cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fixed point topology and robustness to perturbations between pairs of coupled neurons

Synchronization of neural firing plays an important role in nervous system function. Synchronized and phase locked relationships have been implicated in the creation and retrieval of memories [1,2], while the disruption of normal synchrony and phase locking appears to be a factor in disorders like schizophrenia [3,4]. Here we explore synchronization mechanisms in small two-cell networks and the robustness of these networks to perturbations. Phase response curves (PRCs) describe how neurons respond to perturbations applied at specific times during the interspike interval. The PRC can be plotted in terms of the time to next spike as a function of when the spike arrived; this curve describes the dynamics of a single neuron, and the intersection points of two of these interaction curves represent the fixed points of the coupled system [5,6]. Achuthan and colleagues have recently shown (manuscript submitted) that interaction curves with 0, 1, or 2 fixed points can exist in hybrid circuits of one biological and one model neuron. In this work, we use two reciprocally coupled Wang Buzsaki [7] model neurons to investigate how different numbers of coupled system fixed points affect the network robustness against perturbation. In addition, we investigate the effect of interaction curve shape on network robustness. The perturbation applied to test robustness is a delay or advance of a single spike of one model neuron. Like Achuthan et al, we show that systems with 1 or 2 fixed points exhibit phase locking, while a system with 0 fixed points, but interaction curves in close proximity, shows temporary locking with some phase walkthrough. We are currently quantifying the effects of perturbation strength and timing on transient disturbances to the phase locking of the coupled system as well as convergence time back to the pre-perturbation phase relationship. In addition, we are exploring how the proximity of interaction curves affects robustness of the coupled system to perturbation. Preliminary results show that interaction curves that are closer together take a longer amount of time and more cycles to recover from perturbation than interaction curves that are further apart. Experimental validation of these modeling results will be shown.
Neutron Radiography Feasibility Studies for Steel Examination for the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Program

Neutron radiographs of specimens, representing Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor components, were made at the Shield Test and Irradiation Reactor. The specimens were radiographed through the neutron-perturbing environments of sodium, piping insulation material, and additional steel in an attempt to mock up the LMFBR primary containment vessel and the main coolant header. Calculations and measurements of the neutron energy distribution used for the tests were made and compared to that in a Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor. The radiographs produced are an evaluation of the feasibility of using neutron radiography to perform, in situ, vessel and piping examination.
License Agreements in Lieu of Copyright: Are We Signing Away Our Rights?

For libraries, the shift from ownership of printed works to access of electronic works has required the negotiation and processing of license agreements. Many rights and restrictions covered in license agreements are in direct conflict with traditional library processes and procedures. These agreements are contracts, based on contract law, and as such often supersede standard library policy based on copyright law. A comparison of rights guaranteed by the copyright law and rights assigned by a selected set of license agreements identifies certain areas of user rights that must be identified and protected.
Immunohistochemical detection of Argonaute 2 in bovine and porcine tissues

Argonaute 2 (Ago2) is an RNA binding protein that possesses RNase III activity and is a key component of the microRNA pathway in which it cleaves double-stranded RNA. Ago2 is required for essential cellular processes and plays a role in dictating translation of proteins. Commercial antibodies have been utilized for the detection of human and mouse Ago2 using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blotting; however, data describing detection in additional mammalian species are currently lacking. Therefore, we evaluated the use of a commercial polyclonal antibody in detecting Ago2 in bovine and porcine tissues. Tissue samples were collected at slaughter and either flash-frozen for western blotting or fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin for IHC. When bovine and porcine tissue extracts were analyzed by western blotting, anti-Ago2 detected a predominant protein band of y108 kDa which closely corresponds to the predicted molecular weight for Ago2; however, multiple bands of lesser intensity and molecular weight were also detected. Using the same antibody, fluorescent IHC on paraffin sections resulted in positive staining for both bovine and porcine tissues including kidney, liver, pancreas, and spleen. Staining for Ago2 was localized in the cytoplasm and appeared to be cell type-specific, with higher signal intensity in endothelial cells, leukocytes, and endocrine cells.
A UTD solution for the EM diffraction by a corner in a plane angular sector

A new approximate uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) solution is obtained for describing the field diffracted by a corner (vertex) in a perfectly conducting plane angular sector which is illuminated by a high-frequency electromagnetic plane wave. This corner diffraction solution is found by a uniform asymptotic reduction of the plane wave spectral integral formulation for the field scattered by the plane angular sector. An important aspect to this uniform solution is the presence of a UTD transition function which keeps the total high-frequency field bounded and continuous everywhere in the near field outside the immediate neighborhood of the corner. This UTD solution is also valid in the far zone. The uniform corner diffraction solution is used to calculate the near zone field scattered from a 3 wavelengths square plate. >
Stressful life circumstances: Concepts and measures

