cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Rural highway route corridor selection

The selection of a rural highway corridor between designated termini is approached as the simultaneous selection of line and grade of a particular alignment in the corridor. The selection is facilitated by the successive application of linear programming and shortest path techniques. A model is presented in which the inputs are terrain elevations, design constraints on overall grade, terminal grades and elevations, and restricted areas of passage. The output consists of a user‐specified number of alternative corridors, selected on the basis of minimum sum of the deviations of their representative profiles from the original ground. The model is applicable to situations where route selection is dominated by construction considerations. A hypothetical example and an actual application demonstrate the utility of the methodology.
The thermal history of ascending magma diapirs and the thermal and physical evolution of magmatic conduits

Abstract If, over millions of years, the positions of island arc volcanoes remain fixed relative to their source regions, magma bodies must repeatedly traverse a path through the lithospheric mantle. The repeated passage of such bodies thermally and chemically modifies the adjacent mantle. For diapirs with radii of 3–6 km, ascending at 4 × 10 −8 to 2 × 10 −7 m/s, 60,000 to ∼900,000 years are required to establish a magmatic conduit to crustal depths. During this period, wall-rock temperatures increase 200–400°C below 60 km and 400–750°C between 60 and 20 km. The solidification of large volumes of magma within the mantle also provides a mechanism for the introduction of kilometer-scale chemical and isotopic heterogeneities into the lithospheric mantle. Because the crystallization sequences of magmas ascending at different stages of conduit development vary, conduit thermal and physical evolution also influences magmatic differentiation. These differences in crystallization sequence result from the different P · T trajectories followed by individual magmatic diapirs. Crystal fractionation of successive diapirs, with or without concurrent wall-rock assimilation can, therefore, generate different liquid lines of descent. As successive magma bodies chemically react with their wall rock and solidify at various depths, the mantle also changes in composition from peridotite toward basalt. Depending on the stage of conduit development, assimilation of wall rock could, therefore, yield variable magmatic differentiation trends. For successive magma bodies, the degree of contamination may decline as the conduit and its margin evolve physically. Lithospheric conduit evolution has several important ramifications for geochemical modelling. First, since magma ascent from source regions to crustal depths is unlikely to be isochemical, radiogenic and incompatible-element ratios may not always reflect characteristics of the magma source region. Second, the earliest stage of arc magmatism, e.g. submarine volcanism, is unlikely to reflect the processes of arc magma generation. Rather, this phase of volcanism records the interaction between ascending magma and unmodified mantle. The characteristics of primary arc magmas are likely to be understood only through examining more highly developed volcanic centers supplied by mature magmatic conduits.
Quadratic Stabilization and Tracking: Applications to the Benchmark Problem

Recent results regarding quadratic stabilization and disturbance attenuation are applied to the benchmark problem. We investigate the minimum achievable levels of disturbance attenuation for different disturbance inputs and controlled outputs. We then design a feedforward tracking controller which tracks step inputs while maintaining the disturbance attenuation properties of the regulator.
Surface-enhanced plasmon splitting in a liquid-crystal-coated gold nanoparticle

We show that, when a gold nanoparticle is coated by a thin layer of nematic liquid crystal, the nanoparticle surface has a strong effect on the director orientation, but, surprisingly, this deformation can enhance the surface plasmon splitting. We consider three plausible liquid crystal director configurations in zero electric field: boojum pair (north-south pole configuration), baseball (tetrahedral), and homogeneous. From the discrete dipole approximation, we find that the surface plasmon splitting is largest for the boojum pair, and this result is in good agreement with experiment.
A centralized recipient database enhances the serologic safety of RBC transfusions for patients with sickle cell disease

Objectives To evaluate the utility of a centralized transfusion service model in preventing the transfusion of incompatible units in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Methods The serologic records of transfused patients with SCD were reviewed. The index hospital was where an alloantibody was initially detected. Results In total, 150 patients with SCD were evaluated; 66 (44.0%) of 150 were alloimmunized. In 42 (63.6%) of these patients, 1 or more antibodies evanesced. The median number of hospitals visited by patients with SCD for RBC transfusion with 1 or more evanesced antibodies was three (range, one to eight); the median number of nonindex hospitals was two (range, one to seven). Of the patients with evanesced antibodies, 28.6% received transfusions at various nonindex hospitals 20 or more times after the antibody evanesced. Conclusions A centralized database can help identify patients with SCD who have evanesced alloantibodies and prevent issuing incompatible RBC units.
Combined atomic force microscopy and side-view optical imaging for mechanical studies of cells

