cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Two dimensional load balancing

We consider a bi-criteria parallel machine scheduling problem in which the first objective is the minimization of the makespan of the schedule and the second objective is the minimization of the maximum machine cost. Since the problem is strongly NP-hard, we propose a fast heuristic and derive its worst-case performance bound.
Shame, guilt, and remorse: implications for offender populations

The emotions shame and guilt may represent a critical stepping stone in the rehabilitation process. Often referred to as ‘moral’ emotions owing to their presumed role in promoting altruistic behavior and inhibiting antisocial behaviors, shame and guilt provide potentially exciting points of intervention with offenders. In this article, we describe current psychological theory and research that underscores important differences between shame and guilt. We note parallels between psychologists’ conceptions of guilt and shame, and criminologists’ conceptions of reintegrative and disintegrative shaming. We summarize recent research investigating the implications of these moral emotions for criminal and risky behavior, with special emphasis on the handful of studies conducted with actual offenders. We conclude with a discussion of implications for treatment in criminal justice settings.
Potential impact of drugs of abuse on mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)

This report is a summary of a symposium entitled "Mother-to-Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV and Drugs of Abuse in Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) Era," organized by The National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland, October 13, 2009. In the pre-HAART era, the prevalence of MTCT of HIV was about 25% and exposure of pregnant mothers to drugs of abuse (illicit drugs and tobacco smoking) was a significant factor in MTCT. However, with the introduction of HAART, the rate of MTCT of HIV has decreased to less that 2%. In the Unites States, it is estimated that currently about 5.1% of pregnant women use illicit drugs and 16.4% smoke tobacco. The residual prevalence of MTCT in the HAART era is still of concern and may be related to this continued prevalence of substance use among pregnant mothers. In this report, we review and present evidence that supports the hypothesis that drugs of abuse do have the potential to increase MTCT of HIV in the presence of HAART. Exposure to drugs of abuse during pregnancy may increase MTCT of HIV through a variety of mechanisms including possible damage to the placenta, induction of preterm birth, and increasing maternal plasma viral load through a variety of putative mechanisms such as: a) promoting HIV mutation and replication through non-adherence to HAART; b) impairing the efficacy of HAART through drug-drug interaction; and c) promoting HIV replication in monocyte/macrophages. Drugs of abuse may promote HIV replication by increasing the expression of CCR5 receptors, decreasing the expression of CCR5 receptor ligands, increasing the expression of CXCR4 receptors, increasing the expression of DC-SIGN, and possibly inducing epigenetic changes.
Control Modes in International Service Operations: The Propensity to Franchise

What determines a service firm's organizational choice between equity-based control and franchising? This question, which has elicited some theoretical answers and a few empirical tests in a domestic setting, has never been addressed in an international context before. This study explains the mode of control chosen in terms of a theoretical framework which borrows from agency theory and transaction cost analysis. The propensity to franchise internationally was found to be directly related to i monitoring costs associated with geographical and "cultural" distance between the principal franchisor and its foreign agents franchisees, ii the principal's international experience, and iii the degree of host countries' contextual uncertainty but inversely related to the service firm level of brand name asset specificity.
High reliability distribution systems in microgrids

Microgrids can be a viable option for enhancing the reliability and the efficiency of electric power systems. Microgrids can also be implemented to serve the hourly demand with specific power quality requirements while there are incentives to incorporate small-scale renewable energy resources or cheaper and cleaner energy options. Microgrids can also satisfy the hourly demand at remote locations where the expansion of grid is either impossible or has no economical justifications. Microgrids can boost the proximity of DG and demand which will decrease outage times, increase the power quality, and enhance the reliability of demand. However, the design of distribution systems in such cases will play an important role in managing the essence of microgrids implementations.
A comparison of protein S-thiolation (protein mixed-disulfide formation) in heart cells treated with t-butyl hydroperoxide or diamide

Abstract Beating neonatal heart cell cultures were treated with diamide or t-butyl hydroperoxide, and changes in glutathione oxidation, cell beating, and protein S-thiolation (protein mixed-disulfide formation) were examined. Both compounds caused extensive oxidation of glutathione. Cells treated with diamide stopped beating within 2 min, and beating returned to normal after 30–45 min. Cells stopped beating 25 min after the addition of t-butyl hydroperoxide, and beating did not resume. t-Butyl hydroperoxide caused S-thiolation of a variety of proteins, but only one protein, of molecular mass 23 kDa, was extensively modified. Diamide caused extensive modification of proteins with molecular masses of 97, 42 and 23 kDa as well as three proteins of about 35 kDa. Though the GSSG content of cell cultures returned to normal by 15 min after diamide treatment. S-thiolation of several proteins persisted. These studies show that S-thiolation of proteins is an important metabolic response in cells exposed to an oxidative challenge by t-butyl hydroperoxide or diamide, and that the specificity of the response depends on the agent used.
REGULATION OF DIFFERENTIATION IN NORMAL AND TRANSFORMED ERYTHROID CELLS

