cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Case study: Environmental monitoring using remote optical sensing (OP‐FTIR) technology at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center industrial wastewater treatment facility

During production and maintenance operations at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, industrial wastewater streams are generated that contain organic and heavy metal compounds. These waste streams result from chemical depainting operations, chemical cleaning processes, and electroplating operations. Processes discharging wastewater are treated at the on-site industrial wastewater treatment facility (IWTF). Regulatory reporting mandates require identifying volatile organic compound emission sources, estimating emissions from the IWTF, quantifying ambient air concentrations surrounding the facility via air dispersion modeling, and evaluating computer-generated numerical concentration estimates with respect to discontinuous field data and an open-path optical remote monitoring system. The objective of this article is to compare three strategies for meeting air-quality management requirements: (1) the use of a coupled model (air emission model and air dispersion model); (2) the use of air quality–monitoring data collected via discontinuous air sampling and analysis (i.e., periodic canister monitoring); and (3) the use of air-quality data generated by open-path optical remote monitoring using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (OP-FTIR). Validation of the predictive accuracy of the three strategies will be made based on (a) comparisons and statistical testing of receptor location predictions with air-quality data from periodic canister monitoring; (b) comparisons and statistical testing of predictions along the open-path optical remote monitoring boundary line with measured concentrations based on OP-FTIR; and (c) comparisons and statistical testing of pertinent field canister monitoring data with open-path monitoring results. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Production-respiration relationships at different timescales within the Biosphere 2 coral reef biome

Temporal relationships between organic carbon production and respiration are not well understood in coral reef ecosystems. We monitored dissolved oxygen (O2) concentrations within the Biosphere 2 coral reef biome over a 3-yr period (1 January 1997‐1 January 2000), to calculate daily rates of gross production (P), community respiration (R), and net community production (NCP). P averaged 170 mmol O2 m 22 d 21 , and R averaged 173 mmol O2 m 22 d 21 , which yielded a mean NCP of only 23 mmol O2 m 22 d 21 , or a difference of only 2%. This long-term balance between P and R reflects the closed-system design of the biome. The SD of P, however, was 656 mmol O2 m 22 d 21 ; that of R was 647 mmol O2 m 22 d 21 ; and that of NCP was 626 mmol O2 m 22 d 21 or 615% of mean P. To better resolve the behavior of P, R, and NCP at different timescales, each of these time series were spectrally decomposed into four frequency bands that corresponded to four timescales: ,1 week, 1 week‐1 month, 1‐3 months (subseasonal), and.3 months (seasonal to annual). At timescales .1 month, the variance of P was not different from the variance of R. At timescales of ,1 month, the variance in P was significantly greater than the variance in R (P , 0.01). Furthermore, the correlation between changes in P and changes in R became weaker with decreasing timescale. We suggest that changes in P and R become well matched at timescales that coincide with the turnover of carbon by the dominant macroalgae within the biome (1‐3 months). In addition, we conclude that measurements of NCP based on daily or weekly data sets are not good indicators of the long-term net metabolic performance of coral reefs.
Planning for future uncertainties in electric power generation: an analysis of transitional strategies for reduction of carbon and sulfur emissions

The authors discuss strategies for the US electric utility industry for reduction of both acid rain producing and global warming gases. The EPRI electric generation expansion analysis system (EGEAS) utility optimization/simulation modeling structure and the EPRI developed regional utilities were used. The focus is on the northeast and east central regions of the US. Strategies identified are fuel switching (predominantly between coal and natural gas), mandated emission limits, and a carbon tax. The overall conclusions are that conservation will always benefit carbon emissions but may not reduce acid rain emissions by the offsetting forces of improved performance of new plant as opposed to reduced overall consumption of final product. Results of the study are highly utility and regional demand specific. >
Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites

In this review, insight into the use of bio-based fibers as composite reinforcement has been addressed. Specifics on the varieties of natural fibers, and the resultant properties from their constituents and hierarchal structures are described. The methods used to enhance the interface of these fibers with a variety of polymer matrices are reviewed. In addition, the influence of textile operations on creating various fiber architectures with resulting reinforcing capabilities, along with the methods in which natural fiber reinforced composites can be processed, are addressed. Finally, discussion of the correlation between structure, processing, and final composite properties are provided.
A Mitochondria-Targeted Vitamin E Derivative Decreases Hepatic Oxidative Stress and Inhibits Fat Deposition in Mice

