cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of interactions between sulfonated polyacrylamide and sodium dodecylsulfonate-dodecylamine hydrochloride on adsorption

Abstract Interactions between ionic surfactants and anionic polyacrylamide in bulk solution were investigated using viscosity, precipitation and surface-tension measurements. Precipitation and redissolution phenomena were observed with the cationic-surfactant—anionic-polymer system. The effect of the surfactant and the polymer on adsorption of each other on hematite was also studied. Both positive and negative effects on adsorption of the polymer were obtained, depending on the surfactant charge and concentration, and pH. Surfactant adsorption, on the other hand, was found not to be affected by the presence of polymer under the conditions tested here. Changes in polymer adsorption on hematite as a result of surfactant addition are discussed in terms of the nature of possible polymer—surfactant interactions, surface-charge characteristics of the solid and the solution chemistry of the cationic surfactant employed in this study.
River Outflow of the Conterminous United States, 1939–1988

A record of 50 years of daily outflows through the boundaries of the continental United States has been assembled based on observations recorded by U.S. Geological Survey streamflow stations. Only stations with continuous records from 1939 through 1988 were included. These stations (197 total) are near the outlets of rivers located at the vicinity of the Canadian, Mexican, Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico), and Pacific borders of the continental United States. The drainage area of the selected stations covers 77% of the conterminous United States, whereas the existing network of gauging stations covers 83% of the conterminous U.S. area. Station daily data were aggregated over the entire boundary of the United States and were integrated in monthly and annual totals. The 50-year average annual streamflow divergence normalized by the aggregated drainage area is 210.2 mm yr−1 reaching a peak in April with 27.3 mm month−1 and a minimum in September with 8.7 mm month−1. The Mississippi–Missouri Basin comp...
Average and Local Structure, Debye Temperature, and Structural Rigidity in Some Oxide Compounds Related to Phosphor Hosts

The average and local structure of the oxides Ba2SiO4, BaAl2O4, SrAl2O4, and Y2SiO5 are examined to evaluate crystal rigidity in light of recent studies suggesting that highly connected and rigid structures yield the best phosphor hosts. Simultaneous momentum-space refinements of synchrotron X-ray and neutron scattering yield accurate average crystal structures, with reliable atomic displacement parameters. The Debye temperature ΘD, which has proven to be a useful proxy for structural rigidity, is extracted from the experimental atomic displacement parameters and compared with predictions from density functional theory calculations and experimental low-temperature heat capacity measurements. The role of static disorder on the measured displacement parameters, and the resulting Debye temperatures, are also analyzed using pair distribution function of total neutron scattering, as refined over varying distance ranges of the pair distribution function. The interplay between optimal bonding in the structure, s...
Who Benefits Most from Head Start? Using Latent Class Moderation to Examine Differential Treatment Effects.

Head Start (HS) is the largest federally funded preschool program for disadvantaged children. Research has shown relatively small impacts on cognitive and social skills; therefore, some have questioned its effectiveness. Using data from the Head Start Impact Study (3-year-old cohort; N = 2,449), latent class analysis was used to (a) identify subgroups of children defined by baseline characteristics of their home environment and caregiver and (b) test whether the effects of HS on cognitive, and behavioral and relationship skills over 2 years differed across subgroups. The results suggest that the effectiveness of HS varies quite substantially. For some children there appears to be a significant, and in some cases, long-term, positive impact. For others there is little to no effect.
An Experiment in Extemporaneous Conversation

Author's Summary.— In a course intended to supplement conversation classes with assigned topics—to approximate everyday use of the language—a wide range of material and many different devices of procedure were used. The chief benefit to the students was the ease of expression developed by extemporaneous conversation.
Rapid development of spoken language understanding grammars

To facilitate the development of spoken dialog systems and speech enabled applications, we introduce SGStudio (Semantic Grammar Studio), a grammar authoring tool that enables regular software developers with little speech/linguistic background to rapidly create quality semantic grammars for automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken language understanding (SLU). We focus on the underlying technology of SGStudio, including knowledge assisted example-based grammar learning, grammar controls and configurable grammar structures. While the focus of SGStudio is to increase productivity, experimental results show that it also improves the quality of the grammars being developed.
Campylobacter fetus bacteremia in a young healthy adult transmitted by khat chewing

Campylobacter fetus is a pathogen affecting almost exclusively patients with immunosuppression and chronic debilitating diseases. We report the case of a healthy young man with C. fetus bacteremia presenting with fever, hypotension and meningitis. The patient had no exposure to contaminated sources except from khat chewing, which we describe as a possible source of transmission for the first time.
Driving the meridional overturing in the Indian Ocean

