cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unicauda magna sp.n. (Protozoa: Myxozoa): a new myxozoan from the fin tissues of the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas Rafinesque

. Unicauda magna sp.n. (Protozoa: Myxozoa) was found in hatchery-raised fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas (Cyprinidae) from Pennsylvania. A large number of whitish-coloured cysts were located in the tissues of the pectoral, pelvic and caudal fins of infected fish. Spore dimensions (in μm) based on 30 measurements (10 spores/cyst) included the following: total length, 109.6 (75–170); spore body length, 15.5 (14–17); spore body thickness, 12.1 (10–13); spore body width, 13.2 (12–14.5); tail length, 94.1 (60–154); polar capsule lengths, 8.6 (7.5–9.5); polar capsule width 4.1 (3.0–5.0); sutural ridge width, about 1. The tail and body of the spores differed in colour when stained with each of three dyes. They are, therefore, composed of different material.
Design Engineering and Human Computer Interaction: Function Oriented Problem Solving in CAD Applications

CAD Software such as CREO and SolidWorks are used to develop mechanical parts and assemblies and do not explicitly support the function of the feature, component, part or assembly. Therefore, the reasoning of why and how a design is developed has not been incorporated into current CAD systems. At the same time, CAD systems support sophisticated functions such automated routing, modelling and simulation of dynamic and geometric properties and design solutions tracking. In this paper we investigate (a) to what degree CAD tools have advanced beyond drafting tools to include cognitive supports that facilitate problem solving and (b) which possibilities exist to enhance CAD with cognitive tools that with focus on the intersection between cognitive psychology, interaction design and design engineering remain unexplored.
Employee Well-Being: Can Performance Management Systems Help? Yes, But They Sure Can Hurt Too!

Employee well-being is notably influenced by an employee’s work environment and experiences at work. These individual work experiences can be enhanced or ultimately hindered by an organization’s performance management. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive look at the implementation of performance management systems and the ensuing well-being implications or consequences for individuals and the organization. First, we conceptualize and apply an employee well-being framework to the development of performance management systems in organizations. Then, we provide several workplace scenarios that depict how performance management systems may influence employee well-being in a variety of ways. Each scenario is considered in light of the performance management system, a discussion of possible implications for employee well-being, and practical recommendations for the development of more ethical and effective practices. Finally, we conclude this chapter with suggestions for the consideration of employee well-being in the development and implementation of performance management systems.
The Perils of privatized marriage

Governments around the world continue to struggle with how to accommodate religious minorities in an increasingly pluralistic society, and how to accommodate religion in matters of family law. Efforts to respect religious understandings in family disputes seem at first blush innocuous: they would allow religious groups to define their own norms and celebrate the rich diversity of society. However, the experience of women and children of multiple faiths across the world demonstrates that religious deference extracts an unconscionable price. As the Volume in which this Chapter appears illustrates, such proposals would confer considerable latitude in family matters not only on adherents of Islam, but on Christians, Jews, and members of other faiths. This Chapter argues that such efforts are well-intentioned but naive. Religious communities are not immune from family violence, and religious norms place women at significant financial and custodial disadvantages. In many instances, there are striking breaks between civil law norms and the outcomes demanded by religious understandings in places where religious arbitration is occurring. The experiences of women and children demonstrate that removing state protections from the family is fraught with peril. In some systems of religious deference, the cost of exiting a marriage, even an abusive one, for women is unconscionable - leading to a substantial risk of poverty and sometimes the loss of child custody after divorce. Some religious leaders tolerate family violence, further frustrating a woman’s ability to exit an abusive marriage. The foreseeable inequities to women and children in systems of religious deference cannot be justified on grounds that a woman voluntarily chooses to participate. Unlike prenuptial agreements, which must be in writing and are policed for duress and unconscionability, existing systems of religious deference offer no such safeguards. This Chapter concludes that policymakers should give serious consideration to the costs of giving deference to religious understandings of family relationships before ceding authority for family disputes to religious bodies.
Effect of Surfactants on Surface Structure in Liquid Chromatography

Silices a groupes octyl ou octadecyl. Influence de la concentration en sulfonate ou sulfate sur la retention. Relation avec la formation de micelles
Vascular and extravascular complications of liver transplantation: comprehensive evaluation with three-dimensional contrast-enhanced volumetric MR imaging and MR cholangiopancreatography.

