cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
State Practices in Due Process Hearings: Considerations for Better Practice

The purpose of this study was to investigate state practices in meeting the requirements of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94–142) on administrative due process hearings. Issues addressed in the literature were used to examine current state practices. A summary of findings and recommendations for better practice is provided.
Initial growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability via molecular dynamics

At small length scales, the fluctuations that are neglected in most continuum descriptions of fluids become important. In this work, we explore the emergence of the Navier-Stokes equations as the ensemble mean of these fluctuations, which are inherent in the fundamental molecular processes underlying a fluid. This is accomplished by examining the initial growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability via hundreds of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. A comparison of the mean growth rate spectra with the corresponding continuum predictions yields good agreement over a range of length scales from ∼1 μm to as small as ∼10 nm. However, individual simulations exhibit significant variations from the continuum prediction. This work helps pave the way to a more fundamental understanding of fluid dynamics on small scales, and the mechanisms by which macroscopic, continuum models emerge. Such an understanding is essential, for example, in the rapidly growing field of nanotechnology.
Association of Weekend to Weeknight Changes in Sleep Duration With Peer and Supervisor Ratings of Business Leaders' Performance

Although associations of sleep with workplace-related outcomes have been reported, little work has examined correlates of sleep among top business leaders. The present study examined whether business leaders (N 379) reported a weekend–weeknight discrepancy in sleep duration, whether the discrepancy was reported throughout the age group in this sample, and whether it predicted performance ratings from supervisors or peers. Weekend–weeknight discrepancy 1/hr was reported by over half of this sample and did not appear to be age specific. Leaders with greater weekend to weeknight change in sleep duration received lower performance ratings from peers after controlling for age, health (number upper respiratory infections/ year, Body Mass Index), stress, general life contentment, hours/week commute, days/year travel, and estimated average hours/week sleep duration. A predicted stronger association of sleep with an emotion-related performance dimension was not found.
Help from Hume Reconciling Professionalism and Managed Care

Health care systems are widely criticized for limiting doctors' roles as patient-advocates. Yet unrestricted advocacy can be unfairly partial, costly, and prejudicial. This essay considers three solutions to the problem of how to reconcile the demands of a just health care system for all patients, with the value of advocacy for some. Two views are considered and rejected, one supporting unlimited advocacy and another defending strict impartiality. A third view suggested by Hume's moral theory seeks to square the moral demands of professional advocacy and just health care systems. A moral basis for limited advocacy exists when it can be justified from a general or moral vantage. Consequently, ethical aspects of professionalism are not necessarily on a collision course with health care systems incorporating managed care. This solution is compatible with goals regarding the importance of humanistic education and professionalism to build patients' trust.
Data-driven and optimal denoising of a signal and recovery of its derivative using multiwavelets

Multiwavelets are relative newcomers into the world of wavelets. Thus, it has not been a surprise that the used methods of denoising are modified universal thresholding procedures developed for uniwavelets. On the other hand, the specific of a multiwavelet discrete transform is that typical errors are not identically distributed and correlated, whereas the theory of the universal thresholding is based on the assumption of identically distributed and independent normal errors. Thus, we suggest an alternative denoising procedure based on the Efromovich-Pinsker algorithm. We show that this procedure is optimal over a wide class of noise distributions. Moreover, together with a new cristina class of biorthogonal multiwavelets, which is introduced in this paper, the procedure implies an optimal method for recovering the derivative of a noisy signal. A Monte Carlo study supports these conclusions.
FPGA-Based Configurable Frequency-Diverse Ultrasonic Target-Detection System

In this paper, we present field-programmable gate-array (FPGA)-based configurable architectures that are able to perform frequency-diverse target detection for real-time ultrasonic imaging. Three design methodologies are explored including the execution of the detection algorithm on an embedded microprocessor, the creation of a dedicated hardware solution, and the use of hardware/software codesign principles. In addition to the design flow, this paper presents the impact of parameter changes on the detection-algorithm performance and FPGA implementation results. Experimental studies show that the proposed configurable systems are able to meet real-time operation requirements, and the algorithm performs robustly.
Internal transcribed spacer primers and sequences for improved characterization of basidiomycetous orchid mycorrhizas

