cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Joint Robustness on Noise and Liapunov Functions for Parallel Stochastic Approximation Algorithms

Abstract Joint robustness with respect to measurement errors and Liapunov functions for parallel stochastic approximation algorithms is developed. A parallel computation model is analyzed. In lieu of using the classical approach, a collection of parallel processors is utilized to carry out the desired iterations, By means of decomposition methods, a large dimensional computation task is split into a series of tasks each with relatively small dimension. The efforts are directed toward finding allowable tolerance and deviations from usual assumptions on the convergence property. The measure of the joint robustness is described by a function depending on two parameters. Marginal or individual robustness with respect to either the measurement noise or the Liapunov function is also obtained. Moreover, the strong consistency as well as the necessary and sufficient condition for convergence is derived.
Scenic beauty perceptions along the ROS

Abstract The relationship between types of recreation experiences described by the recreation opportunity spectrum (ROS) and perceived scenic satisfactions from varying amounts of scenic beauty was investigated. Respodents ( N = 196) were classified into several subsets preferring "primitive" versus more "motorized" experiences and activities based upon motivations, setting preferences and favorite activities. They evaluated forest landscapes for scenic beauty and for scenic satisfaction as settings for favorite activities. Differences in recreation experience preferences accounted for only 10% of the explained variation in perceived scenic satisfactions, with shared scenic beauty perceptions accounting for the rest. All recreators, except hunters, wanted scenic beauty, but differences among types of recreators were observed in their standards for, and discriminations of, scenic satisfaction in settings. More primitive activities were most demanding of, and sensitive to, differences in scenic beauty. More urban activities were also more demanding of scenic beauty but were less sensitive to differences in that quality.
Therapeutic drug monitoring in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Thiopurine analogs and anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents have dramatically changed the therapeutics of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), improving short and long-term outcomes. Unfortunately some patients do not respond to therapy and others lose response over time. The pharmacokinetic properties of these drugs are complex, with high inter-patient variability. Thiopurine analogs are metabolized through a series of pathways, which vary according to the patients’ pharmacogenetic profile. This profile largely determines the ratios of metabolites, which are in turn associated with likelihoods of clinical efficacy and/or toxicity. Understanding these mechanisms allows for manipulation of drug dose, aiming to reduce the development of toxicity while improving the efficacy of treatment. The efficacy of anti-TNF drugs is influenced by many pharmacodynamic variables. Several factors may alter drug clearance, including the concomitant use of immunomodulators (thiopurine analogs and methotrexate), systemic inflammation, the presence of anti-drug antibodies, and body mass. The treatment of IBD has evolved with the understanding of the pharmacologic profiles of immunomodulating and TNF-inhibiting medications, with good evidence for improvement in patient outcomes observed when measuring metabolic pathway indices. The role of routine measurement of metabolite/drug levels and antibodies warrants further prospective studies as we enter the era of personalized IBD care.
The Possibility of a British Earned Income Tax Credit

The possibility of an earned income tax credit, based on the US model, is currently high up the British political agenda. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of the current British system of in-work benefits, before reviewing the effectiveness of the US Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) scheme. The British and US systems are then directly compared in terms of the net income delivered and the effective tax rate (net benefit deduction rate). Although the evidence in favour of a US-style EITC is weak, two possible variants are considered. The paper concludes that the only future for an EITC is probably as a partial scheme, linked to the amalgamation of in-work and out-of-work benefits, which removes wage subsidisation from the sphere of social security by means of a semi-individualised tax credit. Even so, the same goals could be achieved through the benefit system.
TWEAK promotes exercise intolerance by decreasing skeletal muscle oxidative phosphorylation capacity

Proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) and its receptor Fn14 are the major regulators of skeletal muscle mass in many catabolic conditions. However, their role in muscle metabolism remains largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated the role of TWEAK on exercise capacity and skeletal muscle mitochondrial content and oxidative metabolism. We employed wild-type and TWEAK-knockout (KO) mice and primary myotube cultures and performed biochemical, bioenergetics, and morphometric assays to evaluate the effects of TWEAK on exercise tolerance and muscle mitochondrial function and angiogenesis. TWEAK-KO mice showed improved exercise tolerance compared to wild-type mice. Electron microscopy analysis showed that the abundance of subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar mitochondria is significantly increased in skeletal muscle of TWEAK-KO mice compared to wild-type mice. Furthermore, age-related loss in skeletal muscle oxidative capacity was rescued in TWEAK-KO mice. Expression of a key transcriptional regulator peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) and several other molecules involved in oxidative metabolism were significantly higher in skeletal muscle of TWEAK-KO mice. Moreover, treatment of primary myotubes with soluble TWEAK inhibited the expression of PGC-1α and mitochondrial genes and decreased mitochondrial respiratory capacity. Deletion of TWEAK also improved angiogenesis and transcript levels of vascular endothelial growth factor in skeletal muscle of mice. These results demonstrate that TWEAK decreases mitochondrial content and oxidative phosphorylation and inhibits angiogenesis in skeletal muscle. Neutralization of TWEAK is a potential approach for improving exercise capacity and oxidative metabolism in skeletal muscle.
Rule of Law, Democracy, Openness, and Income: Estimating the Interrelationships

