cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Computer-aided assessment of diagnostic images for epidemiological research

Diagnostic images are often assessed for clinical outcomes using subjective methods, which are limited by the skill of the reviewer. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) algorithms that assist reviewers in their decisions concerning outcomes have been developed to increase sensitivity and specificity in the clinical setting. However, these systems have not been well utilized in research settings to improve the measurement of clinical endpoints. Reductions in bias through their use could have important implications for etiologic research. Using the example of cortical cataract detection, we developed an algorithm for assisting a reviewer in evaluating digital images for the presence and severity of lesions. Available image processing and statistical methods that were easily implementable were used as the basis for the CAD algorithm. The performance of the system was compared to the subjective assessment of five reviewers using 60 simulated images. Cortical cataract severity scores from 0 to 16 were assigned to the images by the reviewers and the CAD system, with each image assessed twice to obtain a measure of variability. Image characteristics that affected reviewer bias were also assessed by systematically varying the appearance of the simulated images. The algorithm yielded severity scores with smaller bias on images where cataract severity was mild to moderate (approximately ≤ 6/16 ths ). On high severity images, the bias of the CAD system exceeded that of the reviewers. The variability of the CAD system was zero on repeated images but ranged from 0.48 to 1.22 for the reviewers. The direction and magnitude of the bias exhibited by the reviewers was a function of the number of cataract opacities, the shape and the contrast of the lesions in the simulated images. CAD systems are feasible to implement with available software and can be valuable when medical images contain exposure or outcome information for etiologic research. Our results indicate that such systems have the potential to decrease bias and discriminate very small changes in disease severity. Simulated images are a tool that can be used to assess performance of a CAD system when a gold standard is not available.
An efficient consistency algorithm for the temporal constraint satisfaction problem

Dechter et al. [5] proposed solving the Temporal Constraint Satisfaction Problem (TCSP) by modeling it as a meta-CSP, which is a finite CSP with a unique global constraint. The size of this global constraint is exponential in the number of time points in the original TCSP, and generalized-are consistency is equivalent to finding the minimal network of the TCSP, which is NP-hard. We introduce ΔAC, an efficient consistency algorithm for filtering the meta-CSP. This algorithm significantly reduces the domains of the variables of the meta-CSP without guaranteeing arc-consistency. We rise ΔAC as a preprocessing step to solving the meta-CSP. We show experimentally that it dramatically reduces the size of a meta-CSP and significantly enhances the performance of search for finding the minimal network of the corresponding TCSP.
Cardiac catheterization: The patients' perspective

Objective: To identify the patients' experience of cardiac catheterization. Design: Descriptive, qualitative, phenomenologic. Setting: Large southeastern teaching hospital with an active cardiac catheterization laboratory and research center. Patients: Ten men, between 44 and 73 years of age, who had undergone their first cardiac catheterization. Results: The participants described feelings of loss of control of physical and personal self; an increased fear of the unknown during the test and especially of outcomes that might affect their future; a focus on time and its relationship to complication; a need not to be alone and not to be isolated after the test; and an awareness of spiritual belief in the good of others, trusting in their competencies. Conclusions: This study suggests the need for more attention to the psychologic aspects of the test, especially to the outcomes, negative as well as positive, and how they may affect the patient.
A fluorescence-based high performance liquid chromatographic method for the characterization of palmitoyl acyl transferase activity

Although protein palmitoylation is essential for targeting many important signaling proteins to the plasma membrane, the mechanism by which palmitoylation occurs is uncharacterized, since the enzyme(s) responsible for this modification remain unidentified. To study palmitoyl acyl transferase (PAT) activity, we developed an in vitro palmitoylation (IVP) assay using a fluorescently labeled substrate peptide, mimicking the N-terminal palmitoylation motif of proteins such as non-receptor Src-related tyrosine kinases. The palmitoylated and non-palmitoylated forms of the peptide were resolved by reverse-phase HPLC and detected by fluorescence. The method was optimized for PAT activity using lysates from the MCF-7 and Hep-G2 human tumor cell lines. The PAT activity was inhibited by boiling, reducing the incubation temperature, or adding 10 microM 2-bromopalmitate, a known palmitoylation inhibitor. This IVP assay provides the first method that is suitable to study all facets of the palmitoylation reaction, including peptide palmitoylation by PAT(s), depalmitoylation by thioesterases, and evaluation of potential palmitoylation inhibitors.
Scalable implicit finite element solver for massively parallel processing with demonstration to 160K cores

