cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Die Yamamoto-Neue-Schädelakupunktur (YNSA)

YNSA oder Yamamoto-Neue-Schadelakupunktur wurde von dem japanischen Chirurgen, Geburtshelfer und Anasthesisten Dr. Toshikatsu Yamamoto in den 70er Jahren entwickelt. Gearbeitet wird mit Somatotopen, die sich im Wesentlichen an der Stirn, an der Schlafe und am Hinterkopf befinden. Seit den 90er Jahren sind auch an anderen Regionen des Korpers Somatotope hinzugekommen. YNSA wird in der Regel von Arzten als erganzende Therapiemethode zur Korperakupunktur oder als alleinige Therapiemasnahme angewendet. Arzte nutzen YNSA in der Praxis besonders zur Behandlung von chronischen Schmerzen und neurologischen Erkrankungen – hier vor allem bei Schlaganfallpatienten in der Rehabilitation. Therapeuten konnen YNSA auch mit anderen komplementarmedizinischen Verfahren kombinieren.
The Provision of Emergency Radiology Services and Potential Radiologist Workforce Crisis: Is There a Role for the Emergency-Dedicated Radiologist?

One of the greatest challenges facing the specialty of radiology over the next several years will involve the provision of emergency radiology services. The demand for medical imaging—especially computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging—continues to explode in the emergency setting and threatens to overwhelm the resources of many radiology practices. How our specialty decides ultimately to respond is critical, as it will have far-reaching implications, which will define the role and perceived value of the radiologist in all settings for years to come.
United States rural hospital quality in the Hospital Compare database-accounting for hospital characteristics.

Abstract Background Rural hospitals in the United States have demonstrated lower adherence to evidence based guidelines than their urban counterparts in national public reporting initiatives. We compared the quality of rural hospitals participating in a public reporting initiative to that of their urban counterparts using Hospital Compare, a new national database containing process measures. Methods Cross-sectional analyses of hospitals participating in Hospital Compare in 2005, evaluating percent adherence to guidelines for 10 processes of care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF), and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) using multivariable linear regression analyses. Results Participating rural hospitals demonstrated lower adherence to evidence based guidelines in MI and HF quality measures ( p p F test for linear trend, p Conclusions Participating rural hospitals had lower performance than their urban counterparts. As the rural/urban quality gap varies by condition, bed size, and participation, we recommend comparing performance across a wide variety of condition-specific measures to enable targeted quality improvement.
Waveform Fitting of Cross Spectra to Determine Phase Velocity Using Aki’s Formula

We present an improved method for estimating the frequency‐dependent phase velocity of ambient noise cross spectra by waveform fitting of Aki’s formula (Aki, 1957). The key part of the procedure is the use of a grid search to generate an initial estimate of the phase velocity that matches the observed cross spectrum without any cycle slips. A generalized least‐squares procedure is then used to refine this initial estimate. The grid search has only three frequency nodes, at the left end, center, and right end of the frequency band of interest, but parameterizes velocity finely, with 40 increments at each of these nodes. Trial phase velocity curves are generated by linear interpolation between nodes, and the curve that best predicts the observed cross spectrum is chosen as the initial estimate. The generalized least‐squares refinement implements two types of prior information: the phase velocity is close to a smoothed version of the initial estimate, and the phase velocity varies smoothly with frequency. In addition to estimating the frequency‐dependent phase velocity function, the method provides its variance and resolution. The method is robust to low signal‐to‐noise levels and so may prove especially attractive in cases in which short array‐deployment times limit the quality of cross‐spectral estimates. It also provides useful estimates at short interstation distance, when the cross spectrum has few zero crossings.
From Promise to Form: How Contracting Online Changes Consumers

I hypothesize that different experiences with online contracting have led some consumers to see contracts — both online and offline — in distinctive ways. Experimenting on a large, nationally representative, sample, this paper provides evidence of age-based and experience-based differences in views of consumer contract formation and breach. I show that younger subjects who have entered into more online contracts are likelier than older ones to think that contracts can be formed online, that digital contracts are legitimate while oral contracts are not, and that contract law is unforgiving of breach. I argue that such individual differences in views of contract formation and enforceability might lead firms to discriminate among consumers. There is some evidence that businesses are already using variance in views of contract to induce consumers to purchase goods they would not otherwise have. I conclude by suggesting how the law might respond to such behavior.
KIB: Simplifying Gestural Instrument Creation Using Widgets.

