cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Predictive routing to enhance QoS for stream-based flows sharing excess bandwidth

We propose a new routing algorithm based on online estimation of the link load dynamics and prior information on flow holding times. The motivation for this proposal lies in supporting traffic flows such as VBR or associated with rate adaptive applications. Such traffic requires a minimal guaranteed bandwidth, but can see improved performance when sharing excess bandwidth not used to meet guarantees. The key idea underlying our approach is to route traffic flows so that they see minimal expected flow-perceived loads during their sojourn in the network. To this end we establish a routing framework where links estimate and advertise the parameters associated with their load dynamics in addition to their current load. New flows are routed based on this information and prior knowledge of their holding times so as to minimize the expected flow-perceived load. Simulations of this routing scheme in a (weighted) max-min bandwidth sharing framework show gains of 20-50% in the average flow bandwidth share over baseline routing schemes.
Therapy for Pulmonary Vascular Disease: Past, Present, and Future

Although pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) had been comprehensively described both clinically and pathologically by the early 1970s, there were no effective treatments for this condition until 10 years ago. Until then, the approach to treatment was quite simplistic, based on the observation in the early 1950s by Paul Wood that some patients with PAH exhibited a vasodilator response to infused acetylcholine, prompting him to postulate the presence of a “vasoconstrictor factor” in pulmonary hypertension.1 Vasodilators used to treat systemic hypertension were then administered to patients with PAH in the hopes of reversing the vasoconstrictive component and reducing pulmonary artery pressure. Unfortunately, this approach met with very limited success, and PAH remained a devastating condition with a life span of only several years. A greater understanding of the pathogenesis of PAH at the cellular and molecular level was required before treatments could be developed that specifically targeted these pathogenic processes. A fresh and detailed look at the pathology of pulmonary vessels in PAH provided tremendous insight into the processes of injury and repair, demonstrating that extensive vascular remodeling, characterized by growth and proliferation of all the layers of the vessel wall, are characteristic features of PAH.2 The focus shifted, then, from thinking of PAH as a vasoconstrictive disease to an angioproliferative process, with efforts then directed at identifying the mechanisms responsible for this proliferative vascular response (Figure 1-1).
Defining multiple, distinct, and shared spatiotemporal patterns of DNA replication and endoreduplication from 3D image analysis of developing maize (Zea mays L.) root tip nuclei.

Spatiotemporal patterns of DNA replication have been described for yeast and many types of cultured animal cells, frequently after cell cycle arrest to aid in synchronization. However, patterns of DNA replication in nuclei from plants or naturally developing organs remain largely uncharacterized. Here we report findings from 3D quantitative analysis of DNA replication and endoreduplication in nuclei from pulse-labeled developing maize root tips. In both early and middle S phase nuclei, flow-sorted on the basis of DNA content, replicative labeling was widely distributed across euchromatic regions of the nucleoplasm. We did not observe the perinuclear or perinucleolar replicative labeling patterns characteristic of middle S phase in mammals. Instead, the early versus middle S phase patterns in maize could be distinguished cytologically by correlating two quantitative, continuous variables, replicative labeling and DAPI staining. Early S nuclei exhibited widely distributed euchromatic labeling preferentially localized to regions with weak DAPI signals. Middle S nuclei also exhibited widely distributed euchromatic labeling, but the label was preferentially localized to regions with strong DAPI signals. Highly condensed heterochromatin, including knobs, replicated during late S phase as previously reported. Similar spatiotemporal replication patterns were observed for both mitotic and endocycling maize nuclei. These results revealed that maize euchromatin exists as an intermingled mixture of two components distinguished by their condensation state and replication timing. These different patterns might reflect a previously described genome organization pattern, with “gene islands” mostly replicating during early S phase followed by most of the intergenic repetitive regions replicating during middle S phase. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11103-015-0364-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
A unified theory of full-order and low-order observers based on singular system theory

The standard construction of the minimal-order state observer for a linear time-invariant plant is shown to be a degenerate form of the ordinary full-order observer. The naive state estimation technique of successively differentiating the plant output is also shown to be a limiting case of the same full-order structure. Various results concerning the set of all degenerate forms of the full-order observer are presented. In particular, conditions are established under which shifting observer eigenvalues far to the left in the complex plane implies proximity to a successively differentiating system. In addition, it is shown that such a scheme can never yield satisfactory estimation. Singular perturbation and singular system theory are used throughout the analysis. >
Coronary vascular dysfunction in premenopausal women with diabetes mellitus.

