cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stent-graft therapy for subclavian artery aneurysms and fistulas: single-center mid-term results.

PURPOSE To evaluate the potential of covered stents to replace surgery in the treatment of subclavian artery aneurysms and traumatic injuries. MATERIALS AND METHODS Nine patients (five men, four women; age range, 20–83 years; mean, 54 years) with subclavian artery aneurysms ( n = 5) or fistulas ( n = 4) were treated with stent-grafts. All devices used were custom-made, consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered Palmaz ( n = 5), Wallstent ( n = 2), Z stents ( n = 8), or a polyester-covered Z stent ( n = 1). One patient was lost to follow-up after 2 months. All others were followed up with clinical evaluation, computed tomography (CT), and/or ultrasound. RESULTS All devices were deployed successfully with exclusion of the aneurysms and fistulas. There were two procedure-related complications (22%), consisting of groin pseudoaneurysms requiring surgical repair 3 and 9 days after the procedure. One of those patients required additional oral antibiotic therapy for a postsurgical groin wound infection. One patient developed a stenosis at 12 months, which required angioplasty. The stent-graft thrombosed in one patient because of a kink 2 months after placement, which was successfully treated by thrombolysis and placement of a Wallstent. The primary and secondary patencies are 89% and 100%, respectively, after a mean follow-up of 29 months (2–66 mo). CONCLUSION Mid-term results of stent-graft therapy of subclavian artery aneurysms and fistulas are encouraging, with low morbidity and excellent clinical outcome.
Sodium channels are required during in vivo sodium chloride hyperosmolarity to stimulate increase in intestinal endothelial nitric oxide production.

NaCl hyperosmolarity increases intestinal blood flow during food absorption due in large part to increased NO production. We hypothesized that in vivo, sodium ions enter endothelial cells during Na...
A Fixed-Wing, Mini-UAV System for Aerial Search Operations

the same benefits as typical aerial vehicles, with greatly reduced costs and risks. In this paper, we propose a system for greatly simplifying the use of an mUAV in aerial search operations. Rather than training a user to fly the mUAV, this system enables the user to simply watch the video returned from the mUAV and select objects of interest in the video. When an object of interest is selected, the mUAV system autonomously orbits the object, geo-locates the target, and writes out still images enabling the user to find identifying features and the orientation of the object. Results from a test-flight of the system show the system performed as anticipated, greatly simplifying the search and observation tasks required of the mUAV system.
GoS-based pricing and resource allocation for multimedia broadband networks

Broadband network are developed to carry a wide range of traffic which has different characteristics and grade-of-service (GoS) requirements. To meet these distinct requirements, we propose to decompose each network component into multiple sub-components. Each sub-component has a dedicated bandwidth and buffer, and it only carries traffic which has a similar GoS requirement. Thus it will reduce the interference from other types of traffic which has totally different GoS requirements. First, we develop a GoS-based pricing scheme which will entail the resources are efficiently utilized. The equilibrium stability is also studied. Then we address the problem of how to optimally allocate available resources among the sub-components. Resource expansion becomes necessary when the network is congested. Two kinds of routing schemes are proposed. One is least cost routing for GoS-insensitive traffic and the other is best GoS routing for GoS-sensitive traffic.
Ancestors, Domestic Groups, and the Socialist State: Housing Nationalization and Restitution in Romania

As in the vast majority of socialist states that arose with the Soviet Union's postWorld War II hegemony over Eastern Europe, People's Republic of Romania nationalized (confiscated) a large number of privately owned houses. The de.clared intention of the state was to eliminate housing inequality and the private rental sector in urban areas. In 1950, the state appropriated both leased and family homes that were considered to have too much domestic space. The inhabitants of confiscated houses became tenants instead of owners. Tenants were made to live with the former owners in such expropriated domestic space. With the collapse of state socialism in 1989, former owners and their descendants began seeking to regain the property rights for these confiscated houses. In a limited number of cases they succeeded, although the majority of houses had been sold by the state to the sitting tenants at very low prices. Studying nationalization and restitution one may ask the following questions: What role does the home play in the reproduction and breakdown of kinship relations? What happens to kinship when property transmission is denied? Do the perceived feelings of closeness between ancestors and living kin vary when property is lost or reclaimed? Does the authority of the head of the household decrease with state intervention? What kind of social relations are established with tenant families placed into households by the state, with those that they
Gene expression changes in the hypothalamus provide evidence for regionally-selective changes in IL-1 and microglial markers after acute stress.

