cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The very low frequency power spectrum of Centaurus X-3

The long-term variability of Cen X-3 on time scales ranging from days to years has been examined by combining data obtained by the HEAO 1 A-4 instrument with data from Vela 5B. A simple interpretation of the data is made in terms of the standard alpha-disk model of accretion disk structure and dynamics. Assuming that the low-frequency variance represents the inherent variability of the mass transfer from the companion, the decline in power at higher frequencies results from the leveling of radial structure in the accretion disk through viscous mixing. The shape of the observed power spectrum is shown to be in excellent agreement with a calculation based on a simplified form of this model. The observed low-frequency power spectrum of Cen X-3 is consistent with a disk in which viscous mixing occurs about as rapidly as possible and on the largest scale possible.
Temporal-Frequency Spectra for a Spherical Wave Propagating through Atmospheric Turbulence

Tatarski has found the frequency spectra for the amplitude, phase, and phase-difference fluctuations of an infinite plane wave propagating through turbulence. Many practical optical beams, used in atmospheric studies, closely resemble point sources, for which the spherical-wave theory is more applicable. The same spectra, calculated for spherical waves, reveal contributions at higher frequencies for amplitude scintillations, nearly identical phase results, and a phase-difference spectrum with no nulls, in contrast with the plane-wave results. Comparison with recent data is shown.
Cervical thymic remnants in children.

Summary Objective Define the clinical presentation, diagnostic value of preoperative imaging, surgical management, and outcomes of treatment of congenital cervical thymic remnants in children. Design Retrospective cohort. Setting Single tertiary care institution. Patients 20 children who underwent excision of cervical thymic remnant, 1975–2006. Main outcomes measured Utility of preoperative imaging to diagnose cervical thymic anomalies; success of surgical treatment of cervical thymic remnants. Results A total of 20 children were identified, with an average age of 6.98 ± 5.63 years. All ectopic thymus tissue was found in the embryonic distribution area associated with the third branchial pouch. Fourteen patients underwent excision of a cystic ectopic thymus. Four of these patients exhibited lesions isolated to the cervical region, and 10 patients displayed lesions involving cervicomediastinal areas. Six patients underwent excision of solid ectopic cervical thymus, and each of these was an unanticipated mass encountered during surgical dissection for other procedures. 83% of patients with solid ectopic cervical thymus presented at age 3 or younger. Physical exam and preoperative imaging correctly diagnosed thymic remnants in 15% patients. Resection of thymic remnants was successful in all patients, and there were no recurrences. Conclusions Though rare, thymic remnants should be considered in the differential diagnosis of masses presenting in locations associated with derivatives of the third branchial pouch. Though preoperative imaging is helpful in identifying the extent of these lesions, congenital thymic remnants prove difficult to diagnosis radiologically. Surgical excision is the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of choice in the management of cervical thymic remnants.
Probability estimators for weibull statistics of the failure strengths of brittle powder compacts

Discussion sur l'utilisation des statistiques de Weibull pour l'evaluation de la resistance a la rupture des ceramiques
Rapid associative learning: conditioned bradycardia and its central nervous system substrates.

It has become clear from the study of different response systems during classical conditioning that some responses are acquired quite rapidly and others show a much slower rate of acquisition. The most often studied rapidly acquired responses have been classically conditioned autonomic changes (e.g., heart rate); the slowly acquired responses most often studied are skeletal responses, such as the eyeblink or leg flexion response. Although there are various other differences between rapidly acquired and slowly acquired responses, we have suggested that the most important difference is the possibility that they represent different stages of the learning process. In the present review I describe research in our laboratory that has focused on conditioned bradycardia as a model system of a rapidly acquired associative system and contrast it with the more slowly acquired Pavlovian conditioned eyeblink response. I also describe the generality of conditioned bradycardia and discuss the differential role of subdivisions of the prefrontal cortex as a substrate for mediating this response. Finally, I briefly discuss the other brain areas involved in conditioned bradycardia, and its functional significance as it relates to the learning process.
On Equicontinuous Families of Mappings Without Values in Variable Sets

The present paper is devoted to the study of the classes of mappings with unbounded characteristics of quasiconformality. We prove sufficient conditions for the equicontinuity of the families of these mappings that do not take values from a set E provided that a real-valued characteristic c(E) of these mappings has a lower bound of the form c(E) ≥ $$ \delta $$ , $$ \delta $$ $$ \epsilon $$ ℝ.
Early Proterozoic bimodal volcanic rocks in central Colorado, U.S.A., Part II: Geochemistry, petrogenesis and tectonic setting

