cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Intrinsically-Disordered Region of Human Small Heat Shock Protein HSPB1 Affects Structure and Function

Found in all kingdoms of life, small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are molecular chaperones whose primary function is to maintain aggregation-prone proteins in a soluble state. Most mammalian sHSPs exist as highly dynamic, polydisperse oligomers. The basic structural unit is a dimer formed via a conserved central α-crystallin domain. The highly divergent N-terminal domain (NTD) is responsible for the diverse and unique oligomerization properties of sHSPs. NTDs are predicted to be disordered and are highly hydrophobic, making them intractable structural targets individually. Therefore, NTDs must be investigated in the context of full-length sHSP oligomers, which are themselves refractory to traditional structural methods. Phosphorylation of NTD residues is an essential stress response that alters both function and oligomeric properties in some human sHSPs. HSPB1 phosphorylation yields a distribution of smaller oligomers, with a substantial population belonging to the basic dimeric unit. Additionally, inherited mutations in HSPB1 N-terminal residues are associated with serious neuropathies such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. We seek to compare local and global structures of dimeric HSPB1 and intermediate oligomeric/phosphorylation states to its WT oligomeric counterpart. Towards this end, we developed a mutant that forms discrete dimers (HSPB1dim), which is amenable to solution NMR, to represent a fully phosphorylated and fully dispersed state of the protein. We use a variety of complementary biophysical approaches including hydrogen-deuterium exchange MS and CD spectroscopy to compare secondary structure, methyl-TROSY NMR to observe individual residues in the larger oligomers, and multi-angle light-scattering to estimate numbers of subunits. We aim to define structural mechanisms by which NTD disease-associated mutations and stress-induced phosphorylation alter chaperone activity and oligomeric propensity of HSPB1. Our results identify key differences that may reveal the highly plastic sequence-oligomeric structure relationship in sHSPs and implicated in their associated diseases.
Kathleen mears lecture: The making of an END leader

ABSTRACT.ASET, much like many other professional healthcare organizations, relies on a core of volunteers to serve on its Board of Trustees and carry out its strategic mission of providing leadership, advocacy, and resources to promote professional excellence and quality patient care in electroneurodiagnostics (END). Recruitment of volunteers and future ASET leaders is not an easy task, partly because of the dwindling numbers of candidates willing to commit the time and energy. The desire to serve is strong in individuals and is a recognition that they have something worthy to contribute to the group's mission. The difficulty lies in attracting and sustaining the volunteers' interest.ASET has been fortunate in having great leaders throughout its history. These leaders started with a strong personal desire to share what they knew. Now as ASET leadership follows the phenomenon of the aging baby boomer generation, it is time to look into the making of future END leaders and provide a leadership succession pl...
Eosinophile in human skin homografting.

Summary and Conclusions1. In full-thickness homografts in man, an increase of eosinophils occurred in the circulating blood stream and in tissues at the site of the graft. 2. Tissue eosinophilia is comparable in magnitude to the intensity of the circulatory eosinophilia. 3. Eosinophilia seems to be most intense when the epithelium of the homograft has sloughed and only the dermis remains intact. 4. Eosinophilia subsides and the count returns to normal levels as the last vestiges of the homograft's dermal pad sloughs away. 5. The number of eosinophils in a differential count increases at the expense of the polymorphonuclear cells, thus establishing an inverse relationship between the two types of cells in their responses to homografting.
Cholinergic systems are essential for late-stage maturation and refinement of motor cortical circuits

Previous studies reported that early postnatal cholinergic lesions severely perturb early cortical development, impairing neuronal cortical migration and the formation of cortical dendrites and syn...
Flow predictions about three-dimensional high lift systems

~ An efficient and accurate calculation method for the prediction of flows about threedimensional high lift systems is described. The method is based on the interactive solution of the inviscid flow, boundary layer and stability/transition equations. The extension of the modified Cebeci-Smith model to threedimensional flows is first validated for separated flows. Also, the efficiency and robustness of the method are improved by linearizing the turbulence terms in the boundary layer equations. Then, the method is applied to the calculation of lift and drag coefficients about a single element wing up to stall. Results demonstrate the ability of the method to predict three-dimensional separated flows reliably, including near stall conditions. Finally, the method is applied to multi-element wings with slat and flap deployed. Both lift and drag coefficients are well predicted, except for stall which is not captured by the method in these cases. Overall, results demonstrate the potential for using the method as a practical and efficient design tool for high lift applications. lift configurations. The presence of high and low ~~ _ Reynolds number flows on various components of wings and significant regions of flow separation well before stall conditions makes the development of such a capability a challenging task. The required generality and accuracy of the method and, equally important, its efficiency as a design tool, introduce additional challenges.
Noteworthy Records of Harvest Mice in México

