cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Power MOSFETs and diodes

Abstract Gallium oxide possesses material properties that are advantageous for power electronic devices. Combined with the availability of native Ga2O3 substrates, Ga2O3-based devices are projected to supplant Si-based as well as GaN- and SiC-based power electronics over a certain slice of the high-voltage, low-frequency application space. The β-type of Ga2O3 is clearly the most developed polymorph of Ga2O3. Devices based on β-Ga2O3 have not reached below the expected 8 MV/cm theoretical value for breakdown voltage. The best Schottky barrier diodes based on β-Ga2O3 have achieved a breakdown strength of only approximately 1 MV/cm. Recent results in Schottky diodes fabricated from 0.43 μm mist grown α-Ga2O3 displayed a breakdown strength of 12 MV/cm. For transistors, a 3.8-MV/cm breakdown strength was obtained for a 0.65-μm channel length device. The best reported breakdown voltage of 755 V only corresponds to 0.5 MV/cm breakdown strength that was obtained for a 15-μm channel length device. As material quality improves, it is expected that the experimental breakdown voltages will approach the theoretical predictions. A clear research path is that large-area and vertical devices will mirror the designs of silicon and silicon carbide power devices particularly with an emphasis on vertical design with defined conduction paths. The relatively low thermal conductivity of Ga2O3 creates self-heating effects that must be mitigated in order to utilize Ga2O3 for high-power at even moderate switching frequencies. Lastly, the current state of p-type β-Ga2O3 is currently an issue to utilized pn junctions to define the current path in vertical devices. This issue, like many aspects of Ga2O3, is rapidly evolving.
Laparoscopic Right Adrenalectomy (Transperitoneal Approach)

A 44-year-old man was referred for evaluation of primary aldosteronism. He had hypertension for the previous 8 years and was on three antihypertensive medications. Evaluation after a pre-syncopal episode also revealed a potassium level of 2.5 mmol/L, for which he was taking potassium supplementation for the past year. He was otherwise healthy and in good physical condition. A CT scan showed a 1.0 × 1.2 × 0.8-cm right adrenal nodule with characteristics suggestive of an adenoma (Fig. 2.1). He had an aldosterone-to-renin ratio of 163. Adrenal vein sampling confirmed the presence of a right-sided aldosterone-producing lesion, and plans were made for laparoscopic right adrenalectomy.
Variability in swimming behavior among broods of blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) zoeae

Abstract Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) support economically important fisheries across the eastern United States, which have exhibited historical variability in recruitment. Blue crab zoeae develop in surface waters over the continental shelf, where they need to constantly swim upward in order to stay within surface currents to successfully disperse. Morphology influences the drag zoeae experience and their ability to produce thrust, and morphological traits can vary across the population, especially between larval broods. The objectives of this study were to characterize the swimming behavior of first stage C. sapidus zoeae, determine whether there were inter-brood differences in swimming behavior, and identify morphological traits that are correlated with swimming behavior. The swimming behavior of zoeae from nine blue crab broods were observed within 24 h of hatching using video recordings, and metrics relating to velocity, orientation, and path straightness were calculated. Individual zoeae exhibited substantial variability in behavior, and broods significantly differed for all behavioral metrics measured. A mixture model analysis identified two modes of behavior each for velocity, orientation, and path straightness. These behavioral modes exist within individual broods, but the proportions exhibiting each behavior varied. Some morphometrics were significantly correlated with behavior, though some hypotheses based on the theoretical mechanics of zoeal swimming were not confirmed. Zoeal swimming ability, in terms of velocity and path straightness, varies among individuals within broods, yet across broods patterns of behavior were somewhat similar. The behavioral groups observed may result in inequality in the energetic costs of swimming for zoeae within a given brood, as well as varying optimization of vertical swimming. These results highlight the importance of individual and brood variation in swimming behavior and demonstrate the relationship of morphology in determining swimming behavior. Future work investigating zoeal swimming mechanics and behavior should incorporate this population-level variation.
Evaluation of genomic selection methods for predicting fiber quality traits in Upland cotton.

The use of genomic selection (GS) has stimulated a new way to utilize molecular markers in breeding for complex traits in the absence of phenotypic data. GS can potentially decrease breeding cycle by selecting the progeny in the early stages. The objective of this study was to experimentally evaluate the potential value of genomic selection in Upland cotton breeding. Six fiber quality traits were obtained in 3 years of replicated field trials in Starkville, MS. Genotyping-by-sequencing-based genotyping was performed using 550 recombinant inbred lines of the multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross population, and 6292 molecular markers were used for the GS analysis. Several methods were compared including genomic BLUP (GBLUP), ridge regression BLUP (rrBLUP), BayesB, Bayesian LASSO, and reproducing kernel hilbert spaces (RKHS). The average heritability (h2) ranged from 0.38 to 0.88 for all tested traits across the 3 years evaluated. BayesB predicted the highest accuracies among the five GS methods tested. The prediction ability (PA) and prediction accuracy (PACC) varied widely across 3 years for all tested traits and the highest PA and PACC were 0.65, and 0.69, respectively, in 2010 for fiber elongation. Marker density and training population size appeared to be very important factors for PA and PACC in GS. Results indicated that BayesB-based GS method could predict genomic estimated breeding value efficiently in Upland cotton fiber quality attributes and has great potential utility in breeding by reducing cost and time.
Retention challenges for indigenous Peruvian college students on Beca 18 scholarship and strategies to improve their experiences and academic success

