cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Resident satisfaction with radiation oncology training.

Abstract Purpose Residency training environments can differ significantly; therefore, resident satisfaction may vary widely among programs. Here, we sought to examine several variables in program satisfaction through a survey of radiation oncology (RO) trainees in the United States. Methods and materials An anonymous, institutional review board-approved, internet-based survey was developed and distributed to U.S. residents in RO in September 2016. This email-based survey assessed program-specific factors with regard to workload, work-life balance, and education as well as resident-specific factors such as marital status and postgraduate year. Binomial multivariable regression assessed the correlations between these factors and the endpoint of resident-reported likelihood of selecting an alternative RO residency program if given the choice again. Results A total of 215 residents completed the required survey sections, representing 29.3% of U.S. RO residents. When asked whether residency allowed for an adequate balance between work and personal life, the majority of residents (75.6%) agreed or strongly agreed, but a minority (9.3%) did not feel that residency allowed for sufficient time for personal life. The majority of residents (69.7%) indicated that they would choose the same residency program again, but 12.2% would have made a different choice. Almost three-fourths of residents (73.0%) felt that faculty and staff cared about the educational success of residents, but 9.27% did not. Binomial multivariable regression revealed that senior residents (odds ratio: 6.70; 95% confidence interval, 2.20-22.4) were more likely to desire a different residency program. In contrast, residents who reported constructive feedback use by the residency program (odds ratio:0.22; 95% confidence interval, 0.06-0.91) were more satisfied with their program choice. Conclusions Most RO residents reported satisfaction with their choice of residency program, but seniors had higher rates of dissatisfaction. Possible interventions to improve professional satisfaction include incorporating constructive resident feedback to enhance the program. The potential impact of job market pressures on seniors should be further explored.
Proton Therapy for Pediatric Malignancies

In 2005–2011, the 5-year overall survival rate for children diagnosed with cancer reached 83.4%. While an increasing number of children are cured, two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors will develop chronic health conditions and 20% will die from toxicities or secondary malignancies as a result of their curative treatment. Decreasing the late effects of treatment while maintaining high tumor control rates are fundamental to improving survivorship. The primary advantage of proton therapy in pediatric cancer lies in the potential to reduce the late toxicities of radiation therapy. Efforts to quantify the therapeutic value of proton therapy relative to photon radiation are underway but require systematic tracking of disease control and adverse events. The economic value of proton therapy may be justified if the costs of managing acute symptoms, hormone deficiencies, normal-tissue complications, loss of productivity and achievement, and secondary cancers are considered in long-term survivors. As proton therapy matures, however, it is important to recognize that, unlike recent technological advancements in photon radiation delivery, proton therapy involves an inherently different radiobiology and clinicians should monitor unexpected toxicities. The purpose of this chapter is to review the rationale for proton therapy in pediatric malignancies and to objectively critique the existing evidence for proton therapy in this population.
The systemic response to surgery triggers the outgrowth of distant immune-controlled tumors in mouse models of dormancy

Patients undergoing surgical resection of primary breast tumors confront a risk for metastatic recurrence that peaks sharply 12 to 18 months after surgery. The cause of early metastatic relapse in breast cancer has long been debated, with many ascribing these relapses to the natural progression of the disease. Others have proposed that some aspect of surgical tumor resection triggers the outgrowth of otherwise-dormant metastases, leading to the synchronous pattern of relapse. Clinical data cannot distinguish between these hypotheses, and previous experimental approaches have not provided clear answers. Such uncertainty hinders the development and application of therapeutic approaches that could potentially reduce early metastatic relapse. We describe an experimental model system that definitively links surgery and the subsequent wound-healing response to the outgrowth of tumor cells at distant anatomical sites. Specifically, we find that the systemic inflammatory response induced after surgery promotes the emergence of tumors whose growth was otherwise restricted by a tumor-specific T cell response. Furthermore, we demonstrate that perioperative anti-inflammatory treatment markedly reduces tumor outgrowth in this model, suggesting that similar approaches might substantially reduce early metastatic recurrence in breast cancer patients.
The Lead Mines Under Attack

One hundred and fifty years later, the people of Wythe County, Virginia, still talk about the fabled ride of Molly Tynes that saved Wytheville and the lead mines close by. Molly, a cultured young woman who had attended college, was 26 years old that summer of 1863. She had come back home to help her father, Samuel Tynes, take care of her invalid mother on the family farm in southwestern Virginia. That same summer, Federal planners had determined to dispatch a raid deep into the very same country. The objectives were to attack Wytheville, eliminate the lead operations a few miles south of town at Austinvlle and the salt works at Saltville, and sever the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad.
Drainage Reversals Due to Tectonic Uplift: an Investigation through Modeling

