cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
THE 1920'S BOOM, THE GREAT CRASH AND AFTER

Coolidge's antitrust authorities promoted merger and trade associations. Hoover abruptly reversed course in 1929 and precipitated a three-year struggle over antitrust reform. These shifting policies and the political struggle over antitrust offer an explanation for the 1920s boom and merger wave, the October 1929 Crash and the end of the merger wave, and some of the volatility that followed. For 1919- 1930, quarterly stock returns are negatively related to Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice merger case filings and positively related to merger activity. For the two weeks of the crash, firms that had made acquisitions in 1928 and 1929 lost 4 percent more in value. Finally, the 322 New York Times news articles on antitrust for 1929-32 is linked with an increase in stock market volatility.
Utility Optimality Method for Pipeline Integrity Maintenance Costs

The integrity maintenance of old pipeline network is a major task for pipeline transportation company. Because the pipeline system is complicated and maintenance budget is restricted by financial capability the administrators must not invest in pipeline integrity maintenance until the deliberate consideration is made. In contrast he should distribute the maintenance fund in the best way. Through the analysis of pipeline integrity maintenance costs this paper suggests to apply utility function to optimize the costs and gives the definition of pipeline integrity maintenance costs. This method determines the optimization maintenance costs on the basis of the results of quantitative evaluation of pipeline risk and sufficient consideration of decision-maker's favor sensation for pipeline failure aftereffect.
Cardiac output in infants and children after open-heart surgery.

Green dye measurements of cardiac index (in liters per minute per square meter) were compared in 32 infants and 58 children, 6 and 24 hours after normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. Cardiac index was significantly lower in infants under one year of age, as compared to older infants and children. This parameter was also lower in patients with total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage, truncus arteriosus, and tetralogy of Fallot. Five infants who died had 6-hour cardiac index determinations of 2.0 L./min./sq. M. Only 2 of 27 survivors had cardiac indices below this level. Simultaneously recorded heart rate and central venous pressure did not correlate with cardiac index. Systolic blood pressure was significantly lower in infants in whom the cardiac index was less than 2.0 L./min./sq. M. (p
Household-level effects of electricity on income

This paper studies the effect of electricity on income, using the Nepal Living Standards Survey-III (NLSSIII), carried out in the years 2010-11. To account for endogeneity issues, we use Three Stage Least Squares (3SLS), and Two Stage Probit Least Squares (2SPLS) models. We find that causality runs both ways. That is, income explains whether a household is connected to electricity, but also, a household being connected to electricity has a very large and significant effect on income. A household being connected to electricity increases consumption per capita by 18% on average.
Comment Chrysler a créé un keiretsu americain.

Illustration d’un des elements du management de la supply chain : la strategie fournisseurs. Presentation de la politique de partenariat mise en place par Chrysler avec ses fournisseurs, a l’image du modele japonais du Keiretsu. Cette version americaine du modele demontre qu’il est possible de transformer des fournisseurs mefiants en allies enthousiastes sur la base d’un partage des risques et des profits.
Footprinting with an automated capillary DNA sequencer

Footprinting is a valuable tool for studying DNA-protein contacts. However, it usually involves expensive, tedious and hazardous steps such as radioactive labeling and analyses on polyacrylamide sequencing gels. We have developed an easy four-step footprinting method involving (i) the generation and purification of a PCR fragment that is fluorescently labeled at one end with 6-carboxyfluorescein; (ii) brief exposure of the fragment to a DNA-binding protein and then DNase I; (iii) spin-column purification; and (iv) analysis of partial digestion products on the ABI Prism 310 capillary DNA sequencer/genetic analyzer. Very detailed and sensitive footprints of large (> 400 bp) DNA fragments can be easily obtained, as illustrated by our use of this method to characterize binding of PhcA, a LysR-type activator, to two sites greater than 100 bp apart in the 5' untranslated region of xpsR, one of its regulated target genes. The advantages of this new method are that it (i) uses long-lived, safe and easy-to-make fluorescently labeled target fragments; (ii) uses sensitive, robust and highly reproducible fragment analysis using an automated DNA sequencer, instead of gel electrophoresis and autoradiography; and (iii) is cost effective.
Perspective-A New Look at Conflict Management in Work Groups

