cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Design considerations and initial performance of a 1.2 cm/sup 2/ beta imaging intra-operative probe

A novel small area beta (/spl beta//sup /spl plusmn//) detector is under development for nuclear emission imaging of surgically exposed, radiolabeled tumor beds. The imaging device front-end consists of a 0.5 mm thick by 1.25 cm diameter CaF/sub 2/(Eu) scintillator disk coupled to a rigid bundle of 2 mm diameter double clad optical fibers through a polystyrene light diffuser. The detector area (1.2 cm/sup 2/) was determined by the requirement of introducing the probe into small cavities, e.g. during neuro-surgical lesion resection, but large enough to produce images of clinical significance. Flexible back-end optical fibers (1.9 m long) were coupled to the front-end components allowing /spl sim/75 photo-electrons to be detected for mean beta energies of 250 keV, indicating that sufficient signal can be obtained with clinical beta emitters (e.g. /sup 18/F, /sup 131/I). The long flexible fibers guide the scintillation light to a Philips XP1700 series, fiber optic faceplate, Multi-Channel PMT. The parallel MC-PMT outputs are fed into a variable gain, charge divider network and an i-V pre-amplifier/line driver network, whose resulting four outputs are digitized and histogrammed with standard Anger positioning logic. The various components in the imaging chain were evaluated and optimized by both simulations and measurements. Line spread functions measured in the 10.8 mm FOV were 0.50 mm /spl plusmn/0.038 mm and 0.55 mm /spl plusmn/0.065 mm FWHM in X and Y, respectively. A 20% variation in pulse height and minimal variation in spatial resolution was observed. The differential image uniformity was measured to be /spl plusmn/15.6% with /spl sim/150 cts/pixel. Preliminary images show excellent reproduction of phantom activity distributions.
Reduction of Pathogens Using Hot Water and Lactic Acid on Beef Trimmings

Beef trimmings from young or mature beef cattle were obtained commercially. Trimmings within age type then were inoculated with about 6.0 log 10 CFU/mL of rifampicin-resistant. Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC 13311) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments (control; 95 °C hot water alone, or with 2% L-lactic acid). After treatment, trimmings were ground, held for 0, 14, 28, or 42 d in chub packages at 4 °C, and total aerobic plat counts, E. coli O157:H7, and S. typhimurium counts were determined. Non-inoculated trimmings were also treated and samples were evaluated for pH, fat, moisture, TBA, meat color by colorimeter, and meat color, and odor by trained sensory panels. Trimmings treated with water or hot water plus lactic acid reduced levels of E. coli O157:H7 and S. Typhimurium and tended to be darker after treatment. Meat odor in the final product was not affected by treatment.
Interacting Vortex and Vortex Layer: How Length Scale Affects Entrainment and Ejection

A contour dynamics model of the interaction between a point vortex and a layer of constant vorticity, bounded below by a slip wall and above by irrotational e ow, isstudied. Theheight of thevortex above the layerestablishes a length scale that is found to have a strong ine uence on both the evolution of the layer and the vertical displacement of the vortex. A vortex far above the boundary layer generates long-wavelength disturbances. These exhibit earlytime growth, which saturates, taking on the shape of a vortex-like structure, suggesting that a vortex far above a boundary layer can create another one within the layer. Concurrently, entrainment of irrotational e ow deep into the layer occurs within a narrow crevice. Alternatively, for a vortex initially placed close to the layer, a short-scale disturbance occurs that exhibits rapid, continuous growth that eventually rolls up around the vortex. Here, accounting for the vertical displacement of the vortex is necessary to accurately determine the interface evolution. The results support the contention that a vortex can induce ejection and roll up of the boundary layer and entrainment of irrotational e ow into the layer.
Proton Radiation Therapy in the Hospital Environment: Conception, Development, and Operation of the Initial Hospital-Based Facility

The world's first hospital-based proton treatment center opened at Loma Linda University Medical Center in 1990, following two decades of development. Patients' needs were the driving force behind its conception, development, and execution; the primary needs were delivery of effective conformal doses of ionizing radiation and avoidance of normal tissue to the maximum extent possible. The facility includes a proton synchrotron and delivery system developed in collaboration with physicists and engineers at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and from other high-energy-physics laboratories worldwide. The system, operated and maintained by Loma Linda personnel, was designed to be safe, reliable, flexible in utilization, efficient in use, and upgradeable to meet demands of changing patient needs and advances in technology. Since the facility opened, nearly 14,000 adults and children have been treated for a wide range of cancers and other diseases. Ongoing research is expanding the applications of proton therapy, while reducing costs.
FFTC: fastest Fourier transform for the IBM cell broadband engine

