cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effect of treadmill incline on maximal oxygen uptake, gas exchange and the metabolic response to exercise in the horse

In healthy man, conditions that change muscle O2 delivery affect the achievable maximum rate of O2 uptake as well as the metabolic (e.g. lactate threshold, LT) and gas exchange (e.g. gas exchange threshold, Tge) responses to incremental exercise. Inclined (I) compared to level (L) running increases locomotory muscle EMG at a given speed in the horse, indicative of elevated metabolic demand. To our knowledge, the effect of treadmill incline on VO2,max, LT and Tge has not been addressed in the exercising quadruped. We used blood sampling and breath-by-breath expired gas analysis to test the hypothesis that I (10% gradient) would increase VO2,max and the rate of O2 uptake (VO2) at LT and Tge in six Thoroughbred horses during incremental running to volitional fatigue. VO2,max was significantly higher for I (I, 77.8 +/- 4.1; L, 65.5 +/- 5.3 1 min(-1); P < 0.05), but peak plasma lactate concentration was not (I, 28.0 +/- 3.7; L, 25.9 +/- 3.0 mM). Arterial Pco2 increased to 62.1 +/- 3.3 and 57.9 +/- 2.7 Torr (I vs. L; P < 0.05), yet despite this relative hypoventilation, a distinct Tge was present. This Tge occurred at a significantly different absolute (I, 49.6 +/- 3.2; L, 42.4 +/- 3.21 min(-1); P < 0.05), but nearly identical relative VO2 (I, 63.6 +/- 1.2; L, 63.9 +/- 1.6% VO2max) in I and L. Similarly, LT occurred at a significantly greater absolute VO2 (I, 37.3 +/- 2.8; L, 26.9 +/- 2.1 1 min(-1)), but a relative VO2 that was not different (I, 47.9 +/- 2.1; L, 43.9 +/- 4.5% VO2,max). In addition, Tge occurred at a significantly higher (P < or = 0.05) absolute and relative VO2 than LT for both I and L tests. In conclusion, VO2,max is higher during inclined than level running and both LT and Tge in the horse occur at a similar percentage of VO2,max irrespective of the absolute level of VO2,max. In contrast to humans, LT is a poor analogue of Tge in the horse.
Coronary angiodysplasia of epicardial and intramural vessels.

A case of coronary angiodysplasia combining large aneurysms ofepicardial arteries with diffuse malformation of intramural vessels isreported. Clinical presentation may mimic a vascularized cardiac tumor.Although leaking of the aneurysms in the pericardial space may occur,this entity seems to have a benign prognosis not requiring surgicalrepair.
Withdrawal of flat plates from power law fluids

A new one-term withdrawal expression for power law fluids is developed from theoretical equations. Comparison with film thickness data for three carbopol fluids of α = 1.79 to 2.68 indicates agreement similar to that observed with valid Newtonian theories. The agreement was verified by comparison with independent measurements of entrainment flow rate.
Fault tolerant system design optimization

A systematic design optimization methodology for fault-tolerant systems is presented. The mathematical formulation of the design optimization process exploits the conceptual analogy to the general optimal control problem. The fault-tolerant system dynamics is modeled and simulated using Markov models. Thus, unlike other approaches proposed in the literature, the proposed approach does not require explicit formulas for state probabilities and therefore is not limited to simple systems. The resulting formulation is a minimization problem for a cost function of interest. This optimization problem is solved using either a direct search or gradient-based techniques, to produce the set of design variables yielding the minimum cost value. The sensitivities of the cost function to the design variables are efficiently calculated as a natural result of the optimization routines. Two examples of the application of the proposed methodology are presented: a dual redundant warning lamp system and a hypothetical triplex redundant system. >
Microcredit participation and child health: results from a cross-sectional study in Peru

Background Childhood malnutrition is a major consequence of poverty worldwide. Microcredit programmes—which offer small loans, financial literacy and social support to low-income individuals—are increasingly promoted as a way to improve the health of clients and their families. This study evaluates the hypothesis that longer participation in a microcredit programme is associated with improvements in the health of children of microcredit clients. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected in February 2007 from 511 clients of a microcredit organisation in Peru and 596 of their children under 5 years of age. The primary predictor variable was length of participation in the microcredit programme. Outcome variables included height, weight, anaemia, household food security and parent-reported indicators of child health. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions assessed the association between the number of loan cycles and child health outcomes. Pathways through which microcredit may have influenced health outcomes were also explored via mediation analyses. Results Longer participation in microcredit was associated with greater household food security and reduced likelihood of childhood anaemia. No significant associations were observed between microcredit participation and incidence of childhood illnesses or anthropometric indicators. Increased consumption of red meat may mediate the association between the number of loan cycles and food security, but not the association with anaemia. Conclusions The effects of microcredit on the health of clients’ children are understudied. Exploratory findings from this analysis suggest that microcredit may positively influence child health, and that diet may play a causal role.
Estimation of Stable Law Parameters: Stock Price Behavior Application

