cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The global flux of carbon dioxide into groundwater

The global flux of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) downward into groundwater is estimated to be ∼0.2 GtC/y. The flux is mapped over the earth's land surface by combining existing global maps of groundwater recharge, soil water pH and average temperature with a global map of soil vapor PCO2 estimated from evapotranspiration. The estimated total flux of DIC into groundwater is significantly increased if larger, but reasonable, estimates of groundwater recharge are used, and the flux could potentially be much larger for higher soil moisture pH. The residence time of DIC in groundwater is at least as long as the residence time of groundwater, which may be on the order of hundreds to thousands of years.
Oncocytic follicular nodules of the thyroid with or without chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis: An institutional experience.

Background : Oncocytic follicular (OF) cells can be a prominent component of fine needle aspiration (FNA) specimens from neoplasms (adenomas and carcinomas) and nodules arising in multinodular goiter and chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (CLT). Because OF cells can be present in non-neoplastic and neoplastic thyroid lesions it can be challenging to differentiate between these two in FNA specimens. The aims of this study were to determine the risk of malignancy in cases diagnosed as either oncocytic follicular neoplasm (OFN) or hyperplastic/adenomatoid nodule with OF on FNA and to identify clinicopathologic features that may help in predicting malignancy in such cases, especially the presence or absence of CLT. Design : We retrospectively searched the computerized laboratory information system at our institution between 1998 and 2009 for thyroid US guided FNA specimens in which the term oncocytic/oncocytes was mentioned in the final cytopathologic diagnosis. A total of 340 cases were selected for this study. The following data points were collected: Patient demographics, site of thyroid biopsy, size of lesion, FNA diagnosis, histopathologic follow-up and presence of CLT. Surgical pathology follow-up (SPFU) was available in 269 (79%) cases. Results : Two hundred and sixty patients were females and 80 males (average age 53 years). The lesion size was <3.0 cm in 241 (71%) and ≥ 3.0 cm in 99 (29%) cases. Cytologic diagnoses included: Follicular neoplasm with oncocytic features (FNOF) 321 and suggestive of FNOF 19 cases; a secondary cytologic diagnosis of CLT was made in 20 cases. SPFU was available in 269 (79%) cases; it was benign in 213 (213/267 = 79%) and malignant in 56 (56/269 = 21%) cases. The background thyroid showed CLT in 67 (25%) cases; 24% (48/196) neoplasms occurred with versus 76% (147/196) without CLT. The rate of malignancy was lower in nodules measuring less than 3.0 cm as compared to those equal or greater than 3.0 cm in size (17% vs. 28% respectively). The presence of CLT did not significantly alter the rate of malignancy in both FNA and surgical pathology specimens. Conclusions: Based on this study, nodule size and not CLT appears to be an important clinicopathologic features in the management of thyroid FNA specimens diagnosed as OFN.
Falcine and parasagittal chondrosarcomas

Intracranial chondrosarcomas are primary cartilaginous neoplasms that represent 6% of all skull base tumors. Intracranial extraskeletal chondrosarcomas are more rare, often arising from the meninges at the falx, tentorium, or cerebral convexity. They are generally characterized as classical or mesenchymal, with the latter associated with worse outcomes. We present our institutional series of falcine and parasagittal chondrosarcomas along with a review of the literature. Although skull base chondrosarcomas pose significant challenges due to their invasive biology and proximity to vital brainstem structures and cranial nerves, intracranial extraskeletal chondrosarcomas are generally associated with a good prognosis. Our review of the literature identified 29 patients with falcine and parasagittal chondrosarcomas. There were six recurrences, five among patients with the mesenchymal subtype and one in a patient with the classical subtype. All deaths occurred in patients with the mesenchymal subtype. Management of skull base chondrosarcomas is controversial but extraskeletal intracranial tumors can generally be managed by surgical resection alone. Treatment should be tailored to the biology of the tumor, with radiation therapy reserved for patients with the mesenchymal subtype.
Division of constricted and urethane-treated sand dollar eggs: a test of the polar stimulation hypothesis.

In spherical cells with a central mitotic apparatus, the centers of the asters are closer to the poles than to the equator. This circumstance is basic to several hypothetical explanations of the way in which the mitotic apparatus establishes the division mechanism. This investigation was designed to determine whether that geometrical relationship is necessary for division. Fertilized, mechanically denuded sand dollar eggs were inserted into glass loops, which reduced the diameter in the constriction plane from the normal 142 to 78–80 μm and partly constricted the cell into equal parts. The mitotic apparatus straddled the constriction, and its length was not significantly changed. The manipulation increased the distance from the astral centers to the poles and decreased the distance from the astral centers to the equator to a degree that reversed the normal distance relations. These cells divided normally. Ethyl urethane (0.06 M) reduces the size of the mitotic apparatus and blocks cleavage in spherical cells. When treated cells are confined in 80-μm i.d. capillaries, they divide. Treated cells also divide when they are constricted by an 80-μm i.d. glass loop if the mitotic apparatus straddles the constriction. An equal degree of constriction in the subfurrow and subpolar areas did not reverse the effect of urethane. The results demonstrate that cleavage does not depend on the normal distance relation between the mitotic apparatus and the poles, and that the urethane effect can be remedied only by reducing the distance between the mitotic apparatus and the equatorial surface. Both findings are inconsistent with the polar stimulation hypothesis.
Mortality Modeling Perspectives

