cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
60 Hz magnetic fields do not enhance cell killing by genotoxic chemicals in Ataxia telangiectasia and normal lymphoblastoid cells.

Abstract Loberg, L. I., Luther, M. J., Gauger, J. R. and McCormick, D. L. 60 Hz Magnetic Fields Do Not Enhance Cell Killing by Genotoxic Chemicals in Ataxia Telangiectasia and Normal Lymphoblastoid Cells. Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) is an inherited autosomal recessive disease characterized by increased risk of cancer, immune deficiency, and neurodegeneration. Cells cultured from AT patients are highly sensitive to genotoxic agents and are deficient in cell cycle arrest after exposure to ionizing radiation. In consideration of their sensitivity to both ionizing and nonionizing radiation, AT cells may provide a sensitive model system to study the biological activity of other components of the electromagnetic spectrum. To characterize the effects of power-frequency (60 Hz) magnetic fields (MFs) in AT cells, we compared responses of AT and normal lymphoblast cells to sinusoidal MFs at 1.0 mT, either alone or in combination with the genotoxic agents mitomycin C or streptonigrin. The MF alone had no effect on ce...
Patterning Non-neural Ectoderm by Organizer-Modulated Homeodomain Factors

Embryonic cells must be provided with spatial and temporal information in order for development to occur. Classical embryology suggests two general sources of spatial cues. One is based on specific and oriented distribution of egg cytoplasmic contents to rigidly arranged blastomere lineages determining fate within this architectural context. This was termed “mosaic” development and is exemplified by invertebrates such as C. elegans, certain snails and ascidians. The second classical mode of spatial organization is based on induction between cells. An extreme example of this is the mammalian embryo, which even after disaggregation and prolonged culture in vitro, can still be organized into a completely normal embryo (Gilbert 2000). With its fertilization-triggered cytoplasmic rearrangements and partially defined fate map at early cleavage, Xenopus is somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, but has been particularly useful for studies of induction. The cell—cell interactions that drive this organizational mechanism have been a major topic of investigation for the past 100 years or so, reaching a historical, if not mechanistic, climax in 1924 with the embryological characterization of what became known as the Spemann/Mangold organizer. An important corollary of the organizer model, and the many studies that it inspired, is the concept of intercellular signals, or morphogens, that are generated from local sources, and somehow diffuse or are transported away from this source, leading to a morphogenetic gradient of signal strength that conveys positional information to embryonic cells. Several molecules have been postulated to serve this function with respect to the organizer, most notably members of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) subfamily of TGFβ-like growth factors, predominantly ventral in origin, and BMP antagonists secreted by organizer tissue (Balemans and van Hul 2002).
Obesity prevention at the point of purchase

The point of purchase is when people may make poor and impulsive decisions about what and how much to buy and consume. Because point of purchase strategies frequently work through non-cognitive processes, people are often unable to recognize and resist them. Because people lack insight into how marketing practices interfere with their ability to routinely eat healthy, balanced diets, public health entities should protect consumers from potentially harmful point of purchase strategies. We describe four point of purchase policy options including standardized portion sizes; standards for meals that are sold as a bundle, e.g. 'combo meals'; placement and marketing restrictions on highly processed low-nutrient foods; and explicit warning labels. Adoption of such policies could contribute significantly to the prevention of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. We also discuss how the policies could be implemented, along with who might favour or oppose them. Many of the policies can be implemented locally, while preserving consumer choice.
Finding the Right Fit: Disparities Between Cisgender and Transgender Women Arrested for Prostitution in Baltimore

This article highlights gender in Baltimore's court-affiliated prostitution diversion program. Administrative data were gathered over a 19-month period from 616 defendants charged with prostitution in Baltimore City. Using logistic regression, gender was a statistically significant predictor for defendants’ history of substance abuse history or mental illness. Transgender defendants were 81% less likely to report substance abuse (p < .001) and 75% less likely to report mental health problems (p < .001) compared to cisgender defendants. Qualitative findings indicate that transgender participants often engage in prostitution due to discrimination and that current programming provides them with some useful assistance. Recommendations include a need to more appropriately tailor services to the experiences and goals of transgender participants and to combat stigma within and outside the court. Programs must be cognizant of discrimination faced by transgender program participants that may impact the range of op...
Boot time optimization techniques for automotive rear view camera systems

