cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The kinetic icon: Reyner Banham on Los Angeles as mobile metropolis

Architectural historian P. Reyner Banham (1922–88) is widely known for his numerous writings on the modern built environment, including the book Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971). In the BBC television film Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (Julian Cooper, 1972), he concretized his earlier insights about the importance of mobility in the Southern California metropolis by employing the proclivity of the cinematic medium to represent movement. While traditional notions of the urban icon commonly understand it as a static monument or landmark, in these two works Banham challenges the suitability of this view to a city as inflected by automobility as Los Angeles and proposes the motorway and the experience of driving as its most characteristic iconic forms.
Optimal scheduling of handoffs in cellular networks

The phenomenon of hard handoffs (as applicable to FDMA- and TDMA-based networks) as well as soft handoffs (as applicable to DS/CDMA-based networks) is formulated as stochastic optimization problems. The signals received by a mobile user are treated as stochastic processes with associated rewards, which are functions of some measurable characteristics of the received signals, while the handoff is associated with a switching penalty. This formulation captures the trade-offs involved in handoffs in a flexible manner and captures many facets of popular cellular communication systems in use currently. Using dynamic programming, necessary and sufficient conditions for determining the optimal base station(s) the mobile should be associated with during each decision epoch are derived. For the cases where the above-mentioned necessary and sufficient conditions fail to determine an optimal decision, "limited lookahead" arguments are used for determining handoff decisions. The decisions are taken in a decentralized manner, which makes its implementation easier compared to centralized algorithms. Simulation results show that for the hard handoffs, performance gain by the proposed algorithm over the simpler threshold algorithms proposed in the literature is small; however, for the case of soft handoffs, the proposed algorithm offers considerable improvement over the algorithm proposed in the IS-95 standard.
Optimized Message Passing Schedules for LDPC Decoding

The major drawback of the LDPC codes versus the turbo-codes is their comparative low convergence speed: 25-30 iterations vs. 8-10 iterations for turbo-codes. Recently, Hocevar showed by simulations that the convergence rate of the LDPC decoder can be accelerated by exploiting a `turbo-scheduling' applied on the bit-node messages (rows of the parity check matrix). In this paper, we show analytically that the convergence rate for this type of scheduling is about two times increased for most of the regular LDPC codes. Second we prove that `turbo-scheduling' applied on the rows of the parity check matrix is identical belief propagation algorithm as standard message passing algorithm. Furthermore, we propose two new message passing schedules: 1) a turbo-scheduling is applied on the check-node messages (columns of the parity check matrix); and 2) a hybrid version of both previous schedules where the turbo-effect is applied on both check-nodes and bit-nodes. Frame error rate simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed schedules
Genetic Background Influences Cataractogenesis, but Not Lens Growth Deficiency, in Cx50-Knockout Mice

RESULTS. The growth deficiency persisted, regardless of genetic background, but genetic modifiers that differentially altered the solubility of crystallin proteins influenced the severity of cataracts. Expression levels of Cx46 were similar in all animals, regardless of genetic background, indicating that the differences were not due to a compensatory upregulation of Cx46. CONCLUSIONS. Taken together, these data indicate that the two components of the Cx50 phenotype are independent of each other and that cataractogenesis is under the influence of an unidentified genetic modifier. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2003;44:2669 ‐2674) DOI:10.1167/iovs.02-1311
BASICS, ACT, mindfulness, and BMI: Effective evidence-based practices that treat collegiate high-risk drinking

ABSTRACTThis literature review focuses on the use of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness, and Brief Motivational Interventions (BMI) during individual evidence-based therapeutic interventions with college students engaging in high-risk drinking. A review of family history, drinking motives, and the collegiate environment is also examined for empirical and theoretical etiology of college student alcohol abuse.
A localized adaptive MTD processor

The problem of achieving the optimum moving target indicator (MTI) detection performance in strong clutter of unknown spectrum when the set of data available to the estimation of clutter statistics is small due to a severely nonhomogeneous environment is studied. A new adaptive implementation, called the Doppler domain localized generalized likelihood ratio processor (DDL-GLR), is proposed, and its detection performance is studied in detail. It is shown that the DDL-GLR is a data-efficient implementation of the high-order optimum detector and has several advantages of practical importance over the adaptive processors. >
Subacute inhalation toxicity of aniline in rats: analysis of time-dependence and concentration-dependence of hematotoxic and splenic effects.

