cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Arsenic exposure linked to diabetes risk in Canada

Arsenic is associated with a significantly increased risk of type II diabetes and prediabetes, according a study based on cross-Canada biomonitoring data. This is the first time this emerging link, shown in studies from many parts of the world, has been tested here. The study, published in June in
Progress in research and application of Ziegler-Natta catalysts for Unipol polyethylene production

This review summarizes eight kinds of Ziegler-Natta catalysts for Unipol gas-phase process of polyethylene production together with the analysis of their advantages and disadvantages.M catalyst is widely applied,while its catalytic activity is low.BCG-IV catalyst shows high initial and total activities for the addition of accelerator during catalyst preparation.SCG-1 catalyst has moderate activity,while its preparation is simple.GM catalyst has high catalytic activity and the polymer produced has high bulk density owing to the introduction of special electron donor during the activiting process of carriers.However,J catalyst is the leading direction of Unipol process catalyst development for its outstanding performance.BCS-02 is more suitable for condensated state operation.Preparation of BCS-01 catalyst is unique,while requires demanding preparation conditions.SLC catalyst,without the application of silica gel carriers,shows high catalytic efficiency with greatly reduced production cost.Some suggestions to promote the development and localization of Unipol process catalysts are proposed.
Fractionated CO2 Laser Skin Resurfacing

Ablative laser skin resurfacing may produce dramatic effects, with significant risk, side effects, and healing time. Efforts are always being made to find devices and treatment strategies that lessen the healing time and side effect profile of the full-ablative short-pulse CO2 and erbium-YAG lasers while extending the clinical applications. Reepithelialization time and duration of erythema are both significantly less with fractional CO2 laser treatment as compared to fully ablative CO2 laser skin resurfacing. The eCO2 fractionated CO2 laser has largely supplanted the Sciton dual-mode Er:YAG laser the author has used primarily for skin resurfacing over the past 17 years.
System identification for building thermal systems under the presence of unmeasured disturbances in closed loop operation: Lumped disturbance modeling approach

Abstract Identification approaches applied to semi-physical thermal network structures, so called gray-box modeling approaches, are popular in building science for energy audits, retrofit analysis and advanced building controls, e.g. model predictive control. However conventional identification approaches applied to thermal networks fail when there are significant unmeasured heat gains that influence building responses. This paper presents a method to obtain improved gray-box building models from closed loop data having significant unmeasured disturbances. The method estimates both physical parameters of a building thermal network model and also a disturbance model that characterizes the unmeasured inputs. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated using numerical and experimental results.
Customizable and Predictable Synchronization in a Component-Based OS.

Component-based operating systems enable embedded systems to adapt system policies, mechanisms, and abstractions to the specific workloads and contexts of each system. The scope of an embedded system developer to customize the software of the system is often limited by the kernel abstractions. For example, synchronization and scheduling policies are often constrained to the static few provided by the kernel. As time-management is an essential aspect of many embedded systems, there is motivation to enable these systems to configure synchronization policies to their needs. In this paper, we present a component-based implementation of system synchronization policies in the COMPOSITE OS. This implementation provides fault-isolation between applications, synchronization mechanisms, and system schedulers while maintaining high levels of performance. Empirical evaluation demonstrates that the proposed primitives have performance comparable to a highly optimized, but uncustomizable futex mechanism in Linux.
Complex segregation analysis of nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate.

This study was undertaken to examine the inheritance pattern of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P). Complex segregation analysis using the unified model as in POINTER and the regressive model as in REGD programs were applied to analyze a midwestern U.S. Caucasian population of 79 families ascertained through a proband with CL/F. In REGD, the dominant or codominant Mendelian major locus models of inheritance were the most parsimonious fit. In POINTER, besides the Mendelian major locus model, the multifactorial threshold (MF/T) model and the mixed model were also consistent with the observed data. However, the high heritability parameter of .93 (SD .063) in the MF/T model suggests that any random exogenous factors are unlikely to be the underlying mechanisms, and the mixed model indicates that this high heritability is accounted for by a major dominant locus component. These findings indicate that the best explanation for the etiology of CL/P in this study population is a putative major locus associated with markedly decreased penetrance. Molecular studies may provide further insight into the genetic mechanism underlying CL/P.
Two-day appointment scheduling with patient preferences and geometric arrivals

We consider an appointment system where the patients have preferences about the appointment days. A patient may be scheduled on one of the days that is acceptable to her, or be denied appointment. The patient may or may not show up at the appointed time. The net cost is a convex function of the actual number of patients served on a given day. We study the optimal scheduling policy that minimizes the long-run average cost and study its structural properties. We advocate an index policy, which is easy to implement, performs well in comparison with other heuristic policies, and is close to the optimal policy.
Reliability and Validity of edTPA