In mountainous landscapes throughout the world bedrock dominated river channels record a history of the tectonic and climatic evolution of the drainage basins that contain them. In traditional analysis of river profiles, uplift and erosion are considered to be in balance in a steady state. In this study the transient state of a drainage basin is explored and numerically modeled, where a Gaussian shaped pulse of tectonic uplift overwhelms the river’s incision and forces a diversion of the drainage network. I review the derivation of and use the detachment limited stream power equation to execute a model to find the physical condition that produce these dramatic drainage response. The Eel River and the unique tectonics of the nearby Mendocino Triple Junction, a well-researched case study in this phenomenon, provide context and parameters. The results of my models suggest that a rapid increase in uplift and a low erosion factor are the two most important conditions for a diversion response.
A Mitochondrial-Derived Peptide Exercises the Nuclear Option.

The vast majority of mitochondrial proteins are encoded by nuclear genes, giving the nucleus ultimate control of mitochondrial biogenesis, dynamics, and function. However, in this issue Kim et al. (2018) demonstrate a reversal of fortune, whereby an mtDNA-encoded peptide, MOTS-c, is targeted to the nucleus to signal changes in gene expression.
Damping mistuning effects on the amplification factor and statistical investigation of vane packet

Abstract Turbine engine compressors consist of many stages. Each stage consists of rotating blades and stationary vanes. Interactions between the rotating blades and the stationary vanes create traveling periodic excitations. The structure is also periodic because its construction has the form of spatially repeated units. Tuned bladed disks are spatially repetitive structures, and their geometry is fully described by that of a sector. The dynamic characteristics of a sector determine the dynamic behavior of the entire tuned structure. Hence, modern structural analysis of bladed disks takes advantage of the assumption of cyclic symmetry. In general, however, vanes consist of several packets; each packet having multiple sectors interconnected with a platform and a casting. The vane system is partially periodic but not cyclic symmetric since the packets are not strongly connected with each other. Due to this fact, the methodologies to understand the dynamic responses of cyclically symmetric structures are not applicable to a vane system. Therefore, a new approach to investigate vane responses under traveling wave excitations and the effect of mistuning between the blades of vanes is presented. A mode-based methodology is used to identify the most responding mode under a traveling wave excitation. Also, a reduced order model (ROM) for calculating the effect of a damping mistuning combined with a stiffness mistuning on a vane packet is presented. A novel methodology for statistical analyses to investigate the effect of damping mistuning in a vane is presented also. The developed ROMs are validated by comparing ROM-predicted steady state harmonic responses to full-order analyses in ANSYS. It is observed that the maximum error of the ROM-predicted amplitude is under 1%. Based on the developed ROMs, a simple algebraic equation is derived for predicting amplification factors by introducing the concept of unit damping mistuning. Amplification factors for all engine order excitations are examined to verify the performance of the proposed methodology. The effects of damping mistuning are studied statistically through Monte Carlo simulations.
It matters when you measure it: using snow-cover Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to isolate post-fire conifer regeneration

Abstract. Landsat Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is commonly used to monitor post-fire green-up; however, most studies do not distinguish new growth of conifer from deciduous or herbaceous species, despite potential consequences for local climate, carbon and wildlife. We found that dual season (growing and snow cover) NDVI improved our ability to distinguish conifer tree presence and density. We then examined the post-fire pattern (1984–2017) in Landsat NDVI for fires that occurred a minimum of 20 years ago (1986–1997). Points were classified into four categories depending on whether NDVI, 20 years post-fire, had returned to pre-fire values in only the growing season, only under snow cover, in both seasons or neither. We found that each category of points showed distinct patterns of NDVI change that could be used to characterise the average pre-fire and post-fire vegetation condition Of the points analysed, 43% showed a between-season disagreement if NDVI had returned to pre-fire values, suggesting that using dual-season NDVI can modify our interpretations of post-fire conditions. We also found an improved correlation between 5- and 20-year NDVI change under snow cover, potentially attributable to snow masking fast-growing herbaceous vegetation. This study suggests that snow-cover Landsat imagery can enhance characterisations of forest recovery following fire.
Phase Plane Analysis of Nuclear-Coupled Density-Wave Oscillations

Due to a tight coupling between thermal-hydraulic and neutronic performance of boiling water reactors (BWRs), there exists the potential for nonlinear limit cycle oscillations in coolant flowrate and core power. Physical understanding of the limit cycle oscillations is of considerable importance for safe and reliable operation of BWRs, especially in regard to anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) events. Although considerable attention1–8 has been given to these potential instability problems, most of the earlier investigations1–3 have focused mainly on frequency-domain linear models for prediction of the instability threshold, assessment of the stability margins, and establishment of the stability boundary. While these linear analyses are intended for use as a design tool to avoid the inception of flow oscillations, they are not capable of predicting the severity of oscillations in an unstable configuration. More recently,6–8 the potential for large-amplitude limit cycle oscillations has been explicitly studied with nonlinear BWR models for linearly unstable operating regimes.
Temporo-frontal activation during phonological processing predicts gains in arithmetic facts in young children.