In this study, thirty male Wistar rats/group were exposed nose-only to mean analytical concentrations of 9.2, 32.4, 96.5, and 274.9 mg aniline/m 3 using an exposure regimen of 6 h/day, 5 days/week for 2 weeks (days 0–11), followed by a 2-week postexposure period (up to day 28). Serial sacrifices for specialized examinations were performed on days 0, 4, 11, 14, and 28. Clinical signs of toxicity, body weights, hematology, and clinical chemistry tests, including total iron in liver and spleen, splenic lipid peroxidation, organ weights, gross and histological changes in target organs were recorded. No mortality was observed during the study. Rats exposed to 96.5 mg/m 3 and above displayed cyanosis, with no apparent progression during the exposure period. The predominant manifestation of toxicity was methemoglobin formation and associated erythrocytotoxicity. The changes observed included anemia, red blood cell morphological alterations (e.g., Heinz bodies), decreased hemoglobin and hematocrit, reticulocytosis, and effects on the spleen (splenomegaly, hemosiderin accumulation, and increased hematopoietic cell proliferation), which gained significance at 96.5 and 274.9 mg/m 3 . With regard to increased splenic extramedullary hematopoiesis, borderline effects occurred at 32.4 mg/m 3 . The total content of iron in spleen homogenates increased in a concentration-dependent and time-dependent manner with increasing duration of exposure. The maximum accumulation of iron in the liver and spleen exceeded the respective control levels by 60% and 500%, respectively. Splenic lipid peroxidation and total iron were highly correlated (r 2 = 0.93) toward the end of the exposure period. A hepatic hemosiderosis was observed at 274.9 mg/m 3 . Thus, in regard to erythrocytotoxicity and associated increased splenic sequestration of erythrocytes, iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation 32.4 mg/m 3 constitutes the noobserved-adverse-effect concentration (NOAEC). However, spleens of the 32.4 mg/m 3 exposure group exhibited a minimal increase in extramedullary hematopoiesis. Exposure to 9.2 mg/ m 3 was not associated with any significant effect.
Extraction of momentum flux of monochromatic gravity waves using spectroscopic imaging

Atmospheric gravity waves play a significant role in the dynamics and thermal balance of the upper atmosphere. The vertical fluxes of horizontal momentum characterizing the cross-correlation between the wave-induced vertical wind perturbations and the associated horizontal wind have proved to be difficult to measure. In this paper, we develop a novel technique for calculating momentum fluxes of monochromatic wave components from spectroscopic imaging and meteor radar wind measurement. Our approach uses the two-dimensional (2-D) cross-periodogram of two consecutive Doppler-shifted time differenced (TD) images to identify a dominant wave component and extract the wave parameters. Besides estimating the average perturbation of the dominant wave in the whole field of view (FOV), 2-D short-time Fourier transform is applied to the TD images to obtain the strongest perturbation of this wave in a portion of the FOV. With the wave parameters acquired, we calculate the momentum flux of the dominant wave component. The alternation of the direction and strength of dominant waves can be tracked for each clear night. Nightly averages provide information for investigating seasonal and geographical variation in momentum flux of gravity waves.
Effects of Zinc and Divalent Cation Chelators on ATP Hydrolysis and Ca Deposition by Rachitic Rat Matrix Vesicles

Elsewhere it has been shown that zinc is highly concentrated in the hypertrophic zone of epiphyseal cartilage. It has also been shown that zinc deficiency can result in abnormal bone development, suggesting a direct or indirect role for zinc in calcification. Because matrix vesicles have been implicated in the initiation of calcification, we tested the effect of zinc and its chelators, such as EGTA and phenanthroline, on ATP-dependent Ca uptake by rat matrix vesicles. EGTA pretreatment of matrix vesicles inhibited ATP-dependent Ca uptake by 50%. To see if zinc depletion by EGTA pretreatment is responsible for decreased levels of ATP-dependent Ca uptake, ZnCl2 concentrations, ranging from 5 to 100 mumol/L, were tested for their ability to restore Ca deposition. Zinc exerted a striking enhancing effect on ATP-dependent Ca uptake of both untreated and EGTA-pretreated matrix vesicles in a dose-dependent manner. A 50% activation occurs at about 16 mumol/L Zn2+. At 63 mumol/L Zn2+, there was a fourfold increase in Ca-depositing activity. Addition of an excess amount of phenanthroline relative to Zn2+ concentration to the reaction mixture failed to abolish activation of Ca uptake by Zn2+, indicating that the putative chelator-Zn2+ complex formation did not prevent activation. The observed partial inhibition of ATPase and the activation of ATP-dependent Ca uptake of Zn2+ suggest that, in addition to ATPase, some other Ca and/or Pi uptake activators responsive to Zn2+ treatment are present in mammalian matrix vesicles.
Relationship of Sonographer Credentialing to Intersocietal Accreditation Commission Echocardiography Case Study Image Quality

