cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Duodenal active calcium transport in female rats increases with serum calcitriol concentrations, but reaches a plateau far below maximal calcitriol levels

To determine the relationship between serum calcitriol concentration and duodenal active calcium (Ca) transport, a wide range of circulating calcitriol concentrations (18-950 pg/ml) was obtained by feeding nonmated, lactating, and weaned rats vitamin D-sufficient diets containing 0.04, 0.06, 0.1, or 0.4% Ca. Ca transport was measured in vitro with the everted gut sac technique using both the proximal (D-1) and distal (D-2) duodenal halves. The ratio of serosal [Ca]/mucosal [Ca] (S/M) as well as the amount of Ca transported was calculated. The S/M ratio correlated with the serum calcitriol concentration over the range 18-90 pg/ml with slopes for the regression lines of 0.066 +/- 0.010 (R2 = 0.64, n = 27) for D-1 and of 0.036 +/- 0.005 (R2 = 0.73, n = 24) for D-2. The regression lines are significantly different from zero (p < 0.001) and from each other (p < 0.01). For D-1, a plateau of the S/M ratio of 7-9 appeared to be reached at a calcitriol concentration of approximately 90 pg/ml, and the plateau was maintained over the range 90-900 pg/ml calcitriol. For D-2, a plateau of the S/M ratio of 4-6 appeared to be reached at 200-300 pg/ml calcitriol. Calculating the amount of Ca transported per 10 cm per hour revealed a pattern similar to that of the S/M ratio. When net Ca absorption was determined from balance studies over 4 days for rats on a 0.04% Ca diet, maximal absorption (mg/day) was already observed at a serum calcitriol concentration of 60-70 pg/ml (n = 14). We conclude that active Ca transport correlates with serum calcitriol concentrations, but that the transport capacity quickly reaches a maximal value, which is maintained over a 10-fold higher range of serum calcitriol concentrations.
Transluminal angioplasty of anomalous coronary arteries

10. Kagen L, Scheidt S, Butt A: Serum myoglobin in myocardial infarction: The “staccato phenomenon.” Am J Med 62:86, 1977. Freeman AP, Fatches KR, Carter IW, Cloonan MJ, Wilcken DEL: Comparison of serum myoglobin and creatine kinase MB isoenzyme in early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Br Heart J 45:389, 1981. Bachem MG, Paschen K, Strobe1 B, Keller H-E, Kleinschnittger B: Myoglobin-Latextest. Ein neuer Schnell-test zur Verbesserung der Friihdiagnostik des akuten Myokardinfarktes. Dtsch Med Wochenschr 106:1190, 1983. Ngrregaard-Hansen K, Hangaard J, Nglrgaard-Pedersen B: A rapid latex agglutination test for detection of elevated levels of myoglobinin serum and its value in the early diagnosis of acute mvocardial infarction. Stand J Clin Lab Invest 44:99. 1984. ” Varki AP, Roby DS, Watts H, Zatuchni J: Serum myoglobin in acute myocardial infarction: A clinical study and review of the literature. AM HEART J 96:680, 1978.
Predicting the dimension of strange attractors

The correlation dimension was calculated for a collection of 6080 strange attractors obtained numerically from low-degree polynomial, low-dimensional maps and flows. It was found that the average correlation dimension scales approximately as the square root of the dimension of the system with a surprisingly small variation. This result provides an estimate of the number of dynamical variables required to characterize an experiment in which a strange attractor has been found as well as an estimate of the dimension of attractors produced by chaotic systems in which the dimension of the state space is known.
Scintillation Response of Activated Ionic Crystals to Charged Particles

Experimental studies of the response of thallium-activated alkali iodides to various charged particles indicate decreasing scintillation efficiency with increasing particle mass and a non-linearity in pulse height vs energy for heavier particles. The scintillation efficiency to electrons, however, is found to be anomalously low, less than that to protons and deuterons. This paper represents an effort to synthesize the results of various experiments and to provide a model for understanding the observed behavior. The model adopted treats the formation of energy carriers and the transport of energy by the diffusion of these carriers from the path of the incoming particle to the activator sites. Results of calculations based on this model are found to be generally consistent with experiment.
Conformation of Symmetric Bilirubin Analogs from 13C-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spin Lattice T1 Relaxation Times

