cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Microstructural Investigation of the Thermally Grown Oxide on Grain-Refined Overdoped NiAl–Zr

The thermally grown oxide on sputter-deposited NiAl–0.09Zr was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) to microstructurally assess its oxidation resistance. Sputter deposition resulted in a refined grain size of 0.3 μm that was compared to extruded NiAl–Zr with a grain size of approximately 25 μm. Thermogravimetric oxidation of the sputter-deposited material showed a shorter transient regime with lower mass gain than an extruded NiAl–0.1Zr alloy and improved spallation resistance through 50 h of isothermal oxidation at 1000 °C. After 5 h the thermally grown oxide on the sputter-deposited alloy exhibited a three-layer structure consisting of external θ-Al2O3 whiskers, intermediate equiaxed α-Al2O3 grains (< 100 nm) + ZrO2 precipitates and internal columnar α-Al2O3 grains, in contrast to the extruded alloy which showed sparse α growth. After 50 h of oxidation, the three-layer structure was retained, but the top θ-Al2O3 layer was transformed to α-Al2O3. TKD after 50 h showed the top and bottom oxide layers to be composed of high-misorientation α-Al2O3 grains approximately three times smaller than the extruded sample. Monoclinic and tetragonal ZrO2 precipitates were identified in the fine-grained middle region. These features show that grain refinement significantly increases Zr diffusion to the reacting surface, while simultaneously mitigating the effects of overdoping. This increased Zr diffusion is believed to have expedited the formation of a continuous α-Al2O3 layer, resulting in a shorter transient oxidation period.
Oral miltefosine for refractory Acanthamoeba keratitis.

Abstract Purpose To report the first case of Acanthamoeba keratitis treated with oral miltefosine in the United States. Observations A 17-year-old female with a history of orthokeratology contact lens wear presented after five months of left eye pain, redness, and photophobia. She was previously treated with antivirals and topical corticosteroids for presumed herpetic disease. She was found to have a large central ring infiltrate and corneal cultures were positive for Acanthamoeba. The infection progressed despite hourly PHMB 0.02% and chlorhexidine 0.02%, and oral vorizonazole. The patient was started on oral miltefosine 50 mg 3 times per day. Following one week of treatment, repeat cultures were positive for Acanthamoeba and therefore, the concentration of chlorhexidine was increased from 0.02% to 0.06% and PHMB was changed to propamidine isetionate (Brolene 0.1%). There was definite clinical improvement after five weeks of treatment with oral miltefosine, topical chlorhexidine 0.06% and propamidine isetionate 0.1%. Conclusions and importance Acanthamoeba keratitis is a challenging entity to treat and often associated with a poor prognosis. Oral miltefosine may offer additional therapeutic benefit in cases of refractory Acanthamoeba keratitis.
Magnetocaloric effect near room temperature in quintenary and sextenary Heusler alloys

An inverse magnetocaloric effect is studied in Ni 2Mn 1 + x X 1 − x-type Heusler alloys. Principally known for their shape-memory properties, these alloys also exhibit significant entropy and temperature changes ( Δ S and Δ T A d, respectively) under adiabatic conditions when a modest magnetic field is applied. We investigated the impact on magnetocaloric properties of introducing substantial chemical disorder on the X-site ( X = Si , Ga , In), of replacing Ni with nonmagnetic Ag, and of replacing a small amount of Mn with Gd. While a reduction in Δ S is observed in the first two cases, we observe a significant enhancement of Δ S when a small amount of Gd is substituted for Mn. A thermodynamic analysis was conducted using magnetization and heat capacity data to estimate adiabatic temperature changes in the range of Δ T A d ≃ − 1 to − 3 K for a 5 T magnetic field. Several alloys characterized in this study exhibit these respectable Δ T A d values near room temperature, making them potentially viable candidates for magnetic refrigeration applications.
Availability of Medications for the Treatment of Alcohol and Opioid Use Disorder in the USA

Despite high mortality rates due to opioid overdose and excessive alcohol consumption, medications for the treatment of alcohol and opioid use disorder have not been widely used in the USA. This paper provides an overview of the literature on the availability of alcohol and opioid used disorder medications in the specialty substance use disorder treatment system, other treatment settings and systems, and among providers with a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine. We also present the most current data on the availability of alcohol and opioid use disorder medications in the USA. These estimates show steady growth in availability of opioid use disorder medications over the past decade and a decline in availability of alcohol use disorder medications. However, overall use of medications in the USA remains low. In 2017, only 16.3% of specialty treatment programs offered any single medication for alcohol use disorder treatment and 35.5% offered any single medication for opioid use disorder treatment. Availability of buprenorphine-waivered providers has increased significantly since 2002. However, geographic disparities in access to buprenorphine remain. Some of the most promising strategies to increase availability of alcohol and opioid use disorder medications include the following: incorporating substance use disorder training in healthcare education programs, educating the substance use disorder workforce about the benefits of medication treatment, reducing stigma surrounding the use of medications, implementing medications in primary care settings, implementing integrated care models, revising regulations on methadone and buprenorphine, improving health insurance coverage of medications, and developing novel medications for the treatment of substance use disorder.
Severity and duration of hypoxemia during outpatient endoscopy in obese patients: a retrospective cohort study.