Abstract Recent work from our laboratory and others has shown that certain stressors increase expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1) in the hypothalamus. The first goal of the following studies was to assess the impact of acute stress on other key inflammatory factors, including both cytokines and cell surface markers for immune-derived cells resident to the CNS in adult male Sprague Dawley rats exposed to intermittent footshock (80 shocks, 90 s variable ITI, 5 s each). While scattered changes in IL-6 and GFAP were observed in the hippocampus and cortex, we found the hypothalamus to be exquisitely sensitive to the effects of footshock. At the level of the hypothalamus, mRNA for IL-1 and CD14 were significantly increased, while at the same time CD200R mRNA was significantly decreased. A subsequent experiment demonstrated that propranolol (20 mg/kg i.p.) blocked the increase in IL-1 and CD14 mRNA observed in the hypothalamus, while the decrease in CD200R was unaffected by propranolol. Interestingly, inhibition of glucocorticoid synthesis via injection of metyrapone (50 mg/kg s.c.) plus aminoglutethimide (100 mg/kg s.c.) increased basal IL-1 mRNA and augmented IL-1 and CD14 expression provoked by footshock. Injection of minocycline, a putative microglial inhibitor, blocked the IL-1 response to footshock, while CD14 and CD200R were unaffected. Together, these gene expression changes (i) provide compelling evidence that stress may provoke neuroinflammatory changes that extend well beyond isolated changes in a single cytokine; (ii) suggest opposing roles for classic stress-responsive factors (norepinephrine and corticosterone) in the modulation of stress-related neuroinflammation; (iii) indicate microglia within the hypothalamus may be key players in stress-related neuroinflammation; and (iv) provide a potential mechanism (increased CD14) by which acute stress primes reactivity to later immune challenge.
Microwave Resonator Circuit Model from Measured Data Fitting

An iterative procedure is developed for least squares estimation, from measured impedance data, of the parameters specifying a lumped-element resonant circuit equivalent to a dielectric resonator single resonance. The procedure is applicable to large sets of measured data obtained by an automatic network analyzer.
Monitoring the Efficiency of Bridge Construction Using LWSM Model

Bridge construction has been closely monitored by government agencies, engineering and construction communities, and the general public. Previous research results show that to enhance the bridge construction operations there is a need to develop innovative technologies to improve communication and coordination among the participants involved in the bridge construction and to provide the labor working status information for project managers and engineers to quickly identify labor efficiency problems at the project sites. To address this need, a research project was conducted with the main objective of developing the Labor Working Status Monitoring Model that utilizes the Wireless Real-time Video Monitoring System and the benchmark data.
Tree-Structured Exponential Regression Modeling†

A method for fitting piecewise exponential regression models to censored survival data is described. Stratification is performed recursively, using a combination of statistical tests and residual analysis. The splitting criterion employed in cross-validation is the average squared error of the residuals. The bootstrap is employed to keep the probability of a type I error (the error of discovering two or more strata when there is only one) of the method close to a predetermined value. The proposed method can thus also serve as a formal goodness-of-fit test for the exponential regression model. Real and simulated data are used for illustration.
Chapter 3 Money in general equilibrium theory

Publisher Summary This chapter describes conditions for the existence of general monetary equilibrium in a simple setting and discusses the role of money in general equilibrium theory. The principal contribution of general equilibrium theory has been its axiomatic validation of the benchmark model of price taking, individual rationality, and market clearing. The basic role of money as a medium of exchange is lost unless it also fills its role as a numeraire. If the value of money in relation to goods is zero, it cannot serve its purpose at all. Because terminal money lays no apparent claim to goods or services, the terminal value of money is zero. This implies, by the same reasoning, that the value of money is zero in the penultimate period. In Bewley's infinite horizon model, uncertainty generates a precautionary demand for money. Because there are no other stores of value, agents hold money as insurance against shortfalls in endowment value. If monetary markets are operated by an authority set up for the common good, it is natural to suppose that the authority would be willing to collect money left at the market after terminal trading to dispose it.
Genetic and historical evidence disagree on likely sources of the Atlantic amethyst gem clam Gemma gemma (Totten, 1834) in California.

Aim Historical information about source populations of invasive species is often limited; therefore, genetic analyses are used. We compared inference about source populations from historical and genetic data for the oyster-associated clam, Gemma gemma that invaded California from the USA Atlantic coast. Location Mid-Atlantic (North Carolina, Maryland), Northeastern (New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts) and the California coasts (Elkhorn Slough, San Francisco Bay, Bolinas Lagoon, Tomales Bay, Bodega Harbor). Methods The documented history of transplantation of Eastern oysters to California was reviewed. Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences from recent and archived clams were examined in a haplotype network. We used AMOVA to detect geographic genetic structure and a permutation test for significant reductions in diversity. Results Chesapeake Bay oysters were transplanted to New York prior to shipment to San Francisco Bay and from there to peripheral bays. Gemma in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions were genetically differentiated. In California, populations in Bodega Harbor and Tomales Bay were genetically similar to those in the Mid-Atlantic area while clams in San Francisco Bay, Elkhorn Slough and Bolinas Lagoon resembled populations in the Northeastern region. In California, genetic variation was not highest in San Francisco Bay despite greater magnitude of oyster plantings. Haplotypes varied over time in native and introduced populations. Main Conclusions Historical records and inferences from genetics agree that both Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions were sources for Gemma in California. Only complex genetic hypotheses reconcile the strong segregation of haplotypes in California to the historical evidence of mixing in their proximate source (New York). These hypotheses include sorting of mixtures of haplotypes or selection in non-native areas. Haplotype turnover in San Francisco and Massachusetts samples over time suggests that the sorting hypothesis is plausible. We suggest, however, that Gemma was introduced independently and recently to Tomales Bay and Bodega Harbor.
Regional aspects of the prevention of learned helplessness by desipramine

