cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Vitamin D in Bone Disease

This article deals with vitamin D therapy of selected metabolic bone diseases, including vitamin D deficiency and those disorders that occur in the setting of renal tubular dysfunction or chronic renal (glomerular) insufficiency.
Monitoring of Utility Trenches at Mission Concepcion, San Antonio, Texas, 1988

In July 1988, personnel from the Center for Archaeological Research at The University of Texas at San Antonio conducted monitoring of the construction of hand-dug trenches for installation of an air conditioning system in the church of Mission Concepcion. During the trenching for installation of electric lines one wall of the first convento was crossed. A small collection of artifacts taken from the backdirt of the trench is described, and the more unusual ones are illustrated.
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Multiple Airborne Pollutants and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background Exposure to ambient air pollution is widespread and may be detrimental to human brain development and a potential risk factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We conducted a systematic review of the human evidence on the relationship between ASD and exposure to all airborne pollutants, including particulate matter air pollutants and others (e.g. pesticides and metals). Objective To answer the question: “is developmental exposure to air pollution associated with ASD?” Methods We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature, identified relevant studies using inclusion/exclusion criteria pre-specified in our protocol (registered in PROSPERO, CRD # 42015017890), evaluated the potential risk of bias for each included study and identified an appropriate subset of studies to combine in a meta-analysis. We then rated the overall quality and strength of the evidence collectively across all air pollutants. Results Of 1,158 total references identified, 23 human studies met our inclusion criteria (17 case-control, 4 ecological, 2 cohort). Risk of bias was generally low across studies for most domains; study limitations were related to potential confounding and accuracy of exposure assessment methods. We rated the quality of the body of evidence across all air pollutants as “moderate.” From our meta-analysis, we found statistically significant summary odds ratios (ORs) of 1.07 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.08) per 10-μg/m3 increase in PM10 exposure (n = 6 studies) and 2.32 (95% CI: 2.15, 2.51) per 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure (n = 3 studies). For pollutants not included in a meta-analysis, we collectively evaluated evidence from each study in rating the strength and quality of overall evidence considering factors such as inconsistency, imprecision, and evidence of dose-response. All included studies generally showed increased risk of ASD with increasing exposure to air pollution, although not consistently across all chemical components. Conclusion After considering strengths and limitations of the body of research, we concluded that there is “limited evidence of toxicity” for the association between early life exposure to air pollution as a whole and diagnosis of ASD. The strongest evidence was between prenatal exposure to particulate matter and ASD. However, the small number of studies in the meta-analysis and unexplained statistical heterogeneity across the individual study estimates means that the effect could be larger or smaller (including not significant) than these studies estimate. Our research supports the need for health protective public policy to reduce exposures to harmful airborne contaminants among pregnant women and children and suggests opportunities for optimizing future research.
Geometry and Materials

We give an introduction to anisotropic surface energies motivated by the study of liquid crystal interfaces. Chandrasekhar’s proof of Wulff’s Theorem is discussed. We also recall the construction of surfaces of revolution with constant anisotropic mean curvature.
Non-Hermitian engineering of synthetic saturable absorbers for applications in photonics

We introduce a new type of synthetic saturable absorber based on quantum-inspired Jx photonic arrays. We demonstrate that the interplay between optical Kerr nonlinearity, interference effects and non-Hermiticity through radiation loss leads to a nonlinear optical filtering response with two distinct regimes of small and large optical transmissions. More interestingly, we show that the boundary between these two regimes can be very sharp. The threshold optical intensity that marks this abrupt "phase transition" and its steepness can be engineered by varying the number of the guiding elements. The practical feasibility of these structures as well as their potential applications in laser systems and optical signal processing are also discussed.
Pyridone photoelectrocyclizations to pyridophenanthrenes

Abstract This article describes the synthesis of pyridophenanthrenes from the stereoselective electrocyclization and [1,5]-hydride shift sequences of biphenyl pyridones. The regioselectivity of the reaction of meta-substituted biphenyl substrates depended on the electronic environment of the substituents. That is, substrates having electron-withdrawing substituents underwent a regioselective sequence while electron-donating substituents gave mixtures of products.
Resources Used to Teach the Physical Exam to Preclerkship Medical Students: Results of a National Survey.