Our objective in this study was to determine whether a mitochondria-targeted vitamin E derivative (MitoVit E) would decrease oxidative stress and associated obesity by preventing a previously proposed aconitase inhibition cascade. Sixty-four mice were fed a high-fat (HF) diet for 5 wk. They were then switched to either a low-fat (LF) or a medium-fat (MF) diet and gavaged with MitoVit E (40 mg MitoVit E x kg body weight(-1)) or drug vehicle (10% ethanol in 0.9% NaCl solution) every other day for 5 wk. Epididymal fat weight, as well as liver lipid and remaining carcass lipid, were significantly lower in the MF group receiving MitoVit E (MF-E) than in the MF group receiving vehicle only (MF-C). Liver mitochondrial H(2)O(2) production and the protein carbonyl level were also significantly lower in MF-E than in MF-C mice. In contrast, none of the biochemical variables (aconitase activity, ATP and H(2)O(2) production, and protein carbonyl level) in the muscle mitochondria were modified by MitoVit E in either MF or LF groups. Expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase in both liver and adipose tissue of MF groups was not affected by MitoVit E. However, expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1a in the liver and uncoupling protein 2 in adipose tissue were significantly enhanced by MitoVit E in both LF and MF groups. In conclusion, MitoVit E attenuates hepatic oxidative stress and inhibits fat deposition in mice but not through alleviation of the aconitase inhibition cascade.
Utilizing indexes for approximate and on-line nearest neighbor queries

We explore using index structures for effective approximate and on-line nearest neighbor queries. While many index structures have showed to suffer from the dimensionality curse, we believe that indexes can still be useful in providing quick approximate solutions to the nearest neighbor queries. Moreover, the information provided by the indexes can provide certain bounds that can be invaluable for on-line nearest neighbor queries. This paper explores the idea of applying current R-tree based indexes to approximate and on-line nearest neighbors with bounds. We experiment with various heuristics and compare the trade-off between accuracy and efficiency. Our results are compared to locality sensitive hashing (LSH) and they show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. We also provide guidelines on how this can be useful in a practical sense.
Design optimization for a 2-D sparse transducer array for 3-D ultrasound imaging

In 3-D ultrasound imaging where 2-D transducer arrays with more than hundreds of elements are used, sparse arrays can be used to reduce the number of active ultrasound channels. Under a restriction of desired number of active channels, we can maximize the image quality by optimally choosing the positions of active elements. Here we use the method of simulated annealing to find the optimal configuration of a 2-D sparse array. This algorithm tries to minimize the value of an objective function defined as the energy ratio between the non-focal and focal regions in the point spread function (PSF). Optimal configurations were found for the cases of choosing 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 transmit and receive elements from a 16×16-element rectangular transducer array. With only 32 transmit and 32 receive elements, we could achieve an energy ratio of 16%, compared to 6% of the full array, which is the gold standard utilizing all the 256 elements for both transmit and receive. Using Field II, we simulated imaging with the optimal sparse arrays, for off-axis targets as well as on-axis targets, and the resulting images were compared with those from some other configurations, such as full-transmit full-receive, full-transmit x-receive, x-transmit boundary-receive, and so on.
Evolution of the CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity systems in prokaryotes: models and observations on virus–host coevolution

CRISPR-Cas is an adaptive immunity system in prokaryotes that functions via a unique mechanism which involves incorporation of foreign DNA fragments into CRISPR arrays and subsequent utilization of transcripts of these inserts (known as spacers) as guide RNAs to cleave the cognate selfish element genome. Multiple attempts have been undertaken to explore the coevolution of viruses and microbial hosts carrying CRISPR-Cas using mathematical models that employ either systems of differential equations or an agent-based approach, or combinations thereof. Analysis of these models reveals highly complex co-evolutionary dynamics that ensues from the combination of the heritability of the CRISPR-mediated adaptive immunity with the existence of different degrees of immunity depending on the number of cognate spacers and the cost of carrying a CRISPR-Cas locus. Depending on the details of the models, a variety of testable, sometimes conflicting predictions have been made on the dependence of the degree of immunity and the benefit of maintaining CRISPR-Cas on the abundance and diversity of hosts and viruses. Some of these predictions have already been directly validated experimentally. In particular, both the reality of the virus–host arms race, with viruses escaping resistance and hosts reacquiring it through the capture of new spacers, and the fitness cost of CRISPR-Cas due to the curtailment of beneficial HGT have been reproduced in the laboratory. However, to test the predictions of the models more specifically, detailed studies of coevolving populations of microbes and viruses both in nature and in the laboratory are essential. Such analyses are expected to yield disagreements with the predictions of the current, oversimplified models and to trigger a new round of theoretical developments.
Growth Medium-Dependent Regulation of Myxococcus xanthus Fatty Acid Content Is Controlled by the esg Locus

