cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cytogenetics and comorbidity predict outcomes in older myelodysplastic syndrome patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation using reduced intensity conditioning

BACKGROUND Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is the only treatment with a curative potential for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients. Allo-HSCT has substantial risks, particularly in the elderly, and its role for older MDS patients has yet to be defined. METHODS We analyzed 88 MDS patients aged ≥ 60 years with allo-HSCT after reduced intensity conditioning regimens over the last decade. The study cohort had high risk features; 47 of 88 (53.4%) patients were > 65 years of age, 24 (27%) patients had cytogenetic abnormalities consistent with monosomal karyotype (MKpos), 33 (38%) patients had histological subtype of RAEB-1 and RAEB-2 at diagnosis, and 45 (51%) patients had a hematopoietic cell transplantation–comorbidity index (HCT-CI) of ≥ 3. RESULTS The 3-year incidence of progression, transplant-related mortality (TRM), and overall survival (OS) were 26% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18%-37%), 35% (95% CI, 26%-47%), and 41% (95% CI, 30%-52%), respectively. MKpos was the only prognostic factor that increased the risk of disease progression compared with good-risk cytogenetics (hazard ratio [HR] = 9.5, P = .003) as well as MKneg (HR = 3.3, P = .01). For TRM, HCT-CI ≥ 3, but not age >65 years, was associated with worse outcomes (HR = 3.1, P = .007). Cytogenetics and HCT-CI enabled us to identify prognostic groups for OS. MKpos patients had the worst 3-year OS (17%), whereas patients with good-risk cytogenetics and HCT-CI < 3 had the best OS (92%). CONCLUSION Our results confirm that allo-HSCT can provide long-term survival in older MDS patients. Cytogenetics and HCT-CI identify prognostic risk groups and guide selection of older MDS patients who are candidates for allo-HSCT. Cancer 2017;123:2661-70. © 2017 American Cancer Society.
Dynamic energy management for chip multi-processors under performance constraints

Abstract We introduce a novel algorithm for dynamic energy management (DEM) under performance constraints in chip multi-processors (CMPs). Using the novel concept of delayed instructions count, performance loss estimations are calculated at the end of each control period for each core. In addition, a Kalman filtering based approach is employed to predict workload in the next control period for which voltage-frequency pairs must be selected. This selection is done with a novel dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) algorithm whose objective is to reduce energy consumption but without degrading performance beyond the user set threshold. Using our customized Sniper based CMP system simulation framework, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for a variety of benchmarks for 16 core and 64 core network-on-chip based CMP architectures. Simulation results show consistent energy savings across the board. We present our work as an investigation of the tradeoff between the achievable energy reduction via DVFS when predictions are done using the effective Kalman filter for different performance penalty thresholds.
Epigenetic profiling of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia defines CD38 expression status

38 B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL/SLL) is a clonal malignancy of mature B cells characterized by low proliferation rate and disrupted programmed cell death. This type of malignancy is the most common type of adult leukemia in the United States. B-CLL/SLL is diverse across different groups of patients and is comprised of at least two subtypes; one group possesses mutated immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region ( IgV H ) genes and a survival rate of decades, whereas the other group possesses an unmutated IgV H gene and has a poor prognosis with a survival rate of months. In addition to the hypermutation status of IgV H gene, a number of biologic features such as mutation of p53, ZAP 70 and CD38 expression appear to have prognostic implications in the clinical management of the B-CLL/SLL. Identifying new genetic and epigenetic biomarkers that can help explain the biology of these two groups of B-CLL/SLL patients may improve the treatment options for patients with poor prognosis. DNA methylation within the CpG island (CGI) in promoter regions plays an important role in tumorgenesis. A previous study conducted in our laboratory revealed that the patterns of DNA methylation in B-CLL/SLL patient samples may not be homogenous. Toward this goal we used an array based technique called differential methylation hybridization to study two groups of B-CLL/SLL patient samples with different CD38 expression status. A total of 38 genomic microarray (19 CD38 positive and 19 CD 38 negative) experiments were performed to study the epigenetic differences between these two groups of patients. Statistical analysis of data from the CGI microarray (12K chip) identified approximately 145 named genes, variably methylated genes, within B-CLL/SLL subsets and recognized genes that are important to many intracellular process. In order to independently confirm the DNA methylation status of selected genes from microarray studies, (NRP2, POU3F3, LHX2, PRKCE, and SALL4) , MSP primers were designed and used to test a series of B-CLL/SLL patients. In addition, we used a t-test with p=0.00001 to find the pathways that are differentially hypermethylated between the two types of B-CLL/SLL. One of major interest involves calcium signaling pathway.
Neuropathology of Generalized Convulsive Status Epilepticus

