cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
New district-level maps of rice cropping in India: a foundation for scientific input into policy assessment

Abstract We combined several district-level and state-level data sets of rice cropping in India to develop a single dataset of district-level rice cropping systems for all of India in 1999–2000. The data set contains district-level areas for 34 different single-, double-, and triple-cropping combinations (e.g., rice–rice, rice–rice–pulse, rice–pulse–fibrecrop, rice–wheat, and rice–fallow). The dataset specifies cropping by season (e.g., Kharif and Rabi) and area in two water management systems (irrigated or rainfed) for each cropping system in each district. The total rice sown area is 44.9 million hectares (Mha), 91% in the Kharif (wet) season. Total rice land area was 41.6 Mha, with upland rice accounting for 13% of this area. Rainfed rice (including upland and deepwater) accounted for 44% of the total rice sown area, and rice–fallow for 38% of the total rice sown area. The total multiple cropping area with rice occupied 17.6 Mha, with dominant systems being rice–wheat (8.8 Mha), rice–pulse (3.2 Mha), rice–rice (2.2 Mha), and rice–oilseed (1.2 Mha, including rice–groundnut). We combined these maps with a simple, monthly time-step water balance model to estimate irrigation water demand for irrigated rice by district; total national demand was 200 km 3 y −1 . A complete national, district-level set of maps and data of rice cropping systems and water management will be useful as inputs to a range of studies on agricultural productivity, resource use, and environmental impacts of rice agriculture.
Acute exposure to predator odor elicits a robust increase in corticosterone and a decrease in activity without altering proliferation in the adult rat hippocampus

Stress has long been implicated as a major cause of depression in humans and more recently has been suggested to decrease neurogenesis, which may be a contributing factor to depression development. Animal models of stress may be a relevant tool for investigating links between neurogenesis and depression. This has largely been investigated using chronic stress models in rodents. However, stress may be chronic or experienced in discrete episodes. Acute stress may be particularly relevant to humans experiencing unexpected societal pressures and obligations. Our study examined the effect of acute stress on the proliferative phase of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Young adult rats were exposed for 20 min to the predator odor TMT, a natural stressor for rodents with significant ethological relevance. BrdU IP injections were concurrent with TMT exposure to assess proliferation effects with animal sacrifice 2 h after BrdU injection. Robust stress responses were evident following TMT exposure as detected by elevated corticosterone (CORT) levels and a significant reduction in exploratory behavior. Exposure to TMT did not alter the number of BrdU-positive cells in the hippocampus despite physiological and behavioral evidence of stress. CORT level elevation has long been accepted as a marker of stress; however, this study indicates that increases in CORT level may not always correlate with diminished neurogenic proliferation. This study further suggests that various stressors may not operate through the same biological substrates resulting in a differential ability to modulate neurogenesis.
Possible Effect of Thyroid Function on Anticoagulant Response to Unfractionated Heparin

Many factors are known to influence the unfractionated heparin (UFH) dosage required to achieve therapeutic anticoagulation, including weight, sex, age, tobacco smoking, and diabetes mellitus. However, no interaction between thyroid function and UFH has been documented. An 83-year-old Caucasian woman had active hyperthyroidism that appeared to significantly increase her dosage requirements for UFH. The patient had atrial fibrillation secondary to the hyperthyroidism. She had no known factors that would increase UFH requirements. A UHF dosage of 1400 U/hour was needed to achieve a therapeutic level of anticoagulation (activated partial thromboplastin time 62 sec). After she was treated for hyperthyroidism, her atrial fibrillation resolved and UFH was discontinued. On day 9 of her hospital admission, atrial fibrillation resumed, and the patient's thyroid function began to normalize. Unfractionated heparin was restarted, and this time therapeutic anticoagulation was achieved with only 800 U/hour. This patient's experience suggests a previously undocumented and clinically significant relationship between active hyperthyroidism and altered dosage requirements for UFH. Recognition of this potential interaction may shorten the time required for patients with hyperthyroidism to achieve therapeutic anticoagulation, thereby preventing complications associated with subtherapeutic anticoagulation.
A retrospective, deformable registration analysis of the impact of PET-CT planning on patterns of failure in stereotactic body radiation therapy for recurrent head and neck cancer.

