cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Upping the Ante of Text Complexity in the Common Core State Standards Examining Its Potential Impact on Young Readers

The Common Core Standards for the English Language Arts (CCSS) provide explicit guidelines matching grade-level bands (e.g., 2–3, 4–5) with targeted text complexity levels. The CCSS staircase accelerates text expectations for students across Grades 2–12 in order to close a gap in the complexity of texts typically used in high school and those of college and career. The first step of the band at second and third grades is examined because it marks the entry into the staircase and a critical developmental juncture. In this article, we examine the theoretical and empirical support for three assumptions that underlie the acceleration of text complexity in Grades 2–3. Then we identify patterns in American reading achievement and instruction to illustrate the potential and far-reaching consequences of an increase in the first step of the CCSS staircase.
Cytochrome P450-catalyzed metabolism of ezlopitant alkene (CJ-12,458), a pharmacologically active metabolite of ezlopitant: enzyme kinetics and mechanism of an alkene hydration reaction.

Experiments were conducted to characterize the metabolism of ezlopitant alkene (CJ-12,458), an active metabolite of ezlopitant, in human liver microsomes. In incubations with human liver microsomes and cofactors required for cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity, CJ-12,458 was converted to two metabolites: a diol (CP-611,781) and a 1° alcohol (CP-616,762). In human liver microsomes, apparentKM values of 5.4 and 8.5 μM were determined for the formation of diol and 1° alcohol metabolites, respectively. High KM activities were also observed for formation of these metabolites; however, the aforementioned low KM activities accounted for greater than 90% of the total intrinsic clearance. In pooled human liver microsomes, formation of both metabolites was partially inhibited by both quinidine and ketoconazole, suggesting that CYP2D6 and CYP3A enzymes are involved in the metabolism of CJ-12,458. This evidence was corroborated through the use of heterologously expressed CYP enzymes and correlation analysis with a panel of human liver microsomes. The data suggest that CYP2D6 is quantitatively more important than CYP3A in the metabolism of CJ-12,458 by a factor of about 2 to 1. The conversion of an alkene to a 1° alcohol represents a novel biotransformation reaction. Incubations using 18O2,2H2O, [2H5]CJ-12,458, and [2H]NADPH were conducted and the 1° alcohol product was characterized by ion trap mass spectrometry. From these data, a mechanism for this reaction is proposed involving epoxidation, an exocyclic hydride shift, and reduction at the benzylic position.
Coarse-to-Fine Syntactic Machine Translation using Language Projections

The intersection of tree transducer-based translation models with n-gram language models results in huge dynamic programs for machine translation decoding. We propose a multipass, coarse-to-fine approach in which the language model complexity is incrementally introduced. In contrast to previous order-based bigram-to-trigram approaches, we focus on encoding-based methods, which use a clustered encoding of the target language. Across various encoding schemes, and for multiple language pairs, we show speed-ups of up to 50 times over single-pass decoding while improving BLEU score. Moreover, our entire decoding cascade for trigram language models is faster than the corresponding bigram pass alone of a bigram-to-trigram decoder.
Vigilance in Parents' Experiences of Fetal and Infant Loss

ABSTRACT Objective To develop an in‐depth understanding of the experiences and contexts of fetal and infant mortality from the perspective of women and men who experienced a fetal or infant loss. Design Qualitative, descriptive. Setting Small urban community of 100,000. Participants Eleven women and four men who experienced a fetal (>14 weeks) or infant loss between 2006 and 2008. Methods Naturalistic inquiry. Results Vigilance was described as a part of the experience of fetal and infant mortality for study participants. Vigilance was defined as "doing everything possible to help this baby make it" despite poverty, health care inequity, and stress. Stories demonstrated vigilance amidst neighborhood violence, poverty, and stress; during early pregnancy; during changes occurring in the participants or with their babies; and when explanations of cause of death(s) were not clear. The participants desired healthy pregnancies and healthy infants; however, vigilance may have contributed to the risk for fetal and infant loss with these families. Conclusions Further study about vigilance has the potential to help health care providers understand the dynamics and consequences of fetal and infant mortality.
Pathogenicity and Immunogenicity of a Listeria monocytogenes Strain That Requires d-Alanine for Growth

Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular bacterial pathogen that elicits a strong cellular immune response following infection and therefore has potential use as a vaccine vector. However, while infections by L. monocytogenes are fairly rare and can readily be controlled by a number of antibiotics, the organism can nevertheless cause meningitis and death, particularly in immunocompromised or pregnant patients. We therefore have endeavored to isolate a highly attenuated strain of this organism for use as a vaccine vector. D-Alanine is required for the synthesis of the mucopeptide component of the cell walls of virtually all bacteria and is found almost exclusively in the microbial world. We have found in L. monocytogenes two genes that control the synthesis of this compound, an alanine racemase gene (dal) and a D-amino acid aminotransferase gene (dat). By inactivating both genes, we produced an organism that could be grown in the laboratory when supplemented with D-alanine but was unable to grow outside the laboratory, particularly in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic host cells, the natural habitat of this organism during infection. In mice, the double-mutant strain was completely attenuated. Nevertheless, it showed the ability, particularly under conditions of transient suppression of the mutant phenotype, to induce cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses and to generate protective immunity against lethal challenge by wild-type L. monocytogenes equivalent to that induced by the wild-type organism.
Equalization for Electrical Links: Current Design Techniques and Future Directions

