cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Exceptional minimal sets of C 1+α -group actions on the circle

We prove two extensions of Sacksteder's Theorem for the action A : Γ × S 1 → S 1 of a finitely-generated group Γ on the circle by C 1+α -diffeomorphisms. If the action A has an exceptional minimal set K with a gap endpoint of exponential orbit growth rate, or if the action A on K has positive topological entropy, then the exceptional set K is hyperbolic. That is, A has a linearly contracting fixed-point in K . A key point of the paper is to prove a foliation closing lemma using the foliation geodesic flow technique.
Anti-circumvention misuse, or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the DMCA

The anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act grants owners of technologically protected content a new right of access entirely separate from the protection of content under copyright law. This new right of access, which some commentators have dubbed "paracopyright," has already been employed in litigation arguably calculated to suppress competition in uncopyrighted items related to the sale of copyrighted works. Such use of the anti-circumvention statute reaches well beyond the Congressional purpose of preventing unauthorized copying. In the past, such leveraging of patent rights or of copyright has been curbed by the equitable doctrine of misuse. An extension of the misuse doctrine to "paracopyright" may be the proper remedy to curtail overreaching uses of the anti-circumvention right.
The great amalgam debate

Mercury amalgam has been used for dental fillings since the 1830s. Over that time, questions have occasionally been raised with regard to its safety, but a recent TV programme in America has re-focussed attention in this area
Transcriptional downregulation of a mouse Golgi mannosidase gene following Salmonella typhimurium uptake into murine macrophages

Uptake of Salmonella typhimurium into murine macrophage cells caused transcriptional downregulation of a mRNA population in eukaryotic cells after 2 h of infection. The cloned cDNA that was identified showed extensive homology with a murine α1,2-mannosidase gene involved in N-oligosaccharide processing. These findings suggest a disruption of eukaryotic protein processing after phagocytosis of S. typhimurium by the murine macrophage cells.
Reinfection with Ehrlichia chaffeensis in a Liver Transplant Recipient

Human monocytic ehrlichiosis is an emerging infection caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis, but reinfection with this agent has not been described. We report a case of reinfection with E. chaffeensis after a 2-year interval in a 56-year-old liver transplant recipient with frequent tick attachments.
Riemannian DNA, Inequalities and Their Applications

The main purpose of this survey article is to present the new type of Riemannian curvature invariants (Riemannian DNA) and the sharp inequalities, involving these invariants and the squared mean curvature, originally introduced and established in [7,8]. These Riemannian DNA affect the behavior in general of the Riemannian manifold and they have several interesting connections to several areas of mathematics. For instance, they give rise to new obstructions to minimal and Lagrangian isometric immersions. Moreover, these invariants relate closely to the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplacian on a Riemannian manifold. These invariants together with the sharp inequalities gives rise naturally to the notion of “ideal immersions” or the notion of “the best ways of living”. We also explain the physical meaning of the notion of ideal immersions for Riemannian manifolds in a Riemannian space form based again on the sharp inequalities.
Comparative modeling of low-frequency piezomagnetoelastic energy harvesters:

In order to design efficient low-frequency piezomagnetoelastic energy harvesters, an effective analytical model which considers the effects of the electromechanical coupling and the nonlinear magne...
Quantitative interrogation of micropatterned biomolecules by surface force microscopy

Synthetic biomaterials are widely used in medical implants with success in improving and extending quality of life. However, these materials were not originally designed to interact with cells through specific signaling pathways. As a result, the interaction with the body is mediated through passive adsorption of a disorganized protein monolayer. Next generation biomaterials have been proposed to be active in modifying the biological response of the host through the incorporation of specific biorecognition moieties. An important tool in the development of these novel active biomaterials is the scanning force microscope (SFM). The SFM allows for interrogation of bioactive biomaterials in mapping or spectroscopic modes. In this work, micropatterned protein surfaces were prepared using biomolecules implicated in wound healing. The surfaces were imaged via SFM and the specific binding forces between surface associated biomolecules and antibody functionalized tips were quantified.
Periodic Green's functions for linear arrays in free-space and near layered media

We present a method for rapidly calculating the scalar and dyadic periodic Green's functions for a linear periodic array of sources both in free-space and near a layered medium.
A novel concept for monitoring partial discharge on EHV-cable system accessories using no active components at the accessories

A sensitive, directional coupling sensor attached to a high-voltage power transmission cable couples enough signal from a partial discharge to an electrooptic modulator to measurably change the amplitude of an optical carrier. The demonstrated sensitivity and bandwidth lead to the design of a very robust system for measuring partial discharge that requires no power at the site of the sensor. System concept and experimental results are shown and future options discussed.
Mitigating power-supply induced delay variations using self adjusting clock buffers