Studies are described employing two erythropoietic systems to elucidate regulatory mechanisms that control both normal erythropoiesis and erythroid differentiation of transformed hemopoietic precursors. Evidence is provided suggesting that normal erythroid cell precursors require erythropoietin as a growth factor that regulates the number of precursors capable of differentiating. Murine erythroleukemia cells proliferate without need of erythropoietin; they show a variable, generally low, rate of spontaneous differentiation and a brisk rate of erythropoiesis in response to a variety of chemical agents. Present studies suggest that these chemical inducers initiate a series of events including cell surface related changes, alterations in cell cycle kinetics, and modifications of chromatin and DNA structure which result in the irreversible commitment of these leukemia cells to erythroid differentiation and the synthesis of red-cell-specific products.
Creating Social Justice in Early Childhood Education: A Case Study in Equity and Context.

This case study presents a picture of an Early Childhood Education program at a large, research university located in the southwestern United States. This program was selected as it is known for it...
Thoughts on Psychologists, Ethics, and the Use of Torture in Interrogations: Don't Ignore Varying Roles and Complexities

Editor Note: What follows is an edited version of an open letter Dr. Zimbardo wrote to the APA Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS). The letter was titled Comments on the American Psychological Association’s Presidential Task Force: On Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS). We jointly agreed on ways to edit the letter so its important points were kept while transforming it from a letter to a comment on a somewhat different paper, the one by Costanzo et al. In addition to Zimbardo’s experience as president of APA, much of what makes his article so valuable is the breadth of experience he brings about issues of behavioral science ethics and interrogations, starting with his well-known Stanford Prison Experiment. He has spoken widely on the ethics issues, including a keynote address to a national conference on ethics. That experience includes:
An Overlay Architecture for High-Quality VoIP Streams

The cost savings and novel features associated with voice over IP (VoIP) are driving its adoption by service providers. Unfortunately, the Internet's best effort service model provides no quality of service guarantees. Because low latency and jitter are the key requirements for supporting high-quality interactive conversations, VoIP applications use UDP to transfer data, thereby subjecting themselves to quality degradations caused by packet loss and network failures. In this paper, we describe an architecture to improve the performance of such VoIP applications. Two protocols are used for localized packet loss recovery and rapid rerouting in the event of network failures. The protocols are deployed on the nodes of an application-level overlay network and require no changes to the underlying infrastructure. Experimental results indicate that the architecture and protocols can be combined to yield voice quality on par with the public switched telephone network
Secure data retrieval system (SEDAR) for DTNs

Disruption tolerant networking (DTN) technology is designed to deal with the intermittent connectivity among mobile nodes due to mobility, short range radios or terrain obstacles. We have recently evaluated the performance of two information retrieval schemes that are designed to work in the DTN environments. Our schemes utilize both query and data replications to enhance the query success rate. Besides designing efficient query and data dissemination schemes, one needs to consider the security aspects since sensitive data should only be accessed by authorized personnel. In this paper, we present a data-centric security solution for an information retrieval system which we design for DTN environments. We also describe the preliminary prototype that we have built.
Functional Genomics and the Comparative Physiology of Hypoxia

Comparative physiology has proven a powerful approach to our understanding of how animals function under hypoxic conditions and to identifying potential adaptations to environmental oxygen levels. This review considers the potential for using a similar comparative approach with functional genomics to understand the genetic basis of such physiological processes and evolutionary adaptations. Comparative functional genomics is currently limited by genome data, which are available for only a few model organisms. However, comparative studies between model organisms of the same species having slightly different genomes (e.g., in-bred strains of laboratory rodents, transgenic mice, and consomic rats) demonstrate the types of results, as well as the analytical challenges, that are possible if comparative functional genomics is applied to more species. Results from wild and domestic animal studies suggest new models to investigate physiological and evolutionary responses to oxygen levels with functional genomics.
Antiviral effects of human immunodeficiency virus type 1-specific small interfering RNAs against targets conserved in select neurotropic viral strains