Background Cardiac sonographer credentialing may guarantee baseline content knowledge but does not directly evaluate clinical scanning skills. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of sonographer credentialing status to clinical competence, as defined by image quality of case studies submitted for Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) adult transthoracic echocardiography laboratory accreditation. Methods In this study, data were retrieved retrospectively from the IAC Echocardiography application database for all adult echocardiography laboratories applying online from August 10, 2011, to December 12, 2013. Aortic stenosis (AS) and left ventricular (LV) regional dysfunction case studies were analyzed separately. Sonographers submitting case studies were coded as credentialed or noncredentialed. An image quality score (IQS) was calculated for each case study, reflecting review scores for examination components directly related to image quality and acquisition. The group of sonographers was divided into quartiles on the basis of annual procedure volume; mean case study IQS was compared between credentialed and noncredentialed sonographers. Results For all four quartiles of the LV cases and the lowest three volume quartiles of the AS cases, mean IQS was significantly higher for credentialed than noncredentialed sonographers. Mean IQS in the highest volume quartile for AS studies was not significantly different by credential status. Conclusions In the setting of IAC Echocardiography accreditation, credentialed sonographers achieved higher mean IQSs than noncredentialed sonographers in seven of eight comparisons. However, further research will be required to expand the scope of this inference beyond AS and LV regional dysfunction cases submitted for IAC adult transthoracic echocardiography laboratory accreditation.
Prevalence and distribution of non-AIDS causes of death among HIV-infected individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The advent of antiretroviral therapy has significantly improved AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. Yet, among people living with HIV, deaths due to non-AIDS-defining illnesses have been on the rise. The objective of this study was to provide information about the global prevalence and distribution of non-AIDS causes of death in the last ten years among people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy, by income levels of countries. We used broad search terms in Google Scholar, PubMed, and EMBASE to identify all studies that investigated the cause of death among people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy, published after January 1, 2005. References were also identified from review articles and reference lists. Inclusion criteria were English language, the study's end date was after 2005, all patients were HIV-positive, at least two-thirds of the patients were receiving antiretroviral therapy, at least one patient died of non-AIDS causes of death. Titles, abstracts, and articles were reviewed by at least two independent readers. Of 2951 titles identified in our original search, 151 articles were selected for further screening. We identified 19 studies meeting our full criteria, with patients from 55 different nations. Pooled non-AIDS causes of death prevalence estimates in high-income countries were 53.0% (95% confidence interval, 43.6-62.3), in developing countries 34.0% (95% confidence interval, 20.3-49.1), and in sub-Saharan countries 18.5% (95% confidence interval, 13.8-23.7). Statistically significant variation was noted within and between categories. Our findings show that a significant number of people living with HIV across the world die from cardiovascular disease, non-AIDS malignancies, and liver disease. There is a global need for further scrutiny in all regions to improve preventive measures and early detection according to distinct causes of death patterns.
When Talk Ain't Cheap - Costly Information Transmission in Continuous Time

This paper formulates a continuous time information transmission model in which an altruistic sender privately observes a stochastic state variable, and incurs a communication cost when she sends a message. We study three issues associated with this costly information transmission: 1) The sender's optimal strategy involves sending discrete messages; 2) With pre-fixed ranking intervals, the sender optimally sets a tolerance band around the cutoff point of each interval; 3) The optimal announcement frequency is characterized. We also propose to use this model to study the tradeoff between rating accuracy and stability.
How to measure endoscopy unit performance: some metrics for dummies

As the diagnostic and therapeutic indications for endoscopy continue to expand, the demand for these procedures has steadily increased. This demand has been compounded by increases in the number of patients with access to care as well as an aging and enlarging population. These developments have led to significant challenges regarding endoscopic access, often due to limitations in physical space or personnel. Despite the importance of optimizing endoscopy unit efficiency, however, limited studies have been conducted in this area. Among the many challenges faced in performing such research is what variables or metrics to measure, exactly how to measure them, and how many to study. Some background regarding metrics may facilitate an understanding of their role in assessing efficiency and quality.
Structural health monitoring system of Ironton-Russell bridge during substructure construction

Monitoring a complex structure has gained popularity worldwide to ensure safety and longevity of the structure. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems have been employed for highway bridges to increase the effectiveness of their in-service inspection, to help measure its degradation or damage, and hence, to ensure it’s safe and reliable operation. SHM may also be employed during the construction of a structure in order to ensure the safety and performance of the construction process. Monitoring during construction can also help designers compare the actual behavior of a structure with design models especially because of increasing development of accelerated or otherwise novel construction techniques. Analyzing the behavior of a structure at different stages of construction may also help later define some of the abnormal responses during the lifespan of a bridge. This paper overviews the SHM system of the Ironton-Russell Bridge, Ohio at the construction stage of its substructure. The stages involved in monitoring such as instrumentation of sensors, acquiring data from the sensors, data processing that includes a warning system, static analysis of the data collected and website are detailed in this paper. In addition to this, the effect of construction events as observed by the sensor data for the substructure is analyzed in detail thus validating the capability of the monitoring system. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Effects of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on experimental animals.

