cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Clinical utility of serum amyloid A and macrophage migration inhibitory factor as serum biomarkers for the detection of nonsmall cell lung carcinoma.

BACKGROUND. Early lung carcinoma detection strategies involving imaging studies have yet to demonstrate a reduction in mortality. Identification of serum biomarkers that could complement radiologic studies and facilitate earlier diagnosis of lung carcinoma would be of significant benefit to patients. In the current pilot study, the authors evaluated two overexpressed proteins in lung carcinoma, serum amyloid A (SAA) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), as potential diagnostic serum biomarkers for this malignancy. METHODS. Serum levels of SAA and MIF were measured in 50 patients using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the markers in detecting lung carcinoma were determined. RESULTS. SAA levels in patients with lung carcinoma were greater than in the control patients (P 0.07). Serum SAA levels did not exhibit a correlation with tumor size or clinical stage and were higher in patients with squamous cell carcinoma than in patients with other histologic disease types. MIF was unable to differentiate patients with lung carcinoma from patients with other diseases. CONCLUSIONS. SAA possesses potential utility as a serum biomarker for lung carcinoma, probably in conjunction with other serum markers that improve its diagnostic accuracy. Before a larger study is performed, the discovery of additional biomarkers to enhance the specificity of SAA in the diagnosis of lung carcinoma is recommended. Cancer 2004;101:379 – 84. © 2004 American Cancer Society.
An Experiential Case Study in IT Project Management Planning: The Petroleum Engineering Economics Evaluation Software Imperative

The case covers key issues in information technology project management. It deals with developing a full set of project plans, including milestones, tasks, schedules, staffing, deliverables, and projected costs, for a complex software development project (Gido & Clements, 2003; Kerzner, 2003; Schwalbe, 2002). The essence of this case is the analyzing of a specific organizational setting with critical software needs and the developing of the needed plans. As in many similar situations, this organization is relatively complex, and the situation is not entirely clear. By reviewing the facts of the case, collecting outside information, conducting role playing interviews, analyzing requirements, and estimating schedules and costs, one can collect the information needed to develop baseline project plans for the software development envisioned in this case.
An Examination of the Determinants of Golf Travelers’ Satisfaction

With increasing competition for attracting patrons to golf destinations, it is becoming more important for managers to identify the variables that attract or retain golf travelers. Yet, relatively little is known about the determinants of, and best way to measure, golf travelers’ satisfaction. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the determinants of golf travelers’ overall satisfaction. The research found that overall satisfaction can be effectively predicted with information and attribute satisfaction and that information satisfaction is an antecedent to attribute satisfaction. These findings suggest that Oliver’s model may be improved with the inclusion of information satisfaction. It was also found that attributes related to the resort experience had more influence on overall satisfaction than attributes related to information provided and golfing experiences. Further, it was found that golf travelers’ satisfaction is highly correlated with repurchase intentions. Managerial and the...
Correlation between fracture properties and dynamic mechanical relaxations in composite propellants

Abstract The fracture behaviour of a series of composite propellants (containing segmented polyurethanes based on hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) or poly(ether glycols) or glycidyl azide polymer, filled with ammonium perchlorate (AP) particles) during impact has been measured on a modified Hopkinson bar and correlated with viscoelastic properties measured by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (d.m.t.a.). Results from Fourier analysis of the impact pulse give direct evidence that molecular relaxation processes responsible for the binder soft-segment α-transition govern the fracture property of these composite polymers. However, fracture also depends on other factors such as filler-binder interactions and impact temperature. Evidence is given for filler-binder interactions at the filler-binder interface. Propellants containing glycidyl azide polymer as binder are less sensitive to impact than comparable propellants with HTPB or poly(ether glycol) as binder. The chemical structure of the polymeric binder appears to have little influence on the impact sensitivity whereas physical properties are important.
A digital automatic positioning system

Abstract A flexible and reliable positioning system for automatic control of experiments is described. Its main components are a stepper motor and two electro-mechanical counters. The system is used primarily for angular correlation measurements. Data acquisition, detector positioning, instrument resetting, etc. are fully automatic. With little modification the system is readily adaptable to many other applications.
Rapid compression transforms interfacial monolayers of pulmonary surfactant.

