cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Flexible Multi -Body Design of a Morphing UCAV

During the first Gulf War a major effort was carried out to find and destroy Iraqi Scud missiles. The McDonnell Douglas F-15E aircraft carried out the Scud hunting operation, which included a hunter and killer phase. This Scud hunting mission was not successful due to lack of evidence of any Scuds actually being destroyed. The endurance of the F-15E is sufficient for an attack aircraft, but not long enough for such a search and destroy mission. Even with mid-air refueling, the flight time is limited by the fatigue of the pilot. The high endurance of Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) along with a high-speed attack capability and sensors to identify Scud missiles is the key goal. The challenges of an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) successfully meeting the requirements of both a low-speed, high-altitude loiter and a supersonic strike capable aircraft dictates a concept that requires significant geometric morphing. This resulted in a desired wing area change of 200%, a sweep angle change from 20 to 70 degrees, and an aspect ratio change from 3 to 7. The structural design challenges and solutions are presented that would satisfy such a requirement. The conceptual design model involves that of a coplanar joined wing, which used revolute and spherical joints to enable the necessary configuration change. Areas of concern included the amount of weight penalty involved with the addition of the joints and whether or not this weight penalty would be overcome by the benefit in fuel efficiency. Existing variable sweep wing aircraft that utilized joint mechanisms were researched to provide starting points for a morphing mechanism. The finite element based flexible multi-body analysis tool, DYMORE, was used to investigate joint loads and multi-body behavior for various configurations. Two models were tested, one which included only revolute joints, and the other included a combination of revolute and spherical joints. Joint materials were researched to reduce the weight and maximize strength of the mechanism as much as possible. The drop test simulation results, which was the most critical scenario, were used to size the joints via simple mechanics of materials assumptions. A modal analysis was performed as well to investigate the natural frequencies and critical modes that the aircraft would experience due to the significant geometrical change. The fact that the morphing combat aircraft is unmanned allows flexibility in pushing the envelope and increases the chance of success with such an exotic aircraft design.
Smoking Cessation Related to Improved Patient-Reported Pain Scores Following Spinal Care in Geriatric Patients

Introduction:We examined rates of smoking cessation and the effect of smoking cessation on pain and disability scores in a geriatric patient population.Methods:Prospectively maintained database rec...
A Robust Genetic System for Producing Heterodimeric Native and Mutant Cytochrome bc1

The ubihydroquinone:cytochrome c oxidoreductase, or cytochrome bc1, is central to the production of ATP by oxidative phosphorylation and photophosphorylation in many organisms. Its three-dimensional structure depicts it as a homodimer with each monomer composed of the Fe–S protein, cytochrome b, and cytochrome c1 subunits. Recent genetic approaches successfully produced heterodimeric variants of this enzyme, providing insights into its mechanism of function. However, these experimental setups are inherently prone to genetic rearrangements as they carry repeated copies of cytochrome bc1 structural genes. Duplications present on a single replicon (one-plasmid system) or a double replicon (two-plasmid system) could yield heterogeneous populations via homologous recombination or other genetic events at different frequencies, especially under selective growth conditions. In this work, we assessed the origins and frequencies of genetic variations encountered in these systems and describe an improved variant of ...
Ureteral papilla implantation as a technique for neoureterocystostomy in cats undergoing renal transplantation: 30 cases.

Objective To describe the clinical outcome of donor and recipient cats undergoing ureteral papilla harvest and implantation as a technique for neoureterocystostomy in clinical kidney transplant. Study Design Retrospective case series. Animals Donor (n=31) and recipient (n=30) cats that underwent kidney harvest and transplantation using ureteral papilla implantation technique for neoureterocystostomy. Methods Medical records for donor and recipient cats presented to the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Teaching Hospital from January 2003 to December 2014 were reviewed. Data recorded included complete blood count, serum chemistry panel, surgical technique, diagnostic imaging results, short- and long-term complications, and anesthetic survival. Results All 30 recipients recovered from anesthesia. Four died within 24 hours and 26 survived to hospital discharge. Serum creatinine was within the reference interval by 72 hours in 22/26 cats (85%). Complications related to the ureteral papilla implantation technique were seen in only 1 cat (3%). Uroabdomen diagnosed on day 3 ultimately resolved over the following 24 hours without surgical intervention. All 31 donor cats survived to discharge. Four donors (13%) experienced mild, transiently increased serum creatinine. Conclusion Ureteral papilla implantation is a viable technique for neoureterocystostomy in cats undergoing kidney transplantation. Proposed benefits for the recipient include a less technically challenging anastomosis, decreased risk of ureteral obstruction at the anastomosis site, and reduced risk of leakage compared to previous reports. Benefits for recipients should be weighed against risks to donors, including a more complex ureteral harvest, increased surgical time, and potential injury or obstruction of the contralateral ureteral papilla.
Research on Classification and Representation of Residential Change for the Automatic Retrieval Incremental Information