PURPOSE To examine resources used in teaching the physical exam to preclerkship students at U.S. medical schools. METHOD The Directors of Clinical Skills Courses developed a 49-question survey addressing resources and pedagogical methods employed in preclerkship physical exam curricula. The survey was sent to all 141 Liaison Committee on Medical Education-accredited medical schools in October 2015. Results were averaged across schools, and data were weighted by class size. RESULTS Results from 106 medical schools (75% response rate) identified a median of 59 hours devoted to teaching the physical exam. Thirty-eight percent of time spent teaching the physical exam involved the use of standardized patients, 30% used peer-to-peer practice, and 25% involved examining actual patients. Approximately half of practice time with actual patients was observed by faculty. At 48% of schools (51), less than 15% of practice time was with actual patients, and at 20% of schools (21) faculty never observed students practicing with actual patients. Forty-eight percent of schools (51) did not provide compensation for their outpatient clinical preceptors. CONCLUSIONS There is wide variation in the resources used to teach the physical examination to preclerkship medical students. At some schools, the amount of faculty observation of students examining actual patients may not be enough for students to achieve competency. A significant percentage of faculty teaching the physical exam remain uncompensated for their effort. Improving faculty compensation and increasing use of senior students as teachers might allow for greater observation and feedback and improved physical exam skills among students.
Quality of Service Provisioning for Adaptive Multimedia in Mobile/Wireless Networks

In this chapter, we classify services into three categories: Bandwidth Guaranteed (BG) service, Bandwidth Not Guaranteed (BNG) service and Best Effort (BE) service. For each of the above three categories, traffic descriptors and QoS parameters are defined and specified. We abstract the three categories into a general traffic model. Under such a general abstract traffic model, an optimal CAC scheme that guarantees the QoS parameters’ requirements and traffic descriptors, and maximizes the revenue, is presented analytically. The proposed schemes allow us to make decisions on call admission control, as well as bandwidth reallocation at the same time using the semi-Markov decision process approach. The Interior Point Method in linear programming is used to solve the optimal decision problem. With reasonable size of Ki and m, the proposed approach will fit well in the real system.
Inequalities Among Operations on Probability Distribution Functions

Inequalities are established among certain binary operations on a space of probability distribution functions. These operations arise naturally in the theory of probabilistic metric spaces, in the generalized theory of information, and in other contexts of the theory of probability. It is further shown that, in most cases, equality holds in the inequalities if and only if at least one of the arguments is a unit step function, i.e., that the associated functional equations have in general only essentially trivial solutions.
Two Thought Experiments on Immigration Reform

Immigration today presents two distinct but related problems. The first, and most neglected, relates to the money supply and currency values: due to the global availability of Western Union and Moneygram, remittances to home countries have exploded in the last decade, with estimates running into the hundreds of billions per year. While this massive transfer of currency initially helps alleviate poverty in developing countries, remittances have reached a level that can cause stifling inflation and “Dutch disease” (stagnation of exports) in the recipient countries, and deflation or currency instability in the United States. Yet money transfer services remain almost completely unregulated and under-taxed, leaving economies on both sides vulnerable. The second problem with immigration is a tragedy of the commons or collective action problem. Abrupt, large-scale immigration can result in surpluses of workers, social disruption, and other externalities that make migrant workers collectively worse off overall. Nevertheless, each individual stands to gain more personally by migrating than by coordinating or staggering the migration, because the harm of over-immigration is diffuse, spread across the whole population. Left unchecked, the problems simply escalate. This essay, the introduction to a longer work in progress, assumes that there is some optimal level of immigration and remittances, and that we should adopt policies that allow our government to achieve optimal levels rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach to the issue. An adjustable tax on overseas money transfers, one that the Executive Branch could calibrate year to year, would allow the government to monitor and limit the amount of currency leaving our economy, while nudging immigration rates to an optimal level. Evidence shows illegal immigration to be price sensitive, fluctuating with the value the money sent home. Compared to misguided and ineffective tactics of border fences, workplace raids, and deportations, country-specific transfer taxes provide a more rational, measured, and humane way to influence the influx rate of undocumented workers and to moderate the rate of dollar outflows from our financial system.
Quantification of Activity Lost to Delivery-System Residual and Decay in Yttrium-90 Radioembolization.

PURPOSE To measure the decay activity loss and delivery system residual activity loss of yttrium-90 (Y90) radioembolization treatments across resin and glass microsphere activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS For Y90 administrations between December 2009 and June 2017 at the study institution, the prescribed activity, prepared activity, and delivered activity were recorded. Six hundred sixty-two administrations were reviewed-345 glass (0.21-8.52 GBq) and 317 resin (0.18-3.28 GBq). Twenty-five patients (all resin) were excluded for arterial stasis or catheter clogging. The percentage and actual losses of activity lost to decay and to delivery system residual were calculated for glass and resin microspheres. RESULTS The median time between activity premeasurement and administration was 2.20 hours, resulting in a median activity lost to decay of 0.030 GBq or 2.35%, with no significant difference observed between glass and resin despite differences in preparation (P = .0697). Resin showed significantly higher activity lost to delivery system residual than glass (0.039 GBq vs 0.010 GBq, 3.01% vs 0.61%, P < .001). The percent activity lost to residual varied with activity prepared, with a maximum of 20.1% and 16.2% for the smallest activities of resin and glass, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Residual activity loss differs between glass and resin microspheres. For resin microspheres in particular, percent residual activity loss increases with lower prepared activities. Protocols for activity calculation and preparation, patient dosimetry, and regulatory compliance must take these losses into consideration prospectively.
Exploring the challenges of task-centred training in obstetric anaesthesia in the operating theatre environment.

