cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE NEAR WAKE OF A HELICOPTER ROTOR

Vortex characteristics in the near wake of a 2-bladed teetering rotor in steady forward flight are measured using a laser velocimeter. The vortex passage at a measurement point is seen to be repeatable to within 1° of rotor revolution. Velocity was measured in planes intersected by the rotor-blade tip at rotor azimuths of V> = 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°. Variations in tipvortex characteristics such as core radius, circulation and axial velocity were obtained as functions of rotor azimuth and vortex age. The core circulation and core-radius distributions conform to a simple harmonic function of the rotor azimuth. However, the core axial velocity has a fundamental and a 2-per rev variation with rotor azimuth. Empirical curve fits are described for these variations. The core axial velocity is of the order of the peak tangential velocity at all locations. It is higher than the tangential velocity over part of the advancing side of the rotor. The axial velocity is in all cases wake-like, being directed towards the blade of origin. Wake geometries obtained from the LDV data are also are presented here.
A method of preventing air embolus in open-heart surgery

Intraoperative air embolus following cardiac surgery poses a serious problem. Many maneuvers have been suggested in an attempt to minimize its occurrence. Partial aortic clamping, creating a cupola which collects this air, is combined with aortic venting. The use of this simple technique is described as an alternative and easily applicable trouble-free method.
Diet and Foraging Behaviors of Timber Rattlesnakes, Crotalus Horridus , in Eastern Virginia

Abstract During a 17-yr telemetry study, we examined the diet and ambush behavior of a population of Crotalus horridus in southeastern Virginia. Forty dietary items were identified from 37 fecal samples. We documented 722 instances of snakes in an ambush posture, 61% of which were in a vertical-tree posture, as if hunting arboreal prey at the base of a tree. The most common prey items were Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), which accounted for 45% of all dietary items and represented an estimated 78% of total biomass consumed by C. horridus. Prey was not consumed in proportion to availability, based on small mammal surveys. Our analysis provides indirect evidence that the vertical-tree foraging behavior is adopted to target arboreal Eastern Gray Squirrels. Further, we provide support for the hypothesis that C. horridus alters ambush behavior to forage selectively for specific prey types.
Defining ultrahigh-risk AL amyloidosis with VWF.

In this issue of Blood , Kastritis et al report the results of using von Willebrand factor antigen (VWF:Ag) to define an ultrahigh-risk group of patients with immunoglobulin amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis. 1 The accurate identification of these patients could help design future clinical trials desperately needed to define the best treatment of these patients.
A kidney-selective biopolymer for targeted drug delivery.

Improving drug delivery to the kidney using renal-targeted therapeutics is a promising but underdeveloped area. We aimed to develop a kidney-targeting construct for renal-specific drug delivery. El...
What Works for Adolescent Black Males at Risk of Suicide: A Review

We reviewed the controlled studies that report outcome findings for Black adolescent males 24 years of age and younger at risk of suicide. Our review identified 48 articles published from 2000 to 2...
The effect of organic matter and thermal maturity on the wettability of supercritical CO2 on organic shales

Abstract The geologic sequestration of CO2 is a potential solution for decreasing anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 emissions by trapping it underground. A primary mechanism for storage is structural trapping where low permeability and high capillary entry pressure caprock materials hold back the buoyant CO2 from rising to the surface. The wettability (or contact angle) of reservoir and caprock materials in relation to CO2 and formation brine partly determines the efficiency of structural trapping. Current practice applies the results of individual reservoir-comprising minerals recorded under laboratory conditions, to rocks under in-situ reservoir conditions. However, the wide variety of measured contact angles reported in the literature calls this practice into question. Moreover, organic shales have not been the focus of systematic studies. Here we analyzed the wettability of CO2 on organic shales at various organic matter concentrations and thermal maturities. We found that bulk organic shale remains highly water wet with respect to CO2 despite changes to the maturity or concentration of organics. This finding is in contrast to recent molecular dynamic simulations and our initial expectations from previous pore-scale analyses in which organic matter was shown to be hydrophobic. The results are likely due to the remaining mineralogy of the rock dominating the wetting behavior despite concentrations of organics up to 7.9%. This means that reservoirs and aquifers capped by organic rich caprocks may be suitable locations for CO2 storage and that organic matter at concentrations below percolation threshold may not have a detrimental effect on structural trapping efficiency.
Leveraging repetition to do audio imputation

In this work we propose an imputation method that leverages repeating structures in audio, which are a common element in music. This work is inspired by the REpeating Pattern Extraction Technique (REPET), which is a blind audio source separation algorithm designed to separate repeating “background” elements from nonrepeating “foreground” elements. Here, as in REPET, we construct a model of the repeating structures by overlaying frames and calculating a median value for each time-frequency bin within the repeating period. Instead of using this model to do separation, we show how this median model can be used to impute missing time-frequency values. This method requires no pre-training and can impute in scenarios where missing or corrupt frames span the entire audio spectrum. Human evaluation results show that this method produces higher quality imputation than existing methods in signals with a high amount of repetition.
Tropical Squall Lines and Mesoscale Convective Systems

