cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A proposal for routing-based timing-driven scan chain ordering

Scan chain insertion can have large impact on routability, wirelength and timing. We propose a routing-driven and timing-aware methodology for scan insertion with minimum wirelength. We take into account timing slacks at all sinks that are affected by scan insertion, to achieve a scan chain ordering that meets timing and has smallest wirelength. For the case where sink timing is not met, we also propose a buffer insertion methodology with minimum wirelength objective. The key contribution of this paper is a method to compute a timing-driven incremental connection suited to scan insertion; this has possible applications in general incremental routing.
A single die 124dB stereo audio delta sigma ADC with 111dB THD

A high performance, low power consumption, single die stereo delta sigma ADC is designed for professional audio and high precision measurement applications. A single loop, fifth-order, thirty-three level delta-sigma analog modulator with positive and negative feedforward path is implemented. An interpolated multilevel quantizer with unevenly weighted quantization levels replaces a conventional 5-bit flash type quantizer in this design. These new techniques suppress signal dependent energy inside the delta sigma loop, reduce internal channel coupling and power consumption. Integrated with an on-chip bandgap reference circuit and decimation filter, the ADC achieves 124 dB dynamic range (A-weighted), -111 dB THD over 20 kHz bandwidth. Inter-channel isolation is 130 dB. Total power consumption is less than 330 mW.
Note: Tax Accrual Work Papers & Textron: Is Litigation Strategy No Longer Protected?

This Note argues that the Textron court allowed policy considerations to affect the outcome without directly analyzing the competing objectives of enforcement and privilege. The work product doctrine, like all privileges, attempts to strike a balance between enforcement and privacy, and the Textron decision was guided by the court’s desire to balance effective tax law enforcement by the IRS against the need for privacy to conduct detailed legal analysis of tax filings by corporate entities. Regardless of which objective one finds more important, the majority properly brought the policy discussion into the opinion. The majority, failed, however, to explicitly balance these two objectives and set out a framework for lower courts to follow.Part I takes a detailed look at tax accrual work papers and explains the difficulty in applying the work product doctrine to these documents. Part II discusses the history, background, and theoretical underpinning of the work product doctrine, highlighting the circuit split related to the phrase “in anticipation of litigation.” Part III discusses the Textron holding in depth and, using the language and theories from the preceding sections, explains the Textron court’s error. Finally, Part IV argues that, while the doctrine was applied incorrectly, the eventual outcome in Textron may have been correct in light of the policy considerations and practical concerns underlying the doctrine. The Note concludes by arguing that, despite the alarm it has raised, Textron did not drastically change the work product doctrine. Courts and litigants will be able to limit Textron’s impact by recognizing that the work product doctrine requires an explicit balancing between enforcement and privacy.
Effect of Estradiol Replacement on Diurnal Sleep/Wake Pattern in Ovariectomized Rats Measured with a Subcutaneously Implanted Acceleration Sensor

We previously found that estrogen replacement reduces food intake and enhances c-Fos expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in ovariectomized rats, suggesting that estrogen may be involved in the formation of diurnal sleep/wake rhythm. In the present study we examined the effect of estradiol replacement on diurnal sleep/wake pattern in ovariectomized rats. Female Wistar rats were ovariectomized and implanted with either estradiol or cholesterol, and all rats were then implanted subcutaneously an acceleration sensor for measurement of activity. We also measured EEG and EMG in some rats in order to verify the evaluation method of sleep/wake with the acceleration sensor. The estimated sleep/wake with the subcutaneous acceleration sensor after setting the threshold of activity level showed good correlation with the sleep/wake estimation with EEG/EMG. The estimated sleep during the light phase was relatively fragmented in estrogen-deficit rats compared with estrogen-replaced rats. Thus, estrogen might play ...
Regulation of Neuronal Activity in Hypothalamic Vasopressin Neurons

Vasopressin is a peptide hormone secreted from the posterior pituitary gland in response to various physiological and/or pathological stimuli, including changes in body fluid volume and osmolality and stress exposure. Vasopressin secretion is controlled by the electrical activity of the vasopressinergic magnocellular neurosecretory cells located in the hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus and paraventricular nucleus. Vasopressin release can occur somatodendritically in the hypothalamus or at the level of pituitary axon terminals. The electrical activity of the vasopressin neurons assumes specific patterns of electrical discharge that are under the control of several factors, including the intrinsic properties of the neuronal membrane and synaptic and hormonal inputs. It is increasingly clear that glial cells perform critical signaling functions that contribute to signal transmission in neural circuits. Astrocytes contribute to neuronal signaling by regulating synaptic and extrasynaptic neurotransmission, as well as by mediating bidirectional neuronal-glial transmission. We recently discovered a novel form of neuronal-glial signaling that exploits the full spatial domain of astrocytes to transmit dendritic retrograde signals from vasopressin neurons to distal upstream neuronal targets. This retrograde trans-neuronal-glial transmission allows the vasopressin neurons to regulate their synaptic inputs by controlling upstream presynaptic neuron firing, thus providing a powerful means of controlling hormonal output.
Microbial Arsenic Metabolism and Reaction Energetics

