cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SCRUTINIZING THE BATTLE OF DORKING : THE ROYAL UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION AND THE MID-VICTORIAN INVASION CONTROVERSY

The first major example in what would become a long line of popular pre-1914 British invasion-scare narratives was the inflammatory 1871 tale The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer . Through its vivid depiction of a German invasion and conquest of Britain, this story was designed to serve as a warning to Britons about the necessity of securing the nation's defenses. The dramatic impact of this work on the Victorian reading public and the political culture of the era has been treated by a number of scholars, most notably I. F. Clarke. Yet little attention has been accorded to the reaction it elicited from the professional peers of its author, Lieutenant-Colonel George Chesney. This interdisciplinary essay – which joins the study of literature with military history and politics – seeks to shed new light on the circumstances surrounding this extraordinarily influential tale, as well as on the genre it popularized, in large part by examining its reception by British officers. It begins by describing the tale's prehistory and emergence into widespread popularity and then evaluates the work's reception within armed forces circles. Some of the most trenchant assessments of this literary text, it turns out, were delivered within the austere confines of the Royal United Service Institution, a body whose meetings functioned as the crucible in which British military and naval judgments were forged.
Performance analysis of maximum intensity projection algorithm for display of MRA images

The maximum intensity projection (MIP) is a popularly used algorithm for display of MRA images, but its performance has not been rigorously analyzed before. In this paper, four measures are proposed for the performance of the MIP algorithm and the quality of images projected from three-dimensional (3-D) data, which are vessel voxel projection probability, vessel detection probability, false vessel probability, and vessel-tissue contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). As side products, vessel-missing probability, vessel receiver operating characteristics (ROC's), and mean number of false vessels are also studied. Based on the assumptions that the intensities of vessel, tissue, and noise along a projection path are independent Gaussian, these measures are derived and obtained all in closed forms. All the measures are functions of explicit parameters: vessel-to-tissue noise ratio (VTNR) and CNR of 3 D data prior to the MIP, vessel diameter, and projection length. It is shown that the MIP algorithm increases the CNR of large vessels whose CNR prior to the MIP is high and whose diameters are large. The increase in CNR increases with projection path length. On the other hand, all the proposed measures indicate that the small vessels that have low CNR prior to the MIP and small diameters suffer from the MIP. The performance gets worse as projection path length increases. All measures demonstrate a better performance when the vessel diameter is larger. Other properties and possible applications of the derived measures are also discussed.
Characterization of the LH response to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) in isolated and multiple tropic hormone deficiencies.

ABSTRACT Synthetic LH-RH was infused in 2 siblings with multiple tropic hormone deficiencies and dwarfism and another patient with monotropic deficiency of hGH. A minimal response in plasma LH levels was observed in the patients with idiopathic hypopituitarism. The other individual with isolated hGH deficiency, however, showed an abrupt increase in plasma LH level with a characteristic time-course (peak at 30 min after the injection). When LH-RH was given by intravenous drip over a period of 8 hr, followed by an injection of 200 μg of synthetic LH-RH, plasma LH in the patients with multiple deficiencies rose from a basal level of 6.9 mlU/ml to 10.8 mlU/ml (case one) and 2.5 mlU/ml to 8.3 mlU/ml (case two). The absence of a significant response after a single injection of LH-RH could be the result of chronic deprivation of LH-RH due to a hypothalamic lesion in these patients.
Molecular insights into the relationships and biogeography of West Indian anoline lizards

Abstract The realization that the present day positions of continents and island arcs are a result of continental drift led to the proposal that the extant West Indian fauna reflect an ancient (Cretaceous) land connection between the proto-Antilles and North and South America. Movements of the Antillean islands throughout the Cenozoic are hypothesized to have further fragmented the fauna present on the proto-Antilles when it separated from the mainland 70–80 million years ago. This proposed vicariant origin of the West Indian fauna challenged the previous theory that some or most of the fauna arrived in the Antilles by overwater dispersal from mainland soruces. The virtual absence of appropriate fossils in the West Indies has hampered testing these alternative hypotheses for the origin of the present day West Indian fauna. We present evidence from two types of molecular data, one providing indirect estimates of amino acid sequence divergence for the protein serum albumin, and the other direct DNA sequence information from a mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene. Our new data provide insights into the origin and relationships of two enigmatic lizard genera, Chamaeleolis and Chamaelinorops , and suggest they are recent derivatives within the genus Anolis . These data, along with molecular data presented elsewhere, strongly implicate an origin by overwater dispersal for most of the Antillean vertebrate fauna.
The Sophistical Attitude and the Invention of Rhetoric.

