cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A comparison of dosimetric parameters in PET-based active bone marrow volume and total bone volume in prediction of hematologic toxicity in cervical cancer patients treated with chemoradiation

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether dose to PET-defined active regions of the bone marrow is a better predictor of hematologic toxicity than dose to the total bone as a surrogate of the bone marrow. Twenty-one patients with stage IB-IVB cervical cancer who had baseline PET imaging and underwent definitive cisplatin-based chemoradiation from 2010 to 2015 were reviewed. Total bone marrow (TBM) volume was defined as the bone from L4 to the coccyx, the pelvic bones, and proximal femoral heads. Active bone marrow (ABM) was defined by PET as the volume of the bone within the TBM greater than or equal to the mean total body standard uptake value (SUV). Dosimetric parameters evaluated were mean dose, V10, V20, and V40, which were compared by a t test. Hematologic toxicity was graded using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAEv4). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess predictors of grade 3 or higher (grade 3+) hematologic toxicity. ABM volume (mean = 1227 mL, range 793–1671 mL) was significantly smaller than the TBM volume (mean = 1553 mL, range 1117–1920 mL) [p = 0.0001]. ROC analysis identified ABM volume (AUC = 0.800, p = 0.002) and V40 to the ABM (AUC = 0.800, p = 0.008) as the best predictors for grade 3+ hematologic toxicity. All ten patients with an ABM volume 1201 mL (Fisher’s p = 0.012). A lower volume of ABM at a baseline (<1201 mL) was highly predictive of grade 3+ hematologic toxicity.
Analysis of Frames with Nonlinear Behavior

Analysis of frames and of members and connections subjected to lateral deformations; relationships needed for analysis of mild steel frames including strain hardening are derived for use with any structural wide flange sections with error of less than plus or minus 3% in resisting moments; two examples illustrate applications of method.
Top-Down Neural Attention by Excitation Backprop

We aim to model the top-down attention of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier for generating task-specific attention maps. Inspired by a top-down human visual attention model, we propose a new backpropagation scheme, called Excitation Backprop, to pass along top-down signals downwards in the network hierarchy via a probabilistic Winner-Take-All process. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of contrastive attention to make the top-down attention maps more discriminative. In experiments, we demonstrate the accuracy and generalizability of our method in weakly supervised localization tasks on the MS COCO, PASCAL VOC07 and ImageNet datasets. The usefulness of our method is further validated in the text-to-region association task. On the Flickr30k Entities dataset, we achieve promising performance in phrase localization by leveraging the top-down attention of a CNN model that has been trained on weakly labeled web images.
Enforcing the Rome Statute: Evidence of (Non) Compliance from Kenya

If the ICC's powers are as strong in practice as they are on paper, should we not expect more promising findings? This Article examines Kenya's relationship with the ICC for evidence of whether the ICC is effective at holding states accountable to their commitment to the Rome Statute and the stated goal of ending impunity for mass atrocities. Kenya has a history of poor human rights practices and violent domestic conflict. Yet it joined the court in 2005 and became the subject of the ICC's prosecutor's first proprio motu prosecution. Examining the Kenya case *9 should provide insights about the strength of the prosecutor's powers in practice and the prospects for future compliance with the ICC's proprio motu investigations--namely, those investigations that the prosecutor is empowered to commence without waiting for a state or United Nations Security Council referral. To the extent that the evidence shows an ICC without strong enforcement powers in practice, this timely study should aid policy makers and states in finding ways to ensure that this new institution can make the positive contribution to international justice its creators intended it to make. This Article describes Kenya's commitment to the ICC and the subsequent ICC investigation into the Kenyan situation. The next section outlines the literature addressing the design of international human rights law treaties and their effectiveness in inducing compliance and positively influencing behavior. The Article then turns to describing methodology and examining the evidence of compliance (or lack thereof) with treaty terms and demands in the context of the ICC's case against Kenya. The Article concludes with some observations about the evidence and its implications regarding the ICC's enforcement powers.
Ritual Practice and Exchange in the Late Prehispanic Western Pueblo Region: Insights from the Distribution and Deposition of Turquoise at Homol'ovi I†

Archaeological and ethnographic evidence demonstrate the importance of turquoise among past and present Pueblo groups. In this paper, I examine the social uses of turquoise and other blue-green minerals at Homol'ovi I, a late prehispanic Hopi village and the most intensively excavated site within the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster. I explore intrasite patterns of deposition (i.e., the content and context of turquoise deposits) and stylistic variation among objects in an effort to identify differential practices and material expressions within the pueblo. In addition, I assess the geologic provenance of turquoise from the site using high-precision measurements of lead and strontium isotopes. Recent studies indicate turquoise from at least two geologic locales—the Cerrillos Hills (New Mexico) and Canyon Creek (Arizona)—was acquired by Homol'ovi I inhabitants. These source investigations, coupled with those from other contemporaneous sites in the region, clarify the flow of turquoise across the late prehispani...
Vasoactive-ventilation-renal score reliably predicts hospital length of stay after surgery for congenital heart disease

