cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A flexible graphical user interface for embedding heterogeneous neural network simulators

A graphical user interface (GUI) for heterogeneous neural network simulators proposed in this article is intended to be of use both for the novice and for the experienced neural network user. For the novice, it provides an easy-to-use neural network simulation package that insulates the user from the requirements of knowing the simulator implementation details or the configuration file syntax. For the experienced neural network professional it provides an interface that is easily extensible to include any additional neural network simulator in its binary form. To satisfy both academic and personal computer environments, the GUI has been developed by using the free TCL/TK software package, available on workstations running Unix and on PCs running the free Linux operating system. Although the GUI and the embedded simulators have been successfully tested both in neural network research and training programs, a more extensive testing in undergraduate and graduate level classes is in progress.
Optimization of test engineering utilizing evolutionary computation

Test engineering often experiences pressures to produce test stations and software in a short time frame with constrained budgets. Since test is a negative influence towards product costs, it is crucial to optimize the processes of test station software creation as well as the configuration of the test station itself. This paper introduces novel methodologies for optimized station configuration and automated station software generation. These two optimizations utilize evolutionary computation to automatically generate software for the test station and to offer optimal configurations of the station based upon testing requirements. Presented is a modified genetic programming algorithm for the creation of test station software (e.g. COTS software drivers). The genetic algorithm is improved through use of adaptive memory to recall historic schemas of high fitness. From the automated software generation an optimal station configuration is produced based upon the requirements of the testing to be performed. This system has been implemented in industry and an actual industrial case study is presented to illustrate the efficiency of this novel optimization technique. Comparisons with standard genetic programming techniques are offered to further illustrate the efficiency of this methodology.
Filtering of the intraventricular electrogram and its effect on signal detection

Morphological waveform identification methods have been demonstrated to be effective for distinction of normal and abnormal conduction in intraventricular electrograms is small pilot tests. Yet these methods will find acceptance in future implantable devices only when computational demands and memory requirements are further reduced. A restricted passband allows reduced sampling rate and diminished storage for microprocessor based devices. In this study, the authors wished to determine the narrowest bandwidth that could be tolerated by a signal analysis morphometric (CWA) in order to distinguish ventricular tachycardia (VT) from sinus rhythm (SR). Twenty-five paired sets of bipolar intracardiac SR and monomorphic VT passages were analyzed. These signals were subjected to thirty-two different combinations of filter settings. Correlation coefficients were computed on a cycle-by-cycle basis for each signal passage to separate SR and VT. An absolute separation of ranges of CWA values was used as a discriminant function. The authors' results showed that a high frequency cutoff of 80 Hz yielded adequate performance of morphological separation of normal and abnormal rhythm, given that low frequency cutoff was no higher than 10 Hz. Low pass filtering has minor impact on the performance of CWA compared to high pass filtering. >
Transformations of Family Images Related to Death

Exploration of the symbolic content of creative family images produced by college students who had experienced death in the family shows that the experience of death in the family can vary from welcomed release to painful paralysis of total family functioning. Seven paradigmatic imaginal patterns are presented and related to larger patterns of individual and family growth. Normative developmental patterns interacted with the crisis, and greater expression of problems was associated with either loss of a person central to the network or with dysfunctional aspects in the family prior to the loss.
Effect of electrostatic spray parameters on the viability of two bacterial biocontrol agents and their deposition on blueberry flower stigmas

Abstract The fungus Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi infects blueberry flowers via the stigma-style ovary pathway to cause mummy berry disease. Previous laboratory experiments documented considerable activity of stigma-applied biofungicides containing the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and, to a lesser extent, Pseudomonas fluorescens against flower infection by the pathogen. However, adequate and targeted delivery of the biocontrol agents to the stigmatic surfaces of open flowers in the field has remained problematic. Here we consider the application of the biofungicides Serenade AS (containing B. subtilis QST713) and BlightBan A506 (containing P. fluorescens A506) to blueberry flowers by air-assisted electrostatic spraying. In laboratory experiments with typical field-use rates, viability of B. subtilis and P. fluorescens was unaffected by different levels of induction-charging voltage (0–1.2 kV) and atomizing pressure (138–276 kPa) applied to an electrostatic spray-charging nozzle, showing that the bacteria in ...
Evidence of spatio-temporal transition to chaos in the spine

In this paper we analyze sEMG signals collected during a procedure in which a traveling, and ultimately a standing wave is induced along the spine. In particular, we used the recently proposed method called the zero-one test. Using this binary test, we show that the dynamics at the sacrum of the spine is not chaotic while the dynamics transitions to chaos along the spine to the cervix. Further more, the test reveals certain interesting dynamical systems properties that are discussed.
On the Relation between Atmospheric Ozone and Sunspot Number