We compared the cellular fatty acid profiles of Myxococcus xanthus cells grown in either a Casitone-based complex medium or a chemically defined medium. The cells grown in the complex medium had a much higher content of the abundant branched-chain fatty acid iso-15:0 and several other branched-chain species. The higher branched-chain fatty acid content of the cells grown in the complex medium was dependent on the esg locus, which encodes the E1a and E1b components of a branched-chain keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKAD) multienzyme complex involved in branched-chain fatty acid biosynthesis. Cells grown in the complex medium were also found to have a higher level of esg transcription and more BCKAD enzyme activity than cells from the chemically defined medium. The level of esg transcription appears to be an important factor in the growth medium-dependent regulation of the M. xanthus branched-chain fatty acid content. The fruiting myxobacteria are unusual among gram-negative bacteria in that branched-chain fatty acids (BCFA) constitute the majority of the cellular fatty acids (12). In Myxococcus xanthus, the most extensively studied myxobacterium, the BCFA have been reported to constitute about 65% of the total (21, 22). A single branched-chain species, iso-15:0, accounts for nearly 50% of the M. xanthus fatty acid. The BCFA are also the predominant fatty acid species in several gram-positive genera, such as Bacillus, Micrococcus, and Sarcina (6, 12, 20). Our current understanding of the biosynthesis of BCFA is based primarily on work carried out with Bacillus species (6, 11, 12, 24). The pathway for BCFA synthesis begins with the three branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) leucine, isoleucine, and valine. These amino acids are deaminated and decarboxylated to produce short BCFA coenzyme A derivatives which serve as primers in the fatty acid elongation reactions. Elongation occurs in two carbon steps analogous to those used in straight-chain fatty acid synthesis. An evolutionarily conserved multienzyme complex, the branched-chain keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKAD), is responsible for decarboxylation of the three branched-chain keto acids (produced by transamination reactions involving the BCAA) and the formation of the three coenzyme A derivatives of the resulting short BCFA (12). The BCKAD complex is composed of four polypeptide chains referred to as E1a ,E 1b, E2, and E3. In M. xanthus, the esg locus encodes the E1a and E1b BCKAD components (21). This conclusion is based on the observations that the predicted amino acid sequences of the esg open reading frames share significant similarity to those of proteins belonging to these conserved protein families, and that esg transposon insertion mutants have reduced levels of the BCFA and reduced BCKAD enzyme activity. Significantly, the esg mutants retain a reduced capacity for BCFA synthesis, indicating the existence of an esg-independent pathway or pathways for production of these fatty acid species. The esg mutants also fail to produce fruiting bodies, multicellular struc
Shape-from-silhouette of articulated objects and its use for human body kinematics estimation and motion capture

Shape-from-silhouette (SFS), also known as visual hull (VH) construction, is a popular 3D reconstruction method, which estimates the shape of an object from multiple silhouette images. The original SFS formulation assumes that the entire silhouette images are captured either at the same time or while the object is static. This assumption is violated when the object moves or changes shape. Hence the use of SFS with moving objects has been restricted to treating each time instant sequentially and independently. Recently we have successfully extended the traditional SFS formulation to refine the shape of a rigidly moving object over time. We further extend SFS to apply to dynamic articulated objects. Given silhouettes of a moving articulated object, the process of recovering the shape and motion requires two steps: (1) correctly segmenting (points on the boundary of) the silhouettes to each articulated part of the object, (2) estimating the motion of each individual part using the segmented silhouette. In this paper, we propose an iterative algorithm to solve this simultaneous assignment and alignment problem. Once we have estimated the shape and motion of each part of the object, the articulation points between each pair of rigid parts are obtained by solving a simple motion constraint between the connected parts. To validate our algorithm, we first apply it to segment the different body parts and estimate the joint positions of a person. The acquired kinematic (shape and joint) information is then used to track the motion of the person in new video sequences.
Electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to methane and oxygen with an oxygen ion-conducting electrolyte

Abstract The performance characteristics of a solid-state electrochemical cell have been examined for the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane and oxygen. The electrolyte, made up of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), served the dual function of (a) a support material for the platinum catalyst, and (b) an oxygen ion-conducting membrane for the removal of surface oxygen formed during the reaction. The results indicate a linear increase in reaction rate with DC bias applied across the solid electrolyte. The reaction proceeds by way of a stepwise abstraction of oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide and hydrogenation of surface carbon to methane. The rate-limiting step is found to be the transport of oxygen ions through the solid electrolyte.
Fiscal Effects of Local Option Sales Tax on School Facilities Funding: Evidence from North Carolina

