cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bridging the Intergenerational Gap in Therapeutic Activity Delivery Between Younger Professional Caregivers and Older Adults Living With Dementia

Many older individuals have cohort-specific knowledge that may not be known by young caregivers. By providing familiar information, using Montessori principles that key into the remaining abilities of those with dementia, it is possible for the younger caregivers to successfully facilitate satisfying, interactive programs. Forty activity directors and staff, age 25–50, in long-term care settings interacted with residents age 56–100 in groups of 10 or more in both an activity intervention and standard activities. The younger caregivers indicated positive responses to the activity intervention and demonstrated increases in positive attitudes toward cognitively impaired, elderly residents, which was due to the intervention that provides the structure and materials to overcome both the skills gap and intergenerational knowledge gap for those staff that have them.
Urkinase: Structure of Acetate Kinase, a Member of the ASKHA Superfamily of Phosphotransferases

ABSTRACT Acetate kinase, an enzyme widely distributed in theBacteria and Archaea domains, catalyzes the phosphorylation of acetate. We have determined the three-dimensional structure of Methanosarcina thermophila acetate kinase bound to ADP through crystallography. As we previously predicted, acetate kinase contains a core fold that is topologically identical to that of the ADP-binding domains of glycerol kinase, hexokinase, the 70-kDa heat shock cognate (Hsc70), and actin. Numerous charged active-site residues are conserved within acetate kinases, but few are conserved within the phosphotransferase superfamily. The identity of the points of insertion of polypeptide segments into the core fold of the superfamily members indicates that the insertions existed in the common ancestor of the phosphotransferases. Another remarkable shared feature is the unusual, epsilon conformation of the residue that directly precedes a conserved glycine residue (Gly-331 in acetate kinase) that binds the α-phosphate of ADP. Structural, biochemical, and geochemical considerations indicate that an acetate kinase may be the ancestral enzyme of the ASKHA (acetate and sugar kinases/Hsc70/actin) superfamily of phosphotransferases.
Crystallization and fractionation of milk fat

Recent progress in understanding milk fat crystallization and fractionation is reviewed. Extent of fat solidification in butter can be altered by variations in thermal treatment of cream prior to churning. Because of its compositional complexity, milk fat rarely exhibits polymorphism. As with mixtures of closely related triglycerides, milk fat forms solid solutions. A typical milk fat begins melting below −40 C, maximum melting occurs at 15–18 C, and the highest melting fraction appears 20–37 C as a shoulder on the main peak. Dispersion of fat in emulsions increases its tolerance to supercooling, thereby altering the properties and composition of the solid phase. Most studies of milk fat fractionation have used progressive fractional crystallization, either of the melt or of solutions. Both procedures result in fractions showing larger changes in mp than in composition. The high melting glyceride fraction, ca. 5% total fat, influences crystallization out of proportion to concentration. The Alfa-Laval system, using an aqueous suspension of partially crystalline fat, produces two fractions. Typical high melting fractions have softening points ca. 3C higher than the original fat. The softening point of typical low melting fractions is lowered 10 C. Refractionation is easier with the high melting fraction. Melting thermograms of these fractions show them as resembling fractions prepared from melted fat.
The Role of International Trade in the Convergence of Per Capita GDP in the OECD: 1950–1985

The convergence of per capita GDP is usually attributed to the flow of technology from the high per capita income to the low per capita income countries. This paper examines the role of international trade in the convergence process for 19 OECD countries during the period 1950–1985. The paper finds that: a) those countries start- ing with lower income increased their trade openness faster than the high income economies; and b) the countries that expanded trade faster grew more rapidly. These findings and the regression results of a growth model suggest that international trade contributed significantly to the convergence of per capita GDP.[F43]
Chemical Genomics Identifies Small-Molecule MCL1 Repressors and BCL-xL as a Predictor of MCL1 Dependency

MCL1, which encodes the antiapoptotic protein MCL1, is among the most frequently amplified genes in human cancer. A chemical genomic screen identified compounds, including anthracyclines, that decreased MCL1 expression. Genomic profiling indicated that these compounds were global transcriptional repressors that preferentially affect MCL1 due to its short mRNA half-life. Transcriptional repressors and MCL1 shRNAs induced apoptosis in the same cancer cell lines and could be rescued by physiological levels of ectopic MCL1 expression. Repression of MCL1 released the proapoptotic protein BAK from MCL1, and Bak deficiency conferred resistance to transcriptional repressors. A computational model, validated in vivo, indicated that high BCL-xL expression confers resistance to MCL1 repression, thereby identifying a patient-selection strategy for the clinical development of MCL1 inhibitors.
A Vitamin D Assay on Liver Meal

Abstract In an experiment involving the utilization of phosphorus it was considered desirable to accurately control the amount of vitamin D fed. The basal ration fed contained 4 percent of liver meal. The possibility that this material might contain some vitamin D led to its assay. The assay method used was that of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (1940) with modifications. Seven lots of day-old Rhode Island Red-White Leghorn cross chicks consisting of 15 chicks each (both sexes) were sorted into battery brooders according to weight and reared to three weeks of age. The levels of U.S.P. Reference Cod Liver Oil and of liver meal fed and the resulting average chick weights and bone ash percentages are shown in Table 1. The results indicated that there was no vitamin D in the sample of liver meal assayed. This information should be of interest to those who might have suspected liver . . .
Does Corruption Persist In Sub-Saharan Africa?

