cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
E-154 A prospective pilot study to assess the safety of endovascular therapy for acute large vessel occlusion with low NIHSS

Introduction Endovascular therapy (EVT) for emergent large vessel occlusion (ELVO) is now the standard of care for disabling strokes. However, there is no sufficient prospective data looking at EVT for ELVO with mild ischemic stroke. Retrospective data suggests that many patients may do poorly without intervention. We present the design and our initial data from our single center study. Methods Our ongoing pilot single arm prospective study (Mild acute Ischemic STroke With lArge VEssel occlusion – MISTWAVE), approved by our institutional IRB, investigates the safety of EVT in patients with ELVO and initial NIHSS of ≤5. Inclusion criteria include anterior circulation or basilar artery ELVO ±IV t-PA before intervention. The initial study protocol aimed for presentation within 12 hours of onset, which later was extended to 24 hours. We exclude patients with ASPECTS score ≤6 on pre-intervention imaging, bleeding diathesis, prior intracranial hemorrhage, or current anticoagulant use. Our primary endpoints are symptomatic cerebral hemorrhage within 24 hours, and/or change in NIHSS by ≥4 points compared to enrollment NIHSS, within 72 hours or during hospitalization. Secondary endpoints are angiographic recanalization grade, disability assessment at 30 and 90 days, and final infarct volume on imaging. Results We screened 28, but we were able to enroll only 3 patients who were treated per study protocol. One additional patient received treatment outside study protocol, and was not included in this analysis. Main reasons for exclusion otherwise were: outside treatment window, worsening NIHSS to more than 5, tandem or extracranial carotid occlusion, and inability to sign consent. The initial NIHSS ranged from 3 to 5. They all underwent successful mechanical thrombectomy for M1 MCA occlusion with TICI 2B recanalization grade. None of the patients suffered symptomatic cerebral hemorrhage, or other periprocedural complications. They were all discharged home with mild or no residual deficits. At early follow up (14, 17 and 40 days), all 3 patients had NIHSS 0, and modified Rankin score 1. Conclusion This is one of the first prospective studies assessing the safety of EVT in patients with low NIHSS and ELVO. Our early results are very limited, but encouraging with excellent radiographic and clinical outcomes, and no significant complications. Our goal is to continue enrollment and utilize the results for a larger multi-center trial. Disclosures G. Toth: None. R. Cerejo: None. J. Tsai: None. K. Uchino: None. S. Hussain: None.
Summarizing News Articles using Question-and-Answer Pairs via Learning

The launch of the new Google News in 2018 (https://www.blog.google/products/news/new-google-news-ai-meets-human-intelligence/.) introduced the Frequently asked questions feature to structurally summarize the news story in its full coverage page. While news summarization has been a research topic for decades, this new feature is poised to usher in a new line of news summarization techniques. There are two fundamental approaches: mining the questions from data associated with the news story and learning the questions from the content of the story directly. This paper provides the first study, to the best of our knowledge, of a learning based approach to generate a structured summary of news articles with question and answer pairs to capture salient and interesting aspects of the news story. Specifically, this learning-based approach reads a news article, predicts its attention map (i.e., important snippets in the article), and generates multiple natural language questions corresponding to each snippet. Furthermore, we describe a mining-based approach as the mechanism to generate weak supervision data for training the learning based approach. We evaluate our approach on the existing SQuAD dataset (https://rajpurkar.github.io/SQuAD-explorer/.) and a large dataset with 91K news articles we constructed. We show that our proposed system can achieve an AUC of 0.734 for document attention map prediction, a BLEU-4 score of 12.46 for natural question generation and a BLEU-4 score of 24.4 for question summarization, beating state-of-art baselines.
Educating the child care administrator

ABSTRACTThere is a strong national movement to improve the quality in child care programs nationwide and an important part of this movement includes professional preparation standards. Stakeholders...
New-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation impact on 5-year clinical outcomes and costs.

Abstract Objective The impact of new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery on long-term clinical outcomes and costs is not known. This subanalysis of the Veterans Affairs “Randomized On/Off Bypass Follow-up Study” compared 5-year outcomes and costs between patients with and without POAF. Methods Of the 2203 veterans in the study, 100 with pre-CABG atrial fibrillation (93) or missing data (7) were excluded (4.8%). Unadjusted and risk-adjusted outcomes were compared between new-onset POAF (n = 551) and patients without POAF (n = 1552). Five-year clinical outcomes included mortality, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, comprising mortality, repeat revascularization, and myocardial infarction), MACE subcomponents, stroke, and costs. A stringent P value of ≤.01 was required to identify statistical significance. Results Patients with POAF were older and had more complex comorbidities. Unadjusted 5-year all-cause mortality was 16.3% POAF versus 11.9% no-POAF, P = .008. Unadjusted cardiac-mortality was 7.4% versus 4.8%, P = .022. There were no differences between groups in any other unadjusted outcomes including MACE or stroke. After risk adjustment, there were no significant differences between groups in 5-year all-cause mortality (POAF odds ratio, 1.19; 99% confidence interval, 0.81-1.75) or cardiac mortality (odds ratio, 1.51, 99% confidence interval, 0.88-2.60). Adjusted first-year post-CABG costs were $15,300 greater for patients with POAF, but 2- through 5-year costs were similar. Conclusions No 5-year risk-adjusted outcome differences were found between patients with and without POAF after CABG. Although first-year costs were greater in patients with POAF, this difference did not persist in subsequent years.
Clinical-based Cell Therapies for Heart Disease-Current and Future State

