cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reflected and minor phases in records of near-by earthquakes in southern California

The present paper is a direct continuation of a recent paper (Gutenberg, 1944a) in which the author has discussed travel times of the major P and S phases recorded at near-by stations for fifty southern California earthquakes. To facilitate the present investigation of phases complicated by refraction and reflection, thorough consideration was given to the partition of energy into the various reflected and refracted waves at discontinuities and to the ratio of ground displacements to the incident amplitudes at the surface of the earth (Gutenberg, 1944b). This seems desirable since the number of theoretically possible phases to be expected is very large, considering the four layers in the earth's crust; consequently, any calculated curve can be "verified" by using small impulses to be found on most seismograms. Therefore, clearly recognizable phases should be used in such investigations, and only calculated travel times for waves with amplitudes theoretically large enough to be conspicuous.
The International Monetary Fund in the Global Economy: The International Monetary Fund in the global economy

The explosive growth and increasing complexity of global financial markets are defining characteristics of the contemporary world economy. Unfortunately, financial globalization has been accompanied by a marked increase in the frequency and severity of financial crises. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken a central role in managing these crises through its loans to developing countries. Despite extensive analysis and criticism of the IMF in recent years, key questions remain unanswered. Why does the Fund treat some countries more generously than others? To what extent is IMF lending driven by political factors rather than economic concerns? In whose interests does the IMF act? In this book, Mark Copelovitch offers novel answers to these questions. Combining statistical analysis with detailed case studies, he demonstrates how the politics and policies of the IMF have evolved over the last three decades in response to fundamental changes in the composition of international capital flows.
The Spatial Economics of Knowledge

At the heart of location theory have been those economic activities that require the transportation of goods and materials. In the case of service industries the focus is on the transportation of persons instead.
Imprisonment of Entomophages to Increase Effectiveness: Evaluation of a Concept

In laboratory experiments, de-winged Campoletis flavicincta (Ashmead) placed on soybean plants parasitized 14× more larvae of Pseudoplusia includens (Walker) than their winged counterparts. Likewise, de-winged female Podisus maculiventris (Say), a larval predator of Trichoplusia ni (Hubner) laid ca. 5× more eggs on potted soybeans than their counterparts, and predation eggs of Heliothis zea (Boddie) on potted soybeans by de-winged Hippodamia convergens Guerin-Meneville was ca. 22× greater than that of winged adults. Moreover, more de-winged than winged entomophages (better than 3-fold more) were still on the plants 24 h after release Similar results were obtained in field experiments; ca. 85% of de-winged adult P. maculiventris were still on field soybeans 72 h after the release vs. only 12% of winged adults, and ca, 9× more eggs were counted in plots infested with the de-winged females. Also, less than 1% of winged H. convergens adults, but ca. 50% of de-winged adults, were found on field soybeans one day after the release. Egg predation, within 24 h, by de-winged H. convergens was ca. 3× that of winged adults.
Investigation of Coil Designs for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Mice

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive, surgery-free, and safe treatment for major depressive disorder. There is a need to develop coils, which can stimulate deep brain regions for the treatment of other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. Stimulation of the deep brain regions cannot be directly tested on human subjects without successful animal trials. In this paper, seven mouse TMS coils were compared and their electric and magnetic fields in the brain were calculated. Coils, such as “Slinky” coil and “V” coil, stimulate small and outer layers of the mouse brain, while “Animal Halo” coil stimulates $\sim 90$ % of the mouse brain. This comparison between the coils enables researchers to choose the right coil according to their need, such as the depth of penetration or the focality of brain region to be stimulated.
Application analysis of the safety culture in the operating room nursing management

Objective To analyze the application effect of the safety culture in the operating room nursing management.Methods Select the operating room of our hospital enforced the safety culture,comprehensively strengthen the application of safety culture in nursing management,the satisfaction degree of the doctors and patients,the salvage condition of the critical patients,and the incidence of nursing errors and disputes before and after the implementation of safety culture were statistically analyzed respectively.Results After the implementation of the safety culture,the satisfaction degree of the doctors and patients,the rescue success rate of the critical patients were improved obviously,the incidence of nursing error and disputes were significantly reduced,the differences were all statistically significant(P 0.05).Conclusion By implementing safety culture education and management,medical service quality of the operating room improved obviously,worth of clinical popularization and application.
PRELIMINARY GUIDELINES FOR THE TREATMENT OF DISTRESS