Upon engaging the reverse gear in the car, very first information driver needs to know, whether is it really safe to take the reverse? Blind spots in car that result in rear view obstruction make this difficult. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) equip drivers with an application — Rear View Camera Systems (RVCS) to resolve this. There are simple RVCS which just show the rear view on the display or intelligent ones that run Object Detection (OD) algorithms on the captured video and flash warnings for drivers. In both cases, the boot time of the system is very crucial for safety as well as overall user experience, it is always annoying to wait for system to boot up. In autonomous cars the OD result is considered to make decisions, so that's even more safety critical. In short, the challenge is not only to boot within few milliseconds but get entire application working within short time. Heavy initialization time of subsystems involved make it tricky to achieve this at application level. This paper focuses on optimization techniques applied to similar RVCS. Boot time less than 500 milliseconds can be achieved using these techniques. These are also scalable to all fast boot ADAS solutions trying to achieve stringent boot time goals in order to ensure safety and improvise on this subtle user experience.
Anti-3-18F-FACBC (18F-Fluciclovine) PET/CT of Breast Cancer: An Exploratory Study.

The purpose of this study was to explore the uptake of the synthetic amino acid analog PET radiotracer anti-3-18F-FACBC (18F-fluciclovine) in breast lesions with correlation to histologic and immunohistochemical characteristics. Methods: Twelve women with breast lesions underwent 45-min dynamic PET/CT of the thorax after intravenous administration of 366.3 ± 14.8 (337.44–394.05) MBq of 18F-fluciclovine. Uptake in the primary lesions at 4 representative time points (5, 17, 29, and 41 min) after injection were correlated with histologic, imaging, and clinical findings. The significance of differences in SUVmax and tumor-to-background ratios between malignant and benign tissue were calculated. Correlations of activity to histologic and immunohistochemical cancer subtypes were made including Ki-67 intensity and Nottingham grade (NG). Results: There were 17 breast lesions (4 benign, 13 malignant) including 7 of 13 invasive ductal, 5 of 13 invasive lobular, and 1 of 13 metaplastic carcinomas. There was a significant difference in mean SUVmax ± SD of malignant (6.2 ± 3.2, 6.0 ± 3.2, 5.7 ± 2.8, and 5.6 ± 3.0) versus benign (1.3 ± 0.6, 1.2 ± 0.5, 1.2 ± 0.6, and 1.1 ± 0.5) lesions at 5, 17, 29, and 41 min, respectively (all P ≤ 0.0001). Tumor-to-background (aorta, normal breast, and marrow) ratios were also significantly higher in malignant than benign breast lesions (all P ≤ 0.02). The highest 18F-fluciclovine activity seems to be present in triple-negative and NG3 subtypes. Across time points, quantitative Ki-67 had weak positive correlation with SUVmax (R1 = 0.48 [P = 0.03], R2 = 0.44 [P = 0.03], R3 = 0.46 [P = 0.03], R4 = 0.43 [0.06]). In 7 patients, 18F-fluciclovine PET visualized locoregional and distant spread including that of lobular cancer, though identification of hepatic metastases was limited by physiologic background activity. Conclusion: The uptake characteristics of 18F-fluciclovine are reflective of the histologic and immunohistochemical characteristics in suspected breast lesions with greater activity in malignant versus benign etiology. The data from this exploratory study may be useful to design future studies using 18F-fluciclovine PET for breast tumor imaging as well as for detection of locoregional and distant spread.
The Far-field Approximation In Seismic Interferometry

Green’s function retrieval through seismic interferometry can be derived based on the Rayleigh’s reciprocity theorem of the correlation type. However, the common underlying assumption of theory that the sources are in the far field limits the technology to extracting correctly only the high frequency part of the Green’s function in an open system. This critical approximation can be eliminated using the exact boundary integral equation method. Without the farfield approximation, a crosscorrelation kernel is proposed to recover the exact Green’s function. Symmetric difference kernels are analytically constructed for sources on a plane or on a circle and can be reduced to the known Dirac delta kernel under the far-field approximation. Spurious arrivals can be artificially generated in the construction of Green’s function using wavefield crosscorrelation if a small scattering object is present in the medium. For far-field sources, if the point scattering model is correct, the spurious arrival can be eliminated; however, if the sources are not in the far field, the crosscorrelation kernel must also be used.
Ancient Teotihuacan: Great Pyramids and Early Grandeur: 100–250 CE

