cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Age distribution of aspen in Rocky Mountain National Park, USA

Abstract The age structure of aspen in Rocky Mountain National Park was characterized to determine if the number of aspen established in recent decades was substantially lower than would be expected from long-term trends. At lower elevations on the eastside of the Park, aspen density averaged 1250 trees/km 2 , compared with 550 trees/km 2 at higher elevations and on the westside. Most aspen in the Park were relatively young, with trees less than 80 years old accounting for 90% of aspen trees and 50% of aspen basal area. The number of trees in each decadal age class increased exponentially from 1855 through 1965, with no decade showing significantly higher or lower aspen numbers than expected from the long-term trend. The number of aspen dating to 1975–1995 at lower elevations on the eastside fell 80–95% below the level expected from the long-term trend. No decline was evident in the rest of the Park. A variety of factors influences the rates of aspen mortality and recruitment, including major disturbances, climate patterns, conifer in-growth, and browsing. Severe browsing by elk appears to be the main factor accounting for low aspen numbers at low elevations on the eastside.
Major bleeding complication rate of ultrasound-guided paracentesis in thrombocytopenic patients

Purpose The aim of our study was to determine the rate of major bleeding complications for ultrasound guided paracentesis performed by radiologists in patients with platelet counts less than 50,000/μL. From this study, we hope to better understand whether it is necessary to obtain preparacentesis platelet levels or attempt to correct thrombocytopenia with prophylactic platelet transfusions. Materials and Methods This IRB approved HIPAA compliant retrospective study includes 304 ultrasound guided paracenteses performed by board certified radiologists, radiology fellows, or radiology residents on patients whose most recent platelet count within 2 days of the procedure was Results Three major bleeding complications requiring PRBC transfusions were observed in the sample of 304 cases for a Conclusion Our study adds to the body of evidence that ultrasound guided paracentesis is a very safe procedure, even in these high-risk patients. We agree with previously published proposals that it may be performed without routinely checking preprocedural platelet counts or giving prophylactic platelet transfusions.
The intelligent clock and the Rube Goldberg clock

Circadian rhythms are generated by cell-autonomous molecular clocks in organisms ranging from cyanobacteria to humans. Recent research on the mechanisms of molecular clocks call for a reflection on the cause and necessity of complexity in biological systems.
Association between hospital and surgeon radical prostatectomy volume and patient outcomes: a systematic review

Purpose: We examined the association between hospital and surgeon volume, and patient outcomes after radical prostatectomy.Materials and Methods: Databases were searched from 1980 to November 2007 to identify controlled studies published in English. Information on study design, hospital and surgeon annual radical prostatectomy volume, hospital status and patient outcome rates were abstracted using a standardized protocol. Data were pooled with random effects models.Results: A total of 17 original investigations reported patient outcomes in categories of hospital and/or surgeon annual number of radical prostatectomies, and met inclusion criteria. Hospitals with volumes above the mean (43 radical prostatectomies per year) had lower surgery related mortality (rate of difference 0.62, 95% CI 0.47–0.81) and morbidity (rate difference −9.7%, 95% CI −15.8, −3.6). Teaching hospitals had an 18% (95% CI −26, −9) lower rate of surgery related complications. Surgeon volume was not significantly associated with surger...
Symphalangism with metacarpophalangeal fusions and elbow abnormalities

Three generations of a family manifest similar skeletal abnormalities: proximal symphalangism with several unusual features, metacarpophalangeal synostoses, massive tarsal and carpal fusions and abnormalities of the elbows (radial head dislocation, radiohumetal synosfosis).
Density-dependent diversification in North American wood warblers

Evidence from both molecular phylogenies and the fossil record suggests that rates of species diversification often decline through time during evolutionary radiations. One proposed explanation for this pattern is ecological opportunity, whereby an initial abundance of resources and lack of potential competitors facilitate rapid diversification. This model predicts density-dependent declines in diversification rates, but has not been formally tested in any species-level radiation. Here we develop a new conceptual framework that distinguishes density dependence from alternative processes that also produce temporally declining diversification, and we demonstrate this approach using a new phylogeny of North American Dendroica wood warblers. We show that explosive lineage accumulation early in the history of this avian radiation is best explained by a density-dependent diversification process. Our results suggest that the tempo of wood warbler diversification was mediated by ecological interactions among species and that lineage and ecological diversification in this group are coupled, as predicted under the ecological opportunity model.
Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Vesicoureteral Reflux — Answers, Yet Questions

Vesicoureteral reflux, the retrograde flow of bladder urine into the ureter, is common in young children with urinary tract infections and is associated with renal scarring. Reflux is generally discovered when a voiding cystourethrogram is obtained after a urinary tract infection and is categorized as grade I (retrograde flow of urine into the ureter alone) to grade V (massive reflux into a distorted ureter and calyceal system). After an observational study by Edwards et al.1 showed that vesicoureteral reflux improved or resolved with long-term, low-dose antibiotic treatment to prevent infection, such treatment gained popularity. Nearly four decades later, we still . . .
The Effects of Relationship Type, Partner Intent, and Gender on the Selection of Relationship Maintenance Strategies.