Residential data is a kind of important topographic data and continually change. In order to keep the data up-to-date, data producers need update the data frequently. When the residential data are updated,the incremental information must be dispensed to the end-users to keep their client-databases current. Incremental information refers to the changed information of residential entity. In the real world, residential entity changes in many forms. Identifying the change type of residential entity (i.e. captures the semantics of change) and representing them in the data world can help end-users understand the change commonly and be convenient for end-users to integrate these change information into their databases. A classification and qualitative representation of change was focused on. A classification of change was offered based on multi-factors and these change type was represent and related incremental information with IF-THEN expressions. 3refs.,1tab.,6refs.
National Evaluation of the New Commission on Cancer Quality Measure for Postmastectomy Radiation Treatment for Breast Cancer

Current guidelines recommend postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) for patients with ≥4 positive lymph nodes and suggest strong consideration of PMRT in those with 1–3 positive nodes. These recommendations were incorporated into a Commission on Cancer quality measure in 2014. However, national adherence with these recommendations is unknown. Our objectives were to describe PMRT use in the United States in patients with stage I to III invasive breast cancer and to examine possible factors associated with the omission of PMRT. From the National Cancer Data Base, 753,536 mastectomies at 1123 hospitals were identified from 1998 to 2011. PMRT use over time was examined using random effects logistic regression analyses, adjusting for patient, tumor, and hospital characteristics. Analyses were stratified by nodal status (≥4 nodes positive, 1–3 nodes positive, node negative). The proportion of patients receiving PMRT increased from 1998 to 2011 (>4 positive nodes: 56.2 to 66.6 %; 1–3 positive nodes: 28.0 to 39.1 %; node-negative: 8.3 to 10.0 %, p < 0.001 for all). In adjusted analyses, patients with ≥4 positive nodes were more likely to have PMRT omitted if they had smaller tumors. Patients with 1–3 positive nodes were more likely to have PMRT omitted if they had lower grade or smaller tumors. Irrespective of patients’ nodal status, PMRT utilization rates decreased as age increased. Though PMRT rates increased over time in patients with ≥4 and 1–3 positive nodes, PMRT in patients with ≥4 positive nodes remains underutilized. Feedback to hospitals using the new Commission on Cancer PMRT measure may help to improve adherence rates.
Abstract 39: Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in STS and SULT2B1 and response to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in men with advanced hormone sensitive prostate cancer (aHSPC)

Background: Germline variations in genes involved in androgen biosynthesis and metabolic pathways may predict time to response to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in aHSPC, serve as prognostic and predictive biomarkers, and guide towards more individualized upfront therapy. Methods: 795 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Illumina OmniExpress genotyping platform within the boundaries of 60 genes reported to be involved in the androgen metabolic pathway were investigated for association with time to onset of castration resistance prostate cancer (CRPC) in 118 Caucasian men with aHSPC, i.e. those progressing after definitive treatment, undergoing treatment with ADT. Cox proportional hazard analysis was employed using Gleason score as a covariate and assessing each SNP under an additive genetic model in which the number of minor alleles contributes increasing risk (or protection). Results: Three SNPs in STS (steroid sulfatase gene), and three SNPs in SULT2B1 (sulfotransferase 2B1 gene) were significantly associated with time to CRPC on ADT while controlling for Gleason Score (p Conclusions: SNPs in STS and SULT2B1 significantly associated with time to CRPC on ADT in aHSPC, and may serve as predictive markers to ADT in this setting. Data are being validated in a larger cohort. Citation Format: Neeraj Agarwal, Tyler Buckley, James Farnham, Shiven B. Patel, Archana Agarwal, Srinivas Tantravahi, Craig Teerlink, Frederick S. Albright, Robert A. Stephenson, Anitha Alex, Lisa Cannon-Albright. Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in STS and SULT2B1 and response to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in men with advanced hormone sensitive prostate cancer (aHSPC). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Integrating Clinical Genomics and Cancer Therapy; Jun 13-16, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2016;22(1_Suppl):Abstract nr 39.
Epidemiology and health service resource allocation policy for alcohol, drug abuse, and mental disorders

