cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison between a Novel Nickel-Titanium Alloy and 508 Nitinol on the Cyclic Fatigue Life of ProFile 25/.04 Rotary Instruments

ProFile 25/.04 instruments manufactured from three variants of Nitinol (1A, 1B & 2AS) were compared with stock production ProFile 25/.04 instruments and fatigue tested to failure. Cyclic fatigue testing was performed by rotating instruments at 300 RPM in a simulated steel root canal with 5 mm radius and 90 degrees curve until instrument separation. Time to failure was recorded. Torsion testing was undertaken by clamping 3 mm of each instrument tip between brass plates and rotating it at 2 RPM until failure. Data were recorded for torque and angle at fracture. Statistical differences were found with nickel-titanium variant 1B (M-Wire NiTi) nearly 400% more resistant to cyclic fatigue than stock ProFile 25/.04 (P < .001). Torsion testing found differences between all 508 Nitinol groups and M-Wire NiTi (P < .001). ProFile 25/.04 files manufactured from M-Wire NiTi have significantly greater resistance to cyclic fatigue while maintaining comparable torsional properties.
Flume for Teaching Spatially Varied Open-Channel Flow

Spatially varied flow in open channels is a topic that is often included in undergraduate open channel hydraulics courses. Physical and computational models are developed to enhance the presentation of spatially varied flow to engineering students at the late undergraduate or early graduate level. The physical model is inexpensive and easy to build and the computational model is easily developed using commercially available spreadsheet software. The physical model consists of a 30.48 cm nominal-diameter PVC pipe that is 6.1 m in length and has circular orifices approximately 1.40 cm in diameter drilled on 15.24 cm centers along the pipe invert. A relationship between the orifice discharge coefficient and a modification of the Froude number, as measured in the flume upstream of the orifice in question, was developed in repeated trials having varying flume slope, volumetric inflow rate, and end conditions. With this relationship, a stepwise solution to the energy equation is used to predict the water surface profile. Differences between the water surface profiles observed and predicted in repeated trials averaged approximately 2 mm.
Late Cretaceous Sedimentation in a Low-Energy Coastal Zone: The Ferron Sandstone of Utah

ABSTRACT Thin sandstone units that comprise the Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale (Upper Cretaceous) in the northern part of Castle Valley, Utah, were deposited along a low-energy epeiric sea margin. Interpretation of these units by uniformitarian comparison with modern low-energy coastal zones, in particular the Sapelo Island coast of Georgia, reveals an interplay between sediment-distributive processes that accompany storms and the sediment-disruptive activities of burrowing organisms in fairweather periods between storms. During storms, nearshore sediment is thrown into suspension and moved seaward where, upon storm abatement, it settles out. A return to fair weather brings renewed biogenic activity, completely homogenizing thinner storm-deposited beds, but reworking only the uppe parts of thicker beds. Storms also accentuate sedimentation processes in tidal inlets and on offshore bars seaward of the shoreface. Sediment now in these thin Ferron units was derived from the large Vernal Delta, located north and west of the Castle Valley outcrops, and was transported generally southwestward, parallel with the coast. Specific interpretations of depositional environment have been made for four informally named sandstone units. The Clawson unit was deposited in the offshore environment; it consists of bioturbated silty sandstone with numerous large concretions. The Washboard unit has, in addition to bioturbated, concretion-rich sandstone, intercalated thin sandstone beds that are even parallel laminated and have burrowed upper parts; this unit was deposited in the lower shoreface environment. In a limited part of the outcrop belt the Washboard unit is replaced by a tidal inlet deposit termed the Farnham unit, that comprises shelly, little-burrowed sandstone with bipolar, coast-normal, trough cross lamination. And the Woodside unit is a sequence of thin, medium- to coarse-grained sandstone beds that have bipolar, coast-parallel, trough cross lamination; these beds accumulated as submerged offshore sand bars in a shallow shelf sea.
The Regulation and Supervision of Bank Holding Companies: An Historical Perspective