Traditionally, the Older Sophists were conceived as philosophical skeptics who rejected speculative inquiry to focus on rhetorical methods of being successful in practical life. More recently, this view has been complicated by studies revealing the Sophists to be a diverse group of intellectuals who practiced their art prior to the categorization of “rhetorike,” thereby rendering the very meaning of the general term “Sophist” far more problematic. Both perspectives conceal the common attitude that unites the Sophists as a group and is central to understanding their democratic ethos rooted in an experimental attitude that draws on the resources of speculative reason to serve the purpose of radical invention necessary for a democratization of the productive arts. Recovering the professionalism and experimentalism of the Sophists contributes to the democratic project of promoting the productive and collaborative arts—including rhetoric—that employ the resources of theoretical knowledge to inform collective p...
Structured test methodologies and test economics for multichip modules

Multichip modules (MCMs) use complex digital, analog, and mixed-signal chips on a single substrate from different vendors. To ensure quality of die and the functionality and performance of MCMs, extensive testing is required at all levels. This paper presents structured test methodologies for MCMs. The economics associated with these methodologies and their relative cost at the MCM level are also presented.
Translating Professional Potential Into Action

Summary Professional nurses today have an ever-expanding arena for professional practice and for contributing to the resolution of the health care delivery crisis in our nation. Such pressing issues as reducing health care costs, third party payment for nurses, an expanded nursing practice act, increasing primary health care by nurses, and generally increasing the quality of health care provided must be addressed. Nurses must continuously translate their professional potential into action to become more powerful as individuals and as a group. In 1979 many politicians have little awareness of the “nurse vote”; however, the “teacher vote” is one that is respected and courted. If the majority of the current registered nurses in the nation could coalesce into an identifiable interest group, the political impact could be exhilarating. However, individual nurses must grow into feeling powerful as individuals before they can actively and persistently work toward power as a group. If they feel powerless as individuals, they will quickly become disheartened when the power of the group is threatened. Each individual nurse should work to improve her own situation, and not passively wait the vicissitudes of life. Factors which serve to thwart her in this effort are professional ambivalence, dichotomized thinking, scapegoating, negative assumptions, and the rigid ruts-no risks syndrome. Factors which serve to enhance her in this effort are a clear personal and professional sense of identity, a high degree of critical thinking ability, assuming responsibility for one's own actions, intellectual re-fertilization, and being willing to be a risk-taker. As a philosopher once said, “we might feel some sympathy for the one who tried and failed, but only pity for the one who never even tried.”
Multivariate Analysis of Ambient Environmental Factors and Respiratory Effects

Relationships between respiratory health and environmental conditions (pollen, pollution and meteorology) are investigated in 204 subjects in four symptom groups in four geographical clusters in Tucson. Techniques used are principal components, factor and path analysis. Daily respiratory symptoms and peak expiratory flows were recorded during a three-year period. Ambient pollutants, meteorological conditions and pollen types were monitored in or near the clusters. Factor-based scales, which are climate and season specific, are developed for the environmental variables. Three pollutant/meteorological scales represent 'Summer', 'Winter', and 'Humidity'. Four pollen scales represent early and late spring, summer and fall pollen types. Relationships between environmental variables, respiratory symptoms and peak expiratory flow are analyzed with path diagrams, after accounting for age, sex, smoking habits and stove type. The different effects of the environment on asthmatics, allergics and airways obstructive disease subjects have been demonstrated. Many relationships were found between environmental factors and respiratory responses. The pollutant and meteorological variables are related to respiratory symptoms and peak flow directly as well as through interactions with pollen types. Some of the largest positive coefficients are seen in association with seasonal pollen types, specifically, rhinitis and dyspnoea.
Uncovering the Relational Web

World-Wide Web consists of a huge number of unstruc- tured hypertext documents, but it also contains structured data in the form of HTML tables. Many of these tables contain both relational-style data and a small "schema" of labeled and typed columns, making each such table a small structured database. The WebTables project is an effort to extract and make use of the huge number of these structured tables on the Web. A clean collection of relational-style ta- bles could be useful for improving web search, schema de- sign, and many other applications. This paper describes the first stage of the WebTables project. First, we give an in-depth study of the Web's HTML table corpus. For example, we extracted 14.1 billion HTML ta- bles from a several-billion-page portion of Google's general- purpose web crawl, and estimate that 154 million of these tables contain high-quality relational-style data. We also de- scribe the crawl's distribution of table sizes and data types. Second, we describe a system for performing relation recov- ery. The Web mixes relational and non-relational tables indiscriminately (often on the same page), so there is no simple way to distinguish the 1.1% of good relations from the remainder, nor to recover column label and type infor- mation. Our mix of hand-written detectors and statistical classifiers takes a raw Web crawl as input, and generates a collection of databases that is five orders of magnitude larger than any other collection we are aware of. Relation recovery achieves precision and recall that are comparable to other domain-independent information extraction systems.
Calcium intake and colorectal adenoma in a US colorectal cancer early detection program

