cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Complete coverage control for nonholonomic mobile robots in dynamic environments

We study the problem of generating continuous steering control for robots to completely cover a bounded region over a finite time. First, we pack the area by disks of minimum number, and then a neural network based path planning method is adopted to generate complete coverage paths avoiding collisions with stationary and moving objects. Smooth trajectory is developed using parametric polynomial approximation, and continuous steering control is designed to track the trajectory exactly. The algorithm works for car-like robots which have nonholonomic motion constraints, and the control inputs are represented by analytic functions of trajectory parameters. The design is finally extended to cooperative sweeping of multiple robots. Satisfactory performances are observed in simulations
An automatic messaging middleware with stateful stream transformation

We report on the design and prototype implementation of the SMILE system. SMILE (Smart Middleware Light Ends) extends the Gryphon publish-subscribe system with stateful subscriptions and computing capabilities, with the goal of raising the abstraction level of messaging middleware programming closer to that of database programming. It allows subscriptions to relational views (which can involve aggregation, joins, and other transforms) derived from published event streams. The SMILE system has dual autonomic properties: it can be used to augment other system with monitoring capabilities and make them more autonomic; and the system itself has sophisticated capabilities for self-optimization, deployment and automated fault-tolerance.
Iterative reconstruction of three-dimensional models of human chromosomes from chromosomal contact data.

The entire collection of genetic information resides within the chromosomes, which themselves reside within almost every cell nucleus of eukaryotic organisms. Each individual chromosome is found to have its own preferred three-dimensional (3D) structure independent of the other chromosomes. The structure of each chromosome plays vital roles in controlling certain genome operations, including gene interaction and gene regulation. As a result, knowing the structure of chromosomes assists in the understanding of how the genome functions. Fortunately, the 3D structure of chromosomes proves possible to construct through computational methods via contact data recorded from the chromosome. We developed a unique computational approach based on optimization procedures known as adaptation, simulated annealing, and genetic algorithm to construct 3D models of human chromosomes, using chromosomal contact data. Our models were evaluated using a percentage-based scoring function. Analysis of the scores of the final 3D models demonstrated their effective construction from our computational approach. Specifically, the models resulting from our approach yielded an average score of 80.41 %, with a high of 91 %, across models for all chromosomes of a normal human B-cell. Comparisons made with other methods affirmed the effectiveness of our strategy. Particularly, juxtaposition with models generated through the publicly available method Markov chain Monte Carlo 5C (MCMC5C) illustrated the outperformance of our approach, as seen through a higher average score for all chromosomes. Our methodology was further validated using two consistency checking techniques known as convergence testing and robustness checking, which both proved successful. The pursuit of constructing accurate 3D chromosomal structures is fueled by the benefits revealed by the findings as well as any possible future areas of study that arise. This motivation has led to the development of our computational methodology. The implementation of our approach proved effective in constructing 3D chromosome models and proved consistent with, and more effective than, some other methods thereby achieving our goal of creating a tool to help advance certain research efforts. The source code, test data, test results, and documentation of our method, Gen3D, are available at our sourceforge site at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gen3d/ .
Summarizing differences in cumulative incidence functions

The cumulative incidence function is widely reported in competing risks studies, with group differences assessed by an extension of the log-rank test. However, simple, interpretable summaries of group differences are not available. An adaptation of the proportional hazards model to the cumulative incidence function is often employed, but the interpretation of the hazard ratio may be somewhat awkward, unlike the usual survival set-up. We propose nonparametric inferences for general summary measures, which may be time-varying, and for time-averaged versions of the measures. Theoretical justification is provided using counting process techniques. A real data example illustrates the practical utility of the methods.
Evaluation of a Vessel Sealing System, Bipolar Electrosurgery, Harmonic Scalpel, Titanium Clips, Endoscopic Gastrointestinal Anastomosis Vascular Staples and Sutures for Arterial and Venous Ligation in a Porcine Model

ABSTRACTPurpose: We assessed the usefulness of the LigaSure (Valleylab, Boulder, Colorado) vessel sealing system for vascular control during laparoscopic surgery and compared it with other available hemostatic modalities.Materials and Methods: A total of 31 domestic pigs were divided into 5 groups. In groups 1 and 2 the vessel sealing system was compared with titanium clips and Endo-GIA (United States Surgical, Stamford, Connecticut) staples. In group 3 the vessel sealing system was compared with standard Klepinger (Karl Storz, Culver City, California) bipolar forceps. In group 4 the harmonic scalpel and Trimax (United States Surgical) bipolar forceps were compared. In group 5 in vivo laparoscopic application of the vessel sealing system was evaluated.Results: The 5 mm. laparoscopic vessel sealing system sealed arteries up to 6 mm. and veins up to 12 mm. in diameter at supraphysiological bursting pressure. We evaluated 13 arteries with a diameter of 6 mm. or less at a mean bursting pressure of 662 mm. Hg ...
Intensity cut-points for the Respiratory Distress Observation Scale

