cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Association of comorbidity of metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus with cardiovascular disease

Objective To investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome( MS) complicated with diabetes mellitus( DM) and cardiovascular disease( CVD) and to provide reference data for the prevention and control of CVD.Methods By means of prospective study method,a baseline survey was carried out among 8 685 participants aged≥ 35 years selected with stratified cluster sampling from Jiangsu province from April 1999 to June 2004. During the period from March 2006 to November 2007,a total of 3 887 participants completed the 5 year follow-up. Logistic regression and Cox regression were used in the analyses. Results During the follow-up period,116 subjects developed CVD among 3 887 participants. After adjustments for age,gender,and other CVD risk factors and MS components,only DM and blood pressure were associated with CVD,with the adjusted risk ratio( aRR)( 95% confidence interval[95% CI]) of 3. 54( 2. 28-4. 96) and 2. 58( 1. 55-4. 29). The cumulative incidence of CVD was 1. 53%,4. 47%,9. 17%,and 13. 30% for the participants without MS or DM,with only MS,with only DM,and with both DM and MS,respectively. After adjusting for sex,age and other risk factors,compared with the healthy,the participants with only MS,with DM,and with both MS and DM had the aRR of 1. 96,4. 11,and 7. 10,respectively. After adjusting for gender,age,and other risk factors,compared to the participants with only MS,the aRR( 95% CI) for CVD of the participants with both MS and DM was 2. 23( 1. 65- 3. 29),while the aRR( 95% CI) of for the DM participants with MS was 1. 36( 0. 85- 2. 03) compared those without MS. The cumulative incidences of CVD among hypertensive participants with and without DM at the baseline survey were 16. 0% and 4. 0%,and those of normtensive participants were 7. 5% and 1. 1%. After adjustment for baseline age,gender,other CVD risk factors,and components of MS,the hypertensive participants with DM had a 3. 31 times higher risk of CVD than those without DM and the normtensive participants with DM had a 6. 02 times risk of CVD than those without DM. Conclusion MS patients with DM have higher risk for CVD and the control of DM can reduce the incidence of CVD among MS patients.
CAL2 immunohistochemical staining accurately identifies calr mutations in myeloproliferative neoplasms

Objectives: Mutations in CALR (calreticulin) have been discovered in 50% to 80% of JAK2 (Janus kinase 2) and MPL (myeloproliferative leukemia protein) wild-type patients with Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPNs). We evaluate the performance of a monoclonal antibody for immunohistochemical detection of CALR mutations. Methods: A computerized archival search was performed for cases of non–chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) MPNs with available CALR and JAK2 V617F mutational analysis data. Bone marrow biopsy specimens were stained with monoclonal antibody CAL2, and the percentage of stained megakaryocytes was calculated. In select cases, double immunofluorescence staining was done with CAL2 and each of the following: CD61, myeloperoxidase, CD34, and glycophorin A. Results: We studied 38 bone marrow biopsy specimens of non-CML MPNs (primary myelofibrosis, n = 21; essential thrombocythemia, n = 15; and n = 2 post–polycythemia vera myelofibrosis) from 31 patients. All eight bone marrow biopsy specimens from patients with mutant CALR showed strong cytoplasmic staining of the megakaryocytes (83.5%; range, 50%-98%; median, 87%) with the CAL2 antibody. Double immunofluorescence staining of the small mononuclear cells seen in CALR mutant cases revealed them to be myeloid blasts. Conclusions: Immunohistochemistry in routinely processed bone marrow biopsy specimens for mutated CALR is feasible and accurately identifies mutated cases, including rare cases with additional driver mutations.
Estimation of MR-coil attenuation in the simultaneous PET/MR BrainPET

Simultaneous positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) acquisition with the Siemens BrainPET employs a transmit/receive coil that fits concentrically within the system's PET insert. The coil is transparent in MR but visible in the PET FOV and occupies space between the patient and PET detectors. This work develops an estimate of the coil position within the BrainPET FOV and provides an estimate of the coil attenuation correction factors. Methods: Ten Na-22 point sources were taped in various positions on the transmit/receive coil. PET scans of the coil were collected on three scanners: BrainPET, GE DST, and Siemens HRRT. Transmission scans were also collected, including CT, Ge-68 rod source data, and Cs-137 point source data. The emission data from the GE DST and HRRT were co-registered with the BrainPET emission data. The transformation matrices created from these registrations where used to transform respective scanner transmission μ-maps to BrainPET space. μ-map images were created and compared by smoothing to the DST resolution and creating joint histograms using the DST 511keV μ-map as the standard. Results: The 511keV and CT μ-maps showed a strong correlation between their attenuation values with the CT values slightly overestimating the 511keV values by a factor of 1.14. Agreement between the 511keV μ-map and Cs-137 μ-map was not as strong, likely due to missing features in the coil's posterior portion in the Cs-137 μ-map. This occurred because there was inadequate sampling of the coil at the edge of the HRRT FOV. Conclusion: CT provides a good estimate of the BrainPET coil attenuation properties after minor adjustment to match the 511keV μ-map.
A linearly approximated iterative Gaussian decomposition method for waveform LiDAR processing