Films of pulmonary surfactant in the lung are metastable at surface pressures well above the equilibrium spreading pressure of 45 mN/m but commonly collapse at that pressure when compressed in vitro. The studies reported here determined the effect of compression rate on the ability of monolayers containing extracted calf surfactant at 37 degrees C to maintain very high surface pressures on the continuous interface of a captive bubble. Increasing the rate from 2 A(2)/phospholipid/min (i.e., 3% of (initial area at 40 mN/m)/min) to 23%/s produced only transient increases to 48 mN/m. Above a threshold rate of 32%/s, however, surface pressures reached > 68 mN/m. After the rapid compression, static films maintained surface pressures within +/- 1 mN/m both at these maximum values and at lower pressures following expansion at or = 45 mN/m. Experiments with dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine at 37 degrees C produced similar results. These findings indicate that compression at rates comparable to values in the lungs can transform at least some phospholipid monolayers from a form that collapses readily at the equilibrium spreading pressure to one that is metastable for prolonged periods at higher pressures. Our results also suggest that transformation of surfactant films can occur without refinement of their composition.
Reusable intrinsic sample point (RISP) algorithm for the efficient numerical integration of three dimensional curved boundary elements

This paper presents an algorithm that provides an order of magnitude gain in the computational performance of the numerical integration of the boundary integral equations for three dimensional analysis. Existing algorithms for numerical integration have strategically clustered integration sample points based on the relative proximity of the load points to the boundary element being integrated using element subdivision or element co-ordinate transformation. The emphasis in these techniques has been on minimizing the number of sample points required to obtain a given level of accuracy. The present algorithm, while closely following the spirit of these earlier approaches, employs a discrete number of sets of predetermined, customized, near-optimum, sample point quantities associated with the intrinsic boundary element. The ability created by this approach to reuse sample point geometric information of the actual element allows for the realization of substantive computational economy. This algorithm provides accurate and efficient numerical results both when load points are far from, and when they are on the boundary element being integrated. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the substantial economy achieved through the use of the present algorithm.
African American women's experiences with breast cancer screening

Purpose: To describe the experience and meaning of breast cancer screening for African American women. Breast cancer screening offers the greatest hope of reducing breast cancer mortality and improving breast cancer outcomes. Despite the proliferation of initiatives targeting African American women, they continue to be first diagnosed only when they have late-stage disease. Design and Methods: Using hermeneutic phenomenological research methods, 23 low-and middle-income African American women were interviewed to gain an understanding of their experiences with breast cancer screening. Findings: Participants varied in their experiences with breast cancer screening. Women spoke of a desire for a holistic approach to health that did not separate the breast from the rest of the body. This desire is indicated in the theme of minding the body, self, and spirit, along with themes of relationships and spreading the word about breast health issues. Conclusions: Interventions for African American women should include a focus on minding the body, self, and spirit to promote breast cancer screening, and should indicate the importance of relationships and spreading the word about breast cancer screening.
Modelling the returns on options for improving malaria case management in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND Diverse opinions have emerged about the best way to scale up malaria interventions. Three controversies seem most important: (1) should the scale-up focus on a broader target of febrile illness (including infectious disease and pneumonia)? (2) should the scale-up feature a single intervention or be targeted to the situation? (3) should scale-up have a preference for one kind of delivery mechanism or another? METHODS A decision model of 576 nodes describes the patterns of access, treatment and outcomes of an episode of febrile illness for a child below 5 years. Incremental costs and outcomes relative to baseline (2010) are computed for particular scenarios for Ethiopia using data from the literature. Two perspectives define the relevant costs: society at large and financiers (government and donors) where the costs borne by households are not included. FINDINGS Scaling up malaria interventions by one means or another is a very inexpensive way of saving young lives in poor countries. The low cost per life saved stems from two main reasons: the excessive baseline costs of presumptive use of antimalarial drugs for non-malaria cases, and the excessive costs of delayed treatment of pneumonia. A very limited policy of supplying antibiotics to facilities to eliminate stockouts would save 2100 lives, at a cost of only $615 a life. A much broader programme option, bundling malaria and pneumonia together for patients presenting with febrile illness [including rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for malaria, respiratory rate timers (RRTs) and free antibiotics], would save tens of thousands of young lives at and still cost society less than child fever management in the baseline situation! It is not clear that scale-up via community health workers (CHWs) is to be preferred to a facility-based intervention. The delivery through CHWs allows for a broader coverage of using RDT and RRT, but with limited effectiveness due to limited skills of CHWs in treating and managing patients.
Measure-theoretic evolutionary annealing

There is a deep connection between simulated annealing and genetic algorithms with proportional selection. Evolutionary annealing is a novel evolutionary algorithm that makes this connection explicit, resulting in an evolutionary optimization method that can be viewed either as simulated annealing with improved sampling or as a non-Markovian selection mechanism for genetic algorithms with selection over all prior populations. A martingale-based analysis shows that evolutionary annealing is asymptotically convergent and this analysis leads to heuristics for setting learning parameters to optimize the convergence rate. In this work and in parallel work evolutionary annealing is shown to converge faster than other evolutionary algorithms on several benchmark problems, establishing a promising foundation for future theoretical and experimental research into algorithms based on evolutionary annealing.
Learning-To-Communicate and Communicating-To-Learn in Veterinary Medicine: A Survey of Writing, Speaking, and Reading in Veterinary Medical Curricula:

This article reports the results of a survey of thirty-one colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States and Canada to identify common writing, speaking, and reading tasks performed by veter...
LDBS: a duplication based scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous computing systems

Finding an optimal solution to the problem of scheduling an application modeled by a directed acyclic graph (DAG) onto a set of heterogeneous machines is known to be an NP-hard problem. In this study, we present a duplication based scheduling algorithm, namely the levelized duplication based scheduling (LDBS) algorithm, which solves this problem efficiently. The primary goal of LDBS is to minimize the schedule length of applications. LDBS can accommodate different duplication heuristics, thanks to its modular design. Specifically, we have designed two different duplication heuristics with different time complexities. The simulation studies confirm that LDBS is a very competitive scheduling algorithm in terms of minimizing the schedule length of applications.
Improving sparse word similarity models with asymmetric measures

Weshow that asymmetric models based on Tversky (1977) improve correlations with human similarity judgments and nearest neighbor discovery for both frequent and middle-rank words. In accord with Tversky’s discovery that asymmetric similarity judgments arise when comparing sparse and rich representations, improvement on our two tasks can be traced to heavily weighting the feature bias toward the rarer word when comparing high- and midfrequency words.
High-temperature microfluidic synthesis of CdSe nanocrystals in nanoliter droplets.

The high-temperature synthesis of CdSe nanocrystals in nanoliter-volume droplets flowing in a perfluorinated carrier fluid through a microfabricated reactor is presented. A flow-focusing nanojet structure with a step increase in channel height reproducibly generated octadecene droplets in Fomblin Y 06/6 perfluorinated polyether at capillary numbers up to 0.81 and with a droplet:carrier fluid viscosity ratio of 0.035. Cadmium and selenium precursors flowing in octadecene droplets through a high-temperature (240−300 °C) glass microreactor produced high-quality CdSe nanocrystals, as verified by optical spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Isolating the reaction solution in droplets prevented particle deposition and hydrodynamic dispersion, allowing the reproducible synthesis of nanocrystals at three different temperatures and four different residence times in the span of 4 h. Our synthesis of a wide range of nanocrystals at high temperatures, high capillary numbers, and low viscosity ratio illu...
Generating data ensembles over a model grid from sparse climate point measurements

Parameterizations in high-end climate models can be evaluated with observed climate and meteorological data. Often this evaluation is achieved by averaging measured quantities over time and space to match the spatial and temporal resolution of a gridded climate model without any regard for the statistical errors in doing so. We present a statistical method to interpolate sparsely located surface measurements into a uniform spatial grid representative of global and regional models of the atmosphere and climate. This method provides estimates of mean values over the entire domain containing the measurement sites as well as the uncertainty in the estimated quantities at the grid locations through multiple simulations to create 'data ensembles.' We demonstrate this method using measurements of surface sensible heat flux over the southern Great Plains region gathered through the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program. Application to the numerous other climate variables measured through the ARM program and the development of a software tool to streamline data management and implementation of the statistical models is also discussed.
Complex Disease–, Gene–, and Drug–Drug Interactions: Impacts of Renal Function, CYP2D6 Phenotype, and OCT2 Activity on Veliparib Pharmacokinetics

Purpose: Veliparib, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, undergoes renal excretion and liver metabolism. This study quantitatively assessed the interactions of veliparib with metabolizing enzyme (CYP2D6) and transporter (OCT2) in disease settings (renal impairment). Experimental Design: Veliparib in vitro metabolism was examined in human liver microsomes and recombinant enzymes carrying wild-type CYP2D6 or functional defect variants ( CYP2D6*10 and *4 ). Plasma pharmacokinetics were evaluated in 27 patients with cancer. A parent–metabolite joint population model was developed to characterize veliparib and metabolite (M8) pharmacokinetics and to identify patient factors influencing veliparib disposition. A physiologically based pharmacokinetic model integrated with a mechanistic kidney module was developed to quantitatively predict the individual and combined effects of renal function, CYP2D6 phenotype, and OCT2 activity on veliparib pharmacokinetics. Results: In vitro intrinsic clearance of CYP2D6.1 and CYP2D6.10 for veliparib metabolism were 0.055 and 0.017 μL/min/pmol CYP, respectively. Population mean values for veliparib oral clearance and M8 clearance were 13.3 and 8.6 L/h, respectively. Creatinine clearance was identified as the significant covariate on veliparib oral clearance. Moderate renal impairment, CYP2D6 poor metabolizer, and co-administration of OCT2 inhibitor (cimetidine) increased veliparib steady-state exposure by 80%, 20%, and 30%, respectively. These factors collectively led to >2-fold increase in veliparib exposure. Conclusions: Renal function (creatinine clearance) is a significant predictor for veliparib exposure in patients with cancer. Although a single factor (i.e., renal impairment, CYP2D6 deficiency, and reduced OCT2 activity) shows a moderate impact, they collectively could result in a significant and potentially clinically relevant increase in veliparib exposure. Clin Cancer Res; 20(15); 3931–44. ©2014 AACR .
Design of robust-path-delay-fault-testable combinational circuits by Boolean space expansion

