cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Concomitant Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms and Carotid Artery Stenosis: An Institutional Review of Patients Undergoing Carotid Revascularization

Background The incidence of concomitant carotid artery stenosis and unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) has been reported at between 0.5% and 5%. In these patients, treatment strategies must balance the risk of ischemic stroke with the risk of aneurysmal rupture. Several studies have addressed the natural course of UIAs in the setting of carotid revascularization; however, the final recommendations are not uniform. The purpose of this study was to review our institutional experience with concomitant UIAs and carotid artery stenosis. Methods We performed a retrospective review of all patients with carotid artery stenosis who underwent carotid artery endarterectomy (CEA) or carotid artery stenting (CAS) at our institution between 2003 and 2010. Only patients with preoperative imaging demonstrating intracranial circulation were included. Charts were reviewed for patients’ demographic and clinical data, duration of follow-up, and aneurysm size and location. Patients were stratified into 2 groups: carotid artery stenosis with unruptured intracranial aneurysm (CS/UIA) and carotid artery stenosis without intracranial aneurysm (CS). Results Three hundred five patients met the inclusion criteria and had a total of 316 carotid procedures (CAS or CEA) performed. Eleven patients were found to have UIAs (3.61%) prior to carotid revascularization. Male and female prevalence was 2.59% and 5.26% (P = 0.22), respectively. Patients’ demographics did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. The average aneurysm size was 3.25 ± 2.13 mm, and the most common location was the cavernous segment of the internal carotid artery. No patient in the study had aneurysm rupture, and the mean follow-up time was 26.5 months for the CS/UIA group. Conclusions Concomitant carotid artery stenosis and UIAs is a rare entity. Carotid revascularization does not appear to increase the risk of rupture for small aneurysms (
Use of Taiwanese Ropy Fermented Milk (TRFM) and Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris Isolated from TRFM in Manufacturing of Functional Low-Fat Cheeses

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to manufacture new functional low-fat cheeses using Taiwanese ropy fermented milk (TRFM) and Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris strains isolated from TRFM. After 28 d of ripening and storage, the viable populations of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in the low-fat cheeses made with L. lactis subsp. cremoris TL1 (TL1), L. lactis subsp. cremoris TL4 (TL4), and TRFM still maintained above 10(8) CFU/g. The low-fat cheeses made with TL1 and TRFM showed higher moisture contents than the cheeses made with TL4, full-fat, and low-fat cheese controls. The low-fat cheeses made with TL1 and TL4 had higher customer preferential scores similar to full-fat cheese control in the sensory evaluation. Additionally, the low-fat cheeses fermented with TL1, TL4, and TRFM for 4 h had higher 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging and ferrous ion-chelating abilities than the cheeses fermented with the starters for 8 h, full-fat, and low-fat cheese controls. A better angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition activity was also observed in the low-fat cheeses made with TL1, TL4, and TRFM than that in the full-fat and low-fat cheese controls during ripening and storage period. PRACTICAL APPLICATION As health-conscious consumers continue to seek low-fat alternatives in their diets, there remain strong interests for the dairy industry to develop low-fat cheeses to meet the demands. This study clearly demonstrated that the low-fat cheeses fermented with TL1 for 4 h showed a better overall acceptability and possessed antioxidative abilities and ACE inhibitory activities than other cheeses tested in this study. By improving its flavor and investigating the possible mechanisms of its functionalities in the future, this low-fat cheese might possibly be commercialized and give a positive impact on cheese consumption in the future.
The relationship between body fat mass percentiles and inflammation in children

Objective Obesity has been associated with markers of increased systemic inflammation in both human and animal studies. Increased inflammation is linked to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between percentile body fat and inflammation in a nationally representative sample of US children. Methods: 6,950 children 8-18 years of age between 1999 and 2004 were studied. Measurement of body fat percentage was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan and converted to an age- and sex-adjusted percentile. The main outcome measures were abnormal c-reactive protein (CRP > 1.0 mg/dl) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC > 6,600). Results Children with higher levels of body fat (≥70th percentile) had a higher odds of having elevated CRP (OR 2.88-10.69) and elevated ANC (OR 2.14-3.24) compared with children with body fat <70th percentile. Conclusions The link between inflammation and body fat in children warrants further longitudinal research to understand the temporal relationship between overweight/obesity and inflammation in the pediatric obese population and its implications for chronic disease risk.
Effect of Routine Mental Health Screening in a Low-Resource Pediatric Primary Care Population

Objective. Despite evidence for its feasibility, the usage of mental health screening in primary care practices with overburdened providers and few referral options remains unclear. This study explores the effects of routine screening on mental health problem identification and management in a low-resource setting. Methods. Medical records of 5 to 12 year-old children presenting for well visits before and after screening was implemented were reviewed. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore associations between study period and identification/management practices. Changes in the number of visits and wait times for a co-located referral service were assessed post hoc. Results. Parents disclosed more mental health problems, and providers initiated more workups but referred fewer patients after screening was implemented. The proportion of new visits and wait times for the referral service did not change. Conclusions. Even in low-resource settings, screening may facilitate parental disclosure and...
MARKET VENTURES, MORAL LOGICS, AND AMBIGUITY: Crafting a New Organizational Form in Post‐Socialist China