Abstract The early Proterozoic supracrustal rocks of the Salida area of central Colorado consist of strongly bimodal sequences of volcanogenic rocks. The mafic rocks — basalts, basaltic volcaniclastics, and related gabbro sheets — are distinctly tholeiitic, display a strong iron-enrichment trend, and typically contain less than 50% SiO 2 . The felsites are rhyolites to dacites and contain more than 70% SiO 2 . Major and trace element modeling show that the mafic rocks underwent two stages of crystal fractionation, the first involving olivine and plagioclase, the second involving plagioclase and clinopyroxene. Fractionation occurred within individual injections as they rose toward the surface rather than in a single magma chamber at depth. Field relations and major element data support the derivation of the felsic rocks from a magma generated by anatexis of sialic crust. However, the low Sr and high heavy REE concentrations in these rocks are not compatible with a partial melting model and suggest that the felsic volcanic rocks could have been derived by extensive fractional crystallization of the mafic magma. Normalized trace element abundances and trace element ratios of the mafic rocks are most like continental flood basalts such as the Columbia River basalts. They also display some similarity to immature back-arc basin tholeiites developed on continental crust, such as those of the Sarmiento complex. The felsic rocks have strong chemical affinities to within-plate rhyolites rather than calc-alkaline rhyolites from orogenic areas. The chemical data, as well as the petrographic, stratigraphic, and regional field data all indicate that the early Proterozoic supracrustal rocks of the Salida area developed along a continental margin, probably within an immature back-arc basin underlain by sialic crust. Remnants of the arc system of similar age may lie to the south in northern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado.
Exploiting 162-Nanosecond End-to-End Communication Latency on Anton

Strong scaling of scientific applications on parallel architectures is increasingly limited by communication latency. This paper describes the techniques used to mitigate latency in Anton, a massively parallel special-purpose machine that accelerates molecular dynamics (MD) simulations by orders of magnitude compared with the previous state of the art. Achieving this speedup required a combination of hardware mechanisms and software constructs to reduce network latency, sender and receiver overhead, and synchronization costs. Key elements of Anton's approach, in addition to tightly integrated communication hardware, include formulating data transfer in terms of counted remote writes, leveraging fine-grained communication, and establishing fixed, optimized communication patterns. Anton delivers software-to-software inter-node latency significantly lower than any other large-scale parallel machine, and the total critical-path communication time for an Anton MD simulation is less than 4% that of the next fastest MD platform.
Model-based control of device replication for trusted data collection

Voting among replicated data collection devices is a means to achieve dependable data delivery to the end-user in a hostile environment. Failures may occur during the data collection process: such as data corruptions by malicious devices and security/bandwidth attacks on data paths. For a voting system, how often a correct data is delivered to the user in a timely manner and with low overhead depicts the QoS. Prior works have focused on algorithm correctness issues and performance engineering of the voting protocol mechanisms. In this paper, we study the methods for autonomic management of device replication in the voting system to deal with situations where the available network bandwidth fluctuates, the fault parameters change unpredictably, and the devices have battery energy constraints. We treat the voting system as a `black-box' with programmable I/O behaviors. A management module exercises a macroscopic control of the voting box with situational inputs: such as application priorities, network resources, battery energy, and external threat levels.
Are oncogenes responsible for hemophilic arthropathy

Comment on Hakobyan et al, page [2060][1] The pathogenesis of hemophilic arthropathy is not completely understood. In this issue, Hakobyan and colleagues demonstrate the association between iron, increased mdm2 expression, and synovial hypertrophy as a possible factor in this debilitating
PROPOSAL FOR DIRECT CONVERSION OF A POLARIZED ATOMIC BEAM TO POLARIZED NEGATIVE IONS.

Abstract It is proposed to produce negative polarized ions of hydrogen or deuterium for injection into tandem accelerators by crossing a polarized beam of thermal hydrogen or deuterium atoms with a beam of fast neutral atoms or with a beam of negative ions. Polarized beams of high ion-optic quality with at least one μA intensity can be expected.
Minimum-area confidence sets for a normal distribution

When making inference on a normal distribution, one often seeks either a joint confidence region for the two parameters or a confidence band for the cumulative distribution function. A number of methods for constructing such confidence sets are available, but none of these methods guarantees a minimum-area confidence set. In this paper, we derive both a minimum-area joint confidence region for the two parameters and a minimum-area confidence band for the cumulative distribution function. The minimum-area joint confidence region is asymptotically equivalent to other confidence regions in the literature, but the minimum-area confidence band improves on existing confidence bands even asymptotically.
Nutrient Biofortification of Food Crops

Plant-based foods offer an array of nutrients that are essential for human nutrition and promote good health. However, the major staple crops of the world are often deficient in some of these nutrients. Traditional agricultural approaches can marginally enhance the nutritional value of some foods, but the advances in molecular biology are rapidly being exploited to engineer crops with enhanced key nutrients. Nutritional targets include elevated mineral content, improved fatty acid composition, increased amino acid levels, and heightened antioxidant levels. Unfortunately, in many cases the benefits of these “biofortified” crops to human nutrition have not been demonstrated.
Multi-scale modeling of mechanical behavior of polycrystalline materials