This paper analyzes challenges indigenous Peruvian college students face in completing their studies, based on field research that included interviews with Peruvian higher education leaders, admini...
Generalized Jump Regressions for Local Moments

We develop new high-frequency-based inference procedures for analyzing the relationship between jumps in instantaneous moments of stochastic processes. The estimation consists of two steps: the non...
Does Obesity Correlate with Postoperative Complications After Elective Posterior Cervical Spine Fusion

Background With the increasing prevalence of obesity, there is a need to understand the impact of body mass index (BMI) on spine surgery outcomes. Previous literature has reported the influence of obesity in thoracolumbar surgery; however, the impact of obesity on postoperative complications after posterior cervical fusion (PCF) is unknown. Methods Consecutive patients who underwent cervical laminectomy and multi-level instrumented fusion for degenerative spinal conditions at an academic tertiary care hospital between 2012 and 2019 were evaluated. Patients were categorized into groups with a BMI ≥30.0 kg/m2. The modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (mJOA) score, Nurick grading, complications, and postoperative radiographic factors were analyzed. Correlations between postoperative outcomes and obesity were calculated at baseline and 1 year. Results A total of 275 patients were included, with 80 obese (29.1%) and 195 nonobese (70.9%) patients. At baseline, obesity was associated with worse myelopathy (mJOA score: 10.2 vs. 13.1, P = 0.04 and Nurick grading: 3.2 vs. 1.1, P = 0.05) and abnormal cervical radiographic alignment (C2-7 sagittal vertical axis: 43.9 vs. 38.1 mm, P = 0.04). The intraoperative estimated blood loss was higher among obese patients (561.1 vs. 391.2 mL, P Conclusions Our results corroborate that PCF surgery provides significant improvement in neurologic and radiographic outcomes at 12 months after surgery for degenerative cervical spinal disorders. Obesity is a factor to consider in the pre-operative risk assessment.
Flow cytometry and live cell imaging for characterization of cell surface markers on human tissue-derived progenitors

Background & Aim Podoplanin (PDPN) was recently reported as a valuable potential marker for identifying human skeletal stem cells (SSCs). These are a subset of connective tissue progenitors (CTPs), a highly variable, and tissue specific group of cells capable of clonal propagation, proliferation and differentiation in vitro. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) is a power tool for parsing cell markers, but FACS has a negative effect on colony forming efficiency. Development of better methods for isolating SSCs from human tissues using cell markers is a key step toward more viable methods of cell expansion. Our team has developed methods of live-cell large field of view (LFOV) imaging techniques that enable the identification and characterization of colony founding CTPs in culture soon after isolation and prior to cell division. The goal of this project is to define and validate the sensitivity and specificity of two LFOV imaging systems to detect the surface marker PDPN in comparison to flow cytometry. Methods, Results & Conclusion Bone marrow was aspirated from the iliac crest of consented donors. Nucleated cells were isolated. Live staining methods using anti-PDPN antibody, tested on positive control cell line U87 and negative control Jurkat, were defined for bone marrow-derived cells in suspension (Figure 1). The Cell X™ automation platform was used (Cell X Technologies) and the EVOS FL Auto 2 microscope (ThermoFisher Scientific) were used to capture LFOV images at 2 and 24 hours after plating. Subsequently, LFOV phase contrast images were collected every hour for 10 days, until colonies formed. Videos were reversed to identify individual colony founding CTPs. Quantitative image analysis was used to overlay areas of anti-PDPN and anti-CD45 staining with colony founding cells to determine the prevalence of PDPN+ and PDPN- cells among CTPs as well as the overall prevalence of PDPN+ cells in the entire adherent cell population as assessed using these methods. These data were then used to calculate the apparent prevalence of PDPN+ cells and the range of intensity of staining among CTPs, non-CTP adherent cells and total cells using each methods, with a parallel analysis using flow cytometry (LSR II). EVOS FL Auto 2 and Cell X devices are both able to detect PDPN+ and PDPN- cells in control cell lines (Figure 2) and among bone-marrow derived cells, enabling their use in further characterization of colony founding cell surface markers (CD146, CD271, HA).
Active vaccination reduces reinforcing effects of MDPV in male Sprague-Dawley rats trained to self-administer cocaine