RNA interference, a natural biological phenomenon mediated by small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), has been demonstrated in recent studies to be an effective strategy against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). In the present study, we used 21-bp chemically synthesized siRNA duplexes whose sequences were derived from the gp41 gene, nef, tat, and rev regions of viral RNA. These sequences are conserved in select neurotropic strains of HIV-1 (JR-FL, JR-CSF, and YU-2). The designed siRNAs exerted a potent antiviral effect on these HIV-1 strains. The antiviral effect was mediated at the RNA level (as observed by the down-regulation of the HIV-1-specific spliced transcript generating a 1.2-kbp reverse transcription [RT]-PCR product) as well as viral assembly on the cell membrane. Spliced transcripts (apart from the most abundant transcript generating a 1.2-kbp RT-PCR product) arising from an unspliced precursor likely contributed, albeit to a lesser extent, to the antiviral effect. The resultant progeny viruses had infectivities similar to that of input virus. We therefore conclude that these siRNAs interfere with the processing of the unspliced transcripts for the gp41 gene, tat, rev, and nef, eventually affecting viral assembly and leading to the overall inhibition of viral production. Apart from using the gp41 gene as a target, the conservation of each of these targets in the above-mentioned viral strains, as well as several primary isolates, would enable these siRNAs to be used as potent antiviral tools for investigations with cells derived from the central nervous system in order to evaluate their therapeutic potential and assess their utility in inhibiting HIV-1 neuropathogenesis and neuroinvasion.
Correlated physiological and ultrastructural studies on specialized muscles. IIIa. Neuromuscular physiology of the power‐stroke muscle of the swimming leg of Portunus sanguinolentus

The power stroke for swimming in Portunid crabs is provided by the basi-ischiopodite levator muscle of the fifth leg. This was studied in Hawaiian specimens of Portunus sanguinolentus and found to consist of three distinct portions comprising differently-colored muscle fibers: white, light pink and deep pink. The innervation, membrane properties and the behavioral role of these fibers in swimming have been examined. Each portion is separately innervated. Fibers of the white portion have propagated action potentials producing rapid twitch contractions. They are used only in fast swimming or in escape responses. Membrane responsiveness of the deep pink fibers ranges from complete electrical inexcitability to moderate graded electrogenesis, whilst their contractions are slow and are probably used to maintain limb posture or in slow swimming. Fibers of the light pink portion range from ones capable of propagated action potentials and rapid twitches to others which produce graded responses only and slower contractions. The light pink portion provides the main thrust for swimming: during slow swimming only two axons are active but as the speed increases further units are recruited so that during escape responses all four axons innervating this portion are active.
Leukaemic peripheral blood plasma and bone marrow plasma: comparison of influence on lymphocyte proliferation

Peripheral blood plasma from some children with untreated acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) exerted an inhibitory effect in vitro on phytohaemagglutinin-induced lymphocyte transformation of normal peripheral blood lymphocytes. This occurred at concentrations beyond that required for optimal response as judged by reduction of blast cell formation and tritiated thymidine and tritiated uridine incorporation into DNA and RNA, respectively. In contrast, bone marrow plasma from these patients was non-inhibitory or contained significantly less inhibitory activity. Bone marrow plasma from the majority of healthy controls was superior to their peripheral blood plasma in enhancing phytohaemagglutinin-induced mitogenesis. The difference between an individual's bone marrow- and peripheral blood-derived plasma in enhancing proliferation of patient and healthy control cells was significantly greater amongst the patients than the healthy control group; this was attributed mainly to the increased inhibitory activity of ALL peripheral blood plasma compared with normal plasma. Medium conditioned by phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated normal peripheral blood lymphocytes was effective in neutralizing the inhibitory activity of ALL peripheral blood plasma. Taken together, these in vitro results are at least suggestive that in vivo, in healthy subjects, the rapidly proliferating cells in the bone marrow and the 'resting' blood cells in the circulation may be under the influence of a fine balance of different types and/or levels of humoral growth stimulatory and inhibitory factors and that in ALL an unstable balance of these factors exists. The decreased proliferation of circulating blast cells compared with bone marrow blasts in ALL may be attributed, at least in part, to exposure to the different levels of inhibitor(s) in the circulation and bone marrow as demonstrated in vitro by our results.
A planar electromagnet microwiggler for free electron lasers

The authors have designed and tested an electromagnet planar microwiggler for use in free electron lasers (FELs), constructed of current conductors wound on ferromagnetic cores. A prototype with a period of 1 cm and a gap of 0.5 cm produced a peak field on axis in excess of 4.6 kG, with a linear B/H characteristic to about 3.2 kG. The field of each half-period of the wiggler is independently tunable by adjusting the current delivered to each, thus allowing for precision tuning and/or wiggler tapering. General scaling laws are employed to predict the performance of a geometrically similar design with a period of 5 mm. >
Special Section: The Critical Role of the Dialectic in Viable Metatheory A Commentary on Henriques' Tree of Knowledge System for Integrating Human Knowledge

Henriques (2008) persuasively argues that his Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System provides a more viable alternative to Wilson's (1998) consilience model as a framework for integrating knowledge generat...
A New Method for the Rapid Examination of Textile Fiber Sections at High Magnification

The fiber or yarn is formed into a self-supporting "tow" by embedding with a small amount of fast-acting cyanoacrylate adhesive. It is sectioned on an ultramicrotome to 0.25 μm thickness. The sections can be immediately examined at magnifications up to 1000X without a cover glass and mounting medium if an appropriately corrected objective (such as that used on metallurgical microscopes) is available. The total elapsed time from receiving the specimen to viewing the sections is typically one hour.
SUPERCONTIGS: a contig scaffolding tool