Abstract Background Task-centred learning forms the basis of procedural training in obstetric anaesthesia. We observed that our residents were not building their competence from experiential practice in the operating theatre. We used a broad-based framework to explore the challenges encountered by the residents and clinical supervisors in the learning and teaching of obstetric anaesthesia. Methods The study was conducted at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore, from 1 December 2016 to 30 June 2017. A semi-structured interview format was used in the focus group and individual interviews. Information collection continued until data saturation was reached. The interviews were analysed and the challenges were identified. Fourteen residents and five clinical supervisors participated in the focus group and individual interviews respectively. Findings The operating theatre constituted a stressful learning and teaching environment for the participants. Five categories of challenges were identified: (1) clinical conditions, (2) concerns about maternal risk and outcomes, (3) reluctance of the residents to vocalise their learning needs, (4) poor feedback, and (5) lack of opportunities for inter-professional practice. These collective challenges reduced the quality of task-centred learning and the effectiveness of supervisor teaching. We described some strategies to overcome these challenges (dedicated trainee lists, obstetric anaesthesia reflective diary, active mentoring system and in-situ simulation). Conclusions Our study described the challenges of obstetric anaesthesia training in the operating theatre environment in an Asian healthcare setting. Research is needed on the influence of supervisors’ concern about maternal risks and their teaching behaviours.
Deploying Video Analysis to Boost Instruction and Assessment in Physical Education.

Physical educators are discovering the benefits of using video analysis to support their instruction and assessment. Slow-motion playback, zoom, and voice-over narration are just some of the featur...
AB0780 PERSISTENCE OF MOLL AND WRIGHT CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA OVER TIME

Background: In 1973 Moll and Wright published the first paper on the classification criteria for Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) which included several phenotypes of PsA: Oligoarticular, Polyarticular, axial, DIP, and Mutilans. Whether these subtypes change over time or are related to treatment response is not known. The hypothesis of this study is that with some exceptions, the Moll and Wright subtype classification criteria are stable over time and the pattern may have important therapeutic implications. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the persistence of the Moll and Wright classification criteria in PsA patients. Methods: This study is a retrospective chart review of PsA patients seen at a single center between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016. The patients in this study were identified using the ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes for PsA and were then classified using the CASPAR classification criteria for psoriatic arthritis. Patients who met CASPAR classification criteria were subsequently sub-classified using the Moll and Wright classification criteria based on the manifestations of PsA at their index outpatient visit. This subtype was then compared to their Moll and Wright subtype at the last outpatient visit prior to January 3, 2019. While it was possible for patients to display more than one subtype simultaneously, the classification made at baseline and at latest visit reflected the predominant Moll and Wright subtype of the patient, in the opinion of the expert treating rheumatologist. Results: 76 patients were identified as meeting entry criteria, with none being in remission at the index visit. Mean age of patients at the latest visit was 60.2 ± 12.6 years, and 47.4% were male. Median time between the index visit and latest visit was 7 years [IQR: 5 to 8 years]. 42.1% of patients had the same Moll and Wright subtype at both visits. Table 1 presents the distribution of Moll and Wright subtypes present at index visit and latest visit. Table 2 reports the changes, or lack thereof, in subtype between visits. 22/76 patients (28.9%) were in remission at the latest visit. Of the patients in remission, 12 (54.5%) were being treated with a biologic, DMARD, and/or steroid. Conclusion: In this retrospective analysis there was a persistence of Moll and Wright subtype in 42.1% of psoriatic arthritis patients over the median time of 7 years. Whether patients who maintain Moll and Wright subtypes respond differently to targeted therapy for PsA should be evaluated in prospective trials. References [1] Moll J. M. H., Wright V. Psoriatic arthritis. Semin arthritis Rheum. 1973; 3(1): 55-78. Disclosure of interests: None declared
Confederate Statuary: The Difficulty of Preserving Contested Historical Monuments