Since the 1970s, the North Carolina Legislature has authorized its counties to levy four local option sales taxes (LOST). Proceeds from two of them are partially restricted for school capital needs; two other LOST are used to augment counties’ general revenues that may also affect school capital funding. Experiences from other states have raised concerns that the adoption of LOST may increase inequality in school finance, but the empirical results have been mixed. Using a data set of one hundred North Carolina county school districts from 2004 to 2006, this study examines how public school facilities are funded, and investigates whether the adoption of LOST aggravates or alleviates inequality in public school capital revenues in the state.
Policy and Practice in Japan's New Business Incubation Revolution: A Typology of Incubation Management and Emerging Hybrid Model

Since 2000, Japan has undergone a revolution in new business incubation, investing in national capacity and building hundreds of incubation facilities. This paper contextualizes developments in Japan within international trends, while identifying model incubator types. A typology of incubation management styles is proposed, contextualized within practices in the U.S. and Europe. The paper is based on an original database constructed of all incubators operating in Japan, in addition to survey and interviews with incubator managers and tenant firms. Several findings are evident. Incubation management style and incubation managers (IM) play an important role in supporting start-ups, and the nature of IM resource networks is crucial. Through a review of key policy history in Japan, policy lessons for national, regional and university level practitioners are identified. Case studies examine comparative best practices stimulating university-based new business start-ups in emerging sectors. A hybrid (university-private sector, training-network support) incubation management model has emerged in Japan, one that cultivates a bamboo network root system, supporting an innovative ecosystem for start-ups.
CHOOSING THE PARAMETER FOR A 2 × 2 TABLE OR A 2 × 2 × 2 TABLE ANALYSIS

Fourteen 2 x 2 table measures of association are compared and six 2 x 2 x 2 table measures of synergism are compared. The presentation is based on a conceptual population model for the true association between the disease and the risk factor(s). Each measure is judged as to potential use and identified with the study designs under which it can be estimated. It is shown that prior information about the correct population model is required to adequately measure synergism.
Do the Social Sciences Shape Anti-Discrimination Practice?: The United States and France

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, American employers have installed a host of different anti-discrimination mechanisms. They have built those mechanisms with an eye to changing ideas about discrimination found in the social sciences, at first forbidding explicit discrimination, then tackling structural forms of discrimination by changing personnel systems, and then tackling cognitive sources of discrimination with diversity training and networking programs. France also outlawed employment discrimination, in July of 1972, in legislation that took much the same form as the Civil Rights Act. But in France, employer practice has changed little over time. I argue that state structure has produced two very different outcomes in these two cases. In the American case, state fragmentation and porousness allowed the courts and regional governments to elaborate on the definition of discrimination, and generated an industry of human resources specialists who promoted new anti-discrimination measures based in social science. In the French case, state centralization and insulation discouraged those who would have built upon the foundation of the law of July 1, 1972, because the courts and local governments could not elaborate the definition of discrimination. In consequence, French employment practices were little affected by the law.
Biology of Jalysus spinosus, an Insect Predator Found on Tobacco,

Jalysus spinosus (Say) developed from egg to adult in the laboratory in about 20 days at 25.5° C. This insect predator required animal food for optimal nymphal development, adult maintenance, and oogenesis. The mean number of eggs laid was 136.8 and the mean rate of oviposition was 4.2 eggs/day. A nymph (2nd stage to adult) destroyed an average total of 12 eggs of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta (L.), compared with an average total of 79.3 eggs of the tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.), destroyed by a nymph (newlyhatched to adult). Adult females ate an average of 10.0 budworm and 1.1 hornworm eggs per day. Comparable figures for males were 5.7 and 0.3.
Higher plant mitochondrial DNA expression : 1. Variant expression of the plant mitochondrial open reading frame, ORF25, in B37N and B73N maize lines.

In studying the process of mitochondrial transcription, mutants that show altered gene expression as evidenced from transcript pattern differences are a valuable resource. However, such mutants are difficult to find since changes in mitochondrial gene expression will most likely be lethal. Several laboratories have been investigating cytoplasmic male-sterile mutants in maize and have reported changes in transcription patterns due to nuclear background influences on the complex chimeric gene region TURF-2H3 in T-cms. There have been no reports of altered transcription patterns for N cytoplasm that can be attributed to nuclear background differences. Through a Northern hybridization analysis of ORF25 transcription in a number of N lines, we reported invariant expression of this region. Subsequently, we have discovered a line B37N, which shows the presence of a single ORF25-specific transcript of 3,400 nucleotides, in contrast to the transcript sizes of 3,400, 2,300 and 1,600 displayed by most of the cytoplasms we have examined. Experiments presented in this communication demonstrate that the differences in the B37N, ORF25 transcript pattern map to the 5′ flanking sequences of the reading frame. Using restriction enzyme mapping and Southern hybridization analysis, no detectable differences were found in the transcription unit structure for this reading frame in B37N and B73N, which shows the standard, three-transcript pattern. Analysis of nuclear background influences indicates that the transcript patterns for this open reading frame are dependent on nuclear background. These data are presented in part 2 of this study.
Ruthenia-Based Electrochemical Supercapacitors: Insights from First-Principles Calculations

