cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Affirmative Action: A Case Study of an Organizational Effort:

This article tests affirmative action effectiveness with organizational compliance to affirmative action regulations. Effectiveness is tested with data from a case study that in many ways represents a “best case” scenario. Goals are compared with outcomes using affirmative action progress reports and the employee database that was used to compile the reports. Although few of the goals were met by the end of the set timetable, exaggeration of progress was found and was found to occur most when actual progress was weakest. The implications of “status inflation” are then discussed in light of research linking mobility to organizational manipulation of work arrangements.
Synchytrium Pilificum in America

Synchytrium pilificum Thomas is a short-cycled species which parasitizes Potentilla tormentilla in Europe and produces resting spores in composite hairy galls. Accordingly, it appears to be a member of the subgenus Pycnochytrium. The galls which it induces on its host are probably the most characteristic of any species of Synchytrium, and the species is readily identifiable by this character. They consist of a subhemispherical base from whose apex tufts of hairs arise and give them a hairy or felty appearance. For this reason the galls are referred to as felt galls (Kiister, 1911). Thomas (1883) recognized it first as a fungus in 1869 on Alexander Braun's herbarium specimens of P. tormentilla which G. Engleman had collected at Frankfurt, Germany, in 1825 and 1826. In 1880 Thomas found it only once on all of the above-ground parts of the same host in Thuringia, and in 1883 he described it as a new species of Synchytrium. He believed that the so-called "Phytocecidium" which Low (1883) described on P. erecta relates to the galls induced by S. pilificum. Low based his description on specimens which had been collected in southern Bohemia in 1863 by L. Kirschner who described the galls very briefly. Schroeter (1885) collected it in Silesia on P. silvestris, and later Zopf found it on P. tormentilla near Miinster and distributed herbarium specimens of it (Zopf, Krypt. exs. 1340). Tobler (1912) also reported it on P. tormentilla from Westphalia. She found only resting spores in June, but in February of the following year the spores had germinated to form sori and sporangia. Tobler, however, did not determine whether the spores are transformed directly into sori of sporangia, or function as prosori in germination and develop externally attached sori of sporangia. She reported only that "die Sori waren nun zum Teil in Sporangien zerfallen, und zwar 15-20." Kuster (1911) apparently collected this species also because he illustrated a longitudinal section of a gall. Also, specimens in the Berlin-Dahlem herbarium indicate that L. Ludwig (5-6-1915) collected it on the same host in Poland. These
Telling Stories: The Political Uses of Myth and History in the Cherokee and Creek Nations

"Tradition says the Muscoghees [or Creeks] came from the Mississippi," the Creek leader Alexander McGillivray told Henry Knox in 1790. McGillivray, a guest in the home of the secretary of war, had traveled north to New York City to negotiate the Creeks' first treaty with the United States, a momentous occasion for his nation, which was struggling to cope with Georgia's increasingly belligerent land grabs. Continuing his narrative, McGillivray recounted a detailed history of the Creeks that included the arrival of the French (who ignited a smallpox epidemic, he noted), the Yamasee War with South Carolina in 1715, the construction of Fort Toulouse by the French two years later, and the appearance of James Oglethorpe in 1733. Having dispensed with "tradition" in a single sentence, McGillivray related a Creek story about the past that Knox could readily recognize as history. Chronological and mundane, it integrated the Creeks into a narrative of events already familiar to the secretary of war.1 Nearly one hundred years later, G. W. Grayson, a prominent Creek leader and future principal chief, helped record, translate, and preserve a different version of the Creek past for Albert Gatschet, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology, situated in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. Like McGillivray before him, Grayson transmitted this story at a perilous time for the Creeks, for Congress was then considering measures to terminate Indian nations across the country. The narrative was nothing like the one recounted by McGillivray in 1790. "It was in the beginning when the people were first created," the story opened. "Far off toward the west many people came out of the ground." The story, which later appeared in a publication by the anthropologist John Reed Swanton, went on to recount a long migration, interrupted by magical episodes. While McGillivray had packaged his narrative as history, Grayson framed this one as a "very old and rare Creek legend," or, as he said of a similar story, "Ancient Myth," an object of study that Smithsonian scientists were busy defining in the late nineteenth century.2
Postcoital tests and sperm-agglutinating antibodies in men

Postcoital tests (PCTs) were examined from couples where the husbands had circulating head-to-head (H-H) or tail-to-tail (T-T) sperm-agglutinating antibodies. The results were compared with findings in couples without antibodies. The presence of H-H sperm-agglutinating antibodies did not interfere with the outcome of the PCT. High serum titers of T-T sperm-agglutinating antibodies, the presence of such antibodies in the seminal fluid, and/or a strong or complete autoagglutination in the husband's ejaculate markedly reduced the number of invading spermatozoa as well as their survival in the PCT. A moderate titer of T-T sperm-agglutinating antibodies was also reflected in the PCT but low titers did not have any influence on the results.
Optical Imaging of Short–Term Working Memory in Prefrontal Cortex of the Macaque Monkey

