cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Distributed algorithms for lifetime of wireless sensor networks based on dependencies among cover sets

We present a new set of distributed algorithms for scheduling sensors to enhance the total lifetime of a wireless sensor network. These algorithms are based on constructing minimal cover sets each consisting of one or more sensors which can collectively cover the local targets. Some of the covers are heuristically better than others for a sensor trying to decide its own sense-sleep status. This leads to various ways to assign priorities to the covers. The algorithms work by having each sensor transition through these possible prioritized cover sets, settling for the best cover it can negotiate with its neighbors. A local lifetime dependency graph consisting of the cover sets as nodes with any two nodes connected if the corresponding covers intersect captures the interdependencies among the covers. We present several variations of the basic algorithmic framework. The priority function of a cover is derived from its degree or connectedness in the dependency graph - usually lower the better. Lifetime improvement is 10% to 20% over the existing algorithms, while maintaining comparable communication overheads. We also show how previous algorithms can be formulated within our framework.
Stability of hybrid systems: state of the art

This paper collects work on the stability analysis of hybrid systems. The hybrid systems considered are those that combine continuous dynamics (represented by differential or difference equations) with finite dynamics, usually thought of as being a finite automaton. We review multiple Lyapunov functions as a tool for analyzing Lyapunov stability of general hybrid systems. Background results, the author's introductory work, and subsequent extensions are covered. Specializing to hybrid systems with linear dynamics in each constituent mode and linear jump operators, we review some key theorems of Barabanov-Staroshilov (1988), and give corollaries encompassing several recently-derived "stability by first approximation" theorems in the literature. We also comment on the use of computational tests for stability of hybrid systems, and the general complexity. The result is a tutorial on the state of the art in theory and computation of hybrid systems stability.
Intensity fluctuation spectroscopy and transfer RNA conformation. III. Influence of NaCl concentration on the size and shape of the initially salt-free tRNA in solution.

The influence of sodium ion concentration in solution on the initially salt-free conformation of bulk tRNA from baker's yeast has been investigated by means of photon correlation spectroscopy. From the measured values of translational (DT) and rotational (DR) diffusion coefficients, the semiaxes of an ellipsoid of revolution, which are hydrodynamically equivalent to the tRNA molecule, were calculated for tRNA solutions in pure H2O as well as in 0.005, 0.1, 0.5M NaCl and 0.01M MgCl2 solutions at pH 4.2 and 7.5. These data, combined with our previous studies, suggested a model which describes the formation of an ordered tRNA structure due to increasing NaCl concentrations. Furthermore, we have obtained information concerning intermolecular interactions between tRNA molecules in solution. In low-salt or salt-free tRNA solutions, we detected in the linewidth distribution function an extra-fast component which can be attributed as possibly due to charge fluctuations related to the reaction of ionization of organic bases. In our light-scattering linewidth measurements, we do not see fluctuations of charged and uncharged states directly as concentration fluctuations. Rather, we postulate a modulation of long-range intermolecular electrostatic interactions between the tRNA molecules due to such charge fluctuations. It is this modulation which is related to the fast component of the time correlation function at finite concentrations. A quantitative theory is needed to provide a more definitive explanation of the dynamical behavior of tRNA in salt-free or low-salt solutions.
Continuous path planning with multiple constraints

We examine the problem of planning a path through a low dimensional continuous state space subject to upper bounds on several additive cost metrics. For the single cost case, previously published research has proposed constructing the paths by gradient descent on a local minima free value function. This value function is the solution of the Eikonal partial differential equation, and efficient algorithms have been designed to compute it. In this paper we propose an auxiliary partial differential equation with which we can evaluate multiple additive cost metrics for paths which are generated by value functions; solving this auxiliary equation adds little more work to the value function computation. We then propose an algorithm which generates paths whose costs lie on the Pareto optimal surface for each possible destination location, and we can choose from these paths those which satisfy the constraints. The procedure is practical when the sum of the state space dimension and number of cost metrics is roughly six or below.
Clinicians' ,Knowledge, Attitudes, and Concerns Regarding . Bioterrorism After a Brief Educational Program

We conducted this study to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviors of New York City clinicians regarding bioterrorism­ related diseases after a brief educational program. Data on clinicians' knowledge and attitudes toward bioterrorism and related diseases were collected using a self-administered questionnaire following a 3.5~hour educational program. Participants (n = 310, 82% response rate) reported increased confidence in recognizing symptoms of bioterrorism­ .related .diseases (89%), in addressing patients' bioterrorism concerns (83%), and ability to treatbioterrorism victims (75%). Despite a high level of confidence in the efficacy of infection control precautions, participants' knowledge scores regarding safe work practices suggest that . additional education is warranted. Educational programs are useful in enhancing the public health response to bioterrorism and its conse­ quences. (J Occup Environ Med. 2004;46: 77-83)
Space for God: Lived Religion at Work, Home, and Play