Corruption is said to be characterized by persistence. This conclusion is derived from the theoretical literature, although little empirical evidence exists to support it. Using corruption ratings data from the Political Risk Services Group, International Country Risk Guide on 110 countries from 1984 through 2006, I seek to determine whether or not corruption has actually exhibited persistence over this period. The Markov Transition Chain Matrices were used in the empirical analysis. The calculations show that corruption does persist in more than half of the sample. Next I focus on two regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa. The analysis shows these regions to be characterized by persistent corruption.
The Asymmetry of Legitimacy: Analyzing the Legitimation of Violence in 30 Cases of Insurgent Revolution

This article demonstrates that there is a causal asymmetry between legitimate and illegitimate violence in civil conflict, and advocates turning analytic attention to illegitimacy. Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is used to assess patterns in the conditions for civilians’ perceptions that state-sanctioned violence was legitimate versus illegitimate in 30 cases of insurgent revolution that occurred between 1978 and 2008. Findings show no substantive patterns in the conditions for legitimacy, but reveal three causal pathways to illegitimacy that transcend regional and national boundaries. Comparative historical analysis of these pathways details general causal mechanisms that result in perceptions that state-sanctioned violence is illegitimate. This research shows that while the conditions for legitimacy vary by case, the conditions for illegitimacy transcend regional contexts, representing a more global phenomenon.
Nonstandard methods for the convective-dispersive transport equation with nonlinear reactions

A new nonstandard Eulerian{Lagrangian method is constructed for the one-dimensional, transient convective-dispersive transport equation with nonlinear reaction terms. An "exact" difference scheme is applied to the convection-reaction part of the equation to produce a semi-discrete approximation with zero local truncation errors with respect to time. The spatial derivatives involved in the remaining dispersion term are then approximated using standard numerical methods. This approach leads to significant, qualitative improvements in the behavior of the numerical solution. It suppresses the numerical instabilities that arise from the incorrect modeling of derivatives and nonlinear reaction terms. Numerical experiments demonstrate the scheme’s ability to model convection-dominated, reactive transport problems. c 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 617{624, 1999
The Effect of Diethylstilbestrol on Dressing and Cooking Losses of New Hampshire Broiler-Fryers

Abstract THE percent of marketable carcass remaining after dressing and evisceration is a matter of concern to poultry producers and processors. The current widespread use of diethylstilbestrol in finishing market poultry has injected a new factor into the dressing loss situation. It has also aroused the interest of economists and housewives as to its effect on cooking losses. Vernon (1923) speculated the broilers and fowl would experience the heaviest cooking loss because broilers have a high water content and fowl are high in fat. Later Lowe and Vernon (1927) found that the smallest total cooking loss occurred with roasters, followed by fryers and broilers. They also found that excessively fat birds have a very high cooking loss. Evidence regarding factors controlling dressing loss of different market classes of poultry is still somewhat meager and incomplete. Jull and Maw (1923), Mitchell et al. (1926) and McNally and Spicknail (1949) reported that relationships …
Heats of reaction of two common cellulose solvents with various model compounds

Heats of reaction of two common cellulose solvents, cadoxen and ferric sodium tartrate (FeTNa), with a variety of cellulose-related compounds were obtained with a sensitive adiabatic microcalorimeter. Both solvents require adjacent hydroxyl groups in the equatorial positions of ring systems for maximum reactivity (or maximum exothermic heat of reaction). The cellulose solvent cuprammonium has a significantly different pattern of reactivity toward a number of sugars compared with the patterns observed for cadoxen and FeTNa. These differences are explained in terms of the Jahn-Teller effect and the preferred sites of reaction and oxidation in ring systems. Calorimetric evidence indicates that complexes containing methoxy groups may be formed by both cadoxen and FeTNa.
Verticillium wilt of almond in California

Wilt of almond due to Verticillium dahliae, also known as‘black heart', is an occasionally serious disease problem in orchards in California (US). Verticillium wilt is most severe on trees 2–6-year-old, and symptoms lessen as trees mature. Usually only a few trees in a young orchard are affected, though sometimes many young trees die. Severe economic losses of 9000-11 000 USD per ha resulting from verticillium wilt in almond orchards have been recorded. Foliar symptoms may be difficult to discern after trees are 5–6-year-old. Unlike previous reports of new infections arising each year, recent research indicates that infections may perennate in vascular tissue of primary scaffolds and trunks. Some differences in tree damage are apparent among scion cultivars. Pre-plant fumigation with methyl bromide and/or chloropicrin is not reliably effective for prevention of verticillium wilt. Solarization has been effective when applied prior to or at planting. Post-plant therapeutic treatments are not consistently effective.
Derivation of the Lorentz potentials