Abstract Background Diabetes mellitus abolishes the sex differential in coronary artery disease morbidity and mortality in premenopausal women. This finding is independent of other diabetes-associated risk factors, suggesting that other mechanisms such as impaired coronary vascular function may contribute to the increased cardiovascular risk in women with diabetes. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of diabetes on coronary vascular function in premenopausal women. Methods We studied 13 premenopausal women with diabetes (aged 41 ± 10 years) who were free of overt cardiovascular complications, and 21 control women (12 age-matched and 9 postmenopausal [aged 56 ± 8 years]). We used [ 13 N]-ammonia as the flow tracer and positron emission testing to measure myocardial blood flow (MBF) at rest, during maximal hyperemia, and in response to cold pressor testing. Results Baseline MBF was lower in the postmenopausal controls, reflecting the differences in cardiac work and oxygen demand as assessed by the rate-pressure product. However, baseline MBFs were similar in the 3 groups after normalization for differences in the rate-pressure product. During hyperemia, MBF increased and coronary vascular resistance decreased significantly in the 3 groups. However, the increase (from baseline) in MBF in the women with diabetes (164% ± 58%) was less than in the premenopausal controls (258% ± 81%, P =.021), but not significantly different from the postmenopausal control women (204% ± 104%, P =.51). Likewise, the increase in MBF in response to cold pressor testing in the women with diabetes (24% ± 19%) was significantly lower than in the premenopausal controls (60% ± 39%, P =.013), but similar to that in postmenopausal control women (27% ± 15%, P =.97). These differences persisted after adjusting for age and diabetes-associated metabolic abnormalities. Conclusions These results demonstrate reduced coronary vasodilator function and impaired response of resistance vessels to increased sympathetic stimulation in premenopausal women with diabetes, similar to those observed in healthy postmenopausal women in whom the sex differential in coronary artery disease morbidity and mortality is no longer present. (Am Heart J 2002;144:711-8.)
First Report of Spot Blotch and Common Root Rot Caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana on Switchgrass in Tennessee.

Light-to-dark brown, irregular-shaped leaf spots, chlorosis, necrotic roots, and severe stunting were observed on ‘Alamo’ switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) grown on the campus of the University of Tennessee in December 2007. Symptomatic leaf and root samples were surface sterilized, air dried on sterile filter paper, and plated on 2% water agar amended with 10 mg/liter of rifampicin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) and 10 μl/liter of 2,4 EC Danitol miticide (Valent Chemical, Walnut Creek, CA). Plates were incubated at 25°C in darkness for 4 days. A sporulating, dematiaceous mitosporic fungus was noted and transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA). Conidia were ovate, oblong, mostly straight, and olive to brown with three to nine septa. Conidial dimensions were 12.5 × 27.5 (17.5) to 20 × 77.5 (57) μm. Conidia were produced on single, light brown, multiseptate conidiophores that were polytretic, geniculate, and sympodial. Morphological features were as described for Bipolaris sorokiniana (Sacc.) Shoemaker (te...
The Effect of Musical Background on Judgments of Dysphonia

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of musical background on both pitch discrimination abilities and the reliability of judging voice quality in dysphonic speakers, and to determine the relationship between pitch discrimination abilities and the reliability of voice quality judgments. Twenty musicians and 20 nonmusicians performed pitch discrimination tests. They also made judgments of dysphonic vowels and speech samples for breathiness and roughness using 100-mm visual analog scales. Musicians demonstrated significantly smaller pitch discrimination thresholds than nonmusicians. For measures of intrarater agreement, musicians were significantly more consistent than nonmusicians for judgments of breathiness in both vowels and speech produced by dysphonic speakers. Musicians also showed significantly better interrater agreement for judgments of breathiness in vowels. Weak to moderate relationships were found between pitch discrimination abilities and agreement values for voice quality judgments. Results suggest that musical background may affect a listener's reliability in making judgments of dysphonia, particularly for judgments of breathiness. However, simple pitch discrimination skills of pure tones do not explain these differences. More complex stimuli should be used in future investigations to help determine the nature of underlying differences.
The Potential Regional Impact of Contact Precaution Use in Nursing Homes to Control Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Objective. Implementation of contact precautions in nursing homes to prevent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) transmission could cost time and effort and may have wide-ranging effects throughout multiple health facilities. Computational modeling could forecast the potential effects and guide policy making.Design. Our multihospital computational agent-based model, Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst (RHEA).Setting. All hospitals and nursing homes in Orange County, California.Methods. Our simulation model compared the following 3 contact precaution strategies: (1) no contact precautions applied to any nursing home residents, (2) contact precautions applied to those with clinically apparent MRSA infections, and (3) contact precautions applied to all known MRSA carriers as determined by MRSA screening performed by hospitals.Results. Our model demonstrated that contact precautions for patients with clinically apparent MRSA infections in nursing homes resulted in a median 0.4% (range, 0%–1.6...
Ultraviolet emission from galaxies.