Gastric cancer is the most chemosensitive adenocarcinoma among digestive neoplasms. A few years ago, we performed a phase II trial with the FLEP regimen, in which fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin are combined with etoposide and cisplatin (Platinol). This regimen resulted in a 39% response rate and high toxicity. Then we used the combination UFT (tegafur and uracil)/leucovorin/etoposide: UFT 390 mg/m2/day orally on days 1 to 14; leucovorin 500 mg/m2 i.v. day 1, and 15 mg/12 h orally on days 2 to 14; and etoposide 100 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1 and then 200 mg/m2/day orally on days 2 and 3. Forty-six patients received a median of five courses. Five patients (11%) achieved a complete response and 12 (26%) a partial response, for an overall response rate of 37%. The response rate was 50% in patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 to 1. Grades 3 to 4 toxicities appeared as follow: 17% of patients had diarrhea, 11% had nausea/vomiting, and 13% of patients had anemia. One patient died of neutropenia and sepsis. The median survival time was 9 months. In summary, UFT/leucovorin/etoposide is effective and moderately toxic in patients with advanced gastric cancer. A new trial with UFT/leucovorin/epirubicin is ongoing.
Development of a safety module to satisfy the requirements of regulatory agencies for hospital staff safety education.

UNLABELLED We developed a self-administered safety module (SM) to instruct respiratory care (RC) employees in their responsibilities during emergency situations. The SM has five phases--a pretest (PRE), statement of module objectives, presentation of information in outline form, a posttest (POST), and review of the POST. This training meets the specific requirements outlined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. METHODS To evaluate the effectiveness of the SM, we compared test scores among three groups of employees: those with no previous exposure to safety education in the hospital setting (G1), those with exposure at other institutions (G2), and those with exposure at this institution (G3). Our goal was to equalize the POST scores among the three groups. Using a 1-way analysis of variance, we tested to find whether the PRE scores were different from one another and repeated the test for the POST scores. We tested for within-group differences, PRE vs POST, using paired t tests. RESULTS Previous exposure to hospital safety management was associated with significantly higher PRE scores (p or = 80%). CONCLUSION This self-administered SM is an effective and efficient method of educating RC personnel, regardless of entry-level knowledge, in safety issues and, although the POST scores were not statistically equalized, these scores were all sufficient to pass. Further evaluation of this process will include assessment of knowledge retention among employees.
HIV screening in emergency departments. Introduction.

It is our great honor and pleasure to welcome you to this special supplement of Annals of Emergency Medicine examining emergency department (ED)–based HIV testing and prevention, which remains a relatively recent development. We undertook this project knowing that it is a rapidly evolving field. However, the outpouring of such a significant volume of primary research and cutting-edge commentary was unexpected. Rather than struggling to fill this supplement, we were challenged not to exclude important content. As further evidence of the intense interest in this field, we observe the continued growth in new projects, article submissions, and publications that has occurred in the short period since we selected the articles for this supplement. The progress and collaborations among health care providers involved with ED-based HIV testing and prevention and the continued recruitment of new investigators with innovative ideas are both rewarding and inspiring. ED-based HIV testing and prevention will remain a source of controversy for the foreseeable future. One of our explicit goals for this supplement was to maintain equipoise in our approach. To that end, despite the breadth of contributions, overall this supplement asks as many questions as it answers, if c
Almost Passionate Impartiality

The public sense of Galsworthy as representing something “new” evaporated rather rapidly. Allowing for transatlantic time-lag, in 1909 Ellery Sedgwick (one of the first American advocates of his talent) could still, in refusing two short Galsworthy pieces for the Atlantic Monthly he edited because they had already been published in England, write of his respect for Galsworthy because “for to me he typifies a new England with which I feel great sympathy”.1 By the end of 1911, in the English Press, Compton Mackenzie’s first novel, The Passionate Elopement, was widely praised because it was “new”, owing nothing to the old conventions and concerns of Wells, Bennett and Galsworthy.2
Stochastic forced vibration analysis of a tapered beam with performance deterioration

This paper’s purpose is to investigate the stochastic dynamic behavior of a tapered cantilever beam, taking into account the deterioration of its performance during the working process. The equation of motion of the tapered beam is established by using Lagrange’s equation. By applying the assumed mode method, the equation of motion of the beam is discretized into a series of coupled linear time-varying ordinary differential equations. To describe the deterioration of the performance of the tapered cantilever beam, the mass and stiffness deteriorations of the beam are modeled by two independent Gamma processes. Based on the stochastic perturbation method, the response of the linear continuous system with stochastic parameters is investigated by superimposing the discretized modes. In the numerical simulation, the validity of the present study is confirmed, the effects of the cone angle (tapered ratio) of the tapered beam and the frequency of the external force on the response of the tapered cantilever beam are investigated, and the influences of the parameters of the two Gamma processes on the variance of the response are also discussed.
Roles for intrinsic disorder and fuzziness in generating context-specific function in Ultrabithorax, a Hox transcription factor.

