cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Meta-Analysis of Variance Accounted for and Factor Loadings in Exploratory Factor Analysis

A meta-analysis of two factor analysis outcome measures, the percentage of variance accounted for and the average (absolute) factor loading, in 803 substantive factor analyses was undertaken. The average percentage of variance accounted for was 56.6%, and the average (absolute) factor loading was 0.32. Number of variables factor analyzed, nature of the sample from which data were collected, sample size, number of factors extracted, and (minimal) number of scale categories employed influenced the percentage of variance accounted for in a factor analysis. Number of factors extracted, analytical approach, and number of variables analyzed influenced the average factor loading obtained in a factor analysis. Factor analysis of synthetic (random) data possessing the general structure as the observed data in the meta-analysis accounted for 50.2% of the variance in the data and produced an average factor loading of 0.21. The latter figures imply that many factor analyses have produced outcome measures of questionable meaningfulness.
Wind in Weak Grids: 4 Hz or 30 Hz Oscillations?

With wind being integrated into weak grids, Texas sees 4 Hz oscillations while China's west region sees 30 Hz oscillations. While both phenomena have been studied and are claimed to be due to weak grid wind integration, it is valid to ask this question: What causes the significant difference in oscillation frequencies? In this letter, we offer an explanation and provide evidences through dynamic modeling and eigenvalue analysis. One of the possible reasons is identified as phase-locked-loop parameters. Furthermore, both the low-frequency and subsynchronous-frequency modes exist at the same time for Type-4 wind with dc-link voltage control.
Influence of starch intake on growth and skeletal development of weanling horses

Forty-four weanling horses were used in two experiments to evaluate the effect of starch intake on growth and skeletal development. In Exp. 1, the weanlings were fed either a grain-based, high-starch (31.1%, DM basis) concentrate or a by-product-based, low-starch (0.0%) concentrate with coastal bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) hay. Corn oil was used to equalize the energy concentration of the concentrates. The concentrate:hay ratio was 64:36 (as-fed basis), and intake was the same for both diets. Body weight gains were greater by the weanlings consuming the high-starch concentrate (0.81 vs. 0.67 kg/d; P = 0.01). Total body length gain also was greater for the weanlings consuming the high-starch concentrate (15.5 vs. 13.2 cm; P = 0.045). Other body measurements and bone mineral deposition were not influenced by diet or gender. At the end of the experiment, postprandial blood glucose concentrations suggested that the horses on the low-starch diet were less efficient in metabolizing blood glucose than were those that had been consuming the high-starch diets. In Exp. 2, the weanlings were fed either a high-starch (34.7%) or medium-starch (17.0%) concentrate plus coastal bermudagrass hay. Corn oil again was used to equalize the energy content of the medium-starch concentrate to that of the high-starch concentrate. The concentrate:hay ratio was 64:36 (as-fed basis), and the intake was the same for both diets. The diets did not influence rate of gain (0.75 kg/d; P = 0.98), body measurements (P = 0.11 to 0.93), or bone mineral deposition (P = 0.66). Animals on the medium-starch diet tended to have blood glucose concentrations that peaked earlier and were lower at later times than those consuming the high-starch concentrate. Bone osteochondrotic lesions were not related to the diet and were found to decrease during the course of the experiment for both the high-starch and the medium-starch diets (P = 0.006 and 0.016, respectively).
Strengthened SOCP Relaxations for ACOPF with McCormick Envelopes and Bounds Tightening

Abstract The solution of the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) and Unit Commitment (UC) problems (i.e., determining generator schedules and set points that satisfy demands) is critical for efficient and reliable operation of the electricity grid. For computational efficiency, the alternating current OPF (ACOPF) problem is usually formulated with a linearized transmission model, often referred to as the DCOPF problem. However, these linear approximations do not guarantee global optimality or even feasibility for the true nonlinear alternating current (AC) system. Nonlinear AC power flow models can and should be used to improve model fidelity, but successful global solution of problems with these models requires the availability of strong relaxations of the AC optimal power flow constraints. In this paper, we use McCormick envelopes to strengthen the well-known second-order cone (SOC) relaxation of the ACOPF problem. With this improved relaxation, we can further include tight bounds on the voltages at the reference bus, and this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of this for improved bounds tightening. We present results on the optimality gap of both the base SOC relaxation and our Strengthened SOC (SSOC) relaxation for the National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) Energy System Test Case Archive (NESTA). For the cases where the SOC relaxation yields an optimality gap more than 0.1 %, the SSOC relaxation with bounds tightening further reduces the optimality gap by an average of 67 % and ultimately reduces the optimality gap to less than 0.1 % for 58 % of all the NESTA cases considered. Stronger relaxations enable more efficient global solution of the ACOPF problem and can improve computational efficiency of MINLP problems with AC power flow constraints, e.g., unit commitment.
Convolutional Neural Network Techniques for Speech Emotion Recognition

