cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Towards Climate Security and Sustainable Security in the Asia-Pacific Region

Global climate variability and change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disaster events and security risks in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper puts forth a number of conceptual, theoretical, political and normative arguments for developing the field of Climate and Sustainable Security and applying it to identify creative and tenable security solutions to problems that lie at the interface of resource scarcity, human insecurity, national vulnerability, and ecological fragility in the Asia-Pacific region. Even conservative estimates predict that the rising temperatures and changing ocean levels in the Asia-Pacific Region will lead to significant socio-economic, environmental and security concerns: higher temperatures, rising seas and a more energetic hydrologic cycle are expected to contribute to more intense storms, droughts, crop failures and food insecurity. Sea rise for coastal cities may be particularly damaging, especially as people and population densities continue to increase in flood plains and coastal areas of the Asia-Pacific. The herein proposed paradigm of Climate and Sustainable Security deals with protecting, restoring, designing, and implementing a set of integrated natural, industrial, civilian, and security processes that equitably and responsibly meet the biophysical needs of human communities in the Asia-Pacific region, while maintaining long-term climate security, respecting financial constraints, meeting ecological limits, and improving institutional arrangements for transparent, accountable, and effective governance. It is concluded that emergency managers, security professionals and governments must promote climate adaptation and mitigation measures that protect communities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Influence of Co-doping on the Crystal Structure, Magnetocaloric Properties and Elastic Moduli of the La(Fe, Si)13 Compound

The La(Fe, Si)13 compound shows a large magnetocaloric effect near room temperature. Partial substitution of Co for Fe can raise its Curie temperature and reduce the thermal hysteresis of its ferromagnetic transition. However, the influence of Co substitution on the crystal structure and magnetocaloric properties of La(Fe, Si)13 is not well understood yet. In this work, we report a comparative study of the crystal structure, magnetocaloric effects and elastic moduli of polycrystalline LaFe11.5Si1.5 and LaCoFe10.5Si1.5 samples using synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction, magnetic measurements and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. Compared to the Co-free sample, the Co-doped sample shows a sluggish ferromagnetic transition and reduced volumetric expansion as well as softer elastic moduli at room temperature. The Co-doped sample also shows stronger temperature dependence of Fe-Fe distances in its ferromagnetic state. Such differences between the samples are explained by considering the influence of Co doping on ferromagnetic interactions and lattice entropy.
Dual Autonomies, Divergent Approaches: How Stratification in Medical Education Shapes Approaches to Patient Care.

The United States relies on international and osteopathic medical graduates (“non-USMDs”) to fill one third of residency positions because of a shortage of American MD graduates (“USMDs”). Non-USMD...
Structural and functional properties of bone are compromised in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mice

AbstractIn addition to muscle weakness, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is associated with an increased incidence of skeletal fractures. The SOD1G93A mouse model recapitulates many features of human ALS. These mice also exhibit decreased bone mass. However, the functional, or biomechanical, behavior of the skeleton in SOD1G93A mice has not been investigated. To do so, we examined skeletal phenotypes in end-stage (16-week-old) SOD1G93A female mice and healthy littermate female controls (N = 9–10/group). Outcomes included trabecular and cortical bone microarchitecture by microcomputed tomography; stiffness and strength via three-point bending; resistance to crack growth by fracture toughness testing; and cortical bone matrix properties via cyclic reference point indentation. SOD1G93A mice had similar bone size, but significantly lower trabecular bone mass (–54%), thinner trabeculae (–41%) and decreased cortical bone thickness (–17%) and cortical area (–18%) compared to control mice (all p < 0.01). In li...
Fractal analysis of seafloor textures for target detection in synthetic aperture sonar imagery

Fractal analysis of an image is a mathematical approach to generate surface related features from an image or image tile that can be applied to image segmentation and to object recognition. In undersea target countermeasures, the targets of interest can appear as anomalies in a variety of contexts, visually different textures on the seafloor. In this paper, we evaluate the use of fractal dimension as a primary feature and related characteristics as secondary features to be extracted from synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imagery for the purpose of target detection. We develop three separate methods for computing fractal dimension. Tiles with targets are compared to others from the same background textures without targets. The different fractal dimension feature methods are tested with respect to how well they can be used to detect targets vs. false alarms within the same contexts. These features are evaluated for utility using a set of image tiles extracted from a SAS data set generated by the U.S. Navy in conjunction with the Office of Naval Research. We find that all three methods perform well in the classification task, with a fractional Brownian motion model performing the best among the individual methods. We also find that the secondary features are just as useful, if not more so, in classifying false alarms vs. targets. The best classification accuracy overall, in our experimentation, is found when the features from all three methods are combined into a single feature vector.
Exploring patterns enriched in a dataset with contrastive principal component analysis

