cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Automatic Teller Machine users by Multivariate Analysis

This study attempts to pursue an adequate analytical determination of target market automatic teller machine user characteristics which can be used as strategic input to the marketing planning process. To this end, the Wright State University consumer panel was utilized to probe in detail both frequency and type of ATM use and specific user profiles using both Multiple Discriminate Analyses and Automatic Interaction Deduction. Further analysis was then used to develop user/non-user profiles and respondent discrimination in regard to preferences for potential ATM locations.
Electromagnetic Pulse Shaping and Applications

Electromagnetic pulse shapers based on optical pulse processing techniques provide unparalleled waveform agility. By allowing user control of both the RF spectral amplitude and phase, we demonstrate these systems can compensate for electrical distortions experienced by broadband waveforms (here, from radiation from a broadband antenna). We believe these pulse shapers to be an enabling technology for airborne applications such as impulsive radio and radar.
Long‐Term Continuous Flow Left Ventricular Assist Device Support and End‐Organ Function: Prospects for Destination Therapy

Pulsatile flow left ventricular assist devices (PF-LVADs) have successfully supported patients with severe heart failure for bridge-to-transplant (BTT) and destination therapy (DT). End-organ dysfunction is often reversed, optimizing the patient's condition to enhance survival, and quality of life. Questions have been raised regarding the potential for continuous flow LVADs (CF-LVADs) to provide the same quality of circulatory support. Prior research showing that PF is superior to continuous, non-PF does not appear to be relevant with CF-LVADs for BTT and DT. Under most clinical conditions, arterial pulsatility is present during CF-LVAD support, and this type of support should not be termed "nonpulsatile." Clinical studies have shown that renal, hepatic, and neurocognitive function is either maintained within a normal range, or is significantly improved, during CF-LVAD support for durations up to 15 months. Results of the randomized clinical trial between the CF HeartMate II and the pulsatile HeartMate XVE (both by Thoratec Corp, Pleasanton, CA, USA) are pending final US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review and are not yet published. Studies of microcirculation during CF-LVAD support indicate that capillary blood flow is adequate to support cellular function. There are anecdotal cases of patients being supported with a CF-LVAD for over seven years with preserved end-organ function. Presently, there are no clinical reports indicating that end-organ function is not well maintained. Current clinical evidence indicates that end-organ perfusion and function can be well maintained for extended durations of support with a CF-LVAD.
Short-term effects of fire on soil and plant nutrients in palmetto flatwoods

Fire may have different effects on the relative availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) because N volatilization occurs at lower temperatures than P volatilization, and fire-mediated changes in soil nutrient availability may affect foliar nutrient concentrations. We assessed the short-term effects of fire on soil and plant nutrients and 15N isotopic signatures in a palmetto flatwoods ecosystem in central Florida. Fire caused a short-term increase in extractable ammonium (NH4+) and phosphate (PO43-). The increase in PO43- was greater than the increase in NH4+, resulting in a decrease in the soil extractable N:P ratio shortly after fire. Similarly, foliar %P of the palmetto Serenoa repens (W. Bartram) Small increased more than foliar %N, resulting in a decrease in foliar N:P ratios shortly after fire. Soil δ15N and the difference between foliar and soil δ15N did not vary with time since fire; however, foliar δ15N of S. repens decreased after fire. Foliar %N of Quercus geminata Small and ericaceous shrubs was positively correlated with soil extractable inorganic N, while foliar %P of S. repens was positively correlated with soil extractable PO43-. Variation in foliar δ15N after fire and the positive relationship between soil and foliar nutrients suggest that both increased soil nutrient availability and reallocation of nutrients from below- to aboveground can be important for plant nutrient status after fire in palmetto flatwoods.
The Contest Over Meaning: Hermeneutics as an Interpretive Methodology for Understanding Texts:

This article focuses on the methodological and epistemological aspects of hermeneutics, a leading genre of interpretive research. Beginning with a brief overview of the limitations of methodological discussions of hermeneutics in current organizational research, the article first introduces readers to the historical context of hermeneutics and then discusses the major epistemological and methodological concepts and debates that inform contemporary hermeneutics. Next, methodological guidelines for employing hermeneutics in organizational research are proposed. Finally, some conclusions are offered.
Geometric Mistuning Reduced-Order Models for Integrally Bladed Rotors With Mistuned Disk–Blade Boundaries