As the human lifespan increases, more and more people are becoming interested in mortality rates at higher ages. Since 1909, the birth rate in the United States has been decreasing except for a major significant increase after World War II, between the years 1946 and 1964, also known as the baby boom period. People born during the baby boom are now between the ages of 44 and 62. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, US Department Health and Human Services, in 1900–1902, one could expect to live for 49 years on average. Today, an infant can expect to live about 77 years. As of recent years and in prediction, the life expectancy for an infant born may be even higher. With the human lifespan increasing and a large part of the United States population aging, many researchers in various fields have recently become interested in studying quantitative models of mortality rates. Scientists in biological fields are not only interested in organisms and how they are made, they are also interested in what happens to organisms over time. A study of yeast, which would interest biologists, showed the effects of senescence as well as a model that accurately represents the experimental data. It has been shown that the addition of a Sir2 gene can prolong life in yeast. Once we can model human aging, we can look for ways to extend our lifespan and counteract the negative aspects of aging.
Unambiguous Diagnosis of Photoinduced Charge Carrier Signatures in a Stoichiometrically Controlled Semiconducting Polymer-Wrapped Carbon Nanotube Assembly.

Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-based nanohybrid compositions based on (6,5) chirality-enriched SWNTs ([(6,5) SWNTs]) and a chiral n-type polymer (S-PBN(b)-Ph4 PDI) that exploits a perylenediimide (PDI)-containing repeat unit are reported; S-PBN(b)-Ph4 PDI-[(6,5) SWNT] superstructures feature a PDI electron acceptor unit positioned at 3 nm intervals along the nanotube surface, thus controlling rigorously SWNT-electron acceptor stoichiometry and organization. Potentiometric studies and redox-titration experiments determine driving forces for photoinduced charge separation (CS) and thermal charge recombination (CR) reactions, as well as spectroscopic signatures of SWNT hole polaron and PDI radical anion (PDI(-.) ) states. Time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopic studies demonstrate that S-PBN(b)-Ph4 PDI-[(6,5) SWNT] electronic excitation generates PDI(-.) via a photoinduced CS reaction (τCS ≈0.4 ps, ΦCS ≈0.97). These experiments highlight the concomitant rise and decay of transient absorption spectroscopic signatures characteristic of the SWNT hole polaron and PDI(-.) states. Multiwavelength global analysis of these data provide two charge-recombination time constants (τCR ≈31.8 and 250 ps) that likely reflect CR dynamics involving both an intimately associated SWNT hole polaron and PDI(-.) charge-separated state, and a related charge-separated state involving PDI(-.) and a hole polaron site produced via hole migration along the SWNT backbone that occurs over this timescale.
Discussion of “The Effect of Research and Development (R&D) Inputs and Outputs on the Relation between the Uncertainty of Future Operating Performance and R&D Expenditures”:

Pandit, Wasley, and Zach (2011) examine whether both research and development (R&D) input (R&D expenditures) and output measures (patent counts and citations) and their interaction associate with the level and variability of future earnings and operating cash flows. The associations examined contribute to the literature because they help determine whether the relationship between firm-level innovation and operating performance is conditional on the success of a firm’s R&D efforts. The conditioning is important because it can sort out more successful from less successful R&D firms. In my discussion, I focus on the models employed and on the empirical results. Some results are consistent with expectations and some other results are not. I think that the mixed results are due to the models employed and I make some suggestions for model improvements.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in-flight anomalies and lessons learned: An update

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission has as its primary objectives: advance our understanding of the current Mars climate, the processes that have formed and modified the surface of the planet and the extent to which water has played a role in surface processes; identify sites of possible aqueous activity indicating environments that may have been or are conducive to biological activity; and thus identify and characterize sites for future landed missions; and provide forward and return relay services for current and future Mars landed assets. MRO's crucial role in the long term strategy for Mars exploration requires a high level of reliability during its 5.4 year mission. This requires an architecture which incorporates extensive redundancy and cross-strapping. Because of the distances and hence light-times involved, the spacecraft itself must be able to utilize this redundancy in responding to time-critical failures. For cases where fault protection is unable to recognize a potentially threatening condition, either due to known limitations or software flaws, intervention by ground operations is required. These aspects of MRO's design were discussed in a previous paper [Ref. 1]. This paper provides an update to the original paper, describing MRO's significant in-flight anomalies over the past year, with lessons learned for redundancy and fault protection architectures and for ground operations
An outlier detection based approach for PCB testing