Abstract Desipramine injected directly into the hippocampus, frontal neocortex, or lateral geniculate body prevented the development of learned helplessness in rats. It did not have this protective effect when injected into the septum, entorhinal cortex, posterior neocortex, nucleus candatus, nucleus accumbens, or amygdala. Neocortical levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid were significantly higher in rats receiving desipramine in the three behaviorally active ares than in the six other areas or than in saline injected controls.
From Wellesley to Yale, 1969-1979: A Textual Analysis of Hillary Rodham's Early Written Rhetoric

From Wellesley to Yale, 1969-1979: A Textual Analysis of Hillary Rodham's Early Written Rhetoric
Thirty-day readmissions after inpatient laparoscopic cholecystectomy: factors and outcomes.

Abstract Background 30-day readmissions are a considerable financial burden on medical institutions due to penalties faced from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. Methods A retrospective review of 30-day readmissions was performed. The data were subdivided into medical severity–diagnostic related groups 417, 418, and 419, as categorized by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. Perioperative variables, diagnostic workup, operative interventions, and postoperative morbidity and outcomes were analyzed. Results Forty-four (5.9%) readmissions were recorded, of 747 inpatient discharges. The data were further divided into DRGs 417, 418, and 419 with readmission rates of 13.6, 3.6%, and 5.4%, respectively. The highest rate of readmission was within the first 7 days. Etiology was divided into surgical (54.5%) and nonsurgical (45.4%). Conclusions Patients with major comorbidities had a higher rate of readmission ( P
Conflicts in serving both non-profit and for-profit medical centres

Anderson and colleagues have performed a valuable service in quantifying the extent to which leaders in non-profit academic medical centres also serve on the boards of …
HYPERPARATHYROIDISM: A DISTINCT DISEASE ENTITY

1. Hyperparathyroidism, a generalized skeletal disease, is a distinct disease entity due to a parathyroid adenoma. It is characterized by definite alterations in the calcium and phosphorus metabolism, symptoms, and signs. These findings have been presented as concisely as possible. 2. Data have been presented showing that arthritis is not associated with or due to hyperparathyroidism. 3. Paget's disease is not a generalized skeletal disease as is generalized osteitis fibrosa cystica. This fact, as well as certain clinical and metabolic data, clearly demonstrates that Paget's disease is not due to hyperparathyroidism.
Epigenetics of Endocrine Tumors in Women and Dietary Prevention

Endocrine tumors, primarily breast, followed by uterine, ovarian, and cervical cancer, are frequent malignancies in women (Fig. 9.1). The development of these tumors can be linked to activation of oncogenes whose protein products contribute to stimulation of cancer processes such as cell proliferation, inflammation, invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis; and/or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes which oppose the function of oncogenes and encode for proteins that inhibit cell proliferation, regulate DNA repair, and induce apoptosis. According to the Knudson “two-hits” hypothesis, hereditary cancers result from inherited gene mutations (first hit) in one copy of a cancer susceptibility gene (Fig. 9.2a). This is also referred to as haploinsufficiency when a single-copy loss in a tumor suppressor gene is sufficient for promotion of cancer. The second allele (second hit) is usually inactivated somatically (loss of heterozygosity) during growth and development (http://www.cancer.org). Interestingly, only a small fraction (5–10 %) of cancers is linked to germline mutations of tumor suppressor genes and tends to occur early in life. Examples of tumor suppressor genes mutated in hereditary cancers are Rb, p53, Apc, BRCA-1, and BRCA-2. This scenario differs from that of sporadic tumors which represent the majority of tumors. They usually occur later in life in the context of other genetic and/or environmental insults (Nature 476:163–9, 2011) and when both alleles for a specific tumor suppressor gene are somatically inactivated. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms that lead to somatic inactivation of tumor suppressor genes provides rich opportunities for prevention of both hereditary and sporadic tumors including endocrine malignancies in women.
All inorganic quantum dot light emitting devices with solution processed metal oxide transport layers

All inorganic quantum dot light emitting devices with solution processed transport layers are investigated. The device consists of an anode, a hole transport layer, a quantum dot emissive layer, an electron transport layer and a cathode. Indium tin oxide coated glass slides are used as substrates with the indium tin oxide acting as the transparent anode electrode. The transport layers are both inorganic, which are relatively insensitive to moisture and other environmental factors as compared to their organic counterparts. Nickel oxide acts as the hole transport layer, while zinc oxide nanocrystals act as the electron transport layer. The nickel oxide hole transport layer is formed by annealing a spin coated layer of nickel hydroxide sol-gel. On top of the hole transport layer, CdSe/ZnS quantum dots synthesized by hot injection method is spin coated. Finally, zinc oxide nanocrystals, dispersed in methanol, are spin coated over the quantum dot emissive layer as the electron transport layer. The material characterization of different layers is performed by using absorbance, Raman scattering, XRD, and photoluminescence measurements. The completed device performance is evaluated by measuring the IV characteristics, electroluminescence and quantum efficiency measurements. The device turn on is around 4V with a maximum current density of ~200 mA/cm2 at 9 V.
Univariate Analysis of Multivariate Data to Evaluate Circular Overlap in the Agonum decorum Complex (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

