cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dietary Intake in Relation to Military Dietary Reference Values During Army Basic Combat Training; a Multi-center, Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction The military dietary reference intakes (MDRIs), outlined in Army Regulation 40-25, OPNAVINST 10110.1/MCO10110.49, AFI 44-141, establish standards intended to meet the nutrient requirements of Warfighters. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to comprehensively compare the revised MDRIs, published in 2017, with estimated dietary intakes in U.S. military personnel. Materials and methods During this cross-sectional study, Block food frequency questionnaires were administered at the end of the 9-week basic combat training course to estimate dietary intake during basic combat training in male (n = 307) and female (n = 280) recruits. The cut-point method was used to determine nutrient adequacy in comparison to the MDRIs. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Results Recruits consumed an adequate amount of vitamins A, C and K, as well as the B-vitamins, and phosphorus, selenium, zinc, and protein and carbohydrate as a percentage of total calories when compared with MDRI standards. Vitamin D was the short-fall nutrient affecting the greatest number of participants, as 55 and 70% of males and females, respectively, consumed less than 33% of the MDRI. In addition, less than 50% of males met the MDRI for linoleic and α-linolenic acid, fiber, vitamin E, magnesium, and potassium, and less than 50% of females met the MDRI for α-linolenic acid, fiber, vitamin E, calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium. In contrast, fat and sodium were over-consumed by both males (78 and 87%, respectively) and females (73 and 72%, respectively). Conclusion The main findings of this study were that vitamins D and E, magnesium, potassium, α-linolenic acid, and fiber were under consumed by male and female recruits while males also did not consume adequate linoleic acid and females did not consume adequate calcium and iron. Future prospective research studies are needed to determine possible health and performance impacts that may be associated with suboptimal intake of these nutrients.
Feasibility and Desirability: Discussion of Drs. Martinson, Nesbit and Kersey’s Paper

For almost a decade, a home care project for the dying child with cancer in Minneapolis, Minnesota has been underway with careful concurrent and prospective evaluation. The project in both its phases will long stand as the paradigm of good, justified and compassionate research, combining the best tradition of nursing with the best traditions of inquiry. Precisely because of its excellence in execution and consequent plethora of data, the project does generate reflection and reaction. There were two basic hypotheses tested among several goals (Martinson, 1976, 1977). First, is it feasible to use the home setting for care of children with late stage cancer? Once that was answered in the affirmative, the question turned to the hypothesis that such home care was indeed desirable and, if that were answered affirmatively, the final engineering question was joined whether such home care could be institutionalized through existing health care organizations? There is an interesting full circle quality to that sequence of investigations.
Management of genital skin loss.

SUMMARY Figure 12 is an algorithm outlining the methods of management. In most patients, partial skin loss can be managed by closure with remaining local skin. Tensive partial loss of penile skin may require grafting. Potent patients should have thick split-thickness grafts or full-thickness grafts. Impotent patients should have coverage with meshed split-thickness grafts or scrotal flaps when available. Partial scrotal loss is seldom a problem, as local flaps and closure of the defect with the remaining scrotal skin can usually be accomplished. After total scrotal loss, the testicles should be placed temporarily in thigh pouches. Later, a new scrotum can be created with meshed split-thickness grafts or thigh-based cutaneous flaps. Aggressive wound care, appropriate timing of reconstruction, and adherence to basic principles of reconstructive surgery will result in functional recovery and a cosmetically acceptable appearance.
Damage zone interaction due to non-oriented Vickers indentations on brittle materials

Induced damage in brittle materials due to two interacting Vickers indentations at various orientations was investigated using a three-dimensional finite element model. The model considers ‘tensile cracking and compressive yielding’ behavior of ceramics. Damage evolution due to both the simultaneous and sequential double indentations was studied. The simulation results indicated that the induced damage zone patterns are strongly a function of the relative orientation of the two indenters. The existence of another nearby indentation reduces the crack size on the side closer to the first indentation but increases the overall median damage zone size. These results were validated by sequential Vickers indentation experiments on borosilicate glass. The evolved damage patterns were further rationalized based on Bousinesq and blister field stress fields. Finally, the implication of these results on material removal mechanisms due to simultaneous interaction of several grits in a ceramic grinding process is discussed.
Effects of environmental estrogens on reproductive biology of the fathead minnow

Since the early 1990s, environmental estrogens have been recognized as an important environmental threat. Wastewater of 10 aerated lagoon treatment facilities in Iowa was evaluated for estrogenic activity using a short-term caged fathead minnow exposure and a plasma vitellogenin (Vtg) assay. Plasma Vtg results indicated that wastewater entering the three-lagoon systems was estrogenic to male fish, but with serial passage through the lagoons, the estrogenic activity decreased to a level that was not sufficient to induce vitellogenesis. Wastewater retention time in the lagoons may have been a key treatment
Onplant-Supported Orthodontic Anchorage