A systematic procedure for multi-scale computational modeling is presented to simulate polycrystalline material behaviors for structural application. The modeling procedure bridged different length scales, from macro-scale to nano-scale, by proper flow of information from one scale to the next scale. The multi-scale model could include material characteristics at different length scales like nano-, micro-, meso-, and macro-scale. Both finite element analysis and molecular dynamics were used in the multi-scale analysis. An example of a large plate with a center hole is given to demonstrate the multi-scale modeling procedure.
CMS Pixel status

Abstract The core of the CMS experiment is a three layers Pixel detector. Installed in 2008, the CMS Pixel system is essential for track seeding and reconstruction of secondary vertices. The Pixel detector was designed for a peak luminosity of 10 34 cm − 2 s − 1 . In this contribution we summarize the operational experience of the first three years of collisions at the LHC. We present the measured performance evolution as the instantaneous luminosity delivered increased by several orders of magnitude, including dynamic data-losses, efficiency and resolution. The focus is on operational parameters, online calibrations and an overview of the challenges encountered to present.
Mammalian turnover and community structure in the Paleocene of North America

The effects of faunal turnover on mammalian community structure are evaluated for 17 faunal zones of the North American Paleocene through early Eocene land mammal ages (Puercan through early Wasatchian). Generic disappearances were significantly high at the end of the Puercan, Torrejonian, and Tiffanian land mammal ages, but appearances were significantly high only during the early Puercan. Generic richness rose rapidly in the early Puercan, remained stable throughout most of the Paleocene, and increased from the late Paleocene into the early Eocene. The null hypothesis that generic turnover clustered preferentially according to dentally defined trophic or body size categories could be rejected or attributed to sampling problems for all but the early (Pu0) and late Paleocene (Ti5‐Cf2). Early Paleocene change in community structure most probably represented endemic radiation of mammals into previously unoccupied niches. Community restructuring in the late Paleocene reflected a complex of causes, including ...
Complications of Therapeutic Endoscopy: A Review of the Incidence, Risk Factors, Prevention, and Endoscopic Management

Endoscopic complications were thought to be on the decline with more flexible endoscopes, new devices, and increased endoscopist experience. However, endoscopy has concurrently changed from mainly a diagnostic to a therapeutic modality. With these trends, complications such as bleeding and perforation continue to occur, especially during therapeutic procedures. Understanding and minimizing the risk factors that predispose to certain complications may prevent their occurrence. In addition, there are effective preventative endoscopic strategies that decrease the risk of complications. The past management of these serious complications has primarily been surgical. However, there has been a significant trend toward the use of endoscopic modalities to manage some of these serious complications. The incidences, risk factors, and management approaches to bleeding, perforation, and stricturing related to esophagogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, and endoscopic retrograde will be reviewed. The discussion will focus primarily on endoluminal approaches to complication prevention and management.
The bacon chow study: effects of maternal nutritional supplementation on birth measurements of children, accounting for the size of a previous (unsupplemented) child

Studies on nutritional supplementation of pregnant mothers have observed small but sometimes significant effects on fetal growth. Previously we also reported significant changes in physical resemblance of siblings at birth due to this kind of supplementation, using data collected by the late Dr. Bacon Chow and associates. This suggested that components of variation in physical growth may change as a result of supplementation. To explore this further, we sought the effects of nutritional supplementation on somatic growth, holding constant the birth measurements of a previous (unsupplemented) sibling. Only head circumference at birth came close to showing a statistically significant (P < 0.06) supplement effect on its mean ( + 0.36 cm) when the measurement of the first infant was held constant. Both increases and decreases in weight for length as assessed by Rohrer's Index (wt/13) occurred with supplementation. Increases in the index occurred by a significant (P < 0.01) gain in birth weight (238 g) between 1st and 2nd siblings in the supplement group but not in the placebo group. Decreases in this index resulted from a significant gain in birth length (1.3 cm) in supplemented families with a previous (untreated) sibling having a below average length for average weight. These non-linear effects on somatic growth suggest that responses to maternal nutritional supplementation may be more effective in a subgroup of the population where the normal adaptive responses to low energy protein intakes may have failed or where nutritional conditions over pregnancy may have varied considerably.
1H-MRS metabolic patterns for distinguishing between meningiomas and other brain tumors

