cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Subcostal View-Based Longitudinal Strain in Patients With Breast Cancer Is an Alternative to Conventional Apical View-Based Longitudinal Strain

Background Strain imaging is a robust clinical tool in cardiac surveillance of patients with breast cancer. However, image quality and therefore ability to accurately measure strain are often limited in this patient group because of tissue expanders, implants, and/or flap reconstruction. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility of measuring left ventricular longitudinal strain (LVLS) in the echocardiographic subcostal view in female patients with breast cancer. Methods A total of 110 studies from 68 female patients with breast cancer were included. The feasibility of LVLS speckle-tracking measurements in the apical three-chamber (3C) and four-chamber (4C) views and in the subcostal 3C and 4C views was evaluated. The LVLS speckle-tracking measurements obtained in these two echocardiographic views were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman analyses. Results The feasibility of LVLS in the apical 3C and 4C views was 98.1% and 98.1%, respectively. In comparison, the feasibility of LVLS in the subcostal 3C and 4C views was 93.6% and 96.3%, respectively. A high degree of reliability was found between apical and subcostal LVLS 3C and 4C measurements. For the 3C view, the average measure intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.81 (95% CI, 0.72–0.88). For the 4C view, the average measure intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.80 (95% CI, 0.70–0.87). Bland-Altman analysis showed good agreement between apical and subcostal measurements in both the 3C and 4C views. Conclusions Subcostal 3C and 4C LVLS can be reliably measured, with good agreement with conventional LVLS from the apical views, in female patients with breast cancer. Importantly, the subcostal view may provide a novel alternative for trending LVLS in patients with breast cancer who have technically limited apical windows.
Development of blind algorithm with automatic gain control

In this paper, the concept of blind algorithm with automatic gain control (AGC) is introduced in adaptive antenna system for signal optimization with an aim to estimate the desired response in adaptive fashion. Blind algorithm with AGC is a hybrid two-stage adaptive filtering algorithm; sequentially combining constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and Bessel least mean square (BLMS) algorithm. Blind Bessel beamformer with AGC does not require external reference signal to update its weight vectors and step size for convergence but updates itself from own reference signal obtained from the output of CMA. Similarly, step size is obtained from the correlation matrix which is the product of the signals induced in array elements of antenna. BLMS is the modified version of LMS algorithm; based on the non-uniform step size exploiting the asymptotic decay property of Bessel function of the first kind. The output of CMA provides input and reference signals for BLMS that makes it blind. The contributions of this paper include the development of novel blind theory concept and presentation of an AGC method in order to make the Bessel beamformer blind which can update itself electronically through the correlation matrix depending on the signal array vector with the aim to make the signal power constant.
Turán numbers for Berge-hypergraphs and related extremal problems

Abstract Let F be a graph. We say that a hypergraph H is a Berge- F if there is a bijection f : E ( F ) → E ( H ) such that e ⊆ f ( e ) for every e ∈ E ( F ) . Note that Berge- F actually denotes a class of hypergraphs. The maximum number of edges in an n -vertex r -graph with no subhypergraph isomorphic to any Berge- F is denoted ex r ( n , Berge- F ) . In this paper, we investigate the case when F = K s , t and establish an upper-bound when r ≥ 3 , and a lower-bound when r = 4 and t is large enough compared to s . Additionally, we prove a counting result for r -graphs of girth five that complements the asymptotic formula ex 3 ( n , Berge- { C 2 , C 3 , C 4 } ) = 1 6 n 3 ∕ 2 + o ( n 3 ∕ 2 ) of Lazebnik and Verstraete (2003).
Words Matter: Sex and Gender as Unique Variables in Research

Sex and gender are not equivalent concepts, even though these 2 variables are often used interchangeably by researchers. The precise use of variables is critical to ensure that research and theoretical work is of the highest quality. This article defines sex and gender and the importance of recognizing both of these variables as being unique and then demonstrates the benefit of measuring both of these variables using the cardiovascular disease literature as an exemplar. Additionally, recommendations for scholars regarding the use of sex and gender in the research and theoretical literature are provided.
A Professional Legacy Is a Journey: What Path Will You Travel?

