cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist synthesis by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in hemodialysis patients.

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist synthesis by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in hemodialysis patients. Background Pro-inflammatory cytokines like interleukin (IL)-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) are believed to play a significant role in dialysis-related morbidity. It has been previously demonstrated that the endogenous synthesis of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) is a reliable marker of the level of IL-1β synthesis in hemodialysis (HD) patients. In this study, we assessed the impact of clinical and laboratory variables on IL-1Ra synthesis by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in patients on HD with unsubstituted cellulose dialyzers. Methods IL-1Ra by PBMC was measured by a specific non-cross-reactive radioimmunoassay. Day to day variation in cytokine synthesis, the correlation between cytokine synthesis under different in vitro stimulatory conditions, and the influence of clinical and laboratory variables on cytokine synthesis were studied. Results Although there was a trend towards greater IL-1Ra synthesis by unstimulated, endotoxin-stimulated and IgG-stimulated PBMC drawn before the second and third dialysis sessions of the week when compared to the first dialysis treatment, this was not statistically significant. There was a strong correlation between IL-1Ra synthesis by PBMC cultured under different stimulatory conditions that was best observed between IL-1Ra cell content and from endotoxin-stimulated PBMC ( r = 0.51, P = 0.0001), and endotoxin- and IgG-stimulated PBMC ( r = 0.44, P = 0.0001). In addition, there was a close correlation between total synthesis (cell associated and secreted) and secreted levels of IL-1Ra in unstimulated ( r = 0.59, P = 0.0001) and endotoxin-stimulated PBMC ( r = 0.69, P = 0.0001). Interestingly, there was an inverse correlation between IL-1Ra synthesis and duration of dialysis that was strongest for secreted IL-1Ra from unstimulated ( r = -0.50, P = 0.002) and endotoxin-stimulated PBMC ( r = -0.34, P = 0.04). There was no significant correlation between IL-1Ra synthesis by PBMC and other clinical and laboratory indices. Conclusions The observations from this study indicate that: ( 1 ) in HD patients, there were no significant differences in cytokine synthesis by PBMC drawn before the three different dialysis treatments during the week; ( 2 ) there is a close relationship between IL-1Ra synthesis from PBMC cultured under different stimulatory conditions; ( 3 ) the secreted levels of IL-1Ra correlate directly with total synthesis (cell-associated and secreted); ( 4 ) with the exception of duration of dialysis, none of the other clinical or laboratory parameters correlated with cytokine synthesis; and ( 5 ) the diminished endotoxin- or IgG-stimulated IL-1Ra synthesis with increasing time on dialysis is possibly another sign of the impaired host-defense system in patients on long-term hemodialysis.
A Multipurpose Scanning Spectral Polarimeter (SSP): Instrument Description and Sample Results

Abstract This paper describes the design and characteristics of a scanning spectral polarimeter designed to measure spectral radiances and fluxes in the range between 0.4 and 4.0 μm. The instrument characteristics are described, and the procedures to calibrate the unpolarized radiances and fluxes in the spectral range from 0.4 to 1.1 μm are discussed along with detailed error analyses of this calibration. The accuracy of the radiance calibration was determined to be approximately 3%. The calibration of fluxes based on two different procedures is estimated to be accurate to 3%–6%. Detailed calibration of fluxes was performed using a standard lamp that is not an isotropic source. For this type of calibration the angular response of the flux channel deviates from a pure cosine function at wavelengths longer than 0.74 μm, thus forming a frontal lobe. A less detailed calibration using a 40-in. integrated sphere was also performed. In that case the light source is isotropic and the frontal lobe does not appear....
One Hundred Years of Powerful Women: A Conversation With Dorothy Talbot

Throughout 1993, Public Health Nursing will honor living public health nurses whose efforts have paved the way for the kind of practice that will lead us into the 21st century. Appearing in this issue are the first two in a series of oral histories honoring individuals selected by the editorial board.
Adsorptive Behavior of a Globular Protein with a Monoglyceride Monolayer Spread on the Aqueous Surface

The dynamics of surface pressure(π) and of surface concentration (Г) of a14C radiolabeled β-lactoglobulin, a globular protein, adsorbed onto a spread monolayer of 1-monopalmitoyl-rac glycerol (named commonly as a monoglyceride), at the air-water interface were measured. The adsorption of14C labeled β lactoglobulin was enhanced at short times when C-16 monoglyceride of 73.4 and 24.7 μg was spread on the aqueous surface. However, the amounts of protein adsorbed at the steady state (after 10 h) were lowered with the values being 0.8 and 1.2 mg/m2, respectively. Spreading of such amount of monoglyceride that forms a dense packed monolayer onto air-water interface led to complete displacement of the protein from the aqueous surface after 2.5 h, possibly because of the surface pressure and exclusion effects.
Boron and Nitrogen Doped Single walled Carbon Nanotubes as Possible Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors

The structure of single walled armchair and zig-zag carbon nanotubes having 70 atoms and two carbons replaced by boron or nitrogen is obtained at minium energy using HF/6-31G* molecular orbital theory. The calculations show that the ground state of the zig-zag tubes is a triplet state while for the armchair tubes it is a singlet. In the zig-zag tubes the density of states at the Fermi level is greater for the spin down states compared to the spin up state indicating that the doped tubes could be ferromagnetic.
A 3-D Finite Volume Method for Green Water Calculations

A 3-D Finite Volume method (FV3D) is developed and applied to green water problems. The Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations are discretized with the 3-D finite volume method on collocated Cartesian grids. The free surface motion is captured with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. The velocity and pressure fields are solved by the SIMPLER scheme with an alternating direction implicit solver. FV3D is validated against existing experimental and numerical results for tank sloshing and ship green-water-on-deck cases. This method is applicable to calculation of the green water effect on advanced wave-piercing hull forms.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
Miscible displacement with combined free and forced convection: Laminar flow in a vertical tube

An approximate analysis is given for miscible displacement in vertical tubes when density differences between the displaced and displacing fluids give rise to buoyancy forces which affect the velocity distribution significantly. The results of this analysis agree with the available experimental data fairly uniformly over the range of parameters studied experimentally. By analogy with studies of heat transfer in vertcal tubes it is concluded that both cases studied, when a lighter fluid displaces a heavier fluid in upflow, or when the heavier fluid is below the lighter fluid, are potentially unstable flows because buoyancy forces can create points of inflection in the velocity profile; stagnation at the wall also is predicted for upflow when the lighter fluid is on the bottom initially, and this has been observed to induce a sudden transition to turbulence in heat transfer systems. Buoyancy forces reduce the extent of dispersion by flattening the velocity profile when the heavier fluid is on the bottom in upflow. The velocity profile is elongated and the dispersion coefficient is increased when the bottom fluid is lighter than the one it displaces in upflow.
Current Advances in Dengue Diagnosis

Dengue is an endemic viral disease affecting tropical and subtropical regions around the world, predominantly in urban and semiurban areas. Dengue fever (DF) and its more serious forms, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS), are becoming important public health problems and
Philhellenism and the furor orientalis

Focusing on the study of the ancient Orient in fin-de-siecle Germany, this essay argues that “orientalism” had a wider range of cultural consequences than the term usually evokes in studies of Western imperialism and its ideologies. The essay describes the development of a generational movement in German scholarship that was characterized by its vigorous championing of the Orient over and against the dominant tendency to isolate and exalt classical civilizations, and especially ancient Greece, and by its role in destabilizing Western presumptions. It demonstrates that the furor orientalis did contribute to the decentering of the Greeks and the ancient Hebrews, bequeathing to the twentieth century both a much deeper and more diverse picture of the ancient Near East and an obsession with origins that could be mobilized by racist propagandists. The essay offers three case studies of groups which exemplified this furor—the Panbabylonists; the Religious-Historical School; and the iconoclastic mythographer Heinrich Zimmer, who represents a strong strain of Schopenhauerian Indology. It concludes by suggesting the more constructive directions taken by orientalists outside Germany in the 1920s–1940s, and poses the question: how long will the peaceful solutions they promoted last?
Homogeneous models and almost decidability

Countable homogeneous models are ‘simple’ objects from a model theoretic point of view. From a recursion theoretic point of view they can be complex. For instance the elementary theory of such a model might be undecidable, or the set of complete types might be recursively complex. Unfortunately even if neither of these conditions holds, such a model still can be undecidable. This paper investigates countable homogeneous models with respect to a weaker notion of decidability called almost decidable . It is shown that for theories that have only countably many type spectra, any countable homogeneous model of such a theory that has a Σ 2 type spectrum is almost decidable.
UTILITY OF THE STANFORD–BINET INTELLIGENCE SCALES, FIFTH EDITION, WITH ETHNICALLY DIVERSE PRESCHOOLERS

Current research on the use of revisions of intelligence measures with ethnically diverse populations and younger children is limited. The present study investigated the utility of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5), with an ethnically diverse preschool sample. African American and Caucasian preschoolers, matched on age, gender, and parental education, were found to have similar patterns of high and low scores on both the composites and all subtests of the SB5. The present study also found that African American and Caucasian preschool children did not differ on overall cognitive ability as measured by the SB5 Full Scale IQ. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Oral Ribavirin for the Treatment of Noninfluenza Respiratory Viral Infections A Systematic Review