Who should regulate bank holding companies? The recent Treasury proposal to consolidate the federal banking agencies would require that the Federal Reserve give up the power to regulate bank holding companies (BHCs) that it has had since the passage of the bank Holding Company Act of 1956. The Federal Reserve has argued that it needs to regulate bank holding companies in order to protect against systemic risk; however, this argument was not used when the Act was passed, and in fact, the Federal Reserve was indifferent to which agency should regulate bank holding companies. Scholars have generally concluded that the assigning of the BHC responsiblitie to the Fed in 1956 was primarily based on the historical precedent of the Clayton Act and the Banking Act of 1933 which granted some powers to the Federal Reserve with respect to bank holding companies. This explanation is not sufficient because bank holding company bills had been introduced since 1930 and it is only after 1943 that the Federal Reserve is designated as the regulatory agency for BHCs. Why was there a change? There are three factors which together explain why the Federal Reserve was selected as the regulatory agency. The first, and probably most important, was in the legislative response to the public outcry over the abuses of bank affiliates. The bank affiliates and holding company issues were intertwined, and the outcome of the Banking Act of 1933 had important implications for the future regulation of BHCs. If the separation of commercial and investment banking had not occurred, the OCC would quite likely have been the regulatory agency for BHCs. It was recognized that a system of universal banking (national banks with addiliates) required a single regulator. Second, legislation proposed by Marriner Eccles and the Federal Reserve in 1943 to control BHCs specified the Federal Reserve as the regulatory agency, despite the fact that at the time there was little rationale for this. However, the bill introduced in 1943 became the BHCA of 1956. Third, the Comptroller of the Currency in 1956, Ray Gidney, believed that BHCs promoted efficiency in banking and needed little regulation. Those members of Congress who believed that BHCs should be tightly controlled, or abolished, had little incentive to entrust the regulation and supervision of BHCs to Gidney. If the comptroller of the Currency at the time had been a strong opponent of the expansion of BHCs, then there might have been reason to change the legislation. A reexamination of the reasons for granting regulatory power over BHCs to the Federal Reserve is of direct policy relevance today: Should we retain our multiagency regulatory structure if the U.S. moves toward some form of universal banking? The history of bank holding company regulation provides guidance in answering these questions.
Effect of overcooked soybean meal on chicken performance and amino acid availability.

Studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of overcooked soybean meals (SBM) on chick growth and amino acid availability. The SBM were custom-prepared at a commercial processing plant by changing the conditions of a desolventizer-toaster (DT) unit. Six progressively overcooked meals (designated SBM1 to 6 with SBM1 as normal, and SBM6 overcooked) were produced by increasing temperature by up to 50% and extending retention time by up to 75% above normal. The meals measured .05, .03, .01, .09, .00, and .00 delta pH of urease activity; 6.10, 5.01, 4.62, 4.83, 2.32, and 1.78 mg/g SBM of trypsin inhibitor activity; 92, 89, 91, 88, 81, and 81% of protein solubility in .2% KOH; and 46, 43, 41, 40, 23, and 19% of protein solubility in .1 M borate at 40 C, respectively. Glucose content in the hydrolysate of the soluble carbohydrate extract did not differ among the meals, indicating no differences in the degradation of sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose with increasing heat treatment. In a chick growth experiment with a methionine-adequate, low-protein diet, chicks fed SBM1 showed significantly greater weight gain than chicks fed SBM3, 5, or 6. The SBM1, 2, 5, and 6 were chosen for a study of amino acid availability. No differences were observed in amino acid content. There were significant differences in apparent amino acid availability to growing chicks, but not in true amino acid availability by adult roosters among the four meals. The results suggest that the temperature or the retention time of a DT unit may be increased by 50% over the usual operating conditions without reducing amino acid availability from SBM.
Crystal Structure of a TSH Receptor Monoclonal Antibody: Insight Into Graves' Disease Pathogenesis

The TSH receptor (TSHR) A-subunit is more effective than the holoreceptor in inducing thyroid-stimulating antibodies (TSAb) that cause Graves' disease. A puzzling phenomenon is that 2 recombinant, eukaryotic forms of A-subunits (residues 22-289), termed active and inactive, are recognized mutually exclusively by pathogenic TSAb and mouse monoclonal antibody 3BD10, respectively. Understanding the structural difference between these TSHR A-subunit forms could provide insight into Graves' disease pathogenesis. The 3-dimensional structure of the active A-subunit (in complex with a human TSAb Fab, M22) is known, but the structural difference with inactive A-subunits is unknown. We solved the 3BD10 Fab 3-dimensional crystal structure. Guided by prior knowledge of a portion of its epitope, 3BD10 docked in silico with the known active TSHR-289 monomeric structure. Because both TSAb and 3BD10 recognize the active TSHR A-subunit monomer, this form of the molecule can be excluded as the basis for the active-inactive dichotomy, suggesting, instead a role for A-subunit quaternary structure. Indeed, in silico analysis revealed that M22, but not 3BD10, bound to a TSHR-289 trimer. In contrast, 3BD10, but not M22, bound to a TSHR-289 dimer. The validity of these models is supported experimentally by the temperature-dependent balance between active and inactive TSHR-289. In summary, we provide evidence for a structural basis to explain the conformational heterogeneity of TSHR A-subunits (TSHR-289). The pathophysiologic importance of these findings is that affinity maturation of pathogenic TSAb in Graves' disease is likely to involve a trimer of the shed TSHR A-subunit.
Maximal vector spaces under automorphisms of the lattice of recursively enumerable vector spaces

