cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Molecular Rotations and Dipole-Bound State Lifetimes

A computational model based on classical molecular rotation provides insight into the observability of dipole-bound states. The observability is related to the lifetime of the state prior to rotational autodetachment of the electron. The model tracks an ensemble of dipole-bound states. Their motion in space is integrated as a function of time, which provides a means to analyze the lifetimes of the dipole-bound states. The results are generally in good agreement with experimental data. Some exceptions show the limitations of the model but also provide insight into the autodetachment mechanism.
Novelist Sarat Chandra's perception of his Bengali home region: a literary geographic study

Sarat Chandra, a Bengali novelist of the first half of the 20th century, has described the landscape of his southern Bengal Region and has interacted through his characters a deep psychological response appropriate to the region and time. His work forms an excellent resource base to reconstruct the region of his time and establish phenomenological relationship through the feelings expressed by the characters of his novels. Sarat Chandra's Home Region is a stream-filled area with people's activity directed to agriculture, though Calcutta was already established as a center of westernization and modernization. Feudal exploitation, Zamindars' tyrrany, degenerative caste-division, child marriage, prohibition of widow's right to remarry, decaying extended family and losing person-to-person relationship of the traditional Bengal were some of the characteristics of the regional cultural geography. The cities, particularly Calcutta, had started to show signs of modernization: industries, equal rights to women, widow re-marriage and elitist ideas. “Bramho Samaj” was pioneering the social modernization. In summation, the Home Region, being a transitional stage of decaying feudalism and incipient industrialization, was engaged in a struggle between the old and the new, decadent traditional and modern, rural and urban, caste rigidity and liberal social customs, religious fanaticism and rationalism. Sarat Chandra's work, particularly, provides an inroad to understand the cultural aspects of his Home Region.
Unstable households in a stable Kalahari community in Botswana

Diachronie research at Kutse, a recently sedentary Kalahari community, demonstrates the dynamic processes inherent during the shift from nomadism to sedentism. Observations indicate that sharing networks, and friendships that structure such networks, organize spatial patterning and camp interaction. Sedentism and aggregation combine to create tensions surrounding sharing that lead to violence and the need for a community-wide sanctioned arbitrator. Without such a mediator of disputes the community cannot remain aggregated. Once political leaders or mediators arise, the emphasis on extreme egalitarianism changes. The Kutse community nucleus has dispersed as a result of resource depletion and, more importantly, social concerns. The conspicuous lack of architectural or spatial differentiation at Kutse is a reflection of the community's strongly egalitarian emphasis.
Combined administration of aspirin and a specific thrombin inhibitor in man.

BACKGROUND Heparin is of limited value as an antithrombotic drug in the presence of platelet activation and residual thrombus. Greater anticoagulant activity can be achieved in vivo with more specific thrombin inhibitors. Heparin may also increase the risk of bleeding by an effect on platelets that is independent of its thrombin inhibitory activity. METHODS AND RESULTS The pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic effects of a novel thrombin inhibitor, argatroban, were examined alone and in combination with aspirin in normal male volunteers. Argatroban induced a dose-dependent prolongation of the thrombin time and the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT). aPTT had returned to its pretreatment value 1 hour after stopping the infusion of argatroban. Six male subjects received an infusion of 1 micrograms/kg/min argatroban after the administration of two doses of 162.5 mg aspirin or a matching placebo. At this dose, aspirin decreased serum thromboxane B2 by a mean of 99% and prolonged the bleeding time (230 +/- 52 versus 320 +/- 113 seconds, p less than 0.01). Argatroban given alone increased thrombin time by 454 +/- 18% and aPTT by 160 +/- 3%. Steady-state plasma concentrations were achieved at 1 hour and declined exponentially with an elimination half-life of 24 +/- 4 minutes. Neither the anticoagulant effects nor the plasma concentrations of argatroban were altered by aspirin. Furthermore, argatroban did not increase the bleeding time when given alone and did not further prolong the bleeding time when combined with aspirin. CONCLUSION The combination of aspirin and argatroban may prove to be an effective therapeutic strategy in the prevention of coronary thrombosis.
A Model for Estimating Maximal Aerobic Capacity

A mathematical model, based on the information available in the literature, was developed which estimates the maximum aerobic capacity. It requires a submaximal pair of oxygen consumption and heart rate to obtain the maximum aerobic capacity of the subject (male or female). Its validity has been examined using Astrand-Astrand nomogram. The model is simple for use either manually or in computer programming.
Occurrence of apoptosis following cold injury-induced brain edema in mice