Aggressive technology scaling tends to reduce integrated circuits resilience against environmental variations. In this paper, we present an adaptive clock buffer circuit design and an adaptive clock distribution network (CDN) to improve chip performance and reliability in the presence of on-chip power-supply variations. The adaptive buffer provides a supply insensitive propagation delay to minimize the supply variation induced clock skew in clock distribution networks. Experimental results show that our technique reduces supply variation induced clock skew by at least 85% in a typical seven level clock tree architecture as compared to a nonadaptive worst case CDN, which represents up to 40% reduction in cycle time in state of the art processors.
Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930

Starting with Dreiser's "Sister Carrie," Meyerowitz uses turn-of-the-century Chicago as a case study to explore both the image and the reality of single women's experiences as they lived apart from their families. In an era when family all but defined American womanhood, these women neither victimized nor liberated created new social ties and subcultures to cope with the conditions of urban life. "Brilliant. . . . Gracefully written, and mercifully free from the jargon that often plagues social history, this book is a welcome addition to literature in women's, urban, and black history." Ann Schofield, " American Historical Review" "Meyerowitz provides a splendid portrait of her subjects. . . . She deserves praise for her demographic spadework, sensitive analysis, and engaging style. This is a valuable and rewarding book." Nancy Woloch, "Journal of American History " "A state-of-the-art product of the new women's history. . . . Meyerowitz's work is an extremely useful contribution, a corrective to over-concentration on women in family, an opening to new ways of looking at single women." Linda Gordon, "Women's Review of Books " ""Women Adrift" not only brings together many of the most exciting insights of women's history in recent years, but Meyerowitz's particular angle on issues of work, family, sexuality, mass culture and relationships among women also encourages us to rethink these insights." Ileen A. DeVault, "Historian ""
Design of Block-Coded Communication Systems

The design and performance of frequency multiplexed, phase-modulated communication systems is presented. In particular, the transmitter is assumed to be an ideal phase modulator which modulates a RF carrier with N phase-modulated, sinusoidal data subcarriers, and in general, M binary-valued composite signals. The receiver is a superheterodyne phase-locked loop (PLL) whose output is applied to one of N subcarrier extractors. Each subcarrier extractor consists of a subcarrier tracking loop, a timing loop, and a data detector which operates as a cross-correlator. The paper presents results which allow the design engineer to allocate the total power between N modulated data subcarriers, M binary-valued signals, and the carrier signal. The total power in the distortion component is computed. Finally, a method is given which allows the communications engineer to select the data rate and the modulation factor of each data subcarrier which will minimize the probability that the data detector will err in the decision process. The results are sufficiently general so that they may be used in designing block-coded systems. Such systems have application in various branches of aerospace communication engineering, e.g., channelized communication satellites and deep-space probes.
Circumvention of Nuclear Factor κB-Induced Chemoresistance by Cytoplasmic-Targeted Anthracyclines

Nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) has been implicated in inducible chemoresistance against anthracyclines. In an effort to improve the cytotoxicity of anthracyclines while reducing their cardiotoxic effects, we have developed a novel class of extranuclear-localizing 14-O-acylanthracyclines that bind to the phorbol ester/diacylglycerol-binding C1b domain of conventional and novel protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms, thereby promoting an apoptotic response. Because PKCs have been shown to be involved in NF-κB activation, in this report, we determined the mechanism of NF-κB activation by N-benzyladriamycin-14-valerate (AD 198) and N-benzyladriamycin-14-pivalate (AD 445), two novel 14-O-acylanthracylines. We show that the induction of NF-κB activity in response to drug treatment relies on the activation of PKC-δ and NF-κB-activating kinase (NAK), independent of ataxia telengectasia mutated and p53 activities. In turn, NAK activates the IKK complex through phosphorylation of the IKK-2 subunit. We find that neither NF-κB activation nor ectopic expression of Bcl-XL confers protection from AD 198-induced cell killing. Overall, our data indicate that activation of novel PKC isoforms by cytoplasmic-targeted 14-O-acylanthracyclines promotes an apoptotic response independent of DNA damage, which is unimpeded by inducible activation of NF-κB.
An unusual dimeric structure and assembly for TLR4 regulator RP105 – MD-1

RP105-MD-1 modulates the TLR4-MD-2-mediated, innate immune response against bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The crystal structure of the bovine 1:1 RP105-MD-1 complex bound to a putative endogenous lipid at 2.9 A resolution shares a similar overall architecture to its homolog TLR4-MD-2 but assembles into an unusual 2:2 homodimer that differs from any other known TLR-ligand assembly. The homodimer is assembled in a head-to-head orientation that juxtaposes the N-terminal leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) of the two RP105 chains, rather than the usual tail-to-tail configuration of C-terminal LRRs in ligand-activated TLR dimers, such as TLR1-TRL2, TLR2-TLR6, TLR3-TLR3 and TLR4-TLR4. Another unusual interaction is mediated by an RP105-specific asparagine-linked glycan, which wedges MD-1 into the co-receptor binding concavity on RP105. This unique mode of assembly represents a new paradigm for TLR complexes and suggests a molecular mechanism for regulating LPS responses.
Evaluation of 18279 Blocks in a Pediatric Hospital

