cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Development of Musical Skills of Underprivileged Children Over the Course of 1 Year: A Study in the Context of an El Sistema-Inspired Program.

Developmental research in music has typically centered on the study of single musical skills (e.g., singing, listening) and has been conducted with middle class children who learn music in schools and conservatories. Information on the musical development of children from different social strata, who are enrolled in community-based music programs remains elusive. This study examined the development of musical skills in underprivileged children who were attending an El Sistema-inspired program in Los Angeles. We investigated how children, predominantly of Latino ethnicity, developed musically with respect to the following musical skills – pitch and rhythmic discrimination, pitch matching, singing a song from memory, and rhythmic entrainment – over the course of one year. Results suggested that participation in an El Sistema-inspired program affects children’s musical development in distinct ways; with pitch perception and production skills developing faster than rhythmic skills. Furthermore, children from the same ethnic and social background, who did not participate in the El Sistema-inspired music program, showed a decline in singing and pitch discrimination skills over the course of one year. Taken together, these results are consistent with the idea of musical development as a complex, spiraling and recursive process that is influenced by several factors including type of musical training. Implications for future research are outlined.
Observations on the Karyotype and Maturation of the F1 Generation of Syringophiloidus minor (Acarina: Syringophilidae)

Syringophiloidus minor (Berlese) is a parasite inside the quills of the House Sparrow, Passer domesticus L. All stages (egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph, and adult) are found within the quill; they pierce the wall of this vessel with their flexible, styletiform chelicerae and siphon fluids from the surrounding tissue. Adult females, presumably fertilized, disperse from the quill during host brooding and molting to infest new feathers. Generally, a single female will enter a feather, although multiple invasions may occur (Kethley 1971).
Optimizing Unanesthetized Cerebral Oxygen Consumption Measures: Comparison of NIRS and MRI Approaches in Neonates with Congenital Heart Disease

Cerebral perfusion in neonates with congenital heart disease is a clinical concern. Combined measures of MRI and NIRS can provide complementary information to improve monitoring. We compare multimodal measures of cerebral hemodynamics in this group.
Alkaline phosphatase normalization is a biomarker of improved survival in primary sclerosing cholangitis.

Abstract Introduction. Recent studies suggest that serum alkaline phosphatase may represent a prognostic biomarker in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis. However, this association remains poorly understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance and clinical correlates of alkaline phosphatase normalization in primary sclerosing cholangitis. Material and methods. This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with a new diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis made at an academic medical center. The primary endpoint was time to hepatobiliaryneoplasia, liver transplantation, or liver-related death. Secondary endpoints included occurrence of and time to alkaline phosphatase normalization. Patients who did and did not achieve normalization were compared with respect to clinical characteristics and endpoint-free survival, and the association between normalization and the primary endpoint was assessed with univariate and multivariate Cox proportional-hazards analyses. Results. Eighty-six patients were included in the study, with a total of 755 patient-years of follow-up. Thirty-eight patients (44%) experienced alkaline phosphatase normalization within 12 months of diagnosis. Alkaline phosphatase normalization was associated with longer primary endpoint-free survival (p = 0.0032) and decreased risk of requiring liver transplantation (p = 0.033). Persistent normalization was associated with even fewer adverse endpoints as well as longer survival. In multivariate analyses, alkaline phosphatase normalization (adjusted hazard ratio 0.21, p = 0.012) and baseline bilirubin (adjusted hazard ratio 4.87, p = 0.029) were the only significant predictors of primary endpoint-free survival. Conclusions. Alkaline phosphatase normalization, particularly if persistent, represents a robust biomarker of improved long-term survival and decreased risk of requiring liver transplantation in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Supporting Multi-Aspected Concept Discovery for Exploratory Search

In order to help exploratory search users discover important and valuable concepts for domains,and understand aspects of the concepts and comprehensively understand the problem domains,based on a concept usage model,concept importance and how problem aspects affect concept importance are analyzed to attain a method supporting multi-aspected concept discovery. Such a method considers mutual affects between concept importance and problem aspects of concepts,leading to a simultaneous analysis on the two factors. Experimental results show that the proposed method could reduce search interactions by 48. 8% and could improve concept occurrences by 24. 3%.
Historical baselines and the future of shell calcification for a foundation species in a changing ocean

Seawater pH and the availability of carbonate ions are decreasing due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, posing challenges for calcifying marine species. Marine mussels are of particular concern given their role as foundation species worldwide. Here, we document shell growth and calcification patterns in Mytilus californianus , the California mussel, over millennial and decadal scales. By comparing shell thickness across the largest modern shells, the largest mussels collected in the 1960s–1970s and shells from two Native American midden sites (∼1000–2420 years BP), we found that modern shells are thinner overall, thinner per age category and thinner per unit length. Thus, the largest individuals of this species are calcifying less now than in the past. Comparisons of shell thickness in smaller individuals over the past 10–40 years, however, do not show significant shell thinning. Given our sampling strategy, these results are unlikely to simply reflect within-site variability or preservation effects. Review of environmental and biotic drivers known to affect shell calcification suggests declining ocean pH as a likely explanation for the observed shell thinning. Further future decreases in shell thickness could have significant negative impacts on M. californianus survival and, in turn, negatively impact the species-rich complex that occupies mussel beds.
Parkin loss-of-function pathology: Premature neuronal senescence induced by high levels of reactive oxygen species?

