cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Arthroscopic management of painful and stiff scapulothoracic articulation.

Abstract We present the case of a patient who had chronic refractory scapulothoracic pain accompanied by the loss of scapulothoracic motion. Despite intensive physical therapy, the insidious onset of scapulothoracic pain and stiffness progressed. A wide range of diagnostic tests did not show a systemic, anatomic, or neurologic cause for the disorder. Finally, the patient elected to undergo an arthroscopic release and decompression of the scapulothoracic articulation. The patient had a dramatic response to surgery; the pain was gone immediately, and by 4 months after surgery, her scapulothoracic motion was evaluated as symmetric. One year after the surgery, she maintained an active lifestyle and was extremely satisfied with the result. Progressive and painful loss of shoulder motion in the case reported was due to a rare adhesive inflammation of the scapulothoracic bursa, which was successfully treated using arthroscopic resection. Arthroscopy of the scapulothoracic articulation is an option to treat scapulothoracic abnormalities, especially bursitis, but long-term clinical studies are needed to strongly recommend this emerging treatment option. Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Vol 19, No 4 (April), 2003: pp E28
The asymptotic structure of nonpremixed methane-air flames with oxidizer leakage of order unity

The asymptotic structure of nonpremixed methane-air flames is analyzed using a reduced three-step mechanism. The three global steps of this reduced mechanism are similar to those used in a previous analysis. The rates of the three steps are related to the rates of the elementary reactions appearing in the C1-mechanism for oxidation of methane. The present asymptotic analysis differs from the previous analysis in that oxygen is presumed to leak from the reaction zone to the leading order. Chemical reactions are presumed to occur in three asymptotically thin layers: the fuel-consumption layer, the nonequilibrium layer for the water-gas shift reaction and the oxidation layer. The structure of the fuel-consumption layer is presumed to be identical to that analyzed previously and in this layer the fuel reacts with the radicals to form primarily CO and H2 and some CO2 and H2O. In the oxidation layer the CO and H2 formed in the fuel-consumption layer are oxidized to CO2 and H2O. The present analysis of the oxidation layer is simpler than the previous analysis because the variation in the values of the concentration of oxygen can be neglected to the leading order and this is a better representation of the flame structure in the vicinity of the critical conditions of extinction. The predictions of the critical conditions of extinction of the present model are compared with the predictions of previous models. It is anticipated that the present simple model can be easily extended to more complex problems such as pollutant formation in flames or chemical inhibition of flames.
STUDIES ON PLASMA-SPRAYED THERMAL BARRIER COATINGS

Plasma-sprayed coatings have a microstructure built up from the overlaying of many semimoIten particles which splat against a substrate. The structure of plasma-sprayed coatings is different from that of bulk materials in regards to the phase composition and material properties
Borrelia burgdorferi Proteins Whose Expression Is Similarly Affected by Culture Temperature and pH

Previously, we had demonstrated the upregulation in the expression of several proteins, including the lipoproteins OspC and P35, of Borrelia burgdorferi in the stationary growth phase. Since the expression of OspC is also known to be affected by culture temperature and pH, we examined the effects of both variables on the expression of the remaining stationary-phase-upregulated proteins. Our study revealed that the expression of each of the remaining stationary-phase-upregulated proteins, P35 included, was also influenced by culture temperature; these proteins were selectively expressed at 34°C but not at 24°C. Significantly, the expression of a majority of these proteins was also affected by culture pH, since they were abundantly expressed at pH 7.0 (resembling the tick midgut pH of 6.8 during feeding) but only sparsely at pH 8.0 (a condition closer to that of the unfed tick midgut pH of 7.4). We propose that this group of B. burgdorferi proteins, which in culture is selectively expressed under conditions of 34°C and pH 7.0, may be induced in the tick midgut during the feeding event. Furthermore, the differential and coordinate expression of these proteins under different environmental conditions suggests that the encoding genes may be coregulated.
Augmentation in expression of activation-induced genes differentiates memory from naive CD4+ T cells and is a molecular mechanism for enhanced cellular response of memory CD4+ T cells

In an attempt to understand the molecular basis for the immunological memory response, we have used cDNA microarrays to measure gene expression of human memory and naive CD4+ T cells at rest and after activation. Our analysis of 54,768 cDNA clones provides the first glimpse into gene expression patterns of memory and naive CD4+ T cells at the genome-scale and reveals several novel findings. First, memory and naive CD4+ T cells expressed similar numbers of genes at rest and after activation. Second, we have identified 14 cDNA clones that expressed higher levels of transcripts in memory cells than in naive cells. Third, we have identified 135 (130 known genes and 5 expressed sequence tags) up-regulated and 68 (42 known genes and 26 expressed sequence tags) down-regulated cDNA clones in memory CD4+ T after in vitro stimulation with anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28. Interestingly, the increase in mRNA levels of up-regulated genes was greater in memory than in naive CD4+ T cells after in vitro stimulation and was higher with anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28 than with anti-CD3 alone in both memory and naive CD4+ T cells. Finally, the changes in expression of actin and cytokine genes identified by cDNA microarrays were confirmed by Northern and protein analyses. Together, we have identified approximately 200 cDNA clones whose expression levels changed after activation and suggest that the level of expression of up-regulated genes is a molecular mechanism that differentiates the response of memory from naive CD4+ T cells.
The Switching Characteristics of 4-79 Permalloy Cores with Different Anneals