OBJECTIVE. Our purpose was to evaluate a comprehensive MR imaging strategy for recipients of liver transplants that relies on dynamic interpolated three-dimensional (3D) MR imaging for simultaneous vascular, parenchymal, and extrahepatic imaging.MATERIALS AND METHODS. Twenty-three consecutive adult patients underwent 30 MR imaging examinations between 2 days and 99 months (mean, 15 months) after transplantation using a breath-hold 3D gradient-echo sequence (TR range/TE range, 3.7-4.7/1.8-1.9; flip angle, 12-30°) with an intermittent fat-saturation pulse and interpolation in the section-select direction to enable pixel size 3 mm or less in all dimensions. Unenhanced and triphasic contrast-enhanced 3D imaging (average dose, 0.13 mmol/kg of gadopentetate dimeglumine) was performed. A subset of patients (n = 13) also underwent MR cholangiopancreatography using half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo imaging. MR imaging examinations were correlated with digital subtraction angiography (n = 8), contrast-enhanc...
Estimates of Parainfluenza Virus-Associated Hospitalizations and Cost Among Children Aged Less Than 5 Years in the United States, 1998–2010

BACKGROUND Parainfluenza virus (PIV) is the second leading cause of hospitalization for respiratory illness in young children in the United States. Infection can result in a full range of respiratory illness, including bronchiolitis, croup, and pneumonia. The recognized human subtypes of PIV are numbered 1-4. This study calculates estimates of PIV-associated hospitalizations among U.S. children younger than 5 years using the latest available data. METHODS Data from the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System were used to characterize seasonal PIV trends from July 2004 through June 2010. To estimate the number of PIV-associated hospitalizations that occurred annually among U.S. children aged <5 years from 1998 through 2010, respiratory hospitalizations from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample were multiplied by the proportion of acute respiratory infection hospitalizations positive for PIV among young children enrolled in the New Vaccine Surveillance Network. Estimates of hospitalization charges attributable to PIV infection were also calculated. RESULTS Parainfluenza virus seasonality follows type-specific seasonal patterns, with PIV-1 circulating in odd-numbered years and PIV-2 and -3 circulating annually. The average annual estimates of PIV-associated bronchiolitis, croup, and pneumonia hospitalizations among children aged <5 years in the United States were 3888 (0.2 hospitalizations per 1000), 8481 per year (0.4 per 1000 children), and 10,186 (0.5 per 1000 children), respectively. Annual charges for PIV-associated bronchiolitis, croup, and pneumonia hospitalizations were approximately $43 million, $58 million, and $158 million, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The majority of PIV-associated hospitalizations in young children occur among those aged 0 to 2 years. When vaccines for PIV become available, immunization would be most effective if realized within the first year of life.
Quantitative aspects of the detoxication of naphthalene by resistant and susceptible house flies.

The rate of metabolism and excretion of naphthalene-l-C14 and 1-naphthol-1-C14 by resistant and susceptible strains of house flies, Musca domestica L., has been studied by means of injection and feeding experiments. Combustion of insects given single doses of the radioactive drugs has shown that both are rapidly eliminated; approximately 80% of an injected dose is excreted within 7 hours and 90% in 24 hours. When fed up to 0.4% 1-naphthol in sugar, the flies excrete naphthol metabolites at the rate of approximately 3 to 5 µg per day per insect. Males of both strains excrete the metabolized drug about 50% more rapidly than females. About 23 to 68% of the excreted drug is in the form of 1-naphthyl glucoside and about 8 to 17% as 1-naphthyl sulfate. Relatively more glucoside is produced by young females but the absolute amount produced by the sexes is approximately the same. Although R and S insects were compared both quantitatively and qualitatively for naphthol metabolism, no differences either in rate of metabolite production or in relative levels of metabolites could be seen.
RARE-15ACTH-SECRETING PITUITARY CARCINOMA METASTATIC TO THE LIVER IN A PATIENT WITH A HISTORY OF ATYPICAL PITUITARY ADENOMA AND CUSHING'S SYNDROME

Pituitary carcinoma is a rare entity requiring the presence of metastasis to confirm its malignant potential. Most examples secrete prolactin or adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Reported sites of metastasis include to the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, spinal cord, leptomeninges, eyes, heart, lung, lymph nodes, pancreas, liver, kidney, ovary, myometrium and bone. Liver metastasis is most common with prolactin-secreting tumors. In ACTH-secreting tumors it is frequently associated with Nelson's syndrome (rapid enlargement of a pituitary adenoma after bilateral adrenalectomy to palliate Cushing's syndrome). Here we report a case of an ACTH-secreting atypical pituitary adenoma metastasizing to the liver in a 51-year-old woman with Cushing's syndrome and intact adrenal glands 2.5 years after resection of the primary pituitary lesion with subsequent radiotherapy for residual cavernous sinus disease. Surveillance of ACTH and 24 hour urine cortisol levels revealed that they were significantly elevated to 142 pg/mL (normal range 10-60 pg/mL) and 541 µg/day (normal range 3.5-45 µg/day), respectively. These abnormalities prompted a PET scan which demonstrated a hypermetabolic liver lesion with a maximal SUV of 3.3, which was suspicious for metastasis on MRI. An ultrasound-guided liver biopsy demonstrated involvement by a moderately differentiated carcinoma consistent with a primary pituitary lesion. Nests of tumor cells showed a monotonous epithelioid appearance, abundant cytoplasm and small nucleoli. Immunostains for AE1/3, synaptophysin, and ACTH diffusely highlighted the lesional cells. This case thus represents an additional rare example of an ACTH-producing pituitary carcinoma metastatic to the liver in a patient with Cushing's syndrome and intact adrenal glands.
Factors Affecting the Drying, Stability, and Rehydration of Freeze-Dried Chicken Meat

