cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of use of imported magnesium, sulfur, copper, and zinc on Idaho dairy farms

Six commercial dairies from south central Idaho were surveyed to estimate the whole-farm surpluses of magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn). Mineral imports and exports were monitored in a 12-mo period and samples from the diets, feeds, feces, urine, and manure were collected at regular farm visits. Soils from manure-amended fields were sampled in the spring and fall. In all cases, the largest import of Mg, S, Cu, and Zn to the dairy was with purchased feeds, from 91 (S) to 97% (Zn) of all imports. The major mineral export item was manure [from 60% (S) to 89% (Cu) of all exports] and forages, in the case of a dairy with a large land base. Export with milk represented on average only 8.6, 25, 2.1, and 11% (Mg, S, Cu, and Zn, respectively) of all exports. Thus, the conversion of the imported feed Mg, S, Cu, and Zn into milk was rather low (on a whole-farm scale): 5.6, 11, 1.4, and 5.2%, respectively. Concentrations of Mg, Cu, and Zn in the lactating cow diets from the participating dairies exceeded National Research Council (2001) recommendations on average by 85, 34, and 73%, respectively, which contributed to the inefficient use of imported minerals. Whole-farm Mg surplus varied from 4 to 54 t/yr (3 to 19 kg/cow per year). The efficiency of use of imported Mg varied from 27 to 88%. Sulfur surpluses were from 9 to 52 t/yr (12 to 40 kg/cow per year). Copper and Zn surpluses were also significant (average of 59 and 585 kg/yr and 0.05 and 0.4 kg/cow per year, respectively). The average efficiency of use of imported S, Cu, and Mg was 44, 62, and 56%, respectively and, as with Mg, varied significantly among the dairies. The results from this study suggest that reduction in the concentration of dietary Mg, Cu, and Zn is potentially the most efficient way of reducing overall excretions and whole-farm surpluses of these minerals.
Hot plasma-wall interactions for fusion reactors

Studies have been made of phenomena which occur when a hot deuterium plasma containing a transverse magnetic field is brought into sudden contact with a metal wall. Motivation for this research is the need to better understand plasma and metallurgical conditions at the first wall of fusion reactor. Analysis and computer code simulation have been used to predict the development of thermal and magnetic boundary layers, and the rate of heat transfer from the plasma to the wall. Heat transfer measurements were made in a high-energy electromagnetic shock tube and the agreement between calculations and data is rather good. Metallurgical studies of damage to the wall show significant erosion at grain boundaries, formation of deuterium blisters, and some surface melting to a depth of about 20..mu..m.
Configuration control of 7 DOF arms

Applications of the configuration control approach to motion control of redundant 7 DOF (degree-of-freedom) arms are described. This approach provides a unified framework for resolution of redundancy to accomplish a broad range of objectives. The configuration control approach is briefly described, and a graphics simulation environment for control of 7 DOF Robotics Research arms is discussed. Computer simulation results are presented to demonstrate elbow control, obstacle avoidance, and optimal joint motion as redundancy resolution goals for the 7 DOF arm. >
Molecular Mechanisms of Fragile X Syndrome: A Twenty-Year Perspective

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a common form of inherited intellectual disability and is one of the leading known causes of autism. The mutation responsible for FXS is a large expansion of the trinucleotide CGG repeat in the 5 � untranslated region of the X-linked gene FMR1 .T his expansion leads to DNA methylation of FMR1 and to transcriptional silencing, which results in the absence of the gene product, FMRP, a selective messenger RNA (mRNA)-binding protein that regulates the translation of a subset of dendritic mRNAs. FMRP is critical for mGluR (metabotropic glutamate receptor)-dependent long-term depression, as well as for other forms of synaptic plasticity; its absence causes excessive and persistent protein synthesis in postsynaptic dendrites and dysregulated synaptic function. Studies continue to refine our understanding of FMRP’s role in synaptic plasticity and to uncover new functions of this protein, which have illuminated therapeutic approaches for FXS.
Performance analysis of linear diversity-combining schemes on Rayleigh fading channels with binary signaling and Gaussian weighting errors

In this paper, we analyze the error probability performance of maximal-ratio combining (MRC), equal-gain combining (EGC), selection combining (SC), and generalized-selection combining (GSC) diversity schemes with coherent binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) signaling on Rayleigh fading channels with Gaussian channel-estimation errors. We first show that, with weighting errors, averaging the conditional probability of error with the density function of the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the combiner yields a lower bound on the exact probability of error. Later, we derive the exact probability of error for MRC, EGC, SC, and GSC diversity schemes and show that, for the case of nonnegative values of the in-phase correlation coefficient between the actual and the estimated channel gains, the exact probability of error with weighting errors is the same as that of the case with perfect channel estimation, but with the average SNR per diversity branch /spl gamma/~, for the case of perfect channel estimation, replaced by the effective SNR /spl gamma/~/sub /spl rho//, due to weighting errors. The effective SNR is a function of both /spl gamma/~ and /spl rho/, the magnitude of the normalized cross correlation between the actual and the estimated channel gains. Finally, we show that, as /spl rho//spl rarr/0, the average probability of error approaches 0.5, irrespective of the order of diversity and the diversity-combining rule.
A new algorithm for retrieval of 2D exponentials