How do institutional entrepreneurs craft new organizational forms under unstable conditions, especially when all of the relevant organizational models have serious liabilities in terms of legitimacy? Previous literature argues that emergent organizational models must adopt existing organizational elements in order to solve three problems: (1) gaining access to resources, (2) exploiting previous competencies, and (3) demonstrating legitimacy to salient audiences. Yet, these three distinct needs often require very different organizational elements associated with diverse, contradictory moral logics. This article, which examines the case of for-profit ventures started by Chinese state organizations in the 1990s, reveals one strategy that entrepreneurs can use to solve this problem-to deliberately increase ambiguity about the organization's central characteristics and its underlying moral logic. This strategy makes it possible for new organizations to solve the problems of resources, competency, and legitimacy by simultaneously adopting (and adapting) contradictory organizational elements.
Current concepts in knee replacement: features and imaging assessment.

OBJECTIVE. This article reviews current concepts of knee replacement. Features of traditional and new prosthetic designs, materials, and surgical techniques are discussed. Normal and abnormal postoperative imaging findings are illustrated. Complications are reviewed and related to the current understanding about how and why these failures occur. CONCLUSION. It is well known that after knee replacement, patients with complications may be asymptomatic, and, for this reason, assessment of postoperative imaging is important. The foundation of radiologic interpretation of knee replacement is knowledge of the physiologic purpose, orthopedic trends, imaging findings, and complications.
Combustion chamber design for optimum spark–ignition engine performance

Three distinct factors control the combustion process in a spark–ignition engine: chamber geometry and plug location; the mean motion of the charge and its turbulence characteristics; and the combustion chemistry of the fuel–air mixture. Our current understanding of these interactions is now sufficient to provide a rational procedure for combustion chamber optimization. The goals of such a procedure are to achieve fast, stable and repeatable combustion, cycle–by–cycle, with high volumetric efficiency and minimum heat transfer to the combustion chamber walls. It is shown that the primary design objective should be the best feasible combustion chamber geometry, with good distribution of the fuel, air and EGR mixture. This provides the desired benefits, with no operating penalties. Then, if additional combustion stability is still required to absorb the high EGR rates or additional air required for emission control or efficiency gains, increased turbulence should be employed. However, use of excess turbulence results in reduced volumetric efficiency and higher than necessary heat transfer.
On some generic very cuspidal representations

Let G be a reductive p -adic group. Given a compact-mod-center maximal torus S ⊂ G and sufficiently regular character χ of S , one can define, following Adler, Yu and others, a supercuspidal representation π ( S , χ ) of G . For S unramified, we determine when π ( S , χ ) is generic, and which generic characters it contains.
Preliminary Exploration of Agent-Human Emotional Contagion via Static Expressions

In social psychology, emotional contagion describes the widely observed phenomenon of one person’s emotions mimicking surrounding people’s emotions [13]. While it has been observed in humanhuman interactions, no known studies have examined its existence in agent-human interactions. As virtual characters make their way into high-risk, high-impact applications such as psychotherapy and military training with increasing frequency, the emotional impact of the agents’ expressions must be accurately understood to avoid undesirable repercussions. In this paper, we perform a battery of experiments to explore the existence of agent-human emotional contagion. The first study is a between-subjects design, wherein subjects were shown an image of a character’s face with either a neutral or happy expression. Findings indicate that even a still image induces a very strong increase in self-reported happiness between Neutral and Happy conditions with all characters tested and, to our knowledge, is the first ever study explicitly showing emotional contagion from a virtual agent to a human. We also examine the effects of participant gender, participant ethnicity, character attractiveness, and perceived character happiness and find that only perceived character happiness has a substantial impact on emotional contagion. In a second study, we examine the effect of a virtual character’s presence in a strategic situation by presenting subjects with a modernized Stag Hunt game. Our experiments show that the contagion effect is substantially dampened and does not cause a consistent impact on behavior. A third study explores the impact of the strategic decision within the Stag Hunt and conducts the same experiment using a description of the same strategic situation with the decision already made. We find that the emotional impact returns again, particularly for women, implying that the contagion effect is substantially lessened in the presence of a strategic decision.
The role of play in pediatric occupational therapy.

