cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Numerical Analysis of the Viscous, Hypersonic, MHD Blunt-Body Problem

Introduction T configuration of a blunt body with onboard electromagnet, suggested by Kantrowitz, utilizes interaction between the shock-heated plasma and the magnetic field (Fig. 1). The effects of increase in shock-detachment distance and total drag and alteration of pressure distribution and heat transfer have been observed in the laboratory" but theory has been inadequate to predict the phenomena quantitatively or even qualitatively in all detail. A major difficulty is that the experiments occur at the low Reynolds number of incipient-merged viscous flow without either the distinct shock discontinuity or the thin boundary layer. Also, Mach numbers are only low hypersonic so that the thin merged-layer assumption does not apply. The present work is directed toward this regime. Under present conditions, the magnetic Reynolds number is low, allowing neglect of induced magnetic fields. In addition, the Hall effect, chemistry, and radiation are neglected. The configuration considered is a hemisphere nose with magnetic dipole at its origin with axis aligned for axisymmetry. The entire region forward of a plane, including the hemisphere base, is considered in a numerical analysis using the time-dependent equations integrated forward in time through an initial-value problem. The constant-property stagnation region has been analyzed for viscous flow on the basis of local similarity and a shock discontinuity by Smith and Wu and by Chen, who considered the so-called shock-slip condition. The time-dependent finite-difference scheme was applied by Coakley and Porter to the in viscid MHD problem with shock discontinuity. In the present work, viscosity is included and the shock structure is part of the solution. The viscous, non-MHD blunt-body problem was considered by Moretti and Salas using the time-dependent finite-difference technique. Here, we employ the difference technique of Erdos and Zakkay.
Undergraduate Students as Sustainability Consultants: Applying Service-Learning To Enhance Career Skills and Foster Community Environmental Sustainability

The words sustainable and sustainability have recently become popular diction. Often, sustainability-related concepts can seem too complicated or overwhelming, or they imply simply using less—and nothing more. At Utah State University, these ideas were incorporated in a newly designed upper-level undergraduate service-learning course, entitled Communicating Sustainability. Communicating Sustainability explored the deeper meanings of sustainability, and students learned about their own beliefs and behaviors, their community, and how to act as professional change agents. The course was structured around exploring the theoretical foundations of sustainability, commu nication and conservation theories, and communication techniques. Students then used knowledge gained, theories, and techniques to foster pro-environmental change with community partners. The course relayed concepts of sustainability in a positive light and gave undergraduate students real-world experience of working in a sustainability-related profession. As the demand for green jobs continues to increase, this article provides a framework for using a Communicating Sustainability class to help students develop life skills and effectively transition into professionals.
DNA damage in Molt-4 T-lymphoblastoid cells exposed to cellular telephone radiofrequency fields in vitro

w Molt-4 T-lymphoblastoid cells have been exposed to pulsed signals at cellular telephone frequencies of 813.5625 MHz iDEN .
The 21st-Century Turn to Culture: American Exceptionalism

The U.S. Military's turn to culture in the 21st century occurred largely because of its inability to achieve its stated objectives in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through conventional military force. Building on a long history of military strategies concerned with the cultural differences of others, the U.S. military crafted a warfighting strategy in 2006 based on a counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine of using cultural knowledge to battle the enemy. Charting how and why culture was embraced as a 21st-century �weapons system� shows us how technopolitical systems inside the military-industrial complex are envisioned, built, and then dismantled. Close tracking of these changing 21st-century strategies of war reveals, deep within the counterterrorism discourse, a fundamental belief in American exceptionalism. The principle that emerged from this ideological environment is that the enemies to be fought are not only terrorists or the ideologues of al-Qa?ida but also the countries and cultures that produced them. The implementation of this principle, despite its obvious failures, reveals the ideological underpinning that has justified the incredible destruction and securitized implementation of warfighting.
Inferring Internet Worm Temporal Characteristics

Internet worm attacks pose a significant threat to network security. In this work, we coin the term Internet worm tomography as inferring the characteristics of Internet worms from the observations of Darknet or network telescopes that are routable but unused IP addresses. Under the framework of Internet worm tomography, we attempt to infer worm temporal behaviors such as the host infection time and the worm infection sequence, and thus pinpoint patient zero. Specifically, we introduce statistical estimation techniques and propose method of moments, maximum likelihood, and linear regression estimators. We show analytically and empirically that our proposed estimators can better infer worm temporal characteristics than a naive estimator that has been used in the previous work.
A versatile pH sensitive chondroitin sulfate-PEG tissue adhesive and hydrogel.