The use of onplant-supported orthodontic anchorage is still in its early stages. The concepts presented in this article have tried to stress the importance of anchorage control in orthodontic cases, some problems associated with traditional means to augment orthodontic anchorage, the rationale for developing a skeletal anchorage unit based on endosseous implant technology, and the effectiveness of the onplant as an anchorage unit. Cephalometric superimpositions are most likely the best method to determine the effectiveness of the onplant's contribution to anchorage control and have been included here to that end. Further research into its effectiveness may broaden the use of onplants in future orthodontic cases.
RAPID: read acceleration for improved performance and endurance in MLC/TLC NVMs

RAPID is a low-overhead critical-word-first read acceleration architecture for improved performance and endurance in MLC/TLC non-volatile memories (NVMs). RAPID encodes the critical words in a cache line using only the most significant bits (MSbs) of the MLC/TLC NVM cells. Since the MSbs of an NVM cell can be decoded using a single read strobe, the data (i.e., critical words) encoded using the MSbs can be decoded with low latency. System-level SPEC CPU2006 workload evaluations of a TLC RRAM architecture show that RAPID improves read latency by 21%, energy by 24%, and endurance by 2-4× over state-of-the-art striped NVM.
Role of JAK-STAT Pathway in Cancer Signaling

The JAK-STAT pathway plays a central role in cell proliferation, differentiation, survival, and embryological processes. Aberrant activation of the JAK-STAT pathway due to genetic mutations, amplifications, or polymorphisms can lead to constitutive or persistent activation of the pathway and affect the development of some cancers. In this review, we discuss the major signaling molecules involved in the JAK-STAT pathway and their role in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. In addition, we discuss FDA-approved drugs and other JAK-STAT pathway inhibitors that are in clinical trials or under preclinical development. Despite recent developments in our understanding of the JAK-STAT pathway, it remains to be determined precisely how the JAK-STAT pathway drives tumor development and oncogenic phenotypes. Due to the complex cross talk of the JAK-STAT pathway with other signaling pathways, further studies exploring the direct role and contribution of the JAK-STAT pathway toward tumor initiation and development are needed. These studies should illuminate whether treatment with JAK inhibitors alone or in combination with inhibitors that target complimentary signaling pathways can be therapeutic in cancer patients and which patients are most likely to benefit.
World Society, Professional Bureaucracy, and Democratization

Newly democratizing regimes need to deliver on their promise to transform ordinary people’s lives for the better, or else they risk shipwreck. Scholars of democratization have noted that achieving this daunting task requires a strong assist from a professional — i.e., expert and autonomous — state bureaucracy. Unfortunately, in many developing countries, such a professional bureaucratic infrastructure simply does not exist, and as a result democratization becomes difficult to sustain. But even where a strong professional bureaucracy is in place at the start of the democratization process, can we really expect it to devote itself to promoting the new regime’s democratic and progressive values? Much of the political science literature on bureaucracy suggests that we cannot, but the new sociological institutionalism suggests that we can.
Abstract # 2062 Affective status and immune responses to influenza vaccine in older persons living in South Florida

Background Psychosocial factors predict poor influenza vaccine (IV) response. Aging and negative affect (NA) may dampen IV response by reducing class switch recombination (CSR), a B-cell process primed by IV. We examined whether greater positive affect [PA] and less NA pre- and post-IV relates to greater antibody responses and CSR in older persons receiving IV. Method Older healthy persons (>60 yrs) completed the Affect Balance Scale (ABS) for NA and PA pre and post-IV in two separate Flu seasons. They received trivalent IV (H1N1, H3N2, B), and were re-assessed at 7 (t7)and 28 days (t28) for HAI titers and % switched B-cells (IgG+/IgA+CD27+) to quantify CSR. Results Season 1: greater PA was associated with greater HAI titer Fold increase and greater CSR at t28. NA at t28 correlated with less CSR (p’s Conclusion Optimizing affect pre- and post-IV may improve health in older persons.
Cancer in Children and Adolescents

Advances in biomedical science and technology have resulted in dramatic changes in the prognosis of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer. While in the past survival was measured in terms of months, today many children are surviving 5 years and longer, with an ever-increasing number who are completely cured (Sposto & Hammond, 1985). Childhood cancer has gradually evolved from an inevitably fatal illness to a life-threatening chronic condition. With the increased probability of long-term survival, psychological factors have assumed a more salient role in overall child and family coping (Katz & Jay, 1984; Varni & Katz, 1987).
Anomaly Detection in Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Using Physics Laws and Data Fusion

Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) is a promising application in autonomous vehicles. In CACC, a platoon is formed, where a leading vehicle sends information to regulate the speed of succeeding "following" vehicles in the road. In a benign environment, CACC provides tremendous benefits, including reducing fuel consumption, maximizing road capacity, and increasing traffic safety. However, one of the critical security threats in CACC is when a platoon has a compromised leading vehicle, which forges acceleration information sent to the platoon members. Such data falsification attack would lead to traffic instability, high fuel consumption, and potential collisions. As an effort to solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a real-time anomaly detection mechanism using physics laws of kinematics along with data fusion. The proposed technique is applied at each vehicle, where the information received from the leader is validated based on physics laws. To enhance the reliability and support the detection of anomalous behavior, we utilize information sharing in CACC by allowing vehicles and the fixed infrastructure to share sensed information about platoon leaders. In the proposed approach, each vehicle fuses information it receives to reliably detect unexpected deviations. We showed that the proposed approach is effective in detecting acceleration falsification attacks in CACC, and provides high detection accuracy (96%) and negligible false alarm rate. We compare our proposed approach with existing method and showed that the proposed approach provides superior performance in both detection accuracy and execution time.
Nearest neighbor time series bootstrap for generating influent water quality scenarios

Understanding influent water quality variability is essential for the long-term planning of potable water systems. To quantify variability and generate realistic influent scenarios, we propose a nonparametric time series approach based on k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) bootstrap resampling. The k-NN approach resamples historical data conditioned on a “feature vector” at a given time to generate values at subsequent times. We modified this algorithm by adding random perturbations to the resampled values to generate realistic extremes unobserved in the historical record. k-NN is widely used in stochastic hydrology and hydroclimatology; however, it is adapted here for the multivariate, data-limited context of water treatment. To examine the performance of the algorithm, we applied it to an eleven-year, monthly water quality dataset of alkalinity, temperature, total organic carbon, and pH from the Cache la Poudre River in Colorado. We found that the k-NN simulations captured the relevant distributional statistics of the historical record, which suggests that the algorithm produces realistic and varied scenarios. When used in conjunction with modeling and optimization, these scenarios have the potential to improve the sustainability, resilience, and efficiency of potable water systems.
GLOBAL CITIZENS: URBAN CITIZENSHIP IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH AMERICA

Abstract This essay explores the role that ideas about urban citizenship played in the political and economic development of English colonies across the Americas. Scholars have traditionally portrayed English America as rural in comparison to Spanish and Portuguese Americas. While it is true that English colonial towns did have smaller populations than Iberian cities, ideas about urban political identity were not absent in English colonies. In fact, urban citizens, and their political culture, were at the forefront of English colonization in the early-seventeenth century. In contrast to Iberian America, though, English colonists established fewer new urban communities and instead continued to hold on to their identity rooted in particular English towns and cities. As such, English America became a web of overlapping urban citizen networks still tied to English corporate communities. As a result, when the English monarchs sought to centralize the imperial state in the early seventeenth century, colonists resisted this political and economic encroachment by adopting the structures and rhetoric of urban republicanism. The importance of these urban republican traditions helps to explain the specific form of republicanism that became popular in English America in the decades before the American Revolution. This rich tradition of urban republicanism was largely disconnected from specific urban communities in the New World, and this allowed the ideology to be flexible enough to resist the rationalizing reforms of the late eighteenth century and give rise to a more overtly exclusionary definition of citizenship in the new United States.
Neuronal regulation of the blood–brain barrier and neurovascular coupling

To continuously process neural activity underlying sensation, movement and cognition, the CNS requires a homeostatic microenvironment that is not only enriched in nutrients to meet its high metabolic demands but that is also devoid of toxins that might harm the sensitive neural tissues. This highly regulated microenvironment is made possible by two unique features of CNS vasculature absent in the peripheral organs. First, the blood-blood barrier, which partitions the circulating blood from the CNS, acts as a gatekeeper to facilitate the selective trafficking of substances between the blood and the parenchyma. Second, neurovascular coupling ensures that, following local neural activation, regional blood flow is increased to quickly supply more nutrients and remove metabolic waste. Here, we review how neural and vascular activity act on one another with regard to these two properties.
Diffuse large B cell lymphoma: splenectomy as a cure for a spleen-limited disease

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that arises de novo within the spleen is referred to as a primary splenic DLBCL (PS-DLBCL). The PS-DLBCL is a common histological type of splenic lymphomas tho...
UAS Pilot Performance Comparisons with Different Low Size, Weight and Power Sensor Ranges