Affect recognition plays an important role in human computer interaction (HCI). Speech is one of the primary forms of expression and is an important modality for emotion recognition. While multiple recognition systems exist, the most common ones identify discrete categories such as happiness, sadness, from distinct utterances that are a few seconds long. In many cases the datasets, used for training and evaluation, are imbalanced across the emotion labels. This leads to big discrepancies between the unweighted accuracy (UA) and weighted accuracy (WA). Recently Deep Neural Networks have shown increased performance for the emotion classification task. In particular Convolutional Neural Networks capture contextual information from speech feature frames. In this paper we analyze various convolutional architectures for speech emotion recognition. We report performance on different frame level features. Further we analyze various pooling techniques, on top of convolutional layers, to get a utterance level representation for the emotion. Our best system provides a performance of UA + WA of 121.15 compared to the baseline algorithm performance of 118.10.
Botulinum toxin blocks mast cells and prevents rosacea like inflammation.

Abstract Background Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin condition whose etiology has been linked to mast cells and the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin LL-37. Individuals with refractory disease have demonstrated clinical benefit with periodic injections of onabotulinum toxin, but the mechanism of action is unknown. Objectives To investigate the molecular mechanism by which botulinum toxin improves rosacea lesions. Methods Primary human and murine mast cells were pretreated with onabotulinum toxin A or B or control. Mast cell degranulation was evaluated by β-hexosaminidase activity. Expression of botulinum toxin receptor Sv2 was measured by qPCR. The presence of SNAP-25 and VAMP2 was established by immunofluorescence. In vivo rosacea model was established by intradermally injecting LL-37 with or without onabotulinum toxin A pretreatment. Mast cell degranulation was assessed in vivo by histologic counts. Rosacea biomarkers were analyzed by qPCR of mouse skin sections. Results Onabotulinum toxin A and B inhibited compound 48/80-induced degranulation of both human and murine mast cells. Expression of Sv2 was established in mouse mast cells. Onabotulinum toxin A and B increased cleaved SNAP-25 and decreased VAMP2 staining in mast cells respectively. In mice, injection of onabotulinum toxin A significantly reduced LL-37-induced skin erythema, mast cell degranulation, and mRNA expression of rosacea biomarkers. Conclusions These findings suggest that onabotulinum toxin reduces rosacea-associated skin inflammation by directly inhibiting mast cell degranulation. Periodic applications of onabotulinum toxin may be an effective therapy for refractory rosacea and deserves further study.
SynTunSys: A Synthesis Parameter Autotuning System for Optimizing High-Performance Processors

Advanced logic and physical synthesis tools provide numerous options and parameters that can drastically impact design quality; however, the large number of options leads to a complex design space difficult for human designers to navigate. By employing intelligent search strategies and parallel computing we can tackle this parameter tuning problem, thus automating one of the key design tasks conventionally performed by a human designer. To fully utilize the optimization potential of these tools, we propose SynTunSys, a system that adds a new level of abstraction between designers and design tools for managing the design space exploration process. SynTunSys takes control of the synthesis parameter tuning process, i.e., job submission, results analysis, and next-step decision making, automating one of the more difficult decision processes faced by designers. This system has been employed for optimizing multiple IBM high-performance server chips and presents numerous opportunities for future intelligent automation research.
Impact of Magnetic Medium Grain Height in Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

Compared to conventional perpendicular magnetic recording, heat-assisted magnetic recording occurs at temperatures more than twice as high in degrees Kelvin. The ability of head field to align the medium magnetization over the short duration in recording a bit is limited by the ratio of magnetic potential energy to the thermal energy. In this letter, we present a systematic micromagnetic modeling study of the transition jitter resulting from thermal agitation during the recording process. As we continue to decrease grain size in order to increase recording areal density, the height of grains in the recording medium needs to increase accordingly to keep the number of magnetization-misaligned grains to a minimum.
Protein Kinase C Quality Control by Phosphatase PHLPP1 Unveils Loss-of-Function Mechanism in Cancer

Protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes function as tumor suppressors in increasing contexts. In contrast to oncogenic kinases, whose function is acutely regulated by transient phosphorylation, PKC is constitutively phosphorylated following biosynthesis to yield a stable, autoinhibited enzyme that is reversibly activated by second messengers. Here, we report that the phosphatase PHLPP1 opposes PKC phosphorylation during maturation, leading to the degradation of aberrantly active species that do not become autoinhibited. Cancer-associated hotspot mutations in the pseudosubstrate of PKCβ that impair autoinhibition result in dephosphorylated and unstable enzymes. Protein-level analysis reveals that PKCα is fully phosphorylated at the PHLPP site in over 5,000 patient tumors, with higher PKC levels correlating (1) inversely with PHLPP1 levels and (2) positively with improved survival in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Thus, PHLPP1 provides a proofreading step that maintains the fidelity of PKC autoinhibition and reveals a prominent loss-of-function mechanism in cancer by suppressing the steady-state levels of PKC.
Fatigue of Welded Steel in Sea Water as Applicable to Offshore Structures