Abstract A point of considerable interest is whether the asymmetric stable laws rather than the symmetric stable laws provide for a closer representation of the behavior of security prices. Our empirical results indicate that the asymmetric laws are more appropriate than the symmetric stable laws. A new estimation procedure is used to obtain the estimates of parameters of the stable laws for 20 randomly selected stocks from the New York Stock Exchange. Estimates of the skewness parameter are explicitly obtained for the first time. The estimates are compared with those obtained under the assumption of symmetry and are also compared with the estimates provided by the method of Fama and Roll [13].
Internet Radio Disparity: The Need for Greater Equity in the Copyright Royalty Payment Structure

INTRODUCTION When Radiohead released the album “In Rainbows” in 2007, they provided a downloadable version on the band’s website for which buyers could pay whatever price they wanted, even zero.1 Commentators noted, “[f]or the beleaguered recording business Radiohead has put in motion the most audacious experiment in years.”2 Although some fans downloaded the album for free, many paid money for it,3 and the album made more money than the band’s two previous albums combined, which were never offered for free.4 Not many musical artists could get away with the creative antics of Radiohead,5 but this novel marketing
Exact characterization of invariant ellipsoids for single input linear systems subject to actuator saturation

We present a necessary and sufficient condition for an ellipsoid to be an invariant set of a linear system under a saturated linear feedback. The condition is given in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and can be easily used for optimization-based analysis and design.
Performance and scaling effects in a multilayer microfluidic extracorporeal lung oxygenation device

Microfluidic fabrication technologies are emerging as viable platforms for extracorporeal lung assist devices and oxygenators for cardiac surgical support and critical care medicine, based in part on their ability to more closely mimic the architecture of the human vasculature than existing technologies. In comparison with current hollow fiber oxygenator technologies, microfluidic systems have more physiologically-representative blood flow paths, smaller cross section blood conduits and thinner gas transfer membranes. These features can enable smaller device sizes and a reduced blood volume in the oxygenator, enhanced gas transfer efficiencies, and may also reduce the tendency for clotting in the system. Several critical issues need to be addressed in order to advance this technology from its current state and implement it in an organ-scale device for clinical use. Here we report on the design, fabrication and characterization of multilayer microfluidic oxygenators, investigating scaling effects associated with fluid mechanical resistance, oxygen transfer efficiencies, and other parameters in multilayer devices. Important parameters such as the fluidic resistance of interconnects are shown to become more predominant as devices are scaled towards many layers, while other effects such as membrane distensibility become less significant. The present study also probes the relationship between blood channel depth and membrane thickness on oxygen transfer, as well as the rate of oxygen transfer on the number of layers in the device. These results contribute to our understanding of the complexity involved in designing three-dimensional microfluidic oxygenators for clinical applications.
Detailed 2-D and 3-D finite element modeling of the human body for the evaluation of defibrillation fields

Detailed finite-element modeling of the human body has been carried out for the evaluation of implanted electrode potential distributions and defibrillation fields. Modeling details have been achieved in 2-D and 3-D down to the arbitrary topologies of the human body and its organs. This type of analysis requires 2-D and 3-D mesh generators that can be used to discretize arbitrary shapes. The main objective of this study is to develop a highly accurate clinical tool to be used by physicians to determine the adequacy of operation of an implanted device across the human heart before surgery. Furthermore, the model could determine the optimum sizes and locations of the stimulation electrodes for achieving a successful defibrillation according to the physiological requirements regarding shock uniformity and strength. >
Statistical Analysis of Concrete Compressive Strengths for California Highway Bridges

AbstractThis investigation presents results of the statistical and probabilistic analyses of 3,269 normal weight concrete cylinder compression tests used for recently constructed highway bridges in California. A new model for in-place strength of concrete structures is proposed as a function of the specified compressive strength, the normalized 28-day cylinder strength, and age of the structure based on a realistic strength–age relation for hardened concrete. The model prediction indicates that concretes in cast-in-place bridge structures designed with specified compressive strengths of 25 MPa (3.6 ksi), 28 MPa (4.0 ksi), and 35 MPa (5.0 ksi) reach their maximum strengths at about 40 years, with approximately 98% of the maximum strength occurring during the first 10 years. Also, through significance testing on the 28-day cylinder strengths, it was established that the California Department of Transportation practice of using an expected concrete strength instead of the specified strength for seismic desig...
The application of polarization microscopy to the development of a non-staining technique for measuring the divergence angle of myocardial collagen cleavage planes

Myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure posse a serious health threat to the population. The current methods of studying the biomechanics responsible for the underlying remodeling processes that lead to these conditions, utilize stained tissue histological techniques. These techniques possess some undesirable effects, therefore, other alternatives are being investigated. For this paper, we investigate an alternative by utilizing polarization imaging to image non-stained rat myocardium for the purpose of quantifying the collagen sheet angles, beta, of cardiac cleavage planes from the epicardial wall.
Mosaicing Tool for Aerial Imagery from a Lidar Bathymetry Survey