We sought to quantify the severity and duration of hypoxemic events in morbidly obese patients during outpatient endoscopy procedures performed under deep sedation. This was a retrospective cohort study using intraprocedural pulse oximetry readings from 11,595 American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status score I–III adult patients who underwent deep sedation for elective endoscopy at free standing ambulatory centres between June 2015 and June 2016. Unadjusted and risk-adjusted logistic regression analyses explored the relationship between increasing categories of body mass index (BMI) and intraoperative hypoxemia, severe hypoxemia, and prolonged hypoxemia. Hypoxemia occurred in 600 (13%) patients with normal BMI, 314 (18%) with class I obesity, 159 (27%) with class II obesity, and 24 (19%) with class III obesity. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for any occurrence of intraoperative hypoxemia increased from 1.61 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35 to 1.90; P < 0.001) in the class I obesity group to 2.61 (95% CI, 2.05 to 3.30; P < 0.001) in patients with class II obesity, when compared with patients with normal BMI. Adjusted odds ratio of severe hypoxemia were significant in the class I obesity group (AOR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.89; P = 0.003), and the class II obesity group (AOR, 2.59; 95% CI, 1.86 to 3.57; P < 0.001). Adjusted odds ratio of prolonged hypoxemia increased with each category of BMI from 1.97 (95% CI, 1.08 to 3.69) in the overweight group to 9.20 (95% CI, 4.74 to 18.03) in patients with class III obesity. The incidence of severe hypoxemia increased nearly six-fold in obese patients and 8.5-fold in class III obese patients when compared with those of normal BMI. Intravenous fentanyl was associated with intraoperative hypoxemia independent of BMI. Patients who represent the highest risk for hypoxia should be stratified to procedure locations with adequate resources for the safest care.
Noninvasive diagnostic tools for pediatric NAFLD: where are we now?

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a leading cause of liver disease in the pediatric population. It is a significant liver complication of obesity that also prominently affects children. O...
Major League Baseball Broadcasts and the Delineation of Traditional and Modern Fact Metrics

This study analyzed fans' knowledge and acceptance of baseball statistics portrayed on regional broadcasts, with a particular emphasis on modern/advanced statistics. By way of Major League Baseball...
Improving multi-atlas cardiac structure segmentation of computed tomography angiography: A performance evaluation based on a heterogeneous dataset.

Abstract Multi-atlas based segmentation is an effective technique that transforms a representative set of atlas images and labels into a target image for structural segmentation. However, a significant limitation of this approach relates to the fact that the atlas and the target images need to be similar in volume orientation, coverage, or acquisition protocols in order to prevent image misregistration and avoid segmentation fault. In this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of using a heterogeneous Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) dataset on the performance of a multi-atlas cardiac structure segmentation framework. We propose a generalized technique based upon using the Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) supervoxel method to detect a bounding box region enclosing the heart before subsequent cardiac structure segmentation. This technique facilitates our framework to process CTA datasets acquired from distinct imaging protocols and to improve its segmentation accuracy and speed. In a four-way cross comparison based on 60 CTA studies from our institution and 60 CTA datasets from the Multi-Modality Whole Heart Segmentation MICCAI challenge, we show that the proposed framework performs well in segmenting seven different cardiac structures based upon interchangeable atlas and target datasets acquired from different imaging settings. For the overall results, our automated segmentation framework attains a median Dice, mean distance, and Hausdorff distance of 0.88, 1.5 mm, and 9.69 mm over the entire datasets. The average processing time was 1.55 min for both datasets. Furthermore, this study shows that it is feasible to exploit heterogenous datasets from different imaging protocols and institutions for accurate multi-atlas cardiac structure segmentation.
Attending to Aliveness: Self-Harm, Body and World in Contexts of Urban Homelessness.