The article [Schwab et al., 1996] on semantics of the irrotational component of the magnetic vector potential inspired the following alternative derivation of the expressions for the magnetic field, H, and the electric field, E, in terms of the Lorentz potentials. The artifice of the Lorentz gauge is not used in this derivation. Instead, the Lorentz potentials are required to satisfy differential equations akin to those satisfied by the Coulomb potentials. The Lorentz vector potential, A/sub L/, is constructed by adding what turns out to be an irrotational vector, A/sub irr/, to the Coulomb vector potential, A/sub C/. The Lorentz scalar potential, /spl phi//sub L/, is constructed by adding a scalar, /spl phi/, to the Coulomb scalar potential, /spl phi//sub C/.
GWAS implicates a role for quantitative immune traits and threshold effects in risk for human autoimmune disorders

Genome wide association studies in human autoimmune disorders have provided a long list of alleles with rather modest degrees of risk. A large fraction of these associations are probably owing to either quantitative differences in gene expression or amino acid changes that regulate quantitative aspects of the immune response. While functional studies are still lacking for most of these associations, we present examples of autoimmune disease risk alleles that influence quantitative changes in lymphocyte activation, cytokine signaling and dendritic cell function. The analysis of immune quantitative traits associated with autoimmune loci is clearly going to be an important component of understanding the pathogenesis of autoimmunity. This will require both new and more efficient ways of characterizing the normal immune system, as well as large population resources in which genotype–phenotype correlations can be convincingly demonstrated. Future development of new therapies will depend on understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of immune regulation by these new risk loci.
The role of ABC transporters in anticancer drug transport

The main clinical problem in cancer treatment is the development of multidrug resistance. Tumors can be intrinsically drug-resistant or develop resistance to chemotherapy. Multidrug resistance can develop by diverse mechanisms including decreased rate of drug uptake, increased drug efflux, alterations in drug metabolism, mutation of drug targets, activation of DNA repair mechanisms, and evasion of apoptosis. The use of modern genomic, proteomic, bioinformatic, and systems biology approaches has resulted in a substantial increase in our ability to identify molecular mechanisms that are involved in multidrug resistance in cancer and to find drugs that may block or reverse the development of drug resistance.
Diet in inflammatory bowel disease.

The past few years have seen a great expansion of our understanding of the pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Much of the progress has been on the genetic basis of disease as well as the role of microbiota. These findings have magnified the role of the environmental component of this rather complex process. Recent advances have emanated from more in-depth, comprehensive, and at times nontraditional inquiry into the potential role of diet through its anti-inflammatory properties and modulation of microbiota. This concise review focuses on the novel aspects of research related to the potential role of diet in IBD. (Nutr Clin Pract . 2011;26:151-154)
Psychopathic Personality Traits, Suicide Ideation, and Suicide Attempts in Male Prison Inmates

Prison inmates are at greater risk for death by suicide compared with the general population. Although many risk factors for suicide identified in the general population (e.g., depression, substance abuse) also apply to prison populations, few studies have examined variables that are of particular relevance to prison inmates. The current study used cross-sectional survey methodology to examine the relationships of primary and secondary psychopathic personality traits with current suicide ideation and previous suicide attempts in a sample of male prison inmates. Prison inmates who endorsed greater secondary psychopathic traits were more likely to be multiple-suicide attempters versus single and nonattempters. Primary psychopathic traits did not predict suicide attempt status. The relationship of secondary psychopathic traits and suicide ideation grew stronger as depressive symptoms increased. Primary psychopathic traits were not associated with increased suicide ideation either alone or in confluence with ...
Task demands determine the specificity of the search template

When searching for an object, an observer holds a representation of the target in mind while scanning the scene. If the observer repeats the search, performance may become more efficient as the observer hones this target representation, or "search template," to match the specific demands of the search task. An effective search template must have two characteristics: It must reliably discriminate the target from the distractors, and it must tolerate variability in the appearance of the target. The present experiment examined how the tolerance of the search template is affected by the search task. Two groups of 18 observers trained on the same set of stimuli blocked either by target image (block-by-image group) or by target category (block-by-category group). One or two days after training, both groups were tested on a related search task. The pattern of test results revealed that the two groups of observers had developed different search templates, and that the templates of the block-by-category observers better captured the general characteristics of the category. These results demonstrate that observers match their search templates to the demands of the search task.
A semi-empirical approach to predict the total collection efficiency of electrostatic precipitators