Abstract Accumulating evidence points toward the surprising and puzzling conclusion that the overall deep upwelling velocity in the Indian Ocean is several times bigger than that in the Pacific. Recent bulk-formula calculations suggest that the mean surface heat flux per unit area may be much greater into the Indian than into the Pacific Ocean. The hypothesis is therefore offered that the anomalously large meridional overturning in the Indian Ocean, an element of the global thermohaline circulation, is driven locally by anomalously large heat-flux differential. A simple two-layered, two-dimensional model of the process is developed in order to compare relative upwelling rates to imposed heat fluxes. The comparison is promising, despite ambiguities in the upwelling evidence and gross uncertainties in present heat-flux estimates.
Damage Tolerance: A Status Report

The introduction of new materials such as advanced composites, leads to not only new attributes for aerospace structures, but also introduces new technological elements to be considered. Historically, structural aircraft design has progressed from wood structures (homogenous, anisotropic materials), to metallic structures (homogenous, isotopic materials), to advanced composite structures (homogenous, anisotropic materials). While the progression has come full circle so to speak, our technical knowledge in developing, understanding, and modeling the behavior of these materials has increased exponentially. For example, the Wright Brothers used wood structurally without understanding the nuances of anisotropy. As design experience changed to metallic structures, our understanding and modeling at the phenomenological level of homogeneity and isotropy in successful design practice became documented. With the introduction of advanced composite materials, the inherent anisotropy of such materials has led to new classes of failure mechanisms unlike previous experience with metallic materials. In addition to inherent anisotropy, such materials can be brittle, and the initiation and growth of damage remains to a degree as work in progress. This has led to a design approach which can be considered semi-empirical and relies on our continued and developing experience for design/certification. In this paper, we will explore the damage tolerance issues based on design requirements, current state of the art design and analysis, some selected examples, and concluding remarks.
A modal pushover analysis procedure for estimating seismic demands for buildings

Developed herein is an improved pushover analysis procedure based on structural dynamics theory, which retains the conceptual simplicity and computational attractiveness of current procedures with invariant force distribution. In this modal pushover analysis (MPA), the seismic demand due to individual terms in the modal expansion of the effective earthquake forces is determined by a pushover analysis using the inertia force distribution for each mode. Combining these ‘modal’ demands due to the first two or three terms of the expansion provides an estimate of the total seismic demand on inelastic systems. When applied to elastic systems, the MPA procedure is shown to be equivalent to standard response spectrum analysis (RSA). When the peak inelastic response of a 9-storey steel building determined by the approximate MPA procedure is compared with rigorous non-linear response history analysis, it is demonstrated that MPA estimates the response of buildings responding well into the inelastic range to a similar degree of accuracy as RSA in estimating peak response of elastic systems. Thus, the MPA procedure is accurate enough for practical application in building evaluation and design. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A physics-based model of frequency-dependent electrical characteristics of GaN MESFETs

In this paper, the applied bias, detrapping time and temperature dependences of frequency dispersion of output resistance and transconductance of a GaN MESFET are reported.
Seamless boost converter control in critical boundary condition for fuel cell power conditioning system

The boost converter operates either in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) or in continuous conduction mode (CCM). The operation mode is determined by the duty ratio, load and parameters of the boost converter. The plant model in DCM and CCM are different in the frequency domain response. Therefore, it will be difficult to design a controller with stable operation and fast transient response for both modes. Moreover, the boost converter will be unstable between DCM and CCM. In this paper, the proposed control strategy can transit between DCM and CCM seamlessly by adding a mode detector, the boost converter can be automatically operated by selecting of control loop in both operation modes. The proposed controller still has a voltage control loop in DCM and current/voltage control loops in CCM. Each controller is designed by considering the stability and response time. The proposed mode detector will be explained with a frequency domain analysis. Due to the wide range operation capability of the proposed control strategy, the proposed control strategy is suitable in the fuel cell portable applications. In addition, smooth operation of the converter will also be beneficial to the fuel cell stack reliability. A 20 W boost converter prototype is used to verify the performance of the proposed control scheme.
Lead identification to clinical candidate selection: drugs for Chagas disease

Chagas disease affects 8 million people worldwide and remains a main cause of death due to heart failure in Latin America. The number of cases in the United States is now estimated to be 300,000, b...
Partial Specification Frequency-Domain Least-Squares Filter Design and System Identification

Frequency-domain least-squares filter design is extended to the case that magnitude and phase are not specified for all test frequencies. Unspecified quantities are obtained by an iterative, alternating projection algorithm. Examples of gain-only and phase-only identification are provided, as well as filter design.
A Molecular Screening Method for Unisexual Ambystoma using Mitochondrial DNA