Aerial imagery collected during lidar bathymetry surveying provides an independent reference dataset for ground truth. Mosaicing of aerial imagery requires some manual involvement by the operator, which is time consuming. This paper presents an automatic mosaicing procedure that creates a continuous and visually consistent photographic map of the imaged area. This study aimed to use only the frames from the aerial camera without additional information. A comparison between the features in the resultant mosaic and a reference chart shows that the mosaic is visually consistent and there is good spatial-geometric correlation of features.
Exotic plant species as problems and solutions in ecological restoration : A synthesis

Exotic species have become increasingly significant management problems in parks and reserves and frequently complicate restoration projects. At the same time there may be circumstances in which their removal may have unforeseen negative consequences or their use in restoration is desirable. We review the types of effects exotic species may have that are important during restoration and suggest research that could increase our ability to set realistic management goals. Their control and use may be controversial; therefore we advocate consideration of exotic species in the greater context of community structure and succession and emphasize areas where ecological research could bring insight to management dilemmas surrounding exotic species and restoration. For example, an understanding of the potential transience of exotics in a site and the role particular exotics might play in changing processes that influence the course of succession is essential to setting removal priorities and realistic management goals. Likewise, a greater understanding of the ecological role of introduced species might help to reduce controversy surrounding their purposeful use in restoration. Here we link generalizations emerging from the invasion ecology literature with practical restoration concerns, including circumstances when it is practical to use exotic species in restoration.
Improved k-best sphere decoding algorithms for MIMO systems

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique is a key enabling technology for today's high-rate wireless communications. The sphere decoding algorithm (SDA) has been used for maximum likelihood (ML) detection in MIMO systems. However, it suffers from variable computation complexity and non-fixed throughput. Therefore, the k-best sphere decoding algorithm is proposed for MIMO detections for its less complexity and fixed throughput. The disadvantage for k-best SDA is that it has performance loss due to the reason that ML detection is not guaranteed. In this paper, we propose some improved k-best sphere decoding algorithms which improve the MIMO detection performance. Simulation results show that by applying sorted QR decomposition for the channel matrix, and/or introducing dynamic K values for different layers, our improved algorithms can achieve 1-2 dB detection performance gain for 4 /spl times/ 4 64QAM MIMO systems over the traditional k-best SDA without introducing extra computational complexity.
Somatic cell genetics and its human applications.

Until recently, biology was a science which dealt mainly with observation and description of living forms. Less than twenty years ago a profound revolution occurred which transformed it into a powerful theoretical science as well. This new theoretical base has enormously extended the scope of biology’s operations and its ability to understand, predict and control phenomena at many different levels. The new understanding of the nature of the living process came about from the contributions from three different kinds of fields, genetics, biochemistry and microbiology.
New tools for high reliability healthcare.

Both lay and scientific literature confirm that preventable medical errors remain a major source of morbidity and mortality in US hospitals, responsible for upwards of 400 000 hospital deaths per year.1 Over the past decade, Patel and colleagues have carefully documented the reasons medical errors occur, with special appreciation for the role of complexity in clinical situations.2 ,3 Due to that complexity, and in recognition of the fallibility of human care, the issue quickly becomes how to mitigate errors before patients are adversely affected. It should be noted that to help ensure safe care, medical institutions rely on peer review …
Partial Oxidation of Methane by Molecular Oxygen Over Supported V2O5 Catalysts: A Catalytic and in situ Raman Spectroscopy Study

The direct conversion of methane to methanol and formaldehyde via partial oxidation is still a very challenging research area in fundamental heterogeneous catalysis. Many catalyst systems have been investigated for this process and review articles are available in the literature.1,2 Silica supported V2O5 and MoO3 have been studied extensively, 3–6 and V2O5/SiO2 was found to be one of the most active and selective catalysts for methane partial oxidation to formaldehyde either by using N2O3 or molecular oxygen4,5 as oxidants. Besides steady-state catalytic tests, there are very few studies that have focused on correlations between the structures of catalysts and their catalytic performances or establishing the nature of the active sites for methane partial oxidation.
Operational Quality Control and Enhancement of Radar Data to Support Regional Flash Flood Warning Systems

AbstractThe paper draws from recent experience with operational regional flash flood warning systems deployed worldwide that utilize radar precipitation data as input to provide regional warnings at high spatial resolution. This paper focuses on radar precipitation data quality control and adjustments in context of making the radar data useful in hydrologic application specific to flash flood warnings. Aspects discussed are radar precipitation preprocessing for hydrologic application, identifying regions of inappropriate radar data for hydrologic use, developing bias adjustment strategies using limited rain gauge networks under the radar umbrella, and impacts of radar precipitation uncertainty on soil water estimates that impact in turn predictions and warnings. The bias adjustment strategies presented are twofold: (1) adjusting for the long-term mean bias in the radar precipitation data (climatological bias adjustment), and (2) accounting for event-specific, temporal deviations from the climatological bi...
Government spending multipliers and the zero lower bound

