cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
MAP: Multiconstrained Anypath Routing in Wireless Mesh Networks

Anypath routing has been proposed to improve the performance of unreliable wireless networks by exploiting the spatial diversity and broadcast nature of the wireless medium. Previous studies on anypath routing have concentrated on finding an anypath, which optimizes a single quality of service (QoS) parameter. In this paper, we study anypath routing subject to multiple constraints. We first prove that the problem is NP-hard when the number of constraints is larger than one. We then present a polynomial time K--approximation algorithm MAP, where K is the number of constraints. Our algorithm is as simple as Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm. Therefore, it is suitable for implementation in wireless routing protocols.
Measuring Physical Activity in Preschoolers: Reliability and Validity of the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time for Preschoolers (SOFIT-P)

The purpose of this study is describe the initial feasibility, reliability, and validity of an instrument to measure physical activity in preschoolers using direct observation. The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time for Preschoolers was developed and tested among 3- to 6-year-old children over fall 2008 for feasibility and reliability (Phase I, n = 67) and in fall 2009 for concurrent validity (Phase II, n = 27). Phase I showed that preschoolers spent >75% of their active time at preschool in light physical activity. The mean inter-observer agreements scores were ≥.75 for physical activity level and type. Correlation coefficients, measuring construct validity between the lesson context and physical activity types with and with the activity levels, were moderately strong. Phase II showed moderately strong correlations ranging from .50 to .54 between the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time for Preschoolers and Actigraph accelerometers for physical activity levels. The System for Observin...
Transistor action in GaP/TmP/GaAs heterostructure

Transistor action in a gallium phosphide/thulium phosphide/gallium arsenide (GaP/TmP/GaAs) structure with a GaP emitter, TmP base, and GaAs collector is reported. The emitter-base junction was constructed through wafer bonding and the base-collector junction was formed by epitaxial growth of TmP on GaAs in a molecular beam epitaxy system. From the I-V measurements, a common base current gain /spl alpha//spl sime/0.55 measured at V/sub CB/=0 was obtained at room temperature.
An unusual case of cutaneous pancreatic fat necrosis.

Antecedents: La necrose graisseuse cutanee pancreatique constitue un signe pathognomonique des affections du pancreas et se manifeste habituellement sous forme de nodosites sous-cutanees dans la region pretibiale. Objectifs: Presenter un cas de necrose graisseuse cutanee pancreatique dont le tableau clinique d'erytheme diffus etait inhabituel. Decrire cette maladie et presenter ses differentes etiologies possibles. Methodes : On a effectue une recherche sur Medline afin de repertorier les cas de necrose graisseuse cutanee pancreatique accompagnee d'erytheme diffus sans nodosites. Resultats: L'erytheme diffus est un signe inhabituel de necrose graisseuse cutanee pancreatique Conclusion: Il est possible que ce cas soit le premier du genre a se manifester sous forme d'erytheme diffus.
The trained circling rat: a model for inducing unilateral caudate dopamine metabolism

Despite considerable knowledge about brain dopamine in drug-induced and pathological states, the dynamic relationship of dopamine to voluntary motor behaviour is not established. In an effort to produce selective, lateralized changes in brain dopamine metabolism associated with movement, we have now developed an animal model in which normal rats were trained to circle for a sucrose/water reward. Turning direction was randomly assigned. The effect of circling on dopamine metabolism was studied by killing animals during the reinforcement period and measuring caudate dopamine and dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) concentrations in both sides of brain. Prior to turning, caudate dopamine and DOPAC levels were the same bilaterally. By contrast, animals killed after 20 min of circling showed a 67% increase in dopamine and a 46% increase in DOPAC concentrations in the caudate contralateral to the turning direction while the ipsilateral caudate showed no concentration changes. Such a rapid, massive unilateral increase in caudate dopamine metabolism suggests that dopamine neurones in contralateral caudate are selectively activated during circling behaviour. This model should be useful for further study of the relationships between neurotransmitter activity, regional brain physiology and voluntary movement, without the need for drugs or brain lesions.
The Intersection of Narrative Policy Analysis and Policy Change Theory

Narrative policy analysis and policy change theory rarely intersect in the literature. This research proposes an integration of these approaches through an empirical analysis of the narrative political strategies of two interest groups involved in policy debate and change over an eight-year period in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Three research questions are explored: (i) Is it possible to reconcile these seemingly disparate approaches? (ii) Do policy narrative strategies explain how interest groups expand or contain policy issues despite divergent core policy beliefs? (3) How does this new method of analysis add to the literature? One hundred and five documents from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Blue Ribbon Coalition were content analyzed for policy narrative strategies: identification of winners and losers, diffusion or concentration of costs and benefits, and use of condensation symbols, policy surrogates, and science. Five of seven hypotheses were confirmed while controlling for presidential administration and technical expertise. The results indicate that interest groups do use distinctive narrative strategies in the turbulent policy environment.
Concepts of Individual, Self, and Person in Description and Analysis

