cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A multivalent DNA aptamer specific for the B-cell receptor on human lymphoma and leukemia

Long-term survival still eludes most patients with leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. No approved therapies target the hallmark of the B cell, its mIgM, also known as the B-cell receptor (BCR). Aptamers are small oligonucleotides that can specifically bind to a wide range of target molecules and offer some advantages over antibodies as therapeutic agents. Here, we report the rational engineering of aptamer TD05 into multimeric forms reactive with the BCR that may be useful in biomedical applications. Systematic truncation of TD05 coupled with modification with locked nucleic acids (LNA) increased conformational stability and nuclease resistance. Trimeric and tetrameric versions with optimized polyethyleneglycol (PEG) linker lengths exhibited high avidity at physiological temperatures both in vitro and in vivo. Competition and protease studies showed that the multimeric, optimized aptamer bound to membrane-associated human mIgM, but not with soluble IgM in plasma, allowing the possibility of targeting leukemias and lymphomas in vivo. The B-cell specificity of the multivalent aptamer was confirmed on lymphoma cell lines and fresh clinical leukemia samples. The chemically engineered aptamers, with significantly improved kinetic and biochemical features, unique specificity and desirable pharmacological properties, may be useful in biomedical applications.
A revealed preference study of management journals' direct influences

Our study develops and uses a new methodology for analyzing journal citations to recent publications to determine which management journals now have the greatest influence on the field of management. It analyzes the 23637 academic journal references cited in the 1275 articles published in 17 key management journals during 1993 and 1994, focusing on citations to references published up to the modal vintage of 4 years earlier. Most cited as a percentage of all these references was Strategic Management Journal (11%), followed by Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Sciences Quarterly, and Journal of Management—accounting in total for 51 percent of all citations. Strategic Management Journal, whose subfield of strategic management has become a major concern of management in general, has developed as the predominant academic journal influencing the field of management. Our measures of journal influence provide information which can aid management scholars, practitioners, department heads, and university libraries to decide on efficient choices of journals for research and for manuscript submissions, for evaluation, and for subscriptions. Just seven management and social science journals, led by Strategic Management Journal, contain more than half of the cited articles published recently. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Interactive, immersive visualization for indoor environments: use of augmented reality, human-computer interaction and building simulation

We present an interactive gesture recognition-based, immersive augmented reality system visualizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) datasets of indoor environments. CFD simulation is used to predict the indoor environments and assess their response to specific internal and external conditions. To enable efficient visualization of CFD datasets in actual-space, an augmented reality system was integrated with a CFD simulation engine. To facilitate efficient data manipulation of the simulated post-processed CFD data and to increase the user-control of the immersive environment, a new intuitive method of human-computer interaction (HCI) has been incorporated. A gesture recognition system was integrated with the augmented reality-CFD structure to transform hand-postural data into a general description of hand-shape, through forward kinematics and computation of hand segment positions and their joint angles. This enabled real-time interactions between users and simulated CFD results in actual-space.
Nipping Them in the Bud The Onset of Mediation in Low-intensity Civil Conflicts

Civil conflicts constitute one of the most significant threats to human security. Understanding when belligerents are willing to undertake conflict management efforts is an important first step in ...
THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE AND OF LYSIN CONCENTRATION ON THE ACCELERATION OF HEMOLYSIS

The acceleration of saponin hemolysis by benzene, indol, and nonyl alcohol has been investigated as a function of temperature, and it has been found that these accelerators have negative temperature coefficients. This points to their being concentrated at the cell surface, and to the surface being the seat of their accelerating action. It is shown that the accelerating power of indol (used as a typical accelerator) is constant so long as the lysin in the system is capable of producing lysis per se, but that the acceleration falls off when only sublytic concentrations are present. The relations are expressed in a series of equations, and explained in terms of the reactions among the accelerator, the lysin, and the membrane component, which breaks down in spots, rather than uniformly, when lysis occurs. The argument involves a consideration of the idea that a monolayer of lysin at the cell surface is necessary for hemolysis, of Abramson's hypothesis of "key spots" on the surface, of the rate of escape of hemoglobin from the hemolyzing cell, and of the results of electrophoretic and impedance measurements. The existing theory of the kinetics is extended by introducing the idea of a variation in resistance from point to point in the cell membrane; in this form it describes the situation so far as is at present known, and shows that the results of the various methods of investigation are consistent with each other. The only idea discussed which seems to have little foundation is that lysis is determined by the formation of a monolayer of lysin at the cell surface; when this occurs, it must do so only as a special case. Finally, a semi-quantitative description of the frequency distribution of the resistances in the membrane is derived from existing data. The variation in resistance which it is necessary to assume is quite small, as might be expected in the case of a membrane with a regular ultra-structure.
RF vision: RFID receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) images for sensor fusion and mobile manipulation

