cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Normal incident infrared detector using intervalence band absorption of Si/sub 1-x/Ge/sub x//Si multiple quantum wells

Summary form only given. The authors report the demonstration of normal incident infrared detection using intervalence-band absorption in Si/sub 1-x/Ge/sub x//Si multiple quantum wells. In this case, the transition occurs between different hole bands due to the mixing of the s-like Gamma -conduction band Bloch state with p-like hole bands, particularly at large k values. This mechanism is different from the previously reported free-carrier absorption process. >
Physiochemical characterization of five iron tubercles from a single drinking water distribution system: Possible new insights on their formation and growth

Abstract Physiochemical data were obtained for five iron tubercles from a single drinking water distribution system (DS). Texturally, there were two groups based on internal morphology: one with a core of soft brownish material marbled with veins of a hard black material, the other has a core consisting mostly of the hard, black material. Three iron mineral phases occur, α-FeOOH, γ-FeOOH, or Fe 3 O 4 . All three coexist in each tubercle but in widely varying proportions. These iron pipe tubercles exhibit a greater diversity within a single DS than previously thought. Because the chemical conditions for the formation of each material is different, water quality parameters may not be the main control of tubercle formation and growth.
Aeroelastic model study of suspended cable roof

Abstract The aerodynamic response of a suspended-cable roof over a railway station is examined using a full aeroelastic model in a boundary-layer wind tunnel. The results of the wind-tunnel tests, conducted in thin and thick boundary-layer flow conditions, are presented and compared with those obtained for a section model in smooth and turbulent flow conditions. Vortex-induced oscillation at relatively low wind speed and flutter at high wind speeds were observed in a thin boundary-layer flow. Furthermore, it is shown that the presence of structures beneath the roof results in a sdecrease in the vertical oscillations of the roof. However, a train parked in the station on the upstream track caused an aerodynamic torsional instability for wind speed exceeding 70 mph (113 km/hr).
Clinical predictors of response to lamotrigine and gabapentin monotherapy in refractory affective disorders.

Abstract Background: The objective of the current study was to examine possible clinical predictors of positive response to lamotrigine or gabapentin monotherapy in treatment-refractory affectively ill patients. Methods: Forty-five patients with treatment refractory bipolar ( n = 35) or unipolar ( n = 10) affective disorder participated in a clinical study evaluating six weeks of treatment with lamotrigine, gabapentin, or placebo monotherapy given in a double-blind, randomized fashion with two subsequent cross-overs to the other agents. Patients received daily mood ratings and weekly cross-sectional scales. Much or very much improved on the Clinical Global Impression scale modified for bipolar illness was considered a positive response. Degree of response was correlated with a number of baseline demographic and course of illness variables in a univariate analysis and then by linear regression. Results: Response rates to lamotrigine (51%) exceeded those to gabapentin (28%) and placebo (21%). A positive response to lamotrigine monotherapy was associated with a bipolar diagnosis; fewer hospitalizations; fewer prior medication trials; and male gender (of which the latter two variables survived logistic regression). For gabapentin, degree of response correlated with shorter duration of illness; younger age; and lower baseline weight (with the latter two surviving linear regression). Conclusions: In this highly treatment-refractory population, lamotrigine appeared most effective for male patients with fewer prior medication trials. Gabapentin monotherapy, although not better than placebo, appeared most effective in those with younger age and lower baseline weight. These preliminary data in a treatment refractory subgroup may help in the further definition of the range of clinical utility of these widely used anticonvulsants.
Sociomonetary patterns and specifications

Abstract Sociomonetary relationships (A) endow money with meaning, significance, and identity, (B) are obfuscated by original monetary values, and (C) can be captured by specified monetary values (i.e., monetary values in specified sociomonetary functions). Moreover, the validity and reliability of monetary data depend upon identification and specification of sociomonetary functions. Consequently, it is necessary to examine which forms of sociomonetary functions best conform to criteria of specification. For example, are these criteria optimized by simple and parsimonious monomial power functions (which provide a basis for the formulation of a power law of sociomonetary functions)? Such questions can be answered with the aid of explorations of sociomonetary relationships. My exploration reveals four prevalent and interrelated (but not universal nor permanent) patterns of sociomonetary relationships in synchronic and diachronic analyses of demographic, survey, and experimental data. These patterns are characterized by r-shaped or L-shaped curves in sociomonetary scatter plots for a response to money, and J-shaped or L-shaped curves in sociomonetary scatter plots for a monetary response. These sociomonetary patterns appear to be linked to (A) similar patterns among nonmonetary phenomena, (B) processes of legitimation, violence, and inequality, and (C) consistency among social phenomena.
Cognitive Architecture, Humor and Counterintuitiveness: Retention and Recall of MCIs