Background: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has seen increasing use as a salvage strategy for selected patients with recurrent, previously-irradiated squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (rSCCHN). PET-CT may be advantageous for tumor delineation and evaluation of treatment failures in SBRT. We analyzed the patterns of failure following SBRT for rSCCHN and assessed the impact of PET-CT treatment planning on these patterns of failure. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 96 patients with rSCCHN treated with SBRT. Seven patients (7%) were treated after surgical resection of rSCCHN and 89 patients (93%) were treated definitively. PET-CT treatment planning was used for 45 patients whereas non-PET-CT planning was used for 51 patients. Categories of failure were assigned by comparing recurrences on post-treatment scans to the planning target volume (PTV) from planning scans using the deformable registration function of VelocityAI™. Failures were defined: In-field (>75% inside PTV), Overlap (20-75% inside PTV), Marginal (<20% inside PTV but closest edge within 1cm of PTV), or Regional/Distant (more than 1cm from PTV). Results: Median follow-up was 7.4 months (range, 2.6–52 months). Of 96 patients, 47 (49%) developed post-SBRT failure. Failure distribution was: In-field–12.3%, Overlap–24.6%, Marginal–36.8%, Regional/Distant–26.3%. There was a significant improvement in overall failure-free survival (log rank p=0.037) and combined Overlap/Marginal failure-free survival (log rank p=0.037) for those receiving PET-CT planning vs. non-PET-CT planning in the overall cohort (n=96). Analysis of the definitive SBRT subgroup (n=89) increased the significance of these findings (overall failure: p=0.008, Overlap/Marginal failure: p=0.009). There were no significant differences in age, gender, time from prior radiation, dose, use of cetuximab with SBRT, tumor differentiation, and tumor volume between the PET-CT and non-PET-CT groups. Conclusions: Most failures after SBRT treatment for rSCCHN were near misses, i.e. Overlap/Marginal failures (61.4%), suggesting an opportunity to improve outcomes with more sensitive imaging. PET-CT treatment planning showed the lowest rate of overall and near miss failures and is beneficial for SBRT treatment planning.
Health disparities among lesbian, gay, and bisexual older adults: results from a population-based study.

Objectives. We investigated health disparities among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults aged 50 years and older.Methods. We analyzed data from the 2003–2010 Washington State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n = 96 992) on health outcomes, chronic conditions, access to care, behaviors, and screening by gender and sexual orientation with adjusted logistic regressions.Results. LGB older adults had higher risk of disability, poor mental health, smoking, and excessive drinking than did heterosexuals. Lesbians and bisexual women had higher risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, and gay and bisexual men had higher risk of poor physical health and living alone than did heterosexuals. Lesbians reported a higher rate of excessive drinking than did bisexual women; bisexual men reported a higher rate of diabetes and a lower rate of being tested for HIV than did gay men.Conclusions. Tailored interventions are needed to address the health disparities and unique health needs of LGB older adults. Res...
Acute Sarin Exposure Causes Differential Regulation of Choline Acetyltransferase, Acetylcholinesterase, and Acetylcholine Receptors in the Central Nervous System of the Rat

Acute neurotoxic effects of sarin (O:-isopropylmethylphosphonoflouridate) in male Sprague-Dawley rats were studied. The animals were treated with intramuscular (im) injections of either 1 x LD(50) (100 microg/kg), and sacrificed at 0. 5, 1, 3, 6, 15, or 20 h after treatment, or with im injections of either 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, or 1 x LD(50) and sacrificed 15 h after treatment. Plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and brain regional acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were inhibited (45-55%) by 30 min after the LD(50) dose. BChE in the plasma and AChE in cortex, brainstem, midbrain, and cerebellum remained inhibited for up to 20 h following a single LD(50) treatment. No inhibition in plasma BChE activity was observed 20 h after treatment with doses lower than the LD(50) dose. Midbrain and brainstem seem to be most responsive to sarin treatment at lower doses, as these regions exhibited inhibition (approximately 49% and 10%, respectively) in AChE activity following 0.1 x LD(50) treatment, after 20 h. Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity was increased in cortex, brainstem, and midbrain 6 h after LD(50) treatment, and the elevated enzyme activity persisted up to 20 h after treatment. Cortex ChAT activity was significantly increased following a 0.1 x LD(50) dose, whereas brainstem and midbrain did not show any effect at lower doses. Treatment with an LD(50) dose caused a biphasic response in cortical nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (m2-mAChR) ligand binding, using [(3)H]cytisine and [(3)H]AFDX-384 as ligands for nAChR and mAChR, respectively. Decreases at 1 and 3 h and consistent increases at 6, 15, and 20 h in nAChR and m2-mAChR were observed following a single LD(50) dose. The increase in nAChR ligand binding densities was much more pronounced than in mAChR. These results suggest that a single exposure of sarin, ranging from 0.1 to 1 x LD(50), modulates the cholinergic pathways differently and thereby causes dysregulation in excitatory neurotransmission.
Federal and union job queues: further evidence from the US labour market

Recent research on union differentials suggests that although the premium to unionization is higher in the private sector, it can hardly be ignored in the federal sector. Consequently, the nature and length of the federal queue may differ between union and non-union sectors. Similarly, the union queue may not necessarily be homogeneous between federal and private sectors. We estimate separate queues for federal-union, federal-non-union and private-union jobs from the same sample. This avoids the problem of simultaneity between the federal queue and the union queue. In addition, it explores several important differences that exist between these queues.
Separation of bacteria with imprinted polymeric films.