Agonum decorum (Say) and A. elongatulum (Dejean) are sibling sister species. Discriminant function analysis based on 13 mensural characters was used to ordinate 10 population samples of A. decorum and 7 samples of A. elongatulum . The discriminant function scores on function 1 were analyzed using the simultaneous test procedure UNIVAR algorithm. Results support circumscription of A. elongatulum as a peninsular Floridian species and A. decorum as a wide-ranging species found throughout North America, Mexico, and the Greater Antilles. Morphometric, electrophoretic, and ecological preference data support the hypothesis that A. elongatulum arose as a peripheral isolate of A. decorum , which colonized Florida from an Antillean source during the Pleistocene. Present distributions indicate that this complex represents a case of circular overlap with speciation. Comparison with other carabid taxa shows that 1) the Straits of Florida serve as a potent force delimiting species distributions, 2) speciation in Florida from a southern source is not currently recognized as a general pattern.
The epidemic of type 1 diabetes: what is it telling us?

Purpose of reviewType 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disorder which affects millions around the world. The incidence of T1D in children is increasing worldwide at a rate that cannot be explained by genetics alone. This review explores the recent research regarding possible causes of this epidemic
Revealing Diffusive and Directed Motions of Nanoparticles and Cells in Optical Coherence Tomography of Tissue

Dynamic signals in optical coherence tomography (OCT) contain information about underlying motions of nanoparticles and cells. These enable new modes of imaging including diffusion to reveal extracellular nanotopology, and cellular motility to reveal functional responses.
Quantitative Analysis of Intracranial Circulation Using Rapid-Sequence DSA

Using a high-frame-rate technique, intravenous digital subtraction angiography (IVOSA) of the intracranial circulation was performed in patients with transient ischemic attacks and asymptomatic bruits. Twenty patients with normal carotid arteries or mild stenosis of no hemodynamic significance were selected as a control group to evaluate the effect of carotid stenosis on the difference between hemispheres in the peak arrival time (Δ TMAX) of the contrast bolus. Data were obtained for the anterior (ACA), middle (MCA), and posterior (PCA) cerebral artery distributions. Raw data of the time-density curve in a region of interest were analyzed by polynomial curve-fitting techniques to obtain the peak arrival time (TMAX). The Δ TMAXs for normal middle, anterior, and posterior distributions were 0.140 ± 0.119 sec, 0.152 ± 0.146 sec, and 0.189 ± 0.187 sec, respectively. Eleven patients with tight carotid stenosis or occlusion whose Δ TMAX fell outside the normal range as established from the 20 control patients were analyzed with regard to ischemic symptoms. The Δ TMAXs of the MCA, ACA distributions in the asymptomatic patients with tight carotid stenosis or occlusion were 0.653 ± 0.379 sec and 0.118 ± 0.159 sec, respectively; p p
Studies on Influential Factors of Excised Leaf Tissue Inoculation of Bacterial Leaf Streak in Oryza sativa

The excised leaf tissue inoculation(ELTI) method was used to identify the resistance of rice to bacterial leaf streak in this paper.The results showed that ELTI was a more efficient and dependable method for disease-resistance identification than the traditional method.It was necessary to keep leaf green by adding 75~100 μL/mL of benzimidazole into agar medium in the whole identification period.For efficient inoculation and identification of excised leaf tissue,the temperature was required to be 25~30 ℃,and the lowest concentration of bacterial solution should be 3×105 CFU/mL.
Result analysis of isolating,identificating and genotyping of salmonella typhi in parts of Enshi autonomous prefecture

Objective To explore and discuss the molecular epidemiology of salmonella typhi in Enshi autonomous prefecture by identification and genotypic of the salmonella typhi which isolated from two cases of aggregative epidemic outbreaks and so to provide a basis for the scientific prevention and cure.Methods Using traditional methods to treat 11 bacterial strains of salmonella typhi by biochemical and serological review expert.For confirmed bacterial strains of salmonella typhi,we use pulsed field gel electrophoresis technology to analyse the fingerprints of PFGE.Results By the experiment of PFGE,11 bacterial strains of salmonella typhi can be divided into 3 types according to the discrepancy of bands.Conclusion Two cases of salmonella typhi infection are caused by different hypotypes.
Object recognition in art drawings: Transfer of a neural network

We consider the problem of recognizing objects in collections of art works, in view of automatically labeling, searching and organizing databases of art works. To avoid manually labelling objects, we introduce a framework for transferring a convolutional neural network (CNN), trained on available large collections of labelled natural images, to the context of drawings. We retrain both the top and the bottom layer of the network, responsible for the high-level classiication output and the low-level features detection respectively, by transforming natural images into drawings. We apply this procedure to the drawings in the Jan Brueghel Wiki, and show the transferred CNN learns a discriminative metric on drawings and achieves good recognition accuracy. We also discuss why standard descriptor-based methods is problematic in the context of drawings.
Roles of the professional in mutual aid groups.