The mechanical rigidity of cells and adhesion forces between cells are important in various biological processes, including cell differentiation, proliferation and tissue organization. Atomic force microscopy has emerged as a powerful tool to quantify the mechanical properties of individual cells and adhesion forces between cells. Here we demonstrate an instrument that combines atomic force microscopy with a side-view fluorescent imaging path that enables direct imaging of cellular deformation and cytoskeletal rearrangements along the axis of loading. With this instrument, we directly observed cell shape under mechanical load, correlated changes in shape with force-induced ruptures and imaged formation of membrane tethers during cell-cell adhesion measurements. Additionally, we observed cytoskeletal reorganization and stress-fiber formation while measuring the contractile force of an individual cell. This instrument can be a useful tool for understanding the role of mechanics in biological processes.
THE EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT SIZE ON THE STEADY-STATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: A DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

The relationship between government size and the unemployment rate is investigated using a panel error-correction model that describes both the short-run dynamics and long-run determination of the unemployment rate. Using data from twenty OECD countries from 1970 to 1999 and after correcting for simultaneity bias, we find that government size, measured as total government outlays as a percentage of GDP, plays a significant role in affecting the steady-state unemployment rate. Importantly, when government outlays are disaggregated, transfers and subsidies are found to significantly affect the steady-state unemployment rate while government purchases of goods and services play no significant role.
Evaluation and comparison of gene clustering methods in microarray analysis

Motivation: Microarray technology has been widely applied in biological and clinical studies for simultaneous monitoring of gene expression in thousands of genes. Gene clustering analysis is found useful for discovering groups of correlated genes potentially co-regulated or associated to the disease or conditions under investigation. Many clustering methods including hierarchical clustering, K-means, PAM, SOM, mixture model-based clustering and tight clustering have been widely used in the literature. Yet no comprehensive comparative study has been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of these methods. Results: In this paper, six gene clustering methods are evaluated by simulated data from a hierarchical log-normal model with various degrees of perturbation as well as four real datasets. A weighted Rand index is proposed for measuring similarity of two clustering results with possible scattered genes (i.e. a set of noise genes not being clustered). Performance of the methods in the real data is assessed by a predictive accuracy analysis through verified gene annotations. Our results show that tight clustering and model-based clustering consistently outperform other clustering methods both in simulated and real data while hierarchical clustering and SOM perform among the worst. Our analysis provides deep insight to the complicated gene clustering problem of expression profile and serves as a practical guideline for routine microarray cluster analysis. Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE UPON SOME OF THE PROPERTIES OF CASEIN

1. The investigations dealing with the properties of casein as an acid were reviewed. 2. The solubility of uncombined casein in water was measured at 5 degrees C. and found to be 0.70+/-0.1 mg. of N per 100 gm. of water. 3. Robertson's solubility measurements of casein in bases at various temperatures were recalculated and found to agree well with more recent measurements. 4. By combining the observations of several investigators, as well as the author's measurements of the solubility of casein, in base, at various temperatures, the following conclusions were reached: (a) The solubility of casein in base is affected by the temperature in a discontinuous manner. (b) There exist two ranges of temperature, one, extending from about 21 degrees to 37 degrees C. and the other from about 60 degrees to 85 degrees C. where the solubility of casein in base is practically independent of temperature. (c) From 37 degrees to 60 degrees the equivalent combining weight of casein rises from the value 2100 to about 3700 gm. 5. By comparing the values of base bound by 1 gm. of casein at the two temperature ranges with a constant, the value of base necessary to saturate the same amount of casein, it was found that the latter value is a common multiple of the former values, indicating the stoichiometric nature of the effect of temperature.
S cerevisiae genome as a confined equilibrium polymer brush

prominent cross-like patterns, as observed in S. cerevisiae Hi-C maps. We estimate this polymer brush effect to alter contact preferences at distances up to ~200 kbp from each centromere. Finally, our lattice model allow us to quickly predict the relative impact of fiber width, flexibility and linear compaction on chromosomal conformation. We find that the observed Hi-C maps are consistent with a range of fiber parameters.
Synetocephalus penrosei Gilbert & Clark (Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Luperini), a new species from California, U.S.A

Abstract Synetocephalus penrosei sp. nov. from Monterey County, California, U.S.A., is described and illustrated. Comparisons are made with the two most similar species, S. bivittatus (LeConte 1859) and S. diegensis (Blake 1942). Adults of S. penrosei are associated with Adenostoma fasciculatum Hook & Arn. (Rosaceae) during the spring months when plants are in bloom.
Heterogeneity in the effect of public health insurance on catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditures: the case of Mexico