Background: Calcium can reduce the risk of colorectal tumors by binding secondary bile and fatty acids, which leads to antiproliferative effects in the bowel, or by acting directly on the colonic epithelium, which affects differentiation and apoptosis. Objective: We investigated calcium intake and risk of colon adenoma to evaluate the association of calcium intake with early stages of colorectal tumor development. Design:Wecomparedthesupplementalanddietarycalciumintakes of 3696 participants with histologically verified adenoma of the distalcolon(ie,descendingcolon,sigmoidcolon,orrectum)withthe calcium intakes of 34 817 sigmoidoscopy-negative control participants in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer ScreeningTrial.Calciumintakewasassessedatstudyentrywitha137-item food-frequency questionnaire and additional questions on the amount and duration of calcium supplement use. Results:Afteradjustmentforknownriskfactors,adenomariskwas lowerby12%forparticipantsinthehighestquintileoftotalcalcium intake (1767 mg/d) than for participants in the lowest quintile (731 mg/d) (odds ratio: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.76, 1.02; P for trend 0.04). The protective association between total calcium and colorectal adenoma was largely due to calcium supplement use, with a 27% decrease in adenoma risk for participants taking 1200 mg/d than for nonusers of supplements (odds ratio: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.56, 0.91; P for trend 0.005). The protective associations of total and supplemental calcium were strongest for colon adenoma (descending and sigmoid colon). Conclusion:Highcalciumintake,particularlyfromsupplements,is associated with a reduced risk of distal colorectal adenoma. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;80:1358–65.
DMOC approach of real-time trajectory generation for mechanical systems

Discrete mechanics and optimal control (DMOC) is newly developed methodology to solve the optimal control problems of mechanical systems. It is based on a direct discretization of the Lagrange-d'Alembert principle. The constraints are modeled as Euler-Langrange equations for discrete states. With the application of DMOC, a new real-time trajectory generation approach is proposed. The formulated problem is solved in the open source free nonlinear programming solver IPOPT (interior point optimizer). Superior performance of DMOC is verified through a standard forced VanDerPol oscillator example. It is shown DMOC is much faster than NTG (nonlinear trajectory generation) in computation time, it is 1.31% of the CPU time. Finally, for real-time trajectory generation, a dynamical glider example is shown as one of its possible application fields.
Silencing the nuclear actin-related protein AtARP4 in Arabidopsis has multiple effects on plant development, including early flowering and delayed floral senescence

Actin-related proteins (ARPs) share moderate sequence homology and basal structure with conventional actins and are found in all eukaryotes. While the functions of most of the divergent ARPs are not clear, several of them are localized to the nucleus and have been identified as components of various chromatin-modifying complexes. Using an antibody to Arabidopsis AtARP4, we found this conserved homolog of human BAF53 and yeast Arp4 is concentrated in the nucleoplasm of Arabidopsis, Brassica, and tobacco cells. To gain further insight into the role of ARP4, we have examined Arabidopsis plants that are defective in AtARP4 expression. Phenotypic analysis of the arp4-1 mutant allele, which has a T-DNA insertion in the promoter region and a moderate reduction in the level of AtARP4 protein expression, revealed partial sterility due to defects in anther development. Targeting the distinct, 3' UTR of AtARP4 transcripts with RNA interference caused a drastic reduction in the level of AtARP4 protein expression in several independent transgenic lines, and resulted in strong pleiotropic phenotypes such as altered organization of plant organs, early flowering, delayed flower senescence and high levels of sterility. Western blot analysis and immunolabeling demonstrated a clear correlation between reductions in the level of AtARP4 expression and severity of the phenotypes. Based on our results and data on the orthologs of AtARP4 in yeast and other organisms, we suggest that AtARP4 is likely to exert its effects on plant development through the modulation of chromatin structure and subsequent changes in gene regulation.
Multi-Rate Layered Decoder Architecture for Block LDPC Codes of the IEEE 802.11n Wireless Standard

We present a new multi-rate architecture for decoding block LDPC codes in IEEE 802.11n standard. The proposed architecture utilizes the value-reuse property of offset min-sum, block-serial scheduling of computations and turbo decoding message passing algorithm. Techniques of data-forwarding and out-of-order processing are used to deal with the irregularity of the codes. The decoder has the following advantages when compared to recent state-of-the-art architectures: 55% savings in memory, reduction of routers by 50% and increase of throughput by 2times.
AS-MAC: An asynchronous scheduled MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks

Energy efficiency of the MAC protocol is a key design factor for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Due to the importance of the problem, a number of energy efficient MAC protocols have been developed for WSNs. Preamble-sampling based MAC protocols (e.g., B-MAC and X-MAC) have overheads due to their preambles, and are inefficient at large wakeup intervals. SCP-MAC, a very energy efficient scheduling MAC protocol, minimizes the preamble by combining preamble sampling and scheduling techniques; however, it does not prevent energy loss due to overhearing; in addition, due to its synchronization procedure, it results in increased contention and delay. In this paper, we present an energy efficient MAC protocol for WSNs that avoids overhearing and reduces contention and delay by asynchronously scheduling the wakeup time of neighboring nodes. To validate our design and analysis, we implement the proposed scheme on the MicaZ platform. Experimental results show that AS-MAC considerably reduces energy consumption, packet loss and delay when compared with SCP-MAC.
Experience in using a process language to define scientific workflow and generate dataset provenance

This paper describes our experiences in exploring the applicability of software engineering approaches to scientific data management problems. Specifically, this paper describes how process definition languages can be used to expedite production of scientific datasets as well as to generate documentation of their provenance. Our approach uses a process definition language that incorporates powerful semantics to encode scientific processes in the form of a Process Definition Graph (PDG). The paper describes how execution of the PDG-defined process can generate Dataset Derivation Graphs (DDGs), metadata that document how the scientific process developed each of its product datasets. The paper uses an example to show that scientific processes may be complex and to illustrate why some of the more powerful semantic features of the process definition language are useful in supporting clarity and conciseness in representing such processes. This work is similar in goals to work generally referred to as Scientific Workflow. The paper demonstrates the contribution that software engineering can make to this domain.
Inductive learning algorithms and representations for text categorization

1. ABSTRACT Text categorization – the assignment of natural language texts to one or more predefined categories based on their content – is an important component in many information organization and management tasks. We compare the effectiveness of five different automatic learning algorithms for text categorization in terms of learning speed, realtime classification speed, and classification accuracy. We also examine training set size, and alternative document representations. Very accurate text classifiers can be learned automatically from training examples. Linear Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are particularly promising because they are very accurate, quick to train, and quick to evaluate. 1.1
Nanoscale field effect optical modulators based on depletion of epsilon-near-zero films

Abstract The field effect in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors plays a key role in field-effect transistors (FETs), which are the fundamental building blocks of modern digital integrated circuits. Recent works show that the field effect can also be used to make optical/plasmonic modulators. In this paper, we report the numerical investigation of field effect electro-absorption modulators each made of an ultrathin epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) film, as the active material, sandwiched in a silicon or plasmonic waveguide. Without a bias, the ENZ films maximize the attenuation of the waveguides and the modulators work at the OFF state; on the other hand, depletion of the carriers in the ENZ films greatly reduces the attenuation and the modulators work at the ON state. The double capacitor gating scheme with two 10-nm HfO 2 films as the insulator is used to enhance the modulation by the field effect. The depletion requires about 10 V across the HfO 2 layers. According to our simulation, extinction ratio up to 3.44 dB can be achieved in a 500-nm long Si waveguide with insertion loss only 0.71 dB (85.0% pass); extinction ratio up to 7.86 dB can be achieved in a 200-nm long plasmonic waveguide with insertion loss 1.11 dB (77.5% pass). The proposed modulators may find important applications in future on-chip or chip-to-chip optical interconnection.
RAD51 Is a Key Protein of DNA Repair and Homologous Recombination in Humans

Ionizing radiation and various chemotherapeutic agents kill cancer cells by inducing DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) or interstrand DNA cross links. Cells however can resist the killing effect by repairing these lesions using the homologous recombination (HR) pathway [1–3]. HR achieves high fidelity of repairing DNA breaks through the unique mechanism that employs homologous DNA as a template [4]. The initial step of HR involves exonucleolytic processing of the DNA ends into a resected DNA duplex with protruding 3′-ssDNA tails (Fig. 1) [5]. Then, RAD51 protein loads onto the ssDNA to form a contiguous helical nucleoprotein filament that promotes a search for the homologous dsDNA [6, 7]. Once the homologous sequence is found, RAD51 promotes the exchange of DNA strands that resulted in formation of joint molecules [8, 9]. Joint molecules provide both a template and a primer for the DNA synthesis that is required for retrieving the information lost at the site of the break and for the consequent restoration of a contiguous DNA structure.
Monitoring of domestic and imported apples and rice by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pesticide program.