Objective To review clinical outcomes data for patients treated with oral ribavirin for noninfluenza respiratory viral infections (NIRVIs). Data sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed Central (1972 to June 1, 2015) were queried with the following search term combinations: "Oral" AND "ribavirin" AND ("respiratory syncytial virus" OR "metapneumovirus" OR "parainfluenza" OR "coronavirus" OR "rhinovirus" OR "enterovirus" OR "adenovirus"). Study selection and data extraction Included studies must have characterized the clinical outcomes of a cohort of patients treated with oral ribavirin for symptomatic NIRVIs. Case reports and series with Data synthesis Of the 1256 unique reports, 15 met inclusion criteria: 12 retrospective, 3 prospective, and 3 comparative with untreated control groups. All studies except for 2 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) studies were in immunocompromised patients (9 malignancy/stem cell transplant, 4 lung transplant). The mortality rate ranged from 0% to 31% in malignancy/stem cell transplant recipients treated with oral ribavirin, and 1/108 (0.9%) ribavirin-treated lung transplant recipients died at 30 days. Three studies (one each for malignancy, lung transplant, and MERS-CoV) suggested a clinical outcomes benefit with oral ribavirin compared with supportive care alone; however, the nonrandomized design precludes efficacy determination. Hemolysis was the most common adverse reaction, occurring in 14% (54/375) of patients. Ribavirin was discontinued in 4% of patients secondary to adverse reactions. Conclusions Oral ribavirin should be considered for the treatment of NIRVI in immunocompromised adults (malignancy/stem cell transplant or lung transplant) or adults with MERS-CoV.
Probabilistic models for expert finding

A common task in many applications is to find persons who are knowledgeable about a given topic (i.e., expert finding). In this paper, we propose and develop a general probabilistic framework for studying expert finding problem and derive two families of generative models (candidate generation models and topic generation models) from the framework. These models subsume most existing language models proposed for expert finding. We further propose several techniques to improve the estimation of the proposed models, including incorporating topic expansion, using a mixture model to model candidate mentions in the supporting documents, and defining an email count-based prior in the topic generation model. Our experiments show that the proposed estimation strategies are all effective to improve retrieval accuracy.
Use of wideband waveforms for target recognition with surveillance radars

A long range target recognition system has been developed using a high range resolution mode in a surveillance radar. The radar performs normal air surveillance but on targets of interest a wideband waveform is used in a few pulses of the normal dwell. These pulses are processed to yield high resolution range profiles of the target. Combining range profiles with tracking data makes it possible to classify uncooperative targets into the following perceptual classes: large jet, small jet, large propeller, small propeller, and helicopters. Target recognition algorithms were developed and tested with a database obtained by recording the signatures of a mix of identified civilian and military aircraft. The single look recognition accuracy is better than 80 per cent for all classes except helicopters, which was 68 per cent.
Safety of botulinum toxin for dysphagia in oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

Introduction: Despite multiple studies reporting marked benefit of botulinum toxin (BTX) for treatment of cricopharyngeal dysphagia, little is known about its safety for this indication. We examined the safety of cricopharyngeal BTX for dysphagia in oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). Methods: We reviewed records of patients with OPMD who received cricopharyngeal BTX. Results: Twenty-four patients underwent 66 procedures. Overall adverse event frequency was 44%. The most common adverse events were dysphonia (24%) and worsened dysphagia (14%). Logistic regression demonstrated that dose was a significant predictor of worsened dysphagia (P = 0.036) and of the composite event of dysphonia or worsened dysphagia (P = 0.009). There was a nonsignificant trend for dose as a predictor of dysphonia (P = 0.073). 59% of procedures were associated with symptomatic improvement. Conclusions: While BTX appears to be beneficial for treatment of dysphagia in OPMD, caution is warranted when injecting the cricopharyngeus muscle due to dose-related risk of dysphonia or worsened dysphagia. Muscle Nerve 49:601–603, 2014
The Effects of Temperature and Electron Radiation on the Electrical Properties of AlGaN/GaN HFETs

Al0.27Ga0.73N/GaN HFETs were electron irradiated at ~ 80 K. The gate leakage and transistor current were measured and compared to theoretical tunneling models. The results are consistent with previous work but explicitly show that radiation produces point defects in the AlGaN that are positively charged at low temperature.
Going the Wrong Way on a One-Way Street: Centrality in Physics and Biology*

When ideas and tools move from one field to another, the movement is generally from the natural to the social sciences. In recent years, however, there has been a major movement in the opposite direction. The idea of centrality and the tools for its measurement were originally developed in the social science field of social network analysis. But currently the concept and tools of centrality are being used widely in physics and biology. This paper examines how and why that―wrong way―movement developed, its extent and its consequences for the fields involved.
Analysis of mutual coupling effect in adaptive array antennas

The performance of an adaptive antenna array is strongly affected by the electromagnetic characteristics of the array. The mutual coupling effect degrades the performance significantly, especially when the inter element spacing is decreased. A method to eliminate the effect of mutual coupling was proposed by R.S. Adve and T.K. Sarkar (see AP-S Int. Symp. Digest, p.1164-67, 1996). The method of moments (MOM) is used to model the mutual coupling effect on the weights and on the final directivity pattern of the adaptive array. Using an example of a two-element half wavelength adaptive dipole array, it is shown that the mutual coupling between the elements of an adaptive array causes significant degradation in the performance of the array and thus should not be neglected. It is demonstrated that, using the algorithm proposed by Adve and Sarkar, the effects of mutual coupling in adaptive arrays can be eliminated successfully.
A feasibility study of 2.5D system integration