Abstract Breasts, legs, and thighs of broilers and light fowl were cooked, freeze-dried, and rehydrated to determine the effect of several raw materials, storage, and processing variables on the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of the end product. Sex of broilers had no significant effect on freeze-dried, rehydrated product quality. Except for a tenderness advantage in favor of meat samples from broilers fed on a low energy ration, there were no noticeable product differences due to carcass fat content. Frozen storage of raw meat materials which were subsequently freeze-dried did not allow much deterioration until half a year of storage had expired. Storage of freeze-dried samples caused a significant decline in quality after half a year and again at the end of the year of study. Freeze-dried, rehydrated light meat and broiler carcasses were nearly always of better quality than dark meat and light fowl respectively. Correlation coefficients of r = 0.88 for tenderness and r = −0.77 for juiciness were obtained when subjective and objective methods of evaluation were compared.
The global firestorm of law and order: On punishment and neoliberalism

This article reflects on the international reception of my book Prisons of Poverty as revelator of penal developments in advanced societies over the past decade. I show that the global firestorm of...
How Partisans Differ from Independents: The Imaginative Functions of Self-Understanding, Rehearsal, and Relationship Maintenance

This study looks at partisan voting in light of imagined interactions (IIs). Imagined interactions are a form of daydreaming that allows us to build scripts for use in our interpersonal relationships. II research has generally come from a functionalist perspective, and continues to prove its value in counseling and therapy, as well as to help us to understand intrapersonal communication in general. It has recently been extended into media effects research (i.e., Madison & Porter, 2012, 2014) and with the present study, voting intentions. We ask how respondents who claim to vote for candidates from certain political parties differ from those who do not in terms of the functions of their IIs. We surveyed college students at a prominent southern university (N = 227) and collected data on voting intentions and functions of the respondent IIs. We found that both Republicans and Democrats tend to have fewer self-understanding and rehearsal IIs than those who indicated preference for independent candidates. Thes...
Effect of Environment on Weight of Greenbug Instars Reared on Wheat and Grain Sorghum12

Greenbug, Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), infestations are common on wheat in the High Plains of Texas. During the past several years the senior author has noted that adult greenbugs collected from wheat in the field were larger than adult greenbugs reared on wheat indoors. He has also suspected a difference in their size and fecundity after rearing them under different indoor environments. Smirnov and Samokhvalova (1955) stated that a change of host will influence the reproduction, growth, and size of aphids. The greenbug occurs on several different host plants. Daniels (1960) listed 20 species of grass on which greenbugs fed and reproduced. He noted that greenbugs maintained heavier populations on western wheat grass, Agropyron smithii (Rydb.), than on the other grasses and that they remained on it throughout the summer. Randolph and Garner (1961) reported that greenbugs attack grain sorghum as well as small grains.
Carbon Fiber with Ni-coating Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites

This paper introduces the process of electroplating with nickel on carbon fiber, and the technical conditions of nickel plating are obtained by orthogonal experiment. Microscopic structure of nickel coating and the effect of nickel plating rate and coating structure with the solution composition, current density and electroplating time are studied. The principle of nickel plating is also researched. The aluminum matrix composites is reinforced by carbon fiber with nickel coating, and the compound effect between aluminum and carbon fiber is observed.
Liquid chromatographic determination of chlortetracycline hydrochloride in ruminant and poultry/swine feeds

A liquid chromatographic (LC) method is described for the determination of chlortetracycline hydrochloride (CTC) in poultry/swine and ruminant feeds in the 10-100 ppm range and in premix. CTC is extracted from ground feed/premix with acidified acetone, and the extract is filtered through a Millex-HV filter or disposable C18 column. The filtrate is partitioned with methylene chloride when additional cleanup is necessary. A Nova-Pak C18 column is used for LC separation with determination at 370 nm. The average recovery of CTC from premix was 95% with a standard deviation (SD) of 1.70 and a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.79%. The overall average recovery from feeds was 77% with an SD of 3.18 and a CV of 4.10%.
New developments in chemotherapy for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Alleviation of tumor-related symptoms may be a more appropriate basis for judging drug efficacy in pancreatic cancer than is tumor shrinkage. Clinical benefit response (CBR), a new
Axillary Ultrasound: For All, for None, to Diagnose Positive Nodes, or to Support Avoiding Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Altogether.