This article discusses the value of membership in professional associations such as SHAPE America, and how the resources these associations provide can help a physical educator develop and advance ...
Pediatric croup with COVID-19

We describe three previously healthy children, admitted from our emergency department (ED) to our free-standing children's hospital, as the first documented cases of croup as a manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. All three cases (ages 11 months, 2 years, and 9 years old) presented with non-specific upper-respiratory-tract symptoms that developed into a barky cough with associated stridor at rest and respiratory distress. All were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction testing from nasopharyngeal samples that were negative for all other pathogens including the most common etiologies for croup. Each received multiple (≥3) doses of nebulized racemic epinephrine with minimal to no improvement shortly after medication. All had a prolonged period of time from ED presentation until the resolution of their stridor at rest (13, 19, and 21 h). All received dexamethasone early in their ED treatment and all were admitted. All three received at least one additional dose of dexamethasone, an atypical treatment occurrence in our hospital, due to each patient's prolonged duration of symptoms. One child required heliox therapy and admission to intensive care. All patients were eventually discharged. Pathogen testing is usually not indicated in croup, but with "COVID-19 croup," SARS-CoV-2 testing should be considered given the prognostic significance and prolonged quarantine implications. Our limited experience with this newly described COVID-19 croup condition suggests that cases can present with significant pathology and might not improve as rapidly as those with typical croup.
Flexible and Efficient sharing of High Performance Hardware Accelerators in a Safe, Secure, Virtualized System

Safety, security and virtualization is getting important to enable multiple use cases in automotive and industrial market for efficient use of hardware resources. The high performance computer vision, imaging, deep learning functions are accelerated using dedicated hardware accelerators for power and performance reasons. The typical single threaded design of these HW accelerators poses challenges in sharing in mixed safety critical, secure and virtualized environments. This paper presents a flexible and efficient sharing scheme for these environments without modifying the underlying HW accelerators. The proposed solution consists of a programmable MCU and additional HW wrappers to enable isolation for safety, security and virtualization. The solution uses novel techniques namely, trusted and sand-boxed message exchange, dynamic master ID generator, and intelligent firmware to shared multiple HW accelerators using a single MCU. The proposed solution is realized in TI Jaincto 7 SoC. The prototype shows < 1% degradation on HW accelerator performance. Further, the scheme is flexible enough to support multiple HW accelerators like multimedia, imaging, video and deep learning.
The challenge of value-based pricing in combination therapy: the case of trastuzumab and pertuzumab in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer.

Under current reimbursement (CR) practice even though an add-on drug in a combination therapy may produce marginal value in terms of health gain, the original therapy may also share in the reward f...
Mindfulness Matters: Utilization and Perceptions of Mindfulness Practices Among Athletic Trainers.

CONTEXT: Mindfulness practices are effective for injury/illness recovery, decreasing stress and anxiety, and strengthening emotional resilience. They are also beneficial for healthcare professionals' well-being and improved patient outcomes and safety. However, mindfulness has not been studied in athletic trainers. OBJECTIVE: To investigate athletic trainers' utilization of mindfulness practices and their perceptions on its importance for self- and patient/client-care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: All athletic training practice settings. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 547 athletic trainers who are currently practicing completed the survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): We developed an 18-item survey that measured utilization (1(Never) to 6(Very Frequently)) and perceptions (1(Strongly Disagree) to 7(Strongly Agree)) of mindfulness practices. Mann-Whiney U or Kruskal-Wallis tests with post-hoc pairwise comparisons were performed to assess differences in utilization (p<0.05). A related samples Wilcoxon-signed-rank test was performed to assess differences in participants' perceptions between self- and patient/client-care. RESULTS: Overall, 86% (n=471) of respondents reported participating in some form of mindfulness practice with females (Median(IQR) 4(2-5) vs. 3(2-4);p<0.002), those not in a committed relationship (4(2-5) vs. 3(2-4);p=0.048), and those without children in the home (4(2-5) vs. 3(2-4);p=0.040) reporting the highest frequency of use for self-care. Females (4(2-4) vs. 3(2-4);p<0.001), those without children in the home (3(2-4) vs. 3(2-4);p=0.036), and those in emerging (4(2-4);p=0.003) or collegiate settings (3(2-4);p=0.006) most frequently incorporated mindfulness into patient/client-care. Overall, frequency of use for self-care was higher than for patient/client-care (4, 'occasionally' (2-4) vs. 3, 'rarely' (2-4);p<0.001). Mindfulness practices were perceived as more important for self- than patient/client-care (6(5-7) vs. 5(5-6); p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Athletic trainers perceived mindfulness practices as more important for personal well-being and they utilized it, albeit occasionally, more for self-than for patient/client-care. Differences in gender, relationship status, children and setting were observed. Mindfulness-based interventions on athletic trainer well-being and patient-centered care and implementation barriers should be explored.
Meta-Questions for Legal Writers Review of DREYER’S ENGLISH

In today’s complicated modern world, what are the rules of good writing? If you have come to Dreyer’s English looking to answer this question with a rote set of rules, you have come to the wrong place. But the good news is, despite his rule-breaking and bending, the eponymous Dreyer still has a lot to say about good writing. This raises, not begs (as the author notes on page 151), the question: what insights might Dreyer have for the legal writer?
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Balances Vary at the Whole-Farm, Field, and Within-Field Scales