Background:The Respiratory Distress Observation Scale© is an innovative solution to assessment when a dyspnea report cannot be elicited. The Respiratory Distress Observation Scale has acceptable reliability and validity psychometrics.Aim:To identify distress-intensity cut-points of the Respiratory Distress Observation Scale.Design:Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted with inpatients stratified by four levels of respiratory distress—none, mild, moderate, or severe. Patients provided three self-report measures of dyspnea: dichotomous (yes/no); a ranking of none, mild, moderate, or severe; and a numerical rating scale. Respiratory distress was assessed using the Respiratory Distress Observation Scale instrument.Setting/participants:Participants were 136 adult inpatients, mean age 61.8 years (standard deviation = 13.18 years), 89.7% African American, and 56.6% female, who were recruited from an urban, tertiary care hospital in the Midwest of the United States.Results:In all, 47% (n =...
The Interpretation of Spectral Entropy Based Upon Rate Distortion Functions

In 1960 Campbell derived a quantity that he called coefficient rate which is expressible in terms of the entropy of the process power spectral density. Later, Yang, et al showed that the spectral entropy is proportional to the logarithm of the equivalent bandwidth of the smallest frequency band containing most of the energy. Gibson, et al also showed that for discrete time AR(1) sequences, Campbell's coefficient rate and Shannon's entropy rate power are equal but that the equality does not hold for higher order AR processes. In this paper, we derive a new expression for Campbell's coefficient rate in terms of the parametrized version of the rate distortion function of a Gaussian random process with a given power spectral density subject to the MSE fidelity criterion. We also derive expressions for the entropy rate power and coefficient rate in terms of the slope of the rate distortion function for the given source and for a source with flat power spectral density.
Fast Variational Inference for Large-scale Internet Diagnosis

Web servers on the Internet need to maintain high reliability, but the cause of intermittent failures of web transactions is non-obvious. We use approximate Bayesian inference to diagnose problems with web services. This diagnosis problem is far larger than any previously attempted: it requires inference of 104 possible faults from 105 observations. Further, such inference must be performed in less than a second. Inference can be done at this speed by combining a mean-field variational approximation and the use of stochastic gradient descent to optimize a variational cost function. We use this fast inference to diagnose a time series of anomalous HTTP requests taken from a real web service. The inference is fast enough to analyze network logs with billions of entries in a matter of hours.
HW/SW co-design for multi-core system on ESL virtual platform

Multi-core system and the associated software parallelization techniques have become one of the major trends of SoC design. A multi-core system with high hardware efficiency and software parallelism has the potential of achieving higher system performance and lower power consumption. This paper reveals how system performance prediction and analysis for multi-core system can be done at early design stage before having implemented the real chip by adopting ESL design methods and virtual platform techniques that has high timing accuracy and simulation speed. Based on the multi-core ESL virtual platform, we have performed one to eight DSP-cores system performance analysis and obtained the performance trend observation. Moreover, the software parallelization experiments to observe the performance improvement are explored.
Photochemical activation of α-β epoxyketones. Formation of benzannelated perhydroazulenes by intramolecular trapping of a reactive intermediate

Abstract Linear and angular benzannelated perhydroazulenes can be efficiently prepared by intramolecular cycloaddition of unactivated olefins to reactive intermediates generated by irradiation of α-β epoxyketones.
The generalized Balescu-Lenard collision Operator

The generalization of the Balescu-Lenard collision operator to its fully electromagnetic counterpart in Kaufman's action-angle formalism is derived and its properties investigated. The general form may be specialized to any particular geometry where the unperturbed particle motion is integrable, and thus includes cylindrical plasmas, inhomogeneous slabs with non-uniform magnetic fields, tokamaks and the particularly simple geometry of the standard operator as special cases. The general form points to the commonality between axisymmetric, turbulent and ripple transport, and implies properties (e.g. intrinsic ambipolarity) that should be shared by them, under appropriate conditions. Along with a turbulent ‘anomalous diffusion coefficient’ calculated for tokamaks in previous work, an ‘anomalous pinch’ term of closely related structure and scaling is also implied by the generalized operator.
Approximate representation theory of finite groups