3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a synthetic cathinone abused for its cocaine-like psychostimulant effects in “bath salts” products. While there are currently no pharmacotherapies for MDPV abuse, rodent studies suggest immunotherapy may offer a feasible treatment option. These studies tested the capacity of active vaccination to reduce the reinforcing effects of MDPV in Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats acquired cocaine self-administration (0.32 mg/kg/inf) on an FR1 schedule. Dose-effect functions for cocaine (0.032–1.0 mg/kg/inf) and MDPV (0.001–0.32 mg/kg/inf) were determined under an FR5 schedule. Rats in the vaccine group were immunized during cocaine self-administration. All rats transitioned to a progressive-ratio (PR) schedule to establish breakpoints for cocaine (0.1–1.0 mg/kg/inf) and MDPV (0.01–0.32 mg/kg/inf). Responding was extinguished, and cue-induced and MDPV-primed reinstatement (0.56 mg/kg, IP) were evaluated. No endpoints of cocaine self-administration differed between groups, but the ED50 for MDPV self-administration was significantly lower in control relative to vaccinated rats. Under the PR schedule, MDPV was ~ 2.5-fold more potent in maintaining responding in control than vaccinated rats, but Emax was not different between groups. Vaccination did not reduce MDPV-primed reinstatement, perhaps due to a decrease in antibody titer. Vaccination did not alter acquisition of cocaine self-administration, demonstrating pharmacological selectivity and suggesting that the vaccine did not affect learning or motivation, while effectively reducing the potency of MDPV as a reinforcer. The protective effects of the vaccine were surmounted by large unit doses of MDPV, suggesting maximal efficacy of drug-conjugate vaccines in substance abuse disorders will likely require concurrent behavior modification therapy.
Human Capital Investment After the Storm

This paper tests the impact of a major, wealth-destroying natural disaster – Hurricane Harvey (Aug-Sep 2017) – on the use of student debt financing. We find that college-age adults from heavily flooded blocks in Houston are 2.5 percentage points (5.8%) less likely to have student loans than are counterparts from non-flooded blocks. We explain this unexpected decline in student debt by a similar decline in enrollment and graduation rates at more, relative to less, exposed Texas schools. This aggregate decline in enrollment is partially offset by a shift towards college majors that have higher median earnings payoffs, which is suggestive of a scaling back of consumption-based and/or low-return course-taking. Together, results highlight a decrease in both the quantity and the diversity of investments in human capital after the storm.
SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Airway Cells.

SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Airway Cells In a laboratory setting, SARS-CoV-2 was inoculated into human bronchial epithelial cells. These cells were then examined 96 hours after infection with the use o...
Event-Level Predictors of Alcohol-Impaired Driving Intentions.

Objective:Alcohol-impaired driving is a significant public safety concern and is highly prevalent among young adults. Considerable research has examined between-person predictors of alcohol-impaire...
DPP4 + exosomes in AML patients' plasma suppress proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells

Mechanisms by which acute myeloid leukemia (AML) interferes with normal hematopoiesis are under intense investigation. Emerging evidence suggests that exosomes produced by leukemia blasts suppress hematopoiesis. Exosomes isolated from AML patients' plasma at diagnosis significantly and dose-dependently suppressed colony formation of normal hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC). Levels of HPC suppression mediated by exosomes of AML patients who achieved complete remission (CR) were significantly decreased compared to those observed at AML diagnosis. Exosomes from plasma of patients who had achieved CR but with incomplete cell count recovery (CRi) after chemotherapy suppressed in vitro colony formation as effectively as did exosomes obtained at AML diagnosis. Dipeptidylpeptidase4 (DPP4/CD26), a serine protease that cleaves select penultimate amino acids of various proteins, has been previously implicated in the regulation of hematopoiesis. DPP4 was carried by exosomes from AML plasma or leukemia cell lines. Leukemia exosomes which suppressed HSC colony formation had markedly higher DPP4 functional activity than that detected in the exosomes of normal donors. Pharmacological inhibition of DPP4 activity in AML exosomes reversed the effects of exosome-mediated myelosuppression. Reversing the negative effects of exosomes on AML hematopoiesis, and thus improving cell count recovery, might emerge as a new therapeutic approach to AML.
Deep-LIBRA: An artificial-intelligence method for robust quantification of breast density with independent validation in breast cancer risk assessment

Breast density is an important risk factor for breast cancer that also affects the specificity and sensitivity of screening mammography. Current federal legislation mandates reporting of breast density for all women undergoing breast cancer screening. Clinically, breast density is assessed visually using the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting And Data System (BI-RADS) scale. Here, we introduce an artificial intelligence (AI) method to estimate breast density from digital mammograms. Our method leverages deep learning using two convolutional neural network architectures to accurately segment the breast area. An AI algorithm combining superpixel generation and radiomic machine learning is then applied to differentiate dense from non-dense tissue regions within the breast, from which breast density is estimated. Our method was trained and validated on a multi-racial, multi-institutional dataset of 15,661 images (4,437 women), and then tested on an independent matched case-control dataset of 6368 digital mammograms (414 cases; 1178 controls) for both breast density estimation and case-control discrimination. On the independent dataset, breast percent density (PD) estimates from Deep-LIBRA and an expert reader were strongly correlated (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.90). Moreover, in a model adjusted for age and BMI, Deep-LIBRA yielded a higher case-control discrimination performance (area under the ROC curve, AUC = 0.612 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.584, 0.640]) compared to four other widely-used research and commercial breast density assessment methods (AUCs = 0.528 to 0.599). Our results suggest a strong agreement of breast density estimates between Deep-LIBRA and gold-standard assessment by an expert reader, as well as improved performance in breast cancer risk assessment over state-of-the-art open-source and commercial methods.
Randomized Histogram Matching: A Simple Augmentation for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in Overhead Imagery.