Another article in this issue, the introductory article by Tony Chan Carusone, discussed how the limited bandwidth of an electrical channel causes distortion (e.g., broadening) of the pulses traveling from transmitter to receiver. Without compensating for such distortion, the maximum data rate of a typical electrical link would be limited to only a few gigabits per second to avoid excessive intersymbol interference (ISI). The key to achieving dramatically higher data rates (up to 56 Gb/s in the latest proposed standards) is to employ channel equalization. This article describes the most common types of equalizers used in electrical links today.
Focus on: "G protein-dependent activation of smooth muscle eNOS via natriuretic peptide clearance receptor".

coordinated contraction and relaxation of gut smooth muscle are essential for normal swallowing, gastric emptying, intestinal propulsion, and defecation. Relaxation of gastrointestinal smooth muscle is brought about by the action of inhibitory substances released by enteric nerves and other cells
Combining Cryptography and Game Theory in Distributed Algorithms

Cryptographic protocols usually work under the assumption that some of the participants are perfectly honest while others are malicious adversaries. However, for many Internet-based computations it is more reasonable to assume that all or nearly all of the participants are selfishly pursuing some well-defined objective (such as making more money). Game theory studies interactions among selfish rational participants, but usually under the assumption that there is a trusted party who can organize the game and enforce the rules. This thesis presents three different examples of combining cryptographic techniques with game-theoretic analysis to produce distributed algorithms that a group of selfish rational participants would execute correctly. One example makes minimal use of a trusted party and the other two have no trusted party. The first example is a scheme for multicast cost sharing in which there is a way for a trusted party to check whether the participants have executed the algorithm correctly and fine those who haven't. Participants maximize their payoff by executing the algorithm correctly. In the second example, two selfish players can jointly select correlated random actions without a trusted party. This is an important coordination problem. In game theory terms, the two players can achieve a correlated equilibrium without a mediator. The protocol improves on a previous solution to the same problem by being more efficient in one of the parameters (a probability distribution). The final example concerns the possibility of secret sharing when all participants are selfish and rational. We show that, under reasonable assumptions about the players' utility functions, there is no fixed-length protocol for the reconstruction of a shared secret in which selfish, rational participants will tell each other any useful information. We then provide a randomized protocol which does allow everyone to learn the reconstructed secret. We also present history independent hash tables, which are hash tables whose memory representation reveals only their contents, and no information about the order in which elements were inserted or whether any were deleted. This is a useful method of hiding information from non-cooperating agents, so it can be used as a building block in either security applications or applications involving selfish rational agents.
Pumping human milk in the early postpartum period: its impact on long-term practices for feeding at the breast and exclusively feeding human milk in a longitudinal survey cohort

Background: Most American mothers who feed human milk (HM) now use pumps to produce some of the HM they feed. Pumping is nationally recommended, but associations between pumping and HM-feeding durations are unknown. Objectives: We examined whether and how the pumping frequency and types of reasons for pumping between 1.5 and 4.5 mo postpartum are associated with HM-feeding durations. We classified pumping reasons as nonelective [e.g., because of a difficulty feeding at the breast (FAB)] or elective (e.g., to produce HM to mix with solids). We hypothesized that women who pumped more frequently or nonelectively would have shorter HM-feeding durations. Design: We used data from 1116 mothers in a longitudinal cohort who fed and pumped HM 1.5–4.5 mo postpartum. We used χ2 and Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine the survival of any HM feeding, exclusive HM feeding, and FAB. Results: Compared with mothers who pumped for elective reasons, mothers who reported one nonelective reason had greater hazards of stopping feeding any HM (HR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.21) or exclusive HM (HR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.20) and of stopping FAB (HR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.77, 2.42). Mothers who pumped most frequently had the highest mean hazards of stopping feeding any HM (HR: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.68, 1.93) and feeding exclusive HM (HR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.26). Hazards of stopping FAB varied across the year. Compared with the least-frequent pumpers, the most-frequent pumpers had a 2.6-fold higher hazard of stopping FAB at 3 mo postpartum and a 1.7-fold higher hazard at 6 mo postpartum. Conclusions: Nonelective pumping reasons and higher pumping frequency were associated with shorter HM-feeding durations. Mothers who report that they use a breast pump for reasons related to either employment or FAB difficulty and their infants may be more vulnerable to risks associated with a shorter HM-feeding duration.
Impact of On-SiteCytologic Assessment of Adequacy on Efficiency and Accuracy of Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsyof Thyroid

Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy (USGFNA) of the thyroid reportedly shows a lower rate of inadequate specimens compared with the palpation-guided approach. Nevertheless, the nondiagnostic rate for initial thyroid USGFNA performed by a radiologist without on-site microscopic assessment of adequacy can approach 20%. While on-site microscopic evaluation of specimen adequacy theoretically should reduce the rate of inadequate specimens, there …
Model Based Dynamic Routing Algorithm in Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network

In this paper,the non-topological information routing algorithms in DTN was analyzed.Then,a model based dynamic routing algorithm(MDRA)for DTN was proposed.Aiming at the difficulty of getting node location in advance,aprocess was designed to dynamically update node visiting probability and encountering probability,which can help adaptively choose the relaying nodes.Simulation implementation and performance analysis of the proposed MDRA were done.Simulation results show that with the MDRA algorithm running in DTN,the delivery ratio of the transferred message is increased and the time delay is reduced,and at the same time the generation of numerous redundant copies of the transferred message is avoided.
Ensemble of Pinanones from the Permanganate Oxidation of Myrtenal.

The buffered permanganate oxidation of (−)-myternal, a member of the pinene family, provides the α-hydroxyketone (−)-(1R,3S,5R)-3-hydroxy-6,6-dimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]heptan-2-one in preparative yield (65% on a multigram scale). This α-hydroxyketone is oxidized, in a second reaction, to the α,β-diketone (1R,5R)-6,6-dimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]heptane-2,3-dione (“PinDione”). As both oxidations are fast, simple, safe, inexpensive, good-yielding, and multigram scalable, these transformations are a preparative expansion of the pinane family.
Origins of Cells in Regenerating Systems

This chapter addresses the question of where regenerating cells come from and what the cellular precursors of particular regenerating tissues or their components are. The migrating cells in planaria have been traditionally termed neoblasts, and because of their size and staining characteristics, they are relatively easy to follow. Examination of other regenerating systems shows considerable variation in the sites of origin of the cells that participate in regeneration. In Hydra, for instance, normal body form is maintained through processes of cell streaming toward the head region and toward the peduncle on the other end. When muscle fibers are damaged, satellite cells in the area of injury become activated, but satellite cells also possess a certain ability to migrate from more distant sites toward sites of injury, particularly along the length of a muscle fiber. No question in regeneration has engendered more controversy over the years than that of the origins of the cells that constitute a regenerating structure.
The electrochemical behavior of nitinol in simulated gastric fluid

Increased use is being made of nitinol for implants that are exposed to gastric fluid. However, few corrosion studies have involved nitinol in an appropriate acidified chloride solution. In this work, the electrochemical behavior of electropolished (EP) nitinol was examined in simulated gastric fluid, the corresponding neutral solution with the same concentration (0.6%) of NaCl, and 0.9% NaCl. Cyclic potentiodynamic polarization was used to evaluate the susceptibility to pitting corrosion, while electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to examine the passive oxide film. The potentiodynamic tests showed that the susceptibility of EP nitinol to pitting corrosion is affected by chloride concentration and pH. Acidification, in particular, resulted in the susceptibility being markedly higher in gastric fluid compared with that in the corresponding neutral NaCl solution. The impedance data could be fitted using a parallel resistance-capacitance (as a constant phase element) circuit associated with the oxide film. The thickness of the oxide was determined from the capacitive component and found to be little affected by chloride concentration. In contrast, acidification increased the solubility of the oxide enough to decrease the thickness of the film from 5.3 nm in 0.6% NaCl to 4.2 nm in gastric fluid. The resistivity of the oxide obtained from the resistance was affected by chloride concentration (0.7 × 1011 and 1.7 × 1011 Ω m in 0.9% and 0.6% NaCl, respectively) and particularly by pH (6.3 × 1011 Ω m in gastric fluid). The resistivity values suggest that the oxide was more defective in the neutral solutions. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B:2394-2400, 2017.
In-situ synthesis and defect evolution of single-crystal piezoelectric nanoparticles

Abstract Piezoelectric nanocrystals have been widely used for self-powered nanosystems, implantable biodevices, wireless sensors and portable/wearable electronics. These nanocrystals function by transforming mechanical deformation into electricity for energy harvesting. Defects are inevitably generated during such mechanical deformations, and these defects are essential for the overall piezoelectric performance or mechanical reliability of piezoelectric nanocrystals. However, defects inside piezoelectric nanocrystals during deformation are rarely investigated, due to the difficulty to obtain direct experimental information. Here, we synthesize and deform piezoelectric nanocrystals sequentially in TEM column to enable in-situ high spatial-resolution study of defects within these nanocrystals. Planar defects form and evolve due to the internal strain caused by piezoelectricity of nanocrystals. The elimination of these defects are also directly observed due to annealing effect of electron beam irradiation. Throughout the whole deformation processes of nanocrystals, planar defects are found to be the dominating defect type. The present technique can also be applied for studying deformation mechanisms of other piezoelectric nanocrystals, as a complementary approach to nanoindentation TEM holder. The obtained insights here in defects evolution and deformation mechanisms of piezoelectric nanocrystals would be beneficial for controlling their piezoelectric performances and mechanical reliabilities.
Agricultural Production--Research Imperatives for the Future