Since the publication of Hooper's review of Latin American harvest mice (Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool., Univ. Mich., 77: 1–255, 1952) collectors from the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, have obtained specimens of Reithrodontomys mexicanus mexicanus and of two subspecies of Reithrodontomys microdon from Mexico that add to our knowledge of the distribution of these mice. Financial assistance from the National Science Foundation and the Kansas University Endowment Association made the collection of these specimens possible. Reithrodontomys mexicanus mexicanus (Saussure).—Only two specimens of this subspecies have been reported from Tamaulipas, both from Rancho del Cielo, 5 mi. NW Gomez Farias (Hooper, op. cit. : 144; Goodwin, Amer. Mus. Novit., 1689: 11, 1954). On March …
Nondominance In Goal Programming

AbstractThis paper investigates the notion of nondominance in goal programming (GP). Nondominance in the standard sense of a vector maximum (VM) problem is not always desirable. A definition of “GP-nondominance” and a test for determining whether an optimal GP solution is GP-nondominated are provided. It is demonstrated that one or more GP-nondominated solutions can be found by exploring the alternative optima of the GP solution. A formulation for determining the set of GP-nondominated solutions is provided and examples are used to illustrate the concept of GP nondominance.
Pediatric decisions in children with serious mental retardation.

Four areas of decision-making in the medical care of seriously retarded children are discussed: life-saving issues; supportive programs, such as elective surgery for socially handicapping cosmetic defects; study options, such as the use of consultative help to provide more specific descriptions of functional aberrations; and enrichment programs, such as preschool and day care programs, and group therapy for parents.
Video Gaming as Digital Media, Play, and Family Routine: Implications for Understanding Video Gaming and Learning in Family Contexts.

ABSTRACTWhile a number of studies have investigated learning associated with video gaming in out-of-school settings, only recently have researchers begun to explore gaming and learning in the contexts of home and family life. This paper discusses three different frameworks within which we can situate video games and learning at home: (a) video gaming as digital media, (b) video gaming as play, and (c) video gaming as family routine. Each framework brings different issues related to learning into focus, and contributes new insights into the role gaming plays in the lives of children, adults, and families as a whole.
Conclusion: Recovery as Feminism of the Everyday

This sample of women in Narcotics Anonymous (NA) demonstrates how personal empowerment can be obtained by working the Twelve Steps of NA, by attending women’s meetings, and, as needed, by seeking other forms of gender-specific treatment. The gendered recovery program that women in NA have crafted constitutes practical feminism at work transforming the lived experience of these women. Together, the components of a gendered recovery plan aid women in their personal, day-to-day struggles, as well as providing encouragement for future growth and development. As each woman moves closer to self-acceptance, she feels less burdened by the stigma and shame she once felt imposed upon her by both her active addiction and the double standard that society continues to uphold.
Logic-based natural language understanding in intelligent tutoring systems

High-precision Natural Language Understanding is needed in Geometry Tutoring to accurately determine the semantic content of students' explanations. The thesis presents a Natural Language Understanding system developed in the context of the Geometry Cognitive Tutor. The system combines unification-based syntactic processing with Description Logic based semantics to achieve the necessary accuracy level. The thesis examines in detail the main problem faced by a natural language understanding system in the geometry tutor, that of accurately determining the semantic content of students' input. It then reviews alternative approaches used in Intelligent Tutoring Systems, and presents some difficulties these approaches have in addressing the main problem. The thesis proceeds to describe the system architecture of our approach, as well as the compositional process of building the syntactic structure and the semantic interpretation of students' explanations. The syntactic and semantic processing of natural language are described in detail, as well as solutions for specific natural language understanding problems, like metonymy resolution and reference resolution. The thesis also discusses a number of problems occurring in determining semantic equivalence of natural language input and shows how our approach deals with them. The classification performance of the adopted solution is evaluated on data collected during a recent classroom study and is compared to a Naive Bayes approach. The generality of our solution is demonstrated in a practical experiment of porting the approach to a new semantic domain, Algebra. The thesis discusses the changes needed in the new implementation, the time effort required, and presents the classification performance in the new domain. Finally, the thesis provides a high level Description Logic view of the presented approach to semantic representation and inference, and talks about the possibility to implement it in other logic systems.
Sandwich-structured polymer nanocomposites with high energy density and great charge–discharge efficiency at elevated temperatures