The asymptotic stability and complexity of floating point manipulation of representations of a finite group G are considered, especially splitting them into irreducible constituents and deciding their equivalence. Using rapid mixing estimates for random walks, the authors analyze a classical algorithm by J. Dixon (1970). They find that both its stability and complexity critically depend on the diameter d=diam(G,S) (S is the set that generates G). They propose a worst-case speedup by using Erdos-Renyi generators and modifying the Dixon averaging method. The overall effect in asymptotic complexity is a guaranteed (n log mod G mod )/sup O(1)/ running time. >
Environmental sustainability in the semiconductor industry

For manufacturers, environmental sustainability is dependent upon decisions made throughout a productpsilas life cycle which includes research, development and manufacturing processes. This paper briefly describes how environmental sustainability has become one of the main priorities in developing new manufacturing processes, facilities and products at Intel. The paper concludes with a call for collaboration since there remains a need for increased research and knowledge exchange in the field of environmental sustainability, specifically in the areas of life cycle assessment and environmental footprinting.
Behavior of Red Tree Voles (Arborimus longicaudus) Based on Continuous Video Monitoring of Nests

Abstract We used video cameras to observe the activity patterns and behavior of three female red tree voles (Arborimus longicaudus) and their young in arboreal nests in western Oregon. Observation periods at the three nests were 63, 103 and 148 days. All three voles were primarily nocturnal, but occasionally foraged for brief periods during the day when they had large young in the nest. The median time when voles began and ended activity was 95 min after sunset and 168 min before sunrise, respectively. The median amount of time spent outside the nest at night was 27 min (range = 0–712 min), and most of this time was spent foraging. Nocturnal activity consisted primarily of long periods inside the nest interspersed with short periods of intensive foraging, during which voles ran out of the nest, harvested cuttings and hauled them back to the nest. Cuttings were stored inside the nest or on top of the nest. The mean number of foraging bouts per night was 3.4 ± 0.1 (range = 1–13), and the mean number of cutt...
AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC BACTERIOLOGY OF PERITONSILLAR ABSCESS IN CHILDREN

Brook I. (Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Laboratories, Children's Hospital, Washington, D.C., USA). Aerobic and anaerobic bacteriology of peritonsillar abscess in children. Acta Paediatr Scand, 70: 831, 1981.-Aspiration of peritonsillar abscess (quinsy) was aseptically performed in 16 children. Patients' median age was 10 years (range 6 to 17 years), and 12 were males. Unilateral abscess was present in all but one child. All aspirates were cultured for aerobes and anaerobes and yielded bacterial growth in all patients. Anaerobes were isolated in all patients; in 3 patients (19 %), they were the only organism isolated, and in 13 (81 %), they were mixed with aerobes. There were 91 anaerobic isolates (5.7 per specimen): 42 Bacteroides sp. (including 23 B. melaninogenicus, 5 B. oralis and 4 B. ruminicola ss. brevis); 18 anaerobic Gram-positive cocci (including 10 Peptostreptoc-cus sp., 4 Peptococcus sp. and 4 microaerophilic streptococci); 15 Fusobacterium sp.; and 3 Clostridium sp. There were 32 aerobic isolates (2.0 per specimen): 11 /-hemolytic streptococci, 8 α-hemolytic streptococci, 4 Group A β-hemolytic streptococci, 4 Haemophilus sp. and 3 S. aureus. β-lactamase production was noted in 13 isolates recovered from 11 patients (68 %). These were all isolates of S. aureus (3), 8 of 23 B. melaninogenicus (35 %), and 2 of 5 B. oralis (40 %). Our findings indicate the major role of anaerobic organisms in the polymicrobial etiology of peritonsillar abscesses in children, and demonstrate the presence of many β-lactamase-producing organisms in two thirds of the patients.
PEDESTRIAN SURVEY TECHNIQUES

This article covers generic issues common to most regional archaeological or pedestrian surveys. There is discussion of the ways that archaeological sites are delimited in the field, and how differing intensities of survey coverage are integrated in regional research designs. Most issues concerning survey methods can be solved with reference to the anthropological questions of interest.
Influences of gold, binder and electrolyte on silicon nanowire performance in Li-ion batteries

The effects of binder, electrolyte, and presence of gold (Au) seeds on the performance of silicon (Si) nanowire anodes in Lithium (Li)-ion batteries were systematically examined. Large irreversible capacity loss, poor performance at cycle rates of C/5 and faster, and significant capacity fade were observed when excess Au was not removed from the Si nanowires. Battery stability was very poor when poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVdF) binder and common carbonate electrolytes, ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, and diethyl carbonate were used. Respectable Li-ion battery performance was obtained with sodium alginate binder and fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) added to the electrolyte, with capacities up to 2000 mA h g–1 after the first 100 cycles.
Nominalism and the Substitutional Quantifier

