cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Role of the Alkyl Hydroperoxide Reductase (ahpCF) Gene in Oxidative Stress Defense of the Obligate Anaerobe Bacteroides fragilis

In this study we report the identification and role of the alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (ahp) gene in Bacteroides fragilis. The two components of ahp, ahpC, and ahpF, are organized in an operon, and the deduced amino acid sequences revealed that B. fragilis AhpCF shares approximately 60% identity to orthologues in other gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Northern blot hybridization analysis of total RNA showed that the ahpCF genes were transcribed as a polycistronic 2.4-kb mRNA and that ahpC also was present as a 0.6-kb monocistronic mRNA. ahpC and ahpCF mRNAs were induced approximately 60-fold following H(2)O(2) treatment or oxygen exposure of the parent strain but were constitutive in a peroxide-resistant strain. Further investigation using an ahpCF'::beta-xylosidase gene transcriptional fusion confirmed that ahpCF had lost normal regulation in the peroxide-resistant strain compared to the parent. The ahpCF mutant was more sensitive to growth inhibition and mutagenesis by organic peroxides than the parent strain, as determined by disk inhibition assays and the frequency of mutation to fusidic acid resistance. This finding suggests that the ahp genes play an important role in peroxide resistance in B. fragilis. Under anaerobic conditions, we observed increases in the number of spontaneous fusidic acid-resistant mutants of five- and sevenfold in ahpCF and ahpF strain backgrounds, respectively, and eightfold in the ahpCF katB double mutant strain compared to the parent and katB strains. In addition, ahpCF, ahpF, and ahpCF katB mutants were slightly more sensitive to oxygen exposure than the parent strain. Moreover, the isolation of a strain with enhanced aerotolerance and high-level resistance to alkyl hydroperoxides from an ahpCF katB parent suggests that the physiological responses to peroxide toxicity and to the toxic effects of molecular oxygen are overlapping and complex in this obligate anaerobe.
Phylogeny and Classification of Hymenoptera

An overview of recent advances in our understanding of the higher phylogeny and classification is presented. Molecular and morphological cladistic and pre-cladistic studies are summarized. A superfamily-level classification of the Hymenoptera is offered to reflect recent advances in our understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of the Hymenoptera. It differs from most recent classifications in the recognition of the Diaprioidea, to include Diapriidae, Monomachidae, and Maamingidae.
BWH emergency radiology–surgical correlation: pancreatic laceration

We describe the radiological and intraoperative correlation of pancreatic laceration in a 76-year-old unrestrained motor-vehicle driver following blunt abdominal trauma. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the importance of recognizing pancreatic injuries in trauma patients, as these injuries are rare and can be overlooked on CT.
Generic Strategies and Business Performance: an Empirical Study of the Screw Machine Products Industry

SUMMARY Select businesses in industry may attempt to compete through distinct strategies. But some may be successful in adopting distinct strategic profiles while others may not prove successful. In this study it was expected that six different groups of businesses might be present in the empirical exploration – those competing successfully with the low cost strategy and those competing unsuccessfully with this strategy; those competing successfully with the differentiation strategy and those competing unsuccessfully with this strategy; and those competing successfully with low cost and differentiation strategies and those competing unsuccessfully with these strategies. The results of the investigation portray the presence of three strategic profiles. They are unsuccessful low cost businesses with the lowest performance, unsuccessful differentiated businesses with the second lowest performance, and successful businesses with combination strategies with the highest performance.
A novel submicron Al contact filling technology for ULSI metallization

A novel Al contact filling technology utilizing the combination of excimer laser planarization and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has been developed. In this technique, the newly developed excimer laser planarization technology is first employed to fill submicron, high aspect ratio (>1.5) contact/via with an Al alloy. The laser processed films including barrier layer are subsequently removed by a CMP process, leaving Al plugs intact in the contact/via. A second metal is next deposited to interconnect the Al plugs and patterned by the standard lithography and etch techniques. This technology alleviates most of the problems including poor surface morphology and potential difficulty in submicron pattern definition intrinsic to the high temperature sputtered films. Full electrical characterizations of device wafers processed by this technology yielded satisfactory results. This Al plug technology has been demonstrated to be capable of filling submicron contact/via with a wide process window and an improved surface morphology for submicron patterning. >
The Development and Concurrent Validity of the Procrastination Scale

The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measure of procrastination tendencies and to investigate its relationship to a behavioral measure of procrastination and to a self-report meas...
Phosphorus control strategies