We estimate the interrelationships among economic institutions, political institutions, openness, and income levels, using identification through heteroskedasticity (IH). We split our cross-national dataset into two sub-samples: (i) colonies versus non-colonies; and (ii) continents aligned on an East-West versus those aligned on a North-South axis. We exploit the difference in the structural variances in these two sub-samples to gain identification. We find that democracy and the rule of law are both good for economic performance, but the latter has a much stronger impact on incomes. Openness (trade/GDP) has a negative impact on income levels and democracy, but a positive effect on rule of law. Higher income produces greater openness and better institutions, but these effects are not very strong. Rule of law and democracy tend to be mutually reinforcing.
Technology management for corporate social responsibility

Expectations of corporations are higher than ever. Investors and other stakeholders consider companies in terms of the "triple bottom line", reflecting financial performance, environmental practices, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Given the role of top managers in setting the ethical tone and strategic agenda of their corporations - and the role of technology in strategy - can technology management achieve both competitive performance and social responsibility, i.e., "strategic responsibility"? This potential integration is considered in the technology management of eight Internet-oriented companies, specifically for practices integrating the fulfillment of corporate social responsibilities with technology-driven strategies for keeping products competitive, providing the basis for new products, and changing operational conventions.
Robust Responses of the Hydrological Cycle to Global Warming

Using the climate change experiments generated for the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this study examines some aspects of the changes in the hydrological cycle that are robust across the models. These responses include the decrease in convective mass fluxes, the increase in horizontal moisture transport, the associated enhancement of the pattern of evaporation minus precipitation and its temporal variance, and the decrease in the horizontal sensible heat transport in the extratropics. A surprising finding is that a robust decrease in extratropical sensible heat transport is found only in the equilibrium climate response, as estimated in slab ocean responses to the doubling of CO2, and not in transient climate change scenarios. All of these robust responses are consequences of the increase in lower-tropospheric water vapor.
Crystallographic protein model-building on the web

Summary: X-ray crystallography is the most widely used method to determine the 3D structure of protein molecules. One of the most difficult steps in protein crystallography is model-building, which consists of constructing a backbone and then amino acid side chains into an electron density map. Interpretation of electron density maps represents a major bottleneck in protein structure determination pipelines, and thus, automated techniques to interpret maps can greatly improve the throughput. We have developed WebTex, a simple and yet powerful web interface to TEXTAL, a program that automates this process of fitting atoms into electron density maps. TEXTAL can also be downloaded for local installation. Availability: Web interface, downloadable binaries and documentation at http://textal.tamu.edu Contact: textal@tamu.edu
DTI segmentation using an information theoretic tensor dissimilarity measure

In recent years, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has become a popular in vivo diagnostic imaging technique in Radiological sciences. In order for this imaging technique to be more effective, proper image analysis techniques suited for analyzing these high dimensional data need to be developed. In this paper, we present a novel definition of tensor "distance" grounded in concepts from information theory and incorporate it in the segmentation of DTI. In a DTI, the symmetric positive definite (SPD) diffusion tensor at each voxel can be interpreted as the covariance matrix of a local Gaussian distribution. Thus, a natural measure of dissimilarity between SPD tensors would be the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence or its relative. We propose the square root of the J-divergence (symmetrized KL) between two Gaussian distributions corresponding to the diffusion tensors being compared and this leads to a novel closed form expression for the "distance" as well as the mean value of a DTI. Unlike the traditional Frobenius norm-based tensor distance, our "distance" is affine invariant, a desirable property in segmentation and many other applications. We then incorporate this new tensor "distance" in a region based active contour model for DTI segmentation. Synthetic and real data experiments are shown to depict the performance of the proposed model.
An Assembly-incompetent Mutant Establishes a Requirement for Dynamin Self-assembly in Clathrin-mediated Endocytosis In Vivo