Prefrontal cortex is an area critical for cognitive functions such as planning, decision-making, and reasoning. Working memory is a key aspect to the execution of these functions and has been strongly associated with prefrontal function. This chapter reviews the functional organization of a prefrontal area, area 46, that has been associated with working memory in monkeys. Anatomical and optical imaging studies indicate the presence of a clustered organization within area 46, similar in nature to clustered organizations found in sensory cortical areas. Although the relationship of these clusters to working memory function is unknown, optical imaging studies suggest a spatial organization for mnemonic function. This ‘spatial memory map’ is topographically consistent with electrophysiologically established maps for visual and eye movement response. Interestingly, in trials in which response suppression is required, optical imaging reveals a possible suppressive signal; lack of this signal may underly the perseveration seen in diseases such as schizophrenia. In sum, I suggest that clustered organization in prefrontal cortex provides a scaffold upon which visual, mnemonic, and motor response are organized.
A Hybrid Dynamic System Model for Multimodal Transportation Electrification

In recent years, transportation electrification has emerged as a trend to support energy efficiency and CO2 emissions reduction targets. The true success, however, of this trend depends on the successful integration of electric transportation modes into the infrastructure systems that support them. Left unmanaged, plug-in electric vehicles may suffer from delays due to charging or cause destabilizing charging loads on the electrical grid. Online electric vehicles have emerged to remediate the need for stationary charging and its effects. While many works have sought to mitigate these effects with advanced control functionality, such as coordinated charging, vehicle-to-grid stabilization, and charging queue management, few works have assessed these impacts as a holistic transportation-electricity nexus. This paper develops a hybrid dynamic system model for transportation electrification. It also includes next generation traffic simulation concepts of multimodality and multiagency. Such a model can be used by electrified transportation fleet operators to not just assess but also improve their operations and control. The hybrid dynamic system model is composed of a marked Petri-net model superimposed on the continuous time kinematic and electrical state evolution. The model is demonstrated on an illustrative example of moderate size and functional heterogeneity.
Biochemical and Energy Requirements of Gonad Development

Abstract The importance of understanding energy allocation to developing gonads in cultured sea urchins can be summarized in a simple question: ‘what is the greatest yield of gonad tissue mass one can obtain with the lowest ration of food?’ In considering the growth and development of gonadal tissue as a harvestable resource, the balance between yield and ration can best be described in terms of the chemical constituents that limit gonad growth, i.e., the biochemical components in the shortest supply (ration) restrict development of the gonad tissues (yield). In this chapter we consider the metabolic activities in the sea urchin gonad in relation to an individual’s diet to identify the tissue constituents that have the highest anabolic costs and are thus the most likely to restrict or limit tissue production. Although whole-animal, energy metabolism (respiration and biochemical pathways) has been well studied in adult urchins, we focus specifically on what little is known about the metabolic activities in sea urchin gonads.
Export Promotion Strategies

It has been widely observed that the increasing openness of the Chinese economy, as measured by, say, the trade-to-GDP ratio, has been an important contributing factor to its growth performance. This chapter gives an overview of China’s foreign trade development, and identifies the policies that have promoted China’s trade performance. These policies included mainly decentralization of the trade management system, the regional targeting policy, and the sectoral targeting policy. The targeting policies used instruments such as tax breaks, foreign exchange retention privileges, government provision of cheap materials and credits, and duty-free imports. As a part of China’s regional targeting policy, the strategy of combining openness toward foreign investment with export orientation in the special economic zones (SEZs) and open coastal cities has been particularly successful. Among the targeted regions, Guangdong Province has been a model for developing a foreign investment-based and export-led development strategy.
Emerging separation techniques: supercritical fluid and ionic liquid extraction techniques for nuclear fuel reprocessing and radioactive waste treatment

Abstract: Minimizing liquid waste generation in the nuclear fuel cycle is of great importance to the future of nuclear energy. Separation techniques utilizing green solvents, supercritical fluid carbon dioxide and ionic liquids, for dissolution and extraction of uranium dioxide and fission products relevant to nuclear waste management are described in this chapter. An industrial demonstration of the supercritical fluid technology for recovering enriched uranium from the incinerator ash produced by the light water reactor fuel fabrication process by Areva NP in Richland, Washington is a good example of the new trend for treating nuclear wastes. Prospects and advantages of these emerging green techniques for nuclear fuel reprocessing and radioactive waste treatment are discussed.
Collective threat framing and mobilization in civil war

Research on civil war mobilization emphasizes armed group recruitment tactics and individual motivations to fight, but does not explore how individuals come to perceive the threat involved in civil war. Drawing on eight months of fieldwork with participants and nonparticipants in the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-93, this article argues that social structures, within which individuals are embedded, provide access to information critical for mobilization decisions by collectively framing threat. Threat framing filters from national through local leadership, to be consolidated and acted on within quotidian networks. Depending on how the threat is perceived - whether toward the self or the collectivity at its different levels - individuals adopt self- to other-regarding roles, from fleeing to fighting on behalf of the collectivity, even if it is a weaker actor in the war. This analysis sheds light on how the social framing of threat shapes mobilization trajectories and how normative and instrumental motivations interact in civil war.
Promoting Character and Resiliency among Elementary School Students: An Assessment of the CARE Now Program