Capacitive Leadframe testing is an effective approach for detecting faults in printed circuit boards. Capacitance measurements, however, are affected by mechanical variations during testing and by tolerances of electrical parameters of components, making it difficult to use threshold based techniques for defect detection. A novel approach is presented for identifying boards that are likely to be outliers. Based on Principal Components Analysis (PCA), this approach treats the set of capacitance measurements of individual connectors or sockets in a holistic manner to overcome the measurement and component parameter variations inherent in test data. The effectiveness of the method is evaluated using measurements on three different boards. Enhancements to the technique to increase the resolution of the method are presented and evaluated.
Experimental Investigations of the Performance of a Multitube Pulse Detonation Turbine System

A multitube pulse detonation combustor consisting of eight unvalved tubes arranged in a can-annular configuration was integrated with a single-stage axial turbine nominally rated for 10 lbm=s, 25,000 rpm and 1000 hp. The multitube pulse-detonation-combustor-turbine hybrid was operated using ethylene-air mixtures for runs of 5 min to achieve thermal steady state in order to quantify performance at two operating conditions using simultaneous and sequential firing patterns. Analysis of these data reveal that turbine efficiency under pulsedetonation-combustor-fired operation was indistinguishable from steady performance within the 8 points measurement uncertainty. Furthermore, the pulse-detonation-combustor-turbine hybrid system demonstrated a potential 25% improvement in efficiency once corrections were made for the suboptimal fueling design, which resulted in lower-than-anticipated combustion efficiency. The present work is promising as it suggests that a pulsedetonation-combustor-turbine hybrid engine performance benefit can be realized with further development.
Androgen Administration in the Postmenopausal Woman

DURING the past ten years the utilization of androgens as therapeutic agents in women has become increasingly popular. In a complete and objective survey of the subject Carter, Cohen, and Shorr (1) emphasize the fact that although recent literature is studded with accounts of beneficial results obtained by the administration of various androgenic preparations to women, actually very little is known of the pathophysiology involved. The purpose of this paper, then, is to present some interesting observations recorded as the result of the administration of estrogen and testosterone to a group of postmenopausal women and to discuss some of the physiologic and histologic factors which come into play when a basically male hormone is given to the human female. Most of the major contributions concerning androgens and their relationship to the other components of the female endocrine system have been too well reviewed in the above mentioned paper to warrant repetition here. Suffice it to say that despite the excel...
A COPULA REGRESSION FOR MODELING MULTIVARIATE LOSS TRIANGLES AND QUANTIFYING RESERVING VARIABILITY

This article proposes a claims reserving model for dependent lines of business with the accommodation of association among triangles by a copula function. We show that the family of elliptical copulas is a pretty convenient choice to capture the dependencies introduced by various sources, including the common calendar year effects. To quantify the associated reserving variability, we resort to parametric bootstrapping techniques for simulating the predictive distribution of outstanding liabilities and for calculating the three components of predictive uncertainty: the model error, the process error and the estimation error. Numerical analysis is performed for a portfolio of casualty insurance from a major U.S. insurer.
Character of the Hard Tooth Tissue-polymer Bond II. Study of the Interaction of Human Tooth Enamel and Dentin with N-Phenylglycine-Glycidyl Methacrylate Adduct

The interaction of powdered human tooth enamel and dentin with NPG-GMA was studied in alcoholic and alcoholic-aqueous solutions. The reaction produces ionized carboxylic groups capable of forming ionic bonds between the calcium ions in the tooth enamel or dentin and NPG-GMA.
Multiple sprint work : physiological responses, mechanisms of fatigue and the influence of aerobic fitness.

The activity patterns of many sports (e.g. badminton, basketball, soccer and squash) are intermittent in nature, consisting of repeated bouts of brief (≤6-second) maximal/near-maximal work interspersed with relatively short (≤60-second) moderate/low-intensity recovery periods. Although this is a general description of the complex activity patterns experienced in such events, it currently provides the best means of directly assessing the physiological response to this type of exercise. During a single short (5- to 6-second) sprint, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is resynthesised predominantly from anaerobic sources (phosphocreatine [PCr] degradation and glycolysis), with a small (<10%) contribution from aerobic metabolism. During recovery, oxygen uptake (V-dotO2) remains elevated to restore homeostasis via processes such as the replenishment of tissue oxygen stores, the resynthesis of PCr, the metabolism of lactate, and the removal of accumulated intracellular inorganic phosphate (Pi). If recovery periods are relatively short, V-dotO2 remains elevated prior to subsequent sprints and the aerobic contribution to ATP resynthesis increases. However, if the duration of the recovery periods is insufficient to restore the metabolic environment to resting conditions, performance during successive work bouts may be compromised. Although the precise mechanisms of fatigue during multiple sprint work are difficult to elucidate, evidence points to a lack of available PCr and an accumulation of intracellular Pi as the most likely causes. Moreover, the fact that both PCr resynthesis and the removal of accumulated intracellular Pi are oxygen-dependent processes has led several authors to propose a link between aerobic fitness and fatigue during multiple sprint work. However, whilst the theoretical basis for such a relationship is compelling, corroborative research is far from substantive. Despite years of investigation, limitations in analytical techniques combined with methodological differences between studies have left many issues regarding the physiological response to multiple sprint work unresolved. As such, multiple sprint work provides a rich area for future applied sports science research.
Prelaunch performance of the NASA altimeter for the TOPEX/Poseidon project

