cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bandwidth-efficient wireless OFDM

Due to ever-increasing bandwidth demands in future wireless service, the radio frequency band becomes more and more invaluable. In this paper, we address channel equalization for bandwidth-efficient wireless orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). First, we show that in order to be free of both interchannel interference and interblock interference, wireless OFDM has to occupy a bandwidth wider than the Nyquist rate and use insufficient statistics in symbol demodulation. Thus, the conventional OFDM gains computational efficiency using the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) in demodulation at the cost of low efficiency of bandwidth usage and degradation in symbol error performance. Then we consider the OFDM that achieves high efficiency of bandwidth usage, allows interchannel interference and interblock interference to exist, and uses sufficient statistics in symbol demodulation. A one-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is proposed for equalization of the bandwidth efficient OFDM system. Simulation and numerical evaluation for an indoor wireless asynchronous transfer mode network are carried out. It is demonstrated that though occupying a narrower bandwidth, the one-tap DFE-based bandwidth-efficient OFDM system achieves lower symbol error rate and higher mutual information than the conventional DFT-based OFDM system. The proposed OFDM system presents a monotonically increasing symbol error rate, and convex-down achieved mutual information with respect to increasing efficiency of bandwidth usage.
The Changing Role of ESL in Bilingual Education

The role of ESL in bilingual education has frequently been misunderstood, sometimes because of nonpedagogical issues and sometimes as a result of our inadequate understanding of how second language development can best be achieved in bilingual classrooms. This article reviews recent research in two separate areas, bilingual education and ESL, in an attempt to arrive at some generalizations about what characterizes effective bilingual and ESL instruction. The bilingual education research literature is finding support for an "integrative approach" to second language development, with classroom applications focusing on grouping strategies that allow children to receive appropriate input in the second language. These findings complement current views on ESL teaching that stress proficiency in speaking and writing as outcome goals and that conceptualize instruction in terms of developing communicative competence. Given the essential interrelatedness between second language development and other curricular goals, the conventional conceptualization of ESL as an isolated element within bilingual programs is challenged. Implications for bilingual teacher preparation, where ESL and content-area instruction are often dealt with separately, are also examined.
Design for Low Power and Reliable Flexible Electronics: Self-Tunable Cell-Library Design

We propose a self-tunable pseudo-CMOS cell library to address the key challenges of circuit design for flexible electronics. This cell library provides the building blocks for designing complex circuits which are able to operate at a low supply voltage. The circuit reliability is greatly improved by incorporating the post-fabrication tunability into the cells to compensate for the device degradation (e.g., DeltaV TH). Logic gates, such as latches and flip-flops, and larger building blocks, such as shift-registers are, developed to demonstrate the key features and feasibility of this proposed cell library.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Technology and Applications

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology and determine where it is in its evolutionary development. Technologies that fragment data into small pieces typically have very poor performance because there is no mechanism to detect and retransmit lost cells when a piece of the data is lost in transit. The only way to recover the damaged cell is to retransmit the entire large packet again. An alternative to inefficiently retransmitting the entire packet is to only retransmit the individual cells that are lost or damaged. The ATM technology incorporates the ability to retransmit only the cells in each packet that were not received properly. It also enhances transmission performance by reducing flow control activity required at each network link. Surveying recent products serves as an effective barometer for determining how the ATM technology is evolving. State-of-the-market ATM products indicate that an ATM design solution provides unmatched speed, fault-tolerance, and scalability through multiple, meshed inter-switch connections that support load-sharing across networks. At its current point in evolutionary technological development, ATM is a key enabling communications technology that will introduce new applications to users and network providers, as well as provide higher bandwidth capacity to networks. Because of its high-bandwidth capacity and cell-oriented architecture, ATM is the dominant infrastructure for delivering virtually all types of communications, including data, voice, image, and multimedia, into the buildings and desktops of users around the world. By carefully considering critical performance issues, and accommodating existing legacy systems during ATM implementations, the telecommunications industry has insured that ATM will not only be the design solution of the future, but that it can provide cost effective applications today as well.
Decreased bone mineral density in men with metabolic syndrome alone and with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND Metabolic syndrome is associated with decreased physical activity and increased incidence of diabetes. Bone Mineral density (BMD) is positively associated with physical activity. Lower BMD is a risk factor for bone fractures. Whether subjects with metabolic syndrome alone show early signs of lower BMD and osteoporosis similar to those present in diabetic is not known. MATERIAL/METHODS This cross-sectional study in male veterans examined the BMD in 3458 non-diabetic men and 735 men with type 2 diabetes. In addition, the BMD changes in non-diabetic men without any metabolic syndrome were compared with non-diabetic men with metabolic syndrome as established by the criteria of the Adult Treatment Panel III. RESULTS BMD of hip was significantly lower and incidence of osteoporosis higher in diabetic subjects compared with age and body mass index (BMI) matched non-diabetic subjects. BMD of AP spine was significantly higher in diabetic subjects compared with non-diabetics but similar when subjects were matched for BMI. Men with metabolic syndrome alone had higher osteoporosis and lower BMD of hip compared with those without metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS The BMD of hip is lower in diabetics compared with age and BMI-matched non-diabetic men, and its level is similar in age and BMI-matched diabetics and non-diabetic men with metabolic syndrome. This suggests that both diabetes and metabolic syndrome are associated independently with higher osteoporosis and lower BMD of hip and are risk factors for increased incidence of hip fractures in men.
Fluid Borders: Rethinking Historical Geography and Fixed Map Boundaries in Contested Regions