Patients have an ongoing unmet need for effective therapies that reverse the cellular and functional damage associated with heart damage and disease. The discovery that ~1%-2% of adult cardiomyocytes turn over per year provided the impetus for treatments that stimulate endogenous repair mechanisms that augment this rate. Preclinical and clinical studies provide evidence that cell-based therapy meets these therapeutic criteria. Recent and ongoing studies are focused on determining which cell type(s) works best for specific patient population(s) and the mechanism(s) by which these cells promote repair. Here we review clinical and preclinical stem cell studies and anticipate future directions of regenerative medicine for heart disease.
The apartheid divestment movement at George Washington University: the legacy of student activism and GW Voices for a Free South Africa

The antiapartheid protests at George Washington University were the campus’s largest student protests since the Vietnam War. As at other universities, students advocated divestment of university fi...
Controlling melt pool shape, microstructure and residual stress in additively manufactured metals using modified laser beam profiles

Abstract Laser powder bed fusion has proven to be an effective additive manufacturing technology for the manufacture of complex metal components. However, the local thermal history associated with Gaussian beam, raster scan processes produces heterogeneous and spatially non-uniform microstructures that differ from those produced from conventional manufacturing and often lack optimized mechanical properties. Steep thermal gradients and high cooling rates produce large thermal strains driving residual stress fields that can negatively affect the dimensional accuracy of the as-built component. Here, we present experimental and simulation methods for controlling microstructure and residual stress through tailored laser beam profiles. Elliptical and Bessel beam profiles are shown to produce more equiaxed microstructures as compared to those of Gaussian beams, while distributed diode-based illumination profiles allow for reduced residual stresses. These experimental results are supported by high-fidelity powder-scale simulation models coupled to the cellular automata and thermomechanical models that account for macroscale residual stress.
Development of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay to Determine the Expression Dynamics of Ebola Virus Soluble Glycoprotein during Infection

Ebola virus (EBOV) is a highly pathogenic virus with human case fatality rates of up to 90%. EBOV uses transcriptional editing to express three different glycoproteins (GPs) from its GP gene: soluble GP (sGP), GP, and small sGP (ssGP). The molecular ratio of unedited to edited mRNA is about 70% (sGP): 25% (GP): 5% (ssGP), indicating that sGP is produced more abundantly than GP. While the presence of sGP has been confirmed in the blood during human EBOV infection, there is no report about its expression dynamics. In this study, we developed an EBOV-sGP-specific sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using two different available antibodies and tested several animal serum samples to determine the concentration of sGP. EBOV-sGP was detected in nonhuman primate serum samples as early as 4 days after EBOV infection, correlating with RT-qPCR positivity. This ELISA might be further developed into a diagnostic tool for detection of EBOV in patients. Furthermore, this study provides insights into the expression dynamics of sGP during infection, which are important to decipher the function that sGP plays during infection.
Time-Domain Measurement-Based $DQ$ -Frame Admittance Model Identification for Inverter-Based Resources

Unprecedented dynamic phenomena appear in power grids due to integration of more and more inverter-based resources (IBR). A major challenge is that inverter models are proprietary information and usually only real code models are provided to grid operators. Thus, measurement based characterization of IBR is a popular approach to find the frequency-domain measurements of an IBR's admittance or impedance. The predominant methods rely on injecting perturbation and extracting frequency-domain information via fast Fourier transform (FFT). The goal of this research is to design time-domain measurement-based admittance identification methods so that event data can be utilized for online admittance identification. The proposed method has a key step: converting $dq$ -frame voltage and current transient responses into $s$ -domain expressions using eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA) or dynamic mode decomposition (DMD). From there, $s$ -domain admittance or frequency-domain admittance measurement will be computed. Proof of concept is first demonstrated using the data generated from an analytical model representing a grid-integrated IBR. The identified admittance is shown to be the exact match of the known admittance in the subsynchronous frequency range. The identified $s$ -domain admittance is employed for eigenvalue analysis and accurate stability prediction can be made. The tool is then tested on two electromagnetic transient (EMT) computer simulation testbeds: a PV grid-integration system and a type-4 wind grid-integration system. In the first case, offline admittance identification is demonstrated. In the second case, online admittance identification using data from two events is demonstrated.
Association between the soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) and NAFLD in participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.