Removing public monuments from their prominent locations is an act that is likely to cause considerable controversy under most circumstances. This is particularly true when the ideology those monuments were erected to promote is hotly contested within society. Throughout the American South, cities and states are grappling with the issue of what to do with Confederate statuary, especially in the current political climate which has highlighted America’s lingering race issues and the violence attached to them. Russia was faced with a similar issue two decades earlier when the Soviet Union was dismantled, but its monumental propaganda still stood on virtually every street corner and square. This problem is analyzed in this essay by systematically analyzing these monuments according to their various historical and ideological values, as categorized by the prominent art historical Alois Riegl. Strategies employed by Russian policymakers in the late twentieth century are analyzed as a potential solution for officials throughout the South as they grapple with the issue today. La rimozione di monumenti pubblici dalle loro posizioni di rilievo e un atto che puo causare considerevoli controversie nella maggior parte delle circostanze. Cio e particolarmente vero quando l’ideologia che quei monumenti sono stati eretti per promuovere e fortemente contestata all’interno della societa. In tutto il Sud Americano, le citta e gli stati sono alle prese con il problema di cosa fare con la statuaria confederata, specialmente nell’attuale clima politico che ha messo in evidenza le persistenti questioni razziali in America e la violenza ad esse connessa. La Russia ha dovuto affrontare una questione analoga due decenni prima, quando l’Unione Sovietica fu smantellata, ma la sua monumentale propaganda si trovava ancora praticamente su ogni angolo e piazza. In questo saggio tale problema viene affrontato analizzando sistematicamente questi monumenti in base ai loro vari valori storici e ideologici, come classificato dal noto storico dell’arte Alois Riegl. Le strategie impiegate dai policymaker russi alla fine del XX secolo sono analizzate come una potenziale soluzione per i funzionari di tutto il Sud che stanno affrontando la questione oggi.
Mass Cytometry Reveals Global Immune Remodeling with Multi-lineage Hypersensitivity to Type I Interferon in Down Syndrome

People with Down syndrome (DS; trisomy 21) display a different disease spectrum relative to the general population, including lower rates of solid malignancies and higher incidence of neurological and autoimmune conditions. However, the mechanisms driving this unique clinical profile await elucidation. We completed a deep mapping of the immune system in adults with DS using mass cytometry to evaluate 100 immune cell types, which revealed global immune dysregulation consistent with chronic inflammation, including key changes in the myeloid and lymphoid cell compartments. Furthermore, measurement of interferon-inducible phosphorylation events revealed widespread hypersensitivity to interferon-α in DS, with cell-type-specific variations in downstream intracellular signaling. Mechanistically, this could be explained by overexpression of the interferon receptors encoded on chromosome 21, as demonstrated by increased IFNAR1 surface expression in all immune lineages tested. These results point to interferon-driven immune dysregulation as a likely contributor to the developmental and clinical hallmarks of DS.
A Response to “Islands, Languages and Development: A Commentary on Dominant Languages”

The Professional Geographer published my article “Identifying and Analyzing the Dominant Languages in Small Island Developing States” in its first issue (Volume 72, Number 1) in 2020 (Paul 2020). I...
Prevention and Management of Genital Mycotic Infections in the Setting of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors.

ObjectiveTo review the incidence, risk factors, prevention, and management of genital mycotic infections (GMIs) associated with sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors.Data SourcesA liter...
Identifying and Understanding Legal Aspects of Emergency Psychiatry Unique to Different Jurisdictions

More than any other clinical specialty, emergency psychiatry relies heavily on the legal system not just to circumscribe the boundaries of practice, but also as the very tools of its work. Involuntary commitment, protection of confidentiality, notification of third parties, and more are essential interventions for emergency psychiatry. These legal processes are subject to a hierarchy of laws, ranging from national constitutions down to municipal laws and are interpreted through the lens of culture, custom, and risk tolerance. As a result, jurisdictions even within the same country or state may adhere to very different legal standards. Understanding these regional variations, some explicit and others quite subtle, is essential to the practice of emergency psychiatry. This chapter will explain how and why such variations arise and how exploring these intricacies as a collaboration between the clinical team and legal counsel can lead to successful operations and mitigation of risk.
Cefiderocol Retains Antibiofilm Activity in Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Pathogens.

Cefiderocol is a siderophore cephalosporin with potent antibacterial activity against a broad range of Gram-negative pathogens, including multidrug-resistant strains. Siderophore antibiotics bind ferric iron and utilize iron transporters to cross the cell membrane. In the biofilm setting, where antibiotic resistance is high but iron scavenging is important, cefiderocol may have advantageous antimicrobial properties. In this study, we compared the antimicrobial activity of cefiderocol to that of seven commonly used antibiotics in well-characterized multidrug-resistant pathogens and then determined their efficacy in the biofilm setting. MIC90 values for cefiderocol were consistently lower than those of other antibiotics (ceftolozane-tazobactam, ceftazidime-avibactam, ceftazidime, piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem, and tobramycin) in all strains tested. Cefiderocol treatment displayed a reduction in the levels of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm (93%, P < 0.0001) superior to that seen with the other antibiotics (49% to 82%). Cefiderocol was generally as effective as or superior to the other antibiotics, depending on the pathogen-antibiotic combination, in reducing biofilm in other pathogens. There was a trend toward greater biofilm reduction seen with increased antibiotic dose or with increased frequency of antibiotic treatment. We conclude that cefiderocol effectively reduces biofilm and is a potent inhibitor of planktonic growth across a range of Gram-negative medically important pathogens.
Graphene-On-Polymer Flexible Vaporizable Sensor

