cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Energy Loss by Thermal Conduction and Natural Convection in Annular Solar Receivers

An effective device for the collection of solar energy is the so-called parabolic-cylindrical solar collector. In this device, a circular receiver tube is enclosed by a concentric glass envelope and situated along the focal line of a parabolic trough reflector. The heat transfer processes which occur in the annular space between the receiver tube and the glass envelope are important in determining the overall heat loss from the receiver tube. In typical high temperature receiver tube designs the rate of energy loss by combined thermal conduction and natural convection is of the same order of magnitude as that due to thermal radiation, and can amount to approximately 6% of the total rate at which energy is absorbed by the solar collector. The elimination of conduction and natural convection losses can significantly improve the performance of a large collector field.
Fabrication of Bragg grating on rib waveguide using solvent assisted microcontact molding

The paper reports design, fabrication and simulation of a polymeric Bragg grating rib waveguide device using solvent assisted microcontact molding (SAMIM) through a single mold.
ethnicity: an analysis of its dynamism and variability focusing on the Mexican/Anglo/Mexican American interface

This paper focuses on the dynamism inherent in interethnic relationships and proposes an explanatory taxonomy. Three sets of binary variables are utilized: ingroup/outgroup ethnic ascription, symmetric/asymmetric power relations, and same/different specialized environments. Four types of interethnic relationships result: complementary, competitive, conflicting, and colonial. This scheme is then used to analyze the variability of the Mexican/Anglo/Mexican American interface from a historical perspective. [ethnicity, colonialism, Mexican Americans, conflict-theory, acculturation]
Quorum Sensing in Nitrogen-Fixing Rhizobia

Members of the rhizobia are distinguished for their ability to establish a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with leguminous plants. While many details of this relationship remain a mystery, much effort has gone into elucidating the mechanisms governing bacterium-host recognition and the events leading to symbiosis. Several signal molecules, including plant-produced flavonoids and bacterially produced nodulation factors and exopolysaccharides, are known to function in the molecular conversation between the host and the symbiont. Work by several laboratories has shown that an additional mode of regulation, quorum sensing, intercedes in the signal exchange process and perhaps plays a major role in preparing and coordinating the nitrogen-fixing rhizobia during the establishment of the symbiosis. Rhizobium leguminosarum, for example, carries a multitiered quorum-sensing system that represents one of the most complex regulatory networks identified for this form of gene regulation. This review focuses on the recent stream of information regarding quorum sensing in the nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. Seminal work on the quorum-sensing systems of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae, R. etli, Rhizobium sp. strain NGR234, Sinorhizobium meliloti, and Bradyrhizobium japonicum is presented and discussed. The latest work shows that quorum sensing can be linked to various symbiotic phenomena including nodulation efficiency, symbiosome development, exopolysaccharide production, and nitrogen fixation, all of which are important for the establishment of a successful symbiosis. Many questions remain to be answered, but the knowledge obtained so far provides a firm foundation for future studies on the role of quorum-sensing mediated gene regulation in host-bacterium interactions.
Intravital microscopic observations of 15-μm microspheres lodging in the pulmonary microcirculation

Vascular infusions of 15-μm-diameter microspheres are used to study pulmonary blood flow distribution. The sites of microsphere lodging and their effects on microvascular perfusion are debated but ...
On Pairs of Diagonal Quintic Forms

We demonstrate that a pair of additive quintic equations in at least 34 variables has a nontrivial integral solution, subject only to an 11-adic solubility hypothesis. This is achieved by an application of the Hardy ^ Littlewood method, for which we require a sharp estimate for a 33.998th moment of quintic exponential sums. We are able to employ p-adic iteration in a form that allows the estimation of such a mean value over a complete unit square, thereby providing an approach that is technically simpler than those of previous workers and £exible enough to be applied to related problems. Mathematics Subject Classi¢cations (2000). Primary 11D72, 11P55
Regulation of Tumor Angiogenesis and Choroidal Neovascularization by Endogenous Angioinhibitors

Angiogenesis is the process of neovascularization from parent blood vessels, which is a prerequisite for many physiological and pathological conditions and is regulated by a balance between endogenous angioinhibitors and angioactivators or angiogenic factors. Imbalance between angioinhibitors and angioactivators is associated with neovascularization capacity during progression of tumor development and Choroidal Neovascularization (CNV). Normalization of pathological angiogenesis is considered as an alternative strategy to prevent the tumor growth in cancer progression or retinal damage in CNV. Various angioinhibitors are being identified and evaluated for their pathological angiogenesis regulation, of which endogenous angioinhibitors are one class derived either from extra cellular matrix or from non-extra cellular matrix of human origin. Endogenous angioinhibitors are gaining much significance as they interact with proliferating endothelial cells by binding to distinct integrins and non-integrin receptors, regulating different intracellular signaling mechanisms leading to inhibition of choroidal neovascularization and tumor growth. This review will focus on endogenous angioinhibitors and their receptor(s) mediated angioinhibitory signaling, which are of major concern in angiogenesis and their clinical and pharmaceutical implications.
Power Allocation in Wireless Systems Subject to Long-Term and Short-Term Power Constraints