This article asserts the need to distinguish among “individual,” “self,” and “person” as biologistic, psychologistic, and sociologistic modes of conceptualizing human beings. The concepts differentiate individual as member of the human kind, self as locus of experience, and person as agent-in-society. The author follows out various descriptive and analytical implications. Ethnographic examples are used to illustrate and clarify points relevant to single-case studies and comparativist work. Within a particular local scheme, concepts of individual, self, and person are interrelated, sometimes hierarchically so. The article briefly takes up issues following from the double nature of these concepts as “native” categories and outsiders' analytical constructs. It is held that adopting as analytically central any one mode of conceptualizing human beings has consequences for the analyst's view of culture and/or social structure.
The Post-Industrial Regime of Production/Consumption and the Rural Gentrification of the New West Archipelago

: The contemporary American West is undergoing a round of rapid restructuring, which has been characterized as the shift from landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption. Here I propose that a more effective description of current changes, which allows us to retain focus on the relevant inter- and intra-class-based dynamics of an ongoing capitalist-Modernity, is as a result of the transition from the prior dominance of a regime of production/consumption of commodities/natural resources to the increasing ascendancy of the production/consumption of “experiences”. The rising dominance of this regime is, in large part, the result of the locally dramatic in-migration by ex-urban members of the post-industrial middle class to the “amenity-rich” counties of the region. This process of rural gentrification exacerbates preexisting social, geographic, and environmental disparities within the region, creating an “archipelago” of changing communities commonly referred to as the “New” West. Drawing on almost two years of ethnographic research from one such “island” community in south-central Montana, I describe local-level change between the relative primacy of the two regimes of production/consumption.
An on-line memory state validation using shadow memory cloning

This paper describes an on-line memory and CPU register state validation methodology in virtualized simulated environments where an Instruction Set Simulator (ISS) executes native applications on top of Operating System (OS) and dynamic translation is enabled. A Virtual System Prototyping (VSP) environment models a platform providing host memory pointers and a CPU core requesting read, write and execute direct memory accesses to the platform. A platform allocated shadow memory captures memory accesses during native code instruction execution. Another specially cloned shadow memory copy that supplies host pointers to the core captures memory accesses while executing dynamically translated code instructions. The methodology comprises saving execution contexts, reloading the ISS from a restart point and brunching the ISS execution either on native or translated codes. An online checker compares memory and register states at specially defined check points of interest. A cosimulation tool has been implemented in C++ as a loadable module into the VSP controlled by the ISS simulated events.
Criminal Violations of Environmental Laws: Model Sentencing Guidelines §2E1

Part of the Law Commons Publication Information Published as Michael M. O’Hear, Criminal Violations of Environmental Laws: Model Sentencing Guidelines §2E1, 18 Fed. Sent’g Rep. 341 (2006). © 2006 by the Regents of the University of California on behalf of the Vera Institute of Justice. Copying and permissions notice: Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the Regents of the University of California on behalf of the Vera Institute of Justice for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® on Caliber (http://caliber.ucpress.net/) or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center, http://www.copyright.com.
Binary Mixture Film of Perfluoropolyether Lubricants

It has become more and more difficult to find a single lubricant meeting all the requirements for ultra-small head-media spacing hard disk drives (HDDs). Therefore, an appropriate mixture of lubricants may be a feasible and promising alternative for future HDDs. In this paper, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations employing a bead-spring model were performed to examine the detailed structure, conformation, and dynamics of binary mixture lubricant nano films by extensively analyzing the anisotropic radius of gyration and the self-diffusion coefficient as a function of composition. Our simulation analysis indicates that a binary (or even a ternary) mixture monolayer can be a more suitable disk lubricant as compared to a single component lubricant. The conformation and mobility change by tuning the volume fraction was examined in conjunction with the optimal lubricant selection.
VDR hypermethylation and HIV-induced T cell loss

Epigenetics contributes to the development of variety of diseases by modulation of gene expression. We evaluated the effect of HIV-induced VDR methylation on loss of TCs. HIV/TC displayed enhanced VDR-CpG methylation and increased expression of Dnmt3b but attenuated expression of VDR. A demethylating agent, AZA, inhibited this effect of HIV. HIV/TC also displayed the activation of the RAS, which was reversed by EB (a VDA). Further, HIV/TCs displayed enhanced generation of ROS and induction of DSBs but attenuated DNA repair response. However, in the presence of AZA, EB, LOS (a RAS blocker), Cat, and tempol (free radical scavengers), HIV-induced TC ROS generation and induction of DSBs were attenuated but associated with enhanced DNA repair. Additionally, AZA, EB, and LOS provided protection against HIV-induced TC apoptosis. These findings suggested that HIV-induced TC apoptosis was mediated through ROS generation in response to HIV-induced VDR methylation and associated activation of the RAS.
Representation of the visual field in striate and adjoining cortex of the owl monkey (Aotus trivirgatus).