Implicit methods for partial differential equations using unstructured meshes allow for an efficient solution strategy for many real-world problems (e.g., simulation-based virtual surgical planning). Scalable solvers employing these methods not only enable solution of extremely-large practical problems but also lead to dramatic compression in time-to-solution. We present a parallelization paradigm and associated procedures that enable our implicit, unstructured flow-solver to achieve strong scalability.We consider fluid-flow examples in two application areas to show the effectiveness of our procedures that yield near-perfect strong-scaling on various (including near-petascale) systems. The first area includes a double-throat nozzle (DTN) whereas the second considers a patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) model. We present excellent strong-scaling on three cases ranging from relatively small to large; a DTN model with O(106) elements up to 8,192 cores (9 core-doublings), an AAA model with O(108) elements up to 32,768 cores (6 core-doublings) and O(109) elements up to 163,840 cores.
Does Distance Still Matter? Geographic Proximity and New Product Development:

Abstract Many firms rely on external organizations to acquire knowledge that is useful for developing creative new products and reducing the time needed to bring these products to market. Cluster theory suggests that this knowledge is often obtained from organizations located in close geographic proximity. Specifically, proximity is assumed to foster heightened face-to-face communication, strengthened relational ties, increased knowledge acquisition, and enhanced new product outcomes. The authors identify the limitations of these assumptions and offer an enriched model of the influence of geographic proximity on new product development, which they test using both a cross-sectional survey of 155 firms in the U.S. optics industry and a longitudinal follow-up survey of 73 of these firms. They find that firms located in close proximity engage in increased face-to-face communication, but this communication has little effect on the acquisition of the types of knowledge that lead to enhanced new product outcomes...
Response to Franchino

Fabio Franchino provides an insightful and critical examination of the findings of my book Veto Power, as well as the volume by Finke et al., Reforming the European Union. Here I respond to some of the issues raised by Franchino. First, I discuss Franchino's replication of my main empirical results, and then I discuss my treatment of intergovernmentalism.
From Many, One State Representation and the Construction of an American Identity

I present a formal model of the effect of political representation on the formation of group identities using the drafting of the United States Constitution as a case study. I first show the presence of `factions', or groups with competing interests, to be beneficial in forging a national identity. Next, I use this model to argue that the Great Compromise succeeded as more than a political maneuver to ensure ratification of the Constitution; it created a political environment in which an American national identity could emerge. I find that representation schemes that ignore group distinctions and use the individual as the basic unit of political representation may induce individuals to embrace a group-based notion of identity. Conversely, acknowledging group distinctions by using the group as a unit of political representation may induce individuals to embrace a more universalistic conception of identity, and thus may make group distinctions less salient.
A DYNAMIC EMPTY EQUIPMENT AND CREW ALLOCATION MODEL FOR LONG-HAUL NETWORKS

This research develops a realistic and efficient operational model to optimize empty equipment and crew movements in long-haul trucking networks with consolidation, where returning drivers home within a reasonable amount of time is an important issue. The problem can be stated as follows. On a network of consolidation centers, demand is expressed as a set of trailer-loads that need to be moved between each pair of consolidation centers in each time period and the objective is to optimize trailer, tractor and driver movements while ensuring that drivers return home within a pre-determined period of time. In this paper, a dynamic integer programming model is developed and an efficient approximate solution method is proposed, which involves column generation and branch-and-bound. The algorithm switches from a combination of network and primal simplex to dual simplex to overcome the degeneracy problem, which is very common for dynamic networks. This novel approach enables solving large problems with many intervals. We solved problems with up to 30 nodes and 48 periods successfully by using real data provided by a less-than-truckload company, and by generating statistical forecasts based on the real data.
Scalable hashing for shared memory supercomputers

Hashing is a fundamental technique in computer science to allow O(1) insert and lookups of items in an associative array. Here we present several thread coordination and hashing strategies and compare and contrast their performance on large, shared memory symmetric multiprocessor machines, each possessing between a half to a full terabyte of memory. We show how our approach can be used as a key kernel for fundamental paradigms such as dynamic programming and MapReduce. We further show that a set of approaches yields close to linear speedup for both uniform random and more difficult power law distributions. This scalable performance is in spite of the fact that our set of approaches is not completely lock-free. Our experimental results utilize and compare an SGI Altix UV with 4 Xeon processors (32 cores) and a Cray XMT with 128 processors. On the scale of data we addressed, on the order of 5 billion integers, we show that the Altix UV far exceeds the performance of the Cray XMT for power law distributions. However, the Cray XMT exhibits greater scalability.
Assessing the need for evacuation assistance in the 100 year floodplain of South Florida