Abstract Full-waveform LiDAR (FWL) decomposition results often act as the basis for key LiDAR-derived products, for example canopy height, biomass and carbon pool estimation, leaf area index calculation and under canopy detection. To date, the prevailing method for FWL product creation is the Gaussian Decomposition (GD) based on a non-linear Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) optimization for Gaussian node parameter estimation. GD follows a “greedy” approach that may leave weak nodes undetected, merge multiple nodes into one or separate a noisy single node into multiple ones. In this manuscript, we propose an alternative decomposition method called Linearly Approximated Iterative Gaussian Decomposition (LAIGD method). The novelty of the LAIGD method is that it follows a multi-step “slow-and-steady” iterative structure, where new Gaussian nodes are quickly discovered and adjusted using a linear fitting technique before they are forwarded for a non-linear optimization. Two experiments were conducted, one using real full-waveform data from NASA’s land, vegetation, and ice sensor (LVIS) and another using synthetic data containing different number of nodes and degrees of overlap to assess performance in variable signal complexity. LVIS data revealed considerable improvements in RMSE (44.8% lower), RSE (56.3% lower) and rRMSE (74.3% lower) values compared to the benchmark GD method. These results were further confirmed with the synthetic data. Furthermore, the proposed multi-step method reduces execution times in half, an important consideration as there are plans for global coverage with the upcoming Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation LiDAR sensor on the International Space Station.
R2D2: Right place, right path data delivery

Data security can be enhanced by not only strong encryption techniques but also by restricting who can receive the data, as well as where and how they are received. In this paper, we focus on how to specify and verify where and how the data are received. The challenging issue here is how to utilize trustworthy 3rd party verification mechanisms to check whether a requester is in the designated area specified by the creator and whether the delivery follows a desired path. We call this new service Right Place, Right Path Data Delivery (R2D2). The current network and geolocation techniques are investigated for their capabilities in verifying and ensuring such R2D2 services. We created software tools to specify and verify such R2D2 services. We show that the verification of R2D2 services is quite challenging.
Tourism collections in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society has collected the history of Wisconsin for more than 150 years. The Society serves as the North American History Library for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as...
Back to a White Future1: White Religious Loss, Donald Trump, and the Problem of Belonging

The 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States necessitates an interrogation of complex and interlocking constructs of race and religion, and the impact on racial and religious...
Machine learning based models for fault detection in automatic meter reading systems

Recently, research has focused on the area of fault detection in Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems. The manufacturers and users of AMR systems are now keen to include diagnostic features in the systems to improve salability and reliability. However, traditional manual fault detection methods are time-consuming and inaccurate. automatic fast fault detection methods are urgently needed. In this paper, we propose several machine learning based fault detection models to meet this requirement. Furthermore, we use novel boosting strategy to fuse multiple models to leverage multi-aspect information in AMR systems. The experimental results on simulated data show that the proposed models are accurate and robust, and fusion strategy indeed improve the performance on fault detection.
Post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV.

In 1996, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a case-control study demonstrating that post-exposure treatment with zidovudine was associated with a 81% reduction in the odds of occupational HIV transmission.1,2 Since publication of this report, provision of antiretroviral treatment after parenteral exposures to HIV among health care workers has become a standard of care in the United States.3–5 In the past year, the potential merits of offering chemoprophylactic treatment to persons sustaining sexual and injection drug use exposures to HIV have been debated. Although not endorsed by CDC as a public health prevention program, provision of chemoprophylaxis in individual cases of high risk exposure is gaining acceptance in clinical practice.3,6,7 Moreover, offering antiretroviral therapy to victims of sexual assault is now recommended by CDC.8,9
Personal Ethics & the U.S. Financial Collapse of 2007-08

The seeds for the 2007-09 financial collapse were sewn over many years and nurtured by ill-advised governmental housing policy, the presence of pervasive fraud both large and small and the widespread failure of personal integrity. A chronology of bad choices made by individuals and the daisy-chain of complicit truth-bending and fraud at many levels of the mortgage loan origination and securitization food-chain is presented. This paper contributes to the accounting, banking, business and personal ethics, economic, mortgage lending, regulatory and policy making literature in several ways. First, it identifies about 20 different precipitating causes scholars have attributed as being responsible for the financial crisis. Second, this paper identifies about another 20 categories in the economic flow-chart of mortgage lending and securitization where fraud and facilitating payments of some sort constitute a lapse in personal ethics that contributes to the crisis. Next is a discussion of how governmental policy and lack of prosecutions may set the stage for a future replay of the 2007-08 experience. Finally, a discussion is presented of how psychology and behavioral science may help us to better understand the pattern of bad choices by individuals that caused so much economic loss and personal suffering.
Device Closure of Fontan Fenestrations