SUPERCONTIGS is a genome-finishing tool that orders, orients and groups contigs based on clone pair information and an alignment with a related genome. The program can be used in the genome finishing and gap closing process. SUPERCONTIGS is a Perl script that runs on Unix-like systems. It is available at http://www.vcu.edu/csbc/bccl/research-downloads.htm as a copy-left public domain program.
On the kinetics of coal oxidation

A series of seven coals of different ranks and from various locations were heated in air under relatively mild conditions to measure the rates of oxidation and the production of carbonic gases in the effluent stream. The gas flow rate, coal particle size, and reactor temperature were changed as independent variables. Each sample was exposed for from 6 to 9 hr under atmospheric pressure at temperatures in the range of 200° to 250°C. The results show two kinds of rate behavior depending primarily on the relative porosity of the coal under study. The small pore coals followed the expectations of the earlier Kam-Hixson-Perlmutter (KHP) model, but the large pore coals gave rates sensitive to transport effects. Correlations were also obtained on the ratio of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced and on the relationship between the carbon content of an exposed coal and its heating value.
A method to repair auricular defects after perichondrial cutaneous grafting.

Objective: To describe and illustrate the technique for closing the auricular bowl defect after perichondrial cutaneous grafting. The postauricular flip-flop flap is used for this purpose. Study Design: A retrospective clinical study of 354 patients using the perichondrial cutaneous graft for various reconstructions of the face and then performing the postauricular flip-flop flap procedure. Methods: The perichondrial cutaneous graft is a reliable, versatile graft that possesses unique properties for reconstructive surgery of the face. The postauricular flip-flop flap is our particular technique for closure of the donor site wound after using the perichondrial cutaneous graft. It is a relatively simple procedure that has predictable results. We used this technique in patients ranging in age from 7 days to 92 years and noted excellent cosmetic results and rare complications. Results: Two patients had failure of the perichondrial cutaneous graft. Two patients had partial necrosis of the postauricular flip-flop flap. Two patients had dehiscence of the postauricular closure. Conclusion: The postauricular flip-flop flap is a reliable method to repair the donor site after perichondrial cutaneous grafting.
The Making of FDR: The Story of Stephen T. Early, America's First Modern Press Secretary, by Linda Lotridge Levin

In an era in which the U.S. president and his spokesmen are omnipresent, it's difficult to imagine a time when the nation's leader rarely spoke to the press and then only under rules that prohibite...
The amino acid-induced alteration in renal hemodynamics is glucagon independent.

The amino acid-induced alteration in renal hemodynamics is glucagon independent. An oral protein load or i.v. administration of an amino acid solution results in an increase in glomerular filtration rate and renal plasma flow in both humans and animals. The change in renal hemodynamics has been attributed to the simultaneous induced rise in glucagon. Whether glucagon is necessary for the change in renal hemodynamics after an amino acid infusion was investigated. Two groups of dogs were used, and the experimental protocol was divided into four different periods (P1 through P4). Group I animals received an amino acid solution, and group II dogs received an equiosmolar solution of mannitol. In P1, the animals in both groups were hydrated with normal saline, whereas, in P2, the pancreatic clamp technique was used to fix the plasma glucagon levels. P2 served as a basal period in which measurements of glomerular filtration rate, renal plasma flow, and plasma glucagon were obtained. IN P3, group I animals received amino acid solution, and group II received mannitol and served as controls. In this period, an increase of 32 and 27% in glomerular filtration rate and renal plasma flow, respectively, in group I dogs was observed, whereas there were no significant changes in these parameters in group II. During this period, plasma glucagon remained still at basal level in both groups. In P4, an infusion of glucagon at a rate of 5 ng/kg/min was added to both groups. This maneuver resulted in a fourfold increase in plasma glucagon levels in both groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Handling solid-fluid interfaces for viscous flows: Explicit jump approximation vs. ghost cell approaches

The ghost cell approaches (GCA) for handling stationary solid boundaries, regular or irregular, are first investigated theoretically and numerically for the diffusion equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions. The main conclusion of this part of investigation is that the approximation for the diffusion term has to be second-order accurate everywhere in order for the numerical solution to be rigorously second-order accurate. Violating this principle, the linear and quadratic GCAs have the following shortcomings: (1) restrictive constraints on grid size when the viscosity is small; (2) susceptibleness to instability of a time-explicit formulation for strongly transient flows; (3) convergence deterioration to zeroth- or first-order for solutions with high-frequency modes. Therefore, the widely-used linear extrapolation for enforcing no-slip boundary conditions should be avoided, even for regular solid boundaries. As a remedy, a simple method based on explicit jump approximation (EJA) is proposed. EJA hinges on the idea that a velocity-derivative jump at the boundary reduces to the value of the velocity-derivative at the fluid side because the velocity of the stationary boundary is zero. Although the time-marching linear system of EJA is not symmetric, it is strictly diagonal dominant with positive diagonal entries. Numerical results show that, over a large range of viscosity and grid sizes, EJA performs much better than GCAs in terms of stability and accuracy. Furthermore, the second-order convergence of EJA does not depend on viscosity and the spectrum of the solution, as those of GCAs do. This paper is written with enough details so that one can reproduce the numerical results.
Impairment in eyeblink classical conditioning in adult rats exposed to ethanol as neonates.