Data from the NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Study in Baltimore, Md., are used to illustrate the association between alcohol, drug abuse, and mental disorder diagnoses with health service use. A probability sample of 3,481 adult (age 18 and over) residents of a geographically defined Baltimore City population of 175,000 was found to have a 23.4 per 100 population, 6-month prevalence of 13 specific alcohol, drug, and mental disorders. Of this population, 7.1 percent sought outpatient mental health treatment from both general medical physicians and mental health specialists in a 6-month period. The presence of a mental disorder diagnosis increased the average number of visits to all health providers from 1.91 to 4.06 during the same 6-month period. Although the presence of a mental disorder diagnosis clearly increased the probability of using both general medical and mental health services, only 15.6 percent of the persons with a mental disorder sought any mental health treatment during this 6-month timeframe--leaving 84 percent of those with mental disorders not seeking any outpatient treatment during the same period. The addition of a measure of high symptomatology (a score of 4 or more on the General Health Questionnaire) increased the percentage of persons with mental disorder using services to 30.5 percent. When a measure of disability was added to the diagnosis and the high symptom level score, 54.7 percent of the population could be predicted to use some mental health service. These data demonstrate the necessity of having additional patient assessment measures with a diagnosis to predict probable service use. However, even in the most comprehensive multidimensional model, more research is required to explore the phenomena of presumed unmet need--the 45 percent of those with a diagnosis, disability, and high symptoms who do not use services. Hence, epidemiologists who wish to participate in setting policy for resource allocation must join with their colleagues in economics, sociology, and health services research to identify all factors in addition to disease states that either predispose population groups to use services or represent additional resource allocation needs.
Establishing and Supporting Relevance

Why do people choose to do the things they do? From a radically concrete perspective, there are as many reasons as there are situations. Every situation could be viewed as having something unique about it. But, from a more general perspective, peoples’ choices can be understood in terms of a variety of psychological concepts and theories, one of the most broadly accepted of which is expectancy-value theory which was briefly introduced in Chapter 2. This theory postulates that people choose to pursue a given goal when the expected outcome is something they desire and they have a positive expectancy for achieving it. This relationship is considered to be multiplicative in which behavior potential is a function of expectancy times value [BP = f (E x V)]. This means that both terms must have positive values or the result will be zero behavior potential. The second term in the equation which is based on goals, motives, and values is the part that applies to relevance. But, as we know, participation in school is a requirement and seldom the result of a voluntary choice based on one’s values and expectancies. What, then, are peoples’ expectations of a course with respect to relevance? This chapter contains several psychological concepts that help explain relevance and the other part of the equation, expectancies for success, will be discussed in the next chapter on confidence.
Pharmacokinetics of continuous intravenous and subcutaneous infusions of cytosine arabinoside

The pharmacokinetics of continuous subcutaneous cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) infusions were compared with continuous intravenous infusions. Steady-state serum ara-C levels and myelosuppression were similar with both routes of administration. CSF/serum ara-C ratios ranged from 0.14 to 0.91 (mean, 0.58). Continuous subcutaneous ara-C infusions were a convenient and reliable alternative to intravenous infusions.
Metrics for Evaluating and Improving Community Resilience

AbstractThe growing risk of natural and artificial or manufactured hazards combined with a lack of community preparedness have revealed the necessity for comprehensive and effective metrics for evaluating and improving a community’s resilience, i.e., the ability of communities to prepare for, withstand, and recover from disasters. In this paper, the authors review existing community resilience metrics and tools, classifying them into one of three main categories: community-level, sector-specific, or sociological. The paper provides short descriptions of each metric and comparisons across metrics within the three main categories and across classes. The authors assess the strengths and limitations of these metrics, discuss challenges in improving community resilience, and provide recommendations for the development of new measures of resilience. The paper concludes with an outlook on the future of community resilience, particularly the need for metrics that apply across hazards, geographic areas, and factor...
Urban Gardening Practices and Culture

Human-environment connection has progressed from basic survival to subsistence through the use of local ecosystem services and the domestication and cultivation of plants for food and medicine. Approaches of cultivation vary, with the use of geometric plots and linear rows, raised garden beds, rows and clusters of plants, container gardens, as well as the more natural state of permaculture. Across cultures, gardens are dynamic and may serve multiple purposes. Beyond food production and cultural cuisine, they create a use of space for health and well-being, sense of identities, sense of place, spirituality, social and multi-generational interactions, and for therapeutic/medicinal purposes. To develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and healthy communities, the role of gardens and the multi-use of public space deserve attention.
Quantum Field Theory in Condensed Matter Physics: One-dimensional fermions with spin: spin-charge separation

The bosonization procedure works equally well for fermions with spin, thus providing us with an essentially nonperturbative approach to one-dimensional metals. The foundations of this approach were laid in the late 1970s and early 1980s by various authors (see the review article by Brazovsky and Kirova (1984) and references therein). The bosonization approach is based on the fact that coherent excitations in onedimensional interacting systems are not renormalized electrons, but collective excitations – bosons. For spinless fermions there is only one branch of collective excitations – charge density waves. For fermions with spin, another branch appears which represents spin density waves. Elementary excitations in the charge sector carry charge ± e and spin 0; excitations in the spin sector are neutral and carry spin 1/2. Since the different branches have different symmetry properties, one can expect them to have quite different spectra. This can even go to such extremes that one branch has a gap and the other does not. It is only natural under such circumstances that electrons, which carry quantum numbers from both the spin and charge sectors, cannot propagate coherently. Roughly speaking, the parts of the electron containing different degrees try to tear it in pieces; it is customary to call this phenomenon spin-charge separation . Empirically this loss of coherence is revealed as an absence of a quasi-particle pole in the single-electron Green's function, an effect whose existence is supported by experimental observations (see discussion at the end of the chapter). All phenomenona described above (the spin-charge separation and existence of excitations with fractions of quantum numbers) can be described by the model considered below.
Effects of tissue susceptibility on brain temperature mapping.