Most relationships are not set on trajectories toward intimacy; instead, communication is used to maintain relationships. This study determines how intimacy level of the relationship, partner's relationship intent, and gender affect the communication strategies selected to maintain relationships at particular levels. A factor analysis of Ayres's relationship maintenance instrument supports Knapp's explanation of movement occurring within and between relational stages in order to stabilize a relationship at a given level. Although relationship type did not affect the maintenance strategies chosen, partner's relationship intent and the sex‐composition of the dyad had a significant impact upon the selection of directness strategies. While significant differences were found only on the directness scale, individuals are not necessarily more likely to select directness strategies than balance or avoidance tactics. More elaborate investigation in this area may isolate the variables that are predictors of relatio...
QUASI-STATIC MODEL OF COLLIMATED JETS AND RADIO LOBES. I. ACCRETION DISK AND JETS

This is the first of a series of papers showing that when an efficient dynamo can be maintained by accretion disks around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, it can lead to the formation of a powerful, magnetic helix that could explain both the observed radio jet/lobe structures on very large scales and ultimately the enormous power inferred from the observed ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. In this work, we solve a set of one-dimensional equations similar to the steady-state standard accretion disk model, but now including the large-scale magnetic fields giving rises to jets. We find that the frequently made assumption that large-scale fields are frozen into the disk is fundamentally incorrect, due to the necessity for current and the accreting mass to flow perpendicular to magnetic flux surfaces. A correct treatment greatly simplifies the calculations, yielding fields that leave the disk nearly vertically with magnetic profiles uniquely determined by disk angular momentum conservation. Representative solutions of the magnetic fields in different radial regions of the disk surface are given, and they determine the overall key features in the jet structure and its dissipation, which will be the subjects of later papers.
Icosahedral quasicrystal decoration models. II. Optimization under realistic Al-Mn potentials.

We have constructed and relaxed over 200 different finite structure models for the quasicrystal i-AlMn based on decorations of the ‘‘canonical-cell tiling.’’ We adopted ab initio-based pair potentials with strong Friedel oscillations, which reproduce the phase diagram of real Al-Mn intermetallic crystal structures fairly well. Our various decoration rules encompass cases with face-centered icosahedral ~FCI! symmetry and with simple icosahedral ~SI! symmetry, and include additional variations in the occupancy and/or chemistry of certain site types. Each decoration was applied to 11 distinct periodic approximants of the tiling. We found that ~i! the relaxed atomic positions of each site type can be closely approximated by fixed positions on each tile type, even though the environments ~beyond the first neighbor! are inequivalent. ~ii! Models with simple icosahedral ~SI! space-group symmetry were better than those with face-centered icosahedral ~FCI! space-group symmetry. ~iii! ‘‘Loose’’ decorations, containing voids almost large enough for an atom, were better than the ‘‘dense’’ decorations which were suggested by packing considerations. ~iv! Our results depended on using the realistic potentials; short-range potentials favor the ‘‘dense’’ structures, and many details depend on the second or further oscillations in the potentials. ~v! For our best model, there is relatively little variation of the energy when tiles are rearranged, i.e., a random-tiling model is a good zero-order description of the system.
Selecting Goals: Maternal Involvement in the Assessment of the Child.

The advent of Public Law –457 is an important recognition of the unique role of the family in early intervention. Parents have valuable knowledge of their child's development to contribute to the i...
Brain changes in geriatric depression

The clinical and neurobiological literature of geriatric depression which focuses on the relationship between depression and dementia is reviewed. The hypothesis that depression of late life and dementia are linked by a spectrum of underlying ageing-associated brain changes is presented, and the implications for future research are discussed.
RP and other coefficients of pattern similarity.

A pattern consists of fundaments and relations. Its similarity to other patterns can be expressed either in terms of relations alone—in which case a modified correlation coefficient,r s , suffices—or in terms of fundaments and relations, where new coefficients,r p andr' p are required. The derivation of acoefficient of pattern similarity, r p , is presented and its properties are investigated, both deductively and in terms of actual data on culture patterns.
Pair binding in small Hubbard-model molecules

We calculate exact ground-state energies for small Hubbard-model clusters (molecules) and show that two electrons added to a molecule can experience an effective attraction despite their bare repulsive interaction (pair binding). This phenomenon takes place IonlyP for intermediate strength of the repulsive interactions, and on intermediate length scales. All the results are in qualitative agreement with those obtained using second-order perturbation theory up to surprisingly large values of the interactions and provide support for a purely electronic mechanism of superconductivity in doped ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$.
GJB2 (connexin 26) variants and nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss: A HuGE review