Abstract Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases (PD and AD, respectively) are considered to be diseases of advanced brain ageing, which seems to involve high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). AD neurodegeneration is initially apparent in the hippocampus; as AD progresses, many more brain regions are affected. PD-associated neurodegeneration is relatively limited to dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), especially in cases in which patients inherit particular disease-causing mutations. Thus, the task of elucidating mechanisms by which loss of function of one particular protein triggers death of a subset of neurons may be more approachable. Understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in these forms of PD may not only shed light on avenues leading toward therapeutic strategies in PD and other neurodegenerative diseases, but also on those leading toward understanding natural ageing. Neurodegeneration in PD patients harboring homozygous loss-of-function mutations in the PARK2 gene may result from unbalanced levels of ROS, which are mostly produced in mitochondria and can irreparably damage macromolecules and trigger apoptosis. This review discusses mitochondrial sources of ROS, how ROS can trigger apoptosis, mechanisms by which Parkin loss-of-function may cause neurodegeneration by increasing ROS levels, and concludes with hypotheses regarding selective SNpc dopaminergic neuron vulnerability.
Current Trends in the Management of Phyllodes Tumors of the Breast

Introduction National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines recommend wide excision without axillary staging to treat phyllodes tumors of the breast. Without prospective trials to guide management, NCCN also recommends consideration of radiation therapy (XRT). We describe current patterns of care for the multidisciplinary management of phyllodes tumors.
The Introduction and Development of Clinical PET in the United Kingdom

25 years ago (half the life of the BNMS) in 1990 clinical PET imaging began to be accepted as an important clinical diagnostic tool. There were then approximately 60 pet centres in the United States 20 in Japan and even six in Belgium however there was not a single clinical PET service in the United Kingdom in spite of the fact that the Medical Cyclotron and PET unit at the Hammersmith Hospital was at the cutting edge of research in this area. The first clinical PET centre in the UK was finally opened in August 1992 by HRH Prince Charles. This chapter explores the dreams, challenges and success towards the introduction and development of clinical PET in the United Kingdom.
Recent Solar Oblateness Observations: Data, Interpretation, and Significance for Experimental Relativity

The shape of the sun has been under study for almost two and a half centuries, during which time the accuracy of the measurements performed has improved considerably. However, it is only within the last decade or so that these measurements have attained sufficient precision to have a significant impact on solar physics and experimental relativity. At SCLERA,† contributions to this improved accuracy have included the use of a daytime astrometric telescope (Oleson et al. 1974) and the development of an explicit definition of the sun’s edge (Hill, Stebbins and Oleson 1975). This Finite Fourier Transform Definition (FFTD) of an edge of the solar disk offers extreme sensitivity to changes in the limb darkening function while minimizing the effects of atmospheric and instrumental seeing.
Electron-track Compton imaging using high-resolution charge-coupled devices

For the past decade, Compton imaging systems have been developed based on position-sensitive semiconductor detectors for use in Homeland Security and Nuclear Safeguards applications. The imaging of gamma-rays enables the localization of radioactive sources, an increase in detection sensitivity by distinguishing between signal and background, and to correlate the location of the source with other contextual information, providing additional means to increase the detection sensitivity. Conventional Compton imaging requires the knowledge of the positions and energies of multiple interactions resulting from a single incident gamma-ray. Our approach for the efficient measurement of Compton electron tracks is to use fully depleted, 650 micron thick, silicon-based charge-coupled devices (CCD) developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) that are characterized by a lateral spatial resolution of about 10.5 μm. In this paper, we will focus on benchmarked models to determine the gain in sensitivity of electron-tracking based over conventional Compton imaging.
Characteristics of ICF Relevant Hohlraums Driven by X-Rays from a Z-Pinch

AbstractRadiation environments characteristic of those encountered during the low-temperature foot pulse and subsequent higher-temperature early-step pulses (without the foot pulse) required for indirect-drive ICF ignition on the National Ignition Facility have been produced in hohlraums driven by x-rays from a z-pinch. These environments provide a platform to better understand the dynamics of full-scale NIF hohlraums, ablator material, and capsules prior to NIF completion. Radiation temperature, plasma fill, and wall motion of these hohlraums are discussed.
Epigenetic Mechanisms Regulating Social Behaviors Relevant to The Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract ASD is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests in social deficits, communication difficulties, stereotyped behaviors, and cognitive delay. A number of genes linked to ASD encode proteins involved in chromatin-remodeling and transcriptional regulation. We find that the chromatin remodeler CHD8 and the MeCP2-HDAC3 complex both regulate autism-related behaviors. Surprisingly, we find that these chromatin factors play a role in positively regulating transcription of neural cells. Our studies provide new molecular insights into the role of neuroepigenetic factors that could contribute to abnormalities in social behaviors.
Matrix metalloproteinase MMP9 maintains epithelial barrier function and preserves mucosal lining in colitis associated cancer.