The demand for a new generation of high-temperature dielectric materials toward capacitive energy storage has been driven by the rise of high-power applications such as electric vehicles, aircraft, and pulsed power systems where the power electronics are exposed to elevated temperatures. Polymer dielectrics are characterized by being lightweight, and their scalability, mechanical flexibility, high dielectric strength, and great reliability, but they are limited to relatively low operating temperatures. The existing polymer nanocomposite-based dielectrics with a limited energy density at high temperatures also present a major barrier to achieving significant reductions in size and weight of energy devices. Here we report the sandwich structures as an efficient route to high-temperature dielectric polymer nanocomposites that simultaneously possess high dielectric constant and low dielectric loss. In contrast to the conventional single-layer configuration, the rationally designed sandwich-structured polymer nanocomposites are capable of integrating the complementary properties of spatially organized multicomponents in a synergistic fashion to raise dielectric constant, and subsequently greatly improve discharged energy densities while retaining low loss and high charge-discharge efficiency at elevated temperatures. At 150 °C and 200 MV m(-1), an operating condition toward electric vehicle applications, the sandwich-structured polymer nanocomposites outperform the state-of-the-art polymer-based dielectrics in terms of energy density, power density, charge-discharge efficiency, and cyclability. The excellent dielectric and capacitive properties of the polymer nanocomposites may pave a way for widespread applications in modern electronics and power modules where harsh operating conditions are present.
Developing Undergraduates’ Civic Capabilities: The Unique Contributions of American Public Research Universities

The world has become more interconnected and complex, and will require future leaders who are equipped for responsible participation in a diverse, democratic society (Bernstein and Cock 1997; Checkoway 2001; Colby et al. 2003; Ehrlich 2000; Jacoby 2009; Levine 2007; Thomas 2010). In their critical roles as “agents of democracy,” colleges and universities across the USA are charged with preparing their graduates to be active, effective citizens who can consciously contribute to the nation’s dynamic democracy (Boyte and Hollander 1999, p. 8). The roots of this charge can be traced to the birth of the colonial nation, when Thomas Jefferson combined the principles of American democracy and education with objectives to produce public leaders of talent and virtue at the University of Virginia. Since that time, citizenship education has been recognized as a primary function of public higher education in the USA, with a particular accentuation placed upon research universities to educate future citizens, given their intersecting missions of innovation, knowledge generation, public engagement, and education. Given their prioritization on research, scholarship, entrepreneurship, technology, and medicine, among other areas, research universities encounter pressure to contribute back to their immediate communities or support state and federal development; thus, these institutions are inherently driven to be public-oriented or civic-minded in their approaches.
ADMET Polymers Containing Precisely Spaced Pendant Boronic Acids and Esters

Precise aryl boronic ester- and acid-containing polymers have been synthesized via acyclic diene metathesis. High-molecular weight phenyl boronic acid polymers were synthesized. Cross-linked phenyl boronic acid polymers were also synthesized and demonstrate a unique crystallization behavior not usually seen in cross-linked polymers.
Followers' moral judgments and leaders' integrity-based transgressions: A synthesis of literatures

Abstract This paper reviews the state of knowledge about integrity-based transgressions with an emphasis on the leader-follower relationship. Our review highlighted many important contributions of this literature, but, it revealed several limitations that should be addressed within a followership paradigm. We then synthesized the integrity and trust literatures with a targeted review of moral experimental philosophy. Cushman's (2008) dual process model suggests that because followers simultaneously assess leaders' intentions and their causal nexus with negative outcomes, they might judge behavioral and moral integrity transgressions in different ways. Judgments of moral condemnation should primarily be a function of perceived intent while blame and punishment of the leader based on behavior should be jointly affected by cause and intent. This moral assessment is expected to influence followers' trust through its effect on moral identity. A framework is offered for guiding future studies of followers' interpretations of leaders' integrity-based transgressions.
Cultivating Leadership, Pedagogy and Programming for CSPAP and Healthy, Active Lifestyles at the University of Idaho

This article highlights processes for infusing comprehensive school physical activity programming (CSPAP) into the physical education teacher education (PETE) program at the University of Idaho (UI). The PETE program uses a modified leadership framework to target learning outcomes and activities pertinent to CSPAP. Student CSPAP knowledge and practice is strengthened and put into practice by taking three Department of Movement Science core courses focused on individual and community healthy active lifestyles (HAL). The two community service-learning HAL courses focus on assessment, programming pedagogy and marketing of HAL interventions. Knowledge, skills, dispositions, roles and opportunities are progressively sequenced for preservice students to develop effective Physical Activity Leader (PAL) role knowledge and experience, while meeting state physical education teacher standards. Through PAL training, workshops and teaching opportunities, faculty integrate public health prevention models, behavioral ch...
Food Effect Studies for Oncology Drug Products

Oral antineoplastic agents provide convenience to the patient, but are accompanied by challenges distinct from parenteral cancer treatment. Challenges include a more complex pharmacokinetic profile, with food influencing the absorption of many agents. Standards for evaluating and labeling prandial implications on oral chemotherapy are inconsistent; studies to determine food effects should be conducted early, and potentially often, during drug development with standardization on how rational fasting or fed recommendations are presented in the package insert (PI).
The Impact of DNA Topology and Guide Length on Target Selection by a Cytosine-Specific Cas9