Conceptualizations of the role of life stressors in health and well-being typically emphasize stressful events and tend to neglect the ongoing context in which events occur. We suggest that stress and coping theory will contribute more to research and clinical practice when stressful circumstances are conceptualized in terms of a person's life context, and assessed by examining chronic stressors and life events in specific life domains. We exemplify this broader perspective by presenting a new way to measure ongoing stressors, discrete life events, and social resources in multiple life domains, and by some relevant research on alcoholism and depression. Finally, we describe some applications of this approach to diagnosis and treatment, and to program planning and evaluation.
Phylogenetic position of Octosporea muscaedomesticae (Microsporidia) and its relationship to Octosporea bayeri based on small subunit rDNA analysis

Comparative phylogenetic analysis of the small subunit rDNA sequence of Octosporea muscaedomesticae (Flu, 1911) (type species) (Microsporidia) isolated from the blowfly Phormia regina (Diptera:Calliphoridae) is presented. Neighbor Joining bootstrap, Maximum Parsimony and Maximum Likelihood analyses with 38 microsporidian taxa representing five major clades of Microsporidia placed O. muscaedomesticae on a separate branch within a clade containing parasites of freshwater hosts. O. muscaedomesticae differed from Octosporea bayeri, a parasite of the microcrustacean, Daphnia magna (Cladocera:Daphniidae) by 29% demonstrating that the latter microsporidium is not closely related to the type species at the generic level, and should not be placed within the genus Octosporea, a conclusion that is further supported by morphological and developmental differences. Considering the number of disparately related hosts from which Octosporea species have been previously described based mostly on developmental and morphological characters it is likely that many will not fit the current definition of the genus, and it is possible that molecular analysis of these species will show that this genus as defined represents a polyphyletic grouping of unrelated taxa.
Folate binding in intestinal brush border membranes: evidence for the presence of two binding activities

Abstract Binding of [3H]folic acid by isolated rat jejunal brush border membranes (BBMs) was analyzed by chromatography on small Biogel P-30 columns. Folic acid binding to BBMs exhibited a prominent pH effect with a sharp maximum at pH 5.5 to 6.0. After acid treatment to strip the BBMs of bound folate, the membranes demonstrated a wider pH optimum (5.5 to 7.5) of folate binding and a higher binding capacity. Scatchard analysis of binding experiments performed at pH 6.0 revealed the existence of two components: one with a high affinity ( kd = 12 to 25 n m ) and low capacity (Vmax for non-acidified BBMs = 0.259 to 0.264 pmol/mg protein, Vmax for acidified BBMs = 0.41 to 0.71 pmol/mg protein) and the other with a low affinity ( kd = 1.1 to 5.1 μ m and high capacity (Vmax for non-acidified BBMs = 0.93 to 1.93 pmol/mg protein, Vmax for acidified BBMs = 4.05 to 7.69 pmol/mg protein). Phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C preferentially detached the high affinity component from jejunal BBMs. Phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C-released folate binding protein was precipitated by antibodies to the high-affinity folate-binding protein from rat kidney. These data suggest the existence of two different folate-binding proteins in isolated rat jejunal BBMs. The high-affinity folate-binding protein shares epitopes with the folate-binding protein in the kidney.
Uneven-aged and even-aged logging alter foliar phenolics of oak trees remaining in forested habitat matrix

Despite potential links between logging-induced changes in abiotic factors, variation in plant secondary chemistry, and foliage consumption by herbivores, few studies have investigated the impacts of timber extraction on plant anti-herbivore metabolites. To determine if uneven-aged (UAM, i.e., selective logging) and even-aged (EAM, i.e., clear-cutting) management regimes impacted levels of foliar phenolics in Quercus alba and Q. velutina (white and black oak, respectively), we quantified the levels of condensed tannins (CT) and total phenolics in the leaves of canopy and understory trees located within landscapes undergoing UAM, EAM, or no harvest (NHM) in the southeastern Missouri Ozarks. In the understory, total phenolics were slightly elevated in Q. velutina trees in UAM relative to trees in NHM and EAM sites but lower in Q. alba trees in EAM relative to trees in UAM and NHM sites. Furthermore, treatment effects on understory total phenolic concentrations were greater in older forests. In the canopy, treatments altered plant chemistry only for trees in block 2, where CT concentrations were elevated in trees within UAM and EAM sites relative to NHM for Q. alba, but elevated in UAM and reduced in EAM relative to NHM for Q. velutina. Understory trees of both species had higher levels of both CT and total phenolics when growing on slopes with southand west-facing aspects than on those with north- and east-facing aspects. Our results indicate that timber harvests, even at low levels of extraction (10% biomass removal), altered concentrations of foliar polyphenolics in Q. alba and Q. velutina but that the effects of logging on phenolics were dependent on blocking factors (forest age and previous management history). In addition, defoliation levels generally were lower where concentrations of phenolics where higher (e.g. in the canopy and on south- and west-facing slopes). In combination with additional studies of the impacts of phenolics on oak herbivores, as well as studies of the impacts of herbivores on oak growth, our results indicate that changes in foliar chemistry due to forest management practices may have large consequences for Ozark forest communities. # 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Fast algorithm for electromagnetic scattering by buried conducting plates of large size