The Microsoft Kinect is a popular and versatile input device for musical interfaces. However, using the Kinect for such interfaces requires not only significant programming experience, but also the use of complex geometry or machine learning techniques to translate joint positions into higher level gestures. We created the Kinect Instrument Builder (KIB) to address these difficulties by structuring gestural interfaces as combinations of gestural widgets. KIB allows the user to design an instrument by configuring gestural primitives, each with a set of simple but attractive visual feedback elements. After designing an instrument on KIB’s web interface, users can play the instrument on KIB’s performance interface, which displays visualizations and transmits OSC messages to other applications for sound synthesis or further remapping.
Top of the World: Cultural Narratives, Myths, and Movies

It is an old story but, in all of its guises, a perennially appealing one. A poor boy makes good. A secretary marries her boss, thereby launching herself from the steno pool to the penthouse. A lowborn young man with a burning ambition and an idea that everyone tells him is crazy becomes a successful entrepreneur. A fresh-off-the-boat immigrant seizes the promise of the new world and reinvents himself as a dyed-in-the-wool American tycoon. These classic — if cliched — success stories were already deeply etched in the popular consciousness by the time Hollywood put its stamp on them. Scores of self-help manuals, popular novels, religious tracts, and biographies have played their part in the ritual re-enactment of one of our most enduring cultural doctrines: that trading rags for riches is not only possible but is part of our national entitlement. The movies’ particular contribution to the American idea of success has been to codify, perpetuate, amplify, and sometimes challenge that idea in notably complex ways.
Pedagogical Issues in U.S. Media Education

(1994). Pedagogical Issues in U.S. Media Education. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 17, Communication Yearbook 17, pp. 453-466.
Error field optimization in DIII-D using extremum seeking control

DIII-D experiments have demonstrated a new real-time approach to tokamak error field control based on maximizing the toroidal angular momentum. This approach uses extremum seeking control theory to optimize the error field in real time without inducing instabilities. Slowly-rotating n = 1 fields (the dither), generated by external coils, are used to perturb the angular momentum, monitored in real-time using a charge-exchange spectroscopy diagnostic. Simple signal processing of the rotation measurements extracts information about the rotation gradient with respect to the control coil currents. This information is used to converge the control coil currents to a point that maximizes the toroidal angular momentum. The technique is well-suited for multi-coil, multi-harmonic error field optimizations in disruption sensitive devices as it does not require triggering locked tearing modes or plasma current disruptions. Control simulations highlight the importance of the initial search direction on the rate of the convergence, and identify future algorithm upgrades that may allow more rapid convergence that projects to convergence times in ITER on the order of tens of seconds.
Double absorbing boundaries for finite-difference time-domain electromagnetics

Abstract We describe the implementation of optimal local radiation boundary condition sequences for second order finite difference approximations to Maxwell's equations and the scalar wave equation using the double absorbing boundary formulation. Numerical experiments are presented which demonstrate that the design accuracy of the boundary conditions is achieved and, for comparable effort, exceeds that of a convolution perfectly matched layer with reasonably chosen parameters. An advantage of the proposed approach is that parameters can be chosen using an accurate a priori error bound.
A triboelectric motion sensor in wearable body sensor network for human activity recognition

The goal of this study is to design a novel triboelectric motion sensor in wearable body sensor network for human activity recognition. Physical activity recognition is widely used in well-being management, medical diagnosis and rehabilitation. Other than traditional accelerometers, we design a novel wearable sensor system based on triboelectrification. The triboelectric motion sensor can be easily attached to human body and collect motion signals caused by physical activities. The experiments are conducted to collect five common activity data: sitting and standing, walking, climbing upstairs, downstairs, and running. The k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) clustering algorithm is adopted to recognize these activities and validate the feasibility of this new approach. The results show that our system can perform physical activity recognition with a successful rate over 80% for walking, sitting and standing. The triboelectric structure can also be used as an energy harvester for motion harvesting due to its high output voltage in random low-frequency motion.
STELLS2: fast and accurate coalescent-based maximum likelihood inference of species trees from gene tree topologies.

Motivation: It is well known that gene trees and species trees may have different topologies. One explanation is incomplete lineage sorting, which is commonly modeled by the coalescent process. In multispecies coalescent, a gene tree topology is observed with some probability (called the gene tree probability) for a given species tree. Gene tree probability is the main tool for the program STELLS, which finds the maximum likelihood estimate of the species tree from the given gene tree topologies. However, STELLS becomes slow when data size increases. Recently, several fast species tree inference methods have been developed, which can handle large data. However, these methods often do not fully utilize the information in the gene trees. Results: In this paper, we present an algorithm (called STELLS2) for computing the gene tree probability more efficiently than the original STELLS. The key idea of STELLS2 is taking some ‘shortcuts’ during the computation and computing the gene tree probability approximately. We apply the STELLS2 algorithm in the species tree inference approach in the original STELLS, which leads to a new maximum likelihood species tree inference method (also called STELLS2). Through simulation we demonstrate that the gene tree probabilities computed by STELLS2 and STELLS have strong correlation. We show that STELLS2 is almost as accurate in species tree inference as STELLS. Also STELLS2 is usually more accurate than several existing methods when there is one allele per species, although STELLS2 is slower than these methods. STELLS2 outperforms these methods significantly when there are multiple alleles per species. Availability and Implementation: The program STELLS2 is available for download at: https://github.com/yufengwudcs/STELLS2 Contact: yufeng.wu@uconn.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Geometric control formulation and nonlinear controllability of airplane flight dynamics

