cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Grid Computing Infrastructures and their Value for Risk Management

Risk/return management has evolved as one of the key success factors for enterprises especially in the financial services industry. It is highly demanding in terms of business requirements and technical resources, making it an almost ideal application for grid computing concepts. In this paper we analyze the value proposition of grid computing for risk/return management. We focus on a specific problem - the estimation of covariance matrices - and propose a model to quantify the benefits and cost of the corresponding calculations. Our model not only makes a contribution to understand the business value of grid computing in the domain of risk/return management, it also constitutes a building block for the development of economic resource allocation mechanisms
Keys to the puzzle: Recognizing strengths in a rural community

The elderly population in rural communities is growing. Rural populations generally experience excessive deficiencies in health care access, social services, and other goods and services needed for healthy living. An ethnographic study of multicultural elderly participants from a rural county in New Mexico was completed to explore the participants' definitions of health, health care perceptions, and health care needs. Several key issues regarding health care were identified, including the escalating cost of prescriptions, limited access to primary health care and specialty care, and social isolation and loneliness. However, despite these limitations, existing strengths and assets were also identified: elders' knowledge about sustaining health in austere conditions and caring for the sick using simple measures; an existing group of dedicated professional nurses applying their own and others' knowledge to the challenge of health care; and a preexisting community-based action group working to decrease fragmentation of services, streamline delivery of services, and work with legislators on funding priorities. Building on these strengths can provide the keys to the puzzle of transforming the current health care environment and improving inadequate health care for these elderly rural community members.
The Effect of Package Coupons on Brand Choice: An Epilogue on Profits

In Raju, Dhar, and Morrison 1994, a paper that appeared earlier in this journal, we developed an analytical model and conducted empirical analyses to examine the effect of package coupons on market share. In this epilogue, we extend the analytical framework in our earlier paper to study the relative impact of package coupons on profits. We also report findings from five quasi-experiments including two new quasi-experiments that provide empirical validity to our model-based predictions. Our results have significance for brand managers in packaged goods firms. Our analysis suggest that while selecting among package coupons, brand managers should carefully define which performance criterion to use: market share impact, redemption rate, or profit impact. Package coupons that lead to the highest market share impact or redemptions may not lead to the highest profit impact. We compare the relative profit impact of the following package coupons: peel-off, on-pack, and in-pack. Peel-off coupons must be redeemed on the same purchase occasion on which they are obtained. On-pack coupons are obtained at one purchase occasion but can only be redeemed for a discount on the couponed brand at a future purchase occasion. In-pack coupons are similar to on-pack coupons except that the consumer is unaware of the presence of these coupons when the product is purchased in-pack coupons are printed or placed inside the package. Consumers with an in-pack or on-pack coupon from a previous purchase occasion will have a higher probability of purchasing the couponed brand even if the brand was not currently offering coupons. Consequently, to understand choice behavior, it is not enough to take into consideration the current choice environment; our model therefore must also keep track of whether or not a consumer has a package coupon that was obtained on an earlier purchase occasion. In other words, since choice is dependent on the purchase environment as well as the state of the consumer, we use a Markov model to represent the choice process. Analytical results are derived based on the long run probabilities of the Markov transition matrix. Our analytical and empirical results suggest that by and large, of the various package coupons examined in our research, on-pack coupons lead to the highest impact on profits. Furthermore, while peel-offs lead to a higher market share than in-packs, because in-packs stimulate repurchase among previous buyers, they lead to higher profits than peel-offs; though only for stronger brands.
Perceiving and responding to maternal workplace discrimination in the United States

Synopsis Despite recent gains, mothers in the United States still face a set of challenges in achieving full equality in the labor market, including subjective discrimination, or perceived unfair treatment from their employers. Using original data from 54 qualitative interviews of predominantly middle class, heterosexual women involved in national mothers' groups, this analysis first finds that whether currently working for pay or not, mothers perceive and label a variety of past employment experiences as discriminatory. This is primarily because in their status as mothers, they are seen as not meeting the ideal worker standard of performance nor as capable as non-mothers by their employers. Mothers report events under the categories of moment of hire, on-the-job, and evaluations/promotions related bias, with on-the-job incidents most common. Second, this analysis builds on previous work that has focused on mothers' extreme reactions such as opting out of work completely and filing lawsuits by mapping out three, intermediate responses to this subjective discrimination: ambivalence, endurance, or confrontation. Endurance was the most frequently deployed response strategy overall and for each of the three categories of discrimination. None of these three strategies, unfortunately, functions to promote broad-based organizational reform that would integrate mothers more equitably into the workplace.
Power and Satisfaction in the United Nations Security Council

