cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Femoral endarteritis associated with percutaneous suture closure: New technology, challenging complications

Abstract Objective Use of percutaneous suture closure devices after catheter-based interventions is increasing. We recently have seen several severe femoral arterial wall infections after use of such devices. The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence, comorbid associations, and management of femoral arterial infections associated with percutaneous suture closure devices. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all infectious complications that occurred after 2223 consecutive cardiac catheterization procedures performed over 12 months in a university-affiliated community teaching hospital. Outcome variables included demographics, procedural details, infection, type of arterial reconstruction required, mortality, and limb loss. Results During this study, 822 patients received percutaneous suture devices. Infection developed in 6 patients (0.7%). The incidence of diabetes in the population undergoing percutaneous suture closure was 219 of 822 patients (26.6%). Three comorbid conditions, noted in multiple patients with infectious complications, included diabetes mellitus, obesity, and placement of a percutaneous suture closure device within the past 6 months. Invasive femoral endarteritis developed in 4 patients. Gram-positive cocci predominated in 4 patients. In 1 patient with polymicrobial infection catastrophic complications developed, including multiple anastomotic ruptures and hemorrhage. A new method of repair that incorporated double-thickness everted saphenous vein was used in 2 patients, and safe arterial closure was achieved. There was 1 late fatality on postoperative day 36. Limb salvage was achieved in all patients. Conclusions Femoral endarteritis complicating percutaneous suture closure is a challenging new problem for vascular surgeons and can result in catastrophic complications. Customary techniques that use saphenous vein patch or interposition grafting are not adequate in all circumstances. Successful outcome requires operative exploration in patients with suspected infection. Removal of the percutaneous suture closure device and debridement to normal arterial wall is recommended in all patients with suspected femoral endarteritis, based on positive intraoperative Gram stains or abnormal appearance of the adjacent femoral artery. Early success with an autologous bolstered repair is reported. Caution is advised when considering the use of a percutaneous suture closure device in patients with comorbid conditions including diabetes, obesity, and previously implanted devices.
How Strategic Reasoning and Brainstorming Can Help Auditors Detect Fraud

SUMMARY: Auditors often fail to effectively modify their standard audit procedures in response to fraud risk. Two audit interventions, strategic reasoning (i.e., considering how the audit client may be concealing a fraud from the auditor) and brainstorming in groups, have been suggested to help auditors design better fraud detection procedures. This paper summarizes a recent study (“Do Strategic Reasoning and Brainstorming Help Auditors Change Their Standard Audit Procedures in Response to Fraud Risk?” [Hoffman and Zimbelman 2009], The Accounting Review) in which an experiment was conducted in a high-fraud-risk setting to see whether these interventions helped audit managers design better fraud procedures. The study found that both interventions improved auditors' planning judgments, but that combining them was not more effective than either one alone. That is, once individual audit managers reasoned strategically, adding more audit managers to the process in a brainstorming group did not result in bette...
Measurements of the interaction of wave groups with shorter wind-generated waves

Fields of statistically steady wind-generated waves produced in a wind wave facility were perturbed by the injection of groups of longer, mechanically generated waves with various slopes. The time histories of the surface displacements were measured at four fetches in ensembles consisting of 100 realizations of each set of experimental conditions; the data were stored and analyzed digitally. Four distinct stages in the overall interaction are identified and characterized. The properties of the wave energy front are documented, and a preliminary discussion is given of the dynamic processes involved in its formation.
Long-term variations in the dissolved oxygen budget of an urbanized tidal river: the upper Delaware Estuary.

The dissolved oxygen budget in the upper Delaware Estuary between 1970 and 2014 was inferred from oxygen concentration measurements using a box model approach. The region was found to be a net biogeochemical sink of oxygen, with net oxygen consumption greater in the tidal fresh portion than in the oligohaline portion. Net oxygen consumption decreased from the 1970s to the 1990s by roughly a factor of 2 before increasing slightly in the 2000s. The dramatic decline in oxygen consumption was presumably due to improvements in wastewater treatment, though a comparison with biological oxygen demand measurements in wastewater was equivocal. Nonalgal oxygen consumption (i.e., oxygen consumption due to heterotrophic respiration and nitrification) was computed as the sum of the estimated net oxygen consumption and historical measurements of primary production. Nonalgal oxygen consumption was found to be highly seasonal and positively correlated with temperature, with Q10 values ranging between 1.4 and 2.3. Annual nonalgal oxygen consumption was found to be several times annual primary production. Exchange with the atmosphere is the main process that balances the net oxygen consumption throughout the study region, with advection also an important process in the tidal fresh portion. Decadal scale variability in oxygen concentration, including the recent decline in the 2000s, appears to be mainly driven by biological, not physical, processes.
Reinventing academic publishing online. Part I: Rigor, relevance and practice

