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Fluoride removal from aqueous solution by adsorption using fly ash cenospheres (FAC) modified with paper mill lime mud (LM) as composite adsorbent had been investigated. The characterization of FAC and composite adsorbent were analyzed by Scanning electron spectroscope (SEM), Energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), Brunauer emmett teller (BET) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), which demonstrated that the porous structure of composite adsorbent was obtained after surface modification. Adsorption of fluoride on modified fly ash cenospheres was fitted with pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir model. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the effects of F− concentration, pH, adsorbent dosage and temperature on the removal efficiency. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the adequacy of the mathematical models. The Nonelectrostatic model of modified fly ash cenospheres adsorbing fluoride was built through the Generalized composite method, indicating that two inner-spherical complexes, ≡SF and ≡SOHF−, were formed in the adsorption process by means of the ligand exchange and surface complexation. Optimization of the adsorption conditions enabled the realization of the practical needs for fluoride contaminated water. Image 1 • A low-cost fly ash cenospheres modified with paper mill lime mud adsorbent was prepared. • Response surface methodology was employed to research the effects on fluoride removal. • Nonelectrostatic model-Generalized composite approach had successfully described and predicted the adsorption process. • ≡SF and ≡SOHF− formed in the removal of fluoride via the ligand exchange and surface complexation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of airflow drying technique in the process of paper conservation. It states that the technique was suggested by R. Futernick in paper conservation in 1988 and was first introduced at the Western Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory in San Francisco, California. It discusses the physical basics of the drying process in paper conservation such as drying stack which was set up from corrugated board.

The article highlights the Panama-Pacific International Exposition which was held in San Francisco, California in 1915. The record-breaking attendance of more than 18 million visitors made for a revenue-generating enterprise that accelerated the recovery of San Francisco from fire and earthquake of 1906. There were three lantern slides from a collection of eighty-nine slides taken during the exposition. The images showed artists at work and crowds viewing the "Nations of the East." The decorative effects of the lighting scheme at the exposition were wonderful that a number of postcards were made showing the view of the whole fairground.

The archetype of the self underlies the ego-complex at its root and source in the unconscious. None of these assigns to the self the role that I feel to be so essential in the syndrome. SP 50-52 sp In regard to the method of study of these processes of the archaic, unconscious psyche in psychosis, I find myself baffled as to how to set up anything like a scientific approach to the material. In this hypothesis the model is easy to visualize but difficult to understand in terms of experience; the self is seen in this case as the center of the total psychic organism, and the ego is subsumed within this totality as the center of the field of consciousness only, that is, of contents accessible to consciousness; between the two are the autonomous complexes, which are groupings of contents not accessible to ego-consciousness (Figure 1). Reconstitutive process in the psychopathology of the self1: The following paper by J.W. Perry is published with permission from the Annals of the New York Academy of the Sciences where it was first published in January 1962. The imagery I refer to is a whole class of symbolic representations of centrality and organization, of order and highest authority; I hope to demonstrate that in these we see representations of the self and processes that transform or reorganize the self in the unconscious psyche. [Extracted from the article]

This Special Issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits is dedicated to a collection of the best papers selected from the 2020 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) that took place on February 16–20, 2020, in San Francisco, CA, USA. This issue covers papers from the Analog, Power Management, Data Converters, RF, and Wireless committees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus L., in western North America are undergoing a seemingly volatile shift in seasonal population dynamics which includes novel winter-breeding on non-native milkweed in urban areas of northern California. The survival, viability and outcome of monarch pupae in the wild was evaluated for the first time by regular monitoring of a cohort of 104 pupae in a San Francisco managed urban landscape during the winter of 2021/22. Seventeen pupae were destroyed by landscaping activities. Almost half (49.4%) of the remaining pupae eclosed, with ∼ 70% likely infected with varying levels of the protozoan parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). A third of the pupae (32.2%) died of unknown causes, while the remainder (18.4%) disappeared, presumed predated. Two monarchs were killed while eclosing, by European paper wasps, Polistes dominula (Christ, 1791). Microscopic examination of pupal exuviae for spores of OE appeared to be a satisfactory proxy for microscopic examination of butterfly abdomens, in determining the presence/absence of infection. The developing importance of winter breeding in western monarch ecology necessitates modifications to conservation guidelines that enhance the survival of immature stages, acknowledging the role of non-native milkweeds while minimizing parasite infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on papers presented at the 58th annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), held in San Francisco, California, from April 6 to 9, 2006. The papers discussed in a panel on Southeastern Coastal China in the 12th-15th Centuries: Local Society at the Crossroads of Culture and Commerce include one by Matoshi Oka of Hiroshima University and another by Yasuhiro Yokkaichi of Kyushu University. The Society for Ming Studies sponsored a panel on Local Visions of the Ming in the Lae Qing.