The United Nations is under pressure to make the Security Council more representative of the membership. The formal literature on voting power has discovered much that can clarify this debate, and the present analysis gives a version of the Shapley-Shubik index of voting power that considers likely alliances based on voting in the General Assembly since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Veto members occupying outlying positions, like China, have especially high voting power, whereas states without vetoes hold almost none. However, power in itself is not the goal; if another permanent member is already reliably voting as one wishes, obtaining a veto of one's own is unnecessary. Other benefits from membership are prestige and access to information. The current debate seems at an impasse, but if these alternative goals are recognized, other feasible solutions might be found.
Wss1 Is a SUMO-Dependent Isopeptidase That Interacts Genetically with the Slx5-Slx8 SUMO-Targeted Ubiquitin Ligase

Protein sumoylation plays an important but poorly understood role in controlling genome integrity. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Slx5-Slx8 SUMO-targeted Ub ligase appears to be needed to ubiquitinate sumoylated proteins that arise in the absence of the Sgs1 DNA helicase. WSS1, a high-copy-number suppressor of a mutant SUMO, was implicated in this pathway because it shares phenotypes with SLX5-SLX8 mutants, including a wss1 sgs1 synthetic-fitness defect. Here we show that Wss1, a putative metalloprotease, physically binds SUMO and displays in vitro isopeptidase activity on poly-SUMO chains. Like that of SLX5, overexpression of WSS1 suppresses sgs1 slx5 lethality and the ulp1ts growth defect. Interestingly, although Wss1 is relatively inactive on ubiquitinated substrates and poly-Ub chains, it efficiently deubiquitinates a Ub-SUMO isopeptide conjugate and a Ub-SUMO fusion protein. Wss1 was further implicated in Ub metabolism on the basis of its physical association with proteasomal subunits. The results suggest that Wss1 is a SUMO-dependent isopeptidase that acts on sumoylated substrates as they undergo proteasomal degradation.
Managing for Preferred Hunting Experiences: A Typology of Minnesota Waterfowl Hunters

Most research describing the characteristics and behaviors of waterfowl hunters has assumed this group of sportsmen to be relatively homogenous. Using data obtained through a mail survey conducted in 2000, we developed a typology of Minnesota waterfowl hunters based on experience preferences. This type of information may assist wildlife managers in making regulatory recommendations that increase hunter satisfaction, and hence, participation. We used cluster analysis to group hunters into 5 types. We identified 2 types as enthusiasts and 3 as participants. Enthusiasts hunted more days and placed greater importance on almost all experience items than other respondents. We characterized participant hunters as longtime waterfowl-hunting participants, less-engaged waterfowl-hunting participants, and recreational-casual waterfowl-hunting participants. Longtime and less-engaged waterfowl hunters tended to be older than all other respondents. We suggest that modeling hunter participation using experience preferences and satisfaction also may enhance the harvest-management process.
Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia Induced in Dogs and Pigs The Role of Plasma and Platelet vWF in Animal Models of Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Abstract Thrombotic thrombocytopenia with severe depletion of plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) was induced in normal large animals (5 dogs and 2 pigs) by botrocetin, a Bothrops factor requiring vWF for platelet agglutination. Botrocetin (90 to 100 U/kg, 2.14 to 2.38 mg/kg, in a single IV injection) reduced plasma vWF activity to
Dipeptide Aggregation in Aqueous Solution from Fixed Point-Charge Force Fields.

The description of aggregation processes with molecular dynamics simulations is a playground for testing biomolecular force fields, including a new generation of force fields that explicitly describe electronic polarization. In this work, we study a system consisting of 50 glycyl-L-alanine (Gly- Ala) dipeptides in solution with 1001 water molecules. Neutron diffraction experiments have shown that at this concentration, Gly-Ala aggregates into large clusters. However, general-purpose force fields in combination with established water models can fail to correctly describe this aggregation process, highlighting important deficiencies in how solute−solute and solute−solvent interactions are parametrized in these force fields. We found that even for the fully polarizable AMOEBA force field, the degree of association is considerably underestimated. Instead, a fixed point-charge approach based on the newly developed IPolQ scheme (Cerutti et al. J. Phys. Chem. 2013, 117, 2328) allows for the correct modeling of the dipeptide aggregation in aqueous solution. This result should stimulate interest in novel fitting schemes that aim to improve the description of the solvent polarization effect within both explicitly polarizable and fixed point-charge frameworks.
Resistance of Young Wolf Pups to Inclement Weather

Three observations of young wolf ( Canis lupus ) pups in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, and two on Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, indicate that pups <33 days of age are highly resistant to inclement weather, contrary to earlier conjecture.
Time-Kill Activity of the Streptogramin NXL 103 against Gram-Positive and -Negative Bacteria

