cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modeling Construction Production Rates for Pipes and Culverts

Storm sewers construction often falls on the critical path of highway construction schedule and any delays can disrupt project schedule and also increases chances of traffic jam especially in urbanized areas. This paper proposes accurate ways of estimating the production rates of reinforced concrete pipe and precast concrete box culverts in order to improve the accuracy of project schedule and reduce inconvenience to highway users. Literature reviews are first used to identify the candidate drivers that affect the production rates of these storm sewers structures. Field construction data related to this research were collected from forty-four Texas highway projects between 2002 and 2004. Regression analysis, modeling and box plots were used to identify production rate drivers' relationships with productivity. Different production rate drivers were first identified using ANOVA test and box-plots and significant drivers were used to develop production rates models for design engineers to be used at the design stage. Research found that production rate of pipes was driven by Work Zone Accessibility, Length of run and Pipe orientation while production rate of culverts was driven by Length of run, Soil Type and Clay content in soil. Statistical models were also developed for these factors to allow project planners better estimate project schedules.
Antistreptolysin O Determination by Sheep Cell Agglutination

A sheep cell agglutination determination of antistreptolysin O titer was made on each of 98 consecutively submitted serum specimens and compared with the titer obtained by the conventional ASO hemolytic technic. The results were compared by a linear regression analysis; the linear correlation coefficient was 0.82. In addition, 49 of the 98 serum specimens, randomly selected, were examined with the latex agglutination ASO method. The chance of overlooking an elevated (> 166 Todd units) titer with the sheep cell agglutination method is 8.9%, or by following the manufacturers' dilution directions (1/100), only approximately 5%.
Left atrial myxoma and aortic regurgitation. Case report.

In a 63-year-old woman angiography revealed a large left atrial myxoma which extended rapidly across the mitral orifice to a point just below the aortic valve. Mild aortic regurgitation was noted. At operation the left and noncoronary aortic cusps were noted to be shrunken and fibrotic but the right cusp appeared normal. It is suggested that the aortic regurgitation was secondary to impact from the myxoma against the aortic valve with resultant discrete damage to the left and noncoronary cusps.
Regulation of AE2 Cl-/HCO3- exchanger during intestinal development

The Na(+)-independent Cl-/HCO3- exchangers in many tissues are encoded by AE2, which is a member of the anion-exchanger (AE) gene family. Molecular regulation of AE2 remains mostly unknown. In this...
Multiband superconductivity in the correlated electron filled skutterudite system Pr 1 ? x Ce x Pt 4 Ge 12

Studies of superconductivity in multiband correlated electronic systems have become one of the central topics in condensed-matter and materials physics. In this paper, we present the results of thermodynamic measurements on the superconducting filled skutterudite system ${\mathrm{Pr}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Ce}}_{x}{\mathrm{Pt}}_{4}{\mathrm{Ge}}_{12}$ $(0\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}0.2)$ to investigate how substitution of Ce at Pr sites affects superconductivity. We find that an increase in Ce concentration leads to a suppression of the superconducting transition temperature from ${T}_{c}\ensuremath{\sim}7.9$ K for $x=0$ to ${T}_{c}\ensuremath{\sim}0.6$ K for $x=0.14$. Our analysis of the specific-heat data for $x\ensuremath{\le}0.07$ reveals that superconductivity must develop in at least two bands: the superconducting order parameter has nodes on one Fermi pocket and remains fully gapped on the other. Both the nodal and nodeless gaps decrease, with the nodal gap being suppressed more strongly upon Ce substitution. Ultimately, the higher-Ce-concentration samples $(xg0.07)$ display a nodeless gap only.
A New Wide Range Equation of State for Helium

A new correlation and computer code have been developed for helium. The correlation covers the temperature range of 0.8 to 1500 K using two equations of state, one for superfluid helium and another for the normal fluid. The equation of state for the normal fluid is valid for temperatures between 2 and 1500 K and for pressures up to 2000 MPa. The new normal fluid equation of state achieves increased accuracy in some regions of pressure and temperature, but not in others. There are unique problems involved in the correlation of helium data which prevent obtaining the accuracies which are more easily obtained for the properties of other fluids. Only the normal fluid equations are given here.
Extent of lymphadenectomy and survival in stomach cancer

17008 Background: Based on population-based studies, some investigators have posited that patients undergoing more extensive lymphadenectomy as part of their resection for stomach cancer had improved late survival rates. Such findings have prompted calls for the use of total lymph node counts as a quality indicator for hospitals. However, apparent relationships between number of lymph nodes resected and survival may be confounded by patient selection bias and provider factors. It is not clear that hospitals with higher lymph node counts have better outcomes than other hospitals. The purpose of this study is to examine relationships between total lymph node counts and survival for stomach cancer. Methods: Using the national Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database (1992–2002), we first identified all patients undergoing major resections for gastric cancer (n=3,049). Hospitals at which the procedures were performed were categorized into 3 groups (terciles) according to the m...
International Environmental Law