Youth, especially in inner-city areas of the country, are in need of effective, outcome-based camp programs when school is not in session. Character and Resiliency Education (CARE) Now (CN) is a comprehensive in- and afterschool program designed to promote academic enrichment through positive youth development with a focus on enhancing character and resiliency. In the summer of 2013, CN was adapted to create a three-week long day camp at a high-needs elementary school in eastern Virginia. Using theoretically-based and outcome focused programming, CN was widely praised for its effectiveness among youth in this summer camp. To assess its impact, a mix-method approach was used, producing desirable results. Consequently, the supporting organization moved forward to fund CARE Now for a year-long program at the same school.
A Prospective Randomized Comparative Trial of Targeted Steroid Injection Via Epidural Catheter Versus Standard C7-T1 Interlaminar Approach for the Treatment of Unilateral Cervical Radicular Pain

Background and Objectives No study has compared cervical interlaminar epidural steroid injection (CIESI) with epidural catheter advancement to the side and level of pathology versus standard C7-T1 CIESI. This study investigated whether cervical radicular pain is more effectively treated by CIESI with a targeted epidural catheter versus a standard C7-T1 approach. Methods Prospective, randomized, single-blinded trial. Primary outcome: Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) pain at 1 month. Secondary outcomes: Oswestry Neck Disability Index (ONDI), Pain Disability Index (PDI), McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC), daily morphine equivalents (DME), and Medication Quantification Scale (MQS) III scores. Results Seventy-six participants with a median age of 48 years (IQR, 40–56 years), 59% female, with C4 (n = 2), C5 (n = 27), or C6 (n = 47) radicular pain were enrolled. At 1 month in the catheter and no catheter groups, respectively: 26 (72%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 57%–87%) and 23 (60%; 95% CI, 45%–75%) participants reported 50% or greater NRS reduction; 24 (67%; 95% CI, 52%–84%) and 23 (58%; 95% CI, 42%–73%) participants reported 30% or greater ONDI reduction. There were no group differences in median NRS, ONDI, PDI, MPQ, PGIC, DME, or MQSIII scores (P > 0.05). Intergroup differences were not observed at any follow-up interval. Conclusions This trial showed no significant difference in clinical outcomes with CIESI using a targeted epidural catheter compared to a standard C7-T1 approach for the treatment of unilateral cervical radicular pain at the C5 or C6 level. Both techniques were associated with clinically meaningful improvement across outcome domains of pain, function, disability, and medication use. These effects persisted to 6-month follow-up. The study was registered at Clinical Trials.gov (NCT02095197).
MATLAB ® as a Tool in Computational Finance

MATLAB is a versatile software package used in many areas of applied mathematics, including computational finance. It is a programming language with a large number of functions for Monte Carlo simulation useful in financial analysis. The design of MATLAB allows for flexible data entry, including easy access of financial data from web resources. The graphical capabilities of MATLAB facilitate exploratory analysis, and the wide range of mathematical and statistical functionality provides the financial data analyst with a powerful tool. This article illustrates some of the basic capabilities of MATLAB, with an emphasis on financial applications.
Applications of the Neutral Red Cytotoxicity Assay to In Vitro Toxicology

A concerted effort is currently in progress to develop alternatives to the use of live animals for the acute toxicity testing of xenobiotics. To this end, the neutral red in vitro cytotoxicity assa...
Picomolar Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide using Enzyme-free Inorganic Nanoparticle-based Sensor.

A philosophical shift has occurred in the field of biomedical sciences from treatment of late-stage disease symptoms to early detection and prevention. Ceria nanoparticles (CNPs) have been demonstrated to neutralize free radical chemical species associated with many life-threatening disease states such as cancers and neurodegenerative diseases by undergoing redox changes (Ce3+ ↔ Ce4+). Herein, we investigate the electrochemical response of multi-valent CNPs in presence of hydrogen peroxide and demonstrate an enzyme-free CNP-based biosensor capable of ultra-low (limit of quantitation: 0.1 pM) detection. Several preparations of CNPs with varying Ce3+:Ce4+ are produced and are analyzed by electrochemical methods. We find that an increasing magnitude of response in cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry correlates with increasing Ce4+ relative to Ce3+ and utilize this finding in the design of the sensor platform. The sensor retains sensitivity across a range of pH’s and temperatures, wherein enzyme-based sensors will not function, and in blood serum: reflecting selectivity and robustness as a potential implantable biomedical device.
Opioid analgesia in mechanically ventilated children: results from the multicenter Measuring Opioid Tolerance Induced by Fentanyl study.