?0. Introduction. The area of interest of this paper is recursively enumerable vector spaces; its origins lie in the.works of Rabin [16], Dekker [4], [5], Crossley and Nerode [3], and Metakides and Nerode [14]. We concern ourselves here with questions about maximal vector spaces, a notion introduced by Metakides and Nerode in [14]. The domain of discourse is V. a fully effective, countably infinite dimensional vector space over a recursive infinite field F. By fully effective we mean that V., under a fixed Godel numbering, has the following properties: (i) The operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication on V. are represented by recursive functions. (ii) There is a uniform effective procedure which, given n vectors, determines whether or not they are linearly dependent (the procedure is called a dependence algorithm). We denote the Godel number of x by rx 1. By taking {En I n > O} to be a fixed recursive basis for V., we may effectively represent elements of V. in terms of this basis. Each element of V. may be identified uniquely by a finitely-nonzero sequence from F. Under this identification, En corresponds to the sequence whose nth entry is 1 and all other entries are 0. A recursively enumerable (r.e.) space is a subspace of V. which is an r.e. set of integers, ST(V.) denotes the lattice of all r.e. spaces under the operations of intersection and weak sum. For V, W E ST( V) let V mod W denote the quotient space. Metakides and Nerode define an r.e. space M to be maximal if V. mod M is infinite dimensional and for all V E S( V4), if V D M then either V mod M or V,, mod V is finite dimensional. That is, M has a very simple lattice of r.e. superspaces. In this paper, we present a new method of constructing desired r.e. spaces and use it to produce maximal spaces with a variety of unexpected properties. In ?1 we show that any maximal space with extendible basis has a complemented lattice of r.e. superspaces. ?2 contains the construction of an r.e. space whose lattice of r.e. superspaces contains at least one noncomplemented element. This method of construction is exploited in ?3 to produce a space which is maximal in a stronger sense, namely no nontrivial element of its lattice of r.e. superspaces is complemented. Finally, recall R. Soare's result: for any two maximal sets of integers A and B, there exists (F, an automorphism of the
Polymorphism and resolution of oncogene promoter quadruplex-forming sequences

We report the separation of several quadruplex species formed by ten promoter sequences by Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC). Modification at the 5′ or 3′ ends or in loop regions of quadruplex forming sequences has become the standard technique for dealing with quadruplex polymorphism. However, conformations produced employing this method or by other means of artificially shifting the equilibrium may not represent the species that are present in vivo. This method enables an unperturbed view of the structural polymorphism inherent to quadruplex formation. Separation via SEC facilitates studies on quadruplex structure and biophysical properties without the need for sequence modification.
Nano-indentation of epoxy hydro gels for soft tissue applications

Nano-indentation characterization studies on epoxy hydro gels used for soft tissue applications are conducted using atomic force microscope (AFM). Two kinds of hydro gels: (a) plain epoxy hydro gels, and (b) epoxy hydro gels reinforced with three-dimensional polyurethane fiber pattern are considered in this study. The three-dimensional fiber pattern is generated using rapid robo-casting technique. Again these two hydro gel types are tested under five different conditions: (a) dry gel, (b) saturated with certain percentage of water, (c) saturated with 100% water, (d) 100% partially immersed in water, and (e) 100% fully immersed in water. Preliminary results obtained on plain epoxy hydro gels show that the saturated conditions decrease Young's modulus values by 15%.
Design of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Test Facility

Physical simulations of fatigue and wear of a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) are extremely complex and difficult to evaluate both analytically and numerically. The primary difficulty is simulating the fatigue at the point that the airfoil attaches to the wind turbine structure. Physical testing of VAWT models would provide a simpler method of analyzing the dynamics of a prototype. However, accurate reproduction of the aerodynamic loading imposed on a VAWT body due to the rotational wake is difficult to replicate. To truly incorporate a real world environment, the test facility needs to be exposed to a random, but measurable environment. This leads to the design and development of an outdoor wind turbine test facility. This proposed test facility will consist of an outdoor structure equipped with a 350 horsepower electric motor to turn an 88 inch diameter propeller which will drive the wind turbine model at specific rotational speeds. The propeller will be able to simulate wind speeds over the entire spectrum of 0 to 75 feet per second. The aerodynamic control of the freestream velocity and in turn, the model, will provide an accurate representation of the aerodynamic loadings experienced by the wind turbines tested. In addition to structural testing, this facility will introduce measurable environmental effects, such as wind gusts, pressure variation, and temperature changes to the model in order to create an accurate setting under which the model can be studied.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
A Case Study of a Partnership in Chicago to Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe lead poisoning as a potentially devastating, but entirely preventable, disease caused primarily by exposure to dust from deteriorated paint on old housing (CDC, 2009).
STACKING OF SEEDS CHANGES SPOILAGE DYNAMICS OF FOOD CACHES OF THE BANNER-TAILED KANGAROO RAT (DIPODOMYS SPECTABILIS)