New geometric mistuning modeling approaches for integrally bladed rotors (IBRs) are developed for incorporating geometric perturbations to a fundamental disk–blade sector, particularly the disk–blade boundary or connection. Reduced-order models (ROMs) are developed from a Craig–Bampton component mode synthesis (C–B CMS) framework that is further reduced by a truncated set of interface modes that are obtained from an Eigen-analysis of the C–B CMS constraint degrees of freedom (DOFs). An investigation into using a set of tuned interface modes and tuned constraint modes for model reduction is then performed, which offers significant computational savings for subsequent analyses. Two configurations of disk–blade connection mistuning are investigated: as-measured principal component (PC) deviations and random perturbations to the interblade spacing. Furthermore, the perturbation sizes are amplified to investigate the significance of incorporating mistuned disk–blade connections during solid model generation from optically scanned geometries. Free and forced response results are obtained for each ROM and each disk–blade connection type and compared to full finite element model (FEM) solutions. It is shown that the developed methods provide accurate results with a reduction in solution time compared to the full FEM. In addition, results indicate that the inclusion of a mistuned disk–blade connection deviations are small or conditions where large perturbations are localized to a small areas of the disk–blade connection.
Performance evaluation of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud for NASA high-performance computing applications

Cloud computing environments are now widely available and are being increasingly utilized for technical computing. They are also being touted for high-performance computing HPC applications in science and engineering. For example, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2 Services offers specialized Cluster Compute instance types to run HPC applications. In this paper, we compare the performance characteristics of two Amazon EC2 HPC instance types with that of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's NASA Pleiades supercomputer, an SGI® ICETM cluster. For this study, we utilized the HPC Challenge kernels and the NAS Parallel Benchmarks along with four full-scale applications from the repertoire of codes that are being used by NASA scientists and engineers. We compare the total runtime of these codes for varying number of cores. We also break out the computation and communication times for a subset of these applications to explore the effect of interconnect differences on the two systems. In general, the single node performance of the two platforms is equivalent. However, for most of the codes when scaling to larger core counts, the performance of the EC2 HPC instances generally lags that of Pleiades because of worse network performance of the former. In addition to analyzing application performance, we also briefly touch upon the overhead due to virtualization and the usability of cloud environments such as Amazon EC2. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the U.S.A.
Discussions About Clinical Trials Among Patients With Newly Diagnosed Lung and Colorectal Cancer

Clinical trial enrollment among adult cancer patients in the United States is low and presents a major impediment to the advancement of cancer care and prevention. Fewer than 5% of adult cancer patients in the United States are estimated to participate in National Cancer Institute (NCI)–sponsored clinical research trials, a statistic that has been stagnant for decades (1–4). Furthermore, certain subsets of the US population, including the elderly, racial or ethnic minorities, and women, have historically been underrepresented in clinical trials (3). Underrepresentation by these groups does not reflect the heterogeneity of the US population or of cancer biology. This shortcoming of the clinical trial enterprise implies inequitable access to clinical trials, threatens the generalizability of trial results, and hinders meaningful subgroup analyses. Concomitantly, many clinical trials close with accrual insufficient to answer their scientific questions. Among phase III trials sponsored by NCI-sponsored clinical trial cooperative groups, 34% closed with insufficient accrual to address the trials’ primary endpoint (5). Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “A National Cancer Clinical Trials System for the 21st Century:
Predicting Breast Cancer Mortality in the Presence of Competing Risks Using Smartphone Application Development Software

The widespread use of smartphone applications (apps) provides a promising new platform for medical research and healthcare decision making. Given the need to help guide clinical discussions about the appropriateness of breast cancer screening in the presence of competing risks among older women, we proposed to incorporate the Fine-Gray prediction model, which offers more intuitive clinical interpretation of risk in the presence of competing risks, into a smartphone-based decision aid application. Clinicians can input the womanâ€™s characteristics and medical history, and the app will output prediction estimates of both types of events (i.e. death from breast cancer and competing risk events) given the presence or absence of breast cancer screening. This prototype was built using drag-and-drop visual programming tools provided by the free, cloud-based software â€œMIT App Inventor for Android.â€ It will be intended for clinicians to use in the context of patientsâ€™ values to decide whether screening is appropriate for an individual. Our analysis indicated that screening was beneficial to survival, and that older women benefited less from screening due to the increasing incidence of non-breast-cancer competing risk deaths as age increased. The algorithm we implemented for the app provides instant probability estimates that help quantify screening benefits as a function of age, and comorbidity burden.
Composition–rheology relationships in alkali–silica reaction gels and the impact on the gel's deleterious behavior

Abstract Alkali–silica reaction (ASR) continues to be a major challenge to the durability of concrete structures. This is in part because the relationships between the composition, properties, and behavior of ASR gels in concrete are poorly understood. Gels with high pore solution pH, osmotic pressure, and rheological (e.g., yield stress) and swelling properties are the most deleterious. In this paper, the effects of the composition (primarily Ca/Si and Na/Si) of synthetic ASR gels on these characteristics are investigated, and regression analyses are done on the data. The pessimum combination of osmotic and rheological properties was found in the case of gels having intermediate calcium and high sodium contents (i.e., Ca/Si = 0.2 and Na/Si ≈ 0.85), leading to the highest estimated swelling pressures. These gels also developed the most alkaline pore solutions. While highest yield stresses were observed in the gels with low calcium and low sodium, they showed negligible osmotic and swelling pressures.
Surveys and Mapping in water Resource Development