Using empirical data for the effective migration velocity, the Deutsch-Anderson equation has been widely used for calculation of the total collection efficiency and design of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs). Based on a normal particle size distribution, the present paper develops a semi-empirical equation for the total collection efficiency of ESPs. The equation is then simplified and extended to other particle size distributions. The simplified equation shows that the total collection efficiency increases with increasing mass median diameter of particles and with increasing electrical field strengths. The effective migration velocity is found to be directly proportional to the mass median diameter and to the electrical field strengths for particle charging and collection. Moreover, an example is given to illustrate how to use the present simplified model in the design of ESPs.
Perception of Labor Unions: by Union Members and Their Potential Employers

This paper tests the hypothesis that there is a significant gap in perception between union members and their potential employers regarding the role of labor unions and the quality of work performed by union members. The test is based on a questionnaire survey of 1,094 union members of whom 323 returned the questionnaire, and 771 businesses of which 210 responded to the survey. All respondents were located in the Mobile (Alabama) metropolitan area. Our survey indicates that there is a significant gap inperception between the two groups regarding the skill and training levels, wages, and the quality of work done by union workers.
Optimal identification of discrete-time systems from impulse response data

An optimal method (OM) for estimation of the parameters of rational transfer functions from prescribed impulse response data is presented. The multidimensional nonlinear fitting error minimization problem has been theoretically decoupled into two subproblems of reduced computational complexities. The proposed approach is applicable for identifying rational models with arbitrary numbers of poles and zeros. The nonlinear denominator subproblem possesses weighted-quadratic structure which is utilized to formulate an efficient iterative minimization algorithm. The optimal numerator is found noniteratively with a linear least-squares approach that utilizes the optimized denominator. Both the decoupled subcriteria of OM posses global optimality properties. The Steiglitz-McBride (1960, SM) method is also decoupled for arbitrary numbers of poles and zeros (DSM-G). It is demonstrated that the denominator subproblem of DSM-G is theoretically optimal. For another existing decoupled SM method (DSM-J), it has been shown that only the numerator is theoretically optimal. >
SMARTS: accelerating microarchitecture simulation via rigorous statistical sampling

Current software-based microarchitecture simulators are many orders of magnitude slower than the hardware they simulate. Hence, most microarchitecture design studies draw their conclusions from drastically truncated benchmark simulations that are often inaccurate and misleading. This paper presents the Sampling Microarchitecture Simulation (SMARTS) framework as an approach to enable fast and accurate performance measurements of full-length benchmarks. SMARTS accelerates simulation by selectively measuring in detail only an appropriate benchmark subset. SMARTS prescribes a statistically sound procedure for configuring a systematic sampling simulation run to achieve a desired quantifiable confidence in estimates.Analysis of 41 of the 45 possible SPEC2K benchmark/input combinations show CPI and energy per instruction (EPI) can be estimated to within ±3% with 99.7% confidence by measuring fewer than 50 million instructions per benchmark. In practice, inaccuracy in microarchitectural state initialization introduces an additional uncertainty which we empirically bound to ∼2% for the tested benchmarks. Our implementation of SMARTS achieves an actual average error of only 0.64% on CPI and 0.59% on EPI for the tested benchmarks, running with average speedups of 35 and 60 over detailed simulation of 8-way and 16-way out-of-order processors, respectively.
Endoscopic and stroboscopic description of adults with paradoxical vocal fold dysfunction

Summary The purpose of this study was to determine if endoscopic and stroboscopic parameters of voice were normal between attacks of paradoxical vocal fold dysfunction (PVFD). Fifty adults (38 females, 12 males) and 54 adult controls (40 females, 14 males) were examined via endoscopy with and without stroboscopy. Endoscopy indicated paradoxical adduction of the folds during the respiratory cycle of all 50 participants with PVFD, although they were asymptomatic. Atypical laryngeal configurations were observed including abnormality of the anterior-posterior dimension and ventricular fold medialization in both groups of subjects. Stroboscopy demonstrated abnormalities including unstable zero phase, decreased amplitude of vibration, decreased mucosal waves, and phase asymmetry primarily for the PVFD subjects alone. Results indicate that persons with PVFD demonstrate subtle laryngeal abnormality endoscopically and stroboscopically when dyspnea is not reported. This supports the hypothesis that PVFD is not episodic but exists as a continuum of laryngeal instability that may, due to various precipitating factors, be exacerbated to breathing attacks.
LIN-12/Notch signaling instructs postsynaptic muscle arm development by regulating UNC-40/DCC and MADD-2 in Caenorhabditis elegans

