cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Beyond time-optimality: Energy-based control of augmented buck converters for near ideal load transient response

This paper presents a buck converter augmented with additional energy paths that enable a near null response to load transients. Fundamental performance limits, such as slew-rate limits, are overcome resulting in increased bandwidth with a response that is faster than previously established “minimum time” or “time optimal” control of conventional buck converters. An energy-based method is presented that allows simplified control of the augmentation branches. An efficiency analysis shows that power loss is dependent on load step size and frequency. Experimental results for a 12 V input, 5 V output, 25 W buck converter demonstrate that for 60 percent load steps the augmented converter has half the settling time, four times less peak-to-peak voltage deviation, and no inductor current overshoot as compared to the minimum time response.
Ultrastructural evidence of the formation of synapses by retinal ganglion cell axons in two nonstandard targets.

After unilateral ablation of the optic tectum in the frog (Rana pipiens), retinal ganglion cell axons enter the lateral thalamic neuropil in large numbers. This area is normally a target of the tectal efferent projection but is not innervated directly from the retina in normal frogs nor in frogs undergoing optic nerve regeneration in the presence of an intact tectum. The ability of retinal axons to form synaptic contacts in this nonstandard target, previously suspected only from light microscope studies, has been ultrastructurally verified in the present investigation. Retinal axon terminals were selectively labeled for light and electon microscope study by introducing horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into the optic nerve 73–413 days after unilateral ablation of the contralateral optic tectum. In some of the frogs, the optic nerve had also been crushed to test the ability of retinal axons regenerating over a long distance to form this connection. The HRP-labeled retinal axon terminals had the same untrastructural morphology whether located in the lateral thalamic neuropil or in the correct regions of projection, e.g., the lateral geniculate complex. They contained clear, spherical synaptic vesicles and made Gray type I synapses on the unlabeled postsynaptic dendrites, The magnitude of the projection was disproportionately greater in animals having complete or nearly complete tectal ablation than in a specimen in which the lesion was significantly incomplete. An aberrant projection was also observed in the nucleus isthmi in some of the specimens. These findings have significance for chemoaffinity theories of the specification of synaptic connections in that the ability of retinal axons to synapse in nonstandard targets in this experimental context may be considered evidence for the expression of appropriate cell-surface recognition-molecules by the abnormally targeted postsynaptic neurons. The likelihood that the expression of these postsynaptic labels is normally repressed transynaptically by molecular signals from the intact tectal input is discussed.
Television Violence and Viewer Aggression: A Reexamination of the Evidence

Studies of the effects of fantasy violent content in television on aggressive behavior are reviewed and used to assess three positions: (a) an activation view that watching televised fantasy violence causes aggressive behavior, (b) a catharsis view that aggression in some groups may be decreased following the observation of such violence, and (c) a null view that such violence on television has not been demonstrated to have significant effects on aggressive behavior. Studies are discussed with regard to their representativeness in sampling and design. In contrast to earlier reviews which have advocated the activation position, the evidence is here interpreted as supporting the null view.
Effects of attention on motion repulsion

Motion repulsion involves interaction between two directions of motion. Since attention is known to bias interactions among different stimuli, we investigated the effect of attentional tasks on motion repulsion. We used two overlapping sets of random dots moving in different directions. When subjects had to detect a small speed-change or luminance change for dots along one direction, the repulsive influence from the other direction was significantly reduced compared with the control case without attentional tasks. However, when the speed-change could occur to either direction such that subjects had to attend both directions to detect the change, motion repulsion was not different from the control. A further experiment showed that decreasing the difficulty of the attentional task resulted in the disappearance of the attentional effect in the case of attention to one direction. Finally, over a wide range of contrasts for the unattended direction, attention reduced repulsion measured with the attended direction. These results are consistent with the physiological finding that strong attention to one direction of motion reduces inhibitory effects from the other direction.
All in the Family: Kin Contact Leads to Outer Membrane Exchange

ABSTRACT The ability to recognize related cells in a population can confer evolutionary benefits. For example, some bacteria use contact-dependent inhibition proteins to distinguish kin from nonkin. Kinship recognition is taken to a new level in Myxococcus, which uses the dual-purpose TraA protein for kin recognition and outer membrane and lipoprotein exchange. In this issue of the Journal of Bacteriology , Wei et al. (X. Wei, C. N. Vassallo, D. T. Pathak, D. Wall, J. Bacteriol. 196:1807–1814, 2014) show that Tra-dependent exchange can be uncoupled from outer membrane vesicle/tube formation, reported elsewhere to mediate outer membrane exchange.
Scheduling Umpire Crews for Professional Tennis Tournaments

Professional tennis organizations, such as the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the International Tennis Federation (ITF), and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), host tennis tournaments throughout the world. At these tournaments, chief umpires assign and schedule line umpires for every match. For most tournaments, they perform this task manually, which can be cumbersome for large tournaments. For large tournaments, such as the US Open, they can use software developed to facilitate scheduling. Unfortunately, the software package currently available often creates suboptimal or infeasible schedules that must be manually adjusted. We developed a program based on optimization that automates the scheduling procedure. Our program consistently provides high-quality schedules in as little as 25 percent of the time taken with other methods.
Mapping Diversity Efforts as Inquiry.