The TOPEX/Poseidon radar altimeter satellite applies advances in remote sensing instrumentation to reduce long wavelength measurement errors to dramatically lower levels. The TOPEX altimeter measures the range to the ocean surface with 2-cm precision and accuracy through the use of both Ku- and C-band radars, a high pulse repetition frequency, an agile tracker, and absolute internal height calibration. Dual pulse bandwidths for both frequencies make it possible to quickly acquire the surface and begin tracking after crossing the land/ocean boundary. The altimeter requirements and the elements of the altimeter design that have resulted in meeting these requirements are presented. Prelaunch test data, based on the use of a radar altimeter system evaluator to simulate the backscatter from the ocean surface, are presented to demonstrate that the TOPEX altimeter will meet these requirements and provide the data necessary to the understanding of basin scale mean circulation. >
Bonding of stainless steel brackets to enamel with a new self-etching primer.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to measure the shear bond strength of stainless steel brackets bonded to enamel in vitro with a recently developed self-etching primer (Transbond Plus Self Etching Primer, 3M Unitek, Monrovia, Calif). Forty-eight extracted human teeth were obtained and randomly divided into 4 groups of 12: (1) control group with a conventional etchant and separate primer, (2) experimental group with the self-etching primer, left for 15 seconds before bonding, (3) same as group 2, but with the primer left for 2 minutes before bonding, (4) same as group 2, but with the primer left for 10 minutes before bonding. For each group, stainless steel brackets were mounted onto the prepared enamel, stored for 24 hours at 37°C, and tested in a testing machine with a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min. There was no significant difference in the bond strength between the 4 groups as determined by analysis of variance (ANOVA) ( P
Social Anthropology and Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa

A remarkable feature of African studies has been the sharp discontinuities in the characterization of transitions in African history and society from one era to another. Thus, for an important example, colonialism has rarely been related to the previous era of the slave trade in the analysis of any dominant socioeconomic themes in Africa. Such discontinuity is significant in one important strand of modern African studies: The transition from the lore and scholarship of colonial social anthropology to postcolonial forms of African studies has been stalled into a brittle break because its central focus on the “tribe” has been under attack. Social anthropology gained strength through its analysis of the tribe and its associated concepts of kin groups and kinship behaviors in colonial Africa. However, following criticisms of the mission and manners of social anthropology by postindependence African scholars and politicians, and a brave reexamination of the conceptual problems of their discipline, social anthropologists more or less agreed to abandon the use of the tribe and of its more obvious derivative tribalism with respect to Africa.
Queuing spin lock algorithms to support timing predictability

We introduce practical new algorithms for FIFO and priority-ordered spin locks on shared-memory multiprocessors with an atomic swap instruction. Different versions of these queuing spin locks are designed for machines with coherent-cache and NUMA memory models. We discuss extensions to provide nested lock acquisition, conditional locking, timeout of lock requests, and preemption waiters. These locks support predictable timing in the lowest kernel and user levels of time-line-scheduled and priority-scheduled real-time systems. >
Making Higher Education More Affordable, One Course Reading at a Time: Academic Libraries as Key Advocates for Open Access Textbooks and Educational Resources

Open access textbooks (OATs) and educational resources (OERs) are being lauded as a viable alternative to costly print textbooks. Some academic libraries are joining the OER movement by creating guides to open repositories. Others are promoting OATs and OERs, reviewing them, and even helping to create them. This article analyzes how academic libraries are currently engaged in open access textbook and OER initiatives. By drawing on examples of library initiatives across the United States, the author illustrates how libraries are facilitating the adoption and implementation of these affordable resources.
A Primer on the 2011 Corrections Realignment: WhyCalifornia Placed Felons Under County Control