This letter presents a fast algorithm for electromagnetic scattering by buried conducting plates of large size and arbitrary shape using the conjugate gradient (CG) method combined with the fast Fourier transform (FFT). Due to the use of FFT in handling the cyclic convolutions related to Toeplitz matrices, the Sommerfeld integrals' evaluation for the buried scattering problem, which is usually time consuming, has been reduced to a minimum. The memory required for this algorithm is of the order N-the number of unknowns-and the computational complexity is of order N/sub iter/NlogN (N/sub iter/ is the iteration number N/sub iter//spl Lt/N for large problems).
Building data mining solutions with OLE DB for DM and XML for analysis

A data mining component is included in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005, one of the most popular DBMSs. This gives a push for data mining technologies to move from a niche towards the mainstream. Apart from a few algorithms, the main contribution of SQL Server Data Mining is the implementation of OLE DB for Data Mining. OLE DB for Data mining is an industrial standard led by Microsoft and supported by a number of ISVs. It leverages two existing relational technologies: SQL and OLE DB. It defines a SQL language for data mining based on a relational concept. More recently, Microsoft, Hyperion, SAS and a few other BI vendors formed the XML for Analysis Council. XML for Analysis covers both OLAP and Data Mining. The goal is to allow consumer applications to query various BI packages from different platforms. This paper gives an overview of OLE DB for Data Mining and XML for Analysis. It also shows how to build data mining application using these APIs.
Fractal constructions of linear and planar arrays

Since the pioneering work of Mandelbrot (1977) and others, fractal applications have appeared in many branches of engineering and science. This paper focuses on the application of fractal geometric concepts to the analysis and design of thinned fractal linear as well as planar arrays. There are many applications where it is advantageous to apply thinning techniques to the design of antenna arrays (Lo, 1988). In this paper, we approach thinning with the sole purpose of arranging the elements in a fractal pattern to investigate the usefulness of fractal array designs. In particular, the multiscaling of the fractal makes them attractive for wideband applications. Another advantage of these fractal arrays is that the self-similarity in their geometrical structure may be exploited in order to develop algorithms for rapid computation of radiation patterns. These algorithms are based on convenient product representations for the array factors and are much quicker to calculate than the discrete Fourier transform approach. Results for both the Canter linear array and the Sierpinski carpet planar array are presented.
Hypertrapezoidal fuzzy membership functions

The authors present a method for representing N-dimensional fuzzy membership functions. The proposed method is a generalization of the one-dimensional trapezoidal membership function commonly used in fuzzy systems. The issue of correlation between input variables and a decrease in the rule base size is the motivation for extending the definition of membership functions into more than one domain. The approach outlined in this paper is focused by practical considerations and use of a Bayesian version of fuzzy logic which requires that set membership sum to one. The fuzzy partitioning which stems from the presented method is parameterized by M+1 values, yielding an efficient mechanism for designing complex fuzzy systems.
The Use of Models in the Interpretation of NMR Images

Image analysis has become an extraordinarily powerful tool in a wide range of fields. Applications of this approach have ranged from sub-atomic analyses to life sciences. Despite the great differences in the various disciplines utilizing image analysis, there are several common problems to the optimal elaboration of the information obtained. These include construction of analytical models, objective determinations of hypotheses support, quantitative assessment of the reliability of the information being examined in terms of regions of interest, comparative interactions, and analysis of special cases. With the magnitude of information available from many different sources, the individual observer continues to form general schemes from the image which represents perception of only a minute portion of the data.
Minimizing the Average Query Complexity of Learning Monotone Boolean Functions

This paper addresses the problem of completely reconstructing deterministic monotone Boolean functions via membership queries. The minimum average query complexity is guaranteed via recursion, where partially ordered sets (posets) make up the overlapping subproblems. For problems with up to 4 variables, the posets' optimality conditions are summarized in the form of an evaluative criterion. The evaluative criterion extends then computational feasibility to problems involving up to about 20 variables. A frameworkfor unbiased average case comparison of monotone Boolean function inference algorithms is developed using unequal probability sampling. The unbiased empirical results show that an implementation of the subroutine considered as a standard in the literature performs almost twice as many queries as the evaluative criterion on the average. It should also be noted that the first algorithm ever designed for this problem performed consistently within two percentage points of the evaluative criterion. As such, it prevails, by far, as the most efficient of the many preexisting algorithms.
Random Walk and Front Propagation on Watershed Adjacency Graphs for Multilabel Image Segmentation