ABSTRACT Against 33 Gram-positive and -negative bacteria, NXL 103 MICs were 0.03 to 1 μg/ml. NXL 103 was bactericidal by 12 h at 2 × MIC against all 5 pneumococci and at 2 × MIC after 24 h against all 5 group A and B β-hemolytic streptococci. NXL 103 was bactericidal against all 8 Haemophilus influenzae strains at 2× MIC and all 5 Moraxella catarrhalis strains at 4× MIC after 24 h but was mainly bacteriostatic against 5 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains. After the exposure of one strain of each species to NXL 103 for 10 daily subcultures, the MICs remained within ±1 dilution.
Synthesizing phylogenetic knowledge for ecological research

The demand for knowledge about the tree of life is steadily rising in ecology and other fields, but bioinformatic resources designed to meet these needs remain poorly developed. Ecologists pursuing phylogenetic insights into the organization of communities have come to rely on relatively conservative reference trees that, in general, are poorly resolved and documented. New methods for inferring very large trees by mining data from DNA sequence repositories will undoubtedly be useful in community phylogenetics, but are not without limitations. Here we argue that the collective phylogenetic knowledge embodied in the literature of systematics is a valuable resource that can be tapped in assembling synthetic trees. Assembling a composite ''literature-based'' tree by the judicious grafting of clades is one way to achieve a synthesis of current knowledge, and could, under some circumstances, better represent ''what we know'' about phylogenetic relationships than results obtained from automated pipelines. We describe an approach and new software for storing and annotating trees from published studies and grafting clades together in a documented and repeatable manner. Using this agglomerative approach, we are in the process of assembling a literature- based tree for land plants, which presently contains 14 423 species from over 259 sources. For this strategy to be maximally effective, improvements in digital infrastructure are needed to capture and deploy advances in phylogenetic knowledge as they are published.
Function of Autophagy in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Autophagy is a lysosomal degradative pathway that functions to promote cell survival by supplying energy in times of stress or by removing damaged organelles and proteins after injury. The involvement of autophagy in the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was first suggested by the finding that this pathway mediates the breakdown of intracellular lipids in hepatocytes and therefore may regulate the development of hepatic steatosis. Subsequent studies have demonstrated additional critical functions for autophagy in hepatocytes and other hepatic cell types such as macrophages and stellate cells that regulate insulin sensitivity, hepatocellular injury, innate immunity, fibrosis, and carcinogenesis. These findings suggest a number of possible mechanistic roles for autophagy in the development of NAFLD and progression to NASH and its complications. The functions of autophagy in the liver, together with findings of decreased hepatic autophagy in association with conditions that predispose to NAFLD such as obesity and aging, suggest that autophagy may be a novel therapeutic target in this disease.
Teleomechanism and the Cell Theory

Teleomechanism as originally conceived in the works of the Gottingen school was a comprehensive program advancing simultaneously on several research fronts, including physiology, systematic zoology, and later embryology. For men such as Kielmeyer who had originally formulated the itinerary of future lines of research these were not to become separate research specialties. Such a notion was far from their minds. Rather these research areas were viewed as closely related aspects of a comprehensive science of life, which was referred to as Biologie, allgemeine Zoologie, or Morphologie. In each stage in the development of their program, the teleomechanists considered their task to be the construction of general descriptive laws in each of these several areas and their synthesis into a unified system. Only once the systematic interdependence of these laws could be demonstrated in terms of a single unifying principle did they think that a causal explanation could be attempted: as Humboldt expressed it, only then would Naturbeschreibung give way to Naturgeschichte. In this sense the analogy drawn frequently in the works of early nineteenth century German scientists between the results of Kepler and those of Newton is illuminating. For just as the universal law of gravitation was the principle that systematically united Kepler’s laws, Galileo’s law of falling bodies and a host of others, so we might consider the systems of laws united by the four Types as analogs in the biological realm to Kepler’s laws in the physical realm.
Smart Mortgages, Privacy and the Regulatory Possibility of Infomediation

This Article argues for a new regulatory approach that could both increase market efficiency and protect informational privacy in the modern information economy. It explores that approach - information intermediation, or infomediation - in the context of the current debates about re-engineering the mortgage markets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In particular, the Article is the first scholarly work to introduce the concept of “smart mortgages” - loans and mortgage securities with more rich and dynamically updated information than traditional mortgage products. The Article considers recent regulatory and industry momentum behind smart mortgages and contrasts the market efficiencies created by such proposals against the individual and social privacy harms a smart mortgage system would inflict. It argues that policy makers should consider information intermediation as a regulatory option to capture the efficiency gains of smart mortgages while preserving individual informational privacy, and considers the implications of infomediation beyond the mortgage context for other similar debates about the future of privacy in an information-rich economy. In particular, the Article concludes by comparing the smart mortgage and healthcare reform debates and showing the possible role of infomediation in each. In sum, the author argues that smart mortgages done properly could be a foundational step forwards as an example of regulatory sophistication.
A puzzling path from infection to Guillain-Barré syndrome