We consider several fading channel models for which we aim to maximize ergodic capacity assuming that channel state information (CSI) is available at both the receiver and the transmitter. We characterize the optimal power allocation structure in the single-input-single-output (SISO), multiple-input- single-output (MISO), and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) models subject to both long-term and short-term power constraints. The optimal power policy in each of the channel models depends upon the ratio of the two power constraints and the average signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of the system. We characterize the conditions, in which the short-term power constraint can be eliminated without being violated in the optimal power policy. Numerical results in the Rayleigh fading MISO case shows that the value of the short-term power constraint does not greatly affect the ergodic capacity of the channel for large values of average SNRs, as long as it is greater than the value of the long-term power constraint.
When Work Matters: The Varying Impact of Work Intensity on High School Dropout.

While the association between teenagers' work and academic performance continues to be debated in studies of adolescent employment, many researchers have found that “intensive” involvement in paid ...
Baroclinic eady wave and fronts. Part I : Viscous semigeostrophy and the impact of boundary condition

Abstract A two-dimensional viscous semigeostrophic model is developed to study the evolution of the baroclinic Eady wave and fronts with two types (free-slip and nonslip) of boundary conditions. With the free-slip boundary condition, the solution is very similar to the inviscid one but the frontal collapse is prevented by the diffusive effect. When the fronts become sharp in the mature stage, strong horizontal diffusions of momentum and potential temperature cause strong inward fluxes of geostrophic potential vorticity (GPV) at the surface fronts, so high GPV anomalies are generated at the surface fronts and advected into the interior, forming two backward-tilted plumes along the upper and lower fronts. The wave and front development can be interpreted by the interaction between the lower- and upper-level GPV anomalies in terms of GPV thinking similarly to that in the inviscid case. When the boundary condition is nonslip, the initial growth and subsequent nonlinear evolution of the solution are significan...
Interaction Between Naphthalene Sulfonate and Silica Fume in Portland Cement Pastes

Portland cement pastes were mixed with predissolved naphthalene sulfonate superplasticizer at normal water: cement ratios. Solutions were separated from the fresh pastes at intervals and the residual concentration of the superplasticizer determined by UV spectrophotometry. At low dosage levels essentially all of the superplasticizer was found to be removed from solution within a few minutes; at high dosage levels a substantial concentration was maintained in solution at least to approximately the time of set. In pastes in which silica fume replaced 10% by weight of the cement, it was found that the incorporation of silica fume significantly increased the uptake of superplasticizer. In separate trials it was found that the silica fume by itself adsorbed little superplasticizer, even from high pH solution simulating that of cement paste.
Zinc kinetics in preterm infants: a compartmental model based on stable isotope data

Zinc is an essential nutrient for growth; however, little is known about zinc kinetics (absorption, distribution, and excretion) in preterm infants (< 38-wk gestation). Zinc kinetics were studied in two preterm infants (gestational ages, 32 and 33 wk) following oral or intravenous administration of a stable isotope (70Zn). Plasma, red blood cells (RBC), urine, and feces were sampled for up to 30 days. Isotope enrichment was measured in tissues by inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-mass spectrometry, and zinc was determined by ICP-atomic emission spectrometry. Data were analyzed by compartmental analysis using SAAM31. Zinc intake increased during the studies, and, because body zinc was not in steady state, both tracer (70Zn) and tracee (Zn) data were fitted using analogous models. A model for adults [M. E. Wastney, R. L. Aamodt, W. F. Rumble, and R. I. Henkin. Am. J. Physiol. 251 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 20): R398-R408, 1986] was modified to fit data from the preterm infants. RBC data were fitted using one compartment (vs. 2 in adults), and an adult RBC subsystem was included in the model to account for zinc introduced during blood transfusions. Exchange of zinc between compartments that were not sampled was based on zinc distribution in neonates. Absorption was 42 and 34%, and endogenous fecal excretion, based on intravenous data, was 15 micrograms.kg-1.day-1. The model can be used to quantify changes in zinc kinetics of preterm infants with age, weight, and zinc intake for evaluating nutritional requirements with growth.
A gastrulation center in the ascidian egg