Abstract There are many recognized water quality problems resulting from nonpoint entry of P into surface waters. It has only been in the last decade that P applied to land as animal waste has been recognized as a large potential problem. This problem is a result of the concentration of animals into a small area to the extend that so much waste is applied to land that the P fixing capacity of the soil is exceeded. One of the first areas where this problem was recognized was in the Lake Okeechobee drainage basin. When the sources of P in the lake were identified, regulators took action to have best management practices (BMP) implemented on dairies which were a primary source of P and also several research projects were initiated to determine if better BMP could be developed. One of the most successful BMPs thus far implemented is improvement of collection of waste in high intensity areas and routing this waste to improved lagoons. Preliminary data indicate that up to 90% of the P entering a lagoon system remains there in the sludge. A project to remove the P with a combination of chemical and biological reactions has also been successful thus far. It has been shown that aquatic macrophytes can be utilized to reduce the P moving from secondary lagoons toward the drainage canals. There is, however, a problem of what to do with the plants. The model LOADSS has been successful in predicting the effect of various management options in the watershed on amount of P which will enter the lake. If the management options described in this special issue of Ecological Engineering are not successful in reducing the P loads in the lake to acceptable limits, it may mean that large animal units should not be concentrated in many watersheds of the U.S. because of the probability of encountering P problems.
Methods for convex and general quadratic programming

Computational methods are considered for finding a point that satisfies the second-order necessary conditions for a general (possibly nonconvex) quadratic program (QP). The first part of the paper considers the formulation and analysis of an active-set method for a generic QP with both equality and inequality constraints. The method uses a search direction that is the solution of an equality-constrained subproblem involving a “working set” of linearly independent constraints. The method is a reformulation of a method for general QP first proposed by Fletcher, and modified subsequently by Gould. The reformulation facilitates a simpler analysis and has the benefit that the algorithm reduces to a variant of the simplex method when the QP is a linear program. The search direction is computed from a KKT system formed from the QP Hessian and the gradients of the working-set constraints. It is shown that, under certain circumstances, the solution of this KKT system may be updated using a simple recurrence relation, thereby giving a significant reduction in the number of KKT systems that need to be solved. The second part of the paper focuses on the solution of QP problems with constraints in so-called standard form. We describe how the constituent KKT systems are solved, and discuss how an initial basis is defined. Numerical results are presented for all QPs in the CUTEst test collection.
Healing Logics: Culture and Medicine in Modern Health Belief Systems

Reviewed Medium: book Year: 2001 Pages: vii + 286 Publisher: Utah State University Press ISBN: 0874214106 Prices: $19.95
Trustworthy Web services: actions for now

It is possible to build in trustworthiness by creating a layer atop the current Web services framework. At present, the framework stops with WS-Security, a standard that IBM and Microsoft jointly proposed to enhance the quality of protection for Web services. The framework needs a new trustworthiness layer that defines criteria for determining that a Web service is indeed trustworthy and that measures, enhances, and guarantees trustworthiness. Web services can become untrustworthy for four reasons: unfulfilled requirements, malicious acts and code changes, erratic Internet behaviors or resource scarcity that result in unacceptable delays, and the poor interoperation of selected services. When Web services become mainstream, which could be soon, trustworthiness will become the bottleneck to their extensive adoption. A set of trustworthiness criteria and guidelines will provide an open and standard infrastructure for ensuring trustworthiness in this domain. Researchers must then set to work devising a technical strategy and roadmap, coupled with a standards-based architecture that is comprehensive yet flexible enough to meet the Web services trustworthiness needs of real business. There is serious work ahead, but the results will be far more rewarding if researchers take the first step now: Standardize on a precise and comprehensive definition of Web services trustworthiness. The rest of the tasks will follow logically from that.
Roger Sperry: pioneer of neuronal specificity

This essay looks at the historical significance of two APS classic papers that are freely available online: Sperry RW.Optic nerve regeneration with return of vision in anurans. J Neurophysiol 7: 57...
Inflammation and skin cholesterol in LDLr−/−, apoA-I−/− mice: link between cholesterol homeostasis and self-tolerance?

Diet-fed low density lipoprotein receptor-deficient/apolipoprotein A-I-deficient (LDLr-/-, apoA-I-/-) mice accumulate a 10-fold greater mass of cholesterol in their skin despite a 1.5- to 2-fold lower plasma cholesterol concentration compared with diet-fed LDLr-/- mice. The accumulation of cholesterol predominantly in the skin has been shown to occur in a growing number of other hypercholesterolemic double knockout mouse models sharing deficits in genes regulating cellular cholesterol homeostasis. Exploring the relationship between cholesterol balance and inflammation, we have examined the time course of cholesterol accumulation in a number of extrahepatic tissues and correlated with the onset of inflammation in diet-fed LDLr-/-, apoA-I-/- mice. After 4 weeks of diet, LDLr-/-, apoA-I-/- mice showed a significant increase in skin cholesterol mass compared with LDLr-/- mice. In addition, after 4 weeks on the diet, cholesterol accumulation in the skin was also found to be associated with macrophage infiltration and accompanied by increases in tumor necrosis factor-alpha, cyclooxygenase-2, and langerin mRNA, which were not seen in the liver. Overall, these data suggest that as early as 4 weeks after starting the diet, the accumulation of skin cholesterol and the onset of inflammation occur concurrently. In summary, the use of hypercholesterolemic LDLr-/-, apoA-I-/- mice may provide a useful tool to investigate the role that apoA-I plays in maintaining cholesterol homeostasis and its relationship to inflammation.
Systemic treatments for the prevention of venous thrombo‐embolic events in paediatric cancer patients with tunnelled central venous catheters