The geographical range of unisexual Ambystoma overlaps with four bisexual species that also breed in spring ponds. Several of these species are of conservation concern, and both adults and larvae can be difficult to distinguish morphologically from unisexuals. Here we present a rapid molecular method for screening unisexuals, whose mtDNA is most similar to Ambystoma barbouri. A 258 bp segment of the cytochrome b gene was amplified in six Ambystoma species and exemplar unisexuals by PCR using taxon-specific primers. An internal 113 bp segment was amplified only in unisexuals and A. barbouri using Universal forward and Hybrid reverse primers. Multisequence alignment comparing the nucleotide sequence where Hybrid reverse primer anneals revealed nucleotide diversity in this region among Ambystoma species. This simple method for discriminating between unisexuals and bisexuals, excluding A. barbouri, can be applied prior to further research on these declining species.
The Xenobiotic Compound 1,4-Bis(2-(3,5-Dichloropyridyloxy))Benzene Is an Agonist Ligand for the Nuclear Receptor CAR

A wide range of xenobiotic compounds are metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, and the genes that encode these enzymes are often induced in the presence of such compounds. Here, we show that the nuclear receptor CAR can recognize response elements present in the promoters of xenobiotic-responsive CYP genes, as well as other novel sites. CAR has previously been shown to be an apparently constitutive transactivator, and this constitutive activity is inhibited by androstanes acting as inverse agonists. As expected, the ability of CAR to transactivate the CYP promoter elements is blocked by the inhibitory inverse agonists. However, CAR transactivation is increased in the presence of 1,4-bis[2-(3,5-dichloropyridyloxy)]benzene (TCPOBOP), the most potent known member of the phenobarbital-like class of CYP-inducing agents. Three independent lines of evidence demonstrate that TCPOBOP is an agonist ligand for CAR. The first is that TCPOBOP acts in a dose-dependent manner as a direct agonist to compete with the inhibitory effect of the inverse agonists. The second is that TCPOBOP acts directly to stimulate coactivator interaction with the CAR ligand binding domain, both in vitro and in vivo. The third is that mutations designed to block ligand binding block not only the inhibitory effect of the androstanes but also the stimulatory effect of TCPOBOP. Importantly, these mutations do not block the apparently constitutive transactivation by CAR, suggesting that this activity is truly ligand independent. Both its ability to target CYP genes and its activation by TCPOBOP demonstrate that CAR is a novel xenobiotic receptor that may contribute to the metabolic response to such compounds.
Anthropology and Circumcision

This chapter reviews the anthropology of male and female circumcision over the past century. After surveying classic sociocultural and psychodynamic interpretations of male circumcision, I shift to the biblical and Jewish rite, focusing on gender symbolism and counter-hegemonic practice within European-Christian society. The chapter then reviews the relationship between male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa and reduced rates of HIV. Next, I address female circumcision, focusing again on symbolism but especially on highly impassioned debates over cultural relativism and human rights, medical complications, criticism and imperialism, and female agency versus brute patriarchy. What are the moral, political, and scientific obligations of anthropology to a cultural practice that is increasingly vilified in Western popular culture and jurisprudence? Should anthropology advocate eradication, contextualize Western opposition, or critique one's own bodily practices? Finally, I critically analyze the growing move...
Massively parallel breadth first search using a tree-structured memory model

Analysis of massive graphs has emerged as an important area for massively parallel computation. In this paper, it is shown how the Fresh Breeze trees-of-chunks memory model may be used to perform breadth-first search of large undirected graphs. Overall, the computation can be expressed as a data flow process wherein a set of vertices to be searched is partitioned into a set of sub-domains and processed independently by many concurrent tasks.The main contributions of the paper are listed below.• We present the first case study demonstrating the power of the Fresh Breeze program execution model (PXM) in the exploitation of fine-grain parallelism found in irregular applications such as graph algorithms.• We present a novel parallel breadth-first search algorithm which is fully determinate.• We describe a unique sparse vector representation that represents the set of adjacencies for each vertex.• We provide an experimental study and analysis of our implementation. An estimate is also made of the performance that might be achieved with a massively parallel system built according to Fresh Breeze principles.
Multiparty proactive communication in agent teamwork

Multiparty communication and proactive communication have each been studied extensively, but separately. A combinatorial approach would be to investigate proactive communication in a multiparty settings, aiming to support effective collaboration by leveraging the benefits of both. In this paper, we take a first attempt along this direction, providing formal definitions for multiparty proactive performatives. Such performatives not only result in an exchange of knowledge among teammates, but also in an increased awareness about teammates' mental states which can initiate additional helpful behaviors
Identification of disulfide bond isomerase substrates reveals bacterial virulence factors.