A novel parametric algorithm that can retrieve roughly 0.25MN 2D exponentials or 0.343MN 2D harmonics from M/spl times/N array data is presented. This compares favorably with most existing algorithms which can retrieve only order max(M, N) exponentials or harmonics. The algorithm is not Fourier resolution limited, and requires neither searching in 2D space nor 2D polynomial rooting. A specific example of retrieving 4 harmonics from a 3/spl times/3 array is developed in detail and numerical performance is demonstrated.
The chicken RaxL gene plays a role in the initiation of photoreceptor differentiation.

The paired type homeodomain gene, Rax , was previously identified as a key molecule in early eye formation in mice and humans. We report the expression patterns of two Rax family members from chicken, Rax and RaxL , and on the function of RaxL in photoreceptor development. Both Rax and RaxL are expressed in early retinal progenitor cells, with Rax being expressed at a significantly higher level than RaxL . At the time that photoreceptors begin to form, RaxL appears at a relatively high level in a subset of cells within the zone of proliferating progenitor cells. Subsequently, it is expressed in cells migrating to the photoreceptor layer, where it is highly expressed during the initial, but not late, stages of photoreceptor differentiation. To test the function of RaxL , a putative dominant-negative allele of RaxL comprising a fusion of the engrailed repressor domain and a region of RaxL (EnRaxLΔC) was introduced in vivo into the early chick eye using a retroviral vector. EnRaxLΔC, but not the dominant negative Rax (EnRaxΔC), caused a significant reduction in expression of early markers of photoreceptor cells. Examination of the transactivation activity of RaxL on a reporter construct bearing a canonical photoreceptor-specific enhancer element showed that RaxL exhibited significant activation activity, and that this activity was severely diminished in the presence of EnRaxLΔC. The effect on photoreceptor gene expression in vivo was specific in that other cell types were unaffected, as was general proliferation in the retina. The reduction in numbers of cells expressing photoreceptor markers was probably due to decreased survival of developing photoreceptor cells, as there was increased apoptosis among cells of the retina expressing dominant-negative RaxL . We propose that RaxL plays a role in the initiation of differentiation, and also possibly commitment, of photoreceptor cells in the chicken retina.
Comparing two operating-room-allocation policies for elective and emergency surgeries

When organizing the operating theatre and scheduling surgeries, hospitals face a trade-off between the need to be responsive to emergency cases and to conduct scheduled elective surgeries efficiently. We develop a simulation model to compare a flexible and a focused resource-allocation policy. We evaluate these two policies on patient and provider outcome measures, including patient wait time and physician overtime. We find that the focused policy results in lower elective wait time and lower overtime, which leads to the conclusion that electives benefit more from the elimination of emergency disruptions than what they lose from the reduced access to operating rooms. Emergency patient wait time, however, increases significantly as we shift from the flexible to the focused policy. The sensitivity analysis showed that average emergency wait time can decrease as the processing time variability increases. The trade-off between efficiency and responsiveness calls for additional research on other operating-room-allocation policies.
From Normalcy to New Deal: industrial structure, party competition, and American public policy in the Great Depression

Industrial partisan preference may be formally modeled as the joint consequence of pressures from labor and the differential impact of the world economy on particular businesses. This “basic” and static model, when extended to cover the money market, can be used to examine questions of political development, including the effects of fluctuations in national income on political coalitions. American institutions and public policy during the New Deal are used to test the theory against empirical evidence, much of it from new primary sources. The rise of the New Deal coalition is traced to changes in the American industrial structure deriving from the boom of the 1920s and the reversal of the U.S. financial position that resulted from World War I, in addition to the well-known labor militancy of the 1930s. The effect of these changes was the rise of a (Democratic) political coalition dominated by capital-intensive, multinationally dominant firms and industries with a strong interest in free trade and a historically unprecedented ability to cope with major industrial upheavals without resort to force. The major public policy initiatives of the New Deal are reexamined from this standpoint.
Comparison of fast photodetector response measurements by optical heterodyne and pulse response techniques

Characterization of high-speed photodetectors by optical heterodyne and pulse response techniques is reported, and the results are compared. Scalar deconvolution was used to obtain photodetector response from the pulse response measurements with effects of the measurement apparatus removed. Linearity of the detector response is verified, validating comparison in the frequency domain using a Fourier transform of the pulse response data. The comparison is limited to the magnitude of the transfer function in the frequency domain, since the optical heterodyne technique does not give phase information. Both sets of results are corrected for the effects of their respective measurement systems. After these corrections, close agreement between results obtained by using the two techniques was found. >
Increased brain white matter axial diffusivity associated with fatigue, pain and hyperalgesia in Gulf War illness.