Children with cancer are at higher risk of thrombosis than children without cancer. This is a result of the disease itself but also of the cancer treatment and the presence of a central venous catheter. In this review, we investigated whether systemic treatments can prevent thrombosis. We identified six studies; two studies investigated low molecular weight heparins, one antithrombin supplementation and one cryoprecipitate and/or fresh frozen plasma supplementation; one study compared antithrombin supplementation with low molecular weight heparin and antithrombin supplementation, and another investigated warfarin. The addition of low molecular weight heparins to antithrombin supplementation did result in a lower number of symptomatic thromboses. This was statistically significant. We could not detect an effect of systemic preventive treatments in comparison with no treatment, and no difference was noted in the number of participants who suffered from major or minor bleeding. However, the overall number of participants was very small; a similar study with a larger population of participants might yield different results.
Characterization of photo‐induced pyrimidine cyclobutane dimers by laser desorption fourier transform mass spectrometry

Laser desorption Fourier transform mass spectrometry was used to characterize the cis-syn cyclobutane photodimers of uracil-uracil, uracil-thymine and thymine-thymine. This soft ionization technique generated [M-H]- ions as well as some fragment ions. Investigation of the laser desorption process indicated that gas-phase dimerization reactions do not occur for pyrimidine monomers and dimers under these experimental conditions. Collisional dissociation of the [M-H]- ions provided structural information for the pyrimidine rings of the dimers. The fragment ions observed in the collisional dissociation spectra of these cyclobutane dimers suggested rearrangement of the [M-H]- parent ions to a macrocycle prior to dissociation.
A review of the biology and literature of the Gulf Coast Toad ( Incilius nebulifer ), native to Mexico and the United States

The Gulf Coast Toad (Incilius nebulifer) is an abundant and widespread species within its range in the United States and Mexico, so it appears on many faunal checklists and is considered in diverse kinds of research. We review the basic biology, distribution, and published history of this species, identifying only those records and publications referable to I. nebulifer, to help researchers identify published works pertaining to I. nebulfer rather than I. valliceps, with which it formerly was considered to be conspecific.
Efficient and effective extraction of vocal fold vibratory patterns from high-speed digital imaging

High-speed digital imaging can provide valuable information on disordered voice production in voice science. However, the large amounts of high-speed image data with limited image resolutions produce significant challenges for computer analysis, and thus effective and efficient image edge extraction methods allowing for the batch analysis of high-speed images of vocal folds is clinically important. In this paper, a novel algorithm for automatic image edge detection is proposed to effectively and efficiently process high-speed images of the vocal folds. The method integrates Lagrange interpolation, differentiation, and Canny edge detection, which allow objective extraction of aperiodic vocal fold vibratory patterns from large numbers of high-speed digital images. This method and two other popular algorithms, histogram and active contour, are performed on 10 sets of high-speed video data from excised larynx experiments to compare their performances in analyzing high-speed images. The accuracy in computing glottal area and the computation time of these methods are investigated. The results show that our proposed method provides the most accurate and efficient detection, and is applicable when processing low-resolution images. In this study, we focus on developing a method to effectively and efficiently process high-speed image data from excised larynges. However, in addition we show the clinical potential of this method by use of example high-speed image data obtained from a patient with vocal nodules.The proposed automatic image-processing algorithm may provide a valuable biomedical application for the clinical assessment of vocal disorders by use of high-speed digital imaging.
Approximation techniques for domain identification in two-dimensional parabolic systems under boundary observations

This paper is concerned with the identification of the geometrical structure of the system boundary for a two-dimenslonal diffusion system. The domain identification treated here is converted into an optimization problem based on a fit-to-data criterion and theoretical convergence results for approximate identification techniques are discussed. Results of numerical experiments to demonstrate the efficiency of the theoretical ideas are reported.
From basepairs to birdsongs: phylogenetic data in the age of genomics