Cas9 is an RNA-guided DNA cleavage enzyme being actively developed for genome editing and gene regulation. To be cleaved by Cas9, a double stranded DNA, or the protospacer, must be complementary to the guide region, typically 20-nucleotides in length, of the Cas9-bound guide RNA, and adjacent to a short Cas9-specific element called Protospacer Adjacent Motif (PAM). Understanding the correct juxtaposition of the protospacer- and PAM-interaction with Cas9 will enable development of versatile and safe Cas9-based technology. We report identification and biochemical characterization of Cas9 from Acidothermus cellulolyticus (AceCas9). AceCas9 depends on a 5′-NNNCC-3′ PAM and is more efficient in cleaving negative supercoils than relaxed DNA. Kinetic as well as in vivo activity assays reveal that AceCas9 achieves optimal activity when combined with a guide RNA containing a 24-nucleotide complementarity region. The cytosine-specific, DNA topology-sensitive, and extended guide-dependent properties of AceCas9 may b...
The contribution of lakes to global inland fisheries harvest

Freshwater ecosystems provide numerous services for communities worldwide, including irrigation, hydropower, and municipal water; however, the services provided by inland fisheries – nourishment, employment, and recreational opportunities – are often comparatively undervalued. We provide an independent estimate of global lake harvest to improve biological and socioeconomic assessments of inland fisheries. On the basis of satellite-derived estimates of chlorophyll concentration from 80,012 globally distributed lakes, lake-specific fishing effort based on human population, and output from a Bayesian hierarchical model, we estimated that the global lake fishery harvest in the year 2011 was 8.4 million tons (mt). Our calculations excluded harvests from highly productive rivers, wetlands, and very small lakes; therefore, the true cumulative global fishery harvest from all freshwater sources likely exceeded 11 mt as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This putative underestimate by the FAO could diminish the perceived importance of inland fisheries and perpetuate decisions that adversely affect these fisheries and millions of people.
Challenges Of Measuring Quality Of Community-Based Programs For Seriously Ill Individuals And Their Families

For many individuals and their families, acknowledging and confronting a serious illness such as cancer or advanced heart failure is a sentinel life event. From a health policy perspective, many individuals confronting such illnesses are high-need, high-cost patients who are increasingly cared for by community-based programs that may have competing goals: improving quality and reducing costs. Providing care to high-need, high-cost patients tests a health care system’s ability to coordinate care and adapt to highly variable disease trajectories that could result in improved health for some, sudden and unexpected death for others, and a prolonged period of functional impairment for the majority. With the rapid growth in the number of community-based programs, efforts are needed to ensure transparency and accountability for this vulnerable population. In this article we outline the challenges in measuring quality of care for seriously ill patients, offer potential solutions, and call for new research to prod...
Visual Decision-Making in an Uncertain and Dynamic World

The right decision today may be the wrong decision tomorrow. We live in a world in which expectations, contingencies, and goals continually evolve and change. Thus, decisions do not occur in isolation but rather are tightly embedded in these streams of temporal dependencies. Accordingly, even relatively straightforward visual decisions must take into account not just the immediate sensory input but also past experiences and future goals and expectations. Here, we evaluate recent progress in understanding how the brain implements these dependencies. We show that visual decision-making relies on mechanisms of evidence accumulation and commitment that have been studied extensively under relatively static, isolated conditions but in general can operate much more flexibly. A deeper understanding of these mechanisms will require identifying the principles that govern this flexibility, which must operate across different timescales to produce effective decisions in uncertain and dynamic environments.
The Intellectual Species: Evolution or Extinction?

John Rodden summarizes the thrust of his work on modern intellectual life, the theme of which is that the uncertain future of the ``intellectual species`` warrants extended attention because it is inextricably tied to the ultimate fate of the critical intellectual itself. He presents himself as an aspirant to membership in the tradition of the literary-political intellectual represented by such writers as George Orwell, Albert Camus, Lionel Trilling, and Irving Howe. Their example confronts him with the question around which his own writings orbit, as the title of his essay poses it: "The Intellectual Species: Evolution or Extinction?"
Patient Perspectives on Communication with Primary Care Physicians about Chronic Low Back Pain.