Low- and middle-income countries increasingly provide broad-based public health coverage to their residents. One of the goals of such programmes is to reduce the extent to which beneficiaries incur catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures on health care. A recent field experiment showed that on average Mexico's new public insurance programme reduced such expenditures in rural areas. Our reanalysis of that data, augmented with administrative data on health infrastructure, shows that this effect depends strongly on the type of health facility to which the beneficiary has access. A second analysis, based on data from Mexico's National Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (abbreviated ENIGH for its name in Spanish), substantiates those findings. It shows that catastrophic expenditures have fallen sharply for rural households with access to well-staffed facilities, but that they have fallen little if at all for rural households with access to poorly staffed facilities. Our analysis of the ENIGH also shows that Mexico's public health insurance programme has sharply reduced catastrophic spending among urban households. Considering that most Mexicans live either in urban areas or in rural areas with access to well-staffed facilities, our results show that the public health insurance programme has been largely successful in achieving one of its key goals. At the same time, our results show how difficult it can be to provide effective protection against catastrophic health expenditures for residents of remote rural areas.
Sewer-Sediment Control: Overview of an Environmental Protection Agency Wet-Weather Flow Research Program

This paper presents a historical overview of the sewer sediment control projects conducted by the Wet-Weather Flow Research Program of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The research presented includes studies of the causes of sewer solids deposition and development/evaluation of control methods that can prevent sewer-sediment accumulation. Discussions focus on the relationship of wastewater characteristics to flow-carrying velocity, abatement of solids deposition and solids resuspension in sewers, and sewerline flushing systems for removal of sewer sediment. Methods for abating sewer sedimentation include steeper sewer slope, pipe bottom shapes that maintain high velocity during low-flow conditions, and periodic sewer flushing. The future research program plan for sewer-sediment control is also presented.
Prohibitin Family Members Interact Genetically with Mitochondrial Inheritance Components in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Phb2p, a homolog of the tumor suppressor protein prohibitin, was identified in a genetic screen for suppressors of the loss of Mdm12p, a mitochondrial outer membrane protein required for normal mitochondrial morphology and inheritance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Phb2p and its homolog, prohibitin (Phb1p), were localized to the mitochondrial inner membrane and characterized as integral membrane proteins which depend on each other for their stability. In otherwise wild-type genetic backgrounds, null mutations in PHB1 and PHB2 did not confer any obvious phenotypes. However, loss of function of either PHB1 or PHB2 in cells with mitochondrial DNA deleted led to altered mitochondrial morphology, and phb1 or phb2 mutations were synthetically lethal when combined with a mutation in any of three mitochondrial inheritance components of the mitochondrial outer membrane, Mdm12p, Mdm10p, and Mmm1p. These results provide the first evidence of a role for prohibitin in mitochondrial inheritance and in the regulation of mitochondrial morphology.
Factoring image sequences into shape and motion

Recovery scene geometry and camera motion from a sequence of images is an important problem in computer vision. If the scene geometry is specified by depth measurements, that is, by specifying distances between the camera and feature points in the scene, noise sensitivity worsens rapidly with increasing depth. The authors show hat this difficulty can be overcome by computing scene geometry directly in terms of shape, that is, by computing the coordinates of feature points in the scene with respect to a world-centered system, without recovering camera-centered depth as an intermediate quantity. More specifically, the authors show that a matrix of image measurements can be factored by singular value decomposition into the product of two matrices that represent shape and motion, respectively. The results in this paper extend to three dimensions the solution the authors described in a previous paper for planar camera motion (ICCV, Osaka, Japan, 1990). >
A network-based method for target selection in metabolic networks

Motivation: The lack of new antimicrobials, combined with increasing microbial resistance to old ones, poses a serious threat to public health. With hundreds of genomes sequenced, systems biology promises to help in solving this problem by uncovering new drug targets. Results: Here, we propose an approach that is based on the mapping of the interactions between biochemical agents, such as proteins and metabolites, onto complex networks. We report that nodes and links in complex biochemical networks can be grouped into a small number of classes, based on their role in connecting different functional modules. Specifically, for metabolic networks, in which nodes represent metabolites and links represent enzymes, we demonstrate that some enzyme classes are more likely to be essential, some are more likely to be species-specific and some are likely to be both essential and specific. Our network-based enzyme classification scheme is thus a promising tool for the identification of drug targets. Contact: rguimera@northwestern.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Advanced environmental control as a key component in the development of ultrahigh accuracy ex situ metrology for x-ray optics

The advent of fully coherent free-electron laser and diffraction-limited synchrotron radiation storage ring sources of x-rays is catalyzing the development of new ultrahigh accuracy metrology methods. To fully exploit these sources, metrology needs to be capable of determining the figure of an optical element with subnanometer height accuracy. The major limiting factors of the current absolute accuracy of ex situ metrology are drift errors due to temporal instabilities of the lab’s environmental conditions and systematic errors inherent to the metrology instruments. Here, we discuss in detail work at the Advanced Light Source X-Ray Optics Laboratory on building of advanced environmental control that is a key component in the development of ultrahigh accuracy ex situ metrology for x-ray optics. By a few examples, we show how the improvement of the environmental conditions in the lab allows us to significantly gain efficiency in performing ex situ metrology with high-quality x-ray mirrors. The developed concepts and approaches, included in the design of the new X-Ray Optics Laboratory, are described in detail. These data are essential for construction and successful operation of a modern metrology facility for x-ray optics, as well as high-precision measurements in many fields of experimental physics.
SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE PATTERNS OF INTERPLAY BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FOOD REGULATION ∙ Enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act