The diverse cell types and the precise synaptic connectivity between them are the cardinal features of the nervous system. Little is known about how cell fate diversification is linked to synaptic target choices. Here we investigate how presynaptic neurons select one type of muscles, vm2, as a synaptic target and form synapses on its dendritic spine-like muscle arms. We found that the Notch-Delta pathway was required to distinguish target from non-target muscles. APX-1/Delta acts in surrounding cells including the non-target vm1 to activate LIN-12/Notch in the target vm2. LIN-12 functions cell-autonomously to up-regulate the expression of UNC-40/DCC and MADD-2 in vm2, which in turn function together to promote muscle arm formation and guidance. Ectopic expression of UNC-40/DCC in non-target vm1 muscle is sufficient to induce muscle arm extension from these cells. Therefore, the LIN-12/Notch signaling specifies target selection by selectively up-regulating guidance molecules and forming muscle arms in target cells. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00378.001
Optimizing Management of Patients with Adult T Cell Leukemia-Lymphoma

Adult T cell leukemia-lymphoma is a rare disease with a high mortality rate, and is challenging for the clinician. Early allogeneic stem cell transplant can confer durable remission. As novel therapeutic agents become available to treat T cell malignancies, it is increasingly important that medical oncologists, hematologists, and hematopathologists recognize and accurately diagnose adult T cell leukemia-lymphoma. There is no uniform standard of treatment of adult T cell leukemia-lymphoma, and clinical trials remain critical to improving outcomes. Here we present one management approach based on the recent advances in treatment for adult T cell leukemia-lymphoma patients.
Management of Digital Emboli, Vasospasm, and Ischemia in ATOS

Unilateral digital ischemia is one of the most common presenting problems in patients with arterial TOS, leading to numbness, tingling, cold and painful sensations, cyanotic or pale discoloration, delayed capillary refill in the fingers, and non-healing fingertip ulceration. Diagnostic evaluation requires differentiation between proximal and distal arterial sources of thromboembolism, localized digital artery occlusion, and primary vasospasm. Digital emboli typically accompany arterial TOS as a result of mural thrombus formed within an area of aneurysmal degeneration in the subclavian (or axillary) arteries. While there are a variety of medical treatments to help reduce local symptoms of digital ischemia and vasospasm, definitive management depends on surgical control of the proximal source of thromboembolism. Additional interventions, such as thromboembolectomy and intra-arterial infusion of thrombolytic agents and/or vasodilators, are valuable adjuncts toward achieving optimal outcomes.
Enron Corporation's Weather Derivatives (a)

New options on weather from Enron are described, in particular floors, swaps, and caps on heating degree days. An electric utility is considering whether to purchase a weather derivative to offset the risk of low volume of kilowatt hours. After understanding the nature and purpose of the contract, students will structure the option in preparation for valuing it.
Capital Punishment as the Unconstitutional Establishment of Religion: A Girardian Reading of the Death Penalty

When the switch is thrown, the prisoner "cringes," "leaps," and "fights the straps with amazing strength." "The hands turn red, then white, and the cords of the neck stand out like steel bands." The prisoner's limbs, fingers, toes and face are severely contorted. The force of the electrical current is so powerful that the pris oner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and "rest on [his] cheeks." The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. "The body turns bright red as its temperature rises," and the prisoner's "flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches on fire, particularly if [he] perspires excessively." Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound "like bacon frying," and "the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh" permeates the chamber. This "smell of ftying human flesh in the immedi ate neighborhood of the chair is sometimes bad enough to nauseate even the Press representatives who are present." In the meantime, the prisoner almost literally boils: "the temperature in the brain itself approaches the Doiling point of water," and when the postelectrocution autopsy is performed "the liver is so hot that doc tors have said that it cannot be touched by the human hand." The body frequently is badly burned and disfigured.1
Micro/Miniature Aerial Vehicle Guidance for Hurricane Research

We present an investigation of the Lagrangian dynamics of a hurricane from the perspective of using micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) or small unmanned aircraft systems as mobile sensors for hurricane research and monitoring. The low cost of MAVs allows the use of more sensors for volumetric in situ measurements, particularly in high-risk locations where larger more expensive systems cannot be used. However, the limited flight speed of MAVs enforces severe restrictions on potential flight plans. In the face of 70-m/s horizontal winds, a MAV with only 10-m/s flight capability has very little directional control. Fortunately, vertical wind speeds in the hurricane are much lower and have limited spatial extent. Using Lagrangian coherent structure techniques and simplified vehicle simulations, we develop an understanding of the transport dynamics of a simulated hurricane and apply this understanding to a high-level control scheme to enable MAV navigation and guidance near the hurricane. By smartly adjusting their altitude, simulated MAVs are able to navigate into the hurricane eye at a very high success rate. Our findings suggest that the smart use of the existing background flow could allow the use of low-cost sensor platforms in extreme environments.
Study on Economic Operation Analysis of Distribution Transformer Based on Clustering Algorithm

In order to reflect accurately the economic operation effect of distribution transformer,a feature analysis method of distribution transformer economic operation is proposed based on the cluster grouping algorithm.Three feature indexes to judge the distribution transformer economic operation including average load rate,fluctuating load rate and trend load rate extracted in the load data of distribution transformer are grouped by modified K-Medoids algorithm to obtain the feature analysis result and suggestions on the optimal operation mode.Simulation experiments prove that the method is effective which has obvious clustering effect for the distribution transformer operation status and can provide data support for the improvement of distribution transformer operation efficiency and the energy-saving and loss reduction of distribution network.
The normal caliber of the adult female urethra. .

