heterogeneous distributed resources, ranging from traditional grid clusters to Exascale computers. We present a prototype of Raythena, a Ray-based implementation of the ATLAS Event Service (AES), a fine-grained event processing workflow aimed at improving the efficiency of ATLAS workflows on opportunistic resources, specifically HPCs. The AES is implemented as an event processing task farm that distributes packets of events to several worker processes running on multiple nodes. Each worker in the task farm runs an event-processing application (Athena) as a daemon. The whole system is orchestrated by Ray, which assigns work in a distributed, possibly heterogeneous, environment.For all its flexibility, the AES implementation is currently comprised of multiple separate layers that communicate through ad-hoc command-line and filebased interfaces. The goal of Raythena is to integrate these layers through a feature-rich, efficient application framework. Besides increasing usability and robustness, a vertically integrated scheduler will enable us to explore advanced concepts such as dynamically shaping of workflows to exploit currently available resources, particularly on heterogeneous systems.
Effect of Cardiac Surgery on One-Year Patient-Reported Outcomes: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background Current cardiac surgery risk algorithms and quality measures focus on perioperative outcomes. However, delivering high-value, patient-centered cardiac care will require a better understanding of long-term patient-reported quality of life after surgery. Our objective was to prospectively assess the effect of cardiac surgery on long-term patient-reported outcomes. Methods Patients undergoing cardiac surgery at an academic medical center (2016 to 2017) were eligible for enrollment. Patient-reported outcomes were measured using the National Institutes of Health Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System preoperatively and 1 year postoperatively across five domains: mental health, physical health, physical functioning, social satisfaction, and applied cognition. Baseline data and perioperative outcomes were obtained from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Database. The effect of cardiac surgery on long-term patient-reported quality of life was assessed. Results Ninety-eight patients were enrolled and underwent cardiac surgery, with 92.9% (91 of 98) successful follow-up. The most common operation was coronary artery bypass graft surgery at 63.3% (62 of 98), with 60.2% (59 of 98) undergoing an elective operation. One-year all-cause mortality was 5.1% (5 of 98). Rate of major morbidity was 11.2% (11 of 98). Cardiac surgery significantly improved patient-reported outcomes at 1 year across four domains: mental health (preoperative 47.3 ± 7.7 vs postoperative 51.1 ± 8.9, P Conclusions Cardiac surgery improves long-term patient-reported quality of life. Mental, physical, and social well-being scores were significantly higher 1 year postoperatively. Data collection with the National Institutes of Health Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System provides meaningful, quantifiable results that may improve delivery of patient-centered care.
Initial Evidence for the Learner-Centered Syllabus Scale: A Focus on Reliability and Concurrent and Predictive Validity

I created the 15-item Learner-Centered Syllabus Scale (LCSS) based on the work of Cullen and Harris. The purpose of this study was to assess the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the L...
Assembling California photobooks

This essay explores how selected 20 th -century women’s photobooks resisted regional ideologies of settler mobility by focusing on sites of contact with the land, animating historical voices and visions, and intertwining social and environmental narratives. Through analyzing the arrangement of image and text in Anne Brigman’s Song of a Pagan (1949), Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones’s “Death of a Valley” (1960), Alma Lavenson’s “Mother Lode” project (1930s-1970s), and Joan Myers and William de Buys’s Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California (1999), I show how California photobooks both promoted the reader’s tactile and affective engagement with local landscapes at various scales and exposed critical, if incompletely documented, connections between the region’s native and settler histories. When read together with more widely circulated regional texts, I argue, these photobooks now have the critical potential to “unsettle” readers’ ways of seeing and redraw regional boundaries as they provide new opportunities to tell the many stories of California’s past, present, and future.
Commentary—Space is Hard: Using Social Media for Selective Investigative Disclosure as a Multi-faceted Crisis Communication Strategy to Achieve Technical Transparency:

In this commentary, we note that situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) provides useful guidelines for an organization to protect its reputation during a crisis. However, when a high reliab...
A Scalable Voltage-Balancing-Circuit based Non-Isolated High-Step-Down-Ratio Auxiliary Power Supply