SummaryParenterally-administered 2,4-D produces temporary myotonia in mice, rats, rabbits and dogs following a single injection. Repeated injections have failed to elicit either a characteristic chronic syndrome or a striking histologic picture; nor have they altered the process of reproduction and development in the dose ranges tested. The slight retardation of the growth rate of young mice on large daily doses is probably a manifestation of reduced food intake. Neoplastic growth has not been inhibited.The author is grateful to Dr. Joseph C. Aub for the suggestion of this problem and for encouragement and advice. The technical help of Amory Glenn is also greatly appreciated.
Shooting on the Street: Measuring the Spatial Influence of Physical Features on Gun Violence in a Bounded Street Network

Accurately estimate the strength and extent (distance) of the spatial influence of physical features on gun violence using a street network measurement strategy. Treating disaggregated point locations as the unit-of-analysis, the spatial influence of various physical features of place on all 2012 incidents of gun violence in Newark, NJ is estimated along a street network plane rather than a planar plane, and using a continuous operationalization of street network distances as opposed to Euclidean or Grid distances. Network-based computation methods clarify the path distances over which physical features of place, or shooting attractors, exert a significant spatial influence on gun violence. Segmented regression models estimate feature-specific distance decay patterns by demarcating the exact network distances at which the strength of attraction weakens or dissipates entirely. Findings show that liquor stores, grocery stores, bus stops, and residential foreclosures are shooting attractors in Newark, NJ. The magnitude of spatial influence is strongest in the immediate vicinity of each physical feature, and declines precipitously thereafter; yet the nature and strength of the decay varies by feature. A comparison of results analyzed on a street network plane to those based on an unbounded plane illustrates the potential biases in traditional approaches. Determining whether and how strongly physical features operate as crime attractors requires constraining the analyses to the street network plane and accurately measuring continuous distances along the street network. The methodology articulated in this study can be used to more precisely estimate the spatial influence and distance decay of various physical features of place on crime density.
Impact of obesity on hospital complications and mortality in hospitalized patients with hyperglycemia and diabetes.

Objective Obesity is associated with increased risk of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular mortality. Several studies have reported increased length of hospital stay and complications; however, there are also reports of obesity having a protective effect on health, a phenomenon coined the ‘obesity paradox’. We aimed to investigate the impact of overweight and obesity on complications and mortality in hospitalized patients with hyperglycemia and diabetes. Research design and methods This retrospective analysis was conducted on 29 623 patients admitted to two academic hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia, between January 2012 and December 2013. Patients were subdivided by body mass index into underweight (body mass index 30 kg/m2). Hyperglycemia was defined as a blood glucose >10 mmol/L during hospitalization. Hospital complications included a composite of pneumonia, acute myocardial infarction, respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, bacteremia and death. Results A total of 4.2% were underweight, 29.6% had normal weight, 30.2% were overweight, and 36% were obese. 27.2% of patients had diabetes and 72.8% did not have diabetes (of which 75% had hyperglycemia and 25% had normoglycemia during hospitalization). A J-shaped curve with higher rates of complications was observed in underweight patients in all glycemic groups; however, there was no significant difference in the rate of complications among normal weight, overweight, or obese patients, with and without diabetes or hyperglycemia. Conclusions Underweight is an independent predictor for hospital complications. In contrast, increasing body mass index was not associated with higher morbidity or mortality, regardless of glycemic status. There was no evidence of an obesity paradox among inpatients with diabetes and hyperglycemia.
Rethinking the Social Responsibilities of Engineers as a Form of Accountability

Although there is broad consensus that engineers have social responsibilities, what is owed in the name of social responsibility is not well understood. After briefly reviewing past attempts to understand the social responsibilities of engineers, an account that treats these responsibilities as a form of accountability is sketched. Accountability involves a relationship between an actor and a forum, a shared sense of obligation to explain and justify behavior, and shared norms regarding what needs to be explained, what counts as an adequate explanation, and what consequences might follow. Framing the social responsibilities of engineers as accountability brings to light the multiple actors involved and the activities by which social responsibilities are constituted. Among other things, the account locates the social responsibilities of engineers in the activities of engineering professional organizations, especially when they issue reports on engineering failures. The account also points to the importance of whistleblowing. The idea that social responsibility falls to individual engineers regardless of context or that social responsibility is a decontextualized moral matter is eschewed in favor of understanding engineers’ social responsibilities as constituted through social practices.
Programmed Cell Death in Plants During Development and Stress Responses