UV radiation from galaxies, radio sources, quasi- stellar objects and Seyfert galaxies, examining Lyman alpha fluxes
Escherichia coli Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Is an Important Component of CXCL10-Mediated Antimicrobial Activity

Chemokines are best recognized for their role within the innate immune system as chemotactic cytokines, signaling and recruiting host immune cells to sites of infection. Certain chemokines, such as CXCL10, have been found to play an additional role in innate immunity, mediating CXCR3-independent killing of a diverse array of pathogenic microorganisms. While this is still not clearly understood, elucidating the mechanisms underlying chemokine-mediated antimicrobial activity may facilitate the development of novel therapeutic strategies effective against antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. Here, we show that CXCL10 exerts antibacterial effects on clinical and laboratory strains of Escherichia coli and report that disruption of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc), which converts pyruvate to acetyl coenzyme A, enables E. coli to resist these antimicrobial effects. Through generation and screening of a transposon mutant library, we identified two mutants with increased resistance to CXCL10, both with unique disruptions of the gene encoding the E1 subunit of PDHc, aceE. Resistance to CXCL10 also occurred following deletion of either aceF or lpdA, genes that encode the remaining two subunits of PDHc. Although PDHc resides within the bacterial cytosol, electron microscopy revealed localization of immunogold-labeled CXCL10 to the bacterial cell surface in both the E. coli parent and aceE deletion mutant strains. Taken together, our findings suggest that while CXCL10 interacts with an as-yet-unidentified component on the cell surface, PDHc is an important mediator of killing by CXCL10. To our knowledge, this is the first description of PDHc as a key bacterial component involved in the antibacterial effect of a chemokine.
Report on Stanford Superconductive Monopole Detectors

Since January, 1983 we have been operating a three loop superconducting detector with a signal to noise ratio of 100 for the direct detection of Dirac magnetic charges.1 Its sensing area averaged over solid angle is nearly 500 cm2 for double coincidence events. To date, the data contain no candidate events and set an upper flux limit of 2 × 10−11 cm−2 s−1 sr−1 at 90% C.L., 70 times lower than that suggested by the single candidate event2 seen on the prototype single loop detector. If supermassive magnetic monopoles exist they are rare and the need for cost-efficient larger area superconductive detectors is evident if we are to push forward a definitive search in the cosmic rays. Superconducting loop detectors can be constructed with 1 to 10 m2 planar areas coupled to a single SQUID while achieving a signal to noise ratio of 10 for the detection of a Dirac magnetic charge. A 100 m2 sensing area array of such detectors, which would reach the Parker flux bound in one year of operation, can be built at a cost comparable to that of typical high energy experiments. It remains quite possible that a monopole particle flux significantly higher than the Parker bound exists within our galaxy. In this paper the most recent results from low noise operation of the three loop detector are presented. Also discussed are our plans to build a larger fixed loop detector with a sensing area of 1.5 m2. It is designed as a prototype for a future yet larger 100 m2 array.
Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Social Progress: The Case Against Incentive Based Arguments

After a brief introduction to the subject matter of intellectual property, an internal and external critique of Anglo-American systems of intellectual property protection will be offered.9 Internally, it will be argued that incentive-based social progress justifications for intellectual property fail – alas, if we are to conduct a cost benefit analysis it appears that a different model or a different set of rights would be better than our current system.10 Social progress incentive-based arguments do not justify current copyright, patent, and trade secret models of intellectual property protection. Moreover, even if these arguments could be modified, they would seem to require allowances for multiple patents for the “same” intangible work, not patent monopolies. Externally, it will be argued that consequentialism – more specifically, rule-utilitarianism – is beset with numerous seemingly insurmountable difficulties and cannot provide an adequate foundation for intellectual property. If the internal or external arguments succeed, then we will have to either find a different justification or abandon systems of intellectual property protection altogether.
Wolbachia: Why These Bacteria Are Important to Genome Research

Intracellular bacteria of the genus Wolbachia were first discovered in mosquitoes in the 1920s. Their superficial similarity to pathogenic rickettsia initially raised interest in them as potential human pathogens. However, injection experiments with mice showed that they were non-pathogenic, and they were subsequently classified as symbionts of insects. Until the 1970s, Wolbachia was considered to infect a limited number of species of mosquitoes. It is now clear that Wolbachia is an extremely common intracellular agent of invertebrates, infecting nearly all the major groups of arthropods and other terrestrial invertebrates. Its wide host range and abundance can be attributed partly to the unusual phenotypes it exerts on the host it infects. These include the induction of parthenogenesis (the production of female offspring from unmated mothers) in certain insects, the feminization of genetic male crustaceans to functional phenotypic females, and the failure of fertilization in hosts when males and females have a different infection status (cytoplasmic incompatibility). All of these phenotypes favor maternal transmission of the intracellular Wolbachia. In the last year, Wolbachia has also been shown to be a widespread symbiont of filarial nematodes. It appears that Wolbachia is needed by the adult worm for normal fertility, indicating that Wolbachia is behaving like a classic mutualist in this case. This discovery exemplifies that the extent of the host range of Wolbachia and its associated phenotypes is still far from fully understood.
Comparative Study of Hypertensmase and Proteinase Activity of Blood Plasma