Abstract The main objective of this study is to assess evacuation assistance need in the 100 year floodplain of South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties) by examining select population characteristics of the floodplain inhabitants. Dasymetric mapping is used to redistribute block group level census data to homogeneous inhabited zones of 30 m × 30 m. Because the 100 year floodplain does not correspond to block group boundaries, this data redistribution increases the resolution and accuracy of the floodplain population and their social characteristics. Data on poverty, age, vehicle ownership and mobile housing units are obtained for each 30 m × 30 m zone in the floodplain and is aggregated to the block group level. It is then used to assess evacuation assistance need (based on volume of need as well as concentration of need) for the floodplain in each block group. Results reveal variations in evacuation need across the floodplain. “Age” is the main driver of evacuation need along the coast. “Poverty” is a factor inland, in both urban and rural areas. “Lack of vehicle ownership” contributes to assistance need in coastal and inland urban areas, but not so much in rural areas. “Mobile housing” is a factor in rural areas. Miami-Dade County has higher volume and concentration of poor households lacking vehicular ownership. Palm Beach and Broward counties, on the other hand, have a more dominant presence of elderly and of mobile housing. These results have important implications for local and regional evacuation planning in the event of a 100 year flood.
Receptors for Low-Molecular-Weight Hormones on Lymphocytes

Receptors for vasoactive amines have been detected by pharmacologic techniques in or on mixed leukocytes from human peripheral blood and mouse spleens (Bourne and Melmon, 1971; Bourne et al., 1971a, 1972). The evidence for the existence of receptors for small amines and lipids was at first scanty, and initially their function was totally unknown. The receptors were defined primarily by dose-response curves to histamine, the β-mimetic catecholamines, and the prostaglandins of the E and A series. Human and murine leukocytes responded to these agonists by elevation of their intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) concentrations (Bourne and Melmon, 1971; Bourne et al., 1971a, 1972). The specificity of the responses was demonstrated by the selective and competitive antagonism of the effects of each agonist. The effect of histamine was specifically and competitively antagonized by four classes of antihistamines. The effects of β-adrenergic catecholamines were blocked by propranolol, a β-adrenergic antagonist, but were not affected by phento-lamine (an α-adrenergic antagonist) or antihistamines. Neither the antihistamines nor the adrenergic antagonists affected the action of prostaglandin (PG) (Bourne and Melmon, 1971; Bourne et al., 1971b, 1974). These data suggest that at least some of the leukocytes of mouse and man possess specific pharmacological receptors for vasoactive amines and PGs. In this chapter, we will not discuss leukocyte receptors for polypeptide hormones, antigens, or steroids, which are covered in other chapters and volumes of this series.
Hydrology of Synthetic Turf Fields: Modeling Approach with Field Data

AbstractThe hydrology of synthetic turf field (STF) drainage systems is poorly understood, which complicates their design. Field data are collected and used to parameterize computer models simulating the hydrology of a synthetic turf sport field. A model was employed to simulate infiltration through the synthetic turf, into the subsoil matrix, and free drainage into the perforated underdrains. The output from that model was routed using another model to simulate flow through the subsurface pipe drainage network to the system outfall. The drainage model was calibrated with actual hydraulic parameters obtained from field substrate material measurements, observed rainfall hyetographs, and measured discharge hydrographs for several storm events. Output from the calibrated STF drainage model closely matched the observed outlet hydrograph. Model output was then applied to investigate whether the classic rational formula was an appropriate tool for predicting peak flows from synthetic turf fields. It was determi...
A Course-long Information Retrieval Project

In this paper, we describe the outline for a course-long information retrieval (IR) project. The project guides the students in constructing a working IR system from the ground up. The first half of the project is structured and closely follows common foundational IR concepts. During this portion of the project, a bare-bones IR system is constructed. For the last half of the project, students (in groups) implement research-driven extensions to the basic system with the additional constraint that their project must integrate with the base system. By the end, the students have worked on a large software project ( 40 classes with thousands of lines of code) in a group setting as well as been introduced to the research process. This project plan has been successfully used in an undergraduate course; resources including starter code, solutions, and an example IR system with project write-ups are available.
Dynamics of the Chesapeake Bay outflow plume: Realistic plume simulation and its seasonal and interannual variability

The three-dimensional unstructured-grid Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) was implemented for Chesapeake Bay and its adjacent coastal ocean to delineate the realistic Chesapeake Bay outflow plume (CBOP) as well as its seasonal and interannual variability. Applying the appropriate horizontal and vertical resolution, the model exhibited relatively high skill in matching the observational water level, temperature, and salinity from 2003 to 2012. The simulated surface plume structure was verified by comparing output to the HF radar current measurements, earlier field observations, and the MODIS and AVHRR satellite imagery. According to the orientation, shape, and size of the CBOP from both model snapshots and satellite images, five types of real-time plume behavior were detected, which implied strong regulation by wind and river discharge. In addition to the episodic plume modulation, horizontal and vertical structure of the CBOP exhibited variations on seasonal and interannual temporal scales. Seasonally, river discharge with a 1 month lag was primarily responsible for the surface plume area variation, while the plume thickness was mainly correlated to wind magnitude. On the interannual scale, river discharge was the predominant source of variability in both surface plume area and depth; however, the southerly winds also influenced the offshore plume depth. In addition, large-scale climate variability, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, could potentially affect the plume signature in the long term by altering wind and upwelling dynamics, underlining the need to understand the impacts of climate change on buoyant plumes, such as the CBOP.
Rarity and reproductive biology: habitat specialists reveal a complex relationship