The San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness' newspaper, the Street Sheet, is one of the nation's longest-running homeless newspapers. The Coalition's unique "business model" has served as an example for other "street newspapers" worldwide. In this model, homeless persons are entrusted to sell the newspaper on the street, keeping most of the profits for themselves. Using ethnographic data and document analysis, this essay frames the newspaper's vending interactions as performances of a contested "authentic" homeless identity that both transforms the stigma of homelessness into a "selling point" and reinforces the stigma associated with homelessness, ultimately positioning the stigma of homelessness as a souvenir of the Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sentiment can effectively evaluate the public's feelings of well-being in the urban environment and reflect the quality of the spatial environment to a certain extent. Previous studies on the relationship between public sentiment and urban built environmental factors have yielded meaningful results. However, few studies have focused on the effect of micro-built environment on public sentiment at the street level, which directly shapes people's perceptions. In addition, the nonlinear relationship and synergistic effect among urban built environmental factors have been commonly disregarded in previous studies, resulting in an incomplete understanding of the impact of urban built environment on public emotions. Therefore, this paper takes San Francisco as a study case to explore the complex relationship between urban built environmental factors and public emotions. Specifically, this paper measures the polarity of public emotions through sentiment analysis on Twitter data, establishes a comprehensive built environment index system from both macro- and micro- perspectives, and subsequently explores the complex relationship between the urban built environment and public sentiment through the OLS model and Shapley Additive Explanation algorithm. Results show that: (1) micro-built environmental factors have a significant influence on public emotion, although they have been frequently ignored. (2) Public sentiment tends to be more positive in areas with recreation facilities, mixed land use, rich street view visual environment, suitable thermal and acoustic environment, balanced income, and a suitable degree of high population density. (3) A nonlinear relationship and threshold effect exist between the built environmental variables and the semantic orientations of public emotion. Environment improvement strategies based on the synergic effect between variables can effectively promote the generation of positive emotions. Our empirical findings can offer valuable insights to promote feelings of well-being and foster an urban development approach through strategic interventions within the urban built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unique neighborhood style of San Francisco Chinatown is influenced by Chinese and American culture, history and social system. Through field investigation, Chinese and English literature collection, and spatial analysis, this paper interprets the motivation of its style evolution. In the process of research, the author tries to analyze the changes and driving forces of Chinatown in San Francisco from three dimensions: the city scale, the blocks scale, and the building scale. The results show that the formation process of Chinatown in San Francisco and the range of its blocks are deeply influenced by the world political pattern in the early 20th century, the Sino-American multi-party regulations and Sino-American relations. The architectural style of the block is influenced by the Eastern and Western cultures, which is a distinctive architectural feature. The traditional architecture is deeply influenced by the architectural style of southern Fujian, while the new architecture is mainly based on the modernist architectural style. Among the main factors affecting the evolution of Chinatown in San Francisco, gold rush, earthquake, traditional Chinese architectural style and immigration policy to China are the internal mechanisms of the formation of Chinatown's spatial characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of papers delivered at the American Literature Association's 21st annual conference in San Francisco, California, which include "A Sexual Life in The Dying Animal," by Kevin West, "Matrimony: the (M)other in Philip Roth's Life Writings," by Tony Fong and "Can You Explain to the Court Why You Hate Women?": An Overview of Criticism of Philip Roth's Portrayal of Women," by David Gooblar.