II. THE 2011 CORRECTIONS REALIGNMENT IN BRIEF 426 A. California’s Felon Management Landscape Before Corrections Realignment 427 B. California’s Felon Management Landscape After Corrections Realignment 427 1. Counties Exercise Complete Control over “Low-Level” Felons .... 428 2. Counties Supervise “Mid-Level” Felons upon Release from Prison 429 3. Counties Incarcerate “High-Level” Felons Who Violate Their Parole Conditions 430
SPERMOPHILUS ELEGANS (RODENTIA, SCIURIDAE) FROM THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE OF COLORADO AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SPERMOPHILUS RICHARDSONII GROUP

Two extant ground squirrel species are included in the Spermophilus richardsonii group (Nadler et al., 1982). The Wyoming ground squirrel (Spermophilus elegans) occupies open habitats in the central Rocky Mountains and northern Basin and Range regions (Zegers, 1984); Richardson's ground squirrel (Spermophilus richardsonii) occurs on the northern Great Plains (Michener and Koeppl, 1985). The two species hybridize along a narrow contact zone in southwestern Montana (Nadler et al., 1971; Koeppl et al., 1978). A member of the S. richardsonii group was present by the middle Pleistocene on the Great Plains (Cudahy Local Fauna; Paulson, 1961), but is poorly known before the late Pleistocene when fossils are common on the central and unglaciated northern Great Plains (Neuner, 1975). Based on a multivariate discriminant analysis (Neuner, 1975) and study of bacular morphology of a well-preserved fossil (Neuner and Schultz, 1979), this middle to late Pleistocene squirrel was judged intermediate between and likely ancestral to S. elegans and S. richardsonii, indicating a latest Pleistocene or Holocene origin of extant species.
Why the Obamas Paid Too Much in Taxes

You know the expression that the rich are different. Well, we found out that President and Mrs. Obama made more than $5 million last year, and after examining their tax returns, I can say that they are different — but not in the way you might think. They are different because, for their income group, they paid too much in taxes.
The Impact of Operating Leases and Purchase Obligations on Credit Market Prices

We document that credit spreads are positively related to two types of executory contracts: noncancellable operating leases and unconditional purchase obligations. However, while leases and purchase obligations receive the same treatment by the Bankruptcy Code and current financial reporting rules, the credit spread impact per unit of leverage from purchase obligations is substantially less than that from leases. We conjecture that the effect of executory contracts on credit spreads depends on how essential the underlying assets or services are for the functioning of a bankrupt firm as a going concern. Essential contracts are likely to be unconditionally assumed by bankruptcy trustees, thus representing potentially higher post-default losses for holders of unsecured debt. Our findings potentially inform accounting standards that propose recognizing firms' operating lease obligations in financial statements while continuing to require solely footnoted disclosure of purchase obligations.
Proteinuria and the Fragility of Normal and Diseased Glomerular Basement Membrane

SummarySingle straight capillary strands measuring 60-100 μm were secured by micromanipulators and microprobes from excised peripheral portions of the tufts of isolated glomeruli. The physical properties of these strands were considered to represent those of GBM. Normal glomerular strands could be stretched up to 40% beyond their initial length with good recoil but broke when they were stretched from 60 to 77% beyond their initial length. By contrast 100% of the glomerular strands from the kidneys with AMN, 87% of those from kidneys with NTN and the most affected glomeruli from aged rats with glomerulosclerosis broke immediately when stretched beyond their initial length. Elasticity could not be determined under these circumstances. Normal glomerular strands showed marked increases in fragility when briefly exposed to proteolytic enzymes, neuraminidase, to polycations and to basic amines. It seems that direct enzymatic action on GBM or alterations in its chemical composition and molecular configuration as...
Advances in Inverse Transport Methods

We present advances in inverse transport methods and demonstrate their application to neutron tomography problems that have significant scattering. The problem we consider is inference of the material distribution in an object by detection and analysis of the radiation exiting from it. Our approach combines both deterministic and stochastic optimization methods to find a material distribution that minimizes the difference between computed and measured detector responses. The main advances are dimension-reduction schemes that we have designed to take advantage of known and postulated constraints. One key constraint is that the cross sections for a given region in the object must be the cross sections for a real material. We illustrate our approach using a neutron tomography model problem on which we impose reasonable constraints, similar to those that in practice would come from prior information or engineering judgment. This problem shows that our method is capable of generating results that are much better than those of deterministic minimization methods and dramatically more efficient than those of typical stochastic methods.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
An ultra thin ΔEE counter telescope with position sensitivity in two dimensions

Abstract A thin-window proportional counter (ΔE)Si surface barrier detector (E) telescope is described which has position sensitivity in two dimensions with a resolution of E M =0.2−5 MeV/amu and is very easy to construct and to use.
AOP: An R Package For Sufficient Causal Analysis in Pathway-based Screening of Drugs and Chemicals for Adversity