Separation of compounds out of complex mixtures is a key issue that has been solved for small molecules by chromatography. However, general methods for the separation of large bio-particles, such as cells, are still challenging. We demonstrate integration of imprinted polymeric films (IPF) into a microfluidic chip, which preferentially capture cells matching an imprint template, and separate strains of cyanobacteria with 80–90% efficiency, despite a minimal difference in morphology and fluorescence, demonstrating its general nature. It is currently thought that the imprinting process, conducted while the polymer cures, transfers chemical information of the cell’s external structure to the substrate. Capture specificity and separation can be further enhanced by orienting the imprints parallel to the flow vector and tuning the pH to a lower range.
Production of Arginine by Fermentation

Studies on the production of L-arginine by fermentation using mutants of Corynebacterium (Brevibacterium), Bacillus, and Serratia have been conducted since the 1960s. More recently, the breeding of L-arginine production strains by gene recombination techniques using Escherichia coli has been investigated. To produce L-arginine efficiently by fermentation, it is necessary to breed strains with a strong biosynthetic pathway to L-arginine. Because L-arginine is biosynthesized from the precursor L-glutamic acid through ornithine and citrulline, the use of strains with a high capability for producing L-glutamic acid is desirable. Corynebacterium (Brevibacterium), which is well known in the production of L-glutamic acid, was selected as a starting strain for the breeding of an L-arginine producer and has been used on a commercial scale. Regarding the fermentation conditions, as for other amino acids, L-arginine fermentation is controlled by regulating pH near the neutral point. Due to its high oxygen requirement, L-arginine production is seriously impaired without sufficient oxygen. Advanced purification methods are necessary to obtain highly pure L-arginine from the fermentation broth. After fermentation is complete, bacterial cells and proteins are removed by means of a membrane or centrifugation, and impurities are removed by means of an ion-exchange resin or activated carbon. Highly pure L-arginine crystals can be obtained through concentration at the end of the process.
Polling places and “slow punctured provocation”: occult-driven cases in postcolonial Kenya's High Courts

Abstract In Kenya, witchcraft remains central to the intersecting arenas of politics and justice. Postcolonial case files of witchcraft-related crimes offer important insights into the ways that approaches and attitudes to witchcraft, politics, and justice have shifted since independence. High Court cases addressing witchcraft and electoral fraud underscore the fact that the occult is now thought of as a clear path to state power, rather than a challenge to it. In Kenya's high courts, cases of witchcraft-driven violence have involved complex shifts in the judiciary's willingness to negotiate with “local” attitudes towards witchcraft in assessing pleas for and against mitigation. These cases indicate that while the postcolonial courts take the existence and efficacy of witchcraft for granted in a way that their colonial predecessors certainly did not, they retain a circumspect approach to witchcraft when the primacy of state power in matters of politics and justice is at stake.
Log domain filtering for RF applications

A new second-order log filter topology, which is particularly useful for RF signal processing, is introduced with a discussion of how its features meet the needs of RF design. The design concept behind log filters is reviewed. Simulation and experimental results on a test IC are presented for an electronically tunable filter which operates beyond 400 MHz, with Q's in excess of 60, using the AT&T CBIC-V2 process.
2‐(t‐Butoxycarbonyloxyimino)‐2‐phenylacetonitrile

[58632-95-4] C13H14N2O3 (MW 246.27) InChI = 1S/C13H14N2O3/c1-13(2,3)17-12(16)18-15-11(9-14)10-7-5-4-6-8-10/h4-8H,1-3H3 InChIKey = QQWYQAQQADNEIC-UHFFFAOYSA-N (reagent for protection of amino acids as tert-butyl carbamates1-3 and for protection of alcohols as tert-butyl carbonates4) Alternate Name: Boc-ON. Physical Data: mp 87–89 °C. Solubility: very sol ethyl acetate, ether, benzene, chloroform, dioxane and acetone; sol methanol, 2-propanol, and tert-butanol; insol petroleum ether and water. Form Supplied in: solid. Handling, Storage, and Precautions: contact with the reagent may cause irritation. The toxicological properties of the reagent have not been thoroughly investigated. The reagent should be stored in a brown bottle at −20 °C to prolong shelf life. After several weeks at rt the reagent undergoes gradual decomposition with evolution of CO2.
Active mesh-a feature seeking and tracking image sequence representation scheme

This paper introduces a representation scheme for image sequences using nonuniform samples embedded in a deformable mesh structure. It describes a sequence by nodal positions and colors in a starting frame, followed by nodal displacements in the following frames. The nodal points in the mesh are more densely distributed in regions containing interesting features such as edges and corners; and are dynamically updated to follow the same features in successive frames. They are determined automatically by maximizing feature (e.g., gradient) magnitudes at nodal points, while minimizing interpolation errors within individual elements, and matching errors between corresponding elements. In order to avoid the mesh elements becoming overly deformed, a penalty term is also incorporated, which measures the irregularity of the mesh structure. The notions of shape functions and master elements commonly used in the finite element method have been applied to simplify the numerical calculation of the energy functions and their gradients. The proposed representation is motivated by the active contour or snake model proposed by Kass, Witkin, and Terzopoulos (1988). The current representation retains the salient merit of the original model as a feature tracker based on local and collective information, while facilitating more accurate image interpolation and prediction. Our computer simulations have shown that the proposed scheme can successfully track facial feature movements in head-and-shoulder type of sequences, and more generally, interframe changes that can be modeled as elastic deformation. The treatment for the starting frame also constitutes an efficient representation of arbitrary still images. >
On wine, chirality and crystallography.

