cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Coronary and Systemic Hemodynamic Effects of Cardiac Pacing in Man with Complete Heart Block

Twelve subjects with an average age of 65.9 years who had complete heart block had cardiac output and coronary blood flow measured at three different rates of pacing. Cardiac output and calculated external work increased with rate from the slow to the intermediate rate, but declined at the fast rate. Even at the intermediate rate, cardiac output remained low as compared to standards for normal younger subjects. Coronary blood flow and left ventricular oxygen usage increased with cardiac rate. Cardiac efficiency, expressed as left ventricular work divided by left ventricular oxygen consumption, tended to decrease as cardiac rate rose; however, these changes were not statistically significant. Lactate consumption increased with rate, but changes in glucose and pyruvate consumption were not significant. Considering the circulatory system as a whole, the intermediate or normal resting rate was more efficient. At this rate the cardiac output and cardiac work were greatest, and the mixed venous oxygen content (which must reflect body tissue oxygenation) was highest, while the cardiac oxygen consumption and coronary blood flow were intermediate.
Accuracy of a brief screening scale for lifetime major depression in cigarette smokers.

History of major depression is increasingly being measured in smoking cessation trials using brief screening scales, typically only 1–2 items, despite that their validity has not been fully established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the positive predictive value (PPV) of a 4-item screening scale of lifetime major depressive episode (MDE). Current (n=475), former (n=401), and never (n=646) smokers were asked about a history of depressed mood and anhedonia lasting several days or longer. Endorsers of either depressed mood or anhedonia were then asked about whether the symptom(s) lasted most of the day nearly every day for two weeks or longer. Symptom endorsers, regardless of symptom duration, were administered the depression module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Eight hundred and thirty-five (54.9%) participants had no history of either screening symptom, 296 (20.9%) had a history of depressed mood and (or) anhedonia <2 weeks, and 369 (24.2%) had a history of depressed mood and (or) anhedonia ≥2 weeks. PPV of depressed mood and (or) anhedonia ≥2 weeks was high (84.8%) for detecting lifetime MDE, as compared to only 23.9% for symptom(s) <2 weeks. PPV did not vary by either smoking status or gender. This 4-item screening scale has high predictive value in detecting lifetime MDE. Smoking cessation trials that do not require a history of depressed mood and (or) anhedonia for two weeks or longer may overestimate rates of lifetime MDE and confound tests of the association between depression and treatment outcome.
Power flow management of microgrid networks using model predictive control

In this paper, we present a power flow management method for a network of cooperating microgrids within the context of a smart grid by formulating the problem in a model predictive control framework. In order to reliably and economically provide the required power to the costumers, the proposed method enables the network of microgrids to share the power generated from their renewable energy sources and minimize the power needed from the micro gas turbines. To corroborate the viability of the proposed method, we will illustrate simulation results on a model consisting of three microgrids in a network.
Predictability of Seasonal Sahel Rainfall Using GCMs and Lead-Time Improvements Through the Use of a Coupled Model

AbstractThe ability of several atmosphere-only and coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models (AGCMs and CGCMs, respectively) is explored for the prediction of seasonal July–September (JAS) Sahel rainfall. The AGCMs driven with observed sea surface temperature (SST) over the period 1968–2001 confirm the poor ability of such models to represent interannual Sahel rainfall variability. However, using a model output statistics (MOS) approach with the predicted low-level wind field over the tropical Atlantic and western part of West Africa yields good Sahel rainfall skill for all models. Skill is mostly captured in the leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF1), representing large-scale fluctuation in the regional circulation system over the tropical Atlantic. This finding has operational significance for the utility of AGCMs for short lead-time prediction based on persistence of June SST information; however, studies have shown that for longer lead-time forecasts, there is substantial loss of skill...
An experimental investigation of the flow field of a rectangular wall jet

The structure of a laminar, rectangular wall jet developing from an initially parabolic velocity profile was investigated with measurements of the mean and fluctuating velocity field, and with Schlieren flow visualization. The effects on mean and fluctuating velocity fields of changes in the jet Reynolds number over the range of from 0 to 4800, and of various wall lengths ranging from 0 to 312 jet widths were studied. For a given wall length and Reynolds number, disturbances in the flow field were regular and periodic, and of a constant frequency in a large region of the flow field. Small, self-excited disturbances at the nozzle exit were observed to grow exponentially with downstream distance, and roll up to form a convecting array of discrete vortices. For certain values of wall length and jet speed, discrete audible tones were detected, and appeared to be associated with an enhancement of the regularity and stability of the vortex array.
Supporting minority student access and achievement: is there a role for the States?