Abstract Background Inflammation is key in the pathogenesis of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) – a common progressive liver disease. The soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) attenuates inflammatory signaling; low levels of sRAGE are correlated with increased inflammation. Aim We sought to describe associations between sRAGE and NAFLD. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1088 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study participants and used logistic regression to investigate the associations between sRAGE and NAFLD defined by elevated liver enzymes and fibrosis score. Results In this community-based sample (n = 1,088, mean age 56 years, 61% female, 78% Caucasian), persons in the lowest vs. highest quartile of sRAGE had significantly higher odds of elevated ALT (OR 2.82, 95% CI 1.18-6.76) but not elevated AST (OR 1.16, 95% CI 0.45-2.99); persons in the lowest vs. highest quartile had significantly lower odds of elevated FIB-4 index (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.37-0.84). Conclusions We found an inverse cross-sectional association between sRAGE and liver inflammation; this is consistent with prior studies linking low sRAGE to inflammatory states. However, we observed a direct association between sRAGE and fibrosis. Our findings suggest that sRAGE is dynamic in NAFLD and patterns may vary with different stages of disease.
Distributed Denial of Service: Problems and Solutions

Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks have been around as early as the late Nineteen Ninetees and are a growing practice in the computing world. As the computing power of technologies increase and the availability of these technologies goes widespread to the everyday user, securing against these types of attacks should become a number one priority in the field. DDoS attacks aim to disrupt the availability of a service, leaving both the user and provider helpless until a mitigation or solution is put in place. This paper will cover a brief history of infamous DDoS attacks, how these attacks continue to grow with technology, and different techniques being used to try and prevent or mitigate the effectiveness of DDoSing.
Trading and Technology: An Information Systems Course Application

Financial markets today are highly computerized -- from software-driven order submission to price determination to straight-through clearing and settlement -- computer technology has displaced manual activities and streamlined functions throughout the trading value chain. The previous chapters examined microeconomic principles that underpin trading and price-setting, and finance theory that provides analytical frameworks for market outcomes. Our analysis introduces real market frictions and examines how transactions costs and heterogeneity among market participants makes market structure and tracing mechanism design crucial determinants of market outcomes and behavior. . In this chapter, we drill down further into the realities of a non-frictionless market in order to focus on how technology can enhance the efficiency of an actual marketplace. Challenging market design issues are encountered when developing and operating an actual trading facility, and as IT professionals know, the devil is in the details. The practical considerations in operating a market system successfully are the next topic this book addresses.
Treatment Delays in Radiation Oncology Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Los Angeles Safety-Net Hospital Experience.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S): In December 2020, Los Angeles County became an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. This study aimed to assess the incidence of treatment delays in patients who tested positive for SARS-COV-2 while undergoing evaluation for radiation therapy at a Los Angeles safety-net hospital. MATERIALS/METHODS: We reviewed our departmental radiation oncology database for all patients seen in consultation from March 2020 to February 2021 and identified patients who tested positive for SARS-COV-2 while undergoing initial evaluation or radiation treatment. Treatment delays were quantified as days of delay from consult to CT simulation, days of delay from CT simulation to radiation treatment or any breaks in radiation treatment due to COVID-19 diagnosis causing rescheduling of appointments. We also collected data on patient demographics, cancer diagnosis and staging, medical comorbidities, and severity of patients' COVID-19 illness as defined by the NIH. All statistics are descriptive. RESULTS: From March 2020 to February 2021, a total of 855 unique patients were seen in consultation in the radiation oncology department. Twenty-six patients (3.51%) were identified as SARS-COV-2 positive during initial evaluation for radiation therapy or during treatment. Median age of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 was 59 years old (interquartile range 53 - 67 years). Treatment delays occurred in 11 patients (42.3%) of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. All patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were Latino or Black. The mean and median number of days delayed for patients who experienced treatment delays were 22.3 days (standard deviation: 13.3 days) and 19 days (interquartile range 11 - 25 days) respectively. Eighteen patients (69.2%) had asymptomatic or mild COVID illness. Eight patients (30.8%) had moderate to critical illness. Six patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment and 2 patients died before receiving radiation therapy. Twenty-one of 26 patients (80.8%) had medical co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, or obesity. CONCLUSION: From March 2020 to February 2021, a low proportion of patients seen in the radiation oncology department at a Los Angeles safety-net hospital tested positive for SARS-COV-2 with minor delays on radiation treatment. All patients who tested positive for SARS-COV-2 were Latino or Black. Long-term follow up is needed to assess the impact of COVID-19 and its treatment delays on oncologic outcomes.
Practice Problems for Hardware Engineers.