In this work we present a set of integrated methods that enable an RFID-enabled mobile manipulator to approach and grasp an object to which a self-adhesive passive (battery-free) UHF RFID tag has been affixed.
Transitions in Marital Status and Functional Health and Patterns of Intergenerational Coresidence Among China's Elderly Population

Objectives. Transitions from marriage to widowhood are consequential and fraught with risk in developing country contexts. We investigate whether transitions to widowhood, as well as transitions to worsened functional health, predict transition into coresidential living arrangements with children in a rapidly aging China. We also inquire whether coresidence transitions vary by older adults’ gender and the presence of grandchildren in skip generation households. Methods. Longitudinal prospective analyses of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Surveys (1998–2005) assess whether transition to widowhood and transition to relatively poor functional health influence elderly co residence with children. Several logistic regression models are estimated using robust standard error estimation to address data clustering at the person level. Results. When coresidence shifts occur, they are shaped by the needs of older adults. Specifically, a significant rise in coresidential living follows widowhood as well as deterioration in functional health. Among older adults coresiding with grandchildren, shifts to coresidence with own children following widowhood and worsened functional health are attenuated, suggesting that skip generation households may be supportive arrangements for older adults. Discussion. Results are interpreted in light of the adaptability of living arrangements, novel forms such as skip generation households, and intergenerational support for China’s elderly population.
Transients on the mains in a residential environment

A digital oscilloscope was used to measure transients on the single-phase 120 V RMS mains in a residential environment. Naturally occurring transient voltages between the hot conductor and ground and between the neutral conductor and ground were recorded simultaneously. Each record contains 1024 samples taken at the rate of 10 samples/ mu s. Waveforms are shown for transient overvoltages on the mains caused by three nearby lightning strikes and one unknown source. Statistical summaries are presented for all naturally occurring transients. It is shown that the common-mode voltage is often larger than the differential-mode voltage. Waveforms from deliberately switching common appliances were recorded at various sample rates between 100 and 1.0 sample/ mu s. Waveforms are presented for the transient caused by switching on a resistive load, e.g. a tungsten lamp. This transient can have a slope at least as large as 6 kV/ mu s and may cause problems, although the effect of this type of transient is always to decrease the magnitude of the voltage. Waveforms are also shown for switching the motor in a vacuum cleaner, which has a slope as large as 17 kV/ mu s. >
A Movable Feast: FAITH AND FOODSTUFFS

Religious contention is the devil's harvest. Jean de La Fountaine (1621–1695) ISLAM The expansion of Islam began shortly after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632. By 750 the Muslims had conquered an area running from the Indus Valley westward through the Middle East to the Iberian Peninsula, and elites were speaking Arabic from Spain to Central Asia. The Arabs, like the Romans before them, learned to use the wind systems of the monsoon (the winds reverse themselves seasonally) to sail from the Persian Gulf eastward into the Indian Ocean in November, and then return to port during the summer months. Regular eighth-century trading voyages to China saw wool and iron exchanged for silks and spices. About two centuries later, when trade with China was disrupted by the fall of the Tang Empire (907), the Arabs skipped the middleman and headed directly to the East Indies, capturing the spice trade and spreading Islam as they went. Christian Europe, an implacable enemy of Islam, nonetheless admired Islamic cuisine and benefited from Islam's commercial activity. That activity ensured that spices reached the Continent on a circuitous path from the East Indies, as well as new foodstuffs such as sugarcane (genus Saccharum ), mangos ( Mangifera indica ), dates, and bananas. Moreover, toward the end of the twelfth century, the wooly merino sheep was introduced to Spain – an animal originally developed by the Romans and later exported to Africa.
A physical–statistical model of overload retardation for crack propagation and application in reliability estimation

ABSTRACTCrack propagation subjected to fatigue loading has been widely studied under the assumption that loads are ideally cyclic with a constant amplitude. In the real world, loads are not exactly cyclic, due to either environmental randomness or artificial designs. Loads with amplitudes higher than a threshold limit are referred to as overloads. Researchers have revealed that for some materials, overloads decelerate rather than accelerate the crack propagation process. This effect is called overload retardation. Ignoring overload retardation in reliability analysis can result in a biased estimation of product life. In the literature, however, research on overload retardation mainly focuses on studying its mechanical properties without modeling the effect quantitatively and, therefore, it cannot be incorporated into the reliability analysis of fatigue failures. In this article, we propose a physical–statistical model to quantitatively describe overload retardation considering random errors. A maximum lik...
Experimental evaluation of overhanging bamboo in Anopheles darlingi larval habitat selection in Belize, Central America.