Copyright © 2015, Iranian Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ISRAPM). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited. Dear editor,
CONVECTION IN A ROTATING ANNULUS UNIFORMLY HEATED FROM BELOW

We present a linear stability analysis, to second order in initial amplitude, of Benard convection of a Boussinesq fluid in a thin rotating annulus for modest Taylor numbers T ([les ] 104). The work is motivated in part by the desire to study further a mechanism for maintaining, through horizontal Reynolds stresses induced in the convection, the sun's ‘equatorial acceleration’, which has been demonstrated for a rotating convecting spherical shell by Busse & Durney. The annulus is assumed to have stress free, perfectly conducting top and bottom (which allows separation of the equations) and non-conducting non-slip sides. A laboratory experiment which fulfills these conditions (except perhaps the free bottom) is being developed with H. Snyder.We study primarily annuli with gap-width to depth ratios a of order unity. The close, non-slip side-walls produce a number of effects not present in the infinite plane case, including overstability at high Prandtl numbers P, and multiple minima in Rayleigh number R on the stability boundary. The latter may give rise to vacillation. The eigenfunctions for stationary convection for a = 2, T [lsim ] 2000 clearly show momentum of the same sense as the rotation is transported from the inner to the outer half of the annulus, corresponding to transport toward equatorial latitudes on the sphere. The complete second-order solutions for the induced circulations indeed give faster rotation in the outer half, except for large P (> 102), in which case thermal stresses dominate. At all P, this differential rotation is qualitatively a thermal wind. Overstable convective cells, and stationary cells at higher T, induce more complicated differential rotations.
Real-time implementation of a measurement-based adaptive wide-area control system considering communication delays

A wide-area control system (WACS) uses wide-area measurement signals to provide auxiliary stabilising controls to power system devices. An adaptive WACS has been designed to provide damping control signals to the excitations of generators. The delays in signal transmission and the reliability of the communication network is a major concern with wide-area measurement- based control. The adaptive WACS is designed to compensate for a wide range of communication delays and provide robust damping to mitigate system oscillations. A single simultaneous recurrent neural network is used in the realisation of the adaptive WACS for both identification and control of the power system. The WACS has been implemented on a digital signal processor and its performance is evaluated on a power system implemented on a real-time platform - the real-time digital simulator. The additional damping provided by the WACS is enumerated using Prony analysis.
AN OBSERVATION OF SINGING BY A FEMALE-PLUMAGED CANADA WARBLER

Abstract I report an observation of singing by a Canada Warbler (Wilsonia canadensis) in basic or female plumage. The individual was observed three times over a period of 5 days. The timing of the observation in the annual cycle of this species suggests this to be the first reported example of singing by a female Canada Warbler. Previous reports of female song in the congeneric Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla) and Hooded Warbler (Wilsonia citrina) support this inference.
Models for funding clinical dental education: what's likely and what's not.

The Macy study team explored six strategies for dealing with the financial problems of dental schools: 1) increased public funding; 2) regionalization; 3) closer integration with medical schools; 4) reorganization of graduate dental education programs; 5) community-based dental education; and 6)
Effects of sleep deprivation in neonatal rats

This investigation represents the first systematic study of sleep homeostasis in developing mammals that spans the preweaning and postweaning periods. Neonatal rats from 12 to 24 days of postnatal ...
Two-stage radio-frequency interferometer sensors

We show that simple radio-frequency (RF) interferometers can have slow-wave positive group delay (PGD) or negative group delay (NGD), as well as superluminal propagation (SP) regions, due to a destructive interference process. These properties are easily tunable, which makes RF interferometers unique among systems that have NGD and SP regimes. A two-stage interferometer arrangement, which includes a first stage interferometer in the material-under-test path of a second stage, has significantly improved sensitivity in comparison with a one-stage reference interferometer. With a power divider based first stage and at its maximum NGD frequency, the frequency sensitivity improvement is as high as 7 times. With a quadrature based first stage, the sensitivity is increased by as much as 20 times. Sensitivity improvements are also observed at PGD and SP frequency regions.
Association of Slopes of Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate With Post–End-Stage Renal Disease Mortality in Patients With Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease Transitioning to Dialysis

Abstract Objective To investigate the association of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) slopes before dialysis initiation with cause-specific mortality after dialysis initiation. Patients and Methods In this retrospective cohort study of 18,874 US veterans who had transitioned to dialysis from October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2011, we examined the association of pre–end-stage renal disease (ESRD) eGFR slopes with all-cause, cardiovascular, and infection-related mortality during the post-ESRD period over a median follow-up of 2.0 years (interquartile range, 1.1-3.2 years). Associations were examined using Cox models with adjustment for potential confounders. Results Before the 18,874 patients transitioned to dialysis, 4485 (23.8%), 5633 (29.8%), and 7942 (42.1%) experienced fast, moderate, and slow eGFR decline, respectively, and 814 (4.3%) had increasing eGFR (defined as eGFR slopes of less than −10, −10 to less than −5, −5 to 2 per year). During the study period, a total of 9744 all-cause, 2702 cardiovascular, and 604 infection-related deaths were observed. Compared with patients with slow eGFR decline, those with moderate and fast eGFR decline had a higher risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.06; 95% CI, 1.00-1.11; and HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04-1.18, respectively) and cardiovascular mortality (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.01-1.23 and HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.00-1.27, respectively). In contrast, increasing eGFR was only associated with higher infection-related mortality (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.03-2.17). Conclusion Rapid eGFR decline is associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, and increasing eGFR is associated with higher infection-related mortality among incident dialysis cases.
CXCL11-Armed oncolytic poxvirus elicits potent antitumor immunity and shows enhanced therapeutic efficacy