In this essay, we discuss the importance for a higher education institution to participate in self-inquiry, or a reflexive practice of identifying where a university is with regard to establishing an embedded campus structure grounded in diversity in terms of values, principles, objectives and goals, outcomes and resource allocations. This process involves taking stock of and mapping current diversity efforts and then analysing such mappings to identify the current status of inclusive excellence at that institution. We refer to this process of inquiry as ‘mapping diversity efforts’ and highlight its value for locating a higher education institution's ‘actual’ – not projected – engagement with, and implementation of, diversity efforts. This essay traces a multi-step effort in creating, designing and implementing the mapping of diversity efforts at San Jose State University; such an effort represents a promising practice for diversity in higher education.
Designing Spelling Instruction for Learning-Disabled Children: An Emphasis on Unit Size, Distributed Practice, and Training for Transfer

This paper describes an intervention designed to enhance spelling achievement for learning-disabled (LD) elementary school children. A total of 39 LD children were instructed for 8 sessions over a period of 3 weeks. An experimental group (n = 24) was taught with lessons that incorporated reduced unit size, distributed practice and review, and training for transfer, and a comparison group (n = 15) with methods that are typically used in the teaching of spelling. While all children could spell less than 10% of the words on the pretest, the experimental group achieved 80% accuracy on spelling words taught and 75% accuracy on transfer words on a delayed posttest. This was higher than the average posttest performance of the comparison group (60% accuracy on training items and 50% accuracy on transfer items). These findings suggest that LD children can improve their spelling skills if sound remedial principles are applied consistently. The instructional sequence described in this paper can serve both as a model...
Positive invariant set estimation of L1 adaptive controller in the presence of input saturation

SUMMARY For a class of linear dynamical systems with constant unknown parameters, an adaptive control scheme is developed that provides stable adaptation in the presence of input magnitude constraints. Whereas for open-loop stable systems the results are global, for open-loop unstable systems, the problem of nonconservative estimation of the nonempty positive invariant set is cast into an LMI framework, which can be efficiently solved numerically via convex optimization. To achieve this, a standard result toward invariant set characterization is appropriately extended to accommodate bounded disturbance and model uncertainties. In addition to closed-loop stability, performance bounds of the adaptive closed-loop system are analyzed, and the degradation due to the possible control deficiency is quantified. Simulation examples of aerospace applications are included to illustrate the proposed method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Engineering Bacteria for Production of Rhamnolipid as an Agent for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Rhamnolipid as a potent natural biosurfactant has a wide range of potential applications, including enhanced oil recovery (EOR), biodegradation, and bio- remediation. Rhamnolipid is composed of rhamnose sugar molecule and b-hydroxyalkanoic acid. The rhamnosyltrans- ferase 1 complex (RhlAB) is the key enzyme responsible for transferring the rhamnose moiety to the b-hydroxyalkanoic acid moiety to biosynthesize rhamnolipid. Through transposome-mediated chromosome integration, the RhlAB gene was inserted into the chromosome of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1-rhlAand Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), neither of which could produce rhamnolipid. After chromosome integration of the RhlAB gene, the constitute strains P. aeruginosa PEER02 and E. coli TnERAB did produce rhamnolipid. The HPLC/MS spectrum showed that the structure of purified rhamnolipid from P. aeruginosa PEER02 was similar to that from other P. aeruginosa strains, but with different percentage for each of the several con- geners. The main congener (near 60%) of purified rhamnolipid from E. coli TnERAB was 3-(3-hydroxydeca- noyloxy) decanoate (C10-C10) with mono-rhamnose. The surfactant performance of rhamnolipid was evaluated by measurement of interfacial tension (IFT) and oil recovery via sand-pack flooding tests. As expected, pH and salt concentration of the rhamnolipid solution significantly affected the IFT properties. With just 250 mg/L rhamnolipid (fromP. aeruginosa PEER02 with soybean oil assubstrate) in citrate-Na2HPO4, pH 5, 2% NaCl, 42% of oil otherwise trapped was recovered from a sand pack. This result suggests rhamnolipid might be considered for EOR applications. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;98: 842-853. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Large anti-HER2/neu liposomes for potential targeted intraperitoneal therapy of micrometastatic cancer