Objectives Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a common health problem with challenges for providing satisfactory care. This study was undertaken to identify opportunities to improve key aspects of physicians' communications with CLBP-affected patients. Methods A series of 3 focus groups, each with 7 to 11 patients with CLBP, were recruited from primary care settings and grouped by risk level of reduced function resulting from back pain, to elicit perspectives about interactions with their primary care physicians. Analysis of focus group transcripts used an iterative process based on a thematic approach and a priori concepts. Results A total of 28 patients participated in the focus groups. Patient comments about communicating with physicians around CLBP fit into themes of listening and empathy, validating pain experiences, conducting effective CLBP assessment, providing clear diagnosis and information, and collaboratively working on treatment. Patients shared that physicians can foster positive interactions with CLBP-affected patients by sharing personal experiences of chronic pain, being truthful about not having all the answers and being clear about how patients can benefit from referrals, reviewing the patient's previous treatments before beginning conversations about treatment options, providing follow-up instructions, giving patients a diagnosis beyond "chronic pain," and explaining the role of imaging in their care. Conclusion This study provides specific steps that physicians in the US can take to improve physician-patient interactions during primary care visits pertaining to CLBP. The findings could inform physician training, development of educational materials for patients, and future research.
Numerical Simulations of Nonequilibrium and Diffusive Effects in Spherical Shock Waves

Experimental studies of underexpanded N 2 jets [1], [2] discovered a delay of rotational temperature T R compared to the translational one T t . A drop in the gas density downstream leads to a decrease in the number of collisions and the T R departure from the equilibrium value [3], [4]. Another cause for the T R departure [5] could be explained in terms of quantum concepts. Because of the T t plunge, the adiabatic collision conditions are realized at a certain temperature, rotational-transfer probabilities begin to decrease [6], and the relaxation time τ R increases. Calculations based on the classical concept [7], [8], [9] do not show a tendency of increasing τ R with the decrease of T t under the adiabatic rotational energy exchange conditions. Computational results [4], [5], based on the quantum concept of energy exchange, correlate well with experimental data [2] of T R distribution along the jet axis.
The Platform is the Message

Facebook and YouTube have promised to take down Tide Pod Challenge videos. Easier said than done. For one thing, on the Internet, the line between advocacy and parody is undefined. Every meme, gif, and video is a bit of both. For another, these platforms are structurally at war with themselves. The same characteristics that make outrageous and offensive content unacceptable are what make it go viral in the first place. The arc of the Tide Pod Challenge from The Onion to Not The Onion is a microcosm of our modern mediascape. It illustrates how ideas spread and mutate, how they take over platforms and jump between them, and how they resist attempts to stamp them out. It shows why responsible content moderation is necessary, and why responsible content moderation is impossibly hard. And it opens a window on the disturbing demand-driven dynamics of the Internet today, where any desire no matter how perverse or inarticulate can be catered to by the invisible hand of an algorithmic media ecosystem that has no conscious idea what it is doing. Tide Pods are just the tip of the iceberg.
Diseases of uranium miners and other underground miners exposed to radon.

Excess lung cancer has been demonstrated in many groups of underground miners exposed to radon, including uranium miners and those mining other substances in radon-contaminated mines. In the United States, most underground uranium mines had shut down by the late 1980s, but occupational exposure to radon progeny remains a concern for many other types of underground miners and other underground workers. Worldwide, uranium mining continues, with documented production in Canada, South Africa and other African countries, and Australia. Thus, radon in underground mines remains a significant occupational hazard as the end of the twentieth century approaches.39 references.
Application of High Performance Computing for Simulating the Unstable Dynamics of Dilute Spark-Ignited Combustion

In collaboration with a major automotive manufacturer, we are using computational simulations of in-cylinder combustion to understand the multi-scale nonlinear physics of the dilute stability limit. Because some key features of dilute combustion can take thousands of successive cycles to develop, the computation time involved in using complex models to simulate these effects has limited industrys ability to exploit simulations in optimizing advanced engines. We describe a novel approach for utilizing parallel computations to reveal long-timescale features of dilute combustion without the need to simulate many successive engine cycles in series. Our approach relies on carefully guided, concurrent, single-cycle simulations to create metamodels that preserve the long-timescale features of interest. We use a simplified combustion model to develop and demonstrate our strategy for adaptively guiding the concurrent simulations to generate metamodels. We next will implement this strategy with higher-fidelity, multi-scale combustion models on large computing facilities to generate more refined metamodels. The refined metamodels can then be used to accelerate engine development because of their efficiency. Similar approaches might also be used for rapidly exploring the dynamics of other complex multi-scale systems that evolve with serial dependency on time.
Alopex lagopus (Arctic fox)

Skin biopsies from one male and two female foxes from Greenland were used. The male had an apparent centric fusion of two acrocentric elements displayed as the last pair of autosomes.
Third Order Nonlinear Integrated Devices