The sources of international law arise from a number of origins and comprise both soft law (indicative but non-binding, as in the Hyogo Framework of Action fr resilience building and disaster reduction), and hard law (binding, as in the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna Convention on the Depletion of Ozone Layer).
OUTCOMES OF NON-CARDIAC PROCEDURES IN ADULT FONTAN PATIENTS

Background: Limited data exist about the outcomes of non-cardiac procedures (NCP) in Fontan patients. Methods: Retrospective review of NCPs in adult Fontan patients performed at Mayo Clinic, 1990-2015. To describe procedural outcomes after NCP in Fontan patients, and compare outcomes to two control
Flexarray: Random phased array layouts for analytical spatial filtering

We propose a method for designing phased-arrays according to a given, analytically-specified, target beamshape. Building on the flexibeam framework, antenna locations are sampled from a probabilistic density function. Naturally scalable with the number of antennas, it is also computationally efficient and numerically stable, as it relies on analytical derivation.
Moving Beyond Meta-Analytic Bivariate Correlations: A Path to Utilize HR Empirical Evidence

What do we know about key relationships within micro HR research? To answer this question, we conducted a broad search of published meta-analytic relationships within the area of Human Resources (H...
Salmones Puyuhuapi (a)

This case series is appropriate for undergraduate, MBA, executive education, and MBAExec audiences but is specifically designed for decision analysis, a first-year MBA core course. In the A case, Osvaldo Correa, CEO of Salmones Puyuhuapi (SP), must decide how to respond to news that the ISA virus has infected a competitor's salmon farming site. The alternatives include harvesting SP's 900,000 salmon two months early, waiting for the fish to grow and risk losing fish to the virus, and vaccinating the fish. The A case evaluates the “harvest now” alternative using normally distributed fish weights. The B case provides probabilities for the various virus outcomes. The C case gives vaccination cost information and discloses the fact that vaccination will reduce growth. Although the case is written in English, the comments of the three managers are given in their native Spanish with an (imperfect) English translation provided in an exhibit. The idea here is to give students some small opportunity to work with others who speak a different language. Excerpt UVA-QA-0749 Rev. Jan. 3, 2012 Salmones Puyuhuapi (A) Osvaldo Correa, CEO of Salmones Puyuhuapi (SP), was in a tense meeting with bank officials negotiating the terms of his firm's line of credit when he received a text on his BlackBerry. The news was not good. Correa tried to remain calm in front of the bankers as he read the terse message about a suspected outbreak of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in a competitor's salmon farm. Correa knew that if the virus were to spread to his firm's Jacaf Fjord site in northern Patagonia, Chile, it could wipe out his nearly one million salmon two months before they were to be harvested. That would have a devastating impact on his firm's cash flows. Excusing himself to go to “the services” (the only excuse he could come up with), Correa e-mailed his assistant to set up a meeting later that day with Jorge Richards, his operations manager, and Sergio Rivas, the company's veterinarian. Salmon Farming in Chile Chile was a relatively small country of nearly 16 million inhabitants whose economy was driven principally by mining, agribusiness, forestry, and aquaculture. In particular, the salmon industry, although relatively new, had been wildly successful. The industry was established in the early 1980s to take advantage of natural conditions in the south of the country (moderate sea temperatures, sheltered sites, and ideal salinity levels). It achieved nearly 20 years of 42% annualized growth, allowing it to join Norway as the world's largest salmon producers. In 2006, these two countries shared 78% of global production. Salmon farms, which thrived in the southern regions of Chile, dominated the local economies and led to high rates of employment. . . .
Continuous Learning as a Service for Conversational Virtual Agents

IT support services are moving towards self assist mode by means of cognitive agents. Such cognitive agents are typically being designed as conversational system. It is important that as the agent interacts with users, it should continuously observe, infer and learn as to what is it that it is doing well, what topics is it not able to handle well and what topics it does not seem to know about at all. In this paper, we have proposed a service that enables feedback based learning in cognitive agents. Conversation systems typically support feedback mechanism for example, some of them may ask the users to vote for the answers, or rate the experience/response that they got for their query. We propose a reinforcement learning based model for the agent to continuously learn and improve. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first attempt in modeling the continuous learning problem in conversational systems as a reinforcement learning problem. We also provide the service design for continuous learning as a service in context of conversational agents. We have evaluated the model against real data to show how the learning is helpful in improving agent’s performance. The model can also be generalized for any supervised classification problem.
Transient Signals and Inattentional Blindness in a Multi-object Tracking Task:

Inattentional blindness is a failure to notice an unexpected event when attention is directed elsewhere. The current study examined participants' awareness of an unexpected object that maintained luminance contrast, switched the luminance once, or repetitively flashed. One hundred twenty participants performed a dynamic tracking task on a computer monitor for which they were instructed to count the number of movement deflections of an attended set of objects while ignoring other objects. On the critical trial, an unexpected cross that did not change its luminance (control condition), switched its luminance once (switch condition), or repetitively flashed (flash condition) traveled across the stimulus display. Participants noticed the unexpected cross more frequently when the luminance feature matched their attention set than when it did not match. Unexpectedly, however, a proportion of the participants who noticed the cross in the switch and flash conditions were statistically comparable. The results suggest that an unexpected object with even a single luminance change can break inattentional blindness in a multi-object tracking task.
Shifting Climate Sensitivities, Shifting Paradigms: Tree-Ring Science in a Dynamic World

In the field of tree-ring science, findings of unstable growth responses by trees to climate have spurred self-reflection and generated debate, with significant implications for climate change politics, science, and discourse. To interrogate this issue, we bring together quantitative data on climate-growth relationships in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, and qualitative survey data on the practices and perspectives of tree-ring scientists. Our tree-ring data compel us to consider often-overlooked socioecological factors that may influence trees’ sensitivities to climate, including atmospheric pollution and historical changes in land use and ecosystem structure and function. Survey data contextualize our analyses within broader changes in the field, demonstrating that climate-growth relationships are increasingly understood as fluid, non-linear, and contingent rather than stable and fixed.
Beyond Host Defense: Emerging Functions of the Immune System in Regulating Complex Tissue Physiology.

The essential roles played by the immune system in the discrimination between self- versus non/altered-self and its integral role in promoting host defense against invading microbes and tumors have been extensively studied for many years. In these contexts, significant advances have been made in defining the molecular and cellular networks that orchestrate cell-cell communication to mediate host defense and pathogen expulsion. Notably, recent studies indicate that in addition to these classical immune functions, cells of the innate and adaptive immune system also sense complex tissue- and environment-derived signals, including those from the nervous system and the diet. In turn these responses regulate physiologic processes in multiple tissues throughout the body, including nervous system function, metabolic state, thermogenesis, and tissue repair. In this review we propose an integrated view of how the mammalian immune system senses and interacts with other complex organ systems to maintain tissue and whole-body homeostasis.
A 0.24pJ/bit, 16Gbps OOK Transmitter Circuit in 45-nm CMOS for Inter and Intra-Chip Wireless Interconnects

Research in recent years has demonstrated that intra and inter-chip wireless interconnects are capable of establishing energy-efficient data communications within as well as between multiple chips. This paper presents a circuit level design of an energy-efficient millimeter wave (mm-wave) on-off keying (OOK) transmitter suitable for such wireless interconnects in 45-nm CMOS process. The transmitter consists of an NMOS cross-coupled VCO, an OOK modulator and a power amplifier. The transmitter is able to achieve maximum modulation data rate of 16Gb/s at 60GHz with the output power of -3dBm consuming a total power of 3.9mW, which translates to a bit-energy efficiency of 0.24pJ/bit.
Spectral Operators Generated by 3-Dimensional Damped Wave Equation and Applications to Control Theory

We formulate our results on the spectral analysis for a class of nonselfadjoint operators in a Hilbert space and on the applications of this analysis to the control theory of linear distributed parameter systems. The operators, we consider, are the dynamics generators for systems governed by 3-dimensional wave equation which has spacially nonhomogeneous spherically symmetric coefficients and contains a first order damping term. We consider this equation with a one-parameter family of linear first order boundary conditions on a sphere. These conditions contain a damping term as well. Our main object of interest is the class of operators in the energy space of 2-component initial data which generate the dynamics of the above systems. Our first main result is the fact that these operators are spectral in the sense of N. Dunford. This result is obtained as a corollary of two groups of results: (i) asymptotic representations for the complex eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, and (ii) the fact that the systems of eigenvectors and associated vectors form Riesz bases in the energy space. We also present an explicit solution of the controllability problem for the distributed parameter systems governed by the aforementioned equation using the spectral decomposition method.
Production of Aflatoxins on Baking Potatoes

Aflatoxins, secondary metabolites of both Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, are hepatocarcinogens, mutagens, teratogens and toxins (Wogan, 1965). These compounds are bifuranocoumarins composed of the four parentals, AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2 and a variety of derivatives derived by metabolism of the parentals (Figure 1).
Introduction: Spatial Statistics

A wide array of topics in spatial statistics introduce methodological controversy: aggregate versus disaggregated data inference (e.g., the ecological fallacy), modelling the spatial covariance versus the spatial inverse covariance matrix, including fixed and/or random effects terms in a model specification, spatial autocorrelation specified as part of the mean response versus part of the variance parameter, and methods for simulating spatially autocorrelated random variables.
American Journal of Agricultural Economics Volume 100: A Century of Publishing the Frontiers of the Profession