Despite modernity's attempt to structure religion out of many social domains, people still make space for God—the sacred, spirituality, religion, transcendence, etc.—in their everyday lives. Religion may be less apparent at times, but it is not altogether absent and continues to show up beyond its taken-for-granted boundaries. Drawing from photo elicitation interview materials generated by the Spiritual Narratives in Everyday Life project, 1 explore the ways in which religion and spirituality intersect with the domains of home, work, and leisure. At first blush, photos of homes, bedrooms, offices, beaches, pets, and gardens do not appear to be enchanted. But when one looks to the stories behind the photos, it becomes evident that the meanings these narratives convey and actions they evoke push back against the social structure as individuals leverage contextual features of everyday life to construct space for God.
Intravascular large B cell lymphoma presenting in a liver explant.

A 51-year-old man with end stage liver disease secondary to hepatitis C underwent liver transplantation. The explanted liver showed cirrhosis and hepatitis. Additionally, the small hilar vessels were filled with large atypical lymphocytes with scant cytoplasm, irregular nuclei, dispersed chromatin and prominent nucleoli (fig 1). The neoplastic cells expressed CD45, CD20, PAX-5 and MUM1 without CD5, CD10 or BCL-6 by immunohistochemistry. A diagnosis of intravascular large B cell lymphoma (IVLBCL) was made. Figure 1 (A, B) H&E stained sections of the liver hilum at low (150×) and high (945×) power. (C) CD20 stain. Staging studies (body CT scan, bone marrow biopsy, peripheral blood flow cytometry, skin survey, and brain MRI) were negative. The patient was asymptomatic and initially followed by observation. A PET scan …
Sex and Hormonal Status Modulate the Effects of Psyllium on Plasma Lipids and Monocyte Gene Expression in Humans

Psyllium (PSY) intake decreases plasma LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) in men and pre- and post-menopausal women while PSY effects on plasma triglycerides (TG) are sex related. A significant decrease in plasma TG was observed in men while postmenopausal women experienced an increase in plasma TG concentrations following PSY supplementation. To further explore the mechanisms by which sex and hormonal status influence the effects of PSY on plasma lipids, HMG-CoA reductase, LDL receptor and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) mRNA abundance were measured in mononuclear cells isolated from these subjects. The intervention followed a randomized crossover design in which participants were allocated to either 15 or 0 g (control) of PSY/d for 30 d. Compared to the control period, PSY intake induced a 20% increase in HMG-CoA reductase mRNA abundance (P < 0.05) while no significant changes in LDL receptor mRNA abundance were observed. In contrast, LPL mRNA abundance was 24% higher in men and 23% lower in postmenopausal women (P < 0.05) when comparing PSY with the control period. These results suggest that the LDL-C lowering induced by PSY was related to changes in HMG-CoA reductase gene expression in monocytes while the expression of LPL in this system was affected by sex and hormonal status.
Self-recovering caddisfly silk: energy dissipating, Ca2+-dependent, double dynamic network fibers

Single fibers of the sticky underwater larval silk of the casemaker caddisfly (H. occidentalis) are viscoelastic, display large strain cycle hysteresis, and self-recover 99% of their initial stiffness and strength within 120 min. Mechanical response to cyclical strains suggested viscoelasticity is due to two independent, self-recovering Ca2+-crosslinked networks. The networks display distinct pH dependence. The first network is attributed to Ca2+-stabilized phosphoserine motifs in H-fibroin, the second to Ca2+ complexed carboxylate groups in the N-terminus of H-fibroin and a PEVK-like protein. These assignments were corroborated by IR spectroscopy. The results are consolidated into a multi-network model in which reversible rupture of the Ca2+-crosslinked domains at a critical stress results in pseudo-plastic deformation. Slow refolding of the domains results in nearly full recovery of fiber length, stiffness, and strength. The fiber toughening, energy dissipation, and recovery mechanisms, are highly adaptive for the high energy aquatic environment of caddisfly larvae.
On scheduling garbage collector in dynamic real-time systems with statistical timing assurances

We consider garbage collection (GC) in dynamic realtime systems. We consider the time-based GC approach of running the collector as a separate, concurrent thread, and focus on real-time scheduling to obtain assurances on mutator timing behavior, while ensuring that memory is never exhausted. We present a scheduling algorithm called GCUA. The algorithm considers mutator activities that are subject to time/utility function time constraints, variable execution time demands, the unimodal arbitrary arrival model that allows a strong adversary, and resource overloads. We establish several properties of GCUA including probabilistically-satisfied utility lower bounds for each mutator activity, a lower bound on the system-wide total accrued utility, bounded sensitivity for the assurances to variations in mutator execution time demand estimates, and no memory exhaustion at all times. Our simulation experiments validate our analytical results and confirm the algorithm's effectiveness and superiority.
Rationale and design: telephone-delivered behavioral skills interventions for African Americans with type 2 diabetes