While current computing practice abounds with innovations like online auctions, blogs, wikis, twitter, social networks and online social games, few if any genuinely new theories have taken root in the corresponding “top” academic journals. Those creating computing progress increasingly see these journals as unreadable, outdated and irrelevant. Yet as technology practice creates, technology theory is if anything becoming even more conforming and less relevant. We attribute this to the erroneous assumption that research rigor is excellence, a myth contradicted by the scientific method itself. Excess rigor supports the demands of appointment, grant and promotion committees, but is drying up the wells of academic inspiration. Part I of this paper chronicles the inevitable limits of what can only be called a feudal academic knowledge exchange system, with trends like exclusivity, slowness, narrowness, conservatism, self-involvement and inaccessibility. We predict an upcoming social upheaval in academic publishing as it shifts from a feudal to democratic form, from knowledge managed by the few to knowledge managed by the many. The technology trigger is socio-technical advances. The drive will be that only democratic knowledge exchange can scale up to support the breadth, speed and flexibility modern cross-disciplinary research needs. Part II suggests the sort of socio-technical design needed to bring this transformation about.
The high luminosity performance of CESR with the new generation superconducting cavity

With the installation of the first SRF cavity in September of 1997, the upgrade of the CESR RF system has begun. This cavity belongs to the new generation of so-called HOM damped cavities designed for high current storage rings. The upgrade is proceeding by replacing one by one old copper cavities with superconducting ones during short machine shutdowns. CESR continues to demonstrate spectacular performance. It operates with 36 bunches in 9 trains of 4 bunches in each beam with total beam current up to 550 mA at the start of fills for high energy physics. In the course of last year both peak luminosity and integrated luminosity per day increased by 67% and are equal now to 8.0/spl times/10/sup 32/ cm/sup -2/ s/sup -1/, and 40.2 pb/sup -1//day. The latter number corresponds roughly to 43 thousands of B mesons per day. The first superconducting cavity has been in operation in CESR since October of 1997. The cavity operates at accelerating gradients up to 7 MV/m and delivers to the beam maximum RF power of 220 kW through the ceramic window, the record value for superconducting cavities. We found that pulsed power processing without beam is extremely helpful in improving RF window performance. The maximum HOM power extracted from the beam by one cavity is 5.7 kW. Four single-cell HOM damped cavities will eventually support a total beam current of 1 A. Because of the very low impedance of superconducting cavity module, we calculate the longitudinal instability threshold from cavity HOMs to be in excess of 1 A. The second cavity was installed in CESR during October '98 shutdown. The third cavity is already installed in CESR, and its commissioning will start immediately after this conference. The fourth cryomodule is being assembled and is schedule for installation in summer of 1999.
Prediction of ultrasound-mediated disruption of cell membranes using machine learning techniques and statistical analysis of acoustic spectra

Although biological effects of ultrasound must be avoided for safe diagnostic applications, ultrasound's ability to disrupt cell membranes has attracted interest as a method to facilitate drug and gene delivery. This paper seeks to develop "prediction rules" for predicting the degree of cell membrane disruption based on specified ultrasound parameters and measured acoustic signals. Three techniques for generating prediction rules (regression analysis, classification trees and discriminant analysis) are applied to data obtained from a sequence of experiments on bovine red blood cells. For each experiment, the data consist of four ultrasound parameters, acoustic measurements at 400 frequencies, and a measure of cell membrane disruption. To avoid over-training, various combinations of the 404 predictor variables are used when applying the rule generation methods. The results indicate that the variable combination consisting of ultrasound exposure time and acoustic signals measured at the driving frequency and its higher harmonics yields the best rule for all three rule generation methods. The methods used for deriving the prediction rules are broadly applicable, and could be used to develop prediction rules in other scenarios involving different cell types or tissues. These rules and the methods used to derive them could be used for real-time feedback about ultrasound's biological effects.
Quantitative cytochemical changes induced by dexamethasone and adrenalectomy in rat liver chromatin

Abstract Physiochemical changes in the state of chromatin shortly following glucocorticoid stimulation of target cells are predicted by the proposed mechanism of steroid action. These changes had not been previously demonstrated in situ. The present experiments demonstrate that in the intact rat, or in one which has been adrenalectomized but given a moderate dose of dexamethasone, the thermal stability of liver cell chromatin is significantly reduced over the level observed in the adrenalectomized untreated animal. This alteration was rated by measuring nuclear acridine orange metachromasia following chromatin denaturation. These data also show an enhanced binding of the dye by the liver cell nuclei under the same conditions. Feulgen dye binding was also found to be enhanced by dexamethasone stimulation but to a level indicative of configurational changes in the chromatin rather than an increase in the amount of DNA in the cells.
The Effects of Mobility and Redundancy on Wireless Video Streaming over MANETs