Linear controllability conditions for linearized systems are not necessary. That is, there exists a class of nonlinear systems that are linearly uncontrollable but nonlinearly controllable. Geometric control theory provides useful tools for analyzing nonlinear controllability of dynamical systems. In particular, it allows for identification of the ability to generate motions along unactuated (non-intuitive) directions through specific interactions between the system dynamics and control inputs. In this work, the six-degrees-of-freedom, rigid-airplane flight dynamics is considered and formulated in a geometric control framework. Then, nonlinear controllability analysis is performed. The analytical tools of geometric control theory allowed scrutiny of the system dynamics to assess the relation between airplane configuration and controllability. Moreover, new rolling and pitching mechanisms that can be exploited at high angles of attack (e.g., stall recovery) are identified. Finally, a thrust-only flight control system is analyzed in this framework.
Factors predicting use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy compared with primary debulking surgery in advanced stage ovarian cancer - A national cancer database study

Objectives We performed a patterns-of-care study to characterize the types of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) versus primary debulking surgery (PDS) using the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Methods We identified patients with stages IIIC and IV EOC in the NCDB diagnosed from 2003 to 2011. Patients who received chemotherapy (CT) prior to surgery were classified as receiving NACT; if surgery preceded CT, then it was classified as PDS. Data collected from the NCDB included demographics, medical comorbidity index, cancer characteristics and treatment, and hospital characteristics. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed using χ2 test, logistic regression, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards modeling as indicated. Statistical significance was set at P Results A total of 62,727 patients with stages IIIC and IV EOC were identified. The sequence of surgery and CT was identified, of which 6922 (11%) had NACT and 31,280 (50%) had PDS. Neoadjuvant CT was more frequently done in stage IV than stage IIIC (13% vs 9%), and its use markedly increased over time. Variables associated with increased likelihood of NACT use were as follows: age older than 50 years and those with higher comorbidities, stage IV, and higher-grade EOC. Neoadjuvant CT use was also associated with hospitals that were adherent to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, high-volume facilities, those in the Midwest and West, and academic centers. Conclusions Evidence suggests that patients with greater adverse risk factors are more likely to receive NACT instead of PDS. Use of NACT has significantly increased over the study period, especially in patients with stage IV ovarian cancer.
Endovascular Management of Massive and Submassive Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Current Trends in Risk Stratification and Catheter-Directed Therapies

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common condition associated with high morbidity and mortality. Prior studies have evaluated the role of systemic fibrinolysis and catheter-directed therapy (CDT) in the management of PE. In this review, we examine current data on risk stratification and the appropriate allocation of systemic fibrinolysis and CDT in acute PE patients with elevated risk of adverse outcomes. Classification of pulmonary embolism is based on risk of adverse events, and relies on clinical parameters, imaging findings, and biomarkers. The synthesis of this data permits appropriate risk stratification of acute PE patients, and is the foundation upon which treatment decisions are made. While systemic thrombolytics remain the frontline therapy for hemodynamically unstable PE patients, studies have suggested that CDT has a significant promise as the primary modality for treating hemodynamically stable patients at increased risk for clinical decompensation and as an alternative therapy for hemodynamically unstable patients who may not tolerate systemic thrombolytics. The appropriate use of CDT in patients with acute PE is dependent on accurate risk stratification. CDT offers the potential to reduce excessive bleeding while maintaining the efficacy of systemic thrombolytics, but will require data from larger randomized trials to support its use prior to widespread adoption as the frontline therapy for PE in patients at elevated risk of adverse outcomes.
The effects of social media virality metrics, message framing, and perceived susceptibility on cancer screening intention: The mediating role of fear

Abstract Social media platforms are increasingly playing a vital role in the process of dissemination and sharing of health information. The present study investigated whether and how online health information and virality metrics associated with social media platforms jointly shape persuasive outcomes in the context of cancer screening promotion. One important area of research on cancer screening promotion concerns loss-versus-gain message framing, which has highlighted the persuasive advantage of loss framing relative to gain framing. Given this, we examined how social media virality metrics, loss-versus-gain message framing, and perceived susceptibility influence message-evoked fear and intention to perform colonoscopy in the context of colorectal cancer screening. Results from an online experiment showed that loss framing, relative to gain framing, led to greater message-evoked fear when the message was presented with high-virality metrics, and this pattern was particularly pronounced among those with low perceived susceptibility to colorectal cancer. Furthermore, a formal test of moderated mediation showed that the indirect effect of loss framing on colonoscopy intention through message-evoked fear was significantly moderated by perceived susceptibility to colorectal cancer when the message was presented with high-virality metrics. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Barriers to Recovery from Concussion (P3.315)

