cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An exploratory study of sustainable apparel retailers on the internet

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the general characteristics of online retailers selling sustainable apparel and examine their sustainability initiatives throughout the supply chain. Hart’s (1995) natural resource-based view (N-RBV) was used in this study as a foundational framework. A content analysis of 156 websites revealed that many sustainable apparel retailers on the internet are small/family businesses offering their own private label merchandise. Garments sold on the websites were mostly women’s and children’s clothing and offered in a variety of colours and product categories. The majority of sustainable efforts were addressed in the fabric and manufacturing stages of the apparel supply chain by utilising garments made of organic materials and the absence of pesticides used in fibre growth. However, few websites addressed sustainability issues in design and production, transportation and logistics, store and warehouse efficiency or post-consumer and beyond.
Assessing sleep in opioid dependence: a comparison of subjective ratings, sleep diaries, and home polysomnography in methadone maintenance patients.

Abstract Objectives: Comparisons of subjective and objective sleep measures have shown discrepancies between reported sleep and polysomnography (PSG) in non-drug dependent individuals with and without insomnia. Sleep may affect behavioral and physiologic aspects of drug abuse and dependence; patients in methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) for opioid dependence frequently report sleep problems. Whether subjective sleep reflects objective sleep in MMT patients is unknown. We undertook these analyses to establish the correlations among subjective and objective sleep measures in MMT patients. Methods: We compared one week of daily sleep diaries, one night of home PSG, a questionnaire completed the morning after PSG, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) as well as demographics and drug use measures in 62 MMT patients with disturbed sleep (PSQI score > 5). Results: Subjective and objective sleep durations were similar in this sample; average sleep times for the diary, morning questionnaire, and PSG were 340, 323, and 332 min, respectively. Average diary sleep time, subjective ratings of feeling rested, and PSG sleep efficiency were correlated significantly with PSQI score. Age was inversely correlated with PSG sleep time. Participants whose urine toxicology showed benzodiazapine use reported significantly longer sleep times on the morning questionnaire. Conclusions: Objective sleep measures confirm subjective measures in MMT patients with disturbed sleep. The high prevalence of sleep complaints in this population likely reflects pathology rather than sleep misperception. Both objective and subjective measures are useful in research and clinical settings for assessing sleep in opioid-dependent patients.
High-energy characterization of two large-volume multielement CdZnTe detectors

We present results of experiments to characterize two large- volume, multi-element CdZnTe detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy at high energy. The first detector consisted of four 1.5cm x 1.5cm x 0.75cm coplanar grid detectors. The measurements for the four-element design were performed with various configurations. The second detector consisted of eight 1 cm x 1 cm x 0.5 cm coplanar grid detectors arranged in a 2x2x3 array. The high-energy gamma-ray sources included 60Co(1332), 228Th(2614), 244Cm/13C(6129), and Fe(n,(gamma) )(7645). The front end-electronics consisted of eight spectroscopy-grade preamplifiers/shapes/pulse stretchers, built on circuit boards close to the arrays. For the four-element measurements the shapers/pulse stretchers were replaced with commercial amplifiers. An eight-channel data acquisition system with list mode output was used to record gamma-ray events for each detector element in each array. The list mode data were analyzed to produce coincidence and single spectra and efficiencies for the various sources. The Compton continuum and the escape peaks are suppressed in the coincidence spectra relative to the singles spectra. We compare these spectra and efficiencies at high energy to results at lower energies and to Monte Carlo predictions.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Neuropsychological correlates of olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.

Abstract Olfactory impairment is a common early non-motor manifestation in Parkinson's disease that has garnered interest as a clinical biomarker for early “pre-motor” diagnosis and prediction of associated clinical phenotypes. Whether olfactory impairment correlates well with motor symptoms is not yet clear, and recent interest has focused on the relationship between hyposmia and other non-motor symptoms. In this paper, we will review emerging evidence for a relationship between hyposmia and neuropsychiatric manifestations, discussing the potential pathophysiology together with challenges and opportunities for future research.
TUNNELING MAGNETOPLASMON EXCITATIONS IN THE SEMICLASSICAL LIMIT AND INTEGER QUANTUM HALL REGIME FOR DOUBLE-QUANTUM-WELL SYSTEMS