ABSTRACT Previous studies in Belize have shown the preferred breeding habitats of the malaria vector Anopheles darlingi were floating detritus patches within riverine systems that were associated with overhanging bamboo. The present study focused on an experimental evaluation of overhanging bamboo in An. darlingi habitat selection using larval counts as an indicator of attractiveness. Four sets of 1-m2 floating screened enclosures were placed at a location with a documented presence of both larval and adult An. darlingi populations. Each enclosure set comprised a control (i.e., open water) and three other experimental treatments consisting of: 1) detritus, 2) detritus with overhanging bamboo, and 3) overhanging bamboo alone. Larvae were sampled from all treatments on Day 5, Day 11, and Day 17 post-setup. A total of 2,461 An. darlingi larvae were collected and identified from three trials conducted from March–May 2002. Of these, 1,997 larvae were sampled from detritus treatments, 256 from enclosures with b...
Automated population identification and sorting algorithms for high-dimensional single-cell data

Cell sorting or gating homogenous subpopulations from single-cell data enables cell-type specific characterization, such as cell-type genomic profiling as well as the study of tumor progression. This highlight summarizes recently developed automated gating algorithms that are optimized for both population identification and sorting homogeneous single cells in heterogeneous single-cell data. Data-driven gating strategies identify and/or sort homogeneous subpopulations from a heterogeneous population without relying on expert knowledge thereby removing human bias and variability. We further describe an optimized cell sorting strategy called CCAST based on Clustering, Classification and Sorting Trees which identifies the relevant gating markers, gating hierarchy and partitions that define underlying cell subpopulations. CCAST identifies more homogeneous subpopulations in several applications compared to prior sorting strategies and reveals simultaneous intracellular signaling across different lineage subtypes under different experimental conditions.
Complex enzymatic hydrolysis of crab meat

This paper studied the hydrolysis of crab meat by Alcalase and flavourzyme. Factors such as hydrolysis time, enzyme dosage, original pH, ratio of solid to liquid and temperature etc., which affect the hydrolysis effect, were studied. Based on the SAS experiment, the optimal hydrolysis conditions were determined as follows: hydrolysis time was 4 hours, adding flvourzyme an hour later after the adding of Alcalase, original pH was 8.3, ratio of solid to liquid was 1∶2.5, temperature was 60℃, the dosage of Alcalase was 1.2×10-3AU/g(substrate), flavourzyme was 1.5LAPU/g(substrate). Under above conditions, the protein hydrolysis rate was 22.8% and the increase rate of TCA soluble nitrogen was 40.47%.
Epidemiological Investigation of the First Influenza A/H1N1 Case in Anhui Province

Objective To study the first influenza A/H1N1 case in Anhui Province,and provide scientific basis for the prevention and control of influenza A/H1N1.Methods Case survey and field epidemiological survey were conducted.Results According to epidemiological history,clinical manifestations,laboratory testing,the cases were diagnosed as influenza A H1N1 case.Clinical symptoms in patient were milder.Main clinical symptoms were fever,sore throat,runny nose,stuffy nose,without other specific performance.When the preventive measures were taken,the outbreak were effectively controlled.Conclusion Early detection,early quarantine and early diagnosis,early treatment of the patient were the key to control influenza A/H1N1.To strengthen early detection and management of the contacted persons and the protection of medical staff were the effective measures to detect and control any outbreak earlier.
Discovering Suspicious Behavior Using Graph-Based Approach.

The ability to discover illicit behavior in complex, heterogeneous data is a daunting problem. In the VAST 2014 competition, one of the challenges involves identifying for local law enforcement which employees are involved and where the police should be concentrating their efforts. This involves using diverse data such as GPS locations and credit card transactions. Traditional anomaly detection methods have difficulties handling this type of heterogeneous data, where there are movements and relationships between entities. One approach to helping with this problem is a graph-based approach. The primary advantage of a graph-based approach lies in its potential to handle rich contextual information. In this paper, we apply a graph-based anomaly detection approach for discovering suspicious employees and their actions as a tool for aiding a potential criminal investigation.
Is alarm intervention effective in the treatment of enuresis

Pharmacologic treatments (desmopressin and tricyclic antidepressants) and alarm devices are effective for controlling nocturnal enuresis during treatment. There is limited evidence of lower relapse rates after stopping alarm-device treatment than after stopping medication.
Isolation and Short-Term Persistence of Ehrlichia ewingii in Cell Culture

Ehrlichia ewingii is the causative agent of human and canine granulocytic ehrlichiosis. Since its discovery in 1970, little work has been done to characterize the pathogen or study the transmission dynamics due to the inability to grow the agent in vitro. The aim of this study was to assess the suitability of multiple cell lines and media formulations for propagation of E. ewingii in cell culture. In this study, we present an overview of attempts to isolate E. ewingii from the buffy coat of goats naturally infected by Amblyomma americanum ticks, as well as a methodology for maintaining the pathogen for up to 16 weeks in culture. The most promising results were seen with HL-60 cells differentiated by the addition of 1.5% DMSO to the media and supplemented with 8 mM l-glutamine. Cultures were passaged multiple times, and fluorescence and morulae were observed by indirect fluorescent antibody test and Diff-Quik staining. It is our hope that this information will provide a foundation for future attempts to propagate and maintain E. ewingii in cell culture.
Local Leaders are Mostly Positive About Intergovernmental Cooperation and Look to Expand Efforts

This report presents Michigan local government leaders’ assessments of their jurisdictions’ intergovernmental cooperative efforts. The report is based on statewide surveys of local government leaders in the Fall 2010 wave of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS).
Methods for Incorporating Patient Preferences for Treatments of Depression in Community Mental Health Settings.