Axillary ultrasound is increasingly utilized for nodal staging preoperatively in patients presenting with invasive breast cancer to provide guidance for preoperative chemotherapy or proceeding directly to surgery. Improvements in ultrasound technology make it possible to assess the nodal burden in order to identify those patients not eligible for ACOSOG Z0011 management. However, its ability to detect metastasis is variable and dependent on operator’s skills, size of metastatic deposit, and primary tumor histology subtype. Therefore, sentinel lymph node biopsy is still performed with a normal axillary ultrasound. Current debate questions whether there is a benefit to diagnosing metastasis with ultrasound-guided needle biopsy as this may lead to more axillary node dissections in an era of its decreasing role. In node-positive patients, axillary ultrasound has been preliminarily shown to be helpful in assessing nodal response after preoperative chemotherapy and improve the accuracy of sentinel node dissection which may spare future patients’ axillary node dissection. Improvements in axillary ultrasound and other imaging modalities along with predictive models based on tumor biology may make axillary surgery a procedure of the past for many breast cancer patients.
Formation of Perovskite Heterostructures by Ion Exchange.

Thin-film optoelectronic devices based on polycrystalline organolead-halide perovskites have recently become a topic of intense research. Single crystals of these materials have been grown from solution with electrical properties superior to those of polycrystalline films. In order to enable the development of more complex device architectures based on organolead-halide perovskite single crystals, we developed a process to form epitaxial layers of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) on methylammonium lead bromide (MAPbBr3) single crystals. The formation of the MAPbI3 layer is found to be dominated by the diffusion of halide ions, leading to a shift in the photoluminescence and absorption spectra. X-ray diffraction measurements confirm the single-crystal nature of the MAPbI3 layer, while carrier transport measurements show that the converted layer retains the high carrier mobility typical of single-crystal perovskite materials. Such heterostructures on perovskite single crystals open possibilities for new ...
Integrin Catch Bond Kinetics Mediate Mechanosensing during Cell Spreading

Cell spreading and polarization are morphogenetic responses to extracellular matrix adhesion. Cultured fibroblasts polarize when plated on rigid, but not compliant substrates. In this study, we demonstrate that fibroblasts have increased spread area on compliant substrates when integrins are directly activated via manganese (Mn2+), even upon inhibition of myosin motor activity. Integrin activation is primarily regulated by changes in tertiary and quaternary structure and Mn2+ treatments enhance the lifetime of integrin/ligand bonds. The decrease of integrin/ligand unbinding rate under tension suggests a mechanosensing role of activated integrins in regulating adhesion formation. Using a combination of atomistic molecular dynamics and coarse grain Brownian dynamics simulations, we identify integrin intermediates along the activation pathway and show that modulation of integrin catch bond kinetics upon Mn2+-activation promotes integrin binding on compliant substrates. Combining experiments with simulations, our results support the idea that different regimes of ligand binding and cell spreading result from variations in integrin catch bond kinetics. This suggests an alternative mechanosensing pathway based on integrin activity and independent of myosin activity.
Can Posterior Lumbar Instrumentation and Fusion Be Overpowered by Anterior Lumbar Fusion With Hyperlordotic Cages? A Cadaveric Study.

Study design:Technical report on cadavers.Objective:To evaluate preliminary feasibility and safety of lumbar sagittal alignment correction with anterior hyperlordotic cages used to overpower previo...
A perspective on chromium-Free iron oxide-based catalysts for high temperature water-gas shift reaction

Abstract Recent efforts to replace toxic hexavalent chromium oxide in commercial copper-chromium-iron oxide catalysts for the High-Temperature Water-Gas Shift (HT-WGS) reaction are reviewed. Advances in understanding the fundamentals of the HT-WGS reaction catalyzed by copper-chromium-iron oxide reveal that the role of chromium is to act as textural promoter to stabilize the surface area of the iron oxide phase towards sintering. The lack of in situ / operando spectroscopic characterization of the bulk and surface phases of the newly designed promoted catalysts, however, severely hampers a thorough understanding of the chemical states as well as the exact role of the non-Cr promoters. Future research studies will need to perform in situ / operando spectroscopy studies to fill this void to allow for the rational design of advanced HT-WGS catalysts.
The Leader’s Goals During Organizational Transitions

The goals of this chapter are to: Enumerate and describe various professional and personal goals of leaders during organizational transitions Discuss difficulties that may arise for the leader and for the organization when personal goals or values are in conflict with professional goals.
On the Tension-Fraught Enterprise of Teaching Self-Study to Colleagues

This chapter reports on the experiences of the author as he facilitated the self-study group featured in this section. Essentially the author led a group of his colleagues for more than 2 years in learning about self-study and considering its practical applications to their teaching/research endeavors. All of the participants in the group were teacher educators with experience in conducting research; however, none of them had any previous experience with self-study research. In addition to exploring the actual content and teaching methods employed with this diverse group of colleagues, this chapter also considers the various tensions the author felt in leading the group.
Oxidation—Reduction and Enzymes and Proteins