In 1993-94, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a statistically based study of pesticide residues in domestic and imported fresh apples and processed rice. For apples, 769 domestic and 1062 imported samples were collected and analyzed ; 85% of the domestic and 86% of the imported samples had detectable residues. Benomyl, a widely used fungicide, was found with greatest frequency in domestic apples, while diphenylamine was found most often in imported apples. One domestic and 4 imported samples contained violative residues of pesticides for which there are no U.S. tolerances on apples. The statistically weighted (by domestic packer throughput or import shipment size) violation rates for domestic and imported apples were 0.30% (0.13 unweighted) and 0.41% (0.38 unweighted), respectively. For rice, 598 domestic and 612 imported samples were collected and analyzed; 56% of the domestic and 12% of the imported samples had detectable residues. Malathion had the greatest frequency of occurrence in both groups of rice. Eight domestic and 9 imported samples were violative, all as a result of use of pesticides for which there are no U.S. tolerances on rice. The statistically weighted violation rates for domestic and imported rice were 0.43% (1.3 unweighted) and 1.1%(1.5 unweighted), respectively. Results of the statistically based study show that, as in FDA's regulatory monitoring, the levels of most pesticide residues found in these 2 commodities are generally well below U.S. tolerances, and few violative residues are found.
From 'Boys Will Be Boys' to Zero Tolerance: Implementing Norm Change at DoD?

Implementation of the zero tolerance policy, established in December 2002 by NSPD-22, provides an interesting case for determining the extent to which the United States Department of Defense (DoD) has addressed the link between troop presence and trafficking in women. The correlation between troop presence and increased demand for prostitution has been tacitly acknowledged since 1900, but it has only been explicitly addressed since late 2002. NSPD-22 imposed on DoD the responsibility to enforce a policy of zero tolerance for any activities that contribute to trafficking in persons. In the wake of the directive, DoD has conducted investigations of operations in South Korea and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and limited disciplinary actions have been taken against personnel and contractors violating the zero tolerance policy. This paper examines DoD’s efforts and success in combating the deployment-related increase in demand for prostitution and the inherent link to trafficking in women, ultimately concluding that organizational culture at DoD plays a large role in inhibiting success in complying with the zero tolerance policy. Effective compliance must come from enhanced efforts in education and supervision of personnel, as well as more productive partnerships with civilian organizations dedicated to addressing the link between troop presence and trafficking in women.
Adjoint-Based Aerodynamic Design On Unstructured Meshes

This work presents initial optimization results for the Aerodynamic Design Optimization Discussion Group Cases 1 and 3 on unstructured meshes. A sequential quadratic programming algorithm is used to drive the constrained optimizations and the objective and constraint functional sensitivities are computed with the discrete adjoint method. After introducing the aerodynamic flow solvers employed, optimization results are discussed. The two dimensional optimization delivers an optimal solution, but yields higher drag values than other participants, most likely due to the airfoil parameterization employed in this work. The three dimensional optimization converges to a feasible optimum and is in good agreement with the workshop results.
The Carrot and the Stick: Tailoring California’s UnlawfulMarijuana Cultivation Statute to Address California’sProblems

II. ROOTS OF UNLAWFUL CULTIVATION 1073 A. Defining and Distinguishing Unlawful Cultivation 1073 B. Unlawful Cultivation Before and After Determinate Sentencing ........ 1075 C. The Current Legal Landscape 1076 1. The Compassionate Use Act: The Seeds of Leniency and Budding Confusion 1077 2. The Road to the Medical Marijuana Program 1078 3. The Medical Marijuana Program: A Failed Attempt to Clear the Haze 1079 D. A Growing Problem: Mandatory Felony Charge for Lesser Offenses 1080 1. Cost Versus Benefit: A Victory for Lesser Offenders 1080 2. The Pen Versus the Sword: A Net Loss for the Justice System ..... 1082
Children, Migration and Mortuary Representation in the Late Prehistoric Central Illinois River Valley

Morton Village and the associated Norris Farms #36 cemetery site in Fulton County, Illinois, provide an opportunity to synthesise community and mortuary perspectives on life among Mississippian and Oneota inhabitants of the late prehistoric Central Illinois River Valley. Among research directions to develop from new Michigan State University-Dickson Mounds Museum excavations are questions regarding the role that the 143 subadults interred in the cemetery can play in the analysis of community social relations. In this article, we focus on the lives and deaths of Morton's youngest residents, particularly as they relate to broader patterns of migration and identity (trans)formation. We specifically seek to understand whether some of these children were born into families with blended Oneota and Mississippian identities, potentially signalling multiethnic identity in their mortuary signatures. To this end, a particular subset of juveniles is compared to other burials in the cemetery, and is discussed within a...
Determination of selenium in tea by hydride generator atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry

Objective:This article mainly discusses the method and technology of determining selenium in tea by using atomic fluorescence photometers.Methods:Samples were digested with nitric acid and perchloric acid,and then determined by atomic fluorescence photometers.Results:Under the conditions proposed,the linear range for the determination of selenium was found to be 0.0～2.0 μg/L with the correlation coefficient of 0.9999.The detection limits was 0.044 μg/L and the value of relative standard deviation was 5.19%,1.97%,0.87% in low,mid and high three different kinds of density respectively.The recovery rate of spiking standard for total selenium was in the range of 94.9%～116.3%.Conclusion:This method is good in precision and recovery.The detection of selenium in tea by atomic fluorescence spectrometry is practicable.
Simultaneous Determination of Thiamine and Riboflavin in Foods by Liquid Chromatography

Recent methods for determination of thiamine (thiochrome) and riboflavin by liquid chromatography (LC) are outlined and discussed, and a new method allowing the simultaneous determination of these 2 vitamins by using a single fluorescence detector is described. This system involves an ODS 5 micron ultrasphere column and a pH 7.5 mobile phase composed of 0.005M tetrabutyl ammonium phosphate in methanol-water (20 + 80).
The isolation and characterization of a herpesvirus from calf kidney cell cultures.