Generalized convulsive status epilepticus is a life-threatening condition with high mortality; it also causes cellular damage. Systemic physiologic changes in blood pressure, oxygenation, and temperature can cause widespread neuronal injury, but even when systemic physiologic parameters are controlled, status epilepticus can cause focal cell loss in the hippocampus. There is progressive loss of GABAergic inhibitory neurotransmission and sustained glutamatergic excitatory neurotransmission during the course of status epilepticus. Glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity is the most likely cause of focal neuronal injury. If status epilepticus continues for more than an hour, these changes can eventually result in hippocampal cell death, probably because N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors are concentrated in this region. The pattern of cell loss is similar to hypoxic cell damage but is also distinct and identical to the pattern of cell loss found in medial temporal lobe epilepsy due to hippocampal sclerosis. Early treatment of status epilepticus is necessary to prevent irreversible neuronal injury and cell death.
Discussion of “Scaling-up process characterization”

We appreciate the opportunity to discuss John Sall's interesting article. We agree fully with his comments that when scaling up to thousands of variables one wants to do the following: 1. use summa...
A typological approach to studying policing

Policing in the United States has experienced immense change throughout the past quarter-century. Although police agencies have shared their goals of preserving life and protecting property, their ...
Power type ξ-asymptotically uniformly smooth and ξ-asymptotically uniformly flat norms

Abstract For each ordinal ξ and each 1 p ∞ , we offer a natural, isomorphic characterization of those spaces and operators which admit an equivalent ξ-p-asymptotically uniformly smooth norm. We also introduce the notion of ξ-asymptotically uniformly flat norms and provide an isomorphic characterization of those spaces and operators which admit an equivalent ξ-asymptotically uniformly flat norm. Given a compact, Hausdorff space K, we prove an optimal renorming theorem regarding the ξ-asymptotic smoothness of C ( K ) in terms of the Cantor–Bendixson index of K. We also prove that for all ordinals, both the isomorphic properties and isometric properties pass from Banach spaces to their injective tensor products. We study the classes of ξ-p-asymptotically uniformly smooth, ξ-p-asymptotically uniformly smoothable, ξ-asymptotically uniformly flat, and ξ-asymptotically uniformly flattenable operators. We show that these classes are either a Banach ideal or a right Banach ideal when assigned an appropriate ideal norm.
Alterations in glial cell morphology and glial fibrillary acidic protein expression in urethane-induced retinopathy.

Urethane injection in newborn rats causes a photoreceptor degeneration without initial damage to the retinal pigment epithelium, choriocapillaris, or inner retina. In later stages, retinal vessels become incorporated into the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and change from a continuous endothelial cell phenotype to a fenestrated phenotype. At the light-microscopic level, there do not appear to be morphologic changes in the inner retina up to 24 weeks of age. Ultrastructurally, however, there are alterations in Muller cell cytotopographic organization. In the normal retina, intermediate filaments are primarily found from the ganglion cell layer to the inner nuclear layer. These filaments do not show glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity (GFAP-IR) in the normal animal. In the urethane-treated animals, the compartmental organization of the Muller cell organelles is moved vitread. Intermediate filaments are found in the end-foot region, and in the inner plexiform layer, bundles of intermediate filaments become more prominent. All of these filaments are GFAP-IR positive. The new expression of GFAP in the Muller cell may be linked to the observed rearrangement of the cytoskeletal elements. In urethane-induced retinopathy, GFAP-IR is found associated with vessels in all layers of the remaining retina. However, it is not seen accompanying vessels into the RPE. Ultrastructurally, there is no glial investment of the RPE-associated vessels. This absence of glial investment may permit the change in phenotype observed in these vessels.
Psychological stress, immunity and immune depression.

The opportunity to present a Special Lecture at this International Conference on Drugs of Abuse, Immunity and AIDS is a privilege, and I am most grateful to Drs. Friedman, Klein and Specter for the honor they have accorded me. However, to ferret out an area for presentation that does not contain information presented by other speakers in this session, or to just review their published findings, would be a waste of time for this presentation. Certainly, I do not want to use my time to discuss in any part, the information provided by my colleagues - Drs. Robert Donahoe and John Madden - in their presentations. I have decided, therefore, to focus on an issue of long-standing interest to me which also may have relevance to upcoming discussions of other presentations in this section of the publication.
Life Change Measurement: Scoring, Reliability, and Subjective Estimates of Adjustment.

The authors report the test-retest reliabilities for the Schedule of Recent Experiences (item counts) and the Recent Life Changes Questionnaire and compare the two scales.
Diagrams of Hermitian type, highest weight modules, and syzygies of determinantal varieties

In this mostly expository paper, a natural generalization of Young diagrams for Hermitian symmetric spaces is used to give a concrete and uniform approach to a wide variety of interconnected topics including posets of noncompact roots, canonical reduced expressions, rational smoothness of Schubert varieties, parabolic Kazhdan–Lusztig polynomials, equivalences of categories of highest weight modules, BGG resolutions of unitary highest weight modules, and finally, syzygies and Hilbert series of determinantal varieties.
Elevated metabolites of acetaminophen in cord blood of children with obesity.