Despite the enormous heterogeneity of genetic hearing loss, variants in one locus, Gap Junction Beta 2 or GJB2 (connexin 26), account for up to 50% of cases of nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss in some populations. This article reviews genetic epidemiology studies of the alleles of GJB2, prevalence rates, genotype-phenotype relations, contribution to the incidence of hearing loss, and other issues related to the clinical validity of genetic testing for GJB2. This review focuses primarily on three alleles: 167ΔT, 35ΔG, and 235ΔC. These alleles are recessive for nonsyndromic prelingual sensorineural hearing loss, and the evidence suggests complete penetrance but variable expressivity.
Non-deflating Foley catheter.

The different methods of removal of a non-deflating ureteral catheter were compared with the stylet technique. Two hundred and sixty randomly selected catheters were tested. Overdistention of the balloon with water or air and chemically induced rupture of the balloon produced fragments of various sizes in almost 100%. Our stylet technique failed to demonstrate any of the complications reported in the literature i.e., chemical or mechanical injury to the bladder or retained rubber fragments causing stone formation.
Skew-aware capacitive load balancing for low-power zero clock skew rotary oscillatory array

Rotary clocking is a traveling wave based high-speed resonant clocking technology with low-power and controllable-skew properties. Capacitive load balance and bounded clock skew are identified as the primary requirements to maintain a stable oscillation frequency across the rings and to achieve timing closure, respectively, in the rotary oscillatory array (ROA). Towards this end, two methodologies are proposed to achieve balanced capacitive loads across the rings of the ROA with a bounded skew constraint. Experiments performed on IBM R1–R5 benchmark circuits show a 5.62X improved capacitive balance and a 3.67% improved clock skew to a total skew of 6.55% of the clock period at 1.8GHz. SPICE simulations show that the frequency variation across the rings of the ROA is reduced from 10.14% to 2.12% as well. Power dissipated with the proposed optimization methodologies are within ±1.5% of the conventional design automation techniques for rotary synchronization.
Inhibition of cdc2 activation by INH/PP2A.

INH, a type 2A protein phosphatase (PP2A), negatively regulates entry into M phase and the cyclin B-dependent activation of cdc2 in Xenopus extracts. INH appears to be central to the mechanism of t...
Effects of a college access program for youth underrepresented in higher education: A randomized experiment

This article describes EXCEL, a program that encourages youth underrepresented in higher education to enroll in higher education, specifically at the sponsoring university. Eighty-three eighth grade students with GPA of B and above and standardized test scores at grade level or above were randomly assigned to the program or to a control group. The program guaranteed a scholarship to the sponsoring university and provided enrichment activities throughout high school. Program students were more likely to enroll at the sponsoring university than were control students. However, program and control students enrolled in higher education at rates that did not differ significantly. No differences were detected in self-esteem or high school GPA. Program students desired more education than control students. The results suggest that scholarship incentive and support programs that target average to above average achieving students in the eighth grade may not raise the overall number of aspiring minority youth attending college, but may be useful to specific universities to raise their minority enrollment.
From grasping to complex imitation: mirror systems on the path to language

We focus on the evolution of action capabilities which set the stage for language, rather than analyzing how further brain evolution built on these capabilities to yield a language-ready brain. Our framework is given by the Mirror System Hypothesis, which charts a progression from a monkey-like mirror neuron system (MNS) to a chimpanzee-like mirror system that supports simple imitation and thence to a human-like mirror system that supports complex imitation and language. We present the MNS2 model, a new model of action recognition learning by mirror neurons of the macaque brain and augmented competitive queuing, a model of opportunistic scheduling of action sequences as background for analysis of modeling strategies for “simple imitation” as seen in the great apes and “complex/goal-directed imitation” as seen in humans. Implications for the study of language are briefly noted.
A new coordination mode for tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine: Synthesis, crystal structure and characterization of the mixed-valence Co(III)/Co(II)/Co(III) complex [Co{P(CH2CH2COO)2(CH2CH2COOH)}2]2[Co(H2O)4][Na2(H2O)4]Cl2 · 6H2O

Abstract The water-soluble chelating phosphine ligand tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) reacts with cobalt(II) chloride in water to give the mixed-valence Co(III)/Co(II)/Co(III) complex [Co{P(CH2CH2COO)2(CH2CH2COOH)}2]2[Co(H2O)4][Na2(H2O)4]Cl2 · 6H2O (1). Structural analysis of 1 using single-crystal X-ray diffraction reveals a trimetallic sodium bridged structure in which TCEP adopts a tridentate chelating mode towards Co(III), and a bridging mode towards Co(II) and Na ions.
On Ericksen's problem for plane deformations with uniform transverse stretch

