cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Young Adult With a Recalcitrant Scalp Folliculitis

REPORT OF A CASE A 27-year-old man presented with a 2-year history of pruritic, scaly papules unresponsive to oral erythromycin. The papules began on his scalp and after a few months spread to his chest and upper arms. His personal and family history were negative for hair or scalp disorders, psoriasis, or cancer. The patient also complained of polydypsia and polyuria for the 4 to 5 months before presentation. Physical examination revealed numerous follicular-based erythematous crusted papules, mostly on the scalp ( Figure 1 and Figure 2 ) with a few scattered on the trunk. Mild diffuse hair thinning of the scalp was present with no evidence of a scarring process or pustules. Otherwise, the physical and neurologic examination was unremarkable. The patient was treated with dicloxacillin, rifampin, topical clindamycin, and coal tar shampoo for a presumed diagnosis of acne necrotica miliaris, but his condition did not improve. The serum electrolytes, general
Ejecta velocities, magma chamber pressure and kinetic energy associated with the 1968 eruption of arenal volcano

During the initial explosive phase of the eruption of Arenal volcano small projectiles were thrown a maximum distance of 5 km. Considering the effect of atmospheric drag these projectiles must have had initial velocities of at least 600 m/sec. For this velocity, the gas pressure in the magma chamber must have reached at least 4700 bars and the kinetic energy of the initial explosion is estimated as 2.4 ± 1.2 × 10a ergs.
The Impact of Misclassification in Land Use Maps in the Prediction of Landscape Dynamics

Land use maps are widely used in modeling land use change, urban sprawl, and for other landscape related studies. A misclassification confusion matrix for land use maps is usually provided as a measure of their quality and uncertainty. However, this very important information is rarely considered in land use map based studies, especially in modeling landscape dynamics. Ignoring uncertainty of land use maps may cause models to provide unreliable predictions. This study is an attempt to investigate the impact of the accuracy of land use maps used as input for an urban sprawl model. In the study area, the regional confusion matrix has been localized using a topographical map. Based on the regional and local confusion matrices, several error levels have been defined. The results showed that a localized confusion matrix that reflected the characteristics of the study area had error rates that were much different than the regional confusion matrix. The predictions of the probability of urban sprawl based on the land use maps and defined error levels were quite different.
Modeling multiple distributions of student performances to improve predictive accuracy

In this paper, we propose a general approach to improve student modeling predictive accuracy. The approach was designed based on the assumption that student performance is sampled from multiple, rather than only one, distribution and thus should be modeled by multiple classification models. We applied k-means to identify student performances sampled from those multiple distributions, using no additional features beyond binary correctness of student responses. We trained a separate classification model for each distribution and applied the learned models to unseen students to evaluate our approach. The results showed that compared to the base classifier, our proposed approach is able to improve predictive accuracy: 4.3% absolute improvement in R2 and 0.03 absolute improvement in AUC, which are not trivial improvements considering the current state of the art in student modeling.
The Dual Vocation of Parenthood and Professional Theology: How are we Doing? Where are we Headed?

This article focuses on an increasing trend—the attempt to combine responsibilities of parenthood and professional theology in a dual vocation. Today, many theologians are attempting to complete doctoral studies and earn tenure with young children in tow. Most likely, this will become the majority trend in the near future. How well is our profession adjusting to this significant demographic shift? This article compiles results of a survey of parent-theologians, covering family planning decisions, financial stability, attempts to balance work and leisure, and impact of parenthood on their work as theologians, as well as their suggestions for making the profession more conducive to this dual vocation.
Grammatically-based automatic word class formation

Abstract Most previous attempts at producing word classes (thesauri) by statistical analysis have used very limited distributional information such as word co-occurrence in a document or a sentence. This paper describes an automatic procedure which uses the syntactic relations as the basis for grouping words into classes. It forms classes by grouping together nouns that occur as subject (or object) of the same verbs, and similarly by grouping together verbs occurring with the same subject or object. The program was applied to a small corpus of sentences in a subfield of pharmacology. This procedure yielded the word classes for the subfield, in good agreement with the word classes recognized by pharmacologists. The word classes can be used to describe the informational patterns that occur in texts of the subfield, to disambiguate parses of a sentence, and perhaps to improve the performance of current information retrieval systems.
Competitive metalation of some nitrogen- and sulfur-containing heterocycles

It has been shown in three separate systems that metalation by n-butyllithium of sulfur-containing heterocycles occurs faster than similar heterocycles containing the N-methyl group. The systems selected for study were thiophene-N-methylpyrrole, thianaphthene-N-methylindole and N-methylphenothiazine. These data are in harmony with earlier studies of the dibenzothiophene-N-ethylcarbazole system and N-ethylphenothiazine, but not in line with predominant control of the metalation orientation by inductive effects predicted from relative electronegativities of sulfur and nitrogen. The results are rationalized in terms of equilibrium concentrations of the respective heterocycle-n-butyllithium complexes, rapid and reversible formation of which precedes rate-controlling removal of adjacent ring hydrogen.
Phosphorus Doped Diamond Electron Emitter Devices