Understanding how species with historically fragmented populations are able to persist will provide insights into which factors may be important for the maintenance of newly fragmented populations....
Determination of Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride and Loratadine in the compound suslained-release capsules by HPLC

Objective To establish a HPLC method of Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride and Loratadine in the compound sustained-release capsules.Method The speration was performed on a Platinum EPS C_(18)(150 nm×4.6 nm,5 μm).The mobile phase was consisted of methyl alcohol-water-ethylenediamene(830∶170∶0.25,pH 4.5 adjusted with H_3PO_4).The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min and the detective wavelength was 210 nm.Column temperature was room temperature.Results It appears to have a good linearity within the concentration range of 94.6~144.6 μg/ml for PSD(r=0.9995) and 4.2~6.2 μg/ml for Loratadine(r=0.9998) respectively.The average recoveries were 99.8% and 98.5%,and relative standard deviation(RSD) was 0.42% and 1.13%.Conclusion The method was found to be simple,sensitive and accurate.
Tyrrell V. Wal-Mart Admissibility of Employee Statement Regarding Spills in Slip and Fall Cases

This article is an examination of New York’s speaking agent exception to the Hearsay rule. Under this rule, hearsay statements by employees without authority to speak are not admissible even where the employee was authorized to act in the matter to which his statement relates. The examination requires analysis of the Tyrell v. Wal-Mart decision by the New York Court of Appeals. Further, the article provides strategies for attorneys to admit the testimony of employees in slip and fall cases using the Court of Appeals decision.
Nascent RNA sequencing reveals distinct features in plant transcription

Transcriptional regulation of gene expression is a major mechanism used by plants to confer phenotypic plasticity, and yet compared with other eukaryotes or bacteria, little is known about the design principles. We generated an extensive catalog of nascent and steady-state transcripts in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings using global nuclear run-on sequencing (GRO-seq), 5′GRO-seq, and RNA-seq and reanalyzed published maize data to capture characteristics of plant transcription. De novo annotation of nascent transcripts accurately mapped start sites and unstable transcripts. Examining the promoters of coding and noncoding transcripts identified comparable chromatin signatures, a conserved “TGT” core promoter motif and unreported transcription factor-binding sites. Mapping of engaged RNA polymerases showed a lack of enhancer RNAs, promoter-proximal pausing, and divergent transcription in Arabidopsis seedlings and maize, which are commonly present in yeast and humans. In contrast, Arabidopsis and maize genes accumulate RNA polymerases in proximity of the polyadenylation site, a trend that coincided with longer genes and CpG hypomethylation. Lack of promoter-proximal pausing and a higher correlation of nascent and steady-state transcripts indicate Arabidopsis may regulate transcription predominantly at the level of initiation. Our findings provide insight into plant transcription and eukaryotic gene expression as a whole.
Evidence of Stream Capture from the Tallapoosa River Drainage by a Chattahoochee River Tributary Based on Fish Distributions

Abstract Based on the distribution of 2 fish species and geological evidence, we propose stream capture of a Tallapoosa River tributary by Wehadkee Creek, a tributary of the Chattahoochee River in east-central Alabama. Micropterus tallapoosae (Tallapoosa Bass) and Cyprinella gibbsi (Tallapoosa Shiner), endemics to the Tallapoosa River drainage, are found in Wehadkee Creek (Chattahoochee River drainage). We used mitochrondrial DNA to compare the Wehadkee Creek specimens of Tallapoosa Shiner to those analyzed in a previous study of the genetic structure of the species throughout the Tallapoosa River drainage. Their identity as Tallapoosa Shiner was validated, and we found some divergence relative to other populations in the Wehadkee Creek fish. We validated the identity of Tallapoosa Bass and Micropterus chattahoochae (Chattahoochee Bass), using mitochondrial DNA sequences subjected to phylogenetic analyses of all Micropterus coosae (Redeye Bass) group species previously identified. In addition to these fis...
Clinical characteristics and survival of systemic sclerosis patients with pulmonary hypertension and elevated wedge pressure: Observations from the PHAROS cohort.