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine factors that influence recovery from a concussion and to investigate the association between duration and quality of prescribed rest and recovery time. BACKGROUND: The prescribed treatment for a concussion is physical and cognitive rest. Both physicians and patients struggle with defining the prescription of “rest” and understanding the consequences of compliance. Few studies have been done to determine the optimal amount and type of prescribed rest necessary to influence recovery. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with concussion between the ages 10 and 60 years were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their activity during their recovery period. 97 patients had completed the questionnaire between November 2011 and October 2015.Chi-square tests were used to test factors associated with prolonged recovery. RESULTS: Females were more than two times at risk for prolonged concussion recovery (OR: 2.09). Individuals who were hit on the head with a moving object (p=0.017) or who experienced a head to head collision were more likely to have a recovery ≥30 days (p<0.001). Patients who played football were 97[percnt] less likely to have prolonged concussion recovery (p<0.001), while patients who played “other” sports such as skiing, volleyball, and field hockey had longer recovery times (p=0.009). While many activities were associated with longer average recovery times, only using the computer for leisure (p=0.027), playing video, phone, or computer games (p=0.045), and listening to audio books, talk radio, or podcasts (p=0.021) were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: These factors all have a significant impact on concussion recovery time: gender, injury mechanism, sport played, and pastimes during recovery. Females have a more difficult time recovering than males. Simple activities such as using the computer for leisure, listening to audio books, talk radio, or podcasts, or playing video, phone, or computer games may prolong recovery. Disclosure: Dr. Shetty has received personal compensation for activities with GE Healthcare as a medical advisory board member. Dr. Ching has nothing to disclose. Dr. Dalal has nothing to disclose. Dr. Cummings has nothing to disclose. Dr. Halvorsen has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zhang has nothing to disclose. Dr. Nguyen has nothing to disclose.
Are Women's Orgasms Hindered by Phallocentric Imperatives?

Women who have sex with women (WSW) are more likely to report experiencing an orgasm during partnered sex, compared to women who have sex with men (WSM). We investigated whether this difference can be partially accounted for by phallocentric imperatives—gendered sexual scripts that prioritize men’s sexual experience. For example, these imperatives emphasize vaginal-penile intercourse (i.e., the coital imperative) and men’s physical pleasure (i.e., the male orgasm imperative). We reasoned that a larger variety of sexual behaviors indicates less adherence to the coital imperative and that more self-oriented orgasm goals for women indicate less adherence to the male orgasm imperative. Consistent with previous work, we expected WSW to report higher rates of orgasm than WSM when taking frequency of sex into account. We also hypothesized that this difference in orgasm rates would dissipate when controlling for variety of sexual behavior and women’s self-oriented orgasm goals. In a sample of 1988 WSM and 308 WSW, we found that WSW were 1.33 times (p < .001) more likely to report experiencing an orgasm than WSM, controlling for frequency of sex. This incidence rate ratio was reduced to 1.16 (p < .001) after taking into account variety of sexual behavior and self-oriented orgasm goals. Our findings indicate that certain sexual scripts (e.g., phallocentric imperatives) help explain the orgasm discrepancy between WSW and WSM. We discuss masturbation as another male-centered practice that may be relevant to this gap, as well as implications for intervention and future research.
Documenting the accessibility of 100 US bank and finance websites

Digital access to banking and financial systems is no longer merely a way to augment physical transactions or experiences. It is now the primary way that consumers interact with banking and financial services. As a result, it is essential and equitable that full digital access to these services be provided for people with disabilities. Building on a recently published survey that investigated the accessibility issues within banking and financial systems for blind users, this evaluation of 100 banking and financial websites in the USA provides a current analysis of the broader state of banking and finance website accessibility for people with disabilities. The results of our research not only document these current findings as an accessibility baseline for banking and finance websites but also reveal common problems and strategies that may benefit the banking and finance industries.
Automatic trellis generation for demodulation of faster than Nyquist signals

In digital communications implemented using Nyquist pulses, the pulse rate is upper-bounded by twice the channel bandwidth. Signaling above this rate results in the loss of pulse orthogonality and introduces intersymbol interference. Under certain conditions, however, it is possible to maintain the same minimum distance, and in consequence the same error probability, as Nyquist signaling. This allows time-compression of the transmitted symbols, resulting in a larger data rate than that predicted by classic information theory results. The intersymbol interference has a trellis structure and the transmitted symbols can be decoded using techniques such as the Viterbi or BCJR algorithms. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm that can automatically calculate the trellis given any pulse shape, constellation, and time-compression factor.
Dunes across the Solar System.