Reviews on the geochemistry, biochemistry, or microbial ecology of arsenic—and there are many—commonly start with statements about the toxicity of this metalloid (Newman et al. 1998; Rosen 2002; Smedley and Kinniburgh 2002; Oremland and Stolz 2003; Oremland et al. 2004, 2009; Silver and Phung 2005; Lloyd and Oremland 2006; Stolz et al. 2006, 2010; Bhattacharjee and Rosen 2007; Paez-Espino et al. 2009; Tsai et al. 2009; Slyemi and Bonnefoy 2012; Cavalca et al. 2013b; Kruger et al. 2013; van Lis et al. 2013; Watanabe and Hirano 2013; Zhu et al. 2014). These introductions are sometimes followed by famous anecdotes of foul play (e.g., was Napoleon I poisoned by his British captors?) and reminders that arsenic was used as a popular medicine, tonic, and aphrodisiac since the 18th century. Recall that the 1908 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Paul Ehrlich, in part, for the discovery of an organoarsenical (Salvarsan) as a treatment for syphilis—this was arguably also the first documented application of what would later become known as “chemotherapy.” Readers are then often reminded that arsenic is still used today in pesticides and herbicides, in animal feed, as a wood preservative, in electronic devices, and in specialized medical treatments. Arsenic is toxic in both of its common oxidation states, the oxidized arsenate, As(V), and the reduced arsenite, As(III). As a molecular analog of phosphate, arsenate uses a phosphate transport system to enter the cell and there inhibits the phosphorylation of ADP and thereby the synthesis of ATP. Arsenate can also substitute for phosphate in various biomolecules, thus disrupting key pathways, including glycolysis. Arsenite is even more toxic than arsenate and enters the cell much like glycerol molecules via aqua-glyceroporins (Cullen …
Some Observations of Hatch of Fertile Eggs from Barred Plymouth Rocks

Abstract A study was initiated at the University of Delaware in 1948 to obtain data relative to the inheritance of breast width characters in Barred Plymouth Rocks. The selection of the male and female breeders used in this experiment was based upon pedigree records of breast width measurements taken at 14 weeks of age. The organization of the breeding pens based on breast width measurements is presented in Table 1. The mating schedule used in this experiment was as follows: Effect of Close Breeding on Hatchability. Whenever the males and females of the same line were mated together, the matings represented (1) full-brother, full-sister, (2) half-brother, half-sister, and (3) unrelated matings. After the males were switched, all the matings represented unrelated bird crosses. Inasmuch as different intensities of relationships are represented the resulting hatch of fertile eggs obtained are so presented in Table 2. Observation of the data revealed the dangers . . .
Fetal AED Exposure and Cognitive Outcome at Age 6

Investigators at Emory University, Atlanta, GA and multiple centers in the USA and UK conducted a prospective study of the effects of antiepileptic drug (AED) monotherapy (carbamazepine, lamotrigine, phenytoin, or valproate) on the intelligence quotient (IQ) at 6 years of age (age-6 IQ).
SU-F-T-109: A Shortcoming of the Fisher-Kolmogorov Reaction-Diffusion Equation for Modeling Tumor Growth

Purpose: To demonstrate the shortcoming of the Fisher-Kolmogorov reaction-diffusion (FK) equation for modeling the exponential tumor growth through a semi-analytical method and full numerical solutions. Methods: The FK equation is increasingly often chosen as the mathematical equation, by which one can model the time-dependent variation of the tumor volume in multi-dimensions after a therapeutic intervention of cancer therapy. The hall-mark of the cancer growth is its exponential growth, in particular, at its early stage of the development. In this study, we solved the FK equation in a slab geometry analytically, which lead to a simple formula of the solution with one integral term. Also, a full numerical solution of the FK equation was accomplished in the spherical coordinate system. The former gave us an insight on the characteristics of the solution. The latter method provided the data for the tumor growth as the function of time with biologically sound model parameters. Results: The semi-analytical solution showed that the tumor volume only grows slower than the exponential function of the time. The numerical solutions clearly demonstrated that the tumor volume growth can be very well approximated by a second-order polynomial function instead of an exponential function. Conclusion: The FK equation is not adequate for modeling the tumor volume variation, in particular, in the early stage of the development, since the solution only can provide the growth in the second order polynomial function of the time.
From "More Like This" to "Better Than This"