This article introduces a quantitative methodology for analyzing contested map borders. The article applies the new analytical technique to a data set of thirty maps showing Bulgaria in ca. 800 CE, a disputed state and period in medieval historiography with relevance to modern national politics and territorial claims. Based on the data set, we generate a series of new maps that make explicit the fluid medieval boundaries and general disagreement among geographers and historiographers. Our analysis begins with a simple point-in-polygon procedure to create a majority map that depicts the points included within the borders of the Bulgarian polity in sixteen or more of the maps (>50 percent). The majority map is then combined with percentage maps, confidence interval map boundaries, and cluster maps. The confidence interval maps are created via a spatial bootstrapping procedure and measure the uncertainty in the majority map. The cluster maps are developed via a radial basis function and provide insight into ...
Signal Enhanced FTIR Analysis of Alignment in NAFION Thin Films at SiO2 and Au Interfaces

Spin-cast NAFION samples were prepared on silicon native oxide and gold substrates with film thicknesses ranging from 5 to 250 nm. The influence of NAFION film thickness on the infrared spectrum of the polymer was investigated in substrate overlayer attenuated total reflection (SO-ATR) geometry at incident angles between 60° and 65°. In the grazing angle SO-ATR geometry, the thickness of the film significantly affected the position and absorbance of characteristic peaks in the FTIR spectrum of NAFION. Two major peaks in the NAFION spectrum at 1220 cm–1 (predominantly vas(CF2) and vas(SO3–)) and 1150 cm–1 (predominantly vas(CF2)) appeared to systematically blueshift to 1256 and 1170 cm–1, respectively, as the thickness of the film decreased from 250 to 5 nm. The changes in the NAFION thin film FTIR spectrum can be attributed to two factors; (1) ordering of NAFION at the interface during spin coating and film formation and (2) the increase in the p-polarization character of the infrared evanescent wave as t...
Analytical Epidemiology in Pet Populations for Environmental Risk Assessment

There is a critical need to assess the potential impact on animal and human health of the estimated 70,000 man-made chemicals already in the environment and the approximately 1,000 new chemicals released each year (Hollstein et al., 1979). The process by which the potential adverse health effects of exposures to environmental contaminants are determined is called risk assessment. Risk assessment involves an evaluation of the results of epidemiologic, clinical, toxicologic, and environmental research, and extrapolation of the findings to predict the type, and estimate the extent, of health effects under given conditions of exposure (National Research Council, 1983). Inherent to the process is characterization of the uncertainties of the resulting estimates.
Beginners and Winners: The Fate of Initiators of Interstate Wars Involving Great Powers Since 1495

All interstate wars involving Great Powers from 1495 to 1991 are analyzed in order to investigate a controversy about the success rate of war initiators and factors that might have an impact on that success rate. We find that the initiators of wars involving Great Powers won only slightly more than half the time in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, whereas they have been about twice as likely to win as targets in the 19th and 20th centuries. The difference in success rates can apparently be accounted for in part by factors such as intervention on behalf of targets and the duration of wars, although these factors have their clearest impact only on wars in which Great Powers fight against minor powers. Wars involving Great Powers on both sides were more common in the earlier centuries, and the initiators of the increasingly uncommon wars between Great Powers have won only rarely in the most recent two centuries. The absence of wars between Great Powers in the last 50 years might suggest that Great Powers have “learned” over time to avoid becoming involved in wars against each other.
Timing of Hip Fracture Surgery in the Elderly

The effect of preoperative wait time for surgery is a long-standing subject of debate. Although there is disagreement among clinicians on whether early surgery confers a survival benefit per se, most reports agree that early surgery improves other outcomes such as length of stay, the incidence of pressure sores, and return to independent living. Therefore, it would seem prudent to surgically treat elderly patients with hip fractures within the first 48 hours of admission. However, the current body of evidence is observational in nature and carries the potential for bias inherent in such analyses. Evidence in the form of a large randomized controlled trial may ultimately be required to fully evaluate the impact of surgical timing on patients with fractures of the hip.
Moderators of Change in Social Anxiety during CBT in a Transdiagnostic, Naturalistic Treatment-Seeking Sample:

BackgroundThere are a number of hypothesized underlying factors that, while present across a range of anxiety and fear-based disorders, are proposed to be specifically influential in the maintenanc...
Evidence-based practice in speech-language pathology: scaling up.