Background: Eyeblink classical conditioning is a learning task that engages well-defined neural circuitry in the cerebellum and brainstem. Binge-like exposure to alcohol during the neonatal brain growth spurt in rats produces neurotoxic effects on both the cerebellum and the brainstem. The precise localization of the neural substrates of eyeblink conditioning makes it an ideal task to study functional disruptions in the cerebellum and brainstem caused by early exposure to alcohol. The purpose of this study was to determine whether impairments in eyeblink conditioning caused by neonatal binge exposure to alcohol persist into adulthood, indicative of long-lasting abnormalities in cerebellar and brainstem function. Methods: Group Ethanol received alcohol doses of 5.25 g/kg/day via intragastric intubation on postnatal days 4-9. Group Sham Intubated underwent the intragastric intubation procedures on postnatal days 4-9 but did not receive any infusions. Group Nonintubated did not receive any intubations. When all rats were at least 3 months old, they were tested in either paired or unpaired eyeblink conditioning. Results: Group Ethanol showed impaired eyeblink conditioning and some abnormalities in conditioned response timing. Control groups did not differ from each other. Conclusions: The present data indicate that early exposure to alcohol has long-term effects on eyeblink conditioning, perhaps through enduring effects associated with alcohol-induced loss of Purkinje cells of the cerebellum.
Axillary nerve temperatures during radiofrequency capsulorrhaphy of the shoulder.

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the temperatures along the course of the axillary nerve during radiofrequency (RF) capsulorrhaphy of the shoulder in a cadaver model. The hypothesis of this project was that temperatures capable of damaging neural tissue would be recorded during simulated RF capsulorrhaphy. Type of Study: Basic science evaluation. Methods: This study used 9 fresh-frozen cadaver shoulder capsules removed en bloc along with the underlying axillary nerve and soft tissue. The axillary nerve was instrumented with 4 thermocouples placed along the course of the nerve (2 thermocouples anterior and 2 posterior to the 6 o'clock position, spaced 7 mm apart). Each of the specimens underwent RF thermal capsulorrhaphy during which the temperature at each of the thermocouple positions was continuously recorded. Results: The average of the maximum temperature at each of the 4 positions measured along the course of the axillary nerve were 52.2 ± 18.0°C at the most anterior place probed, 45.8 ± 5.44°C (mid anterior), 44.5 ± 8.7°C (mid posterior), and 42.8 ± 10.1°C at the most posteriorly positioned probe. Two specimens had a maximum temperature greater than the 67°C set point of the device, and 7 specimens had a maximum temperature greater than 45°C in at least 1 thermocouple position. Conclusions: This study shows that heating of the axillary nerve can occur during RF capsular shrinkage of the shoulder and may potentially reach levels that can damage neural tissue. Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Vol 17, No 6 (July-August), 2001: pp 567–572
Radiobiological Modeling in Voxel Constructs

Although great strides have been made towards integrating the anatomical characteristics of specific patients into Monte Carlo dosimetry calculations, efforts to further improve the effectiveness of radiation treatments for cancer are ultimately limited by our ability to predict, for specific patients, the cell-killing effects of temporally and spatially complex irradiation schemes. To better integrate patient- and tumorspecific data into the treatment planning process and provide the research community with the enabling technologies needed to exploit the full potential of radiation therapy, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing new software to estimate tumor control probabilities (TCPs) using three-dimensional tissue constructs. To illustrate the potential impact on treatment planning of more detailed tumor response modeling, we present the results of several studies characterizing the effects on the TCP of modulating the temporal and spatial distribution of radiation delivered to an idealized tumor with heterogeneous biophysical properties.
Use Of Train-The-Trainer Sensorimotor Group Experience (TTSMGE) To Promote Functional Motor Skill Development In An Urban US Preschool Environment

As the demand for services from therapists in the educational environment continues to grow, both physical and occupational therapists seek innovative and effective ways to meet the identified needs of the child and school environment. Train-the-trainer model of service delivery can be used to meet the needs of both the therapist and the preschool educator in aligning the academic curriculum with age appropriate sensory motor activities. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results obtained from a pilot survey given to school personnel in an urban preschool setting who participated in a Train-the -trainer model of service delivery.
Outcomes after Partial Endograft Explantation.