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is of primary importance and a fundamental kernel in many computationally intensive scientific applications. In this paper we investigate its performance on the Sony-Toshiba-IBM Cell Broadband Engine, a heterogeneous multicore chip architected for intensive gaming applications and high performance computing. The Cell processor consists of a traditional microprocessor (called the PPE) that controls eight SIMD co-processing units called synergistic processor elements (SPEs). We exploit the architectural features of the Cell processor to design an efficient parallel implementation of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). While there have been several attempts to develop a fast implementation of FFT on the Cell, none have been able to achieve high performance for input series with several thousand complex points. We use an iterative out-of-place approach to design our parallel implementation of FFT with 1K to 16K complex input samples and attain a single precision performance of 18.6 GFLOP/s on the Cell. Our implementation beats FFTW on Cell by several GFLOP/s for these input sizes and outperforms Intel Duo Core (Woodcrest) for inputs of greater than 2K samples. To our knowledge we have the fastest FFT for this range of complex inputs.
Stent graft repair of iatrogenic femoral arteriovenous fistula: a useful therapeutic approach in a hostile groin.

The incidence of iatrogenic femoral arteriovenous fistulas (IFAVF) has increased in contemporary practice. We herein report the case of a 55-year-old obese woman with significant surgical comorbidities who sustained an IFAVF between the superficial femoral artery (SFA) and the femoral vein. Given her substantial risk factors, she was treated with a SFA stent-graft (iCast 6 × 22 mm) using a contralateral endovascular approach. She remains asymptomatic at 15 months with ongoing resolution of the AVF. This report highlights the utility of stent-graft repair of an IFAVF in high surgical risk patients or in those with ‘‘hostile’’ anatomy.
Stress signaling pathways activated by weaning mediate intestinal dysfunction in the pig.

Weaning in the piglet is a stressful event associated with gastrointestinal disorders and increased disease susceptibility. Although stress is thought to play a role in postweaning intestinal disea...
A comparative metric to quantify the variability of wind power

The stochastic nature of wind power severely affects the stability of the electric grid. It is well known that power quality and project economics are adversely affected by increased intermittency and variability. Thus, an accurate, simple, and powerful metric for comparing the variability of different power sources would serve as a useful figure of merit. The current coefficient of variation metric has significant shortcomings for quantifying the variability of a stochastic power source's output. This paper exposed those shortcomings in detail and a new metric is proposed for quantifying the variability of power from a wind farm in particular or for an intermittent power source in general. The proposed metric is calculated from the spectral decomposition of a power source's autocorrelation function. The intermittency metric compares the components of the wind power that vary with infra-diurnal frequencies to the mean power output.
How the deployment of attention determines what we see

Attention is a tool to adapt what we see to our current needs. It can be focused narrowly on a single object or spread over several or distributed over the scene as a whole. In addition to increasing or decreasing the number of attended objects, these different deployments may have different effects on what we see. This article describes some research both on focused attention and its use in binding features, and on distributed attention and the kinds of information we gain and lose with the attention window opened wide. One kind of processing that we suggest occurs automatically with distributed attention results in a statistical description of sets of similar objects. Another gives the gist of the scene, which may be inferred from sets of features registered in parallel. Flexible use of these different modes of attention allows us to reconcile sharp capacity limits with a richer understanding of the visual scene.
MISQ: A framework to analyze and optimize web service composition in business service networks

A novel UML-based analytical modeling methodology, named MISQ, is presented for optimizing web service composition in Business Service Networks. MISQ enables functional and temporal analyses at a high-level design stage so that web service composition can be systematically optimized. Furthermore, MISQ provides an automatic generation of web service implementations for improving productivity and reliability.
New Approach to the Modeling of Complex Multibody Dynamical Systems

In this paper, a general method for modeling complex multibody systems is presented. The method utilizes recent results in analytical dynamics adapted to general complex multibody systems. The term complex is employed to denote those multibody systems whose equations of motion are highly nonlinear, nonautonomous, and possibly yield motions at multiple time and distance scales. These types of problems can easily become difficult to analyze because of the complexity of the equations of motion, which may grow rapidly as the number of component bodies in the multibody system increases. The approach considered herein simplifies the effort required in modeling general multibody systems by explicitly developing closed form expressions in terms of any desirable number of generalized coordinates that may appropriately describe the configuration of the multibody system. Furthermore, the approach is simple in implementation because it poses no restrictions on the total number and nature of modeling constraints used to construct the equations of motion of the multibody system. Conceptually, the method relies on a simple three-step procedure. It utilizes the Udwadia–Phohomsiri equation, which describes the explicit equations of motion for constrained mechanical systems with singular mass matrices. The simplicity of the method and its accuracy is illustrated by modeling a multibody spacecraft system.
Towards collaborative security and P2P intrusion detection