The enigmatic Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is now recognized as a set of paralyzing illnesses that affect all demographic groups and often occur after an infection. The most common and well-proven association is GBS and campylobacter jejuni infection–but other pathogens have been linked to the syndrome, such as flu, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus. Most recently, GBS cases were reported after Zika virus infection. Whether and which pathogens actually cause GBS is difficult to establish because of a shortage of model systems for many of the organisms and for GBS itself. Further, just how the various infections may trigger GBS is not well understood. It is thought that antibodies that cross-react between the pathogen and host play a role in pathogenesis, and cellular mechanisms have also been proposed, but there is much more to learn on this topic. A recent report by Simon and colleagues provides an unusually clear link between a specific pathogen and onset of GBS. The authors describe three cases of patients who developed paralysis during primary infection with dengue virus, which, like Zika, is in the flavivirus family and is not typically associated with neurological symptoms. The cases are noteworthy because, in each, GBS symptoms occurred early in dengue infection rather than in the following weeks, as is typically the case. One of the patients was found to be positive for autoantibodies that have been connected with GBS, suggesting that the virus may have triggered an autoimmune etiology of symptoms. The other two patients developed GBS within the first days of infection and were negative for autoantibodies, raising the prospect that the virus itself caused symptoms of paralysis, possibly through infection of peripheral nerves. Although the molecular mechanisms remain unclear, these new cases represent convincing examples of GBS occurring secondary to infection and suggest that autoimmunity may not be the only path to GBS symptoms. O. Simon et al ., Early Guillain-Barre syndrome associated with acute dengue fever J. Clin. Virol. (2016). [[Abstract]][1] [1]: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386653216000391
The role of simulation software in enhancing students' academic performance: a restaurant management case

With the advance of learning technologies, computerised simulations are finding a more prominent place in the learning environment. Previous research has shown the usefulness of internet-based hospitality simulations and the positive effect they have on the course performance. This study demonstrates that the use of computerised simulations has a positive impact on student's performance. Results indicated that students who used 'Pro-Sim' restaurant management simulation software had a 3% higher average test scores in a restaurant management course compared to students who took a traditional course model without a computerised simulation module. Another finding was that students' perception scores of overall teaching effectiveness for the instructor has improved when simulation was implemented.
Comparison of Effects of 2 Types of Smelting Processes on Health of Exposed Workers

[Objective]To explore the effects of occupational hazards caused by 2 types of smelting processes on health of exposed workers.[Methods]Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer was applied to measure lead content of urine,t test and χ2 test were used to analyze results statistically.[Results]Measured by traditional crafts,the content of lead and sulfur dioxide concentration was (1.023±0.931) mg/m3 and (3.753±1.631) mg/m3; (0.308±0.166) mg/m3 and (1.227±0.903) mg /m3 by new techniques,the differences were significant (P0.05). In the occupational health examination,anemia,chronic bronchitis,urinary occult blood,chronic rhinitis,chronic conjunctivitis,liver function of exposed group was more serious than that of control group significantly (P0.05); the difference of the number of workers with excessive urine lead between 2 groups was significant(P0.01).[Conclusion]After technical reform,concentrations of occupational hazards such as lead smoke and sulfur dioxide decrease significantly,and the effect on health of workers has improved obviously.
Pharmacological and Therapeutic Targeting of Epigenetic Regulators

Genetics has been transformational for understanding causes and mechanisms of human diseases, developing diagnostics approaches, and providing indirect therapeutic interventions that target molecule functions upstream and downstream of mutated genes. Significant efforts have been given to correct genetic alterations or deliver genes in the clinical setting by gene therapy approaches. However, in spite of early promises and current significant advances, gene therapy has not yet brought useful protocols to the bedside for diseases that are multigenic in nature, such as cancer. Epigenetics is emerging as a revolutionary science in biology, which studies mechanisms that regulate entire gene networks to give rise to and maintain phenotypes independent of the coding capacity of DNA. In fact, epigenetic alterations appear to be more common than genetics as a cause of chronic diseases by silencing or activating single genes or entire gene networks. More importantly, epigenetic alterations can, by definition, be inherited, thereby propagating disease-prone phenotypes. Fortunately, in the last decade, extensive investigations have resulted in the development of small drugs that modify the epigenome in a reversible manner. This chapter will summarize the most conspicuous advances in this field and discuss how epigenetic pharmacology is becoming a solid foundation for mechanistic experiments and new therapies.
Deintercalation of Zero-Valent Metals from Two-Dimensional Layered Chalcogenides