African Americans with Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) have higher prevalence of diabetes, poorer metabolic control, and greater risk for complications and death compared to American Whites. Poor outcomes in African Americans with T2DM can be attributed to patient, provider, and health systems level factors. Provider and health system factors account for <10% of variance in major diabetes outcomes including hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), lipid control, and resource use. Key differences appear to be at the patient level. Of the patient level factors, consistent differences between African Americans and American Whites with T2DM have been found in diabetes knowledge, self-management skills, empowerment, and perceived control. A variety of interventions to improve diabetes self-management have been tested including: 1) knowledge interventions; 2) lifestyle interventions; 3) skills training interventions; and 4) patient activation and empowerment interventions. Most of these interventions have been tested individually, but rarely have they been tested in combination, especially among African Americans who have the greatest burden of diabetes related complications. This study provides a unique opportunity to address this gap in the literature. We describe an ongoing four-year randomized clinical trial, using a 2 × 2 factorial design, which will test the efficacy of separate and combined telephone-delivered, diabetes knowledge/information and motivation/behavioral skills training interventions in high risk African Americans with poorly controlled T2DM (HbA1c ≥ 9%). Two-hundred thirty-two (232) male and female African-American participants, 18 years of age or older and with an HbA1c ≥ 9%, will be randomized into one of four groups for 12-weeks of phone interventions: (1) an education group, (2) a motivation/skills group, (3) a combined group or (4) a usual care/general health education group. Participants will be followed for 12-months to ascertain the effect of the interventions on glycemic control. Our primary hypothesis is that among African Americans with poorly controlled T2DM, patients randomized to the combined diabetes knowledge/information and motivation/behavioral skills training intervention will have significantly greater reduction in HbA1c at 12 months of follow-up compared to the usual care/general health education group. Results from this study will provide important insight into how best to deliver diabetes education and skills training in ethnic minorities and whether combined knowledge/information and motivation/behavioral skills training is superior to the usual method of delivering diabetes education for African Americans with poorly controlled T2DM. National Institutes of Health Clinical Trials Registry (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier# NCT00929838).
UNEXPECTED RESPONSE TO VITAMIN B12 OF DOMINANT CENTRIC DIATOMS FROM THE SPRING BLOOM IN THE GULF OF MAINE (NORTHEAST ATLANTIC OCEAN)1,2

Twelve clones (seven species) representative of centric diatoms dominant in the spring phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Maine were isolated and rendered axenic. Genera included were Thalassiosira, Porosira and Chaetoceros. Unlike most centric diatoms studied previously, none of these has an absolute requirement for vitamin B12. However, B12 (5 ng.l-1) stimulated growth of most clones by eliminating or reducing the lag phase and increasing the growth rate. Bloom population densities developed 4–54 days earlier with B12 present. Several clones grown with B12 removed more than 80% of the vitamin from the medium. When grown in vitamin-free medium the cells put 0.01–0.7 ng.l-1 B12 into the medium. We conclude that vitamin B12 is of ecological significance even though the requirement for it is not absolute.
Effect of material and geometry parameters on the thermo-mechanical reliability of flip-chip assemblies

Detailed models have been created to understand the effect of material and geometry parameters on die stresses and solder bump strains in flip-chip assemblies. The following parameters were considered: substrate thickness, die thickness, stand-off height, interconnect pitch, underfill CTE, underfill stiffness, solder mask stiffness and solder mask CTE. The stresses at the back of the die have been reported. Lifetime predictions for the solder bumps based on Coffin-Manson relations are also given.
Storing continuous media objects using parallelism with merging

Many new applications are being developed that capitalize on recent advances in multimedia systems. Such systems provide users with access to images, video clips, and audio samples as well as traditional text. A major challenge is to store the data for continuous media such as video and audio in such a way as to guarantee delay-free user input and output. We propose a hybrid solution to this challenge which combines the use of I/O parallelism with merging techniques for continuous media. These parallelism with merging (PWM) techniques outperformed techniques based solely on parallelism in simulation experiments.
Rover reconfiguration for body-mounted coring with slip