Compelling evidence indicates that plants possess an intrinsic program for cell suicide. Though enormous progress has been made in understanding the genetic and biochemical basis of programmed cell death in animal cells, very little is known about similar processes in plants. However, there seems to be a continuum between different forms of cell death in plants, with apoptotic-like death at one extreme, necrosis at the other extreme and autolysis in between. Elucidation of the relevant cell death mechanisms is important to understanding plant development, environmental stress responses, as well as plant-pathogen interactions. Knowledge about cell life/death pathways in plants might be exploited for engineering crop resistance against common plant pathogens, extending post-harvest shelf-life of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and for engineering hardier strains of plants that survive adverse climates. The key now is to identify plant counterparts that function similarly to animal regulators of cell life and death.
Does College Level the Playing Field

Whether the topic is responding to poverty and inequality or expanding access to opportunity and the American Dream, college is always the central recommendation. Yet research found that a college degree predicted rising levels of family wealth for Whites and Asians but declining levels of wealth for Black and Hispanics. The commissioned papers and discussion here are aimed at understanding the underlying explanations of this troubling finding.
Phylogeny and reclassification of Cryptini (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Cryptinae), with implications for ichneumonid higher-level classification

The first comprehensive phylogenetic study of the wasp tribe Cryptini (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Cryptinae) is presented, based on 109 morphological characters and molecular data from seven loci. The dataset includes 370 species, 308 of which are from Cryptini, covering 182 of its 250 genera. Results from parsimony and likelihood analyses are generally congruent. The topology has several implications for ichneumonid higher-level classification. Previous definitions of the Ichneumoniformes clade are supported, though newly including the Microleptinae. The cryptine subtribe Ateleutina is consistently recovered outside of the Cryptini clade and should be treated as a separate subfamily, Ateleutinae stat.n. The tribe Phygadeuontini is shown to be polyphyletic: while most of the sampled taxa were recovered in a single clade, many of its members are more closely related to the Ichneumoninae, Ateleutinae or Cryptini. Pending a more detailed study, the group should be treated as a separate subfamily, Phygadeuontinae stat. rev. The former Hemigastrini are recovered as largely monophyletic but with important exceptions. Hemigaster Brulle is recovered as part of the Phygadeuontini and is transferred to that group. Echthrus Gravenhorst is consistently recovered as part of Cryptini, rendering Aptesini as the correct name for the tribe. The subfamily Cryptinae should be restricted to the tribes Aptesini and Cryptini. Within Cryptini, the results show little support for the current subtribal classification, with most subtribes recovered as polyphyletic. A number of relatively stable clades are identified and discussed, but the relationships among them are weakly supported. Most of these clades are morphologically heterogeneous and building a subtribal classification based on them would be ineffectual; they are therefore treated under the informal designation of genus groups. The results highlight the ubiquity of morphological homoplasy in Cryptini, and provide a framework from which to address further systematic and evolutionary questions on this hyperdiverse group of parasitic wasps.
Stochastic modeling of fatigue crack growth

A new lognormal fatigue crack propagation model has been presented in which a two-dimensional state vector has been employed to introduce experimentally observed history dependence of fatigue crack growth. Markov process theory has been used to formulate a well-posed boundary-value problem for the statistics of the random time to reach a critical crack size conditional on the initial flaw size. A robust Petrov-Galerkin finite element method was then utilized for the solution of the boundary value problem. In the examples, the commonly used power-law crack propagation model is employed for simplicity, however, more complex models could have been employed with little additional effort. Finally, excellent correlation with the experimental results was found.
Changes in psychosocial health during a 7-week paediatric weight management program.

Summary Youth with obesity are at increased risk of psychosocial symptoms; however, little is known regarding the impact of paediatric weight management (PWM) on psychosocial health. The aim of the study was to investigate changes in psychosocial health among children who completed a 7-week PWM program. Participants aged 5 to 16 years with a BMI ≥85th percentile completed a 7-week, family-centred PWM program focused on health behaviour education, exercise and mentored goal setting. The Paediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) was assessed via parent report to evaluate psychosocial symptoms before and after the program, and subscales were calculated for internalizing (PSC-IS), externalizing (PSC-ES) and attention symptoms (PSC-AS). At baseline, positive screen rates for psychosocial symptoms among the 317 patients included 16.1% for PSC, 14.1% for PSC-ES, 18.6% for PSC-IS and 12.3% for PSC-AS. Among program completers, total PSC scores improved in those with normal (p = 0.010) and elevated p < .001 psychosocial symptoms at baseline. Youth with positive screens for elevated PSC subscales improved their subscale scores, on average, and the majority reduced scores to below elevated levels for PSC (54.2%), PSC-ES (64.7%), PSC-IS (78.3%) and PSC-AS (64.7%). Improvements in PSC remained significant after adjusting for BMI changes during treatment, but BMI differed across PSC-change groups, including BMI increases among participants with PSC deterioration (0.33 ± 0.64 kg m−2) (P = 0.035) and BMI decreases among patients with no reliable PSC change (−0.26 ± 1.04 kg m−2) (P = 0.038) or reliable PSC improvement (−0.22 ± 0.74 kg m−2) (P = 0.025). Youth with positive screens for psychosocial symptoms can improve emotional and behavioural functioning during short-term PWM. Future research is needed to elucidate mechanisms and long-term outcome durability.
The Primary Role of Modular Equations