Electrochemical supercapacitors (ECs) have important applications in areas wherethe need for fast charging rates and high energy density intersect, including in hybrid and electric vehicles, consumer electronics, solar cell based devices, and other technologies. In contrast to carbon-based supercapacitors, where energy is stored in the electrochemical double-layer at the electrode/electrolyte interface, ECs involve reversible faradaic ion intercalation into the electrode material. However, this intercalation does not lead to phase change. As a result, ECs can be charged and discharged for thousands of cycles without loss of capacity. ECs based on hydrous ruthenia, RuO2·xH2O, exhibit some of the highest specific capacitances attained in real devices. Although RuO2 is too expensive for widespread practical use, chemists have long used it as a model material for investigating the fundamental mechanisms of electrochemical supercapacitance and heterogeneous catalysis.In this Account, we discuss progress in fir...
Na+/Ca2+ exchange and cell contraction in isolated neonatal and adult rabbit cardiac myocytes.

Recent studies have demonstrated a relative deficiency in voltage-gated Ca2+ currents (ICa) in immature myocardium. We hypothesized that contraction in developing heart results in part from Ca2+ in...
Relative impact of a patient blood management program on utilization of all three major blood components.

BACKGROUND Although patient blood management (PBM) programs clearly reduce transfusion overuse, the relative impact on red blood cell (RBC), plasma, and platelet (PLT) utilization is unclear. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of electronic records was conducted at a medium-sized academic hospital to assess blood utilization for all inpatients admitted during 1-year periods before (n = 20,531) and after (n = 19,477) PBM efforts began in September 2014. Transfusion guideline compliance and overall utilization were assessed for RBCs, plasma, and PLTs. The primary PBM efforts included education on evidence-based transfusion guidelines, decision support in the computerized provider order entry system, and distribution of provider-specific reports showing comparison to peers for guideline compliance. Cost avoidance was determined by two methods (acquisition cost and activity-based cost), and clinical outcomes were compared during the two periods. RESULTS For RBCs, orders outside hospital guidelines decreased (from 23.9% to 17.1%, p < 0.001), and utilization decreased by 12% (p < 0.035). For plasma and PLTs, both orders outside guidelines and utilization changed minimally. Overall cost avoidance was $181,887/year by acquisition cost (and from $582,039 to $873,058/year by activity-based cost), 93% of which was attributed to reduction in RBC utilization. Length of stay, morbidity, and mortality were unchanged. CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate a greater opportunity for reducing RBC compared to plasma and PLT utilization. A properly implemented PBM program has potential to reduce unnecessary transfusions and their associated risk and costs, without compromising clinical outcomes.
Structural quality of unrefined models in protein docking.

Structural characterization of protein-protein interactions is essential for understanding life processes at the molecular level. However, only a fraction of protein interactions have experimentally resolved structures. Thus reliable computational methods for structural modeling of protein interactions (protein docking) are important for generating such structures and understanding the principles of protein recognition. Template-based docking techniques that utilize structural similarity between target protein-protein interaction and co-crystallized protein-protein complexes (templates) are gaining popularity due to generally higher reliability than that of the template-free docking. However, the template-based approach lacks explicit penalties for inter-molecular penetration, as opposed to the typical free docking where such penalty is inherent due to the shape complementarity paradigm. Thus, template-based docking models are commonly assumed to require special treatment to remove large structural penetrations. In this study, we compared clashes in the template-based and free docking of the same proteins, with crystallographically determined and modeled structures. The results show that for the less accurate protein models, free docking produces fewer clashes than the template-based approach. However, contrary to the common expectation, in acceptable and better quality docking models of unbound crystallographically determined proteins, the clashes in the template-based docking are comparable to those in the free docking, due to the overall higher quality of the template-based docking predictions. This suggests that the free docking refinement protocols can in principle be applied to the template-based docking predictions as well. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Flick of the Skirt: A Feminist Challenge to IR’s Coherent Narrative