The n-type diamond is known to have high electron emission properties. However, device fabrication on n-type phosphorus doped diamond had 2 difficulties. First, because highly phosphorus doped n-type diamond layer can be grown only on very small (111) diamond substrate, fabrication of highly homogeneous 3 dimensional device such as gate electrode was very difficult. Second problem was that the resistivity of n-type diamond was still over 100 Ω cm and too high for high current electron emission devices. To solve these problems, we developed a new large size composite wafer in which (111) single crystal diamond was buried in polycrystal diamond and a new electrode coated emitter tip structure for conduction support only whose apex was exposed from the electrode. N-type phosphorus doped diamond was grown on the 15 mm composite diamond wafer with high PH3/CH4 concentration of 20% and highly doped active layer was grown on the embedded (111) single crystal. Sharp emitter tip arrays were fabricated by etching the n-type diamond. Electrodes were coated on these tips and exposed area of diamond was less than 200 nm from the apex of the tip. Gate electrodes were fabricated for each emitter tips. Electron emission of these devices were measured in the vacuum of 10−7 Pa. The threshold voltage of the n-type diamond device was 60 V which was lower than 100 V of the p-type diamond device. The threshold voltage of n-type diamond with and without electrode coatings did not changed. This means that electrode coating did not affect the emission properties and electrons were emitted from the diamond surface. The emission current was enhanced by 2 orders by the electrode coatings and total emission current from 1 mm2 reached 1103 mA. This high emission current electron source enables applications to microwave tubes, electron beam processing and integrated micro vacuum devices.
VACUUM PACKAGING OF FRESH BEEF: A REVIEW

Vacuum packaging is a method of distributing beef primal cuts in oxygen impermeable bags under vacuum. Increased technology in the application of vacuum packaging has verified that it provides a means of prolonging the shelf-life and palatability of beef during extended periods of shipment and storage. Additional advantages of vacuumized storage include reduction in weight loss from evaporation and trimming, preservation of color, increased hygienic control and enhanced palatability due to controlled aging. Such benefits have been achieved by intensified research efforts directed towards improving packaging systems. The objective of this review is to discuss these research efforts and identify those factors associated with the quality of vacuum packaged beef.
The Realistic Job Preview as a Persuasive Communication.

In I/O psychology and organizational behavior (I/OB) the realistic job preview (RJP) is a current example of an attitude change technique designed to reduce turnover among newly hired employees. Social psychology has long been concerned with theories and techniques for attitude change, and these are examined as potential aids to understanding the RJP process. The “Yale Persuasive Communication” (YPC) approach is reviewed, and findings from YPC research are presented as illustrations of how the future RJPs might be redesigned.
MinimalG-functions. II

Abstract The concept of aG-function, introduced by Nowosad and Hoffman, gives an appropriate setting for many generalizations of the Gerschgorin Circle Theorem. In this paper, we extend our previous results for minimalG-functions to the partitioned matrix case.
Perceiving the avidity of T cell activation can be translated into peripheral T cell regulation

The structure recognized by regulatory T cells that enables them to discriminate self from nonself in the periphery is one of the central issues of regulatory T cell biology. A link between immunoregulation and self–nonself discrimination has emerged from experiments showing that Qa-1-restricted CD8+ T cells selectively down-regulate target T cells activated by the intermediate avidity of their own T cell antigen receptor–ligand interactions. Because the peripheral self-reactive T cell repertoire is devoid of high-avidity T cells compared with the foreign-reactive repertoire, as a result of thymic negative selection, the selective down-regulation of intermediate but not high-avidity T cells enables the immune system to suppress autoimmunity without damaging the ongoing immune response to foreign pathogens. However, the molecular mechanism delineating how avidity of T cell activation is perceived by the regulatory T cells has not been elucidated. Here we show that a heat shock peptide (Hsp60sp), coupled with the MHC class Ib molecule Qa-1, is a surrogate target structure that is preferentially expressed at a higher level on the intermediate avidity T cells and specifically recognized by the Qa-1-restricted CD8+ T cells. The biological significance of this observation was confirmed by the ability of Hsp60sp-loaded relevant dendritic cells to induce a Qa-1-restricted CD8+ T cell-mediated protection from autoimmune encephalopathy in the experimental allergic encephalomyelitis model. Thus, perceiving the avidity of T cell activation can be translated into peripheral T cell regulation to discriminate self from nonself in the periphery to maintain self-tolerance.
Finite Element Analysis of Ring-on-Ring Test on LCD Panels