Background and objective Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a complex autoimmune disease commonly associated with pulmonary hypertension (PH). When associated with elevated pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP), pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) is either in-proportion (post-capillary PH) or higher than expected (combined PH) relative to the increased PAWP. Methods Patients from the PHAROS registry (a prospective observational cohort of SSc-PH patients) who had mean PAP ≥ 25 and PAWP > 15 on right heart catheterization were stratified based on diastolic pressure gradient (DPG). Kaplan–Meier analysis was performed to compare survival and PH-related hospitalization. Baseline factors were compared between patients dying and those who survived using Cox regression analysis. Results A total of 59 patients were included, of whom 21 (36%) patients were classified as combined PH and 38 (64%) had post-capillary PH. No baseline characteristics were significantly different between the two groups. There were no differences in survival or PH-related hospitalization between the groups. The only baseline factor independently associated with death was lower 6-min walk distance (6MWD) (hazard ratio (HR): 1.33 per 25 m decrease, 95% CI: 1.11–1.59, P = 0.002). PH-specific medications were started during follow-up in significantly more patients in the combined PH group compared with the post-capillary group (86% vs 50%, P = 0.01). Conclusion Outcomes were similar between SSc patients with post-capillary PH and combined pre- and post-capillary PH. 6MWD at baseline can predict risk for death in SSc patients with PH and an elevated PAWP. More patients with combined PH were started on PH-specific medications, and the clinical benefit of treating this subgroup specifically in SSc patients needs further exploration.
Decision Logic in Evidence-Based Management: Can Logical Models From Other Disciplines Improve Evidence-Based Human-Resource Decisions?

The “mental models” used in organizations often reflect disciplines such as Finance, Marketing or Engineering. Such models can overlook or misinterpret evidence related to human capital, producing poor human resource and organizational decisions. Improved evidence-based human resource decisions may result from “retooling” HR issues using logic from mental models in other management disciplines. HR researchers and practitioners can tap the power of these well-accepted logic frameworks to “retool” evidence about human resource management.
Role of branchiomotor neurons in controlling food intake of zebrafish larvae.

AbstractThe physical act of eating or feeding involves the coordinated action of several organs like eyes and jaws, and associated neural networks. Moreover, the activity of the neural networks controlling jaw movements (branchiomotor circuits) is regulated by the visual, olfactory, gustatory and hypothalamic systems, which are largely well characterized at the physiological level. By contrast, the behavioral output of the branchiomotor circuits and the functional consequences of disruption of these circuits by abnormal neural development are poorly understood. To begin to address these questions, we sought to evaluate the feeding ability of zebrafish larvae, a direct output of the branchiomotor circuits, and developed a qualitative assay for measuring food intake in zebrafish larvae at 7 days post-fertilization. We validated the assay by examining the effects of ablating the branchiomotor neurons. Metronidazole-mediated ablation of nitroreductase-expressing branchiomotor neurons resulted in a predictable...
Reactive sintering of boron-doped Ni76Al24 intermetallic

A preliminary investigation into the formation of boron-doped nickel-rich Ni3Al with boron additions up to 2 wt% (i.e. to levels above the equilibrium solid solubility limit of boron in Ni3Al) from elemental powders by reaction synthesis was carried out. The application of reaction synthesis was seen as a low-energy alternative to the production of Ni3Al/boride composite suitable for wear applications. X-ray diffraction, Neutron diffraction, SEM/EDS,WDS, Image analysis, Archimedes principle and Rockwell hardness measurements; were used to study the effect of boron addition on the final microstructure, average grain size, bulk density and hardness of as-prepared Ni76Al24. Up to 0.3 wt% boron content, the microstructure consisted of single-phase Ni3Al, however, at a boron content of 0.5 wt% an apparent transition from a single phase microstructure to a two-phase intermetallic/boride composite microstructure was observed, which dominated when the boron content increased, up to 2 wt%. The two-phase microstructure was identified as Ni3Al (particles) within an Ni41Al5B12 boride matrix, with no remaining un-reacted boron. The boron addition was found to increase the Rockwell hardness of Ni3Al via two mechanisms. Below the solubility limit, the increase in hardness was due to solution hardening. Above 0.5 wt%B, solution hardening in addition to the formation of the harder boride phase, were found to amount to up to 50% increase in the hardness compared with boron free Ni3Al. The extrusion of semi-molten beads at the surface of the compact at high B-content may be a limiting factor, in the formation of Ni3Al/boride composites via this route.
Linking gene regulation, physiology, and plant biomass allocation in Andropogon gerardii in response to drought

