cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of rescue antiemetics after failure of prophylaxis with ondansetron or droperidol: a preliminary report.

Abstract Study Objectives To compare the effectiveness of treating established postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) with an antiemetic acting at a different receptor with that of treating PONV with the antiemetic used for prophylaxis. Design Analysis of data collected in a previously published randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Setting Outpatient surgical procedures from 50 institutions in North America. Patients Patients (N = 2061) undergoing outpatient surgical procedures planned to last no more than 2 hours. Interventions Patients were randomized to receive ondansetron 4 mg, droperidol 1.25, droperidol 0.625 mg, or placebo. In the postoperative anesthesia care unit, patients who developed PONV received rescue antiemetics at the discretion of the attending anesthesiologist. The following antiemetics were used for rescue: ondansetron 4 mg, droperidol 0.625 to 1.25 mg, metoclopramide 10 mg, promethazine 6.25 to 25 mg, and dimenhydrinate 25 to 50 mg. Measurements The complete response rate (no nausea, no emesis, and no need for further rescue) after administration of the rescue antiemetic in patients with established PONV was calculated. The complete response rate after administration of each of the different rescue antiemetics was compared with that after administration of the same antiemetic used for PONV prophylaxis. Main Results In patients who failed prophylaxis with ondansetron 4 mg, the complete response rate was significantly higher ( P = .02) after rescue with promethazine 6.25 to 25 mg (78%) than after rescue with ondansetron 4 mg (46%). In patients who failed prophylaxis with droperidol 0.625 and 1.25 mg, the complete response rate was significantly higher after rescue with promethazine 6.25 to 25 mg (77%; P = .02) and dimenhydrinate 25 to 50 mg (78%; P = .04) than after rescue with droperidol 0.625 to 1.25 mg (56%). Conclusion In patients who failed prophylaxis with ondansetron or droperidol, promethazine was significantly more effective than the agent used for prophylaxis for the treatment of PONV. In patients who failed prophylaxis with droperidol, dimenhydrinate was also more effective than droperidol for the treatment of established PONV in the postoperative anesthesia care unit.
Treatment of a ureteral stricture following failed management with ureteral wall stent.

R. H., a 45-year-old woman with a history of stage B cervical carcinoma, underwent definitive treatment with 9,500 rad external beam radiation therapy. Six months later she presented to the gynecology service with right flank pain and was found to have right hydroureteronephrosis. A right percutaneous nephrostomy tube was placed and an antegrade nephrostogram demonstrated a 5 cm. distal ureteral stricture. At that time a wall stent was placed across the stricture into the distal ureter via a percutaneous approach and expanded to dilate the strictured portion of the ureter. The percutaneous nephrostomy tube was clamped and the patient was discharged home. She presented 2 weeks later with
AFIT neural network research

A brief summary of research done at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in the area of neural networks is provided. It has been shown that backpropagation, used for feedforward artificial neural networks, is just a degenerate version of an extended Kalman filter, and that networks can do about as well as the optimum statistical classification technique. A method of finding the importance of features for use by a neural network classifier has been determined. Techniques for using neural networks for image segmentation have been developed. In optical pattern recognition, techniques that allow the processing of real FLIR (forward-looking infrared) images with existing binary spatial light modulators have been devised. An optical direction of arrival detector applicable to laser illumination direction determination has been designed and tested; the design is similar to a fly's eye. Coated mirrors for the optical confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer have been designed, specified, fabricated, and installed. Significant progress has been made in the use of neural networks for processing multiple-feature sets for speech recognition. >
Wireless incentive engineering

The successful operation of emerging public wireless local-area networks requires flexible network mechanisms that can support differentiated or tiered services for a variety of applications such as bursty transactional Web applications, as well as reservation demanding voice and video applications. Congestion pricing has been proposed as one promising solution to traffic control because it accurately models the cost that each user's traffic imposes on network congestion points. The underlying assumption of congestion pricing is that users will respond to a monetary-based price signal to maximize their own utility. We observe, however, that monetary service charge is largely a business concern and not a traffic control concern because operators and users prefer simple, predictable, and stable service charges such as flat-rate or block-rate charging. Therefore, we argue, that traffic control techniques such as congestion pricing should be decoupled from monetary service charges. Under such a new regime, however, a user's response to a nonmonetary price signal would be quite different from utility maximization, and without the appropriate incentives for users to cooperate such a regime would lead to the "tragedy of the commons" phenomenon, undermining any future differentiated service offerings by wireless Internet service providers. To address this problem, we propose wireless incentive engineering mechanisms for mobile devices (MDs) and access points (APs) that provide incentives for mobile users to cooperatively use different classes of services without relying on monetary service charging. Wireless incentive engineering possesses a number of beneficial properties including minimizing the algorithmic and protocol overhead on MDs and APs, Nash bargaining fairness, and incentive compatibility for mobile users promoting the truthful selection of service class and bandwidth declaration. We use analysis, simulation, and experimental results from a wireless testbed to demonstrate the effectiveness of wireless incentive engineering.
CHARACTERISTICS AND LIFE EXPERIENCES ASSOCIATED WITH RECEIVING A RAPE DISCLOSURE WITHIN A NATIONAL TELEPHONE HOUSEHOLD PROBABILITY SAMPLE OF WOMEN