Background High-throughput metabolomics has been used cross-sectionally to evaluate differential metabolic profiles associated with human obesity. Objectives This study longitudinally assessed the cord blood metabolome to explore if metabolic signatures of obesity at age 3-5 are apparent at birth. Methods In a nested case-control design, metabolomics analysis was performed on umbilical cord blood of 25 children who developed obesity by age 3-5 years, compared with 25 sex-matched non-obese children enrolled as part of an ongoing birth cohort. Logistic regression models were used to identify significant metabolites, adjusting for maternal pre-pregnancy obesity. Results Children who had obesity by age 3-5 years had elevated levels of medium and long chain fatty acids including stearate, oleate and palmitate at birth. Children with obesity were also more likely to have elevated levels of acetaminophen metabolites at birth, specifically: 3-(N-acetyl-L-cystein-S-yl) acetaminophen, 2-hydroxyacetaminophen sulfate, 2-methoxyacetaminophen glucuronide and p-acetamidophenyl glucuronide. Conclusion Although the observed increases in lipids are consistent with previous metabolomic studies of obesity, this study is the first to report associations between acetaminophen metabolites and obesity in children; however, we lack mechanistic insights for this link. Larger human studies with longer follow-up and laboratory-controlled animal experiments are needed to clarify associations.
Optimal Hyperelliptic Cambered Span Configurations for Minimum Drag

The current study considers an analysis of hyperelliptic cambered span wing configurations, optimized for minimum drag. This study encompasses a multidimensional design optimization approach wherei...
Communicating E-resource Management Needs to Library Stakeholders: Theory and Praxis

Conflict management studies and the communication needs addressed by the NASIG Core Competencies standards will be the framework for how to communicate electronic resource management to library sta...
Artificial Intelligence for Pharma: Time for Internal Investment

Artificial intelligence (AI) has achieved human-level capabilities and continues to rapidly improve. For the pharmaceutical industry, AI can improve decision-making and transform the quest for better medicines. The keys are investing in data management and in internal AI talent who can create value by leveraging corporate data to tackle crucial business problems.
Students' and Teachers' Perceptions of Undergraduate Conducting Curricula: A Review of Literature.

Conducting courses are a common component of undergraduate instrumental music education programs. The experiences students have in those courses vary across and sometimes within institutions. This ...
The Heterotroph Hypothesis and High School Biology

Theory is finally coming of age in biology. It was to the physical sciences that philosophers invariably turned when they discussed the role of theory as a source of fruitful and generative ideas leading to new experiments and revolutionary concepts. But the biologists have broken loose from their routine role of description and classification. They are caught up in the exciting interaction of facts and ideas and this relatively new affection “has changed their complexion”--to paraphrase an old song. Broad explanatory theories and conceptual schemes have finally crept into biology, but it has been only slightly more than a century that the three major concepts--cell theory, evolution theory, and gene theory--have attained operational respectability. This “operational respectability” however, has not come easily in respect to evolution theory, particularly in the American secondary schools. Evolution, especially Darwinian natural-selection, is still a bete noire in a sizable portion of American high schools. But the corner has been turned, and new directions for high school biology are in process.
HIV Risk and Prevention Outcomes in a Probability-Based Sample of Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States.

Background:Although gay and bisexual men (GBM) represent the largest group of HIV-infected individuals in the United States, nearly all evidence on their HIV risk and prevention outcomes derive from nonprobability samples.Setting:A probability-based cohort of GBM (N = 502) from 45 states and Washing
Elucidation of the role of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) interaction with mutant huntingtin (mtHtt) for mitochondrial elimination in Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is the major neurodegenerative disease caused by expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) repeats in the huntingtin protein (mutant huntingtin). The presence of the abnormal expansi...
Academic Librarian Publishing Productivity: An Analysis of Skills and Behaviors Leading to Success

Scholarly publishing continues to be a prominent expectation for many academic librarians. This survey explores characteristics, behaviors, motivations, institutional supports, and educational opportunities that help library practitioners become successful authors. It also looks at perceived confidence in research skills of both novice and experienced librarians. Many librarians show confidence in research activities related to their overall job assignments (literature searching, writing, and such) but find more sophisticated research skills, such as statistical analysis, more challenging. Findings indicate that having additional graduate research experience beyond the library degree, time-management skills, and collaboration with other researchers may provide useful benefits.
Effects of inhaled nitric oxide on erythrocyte deformability in septic acute lung injury