SummaryThis study supports the hypothesis that the hypertensinase activity of plasma at a pH of 7.3 to 7.8 and at a temperature of 37° is closely related to its exopeptidase activity, its nature being that of aminopeptidase.
MESH DEFORMATION AND RECONSTRUCTION FOR TIME EVOLVING DOMAINS

Dynamic adaptation of unstructured meshes can be implemented efficiently as a three stage sequence: mesh movement followed by mesh coarsening and then mesh enrichment. A valid mesh is maintained at all times which obviates the need to remesh pockets or holes, a feature typical of most alternative approaches to this problem. The robustness of this method depends heavily on the ability to prevent any degradation in mesh quality during each adaptation cycle. This in turn is strongly influenced by the ability to (i) identify cells that are badly distorted after the mesh movement phase, and (ii) the ability to remove these bad quality cells by a combination of mesh coarsening and mesh smoothing. We describe improved techniques to handle both topics which provide a more robust handling of dynamic adaptation for unstructured meshes on 3D domains.
Analysis on Occupational Health Detection and Health Care of Workers in Daxing District of Beijing City

[Objective]To understand occupational hazards exposure of workers and the current status of occupational hazards in employing units.[Methods]Occupational hazards detection results of workplaces in 72 enterprises and the occupational health examination results of 7735 employees from 233 units in 2009 were analyzed. [Results]According to the classification of enterprise nature, the qualified rate of samples from joint venture was lower than that of samples from enterprises of other economic types. Based on the nature of occupational hazards,the qualified rate of samples of physical factors and dust factors were much lower than that of samples of chemical factors. A total of 296 employees were detected hearing loss, the incidence rate was 13.5% (296/2200); 216 employees' leucocyte counts were lower than the normal value, the incidence rate was 7.42% (216/2910); the differences of the above 2 incidence rates were both significant (χ2=50.56, P0.01).[Conclusion] The main occupational hazard of the detected units is noise. The key of occupational health management is strengthening noise control and occupational health care in future. Meanwhile, it is necessary to enhance the inspection of existing occupational hazards in joint venture, and to strengthen the detection of occupational hazards of physical factors and dust.
Fine structure of the electrotonic synapse of the lateral giant axons in a crayfish (Procambarus clarkii).

ABSTRACT The electrotonic synapse of lateral giant axons of the crayfish was studied by conventional thin sectioning. The most prominent membrane specialization observed in this synaptic region is the communicating junction. It is characterized by a close apposition of the two axonal membranes which are separated by a 4–5 nm wide gap. Other characteristics of the junction are an array of particles spaced about 20–22 nm apart and a row of vesicles symmetrically arranged at the cytoplasmic leaflets of each membrane. The communicating junction does not cover the entire surface of the electrotonic synapse. Indeed, we have found other specializations such as: finger-like Schwann cell processes extending between synaptic membranes, saccular invaginations of one synaptic membrane into its axon, and coated vesicles continuous with one of the membranes. In addition, large vesicular pieces of the communicating junctions, with their accompanying vesicles, appeared to extend deeply inside the axoplasm. The morphological appearance of the communicating junction is found to be different from the one reported for mammalian maculae communicans such as liver or heart muscle. This is surprising because, regardless of their morphological differences, both junctions seem to transmit electrotonically.
Sulfuric Acid Caves

Most caves owe their origin to carbonic acid generated in the soil. In contrast, sulfuric acid caves are produced by the oxidation of sulfides beneath the surface. Although sulfuric acid caves are relatively few, they include some large and well-known examples, such as Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico. They also provide evidence for a variety of deep-seated processes that are important to petroleum geology, ore geology, tectonic history, and the nascent field of karst geomicrobiology.
Mechanical stratigraphy and normal faulting

Abstract Mechanical stratigraphy encompasses the mechanical properties, thicknesses, and interface properties of rock units. Although mechanical stratigraphy often relates directly to lithostratigraphy, lithologic description alone does not adequately describe mechanical behavior. Analyses of normal faults with displacements of millimeters to 10's of kilometers in mechanically layered rocks reveal that mechanical stratigraphy influences nucleation, failure mode, fault geometry, displacement gradient, displacement distribution, fault core and damage zone characteristics, and fault zone deformation processes. The relationship between normal faulting and mechanical stratigraphy can be used either to predict structural style using knowledge of mechanical stratigraphy, or conversely to interpret mechanical stratigraphy based on characterization of the structural style. This review paper explores a range of mechanical stratigraphic controls on normal faulting illustrated by natural and modeled examples.
Learning peptide-spectrum alignment models for tandem mass spectrometry