This interval spans the Miccaotli and Early Tlamimilolpa ceramic phases, whose ceramics do not differ drastically from one another. Plainwares derive from those of the Tzacualli phase, while serving and ceremonial wares show some innovations. The city did not increase in area. Settlement withdrew from the slopes of Cerros Malinalco and Colorado in the northwest (Figure 6.1), while sherd densities increased in the eastern and southern parts of the city, and in and around sector N6W3, in what was now the far northwest of the city. The population of the city probably did not increase much, perhaps because of problems in provisioning a larger settlement. I estimate that it was around 80,000 to 100,000. The rapid pace of civic-ceremonial construction continued or even accelerated. There was a vast program of civic-ceremonial building on an unprecedented scale – the great enlargement of the Moon Pyramid, razing of the pre-Ciudadela and putting something different in its place, the Five-Prime group (and presumably its unexcavated twin, Group Five), the Great Compound, the Xalla complex, and probably the Avenue of the Dead Complex. During this interval, the material form of the civic-ceremonial core assumed the basic configuration that it has had ever since, although in later times there were some significant modifications (Figure 6.2). It is hard to convey in words and pictures the scale of this central district, and it seems only the experience of actually being there can do this. But some comparisons may help. Along the Avenue of the Dead, from the top of the Moon Pyramid to the southern edge of the Ciudadela, the north-south distance is 2.15 km. This is just short of the distance from the dome of the capitol building in Washington to the Washington Monument, and a little more than three-fifths of the distance from the capitol dome to the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. It is not quite half the length of Central Park in New York City.
Sentiment Topic Model with Decomposed Prior.

This paper deals with the problem of jointly mining topics, sentiments, and the association between them from online reviews in an unsupervised way. Previous methods often treat a sentiment as a special topic and assume a word is generated from a flat mixture of topics, where the discriminative performance of sentiment analysis is not satisfied. A key reason is that providing rich priors on the polarity of a word for the flat mixture is difficult as the polarity often depends on the topic. To solve the problem we propose a novel model. We decompose the generative process of a word’s sentiment polarity to a two-level hierarchy: the first level determines whether a word is used as a sentiment word or just an ordinary topic word, and the second level (if the word is used as a sentiment word) determines the polarity of it. With the decomposition, we provide separate prior for the the first level to encourage the discrimination between sentiment words and ordinary topic words. This prior is relatively easy to obtain compared to the concrete prior of the word polarities. We construct the prior based on part-of-speech tags of words and embed the prior into the model. Experiments on four real online review data sets show that our model consistently outperforms previous methods in the task of sentiment analysis, and simultaneously performs well in the sub-tasks of discovering ordinary topics, sentiment-specific topics, and extracting topic-specific sentiment words.
VTE Prophylaxis: Implementing EBP to Enhance Knowledge and Compliance with Core Measures and Reduction in PSI 12

4 VTE Prophylaxis: Implementing EBP to Enhance Knowledge and Compliance with Core Measures and Reduction in PSI 12 Pamela Mahaffey, DNP, ACNS-BC, RN, Capital University and Ohio Health, Circleville, OH Every hospitalized patient has increased risk for the development of vascular related complications; indeed, patents that have surgical interventions, trauma or prolonged bedrest have additional risk. This presentation will review the process of care and implementation of evidenced based strategies that were executed to decrease deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolus (PE) and subsequently improve patient outcomes at a level 1 trauma center urban hospital. In addition, the core measures for VTE prophylaxis will be reviewed as well as the patient safety indicator (PSI) 12 which is post-surgical DVT/ PE. A hospital wide inter-disciplinary team formed to identify contributing factors and ultimately implement strategies to decrease the number of post-surgical DVT/PE cases. A preassessment with staff nurses was conducted and strategies comprising: journal club, management rounding and bedside report to review daily VTE prophylaxis were incorporated. A data collection tool was developed and the unit educator, evidence based practice (EBP) mentor and management team began weekly random assessments regarding VTE prophylaxis measures. Case studies will be presented to review the strategies and the vascular nurse’s role to assure good patient outcomes and a reduction in preventable DVT/PE. The sustainability of strategies include the importance of knowledge and enculturation among interdisciplinary staff. The steps taken to achieve this will be shared.
When 100% really isn't 100%: improving the accuracy of small-sample estimates of completion rates

Small sample sizes are a fact of life for most usability practitioners. This can lead to serious measurement problems, especially when making binary measurements such as successful task completion rates (p). The computation of confidence intervals helps by establishing the likely boundaries of measurement, but there is still a question of how to compute the best point estimate, especially for extreme outcomes. In this paper, we report the results of investigations of the accuracy of different estimation methods for two hypothetical distributions and one empirical distribution of p. If a practitioner has no expectation about the value of p, then the Laplace method ((x + 1)/(n + 2)) is the best estimator. If practitioners are reasonably sure that p will range between .5 and 1.0, then they should use the Wilson method if the observed value of p is less than .5, Laplace when p is greater than .9, and maximum likelihood (x/n) otherwise.
The role of molecular biomarkers for predicting adjacent breast cancer of Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia diagnosed on core biopsy.