Since the late 1980 s, essentially all Fontan operations at Children’s Hospital Boston have been done using a fenestrated technique. The rationale behind this modification is as follows: For a Fontan circulation to function properly, it is critical that the pulmonary vascular resistance be low and that the mean PA pressures also be low. In particular, it is desirable to have a mean PA pressure below 20 mmHg. Cardiopulmonary bypass invariably results in an increase in PVR in the immediate postoperative period. To increase cardiac output and possibly reduce the pressure in the Fontan pathway, a small hole is created in the Gore-Tex baffle that makes up part of the lateral tunnel. This fenestration is 4 mm in diameter and is directed anteriorly and leftward. It allows some of the systemic venous return to enter the systemic circulation (right-to-left shunt across the baffle) and bypass the lungs. This results in maintenance of forward cardiac output at the expense of oxygen saturation. The fenestration technique has resulted in a much more stable postoperative ICU course as well as a decreased incidence and duration of pleural effusion following Fontan surgery (1).
Changing My Organization and Beyond: How Can I Have a Greater Impact?

Ultimately, we cannot be effective ourselves and with our immediate teams if our organizations and communities do not change how they think about mental health and being part of this change is ultimately our greatest opportunity. This chapter helps readers better understand their own organization in order to change prevailing attitudes about and investments in mental health. While it might not always seem possible, in an ideal world, the enlightened manager must have the courage and support to lobby for organizational change when appropriate. This chapter argues that organizations can support mental well-being by supporting education to reduce stigma and make it easier to discuss work stressors on mental health; facilitating access to resources and treatment, including through technology; helping build organizations that embrace neurodiversity; and embracing generational diversity. The reflection enables you to analyze your organization along the stress vs support dimensions and consider how to improve it.
Topological N-Groups Where the Nearrings are Real Nearrings

In this paper, nearrings will be right nearrings. Standard references for algebraic nearrings include [2], [5] and [6]. Let N be a topological nearring. A topological N-group is a pair (G, μ) where G is a topological group and μ is a continuous function from N × G into G such that the following two conditions are satisfied for all a, b ∈ N and c ∈ G: $$\mu (a + b,c) = \mu (a,c) + \mu (b,c)$$ (1A) , $$\mu (ab,c) = \mu (a,\mu (b,c))$$ (1B) .
Conjugate Spaces and Universal Spaces

Motivated by the importance of conjugate spaces indicated in earlier sections, we devote the bulk of this final chapter to some further considerations regarding such spaces. We begin with the famous Riesz-Kakutani characterization of C(Ω, ℝ)* as the space of regular signed Borel measures on Ω. After giving some applications of this theorem we proceed to some characterizations of general conjugate spaces, and use these to exhibit some new conjugate spaces (spaces of operators and Lipschitz functions). The fact that certain spaces of operators are conjugate spaces has some interesting implications for optimization theory as we shall see. We shall also establish an isomorphism between certain spaces of Lipschitz functions and certain spaces of L00 type. A particular consequence of this is an example of a pair of Banach spaces (namely, l1(ϰ0) and L1([0, 1])) which fail to be isomorphic, yet whose conjugate spaces are isomorphic.
Resource Consultant Communication and Teacher Expectations of Behaviorally Disordered Children.

This study was designed to identify factors in behavioral disorders resource consultant communication that might influence regular educators' expectations. Teachers were randomly assigned to one of...
Proof Without Words: sin ( cos x)< cos ( sin x)

Summary. The trigonometric inequality sin ( cos x)< cos ( sin x) is proved visually for x∈(0,π/2) .
Tension and fatigue behavior of Al-2124A/SiC-particulate metal matrix composites

Abstract The tension and fatigue properties of SupremEX® 225XE composites (Al-2124A/25%/SiCp/3 μm) were determined for extruded samples tested in the longitudinal orientation in the T4 condition. Tension testing was conducted at 0.001/sec on as-machined cylindrical samples tested with high alignment fixtures according to ASTM E−8. The fatigue tests were conducted on polished hourglass fatigue samples with stress ratio R = 0.1 and test frequency of 20 Hz using hydraulic grips on a Model 810 MTS servo-hydraulic testing machine according to ASTM E466-15. A total of 26 samples were tested with stress levels between 448 MPa and 557 MPa. The resulting stress vs. cycles to failure (i.e. S-N) curve was compared to the unreinforced matrix alloy, other unreinforced high strength aerospace aluminum alloys, as well as other conventionally processed MMCs. The SupremEX® 225XE MMC exhibited improvements to both the low cycle fatigue (LCF) and high cycle fatigue (HCF) performance compared to these materials. The fatigue strength at 107 cycles was 448 MPa, well in excess of those for monolithic aluminum alloys as well as conventionally processed MMCs. Detailed fractography revealed the presence of a unique cone-shaped fracture feature for samples failing in HCF. Calculations based on fracture morphologies suggested catastrophic fatigue fracture occurred as the material reached its critical fracture toughness. Initial modeling of this fatigue performance used a variant of the Universal Slopes Criterion proposed in early work at Case Western Reserve University by S. M. Manson.
Order-disorder phase transition in black hole star clusters - III. A mono-energetic cluster

Supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies are often surrounded by dense star clusters. For a wide range of cluster properties and orbital radii the resonant relaxation times in these clusters are much shorter than the Hubble time. Since resonant relaxation conserves semimajor axes, these clusters should be in the maximum-entropy state consistent with the given semimajor axis distribution. We determine these maximum-entropy equilibria in a simplified model in which all of the stars have the same semimajor axes. We find that the cluster exhibits a phase transition from a disordered, spherical, high-temperature equilibrium to an ordered low-temperature equilibrium in which the stellar orbits have a preferred orientation or line of apsides. Here `temperature' is a measure of the non-Keplerian or self-gravitational energy of the cluster; in the spherical state, temperature is a function of the rms eccentricity of the stars. We explore a simple two-parameter model of black-hole star clusters -- the two parameters are semimajor axis and black-hole mass --- and find that clusters are susceptible to the lopsided phase transition over a range of ~100 in semimajor axis, mostly for black-hole masses less than $10^{7.5}$ solar masses.
Predictable Data-Driven Resource Management: an Implementation using Autoware on Autonomous Platforms

Autonomous embedded systems (AES) are becoming prominent in many application domains such as self-driving cars. However, the conflict between the rather limited memory space in such systems and the data intensive nature of the workloads creates hard challenges on data and memory management, which may easily cause unpredictability in outputting autonomous control decisions. In this paper, we target data-driven AES featuring the integrated architecture by establishing a data-centric system model inspired by Heijunka, a mature production leveling methodology developed by Toyota. Based on this new model, we develop ResCue which contains a dynamic data scheduler and a flexible memory reservation scheme to ensure both temporal and spatial data availability, which shall guarantee predictability in generating outputs in terms of both meeting deadlines and minimizing jitters. We implement and extensively evaluate ResCue under various settings using a popular end-to-end self-driving software Autoware on top of the AES-specific NVIDIA AGX Xavier SoC. Results show that ResCue never misses a deadline and yields a maximum jitter of merely 834 microseconds, while incurring rather small overhead. Moreover, ResCue is able to noticeably reduce memory consumption compared to vanilla Autoware.
From Indignation to Ambiguity: The Revolution in Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins’s Letters and Novels

This article reassesses Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins (1759–1835), a prolific author whose late novels Rosanne (1814) and Heraline (1821) reveal her as more complex than hitherto recognized on social an...
Synapse: Synthetic application profiler and emulator

Abstract Motivated by the need to emulate workload execution characteristics on high-performance and distributed heterogeneous resources, we introduce Synapse. Synapse is used as a proxy application (or “representative application”) for real workloads, with the advantage that it can be tuned in different ways and dimensions, and also at levels of granularity that are not possible with real applications. Synapse has a platform-independent application profiler, and has the ability to emulate profiled workloads on a variety of resources. Experiments show that the automated profiling performed using Synapse captures an application's characteristics with high fidelity. The emulation of an application using Synapse can reproduce the application's execution behavior in the original runtime environment, and can also reproduce those behaviors on different run-time environments.
Scalable and accurate deep learning with electronic health records

Predictive modeling with electronic health record (EHR) data is anticipated to drive personalized medicine and improve healthcare quality. Constructing predictive statistical models typically requires extraction of curated predictor variables from normalized EHR data, a labor-intensive process that discards the vast majority of information in each patient’s record. We propose a representation of patients’ entire raw EHR records based on the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) format. We demonstrate that deep learning methods using this representation are capable of accurately predicting multiple medical events from multiple centers without site-specific data harmonization. We validated our approach using de-identified EHR data from two US academic medical centers with 216,221 adult patients hospitalized for at least 24 h. In the sequential format we propose, this volume of EHR data unrolled into a total of 46,864,534,945 data points, including clinical notes. Deep learning models achieved high accuracy for tasks such as predicting: in-hospital mortality (area under the receiver operator curve [AUROC] across sites 0.93–0.94), 30-day unplanned readmission (AUROC 0.75–0.76), prolonged length of stay (AUROC 0.85–0.86), and all of a patient’s final discharge diagnoses (frequency-weighted AUROC 0.90). These models outperformed traditional, clinically-used predictive models in all cases. We believe that this approach can be used to create accurate and scalable predictions for a variety of clinical scenarios. In a case study of a particular prediction, we demonstrate that neural networks can be used to identify relevant information from the patient’s chart.
Circulating miRNAs associated with bone mineral density in healthy adult baboons.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally and circulate in the blood, making them attractive biomarkers of disease state for tissues like bone that are challenging to interrogate directly. Here we report on five miRNAs - miR-197-3p, miR-320a, miR-320b, miR-331-5p, and miR-423-5p - that are associated with bone mineral density (BMD) in 147 healthy adult baboons. These baboons range in age from 15 to 25 years (45 to 75 human equivalent years) and were 65% female with a broad range of BMDs including a minority of osteopenic individuals. miRNAs were generated via RNA sequencing from buffy coats collected at necropsy and areal BMD evaluated via DXA of the lumbar vertebrae post-mortem. Differential expression analysis controlled for the underlying pedigree structure of these animals to account for genetic variation which may be driving miRNA abundance and BMD values. While many of these miRNAs have been associated with risk of human osteoporosis, this finding is of interest because the cohort represent a model of normal aging and bone metabolism rather than a disease cohort. The replication of miRNA associations with osteoporosis or other bone metabolic disorders in animals with healthy BMD suggests an overlap in normal variation and disease states. We suggest that these miRNAs are involved in the regulation of cellular proliferation, apoptosis, and protein composition in the extracellular matrix throughout life. However, age-related dysregulation of these systems may lead to disease causing associations of the miRNAs among individuals with clinically defined disease.
Histopathology after lidocaine/prilocaine cream administration for vulvar biopsy