Abstract Based on data from the Dobson network, between 1960 and 1987 there has been a zero-lag correlation of 0.48 between the 112 unsmoothed seasonal values of sunspot number and global total ozone, significant at the 1% level taking into account the considerable serial correlation in these data. The maximum correlation of 0.54 is found when sunspot number lags total ozone by two seasons, the result mainly of a phase difference early in the record. On the basis of only 2½ solar cycles, the global total ozone has increased by 1.4% for an increase in sunspot number of 100. The correlation between sunspot number and total ozone has been significant at the 5% level in north temperate and tropical zones—the zones with the most representative data. In the north temperate zone, the correlation between sunspot number and total ozone has been much higher in the west-wind phase of the 50 mb equatorial QBO than in the east-wind phase, but in the tropics the correlation has been much higher in the east-wind phase. ...
Angular correlations in the electroproduction of ρ-mesons

Electroproduction of ρ-mesons followed by decay into two pions is studied. Angular correlations between the pions and electrons are explicitly evaluated. It is shown how a separation of the longitudinal and transverse photon cross-sections can be achieved. Distributions which allow a separation of the transverse and longitudinal photon cross-sections are emphasized.
Fenofibrate unexpectedly induces cardiac hypertrophy in mice lacking MuRF1

The muscle-specific ubiquitin ligase muscle ring finger-1 (MuRF1) is critical in regulating both pathological and physiological cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. Previous work from our group has identified MuRF1's ability to inhibit serum response factor and insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling pathways (via targeted inhibition of cJun as underlying mechanisms). More recently, we have identified that MuRF1 inhibits fatty acid metabolism by targeting peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) for nuclear export via mono-ubiquitination. Since MuRF1-/- mice have an estimated fivefold increase in PPARα activity, we sought to determine how challenge with the PPARα agonist fenofibrate, a PPARα ligand, would affect the heart physiologically. In as little as 3 weeks, feeding with fenofibrate/chow (0.05% wt/wt) induced unexpected pathological cardiac hypertrophy not present in age-matched sibling wild-type (MuRF1+/+) mice, identified by echocardiography, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area, and increased beta-myosin heavy chain, brain natriuretic peptide, and skeletal muscle α-actin mRNA. In addition to pathological hypertrophy, MuRF1-/- mice had an unexpected differential expression in genes associated with the pleiotropic effects of fenofibrate involved in the extracellular matrix, protease inhibition, hemostasis, and the sarcomere. At both 3 and 8 weeks of fenofibrate treatment, the differentially expressed MuRF1-/- genes most commonly had SREBP-1 and E2F1/E2F promoter regions by TRANSFAC analysis (54 and 50 genes, respectively, of the 111 of the genes >4 and <-4 log fold change; P ≤ .0004). These studies identify MuRF1's unexpected regulation of fenofibrate's pleiotropic effects and bridges, for the first time, MuRF1's regulation of PPARα, cardiac hypertrophy, and hemostasis.
Physiopathology of chronic subdural hematoma

Coagulation, fibrinolysis and kinin-kallicrein system disorders could explain chronic subdural hematoma pathophysiology. The marked decrease in antithrombin III in the hematoma suggest that the decreased levels of clotting factors were caused by excessive coagulation resulting in clotting factors consumption. The decrease in alpha 2-antiplasmin with the increase of fibrin degradation products suggest that hyperfibrinolytic activity of the subdural hematoma. Coagulation and fibrinolysis disorders could explain repetitive hemorrhages from the outer membrane, which cause progressive enlargement of the hematoma. Kinin-kallicrein system disorders raise the hemorrhage by its action on the outer membrane. Nowadays, the earliest osmotic theory should reasonably be abandoned.
Analyzing protocol implementations for interoperability

We propose PIC, a tool that helps developers search for non-interoperabilities in protocol implementations. We formulate this problem using intersection of the sets of messages that one protocol participant can send but another will reject as non-compliant. PIC leverages symbolic execution to characterize these sets and uses two novel techniques to scale to real-world implementations. First, it uses joint symbolic execution, in which receiver-side program analysis is constrained based on sender-side constraints, dramatically reducing the number of execution paths to consider. Second, it incorporates a search strategy that steers symbolic execution toward likely non-interoperabilities. We show that PIC is able to find multiple previously unknown noninteroperabilities in large and mature implementations of the SIP and SPDY (v2 through v3.1) protocols, some of which have since been fixed by the respective developers.
The environmental cost of subsistence: Optimizing diets to minimize footprints