Abstract Behavioral studies have shown discrepant results regarding the role of phonology in predicting math gains. The objective of this study was to use fMRI to study the role of activation during a rhyming judgment task in predicting behavioral gains on math fluency, multiplication, and subtraction skill. We focused within the left middle/superior temporal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus, brain areas associated with the storage of phonological representations and with their access, respectively. We ran multiple regression analyses to determine whether activation predicted gains in the three math measures, separately for younger (i.e. 10 years old) and older (i.e 12 years old) children. Results showed that activation in both temporal and frontal cortex only predicted gains in fluency and multiplication skill, and only for younger children. This study suggests that both temporal and frontal cortex activation during phonological processing are important in predicting gains in math tasks that involve the retrieval of facts that are stored as phonological codes in memory. Moreover, these results were specific to younger children, suggesting that phonology is most important in the early stages of math development. When the math task involved subtractions, which relies on quantity representations, phonological processes were not important in driving gains.
FSMonitor: Scalable File System Monitoring for Arbitrary Storage Systems

Data automation, monitoring, and management tools are reliant on being able to detect, report, and respond to file system events. Various data event reporting tools exist for specific operating systems and storage devices, such as inotify for Linux, kqueue for BSD, and FSEvents for macOS. However, these tools are not designed to monitor distributed file systems. Indeed, many cannot scale to monitor many thousands of directories, or simply cannot be applied to distributed file systems. Moreover, each tool implements a custom API and event representation, making the development of generalized and portable event-based applications challenging. As file systems grow in size and become increasingly diverse, there is a need for scalable monitoring solutions that can be applied to a wide range of both distributed and local systems. We present here a generic and scalable file system monitor and event reporting tool, FSMonitor, that provides a file-system-independent event representation and event capture interface. FSMonitor uses a modular Data Storage Interface (DSI) architecture to enable the selection and application of appropriate event monitoring tools to detect and report events from a target file system, and implements efficient and fault-tolerant mechanisms that can detect and report events even on large file systems. We describe and evaluate DSIs for common UNIX, macOS, and Windows storage systems, and for the Lustre distributed file system. Our experiments on a 897 TB Lustre file system show that FSMonitor can capture and process almost 38 000 events per second.
Regional Ways of Seeing: A Big-Data Approach for Measuring Ancient Visualscapes

Archaeologists have long acknowledged the significance of mountains in siting Greek cult. Mountains were where the gods preferred to make contact and there people constructed sanctuaries to inspire intervention. Greece is a land full of mountains, but we lack insight on the ancient Greeks’ view—what visible and topographic characteristics made particular mountains ideal places for worship over others, and whether worshiper preferences ever changed. This article describes a data collection and analysis methodology for landscapes where visualscape was a significant factor in situating culturally significant activities. Using a big-data approach, four geospatial analyses are applied to every cultic place in the Peloponnesian regions of the Argolid and Messenia, spanning 2800–146 BC. The fully described methodology combines a number of experiences—looking out, looking toward, and climbing up—and measures how these change through time. The result is an active historic model of Greek religious landscape, describing how individuals moved, saw, and integrated the built and natural world in different ways. Applied elsewhere, and even on nonreligious locales, this is a replicable mode for treating the natural landscape as an artifact of human decision: as a space impacting the siting of meaningful locales through history.
Rates of Burnout, Depression, Suicide, and Substance Use Disorders

Knowing the epidemiological data regarding rates of burnout, depression, suicide, and substance use disorders in physicians – and specifically in women physicians – is a crucial first step in understanding and confronting this very important issue. Although studies vary widely in their reported rates of burnout due to a number of methodological differences, most evidence shows high levels of burnout among the majority of physicians across the training, life, and career spectrum. Burnout rates are correlated strongly to rates of depression, suicide, and substance use disorders. Evidence suggests that burnout is more commonly experienced in women physicians than their male counterparts, with some data suggesting that women physicians experience up to double the rate of burnout. More research is needed to fully understand and track rates of these topics in physician populations – particularly to understand gender differences and the impact of potential interventions.
Detecting Affective Flow States of Knowledge Workers Using Physiological Sensors.