This paper proposes a non-isolated high-step-down-ratio auxiliary power supply solution for medium-voltage converter. Different from the state-of-the-art voltage-balancing-circuit designs, the proposed unidirectional balancing cell can reduce a half of the active device and their driving circuits. Also, size of the resonant tank can be shrunk by more than ten folds by decoupling the LC resonant frequency from the switching frequency. Lastly, the balancing cells are connected in an interleaved manner instead of direct series connection. In this way, each balancing cell is self-governed and decoupled from other cells, which eliminates the need for communication or central controller, and improves both reliability and simplicity. The solution, therefore, becomes a scalable and flexible solution for different voltage levels. For n cells, when stacked in an interleaved way, the topology can have n times of input voltage, and (n+1) : 1 step-down ratio. Finally, a 100 W prototype that converts 6 kV to 1 kV using five cells with different power flow directions validates the working principle.
[Evaluation of kurtosis on hearing loss caused by non-steady state noise in general equipment manufacturing industry].

Objective: To study the effect of occupational exposure to non-steady state noise on hearing loss in the general equipment manufacturing industry, and to explore the feasibility of applying kurtosis index to evaluate hearing loss caused by non-steady state noise. Methods: A total of 233 workers exposed to non-steady state noise in 6 general equipment manufacturing enterprises were selected as the observation group, and 237 workers exposed to steady noise in 4 textile enterprises were selected as the control group between 2012 and 2018. Personal normalized continuous A-weighted sound pressure level equivalent to an 8 h-working-day (L(Aeq, 8 h)) was determined by a noise dosimeter. Cumulation noise exposure (CNE) was calculated from L(Aeq, 8 h) and related working age, and the CNE was adjusted by using noise kurtosis (CNE' after adjustment) . Meanwhile, questionnaires and hearing loss tests were performed for all subjects. The changes in the threshold of high-frequency hearing and the incidence of high-frequency hearing loss caused by noise in the two groups were compared before and after the adjustment of the kurtosis of CNE. The correlation between CNE and the incidence of high-frequency hearing loss before and after kurtosis adjustment was analyzed. Results: There was an difference between the 3000-8000 Hz hearing threshold of workers in different CNE groups (P 0.05) . The correlation between CNE after kurtosis adjustment and the incidence of high-frequency hearing loss was better than that before adjustment (after R(2) adjustment >before R(2) adjustment) . Conclusion: The effect of non-steady state noise on high-frequency hearing loss of workers in general equipment industry increases with the increase of CNE, and the effect of non-steady state noise on high-frequency hearing loss of workers is greater than that of steady noise. CNE' can be used to evaluate the hearing loss caused by non-steady state noise.
Refractory gastroparesis can be successfully managed with endoscopic transpyloric stent placement and fixation (with video).

Background and Aims Medical treatment options for gastroparesis are limited. Data from studies of botulinum toxin and surgical pyloroplasty suggest that disruption of the pylorus can result in symptomatic improvement in some patients with refractory gastroparetic symptoms. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical response to transpyloric stent (TPS) placement in patients with gastroparetic symptoms refractory to standard therapy. Methods Patients with gastroparesis refractory to medical treatment were referred for TPS placement for salvage therapy. Self-reported symptom improvement, stent migration rate, and pre– and post–stent gastric-emptying study results were collected. Results A total of 30 patients with refractory gastroparesis underwent 48 TPS procedures. Of these, 25 of 48 (52.1%) were performed in patients admitted to the hospital with intractable gastroparetic symptoms. Successful stent placement in the desired location across the pylorus (technical success) was achieved during 47 procedures (98%). Most (n = 24) stents were anchored to the gastric wall by using endoscopic suturing with a mean number of sutures of 2 (range 1-3) per procedure. Clinical response was observed in 75% of patients, and all inpatients were successfully discharged. Clinical success in patients with the predominant symptoms of nausea and vomiting was higher than in those patients with a predominant symptom of pain (79% vs 21%, P = .12). A repeat gastric-emptying study was performed in 16 patients, and the mean 4-hour gastric emptying normalized in 6 patients and significantly improved in 5 patients. Stent migration was least common (48%) when stents were sutured. Conclusion TPS placement is a feasible novel endoscopic treatment modality for gastroparesis and improves both symptoms and gastric emptying in patients who are refractory to medical treatment, especially those with nausea and vomiting. TPS placement may be considered as salvage therapy for inpatients with intractable symptoms or potentially as a method to select patients who may respond to more permanent therapies directed at the pylorus.
Building a Safe Harbor for Whom? A Look at Cautionary Disclaimers and Investors' Reactions to Forward-Looking Statements