The magnetic properties of 4-79 Permalloy cores, which have been annealed at different temperatures, are discussed. Cores annealed at relatively low temperatures are characterized by high coercivity, slower switching, insensitivity to strain, magnetization difficult to rotate, and insensitivity to an applied transverse field. Some cores exhibit a preference to one remanent state over the opposite state.
Pediatric ambulatory blood pressure monitoring: diagnosis of hypertension.

Pediatric hypertension (HTN) is a growing concern and should be diagnosed and treated aggressively to reduce the global disease burden. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a useful clinical tool providing a more accurate description of the patient’s blood pressure (BP) than office BP measurements, and can be considered the “gold standard” in the evaluation of the pediatric patient with a concern for HTN. The American Heart Association have suggested criteria for diagnosing ambulatory HTN, and research continues into further clarification of how to best utilize the large volume of data obtained from an ABPM report. ABPM has some limitations; however, the advantages far outweigh these. Routine use of ABPM is recommended among clinicians to better evaluate and assess the severity of a child’s HTN, and for proper management in order to prevent target organ damage and the resulting sequelae, thereby reducing the burden of cardiovascular risk in hypertensive children and adolescents.
An Embedded Real-Time Neuro-Fuzzy Controller for Mobile Robot Navigation

A reactive fuzzy logic based control strategy was developed for mobile robot navigation. To decrease the number of fuzzy rules and related processing, a RAM-based neural network was combined with the fuzzy logic strategy. The fuzzy rules are used to interpret sensor information. The neural network uses results from the fuzzy logic as well as environmental information to make navigation decisions. The feasibility of this neuro-fuzzy approach was demonstrated on a mobile robot using a simple, 8-bit microcontroller. Experiments show the approach works well, as the robot was able to successfully avoid objects while seeking a goal in real-time. The neuro-fuzzy approach is code-efficient, fast, and easy to relate to the physical world
The fractal-like complexity of heart rate variability beyond neurotransmitters and autonomic receptors: signaling intrinsic to sinoatrial node pacemaker cells.

The heart rate and rhythm are controlled by complex chaotic neural, chemical and hormonal networks which are not strictly regular, but exhibit fluctuations across multiple time scales. A careful assessment of the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) offers clues to this complexity. A reduction in HRV, specifically in advanced age, is associated with increase in morbidity and mortality. Mechanisms that induce this decrease, however, have not been fully elucidated. The classical literature characterizes changes in HRV as a result of changes in the balance of competing influences of the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic impulses delivered to the heart. It has now become clear, however, that the heart rate and HRV are also determined by intrinsic properties of the pacemaker cells that comprise sinoatrial node, and that these properties respond to autonomic receptor stimulation in a non-linear mode. That HRV is determined by both the intrinsic properties of pacemaker cells in the sinoatrial node and the competing influences of the two branches of the autonomic neural input to the cells requires an expansion of our perspective about mechanisms that govern HRV in the normal heart, and how HRV changes with aging in health and in heart diseases.
Characterization of Bulk Structure in Zinc Orthotitanate: A Density Functional Theory and EXAFS Investigation

Development of high-efficiency multicontaminant sorbents is critical for commercialization of power plants utilizing integrated gasification combined cycle technologies. A known prototypical sorbent for this application is the compound zinc orthotitanate, Zn2TiO4 (ZTO). Previous work has not completely resolved the atomic-level structure of ZTO. Results from both experimental X-ray absorption fine structure measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations are presented and are in quantitative agreement. The DFT calculations identify the octahedral site occupation of Zn and Ti atoms that give the lowest energy ground state structure. We have supplemented our DFT calculations with a cluster expansion model used to parameterize Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The results of the MC simulations reveal the temperature dependence of the equilibrium octahedral site occupation in Zn2TiO4.
QUALITY OF CABBAGE PART II: PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND BIOCHEMICAL MODIFICATION IN PROCESSING TREATMENTS TO IMPROVE FLAVOR OF BLANCHED CABBAGE (BRASSICA OLERACEA L.)1