Modern deep neural networks (DNNs) achieve highly accurate results for many recognition tasks on overhead (e.g., satellite) imagery. One challenge however is visual domain shifts (i.e., statistical changes), which can cause the accuracy of DNNs to degrade substantially and unpredictably when tested on new sets of imagery. In this work we model domain shifts caused by variations in imaging hardware, lighting, and other conditions as non-linear pixel-wise transformations; and we show that modern DNNs can become largely invariant to these types of transformations, if provided with appropriate training data augmentation. In general, however, we do not know the transformation between two sets of imagery. To overcome this problem, we propose a simple real-time unsupervised training augmentation technique, termed randomized histogram matching (RHM). We conduct experiments with two large public benchmark datasets for building segmentation and find that RHM consistently yields comparable performance to recent state-of-the-art unsupervised domain adaptation approaches despite being simpler and faster. RHM also offers substantially better performance than other comparably simple approaches that are widely-used in overhead imagery.
Pharmacologic Targeting of Mcl-1 Induces Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Apoptosis in B-Cell Lymphoma Cells in a TP53- and BAX-Dependent Manner

Purpose: Bcl-2 has been effectively targeted in lymphoid malignancies. However, resistance is inevitable, and novel approaches to target mitochondrial apoptosis are necessary. AZD5991, a selective BH3-mimetic in clinical trials, inhibits Mcl-1 with high potency. Experimental Design: We explored the pre-clinical activity of AZD5991 in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and ibrutinib-resistant mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cell lines, MCL patient samples, and mice bearing DLBCL and MCL xenografts using flow cytometry, immunoblotting and Seahorse respirometry assay. Cas9 gene editing and ex vivo functional drug screen assays helped identify mechanisms of resistance to Mcl-1 inhibition. Results: Mcl-1 was expressed in DLBCL and MCL cell lines and primary tumors. Treatment with AZD5991 restricted growth of DLBCL cells independent of cell of origin and overcame ibrutinib resistance in MCL cells. Mcl-1 inhibition led to mitochondrial dysfunction as manifested by mitochondrial membrane depolarization, decreased mitochondrial mass and induction of mitophagy. This was accompanied by impairment of oxidative phosphorylation. TP53 and BAX were essential for sensitivity to Mcl-1, and oxidative phosphorylation was implicated in resistance to Mcl-1 inhibition. Induction of pro-survival proteins (e.g., Bcl-xL) in stromal conditions which mimic the tumor microenvironment rendered protection of primary MCL cells from Mcl-1 inhibition, while BH3-mimetics targeting Bcl-2/xL sensitized lymphoid cells to AZD5991. Treatment with AZD5991 reduced tumor growth in murine lymphoma models and prolonged survival of MCL PDX mice. Conclusion: Selective targeting Mcl-1 is a promising therapeutic approach in lymphoid malignancies. TP53 apoptotic network and metabolic reprogramming underlie susceptibility to Mcl-1 inhibition.
IMPROVING NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION IN SPOKEN DIALOG SYSTEMS BY CONTEXT AND SPEECH PATTERN MODELING

Author(s): Nguyen, Minh | Advisor(s): Yu, Zhou | Abstract: While named entity recognition (NER) from speech has been around as long as NER from written text has, the accuracy of NER from speech has generally been much lower than that of NER from text. The rise in popularity of spoken dialog systems such as Siri or Alexa highlights the need for more accurate NER from speech because NER is a core component for understanding what users said in dialogs. Deployed spoken dialog systems receive user input in the form of automatic speech recognition (ASR) transcripts, and simply applying NER model trained on written text to ASR transcripts often leads to low accuracy because compared to written text, ASR transcripts lack important cues such as punctuation and capitalization. Besides, errors in ASR transcripts also make NER from speech challenging. We propose two models that exploit dialog context and speech pattern clues to extract named entities more accurately from open-domain dialogs in spoken dialog systems. Our results show the benefit of modeling dialog context and speech patterns in two settings: a standard setting with random partition of data and a more realistic but also more difficult setting where many named entities encountered during deployment are unseen during training.
Deep Learning-based Approximate Nonlinear Model Predictive Control with Offset-free Tracking for Embedded Applications

The implementation of nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) in applications with fast dynamics remains an open challenge due to the need to solve a potentially non-convex optimization problem in real-time. The offline approximation of NMPC laws using deep learning has emerged as a powerful framework for overcoming these challenges in terms of speed and resource requirements. Deep neural networks (DNNs) are particularly attractive for embedded applications due to their small memory footprint. This work introduces a strategy for achieving offset-free tracking despite the presence of error in DNN-based approximate NMPC. The proposed approach involves a correction factor defined via a small-scale target tracking optimization problem, which is easier to approximate than the tracking NMPC law itself. As such, the overall control strategy is amenable to efficient implementations on low-cost embedded hardware. The effectiveness of the proposed offset-free DNN-based NMPC is demonstrated on a benchmark problem in which the control strategy is deployed onto a field programmable gate array (FPGA) architecture that is verified using hardware-in-the-loop simulations.
An Economic Analysis of Product Newness: Is Quality Decline Inevitable?

