cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Covert homicide: when SIDS is not SIDS, reasons for the missed identification

The sudden and unexpected death of a healthy infant requires a forensic and legal investigation. If the forensic investigation fails to identify a significant cause for the death, the death is labeled Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Among all the possible causes for the death murder is rarely considered in the differential diagnosis. Studies have reported that as many as 20% of SIDS deaths are in fact homicide. This paper will examine factors within the medicolegal and the law enforcement communities that seriously affect the detection of infant deaths that masquerade as SIDS. In addition, it examines how the preconceived portrayal of motherhood by society and societal pressures impede the detection of mothers that murder their children. Among the 2,500 SIDS deaths annually in the U.S., it is estimated that between 25 to 250 of these infants are killed by their mothers. In order to accurately as certain the number of infants that are murdered requires a significant shift in the mindset of all those involved in the investigation. This will result in justice for the infant, the future protection of other infants, and provide a more accurate representation of infants that truly die from SIDS. Conclusion â€“ Therefore, to ensure that the true cause of the sudden and unexpected death of an infant is ascertained, all infant deaths must undergo a complete forensic and police investigation. In addition, this practice will ensure the integrity and accuracy of cases designated as SIDS.
Empiric Therapy for Bacterial Meningitis

Population studies from three counties indicate that meningitis occurs with a frequency of approximately 10 episodes per 100,000 population annually in the United States. Estimates based on this prevalence and a population of 2.3 X 10(8) suggest that approximately 23,000 episodes of meningitis occur annually in the United States. Available studies indicate that rapid and reasonably accurate identification of the etiologic agent can be made in greater than or equal to 75% of patients with meningitis by gram-staining of the cerebrospinal fluid, counterimmunoelectrophoresis, or other antigen detection techniques. These means of rapid diagnosis theoretically leave only approximately 7,000 episodes of meningitis annually in the United States in which empiric, as opposed to specific, therapy is necessary. Age-dependent variation in etiologic agents of meningitis markedly influences selection of therapeutic regimens. The preponderance of Enterobacteriaceae and group B streptococci as causes of meningitis in neonates has resulted in utilization of a penicillin (often ampicillin) combined with an aminoglycoside for empiric therapy. Continued high morbidity and mortality, especially in neonatal meningitis caused by Enterobacteriaceae, have been felt to reflect inadequate penetration of aminoglycosides into the cerebrospinal fluid, but careful prospective randomized studies of intrathecal and intraventricular administration of aminoglycosides failed to demonstrate any enhancement of therapeutic results. Ampicillin appeared to be an ideal agent for empiric therapy in older children, in whom meningitis is usually caused by Haemophilus influenzae, with Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis being less frequently implicated as etiologic agents. The occurrence of beta-lactamase-mediated resistance to ampicillin in as high as 15% of isolates of H. influenzae has resulted in combined use of ampicillin and chloramphenicol for meningitis in children. This approach is complicated by evidence of clinically important antagonism between ampicillin and chloramphenicol. Since almost all community-acquired meningitis in otherwise healthy adults is caused by meningococci and pneumococci, penicillin remains the agent of choice. In contrast, meningitis following trauma to and surgery involving the central nervous system and in the elderly is often caused by gram-negative bacilli and other "unusual" organisms; therapeutic problems in this group parallel those observed in neonatal meningitis.
Bile acids stimulate expression of intestinal differentiation markers in gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma cells

Reflux of acid and bile acids, and the subsequent development of intestinal metaplasia of the esophagus (Barrett's esophagus) or gastric cardia are risk factors for the development of adenocarcinoma at the GEJ. However, the molecular mechanisms translating reflux exposure to epithelial cell transformation in the upper gastrointestinal tract remain undefined. Here, quantitative RT-PCR revealed increased expression of guanylyl cyclase C (GC-C), the receptor for bacterial heat-stable enterotoxins (STa) and a marker of differentiated enterocytes, in adenocarcinomas of the esophagus and stomach, but not in squamous carcinomas of the esophagus, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or normal esophageal or gastric mucosae. Similarly, the human GEJ adenocarcinoma cell line OE19 expressed GC-C mRNA and accumulated cyclic GMP in response to STa. Interestingly, exposure of OE19 to the bile acid deoxycholate (DCA) stimulated GC-C promoter activity, mRNA expression, protein expression (Western blot), and function (STa-induced cyclic GMP accumulation). Moreover, treatment with DCA increased expression of the homeodomain proteins Cdx-2 (mRNA and protein) and Oct1 (protein), upstream transcription factors important in regulating intestine-specific expression of GC-C. Of significance, hydrophilic bile acids such as cholate, taurodeoxycholate and ursodeoxycholate were ineffective compared to the hydrophobic bile acids chenodeoxycholic acid and DCA in inducing GC-C and Cdx-2 mRNA expression. These observations suggest that transformation at the GEJ is initiated, in part, by induction of the transcriptional program mediating enterocyte differentiation, including Oct1, Cdx-2, and GC-C, upon exposure to specific bile acids. Further, they suggest that suppression of hydrophobic bile acid production, for example by treatment with ursodeoxycholate, which does not activate the intestinal transcription program in epithelial cells, might be effective chemoprevention for GEJ tumorigenesis. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2004) 75, P10–P10; doi: 10.1016/j.clpt.2003.11.038
Understanding the role of innate immunity in the mechanism of action of the live attenuated Yellow Fever Vaccine 17D.

