cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
We Don't Know What We Don't Know About Adolescent and Young Adult Patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis-Related Colorectal Cancer.

Since the 1970s, cancer outcomes in pediatric and adult populations have improved dramatically, while those in the adolescent and young adult (AYA) group, defined as those 15–39 years old,1 have remained stagnant.2 AYAs face unique issues and a growing body of research advocates care tailored to this population.1 Though a pediatric model of care is promising for AYAs with pediatric type cancers, there are no data on how to treat those with adult-type cancers such as breast and colorectal cancer, which become more common after the age of 25 years. A significant proportion of young adults with these types of cancers suffer from genetic cancer syndromes and therefore have additional stressors and care needs. The focus here is on AYAs with colorectal cancer secondary to the rare genetic disease familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). Much research has explored the genetics, clinical manifestations, and unique psychosocial issues of FAP patients. Although comprehensive polyposis registries exist in many countries, the authors know of no collective data examining survival and quality of life outcomes of FAP patients with colorectal cancer. Lack of data about genetic colorectal cancer in registries limits the ability to compare the outcomes of these patients with those with sporadic cancers.
Modafinil-Induced Increases in Brain Dopamine Levels

The acute effects of modafinil on extracellular dopamine and on dopamine transporters in the male human brain were measured by PET study in 10 healthy subjects at Brookhaven National Laboratory and National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, MD.
Current Inhalers Deliver Very Small Doses to the Lower Tracheobronchial Airways: Assessment of Healthy and Constricted Lungs

To evaluate the regional delivery of conventional aerosol medications, a new whole-lung computational fluid dynamics modeling approach was applied for metered dose inhaler (MDI) and dry powder inhaler (DPI) aerosols delivered to healthy and constricted airways. The computational fluid dynamics approach included complete airways through the third respiratory bifurcation (B3) and applied the new stochastic individual pathway modeling technique beyond B3 through the remainder of the conducting airways together with a new model of deposition in the alveolar region. Bronchiolar (B8-B15) deposition fraction values were low (∼1%) for both MDI and DPI aerosols with the healthy geometry, whereas delivery to the constricted model was even lower, with deposition fraction values of 0.89% and 0.81% for the MDI and DPI, respectively. Calculating dose per unit surface area for the commercial MDI and DPI products resulted in approximately 10(-3) μg/cm(2) in the lower tracheobronchial region of B8-B15 and 10(-4) μg/cm(2) in the alveolar region. Across the lung, dose per unit surface area varied by 2 orders of magnitude, which increased to 4 orders of magnitude when the mouth-throat region was included. The MDI and DPI both provided very low drug dose per unit surface area to the small tracheobronchial and alveolar airways.
Evaluation of nursing knowledge of early initiation of breastfeeding in preterm infants in a hospital setting

Abstract Infant breastfeeding initiation before 32 weeks postconceptional age is not standard practice in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Based on the literature, preterm infants can initiate breastfeeding when they are physiologically stable. The purpose of this research was to evaluate nurses' knowledge regarding the early initiation of breastfeeding in preterm infants in a northeastern tertiary children's hospital NICU. A pre-test/post-test study design was used. Eighteen allied health professionals, average age 41 years, with 11–15 years in a NICU setting and two breastfeeding mothers supported per week, were recruited. Participants' paired pre-test and post-test average scores respectively were 57.6% and 72.04%, p 0.014 . Barriers to early initiation of breastfeeding were the absence of mothers at bedside, insufficient kangaroo care, inconsistent professional support of breastfeeding, and family dysfunction. Early initiation of breastfeeding is within the physical capabilities of the preterm infant. However, institutional and social barriers impede infant success.
Vehicle Fuel Economy and Vehicle Miles Traveled: An Empirical Investigation of Jevon’s Paradox

Abstract There has been, in recent decades, a concerted effort to promote energy efficiency as a means to reduce energy consumption. The general thesis is that, ceteris paribus, an increase in energy efficiency leads to a decrease in the consumption of the good or service rendered efficient. This is in opposition to Jevons’ Paradox which states that “It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth…” This study examines whether Jevons’ Paradox holds when all available factors that could affect consumption of an efficient good/service are controlled for. Using vehicle fuel economy as a measure of energy efficiency and vehicle miles travelled (VMT) as a measure of consumption, the study examines whether, other things being held equal, a more fuel efficient vehicle accrues greater Vehicle Miles Traveled. The findings indicate that in this case Jevons’ Paradox does hold true; a 1% increase in fuel efficiency was associated with a 1.2% increase in VMT.
Longitudinal Tracking of Direct Drive Inertial Fusion Targets