The mean urethral caliber of 250 women undergoing cystoscopy to stage cancer of the cervix was 22F, as measured by the bougie a boule. A study of correlations between normal urethral caliber and age, weight, height, gravidity and parity of patients revealed a significant correlation with weight only.
Ultrasonic Spectroscopic Systems

This chapter of the report concerns itself with the systems (and their components) which are used for ultrasonic spectroscopy. We begin by introducing the concept of a linear time-invariant model for the spectroscopic system. Through the use of this model one may investigate, in detail, the operation of system components and also arrive at the overall system performance.
What Universities Can Learn from Businesses: A Critical Research Study of Adapting Corporate Organizational Development Approach in University Environmen

Universities are facing dramatic changes in their environment, affecting their strategic competitive positions and organizational effectiveness. High education is a big business, but the business approach to strategic planning and organizational development in a university environment is still rarely used. Change management and organizational interventions are among best corporate practices in addressing external and internal strategic and organizational needs. Is it possible effectively using adapted corporate approaches for strategy-driven organizational development in universities? What are factual and perceived key problems and what are key success factors? What are result's logic, time-frame, and expected benefits? This critical research study is based on 128 structured interviews, followed by open question interviews and employees’ anonymous evaluations in five comprehensive organizational development projects in one university. The projects are focused on clusters of centralized business and financial services at a statesupported mid-size northwest university. This study is highlighting a successfully adapted model and a structured implementation framework for organizational development in a specific university environment. The purpose of the study is to help understand and sharing challenges and practitioners’ experience answering the overarching question: How to make organizational development project in university work?
Primary tumor microRNA signature predicts recurrence and survival in patients with locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is an aggressive cancer necessitating the development of improved risk stratification tools for personalized care. Previously, microRNAs have been shown to correlate with the progression and prognosis of various cancer types; however, the value in EAC remains largely unexplored. We performed global microRNA profiling on 32 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded EAC specimens to identify microRNAs associated with progression. Literature search and pathway analysis further refined output to five significantly deregulated candidate biomarkers. Four of the five microRNAs (miR-652-5p, miR-7-2-3p, miR-3925-3p, and miR-219-3p) were validated by qRT-PCR. Survival outcomes were evaluated in testing set of 26 stage II/III EAC patients to determine the prognostic relevance of the selected microRNAs. In the testing set, miR-652-5p and miR-7-2-3p expressions were significantly associated with progression-free survival (p-value = .00771 and p-value = .00293). The highest area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.8212 for the combination of miR-652-5p and miR-7-2-3p. Collectively, our findings demonstrated that the miR-652-5p/miR-7-2-3p signature may serve as a promising prognostic marker in patients with locally advanced EAC.
Payment Reform Needed to Address Health Disparities of Undiagnosed Diabetic Retinopathy in the City of Chicago

Introduction The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health coverage for thousands of Illinois residents. Expanded coverage, however, does not guarantee appropriate health care. Diabetes and its ocular complications serve as an example of how providers in underserved urban areas may not be able to keep up with new demand for labor- and technology-intensive health care unless changes in reimbursement policies are instituted.
Exploring compiler optimization opportunities for the OpenMP 4.x accelerator model on a POWER8+GPU platform

While GPUs are increasingly popular for high-performance computing, optimizing the performance of GPU programs is a time-consuming and non-trivial process in general. This complexity stems from the low abstraction level of standard GPU programming models such as CUDA and OpenCL: programmers are required to orchestrate low-level operations in order to exploit the full capability of GPUs. In terms of software productivity and portability, a more attractive approach would be to facilitate GPU programming by providing high-level abstractions for expressing parallel algorithms.OpenMP is a directive-based shared memory parallel programming model and has been widely used for many years. From OpenMP 4.0 onwards, GPU platforms are supported by extending OpenMP's high-level parallel abstractions with accelerator programming. This extension allows programmers to write GPU programs in standard C/C++ or Fortran languages, without exposing too many details of GPU architectures.However, such high-level parallel programming strategies generally impose additional program optimizations on compilers, which could result in lower performance than fully hand-tuned code with low-level programming models. To study potential performance improvements by compiling and optimizing high-level GPU programs, in this paper, we 1) evaluate a set of OpenMP 4.× benchmarks on an IBM POWER8 and NVIDIA Tesla GPU platform and 2) conduct a comparable performance analysis among hand-written CUDA and automatically-generated GPU programs by the IBM XL and clang/LLVM compilers.
Hispanic Landscapes of the America Southwest