Despite advances owing to molecular approaches, several hurdles still obstruct the identification of fungi forming orchid mycorrhizas. The Tulasnellaceae exhibit accelerated evolution of the nuclear ribosomal operon, causing most standard primers to fail in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) trials. Insufficient sequences are available from well characterized isolates and fruitbodies. Lastly, taxon-specific PCR primers are needed in order to explore the ecology of the fungi outside of the orchid root. Here, progress in overcoming these hurdles is reported. Broad-spectrum basidiomycete internal transcribed spacer (ITS) primers that do not exclude most known Tulasnellaceae are presented. blast searches and empirical PCR tests support their wide utility within the Basidiomycota. Taxon-specific ITS primers are presented targeted to orchid-associated Tulasnella, and a core component of the Thelephora-Tomentella complex. The efficiency and selectivity of these primer sets are again supported by blast searches and empirical tests. Lastly, ITS DNA sequences are presented from several strains of Epulorhiza, Ceratorhiza, Ceratobasidium, Sistotrema, Thanatephorus and Tulasnella that were originally described in the landmark mycorrhizal studies of Currah and Warcup. Detailed phylogenetic analyses reveal some inconsistencies in species concepts in these taxonomically challenging resupinate basidiomycetes, but also help to place several sequences from environmental samples.
Optimal Routing between Alternate Paths with Different Network Transit Delays

We consider the path-determination problem in Internet core routers that distribute flows across alternate paths leading to the same destination. We assume that the remainder of the network transit delay beyond this router are different for the two paths, so a good routing policy can reduce the end-to-end delay by favoring the faster path. Thus, we propose and solve the optimal path-determination problem for a router, which minimizes the average network transit delay for a flow by dynamically assigning each packet to one of the available output ports based on their respective instantaneous queue lengths and on the average network transit delay for the associated path. We assume that all outgoing link speeds at the router are equal, but we generalize the model to allow each output port to serve a link group (such as an optical fiber using WDM) that consists of multiple physical channels running in parallel. By formulating path-selection as a Markov Decision Problem, we show that the optimal algorithm is a threshold-type policy that we call JSQ b.
Applying observations of work activity in designing prototype data analysis tools

Designers, implementers, and marketers of data analysis tools typically have different perspectives than end users. Consequently, data analysts often find themselves using tools focused on graphics and programming concepts rather than concepts which reflect their own domain and the context of their work. Some user studies focus on usability tests late in development; others observe work activity, but fail to show how to apply that knowledge in design. This paper describes a methodology for applying observations of data analysis work activity in prototype tool design. The approach can be used both in designing improved data analysis tools, and customizing visualization environments to specific applications. We present an example of user-centered design for a prototype tool to cull large data sets. We revisit the typical graphical approach of animating a large data set from the point of view of an analyst who is culling data. Field evaluations using the prototype tool not only revealed valuable usability information, but initiated in-depth discussions about user's work, tools, technology, and requirements. >
Particle formation by infrared laser ablation of MALDI matrix compounds

The concentration and size distribution of particles ablated from the infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization matrix compounds succinic acid (butanedioic acid), α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid, and glycerol were measured using an aerodynamic particle sizer combined with a scanning mobility particle sizer. The two sizing instruments together had a sizing range to from 10 nm to 20 µm. Thin layers of the matrix compounds were irradiated with fluences between 6.0 and 9.5 kJ/m2 and wavelengths between 2.8 and 3.0 µm. The distribution of particles was characterized by a large concentration of clusters in the 20-nm-diameter range and large component of mass in the range of coarse particle with diameters greater than 1 µm. The wavelength dependence revealed a blue shift for the maximum particle production that is attributed to heating and disruption of the hydrogen bonds in the matrix that shifts the absorption to shorter wavelengths. This blue shift has been observed previously in infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Harnessing Disruptive Innovation in Formal Verification

Technological innovations are sweeping through the field of formal verification. These changes are disruptive to tools based on interactive theorem proving, which needs new ways to integrate the capabilities of novel technologies. I describe two approaches. One is development and use of SMT solvers: these use techniques from theorem proving but apply them in ways that enable model checking, while also supporting highly automated theorem proving. The other is a proposal for an evidential tool bus: a loosely coupled architecture that allows many different verification components to collaborate to solve problems beyond the capability of any single component
Toxicokinetics and Toxicodynamics of Pyrethroid Insecticides in Fish

The pyrethroid insecticides are extremely toxic to fish, with 96—h LC50 values generally below 10 μg/L and i.p. and i.v. LD50 values below 20 mg/kg. Corresponding LD50 values in mammals and birds are in the range of several hundred to several thousand milligrams per kilogram. This review examines pyrethroid toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics in fish as critical factors associated with species selectivity. Studies with permethrin, cypermethrin and fenvalerate have established that rates of metabolism and elimination in rainbow trout are significantly lower than those reported for birds and mammals. Comparatively low lethal brain pyrethroid concentrations and nonneural aspects of pyrethroid intoxication in fish suggest that variations in toxicodynamics are also crucial in evaluating pyrethroid selectivity.
A putative in vitro organotypic model of molting with human skin explants