Evidence-based practice is a process to which clinical professionals adhere when making decisions concerning the assessment or treatment o f a given condition. Within the field of speech-language pathology, it is increasingly advocated as best practice. As our profession seeks to transform itself from one that is primarily craft-based to one that relies on evidence-based processes, it must develop and implement a series of structures that will foster this transformation. This article describes three specific structures that are increasingly available within the field of speech-language pathology in the United States to guide transformation of the profession: systematic reviews and meta-analyses, treatment studies, and clearing houses. Without these structural supports, it is unlikely that evidence-based practice can be scaled u pin a way that has positive impacts on practice.
Cellular receptors and mechanisms of action of steroid hormones.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the cellular receptors and mechanisms of action of steroid hormones. The chapter covers those aspects related to the action of estrogens, androgens, progestins, glucocorticoids, and mineralocorticoids in vertebrates. The search for receptor proteins for these steroid hormones in most instances follows a unique pattern which includes (1) study of the uptake and retention of a radioactive hormone; (2) identification of the hormone presumed to be the active form; (3) detection and isolation of a specific protein that binds an active steroid but not an inactive steroid with a high affinity, and exists in larger amounts in target cells than in insensitive cells; and (4) demonstration that steroid antagonists can interfere with receptor binding of an active steroid. Studies on steroid receptors have been recently extended to several more biodynamic aspects such as qualitative and quantitative analysis of receptor proteins and their relation to biological responses of target cells and to some clinical situations. Concentrated efforts, however, are being made to discover the molecular mechanism whereby a steroid receptor complex may participate in the regulation of gene expression of the target cells. For this reason extensive studies have been carried out on the interaction of the steroid-receptor complex and the nuclear components of target cells. The chemical structures of many representative steroid hormones, natural or synthetic, and their antagonists are shown.
Effects of Classroom Goal Structure on Cooperative and Competitive Predisposition: Transescent Students' Attitudes and Achievement in Problem Solving

AbstractForty fifth–grade and sixth–grade students identified as either cooperative predisposition or competitive predisposition were randomly assigned to either cooperative or competitive goal structure classroom treatments. The two groups were exposed to the same problem solving content for 10 days and worked on problems in small interdependent learning groups (cooperative goal structure) or individually (competitive goal structure). As hypothesized, it was found that competitive goal structure had a greater negative effect on cooperative–predisposition subjects' attitudes and achievement than on competitive–predisposition subjects. The implications for the utilization of cooperative and competitive goal structures in the middle school classroom are discussed.
Business Ethics and Social Media

It seems that the Web and its rapidly evolving technologies and applications, such as social media, are only growing in their importance to businesses and becoming more prominent in the success or failure of businesses in the future. Many business practices, such as monitoring employees' computer and personal e-mail are creating major privacy and employment concerns. These practices give rise to ethical questions related to their enforcement and the resultant effect on employees. However, the most controversial practice amongst employers is the censoring of an employee outside of work through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Social networking is one of the newest information technologies that have been thrust into the spotlight, leaving most major corporations to be reactive rather than proactive. There have been numerous news reports of employees being fired, or having lost a job opportunity because of postings on a social networking site. In this paper, we discuss business ethics as it relates to, and is affected by, social networks. Furthermore, we discuss who is responsible for shedding the light on this issue and developing a road map for delineating what is ethical, and what is not when it comes to business practices as they use social media. In addition, we propose two methods for advancing the systematic development of business ethics as it relates to the adoption, deployment, and use of social media in today's businesses.
Prevalence of periodontal diseases in a multicenter cohort of perinatally HIV-infected and HIV-exposed and uninfected youth

Aims To compare the prevalence and severity of periodontal diseases between 180 perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) and 118 perinatally HIV-exposed and uninfected (PHEU) youth in a cross-sectional study conducted at 11 clinical sites in the United States and Puerto Rico from the Adolescent Master Protocol (AMP) study of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS cohort study (PHACS) network. Methods Several analyses were conducted, employing the current CDC/AAP classification for periodontitis and incorporating a definition of gingivitis based on a bleeding on probing threshold, and analyses based on more detailed whole mouth, intraoral regionally, site-based, and tooth-based criteria of bleeding on probing, plaque levels, pockets depths and clinical attachment levels. Results After adjusting for plaque control habits, and behavioral and sociodemographic factors, there were no significant differences in periodontal diseases between the PHIV and PHEU youth using any of these criteria. For PHIV youth, there was no significant association between parameters of periodontal disease and current HIV status. Conclusions While no significant differences in periodontal parameters were noted between the PHIV and PHEU youth, the influence of antiretroviral therapy on merits further exploration in this cohort in a longitudinal study. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
High throughput low latency LDPC decoding on GPU for SDR systems