The recent surge of interest in the cognitive science of religion has resulted in a number of studies regarding the memorability of minimally counterintuitive ideas (MCIs). The present model incorporates ontological templates and their respective inferences, as well as delineates between two major types of violations: schema- and template-level violations. As humor is also defined by its counter-intutiveness at the schema level, this study was designed to find effects this emotion has on retention. Results suggest that humorous statements with parallel violations are recalled significantly better than statements which have only template-level violations, affective statements with only schema-level violations, as well as intuitive statements in both immediate and 1-week follow-up sessions.
Beyond Chinatown, beyond Enclave: Reconceptualizing Contemporary Chinese Settlements in the United States

Profound changes in international geopolitics and national policies, as well as global economic restructuring, and technological and communicational development have occurred since Chinatown first emerged. With the rapid pace of globalizing economy, increasing flows of population, commodities, information, and financial resources across the Pacific Rim – particularly in the last two decades – it is imperative that we reexamine the international migration patterns of Chinese population and reconceptualize the resulting Chinese settlement forms in the globalization era. This article attempts to serve such purposes by briefly reviewing the debate centered around historical and contemporary Chinatowns; discussing the impacts of societal and structural factors on Chinese immigration and settlement; presenting a spectrum of contemporary Chinese settlement forms in the United States, and highlighting some key characteristics. The article ends with brief discussion and conclusion sections that summarize some issues in contemporary Chinese community studies.
Electrocution injuries. A case report

A case study of a high-voltage injury was presented. The short period that the patient was in contact with the electrical source prevented further systemic injury and may have saved her life. The patient's present neuritis is indicative of long-term sequelae of electrocution injury, in which ischemic necrosis of the surrounding nerves can occur near or at the site of the exit wound.
2007 Special Issue: An associative memory readout for ESNs with applications to dynamical pattern recognition

The use of echo state networks (ESN) to find patterns in time (dynamical pattern recognition) has been limited. This paper argues that ESNs are particularly well suited for dynamical pattern recognition and proposes a linear associative memory (LAM) as a novel readout for ESNs. From the class of LAMs, the minimum average correlation energy (MACE) filter is adopted because of its high rejection characteristics that allow its use as a detector in the automatic pattern recognition literature. In the ESN application, the MACE interprets the states of the ESN as a two-dimensional ''image'', one dimension being time and the other the processing element index (space). An optimal template image for each class, which associates ESN states with the class label, can be analytically computed using training data. During testing, ESN states are correlated with each template image and the class label of the template with the highest correlation is assigned to the input pattern. The ESN-MACE combination leads to a nonlinear template matcher with robust noise performance as needed in non-Gaussian, nonlinear digital communication channels. A real-world data experiment for chemical sensing with an electronic nose is included to demonstrate the validity of this approach. Moreover, the proposed readout can also be used with liquid state machines eliminating the need to convert spike trains into continuous signals by binning or low-pass filtering.
Cyclic derivatives for the selective chromatographic analysis of bifunctional compounds

Abstract Only a few reagents capable of forming cyclic derivatives with bifunctional compounds have been described in the chromatographic literature. Some reagents are selective for a particular compound, whereas others such as the boronic acids are more generally applicable to a wide range of bifunctional compounds. All reagents provide a high degree of selectivity through the chemical discriminatory power of the reaction employed and some reagents have been developed which have high detector discriminatory power as well. These are of particular interest for the analysis of a few components (bifunctional compounds) in a complex matrix without the need for a tedious amount of sample clean-up. When it is necessary to isolate bifunctional compounds from complex sources, columns containing immobilized boronic acid groups have been used and advantage taken of the reversibility of the boronate complexation reaction for attachment and later removal of the desired bifunctional compound.
Phylogeography of Asian wild rice, Oryza rufipogon: a genome‐wide view

Asian wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) that ranges widely across the eastern and southern part of Asia is recognized as the direct ancestor of cultivated Asian rice (O. sativa). Studies of the geographic structure of O. rufipogon, based on chloroplast and low-copy nuclear markers, reveal a possible phylogeographic signal of subdivision in O. rufipogon. However, this signal of geographic differentiation is not consistently observed among different markers and studies, with often conflicting results. To more precisely characterize the phylogeography of O. rufipogon populations, a genome-wide survey of unlinked markers, intensively sampled from across the entire range of O. rufipogon is critical. In this study, we surveyed sequence variation at 42 genome-wide sequence tagged sites (STS) in 108 O. rufipogon accessions from throughout the native range of the species. Using Bayesian clustering, principal component analysis and amova, we conclude that there are two genetically distinct O. rufipogon groups, Ruf-I and Ruf-II. The two groups exhibit a clinal variation pattern generally from north-east to south-west. Different from many earlier studies, Ruf-I, which is found mainly in China and the Indochinese Peninsula, shows genetic similarity with one major cultivated rice variety, O. satvia indica, whereas Ruf-II, mainly from South Asia and the Indochinese Peninsula, is not found to be closely related to cultivated rice varieties. The other major cultivated rice variety, O. sativa japonica, is not found to be similar to either O. rufipogon groups. Our results support the hypothesis of a single origin of the domesticated O. sativa in China. The possible role of palaeoclimate, introgression and migration-drift balance in creating this clinal variation pattern is also discussed.
A multilevel approach to identify functional modules in a yeast protein-protein interaction network

