cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mercy, Crime Control & Moral Credibility

If, in the criminal justice context, "mercy" is defined as forgoing punishment that is deserved, then much of what passes for mercy is not. Giving only minor punishment to a first-time youthful offender, for example, might be seen as an exercise of mercy but in fact may be simply the application of standard blameworthiness principles, under which the offender's lack of maturity may dramatically reduce his blameworthiness for even a serious offense. Desert is a nuanced and rich concept that takes account of a wide variety of factors. The more a writer misperceives desert as wooden and objective, the more likely the writer is to mistake judgments of blamelessness for exercises of mercy. Should a criminal justice system exercise mercy in its real sense (of giving an offender less punishment than he deserves, using a fully nuanced and rich account of desert)? One can imagine enormous benefits to the exercise of mercy by individuals in their personal dealings with others. A tendency toward mercy seems an admirable personal trait. However, it does not follow that mercy would be a desirable practice for a criminal justice system. Our strong interest in equality of treatment of like offenders and offenses suggests that mercy, if used, would need to be regularized in its application; punishment ought not depend upon the tendency toward mercy, or lack thereof, of the particular decisionmaker in the case at hand. But to institutionalize mercy is to create an expectation and right to it that may be inconsistent with its fundamental character of giving a relief or mitigation from punishment to which an offender is not entitled. Further, one can imagine serious effects detrimental to the effective operation of the criminal justice system were mercy to be institutionalized. Classic arguments against it would cite its effect in undermining deterrence and the incapacitation of dangerous offenders. While some of us might find these arguments unpersuasive, even the desert advocate would have reason to be concerned. A "mercy program" would seem to similarly undermine both deotological and empirical desert, failing to do justice both as moral philosophers and as the community's shared intuitions of justice would assess it. On the other hand, what if it were determined – as recent research suggests – that community intuitions tend to support some exercise of what might be seen as mercy? If one sought to distribute criminal liability and punishment in a way to maximized the criminal law's moral credibility, might such evidence of principles of mercy shared by the community suggest that such principles ought to be instantiated in law?
Are there halo effects of US grain export promotion

The objective of the research reported in this article is to examine both the own and cross effects of US export promotion for US and non-US grains. We focus on two previously neglected dimensions of the cross effects. First, we examine whether a halo effect (i.e. promotion for one US commodity positively effects demand for another US commodity) for US commodities exists. Second, we look at whether US grain export promotion has public goods characteristics, that is does US grain promotion have a halo effect on grain demand for other countries? We use a Linear Approximation of an Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS) model for US and non-US rice, wheat and sorghum that include US export promotion as one of the explanatory variables. Our goal is to provide further empirical evidence for the halo effect issue by using US grains as a case study since this sector has not been previously explored. In addition to estimating own and cross export promotion elasticities, the magnitude of cross effects on US market s...
A Technique for Simulating the Stength of Kevlar 29 Yarn in a Woven Configuration

To obtain maximum yarn strength translational efficiency in Kevlar 29 parachute webbings, the pick frequency must be reduced to the extent that the structure is too loose to be useable. As a result only modest efficicncy has been achieved in Kevlar 29 webbings. It has been shown that only part of the strength decrease is caused by the weaving process; hence, warp and fill yarn interaction during loading contribute to the loss in efficiency.A test fixture was developed to measure the strength of a yarn sample threaded through a series of wires or yarns. This enabled the effect of warp twist and ply on warp strength to be easily and quickly determined under simulated crimp conditions. It was found that yarn strength decreases with decreasing pick spacing in the fixture, as is observed in woven fabrics, and the magnitude of strength decrease varies with yarn twist. optimum fabric strength was predicted to occur at lower warp-twist levels than those established using conventional yarn tests. Comparisons were ...
Two-degree-of-freedom control with robust feedback control for hard disk servo systems

A two-degree-of freedom (2 DOF) control structure is proposed for read/write head servo systems of hard disk drives (HDDs). This structure is applied to both track seeking and track following, and makes mode switches found in conventional HDD servo systems unnecessary. Two innovative features introduced in the paper are: 1) a new method for generating the reference signal for track seeking and 2) two robust feedback control schemes for rejection of disturbances; one scheme uses a disturbance observer (DOB), and the other uses adaptive robust control (ARC). Simulation results show that the 2 DOF structure with ARC provides better performance than either the conventional servo system with mode switches or the 2 DOF structure with DOB. Experimental results show the advantage of the new reference generation method and the use of the DOB-based robust controller.
Optimal Trees for Functions of Internal Distance

The sum of distances between vertices of a tree has been considered from many aspects. The question of characterizing the extremal trees that maximize or minimize various such “distance-based” graph invariants has been extensively studied. Such invariants include, to name a few, the sum of distances between all pairs of vertices and the sum of distances between all pairs of leaves. With respect to the distances between internal vertices, we provide analogous results that characterize the extremal trees that minimize the value of any nonnegative and nondecreasing function of internal distances among trees with various constraints.
“I Really Don't Know What He Meant by That”: How Well Do Engineering Students Understand Teachers' Comments on Their Writing?