// Adani Pujada 1 , Lewins Walter 1 , Aashka Patel 2 , Tien Anh Bui 2 , Zhan Zhang 1 , Yuchen Zhang 1 , Timothy Luke Denning 1 and Pallavi Garg 1 1 Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA 2 Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA Correspondence to: Pallavi Garg, email: pgarg@gsu.edu Keywords: colitis associated cancer; microbiota; MMP9; IL-22; A. muciniphila Received: April 19, 2017 Accepted: August 14, 2017 Published: October 17, 2017 ABSTRACT In colitis associated cancer (CAC), chronic inflammation exposes the epithelial mucosal defensive lining to inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) causing the dysbiosis of microbiota population and the dysregulation of immune response. Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) are zinc dependent endopeptidases which mediate inflammation, tissue remodeling, and carcinogenesis. MMP9 is undetectable in healthy tissue, although highly upregulated during inflammation and cancer. We have previously shown that MMP9 plays a protective role in CAC opposite to its conventional role of acute inflammation and cancer mediator. In this study, we investigated the mechanistic role of MMP9 in preserving the epithelial mucosal integrity to suppress the progression of tumor microenvironment in CAC. We used transgenic mice constitutively expressing MMP9 in colonic epithelium (TgM9) as an in vivo model and intestinal cell line CaCo2BBE as an in vitro model. We induced CAC with three cycles of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). We observed that MMP9 expression in colonic epithelium maintains the microbiota. We also observed that MMP9 mediates pro-inflammatory cytokine levels and AMPs but suppresses IL-22 resulting in lower levels of REG3-g and S100A8 AMPs. We also found that MMP9 maintains an efficient barrier function and the integrity of tight junctions. We also observed increased levels of mucin and intestinal trefoil factor among TgM9 mice in CAC. We also found that MMP9 expressing CaCo2BBE cells had increased expressions of EGFR and nuclear transcription factor- specificity protein 1 (Sp1). These data imply that MMP9 acts as a tumor suppressor in CAC by sustaining the epithelial mucosal integrity due to the activation of EGFR-Sp1 signaling pathway.
Effects of Message Framing on Influenza Vaccination: Understanding the Role of Risk Disclosure, Perceived Vaccine Efficacy, and Felt Ambivalence

The current study examined the effects of framing in promotional health messages on intention to vaccinate against seasonal influenza virus. The findings of an experimental study (N = 86) indicated that exposure to both benefits and side effects of vaccination (gain-framed with risk disclosure message) led to lower intention to receive the flu vaccine. This relationship was mediated by both perceived vaccine efficacy and felt ambivalence in a serial order, revealing the underlying psychological mechanisms important for understanding health-related behaviors. Theoretical implications of constructing sub-framed messages are discussed and the concept of second-order framing is introduced.
A Staged Protocol for Circumferential Minimally Invasive Surgical Correction of Adult Spinal Deformity.

Background Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques used for management of adult spinal deformity (ASD) aim to decrease the physiological demand on patients and minimize postoperative complications. A circumferential MIS (cMIS) protocol offers the potential to maximize this advantage over standard open approaches, through the concurrent use of multiple MIS techniques. Objective To demonstrate through a case example the execution of a cMIS protocol for management of an ASD patient with severe deformity. Methods Thorough preoperative assessment, surgical planning, and medical optimization were completed. Deformity correction was performed over 2 stages. During the first stage, interbody fusion was performed via an oblique lateral approach at all levels of the lumbar spine intended to be included in the final construct. The patient was kept as an inpatient and mobilized postoperatively. They were then re-imaged with standing films. The second stage occurred after 3 d and involved percutaneous instrumentation of all levels. Posterior fusion of the thoracic levels was achieved through decortication of pars and facets. These areas were accessed through the intermuscular plane established by the percutaneous screws. The patient was mobilizing on their first postoperative day. Results In a 66-yr-old female with severe sagittal imbalance and debilitating back pain, effective use of this cMIS protocol allowed for correction of the Cobb angle from 52° to 4° correction of spinopelvic parameters and 13 cm of sagittal vertical axis improvement. No complications were identified by 2 yr postoperative. Conclusion As a systematization of multiple MIS techniques combined, in a specific and staged manner, this cMIS protocol could provide a safe and effective approach to the management of ASD.
Multinational Companies and the Natural Environment: Determinants of Global Environmental Policy