Apoptosis has been known to contribute to neuronal death following a variety of brain insults. However, the role of vasogenic brain edema in neuronal apoptosis is unknown. We studied the temporal pattern of brain edema and neuronal apoptosis following cold injury. Cold injury-induced brain edema, which was detected by the increased water content in the injured hemisphere, reached its maximum level at 24 h and remained there at 72 h, whereas the blood-brain barrier breakdown detected by Evans Blue extravasation returned to the control value by 24 h after injury. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated uridine-5'-triphosphate-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive apoptotic cells were scattered in the center of the lesion at 1 h and were dispersed over the cold lesion at 24 h. The number of these TUNEL-positive cells was maximized in the periphery but decreased in the center at 72 h after cold injury. We postulate that secondary neuronal damage occurred not only through necrotic, but also apoptotic pathways, and that apoptotic neuronal death may result from vasogenic edema development and may contribute to the expansion of the lesion in both the acute and delayed phases after cold injury.
Sterilization of the female: a positive approach to family limitation.

A London hospital group instituted a vigorous family planning campaign in 1965. The study was undertaken primarily to determine the campaigns effect on sterilization practices. Of the 1419 patients sterilized in the hospitals in the group from 1960-1969 and whose records were traceable 202 females were sterilized from 1960-1964 and 1289 from 1965-1969. From the first to the second period nonpuerperal sterilizations increased ninefold and puerperal sterilizations increased fivefold. In the years 1968 and 1969 increasing use of the laparoscope was made in nonpuerperal sterilization. Total morbidity was 227/1491 but the vast majority of problems were minor. 2 deaths occurred--a total mortality rate of .134%. Because of the 3 recorded pregnancies the overall failure rate was .2%. Success of this localized hospital group campaign indicates that lack of national policy regarding family planning is a definite failing.
First Report of Phytophthora palmivora, Causal Agent of Black Pod, on Cacao in Puerto Rico.

Black pod or Phytophthora pod rot is the most economically important and widespread disease of cacao, Theobroma cacao L. Total losses due to Phytophthora exceed $400 million worldwide (1), and several species are known to attack cacao with P. palmivora (E.J. Butler) E. J. Butler as the most common. All plant parts are infected, but pod infections are particularly damaging. Symptoms resembling those of black pod disease were observed at the National Plant Germplasm Collection System of cacao at the USDA-ARS Tropical Agriculture Research Station (TARS) in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico for a number of years. During May of 2005, to determine the etiology of the disease, small, surface disinfested sections of pod lesions were placed on water agar and incubated for 4 days. The formation of papillate, deciduous, ellipsoidal to ovoid sporangia produced on sympodial sporangiophores on fruits, fit the description of P. palmivora and the identification was confirmed on cultures on water agar (2). Chlamydospores were readily...
Blind on-line digital calibration of multi-stage Nyquist-rate and oversampled A/D converters

A linear calibration technique for on-line digital correction of analog imprecisions in the implementation of multi-stage analog-to-digital converters, is presented. The calibration is 'blind', in that it uses no reference and operates directly on the digital output during conversion. The only assumption made on the input signal is that its spectrum is bandlimited. The excess sampling over Nyquist bandwidth is used for least-squares auto-zeroing calibration. The technique extends directly to digital correction of multi-stage oversampled A/D converters where a multi-bit quantizer is implemented using a pipelined algorithmic A/D converter. Behavioral simulations on pipelined algorithmic and dual-quantization oversampled A/D converters demonstrate significant improvements in signal-to-quantization-noise performance over the uncalibrated case.
Aurora Kinase Inhibition As an Anticancer Strategy

In the accompanying article, Friedberg et al report results from a phase II study evaluating the Aurora A–specific kinase inhibitor alisertib in relapsed or aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The Aurora kinases comprise a family of protein kinases that play a critical role in the mitotic process. Aurora A kinase localizes to the centrosomes and spindle poles and recruits the cyclin B1–CDK1 complex, committing the cell to mitosis. Amplification of AURKA is oncogenic and has been observed in colorectal, gastric, prostate, and breast cancers; in addition, it has been shown that the AURKA Phe31Ile polymorphism is associated with an increased risk for esophageal, ovarian, non–small-cell lung, and breast cancers. Aurora A overexpression may also play a role in resistance to paclitaxel. Disruption of Aurora A kinase activity significantly impairs mitotic progression through activation of the mitotic checkpoint. In contrast, Aurora B kinase plays an important role in chromosome condensation, regulation of kinetochore function, and cytokinesis. Aurora B kinase inhibition results in loss of normal chromosomal alignment, chromosomal segregation, and cytokinesis. Aurora B kinase inhibition also results in a failure to activate BubR1 and other mitotic checkpoint proteins, causing the cell to bypass the mitotic checkpoint, creating polyploid cells resulting from cytokinetic failure. Because cell-cycle progression is not perturbed, Aurora B–inhibited cells undergo further DNA replication, eventually increasing the degree of polyploidy to a point at which cell death
The relationship between acculturation and oral contraceptive use among Korean immigrant women.