A procedure for the design of robustly path-delay-fault testable two-level circuits by adding extra inputs to the circuits, using the method called Boolean space expansion is proposed. 100% path delay fault testable two-level circuits are achieved with area overhead in the range of 3% to 30%. A procedure to make the multilevel circuits fully testable is also reported. The results for several ISCAS benchmark circuits are presented. >
Possible Therapy Options

There are two sets of possible therapy options presented here and discussed throughout this book: pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical. At rest there are only four autonomic imbalances. Contrary to the “seesaw” model of the ANS taught in medical school, one side low is not always the same as the other side high. This is only typical in healthy individuals. Treating patients as if it were often does not lead to improved outcomes. The four states should be treated separately, but with the “seesaw” still in mind, when more therapy is needed. For example, it is often not recommended to attempt to treat by directly increasing parasympathetic activity. So to effect an increase in the parasympathetics, we treat to decrease the sympathetics. However, this only works so long as the therapy does not drive HR and BP too low and cause fatigue and other dysfunction. During the dynamic states (i.e., in response to challenges) therapy is even more directed. Lastly, the therapy options included are only to treat the ANS. They assume an otherwise healthy individual. While some therapies can be additive to treat multiple ANS symptoms simultaneously, all therapy must be considered with the patient’s history in mind. The software can diagnose the ANS, but not the ANS in light of the patient’s history. This is where the physician’s knowledge of the patient and experience is needed. After all is reviewed in context, the physician can then target and tailor therapy more precisely.
A trade-off between precopulatory and postcopulatory trait investment in male cetaceans

Mating with multiple partners is common across species, and understanding how individual males secure fertilization in the face of competition remains a fundamental goal of evolutionary biology. Game theory stipulates that males have a fixed budget for reproduction that can lead to a trade-off between investment in precopulatory traits such as body size, armaments, and ornaments, and postcopulatory traits such as testis size and spermatogenic efficiency. Recent theoretical and empirical studies have shown that if males can monopolize access to multiple females, they will invest disproportionately in precopulatory traits and less in postcopulatory traits. Using phylogenetically controlled comparative methods, we demonstrate that across 58 cetacean species with the most prominent sexual dimorphism in size, shape, teeth, tusks, and singing invest significantly less in relative testes mass. In support of theoretical predictions, these species tend to show evidence of male contests, suggesting there is opportunity for winners to monopolize access to multiple females. Our approach provides a robust dataset with which to make predictions about male mating strategies for the many cetacean species for which adequate behavioral observations do not exist.
IFN-γ-independent intraocular tumor rejection is mediated by a macrophage-dependent process that leaves the eye intact.

Intraocular tumors reside in an immune-privileged site, yet in certain circumstances, they can undergo immune rejection. Ocular tumor rejection can follow one of two pathways. One pathway is CD4 T cell-dependent and culminates in ischemic necrosis of the tumor and phthisis (atrophy) of the eye. A second pathway is also CD4 T cell-dependent but does not inflict collateral injury to ocular tissues, and the eye is preserved. We isolated two clones of a murine tumor, Ad5E1 that undergo profoundly different forms of immune rejection in the eye. Clone 2.1 tumors undergo an ischemic necrotizing form of rejection that requires IFN-, T cells, and ocular macrophages and culminates in destruction of the eye. By contrast, the second clone of Ad5E1, clone 4, undergoes rejection that also requires T cells and ocular macrophages, but leaves the eye in pristine condition (nonphthisical rejection). Here, we demonstrate that nonphthisical tumor rejection of clone 4 tumors is IFN-independent but requires an ocular macrophage population that contains M1 and M2 macrophages. Clone 4 tumor-bearing eyes displayed ten- and 15-fold increases in M2- and M1-associated markers Arg1 and NO2, respectively. This is in sharp contrast to previous results with clone 2.1 tumor rejection, in which M2 markers were undetectable, and the eye was destroyed. These results suggest that the presence of M2 macrophages tempers the immune rejection of intraocular tumors and promotes immune effectors that inflict minimal injury to innocent bystander cells and thereby preserve the integrity and function of the eye. J. Leukoc. Biol. 92: 939–950; 2012.
Strain related changes in regional myocardial cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitor protein, p21 post-myocardial infarction in ovine model

mitochondrial fragmentation and redistribution of calcein from the mitochondria to the cytosol were detected in isolated cells during ischemia. The antioxidants N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) or 2-mercaptopropionyl-glycine (2-MPG) given during ischemia significantly attenuated mitochondrial ROS production, calcein redistribution and reperfusion-induced cell death. Cardiac slices exposed to simulated ischemia also showed an increase in mitochondrial ROS production and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential during ischemia.
A plasmid-cured Chlamydia muridarum strain displays altered plaque morphology and reduced infectivity in cell culture.