This paper is a demonstration of the confounding impact of product improvements and model changes on the price-quality relationship. The arguments for this position are developed through the use of basic microeconomic analysis.
Insect resistance of transgenic tobacco expressing an insect chitinase gene

Chitinase expression in the insect gut normally occurs only during moulting, where the chitin of the peritrophic membrane is presumably degraded. Thus, insects feeding on plants that constitutively express an insect chitinase gene might be adversely affected, owing to an inappropriately timed exposure to chitinase. This hypothesis was tested by introducing a cDNA encoding a tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) chitinase (EC 3.2.1.14) into tobacco via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. A truncated but enzymatically active chitinase was present in plants expressing the gene. Segregating progeny of high-expressing plants were compared for their ability to support growth of tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens) larvae and for feeding damage. Both parameters were significantly reduced when budworms fed on transgenic tobacco plants expressing high levels of the chitinase gene. In contrast, hornworm larvae showed no significant growth reduction when fed on the chitinase-expressing transgenics. However, both budworm and hornworm larvae, when fed on chitinase-expressing transgenic plants coated with sublethal concentrations of a Bacillus thuringiensis toxin, were significantly stunted relative to larvae fed on toxin-treated non-transgenic controls. Foliar damage was also reduced. Plants expressing an insect chitinase gene may have agronomic potential for insect control.
Multicomponent cubic oxide exsolution in synthetic basalts: Temperature dependence and implications for magnetic properties

[1] Although the compositional unmixing of cubic-structured iron oxides has profound effects on the magnetic properties of rocks that contain them, a basic understanding of the kinetics and thermodynamics of this process has not been achieved in experimental studies due to sluggish reaction rates in binary oxide phases. Exploiting the fact that many natural Fe-oxides contain multiple additional cations, including Ti, Mg and Al, we perform novel “forward” laboratory experiments in which cubic-cubic phase exsolution proceeds from initially homogeneous multicomponent oxides. A variety of Fe-Ti-Mg-Al cubic iron oxides were nucleated and grown in synthetic, multicomponent basalt under different fO2 environments, and annealed at temperatures ranging from 590–790°C for up to 88 days. Fine-scale lamellar intergrowths of Fe-Ti-Al-Mg oxides, interpreted to represent cubic phase exsolution, were observed in seven samples, one that was synthesized and annealed at approximately constant fO2 (the quartz-fayalite-magnetite, or QFM, buffer) and six that were synthesized at very oxidizing conditions (∼QFM + 6 log units) and then annealed at moderately oxidizing (∼QFM) conditions. Results demonstrate that the consolute temperature of the multicomponent system is significantly higher than anneal temperatures and Curie temperatures, suggesting that samples that undergo this type of exsolution can carry a total thermal remanent magnetization. Exsolved samples are characterized by a dramatic increase in magnetization and coercivity, and a shift in Curie temperature(s), confirming predictions that this type of exsolution exerts strong control on the strength and stability of magnetization.
Gene Expression Profiling of Mouse Embryos with Microarrays

Global expression profiling by DNA microarrays provides a snapshot of cell and tissue status and becomes an essential tool in biological and medical sciences. Typical questions that can be addressed by microarray analysis in developmental biology include: (1) to find a set of genes expressed in a specific cell type; (2) to identify genes expressed commonly in multiple cell types; (3) to follow the time-course changes of gene expression patterns; (4) to demonstrate cell's identity by showing similarities or differences among two or multiple cell types; (5) to find regulatory pathways and/or networks affected by gene manipulations, such as overexpression or repression of gene expression; (6) to find downstream target genes of transcription factors; (7) to find downstream target genes of cell signaling; (8) to examine the effects of environmental manipulation of cells on gene expression patterns; and (9) to find the effects of genetic manipulation in embryos and adults. Here, we describe strategies for executing these experiments and monitoring changes of cell state with gene expression microarrays in application to mouse embryology. Both statistical assessment and interpretation of data are discussed. We also present a protocol for performing microarray analysis on a small amount of embryonic materials.
Theorizing and Analyzing Citizenship in Multicultural Societies