The live attenuated Yellow Fever Vaccine 17D [YF-17D] is one of the most effective vaccines available. During the 70 years since its development, the vaccine has been administered to more than 400 million people worldwide with minimal incident of severe side effects. Despite its efficacy, the immunological mechanisms that mediate its efficacy are poorly understood. Here we review the development of YF-17D in a historical context, and then present some emerging evidence which suggests that YF-17D activates multiple Toll-like receptors (TLRs) on dendritic cells (DCs) to elicit a broad spectrum of innate and adaptive immune responses. Interestingly, the resulting adaptive immune responses are characterized by a mixed T helper cell (Th)1/Th2 cytokine profile and antigenspecific CD8(+) T cells, and distinct TLRs appear to differentially control the Th1/Th2 balance. These data offer some new insights into the molecular mechanism of action of YF-17D, and highlight the potential of vaccination strategies that use combinations of different TLR ligands to stimulate polyvalent immune responses.
“CAN WE FEED?” A Mnemonic to Merge Nutrition and Intensive Care Assessment of the Critically Ill Patient

As care of the critically ill patient grows more complex, so does the breadth of knowledge required of the intensivist to deliver quality service. Nutrition is one area of many where the complexity of care has grown and the opportunity for improving patient outcomes has become evident. The use of mnemonics has proven successful in compartmentalizing information that must be considered in complex decision-making processes. The authors propose one such mnemonic, “CAN WE FEED?” to assist in the development and initiation of early enteral nutrition therapy in the intensive care unit (ICU). Critical illness severity (C), age (A), and nutrition risk screening (N) are considered when performing a baseline evaluation of the critically ill patient upon presentation to the ICU. Wait for resuscitation (W) is a key component in the care of most critically ill patients and is an important consideration prior to the initiation of feeding. Energy requirements (E) are determined using conventional weight-based equations,...
Postnatal development of a large auditory nerve terminal: the endbulb of Held in cats.

The endbulbs of Held are formed by the ascending branches of myelinated auditory nerve Wbers and represent one of the largest synaptic endings in the brain. Most of the developmental changes in structure occur during the Wrst 30 postnatal days of age. The neonatal endbulb begins as a Xattened expansion with many Wlopodia, resembling a growth cone and characterized by numerous puncta adherentia and synapses associated with small postsynaptic densities; the most impressive feature of the ending at this age is its highly irregular plasma membrane that interdigitates with that of the postsynaptic spherical bushy cell. During these Wrst 30 days, the number of puncta adherentia diminishes, postsynaptic densities nearly double in size, intermembraneous cisternae emerge, and plasma membranes Xatten. These features endow the endbulb with an adult-like appearance. On the other hand, synaptic vesicle density increases progressively from approximately 50/m 2 at birth to 100/m 2 at adulthood. Mitochondria size remains constant over this developmental period but mitochondrial volume fraction increases until 60 days postnatal. Although many features of endbulb morphology stabilize by 30 days, other features suggest that endbulb development continues into the third month of age. Many of these observations correlate with the maturation of physiological response properties and suggest issues for further study.
Fast uncertainty-driven large-scale volume feature extraction on desktop PCs

The ability to efficiently and accurately extract features of interest is an extremely important tool in the field of scientific visualization as it allows researchers to isolate regions based on their domain knowledge. However, the increasing size of large-scale datasets often forces users to rely on distributed computing environments which have many drawbacks in terms of interaction and convenience. Many of the current feature extraction techniques are designed around these distributed environments. The ability to overcome the memory and bandwidth limitations of desktop PCs can broaden their usability towards large-scale applications. In this work, we present a new hybrid feature extraction technique which combines GPU-accelerated clustering with the multi-resolution advantages of supervoxels in order to handle large-scale datasets on standard desktop PCs. Furthermore, this is paired with a user-driven uncertainty-based refinement approach to enhance extraction results into a desired level of detail. We demonstrate the effectiveness and interactivity of this technique using a number of application specific examples utilizing large-scale volumetric datasets.
Performance and precision: mobile solutions for high quality engineering drawings

Engineering documents e.g. 'blueprints' are one of the traditional forms of paper based information moving more to the digital realm. With mobile and the evolution of GPUs on mobile, there are tremendous opportunities for applications that view and interact with engineering documents.
The Penalty of Exclusion - A Price or Sanction?