It has been suggested that a substitutional semantics for quantification theory lends itself to nominalistic aims. I should like in this paper to explore that claim. Debates about nominalism and realism c#n be seen in relief against background theories about the relation of a language to the objects which the language purports to be about. Confining ourselves to those parts of a language which are vehicles for truth claims, complete sentences, or statements if you like, the supposition of nominalists and realists alike is that there are, in any meaningful statement, links between some or all of the words in the statement, taken singly or in concatenation, and objects which the statements are about. Statements contrive somehow to mention or refer, directly or obliquely, to objects. Plato,1 in arguing against the Sophists' claim that erroneous beliefs are not about anything, says, "Whenever there is a statement it must be about something," and that, he claimed, holds for true statements as well as false ones. Statements, true or false, speak of objects. In this, nominalists and realists are generally in agreement. The disagreement on the metaphysical side is about which objects; what exactly is being mentioned, directly or in directly by a statement. The disagreement on the linguistic side is about which words are doing the mentioning. Which words in the statement are bearing the burden of reference; all of them, some of them, and if not all of them, what work is being done by the others. The question echoes the distinc tion between categorematic (referring) and syncategorematic (nonreferring) terms. Historically, the focus of the debate has been the claim of realists that predicate expressions (often broadly conceived to include common nouns and the like as well as verbs) can with a bit of pushing and shoving, be seen as designating objects; the universals. Among the universale are properties, at tributes, relations, or the less abstract, but abstract nevertheless, classes or sets. The realist further claims that those objects are of a categorically different kind, or at least a different species from the particulars. Particulars are the concrete individuals which are the nominalists' preferred ontology. The relation between particulars and the purported designata of predicates is called misleadingly, since it seems a grammatical term, that of "predication." Historically, as we know, there is considerable variation as to what counts as concrete individuals. Nominalists have made varying claims, some of them reductionist, as to whether there are basic particulars such as events, physical atoms, sense data, time slices of physical objects, out of which other par
Assessing the ecological importance of red tree coral thickets in the eastern Gulf of Alaska

Red tree corals (Primnoa pacifica), the largest structure-forming gorgonians in the North Pacific Ocean, form dense thickets in some areas. These thickets are a dominant benthic habitat feature in theGulf of Alaska (GOA), yet little is knownabout the ecosystems they support. In 2005, weused a submersible to study the ecologyof thickets inside or near five small areasof the easternGOAlater designated in 2006 as habitat areasof particular concern (HAPCs)—areas closed toall bottomcontact fishing.Weshow that red tree corals are keystone species inhabitatswhere they formthickets (mean density 0.52 corals m)—the densest and largest thickets documented anywhere. Measured sponge densities (2.51 sponges m) were also among the highest documented anywhere. The corals and sponges in the study areas provide essential fish habitat for some fish species, and we show with logistic regression models modified with a scaled binomial variance that bedrock, while important habitat for some fish, is even more important when paired with corals and sponges. Red tree corals were not equally distributed with regard to habitat characteristics, and we show that their presence was correlated with bedrock substrate, moderate to high seabed roughness, and slope .108. Most corals and sponges are vulnerable to disturbance from longlining, the principal bottom contact fishing in this region, but the larger corals and sponges are the most vulnerable. We observed evidence of infrequent recruitment events and a strong pulse of predation, apparently from fishing gearinduced trauma, that could exacerbate slow recovery of red tree corals from disturbance. Some red tree coral thickets are provided protection within designatedHAPCs and some are not.Modifications to longline gear and an expandednetwork of HAPCs could help preserve these keystone species and the ecosystems they support.
Maturity-onset diabetes of the young

Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a subtype of noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). It is characterized by an early age of onset and autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. These features and the availability of large multigenerational pedigrees make MODY useful for genetic studies of diabetes. In the large, 5-generational RW pedigree, MODY is tightly linked to genetic markers on chromosome 20q. Affected subjects in this family show abnormalities of carbohydrate metabolism varying from impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) to severe diabetes. Approximately 30% of diabetic subjects become insulin requiring and vascular complications occur. MODY is also linked to the glucokinase gene on chromosome 7p and many different mutations associated with MODY have been identified in this gene. MODY due to mutations in the glucokinase gene is a relatively mild form of diabetes with mild fasting hyperglycemia and IGT in the majority. IT is rarely insulin requiring and rarely has vascular complications. Clinical studies indicate that the genetic or primary defect in MODY is characterized by deranged and deficient insulin secretion and not by insulin resistance and that there are quantitative and qualitative differences in insulin secretory defects which differentiate subjects with MODY due to glucokinase mutations from those with mutations in the gene on chromosome 20q. These differences correlate with the severity of diabetes between these two genetic forms of MODY.
DEM assessment of scaling laws capturing the grain size dependence of yielding in granular soils

