cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Anesthetizing a Patient with Escalating Cardiac Enzyme Levels for Urgent Noncardiac Surgery: Clinical and Ethical Concerns

An 81-year-old man with a history of villous adenoma of the duodenum was admitted with new-onset jaundice, abdominal pain, and pruritus, which raised concerns about disease progression and hepatobiliary obstruction. The patient had refused surgical resection of tumor on initial diagnosis 2 years earlier and opted out of it again at the current presentation because of his significant comorbidities. While discussing treatment options with his family, he developed symptoms suggesting myocardial infarction. Therefore, before anesthetizing this patient with escalating cardiac enzyme levels for an urgent noncardiac procedure, it was important to attend to the dynamics of the decision-making process.
Alarm Correlation Analysis Based on Network Configuration and Time Relation

As power communications network gets more and more complicated,to improve the intelligence of network fault analysis for root alarms,concept models for network configuration relevance and time relevance are proposed.Based on the proposed model,the event-tree analysis rules model is improved and an alarm correlation analysis engine system is designed,thus the accurate and real-time alarm analysis for network root alarms is realized.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cardiovascular Diseases in Pregnancy

In addition to conditions specific to pregnancy such as eclampsia and peripartum cardiomyopathy, nearly any cardiac condition may occur during pregnancy. Common cardiovascular conditions may occur in 1 % of all pregnant women. Physiological increased volume loading during pregnancy may exacerbate cardiac conditions including valvular disease, shunts, or heart failure. Cardiac imaging examinations in the pregnant patient include radiography, echocardiology, and MRI.
Coercive institutions and repression in South Korea

The differences in the coercive apparatus under Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan, described in Chapter 5, shaped the patterns of state violence that Korean society experienced during their different periods of rule. The structure and social composition of the coercive apparatus in these two cases help us understand both the within-country temporal trends in levels of state violence, which were the main focus of the chapters on state violence in Taiwan and the Philippines (Chapters 6 and 7), and how the Korean cases compare cross-nationally, to the cases in the previous two chapters. Moreover, coercive institutional design can also shed light on sub-national variations in the execution of state violence, including cross-unit variations in state violence executed by different parts of the coercive apparatus and regional variations in the distribution of protest repression. To a much greater degree than either Taiwan or the Philippines, the presence of an external threat in South Korea limited the degree of coup-proofing present in the coercive apparatus, particularly the externally focused military. By cross-national comparative standards, therefore, state violence in South Korea was relatively low. The non-military parts of the internal security apparatus, however, had important differences under Park, compared to Chun, that help to explain why violence in the two regimes took on a somewhat different character. Park's more fragmented and regionally exclusive regime engaged in intra-apparatus violence as organizations attempted to counterbalance and investigate each other, resulting in the arrest and sentencing of a number of internal security personnel. It also engaged in disproportionately high repressive violence against protests in Chŏlla, compared to the rest of the country, culminating in the Kwangju incident of May 1980. Chun Doo Hwan, on the other hand, had a unitary internal security apparatus but one that was divided in terms of exclusivity: somewhat more inclusive of Chŏlla at the top levels but entirely inclusive and representative in terms of its ground-level policing of protest. The difference in the social composition of Chun's riot police units helps explain several findings that are otherwise surprising and counterintuitive to scholars of Korea's authoritarian history: that in fact Chun seems to have been less violent on average in his non-protest repression than Park, that his repression of popular protest was usually less violent and less regionally biased, and that, despite these considerations, his use of repression ended up being far more reviled.
Formability Investigation of a Thin-wall Part of Double Curvature Using an Integrated Reverse Engineering Environment

ABSTRACTAn integrated reverse engineering (RE) environment composed of modeling, forming simulation, tooling design and manufacturing, and forming operation was employed to solve an existing problem, in which a thin-wall part of double curvature was not able to be physically formed without tearing and wrinkle after numerous attempts at a logistics center. This paper focuses on the formability study of this challenging part using the newly established RE environment. Forming simulation was heavily employed to explore a narrow window that ensures a successful part forming by investigating blank shape design and understanding the material flow in forming. A key factor that ensures a successful part without tearing or wrinkle was clearly suggested by forming simulations. A physical forming process that incorporates such a factor was implemented at shop floor, which produced an accurate part without tearing and wrinkle for the first time after numerous attempts. Lessons learned are presented and the feasibilit...
The legacy of lead pollution: (dis)trust in science and the debate over Superfund

ABSTRACTLead contamination is a significant health hazard in communities around the world, but this environmental toxin often remains unknown to residents living near hazardous sites. This research investigates a unique case where residents were informed of lead contamination but rejected official and scientific narratives regarding environmental risks. The case study involves a decommissioned smelter in Colorado. Drawing from data collected over three years, the researchers examine how officials and experts communicated the severity of environmental health hazards. Despite these efforts, residents opposed the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to place the site on the National Priorities List for federal cleanup. The government’s framing of science and environmental risk failed to resonate with homeowners, despite the known and significant scientific evidence confirming environmental health hazards, and residents’ perceptions of lead contamination were mitigated by material concerns, including pr...
Convergence-Boosted Graph Partitioning using Maximum Spanning Trees for Iterative Solution of Large Linear Circuits