Given the quantity of molecular data now available, including complete genomes for some organisms, one can ask whether there is a need for any data beyond complete genomic sequences for phylogenetic analysis. One reason to look beyond the genome is that not all character information is encoded in organismal genomes. We propose a hierarchy of characters that ranges from biologically transmitted but nongenomically encoded characters, such as bird songs, to characters that are genomically encoded. All of these characters can retain historical information and are potentially useful for phylogenetic analysis. In addition, a number of phenotypic levels that are expressions of the genome can be identified. The question whether it is worth including any of these levels if all of the underlying sequence data have been collected arises, since issues of redundancy occur. Utilization of phenotypic levels that are ultimately based on sequences may facilitate reconstructing homologies that are not evident from sequence data alone. We propose the use of simultaneous analysis of sequence data and as many levels of phenotypic characters as possible to take advantage of homology information that may be more easily recovered from the latter. A method that eliminates redundancy to the degree that it can be detected is proposed.
The Formal Structure of Quantum Gravity

In 1956 Utiyama pointed out that the gravitational field can be regarded as a non-Abelian gauge field. In 1963 Feynman found that in order to construct a quantum perturbation theory for a non-Abelian gauge field he had to introduce new graphical rules not previously encountered in quantum field theory. He showed, in one-loop order, that to preserve unitarity one must add to every standard closed-loop graph another, involving a closed integral-spin fermion loop. In 1966 an explicitly gauge invariant functional-integral algorithm was found which extended Feynman’s new rules to all orders (De Witt (1967b)). A short time later it was shown that the algorithm could be obtained by a method of factoring out the gauge group (Fadde’ev and Popov (1967)).
Variance-Optimized Rao-Blackwellization for Mitigating Error Propagation in a Decision Feedback Equalization

A variance-optimized Rao-Blackwellization (VO-RB) soft decision scheme is presented for mitigating error propagation in a decision feedback equalizer (DFE). The VO-RB soft decision scheme uses optimized variance for the RB decision block to minimize a cost function, instead of the tentative equalizer output variance as in the original Rao-Blackwellization approach. This VO-RB decision device can be employed stand-alone or jointly with any other soft scheme for the joint optimization of DFE filter to minimize bit error rate (BER) or other cost function. In this paper, the VO-RB is employed by itself and with scaling soft scheme for HDTV and EDGE systems, and simulation results show the performance gain of the VO-RB with/ without scaled feedback regressor over other conventional decision devices.
Soil Quality Differences Under Native Tallgrass Prairie Across a Climosequence in Arkansas

Climate, specifically moisture and temperature, influences plant growth and nutrient cycling; thus, climate also influences prairie development. Relatively little research has been conducted in the ecological transition zone between the Great Plains and the more humid forests. Since moisture and temperature affect many ecosystem processes, the wetter climate of the southern forest region should influence soil biogeochemical cycling quite differently from that in grassland soils. The objective of this study was to evaluate soil quality and the relationships between selected soil properties across a climosequence in a transition zone between tallgrass prairie in humid-temperate (Ozark Highlands) and humid-subtropical (Grand Prairie) climate regimes in Arkansas. Soil physical, chemical and biological properties of the upper 10 cm differed significantly between physiographic regions. Linear relationships between total soil nitrogen (N) and carbon (C), extractable phosphorus and manganese, electrical conductivity and soil organic matter concentration differed significantly between physiographic regions. Total soil N and C decreased with increasing soil bulk density in both physiographic regions. The relationship between total C and bulk density differed by physiographic region, while the relationship between total N and bulk density did not. Soil organic matter concentration, C:N ratio, and many extractable nutrients, were higher and relationships between selected soil properties differed under native tallgrass prairie in a relatively warm and wet climate than that in a relatively cooler and drier climate. The results of this study suggest that prairie preservation, restoration and management practices should differ depending on climate regimes.
Report of Madrid Meeting of international section of terrestrial magnetism and electricity, October, 1924

Bulletin No. 4 of the Section of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union, consisting of ten pages and devoted to a General Report of the Madrid Meeting of the Section, was issued last December, by the writer, who was re-elected Secretary and Director of the Central Bureau of the International Section for the period 1924–1930. As a copy of this Bulletin has already been sent to each member of the American Section, it will not be necessary to go into further detail here. It will be of interest, however, to report that arrangements are already under way towards putting into effect some of the twenty-two resolutions which were passed at the Madrid meeting. Thus, word has been received from Dr. D. la Cour, director of the Danish Meteorological Institute, that, in accordance with Resolution No. 8, a permanent observatory will be established this coming summer at Godhavn, just south of Disco, on the west coast of Greenland. There are also indications that, following Resolution No. 10, the Canadian Government before long will fully equip the Meanook Magnetic Observatory; at the present time only photographic records of the variations of the magnetic declination are being obtained at this observatory, nearest of any to the North Magnetic Pole.
Rational approximations to 1/ 1-s 2 , one-way wave equations and absorbing boundary conditions