Background To evaluate the aneurysm-related complications and device issues in patients who underwent partial endograft explantation during late conversion of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) to open repair. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on patients who had partially explanted endografts during late conversion between 1999 and 2012. Medical records were reviewed for patient demographics, subsequent operations, and aneurysm-related complications. Postoperative abdominal X-ray films and computed tomography scans were analyzed for endograft migration, component separation, device fracture, and arterial growth or aneurysm issues. Results Between 1999 and 2012, 22 patients had late conversion after EVAR with portions of the device left in situ. Five of the partially removed devices were Zenith, 6 Talent, 5 Ancure, 3 AneuRx, 2 Excluder endografts, and 1 Cook Aorto uni-iliac (AUI) graft. There were 4 in hospital mortalities. There were no graft migrations, component separations, device fractures, new aneurysmal degeneration, or ruptures with a median follow-up of 26.5 months. Conclusions Partial endograft removal during late conversion is not associated with complications from the remaining device pieces during follow-up. We recommend further study of this patient population.
Applications of Electrokinetics in Grouting

Electrokinetic phenomena are defined as phenomena associated with the application of an electrical field to soil. Commonly, direct current is utilized. The electric field causes water to flow through the pores of soils of low permeability and, for a variety of reasons, hardens the soil. It is suggested that while the electric field is being applied the permeability of the soil is increased by a factor of 2 or more, thereby reducing the time required to introduce a grout when pumping at a specified pressure. The electric field also acts to pump grout into the soil or causes the development of negative pore pressures near a grout pipe which effectively increase the grouting pressures without increasing the danger of surface heave. A summary is presented of some recently reported successful applications of electrokinetics in grouting in Rumania, Israel, the United States and Great Britain. Several possible limitations of the method are suggested and an indication of the cost of power is presented.
Escape from the tower: moving databases from a CD-ROM network to the Web

Passage sur le Web de bases de donnees auparavant sur CDROM, par la bibliotheque de l'etablissement d'enseignement superieur: Quinnipiac Colllege, Connecticut
Cancer genomics

Throughout life, the cells in every individual accumulate many changes in the DNA inherited from his or her parents. Certain combinations of changes lead to cancer. During the last decade, the cost of DNA sequencing has been dropping by a factor of 10 every two years, making it now possible to read most of the three billion base genome from a patient's cancer tumor, and to try to determine all of the thousands of DNA changes in it. Under the auspices of NCI's Cancer Genome Atlas Project, 10,000 tumors will be sequenced in this manner in the next few years. Soon cancer genome sequencing will be a widespread clinical practice, and millions of tumors will be sequenced. A massive computational problem looms in interpreting these data.First, because we can only read short pieces of DNA, we have the enormous problem of assembling a coherent and reliable representation of the tumor genome from massive amounts of incomplete and error-prone evidence. This is the first challenge. Second, every human genome is unique from birth, and every tumor a unique variant. There is no single route to cancer. We must learn to read the varied signatures of cancer within the tumor genome and associate these with optimal treatments. Already there are hundreds of molecularly targeted treatments for cancer available, each known to be more or less effective depending on specific genetic variants. However, targeting a single gene with one treatment rarely works. The second challenge is to tackle the combinatorics of personalized, targeted, combination therapy in cancer.
Dynamic Effects of Short Duration Price Differentials on Retail Gasoline Sales

➤ Multiple regression analysis utilizing easily acquired data is used to estimate dynamic cross-elasticity coefficients and the carry-over effect of short duration price differentials on like grade...
Quantification of flupirtine maleate polymorphs using X-ray powder diffraction

Abstract Flupirtine maleate, a pharmaceutical compound for treating psychotic disease in clinics, has seven polymorphs. Form A, with better crystal stability and bioavailability, has been widely used as the pharmaceutical crystal form. Unfortunately, it is usually found in a polymorphic mixture with form B. In this study, pure crystal forms of A and B were prepared and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermal analysis. An XRPD–based method for the quantitative determination of the amount of the flupirtine maleate polymorphs form A and form B was also established through a systematic optimization of instrumental parameters. The results of the analytical methodology validation showed that the XPRD method had a broad quantitative range of 0–100% (w/w), good linear relationship, with R 2 = 0.999, excellent repeatability and precision and low limits of detection (LoD) of 0.15% (w/w) and quantification (LoQ) of 0.5% (w/w). The results also showed that the single-peak method was not as good as the whole pattern in reducing the influence of the preferred orientation, but this can be compensated for by a systematic optimization of instrumental parameters and validating the analytical methodology to reduce errors and obtain a good, repeatable, sensitive, and accurate method. This XRPD method can be used to analyze mixtures of flupirtine maleate polymorphs (forms A and B) quantitatively and control the quality of the bulk drug.
Urine and serum biomonitoring of exposure to environmental estrogens I: Bisphenol A in pregnant women.