The DSM-5 proposes that self-harm be recognized as a diagnostic category of mental disease, compared to its previous definition as a behavioral symptom. Based on fieldwork in London, I challenge this proposal by exploring the life-history of a homeless sex-worker and substance-user who practices self-cutting. By bringing phenomenological anthropology into conversation with psychoanalytic theory, this article provisionally re-conceptualizes self-harm as an ethics of self-reparation and existential affirmation in the face of extreme precarity. Approached as an agentive practice through which human beings reclaim “somethingness” by altering their bodily conditions, we can conceive self-harm in a way that is attentive to the situational conditions that shape existential pain, instead of reaching straight for the diagnostic toolkit. In taking self-harm as simultaneously a reaction to and a reflection on existential crisis—rather than a sui generis disorder—this paper situates such practices as a pluralized condition-of-world rather than a bounded pathology-of-mind.
The Warm Ionized Medium in Spiral Galaxies: A View from Above

The Warm Ionized Medium (WIM), also referred to as Diffuse Ionized Gas, contains most of the mass of interstellar medium in ionized form, contributing as much as 30% of the total atomic gas mass in the solar neighborhood. The advent of CCDs has enabled unprecedented study of this medium in external galaxies, probing a variety of environments. In particular, we can derive the morphology of the WIM, its distribution across disks, and the correlation with other Population I material. Spectroscopy of the WIM makes it possible to test various ionization models. I will review here our current understanding of the properties of the WIM in spiral galaxies. A perhaps unexpected result is that the H-alpha emission from the WIM contributes about 40% of the total observed H-alpha luminosity from spirals. This places severe constraints on possible sources of ionization, since only photo ionization by OB stars meets this requirement. Spectroscopic measurements of forbidden line strengths appear in reasonable agreement with photo ionization models. It is not yet clear if the Lyman continuum photons that ionize the WIM are mostly from OB stars located inside traditional HII regions, or from field OB stars.
The Impact of Galaxy Formation on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect of Galaxy Clusters

We study the effects of galaxy formation on the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) observable-mass relations using high-resolution cosmological simulations. The simulations of eleven individual clusters spanning a decade in mass are performed with the shock-capturing Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement N-body+gasdynamics ART code. To assess the impact of galaxy formation, we compare two sets of simulations performed in an adiabatic regime and those with several physical processes critical to various aspects of galaxy formation: radiative cooling, star formation, stellar feedback and metal enrichment. We show that a SZE signal integrated to a sufficiently large fraction of cluster volume correlates strongly with its enclosed mass, independent of details of gas physics and dynamical state of the cluster. The slope and redshift evolution of the SZE flux-mass relation are also insensitive to processes of galaxy formation and are well characterized by a simple self-similar cluster model. Its normalization, on the other hand, is significantly affected by gas cooling and associated star formation. Our simulations show that inclusion of these processes suppresses the normalization by ~30-40%. The effect is due to a decrease in gas mass fraction, which is offset slightly by an increase in gas mass-weighted temperature. Gas cooling and star formation also cause an increase in total mass and modify the normalization by a few percent. Finally, the comparison with recent observations of the SZE scaling relations highlights the importance of galaxy formation in theoretical modelling of clusters and shows that current generation of simulations produce clusters with gross properties quite similar to their observed counterparts.
Effect of Irradiation on the Quality Parameters of Raw Beef

The objective of this study was to elucidate the relationships among lipid/protein oxidation, color changes, off-taste, and off-odor in irradiated raw beef. The raw beef round eye was prepared and irradiated at 0, 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 kGy using a linear accelerator. Significant increases in lipid oxidation and protein oxidation were found in irradiated raw beef, while significant decreases were observed in the color values (L*-, a*-, and b*-value). The degradation of nucleotides can contribute to the taste changes (increase in sourness and decrease in umami taste) in the irradiated raw beef, which was further confirmed by the electronic tongue data. The sulfur volatiles (e.g.: dimethyl disulfide) from the sulfur-containing amino acids increased significantly after irradiation, indicating these are closely related to the off-odor of irradiated beef.
79 A survey of horse longevity and retirement in the equine assisted services industry