Dynamin GTPase activity is required for its biological function in clathrin-mediated endocytosis; however, the role of self-assembly has not been unambiguously established. Indeed, overexpression of a dynamin mutant, Dyn1-K694A, with impaired ability to self-assemble has been shown to stimulate endocytosis in HeLa cells (Sever et al., Nature 1999, 398, 481). To identify new, assembly-incompetent mutants of dynamin 1, we made point mutations in the GTPase effector/assembly domain (GED) and tested for their effects on self-assembly and clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Mutation of three residues, I690, K694, and I697, suggests that interactions with an amphipathic helix in GED are required for self-assembly. In particular, Dyn1-I690K failed to exhibit detectable assembly-stimulated GTPase activity under all assay conditions. Overexpression of this assembly-incompetent mutant inhibited transferrin endocytosis as potently as the GTPase-defective dominant-negative mutant, Dyn1-K44A. However, worm-like endocytic intermediates accumulated in cells expressing Dyn1-I690K that were structurally distinct from long tubules that accumulated in cells expressing Dyn1-K44A. Together these results provide new structural insight into the role of GED in self-assembly and assembly-stimulated GTPase activity and establish that dynamin self-assembly is essential for clathrin-mediated endocytosis.
Learning to Temporally Order Medical Events in Clinical Text

We investigate the problem of ordering medical events in unstructured clinical narratives by learning to rank them based on their time of occurrence. We represent each medical event as a time duration, with a corresponding start and stop, and learn to rank the starts/stops based on their proximity to the admission date. Such a representation allows us to learn all of Allen's temporal relations between medical events. Interestingly, we observe that this methodology performs better than a classification-based approach for this domain, but worse on the relationships found in the Timebank corpus. This finding has important implications for styles of data representation and resources used for temporal relation learning: clinical narratives may have different language attributes corresponding to temporal ordering relative to Timebank, implying that the field may need to look at a wider range of domains to fully understand the nature of temporal ordering.
An adaptive artificial potential function approach for geometric sensing

In this paper, a novel artificial potential function is proposed for planning the path of a robotic sensor in a partially observed environment containing multiple obstacles and multiple targets. The sensor planning problem considered in this paper consists of planning the motion of a robot with an on-board sensor that is deployed in order to support a sensing objective, such as, target detection and classification, by gathering sensor measurements over time. An adaptive potential function approach is presented such that the sensor path accounts for prior information on the target geometry and information profit, by traveling a minimum distance.
Preprocessing of rotamers for protein design calculations

We have developed a process that significantly reduces the number of rotamers in computational protein design calculations. This process, which we call Vegas, results in dramatic computational performance increases when used with algorithms based on the dead-end elimination (DEE) theorem. Vegas estimates the energy of each rotamer at each position by fixing each rotamer in turn and utilizing various search algorithms to optimize the remaining positions. Algorithms used for this context specific optimization can include Monte Carlo, self-consistent mean field, and the evaluation of an expression that generates a lower bound energy for the fixed rotamer. Rotamers with energies above a user-defined cutoff value are eliminated. We found that using Vegas to preprocess rotamers significantly reduced the calculation time of subsequent DEE-based algorithms while retaining the global minimum energy conformation. For a full boundary design of a 51 amino acid fragment of engrailed homeodomain, the total calculation time was reduced by 12-fold.
Deploying a Rural Wireless Telemedicine System: Experiences in Sustainability

A primary concern for projects supported by aid programs is sustainability. Although there is a growing belief that information and communication technologies (ICT) can significantly impact development, in practice creating sustainable ICT projects is extremely difficult. A typical project consists of a pilot stage that aims to demonstrate the basic goals, followed by a deployment stage that aims for both scale and sustainability. A novel ICT project in rural India uses long-distance Wi-Fi networking to enable high-quality videoconferencing between eye hospitals and remote village clinics. The project highlights the importance of sustainability as a first-class goal for systems research.
Opinions or Algorithms: An Investigation of Trust in People Versus Automation in App Store Security

Mobile application app stores are a critical source of information about risk in an uncertain environment. App stores ought to assess and communicate the risk associated with an installation so that users are discouraged from installing risky or harmful apps in app stores. However, only a limited number of studies offer designers information about how to communicate risk effectively. We focused on the user's trust associated with security information stemming from crowd-sourced evaluations compared to those generated from an automated system. Both of these sources of security information are pervasively used to indicate possible risk associated with an app. We investigated whether biases exist for a particular source of information given similar amount of security information being available. We found that participants preferred to install apps rated by automation to those rated by humans despite equivalence in stated risk. Further, we found evidence of a gender difference in trust in automation.
Influence of Perceived Preventability of the Death and Emotional Closeness to the Deceased: A Test of Bugen's Model

This study tested Bugen's (1977, 1979) model of human grief with data from 435 adults, ages eighteen to eighty-eight years old, who had attended the funeral of a family member or close friend in the past two years. The model's two factors, Emotional Closeness to the deceased and Perceived Preventability of the death, were strong predictors of grief and bereavement adjustment. To test the robustness of this model, these two factors were then used to predict aspects of the funeral. Emotional Closeness to the deceased, but not Perceived Preventability of the death, provided some prediction of Meaningfulness of the funeral and Participation in the funeral rituals.
Solid state coordination chemistry of metal-1,2,4-triazolates and the related metal-4-pyridyltetrazolates