Disclosure of rape to informal support sources is relatively common, but not well understood. This study expands our limited knowledge of disclosure recipients' experience by examining associations between their socio-demographic and life experiences with receipt of a rape disclosure and encouragement of the victim to formally report her assault. Over 35% of the 3,001 community-residing women in this national sample reported receiving a rape disclosure. Women who had a personal history of sexual assault, met lifetime diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder or depression, met past-year diagnostic criteria for substance abuse, engaged in monthly binge drinking and non-experimental substance use, and sought help for emotional concerns were significantly more likely to be recipients. Approximately two-thirds (69%) of disclosure recipients encouraged the victim to formally report the rape, and encouragement was also significantly associated with these characteristics. Implications of these findings for improving the disclosure process are provided. Language: en
Risk Assessment in Preschool Children: Research Implications for the Early Detection of Educational Handicaps:

Epidemiological techniques were used to reanalyze selected published studies that had screened preschool or kindergarten children. Subjects had been longitudinally tracked to determine results of the screens through the identification of educationally at-risk children. Using published results, a reanalysis of the studies was performed to include sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, relative risk ratio, and odds ratio. A comparison of these values was used to discuss and compare the predictive validity and risk indices of the studies. Further interpretation suggested a paradigm shift away from longitudinal studies for screening instrument testing. Methodological considerations emphasizing risk analysis and design modifications are discussed.
On the learnability of majority rule

Abstract We establish how large a sample of past decisions is required to predict future decisions of a committee with few members. The committee uses majority rule to choose between pairs of alternatives. Each member's vote is derived from a linear ordering over all the alternatives. We prove that there are cases in which an observer cannot predict precisely any decision of a committee based on its past decisions. Nonetheless, approximate prediction is possible after observing relatively few random past decisions.
Resynchronization and controllability of bursty service requests

There is an increasing prevalence of interactive Web sessions in the Internet. These are mostly short-lived TCP connections that are delay-sensitive and have transfer times dominated by TCP backoffs, if any, during connection establishment. Unfortunately, arrivals of such connections at a server tend to be bursty, and can trigger multiple retransmissions, resulting in long average client-perceived delays. Traditional traffic control mechanisms, such as token bucket filters, are designed to complement admission control mechanisms, by regulating throughput, bounding service times, and protecting systems from overload. However, they cannot control connection-establishment delays, and thus, do not provide effective control of client-perceived delays. We first present the surprising discovery of a resynchronization property of retransmitted requests that exacerbates client-perceived delays when traditional control mechanisms are used. Then, we introduce a novel, multistage filtering scheme called Abacus Filters (AFs) that limits the client-perceived delay while maximizing server throughput even in the case of bursty connection arrivals. Analysis of delay-control properties of various filtering mechanisms is presented, along with a detailed performance evaluation. AFs are shown to provide tight delay control and better complement traditional admission control policies.
Infants' forgetting of correlated attributes and object recognition

Infants as young as 3 months of age can encode the relations among object features. Because object recognition depends critically upon a match between perceived feature configurations and representations of the object in long-term memory, the present experiments focused on infants' long-term memory for feature correlations. In 3 experiments with 72 3-month-olds, we documented the forgetting functions of different feature correlations, examined their relation to infants' memory for individual features, and replicated the findings with different stimuli. Infants were trained to activate a mobile composed of two kinds of blocks that differed in color, the figures displayed on them, and the figures' colors and were tested after different delays with recombinations of either the block colors, the figures, or the figure colors. Infants remembered some of the original feature combinations for up to 3 days but forgot all of them after 4 days. Even after 4 days, however, infants remembered the individual features that had entered into the original combinations. These results demonstrate that very young infants not only encode the relations among object features but also remember them for several days. Moreover, there is a dissociation in memory between features and feature relations: Feature relations are forgotten sooner than the individual features that comprise those relations.
Oxygen saturation nomogram in newborns screened for critical congenital heart disease

OBJECTIVE: To establish simultaneous pre- and postductal oxygen saturation nomograms in asymptomatic newborns when screening for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) at ∼24 hours after birth. METHODS: Asymptomatic term and late preterm newborns admitted to the newborn nursery were screened with simultaneous pre- and postductal oxygen saturation measurements at ∼24 hours after birth. The screening program was implemented in a stepwise fashion in 3 different affiliated institutions. Data were collected prospectively from July 2009 to March 2012 in all 3 centers. RESULTS: We screened 13 714 healthy newborns at a median age of 25 hours. The mean preductal saturation was 98.29% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 98.27–98.31), median 98%, and mean postductal saturation was 98.57% (95% CI: 98.55–98.60), median 99%. The mean difference between the pre- and postductal saturation was −0.29% (95% CI: −0.31 to −0.27) with P CONCLUSIONS: We have established simultaneous pre- and postductal oxygen saturation nomograms at ∼24 hours after birth based on >13 000 asymptomatic newborns. Such nomograms are important to optimize screening thresholds and methodology for detecting CCHD.
Characteristics of A Red-Eye Mutant of the Tarnished Plant Bug (Heteroptera: Miridae)