Text-based interviews that compared the teacher's intention for a given comment on an engineering student's paper with the student's understanding of the comment were used to examine the extent to which students understand the comments they receive and to determine the characteristics of comments that are well understood and those that are not. The teachers' comments analyzed in this study were fully understood only about half the time. Inclusion of a reason or explicit instructions helped students understand the comments.
Reduced support vector machines applied to real-time face tracking

The paper presents the implementation of a real-time face tracker to study the integration of support vector machines (SVM) classifiers into a visual real-time tracking architecture. Face tracking has a large number of applications, especially in the fields of surveillance and human-computer interaction, which requires real-time performance. Even though SVM have previously been applied to face detection, their use in real-time applications is a challenge due to the computational cost implied in the SVM's evaluation stage. We address this problem by reducing the number of support vectors with almost no loss in accuracy of the classifier. Experiments showed that classification performed by the original SVM without reducing the number of support vectors took 42% of the total computation time of the face tracker and less than 2% after the reduction was performed.
A REVERSE FLOW THEOREM AND ACOUSTIC RECIPROCITY IN COMPRESSIBLE POTENTIAL FLOWS IN DUCTS

A reverse flow theorem for acoustic propagation in compressible potential flow has been obtained directly from the field equations without recourse to energy conservation arguments. A reciprocity theorem for the scattering matrix for the propagation of acoustic modes in a duct with either acoustically rigid walls or acoustically absorbing walls follows. It is found that for a source at a specific end of the duct, suitably scaled reflection matrices in direct and reverse flow have a reciprocal relationship. Scaled transmission matrices obtained for direct flow and reversed flow with simultaneous switching of source location from one end to the other also have a reciprocal relationship. A related reverse flow theorem specialized to one-dimensional acoustic propagation has also been obtained. Reciprocity relationships for the scattering coefficients for propagation are derived, and are found to be similar though much simpler than in the case of multi-mode propagation. In one-dimensional flow, reciprocal relations and power conservation arguments are used to show that scaled power reflection and transmission coefficients are invariant to flow reversal and switching of source location from one end of the duct to the other. Numerical verification of the reciprocal relationships is given in a companion paper.
The π-Injector: A New Electrokinetic Dispensing Element for Microdevice Separations

We have developed a new electrokinetic injector for microfabricated separation devices that reduces the total number of reservoirs per channel from four to three while still allowing control of the plug size. Sample is introduced through two parallel channels, with the plug length determined by the distance between the channels. The π-injector is a straightforward solution to achieving increased channel densities in high-performance array devices.
Development and Maintenance of Otoconia

: The first part of this review deals with recent advances in the understanding of biochemical mechanisms of otoconial morphogenesis. Most important in this regard is the molecular characterization of otoconin 90, the principal matrix protein of mammalian calcitic otoconia, which was found to be a homologue of the phospholytic enzyme PLA2. The unique and unexpected expression pattern of this protein required radical rethinking of traditional concepts. The new data, when integrated with existing information, provide a rational basis for an explanation of the mechanisms leading to crystal nucleation and growth. Based on this information, a hypothetical model is presented that posits interaction of otoconin 90 with microvesicles derived from the supporting cells as a key event in the formation of otoconia. The second part of the review is directed at the controversial subject of maintenance of mature otoconia and systematically analyzes the available indirect information on this topic. A synthesis of these theoretical considerations is viewed in relation to the pathogenesis of the important otoneurologic entities of BPPN and senile otoconial degeneration. The last part of the review deals with several animal models that promise to help elucidate normal and abnormal mechanisms of otoconial morphogenesis, including mineral deficiencies, mutations with selective otoconial agenesis, as well as targeted disruption of essential genes.
Use of parenteral colistin for the treatment of serious infection due to antimicrobial-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Serious infection due to strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that exhibit resistance to all common antipseudomonal antimicrobials increasingly is a serious problem. Colistin was used as salvage therapy for 23 critically ill patients with multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa infection. Twenty-two patients who had septic shock (n=14) and/or renal failure (n=21) received mechanical ventilatory support at baseline. The most common types of infection were pneumonia (n=18) and intra-abdominal infection (n=5). Colistin was administered for a median of 17 days (range, 7-36 days). Seven patients died during therapy, at a median of 17 days (range, 4-26 days) after initiation of treatment. A favorable clinical response was observed in 14 patients (61%); only 3 patients experienced relapse. Bacteremia was the only significant factor associated with treatment failure (P=.02). One patient manifested diffuse weakness that resolved after temporary cessation of colistin therapy. Colistin provides an important salvage therapeutic option for patients with otherwise untreatable serious P. aeruginosa infection.
Adaptive Control for Grasping and Manipulation of Compliant Objects with Compliant Fingerpads