Summary Microelectrode mapping methods were used to determine the representation of the visual field in striate cortex and adjacent cortex in the owl monkey. As in other primates, the center of gaze is represented in dorsolateral striate cortex. Most of the lower quadrant of the visual field is represented on the upper bank of the calcarine sulcusm while more central portions of the lower quadrant are represented on the medial wall and dorsal surface. The representation of the upper quadrant extends from the dorsolateral surface the tentorial surface and across the lower bank of the calcarine sulcus. The representation of the temporal periphery of the upper quadrant was found on the upper bank of the calcarine sulcus. Almost half of striate cortex is devoted to the central 20° of the visual field and 90% of the border corresponds to the zero vertical meridian or lilne of decussation. Recordings from cortex adjoining striate cortex indicate that the second visual area, V II, borders the complete vertical meridian of striate cortex. The small representation of the temporal periphery in striate cortex is bordered by cortez that was nonresponsive to visual stimuli. The responsive and nonresponsive bordering areas were found to relate to two histologically distinct types of cortex, areas 18 and ‘pro-striata’ respectively.
The Spatial and Temporal Variability of Residential Real Estate Values in Response to Flooding

A relationship between residential property values and the incidence of flooding is represented, using a case study of two Californian communities that were flooded following a levee break. Analysis of the real estate market before and after the flood shows that the flood was capitalized into housing values, whereby both list and selling prices dropped immediately and have recently begun to recover. However, recovery of the market is not uniform throughout the floodplain. Houses that suffered eighteen inches of water recovered to near pre-flood values in less than one year. In contrast, houses that had approximately ten feet of water in them have not recovered to the same extent, indicating that capitalization and recovery do not occur evenly. These findings suggest that policies and programs should address these spatial and temporal differences in recovery, which are expected to vary with different flood frequencies and magnitudes.
An animal model of a newly emerging human ehrlichiosis

Ehrlichioses are emerging tick-borne diseases that affect several mammals, including humans. The genus Ehrlichia comprises Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia canis, Ehrlichia ewingii, Ehrlichia ruminantium, Panola Mountain Ehrlichia, and Ehrlichia muris; however, a new species closely related to E. muris, designated E. muris–like agent (EMLA), has been identified in human patients and ticks [1, 2]. All ehrlichial species except E. muris have been reported to cause infection in humans, which can lead to life-threatening disease, such as human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis (HME) caused by E. chaffeensis [2–6]. E. chaffeensis infection does not provide a relevant animal model, since it does not induce progressive infection in laboratory animals. E. chaffeensis infection in immunocompromised mice with severe combined immunodeficiency does not provide an ideal model for studying pathogenesis or immunity. Other murine models have been developed to better understand the mechanisms of ehrlichial infection and disease mechanisms: E. muris, a nonlethal agent inducing persistent infection, and Ixodes ovatus Ehrlichia (IOE), a lethal model [7, 8]. IOE has been detected only in I. ovatus ticks in Japan [9]. EMLA has been detected in patients from the upper Midwestern United States since 2009 [2]. The new bacterium has been identified in different stages of Ixodes scapularis ticks collected from the same region as the human patients. The disease caused by EMLA is similar to E. chaffeensis infection, with fever, malaise, fatigue, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Clinical laboratory findings include elevated hepatic aminotransferase levels, thrombocytopenia, and lymphopenia [2, 10]. An ideal animal model to study monocytotropic ehrlichiosis infection should use a human pathogen and induce dose-dependent sublethal and lethal infection [11–13]. The objective of this research was to develop and characterize a better mouse model of human ehrlichiosis, using EMLA, which will be used for future studies of the vector-host-pathogen interaction, ehrlichial pathogenesis, and immunity.
Spreading of the free boundary of an ideal fluid in a vacuum

The diameter of a region occupied by an ideal fluid surrounded by vacuum will be shown to grow linearly in time provided the pressure is positive and there are no singularities. A family of explicit spherically symmetric, self-similar global solutions is constructed which illustrate the result in the compressible case.
Catalyst or Cause? Legislation and the Demise of Machine Politics in Britain and the United States