Successful ignition of direct drive targets in an IFE power plant requires a reliable system for tracking the location of the target in flight and illuminating it by many separate laser beams with a high degree of precision. As part of a coordinated effort in the High Average Power Laser (HAPL) program, we have developed and tested an interferometric technique for measuring the position and velocity of targets along their axis of motion. The technique involves reflecting light from the moving target and combining it with a reference beam in order to produce interference fringes at a rate corresponding to the movement of the target. A scaled benchtop experiment has been built and tested to characterize the performance of this technique of axial target tracking. Results are presented here together with recommendations on improvements needed for a fullscale performance demonstration.
A Nomogram to Predict Recurrence and Survival of High-Risk Patients Undergoing Sublobar Resection for Lung Cancer: An Analysis of a Multicenter Prospective Study (ACOSOG Z4032)

Background Individualized prediction of outcomes may help with therapy decisions for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. We developed a nomogram by analyzing 17 clinical factors and outcomes from a randomized study of sublobar resection for non-small cell lung cancer in high-risk operable patients. The study compared sublobar resection alone with sublobar resection with brachytherapy. There were no differences in primary and secondary outcomes between the study arms, and they were therefore combined for this analysis. Methods The clinical factors of interest (considered as continuous variables) were assessed in a univariate Cox proportional hazards model for significance at the 0.10 level for their impact on overall survival (OS), local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), and any recurrence-free survival (RFS). The final multivariable model was developed using a stepwise model selection. Results Of 212 patients, 173 had complete data on all 17 risk factors. Median follow-up was 4.94 years (range, 0.04 to 6.22). The 5-year OS, LRFS, and RFS were 58.4%, 53.2%, and 47.4%, respectively. Age, baseline percent diffusing capacity of lung for carbon monoxide, and maximum tumor diameter were significant predictors for OS, LRFS, and RFS in the multivariable model. Nomograms were subsequently developed for predicting 5-year OS, LRFS, and RFS. Conclusions Age, baseline percent diffusing capacity of lung for carbon monoxide, and maximum tumor diameter significantly predicted outcomes after sublobar resection. Such nomograms may be helpful for treatment planning in early stage non-small cell lung cancer and to guide future studies.
Lost in Space? Information Shortcuts, Spatial Voting, and Local Government Representation

Voters face difficult choices in local elections, where information about candidates is scarce and party labels often do not distinguish candidates’ ideological positions. Can voters choose candida...
Endometrial carcinoma: The perioperative and long-term outcomes of robotic surgery in the morbidly obese.

Background and Methods To evaluate surgical and pathologic outcomes of robotic assisted versus open hysterectomy for women with at least class II (BMI >35) and class III (BMI >40) obesity with endometrial cancer. Women with endometrial cancer and class II obesity, treated with open or robotic hysterectomy between 3/2005 and 3/2013 were eligible for inclusion in this retrospective cohort. Patients with class III obesity were reviewed both within the cohort of class II and as a separate subset. Data were collected on demographics, operative statistics, pathology, post-operative complications, and oncologic outcomes. Tests of significance used Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, t-test, and Wilcoxon rank-sum. Results One hundred and thirty-six women with BMI >35 who underwent hysterectomy (56 robotic and 80 abdominal) were included. Patients undergoing robotic hysterectomies had fewer post-operative complications, shorter hospital stays, and lower blood loss compared to the abdominal group. A subset (83 of 136) with class III obesity had similar findings. Operative times, lymph node dissection rates, and lymph node yield (both pelvic and para-aortic) were similar between open and robotic surgery in both obesity classes. Oncologic outcomes and use of adjuvant treatment was not compromised. Conclusions Robotic hysterectomy is a safe and effective option for morbidly obese women with endometrial cancer. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;114:884–887. © 2016 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Need Funding? Tips on Where to Find and How to Apply for Grants

There are many organizations that provide grants (both monetary and in the form of equipment) to help promote healthy lifestyles. This article shares a few tips on how to find grants and write grant proposals.
Scheduling techniques for hybrid circuit/packet networks

A range of new datacenter switch designs combine wireless or optical circuit technologies with electrical packet switching to deliver higher performance at lower cost than traditional packet-switched networks. These "hybrid" networks schedule large traffic demands via a high-rate circuits and remaining traffic with a lower-rate, traditional packet-switches. Achieving high utilization requires an efficient scheduling algorithm that can compute proper circuit configurations and balance traffic across the switches. Recent proposals, however, provide no such algorithm and rely on an omniscient oracle to compute optimal switch configurations.Finding the right balance of circuit and packet switch use is difficult: circuits must be reconfigured to serve different demands, incurring non-trivial switching delay, while the packet switch is bandwidth constrained. Adapting existing crossbar scheduling algorithms proves challenging with these constraints. In this paper, we formalize the hybrid switching problem, explore the design space of scheduling algorithms, and provide insight on using such algorithms in practice. We propose a heuristic-based algorithm, Solstice that provides a 2.9× increase in circuit utilization over traditional scheduling algorithms, while being within 14% of optimal, at scale.
Idiosyncratic Patterns of Representational Similarity in Prefrontal Cortex Predict Attentional Performance.