This article reports on the results of a national study of state higher education boards in the US to understand their role in efforts to increase student access and achievement in higher education. The data reveal that only a small minority of state higher education boards have articulated policy objectives and implemented initiatives that are intended to improve minority student access and achievement. The data also reveal that, while the majority of states have information systems that enable them to measure and assess minority student access and academic progress in higher education, few have produced evidence that their initiatives have improved minority student access and achievement. The paper explores the impact of national discussions about affirmative action in higher education, which appears to have dampened state efforts to improve minority student access and achievement in higher education.
On the stochastic stability of linear systems containing colored multiplicative noise

The stability of linear systems containing colored multiplicative or state-dependent noise processes is considered. We present a technique for obtaining necessary and sufficient conditions for the p th moment stability of linear systems satisfying certain Lie-algebraic conditions. An example is given to illustrate the technique.
Rx: treating bugs as allergies---a safe method to survive software failures

Many applications demand availability. Unfortunately, software failures greatly reduce system availability. Prior work on surviving software failures suffers from one or more of the following limitations: Required application restructuring, inability to address deterministic software bugs, unsafe speculation on program execution, and long recovery time.This paper proposes an innovative safe technique, called Rx, which can quickly recover programs from many types of software bugs, both deterministic and non-deterministic. Our idea, inspired from allergy treatment in real life, is to rollback the program to a recent checkpoint upon a software failure, and then to re-execute the program in a modified environment. We base this idea on the observation that many bugs are correlated with the execution environment, and therefore can be avoided by removing the "allergen" from the environment. Rx requires few to no modifications to applications and provides programmers with additional feedback for bug diagnosis.We have implemented RX on Linux. Our experiments with four server applications that contain six bugs of various types show that RX can survive all the six software failures and provide transparent fast recovery within 0.017-0.16 seconds, 21-53 times faster than the whole program restart approach for all but one case (CVS). In contrast, the two tested alternatives, a whole program restart approach and a simple rollback and re-execution without environmental changes, cannot successfully recover the three servers (Squid, Apache, and CVS) that contain deterministic bugs, and have only a 40% recovery rate for the server (MySQL) that contains a non-deterministic concurrency bug. Additionally, RX's checkpointing system is lightweight, imposing small time and space overheads.
EFFECT OF HYDRODYNAMIC PRESSURE TREATMENT AND COOKING ON INACTIVATION OF ESCHERICHIA COLI O157:H7 IN BLADE-TENDERIZED BEEF STEAKS*

The efficacy of hydrodynamic pressure (HDP) treatment for inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in blade-tenderized beef steaks was studied. Beef steaks (N = 48) were inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and treated with blade tenderization (BT), HDP or a combination of BT followed by HDP (BTH). Control and treated steaks were cooked to 54.4C (undercooked), 62.8C (medium rare) and 71.1C (medium) on open-hearth Farberware grills. HDP treatment reduced E. coli O157:H7 populations by 0.3 log10 cfu/g, which was not different (P 0.05) from untreated controls. At each endpoint cooking temperature, E. coli O157:H7 survival was always higher in BT-treated steaks than in untreated steaks cooked to corresponding temperatures. This could be due to migration of surface bacteria to the interior of the muscle thereby protecting bacteria from the lethality of heat. E. coli O157:H7 populations in BTH-treated steaks cooked to 71.1C were nondetectable and were significantly different from BT-treated steaks cooked to 71.1C. Results suggest that BT of intact beef muscle does transfer surface bacteria to the interior of the muscle, which would necessitate a combination of elevated cooking temperatures (71.1C) and a treatment like HDP for inactivation of bacteria.
Psychosocial Treatments to Promote Functional Recovery in Schizophrenia

A number of psychosocial treatments are available for persons with schizophrenia that include social skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive remediation, and social cognition training. These treatments are reviewed and discussed in terms of how they address key components of functional recovery such as symptom stability, independent living, work functioning, and social functioning. We also review findings on the interaction between pharmacological and psychosocial treatments and discuss future directions in pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia. Overall, these treatments provide a range of promising approaches to helping patients achieve better outcomes far beyond symptom stabilization.
A specification language for real-time distributed systems

The authors introduce a design specification method, extended modified Petri nets (EMPN), and its description language (EMPNDL). The specification is based on a stochastic Petri-net model and is suitable for modeling real-time distributed systems. The syntax of the language is formally described in BNF grammar while the semantics is based on that for stochastic Petric nets. In addition to the modeling capability of EMPN and EMPNDL, methods for verification and validation of such systems are also discussed. EMPN and EMPNDL have been extensively used to the specification of a prototype switching system, UICPBX. Based on the presented formulation, verification and validation of UICPBX can be automated to a great extent. >
Novel diplexer synthesis using the composite right/left-handed phase-advance/delay lines