Summary: How can I quickly find the key events in a pathway that I need to monitor to predict that a/an beneficial/adverse event/outcome will occur? This is a key question when using signaling pathways for drug/chemical screening in pharmacology, toxicology and risk assessment. By identifying these sufficient causal key events, we have fewer events to monitor for a pathway, thereby decreasing assay costs and time, while maximizing the value of the information. I have developed the "aop" package which uses back-door analysis of causal networks to identify these minimal sets of key events that are sufficient for making causal predictions. Availability and Implementation: The source for the aop package is available online at Github at https://github.com/DataSciBurgoon/aop and can be installed using the R devtools package. The aop package runs within the R statistical environment. The package has functions that can take pathways (as directed graphs) formatted as a Cytoscape JSON file as input, or pathways can be represented as directed graphs using the R/Bioconductor "graph" package. The "aop" package has functions that can perform backdoor analysis to identify the minimal set of key events for making causal predictions. Contact: lyle.d.burgoon@usace.army.mil
Effects of fossil fuel structure change on the atmospheric δ~(13)CO_2

Based on the CO2 emission amount and the stable carbon isotope composition of coal, petroleum, and natural gas, we calculated the d13CO2(PDB) of the fossil fuels from 1860 to 1996; then investigated the effects of the fossil fuel structure change on the atmospheric d13CO2 with a simple global carbon cycle model, and compared the calculated results with the monitored data by CMDL since 1989. Results show that d13CO2 of the fossil fuel decreased 4.5 during the last 140 years; after considering this dynamic change in the carbon cycle model, the correlativity between the calculated results and the simultaneous monitored values of atmospheric d13CO2 has been enhanced considerably.
Modified KSS test with application to China's inflation rate

Kapetanios et al.~([1]) propose a unit root test in the ESTAR framework.The KSS test relies on the i.i.d.assumption for the error term,which is very restrictive in application.When the error term is stationary and weakly dependent,the limiting distribution of the KSS test statistic is not nuisance parameter free.The proposed modified KSS test is nuisance parameter free,and Monte Carlo simulation results suggest the modified statistic reduce the size distortion due to serial correlation in error term,and the power of the test statistic is higher than PP test.Applying the test on China's inflation rate suggests it's a unit root nonstationary process.
Food safety risk monitoring in Mianyang City, 2014

Objective To analyze the results of food safety risk monitoring in Mianyang city in 2014, to understand the current situation of safety in Mianyang City, to carry out the early warning of prominent problems which were found in food monitoring and provide reference for food safety supervision. Methods Sampling and detection were performed according to the National food safety risk monitoring plan, and the monitoring data were analyzed. Results 467 samples were detected in 2014, and the overall qualified rate was 92.93%(434/467), while the qualified rate of Drinks/drinking/eating ice was the lowest [64.86%(24/37) ], followed by the meat and meat products [80.00%(32/40) ]. The compliance rate in physical and chemical indicators was 94.58%(227/240), while the compliance rate in microbial indicators was 91.19%(207/227), and there was no statistically significant difference between the two. The compliance rates for the harmful elements, pesticide residues, food additives and index of fluorescent whitening agent were94.39%(202/214), 99.13%(114/115), 100.00%(57/57) and 100.00%(10/10), respectively. Conclusion The situation of safety is basically good in Mianyang City, but there are still some problems. The monitoring and supervision of the drinks/drinking/eating, the meat and meat products and other food should be improved to ensure safe of consumers.
Clostridium difficile virulence factors inducing anti-infection response and its gene functions

Clostridium difficile is one of the most common causes for hospital acquired diarrhea.During the past decade,incidence of Clostridium difficile associated disease has significantly increased worldwide coincident with emerging of hypervirulent strain ribotyping 027,and this microorganism has been included into monitoring pathogens of national notable disease in several western countries.Hosts immune responses to virulence factors,mainly toxin A and toxin B produced by toxigenic strains,directly influence the development of disease.Further more,a number of strains express an additional toxin termed binary toxin.In this paper,we retrospect and summarize the latest advancement of the gene functions of Clostridium difficile virulence factors inducing anti-infection response,and primarily discuss the characteristics of molecular model and gene regulation of toxin A and toxin B,which will be a basis for study on screen of possible vaccine antigen target and signal transduction in pathogenic mechanism of Clostridium difficile.
Hysteroscopy and assisted reproductive technology

Hysteroscopy is an excellent additional instrument for evaluating the uterine characteristics in infertile women. This article reviews the two main indications for hysteroscopy in infertile patients who are candidates for assisted reproductive techniques: (1) to evaluate the cervix and uterine cavity and (2) rule out any pathology or lesions that could have been missed by hysterosalpingography. Hysteroscopy has been proposed as an alternative method to traditional transabdominal transfer of gamete or embryo to the tube.
JAMA Internal Medicine—The Year in Review, 2015