Objective This study examined the roles that play occupies within current occupational therapy practice with preschoolers. Method Two hundred twenty-four pediatric occupational therapists completed mail questionnaires designed to ascertain how they use play in their practice, their knowledge and use of play assessments, and potential constraints on their use of play. Results Although respondents indicated that play was important in motivating children and frequently used play as a treatment modality or reinforcer, they less frequently assessed play behaviors or wrote treatment goals and objectives related to play. Differences were found between school-based and non-school-based respondents regarding the discipline or model that addresses play in the work setting, the use of play assessments, and constraints that limit the use of play in the work setting. Conclusion The results suggest a need for increasing the emphasis on play in entry-level curricula and continuing education, improving clinician access to valid and reliable play assessments, and completing studies designed to examine the use and efficacy of play in occupational therapy intervention.
Remote Rotamer Control: The Effect of a 4‐tert‐Butyl Group on the Coordination Chemistry of TpR Ligands

Three novel homoscorpionate ligands containing a tert-butyl group in the 4-position have been synthesized: hydrotris(4-tert-butylpyrazol-1-yl)borate (Tp4tBu), hydrotris(4-tert-butyl-3-p-tolylpyrazol-1-yl)borate (TpTol,4tBu), and hydrotris(4-tert-butyl-3-isopropylpyrazol-1-yl)borate (TpiPr,4tBu). The 4-tert-butyl group does not alter the coordination chemistry of the first two ligands, relative to their 4-H analogues, however, the coordination chemistry of the third ligand is dramatically changed, making it a “tetrahedral enforcer”. The complexes Co[Tp4tBu][TpNp] (1), Tl[TpTol,4tBu] (2), Rh[TpTol,4tBu](CO)2 (3), Co[TpiPr,4tBu]Cl (4), Co[TpiPr,4tBu]N3 (5) and Co[TpiPr,4tBu]NCS (6) have been structurally characterized. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2003)
Impedance matching of humans ⇔ machines in high-Q information retrieval systems

Treating the information retrieval (IR) task as one of classification has been shown to be the most effective way to achieve high performance. In real-world Systems, a human is the ultimate determinant of relevance and must be integrated symbiotically into the control structures. We report on a hybrid, Human-Assisted Computer Classification system that opportunistically pairs processes of Active Learning and User Modeling to produce a high-Q computational engine. Top-down human goals are impedance-matched with bottom-up corpus analysis utilizing critical control loops. The System contributions of humans and machines as ‘Proxy,’ ‘Assessor,’ and ‘Classifier’ elements are blended through inter-related ‘Model,’ ‘Match,’ and ‘Measure’ processes (M3) to achieve consistently high precision IR with high recall. We report results for over a dozen topics, with confirmation of internal measures from topic 103 of the 2008 TREC legal track's interactive task.
Dietary Monoterpene Concentrations Influence Feeding Patterns of Lambs

Monoterpenes in plants can adversely affect herbivores. To minimize toxicity, herbivores may regulate their patterns of feeding to limit intake of monoterpenes. We determined if diets with four concentrations of monoterpenes (0%, 1.55%, 3.10%, 4.65% DM) influenced feeding patterns of lambs by measuring food intake and percentage time lambs spent feeding on the four diets. During the first trial, lambs were offered terpene diets ad libitumfrom 0900 to 1200 h for6 d; they were then fed a maintenance ration of alfalfa pellets in the afternoon of each day. During the second trial, lambs were offered terpene diets ad libitum from 0900 to 1500 h for 4 d, but they did not receive the maintenance diet of alfalfa pellets. In the first trial, food intake was lower when monoterpene concentrations were high and intake of monoterpenes reached a threshold at 27‐28 g/d monoterpenes. All lambs consumed more food in the first hour than during the latter hours of feeding (P < 0.001). While the percentage of time spent feeding was the same for the control-, low-, medium-, and high-terpene groups, lambs fed the high-terpene diet spent more time feeding in hour 3 than lambs fed the control diet (P < 0.05). In the second trial, when alfalfa pellets were not offered as a basal diet, lambs offered the control- and low-terpene diets consumed a relatively large proportion of food during the first hour. Intake remained low for the medium- and highterpene diets over the 6-h period (P < 0.001). We conclude monoterpenes limited food intake and caused lambs to regulate feeding patterns in aw ay likely to reduce the possibility of ingesting toxic quantities of monoterpenes.
Intensity of the 2ωL NMR line in gold at nanokelvin temperatures

Abstract The nuclear spin Hamiltonian in gold consists of the dipolar and Ruderman-Kittel interactions. From double spin-flip NMR, one can obtain the relative strengths of these two interactions. Using the spherical model, we calculate the intensity of the double spin-flip NMR line for the gold nuclear spin system in order to determine whether this harmonic mode can be detected.
Air Entrainment Processes and Bubble Size Distributions in the Surf Zone

Abstract A new optical instrument was deployed in the surf zone in a trial experiment to measure bubble size distributions and visualize air entrainment and bubble formation mechanisms within breaking surf. Images of bubbles and the evolving air–water mixture inside and beneath breaking wave crests are presented. The images resolve features of the air–water mixture to length scales of hundreds of microns across a 3.7-cm field of view. Two qualitatively different large-scale air entrainment processes are observed. First, intrusions of air and water, thought to be created by jets penetrating the water’s surface, fragment into plumes of bubbles. Second, an air cavity trapped by the overturning wave crest is observed to disintegrate into bubbles. The timescale for the evolution from a compacted air–water mass to individual bubbles was on the order of 90 ms or less for both of these processes. In addition, small-scale air filaments hundreds of microns wide and millimeters long have been discovered beneath wave...
Integrated cultural and biological control of Canada thistle in conservation tillage soybean.