Surveys and mapping have been essential to water resources development in the United States. From the pioneer single purpose navigation network, federal interest in water resource development has broadened to include multipurpose uses of water and related land resources. The quality of multipurpose planning has been enhanced by improved techniques in surveys and mapping. An example of the role of surveys and mapping in water resource development is illustrated by the Vicksburg District’s study of providing levee protection to the Vicksburg-Yazoo area north of Vicksburg, Mississippi Survey information, aerial mosaics, and quadrangle maps were used to prepare working curves for converting various types of flood damage to an average annual basis for comparison with annual costs. Studies indicate that a levee project to provide protection from the Mississippi River Project Design Flood would be economically justified. With the diminishing opportunities for water resources development, wise and timely development and utilization of these resources will require creative and imaginative planning and engineering reflecting physical changes and new technology in surveying and mapping.
The Battle of Lake Khasan Reconsidered

ABSTRACTAlmost all history books claim that the Battle of Lake Khasan was provoked in the summer of 1938 by the aggression of Imperial Japan into Soviet territory. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal of 1946 accepted this version propagated by Moscow, which almost all historians have also accepted. There has been no substantive re-examination of this battle for more than three quarters of a century. Recent publications from Soviet military archives as well as documents from the Dmitrii Volkogonov Archive suggest that the Soviet-Japanese military conflict of 1938 was a cleverly disguised Soviet provocation. This fundamental reassessment of the battle has far-reaching implications for Moscow’s war of camouflage, disinformation, and obfuscation during the Soviet and post-Soviet era.
Field Curing of Forages

Field cured forages have an important role in feeding ruminant animals in the temperate climates of the world. Forage growth is not possible for much of the year in these areas. Large amounts of forage must be mechanically harvested and stored for use when forage cannot be grown. Although grazing can be used dur­ ing summer months, the trend during the past 30 yr has been to use less grazing and more conserved forage. Despite a recent shift toward more grazing, most ruminant animals in these climates are fed largely or entirely from conserved feeds. Field curing is required to conserve most forage crops. Field curing is a process that uses the field environment to remove moisture from the crop to ob­ tain a moisture level suitable for storage. The crop is mowed and laid on the field surface to wilt or dry. Growing forage typically contains 700 to 850 g kg- 1 of moisture (wet basis), i.e. 2.3 to 5.6 parts water for each part of plant dry matter. Plant material with this much moisture is difficult and expensive to preserve for long storage periods. Even when sealed in a silo, improper fermentation causes a high loss of plant dry matter and a degradation of the protein and other nutrients required by animals. Moisture removal is necessary to obtain stable preservation of forage as dry hay or wilted silage. Field curing involves both drying and rewetting processes. As the crop lays in the field, moisture moves between the crop and its environment until a suit­ able crop moisture content is attained for harvest. This moisture movement cycles between moisture loss and moisture gain in the crop as the environment changes relative to the crop. Unless rain occurs, daytime periods predominantly produce moisture loss or drying. At night, high humidities, dew, and perhaps rainfall pro­ duce a gain in crop moisture. Many factors affect the rate and extent of drying during field curing. Solar radiation, air temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and other environmental fac­ tors influence both the drying and rewetting processes. Crop yield, stem diam­ eter, leaf to stem ratio, swath structure, and other crop characteristics also can enhance or impede moisture movement. With sunny days, warm temperatures, dry soil, and a thin swath, relatively fast curing is attained. Less favorable condi­ tions and periodic rainfall prolongs the curing process. Forage that has laid in the
Comparing Charge Transport in Oligonucleotides: RNA:DNA Hybrids and DNA Duplexes

Understanding the electronic properties of oligonucleotide systems is important for applications in nanotechnology, biology, and sensing systems. Here the charge-transport properties of guanine-rich RNA:DNA hybrids are compared to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) duplexes with identical sequences. The conductance of the RNA:DNA hybrids is ∼10 times higher than the equivalent dsDNA, and conformational differences are determined to be the primary reason for this difference. The conductance of the RNA:DNA hybrids is also found to decrease more rapidly than dsDNA when the length is increased. Ab initio electronic structure and Green’s function-based density of states calculations demonstrate that these differences arise because the energy levels are more spatially distributed in the RNA:DNA hybrid but that the number of accessible hopping sites is smaller. These combination results indicate that a simple hopping model that treats each individual guanine as a hopping site is insufficient to explain both a higher co...
Fracture Analysis for Lever Pin of Medium Pressure Regulating Valve at Power Plant

The fracture of lever pin of turbine medium pressure regulating valve is found undergoing overhaul for 620MW supercritical air-cooling unit at a power plantin a power plant.The pin is made of steel 20Cr1Mo1VnbTiB.The steel is more sensitive to heat treatment.The fracture pin is sampled for the chemical composition,microstructure,hardness and impact test.The test results show that the pin chemical composition is qualified.The microstructure,hardness and impact energy of the samples can not meet the standards.The main reason for crack is the very low toughness and a large concentration of stress is due to the structural reason of the pin.
Viral Evasion and Manipulation of Host RNA Quality Control Pathways