In the nineteenth century, British and American parties competed by hiring electoral agents to bribe and treat voters. British parties abruptly abandoned this practice in the 1880s. The conventional explanation is that legislation put an end to agent-mediated distribution. But this explanation leaves many questions unanswered. Why did the parties use agents for decades, even though they imposed great expense on candidates and were viewed as untrustworthy? And why, after decades of half-hearted reforms, did the House of Commons pass effective antibribery reforms only in 1883? In our formal model, parties hire agents to solve information problems, but agent-mediated distribution can be collectively suboptimal. Legislation can serve as a credibility device for shifting to less costly strategies.
Optimizing physical layer data transmission for minimal signal distortion

When transmitting a sampled signal digitally, data and error correction bits must be transmitted at least as fast as the sampling rate. Typically, each bit is allocated the same transmission time interval, which means the optimal detector yields the same error probability for each bit. An alternative is to vary the bit interval duration according to the bit's contribution to the reconstructed sample. The optimal solution yields significant gains in mean-squared error (several dB) over that provided by equal-duration bit intervals. These gains occurred over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios. When block error correction is performed, we derive the optimal decoder from a Bayesian viewpoint and show that gains obtain here as well.
Using vector interfaces to deliver millions of IOPS from a networked key-value storage server

The performance of non-volatile memories (NVM) has grown by a factor of 100 during the last several years: Flash devices today are capable of over 1 million I/Os per second. Unfortunately, this incredible growth has put strain on software storage systems looking to extract their full potential.To address this increasing software-I/O gap, we propose using vector interfaces in high-performance networked systems. Vector interfaces organize requests and computation in a distributed system into collections of similar but independent units of work, thereby providing opportunities to amortize and eliminate the redundant work common in many high-performance systems. By integrating vector interfaces into storage and RPC components, we demonstrate that a single key-value storage server can provide 1.6 million requests per second with a median latency below one millisecond, over fourteen times greater than the same software absent the use of vector interfaces. We show that pervasively applying vector interfaces is necessary to achieve this potential and describe how to compose these interfaces together to ensure that vectors of work are propagated throughout a distributed system.
A fast neural network learning algorithm and its application

The neural network can be used to solve constrained optimization problems for multiple input and output variables. In the constrained system optimization, ordinary methods, such as linear and nonlinear programming and statistical regression, have encountered many difficulties. In contrast, the artificial neural network (ANN) has shown success in performing such tasks. ANN technology offers many opportunities in the performance optimization of fossil power plant systems. ANN can learn the performance characteristics of those systems from the regular monitoring or testing data. Plant performance tradeoffs can be predicted based on the ANN simulation. A PC-based computer code with a fast-learning algorithm application was developed to assist the system tuning. A combustion optimization example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of using this software to achieve the NO/sub x/ reduction and preserve the other performance parameters.
Effect of end-expiratory lung volume on upper airway collapsibility in sleeping men and women

The relationship between changes in absolute end-expiratory lung volume (EELV) and collapsibility has not been rigorously quantified. We hypothesized that pharyngeal collapsibility varies inversely...
A Value-Added Model to Measure Higher Education Returns on Government Investment.

The cost of college is increasing faster than inflation with the government funding over 19 million student loans that have a current outstanding balance of over $850 billion in 2010. Student default rates for 2008 averaged 7% but for some colleges, default rates were as high as 46.8%. Congress is demanding answers from colleges and universities about the quality of their education and the return on the government’s investment. Current practices measure universities effectiveness by self-developed and measured outcomes. This system does not seem to be effective in measuring the value-added by a college education. This paper develops a model to evaluate the value-added through higher education. The model uses financial return on investment as viewed by the government lenders. A service quality model is introduced to help identify factors that are significant and easy to measure in determining a university’s ability to return the government’s investment.
Adaptive fault-tolerant routing in hypercube multicomputers

A connected hypercube with faulty links and/or nodes is called an injured hypercube. A distributed adaptive fault-tolerant routing scheme is proposed for an injured hypercube in which each node is required to know only the condition of its own links. Despite its simplicity, this scheme is shown to be capable of routing messages successfully in an injured n-dimensional hypercube as long as the number of faulty components is less than n. Moreover, it is proved that this scheme routes messages via shortest paths with a rather high probability, and the expected length of a resulting path is very close so that of a shortest path. Since the assumption that the number of faulty components is less than n in an n-dimensional hypercube might limit the usefulness of the above scheme, a routing scheme based on depth-first search which works in the presence of an arbitrary number of faulty components is introduced. Due to the insufficient information on faulty components, however, the paths chosen by this scheme may not always be the shortest. To guarantee all messages to be routed via shortest paths, the authors propose to equip every node with more information than that on its own links. The effects of this additional information on routing efficiency are analyzed, and the additional information to be kept at each node for the shortest path routing is determined. Several examples and remarks are given to illustrate the results. >
Effect of age on long-term heart rate variability