Marriage is rarely accorded analytical attention by International Relations (IR) scholars. By contrast, feminist interrogators of marriage—as an institution and the site of lived experience—have exposed the reliance of militarists and militaries, and thus the conduct of international politics, on sustaining patriarchal marriage. By international political sociology taking those feminist interrogations seriously, we will be able to comprehend the significance of typically trivialized signals and gestures that otherwise fall through the nets of conventional international political analysis. “Military wives” (in all their national, racialized, and status diversity) prove worthy of serious international sociological attention. No military base, local or overseas, can be adequately understood without such attention. Attentiveness to gendered quotidian militarizing dynamics, in turn, will transform the IR narrative. “China’s current building of atoll bases in the South China Sea is escalating the militarization of the entire region.” The analytical assertion rolls easily off the conventional international politics expert’s tongue and is absorbed just as easily in the ears of most conventional listeners. Similarly: “Unheeded by most outside observers, US aid has helped militarize Mexico’s current politics.” While the content of this analytical assessment may be contested, its discursive form will also come easily to most conventional experts and appear unexceptional to most listeners. That is, these two analytical assertions will seem unexceptional to most of those speakers, and to their listeners, who have managed to remain unaffected by the past twenty years of feminist theorists’ intellectual interventions into the study of international politics. What is notable about both of these assertions is their narrative coherence. There is a sort of straightforward subject-object/cause-effect structure that gives force to such a narrative. It confers an aura of authority. The workings of international politics may be complex (were they not, there would not be a call for commentaries by “experts”), but …
Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, by Sydney Finkelstein

Inspired by the knowledge that some of the most highly regarded talent in the restaurant industry had not all been trained by the same prestigious culinary arts university, but had instead been men...
Women's empowerment and economic development: the cases of Bangladesh and Kenya

This paper reviews the women issues in Bangladesh and Kenya in a comparative fashion. It is argued that education, social status of women, dictates their living conditions. Women's role in economic development is very crucial. Therefore, their social and economic conditions need to improve significantly if an economy desires to grow fast. It is seen that both Kenya and Bangladesh have made a mediocre progress in handling their women issues but there is a long way ahead. The paper is divided into sections according to the countries studied.
Flat Versus Hierarchical Information Models in PLM Standardization Frameworks

Smart manufacturing requires digital product data to be shared and exchanged among numerous engineering applications and information systems. But no single product data standard can satisfy every integration scenario. Customizable standardization frameworks for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) attempt to address this problem by allowing users to add new information structures to an existing data model in a controlled manner. A PLM information model may be either flat or hierarchical. We discuss two approaches. One is based on ISO 10303-239 as an exemplar for customizing flat models. The other is based on Open Application Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) as an exemplar for customizing hierarchical models. We evaluate the two approaches and observe that the type of model strongly influences how well the PLM standardization framework meets each evaluation criterion, and that the best choice is use-case dependent.
Abstract P5-16-26: National trends in neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer

Purpose:Neoadjuvant therapy has been widely integrated in the treatment of locally advanced breast cancer. Over time, this strategy has been extended to include patients with earlier stage disease to allow for assessment of in vivo response to treatment. The aim of this study was to describe the national trends in neoadjuvant therapy for all invasive breast cancers with a particular focus on triple negative disease and HER2 status. Methods: The National Cancer Database (NCDB), an oncology outcomes database that collects data from more than 1500 Commission on Cancer (CoC) accredited cancer programs, was queried for all women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from 2006-2013. Patients with unknown systemic therapy sequence were excluded. Women were classified by whether or not they received neoadjuvant systemic, chemo and/or endocrine, therapy. Results: We identified 1,221,976 cases that were eligible for this analysis. Of these, 29.7% were HER2 negative, 18.4% were classified as triple negative, and 8.9% received neoadjuvant systemic therapy. The percentage of patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy increased from 7.5% in 2006 to 9.8% in 2012 with a slight decrease to 9.5% in 2013. This increase in the use of neoadjuvant therapy over the time period was statistically significant (p Conclusions: Over the time period from 2006-2013, there has been an apparent increase in the percentage of patients who received neoadjuvant therapy. This trend is accompanied by increases in the percentage of TNBC patients and in Her2 positive patients who received neoadjuvant therapy. Other factors and the joint effects of these factors on the observed increase in the use of neoadjuvant therapy are under evaluation to elucidate the basis for this observation in the NCDB data. Citation Format: Schnabel F, Schwartz S, Hochman T, Chun J, Goldberg J. National trends in neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-16-26.
Paneth-cell-disruption-induced necrotizing enterocolitis in mice requires live bacteria and occurs independently of TLR4 signaling