A highly conserved cryptic plasmid is present in Chlamydia trachomatis yet naturally occurring plasmid-deficient isolates are very rare. This paper describes the isolation and characterization of a plasmid-deficient strain of C. muridarum, using novobiocin as a curing agent. Plasmid-deficient derivatives of C. muridarum strain Nigg were generated at high efficiencies (4–30 %). Phenotypic characterization revealed that the cured derivative was unable to accumulate glycogen within intracytoplasmic inclusions. In addition, this strain formed small plaques at a reduced efficiency compared to the wild-type parent.
Social Relationships of Latino Grandparent Caregivers: A Role Theory Perspective

This article uses a role theory perspective to examine the social relationships of 74 Latinos, mostly middle-aged and older Puerto Rican and Dominican women, rearing their grandchildren in New York City. Fully 81% of households were below poverty level. Most grandparents had large families and were socially connected, but two thirds of households were skipped-generational and many grandparents lacked reliable help with child rearing. Most relied on a focal secondary caregiver, usually an adult daughter, and extrafamilial supports. These and other sources of strain and support for the grandparent caregiver role in Latino families are discussed, as is the impact of this role on their social relationships.
Diazoalkanes react with a bis(phosphino)borate copper(I) source to generate [Ph2BPtBu2]Cu(η1-N2CR2), [Ph2BPtBu2]Cu(CPh2), and [Ph2BPtBu2]Cu–N(CPh2)(NCPh2)

[Ph2BPtBu2]Cu–L complexes react with diazoalkanes to generate structurally unusual η1-diazoalkane adducts, a terminal carbene, and an η1-azine adduct.
Interaction between light and chilling temperature on the inhibition of photosynthesis in chilling-sensitive plants†

Abstract. Fully expanded leaves of 25°C grown Phaseolus vulgaris and six other species were exposed for 3 h to chilling temperatures at photon flux densities equivalent to full sunlight. In four of the species this treatment resulted in substantial inhibition of the subsequent quantum yield of CO2 uptake, indicating reduction of the photochemical efficiency of photosynthesis. The extent of inhibition was dependent on the photon flux density during chilling and no inhibition occurred when chilling occurred at a low photon flux density. No inhibition occurred at temperatures above 11.5°C, even in the presence of the equivalent of full sunlight. This interaction between chilling and light to cause inhibition of photosynthesis was promoted by the presence of oxygen at normal air partial pressures and was unaffected by the CO2 partial pressure present when chilling occurred in air. When chilling occurred at low O2 partial pressures, CO2 was effective in reducing the degree of inhibition. Apparently, when leaves of chilling-sensitive plants are exposed to chilling temperatures in air of normal composition then light is instrumental in inducing rapid damage to the photochemical efficiency of photosynthesis.
Evidence for peripheral clearance of cerebral Aβ protein following chronic, active Aβ immunization in PSAPP mice

Immunization with amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease has been reported to decrease cerebral Abeta levels and improve behavioral deficits. Several mechanisms have been proposed, including antibody-induced phagocytosis of Abeta by cerebral microglia and increased efflux of Abeta from the brain to the periphery. The latter mechanism was suggested in mice undergoing acute, passive transfer of an Abeta monoclonal antibody. Here, PSAPP transgenic mice were actively immunized by a single intraperitoneal injection of synthetic Abeta followed by chronic intranasal administration of Abeta with the mucosal adjuvant, Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin, LT, twice weekly for 8 weeks. Serum from Abeta-immunized mice had an average of 240 microg/ml of anti-Abeta-specific antibodies; these antibodies had epitope(s) within Abeta1-15 and were of immunoglobulin (Ig) isotypes IgG2b, IgG2a, and IgG1. Immunization led to a 75% decrease in plaque number (P < 0.0001) and a 58% decrease in Abetax-42 levels (P < 0.026) in brain, and gliosis and neuritic dystrophy were diminished. No pathological effects of the immunization were observed in kidney, spleen, or snout. Serum Abeta levels increased 28-fold in immunized mice (53.06 ng/ml) compared to controls (1.87 ng/ml). Most of the Abeta in the serum of the immunized mice was bound to antibodies. We conclude that following active immunization, anti-Abeta antibodies sequester serum Abeta and may increase central nervous system to serum Abeta clearance.
A 320mV 56μW 411GOPS/Watt Ultra-Low Voltage Motion Estimation Accelerator in 65nm CMOS

Motion estimation for compressing inter-frame redundancies is the most performance and power-critical operation in video encoding applications, where a wide range of throughput and power constraints are required to handle a variety of video resolution, frame rate and application specifications. A motion estimation engine targeted for special-purpose on-die acceleration of sum of absolute difference (SAD) computation in real-time video encoding workloads on power-constrained mobile microprocessors is fabricated in 65nm CMOS.
Planned missing data designs with small sample sizes: How small is too small?