We report finding a simple method to partially reproduce the characteristic process of molting that takes place in invertebrates using human skin explants in vitro. In this method, human skin explants discarded from regular plastic surgery procedures were kept, submersed, in regular growth medium for 10 days at 4°C. After that period, the skin explants were cultured at the air–liquid interface for another 10 days. Histological analysis of the skin revealed the formation of one full epidermal structure and an additional intermediate epidermal structure containing a putative stratum corneum, superimposed one of top of the other, in which we consider an equivalent model of “molting” or “ecdysis”. Basic analysis of cell proliferation and differentiation of the explants at different stages of the process are briefly presented. We believe this model can be used in the study of certain human skin diseases as well as in comparative animal physiology.
Sequential Circuits for Relational Analysis

The alloy tool-set has been gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional manual testing and checking for design correctness. Alloy uses a first-order relational logic for modeling designs. The alloy analyzer translates alloy formulas for a given scope, i.e., a bound on the universe of discourse, to Boolean formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF), which are subsequently checked using prepositional satisfiability solvers. We present SERA, a novel algorithm that compiles a relational logic formula for a given scope to a sequential circuit. There are two key advantages of sequential circuits: they form a more succinct representation than CNF formulas, sometimes by several orders of magnitude. Also sequential circuits are amenable to a range of powerful automatic analysis techniques that have no counterparts for CNF formulas. Our experiments show that SERA, used in conjunction with a sequential circuit analyzer, can check formulas for scopes that are an order of magnitude higher than those feasible with the alloy analyzer.
Predicting relative abundance using evolutionary game theory

Questions: Can game theoretic models of competition-driven co-evolution help us to understand patterns of species abundance within a community? Can we use these models to predict the presence and abundance of species in a ‘real’ biological community where species are represented by their ecologically important strategies? Mathematical methods: We use an evolutionary game approach to model the assembly of biological communities. We examine several modifications of the Lotka-Volterra competition model using Vincent and Brown’s approach with Darwinian dynamics. Key assumptions: We define an ecological community as a group of species that obey the same rules of ecological engagement and that compete in a local area for the same or similar resources. We also assume that strategies can influence the outcome of the ‘ecological engagement’ in the manner of an evolutionary game and that species are defined by their population’s mean strategy. New strategies are allowed to arise via evolutionary dynamics. Predictions: Unimodal carrying capacity functions produce relative abundance distributions with many common species and few rare species. Polymodal carrying capacity functions produce relative abundance distributions with few common species and many rare species. Polymodal carrying capacity functions that contain one high peak lead to strong dominance for one species. Increasing the competitive asymmetries leads to changes in rank order of species. In addition, we use our modelling approach to predict community structure of Geospiza finches on Isla Wolf of the Galapagos Islands. We predict the evolutionary co-existence of only two beak strategies and that the relative abundance of the larger-beaked strategy should be about 30% that of the smaller-beaked strategy.
Mutual information-based CT-MR brain image registration using generalized partial volume joint histogram estimation

Mutual information (MI)-based image registration has been found to be quite effective in many medical imaging applications. To determine the MI between two images, the joint histogram of the two images is required. In the literature, linear interpolation and partial volume interpolation (PVI) are often used while estimating the joint histogram for registration purposes. It has been shown that joint histogram estimation through these two interpolation methods may introduce artifacts in the MI registration function that hamper the optimization process and influence the registration accuracy. In this paper, we present a new joint histogram estimation scheme called generalized partial volume estimation (GPVE). It turns out that the PVI method is a special case of the GPVE procedure. We have implemented our algorithm on the clinically obtained brain computed tomography and magnetic resonance image data furnished by Vanderbilt University. Our experimental results show that, by properly choosing the kernel functions, the GPVE algorithm significantly reduces the interpolation-induced artifacts and, in cases that the artifacts clearly affect registration accuracy, the registration accuracy is improved.
SOME PROPERTIES OF THE ENCEPHALOMYOCARDITIS, COLUMBIA SK AND MENGO VIRUSES.

SummaryComparative studies were carried out using 5 strains of virus known by the designations EMC, COL SK and Mengo. Hemagglutination-inhibition tests showed that the strains were antigenically similar although not necessarily identical. Each was highly neurotropic and produced myocardial damage in mice. Plaques produced by the 5 virus strains in L cell monolayers differed morphologically. The size of the plaques formed by 3 mouse-adapted strains was roughly correlated with sensitivity to an inhibitor in extracts of agar and increased when DEAE-dextran was incorporated in the overlay. However, evidence is presented which indicates that factors other than inhibitor sensitivity also contribute to differences in plaque size. Each of the strains hemagglutinated erythrocytes of 4 mammalian species. Hemagglutination by some strains was temperature dependent, whereas with others it was not.
A receiver-compatible system for channel noise reduction