We describe all-optical integrated devices based on intensity dependent effects. The most relevant concepts in nonlinear waveguiding are reviewed within the perturbative regime where coupled-mode theory is applicable. Issues related to the departures of real materials from the ideal Kerr case are also addressed.
Juno Constraints on the Formation of Jupiter's Magnetospheric Cushion Region

Observations by the Pioneer, Voyager, Ulysses, and Galileo spacecraft in Jupiter's dayside magnetosphere revealed a cushion region, where the magnetic field became increasingly dipolar and the 10‐hr periodicity associated with rotation of the magnetodisc was no longer visible. Focused observations at the dawn terminator by the Juno spacecraft provide critical constraints on the formation physics of the dayside cushion. We observe a persistent 10‐hr periodicity at dawn with only minor distortions of the field near the magnetopause boundary, indicating the absence of a systematic dawn cushion region. These data suggest that the dayside cushion is not formed via mass loss associated with magnetic reconnection along a localized X line but rather may be due to the gradual compression of the dawnside magnetic field as it rotates toward local noon.
Views of the importance of psychiatric genetic research by potential volunteers from stakeholder groups.

Abstract Few studies have explored potential volunteers’ attitudes toward genetic research. To address this gap in the literature, we developed an empirical project to document views held by individuals who may wish to enroll in genetic studies involving mental disorders. People living with mental illness, family members of people with mental illness, and community comparison volunteers were queried regarding their views on the importance of genetic research generally, in comparison with medical research, and in relation to 12 health conditions categorized in four types. T-tests and univariate and multivariate analysis of variance were used as appropriate. Participants expressed support for the importance of genetic research (mean = 9.43, scale = 1–10) and endorsed genetic research more highly compared with non-genetic medical research (mean = 9.43 vs. 8.69, P value =
Bridge deck delamination segmentation based on aerial thermography through regularized grayscale morphological reconstruction and gradient statistics

Abstract Environmental and surface texture-induced temperature variation across the bridge deck is a major source of errors in delamination detection through thermography. This type of external noise poises a significant challenge for conventional quantitative methods such as global thresholding and k-means clustering. An iterative top-down approach is proposed for delamination segmentation based on grayscale morphological reconstruction. A weight-decay function was used to regularize the reconstruction for regional maxima extraction. The mean and coefficient of variation of temperature gradient estimated from delamination boundaries were used for discrimination. The proposed approach was tested on a lab experiment and an in-service bridge deck. The results demonstrated the improved capability of the framework to handle the non-uniform background, and thus eliminates the need of inferencing the background temperature which is often required by existing methods. That the results also suggested that the gradient statistics of the delamination boundary in the thermal image could be valid criterions to refine the segmentation under the proposed framework. Therefore, the authors concluded that the proposed method is a valid delamination segmentation approach for processing field concrete deck thermal images. The parameter selection and the limitation of this approach were also discussed. Further work will be carried out in more field cases to fine tune the parameter selection of the framework.
Pulse Propagation in Cylindrically Wound Thick Composite Specimens

A mathematical model for the propagation of elastic disturbances through a cylindrically wound thick composite specimen is presented. The primary purpose of the modelling effort is to provide a means by which the elastic constant tensor corresponding to the specimen can be determined by in-situ measurements, in which case the effect of the curved fibre geometry must be addressed in the theoretical model. Hence the material is modelled as a cylindrically anisotropic medium, which is of orthotropic symmetry. Ray theory techniques give rise to the identification of curved ray paths along which a disturbance propagates in any one of three normal modes with a constant velocity of propagation. Thus the determination of the elastic constants from in-situ time-of-flight measurements has been reduced to the level of simplicity involved in ascertaining elastic constants from measurements made on a media possessing the usual cartesian symmetry. Finally, it will be shown that the eikonal equations for the cylindrically orthotropic media give rise to the following simple description of the ray geometry: The rays propagate so as to maintain a constant angle of attack with respect to the surfaces which describe the symmetry of the medium.
Green's Function Technique in Atomic and Molecular Physics

Publisher Summary This chapter seeks to familiarize the quantum chemist and molecular physicist with some of the ways one can apply the Green's function technique to the problems of calculating excitation energies, ionization energies, ground state energies, and transition matrix elements. Density matrices and natural orbitals can be calculated directly without prior calculation of the wavefunctions and therefore the Green's function technique is closely related to the density matrix methods already developed in quantum chemistry. The Green's function method is clearly the way to calculate the density matrix and the natural orbitals directly. For finite atomic and molecular systems, the branch cuts are replaced by a set of poles and adjoining branch cuts. Poles can exist on the physical sheet, as well as on the nonphysical sheets reached by continuing across the cut.
Afterword: Ghosts of 1816