A gastrulation center is described in ascidian eggs. Extensive cytoplasmic rearrangements occur in ascidian eggs between fertilization and first cleavage. During ooplasmic segregation, a specific cytoskeletal domain (the myoplasm) is translocated first to the vegetal pole (VP) and then to the posterior region of the zygote. A few hours later, gastrulation is initiated by invagination of endoderm cells in the VP region of the 110-cell embryo. After the completion of gastrulation, the embryonic axis is formed, which includes induction of the nervous system, morphogenesis of the larval tail and differentiation of tail muscle cells. Microsurgical deletion or ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of the VP region during the first phase of myoplasmic segregation prevents gastrulation, nervous system induction and tail formation, without affecting muscle cell differentiation. Similar manipulations of unfertilized eggs or uncleaved zygotes after the second phase of segregation have no effect on development, suggesting that a gastrulation center is established by transient localization of myoplasm in the VP region. The function of the gastrulation center was investigated by comparing protein synthesis in normal and UV-irradiated embryos. About 5% of 433 labelled polypeptides detected in 2D gels were affected by UV irradiation. The most prominent protein is a 30 kDa cytoskeletal component (p30), whose synthesis is abolished by UV irradiation. p30 synthesis peaks during gastrulation, is affected by the same UV dose and has the same UV-sensitivity period as gastrulation. However, p30 is not a UV-sensitive target because it is absent during ooplasmic segregation, the UV-sensitivity period. Moreover, the UV target has the absorption maximum of a nucleic acid rather than a protein. Cell-free translation studies indicate that p30 is encoded by a maternal mRNA. UV irradiation inhibits the ability of this transcript to direct p30 synthesis, indicating that p30 mRNA is a UV-sensitive target. The gasturlation center may function by sequestration or activation of maternal mRNAs encoding proteins that function during embryogenesis.
Teacher blogs and education policy in a publicly private world: filling the gap between policy and practice

ABSTRACTK-12 teachers who write about their daily work on blogs and other social media platforms share local knowledge and wisdom from the immediate view of the classroom. These first-hand retellings of everyday classroom life offer a unique critique of educational policy from the teachers’ perspective. Reporting on the analysis of 14 public-facing blogs written by New York City public school teachers, this paper highlights the possibilities held in these digital narratives by painting a picture of how teachers respond to the implementation of new educational policies.
Dopaminergic variants in siblings at high risk for autism: Associations with initiating joint attention.

Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; high-risk siblings) exhibit lower levels of initiating joint attention (IJA; sharing an object or experience with a social partner through gaze and/or gesture) than low-risk siblings of children without ASD. However, high-risk siblings also exhibit substantial variability in this domain. The neurotransmitter dopamine is linked to brain areas associated with reward, motivation, and attention, and common dopaminergic variants have been associated with attention difficulties. We examined whether these common dopaminergic variants, DRD4 and DRD2, explain variability in IJA in high-risk (n = 55) and low-risk (n = 38) siblings. IJA was assessed in the first year during a semi-structured interaction with an examiner. DRD4 and DRD2 genotypes were coded according to associated dopaminergic functioning to create a gene score, with higher scores indicating more genotypes associated with less efficient dopaminergic functioning. Higher dopamine gene scores (indicative of less efficient dopaminergic functioning) were associated with lower levels of IJA in the first year for high-risk siblings, while the opposite pattern emerged in low-risk siblings. Findings suggest differential susceptibility-IJA was differentially associated with dopaminergic functioning depending on familial ASD risk. Understanding genes linked to ASD-relevant behaviors in high-risk siblings will aid in early identification of children at greatest risk for difficulties in these behavioral domains, facilitating targeted prevention and intervention. Autism Res 2016, 9: 1142-1150. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Low-Speed Stability and Control of a Reduced Scale Long-Range Supersonic Configuration with Reduced-Size or No Vertical Tail

This paper presents studies of the low-speed stability and control of a representative long-range supersonic vehicle incorporating a novel control effector arrangement. The aircraft of interest is a research-focused Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (R-UAV), a 1/16 scaled model of a concept supersonic business jet. Evaluation of stability and control characteristics is made based on a linearized time-invariant state-space small-perturbations approach over a range of angles of attack. Low-speed wind tunnel results together with unsteady aerodynamic panel method analysis are the basis for the aerodynamic stability derivatives used. The main goal of this work is to study the effects on stability and controllability of reduction in size (or complete elimination) of tail surfaces, with particular emphasis on the vertical tail.
Merger Policy at the Federal Trade Commission: What, If Anything, Has Changed?

The modern Merger Guidelines have controlled merger enforcement decisions for the last thirty years. Economic theory has evolved (and continues to evolve) and revisions of the Guidelines have integrated some of these thoughts into the merger review methodology. This paper tabulates and evaluates information from Federal Trade Commission (FTC) merger analyses using data for 1989 to 2014. The FTC’s workload focuses on horizontal mergers, with particular interest in health care, consumer goods, and a specific group of intermediary product industries. The evidence suggests that a shift away from coordinated interaction (collusion) cases occurred after the introduction of the 1992 Merger Guidelines, with a further shift focused on differentiated products after the 2010 revision in the Guidelines. Abstracting from a large number of mergers to monopoly studied, the structural characteristics of investigations reviewed with unilateral effects or collusion theories appear similar, but not identical. Most three-to-two and four-to-three mergers end up challenged, while other transactions often pass through the review process. Evidence suggests that the 2010 Merger Guidelines may have led to some convergence of staff analyses on entry and efficiency issues. Statistical analysis of the merger review process detects a little populism, but no evidence of partisan political influence on the enforcement decision. Merger challenge decisions appear fact driven, with the choice of theory not influencing the weights given to the specific structural factors. Weak evidence suggests the 2010 revisions might have had an effect on policy, but more information is needed before any strong conclusions can be drawn. Overall, it is the fact-based staff findings that appear to drive the merger review process.
Synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction analysis for Bi-based oxide superconducting wire