The efficiency of finding an object in a crowded environment depends largely on the similarity of nontargets to the search target. Models of attention theorize that the similarity is determined by representations stored within an “attentional template” held in working memory. However, the degree to which the contents of the attentional template are individually unique and where those idiosyncratic representations are encoded in the brain are unknown. We investigated this problem using representational similarity analysis of human fMRI data to measure the common and idiosyncratic representations of famous face morphs during an identity categorization task; data from the categorization task were then used to predict performance on a separate identity search task. We hypothesized that the idiosyncratic categorical representations of the continuous face morphs would predict their distractability when searching for each target identity. The results identified that patterns of activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) as well as in face-selective areas in the ventral temporal cortex were highly correlated with the patterns of behavioral categorization of face morphs and search performance that were common across subjects. However, the individually unique components of the categorization behavior were reliably decoded only in right LPFC. Moreover, the neural pattern in right LPFC successfully predicted idiosyncratic variability in search performance, such that reaction times were longer when distractors had a higher probability of being categorized as the target identity. These results suggest that the prefrontal cortex encodes individually unique components of categorical representations that are also present in attentional templates for target search. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Everyone9s perception of the world is uniquely shaped by personal experiences and preferences. Using functional MRI, we show that individual differences in the categorization of face morphs between two identities could be decoded from the prefrontal cortex and the ventral temporal cortex. Moreover, the individually unique representations in prefrontal cortex predicted idiosyncratic variability in attentional performance when looking for each identity in the “crowd” of another morphed face in a separate search task. Our results reveal that the representation of task-related information in prefrontal cortex is individually unique and preserved across categorization and search performance. This demonstrates the possibility of predicting individual behaviors across tasks with patterns of brain activity.
Non-universal and universal aspects of the large scattering length limit

Abstract The momentum density, n ( k ) of interacting many-body Fermionic systems is studied (for k > k F ) using examples of several well-known two-body interaction models. It is shown that n ( k ) can be approximated by a zero-range model for momenta k less than about 0.1 / r e , where r e the effective range. If the scattering length is large and one includes the effects of a fixed value of r e ≠ 0 , n ( k ) is almost universal for momenta k up to about 2 / r e . However, n ( k ) can not be approximated by a zero-range model for momenta k greater than about 1 / ( a r e 2 ) 1 / 3 , where a is the scattering length, and if one wishes to maintain a sum rule that relates the energy of a two component Fermi-gas to an integral involving the density. We also show that the short separation distance, s, behavior of the pair density varies as s 6 .
Ethical Issues in Cancer Survivorship

Abstract Ethical issues challenge the medical decisions made by oncology health care providers in their day-to-day clinical practice. Ethical issues differ across the continuum of the cancer experience, particularly in the case of long-term cancer survivors. This group of survivors enters the cancer experience, exit, and often re-enter that continuum across their lifespan. Thus, it is clear that caring for a survivor is a dynamic process, which can lead to a myriad of ethical challenges. In this chapter, we will define who is a cancer survivor and present basic concepts of cancer survivorship. Next, the role of communication, worldviews, and ethical decision-making will be explored in relationship to cancer survivorship. Then we will discuss the impact of ethical principles on discussions related to late and long-term effects on the survivorship trajectory. Throughout the chapter, clinical vignettes will be used to demonstrate how ethical theories are linked to daily clinical practice within a survivorship paradigm.
Introduction and overview of intravesical therapy for superficial bladder cancer.

The initial and subsequent management of patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder requires the cooperative effort of the urologist, pathologist, and cytologist. The initial endoscopic session should provide sufficient material to assess accurately the extent of tumor. The tumor is termed superficial if it is confined to the mucosa (Stage Ta and CIS) or lamina propria (T1). Based on the prognostic factors, the clinician decides whether or not intravesical therapy should be incorporated into the treatment plan that is designed to eradicate any remaining postresection tumor(s) as well as retard the development of subsequent tumors. The clinician who chooses to utilize intravesical therapy should be knowledgeable regarding the frequently used drugs: thiotepa, mitomycin C, doxorubicin, and bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). Each has established efficacy in the treatment and prophylaxis of transitional cell carcinoma. Each also has a different spectrum and incidence of local and systemic toxicity.
A classification system for mosquito life cycles: life cycle types for mosquitoes of the northeastern United States