Children requiring mechanical ventilation and invasive monitoring routinely receive opioids for analgesia/sedation in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) (1, 2). Use of opioid analgesics and other sedatives helps to reduce pain, anxiety, or agitation, facilitate mechanical ventilation, prevent physiological stress responses, and avoid secondary complications (3–5). Opioid therapy may lead to opioid-induced hyperalgesia or opioid tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal (6). These effects occur more commonly in children than in adults, because of developmental changes in metabolism, excretion, drug efficacy, receptor subtypes, signal transduction, receptor induction, or cellular regulatory pathways (6–11). Surveys of analgesia/sedation practices in PICUs demonstrated wide variability in clinical practices (1, 12). The use of several drug classes, multiple agents, large variations in the doses, frequency, and routes of administration, off-label use of analgesic drugs, or untested drug combinations occurs routinely, often driven by individual preferences or local culture (1, 6, 13). Consensus guidelines for sedation, analgesia, or neuromuscular blockade in PICU patients have highlighted the paucity of high-quality evidence and called for more randomized trials in this area (14, 15). Given this variability, it is difficult to define best practices, develop guidelines, or launch scientific efforts to investigate the key hypotheses in this area. Randomized trials in this population await descriptive observational studies to determine associations between clinical practices and patient outcomes, needed for generating hypotheses that can be tested formally. The Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network (CPCCRN) designed this prospective, observational study to characterize the exposure to opioid analgesia among mechanically ventilated children in the PICU, in order to prepare for a randomized trial comparing alternative analgesic strategies.
An inordinate fondness for Osedax (Siboglinidae: Annelida): Fourteen new species of bone worms from California.

We incorporate DNA sequences from a comprehensive sampling of taxa to provide an updated phylogeny of Osedax and discuss the remarkable diversity of this clade of siboglinids. We formally describe 14 new species of Osedax from Monterey Bay, California, USA, raising the total number of properly named Osedax species to 25. These new species had formerly been recognized by informal names in various publications, and on GenBank. The descriptions document the occurrence of dwarf males in five of the new species. The distribution for the 19 species of Osedax known to occur in Monterey Bay across depths from 385 to 2898 meters and various bone substrates is documented. The exploitation of extant bird and marine turtle bones by Osedax is reported for the first time .
METABOLITE PARAMETERS MODULATING MAB PRODUCTION IN A FIXED BED, GLASS SPHERE BIOREACTOR

For a hybridoma grown in a fixed bed culture system with 3 mM glutamine, Q(Mab) is correlated to Q(ATPox) and Q(Gln). However, if the feed glutamine concentration is switched between 1 and 3 mM, Q(Mab) does not obey the above relationship because Q(ATPox) is probably at or near its maximum value. In systems where the feed glutamine concentration is switched, maximum Q(Mab) values appear to be associated with glucose concentrations above 12.8 mM and an ammonium concentration of 2.0–2.5 mM.
A Test for Non-Stationarity of Synchrophasor Measurements

Synchrophasor measurements are becoming more widely used in control centers. These measurements under ambient power system conditions are frequently modeled as stochastic processes. Statistical stationarity, an assumption made for mathematical expediency of signal processing tools, is almost never completely satisfied in practice. Cogently, a wide-sense-stationarity assumption is made to leverage the powerful techniques developed over recent decades for power system signal analysis. In reality, typical power system operation violates this assumption quite often. Therefore, a detailed study for time-varying statistics of synchrophasor measurements is needed to better understand true system characteristics. The work presented here applies an evolutionary spectrum based nonstationarity test to synchrophasor measurements. The test can provide some useful information such as, overall wide-sense-stationarity of a set of synchrophasor measurements, how long the measurements maintain wide-sense-stationarity, what are the frequency components that violate the assumption, statistical similarity of two or more sets of measurements, etc.
Early Enteral Nutrition Adequacy Mitigates the Neutrophil–Lymphocyte Ratio Improving Clinical Outcomes in Critically Ill Surgical Patients

Background Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of host inflammatory response; a higher NLR is associated with worse clinical outcomes. Enteral nutrition (EN) may mitigate inflammation through interaction with gut-associated lymphoid tissue. We hypothesized that early EN adequacy in critically ill surgical patients is associated with lower NLR and better clinical outcomes. Methods In this retrospective study, we analyzed data from adult surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients receiving EN. NLR at baseline ICU admission (NLR-B), NLR after 3-5 days of EN (F-NLR), nutrition adequacy, caloric deficit (CD), protein deficit (PD), hospital length of stay (LOS), ICU LOS, 28-day ventilator-free days (28-VFD), and in-hospital mortality were collected. Tertiles groups were created for NLR, F-NLR, CD, and PD; the highest (H) and lowest (L) tertiles were compared. Regression analyses were performed to control for effect of age, gender, APACHE II, and NLR. Results Subjects in the L-CD group had lower median F-NLR (7 [range, 5-11] vs 10 [7-22], P = 0.005) and shorter ICU LOS (9 [6-16]) vs 16 [9-32] days; P = 0.006). The L-NLR group had shorter hospital LOS (18 [10-31] vs 22 [15-38] days, P = 0.023), greater 28-VFD (23 [18-25] vs 19 [11-22] days, P = 0.005), and lower in-hospital mortality (13% vs 41%, P = 0.002). Conclusion In critically ill surgical patients, early enteral caloric adequacy is associated with less inflammation and improved clinical outcomes.
Critical Analysis of Literature and Evidence-Based Medicine