Anecdotal evidence suggests high horse turnover is a concern in the field of equine assisted services (EAS) with potential negative effects on sustainability. Members of key EAS organizations (American Hippotherapy Association; Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, International; eagala; Certified Horsemanship Association for a total of 26,000 recipients) were surveyed to characterize horses in EAS programs, their use, and causes of retirement. We expected respondents to indicate horses remained in their programs for relatively short periods of time and list behavior as a leading cause of retirement. The survey (QualtricsⓇ) was distributed via email using a repeat contact strategy of 4 contacts spaced 2–4 wk apart. Descriptive statistics were computed in SAS (v 9.4). Kendall's correlation with Bonferroni correction was used to analyze relationships of retirement causes and longevity with selection procedures and workload. Respondents (n = 176 completed responses; 0.14% response rate) reported 12 ± 8 (mean ± SD) horses and ponies were active in their programs. Animals ranged in age from less than 5 yr (2 ± 5% of animals in program) to 36–40 yr (0.1 ± 1.3%) with the greatest number falling between 16 and 20 yr (34% ± 22%). Donation (40 ± 34% of animals in program), purchase from private owner (23 ± 31%), and free lease (18 ± 26%) were reported as the most common means of acquiring horses and ponies. Animals had been active in the program for less than one yr (4.5 ± 12% of animals in program) to over 20 yr (4.4 ± 18%) with the greatest percentage of animals active for 1–5 yr (37 ± 35%) followed by 6–10 yr (31 ± 31%). Respondents indicated horses and ponies typically worked anywhere from 0 to 1 h/wk (0.6% of respondents) to 42–48 h/wk (0.6%) with the largest number working 4–8 h/wk (20%). When asked reasons for retiring horses and ponies, respondents ranked (1 = most frequent; 7 = least frequent) age (2, 1–3; median, IQR), behavior (2, 1–3), and unsoundness (2, 1–3) as the most frequent reasons followed by burnout (2.5, 1–4), other health issues (3, 2–3), death (4, 2–4), lease expiration (5, 3.5–5), and other reasons. Selection procedures and workload were not significantly corelated with reason for retirement or longevity. Further research is needed to understand how burnout, a behaviorally assessed state, differs from behavioral reasons for retirement and its implications. Collection and analysis of other variables, potentially at an individual animal level, is needed to further our understanding of factors contributing to horse longevity and retirement.
Public health impact of delaying second dose of BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 covid-19 vaccine: simulation agent based modeling study.

Abstract Objective To estimate population health outcomes with delayed second dose versus standard schedule of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. Design Simulation agent based modeling study. Setting Simulated population based on real world US county. Participants The simulation included 100 000 agents, with a representative distribution of demographics and occupations. Networks of contacts were established to simulate potentially infectious interactions though occupation, household, and random interactions. Interventions Simulation of standard covid-19 vaccination versus delayed second dose vaccination prioritizing the first dose. The simulation runs were replicated 10 times. Sensitivity analyses included first dose vaccine efficacy of 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and 90% after day 12 post-vaccination; vaccination rate of 0.1%, 0.3%, and 1% of population per day; assuming the vaccine prevents only symptoms but not asymptomatic spread (that is, non-sterilizing vaccine); and an alternative vaccination strategy that implements delayed second dose for people under 65 years of age, but not until all those above this age have been vaccinated. Main outcome measures Cumulative covid-19 mortality, cumulative SARS-CoV-2 infections, and cumulative hospital admissions due to covid-19 over 180 days. Results Over all simulation replications, the median cumulative mortality per 100 000 for standard dosing versus delayed second dose was 226 v 179, 233 v 207, and 235 v 236 for 90%, 80%, and 70% first dose efficacy, respectively. The delayed second dose strategy was optimal for vaccine efficacies at or above 80% and vaccination rates at or below 0.3% of the population per day, under both sterilizing and non-sterilizing vaccine assumptions, resulting in absolute cumulative mortality reductions between 26 and 47 per 100 000. The delayed second dose strategy for people under 65 performed consistently well under all vaccination rates tested. Conclusions A delayed second dose vaccination strategy, at least for people aged under 65, could result in reduced cumulative mortality under certain conditions.
Tristetraprolin Prevents Gastric Metaplasia in Mice by Suppressing Pathogenic Inflammation.

Background & Aims Aberrant immune activation is associated with numerous inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and contributes to cancer development and progression. Within the stomach, inflammation drives a well-established sequence from gastritis to metaplasia, eventually resulting in adenocarcinoma. Unfortunately, the processes that regulate gastric inflammation and prevent carcinogenesis remain unknown. Tristetraprolin (TTP) is an RNA-binding protein that promotes the turnover of numerous proinflammatory and oncogenic messenger RNAs. Here, we assess the role of TTP in regulating gastric inflammation and spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia (SPEM) development. Methods We used a TTP-overexpressing model, the TTPΔadenylate-uridylate rich element mouse, to examine whether TTP can protect the stomach from adrenalectomy (ADX)-induced gastric inflammation and SPEM. Results We found that TTPΔadenylate-uridylate rich element mice were completely protected from ADX-induced gastric inflammation and SPEM. RNA sequencing 5 days after ADX showed that TTP overexpression suppressed the expression of genes associated with the innate immune response. Importantly, TTP overexpression did not protect from high-dose-tamoxifen–induced SPEM development, suggesting that protection in the ADX model is achieved primarily by suppressing inflammation. Finally, we show that protection from gastric inflammation was only partially due to the suppression of Tnf, a well-known TTP target. Conclusions Our results show that TTP exerts broad anti-inflammatory effects in the stomach and suggest that therapies that increase TTP expression may be effective treatments of proneoplastic gastric inflammation. Transcript profiling: GSE164349.
Acute effects of cardiac contractility modulation on human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes

Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) is an intracardiac therapy whereby nonexcitatory electrical simulations are delivered during the absolute refractory period of the cardiac cycle. We previously evaluated the effects of CCM in isolated adult rabbit ventricular cardiomyocytes and found a transient increase in calcium and contractility. In the present study, we sought to extend these results to human cardiomyocytes using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) to develop a robust model to evaluate CCM in vitro. HiPSC-CMs (iCell Cardiomyocytes2 , Fujifilm Cellular Dynamic, Inc.) were studied in monolayer format plated on flexible substrate. Contractility, calcium handling, and electrophysiology were evaluated by fluorescence- and video-based analysis (CellOPTIQ, Clyde Biosciences). CCM pulses were applied using an A-M Systems 4100 pulse generator. Robust hiPSC-CMs response was observed at 14 V/cm (64 mA) for pacing and 28 V/cm (128 mA, phase amplitude) for CCM. Under these conditions, hiPSC-CMs displayed enhanced contractile properties including increased contraction amplitude and faster contraction kinetics. Likewise, calcium transient amplitude increased, and calcium kinetics were faster. Furthermore, electrophysiological properties were altered resulting in shortened action potential duration (APD). The observed effects subsided when the CCM stimulation was stopped. CCM-induced increase in hiPSC-CMs contractility was significantly more pronounced when extracellular calcium concentration was lowered from 2 mM to 0.5 mM. This study provides a comprehensive characterization of CCM effects on hiPSC-CMs. These data represent the first study of CCM in hiPSC-CMs and provide an in vitro model to assess physiologically relevant mechanisms and evaluate safety and effectiveness of future cardiac electrophysiology medical devices.
Types of PCMs and Their Selection

This chapter introduces the key physical properties of PCMs that govern their successful thermal performance. The main classifications of PCMs are presented: organic, inorganic and metallic, with a discussion of the common applications in which each classification is used. The advantages and disadvantages of each type are discussed. Typical properties of many common PCMs are tabulated and references provided for more information.
Active Control of the Gamma-Ray Imaging Device (GRID) Experiment: A Linear Adaptive Approach

This paper presents the preliminary results in applying the linear adaptive control techniques of Johnson to a pointing sytem, namely, the Gamma-Ray Imaging Device (GRID) experiment. A brief description of the system configuration and modeling efforts is presented along with simulation results of the primary control tasks. Advantages of the technique include a straightforward design methodology and constant controller parameters.
The effects of peripheral vision and physical navigation on large scale visualization

Large high-resolution displays have been shown to improve user performance over standard displays on many large-scale visualization tasks. But what is the reason for the improvement? The two most cited reasons for the advantage are (1) the wider field of view that exploits peripheral vision to provide context, and (2) the opportunity for physical navigation (e.g. head turning, walking, etc.) to visually access information. Which of these two factors is the key to advantage? Or, do they both work together to produce a combined advantage? This paper reports on an experiment that separates peripheral vision and physical navigation as independent variables. Results indicate that, for most of the tasks tested, increased physical navigation opportunity is more critical to improving performance than increased field of view. Some evidence indicates a valuable combined role.
An Architecture and Methodology for Mobile-Executed Cell Hand-off in Wireless ATM Networks

An architecture is presented for a high speed cellular radio access network based on ATM transport technology. Central to this approach is a new concept known as the virtual connection tree which avoids the need to involve the network call processor for every cell hand-off attempt. Such an approach can readily support a very high rate of hand-offs, thereby enabling use of physically small radio cells to provide very high system capacity, but may occasionally cause the volume of traffic to be handled by one cell site to exceed that cell site's capacity. A simple analytical methodology is developed which can be used for admission control, the purpose of which is to limit the number of in-progress calls such that two new quality of service metrics (overload probability and average time in overload) can be kept suitably low.
Chapter 27 Commonly tested nerves in the lower limb

Publisher Summary This chapter describes some of the more common methods for testing nerves in the lower extremities. The chapter begins with a summary of the relevant anatomy followed by descriptions of conduction study techniques. The methods presented in the chapter have gained general acceptance for reliability and reproducibility. Conduction techniques are listed for each nerve in an outline format. The brief description of the most common clinical problem encountered in association with the nerve presented. Then, the spinal root origin and peripheral course of the nerve in question is described. Next, a listing of recording, reference, and ground electrode placements are provided. This is followed by directions for placement of the stimulating electrodes. For some nerves, more than one reliable technique exists. Where this is the case, the different methods, along with their normal values and references have been provided in the chapter. Common errors or comments about particular aspects of the nerve in question are listed at the end of the chapter. Finally, tables of normal values are provided for all studies outlined in the chapter.
Alcohol diagnoses among older Tennessee Medicare beneficiaries: race and gender differences