The magnetoplasmon dispersion relation is obtained in the random-phase approximation for a double-quantum-well structure, where the magnetic field is perpendicular to the planes and only the two lowest tunneling states are included in the formalism. Analytic closed-form results are presented in the long and short wavelength limits when tunneling between the quantum wells is included for (a) zero temperature and only the lowest Landau level is occupied and (b) in the semiclassical limit when many Landau levels are occupied and the temperature is finite. In the quantum strong field (QSF) limit, the symmetric mode spectrum, due to in-phase oscillations in the two wells, has a principal magnetoplasmon mode branch and Bernstein-like plasmon resonances which are not affected by tunneling. In the QSF limit, the antisymmetric (out-of-phase) principal and Bernstein-like modes are split by tunneling between the quantum wells. In addition, there is a new antisymmetric mode due entirely to tunneling (tunneling magnetoplasmon) for which there is no counterpart in a single isolated two-dimensional layer. In the semiclassical regime, the symmetric principal magnetoplasmon mode is not affected by tunneling in the long wavelength limit but the symmetric Bernstein-like modes depend on the electron concentration in each individual subband and, as a result, depend on tunneling explicitly. In the semiclassical limit, the tunneling magnetoplasmon is not affected by the magnetic field to lowest order in the long wavelength limit and weakly depends on the magnetic field in the short wavelength limit. Also, in the semiclassical limit, the effect of a magnetic field on the antisymmetric principal and Bernstein-like modes is apparent as a set of hybridized magnetoplasmon modes shifted up and down in energy relative to the tunneling gap by amounts proportional to multiples of the cyclotron energy.
Availability of binaural cues for pediatric bilateral cochlear implant recipients.

BACKGROUND Bilateral implant recipients theoretically have access to binaural cues. Research in postlingually deafened adults with cochlear implants (CIs) indicates minimal evidence for true binaural hearing. Congenitally deafened children who experience spatial hearing with bilateral CIs, however, might perceive binaural cues in the CI signal differently. There is limited research examining binaural hearing in children with CIs, and the few published studies are limited by the use of unrealistic speech stimuli and background noise. PURPOSE The purposes of this study were to (1) replicate our previous study of binaural hearing in postlingually deafened adults with AzBio sentences in prelingually deafened children with the pediatric version of the AzBio sentences, and (2) replicate previous studies of binaural hearing in children with CIs using more open-set sentences and more realistic background noise (i.e., multitalker babble). RESEARCH DESIGN The study was a within-participant, repeated-measures design. STUDY SAMPLE The study sample consisted of 14 children with bilateral CIs with at least 25 mo of listening experience. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Speech recognition was assessed using sentences presented in multitalker babble at a fixed signal-to-noise ratio. Test conditions included speech at 0° with noise presented at 0° (S0N0), on the side of the first CI (90° or 270°) (S0N1stCI), and on the side of the second CI (S0N2ndCI) as well as speech presented at 0° with noise presented semidiffusely from eight speakers at 45° intervals. Estimates of summation, head shadow, squelch, and spatial release from masking were calculated. RESULTS Results of test conditions commonly reported in the literature (S0N0, S0N1stCI, S0N2ndCI) are consistent with results from previous research in adults and children with bilateral CIs, showing minimal summation and squelch but typical head shadow and spatial release from masking. However, bilateral benefit over the better CI with speech at 0° was much larger with semidiffuse noise. CONCLUSIONS Congenitally deafened children with CIs have similar availability of binaural hearing cues to postlingually deafened adults with CIs within the same experimental design. It is possible that the use of realistic listening environments, such as semidiffuse background noise as in Experiment II, would reveal greater binaural hearing benefit for bilateral CI recipients. Future research is needed to determine whether (1) availability of binaural cues for children correlates with interaural time and level differences, (2) different listening environments are more sensitive to binaural hearing benefits, and (3) differences exist between pediatric bilateral recipients receiving implants in the same or sequential surgeries.
CAN-296-P is effective against cutaneous candidiasis in guinea pigs

CAN-296 is a naturally occurring, heat-stable complex carbohydrate isolated from the cell wall of Mucor rouxii. Previously, CAN-296 demonstrated impressive in vitro fungicidal activity against a wide spectrum of pathogenic yeast, including azole-resistant isolates. The effect of CAN-296 on Candida albicans is rapid, concentration-dependent, and lethal. CAN-296-P is a chitosan-pyrithione derivative of CAN-296 containing 4% solution of chitosan with 25% substitution of pyrithione. Like CAN-296, it has in vitro fungicidal activity with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.156 mg/l for C. albicans. The therapeutic effect of topical CAN-296-P on cutaneous candidiasis caused by C. albicans in guinea pigs was investigated. Three different C. albicans isolates, including one fluconazole-resistant strain (R 637601-9), were tested. After immunosuppression with cyclophosphamide, infection under occlusive dressing was achieved and treated within 48 h after the initial infection. Once-a-day topical application of 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4% CAN-296-P solution was administrated for a period of 1, 3, 5, and 7 days. CAN-296-P at a concentration > or =0.25% was found to be as effective in clearing the infection as was 2% miconazole. Effectiveness in eradicating candidiasis with CAN-296-P was concentration-dependent and free of local adverse effects. Can-296-P is a novel, highly active topical fungicidal agent, with broad potential for clinical use.
Gravitational waves from rotating and precessing rigid bodies - Simple models and applications to pulsars