Many studies have assessed the potential contributions of research for the enhancement of food production and of other renewable resources. An equal number have inventoried the earth’s resources of land, water, minerals, climate, etc. for absolute production capability. Recent emphasis on the “Politics of Food” suggests a strong third determinant for agricultural production potential. The tripartitions of productivity—new technologies, resource inputs, and economic incentives—must be constantly reviewed.
Student Involvement and Risk

Student involvement in research and other projects is common at universities around the world. Through internships, part-time work, and other mechanisms, students also perform limited work for commercial, governmental, and other employers. Despite the prevalence of student involvement in the development of key technologies and their performance of numerous duties, the management literature contains little consideration of the specific risk elements introduced by student workers. Inexperienced workers (including students, interns, and junior employees) have particular characteristics that may create new risk sources and alter the likelihood and magnitude of typical risks.
Systolic blood pressure target: Have we identified the optimal target yet?

Systemic hypertension remains the leading modifiable risk factor for the global burden of disease (1). Over the past five decades, we have identified effective therapeutic interventions to further reduce the risks associated with poorly controlled hypertension. However, the optimal systolic blood pressure (SBP) “target” has been a matter of ongoing debate. This debate has been reflected in recommendations by various groups. For example, the former members of the Eighth Joint National Committee Panel recommended a therapeutic SBP target <140 mmHg for subjects <60 years, and <150 mmHg for those ≥60 years of age (2). In contrast, other societies recommend a therapeutic SBP <140 mmHg in adults irrespective of age (3,4). These differences reflect the remaining knowledge gaps in the field.
Direct Flexural Design of Prestressed Concrete

Equations are derived for the direct design of prestressed concrete beams for flexure. Interaction diagrams showing the relationship between prestress force and bending moment are used in the derivation of the equations. Examples are given of the design of a fully stressed section, a symmetrical I section, and a tee section.
Compression Texture of Iodide Titanium

The compression texture of iodide titanium is determined and found to consist of a [0001] texture rotated 15° to 30° from the axis of compression. As the amount of reduction increases, the angle of rotation decreases. The 0001 rotation showed a slight preference fora rotation axis.
Conference Report: East meets West

Second International Conference on Transgenic Animals, Beijing, China, October 23–26, 1998. Organized by the Bilong Institute for Transgenic Animals and the China International Conference Center for Sciences and Technology
What California sea lions exposed to domoic acid might teach us about autism: lessons for predictive and preventive medicine

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shares many biological and behavioral similarities with the deleterious effects of domoic acid (DA) exposure. DA is produced by marine algae and most commonly by species of Pseudo-nitzschia. Humans and marine mammals can be exposed to DA when they consume whole fish or shellfish. The mammalian fetus is highly sensitive to the deleterious effects of DA exposure. Both ASD and exposures to toxic levels of DA feature repetitive behaviors, challenges with social interaction, and seizures. They can also share a commonality in brain anatomy and function, particularly the balance between excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms. The current article is relevant to predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine for three reasons. First, shellfish consumption may be a risk factor for ASD and the regulatory limit for DA should be adjusted to prevent this possibility. Human contributions to increased algal production of DA in coastal waters should be identified and reduced. Second, evaluations of sentinel species wild and free-roaming in the environment, though typically outside the purview of biomedical research, should be much more fully employed to gain insights to risk factors for human disease. To better identify and prevent disease, biomedical researchers should study wild populations. Third, studies of DA exposure highlight the possibility that glutamate additives to processed foods may also have deleterious impacts on human brain development and behavior.
Demystifying ad fraud

The wide spread use of Internet allows advertisers to reach significantly more consumers through online advertisement compared to traditional advertising media. However, currently online advertisement is facing challenges associated with advertisement (ad) frauds such as ad replacement, ad stacking, click fraud, and click hijacking. It is important to teach students this emerging topic, and help students understand the attack flow behind ad frauds. In this work, a course module was developed to teach students about online ad servicing architecture, the associated security vulnerabilities and how the vulnerabilities can be exploited. A scenario of ad replacement was developed which includes an infrastructure to simulate the ad replacement attack flow providing students a real-world context and hands-on experience. This paper describes the course module on ad fraud, and our teaching experience of this course module. Instructors teaching network security, web security, information systems, and business & economics could adopt this course module.
Cell Membrane Coating Nanotechnology