Active and passive approaches to accommodating moderate rover slip during coring, using a body mounted coring tool were studied. The work addresses the possibility of a 200kg rover experiencing moderate slip such as 1cm/minute while coring on a Martian slope using a body-mounted coring tool in a possible future Mars Sample Return mission. Rover slip while coring could be accommodated with passive compliance or active rover reconfiguration. A passive compliance device was designed that constrains the compliant motion of the tool relative to the rover to a plane with travel of approximately 1.5cm. Active reconfiguration relies upon wheel motion and a transverse linear stage to provide actuation of the coring tool position in the nominal wheel plane. The rover actively reconfigures utilizing six axis force feedback of the forces and torques on the coring tool. Rover slip is measured using Absolute Motion Visual Odometry (AMVO). Rover reconfiguration is demonstrated while coring on a slope with slip. However, the implemented body mounted coring tool approach is fundamentally limited: First, no out-ofplane actuation is considered, negating the possibility of rover roll and pitch compensation. Second, wheel-ground interaction could cause unintended system responses when wheel motion occurs, including motion in the uncontrollable roll and pitch degrees-of-freedom.
The Hip-Hop Generation Can Call For Peace ©

As we mourned the countless victims of 9/11 and built with each other in passionate conversations on what to do next, President George W. Bush finally and unequivocally declared war.He ordered a call-up of 50,000 reservists—the first step towards reinstituting the draft—while preparing Americans for a long, ground war that could leave many innocent Afghanis dead or displaced. He warned that there may be no foreseeable end to this war. This does not bode well for the Hip-Hop Generation. As STORM, the Bay Area hip-hop activist organization, says, "Increasingly, safety at home will require justice abroad." Bush's open-ended war could leave us increasingly insecure, subject to more terror not less, with less justice for all in the world.Because of its history, the global hip-hop generation can play a crucial moral role in the call for peace—peace on the streets where we live, and a global peace free from terror.
Endopyelotomy: comparison of ureteroscopic retrograde and antegrade percutaneous techniques.

AbstractTo date 2 approaches have been developed for performing endopyelotomy, that is the antegrade and retrograde approaches. Experience with antegrade transnephrostomy endopyelotomy is quite large and the results have been excellent. However, the need for percutaneous nephrostomy and prolonged hospitalization have been 2 drawbacks to this approach. In contrast, experience with retrograde transureteral endopyelotomy is scant. However, a ureteroscopic approach is attractive from the standpoint of eliminating the need for a large nephrostomy tube and because of the possibility of performing this procedure on an outpatient basis or during a short hospital stay. We report our experience with antegrade and retrograde endopyelotomy in 41 patients. The hospital stay (3.4 versus 4.0 days), nephrostomy tube size (8F to 10F versus 20F to 22F) and nephrostomy tube duration (2.9 versus 3.8 days) were all less with the retrograde approach. The initial success rate was similar between the 2 methods: 79% (retrograde) ...
Matching alignment

The ergodic interference alignment scheme allows each user in a K-user interference channel to attain half its interference-free rate at any signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, this comes at the cost of extraordinarily long delays, since each channel matrix must be paired with a complementary matrix that can cancel out its off-diagonal terms. In this paper, we investigate the opposite approach. Rather than waiting for perfect matches, we simply try to pair together the available channel matrices to attain the highest possible sum rate. We show that this problem is closely connected to the problem of maximum weight matching, which allows us to efficiently evaluate the numerical performance of our scheme.
Assortativity coefficient-based estimation of population patterns of sexual mixing when cluster size is informative

Objectives Population sexual mixing patterns can be quantified using Newman9s assortativity coefficient (r). Suggested methods for estimating the SE for r may lead to inappropriate statistical conclusions in situations where intracluster correlation is ignored and/or when cluster size is predictive of the response. We describe a computer-intensive, but highly accessible, within-cluster resampling approach for providing a valid large-sample estimated SE for r and an associated 95% CI. Methods We introduce needed statistical notation and describe the within-cluster resampling approach. Sexual network data and a simulation study were employed to compare within-cluster resampling with standard methods when cluster size is informative. Results For the analysis of network data when cluster size is informative, the simulation study demonstrates that within-cluster resampling produces valid statistical inferences about Newman9s assortativity coefficient, a popular statistic used to quantify the strength of mixing patterns. In contrast, commonly used methods are biased with attendant extremely poor CI coverage. Within-cluster resampling is recommended when cluster size is informative and/or when there is within-cluster response correlation. Conclusions Within-cluster resampling is recommended for providing valid statistical inferences when applying Newman9s assortativity coefficient r to network data.
Electroplasticity—the effect of electricity on the mechanical properties of metals

Investigations of the effects of an electric current on dislocation mobility and mechanical properties at low homologous temperatures (T < 0.5Tm) reveal a polarity effect and yield an electron wind force in some agreement with theory. An external directcurrent electric field has been reported to influence the creep rate of unalloyed metals at high homologous temperatures. During superplastic deformation of the 7475 Al alloy, such a field has been found to decrease the flow stress, reduce strain hardening, increase strain-rate hardening, reduce grain boundary cavitation and reduce grain growth. The effects of the field were polarity dependent and extended to the center of 1–2 mm thick specimens. No significant effect of the field on the flow stress occurred at low homologous temperatures. This suggests that the field influences atomic mobility through vacancy generation and/or migration. The occurrence of an uneven electron density at the interfaces between phases and at grain boundaries has been proposed as a factor, but this idea needs further consideration.
The New Retroactivity Doctrine: Equality, Reliance and Stare Decisis