Passage of tropical squall lines is a common phenomenon in the rain areas of the tropics. These systems form over the land areas and even continue over the ocean for several days. The meso/beta scale (20–200 km) is a common scale of organization of convection within what are called the Meso Convective Systems (MCS). These normally carry long anvil clouds that can extend for several 100 km. MCS carry both stratiform and convective rains.
Poetic inquiry: enchantment of place

Poetic Inquiry is a way of doing research that deserves to be better known by Jungians because it takes seriously what James Hillman called ‘the poetic basis of mind’ and C. G. Jung called the ‘mor...
Deregulation of CRAD-controlled cytoskeleton initiates mucinous colorectal cancer via β-catenin

Epithelial integrity is maintained by the cytoskeleton and through cell adhesion. However, it is not yet known how a deregulated cytoskeleton is associated with cancer. We identified cancer-related regulator of actin dynamics (CRAD) as frequently mutated or transcriptionally downregulated in colorectal cancer. We found that CRAD stabilizes the cadherin–catenin–actin complex via capping protein inhibition. The loss of CRAD inhibits F-actin polymerization and subsequently disrupts the cadherin–catenin–actin complex, which leads to β-catenin release and Wnt signalling hyperactivation. In mice, CRAD knockout induces epithelial cell integrity loss and Wnt signalling activation, resulting in the development of intestinal mucinous adenoma. With APC mutation, CRAD knockout initiates and accelerates mucinous and invasive adenoma development in the colorectum. These results define CRAD as a tumour suppressor, the inactivation of which deregulates the cytoskeleton and hyperactivates Wnt signalling thus initiating mucinous colorectal cancer. Our study reveals the unexpected roles of an actin cytoskeletal regulator in maintaining epithelial cell integrity and suppressing tumorigenesis. Jung et al. demonstrate that loss of CRAD impairs F-actin polymerization and disrupts the cadherin–catenin–actin complex, thereby hyperactivating Wnt signalling and promoting mucinous intestinal tumorigenesis.
Targeted Therapeutics for Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis.

Despite the availability of proven treatments for some patients with heart failure (HF), many patients—particularly those with HF and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)—remain difficult to treat, resulting in persistently high morbidity and mortality in the majority of HF patients. The lack of effective treatments, disappointing results of many HF randomized clinical trials (RCT), and variable treatment responses even for proven therapies are all possible reasons for the poor prognosis of HF patients. In the context of this backdrop, it is not surprising that there has been growing interest and enthusiasm for “precision medicine” in order to improve outcomes for patients who suffer from the HF syndrome.,
Reconfigurable Metasurfaces for Radar and Communications Systems

Recent research on holographic and diffractive metasurfaces shows enormous promise for developing cheaper and more compact systems. A metasurface aperture exploits the phase shift inherent in the guided reference wave and avoids using active elements such as phase-shifters associated with conventional phased arrays and electronically scanned antennas. The radiation pattern can thus be controlled by altering properties of each metasurface element coupled to the reference wave. In this paper, we discuss parameters to control the metasurface for a radar or communications payload. In both cases, the reconstruction of the received aperture field relies on using computational imaging techniques on arbitrary and spatially diverse field patterns.
Early Tacrolimus Concentrations After Lung Transplant are Predicted by Combined Clinical and Genetic Factors and Associated with Acute Kidney Injury

Tacrolimus exhibits unpredictable pharmacokinetics (PKs) after lung transplant, partly explained by cytochrome P450 (CYP)-enzyme polymorphisms. However, whether exposure variability during the immediate postoperative period affects outcomes is unknown, and pharmacogenetic dosing may be limited by residual PK variability. We estimated adjusted associations between early postoperative tacrolimus concentrations and acute kidney injury (AKI) and acute cellular rejection (ACR), and identified clinical and pharmacogenetic factors that explain postoperative tacrolimus concentration variability in 484 lung transplant patients. Increasing tacrolimus concentration was associated with higher AKI risk (hazard ratio (HR) 1.54; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20-1.96 per 5-mg/dL); and increasing AKI severity (odds ratio 1.29; 95% CI 1.04-1.60 per 5-mg/dL), but not ACR (HR 1.02; 95% CI 0.73-1.42). A model with clinical and pharmacogenetic factors explained 42% of concentration variance compared with 19% for pharmacogenetic factors only. Early tacrolimus exposure was independently associated with AKI after lung transplantation, but not ACR. Clinical factors accounted for substantial residual tacrolimus concentration variability not explained by CYP-enzyme polymorphisms.
Mixed Reality in Medical Education: A Narrative Literature Review:

There is growing interest in using immersive technology, which includes augmented, virtual, and mixed reality, in medical education. We conducted a narrative literature review to identify elements ...
The Strength of the Movement-related Somatosensory Cortical Oscillations Differ between Adolescents and Adults

Adolescents demonstrate increasing mastery of motor actions with age. One prevailing hypothesis is that maturation of the somatosensory system during adolescence contributes to the improved motor control. However, limited efforts have been made to determine if somatosensory cortical processing is different in adolescents during movement. In this study, we used magnetoencephalographic brain imaging to begin addressing this knowledge gap by applying an electrical stimulation to the tibial nerve as adolescents (Age = 14.8 ± 2.5 yrs.) and adults (Age = 36.8 ± 5.0 yrs.) produced an isometric ankle plantarflexion force, or sat with no motor activity. Our results showed strong somatosensory cortical oscillations for both conditions in the alpha-beta (8–30 Hz) and gamma (38–80 Hz) ranges that occurred immediately after the stimulation (0–125 ms), and a beta (18–26 Hz) oscillatory response shortly thereafter (300–400 ms). Compared with the passive condition, all of these frequency specific cortical oscillations were attenuated while producing the ankle force. The attenuation of the alpha-beta response was greater in adolescents, while the adults had a greater attenuation of the beta response. These results imply that altered attenuation of the somatosensory cortical oscillations might be central to the under-developed somatosensory processing and motor performance characteristics in adolescents.
Exogenous IL-4 shuts off pro-inflammation in neutrophils while stimulating anti-inflammation in macrophages to induce neutrophil phagocytosis following myocardial infarction.

INTRODUCTION Macrophages and neutrophils are primary leukocytes involved in the inflammatory response to myocardial infarction (MI). While interleukin (IL)-4 is an in vitro anti-inflammatory stimulus, the MI myocardium does not express a considerable amount of IL-4 but does express IL4 receptors. We hypothesized that continuous exogenous IL-4 infusion starting 24 h after MI would promote a polarization switch in inflammatory cells towards a reparative phenotype. METHODS C57BL/6J male mice (3-6 months of age) were subcutaneously infused with either saline (n = 17) or IL-4 (20 ng/g/day; n = 17) beginning 24 h after MI and evaluated at MI day 3. RESULTS Macrophages and neutrophils were isolated ex vivo from the infarct region and examined. Exogenous IL-4 decreased pro-inflammatory Ccl3, Il12a, Tnfa, and Tgfb1 in neutrophils and increased anti-inflammatory Arg1 and Ym1 in macrophages (all p < .05). Tissue clearance by IL-4 treated neutrophils was not different, while selective phagocytosis of neutrophils doubled in IL-4 treated macrophages (p < .05). Of 24,339 genes examined by RNA-sequencing, 2042 genes were differentially expressed in macrophages from IL-4 stimulated infarct (all FDR p < .05). Pdgfc gene expression was ranked first, increasing 3-fold in macrophages stimulated with IL-4 (p = 1 × 10-9). Importantly, changes in macrophage physiology and transcriptome occurred in the absence of global LV effects. Bone marrow derived monocytes stimulated with mouse recombinant PDGF-CC protein (10 μg/ml) or PDGF-CC blocking antibody (200 ng/ml) did not change Arg1 or Ym1 expression, indicating the in vivo effect of IL-4 to stimulate macrophage anti-inflammatory gene expression was independent of PDGF-CC. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that exogenous IL-4 promotes inflammation resolution by turning off pro-inflammation in neutrophils while stimulating anti-inflammation in macrophages to mediate removal of apoptotic neutrophils.
Acute retinal necrosis following recombinant subunit varicella-zoster virus vaccine.

Abstract Purpose Previously, secondary prevention of herpes zoster required live-attenuated vaccination, which is contraindicated in immunocompromised populations. More recently, a recombinant subunit vaccine (Shingrix, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Iatrogenic varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection is theoretically impossible as it does not contain a live virus. We present a case of acute retinal necrosis (ARN) and disseminated zoster after receiving the recombinant subunit vaccine. Observations A 65-year-old woman with past medical history of multiple myeloma treated with a previous autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant and now with daratumumab and pomalidomide developed disseminated zoster and subsequently acute retinal necrosis weeks after receiving the zoster subunit vaccine. Molecular testing confirmed the presence of VZV, and the absence of herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, and toxoplasmosis. The VZV was found to be genotypically wildtype and not related to the Oka strain used in the live-attenuated zoster vaccine. She was treated with systemic valacyclovir and intravitreal foscarnet. Conclusions and importance This is the first report of VZV infection following the zoster subunit vaccine. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended the recombinant subunit vaccine over the live-attenuated vaccine due to its superior efficacy. The off-label use of the subunit vaccine in immunocompromised populations has been supported up to this point by studies demonstrating its relative safety. Though post-vaccination VZV infection or reactivation appears to be rare, clinicians should be aware of this potential complication to the recombinant subunit vaccine.
The Standard Model of Particle Physics