We explored the relationship between acculturation and beliefs, attitudes, norms, and intention regarding oral contraceptive use among Korean immigrant women using acculturation and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) as the frameworks. A total of 1,494 Korean surname-based telephone numbers were sampled in New York City. One hundred forty-five Korean immigrant women completed a telephone survey. The findings support the assumption that acculturation affects intention to use oral contraceptives indirectly only through one or more of the TRA components. Acculturation could function as an antecedent to changes in beliefs, attitudes, norms, and intention in this population. Acculturation assessment tools could provide health professionals insight into how to better approach this population on such culturally sensitive health issues as contraceptive use. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health
Robust shape analysis using multistrategy learning

This paper describes how to integrate subsymbolic and symbolic processes in order to create high-performance shape analysis systems. The specific methodology introduced integrates morphological processing and machine learning techniques such as genetic algorithms (GAs) and empirical inductive generalization. The optimal operators (defined as variable morphological structuring elements) evolved by GAs are used to derive discriminant feature vectors, which are then used by empirical inductive learning to generate rule-based class description in disjunctive normal form. The rule-based descriptions are finally optimized by removing small disjuncts in order to enhance the robustness of the shape analysis system. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the methodology for discriminating among classes of arbitrarily shaped objects, for learning the concepts of convexity and concavity, and for building robust recognition methods. >
The Southern California Bight Pilot Project: an experiment in cooperative regional monitoring

The Southern California Bight Pilot Project (SCBPP), a cooperative sampling effort by 12 agencies, was designed to provide synoptic information about the ecological condition of benthic communities in southern California as well as to evaluate the sampling design used by EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). EMAP's statistical design was used to select station locations; local monitoring methods were used to collect and process the samples. Water quality, benthic invertebrate and fish assemblages, sediment characteristics including toxicity fish pathology and bioaccumulation and marine debris were measured in three geographic zones (north, central and south); three depth zones (shallow, middle and deep); and in municipal wastewater and stormwater discharge areas. Sampling was completed in the summer of 1994. Results for total organic carbon (TOC) in sediment are presented as an example of how data are analyzed.
EFFECTS OF LOW BAROMETRIC PRESSURE ON THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE ADRENAL GLANDS AND BLOOD OF RATS1

While it is generally agreed that the adrenal cortices play a prominent role in the adaptation of animals to anoxia, the mechanisms involved in the activation of these glands in this circumstance have not yet been described. It is possible that a fuller understanding of these mechanisms will only be achieved when future investigation reveals a more complete picture of the metabolic function of the adrenals than is available at present. However, the technique of testing the biochemical responses of animals to graded “stress” stimuli may prove itself to be a useful tool in elucidating the mechanism of activation of the adrenals, and subsequently, the function of their hormonal products in metabolism. Exposure of animals to varying degrees of anoxia has proved to be a convenient method of administering quantitatively graded stimuli. Adrenal cortical hypertrophy as a result of anoxia was described by Armstrong and Heim (1938) and others (see Hailman, 1944, for review).
THE LIMITS OF LIBERAL CHOICE: RACIAL SELECTION AND REPROGENETICS

Serving as a commentary on Kelly Oliver's essay, "Enhancing Evolution: Whose Body? Whose Choice?" this essay picks up on its themes of mastery, choice, the man-made, and the natural in order to further Oliver's critique of a particular liberal debate over the ethical permissibility of reprogenetics. The specific focus of the commentary is the hidden centrality of race to the reprogenetics debate, within which, I suggest, race serves as an implicit limit of acceptability in two important ways. First, on the societal level, an explicitly racial focus marks the point at which a eugenic project becomes immoral, such that it is the refusal to mention race that renders the new eugenics acceptable. Second, in the realm of personal reproductive "choice," race is portrayed as that which is naturally transmitted rather than deliberately chosen and, thus, serves as a limit on what are considered morally correct or even viable personal reproductive choices. The effect of this limiting and its naturalization is to obscure both the ways in which race has always been policed in reproduction and the social consequences of that policing and, thereby, to uphold the status quo of social inequality.
The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale: Initial Validity and Internal Consistency Findings From Three Multisite Studies With Adolescents and Adults

The Columbia–Suicide Severity Rating Scale was initially designed to assess suicidal ideation and behavior in clinical trials. Psychometric analysis of data on adolescents indicated that a lifetime history of worst-point suicidal ideation including either suicidal intent or intent with a plan predicts a future risk of an actual attempt that is four times as great as the risk associated with a history of current suicidal ideation—including a desire to be dead—or increased general ratings of depression.
Low power VLSI architectures for variable-length encoding and decoding