Abstract Field experiments were conducted in 1996 and 1997 to evaluate the efficacy of combined cultural and biological weed control for management of Canada thistle in conservation tillage soybean production. For cultural control, we used a highly weed-competitive soybean variety (cv. ‘Kato’). The biological control agent was the phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. tagetis (PST). The application of PST reduced Canada thistle survivorship, height growth, and seed production, although these reductions were usually less than those resulting from bentazon application. Only bentazon application resulted in significant reduction of biomass of Canada thistle plants that survived all season. These results suggest the value of PST for management of Canada thistle in conservation tillage systems due to its negative effects on survival, growth, and reproduction. However, the weed-competitive soybean variety did not affect Canada thistle performance differently than a less competitive variety used for...
The 5 Ts of bifurcation intervention: type, technique, two stents, T-stenting, trials.

Bifurcation, the division of an artery into 2 branches, is a common anatomy feature of the human coronary tree and is recognized as a common site for atherosclerotic plaque buildup due to the differences in coronary flow, turbulence, and shear stress at the site of the bifurcation. The prevalence of
Unilateral Fetal Renal Abnormalities: Are They Really Isolated?

Objectives Our objective was to describe the association between unilateral fetal renal abnormalities and other major anomalies that were not apparent in the second trimester. Methods A review of the ultrasound database identified fetuses with suspected unilateral renal agenesis, unilateral multicystic dysplastic kidney, and renal ectopia from 2005 to 2014. Neonatal records were reviewed to identify anomalies not suspected in the second trimester, and postnatal imaging studies were reviewed. Categorical data were compared by x2 analysis and the Fisher exact test. Results We identified 102 cases, including 36 with suspected renal agenesis, 28 with suspected multicystic dysplastic kidney, and 38 with suspected renal ectopia. There were 8 cases (7.8%) with major anomalies not suspected in the second trimester. In 5 cases (4.9%), there were no associated findings in the second trimester. There were no significant differences in the rates of unsuspected abnormalities between the 3 groups. There was a trend toward a higher rate of unsuspected anomalies in the cases with a single umbilical artery compared to those with a 3-vessel cord (28.6% vs 6.3%; P= .09). Conclusions In fetuses with unilateral renal abnormalities, major anomalies that were not suspected in the second trimester were uncommon. However, patients should be aware of the possibility that other major anomalies could subsequently be identified, and the outcome may depend on more than postnatal renal function.
Growth Technique For Large Area Mosaic Diamond Films

A new technique has been developed to grow semiconductor grade diamond substrates with dimensions comparable to those of currently available Si wafers. Previously, the synthetic single crystal diamond that could be grown measured only a few millimeters across, compared with single crystal Si substrates which typically are 10 to 15 cm in diameter. In the technique described, an array of features is first etched in a Si substrate. The shape of the features matches that of inexpensive, synthetic faceted diamond seeds. A diamond mosaic is then formed by allowing the diamond seeds to settle out of a slurry onto the substrate, where they become fixed and oriented in the etched features. For the experiments reported, the mosaic consists of seeds ~ 100 μm across on 100 μm centers. A mosaic film is obtained by chemical vapor deposition of homoepitaxial diamond until the individual seeds grow together. Although these films contain low angle (<1°) grain boundaries, smooth, continuous diamond films have been obtained with electronic properties substantially better than those of polycrystalline diamond films and equivalent to those of homoepitaxial single crystal diamond films. The influence of growth conditions and seeding procedures on the crystallographic and electronic properties of these mosaic diamond films is discussed.
Interaction of Magnesium Ion, Oxygen Tension, and Temperature in the Production of Toxic-Shock-Syndrome Toxin-1 by Staphylococcus aureus

Ces variables exercent leur effet maximal lorsque la concentration de Mg du milieu de culture est limitant et inversement, lorsque du Mg ++ est present en exces, la production de toxine est diminuee, quelle que soit l'action des autres variables
Three dimensional simulation of ion thruster plumes with octree Adaptive mesh refinement

A novel grid approach called Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) using the Octree method for use within a kinetic Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method (DSMC) solver is described for an ion thruster application. AMR is widely used in simulations characterized by multi-scale properties and serves as a powerful tool in terms of efficiency and flexibility. Octree implementation especially provides a straight-forward algorithm for dynamic mesh refinement and coarsening. A single thruster configuration has been studied and it was found that the Charge Exchange (CEX) reactions have a major effect especially on the velocity field. A three dimensional, threethruster case was also simulated to see the effect on the plume and on the corresponding mesh structure when there is no axial or radial symmetry present.
The Decline and Resurgence of American Pragmatism: W. V. Quine and Richard Rorty

Although American pragmatism is widely regarded as the distinctive American philosophy, it has never been hegemonic in the academic profession of philosophy. Even during the heyday of James and Dewey, old forms of idealism and new versions of naturalism and realism dominated the major philosophy departments in the country. Moreover, the major followers of James and Dewey tended not to be influential professional philosophers, but rather engaged public philosophers. There indeed were exceptions, most notably Ralph Barton Perry (a realist pupil of James) and C. I. Lewis (a self-styled conceptual pragmatist), both at Harvard. Yet in large measure American pragmatism did not gain a large following in the higher echelons of the academy.
Straight, No Chaser: Theory, History, and the Muting of the Urban State

This article reviews dominant urban political theories and argues that pluralism, public choice theory, and regime theory do not pay sufficient attention to the urban state and history. By “bringin...
Preventing allograft rejection with CTLA4IG: effect of donor-specific transfusion route or timing.