The ability to solve large linear systems efficiently has been a key part of building a successful circuit simulator such as ones for power grid analysis. Partition-based iterative methods have been widely adopted due to their divide-and-conquer nature and amenability to parallel implementation. However such methods rely heavily on the quality of circuit graph partitioning, and it is extremely challenging to develop a robust partitioning scheme that always generates near-optimal results. In this paper, we present a new line of thinking by integrating two rather distinct schools of iterative methods: partitioning based and support graph based. The former enjoys ease of parallelization, however, lacks a direct control of the numerical properties of the produced partitions. In contrast, the latter operates on the maximum spanning tree (MST) of the circuit graph, which is optimized for fast numerical convergence, but is bottlenecked by its difficulty of parallelization. By combining the two, we propose a partitioning-based preconditioner based on the theory of support graph. The circuit partitioning is guided by the MST of the underlying circuit graph, offering essential guidance for achieving fast convergence. The resulting block-Jacobi-like preconditioner maximizes the numerical benefit inherited from support graph theory while lending itself to straightforward parallelization as a partition-based method. The experimental results on IBM power grid suite and synthetic power grid benchmarks show that our proposed method speeds up the DC simulation by up to 11.5× over an state-of-the-art direct solver.
Application of MEMS-based x-ray optics as tuneable nanosecond choppers

Time-resolved synchrotron x-ray measurements often rely on using a mechanical chopper to isolate a set of x-ray pulses. We have started the development of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based x-ray optics, as an alternate method to manipulate x-ray beams. In the application of x-ray pulse isolation, we recently achieved a pulse-picking time window of half a nanosecond, which is more than 100 times faster than mechanical choppers can achieve. The MEMS device consists of a comb-drive silicon micromirror, designed for efficiently diffracting an x-ray beam during oscillation. The MEMS devices were operated in Bragg geometry and their oscillation was synchronized to x-ray pulses, with a frequency matching subharmonics of the cycling frequency of x-ray pulses. The microscale structure of the silicon mirror in terms of the curvature and the quality of crystallinity ensures a narrow angular spread of the Bragg reflection. With the discussion of factors determining the diffractive time window, this report showed our approaches to narrow down the time window to half a nanosecond. The short diffractive time window will allow us to select single x-ray pulse out of a train of pulses from synchrotron radiation facilities.
Building Culturally Sensitive Assessments for Transgender Clients: Best Practices for Instrument Development and the Adaptation Process

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on best practices for developing, adapting, and using assessments with transgender clients. The historical context of gender minorities in counseling is discussed, outlining the bias and stigma that has been attached to transgender identities. Due to this historical bias, most assessments use heteronormative language and were not developed for use with gender minorities. As such, we used the guidelines put forth by the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), and the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) to present a guide for developing and adapting assessments for the transgender population. Finally, the authors discuss the clinical application of using a trans-sensitive assessment process for counselor educators and clinicians.
Exploring dissolved organic carbon cycling at the stream–groundwater interface across a third-order, lowland stream network

The stream–groundwater interface (SGI) is thought to be an important location within stream networks for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) processing (e.g., degradation, removal), since it is considered a hotspot for microbial activity and biogeochemical reactions. This research is one of the first attempts to collect and assess DOC conditions at the SGI across a stream network—an entire third-order, lowland watershed in Michigan, USA. We present an initial exploration of this unique data set and highlight some of the challenges when working at these scales. Overall, our results show that SGI DOC conditions are complex at the network scale and do not conform to predictions based upon previous point- and small-scale studies. We found no strong pattern of DOC removal within the SGI at the network scale even after using chloride and temperature as natural tracers to differentiate between hydrological processes and biogeochemical reactions influencing DOC cycling. Instead, trends in DOC quantity and molecular qualities suggest that potential biotic reactions, including aerobic microbial respiration, had an influence on DOC concentrations at only some of the sites, while physical mixing of ground and stream surface waters appears to explain the majority of the observed changes in DOC concentrations at other sites. In addition, results show that neither SGI sites indicating DOC removal nor DOC molecular quality shifts measured correlated with stream order. It did reveal that DOC variability across surface water, groundwater, and the SGI locations was consistently greatest in the shallow sediments of the SGI, demonstrating that the SGI is a systematically distinct location for DOC conditions in the watershed. Our empirical stream network-scale SGI data are some of the first that are compatible with recently developed process-based, network-scale, SGI models. Our results indicate that these process-based models may not accurately represent SGI exchange of lowland, groundwater discharge-dominated streams like the one in this study. Lastly, this study shows that new methods are needed to achieve the goal of making and linking SGI observations to network-scale biogeochemical processes and theory. To help develop these methods we provide a discussion of the approach we used (i.e., “lessons-learned”) that might become the basis for systematic data analysis of SGI porewaters in future, network-wide biogeochemical studies of the SGI.
Equipping Future Nonprofit Professionals With Digital Literacies for the 21st Century