This short review focuses on the structural chemistry of the coordination polymers of 1,2,4-triazole (Htrz) and the 1,2,4-triazolate ligand (trz) and of 4-pyridyltetrazolate (pt) which can be considered as an expanded analogue of 1,2,4-triazolate. The structures are discussed in terms of some common building blocks and the sorptive and magnetic properties of these materials.
Gestational weight loss and perinatal outcomes in overweight and obese women subsequent to diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus

Objective To investigate whether gestational weight loss (GWL) after the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in overweight and obese women is associated with improved perinatal outcomes. Obesity and GDM are risk factors for adverse perinatal outcomes, but few studies have investigated weight loss during pregnancy in women with these comorbidities. Design and Methods Retrospective cohort study of 26,205 overweight and obese gestational diabetic women enrolled in the California Diabetes and Pregnancy Program. Women with GWL during program enrollment were compared to those with weight gain. Perinatal outcomes were assessed using chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results About 5.2% of women experienced GWL. GWL was associated with decreased odds of macrosomia (aOR 0.63, 95% CI 0.52-0.77), NICU admission (aOR 0.51, 95% CI 0.27-0.95), and cesarean delivery (aOR 0.81, 95% CI 0.68-0.97). Odds of SGA status (aOR 1.69, 95% CI 1.32-2.17) and preterm delivery <34 weeks (aOR 1.71, 95% CI 1.23-2.37) were increased. Conclusions In overweight and obese women with GDM, third trimester weight loss is associated with some improved maternal and neonatal outcomes, although this effect is lessened by increased odds of SGA status and preterm delivery. Further research on weight loss and interventions to improve adherence to weight guidelines in this population is recommended.
Associations Between Adolescents’ Perceived Discrimination and Prosocial Tendencies: The Mediating Role of Mexican American Values

Experiences with perceived discrimination (e.g., perceptions of being treated unfairly due to race or ethnicity) are expected to impact negatively youths’ prosocial development. However, resilience often occurs in light of such experiences through cultural factors. The current longitudinal study examined the influence of perceived discrimination on the emergence of Mexican American adolescents’ later prosocial tendencies, and examined the mediating role of Mexican American values (e.g., familism, respect, and religiosity). Participants included 749 adolescents (49 % female) interviewed at 5th, 7th, and 10th grade. Results of the current study suggested that, although perceived discrimination was associated negatively with some types of prosocial tendencies (e.g., compliant, emotional, and dire) and related positively to public prosocial helping, the associations were mediated by youths’ Mexican American values. Directions for future research are presented and practical implications for promoting adolescents’ resilience are discussed.
Inhibition of HCV by the serpin antithrombin III

Background: Although there have been dramatic strides made recently in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection, interferon-α based therapy remains challenging for certain populations, including those with unfavorable IL28B genotypes, psychiatric co-morbidity, HIV co-infection, and decompensated liver disease. We have recently shown that ATIII, a serine protease inhibitor (serpin), has broad antiviral properties. Results: We now show that ATIII is capable of inhibiting HCV in the OR6 replicon model at micromolar concentrations. At a mechanistic level using gene-expression arrays, we found that ATIII treatment down-regulated multiple host cell signal transduction factors involved in the pathogenesis of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, including Jun, Myc and BMP2. Using a protein interactive network analysis we found that changes in gene-expression caused by ATIII were dependent on three nodes previously implicated in HCV disease progression or HCV replication: NFκB, P38 MAPK, and ERK1/2. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that ATIII stimulates a novel innate antiviral host cell defense different from current treatment options.
Efficient design selection in microgrid simulations

Microgrids (MGs) offer new technologies for semiautonomous grouping of alternative energy loads fed into a power grid in a coordinated manner. Simulations of these microgrids are time critical yet computationally demanding, inherently complex, and dynamic, especially when they are constructed for control purposes. In this paper, we address the design ranking and selection problem in MG simulations from a set of finite alternatives in the presence of stochastic constraints. Each design encapsulates a different level of control of the segregation mechanism within the system, and a performance function measured as a combination of the incurred cost and energy surety. Building on this performance function, optimal computing budget allocation (OCBA) method is used to efficiently allocate simulation replications for selecting the best design with significant accuracy and reasonable computational burden. Computational results on a multi-scale MG testbed have shown that OCBA algorithm outperforms equal and proportional to variance allocation of replications.
Reflections on Organ Transplantation: Life and Death Complicated