The present study evaluated the performance of UAS pilots under four simulated low size, weight, and power (SwaP) sensor ranges: 1.5nmi, 2.0nmi, 2.5nmi, and 3.0nmi. Nine active-duty UAS pilots responded to scripted DAA conflicts against non-cooperative intruders while flying a simulated RQ-7 Shadow at varied speeds along a pre-filed flight path in Class E airspace. Findings revealed a linear effect of sensor range on alerting time and separation performance, with nearly every DAA well clear (DWC) violation and all Near Mid-Air Collision (NMAC) events occurring below 2.5nmi. Response time differences at these reduced ranges were negligible due to the high frequency of warning-level alerts that require an immediate response. Since caution alert duration was truncated to some degree by each tested declaration range, pilots were often unable to coordinate their avoidance maneuvers with ATC prior to their uploads. Nonetheless, the 2.5nmi range allowed minimum alerting times that were sufficient for acceptable pilot performance. These findings will inform DAA system requirements for UAS with alternative surveillance equipment and aircraft performance capabilities. Implications on DAA display and sensor requirements are discussed.
More than smart pavements: connected infrastructure paves the way for enhanced winter safety and mobility on highways

Currently, there is an urgent demand for more cost-effective, resource-efficient and reliable solutions to address safety and mobility challenges on highways enduring snowy winter weather. To address this pressing issue, this commentary proposes that the physical and digital infrastructures should be upgraded to take advantage of emerging technologies and facilitate the vehicle-infrastructure integration (VII), to better inform decision-makers at various levels. Driven by the paradigm shift towards more automation and more intelligent transportation, it is time to reimagine the vehicle-infrastructure ecosystem with the cold-climate issues in mind, and to enhance communications and coordination among various highway users and stakeholders. This commentary envisages the deployment of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies to bring about transformative changes and substantial benefits in terms of enhanced winter safety and mobility on highways. At the center of the commentary is a conceptualized design of next-generation highways in cold climates, including the existing infrastructure entities that are appropriate for possible upgrade to connected infrastructure (CI) applications, to leverage the immensely expanded data availability fueled by better spatial and temporal coverage. The commentary also advances the idea that CI solutions can augment the sensing capabilities and confidence level of connected or autonomous vehicles. The application scenarios of VII system is then briefly explored, followed by some discussion of the paradigm shift towards V2X applications and a look to the future including some identified research needs in the arena of CI. This work aims to inspire dialogues and synergistic collaborations among various stakeholders of the VII revolution, because the specific challenges call for systematic, holistic, and multidisciplinary approaches accompanied by concerted efforts in the research, development, pilot testing, and deployment of CI technologies.
An Embattled Terrain: Women, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants at the Margins in U.S. Newspaper Stories, 1820–1860

This article examines the presence of women, African Americans, immigrants, and Native Americans in a content analysis of newspapers for the 1820–1860 years from the Southern, Northern, Middle, and...
The Legacy of Holocaust Deathscapes

This essay examines two directions that Holocaust discourse may follow. What I call the Hopescape of the Holocaust leads into the terrain of what Viktor Frankl called “man’s search for meaning.” It assumes that there are lessons to be learned from the catastrophe that enhance mental and spiritual recovery, enabling survivors to resume normal equilibrium despite the painful memories that assault their sense of loss. On the other hand, the Deathscape of the Holocaust—the one with which I am primarily concerned—draws us toward the dismal conclusion that some events have no meaning, no justifying explanation that can be reconciled with any moral scheme of the universe we inhabit. Some events simply happen, driven by a human—or inhuman—agency that we will never fully understand. I offer examples of what it is like to dwell in an intermediate realm between life and death, like the survivor of the Vilna ghetto and the Kaiserwald and Stutthof camps. who explains, “I put up appearance, and probably no one would believe me, that I’m only pretending to be alive.” Living the death of others cancels any possible meaning for this survivor, and the essay close with an extended discussion of a little-known memoir by Boris Pahor first published in 1967 under the title Nekropolis and only translated into English as Pilgrim among the Shadows in 1995. Years after the war Pahor’s narrator revisits the camps where he had been imprisoned in an effort to retrieve the existence of his dead, not in order to find meaning in their fate but to help his readers understand what it means to have lived the death of others. Pahor’s strategy is to enable his narrator’s vivid memory of “then” to invade our sense of “now” until the two merge and grow virtually indistinguishable. He becomes, in fact, a guide to the Deathscape of the Holocaust.
Efficient error variance estimation in non-parametric regression

Error variance estimation plays a key role in the analysis of homogeneous non‐parametric regression models. For a random design model, most methods in the literature for error variance estimation assume the independence between the predictor variable X and the error e. In this work, we derive the optimal semi‐parametric efficiency bound for the error variance σ2=var(ϵ) without such an independence assumption. A residual‐based efficient estimator for σ2 is proposed and its asymptotic normality is established. An extensive simulation study is conducted, which shows that our proposed estimator works very favourably against competitors. A simple real‐data example is also presented.
The Constitutional Theory of the Fourth Amendment