SUMMARY A virus was isolated from spontaneously degenerating cell cultures produced from the kidneys of an apparently healthy calf. The physical, chemical and cyto-pathogenic properties were characteristic of a member of the herpesvirus group. Plaque neutralization tests indicated that the virus was antigenically related to the ‘Riems’ strain of herpesvirus isolated from calves in East Germany. No clinical signs were observed in experimental animals inoculated with the virus.
Accessory spleen presenting as acute abdomen: A case report and operative management

Abstract Accessory spleens are found in 10–30% of patients and are asymptomatic. Rarely, torsion of an accessory spleen can cause abdominal pain and acute abdomen. We present the case of an 8-year-old girl who arrives to the emergency room with left upper quadrant abdominal pain. CT scan revealed a non-enhancing soft tissue mass and multiple small splenules. Laparoscopy revealed a torsed accessory spleen and malrotation. Accessory spleen is a common congenital anomaly that is frequently asymptomatic. Rarely, an accessory spleen may become torsed around its vascular pedicle resulting in severe abdominal pain. Treatment is surgical resection. Torsion of accessory splenic tissue is a rare cause of acute abdomen in pediatric patients.
Comparing the Environmental Impacts of Alkali Activated Mortar and Traditional Portland Cement Mortar using Life Cycle Assessment

Since the year 1908 there has been research into the use alkali activated materials (AAM) in order to develop cementitious materials with similar properties to Ordinary Portland Cement. AAMs are considered green materials since their production and synthesis is not energy intensive. Even though AAMs have a high compressive strength, the average cost of production among other issues limits its feasibility. Previous research by the authors yielded a low cost AAM that uses mine tailings, wollastonite and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). This mortar has an average compressive strength of 50MPa after 28 days of curing. In this paper the software SimaPro was used to create a product base cradle to gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This compared the environmental impact of the AAM mortar to an Ordinary Portland Cement mortar (PCHM) with similar compressive strength. The main motivation for this research is the environmental impact of producing Ordinary Portland Cement as compared to alkali activated slag materials. The results of this LCA show that the Alkali Activated Material has a lower environmental impact than traditional Portland cement hydraulic mortar, in 10 out of 12 categories including Global Warming Potential, Ecotoxicity, and Smog. Areas of improvement and possible future work were also discovered with this analysis.
Ambiguity function analysis of adaptive colored-noise radar waveforms

Adaptive radar waveforms may be designed to be spectrally orthogonal to the received time-varying interference environment. An eigendecomposition of the interference plus noise covariance matrix may be used to construct such waveforms as well as the multistage Wiener filter. These waveforms may have nonwhite (colored) noise spectra and have unique interference mitigation properties. An ambiguity function analysis is presented for colored waveforms to illustrate: 1) ambiguities, 2) resolution/accuracy of range (time) and Doppler (frequency) estimates, and 3) inherent interference rejection capabilities. Waveform performance is parameterized by metrics such as interference rank and others.
Socializing Individualized T-Cell Cancer Immunotherapy.

Tumors typically accumulate hundreds of mutations in “driver” genes critical to transformation as well as in other “passenger” genes.1 These mutations can generate neoantigens—mutated versions of normal proteins that become recognizable by patients’ own T cells.2,3 Such T cells recovered from patients have been used as a source of tumor-hunting T-cell therapies, representing the epitome of individualized medicine as a way to treat tumors.4,5 Unfortunately, at best only a very small handful of potential neoantigens are recognized by a patient’s own T cells,6 probably because of the unrelenting immunosuppressive tactics exerted chronically on the patient’s own T-cell repertoire. Now, Stronen et al. have shown that T cells from normal, healthy donors can recognize many more neoantigens from a given patient than the patient’s own T-cell repertoire allows.7 A situation in which a greater number of neoantigens are recognized by more T cells can only be good news for the treatment of malignant tumors. These results suggest that even individualized cancer immunotherapy might benefit from reaching out into the community for extra T-cell help.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in pregnancy: A case series and literature review

