cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quantum Mechanics as a Principle Theory

Abstract I show how quantum mechanics, like the theory of relativity, can be understood as a ‘principle theory’ in Einstein's sense, and I use this notion to explore the approach to the problem of interpretation developed in my book Interpreting the Quantum World .
Analyzing and Visualizing Scalar Fields on Graphs

In this article we propose a novel visualization method to explore graphs with numerical attributes associated with nodes – referred to as scalar graphs. The proposed visualization strategy seeks to simultaneously uncover the relationship between attribute values and graph topology, and relies on transforming the network to generate a terrain map. A key objective here is to ensure that the terrain map reveals the overall distribution of components-of-interest (e.g. dense subgraphs, kcores) and the relationships among them while being sensitive to the attribute values over the graph.
Experimental constraints on reconstruction of Archean seawater Ni isotopic composition from banded iron formations

Abstract The Ni isotopic systematics in banded iron formations (BIFs) potentially recorded the Ni isotopic composition of ancient seawater over Precambrian geological history. However, the utility of BIFs as proxies requires quantitative knowledge of how Ni isotopes fractionated as dissolved Ni was initially incorporated into iron-rich sediments and how diagenesis may have affected the Ni isotopic systematics. Here we report results of synthesis experiments to investigate the behavior of Ni isotopes during Ni coprecipitation with ferrihydrite and then transformation of ferrihydrite to hematite. Ferrihydrite coprecipitation experiments at neutral pH demonstrated that the dissolved Ni was variably heavier than coprecipitated Ni (likely a mixture of surface-adsorbed and structurally incorporated Ni), with the isotope fractionation becoming larger as the fraction of Ni associated with solid increased (Δ60/58Nisolution-solid = +0.08 to +0.50‰). Further experiments at lower pH (3.7–6.7), in which structurally incorporated Ni likely dominated in solids, documented a decrease in Δ60/58Nisolution-solid from +0.44‰ to −0.18‰ as the pH decreased. The negative value for Δ60/58Nisolution-solid at low pH indicates the enrichment of heavier isotopes in incorporated Ni relative to dissolved and adsorbed Ni, possibly as a result of the presence of a small amount of tetrahedral Ni2+ in addition to octahedral Ni2+ in the ferrihydrite structure. The results of the ferrihydrite experiments thus reflect equilibrium isotope fractionation between three pools of Ni, with δ60/58Ni values in the order of incorporated > dissolved > adsorbed. Hematite was synthesized by transformation of Ni-bearing ferrihydrite in aqueous solution at ∼100 °C. A significant amount of Ni (up to 60%) was released (desorbed) from solids into solutions as pH dropped from ∼7 to 4.5–5.5 upon phase transformation. Rinsing of the synthesized hematite in 2 M acetic acid released only very small amounts of Ni ( O octahedra in the hematite structure, with weaker Ni O bond strengths on average. Hence, the more variable Δ60/58Nisolution-solid values (−0.04 to +0.77‰) observed in hematite experiments most likely reflect thermodynamically driven Rayleigh fractionation, with incorporated Ni unavailable to exchange with dissolved Ni due to continuous reduction in size of the highly reactive surface pool of Ni, through which all solid-solution exchange must occur. Overall, the synthesized hematite was isotopically lighter than the ferrihydrite by ∼0.08‰ in δ60/58Ni, which is however within the current analytical uncertainties (±0.09‰). This implies that earliest diagenesis of BIFs results in very limited change in the isotopic composition of solid-associated Ni. Our experimental results, although conducted in a very simple system that differs from Archean seawater, represent an important step toward reconstruction of the Ni isotopic composition of ancient seawater from Ni isotopic signatures in BIFs.
Constraint Answer Set Solver EZCSP and Why Integration Schemas Matter

Researchers in answer set programming and constraint programming have spent significant efforts in the development of hybrid languages and solving algorithms combining the strengths of these traditionally separate fields. These efforts resulted in a new research area: constraint answer set programming. Constraint answer set programming languages and systems proved to be successful at providing declarative, yet efficient solutions to problems involving hybrid reasoning tasks. One of the main contributions of this paper is the first comprehensive account of the constraint answer set language and solver ezcsp, a mainstream representative of this research area that has been used in various successful applications. We also develop an extension of the transition systems proposed by Nieuwenhuis et al. in 2006 to capture Boolean satisfiability solvers. We use this extension to describe the ezcsp algorithm and prove formal claims about it. The design and algorithmic details behind ezcsp clearly demonstrate that the development of the hybrid systems of this kind is challenging. Many questions arise when one faces various design choices in an attempt to maximize system's benefits. One of the key decisions that a developer of a hybrid solver makes is settling on a particular integration schema within its implementation. Thus, another important contribution of this paper is a thorough case study based on ezcsp, focused on the various integration schemas that it provides.
A critique of historicism