A field nutrient balance (supplied minus harvested) can be an effective, end-of-season management evaluation tool. However, development of guidance for balance-based management requires knowledge of variability in balance inputs. To contribute to development of such guidelines, we evaluated the impact of corn silage hybrid selection, nutrient management, and growing conditions on field nitrogen (N) balances and documented variability in N and phosphorus (P) balances at the whole-farm, field, within-field levels. Variability in N removal among hybrids was evaluated using hybrid trials (5 locations, 4 years each). Variability in farm and field balances (4 farms, 2 years each) and within-field balances (2 farms, 2 years each) was assessed as well. Nitrogen supply comprised soil N (soil type-specific book values), rotation N, past manure N, and current year N (fertilizer and/or manure). Total N balances included all current year manure N while available N balances considered only plant-available N from manure. Phosphorus balances were derived as total P applied minus P harvested. Yield explained 81% of the variability in N uptake across hybrids. Nitrogen uptake intensity (NUI; N uptake per unit of yield) varied across locations and years, averaging 4.3 ± 0.1 kg N/Mg for short-season hybrids (≤ 95 days-to-maturity [DTM]) versus 4.1 ± 0.1 kg N Mg-1 for longer-season hybrids. Whole-farm N balances ranged from 139 – 251 kg N ha-1 for total N and 43 – 106 kg N ha-1 for available N. Phosphorus balances ranged from 28 – 154 kg P ha-1. Balances per field ranged from -8 – 453 kg N ha-1, -66 – 250 kg N ha-1, and -30 – 315 kg P ha-1 for total N, available N, and total P, respectively, while within-field balances showed even larger ranges. We conclude that (1) variability in corn silage N and P balances at field and within-field scales and across year is large, emphasizing the need for field and within-field (where feasible) evaluation tools and management options, and (2) feasible limits for N balances should include both total and available N.
Verteilte Dokumente in offenen Netzen

Die Buroautomatisierung in heterogenen Systemen basiert auf internationalen Standards wie ODA und DFR. Diese ermoglichen ein gemeinsames Verstandnis von Applikationen uber den Inhalt und die Form von Dokumenten beziehungsweise uber Operationen auf derartigen Objekten wie den entfernten Zugriff auf Dokumentenspeicher. Viele Anwendungsszenarien motivieren Konzepte und Dienste, die es erlauben, Dokumente auf Netzwerke zu verteilen und auf einzelne Teile der Dokumente entfernt zugreifen zu konnen. In dieser Hinsicht ist die Funktionalitat heutiger Normen unzureichend — diese erlauben nur die Handhabung vollstandiger Dokumente und ermoglichen nicht, das die Verteilung eines Dokuments auf verschiedene Netzwerk-Knoten fur Anwendungen transparent gehalten wird. Erfahrungen aus Prototyp-Entwicklungen im Rahmen von europaischen Kooperationsprojekten werden in diesem Beitrag vorgestellt. Fur die daraus abgeleiteten notwendigen Erweiterungen der involvierten Normen werden Konzepte vorgeschlagen.
Natural selection and mating constraints with genetic algorithms

In this paper, we are modelling a situation in an evolutionary population where a genetically inherited feature is part of a distribution of probabilities that gives it low expectations to be present in the next generation, for example, recessive features. In many such cases observed in nature, such features seem to persist longer than predicted by the probabilistic odds. In our experiment, we intend to demonstrate how the fitness-proportionate selection can have an influence on the persistence of such features. In this simulation we focus on gender differentiation and mating constraints, and we examine their evolution in a mixed population where they are genetically inherited.
Pleuraerguss mit seltener Ursache

Solitare fibrose oder mesenchymale Tumore der Lunge und der Pleura sind sehr selten. Eine histologische Diagnosesicherung ist aufgrund des pleomorphen Gewebebildes schwierig, und eine Abgrenzung zu anderen fibrosen oder mesenchymalen Tumore ist haufig nicht eindeutig moglich. Deshalb wurde kurzlich eine uberarbeitete Tumorklassifikation diskutiert, die neben dem klassischen Hamangioperizytom eine Gruppe solitarer, fibroser „Hamangioperizytom-ahnlicher“ Tumore oder auch Sarkome mit „Hamangioperizytom-ahnlichen“ Charakteristika umfasst. Eine kurative chirurgische Resektion sollte angestrebt werden und ist mit einer verbesserten Langzeituberlebensrate assoziiert. Palliativ kann eine Strahlentherapie oder eine Chemotherapie durchgefuhrt werden, wobei hierfur keine einheitlichen Therapieempfehlungen vorliegen.
United States Supreme Court Rules on Expert Testimony

Many medical and legal commentators have expressed concern about the validity of scientific evidence that is proffered by expert witnesses at depositions and in courts of law.1,2 The sparse research that is available on the testimony of medical expert witnesses suggests that it is frequently flawed and erroneous.3 On June 28, 1993, the United States (US) Supreme Court ruled on the proper standard for admissibility of scientific evidence in the courtroom.4 Although the ruling establishes guidelines that are binding only in federal courts, it is expected that many state courts will follow the Court9s ruling. This commentary reviews the Court9s guidelines for admissibility of expert testimony, and expresses concern about their applicability in future cases involving scientific testimony.
A NORMETEX MODEL 15 M3/HR WATER VAPOR PUMPING TEST