The American Journal of Agricultural Economics reached its 100th volume this year. We take this landmark volume as an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of this leading field journal—and one of the original research journals in economics. We document changes in the editorial structure of the journal—from a sole editor‐in‐chief to the present system of four rotating co‐editors—and in the management of the publication process overseen by these editors. Using bibliometric analysis, we then track various trends in the journal over the past century. We assess changes in the structure of articles, including increased article length, reliance on mathematical modeling and empirical analysis, and the dramatic rise in collaborative publication in the form of expanding co‐author teams. We also explore changes in the degree of topical specialization and the geographic coverage of research published in AJAE. We use co‐authoring relationships to construct collaboration networks specific to the journal and document the striking increase in the density of these networks. We conclude with some perspectives on the implications of this century‐long evolution of the journal for the coming decades of pushing and publishing the frontiers of the profession.
Structures of benzonitrile dimer radical cation and the protonated dimer: Observation of hydronium ion core solvated by benzonitrile molecules.

The recent discovery of benzonitrile (C6H5CN), one of the simplest nitrogen-bearing polar aromatic molecules, in the interstellar medium motivates structural characterization of the benzonitrile-containing molecular ions as potential precursors for nitrogen-containing complex organics in space. Herein, we present mass-selected ion mobility measurements combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations to reveal, for the first time, the structures of the benzonitrile dimer radical cation, the protonated dimer, and the protonated hydrated small clusters in the gas phase. The measured collision cross sections of the investigated ions in helium are in excellent agreement with the calculated values of the lowest energy DFT structures. Unlike the dimer radical cations of nonpolar aromatic molecules which adopt parallel sandwich configurations, the (C6H5CN)2·+ displays a symmetrically planar geometry with a double hydrogen bond formed between the nitrogen and hydrogen atoms. The protonated dimer has the structure of a proton-bound dimer (C6H5CNH+NCC6H5) where the bridging proton connects the nitrogen atoms in the two benzonitrile molecules resulting in a calculated collision cross section of 101.1 A2 in excellent agreement with the measured value of 103.3 A2. The structure of the hydrated protonated trimer consists of a hydronium ion core solvated by three benzonitrile molecules. By locating the proton on the lower proton affinity water molecule, the resulting hydronium ion can be fully solvated by forming three ionic hydrogen bonds with the benzonitrile molecules. These unique structural motifs could be useful for the molecular design and recognition involving charged aromatic systems and also for the search of nitrogen-containing complex organics in space.
Greater perceived importance of earning abstinence-contingent incentives is associated with smoking cessation among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults.

Abstract Background Individuals' perceptions of the importance of earning financial incentives for smoking cessation may influence the effectiveness of contingency management interventions. This study prospectively explored the perceived importance of earning financial incentives for smoking cessation and its association with smoking cessation within a contingency management intervention among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults. Methods This study is a secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial that recruited socioeconomically disadvantaged adults from a safety-net hospital in Dallas County, Texas, from 2011 to 2013. Participants, who were randomly assigned to receive small financial incentives for smoking abstinence (N = 75), rated the importance of earning abstinence-contingent financial incentives one day after their scheduled quit day and one-week post-quit day. Self-reported smoking abstinence was biochemically confirmed weekly through the fourth week post-quit day and at the twelfth week post-quit day. Participants were considered continuously abstinent if self-reported abstinence since the quit date was biochemically confirmed. Results Greater perceived importance of earning abstinence contingent incentives for smoking cessation was associated with a higher likelihood of achieving continuous abstinence during the four-week intervention period (OR = 3.95 [95% CI = 1.64, 9.53]) and through 12 weeks post-quit day (OR = 4.71 [95% CI = 1.56, 14.26]). Conclusions Findings suggest that the perceived importance of earning abstinence-contingent incentives early in a quit attempt predicts smoking cessation among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults and may indicate whether an individual will be responsive to the magnitude of incentives offered.
COLLOIDAL CULPRITS IN CONTAMINATION

Contaminant transport in ground water is a contentious issue — especially when it comes to possible movement of radionuclides from nuclear test sites or storage facilities. Analyses carried out in Nevada now implicate colloids in the movement of plutonium from a nuclear detonation site. The case, however, has yet to be clinched, and the broader interest in this example lies in the questions it raises about identifying colloid-associated transport in general.
Trajectories of grief: Comparing symptoms from the DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnoses.