A time-series simulation method, based upon the principle of time series modeling for dynamic systems, has been used to reproduce a wide-band stress history from a prescribed stress spectral model. A six block test spectrum has been assimilated from this and a Markov Chain model used for sequencing between different blocks according to the overall statistics and in a pattern that represents the loading of offshore structures. Based upon this a test program is described and results presented whereby welded specimens have been fatigued in sea water. The experimental findings are discussed with regard to existing design criteria for offshore structures and the impact of corrosion mitigating techniques which influence fatigue.
Social responsibility: a missing ingredient

A crucial component of medical education As academic medicine enters the 21st century, some educators are concerned that the profession is in danger of losing sight of its fundamental purposes and values.1 There has also been a call for more attention to be paid to the moral development and character of medical students.23 It seems that the fiscal, legal, and political realities of the new healthcare era may easily distract from the true purpose of medical education. The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has recognised the vital importance of understanding and nurturing the social contract that exists between medical schools and the public. The best way to fulfill this contract is to educate medical students “in a manner that instills appropriate professional attitudes, values, and skills.”4 If the AAMC is correct, and I believe it is, then it also follows that part of the social contract for medical schools is a duty to educate their students to be socially responsible doctors. The first question to logically follow from this discussion is, “What …
Seismic fragility analyses of steel building frames installed with superelastic shape memory alloy dampers: Comparison with yielding dampers:

Smart materials such as shape memory alloys have unique material properties that can potentially mitigate earthquake hazards on the built environment. Implementation of shape memory alloy-based dev...
Systematic sensitivity analysis to investigate performance of carbonated water injection based on computational dynamic modeling

Abstract Oil recovery is expected to increase considerably by implementation of carbonated water injection (CWI) particularly in the secondary mode, according to various experimental and modeling research works. There have been a few modelling studies and coreflooding tests reported on CWI in open sources. This inadequacy fuels the objectives of this paper. This study reports core scale experiments and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling. To effectively capture the physics involved during CWI, the mass balance equations, momentum balance equations, and reaction equations are solved for the same computational domains of CO2, water, and oil phases. The modeling results are validated by the core scale experimental data of CWI in its secondary application. It is found that there is good agreement between the modeling results and real data; thus, the introduced CFD model can adequately simulate the CWI process. The developed model is also used to investigate the effects of operational parameters/conditions and rock dissolution during CWI. Based on the research results, an increase in the injection rate from 0.2 cm3/min to 0.8 cm3/min gives an additional oil recovery of 6% for a core with a length of 10.33 cm and a diameter of 3.83 cm. There is an optimum injection rate above which there is no significant change in the oil recovery. Increasing the injection pressure leads to a more dissolution of CO2 into the resident fluid, which improves the overall performance of CWI such that the oil recovery is enhanced by an additional 16% upon an increase in the injection pressure from 1500 psi to 3500 psi. There is no evidence of rock dissolution based on the results attributed to permeability changes in a property-distance plot. With the use of the developed model and experimental results, the CWI upscaling can be performed with careful technical, environmental, and economic considerations.
An Exercise for Teaching Employment Termination

Teaching students how to terminate an employee in a safe, legal, and humane manner provides them with a valuable management skill. This article describes an exercise for teaching students how to co...
Material thermal properties estimation via a one-dimensional transient convection model

Abstract This study investigates an approach to determine the thermal conductivity of a material from transient temperature data. For this study, a one-dimensional transient convection heat diffusion PDE with a closed-form solution is used to model slender test coupons. The inhomogeneous boundary condition is handled using eigenfunction expansion and Green’s second identity. A modified Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) nonlinear least squares (NLS) algorithm is used to determine the thermal conductivity from the experimental data using a flux boundary condition. The boundary conditions require an open-loop heater control and forced convection along the rod, which is simpler to implement than current methods. The estimated thermal conductivity from the experimental data was within ten percent of the nominal published values of the materials tested. The method described here promises to be easier to implement than current standards with similar accuracy and is applicable over a wide range of thermal conductivities – ranging from 15 to 400 W/mK. The method utilizes a small amount of material and a simple geometry, and is therefore suitable for the thermal characterization of additively-manufactured materials on a batch-by-batch basis.
Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning for Empathy-based AI