One-way wave equations (OWWEs), derived from rational approximations, C(s) to I/x/1 S 2, are considered. Absorbing boundary conditions obtained from these OWWEs are easily implemented, producing systems of differential equations at the boundary which are different from those produced by rational approximations, r(s) to x/1 -s 2. Although these systems are different, a particular choice of difference approximation for the system yields numerical methods such that stability properties of both approaches are equivalent. In particular, for C(s) = 1/r(s), the two systems possess equivalent stability properties. In other cases, numerical results are presented which demonstrate that, where C(s) and r(s) are not derived via interpolation, the C(s) OWWEs can provide better absorption.
Diversity of crustacean zooplankton in riparian wetlands: colonization and egg banks

Levee breaks from the Great Flood of 1993 opened up hundreds of new scour basins in the floodplain of the Missouri River. Subsequent floods, with sediment erosion and deposition, cause these lakes to be temporary features of the landscape. Within two years of the 1993 flood, the majority of zooplankton species from the region had colonized these sites. A positive correlation between species richness and connectivity indicates that sites having higher exchange with the river tended to have more species present, a result which is consistent with higher colonization rates to these sites. Hatching experiments from the sediments revealed that remnant oxbows have a highly diverse egg bank, whereas the young scour sites have limited species and numbers present. The depauperate egg bank implies that long-term population dynamics of the scours may be more dependent upon repeated colonizations than are lakes with regular emergence from the egg bank.
Multiscale Modeling of Damage in Composite Materials

Composite materials, and heterogeneous bodies in general, develop internal damage under imposed thermomechanical loading that can evolve to critical states of failure by a complex set of mechanisms. A hierarchical multiscale modeling approach to treat this behavior is generally not adequate. Instead, a synergistic approach is proposed that combines a continuum framework for macroscopic constitutive response and judiciously selected micro-level analyses of governing local failure mechanisms. Explicit characterization of physically observed features of micro-level failure is done by second order tensors that enter in the macro-level framework as internal variables. The approach is illustrated on damage of composite laminates made by stacking unidirectional fiber-reinforced layers.
STUDY OF FUSION OF THE SPINE WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ARTICULAR FACETS

In the experiments in which the spinous processes alone were fused, there were practically no changes in the articular facets. When, in addition to the fusion of the spinous processes, sections of bone were thrown up from the laminae and over the articular facets, secondary changes took place in the facets that had not been destroyed. In one experiment of 205 days' duration, several of the articulations were partially arthrodesed. If, in conjunction with the fusion of the spinous processes, the articular facets were destroyed on one side, marked changes took place in the articular facets of the opposite side. After 160 days very slight remnants of articular cartilage were found in some of the undestroyed articulations. No signs of joint spaces were found, although some joints showed the persistence of two articular cartilages. There was marked distortion of the plane of the facets with heaping up of bone about them on the side which had not been operated upon, as well as on the side upon which an operation had been performed. The changes described took place in normal spines. One would expect greater changes if a diseased condition or abnormal pressure as in scoliosis were present.
Salafi Theology and Islamic Orthodoxy in West Africa

The publication of Rudolph Ware’s The Walking Qur’an revives the debate surrounding fundamentally divergent understandings of Islamic identity, the epistemological divide between Salafism and traditionally trained African Muslim scholars. This article extends Ware’s findings into the field of articulated theology, suggesting a virulent contestation for orthodoxy where traditionalists are hardly outflanked by the supposed scripturalism of Salafi doctrine.
Finding Approximate Convex Shapes in RGBD Images

We propose a novel method to find approximate convex 3D shapes from single RGBD images. Convex shapes are more general than cuboids, cylinders, cones and spheres. Many real-world objects are near-convex and every non-convex object can be represented using convex parts. By finding approximate convex shapes in RGBD images, we extract important structures of a scene. From a large set of candidates generated from over-segmented superpixels we globally optimize the selection of these candidates so that they are mostly convex, have small intersection, have a small number and mostly cover the scene. The optimization is formulated as a two-stage linear optimization and efficiently solved using a branch and bound method which is guaranteed to give the global optimal solution. Our experiments on thousands of RGBD images show that our method is fast, robust against clutter and is more accurate than competing methods.
Crystalline Co-Assemblies of Functional Fullerenes in Methanol with Enhanced Charge Transport

Supramolecular arrangement of conjugated molecules has crucial influence on their material properties. For fullerenes and metallofullerenes, tight and ordered packing is beneficial for intermolecular charge transport and energy transfer, but it is tricky to achieve, especially for functionalized cages due to the often extensive solvation and steric effects of functional groups. In this study, we use an amphiphilic fullerene derivative soluble in methanol to form co-assemblies with insoluble fullerene derivatives, pristine fullerene, and metallofullerene via strong π–π interactions. These mixtures are processable in methanol and show fullerene-templated crystalline structures in spin-cast films. Devices are successfully fabricated on a field-effect transistor platform with this approach, and all co-assemblies show metallic-like conductive properties with significantly enhanced conductivity compared to the pure amphiphilic fullerene derivative.
Two new copper(II) hydroxoiodides