A novel and simple approach for diplexer synthesis using the composite right/left-handed (CRLH) phase-advance/delay lines combined with a coupler is proposed. By engineering CRLH-based transmission lines with desired phase responses at two arbitrary frequencies of interest, the connected CRLH 90° or 180° coupler is excited in a manner such that signals at designated frequencies are separated to the corresponding output ports of coupler. Based on the present configuration, design complexities such as optimization of the interconnection junctions and the harmonic spurious suppression involved in conventional filter-based diplexers can be avoided. In addition, channel isolation is beneficially achieved from the isolation property of directional couplers. The measured insertion loss and isolation are less than 1 dB and better than 20 dB in dual bands respectively. Good agreement was observed between simulation and measurement.
CFD Analysis of Compressible Flow Across a Complex Geometry Venturi

A commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package was used to develop a three-dimensional, fully turbulent model of the compressible flow across a complex-geometry venturi, such as those typically found in small engine carburetors. The results of the CFD simulations were used to understand the effect of the different obstacles in the flow on the overall discharge coefficient and the static pressure at the tip of the fuel tube. It was found that the obstacles located at the converging nozzle of the venturi do not cause significant pressure losses, while those obstacles that create wakes in the flow, such as the fuel tube and throttle plate, are responsible for most of the pressure losses. This result indicated that an overall discharge coefficient can be used to correct the mass flow rate, while a localized correction factor can be determined from three-dimensional CFD simulations in order to estimate the static pressure at locations of interest within complex venturis.
Superior oblique tendon (Brown's) syndrome as the presenting finding in childhood onset HLA-B27-related enthesitis and juvenile idiopathic oligoarticular arthritis.

We report two patients who presented with Brown’s syndrome. The first is a 7-year-old boy who at the time of his diagnosis was also found to have enthesitis and HLA-B27 positivity. The second patient was diagnosed with bilateral Brown’s syndrome at 13 months of age. At age 7 she developed a persistent oligoarticular arthritis and unilateral anterior iritis consistent with the oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopatic Arthritis (JIA) phenotype. These cases highlight ophthalmologic findings and diagnostic considerations with respect to Brown’s syndrome and associated childhood onset rheumatologic disease.
Inverted stripline antennas integrated with passive and active solid-state devices

Integrated antennas can reduce the size, weight, and cost of many microwave systems by incorporating component functions directly at the antenna terminals. Their use in many commercial system applications can produce compact, low-cost products. Currently, active integrated antennas are used for distributed oscillators in spatial and quasi-optical power combining. The inverted stripline antenna configuration was developed to easily integrate with solid-state diodes or transistor devices for switching, tuning, modulation, amplification, and oscillating functions. This antenna configuration offers good performance, beam sharpening flexibility, and nondestructive optimization. Good switching, tuning, and oscillating performances have been demonstrated. >
Empirical game-theoretic analysis of the TAC Supply Chain game

The TAC Supply Chain Management (TAC/SCM) game presents a challenging dynamic environment for autonomous decision-making in a salient application domain. Strategic interactions complicate the analysis of games such as TAC/SCM. since the effectiveness of a given strategy depends on the strategies played by other agents on the supply chain. The TAC tournament generates results from one particular path of combinations, and success in the tournament is rightly regarded as evidence for agent quality. Such results along with post-competition controlled experiments provide useful evaluations of novel techniques employed in the game. We argue that a broader game-theoretic analysis framework can provide a firmer foundation for choice of experimental contexts. Exploiting a repository of agents from the 2005 and 2006 TAC/SCM tournaments, we demonstrate an empirical game-theoretic methodology based on extensive simulation and careful measurement. Our analysis of agents from TAC-05 reveals interesting interactions not seen in the tournament. Extending the analysis to TAC-06 enables us to measure progress from year-to-year, and generates a candidate empirical equilibrium among the best known strategies. We use this equilibrium as a stable background population for comparing relative performance of the 2006 agents, yielding insights complementing the tournament results.
The continuing problem of asthma in very young children: a community-based participatory research project.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic health condition that has a disproportionate effect on low-income minority children who reside in large urban areas. African American children report significantly higher rates than the general population of children and have more-severe asthma and poorer outcomes. This article describes the prevalence of asthma in a particularly vulnerable group: children aged 2-5 participating in Detroit Head Start programs. METHODS: Health screens were distributed to caretakers of all children attending 6 Head Start agencies. Caretakers of children identified with active asthma symptoms were asked to complete an in-depth phone interview regarding their child’s asthma. RESULTS: Data collected from 3,254 children (78% African American) revealed that 27% met criteria for probable asthma. Of those with persistent symptoms, 26% were undiagnosed, and 21% were untreated. Baseline data (n = 675) showed that 95% had a regular doctor, but 36% had had no health care visit for asthma in the previous year. Of children with a history of asthma episodes, more than half reported 3 or more episodes in the preceding year. Forty-three percent of caretakers had discussed their child’s asthma with Head Start, and 31% had an asthma action plan on file with Head Start. CONCLUSIONS: Asthma remains a significant problem in this population, especially for African Americans, as evidenced by high levels of undiagnosed children with persistent symptoms and questions regarding the care they receive. Head Start is a way to reach young children with asthma, but may need help to develop the capacity to assist families.
CDK-1 inhibits meiotic spindle shortening and dynein-dependent spindle rotation in C. elegans