It is well-known that when the nominal interest rate hits the zero lower bound, the size of the fiscal multiplier can be large. The effectiveness of fiscal stimulus depends on the duration and the expected duration of the zero-lower-bound regime. Most studies fix this duration and therefore suffer from a bias. In this paper, we propose a way to estimate the government spending multiplier that allows this duration to be endogenously determined. Specifically, we incorporate into the Smets and Wouters (2007) model a monetary policy reaction function that follows a two-state Markov-switching process, and use data to pin down the transitional probability from one policy regime to the other. We then estimate the model and compute the fiscal multiplier using a data set that spans 1985:2–2015:3.
A Narrative Approach to "Repressed Memories"

AbstractI make use of insights from narrative psychology to illuminate claims made by advocates of the controversial multiple personality doctrine. The notion of "repressed memories" of childhood abuse is one of the foundations of the claim that one body can host two or more personalities. Until recently, a therapist could help a client reconstruct a failing self-narrative without being concerned with the historical truth of recovered memories. In the current litigious climate, clients bring suits in courts of law for damages supposedly caused by long-unremembered childhood instances of abuse by parents or other adults. In the forensic setting, the narrative truth that flows from the recovery of repressed memories is not enough; historical truth is required. I discuss the role of imagining in the construction of rememberings and the difficulties in establish-ing the historical truth of any remembering.(Psychology)
Epidemiological analysis of rubella in Qinghai at 2010

Objective To understand the epidemiologic features of rubella in Qinghai,and provide scientific evidences for formulating control and prevention measures.Method Adopting descriptive study method to analyze rubella epidemic data of Qinghai province at 2010.Results It was shown that 713 rubella cases were reported in 2010 in Qinghai province,with the incidence rate of 12.79/100 000,and no death case was reported.The incidence peak time was from May to June,which accounted for 51.89% of the total cases.The sex ratio of males to females was 1.28 to 1.00.The children under the age of 15 years old were affected easily,which accounted for 83.31%.The scattered children,students and childcare were mainly infected.Conclusions Rubella incidence rate was 12.79/100 000 in 2010 and it was higher than that in 2009.
Acidic Electrolyzed Oxidizing Water Disinfection for Endoscope in Children's Hospital

OBJECTIVE To determine the value of acidic electrolyzed oxidizing water (EOW) for disinfecting endoscopes in the children's hospitals. METHODS The detection methods of field sampling were used for monitoring the effect of EOW disinfection. Washed after-use endoscopes were disinfected by EOW for 3-5min. Bacteriological tests on samples of pre-and post-disinfection made for 30 samples of laryngoscopes,30 examples of gastroscopes and 16 samples of enteroscopes,which were selected randomly. RESULTS Through EOW disinfection,the bacteria were not found on the laryngoscopes. The total number of bacteria on digestive endoscopes was conformed to the Standards of Disinfection Techniques and no pathogenic bacteria were detected. CONCLUSIONS Applying EOW to disinfection of endoscopes for clinical purpose can fulfill the State Standards completely. EOW has strongly germicidal activity,also with characteristic aslo act rapidly,securely and environment friendly,and without any irritant odor. These rusults indicate a widely potential use of EOW as in children's hospitals,especially,with a positive significance in health care of pediatric patients.
The State of SCCT Research in Relation to Social Class Future Directions

This article provides an overview of 47 empirical studies of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and recent SCCT-based models with a focus on social class and socioeconomic status (SES). We summa...
Morphology-influenced wetting model of nanopore structures

Understanding the wetting behavior of nanostructures is important for surface design. The present study examined the intrinsic wettability of nanopore structures, and proposed a theoretical wetting model. Using this model, it was found that the wetting behavior of nanopore structures depends on the morphology of a surface. To accurately predict the wetting behavior of nanopore structures, correction factors were introduced. As a result, the proposed wetting model can be used to predict the wettability of nanopore structures for various engineering purposes.
Energy-Effcient Scheduling for Autonomous Mobile Robots

An autonomous robot has to sense its environment and prevent collision. Stereovision is a widely used technology for distance calculation and collision prevention. While a robot is moving, it has to detect an obstacle before a collision. This results in a real-time constraint and it may be adjusted by slowing down the motor. Since mobile robots usually carry limited energy, energy conservation is crucial. Stereovision requires substantial amounts of computation and causes much energy consumption. This paper presents a new approach for energy conservation for a mobile robot. We consider the energy consumed by both the on-board processor and the motor. Our method controls both the processor's frequency and the motor's speed to reduce energy while preventing collision. We formulate the problem as non-linear optimization and demonstrate that more energy can be saved by adjusting both the frequency and the speed simultaneously.
The historical ecology of malaria in Ethiopia: Deposing the spirits