Digital technologies now permeate the professional interaction, access, and distribution of information. Future nonprofit professionals must obtain the necessary skills and knowledge to leverage the power of digital technologies in an ethical and appropriate manner. The challenge for educators and their students moving into the profession-al realm involves the disruption of traditional forms of professional training through digital technologies. This paper demonstrates how technology is utilized to equip students with digital literacies through the evaluation of a course that included digital technologies. The course focused on communication, marketing, and digital activism in the nonprofit and voluntary sector. Data were gathered over four semesters, and findings indicate that through participation in the course students experienced growth in digital literacies across all domains. Educators can help prepare future professionals by equipping them with the necessary digital literacies to ensure they become competent professionals. Subscribe to JNEL
Cataract development associated with long-term glucocorticoid therapy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients.

Purpose To evaluate the development of cataracts or elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) on long-term glucocorticoid (GC) treatment. Methods The medical records of DMD patients evaluated from 2010 to 2015 at a single center were reviewed retrospectively. The main outcome measures were prevalence of cataracts and elevated IOP, age of first detection of cataract, time from initial steroid use to first detection of cataract, and relative risk of cataract development for deflazacort versus prednisone treatment. Results Of 596 DMD patients, 514 underwent GC therapy; all but one was male. The racial distribution was 82.1% white, 1.0% African American, 5.0% Hispanic, 2.9% Asian, and 8.0% more than one race or “other.” The prevalence of cataracts was 22.4% in patients on GC therapy. The mean age at which cataract formation was first documented was 12.9 ± 4.1 years (IQR, 9.6-14.6). The mean time from initial steroid use to the first detection of cataract was 6.5 ± 3.6 years (IQR, 4.0-8.6). The odds of cataract development were 2.4-fold higher for patients on deflazacort compared with prednisone (95% CI, 1.3-4.5; P = 0.004). Only 7 patients (1.4%) underwent cataract surgery, at a mean age of 16.9 years (range, 10.7-24.6 years); all were on deflazacort. Among patients with available intraocular pressure measurements, elevated IOP occurred in only 1 patient (1.1%), who was on deflazacort. Conclusions In patients undergoing GC therapy for DMD, the rate of cataract formation was slow and well tolerated, with a higher risk among deflazacort patients. The percentage of patients requiring cataract extraction or with elevated IOP was very small. These findings suggest that a schedule of annual eye examinations is appropriate.
Earthquake prediction, biological clocks, and the cold war psy-ops: Using animals as seismic sensors in the 1970s California.

Abstract A familiar story of seismology is that of a small field originally focused on local studies of earthquakes through diverse disciplinary perspectives being transformed, in the second half of the twentieth century, into a highly specialized field focused on global studies of the earth's deep interior via sophisticated instruments and transnational networks of seismological stations. Against this backdrop, this essay offers a complementing account, highlighting the significance of local circumstances and disciplinary agendas that were contingent not only on transformations in the geophysical sciences but also on the concurrently changing biological sciences during the Cold War. Using examples of the studies of unusual animal behavior prior to earthquakes conducted under the auspices of the US Geological Survey on the West Coast of the United States in the 1970s, this essay examines a variety of motivations behind the attempts to bridge geophysics and biology. These examples illustrate the ways in which earthquake prediction became entangled with concerns over the use of seismological data, pioneering research on biological rhythms, and the troubled field of Cold War-driven military brain studies.
GRAFT COPOLYMERIZATION OF VINYL MONOMERS ONTO POLYMERS CONTAINING STYRENE

The grafting of monomer onto polymers has been initiated by photochemical, high-energy radiation, and chemical processes. As long as a radical or ionic site may be generated on the polymer and the monomer is sufficiently active, graft copolymerization may occur. Two photochemical processes have been described. The first involves the anthracene sensitized formation of singlet oxygen and its addition to an allylic position in a butadiene containing polymer to give a hydroperoxide; this hydroperoxide may be thermally decomposed so that monomer addition may occur at that site.1,2 This is shown as Scheme 1. In the second procedure3,4 the irradiation of benzophenone produces a radical triplet state which can abstract a hydrogen atom; this is shown as Scheme 2. In the first case, it has been assumed that addition of singlet oxygen occurs at the weakest carbon-hydrogen bond, the allylic C-H, and in the second case the assumption is that the radical adds to the double bond. In neither case has the site of grafting been definitively proven.
The J774 Macrophage Model of Native LDL-Induced Foam Cell Formation