In animals, the female meiotic spindle is positioned at the egg cortex in a perpendicular orientation to facilitate the disposal of half of the chromosomes into a polar body. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the metaphase spindle lies parallel to the cortex, dynein is dispersed on the spindle, and the dynein activators ASPM-1 and LIN-5 are concentrated at spindle poles. Anaphase-promoting complex (APC) activation results in dynein accumulation at spindle poles and dynein-dependent rotation of one spindle pole to the cortex, resulting in perpendicular orientation. To test whether the APC initiates spindle rotation through cyclin B–CDK-1 inactivation, separase activation, or degradation of an unknown dynein inhibitor, CDK-1 was inhibited with purvalanol A in metaphase-I–arrested, APC-depleted embryos. CDK-1 inhibition resulted in the accumulation of dynein at spindle poles and dynein-dependent spindle rotation without chromosome separation. These results suggest that CDK-1 blocks rotation by inhibiting dynein association with microtubules and with LIN-5–ASPM-1 at meiotic spindle poles and that the APC promotes spindle rotation by inhibiting CDK-1.
Positive and negative selection on the mitochondrial genome

Several recent studies have confirmed that mitochondrial DNA variation and evolution are not consistent with the neutral theory of molecular evolution and might be inappropriate for estimating effective population sizes. Evidence for the action of both positive and negative selection on mitochondrial genes has been put forward, and the complex genetics of mitochondrial DNA adds to the challenge of resolving this debate. The solution could lie in distinguishing genetic drift from 'genetic draft' and in dissecting the physiology of mitochondrial fitness.
Effectiveness of a Mobile Medical Van in Providing Screening Services for STDs and HIV

This retrospective study assesses the efficacy of a mobile medical van in screening high risk individuals and identifying new cases of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in an urban setting from July 1996 through March 1997. High risk sex and drug use were common, while consistent condom use was rare. Relatively few patients were screened for STDs; positive cases represented only a small proportion of the STD cases identified in the study community. The mobile program, however, accounted for 11.5% of all HIV tests conducted at public test sites in the city. Mobile medical programs have the potential to improve STD and HIV control efforts by providing services to high risk individuals who may lack access to care elsewhere. Doing so, however, will require more active case finding techniques, including new, less invasive techniques to test asymptomatic individuals.
Reading with the Right-Hemisphere: Evidence from Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Although many patients with dominant hemisphere damage retain some reading ability, the anatomic substrate of the preserved reading remains controversial. We tested the hypothesis that the right hemisphere mediates the reading of some patients with acquired dyslexia by using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to assess the effect of transient cortical stimulation on reading. A patient with (partially recovered) pure alexia was asked to read aloud briefly presented words, half of which were shown in association with TMS of the right or left hemisphere. Consistent with the right hemisphere reading hypothesis, stimulation of the right but not the left hemisphere disrupted oral reading.
A Passive Microwave Algorithm for Tropical Oceanic Rainfall

This study discusses a rainfall algorithm utilizing six channels of microwave radiance data from the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multifrequency Microwave Radiometer. The algorithm is intended for short-term climate studies over the ocean at low latitudes. To find a set of functional relationships, rain rates are regressed on brightness temperatures for each channel. Next, these functions are integrated over a class of rain-rate distributions to find relations between mean brightness temperatures and mean rain rates. This step accounts for beam filling. Finally, weights are obtained for combining the rain rates from the individual channels. The weights vary with the rain rates, so that the optimum combination of channels is always used. Results are stored in a database grid 1 deg latitude x 1 deg longitude by one month. To test the algorithm, three years (1979-81) of data from the Indian Ocean are processed.
The average length of stay in the hospital of infants born prematurely.