An axially symmetric, torque-free rigid body, rotating and precessing, emits gravitational quadrupole radiation at two frequencies, omega and 2 omega, corresponding to the l = 2, m = 1,2 spherical harmonics. The paper presents explicitly the waveforms of the two polarizations at both frequencies. From observations of gravitational waves, one can derive information about the body's orientation and its precession amplitude. Electromagnetic radiation emitted by a spot fixed on the surface of the body arrives in pulses at a mean frequency Omega which is typically different from omega. If the body is not axially symmetric but the amplitude of the precession is small, the gravitational radiation at the lower frequency omega is split into two frequencies on either side of the electromagnetic pulse frequency. Explicit waveforms for the two polarizations in this case are also presented.
Phantom-based investigation of nonrigid registration constraints in mapping fMRI to anatomical MRI

In previous work we have introduced an approach to improving the registration of EPI fMRI data with anatomical MRI by accounting for differences in magnetic field induced geometric distortion in the two types of MRI acquisition. In particular we began to explore the use of imaging physics based constraints in a non-rigid multi-modality registration algorithm. In this paper we present phantom based experimental work examining the behavior of different non-rigid registration constraints compared to a field map acquisition of the MRI distortion. This acquisition provides a pixel by pixel 'ground truth' estimate of the displacement field within the EPI data. In our registration based approach we employ a B-spline based estimate of the relative geometric distortion with a multi-grid optimization scheme. We maximize the normalized mutual information between the two types of MRI scans to estimate the B-Spline parameters. Using the field map estimates as a gold standard, registration estimates using no additional geometric constraints are compared to those using the spin echo based signal conservation. We also examine the use of logarithmic EPI values in the criteria to provide additional sensitivity in areas of low signal. Results indicate that registration of EPI to conventional MRI incorporating a spin echo distortion model can provide comparable estimates of geometric distortion to those from field mapping data without the need for significant additional acquisitions during each fMRI sequence.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
A systematic approach to reduction of user-perceived response time for GIS web services

The research of Internet distribution of GIS contents is still in its infancy. This paper reports an implementation of a systematic approach to optimize Internet distribution of GIS datasets. The goal is to reduce user-perceived response time and improve users' navigation efficiency.On the server side, a large GIS dataset associated with a map is decomposed into small blocks and organized into an overview guiding hierarchy. On the client side, locality-based caching and pre-fetching techniques are devised at the application level. To prevent the GIS application server from being overwhelmed by the excessive pre-fetching requests, it is necessary to enforce a priority queue for the web server: user requests always have high priority than pre-fetching requests. Experiments have shown significant improvement on user-perceived response time.
The genetics of alopecia areata.

Although the inheritance of alopecia areata (AA) is not definitively known, there is increasing consensus that it is an organ-specific autoimmune disease directed against the hair follicle. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6p21 that encodes surface proteins for self-recognition is now recognized as a major contributing factor for susceptibility to autoimmune diseases.1–5 Polymorphic amino acid residues that may be shared by several class 2 alleles (shared epitopes) may confer susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis, type I diabetes mellitus, and pemphigus vulgaris.1,2,6 AA, with a wide spectrum of disease severity, manifests in individuals with a genetic predisposition and who, additionally, are exposed to some environmental trigger(s). In humans and in animal models, autoimmune diseases appear to be multigenic and require several genes acting in concert; however, segregation analyses in families with the trait of autoimmunity have suggested the presence of a dominant gene not linked to the MHC. The gene frequency of the “autoimmune” trait was determined to be approximately 0.11.3
Toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis entomocidal protein toward cultured insect tissue

Abstract The entomocidal protein from crystalline inclusion bodies of Bacillus thuringiensis can be bioassayed in vitro using cultured insect tissue. Larval cells of the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana , are damaged by enzyme-digested (activated) protein isolated from B. thuringiensis crystals. Measurement of toxicity is accomplished by detection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in treated cultures using firefly bioluminescence. The ATP content of toxin-treated tissue is inversely proportional to the amount of toxin added. Tissue cells from the spruce budworm exhibited maximum susceptibility to activated δ-endotoxin after 120 hr incubation. Probit analysis of tissue ATP response to toxin dose indicated 50% of the cells were damaged by 14.6 μg or less of toxin protein per 2 × 10 5 insect tissue cells. Activated δ-endotoxin was entomocidal to insects as well, as detemined by mortality studies with second-instar larvae of the European corn borer. Electron microscopic observations of insect tissue treated with activated δ-endotoxin protein for 60 min revealed massive outer membrane disruption and subsequent loss of cytoplasmic constituents, accompanied by swelling of the nuclear membrane.
Effect of incomplete energy accommodation on free molecule recovery temperature.