Abstract Objectives We aimed to further validate the vasoactive-ventilation-renal score as a predictor of outcome in patients recovering from surgery for congenital heart disease. We also sought to determine the optimal time point within the early recovery period at which the vasoactive-ventilation-renal score should be measured. Methods We prospectively reviewed consecutive patients recovering from cardiac surgery within our intensive care unit between January 2015 and June 2015. The vasoactive-ventilation-renal score was calculated at 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours postoperatively as follows: vasoactive-ventilation-renal score=ventilation index + vasoactive-inotrope score + Δ creatinine [change in serum creatinine from baseline*10]. Primary outcome of interest was prolonged hospital length of stay, defined as length of stay in the upper 25%. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated, and areas under the curve with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all time points. Multivariable logistic regression modeling also was performed. Results We reviewed 164 patients with a median age of 9.25 months (interquartile range, 2.6-58 months). Median length of stay was 8 days (interquartile range, 5-17.5 days). The area under the curve value for the vasoactive-ventilation-renal score as a predictor of prolonged length of stay (>17.5 days) was greatest at 12 hours postoperatively (area under the curve = 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.89-0.97). On multivariable regression analysis, after adjustment for potential confounders, the 12-hour vasoactive-ventilation-renal score remained a strong predictor of prolonged hospital length of stay (odds ratio, 1.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-1.20). Conclusions In a heterogeneous population of patients undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease, the novel vasoactive-ventilation-renal score calculated in the early postoperative recovery period can be a strong predictor of prolonged hospital length of stay.
Heavy flavor Production and Interactions in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions in CMS Experiment

This paper presents the CMS measurements of quarkonia and open heavy flavor production in , , and collisions at = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. A brief outlook of the near-future CMS heavy flavor physics analyses is provided at the end. Presented at SQM2016 Strangeness in Quark Matter 2016 Heavy flavor Production and Interactions in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions in CMS Experiment Wei Xie for the CMS collaboration Department of Physics and Astronomy, PURDUE University, West Lafayette, IN E-mail: wxie@purdue.edu Abstract. This paper presents the CMS measurements of quarkonia and open heavy flavor production in p-p , p-Pb , and Pb-Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. A brief outlook of the near-future CMS heavy flavor physics analyses is provided at the end. This paper presents the CMS measurements of quarkonia and open heavy flavor production in p-p , p-Pb , and Pb-Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. A brief outlook of the near-future CMS heavy flavor physics analyses is provided at the end.
Identifying Dynamically Induced Variability in Glacier Mass-Balance Records

AbstractGlacier mass balance provides a direct indicator of a glacier’s relationship with local climate, but internally generated variability in atmospheric circulation adds a significant degree of noise to mass-balance time series, making it difficult to correctly identify and interpret trends. This study applies “dynamical adjustment” to seasonal mass-balance records to identify and remove the component of variance in these time series that is associated with large-scale circulation fluctuations (dynamical adjustment refers here to a statistical method and not a glacier’s dynamical response to climate). Mass-balance records are investigated for three glaciers: Wolverine and Gulkana in Alaska and South Cascade in Washington. North Pacific sea level pressure and sea surface temperature fields perform comparably as predictors, each explaining 50%–60% of variance in winter balance and 25%–35% in summer balance for South Cascade and Wolverine Glaciers. Gulkana Glacier, located farther inland, is less closely...
Microscopic mechanism of thermomolecular orientation and polarization

Recent molecular dynamics simulations show that thermal gradients can induce electric fields in water that are comparable in magnitude to electric fields seen in ionic thin films and biomembranes. This surprising non-equilibrium phenomenon of thermomolecular orientation is also observed more generally in simulations of polar and non-polar size-asymmetric dumbbell fluids. However, a microscopic theory linking thermomolecular orientation and polarization to molecular properties is yet unknown. Here, we formulate an analytically solvable microscopic model of size-asymmetric dumbbell molecules in a temperature gradient using a mean-field, local equilibrium approach. Our theory reveals the relationship between the extent of thermomolecular orientation and polarization, and molecular volume, size anisotropy and dipole moment. Predictions of the theory agree quantitatively with molecular dynamics simulations. Crucially, our framework shows how thermomolecular orientation can be controlled and maximized by tuning microscopic molecular properties.
Vibration protection of laptop hard disk drives in harsh environmental conditions