Any public or private agency administering a medical care program needs certain basic medical data to plan its program. In the field of maternal and child health, one fact of importance is the average length of hospital stay of newly born premature infants. This basic data assists in planning for such budgetary items as: reimbursement for hospital care; payment for pediatric consultation service; and estimation of the number of beds (incubators, heated cribs and bassinets) needed to care for the total number of premature infants born annually in any community. A review of the American literature for the past twenty years reveals that there is relatively little information on the average length of stay of newly born premature infants in hospitals. Table I summarizes the information available. It will be seen from Table I that there is considerable variation in the method of reporting. Some authors do not include premature infants weighing more than 5 pounds at birth; others include premature infants weighing more than 5½ pounds. There is also variation as to whether a particular series includes the premature infants who die in the hospital, as well as those who are discharged alive. Table I shows that, for the series including only those infants who survived in the hospital, the average stay ranges from 17.3 to 28.8 days, with the majority falling between 24 and 28 days. For the series including both the premature infants who survived and those who died in the hospital, the average stay ranges from
Screening for Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and Hepatitis B

The incidence of STIs is increasing, and these infections cause significant health and economic burden.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that an estimated 1.4 million new cases of chlamydia and 350 000 cases of gonorrhea occurred in 2014.2 The highest-risk age group is between 15 and 29 years, but cases are seen at every age. Adding to the burden of the diseases, many infections are undiagnosed and untreated, potentially leading to late-term complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease, neonatal illness, and infertility. The CDC estimates that approximately 24 000 US women develop infertility related to STIs.3 Between 700 000 and 2.2 million people in the United States are infected with hepatitis B.4 Left untreated, 15% to 25% of these people will die of hepatic decompensation or hepatocellular carcinoma. Screening and early diagnosis have the potential to decrease both the complications and transmission of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and hepatitis B
SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL DISPUTES: The Case of Literary Theory

Epistemological reflection has been a major source of innovation in the human sciences while having very little influence on the arts or sciences. This variation is explained using a sociological framework emphasizing the organizationalforms that underpin or are implicit in epis- temological positions. The fine arts and the harder sciences are, respec- tively, too weakly and too strongly organized to be open to epistemological influence. By contrast, the human sciences might plausibly be organized either more loosely or more tightly, and epistemological argument is used in part to urge movement in one or the other direction. This perspective is applied to the academic study of literature both historically and in relation to a current epistemological dispute between realist and relativist scholars. The argument is unresolvable in practice, it is argued, because of constraints on scholarly interpretation set by consumers. Parallels are drawn with circumstances in sociology. In all likelihood more innovation in the humanities and social sciences has flowed from epistemological reflection than from any other single source. More precisely, scholars in the human sciences (or Geisteswissenschaften) have drawn on the work of philosophers to develop or underwrite new analytical strategies and methods. The works of Peirce, Dewey, Husserl, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein, for instance, have underwritten innovations such as phenomenological sociology, ethnomethodology, interpretive anthropology, deconstruction, the strong program in the sociology of science, and many others. Has a comparable influ- ence derived from any other domain? At the same time, and at first glance curi- ously, the practices of the natural sciences and of the arts have been largely devoid of this influence.1
Seeing the Past from Nowhere: Images and Science in Archaeology

Between 1968 and 1975, international and multidisciplinary rescue excavations were undertaken in Eastern Turkey before the construction of the Keban Dam. This article focuses on three specific visual techniques (the artifact typology, the trench shot, and the gridded map) found in the site reports of this salvage project, in order to analyze the way archaeology visually defines its object(s) of study. While scientific excavations make discoveries of the past visible, their representations in the discipline’s final publications conceal the human agents responsible for them. In other words, as tools of visualization foreground archaeological knowledge, the conditions of its production are concurrently sidelined. By relegating the messy process of “digging” to the background, archaeology’s techniques of visualization allow its practitioners to see the past, and all of its objects, from a distant present located “nowhere.”
Atomic Layer Deposition of Platinum onto Functionalized Aligned MWNT Arrays for Fuel Cell Application

High aspect ratio materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), provide unique opportunities and advantages as catalyst support materials in fuel cells. In particular, CNTs are highly conductive and corrosion resistant; properties which represent limitations for current carbon supports. While most advanced catalysts research focuses on the production of small nanoparticles to increase the percent of surface accessible Pt; here, we specifically attempt to conformally coat Pt in thin layers onto CNT arrays. We present our work on modifying CNT surfaces inside high-density, surface-bound aligned CNT arrays (aspect ratio ~1:750) with non-toxic gas phase chemistries. The number of nucleation sites and the onset of growth of Pt by ALD can be tuned by using Ar plasma, O2 plasma and chemical functionalization. This, in turn, affects the uniformity of the Pt ALD coating down the length of the tubes within the CNT array.
Excimer Laser Induced Mechanical and Electrical Nanostructures in Polymers