In 1985, Steven Feierman asserted the need to study malaria given its status as ‘one of the most important and rapidly growing disease problems in Africa today’ (p. 95). Feierman went on to note th...
Applications and Advantages of Stable Isotope Phosphate Labeling of RNA in Mass Spectrometry

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an enabling technology for the characterization of post-transcriptionally modified nucleosides within ribonucleic acids (RNAs). These modified RNAs tend to be more challenging to completely characterize using conventional genomic-based sequencing technologies. As with many biological molecules, information relating to the presence or absence of a particular compound (i.e., qualitative measurement) is only one step in sample characterization. Additional useful information is found by performing quantitative measurements on the levels of the compound of interest in the sample. Phosphate labeling of modified RNAs has been developed by our laboratory to enhance conventional mass spectrometry techniques. By taking advantage of the mechanism of action of many ribonucleases (RNases), digesting RNA samples in the presence of 18O-labeled water generates an 18O-labeled 3′-phosphate in each digestion product. We describe the historical development of this approach, contrast this stable isotope labeling strategy with others used in RNA mass spectrometry, and provide examples of new analytical mass spectrometry methods that are enabled by phosphate labeling in this fashion.
Mechanisms and Consequences of Cholesterol Loading in Macrophages

A prominent and functionally important event in atherogenesis is the accumulation of cholesterol by subendothelial macrophages, a process known as foam cell formation. Macrophage foam cells form by the internalization and metabolism of “atherogenic” lipoproteins that accumulate on the subendothelial matrix. Among the most potent inducers of foam cells are aggregated LDL and chylomicron remnants. Cholesterol molecules from these lipoproteins are esterified to fatty acids by the enzyme acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT); the major form of regulation of this key reaction appears to be through changes in cholesterol trafficking to ACAT. Importantly, the accumulation of cholesterol has profound effects on macrophage biology, including changes in the synthesis of specific proteins and in phospholipid metabolism. These effects may give insight into the mechanisms by which macrophage foam cells affect atherogenesis.
A Theosophical Garden City: designing household life in Bombay, circa 1924

ABSTRACTHistories of the Garden City in the colonial world have brought attention to planning professionals, colonial officials, and native elites who instituted new economic and political practices through the construction of garden cities and suburbs. Less well known is that the Theosophical Society, a worldwide heterodox religious movement, appropriated the imagery and terminology of the Garden City to imagine a novel form of suburban living and political community in late colonial South Asia. Although Theosophists were among the earliest residents of Letchworth, in 1924 the Theosophical Society created a ‘Theosophical Garden City’ on the outskirts of Bombay that bore little resemblance to British garden cities and suburbs. Formed amid growing demands in India for national independence, this Theosophical Garden City envisioned India as a federation of localities within a polycentric ‘world-empire’. Examining architectural and town plans for the Theosophical Garden City, this article argues that the cre...
Marking Stress ExPLICitly in Written English Fosters Rhythm in the Reader's Inner Voice

Spoken English has a stress-alternating rhythm that is not marked in its orthography. In two experiments, the authors evaluated whether stylistic alterations to print that marked stress pulses fostered the rendering of rhythm (experiment 1) and stress (experiment 2) during silent reading. In experiment 1, silent readers rated the helpfulness of the stylistic alterations appearing in the last line of poems. In experiment 2, silent readers rated the helpfulness of the stylistic alterations appearing in heteronyms embedded in prose. As predicted by linguistic theories, when the stylistic alterations mapped onto the rhythmic pulses of the poems, and the lexically stressed syllables of the heteronyms, silent readers rated these alterations as more helpful compared with the incongruous conditions. In experiment 2, readers’ inner voices were more tuned to the prosodic nuances of the first syllable than the second in the bisyllabic heteronyms. This prosodic tuning for the first syllable in a word was likely afforded by the strong tendency for stress to appear word-initially. In addition, the stylistically marked stress was viewed as more helpful in the early half of the sentence, when readers likely recruited more bottom-up processes. In both experiments, prior exposure to poetry was related to a refined prosodic awareness. In experiment 2, exposure to poetry predicted participants’ prosody sensitivity, after controlling for the other predictors of academic achievement. The authors’ ongoing studies are evaluating whether marking stress explicitly in written English might aid struggling readers and late speakers of English.
Dynamics: Changing Atoms of Space–Time

In the previous chapter, we have seen some aspects of spatial quantum geometry, with its characteristic discrete spectra, emerge even in isotropic models. Now, these spatial structures have to fit into a consistent quantum space–time which in a certain sense reduces to a solution of Einstein’s equation in a semiclassical or low-curvature limit. Only completing this most challenging step will make the theory one of quantum gravity, rather than of spatial quantum geometry.
Orientationally Ordered Electro-Optic Materials