Normal eye color of the tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), is dark purplish-black. A strain homozygous for a new mutation, red eye color, was established and reared in the laboratory for >5 yr. The mutant phenotype is controlled by a single autosomal recessive allele. The gene symbol assigned to this new mutant is r. Laboratory tests showed that egg production and egg viability in the red-eye mutant females were not different from that of normal-eye females. Expression of the red-eye mutation was not found in extensive samples of wild populations in the Mississippi River Delta, and was rare in populations near Crossett, AR, where the original mutant was found. The mutant strain could be of use as a genetic marker in studying reproductive behavior and population dynamics of this important pest species.
Information Security Modeling and Analysis

The question of how best to model and analyze systems with information security requirements has been of interest to the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center since the beginning of the AAMP7G certification effort [Wilding et al. (in press) Design and verification of microprocessor systems for high-assurance applications]. Of particular interest are techniques that are amenable to automated formal reasoning, especially in a generic theorem proving or model checking context. In this chapter, we document research results that pertain to the GWV class of information flow theorems [Greve et al. (2003) Proceedings of ACL2’03; Greve et al. (2005) Proceedings of SSTC 2005]. We provide a mathematical underpinning for the theorems, explore some of their properties, demonstrate their application to selected examples, and describe their evolutionary history. We conclude by establishing a connection between our models of information flow and the classical notion of noninterference originally proposed by Goguen and Meseguer [Proceedings of the 1982 IEEE symposium on security and privacy (1982)].
Scalp-recorded frequency-following responses in neonates.

Low-frequency tone bursts (250, 500 and 1 000 Hz) were used to elicit frequency-following responses (FFRs) from full-term, healthy neonates. Easily identifiable FFRs were recorded from all well babies with stimulation at low-to-moderate levels (30-45 dB HLn). The amplitude and threshold values of neonatal FFRs were not significantly different from those of normally hearing adults. As in the adult, neonatal FFRs elicited by tone burst stimuli of 250 and 500 Hz were of greater amplitude and were observed at lower stimulus levels than FFRs recorded at higher frequency stimuli. At stimulus levels of 65 dB HLn, latency to the first peak in the FFR decreased as a function of increasing stimulus frequency. Neonatal FFRs evoked by tone bursts of 250 and 500 Hz exhibited significantly longer latencies compared to FFR recordings obtained from adults. These results suggest that: (1) Low-frequency basilar membrane sensitivity in neonates can be assessed as early as the first day of life. (2) The response properties o...
Now That’s the Limit!

We have seen examples for infinite sequences throughout this book; in Chap. 19 we finally defined them officially as functions whose domain is the set of natural numbers ℕ or, equivalently, as the elements of the infinite Cartesian product X ∞ for some set X. In this chapter we study the most important attribute of some sequences: their limits.
Actual Knowledge of Shareholders in Tax-Free Spin-Offs

For a variety of business reasons, the authors explain, companies involved in stock-for-stock acquisitions may want to restructure their newly acquired businesses through the use of intragroup tax-free spin-offs. Unfortunately for many of these companies, they note, section 355(d) may prove to be a hindrance to their reorganization plans. Generally, for an intragroup spin-off to be tax-free, more than 50 percent of the target company's stock cannot have been purchased within five years of the date of the spin-off. When an acquiring company takes a carryover basis in the stock of a target company, the holding periods of the former target company's shareholders tack. As a result, questions arise as to what actions, if any, an acquiring company must take to determine a target company's shareholders' stock purchase dates. Reg. section 1.355-6, finalized in December 2000, attempts to clarify the situation. While the regulation provides some answers to determine the purchase dates of former shareholders, it leaves many other questions unanswered. The regulation states that companies have deemed knowledge of all SEC filings. While a company may have deemed knowledge of SEC filings, the practical application of such a broad statement is left unanswered. The regulation also provides certain "safe harbor" assumptions regarding stock purchase dates predicated on the lack of actual or deemed knowledge. Once again, questions arise as to the practical application of "actual or deemed knowledge." This article provides an overview of section 355(d), an overview of the actual and deemed knowledge sections of Reg. section 1.355-6, and then discusses the practical difficulties in applying the actual and deemed knowledge sections of the regulation.
Transcholesterin Titers and Their Biological Significance in Experimental Atherogenesis in Rats