Ultra-portability and compact design of laptop computers have made them more vulnerable to harsh environments. Hard disk drives (HDDs) in particular, are critical components in laptop computers whose read/write performance is severely affected by excessive vibrations. Here we take a system-level approach to design an optimal vibration isolator so as to minimize the transmitted vibration to the HDD while the laptop chassis is confined within an allowable vibration travel. The laptop is modeled as a 3-dof lumped-parameter system and the base excitation is assumed Gaussian random vibration with zero mean and uniform power spectral density over the frequency range [0–2000] Hz. The problem is cast as a constrained optimization problem with two decision variables, namely isolation frequency and damping. A combination of analytical and numerical approaches is utilized to solve the constrained optimization problem. It is shown that the optimized isolation system could reduce the transmitted root-mean-square acceleration to the HDD by a factor of over four compared to a rigidly-mounted laptop. Furthermore, the methodology presented here is not case-specific and could be applied to the isolation system design of a wide range of systems.
Determination of Celestial Body Principal Axes via Gravity Field Estimation

The determination of physical parameters of celestial bodies provides critical navigational and scientific information. Determining the mass, rotation state, and density distribution is an importan...
Identifying and quantifying mineral abundance through VSWIR microimaging spectroscopy: A comparison to XRD and SEM

Visible-shortwave infrared microimaging reflectance spectroscopy is a new technique to identify minerals, quantify abundances, and assess textural relationships at sub-millimetre scale without destructive sample preparation. Here we used a prototype instrument to image serpentinized igneous rocks and carbonate-rich travertine deposits to evaluate performance, relative to traditional techniques: XRD (mineralogical analysis of bulk powders with no texture preservation) and SEM/EDS (analysis of phases and textures using chemical data from polished thin sections). VSWIR microimaging spectroscopy is ideal for identifying spatially coherent rare phases, below XRD detection limits. The progress of alteration can also be inferred from spectral parameters and may correspond to phases that are amorphous in XRD. However, VSWIR microimaging spectroscopy can sometimes be challenging with analyses of very dark materials (reflectance <0.05) and mineral mixtures occurring at a spatial scales multiple factors below the pixel size. Abundances derived from linear unmixing typically agree with those from XRD and EDS within ∼10%.
A Hierarchical Load-Balancing Framework for Dynamic Multithreaded Computations

High-level parallel programming models that support dynamic fine-grained threads in a global object space, are becoming increasingly popular for expressing irregular applications based on sophisticated adaptive algorithms and pointer-based data structures. However, implementing these multithreaded computations on scalable parallel machines poses significant challenges, particularly with respect to load-balancing. Load-balancing techniques must simultaneously incur low overhead to support fine-grained threads as well as be sophisticated enough to preserve data locality and thread execution priority.This paper presents a hierarchical framework which addresses these conflicting goals by viewing the computation as being made up of different thread subsets, each of which are load-balanced independently. In contrast to previous processor-centric approaches that have advocated the use of a uniform policy for load-balancing all threads in a computation, our framework allows each thread subset to be load-balanced using a policy most suited to its characteristics (e.g., locality or priority sensitivity). The framework consists of two parts: (i) language support which permits a programmer or the compiler to tag different thread subsets with appropriate policies, and (ii) run-time support which synthesizes overall application load-balance by composing these individual policies.This framework has been implemented in the Illinois Concert runtime system, an implementation platform for fine-grained concurrent object-oriented languages. Results for four large irregular applications on the Cray T3D and the SGI Origin 2000 demonstrate advantages of the hierarchical framework: performance improves by up to an order of magnitude as compared to using a uniform load-balancing policy.
Submodular Optimization Over Sliding Windows

Maximizing submodular functions under cardinality constraints lies at the core of numerous data mining and machine learning applications, including data diversification, data summarization, and coverage problems. In this work, we study this question in the context of data streams, where elements arrive one at a time, and we want to design low-memory and fast update-time algorithms that maintain a good solution. Specifically, we focus on the sliding window model, where we are asked to maintain a solution that considers only the last W items. In this context, we provide the first non-trivial algorithm that maintains a provable approximation of the optimum using space sublinear in the size of the window. In particular we give a 1/3 - e approximation algorithm that uses space polylogarithmic in the spread of the values of the elements, δ, and linear in the solution size k for any constant e > 0. At the same time, processing each element only requires a polylogarithmic number of evaluations of the function itself. When a better approximation is desired, we show a different algorithm that, at the cost of using more memory, provides a 1/2 - e approximation, and allows a tunable trade-off between average update time and space. This algorithm matches the best known approximation guarantees for submodular optimization in insertion-only streams, a less general formulation of the problem. We demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithms on a number of real world datasets, showing that their practical performance far exceeds the theoretical bounds. The algorithms preserve high quality solutions in streams with millions of items, while storing a negligible fraction of them.
Trip specific worthiness of replacement of individual cells for battery pack in electric vehicles