Background : Tolerance to alloantigen in transplant recipients could remove life-long dependence on immunosuppression. Evidence suggests that T-cell responses to alloantigen are dependent not only on T-cell receptor activation but also on costimulation by means of the CD28 receptor. The natural ligands for CD28, expressed on antigen-presenting cells, are B7 family members. CTLA4Ig (a soluble CD28 receptor analog) preferentially binds B7-1 and B7-2 and inhibits CD28 activation. Theoretically, T-cell receptor activation in the presence of alloantigen during CTLA4Ig blockade of CD28-B7 costimulation could render T cells tolerant to that specific alloantigen. In viva CTLA4Ig significantly increases allograft survival times and can lead to transplantation tolerance. In the rat cardiac allograft model, donor-specific transfusion must be combined with CTLA4Ig to induce tolerance. Previously our laboratory has shown that timing is crucial in the induction of tolerance. Methods : We examined the effect of differing routes (intravenous, portal vein, or intrathymic), as well as timing (before, at, and after transplantation), of donor-specific transfusion on its ability to synergize with CTLA4Ig using a rat heterotopic major histocompatibility complex-mismatch heart transplant model. Results : We found that tolerance induced by CTLA4Ig and donor-specific transfusion was antigen specific and that timing, but not route of donor-specific antigen administration, had an impact on tolerance induction. Intravenous donor-specific transfusion had a beneficial effect on allograft survival equal to portal vein and intrathymic routes, which have been believed to be more tolerogenic. Conclusions : Almost universal engraftment can be induced with a combination of intravenous donor-specific transfusion at transplantation plus inhibition of CD28 activation by CTLA41g 48 hours after transplantation-a regimen which could have clinical application.
Efficacy of Optimized Nisin-Based Treatments to Inhibit Salmonella typhimurium and Extend Shelf Life of Broiler Carcasses†

Nisin is an antimicrobial peptide produced by Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis. Nisin exhibits a broad spectrum of inhibitory activity against gram-positive microorganisms such as Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum. In previous studies, a method was developed using nisin in combination with food-grade chelating agents to inactivate Salmonella species and other gram-negative bacteria. The objectives of this study were to determine the efficacy of several optimized nisin-containing preparations for reducing the population of Salmonella typhimurium NAR on broiler drumstick skin and whole drumsticks and extending the shelf life of broiler drumsticks. In previous studies, a simplex algorithm was used to optimize the biocidal activity of nisin towards Salmonella by adjusting formula pH and adding varying concentrations of chelating agents (EDTA, citric acid) and a surfactant (Tween 20). From these studies, four optimal treatments were identified. These were tested more extensively in the present s...
In situ Arsenic Remediation in a fractured, alkaline aquifer

In situ removal of arsenic from ground water used for water supply has been accomplished in circum-neutral ground water containing high dissolved iron concentrations. In contrast, the ground water at our study site is alkaline, contains measurable dissolved oxygen and little dissolvediron. Because the dissolved iron concentration is low in the basalt aquifer, the iron oxide content of the aquifer would not increase with successive pumping cycles unless iron is added to the injected water. Additionally, the high pH limits adsorption onto iron oxide present in the aquifer. Having the ability to lower arsenic concentrations in high-pH, oxic ground water could have wide application because similar high arsenic ground water is present in many parts of the world.
Melatonin: Historical Aspects

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a few historical aspects related to melatonin. Only a handful of people were involved in the isolation of melatonin from the pineal gland. In a study on normal and malignant pigment cells described in the chapter, the action of hormonal and neural factors on the dispersion and aggregation of melanosomes in frog melanocytes were studied. The new assay for melatonin turned out to be trickier because MSH had to be first used to darken the skin to later detect the presence of a lightening substance. The assays were taken over by Dr. Wataru Mori and Dr. M. Ruth Wright. It was obvious that the structure of the molecule had to be 5-methoxy-indole acetic acid. There was no alternative. This compound was then made by the people at Upjohn, and they confirmed the structure that had been derived from mass spectrometry. When acetylated, the charge was gone and biologic activity lost. In pigmentation, removing the charge on the nitrogen greatly enhances the potency of the substance.
Tracks of Change: Railways and Everyday Life in Colonial India