There is no need for professionals and mutual aid groups to view each other with suspicion. Professionals, if adaptable to new needs, can play a valued role in facilitating the process of such grou...
SU-F-T-388: Comparison of Biophysical Indices in Hippocampal-Avoidance Whole Brain VMAT and IMRT Radiation Therapy Treatment Plans

Purpose: To compare biophysical indices of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) and Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) treatment plans for whole brain radiation therapy following the NRG-CC001 protocol. Methods: In this retrospective study, a total of fifteen patients were planned with Varian Eclipse Treatment Planning System using VMAT (RapidArc) and IMRT techniques. The planning target volume (PTV) was defined as the whole brain volume excluding a uniform three-dimensional 5mm expansion of the hippocampus volume. Prescribed doses in all plans were 30 Gy delivered over 10 fractions normalized to a minimum of 95% of the target volume receiving 100% of the prescribed dose. The NRG Oncology protocol guidelines were followed for contouring and dose-volume constraints. A single radiation oncologist evaluated all treatment plans. Calculations of statistical significance were performed using Student's paired t-test. Results: All VMAT and IMRT plans met the NRG-CC001 protocol dose-volume criteria. The average equivalent uniform dose (EUD) for the PTV for VMAT vs. IMRT was respectively (19.05±0.33 Gy vs. 19.38±0.47 Gy) for α/β of 2 Gy and (19.47±0.30 Gy vs. 19.84±0.42 Gy) for α/β of 10 Gy. For the PTV, the average mean and maximum doses were 2% and 5% lower in VMAT plans than in IMRT plans, respectively. The average EUD and the normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) for the hippocampus in VMAT vs. IMRT plans were (15.28±1.35 Gy vs. 15.65±0.99 Gy, p=0.18) and (0.305±0.012 Gy vs. 0.308±0.008 Gy, p=0.192), respectively. The average EUD and NTCP for the optic chiasm were both 2% higher in VMAT than in IMRT plans. Conclusion: Though statistically insignificant, VMAT plans indicate a lower hippocampus EUD than IMRT plans. Also, a small variation in NTCP was found between plans.
Primitive cladid crinoids from upper Osagean-lower Meramecian (Mississippian) rocks of east-central United States

Species of the late Osagean and early Meramecian primitive cladid crinoid genera Atelestocrinus, Barycrinus, Cestocrinus, Costalocrinus, Cyathocrinites, Meniscocrinus n. gen., Parisocrinus, Pellecrinus, and Saccosomopsis from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee are reviewed, redescribed, and redefined from study of type material, museum collections, and field collections. Nomenclatural and systematic acts include the following: 1) Barycrinus spurius (Hall, 1858) is a senior synonym of Cyathocrinus tumidus Hall, 1858, C. protuberans Hall, 1858, and B. mammatus Meek and Worthen, 1873; 2) B. rhombiferus (Owen and Shumard, 1852a) is a senior synonym of C. sculptilis Hall, 1860, C. thomae Hall, 1860, C. hoveyi Hall, 1861a, C. wachsmuthi Meek and Worthen, 1861, B. herculeus Meek and Worthen, 1868, B. pentagonus Meek and Worthen, 1873, B. striatus Worthen, 1875, B. boonvillensis Miller, 1891b, B. formosus Miller and Gurley, 1894, B. washingtonensis Miller and Gurley, 1895, and B. elrodi Miller and Gurley, 1896a; 3) B. magister (Hall, 1858) is a senior synonym of C. solidus Hall, 1861a and B. magnificus Meek and Worthen, 1868; 4) B. stellatus (Hall, 1858) is a senior synonym of C. bullatus Hall, 1858, C. angulatus Meek and Worthen, 1860, C. quinquelobus Meek and Worthen, 1865, and B. astericus Van Sant, 1964; 5) B. crassibrachiatus (Hall, 1860) is a senior synonym of B. princeps Miller and Gurley, 1890a; 6) B. geometricus Meek and Worthen, 1873, is considered a nomen dubium; 7) B. benedicti (Miller, 1891a) is considered a nomen dubium; 8) Cyathocrinus signatus Miller and Gurley, 1894, is assigned to Cestocrinus and is a senior synonym of Cestocrinus striatus Kirk, 1940; 9) Cyathocrinites iowensis (Owen and Shumard, 1850) is a senior synonym of C. malvaceus Hall, 1858, C. divaricatus Hall, 1858, C. rotundatus Hall, 1858, C. viminalis Hall, 1861a, C. parvibrachiatus Hall, 1861a, C. hamiltonensis Worthen, 1882, C. nodosus Wachsmuth and Springer, 1890, C. brevisacculus Wachsmuth and Springer, 1890, C. opimus Miller and Gurley, 1890a, and C. gurleyi Miller, 1891a; 10) C. kelloggi (White, 1862) is a senior synonym of C. subtumidus Meek and Worthen, 1865; 11) C. farleyi (Meek and Worthen, 1866b) is a senior synonym of C. andersoni Miller and Gurley, 1894, C. granulosus Rowley, 1902, and C. snivelyi Rowley, 1902; 12) C. harrodi (Wachsmuth and Springer, 1880) is a senior synonym of C. boonvillensis Miller, 1891b, C. gorbyi Miller, 1892b, and C. astralus Kammer, 1984; 13) Meniscocrinus n. gen. is described and M. magnitubus n. sp. is assigned to this new genus; 14) C. labyrinthicus Miller, 1891a, is assigned to Parisocrinus; 15) C. intermedius Hall, 1858, is assigned to Pellecrinus; and 16) C. insperatus Lyon, 1869, is assigned to Saccosomopsis and is a senior synonym of C.? poterium Meek and Worthen, 1870.
Computer Aided Analysis of a Planar Robot