A system for the classification of mosquito life cycle types is presented for mosquito species found in the northeastern United States. Primary subdivisions include Univoltine Aedine, Multivoltine Aedine, Multivoltine Culex/Anopheles, and Unique Life Cycle Types. A montotypic subdivision groups life cycle types restricted to single species. The classification system recognizes 11 shared life cycle types and three that are limited to single species. Criteria for assignments include: 1) where the eggs are laid, 2) typical larval habitat, 3) number of generations per year, and 4) stage of the life cycle that overwinters. The 14 types in the northeast have been named for common model species. A list of species for each life cycle type is provided to serve as a teaching aid for students of mosquito biology.
Modeling Partisan Media Effects in the 2014 U.S. Midterm Elections

This study tested partisan media effects in the 2014 U.S. midterm elections. A survey was distributed to 992 residents of Georgia, Iowa, and North Carolina. A novel multigroup latent variable struc...
Influence of online computer games on the academic achievement of nontraditional undergraduate students

Technological advances have provided educational institutions the capability to explore various online teaching strategies such as digital games in the classroom. Though games can be used to engage...
Working to Reduce Poverty: A National Subsidized Employment Proposal

Subsidized employment programs that increase labor supply and demand are a proven, underutilized strategy for reducing poverty in the short and long term. These programs use public and private funds to provide workers wage-paying jobs, training, and wraparound services to foster greater labor force attachment while offsetting employers’ cost for wages, on-the-job training, and overhead. This article proposes two new separate but harmonized federal funding streams for subsidized employment that would expand automatically when and where economic conditions deteriorate. Participating states and local organizations would be offered generous matching funds to target adult workers most in need and to secure employer participation. The proposal would effectively reduce poverty among workers during work placements, and improve long-term unsubsidized employment and other outcomes for participants and their families.
Problems Inherent to Augmentation of Natural Enemies in Open Agriculture.

Augmentation biological control has successfully replaced a lot of insecticide use in ‘closed system’ agriculture (e.g., greenhouses). The profitable commercialization of biocontrol agents in greenhouses has created an incentive to expand markets for mass-reared beneficial insects into open agricultural systems, often without sufficient scientific justification. However, the semi-contained nature of greenhouse culture is often critical to the success of augmentation and can serve to mask potential pitfalls and intrinsic limitations of this approach in open systems. Factors contributing to greenhouse successes include the reduced biological diversity of contained agroecosystems, the prevention of agent dispersal, the ability to maintain environmental conditions within a range favorable for the agent, the exclusion of competitors and natural enemies of the agent that might otherwise diminish its efficacy, and the absence of alternative prey/hosts that could divert predation/parasitism from the target pest. There are also problems arising from collection of source material from locally adapted populations, and the inadvertent imposition of artificial selection in the course of laboratory rearing. Besides highlighting these pitfalls, this paper aims to encourage more consideration of conservation approaches prior to investment in augmentation programs which entice farmers into perpetual cycles of ‘rear and release.’ I argue that although augmentation can benefit agriculture whenever it replaces pesticide applications, it does not constitute an ecologically sustainable solution because it requires continued inputs, and it can distract research attention away from more sustainable objectives. Sustainable biological control is best achieved through modifications to cultural practices that increasingly ‘naturalize’ agroecosystems, thus facilitating the natural recruitment and persistence of beneficial arthropod fauna, combined with habitat management geared to increasing overall plant and arthropod diversity in the agroecosystem.
SELECTION PROCEDURES WITH RESPECT TO MEASURES OF ASSOCIATION

This paper is concerned with selecting a single or a subset of p-variate populations having the highest “association” from amongst a set of c populations. Asymptotic results are worked out in detail, for the case of bivariate populations. Extensions to multivariate case are obtained. In the bivariate problem, the procedures are based on the rank correlation coefficient τ, and the product moment correlation coefficient. Analogous procedures can be developed by considering different scoring functions. Asymptotic efficiency of procedures based on τ relative to the normal theory procedures is found to be equal to the asymptotic relative efficiency of the corresponding tests of independence.
Proceedings of the 17th ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 17th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming (PPoPP'12). PPoPP continues its tradition of serving as a leading forum for research in all aspects of parallel software, including theoretical foundations, programming models, algorithms, applications, and systems software. With the ubiquity of parallelism in commodity processors and the increasing use of GPUs for high-performance computing, the effective use of parallel systems is being recognized as one of the most challenging problems faced today. PPoPP'12 received 173 complete paper submissions. In addition to the 25 program committee members, 75 members of the external review committee provided reviews for the papers. Two rounds of reviewing were conducted, with at least three reviews being obtained in the first round, with additional reviews being obtained in the second round for papers where needed. After extensive discussions at an in-person two-day program committee meeting in November 2011, 26 full papers were selected for presentation at the conference. PPoPP'12 continues the tradition of poster presentations of high quality submissions that could not be accepted as full papers. This year's conference features 32 poster presentations over two sessions. PPoPP'12 is again co-located this year with the International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), allowing attendees of one conference the option of attending talks at the other. We feature two joint HPCA/PPOPP keynote presentations. Sanjeev Kumar from Facebook will present a keynote on "Social Networking at Scale," and Keshav Pingali from the University of Texas at Austin will present a keynote entitled "Parallel Programming Needs Data-Centric Foundations."
Using HFMEA to assess potential for patient harm from tubing misconnections.