In this paper we address a novel retrieval problem we term the "Better Than This" problem. For a given pair of a user query to be answered by some search engine and a single example answer provided by the user that may or may not be a correct answer to the query, we determine whether or not there exists some better answer within the search engine. The approach we take is to test whether the user's provided answer can be used for relevance feedback in order to improve the ability of the search engine to better answer the user's query. If this is indeed the case, then we determine that the original answer provided by the user is good enough and there is no need to consider a better alternative. Otherwise, we decide that the best alternative that the search engine can provide should be considered as a better answer. Using a simulation based evaluation, we demonstrate that, our approach provides a better decision making solution to this problem, compared to several other alternatives.
1958: Arms Control, Washington, Lebanon

As Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harold Macmillan viewed British-American relations at the beginning of 1958, they witnessed a considerable change by contrast with 1957. The two leaders had spent much of 1957 mending fences and establishing a renewed basis for cooperation between the United States and Great Britain. In 1958, Eisenhower and Macmillan were forced to address the policy-making dimensions of their relationship. A particularly vexing problem for both the British and the Americans was the issue of arms control and disarmament and its impact upon relations with the Soviet Union.
Integrated Co3O4/TiO2 Composite Hollow Polyhedrons Prepared via Cation-exchange Metal-Organic Framework for Superior Lithium-ion Batteries

Abstract Co3O4, as an attractive lithium ion battery anode material, though benefited from its high theoretical capacity, has long suffered from low electrical transportation and dramatic volume variations. Therefore, to develop a LIB anode material with both good capability and excellent stability, rational design of composite material is becoming an appealing method. Herein, we report a scalable method of fabricating integrated Co3O4/TiO2 composite hollow polyhedrons through a cation-exchange approach in metal-organic framework. In this synthesis, well-defined ZIF-67 particles not only serve as the host to accommodate exchanged titanium cations but also the template to form hollow polyhedron structure. The obtained integrated Co3O4/TiO2 composite hollow polyhedrons exhibit a high reversible capacity of 642 mAh/g at a rate of 500 mA/g after 200 cycles, accounting for 96.9% of the initial capacity, much higher than that of pure Co3O4, which only maintain a specific capacity of 200 mAh/g and a capacity retention of 40%. The optimized integrated Co3O4/TiO2 composite hollow polyhedrons display significant improvements in electrochemical performance, demonstrating great potential as advanced anode material for future lithium ion batteries.
Dynamic cache memory locking by utilizing multiple miss tables

Cache memory plays a vital role in a system's performance by acting as a buffer to quickly supply requested instruction/data blocks from the main memory to the central processing unit (CPU). Cache management techniques may increase or decrease a system's performance. The results vary from process to process, depending on how well optimized the cache management techniques are for a particular process. The inclusion of level-2 (L2) cache locking has been shown in previous studies to be beneficial in increasing a system's performance. This is further improved upon through the inclusion of a miss table (MT), which keeps track of how often each block is missed in the L2 cache. In this research, we propose the use multiple MTs to keep track of the number of times each block is missed in the L2 cache during the run-time of a process. The information obtained from the multiple MTs are then used to lock the most missed blocks into the L2 cache. This is done by dividing the L2 cache into two partitions: a normal partition and a locked partition. Our experiments demonstrate a noticeable performance improvement against the case using only the LRU replacement algorithm.
Spiders, Rats, and Education

“I challenge you to prove that you can teach this white rat something.” That’s what I say to my 7th graders while handing out one rat to every pair of students. “You have 2-weeks. Go!” Years later, I challenge my students to sustain multiple generations of spiders in a completely sealed container for as long as possible. I ask students to capture and contain life, from spiders to microorganisms, and to teach mammals a new behavior. While stuck in the moral quagmire of using creatures in the name of education, I believe that these activities enhance student-directed inquiry into principles of learning and sustainability. This chapter offers the pedagogical and instructional support for facilitating both the ecological and moral aspects of these compelling challenges.
Effects of semantic neighborhood density in abstract and concrete words

Concrete and abstract words are thought to differ along several psycholinguistic variables, such as frequency and emotional content. Here, we consider another variable, semantic neighborhood density, which has received much less attention, likely because semantic neighborhoods of abstract words are difficult to measure. Using a corpus-based method that creates representations of words that emphasize featural information, the current investigation explores the relationship between neighborhood density and concreteness in a large set of English nouns. Two important observations emerge. First, semantic neighborhood density is higher for concrete than for abstract words, even when other variables are accounted for, especially for smaller neighborhood sizes. Second, the effects of semantic neighborhood density on behavior are different for concrete and abstract words. Lexical decision reaction times are fastest for words with sparse neighborhoods; however, this effect is stronger for concrete words than for abstract words. These results suggest that semantic neighborhood density plays a role in the cognitive and psycholinguistic differences between concrete and abstract words, and should be taken into account in studies involving lexical semantics. Furthermore, the pattern of results with the current feature-based neighborhood measure is very different from that with associatively defined neighborhoods, suggesting that these two methods should be treated as separate measures rather than two interchangeable measures of semantic neighborhoods.
World population stabilisation through Smithian increasing returns to labour: an update