The increasing array of Internet-scale threats is a pressing problem for every organization that utilizes the network. Organizations have limited resources to detect and respond to these threats. The end-to-end (E2E) sharing of information related to probes and attacks is a facet of an emerging trend toward "collaborative security". The key benefit of a collaborative approach to intrusion detection is a better view of global network attack activity. Augmenting the information obtained at a single site with information gathered from across the network can provide a more precise model of an attacker's behavior and intent. While many organizations see value in adopting such a collaborative approach, some challenges must be addressed before intrusion detection can be performed on an inter-organizational scale. We report on our experience developing and deploying a decentralized system for efficiently distributing alerts to collaborating peers. Our system, worminator, extracts relevant information from alert streams and encodes it in bloom filters. This information forms the basis of a distributed watchlist. The watchlist can be distributed via a choice of mechanisms ranging from a centralized trusted third party to a decentralized P2P-style overlay network.
The Earth Through Time

The Earth Through Time successfully fills a gap in the world of introductory level geology textbooks, a gulf created by the nature of typical undergraduate students. The introductory course taught at many institutions is physical geology wherein potential geology majors and students who simply want to fulfill part of a natural science requirement form a cosmopolitan class. Students who are convinced that geology is the major for them go on to historical geology in the second semester often using the Dott and Batten text, Evolution of the Earth, a text that is rigorous and designed strictly with the geology major in mind. Based on my experience, however, a sizable number of students who have no intention of majoring in geology desire to take a second course in the field out of pure interest and as a means of satisfying the second part of a typical 2-semester science requirement. The Earth Through Time provides a viable alternative to Dott and Batten's book, one certainly as broad in its overall coverage but with discrete topics—such as local stratigraphic nomenclature and detailed discussions of geology outside of North America—being de-emphasized.
Respiratory outcomes in high-risk children 7 to 10 years after prophylaxis with respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin.

Abstract Purpose Respiratory syncytial virus infections have been implicated in the development of asthma. We evaluated the long-term effects of respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin, an effective prophylactic agent for the prevention of these infections in children, on respiratory and allergic outcomes in children at high risk of chronic airway disease. Subjects and methods Thirteen children at high risk of respiratory disease (mean [±SD] age, 8.6 ± 1.1 years) were evaluated using pulmonary function and allergy skin testing 7 to 10 years after they had received prophylaxis with respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin. For comparison, 26 high-risk control children (mean age, 8.5 ± 0.9 years) were also evaluated. Health outcomes data were collected from all subjects. Results The children were matched for age and gestational age. There were more boys, and a lesser frequency of a lower respiratory tract infection with respiratory syncytial virus ( P P = 0.02). Children were also less atopic (2 of 13) in the respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin group than in the control group (13 of 26, P P = 0.006) or have had an asthma attack ( P = 0.03). Conclusion The results suggest that prophylaxis of respiratory syncytial virus infections in infancy may have long-term effects on respiratory and immunologic parameters relevant to the development of asthma. Larger-scale studies are needed.
Measuring Outcome in the Treatment of Cocaine Dependence.

Background: Little is known about the extent to which outcome measures used in studies of the treatment of cocaine dependence are associated with longer-term use and with broader measures of clinical improvement. The current study examined reductions in use, and abstinence-oriented measures, in relation to functioning and longerterm clinical benefits in the treatment of cocaine dependence. Methods: Overall drug use, cocaine use, and functioning in a number of addiction-related domains for 487 patients diagnosed with DSM-IV cocaine dependence and treated with one of four psychosocial interventions in the NIDA Cocaine Collaborative Treatment Study were assessed monthly during 6 months of treatment and at 9, 12, 15, and 18 month follow-up. Results: Measures of during-treatment reduction in use were moderately correlated with drug and cocaine use measures 12 months, but showed non-significant or small correlations with measures of functioning at 12 months. Highest correlations were evident for abstinence measures (maximum consecutive days abstinence and completely abstinent) during treatment in relation to sustained (3 month) abstinence at 12 months. Latent class analysis of patterns of change over time revealed that most patients initially (months 1 to 4 of treatment) either became abstinent immediately or continued to use every month. Over the course of follow-up, patients either maintained abstinence or used regularly – intermittent use was less common. Conclusions: There were generally small associations between various measures of cocaine use and longterm clinical benefits other than abstinence, was associated with continued abstinence. No one method of measuring outcome of treatment of cocaine dependence appears superior to others.
Proliferation of mouse mammary epithelial cells in vitro: Interactions among epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factor I, ovarian hormones, and extracellular matrix proteins

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of extracellular matrix proteins (ECMs; collagens I and IV, fibronectin, and laminin) in modulating proliferative responses of normal mammary epithelial cells in serum-free culture to epidermal growth factor (EGF) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). As EGF and IGF-I can alter steroid responses, the interactions among growth factors, estrogen, and R5020 were also investigated. We report the novel finding that all ECMs tested, but not a nonspecific attachment factor, poly-l-lysine (PL), promoted a highly synergistic proliferative response to EGF plus IGF-I. EGF receptors were significantly increased with culture time on all ECMs, but not on PL. IGF receptor expression was significantly 2- to 4-fold higher on all ECMs compared with PL. EGF decreased IGF-binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) and IGFBP-3 by more than 50% in the presence of IGF-I on PL or collagen I. These results indicate that ECM-specific IGF-I/EGF synergism occurs in response to ECM up...
Great expectations: Prospect theory with a consistent reference point