The Bi-based oxide superconducting wire is one of the most promising materials for practical uses such as electric power transmission, electromagnets and so on. For the higher performances required in these applications, it is necessary to increase the critical current (Ic). We have carried out synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction analysis to improve our manufacturing processes and thus to achieve higher Ic. We have performed in situ X-ray diffraction measurements during the sintering and cooling processes, and observed the decrease of Bi-2223(=(Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox) phase during the cooling process. We have also evaluated the distribution of the crystal orientation in whole wire thickness, by measuring the rocking curves. We have observed that the distribution of the crystal orientation is improved by a refinement of the process conditions.
Gradient light interference microscopy (GLIM) for imaging thick specimens(Conference Presentation)

Compared to the Phase Contrast, Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) has been known to give higher depth sectioning as well as a halo-free images when investigating transparent specimens. Thanks to relying on generating two slightly shifted replicas with a small amount of shift, within the coherence area, DIC is able to operate with very low coherence light. More importantly, the method is able to work with very large numerical aperture of the illumination, which offer comparable sectioning capability to bright field microscopy. However, DIC is still a qualitative method, which limits potential applications of the technique. In this paper, we introduce a method that extends the capability of DIC by combining it with a phase shifting module to extract the phase gradient information. A theoretical model of the image formation is developed and the possibility of integrating the gradient function is analyzed.. Our method is benchmarked on imaging embryos during their 7-day development, HeLa cells during mitosis, and control samples.
Cognitive Impairment of Alcoholics measured by Wisconsin Card Sorting

Objective: To study the cognitive impairment of alcoholics by Wisconsin Card Sorting (WCS) Methods:37 patients with alcohol dependence received WCS test one week after detoxification and 34 normal controls received the same test Results:There were significant differences between the two groups in the following items (P0 01): number of Categories, percentage of Correct responses, number of Errors answers, number of preservation of Responses, number of preservation Errors, percentage of Conceptive level responses Data analysis indicated that cognitive impairment of alcoholics correlated closely to years of drinking Conclusion:Alcoholics have cognitive impairment that can be detected by WCS
Hydrothermal Synthesis and Crystal Structure of a One-Dimensional Cadmium(II) Complex with Isophthalic Acid and 2-Methyldipyrido[3,2-f∶2′,3′-h]quinoxaline Ligands

A metal-organic coordination polymer [Cd(ipt)(Medpq)]n(H2ipt=isophthalic acid,Medpq=2-methyldi-pyrido[3,2-f:2′,3′-h]quinoxaline) has been hydrothermally synthesized and structurally characterized by elemental analysis,IR spectrum,UV-Vis spectrum,TG and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.Title compound crystallizes in the monoclinic system,space group C2/c,with a=2.013 6(4) nm,b=1.608 9(3) nm,c=1.609 3(3) nm,β=125.12(3)°,V=4.302 8(15) nm3,C23H18N4O6Cd,Mr=558.81,Dc=1.725 g·cm-3,Z=8,the final R=0.053 1 and wR=0.140 3.In the crystal structure,the cadmium is six-coordinated with four carboxylate oxygen atoms from three different carboxylate groups,and two nitrogen atoms from Medpq ligand,showing a slightly distorted octahedral geometry.Furthermore,it exhibits a one-dimensional zigzag structure with ipt-Cd-medpq as building units.CCDC: 800998.
S11.2 Efflux pumps in neisseria gonorrhoeae – cause of resistance and targets for therapeutics and vaccine?

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the cause of the sexually transmitted infection termed gonorrhoea, which afflicts over 100 million people worldwide each year. Since the mid-1940s, beginning with the availability of penicillin (Pen), antibiotic therapy has been the mainstay for curing infection and halting the spread of the gonococcus in the community. Unfortunately, gonococci developed resistance to Pen and many other antibiotics that were brought into clinical practice to counter act the growing problem of Pen (and other antibiotics) resistance. With the recent emergence of strains expressing resistance to the third-generation cephalosporins (cefixime and ceftriaxone) or other important antibiotics (macrolides and fluoroquinolones) there is considerable fear that without new antibiotics, gonorrhoea will become more difficult to treat; indeed, some have warned of the possibility of untreatable infections. In order to address this public health crisis of antibiotic resistant gonococci, it is essential that new bacterial targets are identified so as to facilitate the development of novel therapeutic drugs. I will discuss the role of the MtrC-MtrD-MtrE efflux pump in the development of gonococcal resistance to antibiotics and host-derived antimicrobials (e.g., cationic antimicrobial peptides). These phenotypes are augmented in gonococcal strains that have mutations that result in enhanced transcription of the mtrCDE efflux pump gene complex. I will provide evidence that this efflux pump is critical for the ability of gonococci to resist certain antibiotics as well as surviving during infection. Against this background, I will propose that this pump offers new targets for drug development (efflux pump inhibitors) and vaccine development to combat antibiotic resistant gonococcal strains and to prevent infections.
Relationship Education in Emerging Adulthood: Problems and Prospects