This Special Topic section of Biomicrofluidics is dedicated to original papers from the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Electrophoresis Society (AES: http://www.aesociety.org). This five-day meeting held in San Francisco, California, included five sessions on BioMEMS and Microfluidics and four sessions on Advances in Electrokinetics and Electrophoresis. AES and its corresponding symposia provide the most focused and well-organized meeting forum for diverse biological and engineering researchers working on electrokinetics. The work featured in this Special Topic section is no exception; it ranges from nanochannel electrophoresis to bioparticle sorting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1887 William Randolph Hearst took over the San Francisco Examiner and made it a New Journalism paper, imitating the techniques of earlier New Journalism publishers in major British and US cities. Because of the competition they faced from Hearst, the other publishers of daily newspapers in San Francisco-Michael de Young and Claus Spreckles-implemented New Journalism techniques in their papers. By the end of the century, San Francisco had become the first US city of its size in which all of the daily newspapers practiced New Journalism. At that time, eight other US cities had populations similar in size to that of San Francisco, and in all of them there were at least two differing journalistic styles practiced by the daily newspapers. However, through the early decades of the twentieth century, four of those cities joined San Francisco in having all of their daily newspapers practice New Journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With seemingly greater frequency, linguists today are working as consultants in 'forensic' linguistics, employed by attorneys to prepare reports and testimony based on their linguistic research. Their work is generally beneficial to the side (litigant, prosecutor or defender) that employs them. Linguistic research that is conducted for purposes other than academic publishing raises a number of serious ethical issues. This introduction addresses a number of ethical questions within the framework or forensic linguistics. I. To what extent should a scholar disclose the relationship between forensic linguistic case-driven research and later scholarly publication? 2. What are the implications of the adversarial nature of legal proceedings vis-à-vis (a) the scholar's supposed devotion to 'truth' and (b) the legal requirement of telling not only the truth and nothing but the truth, but also the whole truth. 3. What are the appropriate scholarly credentials for forensic linguistic consulting? To what extent can proper credentialing be enforced? By what authority? 4. Should organizations such as the Linguistic Society of America and the International Association of Forensic Linguists take an official position on any of these issues? 5. What does an attorney expect of a linguistic expert? What sort of training would the legal profession find especially helpful? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finite element method is commonly used to conduct the excavation project and to ensure the safety of the adjacent building. Hence, the analysis method should be rigorous, and the soil parameters used in the analysis should be carefully determined. In this paper, a small strain stiffness model was performed to assess the influence of small-strain soil behavior on ground movement induced by deep excavation in soft clays. The results revealed that when the stiff soil is far away from the excavation base, the hardening small strain model should be used to obtain a better prediction. On the other hand, the ground movement is restrained by the stiff soil when the location of stiff soil is near the excavation base. Under such conditions, the results from hardening soil and hardening small strain models are similar. In addition, this paper also provides a method to determine the small strain parameters (shear modulus and shear strain). Furthermore, the analysis method was verified through several case histories in Taipei and San Francisco. The results from case studies concluded that the small strain parameter should be determined by considering soil conditions and construction methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2013 IEEE Pulsed Power and Plasma Science Conference (PPPS 2013) was held at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, CA, USA in June 2013. The PPPS 2013 combined the 19th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference (PPC) and the 40th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS). This conference marks the third combined IEEE PPPS meeting, following the very successful PPPS 2001 in Las Vegas, NV, USA, and the PPPS 2007 in Albuquerque, NM, USA. The most recent ICOPS was held in 2012 in Edinburg, Scotland, and the most recent PPC was held in 2011 in Chicago, IL, USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents abstracts of research papers presented at the thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Society of Dermatopathology in San Francisco, California. Some of the topics discussed in these research papers are de-differentiated metastatic melanoma masquerading as a high grade pos, folliculocystic eccrine hamartoma, histologic features of lichen sclerosus in a surgical scar, necrobiotic xanthogranuloma, mixed merkel cell and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin and melanoma in situ and tumor vascularity.