Identifying functional modules is believed to reveal most cellular processes. There have been many computational approaches to investigate the underlying biological structures [9, 4, 10, 6]. A spectral clustering method plays a critical role identifying functional modules in a yeast protein-protein network in [6, 4]. We present an unweighted-graph version of a multilevel spectral algorithm which more accurately identifies protein complexes with less computational time.
Hidden Markov models that use predicted local structure for fold recognition: alphabets of backbone geometry.

An important problem in computa- tional biology is predicting the structure of the large number of putative proteins discovered by genome sequencing projects. Fold-recognition meth- ods attempt to solve the problem by relating the target proteins to known structures, searching for template proteins homologous to the target. Remote homologs that may have significant structural simi- larity are often not detectable by sequence similari- ties alone. To address this, we incorporated pre- dicted local structure, a generalization of secondary structure, into two-track profile hidden Markov mod- els (HMMs). We did not rely on a simple helix-strand- coil definition of secondary structure, but experi- mented with a variety of local structure descriptions, following a principled protocol to establish which descriptions are most useful for improving fold recognition and alignment quality. On a test set of 1298 nonhomologous proteins, HMMs incorporating a 3-letter STRIDE alphabet improved fold recognition accuracy by 15% over amino-acid-only HMMs and 23% over PSI-BLAST, measured by ROC-65 numbers. We compared two-track HMMs to amino-acid-only HMMs on a difficult alignment test set of 200 protein pairs (structurally similar with 3-24% sequence identity). HMMs with a 6-letter STRIDE secondary track im- proved alignment quality by 62%, relative to DALI structural alignments, while HMMs with an STR track (an expanded DSSP alphabet that subdivides strands into six states) improved by 40% relative to CE.
Potential economic impacts of water-use changes in Southwest Kansas

This research considers three policy scenarios aimed at reducing groundwater consumption in three high priority subareas of southwest Kansas. The three policy scenarios include: (1) a Status Quo scenario where there is no change in water-use policy, (2) an Immediate Conversion to Dryland scenario where all groundwater pumping is halted, and (3) a Reallocation scenario, which allows only a 40% reduction in saturated thickness in 25 years. Each policy scenario is simulated under normal versus drought weather conditions. Results suggest that, from both a community and producer perspective, groundwater conservation policy can generate positive economic gains.
Hydrovinylation and Related Reactions: New Protocols and Control Elements in Search of Greater Synthetic Efficiency and Selectivity

New reaction conditions and stereochemical control elements for heterodimerization between ethylene (or propylene) and functionalized vinyl arenes are highlighted (see equation). For example, an enantioselective version of the hydrovinylation reaction uses [{(allyl)NiBr}2], a noncoordinating counter anion, (bis-CF3−C6H3)4B−, and a hemilabile ligand such as MOP. Other applications include intramolecular cyclization of 1,6-dienes and heterodimerization of norbornene and ethylene.
Laplace's Equation and Network Flows

This paper shows that the problem of Laplace's equation can be formulated as a minimum cost network flow problem with quadratic cost. Then an algorithm for solving quadratic cost network flow problems can be modified to solve the standard Laplace's equation.
Sexual Orientation and Risk Factors for Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts Among Adolescents and Young Adults

Same-gender sexual orientation has been repeatedly shown to exert an independent influence on suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, suggesting that risk factors and markers may differ in relative importance between lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals and others. Analyses of recent data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health revealed that lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents reported higher rates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts than did heterosexual respondents and that drug use and depression were associated with adverse outcomes among heterosexual respondents but not among lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents.
Increased risk of venous thromboembolism with a sirolimus-based immunosuppression regimen in lung transplantation

Background Sirolimus (rapamycin) is a potent anti-proliferative agent with immunosuppressive properties that is increasingly being used in solid-organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In addition, this drug is being investigated for treatment of a broad range of disorders, including cardiovascular disease, malignancies, tuberous sclerosis, and lymphangeioleiomyomatosis. In this study, we found an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in lung transplant recipients treated with a sirolimus (SIR)-based immunosuppressive regimen. Methods One hundred eighty-one lung transplant recipients were enrolled in a prospective, multicenter, randomized, open-label trial comparing a tacrolimus (TAC)/SIR/prednisone immunosuppression regimen with a TAC/azathioprine (AZA)/prednisone immunosuppressive regimen. The differences in rates of VTE were examined. Results There was a significantly higher occurrence of VTE in the SIR cohort [15 of 87 (17.2%)] compared with the AZA cohort [3 of 94 (3.2%)] (stratified log-rank statistic=7.44, p p = 0.01). Conclusion Clinicians prescribing SIR should maintain a high level of vigilance for VTE, particularly among patients with other risk factors for this complication.
Improving functional density through run-time constant propagation