Abstract Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in pregnancy presents a therapeutic challenge due to its rarity. We report our management approaches in three such patients. A 37-year-old woman was diagnosed with stage III (T1N2M0) NPC at 18 weeks of gestation. She was treated with antepartum induction chemotherapy and postpartum chemoradiation. She delivered a healthy infant at 37 weeks and is in remission at 2 years. Two other patients (ages, 30 years and 20 years) were diagnosed with stage IVB and III NPC at 27 and 31 weeks of gestation respectively. Both the patients elected to wait until delivery and were subsequently treated with chemoradiation followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. The patients are in complete long-term remission. Thus antepartum induction chemotherapy after the first trimester followed by postpartum chemoradiation may be effective for NPC in pregnancy. This helps avoid radiation induced feto-toxicity. Patients who present in later pregnancy may delay therapy until after delivery.
Use of electronic calibration units for vector-network-analyzer verification

We present measurements demonstrating that electronic calibration units are stable enough to be used in place of mechanical vector-network-analyzer verification artifacts. This enables a new fully automated approach to verifying microwave vector-network-analyzer calibrations with a single computer-controlled electronic verification artifact. The new system presents verification results in easy-to-understand performance metrics that, unlike those derived from measurements of mechanical verification artifacts, are independent of the actual artifacts employed.
Incidence of Recurrence in Posterior Circulation Childhood Arterial Ischemic Stroke.

Importance Childhood arterial ischemic stroke (CAIS) affects approximately 1.6 per 100 000 children per year, while stroke recurs in up to 20% of patients at 5 years. Factors determining the risk of recurrence are incompletely understood. Objective To investigate the incidence of the recurrence of CAIS in the posterior and anterior circulations to determine if the risk differs between the 2 locations. Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective analysis of CAIS was conducted among children enrolled in a single-center prospective consecutive cohort at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia between January 1, 2006, and January 1, 2015. Children with confirmed CAIS occurring between 29 days and 17.99 years were evaluated for inclusion. Patients were excluded if infarcts were located in both the anterior and posterior distributions or if CAIS occurred as a complication of intracranial surgery or brain tumor. Main Outcomes and Measures Stroke recurrence. Results The study population included 107 patients (75 boys [70.1%] and 32 girls [29.9%]; median age at AIS, 7.7 years [interquartile range, 3.1-13.6 years]). Sixty-one children had anterior circulation CAIS (ACAIS) and 46 had posterior circulation CAIS (PCAIS). Median follow-up was 20.9 months (interquartile range, 8.7-40.4 months). For ACAIS, recurrence-free survival was 100% at 1 month and 96% (95% CI, 85%-99%) at 1 and 3 years. For PCAIS, recurrence-free survival was 88% (95% CI, 75%-95%) at 1 month and 81% (95% CI, 66%-90%) at 1 and 3 years. The hazard ratio for recurrence after PCAIS compared with ACAIS was 6.4 (95% CI, 1.4-29.8; P = .02) in univariable analysis and 5.3 (95% CI, 1.1-26.4; P = .04) after adjusting for sex and cervical dissection. Conclusions and Relevance We identified a subgroup of patients that comprise more than 80% of recurrences of CAIS. Three years after incident stroke, 19% of children with PCAIS had a recurrence compared with 4% of patients with ACAIS. Different mechanisms of stroke may account for this difference. Children with PCAIS may warrant increased monitoring. This study highlights the necessity for further research focused on recurrence prevention.
Readout of the Tubulin Code by Cellular Effectors: Graded Control of Microtubule Severing by Tubulin Glutamylation

Microtubule-severing enzymes are critical for the biogenesis and maintenance of complex microtubule arrays in axons, spindles and cilia where tubulin detyrosination, acetylation and glutamylation are abundant. These modifications exhibit stereotyped patterns suggesting spatial and temporal control of microtubule functions. Using human engineered and differentially modified microtubules we find that glutamylation is the main regulator of the hereditary spastic paraplegia microtubule severing enzyme spastin and that neither detyrosination nor acetylation regulate spastin activity. Glutamylation acts as a rheostat and tunes microtubule severing as a function of glutamate number added per tubulin. Unexpectedly, glutamylation is a non-linear biphasic tuner and becomes inhibitory beyond a threshold. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of localized glutamylation propagates across neighboring microtubules, modulating severing in trans. Our work provides the first quantitative evidence for a graded, spatially controlled response to a tubulin posttranslational modification and constitutes an essential step towards understanding how the cell interprets the tubulin code. Furthermore, it provides a biochemical link between tubulin glutamylation and complex architectures of microtubule arrays such as those in neurons where spastin deficiency causes disease.
Episodic deposition of Illinois Valley Peoria silt in association with Lake Michigan Lobe fluctuations during the last glacial maximum