When the Supreme Court announces a new rule of law, whether constitutionally or statutorily based, it not infrequently must deal with the question of whether that new rule will apply to conduct or events which occurred prior to its announcement. This is particularly an issue when the "new rule" overturns an "old rule" upon which the parties may have relied. When the Court decides that the new rule shall not apply to conduct or events which preceded its announcement, including those of the parties before the Court in the case which announces the new rule, the Court is said to engage in "pure prospectivity" or to have announced a "purely prospective rule." When the Court applies the announced rule to those before it as well as all those whose cases are still viable, it is said to have applied the rule "retroactively." Most problematic, both for theorists and the courts, is the situation in which the court applies the new rule to the parties before it in the case which announces the rule, but declines to apply it to those similarly situated whose cases are still in the pipeline. In the decade preceding this article, the Supreme Court completely revised its retroactivity doctrine, abandoning the analysis adopted by the Warren Court thirty years before. This new retroactivity doctrine did not come easily to the Court. A series of decisions written by a fragmented Court clearly rejected the theoretical underpinnings of the former approach without formulating a clear theoretical basis for the new approach. This is especially true in the civil area which had, since the 1960's, seemed to follow the lead of the criminal cases, first out of step on nonretroactivity, then brought into line, then out of step again as the Court reversed direction in the criminal area, and finally reconciled again. It is this attempted reconciliation upon which this article focuses. The somewhat tortured history of retroactivity will be considered, with emphasis on the cases of the preceding ten years, illustrating fragmentation of the doctrine and the political and judicial forces contributing to reformulation. Those cases are evaluated against the policies which underlie the doctrine: finality, fairness, reliance and stare decisis. The Article also considers any limitations imposed by Article III of the Constitution and finally, proposes an analysis of retroactivity, grounded in those policies and limitations, that has both descriptive and predictive value.
Application of Thermogravimetry to the Study of Thermal Decomposition Kinetics of Cefalexin and its Stability

Thermogravimetry was used to study the non isothermal decomposition kinetics and the difference of stability between cefalexin and its excipients. The product of thermal decomposition at the second stage was characterized by infrared spectrometry. The kinetic equation for the second step can be expressed as: dα/d t = A e - E α RT (1-α) 3, which corresponding to the mechanism of “the third order chemical reation”. The mathematic expression of the kinetic compensation effect is found to be: ln A =0.2542 E a-5.2905. The results also indicated that cefalexin has a high activation energy, and a good stability; and its excipients have higher activation energy.
Women with Cirrhosis Prevalence, Natural History, and Management

Cirrhosis is less frequent in women than in men, in large part due to the lower prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and alcohol use in women. The most common causes of cirrhosis among women are hepatitis C, autoimmune etiologies, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and alcoholic liver disease. For most chronic liver diseases, the risk of progression to cirrhosis and rates of liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma are lower in women than in men. Pregnancy is very infrequent in women with cirrhosis due to reduced fertility, but when it occurs, requires specialized management.
A Comparison of Prenotification Techniques in a Mail Survey of the Elderly

What type of prenotification technique is most effective in encouraging elderly consumers to respond to a mail survey? This article examines the relative effectiveness of a simple prenotification communication and one involving a “foot-in-the-door” manipulation. The response rates did not differ by a statistically significant margin for these two types of prenotification. Consequently, cost and ethical considerations suggest that the simple prenotification technique may be the preferred approach in researching the elderly.
Improved discrimination of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia by means of the quotient of free and total PSA.

The value of t-PSA (total prostate specific antigen) and of the quotient of free and t-PSA (% f-PSA) for the discrimination of BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) and PC (prostate cancer) as well as possible influencing factors were subject to examination under study conditions.
Dependency Graph Analysis and Moving Target Defense Selection

Moving target defense (MTD) is an emerging paradigm in which system defenses dynamically mutate in order to decrease the overall system attack surface. Though the concept is promising, implementations have not been widely adopted. The field has been actively researched for over ten years, and has only produced a small amount of extensively adopted defenses, most notably, address space layout randomization (ASLR). This is despite the fact that there currently exist a variety of moving target implementations and proofs-of-concept. We suspect that this results from the moving target controls breaking critical system dependencies from the perspectives of users and administrators, as well as making things more difficult for attackers. As a result, the impact of the controls on overall system security is not sufficient to overcome the inconvenience imposed on legitimate system users. In this paper, we analyze a successful MTD approach. We study the control's dependency graphs, showing how we use graph theoretic and network properties to predict the effectiveness of the selected control.
Nuclear nonproliferation measurements performed on mixed-oxide fuel pins at the Idaho National Laboratory