Effective targeting and killing of intraperitoneally disseminated micrometastases remains a challenge.Objective/Methods: In this work, we evaluated the potential of antibody-labeled PEGylated large liposomes as vehicles for direct intraperitoneal (i.p.) drug delivery with the aim to enhance the tumor-to-normal organ ratio and to improve the bioexposure of cancer cells to the delivered therapeutics while shifting the toxicities toward the spleen. These targeted liposomes are designed to combine: (1) specific targeting to and internalization by cancer cells mediated by liposome-conjugated tumor-specific antibodies, (2) slow clearance from the peritoneal cavity, and (3) shift of normal organ toxicities from the liver to the spleen due to their relatively large size.Results: Conjugation of anti-HER2/neu antibodies to the surface of large (approximately 600 nm in diameter) PEGylated liposomes results in fast, specific binding of targeted liposomes to cancer cells in vitro, followed by considerable cellular int...
Correlation of static with the atmosphere

The writer has had opportunity at sea to study static with relation to the atmosphere since the spring of 1924 on board the U.S.S. Kittery. During 1926, these observations were made with the assistance of the radio compass. The research originally started on board the U.S.S. Kittery is now being continued by the Hydrographic Office, Navy Department, in collaboration with the Bureau of Engineering, Naval Communications, and the Bureau of Aeronautics.
A Just Global Economy: In Defense of Rawls

In The Law of Peoples, John Rawls does not discuss justice and the global economy at great length or in great detail. What he does say has not been well-received. The prevailing view seems to be that what Rawls says in The Law of Peoples regarding global economic justice is both inconsistent with and a betrayal of his own liberal egalitarian commitments, an unexpected and unacceptable defense of the status quo. This view is, I think, mistaken. Rawls’s position on global or international economic justice is richer, more nuanced, and generally more compelling than his critics have been willing to acknowledge. My aim in this essay is to sympathetically set out, and then defend against two common families of objection to, Rawls’s position on global or international economic justice. Objections of the first sort reject Rawls’s position as inadequately attentive to the material and economic interests of individual persons worldwide. Objections of the second sort reject it as inadequately attentive to the material and economic interests of well-ordered peoples. Throughout the paper I develop several arguments implicit in The Law of Peoples but not well-developed there as well as offer some additional arguments of my own consistent with the spirit of The Law of Peoples and Rawls’s work more generally. I conclude with some brief remarks expressing two worries I have about Rawls’s position – one concerning global public goods, the other concerning the formation of a morally adequate and effective political will within the international context under contemporary conditions.
Algal stacks and fungal stacks as adaptations to high light in lichens

Some lichens that occur in mountains and arid regions have developed an unusual anatomy resembling window-leaved plants. In these lichens, algal cells occur in thick vertical stacks (algal stacks) separated by vertical channels of light-transferring fungal hyphae (fungal stacks). We present experimental evidence that this anatomy permits higher rates of area-based CO2 assimilation in strong light, but that it also leads to higher respiration resulting in higher compensation irradiance. The net effect of this anatomy must be beneficial in regions of high insolation, as it has arisen many times in different parts of the world, and in unrelated lichens, and these lichens often dominate the communities in which they occur.
Overview of scientific issues involved in selection of polymers for PV applications

Encapsulant materials used in photovoltaic (PV) modules serve multiple purposes. They physically hold components in place, provide electrical insulation, reduce moisture ingress, optically couple superstrate materials (e.g., glass) to PV cells, protect components from mechanical stress by mechanically decoupling components via strain relief, and protect materials from corrosion. To do this, encapsulants must adhere well to all surfaces, remain compliant, and transmit light after exposure to temperature, humidity, and UV radiation histories. Here, a brief review of some of the polymeric materials under consideration for PV applications is provided, with an explanation of some of their advantages and disadvantages.
Harmonizing Diffusion MRI Data Across Multiple Sites and Scanners

Harmonizing diffusion MRI dMRI images across multiple sites is imperative for joint analysis of the data to significantly increase the sample size and statistical power of neuroimaging studies. In this work, we develop a method to harmonize diffusion MRI data across multiple sites and scanners that incorporates two main novelties: i we take into account the spatial variability of the signal for different sites in different parts of the brain as opposed to existing methods, which consider one linear statistical covariate for the entire brain; ii our method is model-free, in that no a-priori model of diffusion e.g., tensor, compartmental models, etc. is assumed and the signal itself is corrected for scanner related differences. We use spherical harmonic basis functions to represent the signal and compute several rotation invariant features, which are used to estimate a regionally specific linear mapping between signal from different sites and scanners. We validate our method on diffusion data acquired from four different sites including two GE and two Siemens scanners on a group of healthy subjects. Diffusion measures such fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity and generalized fractional anisotropy are compared across multiple sites before and after the mapping. Our experimental results demonstrate that, for identical acquisition protocol across sites, scanner-specific differences can be accurately removed using the proposed method.
Religious Freedom and/or Contraception Coverage: Time to Shelve the Disagreement