BACKGROUND: Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia (ADH) is a disease of the proliferative breast lesion characterized with atypia and when diagnosed on core needle biopsy (CNB), excisional biopsy is the current management to exclude adjacent cancer, which may found 10 to 20%. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of biomarkers on surgical decision after the diagnosis of ADH on CNB. METHODS: Patients with pure ADH on core biopsy were retrospectively selected, and categorized according to final pathology after excision into three groups: Group I (n: 39) ADH; Group II (n: 27) ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and Group III (n: 9) invasive cancer (IC). Immunohistochemical analyses were performed using biomarkers MUC1, Ki67, Cyclin B1, and Cyclin D1. RESULTS: Only Cyclin D1 was significant in between group analysis by one-way ANOVA (64.74, 49.44, and 51.11, respectively; p = 0.01). However when appropriate cut-off levels (2%–50%) were used for each biomarkers using X2 test, no statistical significance was found. CONCLUSION: MUC1, Ki67, Cyclin B, and Cyclin D1have failed to predict adjacent cancer on core biopsy specimens with ADH. Further surgery is warranted for all ADH cases diagnosed on core biopsies until a new predictor is identified.
Insulin Effects in Cell-Free Systems

This chapter focuses on the insulin effects in cell-free systems. Cell-free hexokinase preparations from muscle can be consistently inhibited by addition of s-lipoprotein of rat serum. This inhibition is occasionally, but not invariably, relieved by addition of insulin in vitro . The same rat serum lipoprotein does not inhibit yeast hexokinase, but a similar fraction from rabbit serum has been reported to do so. A stimulatory effect of insulin on glycogen formation in muscle homogenates has also been suggested. Insulin has been reported to stimulate phosphorylation of creatine by homogenates of rat heart muscle and rat brain, and to increase the formation of cocarboxylase from thiamine in a cell-free system from rat liver. The oxygen consumption of minced pigeon breast muscle is maintained on a linear course for a longer time in the presence of insulin than in its absence. This effect is not obtained with similar preparations from mammalian muscle.
Black in White: Black Students at White and Black Colleges

In this article, we consider the experiences of African-American students attending both historically white and historically black colleges and universities. By examining the challenges confronting black students in their pursuit of higher education, we chronicle the educational challenges, psychological consequences, and other everyday realities of black students within these institutions. In the system of higher education, African-American students are often faced not only with the dilemma of coping with the university setting, but also often with the unsettling racial environment outside of the university. Oftentimes, African-American students encounter the predicament of managing their identities as a method of surviving and coping with a system that at times can appear intolerant if not openly hostile. By examining black students attending a historically black university, we also examine how the university can serve as a safe space, especially in reference to the setting around a campus that often contributes to their experiences and feelings of marginalization and discrimination. As institutions of higher education often face the responsibility of educating students as well as preparing them for future endeavors, we examine how the continuing legacy of racism can become an additional liability to the already-difficult process of gaining an education. With all this in mind, we share some student experiences from research in these educational settings as a means of promoting a more positive and multicultural education on college campuses. Finally, we examine and connect the consequences of racism on and off college campuses to the larger society and its institutions and then discuss the implications of these racist climates and acts on the system of higher education and on African-American students.
Effects of cell type and configuration on anabolic and catabolic activity in 3D co‐culture of mesenchymal stem cells and nucleus pulposus cells

Tissue engineering constructs to treat intervertebral disc degeneration must adapt to the hypoxic and inflammatory degenerative disc microenvironment. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of two key design factors, cell type and cell configuration, on the regenerative potential of nucleus pulposus cell (NPC) and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) constructs. Anabolic and catabolic activity was quantified in constructs of varying cell type (NPCs, MSCs, and a 50:50 co-culture) and varying configuration (individual cells and micropellets). Anabolic and catabolic outcomes were both dependent on cell type. Gene expression of Agg and Col2A1, glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content, and aggrecan immunohistochemistry (IHC), were significantly higher in NPC-only and co-culture groups than in MSC-only groups, with NPC-only groups exhibiting the highest anabolic gene expression levels. However, NPC-only constructs also responded to inflammation and hypoxia with significant upregulation of catabolic genes (MMP-1, MMP-9, MMP-13, and ADAMTS-5). MSC-only groups were unaffected by degenerative media conditions, and co-culture with MSCs modulated catabolic induction of the NPCs. Culturing cells in a micropellet configuration dramatically reduced catabolic induction in co-culture and NPC-only groups. Co-culture micropellets, which take advantage of both cell type and configuration effects, had the most immunomodulatory response, with a significant decrease in MMP-13 and ADAMTS-5 expression in hypoxic and inflammatory media conditions. Co-culture micropellets were also found to self-organize into bilaminar formations with an MSC core and NPC outer layer. Further understanding of these cell type and configuration effects can improve tissue engineering designs. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Orthopaedic Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the Orthopaedic Research Society. J Orthop Res 35:61-73, 2017.
Invasion-promoting extracellular matrix composition enhances photodynamic therapy response in 3D pancreatic cancer models