As the first centennial of X-ray diffraction is inevitably drawing closer, it is tempting to reflect on the impact that this fascinating discipline has had on natural sciences and how it has changed the world we live in. Also, next year is the 160th anniversary of the fateful April afternoon when Louis Pasteur separated d- from l-tartrate crystals, an event that many science historians recognize as the birth of stereochemistry, and the first step that the barely nascent field of crystallography took on the road to elucidate a fundamental phenomenon of chemistry and biology – chirality. Many great minds – Pasteur, Van 't Hoff, Fischer, Lord Kelvin, the Braggs, Astbury and Bijvoet, to mention just a few – contributed along the way. But one central inanimate character was there at all times – an inconspicuous somewhat obscure organic compound found in wine: tartaric acid. This is the story of its contribution to science.
Building Approximate Calling Context from Partial Call Traces

We present an approach for building calling context information useful for program understanding, performance analysis and optimizations. Our approach exploits a lightweight profiling mechanism providing partial call traces. The goal is to reconstruct calling context information as accurately as possible, and to help the user navigate through it.We propose three steps to merge partial call traces into a smaller number of partial calling context trees. We intend to minimize errors such that the final partial contexts represent actual components of the real calling context tree with a very high probability. The first step concatenates call traces based on their common sequences. The second step converts call traces into partial calling context trees, and the last step merges partial context trees through maximal matching. To gauge how well the merged trees represent the full calling context tree, several criteria are presented. Our results indicate that call traces are successfully merged into a small number of large calling context trees. The merged trees are highly accurate.We have also developed a semi-automatic tool to navigate across partial calling context trees for program understanding and performance analysis purposes. Our results for several Java benchmarks show that our merging strategies exhibit a maximum 1% inaccuracy when compared to the exact solution.
Arthroscopic debridement for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee: 2- and 5-year results

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect that arthroscopic debridement in osteoarthritic knees has on patient satisfaction and function. Type of Study: Cohort observational study. Methods: Thirty-six patients (mean age, 64.8 years) were available for 2- and 5-year follow-up after undergoing knee arthroscopy to treat arthritic symptoms refractory to conservative treatment. Surgical treatment included debridement of meniscal lesions, stabilization of chondral defects, removal of impinging osteophytes, and notchplasty. Age, symptoms, preoperative and postoperative Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) scores, compartments involved, motion, impinging lesions, and level of satisfaction were evaluated. Results: At 2 years, 32 of 36 patients were satisfied. Mean HSS scores improved from 29.2 to 48.0. All 4 early failures had tricompartment disease (mean preoperative HSS scores, 21.5; preoperative flexion contractures, 15.6°). At 5 years, 25 of the 36 patients were satisfied with good to excellent results. Mean HSS scores decreased slightly to 43.2. Three patients had some deterioration and were rated fair, and 8 were considered failures requiring further surgery. The 25 of 36 with satisfactory results had a mean preoperative flexion contracture of 7.3° and average HSS scores of 33.2, whereas the other 11 of 36 had mean contractures of 15.0° and average HSS scores of 20.1. Poor results were associated with contractures greater than 10° ( P =.05) and lower preoperative HSS scores ( P =.05). Conclusions: Arthroscopic debridement of osteoarthritic knees has a favorable outcome in selected patients. Those patients with preoperative flexion contractures less than 10° and preoperative HSS scores greater than 22 beneficially responded to this method of treatment. Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Vol 18, No 8 (October), 2002: pp 829–834
Identification and Characterization of Two Novel Splicing Isoforms of Human Estrogen-Related Receptor β

Context: Estrogen-related receptor β (ERRβ) was one of the first two orphan nuclear receptors reported and is believed to play important roles in estrogen-regulated pathways. Embryo lethality of ERRβ-null mice indicated that ERRβ is essential for embryo development. Objective: Two novel splicing isoforms of human (h) ERRβ, hERRβ2-Δ10 and short-form hERRβ, were identified during the cloning of previously reported hERRβ-hERRβ2. We aim to investigate the functional differences of these three human ERRβ-splicing isoforms. Results and Conclusions: A genomic sequence comparison within and flanking the ERRβ genes of eight species demonstrated that short-form hERRβ lacks an F domain and is the matched homolog of mouse and rat ERRβ proteins in humans. However, hERRβ2-Δ10 and the previously reported hERRβ2 isoforms are primate specific. RT-PCR analysis showed that short-form hERRβ has a wide distribution in the 24 of 27 human tissues and cell lines tested, whereas hERRβ2 and hERRβ2-Δ10 were only expressed in testis...
EFFECT OF SPLEEN IN RESTRUCTURED BEEF