Plant responses to drought are often initiated at the molecular level and cascade upwards to affect physiology and growth. How plants respond to and recover from drought have consequences for their growth and survival in drier climates predicted with climate change. We studied four ecologically relevant genotypes of a common C4 grass, Andropogon gerardii. These genotypes had differential responses to a decade of more variable precipitation patterns in a field experiment in native tallgrass prairie. Here, we conducted a greenhouse experiment examining how these genotypes responded to repeated 10-day drought-recovery cycles when experiencing either a severe or moderate drought. We did this twice over the course of the experiment, early, after 5 weeks, and late, after 9 weeks of drought. We studied nine genes involved in water stress signaling and drought response in leaf tissue using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). We also measured photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and biomass accumulation and allocation. In early drought, we found consistent differences among genotypes in gene expression, leaf-level physiology, and biomass accumulation and allocation. We found genes involved in ABA, proline synthesis, and mitigating oxidative stress were differentially expressed between genotypes, while genes that coded for aquaporins and chaperones were not. In late drought, we found fewer overall differences, and little regulation of drought responsive genes. Ultimately, we found genotypes either had greater phenotypic plasticity, suggesting an ability to avoid drought and maximize water resources when they were present, or genotypes were better at tolerating drought.
Determining Linear Free Energy Relationships in Peptide Fragmentation Using Derivatization and Targeted Mass Spectrometry

The sequence complexity of a proteome is utilized with rational chemical derivatization to establish the linear free energy relationship (LFER) in order to investigate the collision-induced dissociation (CID) of peptides. The derivatization produces groups of peptides that have varying designer residues of aliphatic amino acids at the N-terminus but stay invariable for the rest of sequences, which are naturally occurring and uncontrolled. Collisional fragmentation of the derivatized peptides is advantageously monitored by liquid-chromatography multiple-reaction-monitoring mass spectrometry. Systematically tuning the gas-phase basicity of the N-termini of peptides establishes LFERs that report the structural similarities and differences in CID of all the backbone amides of doubly protonated tryptic peptides. For the cleavage of an internal or C-terminal amide, the peptide N-terminus mainly affects the mobility of the N-terminal proton instead of directly participating in the amide cleavage. In contrast, th...
Secure power scheduling auction for smart grids using homomorphic encryption

In this paper, we introduce a secure energy trading auction approach to schedule the power plant limited resources during peak hours time slots. In the proposed auction model, the power plant serving a power grid shares with the smart meters its available amount of resources that is expected during the next future peak time slot; smart meters expecting a demand for additional power participate in the power auction by submitting bids of their offered price for their requested amount of power. In order to secure the power auction and protect smart meters' privacy, homomorphic encryption through Paillier cryptosystem is used to secure the bidding values and ensure avoiding possible insincere behaviors of smart meters or the grid operator (i.e. the auctioneer) to manipulate the auction for their own benefits. In addition, we use a payment rule that maximizes the power plant's revenue. We propose an efficient power scheduling mechanism to distribute the operator's limited resources among smart meters participating in the power auction. Finally, we present simulation results for the performance of our secure power scheduling auction mechanism.
Video games, emotion, and emotion regulation: expanding the scope

Recent years have seen important advances in the study of video games, with many scholars examining how video games impact emotional experiences of players. While this research borrows heavily from...
Using coordinate transforms to improve the utility of a fixed field of view high speed camera for additive manufacturing applications

Abstract Understanding in-situ melt pool dynamics has become a major research focus for the metals additive manufacturing community. Much of the research on melt pool dynamics in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion processes makes use of a high speed visible-light or infrared camera. Because these cameras are typically installed “after-market” on pre-existing AM machines they are often limited to a fixed field of view. This work presents a method for efficiently converting images captured by a high speed camera with a fixed field of view into a more useful format via a coordinate transform. Specifically, images of the melt pool are transformed such that they appear to have been captured with a camera integrated coaxially with the laser optic train.
Moving from Thin to Thick Conceptions of Civic Engagement: Faculty Identity and Goals for Democratic Learning

Colleges and universities continue to respond to the call for a deepening of community-engaged research and teaching that contributes tangibly to the public good. Coupled with a new generation of scholars eschewing traditional markers of academic success, the authors set out to discover what faculty members at an urban university identify as priorities for teaching and research to advance democratic engagement. They collected quantitative and qualitative data from faculty members and their community partners. The study findings suggested that while community-engaged activity continues to grow and even thrive among an increasing number of faculty members, there remain three targeted areas needing improvement in order for democratically informed scholarship to better serve the public good: (1) The need to transform “thin” student learning goals into more robust, “thick” civic learning goals; (2) increasing what now is minimal, if existent, discussion of the political opportunities for and constraints to community work; and, (3) a fuller integration of faculty interests, personal and professional, with teaching and research priorities centering on democratic engagement.
Incorporating Service Learning into Public Affairs Programs: Lessons from the Literature