This study analyzes the determinants of global standardization of multinational companies’ environmental policies. Survey data from the chemical industry show that MNCs standardize different environmental policy dimensions in response to pressures from different external stakeholders. MNC characteristics also affect environmental policy standardization. Findings demonstrate that the nature of stakeholder demands affects firms’ responses to stakeholder pressures. Because environmental policy standardization reduces MNCs’ ability to exploit cross-country differences in environmental regulations, these findings also have important implications for the self-regulation of MNCs’ environmental conduct.
Inulin Supplementation Does Not Reduce Plasma Trimethylamine N-Oxide Concentrations in Individuals at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is associated with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Prebiotic supplementation has been purported to reduce TMAO production, but whether prebiotics reduce fasting or postprandial TMAO levels is unclear. Sedentary, overweight/obese adults at risk for T2DM (n = 18) were randomized to consume a standardized diet (55% carbohydrate, 30% fat) with 10 g/day of either an inulin supplement or maltodextrin placebo for 6 weeks. Blood samples were obtained in the fasting state and hourly during a 4-h high-fat challenge meal (820 kcal; 25% carbohydrate, 63% fat; 317.4 mg choline, 62.5 mg betaine, 8.1 mg l-carnitine) before and after the diet. Plasma TMAO and trimethylamine (TMA) moieties (choline, l-carnitine, betaine, and γ-butyrobetaine) were measured using isocratic ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). There were no differences in fasting or postprandial TMAO or TMA moieties between the inulin and placebo groups at baseline (all p > 0.05). There were no significant changes in fasting or postprandial plasma TMAO or TMA moiety concentrations following inulin or placebo. These findings suggest that inulin supplementation for 6 weeks did not reduce fasting or postprandial TMAO in individuals at risk for T2DM. Future studies are needed to identify efficacious interventions that reduce plasma TMAO concentrations.
Effect of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics on antibiotic resistance genes in anaerobic digestion.

This work was supported by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR (Science to Achieve Results) Grant R834856, National Science Foundation Chemical, Bioengineering, and Transport Systems CAREER award #0852942, and Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science seed funding and award TSTS 11–26. Jennifer Miller was supported by the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Via Scholarship and Virginia Tech Graduate School Cunningham Fellowship. The findings of this study do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting entities.
PRIVACY AND THE HOME: THE KING DOESN'T HAVE TO ENTER YOUR COTTAGE TO INVADE YOUR PRIVACY

“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of darkness”- Justice William O. Douglas.
Ideal commonwealths and settler colonies: Oceana in Harrington, Adams and Froude

The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656), written by the English political thinker James Harrington (1611–1677), is a treatise innovative not only for its complex exposition on the domestic constitution o...
Abstract WP207: Ethnic Disparities in Hypertensive Heart Disease Among Young Adults with Ischemic Stroke in Hawaii

A recent study showed that Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI) with ischemic stroke are younger and have a higher burden of cardiovascular risk factors compared to whites and Asian...
Machine-learning-based classification of Glioblastoma using MRI-based radiomic features

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent and lethal primary brain cancer. Due to its therapeutic resistance and aggressiveness, clinical management is challenging. This study aims to develop a machine-learning-based classification method using radiomic features of multiparametric MRI to correctly identify high grade (HG) and low grade (LG) GBMs. Multiparametric MRI of 50 patients with GBM, 25 HG and 25 LG, were used. Each patient has T1, contrast-enhanced T1, T2 and FLAIR MRI, as well as provided tumor contours. These tumor contours were used to extract features from the multiparametric MRI. Once these features have been extracted, the most significant and informative features were selected to train random forests to differentiate HG and LG GBMs while varying feature correlation limits were applied to remove redundant features. Then leave-one-out cross-validation random forests were applied to the dataset to classify HG or LG GBMs. The prediction accuracy, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and area under the curve (AUC) were obtained at each correlation limit to evaluate the performance of our machine-learning-based classification. The best performing parameters predicted on an average, a prediction accuracy of 0.920 or 46 out of 50 patients, 22/25 for HGG and 24/25 for LGG, consistently with an AUC of 0.962. We investigated the process of distinguishing between HG GBM and LG GBM using multiparametric MRI, radiomic features, and machine learning. The result of our study shows that grade of GBM could be predicted accurately and consistently using the proposed machine-learning-based radiomics approach.
Maternal immune activation modifies the course of Niemann-pick disease, type C1 in a gender specific manner