Since the second half of the 20th century we have been witnessing the triumphs of the Standard Model of particle physics (SM). The Standard Model of particle physics refers mainly to a set of theories developed in the mid-1970s. The Standard Model describes the known fundamental constituents of the universe and their interactions. In this chapter, we will review the different concepts underlying the SM and will introduce the SM Lagrangian, with a focus on the Higgs sector. We will briefly review the different production and decay modes of the Higgs boson with particular emphasis on the decay in the diphoton channel as it is the decay channel used in this thesis to study the Higgs boson properties. The chapter also includes a review of the latest measurements of the Higgs boson properties and motivations for the searches of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM).
Academic and psychosocial perspectives on giftedness during adolescence

Gifted students identified by the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth who underwent academic acceleration in their educations were longitudinally compared across several domains with a group of equally gifted students who were never accelerated. The groups were matched for gender and for ability and were studied for ten years. At age 23, few significant differences were found between the groups for the individual academic and psychosocial variables studied. Both the accelerates and the nonaccelerates reported impressive academic achievements, as well as high personal satisfaction with school and self. When academic variables are considered as a group, the performance of accelerates is slightly higher than that of nonaccelerates. In both accelerated and unaccelerated groups, male students pursued mathematics/science more vigorously than did female students, but there was no differential response to acceleration on the basis of gender. The findings do not support the common concern that gifted students may be harmed by accelerative experiences.
Maternal human capital accumulation and children’s well-being

Abstract Research examining the intergenerational transmission of human capital is subject to two limitations. First, for the parental generation, most studies focus on formal education but fail to consider vocational training experience, which has more variation than formal educational attainment over the life course. Second, most studies have found consistent conclusions using income and occupation for the children’s outcomes but have generated mixed findings regarding health and cognitive ability. This study aims to answer whether mothers’ additional vocational training beyond formal education is beneficial to children’s health and cognitive ability. Applying fixed-effects regression to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child and Young Adults datasets, this study finds that mothers’ human capital accumulation is positively associated with higher cognitive scores for both boys and girls, but does not significantly predict children’s illnesses or behavior problems. These findings bear implications for policy aimed at mitigating the intergenerational cycles of disadvantages.
Severity and patterns of injury in helmeted vs. non-helmeted motorcyclists in a rural state

Abstract Introduction: Under current law in our rural state, there is no universal requirement for motorcyclists to wear helmets. Roughly 500 motorcycle crashes are reported by the state each year and only a fraction of those riders wear helmets. We sought to determine the difference in injury patterns and severity in helmeted versus non-helmeted riders. Methods: Retrospective review (2014–2018) of a single level 1 trauma center’s registry was done for subjects admitted after a motorcycle collision. Demographic, injury and patient outcome data were collected. Patients were stratified by helmet use (n = 81), no helmet use (n = 144), and unknown helmet use (n = 194). Statistical analysis used Student’s t-test or Pearson’s χ2 p-value ≤0.05 as significant. State Department of Transportation data registry for state level mortality and collision incidence over the same time period was also obtained. Results: Of the 2,022 state-reported motorcycle collisions, 419 individuals admitted to our trauma center were analyzed (21% capture). State-reported field fatality rate regardless of helmet use was 4%. Our inpatient mortality rate was 2% with no differences between helmet uses. Helmeted riders were found to have significantly fewer head and face injuries, higher GCS, lower face, neck, thorax and abdomen AIS, fewer required mechanical ventilation, shorter ICU length of stay, and had a greater number of upper extremity injuries and higher upper extremity AIS. Conclusions: Helmeted motorcyclists have fewer head, face, and cervical spine injuries, and lower injury severities: GCS and face, neck, thorax, abdomen AIS. Helmeted riders had significantly less mechanical ventilation requirement and shorter ICU stays. Non-helmeted riders sustained worse injuries. Practical Applications: Helmets provide safety and motorcycle riders have a 34-fold higher risk of death following a crash. Evaluating injury severities and patterns in motorcycle crash victims in a rural state with no helmet laws may provide insight into changing current legislation.
LCD-Composer: an intuitive, composition-centric method enabling the identification and detailed functional mapping of low-complexity domains

Low complexity domains (LCDs) in proteins are regions predominantly composed of a small subset of the possible amino acids. LCDs are involved in a variety of normal and pathological processes across all domains of life. Existing methods define LCDs using information-theoretical complexity thresholds, sequence alignment with repetitive regions, or statistical overrepresentation of amino acids relative to whole-proteome frequencies. While these methods have proven valuable, they are all indirectly quantifying amino acid composition, which is the fundamental and biologically-relevant feature related to protein sequence complexity. Here, we present a new computational tool, LCD-Composer, that directly identifies LCDs based on amino acid composition and linear amino acid dispersion. Using LCD-Composer's default parameters, we identified simple LCDs across all organisms available through UniProt and provide the resulting data in an accessible form as a resource. Furthermore, we describe large-scale differences between organisms from different domains of life and explore organisms with extreme LCD content for different LCD classes. Finally, we illustrate the versatility and specificity achievable with LCD-Composer by identifying diverse classes of LCDs using both simple and multifaceted composition criteria. We demonstrate that the ability to dissect LCDs based on these multifaceted criteria enhances the functional mapping and classification of LCDs.
The Genetic Basis of phage susceptibility, cross-resistance and host-range in Salmonella