Members of work groups are highly interdependent and often share incompatible values, objectives, and opinions. As a result, conflict frequently arises. Given the profound impact of conflict on group effectiveness, scholars have sought to identify strategies that can mitigate its downsides and leverage its upsides. Yet research on conflict management strategies has accumulated inconsistent results. In this Perspectives piece, we argue that these inconsistent findings can be resolved if scholars take a more expansive view of the consequences of conflict management strategies: whereas existing research considers how individual strategies influence a single group conflict type relational, status, process, or task, we consider the impact of individual strategies on all four conflict types. After building a typology by organizing strategies according to the conflict type that each is best equipped to manage, we argue that the strategies most appropriate for managing one type of conflict may systematically backfire by escalating other conflict types. For example, the adoption of a superordinate identity is likely to resolve relational conflict, yet exacerbate status conflict. In addition to uncovering these instances of "negative spillovers," we shed light on the rarer phenomena of "positive spillovers," which occur when conflict management strategies resolve conflict types they were not originally designed to influence. By highlighting how individual conflict management strategies influence multiple conflict types-often in contrasting ways-this Perspectives article reconciles conflicting findings and redirects the literature by providing scholars with new recommendations on how to study conflict management in work groups.
Data Sharing Between Providers and Quality Initiatives Eliminate Unnecessary Nursing Home Admissions

Abstract Background The Michigan Arthroplasty Registry Collaborative Quality Initiative (MARCQI) has monitored discharge disposition, after total hip and knee arthroplasties, since inception in 2012 and found the standardized risk of extended care facility (ECF) placement to be highly variable between hospitals. Methods The variation in standardized risks of ECF placement among MARCQI member sites was reported to the collaborative. At the May 2, 2014 quarterly meeting, a quality initiative was started, emphasizing the wide variability between hospitals, the contribution of hospital and surgeon to that variability using median odds ratios, and the need for outlier hospitals to initiate quality improvement (QI) processes. Patients from 29 hospitals that were members of MARCQI before the intervention were included in this analysis. We compared standardized risks before and after the intervention in the entire cohort, and for 3 hospitals that implemented institution-specific QI projects. We report changes in ECF placement, length of stay, emergency room visits, and readmissions over time. Results This study includes 31,347 patients before and 20,879 patients after the implementation of the quality initiative. The range in standardized risk dropped from 9.4%-46.1% to 9.4%-32.4% and the average dropped from 23.0% to 19.6%. Three outlier hospitals decreased their absolute risk of ECF placement by 12.2%, 8.9%, and 12.4% after QI, without increases in adverse outcomes. Conclusion Discharge to ECF after primary hip and knee arthroplasties is highly variable and influenced by hospital and surgeon practices. Hospital-level QI measures can decrease ECF admissions.
Modeling and Inverse Compensation of Hysteresis in Supercoiled Polymer Artificial Muscles

The supercoiled polymer (SCP) actuator is a recently discovered artificial muscle that demonstrates significant mechanical power, large contraction, and good dynamic range in a muscle-like form factor. There has been a rapid increase of research efforts devoted to the study of SCP actuators. For robotics, SCP actuators overcome specific challenges of artificial muscles such as shape memory alloy wires, where limited strain and slow dynamics, and power consumption had limited their use. It is known that hysteresis nonlinearity results from coiling the threads, and can cause up to 30% strain difference under the same voltage; however, no work has been reported to characterize the hysteresis in SCP actuators. In this paper, three new models are formulated to characterize the hysteretic relationship between three coupled variables (voltage input, strain, and load) of an SCP actuator, namely, the augmented generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii model, the augmented Preisach model, and the augmented linear model. By incorporating the relationship between hysteresis curves and loading forces, the proposed models can efficiently characterize the hysteresis. Open-loop position control is further realized through inverse compensation. Experimental results show that the proposed schemes can effectively estimate and compensate the hysteresis. For the first time, the hysteresis characterization and compensation of SCP actuators are successfully demonstrated, such that accurate robot control can be realized.
Evaluation of Primary Mediastinal Large B Cell Lymphoma by Flow Cytometry

Background Primary mediastinal large B cell lymphoma (PMLBCL) is a B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) that shows morphologic, immunophenotypic, and genetic similarities to classical Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL). We evaluated the neoplastic and reactive infiltrate of PMLBCL by flow cytometry (FC). Methods A total of 24 cases of PMLBCL were retrospectively characterized using FC combinations for B-NHL, T-NHL, and CHL. Results The CHL assay identified the neoplastic population (NP) in all cases, while the B-NHL assay identified the NP in 18 of 24 cases. In four cases, the neoplastic population was retrospectively identified in the B-NHL tube, given the CHL tube-derived immunophenotype. Neoplastic cells of PMLBCL displayed a B cell immunophenotype (CD19/CD20+), with CD40 consistently and brightly expressed. Most cases lacked immunoglobulin light chains, CD10, and CD15; CD30 was frequently expressed. All cases showed expression of CD71 and CD95. The reactive infiltrate in PMLBCL showed increases in T cells relative to reactive tissues. Lower CD4/CD8 ratios in PMLBCL relative to CHL and reactive tissues were also observed. Although not seen as commonly as with CHL, 41% of cases showed a reactive CD3/CD4/CD7bright/CD45bright+ T cell population. Reactive populations seen in PMLBCL were similar to that seen in diffuse large B cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified. Conclusions FC can detect the NP of PMLBCL and a FC assay for CHL performed better than a B-NHL assay in this regard. The neoplastic cells showed a B cell immunophenotype with over-expression of CD40. The reactive infiltrate in PMLBCL shows unique features including a prominent CD8+ T cell infiltrate. © 2017 International Clinical Cytometry Society
Nanoelectromechanical systems-enabled tunable metamaterials