Article-at-a-Glance Background Reported cases of tubing misconnections and other tubing errors prompted Columbus Children's Hospital to study their potential for harm in its patient population. A Health Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (HFMEA) was conducted in October 2004 to determine the risks inherent in the use and labeling of various enteral, parenteral, and other tubing types in patient care and the potential for patient harm. Methods An assessment of the practice culture revealed considerable variability among nurses and respiratory therapists within and between units. Work on an HFMEA culminated in recommendations of risk reduction strategies. These included standardizing the process of labeling of tubing throughout the organization, developing an online pictorial catalog to list available tubing supplies with all aliases used by staff, and conducting an inventory of all supplies to identify products that need to be purchased or discontinued. Three groups are working on implementing each of the recommendations. Results Most of the results already realized occurred in labeling of tubing. The pediatric intensive care unit labels all tubing with infused medications 85% of the time; tubings inserted during surgery or in interventional radiology are labeled 53% and 93% of the time. Pocket-size cards with printed labels were tested in three units. Discussion This proactive risk assessment project has identified failure modes and possible causes and solutions; several recommendations have been implemented. No tubing misconnections have been reported.
Large deviations for lattice systems I. Parametrized independent fields

We prove large deviation theorems for empirical measures of independent random fields whose distributions depend measurably on an auxiliary parameter. This dependence respects the action of the shift group, and a large deviation principle holds whenever a certain ergodicity condition is satisfied. We also investigate the entropy functions for these processes, especially in relation to the usual relative entropy.
A Clinical Study on Risk Factors and Appropriateness of Antibiotic Prescribing For Infective Exacerbation of Obstructive Airway Disease in Old Aged Patients

Medication Appropriate Index (MAI) is used to assess the quality of antibiotic prescribing. The aim of the study to determine the risk factors of obstructive airway disease and to assess the appropriateness of ongoing antibiotic therapy using medication appropriate index criteria. A 6 months study was carried out at Karuna Medical College Chittur. The patient details were collected in a specially designed data entry form and results were statistically analysed using chi square test. During the study period, a total of 202 patients were enrolled. Out of this, 150 (74%) were male patients and 52 (26%) were female patients and Distribution of risk factors, ex-smokers 34 (15%) were more prone to infective exacerbations, followed by smokers 34 (17%), alcoholics 33 (16%), allergies 12 (6%), ex-alcoholics 8 (4%) and patients with both smoking and alcoholism were 10 (5%). The most common problems were seen with indication (68%), duration of therapy (74%), and dose of antibiotic (81%), directions (68%), duplication (64%), effectiveness (75%) and expensiveness (68%). The level of significance was assessed and found to be significant. Males are more affected than females. The cigarette smoking influences the rate of influence of lung function by causing path physiologic changes in airways, including inflammation hyper responsiveness. Using medication appropriate index criteria when comparing inappropriate v/s marginal and inappropriate v/s appropriate both shows high level of significance which imply antibiotic therapy was inappropriate. It is found that inappropriate use of antibiotics will increase the burden of multi-drug resistance. Prescribing under generic name is considered economical and rational
Spliceosome Mutations Induce R Loop-Associated Sensitivity to ATR Inhibition in Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Heterozygous somatic mutations in spliceosome genes (U2AF1, SF3B1, ZRSR2, or SRSF2) occur in >50% of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients. These mutations occur early in disease development, suggesting that they contribute to MDS pathogenesis and may represent a unique genetic vulnerability for targeted therapy. Here we show that RNA splicing perturbation by expression of the U2AF1(S34F) mutant causes accumulation of R loops, a transcription intermediate containing RNA:DNA hybrids and displaced single-stranded DNA, and elicits an ATR response. ATR inhibitors (ATRi) induced DNA damage and cell death in U2AF1(S34F)-expressing cells, and these effects of ATRi were enhanced by splicing modulating compounds. Moreover, ATRi-induced DNA damage was suppressed by overexpression of RNaseH1, an enzyme that specifically removes the RNA in RNA:DNA hybrids, suggesting that the ATRi sensitivity of U2AF1(S34F)-expressing cells arises from R loops. Taken together, our results demonstrate that ATR may represent a novel therapeutic target in MDS patients carrying the U2AF1(S34F) mutation and potentially other malignancies harboring spliceosome mutations.
Structural Changes in the Growing Stock of Important Tree Species Groups in the Central Hardwood Region