Viruses have evolved diverse strategies to maximize the functional and coding capacities of their genetic material. Individual viral RNAs are often used as substrates for both replication and translation and can contain multiple, sometimes overlapping open reading frames. Further, viral RNAs engage in a wide variety of interactions with both host and viral proteins to modify the activities of important cellular factors and direct their own trafficking, packaging, localization, stability, and translation. However, adaptations increasing the information density of small viral genomes can have unintended consequences. In particular, viral RNAs have developed features that mark them as potential targets of host RNA quality control pathways. This minireview focuses on ways in which viral RNAs run afoul of the cellular mRNA quality control and decay machinery, as well as on strategies developed by viruses to circumvent or exploit cellular mRNA surveillance.
Sex steroids and endurance running in women

The effects of endurance training on body composition, menstrual cycles, and sex steroids were studied in 19 healthy, regularly menstruating women. Body composition and midfollicular plasma concentrations of estradiol (E 2 ), estrone (E 1 ), and testosterone (T) were examined at baseline and after each subject’s weekly mileage had increased 30 miles ( Δ 30) and 50 miles ( Δ 50) above baseline. Total body weight did not change, but the subjects became leaner. Mean ± standard error of the mean E 2 decreased from 70.6 ± 13.9 pg/ml at baseline to 33.6 ± 4.8 pg/ml at Δ 50 ( P = 0.03). Mean E 1 decreased progressively, but not significantly, while T did not change. Eighteen women developed menstrual changes (mainly oligomenorrhea), but not amenorrhea. Endurance running in women results in frequent menstrual dysfunction and is associated with a significant decrease in E 2 concentrations.
Contrast-Enhanced Digital Mammography in the Surgical Management of Breast Cancer.

Contrast-enhanced digital mammography (CEDM) is a new breast imaging technique. The role of CEDM in the surgical management of breast cancer has not yet been characterized. A retrospective review of prospective breast surgery and breast imaging databases for patients who underwent CEDM and had breast cancer surgery. A total of 351 patients had CEDM; 128 had malignant lesions, and 101 of these underwent surgery with 105 malignancies identified. The mean age was 62 years (range 25–85 years). The histology was 65 % invasive ductal carcinoma, 16 % invasive lobular carcinoma, 11 % ductal carcinoma-in situ, 3 % mixed invasive ductal carcinoma/invasive lobular carcinoma, and 5 % other histologies. After excluding two lesions that had been removed before the examination, CEDM identified 98 % (n = 101/103) of the index lesions. The two lesions not identified were Paget disease only and a parasternal lesion too medial to include in the field of view. CEDM led to additional biopsies in 12 % (n = 12) of patients. Of these, 67 % (n = 8) proved to be invasive carcinoma and 33 % (n = 4) were benign. CEDM changed surgical management in 20 % (n = 20) of cancer patients with a 4 % (n = 4) rate of conversion to mastectomy. Among patients undergoing surgical therapy for breast cancer, CEDM was highly sensitive, had size measurements that correlated well with histologic size, and produced a relatively low rate of false-positive additional biopsy findings. CEDM appears to be promising as an alternative to magnetic resonance imaging in the surgical planning of these patients.
Logical truth in modal logic

Refutation des critiques developpees par H. Field, J. Pollack, W. Hanson et J. Hawthorne contre la conception de la verite logique definie par Kripke dans le domaine de la logique modale. Au-dela de la structure-modele des operateurs modaux qui se presentent dans une phrase, l'A. montre qu'il existe une analogie entre la verite de la logique classique et celle de la logique modale
Rabbit Spinal Cord Ischemia Model for the Development of Neuroprotective Treatments

Ischemic spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most morbid complications of aortic operations and traumatic injury. Numerous animal models have been created to try to understand the pathogenesis of spinal cord injury and to find treatment options. In this chapter, different animal spinal cord injury models are discussed. An overview of potential spinal cord injury therapeutic agents that are studied in the literature is presented as well. Finally, a new minimally invasive rabbit spinal cord ischemia model that uses a transfemoral intra-aortic balloon occlusion and neuromonitoring with motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) is presented. This rabbit model has the potential to aid in novel therapeutic drug development for early ischemic SCI.
Confocal Raman Microscopy Tracks Cutaneous Delivery of Flufenamic Acid using Lipophilic Versus Hydrophilic Penetration Enhancers