The chapter provides an overview of the Hispanic population and distribution in the United States, and then focuses upon the Southwest. Hispanic landscapes represent both early as well as contemporary movements of persons of Spanish ancestry into the nation, and these Hispanics include persons who are racially white, black, Indian, or various mixtures and who have come to the U.S. from many different countries. Chapter 5 describes the Hispanic landscapes within the Southwest, from Texas through California, with short discussions provided regarding Spanish colonial landscape legacy in Arizona and California. The Hispano Homeland in northern New Mexico is one of the most visible and highly studied ethnic homelands in the U.S. by geographers, historians, and landscape scholars, whose work regarding land tenure, village patterns, urban plans, and vernacular architecture informs this review. The Hispano Homeland represents the earliest sustained European settlement in the nation (excepting St. Augustine, Florida), and it is marked by a conspicuous ethnic landscape, one that is both similar and different from ones that have resulted from contemporary Mexican immigration. Recent geographic study has focused upon the Hispanic settlement astride the Lower Rio Grande, which comprises the Tejano Homeland. In addition, the Mexican-American ethnic landscape in several cities of the Southwest is described, and the chapter provides a brief discussion of the recent movements of Mexicans into other parts of the U.S. and how that immigration is creating a new Mexican ethnic imprint across much of the South and Midwest.
Equine fetal adrenal, gonadal and placental steroidogenesis.

The authors apologize for errors in Figure 6 of their article published in the October 2017 issue of Reproduction (vol 154 iss 4 pp 445–454). The authors explain that the addition of data (Figure 6) on steroid concentrations in the chorioallantois to their manuscript on fetal adrenal and fetal gonadal steroids during development of the equine fetus was made in response to reviewer comments. However, in compiling, summarizing and graphing the data, the wrong units were used in the final figure. The manuscript as published represents the data in Figure 6 as “ng/g”, when in fact they are “nmol/g”. The authors very much regret having made the mistake and sincerely apologize for any confusion this might have caused.
On the highly positive thoughts of the highly depressed.

Most contemporary theories of the self-concept emphasize the self- defeating nature of low self-regard. Along these lines, most researchers would probably agree that one of the most serious drawbacks of low self-esteem is its close connection to clinical disorders such as depression. Consider the story of Ron, a typical student suffering from low self-esteem. After receiving a low score on an exam, Ron became mildly depressed. As suggested by research on the specific beliefs of people low in self-esteem (e.g., see Pelham & Swann, 1989), Ron had always harbored doubts about his abilities. Under the influence of his negative mood, these doubts were transformed into highly negative beliefs, and these negative beliefs eventually increased Ron’s emotional distress, which contributed still further to his negative beliefs (see Beck, 1967, 1976, for a relevant discussion). Consistent with work on depression and attributional style, Ron then began to make self-blaming attributions for his growing list of failures, and these self-blaming attributions further intensified his misery (e.g., see Metalsky, Seligman, Semmel, & Peterson, 1982).
Predictors of a successful primary bladder closure in cloacal exstrophy: A multivariable analysis

Abstract Purpose To investigate the factors affecting primary bladder closure in cloacal exstrophy (CE). A successful primary closure is important for optimizing reconstructive outcomes, and it is a critical first-step in the reconstruction of CE. The authors' hypothesize that a smaller diastasis and use of an osteotomy are independent predictors of a successful closure. Methods A prospectively maintained database of 1332 exstrophy-epispadias complex (EEC) patients was reviewed for CE patients closed between 1975 and 2015. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify significant factors associated with CE primary bladder closure. Results Of 143 CE patients identified, 99 patients met inclusion criteria. Median follow-up time was 8.82 [IQR 5.43–14.26] years. In the multivariable model, the odds of having a successful closure are about 4 times greater for the staged cloacal approach compared to the 1-stage approach (OR, 3.7; 95% CI 1.2–11.5; p-value = 0.023). Also, having an osteotomy increases the chance of a successful closure by almost six-fold (OR, 5.8; 95% CI 1.7–19.6; p-value = 0.004). Conclusions Using the staged approach with a pelvic osteotomy is paramount to a successful primary closure in CE. The authors strongly recommend using the staged approach and osteotomy as these factors independently increase the chance for a successful primary bladder closure. Study Type Therapeutic study. Level of Evidence Level III, Retrospective comparative study.
An Evaluation of the ITSA 3-D Ray-Trace Program

A three-dimensional ray-trace program developed by ITSA, Boulder, Colorado is compared for range accuracy with theoretically calculated values of range. Ray tracings were made through two quasi-parabolic ionospheres of different heights and thicknesses with no magnetic field or electronic collisions involved. For the case where the maximum allowable single step error was a minimum (corresponding to longer computer running time), the maximum range error encountered was 26.3 km at a zero-degree launch angle. However, for launch angles equal to or greater than 0.5°, the typical range errors were less than 1.0 km.
Periodic load balancing heuristics in massively multiplayer online games