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by extracellular matrix-rich stromal involvement, but it is not clear how ECM properties that affect invasiveness and chemotherapy response influence efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT). To disentangle the mechanical and biochemical effects of ECM composition, we measured the effects of various combinations of ECM proteins on growth behavior, invasive potential, and therapeutic response of multicellular 3D pancreatic tumor models. These spheroids were grown in attachment-free conditions before embedding in combinations of rheologically characterized collagen 1 and Matrigel combinations and treated with oxaliplatin chemotherapy and PDT. We find that cells invading from collagen-embedded tumor spheroids, the least rigid ECM substrate described here, displayed better response to PDT than to oxaliplatin chemotherapy. Overall, our results support that ECM-mediated invading PDAC populations remain responsive to PDT in conditions that induce chemoresistance.
Serum tumor markers among patients (pts) with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC): A single institution experience.

e17078 Background: NPC is not known to have associated elevations in known tumor markers other than EBV viral loads. We report a case of metastatic, EBV-associated NPC with elevations in serum CEA,...
The plugging performance of preformed particle gel to water flow through large opening void space conduits

Abstract Preformed particle gels (PPGs) is a diverting agent that is used to solve the conformance problem in low permeability rich oil zones. It is injected to reduce thief zone permeability and then divert displacing fluid into poorly swept zones. However, PPG propagation and plugging mechanisms through heterogeneous void space conduits (VSC) still remain unpredictable and sporadic. This study examined the effect of gel strength and conduit heterogeneity on PPG plugging performance to water flow. Tubes with different internal diameters were used to emulate different sizes of VSCs. Two conduit models were designed, including (1) a uniform conduit diameter model and (2) a non-uniform conduit diameter model. Gel particles decreased uniformly the permeability across the conduit, and their plugging performance to water flow decreased when gel strength decreased. Gel particle injection pressure increased substantially when the conduit became heterogeneous. Some gel particles accumulated at the choke point and some passed through. This propagation mechanism caused a significant rise in PPG resistance to water flow. In contrast to the uniform conduit diameter experiment results, gel plugging performance to water flow improved when the gel strength within non-uniform conduit model reduced. The increase in plugging performance was caused by conduit diameter heterogeneity and increasing gel particle sizes. This paper demonstrates important impact elements of gel propagation and water flow for different opening conduit situations.
This is not thick description: Conceptual art installation as ethnographic process:

What happens when an ethnographer takes up the idiom of contemporary art installation to explore an ethnographic problem? Building on performance ethnography as developed by Dwight Conquergood and ...
A Tale of Two CPGs: Phylogenetically Polymorphic Networks

The central pattern generators (CPGs) underlying different swimming behaviors in two nudibranchs, Tritonia diomedea and Melibe leonina, are used to illustrate that species-specific behaviors can arise from different sets of neurons. However, homologous neurons are present in each species, suggesting that functional circuits were partitioned from a polymorphic nervous system to produce different behaviors. A third species from a sister group to the nudibranchs, Pleurobranchaea californica, uses homologous neurons to the Tritonia swim CPG neurons to produce a similar behavior. This could indicate parallel evolution of the CPG that arose through a similar partition of the same polymorphic nervous system.
Intra-arterial Cisplatin Plus Oral Etoposide for the Treatment of Recurrent Malignant Glioma: A Phase II Study

Twenty-five adults with recurrent malignant glioma were enrolled into a phase II clinical study. All patients had undergone surgical resection and had failed radiotherapy and first-line treatment with nitrosourea-based chemotherapy; five had failed second-line chemotherapy. Our objective was to test the efficacy of combining intra-arterially (i.a.) infused cisplatin and oral etoposide. Using conventional angiographic technique to access anterior/posterior cerebral circulation, cisplatin 60 mg/m2 was administered by i.a. infusion on day 1 of treatment. Oral etoposide 50 mg/m2/day was given days 1-21, with a 7 day rest interval between courses. Response to treatment was evaluated in 20 patients. Two patients with anaplastic astrocytoma had partial responses (PR) and six patients experienced stable disease (SD) for an overall response rate (PR +/- SD) of 40%. The median time to disease progression (MTP) following treatment for the responder subgroup was 18 weeks. The median survival time from treatment (MST) for the responders (n = 8) and non-responders (n = 12) was 56.5 weeks and 11 weeks, respectively. Combined i.a. cisplatin and oral etoposide was well-tolerated, but produced an objective response in only a minority of patients. Those considered responders (PR + SD) experienced significant survival advantage when compared to the non-responders. Nonetheless, i.a. delivery of chemotherapy is an expensive and technologically burdensome treatment for most patients to access, requiring proximity to a major center with neuro-oncological and neuroradiological clinical services. This is of special concern for patients suffering recurrent disease with progressive neurological symptoms at a time in their course when quality of life must be safeguarded and palliation of symptoms should be the therapeutic goal. Despite the efforts of previous investigators to use this combination of agents to treat recurrent malignant glioma, we cannot recommend the use of i.a. chemotherapy for salvage treatment of this disease.
A Study On The Impact Of The Working Capital Management On The Profitability Of The Leading Listed Automobile Companies In India (2006- 2012).