This book is to help undergraduate and graduate students of electrical and computer engineering disciplines with their job interviews. It may also be used as a practice resource while taking courses in VLSI, logic and computer architecture design. The first edition consists of more than 150 problems and their solutions which the author has used in his VLSI, logic, and architectures courses while teaching at USC. The author wishes this book to be available free of charge, subject to the copyright policy on page 3.
88 Acetylcholine in the Treatment of Idiopathic Respiratory distress Syndrome

In view of direct observations confirming low pulmonary blood flow in the idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS) considerable interest in therapy directed toward relief of pulmonary hypoperfusion has been stimulated. Reports of the efficacy of infusin vasodilating agents have been conflicting to date. In the present study, infusions of acetylcholine (25–100 mg/kg/min) were administered to 7 infants with IRDS. In three patients the drug was infused directly into the pulmonary artery through an umbilical arterial catheter guided through the ductus arteriosus. A second umbilical catheter was placed in the aorta for pressure recording and blood sampling. In four other infants, the drug was infused into the superior vena cava.
Bacteriophage Typing as an Epidemiological Tool for Urinary Escherichia coli

Phage typing was used to identify strains of Escherichia coli isolated from urinary and nonurinary sources. When eight phages isolated in Pennsylvania were used to type 717 cultures from Missouri, 50.3% of 624 urinary isolates and 34.4% of 93 nonurinary isolates were typable. Strains from nonurinary sources were not found commonly in urine. When five additional phages isolated in Missouri were added to the original set of eight phages, 80.4% of 331 urinary isolates were typable. When this set of phages was used to type 552 urinary cultures isolated in California, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, 82.0% of the cultures were typable. Some common phage types were found in high incidence among cultures from the different regions. No correlation was found between phage type and the pattern of resistance to antibiotics. Phage typing data were presented also on the number of strains in individual urine specimens and the recurrences of strains in patients with chronic bacteriuria. Of 97 fecal isolates, 75.2% of the cultures were typable, and the most common phage type was observed in high incidence among the urinary isolates from this region. When 75 cultures from nine other genera of enteric bacteria were typed, only the shigellae were lysed. In view of the information obtained by phage typing and the ease and speed with which it can be done, it is suggested that phage typing be considered a new tool in epidemiological studies of urinary tract infections by E. coli.
Problems for Structure Learning Aggregation and Computational Complexity

Machine learning methods to find graphical models of genetic regulatory networks from cDNA microarray data have become increasingly popular in recent years. We provide three reasons to question the reliability of such methods: (1) a major theoretical challenge to any method using conditional independence relations; (2) a simulation study using realistic data that confirms the importance of the theoretical challenge; and (3) an analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms that avoid this theoretical challenge. We have no proof that one cannot possibly learn the structure of a genetic regulatory network from microarray data alone, nor do we think that such a proof is likely. However, the combination of (i) fundamental challenges from theory, (ii) practical evidence that those challenges arise in realistic data, and (iii) the difficulty of avoiding those challenges leads us to conclude that it is unlikely that current microarray technology will ever be successfully applied to this structure learning problem.
Enhanced real-time stereo using bilateral filtering

In recent years, there have been significant strides in increasing quality of range from stereo using global techniques such as energy minimization. These methods cannot yet achieve real-time performance. However, the need to improve range quality for real-time applications persists. All real-time stereo implementations rely on a simple correlation step which employs some local similarity metric between the left and right image. Typically, the correlation takes place on an image pair modified in some way to compensate for photometric variations between the left and right cameras. Improvements and modifications to such algorithms tend to fall into one of two broad categories: those which address the correlation step itself (e.g., shiftable windows, adaptive windows) and those which address the preprocessing of input imagery (e.g. band-pass filtering, Rank, Census). Our efforts lie in the latter area. We present in this paper a modification of the standard band-pass filtering technique used by many SSD- and SAD-based correlation algorithms. By using the bilateral filter of Tomasi and Manduchi [(1998)], we minimize blurring at the filtering stage. We show that in conjunction with SAD correlation, our new method improves stereo quality at range discontinuities while maintaining real-time performance.
The physics of creep and attenuation in the mantle