We report a previously undescribed seed-storing behavior of banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) that reduces losses to microbes. D. spectabilis cuts upper stems of the grass Sporobolus cryptandrus into 3- to 5-cm sections that we refer to as seed stems. Seeds within these seed stems remain attached to their rachis and are protected by an enveloping leaf. Most seed stems are bundled together tightly in packs of about 50 to several hundred individual stems and jammed vertically into cul-de-sacs excavated in the walls of their burrows. This behavior reduces rate of infection of seeds by fungi and also may reduce number of seeds pilfered by arthropods. Furthermore, compared with seeds of S. cryptandrus housed in middle sections of seed stems, those housed in the ends had a higher rate of infection. Simulated seed stems of wheat straw containing seeds of white millet (Panicum miliaceum) had a lower rate of infection and fewer species of fungi than seeds only protected by wire mesh. Seeds closer to the top of the simulated seed stems were more likely to be infected and had more species of fungi. Community structure and dynamics of microfungi also appeared affected by the protective layering of seed stems. We suggest that D. spectabilis manages the structure, and perhaps dynamics, of communities of microbes within their food caches by modifying position, location, or organization of food items.
Hypertension in Transgenic Mice With Brain-Selective Overexpression of the α2B-Adrenoceptor

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that the presynaptic alpha(2B)-adrenoceptor subtype in the central nervous system has a sympathoexcitatory function and its activation leads to a hyperadrenergic hypertensive state. The purpose of this project was to develop a novel hyperadrenergic model, a transgenic (TG) mouse model with brain-selective overexpression of the alpha(2B)-adrenergic receptor (alpha(2B)-AR). METHODS We used Southern blot analysis to confirm transgene, real-time PCR to assess gene expression, western Blot analysis and immunohistology to assess protein expression and localization in brain areas. Indirect blood pressure (BP) and heart rate were recorded. RESULTS In TG mice there was a 1.8-fold increase in alpha(2B)-AR protein expression compared to wild-type (WT) mice. Immunostaining of brain sections revealed that concentration of alpha(2B)-AR was much more pronounced in TG than in WT mice. Systolic BP at 8 weeks of age was significantly elevated in TG 130 +/- 6 mm Hg, compared with WT control nontransgenic littermates of the same age 107 +/- 7 mm Hg, (P < 0.05), indicating that the TG mice had indeed developed hypertension. CONCLUSIONS We have therefore documented that overexpression of the alpha(2B)-AR gene leads to increased production of alpha(2B)-AR protein in brain regions known to regulate central sympathetic outflow, thus resulting in sustained BP elevation. This is a unique model of experimental hypertension driven purely by overexpression of the alpha(2B)-AR that would result in an overactive sympathetic system and would be suitable for testing the pharmacologic properties of potential therapeutic agents.
Necrolytic migratory erythema-like dermatitis with malabsorption

The authors describe a case of malabsorption and annular, erosive, scaling dermatitis exhibiting the clinical features of necrolytic migratory erythema. The cutaneous manifestations of malabsorption are discussed.
Dual acquisition of fluorescence and quantitative phase microscopy with high-speed switchable optics for DIC

A modified shearing interferometer for live-cell imaging is demonstrated in a commercial microscope. Results demonstrate dual image mode acquisition without need for Nomarski prisms or sample rotation for use with quantitative phase retrieval algorithms
Comparison between Color Doppler Echocardiography and Angiocardiography in Diagnosis of Children's Combined with Congenital Heart Diseases

Objective To evaluate roles of color doppler echocardiography(CDE)and angiocardiography(ANGI)in diagnosis of children's combined with congenital heart diseases(CHD).Methods From Jan.2006 to Jun.2008,31 children with combined with CHD underwent not only CDE but also ANGI.Of those,18 cases were subjected to surgical operation.Main diagnosis and concomitant cardiovascular malformations derived from CDE and ANGI,operative findings as well,were compared.Results In 18 cases undergoing surgery,diagnosis of 15(83.33%)cases from CDE and 17(94.44%)cases from ANGI were in line with the operative findings.Of intracardiac malformations,diffe-rences between CDE and ANGI were:CDE diagnosed 1 case with pulmonary atresia /ventricular septal defect(PA/VSD)as persistent truncus arteriosus(PTA),2 cases with tetralogy of Fallot(TOF)as PA/VSD by mistake,and 1 case with partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection(PAPVC)was suspected by CDE but missed by ANGI,all above mentioned confirmed by sugery;except main diagnosis,CDE missed atrial septal defect(ASD),anomalous origin of right coronary artery and single left coronary for 1 case,respectively.In diagnosing extracardiac abnormal structures:1 case of interrupted aortic arch(IAA)was suspected by CDE but diagnosed and classified by ANGI;for double aortic arch(DAA),pulmonary arteriovenous fistula(PAVF),patent ductus arteriosus(PDA)and absence of right pulmonary artery,1 case of each was missed by CDE;furthermore PDA reported by CDE but not found by ANGI in 4 cases with PA/VSD.Conclusions The diagnostic difference between CDE and ANGI mainly lies in extracardiac malformations including coronary arteries.In diagnosing combined CHD,combination of CDE and ANGI can improve accurate rate.J Appl Clin Pediatr,2009,24(1):44-45
Endometrial estradiol and progesterone receptors in patients with luteal phase defects and endometriosis