We present a peptide-spectrum alignment strategy that employs a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) for the identification of spectra produced by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Our method is fundamentally generative in that it models peptide fragmentation in MS/MS as a physical process. The model traverses an observed MS/MS spectrum and a peptide-based theoretical spectrum to calculate the best alignment between the two spectra. Unlike all existing state-of-the-art methods for spectrum identification that we are aware of, our method can learn alignment probabilities given a dataset of high-quality peptide-spectrum pairs. The method, moreover, accounts for noise peaks and absent theoretical peaks in the observed spectrum. We demonstrate that our method outperforms, on a majority of datasets, several widely used, state-of-the-art database search tools for spectrum identification. Furthermore, the proposed approach provides an extensible framework for MS/MS analysis and provides useful information that is not produced by other methods, thanks to its generative structure.
Abstract P183: Lipid Control in Veterans Following Percutaneous Intervention

Background: Management of lipids is vital in patients with underlying coronary artery disease (CAD). According to the American College of Cardiology (ACC) guidelines, all patients with CAD should have low density lipoproteins (LDL) goals to be less than 100 mg/dl with the therapeutic option of treatment to less than 70 mg/dl. This can be achieved using multiple lipid lowering agents, however statin use is encouraged in CAD patients due to its multiple beneficial effects. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study focusing on lipid management and statin use in 857 veterans undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between September 2004 and December 2009 at the Jesse Brown Veterans Hospital in Chicago, IL. Values were collected both pre-intervention as well as at six month follow up. Results: Both pre and post PCI, focus was maintained on the total cholesterol as well as the LDL levels. The mean total cholesterol prior to intervention was 166mg/dl and decreased to150mg/dl at six month follow up. The LDL mean pre-PCI was 98mg/dl and at six months the mean LDL decreased to 86mg/dl. With regards to ACC guidelines, the percent at goal for LDL less than 100mg/dl increased from 59% pre-PCI to 74% post-PCI Furthermore, treatment to less than 70mg/dl increased from 22 to 32% at six months. Lastly, the use of statins increased from 72 to 89%. Conclusions: There were in improvements in both total cholesterol and LDL values at six months post-PCI. There were also improvements in the percentage of patients who met the ACC recommended goal of LDL cholesterol less than 100mg/dl and the suggested goal of 70mg/dl. At six months, there was also an increase in usage of statin therapy.
False Memories, Psychology of

False memories are mental experiences mistakenly taken to be veridical representations of past events. The source-monitoring framework is a theoretical approach for understanding and investigating true and false memories. According to this view, mental experiences are attributed to memory (or not) based on such factors as the qualitative characteristics of the mental experience (e.g., perceptual details), and whether it is embedded in supporting memories, knowledge, and beliefs. Memory attributions are made using flexible criteria, and are influenced by goals, motives, and the social context. Thus, vivid false information or even weak false information that fits with activated schemas may be mistaken for true information. Such factors may account for a wide range of memory distortions including unconscious plagiarism, suggestion effects in eyewitness memory, children and adults' erroneous accounts of abuse (including recovery of repressed memories), reports of alien abductions and ‘memories’ from infancy. For example, studies demonstrate that repeated ques- tioning about a fictitious event can lead people to create elaborate descriptions of the event; encouraging individuals to create images or encouraging them to use lax criteria increases the probability of false memories. Research findings also point to the importance of prefrontal cortex for encoding, retrieval, and evaluation of memories.
Double-Bind on the Bench: Citizen Perceptions of Judge Gender and the Court

Scholars of gender and politics have long discussed the various manifestations of the “double-bind” for women who seek political leadership. Using a survey experiment with a nationally representative sample, this article examines whether this double-bind exists for female judges. The study reveals that while gender stereotypes are not uniformly applied to female judges, women on the bench are assessed differently in terms of their empathy and knowledge under certain circumstances. The article then discusses the potential implications of these gendered assessments for perceptions of the court, its actions, and women who aspire to judicial roles.
Sales of Property to Comply with Conflict-of-Interest Requirements: Section 1043 Assumes New Significance

After the recent presidential election, Section 1043 of the Internal Revenue Code has received both public visibility and substantial criticism. The section permits certain public officials to defer gain on the sale of assets required to satisfy conflict-of-interest rules, a benefit of sorts characterized by critics as an unwarranted giveaway to the wealthy. This article examines the particulars of Section 1043 and generally defends the way it works. The article also considers whether Section 1043 can be availed of by a President of the United States who divests appreciated assets because of conflict-of-interest concerns, concluding (perhaps surprisingly) that the statutory language doesn’t seem to apply to the president.
Milton’s Sinister God: Poetic Justice and Chiaroscuro in Paradise Lost

This chapter argues that John Milton’s Paradise Lost gradually transfers Satan’s appealing sinister aesthetics to God, in order to offer an affective solution to the theological problem of evil. Milton develops the poetic power of evil while revealing the ultimately divine origin of that power, thus creating a poetic universe that encourages approval of and pleasure in God’s punishments, not merely reluctant acceptance of them. In this way, the epic represents God himself as a “sinister allegorist”: one who afflicts his creations with punishments that are horrible representations of their own evil for artistic purposes, namely to delight and instruct heavenly and human audiences. Milton depicts God’s justice as a poetic justice, and the aesthetic principles behind that poetry are sinister.
Educator "What-Ifs": The Feasibility of Choice Making in the Classroom.