Yet meningiomas have characteristic neuroimaging features, some other lesions are still confusing with meningiomas. The aim of this study was trying to find the typical 1H-MRS metabolic factors of histologic subtyped meningiomas, schwannomas, metastases, and other brain tumors for differential diagnosis among them. 1H-MRS using STEAM (TE/30 ms, TR/2 sec) and PRESS (TE/288 ms, TR/2 sec) sequences were performed on 44 untreated brain tumors. Obtained metabolic patterns from the typical spectra of meningioma, schwannoma, metastasis were compared with each other or other brain tumors to evaluate the usefulness for diagnosis between them. Alanine(Ala) was observed in 15 cases of the 19 meningiomas with a little variation to three histologic subtypes, while minimal lipids were observed in every 19 meningiomas. Elevated glutamate/glutamine(Glx) was detected in 12 cases of the meniningiomas. Increased myo-inositol(mI) was detected in 11 cases of the 13 schwannomas. Dominant lipids signals as well as long-T2 lipids were detected in every metastasis in conjunction with elevated choline (Cho). Enhanced Glx was observed in 4 cases of the 8 metastases without correlation of primary tumor site or types. Hemangiopericytoma showed different spectral patterns from typical meningiomas: only dominant Cho, minimal lipids and absence of Ala or Glx signals. These metabolic patterns in typical tumors may provide a basis for differential diagnosis (average value of χ2 = 23.33, p < 0.01) between meningiomas and schwannomas as well as metastases. However proton spectral distinction among the different histologic subtypes of meningiomas was not definite.
Pseudoholomorphic strips in symplectizations II: Fredholm theory and transversality

This paper is part of a larger program, the investigation of the chord problem in three dimensional contact geometry. The main tool will be pseudoholomorphic strips in the symplectisation of a three dimensional contact manifold with two totally real submanifolds L0; L1 as boundary conditions. The submanifolds L0 and L1 do not intersect transversally. In this paper we will develop a nonlinear Fredholm theory that guarantees the existence of a family of embedded pseudoholomorphic strips near a given one with suitable properties. c 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Flare precursors and onset

A report on the progress of a search for precursors that have direct physical connections to the start of subsequent solar flares is presented. The discussion includes recent results at radio, visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths, which are relevant to the preimpulsive (onset) phase. Relationships between various aspects of a theoretical scenario are also established, based on magnetic reconnection with transport-coefficient phase changes, in order to explain flare onset. The pertinent time scales for preimpulsive temporal developments are discussed.
The ATPase SpoIIIE Transports DNA across Fused Septal Membranes during Sporulation in Bacillus subtilis

SUMMARY The FtsK/SpoIIIE family of ATP-dependent DNA transporters mediates proper chromosome segregation in dividing bacteria. In sporulating Bacillus subtilis cells, SpoIIIE translocates much of the circular chromosome from the mother cell into the forespore, but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Using a new assay to monitor DNA transport, we demonstrate that the two arms of the chromosome are simultaneously pumped into the forespore. Up to 70 molecules of SpoIIIE are recruited to the site of DNA translocation and assemble into complexes that could contain 12 subunits. The fusion of the septal membranes during cytokinesis precedes DNA translocation and does not require SpoIIIE, as suggested by analysis of lipid dynamics, serial thin-section electron microscopy, and cell separation by protoplasting. These data support a model for DNA transport in which the transmembrane segments of FtsK/SpoIIIE form linked DNA-conducting channels across the two lipid bilayers of the septum.
Enabling In-situ Execution of Coupled Scientific Workflow on Multi-core Platform

Emerging scientific application workflows are composed of heterogeneous coupled component applications that simulate different aspects of the physical phenomena being modeled, and that interact and exchange significant volumes of data at runtime. With the increasing performance gap between on-chip data sharing and off-chip data transfers in current systems based on multicore processors, moving large volumes of data using communication network fabric can significantly impact performance. As a result, minimizing the amount of inter-application data exchanges that are across compute nodes and use the network is critical to achieving overall application performance and system efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the in-situ execution of the coupled components of a scientific application workflow so as to maximize on-chip exchange of data. Specifically, we present a distributed data sharing and task execution framework that (1) employs data-centric task placement to map computations from the coupled applications onto processor cores so that a large portion of the data exchanges can be performed using the intra-node shared memory, (2) provides a shared space programming abstraction that supplements existing parallel programming models (e.g., message passing) with specialized one-sided asynchronous data access operators and can be used to express coordination and data exchanges between the coupled components. We also present the implementation of the framework and its experimental evaluation on the Jaguar Cray XT5 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Predicting Support For Restricting Food Marketing To Youth

To address the obesity crisis, public health experts recommend major reductions in the marketing of unhealthy food to youth. However, policies to restrict food marketing are not currently viewed as politically feasible. This paper examines attitudes and knowledge about food marketing and support for restricting unhealthy food marketing among one group of constituents: parents. A survey of 807 parents found that those most likely to support food marketing restrictions were also more likely to have negative views of current food practices. These findings suggest that increased public education about the harm caused by food marketing may increase public support for policy interventions.
The Kaplan–Meier Estimator as an Inverse-Probability-of-Censoring Weighted Average