Table 3-1 summarizes some of the important biological oxidation—reduction reactions and the elements associated with them. In the present chapter we are concerned with both the electron-carrier proteins and the enzymes in which inorganic elements function as electron mediators (i.e., the first two groups in Table 3-1), and the oxidation—reduction reactions involving sulfur and selenium. Proteins/enzymes involved in dealing with dioxygen and its derivatives will be discussed in the next chapter. Our main interest lies in the question: why would a specific element have been selected for a specific biological function? There are two important types of parameters to consider: thermodynamic and kinetic. These are illustrated in Fig. 3-1. The kinetic parameter expresses how fast the reaction proceeds and is dependent on the activation energy ΔH* or ΔG*. This will be considered later.
An Emerging Model System: Arabidopsis as a Viral Host Plant

The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has been established as a host for representatives of many of the major groups of plant viruses. These viruses use a variety of strategies to replicate and traffic their genomes within compatible host plants. The development of Arabidopsis as a host for these diverse viruses provides opportunities to apply genetic and reverse genetic approaches to the complex interactions that are not feasible or practical in many of their agronomically important hosts. In this chapter, we summarize the amazing array of viruses that have been shown to infect one or more Arabidopsis ecotypes, describe natural variation in the ability of these ecotypes to support systemic infections, and discuss host genes that have been identified through a variety of approaches that are involved in movement or limit virus spread in Arabidopsis.
AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON WEB USABILITY AND THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF US E-BUSINESSES

The Internet provides opportunities in accessing international marketplaces that in the past were virtually unreachable by many organizations. As a result, US businesses are pursuing a global Web presence at an increasing rate in recognition of the huge global market external to it. Along with the opportunities in the international marketplace, there are complexities associated with the diversity of religion, culture, and language. There are also complexities associated with local differences in computing technologies used to access the Internet. An exploratory case study was conducted using seventeen e-businesses in the US to assess the state of Web usability from a localization perspective. The findings are summarized in terms of potential barriers uncovered during the use of a Web usability assessment model as a framework for evaluating localized sites. Several Web usability factors from the model, design layout, information content, and performance, were used to uncover design and technological issues that might impede the widespread use of localized Web sites.
A Comparison of the NCDB and SEER Database for Research Involving Head and Neck Cancer

ObjectiveTo determine whether structural differences in data sampling between the National Cancer Database (NCDB), a non-population-based cancer registry, and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Re...
Dual-task Interference: Swimming and Verbal Free Recall:

Dual-task interference studies have been performed using a variety of different tasks, however, there has been limited research examining dual-tasks interference where one of the tasks is an ecolog...
Measurement of apparent ion temperature using the magnetic recoil spectrometer at the OMEGA laser facility.

The Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometer (MRS) at the OMEGA laser facility has been routinely used to measure deuterium-tritium (DT) yield and areal density in cryogenically layered implosions since 2008. Recently, operation of the OMEGA MRS in higher-resolution mode with a new smaller, thinner (4 cm2, 57 μm thick) CD2 conversion foil has also enabled inference of the apparent DT ion temperature (Tion) from MRS data. MRS-inferred Tion compares well with Tion as measured using neutron time-of-flight spectrometers, which is important as it demonstrates good understanding of the very different systematics associated with the two independent measurements. The MRS resolution in this configuration, ΔEMRS = 0.91 MeV FWHM, is still higher than that required for a high-precision Tion measurement. We show how fielding a smaller foil closer to the target chamber center and redesigning the MRS detector array could bring the resolution to ΔEMRS = 0.45 MeV, reducing the systematic Tion uncertainty by more than a factor of 4.The Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometer (MRS) at the OMEGA laser facility has been routinely used to measure deuterium-tritium (DT) yield and areal density in cryogenically layered implosions since 2008. Recently, operation of the OMEGA MRS in higher-resolution mode with a new smaller, thinner (4 cm2, 57 μm thick) CD2 conversion foil has also enabled inference of the apparent DT ion temperature (Tion) from MRS data. MRS-inferred Tion compares well with Tion as measured using neutron time-of-flight spectrometers, which is important as it demonstrates good understanding of the very different systematics associated with the two independent measurements. The MRS resolution in this configuration, ΔEMRS = 0.91 MeV FWHM, is still higher than that required for a high-precision Tion measurement. We show how fielding a smaller foil closer to the target chamber center and redesigning the MRS detector array could bring the resolution to ΔEMRS = 0.45 MeV, reducing the systematic Tion uncertainty by more than a factor...
Urinary tract infection with rare pathogen Raoultella Planticola: A post-operative case and review.