The United States’ Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) revises the US Food and Drug Administration's regulatory authority. While expanding FDA's authority, the legislation replicates and relies on private systems of standards and third party audits, albeit with modifications. This article argues that public and private actors develop food safety regulations within multiple types of institutional venues, including private standards regimes, courts, congresses, and government regulatory agencies. It examines how interactions within each of these venues are shaped by stakeholders’ interests, and how the relevant subset of interactions within these venues ultimately shaped the FSMA. The article concludes by offering insights into what consequences these interactions and outcomes may have on the roles and capacities of affected stakeholders in food safety governance.
Advances in Remote Sensing of Coastal Wetlands: LiDAR, SAR, and Object-Oriented Case Studies from North Carolina

Coastal wetlands provide crucial ecosystem services to society including pollution filtration, fish and wildlife nursery and habitat, storm surge mitigation, and sinks for atmospheric carbon. Uncertainty of wetland responses to sea-level rise is a pervasive concern in coastal science and management. Advances in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and multi-sensor and object-oriented image analysis techniques are poised to aid the inventorying, monitoring and management of wetlands to an even greater extent. This chapter reviews developments and coastal wetland applications of these state of the art remote sensing data and techniques and evaluates the utility of these products for management of coastal reserves in case studies. Following concise review of the literature on remote sensing technological and image processing advances, case studies from North Carolina coastal wetlands are presented: (1) multidate SAR and LiDAR imagery for regional salt marsh mapping in Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge, (2) object-based image analysis (OBIA) for transitional marshes and Phragmites australis inventory in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, and (3) very fine resolution barrier island mapping using multisensor and multidate imagery and OBIA techniques in the Rachel Carson Coastal Reserve. Drawing upon these developments and case studies, insights for practical applications are evaluated to further even wider application to coastal management.
Induction of heat shock proteins and thermotolerance by ethanol in Saccharomycescerevisiae

Abstract The temperature sensitivity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the conditions of moderate heat pretreatment required to induce thermotolerance are established. Ethanol is identified as an inducer of heat shock proteins and an inducer of thermotolerance.
“Comical in Spite of the Misery”: Humor in Miné Okubo's Citizen 13660

This essay presents new research on Mine Okubo's Citizen 13660, focusing on the subversive use of humor in the graphic narrative about Japanese American internment.
RIBOZYME ENGINEERING AND EARLY EVOLUTION

T he recent demonstration by David Bartel and Jack Szostak (1993) of the ability to isolate new ribonucleic acid (RNA) enzymes, or "ribozymes," from large pools of random sequences has triggered a whole new industry aimed at generating designer RNA catalysts. These experiments have, in turn, fueled excitement about the possibility of uncovering early pathways of RNA evolution and testing whether the chemical basis for life could have ever emerged from RNA. In this article, we review and critique the accomplishments and implications of ribozyme engineering.
Simultaneous geologic scenario identification and flow model calibration with group-sparsity formulations

Abstract Adopting representative geologic connectivity scenarios is critical for reliable modeling and prediction of flow and transport processes in subsurface environments. Geologic scenarios are often developed by integrating several sources of information, including knowledge of the depositional environment, qualitative and quantitative data such as outcrop and well logs, and process-based geologic modeling. In general, flow and transport response data are usually not included in constructing geologic scenarios for a basin. Instead, these data are typically matched using a given prior geologic scenario as constraint. Since data limitations, modeling assumptions and subjective interpretations can lead to significant uncertainty in the adopted geologic scenarios, flow and transport data may also be useful for constraining the uncertainty in proposed geologic scenarios. Constraining geologic scenarios with flow-related data opens an interesting and challenging research area, which goes beyond the traditional model calibration formulations where the geologic scenario is assumed given. In this paper, a novel concept, known as group-sparsity regularization, is proposed as an effective formulation to constrain the uncertainty in the prior geologic scenario during subsurface flow model calibration. Given a collection of model realizations from several plausible geologic scenarios, the proposed method first applies the truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) to compactly represent the models from each geologic scenario. The TSVD basis for representing each scenario forms a distinct group. The proposed approach searches over these groups (i.e., geologic scenarios) to eliminate inconsistent groups that are not supported by the observed flow/pressure data. The group-sparsity regularization minimizes a l1/l2mixed norm, where the l2-norm quantifies the contribution of each group and operates on the coefficients within the groups while the l1-norm, having a selection property, is implemented across the groups to identify the significant groups. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its important properties.
An On-Line Experimental Comparison of two Simulated Record Selection Languages