Generative adversarial imitation learning (GAIL) is a model-free algorithm that has been shown to provide strong results in imitating complex behaviors in high-dimensional environments. In this paper, we utilize the GAIL model for text generation to develop empathy-based context-aware conversational AI. Our model uses an expert trajectory of empathetic prompt-response dialogues which can accurately exhibit the correct empathetic emotion when generating a response. The Generator of the GAIL model uses the GPT-2 sequential pre-trained language model trained on 117 million parameters from 40 GB of internet data. We propose a novel application of an approach used in transfer learning to fine tune the GPT-2 model in order to generate concise, user-specific empathetic responses validated against the Discriminator. Our novel GAIL model utilizes a sentiment analysis history-based reinforcement learning approach to empathetically respond to human interactions in a personalized manner. We find that our model's response scores on various human-generated prompts collected from the Facebook Empathetic Dialogues dataset outperform baseline counterparts. Moreover, our model improves upon various history-based conversational AI models developed recently, as our model's performance over a sustained conversation of 3 or more interactions outperform similar conversational AI models.
Insights from Student Solutions to MongoDB Homework Problems

We analyze submissions for homework assignments of 527 students in an upper-level database course offered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The ability to query databases is becoming a crucial skill for technology professionals and academics. Although we observe a large demand for teaching database skills, there is little research on database education. Also, despite the industry's continued demand for NoSQL databases, we have virtually no research on the matter of how students learn NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB. In this paper, we offer an in-depth analysis of errors committed by students working on MongoDB homework assignments over the course of two semesters. We show that as students use more advanced MongoDB operators, they make more Reference errors. Additionally, when students face a new functionality of MongoDB operators, such as \texttt\$group operator, they usually take time to understand it but do not make the same errors again in later problems. Finally, our analysis suggests that students struggle with advanced concepts for a comparable amount of time. Our results suggest that instructors should allocate more time and effort for the discussed topics in our paper.
Changes in pregnancy desire after a pregnancy scare in a random sample of young adult women in a Michigan county

Abstract Objectives We examined whether and how long young women became more or less likely to desire a pregnancy after experiencing a “pregnancy scare.” Study Design We used data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study, based on a random, population-based sample of 992 young women from a county in Michigan. They were interviewed weekly for 2.5 years. We used fixed-effects logistic regression models to predict pregnancy desire after a pregnancy scare. Results Of the 759 sexually experienced women we analyzed, 103 (14%) experienced 128 pregnancy scares. A woman's (adjusted) odds of desiring a pregnancy were 3.70 (95% CI 2.27–6.02) times higher during the week after, 3.04 (95% CI 2.30–4.10) times higher during the month after a pregnancy scare, and 2.31 (95% CI 1.71–3.11) times higher during all weeks after the pregnancy scare, compared to her other weeks during the study period. In a final model directly comparing each period to all weeks before the pregnancy scare, the odds of pregnancy desire were highest (aOR 5.08, 95% CI 3.06–8.42) during the first week, slightly smaller (aOR 3.01, 95% CI 2.11 – 4.30) during the subsequent three weeks, and remained elevated (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.19–2.09) throughout the remainder of the study period. Conclusions Our analyses suggest that the experience of a pregnancy “scare” does not scare young women away from wanting pregnancies. On the contrary, the state of possibly being pregnant actually made young women in our study more likely to want to be pregnant, on average. Implications Very few young women desire a pregnancy during the transition to adulthood; however, a salient life event like a pregnancy scare can abruptly generate a desire for pregnancy. Our study contributes to efforts to help women implement their pregnancy desires by furthering our understanding of those desires and the contexts in which they are formed.
Semiclosed Greenhouse Climate Control Under Uncertainty via Machine Learning and Data-Driven Robust Model Predictive Control

This work proposes a novel data-driven robust model predictive control (DDRMPC) framework for automatic control of greenhouse in-door climate. The framework integrates dynamic control models of greenhouse temperature, humidity, and CO₂ concentration level with data-driven robust optimization models that accurately and rigorously capture uncertainty in weather forecast error. Data-driven uncertainty sets for ambient temperature, solar radiation, and humidity are constructed from historical data by leveraging a machine learning approach, namely, support vector clustering with weighted generalized intersection kernel. A training-calibration procedure that tunes the size of uncertainty sets is implemented to ensure that data-driven uncertainty sets attain an appropriate performance guarantee. In order to solve the optimization problem in DDRMPC, an affine disturbance feedback policy is utilized to obtain tractable approximations of optimal control. A case study of controlling temperature, humidity, and CO₂ concentration of a semiclosed greenhouse in New York City is presented. The results show that the DDRMPC approach ends up with 14% and 4% lower total cost than rule-based control and robust model predictive control with L₁-norm-based uncertainty set, respectively. The constraint violation probability, which is the percentage of time that the greenhouse system states violate the constraint throughout the whole growing period, for DDRMPC is only 0.39%. Hence, the proposed DDRMPC framework can prevent the greenhouse climate from becoming harmful to plants and fruits. In conclusion, the proposed DDRMPC approach can improve the greenhouse climate control performance and reduce cost compared with other control strategies.
GIP Receptor Agonism Attenuates GLP-1 Receptor Agonist-Induced Nausea and Emesis in Preclinical Models.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists decrease body weight and improve glycemic control in obesity and diabetes. Patient compliance and maximal efficacy of GLP-1 therapeutics are limited by side effects including nausea and emesis. In three different species (i.e., mice, rats, and musk shrews), we show that glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR) signaling blocks emesis and attenuates illness behaviors elicited by GLP-1R activation, while maintaining reduced food intake, body weight loss, and improved glucose tolerance. The area postrema and nucleus tractus solitarius (AP/NTS) of the hindbrain are required for food intake and body weight suppression by GLP-1R ligands and processing of emetic stimuli. Utilizing singlenuclei RNA-sequencing, we identified the cellular phenotypes of AP/NTS GIPR- and GLP-1Rexpressing cells on distinct populations of inhibitory and excitatory neurons, with the greatest expression of GIPR in GABAergic neurons. This work suggests that combinatorial pharmaceutical targeting of GLP-1R and GIPR will increase efficacy in treating obesity and diabetes by reducing nausea and vomiting.
Abstract P285: Aging In Male Mice Is Characterized By Arterial Stiffening And Diastolic Dysfunction