The question of how to minimize monetary cost while meeting basic nutrient requirements (a subsistence diet) was posed by George Stigler in 1945. The problem, known as Stigler's diet problem, was famously solved using the simplex algorithm. Today, we are not only concerned with the monetary cost of food, but also the environmental cost. Efforts to quantify environmental impacts led to the development of footprint (FP) indicators. The environmental footprints of food production span multiple dimensions, including greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint), nitrogen release (nitrogen footprint), water use (blue and green water footprint) and land use (land footprint), and a diet minimizing one of these impacts could result in higher impacts in another dimension. In this study based on nutritional and population data for the United States, we identify diets that minimize each of these four footprints subject to nutrient constraints. We then calculate tradeoffs by taking the composition of each footprint's minimum diet and calculating the other three footprints. We find that diets for the minimized footprints tend to be similar for the four footprints, suggesting there are generally synergies, rather than tradeoffs, among low footprint diets. Plant-based food and seafood (fish and other aquatic foods) commonly appear in minimized diets and tend to most efficiently supply macronutrients and micronutrients, respectively. Livestock products rarely appear in minimized diets, suggesting these foods tend to be less efficient from an environmental perspective, even when nutrient content is considered. The results' emphasis on seafood is complicated by the environmental impacts of aquaculture versus capture fisheries, increasing in aquaculture, and shifting compositions of aquaculture feeds. While this analysis does not make specific diet recommendations, our approach demonstrates potential environmental synergies of plant- and seafood-based diets. As a result, this study provides a useful tool for decision-makers in linking human nutrition and environmental impacts.
Bandgap engineering in 2D layered materials

Bandgap engineering is a powerful technique for the design of new electronic and optoelectronic devices. Different from traditional approaches that rely on sophisticated material synthesis systems, we demonstrate that bandgap engineering is feasible in 2D layered materials through electric field control. We will show that a bandgap of ∼200meV can be opened in bilayer graphene, while a large bandgap reduction is achievable in bilayer MoS2. More importantly, this spontaneous field-controlled bandgap tuning occurs during device operation, which creates a new platform to design novel electronic devices with dynamic bandwidth.
Dynamic Mechanical Behavior of Photo-Cross-linked Shape-Memory Elastomers

Cross-linked elastomers containing reversibly binding side groups are capable of storing elastic energy on multiple time-scales, giving rise to shape-memory and self-healing properties. Photo-cross-linkable benzophenone side groups were incorporated into linear macromers containing reversible (2-ureido-4-pyrimidinone, UPy) side groups. This method enables melt-processing of shape-memory elastomers into complex permanent shapes, and samples can be prepared with much higher UPy-content. UV–vis spectroscopy was applied to study the efficacy of the cross-linking process. Resulting elastomer networks with variable densities of covalent cross-links and reversibly associating side groups were systematically prepared and studied. Dynamic mechanical analysis revealed the presence of two storage modulus plateaus: a high-temperature plateau attributed to covalent cross-links, and a lower temperature plateau attributed to both reversible and covalent cross-links. Results also show that dynamic cross-links behave near...
Self-reported nocturnal sleep duration is associated with next-day resting state functional connectivity

Sleep deprivation affects cerebral metabolism and reduces the functional connectivity among various regions of the brain, potentially explaining some of the associated mood and emotional changes often observed. Prior neuroimaging studies have only examined the effects of sleep deprivation or partial sleep restriction on functional connectivity, but none have studied how such connectivity is associated with normal variations in self-reported sleep duration the night before the scan. We examined the relationship between sleep duration and resting state functional connectivity among healthy volunteers who slept at home according to their own schedules. Thirty-nine healthy individuals aged 18-45 (21 females) completed a questionnaire asking about their recent sleep habits and entries in their sleep diary for the previous night, followed by resting state functional MRI at 3 T. Participants reported sleeping between 5.0 and 8.5 h the night before the scan (M=7.0, SD=0.9). Seed regions were placed in the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex nodes of the default mode network, regions previously implicated in sleep deprivation. Longer self-reported sleep duration was associated with significantly enhanced functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate, as well as greater anticorrelations with parietal, occipital, and lateral prefrontal regions. Findings suggest that even normal variations in sleep duration measured by self-report are related to the strength of functional connectivity within select nodes of the default mode network and its anticorrelated network.
Looking at History to Reduce Current Healthcare Costs

When the history of healthcare and insurance in the US is examined, it is clear the patient has become more and more removed from the payment process. Insurers including Medicare moved to pay providers more quickly and eliminated pre-payment by the insured customer beyond a typical small co-payment. The patient is not clear regarding costs and lacks incentives to control spending. The payment process has deviated so far from the traditional accounting three-way payment match that fraud and other issues have surfaced in billing and payment error. This article presents suggestions from accounting’s three-way match process used in purchasing to carefully outline problems and challenges in US healthcare. Discussion and ways to adapt the popular accounting framework for healthcare are presented within the historical context of the changing healthcare reimbursement and payment process. Areas for future research are also included.
Analysis of epidemiological features of bacillary dysentery in Fuyang from 2004 to 2009