New low power VLSI architectures are presented for variable-length encoding and decoding. Look-up table partitioning by symbol probability is shown to reduce the total power consumption; the variable-length decoder and encoder are reduced by as much as 66% and 75%, respectively. Design examples for a subband image CODEC are presented with measurements from extracted VLSI layouts.
The frequency concept of disposition: dominance and prototypically dominant acts^

Three studies of dominance explore the frequency concept of disposition, which entails categories of acts that are topographically dissimilar but nonetheless considered to be manifestations of a common disposition. In the first study, 100 difierent acts presumably belonging to the category of dominance were generated through a nomination procedure. In the second study, expert and student panels rated how prototypically dominant each act is, defined in terms of centrality of membership in the category of dominant acts. In this manner, an internal structure of the act category was specified such that some acts are more prototypically dominant while others are more peripheral members. Substantial agreement in these ratings exists within and between panels. The third study found that a multipleact criterion based on prototypically dominant acts is predicted by personality scales with significantly greater success than are multiple-act criteria based on more peripheral acts within the dominance domain. Discussion focuses on specifying the appropriate act category for other frequency dispositions and follow-up field studies of them. Implications for altemative notions of disposition (e.g., purposive-cognitive concepts) are considered.
Serial SimCoal: A population genetics model for data from multiple populations and points in time

Summary: We present Serial SimCoal, a program that models population genetic data from multiple time points, as with ancient DNA data. An extension of SIMCOAL, it also allows simultaneous modeling of complex demographic histories, and migration between multiple populations. Further, we incorporate a statistical package to calculate relevant summary statistics, which, for the first time allows users to investigate the statistical power provided by, conduct hypothesis-testing with, and explore sample size limitations of ancient DNA data. Availability: Source code and Windows/Mac executables at http://www.stanford.edu/group/hadlylab/ssc.html contact: senka@stanford.edu
Erratum to Revised Tectonic Forecast of Global Shallow Seismicity Based on Version 2.1 of the Global Strain Rate Map

In our previous article (Bird and Kreemer, 2015), we presented a set of six long‐term stationary forecasts of global shallow seismicity, identified as the model series SHIFT‐GSRM2a–f. As preliminary validation, we also presented retrospective tests against global shallow seismicity in the years 2005–2012, as recorded in the Global Centroid Moment Tensor catalog. A smoothed‐seismicity forecast computed by Yan Kagan and David Jackson (Kagan and Jackson, 1994, 2010a,b, 2011, 2014) was …
In Search of a Discourse on Aging: The Elderly on Television

This article analyzes the images of aging presented in five of the prime-time television programs of 1989 most watched by the elderly: Murder, She Wrote, The Golden Girls, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, and In the Heat of the Night, all of which have central elderly characters. An examination of the title sequences reveals that earlier television stereotypes of the elderly "as more comical, stubborn, eccentric, and foolish than other characters" have been replaced by more positive stereotypes of them as powerful, affluent, healthy, active, admired, and sexy.
Carbon suboxide in astrophysical ice analogs

Abstract As suggested by W. T. Huntress et al. (1991, Nature352, 316–318), carbon suboxide (C3O2) is a potential extended source of both the CO and atomic carbon emission observed in cometary comae. However, laboratory experiments on the formation and stability of C3O2 in space environments have not been published. In this work, we study solid C3O2 in ices representative of cometary nuclei as well as interstellar icy grain mantles, specifically addressing the issues of C3O2 formation and stability under exposure to energetic processing in the forms of proton irradiation and UV photolysis. The formation rate of C3O2 is measured in laboratory ices of pure CO and CO2 and mixtures of these molecules with H2O at 18 K. Destruction rates in H2O-dominated mixtures appropriate to a cometary nucleus or interstellar icy grain mantle are also measured. Differences in rates between photolysis and irradiation experiments are observed and quantified. Mid-infrared spectra of C3O2-containing mixtures are presented together with measurements of carbon suboxide's infrared band strengths and vapor pressures from 110 to 125 K. Implications are discussed for the existence of C3O2 under the energetic conditions found in astrophysical environments as well as the possibility for its detection in cometary and/or interstellar ices.
Complementary and integrative healthcare for patients with mechanical low back pain in a U.S. hospital setting.