Abstract : A model of the wall boundary condition in kinetic theory is described and applied to the analysis of the recovery temperature of a circular cylinder placed transverse to a free-molecule stream. This model, more sophisticated than its predecessor, is constructed to allow the description of the non-monotonic variation of thermal accommodation coefficient with gas energy which has been predicted by elaborate theoretical investigations and has been observed experimentally. The model is found to fit all of the available recent experimental data for thermal accommodation coefficients for rare gases on tungsten. The use of this model to predict free-molecule recovery temperatures reveals a pronounced effect of incomplete accommodation on the relationship between recovery temperature and flow Mach number. This has important implications regarding the interpretation of flow field measurements made with a free-molecule recovery temperature probe. (Author)
Designing a Discipline of Software Design

Software engineering is not a discipline. Its practitioners cannot systematically make and fulfill promises to deliver software systems judged by their customers as usable and dependable, on time and fairly priced. The illusion that software engineers possess a discipline has produced the major breakdown called the software crisis.
Disruption-aware service composition and recovery in dynamic networking environments

The dynamic and heterogeneous natures of large-scale systems pose fundamental challenges to the design of service composition methods with minimum service disruptions. Improving reliability has long been a topic of extensive research in large-scale systems. Little existing work, however, has considered service deliveries spanning multiple components and taken both failure duration and frequency into account.This paper proposes a new service composition and recovery framework designed to achieve minimum service disruptions. The framework consists of two-tiers: service routing, which selects the service components, and network routing, which finds the network path that connects these service components. Our framework is based on a novel concept: disruption index, which characterizes different aspects of service disruptions, including frequency and duration. We formulate the problem of minimum-disruption service composition and recovery (MDSCR) as a dynamic programming problem and give its optimal solution under the assumption of complete knowledge of future failure distribution. We then present our MDSCR heuristic, which approximates the optimal solution with one-step lookahead prediction, where service link lifetime is predicted through statistical regression. We present the preliminary performance results of our algorithm via simulation study.
Living on the Moon

Humans have long dreamt of exploring and settling the Moon. The visions of human space activity stemming from the first half of the 20th century culminated in the Apollo program landing two astronauts on the Moon in 1969, and until 1972, 12 astronauts had walked the Moon and performed scientific experiments. In the new millennium, several nations have begun precursory missions, orbiting a new generation of satellites and gleaning new information. Most recently, water has been discovered in the polar regions, setting the stage for lunar development and human settlement. This chapter provides a brief overview of past visions, present projects and technology developments, and some concepts and technologies for future permanent human settlements on our celestial neighbor. Keywords: human exploration; lunar landers; lunar habitats; lunar observatories; EVA; lunar spacesuits; lunar structures; lunar rovers; ECLSS; CELSS; lunar analogs; lunar simulators; Apollo; power systems; lunar orbital infrastructure; lava tubes; cities on the moon; lunar; particle radiation; micrometeorites
A practical application of fluid power systems in manufacturing

Fluid power is one of the vast fields and its applications in manufacturing are not used for many real-time problems though its capabilities are known. One such application is fluid power for robotic systems. More specifically, in this study, a new hydraulic system is developed for use in actuating a robotic gripper. Electric motors were found unsatisfactory due to their poor power to weight ratio. Hydraulics were attempted using a master slave hydraulic system. Powering and positioning was done on the master cylinder, while the remote slave cylinder followed the motion. The control of the master cylinder was done with a ground based stepping motor and lead screw mechanism. Small hoses ran to the gripper based slave cylinder, which copied the motions.
THE EXPERIENCE OF SURVIVAL DURING THE 1641 IRISH REBELLION

In recent scholarship, the problem of violence has dominated work on the 1641 Irish rebellion. Unfortunately, no scholarship has addressed the means by which victims of the war survived this conflict. This article uses microhistorical evidence from the 1641 depositions for county Cavan to reconstruct the range of possible survival strategies. Philip MacMulmore O'Reilly, a member of the Irish gentry and kinsman to the Cavan rebels, balanced support for the rebellion with attempts to assist endangered Anglo-Protestant settlers. Although deponents questioned O'Reilly's motives, they agreed that he was instrumental in protecting settlers. George Creichton, a Scottish minister and planter, provides a distinctly different example. Despite his religious views and politics, Creichton forged strong ties to neighbouring Irish before the rising. Although in danger, Creichton mobilized a network of friends, kin, and sympathetic neighbours to protect himself and to assist less fortunate Anglo-Protestant neighbours. These two examples reveal the wider existence of early seventeenth-century social relationships that crossed ethnic and religious lines. In the midst of the chaos of 1641, a significant number of settlers benefited from fragmentation in the rebel ranks and often built their survival strategies upon the social relationships that they had forged in more stable times.
A synergetic use of active microwave observations, optical images and topography data for improved flood mapping in the Gulf of Mexico

This work proposes a method for detecting variation in water front between low and high tide conditions in the Gulf of Mexico area using high resolution satellite imagery. Radarsat 1, Landsat images and aerial photography from the Apalachicola region in Florida were used to test the proposed algorithm. A change detection approach was implemented through the analysis of RGB false color composites. In order to alleviate the effect of the inherent speckle in the SAR images ancillary data were used. The flood prone area was a priori delineated through the determination of lower and higher water contour lines with Landsat images and digital elevation model. This technique improved the performance of the proposed algorithm with respect to the detection technique using the entire scene.
Letter to the Glycoforum: Improved protocols for preparing lipid-linked and related saccharides for Fluorophore-Assisted Carbohydrate Electrophoresis (FACE).