Abstract Ericksen's problem[1] consists of determining static deformation fields which are producible in every isotropic, homogeneous, incompressible, elastic body under the sole action of surface traction. In this paper, we obtain the complete solution of this problem for the ease of plane deformations with uniform transverse stretch. The approach utilizes a novel and convenient parameterization of the deformation gradient field. Aside from the set of homogeneous deformations, the following four families of deformations are found to be the only ones possible: (i) Bending and stretching of a rectangular block, (ii) Straightening and stretching of a sector of a hollow cylinder, (iii) Inflation, bending and extension of an annular wedge. (iv) Inflation, bending, extension and azimuthai shearing of an annular wedge.
Stability of cylindrical shells subjected to random loadings

Abstract The definitions of almost-sure stability and mean-square stability and the corresponding stability theorems are presented. The dynamics of a cylindrical shell according to Donnell's linear theory is consided and several criteria for the stability of the equilibrium state of the shell are established. Several special cases of stationary, non-stationary, white and non-white random loadings are considered. The stability of cylindrical shells during earthquake strong motions is briefly discussed.
Office-based and microlaryngeal applications of a fiber-based thulium laser.

Objectives:The carbon dioxide (CO2) laser is the premier dissecting instrument for hemostatic cutting and ablation during endolaryngeal surgery. However, microlaryngeal tangential dissection and office-based photoablation have been limited by the lack of a fiber-based delivery system. To address this limitation, a new laser was designed, which is a diode-pumped solid-state laser with a thulium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser rod. It produces a continuous-wave beam with a wavelength of 2,013 nm and a target chromophore of water. This new laser functions similarly to a CO2 laser with the benefit of being delivered through a small glass fiber (0.365 to 0.550 mm).Methods:A prospective pilot trial was done in 74 cases to explore applications of the new thulium laser. Thirty-two procedures were done with the laser used as an ablating instrument and topical anesthesia through a flexible laryngoscope (papillomatosis, 20; microinvasive carcinoma, 6; benign supraglottic lesions, 3; edema, 2; granuloma, 1). Fort...
Current Trends and Demands in Visualization in the Geosciences

Geosciences, along with many other disciplines in science and engineering, faces an exponential increase in the amount of data generated from observation, experiment and large-scale, high-resolution 3-D numerical simulations. In this communication we describe the fundamentals of visualization necessary to meet these challenges. We present several alternative methodologies such as 2D/3D feature extraction, segmentation methods, and flow topology, to help better understand the physical structure of the data. We use AMIRA from TGS to demonstrate our concepts. Examples are drawn from fields in computational fluid dynamics, 3-D mantle convection and seismic tomography. Finally, we present our perspective on the future of visualization.
Adsorption of CO2 on Zeolites at Moderate Temperatures

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and temperature swing adsorption (TSA) are potential techniques for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from high-pressure fuel gas streams. Zeolites are suitable candidate sorbents for use in these processes; however, the systems would be even more energy efficient if the sorbents were operational at moderate or high temperatures, especially for the removal of CO2 from high-pressure gas streams, such as those from integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) systems. Competitive gas adsorption tests with gas mixtures representing both coal combustion and coal gasification gas streams were conducted in an atmospheric flow reactor with five zeolites at 120 °C. Promising results of preferential adsorption of CO2 were observed with two of these zeolites. However, the CO2 adsorption capacity was significantly lower at 120 °C than at ambient temperature. Volumetric gas adsorption tests of CO2 and nitrogen (N2) on these two zeolites were conducted at 120 °C, up to a pressure of 300 ps...
Symptom distress, interventions, and outcomes of intensive care unit cancer patients referred to a palliative care consult team.