Raoultella Planticola is a gram-negative, non-motile, anaerobic bacterium of the Genus Raoultella most commonly found in water, soil, and aquatic environments1 Originally classified as a member of the genus Klebsiella, it was reclassified as Raoultella spp. in 2001 based on 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing.1 This bacterium is a rare source of infection in humans; current literature provides few serious cases. The first Raoultella invasive human infection was found in 1984 in a patient with sepsis.2 Most reported cases since then have been associated with bacteremia. We present a case of R. Planticola in a patient with UTI, as well as a review of prior reported cases of R. Planticola associated with cystitis. There is weak evidence for susceptibility to R. Planticola cystitis; risk factors include immunosuppression, invasive procedures, and contaminated equipment3, 4, 5, Table 2. Table 2 References.
Real-time Sensor Data Processing and Reaction in the Context of Autonomous Systems

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) retain the capacity to independently execute missions to fulfill a variety of applications. Data collected from sensors onboard the AUV are critical in post-mission analyses when trying to identify objects of interest to determine whether the AUV must be relaunched to collect additional data of objects of interest. In a scenario where side-scan sonar data is collected during a survey, a typical workflow requires a trained operator to manually classify features within the collected data. The requirement for operator intervention to facilitate target classification within side-scan sonar data collected by the AUV can be mitigated via real-time, onboard data processing, presenting the opportunity for greater AUV effectiveness and efficiency while executing missions through utilizing real-time sensor data processing. The real-time processing component is crucial as both the amount of sensor data increases with improvements (higher resolution) in sensor hardware, and mission time increasing due to improvements in energy systems. Consequently, a real-time approach must be adapted to augment the capabilities of AUVs. This paper explores an implementation for AUV autonomy which fulfills the requirements for real-time sensor data processing and subsequent action-selection and expands upon its validity as a solution to the problem presented. The solution is validated by simulating mission execution with previously collected side-scan sonar data, specifically in the context of missions where an AUV is surveying an area, then performing dynamically generated re-acquire and identify (RID) patterns on potential contacts.
Approaches to Assessment of Muscle Mass and Myosteatosis on Computed Tomography: A Systematic Review.

Background/objective There is increasing use of computed tomography (CT) in sarcopenia research using a wide variety of techniques. We performed a systematic review of the CT literature to identify the differences between approaches used. Methods A comprehensive search of PubMed from 1983 to 2017 was performed to identify studies that used CT muscle measurements to assess muscle mass and myosteatosis. The CT protocols were evaluated based on anatomic landmark(s), thresholding, muscle(s) segmented, key measurement (ie, muscle attenuation, cross-sectional area, volume), derived variables, and analysis software. From the described search, 657 articles were identified and 388 studies met inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Results Muscle mass was more commonly assessed than myosteatosis (330 vs. 125). The most commonly assessed muscle or muscle groups were total abdominal wall musculature (142/330 and 49/125 for muscle mass and myosteatosis, respectively) and total thigh musculature (90/330 and 48/125). The most commonly used landmark in the abdomen was the L3 vertebra (123/142 and 45/49 for muscle mass and myosteatosis, respectively). Skeletal muscle index and intermuscular adipose tissue were the most commonly used measures of abdominal wall muscle mass (114/142) and myosteatosis (27/49), respectively. Cut points varied across studies. A significant majority of studies failed to report important CT technical parameters, such as use of intravenous contrast and slice thickness (94% and 63%, respectively). Conclusions There is considerable variation in the CT approaches used for the assessment of muscle mass and myosteatosis. There is a need to develop consensus for CT-based evaluation of sarcopenia and myosteatosis.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Diagnostic Criteria for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Background In 2017, the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society put forward new clinical criteria for the diagnosis of PSP, recognizing diverse PSP phenotypes. In this study, we compared the sensitivity and specificity of the new criteria with the National Institutes of Neurological Disease and Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy criteria at different times. Methods Patients with clinical parkinsonism, clinical and/or neuropathological diagnosis of PSP, were identified from the Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy brain bank. All patients had neuropathologic diagnoses and detailed clinical examination performed by a neurologist at 1 of the 3 Mayo Clinic sites, in Florida, Arizona, and Minnesota. Clinical symptoms and signs were abstracted retrospectively in a blinded fashion and used to determine whether patients met either diagnostic criterion. Patients were divided into early and late disease stage groups using a 3-year cutoff. Results A total of 129 patients were included, of whom 66 had PSP pathology (51%). The remainder had other neurodegenerative diseases. The overall sensitivity of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society criteria was 87.9%, compared with 45.5% for the National Institutes of Neurological Disease and Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy criteria, whereas the specificity of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society probable PSP criteria was 85.7%, compared with 90.5% for the National Institutes of Neurological Disease and Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Individual patients were noted to have features of multiple PSP phenotypes. Conclusion The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society criteria recognize several phenotypes of progressive supranuclear palsy and hence have higher sensitivity than the previous criteria. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
The association between neighborhood socioeconomic status, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk factors, and cognitive decline in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Background: A small but growing body of evidence supports a relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) and cognitive decline. Additional work is needed to characterize this relat...
A Simple Technique for In-circuit Core Loss Measurement of Medium Frequency Transformer