The objective is to investigate the role of dislocations in both creep and attenuation. Attenuation in the mantle at seismic frequencies is thought to be caused by the glide of dislocations in the subgrains. Both kink and impurity drag can contribute to the glide time constant. The kink-formation, or Peierls barrier, model for dislocation glide is seen as a low-temperature, high-frequency mechanism most appropriate for pure systems. It is noted that a small amount of impurity drag brings the dislocation glide characteristic time into the seismic band at upper-mantle temperatures. The attenuation and creep behavior of the mantle are related by way of the dislocation structure. Analysis of the various possible mechanisms is facilitated by casting them and the geophysical data in terms of a pre-exponential characteristic time and an activation energy.
Effects of discontinuities (vias) on high speed interconnects

Vias and bends are commonly encountered as nonuniformities along traces of interconnect on high performance multichip modules. The extent of degradation of signal propagation characteristics due to the presence of discontinuities has been investigated by developing and using a simulator based on the transmission (ABCD) matrix parameters, which facilitates concatenation of many transmission line systems. The approach models the reactive energy stored in a discontinuity as a lumped tee-network using three dimensional parameter extractors. A case study on the thick film geometry of the IBM ES9000 module investigates the effects of vias on propagation delay time, signal distortion, characteristic impedance and additional noise generated due to reflections at the termination and at the source for different input rise times.
Singapore's Constitutionalism: A Model, But of What Sort?

A response to Prof. Mark Tushnet's article, "Authoritarian Constitutionalism" in 100 Cornell L. Rev. 391 (2015) agreeing that we need to think about constitutionalism as a spectrum and not a simple binary proposition, but asserting that there are three crucial dimensions to consider in constructing a typology of the varieties of constitutionalism. One would measure the degree to which power is limited and contained; a second would measure the degree and extent of popular consent and legitimacy behind the government, and a third would evaluate the procedures and process by which law is made and enforced - a measure of the rule of law divorced from deeper commitments to the ideals of liberal constitutionalism. The article asserts that we need to pay close attention to the difference between the requirements for a constitution-al state, and those for one that subscribes to constitutional-ism. The Republic of Singapore provides a compelling case study to illustrate these differences.
The National Nutrient Databank Conference: What is it?

Abstract Food composition databases (FCDs) are a foundation of nutrition research, monitoring and surveillance of the food supply, commercial applications, and nutrition in clinical practice. The National Nutrient Databank Conference (NNDC) is a gathering of researchers and users dedicated to the development, maintenance, and use of FCDs. The NNDC has met regularly since 1976 to provide a forum for researchers and users to share information about current resources and activities involving FCDs. The NNDC is governed by a Steering Committee and led by an Executive Committee that defines the purpose of the organization, monitors the needs of the nutrition community, carries out professional responsibilities associated with FCDs, and recommends priorities for the future. In an ever-changing food marketplace, emphasis on dietary surveillance around the world, and the need for additional food composition data to answer new scientific questions, the NNDC is more critical to the nutrition community today than ever before. The annual assembly of a group of FCD experts and users with the purpose of identifying and preparing for new possibilities in food composition is critical for the future of nutrition research and clinical practice.
Continuous surface representation and approximation: spatial analytical implications

Field-based continuous representation in a geographical information system GIS has long been important for describing complex spatially distributed phenomena, such as population, precipitation, air pollution, temperature elevation and land cover. Though theoretical knowledge and properties of continuous distributions can be employed, such surfaces are generally approximated or abstracted in practice due to a lack of complete information. That is, such surfaces are based on finite spatial samples, which is a practical necessity with regard to the infinite underlying attribute variability. These approximated surfaces are then used in various spatial analyses, yet impacts are not well understood. This article will examine theoretical properties and errors that result in practice when approximated continuous surfaces are relied on in spatial analysis.
Reflective remote method invocation

Remote Method Invocation (RMI) is available in the current Java language design and implementation, providing the much-needed capability of allowing objects running in different Java processes to collaborate using a variation on the popular Remote Procedure Call (RPC). Although RMI provides features which are desirable for high-performance distributed computing, its design and implementation are deficient in key areas of importance to the high-performance computing community in general. This paper addresses the key deficiencies of RMI and how these deficiencies affect the design and implementation of distributed object applications. Reflective RMI (RRMI) is an open RMI implementation which makes better use of the object-oriented features of Java. RRMI is so-called reflective because it directly employs the reflection capabilities of the current Java language to invoke methods remotely. RRMI makes use of the dynamic class loader (a class called NetClassLoader) to allow client/server applications to be built for high-performance computing systems without having all of the.class files present on all nodes in a parallel computation. Among other features discussed are support for asynchronous remote method invocations with deferred reply and exception semantics.
The effect of diffusive hydrogen segregation on fracture of polycrystalline nickel