Periodic line structures with periods ranging from 166 nm to 950 nm have been produced in polyimide by direct ablation with a KrF (248 nm) laser using holographic techniques. Taking advantage of the large nonlinearity in the laser ablation process, linewidths ranging from 30 nm to several hundred nanometers could be obtained. These techniques were combined with the ability to induce electrical conductivity in polyimide to produce an array of 500 nm wide electrically conducting wires. The conductivity of these wires was similar to that found in macroscopic regions of laser induced conductivity.
Three Monocentric Chytrids

Sporangium depressoad erecto-stellatum, usque ad 7 tubulos dimissionis late conicos habens, membrana brunnea, protrusionibus atro-brunneis grossis attenuatis saepe curvatis tecta; sporangium depressum, 30-40 tu lat., 10-20 a alt., erectum 35 /A alt., 25 /A lat.; tubi dimissionis usque ad 10 u lat. ad 3 gt attenuati, 10 t/ alt. Systema rhizoidale parce ramosum, grossum, crescentia variable, ex uno loculo in apophyse spherica 8-10 u diam enascens. Zoosporae sphericae 5 {t diam, globulum conspicuum, 3 At diam, sine colore, atque flagellum 20 A longum habentes. Sporae quiescentes non observatae. Typus: FIGS. 6, 7. Habitatio: Planta in solo silvae, in polline pini ut esca posita, in loco "Sparrow's Rest," Rhode River, Maryland dicto reperta.
High-Throughput Screening and CRISPR-Cas9 Modeling of Causal Lipid-Associated Expression Quantitative Trait Locus Variants

Genome-wide association studies have identified a number of novel genetic loci linked to serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The causal DNA variants at these loci and the mechanisms by which they influence phenotype and disease risk remain largely unexplored. Expression quantitative trait locus analyses of patient liver and fat biopsies indicate that many lipid-associated variants influence gene expression in a cis-regulatory manner. However, linkage disequilibrium among neighboring SNPs at a genome-wide association study-implicated locus makes it challenging to pinpoint the actual variant underlying an association signal. We used a methodological framework for causal variant discovery that involves high-throughput identification of putative disease-causal loci through a functional reporter-based screen, the massively parallel reporter assay, followed by validation of prioritized variants in genome-edited human pluripotent stem cell models generated with CRISPR-Cas9. We complemented the stem cell models with CRISPR interference experiments in vitro and in knock-in mice in vivo. We provide validation for two high-priority SNPs, rs2277862 and rs10889356, being causal for lipid-associated expression quantitative trait loci. We also highlight the challenges inherent in modeling common genetic variation with these experimental approaches.
OBSTRUCTION TO LEFT VENTRICULAR OUTFLOW. CURRENT CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION OF PATIENTS FOR OPERATION.

Abstract The current criteria for the selection for operation of patients with the various forms of obstruction to left ventricular outflow are reviewed. In children or adolescents with congenital valvular or discrete subvalvular stenosis, left heart catheterization should be performed whenever the clinical examinations indicate or suggest the possibility that severe stenosis is present. Operation is recommended in children with peak systolic pressure gradients between the left ventricle and brachial artery which exceed 50 mm. Hg or with an effective orifice less than 0.7 cm 2 ./M 2 . BSA. It is now quite clear that the outlook for survival is limited in the adult with symptoms resulting from aortic stenosis, and operation is recommended when the peak systolic left ventricular-arterial pressure gradient exceeds 50 mm. Hg. In many adult patients with calcific aortic stenosis, effective debridement cannot be accomplished without the destruction of valvular tissue, and excision and prosthetic replacement of at least a portion of the valve is frequently necessary. Accordingly, surgical consideration is postponed in the totally asymptomatic adult. The surgical treatment of supravalvular aortic stenosis and of idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis is usually more difficult and less effective than the surgical relief of congenital valvular or discrete subvalvular stenosis. The criteria for the selection for operation of patients with these less common forms of obstruction to left ventricular outflow are stricter than for those with the more common forms of obstruction; the combination of severe narrowing and serious or progressive symptoms are required before operation is recommended.
Multi-level signaling for energy-efficient on-chip interconnects

In this paper, we develop multi-level signaling schemes for on-chip interconnects in order to achieve energy-efficient communication. The methodology uses both bus multiplexing and low-swing signaling characteristics, while keeping the total bus area fixed. A physics-based energy model for coupling capacitance is developed which accurately captures the energy consumption of very deep sub-micron (VDSM) on-chip interconnect in the context of multi-level signals. Results show that our proposed bus achieves energy savings for intermediate-layer interconnect lines of as much as 76% compared to binary signaling. In addition, wire bandwidth is improved by up to 16% compared to prior approaches.
Wideband simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) circular array system