This paper describes a study which compared learning and problem-solving performance by secretaries using two different approaches to selecting records from the contents of a data file. One of the methods evaluated became the Record Selection facility for the IBM Displaywriter-Reportpack program. The two approaches compared were: the graphic approach, similar in structure to Query By Example; and, the linear approach, similar in structure to Structured Query Language. The evaluation was done early in the product development cycle using on-line simulations of the user interfaces for the two methods. The study demonstrates how simulation of the user interface can provide valuable information on product design very early in the product development cycle, before any product code is written.
Nanometer-Scale Iron Oxide Magnetic Particles: Synthesis and Magnetic Properties

Nanometer-scale iron oxide magnetic particles have been formed in the porous network of a cross-linked polymer matrix by ion exchange and subsequent hydrolysis. The oxide particles are uniform, well-dispersed and spherical with a diameter ranging between 30 and 1200 A depending on the synthesis conditions. The DC magnetic susceptibility, measured between 4 and 300 K, continuously increases with decreasing temperature and tends to saturate at low temperatures. Composites containing iron oxide particles with an average diameter of 80 A exhibit superparamagnetism while those on the order of 1000 A undergo an antiferromagnetic-type transition at 33 K. The magnetic susceptibility is critically dependent upon the particle size and the strength of the magnetic field.
Pricing IT Services Deals: A More Agile Top-Down Approach

Information technology service providers bid on high valued services deals in a competitive environment. To price these deals, the traditional bottom up approach is to prepare a complete solution, i.e., know the detailed services to be offered to the client, find the exact costs of these services, and then add a gross profit to reach the bidding price. This is a very time consuming and resource intensive process. There is a business need to get quick (agile) early estimates of both cost and price using a core set of high level data for the deal. In this paper, we develop a two-step top down approach for doing this. In the first step, we mine historical and market data to come up with estimates on the cost and price. We provide some numerical results based on industry data that statistically shows that there is a benefit of using historical data in this step beside the traditional way of using market data. Because the bidding price is not the sole factor affecting the chances of winning a deal, we then enter the different price points in a predictive analytics model (step two) to calculate the relative probability of winning the deal at each point. Such probabilities with the corresponding prices can provide significant insights to the business helping them reach quick reliable pricing.
Future Landsat Data Needs at the Local and State Levels: An AmericaView Perspective

Abstract Earth observation imagery collected by the series of Landsat satellites constitutes the longest and most consistent collection of moderate spatial resolution remotely sensed data. Feedback from the Landsat user community has played an important role in assessing its utility and making improvements to future Landsat missions. The United States Geological Survey ( usgs ) and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration ( nasa ) continue to solicit input from user communities. This paper describes the outcome of soliciting input from experts associated with AmericaView ( av ), a non-profit organization aimed at promoting remote sensing applications in the us . The av community identified the importance of rigorously calibrated Landsat data for lulc applications at the state level and made several recommendations for future Landsat missions. Recommendations suggested by the community of av experts provide extremely valuable insights to usgs and nasa to further their discussions about the design and operation of future Landsat missions.
Growth and transformation in workplace alcoholism programming.

The origins of contemporary workplace programs to provide constructive assistance to employees with alcohol problems are described. The transformation from industrial alcoholism programming to employee assistance programming is delineated in terms of a seven-component “core technology.” The high degree of reported success of these programs is described with general findings from a survey of 480 private-company sites. Increasing rates of self-referral for assistance with alcohol problems are described in terms of factors facilitating such referrals. Basic research knowledge is summarized, together with a projection of new studies considered to be critical for maximizing the effectiveness of alcoholism intervention as it relates to workplace programs. Throughout the chapter the large-scale impact of workplace programming is emphasized, with an urgency for greater attention to be paid to these activities by the alcohol problem research community.
Sweetpotato Response to Simulated Glyphosate Wick Drip