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in premature infants. Both human surgical specimens and animal models suggest a potential involvement of Paneth cells in NEC pathogenesis. Paneth cells play critical roles in epithelial homeostasis, innate immunity and host-microbial interactions. Yet, the complex interplay between Paneth cell disruption, epithelial barrier dysfunction and microbial-driven inflammation remains unclear in the immature intestine. In this study, mucosal intestinal injury consistent with human NEC was induced in postnatal day 14-16 (P14-P16) mice by disrupting Paneth cells, followed by gavage with Klebsiella pneumonia. Mucosal injury was determined by histology, serum cytokine levels and epithelial barrier dysfunction. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation was examined using protein expression, gene expression, and TLR4-/- mice. Finally, the role of bacteria was evaluated using heat-killed bacteria, conditioned media, Bacillus cereus and cecal slurries. We found that live bacteria were required to induce injury; however, TLR4 activation was not required. NEC induced by Paneth cell disruption results in altered localization of tight junction proteins and subsequent loss of barrier function. Prior research has shown a requirement for TLR4 activation to induce NEC-like damage. However, many infants develop NEC in the absence of Gram-negative rod bacteremia, raising the possibility that alternative pathways to intestinal injury exist. In this study, we show a previously unknown mechanism for the development of intestinal injury equivalent to that seen in human NEC and that is not dependent on TLR4 pathways. These data are congruent with the new hypothesis that NEC may be the consequence of several disease processes ending in a final common inflammatory pathway.
Descriptive Analysis and Interpretation

This chapter presents a step-by-step data analysis process beginning with data cleaning and preprocessing, which leads to and may include descriptive analyses of all variables. Once the data are clean and final descriptive statistics are completed, inferential statistics (Chap. 6) may be leveraged to better understand the practical and statistical significance of the data. Use of exploratory Data Analysis (Chap. 7) at any stage may reveal patterns in the data for subsequent formal hypothesis testing. Interpretation of the analysis is discussed for each of the methods. Your project may employ a number of complementary analysis methods based on study design, the variables representing the PIO MM concepts, and the measures used to operationalize them.
Toward Direct Manipulation for Personal Fabrication

Paralleling the evolution of more user-friendly interfaces in personal computing, emerging personal fabrication tools will soon enable nontechnical users to create objects that only trained experts can create today.
Pemberian Motivasi serta Dampaknya Terhadap Kinerja Karyawan Pada Perusahaan Telekomunikasi Jakarta

Every Company wants its employees to excel and work effectively. Thus need to be given motivation to encourage employee performance to increase. The type of motivation that can be given can be extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. With the encouragement to the subordinates is expected to generate the performance of employees can be maximized.The sample used for data collection in this study amounted to 50 (fifty) employees of telecommunication company in Jakarta. Likert scale used by writer to change qualitative data in questionnaire become quantitative data. The purpose of this study is to determine and analyze the magnitude of the influence of motivation on employee performance at one telecommunication company in South Jakarta which is engaged in the technology industry. The calculation of the questionnaire results using a simple linear regression formula. All of the author's calculations were assisted by the SPSS version 20 program released by IBM. Based on the analysis and data processing according to the calculation of correlation coefficient can be seen that the Motivation of Performance has a very strong relationship that is equal to 0.961 and according to the calculation of the coefficient of determination, can be known quite large is 92.3%, then influence Motivation on Performance can be seen through simple linear regression that is Y = 2,670 + 0,901X
The "Growing" Reality of the Neurological Complications of Global "Stem Cell Tourism".

“Stem cell tourism” is defined as the unethical practice of offering unproven cellular preparations to patients suffering from various medical conditions. This phenomenon is rising in the field of neurology as patients are requesting information and opportunities for treatment with stem cells for incurable conditions such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, despite their clinical research and experimental designation. Here, we review the recent trends in “stem cell tourism” in both the United States and abroad, and discuss the recent reports of neurological complications from these activities. Finally, we frame critical questions for the field of neurology regarding training in the ethical, legal, and societal issues of the global “stem cell tourism,” as well as suggest strategies to alleviate this problem. Although there are ongoing legitimate clinical trials with stem cells for neurological diseases, procedures offered by “stem cell clinics” cannot be defined as clinical research. They lack the experimental and state-of-the-art framework defined by peers and the FDA that focus on human research that safeguard the protection of human subjects against economical exploitation, unwanted side effects, and futility of unproven procedures. “Stem cell tourism” ultimately exploits therapeutic hope of patients and families with incurable neurological diseases and can put in danger the legitimacy of stem cell research as a whole. We posit that an improvement in education, regulation, legislation, and involvement of authorities in global health in neurology and neurosurgery is required.
Intervention for Social Competence and Social Skill