Boneless beef chucks were converted to restructured beef steaks and formulated with 1% NaCl and 0.25% sodium tripolyphosphate (STP). Experimental treatments included (1) control-frozen, (2) control-5 days storage at 0°C, (3) 1% spleen pulp-frozen and (4) 1% spleen pulp-5 days storage at 0°C. Treatments 2 and 4 were evaluated only after storage for 5 days; whereas, treatments 1 and 3 were studied at 5 and 70 days. Spleen pulp enhanced (P 0.05) contribution to color preservation during prolonged storage. Visual color and overall appearance were affected more by storage time and conditions than by the addition of spleen pulp. Spleen pulp had no effect (P>0.05) on product cohesiveness, texture, tenderness and flavor of frozen restructured beef steaks but improved the tenderness of unfrozen samples.
Recent developments in fast-multipole based frequency and time domain solvers

This paper reviews the state of the art in fast integral equation techniques for solving large scale electromagnetic scattering and radiation problems. The multilevel fast multipole algorithm and its frequency and time domain derivatives are discussed. These techniques permit the rapid evaluation of fields due to known sources and hence accelerate the solution of boundary value problems arising in the analysis of a wide variety of electromagnetic phenomena. Specifically, the application of the steepest descent fast multipole method to the frequency domain analysis of radiation from quasi planar structures, e.g., rough surfaces and finite microstrip structures, is described. In addition, the extension of the fast multipole concept to the plane wave time domain algorithm that permits the efficient analysis of transient phenomena is outlined.
Problems and Prospects from a Flood of Extragalactic TeV Neutrinos in IceCube

The steep spectrum of neutrinos measured by IceCube extending from >1 PeV down to ~10 TeV has an energy flux now encroaching on the Fermi isotropic GeV background. We examine several implications starting from source energetics requirements for neutrino production. We show how the environment of extragalactic nuclei can extinguish ~10-100 TeV gamma rays and convert their energy to X-rays for plausible conditions of infrared luminosity and magnetic field, so that the Fermi background is not overwhelmed by cascades. We address a variety of scenarios, such as for acceleration by supermassive black holes and hadronic scenarios, and observations that may help elucidate the neutrinos' shadowy origins.
A hybrid model for combining case–control and cohort studies in systematic reviews of diagnostic tests

Systematic reviews of diagnostic tests often involve a mixture of case-control and cohort studies. The standard methods for evaluating diagnostic accuracy only focus on sensitivity and specificity and ignore the information on disease prevalence contained in cohort studies. Consequently, such methods cannot provide estimates of measures related to disease prevalence, such as population averaged or overall positive and negative predictive values, which reflect the clinical utility of a diagnostic test. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach that jointly models the disease prevalence along with the diagnostic test sensitivity and specificity in cohort studies, and the sensitivity and specificity in case-control studies. In order to overcome the potential computational difficulties in the standard full likelihood inference of the proposed hybrid model, we propose an alternative inference procedure based on the composite likelihood. Such composite likelihood based inference does not suffer computational problems and maintains high relative efficiency. In addition, it is more robust to model mis-specifications compared to the standard full likelihood inference. We apply our approach to a review of the performance of contemporary diagnostic imaging modalities for detecting metastases in patients with melanoma.
Lasing performance of Tm:YAG minirod grown by laser-heated pedestal growth technique

A 2- mu m Tm:YAG laser using a 1-mm diameter laser rod fabricated from material grown by the laser-heated pedestal growth technique has been characterized. Laser performance was found to be essentially identical to that obtained with bulk grown crystals. This demonstrates the usefulness of this technique for solid-state laser material evaluation and for the growth of laser-quality crystals in sizes suitable for laser diode pumping. >
Relationships of behavioral measures of frontal lobe dysfunction with underlying electrophysiology in cocaine-dependent patients.

Background and Objectives Despite evidence that frontal lobe functioning is impaired in cocaine-dependent individuals, relationships between behavioral measures of frontal dysfunction and electrophysiological measures of inhibition in cocaine use have not been explored. Methods Using the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), frontal dysfunction was assessed in a group of abstinent cocaine-dependent subjects (N = 49) and healthy controls (N = 32). Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and evoked potential (EP)-based electrophysiological measures of inhibition, we assessed associations between these measures and FrSBe estimates of frontal dysfunction. Results Patients had significantly higher FrSBe scores for executive dysfunction, disinhibition, and apathy than controls. Lower TMS-based resting motor thresholds (ie, hyperexcitability) were significantly associated with higher executive dysfunction scores in the patients. Conclusions and Scientific Significance Relationships between FrSBe scores and TMS-based measures highlight neurophysiological aberrations underlying frontal lobe dysfunction in cocaine abusers. TMS and EP measures may be useful probes of the intermediary steps between frontal lobe dysfunction and addictive behavior. (Am J Addict 2014;23:265–271)
An enhanced-bandwidth integrated dual L antenna for mobile communications systems-design and measurement