In this article, Professor Davies applies the economically-based theory of prices and sanctions (developed by Professor Robert Cooter in Prices and Sanctions, 84 Colum. L.Rev. 1523 (1984)), to the Supreme Court's exclusionary rule jurisprudence. Under price and sanction theory, penalties that "sanction" harmful human conduct do so in an effort to signal that the conduct is wrongful and prohibited and to deter its occurrence. By contrast, penalties that "price" harmful human behavior permit actors to impose harms on others, provided they "internalize" the costs they impose when they elect to do so. A community's decision to adopt a pricing stratagem over a sanctioning stratagem (or vice versa) is important because the choice can cast light on the community's fundamental attitude toward particular harmful conduct. If a community prices harmful conduct, the community is essentially morally-neutral toward the occurrence of the harm; it seeks to deter the harmful behavior only if it is inefficient, permitting efficient harmful behavior to occur, provided the actor responsible for the harm pays for any costs imposed on others. A community that sanctions harmful conduct, however, considers the conduct to be wrongful and prohibited and seeks to deter the conduct by adopting a penalty that is sufficiently hefty to convince a reasonable actor to choose compliant over non-compliant behavior. Applying price and sanction theory to what Professor Davies calls "the penalty of exclusion" ? i.e., the penalty for police transgressions of Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights ? the author highlights important strengths and weaknesses in the Supreme Court's exclusion jurisprudence. The article concludes that although the penalty of exclusion is best described as a sanction, certain aspects of the Court's exclusionary rule decisions have diluted the penalty's ability to function as an effective sanctioning device. In particular, rulings that have severely limited the scope of the exclusion penalty have led some police forces to conclude that constitutionally defective evidence-gathering conduct is no longer prohibited, and thus if penalized at all, will be priced, not sanctioned. The article argues further that other aspects of the Court's exclusionary rule jurisprudence are consistent with and supported by price and sanction theory. Citing as an example the much maligned "good faith exception" to the exclusionary rule, the author argues that the exception is supported by price and sanction theory and contributes to the exclusion penalty's internal coherence and moral suasion.
Recombinant human growth hormone for children with renal failure.

The pathogenesis of growth retardation in children with chronic renal failure (CRF) is clearly multifactorial. A major breakthrough in the understanding of the pathogenesis of uremic growth failure was achieved only recently by a more detailed analysis of the growth hormone (GH)/insulinlike growth factor (IGF) axis. Uremia is characterized by an insensitivity to the somatotropic action of GH. The mechanisms that account for this insensitivity include reduced hepatic GH receptor expression, decreased production of IGF-I, and inhibition of IGF bioactivity by increased binding of IGFs to their specific binding proteins. Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) in supraphysiological doses is able to overcome the partial GH resistance and to stimulate longitudinal growth under both experimental and clinical conditions. One possible mechanism of action of rhGH in uremia is the restoration of circulating IGF bioactivity, which results from the differential regulatory effect of rhGH on circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations. RhGH has proven to be an effective, safe, and well-tolerated new treatment modality for growth-retarded children at all stages of CRF. There is strong evidence that final height will increase in these children. Other than a modest chronic stimulation of insulin secretion, no frequent side effects have been observed; in particular, no acceleration in loss of residual renal function has been seen in children treated before the onset of end-stage renal failure. In children after transplantation, rhGH is also effective, but the potential risk of interference with araft function is not vet sufficiently defined.
LegionTools: A Toolkit + UI for Recruiting and Routing Crowds to Synchronous Real-Time Tasks

We introduce LegionTools, a toolkit and interface for managing large, synchronous crowds of online workers for experiments. This poster contributes the design and implementation of a state-of-the-art crowd management tool, along with a publicly-available, open-source toolkit that future system builders can use to coordinate synchronous crowds of online workers for their systems and studies. We describe the toolkit itself, along with the underlying design rationale, in order to make it clear to the community of system builders at UIST when and how this tool may be beneficial to their project. We also describe initial deployments of the system in which workers were synchronously recruited to support real-time crowdsourcing systems, including the largest synchronous recruitment and routing of workers from Mechanical Turk that we are aware of. While the version of LegionTools discussed here focuses on Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform, it can be easily extended to other platforms as APIs become available.
Non-specific red cell reactivity in an obstetric population