We examine investor perceptions of forward-looking statements in the presence and absence of cautionary disclaimers about forward-looking statements. Using two experiments, we first show that nonprofessional investors are largely credulous of forward-looking statements when a cautionary statement is omitted from an earnings press release. In addition, although including a cautionary disclaimer lowers their explicit perceptions of whether they can rely on the information in the press release, investors’ valuation judgments do not indicate a significant reduction in actual reliance. In Experiment 2, we explore additional ways to increase the impact of cautionary disclaimers, and we find that cautionary disclaimers which discuss specific risks at the end of a disclosure lead to the greatest reduction in investors’ explicit perceptions of reliability. However, we again find cautionary disclaimers to be much less effective in reducing actual reliance compared to their impact on investors’ beliefs about reliance. As such, our results raise questions about the merit of granting (denying) safe harbor to management on the basis of having provided (omitted) cautionary disclaimers that do little to induce caution among investors.
Transport capacity and spectral efficiency of large wireless CDMA ad hoc networks

Summary form only given. We study transport capacity and spectral efficiency of large wireless CDMA ad hoc networks. The former is defined as transported bit-meters per symbol period per node and the latter is bit-meters per Hz per second per volume meter under the joint optimization of coding and routing. The network consists of infinitely many nodes uniformly distributed in an n-dimensional space. Node density and spreading gain tend to infinity. The MMSE, decorrelator, or MF receiver is employed at a receive node. It is shown that the limit network at any time is composed of infinitely dense memoryless Gaussian channels each connecting a pair of send and receive nodes. Then the transport capacity, spectral efficiency and average number of hops are obtained. The network presents a "scaling law" in that the transport capacity vanishes as node density tends to infinity at a rate higher than processing gain. The "scaling law" disappears if processing gain increases as fast as node density does, which is in sharp contrast to the Gupta-Kumar network where a scaling law cannot be overcome. It is also shown that a supersaturated network where the traffic intensity defined as the number of active nodes per Hz per second per volume meter tends to infinity achieves the highest spectral efficiency but a vanishing transport capacity. On the other hand, as the traffic intensity vanishes, the spectral efficiency vanishes and the transport capacity achieves the highest. For a low-powered sensor network to achieve high spectral efficiency under the constraint of fixed total transmission power per volume meter the node density shall be increased to the maximum and the transmission power of each node be decreased to the minimum.
Estradiol-induced Wasting Syndrome in Conventionally Reared and Germ-free Mice

The pathogenesis of the estradiol-induced wasting syndrome is complex and cannot be explained solely by immunological impairment and subsequent infection.
Explaining the Rain: The Rise and Decline of Nations after 25 Years

In the quarter century since the publication of Mancur Olson's Rise and Decline of Nations, a large literature has evolved testing the central hypothesis regarding Olson's thesis on institutional sclerosis. These tests have taken the form of both econometric regression analysis involving a sample of various nations and detailed narrative case studies of specific nations. Tests have appeared in both economics and political science journals as well as in collected volumes and independent books, performed primarily by authors from America and Europe. A review of over 50 separate works reveals that, on the whole, the theory of institutional sclerosis is generally but certainly not universally supported. No systematic bias in favor of or opposition to Olson is found to have arisen on the basis of methodology, publication outlet, or authorship location.
Should Law Schools Support Faculty Research

Law schools are predominantly financed by student tuition payments, yet a significant proportion of their expenditures do not directly benefit the students, but rather support faculty research. Moreover, as Judge Harry Edwards has argued, the research that faculty members are conducting is increasingly remote from their pedagogic role. Thus, that great bete noir of economists, the cross-subsidy, seems to be operating in force - students are paying for something that does not benefit them, and they are being compelled to do so by means of an intra-institutional transfer that they cannot control. Without venturing into the complexities of moral theory, one can say that this appears to correspond to most people's notion of unfairness. This article has two purposes. The first is to identify the nature of the cross-subsidy with more precision, and the second is to explore the question of its possible justification or correction. The article is also divided into two main parts, but rather than addressing these two questions in turn, each part attempts to serve both purposes, although in different ways. The first part of the article concludes that the cross-subsidy is a good deal more complex than it initially appears, and, as a result, a good deal less unfair. The second argues that there is nonetheless a residual unfairness toward students that should be remedied. The remedy, however, does not involve reducing research costs, or altering research to relate more closely to the curriculum, but rather lies in altering the curriculum to correspond more closely to existing faculty research.