Surprisingly few transcription factors drive animal development relative to the number and diversity of final tissues and body structures. Therefore, most transcription factors must function in more than one tissue. In a famous example, members of the Hox transcription factor family are expressed in contiguous stripes along the anterior/posterior axis during animal development. Individual Hox transcription factors specify all tissues within their expression domain and thus must respond to cellular cues to instigate the correct tissue-specific gene regulatory cascade. We describe how, in the Drosophila Hox protein Ultrabithorax, intrinsically disordered regions implement, regulate and co-ordinate multiple functions, potentially enabling context-specific gene regulation. The large N-terminal disordered domain encodes most of the transcription activation domain and directly impacts DNA binding affinity by the Ubx homeodomain. Similarly, the C-terminal disordered domain alters DNA binding affinity and specificity, interaction with a Hox binding protein and strongly influences both transcription activation and repression. Phosphorylation of the N-terminal disordered domain and alternative splicing of the C-terminal disordered domain could allow the cell to both regulate and co-ordinate DNA binding, protein interactions and transcription regulation. For regulatory mechanisms relying on disorder to continue to be available when Ubx is bound to other proteins or DNA, fuzziness would need to be preserved in these macromolecular complexes. The intrinsically disordered domains in Hox proteins are predicted to be on the very dynamic end of the disorder spectrum, potentially allowing disorder to persist when Ubx is bound to proteins or DNA to regulate the function of these “fuzzy” complexes. Because both intrinsically disordered regions within Ubx have multiple roles, each region may implement several different regulatory mechanisms identified in fuzzy complexes. These intrinsic disorder-based regulatory mechanisms are likely to be critical for allowing Ubx to sense tissue identity and respond by implementing a context-specific gene regulatory cascade.
Reconciling the Tension Between Hardware Isolation and Data Sharing in Mixed-Criticality, Multicore Systems

Recent work involving a mixed-criticality framework called MC2 has shown that, by combining hardware-management techniques and criticality-aware task provisioning, capacity loss can be significantly reduced when supporting real-time workloads on multicore platforms. However, as in most other prior research on multicore hardware management, tasks were assumed in that work to not share data. Data sharing is problematic in the context of hardware management because it can violate the isolation properties hardware-management techniques seek to ensure. Clearly, for research on such techniques to have any practical impact, data sharing must be permitted. Towards this goal, this paper presents a new version of MC2 that permits tasks to share data within and across criticality levels through shared memory. Several techniques are presented for mitigating capacity loss due to data sharing. The effectiveness of these techniques is demonstrated by means of a large-scale, overhead-aware schedulability study driven by micro-benchmark data.
Don't throw out the sympatric species with the crater lake water: fine-scale investigation of introgression provides weak support for functional role of secondary gene flow in one of the clearest examples of sympatric speciation

Genomic data has revealed complex histories of colonization and repeated gene flow previously unrecognized in some of the most celebrated examples of sympatric speciation and radiation. However, much of the evidence for secondary gene flow into these radiations comes from genome-wide tests, which tells us little about how gene flow potentially influenced sympatric diversification. Here we investigated whole genomes of Barombi Mbo crater lake cichlids for fine-scale patterns of introgression between species with neighboring riverine cichlid populations. We did find evidence of secondary gene flow into the radiation scattered across
Posterior Cruciate Ligament Avulsion Fractures

The purposes of this review are to (1) discuss the epidemiology and workup of the rare posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) avulsion fracture, (2) review the indications for nonoperative and operative management of patients with PCL avulsion fractures, (3) examine surgical outcomes in this patient population, and (4) discuss the authors’ preferred management algorithm and surgical approach. In accordance with the rarity of these injuries, the literature is sparse regarding surgical outcomes. Many of these injuries are in the setting of a multi-ligamentous injury. Most authors suggest that displaced PCL avulsion fractures should undergo operative fixation and current data suggests excellent outcomes when treating these patients with either open or arthroscopic fixation, with a low complication rate. PCL avulsion fractures, although rare, should undergo fixation when displacement is present. Current studies report successful outcomes and a low complication rate.
The New Shape of Intensive Care in the USA

Anticipating the future of critical care delivery in the USA is obviously no trivial task. Numerous issues abound, ranging across who will develop critical illness, how critical illness will manifest, where it will be treated, who will provide the care, and how care will be financed. Many earlier chapters in this book have documented some of the elements of an approaching “Perfect Storm” of demand outstripping supply. The first demand element is the rising incidence of critical illnesses, such as severe sepsis, in an ever-aging, increasingly frail population. The second is the continued expectation of a general public that no expense should be spared, even though the burden, and therefore the total cost, is rising. The third is that the expectation for care is actually increasing, stretching to expect staffing levels beyond that of past models. Meanwhile, supply is compromised because of a lack of funds and, consequently, a worsening lack of an adequately trained, willing workforce. Against this rather bleak backdrop, what are the likely realities and opportunities?
Clinical uses and advantages of low doses of benzodiazepine hypnotics.