Field studies were conducted in 2009 at Clinton, NC and 2014 at Pontotoc, MS to determine the influence of simulated glyphosate drip on sweetpotato yield and quality. Treatments consisted of three glyphosate solution (140 g ae L−1) drip volumes (0.16, 0.32 and 0.48 ml) by four application timings [(4 wk after transplanting (WAP); 6 WAP; 8 WAP; and 4 WAP followed by (fb) 6 WAP fb 8 WAP]. A non-treated check was included for comparison. Visual sweetpotato injury consisted of chlorosis at the shoot tips approximately 1 wk after treatment fb necrosis and stunting. At 6 WAP and 8 WAP, sweetpotato injury following glyphosate applied 4 WAP was 71 and 65%, respectively. Injury from glyphosate applied 4 WAP fb 6 WAP was 78%. Injury from glyphosate applied 6 WAP was 26% at 8 WAP. In 2009, jumbo, no. 1, canner, and marketable yield of the non-treated check were two to three times greater than glyphosate treatments (0.16, 0.32, 0.48 ml). Likewise, yield of the non-treated check was substantially greater than those tr...
Minimally Invasive Core Decompression Augmented with Concentrated Autologous Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Although core decompression has been described to treat osteonecrosis (ON) of the femoral head in the early stages of the disease, it is believed that core decompression alone is insufficient to heal the ON site and prevent progression and collapse. Recently, bone marrow has been aspirated from the iliac crests of patients, concentrated, and injected into the areas of ON. The bone marrow concentrate (BMC) contains mesenchymal stem cells, which have the ability to differentiate into bone and possess osteoinductive properties. Core decompression supplemented with BMC has been shown to decrease pain, improve function, and halt progression of the ON lesion. At our institution, in addition to BMC, we have been adding platelet-rich plasma (PRP) which adds additional growth factors which potentially can increase the rate of healing.
Assessment of engineered cells using CellNet and RNA-seq.

CellNet is a computational platform designed to improve cell fate engineering protocols. Here the authors demonstrate how to apply CellNet to RNA-seq data and how to build a completely new CellNet platform applicable to new species or cell types/tissues.
Demand for Insurance That Nudges Demand

This article explores the question of whether there will be voluntary demand for insurance which uses adjustments in cost sharing to correct the results of patient misperception of marginal benefits from different kinds of medical goods and services. This ‘value-based benefits’ approach has been advocated in the US and elsewhere. Although there is considerable evidence for patient misperception uncorrected by physician advice, the strong demand for insurance reflects that misperception will occur in the case when there are substantial cost offsets from greater use of an undervalued service. There may also be demand if consumers take a ‘two selves’ view of their behavior, desiring to correct underuse or overuse when they choose insurance. In the absence of these two cases, the emergence of demand is unlikely because providing consumers with information on their underestimation will cause moral hazard which will in turn drive up premiums. Public policy intervention may be needed, but may not be forthcoming if misinformed voters view proposals to raise premiums to correct underuse.
Impact of Free App Promotion on Future Sales: A Case Study on Amazon Appstore

Amazon’s Free App of the Day program, aimed at improving app visibility using daily free promotions, is a compelling experiment in the ‘economics of free’. In this study, we investigate the longer-term consequences of free app promotions on the performance of apps on Amazon Appstore. In particular, we quantify the causal impact of such promotions on apps’ future download volumes, star ratings, and sales rank using a multi-level model. On average, apps see a surge in download volumes during such promotions, albeit accompanied by a short-term negative effect on its star ratings. On average, sales rank briefly improves but falls to pre-promotion levels within a few months. Interestingly, our findings suggest that lower ranked apps are the biggest beneficiaries of these promotions, as they witness the most significant sales impact. In addition, we show the presence of a cross-market spillover effect of such promotions on the performance of the same apps on Google Playstore. Our results underscore a nuanced set of trade-offs for an app developer: do the benefits of running a promotion and boosting ones’ sales rank warrant the lost revenue and risk of lower user ratings in the long run?
An online tool for predicting fatigue strength of steel alloys based on ensemble data mining

Abstract Fatigue strength is one of the most important mechanical properties of steel. Here we describe the development and deployment of data-driven ensemble predictive models for fatigue strength of a given steel alloy represented by its composition and processing information. The forward models for PSPP relationships (predicting property of a material given its composition and processing parameters) are built using over 400 experimental observations from the Japan National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) steel fatigue dataset. Forty modeling techniques, including ensemble modeling were explored to identify the set of best performing models for different attribute sets. Data-driven feature selection techniques were also used to find a small non-redundant subset of attributes, and the processing/composition parameters most influential to fatigue strength were identified to inform future design efforts. The developed predictive models are deployed in a user-friendly online web-tool available at http://info.eecs.northwestern.edu/SteelFatigueStrengthPredictor .
Integrating psychosocial support at Ebola treatment units in Sierra Leone and Liberia