We developed a chondroitin sulfate–polyethylene glycol (CS–PEG) adhesive hydrogel with numerous potential biomedical applications. The carboxyl groups on chondroitin sulfate (CS) chains were functionalized with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) to yield chondroitin sulfate succinimidyl succinate (CS–NHS). Following purification, the CS–NHS molecule can react with primary amines to form amide bonds. Hence, using six arm polyethylene glycol amine PEG–(NH2)6 as a crosslinker we formed a hydrogel which was covalently bound to proteins in tissue via amide bonds. By varying the initial pH of the precursor solutions, the hydrogel stiffness, swelling properties, and kinetics of gelation could be controlled. The sealing/adhesive strength could also be modified by varying the damping and storage modulus properties of the material. The adhesive strength of the material with cartilage tissue was shown to be ten times higher than that of fibrin glue. Cells encapsulated or in direct contact with the material remained viable and metabolically active. Furthermore, CS–PEG material produced minimal inflammatory response when implanted subcutaneously in a rat model and enzymatic degradation was demonstrated in vitro. This work establishes an adhesive hydrogel derived from biological and synthetic components with potential application in wound healing and regenerative medicine.
The Consequences of Experimentalism in Formulating Recommendations for Policy and Practice in Mathematics Education

In this response to Foundations for Success: The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008), the authors argue that the Panel’s assumption that only experimental research studies can produce scientific evidence limits the power of the Panel’s recommendations to improve mathematics teaching and learning. The authors first discuss the theoretical underpinnings, potential contributions, and limitations of experimental studies. Against this background, they focus on three issues that are central to improving mathematics learning and teaching, those of equity, the nature and content of textbooks, and graduate education. In doing so, the authors illustrate the limitations of developing implications for policy and practice by relying exclusively on research conducted using a single methodology.
The development of the 17F beam at the Holifield radioactive ion beam facility

Abstract This report details some of the key technological developments employed at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF) to produce beams of 17 F using the 16 O(d, n) 17 F reaction. The oxide fiber target material used at the HRIBF is described and a comparison is made between the 17 F yield achieved using light (Al) and heavy (Hf) metal oxide fibers. The development of the Kinetic Ejection Negative Ion Source (KENIS) employed in this work is also discussed along with the operational principles of the source. Finally, a detailed description of the HfO 2 target configuration used to produce 10 7 –10 8 17 F ions/s for over 850 hours of operation is provided. To date, seven nuclear physics experiments using accelerated beams of 17 F and 18 F produced using this apparatus have been performed over an energy range of 10–170 MeV.
Rapid identification of thousands of copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix) microsatellite loci from modest amounts of 454 shotgun genome sequence

Optimalintegrationofnext-generationsequencingintomainstreamresearchrequiresre-evaluation of how problems can be reasonably overcome and what questions can be asked. One potential application is the rapid acquisition of genomic information to identify microsatellite loci for evolutionary, population genetic and chromosome linkage mapping research on non-model and not previously sequenced organisms. Here, we report on results using highthroughputsequencingtoobtainalargenumberofmicrosatellitelocifromthevenomoussnake Agkistrodon contortrix, the copperhead. We used the 454 Genome Sequencer FLX next-generation sequencing platform to sample randomly 27 Mbp (128 773 reads) of the copperhead genome,thussamplingabout2%ofthegenomeofthisspecies.Weidentifiedmicrosatelliteloci in 11.3% of all reads obtained, with 14 612 microsatellite loci identified in total, 4564 of which had flanking sequences suitable for polymerase chain reaction primer design. The random sequencing-based approach to identify microsatellites was rapid, cost-effective and identified thousandsofusefulmicrosatellitelociinapreviouslyunstudiedspecies.
Geriatric Education Centers Initiatives in Curriculum and Resource Development

(2006). Geriatric Education Centers Initiatives in Curriculum and Resource Development. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education: Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 1-5.
Automated identification of conserved synteny after whole-genome duplication

An important objective for inferring the evolutionary history of gene families is the determination of orthologies and paralogies. Lineage-specific paralog loss following whole-genome duplication events can cause anciently related homologs to appear in some assays as orthologs. Conserved synteny-the tendency of neighboring genes to retain their relative positions and orders on chromosomes over evolutionary time-can help resolve such errors. Several previous studies examined genome-wide syntenic conservation to infer the contents of ancestral chromosomes and provided insights into the architecture of ancestral genomes, but did not provide methods or tools applicable to the study of the evolution of individual gene families. We developed an automated system to identify conserved syntenic regions in a primary genome using as outgroup a genome that diverged from the investigated lineage before a whole-genome duplication event. The product of this automated analysis, the Synteny Database, allows a user to examine fully or partially assembled genomes. The Synteny Database is optimized for the investigation of individual gene families in multiple lineages and can detect chromosomal inversions and translocations as well as ohnologs (paralogs derived by whole-genome duplication) gone missing. To demonstrate the utility of the system, we present a case study of gene family evolution, investigating the ARNTL gene family in the genomes of Ciona intestinalis, amphioxus, zebrafish, and human.
MATE OPPORTUNITY HYPOTHESIS AND EXTRAPAIR PATERNITY IN WAVED ALBATROSSES (PHOEBASTRIA IRRORATA)