I argue that sociologists have directed insufficient attention to the study of citizenship. When citizenship is studied, sociologists tend to concentrate on just one facet: rights. I elaborate four conceptual facets of citizenship. I link two—citizenship as rights and belonging—to theoretical elaborations of multiculturalism. Considering multiculturalism as a state discourse and set of policies, rather than a political or normative theory, I outline linkages between multiculturalism and two additional facets of citizenship: legal status and participation. Over the last 15 years, the idea of multiculturalism has come under withering criticism, especially in Europe, in part because it is claimed that multiculturalism undermines common citizenship. Yet countries with more multicultural policies and a stronger discourse of pluralism and recognition are places where immigrants are more likely to become citizens, more trusting of political institutions, and more attached to the national identity. There is also ...
Do Nonaudit Services Enhance Value? Evidence from the Capital Markets

Nonaudit services performed by auditors for their audit clients have long been a focus of concern for regulators. The SEC has mandated disclosure of fees for both audit and nonaudit services in order to provide investors with a more transparent representation of the auditor-client relationship. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether nonaudit service fees influence the value relevance of accounting numbers. We find that nonaudit fees have a positive effect on the value relevance of accounting numbers. This result suggests that the provision of auditor's nonaudit services increases the value relevance of accounting information. This result is contrary to the prevailing belief that nonaudit services impair auditor independence. We also find that investors' perception of nonaudit fees has changed. In particular, investors perceive nonaudit service as more value enhancing even after the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Matrix-matrix multiplication on a large register file architecture with indirection

Dense matrix-matrix multiply is an important kernel in many high performance computing applications including the emerging deep neural network based cognitive computing applications. Graphical processing units (GPU) have been very successful in handling dense matrix-matrix multiply in a variety of applications. However, recent research has shown that GPUs are very inefficient in using the available compute resources on the silicon for matrix multiply in terms of utilization of peak floating point operations per second (FLOPS). In this paper, we show that an architecture with a large register file supported by “indirection ” can utilize the floating point computing resources on the processor much more efficiently. A key feature of our proposed in-line accelerator is a bank-based very-large register file, with embedded SIMD support. This processor-in-regfile (PIR) strategy is implemented as local computation elements (LCEs) attached to each bank, overcoming the limited number of register file ports. Because each LCE is a SIMD computation element, and all of them can proceed concurrently, the PIR approach constitutes a highly-parallel super-wide-SIMD device. We show that we can achieve more than 25% better performance than the best known results for matrix multiply using GPUs. This is achieved using far lesser floating point computing units and hence lesser silicon area and power. We also show that architecture blends well with the Strassen and Winograd matrix multiply algorithms. We optimize the selective data parallelism that the LCEs enable for these algorithms and study the area-performance trade-offs.
Focusing the inverse method for linear logic

Focusing is traditionally seen as a means of reducing inessential non-determinism in backward-reasoning strategies such as uniform proof-search or tableaux systems. In this paper we construct a form of focused derivations for propositional linear logic that is appropriate for forward reasoning in the inverse method. We show that the focused inverse method conservatively generalizes the classical hyperresolution strategy for Horn-theories, and demonstrate through a practical implementation that the focused inverse method is considerably faster than the non-focused version.
Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons reaction

Olefin formation from aldehydes and phosphonates. Workup is more advantageous than the corresponding Wittig reaction because the phosphate by-product can be washed away with water.
The hydrophobic repeated domain of the Clostridium cellulovorans cellulose-binding protein (CbpA) has specific interactions with endoglucanases.

We overexpressed one of the hydrophobic repeated domains (HBDs) (110 amino acid residues) of the cellulose-binding protein (CbpA) from Clostridium cellulovorans by making a hybrid protein with the Escherichia coli maltose-binding protein (MalE). The HBD was purified to homogeneity, and interactions between the HBD and endoglucanases were analyzed by a novel interaction Western blotting (immunoblotting) method. The HBD had specific interactions with endoglucanases (EngB and EngD) from C. cellulovorans. These results indicated that the HBD was an endoglucanase binding site of CbpA. Images
African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas.

African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas. Sheila S. Walker. ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001. 400 pp.
Gene for a tissue-specific transcriptional activator (EBF or Olf-1), expressed in early B lymphocytes, adipocytes, and olfactory neurons, is located on human Chromosome 5, band q34, and proximal mouse Chromosome 11

Murine B lymphocytes, adipocytes, and olfactory neurons contain a DNA-binding protein that participates in the regulation of genes encoding tissue-specific components of signal transduction. Purification and cloning of this protein, termed early B-cell factor (EBF), from murine B lymphocytes and independent cloning of a protein, termed Olf-1, from olfactory neuronal cells revealed virtual complete amino acid sequence identity between these proteins. As a first step towards identifying a human genetic disorder or mouse mutation for which EBF could be a candidate gene, we have chromosomally mapped the corresponding locus in both species. By Southern hybridization analyses of somatic cell hybrid panels with murine cDNA probe, fluorescence chromosomal in situ hybridization (FISH) of human genomic clones, and analysis of recombinant inbred mouse strains, we have found single sites for EBF homologous sequences on human Chromosome (Chr) 5, band q34, and on proximal mouse Chr 11, in an evolutionarily conserved region.
Dynamic directories: a mechanism for reducing on-chip interconnect power in multicores