The role of an adaptive controller in grasping and manipulation tasks is discussed. The general problem of contact between two deformable bodies leads to a spatio-temporal analysis. This problem is simplified by adopting single degree-of-freedom lumped parameter models, thus reducing the variables to be purely temporal. The fingers as well as the object are assumed to deform only in the horizontal direction, defined as x. In the y and z directions, with z being positive opposite to the direction of gravity, the fingers and the object behave as rigid bodies. The aim is to be able to hold a compliant object with unknown dynamic parameters in a two-finger pinch grasp and move it along any desired path in a three-dimensional, gravity environment while ensuring that the object does not slip or get crushed.
Recombination Occurs Uniformly within the bronze Gene, a Meiotic Recombination Hotspot in the Maize Genome

The bronze (bz) gene is a recombinational hotspot in the maize genome: its level of meiotic recombination per unit of physical length is > 100-fold higher than the genome9s average and is the highest of any plant gene analyzed to date. Here, we examine whether recombination is also unevenly distributed within the bz gene. In yeast genes, recombination (conversion) is polarized, being higher at the end of the gene where recombination is presumably initiated. We have analyzed products of meiotic recombination between heteroallelic pairs of bz mutations in both the presence and absence of heterologies and have sequenced the recombination junction in 130 such Bz intragenic recombinants. We have found that in the absence of heterologies, recombination is proportional to physical distance across the bz gene. The simplest interpretation for this lack of polarity is that recombination is initiated randomly within the gene. Insertion mutations affect the frequency and distribution of intragenic recombination events at bz, creating hotspots and coldspots. Single base pair heterologies also affect recombination, with fewer recombination events than expected by chance occurring in regions of the bz gene with a high density of heterologies. We also provide evidence that meiotic recombination in maize is conservative, that is, it does not introduce changes, and that meiotic conversion tracts are continuous and similar in size to those in yeast.
THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN ON PULSED LASER DEPOSITION OF AMORPHOUS SILICON CARBIDE FILMS : PROPERTIES AND STRUCTURE

The influence of nitrogen on amorphous silicon carbide films deposited at room temperature using pulsed laser ablation has been investigated. Depositions were carried out either in ultrahigh vacuum or in a nitrogen ambient ranging from 10 to 100 mT. The mechanical and optical properties, as well as composition and structure of the resulting films, were evaluated using a variety of analytical techniques. Vacuum-deposited films, exhibited high hardness but suffered from high compressive stresses ({approx_gt}1 GPa). At low nitrogen background pressures ({lt}30 mT), films with an optimum balance between hardness ({approximately}16 GPa), adhesion, and intrinsic stress ({lt}220 MPa) were found, making them ideal candidates for protective coating applications. As nitrogen pressure was increased, mechanical performance degraded due to the increasing amount of SiO{sub 2} found in the films as evidenced by spectroscopic ellipsometry, infrared spectroscopy, and Auger electron spectroscopy measurements. The source of oxygen is attributed to residual water vapor present in our vacuum system. Optical emission spectroscopy was used to confirm the presence of Si{endash}O species in the laser-induced plasma plume. {copyright} {ital 1996 Materials Research Society.}
Femtosecond Time-Resolved Optical and Raman Spectroscopy of Photoinduced Spin Crossover: Temporal Resolution of Low-to-High Spin Optical Switching

A combination of femtosecond electronic absorption and stimulated Raman spectroscopies has been employed to determine the kinetics associated with low-spin to high-spin conversion following charge-transfer excitation of a FeII spin-crossover system in solution. A time constant of τ = 190 ± 50 fs for the formation of the 5T2 ligand-field state was assigned based on the establishment of two isosbestic points in the ultraviolet in conjunction with changes in ligand stretching frequencies and Raman scattering amplitudes; additional dynamics observed in both the electronic and vibrational spectra further indicate that vibrational relaxation in the high-spin state occurs with a time constant of ca. 10 ps. The results set an important precedent for extremely rapid, formally forbidden (ΔS = 2) nonradiative relaxation as well as defining the time scale for intramolecular optical switching between two electronic states possessing vastly different spectroscopic, geometric, and magnetic properties.
The immunoglobulin heavy-chain enhancer functions as the promoter for I mu sterile transcription.