Background Gulf War exposures in 1990 and 1991 have caused 25% to 30% of deployed personnel to develop a syndrome of chronic fatigue, pain, hyperalgesia, cognitive and affective dysfunction.
Structure and dynamics of cationic membrane peptides and proteins: insights from solid-state NMR.

Many membrane peptides and protein domains contain functionally important cationic Arg and Lys residues, whose insertion into the hydrophobic interior of the lipid bilayer encounters significant energy barriers. To understand how these cationic molecules overcome the free energy barrier to insert into the lipid membrane, we have used solid-state NMR spectroscopy to determine the membrane-bound topology of these peptides. A versatile array of solid-state NMR experiments now readily yields the conformation, dynamics, orientation, depth of insertion, and site-specific protein–lipid interactions of these molecules. We summarize key findings of several Arg-rich membrane peptides, including β-sheet antimicrobial peptides, unstructured cell-penetrating peptides, and the voltage-sensing helix of voltage-gated potassium channels. Our results indicate the central role of guanidinium-phosphate and guanidinium-water interactions in dictating the structural topology of these cationic molecules in the lipid membrane, which in turn account for the mechanisms of this functionally diverse class of membrane peptides.
Conic systems and sublinear mappings: equivalent approaches

It is known that linear conic systems are a special case of set-valued sublinear mappings. Hence the latter subsumes the former. In this note we observe that linear conic systems also contain set-valued sublinear mappings as a special case. Consequently, the former also subsumes the latter.
Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism Among Hospitalized Medical Patients

Case presentation : A 79-year-old woman was noted by staff at her skilled nursing facility to have increasing shortness of breath during the previous 24 to 48 hours. She had been receiving daily physical therapy, occupational therapy, and 6 prescription medications to manage underlying congestive heart failure with preserved systolic function. The woman was hospitalized. After being transferred to the emergency department, she underwent further workup, which showed no pulmonary embolism on chest CT scan. The chest x-ray, however, revealed a new right lobar infiltrate and consolidation, which are consistent with pneumonia. On examination, she was alert, with a respiratory rate of 24 per minute, heart rate of 96 bpm, blood pressure of 154/76 mm Hg, temperature of 38°C, distended neck veins, right lower lung zone posterior musical rales, regular heart rhythm, normal S1, single S2, and grade II/VI systolic murmur at the left lower sternal border. The diagnosis of pneumonia was made, and levofloxacin was initiated in the emergency department. Specific evaluation of her medical regimen, including furosemide, potassium chloride, metoprolol, candesartan, simvastatin, and baby aspirin, was recommended. Prevention of venous thromboembolism has been neglected in hospitalized patients with medical illnesses such as congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease, cancer, and infectious diseases. In the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we found a combination of omitted and ineffective prophylaxis. When we performed venous ultrasound examinations on 100 patients admitted to the MICU with an anticipated stay of >48 hours, we detected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in 33%.1 Almost 50% of the patients with DVT …
Time-domain measurements of afterpulsing in InGaAs/InP SPAD gated with sub-nanosecond pulses

Afterpulsing was investigated experimentally in an InGaAs single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) operating in the biasing and sensing regime of periodic-gating techniques. These techniques support single-photon counting at rates in the 100 MHz range with low afterpulse probability and are characterized by sub-nanosecond active gates that limit total avalanche-charge flows to the 100 fC range or less. We achieved comparable gating and sensing performance with a system using non-periodic gates and were able to make traditional double-pulse afterpulse measurements from 4.8 ns to 2 µs in this new low-avalanche-current regime. With 0.50 ns gate duration and a detection efficiency of 0.15 at 1310 nm the per-gate afterpulse probability at 4.8 ns is 0.008, while with a 1.5 ns gate it is almost two orders of magnitude higher. We provide a quantitative connection between afterpulse probability and total avalanche charge, and between the performance observed in traditional gating techniques for InGaAs SPADs and those ...
Improved transform skip mode for HEVC screen content coding

Transform skip modes (TSM) have previously been proposed for HEVC, where a transform on the prediction residual is skipped in one or both directions. TSM can improve coding efficiency when the prediction errors have minimal correlation in one or both directions. In this paper, improvements are proposed to the 1D transform skip mode design. Specifically, a unified dynamic range control method is proposed for the horizontal-only and vertical-only 1D TSM. It is also proposed to modify the scan order of the transform coefficients and to apply coefficient flipping to some 1D TSM cases. Finally, a number of efficient encoder complexity reduction methods are considered for the proposed 1D TSM. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve up to 4.7% gain in coding efficiency with limited encoder complexity increase. The proposed method also significantly improves visual quality, especially in areas rich in text and graphics.
Subroutine based detection of APT malware