In light of classical political economists’ ideas (especially Smith and Malthus) and more recent theory of demographic transition, Foley (Econ Lett 68:309–317, 2000) constructed a simple integrated population model, which is then used as an alternative tool to project the stabilising level of world population and income level associated with it. This paper is an update of this line of research using more recent empirical evidence. We find the world still exhibits a strong pattern of Smithian increasing returns to scale and most countries’ populations have been stabilising along a convex income–fertility schedule. Our projections suggest that the world population will stabilise at 11.4 billion with per capita income around $12,595 in constant 2005 USD. Unfortunately, the process of world population stabilisation tends to be accompanied with growing global income equality.
Facilitating end-user developers by estimating time cost of foraging a webpage

During programming, end-user developers constantly go to search engines to seek for information. The search engine is of significant help since it ranks the webpage links according to relevance. However, the time cost of foraging a webpage also affects if and how soon a developer can obtain a satisfying answer. In this paper, we use operationalizable constructs from Information Foraging Theory to identify two features: information accumulation and information amount for a webpage, which we hypothesize could assist developers in selecting appropriate webpages. We then invited 20 participants to perform a lab experiment of two software change tasks. The results supported our hypothesis by two findings. When having the tool support, the participants used less task completion time, and tended to visit more easy-to-forage webpages.
What Happened to the Economic Convergence of Central and Eastern Europe After the Global Financial Crisis

During the boom years 2000–2007, the new Central and East European (CEE) members of the European Union (EU) had more than twice as high economic growth as the 15 countries that were members of the EU before 2004. From 2010, however, their growth rates have been mediocre though still higher than those of the older EU members. This paper investigates seven structural benchmarks, fiscal burden, tax system, labor markets, education, pensions, governance, and research and development. The CEE countries are continuing to perform quite well in all these regards apart from research and development. Another cause of concern is large emigration. Thus, growth of GDP per capita instead of GDP growth looks much better for the CEE countries. No middle-income trap is apparent.
The Effect of Self-Assessment as a Revision Technique on Egyptian EFL Students’ Expository Essay Writing

At a time when the world is changing at an unprecedented pace, being able to pause and evaluate one’s self becomes an indispensable asset. This chapter reports on a study examining the effect of self-assessment as a revision technique on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing in an Egyptian university context to raise students’ awareness of their common mistakes. The study examined the effect of self-assessment on the EFL students’ overall expository writing as defined in terms of content, organisation, language, and overall writing ability. The study also examined the participants’ attitudes towards self-assessment as a technique intended to promote their expository essay writing proficiency. Forty engineering freshmen at an Egyptian University were pre- and post-tested to examine the impact of the self-assessment rubric developed specifically for the study of writing proficiency. Moreover, a post-treatment questionnaire was given to the experimental group to trace the participants’ attitudes towards the treatment (i.e. self-assessment). The results of the study indicated that self-assessment led to a highly significant improvement in students’ writing (i.e. content, organisation, language aspects, and overall writing ability). The results of the post-treatment questionnaire indicated that participants favoured self-assessment as a technique that led to raising their awareness of their common mistakes and improving their essay writing proficiency.
Sockeye salmon population dynamics over the past 4000 years in Upper Russian Lake, south-central Alaska

Stable nitrogen isotope (δ15N) data from sediment cores taken in clear-water Upper Russian Lake (Kenai River Watershed, Alaska, USA) indicate that sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) populations varied significantly over the past 4000 years, with a prominent ~ 650-year period of lower salmon abundance from ~ 100 BCE to 550 CE. Sediment characteristics during this ~ 650-year interval reflect glacial sediment input, which may have contributed to the salmon decline by degrading spawning habitat and reducing carrying capacity. The decline, however, coincides with large reductions in sockeye salmon abundance identified previously in Karluk and Akalura lakes on Kodiak Island, > 400 km southwest, supporting the possibility of regionally synchronous, multi-centennial production regimes that may originate from shifts in oceanographic conditions such as biological productivity in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Under such a scenario, coincidence with watershed glacial activity indicates a common driver, i.e. regional climate change. Climate conditions that led to significant glacial advances in this part of the Kenai Peninsula (cold and/or wet conditions) may have also created unfavorable ocean conditions during critical periods in the marine phase for these stocks of Gulf of Alaska sockeye salmon. Future climate projections and management strategies should focus on how climate regimes impact not only prey availability for salmon at sea, but also local conditions for spawners and juveniles.
Teaching cybersecurity through interactive exercises using a virtual environment: tutorial presentation