The ring-on-ring test is one of the most popular surface strength testing methods used to test LCD panels. This paper uses finite element analysis to show that a panel behaves like two independent pieces of glass during a ring-on-ring test. The epoxy region where the color filter and thin-film transistor (TFT) glasses are glued together does not affect the stress at the center. As LCD panels get thinner, the contribution of membrane stress increases significantly. Because the color filter and TFT glasses act independently, they experience maximum principal stresses within 15% of each other. For deflections greater than one-half (sometimes one-fourth) the glass thickness, the stresses are not uniform inside the load ring, requiring finite element analysis to obtain an accurate stress distribution.
False Discovery Rates of Protein Identifications: A Strike against the Two-Peptide Rule

Most proteomics studies attempt to maximize the number of peptide identifications and subsequently infer proteins containing two or more peptides as reliable protein identifications. In this study, we evaluate the effect of this “two-peptide” rule on protein identifications, using multiple search tools and data sets. Contrary to the intuition, the “two-peptide” rule reduces the number of protein identifications in the target database more significantly than in the decoy database and results in increased false discovery rates, compared to the case when single-hit proteins are not discarded. We therefore recommend that the “two-peptide” rule should be abandoned, and instead, protein identifications should be subject to the estimation of error rates, as is the case with peptide identifications. We further extend the generating function approach (originally proposed for evaluating matches between a peptide and a single spectrum) to evaluating matches between a protein and an entire spectral data set.
Novel high efficiency vertical optical coupler using subwavelength high contrast grating

A novel vertical optical coupler using subwavelength high contrast grating is presented. Surface-normal incidence plane wave can be coupled into in-plane silicon-on-insulator waveguide with highest efficiency of 84% over a broad wavelength range.
Enhanced paramagnetism of TiBe2 and ferromagnetic transitions in TiBe2-xCux

Abstract The magnetic behavior of TiBe2 is found to be similar to that of strongly enhanced paramagnets like Pd and Ni3Ga. The susceptibility curves χ(H, T = 0) and χ(H, T = 0) both go through a smooth maximum, at 55 kOe and 10 K, respectively, which might be due to the electron-electron interaction. For TiBe2-xCux compounds the transition from paramagnetism to ferromagnetism is analyzed, starting from Arrott plots of the magnetization. A critical concentration xcr = 0.155 ± 0.005 is obtained. The Stoner-Edwards-Wohlfarth model of itinerant-electron magnetism is well followed near xcr. The low temperature behavior of the specific heat of TiBe2 is tentatively ascribed to the effect of the electron-phonon interaction on the electronic specific heat coefficient γ.
Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Tightly Confining dc Magnetic Trap.

Bose-Einstein condensation of sodium atoms has been observed in a novel ``cloverleaf'' trap. This trap combines tight confinement with excellent optical access, using only dc electromagnets. Evaporative cooling in this trap produced condensates of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ atoms, a tenfold improvement over previous results. We measured the condensate fraction and the repulsive mean-field energy, finding agreement with theoretical predictions.
Clinical issues in renal transplantation in the elderly

Kidney transplantation is the best renal replacement therapy option and is superior to dialysis in elderly end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Furthermore, the outcome of transplantation in the elderly is comparable to younger patients in terms of allograft survival. The exact nature of this phenomenon is not completely clear. As the elderly population continues to grow, it becomes more important to identify specific issues associated with kidney transplantation. In particular, elderly transplant recipients might have a lower chance of acute rejection as their immune systems seem to be less reactive. This might predispose elderly recipients to greater risk of post-transplant infectious complications or malignancies. Furthermore, due to differences in pharmacokinetics, elderly recipients might require lower doses of immunosuppressive medication. As the main cause of graft failure in the elderly is death with a functioning graft and also considering the scarcity of donor organs, it might make sense to recommend transplanting elderly recipients with extended criteria donor kidneys. This approach would balance shorter patient survival compared to younger recipients. In conclusion, old age should not preclude ESRD patients from kidney transplantation. However, specific differences that have to do with immunosuppression and other aspects of managing elderly transplant recipients should be considered.
On decoding rules to minimize the probability of information bit errors

Decoding rules to minimize the probability of information bit errors in binary linear block codes are investigated. A novel decoding rule is proposed and compared to a recently proposed rule (see M. Elia and G. Prati, 1985) and to the standard rule, with respect to both the information bit error rate and the information word error rate. It is concluded that the proposed rule not only can be implemented much more efficiently that the standard rule, but also is superior with respect to either error rate. Some particular codes have been presented to show that the authors' rule can coincide or can differ from Elia and Prati's rule when applied to a given code. >
Minimally Invasive Epicardial Left Atrial Ablation and Appendectomy for Refractory Atrial Tachycardia

Surgical removal or epicardial radiofrequency ablation of the left atrial appendage (LAA) is occasionally required when endocardial ablations fail. We report a modified minimally invasive surgical approach for elimination of recurrent atrial arrhythmias arising from the LAA, including both radiofrequency ablation and appendectomy. Ablation of the LAA base was performed using the Medtronic Cardioblate bipolar radiofrequency device (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN), and left atrial appendectomy was then completed using the EndoGIA stapling system (US Surgical, Norwalk, CT). This procedure successfully isolated and removed the tachycardia focus, and normal sinus rhythm was restored. Elimination of LAA arrhythmias using a combination of epicardial radiofrequency ablation and appendectomy ensures electrical isolation while minimizing surgical invasiveness.
The glucagon receptor and adenylate cyclase.