The authors demonstrate that the immunoglobulin heavy-chain enhancer functions as the promoter for I{mu} sterile transcription. The enhancer itself, when placed 5{prime} to the bacterial {ital cat} or {ital neo} genes, is able to direct transcription by using heterogeneous start sites that are generally the same as those found with bona fide I{mu} transcripts. In general, promoter activity is dependent on the same sequence motifs important for enhancer activity. However, it appears that a mutation within the conserved octanucleotide ATTTGCAT has a much more severe effect on the promoter activity of the enhancer than the same mutation has on its enhancer activity. This result is consistent with the known role of the octanucleotide as a promoter element, and this is discussed in relation to the biological role of sterile transcription.
Analytical modeling of contaminant transport through vadose and saturated soil zones

Screening level analyses for risk-based corrective actions and preliminary remediation investigations and feasibility studies for contaminated sites require simple and conservative models for the transport of contaminants to potential receptor locations. A quasi-analytical method is presented to analyze the transport of contaminants originating at a source located near the ground surface separated from the water table by a relatively thick vadose zone. The method includes one segment to compute source decay rate, a second to simulate vertical transport through the vadose zone, and a third to simulate saturated zone transport to the receptor. Practical application of the method is demonstrated by an illustrative example. The method may be useful and convenient for situations where the objectives of the analysis do not warrant the use of sophisticated numerical models.
New boraginales from tropical America 5 : New names and typifications for neotropical species of cordia and varronia

ABSTRACT Typifications and new combinations are provided for Boraginaceae from the Mesoamerica region in advance of the treatment for Flora Mesoamericana. In addition, the recognition of the genus Varronia P. Browne as separate from Cordia L. requires new names for various species to be treated in several floristic projects. Cordia skutchii I. M. Johnston is lectotypified, V. tarodaea J. S. Miller is a new name presented for C. longifolia A. DC., and the following new combinations are made: V. andreana (J. Estrada) J. S. Miller, V. buddleoides (Rusby) J. S. Miller, V. bullulata (Killip ex J. Estrada & Garcia-Barriga) J. S. Miller, V. dardani (Taroda) J. S. Miller, V. eggersii (K. Krause) J. S. Miller, V. guanacastensis (Standley) J. S. Miller, V. guaranitica (Chodat & Hassler) J. S. Miller, V. harleyi (Taroda) J. S. Miller, V. intonsa (I. M. Johnston) J. S. Miller, V. lauta (I. M. Johnston) J. S. Miller, V. leucocephala (Moricand) J. S. Miller, V. leucomalloides (Taroda) J. S. Miller, V. linnaei (Stearn) ...
Two-state Bogoliubov theory of a molecular Bose gas

We present an analytic Bogoliubov description of a Bose-Einstein condensate of polar molecules trapped in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry and interacting via internal state-dependent dipole-dipole interactions. We derive the mean-field ground-state energy functional, and we derive analytic expressions for the dispersion relations, Bogoliubov amplitudes, and static structure factors. This method can be applied to any homogeneous, two-component system with linear coupling and direct, momentum-dependent interactions. The properties of the mean-field ground state, including polarization and stability, are investigated, and we identify three distinct instabilities: a density-wave rotonization that occurs when the gas is fully polarized, a spin-wave rotonization that occurs near zero polarization, and a mixed instability at intermediate fields. The nature of these instabilities is clarified by means of the real-space density-density correlation functions, which characterize the spontaneous fluctuations of the ground state, and the momentum-space structure factors, which characterize the response of the system to external perturbations. We find that the gas is susceptible to both density-wave and spin-wave responses in the polarized limit but only a spin-wave response in the zero-polarization limit. These results are relevant for experiments with rigid rotor molecules such as RbCs, $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-doublet molecules such as ThO that have an anomalously small zero-field splitting, and doublet-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}$ molecules such as SrF where two low-lying opposite-parity states can be tuned to zero splitting by an external magnetic field.
BORDERLINE PHYLLODES TUMOUR

We report a case of 40-year-old woman with a painful lump in the left breast. Mammography revealed a suspicious mass ACR BI-RADS category 4a. Excision biopsy revealed borderline phyllodes tumour. Our case highlights the signi cance of multidisciplinary approach in managing benign breast masses such as phyllodes tumours which have malignant potential and a high rate of recurrence. Key words: Breast ultrasound, mammography, phyllodes breast tumour
The time of Planting Corn as a Factor in Corn-Ear Worm Control

Experiments which have been under way at the Kansas Station for ten years show that there is a definite relation between the date of planting corn and injury by corn-ear worm, Heliothis obsolete Fabr., As a rule, the date of minimum car worm injury and maximum yields coincide. The problem has been studied from several angles and these are discussed briefly in this paper.
PS-172 Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D In Relation To Lung Function And Exhaled Nitric Oxide In Children