ABSTRACTWe have armed a tumor-selective oncolytic vaccinia virus (vvDD) with the chemokine (CK) CXCL11, in order to enhance its ability to attract CXCR3+ antitumor CTLs and possibly NK cells to the tumor microenvironment (TME) and improve its therapeutic efficacy. As expected, vvDD-CXCL11 attracted high numbers of tumor-specific T cells to the TME in a murine AB12 mesothelioma model. Intratumoral virus-directed CXCL11 expression enhanced local numbers of CD8+ CTLs and levels of granzyme B, while reducing expression of several suppressive molecules, TGF-β, COX2, and CCL22 in the TME. Unexpectedly, we observed that vvDD-CXCL11, but not parental vvDD, induced a systemic increase in tumor-specific IFNγ-producing CD8+ T cells in the spleen and other lymph organs, indicating the induction of systemic antitumor immunity. This effect was associated with enhanced therapeutic efficacy and a survival benefit in tumor-bearing mice treated with vvDD-CXCL11, mediated by CD8+ T cells and IFNγ, but not CD4+ T cells. Thes...
HUD Doesn't Need New Legislative Authority to Better Integrate Climate Change Resilience into Its Disaster Recovery Program

This article examines the interaction between the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s community development block grant disaster recovery program (CDBGDR) and the federal and state governments' resilience and climate adaptation priorities. It identifies and analyzes the statutes that have guided HUD's approach to date, by considering both key statutory language and legislative history. It also examines forms of "soft guidance" issued by HUD for use by various stakeholders, including both HUD CDBG-DR program officers and the state and local officials that interact with them. In reviewing this material, the article identifies a tension between the requirement that all projects funded by CDBG-DR "tie back" to the most recent disaster, and the logic of resilience, which holds that one should always build or rebuild with an eye to the next disaster. There are some signs of reconciliation: Rebuild By Design and the National Disaster Resilience Competition promote resilience to future disasters — at least in the context of recovery from Hurricane Sandy — and HUD appears to be taking action on climate change through its Climate Adaptation Plan and newly formed Climate Council. The article argues for carrying this potential reconciliation forward into future disaster recovery contexts and also into other HUD programs that relate in less obvious ways to disaster recovery and resilience to climate change, and proposes several ways the agency might do so.
Crohn's colitis-induced myocarditis

Myocarditis can be idiopathic or arise in response to numerous systemic insults. Myocarditis occurring in the setting of an exacerbation of inflammatory bowel disease is a rare extra-intestinal manifestation of both ulcerative and Crohn's-related colitis. Here, we present a unique case of a 56-year-old female patient presenting with an acute Crohn's colitis flare that was eventually complicated by myocarditis. Our case is unique in that we clearly delineate the clinical course and development of myocarditis in a patient with focal myocardial inflammation in a pattern that is atypical for myocarditis. .
Sampling and Sample Processing in Pesticide Residue Analysis

Proper sampling and sample processing in pesticide residue analysis of food and soil have always been essential to obtain accurate results, but the subject is becoming a greater concern as approximately 100 mg test portions are being analyzed with automated high-throughput analytical methods by agrochemical industry and contract laboratories. As global food trade and the importance of monitoring increase, the food industry and regulatory laboratories are also considering miniaturized high-throughput methods. In conjunction with a summary of the symposium "Residues in Food and Feed - Going from Macro to Micro: The Future of Sample Processing in Residue Analytical Methods" held at the 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry, this is an opportune time to review sampling theory and sample processing for pesticide residue analysis. If collected samples and test portions do not adequately represent the actual lot from which they came and provide meaningful results, then all costs, time, and efforts involved in implementing programs using sophisticated analytical instruments and techniques are wasted and can actually yield misleading results. This paper is designed to briefly review the often-neglected but crucial topic of sample collection and processing and put the issue into perspective for the future of pesticide residue analysis. It also emphasizes that analysts should demonstrate the validity of their sample processing approaches for the analytes/matrices of interest and encourages further studies on sampling and sample mass reduction to produce a test portion.
Moving Beyond 'Mickey Mouse': Kalle Lyytinen's Pioneering Research into Digital Infrastructures