Aging is a nonmodifiable risk factor for cardiovascular mortality and is associated with arterial stiffening and cardiac dysfunction. In this study, we hypothesized that aging would decrease vascul...
Seasonal hydromedusan feeding patterns in an Eastern Boundary Current show consistent predation on primary consumers

Abstract Cnidarian jellyfish can be dominant players in the food webs of highly productive Eastern Boundary Currents (EBC). However, the trophic role of inconspicuous hydromedusae in EBCs has traditionally been overlooked. We collected mesozooplankton from five stations along two cross-shelf transects in the Northern California Current (NCC) during winter and summer of 2018–2019. We analyzed gut contents of 11 hydromedusan species and the prey community to (i) determine prey resource use by hydromedusae and (ii) determine temporal shifts in the trophic niche of hydromedusae, focusing on the two most collected species (Clytia gregaria and Eutonina indicans). Hydromedusae in the NCC fed mostly on copepods, appendicularians and invertebrate larvae. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of hydromedusan diets showed seasonal shifts in prey resource driven by the abundant C. gregaria, which fed mostly on copepod eggs during winter and fed mostly on appendicularians and copepods during summer. Prey selectivity for copepod eggs increased during winter for C. gregaria and E. indicans. Intriguingly, theoretical ingestion rates show that both species acquire similar amounts of carbon during upwelling and nonupwelling conditions. Hydromedusae’s consistent presence and predation impact across seasons may lead to significant effects in carbon and energy transfer through the NCC food web.
The Living Tree: Kr̥ṣṇā Sobtī’s Pre-Partition Punjab and the “Other History”

Historical fiction covers a wide range of texts and presents a large variety of views on the subject of history. It is often seen as a way of narrating history from a perspective ignored by academic historiography, thus offering an alternative narrative of the past. This other way of writing history, namely by way of literary texts, is not always conscious or openly acknowledged. In her essays on literature, the Hindi writer Krṣṇā Sobtī (1925–2019) clearly formulates her views on the role of the writer when she commits herself to represent the past, differentiating her role from that of a historian per se. Personally, as a writer, she is primarily interested in the perception of time of the people of a region and their understanding of their own past transmitted through tales, songs and other media; this constitutes what Sobtī calls the “other history”, a notion close to Jan Assmann’s “mnemohistory”. Through the example of Sobtī’s magnum opus, Zindagīnāmā, this paper explores what this specific way of narrating history reveals about the rural society of the pre-Partition Punjab.
T Cell and Dendritic Cell Immune Responses to Cryptococcus

This chapter reviews current knowledge regarding the role of dendritic cells (DCs) and T cells in the generation of protective immunity against Cryptococcus neoformans infections. DCs function as sentinels in the innate immune system. They are the most effective antigenpresenting cells (APCs) for inducing cell-mediated immune responses and are uniquely capable of activating naive T cells. DCs phagocytose pathogens, endocytose foreign antigens, process and present antigens to T cells, and are key mediators in the initiation of adaptive immune responses. DCs are uniquely capable of decoding fungal-associated information and translating it into different adaptive Th-type immune responses. The protective immune responses correlated with accumulation of myeloid DCs in the draining lymph nodes, while nonprotective responses were associated with accumulation of lymphoid DCs. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HIV-infected donors have profoundly impaired proliferative and cytokine responses to cryptococcal antigens. Immunization of mice with heat-killed C. neoformans conferred protection against challenge in wild-type mice but did not induce protection in nude mice (lacking T cells), demonstrating the importance of T cells in protection in the central nervous system (CNS). The lungs and brain are the most common sites of infection for C. neoformans and C. gattii. In pulmonary, systemic, and CNS infections, Th1-type cytokines are required for a protective cell-mediated immune response. The necessity of T cells for host defenses against cryptococcosis has prompted research into identifying immunoreactive cryptococcal antigens that could serve as vaccine candidates and as diagnostic reagents to measure T-cell responses in infected or at-risk patients.
Prolonged progression-free survival after consolidating second or later remissions of neuroblastoma with Anti-GD2 immunotherapy and isotretinoin: a prospective Phase II study