This paper reports on a nanoelectromechanical systems-based tunable IR metamaterial realized by embedding nanocantilevers into complementary split ring resonator structures suspended over individual wells. The optical field confined in the air gap of c-SRR is strongly modulated by electromechanical deflection of the nanocantilever, thus modulating the reflection spectrum of the metamaterial. With the easy-to-implement tunable meta-atom design, the NEMS-enabled metamaterial provides an ultrahigh mechanical modulation frequency of 32.26 MHz and 38% optical signal modulation at a wavelength of 2.1 μm. We envision a compact, efficient, and high-speed electro-optic modulation platform in the IR region using this tunable metamaterial technology.
The relationship between mucosal immunity, nasopharyngeal carriage, asymptomatic transmission and the resurgence of Bordetella pertussis .

The incidence of whooping cough in the US has been rising slowly since the 1970s, but the pace of this has accelerated sharply since acellular pertussis vaccines replaced the earlier whole cell vaccines in the late 1990s. A similar trend occurred in many other countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Spain, following the switch to acellular vaccines. The key question is why. Two leading theories (short duration of protective immunologic persistence and evolutionary shifts in the pathogen to evade the vaccine) explain some but not all of these shifts, suggesting that other factors may also be important. In this synthesis, we argue that sterilizing mucosal immunity that blocks or abbreviates the duration of nasopharyngeal carriage of Bordetella pertussis and impedes person-to-person transmission (including between asymptomatically infected individuals) is a critical factor in this dynamic. Moreover, we argue that the ability to induce such mucosal immunity is fundamentally what distinguishes whole cell and acellular pertussis vaccines and may be pivotal to understanding much of the resurgence of this disease in many countries that adopted acellular vaccines. Additionally, we offer the hypothesis that observed herd effects generated by acellular vaccines may reflect a modification of disease presentation leading to reduced potential for transmission by those already infected, as opposed to inducing resistance to infection among those who have been exposed.
Mitigation of postnatal ethanol-induced neuroinflammation ameliorates trace fear memory deficits in juvenile rats.

Abstract Impairments in behavior and cognition are common in individuals diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). In this study, FASD model rats were intragastrically intubated with ethanol (5 g/kg/day; 5E), sham-intubated (SI), or maintained as naive controls (NC) over postnatal days (PD) 4–9. Ethanol exposure during this human third trimester-equivalent period induces persistent impairments in hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. The ability of ibuprofen (IBU), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, to diminish ethanol-induced neuroinflammation and rescue deficits in hippocampus-dependent trace fear conditioning (TFC) was investigated in 5E rats. Phosphate buffered saline vehicle (VEH) or IBU was injected 2 h following ethanol exposure over PD4-9, followed by quantification of inflammation-related genes in the dorsal hippocampus of PD10 rats. The 5E-VEH rats exhibited significant increases in Il1b and Tnf , but not Itgam or Gfap , relative to NC, SI-VEH, and 5E-IBU rats. In separate groups of PD31-33 rats, conditioned fear (freezing) was significantly reduced in 5E-VEH rats during TFC testing, but not acquisition, compared to SI-VEH and, critically, 5E-IBU rats. Results suggest neuroimmune activation in response to ethanol within the neonate hippocampus contributes to later-life cognitive dysfunction.
Learning from Rare Events: Dynamic Cell Scheduling for ATM Networks

The large gap between the systems analyzed by classical queueing theory and ATM networks cries out for solutions based on learning. Even those few problems amenable to classical analysis techniques have a component that defies explicit analysis — the intrinsic uncertainties associated with describing and controlling the flows in high performance, mixed service networks. Unlike the stationary, uncorrelated sources characteristic of queueing theory, the pattern of arrivals in these systems are highly correlated in time. Exploiting these correlations, either directly, with a predictive model, or indirectly, as in reinforcement learning, can result in significant performance gains. Queuing systems have another property requiring the application of non-traditional control techniques; the rewards, or more often penalties, associated with control actions are delayed and non-linear. For example, a control action can allow a buffer to fill up without incurring a short term performance penalty but may result in a large delayed penalty if a subsequent burst of activity causes an overflow. Control problems with delayed rewards require techniques that find optimal sequences or trajectories instead of responding to just the instantaneous state of the system.
Colored dissolved organic matter in seawater

Abstract: Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) has become increasingly valuable as a proxy for dissolved organic carbon and as a tracer for biogeochemical and physical processes in the ocean. A variety of benchtop and in situ instruments are available for CDOM measurement both by absorption (color) and fluorescence; however, several precautions are required for accurate measurement, especially for hyperspectral techniques.
Indirect Approaches to Fundamental Theory