This paper defines a smart home use case to automatically adjust home temperature and/or hot water. The main objective is to reduce the energy consumption of cooling, heating and hot water systems in smart homes. To this end, the residents set a temperature (i.e., X degree Celsius) for home and/or hot water. When the residents leave homes (e.g., for work), they turn off the cooling or heating devices. A few minutes before arriving at their residences, the cooling or heating devices start working automatically to adjust the home or water temperature according to the residents' preference (i.e., X degree Celsius). This can help reduce the energy consumption of these devices. To estimate the arrival time of the residents (i.e., drivers), this paper uses a machine learning-based street traffic prediction system. Unlike many related works that use machine learning for tracking and predicting residents' behaviors inside their homes, this paper focuses on predicting resident behavior outside their home (i.e., arrival time as a context) to reduce the energy consumption of smart homes. One main objective of this paper is to find the most appropriate machine learning and neural network-based (MLNN) algorithm that can be integrated into the street traffic prediction system. To evaluate the performance of several MLNN algorithms, we utilize an Uber's dataset for the city of San Francisco and complete the missing values by applying an imputation algorithm. The prediction system can also be used as a route recommender to offer the quickest route for drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Law enforcement agencies are allegedly meant "to protect and serve" and yet there are numerous examples of state violence and brutality against citizens, especially because of racial profiling and racist stereotypes. One often ignored blight on American history is Executive Order 9066. Law enforcement agencies played an integral part in the round up of Japanese American families and the implementation of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's infamous wartime executive order. This paper argues that the actions of law enforcement in the lead-up to the forced removal of Japanese Americans, in the operation of the prison camps, and in the aftermath of Japanese Internment demonstrate how deeply rooted nativism coupled with wartime hysteria resulted in racialized violence against Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens. Law enforcement did not protect and serve Japanese Americans and this paper examines how this state violence is part of a shameful legacy that must be part of discussions about policing and race in America. Moreover, this paper shines a light on the policing of everyday life for Japanese Americans during this historical period. This project arises out of my family history. My great-great-grandfather, a leader in the San Francisco Japanese community, fought for his civil rights all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case against the San Francisco Sheriff in 1902. My grandmother was born after World War II, but her two older siblings, her parents, grandfather, and extended family were imprisoned at Topaz War Relocation Center in rural Utah. In this telling of my family's story, I offer a heretofore underexamined aspect of the criminalization of Japanese Americans' everyday life and the ways that government action and law enforcement controlled this community. I also subvert the dominant narrative of silence and shame about pre-war Japanese exclusion and Executive Order 9066 by turning this shame squarely onto the state to encourage accountability and aid future discussions of policing and race in America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities around the world are facing increased sensitivity to drought effects. Climate-change-induced drought affects not only the natural hydrology of the broad macroclimate but also those in the urban microclimates. The increasing frequency and duration of droughts are creating challenges for urban water utilities to convey water through distribution systems to customers reliably and consistently. This has led many urban areas like San Francisco, California, to search for unique alternative water supply projects to help bolster the drought resilience of the coupled human and natural water system. This paper focuses on applying the features of resilience (i.e., plan, adapt, absorb, and recover) through a drought resilience matrix to water supply alternatives to analyze how the addition of these projects would increase the overall water system's drought resilience. San Francisco, California, was used as the case study to test the use of this matrix. Three portfolios (modifying existing supply, recycling, and desalination, as well as local approaches) were created and tested in the matrix. Each portfolio is composed of various alternative water supply projects that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is considering for implementation. Results concluded that the local approaches portfolio provided the most drought resilience, with the recycling and desalination portfolio providing the least resilience. The study approach and the presented findings will provide guidance to water utility professionals in supply planning to enhance drought resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key component of infrastructure seismic risk assessment is the execution of nonlinear time-history analyses with a suite of selected ground motions scaled to site-specific spectra. When interested in the evaluation of distributed systems residing near major active faults, such an approach is challenged by the scarcity of records adequately incorporating region and site-specific features known to impact the