In massively multiplayer online games, computational load is often shared among and transferred between the servers that host the game world. It is important to keep this load balanced among those resources such that no one server becomes overloaded and leads to a subpar game experience or outright game failure. The system must balance is load subject to constraints as player satisfaction and maximum server computational capacity. We propose a novel periodic approach to this problem of load balancing along with a collection of heuristics to achieve balance in the system, and compare its performance against existing work in literature, finding that these new heuristics provide more system balance than those existing methods.
When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow: Grant Wood and Christian Petersen Murals

Review of: "When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow: Grant Wood and Christian Petersen Murals," by Lea Rosson DeLong.
Simon Marius as a Tychonic Calendar Maker

This chapter analyzes the mathematical astronomy in the printed annual Schreibkalender and prognostications authored by Simon Marius for the years 1601–1629. It considers how Marius determined the times of the new and full moons, eclipses, and Sun’s entry into the four cardinal points of the year and finds frequent discrepancies between his actual procedures (copying from published sources) and his descriptions of those procedures (independent computation). This chapter suggests that the highly competitive world of calendar production, especially in Nuremberg, may have prompted Marius to deploy combative rhetoric against other calendar makers and to exaggerate his own originality. And the chapter briefly examines Marius’s description, in his calendars, of his relationships with two contemporary astronomers, David Fabricius and Kepler. The goal of this chapter is to explore how Marius represented himself in the world of print calendars.
Diagnostic Precision of Open-Set Versus Closed-Set Word Recognition Testing.

Purpose The aim of the study was to examine the precision of forced-choice (closed-set) and open-ended (open-set) word recognition (WR) tasks for identifying a change in hearing. Method WR performa...
Virtual pointer for gaze guidance in laparoscopic surgery

A challenge of laparoscopic surgery is learning how to interpret the indirect view of the operative field. Acquiring professional vision—understanding what to see and which information to attend to, is thereby an essential part of laparoscopic training and one in which trainers exert great effort to convey. We designed a virtual pointer (VP) that enables experts to point or draw free-hand sketches over an intraoperative laparoscopic video for a novice to see. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of the virtual pointer in guiding novices’ gaze patterns. We conducted a counter-balanced, within-subject trial to compare the novices’ gaze behaviors in laparoscopic training with the virtual pointer compared to a standard training condition, i.e., verbal instruction with un-mediated gestures. In the study, seven trainees performed four simulated laparoscopic tasks guided by an experienced surgeon as the trainer. A Tobii Pro X3-120 eye-tracker was used to capture the trainees’ eye movements. The measures include fixation rate, i.e., the frequency of trainees’ fixations, saccade amplitude, and fixation concentration, i.e., the closeness of trainees’ fixations. No significant difference in fixation rate or saccade amplitude was found between the virtual pointer condition and the standard condition. In the virtual pointer condition, trainees’ fixations were more concentrated (p = 0.039) and longer fixations were more clustered, compared to the Standard condition (p = 0.008). The virtual pointer effectively improved surgical trainees’ in-the-moment gaze focus during the laparoscopic training by reducing their gaze dispersion and concentrating their attention on the anatomical target. These results suggest that technologies which support gaze training should be expert-driven and intraoperative to efficiently modify novices’ gaze behaviors.
Assessment of PZT (Soft/Hard) Composites for Energy Harvesting

This research is focused on piezoelectric energy harvesting at high pressure fields and low frequency applications. Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) is the primary piezoelectric evaluated with a focus...
Association of population mixing and acute lymphocytic leukemia in children and young adults.

Abstract Background The association of population mixing (PM 1 ) with childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL 2 ) has been reproduced in multiple studies. However, the mechanism underlying this association is unknown. Methods Ecological study of incidence of pediatric ALL among 253 counties in the State of Texas (USA) using surrogates of genetic and environmental PM. ALL incidence data were obtained from Texas Cancer Registry and county population statistics from the US Census Bureau. Poisson regression was used to compare ALL incidence and PM. Results There is substantial and variable genetic and environmental PM among counties in Texas. Indicators of genetic PM including proportion of multiracial households, ratio of Hispanics to non-Hispanics, and ratio of foreign to native-born residents were all significantly associated with a higher incidence of ALL (IRR 3 1.81 (95CI 1.05–3.13), 1.67 (95CI 1.16–2.37), and 1.59 (95CI 1.03–2.48), respectively). Surrogates of environmental PM namely population density and persons per household were not associated with incidence of ALL; IRRs 1.29 (95CI 0.4–4.15) and 1.47 (95CI 0.89–2.43). Conclusions These findings are consistent with prior patterns and magnitudes of PM association with ALL. Our findings suggest that the implicated mechanism of leukemogenesis in PM may be genetically transmitted rather than environmental.