Author(s): Adler, Benjamin; Kazakov, Alexey; Zhong, Crystal; Liu, Hualan; Kutter, Elizabeth; Lui, Lauren; Nielsen, Torben; Carion, Heloise; Deutschbauer, Adam; Mutalik, Vivek; Arkin, Adam | Abstract: Summary Though bacteriophages (phages) are known to play a crucial role in bacterial fitness and virulence, our knowledge about the genetic basis of their interaction, cross-resistance and host-range is sparse. Here, we employed genome-wide screens in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium to discover host determinants involved in resistance to eleven diverse lytic phages including 4 new phages isolated from a therapeutic phage cocktail. We uncovered 301 diverse host factors essential in phage infection, many of which are shared between multiple phages demonstrating potential cross-resistance mechanisms. We validate many of these novel findings and uncover the intricate interplay between RpoS, the virulence-associated general stress response sigma factor and RpoN, the nitrogen starvation sigma factor in phage cross-resistance. Finally, the infectivity pattern of eleven phages across a panel of 23 genome sequenced Salmonella strains indicates that additional constraints and interactions beyond the host factors uncovered here define the phage host range.
Amplification and attenuation of noisy expression by export processes

Inside mammalian cells, single genes are known to be transcribed in stochastic bursts leading to the synthesis of nuclear RNAs that are subsequently exported to the cytoplasm to create mRNAs. We systematically characterize the role of export processes in shaping the extent of random fluctuations (i.e. noise) in the mRNA level of a given gene. Using the method of Partitioning of Poisson arrivals, we derive an exact analytical expression for the noise in mRNA level assuming that the nuclear retention time of each RNA is an independent and identically distributed random variable following an arbitrary distribution. These results confirm recent experimental/theoretical findings that decreasing the nuclear export rate buffers the noise in mRNA level, and counterintuitively, decreasing the noise in the nuclear retention time enhances the noise in the mRNA level. Next, we further generalize the model to consider a dynamic extrinsic disturbance that affects the nuclear-to-cytoplasm export. Our results show that noise in the mRNA level varies non-monotonically with the disturbance timescale. More specifically, high- and low-frequency external disturbances have little impact on the mRNA noise level, while noise is amplified at intermediate frequencies. In summary, our results systematically uncover how the coupling of bursty transcription with nuclear export can both attenuate or amplify noise in mRNA levels depending on the nuclear retention time distribution and the presence of extrinsic fluctuations.
Modular Forms and the Minimal Compactification

The major goal of this section is to lay the foundation for an arithmetic theory of Siegel modular forms and to construct an arithmetic minimal compactification of (the coarse moduli space of) A g , which mimics the Satake-Baily-Borel compactification of arithmetic quotients of bounded symmetric domains. These two are closely intertwined, as they must be.
The pineal gland in relation to reproduction.

The precise role of the pineal remains a mystery. A considerable body of evidence has accumulated during the past decade that this organ participates in the production and phasing of ovulation and other biologic rhythms. The pineal of mammals is not a gland but a “neuroendocrine transducer.” It acts to translate a nervous message into an endocrine output. It responds to a sympathetic nervous input by making a unique enzyme which catalyzes the synthesis of a pineal hormone, melatonin. Melatonin and other pineal substances act to suppress gonadal growth and cyclicity. The precise locus at which this hormone acts may be the brain. Crystals of melatonin implanted in the hypothalamus or midbrain block pituitary responses to castration. In the rat, the hamster, the ferret, and certain birds there is evidence that the pineal serves to mediate some of the effects of environmental lighting on gonad function.
The Epidemiology and Prevalence of Fibromyalgia (FMS)

Fibromyalgia (FMS) is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain often accompanied by fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbance, and mood problems. Understanding the epidemiology of this chronic pain disorder is important in treating this patient population. The overall prevalence of FMS in the general population is about 2–4 %, and affects about five million Americans, with global prevalence seen in specialty clinics to be similar. There are limited data on incidence rates, with age-adjusted incidence rates estimated to be around seven cases per 1000 person-years for males and over 11 cases per 1000 person-years for females. FMS is more common in females, with a female-to-male ratio of about 7–9:1, and most patients are diagnosed sometime around the middle of life, though limited data suggest a 1–6 % prevalence in juveniles. The prevalence of FMS is greater among first-degree relatives, suggesting a genetic predisposition to the disease. The newer 2010 clinical case definition of FMS, classifies patients fairly consistently compared to the older 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, without physical or tender point examination, and is thought to be especially useful in the longitudinal evaluation of patients with marked symptom variability. Patients with FMS use more medical services and have more difficulty with work productivity.
Numerical Simulation of the Ice Hockey Slap Shot