Objective To learn the epidemiological features of bacillary dysentery and provide a scientific reference for formulating prevention and control measures and strategies.Methods Descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the epidemiology of bacillary dysentery from 2009 to 2011 based on the data collected from China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention.Results A total of 7702 cases were reported in Fuyang from 2009 to 2011 and the average annual incidence was 32.17/100 000.The incidence was 53.40/100 000 in 2011,when the incidence was the highest.There was obvious seasonality in the onset of bacillary dysentery.Most of the bacillary dysentery onset cases were reported in Summer and Autumn.There was significant difference for incidence of bacillary dysentery in gender,with males were higher than females.In occupational distribution,the number of farmers,scattered children and students occupied a large proportion of cases.Conclusion The incidence of bacillary dysentery from 2009 to 2011 in Fuyang showed a rising trend year by year,and the situation of prevention and control was still serious.
Intraparenchymal NGF infusions rescue degenerating cholinergic neurons

Nerve growth factor (NGF) exerts both trophic (cell survival) and tropic (axonal growth-promoting) effects on several neuronal populations. In particular, its robust ability to prevent lesion-induced and spontaneous age-related basal forebrain cholinergic neuronal degeneration, and to promote mnemonic recovery, has suggested its potential use as a therapeutic agent in Alzheimer's disease. When infused intracerebroventricularly, however, NGF is associated with several adverse effects that make this delivery route impractical. The present study examined whether intraparenchymal infusions of NGF adjacent to cholinergic neuronal soma are an effective and well-tolerated means of providing NGF to degenerating cholinergic neurons. Cholinergic neuronal rescue together with axonal sprouting responses and local tissue damage in the brain were assessed in adult rats that underwent complete unilateral fornix transections, followed by intraparenchymal infusions of recombinant human NGF for a 2-week period. Intraparenchymal NGF infusions prevented the degeneration of 94.7+/-6.6% of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons compared to 21.7+/-2.6% in vehicle-infused animals (p < 0.0001). Cholinergic axons sprouted toward the intraparenchymal NGF source in an apparent gradient-dependent manner. Glial responses to intraparenchymal infusions were minimal, and no apparent toxic effects of the infusions were observed. Thus, when infused intraparenchymally, NGF rescues basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, alters the topography of axonal sprouting responses, and does not induce adverse affects over a 2-week infusion period. Intraparenchymal NGF delivery merits further study at longer term time points as a means of treating the cholinergic component of neuronal loss in Alzheimer's disease.
Theoretical Estimates of γ-Ray Emission

In Table II-2 we have listed several astrophysical sites where γ-ray line production might be expected. In the case of the galactic disk, core, and the Sun, the calculation of the expected γ-ray fluxes from the different production mechanisms is on a reasonably firm basis since experimental results are available (cf. Sections V-5.1 and V-5.2). In addition, the evidence for a γ-ray line feature near 500 keV from the direction of the Galactic Center (Section V-5.2.3) has given rise to a flurry of theoretical predictions as to the origin of this feature. The same is true for the γ-ray bursts discovered on the Vela satellites (Section V-5.4). We will review here the predicted fluxes from several sources listed in Table II-2. Since the case of γ-ray production in the solar atmosphere has received considerable treatment, we will review these calculations in more detail than for other sources, since the results are generally applicable to any astrophysical source where a solar abundance is a reasonable approximation. Only those theoretical predictions for other sources will be discussed here that seem most pertinent to γ-ray line astronomy. The experimental evidence for γ-ray fluxes in the nuclear transition region is described in Chapter V, and reference to the discussion there should be made when considering such material in this chapter.
Nanoimprint (Technology, Tools, Applications and Commercialization) And New Technologies Beyond

Summary form only given. Since the proposal of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) as a low-cost high-throughput sub-10-nm manufacturing method in 1995, the field has been growing rapidly in research, applications and commercialization in the past 12 years. The talk will first address some advances in nanoimprint technology, tools, applications and commercialization, particularly, (a) NIL progresses in minimum feature size (6 nm half-pitch), printing areas (over 50 in-sq), alignment (sub-20 nm), pattern shapes (2D and 3D), materials and masks, (b) NIL applications in different disciplines, such as nanoscale electronics, photonics, displays, data storage, biotech, chemical synthesis and advanced materials, and (c) commercialization of NIL technologies at Nanonex - a NIL solution company which have provided NIL tools, resists, masks, and processes to over hundred customers. The talk will conclude that the success of NIL in its first 12 years is spectacular, yet it is still just a beginning! Second, the talk will discuss some innovative technologies developed recently in nanopatterning, in particularly, self-perfection methods that can remove the fabricated defects (e.g. edge roughness and other imperfection in pattern shape) caused by intrinsic statistical nature of a fabrication process, which has been a major obstacle in nanofabrication. The new method also can reduce line-width and increase line-height.
An Examination of the Outcomes of a Brief and Innovative Partnership: SJSU and Udacity.