Circuit specialization techniques such as constant propagation are commonly used to reduce both the hardware resources and cycle time of digital circuits. When reconfigurable FPGAs are used, these advantages can be extended by dynamically specializing circuits using run-time reconfiguration (RTR). For systems exploiting constant propagation, hardware resources can be reduced by folding constants within the circuit and dynamically changing the constants using circuit reconfiguration. To measure the benefits of circuit specialization, a functional density metric is presented. This metric allows the analysis of both static and run-time reconfigured circuits by including the cost of circuit reconfiguration. This metric will be used to justify runtime constant propagation as well as analyze the effects of reconfiguration time on run-time reconfigured systems.
Reconsideration of Planar Couette Flows Using the Statistical Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook Approach

DOI: 10.2514/1.44409 Anumberofresearchershaveconsideredtransitional-flowgasdynamicapproachestothewell-knowncaseof flow through moving parallel plates. The papers consider different initial conditions and different aspects of the problem and, in some cases, reach conclusions that will be shown to be contradictory to careful numerical simulations. The purpose of this paper is to reexamine some of these key works on planar Couette flow, one of the most fundamental fluid-dynamics problems, particularly with respect to the calibration of the statistical Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook and ellipsoidalstatisticalBhatnagar–Gross–Krookmethods.ThepaperwillpresentbenchmarkdirectsimulationMonte Carlo solutions, by which analytic and Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook/ellipsoidal statistical Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook simulationsmaybecomparedfor flowvelocities,temperatures,heat fluxes,andshearingcoefficients.Thedifferences among the solutions obtained by the direct simulation Monte Carlo, Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook, and ellipsoidal statistical Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook methods will be examined from a microscopic point of view, and the statistical Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook and ellipsoidal statistical Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook methods will be shown to be numericallymoreefficientthanthedirectsimulationMonteCarlomethodfora flowconditionthatispresentlyatthe comfort-levellimitfordirectsimulationMonteCarlocomputations.Finally,itwillbeshownthatananalyticsolution for incompressible, argon, transitional flow (Knudsennumber 0:01) remains valid beyond the applicability ranges suggested in the original work.
Effect of the use of carprofen in dogs undergoing intense rehabilitation after lateral fabellar suture stabilization

Objective—To determine whether carprofen, a commercially available NSAID, would decrease perceived exertion and signs of pain in dogs and therefore increase muscle mass and hind limb function without decreasing range of motion after lateral fabellar suture stabilization. Design—Randomized, blinded, controlled clinical trial. Animals—35 dogs with cranial cruciate ligament rupture and lateral fabellar suture stabilization followed by rehabilitation. Procedures—All dogs underwent surgical stabilization of cranial cruciate ligament rupture by placement of a lateral fabellar suture. Dogs received carprofen (2.2 mg/kg [1 mg/lb], PO, q 12 h) for the first 7 days after surgery and underwent concentrated rehabilitation exercises during weeks 3, 5, and 7 after surgery. Eighteen dogs also received carprofen (2.2 mg/kg, PO, q 12 h) during the weeks of concentrated rehabilitation. Outcomes were measured by a single investigator, who was blinded to group assignments, using pressure platform gait analysis, goniometry, t...
Parallelization Strategies for Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization

There has been a modern confluence of environmental and water systems research towards a design paradigm that emphasizes multiple objectives for computationally intensive applications in areas including groundwater management, water distribution systems, and non-point source pollution. To date there have been very few parallel evolutionary multiobjective applications world-wide. This study seeks to explore new parallelization strategies for the Epsilon-Dominance Nondominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm-II that compare standard Master-Slave and multiple population parallelization approaches. Our analysis focuses on enhancing the efficiency of evolutionary multiobjective optimization by (1) using convergence based dynamic topologies and (2) enhancing search progress using archive-based migration strategies. The long-term goal of this research is to develop parallelization strategies that minimize processor population sizes and communication times while maintaining a proper load balance to achieve optimal speedups. Detailed results of the analysis will be available at the time of the conference.
In-plane thermal stresses in elastic plates

AbstractA method is proposed for the solution of in-plane stresses and displacements in quadrilateral plates under thermal loads. The procedure employs eigenfunctions for angular regions together with a least squares technique. An electronic computer is a necessary adjunct to the proposed method of solution. Numerical results are given.
Vitamin K-dependent carboxylase: effect of endogenous microsomal protein precursors on the rate of exogenous substrate carboxylation.