Before NASA's New Horizons mission, the surface of Pluto was shrouded in mystery. No one knew what to expect from its surface and most scientists shied away from detailed speculation, except to say that the one thing we should expect is to be surprised ( 1 ). On page 992 of this issue, Telfer et al. ( 2 ) present such a surprise by describing features interpreted as dunes on Pluto's surface.
Persistent Stress-Induced Neuroplastic Changes in the Locus Coeruleus/Norepinephrine System

Neural plasticity plays a critical role in mediating short- and long-term brain responses to environmental stimuli. A major effector of plasticity throughout many regions of the brain is stress. Activation of the locus coeruleus (LC) is a critical step in mediating the neuroendocrine and behavioral limbs of the stress response. During stressor exposure, activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis promotes release of corticotropin-releasing factor in LC, where its signaling promotes a number of physiological and cellular changes. While the acute effects of stress on LC physiology have been described, its long-term effects are less clear. This review will describe how stress changes LC neuronal physiology, function, and morphology from a genetic, cellular, and neuronal circuitry/transmission perspective. Specifically, we describe morphological changes of LC neurons in response to stressful stimuli and signal transduction pathways underlying them. Also, we will review changes in excitatory glutamatergic synaptic transmission in LC neurons and possible stress-induced modifications of AMPA receptors. This review will also address stress-related behavioral adaptations and specific noradrenergic receptors responsible for them. Finally, we summarize the results of several human studies which suggest a link between stress, altered LC function, and pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Quantum Wells and Superlattices of Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors

Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are semiconducting alloys containing substitutional transition metal ions.1 In this paper we shall concentrate on the most thoroughly understood group of these materials, i.e., on II–VI compounds containing substitutional Mn2+ . Of those, Hg1-xMnxTe and Hg1-xMnxSe are narrow gap semiconductors, with the band structure analogous to that of Hg1-xCdxTe, whereas Cd1-xMnxTe and Zn1-xMnxSe are examples II VI of wide-gap DMS. In Table 1. we give a list of all the A1-xMnxB DMS materials, together with their crystal structures and ranges of compositions within which growth of single phase alloys has been successful.
Language Mechanisms in the Developing Brain

This chapter discusses the language mechanisms in the developing brain. Acquisition of speech and language is clearly tied to physical development and maturation in the infant and child. Two indices of brain growth—changes in brain weight with advancing age and the differential myelination of cerebral structures—appear to be valid correlates of speech and language development. Neuroanatomic differences, such as larger left temporal planums and longer sylvian fissures on the left, found in the majority of fetuses and infants, provide some support for an early lateralization of language mechanisms. Infants who sustain damage to the left hemisphere before 1 year of age demonstrate a degree of early cerebral plasticity for language mechanisms. Developmental language disability without evidence of focal brain lesions has long been associated with the primary etiologies of deafness, mental retardation, and childhood autism. Many children with language delay and disabilities present unknown etiologies but are suspected of cerebral dysfunction. Signs of minimal cerebral dysfunction cannot always be established on neurologic examination, and an idiopathic neurologic disorder is suspected.
Simulating insulin infusion pump risks by in-silico modeling of the insulin-glucose regulatory system

We present a case study on the use of robustness-guided and statistical model checking approaches for simulating risks due to insulin infusion pump usage by diabetic patients. Insulin infusion pumps allow for a continuous delivery of insulin with varying rates and delivery profiles to help patients self-regulate their blood glucose levels. However, the use of infusion pumps and continuous glucose monitors can pose risks to the patient including chronically elevated blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia) or dangerously low glucose levels (hypoglycemia). In this paper, we use mathematical models of the basic insulin-glucose regulatory system in a diabetic patient, insulin infusion pumps, and the user's interaction with these pumps defined by commonly used insulin infusion strategies for maintaining normal glucose levels. These strategies include common guidelines taught to patients by physicians and certified diabetes educators and have been implemented in commercially available insulin bolus calculators. Furthermore, we model the failures in the devices themselves along with common errors in the usage of the pump. We compose these models together and analyze them using two related techniques: (a) robustness guided state-space search to explore worst-case scenarios and (b) statistical model checking techniques to assess the probabilities of hyper- and hypoglycemia risks. Our technique can be used to identify the worst-case effects of the combination of many different kinds of failures and place high confidence bounds on their probabilities.
Neovascular Glaucoma: Etiologic Considerations