The most common adverse effects associated with the use of benzodiazepine hypnotics are residual daytime effects (daytime sedation and daytime performance decrements), anterograde amnesia, and rebound insomnia. Studies show that these adverse effects are related to dose. Hence, benzodiazepine hypnotics should be used in low doses so as to minimize or prevent these common adverse effects. It is now generally accepted that benzodiazepines should not be administered long-term for the treatment of chronic «idiopathic» insomnia. Two noncontinuous sleep disturbances, insomnia in the elderly and transient insomnia in young and middle-aged adults
Acute promyelocytic leukemia associated with hypofibrinogenemia.

This study of 17 cases further establishes acute promyelocytic leukemia with hypofibrinogenemia as a distinct entity. This disease has a rapid course characterized by severe hemorrhagic manifestations and a poor response to therapy. The distinctive features of this disease are the presence of abnormal promyelocytic cells in the bone marrow and an unexplained hypofibrinogenemia. No fibrinolysin could be demonstrated in our cases. Fibrinogen and coagulation studies in patients with other acute leukemias are presented.
Defining cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin and trastuzumab.

e23097Background: Doxorubicin and trastuzumab have been described to cause clinical heart failure and asymptomatic declines in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Initial studies of doxorubi...
Quasisymmetries of Sierpiński carpet Julia sets

Abstract We prove that if ξ is a quasisymmetric homeomorphism between Sierpinski carpets that are Julia sets of postcritically-finite rational maps, then ξ is the restriction of a Mobius transformation. This implies that the group of quasisymmetric homeomorphisms of a Sierpinski carpet Julia set of a postcritically-finite rational map is finite.
Reconfigurable GPR systems: achievements, errors and perspectives

Summary A reconfigurable stepped frequency GPR system is a GPR system that can change in a programmable way some parameters. The reconfigurability, as a general idea, was patented at Italian level, and then a prototypal stepped frequency reconfigurable GPR system was implemented in 2010. Here, we describe some studies and activities performed with this system, outlining some achieved results but also some errors. Finally, also some perspective hypotheses that, hopefully, might become future research activities, will be outlined.
When to use probiotics in luminal gastrointestinal disorders

Purpose of review With the growing popularity and commercialization of probiotics, it is important to understand the implications of existing randomized controlled trials and their applicability in the clinical setting to treat luminal gastrointestinal diseases. Recent findings Probiotics may be useful in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, prevention of Clostridioides difficile infection and eradication of Helicobacter pylori. Some evidence supports the use of probiotics in the treatment of ulcerative colitis, prevention and treatment of pouchitis and irritable bowel syndrome. Caution has to be exercised in immunocompromised and critically ill individuals. New society guidelines do not encourage probiotic use in gastrointestinal disorders with the exception of premature infants to prevent necrotizing enterocolitis. Summary Despite burgeoning body of literature and wide acceptance by the public, a thorough understanding of efficacy and safety of probiotics is lacking. Uniform dosage, standardized clinical end points, personalization based on host microbial profile and longer duration of follow-up on the research front may help in the future in appropriate positioning of probiotics in health and disease.
Elemental Enrichment of the Exoskeleton in Three Species of Tick (Arachnida: Ixodidae).

Three species of adult hard tick (Ixodidae) were examined with scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to obtain elemental profiles of their exoskeletons and determine the presence of trace elements. The scutum, tarsal claws, chelicerae, and hypostome were examined on females and males of Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, and Ixodes scapularis. The only trace elements present included chlorine, calcium, and sodium. Chlorine was the most abundant trace element and occurred in all examined regions. The chelicerae generally possessed the highest weight percentages of Cl (up to 11.32 ± 1.36%) across all 3 species, although high weight percentages of Cl (up to 8.78 ± 2.77%) were also present in the hypostome teeth of most specimens. All 3 trace elements were present in the hypostome of A. americanum and I. scapularis, but Ca and Na appear to be absent from the teeth of D. variabilis. In general, there were few differences in the elemental profiles of the exoskeletons between the sexes of any species. This study confirms the presence of alkali metals (Na) and alkaline earth metals (Ca) in adult ticks, which are also common in other arachnids; however, the absence of transition metals such as zinc from the exoskeletons of ticks is uncommon and only shared with species of Ricinulei and Opiliones.
Caught in the Act: Visualizing a Crime-Free Capital

A survey of Weimar cinema calls to mind several films that demonstrate a concern with weakened leadership and severed communal ties through the representation of public efforts to apprehend the deviant individual in the shadows of the city. This essay looks behind the scenes at the conditions under which the creators of these films crafted their tales of urban crime and detection, addressing a significant interplay between aesthetic production and actual criminal justice initiatives. Alongside and along with police education and legitimation projects, Weimar visual cultures criminal and legal narratives took part in a larger exploration of the status of the modern urban subject as participant in and product of culture and the law.
#Sayhername Captured: Updates on Use of Video in Challenging Law Enforcement Violence Against Women