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress, signed into law by President Obama in March 2010 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2012 has focused renewed attention on health insurance, what services and benefits are covered by health care insurance, and who is responsible for offering or purchasing insurance. The extension of contraception coverage as required by the law has captured the attention of some members of Congress, the media, the Republican candidates for U.S. Presidency, media personalities, some state legislatures, and some religious leaders. Recently, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a new proposal designed to dissuade the fears of religious affiliated organizations. This article summarizes contraception equity practices in the states and suggests that the employer provided insurance benefit practices of sectarian nonprofit employers be framed as an important health and social equity issue.
Compressed indexes for aligned pattern matching

In many situations like protein sequences, the primary protein sequence is associated with secondary structure labels [6]. This can be treated as two sequences aligned character by character. Many other DNA and RNA sequences involve linkages which are aligned across or in the same or different strands. In this paper, we consider the most natural characterization of aligned string data. The aligned pattern matching problem is to index two input texts. T1[1...n] and T2[1...n], each having n characters taken from an alphabet set Σ of size σ = polylog(n), such that the following query can be answered efficiently: given two query patterns P1 and P2, find all the text. positions i such that P1 matches with T1[i...(i+|P1|-1)] and P2 matches with T2[i...(i + |P2| - 1)]. Our objective is to design a compressed space index for this problem and we obtained the following main results: when the query patterns are sufficiently long (|P1|, |P2| > α = Θ(log2+2e n), where e > 0), we can design an index which takes nH′k +nH″k +o(n log σ) bits space and O(|P1| + |P2| + log4+4e n + t) query time, where H′k and H″k denotes the empirical kth-order entropy (k = o(logσ n)) of T1 and T2 respectively, t represents the number of outputs and e > 0. Further we show that designing a compressed/succinct space index with polylogarithmic query time, which works for query patterns of all lengths is at least as hard as designing a linear space index for 3-dimensional orthogonal range reporting with poly-logarithmic query time. However, we introduce another compressed index of nH′k + nH″k + O(n) + o(n log σ) bits space requirement with a query time of O(|P1|+|P2|+√nt log2+e n) which works without any restriction on the length of the patterns.
The alliance in psychiatric rehabilitation: Client characteristics associated with the initial alliance in a supported employment program.

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic alliance is associated with outcomes for individuals in psychiatric rehabilitation programs. However, there are no known studies examining factors associated with the alliance in these programs. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether client characteristics associated with the alliance across multiple populations and program types were associated with the alliance for individuals enrolling in a supported employment program. METHODS: Previously collected data were available for 70 individuals served by the single employment specialist in the program. Potential independent variables and the strength of their relationship to the alliance were identified, then further explored using a forward stepwise logistic regression model. RESULTS: Seventy-three percent of the sample had the highest possible alliance rating. Being older and having a smaller social network size were significantly correlated with a high alliance, but neither remained a predictor of the alliance, controlling for the effects of the other. CONCLUSIONS: Client age and social network size were associated with the initial alliance, though not in a model containing both variables. Low power may have hindered the ability to show additional relationships, and the uniqueness of the program structure limits the generalizability to other programs. Future research should investigate the variables examined further.
Boll Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Emergence from Bolls During the Spring, and Trapping of Adults in Arizona

Boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, in Arizona continued to emerge until 23 May from infested bolls collected in December and placed above or on the soil surface under emergence cages during January or early February. Practically no emergence occurred when infested bolls were buried under 15 cm of soil under cages. Boll weevil captures in grandlure-baited traps were near zero during the summer (June–August), began to increase in the fall, reached maximum numbers in January and February, and began to decline in April of each year. The decline in numbers caught occurred at approximately the same time that the emergence from bolls was nearly complete. The relatively large catches of boll weevils during periods when no host was available suggests that emergence from bolls is occurring throughout this period and that large segments of the populations during the winter are not in a resting state, but are actively seeking host material or mates.
FAULT DETECTION USING ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY TOMOGRAPHY

Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) data were acquired on the ground surface across an underground limestone mine access tunnel in an effort to characterize the roof rock. This investigation was conducted because simultaneous localized failure occurred on the ceiling of the access tunnel and elsewhere in the mine along a previously unknown northwest trending lineament. The interpretation of the ERT data indicates the limestone roof rock above the tunnel is dissected by several prominent clay-bearing near-vertical solution-widened fractures (joints or faults) that are not visually exposed on the ceiling of the tunnel. Roof rock failure in the mine access tunnel occurred at the intersection of projected lineament and one of the more prominent interpreted solution-widened fractures.
Synonymy of Exserohilum Halodes With E. Rostratum, and Induction of the Ascigerous State, Setosphaeria Rostrata