Teaching security analysis skills to undergraduates presents an imposing challenge. One reason is that instructors may lack the background in security and information assurance to create exercises and know where they can be integrated into existing courses. This tutorial will give the participants experience with some interactive exercises that they can integrate into classes on networking or security. We also present a preconfigured virtual environment that reduces the preparation time that an instructor must spend to incorporate these exercises.
CEO DUALITY AND FIRM PERFORMANCE≤AN ENDOGENOUS ISSUE

Abstract Whether dual CEO leadership structure is better for corporations is one of the most hotly debated issues in corporate finance. This paper uses a recent data to re-examine the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance, controlling for other important variables such as firm characteristics, ownership structure, CEO compensation, and agency costs. We find a recent trend of increased number of firms converting from dual to non-dual CEO structure. However, our empirical results do not show a significant relationship between CEO duality and firm performance nor improvement in firm performance after change in leadership structure. We find evidence of endogeneity, and we attribute the insignificance of the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance to the possibility that CEO duality is endogenously and optimally determined given firm characteristic and ownership structure. Keywords: Corporate governance, CEO duality, Leadership structure, endogeneity
Comparing Ethnographies: Local Studies of Education across the Americas: Edited by Kathryn Anderson-Levitt and Elsie Rockwell, Washington, DC, American Educational Research Association, 2017, 235 pp., $59.95 (hardcover).

Scholars from several countries coauthor chapters comparing selected ethnographies on education, children, and teachers. This book grew out of the Inter-American Symposium on Ethnography and Educat...
Thioredoxin Modulates Protein Arginine Deiminase 4 (PAD4)-Catalyzed Citrullination

Protein citrullination is a post-translational modification catalyzed by the protein arginine deiminases (PADs). This modification plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of numerous autoimmune disorders including RA. Recently, there has been a growing interest in investigating physiological regulators of PAD activity to understand the primary cause of the associated disorders. Apart from calcium, it is well-documented that a reducing environment activates the PADs. Although the concentration of thioredoxin (hTRX), an oxidoreductase that maintains the cellular reducing environment, is elevated in RA patients, its contribution toward RA progression or PAD activity has not been explored. Herein, we demonstrate that hTRX activates PAD4. Kinetic characterization of PAD4 using hTRX as the reducing agent yielded parameters that are comparable to those obtained with a routinely used non-physiological reducing agent, e.g., DTT, suggesting the importance of hTRX in PAD regulation under physiological conditions. Furthermore, we show that various hTRX mutants, including redox inactive hTRX variants, are capable of activating PAD4. This indicates a mechanism that does not require oxidoreductase activity. Indeed, we observed non-covalent interactions between PAD4 and hTRX variants, and propose that these redox-independent interactions are sufficient for hTRX-mediated PAD4 activation.
Cost of treating recurrent respiratory papillomavirus in commercially insured and medicaid patients.

OBJECTIVES The study objective was to estimate the first 2 years' direct costs of treating new cases of juvenile-onset and adult-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) and determine the predictors of treatment costs. METHODS Cases were patients diagnosed with RRP in commercial insurance claims in 2011-2014 and Texas Medicaid in 2008-2012 for treatment of RRP. Controls were patients without a diagnosis of HPV-related cancer or RRP, matched with cases by age, sex, geographic area, date of diagnosis of RRP, and propensity score. Total health care costs in the first 2 years after diagnosis were obtained from cases and matched controls. A generalized linear model was created to identify predictors of monthly costs. RESULTS In commercially insured patients, a total of 122 cases of juvenile-onset (<18 years old) and 1824 cases of adult-onset (≥18 years old) RRP were identified. The mean first 2 years' cost difference between cases and controls was $58,733 for juvenile-onset disease and $11,185 for adult-onset disease after model adjustments. In the Texas Medicaid population, 73 cases of juvenile-onset and 96 cases of adult-onset RRP were identified. The mean first 2 years' cost difference between cases and controls was $76,115 for juvenile-onset disease and $4,633 for adult-onset disease after model adjustments. CONCLUSION The first 2 years' medical costs difference of juvenile-onset and adult-onset RRP among commercially insured and Medicaid population were approximately $60,000 to $70,000 and $5,000 to $11,000, respectively, and should be considered in HPV vaccination promotion investment decisions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE N/A Laryngoscope, 130:1186-1194, 2020.
Broadside Tests for Transition and Stuck-At Faults

A recent work showed that it is possible to transform a single-cycle test for stuck-at faults into a skewed-load test that detects the same stuck-at faults without performing logic or fault simulation. By using this transformation, it is possible to generate a compact skewed-load test set for stuck-at and transition faults. The advantage for test compaction is related to the fact that the test set contains a single test type. For cases where broadside tests are preferred over skewed-load tests, this article studies the possibility of transforming a single-cycle test into a broadside test, and generating a compact broadside test set for stuck-at and transition faults. This article addresses several challenges in order to achieve this goal without resorting to sequential test generation or state justification that have a high computational complexity. The experimental results for benchmark circuits demonstrate the levels of test compaction that can be achieved using small numbers of observation points.
Involvement of ventral pallidal vasopressin in the sex-specific regulation of sociosexual motivation in rats.