The literature on emerging adulthood (EA) has focused heavily on basic research, a reflection no doubt of continuing debate about fundamental features of this stage of development (see the special issue of Child Development Perspectives , 2007). Therefore it is not surprising that examination of applied issues relating to romantic relationships in EA has been limited to documenting an association between romantic relationships and psychological adjustment (see Chapter 14) and to showing that the quality of such relationships mediates the link between earlier parent–adolescent relationships and later mental health outcomes (Beyers & Seiffge-Krenke, 2007). The purpose of this chapter is to broaden attention to applied issues in the EA literature by considering how to facilitate what seems to be a prerequisite to entering adulthood: the ability to initiate and sustain an intimate romantic relationship with another person. WHAT IS RELATIONSHIP EDUCATION AND IS IT NECESSARY? Historically, relationship education has taken the form of marriage education and has been offered almost exclusively to couples. Such marriage education has its roots in religious institutions, and the precursor to modern programs was Pre-Cana premarital counseling now required of couples wishing to marry within the Catholic Church (Ooms, 2005). Until quite recently, most relationship education occurred in religious contexts, thereby excluding those who do not profess a religious faith or who are uncomfortable in such settings. Nonetheless, a substantial minority of marrying couples (44%) in the 1990s received some type of relationship education before marriage (Stanley, Amato, Johnson, & Markman, 2006).
Simplicial Methods in Homological Algebra

By now, the reader has seen several examples of chain complexes in which the boundary maps C n → C n −1 are alternating sums d 0 − d 1 + … ± d n . The primordial example is the singular chain complex of a topological space X ; elements of C n (X) are formal sums of maps f from the n -simplex Δ n into X , and d i ( f ) is the composition of f with the inclusion Δ n−1 ⊂ Δ n of the i th face of the simplex (1.1.4). Other examples of this phenomenon include Koszul complexes (4.5.1), the bar resolution of a group (6.5.1), and the Chevalley-Eilenberg complex of a Lie algebra (7.7.1). Complexes of this form arise from simplicial modules, which are the subject of this chapter. Simplicial Objects Let Δ be the category whose objects are the finite ordered sets [ n ] = {0 n } for integers n ≥ 0, and whose morphisms are nondecreasing monotone functions. If A is any category, a simplicial object A in A is a contravariant functor from Δ to A , that is, A : Δ op → A . For simplicity, we write A n for A ([ n ]). Similarly, a cosimplicial object C in A is a covariant functor C : Δ → A , and we write A n for A ([ n ]). A morphism of simplicial objects is a natural transformation, and the category S A of all simplicial objects in A is just the functor category A Δ op .
The Impact of Anti-Gay Politics on the LGBTQ Movement

Since the late 1970s, the Religious Right has mobilized to oppose the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) movement in the United States. Sociologists have studied the relationship between these two movements as a classic movement-countermovement dynamic, in which the strategies, actions, and framing of one movement impact the other. I analyze the way Religious Right reactive and proactive opposition to gay rights has affected the LGBTQ movement. First, I provide an overview of the literature on the negative impacts of the Religious Right, including the diversion of movement goals, transformation of frames, and marginalization of queer politics. Second, I examine the way Religious Right activism may increase mobilization.
ROS in translation: Chink in the armor.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) holds the most dismal prognosis among the common malignancies and is considered to be largely incurable. In spite of extensive efforts in preclinical and clinical science, the survival rate of pancreatic cancer has not improved substantially over the past 40 y. An activating mutation of KRAS is the most common genetic perturbation found in PDA, occurring in 90-95% of the cases. Despite the identification of a clear driver oncogene, clinically actionable strategies to target KRAS have not yet been identified. A deeper understanding of the molecular events downstream of KRAS is therefore critical for the development of new therapeutic interventions for this deadly disease.
Shale gas development and cancer incidence in southwest Pennsylvania

Abstract Objective To what extent does unconventional gas development lead to an increase in cancer incidence in heavily drilled Southwest Pennsylvania? Study design Ecological study. Methods Data for urinary bladder, thyroid and leukaemia were abstracted from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry (PCR). Cancer incidence among counties with high, moderate and minimal number of producing wells is compared before drilling activity and thereafter. Observed vs expected cases, standardized incidence ratio and 95% confidence intervals are presented. Data are presented by county, diagnosis and sex for the years 2000–2004, 2004–2008 and 2008–2012. The percent difference between the observed cases from 2000 to 2004 and 2008–2012 was calculated. Results The observed number of urinary bladder cases was higher than expected in both sexes in counties with shale gas activity. In counties with the fewest number of producing wells, the increase was essentially non-existent. The number of observed cases of thyroid cancer increased substantially among both sexes over the time period in all counties regardless of the number of wells drilled. The pattern for leukaemia was mixed among males and females and among the counties regardless of the extent of shale gas development activities. Conclusion Potential risk factors other than shale gas development must be taken into account to explain the higher than expected cancer cases in counties with and without shale gas wells before and during unconventional shale gas activity.
Smart-MLlib: A High-Performance Machine-Learning Library