Despite its very low oral bioavailability and rapid elimination, multiple reports of unexpectedly high bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations in the serum of pregnant mothers or cord blood have raised questions about BPA exposures during pregnancy. Thirty healthy pregnant women recruited to the study were evaluated for total BPA exposure over a 30-h period comprising one-half day in the field and one day in a clinical setting. BPA and its metabolites were measured in serum and total BPA was measured in matching urine samples. The mean total exposure was similar to the 50(th) percentile of exposure for U.S. women and pregnant women in a large North American cohort. Twenty volunteers had total daily exposures equal to or exceeding the U.S. mean, and six volunteers had exposures exceeding the 75th percentile. Women working as cashiers did not have higher total BPA exposure. BPA was detected in some serum samples (0.25-0.51 ng/ml), but showed no relationship to total BPA in corresponding urine samples, no relationship to total BPA exposure, and had unconjugated BPA fractions of 60-80%, consistent with established criteria for sample contamination. We conclude that typical exposures of North American pregnant women produce internal exposures to BPA in the picomolar range.
A theory of steady-state activity in nerve-fiber networks III: The simple circuit in complete activity

Continuing the investigation previously introduced, it is shown here that when the product of the activity parameters of the circuit is not exceeded by unity (algebraically) a steady state is not possible in which all fibers of the circuit are active, whereas when this product is exceeded by unity, any stimulus pattern which is consistent with such a state of complete activity is inconsistent with any state of partial activity of the circuit.
Speaking Mandarin Well: An Essential Quality for Students in Teachers Colleges

As a teacher in China, one must speak mandarin well for it is a professional qualification. In order to carry out quality oriented education and enhance the students' basic skill in teachers college, we should take effective measures, create good language environment and strengthen the teaching of Mandarin.
Traditional Therapies for Severe Asthma

Severe asthma is a complex and heterogeneous disease. The European Respiratory Society and American Thoracic Society guidelines define severe asthma for patients 6 years or older as "asthma which requires treatment with high-dose inhaled corticosteroids…plus a second controller or systemic corticosteroids to prevent it from becoming 'uncontrolled' or which remains 'uncontrolled' despite this therapy." This article reviews available traditional therapies, data behind their uses in severe asthma, and varying recommendations. As various asthma endotypes and phenotypes are better understood and characterized, targeted therapies should help improve disease outcomes, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness.
The Minimum Step Linkage Algorithm and Cumulative Cost Model for Time‐Dependent Shortest Paths

Real-word road networks are typically time-dependent, but research on time-dependent shortest paths (TDSPs) is not as rich as that on static shortest paths (SSPs). For large networks, some speed-up techniques are usually applied to compute SSPs. Unfortunately, many of these techniques are impractical for TDSPs, especially the techniques requiring a precomputation because the number of time instances may be incredibly large or even infinite. Therefore, this study introduced a new TDSP technique that is able to overcome the issue of infinite time instances by utilizing network geometry alone for the pre-computation, namely the Minimum Step Linkage (MSL) algorithm. It works with a data model called Cumulative Cost Model (CCM). The theoretical concepts of the new data model and algorithm are described, and its performances were tested and compared with existing algorithms through a series of simulations.
Structural biology of glutamate receptor ion channel complexes

Chemical transmission at excitatory synapses in the brain is mediated by a diverse family of glutamate receptor ion channels (iGluRs), tetrameric membrane protein assemblies of molecular weight 400-600kDa. Until recently, structural information for intact iGluRs was limited to biochemically tractable homomeric receptors trapped in different conformational states. These provided key insights into the mechanisms of iGluR activation and desensitization. Structures of heteromeric AMPA and NMDA receptors, the major iGluR families in the brain, together with long awaited cryo-EM structures of an AMPA receptor TARP complex, expand this picture and reveal surprising conformational diversity, raising many fundamental and controversial questions.
Automated grading of DFA constructions

One challenge in making online education more effective is to develop automatic grading software that can provide meaningful feedback. This paper provides a solution to automatic grading of the standard computation-theory problem that asks a student to construct a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) from the given description of its language. We focus on how to assign partial grades for incorrect answers. Each student's answer is compared to the correct DFA using a hybrid of three techniques devised to capture different classes of errors. First, in an attempt to catch syntactic mistakes, we compute the edit distance between the two DFA descriptions. Second, we consider the entropy of the symmetric difference of the languages of the two DFAs, and compute a score that estimates the fraction of the number of strings on which the student answer is wrong. Our third technique is aimed at capturing mistakes in reading of the problem description. For this purpose, we consider a description language MOSEL, which adds syntactic sugar to the classical Monadic Second Order Logic, and allows defining regular languages in a concise and natural way. We provide algorithms, along with optimizations, for transforming MOSEL descriptions into DFAs and vice-versa. These allow us to compute the syntactic edit distance of the incorrect answer from the correct one in terms of their logical representations. We report an experimental study that evaluates hundreds of answers submitted by (real) students by comparing grades/feedback computed by our tool with human graders. Our conclusion is that the tool is able to assign partial grades in a meaningful way, and should be preferred over the human graders for both scalability and consistency.
A Cross Cultural Comparison of Selected Effects of Language on Consumers’ Attitudes and Intentions