This paper reports a graphene-on-polymer vaporizable and flexible piezoresistive sensor platform. This sensor technology can be used for wearable microsystems and disposable environmental sensors. The piezoresistive pressure sensor reported here achieves a high sensitivity of 68 ×10−3 kPa−1 with monolayer graphene piezoresistors. The sensor is made on a 1.8 μm spin-coated polypropylene carbonate (PPC) structural layer which vaporizes at 220 0C. We demonstrate that the sensor can be partially vaporized with 22 mW electrical heating power. Here we have shown the use of graphene in a flexible sensor system, which paves the way for a highly compliant and flexible 2D materials-based sensor platform with high sensitivity and mechanical compliance. The vaporability of the devices demonstrates the potential for eliminating electronic waste by vaporization in the field from where the sensors cannot be retrieved. This ability to evaporate the sensor material on-demand also opens up the ability to tune sensor parameters by reducing sensor membrane mass by partial or complete evaporation and stress tuning.
Pulsatile Tinnitus in Raynaud's Syndrome

Background: Pulsatile tinnitus can arise from turbulent flow in stenotic intracranial or upper cervical arteries, amidst other pathologies, but is often idiopathic in origin. Raynaud's syndrome involves peripheral vasoconstriction, but possibly also central vasoconstriction. The prevalence of pulsatile tinnitus in Raynaud's syndrome was evaluated in this study. Methods: Pulsatile tinnitus was defined as pulse synchronous audible sensations that were both bothersome and manifested during routine activities. Its presence was ascertained in consecutive patients with Raynaud's syndrome and compared to a consecutive control population who met the same inclusion criteria. The study consisted of 8 patients with Raynaud's and 58 control patients. Analysis was performed using Fisher's exact test. Findings: Four of Six (4/6) patients with Raynaud's had bothersome pulsatile tinnitus compared to Zero of 58 patients without Raynaud's, with a significance level of p<0·0002. There was no correlation between pulsatile tinnitus and common vascular risk factors including hypertension (p<0·9999), hyperlipidemia (p<0·9999), diabetes mellitus (p<0·9999), coronary artery disease (p<0·9999), cerebral vascular disease (p<0·9999), as well as vasculitis (p<0·4632) or conductive hearing loss (p<0·9999). Interpretation: Pulsatile tinnitus appears to be a common manifestation of Raynaud's. Diagnostic evaluation of pulsatile tinnitus may also include an evaluation for Raynaud's syndrome. Funding Statement: The authors state: "There was no funding source." Declaration of Interests: Dr. David Brown – Reports no conflicts of interest. Dr. Jason Kimbel – Reports no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The inclusion criteria and study format was reviewed and approved by the Mercy Healthcare System research review and ethical committees and exempted from IRB approval because it was a cross sectional study. Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study. There was no personal identifying information retained in this study.
If War is Everywhere, Must the Law be Nowhere?

This paper focuses on one of the most difficult questions posed by Rosa Brooks's How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: How should the erosion of the war / peace dichotomy impact the justifications for the use of lethal force by the United States government and what, if any, role is there for law in this context? While Brooks is unambiguously critical of Bush administration legal policies that asserted expansive executive war powers, she is less certain about the Obama administration's own reliance on the war paradigm to justify its targeted killing policies. While describing these policies as “undermining the international rule of law,” Brooks declines to take a firm stance on whether they are lawful or unlawful, and she rejects the views of critics who would “jam war back into its old box.” It is a credit to Brooks that she is willing to acknowledge such ambivalence, but her approach comes at a cost. It is difficult to maintain a critical stance on governmental policy while simultaneously undermining the very legal foundations that most plausibly support that stance. In this way, critique quickly turns into apology.
An Efficient High-order Numerical Solver for Diffusion Equations with Strong Anisotropy.