As the popularity of big data analytics has continued to grow, so has the need for accessible and scalable machine-learning implementations. In recent years, Apache Spark's machine-learning library, MLlib, has been used to fulfill this need. Though Spark outperforms Hadoop, it is not clear if it is the best performing underlying middleware to support machine learning implementations. Building on a C++ and MPI based middleware system Smart, we present a machine-learning library prototype (Smart-MLlib). Like MLlib, Smart MLlib allows machine learning implementations to be invoked from a Scala program, and with a very similar API. To test our library's performance, we built four machine-learning applications that are also provided in Spark's MLlib: k-means clustering, linear regression, Gaussian mixture models, and support vector machines. On average, we outperformed Spark's MLlib by over 800%. Our library also scaled better than Spark's MLlib for every application tested. Thus, the new machine-learning library enables higher performance than Spark's MLlib without sacrificing the easy-to-use API.
6-Cyclohexylmethyl-3-hydroxypyrimidine-2,4-dione as an Inhibitor Scaffold of HIV Reverase Transcriptase: Impacts of the 3-OH on Inhibiting RNase H and Polymerase

3-Hydroxypyrimidine-2,4-dione (HPD) represents a versatile chemical core in the design of inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase (RT)-associated RNase H and integrase strand transfer (INST). We report herein the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of an HPD subtype (4) featuring a cyclohexylmethyl group at the C-6 position. Antiviral testing showed that most analogues of 4 inhibited HIV-1 in the low nanomolar to submicromolar range, without cytotoxicity at concentrations up to 100 μM. Biochemically, these analogues dually inhibited both the polymerase (pol) and the RNase H functions of RT, but not INST. Co-crystal structure of 4a with RT revealed a nonnucleoside RT inhibitor (NNRTI) binding mode. Interestingly, chemotype 11, the synthetic precursor of 4 lacking the 3-OH group, did not inhibit RNase H while potently inhibiting pol. By virtue of the potent antiviral activity and biochemical RNase H inhibition, HPD subtype 4 could provide a viable platform for eventually achieving potent and selective RNase H inhibition through further medicinal chemistry.
On the domain size effect of thermal conductivities from equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations

Equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations with the Green-Kubo formula and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations with the Fourier's Law are two widely used methods for calculating thermal conductivities of materials. It is well known that both methods suffer from domain size effects, especially for NEMD. But the underlying mechanisms and their comparison have not been much quantitatively studied before. In this paper, we investigate their domain size effects by using crystalline silicon at 1000 K, graphene at 300 K, and silicene at 300 K as model material systems. The thermal conductivity of silicon from EMD simulations increases normally with the increasing domain size and converges at a size of around 4×4×4 nm3. The converging trend agrees well with the wavelength-accumulated thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivities of graphene and silicene from EMD simulations decrease abnormally with the increasing domain size and converge at a size of around 10×10 nm2. We ascribe the anom...
Modeling and Control of an Aeroelastic System

Abstract In this paper we present a hereditary model for the motions of a typical airfoil in an unsteady flow Numerical results are given for a flutter control problem
A tale of two circuits: CCK NTS neuron stimulation controls appetite and induces opposing motivational states by projections to distinct brain regions.

Cholecystokinin (CCK)-expressing neurons within the nucleus of the solitary tract (CCKNTS) of the mouse are responsive to satiety signals and their chemogenetic activation suppresses appetite. Optogenetic activation of CCKNTS axon terminals within either the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) or the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) is sufficient to suppress feeding. An interesting dichotomy has been revealed when assessing the motivational valence of these two circuits. Activating CCKNTS cell bodies is aversive as demonstrated by conditioned taste aversion and place-preference assays. Activation of the CCKNTS→PBN pathway is also aversive; however, stimulating the CCKNTS→PVH pathway is appetitive when assayed using a real-time, place-preference task. Thus, these two projections from CCKNTS neurons reduce food intake through opposite motivational states; one pathway signals positive valence (CCKNTS→PVH) and the other signals negative valence (CCKNTS→PBN).
Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Management of Anorectal Malformations

Imperforate anus, a variant of anorectal malformation (ARM), is a common congenital anomaly requiring surgical attention in the newborn period. It may present with a variety of anatomic configurations, largely dependent on the presence and location of a fistula. The location (or characteristics) of a fistula, which usually lies between the gastrointestinal tract and the genitourinary tract or perineum, is often used in determining the type and timing of operative management. This article discusses the work-up and management, modes of treatment and their postoperative outcomes, and continued controversy regarding the use of minimally invasive surgical approaches to ARM.
Ultra-Low-Power Processors