Interpersonal difficulties are among the most severe aspects of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children’s psychopathology. Although stimulant medication and behavior modification procedures reduce disruptive and aggressive behavior problems and enhance peer status, no intervention to date—alone or in combination with other treatments—has produced sufficient or lasting gains for the social problems of these children. In addition, despite successes with socially rejected youngsters and with aggressive children, intervention designed to teach important problem solving, mediational, and social skills has fared poorly with ADHD populations. To remedy this situation, better understanding of the cognitive, motivational, and behavioral contributions to ADHD children’s peer rejection as well as better integration of social skills treatments with both contingency management and medication interventions, is required. At stake is prevention of the negative long-term outcomes that are characteristic of children with ADHD.
Automatic sample-by-sample model selection between two off-the-shelf classifiers

If one could predict which of two classiers will correctly classify a particular sample, then one could use the better classier. Continuing this selection process throughout the data set should result in improved accuracy over either classier alone. Fortunately, scalar measures which relate to the degree of condence that we have in a classication can be computed for most common classiers (Hastie & Tibshirani 1996). Some examples of condence measures are distance from a linear discriminant separating plane (Duda & Hart 1973), distance to the nearest neighbor, distance to the nearest unlike neighbor, and distance to the center of correctly classied training data. We propose to apply discriminant analysis to the condence measures, producing a rule which determines when one classier is expected to be more accurate than the other. Let q1(x )a ndq2(x) be scalar functions for the condence measures of two o-the-shelf classiers. Each sample, xi ,i s mapped to (q1(xi);q2(xi)) in the decision space for selecting a classier, thus the decision space has only two dimensions. Observe that the sample space has d-dimensions where d is the number of features in the sample. In this respect the dimensionality of selecting the classier is reduced from d to 2. In order to select the better classier, we need an estimate of where each classier succeeds or fails. Both classiers are applied to each training sample to create this estimate. Classiers which never misclassify a training sample, such as nearest neighbors, are evaluated by leave-one-out runs. Each training sample now has two condence values, one from each condence function. It is also known whether each classier has correctly classied each of the training samples. This classication information is used to associate a value selected fromf 1; 0; 1g with each training sample. This value is termed correctness .
Genetics and Biology of Adult Male Germ Cell Tumors

malignancy in young adult males between the ages of 15 and 40 presenting predominantly in the testis [1]. They arise by transformation of a germ cell (GC) that during its normal life span undergoes series of proliferative and differentiation events that culminate in the formation of gametes [2]. Transformed GCs uniquely exhibit the potential to initiate molecular pathways in part resembling those occurring during normal human development, as evidenced by the array of histologies observed within tumor specimens [3]. Occasionally within well-differentiated components, further malignant transformation occurs. leading to the appearance of a non-GC malignancy [3]. More than 90% of newly diagnosed patients are cured, with 70% to 80% of advanced cases being cured with cisplatin-based chemotherapy [1]. Thus, GCTs are an ideal system in which the molecular mechanisms underlying this exquisite sensitivity can be studied. This chapter discusses the current state of knowledge of the genetics and biology of GC transformation, differentiation, and response to cisplatin.
Infrared Spectroscopic Quantification of Methacrylation of Hyaluronic Acid: A Scaffold for Tissue Engineering Applications.

Methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) has been used extensively in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. The degree of methacrylation (DM) of HA impacts hydrogel crosslinking, which is ...
Flu fighters: Flu vaccine administrations in pediatric hematology oncology patients.

131Background: Influenza is a serious virus that affects millions of people every year. The CDC and AAP recommend all people starting 6 months of age get a yearly flu vaccine, especially the immunocompromised. Children receiving chemotherapy for cancer treatment are at heightened risk of severe influenza infection and resulting complications. (Goossen et al., 2013). Methods: An interdisciplinary team used the Model for Improvement with an aim statement, current and ideal process flow maps, and annotated run charts to monitor the impact of changes. Change ideas were tested via small-cycle PDSAs. Successful strategies included development of a flu form, targeting patients with pre-visit planning and phone calls, and escalation to physician intervention. Results: A p shewhart chart analyzed the percentage of target population receiving vaccines weekly. The goal was to vaccinate 95% of patients with leukemia or neuro-oncology on active chemotherapy who were older than 6 months of age without medical contraind...
Autism-Related Variation in Reciprocal Social Behavior: A Longitudinal Study.

Deficits in reciprocal social behavior are a characterizing feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism-related variation in reciprocal social behavior (AVR) in the general population is continuously distributed and highly heritable-a function of additive genetic influences that overlap substantially with those which engender clinical autistic syndromes. This is the first long-term prospective study of the stability of AVR from childhood through early adulthood, conducted via serial ratings using the Social Responsiveness Scale, in a cohort-sequential study involving children with ASD, other psychiatric conditions, and their siblings (N = 602, ages = 2.5-29). AVR exhibits marked stability throughout childhood in individuals with and without ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]