Background Case series have described disruptive histopathologic changes following lidocaine/prilocaine cream anesthetic for biopsies. Methods A study of histopathologic changes was performed following a randomized trial comparing topical lidocaine/prilocaine cream to 1% lidocaine injection anesthesia for vulvar biopsy. Histopathology was reviewed by two independent dermatopathologists blinded to the type of anesthetic. Specimens were scored on six histopathologic criteria described in the literature. Individual scores for each histopathologic feature and the total score across features were compared between the two groups using marginal models with generalized estimating equations. Results Of 37 specimens reviewed, 19 were randomized to lidocaine/prilocaine cream and 18 to 1% lidocaine. Subjects exposed to lidocaine/prilocaine had the following odds of histopathologic changes, relative to lidocaine-exposed subjects: acantholysis (odds ratio 2.48; 95% confidence intervals 0.51, 12.06), clefting (2.42; 0.64, 9.14), pallor/necrosis (1.13; 0.28, 4.50), spongiosis (0.71; 0.18, 2.85), papillary dermal edema (1.17; 0.41, 3.29). Total scores were not significantly different between treatment arms (risk ratio 0.98; 0.71, 1.35). Conclusion This histopathologic analysis of a randomized trial between lidocaine/prilocaine cream and injected lidocaine as anesthesia for vulvar biopsy demonstrates the absence of significant disruptive histologic features secondary to the type of anesthetic. Additional studies in different clinical contexts are warranted. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Police Integrity in Thailand

The Royal Thai Police, a police agency decentralized by law, yet centralized in reality, is under the umbrella of the office of the prime minister. This chapter explores the forms of police integrity among the Thai police officers. The representative stratified sample of 280 police officers, collected in 2013, evaluated hypothetical scenarios describing various forms of police misconduct. Results suggest that police officers evaluated the behaviors described in the scenarios to vary in their seriousness. Only one scenario—an opportunistic theft—was evaluated as very serious and, at the same time, was recognized by the overwhelming majority as rule violating. The respondents thought that most of the described behaviors deserve a milder form of discipline. At the same time, they also expected relatively mild discipline for most of the scenarios. They thought that dismissal was the appropriate and expected discipline only for the opportunistic theft. We also detected the code of silence and concluded that it is not a flat prohibition of reporting. The more serious the respondents perceived the scenarios, the less likely they were to cover it by the code. Finally, the police officers expected that other officers in their agencies would be much more likely to protect all these behaviors in silence than they themselves would.
Regulation of Oligodendrocyte Development and CNS Myelination by IGF-I: Prospects for Disease Therapy

Myelin is an innovation that arose relatively recently during evolution, being found only in vertebrates and not in lower taxa. In axons ensheathed by myelin, which forms a series of insulating segments or “internodes” separated by uninsulated nodes of Ranvier, action potentials are conducted in saltatory fashion, jumping from one node of Ranvier to the next without depolarizing the axonal membrane covered by the intervening myelin. As a result, thin myelinated axons can conduct action potentials at the same velocity as much thicker unmyelinated axons, allowing considerable savings in space without sacrificing performance. Moreover, because membrane depolarization and ion flux occur only at the nodes of Ranvier, myelin reduces the energy cost of conduction by a factor of 100 or more. Without the miniaturization and energy efficiency enabled by myelination, the highly complex nervous systems of vertebrates would not be possible. The importance of myelin to neural function is strikingly illustrated by the devastating consequences of demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, in spite of myelin’s fundamental role in nervous system function and its involvement in MS and other human diseases, relatively little is known about the regulation of myelin production by the myelin-forming cells of the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS), oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells, respectively. Clarification of these processes would give us a better fundamental understanding of nervous system development and function, and would likely yield information useful in designing therapies to promote remyelination in MS and other myelin diseases.
Some Standard Distributions