Ever increasing acceptance of electric vehicles relies on better operation and control of large battery packs. The individual cells in the large battery packs cannot have identical characteristics and may degrade differently due to its manufacturing variability and other factors. It is beneficial to evaluate the performance gain by replacing certain battery modules/cells during actual driving. We have a two-fold objective for this research. First, we are developing an on-line battery module degradation diagnostic scheme using the intrinsic signals of a battery pack equalization circuit. Therefore, a battery “health map” can be constructed and updated in real time. Secondly, based on the derived battery health map, the performance of the battery pack will be evaluated for customer specified trip so as to evaluate the “worthiness of replacing” certain modules/cells.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Lasso, fractional norm and structured sparse estimation using a Hadamard product parametrization

Abstract Using a multiplicative reparametrization, it is shown that a subclass of L q penalties with q less than or equal to one can be expressed as sums of L 2 penalties. It follows that the lasso and other norm-penalized regression estimates may be obtained using a very simple and intuitive alternating ridge regression algorithm. As compared to a similarly intuitive EM algorithm for L q optimization, the proposed algorithm avoids some numerical instability issues and is also competitive in terms of speed. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm can be extended to accommodate sparse high-dimensional scenarios, generalized linear models, and can be used to create structured sparsity via penalties derived from covariance models for the parameters. Such model-based penalties may be useful for sparse estimation of spatially or temporally structured parameters.
A Culture Of Health And Human Rights

A culture of health can be seen as a social norm that values health as the nation's priority or as an appeal to improve the social determinants of health. Better population health will require changing social and economic policies. Effective changes are unlikely unless health advocates can leverage a framework broader than health to mobilize political action in collaboration with non-health sector advocates. We suggest that human rights-the dominant international source of norms for government responsibilities-provides this broader framework. Human rights, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enforceable treaties, require governments to assure their populations nondiscriminatory access to food, water, education, work, social security, and a standard of living adequate for health and well-being. The policies needed to realize human rights also improve population health, well-being, and equity. Aspirations for human rights are strong enough to endure beyond inevitable setbacks to specific causes.
Foreign Currency Translation under U.S. GAAP-A Simplified Example

The translation of foreign currency based financial statements is an important issue in today’s global business environment. This article will discuss some of the key concepts by the use of a simplified example. The concepts to be discussed include the selection of a functional currency, translation of foreign currency based financial statements under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) using the current rate method, other comprehensive income and financial statement disclosure. The step by step example should help professionals through the process of foreign currency translation.
Single ping ADCP data

Because acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data are inherently noisy, they are usually presented in an averaged form. But a great deal can be learned, particularly about the ADCP system itself, by looking at single ping data. The author presents examples of analyses done on single ping data and shows how these data can be used to understand system sampling, bin-to-bin independence, system noise, and the character of a secondary parameter-AGC. Some discussion of how these results are applied to processing procedures and their verification are presented. >
Testing parameters in GMM without assuming that they are identified

We propose a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) Lagrange multiplier statistic, i.e. the K-statistic, that uses the Jacobian at the evaluated parameter value instead of the expected Jacobian. To obtain its limit behavior, we use a novel assumption that brings GMM closer to maximum likelihood and which is easily satisfied. The usual asymptotic x2 distribution of the K-statistic then holds under a wider set of circumstances, like weak and many instrument asymptotics and combinations thereof, than the standard full rank case for the Jacobian. The behavior of the K-statistic can be spurious around inflexion points and the maximum of the objective function since the moment conditions are then not satisfied. Combinations of the K-statistic with statistics that test the validity of the moment equations overcome the spurious behavior. We conduct a power comparison to test for the risk aversion parameter in a stochastic discount factor model and construct its confidence set for observed consumption growth and asset return series.
RF multicarrier signaling and antenna systems for low SNR broadband underwater communications

Most traditional underwater communication systems rely upon low data-rate acoustic communications, which cannot propagate behind objects and is confined to very narrow-band channels. We propose an alternative method supporting robust broadband radio frequency (RF) communications in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) undersea environments. This paper presents an integrated treatment involving broadband RF antennas and digital radio systems, potentially enabling 1 Mbps underwater communications at a medium range of 100 to 1000 meters. We describe the broadband underwater antenna design results coupled with the application of spectrally efficient multi-carrier modulation and iterative message-passing low-density parity check codes. We also present the channel modeling and underwater link-level simulation results at 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 15 MHz bandwidths.
Brain-machine interfaces as the new frontier in extreme miniaturization