Background and aims There is increasing evidence that vitamin D plays a role in lung diseases, but it is not clear whether vitamin D is related to lung function and airway inflammation. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of vitamin D status with lung function and fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in a population sample of children. Methods 1,315 children aged 5–18 years were evaluated using serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels, spirometry, a single-breath online FeNO measurement, and questionnaires. Results After adjusting for confounders, the mean FVC was 53.7 mL (SE, 26.6 mL; p = 0.043) and the mean FEV 1 was 48.6 mL (SE, 23.6 mL; p = 0.040) lower for children with insufficient serum 25(OH)D levels (20–29.9 ng/mL) compared with those with sufficient 25(OH)D levels (≥30 ng/mL). The mean difference between children with deficient ( 1 . There was no significant association between serum 25 (OH)D levels and FeNO after adjusting for confounders. Conclusions Our results demonstrate new evidence for a significant relationship between insufficient serum vitamin D levels and worse lung function in children in the community with a suggested dose-response effect. Our findings also suggest that vitamin D status is not a significant determinant of FeNO in children in the general population.
Yoda: a highly available layer-7 load balancer

Layer-7 load balancing is a foundational building block of online services. The lack of offerings from major public cloud providers have left online services to build their own load balancers (LB), or use third-party LB design such as HAProxy. The key problem with such proxy-based design is each proxy instance is a single point of failure, as upon its failure, the TCP flow state for the connections with the client and server is lost which breaks the user flows. This significantly affects user experience and online services revenue. In this paper, we present Yoda, a highly available, scalable and low-latency L7-LB-as-a-service in a public cloud. Yoda is based on two design principles we propose for achieving high availability of a L7 LB: decoupling the flow state from the LB instances and storing it in a persistent storage, and leveraging the L4 LB service to enable each L7 LB instance to use the virtual IP in interacting with both the client and the server (called front-and-back indirection). Our evaluation of Yoda prototype on a 60-VM testbed in Windows Azure shows the overhead of decoupling TCP state into a persistent storage is very low (oda maintains all flows during LB instance failures, addition, removal, as well as user policy updates. Our simulation driven by a one-day trace from production online services show that compared to using Yoda by each tenant, Yoda-as-a-service reduces L7 LB instance cost for the tenants by 3.7x while providing 4x more redundancy.
Informatics-based challenges of building collaborative healthcare research and analysis networks from rural community health centers

We discuss informatics-based challenges of constructing large-scale collaborative networks for healthcare research and analysis from rural community health centers. These types of networks provide data access and analytic insights across multiple heterogeneous health centers for both healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers. Challenges fall into three general categories: data access, data integration, and technical infrastructure. Data access issues arise in balancing patient privacy, security, and utility; data integration issues persist from each site independently operating its desired electronic medical record; technical infrastructure challenges include creating an analysis and reporting hub capable of scaling across a large collaborative network. Other challenges, such as the difficulty of site recruitment, are important to discuss, but cannot be solved directly through informatics alone. We discuss these challenges and their potential solutions in the context of our implementation of the Kentucky Diabetes and Obesity Collaborative (KDOC). KDOC is a network of Federally-Qualified Community Health Centers (FQHCs) that established a collaborative infrastructure for research and analysis of obesity and diabetes in rural and under-served communities.
Food Recovery Program at Farmers’ Markets Increases Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for Food Insecure Individuals

ABSTRACTFood recovery programs are an increasingly popular method to decrease the amount of food waste in the United States while increasing healthy food access for food insecure individuals. One such program is the Heartside Gleaning Initiative that began in 2014 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The program partners with low-income volunteers to collect fresh produce from farmers’ markets for redistribution. From June to October 2014, 17,000 pounds of fresh produce was provided to low-income individuals and food pantries. A survey of participants indicated high usage of the produce and high satisfaction with the gleaning program. This program confirms that gleaning is a viable method of reducing barriers to accessing produce for food pantries and food insecure individuals.
The Lone Ranger in Rural Education: The Small Rural School Principal and Professional Development

A pressing need on principals and their demands for personal professional development is improving their performance based on evaluation policy standards. State policy standards dictate how principals evaluate teachers and how they are evaluated. Surveying rural principals we investigated the current understanding of state standards and needs for professional development. Rural districts in Utah are remote and isolated. This research highlighted that within Utah rural schools, small school principals have different needs and practices when compared to medium sized rural school principals. Small school principals reported having spent two hours less in collaborating with and mentoring their teachers than did medium school principals. Small school principals also spent less time collaborating with other principals. Based on these results, we recommend that district and state administrators and policy makers target small school principals to provide the needed professional development to assist them in an already isolated and overloaded position.
Measurement of active TGF-beta generated by cultured cells.