Abstract With the introduction of new materials in ice hockey sticks in the past several decades there is increasing interest in material properties that affect the slap shot. Stick interrogation is complicated due to the variation from player to player and even shot to shot. To isolate the parameters affecting puck speed, a finite element model was employed that simulated a slap shot. The stick was modeled as a linear elastic material and the puck was modeled as a viscoelastic material. Puck speeds found good agreement with experiment and increased slightly with increasing shaft stiffness. The trend was attributed to the constant displacement boundary condition used in the model, which may be more appropriate for low force wrist shots, however. Stick mass moment of inertia had no effect on puck speeds while impacting the puck closer to the toe resulted in higher shot speeds.
A channel access protocol for tactical IP networks using software defined VHF radios

Military ad-hoc wireless networks are becoming increasingly common in today's world. Military networks have requirements for security, jamming and spoofing resistance, voice transmissions, and range that are often not feasible to achieve with off-the-shelf commercial products. These networks may also require multiple users to share a variety of services such as file transfer, e-mail, situational awareness reports, and voice over a single channel. Performance is often limited by the number of devices and interfaces at each station. With software-defined radios that incorporate unprecedented digital signal processing power, coupled with industry standard interfaces such as the Internet protocol (IP), the radio chassis can literally become a "system in a box". Channel access protocols can also benefit greatly from being integrated with the radio modem. The RF Communications Division of Harris Corporation has developed a black-side (post-encryption) channel access protocol based on the well-known MACA protocol. This protocol performs well on real-world networks facing such challenges as voice priority over data, "hidden nodes", and varying channel conditions. Wireless IP networking capability based on this protocol has been implemented and fielded in Harris's software-defined Falcon II Tactical Radios. This paper discusses the benefits/tradeoffs of embedded black-side channel access protocols and presents test results from a typical military communication system based on the Harris RF-5800V-MP radio.
A relational wrapper for RDF reification

The importance of provenance information as a means to trust and validate the authenticity of available data cannot be stressed enough in today’s web-enabled world. The abundance of data now accessible due to the Internet explosion brings with it the related issue of determining how much of it is trustworthy. Provenance information, such as who is responsible for the data or how the data came to be, assists in the process of verifying the authenticity of the data. Semantic web technologies such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) include the ability to record such provenance information through the process of reification. RDF’s popularity has resulted in a demand for modeling and visualization tools. The work presented in this paper, called R2D, attempts to address this demand by innovatively integrating existing, stable technologies such as relational systems with the newer web technologies such as RDF. The work in this paper extends our earlier work by adding support for the RDF concept of reification. Reification enables the association of a level of trust and confidence with RDF triples, thereby enabling the ranking/validation of the authenticity of the triples. Details of the algorithmic enhancements to the various components of R2D that were made to support RDF reification are presented along with performance graphs for queries executed on a database containing crime records data from a police department.
Human pulp response to a new composite system: Vytol composite restorative and bonding agent

A new two-paste composite system (Vytol and Vytol Bonding Agent) was evaluated to establish its level of pulpal response in human teeth and to determine whether a calcium hydroxide base is required. Class V cavity preparations were cut in seventy-two teeth of ten male patients whose ages averaged 52.5 years. The teeth were restored and extracted at 1 to 7 days, 12 to 14 days, and 47 to 56 days. Histologic evaluation indicated that the unlined Vytol System reacted very similarly to other commercially available composite restorative materials and that a calcium hydroxide base is effective in reducing or eliminating adverse pulp responses.
On the admittance of lipid bilayer membranes: Part II. Uncouplers and ion carriers

Abstract Rangarajan's modular formalism has been applied to those cases in which ion transport across an ultra-thin membrane is associated with membrane permeation of a neutral species. A single connectivity diagram can be used to represent the admittance in the presence of an ion carrier or of either a monomeric or a dimeric uncoupler.
'Clues' for Determining Whether Business and Service Innovations are Unpatentable Abstract Ideas

The Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos made it clear that generalized methods of financial hedging are abstract ideas that are ineligible for patent protection. However, the Court left the framework for determining abstraction versus concreteness in future cases unclear, offered only “clues” for drawing such distinctions.In this article, we attempt to provide the beginnings of such a framework. We start by discussing the clues we think are most likely to be useful to the Patent Office and the courts in developing a jurisprudence of abstractness as a disqualification from patent protection. We then discuss why, in light of these clues and in line with sound patent policy, business and service method innovations, while not categorically unpatentable, should still generally be excluded from patent protection as abstract ideas. Finally, we provide further support for this approach by suggesting that taking the clues of unpatentability seriously may facilitate administrative and judicial efficiency in reviewing patent claims when assessing whether they satisfy patent subject matter rules.
Relationship between layer thicknesses and recording properties in AFC media