Abstract Acidic phospholipids play a critical role in the hormone activation of adenylate cyclase. Solubilized myocardial adenylate cyclase is unresponsive to glucagon and the catecholamines, two of the hormones which activate the membrane-bound enzyme. Phosphatidylserine, purified from bovine brain restored glucagon responsiveness of the solubilized adenylate cyclase. Monophosphatidylinositol, also purified from bovine brain, restored catecholamine responsiveness. Solubilized preparations of myocardial adenylate cyclase bind 125I-glucagon either in the presence or absence of added phosphatidylserine, thereby providing a clear separation of the processes of activation and binding. Solubilized myocardial adenylate cyclase has a molecular weight of about 160,000. Sephadex G-100 chromatography of the solubilized enzyme following the binding of 125I-glucagon to its myocardial receptor reveals two distinct peaks; one, having catalytic activity and a molecular weight greater than 100,000 and two, the binding material having no catalytic activity and a molecular weight of 24,000–28,000. These data are consistent with the presence of a dissociable glucagon receptor site. The role of this dissociation in the activation-inactivation of the enzyme remains to be explored. It is postulated that phospholipids induce the required configurational change in the catalytic site following the binding of hormone to its receptor, and by this means couples the receptor to the catalytic site. This model may be applicable to certain clinical situations. Cardiac adenylate cyclase is unresponsive to glucagon in chronic congestive heart failure. The defect may reside either in the binding of glucagon to its receptor site or in the metabolism of a specific acidic phospholipid such as phosphatidylserine.
A state-of-the-art review on the evolution of urinary sphincter devices for the treatment of post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence: Past, present and future innovations

An artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) is the only mechanical device that closely simulates the function of a biological urinary sphincter. Over the past four decades, advances in mechanical design, applications of new technology and lessons learned from clinical experience have made AMS 800 device the standard of care in post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence. While the current AMS 800 device provides an effective, safe and durable option, it is not without its limitations and complications. Newer and innovative AUS-like devices are designed to rectify some of AMS 800 device problems, but, like any mechanical device, they too have their own shortcomings. Emerging novel therapies such as nanotechnology-driven device and stem cell therapy are attractive, but are not commercially available or have no proven long-term outcome. The following article provides a critical review on the past, present and future innovations in designing the ideal urinary sphincter to treat post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence.
Evidence for a sequential mechanism in the production of BH from the 193 nm photodissociation of BH3CO

Abstract The nascent rotational and vibrational energy distributions of BH are obtained from the photodissociation of BH 3 CO at 193nm. The rotational population distributions for v ″ =0, 1 and 2 all show maximum populations at J ″ = 5 with 〈 E rot 〉 values of 1020, 730 and 590 cm −1 respectively. The relative vibrational populations for the 0, 1 and 2 levels are 1.0, 0.16 and 0.038 respectively. These results are much colder both rotationally and vibrationally than a three-fragment statistical prior model predicts. A two-step sequential mechanism is proposed in which BH 3 CO photodissociates to form BH 3 . A small percentage of the BH 3 species have the internal energy required to further dissociate to BH + H 2 . The modelling of this mechanism is aided by consideration of the information recently made available on the photodissociation of BH 3 CO to BH 3 + CO and is accomplished by using a weighted prior distribution for the second step from BH 3 to BH + H 2 . The possible existence of several non-statistical minor pathways to produce BH is also addressed.
Collateral Consequences of Violence in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

Using data from Add Health, this study investigates the role of neighborhood violence in mediating the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on high school graduation and teenage pregnancy. Results show that neighborhood violence is a strong predictor of both outcomes, net of individual, family, community and school controls. Neighborhood violence accounts for almost half the conditional association between neighborhood disadvantage and high school graduation among males and almost all of the association among females. Violence also accounts for about a fifth of the conditional association between disadvantage and teenage pregnancy among adolescents of both genders. Violence is a critical social characteristic of disadvantaged neighborhoods, one that explains a sizable portion of the effects of growing up in such neighborhoods.
An AOTF-LDTOF spectrometer suite for in situ organic detection and characterization