Recent technological advances have led to an increase in the use of confocal Raman microscopy to tackle biophysical and pharmacological issues in topical delivery and dermatology. Advantages of the technique include the ability to optically section intact, full thickness skin without the need to microtome or otherwise physically segment the skin. In addition, both exogenous agents and perturbations to endogenous structure can be monitored without the introduction of probe molecules. In the current work, flufenamic acid (FluA), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is a model agent for investigating the influence of lipophilic versus hydrophilic penetration enhancers on the outer barrier layer of skin. For topical delivery to be effective, a drug must cross the stratum corneum (SC) barrier into viable tissue. In separate experiments, FluA in octanol or propylene glycol/ethanol (75/25) is applied to skin for varying times followed by confocal Raman microscopic mapping of drug and enhancer spatial distribution. The FluA pathway is tracked by the C=C stretching mode at 1618 cm−1. The exogenous enhancers are spectroscopically differentiated from the endogenous lipids by utilizing deuterated versions of the enhancers which do not affect penetration parameters. Discrete pockets (5-20 μm) of both enhancers are observed throughout the SC. High concentrations of FluA are co-localized with octanol inclusions which appear to provide a pathway to the viable epidermis for the drug. In contrast, FluA concentrates in the upper SC when using the hydrophilic agent and endogenous lipids are unperturbed in regions outside the enhancer pockets. The ability to examine perturbations to endogenous ultrastructure and molecular structure in skin while tracking penetration pathways provides insight into delivery mechanisms.
Incremental learning of neural network classifiers using reinforcement learning

With the availability of more data, classification is increasingly important. However, traditional classification algorithms do not scale well to large data sets and are often not suited when only limited samples of the dataset are available at any point in time. The latter arises, for example, in streaming data when the accumulation of data a priori is infeasible either due to limitations in memory or computation, or due to privacy and data ownership limitations. In these situations, traditional classification algorithms are difficult to apply since they are generally not incrementally trainable on changing data sets. To address this, this paper presents a novel approach that first uses Reinforcement Learning to learn a policy to incrementally build neural network classifiers for a broad distribution of problems and subsequently applies it to new data to learn a classifier for this specific problem. In both phases, learning operates on a sequence of small, randomly drawn subsets of the data, thus making it suitable for streaming data and for very large data sets where processing the entire set is not feasible. Experiments comparing this approach with kernel SVMs and large neural networks applied to the complete dataset show that this approach achieves comparable performance. Additional experiments were done to evaluate the performance of this approach for real world, streaming datasets and datasets with concept drift properties.
Is Maximizing a Bad Thing

Abstract. Maximizing Tendency is a decision style characterized by holding a higher standard for one’s decision. Initially, this style had been linked to negative life outcomes (e.g., decision regret, life dissatisfaction, depression), but recent studies have begun to show the opposite. In this study, we argue and test the proposition that relations between maximizing and future-oriented outcomes can be explained by future-oriented thinking. Results show that maximizers are more likely to consider the future consequences of their current actions. In turn, maximizers intend to save more, have more savings, show a greater concern for guiding the next generation, and are less likely to engage in temporal discounting behaviors. The study concludes that maximizing can be a beneficial decision style due, in part, to its impact on future-oriented thinking, and adds to a growing literature suggesting that maximizing can, in fact, be a good thing.
Adolescent and Young Adult Perceptions on Cigar Packaging: A Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVE To identify the appealing components of cigar packaging among youth. METHODS We conducted 8 focus groups among cigar users, separated by sex and age group (ie, adolescents, young adults) in Connecticut between February and July, 2016. Participants were shown cigar packages and instructed to circle aspects of the images on the packages that appealed to them independently and a group discussion followed. RESULTS The appealing components identified were flavors (46.8%), price promotions (28.8%), branding (21.2%), marketing claims (17.2%, eg, "natural"), product features (15.2%, eg, the word "cigarillo"), number of cigars (8.0%), color (4.4%), re-sealable features (2.8%), and other (6.0%; eg "limited offer," geographic region). Relative to female participants, male participants were more likely to find flavors and price promotions appealing, and less likely to find colors as appealing (ps < .05). Relative to young adults, adolescents were more likely to find price promotions, branding, marketing claims and number of cigars appealing, and less likely to find colors as appealing (ps < .05). CONCLUSIONS In order to reduce the appeal of cigars to youth, regulatory agencies should consider prohibiting flavors, appealing colors, price promotions, misleading marketing claims, and logos/trademarks on cigar packaging.
Brain network eigenmodes provide a robust and compact representation of the structural connectome in health and disease

Recent research has demonstrated the use of the structural connectome as a powerful tool to characterize the network architecture of the brain and potentially generate biomarkers for neurologic and psychiatric disorders. In particular, the anatomic embedding of the edges of the cerebral graph have been postulated to elucidate the relative importance of white matter tracts to the overall network connectivity, explaining the varying effects of localized white matter pathology on cognition and behavior. Here, we demonstrate the use of a linear diffusion model to quantify the impact of these perturbations on brain connectivity. We show that the eigenmodes governing the dynamics of this model are strongly conserved between healthy subjects regardless of cortical and sub-cortical parcellations, but show significant, interpretable deviations in improperly developed brains. More specifically, we investigated the effect of agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC), one of the most common brain malformations to identify differences in the effect of virtual corpus callosotomies and the neurodevelopmental disorder itself. These findings, including the strong correspondence between regions of highest importance from graph eigenmodes of network diffusion and nexus regions of white matter from edge density imaging, show converging evidence toward understanding the relationship between white matter anatomy and the structural connectome.
Lumbar Spine Fusion Surgery in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Is Associated With Increased Medical Complications and Mortality.