Rat liver microsomes contain a Triton X-100 solubilizable vitamin Kdependent carboxylase activity that converts specific glutamyl residues of a microsomal prothrombin pre- cursor to y-carboxyglutamyl residues. This activity has been studied in partially (0.25% Triton X- 100) and completely ( 1 .O% Triton X- 100) solubilized rat liver microsomal preparations. The rate of vitamin Kdependent carboxylation of endogenous microsomal protein precursors was very rapid in the completely solubilized liver microsomal preparation, and carboxylation of an exogenous peptide substrate (Phe-Leu-Glu-Glu-Leu) proceeded at the same time. In the par- tially solubilized liver microsomal preparation, the rate of protein carboxylation was greatly reduced, and a lag in carboxylation of the exogenous substrate was observed. When microsomal preparations which were depleted of endogenous precursors were used, this lag was eliminated. These data suggest that both substrates utilize the same microsomal pool of wboxylase and that the fraction of the carboxylase bound to the endogenous precursors is not immediately available to exogenous substrates.
Parenting behaviors and perceived parenting competence of child sexual abuse survivors.

Abstract Objective: This paper reports data testing two alternative hypotheses: (1) the relationship between child sexual abuse and subsequent parenting attitudes and behaviors is a function of the third variable, growing up experiences other than CSA; and (2) maternal depression mediates the relationship between CSA and the same parenting variables. Method: The current study was a retrospective survey of 516 very low-income, urban mothers. Parenting was assessed with three measures: The Parenting Competence Scale and the verbal and severe violence subscales of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Results: Findings for two of the dependent variables, perceived parenting competence and severe violence, supported the third variable hypothesis. The mediational hypothesis was not supported for any of the parenting indicators. Conclusions: Findings regarding the third variable hypothesis are discrepant from those of the one earlier study that tested this hypothesis, suggesting that before conclusions can be drawn regarding the effect of CSA on parenting further research is in order.
Body Temperature of Turkey Poults Exposed to Simulated Chilling Rain

Abstract Scholander et al. (1950) observed in Arctic birds that adaptation to cold was dependent upon time. They further concluded that adaptation of mammals was not accomplished by lowering of body temperature since reindeer and dogs had normal rectal temperatures at −45°C. Insulation was found to be the most important criteria in cold adaptation. Sellers et al. (1951) found rat adaptation to cold to be fully developed in 4–6 weeks. Their work was based on survival time of clipped rats. Sturkie (1946) induced hypothermia in chickens by immersing them in water at a temperature of 20° C. Shivering occurred at first but did not prevent the body temperature from decreasing. Since it is common practice to range turkeys with exposure to all types of climatic conditions, the following study was undertaken to determine what effect chilling rain would have on turkey poults 8 weeks of age. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-four…
Military Deployment of an Adult Child: Ambiguous Loss and Boundary Ambiguity Reflected in the Experiences of Parents of Service Members

ABSTRACTThis study explored the experiences of parents of service members, military family members who are often overlooked even though they are likely a vital source of support for their military adult-children. Reflections on deployment of military adult-children were gathered from 21 parents in semistructured group interviews. A framework of ambiguous loss, boundary ambiguity, and ambivalence was used to analyze comments reflecting pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment experiences. Pre-deployment anticipation of leave-taking was associated with boundary ambiguity and ambivalence for parents, tempered by safety concerns. During deployment ambiguity in parental role expectations and parameters complicated parents’ attempts to manage physical absence and maintain psychological presence. Post-deployment challenged parents with ambiguous psychological presence and disruption of family boundaries, complicated by changes associated with the effects of war.
Toxicity studies on rutin.

Conclusion and SummaryRutin, a flavonol glycoside with vitamin P activity, was studied for signs of acute and chronic toxicity. In rats and guinea pigs, intravenous and intraperitoneal injections of 30 to 50 mg/kg, and intravenous injections in rabbits of 100 to 200 mg/kg, were inocuous.The rate of growth of albino rats was not affected when the diet contained as much as 1%percnt; of rutin, and after 400 days on such a diet, histological examination of the tissues showed no evidence of injury which could be definitely related to rutin administration. Organ weights of the experimental animals were normal. The length of the estrous cycle was the same in rats eating a 1%percnt; rutin diet as in control animals, reproduction was as good, and the young appeared to be as healthy. On the basis of the criteria employed, rutin is nontoxic both acutely and chronically.
Stability of Blowup for a 1D Model of Axisymmetric 3D Euler Equation

The question of the global regularity versus finite- time blowup in solutions of the 3D incompressible Euler equation is a major open problem of modern applied analysis. In this paper, we study a class of one-dimensional models of the axisymmetric hyperbolic boundary blow-up scenario for the 3D Euler equation proposed by Hou and Luo (Multiscale Model Simul 12:1722–1776, 2014) based on extensive numerical simulations. These models generalize the 1D Hou–Luo model suggested in Hou and Luo Luo and Hou (2014), for which finite-time blowup has been established in Choi et al. (arXiv preprint. arXiv:1407.4776, 2014). The main new aspects of this work are twofold. First, we establish finite-time blowup for a model that is a closer approximation of the three-dimensional case than the original Hou–Luo model, in the sense that it contains relevant lower-order terms in the Biot–Savart law that have been discarded in Hou and Luo Choi et al. (2014). Secondly, we show that the blow-up mechanism is quite robust, by considering a broader family of models with the same main term as in the Hou–Luo model. Such blow-up stability result may be useful in further work on understanding the 3D hyperbolic blow-up scenario.
Relative Backwardness of Japan's IT Popularization and Japanese Government's Countermeasures