So far, the distributions p(x) that we have considered were defined for finitely many values x 1,...,x n . We shall now consider distributions f(x) defined for all real numbers x or for real numbers x in some interval. This is a big step to take, so it is worth pausing to ask why we do so.
Kolmogorov–Smirnov Test

This is a distribution-free method for comparing two empirical distributions, based on the largest vertical distance between the two cumulative distribution functions. The Kolmogorov test is a special case where one distribution function is known, and hence is a test of goodness-of-fit. Various properties, including power, are discussed. Keywords: distribution-free; nonparametric; goodness-of-fit; power; quantile; distribution function
Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Identification in Polyploids: A Review, Example, and Recommendations.

Understanding the relationship between genotype and phenotype is a major biological question and being able to predict phenotypes based on molecular genotypes is integral to molecular breeding. Whole-genome duplications have shaped the history of all flowering plants and present challenges to elucidating the relationship between genotype and phenotype, especially in neopolyploid species. Although single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have become popular tools for genetic mapping, discovery and application of SNPs in polyploids has been difficult. Here, we summarize common experimental approaches to SNP calling, highlighting recent polyploid successes. To examine the impact of software choice on these analyses, we called SNPs among five peanut genotypes using different alignment programs (BWA-mem and Bowtie 2) and variant callers (SAMtools, GATK, and Freebayes). Alignments produced by Bowtie 2 and BWA-mem and analyzed in SAMtools shared 24.5% concordant SNPs, and SAMtools, GATK, and Freebayes shared 1.4% concordant SNPs. A subsequent analysis of simulated Brassica napus chromosome 1A and 1C genotypes demonstrated that, of the three software programs, SAMtools performed with the highest sensitivity and specificity on Bowtie 2 alignments. These results, however, are likely to vary among species, and we therefore propose a series of best practices for SNP calling in polyploids.
Rhabdomyosarcoma of the Testis: Report of Two Cases

One of the rarest varieties of intrascrotal neoplasm is a tumor composed of striated muscle. Only a few cases have been published and most of these appear as isolated reports in the older foreign literature. In many cases, the tumor was closely connected with the testicle, but it was difficult to determine whether it arose from the testis or from the adjacent tissue. Rokitansky in 1849 described a paratesticular tumor in an eighteen-year-old boy. The growth, which was composed entirely of skeletal muscle, he interpreted as having arisen from the gubernaculum of Hunter. Senftleben in 1858 described the presence of striated muscle bundles in a well differentiated teratoma of the testis. Neumann in 1886 reported a pure rhabdomyoma in a boy three and one-half years of age. The tumor was attached to the lower pole of the testis and was composed of striated muscle fibers and large muscle cells without striations. The testis and epididymis were unchanged. Like Rokitansky, Neumann thought that the tumor arose from the gubernaculum. Kocher in 1887 collected six cases of mixed tumors of the testis containing striated muscle.
Entanglement-assisted weak measurement

Postselected weak measurement has aroused broad interest for its distinctive ability to amplify small physical quantities. However, the low postselection efficiency to obtain a large weak value has been a big obstacle to its application in practice, since it can waste resources, and reduce the measurement precision. In this paper, we detail the entanglement-assisted postselected weak measurement protocol proposed in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 030401 (2014)], and study its robustness against technical noises. We show that when the systems are properly entangled, postselection can be made dramatically more efficient, and as a consequence, the Fisher information can be increased to approximately saturate the well-known Heisenberg limit. We illustrate this protocol by a qubit example. Readout errors can greatly degrade the performance of postselected weak measurement schemes. We show that entanglement can significantly reduce two main detrimental effects of readout errors: inaccuracy in the measurement result, and loss of the Fisher information. We further compensate for readout errors by a majority vote scheme for postselection. With a proper threshold, almost no Fisher information will be lost. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of entanglement in protecting postselected weak measurement against readout errors.
A Placebo-Controlled Trial of a Proprietary Extract of North American Ginseng (CVT-E002) to Prevent Acute Respiratory Illness in Institutionalized Older Adults