The cabbage samples (Brassica oleracea L. var. Late Glory) were subjected to steam blanching and blanching in solution. The blanching procedures were modified and further evaluated for their potential in offsetting the loss of desirable flavor during processing. The compositions of solutions for blanching were defined in terms of the concentrations of CaCl2, NaHCO3, flavor enhancers (FLVR), and NaCl. FLVR consisted of monosodium glutamate, 5′-inosinate, and 5′-guanylate in the proportions of 95:2.5:2.5. The optimum FLVR concentrations for solution and steam blanching were 0.25 and 0.3%, respectively. Solution- and steam-blanched products lost 2.6 and 19.4% of their ascorbic acid, respectively, when stored at —19° C in a frozen condition for 1 year. The fresh cabbage contained 4.91 and 6.40 mg % of n-butyl and 3-Indolylmethyl derivatives of isothiocyanates, respectively. Blanching (solution and steam) of cabbage resulted in a reduction of n-butyl and 3-Jndolylmethyl derivatives of isothiocyanate content. This decrease may explain the parallel decrease in “cabbage flavor intensity” in the processed cabbage samples. Although the addition of myrosinase (from fresh cabbage) to freeze-dehydratedcabbage flavor intensity,” acceptability of the product remained lower than for the fresh vegetable.
The modular treatment of agrammatism

Abstract Cognitive, or more specifically, psycholinguistic models of sentence processing disorders in agrammatism attempt to specify what types of mental computations (we call them linguistic skills) are affected, at what level of the model, and by what mechanism (e.g. retrieval failure, knowledge loss, capacity limitation). We outline a new, “modular treatments” approach to the rehabilitation of aphasia, using agrammatism as an example. This approach draws from the model-driven analysis an empirically and theoretically defensible enumeration of linguistic skills which are vulnerable to disruption in agrammatism. Specific interventions target each of the vulnerable skills, using designs that aim towards maximal generality in the affected population and that can be standardised for use in the clinic. Such targeted interventions are the “modules” of a complete rehabilitation programme. The clinician chooses which to administer and on what schedule, on a case-by-case basis.
Signal Transduction Pathways Regulating Hematopoietic Differentiation

Hematopoiesis, the process by which pluripotent stem cells give rise to functionally diverse mature blood cells, involves a complex array of hematopoietic growth factors. These factors regulate the survival and proliferation of early progenitors, influence differentiation commitment, and modulate
Surgical treatment of spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid leaks.

Object. Spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks are an increasingly recognized cause of intracranial hypotension and may require neurosurgical intervention. In the present report the authors review their experience with the surgical management of spontaneous spinal CSF leaks. Methods. Between 1992 and 1997, 10 patients with spontaneous spinal CSF leaks and intracranial hypotension were treated surgically. The mean age of the seven women and three men was 42.3 years (range 22–61 years). Preoperative imaging showed a single meningeal diverticulum in two patients, a complex of diverticula in one patient, and a focal CSF leak alone in seven patients. Surgical exploration in these seven patients demonstrated meningeal diverticula in one patient; no clear source of CSF leakage could be identified in the remaining six patients. Treatment consisted of ligation of the diverticula or packing of the epidural space with muscle or Gelfoam. Multiple simultaneous spinal CSF leaks were identified in three pati...
Shear Friction Capacity of Concrete with External Carbon FRP Strips

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite strips were used to strengthen concrete externally at a known failure plane to resist shear friction. The uncracked push-off specimens were externally reinforced with CFRP composites using a reinforcement ratio ranging from 0.3 to 1.2%. The shear friction capacity of plain concrete without steel reinforcement was increased 1.32–3.25 times, and was found to be a function of the shear-to-normal stress ratio. The shear friction strength ranged from 0.17 fc′ to 0.27 fc′ for the reinforcement ratios studied. Tests with various wrapping schemes showed no evidence that additional shear friction capacity could be developed for a four-sided scheme compared to a two-sided scheme. The shear friction strength of the initially uncracked connections was found using experimental results, which combine the shear friction contribution of concrete and that of concrete–CFRP interaction, similar to current practice for internal steel reinforcement.
Region filling using two dimensional grammars

Interior-defined regions, flood-fill algorithms, and a simple 4-connected region filling algorithm are presented together with their properties. An algorithm for region filling using two dimensional grammars is also presented together with illustrative examples. The results obtained in this paper may have useful application in intelligent systems, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, expert systems, knowledge engineering, pattern recognition, pictorial databases and related areas.
Phenotypic expression of the systemic toxicity of cocaine in genetically epilepsy-prone rats.