This paper presents the computer aided analysis of a planar robot. Forward Kinematics, inverse kinematics, velocity analysis, force analysis and trajectory planning are considered in this work. Forward kinematics involves the process of solving for the cartesian configuration of the robot in terms of its articulated links. The inverse kinematics solution gives a particular link trajectory and provides the desired co-ordinates. The trajectory is composed of a constant velocity linear segment to which parobolic segments are blended or merged at appropriate times. Equations for the above functions were programmed to determine the velocity and forces on each link. The program is written in such a way that the designer can vary parameters and study the effect on the links.
P158 Could chimerism testing on orthotopic liver transplant patients lead to earlier graft versus host disease intervention and in turn more effective outcomes

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a rare but often fatal complication of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Rash, fever, diarrhea and pancytopenia, all hallmarks of GVHD, are symptomatically similar to adverse drug reactions (ADR) or viral infections. In the absence of these classic symptoms, GVHD diagnosis is delayed. We present the case of a 62 year old male with alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma who received an allograft from a 0/10 HLA matched 19 year old male donor. Both were CMV seronegative and the retrospective T- and B-cell flow cytometric crossmatch were negative. Following an unremarkable early post-transplant course, the patient was discharged on post-operation day (POD) 8 only to return for a routine follow-up on POD17 complaining of diarrhea and subsequently symptoms of fever and leukopenia. Blood, bacterial stool cultures, and stool parasite antigen screen were all negative. Appropriate care was taken to treat ADR and rule out infection including EBV, CMV and C. difficile PCR. Despite temporary relief with medication adjustments the patient was readmitted on POD27 with recurring diarrhea, syncope, fever, worsening leukopenia and new-onset rash. Repeat blood and stool testing remained negative. While the skin biopsy did not meet criteria to make the diagnosis of GVHD, whole blood chimerism testing detected 90% donor cells consistent with GVHD. CD3+ T-lymphocyte chimerism testing yielded 100% donor cells. Bone marrow biopsy demonstrated hypocellular marrow ( > 20 years and degree of HLA mismatch) in the early OLT period are needed to determine if this can lead to better patient outcomes.
Conceptualizing the Inconceivable by Depicting the Magnitude of Geological Time with a Yearly Planning Calendar

The vastness of geological time is a fundamental concept in Earth Science. Yet, the geological time scale is so far removed from the human scale of time reference that this concept is difficult for students to understand. This exercise rescales events in geological history within a one year time-reference framework that students can conceptualize. The information is visually summarized using a large-format yearly planning calendar and erasable markers. Students complete the mathematical conversion from geological time to the corresponding time in a calendar year. In addition to the monumental events in the evolutionary and tectonic history of Earth, teachers should include local geological events to make the exercise relevant to students at a more personal level.
Rotational behaviour of PEGylated gold nanorods in a lipid bilayer system

ABSTRACTPEGylated gold nanorods are widely used as nanocarriers in targeted drug delivery and other nanotechnology applications due to the special optical and photo-thermal characteristics of gold nanorods. In this work, we employ coarse-grain molecular simulations to examine the pathway by which PEGylated gold nanorods enter and exit a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine lipid bilayer membrane and follow the behaviour of the system to investigate the consequences. We find that PEGylated gold nanorods rotate during permeation, lying down and straightening up as they make their way through the lipid membrane. We find that this rotational behaviour, irrespective of the initial orientation of the nanorod with respect to the membrane normal, is concomitant with the changing interactions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) beads with lipid head beads in both membrane leaflets. For a nanorod with hydrophilic ligands, such as PEG, lying down appears to be driven by favourable hydrophilic interactions with the phosphate and ...
From Interdisciplinary to Transdisciplinary: An Arts-Integrated Approach to STEAM Education

What should science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) education look like? In the context of educational policy, the STEAM conversation has intensified and spread across the United St...
Product attributes and preference for foreign brands among Vietnamese consumers