Abstract A method for mapping of temperature over a large volume of the brain using volumetric proton MR spectroscopic imaging has been implemented and applied to 150 normal subjects. Magnetic susceptibility-induced frequency shifts in gray- and white-matter regions were measured and included as a correction in the temperature mapping calculation. Additional sources of magnetic susceptibility variations of the individual metabolite resonance frequencies were also observed that reflect the cellular-level organization of the brain metabolites, with the most notable differences being attributed to changes of the N-Acetylaspartate resonance frequency that reflect the intra-axonal distribution and orientation of the white-matter tracts with respect to the applied magnetic field. These metabolite-specific susceptibility effects are also shown to change with age. Results indicate no change of apparent brain temperature with age from 18 to 84 years old, with a trend for increased brain temperature throughout the cerebrum in females relative for males on the order of 0.1 °C; slightly increased temperatures in the left hemisphere relative to the right; and a lower temperature of 0.3 °C in the cerebellum relative to that of cerebral white-matter. This study presents a novel acquisition method for noninvasive measurement of brain temperature that is of potential value for diagnostic purposes and treatment monitoring, while also demonstrating limitations of the measurement due to the confounding effects of tissue susceptibility variations.
Speech Emotion Recognition using a backward context

The classification of emotions, such as joy, anger, anxiety, etc. from tonal variations in human speech is an important task for research and applications in human computer interaction. In the preceding work, it has been demonstrated that the locally extracted features of speech match or surpass the performance of global features that has been adopted in current approaches. In this continuing research, a backward context, which also can be considered as a feature vector memory, is shown to improve the prediction accuracy of the Speech Emotion Recognition engine. Preliminary results on German emotional speech database illustrate significant improvements over results from the previous study.
Photovoltaic module reliability: Enduring a storm

In contrast to integrated circuits, solar panels need to withstand large variations in environment and weather conditions. Photovoltaic modules must withstand 0–100% humidity at −20°C to 100°C with voltages up to 1000V and thousands of thermal cycles. Therefore, predicting lifetime is no better than predicting the weather. Yet lifetime estimates directly impact the levelized cost of a power generation system and therefore must be quantified. This talk will outline many of the failure modes for solar panels and the failure analysis techniques that are commonly used. Thermal and emission images are the dominate method for identifying egradation in a solar module.
Mitochondrial and redox abnormalities in autism lymphoblastoid cells: a sibling control study

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with physiological abnormalities, including abnormal redox and mitochondrial metabolism. Lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) from some children with ASD exhibit increased oxidative stress, decreased glutathione redox capacity, and highly active mitochondria with increased vulnerability to reactive oxygen species (ROS). Because unaffected siblings (Sibs) of individuals with ASD share some redox abnormalities, we sought to determine whether LCLs from Sibs share ASD-associated mitochondrial abnormalities. We evaluated mitochondrial bioenergetics in 10 sets of LCLs from children with ASD, Sibs, and unrelated/unaffected controls (Cons) after acute increases in ROS. Additionally, intracellular glutathione and uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) gene expressions were quantified. Compared to Sib LCLs, ASD LCLs exhibited significantly higher ATP-linked respiration, higher maximal and reserve respiratory capacity, and greater glycolysis and glycolytic reserve. ASD LCLs exhibited a significantly greater change in these parameters, with acute increases in ROS compared to both Sib and Con LCLs. Compared to Con, both ASD and Sib LCLs exhibited significantly higher proton leak respiration. Consistent with this, intracellular glutathione redox capacity was decreased and UCP2 gene expression was increased in both ASD and Sib compared to Con LCLs. These data indicate that mitochondrial respiratory function, not abnormal redox homeostasis, distinguishes ASD from unaffected LCLs.-Rose, S., Bennuri, S. C., Wynne, R., Melnyk, S., James, S. J., Frye, R. E. Mitochondrial and redox abnormalities in autism lymphoblastoid cells: a sibling control study.
Increase in the Incidence of Secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia (2-AML): A Single Institution Experience Over 20 Years.