We developed three methods (rating, ranking, and discrete choice) for identifying patients' preferred depression treatments based on their prioritization of specific treatment attributes (e.g., medication side effects, psychotherapy characteristics) at treatment intake. Community mental health patients with depressive symptoms participated in separate studies of predictive validity (N = 193) and short-term (1-week) stability (N = 40). Patients who received non-preferred initial treatments (based on the choice method) switched treatments significantly more often than those who received preferred initial treatments. Receiving a non-preferred treatment at any point (based on rating and choice methods) was a significant predictor of longer treatment duration. All three methods demonstrated good short-term stability.
Twixt Land and Sea

‘Twixt Land and Sea (1912) contains three long stories written for magazines in the 1909 11 period. ‘The Secret Sharer’ is one of the great tales in the English language, but, although not major works, the others—’Freya of the Seven Isles’ and ‘A Smile of Fortune’— deserve to be read more than they are. All three tales explore a young captain under stress. Although in this period of renewed personal and financial turmoil Conrad’s imagination turns nostalgically to life at sea, the sea is no longer the simplified world of’Typhoon’ or ‘The End of the Tether’, where moral distinctions are clear. In these 1909- 11 tales, a young captain is faced with circumstances and emotional traumas for which neither the maritime code nor his experience has prepared him. Both ‘Frcya of the Seven Isles’ and ‘A Smile of Fortune’ provide evidence that Conrad is interested in the heterosexual relationships of inexperienced young adults. In each case an ingenuous and imperceptive male figure ceases to function effectively in his career because of his passionate involvement with an immature young woman. ‘A Smile of Fortune’ is the most autobiographical and the most revealing; in fact, it may suffer from Conrad’s inability to separate himself from the captain narrator. But ‘The Secret Sharer’ is personal in the way great lyrical poetry is personal, drawing from experience that is at once individual (Conrad’s assuming the captaincy of the Otago in 1888) and representative of the deepest strains of human experience: fear and self-doubt in the face of challenge.1
Assessment and Measurement of Pain in Adults in Later Life

Pain in aging adults is a global health problem requiring a proactive and consistent assessment approach. Pain assessment is critical to detecting pain and developing a collaborative and adaptive pain management plan. Getting health providers to assess and measure pain even in older adults who are communicative and can self-report remains a challenge. Self-report is the best method for identifying pain. Using a validated pain assessment scale is key to evaluate pain intensity. This article discusses techniques to obtain self-report and describe appropriate self-report pain tools for a focused pain assessment and reassessment in adults in later life.
A novel packet loss recovery for video stream transmission over networks

Transmitting high-quality, real-time interactive video over lossy networks such as Internet and wireless networks is very challenging, because of limited bandwidth and high packet loss rates. The loss of packets in a video frame leads not only to reduced quality of that frame, but also results in the propagation of that distortion to successive frames. We present a novel error recovery scheme based on a Solomon-like code scheme with only XOR operations for recovering lost packets. The simulation results indicate the advantage of our scheme over other erasure-resilient coding scheme.
Assessment of Aphasia

The systematic assessment of aphasic disability is as old as aphasiology itself. Broca (1861) described a rather detailed testing procedure that must have been routinely employed by clinicians at that time in examining aphasics. In fact, much of the interview with Lalonde, his second patient, is similar to what some clinicians do even today. He began by asking his patient conversational questions, commented on the patient’s speech output and comprehension, and went on to describe his gestures, tested his tongue movements, his writing, and arithmetic. Hughlings Jackson added sign making, writing, comprehension, repetition, reading, and tongue movements, as well as a description of spontaneous speech, as regular features of the aphasia examination. Pierre Marie (1906) emphasized the importance of deficits in comprehension. Moutier (1908), Pierre Marie’s pupil, described a rather complete set of systematic tests for aphasics in his large monograph entitled “L’aphasie de Broca.”
Review of Doing web-based content profile analysis 2002: TextGrab and TextQuest