Statistical detection of mass malware has been shown to be highly successful. However, this type of malware is less interesting to cyber security officers of larger organizations, who are more concerned with detecting malware indicative of a targeted attack. Here we investigate the potential of statistically based approaches to detect such malware using a malware family associated with a large number of targeted network intrusions. Our approach is complementary to the bulk of statistical based malware classifiers, which are typically based on measures of overall similarity between executable files. One problem with this approach is that a malicious executable that shares some, but limited, functionality with known malware is likely to be misclassified as benign. Here a new approach to malware classification is introduced that classifies programs based on their similarity with known malware subroutines. It is illustrated that malware and benign programs can share a substantial amount of code, implying that classification should be based on malicious subroutines that occur infrequently, or not at all in benign programs. Various approaches to accomplishing this task are investigated, and a particularly simple approach appears the most effective. This approach simply computes the fraction of subroutines of a program that are similar to malware subroutines whose likes have not been found in a larger benign set. If this fraction exceeds around 1.5 %, the corresponding program can be classified as malicious at a 1 in 1000 false alarm rate. It is further shown that combining a local and overall similarity based approach can lead to considerably better prediction due to the relatively low correlation of their predictions.
Decay of samarium isotopes: 140Sm, 141mSm, 142Sm and 143(m+g)Sm

Abstract The isotopes of 140 Sm, 141 m Sm, 142 Sm and 143( m + g ) Sm were produced by the 144 Sm(γ, xn ) reactions. The cross bombardment technique was used for studying only the 143( m + g ) Sm isotopes. The decays of the isotopes through positron emission and γ-ray transition were followed with the Ge(Li) and plastic detectors. For the 143( m + g ) Sm isotopes, end point energy was determined and coincidence measurements were performed by gating on 511-, 1057- and 1516-keV γ-rays. Photon energies associated with the half-lives of 14·82, 22·8, 72·5, 1·08 and 8·85 min were assigned to the isotopes 140 Sm, 141 m Sm, 142 Sm and 143( m + g ) Sm, respectively. A decay scheme was proposed for the decay of 143( m + g ) Sm. The cross-sections of the 144 Sm( n , 2 n ) 143 Sm and 143 g Sm reactions were determined as 429·5 and 661·2 m respectively.
Acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF) but not basic FGF induces sleep and fever in rabbits

Acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and basic FGF belong to a growth factor family. Interleukin-1, another member of that family, is involved in sleep regulation. FGFs and interleukin-1 share structural and functional features. We therefore determined whether acidic FGF and basic FGF were somnogenic. Male New Zealand White rabbits were provided with electroencephalographic (EEG) electrodes, a brain thermistor, and a lateral intracerebroventricular (icv) cannula. The animals were injected icv with isotonic NaCl (control) and on separate days with one of three doses of acidic or basic FGF (0.01, 0.1, or 1.0 micrograms) or with heat-treated acidic FGF (1.0 micrograms). The EEG, brain temperature, and motor activity were recorded for 23 h. The biological activity of basic FGF was determined in vitro by its ability to induce DNA synthesis in rat aortic smooth muscle cells. Acidic FGF induced prolonged dose-related increases in non-rapid eye movement sleep beginning in the 1st postinjection h and continuing for 12-23 h after the treatment. Acidic FGF also induced fevers of approximately 1 degree C after the 1.0 micrograms dose. Both activities of acidic FGF were lost after heat treatment. In contrast, basic FGF lacked somnogenic and pyrogenic activity, although it did induce DNA synthesis. Current results suggest that acidic FGF is part of the complex cytokine network in brain involved in sleep regulation.
An analogue of thyrotropin-releasing hormone improves outcome after brain injury: 31P-NMR studies

The effects of a long-acting, centrally active thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) analogue, CG3703, on neurological outcome, survival, and intracellular metabolism were evaluated after experimental fluid-percussion (FP) brain injury (2.0-2.4 atm) in the rat. In control (saline-treated) animals, FP brain injury caused a fall in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and resulted in a 58% mortality rate. Surviving control animals showed a pronounced neurological deficit over the following 4-wk period. Administration of CG3703 at 30 min posttrauma significantly increased MAP (mean increase, 21 mmHg). All animals treated with CG3703 survived and demonstrated significantly improved chronic neurological scores compared with saline-treated controls. In a subpopulation of injured animals, phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) was used to evaluate changes in brain intracellular metabolism after trauma in control and CG3703-treated animals. A fall in phosphocreatine-to-inorganic phosphate ratio (PCr/Pi) was observed in all animals after FP injury. The PCr/Pi ratio failed to recover in saline controls but demonstrated significant recovery in CG3703-treated animals. Furthermore, an increased phosphomonoester peak was observed after CG3703 but not after saline administration. These results suggest that the centrally active TRH analogue CG3703 can improve neurological outcome and survival after brain injury, perhaps through direct effects on cerebral metabolism.
ECOLOGICAL GENERALISM IN DROSOPHILA FALLENI: GENETIC EVIDENCE.