A method that reduces transmission channel noise in a receiver compatible manner is developed. In this method, the television signal is processed on a frame-by-frame basis, dividing each frame into low- and high-spatial-frequency components. The low-frequency component of each frame is subsampled, quantized, and transmitted digitally on a side channel. The high-frequency components is adaptively modulated and added back to a compressed version of the low-frequency component to produce a receiver-compatible signal to be transmitted on the normal analog channel. An advanced receiver can use the information in the digital side channel along with the receiver analog signal to produce a picture devoid of most channel degradations. A standard receiver can still receive an acceptable picture, although with slight contrast. It is shown how the parameters of the system can be adjusted to favor either compatibility with existing receivers or the noise reduction capabilities of advanced receivers. >
Crime and Memory

The conflict between knowing and not knowing, speech and silence, remembering and forgetting, is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. This conflict is manifest in the individual disturbances of memory, the amnesias and hypermnesias, of traumatized people. It is manifest also on a social level, in persisting debates over the historical reality of atrocities that have been documented beyond any reasonable doubt. Social controversy becomes particularly acute at moments in history when perpetrators face the prospect of being publicly exposed or held legally accountable for crimes long hidden or condoned. This situation obtains in many countries emerging from dictatorship, with respect to political crimes such as murder and torture. It obtains in this country with regard to the private crimes of sexual and domestic violence. This article examines a current public controversy, regarding the credibility of adult recall of childhood abuse, as a classic example of the dialectic of trauma.
Age at Diagnosis of Diabetes in Appalachia

Background: Appalachia is a region of the United States noted for the poverty and poor health outcomes of its residents. Residents of the poorest Appalachian counties have a high prevalence of diabetes and risk factors (obesity, low income, low education, etc.) for type 2 diabetes. However, diabetes prevalence exceeds what these risk factors alone explain. Based on this, the history of poor health outcomes in Appalachia, and personally observed high rates of childhood obesity and lack of concern about prediabetes, we speculated that people in Appalachia with diagnosed diabetes might tend to be diagnosed younger than their non-Appalachian counterparts. Methods: We used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2006-2008). We compared age at diagnosis among counties by Appalachian Regional Commission-defined level of economic development. To account for risk differences, we constructed a model for average age at diagnosis of diabetes, adjusting for county economic development, obesity, income, sedentary lifestyle, and other covariates. Findings: After adjustment for risk factors for diabetes, people in distressed or at-risk counties (the least economically developed) had their diabetes diagnosed two to three years younger than comparable people in non-Appalachian counties. No significant differences between non-Appalachian counties and Appalachian counties at higher levels of economic development remained after adjusting. Conclusions: People in distressed and at-risk counties have poor access to care, and are unlikely to develop diabetes at the same age as their non-Appalachian counterparts but be diagnosed sooner. Therefore, people in distressed and at-risk counties are likely developing diabetes at younger ages. We recommend that steps to reduce health disparities between the poorest Appalachian counties and non-Appalachian counties be considered.
Feeding Value of Poultry By-Products Extruded with Cassava, Barley, and Wheat Middlings for Broiler Chicks: The Effect of Ensiling Poultry By-Products as a Preservation Method Prior to Extrusion

Abstract In one experiment, six treatment diets including two levels of cassava meal, barley, or wheat middlings extruded with poultry by-products (PBP; a 3:1 ratio of broiler offal and condemned carcasses) were compared with a corn and soybean meal control diet for broiler performance from 1 d to 3 wk of age. No treatment differences in body weight (P > .05) were observed, and all chicks averaged 166, 421, and 788 g at 1, 2, and 3 wk of age, respectively. Weight gain and feed consumption were not affected by the experimental diets (P > .05). Birds fed the control diet had better overall feed conversion (1.24) than birds fed the diet containing 20% extruded barley and PBP (1.37) (P In a second experiment, 10% sucrose was mixed with PBP by weight and ensiled for 7 d at ambient temperatures in an anaerobic vessel. Diets containing cassava extruded with fresh and ensiled PBP (FR-PBP and EN-PBP, respectively) were compared with control diets (CON) for broilers to 6 wk of age. No differences in body weight were observed by 6 wk. Feed conversion of the CON birds was poorer than the birds fed the FR-PBP (P These findings suggest that the extruded feeds resulted in equal live performance and parts yield compared with commercial broiler feeds. Feed costs were reduced as a result of using the extruded feeds and ensiling poultry by-products was a viable method of preservation before extrusion.
Postmenopausal weight change and incidence of fracture: Post hoc findings from Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and Clinical Trials