The sad truths I've been taught by the families of the dead are these: seeing is believing; knowing is better than not knowing; to name the hurt returns a kind of comfort; the grief ignored will ne...
Effect of Sample Preparation on the Discrimination of Bacterial Isolates Cultured in Liquid Nutrient Media Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used as the basis for discrimination between two genera of gram-negative bacteria and two genera of gram-positive bacteria representing pathogenic threats commonly found in poultry processing rinse waters. Because LIBS-based discrimination relies primarily upon the relative proportions of inorganic cell components including Na, K, Mg, and Ca, this study aims to determine the effects of trace mineral content and pH found in the water source used to isolate the bacteria upon the reliability of the resulting discriminant analysis. All four genera were cultured using tryptic soy agar (TSA) as the nutrient medium, and were grown under identical environmental conditions. The only variable introduced is the source water used to isolate the cultured bacteria. Cultures of each bacterium were produced using deionized (DI) water under two atmosphere conditions, reverse osmosis (RO) water, tap water, phosphate buffered saline (PBS) water, and TRIS buffered water. After 3 days of culture growth, the bacteria were centrifuged and washed three times in the same water source. Bacteria were then freeze dried, mixed with microcrystalline cellulose, and a pellet was made for LIBS analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to extract related variations in LIBS spectral data among the four bacteria genera and six water types used to isolate the bacteria, and Mahalanobis discriminant analysis (MDA) was used for classification. Results indicate not only that the four genera can be discriminated from each other in each water type, but that each genus can be discriminated by water type used for isolation. It is concluded that in order for LIBS to be a reliable and repeatable method for discrimination of bacteria grown in liquid nutrient media, care must be taken to insure that the water source used in purification of the culture be precisely controlled regarding pH, ionic strength, and proportionate amounts of mineral cations present.
Analytical Review: Leaky Red Cells

The normal survival of red cells requires maintained regulation of cell size and shape. This regulation is to a large extent dependent upon membrane permeability and the active transport of cations. Agents such as C' that affect permeability markedly by creating large holes in the membrane lead to rapid cell death. Most hemolytic disorders thus far studied involve lesser increases in membrane permeability and hemolysis occurs more gradually by the sequence of colloid osmotic swelling, loss of cell surface, and spherocytosis. With very mild permeability changes, as in hereditary spherocytosis, the cell may compensate for an increased leak-rate for cations by increased active transport. This compensation requires increased glycolysis and optimal metabolic conditions, however, and the cell rapidly decompensates during glucose deprivation or metabolic stress. The interaction between reticuloendothelial tissues and red cells provides such a stress for leaky cells and hastens their destruction.
Sol-Gel Strategies for Controlled Porosity Ceramic Materials: Thin Film and Bulk

Using sol-gel processing techniques it is possible to vary the condensation pathway over wide ranges to form primary species ranging in structure from oligomers to polymers to particles. The porosity of the corresponding dry gels depends on the size and structure of the primary species, the organization of these structures, often by aggregation, to form a gel, and the collapse of the gel by drying. This paper reviews these ideas in the context of forming thin film or bulk specimens. Several strategies are introduced to control porosity on length scales of interest for catalysis and catalytic membrane reactors: 1) aggregation of fractals; 2) management of capillary pressure; 3) surface derivatization; 4) relative rates of condensation and evaporation; 5) the use of organic templates and 6) sintering. These strategies are contrasted with the more traditional particle packing approach to preparing controlled porosity materials.
Measurement of streptococcal antigen synthesis with fluorescent antibody.

Summary and conclusionThe amount of specific antibody adsorbed by streptococci during the process of de novo somatic antigen synthesis was a function of the amount of antigen on the cell. The fluorescent technic when compared with acid extraction demonstrated that considerably fewer cells were required to observe the progress of synthesis and, in addition, there was obtained a value more quantitative than the estimation of the degree of precipitation in capillary tubes.Controls with fluorescein-conjugated normal globulin indicated the degree of nonspecific binding of conjugated protein by the streptococcal cells. The basal limit of nonspecific adsorption was considerably higher when fluorescein-labeled whole sera were employed rather than the globulin fractions.Standard curves obtained with buffered fluorescein solutions were linear within the total range of the instrument. These values were between 0.02 and 2.0 μg of fluorescein per ml. The fluorescent values of Fig. 1 were within a range of 0.04 to 0.25...
Ascorbic acid deficiency and fistula formation in regional enteritis.

Ascorbic acid, as measured in leukocytes and platelets and in serum, was significantly decreased in patients with regional enteritis compared to normal subjects. This was related, at least in part, to low intake of ascorbate in patients with ileitis. Patients taking supplemental vitamin C had normal leukocyte ascorbic acid, while serum ascorbic acid remained low. Ascorbate concentration was measured in ileal tissue obtained at surgery and there was an excellent correlation with leukocyte ascorbic acid. Patients with ileitis and fistulous tracts were noted to have significantly lower ileal and blood ascorbate level than patients without fistulae. It is suggested that fistula formation in ileitis may be, in part, related to local ascorbate deficiency.
Use of biofeedback training in treatment of Raynaud's disease and phenomenon