Secondary acute myeloid leukemia (2-AML) is a distinctive clinical syndrome occurring after primary malignancy treated or not with chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy (RT), surgery, or a multimodality strategy. We analyzed the data on 2898 consecutive patients (pts) with AML (WHO criteria) referred to our institution between 1985 and 2005, including 1642 males and 1256 females. The median age was 58 years (range, 13–89 years) for pts with de novo AML (1-AML) (n=2198) and 66 years (range, 18–89 years) for those with 2-AML (n=700). 171 pts (18%) were treated for 2-AML between 1985 and 1994 versus 529 patients (27%) treated between 1995 and 2005 (p
Cyberbullying among youth with and without disabilities

Cyberbullying refers to bullying that occurs through the Internet and text messaging. While strides have been made in understanding the frequency with which cyberbullying occurs and its correlates, only a handful of published studies have examined cyberbullying among individuals with disabilities. Thus, this study examined cyberbullying prevalence rates and correlates among 231 participants age 16 to 20 (M = 19.32) with and without disabilities (51% male; 70.6% Caucasian). The study also examined the influence of disability status on participants’ ability to detect the presence/absence of cyberbullying. Both individuals with and without disabilities displayed high prevalence rates of cyberbullying victimization, with youth with disabilities displaying significantly higher rates. Perpetration rates did not differ significantly between the two groups. Disability status (present/absent) did not influence the ability of participants to detect the presence or absence of cyberbullying. Implications of the findings for prevention/intervention efforts are discussed.
MEFA (multiepitope fusion antigen)-Novel Technology for Structural Vaccinology, Proof from Computational and Empirical Immunogenicity Characterization of an Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) Adhesin MEFA.

Vaccine development often encounters the challenge of virulence heterogeneity. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) bacteria producing immunologically heterogeneous virulence factors are a leading cause of children’s diarrhea and travelers’ diarrhea. Currently, we do not have licensed vaccines against ETEC bacteria. While conventional methods continue to make progress but encounter challenge, new computational and structure-based approaches are explored to accelerate ETEC vaccine development. In this study, we applied a structural vaccinology concept to construct a structure-based multiepitope fusion antigen (MEFA) to carry representing epitopes of the seven most important ETEC adhesins [CFA/I, CFA/II (CS1-CS3), CFA/IV (CS4-CS6)], simulated antigenic structure of the CFA/I/II/IV MEFA with computational atomistic modeling and simulation, characterized immunogenicity in mouse immunization, and examined the potential of structure-informed vaccine design for ETEC vaccine development. A tag-less recombinant MEFA protein (CFA/I/II/IV MEFA) was effectively expressed and extracted. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated that this MEFA immunogen maintained a stable secondary structure and presented epitopes on the protein surface. Empirical data showed that mice immunized with the tagless CFA/I/II/IV MEFA developed strong antigen-specific antibody responses, and mouse serum antibodies significantly inhibited in vitro adherence of bacteria expressing these seven adhesins. These results revealed congruence of antigen immunogenicity between computational simulation and empirical mouse immunization and indicated this tag-less CFA/I/II/IV MEFA potentially an antigen for a broadly protective ETEC vaccine, suggesting a potential application of MEFA-based structural vaccinology for vaccine design against ETEC and likely other pathogens.
Weakly supervised learning of allomorphy

Most NLP resources that offer annotations at the word segment level provide morphological annotation that includes features indicating tense, aspect, modality, gender, case, and other inflectional information. Such information is rarely aligned to the relevant parts of the words—i.e. the allomorphs, as such annotation would be very costly. These unaligned weak labelings are commonly provided by annotated NLP corpora such as treebanks in various languages. Although they lack alignment information, the presence/absence of labels at the word level is also consistent with the amount of supervision assumed to be provided to L1 and L2 learners. In this paper, we explore several methods to learn this latent alignment between parts of word forms and the grammatical information provided. All the methods under investigation favor hypotheses regarding allomorphs of morphemes that re-use a small inventory, i.e. implicitly minimize the number of allomorphs that a morpheme can be realized as. We show that the provided information offers a significant advantage for both word segmentation and the learning of allomorphy.
Read Error Resilient MLC STT-MRAM Based Last Level Cache

STT-MRAM is a promising non-volatile memory technology for building large LLCs (Last Level Caches). Multi-level cell (MLC) STT-MRAM can further enlarge cache capacity with reduced per bit cost. However, due to fast technology scaling, STT-MRAM, in particular, MLC STT-MRAM, suffers from significant read errors, including read disturbance errors and sensing errors, which lead to unreliable accesses that prevent the adoption of MLC STT-MRAM in LLCs. In this paper, we propose R2M, a read error resilient 2T4J (two transistor four MTJ) MLC based LLC design. R2M leverages the recently industry-proposed 2T2J single-level cell (SLC) structure to achieve good tradeoff between reliability and capacity. It consists of two schemes: R2M-S and R2M-C. R2M-S improves read reliability by sensing the resistance difference of two cells, which effectively mitigates both sensing and disturbance errors for the soft bit of MLC. R2M-C further enhances error resiliency by exploiting access locality and data redundancy. We evaluate the proposed R2M design and compare it to the state-of-the-art. Our experimental results show that, on average, R2M achieves 54.8% performance improvement and 42.0% energy consumption reduction over the state-of-the-art MLC design.
Stereotactic Neutron Radiosurgery for Arteriovenous Malformations of the Brain