Nanoparticle-based therapeutic, prevention, and detection modalities have the potential to greatly impact how diseases are diagnosed and managed in the clinic. With the wide range of nanomaterials available, the rational design of nanocarriers on an application-specific basis has become increasingly commonplace. Here, a comprehensive overview is provided on an emerging platform: cell-membrane-coating nanotechnology. As a fundamental unit of biology, cells carry out a wide range of functions, including the remarkable ability to interface and interact with their surrounding environment. Instead of attempting to replicate such functions via synthetic techniques, researchers are now directly leveraging naturally derived cell membranes as a means of bestowing nanoparticles with enhanced biointerfacing capabilities. This top-down technique is facile, highly generalizable, and has the potential to greatly augment existing nanocarriers. Further, the introduction of a natural membrane substrate onto nanoparticles surfaces has enabled additional applications beyond those traditionally associated with nanomedicine. Despite its relative youth, there exists an impressive body of literature on cell membrane coating, which is covered here in detail. Overall, there is still significant room for development, as researchers continue to refine existing workflows while finding new and exciting applications that can take advantage of this developing technology.
Explaining hyperspectral imaging based plant disease identification: 3D CNN and saliency maps

Our overarching goal is to develop an accurate and explainable model for plant disease identification using hyperspectral data. Charcoal rot is a soil borne fungal disease that affects the yield of soybean crops worldwide. Hyperspectral images were captured at 240 different wavelengths in the range of 383 - 1032 nm. We developed a 3D Convolutional Neural Network model for soybean charcoal rot disease identification. Our model has classification accuracy of 95.73\% and an infected class F1 score of 0.87. We infer the trained model using saliency map and visualize the most sensitive pixel locations that enable classification. The sensitivity of individual wavelengths for classification was also determined using the saliency map visualization. We identify the most sensitive wavelength as 733 nm using the saliency map visualization. Since the most sensitive wavelength is in the Near Infrared Region(700 - 1000 nm) of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is also the commonly used spectrum region for determining the vegetation health of the plant, we were more confident in the predictions using our model.
9.3 – The Thyroid Gland

This chapter begins with a description of the anatomic location of the thyroid glands and their histological appearance during hyperthyroid states and hypothyroid states. The chemical structure of T3 and T4 is given. The steps in synthesis of thyroglobulin to T4 are detailed: accumulation of iodine, oxidation to I0, organification, and coupling. The role of NIS, pendrin, and thyroid peroxidase is discussed. Stimulation of T4 release by TSH is covered, with control of TRH detailed. The mechanism of action of T3 in tissues is discussed. The physiological functions and metabolism of T3 and T4 are discussed. The distinction between central hypothyroidism, primary hypothyroidism due to iodine deficiency, and thyroid defects are discussed. Hyperthyroidism of Graves’ disease is discussed, as well as the sequelae to hypothyroidism.
Jet Aircraft Hydrocarbon Fuels Technology

A broad specification, referee fuel was proposed for research and development. This fuel has a lower, closely specified hydrogen content and higher final boiling point and freezing point than ASTM Jet A. The workshop recommended various priority items for fuel research and development. Key items include prediction of tradeoffs among fuel refining, distribution, and aircraft operating costs; combustor liner temperature and emissions studies; and practical simulator investigations of the effect of high freezing point and low thermal stability fuels on aircraft fuel systems.
Thermal Effects in Ion-Exchange Reactions: Heats of Ion Exchange

Ion-exchange reactions between aqueous electrolyte solutions and organic ion exchangers are temperature dependent, and therefore they must be accompanied by the evolution or the absorption of heat. However, the magnitudes of these thermal effects generally are small so that they are measured best with a calorimeter rather than estimated by application of the van’t Hoff equation to the variation of the thermodynamic equilibrium constant with temperature. Calorimetrically determined ion-exchange reaction enthalpy changes are useful further in that they may be combined with free energies computed from equilibrium measurements to obtain the change in entropy. The sign and magnitude of the enthalpy and entropy changes afford an insight into the factors which govern the selective uptake of one ion in aqueous solution over another. For example, the entropy change frequently suggests that ion-solvent interactions are of central importance, while the enthalpy change may indicate that “site binding” or ion-pair formation by the ion exchanger governs the observed selective ion absorption.
Treatment of Autonomic Dysreflexia with Phenoxybenz Amine

AbstractOur 9 patients with severe autonomic dysreflexia treated with phenoxybenzamine, an alpha-sympatholytic agent, had a dramatic relief of symptoms. Bladder and urethral pressure studies before and after treatment with this agent suggest that the inappropriate rise in urethral resistance in these patients is a result of an appropriate but extraordinary response to bladder filling.
Rural digital geographies and new landscapes of social resilience