It is a pleasure to return to Erice for this meeting on the history of elementary particle physics. It has been my practice at such conferences to present personal reminiscences, which may be regarded as thread to be woven into history by others. This occasion is no exception. I should like to recall today certain features that characterized much of my research on elementary particle physics and to relate them to the influence exerted on my thinking by Viki Weisskopf, whom I was lucky enough to have as my thesis supervisor when I was in graduate school at M. I. T.
Current Climate and Recent Trends

While the paleoclimatic record is based on indirect measurements—for example, biological and geological indicators—more recent climate history is defined largely by in situ observations over the last 100–150 years.
Mixed-methods content and sentiment analysis of adolescents' voice diaries describing daily experiences with asthma and self-management decision-making.

Background Accurate symptom assessment remains challenging in teen populations. Little is known of usual symptom/response patterns, and self-reported paper diaries have traditionally low compliance rates. Therefore, we used concurrent digital voice diaries to capture daily asthma experiences. Objective (a) To qualitatively explore usual symptom patterns and self-management responses and (b) to quantitatively explore relationships between symptom severity and sentiment scores (a marker of emotional response to events). Methods Fourteen minority and nonminority teenagers (age 13-17) with controlled (50%) and uncontrolled asthma used digital recorders to report about their asthma once daily over 14 days. Dairy entries were coded for symptom frequency, severity, type, and self-management responses, while sentiment analysis was used to evaluate the emotional valence of diary entries and to explore whether increased symptom levels correlated with greater negative sentiment. Results Symptom frequency and severity recorded in voice diaries were much higher than teens indicated at baseline and were discordant with clinical assessments of asthma control. Of 175 entries, teens had symptoms 69.1% of days (121/175) and severe symptoms on one-third of these. Atypical symptoms (coughing, throat clearing) were reported twice as often as traditional symptoms (wheezing, chest tightness) and often not recognized as asthma, but rather attributed to being "sick" (25.6% of symptom days). Teens frequently minimized symptoms, used rescue and controller medication inconsistently, and resorted to alternative strategies to manage symptoms. Sentiment was not significantly correlated with assessed control (β = 0.14, P = 0.28), but for teens reporting severe symptoms, sentiment scores decreased by 0.31 relative to teens without symptoms (P = 0.006). Conclusions and clinical relevance Teens may minimize symptoms and have greater symptom frequency and severity than is recognized by themselves or providers. Screening for specific symptoms including coughing, throat clearing, and respiratory illness may be needed to identify those experiencing burden from asthma.
Treating prolonged post-concussion symptoms in a pediatric patient with the simultaneous application of cognitive behavioral therapy and subthreshold exercise: A case study

Objective Use a novel, simultaneously applied cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and subthreshold exercise treatment (STE) for a 14-year old patient with persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS) to facilitate a return to function in school/sport. Background Patient sustained a mild TBI while playing basketball on October 29, 2016. Neurologic exam on July 7, 2017 was negative, but the patient reported PPCS, with a graded symptom checklist (GSC) score of 26. Primary symptoms were headache and anxiety in relation to cognitive and/or physical exertion. The patient attributed anxiety to anticipating the onset of symptoms after exercise. Design/methods The 6-week combined CBT/STE intervention included psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and relaxation training combined with the STE protocol. Supervised physical exertion exposure began with aerobic exercise on a stationary bike and progressed to sport-specific activity while the patient simultaneously engaged in CBT. Pre- and post-intervention data included physiologic measures (heart rate [HR] and power output [PO] on exercise bike), a subjective measure of exertion (Borg9s Rating of Perceived Exertion [RPE]), and psychological self-report questionnaires. Results After 6 sessions, patient was able to engage in strenuous exercise with reduced symptom exacerbation as demonstrated by his ability to reach 175 bpm HR with 350 watts of PO with decreased reported symptoms, a significant improvement from the first session. The patient reported a decrease in anxiety and psychological distress as well as an increase in emotional and school functioning. Parent report indicated an increase in the patient9s overall health, social, and emotional functioning. Conclusions Engaging in a six-week combined CBT/STE protocol resulted in improvements in ability to tolerate physical exertion, decreases in psychological distress, and a return to function. This case study demonstrated the feasibility & positive impact of simultaneous, dual treatment model for PPCS in adolescents. It also highlighted the need to address the psychological distress that occurs in patients with PPCS.
How We Do It: Creating Consistent Structure and Content in Abdominal Radiology Report Templates.