Tests were performed using a Model 15 m{sup 3}/hr Normetex vacuum pump to determine if pump performance degraded after pumping a humid gas stream. An air feed stream containing 30% water vapor was introduced into the pump for 365 hours with the outlet pressure of the pump near the condensation conditions of the water. Performance of the pump was tested before and after the water vapor pumping test and indicated no loss in performance of the pump. The pump also appeared to tolerate small amounts of condensed water of short duration without increased noise, vibration, or other adverse indications. The Normetex pump was backed by a dual-head diaphragm pump which was affected by the condensation of water and produced some drift in operating conditions during the test.
Continued Use of Technology: Combining Controlled and Automatic Processes

This study investigates factors influencing individual users’ continued use of technology, or technology continuance. Technology continuance is defined as individual user’s continued employment of system. We consider mobile computing technology as a particular example for the investigation. In this paper, we first review the theoretical backgrounds based on the literature of post-adoption studies. Then we develop a research framework which considers both controlled and automatic processes. In particular, a person’s technology continuance is determined by both continuance intention and habit. In the continued use of technology, intention can be influenced by satisfaction of previous experiences, which are affected by cognitive and affective beliefs; and beliefs and satisfaction are also influenced by confirmation of prior expectation. Habit, which is also influenced by satisfaction, can affect the continuance usage behavior. A research design was developed, and the research model will be empirically tested by a survey with mobile computing technology users.
Formalizing the informal, precisiating the imprecise: How fuzzy logic can help mathematicians and physicists by formalizing their intuitive ideas

Fuzzy methodology transforms expert ideas — formulated in terms of words from natural language — into precise rules and formulas. In this talk, we show that by applying this methodology to intuitive physical and mathematical ideas, we can get known fundamental physical equations and known mathematical techniques for solving these equations. This fact makes us confident that in the future, fuzzy techniques will help physicists and mathematicians to transform their imprecise ideas into new physical equations and new techniques for solving these equations.
Special GPR antenna developments for landmine and UXO surveys

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a promising technique for detecting and identifying buried landmines and UXOs. The antenna plays a critical role in determining the performance for tasks and requires to have a broad bandwidth, minimal ground dependency, fast or no antenna ring-down, desirable polarization and pattern characteristics. Three unique UWB dual-polarization GPR antenna designs are discussed. A dielectric rod antenna, covering from 1 GHz to 6 GHz, is suitable for shallow (less than 12 inches) targets, such as landmine detection/identification. The other two antennas, covering frequencies from 20 MHz to 800 MHz, are suitable for general GPR applications, such as the detections of pipes, utility lines, UXOs, AT mines, etc.
Sarin and other nerve agents of the organophosphate class: properties, medical effects and management

Nerve gases of the organophosphate class were discovered around the time of World War II, with sarin, tabun and soman among their best known representatives. Despite the Geneva Convention of 1925 and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1997, chemical warfare agents, among them nerve agents like sarin, have been used in Iraq and in Japan. With an increased worldwide terrorist threat these relatively cheap but effective nerve agents have become a major concern for preparedness planners, rescue health‐care workers and security agencies. The different medical effects and physicochemical properties of these nerve agents may require a differentiated triage scenario. Early evacuation, decontamination, basic life support measures and specific pharmacologic therapy are the cornerstones of successful mass casualty management of nerve gas victims.
Simulating Surface Oil Transport During the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Experiments with the BioCast System

Abstract The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is developing nowcast/forecast software systems designed to combine satellite ocean color data streams with physical circulation models in order to produce prognostic fields of ocean surface materials. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provided a test case for the Bio-Optical Forecasting (BioCast) system to rapidly combine the latest satellite imagery of the oil slick distribution with surface circulation fields in order to produce oil slick transport scenarios and forecasts. In one such sequence of experiments, MODIS satellite true color images were combined with high-resolution ocean circulation forecasts from the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS®) to produce 96-h oil transport simulations. These oil forecasts predicted a major oil slick landfall at Grand Isle, Louisiana, USA that was subsequently observed. A key driver of the landfall scenario was the development of a coastal buoyancy current associated with Mississippi River Delta freshwater outflow. In another series of experiments, longer-term regional circulation model results were combined with oil slick source/sink scenarios to simulate the observed containment of surface oil within the Gulf of Mexico. Both sets of experiments underscore the importance of identifying and simulating potential hydrodynamic conduits of surface oil transport. The addition of explicit sources and sinks of surface oil concentrations provides a framework for increasingly complex oil spill modeling efforts that extend beyond horizontal trajectory analysis.
Clinical Mentorship: One More Aspect of Feminist Supervision