Increasing hardwood growing stock volume in the eastern United States from the 1950s to the 1990s was led by increases in poletimber volume. In the current century, volumetric growth has become concentrated in larger trees at least 17 in. dbh (≥17 in.). In the Central Hardwood region, the volume of such trees now exceeds poletimber volume by 75%. In this paper, we examine proportional and cubic volume increases of trees ≥17 in. across major species groups in the Central Hardwood region. In 2012, at least 40% of the volume of select white and red oaks, other red oaks, and yellow-poplar was in trees ≥17 in. While hard maple and hickory had less than 25% of their volume in this size class. In the short run, these changes will benefit hardwood industries because larger trees are more economical to harvest and process. In the long run, there could be challenges as larger-diameter trees are harvested or die without a similar timber base emerging in their absence.
A Hybrid Broadband Fast Multipole Algorithm

A broadband fast multipole algorithm (FMA) is proposed using a hybridization of the plane wave and multipole expansions of the Green's function. By representing the low order harmonics using the plane wave expansion and representing the high order harmonics using the multipole expansion, the proposed method is accurate at all frequencies. The error analysis is performed to achieve arbitrarily high accuracies. The method can be regarded as a unification of the conventional dense and diagonal FMAs. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the method.
Islamophobia, Patriarchy, or Corporate Hegemony?: News Coverage of Nike’s Pro Sport Hijab

In 2017 Nike, Inc. announced the launch of a new product, a pro hijab. Journalistic coverage of this event allows for analysis of how news reporters balance their view of religion with predispositi...
Assessment of traffic performance measures and safety based on driver age and experience: A microsimulation based analysis for an unsignalized T-intersection

Abstract Traffic safety and performance measures such as crash risk and queue lengths or travel times are influenced by several important factors including those related to environment, human, and roadway design, especially at intersections. Previous research has studied different aspects related to these factors, yet these characteristics are not fully investigated with a focus on age and experience of drivers. In this paper, we investigate this issue by using a two-phase approach via a case study application on a critical T-intersection in the City of Tallahassee, Florida. The first phase includes a scenario-based microsimulation analysis through the use of a microscopic simulation software, namely VISSIM, to illustrate the variations in traffic performance measures with respect to driver compositions of different age groups in the traffic stream. A variety of scenarios is created where the driving characteristics are provided as inputs to these scenarios in terms of decision making and risk taking. This is also supported by a sensitivity analysis conducted based on the driver composition in the traffic. The second phase includes the analysis of microsimulation outputs via a tool developed by Federal Highway Administration tool, namely the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM), in order to determine the traffic conflicts that occur in each scenario. These conflicts are also compared with real-life crash data for validation purposes. Results show that (a) the differences in risk perception that affect driving behavior might be significant in influencing traffic safety and performance measures, and (b) the proposed approach is considerably successful in simulating the actual crash conflict points.
Empirical Noise Estimation in Distribution Synchrophasor Measurements

Noise estimation is an inadequately explored aspect of synchrophasor measurements. Though sensor components are often tested and evaluated for accuracy by the manufacturer in a lab setting, the noise in measurements made by Phasor Measurement Units deployed in the field has not been well quantified. The real world setting can have many sources of noise that are unaccounted for in the lab setting. Therefore, an empirical study of the noise level in synchrophasor measurements from an operational network is valuable. In addition to quantifying typical noise levels in the measurement data, understanding the noise model that best matches the observations is useful. In this work we present a novel test for comparing the efficacy of an additive versus a multiplicative noise model. We use three days of high-resolution voltage measurements from two distribution PMUs (D-PMUs) deployed on an operational distribution network to validate the additive noise model and estimate the typical noise level, parameterized by the measurement variance.
The Arginine-to-Ornithine Ratio: Biomarker of Arginase Activity and Predictor of Mortality in Sickle Cell Disease.