Endometrial cytosol estrogen receptors (ERs) and progesterone receptors (PgRs) were quantitated in postovulatory endometrial biopsy samples of patients with luteal phase defect (LPD), those with endometriosis, and normal control subjects. Serum levels of estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P), obtained on the day of the biopsy, were also measured. No significant differences among endometrial ER, PgR, serum E2, and P levels were detected between the patients with endometriosis and normal control subjects. Although ER concentrations in the luteal defect group did not differ from those of control subjects, the PgR levels in day 20 to 23 endometrium were significantly higher. Mean serum E2 and P levels in the group with luteal insufficiency were significantly lower than those of the control subjects. Our data suggest that in patients with LPD the increase in PgR levels during the midluteal days is compatible with a relative deficiency of P secretion by the corpus luteum.
The Multidimensional Nature of the Quest Construct Forgiveness, Spiritual Perception,& Differentiation of Self:

Holeman, V. T., Dean, J. B., DeShea, L., & Duba, J. D. (2011). The Multidimensional Nature Of The Quest Construct Forgiveness, Spiritual Perception, & Differentiation Of Self. Journal Of Psychology & Theology, 39(1), 31-43.
Abstract 1569: IL6 mediated inflammatory loop reprograms normal to highly metastatic cancer stem cells at pre-HCC liver in β2SP+/- mice

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the second-leading cause of cancer-related death world-wide, displays overexpression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin6 (IL6) and inhibition of transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) in its early phase. We aimed to identify the dynamics of liver immune cells under inflammatory conditions and to characterize early-phase tumor-initiating cells to comprehend aberrant molecular pathway(s) in HCC progression in a TGF-β disrupted murine model (β2SP+/-). Methods: Chronic inflammation was induced in wild-type (WT) and β2SP+/- mice by hydrodynamic injection of IL6 (pIL6) encoding Sleeping Beauty transposons twice per month for 3 months. Liver stem cells were isolated by using CD133 antibody at the end of third month and cultured with suitable supplements. Results: Culturing of stem cells enriched from WT and β2SP+/- mice treated with pIL6 showed that the stem cells derived from β2SP+/- mice were highly tumorigenic and metastatic in immune-deficient mice. Staining of these cells with EMT markers Twist and Slug were found in the nucleus. Immunophenotyping suggested that pIL6 treatment induced significant expansion and pro-inflammatory phenotypes of liver NKT and suppressed MDSCs in the β2SP+/- mice compared with WT to generate tumorigenic stem cells. By using numerous pharmacological inhibitors to identify aberrant molecular signaling event(s), we discovered constitutively activated nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in these cancer stem cells (CSCs). Upon stable knockdown of NF-κB in the CSCs, both EMT phenotype and metastatic ability decreased significantly both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, screening of putative kinase(s) that could phosphorylate NF-κB identified that TGF-β activated kinase-1 (TAK-1) directly phosphorylated NF-κB. Staining of HCC tissue specimens showed that CD133+ liver stem cells expressed constitutively activated NF-κB. Conclusions: Collectively, our data suggest that IL6, highly expressed in 40% HCC patients, can be considered an initiation driver to develop metastatic CSCs by constitutively activated TAK1-NFκB pathway at pre-HCC stage. Citation Format: Abhisek Mitra, Xueqing Xia, Lopa Mishra, Shulin Li. IL6 mediated inflammatory loop reprograms normal to highly metastatic cancer stem cells at pre-HCC liver in β2SP+/- mice. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1569.
The effect of carbamazepine on etonogestrel concentrations in contraceptive implant users.

Abstract Objective The objective was to determine the impact of carbamazepine on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the etonogestrel contraceptive implant. Study design We enrolled healthy, reproductive-age women using an etonogestrel implant for 1–3 years. We measured etonogestrel levels at baseline and following 3 weeks of coadministered carbamazepine titrated up to 300 mg twice daily. We also evaluated for ovarian follicle-like structures and endometrial thickness using transvaginal ultrasound at the baseline and 3-week visits. Results We enrolled 13 women; 10 completed study procedures. Participants' mean age was 25.6 years (±5.6), mean body mass index was 30.4 (±7.3), and median duration of implant use was 23 months (range 15–35). The median etonogestrel concentrations before and after carbamazepine coadministration were 158.1 pg/mL (range 128–347) and 50.9 pg/mL (range 39–202), respectively (p=.005). In 8 of 10 subjects, the etonogestrel concentration was below the threshold for ovulatory suppression ( Conclusions Women using a contraceptive implant experienced significant reductions in etonogestrel concentrations following coadministration of 600 mg of carbamazepine. We did not find significant pharmacodynamic changes during this abbreviated follow-up period. Implications Carbamazepine use significantly reduces serum etonogestrel concentrations in women using an etonogestrel contraceptive implant, with the majority of participants having etonogestrel concentrations below the threshold for ovulatory suppression. Our findings suggest that treatment with carbamazepine might increase the risk of pregnancy in etonogestrel implant users.
How to Design and Implement Self-organising Resource-Flow Systems