Educators who work with students with emotional and behavioral disorders may seek instructional strategies that are effective yet practical in the classroom. These strategies need a research base t...
Behavioral compensation before and after eating at the Minnesota State Fair

People regulate their eating behavior in many ways. They may respond to overeating by compensating with healthy eating behavior or increased exercise (i.e., a sensible tradeoff), or by continuing to eat poorly (i.e., disinhibition). Conversely, people may respond to a healthy eating event by subsequently eating poorly (i.e., self-licensing) or by continuing to eat healthily (i.e., promotion spillover). We propose that people may also change their behaviors in anticipation of an unhealthy eating event, a phenomenon that we will refer to as pre-compensation. Using a survey of 430 attendees of the Minnesota State Fair over two years, we explored whether, when, and how people compensated before and after this tempting eating event. We found evidence that people use both pre-compensatory and post-compensatory strategies, with a preference for changing their eating (rather than exercise) behavior. There was no evidence that people who pre-compensated were more likely to self-license by indulging in a greater number of foods or calories at the fair than those who did not. Finally, people who pre-compensated were more likely to also post-compensate. These results suggest that changing eating or exercise behavior before exposure to a situation with many tempting foods may be a successful strategy for enjoying oneself without excessively overeating.
American Justice 2016: The Political Supreme Court: Caplan, Lincoln Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 188 pp., $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8122-4890-6 Publication Date: September 2016

American Justice 2016 is the third in an annual series on the Supreme Court by the University of Pennsylvania Press in which journalists who cover the court take a first cut at describing thematica...
Ultrasonic analysis modifications for imaging of concrete infrastructure

The backbone of modern infrastructure is concrete, yet modern ultrasonic characterization techniques often fail to be accurate and repeatable. Recent advances in low frequency ultrasonic array hardware have generated a new potential for improved material and structural characterization of concrete. However, the analysis and interpretation associated with the new array based hardware is more difficult than previous ultrasonic concrete applications. In this paper we present three data analysis algorithm modifications and experimentally validate each modification for improvement over the existing commercial algorithms. Validation of each modification occurs in full scale in-service samples. After validation in this paper we present a commercially analyzed inconclusive inspection of a bridge deck, with applying the modified algorithms the results are improved and a conclusion can be safely reached.
User-guided program reasoning using Bayesian inference

Program analyses necessarily make approximations that often lead them to report true alarms interspersed with many false alarms. We propose a new approach to leverage user feedback to guide program analyses towards true alarms and away from false alarms. Our approach associates each alarm with a confidence value by performing Bayesian inference on a probabilistic model derived from the analysis rules. In each iteration, the user inspects the alarm with the highest confidence and labels its ground truth, and the approach recomputes the confidences of the remaining alarms given this feedback. It thereby maximizes the return on the effort by the user in inspecting each alarm. We have implemented our approach in a tool named Bingo for program analyses expressed in Datalog. Experiments with real users and two sophisticated analyses---a static datarace analysis for Java programs and a static taint analysis for Android apps---show significant improvements on a range of metrics, including false alarm rates and number of bugs found.
Fostering an Environment for ESL Student Success in College and University Writing

Student success and retention remain key factors for colleges and universities, with faculty and staff working with students to help them overcome barriers as they complete their programs of study. Although students bring with them different and individual challenges, for those students who are entering colleges with English as a second language, they have an added challenge of learning the cultural, linguistic, and syntactical differences of writing in higher education. One way to help these students is raising faculty awareness of the specific challenges that students face when writing in a second language. This article seeks to increase awareness of these differences and help faculty provide students with a place to discuss the writing differences among their cultures and foster opportunities for students to succeed in their writing assignments—specifically, through the inclusion of pre-writing activities, explicit organizational instructions, specific feedback along with chances for revision, and engagement with students’ past and present experiences in writing.
A real time screening assay for cannabinoid CB1 receptor-mediated signaling.