Objective: Previous studies on short-term time series of heart rate suggest an inverse relationship between age and spectral powers of heart rate variability in various frequency bands. In this study, we examined the relationship between age (6–61 years) and long-term heart rate variability. Methods: We obtained 24-h Holter ECG in 33 healthy human subjects (11 children and 22 adults). The heart rate data were analyzed by using spectral analysis and fractal dimensions of the time series. Results: We found a significant negative correlation between age and very low frequency (VLF, 0.0033–0.04 Hz), low frequency (LF, 0.04–0.15 Hz) and high frequency (HF, 0.15–0.5 Hz) powers and fractal dimensions during awake as well as sleep periods, and a positive correlation between age and LF/HF ratios. Age and ultra-low frequency (ULF, <0.0033 Hz) were modestly and negatively correlated only during the awake period. Conclusions: Sleep ULF power is not significantly affected by age, whereas VLF, LF and HF powers and fractal dimensions of heart rate significantly decrease with age during awake as well as sleep periods.
Time-resolved performance analysis of a second-order PMD compensator

Design, test, and performance requirement and analysis for a polarization-mode-dispersion compensator (PMDC) with four degrees of freedom is presented. The performance is analyzed on the basis of time-integrated and time-resolved bit-error ratio (BER) measurements. Signal impairments are generated by both, first- and higher-order emulators. The probability distributions of bit errors measured over many one second intervals exhibit very long tails. Therefore even a PMDC with a good average BER performance may result in a significant total outage time for a given system.
Stochastic modelling of groundwater flow and solute transport in aquifers

This paper presents an introductory overview of recently developed stochastic theories for tackling spatial variability problems in predicting groundwater flow and solute transport. Advantages and limitations of the theories are discussed. Lastly, strategies based on the stochastic approaches to predict solute transport in aquifers are recommended.
The Role of Nutrition in Prevention and Healing of Pressure Ulcers

Among the many risk factors for pressure ulcers, malnutrition is potentially reversible. This article examines the relationship of malnutrition to the prevention and healing of pressure ulcers. Evidence for nutrition in preventing and healing pressure ulcers is presented. Specific nutrients, including some amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, have been evaluated for their effects on wound healing.
Technosphere Inhaled Insulin: Is Faster Better?

Pulmonary-delivered insulin is again a reality (1). The failure of the first inhaled insulin in 2007 showed that being radically different from what health care providers are used to, even when injections are avoided, can be problematic. The current product Technosphere inhaled insulin has addressed many of the prior concerns—a more convenient delivery device that is dosed in insulin units. Also, fear of lung toxicity or tumor development has been lessened somewhat by in vitro cytotoxic (2) and in vivo clearance (3) studies, plus a 2-year clinical trial showed no differences in pulmonary imaging or function in Technosphere-treated and untreated subjects with diabetes (4). In addition, aerosolized medicines that have effective absorption into the bloodstream are well established (5), with numerous agents having been tried including glucagon-like peptide 1 (6). A highly touted feature of pulmonary-delivered insulin is its rapid absorption—peak absorption by 10–15 min and fully cleared by 2–3 h versus a peak of 45–60 min and clearance of 5–6 h for injected analog prandial insulins (1,7) (Fig. 1). The potential importance of an ultrafast “on response” relates to the phasic nature of endogenously secreted insulin. An intravenous glucose infusion in humans without diabetes elicits a distinct first phase of insulin secretion over the first 10 min that is followed by a short lull and then a sustained second phase for the duration of the hyperglycemia. Actually, the diverse nutrient makeup of meals and their oral delivery initiate a more broad-based insulin response that does not separate into distinct phases. Still, the early insulin that is secreted …
Association of Recreational Marijuana Use with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

Objective Our objective was to evaluate the effect of cannabis use on hospitalizations for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Methods The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2004-2011) was used to identify all patients (age 15-54) with a primary diagnosis of aSAH (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition, Clinical Modification 430). We identified patients testing positive for cannabis use using all available diagnosis fields. The incidence and characteristics of aSAH hospitalizations among cannabis users were examined. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the effect of cannabis use on aSAH and in-hospital outcomes. Results Prior to adjustment, the incidence of aSAH in the cannabis cohort was slightly increased relative to the noncannabis cohort (relative risk: 1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.11). Cannabis use in aSAH was more frequent among younger patients (40.44 ± 10.17 versus 43.74 ± 8.68, P P P P Conclusions Our analysis suggests that recreational marijuana use is independently associated with an 18% increased likelihood of aSAH. Further case–control studies may analyze inpatient outcomes and other understudied mechanisms behind cannabis-associated stroke.
Predictors of Six-month Change in the Voice Handicap Index in a Treatment-seeking Population.