I apply a prospect theory model of risk preferences with an endogenously determined reference point to propose an alternative objective of maximizing expected outcome rather than maximizing expected utility. I show that an agent can always form a consistent expected outcome for any binary gamble and derive a parametric formula, which can then be used to examine the eects of loss aversion, risk aversion, and probability weighting on behavior. To illustrate the applicability of the results, I use this model to consider the incentives of an agent purchasing insurance against the possibility of a loss and show that it is optimal for him to either purchase full insurance or purchase no insurance. JEL Classication D03, D81, D84
Late Quaternary Fossil Beetle Assemblage from the Missouri Coteau, North Dakota

A well-preserved fossil beetle assemblage of 70 taxa is described from a 10,000-yr-old sequence of lacustrine sediments on the Missouri Coteau, North Dakota. All of the 31 specifically determined taxa have been assigned to extant species, of which only 15 have been currently reported living in North Dakota. Many of the species are tree dwellers, some confined to spruce, thus indicating a woodland environment in contrast to the virtually treeless prairie of today. There is apparently no region in North America where the species comprising the fossil assemblage are living together at present. Two-thirds of the species have been reported from woodland areas of southern Manitoba. Others, however, live mainly in eastern North America; one species is found in western North America. Development of prairie about 9,000 to 8,500 yrs ago was probably responsible for the migration of the species within the fossil assemblage, although it is not clear why this should result in the widely separated distributions of many of the species at the present day.
Our Schools, Our Country: American Evangelicals, Public Schools, and the Supreme Court Decisions of 1962 and 1963

American evangelicals have long maintained a tense and paradoxical relationship to mainstream American culture. This article explores the effect of the 1962 and 1963 United States Supreme Court school decisions on that perennial tension. Unlike many conservatives, conservative evangelicals greeted the court's 1962 Engel decision to ban state-written prayer in public schools with cautious approval; however, evangelicals saw the 1963 Schempp decision to ban Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer from those schools as an affront. The unique relationship between evangelical belief and America's public school system forced evangelicals to reconsider their special place in both schools and society as a whole. They concluded with surprising unanimity that those school decisions had done more than forced evangelical belief out of America's public schools; the decisions had pushed evangelicals themselves out of America's mainstream culture.
Cross-Cultural Service Learning with Native Americans: Pedagogy for Building Cultural Competence

This paper articulates a curricular approach that centers on a Native American service learning course. Social work students engaged in cross-cultural immersion on a reservation in the United State...
Opportunities and challenges of radiotherapy for treating cancer

The past 20 years have seen dramatic changes in the delivery of radiation therapy, but the impact of radiobiology on the clinic has been far less substantial. A major consideration in the use of radiotherapy has been on how best to exploit differences between the tumour and host tissue characteristics, which in the past has been achieved empirically by radiation-dose fractionation. New advances are uncovering some of the mechanistic processes that underlie this success story. In this Review, we focus on how these processes might be targeted to improve the outcome of radiotherapy at the individual patient level. This approach would seem a more productive avenue of treatment than simply trying to increase the radiation dose delivered to the tumour.
TEAM-IT: location-based gaming in real and virtual environments

Location-based games are an emerging paradigm for training, simulation, entertainment, health and many other domains. In this paper, we consider the role of artificial agents in such games. We also examine how human teams perform when given the same game, played in both a real environment with mobile devices and also in a virtual environment that replicates the real environment. We perform the first direct comparison of real and virtual instantiations of the same location-based game. We show the similarities and differences in game play and then investigate how adding an advice-giving agent changes the experience.
Enzymic histochemical reactions in two Krukenberg tumors associated with clinically different endocrine patterns.

Abstract The enzymic reactions in the proliferate ovarian stromal and the epithelial elements of two Krukenberg tumors which produced “clinically” different alterations in the host were studied in an effort to demonstrate the steroidally active cells in the tumor and the similarity of reaction of these cells to their counterparts in the normal gonad. Although the differences were less striking than had been anticipated, certain reactions were prominent and characteristic. Suggestion is made that the diffuse infiltration of tumor cells in Case 1 accounts for the striking ovarian stromal proliferation and subsequently to steroid activity. Conversely, the organized adenomataus pattern in Case 2 would be less effective in producing such stimulation.
Laterality in African and Malagasy Prosimians