Relapse of high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) is deemed invariably fatal yet increasing numbers of HR-NB patients achieve a second complete/very good partial remission (CR/VGPR), hence the urgency to find a successful consolidative therapy. Identifying efficacy in patients without assessable disease, however, is problematic. We report the first study providing outcome data for this group of patients with poor prognosis. To prevent another relapse, HR-NB patients in second or later CR/VGPR received the anti-GD2 murine antibody 3F8 plus granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor plus isotretinoin in a Phase II trial. Upon meeting the target aim for progression-free survival (PFS) in the initial cohort of 33 patients, the trial was amended to allow patients who developed human anti-mouse antibody (HAMA) to receive rituximab to ablate HAMA with or without low-dose maintenance chemotherapy until immunotherapy could resume. For the total of 101 study patients, 5-year PFS and overall survival (OS) rates were ...
Reducing startup latency in web and desktop applications

Application startup latency has become a performance problem for both desktop applications and web applications. In this paper, we show that much of the latency experienced during application startup can be avoided by more efficiently packing application code pages. To take advantage of more efficient packing, we describe the implementation of demand paging for web applications. Finally, we show that combining demand paging with code reordering can improve application startup latency by more than 58%.
Representing pairwise spatial and temporal relations for action recognition

The popular bag-of-words paradigm for action recognition tasks is based on building histograms of quantized features, typically at the cost of discarding all information about relationships between them. However, although the beneficial nature of including these relationships seems obvious, in practice finding good representations for feature relationships in video is difficult. We propose a simple and computationally efficient method for expressing pairwise relationships between quantized features that combines the power of discriminative representations with key aspects of Naive Bayes. We demonstrate how our technique can augment both appearance- and motion-based features, and that it significantly improves performance on both types of features.
An improved technique for space charge distribution measurements in solid dielectrics

A newly developed numerical analysis technique based on inverse matrix calculations is described. It is used to de-convolute electric current waveforms into the space charge and electric field distributions after subjecting solid dielectric samples to a thermal step and measuring the current induced in the external circuit by the perturbation of space charges in the material due to the heat flow. The technique gives significantly lower errors and requires less computation time than commonly used Fourier analysis.
Effects of Euvolemic and Hypervolemic Hyperbicarbonemia on Segmental Nephron HCO3 Reabsorption in the Newborn Dog1

ABSTRACT: Studies were undertaken to determine the effect of elevated plasma bicarbonate concentration (PHCO3) with and without volume expansion on segmental nephron HCO3 reabsorption in newborn and adult dogs using the technique of distal blockade. Reabsorption of bicarbonate per mL glomerular filtrate (RHCO3/GFR) in the proximal nephron was more suppressed in euvolemic newborns than euvolemic adults as PHCO3 was increased from baseline to 50-70 mM. Inasmuch as total nephron reabsorption has been shown to be essentially complete under these conditions in both newborns and adults, distal nephron HCO3 delivery and the fraction of the distal HCO3 load reabsorbed must have been greater in euvolemic newborns than adults when PHCO3 was elevated. Total nephron RHCO3/GFR was less suppressed by NaHCO3 volume expansion in the newborn than it was in the adult. However, proximal nephron RHCO3/GFR was similarly suppressed by NaHCO3 volume expansion in newborns and adults. Thus, the NaHCCVexpanded newborn must have reabsorbed a greater proportion of the increased distal HCO3 load than did the NaHCO3-expanded adult. Proximal nephron HCO3 reabsorption is a balance between reabsorption effected by active proton secretion and passive HCO3 back leak. Euvolemic increase in peritubular HCO3 concentration has been shown to suppress proximal tubular proton secretion; volume expansion increases proximal tubule HCO3 permeability and back leak. Thus, we interpret these results to indicate that: 1) the limited capacity of the immature proximal tubule for proton secretion is most likely responsible for the greater suppression of proximal RHCO3/GFR by increased PHCO3 in euvolemic newborn dogs compared with adults; 2) the increase in HCO3 permeability of the immature proximal nephron with volume expansion is no greater than that which occurs in the mature proximal nephron with volume expansion; and 3) the immature distal nephron displays a greater propensity for HCO3 reabsorption as PHCO3 is increased than does the mature distal nephron, with or without volume expansion.
Automatic Theorem Proving with Built-in Theories Including Equality, Partial Ordering, and Sets