Our laboratory has used Fluorophore-Assisted Carbohydrate Electrophoresis (FACE) to analyze many saccharides related to the dolichol pathway (Gao and Lehrman, 2002, 2003; Lehrman, 2007). This includes the lipid-linked oligosaccharide (LLO) Glc3Man9GlcNAc2-P-P-dolichol, LLO intermediates, mannose-P-dolichol, glucose-P-dolichol, N-glycans, free glycans, sugar mono- and bis-phosphates, and nucleotide-sugars. Some examples of the variety of saccharides that can be studied are given in (Gao and Lehrman, 2002; Gao et al., 2011; Gao et al., 2008). In addition to these studies with mammalian cultured cells and tissues, we used FACE to identify saccharides from an assortment of sources including Danio rerio (Cline et al., 2012), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Rush et al., 2009), Trypanosoma brucei (Jelk et al., 2013), and Arabidopsis thaliana (Amtmann, A., unpublished). Since publication of a comprehensive method (Gao and Lehrman, 2006) we identified problematic steps during the preparation of samples, prior to gel electrophoresis. Here, as Supplemental Information, we provide a revised protocol (in lab bench-ready format) for preparing dolichol pathway samples for FACE. One vexing problem in particular is solved with this new protocol. Previously, it was necessary at different stages to dry proteinacious cellular residues containing saccharides of interest. Great care was necessary to avoid overdrying, to prevent these residues from forming tough unworkable aggregates refractory to extraction. The extractions were further hampered by variable losses of residue at each step. These and other technical problems have now been solved with a single-step extraction method2 in which three distinct phases are generated (each enriched with a different group of saccharides), and by eliminating the need to dry proteinacious cellular residues. Various members of our group have successfully used different aspects of this new protocol, which we conclude is a significant improvement over our earlier methods. We thank Dan Beriault for very helpful comments on the text. Supported by NIH grant GM038545.
Standard Digital Seismic Formats: ABSTRACT

Various factors must be considered in answering the question, "Which tape format?" Texas Instruments chose the 21-track format after 50 engineering man-years of study. Higher data transfer rates can be made using the 9 track rather than the 7 track. A comparison of 21 track versus 9 track capabilities is made in regard to ability to handle the number of seismic channels, format and gain recovery, efficiency, reliability, the recording of the actual time of the sample, edge effects, and economics. End_of_Article - Last_Page 814------------
Two-hop free-space based optical interconnects for chip multiprocessors

Many resources are shared among the cores of chip-multiprocessors (CMPs), in particular on-chip caches and memory systems. Efficient intra-chip communication is necessary for efficient resource sharing and the performance of such systems, especially in future CMPs with hundreds or thousands of cores. Current Free-space optical networks-on-chip (NoCs) provide the potential to avoid the reduced wire performance and degraded signal integrity facing electronic networks. However, current proposals utilize fixed direction lasers and mirrors to realize one-hop all-to-all connectivity, which results in difficulties scaling to larger numbers of processors. In this paper we present two-hop optical strategies that provide better performance over the one-hop strategy while improving on both the required resources and scalability for future large scale CMPs.
Soft tissue reconstruction following hemipelvectomy

Abstract Background: Resection of primary and metastatic pelvic bone disease may result in large soft tissue deficits. Guidelines for soft tissue reconstruction following pelvic bone resection were evaluated in a retrospective study. Methods: Over a 5-year period 21 patients (31%) required soft tissue reconstruction following pelvic bone resection. Data on these patients were retrieved from case records. Results: Twelve patients underwent immediate, planned reconstruction, 1 a two-stage reconstruction, and 8 patients required a delayed procedure for complications after bone resection and primary closure. Soft tissue reconstruction was usually accomplished with muscle-based flaps; (25 flaps in 20 patients: 20 pedicled, 5 free), or with skin grafts alone (1 patient). Specific postreconstruction complications occurred in 9 patients, 5 in flaps based on the ipsilateral rectus muscle. Conclusion: Flap closure is indicated to achieve primary closure and eliminate deadspace. The ipsilateral rectus muscle should be used with caution and contralateral-based rectus flaps considered. Indications for free flaps include the size and location of the defect and availability of tissue from an amputated limb.
The unless switch: adding conditional logic to concept mapping for middle school students