Flow-like experiences at work are important for productivity and worker well-being. However, it is difficult to objectively detect when workers are experiencing flow in their work. In this paper, we investigate how to predict a worker's focus state based on physiological signals. We conducted a lab study to collect physiological data from knowledge workers experienced different levels of flow while performing work tasks. We used the nine characteristics of flow to design tasks that would induce different focus states. A manipulation check using the Flow Short Scale verified that participants experienced three distinct flow states, one overly challenging non-flow state, and two types of flow states, balanced flow, and automatic flow. We built machine learning classifiers that can distinguish between non-flow and flow states with 0.889 average AUC and rest states from working states with 0.98 average AUC. The results show that physiological sensing can detect focused flow states of knowledge workers and can enable ways to for individuals and organizations to improve both productivity and worker satisfaction.
Interpenetrating Polymer Networks

An interpenetrating polymer network, IPN, is a combination of two polymers in network form, at least one of which is synthesized and/or cross-linked in the immediate presence of the other (L. H. Sperling, Interpenetrating Polymer Networks and Related Materials, Plenum Press, New York, 1981). An IPN is distinguished from other multipolymer combinations, such as polymer blends, blocks, and grafts, in two ways: (1) an IPN swells, but does not dissolve in solvents; and (2) creep and flow are suppressed. This article discusses synthesis, morphology, glass transitions, and mechanical behavior of IPNs, and outlines known and proposed applications of these materials. Some applications of note include sound and vibration damping, biomedical applications, natural products and renewable resources, tough and impact-resistant materials, etc. Keywords: interpenetrating network; IPN; SIN; phase separation
Finding commonalities in rare diseases through the undiagnosed diseases network.

Objective When studying any specific rare disease, heterogeneity and scarcity of affected individuals has historically hindered investigators from discerning on what to focus to understand and diagnose a disease. New nongenomic methodologies must be developed that identify similarities in seemingly dissimilar conditions. Materials and methods This observational study analyzes 1042 patients from the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (2015-2019), a multicenter, nationwide research study using phenotypic data annotated by specialized staff using Human Phenotype Ontology terms. We used Louvain community detection to cluster patients linked by Jaccard pairwise similarity and 2 support vector classifier to assign new cases. We further validated the clusters' most representative comorbidities using a national claims database (67 million patients). Results Patients were divided into 2 groups: those with symptom onset before 18 years of age (n = 810) and at 18 years of age or older (n = 232) (average symptom onset age: 10 [interquartile range, 0-14] years). For 810 pediatric patients, we identified 4 statistically significant clusters. Two clusters were characterized by growth disorders, and developmental delay enriched for hypotonia presented a higher likelihood of diagnosis. Support vector classifier showed 0.89 balanced accuracy (0.83 for Human Phenotype Ontology terms only) on test data. Discussions To set the framework for future discovery, we chose as our endpoint the successful grouping of patients by phenotypic similarity and provide a classification tool to assign new patients to those clusters. Conclusion This study shows that despite the scarcity and heterogeneity of patients, we can still find commonalities that can potentially be harnessed to uncover new insights and targets for therapy.
The Design-Methods Comparison Project

Early in the system design process, a design method must be chosen. This choice is usually dictated by what methods the designer has previously used, not by an open selection process. We provide descriptions of some available design methods and examples of their use. We develop benchmark problems that are solved by a variety of design methods and which identify characteristics of problems that might make one system design method more or less appropriate. The question we wish to answer is, “For which type of problem is each method best?” If a system is to be built, then that system must ultimately be described as a collection of state machines. However, these state machines are often not created by the systems engineers. The systems engineers use some method to create a high-level abstraction of the desired system. Then they turn this abstraction over to the specialty engineers who actually reduce it to a collection of state machines. We present solutions for a simple design problem by using the following 11 high-level system design methods: state transition diagrams, algorithmic state machine (ASM) notation, model-based system engineering, graphical description language, RDD-100, structured analysis, functional decomposition, object-oriented analysis (OOA) with Shlaer-Mellor notation, OOA and object-oriented design (OOD) with Booch notation, an operational evaluation modeling-directed graph, and IDEF0. Each method was used by an expert user of that method. The solutions presented make it obvious that the choice of a design method greatly effects the resulting system design
CALIOP and AERONET aerosol optical depth comparisons: One size fits none

We compare the aerosol optical depths (AOD) retrieved from backscatter measurements of the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard the Cloud Aerosol Lidar Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite with coincident Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) measurements. Overpass coincidence criteria of +/- 2 h and within a 40 km radius are satisfied at least once at 149 globally distributed AERONET sites from 2006 to 2010. Most data pairs (>80%) use AERONET measurements acquired +/- 30 min of the overpass. We examine the differences in AOD estimates between CALIOP and AERONET for various aerosol, environmental, and geographic conditions. Results show CALIOP AOD are lower than AERONET AOD especially at low optical depths as measured by AERONET (500 nm AOD 0.1. Differences in AOD between CALIOP and AERONET are possibly due to cloud contamination, scene inhomogeneity, instrument view angle differences, CALIOP retrieval errors, and detection limits. Comparison of daytime to nighttime number of 5 km 60m (60m in the vertical) features detected by CALIOP show that there are 20% more aerosol features at night. We find that CALIPSO and AERONET do not agree on the cloudiness of scenes. Of the scenes that meet the above coincidence criteria, CALIPSO finds clouds in more than 45% of the coincident atmospheric columns AERONET classifies as clear.
Depalmitoylation of CAAX Motif Proteins PROTEIN STRUCTURAL DETERMINANTS OF PALMITATE TURNOVER RATE