A general solution-based approach to deintercalate zero-valent tin and copper from two-dimensional layered chalcogenides is presented using a one-step comproportionation reduction–oxidation reaction. The reaction is performed between the intercalated zero-valent metal and high oxidation state metal cations (Sn4+ and Cu2+) dissolved in acetone. This chemistry is shown to work for a variety of layered chalcogenides with differing morphologies and crystallinity. Copper and tin are deintercalated from powders of MoS2, MoSe2, NbSe2, and WS2 and crystalline nanoribbons of Bi2Se3, In2Se3, and GeS. This chemistry achieves a general route to remove zero-valent tin and copper from 2D layered chalcogenides.
Renewable Energy Features of Coachella Valley

The processes of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions provide a twenty-first century backdrop that accentuates the problems of adding to global warming through use of fossil fuels and coal. The UN agreement of 2015 calls for reduced warming and more renewable energy use. In contributing to reduced climate change, the Coachella Valley has had increasing residential use of solar energy and some geo-heat, while ample wind electrical generation is being provided initially by the large San Gorgonio commercial wind farms in the northern Coachella Valley. Probably the largest renewable energy in neighboring areas is the complex of large, utility-scale solar electricity plants in operation or being built east of the Coachella Valley. The chapter gives background on how the renewables-based electricity production can take place in the Valley and what the challenges are. Case examples are given of the San Gorgonio Wind Farms and cities of Palm Springs and Coachella. The potential shift from dry-climate agriculture to renewable energy land use is examined.
Synthesis and Storage of Fatty Acids

Information about the enzymology and molecular genetics of lipid synthesis in oilseeds is accumulating rapidly in part because of the commercial possibilites that can be realized through the production of modified vegetable oils. Important breakthroughs in the production of transgenic oilseed crops have already been achieved. However, many of the more complex alterations that might be possible by genetic engineering will require a better understanding of both the regulation of biochemical pathways involved and the detailed cell biology of the relationship between the plastids, endoplasmic reticulum, and oil bodies (as well as other cellular compartments). Much of this required information will become available because of the tools, antibodies, and transgenic plants, for example, resulting from newly isolated gene sequences.
Implications of SAR ambiguities in estimating the motion of slow targets

This paper examines the implications pertaining to the problem of attempting to invert synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurement data to yield unique estimates of the underlying motion of slow targets in the imaged scene. A recent analysis has demonstrated that ambiguities exist in estimating the kinematics parameters of surface targets for general bistatic SAR collection data. In particular, a procedure has been developed which generates alternate target trajectories which give the same SAR measurements as that of the true target motion. The current paper extends the earlier analysis by generating specific numeric examples of alternate target trajectories corresponding to the motion of a given slowly moving target. This slow-target case reveals the counter-intuitive result that a single SAR collection data set can be generated by target trajectories with significantly different, and possibly opposing, heading directions. For example, the true motion of a given target can be moving towards the mean radar position during the SAR collection interval, whereas a valid alternate trajectory can correspond to a target that is moving away from the radar. The present analysis demonstrates the extent of the challenges associated with attempting to estimate of the underlying motion of targets using SAR measurement data.
Practical and efficient internet routing with competing interests

A fundamental characteristic of the Internet, and increasingly other networked systems, is that it is controlled by many independent parties that act in their own interests. These parties, known as Internet service providers (ISPs), cooperate to provide global connectivity even though they often have competing interests. With current routing protocols, this competition induces each ISP to select paths that are optimal within its own network. The result is that paths across multiple networks can be poor from a global perspective. I present Wiser, a protocol that shows it is possible to achieve efficient global routing in practice even when ISPs select paths in their own interests. Wiser is based on "barter" between pairs of adjacent ISPs: each ISP selects paths that respect the concerns of the neighboring ISP as well as its own in return for the neighbor doing the same. To encourage ISPs to adopt Wiser, it is designed to maintain their autonomy, e.g., it does not require sensitive internal information to be disclosed, and individual ISPs do not lose compared to routing in the Internet today. Wiser can be implemented as an extension to current Internet routing protocols and deployed incrementally. To evaluate Wiser, I experiment with measured ISP topologies and a router-level prototype. I find that, unlike Internet routing today, the efficiency of Wiser is close to that of an ideal routing that globally optimizes network paths for metrics such as path length or band width provisioning. I further show that these benefits come at a low cost: the overhead of Wiser is similar to that of the current Internet routing protocol in terms of routing messages and computation.
Transition metal redox switches for reversible "on/off" and "slow/fast" single-molecule magnet behaviour in dysprosium and erbium bis-diamidoferrocene complexes.