India’s strategic objective for the manufacturing sector in the next 15 years should be to bring about quantitative and qualitative change through a set of policies and plans. Therefore, the cost associated with the strategy of doing business is much higher in India. Hence to overcome the difficulty and meet the challenges of manufacturing sector in India, Industries are encouraged to attract more investments into the stream in order to minimize the risk of liquidity and to maximize profitability. The liquidity and profitability trade off can be tackled efficiently by improving and adopting effective working capital management strategies into the manufacturing sector. This study takes into consideration the top S&P CNX 500manufacturing firms within the geographical area of India. The automobile sector accounts for 7.1 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Working capital management is an important function of financial management which helps in maintaining an optimal balance between each of the working capital components. Industries can reduce their financing costs or increase the funds available for expansion of projects by minimizing the amount of investment tied up in current assets. In a broad-spectrum, current assets are considered as one of the important component of total assets of a firm. The purpose of the research is to analyze whether working capital management can affect the company profitability of Automobile sector in India. Some Previous research might have studied the relation between working capital management and profitability, but those research failed to address the Sectorwise issues of working capital management. This study aims at fulfilling such gaps by considering the industry specific nature of working capital. This thesis will introduce the reader about diverse techniques used to measure working capital management. Previous studies in this area have used various methods to measure the effectiveness of working capital. This study has been framed to show how efficient working capital management impacts the corporate profitability of 10 leading listed automobile sector in Chennai (India). The main source of secondary data was collected through Government reports, official records, journals, books, websites of Internet and financial statements, such as income statements, balance sheets of S&P CNX top500 companies at NSE were collected for the period of 2006 – 2012 from CMIE Prowess Database.
Laminar wakes in supersonic flow

A technique is developed to obtain non-similar solutions of the laminar boundary layer equations governing the recirculating flow behind a finite base. The solutions are represented as expansions in powers of the dimensionless base height. The Chapman similarity solution is the first term in this expansion. The technique is applied to the calculation of recirculating flow behind the base of a two dimensional half wedge in supersonic flow.
Molecular Mechanisms of Pathogenesis in Glioblastoma and Current Therapeutic Strategies

Glioblastomas are the most common adult primary brain tumors. This chapter links the morphologic diversity of glioblastoma with molecular and genetic traits, and potential therapies. Many of the histologic patterns characteristic of glioblastomas now have an explanation through cytogenetics and molecular studies. The infiltrative nature of these tumors has been one of the major hurdles in devising appropriate therapy. Some factors recognized as significant in grading and in prognosis, such as the complex microvascular changes seen in high-grade gliomas, have in recent years been recognized as potential targets for therapy. Recent studies suggest that glioblastomas contain molecular markers that can be explored for therapeutic possibilities for the future. The most recent innovations in therapy consist of combinations of traditional chemotherapy and some antibodies, proteins, etc.
Assistive Technology and Educational Practice

Assistive technology (AT) includes an array of devices and services designed to provide compensatory supports for students with disabilities. Education professionals are required to consider AT when developing individual program plans for all students with disabilities in public school settings. This article describes the compensatory nature of AT, with particular emphasis on key elements of AT consideration. This process focuses on understanding the physical, cognitive, and social–linguistic demands on students with disabilities within the contexts of tasks embedded within activities and features of tools. The importance of AT outcomes is also addressed.
Neutral pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 158 and 200 GeV/nucleon

Two years ago, at the 12th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics held here in Snowbird, I presented WA80 limits on direct photon production in 200-GeV 32S+Au collisions.1 It was found that the results were consistent (within 1 σ) with the absence of an excess of photons over those that can be accounted for by the two-photon decay branches of π0 and η mesons and by the small photon contributions from other radiative decays. We are in the process of finalizing our direct-photon production results from collisions of lead nuclei at 158 GeV/nucleon. I will briefly discuss the status of the analysis and give some preliminary results at the end of this talk. However, most of this presentation is concerned with a very different aspect of our photon measurements: distributions of neutral pions. In contrast to direct photons which probe initial collision conditions, hadrons, such as neutral pions, interact strongly and decouple late in the reaction evolution and, thus, provide us with information concerning the system at freeze out. Transverse momentum spectra at low and intermediate PT relate to ther-modynamic and hydrodynamic descriptions of the hot, dense systems. In addition, the high-pT region reflects the hard-scattering regime and may help us understand initial-state particle production by forming a bridge to proton-proton and proton-nucleus results. It follows that it is essential that the π0 measurements cover a large pT range.
A Survey of Forty Licensed Psychotherapists in Private Practice in Northern California — The Effect of Treatment on Treater