This study examines the extended use of different coding schemes (Scalable vs. Multiple Description or MD) in different video formats (MPEG vs. Motion JPEG or MJPEG) in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) environment and proposes a set of redundancy solutions at different coding levels. Simulations and analysis demonstrate and explain the relationship among the coding schemes, video formats, level and amount of redundancy, mobility of mobile devices, CPU load and battery life and frame loss rate at the receiver side. Finally, two practical scenarios are used to illustrate these findings and proposed solutions.
Adefovir Dipivoxil in the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B

OBJECTIVETo evaluate properties of the new acyclic nucleotide analog adefovir dipivoxil in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB).DATA SOURCESMEDLINE and PubMed searches from 1966 to December 2003 were performed with the headings chronic hepatitis B, interferon alfa-2b, lamivudine, liver transplant, and adefovir dipivoxil.STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTIONRandomized controlled studies and meta-analyses were evaluated in detail. A manual search was performed using references from retrieved primary literature, review articles, editorials, postgraduate course syllabi from national meetings, and textbooks. Emphasis was placed on controlled, prospective, randomized trials. National meeting abstract presentations were included if the information offered was original.DATA SYNTHESISCHB is a major viral infection with an estimated 400 million carriers worldwide. Medications available to treat CHB include interferon alfa-2b and lamivudine, both agents having significant limitations. Adefovir dipivoxil is a nov...
Effect of a bis-benzyl polyamine analogue on Pneumocystis carinii.

Pneumocystis carinii is the causative agent of P. carinii pneumonia (PCP), an opportunistic infection associated with AIDS and other immunosuppressed conditions. Although polyamine metabolism of this fungus has been shown to be a chemotherapeutic target, this metabolism has not been thoroughly investigated. Reported here is the effect of one polyamine analogue, N,N′-bis{3-[(phenylmethyl)amino]propyl}-1,7-diaminoheptane (BBS), on P. carinii. BBS inhibits the growth of P. carinii in culture, but at concentrations higher than those required to inhibit the growth of other pathogens. However, BBS is at least as active in an animal model of PCP as in other models of diseases studied. BBS causes some reduction in P. carinii polyamine content and polyamine biosynthetic enzyme activities, but the effect is less than that observed with other pathogens and very much less than the effect of the polyamine biosynthesis inhibitor dl-α-difluoromethylornithine. BBS enters P. carinii cells via a polyamine transporter, unlike all other cells that have been studied. P. carinii cells do not remove the benzyl groups of BBS, as is reported for mammalian cells. The most likely mode of action is displacement of natural polyamines. Overall, the activity of BBS provides further evidence that polyamines and polyamine metabolism are rational targets for the development of drugs to treat PCP. Because the details of BBS-P. carinii interaction differ from those of other cells studied, polyamine analogues may provide a highly specific treatment for PCP.
Multimedia sensor networks for ISR applications

Recent advances in MEMS technology, low-power multimedia signal processing algorithms, and wireless communication technologies have made autonomous microsensor networking technology a viable solution for solving a wide range of remote-monitoring problems. Wireless microsensor networks are particularly attractive for military ISR applications because of their potential for rapid, covert deployment and persistent surveillance for wide area search, detection, and cueing. In this paper, we survey techniques that can be applied at each layer of the network protocol stack to produce clandestine, power-efficient wireless microsensor network implementations.
Automated measurement of acetylcholinesterase activity in rat peripheral tissues

The accepted mechanism of toxicity of many organophosphorous and carbamate insecticides is inhibition of acetylcholinesterase activity. In mammals, part of the toxicity assessment usually includes monitoring blood and/or brain acetylcholinesterase inhibition. Other tissues, however, contain cholinesterase activity (i.e. acetyl- and butyryl-cholinesterase), and the inhibition of that activity may be informative for a full appraisal of the toxicity profile. The present group of studies first optimized the variables for extraction and solubilization of cholinesterase activity from various rat tissues and then refined an existing automated method, in order to differentially assess acetyl and butyrylcholinesterase activity in those tissues. All these studies were conducted using tissues from untreated, Long-Evans, adult rats. The first studies determined the effect of Triton X-100 or salt (NaCl) on the extraction and solubilization of cholinesterase activity from retina, brain, striated muscle, diaphragm, and heart: phosphate buffer plus detergent (1% Triton X-100) yielded the highest activity for most tissues. For striated muscle, however, slightly more activity was extracted if the phosphate buffer contained both 1% Triton X-100 and 0.5 M NaCl. It was also noted that the degree of homogenization of some tissues (e.g. striated muscle) must be increased for maximal solubilization of all cholinesterase activity. Subsequent studies developed a method for assessing the level of acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase and total cholinesterase activity in these tissues using an automated analyzer. In conclusion, automated assay of acetylcholinesterase activity in cholinergically innervated tissues in the rat (other than brain) is achievable and relatively convenient.
Lipopolysaccharide-Activated Dendritic Cells: “Exhausted” or Alert and Waiting?