The watershed partition of an image often results in over-segmentation. This well-known phenomenon is due to variations of intensity that do not correspond to object boundaries and produce spurious local minima in the image gradient magnitude. Filtering minima or merging watershed regions is then necessary to obtain a higher-level description of the data. In this paper, we propose new solutions to this problem by applying two interactive multilabel partitioning techniques to the adjacency graph of the watershed regions. In our first approach, the partition is derived from the probability that a "random walker" starting at an arbitrary node, first reaches a node with a pre-assigned label. In the second approach, we compute a geodesic partition of the graph using competing wavefronts starting at prescribed nodes. Both methods are based on existing segmentation techniques previously implemented on image lattices. Using a watershed adjacency graph greatly reduces their memory footprint and computational cost. We demonstrate the practicality and versatility of this approach with several experiments on 2D and 3D datasets.
Changes To Accounting For Defined Benefit Postretirement Plans: Discussion And Illustration

Requests that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) address issues related to employers’ accounting for defined benefit postretirement plans have increased in recent years. Those requests have been made by users of financial statements and others, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff and representatives of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Constituents are interested in improved transparency and understandability.
The sustainability principle in global agendas: Implications for understanding land-use/cover change

The centrality of the sustainability principle to the international agendas on environment and development raises serious research problems and opportunities. The problems are manifested in such societal objectives as 'sustainable development' and a history of human-environment relationships, suggesting that the objective constitutes a paradox. The opportunities follow from the fusion of sustainable development and global environmental change research fostered by the principle. This fusion is particularly pronounced in the study of land-use/cover change in the tropical world, a subject elevated to the forefront of the research and practitioner communities. The international agendas addressing this change, such as the IGBP-IHDP core project on LandUse/Cover Change, promise long-term, sustained research activities that join the natural and human sciences with the research and practitioner communities. They do so, however, by requiring a scale and type of interdisciplinary and inter-perspective cooperation and coordination not typical of all human sciences, including geography. The divisive character of competing approaches and explanations of land-use/cover change illustrate this situation.
Place, Setting, Perspective: Narrative Space in the Films of Nanni Moretti

As one of the few book-length studies of Moretti’s works in English, Eleanor Andrews’ Place, Setting, Perspective: Narrative Space in the Films of Nanni Moretti offers an instructive look at the ro...
A Pilot Study on Strategy and Effect Analysis of AIDS Prevention and Control in Primary Health Care Institutions

OBJECTIVE To summarize and analyze the effect and feasibility of different types of primary health care institutions to carry out AIDS prevention and control strategy. METHODS Questionnaire survey and qualitative interviews were conducted among work staffs and service objects. RESULTS The community-based AIDS prevention and control mode expanded service coverage. The satisfaction of target population towards this mode was 81.3%, while the dissatisfaction rate was only 0.7%. The strategy carried out by township hospitals and village clinics improved the subjects' AIDS knowledge. Among those migrant workers after the pilot, correct answer rate of AIDS knowledge increased from 54.2% to 94.4%, the proportion of having commercial sex decreased from 36.8% to 21.6%, the proportion of condom use increased from 67.7% to 81.6%. The strategy based on mproving the migrant workers' AIDS knowledge,expanded the intervention coverage. Under this strategy, the correct AIDS knowledge increased from 68.3% to 89.6%, the proportion of people who had not received the AIDS knowledge education decreased from 66.9% to 2.8%, and the proportion of who had received condoms increased from 5.8% to 45.6%. CONCLUSION The three types of community-based AIDS prevention and control strategy are all effective and practicable. It is necessary to make innovations in the fields of funding, staff training, supervision and assessment.
Effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy by the frequency of revascularization procedures in ischemic cardiomyopathy patients.

Background: It is not known whether the number of revascularizations modifies clinical outcomes in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) implanted with cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) vs. an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)-only. Methods: In Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial-Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (MADIT-CRT), we evaluated the effect of CRT-D vs. ICD-only on heart failure (HF) or death, on ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation (VF) or death, and on reverse remodeling in 592 ICM patients with left bundle branch block, by the number of pre-enrollment revascularizations (0, 1 or ≥ 2 revascularizations). Results: There was a risk reduction of HF/death with CRT-D vs. ICD-only in all three sub-groups: ICM with no need for revascularization (HR 0.51 [0.26–1.02]; p = 0.055), ICM with 1 revascularization (HR 0.45 [0.30–0.70]; p 0.05 for LVESV, LVEDV, and LAV percent change at 1-year follow-up). Conclusions: In ICM patients, CRT-D is associated with a reduction in HF or death and VT/VF or death — irrespective of the frequency of pre-enrollment revascularization procedures — and is accompanied by a similar degree of beneficial left ventricular reverse remodeling.
Pulse Oximetry Monitoring and Late Postoperative Hypoxemia on the General Care Floor