TO make further progress, resolution principle programs need to make better inferences and to make them faster. This paper presents a fairly general approach for taking some advantages of the structure of special theories, for example, the theories of equality, partial ordering, and sets. The object of the approach is to replace some of the axioms of a given theory by (refutation) complete, valid, efficient (in time) inference rules. The author believes that the new rules are efficient because: (1) inference for inference, a computer program embodying the rules should be faster than a resolution program computing with the corresponding axioms; (2) more importantly, certain troublesome inferences made by resolution are avoided by the new rules. In this paper, the three main applications of the approach concern "building-in" the theories of equality, partial ordering, and sets and may be stated roughly as follows. (1) If only {x =x} is retained from the equality axioms, and if the others are replaced by the functionally reflexive axioms and the rule of renamable paramodulation, refutation completeness is preserved. (2) If only {xC_x} is retained from the eight (not all independent) partial ordering axioms for { =, C:, C:} and if the other seven are replaced by the rules r(C::, C) a n d r(C:), refutation completeness is preserved. (3) If a certain seven of the twenty-four set axioms are retained and if the remaining seventeen are replaced by the rules r(C::, ~ ) , r(C), r(C ), r(e) (complement), r( U ), r(['l ), and r(u) (unit sets), refutation completeness is preserved. KEY V¢ORDS AND P H R A S E S : theorem proving, built-in theories, theories with equality, partial ordering, set theory, resolution principle, paramodulation, refutation completeness, inference rules, artificial intelligence, deduction, mathematical logic CR C.~TEGORIES: 3.60, 3.64, 3.66, 5.21
Women veterans' reproductive health preferences and experiences: a focus group analysis.

Abstract Objective Although women veterans are seeking care at the Veterans Administration (VA) in record numbers, there is little information regarding women veterans’ experiences and preferences for reproductive health care services. We sought to characterize women veterans’ experiences with, and preferences for, reproductive health services in the VA. Methods We conducted five focus groups with a total of 25 participants using a semistructured interview guide to elicit women veterans’ experiences and preferences with reproductive health care. Women veterans’ utilizing VA health care at two VA facilities who responded to advertisements were selected on a first-come basis to participate in the study. We analyzed transcripts of these audiorecorded sessions using the constant comparative method of grounded theory. Results Five main themes emerged from the focus group discussions: 1) Women veterans prefer VA women’s clinics for comprehensive medical care; 2) Women veterans have had both positive and negative reproductive health experiences in the VA; 3) Women veterans experience knowledge gaps regarding VA coverage for reproductive health services; 4) Women veterans believe the VA should provide additional coverage for advanced infertility care and for newborns; and 5) Perceived gender discrimination shapes how women veterans view the VA. Conclusion As the VA continues to tailor its services to women veterans, attention should be given to women’s reproductive health care needs.
THE EFFECT OF NORMAL HUMAN SERA (NHS) ON COMPLEMENT CONSUMPTION (CC) BY IMMUNE SERUM GLOBULIN (ISG) OR ISOLATED HUMAN IgG (IgG)

We reported (Ped Res 9 Abst #459, 1975) that CC was correlated with disease activity in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (p<.001). This assay heat inactivates (HI) the endogenous complement of the test sera: 56°C × 30'. The effect of heating ISG (Cohn fraction II) or DEAE-Sephadex purified IgG was next studied. It was found that: 1) in the absence of NHS, unheated IgG (initial concentration 15.4mg/ml) had essentially no CC. However, ≥.5mg/ml unheated deaggregated ISG had increasing CC. 2) heating concentrated IgG without NHS resulted in more CC than heating diluted solutions. 3) addition of NHS prior to heating either ISG or IgG greatly decreased CC: NHS and up to 15.4mg/ml IgG had no CC while increasing CC was seen with 1.5mg/ml or more of ISG. 4) addition of HI NHS to heated IgG or ISG prevented CC to a lesser extent than when NHS was heated with added immunoglobulin. It is concluded that the CC assay is not appreciably affected by HI of normal sera containing a total amount of up to 23mg/ml of IgG. Supported by grants from the Nat'l. Fdn. and the Ill. Chap. Arth. Fdn.
Noncolloid neuroepithelial cysts in the lateral ventricle: magnetic resonance features

Two patients with presumed intraventricular neuroepithelial cysts are reported. Their characteristic features on magnetic resonance imaging are described, and the importance of demonstrating the cysts' walls is underscored.
The Invisible Woman: The Bioaesthetics of Engineered Bodies:

Biomechanical engineering is marked by highly experimental efforts to craft mechanical devices that might one day alleviate the scarcity of transplantable organs in the USA. A pronounced desire among bioengineers involves melding humans with machines, bearing the promise of perfecting the natural yet messy flaws of the ‘natal’ body. Not all bodies are considered equal within this field, however. Visual renderings of heart devices — as an unusual sort of body prosthesis — foreground a specialized aesthetic, where the well-toned male form defines an idealized generic of beauty and perfection. This analysis considers the moral underpinnings of the embodied aesthetic in specific reference to engineers’ efforts to fabricate implantable ‘artificial’ hearts. Of central concern are the sociomoral consequences of a standardized male beauty, set alongside the striking absence — or invisibility — of the female form within this rarified field of science.
Toward a critical approach to the study of learning environments in science classrooms