The comparison of species, whether with respect to physical structure or behavioral capacity, is a powerful strategy in the attempt to gain insight into the systematics of the development of lifeforms. This strategy has, however, been more extensively and effectively employed in the study of the structure and physiology of organisms than of behavior. Most studies of animal behavior reported in the literatures of biology, ethology, neuroscience and psychology evaluate the behavior of a single species in terms of the adaptive significance for that species or in terms of its suitability as an animal model for human behavior. Even the two journals dedicated to species comparison (i.e., The Journal of Comparative Psychology and The International Journal of Comparative Psychology) have characteristically published more single species reports than those comparing the behavior of two or more species. In the study of primate behavior, there is currently an increasing incidence of reports of direct comparison of species along specific behavioral dimensions.
Predicting Stance in Ideological Debate with Rich Linguistic Knowledge

Debate stance classification, the task of classifying an author's stance in a two-sided debate, is a relatively new and challenging problem in opinion mining. One of its challenges stems from the fact that it is not uncommon to find words and phrases in a debate post that are indicative of the opposing stance, owing to the frequent need for an author to re-state other people's opinions so that she can refer to and contrast with them when establishing her own arguments. We propose a machine learning approach to debate stance classification that leverages two types of rich linguistic knowledge, one exploiting contextual information and the other involving the determination of the author's stances on topics. Experimental results on debate posts involving two popular debate domains demonstrate the effectiveness of our two types of linguistic knowledge when they are combined in an integer linear programming framework.
Contextual Variability in Personality From Significant-Other Knowledge and Relational Selves.

We argue that the self is intrinsically embedded in an interpersonal context such that it varies in IF-THEN terms, as the relational self. We have demonstrated that representations of the significant other and the relationship with that other are automatically activated by situational cues and that this activation affects both experienced and expressed aspects of the self and personality. Here, we expand on developments of the IF–THEN cognitive-affective framework of personality (CAPS, Mischel & Shoda, 1995), by extending it to the domain of interpersonal relationships at the dyadic level (Andersen & Chen, 2002). Going beyond Mischel’s early research (Mischel, 1968), our framework combines social cognition and learning theory with a learning-based psychodynamic approach, which provides the basis for extensive research on the social-cognitive process of transference and the relational self as it arises in everyday social interactions (Andersen & Cole, 1990), evidence from which contributes to a modern conceptualization of personality that emphasizes the centrality of the situation.
Detailed Aerodynamic Analysis of Ram-Air Parachute Systems in Steady Flight

The main goal of this paper is to present methods for the detailed analysis of aerodynamic forces on the various components of ram-air parachute systems. The drag contribution from each component would permit the examination of the primary drag sources on the systems. The parachute components considered were the canopy, slider, suspension lines, payload (cargo or personnel), as well as any other component between the payload and the canopy. Both analytical and computational approaches are explored, and three different model parachute systems spanning a range of canopy size and loading and were analyzed. Results indicate that the treatment of the suspension lines is an important aspect of the analysis, and vibration of the lines can be a significant contribution to the total drag. The relative contribution of line drag may range from 17% to 35% of the total drag, and the drag increase due to line vibration may be as much as 141% of the rigid line value. A comparison of the three models appears to suggest that each parachute design needs to be evaluated individually, and generalizations regarding the effects of line vibration or the relative contribution of the lines to the system drag cannot be made based on the canopy scale or loading.
Diffusion Barriers for Fluorinated Low-k Dielectrics

The fluorinated low-k dielectrics SiO:F and Teflon AF were investigated for process integration with aluminum and copper interconnects. To minimize fluorine diffusion, several potential barrier materials were deposited onto the fluorinated dielectrics and characterized after heat treatment at temperatures up to 450°C. The barrier layers studied include conventional materials such as Ta, TaN, and TiN, in addition to several novel materials. Barrier layer materials were deposited using evaporation, and sputtering. The materials were characterized using nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) to determine the fluorine concentration profile. A reaction zone was noted at the dielectric-barrier interface on several samples, corresponding to the formation of a fluoride complex. hI some instances, this fluoride layer was self-limiting and prevented further fluorine diffusion through the remainder of the barrier layer.
An explicit multiscale model for progressive failure of composite structures

In this paper an explicit multiscale model for composite materials is introduced. Impact damage is a very nonlinear event which is difficult to model in implicit solvers. Predicting progressive failure in a composite can be done with ply level mechanisms and/or micro level mechanisms. This paper uses the Generalized Method of Cells as implemented within %ASA's Micromechanics Analysis Code. It is implemented by the code FEAMAC within the commercial code ABAQUS. The numerical results of various impact speeds on composite strips indicate good correlation with the experimental results of the damaged regions.
Stiff Person Syndrome Improvement with Chemotherapy in a Patient with Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma (P04.165)