Abstract Sickle cell disease (SCD) is characterized by a state of nitric oxide resistance and limited bioavailability of L-arginine, the substrate for nitric oxide synthesis. While nitric oxide resistance occurs secondary to inactivation of nitric oxide by plasma hemoglobin released during intravascular hemolysis and by reactive oxygen species, mechanisms that limit L-arginine are not known. We hypothesized that increased arginase activity in patients with SCD would shift arginine metabolism away from nitric oxide production and towards ornithine metabolism, contributing to endothelial dysfunction and the development of pulmonary hypertension. Furthermore, since arginine and ornithine compete for the same transport system for cellular uptake, a decrease in the Arginine-to-Ornithine ratio resulting from increased arginase activity could also impair arginine bioavailability for nitric oxide production. Our goal was to evaluate associations between plasma arginase, arginine metabolism and pulmonary hypertension and prospective mortality in SCD. Plasma and erythrocyte arginase activity and amino acid levels were determined for patients with SCD and compared to ethnically matched control subjects. A diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension by Doppler-echocardiogram and prospective mortality were determined over 30 months of sequential patient enrollment. Plasma arginase activity was significantly elevated in patients with SCD compared to controls (2.2±2, n=140 vs. 0.4±2 μmol/ml/hr, n=45, p=0.007), trending higher in subjects with pulmonary hypertension. Plasma arginase activity correlated with the Arginine-to-Ornithine ratio (r=−0.33, p=0.0004), and lower ratios were associated with greater severity of pulmonary hypertension (1.1±0.4 vs. 0.8±0.4 vs. 0.6±0.3, controls vs. SCD without pulmonary hypertension vs. SCD with pulmonary hypertension, respectively, p=0.01) and independently associated with mortality (0.7±0.4 vs. 0.5±0.2, alive vs. dead, p=0.003; Risk Ratio = 4.9 [CI: 1.4, 17.1], p=0.002, for a low Arginine-to-Ornithine ratio; 13 deaths total). The mortality risk ratio increased to 7.0 ([CI: 1.6, 31.6], p=0.01), when the Arginine-to-Ornithine ratio was adjusted for creatinine, likely reflecting the impact of renal disease. Plasma arginase activity correlated with markers of increased hemolytic rate, including LDH (r=0.44, p
Route learning: a machine learning-based approach to infer constrained customers in delivery routes

Abstract The availability of increasingly large data sets in the context of supply chain and logistics creates opportunities to streamline operations leveraging machine learning methods. In this study, we apply such methods to a well-studied problem in transportation and logistics: routing optimization. Route planning technologies that build on routing optimization methods are widely used in industry. However, deviations from planned routes are common to observe in logistics practice, mainly caused by data unavailability on endogenous and exogenous customer constraints. The purpose of this study is to derive a machine-learning based approach to infer customer constraints from transactional data. We propose a probabilistic directed graphical model, using a Metropolis-Hastingswithin-Gibbs sampling algorithm for inference. Using a stylized problem inspired in a real-world dataset of delivery transactions, preliminary results suggests that our proposed method outperforms approaches based on simple counting of occurrences. Based on our results, we propose promising avenues of future research combining machine learning and routing problems.
The Final Project

The final project is the most important part of the course. Students will spend roughly half the course or more working on this project. It is basically an application of everything the students have learned in the class and even ties in some of their previous coursework. This project represents about 40% of the students’ entire grade and has many components, small and large. There are various approaches a teacher can take to this project depending on what your college expects. These approaches will be discussed in detail.
Identifying the Kinematics of Non-Redundant Serial Chain Manipulators by a Closed-loop Approach

A means of calibrating the kinematics of robots without endpoint sensing is presented. This method is a generalization of a method previously developed for calibrating redun­dant manipulators. The approach is to form the manipulator into a single-loop mobile closed kinematic chain by having it maintain a fixed point contact with the ground. An algorithm for identifying the closed kinematic chain from only the manipulator’s joint angles is presented. The issue of identifiability of the kinematic parameters is discussed.
Decision support for medical disasters: Evaluation of the IMPRESS system in the live Palermo demo

Abstract Background In medical disasters, coordination, information flows, and decision making are crucial for response and management. Different factors contribute to thwart the response efforts. Some are due to the coordination of the many agencies active in disaster response. Support tools for gathering and analysing data may support task assignment, resource allocation, and acquisition as well as training at different decision levels (in the field and in command-rooms). Validation of Decision Support Systems (DSS) in simulated contexts, simulating real situations, becomes mandatory. In the framework of testing and validation of the IMPRESS project (and of its INCIMOB and INCIMAG tools), one scenario was planned in Palermo, a city of 700,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean Area of Southern Italy, simulating the sudden liberation of high concentrations of toxic compounds from a fire in Palermo harbor. Emergency Agencies, a real and a simulated Hospital and operators in the field used the system during the response phase. A group of 20 external Observers participated for evaluation purposes. During a joint debriefing session, ad-hoc questionnaires were administered. IMPRESS was useful in improving the execution of important functions during the DEMO; Users agreed about the advantages of the use of IMPRESS tools for conducting crisis activities. INCIMOB use resulted more problematic from an operational point of view. Shortcomings were detected and criticisms were raised due mainly to the lack of training and direct voice communication. Evaluation of DSS in Emergency medicine can benefit from live exercises to highlight weaknesses in both the response system and decision support.
Honor and Shame in Early China

In this major new study, Mark Edward Lewis traces how the changing language of honor and shame helped to articulate and justify transformations in Chinese society between the Warring States and the end of the Han dynasty. Through careful examination of a wide variety of texts, he demonstrates how honor-shame discourse justified the actions of diverse and potentially rival groups. Over centuries, the formally recognized political order came to be intertwined with groups articulating alternative models of honor. These groups both participated in the existing order and, through their own visions of what was truly honourable, paved the way for subsequent political structures. Filling a major lacuna in the study of early China, Lewis presents ways in which the early Chinese empires can be fruitfully considered in comparative context and develops a more systematic understanding of the fundamental role of honor/shame in shaping states and societies.
A high-temperature continuous stirred-tank reactor cascade for the multistep synthesis of InP/ZnS quantum dots