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic killed almost 12,000 people across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, causing significant psychological distress and suffering. This paper describes International Medical Corps’ innovative and comprehensive model for integrating mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations and activities into Ebola treatment units (ETUs) across Sierra Leone and Liberia. This includes staff capacity building as well as psychosocial considerations and activities to address needs and challenges at the ETUs. This model was aimed at reducing patient and family distress and promoting healthy behaviours and recovery. We also include data describing mental health-related symptoms reported by our ETU patients, as well as psychosocial support interventions utilised. We discuss recommendations and lessons learnt and conclude that in line with global guidelines, MHPSS considerations and activities should be integral to all aspects of EVD care. Key implications for practice Patients admitted to ETUs face several stressors and challenges related to the ETU environment and procedures, separation from families and effects of EVD Mental health and psychosocial support considerations should be an integral part of all aspects of care provided at the ETU Paraprofessional psychosocial support workers can play a key role in meeting patient needs at the ETU in line with global mental health and psychosocial support guidelines.
Anatomy of Underwater Sound Production With a Focus on Ultrasonic Vocalization in Toothed Whales Including Dolphins and Porpoises

Abstract Underwater sound production occurs in aquatic mammals, including cetaceans (whales, including dolphins and porpoises). While most aquatic mammals use the vocal folds of the larynx for generating sounds (including the infrasonic vocalizations of baleen whales), ultrasonic vocalization (USV) occurs only in odontocetes (toothed whales). It is unclear whether odontocetes can generate any sound with the larynx. However, there is ample experimental proof that the odontocete nasal region produces USVs. These sounds are made by airflow vibrating complex tissues surrounding the nasal aperture (blowhole). The involved structures consist of phonic lips (vibration source), air sacs (air capture and recycling) or a connective tissue theca (reflector), and melon (focuser, transducer). These nasal region tissues appear to be evolutionarily derived from homologous facial structures (e.g., lips, nasal cartilages, facial muscles) of other mammals. Sound production mechanisms of aquatic mammals will be discussed, with an emphasis on the USVs of odontocetes.
Redistribution, inequality, and growth: new evidence

We investigate the relationship between inequality, redistribution, and growth using a recently-compiled dataset that distinguishes clearly between market (pre-tax and transfer) and net (post tax and transfer) inequality, and allows us to calculate redistributive transfers for a large number of advanced and developing countries. Across a variety of estimation methods, data samples, and robustness checks, we find: (1) lower net inequality is robustly correlated with faster and more durable growth, controlling for the level of redistribution; (2) redistribution appears benign in terms of its impact on growth, except when it is extensive; and (3) inequality seems to affect growth through human capital accumulation and fertility channels.
A Brief Introduction to the .NET Framework

When Microsoft brought out the. NET Framework, it was a radical shift and a wake-up call. This chapter describes the basics of this Framework.
A full-field crystal plasticity study on how texture and grain structure influences hydrostatic stress in thermally strained β-Sn films

The present study uses full-field thermo-mechanically coupled crystal plasticity to simulate the stress distribution in thermally strained β-Sn films to better understand the conditions causing the generally rare nucleation of whiskers from such films. Following the notion that stress-driven diffusion along the grain boundary network is leading to and supporting whisker formation, the goal is to identify critical factors of crystallographic and/or geometric nature that influence the hydrostatic stress in such films prior to the onset of actual whisker formation. Approximating the film as a periodic structure of around a hundred columnar grains on an isotropic substrate, the simulations reveal a strong spatial variation of hydrostatic stress over distances comparable to the grain size but without apparent long-range gradients, suggesting whisker nucleation to be a phenomenon that depends on specifics within a relatively small neighborhood of grains. Furthermore, neither the grain size distribution nor the presence of oblique surface grains alters the width of the stress distribution by much. In contrast, the variation of hydrostatic stress notably depends on the crystallographic texture of the film, where β-Sn films for which the film normal is aligned with ⟨ 0 0 1 ] show a narrower distribution than films with ⟨ 1 0 0 ] parallel to the normal. The former film texture, therefore, is predicted to be less prone to whisker formation than the latter.
Keeping Sleepy People off the Road: The Responsibility of Drivers, Doctors, and the DMV.

Drivers, physicians, and motor vehicle agencies all have some responsibility in reducing the number of fatal traffic accidents caused by driver sleepiness. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
ENDOCRINE EFFECTS OF DOPAMINERGIC ERGOT ALKALOIDS — TOXICOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

ABSTRACT The effect of dopaminergic ergots on anterior pituitary function is limited to suppression of prolactin secretion during chronic therapy in normal subjects. Long term high dose bromocriptine toxicity studies have revealed an eightfold increase in uterine tumors in the aging female rat. Gynecological examinations of women (including some post-menopausal women) treated with bromocriptine for up to six years have not revealed any evidence of uterine disease. Although the human data are preliminary there are theoretical reasons for believing that the tumors in rats are related to their different reproductive physiology. The importance of choosing an appropriate model for toxicity studies is stressed.
Multiple Hospital Systems in the United States: A Network Analysis of their Institutional Structures