Objective To investigate the effects and related mechanism of iNO on erythrocyte deformability in septic acute lung injury(ALI).Methods Thirty anesthetized and mechanically ventilated young piglets(3-4weeks old)were allocated to 4 groups:(1)normal(group C,n=6):intraperitoneal injection of normal saline(NS).(2)normal+iNO(group CNO,n=4):NS followed by mechanical ventilation for 4 h,and then treated with iNO at 10 parts per million in volume(ppm).(3)model(group M,n=10):i.p.Escherichia coli at 5 × 109 cfu/ml,5 ml,and(4)NO(group MNO,n=10):i.p.Eschefichia coli at 5×109 cfu/ml lollowed by iNO-at 10 parts per million after ALI.Blood viscosity,malondialdehyde(MDA)in erythrocyte,Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase and Na+-K+-ATPase of erythrocyte membrane were measured at basdine,establishment of ALI,12 and 24 h during the treatment.Results For normal age-matched piglets,there was little change of whole blood viscosity at high shear rate(110 s-1),which is a measure of erythrocyte deformability,so was the level of MDA in erythroeyte and the activity of erythroeyte membrane Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase,Na+-K+-ATPase when iNO was provided for 12 or 24 h.At the time ALI was established,whole blood viscosity at high shear rate and MDA levels in erythroeyte increased significantly compared to the baseline level(P＜0.05),while the activity of erythrocyte membrane Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase and Na+-K+-ATPase decreased significantly(P＜0.01,vsbaseline).Exposure of iNO for 12 h resulted in decreased whole blood viscosity at high shear rate and MDA levels in erythroeyte(P＜0.05,vs group C),and higher activity of erythrocyte membrane Ca2+-Mg2+-AT-Pase and Na+-K+-ATPase.When iNO was administered for 24 h,there was little difference of whole blood viscosity,activity of erythrocyte membrane Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase,Na+-K+-ATPase and MDA levels in erythroeyte between the C and NO groups.Conclusion In the piglets with septic ALI,there was deterioration of erythrocyte deformability.Inhaled NO for 12 h may alter the deterioration,however,this effect is transient. Key words: Nitric oxide; Whole blood viscosity; Erythroeyte; Deformability:Oxidation
Natural language processing and entrustable professional activity text feedback in surgery: A machine learning model of resident autonomy.

Abstract Background Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) contain narrative ‘entrustment roadmaps’ designed to describe specific behaviors associated with different entrustment levels. However, these roadmaps were created using expert committee consensus, with little data available for guidance. Analysis of actual EPA assessment narrative comments using natural language processing may enhance our understanding of resident entrustment in actual practice. Methods All text comments associated with EPA microassessments at a single institution were combined. EPA—entrustment level pairs (e.g. Gallbladder Disease—Level 1) were identified as documents. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a common machine learning algorithm, was used to identify latent topics in the documents associated with a single EPA. These topics were then reviewed for interpretability by human raters. Results Over 18 months, 1015 faculty EPA microassessments were collected from 64 faculty for 80 residents. LDA analysis identified topics that mapped 1:1 to EPA entrustment levels (Gammas >0.99). These LDA topics appeared to trend coherently with entrustment levels (words demonstrating high entrustment were consistently found in high entrustment topics, word demonstrating low entrustment were found in low entrustment topics). Conclusions LDA is capable of identifying topics relevant to progressive surgical entrustment and autonomy in EPA comments. These topics provide insight into key behaviors that drive different level of resident autonomy and may allow for data-driven revision of EPA entrustment maps.
The NDNF-like factor Nord is a Hedgehog-induced extracellular BMP modulator that regulates Drosophila wing patterning and growth

ABSTRACT Hedgehog (Hh) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) pattern the developing Drosophila wing by functioning as short- and long-range morphogens, respectively. Here, we show that a previously unknown Hh-dependent mechanism fine-tunes the activity of BMPs. Through genome-wide expression profiling of the Drosophila wing imaginal discs, we identify nord as a novel target gene of the Hh signaling pathway. Nord is related to the vertebrate Neuron Derived Neurotrophic Factor (NDNF) involved in Congenital Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism and several types of cancer. Loss- and gain-of-function analyses implicate Nord in the regulation of wing growth and proper crossvein patterning. At the molecular level, we present biochemical evidence that Nord is a secreted BMP-binding protein and localizes to the extracellular matrix. Nord binds to Decapentaplegic (Dpp) or the heterodimer Dpp-Glass bottom boat (Gbb) to modulate their release and activity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Nord is a dosage-depend biphasic BMP modulator, where low levels of Nord promote and high levels inhibit BMP signaling. Taken together, we propose that Hh-induced Nord expression fine tunes both the range and strength of BMP signaling in the developing Drosophila wing. One sentence summary The NDNF-like factor Nord is a Hedgehog-induced and extracellular-localized biphasic BMP modulator that regulates Drosophila wing patterning and growth
Ovarian Transposition Prior to Pelvic Radiotherapy: Spatial Distribution and Dose Volume Analysis.