On-chip interconnection networks consume a significant fraction of the chip's power, and the rapidly increasing core counts in future technologies is going to further aggravate their impact on the chip's overall power consumption. A large fraction of the traffic originates not from data messages exchanged between sharing cores, but from the communication between the cores and intermediate hardware structures (i.e., directories) for the purpose of maintaining coherence in the presence of conflicting updates. In this paper, we propose Dynamic Directories, a method allowing the directories to be placed arbitrarily in the chip by piggy-backing the virtual to physical address translation. This eliminates a large fraction of the on-chip interconnect traversals, hence reducing the power consumption. Through trace-driven and cycle-accurate simulation in a range of scientific and Map-Reduce applications, we show that our technique reduces the power and energy expended by the on-chip interconnect by up to 37% (16.4% on average) with negligible hardware overhead and a small improvement in performance (1.3% on average).21
Immigration, drinking, and frequent mental distress: an internet survey.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the importance of immigration as a risk factor for self-reported frequent mental distress (FMD) among black respondents to an Internet survey. METHOD Snowball sampling was used to obtain Internet survey responses from immigrant and non-immigrant black adults in the United States. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to control for the effects of personal characteristics (N = 301). RESULTS In this sample of black adults, 13.3% had FMD. Being an immigrant was not associated with FMD in this sample (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.75, P = .53). However, more drinking days was an independent risk factor (OR = 1.07, P < .01). CONCLUSIONS Being an immigrant was not an independent risk factor for FMD in this sample of black adults. However, drinking more days per month was a significant risk factor. Primary care providers should be alert for FMD and alcohol consumption in this population. Directing health education about hazardous drinking toward high-risk individuals should be considered.
Introducing Vantage Theory.

La theorie des points de vue est un modele de categorisation. C'est plus precisement un modele de la methode utilisee par un individu pour construire une categorie, la memoriser, la modifier et l'utiliser. Il s'agit d'un processus cognitif, inconscient et automatique. La theorie etablit comment les equivalents categoriels sont traites mentalement pour former une categorie
An Evaluation of Environmental Concerns Related to The Risk of Nosocomial Infections in Patients, Employees, and Visitors

Abstract Introduction: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations(JCAHO) indicates a standard regarding Surveillance, Prevention, and Control of Infection IC.4: The hospital takes action to prevent or reduce the risk of nosocomial infections in patients, employees, and visitors. This indicator applies to Foodservice as it pertains to the transportation of clean or potentially contaminated foods and food supplies entering and exiting the same area of the nutrition department. Methods: A TDL Slit Air Sampler was used to collect air samples and deposit microorganisms onto an agar plate. After incubating the plate, the number and types of microbes deposited at any time during the sampling period was determined. Air samples were collected in established areas of the kitchen and dishroom. Various conditions (external humidity and time of day) and activities (movement of clean versus dirty carts and of normally-clad versus completely covered personnel) were recorded throughout the period of air sampling. Results: Microbial baseline samples, collected early in the day and during times of little activity were very low. When activity increased, the number of microorganisms in the air increased. All microbes detected were normal human flora and could be accounted for by human activity. No pathogens were detected even when carts of dirty trays were returned from patient areas. Conclusion: Both clean and contaminated foods and food supplies may be transported through the same area of the kitchen without endangering patients, employees and visitors. The data suggest that daily evening cleaning/disinfecting of the kitchen area has a positive influence on reducing organism populations.
Buoyancy Driven Microfluidics

It is not surprising that the use of buoyancy as a driving force in microfluidic systems has attracted little or no attention. Buoyant forces are proportional to the volume and do not scale favorably as the device size is reduced. Nevertheless, in certain biotechnological applications, one can produce sufficiently large buoyancy forces to generate fluid motion at velocities on the order of mm/s even in conduits with equivalent diameters of a few hundreds of microns. One example is the thermal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for DNA amplification. In this process, the reagents’ temperature varies from about 55°C to 94°C. Such large temperature variations can induce significant buoyant forces. Another class of systems that can be driven by buoyant forces is rotating laboratories on a chip (lab on a CD). In such laboratories, large centrifugal accelerations may induce significant buoyant forces even when the temperature variations are relatively small. These temperature variations can be used to propel and control fluid flow.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
Band Engineering and Magnetic Doping of Epitaxial Graphene on SiC (0001)

Using calculations from first principles we show how specific interface modifications can lead to a fine-tuning of the doping and band alignment in epitaxial graphene on SiC. Upon different choices of dopants, we demonstrate that one can achieve a variation of the valence band offset between the graphene Dirac point and the valence band edge of SiC up to 1.5 eV. Finally, via appropriate magnetic doping one can induce a half-metallic behavior in the first graphene monolayer. These results clearly establish the potential for graphene utilization in innovative electronic and spintronic devices.
Towards image guided robotic surgery: multi-arm tracking through hybrid localization