Abstract Objectives Complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH) is commonly used to treat low back pain (LBP). While the use of CIH within hospitals is increasing, little is known regarding the delivery of these services within inpatient settings. We examine the patterns of CIH services among inpatients with mechanical LBP in a hospital setting. Methods This is a retrospective, practice-based study conducted at Abbot Northwestern hospital in Minnesota. Using electronic health record data from July 2009 to December 2012, 8095 inpatients with mechanical LBP were identified using ICD-9 codes. We classified patients by reason for hospitalization. We examined demographic and clinical characteristics by receipt of CIH services. Then, we estimated the prevalence of types of CIH delivered and clinical foci for CIH visits among inpatients with mechanical LBP. Results Most inpatients with mechanical LBP (>90%) were hospitalized for surgical procedures. Overall, 14.2% received inpatient CIH services. All demographic and clinical characteristics differed by receipt of CIH ( P Conclusion There are important differences between CIH recipients and non-CIH recipients among patients with mechanical LBP within a hospital setting. The reasons documented for CIH visits included addressing physical, emotional and/or mental conditions of patients. Future studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of CIH services health and wellbeing outcomes in this population.
Is Memory Merely Testimony from One's Former Self?

A natural view of testimony holds that a source's statements provide one with evidence about what the source believes, which in turn provides one with evidence about what is true. But some theorists have gone further and developed a broadly analogous view of memory. According to this view, which this essay calls the “diary model,” one's memory ordinarily serves as a means for one's present self to gain evidence about one's past judgments, and in turn about the truth. This essay rejects the diary model's analogy between memory and testimony from one's former self, arguing first that memory and a diary differ with respect to their psychological roles, and second that this psychological difference underwrites important downstream epistemic differences. The resulting view stands opposed to prominent discussions of memory and testimony, which either, like the diary model, treat memory by analogy to what we naively wish to say about testimony, or which instead attempt to extend to testimony the epistemically preservative role of memory
Involvement of Endocannabinoids in Alcohol "Binge" Drinking: Studies of Mice with Human Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase Genetic Variation and After CB1 Receptor Antagonists.

Background The endocannabinoid system has been found to play an important role in modulating alcohol intake. Inhibition or genetic deletion of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH; a key catabolic enzyme for endocannabinoids) leads to increased alcohol consumption and preference in rodent models. A common human single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; C385A, rs324420) in the FAAH gene is associated with decreased enzymatic activity of FAAH, resulting in increased anandamide levels in both humans and FAAH C385A knock-in mice. Methods As this FAAH SNP has been reported to be associated with altered alcohol abuse, the present study used these genetic knock-in mice containing the human SNP C385A to determine the impact of variant FAAH gene on alcohol “binge” drinking in the drinking-in-the-dark (DID) model. Results We found that the FAAHA/A mice had greater alcohol intake and preference than the wild-type FAAHC/C mice, suggesting that increased endocannabinoid signaling in FAAHA/A mice led to increased alcohol “binge” consumption. The specificity on alcohol vulnerability was suggested by the lack of any FAAH genotype difference on sucrose or saccharin intake. Using the “binge” DID model, we confirmed that selective CB1 receptor antagonist AM251 reduced alcohol intake in the wild-type mice. Conclusions These data suggest that there is direct and selective involvement of the human FAAH C385A SNP and CB1 receptors in alcohol “binge” drinking.
'Much clearer with pictures': using community-based participatory research to design and test a Picture Option Grid for underserved patients with breast cancer.

Objective Women of low socioeconomic status (SES) diagnosed with early stage breast cancer experience decision-making, treatment and outcome disparities. Evidence suggests that decision aids can benefit underserved patients, when tailored to their needs. Our aim was to develop and test the usability, acceptability and accessibility of a pictorial encounter decision aid targeted at women of low SES diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Design Community-based participatory research (CBPR) using think-aloud protocols (phases 1 and 2) and semistructured interviews (phase 3). Setting Underserved community settings (eg, knitting groups, bingo halls, senior centres) and breast clinics. Participants In phase 1, we recruited a convenience sample of clinicians and academics. In phase 2, we targeted women over 40 years of age, of low SES, regardless of breast cancer history, and in phase 3, women of low SES, recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Intervention The pictorial encounter decision aid was derived from an evidence-based table comparing treatment options for breast cancer (http://www.optiongrid.org). Outcome measures We assessed the usability, acceptability and accessibility of the pictorial decision aid prototypes using the think-aloud protocol and semistructured interviews. Results After initial testing of the first prototype with 18 academics and health professionals, new versions were developed and tested with 53 lay individuals in community settings. Usability was high. In response to feedback indicating that the use of cartoon characters was considered insensitive, a picture-only version was developed and tested with 23 lay people in phase 2, and 10 target users in phase 3. Conclusions and relevance Using CBPR methods and iterative user testing cycles improved usability and accessibility, and led to the development of the Picture Option Grid, entirely guided by multiple stakeholder feedback. All women of low SES recently diagnosed with early stage breast cancer found the Picture Option Grid usable, acceptable and accessible.
Stochastic derivative-free optimization using a trust region framework