Visualization and exploration of high-dimensional data is a ubiquitous challenge across disciplines. Widely used techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) aim to identify dominant trends in one dataset. However, in many settings we have datasets collected under different conditions, e.g., a treatment and a control experiment, and we are interested in visualizing and exploring patterns that are specific to one dataset. This paper proposes a method, contrastive principal component analysis (cPCA), which identifies low-dimensional structures that are enriched in a dataset relative to comparison data. In a wide variety of experiments, we demonstrate that cPCA with a background dataset enables us to visualize dataset-specific patterns missed by PCA and other standard methods. We further provide a geometric interpretation of cPCA and strong mathematical guarantees. An implementation of cPCA is publicly available, and can be used for exploratory data analysis in many applications where PCA is currently used.
The Clinical Spectrum, Pathology, and Clonal Analysis of Epstein-Barr Virus–Associated Lymphoproliferative Disorders in Heart–Lung Transplant Recipients

This study presents the clinical and laboratory observations on posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLDs) occurring in 5 of 53 heart-lung transplantation recipients. Cervical lymph nodes, tonsils, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract were the common sites of involvement by PTLDs. The histopathologic findings showed a spectrum of lymphoid and immunoblastic proliferation ranging from diffuse hyperplasia to malignant lymphoma, immunoblastic or large cell type. All cases were associated with a primary Epstein-Barr virus infection, and viral DNA was demonstrated within the lesional tissue in three cases. Immunohistochemical and immunoglobulin gene rearrangement studies revealed a B-cell proliferation that was monoclonal in three cases and polyclonal in two cases. Compared with PTLDs arising in other organ transplant recipients, this series is remarkable for a high incidence of PTLDs (9.4%), a short interval to tumor diagnosis (2.2 months, mean), involvement of the primary allograft in three cases (60%), and the frequent development of bronchiolitis obliterans. Possible reasons for this distinct clinicopathologic profile are discussed.
US Air Force Research Laboratory Perspective on Structural Health Monitoring in Support of Risk Management

The US Air Force (USAF) and US Department of Defense has a long history of research and development in the exploration of on-board sensors being used for detection of damage in aircraft structures. Initial activities can be traced to the early 1980’s which led to an extensive on-aircraft assessment of acoustic emission based (i.e. “passive) sensor system. In the late 1990’s an effort was launched to revitalize the capability which cumulated in the “Hot Spots” program which explored the use of an ultrasonic guided wave (i.e. “active”) sensor system. Each of these programs encountered challenges that have hindered the use of these technologies on fixed-wing military aircraft. This paper briefly reviews these previous efforts, present current USAF Military Standards that define Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for fixed wing aircraft, and provide a discussion of current and future concepts for research and development to resolve these challenges and enable eventual adaptation of SHM for fixed-wing applications. This will include a summary of current initiatives within the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of AFRL and notional thoughts on potential projects for future developments required for this capability to be applied to fixed wing military aircraft.
Effects of listening to repeated syllables: category boundary shifts versus verbal transformations

Listening to recordings of clearly pronounced repeated syllables can produce quite different perceptual effects depending upon whether observations are perstimulatory (during stimulation) or poststimulatory (after stimulation ceases). Poststimulatory changes involve migration of category boundaries separating speech sounds—for example a shift in the /t/–/d/ voice onset time (VOT) boundary toward that of a previously repeated consonant–vowel syllable such as “to” or “do”. Studies of the perstimulatory changes called “verbal transformations” usually employ phonetically complex stimuli, and consist of abrupt illusory changes in what is heard, frequently accompanied by considerable phonetic distortion. The present study examined verbal transformations reported while listening to alternating statements of “to” and “do” (“to, do, to, do …”)for which the adaptational VOT boundary changes produced by one syllable opposed that of the other. The perstimulatory reports were inconsistent with adaptational category boundary shifts. It is suggested that although poststimulatory changes reflect a criterion shift rule applicable to perceptual judgments in general, perstimulatory verbal transformations involve perceptual cleavage into organizational units, some of which mutate before recombining to yield a different linguistic form. Verbal transformations provide information concerning linguistic processing which differs from that furnished by poststimulatory changes.
Telehealth Services for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders in Rural Areas of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Overview and Recommendations

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are the most-prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders. However, each child diagnosed with ASD presents with a unique range of behavioral and communication problems and issues with social skills. Many studies have highlighted the importance of early interventions for children with ASD to improve their skills and provide their families with the necessary support. However, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the earliest that a child with ASD in the major cities receives an intervention is at the age of 4 years, owing to limited services and a lack of awareness of the importance and benefits of early interventions. Families who live in rural areas of KSA arguably have a greater need for these services, as they have to travel to cities such as Riyadh for help. The use of telehealth services may be effective for ASD intervention among children living in rural areas, since such services use technology to provide consultations, interventions, diagnosis, training, and education. Research indicates that telehealth services are as valuable as traditional face-to-face treatment, allow families to obtain support from their homes, and help them improve their quality of life. This review will discuss the application of telehealth services to support families in rural areas of KSA who are dealing with issues of ASD, considering the cultural and religious contexts. In addition, it will examine ways in which technology can be employed to suit KSA's culture and needs.
Non-clinical delays in transfer out of the surgical ICU are associated with increased hospital length of stay and delayed progress of care.