Abstract The ventral pallidum (VP) is a critical node of the mesocorticolimbic reward circuit and is known to modulate social behaviors in rodents. Arginine vasopressin (AVP) signaling via the V1A receptor (V1AR) within the VP is necessary for the expression of socially motivated affiliative behaviors in monogamous voles. However, whether the VP-AVP system regulates socially motivated behaviors in non-monogamous species remains unknown. Here, we determined the extent of AVP fiber innervation in the VP as well as the involvement of the VP-AVP system in sociosexual motivation in adult male and female rats. We found that males have nearly twice the density of AVP-immunoreactive (AVP-ir) fibers in the VP compared to females, suggesting the possibility that males experience enhanced AVP signaling in the VP. We further found that this sex difference in VP-AVP-ir fiber density likely arises from an observed sex difference (males > females) in the percentage of VP-projecting AVP-ir cell bodies located in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and medial amygdala. To determine the behavioral implications of this sex difference, we next blocked AVP signaling in the VP by antagonizing VP-V1ARs in male and female rats and tested their preference to investigate an unfamiliar male rat or unfamiliar estrus female rat confined to corrals located on opposite ends of a three-chamber apparatus. Under vehicle conditions, males showed a significantly greater innate preference to investigate an opposite sex over same sex conspecific than estrus females. Interestingly, VP-V1AR antagonism significantly reduced males’ opposite sex preference, while enhancing estrus females’ opposite sex preference. Importantly, all subjects reliably discriminated between male and female stimulus rats regardless of drug treatment, demonstrating a change in motivational state rather than a perceptual impairment induced by VP-V1AR blockade. These results provide a novel functional link between a sex difference in ventral pallidal AVP fiber density and the sex-specific regulation of a sexually motivated behavior necessary for reproductive success.
Soil-derived fulvic acid and root exudates, modified by soil bacteria, alter CuO nanoparticle-induced root stunting of wheat via Cu complexation

CuO nanoparticles (NPs) are explored as fungicides and fertilizers, and are increasingly likely to be applied to agricultural soils. Consequently, interactions of CuO NPs with soil pore water (SPW) components, plants, and microbes must be understood. These experiments examined whether dissolved natural organic matter (DNOM) from SPW, or root/bacterial exudates, changed wheat (Triticum aestivum L. v. Deloris) responses to 100 mg kg−1 (Cu/sand) as CuO NPs. Seedlings were grown in sand with 3.34 mM Ca(NO3)2 or one of three SPWs, differing in DNOM concentration and composition. At 10 days post-germination, CuO NPs stunted roots by 59% in the 3.34 mM Ca(NO3)2 and 26–35% in the three SPWs compared to plants grown without NPs. Malate, citrate, gluconate, and 2′-deoxymugineic acid (DMA), were elevated 1.3 to 5-fold in the rhizosphere with CuO NPs present. Cu was bioavailable through metallo-organic complexes, including Cu–DMA and Cu–gluconate. Fulvic acid in SPWs mitigated CuO NP-induced wheat root shortening. Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 eliminated malate and citrate in the rhizospheres, reduced rhizosphere dissolved Cu ∼18–66%, and reduced root Cu 39% across all SPWs while enhancing root stunting ∼17% more across all SPWs than non-inoculated wheat grown with CuO NPs. Thus, both SPW components and root microbial colonization influenced wheat responses to CuO NPs. These interactions are likely in agricultural soils with additional processes, such as ion sorption, to influence CuO NP phytotoxicity, highlighting the importance of considering not just the target plant, but soil properties and associated microbiomes when evaluating impacts of NPs in agricultural usage.
Legal Issues Related to Human Germline Genome Editing in the United States

Genome editing is a tool, not a specific drug, device or biological therapy. The United States regulates most technologies by regulating their development and use in the context of a particular application, rather than by regulating the technology itself. By way of example, the emerging field of nanotechnology is the subject of national-level policy with regard to strategic planning for basic science research. But if it were used for foods, the food would be subject to existing food regulations, and the nanotechnology would be incorporated into the analysis of risks and benefits. The same would be true if it were used for drugs. Therefore, one cannot really speak of the “law of genome editing” but rather one must look at it in each of its areas of use and identify the relevant existing law. In some cases, the use of an emerging technology may make existing law difficult to apply, for example where the technology blurs the line between definitional categories such as drug or device. In these cases, new interpretation of older law will be needed. But overall, one examines the field in the context of the applications.
Science and Theory