In this paper, we present an interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin finite element scheme for solving diffusion problems with strong anisotropy arising in magnetized plasmas for fusion applications. We demonstrate the accuracy produced by the high-order scheme and develop an efficient preconditioning technique to solve the corresponding linear system, which is robust to the mesh size and anisotropy of the problem. Several numerical tests are provided to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
DE SANTA A MARIANA: LA CIUDAD DE MEXICO COMO UTOPIA TRAICIONADA

Este ensayo analiza la vision de la ciudad de Mexico como distopia en Las batallas en el desierto (1981), de Jose Emilio Pacheco y la relacion intertextual de esta novela con Santa (1903) de Federico Gamboa. This essay analyzes the view of Mexico city as dystopia in J. Emilio Pacheco 's novel Las Batallas en el Desierto (The Battles in the Desert) as well as the intertextuality of this work with Federico Gamboa's Santa of 1905.
Formulation, Casting, and Evaluation of Paraffin-Based Solid Fuels Containing Energetic and Novel Additives for Hybrid Rockets

This investigation studied the inclusion of various additives to paraffin wax for use in a hybrid rocket motor. Some of the paraffin-based fuels were doped with various percentages of LiAlH4 (up to 10%). Addition of LiAlH4 at 10% was found to increase regression rates between 7 - 10% over baseline paraffin through tests in a gaseous oxygen hybrid rocket motor. Mass burn rates for paraffin grains with 10% LiAlH4 were also higher than those of the baseline paraffin. RDX was also cast into a paraffin sample via a novel casting process which involved dissolving RDX into dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent and then drawing a vacuum on the mixture of paraffin and RDX/DMF in order to evaporate out the DMF. It was found that although all DMF was removed, the process was not conducive to generating small RDX particles. The slow boiling generated an inhomogeneous mixture of paraffin and RDX. It is likely that superheating the DMF to cause rapid boiling would likely reduce RDX particle sizes. In addition to paraffin/LiAlH4 grains, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) were cast in paraffin for testing in a hybrid rocket motor, and assorted samples containing a range of MWNT percentages in paraffin were imaged using SEM. The fuel samples showed good distribution of MWNT in the paraffin matrix, but the MWNT were often agglomerated, indicating that a change to the sonication and mixing processes were required to achieve better uniformity and debundled MWNT. Fuel grains with MWNT fuel grains had slightly lower regression rate, likely due to the increased thermal conductivity to the fuel subsurface, reducing the burning surface temperature.
Inflation persistence: revisited

This paper presents evidence on the persistence of inflation in the USA over the period 1949-2014. Of particular interest is whether the persistence of inflation has changed over that time period. We use a reduced form approach to measuring inflation persistence, modelling inflation as an autoregressive process. We measure persistence as the half-life of a shock to that process. Our analysis employs both a Frequentist approach and a Bayesian approach to identify breaks in inflation persistence. Both our Frequentist and Bayesian results indicate that inflation persistence has undergone significant changes over the past 60 years.
Visualizing frequent itemsets, association rules, and sequential patterns in parallel coordinates

Frequent itemsets, association rules and sequential patterns are defined on elements of power sets of items and reflect the many-to-many relationships among items. Although many tools have been developed to visualize association rules, none of them can simultaneously manage a large number of rules with multiple antecedents and multiple consequences. This problem is shown as a straightforward application of parallel coordinates. We show that, by properly arranging items on coordinates and by filtering out subsets of large frequent itemsets, item groups can be naturally displayed and that inherent properties such as partial orders in itemsets and in association rules are implied by this visualization paradigm. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated through examples.
The closedness of the generator of a semigroup

We study semigroups of bounded operators on a Banach space such that the members of the semigroup are continuous with respect to various weak topologies and we give sufficient conditions for the generator of the semigroup to be closed with respect to the topologies involved. The proofs of these results use the Laplace trans- forms of the semigroup. Thus we first give sufficient conditions for Pettis integrability of vector-valued functions with respect to scalar measures.
The Disciplinary Role of Financial Statements: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions of Privately Held Targets

This study examines whether requiring the disclosure of audited financial statements disciplines managers’ mergers and acquisitions (M&As) decisions. When an M&A transaction meets certain disclosure thresholds, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires the public acquirer to disclose the target's audited financial statements after the merger is completed. Using hand‐collected data, I find that the disclosure of private targets’ financial statements is associated with better acquisition decisions. Furthermore, I find that this disciplining effect of disclosure is more pronounced when monitoring by outside capital providers is more difficult and costly, and when other disciplining mechanisms are weaker. Finally, these findings are robust to several alternative explanations, such as monitoring from blockholders and voluntary disclosures. In sum, the evidence suggests that the ex post mandatory disclosure of private targets’ accounting information disciplines managers’ acquisition decisions and improves acquisition efficiency.
Spitty Bifs are Spiffy Bits: Interest-Based Context Dissemination Using Spatiotemporal Bloom Filters

Acquiring accurate context information is crucial to mobile and pervasive computing, and sharing context among nodes enables unique applications. As context information and the applications that consume it become increasingly diverse, they will need an efficient means to indicate tailored interest in this context information. This paper proposes a new probabilistic data structure, spatiotemporal Bloom filters (SpTBF) or “spitty bifs,” which allow nodes to efficiently store and share their context interests. SpTBF provide both spatiotemporal locality and a fine-grained ability to control how context interests are disseminated. SpTBF are evaluated by modifying the Grapevine context sharing framework to inform its context dissemination capabilities, and the benefits are characterized in a variety of network scenarios.
A Visual Environment for Developing Context-Sensitive Term Rewriting Systems