Abstract Purpose The impact of non-clinical transfer delay (TD) from the ICU to a general care unit on the progress of the patient’s care is unknown. We measured the association between TD and: (1) the patient’s subsequent hospital length of stay (LOS); (2) the timing of care decisions that would advance patient care. Methods This was a single center retrospective study in the United States of patients admitted to the surgical and neurosurgical ICUs during 2013 and 2015. The primary outcome was hospital LOS after transfer request. The secondary outcome was the timing of provider orders representing care decisions (milestones) that would advance the patient’s care. Patient, surgery, and bed covariates were accounted for in a multivariate regression and propensity matching analysis. Results Out of the cohort of 4,926 patients, 1,717 met inclusion criteria. 670 (39%) experienced ≥12 hours of TD. For each day of TD, there was an average increase of 0.70 days in LOS (P Conclusions TD is associated with longer LOS and delays in milestone clinical decisions that progress care. Eliminating delays in milestones could mitigate TD’s impact on LOS.
State Plane Trajectory Control of a Soft Switching AC-Link DC-DC Converter

This work presents the mathematical analysis and controller operation of the AC-link dc-dc converter, a parallel resonant converter, for which state plane trajectory control (SPTC) is proposed. The contribution is a simple, autonomous control technique achieving the benefits of bidirectional power flow, soft switching, and converter switching at its natural resonant frequency as opposed to conventional forced control operations. The switching sequence is implemented using an autonomous state machine triggered by the voltage and current state variables of the resonant LC tank, transitioning between modes of operation strategically to achieve said benefits. All results were simulated in MATLAB/Simulink utilizing the PLECS blockset.
Robust Post-Matching Inference

Nearest-neighbor matching is a popular nonparametric tool to create balance between treatment and control groups in observational studies. As a preprocessing step before regression, matching reduce...
Transcending time in the brain: How event memories are constructed from experience.

Our daily lives unfold continuously, yet when we reflect on the past, we remember those experiences as distinct and cohesive events. To understand this phenomenon, early investigations focused on how and when individuals perceive natural breakpoints, or boundaries, in ongoing experience. More recent research has examined how these boundaries modulate brain mechanisms that support long-term episodic memory. This work has revealed that a complex interplay between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex promotes the integration and separation of sequential information to help organize our experiences into mnemonic events. Here, we discuss how both temporal stability and change in one’s thoughts, goals, and surroundings may provide scaffolding for these neural processes to link and separate memories across time. When learning novel or familiar sequences of information, dynamic hippocampal processes may work both independently from and in concert with other brain regions to bind sequential representations together in memory. The formation and storage of discrete episodic memories may occur both proactively as an experience unfolds. They may also occur retroactively, either during a context shift or when reactivation mechanisms bring the past into the present to allow integration. We also describe conditions and factors that shape the construction and integration of event memories across different timescales. Together these findings shed new light on how the brain transcends time to transform everyday experiences into meaningful memory representations.
ISOZYMES IN PLANT POPULATION GENETICS

ABSTRACT . Studies of population structure in plants, utilizing isozyme markers, have revealed a complexity of genetic organization which belies the assumptions of simple population models. Thus, when precise quantitative data have been obtained, mating systems have been found to vary from population to population within a species and also to differ among closely related species with similar ecological preferences. Mating systems are highly flexible and capable of rapid shifts in time as well as in space. Studies of selection indicate that it takes a diversity of forms. Viability differences tend to be larger than differences in fecundity, indicating that much of the reproductive potential of populations is associated with differential mortality. Estimates of selection at the multilocus level show little correspondence to single-locus estimates supporting the view that epistatic forces are important in molding the genetic organization of populations. Natural populations exhibit an astonishing degree of genetic organization, including dramatic correlations in allelic state over loci within single populations as well as markedly non-random distributions of genotypes in space, correlated with environment. Finally, studies of experimental plant populations have shown that selection can organize the genetic materials into a highly non-random state in a few generations, indicating that evolution of multilocus organization proceeds at a rapid pace.
Prediction of death after endovascular thrombectomy in the extended window: a secondary analysis of DEFUSE 3 "