The mechanism of cholesteryl ester (CE) accumulation in macrophage (Mp)-derived atherosclerotic foam cells is unknown. We have shown that mouse J774 Mp, unlike mouse peritoneal Mp (MPMp). accumulates large amounts of CE from unmodified low-density lipoprotein (LDL), a property related to sluggish down-regulation of the J774 LDL receptor and HMG-CoA reductase. We have further shown that down-regulation can be enhanced and CE accumulation diminished by ACAT inhibition of J774 Mp. We hypothesized that foam cell formation in J774 Mp might be related to diversion, perhaps by overactive ACAT, of intracellular cholesterol away from a regulatory pool. We now report a direct comparison of cholesterol metabolism and whole-cell ACAT activity in foam-cell-forming J774 Mp with that in non-foam-cell-forming MPMp. Our initial observation, necessary in allowing us to make this comparison, was that MPMp preincubated in LPDS-containing medium display seven-fold more chloroquine-inhibitable [125I]LDL degradation than freshly isolated MPMp and the same amount of [125I]LDL degradation as similarly treated J774 Mp. Despite this similar degree of LDL receptor activity, LPDS-preincubated MPMp accumulate only very small amounts of LDL-derived CE (15.6 μg/mg cell protein at 1 mg LDL/24 hr) compared to J774 Mp (130.5 μg/mg). When the two murine Mp were preincubated with LDL (100 μg/ml) and then assayed for [125I]LDL degradation. MPMp receptor activity was down-regulated by 72% in comparison to only 44% down-regulation of J774 Mp receptor activity. Furthermore, whereas preincubation of J774 Mp with LDL plus the ACAT inhibitor 58-035 led to a 1.8-fold enhancement of LDL-mediated receptor down-regulation (to a level of receptor activity similar to that in MPMp preincubated with LDL alone). ACAT-inhibited MPMp showed no enhancement of receptor down-regulation. Finally, we sought to determine if both the relatively diminished LDL-mediated receptor down-regulation and greater responsiveness to 58-035 in J774 Mp versus MPMp could be related to greater ACAT activity in the J774 Mp. The two murine Mp were preincubated in LPDS to induce equivalent LDL receptor activity and then tested for whole-cell ACAT activity in the absence or presence of LDL by monitoring the incorporation of [14C]oleate into cholesteryl [l4C]oleate. At all LDL concentrations tested (0-200 μg/ml), J774 ACAT activity was 20 to 30-fold greater than MPMp activity.
The Body As Proof: Franklin D. Roosevelt's Preparations for the 1932 Presidential Campaign.

Prior to the 1932 presidential campaign, Governor Roosevelt sought to dispel suspicion that he was physically unfit to become president. Though he never hid his disability, he minimized his appearance as a disabled person. When a “whispering campaign” grew louder, Roosevelt arranged for the publication of a medical examination as proof that he was physically fit. The scheme was successful though many suspected that the medical reports and the arguments made were concocted and qualified.
Intramuscular botulinum toxin A (BtxA) in complex regional pain syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Pain associated with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is frequently excruciating and intractable. The use of botulinum toxin for relief of CRPS-associated pain has not been well described. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether intramuscular botulinum toxin injections cause relief of pain caused by CRPS, and to assess the risks of this treatment. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. SETTING: Outpatient clinic. METHODS: PATIENTS: 37 patients with spasm/dystonia in the neck and/or upper limb girdle muscles. INTERVENTION: Electromyography-guided injection of botulinum toxin A (BtxA), 10-20 U per muscle. Total dose used was 100 U in each patient. MEASUREMENT: Local pain score on an 11 point Likert scale, 4 weeks after BtxA injections. RESULTS: Mean pain score decreased by 43% (8.2 ± 0.8 to 4.5 ± 1.1, P < 0.001). Ninety-seven percent of the patients had significant pain relief. One patient had transient neck drop after the injections. LIMITATIONS: This is a retrospective study; it lacks a control group and therefore the placebo effect cannot be eliminated. This study does not provide information on the efficacy of this treatment after 4 weeks. CONCLUSION(S): Intramuscular injection of botulinum toxin A in the upper limb girdle muscles was beneficial for short term relief of pain caused by CRPS in this retrospective case series. The incidence of complications was low (2.7%).
Influence of tau PET, amyloid PET, and hippocampal volume on cognition in Alzheimer disease.