Single-molecule magnets (SMMs) are considered viable candidates for next-generation data storage and quantum computing. Systems featuring switchability of their magnetization dynamics are particularly interesting with respect to accessing more complex logic gates and device architectures. Here we show that transition metal based redox events can be exploited to enable reversible switchability of slow magnetic relaxation of magnetically anisotropic lanthanide ions. Specifically, we report anionic homoleptic bis-diamidoferrocene complexes of Dy3+ (oblate) and Er3+ (prolate) which can be reversibly oxidized by one electron to yield their respective charge neutral redox partners (Dy: [1]−, 1; Er: [2]−, 2). Importantly, compounds 1 and 2 are thermally stable which allowed for detailed studies of their magnetization dynamics. We show that the Dy3+[1]−/1 system can function as an “on”/“off” or a “slow”/“fast” redox switchable SMM system in the absence or presence of applied dc fields, respectively. The Er3+ based [2]−/2 system features “on”/“off” switchability of SMM properties in the presence of applied fields. Results from electrochemical investigations, UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy, and 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy indicate the presence of significant electronic communication between the mixed-valent Fe ions in 1 and 2 in both solution and solid state. This comparative evaluation of redox-switchable magnetization dynamics in low coordinate lanthanide complexes may be used as a potential blueprint toward the development of future switchable magnetic materials.
Hardware Co-Simulation of High Gain Observer for sensor-less control of DC/DC boost converter

DC/DC Boost Converters have wide range of applications in areas such as automobiles, renewable energy etc. This paper presents the FPGA implementation of a High Gain Observer for DC/DC Boost Converter. The Current-Mode Control scheme is applied to control DC/DC Boost Converter which requires current sensor for feedback. The sensor-less control incorporating High Gain Observer is proposed for cost effective solution. The robustness of the scheme is shown in the presence of parasitic parameters. Hardware Co-Simulation is performed to witness the hardware realization of the sensor-less control scheme designed.
Limiting behavior of CLOT-optimal control in discrete-time systems

Maximum Hands-Off Control (MHOC) refers to an application of sparsity in control, specifically the problem of designing a control signal that would transfer a nonzero initial state to a zero final state while satisfying an amplitude constraint. The MHOC problem can solved as a fuel-optimal control problem [1], but the solution is discontinuous. In [2], an alternative approach based on minimizing the so-called CLOT (Combined L-One and Two) norm is proposed. However, the issue of whether the resulting control is continuous is left unanswered in [2]. In the present paper it is shown that, if h denotes the sampling period, then the difference between successive values of the CLOT-optimal control is O(√h), which is a form of continuity.
Mortality Trends in Patients Diagnosed With First Atrial Fibrillation : A 21-Year Community-Based Study

Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess the mortality trends of atrial fibrillation (AF) in a community. Background Limited data exist regarding the mortality trends of patients diagnosed with first AF. Methods A community-based cohort of adult residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, who had electrocardiogram-confirmed first-documented AF in the years 1980 to 2000 were identified and followed to 2004 or death. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Results Of a total of 4,618 residents (mean age 73 ± 14 years) diagnosed with first AF, 3,085 died during a mean follow-up of 5.3 ± 5.0 years. Relative to the age- and gender-matched general Minnesota population, the mortality risk was increased (p Conclusions In this cohort of patients newly diagnosed with AF, mortality risk was high, especially within the first 4 months. There was no evidence for any significant changes over the 21 years in terms of overall mortality, early or late mortality, or mortality among patients without pre-existing cardiovascular disease.
Congenital Defects, Rings, and Webs

The terms heterotopia, ectopia, and chorista refer to the presence of normal structures at an unexpected site (i.e., “a displacement of parts),” and imply a congenital aberration. Although such aberrant structures occur in the esophagus, many reports of glandular or other nonsquamous structures must be eliminated on the basis of (1) being an acquired glandular metaplasia (the best example is Barrett’s esophagus) or (2) persistence of embryonic or fetal types of epithelium. In a study of 1000 esophagi from infants and children under 15, Rector and Connerly1 found aberrant mucosae in 13.2% of the cases. In their study, serial section or “jellyroll” techniques were not used, suggesting that the true incidence may have been higher. Perhaps one-half of their cases represented true mucinous cardiac glands. They mention that review of the literature reported an incidence of nonsquamous elements in the esophagus varying from 0.67% to 70%. many reports are difficult to interpret, as poor photography does not permit an independent judgment regarding the nature of the lesion.
Context of the suboxic layer in the Arabian Sea

The setting of the Arabian Sea is reviewed in order to examine which of the circumstances causing large oxygen depletion in the ocean are responsible for the suboxic layer (concentrations < 0.1 ml 1−1) in the northern thermocline there. The wind field forces circulations that restrict but do not exclude exchange with the south, and a recent box-model interpretation of trichlorofluoromethane measurements indicates a modest throughflow for the layer of about 5 × 106m3s −1.The associated oxygen-flux divergence is roughly consistent with biochemical determinations of local oxygen-consumption rates, both approaches giving values (3–6 pl 1−1 sτ-1) that are modest in comparison with estimates elsewhere in the world ocean. Despite the high mean-annual surface productivity in the region (nearly 1gCm−2 day−1), it seems plausible that too little of this particulate matter is consumed at thermocline depths to cause an inflated oxygen demand there. Since the layer is neither an isolated pool, nor a sluggish backwater, nor a conspicuous oxygen sink, the suboxic concentrations must be due (as earlier proposed) to the low concentration in the water entering the layer from the south. That depletion in turn seems due to moderate consumption as the water travels the very long trajectories from its zone of sea-surface renewal (Lats. 40–50°S). Although large seasonal variations are expected in both throughflow volume transport and surface productivity (suggesting comparable changes in consumption rate), the volume of the suboxic layer seems big enough to buffer the oxygen levels there against any very noticeable overall variability.
Energy Efficient Network Architecture for Seismic Data Acquisition via Wireless Geophones