The multistep and continuous production of core–shell III–V semiconductor nanocrystals remains a technological challenge. We present a newly designed high-temperature and miniature continuous stirred-tank reactor cascade, for the continuous and scalable synthesis of InP/ZnS core–shell quantum dots with a safer aminophosphine precursor comparing to standard protocols involving (TMS)3P. The resulting InP/ZnS QDs exhibit emissions between 520 and 610 nm, narrow emission linewidths in the range of 46–64 nm and photoluminescence quantum yields up to 42%.
Optimized permutation testing for information theoretic measures of multi-gene interactions

Permutation testing is often considered the “gold standard” for multi-test significance analysis, as it is an exact test requiring few assumptions about the distribution being computed. However, it can be computationally very expensive, particularly in its naive form in which the full analysis pipeline is re-run after permuting the phenotype labels. This can become intractable in multi-locus genome-wide association studies (GWAS), in which the number of potential interactions to be tested is combinatorially large. In this paper, we develop an approach for permutation testing in multi-locus GWAS, specifically focusing on SNP–SNP-phenotype interactions using multivariable measures that can be computed from frequency count tables, such as those based in Information Theory. We find that the computational bottleneck in this process is the construction of the count tables themselves, and that this step can be eliminated at each iteration of the permutation testing by transforming the count tables directly. This leads to a speed-up by a factor of over 103 for a typical permutation test compared to the naive approach. Additionally, this approach is insensitive to the number of samples making it suitable for datasets with large number of samples. The proliferation of large-scale datasets with genotype data for hundreds of thousands of individuals enables new and more powerful approaches for the detection of multi-locus genotype-phenotype interactions. Our approach significantly improves the computational tractability of permutation testing for these studies. Moreover, our approach is insensitive to the large number of samples in these modern datasets. The code for performing these computations and replicating the figures in this paper is freely available at https://github.com/kunert/permute-counts .
Catapleura Cope, 1870 is Euclastes Cope, 1867 (Testudines: Pan-Cheloniidae): synonymy revealed by a new specimen from New Jersey

The famous ‘Bone Wars’ between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh resulted in the naming of numerous vertebrate taxa from the Cretaceous formations of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, includi...
Reimaging and Rebuilding Primary Care as a Common Good.

It is old news that we spend more than we get from our health care system. Yet, both history and current headlines demonstrate that crisis is often a prelude to transformation. I read the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Rebuilding the Foundations of Health Care report[1][
Determination of residual stresses in a single FBG fiber/epoxy composite system

Abstract A new approach to determine residual fiber and matrix stresses in single fiber Bragg grating (FBG) fiber polymer matrix composites is developed based on the earlier work by Hoffman et al., 2020 [( Hoffman et al., 2020) 1] and Khadka et al., 2020 [( Khadka et al., 2020) 2]. In this new study, our already measured fiber strains in the composites based on room temperature (RT) and higher temperature (HT) epoxies were used to determine the stresses in the fibers. The total manufacturing residual stresses in the fibers were also separated for the curing and cooling parts of the manufacturing cycles. The cooling stresses for both epoxy systems were then independently verified through single fiber thermal numerical models. Subsequently, using our new methodology based on the Eshelby misfit approach and the single fiber thermal models, the total residual stresses in the matrix were found and then separated into the curing and cooling stresses. The maximum axial stresses at the matrix/fiber interfaces were found to be increasing with an increase in the curing temperature of the RT epoxy. For the highest curing temperature of the RT resin (70 °C), the residual axial stresses in the matrix (20 MPa) were close to the stresses in the HT epoxy (25 MPa) at the curing temperature of 121 °C. The curing matrix stresses were observed to be significant for both epoxy systems with their contributions to the total stress ranging from 28% to 48% depending on the resin type and curing conditions.
Strengthening silica aerogels with surface initiated ATRP cross-linked poly(methyl methacrylate)

Abstract Silica aerogels were strengthened by surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of methyl methacylate (MMA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) from ATRP initiators grafted to the gel before supercritical drying. Tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) was copolymerized in methanol with 2.67 mol% of the ATRP initiator, 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl-2-bromo-2-methylpropanoate, to afford gels. After replacing the methanol with toluene and adding copper catalyst, MMA and EGDMA (1:1), highly cross-linked poly(MMA-co-EGDMA) was grown from the surface of the aggregated particles making up the gel. After supercritical carbon dioxide drying, the result was highly porous poly(MMA-co-EGDMA)-silica aerogel composites that were significantly stronger than silica aerogels or poly(MMA)-silica aerogel composites of the same density.