Abstract The cannabinoid CB1 receptor is expressed throughout the central nervous system where it functions to regulate neurotransmitter release and synaptic plasticity. While the CB1 receptor has been identified as a target for both natural and synthetic cannabinoids, the specific downstream signaling pathways activated by these various ligands have not been fully described. In this study, we developed a real-time membrane potential fluorescent assay for cannabinoids using pituitary AtT20 cells that endogenously express G protein-gated inward rectifier K+ (GIRK) channels and were stably transfected with the CB1 receptor using a recombinant lentivirus. In whole-cell patch clamp experiments application of the cannabinoid agonist WIN 55,212-2 to AtT20 cells expressing the CB1 receptor (AtT20/CB1) activated GIRK currents that were blocked by BaCl2. WIN 55,212-2 activation of the GIRK channels was associated with a time- and concentration-dependent (EC50 = 309 nM) hyperpolarization of the membrane potential in the AtT20/CB1 cells when monitored using a fluorescent membrane potential-sensitive dye. The WIN 55,212-2-induced fluorescent signal was inhibited by pretreatment of the cells with either the GIRK channel blocker tertiapin-Q or the CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716. The cannabinoids displayed a response of WIN 55,212-2 ≈ anandamide (AEA) > CP 55,940 > Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) when maximal concentrations of the four ligands were tested in the assay. Thus, the AtT20/CB1 cell fluorescent assay will provide a straightforward and efficient methodology for examining cannabinoid-stimulated Gi signaling.
COMPUTABLE BOUNDS FOR SOLUTIONS OF INTEGRAL EQUATIONS

Interval integration is used to obtain inclusions of integral operators of the form g(u)(s) = /Tg(s,t,u(s),u(t))dt (1) which can be carried out on a computer. The resulting inclusions, combined with interval iteration, are used to compute guaranteed upper and lower bounds for solutions of integral equations of the form u = g(u) (2) for s ɛ S. It is also possible to establish existence or nonexistence of solutions of integral equations in given regions on the basis of results of the computation. Examples of applications of this technique to linear and nonlinear integral equations and eigenvalue problems for linear operators are given.
Kafka's "Letter to his father" and "The judgment": creativity and conflicts of aggression.

Kafka wrote "Letter to His Father" at the height of his conflict over marrying, which would be taking the parricidal step of equaling or surpassing his father The conflicts of aggression took the form of self-blame and guilt while inflicting upon his father the behavior his father disliked and turning the aggression on himself in his guilt and victimhood. Writing was his escape, and he could not risk it in the unpredictable vicissitudes of marriage. In "The Judgment" Kafka creates a total reversal of the father-son relationship but he cannot maintain it. The guilt prevails and the overthrow of the father is punished by death. Language: en
Systematic Analysis of Ethics of Care

In Chap. 2, a historical analysis of informed consent in Western bioethics was presented with a discussion of the liberal approach to informed consent which emphasizes individual and rights-oriented autonomy. In this Chapter, the discussion now considers a view opposing liberal individualistic rights-oriented autonomy in informed consent. It presents a systematic analysis of the ethics of care as a hermeneutic used to interpret African Traditional Medicine (ATM) and its practices. The chapter also explores the emphasis in the ethics of care movement on relationships that posit a concept of persons as relational beings who are socially interdependent, thereby interpreting patient autonomy in relationship with others. The analysis further considers the emphasis in ethics of care on relational autonomy as a foundation for enlightening the meaning of Relational Autonomy in Informed Consent (RAIC). And in turn ethics of care forms a hermeneutic to interpret ATM in the next chapter. However, to facilitate the analysis of ethics of care, this chapter has been divided into three sections. Section A traces and delineates the origin of ethics of care from the works and activities of feminist movements, some male ethicists, and the alternative feminist moral theories. Section B explores the meaning of ethics of care, identifying care as labor, practice, value, caring relations, and as justice. Section C considers the ethics of care concept of person, or human being, and autonomy in informed consent, noting the essence of both emotion and reason in moral decision-making, the place of rights and of relational autonomy arising from human relatedness, and the interdependent nature of human beings.
Analysis of Host Range in Transformation of Higher Plants by Agrobacterium Tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens transforms a wide variety of dicotyledonous plants by introducing a specific piece of DNA (T-DNA) of a large tumor-inducing plasmid (Ti-plasmid) into plant cells. A wide variety of dicotyledonous plants and some gymnosperms are susceptible to infection. However, the ease of infectability and the efficiency of transformation vary widely within these groups. As a general rule, most of the gymnosperms are infected only with difficulty if at all. The transfer of the T-DNA to plant cells depends upon the activity of a region of the Ti-plasmid termed the virulence (vir) region. We have shown that the efficiency of transfer and the host range properties of Agrobacterium are, in large part, due to the genes in the vir region. In particular, virA, a regulatory molecule which recognizes plant signals, seems to be especially important. In addition, we have identified other regions which seem to be associated with the efficiency of transformation.
Lagrange resolvents constructed from Stark units

Classical Gauss sums are Lagrange resolvents formed from the Gaussian periods lying in a cyclic extension K over ℚ of prime conductor. Elliptic Gauss sums and elliptic resolvents (which are particular instances of Lagrange resolvents) play an important role in the theory of abelian extensions of imaginary quadratic fields. Motivated by the close relationship between the Stark units and Gaussian periods in a cyclic extension K ⊂ ℚ(ζ p ) and the analogies between Stark units over totally real fields and elliptic units over imaginary quadratic fields, we consider for the first time Lagrange resolvents constructed from Stark units over totally real fields and study the differences and similarities they share with classical Gauss sums.
Effects of Hydrostatic Pressure on the Deformation and Fracture of Polymers