Excessive on-chip wire length and fast increasing fabrication cost have been the main factors impairing the effectiveness of monolithic integration of VLSI systems. To address these problems, this paper investigates a die stacking based system integration scheme (2.5D system integration). We performed a series of design case studies and developed layout design tools for this new scheme. Our results show that this new scheme has a potential to outperform its monolithic equivalent.
Multilevel support vector regression analysis to identify condition-specific regulatory networks

Motivation: The identification of gene regulatory modules is an important yet challenging problem in computational biology. While many computational methods have been proposed to identify regulatory modules, their initial success is largely compromised by a high rate of false positives, especially when applied to human cancer studies. New strategies are needed for reliable regulatory module identification. Results: We present a new approach, namely multilevel support vector regression (ml-SVR), to systematically identify condition-specific regulatory modules. The approach is built upon a multilevel analysis strategy designed for suppressing false positive predictions. With this strategy, a regulatory module becomes ever more significant as more relevant gene sets are formed at finer levels. At each level, a two-stage support vector regression (SVR) method is utilized to help reduce false positive predictions by integrating binding motif information and gene expression data; a significant analysis procedure is followed to assess the significance of each regulatory module. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, we first compared the ml-SVR approach with other existing methods on simulation data and yeast cell cycle data. The resulting performance shows that the ml-SVR approach outperforms other methods in the identification of both regulators and their target genes. We then applied our method to breast cancer cell line data to identify condition-specific regulatory modules associated with estrogen treatment. Experimental results show that our method can identify biologically meaningful regulatory modules related to estrogen signaling and action in breast cancer. Availability and implementation: The ml-SVR MATLAB package can be downloaded at http://www.cbil.ece.vt.edu/software.htm Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Achieving Successful Collaboration in the Evaluation of Sexual Assault Prevention Programs: A Case Study

This article summarizes the collaborative evaluation of a sexual assault prevention education program. First, an overview of collaborative evaluation is provided, followed by a description of one program in which successful collaboration between a prevention educator and an evaluation consultant was achieved. Finally, the lessons that the collaborators learned are used to make recommendations for collaboration in the field of sexual assault prevention. Although additional time and personal commitment are required for true collaborative evaluation to take place, the benefits make such commitment worthwhile.
Arguments Against Immediate Awareness: The Case of Naturalism

Naturalist (neo-pragmatist) theories of knowledge were advanced to replace foundationalism. They were intended to replace the classical methods of a priori reason upon which those theories, especially Descartes’ relied, and to align philosophical methods with those of natural scientists. This chapter will take a look at some of the strongest arguments for naturalism, and at some of its underlying assumptions. Among other things, we want to get clear on whether or not there is undue nominalist influence in those underlying assumptions and what the consequences of that influence might be. We also want to determine if the desire to replace what they called a priori reason did not also erroneously include replacing logical and conceptual analysis that is required of any reasonable inquiry.
Automatic Clustering for Self-Organizing Grids

Computational grids have not scaled effectively due to administrative hurdles to resource and user participation. Most production grids are essentially multi-site supercomputer centers, rather than truly open and heterogeneous sets of resources that can join and leave dynamically, and that can provide support for an equally dynamic set of users. Large-scale grids containing individual resources with more autonomy about when and how they join and leave will require self-organizing grid middleware services that do not require centralized administrative control. This paper considers one such service, namely the dynamic discovery of high-performance variable-size clusters of grid nodes. A brute force approach to the problem of identifying these "ad-hoc clusters" would require excessive overhead in terms of both message exchange and computation. Therefore, we propose a scalable solution that uses a delay-based overlay structure to organize nodes based on their proximity to one another, using a small number of delay experiments. This overlay can then be used to provide a variable-size set of promising candidate nodes than can then be used as a cluster, or tested further to improve the selection. Simulation results show that this approach results in effective clustering with acceptable overhead.
Adsorption of poly(vinyl acetate‐C14) on smooth, geometrically simple surfaces

Poly(vinyl acetate-C14)(PVA) was adsorbed from a variety of benzene and carbon tetrachloride solutions on swollen and shrunken cellophane film, on glass, and on cellulose acetate film. The surfaces were geometrically simple, permitting mechanical measurements of the areas. Glass, shrunken cellophane, and cellulose triacetate adsorbed equal amounts of PVA. Swollen cellophane, however, adsorbed 40 times as much PVA as shrunken cellophane. Desorption experiments indicated that the high PVA adsorption on swollen cellophane showed the high reactivity of the surface rather than the diffusion of PVA into the cellophane.
Urban Surfaces and Heat Island Mitigation Potentials