Purpose/Objective(s) Pelvic radiotherapy (RT) is an integral component of local therapy for anorectal and gynecologic malignances. Ovaries are exquisitely radiosensitive, with even 6 Gy exposure leading to a moderate risk of ovarian failure, and 14 Gy resulting in ovarian failure in nearly all patients. To facilitate ovary dose reduction, surgical transposition prior to pelvic RT can be performed, however ovarian function preservation rates remain approximately 50%. Moreover, there is a paucity of data in the modern treatment era analyzing the anatomic locations and dose volume metrics achieved for transposed ovaries, which was examined herein. Materials/Methods Retrospective study including women who underwent ovarian transposition prior to pelvic RT between 2010 and 2020. Measurements (cm) were obtained for 1) the craniocaudal (CC) distance from the plane of the sacral promontory to the ovary centroid and 2) the distance between the nearest edge of the ovary and RT planning target volume (PTV) in any dimension. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and cut-point analysis estimating ovary location outside the PTV was performed. Results Thirty-one ovaries were analyzed from 18 patients. Fourteen (77.8%) were treated for cervical cancer and three (16.7%) for rectal cancer. Most (72.2%, n = 13) were treated with intensity-modulated RT while 27.8% (n = 5) were treated with 3D-CRT. The median CC distance from the ovaries to sacral promontory was 0.8 cm (interquartile range [IQR] -0.83 - 1.59 cm) and the median distance between the ovary and PTV was 0.9 cm (IQR, -1.0 - 1.9 cm). The majority of ovaries were located above the sacral promontory (64.5%, n = 20) and outside the PTV (61.3%, n = 19). AUC and cut-point analysis demonstrated that CC distance from the sacral promontory predicted an ovary to be outside the PTV with an optimal cut-point of 1.2 cm (C-index = 0.72). The median mean and maximum (Dmax) ovary doses were 15.5 Gy (IQR, 9.6 - 19.4 Gy) and 32.2 Gy (IQR, 24.8 - 45.9 Gy), respectively. When comparing the RT dose of transposed ovaries located outside (n = 19) vs. within (n = 12) the PTV, there was a significant decrease in median Dmax (25.4 Gy vs. 46.1 Gy; P Conclusion There was a significant inverse correlation between ovary CC distance from the sacral promontory and ovary RT dose. However, despite the majority of transposed ovaries being located outside the PTV, most patients still received ovary doses associated with a high risk of ovarian failure. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between ovary location and dose to inform pre-RT planning and suggest that more aggressive ovary-sparing strategies are warranted.
Risk Assessment of Complex Mixtures

Risk assessment of suspected carcinogens involves both a qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The qualitative evaluation evaluates the relevant animal, epidemiologic, mutagenesis, and cell transformation studies as to the likelihood that the agent is a human carcinogen.
Coping with Health Problems in Aging

A national poll made for the National Council on the Aging in 1974 dis-closed the fact that poor health is regarded by 21% of people aged 65 and over as a “very serious” personal problem, and 10% report that “not enough medical care” is also a very serious problem for them.
Organometallic Metal Clusters Containing Nitrosyl and Nitrido Ligands

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the methods used for preparing cluster coordinated nitrosyl ligands, their structural and spectroscopic properties with emphasis on the relationship of terminal and bridging nitrosyls, and their unique reactivity. It also discusses nitride clusters, which are formed using reactions similar to those used for nitrosyl formation and structural, spectroscopic, and reactivity studies. The bonding of the nitrosyl ligand to metal clusters can occur by several modes. A terminal ligand, NO can bind as a linear nitrosyl, which is by far the predominant mode, or as a bent nitrosyl. The primary source of the nitrogen atoms in nitrido clusters is ultimately its monoxide, which is usually coordinated to a transition metal. Such data on these clusters are now available to make a preliminary comparison of the similarities and differences of carbide and nitride ligands. The basic fluxional properties of the carbonyl ligands bound to nitrido clusters are the same as those found for related carbido clusters.
N-parallel filter bank equivalent to tree structure

This paper presents the equivalent polyphase implementations of an N-channel filter bank based on an s-level tree structured filter bank. The realization employs a cascade of the filter's polyphase components with distributed decimation followed by the NxN Hadamard matrix realizing a filter bank with real computations (real-valued filter coefficients) only, which is simple to realize. >
Engaging opportunities in urban revitalization: Practicing detroit anthropology

As an iconic postindustrial city, Detroit is a rich site for considering community engagement, key social issues, and urban renewal. Increasing national and international attention has focused on Detroit as an urban exemplar where political economy, social context, social justice, and social change interconnect in novel ways such that true innovation might occur. Wayne State University (WSU)—located in the heart of Detroit—faces this sociopolitical–economic reality as the backdrop for its educational mission. In this article, we discuss WSU's meaning to the city of Detroit over time; we also consider how WSU is responding to the current national dialogue about a need for new educational models that promote sustained and substantive engagement by urban universities in their surrounding communities. Our department's “Anthropology of the City” initiative that has a social science research and training agenda contributing to the redevelopment of the city is described. Lastly, we offer examples of WSU's involvement in community-engaged anthropology and discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by doing this work with a series of local partners in Detroit and the region.
Subjective Measures of Efficacy: Quality of Life, Patient Satisfaction and Patient-Oriented Goals – the Search for Value