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether the sensitivity to systemic toxic effects of cocaine is altered in genetically epilepsy-prone rats (GEPRs). Moderate seizure (GEPR-3) and severe seizure (GEPR-9) rats, and the control strain, Sprague-Dawley rats, 10 weeks of age, were lightly anesthetized with halothane and nitrous oxide. Following surgical preparation and stabilization, the animals were given a constant intravenous infusion of cocaine (4 mg/kg per min) until death. Blood pressure, ECG, and EEG were monitored continuously throughout the experiment. Cocaine doses required to produce seizures (i.e., epileptiform activity on the EEG) were not significantly different between GEPRs and control rats (16.8±0.6 mg/kg in GEPR-3, 18.7±0.7 mg/kg in GEPR-9, and 14.7±1.3 mg/kg in Sprague-Dawley). Seizure duration, amplitude and the number of epileptiform bursts were also similar among the three strains. Additionally, there was no significant difference in cocaine doses that produced arrhythmias and cardiac asystole between GEPRs and control. The results indicate that genetically epilepsy-prone rats do not exhibit altered sensitivity to cocaine-induced seizures despite the marked susceptibility to sound-evoked seizures. Local anesthetic-induced seizures and acoustically-evoked seizures apparently have different underlying mechanisms.
An Integrated Case-Related Model of Judicial Decision Making: Explaining State Supreme Court Decisions in Judicial Review Cases

Employing data from more than three thousand state supreme court judicial review cases, I construct and test an integrated case-related model of judicial decision making. Logit analysis reveals that the type of issue raised, the identity of the challenging party, the constitutional arguments advanced, the centrality of the constitutional challenge, and the lower court ruling on constitutionality all have an independent impact on state supreme court decisions in judicial review cases. The findings clearly provide support for the notion that more complex theoretical and methodological approaches provide a more complete explanation of judicial decision making.
Mechanism of the Long Range Anti-silencing Function of Targeted Histone Acetyltransferases in Yeast

Transcriptionally silent chromatin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is associated with histone hypoacetylation and is formed through the action of the Sir histone deacetylase complex. A histone acetyltransferase (HAT) targeted near silent chromatin can overcome silencing at a distance by increasing histone acetylation in a sizable region. However, how a tethered HAT acetylates distant nucleosomes has not been resolved. We demonstrate here that targeting the histone H3-specific HAT Gcn5p promotes acetylation of not only histone H3 but also histone H4 in a broad region. We also show that long range anti-silencing and histone acetylation by targeted HATs can be blocked by nucleosome-excluding sequences. These results are consistent with the contention that a tethered HAT promotes stepwise propagation of histone acetylation along the chromatin. Because histone hypoacetylation is key to the formation and maintenance of transcriptionally silent chromatin, it is believed that acetylation promoted by a targeted HAT disrupts silent chromatin thereby overcoming silencing. However, we show that the acetylated and transcriptionally active region created by a tethered HAT retains structural hallmarks of Sir-dependent silent chromatin and remains associated with Sir proteins indicating that tethered HATs overcome silencing without completely dismantling silent chromatin.
An improved hierarchical interpolation (HINT) method for the reversible compression of grayscale images

Summary form only given. Reversible methods for the compression of grayscale images are generally considered to have two steps: decorrelation and coding. In the improved method, the sequence of decorrelated pixel values is encoded using several contexts. The statistics under each of these contexts are estimated using the cumulative adaptive technique. Coding is accomplished by means of an arithmetic code. >
Multiresolution processing of color texture

This paper outlines a new technique for processing structural color texture image to obtain textural units at multiple structural layers. The multi-layered color texture unit segmentation and feature abstraction allows for efficient structural texture classification and synthesis. In the three-phase process, color texture is first quantized and transformed into a grey-scale texture image. An efficient procedure for color feature clustering using PAM is introduced. In the second pahse, the global statistical features of texture are used to determine the texture unit size and the spatial relationship between the texture units in a periodic texture pattern. Finally, for texture units with internal structures, multi-layered segmenter is developed to separated these internal structures at different layers. Feature extraction and synthesis can be conducted at these multiple layers.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
An Intersectional Social Capital Model of Career Development for International Marriage Immigrants

The phenomenon of women immigrating to marry has resulted in changing labor markets and increasing workforce diversity. However, because of a lack of social capital in their new country, immigrant women face significant barriers to gaining employment, have access to only limited work arenas, or remain at home as housewives. Existing studies of immigrant women are mainly limited to their human rights or cultural issues; there are few studies focusing on career development for them. This article uses social capital and intersectionality theories to create an intersectional social capital model of career development for immigrant women. The application of the model is explicated through the context of South Korea. The positive career development interventions as described in the model can help immigrant brides overcome multiple career-related barriers and find new roots.
Executive Compensation and Securitization: The Missing Link

We assess the effect that asset securitization has on executive compensation. Securitization is the process whereby firms “sell” financial assets in transactions that bear many economic characteristics of a loan. Scholars and policy makers have expressed concern about the agency costs associated with such transactions, including that they create opportunities for managers to loot companies that engage in them.We focus on non-financial-services firms, and construct a dataset of over 15,000 firm-year observations, comparing the CEO pay of securitizing firms (1,051) to those that do not (14,301). Panel OLS fixed-effects regressions, year-on-year change regressions, matched sampling and sub-sampling analyses show that securitizers do not, in fact, pay more than non-securitizers. This, in turn, suggests that whatever its other strengths or weaknesses, securitization by non-financial-services firms is unlikely to lead to agency costs hypothesized in the literature.
Experimental and theoretical investigations on cross talk performance of grating-based monolithic integrated wavelength demultiplexers