Abstract Early arrival at breeding sites can influence reproductive success through enhanced access to critical resources such as nest sites or mates. One hypothesis explaining protandry, or male-first arrival at breeding sites, proposes that males arrive earlier to increase their extrapair copulation (EPC) opportunities, which may, in turn, enhance males' reproductive success through extrapair fertilizations (EPFs) (“mate opportunity hypothesis”). Extrapair behavior is unexpected in long-lived birds, in which the male is expected to abandon a brood of uncertain paternity, because his probability of future reproduction is high. A previous study of the Waved Albatross (Phoebastria irrorata), a long-lived, socially monogamous seabird, showed evidence of EPFs in 4 of 16 (25%) families. Here, we combined behavioral observations of copulations with additional molecular genetic evidence of EPFs in Waved Albatross families to investigate the fitness consequences of protandry under the mate opportunity hypothesis...
Automatic identification and quantification of radionuclides in gamma spectra using numerical optimization

We propose a novel method for gamma-ray spectral analysis that populates and solves an arbitrarily large system of radionuclides in order to explicitly model the production and loss of chains of radionuclides during counting. This solution is embedded into an optimization problem in order to resolve spectral interferences and find the nuclide mixture that best explains the measured spectrum. We demonstrate the efficacy of this method using a synthetic example with complex spectral interferences, short half lives, and nuclide transmutation, as well as a spectrum collected of a multi-gamma standard typically used for efficiency calibration.
The "Plug" Method for Obtaining the Compressive Elastic Properties of Thin-Walled Sections

A new method is proposed for use in determining the compressive elastic properties of thin-walled sections. The method consists essentially of supporting the section with a cement plug which restrains the flat sides of the specimens from early secondary failure. The method of preparing specimens is simple and inexpensive. Results are given for a large number of compressive stress-strain tests in which the method was used. The results are plotted using a modification of Osgood's non-dimensional system of coordinates.
Interaction of Single-Chain Urokinase With Its Receptor Induces the Appearance and Disappearance of Binding Epitopes Within the Resultant Complex for Other Cell Surface Proteins

Binding of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) to its glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored receptor (uPAR) initiates signal transduction, adhesion, and migration in certain cell types. To determine whether some of these activities may be mediated by associations between the uPA/uPAR complex and other cell surface proteins, we studied the binding of complexes composed of recombinant, soluble uPA receptor (suPAR) and single chain uPA (scuPA) to a cell line (LM-TK- fibroblasts) that does not express glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins to eliminate potential competition by endogenous uPA receptors. scuPA induced the binding of suPAR to LM-TK- cells. Binding of labeled suPAR/scuPA was inhibited by unlabeled complex, but not by scuPA or suPAR added separately, indicating cellular binding sites had been formed that are not present in either component. Binding of the complex was inhibited by low molecular weight uPA (LMW-uPA) indicating exposure of an epitope found normally in the isolated B chain of two chain uPA (tcuPA), but hidden in soluble scuPA. Binding of LMW-uPA was independent of its catalytic site and was associated with retention of its enzymatic activity. Additional cell binding epitopes were generated within suPAR itself by the aminoterminal fragment of scuPA, which itself does not bind to LM-TK- cells. When scuPA bound to suPAR, a binding site for alpha 2-macroglobulin receptor/LDL receptor-related protein (alpha 2 MR/LRP) was lost, while binding sites for cell-associated vitronectin and thrombospondin were induced. In accord with this, the internalization and degradation of cell-associated tcuPA and tcuPA-PAI- 1 complexes proceeded less efficiently in the presence of suPAR. Further, little degradation of suPAR was detected, suggesting that cell- bound complex dissociated during the initial stages of endocytosis. Thus, the interaction of scuPA with its receptor causes multiple functional changes within the complex including the dis-appearance of an epitope in scuPA involved in its clearance from the cell surface and the generation of novel epitopes that promote its binding to proteins involved in cell adhesion and signal transduction.
A GLM approach to quantal response models for mixtures

Quantal response models for the combination of two different stimuli are considered as exponential family regression models. In the most general cases the models are nonlinear in the sense that there is no link to a linear predictor. Examples include probit models for correlated independent action and logit models for similar action. Parameters for spontaneous response are included. An extensive series of examples shows that these models can be easily fitted to real data using standard statistical software. Results include deviance statistics for goodness of fit, as well as maximum likelihood estimates of EC50s, relative potencies, and mixing parameters, together with their standard deviations. Likelihood ratio statistics for testing special models are easily computed, facilitating the analysis of complex data sets. Deviance residuals help detect lack of fit and individual outliers.
The Interface Between Adenovirus-Transformed Cells and Cellular Immune Response in the Challenged Host