Qualitative concept maps are useful for sharing the structure of a domain and for assessing students' understanding. While concept maps made from links and nodes depict static causal relationships between concepts quite well, they provide little support for displaying conditional logic and thresholds for causation. In this paper, we describe the process of incorporating a representation for conditional reasoning into Betty, a computer agent students teach via concept maps. Betty helps students formalize their knowledge of a domain by acting as a novice learner. Students use Betty to construct and assess their knowledge of science topics.We tested several prototypes combining conditional logic with concept maps and found that people had difficulty keeping conditional states and conceptual nodes separate. In the end, the "Unless Switch" provided the closest semantic parallel to the type of reasoning we wanted students to learn and generated the least amount of confusion.
Adaptive RCPC-based cooperative coding for coordinated multipoint transmission

Cooperative Communication enables a system to achieve a significant gain in coverage and capacity. In coded cooperation, channel coding is embedded in the cooperation strategy, and the optimal level of the cooperation between the nodes needs to be determined according to the channel conditions. Using RCPC codes, we propose an adaptive approach that relies on efficient reallocation of system resources. The implemented scheme is similar to incremental redundancy with the difference that it does not impose any overhead on the system. The principal idea here is to dynamically change the usage of the available transmission resources to allow adaptive adjustment of the effective coding rate of payloads according to the channel condition. The simulation results indicate a gain of 1–2 dB at low SNR regime that translates into better coverage and robustness of the system. The main feature of the proposed scheme is that the gain is achieved without any increase in the system overhead.
The RET oncogene in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common form of thyroid cancer, accounting for greater than 80% of cases. Surgical resection, with or without postoperative radioiodine therapy, remains the standard of care for patients with PTC, and the prognosis is generally excellent with appropriate treatment. Despite this, significant numbers of patients will not respond to maximal surgical and medical therapy and ultimately will die from the disease. This mortality reflects an incomplete understanding of the oncogenic mechanisms that initiate, drive, and promote PTC. Nonetheless, significant insights into the pathologic subcellular events underlying PTC have been discovered over the last 2 decades, and this remains an area of significant research interest. Chromosomal rearrangements resulting in the expression of fusion proteins that involve the rearranged during transfection (RET) proto-oncogene were the first oncogenic events to be identified in PTC. Members of this fusion protein family (the RET/PTC family) appear to play an oncogenic role in approximately 20% of PTCs. Herein, the authors review the current understanding of the clinicopathologic role of RET/PTC fusion proteins in PTC development and progression and the molecular mechanisms by which RET/PTCs exert their oncogenic effects on the thyroid epithelium.
Single-Port Laparoscopy: Market-Driven or True Advancement

Minimally invasive procedures such as laparoscopy are increasingly used and constantly improving with advances in surgical instrumentation and operative technique. As a step toward less-invasive laparoscopy, single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) through the embryonic scar of the umbilicus has been proposed by multiple surgery specialties. A general overview suggests SILS colorectal surgery seems to be safe and feasible in major colorectal surgery in experienced hands; however, more trials are needed to demonstrate the benefits over conventional laparoscopic surgery. This article will examine the issues and data surrounding SILS in an attempt to distinguish its true and potential benefits from those hyped by market-driven declarations.
How Tactile and Function Information Affect Young Children's Ability to Understand the Nature of Food-Appearing, Deceptive Objects.

Abstract Preschool children's (N = 64) ability to use tactile information and function cues on less-realistic and more-realistic food-appearing, deceptive objects was examined before and after training on the function of deceptive objects. They also responded to appearance and reality questions about deceptive objects. Half of the children (F-S: functional–salience condition) responded to function questions and were given feedback on their responses; half (control) responded to task questions but not function questions and feedback was not provided. After a Treatment Phase, children were asked about other deceptive objects. Four year olds answered more task questions correctly than 3 year olds; when children had access to tactile information they were better at answering task questions. Children in the F-S condition performed better on function Posttreatment questions, as compared to the Pretreatment Phase, and only the 4 year olds performed better on the less-realistic objects than the more-realistic objects. The degree of realism of deceptive objects does have an impact on the level of understanding of four year olds. The results also indicate that adults can provide tactile and function experiences to help young children better understand that these food-appearing objects are not edible.
Current concepts of oxygen transport during exercise

This brief review examines the athletic potential of mammals in general and the horse in particular as it relates to oxygen (O2) transport and utilization. The horse has been bred selectively for over six millennia based upon its ability to run fast. Whereas this has optimized cardiovascular and muscle function and the capacity to deliver and utilize O2, it has resulted in lung failure during intense exercise. Horses in their athletic prime are considered and attention is focused on their maximal capacities as related to O2 transport, irrespective of age per se. Following a few comments on the history of O2, this review moves from established principles of O2 transport at the integrative organ level to the microcirculation and the processes and principles that govern O2 offloading, where much remains to be discovered. Four principal questions are addressed: (1) as an athlete, what are the most outstanding physiological characteristics of the horse? (2) what anatomical and physiological capacities facilitate this superlative performance and such prodigious O2 fluxes (i.e. maximal VO2)? (3) do cardiovascular dynamics or intramuscular energetic processes limit VO2 kinetics (i.e. the speed at which VO2 increases at the onset of exercise)? VO2 kinetics determine the size of the O2 deficit and as such represent an important determinant of muscle metabolism and fatigue; and (4) what determines the efficacy of muscle microcirculatory O2 exchange?
Stem cells combined with gene transfer for therapeutic vasculogenesis: magic bullets?