The Kaplan–Meier (product-limit) estimator of the survival function of randomly censored time-to-event data is a central quantity in survival analysis. It is usually introduced as a non-parametric maximum likelihood estimator, or else as the output of an imputation scheme for censored observations such as redistribute-to-the-right or self-consistency.Following recent work by Robins and Rotnitzky, we show that the Kaplan–Meier estimator can also be represented as a weighted average of identically distributed terms, where the weights are related to the survival function of censoring times. We give two demonstrations of this representation; the first assumes a Kaplan–Meier form for the censoring time survival function, the second estimates the survival functions of failure and censoring times simultaneously and can be developed without prior introduction to the Kaplan–Meier estimator.
Protein flexibility modeling using kernel based methods

Proteins play an essential role in nearly all cell functions such as composing cellular structure, promoting chemical reactions, carrying messages from one cell to another and acting as antibodies. The multiplicity of functions that proteins execute is attributed to their 3D conformational structures. Protein flexibility is an important link between protein structure and function. Understanding the conformational changes of a protein molecule is essential in discovering the protein structure and function relationships underlying most biological processes and has underappreciated implications in drug design. However, modeling protein flexibility is a very computationally challenging problem with a large number of degrees of freedom involved. In order to address this important challenge, the paper studies protein dynamics and develop a kernel based computational model to characterize protein conformational changes and to reduce the redundancy in protein conformers.
School reentry in childhood cancer.

Abstract Because childhood malignancies are no longer invariably fatal, many children enter a chronic phase of treatment or are cured. School reentry for these children may pose emotional problems, peer difficulties, and tension growing out of the impact of the handicapped or frail child on “normal” classmates. Work in a pilot project involving 37 children with diagnoses ranging from leukemia to osteosarcoma showed how reentry could be aided. Information sharing, individual education planning, and the setting of definite goals should be stressed.
The Effect of Track Geometry on Ride Quality

A time-honored method of judging the quality of track structure is known popularly as "seat-of-the-pants" judgment. While this method is both frequently and skillfully practiced, it is not wholly satisfactory in that evaluation is based on subjective response. Consequently, determination of what must be done to improve the quality of the ride is not entirely an objective process. Track measuring cars provide a much clearer indication of what is off-standard in a section of track but give little indication of which variables are the most crucial to the production of a good ride. An approach which is being employed in an attempt to bridge the gap between the track geometry and the quality of ride obtained on a given track section is described. Some preliminary results and conclusions are presented.
A universal calibration function for determination of soil moisture with cosmic-ray neutrons

A cosmic-ray soil moisture probe is usually cali- brated locally using soil samples collected within its support volume. But such calibration may be difficult or impracti- cal, for example when soil contains stones, in presence of bedrock outcrops, in urban environments, or when the probe is used as a rover. Here we use the neutron transport code MCNPx with observed soil chemistries and pore water dis- tribution to derive a universal calibration function that can be used in such environments. Reasonable estimates of pore water content can be made from neutron intensity measure- ments and by using measurements of the other hydrogen pools (water vapor, soil lattice water, soil organic carbon, and biomass). Comparisons with independent soil moisture mea- surements at one cosmic-ray probe site and, separately, at 35 sites, show that the universal calibration function explains more than 79 % of the total variability within each dataset, permitting accurate isolation of the soil moisture signal from the measured neutron intensity signal. In addition the frame- work allows for any of the other hydrogen pools to be sep- arated from the neutron intensity measurements, which may be useful for estimating changes in biomass, biomass water, or exchangeable water in complex environments.
Evolution of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation to Persistent or Permanent Atrial Fibrillation: Predictors of Progression.

Introduction: Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) eventually progresses to persistent and permanent AF. The predictors of progression from PAF to persistent and permanent AF are poorly understood. Methods: Electronic medical records of 437 patients with PAF were reviewed in a retrospective cohort study. Patients were followed in time and progression to persistent/permanent AF was recorded. Demo- graphic, clinical and echocardiographic information was collected. A logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of progression to persistent/permanent AF. Results: Over a mean duration of 57.3±55.9 months, 32.4% of patients progressed to persistent/perma- nent AF. Mean age of the population was 67.9±13.4 years with 57% males and 92% Caucasian. Univari- ate analysis identified higher body higher mass index (BMI), cardiomyopathy, diabetes, valvular heart disease (VHD), larger left atrial size (LA) and higher pulmonary artery pressure as predictors of progres- sion. Multivariate logistic regression analysis larger left atrial size (OR 1.46, CI 1.05-2.04, P 0.002), car- diomyopathy (OR 2, CI 1.1- 3.3, P 0.003), and moderate to severe valvular heart disease (OR 3.3, CI 1.4-5, P 0.008) as significant predictors of progression to persistent/permanent AF. Conclusions: Our study shows that PAF patients with larger LA, valvular heart disease and cardiomyop- athy predict progression of PAF to persistent/permanent AF. Higher BMI and cardiomyopathy predicted progression to persistent AF while larger LA size and VHD predicted progression to permanent AF.
An audit of endoscopic complications in adult eosinophilic esophagitis.