The idea that speciation in phytophagous insects can occur sympatrically through the formation of host races was advanced over a century ago by Benjamin Walsh (1864), who postulated that conditioned preferences for plant species may gradually become genetically reinforced. Over the years, Walsh's model has been elaborated and refined by various workers (e.g., Thorpe, 1930, 1945; Dethier, 1954; Maynard Smith, 1966; Bush, 1969, 1974; Tauber and Tauber, 1977); and sufficient conditions for sympatric speciation were formulated by Maynard Smith (1966). In Maynard Smith's model, the first step in this process is the establishment of a stable polymorphism in a heterogeneous environment in which alternative alleles are selected in different niches (Levene, 1953). If then the polymorphism is coupled with strong habitat selection and mating within the niche, sympatric speciation may occur. Despite the continued interest of evolutionists in this mode of speciation and an extensive search for evidence of its occurrence (see Mayr, 1947, 1963, and 1970 for reviews), documented cases are rare (Bush, 1974), understandably, perhaps, because the probability of witnessing speciation events is small. However, the search for species at stages preceding speciation has been more successful. Polymorphisms maintained by disruptive selection on genetically variable host plants (Hatchett and Gallun, 1970), host selection based on larval conditioning (Craighead, 1921; Cushing, 1941; Huettel and Bush, 1972; Knerer and Atwood, 1973; Wiklund, 1974; Phillips and Barnes,
The fermentation of polysaccharids by bacillus aerogenes

From recent work on the coli-like bacteria it is agreed that they may be divided into two subgroups which are differentiated by the Voges-Proskauer or methyl red reactions. These two groups are quite well correlated with habitat. The B. coli group (Voges-Proskauer negative ? methyl red positive) is characteristically of fecal origin, whereas the B. aerogenes-cloaca group (Voges-Proskauer positive ? methyl red negative) is relatively infrequent in feces, but predominates in the soil and on grains. B. aerogenes, although rarely found in the feces as voided, is a common inhabitant of the upper part of the intestinal tract of man. Under certain conditions it may constitute a considerable portion of the coli-like bacteria of a stool. It thus becomes of some practical significance to differentiate the B. aerogenes of intestinal origin from the B. aerogenes found in soil and on grain. Rogers pointed out that the fermentation of adonitol may be employed for this purpose with a high degree of reliability. It was thought that a study of the fermentation of the polysaccharids from different sources, particularly glycogens from vegetable and animal sources might possibly be of value in differentiating fecal from nonfecal types of B. aerogenes. Historical
Role of Water in Regulating Feed Intake and Feed Efficiency of Broilers

Three trials were conducted to investigate the influence of restricting feed and water intake levels of a fast-growing selected broiler line to the same feed and water intake levels of a nonselected line and to investigate the relationship of water/feed ratios to feed conversion (feed/grain) ratios. The water intake of birds from the selected line on feed restriction was similar to that of birds from the selected line not on feed restriction from 1 to 14 days. However, restriction of water intake of selected line birds resulted in feed intake similar to that of nonselected line birds. From 1 to 14 days, feed conversions of the feed-restricted selected line birds were similar to those of the selected line birds not on feed restriction. Feed conversions of the water-restricted selected line birds were similar to those of nonselected line birds. The maximum deviation in water intake between the selected and nonselected lines was observed before the maximum deviation in feed intake between the two lines; and the maximum deviation in feed intake was observed before the maximum deviation in body weight. Data presented indicate that high water/feed ratios are associated with low feed/gain ratios.
Energy Consumption in Creighton University Residence Halls: Comparing Attitudes and Behaviors

“On U.S. college campuses, growing concerns since the 1960s have demanded that we become more knowledgeable about our impact on the environment.” (Ruckelshaus 455) This research has aimed to understand attitudes and behaviors regarding energy consumption in Creighton University Residence halls by employing quantitative data gathering methods and analysis of campus energy use. The program Stata will be utilized in analysis to allow for a statistical understanding of student attitudes and behaviors regarding their energy consumption. The findings of this research are meant to allow Creighton University officials to understand student energy consumption habits and interest allowing for better energy consumption practices in the future.
Pulmonary hypertension due to monocrotaline pyrrole is reduced by moderate thrombocytopenia