LPS-activated dendritic cells (DCs) are thought to follow a set program in which they secrete inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-12) and then become refractory to further stimulation (i.e., "exhausted"). In this study, we show that mouse DCs do indeed lose their responsiveness to LPS, but nevertheless remain perfectly capable of making inflammatory cytokines in response to signals from activated T cells and to CD40-ligand and soluble T cell-derived signals. Furthermore, far from being rigidly programmed by the original activating stimulus, the DCs retained sufficient plasticity to respond differentially to interactions with Th0, Th1, Th2, and Th17 T cells. These data suggest that LPS activation does not exhaust DCs but rather primes them for subsequent signals from T cells.
Parallelized traveling cluster approximation to study numerically spin-fermion models on large lattices

Lattice spin-fermion models are quite important to study correlated systems where quantum dynamics allows for a separation between slow and fast degrees of freedom. The fast degrees of freedom are treated quantum mechanically while the slow variables, generically referred to as the “spins,” are treated classically. At present, exact diagonalization coupled with classical Monte Carlo (ED + MC) is extensively used to solve numerically a general class of lattice spin-fermion problems. In this common setup, the classical variables (spins) are treated via the standard MC method while the fermion problem is solved by exact diagonalization. The “traveling cluster approximation” (TCA) is a real space variant of the ED + MC method that allows to solve spin-fermion problems on lattice sizes with up to 103 sites. In this paper, we present a novel reorganization of the TCA algorithm in a manner that can be efficiently parallelized. Finally, this allows us to solve generic spin-fermion models easily on 104 lattice sites and with some effort on 105 lattice sites, representing the record lattice sizes studied for this family of models.
Effect of human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 E6 and E7 gene silencing on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) phosphorylation status in HPV16+oropharyngeal cancer cell lines

e17006 Background: Aberrant activation of EGFR intrinsic tyrosine phosphotransferase activity correlates with poor prognosis in several cancers. In this study, we sought to determine the effect of HPV16 E6 and E7 gene silencing on the status of EGFR phosphorylation in HPV16+ oropharyngeal cancer cell lines. Methods: Short hairpin RNAs targeting HPV type 16 E6 and E7 genes were delivered by retrovirus infection to HPV16+ oropharyngeal cancer cell lines 147T and 090. E6/E7 repression was assessed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blotting for p53 and Rb protein levels 48 hours after retrovirus infection. Phospho-EGFR (Tyr1068), (Tyr845), (Tyr992), (Tyr1045) and total EGFR protein levels before and after silencing were then analyzed by western blotting in 147T and 090 oropharyngeal cancer cell lines. Results: Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed reduction in E6/E7 mRNA levels up to 85% the level in uninfected or control shRNA infected cell lines. Protein expression re...
Malvolio on Decorum

Apparently no commentator has remarked on the possible allusion implicit in these verses. The image of the wounded Marcius mantled in blood like a man flayed may have come from Ovid's description of the wretched satyr Marsyas, flayed by Apollo for his presumption: "nec quicquam nisi vulnus erat... (Met. vi. 388). Golding's English is graphic enough: "Nought else he was than one whole wounde" (vi. 494). Indeed, the entire passage that follows is memorable for its horrible detail, and no one who had read it would be likely to have forgotten it. The fact that Marcius (Martius in old edd.) and Marsyas (Marsias in Golding) were homophones would support the notion that Shakespeare had the image of the flayed satyr in mind when he wrote the passage.
Environmental Biology of the Leafhopper Scaphytopius delongi1,2

Scaphytopius delongi Young had a facultative diapause. It produced eggs in a state of pre-embryonic diapause in response to 10-hr daylengths and a continuous series of generations at 16-hr daylengths. The diapause response to short days was not offset by night temperatures up to 24.6°C. There was a linear relationship between duration of the nymphal period and mean temperature from 19.9 to 29.3°C. The preoviposition period was determined for several environments but was not linearly related to mean temperature. The duration of the oviposition period, number of eggs laid, and longevity also were determined in several environments.
Direct measurement of additional Ar-H 2 O vibration-rotation-tunneling bands in the millimeter-submillimeter range

Abstract Three new weak bands of the Ar–H2O vibration–rotation-tunneling spectrum have been measured in the millimeter wavelength range. These bands were predicted from combination differences based on previously measured bands in the submillimeter region. Two previously reported submillimeter bands were also remeasured with higher frequency resolution. These new measurements allow us to obtain accurate information on the Coriolis interaction between the 1 01 and 1 10 states. Here we report these results and the associated improved molecular constants.
Analysis of operation methods for 316 cases of intertrochanteric bone fractures