The ability to critically analyze medical literature is an important skill. Ethically conducted research with clearly reported methods and repeatable results is the only valid basis for clinical practice. Unfortunately, poorly designed or even fraudulent studies are common in the literature, and even the best-conducted research may be challenging to interpret and apply. In observational studies, it is important to assess for external validity, as well as sources of confounding and bias. Even the largest-scale data analyses are not free from these concerns. In clinical trials, it is also important to assess for external validity, public registration of the trial, and other elements of good practice as defined by the CONSORT statement. Although systematic reviews and meta-analyses are considered the highest standard of clinical evidence, they are limited by the quality of the studies that they are based on.
Translational formulation of nanoparticle therapeutics from laboratory discovery to clinical scale

“Nanomedicine” is the application of purposely designed nano-scale materials for improved therapeutic and diagnostic outcomes, which cannot be otherwise achieved using conventional delivery approaches. While “translation” in drug development commonly encompasses the steps from discovery to human clinical trials, a different set of translational steps is required in nanomedicine. Although significant development effort has been focused on nanomedicine, the translation from laboratory formulations up to large scale production has been one of the major challenges to the success of such nano-therapeutics. In particular, scale-up significantly alters momentum and mass transfer rates, which leads to different regimes for the formation of nanomedicines. Therefore, unlike the conventional definition of translational medicine, a key component of “bench-to-bedside” translational research in nanomedicine is the scale-up of the synthesis and processing of the nano-formulation to achieve precise control of the nanoscale properties. This consistency requires reproducibility of size, polydispersity and drug efficacy. Here we demonstrate that Flash NanoPrecipitation (FNP) offers a scalable and continuous technique to scale up the production rate of nanoparticles from a laboratory scale to a pilot scale. FNP is a continuous, stabilizer-directed rapid precipitation process. Lumefantrine, an anti-malaria drug, was chosen as a representative drug that was processed into 200 nm nanoparticles with enhanced bioavailability and dissolution kinetics. Three scales of mixers, including a small-scale confined impinging jet mixer, a mid-scale multi-inlet vortex mixer (MIVM) and a large-scale multi-inlet vortex mixer, were utilized in the formulation. The production rate of nanoparticles was varied from a few milligrams in a laboratory batch mode to around 1 kg/day in a continuous large-scale mode, with the size and polydispersity similar at all scales. Nanoparticles of 200 nm were made at all three scales of mixers by operating at equivalent Reynolds numbers (dynamic similarity) in each mixer. Powder X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry demonstrated that the drugs were encapsulated in an amorphous form across all production rates. Next, scalable and continuous spray drying was applied to obtain dried powders for long-term storage stability. For dissolution kinetics, spray dried samples produced by the large-scale MIVM showed 100% release in less than 2 h in both fasted and fed state intestinal fluids, similar to small-batch low-temperature lyophilization. These results validate the successful translation of a nanoparticle formulation from the discovery scale to the clinical scale. Coupling nanoparticle production using FNP processing with spray drying offers a continuous nanofabrication platform to scale up nanoparticle synthesis and processing into solid dosage forms.
Can “it” happen again? Essays on instability and finance: By Hyman P. Minsky Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1982, 301 pp., $25.00

(1987). Can “it” happen again? Essays on instability and finance. The Social Science Journal: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 214-216.
Impact of Imbalanced Wind Turbine Generator Cooling on Reliability

Recent development of high efficiency generator and motors leading their designs with less cooling capacity. Various studies have indicated that bearing failure is the prime cause of generator failure in wind turbine application. Grease lubrication deterioration found to be leading cause of motors and generators bearing failure. Grease service life for generators is closely associated with the operating temperature. One issue with the less cooled design is higher bearing temperature. This lead to marginal lubrication, premature bearing failure and reduce generator reliability. To verify this relation, and address the issue of inadequate and imbalanced bearing cooling; this paper presents a recent experimentation performed on air to air-cooled squirrel cage induction generator. This test address a potential issue with IC6A1A6 cooled design. This paper recommends IEC/IEEE to consider this issue and update the corresponding standards. To get optimal bearing life and generator reliability, either allowed bearing operating temperature range should be reduced significantly or IEC/IEEE should come up with different intervals of lubrication for bth ends of the bearings. Issues similar as with IEEE standard 841 high-efficiency motors can be avoided, where a study performed on reliability of these motors used in refinery confirmed that motors are at greater risk. Proactive plan based on the result and recommendations in this paper will help to secure the safe wind turbines generator operation.
Psychoanalysis, Clinic and Context: Subjectivity, History and Autobiography