Abstract Patients with overactive bladder syndrome are significantly affected by their symptoms of urinary urgency, frequency, nocturia, and urge urinary incontinence. The measurement of this impact on their lives is probably best appreciated by health-related quality-of-life instruments and global subjective assessments of patient satisfaction. Treatments for this syndrome should offer more than just efficacy in reducing urinary frequency and incontinence episodes, but should also offer value. A proposal for the calculation of value in treating overactive bladder syndrome and an assessment of the value of the six branded antimuscarinic agents available in the United States is proposed. The impact of overactive bladder syndrome on quality of life is presented for the Multicenter Assessment of TRansdermal therapy in overactive bladder with oXybutinin TDS (MATRIX) trial of over 2800 patients.
Barriers to Health Services Perceived by Marshallese Immigrants

The Marshallese immigrant population, part of a growing Asian American and Pacific Islander population in the United States, has adverse health conditions and disparities that are mainly attributed to their pre-migration health status. Little is known about the perceived and real barriers Marshallese experience in accessing and utilizing health services in the United States. Because of these barriers, their health status is known to exacerbate. This formative study used qualitative methods, using an ethnographic approach, to identify the ethnocultural and socioeconomic barriers to existing health services as perceived by immigrant Marshallese living in Northwest Arkansas. Recommendations were made to improve timely, culturally competent, and appropriate health services.
Hierarchical Dependence in Meta-Analysis

Meta-analysis is a frequent tool among education and behavioral researchers to combine results from multiple experiments to arrive at a clear understanding of some effect of interest. One of the traditional assumptions in a meta-analysis is the independence of the effect sizes from the studies under consideration. This article presents a meta-analytic review of 13 experiments with 18 study reports all involving the effect of native-language (L1) vocabulary aids on second-language (L2) reading comprehension. Some experiments produced multiple study reports, creating a dependence structure among the resulting effect size estimates. The covariance among these effect size estimates is estimated and incorporated into a proposed meta-analysis model that accounts for the dependence at a hierarchical level. The overall effect size estimate (g =.63) indicates that L1 vocabulary aids can be an effective L2 reading comprehension aid in the short term. An interpretation of the hierarchical components is discussed.
Temperature rise in tissue ablation using multi-frequency ultrasound

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is becoming an increasingly important noninvasive surgical tool, despite the challenges in temperature rise control and unwanted heating problems. In this study, experiments and simulations on tissue ablation effectiveness were performed using multi-frequency HIFU with frequency differences of more than 500 kHz (center frequencies are 950 kHz, 1.5 MHz, and 3.3 MHz). In the experiments, the temperature was recorded as chicken breast tissue was heated by single-frequency, dual-frequency, and tri-frequency HIFU configurations at controlled acoustic power and exposure time. 5% to 10% temperature rise differences were observed between single- and multi-frequency modes, indicating that multi-frequency HIFU is more effective at producing faster temperature rises. Cavitation detection tests were conducted to compare the cavitation pressure fields between single- and multi-frequency ultrasound. Moreover, simulations on single-frequency and multi-frequency acoustic fields as well as bio-heating-induced temperature fields were performed. With the comparison between experimental and simulation results, we believe that the more effective tissue ablation using multi-frequency ultrasound is likely attributed to the enhanced cavitation, a promising result for HIFU applications.
Invertible preservers and algebraic groups III: preservers of unitary similarity (congruence) invariants and overgroups of some unitary subgroups ∗

Let V = . We consider two groups of unitary operators on V, namely acting on V by conjugation, and acting on V via U:A→UAU 1. We study the overgroups of these unitary groups in GL(V). The results are then applied to classify the invertible linear maps on V and various subspaces of V which preserve some unitary similarity invariant or unitary congruence invariant property. This provides a unified proof for various existing results, and answers a number of open questions on linear preserver problems.
Seismic imaging on the intel paragon

Abstract A key to reducing the risks and costs associated with oil and gas exploration is the fast, accurate imaging of complex geologies, such as salt domes in the Gulf of Mexico and overthrust regions in U.S. onshore regions. Prestack depth migration generally yields the most accurate images, and one approach to this is to solve the scalar-wave equation using finite differences. Current industry computational capabilities are insufficient for the application of finite-difference, 3-D, prestack, depth-migration algorithms. A 3-D seismic data can be several terabytes in size, and the multiple runs necessary to refine the velocity model may take many years. The oil companies and seismic contractors need to perform complete velocity field refinements in weeks and single iterations overnight. High-performance computers and state-of-the-art algorithms and software are required to meet this need. As part of an ongoing ACTI project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, we have developed a finite-difference, 3-D prestack, depth-migration code for the Intel Paragon. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that massively parallel computers (thousands of processors) can be used efficiently for seismic imaging, and that sufficient computing power exists (or soon will exist) to make finite-difference, prestack, depth migration practical for oil and gas exploration.
Brdf Measurement Equipment: Intrinsic Design Considerations

BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) is the accepted expression for describing directional reflectance. BRDF is the ratio of outgoing radiance (watts per square centimeter per sterradian) in one direction divided by incoming irradiance (watts per square centimeter) from another direction, and the units of BRDF are sterradians to the minus one power. BRDF is an unusual scientific quantity, and it is not simple to visualize, to measure or to use. Its unusual character gives rise to certain intrinsic considerations for measurement equipment, and this paper addresses those intrinsic design considerations.
The Critical Role of Working Memory in Academic Achievement