Abstract This research attempted to investigate important product attributes in purchasing fashion goods and the influence of these attributes on preferences for American fashion brands versus local fashion brands, by Vietnamese consumers. A web-based survey was developed to collect the data from Vietnamese consumers who reside in HoChinMinh City, which is the Vietnam's largest urban area. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data. It was found that the functional attributes such as fit and comfort were the most important attributes when the Vietnamese consumers purchased fashion goods. Vietnamese consumers who put importance on the subjective norm and the symbolic attributes such as latest fashion, country of origin, and well-known brand preferred American fashion brands over local fashion brands. Vietnamese consumers indicated American fashion brands as more attractive, higher quality and more prestigious than local fashion brands. Quality, brand image, and material were indicated as advantages of American fashion brands while price was the only advantage of local fashion brands. American mass-market brands can be competitive in the Vietnam market with appropriate marketing. In order to better compete, American mass-market brands should actively promote their brands in Vietnam, offering quality products with good fit and comfort at lower prices than high-end brands.
EC-cache: load-balanced, low-latency cluster caching with online erasure coding

Data-intensive clusters and object stores are increasingly relying on in-memory object caching to meet the I/O performance demands. These systems routinely face the challenges of popularity skew, background load imbalance, and server failures, which result in severe load imbalance across servers and degraded I/O performance. Selective replication is a commonly used technique to tackle these challenges, where the number of cached replicas of an object is proportional to its popularity. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach using erasure coding.EC-Cache is a load-balanced, low latency cluster cache that uses online erasure coding to overcome the limitations of selective replication. EC-Cache employs erasure coding by: (i) splitting and erasure coding individual objects during writes, and (ii) late binding, wherein obtaining any k out of (k + r) splits of an object are sufficient, during reads. As compared to selective replication, EC-Cache improves load balancing by more than 3× and reduces the median and tail read latencies by more than 2×, while using the same amount of memory. EC-Cache does so using 10% additional bandwidth and a small increase in the amount of stored metadata. The benefits offered by EC-Cache are further amplified in the presence of background network load imbalance and server failures.
Species ecological similarity modulates the importance of colonization history for adaptive radiation

Adaptive radiation is an important evolutionary process, through which a single ancestral lineage rapidly gives rise to multiple newly formed lineages that specialize in different niches. In the first-arrival hypothesis, David Lack emphasized the importance of species colonization history for adaptive radiation, suggesting that the earlier arrival of a diversifying species would allow it to radiate to a greater extent. Here, we report on the first rigorous experimental test of this hypothesis, using the rapidly evolving bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and six different bacterial competitors. We show that the earlier arrival of P. fluorescens facilitated its diversification. Nevertheless, significant effects of colonization history, which led to alternative diversification trajectories, were observed only when the competitors shared similar niche and competitive fitness with P. fluorescens. These results highlight the important role of species colonization history, modified by their ecological differences, for adaptive radiation.
Structural colouration of mammalian skin: convergent evolution of coherently scattering dermal collagen arrays

SUMMARY For more than a century, the blue structural colours of mammalian skin have been hypothesized to be produced by incoherent, Rayleigh or Tyndall scattering. We investigated the colour, anatomy, nanostructure and biophysics of structurally coloured skin from two species of primates – mandrill ( Mandrillus sphinx ) and vervet monkey ( Cercopithecus aethiops ) – and two species of marsupials – mouse opossum ( Marmosa mexicana ) and wooly opossum ( Caluromys derbianus ). We used two-dimensional (2-D) Fourier analysis of transmission electron micrographs (TEMs) of the collagen arrays in the primate tissues to test whether these structural colours are produced by incoherent or coherent scattering (i.e. constructive interference). The structural colours in Mandrillus rump and facial skin and Cercopithecus scrotum are produced by coherent scattering by quasi-ordered arrays of parallel dermal collagen fibres. The 2-D Fourier power spectra of the collagen arrays from Mandrillus and Cercopithecus reveal ring-shaped distributions of Fourier power at intermediate spatial frequencies, demonstrating a substantial nanostructure of the appropriate spatial frequency to produce the observed blue hues by coherent scattering alone. The Fourier power spectra and the observed reflectance spectra falsify assumptions and predictions of the incoherent, Rayleigh scattering hypothesis. Samples of blue Marmosa and Caluromys scrotum conform generally to the anatomy seen in Mandrillus and Cercopithecus but were not sufficiently well preserved to conduct numerical analyses. Colour-producing collagen arrays in mammals have evolved multiple times independently within the two clades of mammals known to have trichromatic colour vision. Mammalian colour-producing collagen arrays are anatomically and mechanistically identical to structures that have evolved convergently in the dermis of many lineages of birds, the tapetum of some mammals and the cornea of some fishes. These collagen arrays constitute quasi-ordered 2-D photonic crystals.
Neutronics aspects of the FESS-FNSF

Abstract Neutronics analysis was performed on the latest Fusion Energy System Studies-Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FESS-FNSF) design, which determined the neutron wall loading, tritium breeding ratio, and radiation damage. Sixteen different sectors configurations were investigated, with the main focus on determining the impact which each has upon the tritium breeding ratio (TBR) of the whole facility. This paper describes the stages of the nuclear analysis that serve to prove the radiation derived attributes of the system.
Structure and Property of a Model Water-in-Oil Microemulsion