This survey is an attempt to elicit the inner world of the psychotherapist in private practice. Very little, has been published concerning what Spensley and Blacker1 have called the “normal” and “usual” course of an intensive psychotherapeutic experience for the therapist. There is abundant material on the issues of transference and countertransference, yet this literature does not encompass all of the daily emotional experience of the therapist as he or she joins the patient/client in the intimate knowledge of the joys and pain of being human. What is the effect of the sum of these emotional experiences upon the men and women who choose the occupation of private practitioner? Therapists in agencies and institutional settings are in constant proximity to their fellow professional staff members. Reaching out for an intimate understanding of the daily, monthly and yearly emotional process is at least possible. Private therapists may have few opportunities to make those intimate connections necessary for emotional sustenance and renewal. To test this assumption and to find what therapists do should this be true, has been our purpose, as well as to obtain some measure of this experience upon the private practitioner. We chose the open-ended, unstructured, and confidential interview as a way of obtaining this information. While unstructured interviews provide an overabundance of information, it was thought this method of data collection would elicit a view of the experience unencumbered by any bias on the part of the investigators.
Experimentally-validated computational simulation of direct contact membrane distillation performance

Abstract A Direct Contact Membrane Distillation system using a flat-sheet membrane module was fabricated to experimentally study the effects of operating conditions (inlet temperatures and flow rates of feed and permeate streams and salt concentration) on its distilled water production. A two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model considering transmembrane mass flux and heat conduction and associated phase change heat transfer (evaporation and condensation) was developed. It was found that the computational predictions of distilled water production agreed well with the experimental measurements. Furthermore, the CFD model analyzed the effects of filament spacing of a screen spacer in the flow channels and flow configuration (counterflow and parallel) on the water distillation performance. In this study, it is concluded that high water distillation is achieved by using low permeate temperature, high feed temperature, high feed and permeate flow rates, and less salt concentration in a counterflow configuration. The water distillation is more influenced by the feed temperature than the permeate temperature due to the water saturation pressure-temperature relation. The simulation results also showed that the convection thermal resistances in the feed and permeate channels are decreased by using screen spacers and therefore, the temperature and concentration polarization effects are decreased in the channels.
BRIGHTEN Heart intervention for depression in minority older adults: Randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE Assess the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary geriatric team intervention in decreasing symptoms of depression among urban minority older adults in primary care. Secondary outcomes included cardiometabolic syndrome and trauma. METHOD 250 African American and Hispanic older adults with PHQ-9 scores ≥ 8 and BMI ≥ 25 were recruited from 6 underserved urban primary care clinics. Intervention arm participants received the BRIGHTEN Heart team intervention plus membership in Generations, an older adult educational activity program; comparison participants received only Generations. RESULTS Both arms demonstrated clinically significant improvements in PHQ-9 scores at 6 months (-5 points, intervention and comparison) and 12 months (-7 points intervention, -6.5 points comparison); there was no significant difference in change scores between groups on depression or cardiometabolic syndrome at 6 months; there was a small difference in depression trajectory at 12 months (p < .001). More participants in the treatment group (70.7%) had greater than 50% reduction in PHQ-9 scores than the comparison group (56.3%; p = .036). For those with higher PTSD symptoms (PCL-C6), improvement in depression was significantly better in the intervention arm than the comparison arm, regardless of baseline PHQ-9 (p = .001). In mixed models, those with higher PTSD symptoms (β = -0.012, p = < 0.001) in the intervention arm showed greater depression improvement than those with lower PTSD symptoms (β = -0.004, p = .001). CONCLUSIONS The BRIGHTEN Heart intervention may be effective in reducing depression for urban minority older adults. Further research on team care interventions and screening for PTSD symptoms in primary care is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Machine Learning: An Introductory Unit of Study for Secondary Education