Objective To examine the independent and interactive influences of neuroimaging biomarkers on retrospective cognitive decline. Methods A total of 152 middle-aged and older adult participants with at least 2 clinical and cognitive assessments, a Clinical Dementia Rating score of 0 or 0.5, and a flortaucipir ( 18 F-AV-1451) tau PET scan, a florbetapir ( 18 F-AV-45) amyloid PET scan, and a structural MRI scan were recruited from the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis. Cognition was assessed with standard measures reflecting episodic memory, executive functioning, semantic fluency, and processing speed. Results Results from retrospective longitudinal analyses showed that each biomarker had a univariate association with the global cognitive composite; however, when each marker was analyzed in a single statistical model, only tau was a significant predictor of global cognitive decline. There was an interaction between tau and amyloid such that tau-related cognitive decline was worse in individuals with high amyloid. There was also an interaction with hippocampal volume indicating that individuals with high levels of all 3 pathologies exhibited the greatest declines in cognition. Additional analyses within each cognitive domain indicated that tau had the largest negative influence on tests of episodic memory and executive functioning. Conclusions Together, these results suggest that increasing levels of tau most consistently relate to declines in cognition preceding biomarker collection. These findings support models of Alzheimer disease (AD) staging that suggest that elevated β-amyloid alone may be insufficient to produce cognitive change in individuals at risk for AD and support the use of multiple biomarkers to stage AD progression.
Migrants and citizens: justice and responsibility in the ethics of immigration

The opening few pages of Tisha M. Rajendra’s Migrants and Citizens provide a timely and relevant depiction of the signs of the times regarding issues surrounding migration globally and domestically...
The Effects of Solar Variability on Climate

Abstract It has been hypothesized for at least a century that some of the observed variance in global temperature records arises from variations in solar output. Theories of solar-variability effects on climate could not be tested directly prior to satellite measurements because uncertainties in ground-based measurements of solar irradiance were larger than the solar variations themselves. Measurements by the Active Cavity Radiometer (ACRIM) onboard the Solar Max satellite and by the Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) instrument onboard Nimbus 6 are now available which indicate solar-constant variations are positively correlated with solar activity over an 11-yr solar cycle, and are of order 1.0 W m -2 relative to a mean solar constant of S o = 1367 W m -2 , δS/S o ≈ ±0.07%. For a typical climate sensitivity parameter of β = S o ∂T/∂S ≈ 100°C, the corresponding variations in radiative equilibrium temperature at the Earth's surface are δT e ≈ ±0.07°C. The realized temperature variations from solar forcing, δT, can be significantly smaller because of thermal damping by the ocean. I consider effects of solar variability on the observed and projected history of the global temperature record in light of this data using an upwelling-diffusion ocean model to assess the effect of ocean thermal inertia on the thermal response. The response to harmonic variations of the 11-yr sunspot cycle is of order δT ≈ ±0.02°C, though the coupling between response and forcing is stronger for long-term variations in the envelope of the solar cycle which more nearly match the thermal response time of the deep ocean (e.g., the 80-year Gleissberg cycle). Nonetheless, solar variability effects are estimated to have been small compared with the 0.5°C warming observed over the past century and the increased rates of global warming observed in recent years. It can be concluded from this analysis that variations in solar output are unlikely to significantly alter the warmings projected for the next century from anthropogenic greenhouse gases.
The Relationship Between Alcohol and Glycohemoglobin: A Biopsychosocial Perspective.

Abstract With the rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), there is debate regarding biological and psychosocial risk factors. While it is well established that alcohol lowers glycohem...
Streptococcus pneumoniae Elaborates Persistent and Prolonged Competent State during Pneumonia-Derived Sepsis.

ABSTRACT The competence regulon of pneumococcus regulates both genetic transformation and virulence. However, competence induction during host infection has not been examined. By using the serotype 2 strain D39, we transcriptionally fused the firefly luciferase (luc) to competence-specific genes and spatiotemporally monitored the competence development in a mouse model of pneumonia-derived sepsis. In contrast to the universally reported short transient burst of competent state in vitro, the naturally developed competent state was prolonged and persistent during pneumonia-derived sepsis. The competent state began at approximately 20 h postinfection (hpi) and facilitated systemic invasion and sepsis development and progressed in different manners. In some mice, acute pneumonia quickly led to sepsis and death, accompanied by increasing intensity of the competence signal. In the remaining mice, pneumonia lasted longer, with the competence signal decreasing at first but increasing as the infection became septic. The concentration of pneumococcal inoculum (1 × 106 to 1 × 108 CFU/mouse) and postinfection lung bacterial burden did not appreciably impact the kinetics of competence induction. Exogenously provided competence stimulating peptide 1 (CSP1) failed to modulate the onset kinetics of competence development in vivo. The competence shutoff regulator DprA was highly expressed during pneumonia-derived sepsis but failed to turn off the competent state in mice. Competent D39 bacteria propagated the competence signal through cell-to-cell contact rather than the classically described quorum-sensing mechanism. Finally, clinical pneumococcal strains of different serotypes were also able to develop natural competence during pneumonia-derived sepsis.
The Implementation of a Large-Scale Pathway Reform: How Department Chairs Make Sense of and Navigate a Pathway Initiative in a Community College