Summary Objective To evaluate predictors of longitudinal change in patient-perceived voice impact as determined by the Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Study Design Prospective, survey study. Methods Patients consented to the University of Wisconsin Voice and Swallow Clinics Outcomes Database with voice, concerns with a baseline clinic visit from November 2012 to January 2014 were eligible for the study. The VHI was sent to patients 6 months post clinic visit to determine change in voice handicap from baseline. General health was screened using the 12-item Short Form Health Survey, using physical component summary and mental component summary scores. Predictor variables included treatment (medical and/or behavioral); dysphonia sub-diagnosis; grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia, and strain rating; age; sex; socioeconomic factors; smoking history; and comorbidity score. Results Two hundred thirty-seven patients met study criteria and were followed longitudinally. Eighty-two patients returned 6-month surveys. The VHI was significantly correlated with mental component summary scores. Patients with a higher grade in baseline grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia, and strain score were more likely to receive voice intervention ( P = 0.04). Six-month improvement in VHI score was associated with both higher initial VHI score and higher educational level in both univariate ( P P = 0.04) and multivariate analyses ( P P = 0.02). Voice treatment (medical and/or behavioral) was not a significant factor for improvement in VHI score. Conclusions Our results suggest that it is important to consider baseline self-perceived voice impact measures and educational level in setting expectations for voice treatment. Future studies examining the relationship between treatment patterns and voice-related patient outcomes are warranted.
ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION SECTOR: SCRUTINIZING ITS MERITS AND DEVELOPMENTS

It’s known that technology has invaded all industries and for almost all services. This article will concentrate more on the merits of technology in Education sector and highlights its crucial prominence to its fraternity. Many institutions have adopted IT inside their campus and reaping their fruit however on bird’s view there may be few left-outs who are still demanding authenticity. There are needs to still extend the service in the Education sector, for instance, Online Education has become a global hit but still, many students do not conceive it as a professional model of education. Only leading Institutions like Oxford and Harvard are gaining advantages by these innovations. Author has taken efforts to collect all relevant information’s and put in simple & readable format herewith. Justifications are provided wherever necessary. Implementing appropriate technology is under the discretion of the institution and their requirement. This report does not campaign or propaganda any particular technology system or software that needs to be adopted. Evaluating the vox-pop outputs from Institutions, IT Enabled Service companies and fraternity of the institutions, the research was done. Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20319/mijst.2016.21.1220 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Skeletal storage of fluorine in the growing rat fed bone meals of varying fluorine content.

SummaryIt was demonstrated again that veal calf bones were low in fluorine. This experiment demonstrated clearly that bone meal prepared from veal calf bones produced femurs with an exceptionally low fluorine content, thus indicating a calcium and phosphorus carrier of high desirability insofar as the fluorine content is concerned. Commercial bone meals were found in this experiment to be responsible for the deposition of considerable amounts of fluorine in the femurs of the growing rat.These data, further, suggest that the high levels of tone meal feeding in the case of the growing rat resulted in a limited utilization of the minerals as indicated by the storage of fluorine in the femurs and that the fluorine present in bone meal is not selectively absorbed.Some of these data seemed to indicate that a part of the fluorine in veal calf bones was there in a form not readily available for absorption and storage in the skeleton of the rat.
North Lake Tahoe demonstration garden teaches about best management practices and fire defensible space.

Because water quality and wildfire are critical issues at Lake Tahoe, a demonstration garden teaches about best management practices and defensible space, in addition to demonstrating what plants grow in our mountain environment. Extension worked with the local Conservation District to design and build unique displays with interpretive signs that show people options they can use on their properties. All demonstrations comply with requirements for control of nonpoint source pollution and for fire defensible space. The garden's biggest contribution to the community is that it teaches property owners how they can meet multiple environmental objectives in an effective and attractive manner.
Preparation of Yeast Cells for Live-Cell Imaging and Indirect Immunofluorescence

In spite of their small size, the cellular morphology, structure, and protein localization of yeast cells can be successfully imaged. A detailed protocol for preparing yeast cells for live-cell imaging is described, including techniques to immobilize yeast for time-lapse microscopy. Protocols for indirect immunofluorescence are outlined, including strategies for fixation, cell wall digestion, and the use of primary and secondary antibodies conjugated to fluorescent moieties. Alternative approaches to these techniques are discussed, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages where possible. Using these protocols, investigation of yeast cell structure and protein localization will continue to yield important insights into yeast cell biology and regulation.
WE-FG-206-03: An Adaptive Model for Pharmacokinetic Nested Model Selection in Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI Data Analysis