Abstract Symmetric analogs of bilirubin with propionic acid groups shortened and lengthened (and esterified as methyl esters) adopt similar conformations in deuterated dimethylsulfoxide solvent, as determined from their 13C-NMR spin lattice relaxation times. Segmental motion of the alkanoic acid chain carbons indicates internal hydrogen bonding with solvent participation.
Genesis of Biochemistry: A Problems Approach

experiential learning, problem-based learning, case studies approach.When I began teaching as a young assistant professor atCaltech in 1966, my assignment was to take over the un-dergraduate biochemistry course taught for many years byHenry Borsook, who was about to retire. Students dreadedthis course. Henry insisted on teaching it at 8 AM, and his ap-proachwaslargelyrotelearning—Irememberhowheusedtocallbleary-eyedstudentstotheboardtodrawthestructuresofamino acids from memory. Having delighted in biochemistryduring my graduate training at Stanford, I was determinedto put some life and intellectual challenge into the subject butwasnotsurehowtogoaboutit.Ibeganbymovingthecourseto a more civilized hour, which gained me some quick popu-larity but did not address the real problem. I knew I could getstudentsexcitedabouttheemergingscienceofmolecularbio-logy, but what about the more classical aspects? Biochemistryin the 1950s had been largely a descriptive science, based onthe cataloging of biomolecules by natural products chemistsand characterization of metabolic reactions by enzymologistsand physiological chemists. Generally, the subject was stilltaught that way in the mid-1960s. Students were asked tolearn a bewildering array of structures and metabolic path-ways, without much discussion about the roles they playedin the overall function of a cell and why they might haveevolved to their present forms.Two sources of inspiration helped to steer me in a favor-able direction. The ﬁrst was Al Lehninger’s remarkable littlebook
Undergraduate students' perceptions of child sexual abuse: effects of age, sex, and gender-role attitudes.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined how sex of the child and the adult and age of the child influence perceptions regarding the abusiveness of adult-child sexual interactions and attributions of blame and responsibility to the adult in such incidents. The relationship of gender-role attitudes to perceptions of child sexual abuse was also investigated. METHOD: Undergraduate students (N = 404) read one of eight vignettes depicting a sexual interaction between a child and an adult in which sex of the child, age of the child, and sex of the adult were manipulated. Respondents then answered questions regarding their perceptions of the abusiveness of the incident and attributions of responsibility and blame to the adult. RESULTS: Scenarios depicting a 15-year-old were rated as less abusive, and less responsibility was attributed to the adult, relative to vignettes involving a 7-year-old. Respondents also rated scenarios depicting opposite-sex interactions as less abusive relative to scenarios describing same-sex interactions. When vignettes depicted a 15-year-old, less blame was attributed to the adult relative to when vignettes depicted a 7-year-old with an adult of either sex, with the least amount of blame being attributed to the adult involved with an adolescent of the opposite-sex. Gender-role attitudes were not significantly related to ratings of abusiveness or attributions of responsibility and blame. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that age of the child may influence ratings of abusiveness and attributions of responsibility and blame. Ratings of abusiveness and attributions of blame also appear to be influenced by the sex pairing in the interaction. Language: en
World Health Organization Classification, Evaluation, and Genetics of the Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Variants

There is no single category in the fourth edition (2008) of the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of myeloid neoplasms that encompasses all of the diseases referred to by some authors as the myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) "variants." Instead, they are considered as distinct entities and are distributed among various subgroups of myeloid neoplasms in the classification scheme. These relatively uncommon neoplasms do not meet the criteria for any so-called "classical" MPN (chronic myelogenous leukemia, polycythemia vera, primary myelofibrosis, or essential thrombocythemia) and, although some exhibit myelodysplasia, none meets the criteria for any myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). They are a diverse group of neoplasms ranging from fairly well-characterized disorders such as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia to rare and thus poorly characterized disorders such as chronic neutrophilic leukemia. Recently, however, there has been a surge of information regarding the genetic infrastructure of neoplastic cells in the MPN variants, allowing some to be molecularly defined. Nevertheless, in most cases, correlation of clinical, genetic, and morphologic findings is required for diagnosis and classification. The fourth edition of the WHO classification provides a framework to incorporate those neoplasms in which a genetic abnormality is a major defining criterion of the disease, such as those associated with eosinophilia and abnormalities of PDGFRA, PDGFRB, and FGFR1, as well as for those in which no specific genetic defect has yet been discovered and which remain clinically and pathologically defined. An understanding of the clinical, morphologic, and genetic features of the MPN variants will facilitate their diagnosis.
Flow Characteristics in a Vortex Chamber