Objectives: To compare a proprietary extract of American ginseng, CVT-E002, with placebo in preventing acute respiratory illness (ARI) in an institutional setting during the influenza season. Design: Two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials conducted late in the 2000 (8 week) and 2000–2001 (12 week) influenza seasons. Setting: Long-term care setting that included nursing home and assisted living at three sites. Participants: Eighty-nine (2000) and 109 (2000–2001) enrolled subjects, average age 81 and 83.5, respectively; 74% women. Approximately 90% had received influenza vaccine in each of the 2 years. Intervention: Oral twice-daily administration of a proprietary ginseng extract, CVT-E002, 200 mg or placebo. Measurements: ARI was defined as two new respiratory symptoms or one with a constitutional symptom. Confirmation of viral ARI was by culture (influenza or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)) or serology for influenza. Laboratory safety monitoring was done at 0, 4, and 8 or 12 weeks. Results: An intent-to-treat analysis of pooled data corrected for drug exposure time showed that the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza illness (LCII) was greater in placebo- (7 cases/101 subjects) than CVT-E002-treated (1/97) groups (odds ratio (OR)=7.73, P=.033). Combined data for LCII and RSV illness were also greater in placebo- (9/101) than CVT-E002-treated (1/97) groups (OR=10.50, P=.009), for an overall 89% relative risk reduction of ARI in the CVT-E002 group. Conclusion: CVT-E002 was shown to be safe, well tolerated, and potentially effective for preventing ARI due to influenza and RSV.
On the global Cauchy problem for the nonlinear Schrodinger equation.

We mainly survey recent results on the nonlinear Schrodinger equations with special emphasis on the Cauchy problem, local and global in time and for various regularity assumptions on the initial data.
The Decentralization of Decision Making and Employee Involvement within the Workplace: Evidence from Four Establishment Datasets

Participatory work practices, like teams, quality circles and joint consultative committees (JCCs) can, but do not necessarily, decentralize decision making and increase worker autonomy. We use broad, cross-sectional establishment data from the European Union and three Commonwealth countries to measure the extent of decision making by workers across these countries, and to analyse how this measure varies with the use of participatory practices. Within Europe, workers in Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland are most likely to be given the authority to make decisions. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, decentralized decision making is more unusual. While decision making is generally higher in establishments with teams, JCCs and quality circles, this result does not hold across all countries. Even where the relationships are significant, use of participatory practices explains a surprisingly small amount of the overall variation in decision making.
Verification Tests for Computer‐Aided Structural Analysis

This paper proposes a sequence of independent analyses for verifying the accuracy of the numerical analysis of a structure. The tests separately assay the approximations of round-off logic, discretization, and idealization on a quality-assurance basis. Because these tests require no special simulation logic, they are suitable for use with public domain software. The tests provide necessary checks of the accuracy of response predictions for the structure of immediate interest. Most tests are self-consistency checks which detect the sensitivity of results to changes in the problem definition and hence for changes of computer precision, computer logic, grid size, and idealization parameters. Some of the tests simply involve scaling responses. Use of the tests for a simple problem illustrates the verification process and interpretation of test results. Comparisons with exact analysis results suggest that the tests can play an important role in increasing the reliability of numerical structural analyses.
Tensile damage in a symmetric [090]2s silicon-carbide fiber-reinforced titanium-matrix composite

Abstract The results of a detailed study of the effects of composite microstructure on the micromechanisms of tensile damage in a symmetric [ 0 90 ]2s Ti-15Al-3Cr-3Al-3Sn (Ti-15-3)/SiC (SCS-6) composite are presented. Matrix micro-structure is controlled by heat treatment, which is used to produce metastable β or Widmanstatten α + β microstructures. The sequence of damage initiation and evolution at room temperature is identified using ex situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM) during incremental monotonic loading to failure. Damage mechanisms are also studied using non-destructive acoustic emission (AE) techniques, and matrix hardening is characterized using matrix micro-hardness measurements within individual plies. Idealized and actual microstructure-based finite-element models are used to rationalize the observed tendency of damage to propagate from the outer plies to the inner plies. The paper highlights the importance of simplified micromechanical models in the development of a fundamental understanding of the effects of composite architecture on damage initiation phenomena.
Predicting the time series suicide and murder rates in India

The results for the USA were quite different. The American suicide rate was predicted by female participation in the labor force and fertility (bs= -0.47 and 2.55, respectively, p < .05; R2 = 0.50), with both regression coefficients of different sign than those for India. For murder rate the regression coefficients were not statistically significant (bs = -0.12 and 0.38; R2 = 0.65). Thus, the social predictors of the Indian suicide rate were of opposite sign to chose for the American suicide rate. It may be noted that including the yearly growth in the gross national product per capita did not change these results, and this addtional variable did not contribute significantly to the regression equations.
Talagrand’s inductive method and isoperimetric inequalities involving random sets

Abstract Talagrand’s isoperimetric inequality is extended to the case for which the distance from a random vector with independent components is measured not to a subset of a product space but instead to a (finite) set of random vectors assuming values in that product space. This extension is realized in particular for a general class of distances that we show includes the Hamming distance as well as Talagrand’s own convex distance. We then apply our new inequality to prove certain new exponential inequalities featuring the product of expectations of expressions involving the Hamming distances between members of pairs of random vectors satisfying suitable independence conditions.
Evaluational Spatial Compounding