Experimental evidences show that the pressure at which granular soils exhibit a sharp increase of their compressibility depends on the size of the particles that constitute their skeleton, thus reflecting the role of micro-scale fracture events on the macroscopic compression of granular systems. In this paper, the distinct element method (DEM) is used to test the validity of scaling laws relating the macroscopic energy at which the grains of a soil matrix crush collectively to the energy at which individual grains subjected to diametrical compression undergo tensile fracture. Oedometric compression tests on uniformly graded specimens with different values of particle size have been simulated by considering two deterministic fracture models and a probabilistic criterion based on the Weibull weakest link theory. It has been shown that the constants of proportionality between grain-scale and assembly-scale crushing thresholds depend considerably on the statistical variability of the particle strength, and that a larger variability exacerbates the departure between the scaling constants pertaining to deterministic and probabilistic models. Nevertheless, for the chosen set of initial conditions and loading paths, the simulations have suggested the applicability of a proportional scaling between the energy stored in the assembly at the moment of yielding and that required to fracture a single grain. In particular, the simulations revealed that the scaling constants relating the microscopic and macroscopic energy thresholds fall within a rather narrow range and do not depend significantly on the grain size. The Breakage Mechanics theory has been used to further explore such connection between length scales, finding a good agreement between the DEM simulations and the yielding stress computed by the theory whenever its parameters were defined on the basis of the scaling constants computed from the DEM model. These results confirm the interplay between the statistical variability of the particle strength and the grain size dependence of the yielding pressure, stressing at the same time the usefulness of energy scaling arguments in incorporating the effect of micro-scale fracture events into continuum models.
Cell-type specific control of immune responses mediated by inflammasomes in vivo (INM6P.333)

Upon pathogen recognition, certain cytosolic nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat containing proteins (NLRs) form multi-protein complexes called inflammasomes, which activate CASPASE-1. CASPASE-1 initiates inflammation by processing IL-1beta and -18 into their active forms, and by inducing a rapid, lytic cell death called pyroptosis. The NLRC4 inflammasome responds to the cytosolic presence of specific bacterial proteins, such as flagellin, via NAIPs. A fundamental question is whether and how activation of innate immune responses triggers pathogen-specific adaptive immune responses. We seek to test the hypothesis that cell-type-specific activation of the inflammasome is sufficient to induce inflammation and adaptive immune responses in vivo . To test our hypothesis, we are using a novel ‘knock-in’ mouse strain. This mouse expresses a fusion protein, which selectively activates the NLRC4 inflammasome. Preliminary data indicate extensive NLRC4-dependent inflammatory disease in mice expressing the fusion protein in myeloid-derived cells.
Computational analysis of androgen receptor dependent radiosensitivity in prostate cancer

In this study, we quantitatively analyze the mechanism by which androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is enhancing radiosensitivity in prostate cancer (PCa) patients. It has been shown in laboratory experiments, as well as in patient data in the literature, that the androgen receptor (AR) reduces the effectiveness of ionizing radiation treatment by enhancing the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair of radiation damage. The suppression of AR by ADT suppresses the activity of NHEJ that leads to radiosensitivity in PCa patients. In this paper, we have studied this positive interaction between AR and NHEJ using mathematical models of the NHEJ that we have developed using both the experimental and clinical data for PCa. Our results show that the biological observation of suppression of AR by ADT leading to down-regulation of the first NHEJ protein Ku and NHEJ is a plausible biological mechanism that explains both the experimental and clinical observations in the literature. The presented analysis is the first step in quantitatively analyzing possible treatment scenarios to find the optimal treatment strategies for PCa using the combination treatment with ADT, NHEJ inhibitors, and IR.
Multisite Management of Scientific Workflows in the Cloud