We discuss the development of a miniature near-infrared point spectrometer, operating in the 1.7–4 mm region, based on acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) technology. This instrument may be used to screen and corroborate analyses of samples containing organic biomarkers or mineralogical signatures suggestive of extant or extinct organic material collected in situ from planetary surfaces. The AOTF point spectrometer will be paired with a laser desorption time-of-flight (LDTOF) mass spectrometer and will prescreen samples for evidence of volatile or refractory organics before the laser desorption step and subsequent mass spectrometer measurement. 1 2 We describe the prototype AOTF point spectrometer instrument and present laboratory analysis of geological samples of known astrobiological importance. An initial mineral and rock sample suite of planetary relevance was used in the laboratory for baseline testing. To this, we will add a complement of astrobiologically relevant biosignatures from a variety of well-characterized geomicrobial study sites. We also describe LDTOF analysis of kaolinite and serpentine specimens, which are both highly relevant to the Martian surface mineralogy and the aqueous history of the planet. The AOTF-LDTOF instrument pairing offers the powerful advantage of cross-checked chemical analyses of individual samples, which can reduce chemical and biological interpretation ambiguities.
Growth of masking for 1-kHz tone with normal-hearing listeners: Effects of signal duration and noise frequency

The goal of this study was to examine effects of two acoustic features, signal duration and noise frequency, on growth of masking (GOM). A 1-kHz pure tone was present in four types of noise simultaneously, low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and notched noise. Results showed that GOM functions were significantly affected by signal duration, noise frequency, and their interaction. In band-pass noise, short-term signal increased thresholds with medium noise levels at a significantly greater rate (1.6 dB/dB) than long-term signals. For the other three types of noise, signal thresholds were elevated at a rate of 1 dB/dB with noise level independent of signal duration. These results suggested that the cochlear compressive nonlinearity was critical in signal detection in noise.
Scholar, Historian, Individualist: John Michael Kittross

“Curmudgeon, iconoclast and gadfly” is how John Michael Kittross describes himself. “Editor and bibliophile” could be added to the list. However, it might be more accurate describing him profession...
Term labor induction compared with expectant management.

Objective To determine whether changing the definition of the group to which induction is being compared (ie, noninduced delivering during the same week as those induced compared with two definitions of expectant management) changes the association of labor induction and increased cesarean risk. Methods A New York State birth-certificate database was used to estimate odds ratios for cesarean delivery associated with labor induction at term. The analyses used three definitions of controls: cesarean delivery after induction compared with after spontaneous labor by week (week-to-week), induction at a given gestation age compared with expectant management of all other women after gestational age (all above), or induction at a given gestational age compared with expectant management of all other women at or after that gestational age (at or above). Chi-square logistic regression was used for comparisons and adjustment for possible confounders. Results All variations of comparison groups were associated with increased unadjusted cesarean risk after induction, although not after 39 weeks in the all-above group. After adjustment, increased risk persisted from 37 to 41 weeks using the week-to-week group and from 38 to 41 weeks in the at-or-above group (odds ratios 1.24 to 1.45) but was no longer significant in the all-above group. The excess cesarean delivery risk associated with labor induction is between 1 and 2 per 25 inductions. Conclusion Labor induction is associated with increased cesarean risk whether using a week-to-week comparison group or an expectant group that includes women the same week or beyond that of the index induction, even after adjustment for parity, high-risk factors, and demographic variables. Although the magnitude of increased risk for a given woman undergoing induction is not large, women nonetheless should be informed of this increased risk. Level of evidence II.
Molecular Pathways: Can Activin-like Kinase Pathway Inhibition Enhance the Limited Efficacy of VEGF Inhibitors?

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway is critical for tumor angiogenesis. However, VEGF pathway inhibition has been limited by intrinsic and acquired resistance. Simultaneously targeting multiple steps involved in tumor angiogenesis is a potential means of overcoming this resistance. Activin like kinase 1 (ALK1) and endoglin (ENG) have effects on angiogenesis that are distinct from VEGF. While VEGF is important for vessel initiation, ALK1 and endoglin are involved in vessel network formation. Thus, ALK1 and endoglin pathway inhibitors are attractive partners for VEGF-based combination anti-angiogenic therapy. Genetic evidence supports a role for this receptor family and its ligands, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) 9 and 10, in vascular development. Patients with genetic alterations in ALK1 or endoglin develop hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, a disorder characterized by abnormal vessel development. There are several inhibitors of the ALK1 pathway advancing in clinical development for treatment of various tumor types including renal cell, and ovarian carcinomas. Targeting of alternate angiogenic pathways, particularly in combination with VEGF pathway blockade, holds the promise of optimally inhibiting angiogenic driven tumor progression.
Incidental Findings on Computed Tomography Scans in Children With Mild Head Trauma