The exact functioning and operation of the brain has been and still is to a major degree a great mystery. The recent introduction of advanced imaging tools such as fMRI, EEG and eCoG and, most recently, direct neural sensing are throwing the doors of neuroscience wide open, and enable direct in-vivo observations of the brain at work in dynamic conditions. This may help to address a broad range of neural impairments and diseases, such as stroke, paralysis, epilepsy, depression, etc. However, for all of these to happen it is essential that neural interface circuitry is developed that surpasses the state of the art in ultra-low power miniaturized design by at least an order of magnitude. Furthermore, the resulting sensory/stimulation nodes have to be energy-self contained and support wireless links > 1 Mbps. This paper explores the opportunities of accomplishing just that, and demonstrates the feasibility with a number of examples. The potential outcomes of these developments are just "mind-blowing", and can dramatically impact the evolution of human-cyber interfaces in the decades to come.
Path integral molecular dynamics with surface hopping for thermal equilibrium sampling of nonadiabatic systems

In this work, a novel ring polymer representation for a multi-level quantum system is proposed for thermal average calculations. The proposed representation keeps the discreteness of the electronic states: besides position and momentum, each bead in the ring polymer is also characterized by a surface index indicating the electronic energy surface. A path integral molecular dynamics with surface hopping (PIMD-SH) dynamics is also developed to sample the equilibrium distribution of the ring polymer configurational space. The PIMD-SH sampling method is validated theoretically and by numerical examples.
Level set shape and topology optimization of finite strain bilateral contact problems

This paper presents a method for the optimization of multi-component structures comprised of two and three materials considering large motion sliding contact and separation along interfaces. The structural geometry is defined by an explicit level set method, which allows for both shape and topology changes. The mechanical model assumes finite strains, a nonlinear elastic material behavior, and a quasi-static response. Identification of overlapping surface position is handled by a coupled parametric representation of contact surfaces. A stabilized Lagrange method and an active set strategy are used to model frictionless contact and separation. The mechanical model is discretized by the extended finite element method which maintains a clear definition of geometry. Face-oriented ghost penalization and dynamic relaxation are implemented to improve the stability of the physical response prediction. A nonlinear programming scheme is used to solve the optimization problem, which is regularized by introducing a perimeter penalty into the objective function. Sensitivities are determined by the adjoint method. The main characteristics of the proposed method are studied by numerical examples in two dimensions. The numerical results demonstrate improved design performance when compared to models optimized with a small strain assumption. Additionally, examples with load path dependent objectives display non-intuitive designs.
Adaptive real-time software defined MIMO visible light communications using spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a real-time software defined multiple input multiple output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC) system employing link adaptation of spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity. Real-time MIMO signal processing is implemented by using the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) devices. Software defined implantation of MIMO VLC can assist in enabling an adaptive and reconfigurable communication system without hardware changes. We measured the error vector magnitude (EVM), bit error rate (BER) and spectral efficiency performance for single-carrier M-QAM MIMO VLC using spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing. Results show that spatial diversity MIMO VLC improves error performance at the cost of spectral efficiency that spatial multiplexing should enhance. We propose the adaptive MIMO solution that both modulation schema and MIMO schema are dynamically adapted to the changing channel conditions for enhancing the error performance and spectral efficiency. The average error-free spectral efficiency of adaptive 2×2 MIMO VLC achieved 12 b/s/Hz over 2 meters indoor dynamic transmission.
A Neural Attention Model for Categorizing Patient Safety Events

Patient Safety Event reports are narratives describing potential adverse events to the patients and are important in identifying, and preventing medical errors. We present a neural network architecture for identifying the type of safety events which is the first step in understanding these narratives. Our proposed model is based on a soft neural attention model to improve the effectiveness of encoding long sequences. Empirical results on two large-scale real-world datasets of patient safety reports demonstrate the effectiveness of our method with significant improvements over existing methods.
Synchronous Tumors of the Cerebellopontine Angle

Background Synchronous tumors of the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) are very rare and inconsistently described. We present 2 cases of contiguous vestibular schwannoma (VS) and meningioma and a systematic literature review of all multiple CPA tumors. Methods Retrospective chart review and systematic literature review were performed. Results A 64-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man presented with symptoms referable to the CPA. Magnetic resonance imaging in both patients revealed 2 separate contiguous tumors. Retrosigmoid craniotomy and tumor removal in each case confirmed VS and meningioma. Systematic literature review identified 42 previous English-language publications describing 46 patients with multiple CPA tumors. Based on Frassanito criteria, there were 4 concomitant tumors (8%), 16 contiguous tumors (33%), 3 collision tumors (6%), 13 mixed tumors (27%), and 11 tumor-to-tumor metastases (23%). Extent of resection was gross total in 16 cases and subtotal in 16 cases (50% each). Unfavorable House-Brackmann grade III–VI function was documented in 27% overall and in 33% of patients with VS and meningioma, a marked increase from the observed range in isolated VS. Conclusions Multiple CPA tumors are rare, heterogeneous lesions with a marked predisposition toward poor facial nerve outcomes, potentially attributable to a paracrine mechanism that simultaneously drives multiple tumor growth and increases invasiveness or adhesiveness at the facial nerve–tumor interface. Preceding nomenclature has been confounding and inconsistent; we recommend classifying all multiple CPA tumors as “synchronous tumors,” with “schwannoma with meningothelial hyperplasia” or “tumor-to-tumor metastases” reserved for rare, specific circumstances.
CORRELATION OF RIGHT ATRIAL ENLARGEMENT ON ECG TO RIGHT ATRIAL VOLUME BY ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH PULMONARY HYPERTENSION