The construction of self-organising systems often leads to very ingenious and specific solutions to a concrete problem. These solutions cannot be easily transferred to other domains or systems. As the development of self-organising systems is a very time consuming and challenging task, instructions, methodologies, and tools to design and construct such systems in a generic and reproducible manner are required. This article presents a software engineering guideline along with a pattern for the class of resource-flow systems and details the steps that are required to implement systems designed according to the pattern. The guideline enables a software engineer to easily and reproducibly construct self-organising resource-flow systems. In addition, the presented concepts and techniques, i.e. the precise definition of the system structure and of behavioural corridors, observation of the corridors at runtime, and the verification of the system components’ behaviour allow the engineer to guarantee correct system behaviour despite self-organisation.
Layered Oxide, Graphite and Silicon-Graphite Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Cells: Effect of Electrolyte Composition and Cycling Windows

The electrochemical performance of cells with a Li1.03(Ni0.5Co0.2Mn0.3)0.97O2 (NCM523) positive electrode and a blended silicon-graphite (Si-Gr) negative electrode are investigated using various electrolyte compositions and voltage cycling windows. Voltage profiles of the blended Si-Gr electrode show a superposition of graphite potential plateaus on a sloped Si profile with a large potential hysteresis. The effect of this hysteresis is seen in the cell impedance versus voltage data, which are distinctly different for the charge and discharge cycles. We confirm that the addition of compounds, such as vinylene carbonate (VC) and fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) to the baseline 1.2 M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate (EC): ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) (3:7 w/w) electrolyte, improves cell capacity retention with higher retention seen at higher additive contents. We show that reducing the lower cutoff voltage (LCV) of full cells to 2.5 V increases the Si-Gr electrode potential to 1.12 V vs. Li/Li+; this relatively-high delithiation potential correlates with the lower capacity retention displayed by the cell. Hence, we show that raising the upper cutoff voltage (UCV) can increase cell energy density without significantly altering capacity retention over 100 charge discharge cycles.
The first complete plastid genomes of Melastomataceae are highly structurally conserved

Background In the past three decades, several studies have predominantly relied on a small sample of the plastome to infer deep phylogenetic relationships in the species-rich Melastomataceae. Here, we report the first full plastid sequences of this family, compare general features of the sampled plastomes to other sequenced Myrtales, and survey the plastomes for highly informative regions for phylogenetics. Methods Genome skimming was performed for 16 species spread across the Melastomataceae. Plastomes were assembled, annotated and compared to eight sequenced plastids in the Myrtales. Phylogenetic inference was performed using Maximum Likelihood on six different data sets, where putative biases were taken into account. Summary statistics were generated for all introns and intergenic spacers with suitable size for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and used to rank the markers by phylogenetic information. Results The majority of the plastomes sampled are conserved in gene content and order, as well as in sequence length and GC content within plastid regions and sequence classes. Departures include the putative presence of rps16 and rpl2 pseudogenes in some plastomes. Phylogenetic analyses of the majority of the schemes analyzed resulted in the same topology with high values of bootstrap support. Although there is still uncertainty in some relationships, in the highest supported topologies only two nodes received bootstrap values lower than 95%. Discussion Melastomataceae plastomes are no exception for the general patterns observed in the genomic structure of land plant chloroplasts, being highly conserved and structurally similar to most other Myrtales. Despite the fact that the full plastome phylogeny shares most of the clades with the previously widely used and reduced data set, some changes are still observed and bootstrap support is higher. The plastome data set presented here is a step towards phylogenomic analyses in the Melastomataceae and will be a useful resource for future studies.
Growing sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] moench) in clumps potentially reduces lodging in the arid-southwestern United States