Niemann-Pick disease, type C1 (NPC1) is a rare neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestation. Multiple genetic factors influence the NPC1 mouse phenotype, but very little attention has been given to prenatal environmental factors that might have long-term effects on the neuroinflammatory component of NPC1 pathology. Studies in other mouse models of cerebellar ataxia have shown that developmental exposures lead to Purkinje neuron degeneration later in life, suggesting that environmental exposures during development can impact cerebellar biology. Thus, we evaluated the potential effect of maternal immune activation (MIA) on disease progression in an Npc1 mouse model. The MIA paradigm used mimics viral infection using the toll like receptor 3 agonist polyinosinic-polycytidilic acid during gestation. Through phenotypic and pathologic tests, we measured motor and behavioral changes as well as cerebellar neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. We observed a gender and genotype dependent effect of MIA on the cerebellum. While the effects of MIA have been previously shown to primarily affect male progeny, we observed increased sensitivity of female mutant progeny to prenatal exposure to treatment with polyinosinic-polycytidilic acid. Specifically, prenatal MIA resulted in female NPC1 mutant progeny with greater motor deficits and a corresponding decrease in cerebellar Purkinje neurons. Our data suggest that prenatal environmental exposures may be one factor contributing to the phenotypic variability observed in individuals with NPC1.
Genetics, Evolution, and Physiology of Donkeys and Mules

The genus Equus is made up of donkeys, horses, and zebras. Despite significant variation in chromosome number across these species, interspecies breeding results in healthy, although infertile, hybrid offspring. Most notable among these are the horse-donkey hybrids, the mule and hinny. Donkeys presently are used for everything from companion animals to beasts of burden. Although closely related from an evolutionary standpoint, differences in anatomy and physiology preclude the assumption that they can be treated identically to the domestic horse. Veterinarians should be aware of these differences and adjust their practice accordingly.
A Simultaneous Inference Procedure to Identify Subgroups from RCTs with Survival Outcomes: Application to Analysis of AMD Progression Studies

With the uptake of targeted therapies, instead of the "one-fits-all" approach, modern randomized clinical trials (RCTs) often aim to develop treatments that target a subgroup of patients. Motivated by analyzing the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) data, a large RCT to study the efficacy of nutritional supplements in delaying the progression of an eye disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), we develop a simultaneous inference procedure to identify and infer subgroups with differential treatment efficacy in RCTs with survival outcome. Specifically, we formulate the multiple testing problem through contrasts and construct their simultaneous confidence intervals, which control both within- and across- marker multiplicity appropriately. Realistic simulations are conducted using real genotype data to evaluate the method performance under various scenarios. The method is then applied to AREDS to assess the efficacy of antioxidants and zinc combination in delaying AMD progression. Multiple gene regions including ESRRB-VASH1 on chromosome 14 have been identified with subgroups showing differential efficacy. We further validate our findings in an independent subsequent RCT, AREDS2, by discovering consistent differential treatment responses in the targeted and non-targeted subgroups been identified from AREDS. This simultaneous inference approach provides a step forward to confidently identify and infer subgroups in modern drug development.
Enclosure with augmented airflow to decrease risk of exposure to aerosolized pathogens including coronavirus during endotracheal intubation. Can the reduction in aerosolized particles be quantified

INTRODUCTION: As the pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) has impacted hospital routines in recent weeks, recommendations to reduce healthcare worker infections are being developed. METHODS: We report preliminary experience with the efficacy of an enclosure with augmented airflow to decrease the risk of exposure to aerosolized pathogens during airway management including endotracheal intubation. A particle generator was used to test the efficacy of the reduction of aerosolized particles by measuring their concentration within the enclosure and in the environment. RESULTS: No reduction in the concentration of aerosolized particles was noted with the enclosure flap open, whether the interior suction was on or off. However, with the enclosure closed and no augmented airflow (suction off), the particle concentration decreased to 1.2% of baseline. The concentration decreased even further, to 0.8% of baseline with the enclosure closed with augmented airflow (suction on). DISCUSSION: Aerosolized particulate contamination in the operating room can be decreased using a clear plastic enclosure with minimal openings and augmented airflow. This may serve to decrease the exposure of healthcare providers to aerosolized pathogens.
A Few Grains of Incense: Law, Religion, and Politics from the Perspective of the

This Article attempts to provide a schematic look at the dynamics of contemporary culture wars around law and religion in the United States. It proceeds from the framework provided by Steven Smith’s recent book Pagans and Christians in the City and engages with that book, sometimes positively and sometimes critically, but taking Smith’s framework as a given. A key insight provided by Smith is that the Christian-pagan conflict, past or present, had less to do with the belief that the other side was dangerous than with the view that it was obstinately unreasonable in refusing the terms of coexistence offered by the ruling dispensation. Culture wars of this sort thus start not with immediate conflict but with failed compromises. Differing premises and worldviews lead to a misunderstanding of what constitutes a large or small sacrifice, start a cycle of distrust, and lead each side to seek power so that it may be the side to set the terms of compromise rather than the one faced with accepting or refusing it. I examine this dynamic in two areas discussed in Smith’s book: religious accommodation, and wars over symbols. I conclude with an examination of the circumstances under which culture-war peace is most likely to occur, and find little reason for optimism that either currently applies.
MASAGE: Model-Agnostic Sequential and Adaptive Game Estimation