Objectives To determine associations between postmenopausal change in body weight and incidence of fracture and associations between voluntary and involuntary weight loss and risk of fracture. Design Post hoc analysis of data from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study and Clinical Trials. Setting 40 clinical centers in the United States. Participants 120 566 postmenopausal women, aged 50-79 at baseline (1993-98), followed through 2013 (mean fracture follow-up duration 11 years from baseline). Exposures Annualized percentage change in measured body weight from baseline to year 3, classified as stable ( Main outcomes Incident self reported fractures of the upper limbs, lower limbs, and central body; hip fractures confirmed by medical records. Results Mean participant age was 63.3. Mean annualized percent weight change was 0.30% (95% confidence interval 0.28 to 0.32). Overall, 79 279 (65.6%) had stable weight; 18 266 (15.2%) lost weight; and 23 021 (19.0%) gained weight. Compared with stable weight, weight loss was associated with a 65% higher incidence rates of fracture in hip (adjusted hazard ratio 1.65, 95% confidence interval 1.49 to 1.82), upper limb (1.09, 1.03 to 1.16), and central body (1.30, 1.20 to 1.39); weight gain was associated with higher incidence rates of fracture in upper limb (1.10, 1.05 to 1.18) and lower limb (1.18, 1.12 to 1.25). Compared with stable weight, unintentional weight loss was associated with a 33% higher incidence rates of hip fracture (1.33, 1.19 to 1.47) and increased incidence rates of vertebral fracture (1.16, 1.06 to 1.26); intentional weight loss was associated with increased incidence rates of lower limb fracture (1.11, 1.05 to 1.17) and decreased incidence of hip fracture (0.85, 0.76 to 0.95). Conclusions Weight gain, weight loss, and intentional weight loss are associated with increased incidence of fracture, but associations differ by fracture location. Clinicians should be aware of fracture patterns after weight gain and weight loss.
Honesty as good policy: evaluating Maryland's Medicaid managed care program.

Throughout the 1990s, the states launched many large-scale innovations in health care financing and delivery. The demands associated with designing, implementing, and managing such initiatives compete for those resources needed to evaluate the impact of the innovations. But without a good faith effort to launch a credible evaluation, innovative and controversial programs may not be able to be sustained. Striking a balance between advocating for change and honestly determining how well the desired changes have been achieved is a delicate and daunting task, and state policymakers often do not spend much time evaluating their efforts, even though this may be critical to the success of their programs. This article describes one state's assessment of a statewide, prepaid, Medicaid managed care program. We look at the evaluation as both an exercise in policy analysis and an indication of the response to various constituencies’ concerns. Three of us either worked for the state or contracted with the state to help evaluate the program. We begin this article with the history of managed care in Maryland and then discuss the need for its evaluation. We use some of the findings from the evaluation to illustrate the state's proactive and reactive response to its Medicaid managed care program and then examine the rollout of the evaluation and its key recommendations. Finally, we discuss the lessons for state policymakers regarding the necessity of evaluating major state programs. Our aim is to demonstrate that even though an ambitious assessment effort may be technically difficult and politically risky, an honest appraisal of a major public policy initiative is crucial to ensuring that decisions about the program's future will be informed.1
Viscosity as Related to Dietary Fiber: A Review

Viscosity is a physicochemical property associated with dietary fibers, particularly soluble dietary fibers. Viscous dietary fibers thicken when mixed with fluids and include polysaccharides such as gums, pectins, psyllium, and β-glucans. Although insoluble fiber particles may affect viscosity measurement, viscosity is not an issue regards insoluble dietary fibers. Viscous fibers have been credited for beneficial physiological responses in human, animal, and animal-alternative in vitro models. The following article provides a review of viscosity as related to dietary fiber including definitions and instrumentation, factors affecting viscosity of solutions, and effects of viscous polysaccharides on glycemic response, blood lipid attenuation, intestinal enzymatic activity, digestibility, and laxation.
Increased IGF-IEc expression and mechano-growth factor production in intestinal muscle of fibrostenotic Crohn's disease and smooth muscle hypertrophy

The igf1 gene is alternatively spliced as IGF-IEa and IGF-IEc variants in humans. In fibrostenotic Crohn's disease, the fibrogenic cytokine TGF-β1 induces IGF-IEa expression and IGF-I production in intestinal smooth muscle and results in muscle hyperplasia and collagen I production that contribute to stricture formation. Mechano-growth factor (MGF) derived from IGF-IEc induces skeletal and cardiac muscle hypertrophy following stress. We hypothesized that increased IGF-IEc expression and MGF production mediated smooth muscle hypertrophy also characteristic of fibrostenotic Crohn's disease. IGF-IEc transcripts and MGF protein were increased in muscle cells isolated from fibrostenotic intestine under regulation by endogenous TGF-β1. Erk5 and MEF2C were phosphorylated in vivo in fibrostenotic muscle; both were phosphorylated and colocalized to nucleus in response to synthetic MGF in vitro. Smooth muscle-specific protein expression of α-smooth muscle actin, γ-smooth muscle actin, and smoothelin was increased in affected intestine. Erk5 inhibition or MEF2C siRNA blocked smooth muscle-specific gene expression and hypertrophy induced by synthetic MGF. Conditioned media of cultured fibrostenotic muscle induced muscle hypertrophy that was inhibited by immunoneutralization of endogenous MGF or pro-IGF-IEc. The results indicate that TGF-β1-dependent IGF-IEc expression and MGF production in patients with fibrostenotic Crohn's disease regulates smooth muscle cell hypertrophy a critical factor that contributes to intestinal stricture formation.
Improving Supervised Sense Disambiguation with Web-Scale Selectors