This chapter examines the reliability and validity of edTPA, primarily by applying traditional psychometric methods for evaluating the effectiveness of assessment instruments. It provides description of reliability and validity; the purpose and structure edTPA; an analysis of edTPA based on reliability, inter-rater reliability, and validity. The analysis of edTPA includes its value and effectiveness, including a comparison to other predictors of teacher effectiveness.
Low-Cost Intra-Articular Distraction Technique Using Kirschner Wires and a Toothed Lamina Spreader

We describe a low-cost (instrument cost) technique for joint distraction using 2 Kirschner wires and a toothed lamina spreader in lieu of a Hintermann distractor. The described technique allows for temporary intra-articular distraction and visualization and preservation of the articular surface with extra-articular instrumentation. The technique can also allow for closed reduction and percutaneous treatment in cases of soft tissue compromise. Additionally, the technique uses common orthopedic surgical instruments, leading to a minimal learning curve for novice surgeons. We have found this distraction technique to be most effective for intra-articular preparation of hindfoot and midfoot arthrodeses and for navicular fracture reduction.
A graph-theoretic-based method for analyzing conduction problems

A new graph-theoretical approach is presented for heat diffusion analysis given an arbitrary geometry and spatially varying parameters. A weighted directed graph with positive communication or conduction weights is proposed for heat transfer analysis, where the communication weights of the graph are determined based on the positions of the nodes and the spatially varying thermal and material properties of the domain. Transient Neumann and Dirichlet conditions are considered at the boundary nodes of the graph. Then, the temperature at each interior node is updated based on the temperatures at its in-neighbor nodes, where the in-neighbor vertices of interior nodes and the conduction weights are assigned based on the conduction graph. A set of coupled first-order ordinary differential equations determines the transient temperatures at the interior nodes for a prescribed boundary condition. The proposed method can be applied to both steady-state and transient heat diffusion analysis.
Fitness effects of mutation: testing genetic redundancy in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Screens of organisms with disruptive mutations in a single gene often fail to detect phenotypic consequences for the majority of mutants. One explanation for this phenomenon is that the presence of paralogous loci provides genetic redundancy. However, it is also possible that the assayed traits are affected by few loci, that effects could be subtle or that phenotypic effects are restricted to certain environments. We assayed a set of T-DNA insertion mutant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana to determine the frequency with which mutation affected fitness-related phenotypes. We found that between 8% and 42% of the assayed lines had altered fitness from the wild type. Furthermore, many of these lines exhibited fitness greater than the wild type. In a second experiment, we grew a subset of the lines in multiple environments and found whether a T-DNA insert increased or decreased fitness traits depended on the assay environment. Overall, our evidence contradicts the hypothesis that genetic redundancy is a common phenomenon in A. thaliana for fitness traits. Evidence for redundancy from prior screens of knockout mutants may often be an artefact of the design of the phenotypic assays which have focused on less complex phenotypes than fitness and have used single environments. Finally, our study adds to evidence that beneficial mutations may represent a significant component of the mutational spectrum of A. thaliana.
Morphological Aspects of Dietary Fibers in the Intestine

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the morphological aspects of dietary fibers in the intestine. It presents the results from a comparative assessment of the structural responses to the inclusion of carefully defined semi purified fibers and bile salt-binding resins in paired groups of animals. The morphological and analytical modes deployed include routine light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy of architectural surface topography of the mucosa. There is a lack of consistent information in regard to the antiatherogenic potential of individual dietary fibers in different species. The mechanisms proposed to account for their hypolipidemic properties include reduced intestinal transit time; binding of bile acids or phospholipids in the intestinal lumen, thereby reducing absorptive capacity; alterations in hepatic lipid and bile acid metabolism; and effects on the serum and tissue distribution of lipids. The effects of high-fiber feeding on fecal sterol concentrations and bacterial populations in the colon have also received much attention in the field of colon carcinogenesis. It is becoming apparent that the presence of fiber in the gastrointestinal tract may affect the regulation of endocrinological or peptide factors that are critical to gastrointestinal functioning.
Rapid Biomass Analysis

New, rapid, and inexpensive methods that monitor the chemical composition of corn stover and corn stover—derived samples are a key element to enabling the commercialization of processes that convert stover to fuels and chemicals. These new techniques combine near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and projection to latent structures (PLS) multivariate analysis to allow the compositional analysis of hundreds of samples in 1 d at a cost of about $10 each. The new NIR/PLS rapid analysis methods can also be used to support a variety of research projects that would have been too costly to pursue by traditional methods.
Transitions between cooperative educational experiences to the university