Summary Bacterial pathogens are exposed to toxic molecules inside the host and require efficient systems to form and maintain correct disulfide bonds for protein stability and function. The intracellular pathogen Francisella tularensis encodes a disulfide bond formation protein ortholog, DsbA, which previously was reported to be required for infection of macrophages and mice. However, the molecular mechanisms by which F. tularensis DsbA contributes to virulence are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that F. tularensis DsbA is a bifunctional protein that oxidizes and, more importantly, isomerizes complex disulfide connectivity in substrates. A single amino acid in the conserved cis-proline loop of the DsbA thioredoxin domain was shown to modulate both isomerase activity and F. tularensis virulence. Trapping experiments in F. tularensis identified over 50 F. tularensis DsbA substrates, including outer membrane proteins, virulence factors, and many hypothetical proteins. Six of these hypothetical proteins were randomly selected and deleted, revealing two novel proteins, FTL_1548 and FTL_1709, which are required for F. tularensis virulence. We propose that the extreme virulence of F. tularensis is partially due to the bifunctional nature of DsbA, that many of the newly identified substrates are required for virulence, and that the development of future DsbA inhibitors could have broad anti-bacterial implications.
Effect of technology on student class performance and class absence.

Background: This study examined the effect of instructional technology availability on the performance of students enrolled in a medical physiology course at a podiatric medical school. Methods: Multiple linear regression analysis was used to predict student overall test performance based on instructional technology, Medical College Admission Test score, undergraduate grade point average, and class absence. Results: The availability of instructional technology was associated with a small decline in mean test performance and a small increase in class absence. Class absence had a negative effect on test performance only when the technology was available. Total Medical College Admission Test score and grade point average were positively correlated with performance. Conclusions: Instructional technology did not enhance absentee student course performance and, indeed, hurt it. Its use as a means of providing access to additional lecture material needs to be reevaluated. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 102(6): 471–476,...
Expression of CD161 (NKR-P1A) Defines Subsets of Human CD4 and CD8 T Cells with Different Functional Activities

A subset of T cells in human peripheral blood expresses CD161 (NKR-P1A) receptors that are primarily associated with NK cells. In the current study we isolated blood T cell subsets according to the expression of CD161 and examined their contents of naive, central memory, and effector memory cells and their capacities for proliferation, cytokine secretion, and natural cytolysis. We found that CD4+CD161- and CD8+CD161- subsets contained predominantly naive T cells that secreted high levels of IL-2 after in vitro stimulation, and CD4+CD161int and CD8+CD161int subsets contained predominantly effector and central memory T cells that secreted high levels of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. All of these subsets showed vigorous proliferation after stimulation in vitro, but none had NK lytic activity. Unexpectedly, the CD8+CD161+ cells contained an anergic CD8alpha+CD8betalow/-CD161high T cell subset that failed to proliferate, secrete cytokines, or mediate NK lytic activity.
Further Analysis Of Catastrophic LNG Spill Vapor Dispersion

This work was supported by U.S. Coast Guard Contract DTCG23-80-C-20029 with the University of Arkansas. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private ones of the writers and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Commandant or the Coast Guard at large.
Wither the Waterfront: Does the United States Need Federal Legislation to Preserve Working Waterfronts?

This article reviews legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives during four consecutive Congresses concerning the issues faced by working waterfronts. The objective of this article is to examine two working waterfronts bills, together with relevant testimony before two House subcommittee hearings, and to assess whether the proposed legislation is redundant to the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) and whether federal-level legislation is appropriate for addressing the identified issues. Contained in three sections the article provides: (1) an assessment of the challenges facing working waterfronts, (2) a description of the federal legislation proposed to address the issues, and (3) an analysis of whether the CZMA already provides the legislative authority to take needed actions. The article concludes with a discussion of how to address working waterfront issues within the context of the federal system of government.
Reflections: A Generation Later

This article, as part of a collection of reminisces by past chairs of the AALS Women in Legal Education Section, provides the author’s thoughts both on women and legal education over the past several decades, and on her time as chair in 1990.
Characterizing Anomalies of a Multicore ARMv7 Cluster with Parallel N-Body Simulations