In an examination of a brief and innovative partnership, we compared outcomes for two disciplines, Elementary Statistics and General Psychology, across three formats: online as part of the San Jose State University-Udacity partnership (termed SJSU Plus), face-to-face (FTF), and online in a redesigned course offering. We also examine predictors of student performance in the SJSU Plus courses. The first offerings of the SJSU Plus courses showed poorer performance compared to their FTF and redesigned online equivalents. Redesigned online courses and FTF courses had similar pass rates. SJSU Plus course performance was significantly improved in the second offering of the Elementary Statistics course. More completed assignments in the SJSU Plus courses were associated with higher exam scores and final grades. We conclude that mode of delivery did not contribute significantly to variations in pass rates.
Operational definitions for some common information leakage metrics

Maximal leakage from a random variable X to a random variable Y is defined as the multiplicative increase, upon observing Y, of the probability of correctly guessing a randomized function of X, maximized over all such functions [1]. Herein, this guessing framework is used to give operational definitions to common information leakage metrics, including Shannon capacity, maximal correlation, and local differential privacy. Shannon capacity is shown to capture the multiplicative increase of the probability of correct guessing over the restricted set of functions of X that can be reliably reconstructed from Y, hence underestimating leakage. Maximal correlation is shown to capture the multiplicative change in the variance of functions of X, rather than the guessing probability. Local differential privacy is shown to capture the multiplicative increase of the guessing probability of functions of X, maximized over realizations of Y and over distributions P x . Moreover, maximizing over realizations of Y for a fixed P x is shown to yield a valid leakage measure, which is equal to the maximum information rate.
Effect of Boron Clusters on the Ignition Reaction of HNO3 and Dicynanamide-Based Ionic Liquids

Many ionic liquids containing the dicynamide anion (DCA–, formula N(CN)2–) exhibit hypergolic ignition when exposed to the common oxidizer nitric acid. However, the ignition delay is often about 10 times longer than the desired 5 ms for rocket applications, so that improvements are desired. Experiments in the past decade have suggested both a mechanism for the early reaction steps and also that additives such as decaborane can reduce the ignition delay. The mechanisms for reactions of nitric acid with both DCA– and protonated DCAH are considered here, using accurate wave function methods. Complexation of DCA– or DCAH with borane clusters B10H14 or B9H14– is found to modify these mechanisms slightly by changing the nature of some of the intermediate saddle points and by small reductions in the reaction barriers.
The information age combat model: a vision for a discrete event simulation approach

Network centric operations (NCO) has been dubbed the most significant revolution in military affairs (RMA) in the past 200 years. The promise of NCO is based on the notion that information sharing and connectivity is fundamental to the effectiveness of a combat force. This is due to the ability of a properly networked force to self-synchronise itself as it engages enemy forces. The information age combat model (IACM) is a popular representation of NCO. Previous research at modelling the IACM has so far focused solely at using agent-based modelling. That work produced significant contributions to the IACM literature. However, it has proven to be computationally expensive. IACM simulations must be sustainable as research into IACM evolves and more NCO complexities are introduced. This research will propose a discrete-event simulation (DES) approach to model the IACM. The paper will present the basis upon which DES was selected for this purpose and will illustrate how the DES approach can provide significant improvements in terms of the time and computational power needed to run IACM simulations.
Localization via the received signal strength gradient at lower VHF

Localizing a node in complex propagation environments, such as in obstacle-rich indoor scenes, is a challenging task. Conventional approaches employ a dense and/or highly calibrated infrastructure of sensors assisting in the localization process, which is costly and difficult to achieve in ad-hoc situations. In this paper, we propose a minimalistic design based on a small number of access points. Our method uses the received signal strength (RSS) gradient as a direction of arrival (DoA) estimator. Though non-uniform shadowing and multipath adversely affect RSS, these are much less at lower VHF. We show through high fidelity simulations that our approach has promise as a rapidly-deployable localization system.
An Evaluation Study of a Proposed Hadoop for Hybrid Networks (HHN)

Hybrid network architectures with both Electrical Packet Switches (EPS) and Optical Circuit Switches (OCS) have been proposed for datacenter networks to reduce energy consumption and for cost savings. However, the high reconfiguration delay of OCS makes it challenging to leverage the high-speed OCS part of the hybrid network. In prior work, we proposed modifying applications to create network traffic patterns that match the characteristics of OCS, and developed, but did not evaluate, a modified version of Hadoop, called Hadoop for Hybrid Networks (HHN). This paper presents a comparative evaluation of HHN on hybrid networks and original Hadoop on EPS-only networks. The hypothesis tested is that it is feasible to achieve the same system-level performance, makespan and CPU utilization, and user-level metrics, such as job response time and fairness, with HHN while simultaneously achieving power and cost savings with the hybrid network. When the percentage of Shuffle-Heavy (SH) jobs is small, e.g., 5%, the performance of HHN was the same as that of original Hadoop on an EPS-only network. When the percentage of SH jobs was large, e.g., 20%, the performance was almost the same even at high loads when we placed an upper bound on the per-job input-data size. Without the upper bound, we found that one very large job (which required 19000 map tasks to process a 2.375 TB input dataset) caused HHN performance to be lower than that of original Hadoop because SH jobs can only be handled in a limited set of racks to which their input datasets were concentrated.
Retinal Prostheses: Functional Outcomes and Visual Rehabilitation