Cooperative education programs (co-ops) are partnerships between industries and universities that allow students to gain real, hands-on experience in their field. The benefits of co-ops have been explored thoroughly in relation to both students and employers, as well as universities seeking to establish more connections with industry. Participants in co-ops often have higher starting salaries and a higher level of job satisfaction, because they have experienced the work and have accurate expectations for full-time employment. Employers also benefit from the co-op system, with both inexpensive labor and the opportunity to invest in qualified new employees. In addition to the career benefits and job satisfaction resulting from co-ops, participants in co-ops often reflect higher GPAs than their non-participant peers. However, in a study examining the transition from co-ops to full-time employment, though it was not specifically asked of them, thirty percent of students reported that the transition from their co-op back to their university hindered their academic motivation. The researchers also found similar experiences reported by students at another university and thought this consideration was worthy of further investigation. This study interviewed four students' experiences about the transition from their co-op experience to their full time enrollment at their university and how this transition impacted them. Students enrolled in engineering degree programs at University of Louisville are required to complete three co-ops before graduation. This lends to a unique situation where all students go on co-op, hence the interest in how co-ops affect the transition back to the university after co-op. The interviews lasted between 15–30 minutes in a structured format. The students volunteered from a survey asking about difficulties coming back to the university from co-op. All of these students, except one, reported having a difficult time with that transition. They reported the difficulties of getting back into the rhythm of a full course load, where they have many tasks to manage every day compared to a job, where they only have a couple tasks to focus on and complete every day. One of the four students reported that they utilized the institutional student support system to help them with their transition. These findings show that for some students, the transition is difficult, and there may be institutional support that could be provided to help them.
Pilot decontamination under imperfect power control

In a time-division duplex (TDD) multiple antenna system the channel state information (CSI) can be estimated using reverse training. In multicell multiuser massive MIMO systems, pilot contamination degrades CSI estimation performance and adversely affects massive MIMO system performance. In this paper we consider a subspace-based semi-blind approach where we have training data as well as information bearing data from various users (both in-cell and neighboring cells) at the base station (BS). Existing subspace approaches assume that the interfering users from neighboring cells are always at distinctly lower power levels at the BS compared to the in-cell users. In this paper we do not make any such assumption. Unlike existing approaches, the BS estimates the channels of all users: in-cell and significant neighboring cell users, i.e., ones with comparable power levels at the BS. We exploit both subspace method using correlation as well as blind source separation using higher-order statistics. The proposed approach is illustrated via simulation examples.
The Implications of Barbed Sutures on Scar Aesthetics: A Systematic Review.

Background Barbed sutures have become increasingly popular in the field of aesthetic plastic surgery, particularly in body contouring and breast operations, in which the use of barbed sutures may offer both time and cost savings. Scar aesthetics is an important outcome for both surgeons and patients in these procedures; however, there is a paucity of studies assessing the aesthetic outcome of barbed sutures with regard to scarring. Methods A systematic review of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases was performed from the date of their inception through July of 2017 using the search terms "barbed suture" combined with "scar" or "wound." Studies were included if they were prospective, evaluator-blind, randomized, controlled trials; closed the dermal layer of incisions using barbed sutures; and included an evaluator-blind aesthetic assessment of scarring. Results Six prospective, randomized, controlled trials met inclusion criteria. The cosmetic result of scars in 926 patients was evaluated after an average of 8.1 months. Five of the six controlled trials found the aesthetic results of wounds closed with barbed sutures to be equivalent to those closed with traditional sutures, and one study showed significantly superior aesthetic results with barbed sutures. Use of barbed sutures resulted in shorter operating times in four of the five studies that timed incision closure. Similar complication rates were observed in all evaluated studies. Conclusion Based on this systematic review, the majority of studies concluded that there were no differences in scarring aesthetics when dermal layers were closed using barbed sutures compared with traditional suturing techniques.
Real and Imagined Threats to the Rule of Law: On Brian Tamanaha's Law as a Means to an End

This is a review of Professor Brian Tamanaha's Law as a Means to an End. The book, which was published in 2006 by Cambridge University Press, received rave reviews and was selected in 2007 for special honor by the Association of American Publishers. The article explains Tamanaha's thesis, and subjects it to critical analysis. It concludes that the thesis is wrong, and that it is in conflict with the lessons of the most famous debate in modern jurisprudence - that between H.L.A Hart and Lon Fuller. The article goes on to argue that Tamanaha's view of proper legal interpretation is in fact no different than that of his book's archenemy, Richard Posner's brand of legal pragmatism.
Physiological Interaction Between Calcium and Cyclic AMP in an Aplysia Bursting Pacemaker Neuron