We presently inhabit a "judicialized" regime of search and seizure. The "reasonableness clause" of the fourth amendment is universally understood to require a "common law of search and seizure," yet one of constitutional stature. That is, it binds the states and cannot be undone by ordinary legislation. The purpose of this Article is to demonstrate that this near universal interpretation of the fourth amendment is unfounded. Indeed, it will be argued that the current view is contrary to the plain meaning of the fourth amendment, as historically recovered, and is inconsistent with the basic constitutional structure. Instead, the reasonableness clause properly understood, does not authorize courts to do anything, but exists to affirm legislative supremacy over the law of search and seizure. Accordingly, the only judicially operative portion of the amendment is the ''warrant clause.'' This interpretation can and should be installed as the operative premise of the fourth amendment. This Article will, in large part, present its thesis regarding fourth amendment doctrine by employing, as an illustration, a recent application of the current approach by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In United States v. Torres, the Seventh Circuit held video surveillance constitutional and further found that the judiciary had the authority to issue warrants for such a technique. Although welcomed by prosecutors and law enforcement officials, this decision highlights the absurdity of the current interpretation of the reasonableness clause. Moreover, Torres provides a vehicle through which this Article's historical interpretation can be brought into focus under the cold light of modern reality. Prosecutors, especially those with weak cases born of unsavory witnesses, have their own version of the "necessity" defense and valid reasons for applauding the decision in Torres. This "necessity" defense is just that: the argument of last resort. Having deployed it to no avail on many occasions myself, the holding in Torres was initially welcome news. “Sure, it would be nice if we could choose our witnesses,” prosecutors told jurors in summation. “And if we could choose, we would not have chosen poor (read: that drunken sleazeball) Mr. Muscatel, today’s victim.” The arguments continue: “But we didn’t get to choose our witness; the defendant did, by stabbing Mr. Muscatel. It would be even nicer if we could videotape crimes. Then we would not have to rely on fragile human memory. But the defendant dint’ send us a note saying where and when to set up out cameras to catch his act. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we had no choice but to present the case that we did. So, even if Mr. Muscatel hasn’t been sober since his First Holy Communion, even if he cannot tell you where, or if, he’s presently living, the evidence compels a guilty verdict.”
Global Sensitivity Analysis of Plasma Instabilities via Active Subspaces

Active subspace analysis is a useful computational tool to identify and exploit the most important linear combinations in the space of a model's input parameters. These directions depend inherently on a quantity of interest, which can be represented as a function from input parameters to model outputs. As the dynamics of many plasma models are driven by potentially uncertain parameter values, the utilization of active subspaces to perform global sensitivity analysis represents an important tool to understand how certain physical phenomena depend upon fluctuations in the values of these parameters. In the current paper, we construct and implement new computational methods to quantify the induced uncertainty within the growth rate generated by perturbations in a collisionless plasma modeled by the one-dimensional Vlasov-Poisson system near an unstable, spatially-homogeneous equilibrium in the linear regime.
Staged hybrid approach for an acute-on-chronic aortic dissection with rupture in a Jehovah's Witness patient: Case report.

From the Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Ann Arbor, Mich; and the Department of Radiology, University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Ann Arbor, Mich. Disclosures: David Williams reports consulting fees from Boston Scientific and Gore and Associates. All other authors have nothing to disclose with regard to commercial support. Received for publication May 22, 2015; revisions received July 24, 2015; accepted for publication July 24, 2015; available ahead of print Aug 22, 2015. Address for reprints: Bo Yang, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Cardiovascular Center, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (E-mail: boya@med.umich.edu). J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2015;150:e63-5 0022-5223/$36.00 Copyright 2015 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2015.07.080 Acute-on-chronic dissection with rupture can be managed initially with stent grafting.
Characterization of the interacting mechanisms between Triapine (3-aminopyridine-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazone) and the small subunits of human Ribonucleotide Reductase

4108 Ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is an important therapeutic target for anticancer drugs. The enzyme consists of two nonidentical subunits, M1 and M2 or p53R2. Triapine (3-aminopyridine-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazone) is a new potent RR inhibitor currently in phase II clinical trials. It is known that the compound is an iron chelator and targets the small subunits of RR. However, the interacting mechanisms of the compound with the small subunits remain unclear. We have studied the effects of Triapine and its iron complexes on pure recombinant RR subunit proteins. In vitro RR activity assays were carried out using two forms of the holoenzyme (M2/M1 and p53R2/M1) both in the presence and absence of iron in the reaction mixture. We showed that in the absence of iron in the reaction mixture, the Triapine/Fe complex was more potent than Triapine alone, in addition to demonstrating a stronger effect on the p53R2/M1 holoenzyme compared to the M2/M1 holoenzyme with respect to RR activity. In contrast to this, when iron was introduced to the reaction mixture, we found that the potency of the Triapine/Fe complex for p53R2/M1 was reduced to almost the same level as for M2/M1. These data suggest that inhibition and regeneration of RR activity occurs simultaneously. The enzymatic activities regenerate with the addition of iron and DTT in the reaction mixture. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) measurements showed that inhibition of RR activity was accompanied by reduction of the tyrosyl radical of the small subunits. The potency of radical quenching for both small subunit proteins increased in the order Triapine 3 H] Triapine-protein binding assay using wild-type and mutant M2 and p53R2 proteins and computer-assistant docking are still ongoing. Our findings may contribute to the design of more potent and subunit-selective RR inhibitors as novel anticancer agents. (Supported by NCI R01 Grant CA72767)
The emergence and collapse of the self monitoring center in multi-agent systems