Objective To compare the effect of healing intertrochanteric bone fracture by dynamic hip screw(DHS), anatomic proximal femoral locking plate,proximal femoral nail anti-rotation(PFNA) and artificial joint replacement. Methods 316 cases of patients,who were treated from August 1997 to June 2012,they were divided into DHS group (129 cases),locking plate group(134 cases),PFNA group(48 cases) and artificial joint replacement group(5 cases) according to the treatment methods.Retrospective analysis was carried out.Pre -operation conditions,post -operation weight-bearing time,symphysis time,hip function and complications were compared.Results Patients were followed up 7 to 22 months(average 12 months).There were no statistic differentiation in healing time among the DHS group,locking plate group,PFNA group(P 0.05).Artificial joint replacement group got the highest Harris score(91.7±13.1),and there were significant statistic differentiations comparing to other three groups(P 0.05).PFNA group had better length of incision and inoperative bleeding than other groups,and there were significant statistic differentiations(P 0.05). Conclusion There are a lot of intra-fixation selections for stable fracture.Intramedullary fixation would be the best choice for unstable fracture or severe osteoporotic fracture with intolerant artificial joint replacement.Artificial bipolar joint replacement would be an effective supplementary method for advance age patients with unstable fracture,severe osteoporotic fracture and who can walk pre-operation and tolerate operation.
Design of the life-ring drone delivery system for rip current rescue

Over 40% of the United States population visit the beach each year. For the 10 year period between 2003 and 2012, lifeguards made on average 67,700 rescues per year. Rip currents account for 80% of annual beach rescues and fatalities. When a lifeguard spots the victim, the lifeguards must reach the victim before a mean time of 102 seconds (σ = 30s). This paper presents the design of the Life-ring Delivery Drone System, which delivers life-rings to victims faster than a lifeguard. Once victims have a life-ring, they can survive long enough until the lifeguard reaches them. A stochastic simulation of rip-current victim's location and time-to-drown was used to determine the optimal drone launch location of near a lifeguard tower, and operational range covering one lifeguard section while using a flight path avoiding overhead flight of beach goers. An Analytical Hierarchy Process determined that a tethered life ring is the best flotation device for this application. The drone size-weight-power design space was analyzed with a system dynamics model to determine that an octocopter with a 1000 mm wheelbase, 10.2 kg total weight, using a battery with 20000 mAh energy capacity provided the optimal size, power, and endurance. The Life-ring Delivery Drone System results in a reduction in mean time to reach a victim of 39% (reducing standard deviation by 66%), increasing the probability of a successful rescue from 92.3% to 99.4%.
A repaired S1-R2 and S2-R1 transfer surface

A surface was described which summarized the transfer effects expected in two-list paradigms varying in S1-R2 and S2-R1 similarity when the first-list units were repaired in the second list. According to the surface, negative transfer should increase as S2-R1 similarity increases. This increase should be greater when S1-R2 similarity is high than when it is low.
The Role of Insulin-like Growth Factors and Binding Proteins in Bone Cell Biology

Publisher Summary This chapter dicusses the key components of the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) system in bone, including IGF peptides and receptors, IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs), and IGFBP proteases. The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs: IGF-I, IGF-II) are 7-kDa polypeptides that share structural homology with pro-insulin. The skeleton is a major source of IGF-I and IGF-II through de novo synthesis by bone cells and by virtue of their release from the bony matrix during active skeletal resorption. IGFs can act in an autocrine/paracrine fashion in bone to regulate differentiated cell function. The IGF-I protein is a 70 amino acid single chain peptide and in mice, rats, and humans, the IGF-I gene consists of 6 exons and 5 introns, spanning more than 80 kB of chromosomal DNA. Osteoblast-like (OB) cells in culture express both IGF-I and IGF-II genes under the control of systemic and local factors. Human OB cells produce primarily IGF-II, whereas rodent OB cells produce primarily IGF-I. Transformation of OB cells may alter IGF gene expression, particularly IGF-I. In addition, differences in the state of OB differentiation during in vitro conditions determines the degree of expression and secretion of the IGFs. Skeletal growth factors and cytokines may also regulate IGF expression in osteoblasts. BMP-2 increases IGF-I and II mRNA expression in rat osteoblasts and may be a critical factor in early osteoblast recruitment within the remodeling unit. BMP-7 also has a very potent effect on both IGF-I and II production in bone cells, and antisense oligonucleotides of both IGF-I and II can block BMP-7-induced alkaline phosphatase expression. IL-6 may upregulate IGF-I expression in osteoblasts, while its effect on hepatic expression is the opposite. Prostaglandins regulate IGF expression and produce locally by bone cells, providing a major paracrine regulatory circuit in the skeleton.
Beating Napoleon at Eton: Violence, Sport and Manliness in England's Public Schools, 1783–1815