This article reviews the growing literature on citizen service since 1990 to identify design principles to guide the incorporation of a service learning pedagogy into public affairs programs. The a...
Clinical Comparison of Full Breast Storage Phosphor Digital Mammography and Film-Screen Mammography — A Receiver Operating Characteristic Study

Storage phosphor imaging is one of the first clinically applied technologies for full breast digital mammography and is a potential new method for screening and diagnostic mammography [1],[2]. In this study, we compared how well radiologists were able to detect small breast cancers on digital mammograms using storage phosphor (SP) plate technology versus on conventional film-screen (FS) mammograms.
Tolerogenicity of Thymic Epithelial Cells: Studies with Allogeneic and Xenogeneic Chimeras

Self tolerance is under the strict control of T lymphocytes and is imposed during early T cell differentiation in the thymus [1–5]. Which particular cell types in the thymus induce self tolerance (negative selection) is controversial [5,6]. The prevailing view is that tolerance induction is largely a reflection of T cells encountering the contingent of bone-marrow-derived cells in the medulla [7–9]. These cells, especially dendritic cells [9], have a proven role in tolerance induction and are strategically positioned at the cortico-medul 1 ary junction. The role of thymic epithelial cells (TEC) in tolerance induction is less clear. In this paper we review our recent studies on the tolerogenicity of TEC in bone marrow (BM) and fetal liver (FL) chimeras. For allogeneic (mouse → mouse) chimeras, we present evidence that TEC are strongly tolerogenic for some T cells but only weakly tolerogenic for others. For xenogeneic (rat → mouse) chimeras, by contrast, TEC are almost nontolerogenic.
Does EMDR Work? And if so, Why?: A Critical Review of Controlled Outcome and Dismantling Research

Research on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) was reviewed to answer the questions "Does EMDR work?" and "If so, Why?" This first question was further subdivided on the basis of the control group: (a) no-treatment (or wait list control), (b) nonvalidated treatments, and (c) other validated treatments. The evidence supports the following general conclusions: First, EMDR appears to be effective in reducing at least some indices of distress relative to no-treatment in a number of anxiety conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and public-speaking anxiety. Second, EMDR appears at least as effective or more effective than several nonvalidated treatments (e.g., relaxation, active listening) for posttraumatic stress reactions. Third, despite statements implying the contrary, no previously published study has directly compared EMDR with an independently validated treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (e.g., therapist-directed flooding). In the treatment of simple phobia, participant modeling has been found to be more effective than EMDR. Fourth, our review of dismantling studies reveals there is no convincing evidence that eye movements significantly contribute to treatment outcome. Recommendations regarding further research directions are provided.
Extracting Entity-Specific Substructures for RDF Graph Embedding

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) have become useful sources of structured data for information retrieval and data analytics tasks. Enabling complex analytics, however, requires entities in KGs to be represented in a way that is suitable for Machine Learning tasks. Several approaches have been recently proposed for obtaining vector representations of KGs based on identifying and extracting relevant graph substructures using uniform and biased random walks. However, such approaches lead to representations comprising mostly "popular" instead of "relevant" entities in the KG. In KGs, in which different types of entities often exist (such as in Linked Open Data), a given target entity may have its own distinct set of most "relevant" nodes and edges. We propose specificity as an accurate measure of identifying most relevant, entity-specific, nodes and edges. We develop a scalable method based on bidirectional random walks to compute specificity. Our experimental evaluation results show that specificity-based biased random walks extract more "meaningful" (in terms of size and relevance) substructures compared to the state-of-the-art and the graph embedding learned from the extracted substructures outperform existing techniques in the chosen task of entity recommendation.
Evaluation of Nanomechanical Properties of Nonaggregate Phase of Asphalt Concrete Using Finite-Element Method

AbstractNanoindentation is a powerful tool used to study localized material behavior. However, it is not possible to directly obtain the indentation stress strain from the experimental data. In thi...
Inductive Formulas Related to Prime Partitions