Background These analyses bolster a sparse body of research focusing on the rate of alcohol disorders among older adults, particularly race and gender subgroups. Methods We based the study on cross-sectional data from all Medicare billed physician/patient encounters. Analyses of these data included cross-tabulations, difference of means tests, and difference of proportions tests, logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression. These analyses were based Medicare billing records from physician/patient encounters in Tennessee. Data included Tennessee Medicare billings beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part B, who saw a physician at least once in 2000. Patients with billings containing ICD-9 codes: 303 (alcohol abuse), 305 (alcohol dependence), 291 (alcohol psychosis), or 571.1-571.3 (alcohol-related liver disease including cirrhosis of the liver) as to primary diagnosis were considered alcohol-disordered. Results Analyses reveal the overall rate of alcohol disorders, subgroup variation in rates and differences in pattern of specific disorders. Merely 0.04% of Tennessee Medicare beneficiaries were diagnosed with any type of alcoholism, a rate much lower than those reported in previous studies. Rates of alcohol disorders varied across groups, with significantly higher rates for Black men. The type alcohol disorder also varied across groups. Conclusions Many encounters with the medical system result in missed opportunities to identify and treat alcohol disorders, a significant risk factor among older adults. Alcoholism both triggers and exacerbates many chronic conditions among older adults. The earlier in the disease trajectory the more of these conditions could be prevented or more efficiently managed, resulting in substantial savings in health care costs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Estimating customer electricity and fuel savings from projects installed by the US ESCO industry

The US energy service company (ESCO) industry has a well-established track record of delivering substantial energy and dollar savings in the public and institutional facilities sector, typically through the use of energy savings performance contracts (ESPC). The ESCO industry has the opportunity to play an important role in achieving demand-side energy efficiency under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan. The EPA considered demand-side energy efficiency as a compliance strategy for proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards under section 111 (d) of the Clean Air Act. To date, there has been little or no research in the public domain to estimate electricity or fuel savings for the entire US ESCO industry. Estimating these savings levels is a foundational step in order to determine total avoided GHG emissions from demand-side energy efficiency measures installed by US ESCOs. We find that on average, 66 % of total energy savings are in the form of electricity, but that in more comprehensive projects, almost 50 % of savings are produced from fuel resources. Overall, we estimate that active US ESCO industry projects generated about 34 TWh of electricity savings in 2012. About 15 TWh of these electricity savings were for municipal, local, and state government facilities; universities/colleges; K-12 schools; and healthcare (MUSH) facilities customers who did not rely on utility customer-funded energy efficiency programs. We extend the electricity analysis to estimate total energy savings and find that the US ESCO industry saved ∼224 million MMBtu in 2012 or ∼1 % of the total US commercial building energy consumption.
Ethological theory and the expression of emotion in the voice

A useful source for unifying theories guiding research on the expression of emotions by the voice as well as by accompanying visual gestures (kinesics) is provided by ethology, the science devoted to the comparative study of behavior. Ethology, examining human and non human behavior, maintains that much of behavior is shaped by phylogenetic adaptations. The author reviews and presents evidence relevant to some of the fundamental theoretical issues addressed by ethology: Does a signal of emotion reflect the inner (psycho)physiological state of the signaler or is it rather primarily designed to induce in receivers behavior that benefits the signaler? Are there cross cultural and cross species similarities in emotional signals? Are the separate components of emotional signals, e.g., voice quality, FO, as well as kinesic elements like eyebrow level independent of each other or are they correlated in a way to mutually enhance the conveyance of a given message? What is the basic vocabulary of emotions? How many are there?.
A Study of Post-Crash Bus Evacuation Problems

This study was conducted to provide information related to the post-crash evacuation of inter-city buses. A review of bus accident data and relevant literature was completed to provide an understanding of the variables related to bus evacuation. A survey was completed to document the passenger characteristics of a typical bus load. A special data base was analyzed for injuries resulting from falls or jumps of eight feet or less. A study was then designed and conducted to investigate bus evacuation under several "worst-case" conditions. The study was then conducted and 16 mm movie films were made of each evacuation. An analysis of the study provided information on time to evacuate for various conditions, hazards in evacuation, subjects reaction to the evacuation tests and recommendations for bus design and operation to minimize evacuation problems. Language: en
Investigation of atomic oxygen in mass spectrometer ion sources

Abstract An atomic oxygen beam generated on a heated tungsten ribbon is used to simulate upper atmospheric mass spectrometer measurements. The neutral beam has a high purity of atomic oxygen and a very small angle dispersion. Different materials placed as inserts into the mass spectrometer ion source are exposed to atomic oxygen and the results are compared with exposure to molecular nitrogen under the same conditions. A movable flag in front of the ion source allows the separation of direct and reflected particles. Carbon dioxide is the major surface reaction product when each insert is first exposed to atomic oxygen. As the available carbon on the surface is depleted recombination into molecular oxygen starts and the carbon dioxide level falls. The observed loss is about equal on Nichrome V and gold, but is much less on aluminum.
Scheduling printed circuit board production systems using the two-level scheduling approach