A technique employing single fraction neutron radiosurgery for treatment of intracranial vascular malformations has been developed at the University of Washington and is described in this report. The natural history of arteriovenous malformations of the brain is briefly reviewed, along with currently available therapeutic methods for treatment of these lesions. The characteristics of the neutron beam used for radiosurgery are described, along with methods for patient immobilization, radiation treatment planning, dosimetry, and delivery of treatment using this technique.
X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of Sculpted Metal Alloys

Analytical chemists are presented daily with a variety of real-world questions in which the chemical identification and quantification of a sample is the simplest part of the problem. In the past decade, the Internet has moved from the realm of computer science to all areas of life. The power of the Internet to augment traditional chemical analysis is beginning to be tapped to move the instrumental analysis course beyond simple chemical identification and quantification of ersatz samples to complete solution of problems. Complete solution of a problem is achieved when the analyst determines not just what an unknown sample is, but what it is used for and why. In contrast to analysis of the same laboratory mixtures year after year, complete solution of real problems intensifies student interest in laboratory experimentation, especially when a solution to a seemingly difficult problem is achieved in one afternoon. The result suggests that instrumental analysis laboratories should install Internet computers in the lab beside the usual instruments and teach Internet techniques along with instrumental theory and practice.
1.7 – Organozinc, Organocadmium and Organomercury Reagents

Organozinc compounds1,2 are readily prepared by oxidative addition of zinc to alkyl, allylic or benzylic halides, or by transmetallation reactions. Cadmium organometallics are prepared in similar ways, but show a lower thermal stability. Zinc and cadmium derivatives show a much lower reactivity and, consequently, a higher chemoselectivity than their lithium and magnesium counterparts. Organozinc halides containing various important classes of organic functional groups can be prepared in high yields and used, after transmetallation to more reactive copper or palladium organometallics, to form new carbon–carbon bonds. The addition of organozinc compounds to aldehydes and ketones is of considerable synthetic utility. Thus, alkyl- and aryl-zinc and -cadmium reagents add to aldehydes in the presence of Lewis acid catalysts with excellent chemoselectivity. If a chiral catalyst is used, very high enantioselectivities can be achieved. The addition of the more reactive allylic zinc and cadmium compounds to aldehydes and ketones does not require a catalyst and proceeds with high yields, good regioselectivity and, in some cases, excellent diastereoselectivity. The easy preparation of allylic zinc halides, combined with their high reactivity, makes them ideal nucleophilic allylating reagents.
Robust Control of 2-DOF Dielectric Elastomer Actuator

In optical systems, reflectors are commonly used to direct light beams to desired directions. Recently, due to external disturbances, it has been a great challenge to put such precise optical manipulation systems to special environments with high disturbances, such as outer space optical communication or magnetic resonance imaging rooms. These circumstances require the equipment robust to high vibration or strong magnetic field. Traditional optical systems which contain electrical motors and gear sets may not suit these special working conditions. In this paper, a dielectric elastomer based optical manipulator with 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) is developed. Its soft and gear-less moving structure makes it lightweight and naturally resistant to vibrations. Moreover, its non-electromagnetic moving mechanism allows it to work under a strong magnetic field environment. A dual-H-infinity control is developed to track two independent tilting angles along two axes. Experimental result showed this manipulator is able to track 2-DOF reference signals with 0.03 degree tracking accuracy.
Tree Search Techniques for Minimizing Detectability and Maximizing Visibility

We introduce and study the problem of planning a trajectory for an agent to carry out a reconnaissance mission while avoiding being detected by an adversarial guard. This introduces a multi-objective version of classical visibility-based target search and pursuit-evasion problem. In our formulation, the agent receives a positive reward for increasing its visibility (by exploring new regions) and a negative penalty every time it is detected by the guard. The objective is to find a finite-horizon path for the agent that balances the trade off between maximizing visibility and minimizing detectability.We model this problem as a discrete, sequential, two-player, zero-sum game. We use two types of game tree search algorithms to solve this problem: minimax search tree and Monte-Carlo search tree. Both search trees can yield the optimal policy but may require possibly exponential computational time and space. We propose several pruning techniques to reduce the computational cost while still preserving optimality guarantees. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy prunes approximately three orders of magnitude nodes as compared to the brute-force strategy. We also find that the Monte-Carlo search tree saves approximately one order of computational time as compared to the minimax search tree.
Partisanship in the Trump Era: Situating Contemporary Congressional Parties in Historical Perspective