Recent developments indicate that the modular equation, historically the end product of modular function theory, should be considered as a starting point. For instance, while a Fourier series for a modular function has coefficients which determine a modular equation, conversely, modular functions are also determined by a modular equation. It is therefore of interest to ask what are the a priori determining features of a modular equation. Some features are revealed for the classic (one variable) case relating to normality of the parametrization. Other features are revealed for the Hilbert (two variable) case relating to the diagonals. A complete answer is still elusive, but a reasonable goal would be to find singular moduli directly (without modular invariants).
A data heterogeneity modeling and quantification approach for field pre-assessment of chloride-induced corrosion in aging infrastructures

Abstract Aging infrastructures (e.g. roads, bridges and water mains) in America are deteriorating and becoming structurally deficient and their reliability and safety issues become matters of great concern. For the reinforced concrete infrastructures in marine environments, one of the leading failure causes is chloride-induced corrosion, which consists of a complex electrochemical process of chloride ingress. Inspecting chloride ingress conditions involves the costly and time-consuming procedures of extracting cores and performing laboratory analysis. Based on the limited resources, it will be desirable to develop pre-assessment approaches in evaluating chloride-induced corrosion conditions before extracting cores. Existing approaches mainly rely on engineering experience and/or visual inspection, which may be subjective or subject to visual inspection error. Existing approaches in analyzing trajectory profiles are often restricted by the oversimplification of homogeneity assumption and failed to address the potential heterogeneity among profiles data. This paper proposes an evidence-based analytical approach for chloride ingress pre-assessment by comprehensively exploring, quantifying and analyzing the historical heterogeneous chloride ingress profiles data and associating them with inexpensive external factors information, which are often readily available from concrete suppliers and bridge inventory databases. Given inexpensive information of a location to be inspected, the propose work can provide rich pre-assessment results, which will facilitate engineers to prioritize their resources and schedules and first inspect those most at-risk locations. A real-world case study is provided to illustrate the proposed work and demonstrate its validity and performance.
Status of Nearctic subgenera of Microscydmus revisited (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae).

Nearctic Microscydmus Saulcy & Croissandeau includes species placed in Microscydmus s. str. and subgenera Delius Casey and Neladius Casey. The two latter taxa were originally described as genera, and all Nearctic species of Microscydmus s. str. were placed in a genus Opresus Casey, currently treated as a junior synonym. Detailed examination of the type species of Opresus , Delius and Neladius leads to the following conclusions and changes: Opresus is removed from synonymy with Microscydmus s. str. and placed as a subgenus of Microscydmus ; Delius and Neladius are restored as genera. The two latter taxa belong to a group of glandulariine genera characterized by the submentum with lateral sutures, whereas Microscydmus does not have such structures. The type species of the studied genera and subgenera are redescribed: Microscydmus ( Opresus ) misellus (LeConte), comb. rest., Delius robustulus Casey, comb. rest., and Neladius tenuis Casey, comb. rest. Lectotypes are designated for Scydmaenus misellus LeConte, Delius robustulus Casey and Neladius tenuis Casey.
Dedicated Operating Room Teams and Clinical Outcomes in an Enhanced Recovery after Surgery Pathway for Colorectal Surgery

Background Our aim was to determine whether the establishment of a dedicated operating room team leads to improved process measure compliance and clinical outcomes in an Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program. Enhanced Recovery after Surgery programs involve the application of bundled best practices to improve the value of perioperative care. Successful implementation and sustainment of ERAS programs has been linked to compliance with protocol elements. Study Design Development of dedicated teams of anesthesia providers was a component of ERAS implementation. Intraoperative provider team networks (surgeons, anesthesiologists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists) were developed for all cases before and after implementation of colorectal ERAS. Four measures of centrality were analyzed in each network based on case assignments, and these measures were correlated with both rates of process measure compliance and clinical outcomes. Results Enhanced Recovery after Surgery provider teams led to a decrease in the closeness of anesthesiologists (p = 0.04) and significant increase in the clustering coefficient of certified registered nurse anesthetists (p = 0.005) compared with the pre-ERAS network. There was no significant change in centrality among surgeons (p = NS for all measures). Enhanced Recovery after Surgery designation among anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists—whereby individual providers received an in-service on protocol elements and received compliance data was strongly associated with high compliance (>0.6 of measures; p Conclusions Dedicated operating room teams led to increased centrality among anesthesia providers, which in turn not only increased compliance, but also improved several clinical outcomes.
Guided Policy Exploration for Markov Decision Processes Using an Uncertainty-Based Value-of-Information Criterion