Scientific Workflows (SWfs) allow scientists to easily express multi-step computational activities, such as load input data files, process the data, run analyses, and aggregate the results. A SWf describes the dependencies between activities, typically as a graph where the nodes are activities and the edges express the activity dependencies. SWfs are often data-intensive, i.e. process, manage or produce huge amounts of data. In order to execute data-intensive SWfs within a reasonable time, Scientific Workflow Management Systems (SWfMSs) can be used and deployed in High Performance Computing (HPC) environments (cluster, grid or cloud). By offering stable services and virtually infinite computing, and storage resources at a reasonable cost, the cloud becomes appealing for SWf execution. SWfMSs can be easily deployed in the cloud using Virtual Machines (VMs). A cloud is typically made of several sites (or data centers), each with its own resources and data. Since a SWf may process data located at different sites, SWf execution should be adapted to a multisite cloud while exploiting distributed computing or storage resources. In this thesis, we study the problem of efficiently executing data-intensive SWfs in a multisite cloud, where each site has its own cluster, data and programs. Most SWfMSs have been designed for computer clusters or grids, and some have been extended to operate in the cloud, but only for single site. To address the problem in the multisite case, we propose a distributed and parallel approach that leverages the resources available at different cloud sites. To exploit parallelism, we use an algebraic approach, which allows expressing SWf activities using operators and automatically transforming them into multiple tasks. The main contribution is a multisite architecture for SWfMSs and distributed techniques to execute SWfs. The main techniques consist of SWf partitioning algorithms, a dynamic VM provisioning algorithm, an activity scheduling algorithm and a task scheduling algorithm. SWf partitioning algorithms partition a SWf to several fragments, each to be executed at a different cloud site. The VM provisioning algorithm is used to dynamically create an optimal combination of VMs for executing workflow fragments at each cloud site. The activity scheduling algorithm distributes the SWf fragments to the cloud sites based on a multi-objective cost model, which combines both execution time and monetary cost. The task scheduling algorithm directly distributes tasks among different cloud sites while achieving load balancing at each site. Our experiments show that our approach can reduce considerably the overall cost of SWf execution in a multisite cloud.
The Preparedness Piñata: Knocking Out the Problems in Texas’ Emergency Management Legal Framework to Enhance Performance at the Local Level

Texas has an incredibly comprehensive Emergency Management program that should be the envy of every state in the union. However, the manner in which we as a profession have achieved this may have inadvertently circumvented the proper administrative law procedures required in Texas. This has likely caused the Texas Division of Emergency Management (“TDEM”) to accidentally engage in ad hoc rulemaking that—if left as is—could set the conditions to create a damaging friction between the state and municipal governments; that would erode the interoperability necessary to protecting property and save lives during a disaster. Though there are several ways to fix this, two things are common: (1) a true study is needed on how municipalities actually plan, train, and prepare for disasters and (2) collaboration between the legal and emergency management professions throughout the state.
Kidney Transplantation in the Diabetic Patient

Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide epidemic and an uncontrolled global disease that continues to affect an increasing number of patients and health care expenditures across all countries. Not only is diabetes mellitus a disease of rapidly increasing prevalence but also the main cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD). The development of CKD and ESRD in diabetic patients is testament to insufficient metabolic control. Although a successful kidney transplant can render the uremic diabetic patient dialysis-free for a long time, it does not provide a cure to the underlying disease which can even be worsened as a result of diabetogenic and nephrotoxic immunosuppressants that are necessary to prevent the occurrence of graft rejection. Despite great advances in modern insulin administration, new delivery devices and pumps including the bionic pancreas, new medications and promising research approaches, normoglycemia cannot be achieved with conventional methods, no matter how sophisticated. But even if glucose control is significantly improved by various exogenous insulin regimens, near-normoglycemia does not prevent the development of the secondary complications of diabetes mellitus. Currently, only a successful pancreas transplant achieves short- and long-term normoglycemia at the expense of major surgery and the need for posttransplant immunosuppression.
Heterogeneous Two-Phase Pillars in Epitaxial NiFe2O4-LaFeO3 Nanocomposites

Self-assembled epitaxial oxide nanocomposites have been explored for a wide range of applications, including multiferroic and magnetoelectric properties, plasmonics, and catalysis. These so-called “vertically aligned nanocomposites” form spontaneously during the deposition process when segregation into two phases is energetically favorable as compared to a solid solution. However, there has been surprisingly little work understanding the driving forces that govern the synthesis of these materials, which can include point defect energetics, surface diffusion, and interfacial energies. To explore these factors, La-Ni-Fe-O films have been synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy and it is shown that these phase segregate into spinel-perovskite nanocomposites. Using complementary scanning transmission electron microscopy and atom-probe tomography, the elemental composition of each phase is examined and found that Ni ions are exclusively found in the spinel phase. From correlative analysis, a model for the relative favorability of the Ni2+ and Ni3+ valences under the growth conditions is developed. It is shown that multidimensional characterization techniques provide previously unobserved insight into the growth process and complex driving forces for phase segregation.
Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course

Abstract This paper describes an MBA course assignment, the “Individual Strategic Professional Development Plan”. The assignment consists of three parts, requiring students to: 1) conduct an industry and job analysis 2) explore, benchmark and develop their leadership skills; and, 3) develop a personal strategic plan for guiding and achieving their leadership capabilities and career goals. As a core competency, leadership is needed by all business and management students. While courses in leadership may offer important theoretical and conceptual guidance for students, our assignment requires students to go further; they must reflect on their own identities (who they are) while considering the necessary and critical routes that must be followed on their paths toward becoming effective organizational leaders. In dynamic and uncertain global and technological environments, students' abilities to strategically map their careers and assess and develop key leadership skills critical to career success are more important than ever. Anecdotally, students in post-class assessments have voiced praise for the assignment, citing it as one of the most important outcomes in their MBA experience.
High-Temperature Photoluminescence in Colloidal "Quasi" 2D Materials