To elucidate further the role of the platelet in the development of monocrotaline pyrrole (MCTP)-induced lung injury and pulmonary hypertension, MCTP-treated rats were made thrombocytopenic by cotreatment with an anti-rat platelet serum (PAS). Lung injury was assessed from increases in lung weight, lavage fluid protein concentration, and lactate dehydrogenase activity and from accumulation in lung tissue of 125I-labeled albumin. These indexes of injury were not different in MCTP-treated rats with normal or reduced platelet numbers at day 4,8, or 14. In MCTP-treated rats not receiving the PAS, pulmonary arterial pressure was elevated by day 8. However, pulmonary arterial pressure was the same as controls at both day 8 and day 14 in MCTP-treated rats made moderately thrombocytopenic by cotreatment with PAS. More marked reduction of platelet number abolished the protective effect of thrombocytopenia against pulmonary hypertension. In a separate series of experiments, treatment with antibodies to platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), a potential mediator in the response to MCTP-induced injury, did not protect rats from the cardiopulmonary effects of MCTP. These data indicate that moderate reduction of the number of circulating platelets prevents MCTP-induced pulmonary hypertension but not MCTP-induced lung injury, suggesting that the platelet is involved in the pulmonary hypertensive response to MCTP-induced lung injury by unknown mechanisms.
HOSLIM: Higher-Order Sparse LInear Method for Top-N Recommender Systems

Current top-N recommendation methods compute the recommendations by taking into account only relations between pairs of items, thus leading to potential unused information when higher-order relations between the items exist. Past attempts to incorporate the higher-order information were done in the context of neighborhood-based methods. However, in many datasets, they did not lead to significant improvements in the recommendation quality. We developed a top-N recommendation method that revisits the issue of higher-order relations, in the context of the model-based Sparse LInear Method (SLIM). The approach followed (Higher-Order Sparse LInear Method, or HOSLIM) learns two sparse aggregation coefficient matrices S and S′ that capture the item-item and itemset-item similarities, respectively. Matrix S′ allows HOSLIM to capture higher-order relations, whose complexity is determined by the length of the itemset. Following the spirit of SLIM, matrices S and S′ are estimated using an elastic net formulation, which promotes model sparsity. We conducted extensive experiments which show that higher-order interactions exist in real datasets and when incorporated in the HOSLIM framework, the recommendations made are improved. The experimental results show that the greater the presence of higher-order relations, the more substantial the improvement in recommendation quality is, over the best existing methods. In addition, our experiments show that the performance of HOSLIM remains good when we select S′ such that its number of nonzeros is comparable to S, which reduces the time required to compute the recommendations.
SIMD Instruction Set Extensions for Keccak with Applications to SHA-3, Keyak and Ketje

Recent processor architectures such as Intel Westmere (and later) and ARMv8 include instruction-level support for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), for the Secure Hashing Standard (SHA-1, SHA2) and for carry-less multiplication. These crypto-instruction sets provide specialized hardware processing at the top of the memory hierarchy, and provide significant performance improvements over general-purpose software for common cryptographic operations. We propose a crypto-instruction set for the Keccak cryptographic sponge and for the Keccak duplex construction. Our design is integrated on a 128 bit SIMD interface, applicable to the ARM NEON and Intel AVX (128 bit) architecture. The proposed instruction set is optimized for flexibility and supports multiple variants of the Keccak-f[b] permutation, for b equal to 200, 400, 800, or 1600 bit. We investigate the performance of the design using the GEM5 micro-architecture simulator. Compared to the latest hand-optimized results, we demonstrate a performance improvement of 2 times (over NEON programming) to 6 times (over Assembly programming). For example, an optimized NEON implementation of SHA3-512 computes a hash at 48.1 instructions per byte, while our design uses 21.9 instructions per byte. The NEON optimized version of the Lake Keyak AEAD uses 13.4 instructions per byte, while our design uses 7.7 instructions per byte. We provide comprehensive performance evaluation for multiple configurations of the Keccak-f[b] permutation in multiple applications (Hash, Encryption, AEAD). We also analyze the hardware cost of the proposed instructions in gate-equivalent of 90nm standard cells, and show that the proposed instructions only require 4658 GE, a fraction of the cost of a full ARM Cortex-A9.
Isolation and Characterization of Intracellular Ca2 + -Binding Proteins by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract Intracellular Ca 2+ -binding proteins, calmodulin, troponin C, myosin light chains, parvalbumins, calcineurin B and their proteolytic fragments can be resolved by reverse phase, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on μ-bondapak phenyl columns with acetonitrile-buffer mixtures as eluting solvents. A combined two-step purification procedure for calmodulin using affinity chromatography on phenothiazine-Affigel-10 and HPLC allows the rapid isolation of calmodulin from several sources including protozoans, and cultured 3T3 and neuroblastoma-x-glioma hybrid cells. The method can be used over a wide concentration range (0.01-3mg) with yields of 50-90% of biologically active protein. Calmodulin tryptic peptides 1-106, 1-90, 107-148, 1-77 and 78-148 have also been isolated by this method and tested for their ability to bind to and activate cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase.
Reconciling two selves in the same body

While participating in an institute with other critical pedagogues, the author became aware of her two Selves: the US English-speaking Self and the Spanishspeaking Self. With startling clarity, she realized why people had been telling her that she exhibits totally different personalities based on the language she is speaking. More surprisingly, she realized that her epistemologies and ontologies were diametrically opposed depending on the dominant Self. Using the lens of autoethnography, she examines how power and privilege determine her actions and her words depending on whether she is thinking in English or in Spanish.
The rSLA Framework: Monitoring and Enforcement of Service Level Agreements for Cloud Services