We report on recent results on InGaAsP-InP-based Rowland circle grating demultiplexers. Simulations and experiments on the effects of inherent fabrication errors such as the pixelation effect, switching errors, and field distortion in the grating patterning process are presented. These results suggest sources of the cross talk in the wavelength demultiplexers and ways to reduce them as well as the limitations of currently available technologies.
Information rates and coding for wireless MIMO relay channels

In this paper, we design turbo-based coding/decoding schemes for relay systems with multiple transmit/receive antennas at the respective terminals. In the proposed scheme, the source node sends coded information bits to both the relay and the destination nodes, while the relay forwards simultaneously its estimate for the previous coded block to the destination after decoding and re-encoding. Then, the destination observes a superposition of the codewords and uses an iterative decoding algorithm to estimate the transmitted messages. We also provide the capacity bounds and information rate bounds with binary inputs. It is shown that the performance is typically about 1.0-1.5 dB away from the theoretical limits, and a remarkable advantage can be achieved over the direct and multihop transmission schemes.
Recent advances and remaining gaps in our knowledge of associations between gut microbiota and human health

The complex gut microbial flora harbored by individuals (microbiota) has long been proposed to contribute to intestinal health as well as disease. Pre- and probiotic products aimed at improving health by modifying microbiota composition have already become widely available and acceptance of these products appears to be on the rise. However, although required for the development of effective microbiota based interventions, our basic understanding of microbiota variation on a population level and its dynamics within individuals is still rudimentary. Powerful new parallel sequence technologies combined with other efficient molecular microbiota analysis methods now allow for comprehensive analysis of microbiota composition in large human populations. Recent findings in the field strongly suggest that microbiota contributes to the development of obesity, atopic diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases and intestinal cancers. Through the ongoing National Institutes of Health Roadmap ‘Human Microbiome Project’ and similar projects in other parts of the world, a large coordinated effort is currently underway to study how microbiota can impact human health. Translating findings from these studies into effective interventions that can improve health, possibly personalized based on an individuals existing microbiota, will be the task for the next decade(s).
Some Lessons Learned For Sustainable Development From The Mexican Experience

The economic reforms that are necessary to implement the neo-liberal paradigm have to be tempered in developing countries by the crucial roles of the national government in the organization, administration and monitoring of institutions that will carry out these reforms. In addition to these reforms, countries like Mexico, where half the population lives below the poverty line, need a nationally-funded and administered program to uplift the rural and urban poor. Mexico has developed such a program that has significantly improved the health and nutrition of mothers and children and class attendance. On the other hand, federal governments of wealthy nations, who espouse free market operations, can by their actions thwart free trade in order to win elections. We examine how very large agricultural subsidies to American farmers and corporations distort the price of corn and corn products in Mexico in a way that makes it difficult for many small farmers to survive. These subsidies go against the free trade principles of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by the United States, Mexico and Canada in 1994, but are justified by loopholes included in the final text. The concept of sustainable development provides a way of looking at development programs from a long-term view, with the welfare of the next generation in mind. While the poverty program, described above, has been shown to improve the nutrition. health and school attendance of many poor children, so they can expect to lead a better life than their parents, the NAFTA free trade treaty has worked to enrich a few multi-national businesses at the expense of the welfare of many farmers throughout Mexico and North America. Having used organic methods of farming that preserved the land's fertility and productivity, Mexican small farmers now have to leave the land for the over-crowded cities with little hope of making a good livelihood for their families.
Optimizing Experimental Protocols for Quantitative Behavioral Imaging with 18F-FDG in Rodents

Small-animal PET provides the opportunity to image brain activation during behavioral tasks in animal models of human conditions. The present studies aimed to simplify behavioral imaging procedures without a loss of quantitation by using an intraperitoneal route of administration (no cannulation, no anesthesia) and using a standardized uptake value (SUV) to reduce scan duration. Methods: Sixteen animals with carotid artery cannulations were studied with 18F-FDG small-animal PET accompanied by serial arterial blood sampling. Ten of these animals were anesthetized and were inside the tomograph during 18F-FDG uptake, whereas 6 animals were awake in their home cages and scanned after 60 min of uptake. Of the 10 anesthetized animals, 6 received intraperitoneal 18F-FDG, whereas 4 received intravenous 18F-FDG, and all 6 awake animals received intraperitoneal 18F-FDG. Intravenously injected animals were positioned far enough inside the tomograph to obtain region-of-interest–based measures from the heart and the brain. In all animals, a full arterial input function and plasma glucose levels were obtained. To establish the optimal time during 18F-FDG uptake for blood sampling when using an SUV, a Patlak kinetic model was used to derive absolute rates of glucose metabolism and compared with SUVs calculated using different plasma points from the arterial input function. Results: A single plasma point taken at 60 min after injection for intraperitoneal injections or 45 min after injection for intravenous injections provides a sensitive index of glucose metabolic rate with the highest correlation with data obtained from a fully quantitative input function. Conclusion: These studies support an experimental protocol in which animals can receive the 18F-FDG tracer injection intraperitoneally, away from the small-animal tomograph and with minimal impact on behavior. Further, animals can occupy the tomograph bed for a 10- to 30-min scan with a consequent increase in animal throughput.
Tomography without rays