Abstract As evidenced by X-ray diffraction, two new hydroxoiodides of copper have been synthesized and their compositions were deduced from analytical data of their mixtures. One of the compounds, with Cu/I = 4 represented by the formula Cu 4 (OH) 7 I(2.5H 2 O), had a fcc structure with a = 9.43 A and the other with Cu/I = 2.5, represented by Cu(OH) 1.4 (O) 0.2 (I) 0.1 (I 3 0.1 (0.74H 2 O) appeared to have a hexagonal (or pseudo-hexagonal) structure with a = 3.78 and c = 6.61 A . The newly found Cu(II) hydroxoiodides constitute, together with Cu 2 (OH) 3 I, the only known instances in which the ions Cu(II) and I − are present in compounds.
Electrical Control of Terahertz Metamaterials

The metamaterials resonant response significantly enhances THz-wave/material interaction. We demonstrated real-time switchable THz metamaterial via external voltage bias to modify the metamaterial capacitive elements, thereby achieved effective control and manipulation of freely propagating terahertz waves.
From Two CSCW Frameworks to User Requirements Definition for a Retail Planning Collaborative Software

This case study explains how we used two computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) frameworks to define collaboration-related user requirements and experience attributes for Retail.Me, a new retail planning solution currently being designed at JDA Software. Our focus is on how this kind of framework can be used in industry and if one particular framework better answered our need to define user requirements and experience attributes for collaborative software. We explain how we configured each of the frameworks, how we reconciled them, and how this helped us reach our goal of defining user requirements and experience attributes for Retail.Me. At the end of this case study, we highlight differences in using the two frameworks, discuss their respective advantages and disadvantages and identify what we could have done to improve our process of defining user requirements and experience attributes.
Numerical Implementation of Constitutive Models: Rate-Independent Deviatoric Plasticity

Basic concepts concerning the numerical implementation of rate-independent deviatoric plasticity theories are presented. Both small and finite deformations are dealt with. Emphasis is placed on the central problem of computational plasticity, that is, given a deformation history, find the corresponding stress history by integrating the constitutive equations. Mathematical well-posedness requires non-classical specification of elastic and plastic processes. This problem is discussed for Mises, Tresca and non-convex “starlike” yield surfaces, associative and non-associative flow rules, and strain hardening and softening. The radial-return concept is emphasized in the algorithmic descriptions. A unified treatment of a class of finite-deformation theories is presented. Accurate and efficient procedures for calculating kinematical quantities necessary in finite deformation analysis are described.
Jane Austen's lovers

A discussion of sex in Jane Austen’s novels need not be brief. For what it may be worth, there is more sex in the Big Six than in the fifteen novels of Charles Dickens, whose heroes and heroines are uniformly insipid in comparison to Jane Austen’s.
The English Sentence

Up until now we have used the word sentence without attempting to define it. Reviewing what we know about the sentence, we can say that it has a characteristic IC structure, N-V, even when it has undergone transformation. In addition, the sentence is marked by an intonation pattern which allows the speaker-listener to sense its beginning and end and to feel that in some sense it constitutes a unit. The most common intonation pattern is 2-3-1, and there are a relatively small number of transformed intonation patterns. A formal definition, then, might read like this: a sentence is a linguistic unit consisting of sound and meaning symbols that follow the structural pattern N-V and produce an intonation pattern satisfactory to the speaker-listener.
Experimental overview on small colliding systems at RHIC

Abstract Beginning with the observation of ridge/flow-like features in pair correlations measurements in p+Pb, d+Au and high-density p+p events at RHIC and LHC, the last few years have seen a great surge of interest in the question of whether anything like a hot, locally-equilibrated QCD medium is formed in the small systems at collider energies. Many intriguing and suggestive results have been presented, but conclusions about medium formation must be approached with care. This presentation will attempt to summarize the experimental results from small colliding systems measured at RHIC, as part of a careful and objective evaluation of this question.
Run-time laser power management in photonic NoCs with on-chip semiconductor optical amplifiers

Photonic network-on-chip (PNoC) architectures are projected to achieve very high bandwidth with relatively small data-dependent energy consumption compared to their electrical counterparts. However, PNoC architectures require a non-trivial amount of static laser power, which can offset most of the bandwidth and energy benefits. In this paper, we present a novel low-overhead technique for run-time management of laser power in PNoCs, which makes use of on-chip semiconductor amplifiers (SOA) to achieve traffic-independent and loss-aware savings in laser power consumption. Experimental analysis shows that our technique achieves 31.5% more laser power savings with 12.8% less latency overhead compared to another laser power management scheme from prior work.
Thermoelectric properties of Bi2Sr2Co2Oy thin films and single crystals