In the present study, we examined the effect of amino acid substitutions on the rate of turnover of palmitate bound to a model "CAAX" motif protein H-Ras. These experiments were designed to shed light on the specificity of the process that removes palmitate from prenylated proteins. H-Ras, protein A-Ras fusion constructs, and constructs with amino acid substitutions in the H-Ras hypervariable region were transfected into COS cells, and the turnover rate of palmitate bound to each expressed protein was measured. We found no evidence for strict sequence specificity for palmitate removal, but found a strong inverse correlation between palmitate turnover rate and the degree of membrane association for any given construct, with slower turnover rates associated with stronger membrane binding. These data support a model in which the palmitate turnover rate is determined by access to a depalmitoylating enzyme and argue against a more complex model in which specific recognition of palmitoylated proteins is required.
Sarcoidosis-Associated Pulmonary Hypertension.

There is growing appreciation for the prevalence and impact of pulmonary hypertension in patients with sarcoidosis (SAPH). This chapter will focus on the pathophysiology of this complication and its association with patients’ outcomes, including functional ability and survival. When to suspect complicating SAPH will be addressed with a suggested work-up algorithm presented. The potential role and data supporting the use of pulmonary vasoactive agents in SAPH will be addressed. However, there is a paucity of data in this area and the need for further investigation in the form of multicenter, double-blind, randomized controlled studies will be underscored.
Regulation of Manganese Accumulation and Exchange in Bacillus subtilis W23

An overnight culture of Bacillus subtilis W23 in low-manganese tryptone broth is unable to sporulate and becomes hyperactive with regard to the manganese active transport system during stationary phase. When manganese is added to cells in spent or fresh medium, the cells immediately accumulate a high proportion of the manganese available in the medium. When the hyperactive cells are diluted into broth containing 10 μM Mn2+, high intracellular manganese levels are reached, and inhibition of ribonucleic acid and protein synthesis occurs. This inhibition is relieved when the intracellular manganese concentration declines to the nontoxic levels characteristic of cells growing in 10 μM Mn2+. The release of the accumulated manganese is achieved by a reduction in the uptake rate for manganese while the efflux rate remains essentially constant. Inhibitors of ribonucleic acid and protein synthesis prevent the reduction of the high rate of manganese uptake and, therefore, high net concentrations of manganese are maintained in the presence of these inhibitors. The hyperactive manganese uptake system is temperature dependent and inhibited by cyanide and m-chlorophenyl carbonylcyanide hydrazone.
Initial experiments in using communication swarms to improve the performance of swarm systems

Swarm intelligence can provide robust, adaptable, scalable solutions to difficult problems. The distributed nature of swarm activity is the basis of these desirable qualities, but it also prevents swarm-based techniques from having direct access to global knowledge that could facilitate the task at hand. Our experiments indicate that a swarm system can use an auxiliary swarm, called a communication swarm, to create and distribute an approximation of useful global knowledge, without sacrificing robustness, adaptability, and scalability. We describe a communication swarm and validate its effectiveness on a simple problem.
Scheduling in wireless networks with full-duplex cut-through transmission

The recent breakthrough in wireless full-duplex communication makes possible a brand new way of multi-hop wireless communication, namely full-duplex cut-through transmission, where for a traffic flow that traverses through multiple links, every node along the route can receive a new packet and simultaneously forward the previously received packet. This wireless transmission scheme brings new challenges in the design of MAC layer algorithms that aim to reap its full benefit. First, the MAC layer rate region of the cut-through enabled network is directly a function of the routing decision, leading to a strong coupling between routing and scheduling. Second, it is unclear how to dynamically form/change cut-through routes based on the traffic rates and patterns. In this work, we introduce a novel method to characterize the interference relationship between links in the network with cut-through transmission, which decouples the routing decision with the scheduling decision and enables a seamless adaptation of traditional half-duplex routing/scheduling algorithm into wireless networks with full-duplex cut-through capabilities. Based on this interference model, a queue-length based CSMA-type scheduling algorithm is proposed, which both leverages the flexibility of full-duplex cut-through transmission and permits distributed implementation.
FAIR-fast assessment of interconnect reliability