This chapter will explain why there are few incentives for members of Congress to collaborate on policy in the way that national legislators did more often than not from the Civil War up until the 1990s. It summarizes why presidential leadership on policy initiatives may yield few returns during the current era. This analysis also examines the internal divisions within the Republican and Democratic parties and characterizes them in light of the internal coalitions of the two parties, the demographic changes afoot in the country, and the ever-evolving geographic footprints of the two parties. The chapter concludes with discussion about what the status quo—characterized by intense competition between the two main parties, divisions within them, and the absence of effective policymaking at the national level—might give way to in the coming decades.
Assessment of Out-of-Network Billing for Privately Insured Patients Receiving Care in In-Network Hospitals

Importance Although surprise medical bills are receiving considerable attention from lawmakers and the news media, to date there has been little systematic study of the incidence and financial consequences of out-of-network billing. Objective To examine out-of-network billing among privately insured patients with an inpatient admission or emergency department (ED) visit at in-network hospitals. Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective analysis using data from the Clinformatics Data Mart database (Optum), which includes health insurance claims for individuals from all 50 US states receiving private health insurance from a large commercial insurer was conducted of all inpatient admissions (n = 5 457 981) and ED visits (n = 13 579 006) at in-network hospitals between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2016. Data were collected and analyzed in March 2019. Exposures Receipt of a bill for care from at least 1 out-of-network physician or medical transport service associated with patient admission or ED visit. Main Outcomes and Measures The incidence of out-of-network billing and the potential amount of patients' financial liability associated with out-of-network bills from the admission or visit. Results Of 5 457 981 inpatient admissions and 13 579 006 ED admissions between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of ED visits with an out-of-network bill increased from 32.3% to 42.8% (P Conclusions and Relevance Out-of-network billing appears to have become common for privately insured patients even when they seek treatment at in-network hospitals. The mean amounts billed appear to be sufficiently large that they may create financial strain for a substantial proportion of patients.
Factors Affecting Uncertainty in Women with High-Risk Pregnancies.

Objective To evaluate the state of the science on uncertainty in high-risk pregnancy and identify factors that influence uncertainty in women diagnosed with a high-risk pregnancy. Data sources Primary research articles from CINAHL, Ovid, MEDLINE, Scopus, and PsycINFO written in English, without date restrictions. Study selection Nineteen articles were identified, including 14 qualitative studies and 5 quantitative studies. Data extraction This integrative review was guided by Whittemore and Knafl's methodology. Studies were graded on level and quality of evidence as per Dearholt, Dang, and Sigma Theta Tau International. Data synthesis Studies were synthesized by using constant comparative methods according to factors influencing, outcomes of, and management of uncertainty. Conclusion Uncertainty is a prominent theme in women experiencing a high-risk pregnancy. Uncertainty is influenced by various personal, pregnancy-related, demographic, and healthcare-related factors. Findings may offer insight and empathy for healthcare professionals. Nurses who understand significance of uncertainty in adjusting to two conflicting life events have the opportunity to help women in their understanding of a high-risk diagnosis during pregnancy through anticipatory guidance. Future research is needed to explore factors affecting uncertainty and to understand the experience of high-risk pregnancy to develop interventions aimed at mitigating uncertainty in high-risk pregnant women.
Analysis of laser absorption gas sensors employing scanned-wavelength modulation spectroscopy with 1f-phase detection

The recently introduced wavelength-modulation spectroscopy with 1f-phase detection (WMS-$$\theta _{1f}$$) technique showed promising results with potentially improved measurement precision over the popular 1f-normalized WMS-nf (WMS-nf/1f) technique. Like WMS-nf/1f, WMS-$$\theta _{1f}$$ enjoys the typical benefits of WMS methods, including low-frequency noise rejection, correction for non-absorbing losses, and insensitivity to the broadband absorption spectra of interfering species. In this work, we performed a detailed analysis of the spectrally resolved scanned-wavelength WMS-$$\theta _{1f}$$ measurement technique and its direct comparison against the expected performance of scanned-wavelength WMS-nf/1f and scanned-wavelength direct-absorption spectroscopy (SDAS) measurements. This simulation-based analysis identified specific operating regimes in which the performance of WMS-$$\theta _{1f}$$ measurements in terms of accuracy is expected to be greater than the performance of WMS-nf/1f or SDAS. Additionally, improved guidelines for the optimal selection of laser-tuning parameters, including an explicit optimization of the optical scan depth parameter, were developed. Experiments with a CO2 static cell perturbed by a high-speed air jet corroborated the simulation-based findings. Finally, a practical demonstration of a WMS-$$\theta _{1f}$$ sensor for measuring temperature and H2O mole fraction in the exhaust of a CH4/air flat-flame burner was presented, with the results confirming model predictions of the superior precision of WMS-$$\theta _{1f}$$ relative to WMS-nf/1f and SDAS.
Strategic Financial Policies in Emerging Country Stock Markets: The Turkish Case