SummaryThe rise in titer of transcholesterin in the sera of rats on different high-fat or atherogenic diets was demonstrated. The reactive component is a serum alpha globulin which appears to combine specifically with cholesterol in agar gel immunoelectrophoresis. The serum cholesterol levels rise in various degrees in relation to diets but they do not correlate directly with transcholesterin titers. The observations suggest that transcholesterin functions as a homeostatic mechanism to meet the excess demands in disposal of cholesterol. The prompt rise of serum transcholesterin titer in rats on the high-fat diets and the moderate hypercholesterolemia may represent the adequacy of transcholesterin function in these animals. On an atherogenic diet, extreme heights of serum total cholesterol are reached early, again with mobilization of transcholesterin, after which the latter declines suggesting the homeostatic effort is approaching exhaustion or that the transcholesterin has been so fully combined that lit...
Dehydrogenase activation by Ca2+ in cells and tissues.

The activation of intramitochondrial dehydrogenases by Ca2+ provides a link between the intensity of work performance by a tissue and the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase and the tricarboxylate cycle, and hence the rate of ATP production by the mitochondria. Several aspects of this model of the control of oxidative phosphorylation are examined in this article, with particular emphasis on mitochondrial functioning in situ in cardiac myocytes and in the intact heart. Recent use of the fluorescent Ca2+ chelating agents indo-1 and fura-2 has allowed a more quantitative description of the dependence of dehydrogenase activity upon concentration of free intramitochondrial Ca2+, in experiments with isolated mitochondria. Further, a novel technique developed by Miyataet al. has allowed description of free intramitochondrial Ca2+ within a single cardiac myocyte, and the conclusion that this parameter changes in response to electrical excitation of the cell over a range which would be expected to give substantial modulation of dehydrogenase activity.
Research on the Mechanical Fermentation of Shan′niang Rice Wine with Big Pots

In order to promote the application of the mechanical fermentation of Shan′niang rice wine with big pots,more researches on the fermentation of Shan'niang rice wine with different amount of koji addition(raw wheat koji and saccharifying koji) and different amount of yeast mash addition are carried out.The final result indicates the agreement between the physical and chemical index of Shan′niang rice wine with big pots and the national standards and its similar taste to the traditional one.The mechanical fermentation of Shan′niang rice wine with big pots proves feasible for it can greatly shorten the fermenting time and improve the productivity.
Vehicle classification framework: online classification with tracking

Video surveillance has significant application prospects such as security, law enforcement, and traffic monitoring. Visual traffic surveillance using computer vision techniques can be non-invasive, cost effective and automated. Detecting and recognizing the objects in a video is an important part of many video surveillance systems which can help in tracking of the detected objects and gathering important information. In case of traffic video surveillance, vehicle detection and classification is important as it can help in traffic control and gathering of traffic statistics that can be used in intelligent transportation systems. Vehicle classification poses a difficult problem as vehicles have high intra class variation and relatively low inter class variation. In this work, we investigate five different object recognition techniques: PCA+DFVS, PCA+DIVS, PCA+SVM, LDA, and constellation based modeling applied to the problem of vehicle classification. We also compare them with the state-of-the-art techniques in vehicle classification. In case of the PCA based approaches, we extend face detection using a PCA approach for the problem of vehicle classification to carry out multi-class classification. We also implement constellation model-based approach that uses the dense representation of SIFT features. We consider three classes: sedans, vans, and taxis and record classification accuracy as high as 99.25% in case of cars vs vans and 97.57% in case of sedans vs taxis. We also present a fusion approach that uses both PCA+DFVS and PCA+DIVS and achieves classification accuracy of 96.42% in case of sedans vs vans vs taxis. We incorporated three of the techniques that performed well into a unified traffic surveillance system for online classification of vehicles which uses tracking results to improve the classification accuracy. We processed 31 minutes of traffic video containing multi-lane traffic intersection to evaluate the accuracy of the system. We were able to achieve classification accuracy as high as 90.49% while classifying correctly tracked vehicles into four classes: Cars, SUVs/Vans, Pickup Trucks, and Buses/Semis. While processing a video, our system also records important traffic parameters such as color of a vehicle, speed of a vehicle, etc. This information was later used in a search assistant tool (SAT) to find interesting traffic events. For the evaluation of video surveillance applications that employ an object classification module, it is important to establish the ground truth. However, it is a time consuming process when done manually. We developed a ground truth verification tool (GTVT) that can help in this process by automating some of the work.
Sperm as a noninvasive gene delivery system for preimplantation embryos