Managing service quality in heterogeneous Cloud environments is complex: different Cloud providers expose different management interfaces. To manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in this context, we have developed the rSLA framework that enables fast setup of SLA monitoring in dynamic and heterogeneous Cloud environments. The rSLA framework is made up of three main components: the rSLA language to formally represent SLAs, the rSLA Service, which interprets the SLAs and implements the behavior specified in them, and a set of Xlets - lightweight, dynamically bound adapters to monitoring and controlling interfaces. In this paper, we present the rSLA framework, and describe how it enables the monitoring and enforcement of service level agreements for heterogeneous Cloud services.
Enantioselective Palladium-Catalyzed Alkenylation of Trisubstituted Alkenols To Form Allylic Quaternary Centers

In this report, we describe the generation of remote allylic quaternary stereocenters β, γ, and δ relative to a carbonyl in high enantioselectivity. We utilize a redox-relay Heck reaction between alkenyl triflates and acyclic trisubstituted alkenols of varying chain-lengths. A wide array of terminal (E)-alkenyl triflates are suitable for this process. The utility of this functionalization is validated further by conversion of the products, via simple organic processes to access remotely functionalized chiral tertiary acid, amine, and alcohol products.
Temporal Slowing in the Elderly Revisited

ABSTRACT.The waking EEGs of 50 healthy elderly (60 years or greater) subjects, without evidence of neurologic or psychiatric disorders, were reviewed. Intermittent temporal slowing was present in 18 (36%). Theta activity (≥1 sec in duration) was present in all 18, while only 6 subjects (12%) also had delta activity which occurred as single or double waveforms. Delta activity did not exceed 0.6% of the recording time. In all subjects but 1, delta and theta activity combined did not exceed 1.8%. Temporal slowing was maximal on the left in 72% of subjects with slowing.Of the various montages employed (longitudinal bipolar, refer-ential-ipsilateral ear, transverse bipolar and referential-vertex), a transverse bipolar montage most often revealed temporal slowing. The alpha frequency of subjects with or without temporal slowing was 9.7 Hz.
The near-field pressure radiated by planar high-speed free-shear-flow turbulence

Jets with Mach numbers are well known to emit an intense, fricative, so-called crackle sound, having steep compressions interspersed with weaker expansions that together yield a positive pressure skewness . Its shock-like features are obvious hallmarks of nonlinearity, although a full explanation of the skewness is lacking, and wave steepening alone is understood to be insufficient to describe its genesis. Direct numerical simulations of high-speed free-shear flows for Mach numbers , , and in the Reynolds number range are used to examine the mechanisms leading to such pressure signals, especially the pressure skewness. For and , the pressure immediately adjacent the turbulence already has the large associated with jet crackle. It also has a surprisingly complex three-dimensional structure, with locally high pressures at compression-wave intersections. This structure is transient, and it simplifies as radiating waves subsequently merge through nonlinear mechanisms to form the relatively distinct and approximately two-dimensional Mach-like waves deduced from laboratory visualizations. A transport equation for is analysed to quantify factors affecting its development. The viscous dissipation that decreases is balanced by a particular nonlinear flux, which is (of course) absent in linear acoustic propagation and confirmed to be independent of the simulated Reynolds numbers. Together these effects maintain an approximately constant in the near acoustic field.
Party Differences in Support for Government Spending, 1973-2014

Willingness to support funding for government programs, particularly social programs, has been a key difference between Democrats and Republicans since the New Deal era. In recent years, considerab...
Things are looking up: Physical beauty, social mobility, and optimistic dispositions.

Abstract Physical attractiveness tends to inspire friendlier reactions and more positive evaluations from others, so that the beautiful are likelier to succeed across many kinds of endeavors. Does this history of success lead to a more optimistic, hopeful attitude? Evidence from the 2016 General Social Survey and the 1972 National Election Study suggests that it often does: those whom interviewers rate as better-looking tend to report higher expectations that life will turn out well for them, and show signs of greater upward social mobility. Since optimism is itself an important contributor to success in many social endeavors, these findings suggest an understudied mechanism by which beauty leads to better life outcomes, as well as a means by which social interactions may shape personal dispositions.
Echocardiography in transcatheter aortic valve implantation—Part 1—Transthoracic echocardiography

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has been a revolutionary technique in the treatment of degenerative aortic valve stenosis. Selection of appropriate patients and appropriate valve size is crucial for improved patient outcome. Echocardiographic imaging is a critical component for patient selection and plays an important role in the selection of valve size, procedural guidance, and patient follow-up. This review discusses role of echocardiography in patient selection, device implantation, and postimplant follow-up for the first-generation CoreValve as used in pivotal trial. Same TTE imaging principles apply to the second- and third-generation self-expandable valves as well as the balloon-expandable valves. Multiple case examples are used to illustrate imaging principles pre- and post-TAVR. In addition, case examples to demonstrate complications post-TAVR are shown.
Neglect, Neural Basis of