Despite the popular aphorism that ‘the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton’, historians have been slow to appreciate the value Georgian elites vested in their public schools and public school sport. In fact, the stereotype of these schools as anarchic and pedagogically insignificant still endures. I argue that the schools of this period came to enjoy a growing popularity precisely because of their rough nature. Contemporaries praised the violence of both the dormitories and the playing fields as productive of vigorous future leaders, capable of defending Britain in a world at war. Such rhetoric, I argue, anticipated the late Victorian cults of sport and manliness.
Acute Transverse Myelitis: Causes and Treatment

Clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, management, and course of nine children diagnosed with acute transverse myelitis (ATM) between 1993 and 1996 are reported from the Children’s University Hospital, Wurzburg, Germany.
The Housing Market and the Savings and Loan Associations Crisis: The 1980s

The terms savings and loan associations (S&Ls) or thrifts—the culprits of the savings and loan crisis—refer to financial institutions that specialize in accepting savings deposits and making loans, especially residential mortgages and consumer loans. Not more than 20 percent of their loans can be commercial, and anything over 10 percent has to be small business loans.1 They can be under private ownership or be jointly owned by their depositors, similar to credit unions. In some cases, their shares are tradable.
Fusion center feedback for quasi-decentralized estimation in Sensor Networks

In this paper, a quasi-decentralized estimation framework for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is presented, where a fusion center (FC) collects measurements from nearby sensor nodes (SNs) to track a time-correlated random process. The SNs jointly adapt their data reporting rule based on the estimation quality feedback broadcast by the FC, with the overall objective to minimize the Mean Squared estimation Error at the FC, with a constraint on the sensing/transmission cost of each SN. It is proved that the special structure of the problem allows a sequential decomposition via Dynamic Programming, and that the optimal policy has a threshold structure with respect to the measurement accuracy of each SN. Moreover, owing to the homogeneity of the WSN setting considered, the optimality of symmetric policies is proved, thus enabling a reduction of the action space and of the overall optimization complexity. The numerical results demonstrate that, when the random process exhibits strong time-correlation and the SNs are energy constrained, a non-trivial performance gain is attained by performing adaptation to the estimation quality feedback broadcast by the FC.
The Amin Regime and Political Violence, 1971–1979

On January 25, 1971, a group of soldiers, led by the Army Commander, Major General Amin, toppled the Obote regime. Thereafter, it presented 18 reasons to justify the coup. These included the need to protect and enhance human rights, restore democratic rule and accountability, eradicate nepotism and corruption, address the severe economic underdevelopment, bring about national unity and restore political stability. The coup was, therefore, presented as a genuine attempt by the soldiers to address the severe crisis of legitimacy of the state and the legitimation deficit that resulted from actions and policies of the Obote regime.
A preliminary comparison of two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography and pressure–volume loop analysis in patients with Fontan physiology: The role of ventricular morphology

Objective Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) may be a useful modality for assessing ventricular performance in patients with single ventricle physiology. However, STE's ability to accurately assess ventricular performance in this population is unknown. The objective of this study was to perform a preliminary comparison of STE measures of myocardial deformation to reference standard measures of function derived from pressure–volume loop (PVL) analysis. Design This was a secondary analysis of a prospective study investigating PVLs in patients with Fontan physiology. PVLs were recorded using microconductance catheters. PVL indices included end-systolic elastance (Ees), arterial elastance (Ea), ventriculo-arterial coupling (Ea/Ees), and the isovolumic relaxation time constant (tau). Patients were included if they had an echocardiogram within 1 month of their catheterization. STE was performed retrospectively using vendor independent software. Results Seventeen patients had echocardiograms available for analysis, 12 were right ventricular (RV) dominant. The median age was 8 years (IQR 5–17 years). Circumferential strain (r=−.72, P≤.01) and strain rate (r=−.61, P=.04) correlated with Ea/Ees in those with RV-dominant morphology. Longitudinal strain rate correlated with Ees in those with LV-dominant morphology (r=−.98, P≤.01). Longitudinal EDSR correlated with tau in those with LV-dominant morphology (r=−.90, P=.04). Conclusions In this limited sample, circumferential measures of deformation correlated with PVL measures better in patients with RV morphology, while longitudinal measures correlated better with PVL measures in patients with LV morphology. Further validation and investigation into the clinical usefulness of these measures are warranted.
Why Are Half of Latin Americans Not Online? A Four-Country Study of Reasons for Internet Non-Adoption

This article seeks to advance our understanding of the adoption barriers faced by the 250 million people age 15 and older in Latin America who are not regular Internet users. The data are sourced from large-scale household surveys in four countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. The empirical strategy is based on modeling the probability that nonadopters cite different reasons for nonsubscription and nonuse, conditional on demographic characteristics. In contrast to developed countries, the findings indicate that high costs and limited service availability continue to be key barriers to residential subscription and, to a lesser extent, individual use. However, the findings also suggest that human capital barriers related to lack of ICT skills and content relevance are important determinants of digital exclusion for specific groups, such as older adults and indigenous language speakers. In broader terms, the article corroborates the need to study barriers to Internet adoption in different country contexts and, perhaps more importantly, across socioeconomic groups.
Three-dimensional (3D) tetra-culture brain on chip platform for organophosphate toxicity screening