Since its original identification and isolation nearly 20 years ago, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF ) has been extensively investigated with respect to its ability to induce and modulate numerous physiological responses in vitro and in vivo. However, attempts to analyze and identify the signal transduction pathway(s) utilized by TGF were, for the most part, fruitless and remained elusive until the last decade when the molecule began to emerge from its black box. The isolation and identification of the TGF receptors, as well as the intracellular mediatory SMAD proteins, have allowed for the biochemical characerization of at least some of the pathways involved in TGF signaling. As a result, many new methodologies and techniques are applicable to the study of TGF that until recently were a luxury reserved only for other growth factors and cytokines. It is our aim in Transforming Growth Factor-Beta Protocols to encompass both old and new methodologies into a concise, selfcontained volume allowing both experts and novices a benchside reference. The authors contributing the various chapters are all experts in their field and they routinely perform the methodologies described. I thank them for their time and effort. We hope that this protocol manual will become torn and tattered from its frequent use on laboratory bench tops.
Assessment of solubility and viscosity of ultra-high molecular weight polymeric thickeners in ethane, propane and butane for miscible EOR

Abstract Natural gas liquid (NGL), a mixture consisting primarily of ethane, propane, and butane, is an excellent enhanced oil recovery (EOR) solvent. However, NGL is typically about ten times less viscous than the crude oil within the carbonate or sandstone porous media, which causes the NGL to finger through the rock toward production wells resulting in low volumetric sweep efficiency in five-spot patterns or during a linear drive displacement. The viscosity of candidate polymeric NGL thickeners is measured with a windowed, close-clearance falling ball viscometer, and an expression for the average shear rate associated with this type of viscometer is derived. High molecular weight polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS, M w 9.8 10 5 ) can thicken ethane, propane and butane, but the viscosity enhancement is very modest (e.g. a doubling of butane viscosity with 2% PDMS at 7 MPa and 25 °C), making field application of PDMS unlikely. A dilute concentration of a drag-reducing agent (DRA) poly-α-olefin that has an average molecular weight greater than 2.0 10 7 is more promising as a potential thickener for liquid butane, liquid propane and liquid or supercritical ethane. The DRA polymer, which is introduced as an extremely viscous 1% or 2% solution in hexane, is soluble in butane and propane at 25–60 °C and concentrations up to at least 0.5 wt% at pressures slightly above the vapor pressure of butane or propane. The DRA polymer is much more difficult to dissolve in ethane, however, requiring pressures of more than 20 MPa. The DRA polymer is especially effective for thickening butane (e.g. a 4.8-fold viscosity increase at 25 °C, 55.16 MPa and 0.2 wt% DRA). The DRA is less effective for increasing propane viscosity (e.g. a 2.3-fold viscosity increase at the same conditions), and even less effective for thickening ethane. In general, viscosity enhancement increases with decreasing temperature, increasing pressure, and an increase in the carbon number of the light alkane, which are reflective of increased NGL solvent strength at low temperature and high pressure. Practical application of DRA during EOR may be hindered, however, by the relatively high concentration (~5000 ppm) of DRA polymer required for order-of-magnitude viscosity increases, very high pressure requirements for DRA dissolution if the ethane content of the NGL is high, and the large amount of hexane that would have to be introduced if the DRA polymer if it is introduced as a solution in hexane.
Adrenal Hemorrhage in the Newborn with Evidence of Bleeding While in Utero

AbstractA case is reported of bilateral hemorrhagic adrenal cysts in a newborn. Evaluation of the patient included x-rays of the abddren, excretory urography, retrograde pyelography and sonography. The presence of a faint calcification in the region of the right adrenal at birth and further progression of calcification in the same area suggest that some initial bleeding occurred in utero.
New Product Diffusion: The Role of Sentiment Content

The current study is focusing on diffusion and adoption of new digital artifacts. The goal is to explore the social role of user-generated content (UGC) during the diffusion process of digital products in the context of online social networks. Data collection is conducted on 154 new digital products during a two-year timeframe. Results of the study provide a deeper insight into the influence of textual UGC sentiment on new product diffusion and how such a web system (i.e.: online social networks) can help to enable a process of value co-creation. The overall finding shows that Volume of Post and UGC Sentiment have a dynamic impact on Diffusion (Adoption Rate) of digital products.The study sheds light on the crowding power and the long-tail effect in online social networks. Findings also offer valuable implications for organizations to set up their strategic vision in terms of digital marketing, customer relationship management, and information dissemination.
The US Food and Drug Administration and Cardiovascular Medicine: Reflections and Observations.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a remarkable hybrid. Part regulatory agency, part public health agency, it sits at the intersection of science, law, and public policy. The FDA’s mission can be considered in the context of 2 broad dimensions: the products it regulates and its core functions. Both fall under the rubric of protecting and promoting the public health. The FDA’s remit is both broad and diverse: altogether, the agency has regulatory responsibility for >20% of the US economy. The products it is charged with overseeing through its various centers1 encompass food and cosmetics (regulated by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition); food and drugs for animals, including companion animals and animals used for food (regulated by the Center for Veterinary Medicine); and medical devices, drugs, and biologics (regulated by the Centers for Devices and Radiological Health, Drug Evaluation and Research, and Biologics Evaluation and Research, respectively). Tobacco products were added to the FDA’s portfolio by the Tobacco Control Act of 2009, and are overseen by the Center for Tobacco Products. Regardless of the specific product regulated, the FDA’s core mission remains the same: to protect the US population by helping to ensure the fundamental safety of the food Americans consume and the medical products prescribed by their clinicians. At the same time, this primary mission is complemented by a mandate to promote the public health by reviewing research and taking appropriate action on the marketing of regulated products in a timely manner. Not only do people need access to advances in nutrition and medical therapies, but also the American spirit is itself characterized by a strong current of scientific and technological innovation. At first glance, differences in these 2 priorities, protecting the public safety and promoting the public health through encouraging innovation, might …
Analysis of Rear-End Events on Congested Freeways by Using Video-Recorded Shock Waves:

Rear-end crashes on congested freeways are among the most frequently occurring capacity-reducing incidents. Empirical evidence suggests that freeway rear-end crashes tend to occur when stopping shock waves form on freeways. To understand the occurrence of such incidents, this study determined conditions by which a stopping wave results in a rear-end crash. Reviewing the existing literature on rear-end crash mechanisms, the study first established a sufficient condition for a shock wave to produce a rear-end crash and then verified it by using video recordings of 41 shock waves, including five resulting in rear-end crashes, on Interstate I-94 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For each shock wave, key kinematic features of the involved drivers, including initial speeds, following headway, average decelerations, and reaction times, were estimated. The proposed crash condition successfully distinguished between successful brake-to-stop events and rear-end crashes. Detailed analysis of two rear-end crashes illustrate...
Genetic Causes of Human NK Cell Deficiency and Their Effect on NK Cell Subsets.

Human NK cells play critical roles in human host defense, particularly the control of viral infection and malignancy, and patients with congenital immunodeficiency affecting NK cell function or number can suffer from severe illness. The importance of NK cell function is particularly underscored in patients with primary immunodeficiency in which NK cells are the primary or sole affected population (NK cell deficiency, NKD). While NKD may lead to the absence of NK cells, we are also gaining an increasing appreciation of the effect that NKD may have on the generation of specific NK cell subsets. In turn, this leads to improved insights into the requirement for human NK cell subset generation, as well as their importance in immune homeostasis. The presence of inherently abnormally developed or functionally impaired NK cells, in particular, appears to be problematic in the way of interfering with normal human host defense and may be more important than low numbers of NK cells alone. Here we review the known genetic causes of NKD and the insight that is derived by these into the requirements for human subset generation and, by extension, for NK cell-mediated immunity.
Intraocular Hemorrhages and Retinopathy of Prematurity in the Telemedicine Approaches to Evaluating Acute-Phase Retinopathy of Prematurity (e-ROP) Study.

Purpose To describe the clinical characteristics of intraocular hemorrhages (IOHs) in infants in the Telemedicine Approaches to Evaluating Acute-Phase Retinopathy of Prematurity (e-ROP) Study and to evaluate their potential use for prediction of disease severity. Design Secondary data analysis from a prospective study. Participants Preterm infants with birth weight (BW) ≤1250 g. Methods Infants underwent serial digital retinal imaging in both eyes starting at 32 weeks' postmenstrual age. Nonphysician trained readers (TRs) evaluated all image sets from eyes that ever had IOHs documented on image evaluation or eye examination for the presence, location, type, area, and relation of the IOH to the junction between vascularized and avascular retina. Associations of IOH with demographic and neonatal factors, and with the presence and severity of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) were investigated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Sensitivity and specificity of the telemedicine system for detecting referral-warranted ROP (RW-ROP) were calculated with and without incorporating hemorrhage into the standardized grading protocol. Main Outcome Measures Retinal and vitreous hemorrhage. Results Among 1239 infants (mean [standard deviation] BW = 864 [212] g; gestational age [GA] = 27 [2.2] weeks) who underwent an average of 3.2 imaging sessions, 22% had an IOH in an eye on at least 1 of the e-ROP visits. Classification of IOH was preretinal (57%), blot (57%), dot (38%), flame-shaped (16%), and vitreous (8%); most IOHs were unilateral (70%). The IOH resolved in 35% of eyes by the next imaging session and in the majority (76%) of cases by 8 weeks after initial detection. Presence of IOH was inversely associated with BW and GA and significantly associated ( P Conclusions Approximately 1 in 5 preterm infants examined had IOHs, generally unilateral. The presence of hemorrhage was directly correlated with both presence and severity of ROP and inversely correlated with BW and GA, although including hemorrhage in the grading algorithm only minimally improved the sensitivity of the telemedicine system to detect RW-ROP.
Fire Resistivity and Toxicity Studies of Candidate Aircraft Passenger Seat Materials