Objective To determine if sperm could be manipulated to be a noninvasive transport carrier for the delivery of gene fragments to the blastocyst. Design Sperm cells carrying foreign DNA fragments from human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16, 18, 31, and 33 were allowed to migrate from one end of an artificial reproductive tube and to come in contact with hatching mouse blastocysts at the other end of the tube. The blastocysts were then washed and analyzed for the presence of the foreign DNA fragments. Setting Clinical and academic research environment. Main Outcome Measure Detection of amplified products from transferred foreign DNA using the polymerase chain reaction and primers targeted at the E6-E7 region for different HPV types. Results Polymerase chain reaction analyses showed transference of DNA HPV type 18 to the blastocysts. Not all types of DNA fragments were transferred equally. Conclusion The results suggested the possibility of using sperm as a noninvasive gene delivery system for passing on gene fragments to preimplantation embryos. It was demonstrated that certain DNA fragments were easier to deliver than others, indicating the necessity for exploring all the factors involved in the mechanism of the transference process. The study also serves to highlight the possibility of unintentional transmission of viral or bacterial DNA to the developing embryo via the sperm.
Physics and Chemistry of Comets

Scientific understanding of comets has been accelerated by many recent missions to comets. The nuclei have sizes in the range 1–10 km and their surfaces are very dark and diverse; interiors are likely loose agglomerations of smaller icy cometesimals and have a bulk density of ≈0.5 g/cm3. Solar heating of the surface layers sublimates the ices to produce gas and liberate dust particles; these form the dust tail. The gases form the gas coma and ultimately the immense hydrogen cloud. Ionized molecules interact with the solar wind to produce the plasma tail. Chemically, comets are rather uniform and are primarily water and carbon dioxide ices plus dust. This composition is consistent with formation at temperatures near 30 K. Dynamical processes deliver these bodies to the inner solar system via the scattered disk and the Oort cloud. Eventually the ices are completely sublimated. The dusty remnants produce meteor showers.
Organizational Media Theory

All large organizations are “media organizations” because they must use media to manage meanings for organizational symbols held by members of the internal and external environment. This commentary discusses a theory of organizational media, presenting results from two studies of the 100 largest U.S. corporations and from seven studies of 199 Chicago oiganizations. The theory accounts for why organizations use space-and time-shift media, and what relationships these media have to the status of communication management, to shared meaning for organizational symbols, to the abstractness and orgocentrism of meanings, to cultural convergence after merger/acquisition, to oigan-izational time perceptions, and to financial valuation in the marketplace. Although it is assumed that an adequate theory should explain all kinds of oiganizations’ media use, some observers wish to isolate the media industry for study. Accordingly, the theory is used to generate a set of 20 hypothesesabout organizational changes in the m...
Tactile Spatial Guidance for Collision Avoidance in NextGen Flight Operations

Future aviation operations will require pilots to assume new tasks, such as self-separation. Tactile displays are a promising means of supporting this task. They are well suited for presenting spatial information and offload the heavily taxed visual and auditory channels. This experiment assessed the effectiveness of tactile spatial alerts for notifying pilots of an aircraft intruding on their flight path during Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches. Two alerting strategies (single-stage vs. graded) and two alert types (status vs. command) were compared. 19 pilots had to fly a series of approaches, detect tactile alerts and perform evasive maneuvers. The detection rate for tactile alerts was 100%. Graded and status alerts led to the highest response accuracy (100% and 98%, respectively). Response times were faster for command alerts and during manual flight. These results indicate that tactile displays are effective for conveying spatial information and can help prevent collisions in future aviation operations.
Plastids, Mitochondria, Intracellular Symbionts, and Plasmids

A plasmagene (Darlington, 1939b) can be defined as an extranuclear hereditary determinant that shows non-Mendelian inheritance. Goldschmidt (1945) proposed that the term should be used only in such instances where a self-replicating unit in the cytoplasm produces definite genetic effects similar to those produced by genes in the chromosomes. The sum total of all plasmagenes constitutes the plasmon or the plasmotype (Imai, 1936). The plasmotype and the genotype are referred to as the idiotype (Siemens, 1921) or the entire genetic system of the cell. At the time the concept of the plasmon was established, the details of extra- chromosomal inheritance were not too well known. Now it seems to be clear that most of the cases of cytoplasmic inheritance could be included in one of the following three groups: 1. plastids and mitochondria 2. intracellular symbionts 3. plasmids
Estimating Generic Drug Use with Electronic Health Records Data from a Health Care Delivery System: Implications for Quality Improvement and Research

BACKGROUND: Generic drug use in the outpatient setting is typically measured with adjudicated pharmacy claims; however, not all delivery systems have access to these data for their clinical populations. OBJECTIVE: To develop an algorithm to estimate generic drug use in an outpatient setting using electronic health records (EHR) data. METHODS: Twenty-five therapeutic classes were chosen with the potential for low generic use that were prescribed to managed care beneficiaries in a health care system in Northern California. An algorithm was developed to estimate generic drug use based on medication names and dispense-as-written requests from electronic prescriptions, as well as information on generic availability at the time the prescriptions were written. The algorithm was used to quantify a generic utilization rate (GUR) across therapeutic classes and was validated by comparing the estimated GUR to the true GUR, using pharmacy claims corresponding to prescriptions in the same patient cohort. RESULTS: Among...
Instrument responses of digital seismographs at Borovoye, Kazakhstan, by inversion of transient calibration pulses