Hypoxemia has long been recognized as a risk to patients in the operating room and postanesthesia care unit, and hemoglobin oxygen saturation (HbO2) monitoring with pulse oximetry has become a standard of care in these areas. There is growing evidence, however, suggesting that later postoperative hypoxemia also may play a role in organ dysfunction leading to morbidity and mortality. Economic pressures to move patients earlier from expensive postanethesia recovery and intensive care areas to the general care floor – where nurse-to-patient ratios are lower and lines of sight and sound may be impaired by walls and curtains – may lead to inadequate surveillance of at-risk patients. These patient-management trends underscore the importance of improved monitoring of respiratory status on the general care floor. In this environment, telemetric pulse oximetry monitoring may represent a cost-effective approach to maximizing quality of care while enhancing risk management. This review discusses late postoperative hypoxemia and identifies areas for further investigation.
Gender and Class in English Asylums, 1890–1914, Louise Hide

Asylums and mental hospitals have held a particular interest for feminist scholars from the early days of the women’s movement. Critics of male-dominated health-care systems have interrogated the w...
Similarity measures and indexing methods for time series and multiclass recognition

This thesis investigates the problem of similarity search in multimedia databases. A key application domain of the proposed work is pattern classification, with emphasis on classification of gestures, handshapes, faces, and time series. A secondary application of the proposed work is efficient similarity search in large biological databases of protein sequences. More specifically, the thesis makes contributions both by defining novel similarity measures, that are used to identify the best database matches, and by proposing methods to improve efficiency. On the topic of similarity measures, the thesis contributes a method for measuring similarity in a database of videos from American Sign Language (ASL). This method produces promising results towards enabling useful educational applications for the ASL community. A second contribution of the thesis is on the theoretical problem of how to define a useful metric distance measure for time series data. The thesis proposes a novel metric, called MSM (abbreviation for Move-Split-Merge), which has both attractive theoretical properties and competitive classification accuracy on actual data. With respect to the problem of improving the efficiency of similarity search, the thesis contributes a novel method for recognition of a large number of classes. While many researchers have worked on the topic of how to train good classifiers for this task, the thesis proposes a new perspective by explicitly addressing efficiency. In particular, the thesis shows that, under some conditions, multiclass recognition becomes theoretically equivalent to similarity search, and in that case we can use off-the-shelf similarity indexing methods to significantly speed up multiclass recognition. The thesis also proposes a dimensionality reduction method specifically designed for speeding up similarity search in large string databases. While dimensionality reduction methods are commonly used in vector spaces, our method allows similar techniques to be used for spaces of strings under the edit distance measure. Thorough experimental evaluation on a variety of datasets demonstrates state-of-the-art performance for the methods that constitute the contributions of the thesis.
Politics Beyond the Water’s Edge: Neoclassical Realism

This chapter explains the theory of neoclassical realism, reviews several notable works, and postulates how the paradigm would enrich our understanding of the Ma Ying-jeou administration’s China policy in the midst of greater USA–China rivalry.
On the study of evolutionary predictability using historical reconstruction

Predicting the course of evolution is critical for solving current biomedical challenges such as cancer and the evolution of drug resistant pathogens. One approach to studying evolutionary predictability is to observe repeated, independent evolutionary trajectories of similar organisms under similar selection pressures in order to empirically characterize this adaptive fitness landscape. As this approach is infeasible for many natural systems, a number of recent studies have attempted to gain insight into the adaptive fitness landscape by testing the plausibility of different orders of appearance for a specific set of adaptive mutations in a single adaptive trajectory. While this approach is technically feasible for systems with very few available adaptive mutations, the usefulness of this approach for predicting evolution in situations with highly polygenic adaptation is unknown. It is also unclear whether the presence of stable adaptive polymorphisms can influence the predictability of evolution as measured by these methods. In this work, we simulate adaptive evolution under Fishers geometric model to study evolutionary predictability. Remarkably, we find that the predictability estimated by these methods are anti-correlated, and that the presence of stable adaptive polymorphisms can both qualitatively and quantitatively change the predictability of evolution.
Retrospective evaluation of the prevalence, risk factors, management, outcome, and necropsy findings of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome in dogs and cats: 29 cases (2011–2013)