In this paper, we show in this study that it is possible to vary PW/sub 50/ by up to 20% to values below 90 nm and have a thermally stable media that produce an SNR gain of /spl sim/3dB at 700 KFCI.
The pentose phosphate pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Approximately the same levels of six of the seven enzymes catalyzing reactions of the pentose phosphate pathway are in the cisternae of washed microsomes from rat heart, spleen, lung, and brain. Renal and hepatic microsomes also have detectable levels of these enzymes except ribulose-5-phosphate epimerase and ribose-5-phosphate isomerase. Their location in the cisternae is indicated by their latencies, i.e. requirement for disruption of the membrane for activity. In addition, transketolase, transaldolase, and glucose-6-phosphatase, a known cisternal enzyme, are inactivated by chymotrypsin and subtilisin only in disrupted hepatic microsomes under conditions in which NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, an enzyme on the external surface, is inactivated equally in intact and disrupted microsomes. The failure to detect the epimerase and isomerase in hepatic microsomes is due to inhibition of their assays by ketopentose-5-phosphatase. Xylulose 5-phosphate is hydrolyzed faster than ribulose 5-phosphate. A mild heat treatment destroys hepatic xylulose-5-phosphatase and glucose-6-phosphatase without affecting acid phosphatase. These results plus the established wide distribution of glucose dehydrogenase, the microsomal glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and its localization to the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum suggest that most mammalian cells have two sets of enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway: one is cytoplasmic and the other is in the endoplasmic reticulum. The activity of the microsomal pentose phosphate pathway is estimated to be about 1.5% that of the cytoplasmic pathway.
The APP Interactome: Identifying Targets in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a horrific neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly with progressive mental decline and profound effects on memory. Accumulating evidence indicates that the fail...
Use of physiologic and arterial blood gas variables to predict short-term survival in horses with large colon volvulus.

Objective To determine if preoperative physical examination and blood work values, intraoperative physiologic variables, and intraoperative treatments can be correlated with survival to anesthetic recovery and short-term survival to hospital discharge in horses that undergo exploratory celiotomy for large colon volvulus (LCV) with and without colon resection. Study Design Retrospective case series. Animals Horses (n = 156) undergoing exploratory celiotomy for correction of LCV ≥ 360ο. Methods Medical records (January 2000–December 2009) of horses that had surgical correction of LCV ≥ 360ο were reviewed. Data collection included signalment, preoperative physical examination variables and hematologic values as well as intraoperative physiologic variables, intraoperative treatments, and arterial blood gas values. Risk factors for survival to anesthetic recovery and hospital discharge were determined using exact logistic regression. Results High preoperative heart rate and packed cell volume were associated with not surviving to anesthetic recovery or hospital discharge. A low intraoperative total serum protein concentration was associated with not surviving to anesthetic recovery or to hospital discharge. Intraoperative tachycardia and hypercapnia were associated with not surviving to hospital discharge. Intraoperative hypotension was a negative predictor of survival to anesthetic recovery. There was no increase in death for horses in which a resection and anastomosis was performed compared with those having manual correction. Conclusions Several hematologic and cardiorespiratory variables that are easily measured preoperatively and intraoperatively show good correlation with postanesthetic survival in horses undergoing surgical correction of LCV. These measurements might be useful for prognosticating survival in horses admitted for correction of LCV ≥ 360ο.
Flame‐retardant epoxy resins based on phthalide derivative

The phthalide-containing epoxy resins are synthesized and characterized in comparison with the bisphenol-A epoxy resins in terms of thermal properties. Although both resins contain comparable amounts of halogens, the resulting flame retardancy is higher in the phthalide-containing resin. The char formation upon pyrolysis is also enhanced by the phthalide functionality.
Racial differences in clinical and pathological associations with PhIP-DNA adducts in prostate

African-American men have a higher dietary intake of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), which is the most abundant heterocyclic amine in cooked meats and is carcinogenic in rat prostate through the formation of DNA adducts. To determine the clinical and demographic factors associated with PhIP-DNA adduct levels, the biologically effective dose of PhIP in human prostate, we immunohistochemically measured PhIP-DNA adducts in a study of 162 Caucasian and 102 African-American men who underwent radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. A strong correlation between PhIP-DNA adduct levels in prostate tumor and adjacent non-tumor cells was observed (rho = 0.62; p < 0.0001); however, non-tumor cells had significantly higher adduct levels compared with tumor (0.167 optical density (OD) units +/- 0.043 vs. 0.104 OD +/- 0.027; p < 0.0001). Race was not associated with PhIP-DNA adduct levels in either tumor or non-tumor cells, but race-specific associations were observed. In prostate tumor and non-tumor cells, tumor volume had the strongest association with PhIP-DNA adducts in Caucasians, whereas in African-Americans prostate volume was most strongly associated with adduct levels in tumor cells and advanced Gleason grade had the strongest association in non-tumor cells. In race interaction models, while the only statistically significant interaction was between African-American race and advanced Gleason grade in non-tumor cells (beta = 0.029; p = 0.02), in tumor cells we observed opposite effects by race (positive for African-Americans, negative for Caucasians) for older age and high PSA levels at diagnosis. In conclusion, while PhIP-DNA adduct levels in prostate cells do not vary significantly by race, our results suggest that PhIP exposure may have stronger effects on prostate tumor differentiation in African-American men.
Markov anomaly modeling for trust management in variable threat environments