Reinforcement learning in environments with many action–state pairs is challenging. The issue is the number of episodes needed to thoroughly search the policy space. Most conventional heuristics address this search problem in a stochastic manner. This can leave large portions of the policy space unvisited during the early training stages. In this paper, we propose an uncertainty-based, information-theoretic approach for performing guided stochastic searches that more effectively cover the policy space. Our approach is based on the value of information, a criterion that provides the optimal tradeoff between expected costs and the granularity of the search process. The value of information yields a stochastic routine for choosing actions during learning that can explore the policy space in a coarse to fine manner. We augment this criterion with a state-transition uncertainty factor, which guides the search process into previously unexplored regions of the policy space. We evaluate the uncertainty-based value-of-information policies on the games Centipede and Crossy Road . Our results indicate that our approach yields better performing policies in fewer episodes than stochastic-based exploration strategies. We show that the training rate for our approach can be further improved by using the policy cross entropy to guide our criterion’s hyperparameter selection.
An electromyography study of muscular endurance during the posterior shoulder endurance test

The primary purpose was to determine if there is a difference between the median frequency slopes of 5 posterior shoulder muscles during the initial portion of the Posterior Shoulder Endurance Test (PSET) at the 90° and 135° shoulder abduction positions. Fifty-five healthy volunteers (31 females) participated. The median frequency of the posterior deltoid (PD), upper trapezius (UT), middle trapezius (MT), lower trapezius (LT), and infraspinatus (INF) was measured during the PSET at 90° and 135° of shoulder abduction. External torque of 13 ± 1 Nm was used for females and 21 ± 1 Nm for males. A fixed effect multi-variable regression model was used to investigate the median frequency slopes. Males and females were analyzed separately. Median frequency slopes demonstrated fatigue in all 5 of the muscles. The PD fatigued greater than the UT in males (p = 0.0215) and greater than the LT in females (p = 0.008). The time to task failure (TTF) was greater at 90° than 135° for females and males (p = 0.016; p = 0.0193) respectively. The PSET causes fatigue in all of the muscles that were tested, with the PD fatiguing at a greater rate compared to one muscle for each sex. This investigation supports using TTF as a clinical measure of shoulder girdle endurance at 90° shoulder abduction.
Variational Principles for Periodic Solutions of Autonomous Ordinary Differential Equations

In many chemical and biological oscillators, one would like to find approximations to the observed periodic solutions. Usually this is done by trying to show that the initial value problem for the differential equation has a stable limit cycle and trying to compute the resulting solution. When the equation is an autonomous ordinary differential equation in more than two variables, this is often very difficult.
Analysis of Nuclear Reconstitution, Nuclear Envelope Assembly, and Nuclear Pore Assembly Using Xenopus In Vitro Assays

The large and complex eukaryotic nucleus is the arbiter of DNA replication, RNA transcription, splicing, and ribosome assembly. With the advent of in vitro nuclear reconstitution extracts derived from Xenopus eggs in the 1980s, it became possible to assemble multiple nuclei in vitro around added DNA or chromatin substrates. Such reconstituted nuclei contain a nuclear lamina, double nuclear membranes, nuclear pores, and are competent for DNA replication and nuclear import. In vitro nuclear reconstitution has allowed the assembly of “wild-type” and “biochemically mutant” nuclei in which the impact of individual components can be assessed. Here, we describe protocols for preparation of the nuclear reconstitution extract, nuclear reconstitution in vitro, assessment of nuclear membrane integrity, and a more specialized assay for nuclear pore assembly into preformed pore-free nuclear intermediates.
E-Unification via Transformations

We now show how to extend the set of transformations ST given in Section §3.3 to perform E-unification of a system under some arbitrary E, and develop the non-deterministic completeness of the method using a new formalism for ‘proofs’ that two terms are E-unifiable, known as equational proof trees. The new set of transformations is fully general in that it is capable of enumerating a CSU E (S) for any system S and set of equations E, and we intend this chapter to provide a paradigm for the abstract study of complete methods for general E-unification. The set of E-unifiers found by this method is highly redundant, however, and in the next chapter, we show how to restrict this method to avoid rewriting at variable occurrences while still retaining the ability to enumerate a CSU E (S).
Rethinking the Impact of Religion on Business Values: Understanding Its Reemergence and Measuring Its Manifestations

Many in Western business no longer ask “if” religious values1 have an impact on employees and companies that comprise the modern economy. Rather, the question for many today is “in what ways” and “how does one measure the impact of religious values on organizations?” As a result, American business scholars and practitioners have developed a rich and growing strand of literature trying to understand the relationship between the variables of religious values and business performance. It is increasingly also a question of global interest, witness this conference in Beijing hosted by the Center for International Business Ethics and Caux Round Table, and many other academic and practitioner gatherings throughout other parts of the globe.
SEFIRE: A Sequential Feedback Interactive Retrieval System