Background: Previous attempts to validate ECG criteria for right atrial (RA) enlargement (RAE) have been limited by sample sizes and lack of accepted standards for measuring RA size. New guidelines have recommended that RA volume be used to determine RA size. Since these guidelines were released, no
Chemical applications of topology and group theory

Abstract Group theory forbids either O h octahedral or D 3h trigonal prismatic geometry for a six-coordinate early transition metal complex using a six-orbital sd 5 manifold thereby indicating that the observation of trigonal prismatic rather than octahedral metal coordination geometry is not a simple indication of the lack of p orbital participation in the chemical bonding. However, an experimentally observed C 3 geometry intermediate between octahedral and trigonal prismatic geometry is allowed by group theory for such an sd 5 manifold. Bicapped tetrahedral geometry, which is related to octahedral or trigonal prismatic geometry through combinations of various diamond-square-diamond processes, is also found in a few metal tris(dithiolenes) having saturated or benzenoid bridges between the donor sulfur atoms. The distortion of an octahedron to a trigonal prism in six-coordinate complexes of d early transition metals can result from a second-order Jahn–Teller effect involving splitting of the t 1u HOMO and the t 2g LUMO in order to allow mixing of the resulting e ′ orbitals in the trigonal prismatic geometry. This effect is favored when the ligands are strong σ-donors but weak π-donors and the metal is not too electropositive such as is the case with many metal tris(dithiolenes). The MS 2 C 2 chelate rings in metal tris(dithiolene) complexes may be regarded as resonance hybrids of ethylenedithiolate and dithiodiketone canonical forms having different metal oxidation states. The stereochemical non-rigidity of trigonal prismatic metal tris(dithiolenes) observed experimentally by NMR requires interchange of the ligands on the top and bottom rings of the trigonal prism so that a simple trigonal twist through an octahedral intermediate is not adequate to account for this observation. A ‘rotary electric switch’ mechanism has been proposed for this process but rearrangement mechanisms through bicapped tetrahedral intermediates also appear reasonable.
Manifesting enhanced cancellations in supergravity: integrands versus integrals

Examples of ‘enhanced ultraviolet cancellations’ with no known standard-symmetry explanation have been found in a variety of supergravity theories. By examining one- and two-loop examples in four- and five-dimensional half-maximal supergravity, we argue that enhanced cancellations in general cannot be exhibited prior to integration. In light of this, we explore reorganizations of integrands into parts that are manifestly finite and parts that have poor power counting but integrate to zero due to integral identities. At two loops we find that in the large loop-momentum limit the required integral identities follow from Lorentz and SL(2) relabeling symmetry. We carry out a nontrivial check at four loops showing that the identities generated in this way are a complete set. We propose that at L loops the combination of Lorentz and SL(L) symmetry is sufficient for displaying enhanced cancellations when they happen, whenever the theory is known to be ultraviolet finite up to (L − 1) loops.
Teacher Characteristics, Student Beliefs, and the Gender Gap in STEM Fields.

This article uses data from the U.S. High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to investigate the relationship between high school students’ beliefs about female abilities in math and science and thei...
An algorithmic approach to the asynchronous computability theorem

The asynchronous computability theorem (ACT) uses concepts from combinatorial topology to characterize which tasks have wait-free solutions in read–write memory. A task can be expressed as a relation between two chromatic simplicial complexes. The theorem states that a task has a protocol (algorithm) if and only if there is a certain color-preserving simplicial map compatible with that relation. The original proof of the ACT, given by Herlihy and Shavit (Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM symposium on theory of computing, pp 111–120, 1993; J ACM 46(6):858–923, 1999) relied on an involved geometric argument. Borowsky and Gafni (Proceedings of the 16th annual ACM symposium on principles of distributed computing, pp 189–198, 1997) later proposed an alternative proof based on a distributed algorithmic, termed the “convergence algorithm”. However the description of this algorithm was incomplete, and presented without proof. In this paper, we give the first complete description, along with a proof of correctness.
Memristor Equations: Incomplete Physics and Undefined Passivity/Activity