The discovery by Trentin et al. (1962) that human adenoviruses were capable of producing tumors when inoculated into hamsters created a major role for these agents in the field of viral oncology. As participants in this field, several of the adenovirus (Ad) serotypes are among the most thoroughly studied animal viruses. One of the primary objectives of the study of these agents as tumor viruses has been to elucidate the mechanisms that are associated with their capacity to convert normal cells to neoplastic cells that produce tumors in animals. In approaching this objective, theoretical and technical developments have focused current research on the structure, organization, and expression of the Ad genome, and much has been accomplished. The functional arrangement of the Ad2 genome has been determined and the DNA sequence structure of several Ad serotypes is far advanced. The processing of Ad RNA into cytoplasmic mRNA that is translated into viral proteins has provided new insights into the mechanisms of RNA transcription in eukaryotic organisms. The mode of replication of the Ad genomes is under intensive investigation. The regions of the viral genome that are associated with the conversion of normal cells to neoplastic cells have been located, and many of the proteins encoded by these genes have been identified and in some cases purified. For detailed discussions of these developments, we refer the reader to other chapters in this volume and to recent reviews by Flint (1980a, b), Persson and Philipson (1982), Challberg and Kelly (1982), and Doerfler (1982). In spite of these impressive accomplishments, the goal of defining the mechanism of Ad-induced carcinogenesis has remained elusive, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that the question of how viruses and neoplastic cells produce tumors in animals will most likely remain after understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cell transformation (as defined by the induction of immortality) in vitro has been reached. The complexities of the interactions between cells rendered neoplastic by adenoviruses and the cellular immune defenses of the potential animal host suggest that new concepts and approaches to the possible mechanism of viral carcinogenesis are needed.
Health Website's Games and Features Evaluation by Middle Schoolers

Health information on the Internet is popular for both adults and adolescents. Providing this information in an enjoyable manner during school may provide an alternative to teacher-led education. However, there are advantages and disadvantages of â€˜edutainment'. The objective of this study was to explore these advantages and disadvantages of a health-related website which incorporated games and interactive features from the adolescents' perspective. Most features received favorable evaluations, with the exception of one in particular using an interactive map. Social interaction with ratings and scores were seen as too competitive by some.
Evidence on the Risk of Losses

In Investment Company Institute v. Camp1 the Supreme Court ruled that the Glass-Steagall Act foreclosed commercial banks from offering commingled investment accounts. The Court explained that the Act ‘reflected a determination that policies of competition, convenience, or expertise which might otherwise support the entry of commercial banks into the investment banking business were outweighed by the “hazards” and “financial dangers” that arose when commercial banks engage in the activities proscribed by the Act’.2 Congress, the Court said, ‘was concerned that commercial banks … had both aggravated and been damaged by stock market decline partly because of their direct and indirect involvement in the trading and ownership of speculative securities’.3 Furthermore, the Court believed that ‘[t]he failure of the Bank of United States in 1930 was widely attributed to that bank’s activities with respect to its numerous securities affiliates’.4
Abstract 5139: Adjuvant immunotherapy targeting CSF1R to limit metastatic progression

Metastasis is often considered a late stage event, although the first changes in the metastatic site occur very early during localized primary tumor development. Although understanding of these initiating events is limited, immune suppression plays an essential role in allowing for the outgrowth of disseminating tumor cells. Targeting this immune suppressive milieu can hold promise to effectively inhibit metastatic progression. Colony stimulating factor-one (CSF-1) is overexpressed by many diverse tumor types and can induce expansion and recruitment of CSF-1 receptor (CSF-1R) expressing cells. CSF-1R is expressed on a multitude of myeloid cells including inflammatory monocytes, myeloid derived suppressor cells and macrophages, which are key immune suppressive cells in a primary tumor site. Using a metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma model, we have identified expansion of immune suppressive myeloid cells in the early metastatic microenvironment. PLX3397, which is small molecular inhibitor that selectively targets CSF-1R, Kit and Oncogenic FLT3, was used to determine the impact of targeting this immune suppressive microenvironment in limiting metastatic progression. PLX3397 and GW2580, a selective CSF1R inhibitor, reduce the immune suppressive capacity of bone marrow-derived monocytes on activated T cells. Adjuvant therapy with PLX3397 in resected rhabdomyosarcoma reduces metastatic spread. Targeting CSF-1R is associated with an expansion of CD11C expressing antigen presenting cells in the metastatic tissue and in combination with PD-1 blockade improves anti-tumor immunity. Continued investigation of combination immunotherapy with metastatic microenvironment targeting in the adjuvant setting holds promise to limit metastatic spread. Citation Format: Justin Evans, Amber J. Giles, Meera Murgai, Miki Kasai, Caitlin Reid, Rosandra Natasha Kaplan. Adjuvant immunotherapy targeting CSF1R to limit metastatic progression. [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 5139.
Dancing on the lip of the volcano: chosen ciphertext attacks on apple imessage