Objective: We describe the patient with anti-GAD positive and amphiphysin negative antibody SPS and long-standing cutaneous T cell lymphoma treated successfully with multiple courses of T cell- and B cell-depleting monoclonal antibodies with near-resolution of her SPS symptoms. Background Stiff Person Syndrome is usually idiopathic, but it can be a paraneoplastic manifestation of certain tumors, most commonly secondary to breast adenocarcinoma and SCLC and associated with anti-amphiphysin antibodies. In both cases there is impaired synaptic GABAergic neurotransmission resulting from autoantibodies targeting various presynaptic and synaptic proteins in the inhibitory neurons of the brain and spinal cord. Design/Methods: The patient is a 57- year-old woman diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma by skin biopsy at age 40 years, who underwent initial cyclophosphamide treatments followed by other chemotherapeutic agents for lymphoma. She was diagnosed with GAD-positive SPS at age 46 years and treated with oral steroids and intermittent plasma exchanges without benefit. Results: The patient9s lymphoma exacerbations have been associated with worsening of SPS symptoms, in general. For lymphoma relapses and as maintenance therapy during years, she has received cyclophosphamide, alemtuzumab, bexarotene, tacrolimus and azathioprine on separate occasions, as well as intermittent rituximab infusions for SPS with dramatic improvement of truncal stiffness and gait stability. Conclusions: In SPS associated with tumor, cryptogenic or paraneoplastic, cross-reactive binding of serum antibodies with malignant cells expressing neuronal antigens such as GAD and amphiphysin may be responsible for triggering the autoimmune response. Recognition of neurological syndrome and associated autoantibodies should direct appropriate diagnostic workup. Distinction between sporadic and paraneoplastic SPS is important from therapeutic and long-term management point of view, as it is the case in primary cutaneous lymphoma and lymphomas with secondary skin involvement. Monoclonal B- and T-cell targeted therapies can be beneficial for idiopathic and paraneoplastic form of SPS, since autoimmune mechanisms appear to be operative in both. Disclosure: Dr. Rakocevic has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hussain has nothing to disclose.
Elucidation of the role of constraints in economic model predictive control

Abstract Economic model predictive control (EMPC) is a predictive feedback control methodology that unifies economic optimization and control. EMPC uses a stage cost that reflects the process/system economics. In general, the stage cost used is not a quadratic stage cost like that typically used in standard tracking model predictive control. In this paper, a brief overview of EMPC methods is provided. In particular, the role of constraints imposed in the optimization problem of EMPC for feasibility, closed-loop stability, and closed-loop performance is explained. Three main types of constraints are considered including terminal equality constraints, terminal region constraints, and constraints designed via Lyapunov-based techniques. The paper closes with a well-known chemical engineering example (a non-isothermal CSTR with a second-order reaction) to illustrate the effectiveness of time-varying operation to improve closed-loop economic performance compared to steady-state operation and to demonstrate the impact of economically motivated constraints on optimal operation.
Watchdogs and whistleblowers: A reference guide to consumer activism

Recent high-profile scandals at Volkswagen and Turing Pharmaceuticals remind us of the often tense relationship between consumers and corporations and the important role that consumer watchdogs lik...
Easy Method of Upper-Pole Heminephroureterectomy in Duplex Systems in Children

SUMMARY An easy method of upper-pole heminephroureterectomy is described in which a finger is inserted into the dilated upper collecting system, and the upper pole is removed by dissecting directly against the collecting system using finger guidance. This approach prevents entry into the lower-pole collecting system, minimizes blood loss, and maximizes preservation of normal renal tissue. Easy access to the lower ureter through the same incision is facilitated by the use of the Sims vaginal retractor.
Piezoelectric compliant mechanism energy harvesters under large base excitations

A piezoelectric compliant mechanism (PCM) energy harvester is designed, modeled, and analyzed that consists of a polyvinylidene diflouoride, PVDF unimorph clamped at its base and attached to a compliant mechanism at its tip. The compliant hinge stiffness is carefully tuned to approach a low frequency first mode with an efficient (nearly quadratic) shape that provides a uniform strain distribution. A nonlinear model of the PCM energy harvester under large base excitation is derived to determine the maximum power that can be generated by the device. Experiments with a fabricated PCM energy harvester prototype show that the compliant mechanism introduces a stiffening effect and a much wider bandwidth than a benchmark proof mass cantilever design. The PCM bridge structure self-limits the displacement and maximum strain at large excitations compared with the proof mass cantilever, improving the device robustness. The PCM outperforms the cantilever in both average power and power-strain sensitivity at high accelerations due to the PCM axial stretching effect and its more uniform strain distribution.
Virtual and “real-life” wall/rock climbing: motor movement comparisons and video gaming pedagogical perceptions

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine similarites and differences between motion-based video games (MBVGs) and “real-life” wall/rock climbing and determine the perceived usefulness of utilizing MBVGs when trying to teach someone how to authentically wall/rock climb. A mixed-methods multi-phase intervention with two randomized groups – wall/rock climbing first (WF; n = 12) and MBVGs first (GF; n = 12) utilizing Xbox One’s Kinect Sports Rivals Rock Climbing – was used. All participants had no prior climbing experience. Results indicated the participants perceived MBVGs and authentic wall/rock climbing were similar concerning climbing tactics/strategies and arm movements, but were different regarding effort and leg, finger/grip, and jumping movements. Moreover, both the MBVGs and “real-life” wall/rock climbing experiences were needed for a significant difference in the participants’ perceived understanding of both the necessary motor skills and tactics/strategies needed to wall/rock climb. In sum,...
Latent Computational Complexity of Symmetry-Protected Topological Order with Fractional Symmetry.