Background & Aims: Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) in adults, characterized by the triad of dysphagia, a ringed esophagus, and mucosal eosinophilic infiltration, has associated complications that include vertical mucosal lacerations, instrumental perforation, and emesis-induced rupture. The aim of this study was to determine whether clinical, endoscopic, and histologic features can be used to predict the risk for development of these complications. Methods: A review was conducted of 36 patients with EoE. Complications were defined as mucosal lacerations or radiographic evidence of perforation. Results: The mean age at presentation was 33.9 years. Twenty-eight (78%) patients were men. Complications occurred in 11 patients (31%). There were 7 mucosal lacerations, 3 perforations, and 1 emesis-induced rupture. Strictures were reported in 7 of 11 complicated cases compared with 2 of 25 of uncomplicated cases. Dilatation procedures had been performed in 6 of 7 complicated cases associated with stricture. Biopsy specimens obtained from 7 of 9 patients with complications showed 40 or more eosinophils/high-power field. There were no statistical differences between complicated and uncomplicated patients regarding demographics, clinical features, endoscopic characteristics, or histopathologic findings. Conclusions: EoE is a high-risk disorder with a range of complications. Although demographics, clinical presentation, and endoscopic features cannot distinguish risk, the presence of stricture, a longer duration of symptoms, and a greater density of eosinophilic infiltration suggest increased risk. The density of eosinophilic infiltration cannot be determined prospectively; therefore, the performance of endoscopy and subsequent dilatation should be deferred until biopsy specimens are reviewed or treatment is completed.
Macrophage-Targeted Overexpression of Urokinase Causes Accelerated Atherosclerosis, Coronary Artery Occlusions, and Premature Death

Background— Human atherosclerotic lesions contain elevated levels of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), expressed predominantly by macrophages. Methods and Results— To test the hypothesis that macrophage-expressed uPA contributes to the progression and complications of atherosclerosis, we generated transgenic mice with macrophage-targeted overexpression of uPA. The uPA transgene was bred into the apolipoprotein E–null background, and transgenic mice and nontransgenic littermate controls were fed an atherogenic diet. uPA-transgenic mice had significantly elevated uPA activity in the atherosclerotic artery wall, of a magnitude similar to elevations reported in atherosclerotic human arteries. Compared with littermate controls, uPA-transgenic mice had accelerated atherosclerosis, dilated aortic roots, occlusive proximal coronary artery disease, myocardial infarcts, and early mortality. Conclusions— These data support the hypothesis that overexpression of uPA by artery wall macrophages is atherogenic and s...
Seismic Vulnerability of Select Critical Bridges in North Mississippi

Three Coldwater River crossings located on federal highways in north Mississippi are selected for study of seismic vulnerability. Regional risk analysis has highlighted the critical nature of the highway bridges in the transportation network. Finite element models of varying complexity are developed for these structures to enhance the results of the fragility based risk study. The results are used to establish potential vulnerability incorporating site specific soil and design data based on seismic response analysis. Time history and pushover analyses are performed to estimate axial forces, shear forces, and bending moments in piles and columns of typical bent substructures. The results are compared to substructure design and test pile data. Complex interaction of axial force and bending is observed in the batter piles of typical intermediate bents during lateral shaking at levels far exceeding the design capacities which did not account for seismic demand. Uncertainties in the model assumptions and soil data indicate a more comprehensive study considering the influence of liquefaction is recommended.
CAESAREAN SECTION FOR DYSTOCIA: A COMPARISON OF PRACTICES IN TWO COUNTRIES

Abstract Retrospective data collected from the medical records of 1040 low-risk nulliparous obstetric patients presenting for delivery in a general community hospital in Ireland and a comparable one in the United States showed a significantly higher rate of caesarean section for dystocia or abnormal labour in the American hospital—a discrepancy which was not easily explained by differences in patient characteristics (eg, maternal age, known risk factors, birthweight). Acceleration of labour with oxytocin was significantly more common in the Irish group, and average duration of labour was shorter. No advantage to the infant, as measured by the Apgar score, resulted from the greater use of caesarean section for dystocia.
Topical Fluorides: Clinical Techniques and Materials

Of the fluoride solutions available for topical application in the dental office, stannous fluoride and acidulated phosphate fluoride (APF) are the most popular.
Abstract 109: Flow-Diversion Versus Conventional Endovascular Techniques for Carotid Cavernous Aneurysms

Background and Purpose: Several endovascular treatment options are available for cavernous carotid aneurysms (CCA). We compared PED versus conventional endovascular treatment in terms of evolution of mass effect, complications, recurrence and retreatment rate. Methods: One hundred fifty-seven patients harboring 167 CCA were treated using PED placement, coiling, stent assisted coiling (SAC), and carotid vessel destruction (CVD). Procedural complications, angiographic results, and clinical outcomes were analyzed and compared. Results: There were no difference in age, gender, and mean aneurysm size between those treated with PED and those treated with conventional endovascular procedures. The patients treated with PED had a significantly lower proportion of small size aneurysms(15mm (OR=4.27; p=0.003) to be predictors of none improvement in symptoms. The rate of complete occlusion was 81.36% (48/59) for PED, 42.25% (39/71) for SAC, 27.27% (6/22) for coiling and 73.33% (11/15) for CVD. Retreatment was needed ...
Econometrics of Buy-Price English Auctions