In this article we examine confined swirling flows using the integral equations of continuity and energy, along with the minimum pressure criterion. The pressure drop and the core size have been studied in the swirling confined vortex chamber. Both the n = 2 vortex model, with reverse and non-reverse flow, and the free vortex model have been used at the vortex chamber exit plane. The influence of vortex chamber geometry, such as contraction ratio, inlet angle, area ratio, aspect ratio, and Reynolds number, on the flow field has been analyzed and compared with the present experimental data. The pressure drop across the vortex chamber differs from that in pipe flow, due to the mechanism of swirl flow that depends mainly on the intensity of tangential velocity. If the chamber length is increased, the vortex decays producing a weaker tangential velocity (less centrifugal force) that leads to less pressure drop. Based on the present theory, a new approach to determine the tangential velocity and radial pressure profiles inside the vortex chamber is developed and compared with the available experimental data. It shown that the n = 2 vortex model with reverse flow gives better results for strongly swirling flow. On examine dans cet article des ecoulements tourbillonnaires confines a l'aide des equations de continuite et d'energie, avec le critere de pression minimum. La perte de charge et la taille du noyau ont ete etudiees dans la chambre tourbillonnaire confinee. Le modele tourbillonnaire n = 2, avec ecoulement inverse et non inverse, ainsi que le modele tourbillonnaire libre ont ete utilises dans le plan de sortie de la chambre tourbillonnaire. L'influence sur le champ d'ecoulement de la geometrie de la chambre tourbillonnaire, tels le rapport de contraction, l'angle d'entree, le rapport de surface, le rapport de forme et le nombre de Reynolds, a ete analysee et comparee avec les presentes donnees experimentales. La perte de charge dans la chambre tourbillonnaire differe de celle de l'ecoulement en conduit, en raison du mecanisme d'ecoulement tourbillonnaire qui depend principalement de l'intensite de la vitesse tangentielle. Si la longueur de la chambre est accrue, le tourbillon s'affaiblit, produisant une vitesse tangentielle plus faible (moins de force centrifuge), ce qui mene a moins de perte de charge. En s'appuyant sur la presente theorie, on a developpe et compare avec les donnees experimentales disponibles une nouvelle methode pour determiner la vitesse tangentielle et les profils de pression radiale. On montre que le modele tourbillonnaire n = 2 avec ecoulement inverse donne de meilleurs resultats pour l'ecoulement fortement tourbillonnaire.
Increasing the Throughput of Phase-Shifting Diffraction Interferometer for Quantitative Characterization of ICF Ablator Capsule Surfaces

A phase-shifting diffraction interferometer provides full surface mapping of National Ignition Facility (NIF) ablator capsules for surface finish and isolated defects. To integrate this new instrum...
Quitting smoking: still a challenge, but newer tools show promise.

Smoking continues to be a major public health problem with devastating consequences in terms of morbidity and mortality. Physicians are strongly encouraged to engage patients in a serious, concerted, and consistent effort to overcome nicotine addiction. Brief counseling in combination with medications has been shown to be effective. This article provides physicians guidelines for helping patients to quit this addictive disorder. Most smokers want to quit, and many try to, but few succeed. They need support, cognitive-behavioral tools, and drug therapy.
Understanding the Entirety of Modern Informatics

The field of informatics challenges our ability to classify and describe ourselves. It is both complex and ever changing. In recent years distinct sub areas have identified themselves and begun to ...
Breast cancer posttreatment surveillance: diagnosis and management of recurrent disease.

There has been a steady decline in breast cancer mortality that has led to a significant increase in the number of patients surviving breast cancer. We will review in this manuscript the evidence and guidelines for posttreatment surveillance of patients with breast cancer as well as the management options for patients who are diagnosed with local-regional and distant recurrences.
Pitch Error and Shear Web Disbond Detection on Wind Turbine Blades for Offshore Structural Health and Prognostics Management

Operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind plants are estimated to be significantly higher than the current costs for onshore wind plants. One way to reduce these costs would be to implement a structural health and prognostic management (SHPM) system as part of a condition based maintenance paradigm with smart load management. To facilitate the development of such a system a multiscale modeling approach has been developed to identify how the underlying physics of the system are affected by the presence of damage and faults, and how these changes manifest themselves in the operational response of a full turbine. This methodology was used to investigate the effects of rotor imbalance and shear web disbond on a 5-MW offshore wind turbine in the present report. Based on simulations of the model, the operational measurements that demonstrated the highest sensitivity to the damage/faults were the blade tip accelerations and local pitching moments for both imbalance and shear web disbond. Detection strategies have been developed for these fault mechanisms with the intent of being integrated into an operations and maintenance paradigm. The integration of the health monitoring information provides the initial steps to reducing operations and maintenance costs for an offshore wind farm while increasing turbine availability and overall profit.
Topografía E Hipotiposis: Dos Tipos De ‘Rebeldía Descriptiva’ Con Un propósito conjunto en nada De Carmen Laforet

The hermeneutics of description in Nada (1945) enables the deciphering of the semantic inner structure of the novel. This is achieved by means of an intentional characterization of both space and characters. The narrative mechanism of description is constructed primarily along two dimensions: ‘topography,’ or a description of places, and ‘hypotyposis,’ a vivid description of objects and characters through the use of sensorial imagery. The presence of both types of description in the novel allows the reader to better comprehend the psychology of Andrea, the protagonist. At the same time, Carmen Laforet’s use of detailed description provides a revealing and critical portrait of Spanish society under Franco’s regime. While Andrea never exteriorizes any opposition to prevailing norms, we maintain that by means of the aforementioned rhetorical techniques, the novel represents a defiant response to the social archetypes of the period. For this reason, our reading of the novel lays claim to the relevance of the description process internalized with the reader.
Social Work Students and Faculty: Testing the Convergence of Perspectives on Student Writing Abilities