En este articulo estudio algunas de las versiones mas influyentes del historicismo: la teoria de que todos, o casi todos, nuestros conceptos y creencias estan determinados completamente por nuestra cultura. En mi opinion, esta teoria es erronea. Enseguida, estudio el intento de Richard Rorty por defender el historicismo combinandolo con el pragmatismo, y descubro que esto solo empeora las cosas. En contra tanto del historicismo como del pragmatismo, defiendo el punto de vista de que en efecto tenemos conceptos y creencias que corresponden a la realidad. No obstante, aunque estos siempre aparecen en un ambiente cultural, y muestran la influencia de este en su forma de expresion y uso, tambien contienen informacion que puede ser, y es, reconocida transculturalmente. [Traduccion: Claudia Chavez A.]
The Role of Monsoon-Like Zonally Asymmetric Heating in Interhemispheric Transport

While the importance of the seasonal migration of the zonally averaged Hadley circulation on interhemispheric transport of trace gases has been recognized, few studies have examined the role of the zonally asymmetric monsoonal circulation. This study investigates the role of monsoon-like zonally asymmetric heating on interhemispheric transport using a dry atmospheric model that is forced by idealized Newtonian relaxation to a prescribed radiative equilibrium temperature. When only the seasonal cycle of zonally symmetric heating is considered, the mean age of air in the Southern Hemisphere since last contact with the Northern Hemisphere midlatitude boundary layer, is much larger than the observations. The introduction of monsoon-like zonally asymmetric heating not only reduces the mean age of tropospheric air to more realistic values, but also produces an upper-tropospheric cross-equatorial transport pathway in boreal summer that resembles the transport pathway simulated in the NASA Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) Chemistry Transport Model driven with MERRA meteorological fields. These results highlight the monsoon-induced eddy circulation plays an important role in the interhemispheric transport of long-lived chemical constituents.
Understanding anticipatory nausea.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To address the concept of anticipatory nausea within the theoretical framework of classical conditioning. DATA SOURCES Published articles, book chapters. DATA SYNTHESIS Although classical conditioning explains much in the development of anticipatory nausea, other factors also are at work. Preventing this phenomenon is necessary because it is difficult to treat and control once it develops. CONCLUSIONS Nurses are in a position to identify patients at highest risk for developing anticipatory nausea and implement interventional strategies to prevent/minimize it. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE Many aspects of anticipatory nausea have not yet been researched well. Nurses must study how anticipatory nausea develops and interventions that can be used to reduce its prevalence.
The Economic Benefits of Irrigation Districts under Prior Appropriation Doctrine: An Econometric Analysis of Agricultural Land-allocation Decisions

The economic literature has established that prior appropriation doctrine induces heterogeneity in risk among water users, which leads to an inefficient allocation of resources. In this study, we show that irrigation districts alleviate that risk by deviating from the strict application of prior appropriation doctrine. As a result, farmers inside irrigation districts are able to plant more water‐intensive crops than farmers outside irrigation districts, which increases average profitability. We empirically examine this hypothesis by leveraging a georeferenced panel data set at the spatial scale of the individual water right and spanning 2007–14 in Idaho's Eastern Snake River Plain. Our results indicate that on average, irrigation districts allocate larger portions of their land to drought‐sensitive, high‐value crops such as sugar beets and potatoes. As a result of differences in planting decisions, members of irrigation districts earn on average $16.20 per acre, or 6.0% more per year than those outside of irrigation districts. La litterature economique a etabli que la doctrine d'appropriation prealable entraine une heterogeneite du risque parmi les utilisateurs d'eau, conduisant a une allocation inefficace des ressources. Dans cette etude, nous montrons que les districts d'irrigation reduisent ce risque en s’eloignant de l'application stricte de la doctrine d'appropriation prealable. Par consequent, les agriculteurs a l'interieur des districts d'irrigation peuvent planter plus de cultures grandes consommatrices d'eau que les agriculteurs a l'exterieur de ces derniers, augmentant ainsi la rentabilite moyenne. Nous examinons empiriquement cette hypothese en tirant parti d'un ensemble de donnees de panel georeferencees a l’echelle spatiale du droit individuel a l'eau, qui couvrent la periode de 2007–2014 dans la Eastern Snake River Plain de l'Idaho. Nos resultats indiquent qu'en moyenne, les districts d'irrigation allouent de plus grandes portions de leurs terres a des cultures de haute valeur sensibles a la secheresse telles que les betteraves a sucre et les pommes de terre. En raison des differences au niveau des decisions de plantation, les membres des districts d'irrigation gagnent en moyenne 16,20 $ par acre, ou 6,0 % de plus par an que ceux qui se retrouvent a l'exterieur des districts d'irrigation.
Feasibility of Natural Circulation Heat Transport in the ENHS