In this paper, we present a high throughput and low latency LDPC (low-density parity-check) decoder implementation on GPUs (graphics processing units). The existing GPU-based LDPC decoder implementations suffer from low throughput and long latency, which prevent them from being used in practical SDR (software-defined radio) systems. To overcome this problem, we present optimization techniques for a parallel LDPC decoder including algorithm optimization, fully coalesced memory access, asynchronous data transfer and multi-stream concurrent kernel execution for modern GPU architectures. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed LDPC decoder achieves 316 Mbps (at 10 iterations) peak throughput on a single GPU. The decoding latency, which is much lower than that of the state of the art, varies from 0.207 ms to 1.266 ms for different throughput requirements from 62.5 Mbps to 304.16 Mbps. When using four GPUs concurrently, we achieve an aggregate peak throughput of 1.25 Gbps (at 10 iterations).
Ammonium Transport by the Erythrocyte Rh-Associated Protein.

The erythrocyte Rh and Rh-associated (RhAG) proteins have distant sequence identity to a family of ammonium transporters found in yeast and bacteria. We previously showed that RhAG mediates movement of ammonium when expressed in yeast and in Xenopus oocytes. Importantly, these are the first mammalian proteins found to transport ammonium as a principal substrate. Elucidation of the mechanism and actual substrate(s) transported (protonated NH 4 + or unprotonated NH 3 , or both) is important to understand their role in elimination of ammonium, proton recycling, and their impact on cellular pH and acid/base regulation. Functional characterization revealed that uptake was independent of the membrane potential and the Na + gradient, but was dramatically stimulated by raising extracellular pH or lowering intracellular pH. This suggested that uptake was coupled to an outwardly directed H + gradient and led us to hypothesize that RhAG might function by an H + -coupled, counter-transport mechanism. To further define the mechanism and actual substrate transported, RhAG-expressing oocytes were exposed to varying concentrations of NH 4 + with constant NH 3 , and vice versa, by manipulation of the NH 4 Cl concentration and the pH of the buffer. A voltage-ramping protocol was used to evaluate changes in membrane conductance and reverse potential to measure membrane depolarization. Radioactive flux uptake of 14 C-methylammonium, an analogue of ammonium, was used to measure transport. In the presence of substrate in the physiologic range (20 uM-500 uM), RhAG-mediated transport responded to the concentration of protonated NH 4 + rather than the amount of unprotonated NH 3 present. Currents in RhAG-expressing oocytes did not differ from water-injected controls. No significant changes in membrane conductance or membrane depolarization and reverse potential were observed. Taken together these data support a role for RhAG in the electronuetral transport of NH 4 + by exchange with H + , and for erythrocytes in the maintenance of total blood ammonia levels. Sequestration of ammonium by erythrocytes would keep blood plasma levels low, preventing exposure of cells to toxic levels. Erythrocytes are ideally postioned to then transport ammonium to be exchanged in the liver and kidney, where other Rh-related proteins (RhBG and RhCG) are expressed.
Ditching the Itch with Anti-Type 2 Cytokine Therapies for Atopic Dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by intense pruritus and dry, inflamed skin. An impaired skin barrier and a dysregulated immune response to a variety of triggers are key factors in the complex pathophysiological mechanism of this disease. The predominant early immunologic response in atopic dermatitis includes type 2 helper T (Th2) cells, innate lymphoid cells, and keratinocytes that produce the type 2 cytokines, such as thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP, a major promoter of atopy) and interleukins 4, 13, and 31.1 Interleukins 4 and 13 and TSLP inhibit the differentiation of keratinocytes and thereby reduce the production of . . .
A pilot study of direct care nurse (DCN) education to improve adherence and knowledge of erlotinib in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

e19637 Background: Adherence for oral anticancer agents is a major concern for patients in the ambulatory setting. Adherence rates for oral medication regimens are associated with proper knowledge ...
Awareness of cognitive impairment in individuals with essential tremor.