ABSTRACTStudents (n = 244, 76% MSSW) and faculty members (n = 40, 36% tenure or tenure track) at a social work program at a large public southern U.S. university were surveyed to assess within- and between-group differences in perspectives on student writing. Faculty members expressed significantly greater concern with student writing than students. Latina/o, African American, female, and undergraduate students all reported more writing challenges compared to their peers. Likewise, full-time faculty members who teach mainly online or had less training in writing instruction reported more challenges than their colleagues. Overall, our findings support the need for writing interventions that acculturate students to the discipline through a more inclusive, culturally competent discourse as well as increased faculty preparation for teaching writing.
Control of valence and conduction band energies in layered transition metal phosphates via surface functionalization

Layered transition metal phosphates and phosphites (TMPs) are a class of materials composed of layers of 2D sheets bound together via van der Waals interactions and/or hydrogen bonds. Explored primarily for use in proton transfer, their unique chemical tunability also makes TMPs of interest for forming large-scale hybrid materials. Further, unlike many layered materials, TMPs can readily be solution exfoliated to form single 2D sheets or bilayers, making them exciting candidates for a variety of applications. However, the electronic properties of TMPs have largely been unstudied to date. In this work, we use first-principles computations to investigate the atomic and electronic structure of TMPs with a variety of stoichiometries. We demonstrate that there exists a strong linear relationship between the band gap and the ionic radius of the transition metal cation in these materials, and show that this relationship, which opens opportunities for engineering new compositions with a wide range of band gaps, arises from constraints imposed by the phosphorus–oxygen bond geometry. In addition, we find that the energies of the valence and conduction band edges can be systematically tuned over a range of ∼3 eV via modification of the functional group extending from the phosphorus. Based on the Hammett constant of this functional group, we identify a simple, predictive relationship for the ionization potential and electron affinity of layered TMPs. Our results thus provide guidelines for systematic design of TMP-derived functional materials, which may enable new approaches for optimizing charge transfer in electronics, photovoltaics, electrocatalysts, and other applications.
Neoplasm of the Thyroid Gland

Although the prevalence of thyroid nodule is approximately 1 % to 5% in the general adult population, 6% to 10% of older persons may have solitary nodules. Between 2% and 10% of thyroid nodules are noted to be carcinomatous. Approximately 1200 persons die of thyroid carcinoma each year in the United States alone; the incidence is much higher in women than in men. With early diagnosis and treatment, patients with thyroid cancers are living longer than ever before. In terminally ill older patients with nonresectable tumors and distant metastasis, all attention must be given to adequate pain control and maintenance of quality of life
Review of iMedia: The Gendering of Objects, Environments and Smart Materials by Sarah Kember (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

Review of iMedia: The Gendering of Objects, Environments and Smart Materials by Sarah Kember (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
Mixed Methods Approaches

Interest in mixed methods, particularly those combining qualitative and quantitative data, has grown substantially since the 1990s. This entry defines and describes mixed methods approaches in the social sciences, traces the history of the development and use of these approaches, and discusses the benefits these approaches provide. Specific examples of combining quantitative and qualitative data in studies of later life families are presented in detail to illustrate the ways in which mixed methods can be used to expand understanding of social processes. Keywords: family relations; late life; mixed methods
Revisiting the Rationing of Medical Degrees in the United States

Degree rationing is good for U.S. med school graduates, even as it exacerbates physician shortages.
Multiscale stochastic prediction of electricity demand in smart grids using Bayesian networks

Abstract Demand management in residential buildings is a key component toward sustainability and efficiency in urban environments. The recent advancements in sensor based technologies hold the promise of novel energy consumption models that can better characterize the underlying patterns. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic data-driven predictive model for consumption forecasting in residential buildings. The model is based on Bayesian network (BN) framework which is able to discover dependency relations between contributing variables. Thus, we can relax the assumptions that are often made in traditional forecasting models. Moreover, we are able to efficiently capture the uncertainties in input variables and quantify their effect on the system output. We test our proposed approach to the data provided by Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) which has been collected through a pilot Smart Grid project. We examine the performance of our model in a multiscale setting by considering various temporal (i.e., 15 min, hourly intervals) and spatial (i.e., all households in a region, each household) resolutions for analyzing data. Demand forecasting at the individual households’ levels is a first step toward designing personalized and targeted policies for each customer. While this is a widely studied topic in digital marketing, few researches have been done in the energy sector. The results indicate that Bayesian networks can be efficiently used for probabilistic energy modeling in residential buildings by discovering the dependencies between variables.
Sponge symbioses between Xestospongia deweerdtae and Plakortis spp. are not motivated by shared chemical defense against predators