The chronology and cause of millennial depositional oscillations within last glacial loess of the Central Lowlands of the United States are uncertain. Here, we present a new age model that indicates the Peoria Silt along the Illinois River Valley accumulated episodically from ~28,500 to 16,000 cal yr BP, as the Lake Michigan Lobe margin fluctuated within northeastern Illinois. The age model indicates accelerated loess deposition coincident with regional glacial advances during the local last glacial maximum. A weakly developed paleosol, the Jules Geosol, represents a period of significantly slower deposition, from 23,700 to 22,000 cal yr BP. A gastropod assemblage-based reconstruction of mean July temperature shows temperatures 6–10°C cooler than modern during Peoria Silt deposition. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope values (δ18O and δ13C) of gastropod carbonate do not vary significantly across the pedostratigraphic boundary of the Jules Geosol, suggesting slower loess accumulation was a result of reduced glacial sediment supply rather than direct climatic factors. However, a decrease in δ18O values occurred between 26,000 and 24,000 cal yr BP, synchronous with the Lake Michigan Lobe’s southernmost advance. This δ18O decrease suggests a coupling of regional summer hydroclimate and ice lobe position during the late glacial period.
Abstract WP329: Video Conferencing is the Preferred Method for Follow-up Communication for Post-hospital Stroke Patients

Introduction: Close communication with a stroke patient after discharge from a comprehensive stroke center has been shown to be crucial for medication compliance, follow up care and improving patie...
A Novel Screening Method to Identify Late-Stage Dementia Patients for Palliative Care Research and Practice

Abstract Context Investigators need novel methods for timely identification of patients with serious illness to test or implement new palliative care models. Objectives The study's aim was to develop an electronic health record (EHR) phenotype to identify patients with late-stage dementia for a clinical trial of palliative care consultation. Methods We developed a computerized method to identify patients with dementia on hospital admission. Within a data warehouse derived from the hospital's EHR, we used search terms of age, admission date, and ICD-9 and ICD-10 diagnosis codes to create an EHR dementia phenotype, followed by brief medical record review to confirm late-stage dementia. We calculated positive predictive value, false discovery rate, and false negative rate of this novel screening method. Results The EHR phenotype screening method had a positive predictive value of 76.3% for dementia patients and 24.5% for late-stage dementia patients; a false discovery rate of 23.7% for dementia patients and 75.5% for late-stage dementia patients compared to physician assessment. The sensitivity of this screening method was 59.7% to identify hospitalized patients with dementia. Daily screening—including confirmatory chart reviews—averaged 20 minutes and was more feasible, efficient, and more complete than manual screening. Conclusion A novel method using an EHR phenotype plus brief medical record review is effective to identify hospitalized patients with late-stage dementia. In health care systems with similar clinical data warehouses, this method may be applied to serious illness populations to improve enrollment in clinical trials of palliative care or to facilitate access to palliative care services.
Let's Play!: Digital and Analog Play between Preschoolers and Parents

Play is an enjoyable and developmentally useful part of early childhood, and parent-child play is a highly productive mechanism by which children learn to participate in the world. We conducted an observational lab study to examine how 15 parent-child pairs (children age 4-6) respond to and play with tablet apps as compared to analog toys. We found that parents and children were less likely to engage with each other or to respond to each other's bids for attention during play sessions with tab-lets versus play sessions with toys. We also observed that specific design features of tablet devices and children's apps-such as one-sided interfaces, game paradigms that demand continual attention, and lack of support for parallel interaction-are the primary mechanism shaping these differences. We provide guidance suggesting how children's apps might be re-designed to preserve the ad-vantages of digital play experiences while also evolving to build in the advantages of traditional toys.
Hot Stage Microscopy of Polystyrene and Polystyrene Derivatives

Studies of particulate polystyrene and atactic PMMA by Ueberreiter and Orthmann1 using a direct-recording mechanooptical instrument revealed an optically detectable softening process occurring above the glass transition temperature. In their apparatus, a powdered polymer sample was sandwiched between a stationary glass plate and a loaded floating glass plate with a collimated light beam focused on the sample. On heating at a rate of several degrees per minute, the sample began to coalesce and flow. Once the specimen became sufficiently transparent for the light beam to be transmitted through it, a light sensor behind the sample was activated to record light intensity as a function of time and hence of temperature.
EVALUATION OF SPOT PRICES

It is necessary to be able to evaluate the cost of providing electric service on an hour by hour basis in order to effectively market electric energy in a fashion which meets both the utility's and its customer's needs; i.e. to offer appropriate rates, contracts, and load management options to the customers. This paper provides a methodology which uses the theory of spot prices to evaluate the variable costs of electric energy on an hourly basis. The methodology decomposes variable costs in components corresponding to generation fuel and maintenance, T and D network losses and maintenance, and generation and network quality of supply components arising from unserved energy caused by shortages of generation and network capacity. The methodology provides a choice between four different methods of revenue reconciliation to cover the capital and fixed costs of generation and the T and D network. Planning studies can be done using the methodology without developing large new computer programs. A numeric example is presented which exhibits large price variations depending on random weather and generator outages.