Cells respond to a variety of extracellular stimuli by utilizing intracellular messenger systems. In recent years several intracellular messengers have been identified as mediators of changes in the electrical activity of excitable cells. The best understood messengers in nerve cells are Ca2+ and cyclic AMP. An increase of free Ca2+is a common by-product of action potentials, while a variety of neurotransmitters and hormones increase internal cyclic AMP. The study of what these messengers do, and their mechanisms of action, has extended our understanding of neuronal function. Now cellular neurophysiology is confronted with a new challenge: to understand how intracellular messenger systems interact within a neuron. Interactions between intracellular messenger systems may have a special importance in neurons, allowing for the biochemical integration of intrinsic electrical activity such as action potentials with synaptic and hormonal influences. It is likely that studying interactions between intracellular messenger systems will elucidate basic mechanisms involved in generating long-term changes in neuronal function.
Playing with the Void

Born in 1915 in Wielopole, a small Polish-Jewish town, Tadeusz Kantor grew up in a world dominated by the mysticism of both cultures, Jewish and Christian. Ruled by the cycle of its own religious rituals, each community was oriented more towards sacred than earthly values. As Kantor reminisced, “beyond its everyday life, the little town was turned towards eternity.”1 The coexistence of the two apparently antagonistic cultures and the spiritually charged atmosphere of timelessness and transcendentalism they evoked would be resurrected time after time in all of Kantor’s spectacles. The town itself, constructed like a theatrical space in which the accidental intertwined with the fated, the grotesque with the profound would become the framework for juxtapositions investigated throughout the years of dramatic experimentation and theoretical analysis. Built around the everlasting opposition between life and death, form and matter, illusion and reality, consciousness and object, Kantor’s “religious dramas” would attempt simultaneously to reconcile them and to show the impossibility of doing so. Like a parallel universe belonging neither to fiction nor to reality, a universe neither of form nor of matter, in which characters are neither dead nor alive, neither people nor objects, his theater would challenge the eternally asserted notions, leaving the viewer in an existential vacuum, and forcing him to reinstate the meaning of basic concepts.
Developmental follow-up of 6-7 year old children of mothers employed during their infancies.

This study followed up 92 children at ages 6–7 first studied as one-year-olds in order to determine differences in the developmental outcome of the offspring of employed as compared to “stay at home” mothers. The developmental domain evaluate in the 6–7 year old children was peer competence, rated by laboratory play and child psychological test instruments. Mothers' reports of children's behavioral pathology at age 6–7 correlated with a higher number of maternal work hours during the infant's first year, but the children did better during overall play situations. Age 1 attachment ratings better predicted free play social competence for the entire sample than did maternal hours of work absence, but girls accounted for statistical significance. Maternal sensitivity from infancy was associated with maternal reports of (low) problem behaviors; however, regression analyses did not support the hypothesis that relations between either work status or attachment and current problem behaviors were mediated by early maternal sensitivity.
Computational Technosphere and Cellular Engineering

The basic engineering problem is to build useful systems from given materials and with given tools. Here we explore this problem in the computational technosphere of computers, smartphones, networks and other information processing and communication devices created by people. The emphasis is on construction of different kinds of information processing automata by means of cellular automata. We call this engineering problem cellular engineering. Various types and levels of computing systems and models are considered in the context of cellular engineering.
A Non-Invasive DC-10-MHz Wideband Current Sensor for Ultra-Fast Current Sensing in High-Frequency Power Electronic Converters

To enhance the performance of the converters along with improving their efficiency and miniaturization in many power electronics applications, a need for higher switching frequency is highly demanded. In high switching frequency converters, due to high common mode voltage issue, wideband, isolated, and low loss current sensor is required for the robust control design and ultra-fast protection. In this paper, we propose a non-invasive hybrid, isolated, and loss-less wideband current sensing method applicable for high-frequency power converters (dc-10 MHz). The proposed hybrid current sensing scheme combines two different isolated sensing technologies—a magnetoresistor sensor and a differential Rogowski coil sensor, which have complementary characteristics to achieve a wide sensing bandwidth. The proposed hybrid current sensor also utilizes planar magnetic field concentrators (MCON) using conductive materials to normalize the non-uniform magnetic field distributions generated by the current over a wide frequency range. We demonstrate through hardware prototypes and experiments that the proposed hybrid sensor yields to a very high sensing bandwidth of dc to 10 MHz. The performance of the proposed hybrid sensor is also evaluated in a 1-MHz dc–dc converter as well as a high-frequency H-bridge inverter module.
Learning to become Turkmen: literacy, language and power, 1914–2014

In her book, Victoria Clement sets out to probe ‘the intersections between cultural and social power [in Turkmenistan] in the historical context of shifting politics through the transformation, acq...
The utility of the pretracheal stethoscope in detecting ventilatory abnormalities during propofol sedation in children.