ARM processors are beginning to gain attention from the HPC community due to its performance and energy efficiency characteristics. When developing HPC applications for such test beds developers assume that the computation resources available are homogeneous. However, we observed some anomalies when executing a relatively simple HPC application (an NBody simulation). One of the cores in all available nodes presented some variabilities in the computation time. This unexpected behavior was not observed on the second core of each node. In this paper, we aim at characterizing such anomalies, seen in a multicore ARMv7 8-node cluster. We also attempted to isolate and remove all possible interferences that could be contributing to this unexpected behavior, including compilation directives, dynamic processor frequency scaling and communication. Results show that such anomaly might be correlated with the architecture of the dual-core chip. We also analyze the effects of different deployments of MPI process in the total execution time and correlate them to the application and the test bed.
Computational Study of the Mono- and Dianions of SO2, SO3, SO4, S2O3, S2O4, S2O6, and S2O8

DFT theory (B3LYP/6-311+G(2d)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d)) has been used to characterize sulfoxy anions and dianions as large as S2O82-, while post-HF theory ([QCISD(T)/6-31+G(2df)]//MP2/6-31+G(d)) has been used for systems as large as S2O32-. Adiabatic and vertical ionization potentials have been computed to assess the gas-phase stability of the dianions. Three dianions (S2O62-, S2O82-, and SO42-·4H2O) are predicted to have positive vertical ionization energies. S2O62- is predicted to have a negative (exothermic) adiabatic ionization potential; however, a large predicted geometry change between the dianion and monoanion rationalizes the measurable experimental lifetime of the dianion in the gas phase. Isotropic hyperfine coupling constants for 33S have been calculated for the sulfoxy monoanions and compared with experiment.
Biology of the Gall-Former Procecidochares stonei on a Composite

In their treatment of California tephritids, Ecote and Blane (1963) state that the genus Procecidochares Hendel is largely North American, and that 5 of the 9 North American species have been collected in California. Not much is known of the biology of this group. However, some species are known to form galls on a variety of plants.
Liability of United Kingdom Securities Issuers Under United States Securities Laws

A suit to impose liability on United Kingdom issuers of securities on the London Stock Exchange was brought in the United States. This suit, seeking the extension of United States Federal Securities Laws to protect persons who purchased stock available only on the London Stock Exchange, was considered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In MCG, Inc. v. Great Western Energy Corp, the plaintiffs filed suit under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, and this act does not expressly confer jurisdiction on Federal Courts in extraterritorial securities transactions. In fact, the jurisdictional provisions of the United States Federal Securities Laws do not expressly indicate when American Federal Courts are empowered to adjudicate securities law disputes arising from extraterritorial transactions at all. Generally, therefore, the United States Federal Courts have no subject matter jurisdiction in wholly foreign transactions. In limited circumstances, however, some federal courts, especially those of the Second Circuit, have applied the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act to some extraterritorial transactions. In these instances, the federal courts have extended jurisdiction when they have concluded that there is a sufficiently significant effect on American interests to warrant such extension. These extensions of jurisdiction to foreign securities transactions have taken place in two specific settings. First, in situations where the conduct occurring outside the United States has an internal effect on American securities markets or American investors, and secondly, in situations where conduct occurred within the United States which had an impact outside the United States.
From lead optimization to NDA approval for a new antimicrobial: Use of pre-clinical effect models and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic mathematical modeling.

Abstract Because of our current crisis of resistance, particularly in nosocomial pathogens, the discovery and development of new antimicrobial agents has become a societal imperative. Changes in regulatory pathways by the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency place great emphasis on the use of preclinical models coupled with pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis to rapidly and safely move new molecular entities with activity against multi-resistant pathogens through the approval process and into the treatment of patients. In this manuscript, the use of the murine pneumonia system and the Hollow Fiber Infection Model is displayed and the way in which the mathematical analysis of the data arising from these models contributes to the robust choice of dose and schedule for Phase 3 clinical trials is shown. These data and their proper analysis act to de-risk the conduct of Phase 3 trials for anti-infective agents. These trials are the most expensive part of drug development. Further, given the seriousness of the infections treated, they represent the riskiest element for patients. Consequently, these preclinical model systems and their proper analysis have become a central part of accelerated anti-infective development. A final contention of this manuscript is that it is possible to embed these models and in particular, the Hollow Fiber Infection Model earlier in the drug discovery/development process. Examples of ‘dynamic driver switching’ and the impact of this phenomenon on clinical trial outcome are provided. Identifying dynamic drivers early in drug discovery may lead to improved decision making in the lead optimization process, resulting in the best molecules transitioning to clinical development.
Home visiting for first-time mothers and subsequent pregnancy spacing