Abstract Over the past decade there has been an explosion of social science research on smart cities, with focuses ranging from governance and activism to surveillance and place-based discrimination. As a result theories of digital appropriation, empowerment, and politics overrepresent urban experiences, producing a gap in our understanding of rural digital politics. Not only is rural information and communication technology (ICT) literature sparse, but it is also overly focused on technical issues of digital divides. This restrictive framing of rural ICT use reinforces the normalization of highly technocratic approaches to development in rural areas, thereby reinforcing neoliberal market forces and obscuring the innovative ways in which rural communities are appropriating digital technologies to build alternate social and economic practices. In response to this gap, this paper offers a case study of how the rural, indigenous community of Igloolik, Canada is using digital platforms to shape their resilience.
Reliability of Anthropometric Reference Data for Children’s Product Design

In the United States, children’s body dimensions are significantly different from what they have been in the past. Dissatisfaction with current children’s clothing sizes and mismatched furniture are often reported in the industry. Children often show improper sitting posture in class due to mismatched sets of desks and chairs. A reliable reference for children’s anthropometric data is needed to improve children’s products’ safety, comfort, and fit in the environment. The aim of this study was to provide the most up-to-date children’s anthropometric data for 6 to 11 year-olds in the United States and examine the reliability of anthropometric reference data for children’s products. This study was conducted at Texas Tech University, one of the scan sites for a national sizing survey, Size NorthAmerica (Size NA led by Human Solutions Inc.). A total of 21 girls between the ages of 6 and 11 participated in the study with IRB approval. A set of 52 body dimensions in each child was scanned with a laser-based 3D body scanner. The measuring procedure was compatible with ASTM standard measurement definitions in accordance with ISO 8559 (garment construction and anthropometric survey) and ISO 7250 (basic human body measurements for technological design). Current children’s body dimensions were significantly different from the anthropometric reference size charts for children’s product design. Results in this study would provide insight into the need for developing reliable anthropometric reference data for children’s product design.
Declines in Vaccine-Type Human Papillomavirus Prevalence in Females Across Racial/Ethnic Groups: Data From a National Survey

Abstract Purpose To monitor human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine impact in the U.S., we evaluated quadrivalent vaccine (4vHPV)-type prevalence among females aged 14–34 years in the prevaccine (2003–2006) and vaccine (2013–2016) eras overall and by race/ethnicity in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Methods We analyzed HPV DNA prevalence in self-collected cervicovaginal specimens, demographic characteristics, sexual behavior, and self-reported/parent-reported vaccination status. We compared prevaccine to vaccine era 4vHPV-type prevalence, using unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR and aPR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). PRs were calculated by race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white [NHW], non-Hispanic black [NHB], and Mexican American [MA]). Overall aPRs were adjusted for race/ethnicity, lifetime sex partners, and poverty. Results Overall, 4,674 females had HPV typing results; 3,915 reported NHW, NHB, or MA race/ethnicity. Vaccination coverage of ≥1 dose was 53.9% among 14- to 19-year-olds (NHW 52.6%, NHB 58.1%, and MA 59.5%) and 51.5% among 20- to 24-year-olds (NHW 58.8%, NHB 45.0%, MA 33.8%). Among 14- to 19-year-olds, 4vHPV-type prevalence decreased overall (11.5% to 1.8%; aPR = .14 [CI: .08–.24]) and in NHW (PR = .14 [CI: .06–.29]), NHB (PR = .26 [CI: .12–.54]), and MA (PR = .13 [CI: .03–.53]). In 20- to 24-year-olds, 4vHPV-type prevalence decreased overall (18.5% to 5.3%; aPR = .29 [CI: .15–.56]) and in NHW (PR = .27 [CI: .11–.67]) and NHB (PR = .38 [CI: .18–.80]). No significant declines were observed in older age groups. Conclusions Within 10 years of vaccine introduction, 4vHPV-type prevalence declined 86% among 14- to 19-year-olds, with declines observed in NHW, NHB, and MA females, and 71% among 20- to 24-year-olds, with declines in NHW and NHB females. These extraordinary declines should lead to substantial reductions in HPV-associated cancers.
Long-range quadrupole electron-phonon interaction from first principles

Lattice vibrations in materials induce perturbations on the electron dynamics in the form of long-range (dipole and quadrupole) and short-range (octopole and higher) potentials. The dipole Fr\"ohlich term can be included in current first-principles electron-phonon (e-ph) calculations and is present only in polar materials. The quadrupole e-ph interaction is present in both polar and nonpolar materials, but currently it cannot be computed from first principles. Here we show an approach to compute the quadrupole e-ph interaction and include it in ab initio calculations of e-ph matrix elements. The accuracy of the approach is demonstrated by comparing with direct density functional perturbation theory calculations. We apply our method to silicon as a case of a nonpolar semiconductor and tetragonal ${\mathrm{PbTiO}}_{3}$ as a case of a polar piezoelectric material. In both materials we find that the quadrupole term strongly impacts the e-ph matrix elements. Analysis of e-ph interactions for different phonon modes reveals that the quadrupole term mainly affects optical modes in silicon and acoustic modes in ${\mathrm{PbTiO}}_{3}$, although the quadrupole term is needed for all modes to achieve quantitative accuracy. The effect of the quadrupole e-ph interaction on electron scattering processes and transport is shown to be important. Our approach enables accurate studies of e-ph interactions in broad classes of nonpolar, polar, and piezoelectric materials.
Radiomics risk score (RRS) on CT to predict survival and response to CDK 4/6 inhibitors in hormone receptor (HR) positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