A review of 208 patients with neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is presented. The most common primary etiologic associations included retinal venous obstructive disease (36.1%), diabetic retinopathy (32.2%), and carotid artery obstructive disease (12.9%). Systemic arterial hypertension was present in 51% and diabetes mellitus was noted in 46% of all patients. Among the 25 bilateral cases of NVG, 24 occurred in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Women comprised 65% of patients with NVG secondary to diabetes, and 57% of the venous obstruction group, while men accounted for 74% of cases in which NVG occurred secondary to carotid artery obstructive disease. Overall, 97% of eyes with NVG had a disease process that produced extensive retinal ischemia and preceded the onset of iris neovascularization. Patients with NVG, but without an obvious precipitating fundus condition, should be suspected of having severe carotid artery obstructive disease.
ENDOR Characterization of (N2)FeII(μ-H)2FeI(N2)−: A Spectroscopic Model for N2 Binding by the Di-μ-hydrido Nitrogenase Janus Intermediate

The biomimetic diiron complex 4-(N2)2, featuring two terminally bound Fe–N2 centers bridged by two hydrides, serves as a model for two possible states along the pathway by which the enzyme nitrogenase reduces N2. One is the Janus intermediate E4(4H), which has accumulated 4[e–/H+], stored as two [Fe–H–Fe] bridging hydrides, and is activated to bind and reduce N2 through reductive elimination (RE) of the hydride ligands as H2. The second is a possible RE intermediate. 1H and 14N 35 GHz ENDOR measurements confirm that the formally Fe(II)/Fe(I) 4-(N2)2 complex exhibits a fully delocalized, Robin–Day type-III mixed valency. The two bridging hydrides exhibit a fully rhombic dipolar tensor form, T ≈ [−t, +t, 0]. The rhombic form is reproduced by a simple point-dipole model for dipolar interactions between a bridging hydride and its “anchor” Fe ions, confirming validity of this model and demonstrating that observation of a rhombic form is a convenient diagnostic signature for the identification of such core stru...
Radiology, Noise, and the Patient Experience

Abstract The patient environment in radiology laboratories and clinics has not been discussed in relationship to the noise within it and its impact on care. However, results of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys have affirmed that noise remains a challenge for patients and health care organizations. The anxieties experienced by patients, whether waiting for a diagnostic test or radiation therapy, are influenced by the environment of the radiology waiting or laboratory areas. This article discusses the role of the environment and steps that can be taken to optimize the patient experience through environmental improvement.
Assessing Life in the Face of Death: Moral Drama at the 1952 Trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

The essay is a close analysis of the text of the 1952 secret trial of the members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAFC). The trial was an occasion of high drama in which many of the participa...
Keeping Cities Afloat: Climate Change Adaptation and Collaborative Governance at the Local Level

The lack of a federal strategy in the United States for climate change adaptation leaves state and city governments with broad discretion to undertake appropriate measures. Yet, cities may be unabl...
Deposition and Confinement of Li Metal along an Artificial Lipon–Lipon Interface

Lithium phosphorus oxynitride (Lipon) is an amorphous solid-state electrolyte that can completely suppress Li penetration from the anode to the cathode, commonly referred to as dendrites. The key to the Lipon performance is thought to be its homogeneous and pore-free morphology. To test this, we present a modified thin film battery configuration with a lithium cobalt oxide cathode, a Lipon electrolyte, and a top layer with a copper current collector and an artificial Lipon–Lipon interface parallel to the cathode. Upon electrochemical cycling, Li metal rapidly deposits at the edge of this Cu current collector and then proceeds to plate along the 2D Lipon–Lipon interface. As the Li is confined to this 2D plane, it confirms the ability of Lipon to suppress Li penetration. It also demonstrates that the homogeneous interface-free morphology of Lipon is key to its performance.
Climate Change as a Challenge to the Legitimacy of Advanced Capitalist Democracies

Because the capitalist system is based on overproduction, over advertising, and overselling of products, the amount of energy needed to produce and fuel the high-tech products has polluted the air and the water and the soil. However, those nations, like the USA and China, which have coal, oil, and natural gas, are finding it difficult to convert to alternative, nonpolluting energy sources, such as solar and wind and tidal power. We need to cut back our mass production economies but people want the high tech toys, such as cars, TVs, computers, smart phones, fashions and all the rest. Democracy could lose its legitimacy if the advanced capitalist core cannot convert to nonpolluting energy sources. Germany and Scandinavia are leading the way in this regard, while the USA, under Trump and the Republicans, is setting a negative example. Democracy will remain legitimate only if the younger generation of voters forces energy and climate policies on the older generation. Dictatorships, such as China and Russia are not doing any better than the Western Democracies. There is hope: solar, wind, and waterpower are being rapidly developed and improved. Finally, the high-tech toys do not bring us happiness – even though we can't live without them – and, they could bring us to the cusp of extinction as a species.
The Puzzling Divergence of the Lender of Last Resort Regimes in the US and UK