Discoveries in one scientific field sometimes have the unexpected result of igniting a major step forward or new direction in another field. We are in the early phases of one of these sea changes. Advances in stem cell therapies are progressing at a rapid clip and are providing the field of gene therapy with an expanded platform of technologies for the introduction of recombinant genes into human tissues. Likewise, a decade worth of experience in gene therapy provides stem cell researchers with a jump-start. Indeed, it is likely and probable that these 2 fields will eventually merge due to significant scientific and technical overlap. See p 732 The major contribution of the study by Iwaguro et al1 in this issue of Circulation is the demonstration that gene transfer of vectors encoding VEGF into endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) ex vivo and injection of gene modified EPCs into ischemic muscle in vivo increases neovascularization in an animal model of hindlimb ischemia. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from human volunteers were cultured in a special cocktail that facilitates growth of EPCs—plating on fibronectin and grown in the presence of multiple growth factors, such as endothelial cell basal medium, fetal bovine serum, human VEGF-A, human FGF-2, human EGF, IGF-1, and ascorbic acid—as previously characterized by this group.2 After 7 days in culture, EPCs were transduced with adenoviral vectors encoding a murine VEGF164 gene or a control reporter gene. Proliferative indices and adhesion properties were measured ex vivo in order to characterize the phenotype of the cells. The authors then conducted pilot studies in vivo to determine the dose of gene-modified cells required to produce a similar magnitude of neovascularization achieved with nontransduced EPCs. Interestingly, they found that 30 times fewer VEGF-transduced EPCs (1.5×104 cells) produced equivalent neovascularization compared with 4.5×105 …
A Bovine Herpesvirus Type 1 Mutant Virus Specifying a Carboxyl-Terminal Truncation of Glycoprotein E Is Defective in Anterograde Neuronal Transport in Rabbits and Calves

Bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) is an important component of the bovine respiratory disease complex (BRDC) in cattle. The ability of BHV-1 to transport anterogradely from neuronal cell bodies in trigeminal ganglia (TG) to nerve ending in the noses and corneas of infected cattle following reactivation from latency plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of BRDC and maintenance of BHV-1 in the cattle population. We have constructed a BHV-1 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone by inserting an excisable BAC plasmid sequence in the long intergenic region between the glycoprotein B (gB) and UL26 genes. A BAC-excised, reconstituted BHV-1 containing only the 34-bp loxP sequence within the gB-UL26 intergenic region was highly infectious in calves, retained wild-type virulence properties, and reactivated from latency following treatment with dexamethasone. Using a two-step Red-mediated mutagenesis system in Escherichia coli, we constructed a gE cytoplasmic tail-truncated BHV-1 and a gE-rescued BHV-1. Following primary infection, the gE cytoplasmic tail-truncated virus was efficiently transported retrogradely from the nerve endings in the nose and eye to cell bodies in the TG of calves and rabbits. However, following dexamethasone-induced reactivation from latency, the gE mutant virus was not isolated from nasal and ocular sheddings. Reverse transcriptase PCR assays detected VP5 transcription in the TG of rabbits infected with gE-rescued and gE cytoplasmic tail-truncated viruses during primary infection and after dexamethasone treatment but not during latency. Therefore, the BHV-1gE cytoplasmic tail-truncated virus reactivated in the TG; however, it had defective anterograde transport from TG to nose and eye in calves and rabbits.
A Device for Protecting Moored Spectroradiometers from Biofouling

A shutter mechanism for reducing the effects of biofouling on bio-optical instruments deployed on oceanographic moorings has been designed, built, and tested. The initial development was carried out on a spectroradiometer. The optics of the spectroradiometer are protected by copper shutters that rotate out of the field of view prior to a measurement and rotate back after the measurement is completed. The shutter system can sense an obstruction and, if one is detected, attempt to rotate in the opposite direction. The controlling software stores the home position in the memory so the shutter can return to cover the optics, irrespective of direction of rotation. The system has been tested in the equatorial Pacific, where it has provided five months of data that are unaffected by biofouling.
School Belonging, Ethnic Identity, and Psychological Adjustment Among Ethnic Minority College Students