AbstractObjective: To examine non-specific red cell reactivity (NSR) on antibody (Ab) screening of obstetric inpatients.Methods: Observational study of 5438 obstetric inpatients (2009–2013). Ab-positive patients were identified and their records reviewed for NSR, other antibodies, transfusion reactions or hemolytic disease of the fetus/newborn (HDFN). Evaluation of NSR frequency by test era assessed the impact of an institutional change to solid-phase screening in 2011.Results: Of obstetric inpatients, 5.3% had at least one positive Ab screen; 1.6% had NSR. Of NSR-positive patients, 16.7% had identifiable Abs that pre-dated NSR; 25% had concurrent Abs and 8.5% had subsequent Ab identification. In 49.1%, NSR resolved during follow-up. The frequency of NSR was higher after the change to solid-phase Ab screening, but specific Ab frequency was similar in both testing periods. No transfusion reactions or cases of HDFN were noted in this cohort.Conclusions: NSR is found in 1–2% of obstetrical inpatients at our ...
An optofluidic FRET laser using quantum dots as donor

The integration of optofluidic laser and FRET mechanism provides novel research frontiers, including sensitive biochemical analysis and novel photonic devices, such as on-chip coherent light sources and bio-tunable lasers. Here we investigated an optofluidic FRET laser using quantum dots (QDs) as FRET donors. We achieved lasing from Cy5 as the acceptor in the QD-Cy5 pair with excitation at 450 nm where Cy5 has negligible absorption by itself. The threshold was approximately 14 μJ/mm2. The demonstrated capability of QDs as the donor in a FRET laser greatly improves the versatility of optofluidic laser operation due to the broad and large absorption cross section of QDs in the blue and UV spectral region. The excitation efficiency of the acceptor molecules through FRET channel was also analyzed, showing that the energy transfer rate and the non-radiative Auger recombination rate of QDs plays a significant role in FRET laser performance.
An Opinion-aware Approach to Contextual Suggestion.

In this paper we describe our efforts for TREC Contextual Suggestion task. Our goal of this year is to evaluate the effectiveness of (1) an opinion-based method to model user profiles and rank candidate suggestions; and (2) a template-based summarization method that leverages the information from multiple resources to generate the description of a candidate suggestion. Existing approaches often uses the description or category information of the suggestions to estimate the user profile. However, one limitation of such approaches is that it may not be generalized well to other suggestions. To overcome this limitation, we propose to estimate the user profile based on the reviews of the candidate suggestions. Our preliminary results show that the proposed new method can improve the performance. Moreover, we explore a new way of generating summaries for the candidate suggestions. The main idea is that we want to leverage the information from multiple sources to generate a more comprehensive summary for a candidate suggestion. In particular, the summary includes the category information of the suggestion, meta-description of the website, reviews of the suggestion and the similar example suggestions that the user liked.
Rhodopsin Engineering through Structure-Guided Recombination

Membrane proteins assume key roles in environmental sensing, metabolite uptake, and product efflux. Given the vital connections they facilitate between a cell and its environment, there is great potential to engineer these proteins to modulate cellular activity and productivity. For this project, we focus our efforts on rhodopsins, light-sensing transporters and channels that have applications in optical biosensors, neuronal monitoring and control, and bioenergy. Using structure-guided recombination we have built a library of chimeric rhodopsins. We used a novel assay for membrane protein localization to pre-screen a fraction of the library. A diverse selection of well-expressing variants has been further characterized via electrophysiology. Through machine learning we can associate rhodopsin expression, localization, and functional properties to blocks of structure and make predictions on the properties of untested chimeras.
Attribution Theory: Implications for Intercultural Communication

(1982). Attribution Theory: Implications for Intercultural Communication. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 6, Communication Yearbook 6, pp. 721-735.
A contemporary overview of percutaneous coronary interventions. The American College of Cardiology-National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC-NCDR).

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) established the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC-NCDR) to provide a uniform and comprehensive database for analysis of cardiovascular procedures across the country. The initial focus has been the high-volume, high-profile procedures of diagnostic cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Several large-scale multicenter efforts have evaluated diagnostic catheterization and PCI, but these have been limited by lack of standard definitions and relatively nonuniform data collection and reporting methods. Both clinical and procedural data, and adverse events occurring up to hospital discharge, were collected and reported according to uniform guidelines using a standard set of 143 data elements. Datasets were transmitted quarterly to a central facility for quality-control screening, storage and analysis. This report is based on PCI data collected from January 1, 1998, through September 30, 2000.A total of 139 hospitals submitted data on 146,907 PCI procedures. Of these, 32% (46,615 procedures) were excluded because data did not pass quality-control screening. The remaining 100,292 procedures (68%) were included in the analysis set. Average age was 64 +/- 12 years; 34% were women, 26% had diabetes mellitus, 29% had histories of prior myocardial infarction (MI), 32% had prior PCI and 19% had prior coronary bypass surgery. In 10% the indication for PCI was acute MI < or =6 h from onset, while in 52% it was class II to IV or unstable angina. Only 5% of procedures did not have a class I indication by ACC criteria, but this varied by hospital from a low of 0 to a high of 38%. A coronary stent was placed in 77% of procedures, but this varied by hospital from a low of 0 to a high of 97%. The frequencies of in-hospital Q-wave MI, coronary artery bypass graft surgery and death were 0.4%, 1.9% and 1.4%, respectively. Mortality varied by hospital from a low of 0 to a high of 4.2%. This report presents the first data collected and analyzed by the ACC-NCDR. It portrays a contemporary overview of coronary interventional practices and outcomes, using uniform data collection and reporting standards. These data reconfirm overall acceptable results that are consistent with other reported data, but also confirm large variations between individual institutions.
Two thematic manifestations of neotribal capitalism in the United States