The recently described epizoic sponge-sponge symbioses between Xestospongia deweerdtae and two species of Plakortis present an unusual series of sponge interactions. Sponges from the genus Plakortis are fierce allelopathic competitors, rich in cytotoxic secondary metabolites, and yet X. deweerdtae flourishes as an epizoic encrustation on Plakortis deweerdtaephila and Plakortis symbiotica. Our objective in this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that X. deweerdtae grows epizoic to these two species of Plakortis due to a shared chemical defense against predators. We collected free-living individuals of X. deweerdtae and symbiotic pairs from a wide geographical range to generate crude organic extracts and a series of polarity fractions from sponge extract. We tested the deterrency of these extracts against three common coral reef predators: the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatum, the Caribbean sharpnose puffer, Canthigaster rostrata, and the white spotwrist hermit crab, Pagurus criniticornis. While the chemical defenses of P. deweerdtaephila and P. symbiotica are more potent than those of X. deweerdtae, all of the sponge species we tested significantly deterred feeding in all three generalist predators. The free-living form of X. deweerdtae is mostly defended across the region, with a few exceptions. The associated form of X. deweerdtae is always defended, and both species of Plakortis are very strongly defended, with puffers refusing to consume extract-treated pellets until the extract was diluted to 1/256× concentration. Using diode-array high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-MS/IT-TOF), we found two secondary metabolites from P. deweerdtaephila, probably the cyclic endoperoxides plakinic acid I and plakinic acid K, in low concentrations in the associated—but not the free-living—form of X. deweerdtae, suggesting a possible translocation of defensive chemicals from the basibiont to the epibiont. Comparing the immense deterrency of Plakortis spp. extracts to the extracts of X. deweerdtae gives the impression that there may be some sharing of chemical defenses: one partner in the symbiosis is clearly more defended than the other and a small amount of its defensive chemistry may translocate to the partner. However, X. deweerdtae effectively deters predators with its own defensive chemistry. Multiple lines of evidence provide no support for the shared chemical defense hypothesis. Given the diversity of other potential food resources available to predators on coral reefs, it is improbable that the evolution of these specialized sponge-sponge symbioses has been driven by predation pressure.
Terminal ileostomy and on-table enteroscopy—A case report describing a novel approach for retrieval of foreign bodies in the difficult abdomen

Abstract Introduction With any abdominal surgery in a difficult abdomen, the procedure is filled with potential hazards. In addition to a prolonged operative time, there is a risk of enterotomy or damage to blood vessels and ureters. An irradiated pelvis increases this risk and may cause additional morbidity such as delayed healing. An impacted foreign body can also be a challenging problem to deal with alone but when combined with a difficult abdomen can make the problem impossible. Presentation of case A 67 year-old male presented with a small bowel obstruction secondary to a foreign body impacted in the distal. The patient had a history of prostate cancer with radiation to the pelvis and thereafter developed perforated diverticulitis, requiring end colostomy. Later he underwent a colostomy take-down but developed wound infection and dehiscence resulting in an incisional hernia which was repaired. The patient failed conservative management and operative intervention was undertaken. Due to the extensive scarring of his midline abdomen, a right sided transverse incision was used. An enterotomy was made in the terminal ileum allowing the endoscope to advance to the foreign body to be retrieved with a snare. The foreign body was found to be a 3.5 cm piece of bone. Post-operative course was unremarkable. Discussion Foreign body ingestion is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction, and exploration and retrieval is recommended if the obstruction does not resolve or if the bowels perforate. The method of retrieval depends on the site of the foreign body. Fortunately, in the small bowel, the terminal ileum is the narrowest part and most likely the site of impaction. Operative retrieval is easier if there are no prior abdominal interventions. An irradiated pelvis or abdomen, multiple prior procedures and a frozen abdomen warrant an alternative approach. As it can be difficult or impossible to access the ileum using a colonoscope transanally, a limited right-sided transverse incision can be employed allowing immediate access to the cecum and terminal ileum through which endoscopic retrieval could be performed. A review of the literature to date did not yield any other descriptions of this approach for foreign body retrieval, however, an appendostomy and endoscopy to rule out malignancy in patients with right sided diverticulitis has been documented. Conclusion Consideration should be given to foreign body retrieval through an appendostomy or ileostomy if a midline laparotomy is considered too high risk in the setting of pelvic irradiation and multiple prior abdominal surgeries.
Enhancing Student Knowledge Through a Comprehensive Oncology Simulation