Digital infrastructures under-gird virtually every area of human endeavor. Kalle Lyytinen was one of the early visionaries inquiring into the topic and his work provides a strong foundation of conceptual and empirical research. Lyytinen's empirical work spans multiple levels of analysis associated with digital infrastructures: including industrial fields, inter-organizational, and intra-organizational levels. This paper is a brief overview of Kalle Lyytinen's foundational work on digital infrastructures.
Introducing the Ad ECG: How the Set-Top Box Tracks the Lifeline of Television

ABSTRACT Great sums of marketing dollars are spent on television advertising time in the absence of precise audience-size information for individual advertising units. This paper uses granular data from a large system of set-top boxes to observe how television audiences decline and rebuild during expensive commercial time. the data reveal greater set delivery declines from programs to commercial units than has often been anticipated. Moreover, variation in set delivery was seen within particular shows. the results suggest that advertisers should use detailed commercial audience information to choose shows and negotiate media prices.
Mechanisms of pHi recovery from NH4Cl-induced acidosis in anoxic isolated turtle heart: a 31P-NMR study

Mechanisms of intracellular pH (pHi) recovery from NH4Cl-induced acidosis were investigated on isolated perfused hearts of the turtle, Chrysemys picta bellii, using 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy at 20 degrees C. A major goal was to assess the activity of these mechanisms under anoxic conditions. Based on calculated buffer capacity and a pHi recovery range at 20 degrees C of 6.75-6.95 (normal pHi 7.2-7.4), mean H' efflux rate during perfusion with CO2-free N-tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid (TES)-buffered Ringer was only 15% (normoxia) and 25% (anoxia) of that with HCO3-buffered Ringer. With HCO3 solution, anoxic H1 efflux rate was approximately 50% of normoxia (0.333 vs. 0.645 mmol.l-1.min-1), but in TES solution, H1 efflux rate was unaffected by anoxia. To further characterize the transporters, we used blockers [the Na(+)-H+ antiport inhibitor 5-(N-ethyl-N-isopropyl)-amiloride (EIPA) and the anion exchanger inhibitor 4,4'diisothiocyanostilbene-2, 2'-disulfonic acid (DIDS)], ion substitution, and temperature change. EIPA (10 microM) inhibited H+ efflux rate by 40% in anoxic TES solution; DIDS (0.5 mM) blocked H+ efflux rate by 85% in anoxic HCO3 solution. No pHi recovery was observed in either normoxic or anoxic Na(+)-free solutions, but normal recovery was observed in the absence of extracellular Cl-. Recovery of pHi occurred 2-3 times faster at 30 degrees C than at 20 degrees C. ATP was unaffected by any manipulation in this study, whereas creatine phosphate (CP) fell during anoxia, and both CP and mechanical performance changed in parallel to pHi. We conclude that pHi regulation functions during anoxia, although at a reduced rate, and that recovery from acidosis is dominated, during both normoxia and anoxia, by a DIDS-sensitive Na+ and HCO3(-)-dependent mechanism, whereas EIPA-sensitive Na(+)-H+ antiport plays a less important role.
Full-Wave Scattering and Imaging Characterization of Realistic Trees for FOPEN Sensing

The electromagnetic characterization of realistic tree structures is performed to facilitate the development of low-frequency (P-band) foliage penetration radars. The full-wave approach employs a parallelized 3-D finite-difference time-domain algorithm deployed on high-performance computing systems to simulate the far-field scattering responses from scenes. The backscattering behaviors of a single tree are first considered as a function of frequency, polarization, signal incidence angle, and structural fidelity, and then, large-scale simulations are carried out to examine the responses of a forest stand in both the frequency and imaging domains. The results featured are from the first phase of an ongoing study to investigate the feasibility of applying large-scale electromagnetic simulations to support airborne-based sensing of obscured ground targets.
LUPUS NEPHRITIS : NOVEL IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE MODALITIES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystemic disease characterized by alterations in the regulation of both cellular and humoral immune responses. B cell hyperactivity and genetic aberrations lead to formation of compliment-fixing IgG autoantibodies including anti-DNA and anti-nucleosome antibodies. Pathological T cell clones that recognize double-stranded DNA and nucleosomes further drive B cell production of DNA autoantibodies. Deposition of autoantibodies within the skin, kidney, brain, and other organ systems contributes to the pathophysiology and clinical manifestations of SLE. A growing body of experimental evidence indicates that DNA antibodies contribute to the histological changes observed in lupus nephritis. The binding of anti-DNA and other autoantibodies to basement membranes and other cellular structures within the glomerulus results in activation of compliment and recruitment of inflammatory cells into the glomerulus. The use of high-dose steroid hormones and cytotoxic agents have improved patient and renal survival, but are associated with major infection, infertility, osteoporosis, and secondary malignancies. New pharmacological approaches to the treatment of lupus nephritis will include drugs that deplete specific B cell clones involved in the synthesis of nephritogenic autoantibodies as well as the blocking of signal transduction pathways required for antigen-dependent antibody synthesis. Novel clonal-specific approaches to immunosuppression in patients with SLE offer the potential for precise targeting of the disease pathogenesis and for reducing toxic complications of treatment.
Learning to leverage existing information systems: Part 2. Case studies.