BackgroundComputed tomography (CT) scans are frequently used in managing traumatic brain injuries in children.ObjectiveTo assess incidental findings in children with head trauma undergoing CT scan and to describe any associated clinical ramifications.Materials and methodsRetrospective review of 524 children treated in 2 emergency departments for closed head injury who received a CT scan.ResultsOverall, 137 (26.2%) patients had an incidental finding on CT scan. The most common incidental finding was sinus opacification with an air fluid level (115/137, 83.9%). Thirty-five interventions were reported in children with incidental findings. Children 2 years old or younger were more likely to receive a prescription for antibiotics (relative risk [RR] = 2.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08-6.51) and be referred to a specialist (RR = 10.26, 95% CI = 3.56-29.56) than older children.ConclusionIncidental findings in minor head trauma are common. Clinicians should be prepared to address these findings if clinica...
Using directed acyclic graphs to guide analyses of neighbourhood health effects: an introduction.

Background: Directed acyclic graphs, or DAGs, are a useful graphical tool in epidemiologic research that can help identify appropriate analytical strategies in addition to potential unintended consequences of commonly used methods such as conditioning on mediators. The use of DAGs can be particularly informative in the study of the causal effects of social factors on health. Methods: The authors consider four specific scenarios in which DAGs may be useful to neighbourhood health effects researchers: (1) identifying variables that need to be adjusted for in estimating neighbourhood health effects, (2) identifying the unintended consequences of estimating “direct” effects by conditioning on a mediator, (3) using DAGs to understand possible sources and consequences of selection bias in neighbourhood health effects research, and (4) using DAGs to identify the consequences of adjustment for variables affected by prior exposure. Conclusions: The authors present simplified sample DAGs for each scenario and discuss the insights that can be gleaned from the DAGs in each case and the implications these have for analytical approaches.
Exceptional versatility of solvated block copolymer/ionomer networks as electroactive polymers

Responsive materials possess properties that change abruptly when exposed to an external stimulus, and electroactive polymers constitute examples of robust, lightweight materials that change shape upon electrical actuation. We demonstrate that solvated block copolymer networks afford tremendous versatility in designing electronic and ionic electroactive polymers. As dielectric elastomers, styrenic block copolymer systems attain extraordinary actuation strains approaching 300%, along with high electromechanical coupling efficiencies. Changing the solvent improves the blocking stress and yields remarkably high energy densities, while providing a unique opportunity for mechanical impedance matching and control of shape recovery kinetics, as well as mode of deformation. Dielectric elastomers composed of acrylic copolymers actuate beyond 100% in-plane strain without any prestrain, whereas block ionomer networks swollen with ionic solutions yield ionic polymer–metal composites, which actuate by bending. Selective solvation of block copolymer networks represents an effective and largely unexplored means by which to tune the function and properties of electroactive polymers through systematic manipulation of copolymer and solvent attributes.
Effects of resistance training and chromium picolinate on body composition and skeletal muscle in older men

The effects of chromium picolinate (CrPic) supplementation and resistance training (RT) on skeletal muscle size, strength, and power and whole body composition were examined in 18 men (age range 56...
Short-term harvesting of biomass from conservation grasslands maintains plant diversity.

High yields are a priority in managing biomass for renewable energy, but the environmental impacts of various feedstocks and production systems should be equally considered. Mixed-species, perennial grasslands enrolled in conservation programs are being considered as a source of biomass for renewable energy. Conservation grasslands are crucial in sustaining native biodiversity throughout the US Upper Midwest, and the effects of biomass harvest on biodiversity are largely unknown. We measured the effect of late-season biomass harvest on plant community composition in conservation grasslands in three regions of Minnesota, USA from 2009 to 2012. Temporal trends in plant species composition within harvested grasslands were compared to unharvested grasslands using mixed effects models. A before-after control-impact approach using effect sizes was applied to focus on pre- and postharvest conditions. Production-scale biomass harvest did not affect plant species richness, species or functional group diversity, nor change the relative abundance of the main plant functional groups. Differences in the relative abundances of plant functional groups were observed across locations; and at some locations, changed through time. The proportion of non-native species remained constant, while the proportion of noxious weeds decreased through time in both harvested and unharvested grasslands at the central location. Ordination revealed patterns in species composition due to location, but not due to harvest treatment. Therefore, habitat and bioenergy characteristics related to grassland plant communities are not expected to change due to short-term or intermittent late-season biomass harvest.
The leg drop pendulum test under anesthesia. I. Normal limbs, awake vs. asleep

Data from leg drop pendulum tests of eight limbs is presented. The limbs tested in this study were all from subjects without disability or from the unaffected side of those with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Data was collected both while the subjects were under general anesthesia after being given muscle relaxants and while awake. All data was fitted with a second order linear equation and optimized for values of stiffness (K) and damping (B). One-way ANOVA statistical comparisons were made between the two groups for each parameter including a Range of Motion (ROM) measurement. There were no significant differences found at the p<0.05 level. Trends in the data did show a somewhat consistent increase in stiffness and ROM, and a VERY consistent decrease in damping coefficient (7 of the 8). These changes occurred even in the absence of any noticeable EMG activity in the awake subjects.
Recognizing Stances in Online Debates

This paper presents an unsupervised opinion analysis method for debate-side classification, i.e., recognizing which stance a person is taking in an online debate. In order to handle the complexities of this genre, we mine the web to learn associations that are indicative of opinion stances in debates. We combine this knowledge with discourse information, and formulate the debate side classification task as an Integer Linear Programming problem. Our results show that our method is substantially better than challenging baseline methods.
Articulation rate and speech-sound normalization failure.