Abstract Spatial compounding has long been explored to reduce coherent speckle noise in medical ultrasound. By laterally translating a one-dimensional array, partially correlated measurements made at different look directions can be obtained and incoherently averaged. The lateral resolution, however, is limited by the sub-array length used for each independent measurement. To reduce speckle contrast without compromising lateral resolution, a new spatial compounding technique using two-dimensional, anisotropic arrays is proposed. This technique obtains partially correlated measurements by steering the image plane elevationally with small inclinations. Incoherent averaging is then performed by adding image magnitudes. Therefore, contrast resolution is improved only at the price of a slightly wider elevational beam. Note that although anisotropic arrays have limited steering capability in elevation, grating lobes are not considered influential since only small inclinations are needed between measurements. Simulations have been performed to show both the change in spatial resolution and the improvement in contrast resolution. Results indicated minimal increase in the correlation length both laterally and axially. It was also shown that detectability can be significantly enhanced by increasing the number of measurements or increasing the differential inclination between measurements. This technique is therefore effective for reducing speckle noise while maintaining in-plane spatial resolution. Furthermore, it demonstrates a new application of two-dimensional anisotropic arrays in spite of their limited elevational steering capability.
On the complexity of K -SAT

The k-SAT problem is to determine if a given k-CNF has a satisfying assignment. It is a celebrated open question as to whether it requires exponential time to solve k-SAT for k?3. Here exponential time means 2?n for some ?>0. In this paper, assuming that, for k?3, k-SAT requires exponential time complexity, we show that the complexity of k-SAT increases as k increases. More precisely, for k?3, define sk=inf{?:there exists 2?n algorithm for solving k-SAT}. Define ETH (Exponential-Time Hypothesis) for k-SAT as follows: for k?3, sk>0. In this paper, we show that sk is increasing infinitely often assuming ETH for k-SAT. Let s∞ be the limit of sk. We will in fact show that sk?(1?d/k)s∞ for some constant d>0. We prove this result by bringing together the ideas of critical clauses and the Sparsification Lemma to reduce the satisfiability of a k-CNF to the satisfiability of a disjunction of 2?nk?-CNFs in fewer variables for some k??k and arbitrarily small ?>0. We also show that such a disjunction can be computed in time 2?n for arbitrarily small ?>0.
Generalizing the meaning of ‘heat’

Abstract The concept of ‘heat’ has a strict meaning in thermodynamics which is less general than the use of the concept in this journal. The author concludes that the usage in this journal is correct and that if any changes are to be made, they should be made in the structure of thermodynamics.
Mixed lymphocyte reactions in the rabbit using peripheral blood cells: the effects of cell preparation and skin grafting.

Abstract The magnitude of mixed lymphocyte reactions using rabbit peripheral blood cells is subject to a number of variables including the method of cell preparation, the culture conditions employed, the genetic relationship of the cell donors, the number of bleedings immediately preceding the test bleed and the length of time that the cells are cultured. Mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR) were carried out in microcultures and optimal responses were obtained when cultures contained 1 × 10 6 cells and were fed daily. Both two-way and one-way MLR were done using irradiation or mitomycin-C to inhibit the response of one donor population. The responses between various pairs of rabbits fell into three categories: high responders with 6,000–9,000 cpm 125 IUdR incorporated into DNA, low responders with 1,000–3,000 cpm incorporated and non-responders with 20–70 cpm incorporated. In all cases the background incorporation was less than 70 cpm. There was no MLR prior to the third day of culture; the response peaked on the fifth or sixth day and declined thereafter. Repeated bleeding of the rabbits at short intervals resulted in decreased MLR. Lymphocytes derived from defibrinated blood were primarily responding cells whereas lymphocytes from heparinized blood were stimulatory cells. The responding cells were sensitive to killing by anti-thymocyte serum (ATS) and complement. There was some evidence that the magnitude of MLR is affected by genetic relatedness. The duration of skin graft survival in these studies was not related to the magnitude of MLR.
Microstructure and superconducting properties of Y--Ba--Cu--O and Yb--Ba--Cu--O thin films formed by metalorganic deposition

Thin films of Y--Ba--Cu--O and Yb--Ba--Cu--O, 0.5--1.5 {mu}m in thickness, were deposited onto {l angle}211{r angle} and {l angle}100{r angle} SrTiO{sub 3} single crystal substrates by metalorganic deposition (MOD). After deposition the samples were annealed by conventional furnace annealing or rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The microstructures of these films were then characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS). Grain size of the annealed films varied from 0.25 to 1.0 {mu}m. Improved superconducting properties were found for the RTA samples, compared to furnace annealing, and were attributed to larger grain size, little strontium diffusion into the thin films from the substrate, and highly preferred orientation of the 1:2:3 phase.
Artificial Nutrition and Hydration at the End of Life

Considerable controversy surrounds the issue of care at the end of life (EOL) for older adults. Technological advances and the legal, ethical, clinical, religious, cultural, personal, and fiscal considerations in the provision of artificial hydration and nutrition support to older adults near death are presented in this comprehensive review.