Background The Endovascular Therapy Following Imaging Evaluation for Ischemic Stroke 3 (DEFUSE 3) clinical trial assessed the use of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) during the period 6–16 hours after last normal in selected patients. This is a secondary cohort analysis of the DEFUSE 3 data assessing potential predictive variables for mortality in the EVT-treated patients. Methods The primary outcome was death within 90 days. Patients who died and those who did not were compared statistically. We developed a predictive score using preprocedural variables that were statistically predictive of death in univariate regression analysis (P Results Of the 182 patients in the DEFUSE 3 study, 92 (mean age 69 years; 50% male) met our inclusion criteria, and 15.2% of these patients met the primary outcome. Patient age, baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, wake-up stroke, statin use, and history of diabetes were statistically associated with death. Statin use did not improve the prediction score so was excluded. Thus, our model included four predictors, with one point each given for age >75 years, NIHSS ≥20, wake-up stroke, and diabetes, yielding low (0–1), moderate (2), and high (3–4) risk of death. In the low-risk, moderate-risk, and high-risk categories, 2/52 (3.9%), 3/23 (13.0%), and 9/17 (52.9%) of patients died, respectively (P Conclusions Despite selective inclusion criteria and overwhelming benefit for EVT, a substantial number of EVT patients in DEFUSE 3 died. The preprocedural variables age, NIHSS, wake-up stroke, and diabetes may predict this risk. Our predictive score provides a basis for future research to determine which factors influence lethal outcome after EVT.
The antiretroviral 2',3'-dideoxycytidine causes mitochondrial dysfunction in proliferating and differentiated HepaRG human cell cultures.

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) were the first drugs used to treat human immunodeficiency virus infection, and their use can cause mitochondrial toxicity, including mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion in several cases. The first-generation NRTIs, including 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine (ddC), were originally and are still pursued as anticancer agents. NRTI-sensitive DNA polymerases localizing to mitochondria allow for the opportunity to poison proliferating cancer cell mtDNA replication as certain cancers rely heavily on mitochondrial functions. However, mtDNA replication is independent of the cell cycle creating a significant concern that toxicants such as ddC impair mtDNA maintenance in both proliferating and nonproliferating cells. To examine this possibility, we tested the utility of the HepaRG cell line to study ddC-induced toxicity in isogenic proliferating (undifferentiated) and nonproliferating (differentiated) cells. Following ddC exposures, we measured cell viability, mtDNA copy number, and mitochondrial bioenergetics utilizing trypan blue, Southern blotting, and extracellular flux analysis, respectively. After 13 days of 1 μM ddC exposure, proliferating and differentiated HepaRG harbored mtDNA levels of 0.9% and 17.9% compared with control cells, respectively. Cells exposed to 12 μM ddC contained even less mtDNA. By day 13, differentiated cell viability was maintained but declined for proliferating cells. Proliferating HepaRG bioenergetic parameters were severely impaired by day 8, with 1 and 12 μM ddC, whereas differentiated cells displayed defects of spare and maximal respiratory capacities (day 8) and proton-leak linked respiration (day 14) with 12 μM ddC. These results indicate HepaRG is a useful model to study proliferating and differentiated cell mitochondrial toxicant exposures.
Enzyme kinetics of CRISPR molecular diagnostics

Abstract CRISPR diagnostic assays have gained significant interest in the last few years. This interest has grown rapidly during the current COVID-19 pandemic where CRISPR diagnostics have been frontline contenders for rapid testing solutions. This surge in CRISPR diagnostics research prompts the following question: What exactly are the achievable limits of detection and associated assay times enabled by the kinetics of Cas12 and Cas13 enzymes? To address this question, we here present a model based on Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics theory applied to Cas enzymes. We use the model to develop analytical solutions for reaction kinetics and develop back-of-the­ envelope criteria to validate and check for consistency in reported enzyme kinetics parameters. We applied our analyses to all studies known to us which report Michaelis-Menten-type kinetics data for CRISPR associated enzymes. These studies include all subtypes of Cas12 and Cas13 and orthologs. We found all studies but one clearly violate at least two of our three rules of consistency. We further use our model to explore ranges of reaction time scales and degree of reaction completion for practically relevant target concentrations applicable to CRISPR-diagnostic assays.
High Accuracy of Digital Tomosynthesis-Guided Bronchoscopic Biopsy Confirmed by Intraprocedural Computed Tomography.

Background Digital fluoroscopic tomosynthesis-guided electromagnetic navigational bronchoscopy (F-ENB) is a novel adjunct to ENB associated with higher diagnostic yield. The likelihood of F-ENB allowing accurate placement of a biopsy needle within a target remains unclear. Objective This study intends to determine the accuracy of F-ENB as confirmed by cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan. Methods Patients undergoing CBCT-assisted ENB for lung nodule biopsy were prospectively enrolled. ENB was performed followed by digital tomosynthesis correction. Once optimal F-ENB alignment was achieved, and a needle was advanced into the expected location of the nodule followed by CBCT. The primary outcome was the percentage of "needle-in-lesion" hits, defined as needle tip within the nodule in 3 planes. Secondary outcomes were diagnostic yield, procedure and room time, complications, radiation, and distance between the needle tip and nodule. Results Twenty-six patients with a total of 29 nodules were enrolled. Mean nodule size was 13 mm (±4 mm) in maximal axial dimension, 83% (n = 24) were located in the peripheral third of the chest, and 17% (n = 5) had a bronchus sign. F-ENB guidance resulted in needle-in-lesion in 21 of 29 nodules (72%). Mean needle tip-to-nodule distance for nonhits was 1.75 mm (±1.35 mm). There were no complications. Conclusion F-ENB resulted in a needle-in-lesion biopsy in greater than 70% of nodules despite features traditionally associated with poor diagnostic yield (size, absence of bronchus sign). Mean distance between needle tip and target for nonhits was less than 2 mm. These data suggest F-ENB alignment is accurate for small peripheral nodules.
Sleep and the Gastrointestinal System