TextQuest is a comprehensive content analysis program developed and distributed by Harald Klein, a German academic. Its TextGrab module can download most web sites into a single text file. Its RTags utility can strip html code (but not Javascript code) from the downloaded file. TextQuest can do word counts, phrase (word sequence) counts, category counts using a user-created dictionary of words and phrases that belong together; keyword-in-context concordance listings by word, phrase, or category; word pattern searches; and statistical vocabulary analysis. Although featuring the bells and whistles of commercial Windows packages, the TextQuest system is functionally efficient, and the level of e-mail technical support from the author-publisher was excellent. The central deficiency was the inability of the program to deal with scripted web pages not using conventional html coding, although a future version of the package promises to remedy this shortcoming.Content analysis can lead to findings that are interesting and of theoretical significance. It is a particularly relevant approach when the focus is on verbal images, as in the study of political culture. Various theories of political culture are associated with predictions about which verbal images should be associated with certain types of subjects, such as liberal or conservative subjects. Content profile analysis, illustrated in Figure 1, can portray verbal images in property space for purposes of testing hypotheses derived from political culture theory. Figure 1, for instance, is the profile for most used verbal images distinguishing the web site of Senator Jesse Helms from that of Senator Hillary Clinton. Verbal images of "God," as one example, are a differentiating political cultural artifact for these two iconic political figures who reside at opposite ends of the political spectrum.
A somatic piRNA pathway in the Drosophila fat body ensures metabolic homeostasis and normal lifespan.

In gonadal tissues, the Piwi-interacting (piRNA) pathway preserves genomic integrity by employing 23–29 nucleotide (nt) small RNAs complexed with argonaute proteins to suppress parasitic mobile sequences of DNA called transposable elements (TEs). Although recent evidence suggests that the piRNA pathway may be present in select somatic cells outside the gonads, the role of a non-gonadal somatic piRNA pathway is not well characterized. Here we report a functional somatic piRNA pathway in the adult Drosophila fat body including the presence of the piRNA effector protein Piwi and canonical 23–29 nt long TE-mapping piRNAs. The piwi mutants exhibit depletion of fat body piRNAs, increased TE mobilization, increased levels of DNA damage and reduced lipid stores. These mutants are starvation sensitive, immunologically compromised and short-lived, all phenotypes associated with compromised fat body function. These findings demonstrate the presence of a functional non-gonadal somatic piRNA pathway in the adult fat body that affects normal metabolism and overall organismal health. The Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway is known to suppress transposable elements in gonadal tissues. Here the authors provide evidence for a functional piRNA pathway in the somatic cells of theDrosophilafat body with roles in metabolism, immunological function and overall health.
Does ultrasound measurement improve the accuracy of electronic brachytherapy in the treatment of superficial non-melanomatous skin cancer?

Purpose Electronic brachytherapy (eBT) is a form of contact radiation therapy used for thin superficial non-melanomatous skin cancers (NMSCs). An accurate measurement of diameter and depth is important for eBT treatment planning. Therefore, we compared clinical measurements by an experienced physician to measurements obtained using ultrasound (US), an objective imaging modality, in order to determine if clinical measurements were accurate enough for adequate NMSC treatment. Material and methods Eighteen patients with 20 biopsy-proven NMSCs first had a clinical examination and then an US evaluation prior to starting eBT. One physician provided a clinical measurement for diameter and depth based on physical examination during radiation oncology consultation. The patients then had an US evaluation with a 14 or 18 MHz US unit, to determine both the diameter and depth measurements; eBT dose prescription was done using the US derived measurements. The clinical measurements and US measurements were compared using a t-test. Results Seventeen lesions were basal cell carcinoma and 3 lesions were squamous cell carcinoma. The most common location was the nose (10 lesions). The difference between the clinical and the US derived measurements for the second largest diameter was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.03), while the difference for the largest diameter of the lesions was not (p = 0.24). More importantly, the depth measurements obtained with US were also found to be significantly different from the clinical estimates (p = 0.02). All patients have had a complete response to therapy with a median follow-up of 24 months. Conclusions Statistically different measurements were obtained in 2 of 3 parameters used in choosing applicator size and prescription depth using an US assessment. The data presented suggests that US is a more objective modality than clinical judgment for determining superficial NMSC diameter and prescription depth for personalized eBT planning.
The Biochemistry and Genetics of Nitrogen Fixation by Photosynthetic Bacteria

Most photosynthetic bacteria are capable of nitrogen fixation and the biochemistry and genetics of nitrogen fixation have been studied extensively in a few of these. Both the traditional, molybdenum-dependent, nitrogenase and the third alternative form of nitrogenase have been found in anoxygenic phototrophs and the properties of these are similar to those in heterotrophic nitrogen fixers. The nif genes for the molybdenum nitrogenase system and the anf genes for the alternative nitrogenase system have been isolated. Nitrogenase activity in some photosynthetic bacteria is regulated by reversible ADP-ribosylation at arg 101 of the dinitrogenase reductase protein, which prevents it from transferring electrons to the dinitrogenase protein. ADP-ribosylation of dinitrogenase is catalyzed by dinitrogenase reductase ADP-ribosyl transferase (DRAT) and the removal of ADP-ribose is performed by dinitrogenase reductase activating glycohydrolase (DRAG). These are encoded by the draT and draG genes, respectively.
Multiple Myeloma in Iowa Farmers