To assess biofeedback training in Raynaud's, we retrospectively reviewed 23 patients' records. Eleven had Raynaud's disease and 12 had Raynaud's phenomenon; 9 had recurrent digital ulcers. Patients demonstrated lower baseline digital temperatures than controls (p less than or equal to 0.001), patients with Raynaud's and scleroderma manifesting the lowest. After biofeedback training all patients elevated baseline temperatures. Patients with scleroderma and systemic lupus erythematosus had the greatest elevations. Improvement, both subjective (57%) and ulcers (44%), persisted one year after treatment. Four of 7 patients were capable of elevating digital temperatures within 5 min, 18 months after their last training session. These findings support biofeedback training as beneficial therapy in Raynaud's.
Risk Management of Shale Gas Supply Chain under Estimated Ultimate Recovery Uncertainty

Abstract This paper addresses the risk management for optimal design and operations of shale gas supply chains under uncertainty of estimated ultimate recovery (EUR). A multiobjective two-stage stochastic mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed to optimize the expected total cost and the financial risk. The latter criterion is measured by conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) and downside risk. In this model, both design and planning decisions are considered with respect to shale well drilling, shale gas production, processing, multiple end-uses, and transportation. In order to solve this computationally challenging problem, we integrate both the sample average approximation method and the L-shaped method. The proposed model and solution methods are illustrated through a case study based on the Marcellus shale play. According to the optimization results, the stochastic model provides a feasible design for all the scenarios with the lowest expected total cost. Moreover, after risk management, total expected cost increases but the risk of high-cost scenarios is reduced effectively, and the CVaR management shows its advantage over downside risk management in this specific case study.
Deformation in Owens Valley, California

abstract Surveys in 1974 and 1979 of a Geodolite network spanning Owens Valley between Bishop and Lone Pine, California, indicate that right-lateral tensor shear strain is accumulating across the 1872 earthquake rupture at a rate of about 0.08 ± 0.03 μ strain/ a . The quoted uncertainty is one standard deviation. Neither the measured extension (0.01 ± 0.03 μ strain/ a ) perpendicular to the rupture nor the contraction (0.01 ± 0.03 μ strain/ a ) parallel to it is significant. This strain rate is consistent with that deduced for the preceding 40 yr. Level lines that run across the valley at the latitude of Lone Pine indicate no significant tectonic changes in elevation between 1974 and 1978. Comparison of these surveys with earlier surveys (1928, 1940, and 1962) establishes quite clearly that the block west of the 1872 rupture has been tilted down to the east about 7.5 ± 1.5 μ rad in the 50-yr interval 1928 to 1978.
Oxygen vacancy promoted methane partial oxidation over iron oxide oxygen carriers in the chemical looping process

We perform ab initio DFT+U calculations and experimental studies of the partial oxidation of methane to syngas on iron oxide oxygen carriers to elucidate the role of oxygen vacancies in oxygen carrier reactivity. In particular, we explore the effect of oxygen vacancy concentration on sequential processes of methane dehydrogenation, and oxidation with lattice oxygen. We find that when CH4 adsorbs onto Fe atop sites without neighboring oxygen vacancies, it dehydrogenates with CHx radicals remaining on the same site and evolves into CO2via the complete oxidation pathway. In the presence of oxygen vacancies, on the other hand, the formed methyl (CH3) prefers to migrate onto the vacancy site while the H from CH4 dehydrogenation remains on the original Fe atop site, and evolves into CO via the partial oxidation pathway. The oxygen vacancies created in the oxidation process can be healed by lattice oxygen diffusion from the subsurface to the surface vacancy sites, and it is found that the outward diffusion of lattice oxygen atoms is more favorable than the horizontal diffusion on the same layer. Based on the proposed mechanism and energy profile, we identify the rate-limiting steps of the partial oxidation and complete oxidation pathways. Also, we find that increasing the oxygen vacancy concentration not only lowers the barriers of CH4 dehydrogenation but also the cleavage energy of Fe–C bonds. However, the barrier of the rate-limiting step cannot further decrease when the oxygen vacancy concentration reaches 2.5%. The fundamental insight into the oxygen vacancy effect on CH4 oxidation with iron oxide oxygen carriers can help guide the design and development of more efficient oxygen carriers and CLPO processes.
Clinical Reasoning: A 70-year-old woman with acute-onset weakness and progressive hemiataxia

A 70-year-old woman with a history of insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes mellitus (IDDM), breast cancer treated with lumpectomy in 2012, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and congestive heart failure with pacemaker presented with acute-onset difficulty using her right arm and leg. She was in her usual state of health until 3 weeks before admission, when she tripped over her grandson's toy on the floor, falling on her right side. Prior to falling, neither she nor her family had noted any weakness or difficulty with walking. Because her symptoms failed to improve over 3 weeks, she eventually presented to an emergency department. The authors thank Dr. Argye Hillis for her work conceptualizing this case.
Cyclosporine exacerbates ketamine toxicity in zebrafish: Mechanistic studies on drug-drug interaction.

Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an immunosuppressive drug commonly used in organ transplant patients to prevent allograft rejections. Ketamine is a pediatric anesthetic that noncompetitively inhibits the calcium-permeable N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptors. Adverse drug–drug interaction effects between ketamine and CsA have been reported in mammals and humans. However, the mechanism of such drug–drug interaction is unclear. We have previously reported adverse effects of combination drugs, such as verapamil/ketamine and shown the mechanism through intervention by other drugs in zebrafish embryos. Here, we show that ketamine and CsA in combination produce developmental toxicity even leading to lethality in zebrafish larvae when exposure began at 24 h post-fertilization (hpf), whereas CsA did not cause any toxicity on its own. We also demonstrate that acetyl l-carnitine (ALCAR) completely reversed the adverse effects. Both ketamine and CsA are CYP3A4 substrates. Although ketamine and CsA independently altered the expression of the hepatic marker CYP3A65, a zebrafish ortholog of human CYP3A4, both drugs together induced further increase in CYP3A65 expression. In the presence of ALCAR, however, CYP3A65 expression was normalized. ALCAR has been shown to prevent ketamine toxicity in mammal and zebrafish. In conclusion, CsA exacerbated ketamine toxicity and ALCAR reversed the effects. These results, providing evidence for the first time on the reversal of the adverse effects of CsA/ketamine interaction by ALCAR, would prove useful in addressing potential occurrences of such toxicities in humans. Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Added Value of Patient‐Reported Outcome Measures in Stroke Clinical Practice

Background There is uncertainty regarding the clinical utility of the data obtained from patient‐reported outcome measures (PROMs) for patient care. We evaluated the incremental information obtained by PROMs compared to the clinician‐reported modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Methods and Results This was an observational study of 3283 ischemic stroke patients seen in a cerebrovascular clinic from September 14, 2012 to June 16, 2015 who completed the routinely collected PROMs: Stroke Impact Scale‐16 (SIS‐16), EQ‐5D, Patient Health Questionnaire‐9, PROMIS Physical Function, and PROMIS fatigue. The amount of variation in the PROMs explained by mRS was determined using r 2 after adjustment for age and level of stroke impairment. The proportion with meaningful change was calculated for patients with ≥2 visits. Concordance with change in the other scales and the ability to discriminate changes in health state as measured by c‐statistic was evaluated for mRS versus SIS‐16. Correlation between PROMs and mRS was highest for SIS‐16 ( r =−0.64, P 2 ranged from 0.11 (PROMIS fatigue) to 0.56 (SIS‐16). Change in scores occurred in 51% with mRS and 35% with SIS‐16. There was lower agreement and less ability to discriminate change in mRS than in SIS‐16 with change in the other measures. Conclusions PROMs provide additional valuable information compared to the mRS alone in stroke patients seen in the ambulatory setting. SIS‐16 may have a better ability to identify change than mRS in health status of relevance to the patient. PROMs may be a useful addition to mRS in the assessment of health status in clinical practice.
Simple weighing lysimeters for measuring evapotranspiration and developing crop coefficients

Knowledge of cotton crop evapotranspiration (ET) is important in scheduling irrigations, optimizing crop production, and modeling ET and crop growth. The ability to measure, estimate, and predict ET and cotton crop water requirements can result in better satisfying the crop' s water needs and improving water use efficiency. Weighing lysimeters have been used for many years to measure and study water use, and to develop crop-coefficient functions necessary in estimating ET. Electronic weighing lysimeters, consisting of a steel outer tank and inner tank, electronic loadcell assemblies, and a PVC drain system, were designed, constructed, and installed. Each lysimeter cost approximately US$1700 (in 2001) in materials, required two people and 40 hours of labor to construct, and were installed by two people using minimal excavation and hand tools. Daily ET data for cotton were collected from 2003 to 2006 to quantify cotton water-use and to develop crop coefficient functions. Seasonal water use ranged generally from 2 to 8 mm/d. Seasonal water-use patterns varied considerably among growing seasons due to variable environmental and crop-growth conditions, making determination of an " average" crop-coefficient
Anton syndrome as a result of MS exacerbationAuthor Responds

I read with interest the case report by Kim et al.1 detailing Anton syndrome (AS) in a patient with multiple sclerosis. Apart from visual anosognosia, confabulation is an important symptom of AS. It is …
X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a maternally inherited peroxisomal disorder caused by single-gene mutations in ABCD1 that causes a broad spectrum of disease phenotypes in male patients and in female carriers. The most severe form, childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CCALD), presents as an inflammatory demyelinating process with rapid progression of symptoms leading to profound neurologic disability. Presenting symptoms are most commonly behavioral changes and visual deficits related to a propensity for the disease to start in the posterior corpus callosum and occipital white matter. In this chapter, a typical presentation of X-ALD is described followed by a discussion of the genetics, pathophysiology, clinical spectrum, and current therapeutic options. Subsequently, several cases are used to illustrate variations in the clinical presentation with a discussion of screening in asymptomatic carriers, the differential diagnoses of isolated lesions of the corpus callosum, and clinical clues to differentiate X-ALD with acquired demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).
Dispersed automation for industrial Internet of Things — An enabler for advanced manufacturing