Abstract We present two new techniques for the inversion of first-arrival times to estimate velocity structure. These travel-time inversion techniques are unique in that they do not require the calculation of ray paths. First-arrival times are calculated using a finite-difference scheme that iteratively solves the eikonal equations for the position of the wavefront. The first inversion technique is a direct extension of linearized waveform inversion schemes. The nonlinear relationship between the observed first-arrival times and the model slowness is linearized using a Taylor series expansion and a solution is found by iteration. For a series of two-dimensional numerical tests, with and without random noise, this travel-time inversion procedure accurately reconstructed the synthetic test models. This iterative inversion procedure converges quite rapidly and remains stable with further iteration. The second inversion technique is an application of simulated annealing to travel-time topography. The annealing algorithm is a randomized search through model space that can be shown to converge to a global minimum in well-posed problems. Our tests of simulated annealing travel-time topography indicate that, in the presence of less than ideal ray coverage, significant artifacts may be introduced into the solution. The linearized inversion scheme outperforms the nonlinear simulated annealing approach and is our choice for travel-time inversion problems. Both techniques are applicable to a variety of seismic problems including earthquake travel-time tomography, reflection, refraction/wide-angle reflection, borehole, and surface-wave phase-velocity tomography.
Detection, phenotyping, and quantification of antigen-specific T cells using a peptide-MHC dodecamer

Here we report a peptide-MHC (pMHC) dodecamer as a “next generation” technology that is a significantly more sensitive and versatile alternative to pMHC tetramers for the detection, isolation, and phenotypic analysis of antigen-specific T cells. In particular, dodecamers are able to detect two- to fivefold more antigen-specific T cells in both human and murine CD4+ and CD8+ αβ T-cell compartments compared with the equivalent tetramers. The low-affinity, tetramer-negative, dodecamer-positive T cells showed comparable effector cytokine responses as those of high-affinity, tetramer-positive T cells. Dodecamers are able to detect early stage CD4+CD8+ double-positive thymocytes on which T-cell receptors are 10- to 30-fold less dense than mature T cells. Dodecamers also show utility in the analysis of γδ T cells and in cytometry by time-of-flight applications. This construct has a simple structure with a central scaffold protein linked to four streptavidin molecules, each having three pMHC ligands or other molecules. The dodecamer is straightforward and inexpensive to produce and is compatible with current tetramer technology and commercially available streptavidin conjugates.
Physiological Studies on Five Patients Following Ligation of the Inferior Vena Cava

SummaryThe venous pressure, rate of water loss from the skin and volume of pulsations in the peripheral blood vessels were measured in 5 patients following ligation of the inferior vena cava below ...
Study on the measurement of non-separating apparatus for fuel consumption

Technique of non-separated fuel-consumption was studied firstly,and a measuring technique fit for non-separated fuel consumption ultrasonic measuring technique was drawn through studying and comparing laser and ultrasonic techniques'virtues and disadvantages.Then get an applicable project of fuel-consumption measuring without separation through studying thesis of ultrasonic detector.The project is based on actual conditions fit for small diameter pipe with little flow.An ultrasonic measuring method fit for non-separated fuel-consumption time difference method was put forward and tested by experiments lastly.
An Offline Frequent Value Encoding for Energy-Efficient MLC/TLC Non-volatile Memories

This paper describes a low overhead, offline frequent value encoding (FVE) solution to reduce the write energy in multi-level/triple-level cell (MLC/TLC) non-volatile memories (NVMs). The proposed solution, which does not require any runtime software support, clusters a set of general-purpose applications according to their data frequency profiles and generates a dedicated offline FVE that minimizes write energy for each cluster. Results show that the write energy reduction of evaluation sets---using FVEs generated for training sets---are close (equal) to the best known solution for MLC (TLC) NVM encoding; however, our solution incurs a memory overhead that is 16x (5.7x) less than the best comparable scheme in the literature for MLC (TLC) NVMs.
Nuclear Medicine in Diseases of the Central Nervous System