Milham first reported significantly increased mortality in farmers from multiple myeloma in a study completed in Washington state based on deaths from 1950–1971 (1). Some years later, Cantor and Blair reported similar results in Wisconsin farmers (2). Male deaths from 1968–1976 were studied, resulting in an odds ratio of 1.4 for mortality from multiple myeloma in farmers. The highest odds ratio (OR) was reported for decedents over 65 (OR = 1.5). The ORs were significantly elevated in the 15 counties with high chicken inventory (OR = 1.6), high fertilizer usage (OR = 1.7), and high insecticide usage (OR = 1.9). The odds ratios in the remaining counties were not significantly elevated for these production and usage characteristics.
An Adaptive Consensus Control Scheme for Multi-Agent Systems with Persistent Switching Topology

This paper solves an adaptive leader-following consensus problem of multi-agent systems with general linear dynamics and switching topology. The control goal is to achieve state consensus with persistent switching topology in the presence of system parameter uncertainties for both the leader and the followers. First, a new uniform nominal control law with indicator functions is developed to ensure state consensus for multi-agent systems with switching topology, which is the a priori knowledge for the adaptive control design. Then, an adaptive state consensus control scheme is developed which has the capability to deal with the unknown leader and follower dynamics and switching topology. System stability and asymptotic state consensus are guaranteed despite topology persistently switches. A simulation result is shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed consensus control scheme.
TANDEM: Tension Adjustable Network for Deploying Entry Membrane

The Tension Adjustable Network for Deploying Entry Membrane (TANDEM) is a tensegrity rover designed to also be the frame of a deployable heat shield. TANDEM integrates the heatshield technology dev...
Building corpora for single-channel speech separation across multiple domains

To date, the bulk of research on single-channel speech separation has been conducted using clean, near-field, read speech, which is not representative of many modern applications. In this work, we develop a procedure for constructing high-quality synthetic overlap datasets, necessary for most deep learning-based separation frameworks. We produced datasets that are more representative of realistic applications using the CHiME-5 and Mixer 6 corpora and evaluate standard methods on this data to demonstrate the shortcomings of current source-separation performance. We also demonstrate the value of a wide variety of data in training robust models that generalize well to multiple conditions.
Making Each Moment Count: Supporting Justice-Informed, Whole-Person Health in Hospital-Based Brief Therapy for Acute Illness

The BioPsychoSocial-Spiritual (BPSS) model is the cornerstone of medical family therapy; however, therapists often feel uncertain about how to include spiritual and religious care into practice. Including spirituality and religion can become especially challenging in a brief therapy, hospital-based context when time is limited. In this chapter I will describe medical family therapy in the context of short-term care (one to three sessions) with brief interventions (15 min). I will explore the impact of acute illness on patients and families, underlying assumptions of integrating spirituality into MedFT, and the clinician’s role in IDENTIFYING how spirituality is impacting the patient’s/family’s experience of acute illness, INTERRUPTING ways that spirituality is having a harmful effect on the patient’s/family’s healing, and REINFORCING new, supporting, and expanded definitions of spirituality that support whole-person health. Two case examples, one individual patient and one couple, will highlight ways to integrate spirituality into brief medical family therapy.
Property’s Props: A Response to Étienne Balibar’s ‘Philosophies of the Transindividual’

AbstractThis commentary focuses upon the ‘fetishism of persons’ in Marx which Balibar claims both mirrors and animates the better-known fetishism of things. Revisiting the chapter on exchange in wh...
Phase Identification of the Layered Perovskite Ce x Sr 2– x MnO 4 and Application for Solar Thermochemical Water Splitting

Ruddlesden–Popper (layered perovskite) phases are attracting significant interest because of their unique potential for many applications requiring mixed ionic and electronic conductivity. Here we ...
Making our neighborhoods, making our selves, by George C. Galster: Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2019

George C. Galster recently retired from active teaching but not from advancing his research agenda. Retirement created a milepost for Galster; at that point he chose to distill a large part of his ...
Special Considerations: Treatment of Pediatric Uveitis

Pediatric uveitis is a significant cause of ocular morbidity and poses diagnostic and treatment dilemmas to ophthalmologists. The spectrum of clinical presentation, difficulty in examination of children, and lifetime burden of vision loss without adequate treatment are the main challenges in management of pediatric uveitis. While infectious and noninfectious, systemic autoimmune conditions may be associated with pediatric uveitis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis remains the most common associated disease condition. Coordination with pediatric rheumatologists and primary care physicians is important to provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary care. While traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs such as methotrexate remain a mainstay for noninfectious pediatric uveitis to avoid complications of topical ophthalmic corticosteroids, the biologic agents, notably the anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors adalimumab and infliximab, have been increasingly used given their benefit in the control of ocular inflammation. This chapter summarizes the common causes of pediatric uveitis and the management approach to the spectrum of disease entities.
Origins of Structure