We studied the emergence and collapse of the central agent in a system which consists of homogeneous agents. To do this study, we defined a simple model of a situation, i.e., cooperations with the exchange of operational demands. As a result, an agent which gives orders as a central power and has a microcosm of the whole system appeared. Next we pointed out an efficiency problem and argued how to resolve it. We also shows its side effects relating to collapses of the central agents.
Resonance structures in Saturn's rings probed by radio occultation. I - Methods and examples

Individual and comparative analyses are conducted for 29 of the wavelike features revealed by optical depth profiles of Saturn's rings; of these, 18 are in Ring A, one is in Ring B, and 10 are in Ring C. Only 20 of these were identifiable with known resonances, and all eight of the unexplained wave features are in Ring C. For 14 weak density waves in Ring A, a linear density wave theory modeling of the waveform near resonance yields independent estimates of the surface mass density together with reliable estimates of resonance location.
Observation of annihilation radiation from the galactic center: The point and ridge components

The point-source and Galactic-ridge components of the 511-keV annihilation radiation from the Galactic center are evaluated with an all-sky map based on detection at 80 keV through 2 MeV. The point-source flux is shown to be significant at 95-percent confidence and to agree with those of other data, while the ridge component is consistent with measurements taken at 25-deg longitude.
Tea polyphenols: prevention of cancer and optimizing health

The tea plant Camellia sinesis is cultivated in >30 countries. Epidemiologic observations and laboratory studies have indicated that polyphenolic compounds present in tea may reduce the risk of a variety of illnesses, including cancer and coronary heart disease. Most studies involved green tea, however; only a few evaluated black tea. Results from studies in rats, mice, and hamsters showed that tea consumption protects against lung, forestomach, esophagus, duodenum, pancreas, liver, breast, colon, and skin cancers induced by chemical carcinogens. Other studies showed the preventive effect of green tea consumption against atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, high blood cholesterol concentrations, and high blood pressure. Because the epidemiologic studies and research findings in laboratory animals have shown the chemopreventive potential of tea polyphenols in cancer, the usefulness of tea polyphenols for humans should be evaluated in clinical trials. One such phase 1 clinical trial is currently under way at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in collaboration with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. This study will examine the safety and possible efficacy of consuming the equivalent of > or =10 cups (> or =2.4 L) of green tea per day. The usefulness of tea polyphenols may be extended by combining them with other consumer products such as food items and vitamin supplements. This "designer-item" approach may be useful for human populations, but it requires further study.
Estimation of Bulk Melt-Temperature from In-Mold Thermal Sensors for Injection Molding, Part A: Method

Abstract To improve part quality and consistency injection molders strive to control the temperature of the molten plastic during cavity filling. In-mold temperature sensors can effectively measure the temperature of the mold surface that contacts the melt; however, they do not provide a measure of the bulk melt temperature. An analysis was developed to use data from in-mold thermocouples to predict the plastic's bulk melt temperature. This analysis integrates the heat flux through the mold steel to calculate the bulk melt temperature. A mold instrumented with an in-mold thermocouple and an IR temperature sensor was used to validate the predictions. The effects of changing barrel temperature, coolant temperature, injection velocity, and cooling time were studied using a 21 run DOE. Validation was performed by comparing bulk temperature data from the IR temperature sensor with temperature predictions derived from the in-mold temperature sensor. Trends in the melt temperature were consistently predicted, ho...
Fechner, Gustav Theodor

Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801–1887) was a German physicist and philosopher whose application of mathematical and scientific methods to psychological theory established the science of psychophysics and laid the foundations of experimental psychology.
Project management office: implementation issues

Increasingly, more organizations opt to establish project management office (PMO) to support and manage the project management efforts. PMO is referred to by different titles such as project office, project management office, project management center-of excellence, or directorate of project management. In this paper, the implementation issues of such an approach are examined.
Formation of 12-[18O]Oxo-cis-10,cis-15-phytodienoic acid from 13-[18O]hydroperoxylinolenic acid by hydroperoxide cyclase

13-[18-O]Hydroperoxylinolenic acid was permitted to react with an extract of flaxseed acetone powder containing hydroperoxide cyclase activity. The resulting product, 12-oxo-cis-10,cis-15-phytodienoic acid (12-oxo-PDA), contained 18O in the carbonyl oxygen at carbon 12, suggesting that an epoxide was an intermediate in the hyderoperoxide cyclase reaction. A substrate specificity study showed that a cis double bond beta, gamma to the conjugated hydroperoxide group was essential for the substrate to be converted to a cyclic product by hydroperoxide cyclase.
In pursuit of a complete remission: exploring novel therapeutic agents in CLL

Achievement of a complete remission is a prerequisite for ultimately improving the long-term survival of patients with most malignant diseases. The feasibility of achieving a complete response in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has been markedly improved with recent therapeutic
Blastoderm-differential and blastoderm-specific genes of Drosophila melanogaster.