Abstract Objective The extent to which individuals with ET who have clinically significant cognitive impairment are aware of their cognitive changes is unclear. Reduced awareness has important implications for everyday function and decision-making. Methods 150 individuals with ET (109 Normal Cognition (ET-NC group), and 30 with MCI and 11 dementia (ET-CI group)) completed self-ratings and objective assessments of memory, language, and executive functioning. Discrepancy scores were calculated to assess awareness of cognitive functioning. One sample t-tests evaluated whether mean discrepancy scores in each group were comparable to zero (i.e., accurate). Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) compared discrepancy scores across two groups controlling for age and education. Results In the ET-NC group, discrepancy scores for language (M = − 0.08, SD = 1.10) and executive functioning (M = − 0.01, SD = 0.99) were comparable to zero. Memory discrepancy scores (M = 0.32, SD = 1.22) were greater than zero. In the ET-CI group, memory, (M = 0.78, SD = 1.01), language, (M = 0.46, SD = 0.95), and executive (M = 0.39, SD = 1.14) discrepancy scores were all greater than zero. Discrepancy scores were larger in ET-CI group than in ET-NC group for memory: F(1,148) = 4.02, p = 0.047, language: F(1,148) = 6.16, p = 0.014, and executive: F(1,148) = 4.51, p = 0.035. Conclusions Individuals with ET and normal cognition accurately assessed their language and executive abilities, demonstrating mild overconfidence in memory function. Individuals with ET and cognitive impairment overestimated their performance in all domains of functioning. Since ET is linked to increased risk for cognitive impairment, and such impairment may not be accurately perceived, cognitive functioning should be proactively and regularly screened in ET.
TopCat: Data Mining for Topic Identification in a Text Corpus

TopCat (Topic Categories) is a technique for identifying topics that recur in articles in a text corpus. Natural language processing techniques are used to identify key entities in individual articles, allowing us to represent an article as a set of items. This allows us to view the problem in a database/data mining context: Identifying related groups of items. This paper presents a novel method for identifying related items based on “traditional” data mining techniques. Frequent itemsets are generated from the groups of items, followed by clusters formed with a hypergraph partitioning scheme. We present an evaluation against a manually-categorized “ground truth” news corpus showing this technique is effective in identifying topics in collections of news articles.
Natural Products and Their Mimics as Targets of Opportunity for Discovery

Diverse structural types of natural products and their mimics have served as targets of opportunity in our laboratory to inspire the discovery and development of new methods and strategies to assemble polyfunctional and polycyclic molecular architectures. Furthermore, our efforts toward identifying novel compounds having useful biological properties led to the creation of new targets, many of which posed synthetic challenges that required the invention of new methodology. In this Perspective, selected examples of how we have exploited a diverse range of natural products and their mimics to create, explore, and solve a variety of problems in chemistry and biology will be discussed. The journey was not without its twists and turns, but the unexpected often led to new revelations and insights. Indeed, in our recent excursion into applications of synthetic organic chemistry to neuroscience, avoiding the more-traveled paths was richly rewarding.
Naked wax and necessary existence: modal voluntarism and Descartes’s motives

ABSTRACTDescartes’s commitment to modal voluntarism was one of his most notorious and controversial doctrines. The reaction of contemporaries was hostility and incredulity; the reaction of modern scholars has been little different. Yet, though the issue has fomented considerable discussion and disagreement in the literature, the overwhelming majority of scholarly output has focused on questions of whether Descartes actually upheld the doctrine, or what he was committed too if he indeed did. Surprisingly, the underlying question of why Descartes would have upheld such a doctrine in the first place has gone almost entirely unnoticed and unasked. This paper proposes several possible answers to this question, each of which provides at least a partial explanation for Descartes’s attraction to modal voluntarism. The ultimate motive, however, was likely not one of positive attraction, but driven by Descartes’s anxieties over the thorny and deeply heretical implications of his conception of matter.
Hyperbolic modes of a conductor-dielectric interface

Plasmon resonance, with strong coupling of light to electrons at a metal-dielectric interface, allows light confinement and control at subwavelength scale. It is fundamentally limited by the inherent mobility of the free electrons, leading to the corresponding nonlocality of the electromagnetic response [C. Ciraci et al., Science 337, 1072 (2012); G. Toscano et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 7132 (2015)]. We report that this nonlocality also results in the formation of a hyperbolic layer near the metal-dielectric interface, with a strong anisotropy of its electromagnetic response. While the resulting hyperbolic blockade leads to the suppression of the conventional plasmon resonance, the hyperbolic layer also supports a different class of surface waves, which offer longer propagation distance and stronger field confinement, simultaneously. Furthermore, these hyperplasmons are not limited to the proximity of the plasmon resonance, which extends the operational bandwidth of plasmonic devices.
A Naturally Fluorescent Mgp Transgenic Mouse for Angiogenesis and Glaucoma Longitudinal Studies.