Background Diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief have appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-5; persistent complex bereavement disorder, PCBD) and in the ICD-11 (prolonged grief disorder, PGD), and the question of which diagnosis is most clinically useful has been hotly debated. This study provides the first longitudinal comparison of PCBD and PGD in their ability to capture symptom change over time and their relation to long-term outcomes. Methods A community sample was recruited consisting of 282 individuals who had recently lost a spouse. Structured clinical interviews were conducted at 3, 14, and 25 months postloss for symptoms corresponding to PCBD and PGD criteria. Outcomes at 25 months included PCBD and PGD caseness, depression, global functioning, and interviewer ratings of participant suffering. Results PCBD and PGD trajectories determined by growth mixture modeling, each captured three primary outcomes: resilience, moderate-improving symptoms, and prolonged-stable symptoms. The PGD solution also identified trajectories of increasing and decreasing distress: prolonged-worsening and acute-recovering symptoms. Prediction of 25-month outcomes indicated differences conforming to the severity of PGD symptoms, and the prolonged-worsening trajectory was associated with the worst adjustment. Conclusions PGD symptoms were more differentiated, better-captured psychopathology, and other outcomes and were more sensitive to change over time compared to PCBD.
Measuring the quality of maternal and care processes at the time of delivery in sub-Saharan Africa: development and validation of a short index

There is a growing recognition that quality of care must improve in facility-based deliveries to achieve further global reductions in maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity. Better measurement of care quality is needed, but the unpredictable length of labor and delivery hinders the feasibility of observation, the gold standard in quality assessment. This study evaluated whether a measure restricted to actions at or immediately following delivery could provide a valid assessment of the quality of the process of intrapartum and immediate postpartum care (QoPIIPC), including essential newborn care. The study used a comprehensive QoPIIPC index developed through a modified Delphi process and validated by delivery observation data as a starting point. A subset of items from this index assessed at or immediately following delivery was identified to create a “delivery-only” index. This delivery-only index was evaluated across content and criterion validation domains using delivery observation data from Kenya, Madagascar, and Tanzania, including Zanzibar. The delivery-only index included 13 items and performed well on most validation criteria, including correct classification of poorly and well-performed deliveries. Relative to the comprehensive QoPIIPC index, the delivery-only index had reduced content validity, representing fewer dimensions of QoPIIPC. The delivery-only index was also less strongly associated with overall quality performance in observed deliveries than the comprehensive QoPIIPC index. Where supervision resources are limited, a measure of the quality of labor and delivery care targeting the time of delivery may mitigate challenges in observation-based assessment. The delivery-only index may enable increased use of observation-based quality assessment within maternal and newborn care programs in low-resource settings.
Two regimes of ionization-induced recovery in SrTiO3 under irradiation

Abstract Irradiation of pre-damaged SrTiO3 with 2 MeV He, 1.2 MeV C, 5 MeV C and 12 MeV O ions reveals two regimes of ionization-induced recovery. For C and O ions, with electronic energy loss between 1.6 and 3 keV/nm, recovery cross-sections range from 0.27 to 0.38 nm2, and molecular dynamics confirms recovery related to ionization-induced thermal spikes via electron-phonon coupling. At lower electronic energy losses, recovery cross-sections decrease to about 5.5 × 10−4 nm2 for 2 MeV He ions and 1.0 × 10−5 nm2 for 200 keV electrons, which suggests recovery associated with local electronic excitation processes.
Quantitative comparison of principal component analysis and unsupervised deep learning using variational autoencoders for shape analysis of motile cells

Cell motility is a crucial biological function for many cell types, including the immune cells in our body that act as first responders to foreign agents. In this work we consider the amoeboid motility of human neutrophils, which show complex and continuous morphological changes during locomotion. We imaged live neutrophils migrating on a 2D plane and extracted unbiased shape representations using cell contours and binary masks. We were able to decompose these complex shapes into low-dimensional encodings with both principal component analysis (PCA) and an unsupervised deep learning technique using variational autoencoders (VAE), enhanced with generative adversarial networks (GANs). We found that the neural network architecture, the VAE-GAN, was able to encode complex cell shapes into a low-dimensional latent space that encodes the same shape variation information as PCA, but much more efficiently. Contrary to the conventional viewpoint that the latent space is a "black box", we demonstrated that the information learned and encoded within the latent space is consistent with PCA and is reproducible across independent training runs. Furthermore, by including cell speed into the training of the VAE-GAN, we were able to incorporate cell shape and speed into the same latent space. Our work provides a quantitative framework that connects biological form, through cell shape, to a biological function, cell movement. We believe that our quantitative approach to calculating a compact representation of cell shape using the VAE-GAN provides an important avenue that will support further mechanistic dissection of cell motility.
Cost-Effectiveness of One-Time Universal Screening for Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in Adults in the United States.