Medium frequency transformer (MFT) is considered to be the key element in a solid state transformer (SST). Compared to the conventional line-frequency transformer, the MFT has much reduced volume and weight. However, the MFT suffers from higher core loss due to its medium operating frequency. Normally, the MFT core loss is experimentally measured by open-circuit test, when the magnetizing voltage and magnetizing current are measurable. Whenever the MFT is not open-circuited, the direct in-circuit core loss measurement is impractical. In this paper, a simple technique is proposed to achieve the in-circuit core loss measurement for the MFT under arbitrary excitation voltage waveforms and various load conditions. The operating principle and key steps of the proposed measurement are explained in details. The accuracy of the proposed measurement technique is verified by a resistive load experimental test under both sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal excitation voltages.
A new methodology to record from human primary afferents provides insight for somatosensory neuroprosthetics

Muscle spindles are integral to proprioception and their behavior is of particular interest for the design of somatosensory neuroprostheses. Prior knowledge about human muscle spindles has been lim...
Mitochondrion

Diverse biological data may be used to create illustrations of molecules in their cellular context. I describe the scientific results that support a recent textbook illustration of a mitochondrion. The image magnifies a portion of the mitochondrion by one million times, showing the location and form of membranes and individual macromolecules, revealing the molecular basis of its role in energy metabolism and apoptosis. Results from biochemistry, electron microscopy, and X-ray crystallography were used to create the image.
Evaluating spatiotemporal integration of shape cues

Prior work has shown that humans can successfully identify letters that are constructed with a sparse array of dots, wherein the dot pattern reflects the strokes that would normally be used to fashion a given letter. In the present work the dots were briefly displayed, one at a time in sequence, varying the spatial order in which they were shown. A forward sequence was spatially ordered as though one were passing a stroke across the dots to connect them. Experiments compared this baseline condition to the following three conditions: a) the dot sequence was spatially ordered, but in the reverse direction from how letter strokes might normally be written; b) the dots in each stroke of the letter were displayed in a random order; c) the sequence of displayed dots were chosen for display from any location in the letter. Significant differences were found between the baseline condition and all three of the comparison conditions, with letter recognition being far worse for the random conditions than for conditions that provided consistent spatial ordering of dot sequences. These findings show that spatial order is critical for integration of shape cues that have been sequentially displayed.
IL‐1β prevents ILC2 expansion, type 2 cytokine secretion, and mucus metaplasia in response to early‐life rhinovirus infection in mice

Background Early-life wheezing-associated respiratory infection with human rhinovirus (RV) is associated with asthma development. RV infection of 6-day-old immature mice causes mucous metaplasia and airway hyperresponsiveness which is associated with the expansion of IL-13-producing type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) and dependent on IL-25 and IL-33. We examined regulation of this asthma-like phenotype by IL-1β. Methods Six-day-old wild-type or NRLP3-/- mice were inoculated with sham or RV-A1B. Selected mice were treated with IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), anti-IL-1β, or recombinant IL-1β. Results Rhinovirus infection induced Il25, Il33, Il4, Il5, Il13, muc5ac, and gob5 mRNA expression, ILC2 expansion, mucus metaplasia, and airway hyperresponsiveness. RV also induced lung mRNA and protein expression of pro-IL-1β and NLRP3 as well as cleavage of caspase-1 and pro-IL-1β, indicating inflammasome priming and activation. Lung macrophages were a major source of IL-1β. Inhibition of IL-1β signaling with IL-1RA, anti-IL-1β, or NLRP3 KO increased RV-induced type 2 cytokine immune responses, ILC2 number, and mucus metaplasia, while decreasing IL-17 mRNA expression. Treatment with IL-1β had the opposite effect, decreasing IL-25, IL-33, and mucous metaplasia while increasing IL-17 expression. IL-1β and IL-17 each suppressed Il25, Il33, and muc5ac mRNA expression in cultured airway epithelial cells. Finally, RV-infected 6-day-old mice showed reduced IL-1β mRNA and protein expression compared to mature mice. Conclusion Macrophage IL-1β limits type 2 inflammation and mucous metaplasia following RV infection by suppressing epithelial cell innate cytokine expression. Reduced IL-1β production in immature animals provides a mechanism permitting asthma development after early-life viral infection.
The Penrose Photoproduction Scenario for NGC 4151 /PCS-SSC/ - A black hole gamma-ray emission mechanism for active galactic nuclei and Seyfert galaxies