Kianga Mweba’s cellphone camera blurs into darkness broken by flashes of lights surrounding her car. From the audio of her cellphone recording, one can hear Kianga Mweba scream as she is pulled out of the car and tased. Mweba, arrested as she filmed the police detaining a man on the street, was charged with attempted assault on an officer. After recovering footage from her phone, her defense attorney produced the video as evidence against the criminal charges. Now the recording is a key piece of evidence in a lawsuit against the department. Mweba’s experience, captured by her cellphone camera, rallied activists in Baltimore and across the country in demanding change to policing practices. This recording of police officers violently taking down Mweba was one of many videos released this year showing people of color violently seized by police in cities across the U.S. The footage unveils the hidden story of the violence many women have faced in abusive police encounters. Recorded encounters between women of color and police officers have been invaluable in bringing the reality of these interactions into the living rooms of otherwise unknowing Americans. The recordings are instrumental pieces of documentation and evidence, with the power to impact verdicts and galvanize the domestic struggle for human rights outside of the courtroom. They also are fraught with ethical issues that must be addressed by attorneys and activists hoping they effect change. Complexities such as implicit biases, editing and sourcing of videos, anonymity for those attacked and bystanders, and vicarious trauma on affected communities complicate use of violent police encounter videos.
Loads due to Drifted Snow

Roof failures due to snow loads are often the result of heavy drifts rather than uniform snow loads. Codes and standards such as Standard A58.1 of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Building Code of Canada contain procedures for estimating snow loads on basic structures only. An understanding of elementary fluid mechanics and snow accumulation phenomena allows a designer to predict regions of potentially heavy snow loading in situations not covered by the codes. Several basic principles are presented and illustrated by examples of air flow around commonly shaped structures and the regions of snow accumulation. Modeling of snow drifting supplies qualitative information on snow accumulation in complex situations; advantages and limitations are examined.
Getting beyond discrimination: a regulatory solution to the problem of fetal hazards in the workplace.

A growing number of industrial chemicals have been identified as reproductive hazards that may present a significantly greater risk to the developing fetus than to the sperm or egg. Many employers have responded to this risk by excluding fertile women from the toxic workplace through so-called ufetal protection policies." Because these policies have cost the jobs of women only, the two circuit courts to face the issue have consid? ered the problem exclusively in the context of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In their effort to find a solution, the courts have misconstrued Title VII to allow current occupational health standards, which are based on the physical vulnerabilities of men, to dictate the availability of jobs for women. The courts' exclusive focus on Title VII guarantees a flawed solution to the problem of fetal hazards. Employers' discriminatory response has called attention to a real toxic substances problem. Because fetal protec? tion policies mark the point where sex discrimination and toxic dangers intersect, the correct legal response can come only through examining the legislation Congress has enacted in response to both problems: Title VII and the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Title VII requires that the opportunity to get a job and to be protected on that job be extended equally to men and women. TSCA requires that the level of workplace protection from toxins be high enough to protect employees' offspring, as well as employees themselves, from unreasonable risks. Read together, the two statutes protect women by prohibiting policies that exclude them from the workplace, while providing an effective means of limiting the produc? tion and use of fetal toxins and stimulating the development of safer substances.
Nerve growth factor and the issue of mitosis in the nervous system.

Publisher Summary Evidence indicates that growth factors entirely distinct from nerve growth factor (NGF) regulate neuronal mitosis. The classic growth factor, NGF, is not apparently directly mitogenic for neurons, whereas other factors do regulate neuronal mitosis. In concert, these multiple factors contribute to the normal development and function of the nervous system. This chapter focuses on the twin issues of NGF and neuronal mitogenesis in the nervous system. It discusses the problems of neuronal mitosis and NGF function in the nervous system; however, the regulation of mitosis is placed in the context of neural system complexity. Therefore, it is emphasized that NGF helps foster specific patterns of connectivity and thereby fosters its subsequent actions on survival and phenotypic expression. The chapter stresses the inextricable interrelationships of NGF, connectivity, neuron survival, and differentiation.
A Quadratic C0 Interior Penalty Method for an Elliptic Optimal Control Problem with State Constraints

We consider an elliptic distributed optimal control problem on convex polygonal domains with pointwise state constraints and solve it as a fourth order variational inequality for the state by a quadratic C 0 interior penalty method. The error for the state in an H 2-like energy norm is O(h α ) on quasi-uniform meshes (where α ∈ (0, 1] is determined by the interior angles of the domain) and O(h) on graded meshes. The error for the control in the L 2 norm has the same behavior. Numerical results that illustrate the performance of the method are also presented.
Approximating the Complement of the Maximum Compatible Subset of Leaves of k Trees