Exserohilum halodes (Drechsl.) Leonard & Suggs is synonomous with E. rostratum (Drechsl.) Leonard & Suggs. The description of E. rostratum is amended to include the range of conidial measurements t...
Aerodynamics of a Swept Wing with Ice Accretion at Low Reynolds Number

This paper discusses the use of several experimental techniques to investigate the performance and flowfield of a swept wing with leading-edge ice at low Reynolds numbers. Force balance measurements were made over a range of angles of attack and Reynolds numbers. Surface oil visualization and pressure sensitive paint were used to investigate the flow over the surface of the wing, while five-hole probe wake surveys were used to investigate the wake. The flowfield of the iced swept wing was dominated by a leading-edge vortex that formed at low angles of attack due to separation from the tip of the ice shape, while for the clean wing a vortex did not form until higher angles of attack. The effect of Reynolds number on the performance and flowfield was also investigated.
Further Statistical Inference Methods for a Stochastic Model of Insect Phenology

In 1986, B. Dennis and coworkers formulated a model describing the temperature-dependent and stochastic character of insect development in field populations. This paper presents three additional statistical inference techniques to be used in conjunction with the model. We derive a confidence interval for pi(t) , the proportion of the population in development stage i at time t; confidence intervals for the times at which intermediate stage proportions peak; and a test for detecting outlying observations. Examples of each of these techniques are presented using data from the rangeland grasshopper, Ageneotettix deorum (Scudder).
Playable Virus: HIV Molecular Aesthetics in Science and Popular Culture

Viral aesthetics have become increasingly present in representations of health and illness. Since electron microscopy was first used to graphically isolate HIV, the ‘viral look’ has influenced academic and popular discussions about life and death. Commonly, the virus is associated with rapid and unseen transmission, hiding and genetic recoding that make identification and elimination difficult, and ‘sleeper cell’ behavior that delays detection and treatment. Visually isolating, eliminating and controlling molecular matter suggests that, in order to preserve life, foreign matter must be visually as well as biologically controlled. Recent attempts at imaging molecular space have shifted the practices of researchers. Using algorithms, models, and graphical interfaces, researchers now gain visual access to molecular space via simulation rather than photography, enrolling the public in the production of scientific research. Games such as Foldit use competitive play as a research method. Overcoming the problem ...
Cerebral oximetry with blood volume index and capnography in intubated and hyperventilated patients.

Abstract Objective Hyperventilation-induced hypocapnia leads to cerebral vasoconstriction and hypoperfusion. Intubated patients are often inadvertently hyperventilated during resuscitations, causing theoretical risk for ischemic brain injury. Current emergency department monitoring systems do not detect these changes. The purpose of this study was to determine if cerebral oximetry (r c So 2 ) with blood volume index (CBVI) would detect hypocapnia-induced cerebral tissue hypoxia and hypoperfusion. Methods Patients requiring mechanical ventilation underwent end-tidal CO 2 (ETco 2 ), r c So 2 , and CBVI monitoring. Baseline data was analyzed and then the effect of varying ETco 2 on r c So 2 and CBVI readings was analyzed. Median r c So 2 and CBVI values were compared when above and below the ETco 2 30 mmHg threshold. Subgroup analysis and descriptive statistics were also calculated. Results Thirty-two patients with neurologic emergencies and potential increased intracranial pressure were included. Age ranged from 6 days to 15 years (mean age, 3.1 years; SD, 3.9 years; median age, 1.5 years: 0.46-4.94 years). Diagnoses included bacterial meningitis, viral meningitis, and seizures. ETco 2 crossed 30 mm Hg 80 times. Median left and right r c SO 2 when ETCO 2 was below 30 mmhg was 40.98 (35.3, 45.04) and 39.84 (34.64, 41) respectively. Median left and right CBVI when ETCO 2 was below 30 mmhg was -24.86 (-29.92, -19.71) and -22.74 (-27.23, - 13.55) respectively. Median left and right CBVI when ETCO 2 was below 30 mmHg was −24.86 (−29.92, −19.71) and −22.74 (−27.23, −13.55) respectively. Median left and right r c SO 2 when ETCO 2 was above 30 mmHg was 63.53 (61.41, 66.92) and 63.95 (60.23, 67.58) respectively. Median left and right CBVI when ETCO 2 was above 30 mmHg was 12.26 (0.97, 20.16) and 8.11 (−0.2, 21.09) respectively. Median duration ETco 2 was below 30 mmHg was 17.9 minutes (11.4, 26.59). Each time ETco 2 fell below the threshold, there was a significant decrease in r c So 2 and CBVI consistent with decreased cerebral blood flow. While left and right r c SO 2 and CBVI decreased quickly once ETCO 2 ​ was below 30 mmHg, increase once ETCO 2 ​ was above 30 mmHg was much slower. Conclusion This preliminary study has demonstrated the ability of r c So 2 with CBVI to noninvasively detect the real-time effects of excessive hyperventilation producing ETco 2 2
Taking a Chance in the Classroom: La Quinta is Spanish for “Next to Denny's”