BACKGROUND: The symptom burden of intensive care unit (ICU) patients who are referred to a palliative care team (PCT) has not been characterized to the authors' knowledge, and the response of these symptoms to the palliative care intervention has not been reported. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed PCT consults for ICU patients who were seen between July 2006 and October 2007. To characterize symptom distress and outcomes in ICU patients who were referred to PCT in a cancer center, information and descriptive statistics about patients' demographics, comorbidities, PCT findings, interventions, and outcomes were obtained. The chi-square test was used to analyze ICU and PCT mortality, and the signed-rank test was used to analyze PCT interventions. RESULTS: Of 1637 PCT consults, 88 consults (5%) were from the ICU. The median patient age was 60 years (range, 22-87 years), and 41 patients (46%) were women. The types of cancers were hematologic (19 patients; 22%), gastrointestinal (19 patients; 22%), lung (18 patients; 20%), and others (24 patients; 26%). Nineteen patients were on mechanical ventilation (MV), and 24 patients were on bilevel positive airway pressure (BIPAP). The findings were delirium (71 patients; 81%), dyspnea (67 patients; 76%), pain (74patients; 84%), fatigue (84 patients; 95%), and anxiety (57 patients; 65%). The interventions used were opioid management (99%), steroids (70%), antipsychotics (76%), and counseling (100%), do not resuscitate conversion (62 of 88 patients; 70%), withdrawal of MV (15 of 19 patients; 79%), and withdrawal of BIPAP (26 of 26 patients; 100%). Improvement was reported in pain (67 patients; 90%), dyspnea (60 patients; 90%), anxiety (51 patients; 80%), and delirium (31 patients; 44%). Thirty-five patients (40%) were transferred to the palliative care unit (PCU). Fifty-one ICU/PCT patients (58%) died during admission versus 130 of 1549 (8%) non-ICU PCT patients (P < .0001). Twenty-three of 35 patients who were transferred to the PCU (66%) died there versus 212 of 629 patients (34%) who were admitted to the PCU from another service (P < .0001). Thirty-seven of 88 ICU/PCT patients (42%) were discharged alive. CONCLUSIONS: ICU patients who are referred to the PCT have severe symptom distress. The PCT was able to identify multiple problems and make numerous pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic recommendations that improved these symptoms, including the participation in do not resuscitate conversion and withdrawal of MV and BIPAP. Although many patients in this population died, a significant subset, including those who were transferred to the PCU, survived to discharge. Cancer 2009. © 2009 American Cancer Society.
The impact of African growth and opportunity act (Agoa) on U.S. imports from Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA)

We evaluate the impact of the unilateral trade policy concession known as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on U.S. imports from eligible Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Using U.S.-SSA countries' trade data that span the years 1991-2006, we find that AGOA has contributed to the initiation of new and the intensification of existing U.S. imports in both manufactured and non-manufactured goods and several product categories. However, compared to its import initiation impact, the import intensification effect of the Act has been marginal. Our results have important policy implication for further intensification of African exports to the U.S. markets. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Constructing Transit Origin-Destination Tables from Fragmented Data

This study proposes an approach that constructs the origin-destination table (O-D table) for urban bus or light rail lines from fragmented data about the number of boarding and alighting passengers at stops (B-A data) and the analyst's spot knowledge about the trip pattern for selected O-D pairs. The B-A data of transit lines in the city center are often incomplete, yet they may be the only data available to characterize the passenger travel pattern. The proposed approach constructs the O-D table by using data that contain different levels of uncertainties and incompleteness. The model is based on two basic principles, maximum uncertainty and minimum uncertainty. The former is implemented by maximizing the entropy of the O-D table to derive the least-biased values. The latter refers to the maximum consistency with the available data including language-based knowledge about some of the O-D table elements. These principles are implemented by the multiobjective optimization structure. The model is found to b...
Versatile CAMAC Crate Controller for Computer-Based Data Acquisition Systems

A crate controller that provides an economical interface between the CAMAC dataway and the I/O bus of computers such as the Lockheed MAC-16 has been designed. One such controller is required for each crate. The controllers are capable of transferring commands from the computer to a single module or to several modules in one or more crates simultaneously. They can also perform 16 or 24-bit word data transfers between the computer and an addressed module. In addition, parallel logic is provided for determining the complete address of the highest priority interrupt source. This includes the station number (L) of the interrupting module and the Look-at-Me (LAM) source within this module. Each controller is built in a double-width CAMAC module and is implemented with 135 integrated circuit packages.
Lookahead page placement

Historically, the majority of virtual storage operating systems have used random virtual page placement. Random placement interacts undesirably with a direct-mapped cache to produce cache conflict misses, some of which could be avoided by making better placement decisions. Recently, several studies on careful page placement as an alternative to random placement have shown that a direct-mapped cache managed with careful placement performs nearly as well as a two-way set-associative cache under random placement. Towards a performance evaluation methodology for careful page placement, we propose two new classes of theoretical page placement policies for direct-mapped caches based on memory reference string lookahead. Lookahead page placement is a systems modeling tool for evaluating nonlookahead policy performance and providing insight into potential gains that might be achieved with improved nonlookahead policies. Strict lookahead policies perform virtual page mappings using only memory reference lookahead information. Hybrid lookahead policies combine existing careful page placement methods with future knowledge obtained through lookahead. Our lookahead policies use greedy, polynomial-time bin selection procedures to assign virtual pages to cache bins having favorable future usage characteristics. Trace-driven simulation is used to compare three different lookahead policies against several nonlookahead page placement policies for three multiprogrammed UNIX workloads.
Interaction of fibrin(ogen) with the endothelial cell receptor VE-cadherin: mapping of the receptor-binding site in the NH2-terminal portions of the fibrin beta chains.