Purpose Our goal was to generate and characterize a new mouse model in which only angiogenesis- and glaucoma-relevant tissues would be naturally fluorescent. The Matrix Gla (MGP) gene is highly expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and trabecular meshwork (TM). We sought to direct our Mgp-Cre.KI mouse recombinase to VSMC/TM cells to produce their longitudinal fluorescent profiles. Methods Homozygous Mgp-Cre.KI mice were crossed with Ai9 homozygous reporter mice harboring a loxP-flanked STOP cassette preventing transcription of a DsRed fluorescent protein (tdTomato). The F1 double-heterozygous (Mgp-tdTomato) was examined by direct fluorescence, whole mount, histology, and fundus photography. Custom-made filters had 554/23 emission and 609/54 exciter nanometer wavelengths. Proof of concept of the model's usefulness was conducted by inducing guided imaging laser burns. Evaluation of a vessel's leakage and proliferation was followed by noninvasive angiography. Results The Mgp-tdTomato mouse was viable, fertile, with normal IOP and ERG. Its phenotype exhibited red paws and snout (cartilage expression), which precluded genotyping. A fluorescent red ring was seen at the limbus and confirmed to be TM expression by histology. The entire retinal vasculature was red fluorescent (VSMC) and directly visualized by fundus photography. Laser burns on the Mgp-tdTomato allowed separation of leakiness and neovascularization evaluation parameters. Conclusions The availability of a transgenic mouse naturally fluorescent in glaucoma-relevant tissues and retinal vasculature brings the unique opportunity to study a wide spectrum of single and combined glaucomatous conditions in vivo. Moreover, the Mgp-tdTomato mouse provides a new tool to study mechanisms and therapeutics of retinal angiogenesis longitudinally.
Long-Term SNR Estimation Using Noise Residuals and a Two-Stage Deep-Learning Framework

Knowing the signal-to-noise ratio of a noisy speech signal is important since it can help improve speech applications. This paper presents a two-stage approach for estimating the long-term signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of speech signals that are corrupted by background noise. The first stage produces noise residuals from a speech separation module. The second stage then uses the residuals and a deep neural network (DNN) to predict long-term SNR. Traditional SNR estimation approaches use signal processing, unsupervised learning, or computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) techniques. We propose a deep-learning based approach, since DNNs have outperformed other techniques in several speech processing tasks. We evaluate our approach across a variety of noise types and input SNR levels, using the TIMIT speech corpus and NOISEX-92 noise database. The results show that our approach generalizes well in unseen noisy environments, and it outperforms several existing methods.
Observations of Long-Term Tide-Gauge Records for Indications of Accelerated Sea-Level Rise

Abstract Long-term tide-gauge records have been examined for indications of accelerated sea-level rise. An initial evaluation of 21 records was made, using least-squares linear regression. Four of the longest records were selected for more formal statistical analysis. The regional-mean sea-level curve for west-central Europe displays an upswing after 1900. However, individual stations vary considerably over short distances. Results from other regions are less conclusive. Application of univariate and multivariate techniques to the four longest records yields strong evidence for the presence of a non-global, nonlinear component. However, the three longest European records show some common nonlinear features, implying the presence of a regional component. There is some weak statistical evidence for a common changepoint around 1895 in the long-term European records, particularly for Amsterdam and Brest.
Shear Strength of Impact Loaded X-Cut Quartz as Indicated by Electrical Response Measurements

The present study is an experimental investigation of x-cut quartz under shock loading with particular emphasis on the determination of stress-volume states above the Hugoniot elastic limit. X-cut quartz is of particular interest since the material exhibits an unusually large Hugoniot elastic limit and previous authors1–3 have found evidence for a substantial reduction in shear strength above the Hugoniot elastic limit; this reduction in shear strength is in sharp contrast to the behavior of metals. Because x-cut quartz is piezoelectric, it is possible to utilize electrical response measurements on impact-loaded samples to deduce mechanical properties of interest.
100.35 Effect of Infarct Site on the Clinical Outcomes of Thrombolytic-Treated ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Some data suggest better outcomes with thrombolytics for inferior ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) compared to other MI locations. The goal of this study is to compare the clinical outcomes of different sites of thrombolytic-treated STEMI. The study population was extracted from the
Two-dimensional non-Hermitian topological phases induced by asymmetric hopping in a one-dimensional superlattice

Non-Hermitian systems can host topological states with unusual topological invariants and bulk-edge correspondences that are distinct from conventional Hermitian systems. Here we show that two unique classes of non-Hermitian two-dimensional topological phases, a $2\mathbb{Z}$ non-Hermitian Chern insulator and a ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ topological semimetal, can be realized by solely tuning staggered non-Hermitian or asymmetric hopping strengths in a one-dimensional (1D) superlattice. These non-Hermitian topological phases support real edge modes due to robust $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric-like spectra and can coexist in a certain parameter regime. The proposed phases can be experimentally realized in photonic or atomic systems and may open an avenue for exploring unique classes of non-Hermitian topological phases with 1D superlattices.
Non-Intrusive Deployment of Blockchain in Establishing Cyber-Infrastructure for Smart City