From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, railways became increasingly important in the lives of a growing number of Indians. While allowing millions to collectively experience the endemic discomforts of third-class travel, the public opportunities for proximity and contact created by railways simultaneously compelled colonial society to confront questions about exclusion, difference, and community. It was not only passengers, however, who were affected by the transformations that railways wrought. Even without boarding a train, one could see railway tracks and embankments reshaping familiar landscapes, realise that train schedules represented new temporal structures, fear that spreading railway links increased the reach of contagion, and participate in new forms of popular politics focused around railway spaces. Tracks of Change explores how railway technology, travel, and infrastructure became increasingly woven into everyday life in colonial India, how people negotiated with the growing presence of railways, and how this process has shaped India's history.
Insulation systems in heavy duty electrical equipment

The insulation user is waiting patiently for the perfect insulation — a material that has the dielectric of synthetic films; that will withstand temperatures of mica; that is as resilient and flexible as silicone rubber; that is as tough as epoxies or polyesters. An insulation in the form of a liquid or semi-liquid with an infinite pot life, that a component can be dipped into and will air-dry in fifteen minutes and be ready for installation into a motor or generator.
Increased canonical WNT/β-catenin signalling and myxomatous valve disease.

This editorial refers to ‘Loss of Axin2 results in impaired heart valve maturation and subsequent myxomatous valve disease’ by A. Hulin et al ., doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvw229. Myxomatous valve disease (MVD) is a common form of valvular heart disease which causes severe valvular regurgitation.1 Increased accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAG), disrupted collagen fiber organization, increased cell proliferation, increased presence of inflammatory cells, and induction of Wingless-type MMTV integration site family (WNT), Transforming Growth Factor-beta (TGFβ), and Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signalling is reported in late stage human MVD.2–4 Valve development involves cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions ( Figure 1 ). Recent studies suggest that defects in heart valve development can lead to heart valve disease in adults.5 Valve formation starts with an epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) (E9.5–E10.5) that gives rise to mesenchymal cushions in both the atrioventricular and outflow tract regions of the developing heart. Cardiac cushions become mature valves through mesenchymal expansion (E10.5–E12.5), differentiation (E12.5–E14.5), and maturation (E14.5-postnatal stages). Although heart valve remodelling can be conceptually or arbitrarily organized into multiple processes based on the molecular and cellular markers, it is very difficult to establish precisely when a developmental event (such as EMT) in valvulogenesis formally ends. In fact, it has been demonstrated that valvulogenesis continues after birth to adjust to the postnatal maturation of the heart. Figure 1 Valve development and homeostasis and valve pathogenesis. Elucidation of the WNT/β-catenin mechanisms through which loss of Axin2 affects the developmental transition during valvulogenesis, from cushion formation – cushion remodeling – valve maturation – adult valve homeostasis, will improve basic understanding of the etiology of MVD. WNT/β-catenin signalling is active during heart valve development6 and has been reported in human MVD.2,7 There are 19 WNT family members which signal through the canonical (via β-catenin) pathway but can also signal through non-canonical …
Convergence of Factored Evolutionary Algorithms

Factored Evolutionary Algorithms (FEA) have been found to be an effective way to optimize single objective functions by partitioning the variables in the function into overlapping subpopulations, or factors. While there exist several works empirically evaluating FEA, there exists very little literature exploring FEA's theoretical properties. In this paper, we prove that the final solution returned by FEA will be the results of converging to a single point. Additionally, we show how the convergence of FEA to a single point in the search space could be to a suboptimal point in space. However, we demonstrate empirically that when using specific factor architectures, the probability of converging to these suboptimal points in space approaches zero. Finally, where hybrid versions Cooperative Coevolutionary Algorithms have been proposed as a means to escape these suboptimal points, we show how FEA is able to outperform its hybrid version.
Ethnic Germans and National Socialism in Yugoslavia in World War II

This is an in-depth study of the ethnic German minority in the Serbian Banat (Southeast Europe) and its experiences under German occupation in World War II. Mirna Zakic argues that the Banat Germans exercised great agency within the constraints imposed on them by Nazi ideology, with its expectations that ethnic Germans would collaborate with the invading Nazis. The book examines the incentives that the Nazis offered to collaboration and social dynamics within the Banat German community - between their Nazified leadership and the rank and file - as well as the various and ever-more damning forms collaboration took. The Banat Germans provided administrative and economic aid to the Nazi war effort, and took part in Nazi military operations in Yugoslav lands, the Holocaust and Aryanization. They ruled the Banat on the Nazis' behalf between 1941 and 1944, yet their wartime choices led ultimately to their disenfranchisement and persecution following the Nazis' defeat.
Performance Evaluation of a Common Effluent Treatment Plant