We have isolated, by molecular cloning, genes expressed differentially at the blastoderm stage of Drosophila melanogaster. Two of the blastoderm-differential genes are reexpressed at later stages, and map to single chromosomal loci 95C and 99E. The sequence at 99E is that encoding the myosin light chain 2. Two other blastoderm-differential sequences are members of multigene families (one of which is B104, or roo) and map to multiple dispersed chromosomal loci. A gastrula-differential sequence was found which maps to 71A. Most significantly, we have identified three genes encoding transcripts expressed uniquely at the blastoderm stage; these map to single chromosomal loci: 25D3, 75C, and 99D4-8. At least some of the blastoderm-differential and blastoderm-specific loci appear to be distinct from loci involved in embryonic pattern formation that have been identified in recent genetic “saturation” screens. The procedure of identifying genes specific to the blastoderm stage may thus allow the identification of genes, not previously identified by classical genetic techniques, that are involved in important embryonic processes.
Diabetes and benign prostate hyperplasia in Olmsted County, Minnesota

Purpose The incidence of diabetes (DM) has increased rapidly. Recent studies have shown an association between DM and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). These studies, however, have been limited by cross-sectional data without long-term follow-up and lacked population-based samples. We examined the association of DM and BPH in a prospective population-based sample of residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, with serial surrogate measures of BPH. Methods A cohort of 2115 Caucasian men aged 40 to 79 years was randomly selected from an enumeration of the 1990 Olmsted County, Minnesota, population (55% participation rate). Participants completed a previously validated baseline questionnaire that assessed lower urinary tract symptom severity with questions similar to the AUA Symptom Index (AUASI); a composite AUASI was estimated. The questionnaire also asked whether they had ever been diagnosed by a physician as having DM. Participants voided into a portable urometer to measure peak urinary flow rates ( Q max ). A 25% random subsample underwent transrectal sonographic imaging to determine prostate volume (PVOL). Dynamic follow-up was performed biennially for about 10 years and supplemented with the review of community medical records for documented occurrence of acute urinary retention (AUR). A two-stage slope was calculated for AUASI and Q max . Results A total of 111 (4.6%) of the men had DM at baseline. The mean age was 63.0 (SD = 10.8) and 54.2 (SD = 10.5) years in those with and without DM. Mean body mass index at baseline was 29.3 (SD = 5.4) and 27.0 (SD = 4.0) in those with and without DM. Individuals with DM had significantly greater mean percentage change in AUASI (0.42 vs. 0.16; P = 0.03) and Q max (4.6% vs. 2.2%; P = 0.04) compared with those without DM; however, there was no difference in change in PVOL or in occurrence of AUR. Conclusion Compared with men without DM, individuals with DM at baseline had significantly greater progression of BPH, as measured by surrogate markers AUASI and Q max , but not PVOL or AUR, during follow-up. Study results suggest that the presence of DM may be more closely associated with the dynamic components of lower urinary tract function than with BPH.
System engineering approach to documentation

Graphical abstractDisplay Omitted Highlights? Documentation requires provider effort and cooperation before, during, and after procedures. ? Double-checks, regulation requirements, and cross-checks cause data overlap among documents. ? Documents required are paper copies of electronic data and consent, process, and facilitation forms. ? Current paper documentation processes raise the bar for future electronic documentation systems. Documentation processes are an indispensible part of patient care. Timely access to complete and accurate documentation is crucial to patient safety. However, there is no sufficient tool to help health care professionals effectively manage documentation processes. In this study, we developed an evaluation methodology, including a documentation matrix, a documentation process flow diagram, and a document value tool, to analyze the necessity and redundancy of the documentation processes. We applied this methodology in a gastrointestinal lab and improved the transparency of the documentation processes among providers.
The Effects of Students' Computer-Based Prior Experiences and Instructional Exposures on the Application of Hypermedia-Related Mental Models.