An emerging insight is that ground states of symmetry-protected topological orders (SPTOs) possess latent computational complexity in terms of their many-body entanglement. By introducing a fractional symmetry of SPTO, which requires the invariance under 3-colorable symmetries of a lattice, we prove that every renormalization fixed-point state of 2D $({\mathbb{Z}}_{2}{)}^{m}$ SPTO with fractional symmetry can be utilized for universal quantum computation using only Pauli measurements, as long as it belongs to a nontrivial 2D SPTO phase. Our infinite family of fixed-point states may serve as a base model to demonstrate the idea of a ``quantum computational phase'' of matter, whose states share universal computational complexity ubiquitously.
Patrick Baert . The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual . Reviewed by

Jean-Paul Sartre is often seen as the quintessential public intellectual, but this was not always the case. Until the mid-1940s he was not so well-known, even in France. Then suddenly, in a very short period of time, Sartre became an intellectual celebrity. How can we explain this remarkable transformation? The Existentialist Moment retraces Sartre s career and provides a compelling new explanation of his meteoric rise to fame. Baert takes the reader back to the confusing and traumatic period of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath and shows how the unique political and intellectual landscape in France at this time helped to propel Sartre and existentialist philosophy to the fore. The book also explores why, from the early 1960s onwards, in France and elsewhere, the interest in Sartre and existentialism eventually waned. The Existentialist Moment ends with a bold new theory for the study of intellectuals and a provocative challenge to the widespread belief that the public intellectual is a species now on the brink of extinction.
Experimental and Statistical Investigation of Self-Consolidating Concrete Mixture Constituents for Prestressed Bridge Girder Fabrication

AbstractSelf-consolidating concrete (SCC) has the potential to increase precast production and quality, especially for production of prestressed concrete (PSC) bridge girders due to its superior wo...
A New Species of Spondylus (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the Eocene of Alabama

Some time ago Royal D. Suttkus, Professor of Biology, Tulane University, collected the paired valves of a moderately sized specimen of Spondylus from the Middle Eocene Gosport Sand, at the exposure on Little Stave Creek, near Jackson, Clarke County, Alabama (locality TU 306). The only previous record of the genus from the Middle Eocene of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast fauna has been by Harris (1919, p. 29) who reported "a fragment of Spondylus of dumosum type but too imperfect for further characterization," from the "St. Maurice Stage" (Cook Mountain Formation) west of Winnfield, Winn Parish, Louisiana. A second, Early Eocene specimen from Hatchetigbee Bluff, Alabama, reported by Harris (1897, p. 234, pl. 12, fig. 11) as Spondylus sp., is an incomplete upper valve that shows no trace of spines on the radial ribs, which also are of a wholly different shape and number than are those in the present specimen.
Depth perception: the need to report ocean biogeochemical rates as functions of temperature, not depth.

For over 50 years, ocean scientists have oddly represented ocean oxygen consumption rates as a function of depth but not temperature in most biogeochemical models. This unique tradition or tactic i...
Handling Object Errors

Let us now turn to the subject of error handling. This important subject can seem quite complicated and confusing at times (an imbroglio, if you will), and so our goal is to attempt to put some order in this apparent confusion. Once the options have been clearly defined, you may find that error handling is not as unpleasant as many programmers seem to feel.
Conditional support for territorial migrations in Serbian national discourse

After more than a decade of Serbia’s investment in the EU integration, its citizens are still imagining their national identities from the externally assigned position of ‘flawed’ Europeans. To respond to this subject position in the context of ongoing migration trends in Europe, these individuals engage in identity politics that both celebrate elements of otherness, and also locate them in the country’s own internal and Eastern Others. This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine the ideological effects of these negotiations in response to the 2010/2011 asylum-seeking crisis, when a number of Serbian citizens applied for asylum in several EU countries, which defined this as an abuse of Schengen system. The analysis of more than 1,000 online comments shows that newsreaders offer conditional support for asylum seekers to (re)inscribe preferred social hierarchies. Represented simultaneously as suffering citizens and immoral internal other, asylum seekers serve as the strategic means by which ethnic discrimination becomes an invisible element of everyday nationalism.
Effects of Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles Supplementation to Yearling Heifers Grazing Northern Great Plains Rangeland: Impacts on Subsequent Feedlot Performance and Meat Quality