The observation that “La Quinta is Spanish for ‘next to Denny's’” is a joke made famous by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg. Last year, John Reiser, on his new jersey geographer blog, wrote up an an...
Early-Life Exposure to the Great Smog of 1952 and the Development of Asthma

Rationale: Little is known about the long-term effects of air pollution exposure and the root causes of asthma. We use exposure to intense air pollution from the 1952 Great Smog of London as a natural experiment to examine both issues.Objectives: To determine whether exposure to extreme air pollution in utero or soon after birth affects asthma development later in life.Methods: This was a natural experiment using the unanticipated pollution event by comparing the prevalence of asthma between those exposed to the Great Smog in utero or the first year of life with those conceived well before or after the incident and those residing outside the affected area at the time of the smog.Measurements and Main Results: Prevalence of asthma during childhood (ages 0–15) and adulthood (ages >15) is analyzed for 2,916 respondents to the Life History portion of the English Longitudinal Study on Aging born from 1945 to 1955. Exposure to the Great Smog in the first year of life increases the likelihood of childhood asthma...
Aggregate modeling of distribution systems for multi-period OPF

Distribution systems with active components, such as responsive load, distributed storage and renewables, supplemented with thermostatically controlled loads have the capability to support the transmission grid and provide part of the required capacity reserve. Including distribution system resources in transmission level multi-period economic dispatch is challenging due to the large number of devices. In this paper, a two-level scheme is proposed for optimally dispatching the distribution system's active & reactive support to the grid, over a look-ahead horizon using an aggregate model. Initially, a semidefinite programming problem is solved in order to obtain a maximal dynamic ellipsoidal model of the feasible region for the power consumption of the distribution system. Subsequently, a look-ahead AC-OPF problem is solved for the optimal look-ahead dispatch of the transmission grid, using the aggregate distribution model. The distribution dispatch is then disaggregated to individual devices. The procedure is repeated in a receding horizon basis. Results on the accuracy and benefits of the approach are demonstrated on standard IEEE systems.
Response: one confusion after another: “Slander” in Amos Tutuola’s Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer (1987)

I was reading Tutuola’s novel Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer (1987) for another purpose: to look into African fictional representations of poverty. The lingering inspiration of our discussions in Jo...
Sulphur Equilibria between Iron Blast Furnace Slags and Metal

From the 57 runs made in the experimental furnace covering a range of slag compositions, consisting of 30 to 50 pet lime, 29 to 40 pet silica, 1 to 19 pet magnesia and 6 to 27 pet alumina at 1500°C and 1425°C, the following conclusions have been reached: 1. The sulphur concentrations in pig iron at equilibrium with blast furnace slags are considerably lower than those found in practice.
Black Feminist Thought and why it Matters Today

As tensions based on race, gender and class continue, I believe it is imperative for scholars reexamine Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought. Collins uses an intersectional approach to describe the unique oppression which women of color in the United States face. Although the book was published over a decade ago, I believe it can aid one in understanding current oppression women of color still face today. Furthermore, Black Feminist Thought can help to facilitate meaningful dialogue around topics of racism and sexism which are happening across the country. As women continue to be at the forefront of activism against the current division and oppression in the United States, Black Feminist Thought will aid in establishing an inclusive and educated movement.
Human Rights Reporting: Rights, Responsibilities, and Challenges

This essay critically examines the intersections between news media and human rights in the context of the existing human rights framework. A survey of the fundamental provisions of international human rights law and of the evolving case law of human rights organs relating to media freedom and responsibilities reveals that existing gaps and underspecified obligations render problematic the normative guidance offered by the framework in addressing the pertinent human rights issues. However, this is part of the story. The problems associated with normative guidance are compounded by media practitioners’ contending approaches on the role of the media as “promoters of human rights.” The interplay between these factors is then examined through the prism of the two communities’ converging commitment to “truth-seeking.” This commitment can provide entry points to a more constructive engagement between the news media and the human rights community.
Accelerate analytical placement with GPU: A generic approach

This paper presents a generic approach of exploiting GPU parallelism to speed up the essential computations in VLSI nonlinear analytical placement. We consider the computation of wirelength and density which are widely used as cost and constraint in nonlinear analytical placement. For wirelength gradient computing, we utilize the sparse characteristic of circuit graph to transform the compute-intensive portions into sparse matrix multiplications, which effectively optimizes the memory access pattern and mitigates the imbalance workload. For density, we introduce a computation flattening technique to achieve load balancing among threads and a High-Precision representation is integrated into our approach to guarantee the reproducibility. We have evaluated our method on a set of contest benchmarks from industry. The experimental results demonstrate our GPU method achieves a better performance over both the CPU methods and the straightforward GPU implementation.
In-school service predictors of employment for individuals with intellectual disability.