e13041Background: The addition of CDK 4/6 inhibitors (CDK) to endocrine therapy (ET) is the standard of care for HR+ MBC. Currently, no robust predictive markers for CDK inhibitors exist. We hypoth...
Diet quality in an ethnically diverse sample of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder compared with nationally representative data.

Abstract Background Children with developmental disabilities are at an increased risk of unhealthy eating habits, which may contribute to compromised growth and development. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit unique risk factors for unhealthy dietary patterns, including sensory issues and cognitive rigidity at mealtimes. Objective This cross-sectional study examined diet quality in a sample of children with ASD in Florida compared to nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009–2014/2013-2014 data using the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015). Methods A 24-h food record was completed by 41 parents of children with ASD aged 2–17 years, and food and beverage items consumed by each child were reported per standardized 24-h recall protocol. Two models were used to compare mean total and component HEI-2015 scores to NHANES means: (1) comparing means for our full sample to published NHANES means for children aged 2–18 years and (2) a matched model with subjects matched 1:1 by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and parent education level. Results HEI component scores were significantly lower (poorer) in children with ASD for whole fruit, total vegetables, dairy, total protein foods, and seafood and plant protein. Whole grains, fatty acids, added sugars, and refined grains scores were higher (better) in our sample. However, total HEI scores and HEI scores for all 13 components were similar among children with ASD and the matched cases from the NHANES data. Conclusions There are potential discrepancies in diet quality between children with ASD and general population. Further research with a larger sample size, reporting both total and component HEI scores, is needed.
Algebraic properties of Э-functions

Abstract In [3] Andre showed that the minimal differential equations of Э-functions and E-functions have a basis of holomorphic solutions at every point except for zero and infinity. In addition, in [5] he observed that if f 1 ( z ) is an E-function with rational coefficients such that f 1 ( 1 ) = 0 , then f 1 ( z ) / ( z − 1 ) is also an E-function. With this additional result Andre derived transcendence results for the values of E-functions. These results were further applied by Beukers [7] to obtain a strengthened Siegel-Shidlovskii theorem for E-functions. The arguments of Andre and Beukers should aid in obtaining a Siegel-Shidlovskii type theorem for Э-functions provided that one can show that if f − 1 ( z ) is a Э-function with rational coefficients such that the 1-summation F − 1 ( z ) vanishes at z = 1 , then f − 1 ( z ) / ( z − 1 ) is also a Э-function. In this paper, we investigate this problem and derive several criteria to check its validity.
Efficacy and safety of endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage in acute cholecystitis: An updated meta-analysis.

Efficacy and safety of endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage in acute cholecystitis: An updated meta-analysis
Teddy: An Efficient SIMD-based Literal Matching Engine for Scalable Deep Packet Inspection

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which is one of the most important network techniques, has been widely utilized in current networking systems. By comparing the payloads of traffic to an existing signature database, DPI can identify whether traffic or packet is harmful, or belong to which application. The literal matching engine, which plays a key role in DPI, is the primary determinant of the system performance. FDR, an engine that can match a character with multiple literals in only 3 SIMD operations, has been developed. However, FDR has a significant performance drop-off when the signature database is composed of small-scale literal rule sets, whose occupations are larger than 90% in the modern database. In this paper, we have designed Teddy, an engine that is highly optimized for small-scale literal rule sets. Comparing with FDR, Teddy significantly increases the efficiency in small-scale literal rule sets by designing a novel algorithm that can parallelly match up to 64 characters with only 16 SIMD operations. Meanwhile, to evaluate Teddy in real-world DPI systems, we have implemented Teddy in Hyperscan with AVX512 platforms. The evaluation results show that Teddy achieves a maximum of 35.29x performance increases than Aho-corasick (AC), 2.16x performance increases than FDR in most cases.
Situated Gaming: Beyond Games as Instructional Technology.