Article-at-a-Glance Background The ability to use available administrative and clinical information to produce performance reports is a key element of quality improvement. Six health care systems were identified that have done a particularly effective or innovative job of creating and implementing performance measurement tools and systems by using data available in existing clinical and administrative information systems: Dean Health System (Madison, WI), Sharp HealthCare (San Diego), Henry Ford Health System (Detroit), Scripps Health (San Diego), Legacy Health System (Portland, OR), and Lovelace Health System (Albuquerque). Summary Thoughts Interest in comparative performance information for health care organizations remains strong. The perfect measure set has not yet been invented. Every measure has one or more flaws, as do the data systems available to support them. Managers may take comfort, however, in the knowledge that performance measures need not be perfect to be useful. Measures tend to improve when people use the data to inform decisions that matter. Even the most accurate data, though, are not useful if there is either too much or too little "organizational distance" between the unit of analysis for the data and the unit of control for making change. Some systems have adopted a layered approach to performance measurement, in which measures are aggregated for reporting and use at the level of major operating units or divisions and then disaggregated for reporting and use at smaller levels and eventually to the level of individual clinicians.
Endpoint: When revision arthroplasty is no longer an option

Abstract The volume of revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) is increasing. While the tools to address these complex patients have improved over recent decades, hip reconstructive surgeons will no-doubt be confronted with difficult cases, and the consideration of salvage procedures must be undertaken. In the face of significant medical comorbidities, chronic infection, soft tissue concerns, and bone loss there comes a time when the risk of revision, both in terms of complication as well as poor outcome, becomes untenable. This article reviews the research surrounding the salvage options following failed THA, namely amputation, arthrodesis, resection arthroplasty, and benign neglect.
‘Enough to make a whore forswear her trade’: Prostitution as Woman’s ‘Oldest Profession’

Although many Shakespearean female characters are unjustly called ‘whore’, a few in addition to Doll Tearsheet may be identified as sex workers: the employer and friend of Doll in the Henriad,1 Mistress Nell Quickly; Mistress Overdone and the discussed but not seen Kate Keepdown in Measure for Measure;2 Phrynia and Timandra of Timon of Athens; the Courtesan of The Comedy of Errors; and the Bawd of Pericles, who, with her husband Pander and employee Bolt, attempts to force the virgin Marina into the sex trade. To these may be added the ‘mother’ of them all, Venus of Shakespeare’s narrative poem Venus and Adonis, who will provide a context here but will be treated in more detail in Chapter 6. Bianca of Othello, as I have already argued in Chapter 2, is not a professional sex worker (though much criticism on the play regards her as such) but simply a woman who grants herself the same kind of sexual freedom that Cassio allows himself, so she will not be discussed in this chapter, which will focus on the professional sex workers as related to the ‘poetics’ of the societal milieu of the plays in which they appear.
Computing maximal tori using LiE and mathematica

This paper describes an algorithm for computing maximal tori of the reductive centralizer of a nilpotent element of an exceptional complex symmetric space. It illustrates also a good example of the use of Computer Algebra Systems to help answer important questions in the field of pure mathematics. Such tori play a fundamental role in several problems such as: classification of nilpotent orbits of real Lie groups [13], description of admissible nilpotent orbits of real Lie groups [14], [15], [16], [17], classification of spherical nilpotent orbits [8], [9], determination of component groups of centralizers of nilpotents in symmetric spaces [7], [10].
Nonlinear * -Lie derivations of standard operator algebras

AbstractLet ℋ be an infinite dimensional complex Hilbert space and &#x1d49c; be a standard operator algebra on ℋ which is closed under the adjoint operation. We prove that every nonlinear *-Lie derivation δ of &#x1d49c; is automatically linear. Moreover, δ is an inner *-derivation.
Psycho–social factors influencing the quality of education of sen children

During the postwar period until the Declaration of Independence and during several following years there was prevailed a medical (clinical)–corrective model of educating SEN children (children with special needs) in Lithuania (Ruskus, 2001 and others). Today when Lithuania is undergoing reforms of educational system the social–interactive model of educating SEN children is being discussed more widely (Ambrukaitis, 1997; Ruskus, 2001; Alisauskas, 2001 and others). Nevertheless, there is almost no discussion in scientific literature or in pedagogues’ community concerning the similarities and differences of both educational trends, their essential advantages and disadvantages etc. The article discusses psychosocial aspects of SEN children’s education revealing the perception of social–interactive model as essential criteria for evaluating the quality of SEN children’s integrated education. Taking into consideration the results of questioning 923 pedagogues from 62 mainstream schools and 138 heads of schools the following conclusion was made that the investigation programmes of SEN children’s psychosocial education present sufficient information concerning preparation of schools to educate the disabled children and the quality of education. The programmes could be applied in complex assessment of work of educational institutions that work with SEN children.
Evidence for drift waves in the turbulence of reversed field pinch plasmas