nonlinear response of distributed infrastructure substantially (pulses, spectral shape, spatial variability). This paper assesses the differences in the seismic demand posed to a suspension bridge as obtained from real ground motions selected based on state-of-the-art methods and arrays of site-specific simulated ground motions generated from physics-based wave-propagation models. The objective is to characterize the biases in structural response estimates introduced by the use of real ground motions in code-compliant approaches. A total of 15 realizations of an M7 Hayward fault earthquake and a detailed nonlinear simulation model representative of the West San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge are utilized as a case study. Damage limit states associated with structural drifts are defined for each bridge component as a function of the spread of plasticity. The results indicate that the median and variability of the demands posed by the simulated motions and real ground motions scaled to the same site-specific spectra are markedly different. Evidence from this study highlights the sensitivity of complex structures to multiple characteristics of the ground motions that might be biased by current scaling methods. Finally, fundamental characteristics of the scaled records leading to differences in the bridge response are discussed providing the basis to inform current ground motion selection and scaling procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarimetric target decomposition algorithms have played an important role in extracting the scattering characteristics of buildings, crops, and other fields. However, there is limited research on the scattering characteristics of grasslands and a lack of volume scattering models established for grasslands. To improve the accuracy of the polarimetric target decomposition algorithm applicable to grassland environments, this paper proposes an adaptive polarimetric target decomposition algorithm (APD) based on the anisotropy degree (A). The adaptive volume scattering model is used in APD to model volume scattering in forest and grassland regions separately by adjusting the value of A. When A > 1, the particle shape becomes a disk, and the grassland canopy is approximated as a cloud layer composed of randomly oriented disk particles; when A < 1, the particle shape is a needle, simulating the scattering mechanism of forests. APD is applied to an L-band AirSAR dataset from San Francisco, a C-band AirSAR dataset from Hunshandak grassland in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and an X-band COSMO-SkyMed dataset from Xiwuqi grassland in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to verify the effectiveness of this method. Comparison studies are carried out to test the performance of APD over several target decomposition algorithms. The experimental results show that APD outperforms the algorithms tested in terms of this study in decomposition accuracy for grasslands and forests on different bands of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a landmark ruling by the Chilean Supreme Court of August 9, 2023 dealing with the right to mental privacy, originated with an action for constitutional protection filed on behalf of Guido Girardi Lavin against Emotiv Inc., a North American company based in San Francisco, California that is commercializing the device "Insight." This wireless device functions as a headset with sensors that collect information about the brain's electrical activity (i.e., neurodata). The discussion revolves around whether neurodata can be considered personal data and whether they could be classified into a special category. The application of the present legislation on data (the most obsolete, such as the Chilean law, and the most recent EU law) does not seem adequate to protect neurodata. The use of neurodata raises ethical and legal concerns that are not fully addressed by current regulations on personal data protection. Despite not being necessarily considered personal data, neurodata represent the most intimate aspects of human personality and should be protected in light of potential new risks. The unique characteristics of neurodata, including their interpretive nature and potential for revealing thoughts and intentions, pose challenges for regulation. Current data protection laws do not differentiate between different types of data based on their informational content, which is relevant for protecting individual rights. The development of new technologies involving neurodata requires particular attention and careful consideration to prevent possible harm to human dignity. The regulation of neurodata must account for their specific characteristics and the potential risks they pose to privacy, confidentiality, and individual rights. The answer lies in the reconfiguration of human rights known as "neurorights" that goes beyond the protection of personal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of papers that would be presented at the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological research in San Francisco, California in October 1988.

The article presents various abstracts of papers presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Dermatopathology, during December 2-4, 1992, held at Grand Hyaff, in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. Some of the abstracts are, "Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans Strongly Express CD34," by D.A. Altman B.J. Nickoloff and D.P. Fivenson, "Plexiform and other Unusual Variants of Palisaded Encapsulated Neuroma," by Z.B. Argenyi, P.H. Cooper and D. Santa Cruz, "The Significance of Clinically Observed, Black Dots, Within Melanocyctic Nevi," by J. Bolognia and P.E. Shapiro, and others.