We address a combinatorial problem which arises in computational phylogenetics. In this problem we are given a set of unrooted (not necessarily binary) trees each leaf-labelled by the same set S, and we wish to remove a minimum number of leaves so that the resultant trees share a common refinement (i.e. they are "compatible". If we assume the input trees are all binary, then this is simply the Maximum Agreement Subtree problem (MAST), for which much is already known. However, if the input trees need not be binary, then the problem is much more computationally intensive: it is NP-hard for just two trees, and solvable in polynomial time for any number k of trees when all trees have bounded degree. In this paper we present an O(k2n2 4-approximation algorithm and an O(k2n3 3-approximation algorithm for the general case of this problem.
Advances in SiC/SiC Composites for Aero-Propulsion

In the last decade, considerable progress has been made in the development and application of ceramic matrix composites consisting of silicon carbide (SiC) based matrices reinforced by small-diameter continuous-length SiC-based fibers. For example, these SiC/SiC composites are now in the early stages of implementation into hot-section components of civil aero-propulsion gas turbine engines, where in comparison to current metallic components they offer multiple advantages due to their lighter weight and higher temperature structural capability. For current production-ready SiC/SiC, this temperature capability for long time structural applications is ~1250 degC, which is better than ~1100 degC for the best metallic superalloys. Foreseeing that even higher structural reliability and temperature capability would continue to increase the advantages of SiC/SiC composites, progress in recent years has also been made at NASA toward improving the properties of SiC/SiC composites by optimizing the various constituent materials and geometries within composite microstructures. The primary objective of this chapter is to detail this latter progress, both fundamentally and practically, with particular emphasis on recent advancements in the materials and processes for the fiber, fiber coating, fiber architecture, and matrix, and in the design methods for incorporating these constituents into SiC/SiC microstructures with improved thermo-structural performance.
Patient perceptions regarding electronic prescriptions: is the geriatric patient ready?

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the extent to which electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) alters communication about medication use between geriatric patients and their clinicians, as well as geriatric patients' perceptions regarding e-prescribing. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Thirty-five physician practices in six states using e-prescribing. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of patients (n=244) aged 65 and older. MEASUREMENTS: Patient perceptions regarding discussions with their doctors regarding medication costs, adherence, and potential side effects, as well as expectations about and satisfaction with e-prescribing collected on a voluntary survey. RESULTS: Of patients at e-prescribing practices, 53% reported ever receiving e-prescriptions. Patients who reported having e-prescriptions were more likely to feel favorably toward the electronic method, whereas most of those who reported never receiving e-prescriptions preferred paper prescriptions. Patients reporting use of e-prescriptions were somewhat more likely to have adherence discussions often or most of the time than patients who had not used e-prescriptions. Regardless of e-prescribing experience, few patients reported that they would tell their physicians if they did not want a drug or did not plan to pick up the drug from the pharmacy. CONCLUSION: E-prescribing technology solutions may provide opportunities for earlier and enhanced communication between geriatric patients and their clinicians; geriatric patients may require more education to appreciate the value of e-prescribing.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers from the budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus

The budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus, belongs to a group of birds that are among the most common captive-held avian species that are also most threatened. Budgies are also a valuable resource as model species for many important vertebrate characteristics including auditory and ageing. Several microsatellite-enriched genomic libraries were developed using standard protocols. Twelve of 20 primer pairs developed from microsatellite-containing sequences were codominant and polymorphic when tested on 21 birds from three different states. The number of alleles detected ranged from two to four, with the expected and observed heterozygosities ranging from 0.09 to 0.61 and from 0.00 to 0.85, respectively. The genomic libraries and the primers described here will be useful in characterizing budgies.
Symmetric information rate estimation and bit aspect ratio optimization for TDMR using Generalized Belief Propagation

In this paper, we propose a method for estimating the Symmetric Information Rate (SIR) for Two Dimensional Magnetic Recording (TDMR) channel by using the Generalized Belief Propagation (GBP) algorithm. We consider the Voronoi model as the channel model of a TDMR system. The dominant component of noise in TDMR caused by the imperfections of the medium is called “media noise”. The nature of the media noise is data-dependent, however, the media noise can be closely approximated by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) with variance and mean dependent on channel bits written on the magnetic medium. Lower and upper bounds on the SIR are obtained by using the GBP algorithm. In addition, it is shown that the accuracy of the SIR estimation can be adjusted for sufficient size of the magnetic medium. Finally, the bit aspect ratio of a TDMR system is optimized by maximizing the SIR per unit area.
Multistage vacuum membrane distillation (MSVMD) systems for high salinity applications