Zero-sum games have been used to model cybersecurity scenarios between an attacker and a defender. However, unknown and uncertain environments have made it difficult to rely on a prescribed zero-sum game to capture the interactions between the players. In this work, we aim to estimate and recover an unknown matrix game that encodes the uncertainties of nature and opponent based on the knowledge of historical games and the current observations of game outcomes. The proposed approach effectively transfers the past experiences that are encoded as expert games to estimate and inform future game plays. We formulate the game knowledge transfer and estimation problem as a sequential least-square problem. We characterize the structural properties of the problem and show that the non-convex problem has well-behaved gradient and Hessian under mild assumptions. We propose gradient-based methods to enable dynamic and adaptive estimation of the unknown game. A case study is used to corroborate the results and illustrate the behavior of the proposed algorithm.
Solving Large-scale Stochastic Orienteering Problems with Aggregation

In this paper we consider the stochastic cost orienteering problem, i.e., a version of the classic orienteering problem where the cost associated with each edge is a random variable with known distribution. Such a model is relevant when travel costs are variable, e.g., when a robot moves in uncertain terrain conditions. We model this problem using a composite state space tracking both how much progress the robot has made towards the goal and how much time it has left. On top of this state space, we compute a time-aware policy that allows the robot to dynamically adjust its path and avoid missing the temporal deadline. This policy is determined using a Constrained Markov Decision Process that allows tuning the accepted failure probability upfront. This approach suffers from a significant growth in the composite state space, and to mitigate this problem we introduce an aggregation technique where nearby vertices are compounded together, effectively reducing the original routing problem to an instance with a smaller state space. We then analyze this approach over large scale problem instances associated with robotic irrigation on a commercial grade vineyard.
Abstract 15585: Sex Dimorphism in Prostaglandins’ Role in Thromboxane-dependent Contraction in the Rat Middle Cerebral Artery

Introduction: Recent evidences suggest that sex and estrogen can influence cerebrovascular reactivity. We investigated the role of prostanoids and the estrogen receptor (ER) ex vivo in isolated mid...
The BLENDS Method for Data Augmentation of 4-Dimensional Brain Images

Purpose: Data augmentation improves the accuracy of deep learning models when training data is scarce by synthesizing additional samples. This work addresses the lack of validated augmentation methods specific for synthesizing anatomically realistic 4D (3D+time) images for neuroimaging, such as fMRI, by proposing a new augmentation method. Materials and Methods: The proposed method, BLENDS, generates new nonlinear warp fields by combining intersubject coregistration maps, computed using symmetric normalization, through spatial blending. These new warp fields can be applied to existing 4D fMRI to create new augmented images. BLENDS is tested on two neuroimaging problems using de-identified datasets: 1) the prediction of antidepressant response from task-based fMRI in the EMBARC dataset (n = 163), and 2) the prediction of Parkinson9s Disease symptom trajectory from baseline resting-state fMRI regional homogeneity in the PPMI dataset (n = 43). Results: BLENDS readily generates hundreds of new fMRI from existing images, with unique anatomical variations from the source images, that significantly improve prediction performance. For antidepressant response prediction, augmenting each original image once (2x the original training data) significantly increased prediction r2 from 0.055 to 0.098 (p < 1e-6), while at 10x augmentation R2 increased to 0.103. For the prediction of Parkinson9s Disease trajectory, 10x augmentation R2 increased from 0.294 to 0.548 (p < 1e-6). Conclusion: Augmentation of fMRI through nonlinear transformations with BLENDS significantly improves the performance of deep learning models on clinically relevant predictive tasks. This method will help neuroimaging researchers overcome dataset size limitations and achieve more accurate predictive models.
Effective control of the motile stages of Amblyomma americanum and reduced Ehrlichia spp. prevalence in adults via permethrin treatment of white-tailed deer in coastal Connecticut, USA.

Abstract The lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, is a common human-biting species whose range has been largely restricted to the southeastern United States, until recent detections of established populations on Long Island, New York and throughout coastal southern New England. We evaluated the effectiveness of topical treatment of 10 % permethrin delivered via 4-poster devices to white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, in the management of a newly discovered A. americanum population in Norwalk, Connecticut. Using a high-density deployment of one 4-poster device/12.7 ha, we were successful in significantly reducing densities of host-seeking adults (93 % reduction), nymphs (92 %), and larvae (96 %) from 2018 to 2020. We also documented a significant reduction (87 %) in parasitizing adults and nymphs on white-tailed deer from 2018 to 2019. The prevalence of Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Ehrlichia ewingii combined in host-seeking adults declined significantly from 47 % at the time the A. americanum population was discovered in 2017 to 7% in 2020. However, the prevalence in nymphs remained static (∼9%) throughout the study period. These data demonstrate that, when properly deployed in a density-dependent manner in terms of deer abundance, 4-poster devices can effectively manage parasitizing and host-seeking A. americanum populations and reduce the prevalence of two ehrlichial species of public health importance.
The United States Interest Equalization Tax