“Ghosts of 1816” looks beyond the extraordinary literary output of the Year Without a Summer to its profound relevance as a case history of extreme climate deterioration. Today, the “ghosts” of 1816 are with us in the form of droughts, floods, and climate refugees streaming across the borders of Europe and elsewhere. With the worldwide disasters of 1816–1818 as a model, the concept-metaphor of teleconnection—germane to the atmospheric sciences—is a tool for Romantic scholars to rethink global literary history in the age of climate change. Citing the example of the catastrophic Pakistani floods and Russian wildfires of 2010 as teleconnected events “caused” by climate change, the chapter suggests climate itself—characterized by remote causal pathways, chaotic events, and non-linear change—as a new model for reading Romantic texts proleptically alongside the present climate crisis..
ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Talks

SIGGRAPH 2010 Talks provide a broad spectrum of presentations on recent achievements in all areas of computer graphics and interactive techniques, including art, design, animation, visual effects, interactivity, research, and engineering. Talks provide a lightweight alternative to formal publication. They often highlight the latest developments before publication, present ideas that are still in progress, or showcase how computer graphics and interactive techniques are actually implemented and used, in graphics production or other fields. Talks can take you behind the scenes and into the minds of SIGGRAPH 2010 creators.
Uncommon misconceptions and common morality

One of the fundamental challenges in any field of practical ethics is to articulate a framework for deliberation and decision making that is capable of providing warranted guidance about contentious ethical questions.1 Such a framework has to function effectively in the face of empirical uncertainty and what Rawls refers to as the fact of reasonable pluralism—the fact that individuals often differ in their ideals, ambitions, preferences and conceptions of the good life. One of the perennial questions in normative and metaethics concerns the source of the warrant for such judgments, and a major preoccupation of practical ethics has been to find a way to generate such warrant without having to first settle all contentious philosophical questions about the nature and source of normativity. To the extent that scholars use the term ‘common morality’ to refer to a set of moral norms or concerns that are sufficiently common and widespread that they can be used as starting points for moral deliberation and inquiry, I am sympathetic to the term.2 To the extent that appeals to common morality are supposed to do more significant epistemic or justificatory work, they have always struck me as dangerously ad hoc and insufficiently responsive to the legitimate need to explain the ground for common normative claims. Although I am relatively sceptical of appeals to common morality, I am concerned that the version of this view that is critiqued in ‘Why not common morality’ is simply a straw person . Throughout the paper, Rhodes treats common morality as synonymous with everyday ethics and the ethics of everyday life. She says, ‘If common morality and medical ethics were the same, then the ethically justified behaviour for medical professionals and everyone else would be the same’ (Rhodes, p7).3 In effect, the view that Rhodes attacks is …
The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Ban the Box

I review the growing body of research that either directly assesses the effect of Ban the Box (BTB) on the employment prospects of those with criminal histories, tests for spillover effects operati...
Satellites in Milky-Way-like Hosts: Environment Dependence and Close Pairs

Previous studies showed that an estimate of the likelihood distribution of the Milky Way (MW) halo mass can be derived using the properties of the satellites similar to the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC). However, it would be straightforward to interpret such an estimate only if the properties of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) are fairly typical and are not biased by the environment. In this study, we explore whether the environment of the MW affects the properties of the SMC and LMC such as their velocities. To test for the effect of the environment, we compare velocity distributions for MC-sized subhalos around MW hosts in a sample selected simply by mass and in the second sample of such halos selected with additional restrictions on the distance to the nearest cluster and the local galaxy density, designed to mimic the environment of the Local Group (LG). We find that satellites in halos in the LG-like environments do have somewhat larger velocities, as compared to the halos of similar mass in the sample without environmental constraints. For example, the fraction of subhalos matching the velocity of the LMC is 23% {+-} 2% larger in the LG-like environments. We derivemore » the host halo likelihood distribution for the samples in the LG-like environment and in the control sample and find that the environment does not significantly affect the derived likelihood. We use the updated properties of the SMC and LMC to derive the constraint on the MW halo mass of log(M{sub 200}/M{sub Sun }) = 12.06{sub -0.19}{sup +0.31} (90% confidence interval). We also explore the incidence of close pairs with relative velocities and separations similar to those of the LMC and SMC and find that such pairs are quite rare among {Lambda}CDM halos. Only 2% of halos in the MW mass range have a relatively close pair ({Delta}r 50 km s{sup -1}. Pairs with masses and separations similar to those of the LMC and SMC ({Delta}r{sub MC} = 23.4 {+-} 10 kpc and {Delta}s{sub MC} = 128 {+-} 32 km s{sup -1}) are found only in one out of Almost-Equal-To 30, 000 MW-sized halos. Interestingly, the halo mass likelihood distribution for host halos constrained to have MC-like close pairs of subhalos is quite different from the global likelihood from which the MW halo mass constraint discussed above was derived. Taking into account the close separation of the MCs in the Busha et al. method results in the shift of the MW halo mass estimate to smaller masses, with the peak shifting approximately by a factor of two.« less
Effect of the Lattice Field on the Electronic Structure and Dynamics of Copper-Hexahydrate in Tutton Salts.