In his seminal paper, Chua presented a fundamental physical claim by introducing the memristor, “The missing circuit element”. The memristor equations were originally supposed to represent a passive circuit element because, with active circuitry, arbitrary elements can be realized without limitations. Therefore, if the memristor equations do not guarantee that the circuit element can be realized by a passive system, the fundamental physics claims about the memristor as “missing circuit element” loses all its weight. The question of passivity/activity belongs to physics thus we incorporate thermodynamics into the study of this problem. We show that the memristor equations are physically incomplete regarding the problem of passivity/activity. As a consequence, the claim that the present memristor functions describe a passive device lead to unphysical results, such as violating the Second Law of thermodynamics, in infinitely large number of cases. The seminal memristor equations cannot introduce a new physic...
Material Weakness in Internal Controls and Stock Price Crash Risk

We investigate the association between material weakness in internal controls (MW) disclosed under Section 302 of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and future stock price crash risk. We argue that relative to firms with effective internal controls, firms with MW have lower financial reporting precision. The lower reporting precision (a) increases divergence of investor opinion with regard to firm valuation and (b) facilitates managers’ withholding of negative information, which increases the information asymmetry between managers and outside investors. We hypothesize that both these effects increase the probability of a future stock price crash. We find empirical evidence consistent with our prediction. In additional analyses, we document that the positive association between MW and crash risk is primarily driven by company level rather than by account-specific weaknesses, increases with the number of material weaknesses, and intensifies during the financial crisis. In addition, we find that both the e...
The chemical bond as an emergent phenomenon.

We first argue that the covalent bond and the various closed-shell interactions can be thought of as symmetry broken versions of one and the same interaction, viz., the multi-center bond. We use specially chosen molecular units to show that the symmetry breaking is controlled by density and electronegativity variation. We show that the bond order changes with bond deformation but in a step-like fashion, regions of near constancy separated by electronic localization transitions. These will often cause displacive transitions as well so that the bond strength, order, and length are established self-consistently. We further argue on the inherent relation of the covalent, closed-shell, and multi-center interactions with ionic and metallic bonding. All of these interactions can be viewed as distinct sectors on a phase diagram with density and electronegativity variation as control variables; the ionic and covalent/secondary sectors are associated with on-site and bond-order charge density wave, respectively, th...
The (p,q) property in families of d-intervals and d-trees

Abstract Given integers p ≥ q > 1 , a family of sets satisfies the ( p , q ) property if among any p members of it some q intersect. We prove that for any fixed integer constants p ≥ q > 1 , a family of d -intervals satisfying the ( p , q ) property can be pierced by O ( d q q − 1 ) points, with constants depending only on p and q . This extends results of Tardos, Kaiser and Alon for the case q = 2 , and of Kaiser and Rabinovich for the case p = q = ⌈ l o g 2 ( d + 2 ) ⌉ . We further show that similar bounds hold in families of subgraphs of a tree or a graph of bounded tree-width, each consisting of at most d connected components, extending results of Alon for the case q = 2 . Finally, we prove an upper bound of O ( d 1 p − 1 ) on the fractional piercing number in families of d -intervals satisfying the ( p , p ) property, and show that this bound is asymptotically sharp.
Streaming k-Means Clustering with Fast Queries

We present methods for k-means clustering on a stream with a focus on providing fast responses to clustering queries. Compared to the current state-of-the-art, our methods provide substantial improvement in the query time for cluster centers while retaining the desirable properties of provably small approximation error and low space usage. Our algorithms rely on a novel idea of "coreset caching" that systematically reuses coresets (summaries of data) computed for recent queries in answering the current clustering query. We present both theoretical analysis and detailed experiments demonstrating their correctness and e ciency.
Turbulent Pressure Statistics in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer from Large-Eddy Simulation

We use large-eddy simulation (LES) to study the turbulent pressure field in atmospheric boundary layers with free convection, forced convection, and stable stratification. We use the Poisson equation for pressure to represent the pressure field as the sum of mean-shear, turbulence–turbulence, subfilter-scale, Coriolis, and buoyancy contributions. We isolate these contributions and study them separately. We find that in the energy-containing range in the free-convection case the turbulence–turbulence pressure dominates over the entire boundary layer. That part dominates also up to midlayer in the forced-convection case; above that the mean-shear pressure dominates. In the stable case the mean-shear pressure dominates over the entire boundary layer. We find evidence of an inertial subrange in the pressure spectrum in the free and forced-convection cases; it is dominated by the turbulence–turbulence pressure and has a three-dimensional spectral constant of about 4.0. This agrees well with quasi-Gaussian predictions but is a factor of 2 less than recent results from direct numerical simulations at moderate Reynolds numbers. Measurements of the inertial subrange pressure spectral constant at high Reynolds numbers, which might now be possible, would be most useful.
Learning a Comorbidity-Driven Taxonomy of Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension.