The objective of the study was to determine the association of home visiting with subsequent pregnancy outcomes. Retrospective study of Ohio mothers delivering their first infant from 2007 to 2009. First, we compared mothers enrolled in home visiting with a matched eligible group. Second, we compared outcomes within home visiting based on program participation (low 100%). Time to subsequent pregnancy within 18 months was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression; logistic regression tested the likelihood of subsequent preterm birth. Of 1516 participants, 1460 were matched 1:1 to a comparison mother (n=2920). After multivariable adjustment, enrollment was associated with no difference in pregnancy spacing or subsequent preterm birth. Among those enrolled, moderate vs low participants had reduced risk of repeat pregnancy over 18 months (hazard ratio 0.68, P=0.003). Increased pregnancy spacing is observed among women with at least moderate home visiting participation.
Intracoronary Imaging, Cholesterol Efflux, and Transcriptomes After Intensive Statin Treatment: The YELLOW II Study

AbstractBackground: Despite extensive evidence demonstrating the beneficial effects of statins on clinical outcomes, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain elusive.Objectives: This study as...
Production challenges of TSOP Copper wire bonding

With the Copper wire bonding already occupying majority of production lines, there are many significant factors continue to surface out. The Copper wire bonding has also becomes very susceptible to production variability of small leaded packages such as Thin Small Outline Package (TSOP). The TSOP utilizes thin and flimsy leadframes, causing a lot challenges at 2nd bond (stitch). The stitch bonding shows high occurrences of pre-mature failures or wire breaks, while struggling to maintain good stitch bonding strength. Furthermore, the inconsistent stitch bonding can also cause inconsistent tail formation, subsequently affecting the formation of Free Air Ball (FAB) and 1st bond quality. With many DOEs (Design of Experiments), several improvements were executed to address the stitch forming issues. Some of these major actions include optimizing several parameters such as the 2nd bond force, wire looping speed, wire loop mode change and wire sequencing. However, even with the implementation of these improvement actions, the Copper wire bonding performance was only improved by 50%. More comprehensive mapping was extended into possible impact of leadframe location and design. Surprisingly, die attach process was found to be the confounding with the leadframe design. It looks like wire stitch formation at ground lead is not consistent, mostly affected by the die attach epoxy bleed and outgas. In order to obtain more robust Copper wire bonding performance, the die attach process was optimized accordingly. Without losing any die attach quality, optimized process provided much larger operating margin for Copper wire bonding. All the combined improvements managed to eliminate wire break occurrence, while maintaining the good bonding strength of 1st and 2nd bonds. The lessons learnt were very important and already embedded to all new Copper wire bonding projects in order to realize 1st pass success into production mode.
CYSTOID MACULAR EDEMA SECONDARY TO RITUXIMAB.

Background/Purpose:To describe a case of bilateral macular edema appearing after treatment with rituximab.Methods:This is a case report describing macular edema after rituximab infusions. The information was collected retrospectively through chart review.Results:A 53-year-old patient known for IgG4-
Validation of phantom-based harmonization for patient harmonization.

Purpose To improve the precision of multicenter clinical trials, several efforts are underway to determine scanner-specific parameters for harmonization using standardized phantom measurements. The goal of this study was to test the correspondence between quantification in phantom and patient images and validate the use of phantoms for harmonization of patient images. Methods The National Electrical Manufacturers’ Association image quality phantom with hot spheres was scanned on two time-of-flight PET scanners. Whole-body [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET scans were acquired of subjects on the same systems. List-mode events from spheres (diam.: 10-28 mm) measured in air on each scanner were embedded into the phantom and subject list-mode data from each scanner to create lesions with known uptake with respect to the local background in the phantom and each subject's liver and lung regions, as a proxy to characterize true lesion quantification. Images were analyzed using the contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) typically used in phantom studies and serving as a surrogate for the standardized uptake value used clinically. Post-reconstruction filtering (resolution recovery and Gaussian smoothing) was applied to determine if the effect on the phantom images translates equivalently to subject images. Three post-filtering strategies were selected to harmonize the CRCmean or CRCmax values between the two scanners based on the phantom measurements and then applied to the subject images. Results Both the average CRCmean and CRCmax values for lesions embedded in the lung and liver in four subjects (BMI range 25-38) agreed to within 5% with the CRC values for lesions embedded in the phantom for all lesion sizes. In addition, the relative changes in CRCmean and CRCmax resulting from the application of the post-filters on the subject and phantom images were consistent within measurement uncertainty. Further, the root mean squared percent difference (RMSpd) between CRC values on the two scanners calculated over the 3 sphere sizes was significantly reduced in the subjects using post-filtering strategies chosen to harmonize CRCmean or CRCmax based on phantom measurements: RMSpd of the CRCmean values in subjects was reduced from 36% to <8% after harmonizing CRCmean, while RMSpd for CRCmax was reduced from ~33% to <6% after harmonizing CRCmax with a different strategy. However, with this strategy designed to harmonize CRCmax, the RMSpd for CRCmean only improved to ~14% in subjects. Conclusions The consistency of the CRC measurements between the phantom and subject data demonstrates that harmonization strategies defined with phantom studies track well to patient images. However, quantitative agreement between different scanners as represented by the RMSpd depends on the metric chosen for harmonization. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
ATM, radiation, and the risk of second primary breast cancer