Study Design.Retrospective database review.Objective.To characterize the outcomes of solid organ transplant (SOT) patients after one- or two-level lumbar fusion surgery.Summary of Background Data.Over the past decade advances in SOT patients have improved graft survival. As such, this patient popula
Statistical failure estimation method to size off-grid electrical systems for villages in developing countries

Across the globe nearly 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity, of which many live in rural or remote areas of the developing countries. The extension of central grid for rural electrification is not economically viable due to the geographical placement and low initial power demand. However, for rural villages, systems that are less reliable than grid standards may be acceptable, and allow for smaller systems implemented at lower cost. This study considers the optimal sizing of PV generation and energy storage for a rural off-grid PV-battery system in Rwanda.
IMPACT OF PARAMETER ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION ON TELEMETRY ALARMS

Alarm management was one of the National Patient Safety Goals in 2015 because of patient safety concerns and the burden on staff from unnecessary telemetry alarms. We hypothesize that optimizing telemetry alarm threshold by safely changing parameters thresholds would significantly reduce the number
Hemodialysis patients have worse outcomes after infrageniculate revascularization procedures.

Abstract Background Hemodialysis (HD) has been shown to be an independent predictor of poor outcomes after femoropopliteal revascularization procedures in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia. However, HD patients tend to have isolated infrageniculate disease, an anatomic risk factor for inferior patency. We aimed to compare outcomes for HD versus non-HD patients after infrageniculate open lower extremity bypass (LEB) and endovascular peripheral vascular interventions (PVIs). Methods Data from the Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative database (2008-2014) were analyzed. All patients undergoing infrageniculate LEB or PVI for rest pain or tissue loss were included. One-year primary patency (PP), secondary patency (SP), and major amputation outcomes were analyzed for HD versus non-HD patients stratified by treatment approach using both univariable and multivariable analyses. Results A total of 1688 patients were included, including 348 patients undergoing LEB (HD = 44 versus non-HD = 304) and 1340 patients undergoing PVI (HD = 223 versus non-HD = 1117). Patients on HD more frequently underwent revascularization for tissue loss (89% versus 77%, P Conclusions HD is an independent predictor of poor patency and higher risk of major amputation after infrageniculate endovascular revascularization procedures for the treatment of chronic limb-threatening ischemia. The use of endovascular interventions in these higher risk patients is not associated with improved limb salvage outcomes and may be an inappropriate use of healthcare resources.
The use of untrimmed end volumetric heeling moments in the grain stability calculation for specially suitable bulk carriers.

Reasons for the use of untrimmed end volumetric heeling moments in the National Cargo Bureau's (NCB) "Grain Stability Calculation" form are described in detail. Severe loading delays are caused by merchant marine officers' lack of knowledge regarding the necessity of trimming the hold end spaces on conventional bulk-carrying vessels. The paper offers a remedy for this situation by explaining the laws dealing with the carriage of bulk grain on this type of vessel and by outlining methods of trimming hold end spaces where required. The alternative of using "untrimmed ends" moments is discussed, along with the associated savings in both time and money. Actual calculations of the "Stability Summary" section of the NCB form present three different loading arrangements utilizing untrimmed end moments. The paper concludes that every bulk carrier engaged for at least a few voyages in the grain trade should have a table of "untrimmed end volumetric heeling moments" on board since they do provide a loading alternative that can considerably lower or eliminate trimming costs and reduce a vessel's turnaround time.
Adrenergic, respiratory, and cardiovascular effects of core cooling in humans

The adrenergic, respiratory, and cardiovascular responses to isolated core cooling were assessed in awake human subjects. Mild core hypothermia was induced by intravenous infusion of 30 or 40 ml/kg of cold saline (4 degrees C) on 2 separate days. A warm intravenous infusion (30 ml/kg, 37 degrees C) was given on a third day as a control treatment. Mean norepinephrine concentration increased 400% and total body oxygen consumption increased 30% when core temperature decreased 0.7 degrees C. Mean norepinephrine concentration increased 700% and total body oxygen consumption increased 112% when core temperature decreased 1.3 degrees C. Core cooling was associated with peripheral vasoconstriction and increased mean arterial blood pressure, whereas heart rate was unchanged. Plasma epinephrine and cortisol concentrations were unchanged during core cooling. There were no changes in any measured parameter with the warm infusion. These findings suggest that mild hypothermia induced by isolated core cooling is associated with an adrenergic response characterized by peripheral sympathetic nervous system activation without a significant adrenocortical or adrenomedullary response. The respiratory and cardiovascular responses to core cooling are characterized by a shivering-induced increase in metabolic rate, norepinephrine-mediated peripheral vasoconstriction, and increased arterial blood pressure.
Flow Analysis and Linearization of Rectangular Butterfly Valve Flow Control Device for Liquid Cooling