This chapter presents qualitative aspects of prosthetic vision, methods to assess the benefits of retinal implants, and the approach for prosthetic vision rehabilitation. Prosthetic vision simulations have played an important role in developing the requirements for retinal implants, so these will be briefly discussed. Outcomes can be patient reported, expert observed, or objective; assessments can be made in the laboratory/clinic or at home and in the community. Benefits and limitations of these assessments will be discussed. Rehabilitation programs for retinal implant users are still in early development, as are the implants themselves, so the chapter primarily discusses the general approach to rehab, rather than specific details. All aspects presented here are undergoing rapid development, and the chapter closes with examples of areas where improvements can be expected.
Oncologic emergencies II. Hematologic and infectious complications of cancer and cancer treatment.

Proper supportive care of the child with cancer is necessary to maximize the child’s quality and length of life. This article discusses the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of the common hematologic and infectious complications of childhood cancer that the primary care physician must face.
Political Economy of Violence and Nonviolence

This article compares economic views on conflict and violence, with the focus on war and problems of a permanent military establishment.
Identifying Extinction Threats: Global Analyses of the Distribution of Biodiversity and the Expansion of the Human Enterprise

Relatively pristine habitats around the world are being lost at unprecedented rates (Melillo et al. 1985, Skole and Tucker 1993) as an expanding human population converts them to agriculture, forestry, and urban centers (Hall 1978, Vitousek et al. 1986). As these habitats are altered, untold numbers of species are disappearing before they have been recognized, much less studied (Wilson 1989), and the functioning of entire ecosystems is threatened. This loss of biodiversity, at the very time when the value of biotic resources is becoming widely recognized (Malone 1992), has made it strikingly clear that current strategies for conservation are failing dismally (Ehrlich 1992, Ehrlich and Wilson 1991).
Comparing Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Risk Variables Between Unanticipated Cutting and Decelerating Tasks.

To examine the relationship between anterior cruciate ligament injury risk factors in unanticipated cutting and decelerating. Three-dimensional kinematics and ground reaction forces were collected ...
Carolingian Catalonia: Politics, Culture, and Identity in an Imperial Province, 778-987

Drawing on a range of evidence related to royal authority, political events and literate culture, this study traces how kings and emperors involved themselves in the affairs of the Spanish March, and examines how actively people in Catalonia participated in politics centred on the royal court. Rather than setting the political development of the region in terms of Catalonia's future independence as a medieval principality, Cullen J. Chandler addresses it as part of the Carolingian 'experiment'. In doing so, he incorporates an analysis of political events alongside an examination of such cultural issues as the spread of the Rule of Benedict, the Adoptionist controversy, and the educational programme of the Carolingian reforms. This new history of the region offers a robust and absorbing analysis of the nature of the Carolingian legacy in the March, while also revising traditional interpretations of ethnic motivations for political acts and earlier attempts to pinpoint the constitutional birth of Catalonia.
Comparison of outcomes of locoregionally advanced oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal SCC over two decades.

6048 Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) has emerged as a causative agent and positive prognostic factor for oropharyngeal (OP) head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). This prompts inquiry i...
The Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act: Provisions Governing Financial Affairs

Two principal types of business organization, the corporation and the limited partnership, presently are fulfilling the need for a form of association that permits an investor to contribute capital and receive a share of the profits while remaining free from both management responsibility and personal liability in excess of the amount invested. Limited partnerships first received statutory recognition in this country in New York in 1922, but because of the strict requirements contained in early statutes and the courts' strict construction of them, limited partnerships did not come of age until promulgation in 1916 of the Uniform Limited Partnership Act (1916 Act). Since that time, the 1916 Act has received almost universal acceptance.
Tyrosine Kinase Phosphorylation in Human Neutrophil Activation by PAF and other Agonists