Apple's iMessage is one of the most widely-deployed end-to-end encrypted messaging protocols. Despite its broad deployment, the encryption protocols used by iMessage have never been subjected to rigorous crypt-analysis. In this paper, we conduct a thorough analysis of iMessage to determine the security of the protocol against a variety of attacks. Our analysis shows that iMessage has significant vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a sophisticated attacker. In particular, we outline a novel chosen ciphertext attack on Huffman compressed data, which allows retrospective decryption of some iMessage payloads in less than 218 queries. The practical implication of these attacks is that any party who gains access to iMessage ciphertexts may potentially decrypt them remotely and after the fact. We additionally describe mitigations that will prevent these attacks on the protocol, without breaking backwards compatibility. Apple has deployed our mitigations in the latest iOS and OS X releases.
Characterization of Apoptosis in a CHO Cell Line Cultivated in Batch and Continuous Culture: Effect of Medium, Specific Perfusion Rate and Chemical Inhibitors

In this study apoptosis is characterized in a CHO cell line cultivated in both batch and continuous perfusion culture. Data is presented which shows that apoptosis can be induced in this cell line with camptothecin and detected using DNA gel electrophoresis and annexin-V & caspase-3 flow cytometric analysis. Time profiles of caspase-3 and DNA laddering gels indicate that apoptosis is the predominant form of cell death experienced by this cell line in batch culture. Several reported apoptosis inhibitors are evaluated for their ability to improve batch performance (NAC, suramin, cyclosporin A, Ac-DEVD-CHO, z-VAD-fmk), of which only one, z-VAD-fmk, is shown to significantly improve batch survivability. However z-VAD-fmk's effectiveness at improving continuous culture is less profound, possibly due to this cell lines ability to die by an alternative apoptotic pathway. Finally, reduced productivity at ultra-low feed rates n perfusion culture is shown to be correlated to the induction of apoptosis.
Cultural Competence for International Medical Graduate Physicians: A Perspective

International medical graduate (IMG) physicians are a highly diverse group of individuals on the basis of each person’s country of origin, acculturation, race/ethnicity, gender, age, religion/spirituality, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation, among other background characteristics. Nonetheless, the majority migrate from middle- and low-income, tradition-centered, collectivistic societies to industrialized, individualistic societies. Upon graduation, IMG physicians are more likely to practice in underserved or rural areas and provide care to patients who are ethnic minorities, immigrants, or socially disadvantaged. IMG physicians usually undergo a stressful acculturation process to both the general culture and the healthcare subculture in the host country, in addition to coping with the stress inherent to residency training. Medical education in their home country and residency training in their host country seldom prepare them or help them cope with these challenges. This chapter provides an environmental scan and a focused review of the literature of the acculturation and cultural competency needs of IMG physicians, identifies gaps in the literature, and proposes an educational research and policy agenda for the future.
Gadd45 in the liver: signal transduction and transcriptional mechanisms.

Injury and growth stimulation both remarkably increase the hepatic expression of Gadd45β. In liver cancer, promoter methylation frequently silences Gadd45β, demonstrating due to a suppressive function that is often proapoptotic. This contrasts with normal hepatocytes, where Gadd45β facilitates cell survival, growth, and proliferation. Gadd45β binds MKK7—downstream of TNFα and its receptors—to prevent this kinase from activating JNK2. Hence, the Gadd45b−/− genotype increases cell injury and decreases cell proliferation during liver regeneration (i.e., compensatory growth and proliferation). Liver hyperplasia (i.e., de novo growth and proliferation) is an alternate form of growth, caused by drugs that activate the nuclear receptor, CAR. As in regeneration, the Gadd45b−/− genotype considerably slows growth during hyperplasia. However, there is no injury and the slowing occurs because Gadd45β normally binds to CAR and activates its transcriptional stimulation. Thus, Gadd45β protects the liver through two entirely different processes: binding MKK7 to block damaging signal transduction or binding CAR to coactivate anabolic transcription.
A global lightning parameterization based on statistical relationships among environmental factors, aerosols, and convective clouds in the TRMM climatology

The objective of this study is to determine the relative contributions of normalized CAPE (NCAPE), cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations, warm cloud depth (WCD), vertical wind shear (SHEAR), and environmental relative humidity (RH) to the variability of lightning and radar reflectivity within convective features (CFs) observed by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Our approach incorporates multi-dimensional binned representations of observations of CFs and modeled thermodynamics, kinematics, and CCN as inputs to develop approximations for total lightning density (TLD) and the average height of 30 dBZ radar reflectivity (AVGHT30). The results suggest that TLD and AVGHT30 increase with increasing NCAPE, increasing CCN, decreasing WCD, increasing SHEAR, and decreasing RH. Multiple-linear approximations for lightning and radar quantities using the aforementioned predictors account for significant portions of the variance in the binned dataset (R2 ≈ 0.69-0.81). The standardized weights attributed to CCN, NCAPE, and WCD are largest, the standardized weight of RH varies relative to other predictors, while the standardized weight for SHEAR is comparatively small. We investigate these statistical relationships for collections of CFs within various geographic areas and compare the aerosol (CCN) and thermodynamic (NCAPE and WCD) contributions to variations in the CF population in a partial sensitivity analysis based on multiple-linear regression approximations computed herein. A global lightning parameterization is developed; the average difference between predicted and observed TLD decreases from +21.6 to +11.6% when using a hybrid approach to combine separate approximations over continents and oceans, thus highlighting the need for regionally targeted investigations in the future.
Giving BT a competitive edge through technical consultancy