Objective To determine the prevalence and risk factors for veterinary acute lung injury (VetALI) and veterinary acute respiratory distress syndrome (VetARDS), assess mechanical ventilation settings and patient outcomes, and to evaluate the relationship of clinical diagnoses with necropsy findings. Design Retrospective study. Setting University teaching hospital. Animals Twenty-four dogs and 5 cats with a clinical diagnosis of VetALI or VetARDS. Control population includes 24 dogs and 5 cats with a clinical diagnosis of respiratory disease other than VetALI or VetARDS. Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results VetALI and VetARDS were diagnosed in 3.2% of dogs and 1.3% of cats presenting to the ICU. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome was the most common inciting condition (16/24 dogs, 2/5 cats), followed by vomiting and subsequent aspiration of gastric contents (9/24 dogs), sepsis (5/24 dogs, 3/5 cats), multiple transfusions (4/24 dogs), trauma (3/24 dogs), and adverse drug reactions (1/24 dogs, 1/5 cats). None of these conditions were found to be significantly associated with a risk of development of VetALI or VetARDS when compared to controls. Twelve dogs (50%) and 4 cats (80%) underwent mechanical ventilation for a median duration of 18 hours in dogs (range: 6–174 h) and 15.5 hours in cats (range: 6–91 h). Overall, 3/29 patients survived to discharge including 2/24 dogs and 1/5 cats. Necropsy results were available for 8/22 dogs and 3/4 cats. A total of 6/8 dogs (75%) dogs and 3/3 (100%) cats met the histopathologic criteria for diagnosis of VetALI or VetARDS. Conclusions VetALI and VetARDS can cause life-threatening respiratory distress in dogs and cats necessitating mechanical ventilation in 50% of dogs and 80% of cats in this study. These diseases are associated with a poor clinical outcome and a high rate of humane euthanasia.
Characterization of a dielectric rod antenna used for radiating picosecond pulses

A dielectric rod antenna designed to deliver electrical pulses to shallow tissue targets was characterized in free space. The return loss (S11) and the electric field measured on the axis of the antenna match the simulation results. The bandwidth, defined as the frequency range in which the return loss is less than −5dB, is from 1 GHz to 4 GHz.
Whole Transcriptome Sequencing Analyses Reveal Molecular Markers of Blood Pressure Response to Thiazide Diuretics

Thiazide diuretics (TD) are commonly prescribed anti-hypertensives worldwide. However, <40% of patients treated with thiazide monotherapy achieve BP control. This study uses whole transcriptome sequencing to identify novel molecular markers associated with BP response to TD. We assessed global RNA expression levels in whole blood samples from 150 participants, representing patients in the upper and lower quartile of BP response to TD from the Pharmacogenomic Evaluation of Antihypertensive Responses (PEAR) (50 whites) and from PEAR-2 (50 whites and 50 blacks). In each study cohort, we performed poly-A RNA-sequencing in baseline samples from 25 responders and 25 non-responders to hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) or chlorthalidone. At FDR adjusted p-value < 0.05, 29 genes were differentially expressed in relation to HCTZ or chlorthalidone BP response in whites. For each differentially expressed gene, replication was attempted in the alternate white group and PEAR-2 blacks. CEBPD (meta-analysis p = 1.8 × 10−11) and TSC22D3 (p = 1.9 × 10−9) were differentially expressed in all 3 cohorts, and explain, in aggregate, 21.9% of response variability to TD. This is the first report of the use of transcriptome-wide sequencing data to identify molecular markers of antihypertensive drug response. These findings support CEBPD and TSC22D3 as potential biomarkers of BP response to TD.
Septic arthritis of knee joint due to Parvimonas micra.

Parvimonas species are anaerobic, Gram-positive cocci that are a constituent of normal oral and gastrointestinal flora. We present a case of right knee joint septic arthritis due to Parvimonas micra in an immunocompromised patient. A 61-year-old male renal and pancreatic transplant recipient on immunosuppressive therapy was admitted to our hospital due to intense pain, joint swelling and inability to move his right knee over the past 9 months. After synovial fluid was drawn, cultures were positive for P. micra, an anaerobic pathogen that is part of the flora of the oral cavity. We report a rare causative pathogen for septic arthritis in an immunocompromised patient.
Peakedness and convex ordering for elliptically contoured random fields