Despite the fact that the IT popularization of Japan is enjoying rapid, development among the waves of the globalized IT revolution, it is still in a relatively backward state if compared with that of European countries, America and the "four small dragons" of Asia. Major manifestations of this state are the relative backwardness of the country's IT infrastructure, E-commerce, social application of IT, software development, etc., and the shortage of software development personnel. Causes of such backwardness are seen to be the long-term stagnancy of economy, industrial restructuring that is lagging behind, inadequate competition in telecommunications market, and the country's macro-economic system that is falling behind the time. As active countermeasures to deal with these problems, such actions have been taken by Japan as increasing public funding by financial means, reforming taxation system, relaxing restrictions on online trading, perfecting rules governing trade contracts and consumer protection.
PROVISION OF PAEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE SERVICES

Paediatric intensive care has developed into a highly specialized and labour-intensive clinical activity. The provision of adequate numbers of properly staffed children's intensive care beds within the UK, and the lack of national planning and coordination are both problematic. This article examines these problems and discusses current thinking on the provision of paediatric intensive care services.
Infinitely Divisible Distributions; Gibbs States and Correlations

Let S be a non-empty set. S may be either finite or countably infinite. Elements of S are referred to as sites. We wish to consider random distributions of ±1 values on S. The configuration space is the product space Ω = {−1,1}S equipped with the Borel sigma-field ⌁ for the product topology on Ω when {−1,1} has the discrete topology, Equivalently, ⌁ is the sigma-field generated by the finite-dimensional events. Let ℒ denote the collection of finite subsets of S.
Metasurfaces with Fano resonances for directionally selective thermal emission

Thermal emission impacts a wide variety of applications, including thermophotovoltaics, photovoltaics, photon-enhanced thermionic emission, selective solar absorption, incandescent lighting, and spectroscopy. Ordinary structures generally emit a broad range of wavelengths, angles, and polarizations. However, highly selective thermal emission has potential to greatly improve performance in many of these applications. While prior work has explored a wide range of structures to provide some degree of control of one or more of these attributes, there is an ongoing challenge in combining readily-fabricated, simple structures made of appropriate (e.g., heat-resistant) materials with the desired functionality. Here, we will focus on using metasurfaces in conjunction with refractory materials as a platform for achieving selective control of emission. These structures are built from sub-wavelength elements that support localization of surface plasmon polaritons or electromagnetic resonant modes with appropriate attributes. Modeling is performed using rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA), plus Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation, which is further validated using finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations and coupled-mode analysis. Such structures can be considered arbitrarily directional sources that can be carefully patterned in lateral directions to yield a thermal lens with a designed focal length and/or concentration ratio; the benefit of this approach is that it can enhance the view factor between thermal emitters and receivers, without restricting the area ratio or separation distance. This design and modeling platform is then applied to exclude thermal radiation over a certain range of angles. In this work, we study the effect of controlling the angular width and direction on the view factor, and we explore angular dependence of these angular selective structures.
Outcome of IVF in DES-exposed daughters: experience in the 90s.

Purpose: The outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in a group of infertile women with a history of in utero exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) was analyzed. Records from an academic IVF program were retrospectively reviewed. Methods: Seventeen infertile women with a self-reported history of exposure to DES in utero, attending the IVF unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for assisted reproductive technology (ART), underwent 27 IVF cycles. Analysis of the outcome of IVF including implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates was performed. The data were compared with results from a group of 20 infertile patients with idiopathic infertility undergoing 27 IVF cycles at MGH during the same period. The patients in the two groups were matched for age, basal day 3 levels of follicle stimulating hormone and serum estradiol, and the number and quality of embryos transferred. Results: The response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation was comparable in the two groups. Significantly lower implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates following IVF and embryo transfer were seen in the utero DES-exposed group compared to the control patients. Conclusions: Infertile patients with a history of in utero exposure to DES exhibit a significantly impaired implantation rate following IVF, and the outcome of ART remains poor.
Pain Experiences in Children with Sickle Cell Disease in the Era of Hydroxyurea