ABSTRACT There has been very little written about clinical mentorship from within the field of family therapy, let alone within the feminist family therapy training literature. Prior to this study, research was too sparse to know whether mentoring relationships were indeed a part of feminist-informed clinical training relationships within family therapy. However, this study's participants reported that mentorship was indeed important and described three facets: providing guidance, managing power within the relationship, and empowering therapists to professionally self-define. Because of the lack of writing about mentorship in family therapy training, the authors decided it important to immerse themselves within the literature of sister disciplines, using several feminist-informed mentorship models. As they have done so, the discussion of the results, and the feminist family therapy supervision literature in general, have provided a wider context and are enlivened and enriched by these sister disciplines' ...
Imaging performance in differential phase contrast CT compared with the conventional CT-noise equivalent quanta NEQ(k)

The grating-based x-ray differential phase contrast (DPC) CT is emerging as a new technology with the potential for extensive preclinical and clinical applications. In general, the performance of an imaging system is jointly determined by its signal property (modulation transfer function-MTF(k)) and noise property (noise power spectrum-NPS(k)), which is characterized by its spectrum of noise equivalent quanta. As reported by us previously, owing to an adoption of the Hilbert filtering for image reconstruction in the fashion of filtered backprojection (FBP), the noise property of DPC-CT characterized by its NPS(k) differs drastically from that of the conventional attenuation-based CT (1/|k| trait vs. |k| trait). In this work, via system analysis, modeling and simulated phantom study, we initially investigate the signal property of DPC-CT characterized by its MTF(k) and compare it with that of the conventional CT. In addition, we investigate the DPC-CT's spectrum of noise equivalent quanta NEQ(k) - the most important figure of merit (FOM) in the assessment of an imaging system's performance - by taking the MTF(k) and NPS(k) jointly into account. Through such a thorough investigation into both the signal and noise properties, the imaging performance of DPC-CT and its potential over the conventional attenuation-based CT can be fully understood and appreciated.
Quantum-fluid-dynamics approach for strong-field processes: Application to the study of multiphoton ionization and high-order harmonic generation of He and Ne atoms in intense laser fields

We explore the feasibility of extending the quantum-fluid dynamics (QFD) approach for quantitative investigation of nonlinear optical processes of many-electron quantum systems in intense laser fields. Through the amalgamation of the QFD and density-functional theory (DFT), a single time-dependent hydrodynamical equation of motion can be derived. This equation has the form of a generalized nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (GNLSE) but includes the many-body effects through a local time-dependent exchange-correlation potential. The time-dependent generalized pseudospectral method is extended to the solution of the GNLSE in spherical coordinates, allowing nonuniform spatial discretization and efficient, accurate solution of the hydrodynamical density and wave function in space and time. The procedure is applied to the study of multiphoton ionization (MPI) and high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of He and Ne atoms in intense laser fields. Excellent agreement with other recent self-interaction-free time-dependent DFT calculations is obtained for He, while for Ne, good agreement is achieved. Four different exchange-correlation energy functionals are used in the study with an aim to explore the roles of exchange and correlation on MPI/HHG processes in details. The method offers a conceptually appealing and computationally practical approach for nonperturbative treatment of strong-field processes of many-electron systems beyond the time-dependent Hartree-Fock level.
EXPERIENTIAL EFFECTS OF DIALECTICAL INQUIRY, DEVIL'S ADVOCACY AND CONSENSUS APPROACHES TO STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING.

This longitudinal laboratory study of fast-advancing middle managers involved in strategic planning compared the effectiveness of dialectical inquiry, devil's advocacy, and consensus approaches to ...
Immunochemical studies on the radular muscle myoglobins of several prosobranch molluscs

Abstract 1. 1. Rabbit antisera against the radular muscle myoglobins of the gastropod molluscs Busycon caricum and Littorina littorea were used to study immunological cross-reactivity between these and other prosobranch myoglobins. 2. 2. Qualitative and quantitative immunochemical analyses demonstrated cross-reactivity between myoglobins of the congeneric neogastropod species B. caricum and B. canaliculatum , but not between these myoglobins and those of the mesogastropod Littorina littorea . 3. 3. The results of similar studies also showed a lack of cross-reactivity between the monomeric myoglobin of the mesogastropod Polinices duplicatus and the myoglobins of Littorina littorea and Busycon caricum . 4. 4. B. caricum and B. canaliculatum myoglobins demonstrated 74 and 96% cross-reactivity as measured by the quantitative precipitin reaction, and the results of micro-complement fixation tests indicate that these proteins differ in primary structure by about 6–8%. 5. 5. The minimum mutation rate for the Busycon myoglobins, based upon their immunological cross-reactivity, differences in amino acid composition and the fossil record, was estimated to be about 12 acceptable amino acid substitutions per 100 million years.
Demobilization after the First World War