Background Monitoring of ventilation with capnography or a stethoscope is recommended because the detection of ventilatory abnormalities can be significantly delayed by the use of pulse oximetry alone in patients receiving supplemental oxygen. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the pretracheal stethoscope with pulse oximetry and capnography in detecting adverse respiratory events during propofol sedation in nonintubated children. We hypothesized that use of the pretracheal stethoscope would facilitate earlier detection of adverse respiratory events. Methods This was a prospective observational study of children undergoing procedural sedation at a pediatric sedation program. A pretracheal stethoscope, pulse oximetry, and nasal capnography were attached at the discretion of the sedation nurse and provider to monitor ventilation. Results We enrolled 104 patient encounters (mean recorded time, SD 8.3 ± 5.3 minutes) from February, 2015 to March, 2017. The pretracheal stethoscope was the first monitor to detect adverse events in 64% (25/39) of patients compared to 18% (7/39) for capnography and 15% (6/39) for pulse oximetry. Auscultation performed best at detecting upper airway obstruction but capnography and pulse oximetry performed best at detecting hypoventilation. The positive predictive value for detecting a true ventilation abnormality and 95% CI of the pretracheal stethoscope, pulse oximetry, and capnography was 100% (90%-100%), 18% (10%-31%), and 27% (18%-38%), respectively. The negative predictive value and 95% CI of the pretracheal stethoscope, pulse oximetry, and capnography was 88% (82%-92%), 68% (59%-75%), and 70% (61%-78%), respectively. Limitations are short observation time, nonstandardized application of respiratory monitors, and too much focus on auscultation. Conclusion A pretracheal stethoscope in conjunction with capnography and pulse oximetry detects most sedation-related adverse events first. Auscultation performed best at detecting upper airway obstruction but capnography and pulse oximetry performed best at detecting hypoventilation.
A track in the Tanana: Forensic analysis of a Late Holocene footprint from central Alaska

Abstract An ancient feature resembling a shod human footprint was recently discovered adjacent to a buried prehistoric housepit dating to ~1840 cal yr BP at the Swan Point site in central Alaska. Recovery of footprints in this context is rare, prompting us to question if the impression was indeed the result of human activity. We tested if the feature’s morphometrics fell within the mean biometrics of a shod human footprint using photogrammetric modeling techniques and classic landmark analyses. The feature was extensively photographed throughout the excavation, and the photos were used to produce three-dimensional photogrammetric digital models from which to obtain landmark biometrics. The results suggest that the feature falls within the expected mean parameters of a prehistoric human footprint. We characterized the footprint as belonging to a healthy, non-obese 9-12-year-old child. The presence of a child and well-constructed house in associated context suggests a healthy prehistoric family. The footprint represents the first of its kind from the subarctic, and the first described from Alaska.
Filterability of surface water from Tbilisi Sea: Preliminary assessment of ultrafiltration as a process alternative

This preliminary laboratory-scale study evaluated the feasibility of ultrafiltration (UF) as an alternative technology for treating water from Tbilisi Sea (Republic of Georgia). The analysis was pe...
Alcohol and Men's Health

Abstract This chapter reviews the effects acute and chronic alcohol consumption may have on erectile function, ejaculatory function, and men's health. Many studies suggest that chronic consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol prevents erectile dysfunction (ED). The mechanism is likely via upregulation of genes that are protective to the cardiovascular system. On the other hand, chronic use of heavy amounts of alcohol can contribute to ED, likely through downregulation of these same genes. Additionally, patients who chronically drink heavy amounts of alcohol experience hormonal changes that lead to a higher likelihood of premature ejaculation. Alcohol abuse is also associated with hypogonadism. Less research has been done on the acute effects of alcohol than on chronic use. Historically, alcohol was postulated to cause ED, but more recent studies on moderate imbibing provide results ranging from no effect to an increased ability to achieve and maintain erections.
A Troubled World and the Practice of Psychotherapy

Human science psychologies have recognized that a significant dimension of the distress that clients bring to psychotherapy arises from living in a disordered world. Drawing on insights from philos...
Simulating Calculation and Analysis on Time-to-crest of Switching Impulse for Test on Chinese UHV AC Pilot Project