Data on materials and surface types that comprise a city, i.e. urban fabric, are needed in order to estimate the effects of light-colored surfaces (roofs and pavements) and urban vegetation (trees, grass, shrubs) on the meteorology and air quality of a city. We discuss the results of a semi-automatic statistical approach used to develop data on surface-type distribution and urban-fabric makeup using aerial color orthophotography, for four metropolitan areas of Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Sacramento, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT. The digital high resolution (0.3 to 0.5-m) aerial photographs for each of these metropolitan areas covers representative urban areas ranging from 30 km{sup 2} to 52 km{sup 2}. Major land-use types examined included: commercial, residential, industrial, educational, and transportation. On average, for the metropolitan areas studied, vegetation covers about 29-41% of the area, roofs 19-25%, and paved surfaces 29-39%. For the most part, trees shade streets, parking lots, grass, and sidewalks. At ground level, i.e., view from below the tree canopies, vegetation covers about 20-37% of the area, roofs 20-25%, and paved surfaces 29-36%.
From FDAs Point of View: What Is Needed to Move PFO Closure for Stroke Prevention Forward?

The FDA’s objectives with regard to approval of medical devices have been previously described as to ensure that medical devices are safe and effective for marketing and that they are made available to the health care environment expeditiously. Prevention of recurrent cryptogenic stroke in patients with recognized patent foramen ovale (PFO) by transcatheter PFO closure with previously FDA approved atrial septal defect occluders stands out as a particularly difficult and thorny problem both for clinicians and the FDA. Continued discussion with the FDA would confirm the desire to prove superiority of device closure of PFO over medical therapy for stroke prevention in a well controlled randomized trial in order to allow PMA with stroke prevention as the indication for use.
Pay for Performance in Medicaid: Evidence from Three Natural Experiments.

Objective To examine the impact of pay for performance in Medicaid on the quality and utilization of care. Data Sources Medicaid claims and encounter data in three intervention states (Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Alabama) and three comparison states. Study Design Difference-in-difference analysis with propensity score-matched comparison group. Primary outcomes of interest were Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)-like process measures of quality, utilization by service category, and ambulatory care–sensitive admissions and emergency department visits. Principal Findings In Pennsylvania, there was a statistically significant reduction of 88 ambulatory visits per 1,000 enrollee months compared with Florida. In Minnesota, there was a significant decrease of 7.2 hospital admissions per thousand enrollee months compared with Wisconsin. In Alabama, where incentives were not paid out until the end of a 2-year waiver period, there was a decline of 1.6 hospital admissions per thousand member months, and an increase of 59 ambulatory visits per 1,000 enrollees compared with Georgia. No significant quality improvements in intervention relative to control states. Conclusions Our findings are mixed, with no measurable quality improvements across the three states, but reductions in hospital admissions in two programs. As states move to value-based payment for patient-centered medical homes and Accountable Care Organizations, lessons learned from these pioneering states should inform program design.
Mandatory Rest Stops Improve Athlete Safety during Event Medical Coverage for Ultramarathons.

Introduction Provisions of medical direction and clinical services for ultramarathons require specific attention to heat illness. Heat stress can affect athlete performance negatively, and heat accumulation without acclimatization is associated with the development of exertional heat stroke (EHS). In order to potentially mitigate the risk of this safety concern, the Jungle Marathon (Para, Brazil) instituted mandatory rest periods during the first two days of this 7-day, staged, Brazilian ultramarathon. Methods Race records were reviewed retrospectively to determine the number of runners that suffered an emergency medical complication related to heat stress and did not finish (DNF) the race. Review of records included three years before and three years after the institution of these mandatory rest periods. Results A total of 326 runners competed in the Jungle Marathon during the 2008-2013 period of study. During the pre-intervention years, a total of 46 athletes (21%) DNF the full race with 25 (54.3%) cases attributed to heat-related factors. During the post-intervention years, a total of 26 athletes (24.3%) DNF the full race with four (15.4%) cases attributed to heat-related factors. Conclusion Mandatory rest stops during extreme running events in hot or tropical environments, like the Jungle Marathon, are likely to improve athlete safety and improve the heat acclimatization process. Joslin J , Mularella J , Bail A , Wojcik S , Cooney DR . Mandatory Rest Stops Improve Athlete Safety during Event Medical Coverage for Ultramarathons. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(1):43–45.
Lark: An effective approach for software-defined networking in high throughput computing clusters