Simple and safe enough to be used as a screening procedure in ambulatory as well as hospitalized patients, brain scanning detects, differentiates, and localizes a wide variety of lesions, often eliminating delay in definitive diagnosis and treatment. With modern high-speed scintillation cameras and new radiopharmaceuticals, its range has now been expanded to dynamic studies of such processes as movement of the C S F.
Second-Law Analysis of a Cascade Joule-Thomson Microcooler

Cascade Joule-Thomson Microcoolers have been proposed in literature in which different compressors with low values of pressure ratio of order four using different working fluids are anticipated to drive the microcooler. A cascade of five stages is expected to provide cooling at a load temperature of 150 K. In this study a second-law analysis of such a microcooler is performed to quantify the effect of important design parameters representing the basic components and processes of the microcooler on its performance. The effects of several important design parameters including the effectiveness of all heat exchangers as well as the effect of possible pressure drop in the recuperative heat exchanger on cooling power and the exergetic efficiency of the microcooler are obtained. The inefficiency of the compressors is included using an exergetic efficiency parameter for the compressors. The heat transfer from each stage to other stages is modelled using an effectiveness parameter for the heat exchangers that can be varied to investigate their influence on cooling power and the efficiency of the microcooler.
A National Cancer Database (NCDB) analysis of factors affecting survival in stage II and III colon cancer.

e15146Background: The goal of our study was to analyze how factors other than adjuvant chemotherapy affect survival among patients with stage II and stage III colon cancer. Methods: This is a retro...
CAM use in recently-returned OEF/OIF/OND US veterans: Demographic and psychosocial predictors

Abstract Objectives Because the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing among veterans, understanding more about the characteristics of veterans who use CAM is increasingly important. Studies reporting on predictors of use almost always discuss CAM in the aggregate, yet each CAM modality represents a unique approach to healthcare, and each may have different correlates as well as different effectiveness. Very little information is available about veterans' use of each distinct modality, and about psychosocial correlates of various forms of CAM use. Design We analyzed data from wave 1 of the Survey of the Experiences of Returning Veterans (SERV) Study, which included 729 veterans returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation New Dawn (OND). Setting Data were collected by telephone interviews. Main measures We examined a range of potentially important correlates of CAM use, including demographics, military experiences, and current mental and physical health. Results Each predictor related to a unique constellation of CAM modalities; not one of the predictors examined was associated with more than half of the 12 modalities. For example, women were more likely to use acupuncture, massage, yoga, meditation and spiritual healing, and age related only to greater use of homeopathy, while deployment injuries related positively to use of chiropractic, nutrition and meditation. Conclusions Results suggest that in order to understand CAM use, CAM modalities should be considered unique and separate practices. This greater understanding should be useful for future health service provision for veterans.
Reliability of parent report measures of sleep in children with Down syndrome.

Background Behavioural sleep disturbances are common among children with Down syndrome (DS). However, tools used to detect and evaluate behavioural sleep disturbances were developed for typically developing children and have not been evaluated for use among children with DS. The current study evaluates the psychometric properties of three measures of behavioural sleep disturbances that are currently being used with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including children with DS. Method Caregivers of 30 children with DS rated their child's sleep with the Behavioral Evaluation of Disorders of Sleep (BEDS), Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and Sleep Disturbances Scale for Children (SDSC). Caregivers also provided information on sleep diagnoses and completed a 7-night sleep and behaviour diary. Results The study investigated the rate of detecting sleep problems, internal consistency, and convergent and concurrent validity of the BEDS, CSHQ and SDSC. Children with DS were reported to exhibit behavioural sleep disturbances at different rates depending on the measure used; 0% BEDS, 79.3% CSHQ and 17.2% SDSC. Internal consistency was comparable for all three measures for their total scores. However, when evaluating the internal consistency of subscale scores, those on the CSHQ and SDSC performed more strongly. The subscales of the CSHQ performed best when evaluating convergent and concurrent validity, with the SDSC subscales performing moderately well. Conclusion The study findings suggest that, among children with DS, the CSHQ and its subscales performed in a psychometrically sound and theoretically appropriate manner in relation to other measures of sleep, medical history of sleep problems, and daily reports of sleep and associated behaviours. The SDSC performed moderately well. When evaluating behavioural sleep disturbances among children with DS, the CSHQ is recommended based on its stronger psychometric properties.
Managing Secrecy and Disclosure of Domestic Violence in Affluent Communities

Although it is widely acknowledged that domestic violence (DV) can happen to anyone, there is scant research on affluent women's DV experiences. Using grounded theory, the present study examined how affluent mothers managed secrecy and disclosure of DV in the context of their community. Data consisted of interviews with 10 mothers and 17 service providers from one affluent community. The process of managing secrecy and disclosure of DV was nonlinear, ongoing, and strongly influenced by community culture and familial status. Mothers' secrecy and disclosure decisions (i.e., how and when mothers disclosed) and experiences (i.e., the type of responses they received upon disclosure) varied depending on whether they bought in or opted out of the culture of affluence during marriage. The resulting grounded theory has implications for future research on DV in affluent families and the broader literature on secrecy and DV disclosure.
Role of Systemic and Local Antibiotics in the Treatment of Open Fractures