The need for fast assessment of solder joint thermal fatigue life of surface mount packages motivated this development of a semi-analytic model, FAIR, based on the AT&T CSMR (comprehensive surface mount reliability) model. FAIR has three elements: (1) validated mechanical properties of 63Sn-37Pb. The elastic and plastic properties from different publications were compared and shown to be in good agreements, but the steady state creep rates were not. Creep tests of solder joints were conducted and the measured creep rates were between Wang's and Darveaux's equations. (2) Improved calculation of stress and strain in the solder joint during a thermal cycle. The analytic expression of stress relaxation was derived. The lead compliance calculation based on Kotlowitz's formula was modified. The method for quick formation of the closed stress vs strain loop was proposed. Bending, tension, and compression of package and printed circuit board (PCB) were included. (3) Verified fatigue life vs. damage parameter relation. The CSMR database was decoded from the publication. Isothermal fatigue test of solder joints were performed, the results support the CSMR database of fatigue life per solder joint area vs inelastic strain energy. The results of thermal chamber tests of TSOPs (thin small outline packages) fit well with the CSMR database.
An efficiency-based adaptive refinement scheme applied to incompressible, resistive magnetohydrodynamics

This paper describes the use of an efficiency-based adaptive mesh refinement scheme, known as ACE, on a 2D reduced model of the incompressible, resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations A first-order system least squares (FOSLS) finite element formulation and algebraic multigrid (AMG) are used in the context of nested iteration The FOSLS a posteriori error estimates allow the nested iteration and ACE algorithms to yield the best accuracy-per-computational-cost The ACE scheme chooses which elements to add when interpolating to finer grids so that the best error reduction with the least amount of cost is obtained, when solving on the refined grid We show that these methods, applied to the simulation of a tokamak fusion reactor instability, yield approximations to solutions within discretization accuracy using less than the equivalent amount of work needed to perform 10 residual calculations on the finest uniform grid.
Abstract 19245: Motivational Interviewing Tailored Intervention to Promote Heart Failure Self-care (MITI-HF): Primary Study Results

Background: Self-care is important for optimizing heart failure (HF) patient health and the best strategy for promoting self-care is unclear. Methods: This was a single blind pilot randomized control trial with two groups. Patients with HF were recruited from an urban hospital and randomized 2:1 to the motivational interviewing (MI) intervention or usual care. Eligibility criteria included having a diagnosis of HF, living within 30 miles of the hospital, not being on milrinone or a pre-transplant list. The MI intervention was provided during a single home visit and 3-4 follow-up phone calls over 90 days by a nurse. Self-care was measured with the Self Care of Heart Failure Index, which uses a standardized 0-100 score. Higher scores indicate better self-care; an 8 point change is clinically relevant. Results: A total of 67 participants completed the study (mean age 62 ± 12.8 years), 54% were black, 30% female and 63% educated at ≤ high school level. Most were symptomatic (84% NYHA III or IV), with 5.5 ± 2....
Quality of service (QoS) sensitivity for the OSPF protocol in the airborne networking environment

In this paper we examine the use of the open shortest path first (OSPF) protocol for use within the future airborne network. OSPF is one of the standards-based routing protocols that could be used within the airborne network. However, given the fading characteristics of airborne line-of-sight (LOS) channels, OSPF may not be as effective as it is in the commercial terrestrial Internet. Therefore, some modification of OSPF timer settings, most notably the "Hello" protocol timers, may be necessary to enable OSPF to be useful for airborne networking. Our experiments, which examined the effects of OSPF settings in an airborne network environment, demonstrate that configuring the settings to provide faster convergence can reduce the traffic loss by up to 80%. Average packet latency and average packet jitter were not significantly affected by the changes to the OSPF timers. It will be important for the airborne network to consider connectivity interruptions when configuring a routing protocol to limit data losses
Plenary speech III: visual appearance modeling and perception with retinal and cortical signal processing

Summary form only given. This talk focuses on the problem of shape estimation using multiple views from a land based mobile robot equipped with CCD cameras and a laser range finder that can compute the range of a target along a fixed horizontal plane. The talk surveys the problem of shape estimation from optical flow of points, lines and algebraic curves and emphasizes the fusion of camera and range sensors. Inspired from Neuroscience, the talk also introduces the role of cortical flow to the problem of encoding visual input signals and subsequently decoding these inputs using maximum likelihood estimates. To end the talk, we model the appearance of an object using principal component analysis and argue the role of appearance dynamics as an alternative to optical flow based algorithms.
CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Obesity in the U.S. is a problem that is beginning to grow large in our children‘s lives. The solution to this problem is centered in three areas; the help of the community, health education, and consumer education. The two main factors casing childhood obesity is eating high fat, high protein foods along with a serious sedentary lifestyle. Childhood obesity in the United State is a rising epidemic, a serious health crisis, and is steadily increasing because it seems that people refuse to change for the good of the nation. Since the last decade the percentage of children being obese has increased steadily. The cause of this is a poor nutrition and physical activity and the plan is to get back to how it used to be, if not better. Children in the U.S. are eating more processed foods at home and there is less physical activity and sports at school. While children are developing bad habits when they are young, they are likely to turn into an adult who is obese and has bad habits. This is a serious issue that needs the attentions of everyone, including government, researchers, media, schools, public health officials, and parents.
Large accelerations from small thermal differences: case studies and conventional reproduction of microwave effects on palladium couplings