AbstractPurpose: It was first suggested more than 40 years ago that heterozygous carriers for the human autosomal recessive disorder Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T) might also be at increased risk for cancer. Subsequent studies have identified the responsible gene, Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM), characterized genetic variation at this locus in A-T and a variety of different cancers, and described the functions of the ATM protein with regard to cellular DNA damage responses. However, an overall model of how ATM contributes to cancer risk, and in particular, the role of DNA damage in this process, remains lacking. This review considers these questions in the context of contralateral breast cancer (CBC).Conclusions: Heterozygous carriers of loss of function mutations in ATM that are A-T causing, are at increased risk of breast cancer. However, examination of a range of genetic variants, both rare and common, across multiple cancers, suggests that ATM may have additional effects on cancer risk that are alle...
Overcharge and thermal destructive testing of lithium metal oxide and lithium metal phosphate batteries incorporating optical diagnostics

Abstract Lithium batteries have a tendency to fail violently under adverse conditions leading to the rapid venting of gas. Overcharge, thermal heating, and a combination of the two conditions are applied here to investigate the gas venting process. A test chamber has been constructed with data recordings including chamber pressure and temperature, battery voltage, current, and surface temperature as functions of time throughout the charging and failure processes. High-speed imaging and schlieren flow visualization are used to visualize the gas venting process. A direct comparison between lithium iron phosphate based K2 26650 and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide LG 18650 cells is made through a test series of the three failure methods. Failure under thermal, overcharge, and thermal-overcharge conditions are generally similar in terms of the gas venting process, but are observed to have increasingly energetic failures. The thermal-overcharge abuse condition demonstrates an ability to reconnect via internal short circuit even after an initial electrical failure seen as the refusal to accept charge. This reconnection is associated with a secondary, more energetic failure which can produce weak shock pressure waves.
Lessons From History: Parents Anonymous and Child Abuse Prevention Policy.

* Abbreviation: CAPTA — : Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Child abuse policy has long been a politically contentious topic in the United States. This article points to a critical moment in the mid-1970s in which a small organization, Parents Anonymous, helped shape a paradigm for understanding child abuse and its causes. This approach would remain influential for decades despite contradictory evidence. Although researchers in numerous studies from the 1960s and onward have suggested that racial and social inequality contribute significantly to serious child injury,1–3 the advocacy work of Parents Anonymous was instrumental in drawing the discussion away from social determinants of health. This article examines the historical origins of the perception of child abuse as being an equal-opportunity social ill related solely to parental mental health rather than to socioeconomic inequities. It uses this historical background to suggest the need for a discussion of the role of social inequities as being at the crux of child abuse prevention. In early 1973, Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale developed legislation to authorize funds for child abuse prevention and treatment. This would become the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) signed by President Richard Nixon in early 1974, and it has enjoyed decades of bipartisan support. One of the reasons for CAPTA’s popularity was that it intentionally circumvented discussions of race and class despite available evidence indicating the importance of these social factors.4 Although then-contemporary research had found that child abuse was more common in low-income families, Mondale actively pushed an agenda presenting child abuse as a scourge of all walks of society. This is evident in the bill’s 1973 hearings. When renowned child abuse researcher David Gil testified on the higher incidence of child abuse in poor and minority families, Mondale pushed back, leading Gil to concede that child abuse indeed also happened in middle-class families. Mondale … Address correspondence to Mical Raz, MD, PhD, 1310 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Dr, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail: micalraz{at}mail.pennmedicine.upenn.edu
The Concept of Best Interests in Clinical Practice

The Best Interests Standard is a difficult and controversial concept, and its implementation in clinical practice faces substantial concerns from conceptual and linguistic points of view.
Dynamic Data-Driven Contaminant Simulation

In this paper we discuss a numerical procedure for performing dynamic data driven simulations (DDDAS). In dynamic data driven simulations our goal is to update the solution as well as input parameters involved in the simulation based on local measurements. The updates are performed in time. In the paper we discuss (1) updating the solution using multiscale interpolation technique (2) recovering as well as updating initial conditions based on least squares approach (3) updating the permeability field using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques. We test our method on various synthetic examples.
Ceramic-metal composites for heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants.