An analysis has been carried out of natural circulation thermal hydraulics in both the primary and intermediate circuits of the Encapsulated Nuclear Heat Source (ENHS). It is established that natural circulation enhanced by gas injection into the primary coolant above the core, or the intermediate coolant above the heat exchange zone, is effective in transporting the nominal core power to the steam generators without the attainment of excessive system temperatures. Uncertainties in thermophysical properties and wall friction have a relatively small effect upon the calculated best estimate primary and intermediate coolant system temperature rises.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
Estimating Seven Coefficients of Pairwise Relatedness Using Population Genomic Data

Population structure can be described by genotypic-correlation coefficients between groups of individuals, the most basic of which are the pairwise relatedness coefficients between any two individuals. There are nine pairwise relatedness coefficients in the most general model, and we show that these can be reduced to seven coefficients for biallelic loci. Although all nine coefficients can be estimated from pedigrees, six coefficients have been beyond empirical reach. We provide a numerical optimization procedure that estimates all seven reduced coefficients from population-genomic data. Simulations show that the procedure is nearly unbiased, even at 3× coverage, and errors in five of the seven coefficients are statistically uncorrelated. The remaining two coefficients have a negative correlation of errors, but their sum provides an unbiased assessment of the overall correlation of heterozygosity between two individuals. Application of these new methods to four populations of the freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex reveal the occurrence of half siblings in our samples, as well as a number of identical individuals that are likely obligately asexual clone mates. Statistically significant negative estimates of these pairwise relatedness coefficients, including inbreeding coefficients that were typically negative, underscore the difficulties that arise when interpreting genotypic correlations as estimations of the probability that alleles are identical by descent.
On the Parallel and Oblique Firehose Instability in Fluid Models

A brief analysis of the proton parallel and oblique firehose instability is presented from a fluid perspective, and the results are compared with kinetic theory solutions obtained by the WHAMP code. It is shown that the classical CGL model very accurately describes the growth rate of these instabilities at sufficiently long spatial scales (small wavenumbers). The required stabilization of these instabilities at small spatial scales (high wavenumbers) naturally requires dispersive effects, and the stabilization is due to the Hall term and finite Larmor radius corrections to the pressure tensor. Even though the stabilization is not completely accurate, since at small spatial scales a relatively strong collisionless damping comes into effect, we find that the main concepts of the maximum growth rate and the stabilization of these instabilities is indeed present in the fluid description. However, there are differences that are quite pronounced when close to the firehose threshold, and that clarify the different profiles for marginally stable states with a prescribed maximum growth rate in the simple fluid models considered here and the kinetic description.
Where No One Has Gone Before: A Meta-Dataset of the World's Largest Fanfiction Repository

With its roots dating to popular television shows of the 1960s such as Star Trek, fanfiction has blossomed into an extremely widespread form of creative expression. The transition from printed zines to online fanfiction repositories has facilitated this growth in popularity, with millions of fans writing stories and adding daily to sites such as Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net, FIMfiction.net, and many others. Enthusiasts are sharing their writing, reading stories written by others, and helping each other to grow as writers. Yet, this domain is often undervalued by society and understudied by researchers. To facilitate the study of this large but often marginalized community, we present a fully anonymized data release (via differential privacy) of the metadata from a large fanfiction site (to protect author privacy, story, profile, and review text is excluded, and only metadata is provided). We use visual analytics techniques to draw several intriguing insights from the data and show the potential for future research. We hope other researchers can use this data to explore further questions related to online fanfiction communities.
FEMORAL NECK MODULARITY: BOTH SIDES NOW

Distal neck modularity places a modular connection at a mechanically critical location, which is also the location that confers perhaps the greatest clinical utility. The benefits of increased clinical options at that location must be weighed against the potential risks of adding an additional junction to the construct. Those risks include prosthetic neck fracture, taper corrosion, metal hypersensitivity, and adverse local tissue reaction. Further, in-vitro testing of ultimate or fatigue strength of femoral component designs has repeatedly failed to predict behavior in-vivo, raising questions about the utility of in-vitro testing that does not incorporate the effect of mechanically assisted crevice corrosion into the test design. The material properties of Ti alloy and CoCr alloy place limits on design considerations in the proximal femur. The smaller taper junctions that are necessary for primary reconstruction are particularly vulnerable to failure whereas larger taper junctions commonly used in revision modular femoral component designs have greater opportunity for success. Modular junctions of CoCr alloy on conventional Ti alloy have been shown to have a greater incidence of clinically significant mechanically assisted crevice corrosion and adverse reaction. Designs that have proven clinical strength and utility universally have larger, more robust junctions, that extend into the metaphysis of the femur. While these designs are primarily designed for revision total hip replacement (THR), they are occasionally indicated for primary THR. Overall, however, while design options at the neck-stem junction have unmatched clinical utility, no design that does not extend into the metaphysis has proven to be universally reliable. While routine use of modular neck components for primary THR does not appear to be clinically indicated based on current evidence, modular designs with proven successful proximal junctions appear to be indicated for revision THR and rare primary THR with extreme version or other anatomical circumstances.
B physics at SLD