This paper introduces a method to improve supervised word sense disambiguation performance by including a new class of features which leverage contextual information from large unannotated corpora. This new feature class, selectors, contains words that appear in other corpora with the same local context as a given lexical instance. We show that support vector sense classifiers trained with selectors achieve higher accuracy than those trained only with standard features, producing error reductions of 15.4% and 6.9% on standard coarse-grained and fine-grained disambiguation tasks respectively. Furthermore, we find an error reduction of 9.3% when including selectors for the classification step of named-entity recognition over a representative sample of OntoNotes. These significant improvements come free of any human annotation cost, only requiring unlabeled Web-Scale corpora.
23Na-NMR measurements of intracellular sodium in intact perfused ferret hearts during ischemia and reperfusion

23Na nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was utilized to measure intracellular Na+ in perfused ferret hearts exposed to the shift reagent dysprosium triethylenetramine-hexa-acetic acid [Dy(TTHA)3-]. The intracellular Na+ signal was small under normal perfusion conditions; resolution was enhanced by using a Jump-Return NMR pulse protocol. During 20 min of total global ischemia at 30 degrees C, intracellular Na+ concentration ([Na+]i) increased steadily to a peak value fivefold greater than control. [Na+]i declined monotonically back to control levels within 9 min of reperfusion. In contrast, the mean contractile pressure only recovered to 54% of control levels. Thus major alterations in Na+ homeostasis occur during severe ischemia. [Na+] recovers rapidly during reperfusion and is therefore dissociated from the lingering postischemic depression of contractile function known as "stunning."
Directions for the Disposition of My (and Your) Vital Organs

After spending 16 years urging legal reform that would permit compensation for organ donation in order to increase the supply of transplant organs, I have decided to reverse course. I will now decrease the supply of organs by one donor - myself - and hopefully by many more. Why this radical change in direction? Because my efforts to change the law and increase the supply of organs have proved fruitless and there is little that I or anyone else can add to the argument for employing a market incentive to increase organ donation.
Genetic-Economic Value in Selecting for Egg Production Rate, Body Weight and Egg Weight

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION THE genetic-economic value of a breeding flock is a function of rate of lay, egg size, body weight and other traits only partially independent. Top ranking entries in random sample tests, where income over feed costs is the criteria of ranking, are frequently characterized by high rate of lay, intermediate egg size and rather small body size. Economically it would seem sound to select for the smallest bird which lays the largest eggs most rapidly, but biologically this course of action is questionable. Lerner (1951) suggested that highest reproductive fitness was associated with genotypes for intermediate egg size. Since the breeder, of necessity, must consider many traits in a selection program, the question of negative genetic correlations must be considered. If negative genetic correlations are important, intense selection on one trait may cause depression in another. In Part 1 of this study several methods were used to estimate phenotypic . . .
Understanding the Composition and Activity of Electrocatalytic Nanoalloys in Aqueous Solvents: A Combination of DFT and Accurate Neural Network Potentials

The shape, size, and composition of catalyst nanoparticles can have a significant influence on catalytic activity. Understanding such structure-reactivity relationships is crucial for the optimization of industrial catalysts and the design of novel catalysts with enhanced properties. In this letter, we employ a combination of first-principles computations and large-scale Monte-Carlo simulations with highly accurate neural network potentials to study the equilibrium surface structure and composition of bimetallic Au/Cu nanoparticles (NPs), which have recently been of interest as stable and efficient CO2 reduction catalysts. We demonstrate that the inclusion of explicit water molecules at a first-principles level of accuracy is necessary to predict experimentally observed trends in Au/Cu NP surface composition; in particular, we find that Au-coated core-shell NPs are thermodynamically favored in vacuum, independent of Au/Cu chemical potential and NP size, while NPs with mixed Au-Cu surfaces are preferred in aqueous solution. Furthermore, we show that both CO and O2 adsorption energies differ significantly for NPs with the equilibrium surface composition found in water and those with the equilibrium surface composition found in vacuum, suggesting large changes in CO2 reduction activity. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding and being able to predict the effects of catalytic environment on catalyst structure and activity. In addition, they demonstrate that first-principles-based neural network potentials provide a promising approach for accurately investigating the relationships between solvent, surface composition and morphology, surface electronic structure, and catalytic activity in systems composed of thousands of atoms.
Mortality and morbidity among twins: recent observations from the United States.