It is time to consider microissues of research in a perspective of larger macroissues. When such a larger perspective is taken, a problem with the physical attractiveness research becomes apparent. This problem is that knowledge about physical attractiveness remains scattered and fragmented after two decades of scientific query. Consequently, in an attempt to improve the situation, this final chapter discusses the relevance of science and theory for the study of physical attractiveness phenomena.
Gate Oxide Reliability Studies of Commercial 1.2 kV 4H-SiC Power MOSFETs

This work examines the gate oxide ruggedness and underlying failure mechanisms of commercially available large-area 1.2 kV 4H-SiC power MOSFETs from multiple vendors. Both gate leakage current and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) measurements are performed at various voltage stresses with temperatures between 28°C and 175°C. While some vendors show promising gate oxide reliability results such as low gate leakage current (~100pA) and >106 hours lifetime at 175°C with V G =20 V, anomalous gate leakage current behaviors and TDDB characteristics are observed for other vendors. The anomalous gate oxide reliability measurement results are related to the pre-existing gate oxide defects and interface traps. Gate leakage current measurements at different temperatures reveal insights into the oxide quality. The authors also observe that constant-voltage TDDB measurement can greatly overestimate the oxide lifetime when a significant amount of extrinsic oxide defects exist before the measurements.
Equilibrium and interpolation solutions using wavelet bases

Efficient solutions to equilibrium and interpolation problems can be obtained by using wavelet basis vectors for use in problem discretization, or for use as a preconditioning transform. Good approximations to these solutions can be obtained in only O(n) operations and O(n) storage locations, a property that can be extremely useful in visualization applications.
Institutional Repositories for Public Engagement: Creating a Common Good Model for an Engaged Campus

Most higher-education institutions strive to be publicly engaged and community centered. These institutions leverage faculty, researchers, librarians, community liaisons, and communication specialists to meet this mission, but they have largely underutilized the potential of institutional repositories. Academic institutions can use institutional repositories to provide open access and long-term preservation to institutional gray literature, research data, university publications, and campus research products that have tangible, real-world applications for the communities they serve. Using examples from the University of Minnesota, this article demonstrates how making this content discoverable, openly accessible, and preserved for the future through an institutional repository not only increases the value of this publicly-engaged work but also creates a lasting record of a university’s public engagement efforts and contributes to the mission of the institution.
Human Migrations: Tales of the Pacific

The mode and tempo of human dispersal to the far-flung Pacific Islands has been a source of fascination for centuries. New ancient DNA data from the archipelago of Vanuatu shed light on the ancient migrations that shaped the history of human settlement in the Pacific.
The Benefits of Side Information for Structured Phase Retrieval

Phase retrieval, or signal recovery from magnitude-only measurements, is a challenging signal processing problem. Recent progress has revealed that measurement- and computational-complexity challenges can be alleviated if the underlying signal belongs to certain low-dimensional model families, including sparsity, low-rank, or neural generative models. However, the remaining bottleneck in most of these approaches is the requirement of a carefully chosen initial signal estimate. In this paper, we assume that a portion of the signal is already known a priori as "side information" (this assumption is natural in applications such as holographic coherent diffraction imaging). When such side information is available, we show that a much simpler initialization can provably succeed with considerably reduced costs. We supplement our theory with a range of simulation results.
"It's Being Compassionate, Not Making Assumptions": Transmasculine and Nonbinary Young Adults' Experiences of "Women's" Health Care Settings.

Abstract Background Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals assigned female sex at birth experience discrimination, misgendering, problems with insurance, and denial of services when accessing health care. This study aimed to understand the experiences of TNB young adults in accessing “women's” health care—a form of care that is structurally gendered that few studies have investigated. Methods In 2015, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 TNB young (ages 18–29) adults assigned female sex at birth. We thematically analyzed the data. Results Participants described feelings of comfort and trust—and lack thereof—at every step of the health care–seeking process, including scheduling, checking in, waiting, and interactions with clinicians and other staff. Gendered language served as a constant stressor; participants—especially nonbinary participants—noted few opportunities to provide their correct pronouns and names. Participants relayed negative experiences associated with waiting rooms in “women's” health care spaces, where TNB patients are forced to disclose their identity simply through their presence or owing to actions of staff that out them. These concerns deterred some from seeking care, with most expressing discomfort or anxiety that caused them to feel unsafe. Participants described “women's” health care providers making assumptions about their anatomy, reproductive desires, sexual orientation, and sexual practices, as well as inappropriately and harmfully emphasizing their bodies and TNB identities during health care interactions. Clinician competence and humility engendered participants' feelings of safety and undergirded their interest in engaging with “women's” health care. Conclusions A lack of patient-centered, TNB-competent care in structurally gendered health settings exacerbates health care and health inequities for TNB young adults.
WTO Accession and Exports: Firm Level Evidence from Developing Economies