Over the past decade, researchers have found context-sensitive term-rewriting semantics to be powerful and expressive tools for modeling programming languages, particularly in establishing type soundness proofs. Unfortunately, developing such semantics is an error-prone activity. To address that problem, we have designed PLT Redex, an embedded domain-specific language that helps users interactively create and debug context-sensitive term-rewriting systems. We introduce the tool with a series of examples and discuss our experience using it in courses and developing an operational semantics for R5RS Scheme.
Extended dynamic subgraph statistics using h-index parameterized data structures

We present techniques for maintaining subgraph frequencies in a dynamic graph, using data structures that are parameterized in terms of h, the h-index of the graph. Our methods extend previous results of Eppstein and Spiro for maintaining statistics for undirected subgraphs of size three to directed subgraphs and to subgraphs of size four. For the directed case, we provide a data structure to maintain counts for all 3-vertex induced subgraphs in O(h) amortized time per update. For the undirected case, we maintain the counts of size-four subgraphs in O(h^2) amortized time per update. These extensions enable a number of new applications in Bioinformatics and Social Networking research.
The industrial pollution projection system

The World Bank's technical assistance work with new environmental protection institutions stresses cost-effective regulation, with market-based pollution control instruments implemented wherever feasible. But few environmental protection institutions can do the benefit-cost analysis needed because they lack data on industrial emissions and abatement costs. For the time being, they must use appropriate estimates. The industrial pollution projection system (IPPS) is being developed as a comprehensive response to this need for estimates. The estimation of IPPS parameters is providing a much clearer, more detailed view of the sources of industrial pollution. The IPPS has been developed to exploit the fact that industrial pollution is heavily affected by the scale of industrial activity, by its sectoral composition, and by the type of process technology used in production. Most developing countries have little or no data on industrial pollution, but many of them have relatively detailed industry-survey information on employment, value added, or output. The IPPS is designed to convert this information to a profile of associated pollutant output for countries, regions, urban areas, or proposed new projects. It operates through sectoral estimates of pollution intensity, or pollution per unit of activity. The IPPS is being developed in two phases. The first prototype has been estimated from a massive U.S. data base developed by the Bank's Policy Research Department, Environment, Infrastructure, and Agriculture Division, in collaboration with the Center for Economic Studies of the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This database was created by merging manufacturing census data with Environment Protection Agency data on air, water, and solid waste emissions. It draws on environmental, economic, and geographic information from about 200,000 U.S. factories. The IPPS covers about 1,500 product categories, all operating technologies, and hundreds of pollutants. It can project air, water, or solid waste emissions, and it incorporates a range of risk factors for human toxins and ecotoxic effects. The more ambitious second phase of IPPS development will take into account cross-country and cross-regional variations in relative prices, economic and sectoral policies, and strictness of regulation.
Numerical Performance of MCMC Algorithms for Classical Estimation

In this paper, we study the performance of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms in estimation of the classical extremum problems. We find that even in well-defined problems, the stability of Markov chains depends on the parameter support and prior distribution. A possible implication is the inferior quality of Markov chains when the guess for the starting point of the MCMC procedure is inadequate. We estimate a simple model using artificial datasets to illustrate that even in a model as simple as ours, the problem with the starting value exists and displays more severely in smaller samples. ∗Southern Methodist University, e-mail: annak@smu.edu. †UC Berkeley, e-mail: nekipelov@econ.berkeley.edu. We would like to thank Han Hong and the participants of the All-UC Econometrics Conference in Riverside, CA for valuable comments.
Naturally occurring di- and trithiophenes.

The dithiophenes and trithiophenes reviewed in this article are part of a large group of biogenetieally related molecules found in plants of the family Compositae (Asteraceae). They include compounds having a variable number of unsaturations, particularly double bonds and triple bonds, which occur singly or in combinations. The first report of a naturally occurring trithiophene, α-terthienyl in the flowers of Tagetes erecta, appeared in 1947 (270); the first naturally occurring dithiophene was isolated from Bidens radiata and described in 1961 (142). The book Naturally Occurring Acetylenes, by BOHLMANN et al (29), is a superb review of the field up to 1972. Interestingly, out of its more than 500 pages, only two were devoted to physiological and pharmacological aspects. BOHLMANN and ZDERO later contributed one chapter, “Naturally Occurring Thiophenes”, to a volume Thiophenes and its Derivatives which appeared in 1985 (57). This chapter presents a survey of such thiophenes based on biogenetic considerations, includes an extensive analysis of the distribution of these compounds, and discusses methods of analysis based on UV, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and mass spectra. The most recent references in the chapter came from publications appearing in 1981.
A Bottom-Up Approach for Automatic Pancreas Segmentation in Abdominal CT Scans