The problem, 91. — Groping for a policy, 92. — The case goes to the country, 98. — Demobilization speeds on, 101. — Conclusions, 103.
Stability and control of future spacecraft systems

A brief review is presented of some of the problem areas associated with large space structures and some of the approaches currently being taken to find solutions are discussed. Consideration is given to such areas as control system analysis, design and implementation, and those aspects of structural modeling related to control system design.
A general approach to nonlinear FE computations on shared-memory multiprocessors

Abstract A computational strategy for nonlinear finite element computations on shared-memory multiprocessors is presented. It exploits all the parallelism inherent in the finite element method. Both iterative and direct solution methods are implemented in the same environment. Explicit computations are carried out at the element level. Implicit computations are processed at the subdomain level. An element coloring scheme is used to eliminate critical regions for the whole class of explicit computations. To facilitate load balancing among the processors in a posteriori nonlinear problems, a dynamic remapping of the processors on the computational tasks is introduced. Numerical experiments are conducted on Alliant FX/8 and Cray2. Very high rates of efficiency are achieved on both multiprocessors.
Optimal control of a continuous stirred tank reactor with transportation lag

Necessary conditions for optimality and a method of steepest ascent based on second variations arc derived for the deterministic optimal control problem in systems described by non-linear differential-difference equations. The algorithm is used to determine tho optimal time-varying proportional gain for the control of a continuous stirred tank reactor with a single exothermic reaction. The control loop is assumed to contain a pure time delay. Extension to the adaptive control ease is suggested.
A New Approach for Changing Structural Properties of a Membrane Mirror Strip for Adaptive Optics Applications

This work investigates improving the imaging quality of membrane mirrors using multiple active fiber composite (AFC) actuators. It is demonstrated in the literature that the structural characteristics of a circular membrane lens can be used advantageously to eliminate nearly 100% of a 5th order image aberration. The approach here is to study the transverse vibration of a membrane mirror strip augmented with two micro fiber composite (MFC) bimorphs. Each bimorph is placed near one of the ends of the strip. One of the bimorphs will be excited in phase, causing a local tension in the strip, whereas the other will be excited out of phase, causing a local bending moment. The finite element method (FEM) is used to present the system mathematically. The advantage of the FEM is evident; it easily handles the physical non-uniformities caused by the augmentation of the actuators. To verify the presented model, a constant in-phase voltage is supplied to one of the MFCs. Hence, the local tension induced by this MFC bimorph is constant, and the resulting model is linear. A frequency response is obtained from the FEM model and through an experiment. The FEM and experimental results are in agreement. Additionally, results show that the local tension changes the structural properties of the membrane strip. The proposed approach can be extended to the two dimensional case with the promise of contributing to the elimination of image aberrations.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
The effect of structural damping on nodes for the Euler-Bernoulli beam: a specific case study

Abstract We examine a uniform beam hinged at both ends and driven at its center by a harmonic forcing function. We show that at forcing frequencies corresponding to the beam's first five odd natural frequencies, the addition of Kelvin-Voigt type structural damping to the standard Euler-Bernoulli beam model has little effect on the predicted location of points of least vibration during steady state resonant excitation.
Assessment of an Interpretive Program for U.S. Coast Guard Personnel

: The goal of this research was to measure the effect of a print-based interpretive program on acceptance by U.S. Coast Guard personnel of an endangered-species protection program. We used a within-subjects design to measure changes in eight survey items measuring beliefs about endangered species. There were significant changes in three items. The initial attitude toward endangered species was a strong predictor of subsequent response in a “regression to the mean effect” in which the least change was found in subjects with the highest initial scores on attitude items. Our results suggest that the print-based program was effective at changing the most highly targeted attitudes, but had little effect on more general attitudes. Resumen: La meta de esta investigacion fue la medicion del efecto de la impresion de un programa interpretativo de proteccion de especies en peligro, en la aceptacion del personal de la Guardia Costera de U.S. Utilizamos un diseno entre sujetos para medir los cambios en ocho rubros de una encuesta que median las creencias sobre especies en peligro. Hubo cambios significativos en tres rubros. Los niveles iniciales de actitudes hacia las especies en peligro fueron un indicador fuerte de las respuestas subsecuentes en una “regresion al efecto principal” donde el menor cambio fue encontrado en sujetos con los valores iniciales mas altos en los rubros de actitud. Nuestros resultados sugieren que el programa impreso fue efectivo en cambiar las actitudes de mayor importancia, pero tuvo muy poco efecto en actitudes mas generales.
Genetically improved potatoes: protection from damage by Colorado potato beetles