Abstract High throughput computing (HTC) systems are widely adopted in scientific discovery and engineering research. They are responsible for scheduling submitted batch jobs to utilize the cluster resources. Current systems mostly focus on managing computing resources like CPU and memory; however, they lack flexible and fine-grained management mechanisms for network resources. This has increasingly been an urgent need as current batch systems may be distributed among dozens of sites around the globe like Open Science Grid. The Lark project was motivated by this need to re-examine how the HTC layer interacts with the network layer. In this paper, we present the system architecture of Lark and its implementation as a plugin of HTCondor which is a popular HTC software project. Lark achieves lightweight network virtualization at per-job granularity for HTCondor by utilizing Linux container and virtual Ethernet devices; this provides each batch job with a unique network address in a private network namespace. We extended HTCondor’s description language, ClassAds, so users can specify networking requirements in the job submission script. HTCondor can perform matchmaking to make sure user-specified network requirements and resource-specific policies are fulfilled. We also extended the job agent, condor_starter , so that it can manage and configure the job’s network environment. Given this important building block as the core, we implement bandwidth management functionality at both the host and network levels utilizing software-defined networking (SDN). In addition to HTCondor, Wide area network bandwidth management for GridFTP traffic is designed and implemented. Our experiments and evaluations show that Lark can effectively manage network resources simultaneously for both applications inside the cluster environment. By not resorting to heavyweight VMs, we keep startup overheads minimal compared to “regular” batch jobs. This mechanism provides the users with better predictability of their job execution and the administrators more policy flexibility in allocation of network resources.
Forms of human serum high density lipoprotein protein

Delipidation by ethanolaiethyl ether at - 10°C of human serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL, d 1.063-1.21) or of its subclasses HDL2 (d 1.063-1.120) and HDLI (d 1.120- 1.21), yielded proteins-aP, aP2, and aP-containing 3y0 phospholipid (largely lecithin) and 3.3% carbohydrate (gluco- samine : L-fucose : D-galactose, D-mannose : sialic acid, 1 .OO :41: 0.56 : 0.31). Solubility data and analytical ultracentrifugal analyses indi- cated that, upon lipid removal, HDL protein aggregates readily; the aggregation is dependent upon pH and ionic strength of the solvent medium. Subunits of 21,000 mol wt were obtained by acetylation or addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) . HDL and aP elicited in the rabbit a similar immunological response. By agar gel immunoelectrophoresis both anti-HDL and anti-aP sera detected a major and two minor antigenic determinants in HDL, HDL:, aP, apt, and aP3. HDL2, anti- genically homogeneous, gave an immunoelectrophoretic pat- tern of HDL, upon mixing with aP. aP, ~PP, and aPI ex- hibited a single antigenic determinant after treatment with SDS (0.5 M) or upon acetylation. Native or delipidated forms of HDL, HDL2, and HDLr were separated by vertical starch gel electrophoresis into several components, which showed identical reactions against anti-HDL or anti-cuP sera. The data suggest that (u) the proteins of HDL, HDL2, and HDLI are made of subunits, probably identical, of an average molecular weight of 21,000; (6) the difference in antigenic behavior between HDL2 and HDLI is due to the presence in the latter of a lipid-poor protein; (c) antigenic polymorphism of aP is probably related to the presence in solution of mono- meric and polymeric forms having different reactivity against anti-HDL and anti-aP sera. A TECHNIQUE FOR SEPARATING a water-soluble, es- sentially lipid-free protein from the high density lipo- protein class (HDL) of human serum has been pre- viously reported (1). This protein (crP) was considered homogeneous by electrophoretic, ultracentrifugal, and immunochemical criteria (2, 3) ; it exhibited marked avidity for lipids (4, 5). Recently, Shore and Shore (6), using a different delipidation technique, recovered from HDL a protein whose monomeric unit had a molecular weight of 36,500 f 1000, about half the size reported by Scanu, Lewis, and Bumpus (1) for the whole aP (75,000). The possibility of a monomer-dimer relationship be- tween the two products was suggested (6). Polymeriza- tion of crP has been also shown in a preliminary study by Sanbar and Alaupovic (7).
Evaluation of material misstatement risk in audit based on analytic hierarchy process

On the basis of analyzing the influence factor of Material Misstatement Risk in audit, the paper introduces Analytic Hierarchy Process to the evaluation of Material Misstatement Risk, and constructs the structure appraisal model. The application case indicated that the appraisal result is advantageous to help auditor to control Material Misstatement Risk, enhances the accuracy of the risk judgment, helps the auditor to discern and assess Material Misstatement Risk in audit more effectively, improves audit procedure and the audit quality and reduces the audit risk.
Behavioral Techniques for Treatment of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

Behavioral techniques have been employed in the treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a variety of ways for a variety of problems. This paperpresents two systematic approaches to training caregivers in behavioral strategies designed to reduce patient behavioral disturbance. Both treatments have been employed in clinical practice for over ten years and are being studied as part of separate controlled clinical trials in which they are being compared to either psychosocial or medical treatment alternatives. Information on the clinical strategies employed, the study design, and preliminary data, when available, is provided here.
Automatic Gaze-Based Detection of Mind Wandering during Reading.