On the basis of general arguments, it has been suggested (Bignami et al., 1979) that a steepening of the spectrum between X-ray and gamma-ray energies may be a general, gamma-ray characteristic of Seyfert galaxies, if the diffuse gamma-ray spectrum is considered to be a superposition of unresolved contributions, from one or more classes of extragalactic objects. It is shown that the above suggestion can be given a consistent theoretical interpretation in the context of the Penrose Photoproduction Scenario (PCS-SSC). Specifically in the case of NGC 4151, the dominant process will be shown to be Penrose Compton Scattering PCS in the ergosphere of a massive, central, rapidly spinning Kerr black hole, assumed in its nucleus. It is assumed that PCS gamma-ray induced electron-position, Synchrotron-Self-Compton processes 'evolve' as the dominant source of nonthermal X-rays.
Invitations and incentives: a qualitative study of behavioral nudges for primary care screenings in Armenia.

Non-communicable diseases account for a growing proportion of deaths in Armenia, which require early detection to achieve disease control and prevent complications. To increase rates of screening, demand-side interventions of personalized invitations, descriptive social norms, labeled cash transfers, and conditional cash transfers were tested in a field experiment. Our complementary qualitative study explores factors leading to the decision to attend screening and following through with that decision, and experiences with different intervention components. Informed by the Health Belief Model as our conceptual framework, we collected eighty in-depth interviews with service users and twenty service providers and analyzed them using open coding and thematic analysis. An individual’s decision to screen depends on 1) the perceived need for screening based on how they value their own health and perceive hypertension and diabetes as a harmful but manageable condition, and 2) the perceived utility of a facility-based screening, and whether screening will provide useful information on disease status or care management and is socially acceptable. Following through with the decision to screen depends on their knowledge of and ability to attend screenings, as well as any external motivators such as an invitation or financial incentive. Personalized invitations from physicians can prompt individuals to reconsider their need for screening and can, along with financial incentives, motivate individuals to follow through with the decision to screen. The effect of descriptive social norms in invitations should be further studied. Efforts to increase preventive screenings as an entry point into primary care in Armenia may benefit from implementation of tailored messages and financial incentives. The protocol was approved on January 11, 2019 by the Institutional Review Board of the Center of Medical Genetics and Primary Health Care in Armenia (02570094). https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3776 .
A review of Korean/English and Mandarin/English dual language programs in the United States

Abstract The benefits of dual language immersion (DLI) instruction, both in one-way and two-way immersion programs, have been widely documented through empirical studies spanning nearly five decades. In the U.S. context, most research to date on DLI education has been based on Spanish/English programs, which offer instruction in two Indo-European languages that share many typologically similar features. In light of the fact that there has been a growing trend in programs of other language combinations, such as Mandarin and English, it is necessary to understand how different partner language combinations in DLI programs may impact students’ learning outcomes. Thus, by surveying research on Korean/English and Mandarin/English DLI programs, this paper examines how DLI programs that operate in languages with significantly different linguistic typologies and different scripts affect students’ academic achievement and their development of bilingual proficiency. Based on the studies reviewed, areas for further research to advance our understanding of how DLI programs in English and Korean or Mandarin can effectively and efficiently develop students’ bilingualism/biliteracy and academic achievement are proposed.
Dynamics of transmission in disordered topological insulators

Robust transmission in topological insulators makes it possible to steer waves without attenuation along bent paths within imperfectly fabricated photonic devices. But the absence of reflection does not guarantee the fidelity of pulsed transmission which is essential for core photonic functionalities. Pulse transmission is disrupted by localized modes in the bulk of topological insulators which coexist with the continuum edge mode and are pushed deeper into the band gap with increasing disorder. Here we show in simulations of the Haldane model that pulse propagation in disordered topological insulators is robust throughout the central portion of the band gap where localized modes do not arise. Since transmission is robust in topological insulators, the essential field variable is the phase of the transmitted field, or, equivalently, its spectral derivative, which is the transmission time. Except near resonances with bulk localized modes that couple the upper and lower edges of a topological insulator, the transmission time in a topological insulator is proportional to the density of states and to the energy excited within the sample. The variance of the transmission time at the band edge for a random ensemble with moderate disorder is dominated by fluctuations at resonances with localized states, and initially scales quadratically. When modes are absent, such as in the center of the band gap, the transmission time self-averages and its variance scales linearly. This leads to significant sample-to-sample fluctuations in the transmission time. However, because the transmission time is the sum of contributions from the continuum edge mode, which stretches across the band gap, and far-off-resonance modes of the passband and band edge, there are no sharp features in the spectrum of transmission time in the center of the band gap. Instead of creating obstacles to be circumvented with inevitable increase of the transmission time in the band edge mode, the transmission time of the band edge mode is decreased by disorder. As a result, ultrashort, broadband pulses are faithfully transmitted in the center of the band gap of topological insulators with moderate disorder and bent paths. This allows for robust signal propagation in complex topological metawaveguides for applications in high-speed optoelectronics and telecommunications.