Abstract Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is an attractive crop for the biofuel industry in the arid-southwestern United States due to its high yields of fermentable juice as well as fibrous biomass, with lower water requirements and high water use efficiency. Previous work has shown that when planted closer together the resulting stalks are thinner, weigh less, yield less juice, and are more susceptible to lodging, thus affecting yields. The studies examined the effects of planting sweet sorghum in clumps (three to five plants in a hill, spaced 0.5 m apart) compared to conventional rows (planted equidistant with a grain drill). Four varieties (Cowley, Hodo, M81E, and Mer74-2) were sown on 6 June 2014 and 26 May 2015 in a split-plot design, with arrangement (clump or conventional) as main plot and variety as sub-plot, with five replications in 2014 and four in 2015. Conventional rows were planted with a tractor-driven grain drill at 18 seeds m−1. Clumps were hand-planted as a cluster of three to five seed in a single hole every 0.5 m. Harvest commenced 30 days after half of the plants in a variety were flowering. A 3.05 m section was harvested, and weighed. A subsample of plants was weighed with or without leaves and panicles, stem diameters measured, the stalks pressed, and juice collected and weighed. Sugars in the juice samples were analyzed by HPLC with a refractive index detector. Individual stems in the clumps were significantly greater in diameter and weight, although field weight showed no significant difference between treatments. Plants in conventional rows were smaller but there were more of them per area than the clump treatments. There were no differences in number of leaves, but the overall leaf weight was significantly greater in the clump treatments, due to increased leaf width and area, but not length. Lodging was significantly lower in the clump treatments in 2015, indicating that the thicker stalks are less susceptible to lodging. Planting sweet sorghum in clumps resulted in thicker, sturdier stalks with more juice, and did not decrease yields over conventionally planted plots. Planting in clumps has potential under irrigation in the arid southwestern United States to increase yields.
A thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of solvent-enhanced selectivity in monophasic and biphasic reactor systems

Selectivity control in biomass conversion is often realized by manipulating the solvent environment. Outcomes can be rationalized through a thermodynamically rigorous application of transition-state theory. We show that solvent-induced perturbations to selectivity in both monophasic and biphasic reactor systems are governed by the same underlying principles.
Etiologies of Developmental Dyslexia and Hyperlexia

We saw in Chapter 2 that reading is accomplished in three stages in which visual encoding, word recognition, and sentence—text-level processing of the written language take place. It was also noted that reading is an interactive process and that operations of different stages take place concurrently. Consequently, deficiency in any one of the operations, regardless of the stage in which it occurs, can affect reading. In this chapter, developmental dyslexia and hyperlexia are examined to see if the difficulties of dyslexic and hyperlexic readers can be traced to operation(s) at one or more of these stages.
Is Heightened Antitrust Scrutiny Appropriate for Software Markets

Economics, particularly through the field of Industrial Organization, has always influenced antitrust. The power of economics is its ability to provide visions of the world — i.e. theories — that can explain behavior — i.e. facts. Both theory and fact are crucial. Theory without fact has an untested quality that many abhor, particularly lawyers who consider themselves steeped in everyday reality; fact without theory has an ad hoc cast, making, at the extreme, all cases individual and unconnected to each other. Both theory and fact have had important roles in the history of the influence of economics upon antitrust, as I have written elsewhere.1
Therapeutic alliance and adherence to a plant-based eating plan to treat chronic disease

Background: Systematic reviews show that a plant-based diet offers many benefits to patients with a variety of chronic illnesses. However, more research is needed to show how plant-based diets are ...
Leveraging Classification Models for River Forecasting

Prior work in river forecasting has focused on applying regression models to gage and discharge prediction since these are naturally continuous dynamical functions. On the other hand, with discretized data, classifiers can be adopted to solve this problem by predicting a conditional probability distribution. Predicting this distribution is important in at least two ways: (1) the variance of the distribution can indicate the confidence of the predicted expected values, and (2) the distribution can be used for computing the probability that the gage or discharge exceeds or falls below some threshold. This paper presents a concrete river forecasting framework with classifiers including probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) and artificial neural network classifiers (ANNCs). The proposed framework is applied on real data for the Guadalupe river basin (Texas) thereby enabling a detailed comparison among various manners of forecasting studied, along with a set of guidelines for their best use.
CO2 water-alternating-gas injection for enhanced oil recovery: Optimal well controls and half-cycle lengths

Abstract CO2 water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection is an enhanced oil recovery method designed to improve sweep efficiency during CO2 injection with the injected water to control the mobility of CO2 and to stabilize the gas front. Optimization of CO2 -WAG injection is widely regarded as a viable technique for controlling the CO2 and oil miscible process. Poor recovery from CO2 -WAG injection can be caused by inappropriately designed WAG parameters. In previous study (Chen and Reynolds, 2016), we proposed an algorithm to optimize the well controls which maximize the life-cycle net-present-value (NPV). However, the effect of injection half-cycle lengths for each injector on oil recovery or NPV has not been well investigated. In this paper, an optimization framework based on augmented Lagrangian method and the newly developed stochastic-simplex-approximate-gradient (StoSAG) algorithm is proposed to explore the possibility of simultaneous optimization of the WAG half-cycle lengths together with the well controls. The proposed framework is demonstrated with three reservoir examples.
GOLOMB'S REMINISCENCES