Russet Burbank potato plants have been genetically improved to resist insect attack and damage by Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say)) by the insertion of a cryIIIA gene encoding the insect control protein of Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis. A modified gene that dramatically improved plant expression of this protein was utilized. Its expression in Russet Burbank potato plants resulted in protection from damage by all insect stages in the laboratory and in dramatic levels of protection at multiple field locations. Analysis of these genetically modified potatoes indicated that they conform to the standards for Russet Burbank potatoes in terms of agronomic and quality characteristics including taste.
University-Based Engineering Research in the United States

This paper reports results from an NSF-supported survey of a national probability sample of U.S. engineering faculty on the nature and organization of their research activities. We analyze how engineering faculty spend their time, the types of research faculty conduct, characteristics of that research, how that research has changed over time, and the involvement of students in engineering research, based upon the engineering discipline, institutional research intensiveness and age of the respondents. These data and results represent a perspective on university-based engineering research activities from the point of view of active researchers across most of the engineering schools in the United States.
Interactions of Salinity, Marsh Fragmentation and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation on Resident Nekton Assemblages of Coastal Marsh Ponds

Increases in relative sea level are fragmenting the emergent vegetation of Louisiana’s coastal marshes. Nekton abundance is likely impacted by salinity and whether emergent vegetation is replaced by submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) or open water. To assess these effects, we sampled nekton densities along a salinity gradient (categorized as freshwater, intermediate, and brackish marsh) in fragmented and non-fragmented areas. Total nekton density increased strongly with SAV in brackish marsh but only weakly in freshwater marsh (F2,238 = 10.03, p < 0.0001). Freshwater and intermediate marshes had higher nekton densities when fragmented than when non-fragmented; this relationship was reversed in brackish marsh (F2,238 = 8.89, p = 0.0002). Fragmentation, SAV, and salinity interacted to affect the densities of Gambusia affinis, Poecilia latipinna, Cyprinodon variegates, and Lucania parva. Our results suggest that the presence of both emergent vegetation and SAV was necessary for maintaining high nekton densities, with this combination being especially important in brackish marshes.
Hospital PACS (Picture Archiving And Control System) Network Simulation Studies

The nation's hospitals have long used distributed data processing as a means of reducing operational costs and providing timely service. Radiology Departments are now also taking advantage of these facilities in order to decrease the cost of producing and archiving radiological images. A typical medium scale hospital consumes large quantities of silver oxide film which, along with attendant labor costs, is expensive compared with costs for digital image processing technology now available. Using this technology large image files can be stored and retrieved through local area networks that can also support the transaction traffic essential in a hospital environment. The evolving systems are called Picture Archiving and Control Systems (PACS). PACS will include radiology imaging equipment, distributed and central image archiving facilities, and significant numbers of user work-stations and graphics display nodes. The devices will be interconnected by high speed local area networks capable of distributing information ranging from simple control messages to large image files of several megabytes in a fashion offering most users a response time of several seconds. This paper will illustrate the PACS system concept, present a queuing model approach to analyzing PACS performance, and discuss results acquired for a variety of parametric samples. The IBM Research Queuing Package (RESQ) has been used for the exercise and will be discussed sufficiently for the reader to appreciate its capability. RESQ simulation results indicate that system response times will be more dependent on the internal architecture and programs of the workstation than on the speed of the transmission media.
Comparison of 2D radiographic images and 3D cone beam computed tomography for positioning head-and-neck radiotherapy patients.

Purpose To assess the positioning accuracy using two-dimensional kilovoltage (2DkV) imaging and three-dimensional cone beam CT (CBCT) in patients with head and neck (H&N) cancer receiving radiation therapy. To assess the benefit of patient-specific headrest. Materials and Methods All 21 patients studied were immobilized using thermoplastic masks with either a patient-specific vacuum bag (11 of 21, IMA) or standard clear plastic (10 of 21, IMB) headrests. Each patient was imaged with a pair of orthogonal 2DkV images in treatment position using onboard imaging before the CBCT procedure. The 2DkV and CBCT images were acquired weekly during the same session. The 2DkV images were reviewed by oncologists and also analyzed by a software tool based on mutual information (MI). Results Ninety-eight pairs of assessable 2DkV-CBCT alignment sets were obtained. Systematic and random errors were Conclusions The differences between 2D and 3D alignments were mainly caused by the relative flexibility of certain H&N structures and possibly by rotation. Better immobilization of the flexible neck is required to further reduce the setup errors for H&N patients receiving radiotherapy.
The suppression of A2 influenza in children by the chemoprophylactic use of Amantadine

An epidemic of A2 influenza in a hospital for mentally retarded children provided an opportunity to evaluate the prophylactic effectiveness of Amantadine-HCl (1-adamantanamine). The clearest evidence of suppression of influenzal disease was noted in those children who had high levels of antibody prior to the epidemic. In contrast, a significantly greater number of children in the control group (placebo) who had high levels of antibody developed febrile disease.
IBM 8265 ATM backbone switch software architecture

The IBM 8265 ATM Backbone Switch is the latest switch in the family of IBM ATM switches, designed for building large scale and reliable ATM network backbones. Two articles on the IBM 8265 ATM Backbone Switch are provided in this journal, describing the hardware architecture and the software architecture separately. This article describes the functions of the ATM Operating System and the ATM Multi-protocol Switched Services that run inside the IBM 8265 ATM switch. The focus is given to issues that are not addressed by the ATM Forum, and extensions that are needed when building ATM networks.
Universal properties of a trapped two-component fermi gas at unitarity.