We present a fully-automated person-independent approach to track mind wandering by monitoring eye gaze during reading. We tracked eye gaze of 84 students who engaged in an approximately 30-minute self-paced reading task on research methods. Mind wandering reports were collected by auditorily probing students in-between and after reading certain pages. Supervised classifiers trained on global and local features extracted from students’ gaze fixations 3, 5, 10, and 15 seconds before each probe were used to predict mind wandering with a leave-several-subjects-out cross validation procedure. The most accurate model tracked both global and local eye gaze in a 5-second window before a probe and yielded a kappa (accuracy after correcting for chance) of 0.23 on a downsampled corpus containing 50% yes and 50% no responses to probes. Implications of our findings for adaptive interventions that restore attention when mind wandering is detected are discussed.
The Theory of Fuzzy Optimal and Approximate Social Prices

In computing the monetary values of social costs and benefits in social choice and decision regarding alternatives that may lead to a change in a socioeconomic state we introduced a set of prices for real cost characteristics, (eqn. 3.5.5.1 Section 3.5.5 in the companion volume and a set of prices for the real benefit characteristics (eqn. 4.8.1, Section 4.8 [931b]. These prices were taken as known and conditions of price measurability of the characteristics were specified and taken as given. Each real cost and benefit and characteristic had a corresponding price. In this way we were able to produce a linear mapping from the price-measurable space of cost-benefit characteristics to the space of monetary variables. The concept and measurability of price were neither discussed nor made explicit. The aggregate values of total cost and benefit expression in eqns. (3.5.5.1) and (4.8.1) in [931b] are not computable.
Head Start Teachers Across a Decade: Beliefs, Characteristics, and Time Spent on Academics

We examined changes in teachers’ beliefs regarding developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009 using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experience Survey. In addition, we examined how teacher education, credentials, and professional experience relate to beliefs about DAP and explored how these relationships differ by cohort. We also explored teachers’ reports of time spent in math and literacy focused activities. Findings indicate that after 2003, developmentally appropriate beliefs decreased significantly, while developmentally inappropriate beliefs increased. Results also showed significant increases in the frequency of literacy activity across the decade, while the frequency of math activity was more consistent. Despite these changes, teachers with more education consistently held the most appropriate beliefs. These findings indicate that teacher education may buffer against influences of pushed down curricula and increased accountability. This study also illustrates that policies at the national level have the potential to impact children’s day-to-day classroom experiences.
Relationships Among Childhood Sex-Atypical Behavior, Spatial Ability, Handedness, and Sexual Orientation in Men

Moderate support was obtained in a sample of 101 gay, bisexual, and heterosexual males for the perinatal hormone theory, which hypothesizes that attenuated levels of androgens during critical periods of male fetal development fail to masculinize and defeminize the brain. Affected individuals develop female-typical sexual orientation (assessed here by a pie chart) and cerebral organization, reflected in visual-spatial abilities and gender nonconformity. Handedness, also thought to reflect in utero hormone exposure, was evaluated. Gay and bisexual males reported greater femininity and lesser masculinity than heterosexuals, with bisexuals intermediate in masculinity, suggesting a common biological mediator for homoeroticism and sex atypicality. Among bisexual males, increased masculinity was related to enhanced performance on all spatial tasks. Group mean differences in spatial ability and handedness were not found; however, among bisexuals, poorer visual-spatial performance predicted increased homoeroticism and right-handedness positively correlated with all spatial tasks. If perinatal hormones contribute to a generalized feminization of the brain, the current data indicate that it is most apparent among bisexual males. Sexing of their brains may involve several sexually dimorphic regions that are related in a continuous manner. Inferred cerebral feminization was more circumscribed among gay and heterosexual males, for whom childhood sex atypicality was most highly-distinguishing. Unspecified mechanisms responsible for homoeroticism in them may differ from those that produce same-sex attractions in bisexuals and thus have relatively little impact on other components of cerebral feminization.
Cryptococcal cellulitis in a heart transplant recipient.

Cryptococcosis is an invasive fungal infection most often caused by the encapsulated yeasts Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii. C neoformans is the major pathogenic member of the genus, thought to account for approximately 80% of isolates worldwide, and is found in pigeon droppings, soil, and rotting vegetation.1 The incidence in the United States is approximately 5 cases per 100,000.2 However, the global burden is much more significant, with more than 1 million new cases and more than 600,000 deaths a year.3 Most patients with cryptococcosis are immunocompromised because of HIV infection, immunosuppressive therapy, or malignancy. Although cryptococcal infections begin in the lungs via inhalation of the basidiospore, the classical clinical manifestation is meningoencephalitis. Nonmeningeal, nonpulmonary symptoms are less common and generally reflect disseminated disease. Cutaneous manifestations are seen in approximately 15% of patients with systemic cryptococcosis and can have a variety of presentations, including papules, plaques, and ulcers.4 Here we present an uncommon case of cutaneous cryptococcosis presenting as cellulitis in a heart transplant recipient.
Assessment of incidence, determinants and co-morbidities associated with meconium aspiration syndrome: a hospital based study