This paper presents a trust region algorithm to minimize a function f when one has access only to noise-corrupted function values $$\bar{f}$$f¯. The model-based algorithm dynamically adjusts its step length, taking larger steps when the model and function agree and smaller steps when the model is less accurate. The method does not require the user to specify a fixed pattern of points used to build local models and does not repeatedly sample points. If f is sufficiently smooth and the noise is independent and identically distributed with mean zero and finite variance, we prove that our algorithm produces iterates such that the corresponding function gradients converge in probability to zero. We present a prototype of our algorithm that, while simplistic in its management of previously evaluated points, solves benchmark problems in fewer function evaluations than do existing stochastic approximation methods.
Andrologic Sequelae in Prostatitis Patients

Of the four categories of prostatitis, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is the most prevalent. CP/CPPS is also the form of prostatitis that has been most associated with andrologic sequelae. These complications include decreased testosterone, erectile dysfunction, painful ejaculation, and premature ejaculation. The prevalence of these symptoms in patients with CP/CPPS is high and plays a significant role in the morbidity of patients. As such, a sexual function assessment is an important part of evaluating any patient with pelvic or perineal pain. Treatment strategies that have addressed sexual dysfunction include testosterone replacement therapy, alpha-adrenergic blockers, and PDE5s. This chapter will discuss the association of prostatitis with endocrine abnormalities and sexual dysfunction, with a focus on pathophysiology and treatment.
Economic analysis and calculation of the cogeneration upgrade for large fossil fired generation unit

The theoretical calculation involved in the district heating upgrading of the existing large fossil fired generation units was described. A feasibility study example for an existing 600MW unit was put forward in detail. It is shown that in the feasibility study of heating upgrading scheme, more effort should be made to analyze the part load performance change of the unit except for the full load performance change, in order to get a complete overview of the upgrading effect. It is also shown that for the cogeneration upgrading schemes where the IP and LP turbine crossover piping is the steam source, there exists one balancing operation condition for each operation load condition. When the heating steam supply is lower than the balancing operation condition, the economic negative benefit due to heating supply increases rapidly, and the unit operation under this kind of condition should be avoided if possible. (5 pages)
Variable-temperature 27Al and 29Si NMR studies of synthetic forsterite and Fe-bearing Dora Maira pyrope garnet: Temperature dependence and mechanisms of paramagnetically shifted peaks

We present variable-temperature (VT, 31 to 204 °C) 29Si magic angle spinning NMR (MAS-NMR) spectra of a synthetic forsterite containing dilute paramagnetic impurities and 27Al and 29Si spectra of two iron-bearing natural pyrope garnet specimens from the Dora Maira ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism locality. Previous NMR studies of these materials reported multiple “anomalous” resonances outside the range of expected frequencies. It has been hypothesized that these peaks were caused by interactions between paramagnetic centers and the resonating nuclei. Our VT MAS-NMR study shows a linear relationship between peak position and inverse temperature for the “anomalous” resonances, confirming their assignment as paramagnetic shifts. A detailed analysis of the peaks in the pyropes indicates that the “anomalous” resonances are caused by a combination of the Fermi contact and pseudocontact interactions. The paramagnetic shifts in the 29Si spectra are likely caused by Fe2+ in the first, second, and third nearest dodecahedral sites while those in the 27Al spectra are likely caused by one or two Fe2+ in the first shell dodecahedral site.
Spatial Characteristics and Effects of Fall Density and Weather on Overwintering Loss of Pear Psylla (Homoptera: Psyllidae)

Overwintering loss of pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola Foerster, in the Yakima area of Washington and the Medford area of Oregon, was estimated as the difference between the peak beat tray count obtained in fall and the peak count obtained the following spring. Thirty five orchards were sampled over 13 yr at Yakima, and 12 orchards were sampled for 10 yr at Medford. Overwintering loss increased linearly with peak fall counts. Loss coefficients were ≥0.90 in three of four regions at Yakima and in all 12 orchards at Medford. Peak spring counts were independent of peak fall counts in three of four regions at Yakima and at 6 of 12 orchards at Medford. At Yakima, peak spring count was positively correlated with November precipitation and negatively correlated with November and January temperature; overwintering loss increased with increasing January temperahue and decreased with increasing November precipitation. At Medford, overwintering loss increased with decreasing fall precipitation but, in contrast to Yakima, increased also with decreasing January temperatures. We suggest that wet auhunns result in higher overwintering success by causing a reduction in dispersal from pear. Spatial autocorrelation showed that peak counts were more similar among neighboring orchards than between distantly separated orchards for two of six analyses in spring and one of six analyses in fall. Counts were less variable in spring than in fall, consistent with the hypothesis that psylla reallocate among orchards between fall and spring. The claim that orchards with intensive pesticide use in some regions have higher fall counts than less intensively managed orchards was tested for Yakima; no differences in counts were noted in commercial versus organic orchards. Initial pesticide applications in spring at a chemically intensive orchard preceded peak spring counts in a neighboring unsprayed orchard by 4–5 d, resulting in an estimated seasonal peak count that was about four psylla per tray lower than what would occur in the absence of pesticides. Julian day of peak spring counts occurred earlier in the wanner regions of the Yakima valley. Variation between regions in timing of spring peaks was eliminated by expressing timing in degree-days (DD); for the Yakima valley, peak counts occurred at ≍80 DD using a lower threshold of 5°C.
A New Interabdominis Approach to Inguinal Region Block for the Management of Chronic Pain