The United States Interest Equalization tax is a one-time tax levied on certain foreign securities, proposed by President Kennedy in order to reduce the balance-of-payments deficit by restricting portfolio investment. Although the tax was enacted in 1964 as a short-term measure, it was continually extended and amended. This article explores the contours of the tax. Prior to the tax, many foreign debt issues were attracting large amounts of capital due to their high interest rates. The IET attempts to equalize the yield of foreign debt issues with domestic debt issues by imposing a tax on the foreign issues and thus diminish the attractiveness of the foreign issues. The IET’s success in reducing foreign investment resulted in six extensions of the tax and it is now set to expire on July 1, 1974. Current international monetary condition may necessitate yet another extension of the tax. The IET functions by levying a tax on the acquisition by a United States person of a foreign issuer or foreign obligor based on the actual value of the security acquired. The tax rate on stock acquisitions is 11.25% of the stock’s actual value, while the rate on debt obligations is a function of the period remaining until maturity and is intended to equal the present value of the difference between European interest rates and the United States interest rate. The term “acquisition” includes any purchase, transfer, distribution, exchange, or any other transaction by virtue of which ownership is obtained. The IET also specifies that certain transactions, even though outside the definition of acquisition, will be considered taxable under the IET. This Article explores the rates on debt obligations, the various exemptions from the tax that exist where United States balance-of-payments is not adversely affected, as well as the elective provisions that the IET legislation contains to allow United States persons to be treated as a foreign issuer or obligor.
Edge flipping in the complete graph

We consider the following random process on the complete graph: repeatedly draw edges (with replacement) and with probability p assign the vertices of the edge blue and with probability 1 - p assign the vertices of the edge red. This is a random walk on a state space of red/blue colorings of the complete graph and so has a stationary distribution. We derive this stationary distribution as well as answer some related questions.
Recanalización endovascular de la vena ilíaca en un paciente con síndrome postrombótico

Resumen Introduccion El sindrome postrombotico de miembros inferiores es una secuela cronica y frecuente tras una trombosis venosa profunda. La clinica varia desde edema, dolor y claudicacion venosa, en las fases iniciales, hasta ulceracion y discapacidad, en las tardias. El tratamiento ha evolucionado en los ultimos anos desde la terapia compresiva y la cirugia de derivacion venosa hasta la recanalizacion endovascular. Caso clinico Mujer de 40 anos, con dolor y claudicacion venosa incapacitante de la extremidad inferior izquierda, secundaria a trombosis venosa profunda iliofemoral, por lesion de la vena iliaca primitiva izquierda durante cirugia de fijacion intervertebral. En la exploracion habia edema importante de la extremidad con pulsos presentes. La ecografia recogia, en el lado izquierdo, incompetencia del sistema venoso profundo y obstruccion de la vena iliaca comun. Con anestesia general se practico una flebografia intraoperatoria, via vena femoral comun izquierda. Se recanalizo la obstruccion y se liberaron dos stents autoexpandibles: el proximal, ligeramente introducido en la vena cava, y el distal, extendido en la iliaca externa. No hubo complicaciones peri-operatorias y fue dada de alta al dia siguiente con anticoagulacion. A las seis semanas habia disminuido notablemente el edema y habia desaparecido la claudicacion. La ecografia de control mostraba permeabilidad de los stents. Conclusiones Las tecnicas endovasculares ofrecen actualmente resultados excelentes en el tratamiento del sindrome postrombotico, con una resolucion mas facil y menos arriesgada que la cirugia y con la ventaja de una indicacion mas temprana. Sin embargo, requieren seguimiento y controles ambulatorios por medio de imagen.
Cooperative diversity for wireless fading channels without channel state information

Relaying and cooperative diversity allow multiple wireless radios to effectively share their antennas and create a virtual antenna array, thereby leveraging the spatial diversity benefits of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems. This paper examines the benefits of cooperative diversity for scenarios in which the receivers cannot exploit accurate channel state information (CSI). In particular, noncoherent demodulation is explored for two classes of relay processing, namely, detect-and-forward and amplify-and-forward. A complete maximum likelihood (ML) framework for noncoherent demodulation is developed for detect-and-forward, and is shown to naturally extend the corresponding framework for coherent demodulation. By contrast, the intractability of ML demodulation for noncoherent amplify-and-forward is demonstrated, suggesting a disconnect from the well-developed framework for coherent demodulation. Simulation results exhibit the diversity benefits of the detect-and-forward algorithms.
Fear Factors and Their Effects on Child Protection Practice With Undocumented Immigrant Families—“A Lot of My Families Are Scared and Won't Reach Out”