Abstract For the peakedness comparison between two Gaussian random fields about their mean functions, a necessary and sufficient condition is derived in this paper in terms of their covariance functions. Interestingly, such a condition is also necessary and sufficient for the convex ordering between the two Gaussian random fields having identical mean functions. The relation to the equivalence of two Gaussian random fields is illustrated through some parametric examples. Necessary and/or sufficient conditions are given for the peakedness comparison and convex ordering between two elliptically contoured random fields. These conditions are applied to examine how certain parameters affect the peakedness of some Gaussian or elliptically contoured random fields.
Are there multiple cells of origin of Merkel cell carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but lethal cancer with the highest case-by-case fatality rate among all skin cancers. Eighty percent of cancers are associated with the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Twenty percent of MCCs are virus negative. Recent epidemiological data suggest that there are important, clinically relevant differences between these two subtypes of MCC. Recent studies in cancer genomics, mouse genetics, and virology experiments have transformed our understanding of MCC pathophysiology. Importantly, dramatic differences in the genetics of these two MCC subtypes suggest fundamental differences in their pathophysiology. We review these recent works and find that they provocatively suggest that MCPyV-positive and MCPyV-negative MCCs arise from two different cells of origin: the MCPyV-negative MCC from epidermal keratinocytes and the MCPyV-positive MCC from dermal fibroblasts. If true, this would represent the first cancer that we are aware of that evolves from cells of origin from two distinct germ layers: MCPyV-negative MCCs from ectodermal keratinocytes and MCPyV-positive MCCs from mesodermal fibroblasts. Future epigenetic experiments may prove valuable in confirming these distinct lineages for these MCC subtypes, especially for the clinical importance the cell of origin has on MCC treatment and prevention.
Identifying and categorizing spurious weight data in electronic medical records.

Background Spurious weights compromise the validity of summary measures, such as averages and trends. Even rare errors in weight records can undermine the utility of electronic medical record (EMR) data. Objective We sought to estimate the prevalence of spurious weight values in a large EMR, to ascertain the likely causes, and to develop and test straightforward algorithms for identifying spurious weight data. Design Using EMR data from 10,000 randomly selected patients aged ≥65 y in the VA system, we examined the percentage of weight change across various time intervals, from 1 to 3000 d. We examined descriptive results and developed 3 algorithms to categorize degree of weight change over time. On the basis of distributions, we identified cases that were most likely spurious. We manually reviewed these and categorized the type of error. Results The data followed the expected distributions. The algorithms reliably identified spurious weight. Approximately 0.8% of all weights in the record appeared to be spurious and ∼1 in 5 patient charts included ≥1 spurious weight value. The most common type of error involved the misentry of a single digit (e.g., 148 for 178). Conclusions Spurious weights are common in EMRs. Straightforward algorithms can identify and remove them, and thus enhance the reliability of EMR data.
Experimental study of droplet sizes across a spacer grid location under various reflood conditions

Abstract Droplet size and distribution across a spacer grid in a heated rod bundle during reflood stage of a postulated design basis accident loss of coolant accident (LOCA) are studied experimentally using the Rod Bundle Heat Transfer (RBHT) test facility. Effects of spacer grid conditions, quench front location during reflood, and inlet water subcooling on droplet field are investigated. Experimental results show that the droplet sizes decrease when they pass through a dry spacer grid due to cutting and shattering effects at the lower edges of the spacer grid. On the other hand, for a wet grid, the droplet sizes downstream of the grid could be larger than those at the upstream locations, as the droplet generation mechanism, for a wet grid, is due to the formation of liquid ligaments at the trailing edge of the spacer grid and the subsequent aerodynamic breakup of these ligaments into relatively larger droplets induced by instabilities. It is found that, as the quench front propagates upward, sizes of incoming droplets increase correspondingly as a result of the droplet-vapor thermal-hydraulic interactions along the flow channels. The experimental results also indicate that larger droplet diameters occur when the inlet water subcooling is higher. Results of the present study can be utilized to develop models for droplet field behavior under accident scenarios. These models can be incorporated into nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulic safety analysis codes such as COBRA-TF and TRACE.
Take It to Court

This article argues that rather than closing their doors, faith based foster care agencies should litigate their constitutional first amendment rights.
A New Twist on Teaching System Administration

The Unix Workstation Support Group (UWSG) is part of University Computing Services (UCS) at Indiana University. Although UWSG is a small, five member group, located on the main campus in Bloomington, the group provides advanced system administration consulting for the entire campus system. This includes eight branch campuses as well as the main campus. As a growing number of departments on campus turn to Unix to meet their computing needs, the need for system administrators increases. Many departments lack the finances to both purchase a Unix workstation and hire a system administrator. For example, the UWSG set up a new departmental workstation in late 1995. By mid summer 1996, the department still did not have a system administrator and the systems main users had only a minimal knowledge of Unix. Compounding this problem is a general shortage of experienced system administrators on campus. This has resulted in an increase in the number of novice system administrators and Unix users interested in learning system administration. The UWSG has felt this increase directly, as group members continue to spend more and more time on basic system administration consultations. Because many of these requests come from outside the campus system, it is apparent that this issue is not limited to the Indiana University computing environment. The number of universities offering system administration courses has increased. University departments who have access to these courses frequently cannot afford the time involved in enrolling a staff member. Additionally, system administration is often an upper-level course that also requires several prerequisite courses. The number of commercial Unix system administration courses has increased. However, the cost of these training courses is prohibitive for many who could use the instruction.
A method for automatically analyzing programs