This paper presents the characteristics of an enhanced bandwidth low-profile integrated antenna, the radiation coupled dual L antenna. The characteristics are determined by both measurements and computer simulations. This antenna is obtained by modifying the planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) to increase the bandwidth. The bandwidth is enhanced without increasing the antenna depth. The radiation coupled dual L antenna radiates isotropically and offers a number of design options for impedance matching. Compared with a PIFA of equal height, its bandwidth is higher by at least 50%. An insight as to which parameters have a dominant affect on the input impedance of this antenna is used to develop a methodology to design enhanced bandwidth dual L antennas. Special attention is paid to the input impedance characteristics, since both the PIFA and the dual L have very broad antenna patterns and the bandwidth defined by acceptable radiation patterns is usually quite larger than the impedance bandwidth.
Diversity and Multiculturalism in Postmodern Educational Organizations that Positively Impact the Cambodian American Students' Formal Education in the United States

Diversity and Multiculturalism are postmodern concepts in organizational theory that are no longer a "myth but a reality" in our current globalized economy (Obiakor, 1992, p. 2). Multicultural education as a postmodern open system has been an effective tool in addressing the critical issues affecting the formal education of the naturalized and non-naturalized Cambodian American students in the United States. To understand and grasp multicultural education in this perspective, I define and explicate multicultural education as an open system that naturally affects the Cambodian American students' learning styles and social interconnectedness in the focus school environment. Relatively, I highlight the cultural and social capitals that the Cambodian American students bring with them in the learning environment as significant sources of the rich energy input in the multicultural education classroom. Additionally, I rationalize the incorporation of such capitals in the design and implementation of the multicultural education curriculum and instruction specifically intended for this student population.
Remineralization and Nutrient Cycling in Coastal Marine Ecosystems

Our views of remineralization and nutrient cycling in coastal marine ecosystems have changed considerably over the last 30 years. The major trend has been an increasing appreciation for the complexity of processes involved, including some marked changes in our assessment of the importance of bacteria with respect to smaller animals and in our perception of the association between bacteria and particulate matter in the sea. Among the more recent developments in this area is a growing awareness of the importance of the coupling between benthic and pelagic communities in coastal waters. There appears to be a strong linear correlation between the organic matter produced in the overlying water and the amount of organic matter consumed on the bottom in almost all of the coastal environments for which annual data are available. The large amount of organic matter consumed by the benthos (perhaps 25–50 percent of that produced) is associated with a large flux of inorganic nutrients from the sediments to the overlying water. The stoichiometry of net benthic nutrient regeneration differs from that of pelagic regeneration, however, and simple Redfield type models probably cannot be applied. The amount of fixed inorganic nitrogen returned to the water across the sediment-water interface appears to be about half of that expected on the basis of the flux of phosphorus. This behavior, along with the fact that an appreciable amount of organic matter in coastal waters gets remineralized on the bottom, contributes to the low N/P ratio that is characteristic of these areas and may be responsible for the observation that nitrogen is commonly the nutrient most limiting for primary production. Recent direct measurements of the flux of dissolved N2 across the sediment-water interface indicate that denitrification is probably responsible for the loss of fixed nitrogen during decomposition in the sediments. If this is a widespread phenomenon, estuaries, bays, and other coastal waters may be major sinks in the marine nitrogen cycle and important terms in the global nitrogen budget. However, the fact that eutrophication appears to be an increasing problem in many estuaries is dramatic warning that anthropogenic nutrient inputs can overwhelm the recycling and remineralization processes in coastal waters.
Hospitalists, value and the future

Health systems face increasing pressure to optimise value: providing the best quality care for the lowest possible cost. In the US, changes in modern healthcare, along with early efforts to contain costs, fuelled the growth of a new cadre of inpatient clinicians known as hospitalists. This commentary briefly reviews the history of the hospitalist movement through the lens of healthcare value, examines the evidence for value improvement in the care and training provided by hospitalists, and concludes by exploring both the lessons learned and remaining challenges facing hospitalists. We believe that openness to challenging the status quo was a critical enabler of the US hospitalist's impact on both the healthcare workforce and the American care delivery model. This spirit of re-engineering has far-reaching implications, both in the USA and abroad.
“The Ache of the Actual”: Pain and the Aesthetics of US Literary Realism