In this article, we have reviewed some of the basic work on the investigation of the structure and properties of a three component water-in-oil microemulsion containing AOT. It was found that the suucture of the system consisted mainly of polydisperse droplets, whose mean radius was given by the water-to-AOT ratio, and is mostly independent of the volume fraction of the dispersed phase. It is also found to be fairly insensitive to temperature changes. By neutron spin echo studies, it was found that the surfactant layer was reasonably stiff with a splay elastic constant of the order of a few k B T. The natural tendency of the surfactant is to bend the interface towards the water phase when they are tightly packed together, owing to its bulky tail strucure. There is apparently a short range attractive interaction between the droplets, and this interaction is thought to be responsible for the observed critical point and the phase behaviour for the system. We have described the various experiments that lead to this description, and we are fairly confident of the fact that the droplet structure of the system is very stable in the neighbourhood of the oil corner of the ternary phase diagram. Because of his stable structure, AOT microemulsions were often used as model hardsphere liquids for the study of the scattering structure factor, glass transition, percolation phenomena, droplet dynamics, and a host of other interesting physical properties. This review will survey some of the fundamental work of the basic structure and interaction of this model 3-component system, and will try to illustrate how this information may be used to understand the behaviour of microemulsions.
Neuro-ophthalmology of Pituitary Tumors

The optic nerves, chiasm, and tracts lie within close proximity to the pituitary gland and sella, making vision loss a common complication of sellar region tumors. Temporal or bitemporal visual field loss, especially when associated with endocrinopathy, is highly suggestive of a pituitary tumor. Vision loss typically occurs insidiously due to the slow growth of most sellar tumors and may remain unrecognized until visual field loss is advanced. Acute vision loss can occur in some instances, such as with pituitary apoplexy. Rarely, sellar masses may also extend laterally to invade the cavernous sinuses and produce double vision owing to ocular motor neuropathies.
Sampling by Variables to Control the Fraction Defective: Part II

The paper, as a sequel to the historical and theoretical approach of Part I, provides the practical information on the matching of variables sampling plans to those in the existing attributes stand...
Pathways to Neuroprediction: Opportunities and Challenges to Prediction of Treatment Response in Depression

We set out to review the current state of science in neuroprediction, using biological measures of brain function, with task based fMRI to prospectively predict response to a variety of treatments. Task-based fMRI neuroprediction studies are balanced between whole brain and ROI specific analyses. The predominant tasks are emotion processing, with ROIs based upon amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate gyrus, both within the salience and emotion network. A rapidly emerging new area of neuroprediction is of disease course and illness recurrence. Concerns include use of open-label and single arm studies, lack of consideration of placebo effects, unbalanced adjustments for multiple comparisons (over focus on type I error), small sample sizes, unreported effect sizes, overreliance on ROI studies. There is a need to adjust neuroprediction study reporting so that greater coherence can facilitate meta analyses, and increased funding for more multiarm studies in neuroprediction.
Diversity in Professional Schools: A Case Study of Public Affairs and Law

AbstractAlthough the issue of diversity continues to grow in salience in the field of public affairs education, evidence about the way academic programs respond to diversity is still sparse. Studie...
Topic Modeling of Hierarchical Corpora

The sizes of modern digital libraries have grown beyond our capacity to comprehend manually. Thus we need new tools to help us in organizing and browsing large corpora of text that do not require manually examining each document. To this end, machine learning researchers have developed topic models, statistical learning algorithms for automatic comprehension of large collections of text. Topic models provide both global and local views of a corpus; they discover topics that run through the corpus and describe each document as a mixture of the discovered topics. In this dissertation, I consider the topic modeling of corpora whose documents are organized in a multi-level hierarchy. My interest in this subject arose from the need to analyze two sprawling, real-world corpora from the field of computer security. The first is a collection of job postings on a crowdsourcing site, where many advertisers seek cheap human labor for different forms of Web service abuse. I view this corpus as a three- layer tree in which an interior node represents a buyer, and children of the interior node represent the buyer's postings. The second corpus is a collection of threads from an underground Internet forum, where blackhat operatives discuss tactics for abusive forms of Internet marketing such as spamming and search engine optimization. The subforums and threads in this data set form a five- level deep hierarchy. Using these two data sets as test beds, I develop topic models that incorporate hierarchies in corpora. The models I consider can be viewed as special (finite-dimensional) instances of hierarchical Dirichlet processes (HDPs). For these models I show that there exists a simple variational approximation for probabilistic inference and demonstrate a parallel inference algorithm that can scale to corpora with deep hierarchies and large numbers of documents. On several hierarchical corpora, I show advantages of my topic models over other topic models that do not consider hierarchies. Also I compare my variational method to existing implementations of HDPs and find that my approach is faster than Gibbs sampling and able to learn more predictive models than existing variational methods
Sandwich panel repair

This chapter will briefly go over some of the types of damage that honeycomb sandwich panels suffer and the principles of repair. Military Handbook 337 (1982) Adhesive Bonded Aerospace Structural Repair is an excellent source for detailed repair procedures. It replaces and updates the old Military Handbook 23 (1968) repair section.