Objective. To evaluate the impact of a comprehensive oncology simulation on pharmacy students’ knowledge and perceptions related to oncology pharmacy practice.Methods. Third-year pharmacy students at the University of South Florida completed an ovarian cancer case-based simulation. Stations involved patient-specific order set completion, counseling, order verification, and aseptic technique. Pre- and post-simulation assessments regarding therapeutic knowledge and aseptic technique as well as perceptions of pharmacists’ roles in oncology practice were evaluated.Results. All students (n=109, 100%) completed the pre- and post-simulation assessments. There was an increase in knowledge after the simulation, which was statistically significant in three of the six questions. Furthermore, students’ perceptions regarding pharmacist roles and self-confidence in ability to prepare patient-specific regimens increased on a 5-point Likert scale from 3.8 and 3.2 to 4.5 and 4.2 on the post-assessment, respectively.Conclu...
Hosting distributed databases on internet of things-scale devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) era envisions billions of interconnected devices capable of providing new interactions between the physical and digital worlds, offering new range of content and services. At the fundamental level, IoT nodes are physical devices that exist in the real world, consisting of networking, sensor, and processing components. Some application examples include mobile and pervasive computing or sensor nets, and require distributed device deployment that feed information into databases for exploitation. While the data can be centralized, there are advantages, such as system resiliency and security to adopting a decentralized architecture that pushes the computation and storage to the network edge and onto IoT devices. However, these devices tend to be much more limited in computation power than traditional racked servers. This research explores using the Cassandra distributed database on IoT-representative device specifications. Experiments conducted on both virtual machines and Raspberry Pi's to simulate IoT devices, examined latency issues with network compression, processing workloads, and various memory and node configurations in laboratory settings. We demonstrate that distributed databases are feasible on Raspberry Pi's as IoT representative devices and show findings that may help in application design.
Role of A β Transport and Clearance in the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

In addition to Aβ production, the factors that control Aβ degradation, clearance, transport, and fibrillogenesis play an important role in the process by which Aβ converts from soluble forms to both soluble and insoluble forms that aggregate in the brain and contribute to AD and CAA pathogenesis. Studies summarized herein suggest that transport of Aβ between brain and blood and blood and brain plays an important role in regulating Aβ metabolism and that specific molecules such as LRP, RAGE, and apoE regulate this process. In addition, apoE, acting as a chaperone for both soluble and fibrillar Aβ can modulate Aβ clearance, transport, and fibrillogenesis and in doing so, plays an important role in AD and CAA pathogenesis. Further studies to sort out the cell biology of these clearance mechanisms as well as which other molecules are involved in these processes will provide important additional insights into AD and CAA pathogenesis.
Teacher Decisions on Lesson Sequence and Their Impact on Opportunities for Students to Learn

When using existing resources to plan and enact a series of lessons, teachers make various decisions, one of which is whether to follow or modify the sequence of tasks and lessons presented in the resources. One important question to ask is how teacher decisions on lesson sequence affect the quality of instruction and opportunities for students to learn. I examined ways in which teachers, using three different curriculum programs, sequenced tasks and lessons, and whether these sequences provided opportunities for students to engage with mathematical points of the lessons and a mathematical storyline through a proper learning pathway. Findings of the study have implications for teaching, teacher education, and curriculum development.
Thermal Conductivity Systems for Measurements on Rocks under Applied Stress

A simple, unguarded-plate apparatus has been shown effective for medium-precision measurements of thermal conductivity with applied uniaxial pressures. Measurements on Minnekahta limestone samples have been made at 20°C under pressures of 1.2 to 18.3 MPa. Both the low pressure values and the pressure dependence of the thermal conductivity are dependent upon the sample. An unjointed sample had a conductivity of 2.57 Wm−1K−1 at 1.2 MPa which increased to 2.73 Wm−1K−1 at 18.3 MPa, while a jointed sample had an initial conductivity of 3.19 Wm−1K−1 which decreased to 3.12 Wm−1K−1 upon loading to 18.3 MPa and then further decreased to 2.78 Wm−1K−1 upon unloading to 1.2 MPa. A nylon sample used for calibration initially showed an increase in thermal conductivity of 7% as the pressure was increased from 1.2 to 18.3 MPa, but this pressure dependence disappeared after repeated pressure cycling.
Computational Creative Advertisements

Making successful video advertisements has long been considered a combination of art and business acumen. In this work, we propose a system to assist human designers to produce more effective advertisements with predictable outcomes. We formalize this concept with a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), where we represent the knowledge base with data collected from large-scale field experiments in a novel setting. Face and eye tracking which continuously measures viewers emotional responses and viewing interest on 169 television advertisements for 2334 participants, along with moment-to-moment branding activities in the advertisements are used to estimate the model. The resulting DBN represents relationships across advertisement content, viewers emotional responses, as well as effectiveness metrics such as ad avoidance, sharing and influence on purchase. Conditioned on the specified requirement on the ad, a human designer can draw high scoring samples from the DBN, which represent the optimized sequences of branding activities and entertainment content.
Relationships between Phases

IN A GIVEN SYSTEM, THE INTENSIVE THERMODYNAMIC properties may vary from point to point. But each part of the system through which these properties are constant or vary continuously constitutes a phase. A system may contain gaseous, liquid, and solid phases. A chemical constituent whose mass can vary independently in any small region of the system is called a component. Because of reactions, the number of chemical species present may be greater than the number of components.
Mechanisms of Inducer Exclusion