OBJECTIVE. The purposes of this article are to describe the creation of template report formats and content for a variety of abdominal and pelvic CT and MRI examinations and discuss a review-of-sys...
A Global Socio-economic-medico-legal Model for the Sustainability of Longitudinal Electronic Health Records. Part 1

Objectives: This paper pursues the challenge of sustaining lifetime electronic health records (EHRs) based on a comprehensive socio-economic-medico-legal model. The notion of a lifetime EHR extends the emerging concept of a longitudinal and cross-institutional EHR and is invaluable information for increasing patient safety and quality of care. Methods: The challenge is how to compile and sustain a coherent EHR across the lifetime of an individual. Several existing and hypothetical models are described, analyzed and compared in an attempt to suggest a preferred approach. Results: The vision is that lifetime EHRs should be sustained by new players in the healthcare arena, who will function as independent health record banks (IHRBs). Multiple competing IHRBs would be established and regulated following preemptive legislation. They should be neither owned by healthcare providers nor by health insurer/payers or government agencies. The new legislation should also stipulate that the records located in these banks be considered the medico-legal copies of an individual’s records, and that healthcare providers no longer serve as the legal record keepers. Conclusions: The proposed model is not centered on any of the current players in the field; instead, it is focussed on the objective service of sustaining individual EHRs, much like financial banks maintain and manage financial assets. This revolutionary structure provides two main benefits: 1) Healthcare organizations will be able to cut the costs of long-term record keeping, and 2) healthcare providers will be able to provide better care based on the availability of a lifelong EHR of their new patients.
Congressional Communication Managers’ Roles, Motivations and Messages Related to U.S. Foreign Policy

This analysis provides a broad overview of the roles, motivations and messages of the United States Congress’ 500+ press secretaries/communications managers employed by virtually every U.S. senator and representative. It focuses, in particular and for the first time, on their communications related to U.S. foreign (as opposed to domestic) policies. Doing so it summarizes select findings from a book the author has written, the prospectus for which is under review, with the title, Press Secretary: The Story of Capitol Hill’s Image Makers. The analysis reports the press secretaries build close relationships with the Members of Congress they faithfully serve; function best when practicing the Two-Way Symmetrical Model of public relations; use common persuasive techniques employed by public relations specialists worldwide; stress “truthfulness” in their communications; practice a “wave model” when choosing issues on which to focus; experience new media’s challenges and opportunities; and suggests their work ultimately serves the U.S. democracy. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be. - Marshall McLuhan
A 20-year-old woman with Cushing's disease and a pulmonary nodule

Presentation of Case A 20-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of a diagnosis of central Cushing's disease. She was well until a year and a half earlier, when hypertension developed in the third trimester of pregnancy and was managed by diet alone. After delivery her weight decreased to 54.5 kg. She was able to nurse the child, and normal menses resumed, but during the next few months her weight increased inexorably so that one year before admission she weighed 81.8 kg. A diet and exercise were prescribed but did not reverse the process. She also began to experience . . .
Humanin induces conformational changes in the apoptosis regulator BAX and sequesters it into fibers, preventing mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization

The mitochondrial, or intrinsic, apoptosis pathway is regulated mainly by members of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) protein family. BCL-2–associated X apoptosis regulator (BAX) plays a pivotal role in the initiation of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis as one of the factors causing mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization (MOMP). Of current interest are endogenous BAX ligands that inhibit its MOMP activity. Mitochondrial-derived peptides (MDPs) are a recently identified class of mitochondrial retrograde signaling molecules and are reported to be potent apoptosis inhibitors. Among them, humanin (HN) has been shown to suppress apoptosis by inhibiting BAX translocation to the mitochondrial outer membrane, but the molecular mechanism of this interaction is unknown. Here, using recombinant protein expression, along with light-scattering, CD, and fluorescence spectroscopy, we report that HN and BAX can form fibers together in vitro. Results from negative stain EM experiments suggest that BAX undergoes secondary and tertiary structural rearrangements and incorporates into the fibers, and that its membrane-associating C-terminal helix is important for the fibrillation process. Additionally, HN mutations known to alter its anti-apoptotic activity affect fiber morphology. Our findings reveal for the first time a potential mechanism by which BAX can be sequestered by fibril formation, which can prevent it from initiating MOMP and committing the cell to apoptosis.
Income Sustainability in Retirement: A Case Study of the Life-Cycle Account