For UHV AC transmission lines,the sizes of tower windows are related to the air clearance determined by switching overvoltage.According to the air clearance switching-impulse(SI) test results obtained by China and other countries,longer the time-to-crest of switching impulse wave shape is,higher the discharge voltage of the air clearance is.To reduce the size of transmission line tower windows and save project construction cost,it is important to determine the time-to-crests of SI for test.We derived a conversion formula between waveforms of SOVs on transmission line and time-to-crests of SI for test,calculated the equivalent time-to-crests of SI of UHV transmission lines with EMTP,and analyzed the relationship between the equivalent time-to-crests of SI and amplitude of SOVs.Moreover,we calculated the flashover rate of transmission line by both statistic method and simplified method.The results can meet the requirements of national standard.However,the coefficient of variation affects the flashover rate greatly,and coefficient of variation of the 50% flashover voltage increases with the longer of the time-to-crest,namely,flashover voltages under long-time-to-crest SI have larger dispersion than those under short-time-to-crest SI,so 1000μs SI for air clearance SI test with cat-head-tower and cup-tower of UHV AC pilot project is suitable for impulse test considering the safety and cost.
Operationalizing and evaluating the Frascati criteria for functional decline in diagnosing HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders in adults.

The Frascati criteria for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND; Antinori et al. 2007) outlines a classification scheme for functional decline that—despite being over a decade old—has not heretofore been examined systematically. Participants included 307 HIV+ and 183 HIV− participants who completed self-report, clinician-rated, and performance-based measures of functional status, along with neurocognitive, psychiatric, and medical/laboratory assessments. Using the Frascati criteria, we classified participants with (1) no functional declines, (2) mild functional declines, or (3) major functional declines. A multivariable logistic regression showed that HIV serostatus was associated with higher rates of major (33.2 vs. 13.7%) but not mild (38.8 vs. 31.7%) Frascati-defined functional decline. Within the HIV+ group, individuals with global neurocognitive impairment and affective disorders were at highest risk of Frascati-defined functional decline. Findings provide some empirical support for the sensitivity and validity of the Frascati criteria for functional declines in the context of HAND. Future work is needed to determine the reliability, stability, cross-cultural validity, and downstream health-related consequences of the Frascati-defined functional classifications.
Secrets in Source Code: Reducing False Positives using Machine Learning

Private and public git repositories often contain unintentional sensitive information in the source code. Many tools have been developed to scan repositories looking for potential secrets and credentials committed in the code base, inadvertently or intentionally, for taking corrective action once these secrets and credentials are found. However, most of these existing works either target a specific type of secret or generate a large number of false positives. Our research aims to create a generalized framework to detect all kinds of secrets - which includes API keys, asymmetric private keys, client secrets, generic passwords - using an extensive regular expression list. We then apply machine learning models to intelligently distinguish between a real secret from a false positive. The combination of regular expression based approach and machine learning allows for the identification of different types of secrets, specifically generic passwords which are ignored by existing works, and subsequent reduction of possible false positives. We also evaluate our machine learning model using a precision-recall curve that can be used by an operator to find the optimal trade-off between the number of false positives and false negatives depending on their specific application. Using a Voting Classifier (combination of Logistic Regression, Naive Bayes and SVM) we are able to reduce the number of false positives considerably.
Libraries, Books, and the Digital Future

This chapter highlights the goals of the New Digital Public Library, which it contextualizes in terms of the transformation over time of the library’s purpose. Focusing in particular on the goal of open access, Darnton emphasizes how our own era of digitization has enabled the growth of user communities across the world. Noting that publishing monopolies, which control 42 percent of the academic market, threaten to limit or even preclude such developments, the chapter concludes with suggestions on how such limitations might be countered.
9 – Case studies

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with five case studies that show the importance of pinch analysis in a very wide range of situations with practical examples of its implementation, particularly in the tricky areas such as stream data extraction that is difficult to systematize. The case studies described are based on engineering designs performed in industry. The case of the crude preheat train is known to be the first pinch study performed on a major operating plant. It was commissioned in 1969 and used state-of-the-art conventional technology. The third case of the evaporator/dryer plant relates to a survey carried out in a food-processing factory. The fourth case is comprised of an organic chemicals manufacturing site providing an example of the benefits of heat integration between separate processes. The last one, the hospital site, features the application of pinch analysis to a nonprocess plant and illustrates the time-dependent analysis in action.
The Reliability of Individual Differences in VOT Imitation