New results are presented on the passive measurement of mixed-oxide fuel pin assemblies. A fast and robust methodology for the characterization of mixed-oxide fuel pins is discussed. Four EJ-309 liquid scintillation detectors coupled with an accurate pulse timing and digital, offline, optimized pulse-shape discrimination method were used. Measurement analysis including pulse-height distributions and time-dependent cross-correlation functions were performed. The use of Monte Carlo particle transport codes, specifically MCNP-PoliMi, is discussed in conjunction with the anticipated measurements.
Arthroscopic Evaluation of the Unstable Shoulder

The increasing use of shoulder arthroscopy in the early 1980s has contributed significantly to the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of shoulder instability. Shoulder instability is recognized as a spectrum, spanning from occult subluxation to frank dislocation. Arthroscopy assumes a more significant diagnostic role in the case of subtle shoulder instability. A description of the authors' preferred method of examination under anesthesia is included. The arthroscopic findings associated with shoulder instability are described, together with a brief review of the structures important for shoulder stability. Descriptions of normal arthroscopic shoulder anatomy and some of the more common normal variants also are discussed.
Transoral Robotic Surgery for Base of Tongue Cancer

Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) serves as an innovative minimally invasive approach to resecting tumors of the upper aerodigestive tract, particularly those involving the oropharynx. Tumors involving the tongue base are often amenable to TORS and may be removed en bloc to achieve an oncologically sound resection. This chapter will review a standardized and repeatable technique to safely and reliably resect tumors involving the tongue base and lingual tonsillar tissue.
Overview of Case in Russian

Russian is a language with relatively free word order. Grammatical functions, such as subject and object, are identified by case marking, rather than by position. Thus, for example, in the following sentence1 (1) Книгу он читaл. Knigu on cital book[ACC] he[NOM] read He read (a/the) book. the two NPs may occur in either order in many different syntactic positions; the object is marked with Accusative and the subject with Nominative case. Particular morphological realizations of the Nominative, Accusative, or any other case, differ from one declension class to another.
Weak three-dimensional mediators of two-dimensional triplet pairing

Recent experiments demonstrate the ability to construct cold-atom mixtures with species-selective optical lattices. This allows for the possibility of a mixed-dimension system, where one fermionic atomic species is confined to a two-dimensional lattice, while another species is confined to a three-dimensional lattice that contains the two-dimensional one. We show that by tuning the density of an arbitrary number of three-dimensional atomic species, we can engineer an arbitrary, rotationally symmetric, density-density, effective interaction for the two-dimensional particles. This possibility allows for an effective interaction that favors triplet pairing for two-dimensional, $\text{SU}(2)$ symmetric particles. Using a functional renormalization-group analysis for the two-dimensional particles, we derive and numerically confirm that the critical temperature for triplet pairing depends exponentially on the effective interaction strength. We then analyze how the stability of this phase is affected by the particle densities and the fine tuning of interaction parameters. We conclude by briefly discussing experimental considerations and the potential to study triplet-pairing physics, including Majorana fermions and spin textures, with cold atoms on optical lattices.
Novel Interventions and Assessments Using Patient Portals in Adolescent Research: Confidential Survey Study

Background: While adolescents can receive confidential health care without parental or guardian notification, they are rarely asked about their experiences and opinions regarding their care because participation in research often requires parental consent. Anonymous research with adolescents via confidential patient portals may ameliorate this research gap. Objective: Because use of a confidential online adolescent patient portal is high at our academic institution, we hypothesized that adolescents would also respond to survey-based research via the portal, especially if asked anonymously and without parental consent. We used a clinical scenario of needing to better understanding adolescent and young adults’ views about their health and health care, including information on a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) to test if and how they will use a portal for research. Methods: Upon receiving Institutional Review Board approval, we sent 2 portal-based surveys about confidential services to 2 groups of females, ages 14 to 25 years, who had attended an adolescent clinic in the past 3 years. This clinic mostly serves Medicaid recipients (80%) and is racially and ethnically diverse with half of patients identifying as African American and roughly 10% Hispanic. The control group was a random sample of female patients who never received a LARC (n=150) and the intervention group included all female adolescents who had received a LARC from the same clinic (n=107). This second sample was manually cross-checked to confirm they had an office visit for this reason. Consenting for themselves, the control group received an email through the patient portal with a link and a request to perform an assessment. The survey for the control group included items assessing health literacy and health communication preferences. The survey for the intervention group included health literacy items as well as items to assess their opinions and perceptions regarding LARCs. We tracked click-through rates and opened messages; each participant received 4 reminders. Results: While only 3 participants fully completed either survey, email read rates (29/107 [27.1%] of LARC recipients and 39/150 [26.0%] of controls) were encouraging. Additionally, of those who opened the messages, almost twice as many of the LARC recipients (10/107 [9.3%]) read through the entire survey, while less than half read the entire survey as compared to those who received the survey asking about health literacy and health care preferences (6/150 [4.0%]). Conclusions: The methodology of using adolescent portals for online surveys provides a new avenue for research even though the study did not yield sufficient participation to understand these adolescents’ preferences. Future studies need to test if a different survey topic would engage adolescents or if other methods like text-based reminders would improve participation.
Morphological analysis of Late Pre-Hispanic Peruvian Chenopodium spp.