Abstract Bi2Sr2Co2O9 exhibits a misfit-layered structure with good thermoelectric properties. We have investigated the thermoelectric properties of Bi2Sr2Co2Oy in both thin-film and single-crystal forms. Among thin films grown at different temperatures, we find that both the in-plane thermoelectric power (Sab) and electrical resistivity (ρab) vary in an opposite trend, i.e., Sab is high when ρab is small. This results in large power factor (Sab2/ρab~5.5 μW/K2 cm for the film grown at 700 °C), comparable to that for whiskers. For single crystals, the electrical resistivity shows metallic behavior in a large temperature range, but has higher magnitude than that of films grown at 675 °C and 700 °C. The annealing of single crystals under Ar atmosphere leads to even higher resistivity while Sab is improved. We discuss the thermoelectric performance of this material considering both oxygen concentration and phase purity.
Frailty and Advanced Heart Failure in Older Adults

Purpose of Review Advances in medical therapy have resulted in a growing population of older adults with advanced heart failure. Frailty is a clinical syndrome that increases in prevalence with age and is highly prevalent in patients with heart failure. This paper reviews the complex relationship between frailty and advanced systolic heart failure in older adults, including the potential for reversal of frailty following advanced cardiac interventions.
Machine Health Monitoring of Rotor-Bearing-Gear Transmission System

Presently some on-line vibration monitoring methods was used as an in-flight diagnostic and trend monitoring device. But very little work has been accomplished on the detection and quantification of combined gear damages and bearing faults in a bearing-rotor-gear transmission system. Vibrations caused by the combined damages in gears and bearing usually can not be identified readily without special procedure applied to the vibration signature. In this thesis, under a variety operating cases, vibration signature due to the combined damage between the outer race of bearing and the teeth of gear were examined in both time and frequency domains for identification purposes. Joint time-frequency analysis such as the Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD) was used in detecting and identifying various types of gear and bearing damage. The modified Poincare Maps based on chaotic vibration were also successfully applied in analyzing the vibration from gear and bearing damages. The objective of this work is to develop an on-line Health Monitoring system to detect faults in gear and bearing. Considerable success has been achieved in this work to identify faults in both bearing and gear components.
The effect of metal vacancies on the oxidation kinetics of metals

Abstract When transport through a strongly adherent oxide film on a metal is via cations, vacancies are generated in the metal at the metal-oxide interface. If the concentration of vacancies at the metaloxide interface rises above the equilibrium concentration, the reverse reaction at that interface (i.e. metal ions going from the oxide into the metal) will be enhanced. This will have the effect of reducing the oxidation rate thereby altering the oxidation kinetics. Rate equations are calculated for a variety of limiting cases. For the cases where no internal vacancy sinks are present in the metal the thickness of the metal being oxidized enters the rate equations as a parameter.
Brain Modularity Mediates the Relation of Cognitive Performance to Task Complexity

Recent work in cognitive neuroscience has focused on analyzing the brain as a network, rather than as a collection of independent regions. Prior studies taking this approach have found that individual differences in the degree of modularity of the brain network relate to performance on cognitive tasks. However, inconsistent results concerning the direction of this relationship have been obtained, with some tasks showing better performance as modularity increases and other tasks showing worse performance. A recent theoretical model (Chen & Deem, 2015) suggests that these inconsistencies may be explained on the grounds that high-modularity networks favor performance on simple tasks whereas low-modularity networks favor performance on more complex tasks. The current study tests these predictions by relating modularity from resting-state fMRI to performance on a set of simple and complex behavioral tasks. Complex and simple tasks were defined on the basis of whether they did or did not draw on executive attention. Consistent with predictions, we found a negative correlation between individuals9 modularity and their performance on a composite measure combining scores from the complex tasks but a positive correlation with performance on a composite measure combining scores from the simple tasks. These results and theory presented here provide a framework for linking measures of whole brain organization from network neuroscience to cognitive processing.
Marine Shell and Small-Island Slavery in the Caribbean

Caribbean slavery on plantations perched on very small islands that could be only a few dozen acres in extent was likely very different from slavery on the major islands. This article considers the results from three years of excavation and survey on the 150 ac. island of Little Jost van Dyke, British Virgin Islands, focusing on a cotton-farming plantation occupied by both free and enslaved people from about 1720 to 1790. The questions of oversight and control, as well as access to resources—frequent topics in plantation archaeology that are somewhat different here—frame the discussion of the limits and advantages of small islands and the effects of these on daily life and the structure of communities. A particular focus is given to the data provided by the study of marine-shell ecofacts recovered in the excavations and what these data can reveal about foodways, economy, and movement around the landscape. The article concludes that those enslaved on such smaller islands often had certain opportunities for movement and economic improvement denied those on larger or landlocked sites, but also serves as a reminder that these opportunities could not counter the impacts of enslavement.
Current vaccines for the prevention of herpes zoster.