A detailed characterization of the high-frequency range of the fluctuation spectrum in reversed field pinch plasmas is presented, revealing a variety of new features distinct from global tearing modes and the cascade that they are thought to drive. The anisotropic broadband spectrum of the fluctuating electric field is measured. The power in the fluctuating kinetic energy ( 1 / 2 ) m i n i V E × B 0 2 , previously measured to be smaller than the magnetic energy in the tearing-mode-unstable frequency range, becomes greater than and diverges from the magnetic energy above 60–80 kHz. The lack of equipartition at high frequencies coincides with the measured signatures of the independent fluctuation activity broadly consistent with the drift-wave fluctuations. Statistical coherence measurements reveal the mode activity that is compressive with a large amplitude in the vicinity of strong density gradients and with a phase speed comparable to the electron drift speed. There is a distinct high-frequency corre...
Liver transplantation after an acute episode of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis

Background/aims Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a common complication of advanced cirrhosis. Thus many potential transplant recipients will experience this problem while waiting for a liver donor. The minimal amount of time with the use of appropriate antibiotics after which a potential recipient can be transplanted safely is not currently known. We examined the effect of pretransplant SBP on subsequent post-transplant outcome. Materials and methods A retrospective review of the records of 100 liver transplant recipients having an episode of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis within 30 days of their transplant was performed. The records of transplant controls without an episode of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis were reviewed to compare the outcome between the two groups in terms of sepsis during the initial 30 post-transplant days. Results Post-transplant sepsis occurred in 8.8% of the cases and 10% of the controls (NSO). Only one episode in the study group could be ascribed to the pre-transplant episode of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and it occurred in an IgA deficient recipient. Conclusions These data suggest that SBP prior to liver transplantation does not lead to an increased rate of postoperative sepsis if 4 or more days of appropriate treatment for SBP are administered prior to liver transplantation.
A novel nuclear forensic tool involving deposit type normalized rare earth element signatures

Identifying the provenance of uranium-rich materials is a critical objective of nuclear forensic analysis. Rare earth element (REE) distributions within uranium ores are well-established forensic indicators, but quantifying and correlating trace element signatures for U ores to known deposits has thus far involved intricate statistical analyses. This study reports average chondrite normalized (CN)-REE signatures for important U deposit types worldwide, which are then employed to evaluate U ore paragenesis using a simple linear regression analysis. This technique provides a straightforward method that can aid in determining the deposit type of U ores based on their REE abundances, and combined with other forensic indicators (e.g. radiogenic isotope signatures) can provide essential provenance information for nuclear materials.
Ubc9 is the most highly expressed protein in melanoma infiltrated lymph nodes and its dowregulation sensitizes melanoma cells to the effect of chemotherapeutic agents

2448 Introduction: Metastatic melanoma is incurable with conventional therapy and this has been partially attributed to the intrinsic and acquired resistance of melanoma to cell death. To gain insights into the molecular profile of melanoma at different stages of progression we performed a proteomic analysis of melanoma infiltrated lymph nodes (MILN). Methods: MILN protein lysates obtained from 11 untreated patients with AJCC stage IIIB & C melanoma were labeled with Cy3 and incubated with a monoclonal antibody array. Results: Ubc9, the single SUMO E2 conjugating enzyme, was the most highly expressed protein in MILN protein lysates by antibody array analysis. Immunohistochemistry analysis of tissue biopsies obtained from different stages pf progression showed that ubc9 protein expression is increased from normal skin→atypical nevus→melanoma in situ →radial growth phase melanoma→metastatic growth phase melanoma. Transient transfection of melanoma cell lines with small interfering RNA targeting Ubc9 (siUbc9) had no effect in cell cycle but significantly increased cell death and decreased cell proliferation. The effect on cell death was attributed both to apoptotic and to non-apoptotic (necrotic) mechanisms. Treatment of melanoma cells with cisplatin (20nM) and paclitaxel (20nM) for 24 hours, or ionizing radiation (50Gy) had a synergistic effect in inducing apoptosis, as detected by annexin V/PI flow cytometric staining. This synergy was more pronounced 2 days after the timepoint of maximum suppression of Ubc9 protein (48 hours). Although all three treatments sensitized melanoma cells to apoptosis, cisplatin showed the highest degree of synergism (40% cell death in siUbc9 vs. 8% in siRNA controls). Discussion: Ubc9 protein is highly expressed in melanoma-infiltrated lymph nodes and may play an important role in melanoma progression. In established melanoma Ubc9 is fundamental for cell survival and may be considered as an important therapeutic target synergizing with conventional therapy to reverse resistance. Studies are under way determine the mechanism of cell death and the role of DNA damage in the apoptotic process.
Tigr: Transforming Irregular Graphs for GPU-Friendly Graph Processing