Abstract We review recent B physics results obtained in polarized e+e− interactions at the SLC by the SLD experiment. The excellent 3-D vertexing capabilities of SLD are exploited to extract precise B+ and Bd0 lifetimes, as well as measurements of the time evolution of B d 0 − B d 0 mixing.
FISH-ing for captured contacts: towards reconciling FISH and 3C

Chromosome conformation capture (3C) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) are two widely used technologies that provide distinct readouts of 3D chromosome organization. While both technologies can assay locus-specific organization, how to integrate views from 3C, or genome-wide Hi-C, and FISH is far from solved. Contact frequency, measured by Hi-C, and spatial distance, measured by FISH, are often assumed to quantify the same phenomena and used interchangeably. Here, however, we demonstrate that contact frequency is distinct from average spatial distance, both in polymer simulations and in experimental data. Performing a systematic analysis of the technologies, we show that this distinction can create a seemingly paradoxical relationship between 3C and FISH, both in minimal polymer models with dynamic looping interactions and in loop-extrusion simulations. Together, our results indicate that cross-validation of Hi-C and FISH should be carefully designed, and that jointly considering contact frequency and spatial distance is crucial for fully understanding chromosome organization.
Cancer in Neonates: The Experience at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Among 22 neonates treated at the Children's Cancer Research Center of Philadelphia, 11 had neuroblastoma, which in two cases was widely metastatic. There were three infants with teratoma, three with sarcoma, three with leukemia, one with Wilms' tumor, and one with parotid carcinoma. Nine of eleven patients (82%) are long-term survivors following complete surgical excision of tumor, whereas only one of eight (13%) has survived following incomplete surgical excision. All three neonates with leukemia died. The overall two-year actuarial survival is 45% (10/22). The problems associated with treating neonates with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or both are especially difficult because of the immaturity of the organs and structures. Surgical excision alone has been the treatment of choice for solid tumors. Chemotherapy or radiation therapy, when indicated, require careful monitoring for both acute toxicities and potential long-term morbidities.
Influence of Medical and Premedical Education on Important Personal Qualities of Physicians

Abstract Three interrrelated personal qualities of physicians are believed important for sensitive patient care and optimal Individual adjustment to the stresses of medical practice: maturity, social competence, and moderation in aggressive competitive (exaggerated "type A" behavior). Despite widespread recognition of the importance of these qualities by patients and physicians alike, they have commonly been neglected in favor of scientific and scholastic excellence in the selection process for medical schools. In addition, some aspects of premedical and medical education may actually have an adverse influence on these personal qualities of future physicians. More emphasis in premedical and medical education on the importance of physicians' noncognitive abilities, and more individualized feedback to students and residents on the interactions between their personal qualities and their success and happiness as physicians, are needed.
Androgen Receptor in Human Foreskin. II, Characterization of the Receptor From Hypospadiac Tissue

Hypospadias represents a spectrum of disorders known as androgen insensitivity syndromes, which are characterized by a nonresponsiveness of an androgen target tissue to the steroid. The basic defect in this disorder is unknown. This article presents results of studies of the androgen receptor with use of human foreskin from normal neonates undergoing circumcision and from patients undergoing urethroplasty necessitated by hypospadias. It is speculated that a defect in receptor level or function might explain this disorder. The androgen receptors from both normal and hypospadiac tissue were stabilized with a buffer containing 50 mM Tris hydrochloride, 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, 12 mM monothioglycerol, 10% (v/v) glycerol, and 10 mM sodium molybdate plus 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride (pH 7.5). The receptors were characterized by Scatchard analysis, competitive binding assays, sedimentation analysis, molecular sieve chromatography, and isoelectric focusing techniques. Specific R 1881 binding to soluble proteins from normal human foreskin was shown to be high affinity (dissociation constant = 0.5 nM), low capacity (6 fmol/mg of protein), and steroid specific. Sedimentation analysis by sucrose density gradients demonstrated the 8S-to-4S shift from low- to high-salt treatments. The receptor from the foreskins of hypospadiac patients also contained androgen receptor in a concentration similar to that in the foreskins of normal persons. The affinity for steroid binding and sedimentation profiles or sucrose gradients of the androgen receptor between normal persons and hypospadiac patients were also similar. However, the androgen receptor from hypospadiac patients displayed different patterns of molecular sieve chromatography from those displayed by the receptor of normal persons. The reason for this difference is not known but may reflect a defective receptor and explain the basic mechanism of this disorder.
Fisher GAN