Hydrogen embrittlement of polycrystalline nickel was studied under conditions which allowed the diffusion and segregation of hydrogen to grain boundaries to be controlled. It was shown that even at high solute concentrations of hydrogen, the fracture mode was ductile shear rupture, if transport of hydrogen to the grain boundaries was not allowed. As the amount of hydrogen segregation to the grain boundaries was increased, the fracture mode became increasingly intergranular. Analysis of the temperature dependence of this transition from ductile rupture to transgranular fracture yields a hydrogen segregation enthalpy of 11.6 kJ/mol. The transition in the fracture mode was also observed at a constant aging temperature by increasing the solute hydrogen concentration. The kinetics of this fracture transition suggest that the hydrogen segregation layer extends about 35 nm from the grain boundary. It is suggested that the fracture mechanism is a softening of the material in this segregation region due to the high hydrogen concentration.
Women in the information technology profession: a literature review, synthesis and research agenda

Gender differences in IT careers appear to be affecting the competitiveness of companies globally. It is posited that given the current labor shortage in the IT industry, it has become more important than ever to reduce sources of leakage in the IT career paths of women. A model of barriers faced by women in the field of information technology is presented. Three distinct career stages of career choices, persistence and advancement are analyzed. At each stage, the effects of social and structural factors which may act as barriers are identified and discussed. Social factors include social expectations, work–family conflict and informal networks, while the structural factors are occupational culture, lack of role models and mentors, demographic composition and institutional structures. A proposed research agenda is offered. It is suggested that these social and structural factors as well as their interactions will result in turnover of women in IT.
Low-Complexity Mobile Video Error Concealment Using OBMA

A low-complexity error concealment technique called the outer boundary matching algorithm (OBMA) for mobile video applications is studied extensively in this work. The OBMA technique is shown to provide an excellent tradeoff between the complexity and the quality of concealed video for a wide range of test video sequences.
Glass transition behavior of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

Abstract Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a major co-product from the corn ethanol industry, has high feed value for its chemical composition. The ratio of wet distillers grains (WDG) and condensed distillers solubles (CDS) added during the production process determines the chemical composition of DDGS. Effect of changing this ratio and the influence of moisture content on glass transition behavior of DDGS was studied. Five prediction models were evaluated to explain the glass transition of DDGS. The mixed trends in the result indicated the complex behavior of DDGS particles and revealed that both moisture content and chemical composition impact the glass transition behavior of DDGS. Onset glass transition temperature ranged from 20 to 30 °C depending on the chemical composition. Kwei equation predictions were better than the predictions by Gordon–Taylor equation. The glass transition temperature of DDGS can be mathematically explained by combining the moisture content and chemical components protein, fiber, glycerol, and sugar percent. The artificial neural network (ANN) model gave a better prediction of onset and midpoint glass transition temperature of DDGS and this might be due to the accurate mapping of the interaction between chemical components.
Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs for the treatment of breast and prostatic carcinoma.

’Superagonist’ analogs of GnRH produce a paradoxical inhibition of gonadotropin secretion when given on a long-term basis, and may well produce a more complete ’medical oophorectomy’ than antiestrogens in premenopausal breast cancer patients. Here we review the background and pharmacology of these agents, together with the experience of their use with prostate cancer and early trials in breast cancer. Their effectiveness without significant toxicity, together with new biodegradable implants for their easily acceptable long-term administration, suggest that a highly selective medical means of fully inhibiting ovarian estrogen production is now available for more extensive trials in breast cancer patients.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids decrease the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1 in CaCo-2 cells: effect on fatty acid synthesis and triacylglycerol transport

Regulation of sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) by fatty acid flux was investigated in CaCo-2 cells. Cells were incubated with 1 mM taurocholate with or without 250 microM 18:0, 18:1, 18:2, 20:4, 20:5 or 22:6 fatty acids. Fatty acid synthase (FAS) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase mRNA levels and gene and protein expression of SREBPs were estimated. 18:2, 20:4, 20:5 and 22:6 fatty acids decreased the amount of mature SREBP-1 and mRNA levels of SREBP-1c, SREBP-1a, FAS and acetyl-CoA carboxylase. SREBP-2 gene or mature protein expression was not altered. Liver X receptor (LXR) activation by T0901317 increased gene expression of SREBP-1c, SREBP-1a, FAS and acetyl-CoA carboxylase without altering SREBP-2. 20:5, but not 18:1, prevented the full expression of SREBP-1c mRNA by T0901317. T0901317 increased SREBP-1 mass without altering the mass of mature SREBP-2. Although only 18:2, 20:4, 20:5 and 22:6 suppressed SREBP-1, acetyl-CoA carboxylase and FAS expression, all fatty acids decreased the rate of fatty acid synthesis. T0901317 increased endogenous fatty acid synthesis yet did not increase secretion of triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins. In CaCo-2 cells, polyunsaturated fatty acids decrease gene and protein expression of SREBP-1 and FAS mRNA, probably through interference with LXR activity. Since all fatty acids decreased fatty acid synthesis, mechanisms other than changes in SREBP-1c expression must be entertained. Increased endogenous fatty acid synthesis does not promote triacylglycerol-rich lipoprotein secretion.
Tissue expansion: Past, present, and future