This study considers how the psychological adjustment of ethnic minority college students may be linked to a sense of school belonging and ethnic identity, two constructs related to individuals feeling like they belong to a larger group. Using self-reports from 311 undergraduates from ethnic minority backgrounds, school belonging was found to be negatively associated with depressive symptoms, and positively associated with perceived self-worth, scholastic competence, and social acceptance, while ethnic identity was only found to be positively associated with self-worth. Furthermore, the interaction between ethnic identity and school belonging was significantly associated with self-worth, suggesting that in the absence of a sense of belonging at school, stronger ethnic identity was linked to higher self-worth. College students reported the lowest levels of self-worth when they were neither connected to their college nor connected to their ethnic group.
Assessing the Implementation of Mandating Energy Efficiency: Boulder, Colorado's Implementation of SmartRegs

On January 3, 2011, the City of Boulder, Colorado implemented the SmartRegs ordinances updating the city's housing and rental licensing code by mandating baseline efficiency requirements for rental housing units. We examine the SmartRegs inspector training program relative to the prescriptive path checklist for compliance and quality assurance controls from inception through the first quarter of 2014. We find that discrepancies in quality control audits may be the result of the training and certification program not adequately preparing inspectors for the field observations needed to competently complete inspections. This may be due to improper planning of implementation policies.
The role of combination medical therapy in acromegaly: hope for the nonresponsive patient.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review focuses on combination drug treatment for acromegaly patients, including novel concepts and experimental therapies, with an emphasis on the author's personal experience. RECENT FINDINGS A review of published clinical studies demonstrates that combination therapy; somatostatin receptor ligands and dopamine agonists, somatostatin receptor ligands and pegvisomant, or cabergoline and pegvisomant could provide significant additive biochemical control of acromegaly in patients inadequately controlled with conventional somatostatin receptor ligand therapy. SUMMARY Advances in combination medical therapy have opened up new perspectives for acromegaly patients who are poorly, or nonresponsive to, presently available single drug therapies.
Non-Contact, No Wafer Preparation Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) Based on Surface Photovoltage (SPV)

This work reports on the theoretical modeling and experimental investigation of isothermal SPV-DLTS based on the rate window concept. Experimental implementation of the technique is done using computer analysis of the SPV transients after ceasing the illumination. The transient involves two processes — a recombination of excess minority carriers and a thermal emission of carriers trapped by surface states and bulk defects. The later process is the key one for deep level defect determination. The upper limit for the measurable deep level emission rate is provided by the recombination lifetime. This limit often exceeds, by orders of magnitude, the standard 103 s-1 limit in capacitance DLTS. The sensitivity of SPV-DLTS is of the same order as that of optical capacitance DLTS.
Abstract 4802: Metabolic distinctions in high grade epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective: To identify differences in overall metabolite profile of human high grade serous epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) compared to normal ovarian tissues. Methods: Forty-five patient tissues were obtained (n= 30 EOC, n= 15 normal). Samples were analyzed by Gas Chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry (MS) and Liquid Chromatography (LC)/MS platforms. The difference between the groups was reported in fold change (FC). Welch9s two sample t-tests were used to identify metabolites that differed significantly between cancer and normal ovarian tissues and p 2000 metabolites, there were 315 metabolites that were identified between EOC and normal ovaries. Of these 315 metabolites, 204 were significantly altered with 180 up regulated metabolites, and 24 down regulated. EOC had altered metabolism in the glycolytic, amino acid, lipid, nucleotide and eicosanoid pathways. There was an increase dependence on glycolysis consistent with the “Warburg effect,” as noted by elevated glucose-6-phosphate (FC= 2.8, p Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4802. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4802
Cholecystokinin induction ofmob-1 chemokine expression in pancreatic acinar cells requires NF-κB activation

Inflammatory mediators are involved in the early phase of acute pancreatitis, but the cellular mechanisms responsible for their generation within pancreatic cells are unknown. We examined the role of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8)-induced mob-1 chemokine expression in pancreatic acinar cells in vitro. Supraphysiological, but not physiological, concentrations of CCK-8 increased inhibitory kappaB (IkappaB-alpha) degradation, NF-kappaB activation, and mob-1 gene expression in isolated pancreatic acinar cells. CCK-8-induced IkappaB-alpha degradation was maximal within 1 h. Expression of mob-1 was maximal within 2 h. Neither bombesin nor carbachol significantly increased mob-1 mRNA or induced IkappaB-alpha degradation. Thus the concentration, time, and secretagogue dependence of mob-1 gene expression and IkappaB-alpha degradation were similar. Inhibition of NF-kappaB with pharmacological agents or by adenovirus-mediated expression of the inhibitory protein IkappaB-alpha also inhibited mob-1 gene expression. These data indicate that the NF-kappaB signaling pathway is required for CCK-8-mediated induction of mob-1 chemokine expression in pancreatic acinar cells. This supports the hypothesis that NF-kappaB signaling is of central importance in the initiation of acute pancreatitis.