Suitable materials for processing optical information are critical for implementation of all-optical and electro-optical communications and data processing systems. These technologies require materials with large optical nonlinearities, which certain organic materials have been shown to possess.[1] [2] [3] [4] Guided wave electro-optic systems require not only large optical nonlinearities, but also materials suitable for waveguiding and integration. Material considerations include manufacturability, that is capability of fabrication into reproducible devices; and integrability with sources, electronics, detectors, and interconnects. Additionally, materials should possess favorable dielectric properties: a low dielectric constant and dielectric loss, and the requisite optical quality for producing low-loss optical waveguides.
Special Functional Group Triglyceride Oil Based Interpenetrating Polymer Networks

Castor oil, vernonia oil, and a few other triglyceride oils contain special functional groups, such as hydroxyl or epoxide, which can be polymerized to make soft elastomers with glass transitions as low as -50°C. These can be combined with either amorphous polymers, such as polystyrene, to make IPNs, or with poly (ethylene terephthalate) PET, a crystallizable polymer, to make semi-IPNs. The latter compositions were investigated, finding that the triglyceride oils can improve the crystallization rate of the PET, and castor oil and vernonia oil networks can also serve to rubber-toughen the PET.
Trace element migration during UF4 bomb reduction: Implications to metal fuel production, worker health and safety, and nuclear forensics

Abstract Understanding the migration of trace contaminants during the production of U metal is vital for fabricating advanced nuclear fuels, for managing worker health and safety at foundry and processing facilities, and for advancing nuclear forensic science. A common method used to produce actinide metals is the bomb reduction of suitable U precursors. Here, we report the results of a series of experiments designed to quantitatively track the trace contaminants Th, Ca, and Mg through a bomb reduction of UF4 using a vacuum induction furnace. In this series, UF4 charges were doped with elemental Th at 0 (a blank), 1, 10, 100, and 1000 ppm Th/U. Following reduction, the metal ingot products and the associated slag and crucibles were individually digested and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The results show that Th fractionation occurred at all concentrations but was most significant, and near quantitative, in samples starting with Th concentrations below 100 ppm. Thorium was found to incorporate into the slag and crucible in roughly equal proportions during reduction. A significant amount of U and Ca migrated into the crucible walls, each correlating positively with the quantities of Mg migrating from the MgO crucible to the U metal product.
Vibrational energies and partition functions

Abstract Chemical reaction dynamics, as well as many fundamental molecular properties such as heat capacity, involve energy transfer in and out of vibrational states. The quantum mechanics of the harmonic oscillator is reviewed, followed by analyses of different approaches to analyze and interpret anharmonic contributions to the vibrational energy. A brief review of the nature and calculation of vibrational potential energy surfaces is provided, and available options for analyzing these with computational tools to obtain the energies of the vibrational quantum states. Finally, this chapter presents several applications to thermodynamics and kinetics of the vibrational partition function, which may be calculated from the quantized energies.
Clinical Utility of the Risk Analysis Index as a Prospective Frailty Screening Tool within a Multi-practice, Multi-hospital Integrated Healthcare System.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this project was to first address barriers to implementation of the Risk Analysis Index (RAI) within a large, multi-hospital, integrated healthcare delivery system, and to subsequently demonstrate its utility for identifying at-risk surgical patients. BACKGROUND Prior studies demonstrate the validity of the RAI for evaluating preoperative frailty, but they have not demonstrated the feasibility of its implementation within routine clinical practice. METHODS Implementation of the RAI as a frailty screening instrument began as a quality improvement initiative at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in July 2016. RAI scores were collected within a REDCap survey instrument integrated into the outpatient electronic health record and then linked to information from additional clinical datasets. NSQIP-eligible procedures were queried within 90 days following the RAI, and the association between RAI and postoperative mortality was evaluated using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models. Secondary outcomes such as inpatient length of stay and readmissions were also assessed. RESULTS RAI assessments were completed on 36,261 unique patients presenting to surgical clinics across five hospitals from July 1 to December 31, 2016, and 8,172 of these underwent NSQIP-eligible surgical procedures. The mean RAI score was 23.6 (SD 11.2), the overall 30-day and 180-day mortality after surgery was 0.7% and 2.6%, respectively, and the median time required to collect the RAI was 33 [IQR 23-53] seconds. Overall clinic compliance with the recommendation for RAI assessment increased from 58% in the first month of the study period to 84% in the sixth and final month. RAI score was significantly associated with risk of death (HR=1.099 [95% C.I.: 1.091 - 1.106], p < 0.001). At an RAI cutoff of ≥37, the positive predictive values for 30- and 90-day readmission were 14.8% and 26.2%, respectively, and negative predictive values were 91.6% and 86.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The RAI frailty screening tool can be efficiently implemented within multi-specialty, multi-hospital healthcare systems. In the context of our findings and given the value of the RAI in predicting adverse postoperative outcomes, health systems should consider implementing frailty screening within surgical clinics.
SMAD6 Integrates Endothelial Cell Homeostatic Flow Responses Downstream of Notch