Organophosphate-based compounds (OPs) represent a significant threat to warfighters (nerve agents) and civilian populations (pesticides). There is a pressing need to develop in vitro brain models that correlate to the in vivo brain to rapidly study OPs for neurotoxicity. Here we report on a microfluidic-based three-dimensional, four-cell tissue construct consisting of 1) a blood-brain barrier that has dynamic flow and membrane-free culture of the endothelial layer, and 2) an extracellular matrix (ECM)-embedded tissue construct with neuroblastoma, microglia, and astrocytes. We demonstrated this platform’s utility by measuring OP effects on barrier integrity, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition, viability and residual OP concentration with four model OPs. The results show that the OPs penetrate the blood brain barrier (BBB) and rapidly inhibit AChE activity, and that in vitro toxicity was correlated with available in vivo data. This paper demonstrates the potential utility of a membrane-free tetra-cultured brain on chip that can be scaled to high throughput as a cost-effective alternative method to animal testing.
Stochastic time-optimal path-planning in uncertain, strong, and dynamic flows

Abstract Accounting for uncertainty in optimal path planning is essential for many applications. We present and apply stochastic level-set partial differential equations that govern the stochastic time-optimal reachability fronts and time-optimal paths for vehicles navigating in uncertain, strong, and dynamic flow fields. To solve these equations efficiently, we obtain and employ their dynamically orthogonal reduced-order projections, maintaining accuracy while achieving several orders of magnitude in computational speed-up when compared to classic Monte Carlo methods. We utilize the new equations to complete stochastic reachability and time-optimal path planning in three test cases: (i) a canonical stochastic steady-front with uncertain flow strength, (ii) a stochastic barotropic quasi-geostrophic double-gyre circulation, and (iii) a stochastic flow past a circular island. For all the three test cases, we analyze the results with a focus on studying the effect of flow uncertainty on the reachability fronts and time-optimal paths, and their probabilistic properties. With the first test case, we demonstrate the approach and verify the accuracy of our solutions by comparing them with the Monte Carlo solutions. With the second, we show that different flow field realizations can result in paths with high spatial dissimilarity but with similar arrival times. With the third, we provide an example where time-optimal path variability can be very high and sensitive to uncertainty in eddy shedding direction downstream of the island.
Random forest estimator for enhances target detection

The important work of improving signal to noise ratios for improved target detection presents one way to improve the target detection process. Dimensionality analysis of the data and the removal of uninteresting data is an effective method for target detection especially since it does not correlate the existing data. The process of deciding whether an anomaly in the data is a target is also an important part of target detection and this process may be just as important as uncovering the target from buried noise through the analysis of high dimensional data sets and the interrelated frequency contents, said in a different way, the noise and clutter removal processing may not always be able to help pull the target out of the high dimensional data enough to be able to detect the target with a simple thresholding approach. In this paper, we utilize the random forest technique to try and improve the decision making process in the detection of targets buried in noise.
The University of Washington Polarized Ion Source

The UW Lamb-shift source1) was installed in March, 1971. Polarization is achieved with the Sona magnetic-field-crossover scheme. Experience gained in operating this ion source during the past four years as well as information obtained from other installations have provided the basis for an extensive redesign completed during the past year. The design effort has been timely in view of the increasing demand for more beam time and intensity at this laboratory.
The face of the future: risk and resilience in minority youth.

About a decade ago, as we moved into a new millennium, demographers and journalists galore noted that the “look” of America was changing. But, not a one of them would have predicted that this new look would be seen so soon in the face of our nation’s President.
Genome-Wide Approaches to Monitor Pre-mRNA Splicing

Pre-mRNA processing is an essential control-point in the gene expression pathway of eukaryotic organisms. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae offers a powerful opportunity to examine the regulation of this pathway. In this chapter, we will describe methods that have been developed in our lab and others to examine pre-mRNA splicing from a genome-wide perspective in yeast. Our goal is to provide all of the necessary information--from microarray design to experimental setup to data analysis--to facilitate the widespread use of this technology.
Quantifying the notions of canalizing and master genes in a gene regulatory network-a Boolean network modeling perspective.