One of the key areas in which electronic cooling research has been focusing on, is addressing the issue of non-uniform at package level. This challenge has incited the use of numerous temperature sensing mechanisms for dynamic cooling of electronic components. What dynamic liquid cooling effectively does is, use feedback from sensors as inputs for the pumps, supplying more amounts of fluid to parts of the electronics that is warmer while supplying minimal fluid to the parts of the electronics that are relatively cooler. A novel approach to address uneven heating in a liquid cooled system is the use of a temperature sensing flow control device that can control flow rate based on temperature. The necessity of numerous temperature and pressure sensors, a suitable control system and the maintenance and reliability issues that they present, can be significantly minimized with the use of a self sensing and controlling flow control device. This paper looks at the flow analysis of a self-regulating flow control device (FCD) designed for electronic module for data center application. An axially rotating butterfly valve is used to regulate the flow rate of FCD. Linearization of the flow with respect to damper angle is studied by modifying the dimensional ratios of the rectangular cross section of the FCD. Pressure drop, and flow rate characterization is done for the FCD.
c-Myc directly regulates nucleotide metabolism

1682 To identify c-Myc targets rate-limiting for proliferation of tumor cells, we stably inhibited c-Myc in several human melanoma lines via lentivirus-based shRNAs approximately to the levels detected in normal melanocytes. c-Myc depletion resulted in the repression of several genes encoding enzymes rate-limiting for dNTP metabolism including thymidylate synthase (TS), inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase 2 (IMPDH2) and phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase 2 (PRPS2), reduction in the amounts of deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) and inhibition of proliferation. Individual suppression of TS, IMPDH2 or PRPS2 via specific shRNAs resulted in the decrease of dNTP pools and inhibition of proliferation of melanoma cells, thus reproducing effects caused in these cells by depletion of c-Myc. Reciprocally, concurrent overexpression of cDNAs for TS, IMPDH2 and PRPS2 in melanoma cells delayed proliferative arrest caused by inhibition of c-Myc. Overexpression of c-Myc in normal melanocytes enhanced mRNA and protein expression of the above genes and increased dNTP pools. Chromatin immunoprecipitation confirmed that TS, IMPDH2 and PRPS2 genes are direct c-Myc targets. Our data establish a direct control of dNTP metabolism by c-Myc and identify the role of such control in proliferation of tumor cells.
Caroli syndrome in a 6-year-old rottweiler dog.

A 6-year-old entire female rottweiler dog with a recent history of ascites and respiratory disease was submitted for necropsy examination. The dog had been diagnosed ultrasonographically with biliary cysts as a puppy. Grossly, the liver was smaller than expected with an irregular surface. Islands of hepatocytes were separated by bands of fibrosis and many bile ducts were markedly dilated. Histologically, extensive fibrosis extended beyond the limiting plate and into the surrounding hepatic parenchyma and was associated with abundant small bile ducts throughout. In conjunction with the detection of biliary cysts early in life, the gross and histological findings were consistent with a diagnosis of Caroli syndrome. In man, Caroli syndrome is frequently associated with renal and pancreatic cysts; a single renal cyst was identified in this case.
Practical concerns of implementing a finite-time Lyapunov exponent analysis with under-resolved data

Using Lagrangian techniques to find transport barriers in complex, aperiodic flows necessitates a careful consideration of the available dimensional support (3D versus 2D) and temporal resolution of the data to be analyzed, a particular challenge in experimental data acquisition. To illustrate and diagnose the detrimental effects that can manifest in the computed Lagrangian flow maps and Cauchy–Green strain tensor that are calculated as part of most Lagrangian coherent structure analyses, planar finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) fields are computed from analytically defined, experimentally collected, and numerically simulated velocity fields. The FTLE fields calculated using three-component, three-dimensional velocity information (3D FTLE) are compared with calculations using two-dimensional data considering only the in-plane velocities (2D FTLE), data that are typically gathered during fluid dynamics experiments. In some regions, where the vortex rotation axis is perpendicular to the plane of interest, the 2D FTLE may perform well. However, in regions where the vortex rotation axis has a non-zero component parallel to the plane of interest, whole structures can fail to be captured by the 2D FTLE. A quantitative analysis of the error in the 2D FTLE field as it relates to instantaneous vorticity deviation core angle is conducted using Hill’s spherical vortex and the wake of a bioinspired pitching panel. The effect of decreasing temporal resolution is studied using simulated 3D experiments of a fully turbulent channel flow, where the time resolution of the velocity data is artificially degraded. The resultant 3D FTLE fields progressively worsen with degrading velocity field temporal resolution by the visible elongation of coherent structures in the streamwise direction, indicative of the poorly resolved intermediate velocity fields. This effect can be mitigated with a simple method that invokes Taylor’s frozen eddy hypothesis. Both dimensional support and temporal resolution problems in experimental velocity fields can cause major errors in the resulting FTLE fields. With fundamental understanding about the flow field of interest, such as local vortex orientation or relevant length and time scales, some of the pitfalls may be avoided.
Validity of the Kirchhoff-Geometric Optics Approach for Modeling of Ocean Bistatic Radar Scattering