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are powerful models for learning complex distributions. Stable training of GANs has been addressed in many recent works which explore different metrics between distributions. In this paper we introduce Fisher GAN that fits within the Integral Probability Metrics (IPM) framework for training GANs. Fisher GAN defines a data dependent constraint on the second order moments of the critic. We show in this paper that Fisher GAN allows for stable and time efficient training that does not compromise the capacity of the critic, and does not need data independent constraints such as weight clipping. We analyze our Fisher IPM theoretically and provide an algorithm based on Augmented Lagrangian for Fisher GAN. We validate our claims on both image sample generation and semi-supervised classification using Fisher GAN.
Increased safety of surgical glove application: the under/over method

Background: Surgical gloves are a necessity in performing abdominal and pelvic surgery not only to protect the patient from bacterial contamination but also to protect the surgeon, the nurses and surgical assistants from biological fluids. The interface of the surgical gown and the surgical gloves at the wrist is a site for interruption of the barrier between biological fluids in the open abdomen and the surgeon. Methods: In the under/over method (UOM) for double-glove application the first pair of gloves are positioned under the surgical gown and the second pair are positioned over the cuff of the surgical gown and secured with selfadherent wrap. Results: Using the UOM, the proximal portion of the surgical gloves did not roll down to the wrist. The selfadherent wrap reduced the entrance of biological fluids into the space between the surgical gloves and the cuff of the surgical gown. If the cuff of the surgical gown became wet, it was not in contact with the wrist skin. Conclusion: The UOM prevents the surgical gloves from rolling down on the forearm. Contact of the cuff of the surgical gown with the wrist skin is prevented. The possibility of exposure of the wrist skin to biological fluids, especially large volume irrigation, during abdominal and pelvic surgery may be reduced.
Interobserver reliability in describing radiographic lung changes after stereotactic body radiation therapy

Abstract Purpose Radiographic lung changes after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) vary widely between patients. Standardized descriptions of acute (≤6 months after treatment) and late (>6 months after treatment) benign lung changes have been proposed but the reliable application of these classification systems has not been demonstrated. Herein, we examine the interobserver reliability of classifying acute and late lung changes after SBRT. Methods and materials A total of 280 follow-up computed tomography scans at 3, 6, and 12 months post-treatment were analyzed in 100 patients undergoing thoracic SBRT. Standardized descriptions of acute lung changes (3- and 6-month scans) include diffuse consolidation, patchy consolidation and ground glass opacity (GGO), diffuse GGO, patchy GGO, and no change. Late lung change classifications (12-month scans) include modified conventional pattern, mass-like pattern, scar-like pattern, and no change. Five physicians scored the images independently in a blinded fashion. Fleiss' kappa scores quantified the interobserver agreement. Results The Kappa scores were 0.30 at 3 months, 0.20 at 6 months, and 0.25 at 12 months. The proportion of patients in each category at 3 and 6 months was as follows: Diffuse consolidation 11% and 21%; patchy consolidation and GGO 15% and 28%; diffuse GGO 10% and 11%; patchy GGO 15% and 15%; and no change 49% and 25%, respectively. The percentage of patients in each category at 12 months was as follows: Modified conventional 46%; mass-like 16%; scar-like 26%; and no change 12%. Uniform scoring between the observers occurred in 26, 8, and 14 cases at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively. Conclusions Interobserver reliability scores indicate a fair agreement to classify radiographic lung changes after SBRT. Qualitative descriptions are insufficient to categorize these findings because most patient scans do not fit clearly into a single classification. Categorization at 6 months may be the most difficult because late and acute lung changes can arise at that time.
Quantum acoustics with superconducting qubits

Mechanical objects have important practical applications in the fields of quantum information and metrology as quantum memories or transducers for measuring and connecting different types of quantum systems. The field of electromechanics is in pursuit of a robust and highly coherent device that couples motion to nonlinear quantum objects such as superconducting qubits. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a high-frequency bulk acoustic wave resonator that is strongly coupled to a superconducting qubit using piezoelectric transduction with a cooperativity of 260. We measure qubit and mechanical coherence times on the order of 10 microseconds. Our device requires only simple fabrication methods and provides controllable access to a multitude of phonon modes. We demonstrate quantum control and measurement on gigahertz phonons at the single-quantum level.
Regulating away competition: the effect of regulation on entrepreneurship and employment

Many scholars have worried that regulation deters entrepreneurship because it increases the cost of entry, reduces innovation in the regulated industry, and benefits large firms because they can overcome the costs of complying with regulations more easily than smaller firms. Using novel data on the extent of US federal regulations by industry and data on firm births and employment from the Statistics of US Businesses, we run fixed effects regressions to show that more-regulated industries experienced fewer new firm births and slower employment growth in the period 1998–2011. Large firms may even successfully lobby government officials to increase regulations to raise their smaller rivals’ costs. We also find that regulations inhibit employment growth in all firms and that large firms are less likely to exit a heavily regulated industry than small firms.
BONE GRAFTS AND THEIR SUBSTITUTES: UNDERSTANDING THE THREE Os