Central bank lender of last resort (LOLR) regimes are the last line of defence before governments are forced to resort to taxpayer-funded bailouts of the financial system. Yet despite this important role, along with a rich theoretical literature examining the function and design of LOLR regimes, there has been remarkably little comparative research examining the design of these regimes across jurisdictions. This paper seeks to close this gap by tracing the historical development of the LOLR regimes in two jurisdictions at the heart of the global financial system: the US and UK. This historical record reveals an important and intriguing puzzle. Despite deeply-rooted similarities in their legal, political, and economic systems, the LOLR regimes in the US and UK have evolved at remarkably different speeds and, increasingly, in different directions. Even more remarkably, cutting against the global trend toward greater regulatory harmonization, this divergence has actually accelerated in the decade following the global financial crisis. Having traced the historical development of the LOLR regimes in the US and UK, this paper seeks to explain this puzzling divergence. Three potential explanations stand out. First, while debates about the function and design of LOLR regimes almost universally revolve around the writings of 19th century journalist Walter Bagehot, the subsequent 150 years have witnessed the emergence of two distinct schools of thought on financial crisis management. While US policymakers have been heavily influenced by the highly theoretical ‘monetarist’ school, their counterparts in the UK have been influenced by the more pragmatic ‘financial stability’ school. Second, differences in the political culture of the US and UK, along with the domestic political economy of financial regulation, have put very different pressures on policymakers responsible for the design and use of LOLR regimes. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the US and UK have vastly different historical experiences with financial crisis management. Most importantly, while the frequent crises of the 19th century left the Bank of England deeply skeptical of strict legal constraints on LOLR regimes, US policymakers have embraced precisely these type of constraints in response to the financial crisis. This last explanation has potentially enormous implications for US policy: suggesting that its new LOLR regime will buckle — and potentially break — under the strains of the next crisis.
The Potential Impact of the New York State Smokers' Quitline on Population-Level Smoking Rates in New York.

Receiving smoking cessation services from telephone quitlines significantly increases quit success compared with no intervention or other quitting methods. To affect population-level smoking, quitlines must provide a sufficient proportion of smokers with effective interventions. Nationally, quitlines reach around 1% of adult smokers annually. From 2011 through 2016, the average annual reach of the New York State Smokers’ Quitline (NYSSQL) was 2.9%. We used data on the reach and cessation outcomes of NYSSQL to estimate its current impact on population-level smoking prevalence and to estimate how much reach would have to increase to achieve population-level smoking prevalence reductions. We estimate NYSSQL is associated with a 0.02 to 0.04 percentage point reduction in smoking prevalence in New York annually. If NYSSQL achieved the recommended annual reach of 8% (CDC Best Practices) and 16% (NAQC), state-level prevalence would decrease by an estimated 0.07–0.12 and 0.13–0.24 percentage points per year, respectively. To achieve those recommended levels of reach, NYSSQL would need to provide services to approximately 3.5 to 6.9 times more smokers annually. Given their reach, quitlines are limited in their ability to affect population-level smoking. Increasing quitline reach may not be feasible and would likely be cost-prohibitive. It may be necessary to re-think the role of quitlines in tobacco control efforts. In New York, the quitline is being integrated into larger efforts to promote cessation through health systems change.
Refactoring a statistical package for demanding memory loads: Adapting R for high performance telemetry data analytics

An R library application employing distinct resampling and multithreaded overlap routines demanded memory beyond the limits of a desktop workstation. Initial efforts revealed that the necessary memory allocations for the dataset output from the resampling exceeded that available on a high memory node, making code refactoring necessary. Subsequent in-depth analysis of the employed package revealed that by combining and multithreading bootstrap sampling and overlap calculations, the memory footprint was reduced to a manageable size. However, the computation time was substantially increased. Further development, decomposing the resampling step into two routines, minimized the impact of a rate-limiting step, restoring shorter runtimes while maintaining the smaller memory footprint.
Wormian bones: thinking beyond osteogenesis imperfecta.

A term infant was noted to have scalp swelling and widened fontanelles. A skull X-ray on day 14 revealed multiple wormian bones (MWB), which was attributed to vitamin D deficiency and managed with cholecalciferol. He re-presented at 4 months with seizures, developmental delay, sparse hair, white sclera and failure to thrive. Chest X-rays revealed healing right posterolateral 5th–7th rib fractures and subtle expansion of the anterior ribs (figure 1). He had a …
Role Assignment for Spatially-Correlated Data Aggregation Using Multi-Sink Internet of Underwater Things

In this paper, we consider a multi-sink underwater data aggregation network, in which a set of Internet-of-Underwater-Things devices survey an underwater area of interest and upload their data to a set of data gathering stations. A device-role assignment framework is provided, which captures the network topology and allows multi-hop data aggregation. In this framework, an optimization problem is formulated with the objective of maximizing the uncorrelated data at the gathering stations with minimal energy consumption. The optimization problem is constrained over binary coupled role assignment, inter-device, and device-station association decision variables. An ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is developed to tackle the complexity of the optimization problem and find optimized solutions. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed ACO algorithm provides performance close to the optimal solution, which is obtained through exhaustive search. Results also show that the proposed framework aggregates more uncorrelated data and preserves more energy compared to a baseline approach, where the devices transmit raw data to the stations directly.
A micromachined force sensing apparatus and method for human engineered cardiac tissue and induced pluripotent stem cell characterization.