The recent development of quasi-two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting nanomaterials [nanoplatelets (NPLs)] prepared through solution-based chemistry has attracted significant attention in the field of color conversion materials. Herein, we demonstrate the efficient high-temperature photoluminescence of the as-prepared cadmium telluride NPLs from 300 to 500 K with visually observable emission at temperatures as high as 500 K. Indeed, the thermal-emission quenching of the as-prepared NPLs in solution was found to be not only reversible following thermal cycling up to 475 K, but also comparable to more chemically complex core/shell nanostructures. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of the as-synthesized colloidal nanoparticles capable of high-temperature photoluminescence. This discovery highlights previously unexplored emission properties of NPLs that have the potential to be utilized for the efficient design of high-quality light emitters.
Efficient light emission and absorption in monolayer 2D semiconductors using plasmonic nanostructures (Conference Presentation)

Monolayer two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDCs) have gained immense attention for their desirable transport properties and direct bandgap that have led to a plethora of studies on modern nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications. These properties are known to occur exclusively in TMDCs when thinned down to one or few monolayers. However reduced dimensionality poses a significant challenge for photonics and optoelectronics applications due to poor light absorption and emission dictated by the volume of semiconductor material. Plasmonic nanostructures have been widely studied for enhancing light-matter interactions in wide variety of material systems resulting in increased emission and absorption properties. 2D Materials provide the ultimate lower limit in terms of material thickness, therefore investigation of plasmon/2D Material hybrid material systems with a specific aim to enhance light-matter interactions is essential for practical optoelectronic applications. In this talk, I will discuss increased photoluminescence emission from MoS2 using both periodic plasmonic nanodisc arrays as well as a single plasmonic optical antenna. Additionally, I will describe a systematic study in which we have demonstrated increased light absorption in a monolayer WS2 film.
How to design usable systems

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the way in which usable systems can be designed. Usability is a combination of many factors, each of which is often developed independently. User-interface code is becoming an increasingly large percentage of the total system code. Standards are beginning to emerge for user interface design. Establishing standards for software aspects of the user interface is probably premature. There are lots of guidelines for a good system design. However, these are not enough for the design of good systems. One should at the beginning and throughout development focus on prospective users and their work. It is often heard that people buy computer systems for the functions in them. One is unlikely to figure out what the functions should be without talking with users. One should continuously measure each aspect of usability, and then iterate in a hill-climbing way toward a better system. All aspects of usability should begin evolving from the beginning and should be under one focus.
Error Evaluation, Interlanguage Analysis, and the Preterit in the Spanish L2 Classroom.

A l'intention des enseignants d'espagnol deuxieme langue, l'A. presente une autre methode d'analyse des formes non-standard du langage que l'analyse d'erreur, i.e. l'« Interlanguage Analysis », et montre comment les strategies correspondantes peuvent etre utilisees sur les formes du preterit espagnol
Amitriptyline inhibits voltage-sensitive sodium currents in rat gastric sensory neurons.

Recent studies indicate that peripheral mechanisms contribute to the analgesic effect of amitriptyline. We hypothesized that amitriptyline inhibits voltage-dependent sodium currents in gastric sensory neurons. To label gastric neurons, the stomach was exposed in male Sprague Dawley rats through a midline incision to inject the retrograde tracer DiI into the gastric wall. Seven days after surgery, nodose ganglia were harvested. Neurons were dissociated and cultured for 4–24 hr to record whole cell sodium currents with the patch-clamp technique. Amitriptyline reversibly inhibited voltage-sensitive sodium currents with an IC50 of 20 μM. At clinically relevant concentrations, the peak sodium current decreased by about 15%. This was associated with a slowed recovery from inactivation, leading to a significantly enhanced cumulative inhibition during brief repetitive depolarizations. These findings are consistent with a use-dependent block of voltage-dependent sodium channels by amitriptyline. This effect may contribute to the analgesic properties of tricyclic antidepressants.
A Search for Dense Gas Around Young Stars

We searched for CS(7–6) emission in a range of young stars, to test for the presence of dense gas. CS emission was detected only towards high-luminosity objects. We suggest that this is because the low-luminosity objects cannot heat a sufficient volume of gas to produce detectable CS emission.
Chapter 33 Labor supply effects of social insurance