The SEFIRE system incorporates pattern recognition principles in retrieving documents from hierarchically structured subgroups called category files, which are organized according to information contents and data relations. Such techniques reduce the overall search effort by efficiently eliminating at each level of the hierarchy those categories known to be unrelated to a user’s request. The hierarchical category files coupled with efficient search strategies based upon pattern recognition principles increase the overall effectiveness of interactive retrieval. This paper discusses the design principles and presents some results from our pilot study.
Placement Decision Dilemmas and Solutions

This paper presents the private agency's view of the service-delivery dilemma of funding versus placement decisions. It focuses on three program areas to highlight this dilemma: 1) Social Security ...
Investigating Southern Minority Nationalities

This chapter discusses the investigation of society and history of southwest Chinese minority nationalities in the mid-1950s. It argues that the officially sponsored investigation of non-Han minorities and writing of their history should receive more serious scholarly attention, rather than being dismissed as mere propaganda. Chinese social scientists trained in the West combined their earlier theoretical assumptions and methodologies with the Marxist theory of five stages of social development, emphasizing economic relations, property rights, and class struggle. These investigation reports accumulated a large quantity of firsthand primary sources, including pre-1949 communal documents and folk songs, and they still play an indispensable role in understanding the history, social life, and belief system of southwest minority nationalities. The investigation teams utilized the historical source materials and ethnographical data to write a standardized “brief history” for each state-recognized minority nationality centering on class struggle, revolution, and national integration. This process of knowledge production was a mix of empirical research and ideological propaganda.
Flavokawain B targets protein neddylation for enhancing the anti-prostate cancer effect of Bortezomib via Skp2 degradation.

Flavokawain B (FKB) has been identified from kava root extracts as a potent apoptosis inducer for inhibiting the growth of various cancer cell lines, including prostate cancer. However, the molecular targets of FKB in prostate cancer cells remain unknown. An in vitro NEDD8 Initiation Conjugation Assay was used to evaluate the neddylation inhibitory activity of FKB. Molecular docking and a cellular thermal shift assay were performed to assess the direct interaction between FKB and the NEDD8 activating enzyme (NAE) complex. Protein neddylation, ubiqutination, stability and expression in cells were assessed with immunoprecipitation and Western blotting methods using specific antibodies. Deletion and site specific mutants and siRNAs were used to evaluate deep mechanisms by which FKB induces Skp2 degradation. Cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction were measured by MTT, ELISA and Western blotting methods. FKB inhibits NEDD8 conjugations to both Cullin1 and Ubc12 in prostate cancer cell lines and Ubc12 neddylation in an in vitro assay. Molecular docking study and a cellular thermal shift assay reveal that FKB interacts with the regulatory subunit (i.e. APP-BP1) of the NAE. In addition, FKB causes Skp2 degradation in an ubiquitin and proteasome dependent manner. Overexpression of dominant-negative cullin1 (1–452), K720R mutant (the neddylation site) Cullin1 or the F-box deleted Skp2 that losses its binding to the Skp1/Cullin1 complex causes the resistance to FKB-induced Skp2 degradation, whereas siRNA knock-down of Cdh1, a known E3 ligase of Skp2 for targeted degradation, didn’t attenuate the effect of FKB on Skp2 degradation. These results suggest that degradation of Skp2 by FKB is involved in a functional Cullin1. Furthermore, proteasome inhibitors Bortezomib and MG132 transcriptionally down-regulate the expression of Skp2, and their combinations with FKB result in enhanced inhibitory effects on the growth of prostate cancer cell lines via synergistic down-regulation of Skp2 and up-regulation of p27/Kip1 and p21/WAF1 protein expression. FKB also selectively inhibits the growth of RB deficient cells with high expression of Skp2. These findings provide a rationale for further investigating combination of FKB and Bortezomib for treatment of RB deficient, castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Parsnip phytobezoar causing small bowel obstruction

Abstract Pediatric phytobezoars are a rare occurrence in the pediatric population and infrequently result in the need for surgical intervention. We report a rare case of an infant presenting with a small bowel obstruction that, on operative exploration revealed an obstructing parsnip phytobezoar. In addition, we provide a review of the literature for gastrointestinal bezoars causing bowel obstruction.
Branched/linear selectivity in palladium-catalyzed allyl-allyl cross-couplings: the role of ligands

While Pd-catalyzed allyl-allyl cross-couplings in the presence of small-bite-angle bidentate ligands reliably furnish the branched regioisomer with high levels of selectivity, cross-couplings in the presence of large-bite-angle bidentate ligands give varying, often unpredictable, levels of selectivity. In a combined computational and experimental study, we probe the underlying features that govern the regioselectivity in these metal-catalyzed cross-couplings.