Traditional learning environment research in science classrooms has been built on survey methods meant to measure students' and teachers' perceptions of variables used to define the learning environment. This research has led mainly to descriptions of learning environments. We argue that learning environment research should play a transformative role in science classrooms; that learning environment research should take into account contemporary post-positivist ways of thinking about learning and teaching to assist students and teachers to construct a more emancipatory learning environment. In particular, we argue that a critical perspective could lead to research playing a larger role in the transformation of science classroom learning environments. This argument is supplemented with an example from a middle school science classroom.
Internal decision making in an agribusiness: A case study

Key concepts from the behavioral theory of the firm are used to understand the internal decision-making process for an agribusiness. Combined with neoclassical economic theory, the two theoretical foundations help expand understanding of the process.© 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Role of Counselee Experiences in the Interpretation of Vocational Interest Scores

This study determined the validity of vocational interest scores for persons with high, medium, and low levels of experience appropriate to their predominant interests. The experiences and interests of a national sample of 1,380 young adults were assessed concurrently with scales paralleling Holland's types. The degree of congruence betv.een inventoried interests and occupation pursued six years later was found to increase as interest-appropriate experience increased. Occupational group members who had a high level of interest-appropriate experience (i.e., those with "verified interests") scored as expected on the interest inventory--in sharp contrast to those with a low level of interest-appropriate experience. Implications for counseling include the following: (1) when a counselee's predominant interests are not accompanied by relevant experiences, caution should be used in interest score interpretation; (2) the counselor and counselee may wish to review the extent to which experience and knowledge were brought to bear on responses to items on the interest scales with the highest scores; and (3) another approach would be to provide counselees with opportunities to engage in and evaluate the experiences they are lacking--and thereby evaluate their interests. (Author/KC) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** RESEARCH REPORT N. 86 ,.... cm LLJ Role of Counselee Experiences in the Interpretation of Vocational Interest Scores Dale J Prediger and Kyle B Swaney U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION E UCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERICI 4 This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization onoinatino it . Minor changes have been made to .mprove reproduction Qualay Points 01 view of opinions stated in ths docu trent do not necessanly represent Okra, NIE Pesmon Of policy February 1985 2 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" Prepared by the Research C vis;on The American College Testing Program For additional copies write: ACT Publications
Automotive Diagnostic Decisions Using Probabilistic Information

Safety, emissions, and driver demands all require progressively better automotive fault detection, identification, and recovery (FDIR). Probabilistic diagnostics represents an effective way of improving fault detection and identification even as vehicle complexity increases. This paper presents a method for making decisions based on fault probabilities, so that these advances can enable more effective fault recovery. The decision maker’s goal is to choose a set of actions that minimizes risks resulting from faults, and this requires analyzing the temporal behavior of the faults and actions. Using a vehicle’s stability control system as an example, a method is presented for modeling these dynamics and determining the optimal decision strategy. Most calculations can be performed off line and stored, enabling efficient real-time decision making. The paper concludes by presenting the optimal decision strategy for the vehicle example.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
The effect of inner-shell polarization on diagonal stretching force constants

The effect of inner-shell polarization on diagonal stretching force constants of OH−, HF, LiF, HCN, C2H2, and C2H4 were determined at the 4-21G level via floating-orbital calculations. Inner-shell polarization effects in HF were also determined at the 6-311G** level. We found that account of inner-shell polarization by the floating-orbital method lowers the diagonal stretching force constant as much as 3%, depending on the molecule, at the 4-21G level. The effect persists in larger basis set calculations previously thought to be very near the Hartree-Fock limit. We demonstrate that the inner-shell basis set errors in the stretching force constant of HF at the 6-311G** level account for at least 1% of the force constant in the overestimation of the force constant.
Effect of nickel–phosphorus interactions on structural integrity of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract An integrated experimental/modeling approach was utilized to assess the structural integrity of Ni–yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) porous anode supports during the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) operation on coal gas containing trace amounts of phosphorus impurities. Phosphorus was chosen as a typical impurity exhibiting strong interactions with the nickel followed by second phase formation. Tests were performed using Ni–YSZ anode-supported button cells exposed to 0.5–10 ppm of phosphine in synthetic coal gas at 700–800 °C. The extent of Ni–P interactions was determined by a post-test scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Severe damage to the anode support due to nickel phosphide phase formation and extensive crystal coalescence was revealed, resulting in electric percolation loss. The subsequent finite element stress analyses were conducted using the actual anode support microstructures to assist in degradation mechanism explanation. Volume expansion induced by the Ni phase alteration was found to produce high stress levels such that local failure of the Ni–YSZ anode became possible under the operating conditions.