Not all children with speech delay (SD) of unknown origin develop fully normal speech even with intervention. Many retain residual distortion errors into adolescence and ultimately into adulthood. ...
Variability in surgical quality in a phase III clinical trial of radical cystectomy in patients with organ-confined, node-negative urothelial carcinoma of the bladder

Background and Objectives: Previous studies have shown that variability in surgical technique can affect the outcomes of cooperative group trials. We analyzed measures of surgical quality and clinical outcomes in patients enrolled in the p53-MVAC trial. Methods: We performed a post-hoc analysis of patients with pT1-T2N0M0 urothelial carcinoma of the bladder following radical cystectomy (RC) and bilateral pelvic and iliac lymphadenectomy (LND). Measures of surgical quality were examined for associations with time to recurrence (TTR) and overall survival (OS). Results: We reviewed operative and/or pathology reports for 440 patients from 35 sites. We found that only 31% of patients met all suggested trial eligibility criteria of having15 lymph nodes identified in the pathologic specimen (LN#) and having undergone both extended and presacral LND. There was no association between extent of LND, LN#, or presacral LND and TTR or OS after adjustment for confounders and multiple testing. Conclusions: We demonstrated that there was substantial variability in surgical technique within a cooperative group trial. Despite explicit entry criteria, many patients did not undergo per-protocol LNDs. While outcomes were not apparently affected, it is nonetheless evident that careful attention to study design and quality monitoring will be critical to successful future trials. J. Surg. Oncol. fl 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Land availability and fertility in the United States, 1760-1870.

The decline in US fertility rates beginning in the latter part of the eighteenth century is examined within a general model of fertility determination. The ability of land availability measures to explain the variation in components of the crude birth rate is tested using a pooled regression technique. A set of crude birth rate predictions for rural areas of 23 northern states during the period 1760-1870 is produced and compared with other estimates. It is concluded that the availability of land was a critical factor in determining the demand for children and ultimately the fertility rate across states and over time. (authors)
Bridged-T speed controller for high performance switched reluctance motor drives

A so-called bridged-T controller, which combines both open-loop and closed-loop control components is proposed for speed control of a switched reluctance motor. The open-loop controller provides a fast dynamic response and the closed-loop controller assures zero steady-state speed error by feedback of the error between the ideal open-loop response and the actual machine response. The bridged-T controller is easy to design, to implement, and to tune. A three-phase switched reluctance motor drive with this bridged-T controller has been simulated using Matlab-Simulink and implemented in real time using a digital signal processor. The simulated and actual responses match closely, and demonstrate a dynamic response superior to that which may be obtained using the standard closed-loop control alone.
Determination and minimization of cross regulation in multi-output high order SRC

The analysis and the technique of determining the cross-regulation characteristics in multioutput high-order series-resonant converters (SRCs) are presented. The steady-state cross-regulation characteristics are derived using the state-plane techniques, illustrated by the example of a two-output LLC-type SRC. A technique of minimizing the cross-regulation by compensating the differential rate of leakage fluxes in the multiple secondary windings of the isolation transformer is suggested. The theoretical results are verified by simulation. >
Time is a Resource, and Other Stories

Computation, as expressed in modern programming languages, obscures many resource management problems. Memory is provided without bound by stacks and heaps. Power and energy consumption are not the concern of a programmer. Even when these resource management problems are important, there is no way to talk about them within the semantics of a programming language. Time, however, is not quite like these other resources. First, barring metaphysical discourse, it is genuinely unbounded. To say that "the available time per unit time is bounded" is tautological, yet this is effectively what people say when they manage it as a bounded resource. Second, time gets expended whether we use it or not. It cannot be conserved and saved for later. This is true up to a point with, say, battery power. Batteries leak, so their power cannot be indefinitely conserved, but designers rarely optimize a system to use as much battery power before it leaks away as they can. Yet that is what they do with time.
Basic Indeterminacy of Reconstruction