Bone is a dynamic organ with remarkable regenerative properties seen only otherwise in the liver. However, bone healing requires vascularity, stability, growth factors, a matrix for growth, and viable cells to obtain effective osteosynthesis. We rely on these principles not only to heal fractures, but also achieve healing of benign bone defects. Unfortunately we are regularly confronted with situations where the local environment and tissue is insufficient and we must rely on our “biologic tool box.” When the process of bone repair requires additional assistance, we often look to bone grafting to provide an osteoconductive, osteoinductive, and/or osteogenic environment to promote bone healing and repair. The primary workhorses of bone grafting include autogenous bone, cadaver allograft, and bone graft substitutes. Among the first types of bone graft used and still used in large quantities today include autogenous and cadaver allograft bone. Allografts are useful because it is present in multiple forms that conform to the desired situation. But autogenous bone graft is considered the gold standard because it possesses all the fundamental properties to heal bone. However, it has been associated with high rates of donor site morbidity and typically requires an inpatient hospitalization following the procedure only adding to the associated costs. The first bone graft substitute use was calcium sulfate in 1892, and over the past 122 years advancements have achieved improved material properties of calcium sulfate and helped usher in additional bioceramics for bone grafting. Today there are predominantly four types of bioceramics available, which include calcium sulfate, calcium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, and coralline hydroxyapatite. They come in multiple forms ranging from pellets and solid blocks to injectable and moldable putty. In comparison to autogenous bone graft, the primary limitation of bioceramics are the lack of osteogenic and osteoinductive properties. Bioceramics work by creating an osteoconductive scaffold to promote osteosynthesis. The options of bone graft substitutes don9t end with these four types of bioceramics. Composite bioceramics take advantage of the differing biomechanical properties of these four basis types of bioceramics to develop improved materials. To overcome the lack of osteoinductive and osteogenic properties growth factors or bone marrow aspirate can be added to the bioceramic. As a result, the list of combinations available in our “biologic tool box” continues to expand. More than 20 BMPs have been identified, but only BMP-2 and BMP-7 have FDA approval. As we look forward to areas of future research and need within orthobiologics, some will likely come in the near future while others are much further in the future. We will continue to strive for the ideal bone graft substitute, which will have similar osteoinductive properties as autograft. The ultimate bone graft substitute will likely involve stem cells because it will allow an alternative to autogenous bone with the same osteogenic potential.
Coping Skills Practice and Symptom Change: A Secondary Analysis of a Pilot Telephone Symptom Management Intervention for Lung Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers

Abstract Context Little research has explored coping skills practice in relation to symptom outcomes in psychosocial interventions for cancer patients and their family caregivers. Objectives To examine associations of coping skills practice to symptom change in a telephone symptom management (TSM) intervention delivered concurrently to lung cancer patients and their caregivers. Methods This study was a secondary analysis of a randomized pilot trial. Data were examined from patient-caregiver dyads (n = 51 dyads) that were randomized to the TSM intervention. Guided by social cognitive theory, TSM involved four weekly sessions where dyads were taught coping skills including a mindfulness exercise, guided imagery, pursed lips breathing, cognitive restructuring, problem solving, emotion-focused coping, and assertive communication. Symptoms were assessed, including patients' and caregivers' psychological distress and patients' pain interference, fatigue interference, and distress related to breathlessness. Multiple regression analyses examined associations of coping skills practice during the intervention to symptoms at six weeks after the intervention. Results For patients, greater practice of assertive communication was associated with less pain interference (β = −0.45, P = 0.02) and psychological distress (β = −0.36, P = 0.047); for caregivers, greater practice of guided imagery was associated with less psychological distress (β = −0.30, P = 0.01). Unexpectedly, for patients, greater practice of a mindfulness exercise was associated with higher pain (β = 0.47, P = 0.07) and fatigue interference (β = 0.49, P = 0.04); greater practice of problem solving was associated with higher distress related to breathlessness (β = 0.56, P = 0.01) and psychological distress (β = 0.36, P = 0.08). Conclusion Findings suggest that the effectiveness of TSM may have been reduced by competing effects of certain coping skills. Future interventions should consider focusing on assertive communication training for patients and guided imagery for caregivers.
High MITF Expression Is Associated with Super-Enhancers and Suppressed by CDK7 Inhibition in Melanoma.

Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive tumor that accounts for most skin cancer deaths. Among the physiological barriers against therapeutic success is a strong survival program driven by genes such as MITF that specify melanocyte identity, a phenomenon known in melanoma biology as lineage dependency. MITF overexpression is occasionally explained by gene amplification, but here we show that super-enhancers are also important determinants of MITF overexpression in some melanoma cell lines and tumors. Although compounds that directly inhibit MITF are unavailable, a covalent CDK7 inhibitor, THZ1, has recently been shown to potently suppress the growth of various cancers through the depletion of master transcription-regulating oncogenes and the disruption of their attendant super-enhancers. We also show that melanoma cells are highly sensitive to CDK7 inhibition both in vitro and in vivo and that THZ1 can dismantle the super-enhancer apparatus at MITF and SOX10 in some cell lines, thereby extinguishing their intracellular levels. Our results show a dimension to MITF regulation in melanoma cells and point to CDK7 inhibition as a potential strategy to deprive oncogenic transcription and suppress tumor growth in melanoma.
A game-theoretic approach to a task delegation problem

We study a setting in which a principal selects an agent to execute a collection of tasks according to a specified priority sequence. Agents, however, have their own individual priority sequences according to which they wish to execute the tasks. There is information asymmetry since each priority sequence is private knowledge for the individual agent. We design a mechanism for selecting the agent and incentivizing the selected agent to realize a priority sequence for executing the tasks that achieves socially optimal performance. Our proposed mechanism consists of two parts. First, the principal runs an auction to select an agent to allocate tasks to with minimum declared priority sequence misalignment. Then, the principal rewards the agent according to the realized priority sequence with which the tasks were performed. We show that the proposed mechanism is individually rational and incentive compatible. Further, it is also socially optimal for the case of linear cost of priority sequence modification for the agents.
One more time : what are institutions and how do they change?

This paper defines institutions, presents their basic characteristics, and discusses forces for institutional change. It draws on a wealth of research and study by scholars in different fields and follows from the flagship 2002 World Development Report on this topic, including relevant new research since then that illuminates key issues. The definition of institutions includes rules and organizations (specifically rules guiding peoples’ actions). The paper emphasizes the diversity of institutions that can effectively perform similar functions, the arguments for and against standardization of institutions across specific transactions or groups, and the implications of these choices. It highlights the relationship between informal and formal institutions. It discusses forces for institutional change influencing all economies, ranging from external shocks (whether they be economic or weather-related shocks or driven by wars) to internal dynamics, such as those following population growth or compositional changes, and those following technological innovations. Many of these forces have a two-way relationship with institutions: they are affected by them and, in turn, influence whether and when they change. A special section is devoted to institutional transplants and their effectiveness. The paper concludes with a discussion of whether and under what conditions institutional change can be externally directed and the lessons for aid donors.
Are Strategic Customers Bad for a Supply Chain

We consider a manufacturer serving a retailer that sells its product to customers over two periods. Each firm determines its unit price. The retailer orders the product from the manufacturer prior to the beginning of the selling periods. We consider two types of customers: (1) strategic customers who take their future options into account and time their purchases accordingly and (2) myopic customers who consider only their current options. We compare the resulting equilibria for these two scenarios and evaluate the impact of customers’ strategic behavior. We find that strategic customer behavior always benefits the manufacturer. Interestingly, it may also improve the profitability of the retailer and the entire supply chain in some cases. Strategic customer behavior and decentralization are often regarded as detriments to supply chain performance. We find that, however, the combination of these two factors may not result in the worst supply chain performance. When customers are sufficiently patient, a dec...
Size‐by‐environment interactions: a neglected dimension of species' responses to environmental variation

In both plant and animal systems, size can determine whether an individual survives and grows under different environmental conditions. However, it is unclear whether and when size-dependent responses to exogenous environmental fluctuations affect population dynamics. Size-by-environment interactions create pathways for environmental fluctuations to influence population dynamics by allowing for negative covariation between sizes within vital rates (e.g. small and large individuals have negatively covarying survival rates) and/or size-dependent variability in a vital rate (e.g. survival of large individuals varies less than small individuals through time). Whether these phenomena affect population dynamics depends on how they are mediated by elasticities (they must affect the sizes and vital rates that matter) and their projected impacts will depend on model functional form (the impact of reduced variance depends on the relationship between the environment and vital rate). We demonstrate these ideas with an analysis of fifteen species from five semiarid plant communities. We find that size-by-environment interactions are common but do not impact long-term population dynamics. Size-by-environment interactions may yet be important for other species. Our approach can be applied to species in other ecosystems to determine if and how size-by-environment interactions allow them to cope with, or exploit, fluctuating environments.
Evaluating Plastic Deformation and Damage as Potential Mechanisms for Tendon Inelasticity using a Reactive Modeling Framework.