Trust Management (TM) systems are frameworks for managing security in decentralized environments. Recently two TM systems were presented that support authorization in variable-threat environments: the first one deals with unanticipated network activities, the second with unanticipated user behavior. A trust agent is used to monitor the threat levels in each domain of the system. When the level is elevated, access to resources may be revoked, independently of other trust mechanisms that may apply (based on discretionary or mandatory controls). When the threat level is later lowered, services get restored---this is termed rollback access.In this paper we explore the application of Markov chains and hidden Markov models to trace anomalous domain and/or user behavior. Our model for TM in variable-threat environments provides for real-time proactive system defenses, based on anomalous behavior. Such behavior is not necessarily caused by adversarial actions: it is triggered by atypical behavior during a certain time-period. This is because with security critical applications it is not always possible to distinguish malicious from atypical behavior---of course our model also defends against malicious behavior that can be identified (using Intrusion Detection mechanisms).Our approach supports a new control layer, the Threat Level Control (TLC) layer, above the existing MAC and DAC layers, and implements a novel real-time Markov stochastic anomaly analyzer that defends system resources by using threat level controls.This work is part of ongoing research to develop dynamic, real-time trigger mechanisms for rollback-access Trust Management systems.
New neutrino experiments

Following incredible recent progress in understanding neutrino oscillations, many new ambitious experiments are being planned to study neutrino properties. The most important may be to find a non-zero value of θ13. The most promising way to do this appears to be to measurev μ →v e oscillations with anE/L near Δm atmo 2 . Future neutrino experiments are great.
On self‐similar collapsing solutions to the kinetic equations of stellar dynamics

We discuss the application of the kinetic equations of stellar dynamics to the self‐similar collapse of a spherical cluster of stars. We extend to the Balescu‐Guernsey‐Lenard collision kernel a number of results previously established for the Landau kernel, such as the fact that the scaling properties of the equations determine completely the time‐asymptotic radial density profile of solutions that collapse in finite time (they must approach an inverse‐cube power law as collapse is completed). However, we further prove that no such solutions actually exist that either are bounded or have inverse‐power asymptotics near the center of the cluster, with the possible exception of solutions whose total energy is exactly zero. We also study the invariance properties of the orbit‐averaged Kuzmin‐Henon‐Poisson equations under similarity transformations, and we show that in this case the exponent α in the radial density profile is not restricted to α=3 but can also take values in the Lynden‐Bell‐Eggleton range 2<α≤...
Programmable Optical Interconnections Based On The Bilinear Transform

A generalized bilinear transform is introduced. Implementations of programmable optical interconnections(POI) based on the bilinear transform are presented. Applications of the POI to digital computer logic are described.
Rat pups and random robots generate similar self-organized and intentional behavior

Biorobotic research continually demonstrates that behavior and cognition can be the emergent products of (1) embodied agents that are (2) dynamically embedded within an environment and (3) equipped with simple sensorimotor rules. Thigmotaxis is an orientation response to contact manifested in infant rats by wall following, corner burrowing, and group aggregation. Orientation responses have been long thought to be mediated only by sensory or central processes. Here we show that a random control architecture in a morphologically similar robot embedded in a scaled environment can reproduce thigmotaxic behaviors seen in infant rats. We conclude that (1) and (2) may play a larger role than previously thought in the generation of complex behaviors. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 12: 53–66, 2006
LOCUS OF CONTROL AS A PREDICTOR OF USERS' ATTITUDE TOWARD COMPUTERS

With the increasing influx of computers in industry modifying jobs and work environments, it is necessary to understand how workers may be reacting to computers. Locus of control, within the framework of valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory, is seen as an efficient predictor of workers' motivation and job satisfaction. Two experiments are described in which the relationship between locus of control and attitude toward computers is explored. Exp. 1 (68 subjects) demonstrates a relationship between locus of control and attitudes toward computers. Internal scorers had a more positive (favorable) attitude toward computers than external persons. Exp. 2 (65 subjects) attempts to clarify the possible dimensions on which externals may be viewing the computer more negatively (unfavorably) by utilizing a locus of control scale developed by Levenson (1973).