Eighty-two yearling crossbred heifers (318.8 ± 1.03 kg) were utilized in a completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) supplementation on animal performance, while grazing on rangeland of the Northern Great Plains, and subsequent feedlot performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality traits. Treatments were: 1) 0% DDGS supplementation (CONT) and 2) 0.6% of body weight (BW) DDGS supplementation (SUP). Heifers received treatments for 70 d (6 June to 16 August) while grazing, and then were acclimated to and fed a common corn-based finishing diet for 109 d. Average daily gain (ADG) of SUP heifers was greater (P ≤ 0.01), resulting in heavier BW (P ≤ 0.03) following grazing compared with CONT heifers. Heifer performance, including ADG (1.91 ± 0.05 kg/d), gain to feed (G:F) (0.15 ± 0.003 kg), dry matter intake (DMI) (12.6 ± 0.20 kg), and final BW (572.4 ± 7.43 kg) were not different (P ≥ 0.13) during finishing. Hot carcass weight (335.7 ± 4.39 kg), Longissimus muscle area (81.30 ± 1.24 cm2), 12th rib fat thickness (1.24 ± 0.06 cm), and kidney, pelvic, heart fat (KPH) (1.85 ± 0.08%) were not different (P ≥ 0.47) between treatments. There were no differences (P ≥ 0.24) between treatments in yield grade (2.9 ± 0.10) or marbling (492 ± 22.3; Small00 = 400). Results from Warner-Bratzler shear force indicated that strip loin steaks from SUP heifers tended (P = 0.07) to have increased tenderness compared with strip loin steaks from CONT heifers (3.3 vs. 3.7 ± 0.12 kg, respectively). Inclusion of 0.6% BW supplementation during grazing increased (P = 0.01) strip loin steak muscle lightness (L*) compared with CONT steaks (46.5 vs. 45.5 ± 0.27, respectively). Strip loin steaks from heifers supplemented DDGS during grazing were perceived to be more tender by taste panelists (P = 0.02) than strip loin steaks from CONT heifers (5.9 vs. 5.5 ± 0.11; eight-point scale). Supplementation of DDGS during grazing improved ADG of yearling heifers with no effect on feedlot performance or carcass characteristics but did improve tenderness and steak sensory attributes.
Pattern copper through hole filling in VCP for IC substrate production

The only state-of-the-art through hole filling in panel plating providing inclusion-free performance is available for horizontal conveyorised systems with pulse plating since 2005[1] and already used in full mass production. This process shows its benefits especially when it comes to achieving complete filling with minimum plated Cu, which is essential for low cost and efficient use of resources. For pattern through hole filling a new processes has been developed. This pattern through hole filling process presented hereafter has been designed for vertical continuous plating (VCP) equipment. For fine line structures with optimum filling pattern plating processes are required, dimple must be kept at a minimum as any dimple will accumulate in a stacked filled via structure. In order to meet the technological requirements for next generation packaging, parameters must be found to achieve pattern plating with excellent within-unit distribution. The new process is designed for use of DC current and therefore the technology applied in the above mentioned state-of-the-art inclusion-free process cannot be used. By that of course inclusionless filling performance is of utmost importance. This paper focusses on technological aspects and on difficulties to fill through holes of various dimensions and sizes that exist in the market. The challenge of the fluctuating drilling tolerances/ qualities (protruding glass fibres, laser drilling asymmetry) shown and ways are described how to minimise the inclusion rate. In detail the influence of electrolyte agitation, current density, inorganic and organic concentrations on the filling performance are described and discussed. The result of our investigations is a process with improved through hole filling capability at low void occurrence and excellent within-unit distribution. The new process has shown improved capability to fill through-holes in cores of up to 200 gm, while further investigation continues.
Analysis of strand exchange and DNA binding of enhancer‐independent Gin recombinase mutants.

The Gin recombination system of phage Mu mediates inversion of the DNA sequence between two sites (gix). In addition to Gin protein and gix sites, recombination requires an enhancer bound by the host factor FIS. We analyzed mutants of Gin that function in the absence of the enhancer and FIS and mediate deletion and intermolecular fusion in addition to inversion. The linking number changes caused by inversion imply that mutant Gin alone can form the same synaptic complex and can use the same strand exchange mechanism as the complete wild-type system. However, the linking number changes also reveal that unlike wild-type Gin, mutant Gin can recombine through more than one synaptic complex and can relax DNA in the absence of synapsis. This expanded repertoire allows mutant Gin to mediate DNA rearrangements not performed by wild-type Gin. Because mutant Gin, but not wild-type Gin, unwinds gix site DNA upon binding, we postulate that FIS and the enhancer function with (-) supercoiling to promote this unwinding with wild-type Gin. The analysis of the topological changes during DNA fusion shows that both the parallel gix site configuration and the right-handed rotation of the sites during exchange of wild-type Gin are a result of the (-) supercoiling of the substrate and the number of entrapped supercoils in the synaptic complex.