There are profound physiological changes in the function of the upper gastrointestinal tract during sleep. These sleep-related changes in both upper and lower esophageal sphincters, and corresponding changes in the salivary production, drive the clearance mechanisms and make sleep emerge as a vulnerable state for patients with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Given the proximity of the upper airway to the upper gastrointestinal tract, a spectrum of respiratory symptoms that includes apnea, choking, and cyanosis are reported in neonates and young infants with GERD. Furthermore, sleep-related GERD can lead to sleep fragmentation, while Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and GERD share bidirectional cause and effect relationships. This chapter describes some of the pertinent mechanisms of sleep and GER and reviews the role of sleep in modulation of symptoms of sleep disordered breathing across the pediatric age spectrum.
Microsurgical Clip Reconstruction of a Ruptured Internal Carotid Artery Terminus Blister Aneurysm Using a Reverse Picket Fence Technique

Background Blister aneurysms are rare, technically challenging lesions that are typically ill defined and arise at nonbranch points of arteries. Objective To describe the microsurgical treatment of a ruptured blister aneurysm at the internal carotid artery (ICA) terminus using the reverse picket fence clipping technique. Methods The patient was a 60-yr-old male. He presented with a Hunt and Hess Grade 2, Fisher Grade 3 subarachnoid hemorrhage located in the bilateral sylvian fissures (right > left) and suprasellar cisterns. Computed tomography angiography demonstrated 2 aneurysms: a 2-mm right middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysm and a 2.5-mm right internal carotid artery (ICA) terminus blister aneurysm. Transradial cerebral angiography was undertaken which showed these similar sized aneurysms. Microsurgical treatment was chosen, and the patient underwent a right pterional craniotomy for clipping of his aneurysms. The patient consented to the procedure. Results The combination of stacked fenestrated clips repaired the vessel, with intraoperative fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography demonstrated normal filling of the MCA and ICA circulation with no delay. Intraoperative angiography confirmed induced moderate stenosis of the ICA terminus at about 50%, which is essential to close the blister aneurysm site by utilizing a portion of the normal vessel wall. Conclusion Ruptured blister aneurysms at the ICA terminus can be safely repaired using the reverse picket fence technique for clipping.
Case 3: Cystic Encephalomalacia and Hyperpigmented Plaques in a Preterm Infant.

A previously healthy 27-year-old gravida 1, para 0 woman is admitted with preterm labor and loss of fluids at 28 weeks’ gestation. She receives antenatal steroids and obstetric ultrasonography shows bilateral cerebral ventriculomegaly and an absent stomach bubble. Before admission, her pregnancy had been uneventful and findings on early anomaly screening ultrasonography at 19 weeks’ gestation are normal. Serologic tests for maternal group B Streptococcus , cytomegalovirus, toxoplasma, and Treponema all have negative findings. The fetal tracing becomes non-reassuring and the neonate is born via emergency cesarean delivery. The neonate has apnea, hypotonia, and bradycardia at birth and does not respond to face mask ventilation. He undergoes intubation by 5 minutes after birth, with improvement in his heart rate, but he remains limp without any spontaneous breathing. His Apgar scores are 1, 2, and 3 at 1, 5, and 10 minutes after birth, respectively. Arterial and venous cord blood gases are 7.29 pH and 7.36 pH. Initial examination shows a preterm infant with appropriate weight, length, and head circumference for age, decorticate posturing, hypotonia of the lower extremities, …
A search for spectral hardening in HAWC sources above 56 TeV

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a wide-field-of-view gamma-ray observatory that is optimized to detect gamma rays between ~300 GeV and several hundred TeV. The HAWC Collaboration recently released their third source catalog (3HWC), which contains 65 sources. One of these sources, the ultra-high-energy gamma-ray source 3HWC J1908+063, may exhibit a hardening of the spectral index at the highest energies (above 56 TeV). At least two populations of particles are needed to satisfactorily explain the highest energy emission. This second component could be leptonic or hadronic in origin. If it is hadronic in origin, it would imply the presence of protons with energies up to $\sim$1 PeV near the source. We have searched other 3HWC sources for the presence of this spectral hardening feature. If observed, this would imply that the sources could make good PeVatron candidates.
ON THE TRANSFER OF HEAT TO FLUIDS FLOWING THROUGH PIPES, ANNULI, AND PARALLEL PLATES

Nusselt numbers have been calculated for heat transfer to fluids flowing through annuli under conditions of uniform heat flux and fully-established velocity and temperature profiles. The following ...
Far-field scattering model for wave propagation in random media