This article uses Monte Carlo analysis to simulate returns for a popular retirement portfolio strategy and the income derived from it in retirement in order to calculate the chance of it being depleted while the retiree is still alive. The author analyzes and contrasts several withdrawal strategies from the account to illustrate the important tradeoffs between income needs and account sustainability. Furthermore, the simulations are compared with payouts from an annuity to show the important differences between each vehicle’s ability to provide income. The primary findings are that portfolios have a higher chance of account instability with advanced age and income needs, whereas annuities may provide less income earlier in retirement, but the income is sustainable for life. TOPICS:Wealth management, retirement, pension funds, analysis of individual factors/risk premia Key Findings • The article simulates account balances and annual income withdrawals from a life-cycle investment fund held into retirement. The stochastic simulations generally showed relatively higher rates of account exhaustion past age 90. • The analyzed accounts were spent down in two ways: (1) at the Internal Revenue Service–mandated required minimum distribution (RMD) rule and (2) at a withdrawal rule equal to the maximum of either the RMD or a fixed amount to allow investors to smooth income over the rest of their life. This allows for a comprehensive analysis of differential income from a portfolio in retirement because of stochastic investment returns. The simulations show significant heterogeneity with respect to income in retirement when the drawdown follows the Internal Revenue Service’s rule for RMDs. The principal findings also show that when retirees follow a fixed annual withdrawal rule, they face nontrivial probabilities that they will either outlive their retirement savings or face the prospect of significantly diminished income at a time when additional work is not feasible. • When the spend-down simulations are compared with an annuity—low-fixed income withdrawals from the account—real annuity payouts typically offer higher income in retirement until advanced ages. As income needs rise, the life-cycle account may offer higher income early in retirement, but with an increasing probability of account depletion later in retirement, upon which the account becomes exhausted while the annuity still provides income.
Baseline diet modifies the effects of dietary change

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating pattern has been shown to reduce blood pressure (BP) in previous clinical trials. In the PREMIER study, an established behavioural intervention, with or without DASH, promoted greater weight loss than an advice-only control group, but effects of the DASH intervention on BP were weaker. In these analyses, PREMIER data were used to evaluate whether change in dairy product or fruit and vegetable (FV) intake during the first six intervention months impacted changes in weight and/or BP. Study participants were classified as having low or high intakes of dairy products (<1·5 v. ≥1·5 servings/d) and FV (<5 v. ≥5 servings/d) at baseline and 6 months. For dairy products, in particular, participants with higher baseline intakes tended to decrease their intakes during the intervention. In these analyses, subjects consuming <1·5 dairy servings/d at baseline whose intake increased during the intervention lost more weight than those whose intake decreased or remained low throughout (10·6 v. 7·0 pounds (4·8 v. 3·2 kg) lost, respectively, P = 0·002). The same was true for FV intake (11·0 v. 5·9 pounds (5·0 v. 2·7 kg) lost, P < 0·001). We also found synergistic effects of dairy products and FV on weight loss and BP reduction. Specifically, subjects who increased their intakes of dairy products and also consumed ≥5 servings of FV/d lost more weight and had greater reductions in BP than other groups; in addition, higher FV intakes had the greatest benefit to BP among those consuming more dairy products. These results provide evidence that the DASH pattern was most beneficial to individuals whose baseline diet was less consistent with DASH.
Composite cores and tamper yield: Lesser-known aspects of Manhattan Project fission bombs

This paper examines the physics of two lesser-known aspects of the nuclear weapons produced in the Manhattan Project: The idea of constructing weapons with so-called composite cores (that is, ones which would have comprised combinations of uranium and plutonium), and the fact that some 30% of the plutonium-fueled Fat Man yield was due to fissions in the uranium-238 tamper of that weapon, fissions induced by high-energy neutrons liberated by fissions in the plutonium core. Simple models of both issues give results in reasonable accord with available data.
Modeling the combined impacts of host plant resistance and biological control on the population dynamics of a major pest of wheat.

BACKGROUND: Single‐tool approaches often fail to provide effective long‐term suppression of pest populations, such that combining several tools into an integrated management strategy is critical. Yet studies that harness the power of population models to explore the relative efficacy of various management tools and their combinations remain rare. We constructed a Leslie matrix population model to evaluate the potential of crop resistance, acting alone or in combination with biological control, to reduce populations of the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton, a major pest of wheat in North America. RESULTS: Our model projections indicated that crop resistance reduced, but did not stop, C. cinctus population growth, suggesting that implementing multiple management tools will be necessary for longer term control of this pest. The levels of parasitism needed to curtail population growth were much lower in model projections for resistant solid‐stemmed compared with susceptible hollow‐stemmed cultivars (22% versus 86%). Furthermore, even when accounting for the reduced levels of parasitism observed in resistant cultivars, projected population growth rates for C. cinctus were always lower in resistant compared with susceptible wheat cultivars. CONCLUSION: Despite some empirical evidence for antagonistic interactions between resistance and biological control, our models suggest that combining these two approaches will always reduce population growth rates to lower levels than implementing either strategy alone. More work focused on integrating biological control into crop resistance breeding programs, and determining how these approaches affect performance of limiting life stages, will be important to optimize sustainable approaches to integrated pest management in this system and more broadly. Published 2020. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Increased Immunoreactive Erythropoietin in Serum and Kidney Extracts of Rats With Ni 3 S 2 -Induced Erythrocytossis