Laminar shear stress regulates blood vessel morphogenesis and subsequent quiescence, leading to vascular homeostasis. Although important for vessel function, how vascular homeostasis is set up and maintained is poorly understood. SMAD6, a scaffold for several signaling pathways, is expressed in developing arteries and its expression is flow-regulated. We found that SMAD6 is essential for endothelial cell flow-mediated responses downstream of the mechanosensor Notch1. Endothelial cells with reduced SMAD6 levels failed to align under homeostatic laminar shear flow, while forced SMAD6 expression rescued misalignment induced by reduced Notch1 signaling. SMAD6-dependent homeostatic laminar flow responses required the Notch ligand Dll4 and Notch transcriptional activity. Mechanistically, neither the N-terminal nor the C-terminal domain of SMAD6 alone rescued flow alignment upon loss of Notch signaling. Endothelial cells with reduced Smad6 levels had compromised barrier function, and RNA profiling revealed upregulation of proliferation-associated genes and down regulation of junction-associated genes. Among junction-related genes affected by SMAD6 levels, the proto-cadherin PCDH12 was upregulated by homeostatic flow and required for proper flow-mediated endothelial cell alignment. Thus, SMAD6 is a critical integrator of flow-mediated signaling inputs downstream of Notch1, as vessels transition from an angiogenic to a homeostatic phenotype.
Mechanistic Phase II Clinical Trial of Metformin in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Background Metabolic dysfunction is highly prevalent in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and likely contributes to both pulmonary vascular disease and right ventricular (RV) failure in part be...
Prototyping rail track for micro-people movers using additive manufacturing: Failure topology characterization

Abstract This paper describes the design and prototyping of railroad tracks for micro-people movers (MPM) using 3D printing technology. Electric MPMs have found applications for short distance travel needs. PLA (polylactide) is the choice of material for the prototyping in this paper. One of the advantages of using 3D printed railroad tracks is being able to properly address the rendering of a variety of topographic profiles of naturally occurring landscapes. The 3D printing of railroad track projects starts with digitally modelling the structure to integrate the automated manufacturing process. To determine the bearing capacity of the printed tracks, both compression and flexural load tests were conducted. The results, as anticipated, indicate that the load capacity and failure modes depend on the fiber content and layer directions of the 3D printed tracks. As the fiber content percentages increase from 20% to 100%, the failure modes transition from material-based control feature to a more structure-based control type. Because material contents are closely associated with the weight of the rail and the cost of production, design optimization can be made based on the correlation between load capacity and the failure mode.
American Attitudes Toward COVID-19: More Trumpism Than Partisanship

We investigate how support for President Donald Trump, beyond partisanship, guided Americans’ attitudes toward COVID-19. This speaks to not just how “Trumpism” and the Trump administration’s handli...
Handbook of Internet Computing

Scientists in different geographical locations conduct real-time experiments in a virtual shared workspace. E-commerce provides an emerging market for businesses large and small. E-mail, Servers, and Enterprise Resources Planning have revolutionized businesses on every level. People from all over the globe gather in chat rooms. The Internet is here to stay and Internet technologies and applications continue to grow and evolve.The Handbook of Internet Computing presents comprehensive coverage of all technical issues related to the Internet and its applications. It addresses hot topics such as Internet architectures, content-based multimedia retrieval on the Internet, Web-based collaboration, Web search engines, digital libraries, and more. Real-life examples illustrate the concepts so that technical, non-technical and business people can quickly grasp the fundamentals.
Classifier Loss Under Metric Uncertainty

Classifiers that are deployed in the field can be used and evaluated in ways that were not anticipated when the model was trained. The final evaluation metric may not have been known at training time, additional performance criteria may have been added, the evaluation metric may have changed over time, or the real-world evaluation procedure may have been impossible to simulate. Unforeseen ways of measuring model utility can degrade performance. Our objective is to provide experimental support for modelers who face potential "cross-metric" performance deterioration. First, to identify model-selection metrics that lead to stronger cross-metric performance, we characterize the expected loss where the selection metric is held fixed and the evaluation metric is varied. Second, we show that the number of data points evaluated by a selection metric has substantial impact on the optimal evaluation. While addressing these issues, we consider the effect of calibrating the classifiers to output probabilities influences. Our experiments show that if models are well calibrated, cross-entropy is the highest-performing selection metric if little data is available for model selection. With these experiments, modelers may be in a better position to choose selection metrics that are robust where it is uncertain what evaluation metric will be applied.
Multiple genetic loci modify risk for retinoblastoma in transgenic mice.