Society’s increasing use of connected sensing and wearable computing has created robust demand for ultra-low-power (ULP) edge computing devices and associated system-on-chip (SoC) architectures. In fact, the ubiquity of ULP processing has already made such embedded devices the highest-volume processor part in production, with an even greater dominance expected in the near future. The Internet of Everything calls for an embedded processor in every object, necessitating billions or trillions of processors. At the same time, the explosion of data generated from these devices, in conjunction with the traditional model of using cloud-based services to process the data, will place tremendous demands on limited wireless spectrum and energy-hungry wireless networks. Smart, ULP edge devices are the only viable option that can meet these demands.
THE SUPERFUND: EFFICIENT PATHS TOWARD EFFICIENT CAPITAL MARKETS IN LARGE AND SMALL COUNTRIES

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the implications surrounding the establishment of a new type of financial intermediary called superfund. In essence, the superfund owns a portion of the market portfolio and periodically issues fixed-term securities, each of which pays off only if a prespecified superstate occurs. Under weak assumptions about investor preferences and probability beliefs and innocuous assumptions in regard to investor willingness to process predecision information in great detail, the chapter explains that the superfund is, in principle, able to bring about a complete financial market, in the Arrow–Debreu sense, by issuing surprisingly few supersecurities. As a practical matter, it should have little difficulty in providing all the advantages of a complete financial market for a majority of investors, particularly small investors. These advantages include greater economic welfare by incorporating into the market, in a particularly efficient manner, all or the major profitable side-bet opportunities that are unresolvable within the regular markets, the ability to investors in effect to borrow and lend at the same riskless rate and to make implicit pure short sales without actually having to engage in borrowing or short-sale transactions, and possibly a reduction in transaction costs for those who revise their portfolios fairly infrequently.
Architectural refactoring as a strategic tool in the evolution of a web-based SaaS product

Working in the highly agile world of Software As-A-Service (SaaS) enterprise software products, the authors describe their experience of the constant evolution in terms of continuous refactoring. This paper examines several of the key drivers for this refactoring, their impact on product architecture and code, as well as the factors that influence timing of such impacts. The drivers examined are speed to market and associated viability, cost, organisational productivity, market demands/changing technology trends, changing underlying technical services, increased scale and the associated necessity for increased agility, and changing regulatory frameworks.
Low Temperature Plasmas and their Applications in Nanotechnology

The versatility and low temperature processing capability has allowed the use of gas discharges in a variety of nanotechnology applications. This talk will provide an overview on the use of low temperature plasmas in the growth of nanomaterials and application development. For over ten years, we have been routinely growing carbon nanofibers (CNFs) by PECVD on 6” wafers and used them for vertical interconnects and nanoelectrodes arrays (NEAs). The NEAs have been successfully used to fabricate biosensors for diagnostics and water quality monitoring and also for neurochemical monitoring. We have used PECVD to grow vertical graphene or carbon nanowalls with interesting properties. Low temperature plasmas can be an elegant alternative to wet chemistry for functionalizing CNTs and graphene with various atomic and molecular groups as needed in many applications, which eliminates handling of toxic chemicals and disposal issues through a green chemistry approach. Finally, we have developed an atmospheric pressure plasma jet as an alternative to inkjet printing to deposit nanomaterials on paper, plastic, metal foils and textiles to enable flexible, printable electronics. In all examples, challenges related to understanding of the mechanisms and the need for plasma diagnostics and modeling will be emphasized. The author thanks Ram Gandhiraman, Jessica Koehne, Mike Oye, Mehrdad Shaygan, Mark Rummeli and Jeong-soo Lee.
Multielement Separated Representations for Orbit Uncertainty Propagation

Uncertainty quantification is a valuable methodology in the field of astrodynamics, but approaches are often computationally expensive or rely on assumptions that do not account for non-Gaussian po...
Preliminary Considerations on the Emergence of Space and Time

This paper explores the idea that the wave-function is the unique fundamental concrete physical stuff of the world itself. The paper focuses on two suggestions: (a) First-quantized non-relativistic quantum mechanics is a not a theory of the 3-dimensional motions of particles, but of the 3N-dimensional undulations of a concrete physical field –the wave-function itself – where N is a very large number that corresponds, on the old way of thinking, to the number of elementary particles in the universe. (b) This particularly radical coming-apart of the geometry (on the one hand) and the fundamental arena (on the other) is what’s at the bottom of everything that’s exceedingly and paradigmatically strange about quantum mechanics.
Abstract P259: Using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to Identify Incident Stroke From Electronic Health Records

Background: The focus of most existing phenotyping algorithms based on electronic health record (EHR) data has been to accurately identify cases and non-cases of specific diseases. However, a more ...
Laparoscopic aortobifemoral bypass in a USA academic center.