The Technical Facilities unit provides a consultancy service to major BT programmes and projects, ensuring that risk management, service integrity and whole life costing are incorporated into business plans and proposals. This paper describes some recent examples of how services provided by this unit have been used to deliver major projects and to help with business contracts.
Flow Regimes in a One-Dimensional Model of a Standpipe

A vertical standpipe fed by a conical mass flow hopper and controlled by an orifice at its lower end is analyzed using appropriate one-dimensional forms of the equations of continuity and momentum balance. It is shown that the flow rate can be predicted as a function of the pressure rise and the control orifice size, and a complete map of flow regimes can be constructed. The effect of injecting aeration gas just above the control orifice is examined.
Murine model of oropharyngeal gastric fluid aspiration-A new assessment method for intrapulmonary liquid distribution using digital pixel calculation.

Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to investigate a new method for visualization and quantification of intrapulmonary liquid distribution after oropharyngeal gastric fluid aspiration in mi...
Interrogating Thompsonâ€™s Community Approach to Oral History with Special Reference to Selected Oral History Programmes in Zimbabwe

Â Thompson (1998, 27) argued that â€œthere have been telling criticisms of a relationship with informers in which a middle-class professional determines who is to be interviewed and what is to be discussed and then disappears with a tape of somebodyâ€™s life which they never hear about againâ€”and if they did, might be indignant at the unintended meanings imposed on their words.â€ This is one of the criticisms that have been levelled at conventional oral history methodologies, especially those used by national institutions such as National Archives of Zimbabwe. It is Thompsonâ€™s argument that with the use of a â€œcommunity approachâ€ methodology, communities are empowered and then have confidence in writing their history which will be accessible to the public. This article will therefore interrogate Thompsonâ€™s concept using case studies of the Mafela Trust, the Tso-ro-tso San Development Trust and the National Archives of Zimbabwe to understand the positives and negatives of the community approach to oral history. The Mafela Trust is a private archival institution which deals with the memory of the Zimbabwe African Peopleâ€™s Union (ZAPU) whilst the Tso-ro-tso San Development Trust deals with the San Community of Zimbabwe. These institutions have used oral history as a tool to collect their oral testimonies; therefore this article will use oral history testimonies, some of which are archived, as its source of data. Document analysis will also be doneÂ
Transformation, Conjugation, and Sequestration Following the Uptake of Triclocarban by Jalapeno Pepper Plants.

Plant uptake and metabolism of emerging organic contaminants, such as personal-care products, pose potential risks to human health. In this study, jalapeno pepper (Capsicum annuum) plants cultured in hydroponic media were exposed to both 14C-labeled and unlabeled triclocarban (TCC) to investigate the accumulation, distribution, and metabolism of TCC following plant uptake. The results revealed that TCC was detected in all plant tissues; after 12 weeks, the TCC concentrations in root, stem, leaf, and fruit tissues were 19.74 ± 2.26, 0.26 ± 0.04, 0.11 ± 0.01, and 0.03 ± 0.01 mg/kg dry weight, respectively. More importantly, a substantial portion of the TCC taken up by plants was metabolized, especially in the stems, leaves, and fruits. Hydroxylated TCC (e.g., 2′-OH TCC and 6-OH TCC) and glycosylated OH-TCC were the main phase I and phase II metabolites in plant tissues, respectively. Bound (or nonextractable) residues of TCC accounted for approximately 44.6, 85.6, 69.0, and 47.5% of all TCC species that acc...
Behavioral Modification of Planarians

In 1955, Thompson and McConnell described an experiment in which flatworms were reported to be classically conditioned. Further studies on regeneration, initiated by McConnell, Jacobson and Kimble (1959), and the role of RNA on the retention of conditioned responses in regenerated planarians (e.g., Corning and John, 1961) have led to a great deal of research on a number of controversial issues. One of these is whether or not planarians are capable of being conditioned; whether they really learn or are instead demonstrating habituation, sensitization, pseudoconditioning, or something else, owing to improper control of experimental variables. A second question, assuming that planarians can be conditioned, is whether or not retention of the learned response survives regeneration. A third question is whether or not RNA is the means by which retention of the learned response survives regeneration. The present paper is concerned primarily with the first question, although some reference will be made to the other two.
Further comments on K0(K0) → 2γ