The increasing number of twin (and higher order) births is a matter of national concern for two reasons: First, the differential rates of preterm (< 37 weeks) delivery and low birthweight (< 2,500g) among twins compared to singletons; and second, the inordinate contribution of these infants to overall infant mortality, morbidity and long-term handicap. Data from all births in the U.S. during 1987 and 1988 was used to calculate distribution frequencies for gestational age at delivery, and birthweight, as well as mortality and handicap rates and the corresponding relative risks of these latter events for twins compared to singletons. A suggestion for improvement in the mortality and handicap rates and reduced costs among survivors is presented. This proposal is based upon data from the singleton and twin literature and the use of the prenatal invervention of adequate maternal nutrition during the pregnancy.
Dialectical Pluralism: A Metaparadigm Whose Time Has Come

There has been much debate about the role of paradigms in mixed methods research. In the face of past calls for each researcher to operate within a single paradigm, it turns out that some researche...
Analysis of misdiagnosis of 1 337 patients with nipple discharge by fiberoptic ductoscopy

Clinical records of 1 337 patients with nipple discharge undergoing fiberoptic ductoscopy(FDS) from October 1998 to August 2005 were reviewed and 478 cases had pathologic results after operations. Ductoscopic images of different ductal lesions had their own characteristics, but there were overlapped regions which could result in misdiagnosis. The diagnostic accordance rates to pathology of papilloma, papillomatosis and carcinoma were 94.5%, 88% and 93.6%, respectively. Our results show that FDS is sensitive in the diagnosis of nipple discharge, but it will be more helpful if allied with some other methods.
Epidemiology of Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis in Guangxi,2004-2009

Objective To analyze epidemiological characteristics of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis in Guangxi during 2004-2009 and provide scientific evidences for the prevention and control of the disease. Methods Descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the data of reported acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis cases and outbreaks from 2004 to 2009 obtained from routine infectious disease surveillance system and outbreaks surveillance system. Results The incidence of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis was stable relatively during this period,the incidence peak was observed in 2007 with the case number 3-4 times more than other years. The areas reporting high case numbers were Nanning,Guilin and Chongzuo. The disease mainly occurred during August-October and peaked in September during a year. The disease affected all age groups,but most cases occurred in age groups of 0-4,10-14,15-19 and 30-34 years. Most cases were adult farmers. All outbreaks occurred in schools. Conclusion It is essential to strengthen the surveillance and conduct health education in rural area,schools and factories for the prevention and control of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis.
Influencing Factors of Chinese Urban Residents' Community Self-Governance Behavior under the Theory of Planned Behavior——Based on a Survey Data of 20 Cities

We designed a questionnaire on influencing factors of Chinese urban residents' community self-governance behavior according to the theory of planned behavior,exploring the rational model and the relationship among various influencing factors of Chinese urban residents' community self-governance behavior by exploratory and confirmatory structural equation modeling analysis of the 1794residents' data.The results show that the theory of planned behavior is revised;seven-factor model is the most reasonable model;the important factors that can positively influence self-governance behavior are actual sense of control,community social capital, personality tendencies,attitude and cognition.
Development of water-soluble one component polyurethane grout

A one component water-soluble polyurethane grouting material was prepared from polyether polyol of high activation, isocyanate and additives. The influence factor of the various -NCO content of prepolymer,the reaction time and temperature,the variety and mass fraction of catalyst on property of one component water-soluble polyurethane grouting material have been studied. The optimum formula is determined:the reaction temperature of prepolymer is between 80 ℃ and 90 ℃,and the reaction time is 3 h,-NCO content is between 3.0% and 4.5%. A series of high-performance water-soluble polyurethane grouting material were prepared.
The use of animations and online communication tools to support mathematics teachers in the practice of teaching

This paper reports on a pilot study on the effect of animated classroom stories, as a reference point, directly embedded in the space of online communication tools to help mathematics teachers collectively learn to notice critical events of teaching practice. The main results include: more than 70% of the teachers' comments focused on instructional practice, chat and forum could be complementary to help experienced teachers, and only forum could be suitable for novice teachers.
Optimal FIR filter design

xiv GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Digital Filters 1 Concept of a Digital Filter 2 FIR and IIR Filters 4 Design of FIR Filters 5 Linear-Phase Filters 6 Minimum-Phase Filters 8 Complex Filters 9 Work of this Dissertation 11 Research Objective 11 Organization of this Dissertation 12 Conclusion 14 PART I : DESIGN OF MINIMUM PHASE FIR FILTERS 15
Differentiaton of Human Cytotrophoblast into Syncytiotrophoblast in Culture