Abstract This chapter examines the labor supply effects of social insurance programs. We argue that this topic deserves separate treatment from the rest of the labor supply literature because individuals may be imperfectly informed as to the rules of the programs and because key parameters are likely to differ for those who are eligible for social insurance programs, such as the disabled. Furthermore, differences in social insurance programs often provide natural experiments with exogenous changes in wages or incomes that can be used to estimate labor supply responses. Finally, social insurance often affects different margins of labor supply. For example, the labor supply literature deals mostly with adjustments in the number of hours worked, whereas the incentives of social insurance programs frequently affect the decision of whether to work at all. The empirical work on unemployment insurance (UI) and workers' compensation (WC) insurance finds that the programs tend to increase the length of time employees spend out of work. Most of the estimates of the elasticities of lost work time that incorporate both the incidence and duration of claims are close to 1.0 for unemployment insurance and between 0.5 and 1.0 for workers' compensation. These elasticities are substantially larger than the labor supply elasticities typically found for men in studies of the effects of wages or taxes on hours of work. The evidence on disability insurance and (especially) social security retirement suggests much smaller and less conclusively established labor supply effects. Part of the explanation for this difference probably lies in the fact that UI and WC lead to short-run variation in wages with mostly a substitution effect. Our review suggests that it would be misleading to apply a universal set of labor supply elasticities to these diverse problems and populations.
Selection and characterization of protective anti-chikungunya virus single domain antibodies

Abstract Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus that causes an arthralgia febrile illness that has affected millions of people on three continents. Previously, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies that have prophylactic and therapeutic activity were found to remove virus in joint tissues, thereby reducing the severity of symptoms in mice and non-human primates. In this study, we sought to develop thermostable small recombinant antibodies against CHIKV for future diagnostic, prophylactic and therapeutic applications. To develop these single domain antibodies (sdAb) a CHIKV immune library was constructed by displaying the consortium of variable heavy domains (VHH) amplified from peripheral white blood cells isolated from llamas immunized with CHIKV virus-like particles (VLPs). Five anti-CHIKV sdAb isolated using bio-panning were evaluated for their affinity and thermal stability. Their ability to detect CHIKV VLPs was demonstrated in both MagPlex- and ELISA- based assays. Finally, the ability of two sdAb, CC3 and CA6, to inhibit CHIKV infection were tested using a plaque reduction and neutralization test (PRNT), yielding PRNT50 values of 0.6 and 45.6 nM, respectively.
Time-varying low gain feedback for linear systems with unknown input delay

Abstract In this paper, the traditional low gain feedback design with a time-invariant feedback parameter is generalized to time-varying parameter design for linear systems with delayed input. For an unknown delay with a known upper bound, a time-varying low gain feedback law, constructed by using the parametric Lyapunov equation based approach, globally regulates a system with all open loop poles at the origin as long as the time-varying low gain parameter has a continuous second derivative and approaches a sufficiently small constant with its derivative approaching zero as time goes to infinity. Improvement of the closed-loop performance is addressed in a convergence rate analysis and then observed in simulation compared with the traditional constant parameter low gain design.
On Materiality and Meaning: Ethnographic Engagements with Reuse, Repair & Care

The reimagination and revaluation of discarded goods, through repair and reuse is, for many, a quotidian and mundane element of everyday life. These practices are the historical precedent and continue to be the stuff of common sense for a significant portion of human society. And yet, reuse, repair and other elements of a ‘circular economy’ have recently emerged as a significant focus in environmental and economic policy. Proponents claim that reuse practices represent a potentially radical alternative to mainstream consumer culture and a form of carework that generates new social possibilities and personal affects. This essay explores the myriad dimensions of reuse as care, relational practice and as consumer alternative by examining these practices in their social context, lived experience and as embedded within larger political and economic structures of capitalist accumulation and abandonment. We argue that the study of reuse, in old and new forms, takes on added political significance in an era of environmental and economic crises, especially as a critical part of state-based approaches toward the circular economy that attempt to appropriate carework in new forms of value generation.
The Social Context of Adolescents' Right to Transition.

In her article “Transgender Children and the Right to Transition,” Maura Priest (2019) makes the valuable argument that transgender adolescents should be able to access puberty-blocking therapy wit...
Commentary on Part III: Engaging the Public

Public support for controversial legislation is critical to its success. The liberal versus conservative tug-of-war over passage of the ACA was hindered by the public’s lack of understanding over its purpose and implementation. One public opinion poll after another and continuing till this day highlights the lack of understanding on what potential benefits lie ahead for individuals, families, communities, and for the nation as a whole in terms of not only public health but the economic benefits that come with improved public health.
A Review of: “The End of Sustainability: Resilience and the Future of Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene”

In The End of Sustainability: Resilience and the Future of Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene, Melinda Harm Benson and Robin Kundis Craig embrace a new cultural narrative of social-ecolog...