BACKGROUND An estimated 862,000 to 2.4 million people have chronic hepatitis B infection (CHB). Left undiagnosed and untreated CHB increases risk of death from liver cirrhosis or liver cancer. Hepatitis B screening is recommended for pregnant women and populations with increased CHB risk, but diagnosis rates remain low with only 33% of people with CHB aware of their infection.. This study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of universal adult screening for CHB. METHODS We used a Markov model to calculate the costs, population health impact and cost-effectiveness of one-time universal screening and CHB monitoring and treatment compared to current practice. Sensitivity analysis was performed on model parameters to identify thresholds for cost-savings or cost-effectiveness based on willinness-to-pay of $50,000/QALY . The analysis assumed testing would be performed during routine healthcare visits, and generic tenofovir or entecavir would be dispensed for treatment. Testing costs were based on Medicare reimbursement rates. RESULTS At an estimated 0.24% prevalence of undiagnosed CHB, universal HBsAg screening in adults 18-69 years old is cost-saving compared with current practice if antiviral treatment drug costs remain below $894 per year. Compared with current practice, universal screening would avert an additional 7.4 cases of compensated cirrhosis, 3.3 cases of decompensated cirrhosis, 5.5 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, 1.9 liver transplants, and 10.3 HBV related deaths at a savings of $263,000 per 100,000 adults screened. CONCLUSION Universal HBsAg screening of adults in the US general population for CHB is cost-effective and likely cost-saving compared to current CHB screening recommendations.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's role in improving radiation dose management for medical X-ray imaging devices.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been concerned with minimizing the unnecessary radiation exposure of people for half a century. Manufacturers of medical X-ray imaging devices are im...
Spatiotemporal multiscale ICA could invariantly extract task (motor) modes from wavelet subbands of fMRI data.

Abstract Background and objective . Given a timeseries of task-evoked functional MRI (fMRI) images (4D spatiotemporal data), we can extract the task mode by statistical independent component analysis (ICA). If the 4D data are spatiotemporally decomposed into subbands (multiresolutions in both time and space), is ICA still capable of extracting the task modes at multiscales? We answer this question using the well-established fingertapping motor-task experiments at 3T and 7T. The positive answer informs that a brain task is spatiotemporal separable at ICA decomposition and shift invariant at multiscales during activation over a finite region. Methods . We collected a set of task fMRI datasets from sixteen subjects performing fingertapping at 3T and one single dataset from a different subject at 7T. For each 4D fMRI dataset, we first performed temporal wavelet transform (1D WT) at 3 levels using different wavelets (e.g. ‘db1’,’db2’, and ‘sym4’), then extracted the task modes from the WT subbands via ICA (as called multi-timescale ICA). Meanwhile, we also performed task mode extraction by applying ICA to 3D spatial WT subbands (as called multi-spacescale ICA). Upon the multiscale ICA results, we identified the primary motor task modes in the motor cortex, in comparison to the raw fMRI data analysis (at level 0). Results . In the 7T experiment, the multiscale ICA across 3 timescale levels and 2 spacescale levels could extract the primary task modes at a tasktcorr of 0.90 and 0.86, respectively, compared to 0.87 for the ICA task extraction from raw data. In the 3T experiment, the multiscale could extract the primary task mode with 0.92 and 0.91, while the ICA task extraction from raw data was 0.91. Conclusion . ICA could extract the primary motor task modes from wavelet-decomposed multi-timescale and multi-spacescale subbands, construing the broad spatial activation (extent >>voxel size) of the brain motor task performed in a long duration (>>TR). Our experimental results show the brain functional activity signal is spatiotemporal separable as well as shift invariant at multiscales in both time and space.
Analytic Light Curves of Dense CSM Shock Breakout and Cooling

Dense circumstellar material (CSM) is thought to play an important role in observed luminous optical transients: if such CSM is shocked, e.g. by ejecta expelled from the progenitor during core-collapse, then radiation produced by the shock-heated CSM can power bright UV/optical emission. If the initial CSM has an `outer edge' where most of the mass is contained and at which the optical depth is large, then shock breakout -- when photons are first able to escape the shocked CSM -- occurs near this outer edge. The $\sim$thin shell of shocked CSM subsequently expands, and in the ensuing cooling-envelope phase, radiative and adiabatic losses compete to expend the CSM thermal energy. Here we derive an analytic solution to the bolometric light-curve produced by such shocked CSM. For the first time, we provide a solution to the cooling-envelope phase that is applicable already starting from shock breakout. In particular, we account for the planar CSM geometry that is relevant at early times and impose physically-motivated initial conditions. We show that these effects can dramatically impact the resulting light-curves, particularly if the CSM optical depth is only marginally larger than $c/v_{\rm sh}$ (where $v_{\rm sh}$ is the shock velocity). This has important implications for interpreting observed fast optical transients, which have previously been modeled using either computationally-expensive numerical simulations or more simplified models that do not properly capture the early light-curve evolution.
Output Feedback Control and Observer Design for Dynamic Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial neural networks are black-box models widely used to approximate nonlinear dynamical system behavior. This article proposes sufficient design criteria for stabilizing dynamic output error feedback controllers and optimal output observers for systems described by dynamic artificial neural networks (DANNs). DANNs can be written in the standard nonlinear operator form (SNOF) and as diagonal norm-bounded linear differential inclusions (DNLDIs). Expanding on past work on Lyapunov theory and matrix inequalities, criteria are derived for designing two-step observer-based dynamic output feedback controllers for discrete-time DNLDIs. The applicability of the theory is demonstrated for a nonlinear multistep chemical synthesis process modeled by a DANN under the presence of disturbances and parametric uncertainty.
Some Topological Background