This paper illustrates and compares the differential responses of Puerto Rican and non-Hispanic United States consumers to English language and Spanish language print advertisements. Respondents from the two populations respectively evaluated one of two versions of messages [English-Spanish] for four hypothetical consumer products. The analysis examines subjects attitudes toward the test message, the brand, and their intention to respond to the advertisement. The findings from this cross-cultural comparison indicate that both domestic and international marketers need to be more aware of consumers’ foreign language proficiency.
Assessing Genetic Diversity in Plants with Synthetic Tandem Repetitive DNA Probes

The palette of molecular techniques available to population biologists is extensive (Avise, 1994), and is growing richer at a rapid pace. Although all of these techniques offer various perspectives in population biology investigations, no one of them is optimally applicable in all situations, and two different molecular techniques employed to examine the same question may produce different answers (e.g., allozymes versus DNA data; see Avise, 1994; Mitton, 1994). Such differences in informativeness among different molecular approaches most likely arise from the different evolutionary rates of, and forces upon, different portions of genomes. Discrepancies should not necessarily prompt the acceptance of one technique over another, but rather, potentially offer new insights into evolutionary processes. In fact, given that such discrepancies have commonly been found, it seems reasonable that investigations of population biology issues would profit from being examined from at least two independent, relevant approaches to seek compatible interpretations.
Target Costing and Competitive Advantage - An Indian Perspective

The objective of target costing is to assure that a firm achieves its product-specific and firm-wide profit objectives in a very competitive market environment. It is becoming increasingly essential as more firms are realizing that they cannot increase prices to solve cost and profit squeeze problems. Different authors gave different definitions about target costing. Even its implementation requires some specialised technicalities which discourage manufacturers.
Metagenomics of Two Severe Foodborne Outbreaks Provides Diagnostic Signatures and Signs of Coinfection Not Attainable by Traditional Methods.

Diagnostic testing for foodborne pathogens relies on culture-based techniques that are not rapid enough for real-time disease surveillance and do not give a quantitative picture of pathogen abundance or the response of the natural microbiome. Powerful sequence-based culture-independent approaches, such as shotgun metagenomics, could sidestep these limitations and potentially reveal a pathogen-specific signature on the microbiome that would have implications not only for diagnostics but also for better understanding disease progression and pathogen ecology. However, metagenomics have not yet been validated for foodborne pathogen detection. Toward closing these gaps, we applied shotgun metagenomics to stool samples collected from two geographically isolated (Alabama and Colorado) foodborne outbreaks, where the etiologic agents were identified by culture-dependent methods as distinct strains of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Heidelberg. Metagenomic investigations were consistent with the culture-based findings and revealed, in addition, the in situ abundance and level of intrapopulation diversity of the pathogen, the possibility of coinfections with Staphylococcus aureus, overgrowth of commensal Escherichia coli, and significant shifts in the gut microbiome during infection relative to reference healthy samples. Additionally, we designed our bioinformatics pipeline to deal with several challenges associated with the analysis of clinical samples, such as the high frequency of coeluting human DNA sequences and assessment of the virulence potential of pathogens. Comparisons of these results to those of other studies revealed that in several, but not all, cases of diarrheal outbreaks, the disease and healthy states of the gut microbial community might be distinguishable, opening new possibilities for diagnostics. IMPORTANCE Diagnostic testing for enteric pathogens has relied for decades on culture-based techniques, but a total of 38.4 million cases of foodborne illness per year cannot be attributed to specific causes. This study describes new culture-independent metagenomic approaches and the associated bioinformatics pipeline to detect and type the causative agents of microbial disease with unprecedented accuracy, opening new possibilities for the future development of health technologies and diagnostics. Our tools and approaches should be applicable to other microbial diseases in addition to foodborne diarrhea.
Archimedes: Efficient Query Processing over Probabilistic Knowledge Bases

We present the ARCHIMEDES system for efficient query processing over probabilistic knowledge bases. We design ARCHIMEDES for knowledge bases containing incomplete and uncertain information due to limitations of information sources and human knowledge. Answering queries over these knowledge bases requires efficient probabilistic inference. In this paper, we describe ARCHIMEDES's efficient knowledge expansion and querydriven inference over UDA-GIST, an in-database unified data- and graph-parallel computation framework. With an efficient inference engine, ARCHIMEDES produces reasonable results for queries over large uncertain knowledge bases. We use the Reverb-Sherlock andWikilinks knowledge bases to show ARCHIMEDES achieves satisfactory quality with real-time performance.