This study analyzes child protection workers' perceptions of the causes of immigrant families' fears of child protection systems (CPS) and the effects of these fears on child protection practice based on 24 qualitative interviews conducted with child protection caseworkers in the Northeastern United States. Workers reported three major fear factors among immigrant families: fear of CPS involvement leading to detention and deportation, fear of child removal, and fear of CPS as a potentially repressive government entity. Workers experienced these fears as barriers to rapport-building and led to service initiation and access barriers.
Phenones: A family of compounds broadly applicable to use as internal standards in high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract Phenones have been employed in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a series of compounds forming a rational series of internal standards. It is shown that they are useful in systems as polar as methanol—water (1:1) and in systems as non-polar as methylene chloride—hexane (1:9). The potential in using a stable series of internal standards for many HPLC systems leading to improved quantitative precision and accuracy is discussed. An application to the analysis of corbofuran, a broad-spectrum insecticide—nematicide, is described and discussed.
Abstract T P290: Improvement in ICH Outcomes Not Detected During Emergence of a Comprehensive Stroke Center

Background: Our previous research has demonstrated improved acute ischemic stroke (AIS) care and outcomes as the program evolved to primary stroke center (PSC) and then comprehensive stroke center (CSC) certification from The Joint Commission. We explored the impact of program accreditation on patients with intra-cerebral hemorrhage (ICH) who presented directly to our center. Methods: Patients admitted to Tulane University Medical Center (TUMC) from 07/2008-10/2013 for ICH were retrospectively assessed. Transfers were excluded. Patient outcomes were compared according to patient admission date: admitted while our center was an emerging PSC (ePSC, 07/08-03/10) or an emerging CSC (eCSC, 04/10-10/13). Results: Out of the 273 patients with ICH during the study period, 12 (16.22%) and 29 (14.57%) transferred patients were excluded from ePSC and eCSC groups, respectively. ePSC and eCSC patients did not differ significantly in age, race, gender, baseline NIHSS, baseline ICH severity, or time to hospitalization. Short-term outcomes including poor functional outcome (modified Rankin scale 3-6), favorable discharge disposition (home or rehab facility), and in-hospital mortality did not differ. eCSC patients had a reduced incidence of nosocomial pneumonia (10.71% vs. 20.97%, p=0.043). eCSC patients received more CT angiograms (72.19% vs. 51.61%, p=0.003) with a notable decrease in spot signs (10.26% vs. 25.00%, p=0.030). Rates of any neurosurgical intervention did not significantly change. Conclusion: Short-term outcomes for ICH patients did not significantly change as our center evolved into a certified CSC. While we were more aggressive with acute neuroimaging, we detected fewer patients with active bleeding, and the rate of neurosurgical intervention did not change. Overall, progression from PSC to CSC certification was associated with potential over-utilization of resources and no detected improvement in early outcomes for ICH, despite lower incidence of pneumonia. Additional research is needed to assess whether this pattern holds true at other centers.
Locality and topology aware intra-node communication among multicore CPUs

A major trend in HPC is the escalation toward manycore, where systems are composed of shared memory nodes featuring numerous processing units. Unfortunately, with scale comes complexity, here in the form of non-uniform memory accesses and cache hierarchies. For most HPC applications, harnessing the power of multicores is hindered by the topology oblivious tuning of the MPI library. In this paper, we propose a framework to tune every type of shared memory communications according to locality and topology. An implementation inside Open MPI is evaluated experimentally and demonstrates significant speedups compared to vanilla Open MPI and MPICH2.
Semi-supervised graph embedding scheme with active learning (SSGEAL): classifying high dimensional biomedical data

In this paper, we present a new dimensionality reduction (DR) method (SSGEAL) which integrates Graph Embedding (GE) with semi-supervised and active learning to provide a low dimensional data representation that allows for better class separation. Unsupervised DR methods such as Principal Component Analysis and GE have previously been applied to the classification of high dimensional biomedical datasets (e.g. DNA microarrays and digitized histopathology) in the reduced dimensional space. However, these methods do not incorporate class label information, often leading to embeddings with significant overlap between the data classes. Semi-supervised dimensionality reduction (SSDR) methods have recently been proposed which utilize both labeled and unlabeled instances for learning the optimal low dimensional embedding. However, in several problems involving biomedical data, obtaining class labels may be difficult and/or expensive. SSGEAL utilizes labels from instances, identified as "hard to classify" by a support vector machine based active learning algorithm, to drive an updated SSDR scheme while reducing labeling cost. Real world biomedical data from 7 gene expression studies and 3900 digitized images of prostate cancer needle biopsies were used to show the superior performance of SSGEAL compared to both GE and SSAGE (a recently popular SSDR method) in terms of both the Silhouette Index (SI) (SI = 0.35 for GE, SI = 0.31 for SSAGE, and SI = 0.50 for SSGEAL) and the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) for a Random Forest classifier (AUC = 0.85 for GE, AUC = 0.93 for SSAGE, AUC = 0.94 for SSGEAL).