Interaction of fibrin with endothelial cells stimulates capillary tube formation thus promoting angiogenesis. This interaction occurs via endothelial cell receptor VE-cadherin and fibrin β chain 15−42 regions [Bach, T. L., et al. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 30719−30728]. To clarify the mechanism of this interaction, we expressed in Escherichia coli a number of recombinant fibrin(ogen) fragments containing the β15−42 region or the VE-cad(1−2) and VE-cad(1−4) fragments encompassing two and four extracellular NH2-terminal domains of VE-cadherin, respectively, and tested interaction between them by surface plasmon resonance and ELISA. Neither the recombinant Bβ1−57 or Bβ1−64 fragments, nor β15−57 or β15−64 prepared from the latter fragments by thrombin treatment to remove fibrinopeptides B, bound the recombinant VE-cadherin fragments. At the same time, a dimeric recombinant thrombin-treated (β15−66)2 fragment, which had been disulfide-linked via Cys65 to mimic the dimeric arrangement of the β chains in fibrin,...
Automatic Feature Generation on Heterogeneous Graph for Music Recommendation

Online music streaming services (MSS) experienced exponential growth over the past decade. The giant MSS providers not only built massive music collection with metadata, they also accumulated large amount of heterogeneous data generated from users, e.g. listening history, comment, bookmark, and user generated playlist. While various kinds of user data can potentially be used to enhance the music recommendation performance, most existing studies only focused on audio content features and collaborative filtering approaches based on simple user listening history or music rating. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to solve the music recommendation problem by means of heterogeneous graph mining. Meta-path based features are automatically generated from a content-rich heterogeneous graph schema with 6 types of nodes and 16 types of relations. Meanwhile, we use learning-to-rank approach to integrate different features for music recommendation. Experiment results show that the automatically generated graphical features significantly (p
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Colloids in Single Solid-State Nanopores

The transport of biomolecules and small particles such as viruses through constrained geometries is critical to understand for efficient molecular separations, detection and selective binding for biomedical and biodefense applications. To develop improved capabilities for isolating and controlling both particles and molecules, there is a need for models developed by computational techniques and matched by well-integrated experiments. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study the flow of colloidal silica particles (diameter ∼50-100 nm) through cylindrical nanopores with diameter 200nm, and lengths 50-100 nm. Particle translocation is investigated in the presence of an applied electric field. We demonstrate the molecular origin of the pore resistance change that occurs once the colloid is inside the pore. The rate at which particles transit the nanopore is highly dependent on the dispersion forces and the electric field, which is in turn a function of both the applied voltage and the pore geometry. Models are supported by experimental findings obtained with resistive pulse sensing.This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, LLNL-ABS-644260.
Nerve Conduction Studies of the Sural Nerve in Childhood

A study of the sural nerve was undertaken to determine latency to onset and peak, duration of action potential, amplitude, and conduction velocity in 33 children, 1 to 7 years old. Multiple tests per patient resulted in 140 measurements per variable. To determine if the interpatient measurement variation was a significant factor compared to the intrapatient differences, one-way analysis of variance was performed. With each variable the F statistic showed the interpatient variation was significantly different (P less than .001) than the intrapatient measurement variation. There was no significant age effect in the latency to onset and peak, the amplitude, and the duration of action potential. The mean value for latency to onset was 2.430 msec, latency to peak 2.997 msec, duration 2.161 msec, and amplitude 8.736 muV. Age was highly significant (P less than .001) with conduction velocities calculated using latency to onset (CV1) and latency to peak (CV2), since distance was less in the younger child, according to the formulas: CV1 = 47.29 + 1.96 (age in years) and CV2 = 38.56 + 1.50 (age in years). Using regression analysis, temperature had no significant effect on CV1 or CV2.
Radial Index Tailoring for Reduced Intermodal Coupling in Large-Mode-Area Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers

Low-order Gaussian index profiles result in increased modal index contrast. Intermodal coupling can be reduced by a factor of 10 to 100, with nonlinear thresholds increased by a factor of 3 to 7 due to larger effective areas.
A cross-sectional cohort study of infertile women awaiting oocyte donation: the emotional, sexual, and quality-of-life impact.

Objective To examine the emotional, sexual, physical, and quality-of-life (QOL) impact on infertile women awaiting oocyte donation. Design Cross-sectional cohort study. Setting Cancer center and reproductive medicine center. Patient(s) Fifty infertile women awaiting oocyte donation, enrolled from October 2006 to February 2009. Intervention(s) Woman awaiting oocyte donation completed a one-time survey of empirical measures and exploratory items. Main Outcome Measure(s) Reproductive concerns, depression, sexual function, distress, menopausal symptoms, physical and mental health, and relationship satisfaction. Result(s) Of the participants, 33% were clinically depressed (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), and 59% had high levels of distress (Impact of Events Scale). The cohort's mean Female Sexual Function Index score (24.09) was below the cutoff value (26.55), indicating sexual dysfunction. Relationship satisfaction (Abbreviated Dyadic Adjustment Scale) scores were comparable to the population norm. Patients had good physical QOL but below average mental QOL (Medical Outcomes SF-12 Health Survey). Sixty-four percent were concerned about long-term effects of treatment, although 94% were grateful for reproductive assistance options and described parenthood as providing enrichment, happiness, and meaning to their lives. Conclusion(s) Infertility can negatively impact sexual function, QOL, and emotional well-being. Quantitative empirical measures and qualitative data have shown that these women experienced and recognized the emotional toll of reproductive assistance. Despite concerns about the long-term effects of treatment, participants were grateful for this third-party parenting option.
Laparoscopic approach to adrenal and endocrine pancreatic tumors.