The problem of galaxy formation is one of the most complex in all of astrophysics. With a hundred billion galaxies in the observed portions of the Universe, they are certainly no accident. Yet we do not know how they got there.
Statistical and systematic uncertainties in extracting the source properties of neutron star-black hole binaries with gravitational waves

Gravitational waves emitted by neutron star black hole mergers encode key properties of neutron stars---such as their size, maximum mass, and spins---and black holes. However, it is challenging to generate accurate waveforms from these systems with numerical relativity, and not much is known about systematic uncertainties due to waveform modeling. We simulate gravitational waves from neutron star black hole mergers by hybridizing numerical relativity waveforms produced with the SpEC code with a recent numerical relativity surrogate NRHybSur3dq8Tidal. These signals are analyzed using a range of available waveform families, and statistical and systematic errors are reported. We find that at a network signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 30, statistical uncertainties are usually larger than systematic offsets, while at an SNR of 70, the two become comparable. The individual black hole and neutron star masses, as well as the mass ratios, are typically measured very precisely, though not always accurately at high SNR. At an SNR of 30, the neutron star tidal deformability can only be bound from above, while for louder sources, it may be measured and constrained away from zero. All neutron stars in our simulations are nonspinning, but in no case can we constrain the neutron star spin to be smaller than $\ensuremath{\sim}0.4$ (90% credible interval). At lower mass ratios, waveform families whose late inspiral has been tuned specifically for neutron star black hole signals typically yield the most accurate characterization of the source parameters. Their measurements are in tension with those obtained using waveform families tuned against binary neutron stars, even for mass ratios that could be relevant for both binary neutron stars and neutron star black holes mergers. At higher mass ratios, waveforms that account for higher order modes yield the best results.
Effects of aquatic physiotherapy versus conventional physical therapy on the risk of fall in the elderly: a randomized clinical trial

Objective: To identify whether physiotherapy treatment in water is more effective than the treatment in land environment, aiming at improving the process of physical limitation or functional inability (gait speed, balance, motor abilities) caused by lack of balance in elderly with risk of fall. Methods: Randomized clinical trial, experimental study. The sample was composed of 35 senior individuals of both sexes, with average age of 65. Nineteen people composed the control Group /Conventional Physiotherapy, while the rest composed the experimental Group/Aquatic Physical therapy. Both groups were submitted to twenty sessions of physical therapy, twice a week, for 50 minutes in individual treatment. Aerobic activities were conducted for both groups separately. Exercises using water specific therapy, such as Halliwick rotation control and Bad Ragaz ring method, were used in the aquatic group and in the conventional group, physiotherapeutic techniques were applied, approaching the concepts of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) and decubitus change training. The following tests were used to measure the risk of fall/balance: Timed Up and Go Test, Sit-to-Stand in 30 seconds and Functional Reach. Results: Both physiotherapeutic interventions, aquatic and conventional, showed to be greatly efficient however aquatic physiotherapy showed certain advantages compared to conventional physical therapy, promoting more beneficial effects in the gait speed, balance, motor abilities and, mainly, in the reduction of the risk of fall.Keywords: elderly, Halliwick, Bad Ragaz, Physical therapy, aquatic, risk of fall.
Headache and Neuroimaging: Why We Continue to Do It

The appropriate imaging of patients with headache presents a number of important and vexing challenges for clinicians. Despite a number of guidelines and studies demonstrating a lack of cost-effectiveness, clinicians continue to image patients with chronic nonfocal headaches, and the trend toward imaging is increasing. The reasons are complex and include the fear of missing a clinically significant lesion and litigation, habitual and standard of care practices, lack of tort reform, regulatory penalties and potential impact on one's professional reputation, patient pressures, and financial motivation. Regulatory and legislative reforms are needed to encourage best practices without fear of professional sanctions when following the guidelines. The value of negative findings on imaging tests requires better understanding because they appear to provide some measure of societal value. Clinical decision support tools and machine intelligence may offer additional guidance and improve quality and cost-efficient management of this challenging patient population.
Impact of opioid use disorders on outcomes and readmission following cardiac operations.