Archaeologists measure features in archaeological seeds primarily to document domestication during the Neolithic period. These same methods are less frequently used to study morphological changes associated with cultural selection of landraces later in time. For example, researchers have documented domesticated forms of chenopods during the Formative period in the Andes, yet there remains very little research on postliminary chenopod morphology. In this study, I use techniques developed to understand domestication, including scanning electron microscopy, to analyse charred archaeological Chenopodium spp. seeds recovered from the site Ayawiri located near Puno, Peru and dated to the Late Intermediate period (ad 1100–1450), almost 4,000 years after incipient domestication of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa). I found that this assemblage of chenopod seeds does not morphologically conform to modern varieties. Rather, these seeds are smaller than their modern counterparts. These findings indicate there was appreciable cultural selection of larger chenopod seed stock over the last 550 years.
Graphical Representation of Queue Evolution for Multiple-Server Systems

Over the last 20 years or so “queueing theory” seems to have evolved into a branch of mathematics. Like most other branches of mathematics that have their origins in real world problems, the longer the subject lives, the more it develops its own formal abstract rules of manipulations and its own internally generated problems, and the less useful it becomes as a tool for solving practical problems. The mathematicians eventually go their way; the engineers go the other way. Occasionally when they meet (which becomes less and less frequent), the mathematician curses the engineer for not learning all the latest theorems, and the engineer curses the mathematician for not understanding the real problems.
CHAPTER XI – DEFINITE INTEGRAL

Publisher Summary The primary purpose of defining the measure of a property or quality is to give an objective criterion by which one can determine the extent to which this property or quality exists. Whether or not a particular measure survives usually depends on whether or not scientists can discover important mathematically expressed laws that involve this particular measure. When a measure is originated, it usually deals with simple, special circumstances. As experience widens, it frequently becomes desirable to extend the definition so as to include new circumstances of a more complex or general nature. The chapter presents some definitions for work and discusses the plausibility of Riemann's theorem and the mean theorem.
Fuel Cycle Analysis of a Subcritical Fast Helium-Cooled Transmutation Reactor with a Fusion Neutron Source

Geologic repositories for the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) are limited in their capacity by the amount of decay heat emitted by the SNF. The largest long-term contribution to this decay heat comes from the transuranics (TRUs), the destruction of which could increase storage capacity by a factor of at least 10. A design concept for a subcritical gas-cooled fast transmutation reactor (GCFTR) fueled with TRUs from SNF is being developed. This paper presents the results of analyses of several GCFTR fuel cycle scenarios that have a deep-burn (>90% burnup of the TRU fuel) primary objective and a secondary objective of avoiding reprocessing of the TRU fuel if possible.
Interaction of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa with Complement

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous gram-negative organism which is not ordinarily pathogenic for individuals with normal host defenses. However, this organism is a major cause of morbidity and mortality for patients with serious burn or wound injuries, neoplastic disease, granulocytopenia, immunological deficiencies or cystic fibrosis (CF), and for patients receiving intensive immunosuppressive chemotherapy (Bodey et al. 1983). Once established, this opportunistic pathogen can produce a variety of extracellular virulence factors, including toxins, hemolysins, aggressins, adherence factors, and a slime exopolysaccharide (prevalent amongst isolates from CF patients), any of which can contribute to the disease manifestations observed and/or to the resistance of this organism to host clearance mechanisms (Lory and Tai, 1985). Furthermore, infections with P. aeruginosa remain extremely difficult to control and/or eradicate with currently available antibiotics. As a result, a more comprehensive understanding of the interaction between this organism and host defense mechanisms is needed to guide efforts aimed at developing alternative prophylactic or immunotherapeutic treatment regimens.
Understanding consumer electronic (CE) product landscape through user experience assessment: a systematic approach

Many of the organizations, companies, and industries today are focusing on User Experience to differentiate themselves from competitors in the design and development of products, services, and/or applications. Intel Corporation which has primarily been a semi-conductor manufacturing company for a long time has shifted its focus to address the needs, desires, and expectations of users. The fundamental question to be answered is how to design and develop different products, services, and/or applications that add value to users and enhances their experiences. This paper addresses this fundamental question through a systematic approach of understanding the competitive landscape environment. The paper describes the results of the systematic approach in the context of consumer electronics (CE) domain and concludes with the benefits of understanding the competitive landscape environment.
Imaging Evaluation of the Thymus and Thymic Disorders in Children