The adrenal gland lends itself well to laparoscopic removal because it is small, and adrenal tumors are most often benign. The open approach to the adrenal gland typically requires a large incision to expose a small working space with its resultant postoperative morbidity. Similarly, most endocrine tumors of the pancreas are small and benign or are slow-growing malignancies. These tumors usually can be removed by enucleation or distal pancreatectomy. Proper application of minimally invasive surgery for adrenal and endocrine pancreatic tumors must take into account expertise in endocrine and laparoscopic surgery. One without the other may lead to unfavorable outcomes. The first report of laparoscopic adrenalectomy in the literature was by Gagner et al 15 in 1992. Since then, multiple reports have demonstrated a decreased hospital stay, narcotics requirement, blood loss, and recovery time, and overall increased patient satisfaction. 6,17,28,36 Laparoscopic adrenalectomy rapidly has become the procedure of choice for most surgeons. Because pancreatic endocrine tumors are rare, evidence to support the use of minimally invasive approaches comes from case reports and small series. 9,11,18
Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today: gerontology doctoral students career aspirations.

This research seeks to examine the characteristics and goals of students enrolled in gerontology doctoral education. The authors seek to identify the unique characteristics of scholars enrolled in the interdisciplinary study of aging and elicit discussion on the ways in which these scholars will contribute to the growth and development of the field. This article describes results from an ongoing longitudinal study examining the relationship between gerontology doctoral education and overarching frameworks that define and advance the field. Four cohorts of first-year doctoral students were invited to participate in an online survey. Results reveal three distinct typologies of gerontology doctoral students: traditional academics, applied specialists, and general educators. Traditional academics are seeking postdoc and tenure-track faculty positions upon completion of the doctoral degree whereas the applied specialists intend to pursue careers in allied health fields or within a government setting. Educators...
Infectivity measurements of partially degraded tobacco mosaic virus

Abstract After a brief heat treatment with the detergent Duponol C, a preparation of tobacco mosaic virus was found to have between 10% and 25% of its original infectivity. The infectivity could then be greatly reduced (by an estimated factor of 10 or more) by incubating the heat-detergent-treated virus with ribonuclease. From the results of control tests, it was concluded that most of the activity lost with ribonuclease was due to an inactivation of virus by digestion of the nucleic acid exposed in the heat-detergent treatment. The nucleic acid exposed and subsequently digested was apparently only a small fraction of the amount contained in the intact virus.
BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF PARENT ENDOTOXINS AND LIPOID FRACTIONS, WITH A KINETIC STUDY OF ACID-HYDROLYZED ENDOTOXIN

The biological potencies of a number of lipid fractions separated from endotoxins by acid hydrolysis, including the material known as lipid A, were determined in parallel with those of their parent endotoxins, employing bio-assays based on the following dose-related host responses: fever, resistance to infection, tumor damage, primary inflammation of skin, and lethality. Without exception, lipid fractions dispersed by detergents exerted less than 1 per cent of the biological activity of the potent endotoxins from which they were derived. A study was made of the rate at which biologic activities diminished in relation to the release of bound lipid during progressive hydrolysis of Salmonella enteritidis endotoxin with dilute acid. Each of the five assays for endotoxin revealed that biological activity had been reduced to negligible proportions prior to any significant liberation from the endotoxin of water-insoluble firmly bound lipid. The major pharmacological activity of endotoxins, therefore, is acid-labile and cannot be accounted for in isolated lipids. This conclusion is also supported by the finding that lipids with activity similar to that of lipid A could be obtained by non-hydrolytic methods without diminishing the potency of the parent endotoxins.
Comparative International History of Dock Labour, c. 1790–1970