The history of determining an arbitrary function from its projections is at least a half century old. During that time, mathematicians have been able to provide some encouraging results when they assumed (the unrealistic situation) than an infinite amount of projection data is available. However, it was not until 1973 that fundamental work addressed the more practical question which follows from the fact that only a finite number of projections can ever become available. This recent result, of Kennan T. Smith, demonstrates that even with very strong restrictions on the objective function, a finite number of radiographs seem to say nothing at all about determining this function. This chapter shows that the basic indeterminacy demonstrated by Kennan Smith does not depend on his choice of restrictions, i. e., the non-uniqueness is independent of almost any choice of the space from which the objective function comes (as long as it is infinite dimensional). This chapter concludes that some change in the mathematical model is needed.
A simulation study of nonparametric total deviation index as a measure of agreement based on quantile regression

Total deviation index (TDI) captures a prespecified quantile of the absolute deviation of paired observations from raters, observers, methods, assays, instruments, etc. We compare the performance of TDI using nonparametric quantile regression to the TDI assuming normality (Lin, 2000). This simulation study considers three distributions: normal, Poisson, and uniform at quantile levels of 0.8 and 0.9 for cases with and without contamination. Study endpoints include the bias of TDI estimates (compared with their respective theoretical values), standard error of TDI estimates (compared with their true simulated standard errors), and test size (compared with 0.05), and power. Nonparametric TDI using quantile regression, although it slightly underestimates and delivers slightly less power for data without contamination, works satisfactorily under all simulated cases even for moderate (say, ≥40) sample sizes. The performance of the TDI based on a quantile of 0.8 is in general superior to that of 0.9. The performances of nonparametric and parametric TDI methods are compared with a real data example. Nonparametric TDI can be very useful when the underlying distribution on the difference is not normal, especially when it has a heavy tail.
204 EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF HUMAN METAPNEUMOVIRUS INFECTIONS AMONG CHILDREN IN MOBILE, ALABAMA.

Background Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a recently described respiratory pathogen of children. However, there have been no data available regarding the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of hMPV infection in our geographical region. Methods A prospective cross-sectional evaluation of children 0-18 years old presenting to our university hospital and clinics with symptoms of respiratory infection was conducted during the months of November-April 2004. Following informed consent, parents were interviewed and respiratory specimens collected by nasopharyngeal or endotracheal tube aspiration. The samples were screened for the presence of hMPV by RT-PCR. When possible, respiratory samples were also analyzed for the presence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza virus by either rapid antigen detection or culture. Results Seventy-three patients, ages 7 days to 12 years, were enrolled. At the time of enrolment, 26% of study subjects were outpatients and 74% were hospitalized due to dehydration and complications of acute respiratory illness. hMPV was isolated from 15% (11/73) of patients. Additionally, 17% (9/54) patients were positive for RSV and 19% (8/42) patients were positive for influenza. All patients in which hMPV was detected were hospitalized at the time of enrolment. Seventy-two percent of patients from whom hMPV was isolated were younger than 3 years. Underlying chronic medical conditions were identified among 63% of patients with hMPV infection and included prematurity, congenital heart disease, and neuromuscular disease. Clinical manifestations among patients with hMPV infection were fever (54%), cyanosis (45%), subcostal retractions (36%), decreased oral intake (36%), wheezing (10%), rhinorrhea (10%), and cough (10%). Abnormal radiographic findings were present in 100% of subjects with hMPV including hyperinflation (100%), perihilar infiltrates (72%), consolidation (9%), atelectasis (9%), and pneumothorax (9%). Conclusion hMPV infection is a frequent cause of respiratory infections in our pediatric population. Abnormal radiographic examinations are common among hospitalized patients with hMPV in our institution. Underlying medical conditions may increase the risk of hospitalization among children infected with hMPV.
Neutrophil lipoxygenase activation and leukosequestration in postischemic myocutaneous flaps: role of LTB4

Reperfusion of ischemic tissues leads to eicosanoid- and polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN)-dependent injury. The present experiments were undertaken to examine the effect of myocutaneous flap ischemia-reperfusion on neutrophil 5-lipoxygenase activity and to define the role of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) in postischemic PMN infiltration into such composite tissue grafts. Anesthetized Yorkshire pigs underwent 6 h of rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap ischemia or sham ischemia, and LTB4 generation was measured in calcium ionophore-stimulated neutrophils isolated from the circulation. At 30 min of reperfusion, neutrophil generation of LTB4 increased from a baseline value of 31.0 +/- 6.8 to 98.5 +/- 5.1 ng/5 x 10(6) PMN (P < 0.01) and was significantly greater than those neutrophils isolated from animals subjected to sham ischemia and reperfusion (54.3 +/- 4.1 ng/5 x 10(6) PMN; P < 0.01). Pretreatment of animals with the LTB4-receptor antagonist, SC-41930 (n = 5), significantly attenuated reperfusion-associated 5-lipoxygenase activation (60.3 +/- 11.6 ng LTB4/5 x 10(6) PMN; P < 0.01), suggesting the presence of a positive feedback mechanism for eicosanoid biosynthesis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)