Abstract Multistage membrane distillation (MD) systems can have significantly higher efficiencies than their single stage counterparts. However, multistage MD system design has received limited attention. In this paper, the performance of a multistage vacuum membrane distillation (MSVMD) which is thermodynamically similar to a multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) is evaluated for desalination, brine concentration, and produced water reclamation applications. A wide range of solution concentrations were accurately modeled by implementing Pitzer's equations for NaCl-solution properties. The viability of MSVMD use for zero liquid discharge (ZLD) applications is investigated, by considering discharge salinities close to NaCl saturation conditions. Energy efficiency (gained output ratio or GOR), second law efficiency, and the specific membrane area were used to quantify the performance of the system. At high salinities, the increased boiling point elevation of the feed stream resulted in lower fluxes, larger heating requirements and lower GOR values. The second law efficiency, however, is higher under these conditions since the least heat for separation increases faster than the system's specific energy consumption with increase in salinity. Under high salinity conditions, the relative significance of irreversible losses is lower. Results indicate that MSVMD systems can be as efficient as a conventional MSF system, while using reasonable membrane areas and for a wide range of feed salinities. Given MD's advantages over MSF such as lower capital requirement and scalability, MSVMD can be an attractive alternative to conventional thermal desalination systems.
Evaluation of the effect of fluconazole and ketoconazole on the pharmacokinetics of tofacitinib in healthy adult subjects

Tofacitinib is a novel, oral JAK inhibitor that is being investigated as a targeted immunomodulator. Tofacitinib is predominantly metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 and to a lesser extent by CYP2C19. Two Phase 1, randomized, open-label, single sequence studies in 24 healthy subjects (12 per study) characterized the effects of fluconazole (moderate CYP3A4/potent CYP2C19 inhibitor) and ketoconazole (potent CYP3A4 inhibitor) on tofacitinib pharmacokinetics. In the fluconazole study, subjects received a single tofacitinib 30 mg dose. After 72 hours, subjects received fluconazole 400 mg, followed by 200 mg once daily (QD; days 2-7) plus tofacitinib 30 mg on day 5. In the ketoconazole study, a single tofacitinib 10 mg dose was administered. After 24 hours, subjects received ketoconazole (400 mg QD; days 1-3) plus tofacitinib 10 mg on day 3. Treatment comparisons were made using mixed-effect models. Tofacitinib area under the curve and maximal plasma concentration increased by 79% and 27%, respectively, with fluconazole co-administration and by 103% and 16%, respectively, with ketoconazole co-administration. Tofacitinib half-life increased by approximately 1 hour during co-administration with fluconazole or ketoconazole. Co-administration of moderate to potent CYP3A4 inhibitors is likely to increase the systemic exposure of tofacitinib and thus may warrant dosage adjustments or restrictions.
Subcutaneous administration of bovine superoxide dismutase protects lungs from radiation-induced lung injury

AbstractBackground. The objective of the present study was to determine whether single administration of the antioxidant enzyme bovine superoxide dismutase (bSOD) after radiation therapy (RT) mitigates development of pulmonary toxicity in rats. Methods. Female F344 rats (n = 60) were divided among six experimental groups: (1) RT, single dose of 21 Gy to the right hemithorax; (2) RT + 5 mg/kg bSOD; (3) RT + 15 mg/kg bSOD; (4) No RT; (5) sham RT + 5 mg/kg bSOD; and (6) sham RT + 15 mg/kg bSOD. A single subcutaneous injection of bSOD (5 or 15 mg/kg) was administered 24 h post-radiation. The effects of bSOD on radiation-induced lung injury were assessed by measurement of body weight, breathing frequency, and histopathological changes. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate oxidative stress (8-OHdG+, NOX4+, nitrotyrosine+, and 4HNE+ cells), macrophage activation (ED1+), and expression of profibrotic transforming growth factor-β or TGF-β in irradiated tissue. Results. Radiation led to an increase in all the ...
Did Information Intermediaries See the Warning Signals of the Banking Crisis from Leading Indicators in Banks’ Financial Statements?

In this paper we address two important questions that emerged in the aftermath of the recent banking crisis. First, did the financial statements of the bank holding companies provide an early warning of their impending distress? Second, whether the actions of four key financial intermediaries (short sellers, equity analysts, Standard Poor’s credit ratings and auditors) were sensitive to the information in the banks’ financial statements about their increasing risk and their approaching distress? We find a significant cross-sectional association between the banks’ 2006 4Q financials and bank failures over 2008-2010 suggesting that the financial statements reflected at least some of the increased risk of bank distress in advance. The mean abnormal short interest in our sample of banks spikes from 0.66% in March 2005 to 2.4% in March 2007. This increase in short interest is also accompanied by a sharp increase over time in the cross-sectional association between short interest and leading financial statement indicators. In contrast, we observe neither a meaningful change in analysts’ recommendations, Standard and Poor’s credit ratings and audit fees nor an increased sensitivity of these actions to financial indicators of bank distress over this time period. Overall, our results suggest that actions of short sellers likely provided an early warning of banks’ upcoming distress prior to 2008 crisis.
Delayed state feedback and chaos control for time-periodic systems via a symbolic approach