Some recent science education scholarship has called for a renewed focus on empowering learners to engage with science for personally and socially meaningful purposes. However, engaging with science in these ways requires that learners adopt epistemic aims in their activity, which we cannot take for granted. I argue here that serious games could support these goals, but that our approaches to their design and implementation require greater attention to the cultural and historical aspects of the activity systems in which they are being used. Attention to these elements provides us with powerful tools for situating our designs in use contexts.
Free-Form Surface Partition in 3-D

We study the problem of partitioning a spherical representation S of a free-form surface F in 3-D, which is to partition a 3-D sphere S into two hemispheres such that a representative normal vector for each hemisphere optimizes a given global objective function. This problem arises in important practical applications, particularly surface machining in manufacturing. We model the spherical surface partition problem as processing multiple off-line sequences of insertions/deletions of convex polygons alternated with certain point queries on the common intersection of the polygons. Our algorithm combines nontrivial data structures, geometric observations, and algorithmic techniques. It takes $O(\min\{m^2n \log \log m + \frac{m^3 \log^2(mn) \log^2(\log m)}{\log^3 m}, m^3\log^2n+mn\})$ time, where m is the number of polygons, of size O(n) each, in one off-line sequence (generally, m ≤ n). This is a significant improvement over the previous best-known O(m 2 n 2) time algorithm. As a by-product, our algorithm can process O(n) insertions/deletions of convex polygons (of size O(n) each) and queries on their common intersections in O(n 2 loglogn) time, improving over the "standard" O(n 2 logn) time solution for off-line maintenance of O(n 2) insertions/deletions of points and queries. Our techniques may be useful in solving other problems.
Segmenting subcellular structures in histology tissue images

Pathologists often rely on features of the subcellular structures, i.e., nucleus and cytoplasm, to differentiate different types of immune cells. Accurate segmentation of the sub-cellular structures can help classify cell types. However, segmentation in histology tissue images is very challenging, due to, intra-class variations and inter-class similarity, complex and crowded background, and noisy data. In this paper, we propose a novel energy minimization framework with constraints, that can easily incorporate various photometric and geometric priors to alleviate such challenges. We also propose a novel layered graph model to solve our energy minimization problem optimally in polynomial time. Experiments on clinical data demonstrate our method obtain better results on both segmentation, and classification of cell types using features extracted from the segmented subcellular structures, than other popular state-of-the-art general segmentation methods.
Securitization, history, and identity: some conceptual clarifications and examples from politics of Finnish war history

This article shows how we can use the securitization framework to study extreme history politics. Securitization refers to a speech act or discursive process in which an actor makes a claim that some referent object, deemed worthy of survival, is existentially threatened. If successful, securitization justifies the use of extraordinary measures to counter the threat. After introducing the concept of securitization in detail, the article presents three ways in which history and securitization can be connected: history can serve as a facilitating condition of securitization; history can be explicitly used to strengthen a securitizing move; or history, or a particular interpretation of it, can be the referent object of securitization. The second half of the article is devoted to a discussion on the role of history in the securitization of national identities. Historical myths are the standard building blocks of national identities; challenging these myths can be presented as threats to the survival of the na...
Chapter 24 Lithium use in clinical practice

Summary Lithium salts have had a major impact in the medical treatment of bipolar affective disorder. Longterm treatment of bipolar patients has resulted in considerable reduction in the re-hospitalization rates for this condition. Lithium clinics provided an early model for the psychopharmacologic treatment of individuals with other mental disorders and the medical approach to the treatment of depression.
Tenure dependence in consumer-firm relationships: An empirical analysis of consumer departures from automobile insurance firms

A typical pattern in markets featuring long-term consumer-firm relationships is for departure probabilities to decline with tenure. A crucial question is whether this actually implies increasing consumer preference for firms. If so, firms should actively try to convince consumers to remain through the early periods of the relationship and should enter new markets quickly. However, the pattern can also be explained by selection on unobserved heterogeneity. The challenge is to use the data available in these markets--generally details on the consumers of one firm--to distinguish between these explanations. I rely on individual price histories in auto insurance. Findings include an economically relevant level of both relationship effects and heterogeneity, but a much more important role for heterogeneity.
Understanding and Improving Register Assignment

Register allocation can decrease instruction-level parallelism by prohibiting the scheduler from reordering instructions. The impact of register assignment strategies on a subsequent scheduling phase is explored. A new register assignment strategy and experimental results are presented.
CHROMOSOMAL RECOMBINATION IN HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE

Haemophilus influenzae cultures doubly lysogenic for defective phage HP1, with a prophage marker sequence +b+/a+c, always contained some free wild-type phage. Single ultraviolet-irradiated cells produced either no wild-type phage or large numbers of them. This suggested that the phage was not released by the original double lysogen but by internal recombinants, i.e., by double lysogens with altered prophage marker sequence such as +++/abc or +b+/++c. Thirty-one wild-type phage-producing clones have been isolated independently from cultures of this double lysogen and identified. They fell in five classes. Two classes, still possessing all three prophage markers, can be explained by Campbell's (1963) prophage recombination model. The other classes had lost one or more markers. They can be explained by interchromosomal double-strand DNA breakage and rejoining. A single-DNA-strand gene conversion model is discussed in view of the fact that genetic transformation involves single-DNA-strand exchanges. A number of potentially interesting mutants has been analyzed of which only the derivatives of rec 1 mutant DB117 (obtained from Dr. J. Setlow) were incapable of internal recombination.