The history of tissue expansion, technique, indications, and complications are reviewed. A detailed review of delayed tissue expansion's histologic, biochemical, biomechanical, and physiologic changes in the skin is given. There is a net gain in epidermal tissue during delayed expansion. Recent experimental and clinical experience suggests that expansion for 1 to 2 weeks is just as effective as longer delayed expansion for 6 to 8 weeks. A new deviation from standard technique, intraoperative tissue expansion, may have significant implications for dermatologic surgery. Intraoperative tissue expansion is explored in relation to other commonly used techniques of intraoperative load cycling.
Inflation of a circular elastomeric membrane into a horizontally semi-infinite liquid reservoir of finite vertical depth: Estimation of material parameters from volume―pressure data

Abstract A method is introduced for estimating values of the hyperelastic material parameters and the residual membrane tension (prestretch) that best describe a set of volume-pressure inflation response data acquired during a cell-elastomer composite diaphragm inflation (CDI) experiment. Based on a model for the quasi-static inflation of a prestretched clamped circular isotropic incompressible hyperelastic membrane into a horizontally semi-infinite incompressible liquid reservoir of finite vertical depth, the fit methodology presented here is developed explicitly for a Mooney-Rivlin (MR) strain energy function. The parameter fit is formulated as a nonlinear least-squares optimization problem (NLSOP), and two empirical constraints are postulated to restrict the domain of model fit parameters to physically relevant values. A numerical least-squares regression analysis utilizing the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm is proposed for solving the constrained NLSOP. To demonstrate the capabilities of the method, the fit procedure is utilized to estimate the residual membrane tensions and the MR constitutive parameters C 1 and C 2 that characterize the pseudoelastic loading and unloading responses of a polydimethylsiloxane elastomer membrane as observed in the context of a CDI experiment. The material parameter estimates are verified as being both accurate and repeatable, and the MR non-uniform inflation model is shown to produce better fits (in a least-squares sense) than direct polynomial fitting of the original data set. Extension of the fit methodology to volume-pressure data measured for cell-elastomer composite diaphragm specimens, though possible, requires the development of new constitutive models that can better account for the complex rheological behavior of a living epithelial sheet.
Medial prefrontal cortices are unified by common connections with superior temporal cortices and distinguished by input from memory-related areas in the rhesus monkey.

Medial prefrontal cortices in primates have been associated with emotion, memory, and complex cognitive processes. Here we investigated whether the pattern of cortical connections could indicate whether the medial prefrontal cortex constitutes a homogeneous region, or if it can be parceled into distinct sectors. Projections from medial temporal memory-related cortices subdivided medial cortices into different sectors, by targeting preferentially caudal medial areas (area 24, caudal 32 and 25), to a lesser extent rostral medial areas (rostral area 32, areas 14 and 10), and sparsely area 9. Area 9 was distinguished by its strong connections with premotor cortices. Projections from unimodal sensory cortices reached preferentially specific medial cortices, including a projection from visual cortices to area 32/24, from somatosensory cortices to area 9, and from olfactory cortices to area 14. Medial cortices were robustly interconnected, suggesting that local circuits are important in the neural processing in this region. Medial prefrontal cortices were unified by bidirectional connections with superior temporal cortices, including auditory areas. Auditory pathways may have a role in the specialization of medial prefrontal cortices in species-specific communication in nonhuman primates and language functions in humans. J. Comp. Neurol. 410:343‐367, 1999. r 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Indexing terms: auditory connections; working memory; long-term memory; vocalization; schizophrenia
Induction of liver microsomal NADPH cytochrome C reductase and cytochrome P-450 by some new synthetic pyrethroids.

Abstract Newly developed synthetic pyrethroids were evaluated for their ability to alter microsomal cytochrome P -450 and NADPH cytochrome c reductase in rats. Permethrin (80:20 cis-trans ), 50 mg/kg/day po, increased cytochrome P -450 after 4, 8, or 12 days of administration and NADPH cytochrome c reductase after 8 or 12 days. A mixture containing less of the cis form (40:60 cis-trans ) did not alter either cytochrome P -450 or NADPH cytochrome c reductase after 4 days of administration but increased both after 8 or 12 days. α-Cyano analogs of permethrin (40:60 cis-trans and 97:3 cis-trans ) did not induce either cytochrome P -450 or NADPH cytochrome c reductase. None of the preparations altered body weight gain. Permethrin, but not its α-cyano analog, appears to be a weak inducer of the mixed function oxidase system.
Submandibular gland transfer for severe xerophthalmia.