Internet-of-Things has emerged to develop smart communities so that real time sensing and decision can improve operational efficiency and quality of lives. However, establishing such infrastructure can be exceptionally intricate due to the vast variety of devices and the implemented technologies. Also, it poses several unique challenges, such as heterogeneity of the infrastructure, type, and scale of deployment, security, privacy, and inter-operability. One primary concern in a smart city environment is the capabilities of typically end-IoT devices which are vulnerable to security threats and prone to confidentiality and integrity breach of data. Blockchain can potentially address these security challenges due to the distributed ledger’s inherent properties. In this paper, we propose a decentralized architecture using the Blockchain to provide a secure and resilient smart city infrastructure that can run the ledger service over a distributed network. We consider a permissioned Blockchain, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and to automate and to overcome the infrastructural challenges concerning the smart city deployment, and we provide a systematic methodology that automates the deployment process and saves a significant amount of time. We simulate and deploy a Blockchain-integrated smart city environment using the proposed seamless deployment strategy using our automation module. With the proposed deployment scheme, we improve the Blockchain-based infrastructure development time by 82% compared to the traditional deployment approach.
Culture and heritage language: a study of female labor force participation

This study empirically analyzes the role of culture in determining working behaviors of American women whose ancestors/fathers were born outside of the United States. The effect of culture on these women’s working behaviors are studied by using 1970 and 2017 US Census data. Female labor force participation (FLFP) from the woman’s heritage country is defined as a cultural proxy for the working behavior of a second-generation immigrant woman. Cultural proxies are found to be positive and statistically significant for women who kept their heritage languages (HLs) when controlling for characteristics of the women, their husbands and families. This study indicates that cultural transmission is statistically significant for women whose social networks are strong. The main findings show that women who kept their HLs and their ancestors/fathers belong to the countries with higher/lower FLFP rates; they tend to work more/less hours in the US, respectively. Also, the results are robust when controlling origin country characteristics and employing instrumental variable and husband’s culture.
A Peer-Mentoring Experience for Graduate Students

A mentor is someone who provides guidance, assistance, and support to a less-experienced individual. The individual, a mentee, is a person who benefits from the guidance and assistance by learning from those who walked a similar path before him or her. In the context of graduate studies, an advisor?student relationship is consistent with this description.
Sakura: A VR musical exploration game with MIDI keyboard in Japanese Zen environment

Sakura is a VR musical exploration game with MIDI keyboard in Japanese Zen environment, which provides music-creating experience in immersive environment and uses MIDI keyboard as the in-game interface instead of traditional VR controllers. In this work, the author explores a novel way to create an immersive and entertaining music playing experience by using virtual reality technology, physical instrument interface and exploration game concept. All the events and actions in the game are generated and controlled by user’s MIDI input so that playing the game is playing music itself. According to players’ feedback, they enjoy this immersive magical music journey with their own input and feel relaxed and calm after playing. A four-minute gameplay demo can be found here:https://youtu.be/58HPwiiap7I.
G508 A national picture of challenges faced by paediatric units in discharge of children with medical complexity

Aim The prevalence of children with medical complexity (CMC) has increased in recent decades. CMC often are subject to increased lengths of stays (LOS). Discharge teams within UK paediatric services are more heterogenous as compared to counterpart adult services. Our aim was to explore how discharge for CMC children was facilitated in UK paediatric units. Method We obtained a list of all UK Paediatric units from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. We contacted all the units with a freedom of information request for 8 questions. Questions 1–3 were to ascertain knowledge base of numbers of CMC or high LOS inpatients. Questions 4–5 were around non-medical barriers to discharge and Questions 6–8 involved exploration of how discharge planning was facilitated. A second contact was made to non-responders. Results Of 186 units, 13 duplicate or inactive departments were eliminated. Following the 2 contacts we received a response rate of 86%. Few units were able to reply to the specific question around our CMC definition. There was more clarity around LOS with 71% of units having Conclusion Our responses have demonstrated the similarity of challenges faced in supporting CMC and their discharge. CMC numbers are not routinely collected which may mean less visibility of the challenges that are faced. We are seeking to be part of a workstream to share good learning and drive service development for this growing and yet vulnerable group of patients.
An Exploratory Investigation of Threat Assessment Practices in Colorado Schools

Multiple professional associations and agencies have recommended that schools establish threat assessment processes and procedures. Such recommendations have been directed at school districts in Colorado, a state that has experienced multiple school shootings. In this exploratory study, the nature and prevalence of threat assessment conducted in four Colorado school districts, as well as the demographics of students, were examined. The sample consisted of 759 threat assessment cases reported by the four participating Colorado school districts for the 2014–2015 academic year. Students were in grades pre-K to Grade 12. The majority of the threat cases were male (81.70%) and 39.9% received special education services. Just over 42% of the sample was white, 16.9% Hispanic, 16.1% African American, 5.3% Asian, and 4.2% Native American. Raw threat assessment data was provided by safety coordinators in each of the school districts. Data included student demographics and threat characteristics, though the availability of these data varied by district. Analyses revealed that males, students in special education, and African American and Native American students were overrepresented in the threat assessment sample. Logistic regression indicated that students in special education were significantly more likely to have a threat rated as serious than those not in special education. Study findings have implications for school assessment practices and training in public schools.
Interfacial thermal conductance of in situ aluminum-matrix nanocomposites