Abstract We comment on the recent experimental measurements: Γ K s →2γ) Γ (K L →2γ) = 2.4±1.1 and Br[( (K L →2γ) (K L →all) ] = (6.05±0.04±0.08)×10 −4 . They confirm earlier theoretical calculations that Ks→2γ is dominated by 2π intermediate states. It also opens the existing possibility of future observations of new decay-amplitude CP noninvariance in KL→2γ via tagged K0, K 0 →2γ decays.
Mononeuropathy due to Entrapment of Dorsal Cutaneous Peroneal Nerve: Clinical, Electrophysiological, and Imaging Findings

Peroneal neuropathy is the most common mononeuropathy encountered in the lower extremities. Isolated injuries to the dorsal cutaneous peroneal nerve (DCPN) are uncommon, and most of the reported cases are due to trauma or iatrogenic causes. We report a case of a middle-aged woman who presented with a nine-month history of tingling sensation over the dorsum of her left foot with normal electromyography (EMG) findings and was subsequently diagnosed with entrapment of the DCPN at the ankle by ultrasonographic examination.
Therapeutic hypothermia in Post - cardiac arrest : It is time to revisit the guidelines.

Background: Targeted Temperature Management (TTM), previously known as therapeutic hypothermia is an important tool for prevention and reversal of neurological injury and mortality reduction. Over the recent period, the use of induced hypothermia has raised many questions and recent large, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have failed to demonstrate the benefit of TTM on clinical outcomes. The objective of this article was to compare different studies on neurological outcomes after use of TTM in different clinical situations, different temperatures and rates of cooling. Methods: We incorporated studies from 1950s to recent years using search engines like PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar. Results: Initial two small, unblinded trials have demonstrated improved neurological outcome in out of hospital shockable cardiac arrest. Recent studies showed that TTM was not associated with higher rates of survival or favorable neurological outcome in patients with IHCA and was rather associated with potential harm, lower likelihood of survival after discharge and long term neurological survival. TTM also didn’t show any favorable results in non-shockable cardiac arrests. Hypothermia of 36 ° C did not confer much benefit over 32 ° C -34 ° C. Conclusion: Recent large studies didn’t show no strong evidence that TTM is highly effective. Further methodologically robust studies are required in both shockable and non-shockable cardiac arrest for TTM to have any effect on neurological outcome. Bangladesh Crit Care J September 2018; 6(2): 84-87
10 Years of ITL & Looking Towards the Future

BRIEF SESSION DESCRIPTION: Faculty from across Mason lead what is sure to be a lively discussion on the past, present, and future of the conference. What's your most vivid ITL memory? How has ITL sparked lasting changes, over the years, in your teaching and in the communities of teachers you interact with at Mason? How would you like to see the conference evolve in the next 10 years? Whether you've been with us for the start or you're just joining us for the first time, please come to hear the panelists' reflections and share your own stories and suggestions! Panelists (in alphabetical order): Douglas Eyman ( College of Human and Social Sciences-English ) Jonathan Goldman ( Volgenau School of Engineering-Comupting Resources ) Raluca Romaniuc ( College of Human and Social Sciences-Modern and Classical Languages) Paige P. Wolf ( School of Business-Management ) ______________________________________________________________ FULL ABSTRACT: Faculty from across Mason lead what is sure to be a lively discussion on the past, present, and future of the conference. What's your most vivid ITL memory? How has ITL sparked lasting changes, over the years, in your teaching and in the communities of teachers you interact with at Mason? How would you like to see the conference evolve in the next 10 years? Whether you've been with us for the start or you're just joining us for the first time, please come to hear the panelists' reflections and share your own stories and suggestions! Panelists (in alphabetical order): Douglas Eyman ( College of Human and Social Sciences-English ) Jonathan Goldman ( Volgenau School of Engineering-Comupting Resources ) Raluca Romaniuc ( College of Human and Social Sciences-Modern and Classical Languages) Paige P. Wolf ( School of Business-Management )
Upper-extremity function prospectively predicts adverse discharge and all-cause COPD readmissions: a pilot study.