Structure was a key signifier, and a logical quilting point, informing Jacques Lacan’s return to Freud, which amounted to his reinvention of the unconscious as structured like a language. Lacan read, and reinvigorated, Sigmund Freud’s classic texts primarily through the lenses of Ferdinand de Saussure’s structural linguistics and Claude Levi-Strauss’s structural anthropology—not mentioning Hegelianism (via Kojeve), surrealism, and mathematics as other equally important lenses. The structure of subjectivity was the central question for both Freud and Lacan. While the former understood psychic structure in terms of topography, the latter explicated it through topology. What then of the structure of Ian Parker’s recently published book?
Computing Input-Ouput Properties of Coupled Linear PDE systems

In this paper, we propose an LMI-based approach to analyze input-output properties of coupled linear PDE systems. This work expands on a newly developed state-space theory for coupled PDEs and extends the positive-real and bounded-real lemmas to infinite dimensional systems. We show that conditions for passivity and bounded L2 gain can be expressed as linear operator inequalities on R× L2. A method to convert these operator inequalities to LMIs by using parameterization of the operator variables is proposed. This method does not rely on discretization and as such, the properties obtained are prima facie provable. We use numerical examples to demonstrate that the bounds obtained are not conservative in any significant sense and that the bounds are computable on desktop computers for systems consisting of up to 20 coupled PDEs.
Impact of Sleep Restriction on Food Intake and Food Choice

Abstract Several studies have demonstrated significant associations between sleep deficiency and obesity. The mechanisms by which short sleep duration affects food intake and food choice to contribute to weight gain have been explored using experimental manipulations of sleep. These experimental models have revealed that sleep duration affects not only subjective hunger and appetite but also actual food intake. Indeed, the endocrine and neural processes that regulate feeding behavior have been shown to be influenced by sleep restriction. In particular, levels of hormones involved in the homeostatic regulation of appetite, namely leptin and ghrelin, are altered. Moreover, in a state of sleep debt caloric intake exceeds energy need, suggesting the involvement of additional systems. In fact, sleep restriction appears to alter brain reward systems and preference for highly palatable, rewarding foods, an affect perhaps mediated, in part, by the endocannabinoid system. This chapter reviews the epidemiological evidence and laboratory findings that support a role for sleep duration in mediating feeding behavior, as well as explores the potential mechanisms by which sleep duration affects food intake and food choice, thus contributing to the increased prevalence of obesity.
Synthesis, Crystal Growth, and Transport Properties of van der Waals Tetrel Pnictide GeAs2

Bulk GeAs2 was synthesized utilizing a vapor transport reaction with iodine. Thermal stability tests under dynamic conditions show that GeAs2 decomposes below 700 K, in contrast to the reported con...
Learning to Restore a Single Face Image Degraded by Atmospheric Turbulence using CNNs.

Atmospheric turbulence significantly affects imaging systems which use light that has propagated through long atmospheric paths. Images captured under such condition suffer from a combination of geometric deformation and space varying blur. We present a deep learning-based solution to the problem of restoring a turbulence-degraded face image where prior information regarding the amount of geometric distortion and blur at each location of the face image is first estimated using two separate networks. The estimated prior information is then used by a network called, Turbulence Distortion Removal Network (TDRN), to correct geometric distortion and reduce blur in the face image. Furthermore, a novel loss is proposed to train TDRN where first and second order image gradients are computed along with their confidence maps to mitigate the effect of turbulence degradation. Comprehensive experiments on synthetic and real face images show that this framework is capable of alleviating blur and geometric distortion caused by atmospheric turbulence, and significantly improves the visual quality. In addition, an ablation study is performed to demonstrate the improvements obtained by different modules in the proposed method.
Two Year Outcomes of Prehabilitation Among Obese Patients with Ventral Hernias: A Randomized Controlled Trial (NCT02365194).