Utilizing planned missing data (PMD) designs (ex. 3-form surveys) enables researchers to ask participants fewer questions during the data collection process. An important question, however, is just...
Paint As a Corrosion Sensor; Acrylic Coating Systems

Paint systems containing color-change or fluorescing compounds have been found to be sensitive to underlying corrosion processes by reacting to the pH increase associated with the cathodic reaction that accompanies corrosion. The sensitivity of these coating systems for detection of cathodic reactions associated with corrosion was determined by applying constant cathodic current and measuring the charge at which color change or fluorescence is detected. Visual observation of coated samples with the unaided eye can detect changes resulting from a charge corresponding to a hemispherical pit with depth on the order of 3–15 microns. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy was also performed to test the influence of the indicating compound addition on the coating corrosion protectiveness.
Shortcomings in Standard Instrumental Methods for Assessing Beer Color

The colors of four beers (two lagers, an ale, and a stout) were compared by the ASBC spectrophotometric method and by a Lovibond three-field Comparator. The two instruments yielded similar color va...
'This Habitable Earth of Ours': Locke on Humanity in the Environment

Few thinkers have had a more profound impact on political thought and political institutions than John Locke. In this paper I examine some of the central elements of his work from the perspective of environmental political theory. I start by reviewing a conventional understanding of Locke, whereby his theory of property is a justification, if not indeed a direct source, of environmentally damaging attitudes and policies. I argue that this reading of Locke is not borne out by a full consideration of his view, which is in fact less hostile to environmentalism than it is typically represented to be. I then go on to consider whether, if it is false that Locke’s theory is hostile to environmentalism, it might rather be a source for ideas that can justify environmental policy. I argue that though such ideas can indeed be found in Locke, over all his theory lacks the sensitivity to ecological considerations that would make it, as he left it to us, a genuinely environmentalist position. I conclude with a few words that summarize a theme I explore throughout the paper: Locke’s broad conception of the human relation to the environment. That conception is expressed in the phrase in my title: Locke sees the relationship as habitation, to which humanity is entitled.
A Gambit Renewed: IRS Targets 'Killer Bs' Paired with Inversions

In Notice 2014-32, the Internal Revenue Service described changes that will be made to the Treasury regulations under Section 367(b) of the Internal Revenue Code addressing ‘‘Killer B’’ transactions (the Killer B regulations). As discussed in this article, a primary goal of Notice 2014-32 is to combat a cross-border acquisition structure typically used in connection with an inversion transaction through a series of changes to the Killer B regulations. In announcing these forthcoming changes, Notice 2014-32 effectively admits that the current regulations have failed to eliminate Killer B transactions from the marketplace. Furthermore, the notice confirms that the Killer B regulations have shortcomings that reflect the difficulty associated with drafting rules in this area.
Trauma Management Therapy for a Veteran With Co-Occurring Combat PTSD and Hallucinations A Case Study

Despite the development of evidence-based treatment protocols for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), many clinicians are hesitant to begin trauma-focused treatment for individuals presenting wit...
To Start Voting, Say Vote: Establishing a Threshold for Ambient Noise for a Speech Recognition Voting System

Abstract Prime III is a multimodal voting system that allows users to use touch or voice to make selections on their ballot. This paper discusses an experiment that evaluated the system's speech recognition at various levels of background noise. An approach to simulate realistic background noise in a controlled environment is described. This approach helped mimic a voter voting in a precinct. The goal of the experiment was to establish a threshold for when distortion occurs and speech recognition accuracy declines. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) between the volumes were recorded and the system's accuracy was tested. The result was a suggested threshold of a SNR equal to 1.44 to attain 90% system accuracy. The next phase of this project is to test the level of system interference from ambient noise in an actual voting precinct.
Transformation Invariant Control of Voxel-Wise False Discovery Rate