Machine learning and neural networks have become key techniques for solving some of society's most difficult problems. Many students are intimidated by, or ignorant of the mechanics of AI. Teaching machine learning to early computing students is possible; in doing so students will gain further confidence and interest in the field of Computer Science. Through an NSF funded grant to the University of Nebraska Omaha, a unit of study was created to teach machine learning to high school students. Focuses for the unit include; neural networks, genetic algorithms, sigmoid and perceptron networks, social impacts, ethics, history, and supervised and unsupervised learning techniques. The unit employs hands on learning approaches and media elements. Also included is a lab where students train an autonomous car. Students were administered pre and post Likert surveys for this unit using the Computing Attitude Survey V4.1 with additional topic specific questions. The study size was sixteen students from two sections of AP Computer Science Principles. Based on survey results, student perceived machine learning comprehension showed a positive delta value growth of 27.84% and negative results showed a delta value shrink of 20.45%. For questions related to computer science interest and confidence, students showed a positive delta value growth of 14.58% and a negative delta value shrink of 11.8%. We believe these results demonstrate that teaching machine learning topics to high school students is effective and has a positive impact on student desire and confidence to pursue further study in the field.
Consciousness and Quantum State Reduction—Which Comes First?

Consciousness and reality are related through the “measurement problem” in quantum mechanics, i.e., why we do not consciously perceive particles as quantum superpositions of multiple possibilities, as they appear to be when unobserved, but rather perceive them consciously as being in definite states or locations. Quantum pioneers Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, and Henry Stapp concluded that subjective conscious observation causes quantum state reduction (“subjective reduction” (SR)), that “consciousness collapses the wavefunction.” However, Sir Roger Penrose suggested instead that quantum state reduction occurs spontaneously due to an objective threshold property (“objective reduction” (OR)) in fundamental spacetime geometry, collapsing the wave function and causing moments of conscious experience (“collapse causes consciousness,” or “collapse is consciousness”). Penrose OR would be occurring ubiquitously and randomly in the environment (“decoherence”) resulting in ubiquitous proto-conscious moments. The Penrose–Hameroff “Orch OR” model of orchestrated objective reduction suggests that microtubules inside brain neurons “orchestrate” quantum computations which “halt” by Orch OR to produce moments of a full, rich conscious experience.
Individualized Instruction: It Can't be Done with a Screwdriver.

u I lave you heard the story of the elementary school principal who individualized his school over the weekend with a screwdriver? In less than two hours he removed all the "grade" signs above each classroom door and replaced them with "level" signs. When the teachers returned Monday morning, as if by magic, they were all nongraded and individualized. "I had to do it," he said. "At our last principals' meeting the superintendent gave orders that all schools in the district were to be individualized by the first of the month." Such shallow thinking is responsible for many of the frustrations and failures some teachers are experiencing as they attempt to individualize their mathematics programs. Some have tried to individualize mathe-
P95 An ECE-Specific Responsive Feeding Observational Measure for Use in Infant Classrooms

Background Responsive feeding (RF) practices by parents are vital for shaping healthy eating behaviors of children. Due to the increasingly shared feeding responsibility between parents and early childhood teachers, early care and education (ECE) settings have been cited as a key avenue for childhood obesity prevention. Still, little is known about teachers’ use of RF practices. Research examining feeding practices of teachers in ECE settings has relied on modifying self-report tools that assess parental feeding practices. Existing parental RF measures and domains are not automatically valid within ECE settings. No observational instrument has been developed specifically to assess RF practices in ECE settings. Objective To develop an observational coding scheme specific for use in ECE settings to assess teachers’ RF practices with infants. Study Design, Settings, Participants An iterative observational design to develop the coding scheme included independent and group observations in three infant classrooms during mealtimes over a five-month period. Teacher feeding behaviors were mapped onto existing domains of parental RF utilizing Satter's Division of Responsibility as a theoretical framework. Commonly observed RF behaviors provided a coding scheme pilot. Utilizing the coding scheme, two mealtimes were video-recorded, independently coded, and discussed as a team to refine the coding scheme. Measureable Outcome/Analysis Observed RF practices in ECE settings. Inductive and deductive analysis of visual data. Results Preliminary findings suggest the RF domains of Restriction, Pressure to Eat, Encouragement, and Praise represent salient teacher behaviors frequently observed within ECE infant classrooms. Conclusion This RF observational coding scheme is specific for ECE settings. Further refinement and validation with larger data collections across multiple ECE settings will be conducted to assess provider feeding practices. Such evidence will create new opportunities to improve RF education, implementation, and practice. Funding US Department of Health and Human Services.
Development of a Supervised Learning Algorithm for Detection of Potential Disease Reemergence: A Proof of Concept.

Infectious disease reemergence is an important yet ambiguous concept that lacks a quantitative definition. Currently, reemergence is identified without specific criteria describing what constitutes...
O’Brien, John. Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys

O’Brien, John. 2017. Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. xxiii + 216 pp. ISBN: 978-0-6911-6882-1 £24.00 (hbk); 978-0-6911-9711-1 £21.95 (pbk).