Background: Meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) was found to be major contributing factor towards perinatal morbidity and mortality. This condition is mainly accompanied with respiratory failure, pulmonary air leaks and pulmonary hypertension in neonates. A conservative approach of obstetrician-paediatrician combination moderates incidence of MAS and its complications. The objective of the study was to determine the incidence, determinants and co-morbidities associated with MAS in both intramural and out born admitted to the NICU and SNICU of a Chandulal Chandrakar memorial hospital located in Bhilai, Chattisgarh, India. Methods: This was a prospective study conducted in Chandulal Chandrakar memorial hospital, Bhilai from 1 st September 2013 to 31 st February 2015, in newborns with history of meconium stained amniotic fluid (MSAF) in both out-born and inborn units. Neonates who met inclusion criteria they were included in the study. The data were recorded in predesigned proforma. The data was analyzed using Chi square test. Level of significance of this data was set at p 2.5 kgs (80%) and common in primiparous mothers (60%) with lower segmental caesarian sections. MAS commonly seen in post -term babies (53.33%) than those of term (36.66%) or pre-term (10%) gestation. Fetal distress was the common complication observed in most of the cases (91.1%) and one death related to this was noted. At the end of 1 year there were predominantly more children (40%) who developed respiratory morbidities. Delayed development was seen among 13.3% children and transient tone abnormalities were noted in about 2% of infants. Conclusions: The overall incidence of MAS was found to have been 30% among cases of MSAF, which was relatively higher due to delayed referral. This percentage could have been reduced along with associated co-morbidities with appropriate antenatal check-up’s and timely referral.
Intersectionality, Voz, and Agency: A Culture-Centered Approach to Understanding U.S.-Born Mexican Americans’ Depression Experiences

This study explores depression and treatments among U.S.-born Mexican Americans. Through Differential Adaptation Theory and a culture-centered approach prioritizing voz and intersectionality, 18 interviewees discuss how within-group communication influences depression experience and treatment paths. All participants are insured and understand biomedical options with insurance. Intersectional data analysis reveals that biomedical options are a last resort. This Latina/o subgroup questions dominant structures through agentic choices that privilege face-saving cultural tendencies, family/kin relationship context, changing gender roles, and collectivist–individualist negotiation. Implications include challenging the dominant communicative framing of biomedical treatments as superior. The centrality of family/kin as powerful social support and instrumental in decision-making processes, the gender-race-age intersection, and intergenerational communication implicate agency in determining preferable coping mechanisms beyond biomedical bounds.
Human–carnivore competition for antlered ungulates: do pumas select for bulls and bucks?

Context Many institutions of wildlife management and their hunting constituents tend to value ungulates over large carnivores, in part due to financial incentives associated with ungulate hunting over carnivore hunting. This system benefits from mythology that presents large carnivores as competitors for antlered male ungulates most prized by the hunting community. Aims We explored puma (Puma concolor) foraging and prey selection in two study areas in the Rocky Mountains, USA, to test whether pumas were competing with human hunters for antlered elk (Cervus elaphus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Methods We employed GPS technology to track pumas and document their prey. We measured population- and individual-level selection by comparing prey killed by pumas to two estimates of prey availability: (1) landscape-level as determined by annual agency game counts; and (2) total prey killed by marked pumas. Key results Pumas in both study systems killed small numbers of antlered elk and mule deer. Pumas exhibited avoidance of mature elk, instead strongly selecting for elk calves over any other age or sex class. Pumas in both systems also selected for mule deer fawns; however, they also exhibited small positive selection (Jacob’s index of 0.08 in CO and 0.11 in WY on a scale of 0.0–1.0) for antlered mule deer. Conclusions In terms of numbers killed, pumas were not a competitor with human hunters for either antlered species. In terms of prey selection, pumas showed that they may be greater competition for rare antlered mule deer but not for antlered elk. In both study sites, antlered elk and deer remained at levels at which they could perform their ecological functions. Implications Our results highlight the fact that the overhunting of large carnivores over competition for antlered ungulates is mostly unfounded; we should instead focus management, media attention and conservation science on disentangling the complex ecology driving localised declines of mule deer, elk and other important ungulate resources, many of which are anthropogenic in nature and can be addressed.
Interaction of side-by-side fluidic harvesters in fractal grid-generated turbulence

While the vast majority of the literature in energy harvesting is dedicated to resonant harvesters, non-resonant harvesters, especially those that use turbulence-induced vibration to generate energy, have not been studied in as much detail. This is especially true for grid-generated turbulence. In this paper, the interaction of two side-by-side fluidic harvesters from a passive fractal grid-generated turbulent flow is considered. The fractal grid has been shown to significantly increase the turbulence generated in the flow which is the source of the vibration of the piezoelectric beams. In this experimental study, the influence of four parameters has been investigated: Beam lengths and configurations, mean flow velocity, distance from the grid and gap between the two beams. Experimental results show that the piezoelectric harvesters in fractal grid turbulence are capable of producing at least the same amount of power as those placed in passive rectangular grids with a larger pressure loss, allowing for a potentially significant increase in the efficiency of the energy conversion process, even though more experiments are required to study the behavior of the beams in homogeneous, fractal grid-generated turbulence.