Far too many culinary arts educators are unaware of the critical role that working memory plays in student’s ability to perform cognitive and academic tasks, such as reading, note taking, and studying for tests (memorization). In this article, we provide research that suggests working memory may be uniquely responsible for the difficulties faced by culinary students in the kitchen and classroom. This literature review not only defines working memory but describes its functionality based on the work of key researchers in the field and gives practical recommendations to apply this knowledge in culinary arts education. The vital role that working memory plays in teaching and learning should give teachers great pause and make them re-examine their approach to instructional design to enhance the academic achievement potential of culinary students.
The Dynamics of a Rotor System with a Cracked Shaft

A theoretical analysis of the dynamics of a rotor-bearing system with a transversely cracked rotor is presented. The rotating assembly is modeled using finite rotating shaft elements and the presence of a crack is taken into account by a rotating stiffness variation. This stiffness variation is a function of the rotor’s bending curvature at the crack location and is represented by a Fourier series expansion. The resulting parametrically excited system is nonlinear and is analyzed using a perturbation method coupled with an iteration procedure. The system equations are written in terms of complex variables and an associated computer code has been developed for simulation studies. Results obtained by this analysis procedure are compared with previous analytical and experimental work presented by Grabowski.
Matrix formulation of the dynamic analysis of SDOF systems in the frequency domain

Abstract In this note a matrix formulation of the frequency domain dynamic analysis of SDOF systems is presented. The number of terms in the Discrete Fourier Transforms can be arbitrarily selected and the transforms are implicitly calculated in the procedure which leads to the response in the time domain.
The influence of the reducing agent dithiothreitol in vitro on infectivity of f1 particles.

Abstract Filamentous phage can be exposed to 100 mM dithiothreitol (DTT) under bio-panning conditions without affecting their subsequent ability to infect a new host.
Characteristics of the large‐scale circulation changes during the sudden onset of the fall transition season

The characteristics of large-scale circulation changes manifest in the abrupt onset of the fall transition season are analysed for the Northern Hemisphere extratropical region. Ten years of daily observational data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) global model initialization analyses are examined using the vertically integrated total kinetic energy (TKE) as the primary descriptor for circulation intensity. The time series data are bandpass filtered to examine subsets of frequencies representing specific atmospheric time scales, i.e. the low-frequency tropical forced oscillations (29.9–59.9 days), the intermediate-frequency oscillations related to non-linear processes such as weather regimes (10.0–29.7 days) and the high-frequency extratropical synoptic scale (2.5–6.5 days). Times when significant increases in kinetic energy (KE) variability occurred in the area-weighted hemispheric-mean time series for each bandpass were determined, and the onset date for each year and for each bandpass period was designated as the first significant increase in KE variability during the 1 August–30 November time period. Statistically significant abrupt onset events are found, with the majority occurring in August, September and October. The mean onset times vary from 3 October for the 29.9–59.9-day bandpass period to 30 August for the 2.5–6.5-day bandpass period. Composites with respect to the onset time show robust features of the abrupt onset event in both the hemispheric-mean time series and the spatial patterns of KE variability. Centres of maximum change in the magnitude of KE variability are in the western and central Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean sectors coincident with the areas of jet stream maxima. Separate analyses for onset characteristics for area-mean KE time series for the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean areas show that there is little correlation between Pacific and Atlantic onset times for the 29.9–59.9-day bandpass period. However, for the 10.0–29.7-day bandpass period the Atlantic onset times tend to lead the Pacific onset times, while for the 2.5–6.5-day bandpass period the Pacific region onset times tend to occur prior to the Atlantic onset times. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society
Writeback-aware bandwidth partitioning for multi-core systems with PCM

Phase-Change Memory (PCM) has emerged as a promising low-power candidate to replace DRAM in main memory. Hybrid memory architecture comprised of a large PCM and a small DRAM is a popular solution to mitigate undesirable characteristics of PCM writes. Because PCM writes are much slower than reads, writebacks from the last-level cache consume a large portion of memory bandwidth, and thus, impact performance. Effectively utilizing shared resources, such as the last-level cache and the memory bandwidth, is crucial to achieving high performance for multi-core systems. Although existing memory bandwidth allocation schemes improve system performance, no current approach uses writeback information to partition bandwidth for hybrid memory. We use a writeback-aware analytic model to derive the allocation strategy for bandwidth partitioning of phase-change memory. From the derivation of the model, Writeback-aware Bandwidth Partitioning (WBP) is proposed as a new runtime mechanism to partition PCM service cycles among applications. WBP uses a partitioning weight to indicate the importance of writebacks (in addition to LLC misses) to bandwidth allocation. A companion Dynamic Weight Adjustment (DWA) scheme dynamically selects the partitioning weight to maximize system performance. Simulation results show that WBP and DWA improve performance by 24.9% (weighted speedup) over bandwidth partitioning schemes that do not take writebacks into consideration in a 8-core system.
Salinity Trends in Surface Waters of the Upper Colorado River Basin, Colorado