A simple approximate model is developed for ultrasonic wave propagation in a random elastic medium. The model includes second order multiple scattering and is applicable in all frequency ranges including geometric. It is based on the far field approximation of the reference medium Green's function and simplifications of the mass operator in addition to those of the first smooth approximation. In this approximation, the dispersion equation for the perturbed wave number is obtained; its solution yields the dispersive ultrasonic velocity and attenuation coefficients. The approximate solution is general and is suitable for nonequiaxed grains with arbitrary elastic symmetry. For equiaxed cubic grains, the solution is compared with the existing second order models and with the Born approximation. The comparison shows that the obtained solution has smaller error than the Born approximation and shows reasonably well the onset of multiple scattering and the applicability limit of the Born approximation at high frequency. The perturbed wave number in the developed model does not depend explicitly on the crystallite elastic properties even for arbitrary crystallographic symmetry; it depends on two nondimensional scattering elastic parameters and the macroscopic ultrasonic velocity (those are dependent on the crystallite moduli). This provides an advantage for potential schemes for inversion from attenuation to material microstructure.
Microfabrication Technology for the Production of Capillary Array Electrophoresis Chips

Improvements in the fabrication, sample handling and electrical addressing of capillary array electrophoresis (CAE) chips have permitted the development of high density, high-throughput devices capable of analyzing 48 samples in about 20 minutes. The fabrication of high density capillary arrays on 10 cm diameter substrates required the characterization of glasses that yield high quality etches and the development of improved sacrificial etch masks. Using these improved fabrication techniques, high-quality, deep channel etches are routinely obtained. Methods for bonding large area substrates and for drilling arrays of 100 or more access holes have also been developed. For easier sample introduction, we use an array of sample wells fabricated from an elastomeric sheet. The practicality of these technologies is demonstrated through the analysis of 12 DNA samples in parallel on a microfabricated CAE chip, the development of methods for injecting multiple samples onto a single capillary without cross contamination, and the operation of a microfabricated array of 12 capillaries with 4 sample injections per capillary that can analyze 48 samples.
High Costs and Segregation in Subsidized Housing Policy

This article examines the public policies determining the distribution of subsidized housing in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, the resulting distribution of subsidized housing, and the comparative costs associated with building in the region's central cities or in suburbs. The analysis concludes that current policies are clearly not meeting the region's responsibility to affirmatively further fair housing. The metropolitan area abandoned its role as a national leader in this area decades ago. The result is an affordable housing system that concentrates subsidized housing in the region's poorest and most segregated neighborhoods. This increases the concentration of poverty in the two central cities, in the region's most racially diverse neighborhoods, and in the attendance areas of predominantly nonwhite schools. In the long run, this hurts the regional economy and exacerbates the racial gaps in income, employment, and student performance that plague the Twin Cities.
Expression and function of angiopoietin-1 in breast cancer

Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) has been shown to act as an angiogenic promoter in embryonic angiogenesis by promoting vascular branching, pericyte recruitment and endothelial survival. We have investigated the role of Ang1 in tumour neovascularization under clinical conditions and in animal models. The expression of Ang1 in clinical breast cancer specimens was analysed by using laser-capture microdissection and reverse transcriptase-linked polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on RNA isolated from the samples. Despite the expression of Ang1 in many human breast cancer cell lines, the gene was expressed in only three of 21 breast cancer clinical specimens, even though its receptor, Tie2, is abundant in the vasculature of all of these tumours. Ang1 was then overexpressed in a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) on its own and in conjunction with FGF1, an angiogenic factor shown to be able to increase the tumorigenicity of MCF-7 cells. High concentrations of Ang1 were produced in the conditioned media of the transfected cells (range 156–820 ng ml–1). However, in contrast to its physiological role as promoter of angiogenesis, overexpression of Ang1 did not enhance tumour growth, but instead caused up to a 3-fold retardation of tumour growth (P = 0.003). © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Photovoltaic grid stabilization system using second life lithium battery

Summary The operation of residential solar photovoltaic arrays are typically dependent on net energy metering (NEM) tariffs or feed in tariffs that allow the array owner to treat the electricity grid as an energy storage device. This study presents a model and simulation results of a photovoltaic array paired with a second life battery pack, a partially degraded lithium battery pack from an automotive application, for stabilizing the electricity grid interactions of residential photovoltaic systems and reducing the overall residential demand placed on the electricity grid. Two numerical simulations are performed on the operation of a second life battery pack. The first used an equivalent system model for the battery pack and measured solar production and residential loads to evaluate the system performance using one second time steps. The second model used hourly time steps and round trip efficiency for the battery, coupled with weather data and residential demand, to determine the system performance over the course of a year. The numerical investigation shows that the PV and battery system can substantially reduce the quantity of solar electricity that is exported to the distribution grid and decrease the impacts of sudden fluctuations in photovoltaic output due to cloud cover while providing significant reductions in the electricity demand placed on the grid. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cardiac mechanical activation mapping in heart failure patients with left bundle branch block using cine DENSE MRI