Prime partitions are partitions of integers into prime parts. In this paper, we first consider prime partitions with distinct parts. By using generating functions, we obtain some inductive formulas to calculate the number of prime partitions with distinct parts. Our formulas give two generalizations of the Euler’s formula for the integer partition case. Then, we consider general prime partitions with not necessarily distinct parts. By keeping track of the recurrence of primes in a partition and finding bijections between different prime partitions, we get some inductive formulas to calculate the number of general prime partitions. Finally, by numerical experimentation we find an approximation of some analytical formulas for the number of general prime partitions.
Comparative Risk of Venous Thromboembolism in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Receiving Tofacitinib Versus Those Receiving Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitors: An Observational Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving tofacitinib versus those receiving tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors. METHODS RA patients who were initiating treatment with tofacitinib or a TNF inhibitor and had not previously received any biologic agent or tofacitinib were identified from the Truven MarketScan database (2012-2016) or Medicare claims (parts A, B, and D) database (2012-2015). Patients were followed up until treatment discontinuation, treatment switch, insurance disenrollment, or administrative censoring. The outcome of VTE was identified using inpatient claims for pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were determined using a Cox proportional hazards model after accounting for confounding through propensity score-based fine-stratification weighting. HRs were pooled across databases using the inverse variance meta-analytic method. RESULTS A total of 34,074 RA patients (mean age 50 years; 5.6% tofacitinib initiators) and 17,086 RA patients (mean age 71 years; 5.8% tofacitinib initiators) were identified from the Truven and Medicare databases, respectively. The crude incidence rates of VTE per 100 person-years were 0.60 (95% CI 0.26-1.19) and 0.34 (95% CI 0.27-0.41) in Truven and 1.12 (95% CI 0.45-2.31) and 0.92 (95% CI 0.76-1.11) in Medicare for patients receiving tofacitinib and patients receiving TNF inhibitors, respectively. Propensity score-adjusted HRs showed no significant differences in the risk of VTE between tofacitinib-treated and TNF inhibitor-treated patients in either database, with a pooled HR of 1.33 (95% CI 0.78-2.24). CONCLUSION Occurrence of VTE in a total of 50,865 RA patients initiating treatment with tofacitinib or a TNF inhibitor was infrequent (<1 per 100 person-years). We observed a numerically higher, but statistically nonsignificant, risk of VTE in RA patients receiving tofacitinib versus those receiving TNF inhibitors.
Sex related biases for attending to object color versus object position are reflected in reaction time and accuracy

Processing of visual features related to objects and space relations occurs within separate cortical streams that interact with selective attention. Such separation has implications for cognitive development because the perception of 'what' and 'where' provide a neural foundation for the development of aspects of higher cognition. Thus, a small attentional bias in early development for attending to one aspect over the other might influence subsequent higher cognitive processing in tasks involving object recognition and space relations. We examined 134 men and women for evidence of an inherent sex-related bias for attending to basic perceptual features related to object discrimination versus object position. Each stimulus consisted of a circle located in one of 9 positions within a surrounding frame. Circles were one of three shades of blue or red. These stimuli were used in a match-to-sample paradigm where participants were required to match circles on the basis of color or spatial position. The first stimulus appeared in the center of the screen for 400 msec and the matching stimulus subsequently appeared for 400 msec oriented 5 degrees to the right or left of center. The same stimuli were used to test the perception of color and position, with order of testing counterbalanced across participants. Results showed significantly longer reaction times in females compared with males, with better accuracy to discriminate color when that color was tested before position. Males showed better accuracy when object position was tested before color discrimination. A second experiment employed the same procedure, but enhanced selective attention by adding an endogenous cue that predicted the right or left location for the appearance of the matching stimulus. This manipulation greatly attenuated the sex differences in reaction time and accuracy compared to Experiment 1, suggesting that the sex-related attentional biases are strongly coupled to bottom-up processing. Overall, the sex related attentional biases toward processing object characteristics versus object position location suggest a differential manifestation of biased competition between the weighted systems of dorsal and ventral stream processing. Results are discussed with how a developmental bias in the processing objects versus space relations may contribute to adult cognitive sex differences in humans and animals.
Timing of Antenatal Corticosteroid Administration in Monoamniotic Twins.

Objective This study was aimed to determine if different strategies of antenatal corticosteroid (ACS) administration in monoamniotic twins leads to receipt within 7 days of delivery. Study Design This is a retrospective cohort of monoamniotic twins managed at a single institution from 2007 to 2017. Patients were classified as to whether ACS were administered upon admission or at a predetermined gestational age (grouped together as “routine”) or for a change in clinical status (“indicated”). We used univariate analyses to associate ACS administration strategies with our primary outcome: receipt of ACS within 7 days of delivery. We then used generalized estimating equations to examine associations between fetal monitoring patterns and delivery within 1 week. Results Twenty-four patients were included: eighteen patients in the “routine” group and six patients in the “indicated” group. There was no difference in optimal timing of ACS administration. Women experiencing delivery within the week were thrice more likely to spend on average more than 3 hours/day on the fetal monitor when compared with those who remained undelivered. Conclusion Administration of ACS on admission is not effective. Fetal heart rate tracing surveillance might be a better methodology to predict delivery and guide ACS administration.
Perceptions of Peer-Led Learning among Older Adults in a Community-Based Aquatic Exercise Program.

ABSTRACTWhile aquatic exercises have been considered one of the most appropriate learning activities for older adult learners because they are safe and beneficial for health, limited evidence exist...