The article presents abstracts of papers presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of American Society of Dermatopathology, held in San Francisco, California. The meeting was held from November 29 to December 1, 1989. Some abstracts which were presented at the meeting are "Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma," by R. Cerio, D. McGibbon and E. Wilson Jones, "Pemphigus Vulgaris Affecting A Pilar Cyst," by W.R. Coleman and R.P. Kaplan and "The Cutaneous Signs of Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis," by K.G. Carison and L.E. Gibson.

The field of Walkable Neighborhood Systems is about neighborhoods as systems of land use, mobility, and transportation pricing, and how they can be understood as dense areas delineated by attractive walking distances. To date, four papers have been published in this field: Neighborhood density and travel mode (Lewis in Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2017.1321052), Walkable Neighborhood Systems (Lewis and Adhikari), San Francisco's neighborhoods and auto dependency (Lewis and Grande in Cities, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.12.017), and the Mismeasurement of Mobility for Walkable Neighborhood Systems (Lewis et al., Mismeasurement of Mobility for Walkable Neighborhood Systems, Mineta Transportation Institute, 2020). This paper summarizes the concepts and definitions of the field and replicates for Boston the methodology used in the San Francisco case study. We found 54 Boston neighborhoods using maps in a GIS and guidelines to determine neighborhood boundaries based on walking distances and land use. We establish much higher accuracy than using census blocks. We analyze neighborhood density as our independent variable and three dependent variables: sustainable modes (mode split), food sources, and walk score. The data is presented in tables, correlations, and choropleth-based graphics. Density correlated strongly with the dependent variables. The paper concludes with ideas about how to improve the performance of Walkable Neighborhood Systems for affordability, sustainability, mobility, health and safety, design, and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deviation of specific electrical conductance (EC) from conservative mixing behavior is well-established in the scientific literature. This principle is based on the observation that, as salt concentration in a water sample increases, the mobility of individual ions in the sample decreases, and thus their ability to conduct electricity decreases. Despite this fact, some commonly used models for salinity transport in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary) utilize EC as a primary simulation constituent, treating it as a conservative quantity. Such a modeling approach has likely been followed to exploit the wide availability of EC data for model calibration and validation, and to obviate the need to translate between EC and salinity in a domain characterized by multiple source waters with varying ionic make-ups. Arguably, this approach provides a reasonable tradeoff between data translation error and model simulation error. In this paper, we critically evaluate this approach, employing an extensive salinity data set that includes measurements of EC and major ion concentrations in the estuary. We demonstrate and quantify EC deviation from steady-state, conservative mixing behavior; review the conservative mixing behavior of three bulk salinity measures (practical salinity, ionic strength, and limiting equivalent conductance); and evaluate their source-dependent correlations with EC in the estuary. We find limiting equivalent conductance--a value that assumes uninhibited mobility among individual ions in a water sample--to be an attractive alternative for salinity transport in the estuary. In addition to being a conservative quantity, it is consistently correlated with EC in the estuary's dominant source waters, and thus addresses concerns related to data-translation error. We conclude this paper discussing pros and cons of adopting various salinity-transport model constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article announces the 2009 Annual Meeting for the "Journal of Finance," which will be held in San Francisco, California, from January 3, 2009 to January 5, 2009, the results of the 2008 election, which includes Jeremy Stein, Darrell Duffie, and John Cochrane, and that the AFA and the Department of Finance at Ohio State University have entered into a joint venture to maintain and enhance the finance faculty directory held on the OSU Web site.