The efficiency of generating electricity from heat using concentrated solar power plants (which use mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight in order to drive heat engines, usually involving turbines) may be appreciably increased by operating with higher turbine inlet temperatures, but this would require improved heat exchanger materials. By operating turbines with inlet temperatures above 1,023 kelvin using closed-cycle high-pressure supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) recompression cycles, instead of using conventional (such as subcritical steam Rankine) cycles with inlet temperatures below 823 kelvin1–3, the relative heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency may be increased by more than 20 per cent. The resulting reduction in the cost of dispatchable electricity from concentrated solar power plants (coupled with thermal energy storage4–6) would be an important step towards direct competition with fossil-fuel-based plants and a large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions7. However, the inlet temperatures of closed-cycle high-pressure sCO2 turbine systems are limited8 by the thermomechanical performance of the compact, metal-alloy-based, printed-circuit-type heat exchangers used to transfer heat to sCO2. Here we present a robust composite of ceramic (zirconium carbide, ZrC) and the refractory metal tungsten (W) for use in printed-circuit-type heat exchangers at temperatures above 1,023 kelvin9. This composite has attractive high-temperature thermal, mechanical and chemical properties and can be processed in a cost-effective manner. We fabricated ZrC/W-based heat exchanger plates with tunable channel patterns by the shape-and-size-preserving chemical conversion of porous tungsten carbide plates. The dense ZrC/W-based composites exhibited failure strengths of over 350 megapascals at 1,073 kelvin, and thermal conductivity values two to three times greater than those of iron- or nickel-based alloys at this temperature. Corrosion resistance to sCO2 at 1,023 kelvin and 20 megapascals was achieved10 by bonding a copper layer to the composite surface and adding 50 parts per million carbon monoxide to sCO2. Techno-economic analyses indicate that ZrC/W-based heat exchangers can strongly outperform nickel-superalloy-based printed-circuit heat exchangers at lower cost. A robust ceramic/refractory metal (ZrC/W)-based composite for use in heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants above 1,023 kelvin is described, having attractive high-temperature thermal, mechanical and chemical properties combined with cost-effective processing.
Superhydrophobic SERS Substrates based on Plasmonic Hierarchical Micro-nanostructures

Integration of multilayered plasmonic nanostructures with hierarchical micro-nanopillar arrays can result in a superhydrophobic surface with high-performance Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) functionality.
Germline pharmacogenomics of thymidylate synthase gene in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies treated with fluoropyrimidines-based chemotherapy regimens.

545Background: Fluoropyrimidines are antimetabolites that target the S phase of the cell cycle. The active metabolite, 5-fluorodeoxyuridine monophosphate inhibits thymidylate synthase (TS) enzyme, ...
Pursuing personal constructs through quality, value, and satisfaction

Abstract The theoretical notion of personal constructs implies that the very meaning of things, including activities, ultimately is determined by the extent to which it moves one closer to attaining central ideological states known as terminal personal values. Marketing and consumer research models traditionally approach deeply held personal values as an important, motivational, individual difference characteristic that orients behavior. This research takes a value-based perspective and examines personal values achievement as a climactic result of customer-retailer interaction. Field research across two service contexts provides a test of whether and how key service constructs contribute to the perception of progress toward a preferable state. Results from two studies provide consistent evidence that retail services including shopping and dining can allow customers to incrementally achieve a preferred personal value state through a sequence of quality, experiential (hedonic) value realized and customer satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications discuss the process and business implications.
Investigation of the Schottky Conjecture for compound structures modeled with line charges

Schottky's Conjecture (SC) posits that when a compound conductive structure is formed by placing a protrusion on top of an underlying base, the total field enhancement factor is the product of the field enhancement factors that would be produced by the base and protrusion in isolation. This is a powerful concept, which, in principle, allows separate treatment of the electrostatic effects of geometric features occurring at differing length scales. Recent work suggests that the degree to which the SC holds depends on the shape of the protrusion and base, and, in particular, on their relative sizes and their degree of self-similarity. Here, we use a Line Charge Model (LCM) to study the applicability of the SC to compound, quasiellipsoidal structures. The general features of compound structures produced by the LCM are discussed. The SC consistently overpredicted the computed field enhancement factor but was seen to provide reasonable estimates, correct to within a factor of 2 or better, when the protrusion was sufficiently small compared to the base; a dependence of the threshold protrusion height on the base radius was identified. This range of applicability of the SC is more restrictive than that previously reported in the literature, and potential causes of this are discussed.