some presenters had described it, was really only a relative strength. High lighting the freedom of action or lack thereof may reveal the inner dynam ics of a dictorial regime, he argued, but this emphasis must be placed in direct relation to the distinct tendency toward intellectual and social immo bility. Historians should now turn to the techniques of oral history and the history of mentalit?s to uncover patterns of behavior, adjustment by de fense, unwilling loyalty, resignation, improvisation, and Dacha-culture. Despite substantive, methodical, and theoretical differences, virtually all conference participants agreed that the GDR should be understood as a society with its own structure and history of the social. This perspective gains in importance in comparison to standard political histories of the period, which tend to depict GDR society as primarily an orchestration on behalf of the party. These interpretations are not value-neutral: There is a hotly contested political dimension to the academic debate over the history of the GDR. Understanding the GDR as its own independent society with its own history rejects efforts to record it as a chapter of dictatorship in a national history of the Federal Republic and thus resists conservative ef forts to recreate a German national history detached from the context of European integration. The techniques of social history may well give social-democratically oriented historians the weapons they need to recon quer terrain in the field of GDR research?now that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, their colleagues in the social sciences who set the tone in the 1970s and 1980s with their convergence theories have been denounced as "academic helpers" for SFD-Ostpolitik or as secret SED collaborators.
Using Laplace's equation for non-rigid registration of breast surfaces

Recent advances in breast cancer imaging have generated new ways to characterize the disease. Many analysis techniques require a method for determining correspondence between a pendant breast surface before and after a deformation. In this paper, an automated point correspondence method that uses the surface Laplacian or the diffusion equation coupled to an isocontour matching and interpolation scheme are presented. This method is compared to a TPS interpolation of surface displacements tracked by fiducial markers. The correspondence methods are tested on two realistic finite element simulations of a breast deformation and on a breast phantom. The Laplace correspondence method resulted in a mean TRE ranging from 1.0 to 7.7 mm for deformations ranging from 13 to 33 mm, outperforming the diffusion method. The TPS method, in part because it utilizes fiducial information, performed better than the Laplace method, with mean TRE ranging from 0.3 to 1.9 mm for the same range of deformations. The Laplace and TPS methods have the potential to be used by analyses requiring point correspondence between deforming surfaces.
Body Size Evolution in Insular Speckled Rattlesnakes (Viperidae: Crotalus mitchellii )

Background Speckled rattlesnakes (Crotalus mitchellii) inhabit multiple islands off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Two of the 14 known insular populations have been recognized as subspecies based primarily on body size divergence from putative mainland ancestral populations; however, a survey of body size variation from other islands occupied by these snakes has not been previously reported. We examined body size variation between island and mainland speckled rattlesnakes, and the relationship between body size and various island physical variables among 12 island populations. We also examined relative head size among giant, dwarfed, and mainland speckled rattlesnakes to determine whether allometric differences conformed to predictions of gape size (and indirectly body size) 2evolving in response to shifts in prey size. Methodology/Principal Findings Insular speckled rattlesnakes show considerable variation in body size when compared to mainland source subspecies. In addition to previously known instances of gigantism on Angel de la Guarda and dwarfism on El Muerto, various degrees of body size decrease have occurred frequently in this taxon, with dwarfed rattlesnakes occurring mostly on small, recently isolated, land-bridge islands. Regression models using the Akaike information criterion (AIC) showed that mean SVL of insular populations was most strongly correlated with island area, suggesting the influence of selection for different body size optima for islands of different size. Allometric differences in head size of giant and dwarf rattlesnakes revealed patterns consistent with shifts to larger and smaller prey, respectively. Conclusions/Significance Our data provide the first example of a clear relationship between body size and island area in a squamate reptile species; among vertebrates this pattern has been previously documented in few insular mammals. This finding suggests that selection for body size is influenced by changes in community dynamics that are related to graded differences in area over what are otherwise similar bioclimatic conditions. We hypothesize that in this system shifts to larger prey, episodic saturation and depression of primary prey density, and predator release may have led to insular gigantism, and that shifts to smaller prey and increased reproductive efficiency in the presence of intense intraspecific competition may have led to insular dwarfism.
Geometry of power flow in negatively curved power grid

Motivated by the concept of the smart power grid, reliability of a power network is investigated from a topological viewpoint. Inspired from Riemannian geometry of manifolds, it is claimed that extreme load at specific parts of a large power grid can occur as a consequence of the local negative curvature in its hidden metric space. This paper contributes to four areas: (1) It draws a new course in the topological study of a power grid, which is, unlike most previous studies, in accordance with the electrical characteristic, not the topographical structure, of the power grid. (2) It extends the Riemannian geometry metaphor developed for data communication networks to the power grid, an area it has never pervaded. (3) It develops a unifying approach to deal with power and data networks, precisely at a juncture where the smart grid is bringing the two networks together. (4) It provides an analytical measure for the criticality of lines and stations in a bulk transmission system, which can find a place in reliability assessment and centralized flow control in the future smart grid.
Hypoaldosteronism--disease or normal response?

IN 1957 Hudson et al.1 described a patient with isolated hypoaldosteronism who had hyperkalemia with low urinary aldosterone excretion, normal glucocorticoid secretion, and relatively normal renal ...