The use of an indwelling catheter for repeated injections of local anesthetics has been a beneficial addition to our armamentarium for management of chronic pain syndromes. Indwelling catheters take advantage of anatomic planes, and the concept of an interabdominis muscular plane allows placement of a catheter along the course of the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves. We report the successful treatment of chronic groin pain via an interabdominis indwelling catheter. This is the first report of the use of such an indwelling catheter.
A Tour de Force by Hawaii’s Invasive Mammals: Establishment, Takeover, and Ecosystem Restoration through Eradication

Abstract. Invasive mammals have irreversibly altered ecosystems of Hawai‘i and other tropical Pacific islands in numerous cases through novel herbivory, predation, and diseases, thereby causing the disproportionate extinction of flora and fauna that occur nowhere else on Earth. The control and eradication of invasive mammals is the single most expensive management activity necessary for restoring ecological integrity to many natural areas of Hawai‘i and other Pacific Islands, and have already advanced the restoration of native biota by removing herbivorous ungulates from >750 km2. Rodenticides which have been tested and registered for hand and aerial broadcast in Hawai‘i have been used to eradicate rats from remote islands to protect nesting seabirds and are now being applied to larger islands to protect forest birds. The exclusion of other invasive mammals is now being undertaken with more sophisticated control techniques and fences. New fence designs are capable of excluding all mammals from areas to pr...
Institutional or individual experience matters in minimally invasive valve surgery

Whether individual or institutional, experience helps in overcoming the learning curve for minimally invasive approaches. Sutureless valves can make minimally invasive approaches more widespread.
BASIC ENGLISH, CHINGLISH, AND TRANSLOCAL DIALECT

“The radio listener,” says Walter Benjamin, “welcomes the human voice into his house like a visitor.”1 The human voice that I used to welcome into my house at night when I was a teenager was certainly no ordinary visitor to a small town in southern China. It was the Voice of America. I was eleven, and like most Chinese kids, I had just started learning English in school. One night, I was fiddling with an old, small-size transistor radio that had belonged to my sister. I pulled up the rusted, crooked antenna and switched to the short-wave channels. Turning the knob up and down to search for a channel with bearable audibility—most channels simply buzzed either because my machine was too old or because the signals had been scrambled by the government—I suddenly came to a spot where, after a few seconds of static, a clear, slow, and manly voice in English rang out: “This is VOA, the Voice of America, broadcasting in Special English…”
3 The Variability of the Human Experience: Marginal People and the Creation of Power

Archaeologists often characterize small scale societies as egalitarian and uniform. We tend to see the experiences of the people who made up these societies as similar. I argue instead that most small scale societies contained people of a variety of statuses, including those whose social position was marginal. I examine one such category of social person, captives, who were common in small scale societies worldwide. I suggest that their lives could be significantly different from those of other group members and that their presence, labor, and skills could create status and power for their captor and other group members.
The Arctic Climate System: The Basic Atmospheric and Ocean Energy Budgets

Overview The fundamental role of the Arctic in the global climate system is to serve as the Northern Hemisphere “heat sink.” On an annual basis, net receipts of solar radiation in the Arctic are smaller than in equatorial regions. The atmosphere and ocean work to balance this differential radiative heating through poleward energy transports, with the atmosphere playing the primary role. Because of stronger differential radiative heating in winter, the atmospheric transports are largest at this time. The poleward transports into the Arctic region itself are maximized around the prime meridian and the date line. This reflects the location of the primary storm tracks and, in winter, strong surface heat fluxes from open water areas. An instructive approach to understand the energetics of the Arctic heat sink is to consider the system from the perspective of its energy budget. The energy budget of a given column of air, extending from the surface to the top of the atmosphere, can be expressed in terms of four components: (1) the change in atmospheric energy storage composed of internal energy, potential energy, latent heat energy and kinetic energy, the last generally quite small; (2) the net radiation balance at the top of the atmosphere; (3) the net poleward transport of atmospheric energy by the atmospheric circulation; and (4) the net surface heat flux. The energy of a given underlying column extending, from the surface downward, if represented by ocean, is approximately represented by: (1) the change in ocean energy storage in terms of latent heat as floating sea ice and any overlying snow cover, and in the sensible heat of the ocean water; (2) the horizontal convergence of the oceanic sensible heat flux and the horizontal divergence of the latent heat flux as sea ice; and (3) the net surface heat flux through which the atmosphere and ocean communicate. If the underlying column represents land, the situation is simpler. Here, the time changes in energy storage, primarily contained in the latent heat content of snow and ice and sensible heat in the soil column, is essentially balanced by the net surface flux.
A Rationale for Constitutive Laws of Soft Tissues