Recent work has shown that individuals vary in phonetic behaviors in ways that deviate from group norms and are not attributable to sociolinguistically relevant dimensions such as gender or social class. However, it is unknown whether these individual differences observed in the lab are stable characteristics of individuals or whether they simply reflect noise or sporadic fluctuations. This study investigates the individual-level stability in imitation of a model talker's artificially-lengthened VOT. We use a test-retest design in which the same set of participants perform the same lexical shadowing task on two separate occasions and find that degree of convergence or divergence is highly correlated on an individual basis across visits. Further, we find a strong correlation between individual VOT shifts toward a male model talker and shifts toward a female model talker. Findings contribute to a growing body of literature suggesting that averaging over groups of participants masks the complexity of phonetic behaviors, such as imitation, and suggest that individual differences in phonetic behavior are an area of promising future study.
The Hippocampus and Dorsolateral Striatum Integrate Distinct Types of Memories through Time and Space, Respectively.

Several decades of research have established that different kinds of memories result from the activity of discrete neural networks. Studying how these networks process information in experiments that target specific types of mnemonic representations has provided deep insights into memory architecture and its neural underpinnings. However, in natural settings reality confronts organisms with problems that are not neatly compartmentalized. Thus, a critical problem in memory research that still needs to be addressed is how distinct types of memories are ultimately integrated. Here we demonstrate how two memory networks, the hippocampus and dorso-lateral striatum, may accomplish such a goal. The hippocampus supports memory for facts and events, collectively known as declarative memory and often studied as spatial memory in rodents. The dorso-lateral striatum provides the basis for habits which are assessed in stimulus-response types of tasks. Expanding previous findings, the current work revealed that in male Long-Evans rats, the hippocampus and dorso-lateral striatum use time and space in distinct and largely complementary ways to integrate spatial and habitual representations. Specifically, the hippocampus supported both types of memories when they were formed in temporal juxtaposition even if the learning took place in different environments. In contrast, the lateral striatum supported both types of memories if they were formed in the same environment even if at temporally distinct points. These results reveal for the first time that by using fundamental aspects of experience in specific ways, the hippocampus and dorso-lateral striatum can transcend their attributed roles in information storage. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The current paradigm in memory research postulates that different types of memories reflected in separate types of behavioural strategies result from activity in distinct neural circuits. However, recent data have shown that when rats concurrently acquired in the same environment hippocampal-dependent spatial navigation and striatal-dependent approach of a visual cue, each of the two types of memories became dependent on both the hippocampus and dorso-lateral striatum. The current work reveals that the hippocampus and dorso-lateral striatum utilize distinct and complementary principles to integrate different types of memories in time and space: the hippocampus integrates memories formed in temporal proximity, while the lateral striatum integrates memories formed in the same space.
Association of Electronic Cigarette Use With Incident Respiratory Conditions Among US Adults From 2013 to 2018.

Importance Generating robust and timely evidence about the respiratory health risks of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is critical for informing state and federal regulatory standards for product safety. Objective To examine the association of e-cigarette use with incident respiratory conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective cohort study used data from the nationally representative cohort of US adults from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, including wave 1 from 2013 to 2014, wave 2 from 2014 to 2015, wave 3 from 2015 to 2016, and wave 4 from 2016 to 2018. Individuals aged 18 years and older at baseline with no prevalent respiratory conditions were included in the analyses. Analyses were conducted from February to July 2020. Exposures e-Cigarette use was assessed by self-reported current use status (never, former, or current) at baseline. Main Outcomes and Measures Incident respiratory conditions, including COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma, as well as a composite respiratory disease encompassing all 4 conditions. Results Among 21 618 respondents included in the analyses, 11 017 (491%) were men and 12 969 (65.2%) were non-Hispanic White. A total of 14 213 respondents were never e-cigarette users, 5076 respondents (11.6%) were former e-cigarette users, and 2329 respondents (5.2%) were current e-cigarette users. Adjusted for cigarette and other combustible tobacco product use, demographic characteristics, and chronic health conditions, there was an increased risk of respiratory disease among former e-cigarette uses (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.28; 95% CI, 1.09-1.50) and current e-cigarette users (IRR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.08-1.59). Among respondents with good self-rated health, the IRR for former e-cigarette users was 1.21 (95%CI, 1.00-1.46) and the IRR for current e-cigarette users was 1.43 (95% CI, 1.14-1.79). For specific respiratory diseases among current e-cigarette users, the IRR was 1.33 (95% CI, 1.06-1.67) for chronic bronchitis, 1.69 (95% CI, 1.15-2.49) for emphysema, 1.57 (95% CI, 1.15-2.13) for COPD, and 1.31 (95% CI, 1.01-1.71) for asthma. Conclusions and Relevance This cohort study found that e-cigarette use was associated with an increased risk of developing respiratory disease independent of cigarette smoking. These findings add important evidence on the risk profile of novel tobacco products.
Long-term orofacial pain reduction after repeated botulinum toxin injection into masseter muscles