We treat the trapped two-component Fermi system, in which unlike fermions interact through a two-body short-range potential having no bound state but an infinite scattering length. By accurately solving the Schr\"odinger equation for up to $N=6$ fermions, we show that no many-body bound states exist other than those bound by the trapping potential, and we demonstrate unique universal properties of the system: Certain excitation frequencies are separated by $2\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}$, the wave functions agree with analytical predictions and a virial theorem is fulfilled. Further calculations up to $N=30$ determine the excitation gap, an experimentally accessible universal quantity, and it agrees with recent predictions based on a density functional approach.
Serum Estradiol Concentration as a Predictor of Death in Critically Ill and Injured Adults

ABSTRACT Background: Whereas animal models of sepsis demonstrate survival benefits for the pro-estrus state, human observational studies have failed to demonstrate a consistent survival advantage a...
What You Know and How You Write It: A Project for Teaching and Assessing Writing across the Curriculum.

Writing evaluation conventionally relies on essay tests, but more informal methods can help reveal students' writing skills. A classroom project was designed to examine students' awareness of the demands posed by various academic writing, tasks, to discover how that awareness develops with experience, and to orient new students to the roles writing plays in their academic lives. The project involved three groups: freshmen enrolled in introductory writing classes for the first time, freshmen and others repeating the introductory classes, and upperclass students enrolled in a course in professional writing. At the beginning of the semester, all were asked to report any information they could find that would help them complete the semester's writing tasks. At the end of the semester they added information they had gained in the interval. Reports from all groups contained the same kinds of information, but students in professional writing noted more often that purposes of assignments related to goals for the ...
Conjugate direction methods for optimal control

This correspondence extends two algorithms for unconstrained minimization in Rn, Davidon's method and a projected gradient algorithm, to optimal control problems. Both require only the value and gradient of the functional being minimized; both find the current search direction by operating on the negative gradient with a dyadic operator; and both generate conjugate directions when applied to a quadratic functional. To compute the direction of search at iteration i , the Davidon algorithm requires that 2i + 2 functions, generated in past and current cycles, be stored. The projected gradient method requires only i + 2 . Both decrease the value of the functional being minimized at each step. The storage demands will require that both methods be restarted periodically. However, recent computational results indicate that this may improve the rate of convergence.
The relationship between schooling and migration: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws

Abstract I estimate the effect of schooling on the propensity to migrate by exploiting variation in schooling due to compulsory schooling laws (CSLs) in the United States. I obtain negative estimates of this effect among those with relatively little schooling. In contrast, previous research estimates positive schooling effects on migration at higher levels of schooling. I speculate that additional schooling at low levels enhances local labor market contacts and thereby increases the opportunity cost of migration (leaving those contacts behind).
Controlling man-made malaria: Corporate modernisation and the Arabian American Oil Company's malaria control program in Saudi Arabia, 1947–1956

In 1947, the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) began a malaria control program in Saudi Arabia. Historians of development focus on state-led schemes, ignoring corporate policy. The story of ARAMCO's malaria control efforts indicates that corporate objectives significantly influenced American–Saudi relations in the immediate post-World War II era. Regardless of corporate research that interpreted malaria as a symptom of underdevelopment, the company persisted with the most common control measures at the time, assaults on the mosquito. In contrast, Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization connected the disease to economic stagnation and its control to development.
Transplant Vasculopathy Is Associated With Increased AlloMap Gene Expression Score

The AlloMap gene expression test is used for the non-invasive detection of rejection in heart transplant recipients. We evaluated the impact of transplant vasculopathy on AlloMap gene expression analysis. A total of 69 heart transplant recipients, mean age 53 years, were evaluated at a mean 35 months post-transplant. AlloMap score was determined on the same day of the endomyocardial biopsies. Twenty patients had evidence of vasculopathy by coronary angiography (vasculopathy group). These were compared to the remaining 49 patients (control group). The vasculopathy group had a longer mean follow-up duration (48.7 vs 28.8 months, p p p = 0.034) compared with controls. Using the logistic regression model and bagging bootstrap approach to adjust for the time factor and potential confounders, the vasculopathy group had a significantly higher AlloMap score than the control group (32.2 ± 3.9 vs 26.1 ± 6.5, p r = 0.31, p = 0.01). We found transplant vasculopathy to be associated with increased AlloMap score.