This paper presents a method for automatically analyzing programs and discusses why it is a useful way to look at programs. The method is based on the idea that there are only a few basic ways in which the logical structure Of programs is built up. An experiment is presented which shows that this accounts for the structure of a large class Of programs. The paper discusses how the method can be used to automatically analyze the structure of a program, and how the resulting analysis can be used to guide a proof of correctness for the program. An automatic system is described which performs this type of analysis. The paper discusses the relationship between the structure building methods presented and programming language constructs.
Experimental design for field evaluation of odor attractants for predators

A statistically efficient method for field evaluation of predator attractants, utilizing scent-station transects, is described. The design permits simultaneous exposure of five candidate attractants and minimizes potential bias resulting from nonuniform distribution of predators, sequential visitation by predators in space or time, residual odors, nightly variation in predator activity, and prevailing winds and other meteorological conditions as they affect vititation rates. The transect visitation data are suitable for statistical analysis.
Evolutionary and Developmental Biology Provide Insights Into the Regeneration of Organ of Corti Hair Cells.

We review the evolution and development of organ of Corti hair cells with a focus on their molecular differences from vestibular hair cells. Such information is needed to therapeutically guide organ of Corti hair cell development in flat epithelia and generate the correct arrangement of different hair cell types, orientation of stereocilia, and the delayed loss of the kinocilium that are all essential for hearing, while avoiding driving hair cells towards a vestibular fate. Highlighting the differences from vestibular organs and defining what is known about the regulation of these differences will help focus future research directions toward successful restoration of an organ of Corti following long-term hair cell loss.
The role of distributional information in cross-talker generalization of phonetic category retuning

Listeners use lexical information to retune phoneme categories. Previous findings on the specificity of such perceptual adjustments suggest that cross-talker generalization occurs when talkers are acoustically similar. An alternative mechanism implies that listeners are sensitive to the statistical distribution of phonetic variation across speakers and can use this sensitivity to track both group- and talker-specific phoneme boundaries. Our objective is to disambiguate between these two possibilities. In the experiment, listeners hear words with an ambiguous fricative produced by multiple speakers of American English. Utterances across talkers vary in two ways: 1) the similarity of particular talkers’ categorization curves and 2) the statistical distribution of sounds along the phonetic continuum (e.g., unimodal vs. bimodal) across talkers. We assess phonetic category retuning using novel words by novel talkers whose utterances either match or mismatch talker-specific properties or the distribution of phonetic realizations heard during exposure. If cross-talker generalization is similarity-based, listeners should generalize retuned phonetic representations to specific similar-sounding talkers at test. Alternatively, if listeners capitalize on the statistical distribution of exposure sounds, listeners should generalize to test talkers whose productions are consistent with the learned distribution. Results inform the conditions under which listeners form talker-independent representations of speech sound categories.
Accessing 4-oxy-substituted isoquinolinones via C–H activation and regioselective migratory insertion with electronically biased ynol ethers

The rhodium-catalyzed C-H activation and annulation with ynol ethers to directly provide 4-oxy substituted isoquinolinones is reported. The polarized nature of ynol ethers provides an electronic bias for controlling the regioselectivity of the migratory insertion process. While the highly reactive nature of ynol ethers presents a challenge, mild conditions were found to provide product in moderate to good yield. Utility was demonstrated by application in the synthesis of a prolyl-4-hydroxylase inhibitor framework.
A decentralized biomass torrefaction reactor concept. Part II: Mathematical model and scaling law.

Abstract In Part I of the study, we proposed a simplified biomass torrefaction moving bed reactor design capable of decentralized, small-scale, and mobile deployment operated under an oxygen-lean condition. We built and validated a laboratory-scale test reactor. In the present study, we develop a mathematical description of the reactor and show that it produces reasonable fit to our experimental data. Contrary to many existing biomass gasifier studies, we demonstrate that at the small test-reactor scale, heat loss mechanism through the side wall is significant and cannot be ignored in the modeling. We further demonstrated that at the small test-reactor scale, the rapid axial thermal conduction plays a role in the heat transfer within the moving bed. Furthermore, by interrogating the scaling behaviors of the reactor, we show that as we scale up our current laboratory-scale reactor, at the same torrefaction severity, the mass yield of the torrefied biomass is predicted to increase by 10–20%, due to the decrease in relative heat losses at a larger scale. This study, therefore, seeks to understand and quantify some of the limitations of testing a scaled-down reactor prototype. The understanding gained in this study can both inform scaling laws for at-scale reactor designs, as well as point out areas of future work in order to develop a higher-fidelity description.