Radioimmunoassay of erythropoietin (epo) was performed upon serum samples and kidney extracts from rats that received intrarenal injections of nickel subsulfide (Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/, 20 mg/rat). Serum epo concentrations were significantly increased from 1 to 4 weeks after Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/ injection; the highest values occurred at 3 weeks, when serum epo in 5 Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/-treated rats averaged 230 mU/ml (range = 94 - 370 mU/ml); for comparison, serum epo in 21 vehicle-treated controls averaged 19 mU/ml (range = <14 - 56 mU/ml, P <0.01). In kidney extracts of 5 rats killed 3 weeks after Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/ injection, epo concentrations averaged 970 mU/g (range = 210 - 1880 mU/g); for comparison, epo in kidney extracts of 6 controls averaged 99 mU/g (range = 40 - 140 mU/g, P <0.005). These radioimmunoassays confirm previous bioassay findings that serum epo concentrations are significantly increased in rats with Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/-induced erythrocytosis. Contrary to bioassay findings, this study demonstrates increased immunoreactive epo concentrations in kidney extracts of Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/-treated rats, suggesting that renal epo in Ni/sub 3/S/sub 2/-treated rats occurs in a form that lacks biological activity in vivo. 15 references, 2 figures.
Challenging the "Scoop and Run" Model for Management of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) represents an enormous public health challenge in the US, with an estimated incidence of 140.7 per 100 000 persons per year.1 Of the 347 322 cases of OHCA assessed by emergency medical services (EMS) in 2015, 52% underwent resuscitation efforts with 10.4% of these surviving to hospital discharge.1 There is, however, significant regional variation in the incidence of, mortality due to, and survival to discharge associated with OHCA.2 Historically, management of OHCA in the US was guided by the model of rapidly transporting the patient to a hospital, in contrast to the model used in France and Germany of treating the patient at the scene.3 The promise of multiple potential in-hospital OHCA therapies4,5 and recent research into potential innovations in the out-of-hospital management6,7 have only fueled the debate between these 2 models, which in EMS parlance have been described, respectively, as “scoop and run” and “stay and play.”8
Accurate, efficient and scalable training of Graph Neural Networks

Abstract Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are powerful deep learning models to generate node embeddings on graphs. When applying deep GNNs on large graphs, it is still challenging to perform training in an efficient and scalable way. We propose a novel parallel training framework. Through sampling small subgraphs as minibatches, we reduce training workload by orders of magnitude compared with state-of-the-art minibatch methods. We then parallelize the key computation steps on tightly-coupled shared memory systems. For graph sampling, we exploit parallelism within and across sampler instances, and propose an efficient data structure supporting concurrent accesses from samplers. The parallel sampler theoretically achieves near-linear speedup with respect to number of processing units. For feature propagation within subgraphs, we improve cache utilization and reduce DRAM traffic by data partitioning. Our partitioning is a 2-approximation strategy for minimizing the communication cost compared to the optimal. We further develop a runtime scheduler to reorder the training operations and adjust the minibatch subgraphs to improve parallel performance. Finally, we generalize the above parallelization strategies to support multiple types of GNN models and graph samplers. The proposed training outperforms the state-of-the-art in scalability, efficiency and accuracy simultaneously. On a 40-core Xeon platform, we achieve 60 × speedup (with AVX) in the sampling step and 20 × speedup in the feature propagation step, compared to the serial implementation. Our algorithm enables fast training of deeper GNNs, as demonstrated by orders of magnitude speedup compared to the Tensorflow implementation. We open-source our code at https://github.com/GraphSAINT/GraphSAINT
Germline BRCA1 mutated esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

The most common associated malignancies with BRCA mutations include breast and ovarian cancers. Less common malignancies associated with BRCA mutation include: pancreatic, prostate, colon, gastric, and biliary cancers. Esophageal cancer, particularly squamous cell carcinoma, has rarely been reported to harbor BRCA mutations. Here we report, to our knowledge, the first case of germline BRCA1 mutated associated esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
A Novel Role of SLC26A3 in the Maintenance of Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Integrity.

Background & Aims The down-regulated in adenoma (DRA) protein, encoded by SLC26A3, a key intestinal chloride anion exchanger, has recently been identified as a novel susceptibility gene for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the mechanisms underlying the increased susceptibility to inflammation induced by the loss of DRA remain elusive. Compromised barrier is a key event in IBD pathogenesis. The current studies were undertaken to elucidate the impact of DRA deficiency on epithelial barrier integrity and to define underlying mechanisms. Methods Wild-type and DRA-knockout (KO) mice and crypt-derived colonoids were used as models for intestinal epithelial response. Paracellular permeability was measured by using fluorescein isothiocyanate–dextran flux. Immunoblotting, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and ribonucleoprotein immunoprecipitation assays were performed. Gut microbiome analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of DRA deficiency on gut microbial communities. Results DRA-KO mice exhibited an increased colonic paracellular permeability with significantly decreased levels of tight junction/adherens junction proteins, including ZO-1, occludin, and E-cadherin. A similar expression pattern of occludin and E-cadherin was observed in colonoids derived from DRA-KO mice and short hairpin RNA–mediated DRA knockdown in Caco-2 cells. Microbial analysis showed gut dysbiosis in DRA-KO mice. However, cohousing studies showed that dysbiosis played only a partial role in maintaining tight junction protein expression. Furthermore, our results showed increased binding of RNA-binding protein CUGBP1 with occludin and E-cadherin genes in DRA-KO mouse colon, suggesting that posttranscriptional mechanisms play a key role in gut barrier dysfunction. Conclusions To our knowledge, our studies demonstrate a novel role of DRA in maintaining the intestinal epithelial barrier function and potential implications of its dysregulation in IBD pathogenesis.
Exploration of Intersectionality and Computer Science Demographics: Understanding the Historical Context of Shifts in Participation