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a significant impact on international business activities due to its actions and decisions that set the rules of international trade. However, our understanding of how WTO affects firm behavior is limited. Taking advantage of the variations in entry dates to the World Trade Organization, we perform difference-in-differences estimation to examine whether a country’s accession to the WTO significantly increases firms’ export intensity. In addition, we apply insights from the threat-rigidity hypothesis to argue that firms’ reactions to supranational institutions vary depending on how managers perceive the institutional environment. We find that firms from countries that enter the WTO experience significantly higher growth in export intensity when their managers have positive perceptions about domestic institutions. In contrast, accession to the WTO does not significantly increase firms’ export intensity whose managers perceive domestic institutions as obstacles. Our findings suggest that supranational institutions, such as the WTO, play an important role in the strategic decisions that firms make. However, the full value of such institutions can only be realized if the managers are aware and positively disposed to engage with these institutions.
Adaptive body awareness predicts fewer central sensitization-related symptoms and explains relationship between central sensitization-related symptoms and pain intensity: A cross-sectional study among individuals with chronic pain.

BACKGROUND Central sensitization (CS), defined as the amplification of neural signaling within the CNS that elicits pain hypersensitivity, is thought be a characteristic of several chronic pain conditions. Maladaptive body awareness is thought to contribute and maintain CS. Less is known about the relationship between CS and adaptive body awareness. PURPOSE This cross-sectional study investigated relationships among self-reported adaptive body awareness (Multidimensional Interoceptive Awareness Scale-2; MAIA-2), CS-related symptoms (Central Sensitization Inventory; CSI), and pain intensity and further delineate potential direct and indirect links among these constructs. METHODS Online surveys were administered to 280 individuals with chronic pain reporting elevated CSI scores. Strategic sampling targeted respondents to reflect the 2010 census. Pearson's correlations characterized overall relationship between variables. Multiple regression analyses investigated potential direct links. A path analysis assessed mediational effects of CS-related symptoms on the relationship between adaptive body awareness and pain intensity. RESULTS CSI demonstrated strong, inverse correlations with some MAIA-2 subscales, but positive correlations with others. Higher CSI scores predicted greater pain intensity (b = 0.049, p ≤ 0.001). Two MAIA-2 subscales, Not-Distracting (b = -0.56, p ≤ 0.001) and Not-Worrying (b = -1.17, p ≤ 0.001) were unique predictors of lower CSI. Not-Distracting (b = -0.05, p = 0.003) and Not-Worrying (b = -0.06, p = 0.007) uniquely predicted lower pain intensity. CSI completely mediated the relationship between adaptive body awareness and pain intensity [point estimate = -0.04; 95% bootstrap confident intervals (CI) = -0.05 to -0.02]. CONCLUSIONS Findings also support future research to explore causal relationships of variables. Findings suggest that frequency of attention to bodily sensations is distinct from cognitive-affective appraisal of bodily sensation, and the two distinct higher order processes may have divergent influences on perceived pain and CS-related symptoms. Results also support future research to explore causal relationships of variables.
Columnar Formats for Schemaless LSM-based Document Stores

In the last decade, document store database systems have gained more traction for storing and querying large volumes of semi-structured data. However, the flexibility of the document stores' data models has limited their ability to store data in a columnar-major layout - making them less performant for analytical workloads than column store relational databases. In this paper, we propose several techniques based on piggy-backing on Log-Structured Merge (LSM) tree events and tailored to document stores to store document data in a columnar layout. We first extend the Dremel format, a popular on-disk columnar format for semi-structured data, to comply with document stores' flexible data model. We then introduce two columnar layouts for organizing and storing data in LSM-based storage. We also highlight the potential of using query compilation techniques for document stores, where values' types are known only at runtime. We have implemented and evaluated our techniques to measure their impact on storage, data ingestion, and query performance in Apache AsterixDB. Our experiments show significant performance gains, improving the query execution time by orders of magnitude while minimally impacting ingestion performance.
Algebraic Content of Chiral Symmetry and the Strong Transitions of Heavy Mesons

The algebraic content of chiral symmetry constrains the strong interactions of mesons containing a single heavy quark. We show that the S-wave single-pion transition amplitudes of all heavy meson states are determined as a consequence of the participation of these states in reducible multiplets of unbroken $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$. We find this representation content by making use of phenomenologically inspired Lie-algebraic sum rules, together with QCD constraints on the heavy meson spectrum in the heavy quark limit. For example, the transition amplitude for the process $P^*\rightarrow P\pi$, where $P$ is a $D$ or a $B$ meson, is predicted to vanish. We also consider the Kaon system in light of our general conclusions for $I=\oneh$ states.