An understanding of the embryology and normal development, anatomy and histology, and the various pediatric disorders that can involve the thymus is important for radiologists for a number of reasons. First, familiarity with the spectrum of appearances, including size and location, of the normal thymus in infants and children, minimizes the potential for diagnostic errors. In addition, both the gross and microscopic constitution of the thymus gland contribute to the imaging appearance of the normal thymus. Each of the noninvasive imaging modalities including radiography, sonography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear scintigraphy (including PETCT) can provide unique and often complementary information in the evaluation of thymic disorders in children. By understanding the benefits and limitations of each of these modalities with respect to these thymic disorders, the radiologist is better able to design and implement an effective and expeditious imaging algorithm.
Coercion and Tenacious Treatment in the Community

Coercion in community-based programs has become an increasing concern (Parrish, 1992). Much of this concern has coincided with the development of assertive (or aggressive) community treatment programs. Prior to active community outreach teams, attempts to coerce the behavior of clients living in the community were limited by practical realities. Clients in traditional mental health systems always had the option of just not showing up. It is true that clients could be threatened with rehospitalization under court order, but enforcing such orders required cooperation from police, who typically had little interest in searching for a mentally ill client who had not committed any crime (Cesnik & Puls, 1977).
Nutrient sensor signaling pathways and cellular stress in fetal growth restriction

Fetal growth restriction is one of the most common obstetrical complications resulting in significant perinatal morbidity and mortality. The most frequent etiology of human singleton fetal growth restriction is placental insufficiency, which occurs secondary to reduced utero-placental perfusion, abnormal placentation, impaired trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodeling, resulting in altered nutrient and oxygen transport. Two nutrient-sensing proteins involved in placental development and glucose and amino acid transport are mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT), which are both regulated by availability of oxygen. Impairment in either of these pathways is associated with fetal growth restriction and accompanied by cellular stress in the forms of hypoxia, oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, metabolic dysfunction and nutrient starvation in the placenta. Recent evidence has emerged regarding the potential impact of nutrient sensors on fetal stress response, which occurs in a sexual dysmorphic manner, indicating a potential element of genetic gender susceptibility to fetal growth restriction. In this mini review, we focus on the known role of mTOR and OGT in placental development, nutrient regulation and response to cellular stress in human fetal growth restriction with supporting evidence from rodent models.
The Future of the Chinese Economy: Four Perspectives

This article studies the future prospect of the Chinese economy using four different perspectives: neo-classical, Marxian, world-system and climate stabilisation. While the neo-classical perspectiv...
Influence of basis-set size on the X Σ 1 / 2 + 2 , A Π 1 / 2 2 , A Π 3 / 2 2 , and B Σ 1 / 2 + 2 potential-energy curves, A Π 3 / 2 2 vibrational energies, and D 1 and D 2 line shapes of Rb+He

The $X^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{1/2}^{+}$, $A^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{1/2}$, $A^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{3/2}$, and ${B}^{2}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{1/2}^{+}$ potential-energy curves for Rb+He are computed at the spin-orbit multireference configuration interaction level of theory using a hierarchy of Gaussian basis sets at the double-zeta (DZ), triple-zeta (TZ), and quadruple-zeta (QZ) levels of valence quality. Counterpoise and Davidson-Silver corrections are employed to remove basis-set superposition error and ameliorate size-consistency error. An extrapolation is performed to obtain a final set of potential-energy curves in the complete basis-set (CBS) limit. This yields four sets of systematically improved $X^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{1/2}^{+}$, $A^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{1/2}$, $A^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{3/2}$, and ${B}^{2}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{1/2}^{+}$ potential-energy curves that are used to compute the $A^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{3/2}$ bound vibrational energies, the position of the ${D}_{2}$ blue satellite peak, and the ${D}_{1}$ and ${D}_{2}$ pressure broadening and shifting coefficients, at the DZ, TZ, QZ, and CBS levels. Results are compared with previous calculations and experimental observation.
AVALIAÇÃO DE DESEMPENHO DE EDIFÍCIOS SUSTENTÁVEIS: ESTUDO DE CASO DO CENTRO ADMINISTRATIVO SICREDI

The present article aims to present the performance evaluation of sustainable buildings of the Sicredi Administrative Center. This venture is a green building or a sustainable building in its translation. It is a building that has obtained LEED Certification, an important international seal attesting to sustainable performance and entrepreneurship through prerequisites and credits. Through the analysis of the credits acquired and the means to obtain them, the Sicredi Administrative Center reached one of the highest scores in Brazil in the category of existing buildings with a total of 88 points, obtaining the Platinum seal and becoming a reference in sustainability for buildings in operation with LEED certification.