This chapter discusses the regulation of transport by the membrane potential and intracellular sugar phosphates. It also discusses properties and reconstitution of enzyme lll glc . The synthesis of carbohydrate catabolic enzyme systems in gram-negative bacteria is generally regulated by a dual mechanism dependent on two small cytoplasmic molecules: (1) inducer and (2) cyclic AMP. Each of these molecules acts through a macromolecular effector. The effector protein mediating the action of the inducer is a transcriptional repressor such as the lactose represser or the glycerol repressor, or it is a transcriptional activator such as the maltose activator. Repressor proteins exert negative control over target operon expression by binding to the operator and preventing transcription by RNA polymerase.
Case 20: Intraoperative Decrease in Electrocardiogram Amplitude: Cause for Concern?

A 3-year-old boy (28 lb) is scheduled for a left nephrectomy for a Wilms’ tumor. His medical history is unremarkable except for hematuria and an abdominal mass. The patient has no known drug allergies, and the family history is negative for anesthesia-related problems.
Federal Monitoring of Dietary Supplement Use in the Resident, Civilian, Noninstitutionalized US Population, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Objective This review summarizes the current and previous data on dietary supplement (DS) use collected from participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), describes the NHANES dietary supplement database used to compute nutrient intakes from DSs, discussed recent developments and future direction, and describes many examples to demonstrate the utility of these data in informing nutrition research and policy. Background and history Since 1971, NHANES, has been collecting information on the use of DSs from participants. These data are critical to national nutrition surveillance and have been used to characterize usage patterns, examine trends over time, assess the percentage of the population meeting or exceeding nutrient recommendations, and to help elucidate the sources contributing nutrients to the diet of the US population. Rationale Over half of adults and about one-third of children in the United States use at least one dietary supplement in the past 30 days. Dietary supplements contribute to the dietary intake of nutrients and bioactive compounds in the US and therefore need to be assessed when monitoring nutritional status of the population and when studying diet-health associations. Recent developments With the recent development and availability of the Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD), a comprehensive DS database that will eventually contain labels for all products marketed in the US, NHANES DS data will be more easily linked to product information to estimate nutrient intake from DS. Future directions Over time, NHANES has both expanded and improved collection methods. The continued understanding of sources of error in collection methods will continue to be explored and is critical to improved accuracy. Conclusions NHANES provides a rich source of nationally representative data on the usage of dietary supplements in the US.
MALTS: Matching After Learning to Stretch

We introduce a flexible framework that produces high-quality almost-exact matches for causal inference. Most prior work in matching uses ad-hoc distance metrics, often leading to poor quality matches, particularly when there are irrelevant covariates. In this work, we learn an interpretable distance metric for matching, which leads to substantially higher quality matches. The learned distance metric stretches the covariate space according to each covariate's contribution to outcome prediction: this stretching means that mismatches on important covariates carry a larger penalty than mismatches on irrelevant covariates. Our ability to learn flexible distance metrics leads to matches that are interpretable and useful for the estimation of conditional average treatment effects.
Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes after Attempted External Cephalic Version among Women with One Previous Cesarean Delivery.

Objective This study was aimed to evaluate success rates of (1) external cephalic version (ECV) among women with one prior cesarean delivery (CD) and (2) maternal and neonatal outcomes after ECV among women with prior CD. Study Design Two linked studies using U.S. Natality Database were performed. First we performed a retrospective cohort comparing ECV success rates of women with prior CD and women without prior CD. Then we compared the outcomes of TOLACs (trial of labor after cesarean delivery) that occurred after ECV with those that occurred without ECV. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate adverse outcomes. Results A total of 715 women had ECV after 36 weeks with prior CD and 9,976 had ECV without prior scar. ECV success rate with scar was 80.6% and without scar was 86.4% (p Conclusion Women with prior CD may have a decrease in the rate of successful ECV. While the absolute risks are low, ECV appears to increase risks of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes among women undergoing a trial of labor.
Statistical Characteristics of Long-Term High-Resolution Precipitable Water Vapor Data at Darwin

This paper studies the statistical characteristics of a unique long-term high-resolution precipitable water vapor (PWV) data set at Darwin, Australia, from 12 March 2002 to 28 February 2011. To und...
Fractals in architecture: The visual interest, preference, and mood response to projected fractal light patterns in interior spaces

Abstract The visual patterns of fractal stimuli on a computer screen and the brightness patterns of light projected onto room surfaces have independently been shown to influence human perceptual responses. It is not clear, however, what effect would result if the same fractal patterns were projected as light patterns on room surfaces. This paper reports on the results of three studies investigating visual interest, visual preference, and mood responses elicited by varying complexities of fractal light patterns projected on walls and floors of an interior space. The results suggest that fractal light patterns of medium to medium-high complexity (quantified by the fractal dimension D = 1.5–1.7) were significantly more visually interesting than other patterns. Crucially, viewing distance did not significantly influence visual interest or visual preference. Based on these studies, the use of medium to medium-high complexity fractal light patterns in interior spaces may be useful for enhancing occupants’ visual interest and mood.
Equivalent extensions of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations on hypersurfaces