Graph analytics delivers deep knowledge by processing large volumes of highly connected data. In real-world graphs, the degree distribution tends to follow the power law -- a small portion of nodes own a large number of neighbors. The high irregularity of degree distribution acts as a major barrier to their efficient processing on GPU architectures, which are primarily designed for accelerating computations on regular data with SIMD executions. Existing solutions to the inefficiency of GPU-based graph analytics either modify the graph programming abstraction or rely on changes to the low-level thread execution models. The former requires more programming efforts for designing and maintaining graph analytics; while the latter couples with the underlying architectures, making it difficult to adapt as architectures quickly evolve. Unlike prior efforts, this work proposes to address the above fundamental problem at its origin -- the irregular graph data itself. It raises a critical question in irregular graph processing: Is it possible to transform irregular graphs into more regular ones such that the graphs can be processed more efficiently on GPU-like architectures, yet still producing the same results? Inspired by the question, this work introduces Tigr -- a graph transformation framework that can effectively reduce the irregularity of real-world graphs with correctness guarantees for a wide range of graph analytics. To make the transformations practical, Tigr features a lightweight virtual transformation scheme, which can substantially reduce the costs of graph transformations, while preserving the benefits of reduced irregularity. Evaluation on Tigr-based GPU graph processing shows significant and consistent speedup over the state-of-the-art GPU graph processing frameworks for a spectrum of irregular graphs.
Critical-dimension grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering

With the advent of high brightness sources and fast detectors, there is a possibility for combining fast X-ray acquisition with high-speed data treatment to reach the timescale for an effective in-line characterization method. We will highlight two recent developments using Small Angle X-ray Scattering on nanoscale etched patterns: the first is the inclusion of a CD-SAXS tool, allowing the data treatment and simulations to reconstruct the form-factor, inside the Xi-cam framework; the second is the development of a high performance Grazing Incidence approach to reconstruct the shape of line profile. This study also shows the comparison between the line profiles reconstructed from both techniques as well as the profile extracted from cross-section SEM.
Examining variation in interstage mortality rates across the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative: do lower-mortality centres have lower-risk patients?

BACKGROUND Although interstage mortality for infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome has declined within the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative, variation across centres persists. It remains unclear whether centres with lower interstage mortality have lower-risk patients or whether differences in care may explain this variation. We examined previously established risk factors across National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative centres with lower and higher interstage mortality rates. METHODS Lower-mortality centres were defined as those with >25 consecutive interstage survivors. Higher-mortality centres were defined as those with cumulative interstage mortality rates >10%, which is a collaborative historic baseline rate. Baseline risk factors and perioperative characteristics were compared. RESULTS Seven lower-mortality centres were identified (n=331 patients) and had an interstage mortality rate of 2.7%, as compared with 13.3% in the four higher-mortality centres (n=173 patients, p<0.0001). Of all baseline risk factors examined, the only factor that differed between the lower- and higher-mortality centres was postnatal diagnosis (18.4 versus 31.8%, p=0.001). In multivariable analysis, there remained a significant mortality difference between the two groups of centres after adjusting for this variable: adjusted mortality rate was 2.8% in lower-mortality centres compared with 12.6% in higher-mortality centres, p=0.003. Secondary analyses identified multiple differences between groups in perioperative practices and other variables. CONCLUSIONS Variation in interstage mortality rates between these two groups of centres does not appear to be explained by differences in baseline risk factors. Further study is necessary to evaluate variation in care practices to identify targets for improvement efforts.
You say “Picosat”, I say “'CubeSat”: Developing a better taxonomy for secondary spacecraft

Secondary spacecraft are being put in orbit at the rate of hundreds per year, with each year smashing the record set by the previous. These “piggyback” missions (which reach orbit using the unused mass/volume in a launch vehicle) come from every source: universities, government labs, large contractors, startups and even art collectives (?!?!). There are Beepsats, journal-worthy science missions, operational sigint missions, radio Amateur missions, technology demonstrations and venture-capital-backed remote sensing missions. For today, secondary spacecraft are almost exclusively low-Earth-orbiting missions, though even that limitation is changing. Despite the breadth of mission sponsors, mission developers, mission types and orbital domains, our terminology is unchanged and contradictory: cubesat (or CubeSat), picosat, smallsat. More importantly, decisionmakers hear a phrase like “half of all CubeSats fail” and assume that there's something inherently flawed in the CubeSat concept — instead of recognizing that half of “all” CubeSats fail because hobbyists make up more than half of all CubeSats, and their ad hoc practices fail two-thirds of the time. In this paper, we propose two taxonomies for secondary spacecraft: the first, based on the type of mission developer (e.g., Hobbyist, Crafter, Industrialist) and the second based on the type of mission flown (e.g., constellation, experiment, short operational, long operational and extreme operational). We will contrast these taxonomies against the existing ones (such as NASA's Class A/B/C/etc). Finally, we will use these new taxonomies to parse our existing secondary spacecraft database to provide meaningful examinations of mission types, mission success rates and opportunities for further study.