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how Elizabeth Rata’s (2000) concept of neotribal capitalism can be used to better understand and illuminate the nature and practices of contemporary in...
Cook/Chill Foodservice Systems: Microbiological Quality and End-Point Temperature of Beef Loaf, Peas and Potatoes After Reheating by Conduction, Convection and Microwave Radiation,

Microbiological quality, as estimated from temperature and mesophilic aerobic plate counts of beef loaf, instant mashed potatoes and frozen peas, was determined at point of service to compare conduction, convection and microwave reheating in a hospital-type cook/chill foodservice system. Although reheated products were similar microbiologically (mean log CFU/g = 2.3 to 3.4), internal end temperatures, even under laboratory-controlled conditions, did not meet FDA recommended standards (≥74°C) for reheated products in up to 83% of situations observed. Such data demonstrate the potential for foodborne illness in hospital cook/chill foodservice systems.
A crowdsourced “Who wants to be a millionaire?” player

Summary Question answering is a fundamental problem for artificial intelligence research. State-of-the-art question answering systems, such as search engines, can answer well-formed factual questions. However, they fail on nonfactual and natural language queries. On the other hand, crowdsourcing leverages human intelligence to present solutions for problems, which are hard for computers. In the process of crowdsourcing, aggregating the responses from the crowd is a big challenge of itself. This work presents a model that integrates artificial intelligence with crowdsourcing to answer difficult natural language multiple choice questions. We build a crowdsourced mobile gaming experience for “Who wants to be a millionaire?” TV quiz show to test our methods. We use lightweight artificial intelligence models in aggregating the crowd responses. Our methods are able to answer even the hardest questions with very high accuracy. The experiment results suggest that building a super player for “Who wants to be a millionaire?” is feasible using our models. This study shows that facilitating crowdsourcing with artificial intelligence is an important tool for answering questions, which trouble state-of-the-art question answering systems.
Novel mouse models of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) reveal early onset mitochondrial defects and suggest loss of PABPN1 may contribute to pathology

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is a late onset disease caused by polyalanine expansion in the poly(A) binding protein nuclear 1 (PABPN1). Several mouse models have been generated to study OPMD; however, most of these models have employed transgenic overexpression of alanine-expanded PABPN1. These models do not recapitulate the OPMD patient genotype and PABPN1 overexpression could confound molecular phenotypes. We have developed a knock-in mouse model of OPMD (Pabpn1+/A17) that contains one alanine-expanded Pabpn1 allele under the control of the native promoter and one wild-type Pabpn1 allele. This mouse is the closest available genocopy of OPMD patients. We show that Pabpn1+/A17 mice have a mild myopathic phenotype in adult and aged animals. We examined early molecular and biochemical phenotypes associated with expressing native levels of A17-PABPN1 and detected shorter poly(A) tails, modest changes in poly(A) signal (PAS) usage, and evidence of mitochondrial damage in these mice. Recent studies have suggested that a loss of PABPN1 function could contribute to muscle pathology in OPMD. To investigate a loss of function model of pathology, we generated a heterozygous Pabpn1 knock-out mouse model (Pabpn1+/Δ). Like the Pabpn1+/A17 mice, Pabpn1+/Δ mice have mild histologic defects, shorter poly(A) tails, and evidence of mitochondrial damage. However, the phenotypes detected in Pabpn1+/Δ mice only partially overlap with those detected in Pabpn1+/A17 mice. These results suggest that loss of PABPN1 function could contribute to but may not completely explain the pathology detected in Pabpn1+/A17 mice.
Comparison of Laboratory‐Developed and Commercial Monoclonal Antibody‐Based Sandwich Enzyme‐Linked Immunosorbent Assays for Almond (Prunus dulcis) Detection and Quantification

Abstract A commercially available monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based direct sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (BioFront Technologies, Tallahassee, Fla., U.S.A.) was compared with an in-house developed mAb 4C10-based ELISA for almond detection. The assays were comparable in sensitivity (limit of detection < 1 ppm full fat almond, limit of quantification < 5 ppm full fat almond), specificity (no cross-reactivity with 156 tested foods at a concentration of 100000 ppm whole sample), and reproducibility (intra- and interassay variability < 15% CV). The target antigens were stable and detectable in whole almond seeds subjected to autoclaving, blanching, frying, microwaving, and dry roasting. The almond recovery ranges for spiked food matrices were 84.3% to 124.6% for 4C10 ELISA and 81.2% to 127.4% for MonoTrace ELISA. The almond recovery ranges for commercial and laboratory prepared foods with declared/known almond amount were 30.9% to 161.2% for 4C10 ELISA and 38.1% to 207.6% for MonoTrace ELISA. Neither assay registered any false-positive or negative results among the tested commercial and laboratory prepared samples. Practical Application Ability to detect and quantify trace amounts of almonds is important for improving safety of almond sensitive consumers. Two monoclonal antibody-based ELISAs were compared for almond detection. The information is useful to food industry, regulatory agencies, scientific community, and almond consumers.
Achieving cost/performance balance ratio using tiered storage caching techniques: A case study with CephFS