Objective Workplace studies have linked hand/wrist tendinosis to forceful and repetitive hand exertions, but the associations are not consistent. We report findings from a prospective study of right wrist tendinosis among blue-collar workers. Methods Workers (N=413) at four industries were followed for 28 months with questionnaires and physical examinations every 4 months to identify incident cases of right wrist tendinosis. Exposure assessment of force and repetition were based on field measurements and video analysis to determine repetition rate and the percent time (% time) in heavy pinch (>1 kg-force) or power grip (>4 kg-force). All exposure variables were measured at the level of the individual and task. For workers responsible for >1 task, a time-weighted average exposure was calculated based on task hours per week. A proportional hazards model was used to assess the relationship between exposures and incidence of wrist tendinosis. Results During the 481 person-years of follow-up, there were 26 incident cases of right wrist tendinosis [incidence rate (IR) 5.40 cases per 100 person-years]. Adjusting for age, gender, and repetition, wrist tendinosis was associated with % time spent in heavy pinch [hazard ratio (HR) 5.01, 95% CI 1.27-19.79]. Composite exposure measure American Conference of Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Value (ACGIH-TLV) for hand activity level (HR 3.95, 95% CI 1.52-10.26) was also associated with the outcome for the medium-exposure group using video-based total repetition rate. Conclusions The workplace factors predicting wrist tendinosis were time-weighted average values of% time spent in heavy pinch and the ACGIH-TLV for Hand Activity Level. The % time spent in power grip was not a significant predictor, nor were any measures of repetition. An exposure-response relationship was observed for the % time spent in heavy pinch. These findings may improve programs for preventing occupational wrist tendinosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines spatiotemporal patterns and socioeconomic influences on host participation in Airbnb's short-term rental (STR) marketplace in San Francisco during the years 2019–2022, a four-year period that spans the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides the motivation for the study to examine how San Francisco's demographic and socioeconomic fluctuations influenced Airbnb hosts to rent their properties on the platform. To do so, Airbnb property densities, indicators of host participation, are estimated at the census tract level and subsequently mapped in a GIS along with points of interest (POIs) located all over the city. Mapping unveils spatiotemporal patterns and changes in Airbnb property densities, which are also analyzed for spatial autocorrelation using Moran's I. Clusters and outliers of property densities are identified using K-means clustering and geostatistical methods such as local indicators of spatial association (LISA) analysis. Locationally, San Francisco's Airbnb hotspots are not located in the city's core, unlike other major Airbnb markets in metropolitan areas. Instead, such hotspots are in the city's northeastern neighborhoods around ethnic enclaves, in close proximity to POIs that are frequented by visitors, and have a higher proportion of hotel and lodging employment and lower median household income. A conceptual model posits associations of Airbnb property densities with sixteen demographic, socioeconomic factors, indicators of trust, social capital, and sustainability, along with proximity to points of interest. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions reveal that occupation in professional, scientific, and technical services, hotel and lodging employment, proximity to POIs, and proportion of Asian population are the dominant factors influencing host participation in San Francisco's shared accommodation economy. The occupational influences are novel findings for San Francisco. These influences vary somewhat for two main types of properties—entire home/apartment and private rooms. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to supply side motivations of Airbnb hosts to participate in San Francisco's STR marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuel consumption is an important factor to be considered in the process of weather routing. How to choose an appropriate route according to the requirements is particularly important. This paper proposes a method to optimize the ship weather routing. Based on the original genetic algorithm, the trigonometric function selection operator is introduced, the mutation operator is improved to increase the search range in the initial stage of the algorithm, and gradually narrow the search range in the middle and late stages of the algorithm, thus the convergence is sped up and the running time of the algorithm is reduced. Aiming at the incomplete ship speed fuel consumption comparison table, this paper uses SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) software to perform curve fitting and a curve with the best fitting degree is found. Then the curve equation is used to calculate the total fuel consumption of the case ship (S175 container ship) sailing through between the two ports Yokohama (35° N, 141° E) and San Francisco (37° N, 123° W), to verify the performance of the improved algorithm. Aiming at the minimum fuel consumption, the fuel consumption of the optimized route is reduced by 7.84% compared with that of the Rhumb Line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality extremes, which water quality models often struggle to predict, are a grave concern to water supply facilities. Most existing water quality models use mean error functions to maximize the predictability of water quality mean value. This paper describes a composite quantile regression neural network (CQRNN) model, which simultaneously estimates non-crossing regression quantiles by minimizing the composite quantile regression error function. This method can improve the prediction of extremes. This paper evaluates