Rationale: Pediatric pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a heterogeneous condition with varying natural history and therapeutic response. Precise classification of PH subtypes is, therefore, crucial for individualizing care. However, gaps remain in our understanding of the spectrum of PH in children. Objective: We seek to study the manifestations of PH in children and to assess the feasibility of applying a network-based approach to discern disease subtypes from comorbidity data recorded in longitudinal data sets. Methods and Results: A retrospective cohort study comprising 6 943 263 children ( Conclusions: Application of network science to model comorbidity patterns recorded in longitudinal data sets can facilitate the discovery of disease subtypes. Our analysis relearned established subtypes, thus validating the approach, and identified rare subtypes that are difficult to discern through clinical observations, providing impetus for deeper investigation of the disease subtypes that will enrich current disease classifications.
Leveraging sentiment analysis for topic detection

The emergence of new social media such as blogs, message boards, news, and web content in general has dramatically changed the ecosystems of corporations. Consumers, non-profit organizations, and other forms of communities are extremely vocal about their opinions and perceptions on companies and their brands on the web. The ability to leverage such “voice of the web” to gain consumer, brand, and market insights can be truly differentiating and valuable to today's corporations. In particular, one important form of insights can be derived from sentiment analysis on web content. Sentiment analysis traditionally emphasizes on classification of web comments into positive, neutral, and negative categories. This paper goes beyond sentiment classification by focusing on techniques that could detect the topics that are highly correlated with the positive and negative opinions. Such techniques, when coupled with sentiment classification, can help the business analysts to understand both the overall sentiment scope as well as the drivers behind the sentiment. In this paper, we describe our overall sentiment analysis system that consists of such sentiment analysis techniques, including the bootstrapping method for word polarities weighting, automatic filtering and expansion for domain word, and a sentiment classification method. We then detail a novel topic detection method using point-wise mutual information and term frequency distribution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our overall approaches via several case studies on different social media data sets.
Acquired Cystic Disease of the End-Stage Kidney

The development of multiple cysts in the previously noncystic chronically diseased kidneys of patients undergoing long-term dialysis appears to be associated with spontaneous renal bleeding and benign and malignant renal tumors. Two cases of acquired cystic disease with renal hemorrhage and adenocarcinoma are presented; metastases occurred in one patient and the other had bilateral carcinoma requiring bilateral nephrectomy. Combined data from 13 studies indicate acquired cystic disease occurs in one third of patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis and is associated with adenocarcinoma in 4 percent of cases. Four cases of metastases and five deaths linked to acquired cystic disease have been reported. Eight of 24 patients with acquired cystic disease and clinical manifestations of renal bleeding had renal adenocarcinoma. Autopsy series indicate tumors associated with acquired cystic disease are usually benign but commonly bilateral and multiple. Cystic transformation of the end-stage kidney is more frequent after several years of hemodialysis. It is suggested that patients receiving dialysis treatments for more than three years have a baseline radiologic examination of the kidneys so that subsequent problems can be more easily identified and evaluated.
Erythropoietin-Dependent Erythrocytosis Associated With Hepatic Angiosarcoma

Erythropoietin (Ep) dependent erythrocytosis was discovered in a 77-year old man with angiosarcoma involving the liver and spleen. At autopsy, tissue from tumorous and normal sections of liver was obtained and extracts prepared for Ep assay in exhypoxic polycythemic mice. Neither tumor nor normal extracts had Ep activity; however, when the extracts were incubated with normal plasma prior to assay, significant amounts of Ep were generated. The normal liver tissue had three times the activity of the tumorous portion, 0.21 U/ml. These results suggest that the tissue contained an Ep activator, probably erythrogenin. It is proposed that the greater amount of erythrogenin activity in the normal tissue may reflect an attempt at liver regeneration following damage by an invading tumor, as regenerating liver has been identified as a stimulus for extrarenal EP and erythrogenin production.
Advances in the Treatment of Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children under 15 years of age. Several decades ago it was associated with an 80% mortality rate. Recent advances with combined modality therapy have improved the 5-year survival rate to almost 70%. The focus for the improvement in treatment regimens is now shifting to concerns regarding the preservation of body function and the treatment of far advanced disease. Regardless of age, histology, stage, or site of primary tumor, there has been no group where chemotherapy has not been proven beneficial. The current recommendations used by the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study, with regard to chemotherapy, are summarized. Radiation therapy adjunctive to surgery has a useful place in the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma, but prophylactic nodal irradiation is not recommended. Involved nodes should, however, be treated. Since the potentially adverse side effects of chemotherapy and radiation are accentuated when combined, radiation therapy is no longer recommended in patients with group I rhabdomyosarcoma. Prognostic factors and future considerations from the operative standpoint are presented.