Originally, the deformation theory was devised so as to avoid any kind of indeterminacy, as is shown by the concept of admissible states of stress [1]. The criteria for admissibility led to the convexity condition. Sometimes, however, the indeterminacy appears in the interior of the theory, as one of its fundamental aspects, as, for example, in the case of materials having complementary energy density [2]. In such cases we must assume that the material is insensitive to such indeterminacies. Unfortunately this assumption, in reality, limits our ability to describe the material response phenomena (the deformation) and has motivated us to search for a most general representability for stress and strains. This turns out to be intrinsically related to the material.
1998 International Conference on Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials

(1998). 1998 International Conference on Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials. Materials Technology: Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 166-168.
Design for a transparent, distributed file system

At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), caching and migration protocols have been designed to integrate distributed UniTree File Management System servers running on separate machines to create a single file system. These protocols allow files to migrate between levels of a storage hierarchy to create a unified distributed storage system. The design provides clients with a single method for accessing files, regardless of file location. File caching provides clients with optimal performance, while file migration enables file servers to optimize their space utilization. The key features of the system include use of unique, location-independent file caching, and a locking mechanism to synchronize access to the system's files and manage conflicts related to multiple copies of the files. A shift in LLNL policy to acquire vendor-supported software prevented the completion of the implementation of this unified storage system. However, the design solves many problems that can occur when providing a transparent distributed file system. >
Adaptive decision-making of breast cancer mammography screening: A heuristic-based regression model

Abstract The American Cancer Society (ACS) updated their breast cancer screening guidelines in late 2015 and recommends that all women have the choice to start annual mammography screenings beginning at age 40. For women ages 45–54, the ACS explicitly recommends annual mammograms. However, due to the potential harms associated with screening mammography, such as overdiagnosis and unnecessary work-ups, the best strategy to design an appropriate breast cancer mammography screening schedule remains controversial. Instead of recommending a one-size-fits-all screening schedule, this study identifies a personalized mammography screening strategy adaptive to each woman's age-specific breast cancer risk. We present a two-stage decision framework: (1) age-specific breast cancer risk estimation and (2) annual mammography screening decision-making based on estimated risk. The results suggest that the optimal combinations of independent variables used in risk estimation are not the same across age groups. Our optimal decision models outperform the existing mammography screening guidelines in terms of the average loss of life expectancy. While most earlier studies improved the breast cancer screening decisions by offering lifetime screening schedules, our proposed model provides an adaptive screening decision aid by age. Since whether or not a woman should receive a mammogram is determined based on her breast cancer risk at her current age, our “on-line” screening policy adapts to a woman's latest health status, which reflects the current individual risk of each woman more accurately.
Shareholder Activism and Institutional Investors

Recent years have seen a number of efforts to extend the shareholder franchise, principally so as to empower institutional investors. The logic of these proposals is that institutional investors will behave quite differently than dispersed individual investors. Because they own large blocks, and have an incentive to develop specialized expertise in making and monitoring investments, institutional investors could play a far more active role in corporate governance than dispersed individual investors traditionally have done. Institutional investors holding large blocks thus have more power to hold management accountable for actions that do not promote shareholder welfare. Their greater access to firm information, coupled with their concentrated voting power, might enable them to more actively monitor the firm's performance and to make changes in the board's composition when performance lagged. In fact, however, institutional investor activism is rare and limited primarily to union and state or local public employee pensions. As a result, institutional investor activism has not - and cannot - prove a panacea for the pathologies of corporate governance. Activist investors pursue agendas not shared by and often in conflict with those of passive investors. Activism by investors undermines the role of the board of directors as a central decision-making body, thereby making corporate governance less effective. Finally, relying on activist institutional investors will not solve the principal-agent problem inherent in corporate governance but rather will merely shift the locus of that problem.
Socialism for the Twenty-First Century

Four Latin American nations have rejected not only neoliberalism and US imperialism, but also capitalism, and they are seeking to construct post-capitalist societies evolving in practice toward socialism. Charismatic leaders have played a principal role in the socialist projection: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. The governments of these four nations have developed new constitutions, restructured external debt payments, taken control of natural recourses, directed investments toward needs of the people and national production, and developed structures of popular participation. The four nations and their charismatic leaders have played a central role in the creation of a new political reality in Latin America.