The orthopedic community has learned much about the treatment of open fractures from the tremendous work of Ramon Gustilo, Michael Patzakis, and others; however, open fractures continue to be very difficult challenges. Type III open fractures continue to be associated with high infection rates. Some combination of systemic and local antibiotics may be most appropriate in these high-grade open fractures. Further research is still necessary in determining optimal systemic antibiotic regimens as well as the role of local antibiotics. Any new discoveries related to novel systemic antibiotics or local antibiotic carriers will need to be evaluated related to cost.
Therapeutic Targeting of TAZ and YAP by Dimethyl Fumarate in Systemic Sclerosis Fibrosis

Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma, SSc) is a devastating fibrotic disease with few treatment options. Fumaric acid esters, including dimethyl fumarate (DMF, Tecfidera; Biogen, Cambridge, MA), have shown therapeutic effects in several disease models, prompting us to determine whether DMF is effective as a treatment for SSc dermal fibrosis. We found that DMF blocks the profibrotic effects of transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) in SSc skin fibroblasts. Mechanistically, we found that DMF treatment reduced nuclear localization of transcriptional coactivator with PDZ binding motif (TAZ) and Yes-associated protein (YAP) proteins via inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway. In addition, DMF abrogated TGFβ/Akt1 mediated inhibitory phosphorylation of glycogen kinase 3β (GSK3β) and a subsequent β–transducin repeat-containing proteins (βTRCP) mediated proteasomal degradation of TAZ, as well as a corresponding decrease of TAZ/YAP transcriptional targets. Depletion of TAZ/YAP recapitulated the antifibrotic effects of DMF. We also confirmed the increase of TAZ/YAP in skin biopsies from patients with diffuse SSc. We further showed that DMF significantly diminished nuclear TAZ/YAP localization in fibroblasts cultured on a stiff surface. Importantly, DMF prevented bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis in mice. Together, our work demonstrates a mechanism of the antifibrotic effect of DMF via inhibition of Akt1/GSK3β/TAZ/YAP signaling and confirms a critical role of TAZ/YAP in mediating the profibrotic responses in dermal fibroblasts. This study supports the use of DMF as a treatment for SSc dermal fibrosis.
EML4-ALK fusion gene and sensitivity to an ALK kinase inhibitor in lung cancer

2373 The EML4-ALK fusion gene, resulting from an inversion on chromosome 2p, has recently been detected in ~7% of Japanese non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). This genetic alteration was also transforming in vitro and in vivo . In the current study we examined the frequency of EML4-ALK in NSCLCs (n=305) derived from US and Korean patients and in NSCLC cell lines (n= 83). We detected 4 different variants of EML4-ALK using RT-PCR in 8 (3%) NSCLC (2/138 (1.5%) from US NSCLC patients; 6/167 (3.6%) from Korean patients) and in 3/83 (3.6%) NSCLC cell lines. All EML4-ALK containing tumors and cell lines were adenocarcinomas and occurred more frequently in NSCLC patients who were never or light ( EML4-ALK inversion. Despite inhibiting ALK phosphorylation in all 3 cell lines, the growth of only 1 of the 3 cell lines, H3122, was inhibited by NVP-TAE684 and this was accompanied by significant apoptosis. In the other 2 EML4-ALK containing cell lines, unlike in H3122, inhibition of ALK phosphorylation led to no or only partial inhibition of AKT, STAT3 or ERK 1/2 phosphorylation. These studies suggest that ALK inhibitors may be potentially effective therapies for a subset of lung cancers harbouring the EML4-ALK inversion and further support their clinical development
Simulating the Impact of Crime on African American Women's Physical Activity and Obesity.

Objective The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of crime on physical activity location accessibility, leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), and obesity among African American women. Methods An agent-based model was developed in 2016 to represent resource-limited Washington, DC, communities and their populations to simulate the impact of crime on LTPA and obesity among African American women under different circumstances. Results Data analysis conducted between 2016 and 2017 found that in the baseline scenario, African American women had a 25% probability of exercising. Reducing crime so more physical activity locations were accessible (increasing from 10% to 50%) decreased the annual rise in obesity prevalence by 2.69%. Increasing the probability of African American women to exercise to 37.5% further increased the impact of reducing crime on obesity (2.91% annual decrease in obesity prevalence). Conclusions These simulations showed that crime may serve as a barrier to LTPA. Reducing crime and increasing propensity to exercise through multilevel interventions (i.e., economic development initiatives to increase time available for physical activity and subsidized health care) may promote greater than linear declines in obesity prevalence. Crime prevention strategies alone can help prevent obesity, but combining such efforts with other ways to encourage physical activity can yield even greater benefits.