This essay examines the cultural pursuit of a painless ideal as a neglected context for US literary realism. Advances in anesthesia in the final decades of the nineteenth century shared with influential religious ideologies including the New Thought an assumption that a comfortable existence insulated from physical suffering represented the height of civilization. Theories connecting the civilizing process to an intensifying sensitivity to suffering were often adduced to justify the revulsion from physical pain increasingly characteristic of the era. Similarly invested in the eradication of physical suffering as a civilized ideal, sentimentalism deploys suffering instrumentally in the hopes of encouraging empathy as well as personal and political agency. Mediating between these anesthetizing and sentimentalist sensibilities, realists including Edith Wharton, Henry James, and William Dean Howells espouse an aesthetic sensibility premised on a sensitive yet restrained engagement with pain. They thereby challenge the prevalent association of superiority with a sensitive revulsion from pain while simultaneously evincing a deep skepticism about whether exposure to physical suffering could inspire social change. This essay first surveys the medical advances, religious ideologies, and consumerist tendencies that contributed to the burgeoning perception of painlessness as a desirable and increasingly feasible goal before examining the implications of sentimentalist intensifications of pain for identificatory and reformist purposes. It then explores realism as an aesthetic approach that distinguishes itself from these two distrusted alternatives by expressly depoliticizing pain while foregrounding its intrinsic sensitizing value. Analysis of writings by Wharton, James, and especially Howells reveals realism's investment in representing physical suffering as a catalyst for a ruminative, sensitive, and reticent responsiveness that the realists associated with refinement.
On the Impossibility of Virtual Black-Box Obfuscation in Idealized Models

The celebrated work of Barak eti¾?al. Crypto'01 ruled out the possibility of virtual black-box VBB obfuscation for general circuits. The recent work of Canetti, Kalai, and Paneth TCC'15 extended this impossibility to the random oracle model as well assuming the existence of trapdoor permutations TDPs. On the other hand, the works of Barak eti¾?al. Crypto'14 and Brakerski-Rothblum TCC'14 showed that general VBB obfuscation is indeed possible in idealized graded encoding models. The recent work of Pass and Shelat Cryptology ePrint 2015/383 complemented this result by ruling out general VBB obfuscation in idealized graded encoding models that enable evaluation of constant-degree polynomials in finite fields. In this work, we extend the above two impossibility results for general VBB obfuscation in idealized models. In particular we prove the following two results both assuming the existence of trapdoor permutations: There is no general VBB obfuscation in the generic group model of Shoup Eurocrypt'97 for any abelian group. By applying our techniques to the setting of Pass and Shelat we extend their result to any even non-commutative finite ring.There is no general VBB obfuscation in the random trapdoor permutation oracle model. Note that as opposed to the random oracle which is an idealized primitive for symmetric primitives, random trapdoor permutation is an idealized public-key primitive.
The Arab–Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture

The timing could not be more opportune for an interesting and informative new work on US–Israeli relations: Jonathan Rynhold's The Arab–Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture. In mid-2015, ...
Communicating with Parents who Experience a Perinatal Loss

The importance of communicating with parents who experience a perinatal loss has been documented repeatedly in the research. Yet, parents do not consistently receive adequate information when they experience a loss. Effective communication with parents who have experienced a loss requires ongoing dialogue throughout all phases of care, starting well before the loss of an infant. To communicate effectively, clinicians need to know the type of information to give, how and when to give the information, and how to assess parents' understanding of the information. Professionals who are skilled at communicating with and caring for parents who experience a loss should serve as mentors for their colleagues to ensure the ongoing availability of competent clinicians.
Inverse Airfoil Design via Specification of the Boundary-Layer Transition Curve

In a general sense, inverse airfoil design can be described as the means by which desired aerodynamic characteristics along with certain geometric constraints are specified and the resulting airfoil shape that satisfies the specifications is determined. In this paper, an approach is presented in which an airfoil can be designed by specifying the boundary-layer transition curve. By specifying the transition curve, the desired airfoil performance can be more readily achieved by taking advantage of the strong relationship between the boundary-layer transition curve and the drag polar. This approach builds on the inverse design method, PROFOIL. This paper contains a brief description of the PROFOIL code as well as an overview and a detailed formulation of the current approach. In the approach, a multidimensional Newton iteration scheme is used to adjust the velocity distribution over a segment of the airfoil until the transition lift coefficient is within a specified tolerance. This paper also contains examples demonstrating both the validity and usefulness of this method. The ability to specify the transition curve represents as enhancement over existing single and multipoint design methods in that the current approach allows for a single specification that spans multiple operating points.
GTP interaction with a protein synthesis initiation factor preparation from Escherichiacoli

Although ten years have elapsed since the discovery of GTP as a requirement for protein synthesis (5) the exact role of this nucleotide remains unclear. Schweet and his collaborators (l), working with a rabbit reticulocyte system first reported a requirement for GTP and an enzymatic factor in the binding of aminoacyl-sRNA to ribosomes in the presence of messenger RNA. Recently a similar requirement for GTP and initiation factors has been observed in an Escherichia coli system although a clear consensus on the involvement of GTP has not been achieved (4,7,9,10). The binding reaction, because of its relative simplicity as compared with protein or polypeptide synthesis, may be the preferred tool to study the function of GTP in protein synthesis. In the present communication, we wish to report a definite requirement for both GTP and initiation factors in N-formylmethionylsRNA (F-Met-sRNA) binding to ribosomes directed by ApUpG (AUG), and an interaction between a protein present in the initiation factor preparation and GTP.
A Study on Allocation Efficiency and Influencing Factors of Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Resources in China