Abstract A method is developed to determine the response of digital seismographs from transient calibration pulses. Based on linear system theory, the digital seismograph is represented by a set of first- and higher-order linear filters characterized by their cutoff frequencies and damping coefficients. The transient calibration pulse is parameterized by a set of instrument constants, and the problem is linearized for small perturbations of the constants with respect to their nominal values. The observed calibration pulse shape is matched in the time domain using an iterative linearized inverse technique. The method is used to derive complete instrument responses for digital seismographs operating at the Borovoye Observatory (BRVK) in Kazakhstan, for which previously only the amplitude responses have been determined. To test this method, we apply it to calibration pulses from a modern digital seismograph system at Kislovodsk (KIV) in northern Caucasus, Russia, and obtain good agreement between known and derived instrument constants. The results of the calibration pulse shape inversion for these seismographs indicate that the method is efficient and that the results are reliable even when microseismic noise is present in the recorded transient calibration pulse. The derived parameters make possible improved quantitative waveform analysis of digital seismograms recorded at BRVK.
Persistence to doctoral completion of African American men at predominately White universities in one mid-Atlantic state

PERSISTENCE TO DOCTORAL COMPLETION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN AT PREDOMINATELY WHITE UNIVERSITIES IN ONE MID-ATLANTIC STATE By Kimberly Ann Matthews, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Major Director: Susan Dana Leone, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, School of Education This qualitative study examined the experiences of 20 African American men who graduated from predominately White institutions in one mid-Atlantic state between the years of 2001 and 2011 with doctoral degrees in Education or in a Humanities and Sciences field. Interviews were conducted to gather the lived experiences of the African American men in their own voices. The study addressed the following research questions: 1. Why do African American men persist to doctoral degree completion? 2. How do African American men perceive their doctoral student experience? A descriptive model that presents the internal and external factors revealed in the study is provided. Five main internal factors that contribute to the persistence of African American men in doctoral programs: personal refinement, academic refinement, professional refinement, motivation, and effective coping mechanisms were revealed. Three major external factors, support systems, positive relationships with the advisor/chair and committee, and financial support. In addition, the impact of the participants’ racial identity was explored and yielded both negative and positive effects on the doctoral student experience. Based upon the results, recommendations are offered for universities and departments, advisors and faculty, and future and current African American male doctoral students to aid them in persistence to degree completion.
Tolerability of Switch to Macitentan from Bosentan in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Objectives Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease that can be treated with several medications. Macitentan, an endothelin receptor antagonist (ERA), has received approval as a PAH therapy. We report our data regarding the tolerability in patients with PAH who were switched from bosentan to macitentan. Methods At the Baylor Pulmonary Hypertension Program, 24 patients with PAH who had been taking bosentan and were switched to macitentan were identified in this retrospective study. Data from these patients who switched from bosentan 125 mg orally twice per day to macitentan 10 mg orally daily (between October 2013 and February 2015) when macitentan became commercially available were collected. Patients were advised to take their last evening dose of bosentan and then take the first dose of macitentan the following morning within 12 to 24 hours of the last bosentan dose. Baseline data and postswitch data, including 6-minute walk distance, brain naturietic peptide, alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) levels, World Health Organization Functional Class (WHO FC), Borg dyspnea score, presence of peripheral edema. Results At the time of the switch, the mean age was 58 ± 13 (mean ± standard deviation) years, the duration of disease was 6.6 ± 4.4 years, 21 patients were women, 54% were white, and 25% had idiopathic PAH. The mean duration of follow-up after the switch was 5.7 ± 1.5 months. The 6-minute walk distance was 344 ± 106 m preswitch and 319 ± 85 m postswitch (P = 0.18). Brain naturietic peptide levels were 91 ± 170 pg/mL preswitch and 90 ± 137 pg/mL postswitch (P = 0.93). At the time of the switch, 42% were WHO FC II and 50% had edema, and 55% had edema. AST and ALT remained unchanged postswitch. Two patients did not tolerate the switch to macitentan and had to be returned to bosentan: one patient with portopulmonary hypertension developed elevated AST and ALT and the second patient's macitentan was stopped because of malaise and tachyarrhythmia. One patient who underwent a successful liver transplant had macitentan stopped following the transplant. Conclusions A rapid switch from bosentan to macitentan was well tolerated and safe with maintained WHO FC, with no significant change in edema and liver enzyme levels. The switch from bosentan to macitentan eliminates the need for monthly liver function test monitoring and removes the potential for bosentan treatment interruption.
A Soldier in Boot Camp: A Response to the Sights & Sounds of Malcolm X

I am no longer interpreting sounds I am listening I am no longer skimming letters on a page I am reading My vocal chords are no longer just vibrating
Late-Life Drinking Problems: The Predictive Roles of Drinking Level vs. Drinking Pattern