the performance of CQRNN for predicting extreme values of turbidity and total organic carbon (TOC) and compares with quantile regression (QR), linear regression (LR), and k-nearest neighbors (KNN) in an application to the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which is the primary water supply for San Francisco, CA. CQRNN is superior to QR, LR, and KNN for predicting the mean trend and extremes of turbidity and TOC, especially for the non-Gaussian turbidity data. The performance of CQRNN is the most stable relative to other methods over different training sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Removing redundant features and improving classifier performance necessitates the use of meta-heuristic and deep learning (DL) algorithms in feature selection and classification problems. With the maturity of DL tools, many data-driven polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POLSAR) representation models have been suggested, most of which are based on deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs). In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach of a new multi-objective binary chimp optimization algorithm (MOBChOA) and DCNN for optimal feature selection. We implemented the proposed method to classify POLSAR images from San Francisco, USA. To do so, we first performed the necessary preprocessing, including speckle reduction, radiometric calibration, and feature extraction. After that, we implemented the proposed MOBChOA for optimal feature selection. Finally, we trained the fully connected DCNN to classify the pixels into specific land-cover labels. We evaluated the performance of the proposed MOBChOA-DCNN in comparison with nine competitive methods. Our experimental results with the POLSAR image datasets show that the proposed architecture had a great performance for different important optimization parameters. The proposed MOBChOA-DCNN provided fewer features (27) and the highest overall accuracy. The overall accuracy values of MOBChOA-DCNN on the training and validation datasets were 96.89% and 96.13%, respectively, which were the best results. The overall accuracy of SVM was 89.30%, which was the worst result. The results of the proposed MOBChOA on two real-world benchmark problems were also better than the results with the other methods. Furthermore, it was shown that the MOBChOA-DCNN performed better than methods from previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to emphasize the fundamental role of unconscious processes in our adaptation. We will point out how we are able to unconsciously perform higher mental functions such as setting goals and planning how to pursue them, dealing with complex data, and making choices and judgments. In the first part of this paper, we will describe the main features of conscious and unconscious processes as pointed out by recent empirical research studies, and we will see how safety is essential in pursuing our fundamental goals, and how unconscious mental processes are strongly oriented towards preserving our safety and pursuing these goals. Finally, we will discuss control-mastery theory (CMT), an integrative, relational, cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy processes developed by Joseph Weiss and empirically validated by Weiss, Harold Sampson, and the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group over the last 50 years. This conceptualizes unconscious processes starting from this "higher unconscious mental functioning" paradigm and, in accordance with research data, stresses that our main goal is to adapt to reality and pursue adaptive developmental goals while preserving our safety. Three clinical vignettes will help show how the concepts proposed by CMT have important implications for therapeutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes and analyzes a genetic algorithm based permutation control logic applied to the aggregator of an offshore multi-source park. The energy losses at the common coupling point are accounted for in the feedback. This paper focuses on offshore distributed energy resources, such as floating photovoltaic (PV), wind, and wave power. The main contributions of this research are the development of a control system that is capable of tracking the set-point imposed by the demand curve for each source individually, the introduction of a capacity factor for combined offshore floating PV/wind/wave power farms, and the unveiling of pure offshore renewable sources as potential storage-less flexibility service providers. The results of a case study for a site near San Francisco showed that energy losses and capacity factors are positively influenced by implementing the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article elaborates on the study conducted by Charles Cobb, a neurosurgeon at the California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco, California. Aside from practicing his profession, he is also a virus hunter, Since 1998, he studied on whether viruses have an association with brain tumours. He and his co-authors discovered that the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) needs a particular cellular receptor, normally involved in growth-factor signaling, to infect a type of cancer cell in the brain. He found out that this type of virus causes defects at birth and fatal diseases in immunocompromised people, especially patients with AIDS. People who are infected with the virus is associated with the occurrence of glioma, an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer that is difficult to treat.

The article analyzes the missing link between T lymphocytes and psoriasis. The observations of Immunologist Yan Zheng and his colleagues at the company Genentech in San Francisco, California are discussed in detail. An overview of the cause for the white cell infiltration into the skin and the role of IL-22 in causing the disease of psoriasis, through experimentation on mice, is presented. The article also presents the observations of Wenjun Ouyang on TH 17 and T22 to find the missing link.