Purpose of reviewTo summarize the recent advances in the prevention of herpes zoster. The recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of an adjuvanted subunit vaccine may have a significant impact on the prevention of herpes zoster ophthalmicus.Recent findingsThere are currently two commercia
Cinnamoyl Derivatives of 7α-Aminomethyl-6,14-endoethanotetrahydrothebaine and 7α-Aminomethyl-6,14-endoethanotetrahydrooripavine and Related Opioid Ligands

A new series of ligands has been synthesized where the cinnamoyl group of the 14-cinnamoylamino morphinones has been introduced to the 7α-substituent of the 6,14-bridged oripavine series. In vitro the compounds were mostly low efficacy partial agonists or antagonists with some selectivity for the mu opioid receptor, with evidence of mu efficacy in vivo. The similarity in SAR between these 6,14-bridged oripavines and the 14-cinnamoylamino series suggests a similar mode of interaction with the mu opioid receptor.
Feeding Ecology Tools to Assess Contaminant Exposure in Coastal Mammals

Abstract Feeding ecology is a primary driver of contaminant exposure for mammalian species, thus tools to quantify diet and habitat use are a key component of many ecotoxicological studies. In this chapter, we discuss the fate and transport of contaminants to coastal ecosystems and review the feeding ecology tools available for coastal mammals, a group comprised of marine mammals and terrestrial mammals that rely on marine-derived resources. We highlight these ecological connections related to contaminants, focusing on stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur for elucidating trophic and nontrophic interactions with contaminant exposure and tissue concentrations. In addition, we discuss tools that can be used alone or in conjunction with the aforementioned stable isotopes to describe the feeding ecology of individuals, populations, or species. Our mission is to expose readers to a nonlinear view of contaminant sources and transport to coastal ecosystems and to facilitate the use of cross-disciplinary techniques and tools to further the fields of ecotoxicology and ecology.
Characterization of Inconel 625 fabricated using powder-bed-based additive manufacturing technologies

Abstract The purpose of this study was to perform a comparative analysis of powder-bed-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies during the production of metallic components using Inconel 625 powder material. The AM technologies explored in this study include electron beam powder bed fusion (EPBF), laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), and binder jetting technology. Samples were fabricated in two build directions (X and Z build orientations) for this evaluation process, where all specimens underwent a hot isostatic pressing (HIP) post-process. The comparison was made in terms of microstructure and mechanical properties including ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS), percent elongation, and modulus of elasticity (E). Microstructural characterization showed evidence of equiaxed grain formation for binder jetting and LPBF parts, whereas EPBF parts displayed a more columnar grain formation parallel to the build direction. Six specimens were tested per technology, three built in the X orientation and three built in the Z orientation. All six specimens were built in a single run of each AM machine. Results indicated that all three technologies are capable of meeting the minimum requirements of the ASTM F3056-14 standard for parts produced in the X orientation, with properties that are similar to wrought Inconel 625. In the Z orientation, however, only LPBF was able to meet the minimum standard requirements. Through the comparative analysis of the mechanical properties, this work showed that LPBF outperformed the other technologies in a majority of the evaluated properties, followed by EPBF and binder jetting. An analysis of the fracture surfaces of tensile specimens was also performed, and it indicated ductile fracture (dimple rupture) for the specimens produced with all three of the AM technologies studied. Nevertheless, the characterization also showed certain differences in the fractured surfaces, such as the presence of un-sintered powder particles for the binder jetting processed Inconel 625, or the development of the so called woody structure for the EPBF processed material. This study can be used to determine distinct characteristics between the three powder-bed-based technologies for the fabrication of Inconel 625 that can further include other technologies and materials using similar approaches.
Switching to High-Deductible Health Plans: It Is Going to Be a Bumpy Ride

In their study, Wharam and colleagues take a useful step in evaluation of high-deductible health insurance plans. The editorialist discusses the findings and the difficulty of determining the value...
Utilization of EPA databases for cancer research

4868A Currently clinical trials of anticancer drugs are based on the principle that Phase I estimates the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and the dose for subsequent Phase II and Phase III studies is then based on the MTD. The MTD is also used as guidance for patient treatment following drug approval because undesirable toxicity can be readily observed in patients being treated, whereas an early determination of an effective dose [e.g., the minimally effective dose (MED)] in an individual patient has until now been more difficult to measure. It is questionable whether desirable cytotoxicity (therapeutic efficacy) and undesirable toxicity are necessarily parallel. Indeed, studies have shown that the effective dose may be much lower than the dose that is toxic to non-target sites, and efficacy of antitumor action at such higher doses may even be decreased. There are now a growing number of noninvasive methods that can perform functional measurements: DCE-MRI (Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI), Multinuclear NMR Spectroscopy (MRS), PET (Positron Emission Tomography), SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography), Dynamic CT, and others. Of those, DCE-MRI can be used to measure directly whether a given agent changes the perfusion of tumors. We will present our updated data showing that DCE-MRI is highly predictive of tumor response to docetaxel (p