Thermal performance of Al nanocomposites is of significance for broad applications. In this study, we successfully fabricated Al–TiC, Al–ZrB2, and Al–TiB2 nanocomposites via a novel in situ molten-salt-assisted method and systematically investigated their thermal properties, including thermal diffusivity, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity. Different contributions from electron and phonon have been semi-quantitatively decoupled for interfacial thermal transport in these Al-based nanocomposites. Then, the interfacial thermal conductance between aluminum and the electrically conductive TiC, ZrB2, and TiB2 nanoparticles was quantitatively studied and compared with existing models. An engineering model of the interfacial thermal conductance has been proposed and validated. It was confirmed that a higher interfacial separation energy and more effective interfacial bonding by better wettability can be conducive to a higher interfacial thermal transport.
Hydrogen carriers: Production, transmission, decomposition, and storage

Abstract Recognizing the potential role of liquid hydrogen carriers in overcoming the inherent limitations in transporting and storing gaseous and liquid hydrogen, a complete production and use scenario is postulated and analyzed for perspective one-way and two-way carriers. The carriers, methanol, ammonia and toluene/MCH (methylcyclohexane), are produced at commercially viable scales in a central location, transmitted by rail or pipelines for 2000 miles, and decomposed near city gates to generate fuel-cell quality hydrogen for distribution to refueling stations. In terms of the levelized cost of H2 distributed to the stations, methanol is less expensive to produce ($1.22/kg-H2) than MCH ($1.35/kg-H2) or ammonia ($2.20/kg-H2). Levelized train transmission cost is smaller for methanol ($0.63/kg-H2) than ammonia ($1.29/kg-H2) or toluene/MCH system ($2.07/kg-H2). Levelized decomposition cost is smaller for ammonia ($0.30–1.06/kg-H2) than MCH ($0.54–1.22/kg-H2) or methanol ($0.43–1.12/kg-H2). Over the complete range of demand investigated, 10–350 tpd-H2, the levelized cost of H2 distributed to stations is aligned as methanol « ammonia ~ MCH. With pipelines at much larger scale, 6000 tpd-H2, the levelized cost decreases by ~1 $/kg-H2 for ammonia and MCH and much less for methanol. Methanol is a particularly attractive low-risk carrier in the transition phase with lower than 50-tpd H2 demand.
Technical Perspective for: Query Games in Databases

When a data analyst runs some query to analyze her data, she often wants to ask some follow-up questions, about the result of the query. Why-questions take many shapes, and occur in many scenarios. Why is a particular tuple in the answer? Why is it not in the answer? Why is this graph decreasing? Why did we observe a sudden burst of error messages in online monitoring? Database researchers have noted the need for why-questions, and the literature contains several approaches, mostly tailored to specific applications. Despite the interest and the work in this area, there is currently no consensus of what an explanation to a query answer should be, and how one should compute it.
Acceptance and Commitment Training for Veterans with polytrauma: A randomized controlled trial protocol.

Abstract Background Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a signature wound of Veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (i.e., OIF/OEF/OND). Most Veterans with mTBI also experience stress-based psychopathology (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder) and chronic pain. This combination – referred to as polytrauma - results in detrimental long-term effects on social, occupational, and community reintegration. This study will compare the efficacy of a one-day Acceptance and Commitment Training plus Education, Resources, and Support (ACT+ERS) workshop to a one-day active control group (ERS) on symptoms of distress and social, occupational, and community reintegration. We will also examine mediators and moderators of treatment response. Methods This is an ongoing randomized clinical trial. 212 OIF/OEF/OND Veterans with polytrauma are being recruited. Veterans are randomly assigned to a one-day ACT+ERS or a one-day ERS workshop with two individualized booster sessions approximately two- and four-weeks post-workshop. Veterans complete assessments prior to the workshop and again at six weeks, three months, and six months post-workshop. Of note, workshops were converted to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results The primary outcomes are symptoms of distress and reintegration; secondary outcomes are post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and pain interference. Secondary analyses will assess whether changes in avoidance at three months mediate changes in distress and reintegration at six months. Conclusion Facilitating the psychological adjustment and reintegration of Veterans with polytrauma is critical. The results of this study will provide important information about the impact of a brief intervention for Veterans with these concerns.
Plutonium and Tritium Production in Israel’s Dimona Reactor, 1964–2020

Since the early 1960s, Israel has used the Dimona reactor in the Negev Desert for unsafeguarded plutonium production. Estimates of cumulative plutonium production have been very uncertain, however,...