This paper provides a framework for the empirical study of buy-price English auctions. Within the conditionally independent private value paradigm, I show how to identify the underlying distribution of bidders’ valuations from the observed bids and the observed ratio of the number of auctions ended at buy price to the number of auctions in the whole sample. The paper then develops a smooth monotone polynomial spline (PS) estimator for the latent distribution of private valuations. Under mild conditions, both L2 and uniform convergence rates of the estimator are obtained. The pointwise asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator is also established. Basing on the contraction mapping theorem, I propose an fast iterative algorithm to implement the proposed PS estimator. JEL classification: D44, C14, L86
Effect of the Ti/Te ratio on mean intratracheal pressure in high-frequency oscillatory ventilation

In high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), an adequate mean airway pressure is crucial for successful ventilation and optimal gas exchange, but air trapping cannot be detected by the usual m...
Management of pulmonary arterial bleeding in the post induction setting

Background: A minimally invasive approach to lung cancer resection offers many benefits over traditional open surgery. Pulmonary arterial injury is a widely cited reason for conversion to open surgery. Methods: We present a case of pulmonary arterial injury complicating dissection of the pulmonary artery during thoracoscopic left upper lobectomy. Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional ethics board and written consent was obtained from the patient. Results: Thoracoscopic management of pulmonary arterial bleeding is demonstrated. We show maintenance of a thoracoscopic approach with establishment of proximal pulmonary arterial control, allowing suture repair of an injury to the ongoing pulmonary artery. Conclusions: While pulmonary arterial injury may be a significant problem during thoracoscopic lobectomy, minimally invasive approaches to repair are safe and effective.
Revisiting the Role of Caves and Rockshelters in the Hunter-Gatherer Taskscape of the Archaic Midsouth

This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic periods. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation intensity, and function. Focus is placed on using the often overlooked feature assemblages to discern these activities. Data suggest that the changing use of many caves and rockshelters is not one of longer term occupation as base camps, as has been previously argued, but rather as specialized field camps dedicated to the processing of mast resources. This shift takes place as Middle Holocene warming prompted hunter-gatherers to adopt a more logistical mobility strategy in order to take advantage of the spatio-temporal variance associated with increased mast availability. It is further argued that these sites were likely locations of women's activities and that foraging in the Midsouth involved groups of women engaged in daily tasks centered around mast, tasks that over time imbued caves and rockshelter s with symbolic meaning such that they came to function simultaneously as both processing camps and as persistent places of ritual significance in the hunter-gatherer taskscape.
Court-day crowds in colonial Virginia

ABSTRACTFor a generation, legal historians investigating colonial Virginia have emphasized the dramaturgy of court day. According to the dramaturgical school of interpretation, administrative and judicial activities of county court officials amounted to theatrical performances that simultaneously enforced economic order and stabilized traditional social relationships. Such interpretations assume a large audience routinely attended county courts to observe legal dramas. Often, however, only a small number of persons can be documented as present during court day. The independence theorem from probability theory suggests that the number of documentable attendees is a useful and easily calculated estimate for actual total crowd size. If so, some Virginia court sessions were attended by hundreds of people, while others drew only a few participants. A variety of factors apparently inhibited court attendance in older Virginia counties. By contrast, in newer frontier counties, mid-eighteenth-century revisions of ...
Historical Perspectives: Perinatal Profile: Forrest Hood Adams, MD: Pediatric Polymath

Forrest Adams is a descendant of Presidents John Adams (1735–1826) and John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), both of whom had long lives for the era into which they were born, which may indicate the role of genetics in his longevity. Both his grandparents and great grandparents lived into their 80s and 90s. Even as a medical student, he became interested in hereditary disorders and wrote an article before graduation, which was published approximately 1 year later, as the first article in his extensive bibliography. Indeed, the hereditary disorder that he described now bears his name, being the description of what became known as the Adams-Oliver syndrome. (1) This has to be a rare distinction for one so young at the time. The disorder consists of aplasia cutis congenita, in association with terminal transverse defects of the limbs and (in the first case he saw) a skull defect. The limb defects are not dissimilar to those seen with amniotic band syndrome. It is fair to say that Forrest Adams was (and is) a polymath (“a person of great learning in several fields of study”). Not only did he continue to be interested in genetics, he then spent time investigating infectious diseases, before moving on to pediatric cardiology and later to pulmonary physiology. As I found out in a recent telephone conversation, Dr Adams, at the age of 94 (going on 95), remembers in considerable detail many of the circumstances that led to his important contributions.⇓ Photograph taken in 2009 when receiving the Harold S. Diehl Award for outstanding professional contributions, from the University of Minnesota Medical School. Forrest Adams was born (in 1919) and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he went to medical school and graduated in 1943. Soon after this, his eponymous article was published and shortly after that he …
ID: 20: HOSPITALIZATION FOR PULMONARY EMBOLISM ASSOCIATED WITH ANTECEDENT TESTOSTERONE OR ESTROGEN THERAPY IN PATIENTS FOUND TO HAVE FAMILIAL THROMBOPHILIA