Objective To determine if preoperative nutritional counseling and exercise (prehabilitation) improve outcomes in obese patients seeking ventral hernia repair (VHR)? Summary background data Obesity and poor fitness are associated with complications following VHR. It is unknown if preoperative prehabilitation improves outcomes of obese patients seeking VHR. Methods This is the 2-year follow-up of a blinded randomized controlled trial from 2015-2017 at a safety-net academic institution. Obese patients(BMI 30-40) seeking VHR were randomized to prehabilitation versus standard counseling. Elective VHR was performed once preoperative requirements were met: 7% total body weight loss or 6 months of counseling and no weight gain. Primary outcome was percentage of hernia-free and complication-free patients at 2-years. Complications included recurrence, re-operation, and mesh complications. Primary outcome was compared using chi-square. We hypothesize that prehabilitation in obese patients with VHR results in more hernia- and complication-free patients at 2-years. Results Of the 118 randomized patients, 108(91.5%) completed a median(range) follow-up of 27.3(6.2-37.4) months. Baseline BMI (mean±SD) was similar between groups (36.8 ± 2.6 vs 37.0 ± 2.6). More patients in the prehabilitation group underwent emergency surgery (5 vs 1) or dropped out of the program (3 vs 1) compared to standard counseling (13.6% vs 3.4%, p = 0.094). Among patients who underwent surgery, there was no difference in major complications (10.2% vs 9.1%, p = 0.438). At 2-years, there was no difference in percentage of hernia-free and complication-free patients (72.9% versus 66.1%, p = 0.424, 1.14, 0.88-1.47). Conclusion There is no difference in 2-year outcomes of obese patients seeking VHR who undergo prehabilitation versus standard care. Prehabilitation may not be warranted in obese patients undergoing elective VHR. Clinical trial registration This trial was registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02365194)Conflict of Interest and Source of Funding: This work was supported by grants awarded to Dr. Liang from the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences [grant number UL1 TR000370] and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences [grant number KL2 TR000370]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Research or the National Institute of Health. The remaining authors have nothing to disclose. Funding Grants from the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences [UL1 TR000370] and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences [KL2 TR000370].
Flow visualization of analyte transport to microtoroid optical resonators

High Q whispering gallery mode optical resonators are capable of rapid and ultra-sensitive biological detection at attomolar concentrations in under 30 seconds. One main question in the field is how these sensors detect such low concentrations of molecules so quickly. Calculations based on diffusion alone suggest that transport to these sensors should take hours to days. Here, we show using bromothymol blue dye flow visualization methods that transport to a microtoroid optical resonator can take place in seconds. We reconcile these results with finite element simulations.
Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease Without Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia: A Review

Importance Lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects approximately 8.5 million people in the US and approximately 230 million worldwide. Observations Peripheral artery disease is uncommon before aged 50 years but affects up to 20% of people aged 80 years and older. It can be noninvasively diagnosed with the ankle-brachial index (ABI), a ratio of Doppler-recorded pressures in the dorsalis pedis and/or posterior tibial artery in each leg to brachial artery pressures. An ABI value less than 0.90 is 57% to 79% sensitive and 83% to 99% specific for arterial stenosis of at least 50%. Intermittent claudication, consisting of exertional calf pain that does not begin at rest and that resolves within 10 minutes of rest, is considered the classic symptom of PAD. However, 70% to 90% of people with an ABI value less than 0.90 either report no exertional leg symptoms (ie, asymptomatic) or report leg symptoms with walking that are not consistent with classic claudication. Over time, people with PAD restrict walking activity or slow walking speed to avoid leg symptoms. Thus, although approximately 75% of people with PAD report no change in leg symptoms over time, those with PAD have significantly greater annual declines in 6-minute walk performance compared with those without it. Approximately 11% of people with PAD develop chronic limb-threatening ischemia, the most severe form of PAD. Compared with people without PAD, those with the disease have approximately twice the rate of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and major coronary events at 10-year follow-up. High-dose statins and antiplatelet therapy with or without antithrombotic therapy reduced rates of coronary events and stroke in people with PAD. Supervised treadmill exercise improved 6-minute walk distance by 30 to 35 m, consistent with a clinically meaningful change, whereas effective home-based walking exercise interventions improved 6-minute walk by 42 to 53 m. Effective home-based exercise programs require behavioral methods, including monitoring by a coach. Conclusions and Relevance Peripheral artery disease affects approximately 230 million people worldwide and is associated with increased rates of cardiovascular events, lower extremity events, and functional decline compared with that of people without PAD. People with PAD should be treated with the highest dose of statin tolerated, antithrombotic and/or antiplatelet therapy, and exercise.
Российская промышленность в марте 2021 г. (Russian Industry in March 2021)

Russian abstract: Увеличение спроса в марте 2021 г. позволяет предприятиям российской промышленности нанимать персонал и поддерживать рост выпуска. Прогнозы продаж, планы выпуска и найма продолжают набирать оптимизм, что дает основания надеяться на сохранение положительной динамики и во втором квартале 2021 г. Однако в российской промышленности высоки и инфляционные ожидания. English abstract: The increase in demand evidenced in March 2021 allows Russian industrial enterprises to hire personnel and maintain the output growth. Sales forecasts, the output and hiring plans continue to gain optimism, giving the reason to hope that the upward trend will continue in Q2 2021. However, inflationary expectations are also high in the Russian industry.
Parliamentarization of popular contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834

There is a great deal of centralisation in England; but of what sort? Legislative and not administrative; governmental rather than administrative; but as with us it sometimes extends down to very small, puerile details. The mania for regimentation, which is not a French mania, but one of men and of power, is found here as elsewhere. But it can only have a single, passing effect, and can only very imperfectly achieve its object. That is because the centralising power is in the hands of the legislature, not of the executive.l
Understanding privacy risk of publishing decision trees

Publishing decision trees can provide enormous benefits to the society. Meanwhile, it is widely believed that publishing decision trees can pose a potential risk to privacy. However, there is not much investigation on the privacy consequence of publishing decision trees. To understand this problem, we need to quantitatively measure privacy risk. Based on the well-established maximum entropy theory, we have developed a systematic method to quantify privacy risks when decision trees are published. Our method converts the knowledge embedded in decision trees into equations and inequalities (called constraints), and then uses nonlinear programming tool to conduct maximum entropy estimate. The estimate results are then used to quantify privacy. We have conducted experiments to evaluate the effectiveness and performance of our method.
Accuracy of self-reported depression in persons with dementia.