Nationally, the pathway model – commonly defined as “a highly structured, coherent education experience that is built around and through an area of study” – has emerged as the preferred structural ...
Rapid reconstruction of highly undersampled, non‐Cartesian real‐time cine k‐space data using a perceptual complex neural network (PCNN)

Highly accelerated real-time cine MRI using compressed sensing (CS) is a promising approach to achieve high spatio-temporal resolution and clinically acceptable image quality in patients with arrhythmia and/or dyspnea. However, its lengthy image reconstruction time may hinder its clinical translation. The purpose of this study was to develop a neural network for reconstruction of non-Cartesian real-time cine MRI k-space data faster (<1 min per slice with 80 frames) than graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated CS reconstruction, without significant loss in image quality or accuracy in left ventricular (LV) functional parameters. We introduce a perceptual complex neural network (PCNN) that trains on complex-valued MRI signal and incorporates a perceptual loss term to suppress incoherent image details. This PCNN was trained and tested with multi-slice, multi-phase, cine images from 40 patients (20 for training, 20 for testing), where the zero-filled images were used as input and the corresponding CS reconstructed images were used as practical ground truth. The resulting images were compared using quantitative metrics (structural similarity index (SSIM) and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE)) and visual scores (conspicuity, temporal fidelity, artifacts, and noise scores), individually graded on a five-point scale (1, worst; 3, acceptable; 5, best), and LV ejection fraction (LVEF). The mean processing time per slice with 80 frames for PCNN was 23.7 ± 1.9 s for pre-processing (Step 1, same as CS) and 0.822 ± 0.004 s for dealiasing (Step 2, 166 times faster than CS). Our PCNN produced higher data fidelity metrics (SSIM = 0.88 ± 0.02, NRMSE = 0.014 ± 0.004) compared with CS. While all the visual scores were significantly different (P < 0.05), the median scores were all 4.0 or higher for both CS and PCNN. LVEFs measured from CS and PCNN were strongly correlated (R2 = 0.92) and in good agreement (mean difference = -1.4% [2.3% of mean]; limit of agreement = 10.6% [17.6% of mean]). The proposed PCNN is capable of rapid reconstruction (25 s per slice with 80 frames) of non-Cartesian real-time cine MRI k-space data, without significant loss in image quality or accuracy in LV functional parameters.
Managed Computer System Conceptualization: Knowing When to Say No

L'A. se demande comment on peut evaluer le bien-fonde de la mise en place de systemes informatiques au sein des services sociaux. Il souligne que bon nombre de projet de ce type sont parfois abandonnes du fait de facteurs humains ou de l'inadaptation des produits proposes. Il presente un certain nombre de donnees concernant l'abandon d'un projet d'informatisation d'un service d'aide a l'enfance aux Etats-Unis. Il examine celui-ci en detail. Il montre, ensuite, qu'il convient d'adopter une perspective de gestion faisant intervenir la conscience critique en ce domaine
Capabilities and Design Parameters for Volume Holographic Optical Elements in Imaging Systems

New forms of imaging modalities such as selective imaging and augmented reality eyewear, place special requirements on the optics used in these systems. This presentation reviews the properties of volume holographic materials for these applications.
There’s No Lawsuits in Baseball: Houston Astros’ Liability for Sign Stealing

On February 10, 2020, former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Michael Bolsinger filed suit against the Houston Astros for alleged damages that resulted from the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme. The five causes of action in the complaint are unfair business practices, negligence, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic relations, and negligent interference with prospective economic relations. This essay briefly covers the events leading up to the lawsuit as well as issues of causation, assumption of risk, and damages.
Approximate Bayesian computation for railway track geometry parameter estimation

The quality of track geometry is directly linked to vehicle safety, reliability and ride quality. The performance of track is therefore considerably hindered when track geometry indicators deviate ...
Neoliberalism’s influence on American universities: How the business model harms students and society:

The influence of neoliberalism on colleges and universities leads to conditions that make it difficult for students from low-income families to profit from higher education. It contributes to a les...
The story of the Grameen Bank: From subsidised microcredit to market-based microfinance

Abstract This paper looks at the establishment and evolution of the iconic Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. It traces the development of the Bank from its origins, providing microcredit to poor, rural women in Bangladesh, through a period of national expansion and institutionalisation, to the replication around the world of the Grameen model. In the late 1990s the Bank faced repayment problems and a developing financial crisis, and strategies were put in place to stabilise and reshape the Bank. This led in 2001 to the launch of Grameen II, which is analysed in terms of its main components and its results. Finally, the paper looks at Grameen Bank’s future role as a major player in the microfinance market, and as an inspiration for those helping poor people improve their own lives. Keywords : Microfinance, Bangladesh David Hulme is Associate Director, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester; Associate Director, Chronic Poverty Research Centre; Leverhulme Research Professor.
Revision Quadriceps Tendon Repair With Bone-Achilles Allograft Augmentation:

Background:Surgical repair of chronic quadriceps tendon ruptures can be daunting, especially after failure of a prior repair. In this setting, tissue quality is usually poor, necessitating graft au...
User participation in a corporate prediction market

Corporate prediction markets allow companies to use external market concepts to facilitate and support corporate decision making. Recently, Google, Microsoft, GE, Best Buy, and other firms have generated and used prediction markets as a means of gathering the "collective" intelligence of their employees. Since these markets capture and aggregate information from employees and ultimately provide information for decision making, some researchers have referred to them as decision support systems or group decision support systems.Unfortunately, there has been limited theory development and empirical investigation of participation in corporate prediction markets. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to use theory generated about external investment markets to investigate participation behavior in an internal corporate market.Analysis of the number of unique traders by date and market leads to a number of findings, including that market traders apparently trade on specific information, there is a day-of-the-week effect of their participation, and participation is decreasing over time. Understanding the existence of such effects is important because they can influence the ability of the market to provide sufficient, timely, and quality decision support information. Develops theory-based hypothesis generated in open financial markets.Investigates patterns of corporate prediction market use over time.Isolates particular characteristics of use of a corporate prediction market.Compares the behavior of two different groups in a corporate prediction market.Finds day of the week, and other market effects.
Maturational asynchrony between oocyte cumulus-coronal morphology and nuclear maturity in gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist stimulations.

Objective To determine oocyte meiotic maturity and asynchrony between cumulus-coronal morphology and nuclear maturity after gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) and norethindrone-programmed stimulations. Design Oocyte meiotic maturity was evaluated at follicular aspiration in 4,961 oocytes after GnRH-a/follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)/human menopausal gonadotropin stimulations (hMG) for in vitro fertilization patients and 299 oocytes after norethindrone-programmed clomiphene citrate (CC)/hMG in oocyte donors. Maturational asynchrony between the oocyte's cumulus-coronal morphology and nuclear maturity was evaluated in 2,336 oocytes. Setting In vitro fertilization program at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; academic tertiary care center. Interventions After evaluating oocyte cumulus-coronal maturity, cumulus masses were spread to determine oocyte nuclear maturity. Results Fourteen percent, 17%, 50%, 17%, and 2% of oocytes were prophase I, metaphase I, metaphase II, postmature metaphase II, and atretic, respectively. Asynchrony was noted in 28% of prophase I, 71% of metaphase I, 11% of metaphase II, 45% of postmature metaphase II, 32% of atretic, and 28% of all oocytes. Significant differences were not found between GnRH-a and norethindrone-programmed stimulations in asynchrony between cumulus-coronal morphology and nuclear maturity or percentage of prophase I, metaphase I, metaphase II, postmature metaphase II, or atretic oocytes. Sixty-seven percent of oocytes possessed a polar body at retrieval. The rate of fertilization was significantly higher for metaphase II oocytes than postmature metaphase II and metaphase I oocytes > prophase I oocytes. Parthenogenetic activation tended to be highest for postmature metaphase II oocytes. Embryo cleavage was significantly higher for postmature metaphase II, metaphase II, and metaphase I oocytes than for prophase I oocytes. Conclusions This is the first report of asynchrony between cumulus-coronal morphology and nuclear maturity at follicular aspiration in GnRH-a and norethindrone-programmed stimulations. Asynchrony was observed in 28% of oocytes. A higher percentage of oocytes possessed a polar body at egg retrieval with these stimulation regimens compared with rates reported previously for FSH, FSH/hMG, and CC/hMG stimulations.
Theory formation by abduction; initial results of a case study based on the chemical revolution

Author(s): O'Rorke, Paul; Morris, Steven; Schulenburg, David | Abstract: Abduction is the process of constructing explanations. This chapter suggests that automated abduction is a key to advancing beyond the "routine theory revision" methods developed in early AI research towards automated reasoning systems capable of "world model revision" — dramatic changes in systems of beliefs such as occur in children's cognitive development and in scientific revolutions. The chapter describes a general approach to automating theory revision based upon computational methods for theory formation by abduction. The approach is based on the idea that, when an anomaly is encountered, the best course is often simply to suppress parts of the original theory thrown into question by the contradiction and to derive an explanation of the anomalous observation based on relatively solid, basic principles. This process of looking for explanations of unexpected new phenomena can lead by abductive inference to new hypotheses that can form crucial parts of a revised theory. As an illustration, the chapter shows how some of Lavoisier's key insights during the Chemical Revolution can be viewed as examples of theory formation by abduction.
A new model for the origin of Type-B and Fluffy Type-A CAIs: Analogies to remelted compound chondrules