Background In patients hospitalized over a 4 year period for pulmonary embolism (PE), and subsequently found to have familial-acquired thrombophilia, we assessed relationships of thrombophilia with testosterone (TT) and estrogen therapy (ET) anteceding PE. Methods From 2011 through 2014, 347 patients were hospitalized in Cincinnati Mercy Hospitals with PE. Retrospective chart review was used to document TT or ET anteceding PE in patients subsequently found to have familial or acquired thrombophilia. Results Preceding hospitalization for PE, of the 154 men and 193 women, 8 men (5% of men) used TT, 24 women (12% of women) used ET (16 birth control pills, 6 hormone replacement therapy, 2 progesterone). Median age in the 8 men was 56 and for the 24 women 38. After excluding 45 women with cancer preceding PE, 24 of 148 (16%) women with PE had used ET, and after excluding 33 men with cancer, 8/121 men (7%) used TT. Of these 8 men, 6 used TT gels, 50 mg/day, and 2 had intra muscular TT 50 mg/week. Of the 8 men, 5 (63%) smoked, 2 had a history of thrombotic events, and 2 had type 2 diabetes. The median number of months from the initiation of TT to development of PE was 7 months. Coagulation evaluations were done in 6 of the 8 men. All 6 had ≥1 thrombophilia; 1 heterozygous for the G20210A prothrombin gene (PTG) mutation, 1 with high factor VIII, 3 with high homocysteine (1 of whom had MTHFR C677T homozygosity), 2 with low protein C, 2 with low protein S, and 2 with low free protein S. Two of 8 men had Klinefelter9s syndrome. Of the 24 women, 2 were diabetic, 1 had a history of thrombosis, and 7 (29%) smoked. The median time between initiation of ET and the PE was 18 months. In 18 out of the 24 women, coagulation evaluations were performed. 15 had ≥1 thrombophilia; 4 were factor V Leiden heterozygotes, 1 PTG heterozygote, 2 high Factor VIII, 1 high Factor XI, 2 with the lupus anticoagulant, 3 low protein S, 2 low Free S, 3 low antithrombin III, 3 high anticardiolipin antibodies. Conclusion After excluding antecedent cancer, 24/148 women (16%) had ET before PE, and TT was taken by 8/121 (7%) men. PE is an important complication of TT in men and ET in women, in part reflecting an interaction between familial and acquired thrombophilia and exogenous hormone use.
THE APPLICATION OF RUBBER BEARING IN HIGH BUILDING

Combining with the development of rubber bearing-isolation in recent years,this paper put forwarded a new method that uses rubber bearing in bracing of high building and analyses this structure with finite element at the same time compare with the frame construction and frame-bracing construction.
The generic dual of p-adic split SO2n and local langlands parameters

Let G be the F-rational points of the split group SO 2n , where F is a non-Archimedean local field of characteristic 0. In this paper, we give the complete description of the generic dual of G. Based on this result and the local descent result of Jiang and Soudry, we show that the functorial lifting map constructed by Cogdell, Kim, Piatetski-Shapiro and Shahidi is surjective. Along the way, we prove that for any irreducible generic representation σ, if σ ≇ cσ (c an element of O 2n (F)\SO 2n (F)), then they have the same lifting image and the same twisted local factors, matching Arthur’s current results on local Langlands correspondence. Then, for any local Langlands parameter ϕ of G, we construct a representation σ such that ϕ and σ have the same twisted local factors. As an application, we prove the G-case of a conjecture of Gross-Prasad and Rallis, that is, a local Langlands parameter ϕ of G is generic (i.e., the associated representation σ constructed above is generic) if and only if the adjoint L-function of ϕ is regular at s = 1. As another application, we give an alternate proof of a result of Shahidi that for each local Arthur parameter ψ, the representation associated to the corresponding local Langlands parameter $${\phi _\psi }$$ is generic if and only if $${\phi _\psi }$$ is tempered.
Transposition of the Great Arteries with VSD and LVOTO. The Autograft Procedure for RVOT (the “DREAM”)

In transposition of the great arteries, ventricular septal defect and LVOTO (pulmonary stenosis or atresia), the classical procedures described (Rastelli and REV) can lead to late complications like LV outflow tract obstruction and even more RV outflow tract obstruction leading to reoperations (almost 100 % in Rastelli, 33 % in REV).