Abstract Induced pluripotent stem cell derived-cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) have great potential for cell therapy, drug assessment, and for understanding the pathophysiology and genetic underpinnings of cardiac diseases. Contraction forces are one of the most important characteristics of cardiac function and are predictors of healthy and diseased states. Cantilever techniques, such as atomic force microscopy, measure the vertical force of a single cell, while systems designed to more closely resemble the physical heart function, such as engineered cardiac tissue held by end-posts, measure the axial force. One important question is how do these two force measurements correlate? By establishing a correlation of the axial and vertical force, we will be one step closer in being able to use single cell iPSC-CMs as models. A novel micromachined sensor for measuring force contractions of engineered tissue has been developed. Using this novel sensor, a correlation between axial and vertical forces is experimentally established. This finding supports the use of vertical force measurements as an alternative to tissue axial force measurements.
Refining finite-time Lyapunov exponent ridges and the challenges of classifying them

While more rigorous and sophisticated methods for identifying Lagrangian based coherent structures exist, the finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) field remains a straightforward and popular method for gaining some insight into transport by complex, time-dependent two-dimensional flows. In light of its enduring appeal, and in support of good practice, we begin by investigating the effects of discretization and noise on two numerical approaches for calculating the FTLE field. A practical method to extract and refine FTLE ridges in two-dimensional flows, which builds on previous methods, is then presented. Seeking to better ascertain the role of a FTLE ridge in flow transport, we adapt an existing classification scheme and provide a thorough treatment of the challenges of classifying the types of deformation represented by a FTLE ridge. As a practical demonstration, the methods are applied to an ocean surface velocity field data set generated by a numerical model.
Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire by Robert Perkinson

In Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, Robert Perkinson details the unique history of the Texas penal system. Perkinson introduces the topic by reviewing present-day incarceration sta...
High performance K- and Q-band quasi-Yagi linear arrays

Both K-band (20 GHz) and Q-band (44 GHz) passive linear arrays using quasi-Yagi antenna elements are presented. No scan-blindness is observed when the beam is steered 55 degrees from broadside for an inter-element spacing of 0.4/spl lambda/ at X-band. Broad bandwidth of 50% is observed at X-band while both K and Q-band arrays demonstrate over 30% bandwidth (VSWR<2). Measured radiation patterns in four-element linear arrays show well-defined endfire main beams with first sidelobe levels better than -12 dB, cross polarization levels better than -15 dB, and array gains of 8-10 dB across the entire operating band.
Using Animal Models of Celiac Disease to Understand the Role of MHC II

There are now numerous animal models for components of celiac disease (CD), some of which are spontaneous and some of which are induced. There are also transgenic animal models that allow for the analysis of specific genes in the pathogenesis of celiac disease. As genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated, the Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II (MHC II) molecules DQ2 and DQ8 are associated with the greatest risk, and mouse models in which these genes are expressed have revealed a great deal in their role toward the development of CD. Spontaneous animal models of CD have also provided a wealth of information on how the innate immune response to gluten can contribute to the T-cell response, eventually resulting in a gluten-dependent enteropathy. Although currently there are no published animal models in which a gluten-dependent enteropathy characterized by villous atrophy in the setting of specific MHC II alleles develops, great progress has been made in understanding that a strong CD4+ T-cell response to gluten and the development of enteropathy are uniquely intertwined in the human situation that we know as CD. Many more publications are expected to come out in the future that help us to better understand this unique phenomenon of CD.
Effect of bovine parvovirus replication on DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis in S phase cells.

Abstract The kinetics of replication of bovine parvovirus (BPV) and the effect of viral replication on cellular macromolecular synthesis were examined in hydroxyurea (HU)-synchronized fetal bovine spleen cells. Immediately after release of cells from HU block, 80–85% of the cells began to synthesize DNA. The production of infectious progeny BPV proceeded at a faster rate in synchronized cells infected at the beginning of S phase than in asynchronous cultures. In synchronized cells, titers of infectious virus increased at 8 hr p.i. and the maximum titer was achieved by 20 hr. BPV DNA synthesis preceded the production of progeny virus by 2 hr. Although the rates of RNA and protein synthesis in infected cells were severely reduced after 8 hr p.i., BPV replication did not affect the rate of progression of cells through S phase.