PURPOSE. Forty percent of cases of retinoblastoma, a childhood malignancy of the retina, are linked to the inheritance of a mutant allele of the retinoblastoma susceptibility gene Rbl. Tumor penetrance varies among earners in different family pedigrees, indicating that other genetic factors may modify risk for occurrence of retinoblastoma. This study was undertaken to determine whether multiple genetic loci modify the risk for retinoblastoma in mice. METHODS. A line of aAcry-HPVl6E6/E7 transgenic mice expressing the human papillomavirus type 16 E6 and E7 oncogenes (HPV-16 E6 and ET) ectopically in the retina was characterized. E6 and E7 proteins bind to and inactivate the cellular tumor suppressor proteins p53 and Rb, respectively. RESULTS. Retinoblastomas developed rarely when the aAcry-HPVl6E6/E7 transgene was maintained on the FVB background, but tumors arose with high frequency on C57BL/6 X FVB and C3H X FVB F, hybrid backgrounds. The incidence of retinoblastoma in the LHfi-TAG transgenic mice, which express simian virus 40 large tumor antigen (SV40 T-ag), was also influenced by the FVB and C57BL/6 backgrounds. Resistance of the aAcry-HPVl 6E6/E7 FVB mice to retinoblastoma mapped in part to the retinal degeneration (rd) locus. However, multiple genetic experiments indicate that resistance to retinoblastoma depends on additional loci in FVB mice. CONCLUSIONS. Multiple cellular genes can modify risk for retinoblastoma in mice. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1998;39:2723-2732)
A Good Graduate Industrial–Organizational Education Begins in Undergraduate Classrooms

Due to current market trends and the increasing competitiveness of the job market, the focal authors suggested we must proactively address how we educate graduate students in our field (Byrne et al., 2014). One way to ensure that our graduates are as prepared as possible is to focus on developing skills as well as their knowledge base. Requiring students (either graduate or undergraduate) to memorize facts is not sufficient to ensure a quality education and to guarantee they are competitive in the job market. Employers want to hire people who possess more than knowledge; they want people who are knowledgeable and have a wide array of skills from which they can draw on the job. Although these statements may strike readers as patently obvious, this dual focus on knowledge and skills is often at odds with how we teach, particularly at the undergraduate level. In our response, we focus on how instructors can build pathways for success beginning in undergraduate industrial–organizational (I–O) courses. We contend that I–O educators should provide some skill-based training at the undergraduate level that can then be built upon at the graduate level in order to develop satisfied, effective I–O professionals.
Reversal of the sleep–wake cycle by heroin self-administration in rats

The goal of this study was to examine how heroin self-administration, abstinence, and extinction/reinstatement affect circadian sleep-wake cycles and the associated sleep architecture. We used electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) to measure sleep patterns in male Sprague-Dawley rats over 16 trials of heroin self-administration (acquisition), 14 days of abstinence, and a single day of extinction and drug-induced reinstatement. Rats self-administering heroin showed evidence of reversed (diurnal) patterns of wakefulness, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep throughout acquisition. During abstinence, their wake and NREM sleep patterns were immediately restored to the normal nocturnal distribution. REM patterns remained inverted for the first 3-6 days of abstinence in heroin self-administering rats. The single extinction/reinstatement test was without effect. These data suggest that heroin may have the ability to affect circadian distribution of sleep and wakefulness, either indirectly, where animals shift their sleep-wake cycle to allow for drug taking, or directly, through wake-promoting actions or actions at circadian oscillators in the brain.
More than propagule pressure: successful invading algae have physiological adaptations suitable to anthropogenically changing nutrient environments.

While increased propagule pressure may increase the possibility of success of an invading species, success is also a function of the environment to which the organisms have been introduced and the physiological strategies of the invading organisms and how those strategies relate to those of the native fauna or flora. Using examples of altered nutrients in aquatic environments, the effects of environment on the success of harmful algae are herein considered. Many harmful algae are introduced species, especially via ballast water. While increasing numbers and frequency of harmful algal blooms in eutrophic waters may be comparatively easy to understand—more nutrients, more biomass, more opportunities for species to proliferate—one of the more perplexing issues is why some harmful algal bloom species seem to become more prevalent under conditions of disproportionate nutrient supply. Focusing here specifically on the case of excess nitrogen loading relative to that of phosphorus, there are a number of key adap...
Investigation of an Homologous Series of Fatty Acids by TLC. II. Comparison of Separation of Fatty Acids on RP‐18 Plates with Different Mobile Phases

Abstract Fatty acids from octanoic acid to octadecanoic acid have been separated on RP‐18 plates with and without a concentrating zone using methanol–water, ethanol–water, and n‐propanol–water as mobile phases. The cluster analysis for comparison of R M parameters of investigated acids for chromatographic conditions used was proposed. Comparison of differences between R F values showed that acids from nonanoic to octadecanoic are separated on the longest distance, using as mobile phase methanol–water in a volume ratio of 95 + 5 and on RP‐18 plates with and without concentrating zone. Moreover, resolution factor values (R S) calculated suggest that better separations of acids from octanoic to octadecanoic were obtained on RP‐18 plates with a concentrating zone and methanol–water (95 + 5, v/v) as mobile phase.