Abstract– In the scenario developed here, most types of calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) formed near the Sun where they developed Wark-Lovering rims before being transported by aerodynamic forces throughout the nebula. The amount of ambient dust in the nebula varied with heliocentric distance, peaking in the CV–CK formation location. Literature data show that accretionary rims (which occur outside the Wark-Lovering rims) around CAIs contain substantial 16O-rich forsterite, suggesting that, at this time, the ambient dust in the nebula consisted largely of 16O-rich forsterite. Individual sub-millimeter-size Compact Type-A CAIs (each surrounded by a Wark-Lovering rim) collided in the CV–CK region and stuck together (in a manner similar to that of sibling compound chondrules); the CTAs were mixed with small amounts of 16O-rich mafic dust and formed centimeter-size compound objects (large Fluffy Type-A CAIs) after experiencing minor melting. In contrast to other types of CAIs, centimeter-size Type-B CAIs formed directly in the CV–CK region after gehlenite-rich Compact Type-A CAIs collided and stuck together, incorporated significant amounts of 16O-rich forsteritic dust (on the order of 10–15%) and probably some anorthite, and experienced extensive melting and partial evaporation. (Enveloping compound chondrules formed in an analogous manner.) In those cases where appreciably higher amounts of 16O-rich forsterite (on the order of 25%) (and perhaps minor anorthite and pyroxene) were incorporated into compound Type-A objects prior to melting, centimeter-size forsterite-bearing Type-B CAIs (B3 inclusions) were produced. Type-B1 inclusions formed from B2 inclusions that collided with and stuck to melilite-rich Compact Type-A CAIs and experienced high-temperature processing.
Isolation in mixed-signal systems using a novel electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure

This work presents an efficient isolation method in mixed-signal systems using a novel electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure called the alternating impedance EBG (AI-EBG) for isolating sensitive RF/analog circuits from noisy digital circuits. This EBG structure shows excellent isolation by suppressing almost all possible electromagnetic modes in bandgap frequencies. Measurements on a practical mixed-signal system show the feasibility of using this EBG structure to reduce noise coupling between RF/analog circuits and digital circuits, especially where a common power supply is used. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a realistic mixed-signal system employing an EBG-based noise suppression scheme.
Factors influencing recovery from mild traumatic brain injury

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is an injury to the brain that may result in immediate and chronic changes in cognition, language, emotion, or social interactions. The current means of assessing brain dysfunction following mTBI do not appear to accurately capture how the brain will responds to this type injury; therefore, there has been a limited ability to determine accurate prognosis from mTBI. The purpose of this study was to determine if data gathered in the initial stages of injury following mTBI could predict recovery and if so, which factors were most predictive. Participants admitted to the hospital with mTBI were evaluated within 48 hours after injury and again at approximately one month after injury. Regression analysis was used to determine if initial GCS score, initial head CT results, cognitive performance on ImPACT testing, or APOE genotype were most effective in predicting 1-month functional outcome after mTBI. Additionally, independent t-test procedures were conducted to determine whether cognitive recovery would vary across APOEe4 carriers as compared to participants without an APOEe4 allele. Results showed that none of the study variables significantly predicted one month GOS-E scores or DRS scores, however, cognitive differences were identified when APOE groups were compared. Participants who were noncarriers of an APOEe4 allele had significantly slower reaction times compared to APOEe4 carriers. Participants who were homozygous APOEe4 carriers had significantly lower instances of impulsivity than participants with other genotype combinations.
Design of metamaterial textures for microwave applications

In this paper, we propose a new way of designing artificial material volumes (or metamaterials), which have pre-specified dielectric constants. We also evaluate the dependency of the resulting dielectric constants on the generated texture and material composition. The design method is based on the mixture of two or more off-the-shelf materials (air and LTCC) to develop a pre-specified relative dielectric constant ranging from 20-100. A key aspect of the mixing approach is its practicality. That is, once the mixing formula is mathematically developed, we can then proceed to manufacture it using standard extrusion, solid free-form fabrication or other techniques. It is important to note that in our approach material mixing occurs at the microscale and the resulting mix leads to a texture rendered by a periodic repetition of a unit cell. This texture is similar to a floor carpet design, but at a much finer scale.
Exoskeletons out of the Closet

Female ants are more closely related to their sisters than to their brothers. To maximize the contribution of their genes to the colony, the female workers seem to promote the survival of female over male siblings. A report by Sundstrom et al . in this week's issue ([p. 993][1]) provides data to this effect, and in his Perspective, Seger discusses the historical evolution and implications of these ideas. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.274.5289.993
Level, speed and personality factors in the intellectual performance of young children.

Summary. Part of Progressive Matrices (1947) and an Arithmetic test were administered with initial and final time limits to a group of 100 9-year-old pupils. It was shown that, as in previous studies, with university students, groups of subjects could be identified who were slow but accurate workers whose intellectual level was severely underestimated by imposed time limits. It was also shown that the same subjects tended to be handicapped by imposed time limits on both tests. No relationship between preferred work-method and neuroticism or extraversion scores on the Junior M.P.I, was found.