Abstract Backgrounds/aims/methods Although there are many secondary data analyses of the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS-2) to investigate post-school outcome for students with disabilities, there has been a lack of research with in-school service predictors and post-school outcome for students with specific disability categories. Methods/procedures This study was a secondary data analysis of NLTS-2 to investigate the relationship between current employment status and in-school services for individuals with intellectual disability. Statistical methods such as descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze NLTS-2 data set. Results The main findings included that in-school services were correlated with current employment status, and that primary disability (i.e., mild intellectual disability and moderate/severe intellectual disability) was associated with current employment status. Conclusion/implications In-school services are critical in predicting current employment for individuals with intellectual disability. Also, data suggest additional research is needed to investigate various in-school services and variables that could predict employment differences between individuals with mild and moderate/severe intellectual disability.
The role of mid-gap states in all-inorganic CsPbBr3 nanoparticle one photon up-conversion

CsPbBr3 nanoparticles that have been treated with NH4SCN to produce essentially trap-free surfaces show an increase of one photon up-conversion quantum yield with little change to the up-conversion energy of activation, as estimated using an Arrhenius analysis. This suggests that mid-gap trap states constitute a loss pathway, and may not be integral to the one-photon excitation mechanism.
Outlier accommodation for meter-level positioning: Risk-averse performance-specified state estimation

Autonomous vehicle operation would be enhanced if a specified level of accuracy could be guaranteed. Risk-averse performance-specified (RAPS) state estimation works within an optimization setting to choose the set of measurements that achieves a performance specification with minimum risk of inclusion of outliers. This paper considers the challenge of preventing outlier measurements from affecting the accuracy and reliability of state estimation, with minimal risk. This paper is that for the first time applies the RAPS approach to the GNSS vehicle state estimation problem, including a review of the theoretical derivation and experimental results. The experimental results utilize real-world Doppler and differential pseudorange data that allows a comparative study with the standard Neyman-Pearson (NP) approach and RAPS state estimation.
Delta beta thalassemia and hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin.

δβ Thalassemia and hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) constitute a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by absent or reduced synthesis of adult hemoglobin (Hb A) and increased synthesis of fetal hemoglobin (Hb F). Coinheritance of these disorders with other β chain hemoglobinopathies, such as β thalassemia and the sickle cell (βs) gene, can result in attenuation of the clinical severity of these hemoglobinopathies owing to the increased Hb F levels. The molecular basis of these disorders is quite heterogeneous and consists of both deletion and nondeletion types of mutations. The characterization of these molecular defects has provided new insights on the structure and function of important regulatory elements that are involved in the normal control of expression of the β- and γ- globin genes and in hemoglobin switching.
Iterative variants of the Nyström method for the numerical solution of integral equations

Some iterative variants of the Nystrom method for the numerical solution of linear and nonlinear integral equations are introduced and discussed. Numerical examples are given; some are for integral equations with singular kernel functions.
Influences of Testosterone on Contractile Proteins of the Guinea Pig Temporalis Muscle

We have recently shown in the rat that the switch from neonatal to adult fast myosin is orchestrated by thyroid hormone (391); it is delayed in hypothyroid animals and switches precociously in hyperthyroid animals. In view of this hormonal effect on the development of fast muscle, we have been interested in other hormonal effects on myosin gene expression.
Backward masking of tones and speech in people who do and do not stutter

Abstract Purpose There is evidence of an auditory-perceptual component of stuttering, and backward masking (BM) is a task to explore that role. Prior research reported poorer thresholds for BM tones in a group of children who persisted in stuttering compared to those for a group that did not persist. This study examined BM for adults who stutter for tones and for speech, which tests a phonetic aspect of hearing. Method Eight persons who stutter (PWS) were closely matched with eight controls (PNS) in terms of phonological abilities, verbal span tasks, age, sex and non-verbal intelligence. These participants were examined for their ability to recognize vowel-consonant (VC) speech syllables and tones in BM paradigm with 0 ms and 300 ms masker to signal onset conditions. Results PWS showed significantly poorer performance for speech syllable recognition in quiet and in conditions with masking noise. The pattern of speech errors was similar in both groups, but the PWS produced more errors. A significant condition by group interaction in backward masking for tones was attributed to higher masked thresholds in PWS than in PNS in the 0 ms delay condition for BM for tones. Conclusion This was the first study to examine BM for speech in PWS. Results provide support for a small auditory-perceptual deficit for speech understanding in adults who stutter that was revealed in the absence of a lexical context. The speech results are explained in terms of possible indistinct phoneme boundaries in PWS and the effects of vowel context in speech recognition.
Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Postgraduate Training Programs: Program Characteristics and Training Curricula.