As demand for widely accessible storage capacity increases and usage is on the rise, steady IO performance is desired but tends to suffer within multi-user environments. Typical deployments use standard hard drives as the cost per/GB is quite low. On the other hand, HDD based solutions for storage is not known to scale well with process concurrency and soon enough, high rate of IOPs create a "random access" pattern killing performance. Though not all SSDs are alike, SSDs are an established technology often used to address this exact "random access" problem. In this contribution, we will first discuss the IO performance of many different SSD drives (tested in a comparable and standalone manner). We will then be discussing the performance and integrity of at least three low-level disk caching techniques (Flashcache, dm-cache, and bcache) including individual policies, procedures, and IO performance. Furthermore, the STAR online computing infrastructure currently hosts a POSIX-compliant Ceph distributed storage cluster - while caching is not a native feature of CephFS (only exists in the Ceph Object store), we will show how one can implement a caching mechanism profiting from an implementation at a lower level. As our illustration, we will present our CephFS setup, IO performance tests, and overall experience from such configuration. We hope this work will service the community's interest for using disk-caching mechanisms with applicable uses such as distributed storage systems and seeking an overall IO performance gain.
Semicrystalline Shape‐Memory Elastomers: Effects of Molecular Weight, Architecture, and Thermomechanical Path

Poly(caprolactone) networks are well-studied shape-memory polymers owing to their high fixity and recovery, their ability to store large amounts of elastic energy, and their tunable shape-triggering temperature. To elucidate the influence of network structure on shape-memory features, poly(caprolactone) networks are prepared by reacting different molecular weight diacrylate prepolymers with trifunctional (trimethylolpropane tris(3-mercaptopropionate), 3T) or tetrafunctional (pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate), 4T) crosslinkers. Networks from 4T crosslinkers generally exhibit higher gel fractions, more elastically active strands, and superior shape-memory properties compared with networks from 3T. Melted elastomers exhibit stress–strain behavior well described by the neo-Hookean model. How the state of crystallization during the cold-drawing process has a large effect on the draw stress, the network's shape fixity, and its elastic storage capacity is shown. Finally, the working strain range of networks is evaluated. Cured elastomers prepared from prepolymers with different molecular weights can store and release large amounts of elastic energy (>2 MJ m−3), over different ranges of tensile strain.
Physical activity and CVD in older adults: an expert's perspective.

Introduction: The benefits of physical activity have long been recognized as powerful preventive opportunities for both prevention of cardiovascular disease and aging-related morbidity. However, ph...
A Global Analysis of the Relationship between Concentrations of Microcystins in Water and Fish

Cyanobacteria, the primary bloom-forming organisms in fresh water, elicit a spectrum of problems in lentic systems. The most immediate concern for people and animals are cyanobacterial toxins, which have been detected at variable concentrations in water and fish around the world. Cyanotoxins can transfer through food webs, potentially increasing the risk of exposure to people who eat fish from affected waters, yet little is known about how cyanotoxins fluctuate in wild fish tissues. We collated existing studies on cyanotoxins in fish and fresh water from lakes around the world into a global dataset to test the hypothesis that cyanotoxin concentrations in fish increase with water toxin concentrations. We limited our quantitative analysis to microcystins because data on other cyanotoxins in fish were sparse, but we provided a qualitative summary of other cyanotoxins reported in wild, freshwater fish tissues. We found a positive relationship between intracellular microcystin in water samples and microcystin in fish tissues that had been analyzed by assay methods (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and protein phosphatase inhibition assay). We expected microcystin to be found in increasingly higher concentrations from carnivorous to omnivorous to planktivorous fishes. We found, however, that omnivores generally had the highest tissue microcystin concentrations. Additionally, we found contrasting results for the level of microcystin in different tissue types depending on the toxin analysis method. Because microcystin and other cyanotoxins have the potential to impact public health, our results underline the current need for comprehensive and uniform detection methods for the analysis of cyanotoxins in complex matrices.
Bio-signal Interface Amplifiers: an Introduction