This chapter consists of four little items from homology theory. The first two are essential to the next chapter, whereas the other two will be used in the somewhat technical proofs that appear in Appendix B. Therefore, you may want to look only at parts (i) and (ii) and come back to the rest as you need it. In any case, before starting this chapter you may find it helpful to look at the summary of homology theory in parts (i) and (ii) of Appendix A.
Nocturnal Seizures in a Man with Coronary Disease

Publisher Summary This chapter inspects the case of a man diagnosed with generalized tonic–clonic seizures precipitated by nocturnal hypoxemia caused by obstructive sleep apnea. The man experienced three episodes of generalized tonic–clonic seizures that occurred at 3.00 or 4.00 AM, during sleep. The seizures were observed by his wife. His mental status after each seizure was consistent with a postictal state. His neurological examination was unremarkable and nonfocal. He was subsequently found to have nocturnal hypoxemia caused by obstructive sleep apnea, which was ameliorated by treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) during sleep. He was initially treated with phenytoin 400 mg/day in divided doses for control of seizures. CPAP used at night alleviated the episodic hypoxemia. He remained seizure-free for 1 year after discontinuation of phenytoin until he traveled to an altitude of about 2100 m and slept without using his CPAP machine. Obstructive sleep apnea is an under-diagnosed condition that is associated with severe health consequences. Although this diagnosis is sometimes suggested by a characteristic constellation of symptoms, many of the symptoms are nonspecific and easily disregarded by patients and their health-care providers. In some cases, seizures are the presenting sign of sleep apnea, as in this patient.
A 40-80 GHz quasi-optical balanced doubler using nested ring-slot antennas

A 40-80 GHz ring-slot antenna doubler has been designed for use as a local oscillator source for heterodyne receivers. The doubler is a quasi-optical design that has the potential for high efficiency operation and scaling for use at submillimeter-wave frequencies. Simulation results indicate that the multiplier can perform at 82% efficiency with 11 mW of available input power and 9 mW of output power. Design considerations and initial measurements on a prototype ring-slot doubler are presented and discussed. The prototype operates at an estimated 13% efficiency, and produces 0.53 mW of output power. This output power and efficiency are far less than the optimum predicted by simulation and we believe this is due primarily to inadequate input pump power being provided to the doubler.
Inquiry and Enterprise Transformation

What really constitutes an Enterprise from an Enterprise Systems Engineering perspective? My effort to create a workable definition follows: An Enterprise is a complex system of community, individual, and semiotic systems defined by the way its authentic relationships are constructed and dependent on the ways the parties to these relationships bind to one another. The imprint of an Enterprise is projected through its spatial identity, an identity that builds and maintains its currency through the positive images and authentic relationships it embraces.
MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF GENETIC VARIATION

Multiple factor analysis was used to interpret geographical variation of gene frequencies. Allelic frequencies at three loci (two esterase loci, Esr and Esh, and a malic dehydrogenase locus) from ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) collected throughout Texas and reported by Johnson et al. (1969) were reexamined for patterns of correlation with five environmental measurements: mean January temperature, mean July temperature, mean annual precipitation, elevation, and annual growing season. These measurements and the associated gene frequencies at each sampling location were subjected to factor analysis. Variables highly correlated with the same factor were hypothesized to be causally related. Both orthogonal and oblique rotations of the factor solution provided four factors with essentially the same interpretation. Variation at the Esh locus was associated with a continuum from cold-wet to hot-dry. Variation at the Mdh locus and some of that at the Esr locus was related to the severity of winter months. Other allelic frequencies at the Esr locus had high correlations with a third factor which seemed to be independent of the environmental measurements. None of the allelic frequencies had high correlations with the fourth factor which was interpretable as an altitudinal gradient.
Joint Angular Velocity in Spastic Gait and the Influence of Muscle-Tendon Lengthening