Abstract Background: Pain is the most common complication of sickle cell disease (SCD), and pain diaries are an effective way to capture pain experienced by both children and adults for many conditions, including SCD. The most recent data on pain experienced by children with SCD outside the clinical trial setting, particularly those with Hemoglobin (Hb) SS disease, were collected prior to the publication of the Baby-HUG trial in 2011, which found hydroxyurea to be safe for use in early childhood. One study found that school-aged children with SCD had at least one pain episode per month; another longitudinal study reported that SCD-related pain was experienced by children on 8% of pain diary days. In the era of hydroxyurea use in children, the occurrence of SCD-related pain episodes in children has not been well studied, especially among those with Hb SS disease. Methods: Parent/child dyads were recruited for a 6-month pilot study of the use of home pain plans and pain diaries from a pediatric hematology clinic based in a safety net institution. The study ran from February to November 2014. Dyads were eligible if the child with SCD was aged 5-15 years and had at least one episode of pain in the year prior to enrollment, by parent report. Parents and children were asked to fill out the diary each day. They received weekly phone calls for the first month, then monthly phone calls until the close of the study, to remind them to complete the daily pain diary and mail it back monthly; $20 gift cards were given for each diary returned. We excluded data from dyads that recorded less than 4 weeks of pain diary data. Results: Thirty-six parent/child dyads were approached and 30 (83%) consented to enroll in the study. Twenty-six (87%) dyads recorded at least four weeks of data. The average age of the child with SCD was 10.3 ± 3.0 years and 20 (77%) were insured through Medicaid. Twenty-two (85%) children had Hb SS disease, of whom 21 were prescribed hydroxyurea. Data were recorded per dyad on average 135 ± 46 diary days. One child with Hb SS disease reported no pain during the study period. The remaining 25 children had any pain and SCD-related pain an average of 8% and 4% diary days, respectively. Nearly all children reporting non-SCD-related pain had headache or abdominal pain. Ten (38%) children missed at least one day of school during the study period. Conclusions: In thissample of children with SCD, composed predominantly of those with Hb SS disease prescribed hydroxyurea, pain was an infrequent occurrence and was attributed to SCD only half the time. This study suggests that SCD-related pain experienced by children may be lower than previously reported. Further study is warranted, especially among those prescribed hydroxyurea. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Implications of animal water balance for terrestrial food webs

Recent research has documented shifts in per capita trophic interactions and food webs in response to changes in environmental moisture, from the top-down (consumers to plants), rather than solely bottom-up (plants to consumers). These responses may be predictable from effects of physiological, behavioral, and ecological traits on animal water balance, although predictions could be modified by energy or nutrient requirements, the risk of predation, population-level responses, and bottom-up effects. Relatively little work has explicitly explored food web effects of changes in animal water balance, despite the likelihood of widespread relevance, including during periodic droughts in mesic locations, where taxa may lack adaptations for water conservation. More research is needed, particularly in light of climate change and hydrological alteration.
Electric Vehicle Scheduling Considering Co-optimized Customer and System Objectives

Efficient electric vehicle (EV) scheduling is a multi-objective optimization problem with conflicting customer and system operator interests, especially during vehicle-to-grid implementations. Economic charging while minimizing battery degradation and maintaining system load profiles couple the interests of these two entities. This paper focuses on identifying the relationships between these objectives and proposes to use an augmented epsilon-constrain (AUGMECON) based technique to implement two-way and three-way multi-objective optimizations. The importance of using these objectives in peak-shaving and valley-filling for an aggregated (residential) EV fleet is discussed. The proposed solution provides a look-ahead strategy into effective EV scheduling by co-optimizing multiple objectives. To provide operational guidance to utilities and customers, an optimal solution may be selected from those represented by the Pareto fronts.
Delineating capillary malformations in the operating suite using white eyeliner pencil.

: Delineating the extent of capillary malformations in the operating suite can be challenging because of a variety of physiologic modifiers, including vasodilatation induced by anesthesia, reactive erythema, and filtering of colors with protective laser eyewear. The use of traditional surgical pens to mark the treatment field has limitations; we have found the use of a white eyeliner pencil to delineate lesions a contemporary technique that assists in identifying the target tissue intraoperatively.
Influence Coefficient Balancing

The assumption that rotor response is proportional to unbalance is basic to virtually all balancing methods for both rigid and flexible rotors. Even for systems where substantial nonlinearity is observed, this assumption can be satisfied by balancing in a stepwise fashion with sufficiently small steps to approximate linear behavior. An additional assumption inherent in most balancing methods, and of particular import to influence coefficient balancing, is that the effect of individual unbalances can be superposed to give the effect of a set of unbalances. This has been generally accepted as a fact for unbalances that are not excessively large. The premise behind influence coefficient balancing is that based on these two assumptions a rotor can be characterized from a set of individual trial mass runs. This characterization can be used to define a combination of these masses which will eliminate, or minimize, the synchronous rotor response due to unbalance. The analytical development and implementation procedures for influence balancing are presented in this chapter. A method for identifying and eliminating non-independent balancing planes is also presented.
How fuel ethanol is made from corn