Multiple testing for statistical maps remains a critical and challenging problem in brain mapping. Since the false discovery rate (FDR) criterion was introduced to the neuroimaging community a decade ago, many variations have been proposed, mainly to enhance detection power. However, a fundamental geometrical property known as transformation invariance has not been adequately addressed, especially for the voxel-wise FDR. Correction of multiple testing applied after spatial transformation is not necessarily equivalent to transformation applied after correction in the original space. Without the invariance property, assigning different testing spaces will yield different results. We find that normalized residuals of linear models with Gaussian noises are uniformly distributed on a unit high-dimensional sphere, independent of t-statistics and F-statistics. By defining volumetric measure in the hyper-spherical space mapped by normalized residuals, instead of the image's Euclidean space, we can achieve invariant control of the FDR under diffeomorphic transformation. This hyper-spherical measure also reflects intrinsic “volume of randomness” in signals. Experiments with synthetic, semi-synthetic and real images demonstrate that our method significantly reduces FDR inconsistency introduced by the choice of testing spaces.
Determination of Desorbed Species During Heating of AgI-Mordenite Provided by ORNL

This study is focused on describing the desorbed off gases due to heating of the AgIMordenite (MOR) produced at ORNL for iodine (I2) gas capture from nuclear fuel aqueous reprocessing. In particular, the interest is for the incorporation of the AgI-MOR into a waste form, which might be the Sandia developed, low temperature sintering, Bi-Si oxide based, Glass Composite Material (GCM). The GCM has been developed as a waste form for the incorporation any oxide based getter material. In the case where iodine may be released during the sintering process of the GCM, additional Ag flake is added as further insurance in total iodine capture and retention. This has been the case for the incorporated ORNL developed AgIMOR. Thermal analysis studies were carried out to determine off gasing processes of ORNL AgIMOR. Independent of sample size, ~7wt% of total water is desorbed by 225°C. This includes both bulk surface and occluded water, and are monitored as H2O and OH. Of that total, ~5.5wt% is surface water which is removed by 125°C, and 1.5wt% is occluded (in zeolite pore) water. Less than ~1 wt% total water continues to desorb, but is completely removed by 500°C. Above 300°C, the detectable remaining desorbingmore » species observed are iodine containing compounds, including I and I2.« less
A Probe into the No-Fault Liability of Hospital to Patient

No-fault liability means that the doer should bear the responsibility if he/she did harm to others, even though he/she was not faulty subjectively. Applying no-fault liability to medical injury compensation and adopting the liability insurance system, can mitigate the conflict between the hospital and patients, and is beneficial to both sides. Improving the contemporary faulty medical treatment system and establishing the medical liability insurance policy are necessary and inevitable ways in mediating the medical issues.
Long-term medical conditions and major depression in the Canadian population.

Objectives:To evaluate associations between long-term medical conditions and major depression in the Canadian population, and to examine the impact of these conditions on health care service use and disability.Methods:Data from the first wave of the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS) were used. The NPHS used a probability sample of 17 626 Canadians and included questions about long-term medical conditions, health care service use, and disability and a brief predictor of major depression. Contingency tables and graphical techniques were used to evaluate associations between the variables of interest.Results:Various chronic medical conditions were associated with an elevated prevalence of major depression. There was no evidence that subjects with major depression and comorbid medical conditions were more likely to be admitted to hospital or to be high users of physician services. However, major depression comorbid with chronic medical conditions was associated with a greater than expected ext...
Decentralized Cooperative Control Methods for the Modified Weapon–Target Assignment Problem

Weapon–target assignment is a combinatorial optimization problem in which a set of weapons must selectively engage a set of targets. In its decentralized form, it is also an important problem in autonomous multi-agent robotics. In this work, decentralized methods are explored for a modified weapon–target assignment problem in which weapons seek to achieve a prespecified probability of kill on each target. Three novel cost functions are proposed that, in cases with low agent-to-target ratios, induce behaviors that may be preferable to the behaviors induced by classical cost functions. The performance of these proposed cost functions is explored in simulation of both homogeneous and heterogeneous engagement scenarios using airborne autonomous weapons. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed cost functions achieve desired behaviors in cases with low agent-to-target ratios where efficient use of weapons is particularly important.
Large Eddy Simulations of high pressure jets: Effect of subgrid scale modeling

The focus of this study is on developing high-fidelity models and simulations for fully turbulent high-pressure flows. To this end, two Large Eddy Simulation (LES) models are considered and simulations are conducted with these models for initial conditions for which experimental data is available. In the first LES, denoted as Standard LES (SLES), the only subgrid-scale (SGS) model used is that stemming from the convective terms of the conservation equations. In the second LES, a complementary SGS model for the difference between the gradient of the filtered pressure and the gradient of the pressure computed as a function of the filtered flow field is used in the momentum equation additional to the SGS model employed in SLES; this second model is labeled PLES. The comparison of the SLES results with experimental data is favorable, however, PLES visibly enhances the accuracy of the results compared to the same data. A detailed analysis reveals that in PLES the dense-fluid core persists further downstream than in SLES, unsteadiness is increased, and mixing is enhanced further downstream. The differences between PLES and SLES occur in a narrow radial ring of radius three jet diameters around the jet, although they persist at large distances downstream from the inflow. It is recommended that details experimental data should be obtained in this elongated ring region in order to more completely evaluate the potential of PLES compared to SLES.
Damage Detection with Ambient Vibra tion Data Using Time Series Modeling