Previous structural and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) results are combined with new theoretical chemistry calculations on a series of copper-containing Tutton salts to investigate the influ...
Rapid quantitative analysis of trace elements in plutonium alloys using a handheld laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) device coupled with chemometrics and machine learning

We present the first reported quantification of trace elements in plutonium via a portable laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) device and demonstrate the use of chemometric analysis to enhance the handheld device's sensitivity and precision. Quantification of trace elements such as iron and nickel in plutonium metal via LIBS is a challenging problem due to the complex nature of the plutonium optical emission spectra. While rapid analysis of plutonium alloys has been demonstrated using portable LIBS devices, such as the SciAps Z300, their detection limits for trace elements are severely constrained by their achievable pulse power and length, light collection optics, and detectors. In this paper, analytical methods are evaluated as a means to circumvent the detection constraints. Three chemometric methods often used in analytical spectroscopy are evaluated; principal component regression, partial least-squares regression, and artificial neural networks. These models are evaluated based on goodness-of-fit metrics, root mean-squared error, and their achievable limits of detection (LoDs). Partial least squares proved superior for determining content of iron and nickel in plutonium metal, yielding LoDs of 15 and 20 ppm, respectively. These results of identifying the undesirable trace elements in plutonium components are critical for applications such as fabricating radioisotope thermoelectric generators or nuclear fuel.
A requirements inspection method based on scenarios generated by model mutation and the experimental validation

The requirements phase is the most critical phase of the software development life cycle. The quality of the requirements specification affects the overall quality of the subsequent phases and hence, the software product. An effective and efficient method to qualify the software requirements specification (SRS) is necessary to ensure the reliability and safety of software. In this paper, a requirements inspection method based on scenarios generated by model mutation (RIMSM) is proposed to detect defects in the functional requirements of a safety-critical system. The RIMSM method models software requirements using a High Level Extended Finite State Machine (HLEFSM). A method that executes the HLEFSM model is defined. The method uncovers the behaviors and generates the outputs of the system for a given scenario. To identify an adequate set of scenarios in which the model shall be executed, an analogue to mutation testing is defined which applies to the requirements phase. Twenty-one mutation operators are designed based on a taxonomy of defects defined for the requirements phase. Mutants of the HLEFSM model are generated using these operators. Further, an algorithm is developed to identify scenarios that can kill the mutants. The set of scenarios is considered to be adequate for detecting defects in the model when all mutants generated are killed. The HLEFSM model is then executed for the scenarios generated. The results of execution are used to detect defects in the model. A Requirements Inspection Tool based on Scenarios Generated by Model Mutation (RITSM) is developed to automate the application of the RIMSM method. The performance and usability of the RIMSM method are studied and demonstrated in an experiment by comparing the RIMSM method to the checklist-based reading method.
Changes in physical activity during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction:The COVID-19 pandemic response limited access to many traditional forms of physical activity (PA). Purpose:To assess changes in objectively measured PAofUniversity staff during the initial stageofthe COVID-19 pandemic.Methods:We implemented a repeated measures natural experiment design. PA data (walking distance, steps∙d#x2D;1, and Moderate#x2D;to#x2D;Vigorous PA (MVPA) time) from commercial grade triaxial accelerometers were collected from employees (N#x3D;625) of a large, public university in the southeast United States during the months of Jan#x2D;May in calendar years 2019 and 2020.Results#x3A;Walking distance (6#x2D;9#x25;, p#x3C;0.001) and steps∙d#x2D;1(7#x2D;11#x25;, p#x3C;0.001) were lower during April and May 2020 compared to 2019. However, MVPA time was not significantly different among calendar years for the months of March#x2D;May. Steps∙d#x2D;1significantly decreased after WHO's worldwide pandemic declaration (10,348#xB1;171 v. 9551#xB1;156 steps∙d#x2D;1, p#x3C;0.001) and campus closure (10,100#xB1;160 v. 9,186#xB1;167 steps∙d#x2D;1, p#x3C;0.001). Conversely, steps∙d#x2D;1significantly increased after implementation of the state's "Healthy at Home" order (9,693#xB1;177 vs. 10,156#xB1;185 steps∙d#x2D;1, p#x3C;0.001).Conclusion: A decrease in daily steps, but not MVPA, suggests increased sedentary behavior, not reduced participation in exercise, during the early stages of the COVID#x2D;19 pandemic. Specific pandemic response policies may positively or negatively affect PA and sedentary behavior.