Purpose: This study introduces an adaptive Model Selection (MS) technique to perform Pharmacokinetic nested MS from the time trace of longitudinal relaxation rate change, ΔR1 (R1 = 1/T1) in Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE) MRI studies. Methods: Three physiologically nested models derived from the standard Tofts model along with an averaged (over 30 patients) arterial input function were used to simulate a set of ΔR1 profiles to describe possible physiological conditions of underlying tissue pathology: Model-1: the vascular compartment is filled with contrast agent (CA) with no outward leakage. Model-2: the vascular compartment is filled with CA with outward leakage but no evidence of back-flux. Model-3: the vascular compartment is filled with CA with both outward and backward-flux. Three different sets of simulated ΔR1 profiles in presence of different signal-to-noise ratios (5, 10, 15, 30, 70, 100, and no noise) were used to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for performing MS. A k-fold cross-validation method was used to validate and optimize the ANN architecture. The trained-ANN was also applied on the DCE-MRI data of 20 patients with Glioblastoma and results were compared to the models selected by the Log-Likelihood-Ratio (LLR) technique using Dice coefficient. Results: The confusion matrix and the strong similarity (Dice coefficients of 0.87, 0.89 for Models 2 and 3) between the models selected by the trained ANN and the LLR method confirms that the performance of the adaptive NMS technique is superior to the LLR method. The ANN showed a strong sensitivity for selecting models with higher orders; thus less type-II errors (never misses any tissues with leaky vasculature (Models 2 and 3). Conclusion: The noise insensitivity, speed, and superiority of the ANN technique in choosing the best PK model would allow a less biased estimation of cerebrovascular permeability parameters in tumorous tissues. This work is supported in part by HFHS mentored Grant (A10237).
STABILITY OF McSHANE SYSTEMS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the stability of McShane systems. It presents an investigation of the stability behavior of the system using theory of differential inequalities in a stochastic setting. The role of differential inequalities in the study of the qualitative aspects of differential equations is well-documented. These techniques have recently been extended to investigate the stability properties of random differential equations, Ito-type equations, and stochastic functional equations. These techniques have been extended to systems involving McShane integrals. The chapter presents a comparison theorem for the stochastic system, a basic result for the stability theorems. It presents a theorem analogous to the Ito formula for the differentiation of composite functions. The stability of the comparison system implies the stability in the mean of the stochastic system. The asymptotic stability of the comparison system implies the asymptotic stability in the mean of the stochastic system.
Examination of the impacts of vegetation on the correlation between snow water equivalent and passive microwave brightness temperature

Abstract Snow accumulation, ablation, and runoff in mountainous areas are critical components of the hydrologic cycle, but are poorly known. Passive microwave (PM) measurements are sensitive to snow water equivalent (SWE), even in mountain regions, but vegetation masks the microwave signals and reduces this sensitivity. This study examines how the PM snow signal is affected by the forest density in fourteen basins in the Sierra Nevada, USA, and in a series of sixteen subsets of the Kern basin that have varied vegetation density. 36.5 GHz vertical polarization brightness temperature (Tb) time series for each basin were produced from the spaceborne AMSR-E operational period (water year (WY) 2003 to WY2011). For each basin, the coefficient of determination (R2) between the annual minimum Tb and the concurrent SWE was calculated to evaluate the sensitivity of the PM to SWE. The relationship between the R2 values and the forest density was then analyzed to assess how vegetation affect the SWE information in the observed Tb. Mean forest coverage from MODIS was used to represent forest density. The R2 between the annual minimum Tb and concurrent SWE was > 0.6 for three of the basins. Consistent with previous studies, WY2006 demonstrated anomalous Tb values for many basins, apparently due to anomalous warm winter rainfall. Excluding WY2006, R2 is significantly higher in all basins: eight of fourteen basins have R2 > 0.6. For basins with average elevation > 2500 m, SWE correlates well with Tb. The R2 decreases monotonically with decreasing elevation. Basin elevation and forest cover are highly correlated in the Sierra; a basin elevation of 2500 m generally coincides with forest cover of 20%. A total of 42% of Sierra Nevada has
Inflammasome/IL-1 pathways in tumor microenvironments

Emerging evidence indicates that chronic Inflammation plays important roles at all stages of tumor development including initiation, growth, invasion and metastasis. IL-1β and other IL-1 family members are major mediators in an inflammatory response. Clinical studies reveal increased concentration of IL-1β protein in tumor tissues, and such increase is associated with poor prognosis for cancer patients. While chronic inflammation is associated with tumor development, the mechanism of such connection remains not completely understood. Our preliminary data have demonstrated that inflammasome and IL-1β play a critical role in promoting tumor growth and metastasis. An inflammasome is a multimolecular complex, composed of a NOD-like protein (NLR), the adaptor protein ASC, and caspase-1, which is essential for the cleavage of pro-IL-1β into its active form. Using orthotropic breast cancer and transgenic mouse models, we found that breast cancer was associated with inflammasome activation. Our results show that mice deficient for inflammasome components had much slow tumor growth and lung metastasis. Compared to wildtype mice, inflammasome deficient mice have low levels of IL-1 in primary tumor tissues and metastastic lungs. Furthermore, our data reveal that pharmacologic disruption of inflammasome/IL-1β pathway diminished tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. These results suggest that the activation of inflammasomes and production of IL-1β in vivo may provide an inflammatory tumor microenvironment to promote tumor growth and metastasis.
Symptomatic carotid stenosis and ipsilateral carotid body tumor.