I want to thank all of our readers, authors, reviewers, and of coursemyincredible teamofeditors foranotherwonderfuland enjoyable year. We are also delighted to have an active group of JAMA InternalMedicineEditorial Fellows andElectiveResidents fromUniversity of California, SanFrancisco house staff who all make considerable contributions to the journal. It is agreatprivilege toedit JAMAInternalMedicine, thanks in large part to the work of all of our authors and reviewers, who make our jobs as editors both enjoyable and inspirational. We love talking with you at conferences and hearing fromyou. Learning that publishing in JAMA Internal Medicine opened new doors in your careermakes our day. We hit a new record for submissions this year, at 2893. At the same time,we shortenedour turnaround time from receipt to accept to a median of 59 days, thanks to all of the hard work of the editors. As you can see, we have a high reject-withoutreview rate of 82%,whichmeans that all of the senior editors are working hard to read and triage papers and thus only use our reviewers’ precious time for articlesweknowhave a good chanceofbeing reviewedfavorablyandpublished inourpages. After 7 years of working together, we have learned to look for thekindof content that has a clinical impact that you readand think, “yes, I am going to start doing that,” or “I am no longer going to do this.” We are pleased to welcome Gregory Curfman to our editorial group this year to edit our new section in the intersection of Health Care Policy and Law. Altmetrics is a newway to track thenumber of times each article ismentioned in themedia or socialmedia. This yearwe were thrilled to have 6 articles on the Top 100 Altmetrics list of 2015. You can see theAltmetric score for individual articles onourwebsite.Wealsohad33000media impressions and6.5 million downloads of articles. The journal’s Impact Factor is 14, ranking secondamong internalmedicine journals andsixth among 151 general medical journals. We want to continue publishing your high-quality studies and clinical trials as well as a range of opinion pieces and Teachable Moments from our trainees. In this election year, we will continue to publish articles on health policy related to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other new programs, as well as critical issues such as gun violence. With your help, we want to publish articles that make a difference.
Human Resources Information Systems: Basics, Applications, and Future Directions

Human Resource Information Systems: Basics, Applications, and Future Directionsby Michael Kavanagh and Mohan Thite (Eds.)Publisher: Sage Publications (2008)Text Paperback: 488 pp.ISBN-13: 9781412944564
Industrial Microwave Power Adoption Rate and the Diffusion of Technical Information

ABSTRACTThe time rate of adoption of a new process or product may be described as the first and second phase of the life cycle curve of the process or product. To illustrate this argument the generalized life cycle curve of a process or product is shown and its phase characteristics are discussed. Examples of the characteristic shape of the first and second phase of the life cycle curve of several specific products and processes are shown and discussed.The elements influencing the time rate of adoption are considered in a source input model. The input factors are divided into two classes, (1) technology transfer factors and (2) economic growth factors. Under each class several subfactors are evaluated.Factors are selected from the generalized model, using time series analysis, which appear likely to have the largest influence on the rate of adoption of industrial microwave power.During the process of time series analysis the equations for the final estimating model are developed.One of the most suitable i...
Hysteretic behavior of bladder afferent neurons in response to changes in bladder pressure

Mechanosensitive afferents innervating the bladder increase their firing rate as the bladder fills and pressure rises. However, the relationship between afferent firing rates and intravesical pressure is not a simple linear one. Firing rate responses to pressure can differ depending on prior activity, demonstrating hysteresis in the system. Though this hysteresis has been commented on in published literature, it has not been quantified. Sixty-six bladder afferents recorded from sacral dorsal root ganglia in five alpha-chloralose anesthetized felines were identified based on their characteristic responses to pressure (correlation coefficient ≥ 0.2) during saline infusion (2 ml/min). For saline infusion trials, we calculated a maximum hysteresis ratio between the firing rate difference at each pressure and the overall firing rate range (or Hmax) of 0.86 ± 0.09 (mean ± standard deviation) and mean hysteresis ratio (or Hmean) of 0.52 ± 0.13 (n = 46 afferents). For isovolumetric trials in two experiments (n = 33 afferents) Hmax was 0.72 ± 0.14 and Hmean was 0.40 ± 0.14. A comprehensive state model that integrates these hysteresis parameters to determine the bladder state may improve upon existing neuroprostheses for bladder control.
Diagnosing primary progressive multiple sclerosis

A 56-year-old man with a history of asthma and anxiety presented for further evaluation of his ongoing neurological decline. He reported being in good neurological health until a few years ago, when he developed left hand clumsiness followed by some difficulty ambulating due to fatigable weakness in his left leg. He noticed that his left leg would become weak while walking long distances but then would improve after resting. These symptoms prompted neurophysiological studies that demonstrated mild bilateral median neuropathies at the wrist, which was thought to be contributing to his hand symptoms. Lower extremity neurophysiological testing did not reveal a polyneuropathy, myopathy, or radiculopathy. He subsequently underwent a lumbar spine MRI for his ambulation difficulties that demonstrated some degenerative disk disease, but no spinal stenosis or nerve root compression.
Combining traditional and Web-based distance learning in information technology education