There are many design challenges involved in the circuit design of implantable neural recording systems. A generic biopotential-recording system is illustrated in Fig. 2.1. First, weak neural signals must be amplified, conditioned, and then digitized. The information then needs to be wirelessly transmitted out of the body to avoid possible infection from transcutaneous connectors. The power consumption increases with the number of recording channels and the complexity of system. However, the power dissipation of miniature implantable devices is limited to prevent excessive tissue heating.
Alternative Refrigerant Research Program

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is often called upon to contribute specialized research or technical advice to initiatives of national importance. The U.S. response to the international environmental problem of ozone depletion required such a contribution.
Measurements of Collisions Between Laser-Cooled Atoms

This report discusses the following topics on laser-cooled atomic collisions: Collisions in Optical Traps: General Considerations; Collisions of Ground State Atoms; Collisions Involving Singly Excited States; and Collisions Involving Doubly Excited States. 59 refs., 19 figs.
Hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase expression in early mouse development

Dosage compensation for X-linked genes occurs by the process of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in mammalian somatic cells (Lyon 1972). The inactivation of one X chromosome in females takes place early in development, although the exact time is unknown. One method of ascertaining the time of XCI is to determine the activity of the X chromosome at different stages of development as measured by the activity of an X-coded enzyme. Prior to XCI, and in the absence of other dosage compensating mechanisms, the activity for an embryonically expressed X-coded enzyme should be twice as high in female embryos with two X chromosomes, as in male embryos with one X chromosome. The distribution of enzyme activities for single embryos from a litter would have two equal-sized peaks that are separated by a factor of two. The convergence of the two peaks into one would indicate that XCI had occurred.
Complexity of Closeness, Sparseness and Segment Equivalence for Context-Free and Regular Languages

In this paper, we investigate the complexity of deciding closeness, segment equivalence and sparseness for context-free and regular languages. It will be shown that the closeness problem for context-free grammars (CFGs) is undecidable while it is PSPACE-complete for nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs) and NL-complete for deterministic finite automata (DFAs). The segment equivalence problems for CFGs and NFAs are co-NP-complete. It is NL-complete for DFAs. If encoded in binary, the segment equivalence problems for CFGs and NFAs are co-NE-complete and PSPACE-complete, respectively. The sparseness problems for NFAs and DFAs are NL-complete. We also show that the equivalence problems for CFGs and NFAs generating commutative languages are II 2 P -complete and co-NP-complete, respectively. For trim DFAs generating commutative languages the equivalence problem is in L.
Pathology of Germ Cell Tumors

This chapter familiarizes the reader with the various germ cell tumors: malignant germ cell tumors (dysgerminoma, embryonal carcinoma, yolk sac tumor, polyembryoma, choriocarcinoma), benign germ cell tumors (teratomas, carcinoid tumors), malignant mixed germ cell tumors, and gonadoblastoma. The clinical features, macroscopic features, microscopic immunohistochemistry, and differential diagnoses of these tumor types are discussed.
Use of Enteral Nutrition for Gastrointestinal Bleeding Prophylaxis in the Critically Ill: Review of Current Literature.

Purpose of review This review provides a comprehensive overview of the etiology of stress-related mucosal disease, current acid suppression therapy recommendations, and the role enteral nutrition may play in disease prevention. Recent findings Recent literature indicates enteral nutrition may prevent complications of stress-related mucosal disease by increasing splanchnic blood flow, enhancing gastrointestinal motility, and promoting cellular immunity and integrity through local nutrient delivery. Stress-related mucosal disease is a common complication of hospitalization in the critically ill which may lead to overt gastrointestinal bleeding and enhanced mortality. High-risk patients have historically been prescribed acid suppression therapy, though enteral nutrition may also have a role in disease mitigation.
A Real-time Interactive Editor for 3D Image Registration

Creating deformations between 3D volumes has received attention in areas such as animation, fluid dynamics, and medical imaging. Volume data often represents some anatomical structure or fluid which moves in a smooth, continuous manner. Particularly in the medical imaging community, there have been a number of attempts to automatically compute these smooth deformations between successive volume data sets, however due to the considerable amount of imaging artifacts, manual deformation methods are often required. There have been several human-assisted systems that facilitate manual deformation of volumetric data, however, they either do not facilitate real-time interaction from a user, or are too cumbersome for substantially large data sets. We present an interactive tool for creating and validating highquality point-based and coordinate frame-based deformations. At its core, there is a visualization framework interactively renders deformed volumes and visually assesses the quality of deformations as volumes are manipulated.
in that sleep of death what dreams...: Foucault, Existential Phenomenology, and the Kantian imagination

Although Foucault's early writings were strongly influenced by the discourse of existential phenomenology, he later considered it an obstacle to a better understanding of social and political power. This essay seeks to understand some of the reasons for his shift, specifically with respect to Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. I argue that Foucault diverges from existential phenomenology according to an alternative tendency within the Kantian inheritance they both share: one which stresses the world-disruptive rather than the unifying or world-disclosive power of transcendental imagination. Examining the role played by dreams and death in Foucault's early introduction to Binswanger's Dream and Existence allows us to situate his later analysis of the historical and political (rather than existential) meaning of death with respect to larger philosophical currents.
Relationships between regional coastal land cover distributions and elevation reveal data uncertainty in a sea-level rise impacts model