Objective:Research on late-middle-aged and older adults has focused primarily on average level of alcohol consumption, overlooking variability in underlying drinking patterns. The purpose of the present study was to examine the independent contributions of an episodic heavy pattern of drinking versus a high average level of drinking as prospective predictors of drinking problems.Method:The sample comprised 1,107 adults ages 55–65 years at baseline. Alcohol consumption was assessed at baseline, and drinking problems were indexed across 20 years. We used prospective negative binomial regression analyses controlling for baseline drinking problems, as well as for demographic and health factors, to predict the number of drinking problems at each of four follow-up waves (1, 4, 10, and 20 years).Results:Across waves where the effects were significant, a high average level of drinking (coefficients of 1.56, 95% CI [1.24, 1.95]; 1.48, 95% CI [1.11, 1.98]; and 1.85, 95% CI [1.23, 2.79] at 1, 10, and 20 years) and a...
Glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoglobulin G as biomarker of autoimmune astrocytopathy: Analysis of 102 patients.

Objective A novel autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) disorder with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-IgG as biomarker was recently characterized. Here, 102 patients with GFAP-IgG positivity are described. Methods The 102 included patients had: (1) serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), or both that yielded a characteristic astrocytic pattern of mouse tissue immunostaining; (2) confirmation of IgG reactive with specific GFAP isoforms (α, ɛ, or κ) by cell-based assays; and (3) clinical data available. Control specimens (n = 865) were evaluated by tissue (n = 542) and cell-based (n = 323) assays. Results Median symptom onset age was 44 years (range = 8–103), and 54% were women. The predominant phenotype (83 patients; 81%) was inflammation of meninges, brain, spinal cord, or all 3 (meningoencephalomyelitis). Among patients, highest specificity for those phenotypes was observed for CSF testing (94%), and highest sensitivity was for the GFAPα isoform (100%). Rare GFAP-IgG positivity was encountered in serum controls by tissue-based assay (0.5%) or cell-based assay (1.5%), and in CSF controls by cell-based assay (0.9%). Among patients, striking perivascular radial enhancement was found on brain magnetic resonance imaging in 53%. Although cases frequently mimicked vasculitis, angiography was uniformly negative, and spinal imaging frequently demonstrated longitudinally extensive myelitic lesions. Diverse neoplasms encountered were found prospectively in 22%. Ovarian teratoma was most common and was predicted best when both N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor–IgG and aquaporin-4–IgG coexisted (71%). Six patients with prolonged follow-up had brisk corticosteroid response, but required additional immunosuppression to overcome steroid dependency. Interpretation GFAPα-IgG, when detected in CSF, is highly specific for an immunotherapy-responsive autoimmune CNS disorder, sometimes with paraneoplastic cause. Ann Neurol 2017;81:298–309
Kinetic characterization of the inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B by Vanadyl (VO2+) chelates

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPases) are a prominent focus of drug design studies because of their roles in homeostasis and disorders of metabolism. These studies have met with little success because (1) virtually all inhibitors hitherto exhibit only competitive behavior and (2) a consensus sequence H/V-C-X5-R-S/T characterizes the active sites of PTPases, leading to low specificity of active site directed inhibitors. With protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP1B) identifed as the target enzyme of the vanadyl (VO2+) chelate bis(acetylacetonato)oxidovanadium(IV) [VO(acac)2] in 3T3-L1 adipocytes [Ou et al. J Biol Inorg Chem 10: 874-886, 2005], we compared the inhibition of PTP1B by VO(acac)2 with other VO2+-chelates, namely, bis(2-ethyl-maltolato)oxidovanadium(IV) [VO(Et-malto)2] and bis(3-hydroxy-2-methyl-4(1H)pyridinonato)oxidovanadium(IV) [VO(mpp)2] under steady-state conditions, using the soluble portion of the recombinant human enzyme (residues 1-321). Our results differed from those of previous investigations because we compared inhibition in the presence of the nonspecific substrate p-nitrophenylphosphate and the phosphotyrosine-containing undecapeptide DADEpYLIPQQG mimicking residues 988-998 of the epidermal growth factor receptor, a relevant, natural substrate. While VO(Et-malto)2 acts only as a noncompetitive inhibitor in the presence of either subtrate, VO(acac)2 exhibits classical uncompetitive inhibition in the presence of DADEpYLIPQQG but only apparent competitive inhibition with p-nitrophenylphosphate as substrate. Because uncompetitive inhibitors are more potent pharmacologically than competitive inhibitors, structural characterization of the site of uncompetitive binding of VO(acac)2 may provide a new direction for design of inhibitors for therapeutic purposes. Our results suggest also that the true behavior of other inhibitors may have been masked when assayed with only p-nitrophenylphosphate as substrate.
Thermal investigation of high-power photodiodes

The performance of high power photodiodes flip-chip bonded on multi-crystal aluminum nitride (AlN), single-crystal AlN, and diamond submounts are compared. The thermal boundary conductance of submount-Ti interfaces was measured and found to be the primary impedance to heat dissipation.
HPPQ: A parallel package queries processing approach for large-scale data