Medical care in the United Sates appears to be undergoping a major transformation. Traditional, autonomous, community hospitals are being drawn into multiple hospital systems. A 1981 survey by the American Hospital Association (1981) identified 245 multiple hospital systems that accounted for almost 30 percent of the community hospital beds in the U.S. For-profit hospital chains accounted for 35 percent of these beds.
Reinforcement Learning Based Pricing for Demand Response

Smart pricing based demand response (DR) programs can enable the system to shape load profiles to improve system reliability and performance. Existing works on pricing based DR often assume that users' response functions are available or predictable at the load serving entity (LSE) side. Due to divergent consumption habituates of the users, it is challenging to have an accurate estimate of users' responses. Clearly, any mischaracterization of users' responses would result in higher system costs. To tackle this challenge, we leverage reinforcement learning to learn users' response functions. Specifically, we formulate the DR problem as a stochastic optimization problem, in which random responses are considered due to users' volatile behaviors. We develop a reinforcement learning based algorithm to solve a pricing strategy for DR without assuming any specific forms of users' response functions. The proposed reinforcement learning algorithm is shown to converge to an equilibrium with near optimal performance, which is corroborated via numerical simulations.
Fibronectin overexpression in retinal microvessels of patients with diabetes.

Purpose. To examine whether fibronectin is synthesized in the adult human retina and whetherdiabetes alters it s amount, level o f expression, and pattern of splicing.Methods. Retinas were obtained after death 24 patient froms (age 6,4 ± 6 years) with 8 ± 5years of diabetes and 24 age-matched control subjects. Retinal localizatio of fibronectinn andits amount in retinal vessels were examined wit thhe immunoperoxidase technique. Fibronec-tin mRNA in th e total retina wa s studied with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactionusing primers encompassin the alternativelg y spliced exon Th ED-Ae level.s of fibronectinmRNA were measured relative to an internal standard (/?-acti mRNA)n . To detect and measurefibronectin expression in microvessels, retinal trypsin digests were studied by in situ hybridiza-tion.Results. In the adult human retina, fibronectin is present exclusively in the o wallf the vesselss ,including capillaries, an idn the internal limiting membrane I.n diabetic vessels, immunoreac-tive fibronectin was increased 1.4-fol ovedr level isn control vessels (P = 0.05). Fibronecti inssynthesized locally an, d the predominant mRNA species excludes the ED-A region. The splic-ing pattern wa nos t altered by diabetes. However i,n the retinas of patients with diabetes th, elevels of fibronectin mRNA were increase 1.3-fold ovedr level isn control retinas (P = 0.028),whereas actin mRNA levels were similar in the two groups. Levels of fibronectin mRNA showeda substantial increas in thee microvessel os f patients with diabete (0.4s 9 ± 0.1 grains/cel8 lversus 0.15 ± 0.12 grains/cel inl control microvessels P =; 0.009).Conclusions. Fibronecti is synthesizen idn th adule t human retina. Diabete thse increasesamount of fibronectin in retinal vessel ans d upregulates its expression without changin thgesplicing patter on f the ED-A segment. Increased synthesi and depositios n of fibronectin bymicrovascular cell mas y modify the interaction osf cells an d matrix with functional conse-quences relevan tto the lesions of retinopathy. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1996;37:258-266.A hickening of vascular basement membranes is con-sidered the hallmark of microangiopathy,' but the un-derlying mechanism (s) and possible consequenceshave not been reconstructed comprehensively.
Distal Data and Indicator Interactions

Although representative ranks are indirect indicators with intrinsic indefiniteness, they are particularly advantageous for determining whether there are cases having pronounced sensitivity to a change in one indicator. It may be that one indicator has especially good status, whereby deterioration in the indicator would degrade the overall status of the case substantially. Conversely, it may be that an indicator has especially poor status, whereby improvement in the indicator would upgrade the overall status of the case substantially. In the latter situation, some remediation effort focused on the weak indicator could pay large dividends (Newlin and Bhat 2007). Statistically, a sensitive situation involves a rank outlier producing an extended tail on the distribution of ranks for the case, which can occur on one or both ends.
Mathematical Models of Thrombus Formation and Fibrinolysis

Abstract Primary and secondary hemostasis are intimately intertwined processes, coupled through positive feedback loops and agonist activation of platelets. Hemostasis is designed to seal an injured vessel with a clot that, after the injured tissue is healed, is dissolved via fibrinolysis. These steps involve complex biochemical processes that occur on multiple spatial and temporal scales and are strongly influenced by biophysical and biomechanical effects. Due to the large number of proteins, chemicals, and cells, in addition to the combination of biochemical, biophysical, and biomechanical effects on the system, it is difficult to intuit how the system will respond without quantitative methods. In the past few decades, numerous mathematical models have been developed to address this challenge. In this chapter, we provide a survey of such models along with some of the experimental work that motivated them and was motivated by them.