Abstract. We report an unusual combination of a symptomatic carotid stenosis and ipsilateral carotid body tumor. This patient was successfully treated with simultaneous carotid endarterectomy and tumor resection. Following, the unique challenges and technique are discussed.
The Distrustful and Poorly Compliant Patient

Ms. Dickinson is a 56 year-old new patient presenting with severe scalp dermatitis and psoriasiform scaling, for which a tentative diagnosis of scalp psoriasis has been made. She reports trying several topical agents, each for a few days on six different occasions over a 3-month period, with inadequate control. The referring dermatologist, who called you prior to the patient visit, is concerned that her insufficient response to therapy has been a result of poor compliance. He notes that she typically resists his treatment recommendations, and on several occasions has made blanket statements indicating her distrust of medical professionals.
Evaluation of the Pelorus Stereotactic Surgical System for CT-guided stereotactic brain biopsy

The Pelorus Stereotactic Surgical System is a relatively new, commercially available device that can be used to perform computed tomography (CT)-guided stereotactic brain biopsy. It has been promoted as being a relatively simple and inexpensive system that is more rapid, less cumbersome, and generally easier to use than conventional stereotactic frames. In this paper, we describe the Pelorus System, and report on its diagnostic accuracy and associated morbidity, based on our experience with 49 consecutive patients in two institutions. Patients ranging from 7 months to 85 years of age had CT-guided stereotactic biopsy, primarily for diagnosis of lesions deep within the cerebral hemispheres. Two transfrontal biopsies of the lateral pons were also done. Satisfactory tissue for histologic diagnosis was obtained in 42 of 49 patients (86%). In this series, there were two deaths in the immediate postoperative period, unrelated to the use of the Pelorus System. One patient suffered a transient neurologic deficit, which resolved over a period of 3 days. Although the Pelorus System has some limitations, we found it easy to use, well-tolerated by patients, and useful for performing CT-guided stereotactic biopsy.
Antithrombotic regimens in patients with atrial fibrillation and coronary disease: optimizing efficacy and safety.

Clear evidence supports the value of oral anticoagulation (OAC) with vitamin K antagonists in preventing stroke and thromboembolism in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who have well-established risk factors. For this indication, vitamin K antagonists have been shown to be superior to single or
Anesthetic challenges and outcomes for procedures in the intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging suite: A systematic review.

Abstract Background and objective Hybrid operating room suites with intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging enable image guided surgery in a fully functional operating room environment. While this environment creates challenges to anesthetic care, the effects on anesthetic adverse events and outcomes are largely unknown. This systematic scoping review aims to map the existing knowledge about anesthetic care in advanced imaging hybrid operating rooms. Methods A broad-based literature search was performed using the PubMed (Medline), Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. References published in English between January 1994 and August 2017 were included. Quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE guidelines. Results Forty-seven manuscripts were eligible for data collection. Adverse events were heterogeneously defined across 17 manuscripts and occurred in 0 to 100% (quality of evidence mostly very low). Monitoring difficulty was reported in 4 manuscripts of very low data quality. Interference between the magnet and the electrocardiogram was investigated in 2 manuscripts (quality of evidence low and very low, respectively). None of the reported events appeared to result in long-term patient harm. Author recommendations or a narrative review of the literature were provided in 40 manuscripts. Common safety concerns included lower equipment reliability, inaccessibility of the patient and airway, and the relative isolation of the suite (in relationship to other anesthesia care areas). Most authors also emphasized the importance of safety checklists, protocols, and provider training. Discussion While intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging hybrid operating rooms are increasingly utilized, the existing literature does not allow estimating adverse event rates in this location. Prospective studies quantifying the effect of the environment on anesthesia outcomes are lacking. Despite this, there is a broad consensus regarding the anesthetic and safety concerns. More research is needed to inform practice standards and training requirements for this challenging environment.
A rhyming artist

Nick Sharratt is a prolific children's author and illustrator famous for his rhyming text and colourful illustrations. The following activities use his work to develop children's communication and language skills.
Classification of background parenchymal uptake on molecular breast imaging using a convolutional neural network

PURPOSEBackground parenchymal uptake (BPU), which describes the level of radiotracer uptake in normal fibroglandular tissue on molecular breast imaging (MBI), has been identified as a breast cancer...