Web-based distance learning is used for a wide range of educational programs, from one day certificate programs to complete graduate degree programs. Some of the advantages include flexibility, convenience and removal of geographical limitations on student location. These advantages are best provided by a combination of the asynchronous and synchronous delivery modes. The asynchronous delivery mode enables on-demand content and flexibility while the synchronous delivery mode provides for interactivity and sense of community. The developed Internet Software Development Program utilizes this combined approach, in addition to traditional classroom/laboratory setting, in four certificate courses. Based on that experience, a hybrid approach was developed where traditional classroom lectures and lab exercises are done simultaneously for both classroom students and distance learning students. All students access the same content and can interact using audio. Based on the initial positive feedback, this approach is being refined for use in teaching a preparatory Java programming course for a fully online graduate program in information technology.
Sulforaphane is a Nrf2-independent inhibitor of mitochondrial fission

The KEAP1-Nrf2-ARE antioxidant system is a principal means by which cells respond to oxidative and xenobiotic stresses. Sulforaphane (SFN), an electrophilic isothiocyanate derived from cruciferous vegetables, activates the KEAP1-Nrf2-ARE pathway and has become a molecule-of-interest in the treatment of diseases in which chronic oxidative stress plays a major etiological role. We demonstrate here that the mitochondria of cultured, human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE-1) cells treated with SFN undergo hyperfusion that is independent of both Nrf2 and its cytoplasmic inhibitor KEAP1. Mitochondrial fusion has been reported to be cytoprotective by inhibiting pore formation in mitochondria during apoptosis, and consistent with this, we show Nrf2-independent, cytoprotection of SFN-treated cells exposed to the apoptosis-inducer, staurosporine. Mechanistically, SFN mitigates the recruitment and/or retention of the soluble fission factor Drp1 to mitochondria and to peroxisomes but does not affect overall Drp1 abundance. These data demonstrate that the beneficial properties of SFN extend beyond activation of the KEAP1-Nrf2-ARE system and warrant further interrogation given the current use of this agent in multiple clinical trials.
School Discipline Disproportionality: American Indian Students in Special Education

American Indian students are disproportionately represented in school discipline referrals (ODRs) and administrative outcomes across general school populations (Brown and DiTillio in J Educ Learn 2(4):47–59, 2013; Whitford and Levine-Donnerstein in Behav Disord 39(2), 2014). The purpose of this study was to examine the ODRs and administrative outcomes of 1612 students in special education, with particular attention to American Indian students (29.2% of the sample). Results indicated, although proportionally referred to school administration for disciplinary action, American Indian students in special education were more likely to be given an out-of-school suspension and/or expulsion, than both White and Hispanic/Latino students in special education, for the same identifying behaviors. Implications for improved practice are provided.
Bittersweet ambivalence: Austin’s street artists speak of gentrification

ABSTRACTBoth gentrification and street art are concerned with the conquest of urban space. Although historically, graffiti and street art have functioned to challenge the status quo, a growing appreciation for urban art unveils a far more collaborative attitude between some street artists and the elite. A familiar esthetic of gentrified terrains involves repurposing spaces that capture the urban experience. In some cities, urban redevelopment preserves original materials that capture that “urban feel” by highlighting exposed brick structures, rustic furnishings, industrial lofts, and urban art. In other cities, these styles are recreated consciously. This paper draws from in-depth interviews with street artists from Austin, Texas, one of the fastest growing urban landscapes in the U.S., to discuss street artists’ attitudes towards gentrification. Its examination of stories and personal narratives about gentrification shows the complexities of rapid urban expansion as perceived by Austin street artists, an...
Extreme learning machines to approximate low dimensional spaces for helicopter load signal and fatigue life estimation

As aircraft fleets are required to expand their roles and usage, the accurate estimation of component loads in a helicopter is an important capability for safety and security reasons as well as for life cycle management and life extension efforts. Although dynamic component loads can be measured and monitored directly, these measurement methods are not reliable and are costly and difficult to maintain. Computational intelligence techniques have been successfully used for estimating helicopter dynamic loads and their resulting fatigue life using flight system and control parameters. However, other approaches work on low dimensional spaces with the advantage of smaller number of features and noise reduction due to information fusion. Nonlinear transformations have been used for this purpose, but their computation via implicit methods becomes more complex, time consuming and impractical with data growth. Moreover, the relationships between the features of the original and the target spaces are more difficult to uncover. Extreme Learning Machines (ELM) are used as an explicit functional representation for implicit methods, in particular for the t-SNE mapping. It was found that ELMs provided a good approximation to the implicit mapping, which preserves the appropriateness of the load prediction and damage estimation of critical helicopter components. In addition, the ELM model can be used for processing incoming streams of data, overcoming the limitation of the computation of the low dimensional mapping inherent to the use of implicit methods.