Objectives: To investigate the reliability and validity of self-reported depression in demented elderly patients. Design: This is the first study to combine the use of multiple depression criteria with dementia and depression control groups. Setting: Houston Veterans Affairs nursing home and geropsychiatric inpatient unit and outpatient clinic, Baylor College of Medicine's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Participants: The total sample included 121 volunteer participants, their informants, and their clinicians, forming four diagnostic groups (27 controls, 37 dementia only, 28 depression only, 29 dementia and depression). Measurements: Scales assessing depression, deficit awareness, physical illness, functional disability, caregiver burden, and severity of cognitive impairment were used. Results: Analyses of variance using informant- and clinician-rated depression categories found main effects on patient-reported depression scores for deficit awareness and depression diagnosis but not for dementia diagnosis. Chi-square analyses revealed that demented and depressed patients underreported depression at similarly high rates compared with clinician and informant reports. Regression analyses revealed that deficit awareness accounted for significant variance in self-reported depression accuracy, whereas clinician- or informant-rated depression, severity of cognitive impairment, physical disability, functional status, and caregiver burden were not significant. Conclusion: The results of this investigation suggest that the presence of dementia per se does not predict inaccurate depression self-reports. Deficit awareness, which covaries with dementia, appears to account for the majority of the variance in self-report accuracy. These findings were stable across informant- and clinician-rated depression criteria and multiple analyses.
Organic Crop Production — Ambitions and Limitations, by Holger Kirchmann and Lars Bergström

Readers searching for a comprehensive critique of organic farming need look no further than Organic Crop Production—Ambitions and Limitations (Springer-Verlaug, 2008). Editors Holger Kirschmann and...
Response of Atmospheric Convection to Vertical Wind Shear: Cloud-System-Resolving Simulations with Parameterized Large-Scale Circulation. Part II: Effect of Interactive Radiation

AbstractThe authors investigate the effects of cloud–radiation interaction and vertical wind shear on convective ensembles interacting with large-scale dynamics in cloud-resolving model simulations, with the large-scale circulation parameterized using the weak temperature gradient approximation. Numerical experiments with interactive radiation are conducted with imposed surface heat fluxes constant in space and time, an idealized lower boundary condition that prevents wind–evaporation feedback. Each simulation with interactive radiation is compared to a simulation in which the radiative heating profile is held constant in the horizontal and in time and is equal to the horizontal-mean profile from the interactive-radiation simulation with the same vertical shear profile and surface fluxes. Interactive radiation is found to reduce mean precipitation in all cases. The magnitude of the reduction is nearly independent of the vertical wind shear but increases with surface fluxes. Deep shear also reduces precipi...
Deficiency of Angiotensinogen in Hepatocytes Markedly Decreases Blood Pressure in Lean and Obese Male Mice

We recently demonstrated that adipocyte deficiency of angiotensinogen (AGT) ablated high-fat diet-induced elevations in plasma angiotensin II (Ang II) concentrations and obesity-hypertension in male mice. Hepatocytes are the predominant source of systemic AGT. Therefore, in this study, we defined the contribution of hepatocyte-derived AGT to obesity-induced elevations in plasma AGT concentrations and hypertension. Male Agt(fl/fl) mice expressing albumin-driven Cre recombinase were bred to female Agt(fl/fl) mice to generate Agt(fl/fl) or hepatocyte AGT-deficient male mice (Agt(Alb)). Mice were fed a low-fat or high-fat diet for 16 weeks. Hepatocyte AGT deficiency had no significant effect on body weight. Plasma AGT concentrations were increased in obese Agt(fl/fl) mice. Hepatocyte AGT deficiency markedly reduced plasma AGT and Ang II concentrations in lean and obese mice. Moreover, hepatocyte AGT deficiency reduced the content and release of AGT from adipose explants. Systolic blood pressure was markedly decreased in lean (by 18 mm Hg) and obese Agt(Alb) mice (by 54 mm Hg) compared with Agt(fl/fl) controls. To define mechanisms, we quantified effects of Ang II on mRNA abundance of megalin, an AGT uptake transporter, in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Ang II stimulated adipocyte megalin mRNA abundance and decreased media AGT concentrations. These results demonstrate that hepatocytes are the predominant source of systemic AGT in both lean and obese mice. Moreover, reductions in plasma angiotensin concentrations in obese hepatocyte AGT-deficient mice may have limited megalin-dependent uptake of AGT into adipocytes for the production of Ang II in the development of obesity-hypertension.