A wideband simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) dual-layer circular array is considered to handle the space limitation and efficient use of wireless spectrum. The proposed STAR aperture configuration is composed of upper- and lower-layer circular arrays, where one works as transmitting and the other as receiving antenna. Each array consists of four wideband disc-cone antennas that are equally spaced on the circumference of a circle. The proposed STAR array utilizes both, mode diversity, and self-interference cancellation techniques to achieve "theoretically" infinite isolation over a wide operational bandwidth without any time, frequency, or polarization duplexing. Theoretical study is discussed under both ideal conditions and the presence of circuit components' non-idealities; and the feasibility thereof to significantly mitigate the self-interference is shown computationally and experimentally. Simulated isolation higher than 74dB and measured between 28 and 50dB is obtained over more than 2:1 bandwidth while still maintaining virtually identical TX/RX radiation patterns.
State rankings 2016: A statistical view of America

State Rankings 2016 bills itself as “an easily accessible collection of data” covering many detailed subdivisions of fifteen broad categories of “quality of life factors” (p. xiv). The 2016 edition...
Abstract 20092: Acute Decompensated Valvular Heart Failure Results in Shorter Hospital Stays but Higher Readmission Rates Compared to Non-Valvular Heart Failure: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

Introduction: Among patients hospitalized with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), the prevalence of valvular disease is unknown. Furthermore, differences in length of stay (LOS) and readmiss...
“A Romance of England and India”: Miscegenation as Metaphor in Colonial British Fiction

(2004). “A Romance of England and India”: Miscegenation as Metaphor in Colonial British Fiction. South Asian Review: Vol. 25, Colonial Studies 1880-1947, pp. 304-326.
Reverse Shapes in First-Passage Percolation and Related Growth Models

Over the past 40 years, it has been observed that many of the simplest random and deterministic local growth dynamics expand at a linear rate in each radial direction, and attain an asymptotic geometry. Shape theorems to this effect have been proved in several instances. In a similar manner, initially very large holes within supercritical local dynamics may be expected to attain a characteristic shape as they shrink, a while before disappearing. We describe a general theory of reverse shapes which formalizes this phenomenology, and then apply it to first-passage percolation and related deterministic and stochastic growth models. As an application, we analyze the last holes of such models started from sparse product measures.
A Needs Assessment of Brain Death Education in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowships

OBJECTIVES To assess the current training in brain death examination provided during pediatric critical care medicine fellowship. DESIGN Internet-based survey. SETTING United States pediatric critical care medicine fellowship programs. SUBJECTS Sixty-four pediatric critical care medicine fellowship program directors and 230 current pediatric critical care medicine fellows/recent graduates were invited to participate. INTERVENTIONS Participants were asked demographic questions related to their fellowship programs, training currently provided at their fellowship programs, previous experience with brain death examinations (fellows/graduates), and perceptions regarding the adequacy of current training. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Twenty-nine program directors (45%) and 91 current fellows/graduates (40%) responded. Third-year fellows reported having performed a median of five examinations (interquartile range, 3-6). On a five-point Likert scale, 93% of program directors responded they "agree" or "strongly agree" that their fellows receive enough instruction on performing brain death examinations compared with 67% of fellows and graduates (p = 0.007). The responses were similar when asked about opportunity to practice brain death examinations (90% vs 54%; p < 0.001). In a regression tree analysis, number of brain death examinations performed was the strongest predictor of trainee satisfaction. Both fellows and program directors preferred bedside demonstration or simulation as educational modalities to add to the fellowship curriculum. CONCLUSIONS Pediatric critical care medicine fellows overall perform relatively few brain death examinations during their training. Pediatric critical care medicine fellows and program directors disagree in their perceptions of the current training in brain death examination, with fellows perceiving a need for increased training. Both program directors and fellows prefer additional training using bedside demonstration or simulation. Since clinical exposure to brain death examinations is variable, adding simulated brain death examinations to the pediatric critical care medicine fellowship curriculum could help standardize the experience.
Building on Werhane’s Foundation: Toward a Theory of the Morally Imaginative Organization