Many palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions been reported to proceed more quickly upon microwave irradiation than when they are warmed to the same temperatures by more conventional heat sources. The origins of this phenomenon in two Buchwald-Hartwig couplings have been investigated by collecting kinetic data, which show the differences arising from the two heat sources to be much less dramatic at early times than total reaction durations imply. The observed difference is attributed to the interplay of rapid catalyst deactivation with subtle variations between the early temperatures in microwave and conventional heating. Experimental elimination of these small thermal differences brought microwave and conventional heating results into close agreement in these and related reactions, adding to the growing consensus that in most systems, microwaves differ from traditional heating only by their thermal effects, rather than more exotic phenomena.
Biliary tract carcinoma

The key to successful management of biliary tract carcinoma is early diagnosis and a multidisciplinary team approach involving a hepatobiliary surgeon, therapeutic endoscopist, and oncologist. Management depends on the location of the tumor ( proximal or distal), and resectability. Distal tumors that are resectable are best treated with radical pancreaticoduodenectomy, while nonresectable distal tumors are treated by using endoscopic or percutaneous biliary stents for biliary decompression. Treatment of proximal resectable tumors depends on the Bismuth Classification. Bismuth I and II tumors can be resected without concomitant hepatic resection, and Bismuth III and IV tumors require local tumor and hepatic parenchymal resection. Nonresectable proximal tumors are best treated with percutaneous transhepatic biliary stents. The role of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and photodynamic therapy in these patients remains investigational.
Effect of some cannabinoids on naloxone-precipitated abstinence in morphine-dependent mice

Mice were rendered morphine-dependent by the subcutaneous implantation of a pellet containing 75 mg of morphine base; 72 h after the implantation, the animals were injected intraperitoneally either with vehicle or with various doses of delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, delta8-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, cannabinol, or 11-hydroxy-delta8-tetrahydrocannabinol. Thirty minutes after injection of the cannabinoids, the antagonist, naloxone HC1, was administered to induce the stereotyped withdrawal jumping syndrome. The dose of naloxone needed to induce withdrawal jumping in 50% of the animals (ED50) was determined for each dose of the cannabinoids. All of the cannabinoids inhibited the naloxone-precipitated morphine abstinence as evidenced by an increase in the naloxone ED50. Two additional signs of morphine abstinence, defecation and rearing behavior, were also suppressed by the cannabinoids. The relative effectiveness of the cannabinoids in inhibiting morphine abstinence appeared to be in the following order: delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol greater than delta8-tetrahydrocannabinol greater than 11-hydroxy-delta8-tetrahydrocannabinol greater than cannabidiol greater than cannabinol. These data suggest that cannabinoids may be useful in facilitating narcotic detoxification.
Exploring Magnetic Activity from The Sun to the Stars

Sun-like stars are known to display a wide variety of magnetic activity which is likely to be the signature of a hydromagnetic dynamo mechanism working in stellar interiors. This dynamo mechanism has been studied extensively in the context of the Sun. Here we take ideas and experiences gained from solar dynamo modeling and build upon it to study the inferred scaling laws, involving stellar parameters, from observations of stellar magnetic activity. We also discuss how such a synthesis of theoretical dynamo modeling of Sun-like stars and stellar cycle observations may help us reconstruct the long-term variability of the Sun – an important ingredient for understanding the effects of solar forcing on space and global climate.
5 Facts, 3 Lessons, and 2 Rules that doing ethnography of ICT in rural China taught me

In a year-long ethnography of mobile phones and computer use in the Chinese countryside I saw unexpected uses and unexpected users of technology, I learned valuable lessons on conducting research in alien yet familiar environments, and I realized what are the two most important rules of fieldwork. In this talk, I summarize the facts (ICT devices are often gifted, not bought; ICT is for entertainment, and that's a good thing; people go online without knowing it; farmers enjoy playing Farmville; old people know a lot about the Internet even if they never used it), share the lessons (trust grandmothers, enjoy discrepant versions people give of the same facts, and do manual labor), and propose the rules (stay still, but never procrastinate interviews) from my rural Chinese year.
Creation of a thoracic duct fistula: An improved technique