A lot of scholars have focused on developing effective techniques for package queries, and a lot of excellent approaches have been proposed. Unfortunately, most of the existing methods focus on a small volume of data. The rapid increase in data volume means that traditional methods of package queries find it difficult to meet the increasing requirements. To solve this problem, a novel optimization method of package queries (HPPQ) is proposed in this paper. First, the data is preprocessed into regions. Data preprocessing segments the dataset into multiple subsets and the centroid of the subsets is used for package queries, this effectively reduces the volume of candidate results. Furthermore, an efficient heuristic algorithm is proposed (namely IPOL-HS) based on the preprocessing results. This improves the quality of the candidate results in the iterative stage and improves the convergence rate of the heuristic algorithm. Finally, a strategy called HPR is proposed, which relies on a greedy algorithm and parallel processing to accelerate the rate of query. The experimental results show that our method can significantly reduce time consumption compared with existing methods.
Differentiation of human lymphocytes by pokeweed mitogen in vitro: studies in normal and in immunodeficient subjects.

Immunoglobulin (Ig) synthesis and secretion by peripheral blood lymphocytes activated by pokeweed mitogen (PWM), and by phytohemagglutinin (PHA) was measured in normal individuals and in subjects with primary immunodeficiency. Unstimulated cultures demonstrated stable, low Ig synthesis of all major Ig classes; PWM showed a peak of Ig synthesis at day 5; PHA cultures demonstrated a late peak of Ig production at day 9. Three cases of common variable immunodeficiency showed different patterns of data when the percentage of B cells in blood and Ig production in vitro were used as parameters. Two persons with immunodeficiency and thymoma showed decreased Ig production in vitro, and had suppressor cells capable of blocking Ig production by normal lymphocytes in co-cultivation experiments.
Multi-Terabyte SMP Data Warehouse: The Cray CS6400/Oracle7 Solution

Combining enterprise-wide data into a data warehouse provides an opportunity for many companies to develop a competitive advantage. Data warehouses are large repositories of corporate data which can often require Terabytes of data storage. Decision Support System (DSS) is the complete system used to manipulate and analyze data within the warehouse to highlight previously un-explored relationships in large Gigabyte- to Terabyte- sized databases. Analysis of data in the data warehouse allows for precise and accurate implementation of important strategic and tactical plans based on trends and data relationships. Many corporations find additional advantage by exploring all of the data and hence avoiding lost information due to over-summarization.
Ferrimagnetic Properties of Magnetite

Magnetite (Fe3O4, ferrous–ferric oxide) is ubiquitous as the source of the magnetism of most biological magnetic systems. Although a cation-deficient form of it, maghemite (γ- Fe2O3), and impurity-substituted magnetite (titanomagnetite) have on occasion been identified in biomagnetic systems, magnetite continues to be the primary magnetic source in biology. It is of interest, therefore, to inquire into the origin of its magnetism, or more properly, the ferrimagnetism of magnetite. In this chapter we deal with the ferrimagnetism of magnetite single crystals first. We then occupy ourselves with the application of magnetic domain theory to the particle-size-dependent properties of magnetite and the various kinds of intrinsic remanent magnetization contributed to by magnetite. The only type of natural remanent magnetization which we have not discussed here is depositional remanent magnetization (DRM), as it is still rare to find examples where biogenic magnetite has been convincingly shown to be responsible for the DRM in a sediment. Future research may prove otherwise. Finally, we deal with some practical magnetic techniques for determining the magnetic domain state, hence the effective particle size, of magnetite.
2001, a space odyssey: a library for the millennium.

Depuis le 3eme siecle avant Jesus-Christ, la bibliotheque a une fonction de stockage. L'informatique a revolutionne la maniere dont ces etablissements fonctionnent et sont percus. La bibliotheque du prochain millenaire devra prendre en compte les differents aspects de la bibliotheque du passe et du present
Harmaline Tremor Model

Harmaline induces burst-firing in inferior olive neurons that propagates to cerebellum, brainstem, and spinal cord, causing 8–16 Hz action tremor in animals that responds to many drugs used for essential tremor (propranolol, primidone, benzodiazepines, alcohol, octanol). As a preclinical model, its predictive validity for clinical therapy awaits further evaluation.
Moreau’s Proximal Mappings and Convexity in Hamilton-Jacobi Theory

Proximal mappings, which generalize projection mappings, were introduced by Moreau and shown to be valuable in understanding the subgradient properties of convex functions. Proximal mappings subsequently turned out to be important also in numerical methods of optimization and the solution of nonlinear partial differential equations and variational inequalities. Here it is shown that, when a convex function is propagated through time by a generalized Hamilton-Jacobi partial differential equation with a Hamiltonian that is concave in the state and convex in the co-state, the associated proximal mapping exhibits locally Lipschitz dependence on time. Furthermore, the subgradient mapping associated of the value function associated with this mapping is graphically Lipschitzian.