The Kirchhoff approximation taken in geometric optics limit (KAGO) is a very robust and fast way to calculate the forward bistatic radar scattering from the rough ocean surface. The normalized bistatic radar cross section (NBRCS) in the KAGO can be characterized by the mean square slope of the rough surface smoothed over spatial scales smaller than some empirically introduced scale. This method produces satisfactory results in many practical cases, although it has certain limitations. Here we use a more accurate method, the small slope approximation of the first order (SSA1) to check the validity of the KAGO approximation.Applying this method, we performed calculations of the NBRCS for the L-band circularly cross-polarized signal in the forward direction for a range of incidence angles and several winds. The empirical Elfouhaily et al. ocean surface spectrum is used here. It is artificially modified by suppressing, or enhancing its spectral density beyond the variable cutoff wave number used in the geometric optics method.The NBRCS vs incidence angle dependencies calculated by the SSA1 in the strong diffuse regime (a large Rayleigh parameter) show some sensitivity to short surface waves which correspond to wavenumbers higher than the cutoff number traditionally used in bistatic scattering models based on the KA-GO.
Numerical Study of Ring Fragmentation

The fragmentation of rings and shells is a topic of enduring interest both because of the interesting dynamic conditions under which it takes places and the practical importance of fragmentation to various military and industrial applications. Fragmentation is a complex process in which potential fracture sites interact with one another in a deforming body to form a population of fragments. The details of this process are important, and realistic models need to capture the essential features of this process in order to make accurate predictions.
The Hand of Forgiveness

Starting with depictions of rituals associated with penance as illustrated in such works as La Fille du Comte de Ponthieu and La Manekine, this chapter considers the subtle changes in attitudes toward contrition, clerical absolution, and penitential acts described by theologians and canonists, and reflected in medieval poems such as Li Contes del graal, La Vie de Saint Gilles, Li Chevalier au barisel, and Le Dit du buef, among others. There remains a need even in the modern age for some kind of public avowal of oneʼs moral failings, serving as a kind of secular penance. The modern public televised admissions of failings by political figures who acknowledge their transgressions (often of a sexual nature) and beg for their constituentsʼ pardon reenact the purifying humiliation of public penance.
Sugarcane Labor in Brazil

The book begins with a cursory discussion of the history of Brazil’s sugarcane industry and some of the past and contemporary challenges, particularly with regard to the use of labor, from slave labor to the current model of recruiting seasonal domestic migrants from less affluent northeastern states. Brazil’s social and economic structures facilitate the stark inequalities among citizens that produce this type of seasonal migration. This chapter examines the social structures that were created during the early, colonial period of sugarcane production, probing the divisions among citizens that have endured to the present time. The chapter also discusses contemporary forces that sustain the dynamics of inequality, such as globalization, and the workers’ resistance to exploitation through efforts such as the landless workers’ movement.
Numerical linked cluster expansions for inhomogeneous systems

We develop a numerical linked cluster expansion (NLCE) method that can be applied directly to inhomogeneous systems, for example, Hamiltonians with disorder and dynamics initiated from inhomogeneous initial states. We demonstrate the method by calculating dynamics for single-spin expectations and spin correlations in two-dimensional spin models on a square lattice, starting from a checkerboard state. We show that NLCE can give moderate to dramatic improvement over an exact diagonalization of comparable computational cost and that the advantage in computational resources grows exponentially as the size of the clusters included grows. Although the method applies to any type of NLCE, our explicit benchmarks use the rectangle expansion. Besides showing the capability to treat inhomogeneous systems, these benchmarks demonstrate the rectangle expansion's utility out of equilibrium.
Chapter 3 – Minor Constituents

Soluble sugars and polyols, free amino acids, 5′-nucleotides, and carboxylic acids affect the taste of edible mushrooms. Numerous volatile compounds of various chemical natures produce mushroom flavor. Among them, eight-carbon aliphatic constituents are of the greatest interest. Melanin is formed by the enzymatic oxidation of some phenols after mechanical damage of fruit bodies. Malic, citric, and oxalic acids prevail among aliphatic acids. Numerous phenolics are the main source of antioxidant activity. Available information on sterols, indole and purine compounds, biogenic amines, and polyamines is also provided. Extensive data deal with trace element contents in fresh mushrooms. Some species have accumulating and even hyperaccumulating ability for various elements. Generally, consumption of wild mushrooms growing in polluted areas can be a health risk.