For companies and organizations in emerging countries, such as those in Turkey, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, stock markets are fast becoming the primary financial market for investment purposes, and for making risk and strategic management decisions. Companies and organizations can use some well established rules in making strategic decisions. These rules are also known as anomalies, and one of the well known anomalies is ‘January effect’. Stock returns of companies are significantly higher in the month of January compared to other months. In this study, all of the 326 companies traded at the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) are used in order to present a definitive answer to the January effect issue. Several questions are dealt with. Does the January effect exist in the Turkish stock market? Can it be explained by the strategic management decisions of organizations related to tax? Or is it related to strategic risk management issues, i.e., higher risk in the month of January compared to other months? There are some studies which claim that the anomaly is not seen in recent years. On the other hand, some research has provided evidence that the anomaly has shifted to December of the previous year. The paper also tries to address this issue. Are returns in the month of December also statistically high compared to other months’ returns? Is there a difference between the December and January returns? Has the puzzle disappeared in recent years? Using the longest sample to date, from 1986 through 2007, and the largest number of companies traded at the ISE, specifically 326 stocks, the answers to all these questions are examined. Results indicate that January effect does exist in the Turkish stock market. December returns are also significantly higher compared to other months and there is not a statistical difference between December and January returns. The results imply that strategic tax management decisions are not the primary reason behind the January effect. The fact that the anomaly has started to shift to December of the previous year also indicates a learning effect in the stock market providing evidence towards efficiency. The conclusions provide important directions for international strategic management decisions, financial policies of organizations, and in identifying potential markets in developing countries. Turkish stock market is a very good representative of a financial market in an emerging country. Evidence suggests that if organizations commit the excess funds to the stock market in the month of December and liquidate their positions at the end of January, highest returns will be generated within these two months in the Turkish stock market. Thus, the characteristics of the market, specifically the January effect, provide useful guideline in making good risk assessment and strategic investment decisions.
Trends in Land Use, Irrigation, and Streamflow Alteration in the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain

The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is a critical region for agricultural production in the United States, providing the majority of the nation’s rice, catfish, and cotton. Although it is a humid region, high agricultural yields are maintained through irrigation from groundwater and surface water sources. Heavy groundwater extraction has led to cones of depression in the alluvial aquifer in both Arkansas and Mississippi. This study explores the link between increasing irrigation and streamflow alteration within the alluvial plain. Changing land use patterns were evaluated utilizing the USDA Census of Agriculture datasets to determine changes in land-use, irrigation, and crop yield from 1969 to 2017. Temporal land use patterns set the background for the analysis of sixteen long-term streamflow records from the USGS, which were assessed using the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) software to determine changes in low flow patterns in rivers overlying the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. Most streamflow records had significant hydrologic alteration with respect to low flow conditions, including higher frequency of low flow events, lower annual minima, or a declining base flow index. Changes in streamflow coincide with areas of massive increases in irrigated cropland area. This study provides further context for the tradeoffs between intensive agricultural production and agroecosystem sustainability.
Pediatric Solid Gastric Emptying Scintigraphy: Normative Value Guidelines and Nonstandard Meal Alternatives.

Introduction Adult standards for gastric emptying scintigraphy, including the type of meal and range of normative values for percent gastric emptying, are routinely used in pediatric practice, but to date have not been validated. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of adult criteria for gastric emptying scintigraphy is valid for children and whether alternative nonstandard meals can also be offered based on these criteria. Methods This retrospective study analyzed patients (n = 1,151 total) who underwent solid-phase gastric emptying scintigraphy. Patients were stratified into normal and delayed gastric emptying cohorts based on adult criteria, i.e., with normal gastric emptying defined as ≤10% gastric retention at 4 hours. Patients were further stratified based on the type of meal, namely complete or partial adult standard meals or alternative cheese-based meals. Percent gastric retention values at 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours were compared. Results The median (95% upper reference limit) percentage gastric retention values for the complete standard meal were 72% (93%) at 1 hour, 39% (65%) at 2 hours, 15% (33%) at 3 hours, and 6% (10 %) at 4 hours. By comparison, the values for cheese-based meals were 60% (87%) at 1 hour, 29% (61%) at 2 hours, 10% (30%) at 3 hours, and 5% (10%) at 4 hours. Consumption of at least 50% of the standard meal yielded similar retention percentages; 68% (89%) at 1 hour, 32% (57%) at 2 hours, 10% (29%) at 3 hours, and 5% (10%) at 4 hours. There were no significant age- or sex-specific differences using the adult criteria. Discussion The adult normative standards for gastric emptying scintigraphy are applicable for use in the pediatric population. These same standards can be also be applied to nonstandard meal options, including cheese-based alternative meals and partial standard meals.