The focus of this study was for students using an extensive hypermedia environment to state how the program's features, tools, or commands reflected four theoretical constructs: 1) semantic networks, 2) concept maps, 3) frames/scripts, and 4) schemata. Two exercises were created: 1) context-weak and 2) context-strong. It was found that, when the context was strong, the students cited more semantic networks and concept maps than when the context was weak. They, however, cited more frames/scripts and schemata when the context was weak than when the context was strong. In addition to viewing the four construct-models individually, the results were interpreted when establishing a linear construct-models group (semantic networks and frames/scripts) and a nonlinear construct-models group (concept maps and schemata). Results were also interpreted when grouping the construct-models as information-structure construct-models (semantic networks and concept maps) and as user-practiced construct-models (frames/scripts...
Called to account: fourteen financial frauds that shaped the American accounting profession

Called to account: fourteen financial frauds that shaped the American accounting profession, Paul M. Clikeman, New York and London, Routledge, 2009, x + 345pp., $52.95 Called to Account is written ...
Methyl halide (CH3X) production from the giant kelp, Macrocystis, and estimates of global CH3X production by kelp1

Production of methyl chloride (CH3Cl), methyl bromide (CH3Br), and methyl iodide (CH3I) was measured from short-term incubations (light and dark) of Macrocystis pyrifera (kelp) blade tissue and from long-term culture of Macrocystis blades. Seawater from within a natural Macrocystis bed had elevated CH3X concentrations compared to seawater from outside the kelp bed. Highest concentrations were associated with regions of high biomass density: surface canopy and sporophyll/juvenile frond zone. Rates of methyl halide production (normalized to kelp biomass) were determined from the short-term incubation, blade culture, and natural population, the latter based on a simple hydrodynamic model. Estimates of global CH3X production based on these production rates and published estimates of global kelp standing stock suggest that kelps (and other marine macroalgae) are not a significant source of global CH3X.
Heterogeneity of Crystalline Rennin

Summary Block-shaped crystals were prepared from a concentrated solution of purified rennin by dialyzing it against Berridge's salting-in buffer. The purification procedure was relatively simple, and proved successful in each of several attempts to obtain rennin pure enough to crystallize. A single boundary in electrophoresis represented over 96% of the protein when the dissolved crystals were run at pH 6.8 in sodium phosphate buffer at an ionic strength of 0.2. However, at least four components were evident in the same buffer at 0.033 ionic strength. These results show that rennin preparations can not be considered homogeneous on the basis of their crystalline form or their electrophoretic behavior in phosphate buffers of high ionic strength.
Dynamic Properties of Aircraft Tires

A research program has investigated the use of the von Schlippe string-type tire model for predicting the dynamic behavior of aircraft tires. The transfer-function method was used for theory evaluation. A more flexible two-constant modification to the string theory tire model is presented. Experiments were conducted on four types of scale model aircraft tires. Two types were of conventional bias construction, one type was an isotropic toroid, and one type was of unbelted radial construction. The conventional string theory and model gave predictions that were in good agreement with experimental data for bias constructed tires. The two-constant modification to string theory provided better agreement between predictions and experiment for the unconventional tires. The results indicate that the string theory tire model using static and slow-rolling tire properties predicts dynamic aircraft tire properties that have the same trends as the measured dynamic properties and, in most cases, provides good quantitative agreement.
Management of otitis media: 2000 and beyond.

Background. In the next few years what will alter our modes of diagnosis, choice of therapies and strategies for prevention of acute otitis media (AOM)? These issues, as well as whether antibiotic resistance will continue to threaten the efficacy of currently available antimicrobial agents, whether industry and academia will be able to respond to bacterial resistance with effective new antimicrobial drugs and whether the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine will substantially reduce the incidence of AOM provide a basis for discussing the problems and possible solutions related to AOM. Antimicrobial drugs. Bacteria and viruses will continue to find ways to survive the activity of currently available antimicrobial drugs. Among the new antibacterial drugs under consideration are ketolides, oxazolodinones and quinolones. Guidelines stress limiting usage of antimicrobial agents to diseases that are likely caused by bacterial pathogens. Antiviral drugs are now available against influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus infections. Diagnosis. Tympanometry and/or acoustic reflectometry are adjunctive techniques for assisting in the diagnosis of middle ear effusion in children whose otoscopic examination is ambiguous. Laser myringotomy has been used in several hundred children; however, there are no published studies of randomized trials. New vaccines. Investigators have evaluated the safety and efficacy of a heptavalent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine conjugated with CRM197 (a diphtheria toxin mutant). The results showed a reduction in the overall burden of severe and recurrent AOM. Respiratory syncytial virus is the viral pathogen most frequently associated with AOM. For this reason safe and effective viral vaccines are needed to complement the efficacy of bacterial vaccines for prevention of AOM. Conclusions. Parents influence decisions by pediatricians to use antimicrobial agents and should be informed about the appropriate usage of antibiotics. Educators and public health officials must find techniques to distinguish WebSites that provide information of value from those that are not credible. Of paramount importance is the development of techniques to increase the accuracy of clinical and microbiologic diagnosis. Finally there is a need for studies of appropriate scientific design that can assess the efficacy and safety of alternative therapies.