Abstract In this chapter, fuel ethanol, yeast's role in ethanol production, corn as ethanol feedstock, industrial ethanol production including wet milling, and dry-grind ethanol processing steps (milling, liquefaction, saccharification, fermentation, distillation, and recovery) are described along with the energy use in ethanol production.
Liberty Takings: A Framework for Compensating Pretrial Detainees

This Article shows how the application of a takings paradigm to pretrial detention can mitigate the distorted incentives which shape bail hearings and plea bargaining. The case for compensating pretrial detainees poses challenges because the existence of probable cause of having committed a criminal offense combined with the presence of other risk factors formally legitimizes bail hearing decisions. However, this Article analogizes the taking of people to the taking of property to argue that pretrial detention constitutes a liberty taking which inflicts punishment on unconvicted defendants and creates incentives for false pleas and other perversions of justice. While society faces potential risks and costs from pretrial release, this Article will argue that compensating detainees who are never convicted or whose ultimate conviction could not reasonably have justified the initial detention decision will help to level the playing field for defendants in bail hearings and plea bargaining. This Article will conclude by showing how liberty takings can be designed to produce significant incentives for state actors to screen cases more thoroughly and to rely more extensively on less restrictive alternatives than pretrial detention.
Adequacy of prenatal care among inner-city women.

BACKGROUND Lack of prenatal care is a well-recognized risk factor for infant mortality and low birthweight. This study was conducted to identify factors that facilitate or inhibit access to prenatal care among low-income inner-city women. METHODS A case-control interview study was conducted with women during their postpartum hospitalization at a midwestern inner-city hospital. Fifty-eight women who had received no prenatal care and 71 women who had received markedly inadequate prenatal care were compared with 123 controls who had received intermediate or adequate prenatal care. RESULTS The majority of subjects were minorities, single, had low incomes, and were in the Medicaid program. Subjects' median age was 23 years and median parity 2, and the majority had not completed high school. Inadequate prenatal care was independently associated with the following variables (adjusted odds ratios): lack of any insurance, including Medicaid (5.3), being a smoker (3.8), being homeless (2.7), being black (2.5), not being worried what the physician or nurse might say (2.4), not using contraception (2.1), having a household income of less than $400 a month (1.8), being ashamed or afraid of the pregnancy or the physician (1.4), having transportation problems (1.3), and level of education (0.8). CONCLUSIONS Practical factors related to poverty are substantial barriers to obtaining prenatal care. Comprehensive approaches to prenatal services that address these barriers may be more effective in facilitating adequate prenatal care among low-income women.
Contaminants of emerging concern in urban stormwater: spatiotemporal patterns and removal by iron-enhanced sand filters (IESFs).

Abstract Numerous contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) typically occur in urban rivers. Wastewater effluents are a major source of many CECs. Urban runoff (stormwater) is a major urban water budget component and may constitute another major CEC pathway. Yet, stormwater-based CEC field studies are rare. This research investigated 384 CECs in 36 stormwater samples in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Nine sampling sites included three large stormwater conveyances (pipes) and three paired iron-enhanced sand filters (IESFs; untreated inlets and treated outlets). The 123 detected compounds included commercial-consumer compounds, veterinary and human pharmaceuticals, lifestyle and personal care compounds, pesticides, and others. Thirty-one CECs were detected in ≥50% of samples. Individual samples contained a median of 35 targeted CECs (range: 18–54). Overall, median concentrations were ≥10 ng/L for 25 CECs and ≥100 ng/L for 9 CECs. Ranked, hierarchical linear modeling indicated significant seasonal- and site type-based concentration variability for 53 and 30 CECs, respectively, with observed patterns corresponding to CEC type, source, usage, and seasonal hydrology. A primarily warm-weather, diffuse, runoff-based profile included many herbicides. A second profile encompassed winter and/or late summer samples enriched with some recalcitrant, hydrophobic compounds (e.g., PAHs), especially at pipes, suggesting conservative, less runoff-dependent sources (e.g., sediments). A third profile, indicative of mixed conservative/non-runoff, runoff, and/or atmospheric sources and transport that collectively affect a variety of conditions, included various fungicides, lifestyle, non-prescription, and commercial-consumer CECs. Generally, pipe sites had large, diverse land-use catchments, and showed more frequent detections of diverse CECs, but often at lower concentrations; while untreated sites (with smaller, more residential-catchments) demonstrated greater detections of “pseudo-persistent” and other ubiquitous or residentially-associated CECs. Although untreated stormwater transports an array of CECs to receiving waters, IESF treatment significantly removed concentrations of 14 (29%) of the 48 most detected CECs; for these, median removal efficiencies were 26%–100%. Efficient removal of some hydrophobic (e.g., PAHs, bisphenol A) and polar-hydrophilic (e.g., caffeine, nicotine) compounds indicated particulate-bound contaminant filtration and for certain dissolved contaminants, sorption.