Objective: To report early clinical experience with a new microvascular reconstructive procedure for patients with severe xerophthalmia. Study Design: Retrospective clinical series. Methods: Patients with severe xerophthalmia were referred for treatment after having exhausted all conventional means of treatment. The ipsilateral submandibular gland was transferred to the temporal fossa, as described by Macleod et al., and revascularized using the superficial temporal artery and appropriate vein(s). The submandibular duct was directed to the superolateral fornix so that the saliva produced moistened the eye. Results and complications were reviewed. Results: Seven microvascular submandibular gland transfer procedures were performed in five patients, ages 6 to 54. The etiology of severe xerophthalmia was Stevens-Johnson syndrome in four and chemical burn in one. Follow-up time was 4 to 20 months. Successful transfer with revascularization was achieved in six of seven (86%) cases. Schirmer's test scores improved from 1.3 pretransfer to 8.1 posttransfer (P =.005). Patients experienced symptomatic relief within 1 month, and the microenvironment of the eye surface improved enough to make them candidates for visual restorative eye surgery. There were no major complications. Conclusions: Microvascular submandibular gland transfer is an effective approach for correcting severe xerophthalmia. The procedure should be within the skills of any reconstructive microsurgeon. This procedure offers a unique opportunity for otolaryngologist-head and neck reconstructive surgeons to help restore vision to this unfortunate group of patients.
Optimizing Arrays of Position-Sensitive TESs

We are developing position-sensitive transition-edge sensors (PoSTs) for future X-ray astronomy missions such as NASAs Constellation-X. The PoST consists of 1 or more transitions-edge sensors (TESs) thermally connected to a large X-ray absorber, which through heat diffusion, gives rise to position dependence. The development of PoSTs is motivated by the desire to achieve the largest focal-plane coverage with the fewest number of readout channels. In this paper, we investigate optimized signal processing algorithms for single channel PoSTs or ‘Hydras’ (consisting of 4-absorbers connected to 1 TES). Using simulated data, we investigate the impact different parameters such as the thermal conductances and the inductance of the bias circuit have on device performance.
Moving Technology to the Center of Instruction: How One Experienced Teacher Incorporates a Web-based Environment Over Time

The paper reports on a 3-year study of an experienced fifth grade teacher learning to integrate a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) into his core science instruction. Data from this study included videotapes and transcripts of classroom instruction, and audiotapes and transcripts of professional development meetings and interviews conducted with the teacher as he was implementing the curriculum. The results suggest that the teacher’s classroom practices shifted meaningfully over time, thus moving WISE from the peripheral to the center of his science class instruction. There was an increased integrated use of the technology by this teacher during the WISE enactments in years two and three. The teacher also engaged his students in significantly more science dialogues during the WISE online investigations. Further findings suggest that this shift in pedagogy can be attributed to repeated opportunities for the instructor to teach an inquiry-based curriculum, as well as reflecting on his teaching experiences.
Advances in ion beam sputtered Sc2O3 for optical interference coatings

Scandium oxide is an attractive candidate for the engineering of interference coatings, although not widely explored. This paper describes the ion beam sputtering of Sc 2 O 3 . It is shown that the structural properties of the material are affected by the deposition conditions. Laser damage in different regimes of pulsewidths is investigated. These results show that the 1-on-1 laser damage fluence, in both the thermal and deterministic regimes, varies with deposition conditions but this is not the case for S-on-1, indicating that laser-induced defects are important.
Phased sampling for soil remediation

In phased sampling, data obtained in one phase is used to design the sampling network for the next phase. GivenN total observations, 1, ...,N phases are possible. Experiments were conducted with one-phase, two-phase, andN-phase design algorithms on surrogate models of sites with contaminated soils. The sampling objective was to identify through interpolation, subunits of the site that required remediation. The cost-effectiveness of alternate methods was compared by using a loss function. More phases are better, but in economic terms, the improvement is marginal. The optimal total number of samples is essentially independent of the number of phases. For two phase designs, 75% of samples in the first phase is near optimal; 20% or less is actually counterproductive.
Determining Sustainable Strategies for Directors of Microfinance Banks in Nigeria

This literature review study was to explore information from multiple authors and studies on Determining Sustainable Strategies for Directors of Microfinance Banks in Nigeria in other to indoctrinate management best practices in Microfinance banks. The lack of these management best practices highlighted the uncertainty in the microfinance sector, and the adverse effect. The significance of this study, which is to determine strategic management best practices for directors of microfinance banks in Nigeria could prevent further collapse of the sector. Strategic management best practices could encourage microfinance banks developmental goals to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich by providing funding for the working poor and creating an avenue for financial inclusion of the unbanked in Nigeria. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p125