Organ segmentation is a prerequisite for a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system to detect pathologies and perform quantitative analysis. For anatomically high-variability abdominal organs such as the pancreas, previous segmentation works report low accuracies when comparing to organs like the heart or liver. In this paper, a fully-automated bottom-up method is presented for pancreas segmentation, using abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans. The method is based on a hierarchical two-tiered information propagation by classifying image patches. It labels superpixels as pancreas or not via pooling patch-level confidences on 2D CT slices over-segmented by the Simple Linear Iterative Clustering approach. A supervised random forest (RF) classifier is trained on the patch level and a two-level cascade of RFs is applied at the superpixel level, coupled with multi-channel feature extraction, respectively. On six-fold cross-validation using 80 patient CT volumes, we achieved 68.8 % Dice coefficient and 57.2 % Jaccard Index, comparable to or slightly better than published state-of-the-art methods.
Bartlett's Test†

Bartlett's test for the equality of variances of k normal populations is based on a modification of the asymptotic form of the likelihood ratio statistic. The null distribution of the statistic is extremely sensitive to deviations from the assumption of normal populations. Keywords: equality of variances; normal populations; likelihood ratio statistic; kurtosis
Learning Linear Bayesian Networks with Latent Variables

This work considers the problem of learning linear Bayesian networks when some of the variables are unobserved. Identifiability and efficient recovery from low-order observable moments are established under a novel graphical constraint. The constraint concerns the expansion properties of the underlying directed acyclic graph (DAG) between observed and unobserved variables in the network, and it is satisfied by many natural families of DAGs that include multi-level DAGs, DAGs with effective depth one, as well as certain families of polytrees.
A review of the political economy of governance : from property rights to voice

Keefer reviews progress made in understanding the effects of different dimensions of governance on economic development, and the sources of good governance. The term governance has been used to embrace concepts that are heterogeneous both with respect to their effects on economic development and their genesis. Future progress in developing policy responses to bad governance will depend on separately examining these heterogeneous elements-the security of property rights, the quality of bureaucratic performance, corruption, voice, and accountability. Future progress will also depend on explicitly linking problems of governance to the overarching political environment and the incentives of governments to correct those problems.
Non-uniform information transmission for minimum distortion in wireless networks

This paper considers average input-output distortion minimization through joint optimization of source index assignment and modulation design. First, we derive the general optimization criterion, and discuss the possibility of simultaneous minimization of bit-error-rate (BER) and distortion. Secondly, we propose a novel source-aware information transmission approach by exploiting the non-uniformity in Gray-coded constellations. The proposed approach makes it possible for simultaneous BER and distortion minimization and outperforms the existing schemes with big margin when the original geometric structure of the quantization codebook can not be maintained in information transmission. The simplicity and power efficiency of the proposed source-aware non-uniform information scheme make it particularly attractive for systems with tight power constraints, such as wireless sensor networks and space communications.
Singular extensions: adding selectivity to brute-force searching

Abstract Brute-force alpha-beta search of games trees has proven relatively effective in numerous domains. In order to further improve performance, many brute-force game-playing programs have used the technique of selective deepening, searching more deeply on lines of play identified as important. Typically these extensions are based on static, domain-dependent knowledge. This paper describes a modification of brute-force search, singular extensions, that allows extensions to be identified in a dynamic, domain-independent, low-overhead manner. Singular extensions, when implemented in a chess-playing program, resulted in significant performance improvements.
Mg35Cu24Ga53: a three-dimensional cubic network composed of interconnected Cu6Ga6 icosahedra, Mg-centered Ga16 icosioctahedra, and a magnesium lattice.

Single-crystal X-ray structural determinations for the Mg35.12(4)Cu24Ga53.58(6) and Mg35.6(4)Cu24Ga52.66(6) refined compositions (Fd3m, Z = 4) reveal empty (Cu,Ga)12 icosahedra and centered MgGa16 icosioctahedra that are interconnected at every vertex to a compact three-dimensional anion network. A small range of variable occupancy exists on one of three Ga and one of four Mg positions. The clusters are well-bonded and held in different sized cavities, in which they are also directly bonded to a Mg cation network. The two networks thus interpenetrate each other, and there are no spacers. The new phase is isostructural with K39In80, K17In41, and the electron-poorer Na35Cd24Ga56, all of which contain clathrate-II-type cation frameworks. Electron counting using the classic (MO-based) cluster assignments indicates that the refined structure is substantially ideal and closed-shell. The symmetry of the present structure does not suggest a ready conversion to an icosahedral quasicrystal or its approximants.