Abstract. Understanding land loss or resilience in response to sea-level rise (SLR) requires spatially extensive and continuous datasets to capture landscape variability. We investigate the sensitivity and skill of a model that predicts dynamic response likelihood to SLR across the northeastern US by exploring several data inputs and outcomes. Using elevation and land cover datasets, we determine where data error is likely, quantify its effect on predictions, and evaluate its influence on prediction confidence. Results show data error is concentrated in low-lying areas with little impact on prediction skill, as the inherent correlation between the datasets can be exploited to reduce data uncertainty using Bayesian inference. This suggests the approach may be extended to regions with limited data availability and/or poor quality. Furthermore, we verify that model sensitivity in these first-order landscape change assessments is well-matched to larger coastal process uncertainties, for which process-based models are important complements to further reduce uncertainty.
Geographies of the Pluriverse: Decolonial Thinking and Ontological Conflict on Colombia’s Pacific Coast

Recent debates in decolonial thinking have engaged the notion of the pluriverse to question the concept of universality at the heart of Western epistemology and hermeneutics that has historically u...
Discrete-Time Networks

To realize a discrete-time filter with either computer software, a programmable DSP chip, or custom VLSI, a network must be specified describing the computations to be performed. For software realizations, the network corresponds to a flowchart of the filter algorithm, while for hardware realizations, the network describes the actual circuit elements and their interconnection. Many important properties of the discrete-time filter are placed in evidence by the coefficients of certain network structures. Significant computational savings can also be achieved in many cases by the proper choice of the network. And finally, the performance of a digital implementation is affected very substantially by the choice of the network structure because of the quantization effects we will study in chapter 11.
Pressure-Dependent Thermal Characterization of Bi-Porous Copper Structures

With the advance of modern semiconductor technology, the power density of electronic devices significantly increases. The performance of electronic devices is thereby governed by the efficiency of heat dissipation from heat source to heat sink, which requires better thermal management methods. Thermal interface materials (TIMs), placed between the heat source and heat sink, help a conduction pathway by providing a low thermal resistance conduit and eliminating the air gaps between two contact surfaces. However, most of commercially available TIMs show limited performances as they are either thermally conductive but stiff (e.g., metals) or mechanically ductile but with high thermal resistance (e.g., polymers). In this study, we suggest a new type of metal/polymer composite TIMs by combining the advantages from those two materials in order to develop a thermally conductive and mechanically compliant material at a low cost. TIMs are fabricated by using a hydrogen bubble templated electrodeposition method that forms microscale cavities and nanoscale nanofeatures on copper substrate, bi-porous copper (BPCu). The bi-porous copper is then sintered to enhance the structural strength and is infiltrated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to increase its structural flexibility and durability against mechanical or thermal stresses. Then, the pressure-dependent thermal resistances through the TIMs are measured by assuming one-dimensional thermal conduction. The measurements confirm that the average effective thermal conductivities range from 10–30 W/mK for 80% PDMS filling ratio sample. In addition, mechanical strength augmentations for BPCu/PDMS TIM are discussed, and the result shows mechanical strength enhancement with PDMS infiltration by means of less structure deformation.
Effects of temperature and platelets on lamella wall microstructure, structural stability, and compressive strength in ice-templated ceramics

Abstract The current investigation provides insights into microstructure development as a function of sintering temperature within lamella walls of ice-templated ceramics, effects of ceramic platelets on wall microstructure, and the influence of those developments on the compressive mechanical response. The results revealed a profound influence of both on the several aspects of ice-templated ceramics, enabling an improved understanding of the structure-mechanical property relationships in these materials and limitations in the development of the ice-templated ceramic structure. In the materials without platelets, at low-temperature walls were highly porous, at intermediate temperature a pore-free lamella wall with fine-grained microstructure developed, and at high-temperature along with grain growth significant abnormal grain growth occurred as well. More dramatic was the combined effects of temperature and platelets. The effects of platelets were realized at two length scales. Some of the platelets developed lamellar bridges, whereas the platelets that became part of the lamella walls remarkably impacted wall microstructure. The current results strongly suggest that there are significant structural and mechanical strength advantages in the incorporation of large anisometric particles in ice-templated ceramics. The addition of large platelets resulted in a marked increase of compressive strength. A significant structural advantage is that the materials containing platelets exhibited improved stability to structural deformation at higher temperatures compared to the materials without the platelets. Thus, this study shows the importance of deeply probing into the structure-mechanical property relationships of ice-templated ceramics as a function of temperature and composition, providing valuable guidance into the microstructure design of these materials.