Background: Joint angular velocity (the rate of flexion and extension of a joint) is related to the dynamics of muscle activation and force generation during walking. Therefore, the goal of this research was to examine the joint angular velocity in normal and spastic gait and changes resulting from muscle-tendon lengthening (recession and tenotomy) in patients who have spastic cerebral palsy. Methods: The gait patterns of forty patients who had been diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy (mean age, 8.3 years; range, 3.7 to 14.8 years) and of seventy-three age-matched, normally developing subjects were evaluated with three-dimensional motion analysis and electromyography. The patients who had cerebral palsy were evaluated before muscle-tendon lengthening and nine months after treatment. Results: The gait patterns of the patients who had cerebral palsy were characterized by increased flexion of the knee in the stance phase, premature plantar flexion of the ankle, and reduced joint angular velocities compared with the patterns of the normally developing subjects. Even though muscle-tendon lengthening altered sagittal joint angles in gait, the joint angular velocities were generally unchanged at the hip and knee. Only the ankle demonstrated modified angular velocities, including reduced dorsiflexion velocity at foot-strike and improved dorsiflexion velocity through mid-stance, after treatment. Electromyographic changes included reduced amplitude of the gastrocnemius-soleus during the loading phase and decreased knee coactivity (the ratio of quadriceps and hamstring activation) at toe-off. Principal component analyses showed that, compared with joint-angle data, joint angular velocity was better able to discriminate between the gait patterns of the normal and cerebral palsy groups. Conclusions: This study showed that muscle-tendon lengthening corrects biomechanical alignment as reflected by changes in sagittal joint angles. However, joint angular velocity and electromyographic data suggest that the underlying neural input remains largely unchanged at the hip and knee. Conversely, electromyographic changes and changes in velocity in the ankle indicate that the activation pattern of the gastrocnemius-soleus complex in response to stretch was altered by recession of the complex.
Teen-age dysmenorrhea; a statistical evaluation of the role of suggestion in treatment.

Abstract 1. A total of 2,706 girls of four secondary schools in two separate experiments were questioned about dysmenorrhea before and after a period of routine body-conditioning exercises. Students of the experimental schools were repeatedly told that the exercises would cure dysmenorrhea; students of the control schools were told nothing about any possible effect of the exercises on dysmenorrhea. 2. None of the schools showed any significant change in the incidence of dysmenorrhea from the beginning to the end of the experiment. 3. Of those free of dysmenorrhea at the beginning of the experiment, 12.4 to 20.6 per cent suffered from dysmenorrhea at the conclusion. 4. There was no significant difference in “cure” rate between control and experimental schools. Altogether, 23.1 per cent of those with dysmenorrhea were relieved of dysmenorrhea. This figure may be taken as an estimate of the proportion of teen-age cases which resolve spontaneously during an interval of six months to a year.
Holographic storage using phase-code and rotation multiplexing

Multiple holograms can be storage in a volume holographic medium such as photorefractive crystal or photopolymers by using phase-code multiplexing. However, due to the limited performance of currently available spatial phase encoders, only a small number of orthogonal phase codes can be implemented. This significantly limits the capacity of holographic systems based on phase-code multiplexing scheme. In this paper, a new multiplexing method, rotation multiplexing, is presented. After a number of holograms are stored by phase-code multiplexing, the holographic medium is rotated in the incident plane by a small angle. New holograms can then be stored by the same phase-codes without cross talk. By combining the phase-code and rotation multiplexing schemes, a high capacity 3D storage system can be built with off-the-shelf devices. An additional advantage of such a holographic storage system is its burst retrieval mode that is useful for network applications. The preliminary experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Spectroscopic analysis of a dye-mineral composite - A Raman and FT-IR study

In this investigation, we address the question of how organic thioindigo binds to inorganic palygorskite to form a pigment similar to Maya Blue. We also address how such binding, if it occurs, might be affected by varying the proportion of dye relative to that of the mineral, and by varying the length of heating time used in preparation of the pigment. In addition to samples of palygorskite and thioindigo both alone, four synthetic pigment samples were prepared; two samples of 8 wt.% dye, one heated at 170 °C for 3 h and one at 170 °C for 9 h, and two samples of 16 wt.% dye, one heated at 170 °C for 3 h and one at 170 °C for 9 h. All samples were examined using Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) and FT-Raman spectroscopy. For the pigment samples, FT-IR peaks at 1627 cm−1 are attributed to a downshifted CO stretching mode of thioindigo due to dye–clay interaction. This interpretation is corroborated by FT-Raman CO peaks with 14 cm−1 shifts to lower wavenumber for the pigment relative to thioindigo alone. Additional Raman scattering between 550 cm−1 and 650 cm−1 also suggests dye–clay interaction through metal–oxygen bonding. We are thus led to the possibility of mostly hydrogen bonding between silanol and carbonyl at lower dye concentration, with a predominance of metal–oxygen bonding at higher dye concentration. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.