Background Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an effective treatment for selected patients with heart failure (HF) and left bundle branch block (LBBB). However, an ongoing major issue with CRT is that 30-50% of treated patients are non-responders. One potential cause of a poor response is implantation of the CRT left-ventricular (LV) pacing lead at a suboptimal location, i.e., a location with scar or where mechanical activation is not delayed [1,2]. This study developed and applied cine DENSE strain imaging [3] to map mechanical activation and detect late-activated segments. Methods Cine DENSE was performed on a 1.5T MRI system in standard short-axis planes in 6 healthy subjects and 16 HF patients with LBBB and nonischemic cardiomyopathy referred to CRT. Circumferential strain (Ecc) was computed using previously described semiautomatic methods [4,5]. Midwall Ecc was arranged into a matrix with 18 rows representing spatial segments of the LV and 30-45 columns representing cardiac phases (Fig 1a). Singular value decomposition (SVD) was applied to denoise the spatiotemporal Ecc matrix, and an active contour method was used to automatically estimate the
Wasserstoff‐Produktion aus Kohlenwasserstoffen. Fortschritte und Entwicklungstendenzen bei Synthese und Reinigung

Production of hydrogen from hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are the preferred starting materials for the industrial production of hydrogen. Most hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of light hydrocarbons. Partial oxidation of heavy oil and residue is used for the production of H2 and synthesis gas in large plants. In both cases gas purification was improved. Hydrogen-rich gases like coke oven gas, refinery-offgas, and offgases from the chemical and petrochemical industry have high potential for becoming a major source of hydrogen. Processes for recovering H2 (and by-products) are condensation and rectification at low temperatures and, most attractive and versatile for the production of very pure H2, adsorption (PSA). The environmental impact of H2 production lies mainly in the emission of CO2 and heat. Other forms of pollution can be considerably reduced by conventional methods. The economy of H2 production depends essentially on price and availability of the raw materials.
The Role of the Clinician in Natural Family Planning

Abstract “The BCG Controversy: A Methodological and Statistical Reappraisal,” John D. Clemens, Jackie J. H. Choung, and Alvan R. Feinstein. Because of the conflicting results of eight major controlled trials, BCG vaccination against tuberculosis remains controversial despite more than 50 years of use. Suspecting a methodological source for the controversy, we reviewed the scientific and statistical quality of each trial. The analysis showed that (1) although biased allocation of the vaccine appeared an unlikely explanation for the disparate results, adequate demonstration of unbiased detection of tuberculosis was available only for the three trials reporting 75% or greater protective efficacy; and (2) in most trials reporting low efficacy, the results had wide confidence intervals that could not exclude high efficacy, but the trials reporting high efficacy all had narrow confidence intervals that excluded low efficacy. Because the trials with the best methodological quality and greatest statistical precis...
Fast Line Scan Confocal Microscope with Minimal Photobleaching

We report on a custom-built high speed laser scanning confocal microscope that produces high quality images in the diffraction limit with minimal photobleaching. The image resolution and contrast are increased when the sample is scanned by a finely focused illumination source by a 50 μm confocal pinhole at the laser illumination source. With the use of high speed resonant scanning mirrors (8kHz), and given a scanning field of 200μm x 200μm and a laser spot size of 250nm at the diffraction limit, the mean exposure time for a single fluorophores is ∼ 80ns (250nm/(2∗8kHz∗200μm)). The short exposure time due to the fast scanning decreases the probability of fluorophores to populate the dark triplet state (whose life time is on the order of microseconds) and minimizes photobleaching. During image acquisition, each line is scanned N (e.g., N = 64) iterations and the acquired data for each line are summed together before the next line is scanned. Compared to a single frame of image, such a “line scan” scanning scheme increases the contrast (signal to noise ratio) of the image by sqrt(N). It also improves the image resolution because it eliminates the mechanical backlash of the vertical scanning mirror when each frame is scanned multiple times in regular raster scanning schemes. Supported by NIH grant HL088640.
Glomerulonephritis with deposition of Australia antigen-antibody complexes in glomerular basement membrane.

Abstract A patient with persistent Australia (Au) antigenaemia after post-transfusion hepatitis developed membranous glomerulonephritis. Immunofluorescent staining of kidney tissue revealed glomerular deposits of IgG, complement C 3 , and Au antigen in a pattern characteristic of immune complex deposition. These findings suggest that Au antigen was involved in the formation of immune complexes whose glomerular deposition initiated the pathologic process leading to the development of diffuse membranous glomerulonephritis.
Response of pigs to dietary inclusion of formic acid and ammonium formate