The trophoblast performs many important functions during pregnancy: it mediates the transport of nutrients between maternal and fetal circulations, and secretes steroid and protein hormones (Loke and Whyte, 1983). It is also believed to play an active role in immunoglobulin transport from mother to fetus (Wood et al., 1982), and in the prevention of rejection of the fetus by the mother (Lala et al., 1983). The regulation of these activities is poorly understood. The availability of a system to study purified trophoblasts in vitro would facilitate research on the cell biology of this tissue. In an earlier report (Kliman et al., 1986), we described such a system for 1) the isolation of cytotrophoblasts from human term placentae by enzymatic digestion and Percoll-gradient-centrifugation, and 2) the transformation of these mononuclear cells into syncytial structures in culture. In this report, with the aid of scanning electron microscopy, we document the morphological changes occurring as cytotrophoblasts form syncytiotrophoblasts in vitro. We also use immunocytochemistry to study the appearance of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and pregnancy-specific β1glycoprotein (SP1), as the trophoblasts differentiate from single cells to syncytiotrophoblasts. We also describe double antibody immunocytochemical localization of hCG and human placental lactogen (hPL). Finally, we examine the pattern of hCG and progesterone secretion by trophoblasts in culture.
Robot motion planning for pouring liquids

We present a new algorithm to compute a collision-free trajectory for a robot manipulator to pour liquid from one container to the other. Our formulation uses a physical fluid model to simulate its highly deformable motion. We present a simulation guided and optimization based method to automatically compute the transferring trajectory. We use the full-featured and accurate Navier-Stokes model that provides the fine-grained information of velocity distribution inside the liquid body. Moreover, this information is used as an additional guiding energy term for the planner. Our approach includes a tight integration between the fine-grained fluid simulator, liquid transfer controller, and the optimization-based planner. We have implemented the method using a hybrid particle-mesh fluid simulator (FLIP) and demonstrated its performance on 4 benchmarks with different cup shapes and viscosity coefficients.
QR decomposition using FPGAs

This paper describes the architecture and implementation of a high performance QR decomposition IEEE754 single precision floating point core, using a modified Gram-Schmidt algorithm. Using Intel's new floating point Arria 10 FPGAs, synthesis is used to generate column high functional units, giving O(n2) processing times. The modified Gram-Schmidt algorithm is expressed in a different order to combine the elements of the column calculations at a later stage, which reduces the data dependencies in a deeply pipelined hardware implementation. Special vector structures in the tools and hardware architecture are supported to maximize performance. The matrix sizes are parameterized, with both square and rectangular complex matrixes supported. Two versions of the QRD core, using an example matrix size of 50×100 are presented, one of a conventional FPGA architecture (Stratix V) and the other on Floating Point FPGA (Arria 10) with comparative data on logic, registers, DSP, memory resources and Fmax. Matrix throughput and GFLOPS/W results are also provided. In addition, results for specific matrix sizes common in wireless MIMO processing are also presented.
Community health and nutrition screening for Special Olympics athletes.

Since 1961, Special Olympics has provided sports training and athletic competition for people with mental retardation. A recent addition to these Olympics has been the Healthy Athletes Program, designed to help the athletes improve their health and fitness, leading to enhanced sports experiences and well being. Original health services included dental and eye screening. In 2002, Special Olympics Delaware piloted a Wellness Park to add nutrition, blood pressure, and flexibility screening. Faculty from a university's health college trained discipline-specific students to conduct the screenings. Thirty nutrition and dietetics students measured height, weight, waist circumference, and calculated body mass index (BMI) for the athletes. Figures and risk-assessments were recorded on a “health report card.” Two hundred ten athletes attended the nutrition screening. Ages ranged from 8 to 63 years; 81 percent males and 19 percent females. According to BMI standards, 32 percent of the athletes were overweight; 17 percent were obese. Twenty-five percent of adult males and 73 percent of adult females had a high risk waist circumference. Athletes at high risk for obesity-related diseases were referred to their primary physician for follow up. Nutrition education handouts included a simplified Food Guide Pyramid, tips for healthy eating in restaurants, 5 A Day information, and healthful hydration guides. Approximately 1,250 athletes participate in Special Olympics Delaware each year, providing a great opportunity to do some much needed health screening and improve access to health care for this often neglected population.
THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL TREATMENTS ON FEEDING DAMAGE OF SOUTHERN CORN BILLBUG (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE) TO CORN

The feeding damage caused by the southern corn billbug, Sphenophorus callosus (Olivier), to corn seedlings was studied under selected cultural treatments during 1983 - 84. The growth and developmen...