We present a new formulation for the computation of solutions of a class of Hamilton Jacobi Bellman (HJB) equations on closed smooth surfaces of co-dimension one. For the class of equations considered in this paper, the viscosity solution of the HJB equation is equivalent to the value function of a corresponding optimal control problem. In this work, we extend the optimal control problem given on the surface to an equivalent one defined in a sufficiently thin narrow band of the co-dimensional one surface. The extension is done appropriately so that the corresponding HJB equation, in the narrow band, has a unique viscosity solution which is identical to the constant normal extension of the value function of the original optimal control problem. With this framework, one can easily use existing (high order) numerical methods developed on Cartesian grids to solve HJB equations on surfaces, with a computational cost that scales with the dimension of the surfaces. This framework also provides a systematic way for solving HJB equations on the unstructured point clouds that are sampled from the surface.
Benefits of pre-, pro- and Syn-biotics for lung angiogenesis in malnutritional rats exposed to intermittent hypoxia

Extremely low birth weight and reduced caloric intake have significant adverse effects on lung development and are risk factors for bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is highly involved in lung microvascular development, and may be affected by nutritional status. To test the hypothesis that suboptimal nutrition decreases VEGF signaling in formula-fed neonatal rats, and to determine whether supplementation with probiotics, prebiotics, or synbiotics ameliorate the effects, rat pups at birth (P0) were placed in room air (RA) or intermittent hypoxia (12%) during hyperoxia (50% O2) from birth to P3. The pups were either maternally-fed; or formula-fed with or without supplementation. Formula-fed pups were separated from their mothers at birth and hand-gavaged every 3 hours. Lung VEGF signaling was determined on P3. In RA, all formula-fed groups were significantly growth suppressed with decreased lung weights. Hyperoxia had a less remarkable effect on body weight; and mean lung weight was lower only in the unsupplemented formula-fed group. Lung VEGF was decreased in all formula-fed RA and hyperoxia groups, except the probiotics group. In RA, sVEGFR-1 levels were elevated in all formula-fed groups except the synbiotics group. However in hyperoxia, sVEGFR-1 levels were higher in the unsupplemented formula group. All genes involved in angiogenesis were downregulated in the formula-fed groups compared to maternally-fed. Formula feeding results in significant malnutrition associated with decreased lung size and lung VEGF levels in neonatal rat pups. Probiotic supplementation prevented the adverse effects of combined hyperoxia and suboptimal nutrition on lung VEGF suggesting preservation of angiogenesis.
Efficacy of Conventional Fungicides for Downy Mildew in Field-Grown Sweet Basil in the United States.

Application of fungicides has been the main management practice for Peronospora belbahrii, which is the most important pathogen of sweet basil in the United States. Six replicated experiments were ...
Review of Communication Alternatives in Autism: Perspectives on Typing and Spelling Approaches for the Nonspeaking

This manuscript reviews Edlyn Vallejo Pena’s edited volume, Communication Alternatives in Autism: Perspectives on Typing and Spelling Approaches for the Nonspeaking (2019). The volume includes ten chapters by autistic authors active in the field as activists, self-advocates, artists and leaders, along with Pena’s experiences as a parent and original research. A Review of Communication Alternatives in Autism: Perspectives on Typing and Spelling Approaches for the Nonspeaking (2019) by Casey L. Woodfield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://rdsjournal.org. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.rds.hawaii.edu.
Profit Maximization for Geographically Dispersed Green Data Centers

This paper aims at maximizing the profit associated with running geographically dispersed green data centers, which offer multiple classes of service. To this end, we formulate an optimization framework which relies on the accuracy of the G/D/1 queue in characterizing the workload distribution, and taps on the merits of the workload’s decomposition into green and brown workloads served by green and brown energy resources, respectively. Moreover, we take into account not only the service level agreements between the data centers and clients but also different deregulated electricity markets of data centers located at different regions. We prove the convexity of our optimization problem, and the performance of the proposed workload distribution strategy is evaluated via extensive simulations.
The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes: by Orin Starn and Miguel La Serna, New York, WW Norton, 2019, 416 pp., $28.95 (hardback), ISBN: 978-0-393-29280-0

Anthropologist Orin Starn and historian Miguel La Serna have co-written a lively narrative synthesis about one of the last socialist guerrilla uprisings of the twentieth century—Sendero Luminoso (S...
Protein Phosphorylation: A Historical Overview

This first lecture will offer a rapid overview of one of the most prevalent mechanisms organisms have devised to regulate their cellular function, that is, phosphorylation-dephosphorylation of proteins.