Abstract In a multiple flowline manufacturing system, such as a typical printed circuit board (PCB) production system, scheduling tasks include determining due dates of customer orders, assigning products to daily production, and releasing boards to production lines each day. The main challenge for the scheduling system is to coordinate different production resources so they can work together to improve system performance. The Bi-Level Intelligent Scheduling System (BLISS) was developed, using a two-level scheduling approach integrating product-level and board-level scheduling, to schedule jobs for PCB manufacturing systems under a daily through weekly planning horizon. A utility function is added to determine lot size, and four sequencing rules are evaluated to find the most suitable rule for the scheduling schemes under study. The lot sizing and sequencing decisions are integrated with the simulation module to generate more accurate schedules, with special emphasis put on the need for coordination. Performance of the two-level scheduling approach is evaluated and compared with that of using product-level or board-level scheduling alone under a variety of manufacturing scenarios. The performance is analyzed under various environments such as different degrees of due date tightness, order variation, and product variation. Results show the strength of the two-level scheduling approach, especially in “mission-critical” situations of tight due dates, high variation of orders, and highly changeable products. The findings also provide guidelines for applying those scheduling schemes effectively and efficiently.
Sustainable source of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid from metabolically engineered Yarrowia lipolytica: from fundamental research to commercial production

The omega-3 fatty acids, cis-5, 8, 11, 14, and 17-eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5; EPA) and cis-4, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 19-docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6; DHA), have wide-ranging benefits in improving heart health, immune function, mental health, and infant cognitive development. Currently, the major source for EPA and DHA is from fish oil, and a minor source of DHA is from microalgae. With the increased demand for EPA and DHA, DuPont has developed a clean and sustainable source of the omega-3 fatty acid EPA through fermentation using metabolically engineered strains of Yarrowia lipolytica. In this mini-review, we will focus on DuPont’s technology for EPA production. Specifically, EPA biosynthetic and supporting pathways have been introduced into the oleaginous yeast to synthesize and accumulate EPA under fermentation conditions. This Yarrowia platform can also produce tailored omega-3 (EPA, DHA) and/or omega-6 (ARA, GLA) fatty acid mixtures in the cellular lipid profiles. Fundamental research such as metabolic engineering for strain construction, high-throughput screening for strain selection, fermentation process development, and process scale-up were all needed to achieve the high levels of EPA titer, rate, and yield required for commercial application. Here, we summarize how we have combined the fundamental bioscience and the industrial engineering skills to achieve large-scale production of Yarrowia biomass containing high amounts of EPA, which led to two commercial products, New Harvest™ EPA oil and Verlasso® salmon.
Gaseous emissions of mercury from an aquatic vascular plant

RECENT studies have demonstrated the emission of mercury to the atmosphere from a variety of sources including contaminated industrial waste beds1–4. Investigations have also shown that vascular plants can take up both inorganic and organic mercury compounds through their root systems and transport them to the leaves5,6. Separate measurements of mercury emanations from the excised leaves of three vascular plant species have shown that there is a release of volatile mercury at room temperatures7. Thus, it would seem that vascular plants have the potential to take up mercury from a substrate, to transport it, and to emit it to the surrounding atmosphere through their leaves. However, no direct measurements of such emissions from living intact plants have been reported. We report here our examination of the common reed, Phragmites communis, growing along the shoreline of a mercury-contaminated lake and our finding that these plants, growing in their natural environment, actively release mercury to the atmosphere.
Three-dimensional periodic cubic membrane structure in the mitochondria of amoebae Chaos carolinensis

Through computer simulation of images produced by the transmission electron microscope (TEM), we have identified three-dimensional periodic cubic membrane structures in giant amoebae ( Chaos carolinensis) mitochondria. The cubic membranes are based on the highly curved three-dimensional periodic cubic surfaces, sharing the same geometry of mathematically defined periodic minimal surfaces. The double-membrane structures identified here divide space into three separate and convoluted subspaces. Specimen preparation, specifically the tendency to cut oblique sections, of this membrane crystal has added to the complexity of the resulting TEM projections and until now prevented researchers from recognizing them. It is the added complexity of the oblique sections, though, that allows us to match the TEM projection to a computer simulation of the same with confidence. In this study, formation of cubic membrane structures in amoeba mitochondria was found to be dependent on diet. The cubic structures only occurred in the absence of food, and disappeared in the presence of food, suggesting a structural adaptation and possible advantages for amoeba's survival in nature. The verification of mathematically well-defined structures in unfed amoeba mitochondria is also important to the understanding of the mitochondrial bioenergetics in relation to the topology of the inner membrane, where major cellular energy production as well as free-radical generation are taking place. This understanding may carry great impact upon human health as far as aging and age-related degenerative diseases are concerned, especially as mitochondrial disorders have been implicated in these processes.
Patterns of interocular transfer of visuomotor coordination reveal differences in the representation of visual space