Applying the method of DEA, the allocation efficiency of our country's agriculture science and technology innovation resources from 2009 to 2011 is calculated, and the individual fixed effect model is constructed to analyze the influencing factors of agricultural science and technology innovation resources allocation efficiency. The results show that agricultural science and technology innovation resources allocation is not DEA efficient state in most parts of China, and regional allocation efficiency difference is great. The market development degree of science and technology, government support degree, rural labor force level of education, the development level of the rural productivity, rural economic development level have all significantly positive effects on the allocation efficiency of agricultural science and technology innovation resources. And these factors are the core elements of the impact of the current agricultural science and technology innovation resources allocation efficiency.
Treatment of Acute Lower Back Pain

Acute lower back by definition is self-limited, lasting less than 4 weeks. While acute lower back pain may last up to 4 weeks, in fact it often only lasts less than 1 or 2 weeks. Because of its short duration and relative benign nature, acute lower back pain has received much less attention in the medical literature than chronic lower back pain. There are two very good reasons for this. First, it is very difficult to study something that is only going to last four weeks at most. To measure the effectiveness of any particular intervention would require massive amounts of patients in a study in order to detect whether that intervention was effective. Second, because of its limited duration, testing and treatments are of limited value. Diagnostic testing is rarely performed [1]. Treatments are used to take away symptoms and ideally speed recovery, but invasive treatments tend to be avoided because, again, the pain is going to go away anyway [2].
Oxygen and nonventilatory therapy of respiratory failure in COPD.

Administration of low concentrations of oxygen has become a widely accepted method of treating respiratory failure secondary to CORD. The immediate goal of this form of therapy is to minimize the danger of hypoxia. Supportive measures are aimed at improving oxygen delivery and reducing oxygen demands.
Brachytherapy in Sarcomas

Historically, amputation was the standard local treatment for soft tissue sarcomas of the extremity. Although this procedure provided excellent local control, the adverse impact of this procedure on quality of life was obvious. In an effort to maximize the functional outcome of sarcoma therapy, various groups initiated studies aimed at doing less radical operations in conjunction with radiation therapy.
Right from the start: the family practice orientation study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Orientation to a residency program introduces residents to the essential functions of their duties, clarifies expectations, and acclimates them to a new social group. This study identified the orientation goals of family practice residency directors and compared those goals to the perceived needs of first-year family practice residents. METHODS: We surveyed program directors and PGY-1 residents at 100 accredited family practice residency programs. Questionnaires obtained descriptive information about orientation programs and resident demographics and assessed directors' goals and residents' needs from orientations. RESULTS: The orientation goal ranked most highly by directors was development of group cohesion. The need ranked most highly by residents was introduction to call duties and inpatient problems. Ranked responses of each group were not well associated. CONCLUSIONS: The orientation goals of program directors and the reported orientation needs of residents were poorly associated. Most directors chose nonclinical areas as their most important goals for orientation. In contrast, most residents valued clinically related information during orientation to residency.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress in complex atypical hyperplasia as a possible predictor of occult carcinoma and progestin response.

Abstract Glucose-regulated protein (GRP)-78, the key regulator of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, is associated with endometrial cancer (EC) development and progression. However, its role in the continuum from complex atypical hyperplasia (CAH) to EC is unknown and the focus of this study. Methods 252 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded endometrial biopsies from patients with CAH diagnosed between 2003 and 2011 were evaluated for GRP78 expression by immunohistochemistry. Expression was also evaluated in subsequent biopsies from those patients treated with progestins. Differences in GRP78 expression were assessed using standard statistical methods. Results GRP78 expression was undetectable in 45(18%) patients with CAH, while 120(48%) CAH cases showed moderate/strong expression. Among women who ultimately underwent hysterectomy for CAH ( n =134), 54(40%) had occult EC while 57(43%) had persistent CAH. Those with occult EC upon hysterectomy had significantly stronger GRP78 expression than those who did not have occult EC ( p =0.007). Greater GRP78 expression within CAH remained independently associated with the presence of an occult EC ( p =0.017). Thirty-four of 54 (63%) patients with occult EC had moderate/strong GRP78 expression compared to 36 of 80 (45%) patients with persistent CAH, benign or non-atypical hyperplastic endometrium. In those treated with progestins, samples with persistent CAH and EC were more likely to have high levels of GRP78 expression in the initial biopsies than those who responded ( p =0.014). Conclusions Increased GRP78 expression in untreated CAH correlates with the presence of an occult EC. In addition, CAH specimens with greater GRP78 expression may identify patients who are less likely to respond to progestin therapy.