This position paper introduces the vision of Dispersed Automation, a novel approach for reprogramming the omnipresent Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices in critical infrastructure for the co-execution of general-purpose computation workloads in an optimal and reliable manner. The key observation is that IIoT devices are available in large quantities in critical infrastructure (e.g., micro-grids, water management and treatment, energy generation and transmission, manufacturing, buildings, and traffic) but are often underutilized due to the conservative allocation of resources, static task assignment, and lack of exploitation of parallelism that is intrinsic in redundant hardware. Dispersed Automation can give new life to IIoT devices, some of them as powerful as general-purpose computers, and can make them accessible for the co-execution of various computational workloads while dynamically adapting to different applications and operational environments. Two key technical innovations will make this possible: the use of a domain-specific language, and on-channel computation. This paper shows how Dispersed Automation can be an enabling technology for the implementation of smart manufacturing systems.
Syphilis incidence in men who have sex with men with human immunodeficiency virus comorbidity and the importance of integrating sexually transmitted infection prevention into HIV care

INTRODUCTION Syphilis continues to be a growing epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly for those living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In 2016, MSM accounted for 80% of primary and secondary syphilis diagnoses in men in the United States; almost half of who were also HIV-infected. The synergistic relationship between HIV and syphilis has significant implications not only for HIV patient management, but also for sexually transmitted infection (STI) control among MSM. Areas covered: We review the literature on STI screening and treatment barriers at the patient-, provider-, and health system-levels, and present strategies to incorporate STI prevention into HIV care settings. Expert commentary: Integration of STI prevention into HIV care is paramount to stop the epidemic of not only syphilis, but also other curable STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia. Although guidelines have been established for STI testing in HIV-infected MSM, screening rates continue to be lower than desired. Gonorrhea and chlamydia screening is below 50% in HIV-infected MSM; interventions that improve testing of those two infections must be implemented. For syphilis control, other additional strategies such as chemoprophylaxis should be considered given syphilis screening is above 50% in HIV-infected MSM.
Factors Influencing Choice of Radiology and Relationship to Resident Job Satisfaction.

Abstract Purpose Identify when current radiology residents initially became interested in radiology, which factors influenced their decision to pursue a career in radiology, and which factors correlate with job satisfaction. Methods An online survey was distributed to United States radiology residents between December 7, 2016 and March 31, 2017. Respondents identified the most appealing aspects of radiology during medical school, identified experiences most influential in choosing radiology, and scored job satisfaction on visual analog scales. Relative importance was compared with descriptive statistics. Satisfaction scores were compared across factors with analysis of variance and post-hoc Tukey tests. Results 488 radiology residents responded (age 30.8 ± 3.2 years; 358 male, 129 female, 1 unknown; 144 PGY2, 123 PGY3, 103 PGY4, 118 PGY5). The most influential aspects in choosing radiology were the intellectual (n=187, 38%), imaging (n=100, 20%), and procedural (n=96, 20%) components and potential lifestyle (n=69, 14%). Radiology clerkship reading room shadowing (n=143, 29%), radiologist mentor (n=98, 20%), non-radiology clerkship imaging exposure (n=77, 16%), and radiology clerkship interventions exposure (n=75, 15%) were most influential. Choosing radiology because of potential lifestyle correlated with less job satisfaction than choosing radiology for intellectual (p=0.0004) and imaging (p=0.0003) components. Conclusion Recruitment of medical students into radiology may be most effective when radiology clerkships emphasize the intellectual and imaging components of radiology through reading room shadowing and exposure to interventions. Choosing radiology for lifestyle correlates with less job satisfaction, at least during residency.
Integrated pricing and supplier selection in a two-stage supply chain

Abstract This article presents an inventory replenishment model with supplier selection and pricing decisions in a two-stage supply chain consisting of a manufacturer stage followed by a retailer stage. A decision maker controls both stages. The manufacturer can procure the required raw material from a list of potential suppliers, each of whom has restrictions regarding capacity and quality. In this model, the manufacturer periodically replenishes the retailer's inventory, whose demand is sensitive to price changes. We propose a mixed integer nonlinear programming model designed to determine the number of orders placed to the selected suppliers per order cycle, the amount of inventory replenished at each stage, and the selling price that maximizes the profit per time unit. Additionally, we provide upper and lower bounds for the retailer's selling price and for the manufacturer's lot size multiplicative factor, which results in a tight feasible search space.