Patients with hemispatial neglect, a neurobehavioral deficit that manifests after a lesion usually to the right parietal/temporal lobe, fail to process or attend to information appearing on the contralateral side of space. This deficit can arise in multiple modalities (visual, auditory, and somatosensory) and can adversely affect eye and hand movements. In addition to a full description of the phenomenon and its anatomical concomitant, the underlying mechanisms giving rise to this deficit are explored with specific emphasis on the nature and type of spatial representations coded in the human cortex.
Racial Prejudices, Racialized Workplaces, and Restaurant Servers’ Hyperbolic Perceptions of Black–White Tipping Differences:

On average, Black consumers have been reliably shown to tip restaurant servers less than their White counterparts, and this difference has been widely acknowledged to contribute to servers’ negativ...
Mechanical failure rate of da Vinci robotic system.

Introduction Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RLRP) is playing an increasing role in the surgical management of prostate cancer. The benefits of minimally invasive surgery, enhanced surgeon familiarity with the instrumentation, and increased patient demand has led to the popularity of this surgical technique. There are, however, shortcomings specifically associated with this technology. Notably, instrumentation failure associated with robotic procedures represents a new and unique problem in urological surgery. We examine the rate of mechanical failure of the da Vinci robotic system and its impact on our prostate cancer program. Materials and methods We reviewed our prospective, institutional review board-approved database of the first 350 RLRP procedures that were scheduled for surgery at our institution. We identified all cases in which mechanical failure of the da Vinci robotic system resulted in surgery being cancelled, postponed, or converted to a conventional laparoscopic or an open radical prostatectomy. Results Nine of the 350 (2.6%) scheduled RLRPs were unable to be completed robotically secondary to device malfunction. Six of the malfunctions were detected prior to anesthesia induction and surgery was rescheduled. Three other malfunctions occurred intraoperatively and were converted either to a conventional laparoscopic (1 case) or an open surgical approach (2 cases). The etiology of the malfunctions included the following: set-up joint malfunction (2), arm malfunction (2), power error (1), monocular monitor loss (1), camera malfunction (1), metal fatigue/ break of surgeon's console hand piece (1) and software incompatibility (1). Conclusions Although uncommon, malfunction of the da Vinci robotic system does occur and may lead to psychological, financial, and logistical burdens for patients, physicians, and hospitals. Patients should be carefully counseled preoperatively regarding the possibility of robotic mechanical failure.
Abstract 526: 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE), a Lipid Peroxidation Product, Exerts Both Pro- and Anti-thrombotic Effects on Vascular Cells

Background: Oxidative stress and generation of lipid peroxidation (LPO) products are detrimental in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and associated acute thrombotic events. However, recent studies suggest that moderate oxidative stress and low levels of LPO products can induce adaptive immune responses and exert beneficial effects. Tissue factor (TF) is a critical initiator of coagulation and aberrant TF expression on vascular cells under inflammation triggers intravascular thrombosis. HNE, a highly reactive LPO product and TF have been shown to be associated with atherosclerosis. Recently, we demonstrated that HNE decrypts procoagulant activity of pre-existing TF on activated monocytes and endothelial cells and generates TF+ microparticles. Here, we investigated the effect of HNE on induction of TF and cell adhesion molecules in monocytes and endothelial cells that were not perturbed earlier. Methods and results: THP-1 monocytic cells and endothelial cells (HUVEC) were stimulated with LPS and TNF-α/IL...
Oncologic effectiveness of transarterial chemoembolization in local control of large hepatocellular carcinoma.

e16148Background: To evaluate the oncologic effectiveness of Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in Local control of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) up to 7cm. Methods: We reviewed our institutio...
Stress, mindfulness, and the allergic patient.

INTRODUCTION The global incidence and prevalence of allergic diseases are increasing as is the intensity and duration of excessive psychological stress due to multiple factors associated with living in today's world such as personal, social and political unrest, increased fear and anxiety, and/or depression often leading to hopelessness. Both allergy and chronic psychological stress are characterized by immune imbalances that have similar characteristics. Thus, it is reasonable to posit that the two are interactive and stress may induce as well as complicate at least some allergic diseases. Areas covered: Stress management/reduction has been proposed with various physical, pharmacological, and psychological interventions for both preventive and therapeutic reasons. A useful intervention involves mindfulness techniques, which allow the individual to put their life situation in context for better personal management. Expert commentary: Future studies must be developed that will further examine the role of excess psychological stress in specific allergic diseases and evaluate the effectiveness of various stress intervention protocols, particularly those involving mindfulness, to determine which individual would best respond clinically to which intervention. When this is accomplished, assessment and treatment of psychological stress will become a standard component of clinical care for allergy, asthma, and other immune-based diseases.