The objective of this study was to determine the optimal inclusion rate of dietary formic acid-ammonium formate (composition by weight was 62% formic acid and 37% ammonium formate) in nursery and grower-finisher diets or grower-finisher diets only. At weaning (d 21 +/- 2), 224 pigs (equal numbers of gilts and barrows) were blocked by BW within sex (28 pigs per BW block, 4 pigs per pen) and assigned randomly to 1 of 7 dietary treatments within each block. Dietary treatments (TRT), listed as percentage of dietary formic acid-ammonium formate in the nursery (NR) and the grower-finisher (GRF) diets, were as follows (NR and GRF): TRT 1: 0.0 and 0.0; TRT 2: 1.2 and 1.0; TRT 3: 0.0 and 1.0; TRT 4: 1.0 and 0.8; TRT 5: 0.0 and 0.8; TRT 6: 0.8 and 0.6; and TRT 7: 0.0 and 0.6. During the grower 2 (GR2) period, pigs fed treatments containing formic acid-ammonium formate in the nursery diets (TRT 2, TRT 4, and TRT 6) had greater (P 0.10) of treatment on ADG. Pigs on diets containing formic acid-ammonium formate ate less feed (P < 0.05) and had improved G:F (P < 0.05) compared with pigs on the control treatments (TRT 1, TRT 3, TRT 5, and TRT 7). Combining the grower-finisher phases, G:F was greater (P = 0.05) for pigs fed diets containing formic acid-ammonium formate than for pigs fed the control feed. The efficiency of gain (i.e., G:F) was improved by 3.5% for pigs fed all formic acid-ammonium formate treatments and ranged from 2.3 (TRT 7) to 5.9% (TRT 4) compared with pigs fed control (TRT 1). Combining all phases from nursery to finisher, the G:F ratio tended (P = 0.08) to be greater for pigs fed formic acid-ammonium formate compared with pigs fed control. The efficiency of gain was improved by 3.0% for pigs fed all formic acid-ammonium formate treatments, ranging from 1.8 (TRT 7) to 5.2% (TRT 4), compared with pigs fed the control diet (TRT 1).
Aristotle on Vice

In this paper, I argue that the widely held view that Aristotle's vicious agent is a principled follower of a wrong conception of the good whose soul, just like the soul of the virtuous agent, is marked by harmony between his reason and non-rational desires is an exegetical mistake. Rather, Aristotle holds – consistently and throughout the Nicomachean Ethics – that the vicious agent lacks any real principles of action (or conception of the good) and that his soul lacks unity and harmony even more than the soul of the uncontrolled (akratic) agent.
Tandem mass spectrometry characteristics of silver-cationized polystyrenes: internal energy, size, and chain end versus backbone substituent effects.

The Ag+ adducts of polystyrene (PS) oligomers with different sizes (6−19 repeat units) and initiating (α) or terminating (ω) end groups mainly decompose via free radical chemistry pathways upon collisionally activated dissociation. This reactivity is observed for ions formed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization as well as electrospray ionization. With end groups lacking weak bonds (robust end groups), dissociation starts with random homolytic C−C bond cleavages along the PS chain, which lead to primary and benzylic radical ions containing either of the chain ends. The primary radical ions mainly depolymerize by successive β C−C bond scissions. For the benzylic radical ions, two major pathways are in competition, namely, depolymerization by successive β C−C bond scissions and backbiting via 1,5-H rearrangement followed by β C−C bond scissions. The extent of backbiting decreases with internal energy. With short PS chains, the primary radical ions also undergo backbiting involving 1,4- and 1,6-H re...
George Herbert: University orator and country parson

Seventeenth century poet George Herbert was successful as a student, teacher, and practitioner of the art of public speaking. As Cambridge University lecturer in rhetoric and as university orator, he demonstrated skill in the practical application of highly formalized theories of public speaking.
Androgen deprivation therapy: a primer on concepts and therapeutic options

Abstract Prostate cancer is a cause of significant morbidity and mortality in men. Endogenous levels of androgen, produced by the testis and adrenal gland, have a complex and controversial role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a common treatment for prostate cancer, particularly in metastatic tumor cases and in certain cases of locally advanced disease. This paper reviews the surgical and medical options used to produce androgen blockade. Bilateral orchiectomy is the historic gold standard with fewer side effects than medical castration, although currently less frequently utilized. Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists are the most commonly used medications for achieving castration. Other medications include estrogens, GnRH antagonists, steroidal and non-steroidal anti-androgens and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. The advantages and side effects of each type of medication are described. Intermittent therapy and continuous androgen deprivat...
Holography in a random spatially inhomogeneous medium

The Huygens-Fresnel principle, extended to a medium that exhibits a random spatial variation in the index of refraction, is used to calculate the resulting fringe patterns in the Fresnel-Fraunhofer and point-reference Fourier-transform methods of holography. The resolution limits pertaining to these two methods are derived. In the Fresnel-Fraunhofer method, the effect of the medium is a lateral reduction in the size of the hologram that leads to a corresponding loss of resolution. In the point-reference Fourier-transform method, on the other hand, the medium does not limit the lateral extent of the hologram but gives a uniform reduction in amplitude to the resulting fringe pattern. Thus in the latter method, resolution is not degraded; but the medium does limit the size of objects that can form holograms. Numerical results pertaining to underwater holography are given.