Use of the robotic assisted surgery has been increasing in recent years, due both the continuous increase in the number of applications and the clinical benefits that surgical robots can provide. Currently robotic assisted surgery relies on endoscopic video for navigation, providing only surface visualization, thus limiting subsurface vision. To be able to visualize and identify subsurface information, techniques in image-guidance can be used. As part of designing an image guidance system, all arms of the robot need to be co-localized in a common coordinate system. In order to track multiple arms in a common coordinate space, intrinsic and extrinsic tracking methods can be used. First, the intrinsic tracking of the daVinci, specifically of the setup joints is analyzed. Because of the inadequacy of the setup joints for co-localization a hybrid tracking method is designed and implemented to mitigate the inaccuracy of the setup joints. Different both optical and magnetic tracking methods are examined for setup joint localization. The hybrid localization method improved the localization accuracy of the setup joints. The inter-arm accuracy in hybrid localization was improved to 3.02 mm. This inter-arm error value was shown to be further reduced when the arms are co-registered, thus reducing common error.
Exploring frontiers of high surface area metal–organic frameworks

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have enjoyed considerable interest due to their high internal surface areas as well as tunable pore geometry and chemistry. However, design of optimal MOFs is a great challenge due to the significant number of possible structures. In this work, we present a strategy to rapidly explore the frontiers of these high surface area materials. Here, organic ligands are abstracted by geometrical (alchemical) building blocks, and an optimization of their defining geometrical parameters is performed to identify shapes of ligands which maximize gravimetric surface area of the resulting MOFs. A strength of our approach is that the space of ligands to be explored can be rigorously bounded, allowing discovery of the optimum ligand shape within any criteria, conforming to synthetic requirements or arbitrary exploratory limits. By modifying these bounds, we can project to what extent achievable surface area increases when moving beyond the present limits of organic synthesis. Projecting optimal ligand shapes onto real chemical species, we achieve blueprints for MOFs of various topologies that are predicted to achieve up to 70% higher surface area than the current benchmark materials.
Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Legalized

Over thepast 5 years, a number of states, notably those on the Pacific Coast, have proposed bills to legalize physicianassisted suicide (PAS). The Oregon bill 1 was voted into law in November 1994 but is not in effect pending judicial examination of its constitutionality. Support for legalizing PAS results from a widespread public concern that dying patients receive inadequate palliative care and that they suffer unnecessarily as a result. Proponents believe that legalization of PAS, by empowering dying patients to choose the time, place, and mode of their death, will best solve this problem. I believe that legalizing PAS represents misguided public policy because the unintended but predictable societal problems it will create are unacceptably great and because it harmfully diverts the emphasis of physicians' duties to their dying patients from its proper place, the provision of palliative care. I have made this argument in greater detail elsewhere. 2
Spectral Signatures of Heterogeneous Protein Ensembles Revealed by MD Simulations of 2DIR Spectra

A model for the calculation of amide I FTIR and 2DIR spectra taking into account fluctuations in hydrogen bonding and structure from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations is tested on three systems. It is found that although the homogeneous lineshape approximation yields satisfactory FTIR spectra, 2DIR spectra are sensitive to the inhomogeneity naturally present in any solvated protein and the common approximations of a static structure and averaged-effect solvent are invalid. By building on the local amide Hamiltonian and incorporating site energy variation with electrostatic-based models and disorder from MD trajectories, good agreement is obtained between calculated and measured 2DIR spectra. The largest contribution to the observed inhomogeneity is found to be the fluctuating site energies, which in turn are most sensitive to the water solvent. With the ability to accurately predict 2DIR spectra from atomistic simulations, new opportunities to test force fields and mechanistic predictions from MD are revealed.
Neural network-based accelerators for transcendental function approximation

The general-purpose approximate nature of neural network (NN) based accelerators has the potential to sustain the historic energy and performance improvements of computing systems. We propose the use of NN-based accelerators to approximate mathematical functions in the GNU C Library (glibc) that commonly occur in application benchmarks. Using our NN-based approach to approximate cos, exp, log, pow, and sin we achieve an average energy-delay product (EDP) that is 68x lower than that of traditional glibc execution. In applications, our NN-based approach has an EDP 78% of that of traditional execution at the cost of an average mean squared error (MSE) of 1.56.
Combining Independent Tests in Linear Models

Abstract A class of independent linear models is considered, where the variances of the different models are unequal but they have a common vector parameter θ occurring in their mean vectors. For testing the hypothesis H 0: θ = 0, some exact test procedures are derived that combine the information from all the models. The procedures are extensions of the test suggested by Cohen and Sackrowitz for recovering interblock information in balanced incomplete block designs. Simulation results on the power of the new tests and some standard tests are reported in the context of (1) testing the hypothesis concerning the common mean of two univariate normal populations and (2) recovering interblock information in a block design that is not a balanced incomplete block design. The numerical results indicate that the new tests have excellent performance in terms of power compared to some standard tests.