Abstract This paper presents a symbolic method for a delayed state feedback controller (DSFC) design for linear time-periodic delay (LTPD) systems that are open loop unstable and its extension to incorporate regulation and tracking of nonlinear time-periodic delay (NTPD) systems exhibiting chaos. By using shifted Chebyshev polynomials, the closed loop monodromy matrix of the LTPD system (or the linearized error dynamics of the NTPD system) is obtained symbolically in terms of controller parameters. The symbolic closed loop monodromy matrix, which is a finite dimensional approximation of an infinite dimensional operator, is used in conjunction with the Routh–Hurwitz criterion to design a DSFC to asymptotically stabilize the unstable dynamic system. Two controllers designs are presented. The first design is a constant gain DSFC and the second one is a periodic gain DSFC. The periodic gain DSFC has a larger region of stability in the parameter space than the constant gain DSFC. The asymptotic stability of the LTPD system obtained by the proposed method is illustrated by asymptotically stabilizing an open loop unstable delayed Mathieu equation. Control of a chaotic nonlinear system to any desired periodic orbit is achieved by rendering asymptotic stability to the error dynamics system. To accommodate large initial conditions, an open loop controller is also designed. This open loop controller is used first to control the error trajectories close to zero states and then the DSFC is switched on to achieve asymptotic stability of error states and consequently tracking of the original system states. The methodology is illustrated by two examples.
Impression creep characterization of 90Pb-10Sn microelectronic solder balls at subsolvus and supersolvus temperatures

The creep behavior of Pb-10wt.%Sn, a common high-lead solder used in microelectronic packaging, was studied by impression creep testing of ball-gridarray (BGA) solder balls attached to an organic substrate, both above and below the solvus temperature (408 K). Below the solvus temperature, the solder microstructure consists of roughly equiaxed grains of the Pb-rich solid solution α, which contains <5wt.%Sn in solution, with a coarse dispersion of Sn-rich β precipitates. Here, the creep behavior of the solder is controlled by dislocation climb via dislocation core diffusion, yielding n≈4 and Q≈60 kJ/mole. Above the solvus temperature, where the entire 10wt.%Sn is in solution, the creep mechanism becomes controlled by viscous glide of dislocations, limited by solute drag, with n≈3 and Q≈92 kJ/mole. Based on experimental data, creep equations for the as-reflowed solder in the two temperature regimes are given. Comparison of the present data with those available in the literature showed good agreement with the proposed laws.
Symmetrizer: Algorithmic determination of point groups in nearly symmetric molecules

Symmetry is an extremely useful and powerful tool in computational chemistry, both for predicting the properties of molecules and for simplifying calculations. Although methods for determining the point groups of perfectly symmetric molecules are well-known, finding the closest point group for a “nearly” symmetric molecule is far less studied, although it presents many useful applications. For this reason, we introduce Symmetrizer, an algorithm designed to determine a molecule's symmetry elements and closest matching point groups based on a user-adjustable tolerance, and then to symmetrize that molecule to a given point group geometry. In contrast to conventional methods, Symmetrizer takes a bottom-up approach to symmetry detection by locating all possible symmetry elements and uses this set to deduce the most probable point groups. We explain this approach in detail, and assess the flexibility, robustness, and efficiency of the algorithm with respect to various input parameters on several test molecules. We also demonstrate an application of Symmetrizer by interfacing it with the WebMO web-based interface to computational chemistry packages as a showcase of its ease of integration. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Engineering anti-GD2 monoclonal antibodies for cancer immunotherapy

Ganglioside GD2 is highly expressed on neuroectoderm-derived tumors and sarcomas, including neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, melanoma, small cell lung cancer, brain tumors, osteosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma in children and adolescents, as well as liposarcoma, fibrosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma and other soft tissue sarcomas in adults. Since GD2 expression in normal tissues is restricted to the brain, which is inaccessible to circulating antibodies, and in selected peripheral nerves and melanocytes, it was deemed a suitable target for systemic tumor immunotherapy. Anti-GD2 antibodies have been actively tested in clinical trials for neuroblastoma for over the past two decades, with proven safety and efficacy. The main limitations have been acute pain toxicity associated with GD2 expression on peripheral nerve fibers and the inability of antibodies to treat bulky tumor. Several strategies have been developed to reduce pain toxicity, including bypassing complement activation, using blocking antibodies, or targeting of O-acetyl-GD2 derivative that is not expressed on peripheral nerves. To enhance anti-tumor efficacy, anti-GD2 monoclonal antibodies and fragments have been engineered into immunocytokines, immunotoxins, antibody drug conjugates, radiolabeled antibodies, targeted nanoparticles, T-cell engaging bispecific antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptors. The challenges of these approaches will be reviewed to build a perspective for next generation anti-GD2 therapeutics in cancer therapy.
Unaided Speech in Tube-Free Tracheostomy: The Supplementary Sling Procedure

OBJECTIVE: In some patients after tube-free tracheostomy, air escape hinders voice optimization. Our objective was to determine whether a supplementary sling procedure could reduce air escape and i...