Small Scale Industries occupies an important place in Indian economy for their contribution to industrial production, exports and employment. SSIs contribute 40% of the total industrial output of the country. But generate over 44% of the hazardous wastes while contribution by the large-scale industry is 13%. Quantity of waste generated by individual SSIs may not be large, but combined effect of operation of a large number of SSIs units on the environment can be high, especially when they are clustered in certain locations closer to residential or commercial centers. Effluents generated by SSIs need treatment prior to disposal in order to comply with the prescribed effluent standards. Concept of common effluent treatment plant (CETP) was originally promoted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in 1984 for the treatment of wastewaters from a large number of small and medium scale industries. Most of the small-scale industrial units cannot individually afford to set-up their own effluent treatment plants to meet the prescribed pollution control norms. This has been responsible for the origination of the concept of CETP. Performance Evaluation: is the systematic evaluation of the performance of CETP and to understand the Technical abilities of a treatment parameters for further growth and development. Performance Evaluation is generally done in systematic ways. The parameters measure the performance of Treatment plant and compare it with standards and carry out their evaluation.
Legal Issues: Courts, Commission, and Congress Still Struggling with Net Neutrality

Broadband users are pushing their service providers so that the providers have long advocated for the ability to create different tiers of bandwidth service and to charge content providers differing fees depending on either the nature of the content – e.g. the more bandwidth intensive the content, the higher the fee – or for beneficial treatment–e.g. content providers could pay extra for higher speed. Such is the core of the continuing net neutrality debate over whether and how Internet bandwidth access should be regulated, a debate that is now going into its second decade. The debate may not be ending anytime soon given the level of complex and competing legal, policy and political considerations
Maternal leukocytosis after antenatal corticosteroid administration: a systematic review and meta-analysis*

Although it is known that corticosteroid administration causes leukocytosis, the magnitude and length of time this leukocytosis persists is unknown during pregnancy. This study aimed to establish the expected range of maternal leukocytosis in healthy pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery after antenatal corticosteroid administration. PubMed, Embase and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched to identify the studies in healthy women at risk for preterm delivery without signs of clinical infection that reported white blood cell values preceding and after antenatal corticosteroid administration. The inverse variance weighting technique was used to calculate the weighted means and the standard deviation from the mean for each time period. Six studies met inclusion criteria and included 524 patients and 1406 observations. Mean ± standard deviation maternal white blood cell count values prior to antenatal corticosteroid administration and up to 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after corticosteroid administration were 10.4 ± 2.4, 13.6 ± 3.6, 12.1 ± 3.0, 11.5 ± 2.9 and 11.1 ± 2.5 × 109/L, respectively. Leukocytosis in healthy, non-infected women is expected to peak 24 hours after antenatal corticosteroid administration and the magnitude of increase is small. Impact statement What is already known on this subject: While it is well known that administration of antenatal corticosteroids causes leukocytosis, it is currently unknown the magnitude and length of time the leukocytosis persists. What the results of this study add: This study establishes the expected range and the temporal progression and regression with antenatal corticosteroid administration in healthy pregnant women at risk for preterm delivery without clinical signs of infection. What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research: Clinicians may wish to consider further investigation into the clinical cause, whether infectious or non-infectious, for absolute values and changes outside this range.
PACENet: Energy efficient acceleration for convolutional network on embedded platform

Lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) on tiny embedded platforms can offer energy efficient solution for today's IoT devices. However, CNN implementation on embedded system faces processing bottleneck in convolutional layers and memory storage issues in fully connected layers. In past years, heterogeneous acceleration, where compute intensive tasks are performed on kernel specific cores, has gained attention. In this paper we propose, a domain specific and programmable accelerator “PACENet”-Programmable many-core ACcElerator for convolution neural Network architecture. It consists of neural network kernel specific instruction set architecture such as convolution, maxpool and relu. To demonstrate efficiency of the proposed PACENet, we implemented ResNet-20 for CIFAR-10 dataset, where PACENet performs convolution layer, Relu activations, Maxpool layer, and fully-connected layer. We also implemented ResNet-20 for CIFAR-10 dataset on NVIDIA TX1 mobile GPU platform using Tensorflow and cuDNN libraries. Compared to NVIDIA TX1 platform implementation PACENet platform implementation performs 1.4× to 4.5× faster and saves 2.8× to 9× energy consumption respectively. PACENet achieves 2.9× to 9.3× higher throughput per watt as compared to TX1 platform implementation.
Ergonomics and cumulative trauma disorders

Chronic tendon and nerve disorders of the upper extremity, such as tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, are a common problem among persons who routinely perform hand-intensive work. This article summarizes the most commonly reported occupational risk factors: repetitiveness, forcefulness, certain postures, mechanical stresses, exposure to vibration, and exposure to low temperatures. It describes how to look for these factors and how to control them through the design of work equipment and procedures.
Ballistic Missile Boost Phase Acceleration Reconstruction using Wavelet Multi-resolution Analysis