Author(s): Kraus, Chadd K.; Carlisle, Terry E.; Carney, Devin M. | Abstract: Introduction: A growing number of formal postgraduate training programs have been established to provide emergency medicine physician assistants (EMPA) with the unique skills and knowledge to work in the emergency department (ED). The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the current state of EMPA postgraduate training and to describe program characteristics and curriculum components. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of EMPA postgraduate training programs using data from websites and contacting individual programs to provide program characteristics and curriculum components. Variables collected included length of program, curriculum (e.g., clinical rotations, didactic experience, and research opportunities), size of program/number of trainees, affiliation with emergency medicine (EM) residency, geographic location, and salary. Results: We identified 29 EMPA postgraduate training programs in 17 states, with at least one additional program in development. The mean length of EMPA training programs is 15 months (range 12-24 months). The most common non-ED/elective rotations are orthopedics, ultrasound, anesthesiology, and trauma. The mean number of trainees per class is 3.46 (median 3, range 1-16 trainees); 27 of 29 (93%) programs were in institutions that also had an EM residency program. The mean annual salary is $58,566 (range $43,000-90,000). Conclusion: EMPA postgraduate training programs have common characteristics and curriculum components despite a lack of a specialty-specific accrediting organization or certifying examination. The overall growth and current number of these programs merits further research focusing on whether standardized curricula, formal recognition, and accreditation should be developed.
The Use of tPA in the Treatment of Frostbite: A Systematic Review.

Background: The use of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for the treatment of frostbite has been reported and advocated, but its efficacy has not been well established. We conducted a systematic review to guide physicians on the role of tPA in the treatment of frostbite. Our hypothesis was that the use of tPA improves clinical outcomes, as measured by amputation rate. Methods: We searched MEDLINE (PubMed) and EMBASE for primary research articles on the use of tPA for the treatment of extremity frostbite. Information related to study design, outcomes, and complications was extracted. A total of 204 citations were screened, and then 35 abstracts and 24 reports were reviewed. Fifteen studies met the standard for final review. Results: One randomized, prospective study; 3 cohort studies; 8 case series; and 3 case reports were found. A total of 208 patients were treated. Differences in protocols, inclusion criteria, and outcomes measures prevented combining the study results. In all the studies, the authors r...
Anatomy and white matter connections of the inferior frontal gyrus

The inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) is involved in the evaluation of linguistic, interoceptive, and emotional information. A detailed understanding of its subcortical white matter anatomy could improve postoperative morbidity related to surgery in and around this gyrus. Through GQI-based fiber tracking validated by gross anatomical dissection as ground truth, we characterized the fiber tracts of the IFG based on relationships to other well-known neuroanatomic structures. Diffusion imaging from the Human Connectome Project for 10 healthy adult controls was used for fiber tracking analysis. We evaluated the IFG as a whole based on its connectivity with other regions. All tracts were mapped in both hemispheres, and a lateralization index was calculated based on resultant tract volumes. Ten cadaveric dissections were then performed using a modified Klingler technique to demonstrate the location of major tracts. We identified four major connections of the IFG: a white matter bundle corresponding the frontal aslant tract connecting to the superior frontal gyrus; the superior longitudinal fasciculus connecting to the inferior parietal lobule, lateral occipital area, posterior temporal areas, and the temporal pole; the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus connecting to the cuneus and lingual gyrus; and the uncinate fasciculus connecting to the temporal pole. A callosal fiber bundle connecting the inferior frontal gyri bilaterally was also identified. The IFG is an important region implicated in a variety of tasks including language processing, speech production, motor control, interoceptive awareness, and semantic processing. Postsurgical outcomes related to this region may be better understood in the context of the fiber-bundle anatomy highlighted in this study. Clin. Anat. 32:546-556, 2019. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Computation of the Response Similarity Index M4 in R under the Dichotomous and Nominal Item Response Models

Unusual response similarity among test takers may occur in testing data and be an indicator of potential test fraud (e.g., examinees copy responses from other examinees, send text messages or pre-arranged signals among themselves for the correct response, item pre-knowledge). One index to measure the degree of similarity between two response vectors is M4 proposed by Maynes ( 2014 ). M4 index is based on a generalized trinomial distribution and it is computationally very demanding. There is currently no accessible tool for practitioners who may want to use M4 in their research and practice. The current paper introduces the M4 index and its computational details for the dichotomous and nominal item response models, provides an R function to compute the probability distribution for the generalized trinomial distribution, and then demonstrates the computation of the M4 index under the dichotomous and nominal item response models using R.