Objectives Neurotoxin injection into muscles to reduce movement or pain has seen increasing use and study. For orofacial pain, however, patient selection factors and long-term efficacy are not well characterized. The objective of the present study was to describe the clinical characteristics and effects in a series of patients with temporomandibular disorder [TMD] pain who had received multiple masseter neurotoxin injections over the course of years. Methods Patients referred for tertiary/quaternary care within the oral medicine clinical services from April 2015 to December 2019 were investigated. At least 40 patients with TMD pain were treated with botulinum toxin over this time period. Extensive baseline questionnaires along with pain drawings were used to characterize the patients, including graded chronic pain and related Pain, Enjoyment of Life and General Activity [PEG] scales. Symptom Checklist 90 Revised [SCL-90 R], General Anxiety Disorder 7-item [GAD-7], and Patient Health Questionnaire 9 [PHQ-9] psychological measures were also administered. Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders [DC-TMD] examinations were done at each visit, along with standardized assessments of neurosensory abnormalities, with masseter and temporalis estimated volume. Fifty units of incobotulinum toxin A were injected into superior and inferior masseters bilaterally in each patient. Returning patients were seen in follow-up from 1 to 4.5 years later in the clinic with extensive metrics. Results Of 40 patients with TMD treated with at least 1 encounter with neurotoxin, 4 were located who had received at least 3 injection procedures over 12 months or longer and reported 50% or greater reduction in average pain intensity and pain impact. These patients’ ages were 27, 29, 29, and 32 years; 3 were female. All reported having TMD pain for more than 5 years, and all were diagnosed with masseter myalgia, masseteric hypertrophy, definite sleep bruxism, migraine or tension-type headache, and mild to moderate psychological distress. All 4 were treated initially with self-care, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and occlusal appliances with some success, but they desired more reduction of pain and pain impact. All patients reported pain reduction after neurotoxin within 2-3 weeks, with effective (50-100%) pain relief for up to 6 months. Total injection visits ranged from 3 to 9 over the course of 1 to 4.5 years. Conclusions For a subset of patients with subacute TMD masseter pain, botulinum toxin injections resulted in substantial reductions in orofacial pain intensity and impact that could be sustained with repeated injections.
Case Study in Improving the Health of a Remote Monitoring & Diagnostics Center

This paper provides a case study where data analytics techniques are used to improve the health of a global remote monitoring & diagnostics (RM&D) center for power plants that is a key part of our industrial internet infrastructure. The “Industrial Internet” is being heralded as a transformative, disruptive technology that is part of the digitization of traditional industries all over the world. A key technical capability includes the ability to continuously monitor critical assets (like power generation equipment) with sensors and other measurements to get leading indicators of anomalous behavior and identify opportunities for optimizing the performance and life of this equipment. This allows our customers to maximize their asset’s availability, reliability, and performance and is usually achieved by connecting these assets to dedicated RM&D centers that aggregate and analyze the data streaming in from all over the world.An RM&D center is a complex system with hardware (data acquisition boxes, communication hardware, processing servers), software and analytics in place to ensure the generation of timely notifications and recommendations. There is a need to understand the health of this complex system and to quickly diagnose and mitigate issues before any disruption occurs that impacts the ability to monitor. What makes this case study unique is the combination of qualitative and quantitative input variables that need to be considered, which is different from traditional PHM applications which tend to be based on sensor derived numeric or binary data.Details in the paper include extraction of key system health features (server health, data integrity, analytic robustness, etc.) from computer logs. These parameters, once collected, can be analyzed using various statistical techniques (Multivariate Outliers, Process Control, Mixture Distributions) to develop system health indices using methods like Principal Component Analysis, Factor Analysis as well as kernel PCA methods. We explore the development of anomaly detection methods using regression (Multilevel regression, Logistic regression), Clustering (K-Means, Hierarchic, Normal Mixtures and Latent Class Analysis) and Classification (Decision Trees, Bootstrap Forest, Discriminant) techniques followed by their comparison in terms of computational cost and classification accuracy. We then go further to pinpoint the likely cause (Bayesian Diagnosis) of disruptions, and demonstrate how this approach can be generalized for a variety of industrial assets. All of results/analysis are based on representative data from a global Remote Monitoring and Diagnostic center that is used to monitor a significant portion of the world’s electric power generation fleet.