Abstract A simple, effective technique has been developed for creating a chronic thoracic duct fistula in dogs. The ease of construction and high lymph flow associated with the fistula make it the preferred technique when total body lymph collection is desired.
Experimental studies in stream-aquifer interaction along the Arkansas river in central Kansas-field testing and analysis

Abstract During the last several years, streamflows of a number of Kansas streams have been reduced as a result of groundwater declines. In order to better understand and quantify stream-aquifer interrelationships, an eight-day comprehensive stream-aquifer pumping test, followed by recovery monitoring, was conducted along the Arkansas River near Great Bend, Kansas. In addition to water level monitoring in numerous observation wells, streamflow data, streambed hydraulic gradients, neutron probe-based water content of dewatered sediments, water chemistry and other data were collected. The alluvial aquifer is shown to be highly transmissive ( T = 1803 m 2 d −1 ) with the pumping stress (9538 m 3 d −1 ) having a radius of influence larger than 1.77 km, impacting both the aquifer levels and the streamflow in the nearby Arkansas River. Drawdown and recharge boundary effects were observed in all observation wells, including those on the opposite side of the river. The alluvial aquifer did not exhibit a water table behavior and responded as a leaky confined aquifer. A semiconfining clay layer less than 3 m thick and an additional recharge source from a nearby stream-alluvial system were the probable causes of the observed phenomena. Actual streamflow depletion is shown to be appreciably less than the computed depletion based on analytical solutions.
An Empirical Study of Factors Related to Expenditures and Revenues in Public Doctoral-Granting Universities.

This study of expenditures and revenues of public doctoral-granting institutions in the United States illustrates empirical procedures for analyzing readily available, regularly collected data. Although the models described in the article are not entirely satisfactory, they do provide insights not available from other analytical procedures. The models indicate that major research universities and other doctoral granting institutions are different in terms of their expenditure and revenue patterns. They also suggest that student-related variables are of secondary importance in determining expenditure and revenue levels.
Programming development control system

In an effort to optimize Cobol conversion from one environment to another, an APL system to automate various phases of the conversion was employed. This system performed a lot of actual Cobol code conversion itself, as well as managing flow of Cobol programs from one phase of conversion to another. A pleasant side effect to this approach was the minimization of labor necessary to convert the Cobol code. Manually, a tedious chore, the automated conversion required far less manual effort than initially estimated for the entire conversion project. Many APL processed programs require no programmer effort to complete, while most programming required minimal hand work after the APL phase was completed.An excercise in running mixed environment - APL, non-APL, interactive, batch -, this effort was a practical and economical approach to the problem at hand.
The thermodynamics of cation distributions in simple spinels

The cation distribution in binary spinels has been treated as a simple chemical equilibrium. If the entropy change associated with the disordering of an initially normal spinel is equated to the configurational entropy alone, the molar enthalpy of interchange of ions on tetrahedral sites with ions on octahedral sites may be calculated from cation distribution data known at a single temperature for each spinel. These interchange enthalpies have been calculated for a series of 2–3 spinels, and have been used to obtain empirical site preference energies for a series of divalent and trivalent ions in the spinel structure. Results are presented of a calorimetric study of the disordering enthalpy in a sample of natural spinel (MgAl2O4).
1 Hz operation of a gain-saturated 10.9 nm table-top laser

We report a gain-saturated 10.9nm table-top soft x-ray laser operating at 1 Hz repetition rate. With an average power of 1 mW and pulse energy up to ∼2 mJ this laser extends a shorter wavelength the ability to conduct table-top laser experiments.
Gravity instability in the Holocene Big and Little Glass Mountain rhyolitic obsidian flows, northern California

Abstract Field relations on the surfaces of the Holocene Big and Little Glass Mountain rhyolitic obsidian flows in northern California suggest that regularly spaced areas of coarsely vesicular pumice are diapirs which rose from the base of the flow in response to a density inversion inherent in the flow stratigraphy. The flows contain three lithologic units, defined on the bases of color, texture, and specific gravity, which are arranged in the following vertical sequence: a basal layer of coarsely vesicular, brownish grey pumice ( ρ ∼- 0.8 to 2.0), a central core of black, glassy obsidian ( ρ ∼- 2.2), and a surface crust of white to pinkish grey, finely vesicular pumice ( ρ ∼- 2.0). The flows were modeled as multilayered fluid systems with unstable density stratifications, and the spacings of coarse pumice diapirs were equated with the dominant wavelengths of viscous folding theory. Wavelengths of 45 m, 56 m, and 104 m were calculated using measurements of unit thicknesses and estimates of viscosity ratios for the three lobes. Dome spacings of 43 m, 70 m, and 60 m were measured on the same three flow lobes. Discrepancies between predicted and measured spacings are attributed to local variations in thicknesses and viscosities of the flow units. Elongation and surface folding of diapirs are cited as evidence that they emerged before the flows stopped moving.