Background Frailty can inform management approaches for individuals with COPD. However, inpatient measures of frailty are seldom employed because they are time-consuming or inapplicable for bed-bound patients. We investigated the feasibility and potential of an innovative sensor-based upper-extremity function (UEF) test for frailty assessment in predicting adverse outcomes. Methods Hospitalized patients with COPD-related exacerbations (aged ≥55 years) were recruited and performed the UEF test within 24 hours of admission. UEF parameters were obtained and fed into our previously developed frailty model to calculate frailty status (non-frail, pre-frail, and frail) and frailty score (0: extreme resilience to 1: extreme frailty). In-hospital (length of stay) and post-discharge (discharge disposition, 30-day exacerbation with treatment, and all-cause 30-day readmission) outcomes were collected. Associations between UEF frailty and outcomes were investigated using ANOVA and logistic models adjusted for demographic data. Results In total, 42 patients were recruited. All participants were able to perform the UEF test. Based on UEF, participants were stratified into three groups of non-frail (n=6, frailty score =0.18±0.09), pre-frail (n=14, frailty score =0.45±0.09), and frail (n=22, frailty score =0.78±0.11). Both frailty status and frailty score were significantly associated with unfavorable discharge disposition (P 0.5) nor 30-day exacerbation with treatment (P>0.70). Age was only significantly associated with unfavorable discharge disposition (P=0.048). Conclusion In agreement with previous work, the current findings underline the importance of measuring frailty for risk-stratification of COPD patients. The UEF was feasible and easily performed among all hospitalized COPD patients. In this study, we have shown that, using our quick and objective frailty measures, COPD patients can be prospectively risk-stratified in terms of unfavorable discharge disposition and all-cause 30-day readmissions.
Optical properties of reflective liquid crystal polarization volume gratings

Polarization volume gratings are self-organized liquid crystal helical structures. They exhibit high diffraction efficiency and unique polarization selectivity. In this work, we investigate and compare two different configurations of polarization volume gratings: planar and slanted structures. We present the optical properties of polarization volume gratings with emphasis on their polarizing nature. Further experimental results reveal the existence of the slanted configuration.
The Political Ecology of Landscape Change, Malaria, and Cumulative Vulnerability in Central Ghana’s Gold Mining Country

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, small-scale gold mining operations proliferated worldwide. Along Ghana’s Offin River, the landscape has been radically transformed by mining, including d...
Does morning affect contribute to daily Cannabis use

Several theories posit that cannabis and other substances are used to reduce negative affect. This daily report study considered whether variations in positive and negative affect, reported each morning, contributed to the likelihood of cannabis use later that day. We also explored whether levels of positive and negative affect reported immediately after cannabis use improved, relative to that day's morning levels. The sample included 183 men and 183 women representing heterosexual, cannabis-using couples from the community. Participants made independent, daily reports of affect and cannabis use episodes for 30 consecutive days. Using multilevel modeling, we modeled men's and women's use of cannabis on a given day as a function of morning levels of positive, hostile, and anxious affect, accounting for partner cannabis use that day, and mean levels of positive and negative affect. Men and women were more likely to use cannabis on a given day when morning positive affect was lower than typical for the person and when partner used cannabis that day. Neither hostile nor anxious affect contributed to later use of cannabis. Immediately after cannabis use, positive affect increased, and hostile and anxious affect decreased relative to that day's morning levels. The improved affect immediately after use suggests a mechanism of positive reinforcement.
Energy Consumption Analysis of a Duty Cycle Wireless Sensor Network Model

A novel model is developed and investigated for a duty-cycle wireless sensor network (WSN), where each sensor node can stay at one of four statuses (i.e., full-active phase, two semi-active phases each with different functions, and a sleep phase) to make the system more efficient. The explicit result of the joint probability for data packet numbers and the sensor phases is achieved by suitably constructing a multi-dimensional Markov process. Furthermore, various energy consumption measures, such as energy consumption per unit time in each of the three energy consumptions and energy consumption switching from one phase to another, are obtained. System performance measures, such as the average delay time of a data packet in the system, throughput of the system, and the probability of the sensor node staying at any of the phases, are also achieved. The numerical analyses are provided to validate the model and the analytic results. The proposed model and the analysis method are expected to be applied to the design and analysis of WSN models with various phases of the sensor.
Optimal Sparse Linear Prediction for Block-missing Multi-modality Data Without Imputation

AbstractIn modern scientific research, data are often collected from multiple modalities. Since different modalities could provide complementary information, statistical prediction methods using mu...
Potential effect of suboptimal racial and ethnic categorization on benefits of precision medicine

Pharmacogenetics studies have sought to use race and ethnicity as categorical variables to stratify patients; however, the specificity of racial categories used varies across different papers. We examined the diversity of racial and ethnic categories used to describe populations classified as ‘White/Caucasian’ according to National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines. Seventy total pharmacogenetics papers involving the CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6 pharmacogenes were examined and the race and ethnic categorization data for each paper was extracted. In total, we found 66 unique racial and ethnic categories used to classify ‘Caucasian/White’ populations. We then compared the CYP450 allele frequency data for these racial and ethnic categories as described in the papers to the global allele frequency for ‘Caucasian’ populations as compiled by the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium. In this analysis, we found several racial and ethnic groups whose pharmacogene allele frequencies differed from the allele frequency for ‘Caucasians’ as accepted in the literature. Overall, we found that racial and ethnic classification varies greatly between different papers and that the broad categorization of these populations as ‘White/Caucasian’ may not accurately capture the genetic heterogeneity between these populations.