Traditional seismic data acquisition systems rely on telemetry cables to conduct oil, gas, and mineral exploration. Although cabled systems provide reliable seismic data transfer, their deployment and maintenance costs are increasing substantially as surveys become larger in scale and densely populated. A novel wireless geophone network architecture is proposed and described in this paper, which makes use of the IEEE 802.11af standard. It operates in the TV White Space, which offers a significantly higher transmission range. A data collection scheme is also proposed and its performance in comparison to the default 802.11 schemes is evaluated on NS-3. The proposed scheme is standards compliant; no changes to the IEEE 802.11af standard are required. The problem of hexagonal clustering for orthogonal deployment of geophones is also considered, and the impact of co-channel interference is analyzed. Furthermore, energy-aware algorithms are analyzed to extend the battery life of the geophones. The proposed scheme outperforms the default standard in terms of both throughput and power consumption, and provides a realistic solution for deploying large-scale wireless geophone networks.
The peculiar velocity correlation function

We present an analysis of the two-point peculiar velocity correlation function using data from the CosmicFlows catalogues. The Millennium and MultiDark Planck 2 N-body simulations are used to estimate cosmic variance and uncertainties due to measurement errors. We compare the velocity correlation function to expectations from linear theory to constrain cosmological parameters. Using the maximum likelihood method, we find values of $\Omega_m= 0.315^{+0.205}_{-0.135}$ and $\sigma_8=0.92^{+0.440}_{-0.295}$, consistent with the Planck and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe CMB derived estimates. However, we find that the cosmic variance of the correlation function is large and non-Gaussian distributed, making the peculiar velocity correlation function less than ideal as a probe of large-scale structure.
Returning Chemical Exposure Results to Individuals and Communities

Biomonitoring and personal exposure assessments – measurements in people’s blood, urine, breast milk, and other tissues, or in household dust, air, or other personal space – are vital tools for scientists to discover and monitor the links between environmental chemicals and health. For participants who contribute their samples, these methods generate curiosity: What did you find, was it safe, and what should I do? These motivating questions make the process of reporting back to study participants and communities a powerful opportunity to improve environmental health literacy. Decisions about what to report can be challenging, though, because scientists may not yet fully understand how the chemicals affect health, where they come from, or how to reduce exposures. This chapter explores the ethical foundations, evidence-based methods, and outcomes in environmental health studies that reported results for emerging contaminants.
The Disappeared: Beyond Winning and Losing

When “others” (such as women and people of color) make innovative contributions in scientific and technical fields, they often “disappear” from later history and their contributions are ascribed elsewhere. This is seldom deliberate—rather, it’s a result of the accumulation of advantage by those who are expected to innovate. This article chronicles an example of such a disappearance and introduces the Conway Effect to elucidate the disappearance process.
Clinical update on nursing home medicine: 2011.

This represents the fifth article in the series on yearly updates of hot topics in long term care
The Effectiveness of Nonpharmacological Modalities on Quality of Life and Daily Function in Adults With Chronic Pain Syndrome.

Background Prescription pain medications are effective in short-term use, but often are heavily relied on in the treatment of chronic pain. Long-term use of prescription pain medications carries a higher risk for dependence. Nonpharmacologic therapies are preferred for treatment of chronic pain. Objective The objective was to measure the patient's level of confidence for daily function and their ability to assist in their care with a pre/postintervention assessment tool. Methods The Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire was used to assess confidence levels in daily activities of living prior to and following the intervention. A convenience sample was comprised of 58 patients with chronic pain from a pain management clinic. Results There was a 4.84% change from pretest to posttest in general confidence levels. The mean difference of 1.448 was found to not be statistically significant between the pretest and posttest. Conclusions Patients exhibited same quality of life, required the same prescription pain medications, demonstrated the same functional capacity, and the same restoration of function in both pretest and posttest conditions. Implications for nursing Initiating alternative methods for reduction of chronic pain early in the treatment process should foster patient confidence and provide resources to manage daily pain.
Expanding the Capabilities of Radar-Based Vehicle Detection Systems: Noise Characterization and Removal Procedures:

The capabilities of radar-based vehicle detection (RVD) systems used at signalized intersections for stop bar and advanced detection are arguably underutilized. Underutilization happens because RVD...
Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced sarcoidosis-like granulomas

Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 and programmed cell death-1 receptors have transformed the treatment of melanoma and other cancers. These therapies are associated with a number of side effects, including immune-related adverse events. Sarcoidosis-like granulomas (SLGs) are important immune checkpoint inhibitor-related reactions to recognize as SLGs can mimic disease progression and accordingly impact treatment decisions. We systematically review reports of immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced SLGs in cancer patients and discuss potential underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.
Measurements of human blood viscoelasticity and thixotropy under steady and transient shear and constitutive modeling thereof

New in vitro measurements from two human donors for both steady and transient hemorheology are presented that are particularly suited for testing thixotropic and viscoelastic models for human blood and are made available to the community along with the relevant blood physiology. This more complete data set is analyzed within the context of recent thixo-elasto-visco-plastic models, and we improve upon the Horner-Armstrong-Wagner-Beris (HAWB) model to better model transient hemorheology. The improved model features an additional viscoelastic equation for the red blood cell rouleaux within blood, along with simplifications to the structure kinetics equation. The resulting model is fit to additional experimental data on human whole blood for a step shear change and steady shear experiments, and the corresponding parameter values are used to predict oscillatory shear moduli, transient large amplitude oscillatory shear, and unidirectional large amplitude oscillatory shear data. The modified HAWB model shows significant improvement in fitting and predicting the experimental data. Specifically, a significant overshoot is captured in step shear changes from a low shear rate to a moderate shear rate, and a plateau for the storage modulus is observed at low frequencies. Highly nonlinear behavior is observed for the third harmonic in unidirectional large amplitude oscillatory shear in the form of multiple extremum separated widely in frequency, which can be identified with the two dominant mechanisms for generating viscoelasticity in human blood, namely, rouleaux structuring and red blood cell deformation. We also discuss the potential applications and difficulties associated with the constitutive modeling of transient blood rheology and provide insight into microstructural sources of the stress contributions to the bulk flow behavior.New in vitro measurements from two human donors for both steady and transient hemorheology are presented that are particularly suited for testing thixotropic and viscoelastic models for human blood and are made available to the community along with the relevant blood physiology. This more complete data set is analyzed within the context of recent thixo-elasto-visco-plastic models, and we improve upon the Horner-Armstrong-Wagner-Beris (HAWB) model to better model transient hemorheology. The improved model features an additional viscoelastic equation for the red blood cell rouleaux within blood, along with simplifications to the structure kinetics equation. The resulting model is fit to additional experimental data on human whole blood for a step shear change and steady shear experiments, and the corresponding parameter values are used to predict oscillatory shear moduli, transient large amplitude oscillatory shear, and unidirectional large amplitude oscillatory shear data. The modified HAWB model shows sig...
Design and construction of the x-ray instrumentation onboard the HaloSat CubeSat

HaloSat is the first mission funded by NASA’s Astrophysics Division to use the CubeSat platform. Using three co-aligned silicon drift detectors, the HaloSat observatory measures soft (0.4 to 7 keV) x-ray emission from sources of diffuse emission such as the hot, gaseous halo of the Milky Way. We describe the design and construction of the science payload on HaloSat and the reasoning behind many of the choices. As a direct result of the design choices and adherence to best practices during construction, the HaloSat science payload continues to perform well after more than one year on-orbit.
Perceived Stress, Subjective, and Objective Symptoms of Disturbed Sleep in Men and Women with Stable Heart Failure

Objective/Background: Sleep disturbance is prevalent among patients with heart failure (HF) and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Stress also affects health and quality of life ...
Sparse Meta Networks for Sequential Adaptation and its Application to Adaptive Language Modelling.

Training a deep neural network requires a large amount of single-task data and involves a long time-consuming optimization phase. This is not scalable to complex, realistic environments with new unexpected changes. Humans can perform fast incremental learning on the fly and memory systems in the brain play a critical role. We introduce Sparse Meta Networks -- a meta-learning approach to learn online sequential adaptation algorithms for deep neural networks, by using deep neural networks. We augment a deep neural network with a layer-specific fast-weight memory. The fast-weights are generated sparsely at each time step and accumulated incrementally through time providing a useful inductive bias for online continual adaptation. We demonstrate strong performance on a variety of sequential adaptation scenarios, from a simple online reinforcement learning to a large scale adaptive language modelling.
Ultrafast Triplet Pair Separation and Triplet Trapping following Singlet Fission in Amorphous Pentacene Films

Ultrafast infrared and electronic spectroscopy are used to examine the dynamics of triplet pair separation following singlet fission in amorphous and crystalline films of the model singlet fission ...