In this study, a novel approach using a modified time series analysis methodology is used to detect, locate, and quantify structural changes by using ambient vibration data. Random Decrement (RD) is used to obtain pseudo free response data from the ambient vibration time histories. ARX models (Auto-Regressive models with eXogenous input) are created for different sensor clusters by using the pseudo free response of the structure. The output of each sensor in a cluster is used as an input to the ARX model to predict the output of the reference channel of that sensor cluster. After the ARX models for the healthy structure for each sensor cluster are created, the same models are used for predicting the data from the damaged structure. The difference between the fit ratios is used as damage indicating feature. The methodology is applied to experimental data obtained from steel grid structure tests and it is shown that the approach is successfully used for identification, localization, and quantification of different damage cases for both impact and ambient tests.
A Generalized Approach for Reconstructing the Three-Dimensional Shape of Slender Structures Including the Effects of Curvature, Shear, Torsion, and Elongation

Author(s): Chadha, Mayank; Todd, Michael D | Abstract: This paper extends the approach for determining the three-dimensional global displaced shape of slender structures from a limited set of scalar surface strain measurements. It is an exhaustive approach that captures the effect of curvature, shear, torsion, and elongation. The theory developed provides both a determination of the uniaxial strain (in a given direction) anywhere in the structure and the deformed shape, given a set of strain values. The approach utilizes Cosserat rod theory and exploits a localized linearization approach that helps to obtain a local basis function set for the displacement solution in the Cosserat frame. For the assumed deformed shape (both the midcurve and the cross-sectional orientation), the uniaxial value of strain in any given direction is obtained analytically, and this strain model is the basis used to predict the shape via an approximate local linearized solution strategy. Error analysis due to noise in measured strain values and in uncertainty in the proximal boundary condition is performed showing uniform convergence with increased sensor count.
The Effects of smoking status and smoking history on patients with brain metastases from lung cancer.

There is limited data on the effects of smoking on lung cancer patients with brain metastases. This single institution retrospective study of patients with brain metastases from lung cancer who received stereotactic radiosurgery assessed whether smoking history is associated with overall survival, local control, rate of new brain metastases (brain metastasis velocity), and likelihood of neurologic death after brain metastases. Patients were stratified by adenocarcinoma versus nonadenocarcinoma histologies. Kaplan–Meier analysis was performed for survival endpoints. Competing risk analysis was performed for neurologic death analysis to account for risk of nonneurologic death. Separate linear regression and multivariate analyses were performed to estimate the brain metastasis velocity. Of 366 patients included in the analysis, the median age was 63, 54% were male and, 60% were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma. Current smoking was reported by 37% and 91% had a smoking history. Current smoking status and pack-year history of smoking had no effect on overall survival. There was a trend for an increased risk of neurologic death in nonadenocarcinoma patients who continued to smoke (14%, 35%, and 46% at 6/12/24 months) compared with patients who did not smoke (12%, 23%, and 30%, P = 0.053). Cumulative pack years smoking was associated with an increase in neurologic death for nonadenocarcinoma patients (HR = 1.01, CI: 1.00–1.02, P = 0.046). Increased pack-year history increased brain metastasis velocity in multivariate analysis for overall patients (P = 0.026). Current smokers with nonadenocarcinoma lung cancers had a trend toward greater neurologic death than nonsmokers. Cumulative pack years smoking is associated with a greater brain metastasis velocity.
Internal Jugular Vein Catheter Inserted Through Side of Stent

One of the basic tenets of stent placement is to avoid jailing major veins; however, the junction between the subclavian and brachiocephalic veins is a common site for stenosis to occur associated with the use of a central venous catheter. This being the case, it is not unusual for a stent to be placed at this location. In these cases, if the insertion of a dialysis catheter is required at a later date, inserting the catheter through the side of the stent, as in this case, becomes necessary.
Alkane and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments and benthic invertebrates of the northern Chukchi Sea

Abstract The Hanna Shoal region represents an important northern gateway for transport and deposition in the Chukchi Sea. This study determined the concentration and distribution of organic contaminants (aliphatic hydrocarbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs) in surface sediments from 34 sites across Hanna Shoal. Up to 31 total PAHs, including parent and alkyl homologues were detected with total concentrations ranging from a low of 168 ng g−1 the western flank of Hanna Shoal (station H34) to 1147 ng g−1 at station in Barrow Canyon (station BarC5). Alkyl PAHs were more abundant than parent structures and accounted for 53–64% of the summed concentrations suggesting overall at background levels (