A systematic approach is presented for selecting improved fire resistant non-metallic materials for the construction of aircraft passenger seats. Sixty-nine candidate materials were evaluated on th...
A Genome-Wide Loss-of-Function Screen Identifies SLC26A2 as a Novel Mediator of TRAIL Resistance

TRAIL is a potent death-inducing ligand that mediates apoptosis through the extrinsic pathway and serves as an important endogenous tumor suppressor mechanism. Because tumor cells are often killed by TRAIL and normal cells are not, drugs that activate the TRAIL pathway have been thought to have potential clinical value. However, to date, most TRAIL-related clinical trials have largely failed due to the tumor cells having intrinsic or acquired resistance to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Previous studies to identify resistance mechanisms have focused on targeted analysis of the canonical apoptosis pathway and other known regulators of TRAIL receptor signaling. To identify novel mechanisms of TRAIL resistance in an unbiased way, we performed a genome-wide shRNA screen for genes that regulate TRAIL sensitivity in sublines that had been selected for acquired TRAIL resistance. This screen identified previously unknown mediators of TRAIL resistance including angiotensin II receptor 2, Crk-like protein, T-Box Transcription Factor 2, and solute carrier family 26 member 2 (SLC26A2). SLC26A2 downregulates the TRAIL receptors, DR4 and DR5, and this downregulation is associated with resistance to TRAIL. Its expression is high in numerous tumor types compared with normal cells, and in breast cancer, SLC26A2 is associated with a significant decrease in relapse-free survival. Implication: Our results shed light on novel resistance mechanisms that could affect the efficacy of TRAIL agonist therapies and highlight the possibility of using these proteins as biomarkers to identify TRAIL-resistant tumors, or as potential therapeutic targets in combination with TRAIL. Mol Cancer Res; 15(4); 382–94. ©2017 AACR .
Persistent sacral chloroma in refractory acute myelogenous leukaemia

Acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) is a clonal process involving the myeloid subgroup of white blood cells. Chloromas, or myeloid sarcomas, are masses of myeloid leukaemic cells and are a unique aspect of AML. This case involves a 14-year-old boy with AML who presented with multiple chloromas at diagnosis. The patient’s extra-calvarial masses and bone marrow involvement responded to chemotherapy; however, his sacral epidural chloromas persisted despite four courses of chemotherapy. The central nervous system, bone marrow and testes have been known to be sanctuary sites for AML. This case illustrates that the sacral spinal canal may potentially be a sanctuary site for the disease process also.
Computation of the search direction in constrained optimization algorithms

Several algorithms for constrained optimization are based on the idea of choosing the search direction as the solution of a quadratic program (QP). However, there is considerable variation in the precise nature of the quadratic program to be solved. Furthermore, significant differences exist in the procedures advocated to ensure that the search direction is well defined, and some algorithms abandom the quadratic programming approach for particular iterations under certain conditions. In this paper, we discuss some crucial differences in formulation and solution that arise in QP-based methods for linearly constrained and nonlinearly constrained optimization, with particular emphasis on the treatment of inequality constraints. For linearly constrained problems, we consider the effect of formulating the constraints of the QP sub-problem as equalities or inequalities. In the case of nonlinear constraints, the issues to be discussed include incompatibility or ill-conditioning of the constraints, determination of the active set, Lagrange multiplier estimates, and approximation of the Lagrangian function.
The Current Status and Future Role of the Phosphoinositide 3 Kinase/AKT Signaling Pathway in Urothelial Cancer: An Old Pathway in the New Immunotherapy Era.

Abstract The phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is a well studied signaling pathway that regulates diverse cellular functions including proliferation, metabolism, and transcription. Aberrant activation of this pathway has been implicated in multiple cancers. Genomic studies have shown that activating mutations in oncogenes as well as inactivating mutations in tumor suppressor genes are present across a variety of malignancies, including urothelial carcinoma. In bladder cancer, up to 40% of tumors exhibit constitutive activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Current treatments for non–muscle-invasive disease confer a 5-year cancer-specific survival rate as high as 90%. However, patients with muscle-invasive, recurrent, or metastatic disease have a poor prognosis. Although the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors is certainly changing the therapeutic landscape and is a great addition to the platinum-based therapy that was the standard of care for the past 3 decades, it is anticipated that a great number of patients would fail to respond or their disease would progress with either chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Therefore, the use of agents that target members of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway represent an attractive, alternative therapeutic strategy for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma. In this review we describe the pathway, with a focus on the rationale for targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma and considers the challenges that we face from the current clinical trials. Novel agents such as PI3K inhibitors and microRNA inhibitors that target this pathway might lead to durable responses especially when used in combination with chemotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors, however, toxicity remains an obstacle. Finally, in this review we discuss the importance of developing biomarkers to help select appropriate patients and identify optimal treatment options.