Protein kinases specific for tyrosine (PTK) were initially detected in oncogenic products of viral tumors (pp60v-src ) and in some growth factor receptors (1). Until recently, protein phosphorylation on tyrosine residues was only linked to cellular growth and transformation (1). Over the past few years, however, a number of laboratories have reported the presence of tyrosine kinase activities in non-proliferative tissues and cells (e.g. neurons, platelets and leukocytes). Tyrosine-specific kinases, such as the products of the proto-oncogenes c-src, chck, c fes/fps and c-fgr, are known to be present in white blood cells, including neutrophils (2–5), and some are expressed at a high level. Both particulate extracts and cytosolic fractions from neutrophils contain tyrosine kinase and phosphotyrosine phosphatase activities (6,7). Moreover, the CD45 antigen, a glycoprotein of the plasma membrane of all leukocytes, possesses tyrosine phosphatase activity that might regulate signal transduction in those cells (8). Using antibodies to phosphotyrosine (aPTyr) in Western blots, it has been demonstrated that tyrosine-specific protein phosphorylati on occurs when human or rabbit neutrophils are stimulated with a variety of agonists, including platelet-activating factor (PAF), human cytokines such as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), the chemotactic peptide fMet-Leu-Phe, phorbol esters (PMA) and the calcium ionophore A23187 (9–17). A summary of the potency of those agents, as it relates to phosphorylation, is given in Table I. It has also been reported that the addition of GTPγS or vanadate to electropermeabilized neutrophils triggers rapid phosphorylation of tyrosine residues of several protein substrates (18,19).
Variability of Bottom Backscattering Strength in the 10–500 kHz Band At Shallow Grazing Angles

Bottom backscatter is often the dominant component of reverberation for sonars operating in the band from 10 to 500 kHz in littoral waters. A grazing angle of 10° is at the intersection of the range of angles encountered by operational minehunting sonars and the angles reported in most experimental studies. Analysis of the measured values provides an indication of the processes involved. The effectiveness of models may be gauged by comparison with measured values.
Diet Quality Is Associated with Physical Performance and Special Forces Selection

ABSTRACTPurposeThis study determined associations between diet quality measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015, physical performance, and successful selection following a U.S. Army Special Forces Assessment and Selection course characterized by arduous cognitive and physical demands.MethodsT
Microvascular blood flow during vascular occlusion tests assessed by diffuse correlation spectroscopy

New findings What is the central question of this study? What are the characteristics of the time courses of blood flow in the brachial artery and microvascular beds of the skin and skeletal muscle following transient ischaemia? What is the main finding and its importance? Skeletal muscle blood flow was significantly slower than the transient increase in the cutaneous tissue, suggesting mechanistic differences between cutaneous and muscular blood flow distribution after transient ischaemia. These results challenge the use of the cutaneous circulation as globally representative of vascular function. Abstract Vascular function can be assessed by measuring post-occlusion hyperaemic responses along the arterial tree (vascular occlusion test; VOT). It is currently unclear if responses are similar across vascular beds following cuff release, given potential differences in compliance. To examine this, we compared laser Doppler-derived blood flux in the cutaneous circulation (LDFcut ) and skeletal muscle microvascular blood flux (BFI) using diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS), to brachial artery blood flow (BABF) during VOT. We hypothesized that during a VOT following cuff release, (1) BFI response would be delayed compared to the brachial artery response, and (2) time to peak blood flux in the cutaneous vasculature would be slower than both brachial artery and skeletal muscle responses. Seven healthy men (26 ± 4 years) performed three trials of a brachial artery VOT protocol with 10 min of rest between trials. A combined DCS and near-infrared spectroscopy probe provided BFI and oxygenation characteristics (total-[haem]), respectively, of skeletal muscle. BABF was determined via Doppler ultrasound and microvascular cutaneous blood flux was determined via LDFcut . Following cuff release, time to peak of BFI (32.3 ± 6.0 s) was significantly longer than BABF (7.3 ± 2.5 s), LDFcut (10.0 ± 6.4 s) and total-[haem] (14.2 ± 8.3 s) (all P 0.05). These results suggest mechanistic differences in control of cutaneous and muscular blood flow distribution after transient ischaemia.
Enhancing CexZr1–xO2 Activity for Methane Dry Reforming Using Subsurface Ni Dopants

CeO2–ZrO2 (CZO) nanoparticles (NPs) have applications in many catalytic reactions, such as methane dry reforming, due to their oxygen cycling ability. Ni doping has been shown to improve the cataly...
India in the pandemic age.

COVID-19 is only the latest in a series of global pandemics that began when the world of disease was united by the establishment of intensive connections by sea after 1500. India was a major participant in this process. A pandemic has both direct and indirect effects. Human reactions to mass illness both mitigate and enhance these effects. The networks of transmission are paralleled by networks of private and public information. But aggregated information only becomes available as governmental information systems take shape. This article explains the use of quarantine as emerging from both. It then explains why it was introduced to India only after 1800. It then looks at three great pandemics: cholera, bubonic plague and lethal influenza and governmental and societal responses to each of these. The article analyses the subsidence of pandemics into chronic presences ('background') that nonetheless contributed significantly ill-health, poverty and early death for hundreds of millions. But there is a paradox after Independence. Successful state action in independent India was nevertheless accompanied by the effective collapse of government information systems. This contributed to the massive economic damage from what should have been a minor episode of plague in 1994. The article thus reviews what we know about the effects of the pandemic, epidemic and chronic background phenomena on the economic life of Indian sub-continent through the past 500 years.
Ensuring competency in focused cardiac ultrasound: a systematic review of training programs

Focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) is a valuable skill for rapid assessment of cardiac function and volume status. Despite recent widespread adoption among physicians, there is limited data on the optimal training methods for teaching FoCUS and metrics for determining competency. We conducted a systematic review to gain insight on the optimal training strategies, including type and duration, that would allow physicians to achieve basic competency in FoCUS. Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to June 2020. Included studies described standardized training programs for at least 5 medical students or physicians on adult FoCUS, followed by an assessment of competency relative to an expert. Data were extracted, and bias was assessed for each study. Data were extracted from 23 studies on 292 learners. Existing FoCUS training programs remain varied in duration and type of training. Learners achieved near perfect agreement (κ > 0.8) with expert echocardiographers on detecting left ventricular systolic dysfunction and pericardial effusion with 6 h each of didactics and hands-on training. Substantial agreement (κ > 0.6) on could be achieved in half this time. A short training program will allow most learners to achieve competency in detecting left ventricular systolic dysfunction and pericardial effusion by FoCUS. Additional training is necessary to ensure skill retention, improve efficiency in image acquisition, and detect other pathologies.
Two New Platynus Bonelli (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Platynini) from Nevis and St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles

Platynus (Dyscolus) racquelae Liebherr and Ivie, new species is described from the Crater Rim, in the Parish of St. John Capisterre, St. Kitts, and Platynus (Dyscolus) duportei Liebherr and Ivie, new species is described from Nevis Peak, Nevis. These species are placed in the Platynus (Dyscolus) memnonius (Dejean) group, with their addition to the group extending the group's aggregate distribution northward from Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe to St. Kitts. Based on extensive collections of the Coleoptera of St. Kitts, P. racquelae appears to be restricted to only the wettest areas at highest elevations, suggesting that this species requires rather specific conditions present only in the most extreme montane sites. The beetles also exhibit moderate flight wing reduction involving diminution of wing veins associated with wing-folding—specifically, veins associated with the wedge and oblongum cells—and foreshortening of the alar surface due to loss of membrane along the wing's apical margin. This suggests that individuals of P. racquelae are at best weak fliers, and that this species is not able to colonize isolated patches of suitable habitat by flight. Platynus duportei is likewise known from only the highest and wettest point on Nevis Peak, but this species exhibits fully developed flight wings. Additional records of Platynus (Dyscolus) luciae Liebherr from St Lucia, and of Glyptolenus chalybaeus (Dejean) are reported, allowing elucidation of flight wing configuration and male and female genitalia for the former, and new island records of Nevis and Saba for the latter.
Parallel Tucker Decomposition with Numerically Accurate SVD

Tucker decomposition is a low-rank tensor approximation that generalizes a truncated matrix singular value decomposition (SVD). Existing parallel software has shown that Tucker decomposition is particularly effective at compressing terabyte-sized multidimensional scientific simulation datasets, computing reduced representations that satisfy a specified approximation error. The general approach is to get a low-rank approximation of the input data by performing a sequence of matrix SVDs of tensor unfoldings, which tend to be short-fat matrices. In the existing approach, the SVD is performed by computing the eigendecomposition of the Gram matrix of the unfolding. This method sacrifices some numerical stability in exchange for lower computation costs and easier parallelization. We propose using a more numerically stable though more computationally expensive way to compute the SVD by preprocessing with a QR decomposition step and computing an SVD of only the small triangular factor. The more numerically stable approach allows us to achieve the same accuracy with half the working precision (for example, single rather than double precision). We demonstrate that our method scales as well as the existing approach, and the use of lower precision leads to an overall reduction in running time of up to a factor of 2 when using 10s to 1000s of processors. Using the same working precision, we are also able to compute Tucker decompositions with much smaller approximation error.
Principal components and model selection

Let the kp-variate random vector X be partitioned into k subvectors X i of dimension p each, and let the covariance matrix Ψ of X be partitioned analogously into submatrices Ψ ij . Based on principal component analysis we suggest a hierarchy of models, where the lowest level assumes independence of all X i , with identical covariance matrices, and the highest level makes no assumptions about Ψ beyond positive definiteness. The intermediate levels are characterized by a common orthogonal matrix s which diagonalizes Ψ ij for all pairs (i, j), i.e., Ψ ij = s Λ ij s′, where Λ ij is diagonal. The hierarchy is motivated by both a practical example and theoretical arguments. Model selection based on likelihood ratio tests and information criteria is discussed.
Better Living through Conservation Planning

The topic I have been asked to discuss refers to the obvious need for general environmental planning, placing emphasis upon our natural and cultural environment as a “dwelling place” — our habitation on earth.