Dissolved-solids data collected in the Upper Colorado River Basin upstream from Cameo, Colorado, and in the Gunnison River Basin were analyzed for trends in flow-adjusted dissolved-solids concentrations and loads for water years 1970 to 1993, 1980 to 1993, and 1986 to 1993. Trend results for now-adjusted periodic dissolved-solids concentrations for the Colorado River Basin upstream from Cameo, CO, generally were downward or no trend was indicated. Trends in flow-adjusted monthly and annual dissolved-solids loads primarily were downward or absent. These trend results partly agree with the downward trends reported by a previous investigation for the Colorado River near Cameo site. In the Gunnison River Basin, trends in flow-adjusted dissolved-solids concentrations and loads were not detected for more than one-half of the site/analysis-period combinations. Of the trends that were present, most indicated decreases in concentrations and loads rather than increases. In both the Colorado River Basin upstream from Cameo, CO, and the Gunnison River Basin, trends in flow-adjusted dissolved-solids concentrations and flow-adjusted monthly and annual dissolved-solids loads may be affected by a variety of factors. These include channel evolution and hydrologic variation, water quality and now rate of groundwater discharges and springs, sample size and period of record of dissolved-solids data, and changes in land use in the basin.
On the behavior of stress waves in composite materials—II. Theoretical and experimental studies on the effects of constituent debonding☆

Abstract The theory derived in Part I is compared to data obtained from flyer-plate experiments on laminated composites. The composites were constructed of alternating layers of aluminum and polymethyl methacrylate. Impact occurred on a flat plane oriented perpendicular to the interface planes of the composite constituents. As opposed to the behavior of a fully bonded composite which allows only one longitudinal stress wave to propagate through its interior, two longitudinal stress waves were observed in the debonded composite. Reasonable agreement was achieved in the comparisons of theory to experiment after adjustment was made for the effect of residual bond strength at the constituent interfaces.
A Lagrangian staggered grid Godunov-like approach for hydrodynamics

Much research in Lagrangian staggered-grid hydrodynamics (SGH) has focused on explicit viscosity models for adding dissipation to a calculation that has shocks. The explicit viscosity is commonly called ''artificial viscosity''. Recently, researchers have developed hydrodynamic algorithms that incorporate approximate Riemann solutions on the dual grid [28,29,35,30,2,3]. This approach adds dissipation to the calculation via solving a Riemann-like problem. In this work, we follow the works of [28,29,35,30] and solve a multidirectional Riemann-like problem at the cell center. The Riemann-like solution at the cell center is used in the momentum and energy equations. The multidirectional Riemann-like problem used in this work differs from previous work in that it is an extension of the cell-centered hydrodynamics (CCH) nodal solution approach in [7]. Incorporating the multidirectional Riemann-like problem from [7] into SGH has merits such as the ability to resist mesh instabilities like hourglass null modes and chevron null modes. The approach is valid for complex multidimensional flows with strong shocks. Numerical details and test problems are presented.
On Possible Interpretations of the Anomalous Properties of Supercooled Water

A search for ways to estimate thermodynamic properties of deeply supercooled water was undertaken to make it possible to analyze nucleation rates in droplets freezing in supersonic flow. It was found that the well-known anomalous behavior of supercooled water can be accounted for by the so-called “two-state” model that had been discredited 2 decades ago. The model was found to be viable when applied in a form closely related to one introduced by Speedy [J. Phys. Chem. 1984, 88, 3364]. Water is apportioned into equilibrium concentrations of high- and low-density components in somewhat the same way as described recently by Vedamuthu et al. [J. Phys. Chem. 1994, 98, 2222] except that criteria were imposed whereby the equilibrium constant inferred from the distribution was forced to obey the van't Hoff temperature and Gibbs−Poynting pressure relations. It was found that the expansivity, heat capacity, and compressibility anomalies calculated by the model agreed well with those measured experimentally when the...
LDGR: An efficient load-balancing inter Dimension Group Routing selection strategy in on-chip networks

Load balance is critical to the performance of adaptive routing algorithm for on-chip interconnection networks. Load Balance is mainly depended on the algorithm's selection strategy which is employed when the algorithm's routing function returns more than one admissible output ports. Existing selection strategies use local congestion metrics to make a port selection decision while ignore the global congestion condition, thus results in sub-optimal selections. In this paper, we propose an efficient Load-balancing inter Dimension Group Routing selection strategy (LDGR) in on-chip networks. The proposed selection strategy takes into account the neighbor's free VC count when make a routing decision. LDGR can achieve load balance over a wider area beyond local area by balancing the load of both X dimension link group and Y dimension link group. The evaluation result indicates that the proposed method outperforms local selection strategy in throughput about 13.4% on average under synthetic traffics patterns on 8×8 mesh topology.