Objective While opioid use disorder (OUD) has been previously associated with increased morbidity and resource use in cardiac operations, its impact on readmissions is understudied. Methods Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting and valve repair or replacement, excluding infective endocarditis, were identified in the 2010–16 Nationwide Readmissions Database. Using International Classification of Diseases 9/10, we tabulated OUD and other characteristics. Multivariable regression was used to adjust for differences. Results Of an estimated 1 978 276 patients who had cardiac surgery, 5707 (0.3%) had OUD. During the study period, the prevalence of OUD increased threefold (0.15% in 2010 vs 0.53% in 2016, parametric trend Conclusion The prevalence of OUD among cardiac surgical patients has steeply increased over the past decade. Although the presence of OUD was not associated with excess mortality at index hospitalisation, it was predictive of 30-day readmission. Increased attention to predischarge interventions and care coordination may improve outcomes in this population.
Navigating the Unnatural Reaction Space: Directed Evolution of Heme Proteins for Selective Carbene and Nitrene Transfer.

ConspectusDespite the astonishing diversity of naturally occurring biocatalytic processes, enzymes do not catalyze many of the transformations favored by synthetic chemists. Either nature does not ...
Depression in Patients with Epilepsy in Nigeria: Phenomenology and Predictors

Objectives To determine the correlates of depression among patients with epilepsy in Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Methods 270 patients with epilepsy attending the outpatient clinic of the hospital were recruited and assessed using sociodemographic questionnaire, MINI-Plus, and BDI-II. Results The mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of the respondents was 32 (9.9) years, 45.6% were females, and 38.5% were married. Thirty-two (11.9%) patients had a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) and 13 (4.8%) had a diagnosis of dysthymia. The most common depressive symptoms were loss of pleasure (84.4%), crying (84.4%), self-dislike (81.3%), and loss of energy, tiredness/fatigue, indecisiveness and punishment feelings (78.1% each). Vegetative symptoms such as changes in appetite and sleep and loss of interest in sex were the least common depressive symptoms. In the logistic regression, seizure frequency was the single predictor of MDD and dysthymia. Patients who had at least one seizure per week were five times more likely to develop MDD (OR = 5.1, p = 0.014) and 16 times likely to have dysthymia (OR= 16.0, p = 0.0007). Patients who had at least one seizure per month were 3 times more likely to develop MDD (OR = 3.3, p = 0.029). Conclusion Seizure frequency is an independent predictor of depression among patients with epilepsy. Patients with poor seizure control are at higher risk of developing depression and should be routinely screened for depression.
Probing the In Situ Pseudocapacitive Charge Storage in Ti3C2 MXene Thin Films with X-ray Reflectivity.

MXenes are a large family of two-dimensional materials that are attractive for energy storage due to their high-rate charging capabilities as well as for electrochemical actuators, water purification, and many other technologies. Ion intercalation during electrochemically driven charge and discharge processes is the fundamental process associated with MXene functionality, which we have characterized using in situ and operando X-ray reflectivity (XRR). Experiments performed at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory monitored the changes in the structure of a Ti3C2 MXene film on a platinum current collector as a function of static applied potential between 0.3 and -0.7 V vs Ag/AgCl in an aqueous 0.1 M Li2SO4 electrolyte. Negative potential sweeps lead to a contraction of 1.2 A in the interlayer spacing and a loss of electron density between the layers, likely due to Li+ ion insertion and water removal. The change in lattice spacing includes a continuous variation vs potential as well as an additional discrete contraction that occurs near -0.35 V that has the characteristics of a first-order transition. The continuous change in the MXene interlayer spacing is associated with the capacitive charge, while the discrete change in structure correlated to the weak feature in the cyclic voltammogram at -0.35 V can be interpreted as either a pseudocapacitive charging process or a potential-dependent change in capacity.
Edith Stein’s Hermeneutic Theory

The time has come to interpret the interpretation theory of Edith Stein, as presented in the portion of her doctoral dissertation that was printed in 1917 under the title Zum Problem der Einfuhlung. The author tells us that this dissertation was defended on August 3, 1916. She says that the text originally opened with a chapter offering a historical review of the literature, a chapter that subsequently was left out of the 1917 printing.1 The loss of that introductory material is unfortunate, for its availability is assumed at many points in the remaining three chapters. Our foregoing survey of the work of Stein’s predecessors can perhaps stand in for her own missing historical discussion.
Erectile Dysfunction and Inhibited Sexual Desire: Cognitive-Behavioral Strategies

The sexual dysfunctions of secondary erectile dysfunction which may be accompanied by male secondary inhibited desire and female primary or secondary inhibited sexual desire is particularly challenging for the sex therapist. Cognitive–behavioral strategies and techniques are prescribed in detail accompanied by a case illustration. Sex therapy is not a simple, mechanistic procedure, but a multifocused therapeutic intervention that attends to individual, couple, and sexual dimensions. If the couple learns attitudes and skills of intimacy, nondemand pleasuring, and multiple stimulation, these will hopefully inoculate them against sexual difficulties with age. Cognitions about being an intimate team, accepting variability in individual and couple sexual expression, and setting realistic expectations are crucial to prevent relapse.