Patricia Werhane’s landmark book Moral Imagination in Management Decision-making and subsequent related work are practically synonymous with business ethics scholarship on moral imagination. In this chapter, I present an overview of Werhane’s work on moral imagination, discuss its impacts in the business and business ethics literatures and beyond, and then offer a theoretical extension. Integrating Werhane’s scholarship that treats moral imagination as an organization-level concept with Nonaka’s (1991) theory of the knowledge-creating company, I present the concept of the morally imaginative organization. Recognizing that leaders of organizations in complex, dynamic environments will be unable to anticipate, identify, and/or respond to the many moral dilemmas that their organizations enact (or fail to enact), I present a normative model in which moral imagination involves all organizational actors and is embedded into the organization’s strategically important knowledge-creating processes. I call for further research at the intersection of business ethics and social science which honors Werhane’s legacy by exploring how organizations can become more morally imaginative.
The Deductive Spreadsheet

This book describes recent multidisciplinary research at the confluence of the fields of logic programming, database theory and human-computer interaction. The goal of this effort was to develop the basis of a deductive spreadsheet, a user productivity application that allows users without formal training in computer science to make decisions about generic data in the same simple way they currently use spreadsheets to make decisions about numerical data. The result is an elegant design supported by the most recent developments in the above disciplines. The first half of the book focuses on the deductive engine that underlies this application, the foundations that users do not see. After giving a mathematical model of traditional spreadsheet applications, we extend them with operators to perform a number of relational tasks, similar to the user view of a database but in a spreadsheet context. Expressing this extension in a logic programming framework is a natural step towards giving it powerful deductive capabilities. The second half of the book deals with the user interface, the part of the application with which the user actually interacts. We review the elements of the graphical user interface of traditional spreadsheet applications and describe practical methodologies for designing user interfaces borrowed from the field of cognitive psychology. We then propose a design that conservatively integrates mechanisms for a user to take advantage of the new deductive capabilities. This is followed by the results of some preliminary usability experiments. The book will appeal to researchers and practitioners in the various areas underlying this work. Researchers will not only find interesting new developments in their domains, but will also learn how to achieve a multidisciplinary focus. Practitioners will find fully developed solutions to numerous problems that are not easily solvable using traditional spreadsheet applications.
Discrete-Time Entropy

In Chapter 1 it was shown that controllers which minimize the entropy of the closed-loop system provide a simple means of trading off the robustness and performance that is usually associated with the H∞ and H2 cost functions for linear time-invariant systems.
On the binding energy of a Λ-particle in nuclear matter

Abstract The binding energy D of a Λ-particle in nuclear matter is calculated using the recent central, spin dependent Λ-nucleon potential of Herndon and Tang. On the basis of the results obtained it is concluded that the effect of the three-body ΛNN forces in the calculations of D may be quite large.
Sedative Drug Interactions of Clinical Importance

In an age of widespread availability of psychoactive drugs, use of multiple sedatives is very common. Why such multiple drug use prevails is poorly understood. Sequential drug use may leave sequential problems. Concomitant use of several drugs can produce a host of interactions. Increasingly, the metabolic basis of sedative interactions are becoming known. Cross-tolerance between sedatives permit substitution of one for another and reduced sedation when combined. Metabolic interactions at the hepatic oxidation enzyme level may greatly affect drug disposal rates. Recognition of polysubstance abuse can assist in management. Treatment ranges from urgent life support to abrupt or slow withdrawal, to substitution long-term treatment usually requiring specialized care, with abstinence the preferred goal. However, polysubstance abusers seem to have low probabilities of achieving lasting abstinence.
Complex Dynamical Behavior in Bio-economic Prey-Predator Models with Competition for Prey

In recent years, harvesting in the prey-predator ecosystem is one of the most important fields of interest. Much research effort [1, 3, 2, 14, 11, 16, 5, 6, 8] has been put into investigating the interaction and coexistence mechanism of the harvested prey-predator ecosystem. A numerical analysis of a harvested prey-predator model is performed in [1], and the model can be expressed as follows:
Permanganate Oxidation of DNA Nucleotides: An Introductory Redox Laboratory Framed as a Murder Mystery

For a variety of reasons, understanding oxidation–reduction (redox) reactions can be challenging for introductory chemistry students. To provide an experiential foundation for students to learn red...
Proximal Graphical Event Models

Event datasets include events that occur irregularly over the timeline and are prevalent in numerous domains. We introduce proximal graphical event models (PGEM) as a representation of such datasets. PGEMs belong to a broader family of models that characterize relationships between various types of events, where the rate of occurrence of an event type depends only on whether or not its parents have occurred in the most recent history. The main advantage over the state of the art models is that they are entirely data driven and do not require additional inputs from the user, which can require knowledge of the domain such as choice of basis functions or hyperparameters in graphical event models. We theoretically justify our learning of optimal windows for parental history and the choices of parental sets, and the algorithm are sound and complete in terms of parent structure learning. We present additional efficient heuristics for learning PGEMs from data, demonstrating their effectiveness on synthetic and real datasets.