Background Although aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD) is preferentially treated endovascularly, some patients are still better served with an aortobifemoral bypass (ABF). For those patients, surgical treatment options include both standard open operations as well as laparoscopic ABF (LapABF). Several European centers perform LapABF with favorable results instead of open surgery, but this has not been widely embraced in the United States. We reviewed our ten-year experience with LapABF, evolving from a completely laparoscopic to a standardized laparoscopic-assisted approach. Methods A retrospective review of all laparoscopic aortic operations performed at a single US academic institution from 2005 to 2015 was completed. Demographics, co-morbidities, intraoperative parameters and clinical outcomes were recorded. Patients were excluded from consideration for laparoscopic surgery if they had previous aortic surgery, aneurysmal disease or gastrointestinal pathology (e.g. diverticulitis or an enteric stoma). Results Thirty men and sixteen women were treated, (n=46) with a mean age of 55.7 (range 38-75 years). All operations were performed by a single surgeon. LapABF was successfully completed in 95.6%. A completely laparoscopic approach was undertaken in eight patients and a laparoscopic-assisted approach was used in the remaining 38 patients. Mean follow-up was 46 months (range 1 to 131). The indication for operation was claudication (n=35, 76%), rest pain (n=8, 17%) or tissue loss (n=3, 7%). Twenty-one limbs had a history of a prior failed aortoiliac endovascular intervention (23%). Median length of stay was 6 days (range 2-30). Within 30 days there were two myocardial infarctions (4.3%), one transient ischemic attack (2.2%) and one death (2.2%). Re-intervention was performed in 12 patients over the course of the study period (26.1%). Primary, primary-assisted and secondary patency was 79.4%, 93.9% and 94.9% at 60 months, respectively. Overall mortality was 17% with a mean duration of follow-up of 60 months (range 1-116). Multivariable analysis revealed coronary artery disease (CAD; P=0.03) conferred a sixteen-fold risk for death during long-term follow-up. Conclusions In this large US series of LapABF, we observed acceptable long-term patency, short length of stay and minimal morbidity. We suggest that this standardized approach for laparoscopic-assisted ABF is a viable option for patients with AIOD not suitable for endovascular therapy. The use of laparoscopic-assisted ABF affords practitioners the benefits of a completely laparoscopic approach while reducing the duration and complexity of the operation. Given the rate of re-interventions in the early era practitioners should be aware of the learning curve with this approach.
When to Worry about Sensitivity Bias: A Social Reference Theory and Evidence from 30 Years of List Experiments

Eliciting honest answers to sensitive questions is frustrated if subjects withhold the truth for fear that others will judge or punish them. The resulting bias is commonly referred to as social desirability bias, a subset of what we label sensitivity bias. We make three contributions. First, we propose a social reference theory of sensitivity bias to structure expectations about survey responses on sensitive topics. Second, we explore the bias-variance trade-off inherent in the choice between direct and indirect measurement technologies. Third, to estimate the extent of sensitivity bias, we meta-analyze the set of published and unpublished list experiments (a.k.a., the item count technique) conducted to date and compare the results with direct questions. We find that sensitivity biases are typically smaller than 10 percentage points and in some domains are approximately zero.
Sovereign bonds, coskewness, and monetary policy regimes

Abstract Consistent with flight-to-quality, the coskewness between developed market sovereign bonds and global equity markets can help explain bond returns. A coskewness factor, defined as the return difference between the most negative coskewness bond portfolio and the most positive coskewness bond portfolio, carries a statistically significant unit price of risk of 43.8 basis points per month. Decreases in coskewness are also significantly associated with declines in bond yields. Coskewness declines during recessions when interest rates become low. Moreover, countries with a monetary policy regime which explicitly targets monetary aggregates have lower coskewness.
A framework for torsion theory computations on elliptic threefolds

We give a list of statements on the geometry of elliptic threefolds phrased only in the language of topology and homological algebra. Using only notions from topology and homological algebra, we recover existing results and prove new results on torsion pairs in the category of coherent sheaves on an elliptic threefold.
Epigenetic targeting of Waldenström macroglobulinemia cells with BET inhibitors synergizes with BCL2 or histone deacetylase inhibition.

Aim: Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) is a low-grade B cell lymphoma characterized by overproduction of monoclonal IgM. To date, there are no therapies that provide a cure for WM patients, and therefore, it is important to explore new therapies. Little is known about the efficiency of epigenetic targeting in WM. Materials & methods: WM cells were treated with BET inhibitors (JQ-1 and I-BET-762) and venetoclax, panobinostat or ibrutinib. Results: BET inhibition reduces growth of WM cells, with little effect on survival. This finding was enhanced by combination therapy, with panobinostat (LBH589) showing the highest synergy. Conclusion: Our studies identify BET inhibitors as effective therapy for WM, and these inhibitors can be enhanced in combination with BCL2 or histone deacetylase inhibition.