Motivation Canalizing genes enforce broad corrective actions on cellular processes for the purpose of biological robustness maintaining a constant phenotype to remain unchanged in spite of genetic mutations or environmental perturbations. Despite their central role in biological systems, the observation/detection of canalizing genes is often impeded because the behavior of affected genes is highly varied relative to the inactive canalizer. Therefore, the activity of canalizing genes is difficult to predict to any significant degree by their subject genes under normal cell conditions. Results We investigate this question and present a quantitative framework that allows for the estimation of the power of canalizing genes in the context of Boolean Networks (BNs) with perturbation. This framework borrows tools from the Pattern Recognition theory and uses the coefficient of determination (CoD) to capture the capacity of the canalizing genes. The canalizing power (CP) of a gene is quantitatively characterized by two terms: regulation power (RP) and incapacitating power (IP). We base this assumption on the idea that canalizing power of a gene should be quantified by the extent of its regulation on the overall network and the extent of control that the gene takes over from other master genes when it is activated, which is equivalent to reduction of the control of other master genes upon its activation. Following this, the CP concept is illustrated with examples in which the goal is to provide preliminary evidence that CP can be used to characterize the ability of canalizing genes. Availability and implementation A library of functions written in MATLAB for computing CP is available at http://github.com/eunjikim-angie/CanalizingPower.
IQ profiling, autistic traits and social competence in Chinese adults with high-functioning ASD: A comparison between self- and parent-report

Abstract Background and objectives Little research has informed the intellectual profiling of adult ASD population. Besides, current findings on how intelligence level may vary with ASD symptom severity and social competence are mixed due to inconsistent use of parent- and self-report symptom measures. Methods The present study examined the Wechsler intelligence profile of 23 Chinese ASD adults (mean age = 20.09), who are high-functioning (IQ > 70) and without co-morbidity. Results Comparing with the normative sample, adults with ASD showed a Wechsler IQ profile with overall lower intellectual functioning. Scattering between indexes was prevalent. Intelligence level did not correlate with ASD symptomatology in both self-report or parent-report. Conclusions Results did not support a prototypic Wechsler profile among adults with ASD. Intelligence level appears to be an independent construct to features of ASD.
Information Diffusion in Social Networks: Friendship Paradox Based Models and Statistical Inference

Dynamic models and statistical inference for the diffusion of information in social networks is an area which has witnessed remarkable progress in the last decade due to the proliferation of social networks. Modeling and inference of diffusion of information has applications in targeted advertising and marketing, forecasting elections, predicting investor sentiment and identifying epidemic outbreaks. This chapter discusses three important aspects related to information diffusion in social networks: (i) How does observation bias due to the friendship paradox (on average your friends have more friends than you do) and monophilic contagion (influence of friends of friends) affect the information diffusion dynamics? (ii) How can social networks adapt their structural connectivity depending on the state of information diffusion? (iii) How one can estimate the state of the network induced by information diffusion? The motivation for these three topics stems from recent results in network science and social sensing.
Achieving diffraction-limited performance on the Berkeley MET5

Author(s): Miyakawa, R; Anderson, C; Zhu, W; Gaines, G; Gamsby, J; Cork, C; Jones, G; Dickenson, M; Rekawa, S; Chao, W; Oh, S; Naulleau, P | Abstract: The Berkeley MET5, funded by EUREKA, is a 0.5-NA EUV projection lithography tool located at the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley National Lab. Wavefront measurements of the MET5 optic have been performed using a custom in-situ lateral shearing interferometer suitable for high-NA interferometry. In this paper, we report on the most recent characterization of the MET5 optic demonstrating an RMS wavefront 0.31 nm, and discuss the specialized mask patterns, gratings, and illumination geometries that were employed to accommodate the many challenges associated with high-NA EUV interferometry.
FP5 Lessons Learned From the Healthy Schools Healthy Students Project: Strategies to Improve Future Team Nutrition Interventions

Objective To determine the success and challenges encountered when implementing the Healthy Schools, Healthy Students (HSHS) intervention. Description HSHS was a multi-component nutrition intervention targeting 4th grade students focused on improving nutrition knowledge, MyPlate awareness, and fruit and vegetable attitudes and preferences. The project included classroom-based nutrition education, cafeteria coaching with older students, and taste tests with 606 students in 10 schools. Evaluation As part of a larger mixed methods evaluation, we conducted in-depth interviews with project stakeholders and nutrition educators, along with focus groups of cafeteria coaches. We also visited schools to conduct fidelity checks. These data collections sought to determine what worked, what did not work, and what recommendations participants would have for future interventions. While all participants described the project as successful and did not state major implementation challenges, they described ways the intervention could have been improved. Project stakeholders stated that more communication and technical assistance, particularly before the project, would have been helpful. Nutrition educators stated that the lessons had too much content for the allotted time and that some activities (i.e. sing-along songs) were not age appropriate. Cafeteria coaches requested more training and technical assistance. Nutrition lessons were generally implemented as planned, but often did not include all activities, as discussed in the interviews. All schools implemented at least one of the strategies required for the cafeteria coaching component, but differences made comparisons between schools difficult. Conclusions and Implications The process evaluation of the HSHS intervention provides future Team Nutrition grantees and others working to improve school-based interventions with important factors to consider when planning and implementing school-based nutrition education interventions.