Inelastic behaviors, such as softening, a progressive decrease in modulus before failure, occur in tendon and are important aspect in degeneration and tendinopathy. These inelastic behaviors are generally attributed to two potential mechanisms: plastic deformation and damage. However, it is not clear which is primarily responsible. In this study, we evaluated these potential mechanisms of tendon inelasticity by using a recently developed reactive inelasticity model (RIE), which is a structurally-inspired continuum mechanics framework that models tissue inelasticity based on the molecular bond kinetics. Using RIE, we formulated two material models, one specific to plastic deformation and the other to damage. The models were independently fit to published experimental tensile tests of rat tail tendons. We quantified the inelastic effects and compared the performance of the two models in fitting the mechanical response during loading, relaxation, unloading, and reloading phases. Additionally, we validated the models by using the resulting fit parameters to predict an independent set of experimental stress-strain curves from ramp-to-failure tests. Overall, the models were both successful in fitting the experiments and predicting the validation data. However, the results did not strongly favor one mechanism over the other. As a result, to distinguish between plastic deformation and damage, different experimental protocols will be needed. Nevertheless, these findings suggest the potential of RIE as a comprehensive framework for studying tendon inelastic behaviors.
Long-read sequencing of nascent RNA reveals coupling among RNA processing events

Pre-mRNA splicing is accomplished by the spliceosome, a megadalton complex that assembles de novo on each intron. Because spliceosome assembly and catalysis occur cotranscriptionally, we hypothesized that introns are removed in the order of their transcription in genomes dominated by constitutive splicing. Remarkably little is known about splicing order and the regulatory potential of nascent transcript remodeling by splicing, due to the limitations of existing methods that focus on analysis of mature splicing products (mRNAs) rather than substrates and intermediates. Here, we overcome this obstacle through long-read RNA sequencing of nascent, multi-intron transcripts in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe Most multi-intron transcripts were fully spliced, consistent with rapid cotranscriptional splicing. However, an unexpectedly high proportion of transcripts were either fully spliced or fully unspliced, suggesting that splicing of any given intron is dependent on the splicing status of other introns in the transcript. Supporting this, mild inhibition of splicing by a temperature-sensitive mutation in prp2, the homolog of vertebrate U2AF65, increased the frequency of fully unspliced transcripts. Importantly, fully unspliced transcripts displayed transcriptional read-through at the polyA site and were degraded cotranscriptionally by the nuclear exosome. Finally, we show that cellular mRNA levels were reduced in genes with a high number of unspliced nascent transcripts during caffeine treatment, showing regulatory significance of cotranscriptional splicing. Therefore, overall splicing of individual nascent transcripts, 3' end formation, and mRNA half-life depend on the splicing status of neighboring introns, suggesting crosstalk among spliceosomes and the polyA cleavage machinery during transcription elongation.
Green's Function Applicable to Turbofan Exhaust Noise in Jets with an External Center-Body

The problem of propagation of sound across the shear layer in a turbofan jet exhaust with an external center-body is discussed. The wave equation of interest is compressible Rayleigh equation. Two forms of the equation are considered, and the Green's function solutions subject to appropriate surface conditions on the center-body and flight condition in the ambient are presented. Directivity studied in a heated exhaust at temperature ratio of 2.0 and Mach number 0.90 indicate that a rigid center-body tends to increase the sound propagation at forward angles relative to an exhaust without a center-body, while application of suitable surface liner may significantly reduce this enhancement. A general form of the far-field solution to the propagation equation in a parallel flow under supersonic conditions and in the neighborhood of the shear layer singularity is also discussed.
Hybrid Attention based Multimodal Network for Spoken Language Classification

We examine the utility of linguistic content and vocal characteristics for multimodal deep learning in human spoken language understanding. We present a deep multimodal network with both feature attention and modality attention to classify utterance-level speech data. The proposed hybrid attention architecture helps the system focus on learning informative representations for both modality-specific feature extraction and model fusion. The experimental results show that our system achieves state-of-the-art or competitive results on three published multimodal datasets. We also demonstrated the effectiveness and generalization of our system on a medical speech dataset from an actual trauma scenario. Furthermore, we provided a detailed comparison and analysis of traditional approaches and deep learning methods on both feature extraction and fusion.
Dynamical quantum phase transitions in interacting atomic interferometers

Particle-wave duality has allowed physicists to establish atomic interferometers as celebrated complements to their optical counterparts in a broad range of quantum devices. In particular, interactions give rise to multiparticle correlations unavailable in linear interferometers. Here, we show that interactions lead to dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) between NOON states in an atomic interferometer. These transition points result from zeros of the Loschmidt echo, which approach the real axis of the complex time plane in the large-particle-number limit, and signify pair condensates, another type of exotic quantum states featured with prevailing two-body correlations. Such DQPTs thus provide us with a new angle to understand many-body states emergent from quantum nonequilibrium dynamics. Our work also suggests interacting atomic interferometers as a new tool for creating highly entangled states to beat the standard quantum limit.