Although computing occupations have some of the greatest projected growth rates, there remains a deficit of graduates in these fields. The struggle to engage enough students to meet demands is particularly pronounced for groups already underrepresented in computing, specifically, individuals that self-identify as a woman, or as Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or Native American. Prior studies have begun to examine issues surrounding engagement and retention, but more understanding is needed to close the gap, and to broaden participation. In this research, we provide quantitative evidence from the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development—a longitudinal, multi-institutional database to describe participation trends of marginalized groups in computer science. Using descriptive statistics, we present the enrollment and graduation rates for those situated at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender between 1987 and 2018. In this work, we observed periods of significant flux for Black men and women, and White women in particular, and consistently low participation of Hispanic/Latinx and Native American men and women, and Asian women. To provide framing for the evident peaks and valleys in participation, we applied historical context analysis to describe the political, economic, and social factors and events that may have impacted each group. These results put a spotlight on populations largely overlooked in statistical work and have the potential to inform educators, administrators, and researchers about how enrollments and graduation rates have changed over time in computing fields. In addition, they offer insight into potential causes for the vicissitudes, to encourage more equal access for all students going forward.
Microglial Function and Regulation during Development, Homeostasis and Alzheimer’s Disease

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain, deriving from yolk sac progenitors that populate the brain parenchyma during development. During development and homeostasis, microglia play critical roles in synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity, in addition to their primary role as immune sentinels. In aging and neurodegenerative diseases generally, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) specifically, microglial function is altered in ways that significantly diverge from their homeostatic state, inducing a more detrimental inflammatory environment. In this review, we discuss the receptors, signaling, regulation and gene expression patterns of microglia that mediate their phenotype and function contributing to the inflammatory milieu of the AD brain, as well as strategies that target microglia to ameliorate the onset, progression and symptoms of AD.
Two eigenvectors for the price of one

Starting from a mistake done by a student, we discover an unexpected method of finding both eigenvectors for a $2\times2$ matrix with distinct eigenvalues in a single computation. We discuss a connection with the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, and show the corresponding generalization for a $3 \times 3$ matrix. The arguments should be understandable for strong linear algebra students.
Design for a portable calibration system for the Full-sun UV Rocket SpecTrometer instrument

The Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket SpecTrograph (FURST) is a sounding rocket designed to acquire the first full-disk integrated high resolution vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectra of the Sun. The data enable analysis of the Sun comparable to stellar spectra measured by astronomical instruments such as those on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission is jointly operated by teams at Montana State University (MSU), developing the instrument, and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), developing the camera and calibration systems, and is scheduled to launch from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in 2022. This mission requires the development of a pre- and post-launch calibration plan for absolute radiometric and wavelength calibration to reliably generate Hubble analogue spectra. Absolute radiometric calibration, though initially planned to be performed at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) calibration facilities, is now planned to be completed with a portable VUV calibration system provided by MSFC, due to instrument incompatibilities with NIST infrastructure. The portable calibration system is developed to provide absolute wavelength calibration and track changes in calibration over the duration of the mission. The portable calibration system is composed mainly of a VUV collimator equipped with an extreme ultraviolet line source and calibrated photodiodes. The calibration system is developed to accommodate both repeatable wavelength and radiometric testing of the FURST instrument at various test sites before and after launch. Presented here are the requirements, design, and implementation of this portable calibration system with a focus on those features most significant to radiometric measurements.
Improved syntheses of halogenated benzene-1,2,3,4-tetracarboxylic diimides

The preparation of halogenated benzene-1,2,3,4-tetracarboxylic diimide derivatives is challenging because of the possibility of competitive incorrect cyclizations and SNAr reactivity. Here, we demonstrate that the direct reaction of benzene-1,2,3,4-tetracarboxylic acids with primary amines in acetic acid solvent successfully provides a range of desirable ortho-diimide products in good yields. Furthermore, we demonstrate that sterically challenging N-derivatizations can be readily achieved under microwave reactor conditions, and that SNAr reactivity is only observed when excess amine is used. The halogenated diimides described here are attractive building blocks for organic materials chemistry.