Today, June 1, 2002, is the first day of my eighth decade. I have always tried hard to come up with clever names like polyominoes or rep-tiles or graceful graphs for the topics that I’ve introduced. So it’s really a failure of my ability as an inventor of names if anything actually gets named after me. There have been a few failures. The things that I called minimum spanning rulers, Martin Gardner without my permission called Golomb Rulers. Other people have picked up on that, and I’m sort of stuck with it. I did a lot of work when I was at JPL looking at non-linear shift register sequences. I found a statistical model, and when I looked at cycle lengths of random permutations, one thing I showed was that the expected length of the longest cycle relative to the total number of elements had a limit, and I evaluated that limit. Lloyd Welch and several other people participated in this effort. But it was Donald Knuth who named this particular number Golomb’s constant. If a constant had to be named for me, I would prefer it to be something like “3”, rather than some strange transcendental number, but I guess the better constants were already taken. In a couple of papers around 1967 I asked the question: Suppose you had an infinite number of source messages that were geometrically distributed; you couldn’t use Huffman’s compression algorithm, because that requires you to start with the least probable message, and if there are an infinite number of possible messages you can’t quite do that; but I came up with the equivalent of Huffman codes for that case.
Relationships between Variables

In previous chapters, we have looked at ways in which statistical methods are used to collect, summarize, and draw conclusions from data on a single variable at a time. Now we analyze the data on two or more variables at the same time; that is, we study relationships between variables. Most sciences have as a goal establishing relationships between variables, and statistics plays in important role in this task. In this chapter we suggest the scope of concerns for statistical analysis. A good deal of the rest of the book expands on the study of relationships between variables.
Behavioral Medicine, Prevention, and Health Reform: Linking Evidence-Based Clinical and Public Health Strategies for Population Health Behavior Change

Population-wide health behavior change represents our single greatest hope for improving the health of the nation, reducing the nation’s untenable financial burden, and reducing growing disparities in disease and health status. It will require linking evidence-based individual-level clinical interventions with evidence-based community/public health interventions. (Although we focus on the United States and its efforts addressing health-care reform, the principles noted could be applied to other countries that are addressing prevention in health care.) In this chapter we briefly outline the growth of behavioral medicine from its origins in the mid-1980s – as a multi-disciplinary field focused on identifying the behavioral factors contributing to the prevention, treatment, and management of disease and developing individually focused clinical interventions to address them – to its current broader focus on combined clinical and public health strategies to influence health behaviors population-wide. We use case studies from evidence-based reviews in the field and our experiences with the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the United States Community Prevention Services Task force to briefly illustrate progress in each of these spheres – clinical and community – and to provide strategies to facilitate linkages. The recommendations of both task forces have relied substantially on behavioral medicine research and are regularly used by public health departments, state, local and federal government agencies, health plans, employers, and community-based organizations to guide and support decisions about selecting and funding interventions and related research. We close this chapter with recommendations for future research and practice.
Therapeutic Factors in Equine-Facilitated Group Psychotherapy for Women Survivors of Interpersonal Violence

This study entailed a qualitative content analysis of therapeutic factors in equine-facilitated group psychotherapy (EFGP) for women trauma survivors (n = 9). Our findings indicated that instillati...
Peter Doherty, Nobel Laureate: Questions and Reflections Concerning MHC Restriction and other Fruits of a Life of Biomedical Erudition.

In 1974, Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel published a landmark article in Nature [ 1 ] that described the ability of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV)-specific cytotoxic T cells to lyse LCMV-infected, 51 Cr-labeled target cells if the target cells shared class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules with these T cells. Surprisingly, infected and labeled target cells with disparate class I MHC molecules were not lysed. This phenomenon, which came to be known as “MHC restriction,” was a major advance in our understanding of the way in which T cells recognize antigen and was ultimately the basis for the awarding of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel. Readers interested in more information on Dr. Doherty or on MHC restriction are referred to the relevant pages of the Nobel Prize website [ 2 ].
Medical Management of Meniere’s Disease

There are no definitive curative or preventative therapies available for Meniere’s disease. Treatment modalities are based on several theories surrounding the possible causes of the disease, and treatment aims to reduce symptoms of vertigo and preserve hearing and balance function. Here, we describe medical management strategies of Meniere’s disease.
Wireless Antenna Detection of Electrostatic Discharge Events

Wireless intraspacecraft communication technology is being developed for signal transfer on space missions to save weight and simplify the design. One consideration for this new technology is its interaction with space environment-induced electrostatic discharges (ESDs). The short time scales of spacecraft ESD events result in broad frequency band signals that can interact with high-frequency wireless antennas. These interactions present a source of signal noise. However, they also present a possibility of in-flight wireless ESD monitoring. We present laboratory measurements of arcing on common spacecraft insulators using commercially available single-band 2.4-GHz and dual-band 2.4-/5.8-GHz Wi-Fi antennas. These wireless detections are shown to coincide with direct simultaneous measurements of discharge event currents. The amplitudes of the wireless signals are shown to provide a measure of the relative magnitude of the arcs, although the narrow frequency ranges of Wi-Fi antennas make absolute measures of the discharge intensity impractical. The wireless signals are shown to provide very accurate nanosecond timing of ESD events, which presents the potential of identifying arc location on a spacecraft with the use of time-of-flight detection from multiple antennas.