Acquisition and interocular transfer of adaptation to optical transformations of input were examined in strabismic and orthotropic subjects. Distinct patterns of behavior were displayed by three groups: strabismic alternating suppressors, strabismic and orthotropic constant suppressors, and orthotropes with normal binocularity of vision. It is suggested that these behaviors result from the way in which visual space is represented in each group, an outcome of the pattern of use of the eyes during early development. The conditions for modification of the representation of visual space appear to parallel those for initial acquisition.
Effects of a Target Object Orientation Task on Recall in Older Adults with Probable Alzheimer's Disease

In this study, six older adults with probable Alzheimer's Disease were trained to recall everyday objects using the spaced-retrieval method (Camp, 1989). We administered three training sessions on alternate days over a week. On each trial, participants selected a target object from an array of items at increasingly longer retention intervals. Half of the participants were given a target object orientation task prior to training to improve spaced-retrieval performance. Results yielded a positive effect of the orientation task on recall of the target object across trials. These data provide support for the view that task-relevant orienting activities enhance the effectiveness of spaced-retrieval training.
Visualizing canonical Wnt signaling during mouse craniofacial development

Wnt signaling is critical for proper development of the head and face in the mouse embryo, playing important roles in various aspects of craniofacial development ranging from axis formation to survival of cranial neural crest cells to patterning of the brain. The signaling requirements for the development of different cell lineages in the head and face are active areas of investigation. In this study, we use a recently developed TCF/Lef-LacZ transgenic reporter mouse to characterize the expression of canonical Wnt signaling activity during craniofacial development. We present an atlas of representative sections to show embryonic craniofacial development. Our results demonstrate a pattern of sustained Wnt signaling reporter activity in most tissues which suggests sequential roles in craniofacial development.
Microscopic Origin for Electrically Benign Small-angle Grain Boundaries in Low-cost Semiconductors

As electrically benign, low-cost, near-single-crystalline semiconductors is crucial for large-scale applications, understanding the electrical behavior of small-angle grain-boundaries (GBs), consisting of array of dislocations, becomes important. However, a quantitative microscopic theory is still prohibitively difficult. Here, by developing a multiscale approach combining Monte-Carlo simulation, elasticity theory, first-principles calculation, and grand-canonical statistical modeling, we quantitatively explain the recent experimental observation showing the disappearance of hole transport barrier in poly-Si when the GB angle approaches a critical value of a few degrees. It reveals the microscopic origin for the observation as a transition from electrically harmful dislocations to electrically benign dislocations.
Age-related differences in digoxin toxicity and its treatment

Digoxin toxicity remains a common medical problem for both adults and children. In addition to a vastly improved understanding of the mechanisms for digoxin action on the heart, there are now data which clearly demonstrate that there are potentially important developmental differences in both the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of digoxin which have a direct impact on its efficacy and toxicity profile. The developmental pharmacokinetics of the drug have been extensively studied such that profiles for age-dependent differences in the apparent volume of distribution, plasma and renal clearance and elimination half-life now exist. It is these data which have also produced the current age-specific dosing guidelines for the therapeutic administration of digoxin in various paediatric subpopulations. Despite this new knowledge, both accidental and iatrogenic digoxin toxicity still occurs in paediatric patients, with potentially life-threatening arrhythmias being produced when steady-state serum digoxin concentrations exceed 5.1 nmol/L. Consequently, the clinician may be faced with the decision to use antidotal therapy with digoxin-specific Fab fragments (d-Fab). This article reviews the developmental basis for digoxin disposition and its pharmacological and toxic effects. Additionally, the treatment of acute digoxin toxicity in children is reviewed, especially as pertains to the therapeutic use of d-Fab.
Stress induced sudden cardiac death : can it be prevented?

Previously, psychosomatically induced death relative to stress, hypnosis, mind control, and voodoo was discussed. In this article, emphasis is on one aspect of that — stress induced sudden cardiac death (SCD). A brief review is presented of the sympathetic aspects of the acute stress response and stress induced SCD. Findings from previous studies are presented to highlight sympathetic aspects of the acute stress response. This is followed by a presentation of various strategies to prevent or decrease the possibilities for stress induced SCD. These include long-term measures (eg diet control, smoking control, hypertension control, stress management strategies) and immediate measures (eg calm, controlled approach, elicitation of the relaxation response, selected use of drugs, and heart rate variability monitoring). Relative to prevention strategies, findings are presented both from previous studies and new investigations.