In recent years, the accurate characterization of the boost phase of a missile's flight has become a more challenging and prominent research topic as the noise level is extremely large relative to the quantity of interest. Reconstructing the boost phase acceleration profile of a ballistic missile from state observation is of interest to the technical intelligence community, ballistic missile defense, as well as the missile warning community. There are methods available such as Tikhonov regularization if the noise level is not too large. However, if the noise environment is very high most algorithms will perform poorly. In this paper, we explore the problem of estimating the thrust of a missile from very noisy estimates of its position over time by using wavelet techniques. Several wavelet basis functions and multi-resolution methods are explored to yield the most effective solution to this problem. These techniques have been successfully used on actual rocket-launch data in the past. Our method can be applied to US boost-phase missile defense such as protection of US homeland against nuclear attacks, other weapons of mass destructions or conventional ballistic missile attacks, military bases, and protecting US allies and partners.
A rapid-throughput adaptable method for determining the monosaccharide composition of polysaccharides

Abstract Polysaccharides make up the largest non-water component of plant-based foods. Their ability to manipulate the gut microbiome and modulate the immune system has increased interest in the rapid elucidation of their structures. A necessary component for the structural characterization of polysaccharides is the determination of their monosaccharide composition. Current methods of monosaccharide analysis are not suitable for analyzing large sample-sets and are limited by their inability to analyze polysaccharides. We have developed a 96-well plate hydrolysis and derivatization procedure followed by a rapid and sensitive 10-min ultra-high performance liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry analysis capable of the absolute quantitation of 14 plant monosaccharides. Four polysaccharide standards, inulin, xyloglucan, arabinogalactan, and rhamnogalacturonan-I, which are commonly found in plants, were used to optimize and validate the method. The optimized conditions were applied to eight foods to show the method’s reproducibility and ability to analyze complicated and insoluble polysaccharide mixtures. This approach will allow researchers to obtain accurate and absolute quantitation of monosaccharides in the large sample-sets that are required for agricultural, food, clinical, and nutrition-based studies.
Bisphenol A induces human uterine leiomyoma cell proliferation through membrane-associated ERα36 via nongenomic signaling pathways.

Abstract The role of ERα36 in regulating BPA's effects and its potential as a risk factor for human uterine fibroids were evaluated. BPA at low concentrations (10−6 μM - 10 μM) increased proliferation by facilitating progression of hormonally regulated, immortalized human uterine leiomyoma (ht-UtLM; fibroid) cells from G0-G1 into S phase of the cell cycle; whereas, higher concentrations (100 μM–200 μM) decreased growth. BPA upregulated ERα36 gene and protein expression, and induced increased SOS1 and Grb2 protein expression, both of which are mediators of the MAPKp44/42/ERK1/2 pathway. EGFR (pEGFR), Ras, and MAPKp44/42 were phosphorylated with concurrent Src activation in ht-UtLM cells within 10 min of BPA exposure. BPA enhanced colocalization of phosphorylated Src (pSrc) to ERα36 and coimmunoprecipitation of pSrc with pEGFR. Silencing ERα36 with siERα36 abolished the above effects. BPA induced proliferation in ht-UtLM cells through membrane-associated ERα36 with activation of Src, EGFR, Ras, and MAPK nongenomic signaling pathways.
Sodium rubidium hydrogen citrate, NaRbHC6H5O7, and sodium caesium hydrogen citrate, NaCsHC6H5O7: crystal structures and DFT comparisons.

The crystal structure of sodium rubidium hydrogen citrate, NaRbHC6H5O7 or [NaRb(C6H6O7)]n, has been solved and refined using laboratory powder X-ray diffraction data, and optimized using density functional techniques. This compound is isostructural to NaKHC6H5O7. The Na atom is six-coordinate, with a bond-valence sum of 1.16. The Rb atom is eight-coordinate, with a bond-valence sum of 1.17. The distorted [NaO6] octa­hedra share edges to form chains along the a-axis direction. The irregular [RbO8] coordination polyhedra share edges with the [NaO6] octa­hedra on either side of the chain, and share corners with other Rb atoms, resulting in triple chains along the a-axis direction. The most prominent feature of the structure is the chain along [111] of very short, very strong hydrogen bonds; the O⋯O distances are 2.426 and 2.398 A. The Mulliken overlap populations in these hydrogen bonds are 0.140 and 0.143 electrons, which correspond to hydrogen-bond energies of about 20.3 kcal mol−1. The crystal structure of sodium caesium hydrogen citrate, NaCsHC6H5O7 or [NaCs(C6H6O7)]n, has also been solved and refined using laboratory powder X-ray diffraction data, and optimized using density functional techniques. The Na atom is six-coordinate, with a bond-valence sum of 1.15. The Cs atom is eight-coordinate, with a bond-valence sum of 0.97. The distorted trigonal–prismatic [NaO6] coordination polyhedra share edges to form zigzag chains along the b-axis direction. The irregular [CsO8] coordination polyhedra share edges with the [NaO6] polyhedra to form layers parallel to the (101) plane, unlike the isolated chains in NaKHC6H5O7 and NaRbHC6H5O7. A prominent feature of the structure is the chain along [100] of very short, very strong O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds; the refined O⋯O distances are 2.398 and 2.159 A, and the optimized distances are 2.398 and 2.347 A. The Mulliken overlap populations in these hydrogen bonds are 0.143 and 0.133 electrons, which correspond to hydrogen-bond energies about 20.3 kcal mol−1.