Accurate observations under controlled conditions of the effects of increased environmental pressure on the mechanical behavior of polymers are relatively recent. From a critical analysis of these various pressure observations, phenomena that appear to be characteristic of such effects for the major polymer classes are identified, and the validity of hypotheses advanced for particular phenomena in specific polymers, together with their generality, is examined.
Other Procedures for Pediatric Glaucoma Surgery: New Devices and Techniques

In recent years, multiple new devices have been developed in glaucoma surgery that target the angle and can be grouped in the category of minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries (MIGS). These procedures were developed mainly for adult glaucoma surgery, but many have potential application in pediatric glaucoma patients, although there is limited experience in children for most of the MIGS.
Dual-Minimax Probability Machines for One-class Mobile Active Authentication

Active Authentication(AA) systems operating on mobile devices are expected to continuously authenticate the enrolled user based on enrolled sensor observations. Due to unavailability of training samples from negative classes, AA can be viewed as a one-class classification problem. In this work we introduce a Single-class Minimax Probability Machine(1-MPM) based solution called Dual Minimax Probability Machines(DMPM) for AA applications. In contrast to 1-MPM, proposed method has two notable differences. 1) We learn an additional hyper-plane to separate training data from the origin by taking into account maximum data covariance. 2) We consider the possibility of modeling the underline distribution of training data as a collection of sub-distributions. Intersection of negative half spaces defined by the two learned hyper-planes is considered to be the negative space during inference. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism by performing evaluations on three publicly available face based AA datasets.
Korean TV drama viewership on Netflix: Transcultural affection, romance, and identities

ABSTRACTThis article examined the consumption of Korean television drama by US viewers of Netflix. Specifically, it analyzed Korean drama reviews in Netflix and found that these viewers engaged wit...
Effect of Phosphorus on the Phase Stability of a High Refractory Content Powder-Processed Ni‐Base Superalloy

The effect of P on the phase stability of a high refractory content powder-processed Ni-base superalloy was systematically studied with a variation of P addition. The microstructural evolution of nominally identical alloys with three levels of P additions (0.013, 0.026, and 0.041 wt pct) were investigated in the as-solutioned state and after thermal exposures at 800 °C for up to 1000 hours. Additions of P were found to segregate strongly at grain boundaries and depress the incipient melting temperature. The presence of P contributed to the formation of a C14 Laves as resolidification of incipiently melted liquid occurred. P additions also affected the solid-state phase stability of the alloys as aging at 800 °C led to the formation of C36 Laves phase precipitates. An increase in the fraction of C36 Laves phase correlated directly to the increases in the P content of the alloy. The extensive precipitation of C36 Laves phase eventually led to the formation of a basket-weave structure composed of an intertwined mixture of C14 Laves and sigma phase during the long-term thermal exposure at 800 °C. The stabilization of the Laves phase structure due to the minor additions of P was found to be consistent with density functional theory calculations and could be rationalized through structure maps that relate the valence electron concentration and relative size differences.
Paleoenvironmental context for the Late Pleistocene appearance of Didymosphenia in a North American alpine lake

The nuisance species Didymosphenia geminata is thought to have been spread by humans across North and South America and New Zealand. This diatom is of interest for its ability to form thick benthic mats in streams, altering ecosystem properties. Little is known, however, about its historic distribution and the parameters that are associated with its growth in absence of human influence. Although it is considered to be native to Arctic regions, its status at lower latitudes is uncertain. We measured the concentration of D. geminata cells in a sediment core from Beauty Lake, WY, a record that dates back to the Late Pleistocene. From approximately 11,233–8750 years before present (ybp), a Didymosphenia maximum persisted, with peak concentrations of 3774±20 valves/mg dry sediment (9985 ybp). The period corresponded to low flux of Al, Fe, and P within the sediments, supporting the importance of low P in controlling distribution. Furthermore, we demonstrate that D. geminata arrived in Beauty Lake shortly after deglaciation of the watershed. This species arrived without the aid of human introduction, implying an inherent ability for dispersal. We also examined the sediment record of nearby Yellowstone Lake, WY for the presence of D. geminata during the same time interval, but cells were not detected. The Yellowstone caldera is composed of rhyolite, a rock rich in silica (Si) and modest amounts of P. We conclude that both watersheds were exposed to the potential colonization by D. geminata, but just as the North Island of New Zealand has not been able to support this diatom because of P concentrations exceeding a threshold, the Yellowstone watershed is not able to support it either.
Capturing Hearts: The Coverage of Iran's Charm Offensive during the 2015 Nuclear Deal Negotiations in the American and Israeli Press

This paper focuses on the “charm offensive” of the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal negotiations with the United States. Charm offensives are strat...