cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterization of supraspinal antinociceptive actions of opiod delta agonists in the rat

Abstract Supraspinally mediated antinociception has been clearly established for agonists acting via both μ- and δ-opioid receptors. The present experiments were undertaken to further characterize the role of supraspinal opioid δ receptors in the mediation of antinociception in rats and to examine the possible role of putative δ1- and δ2-opioid receptors in the antinociceptive effect. Cannulae directed at the right lateral ventricle, the periaqueductal gray (PAG), or the medullary reticular formation (MRF) were implanted in adult male, Sprague-Dawley rats for the microinjection of [ d -Ala2, Glu4]deltorphin (δ2 agonist), [ d -Pen2, d -Pen5]enkephalin (DPDPE, δ1 agonist), [ d -Ser2,Leu5,Thr6]enkephalin (DSLET, mixed δ μ agonist) or morphine (reference μ-opioid). Pretreatments (24 h prior to agonist microinjection) were made with the putative δ1 and δ2 antagonists, [ d -Ala2,Leu5,Cys6]enkephalin (DALCE) and [ d -Ala2,Cys4]deltorphin (Cys-DELT) and antinociception was measured in the 55°C hot plate (HP) and 52°C and 55°C (low and high intensity) warm-water tail-flick (TF) tests. Data were converted to percent maximal possible effect (%MPE). Intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) administration of DPDPE produced less than a 50% MPE in the HP test whereas [ d -Ala2,Glu4]deltorphin produced Cys-DELT sensitive antinociception of up to 92% MPE. Neither i.c.v. agonist was effective in the TF assays, and both agonists were without effect in the PAG. [ d -Ala2,Glu4]deltorphin microinjected into the MRF produced Cys-DELT sensitive antinociception of 60 and 47% MPE in the HP and low-intensity TF tests, respectively, but was not effective in the 55°C TF test; DPDPE did not produce antinociception when microinjected at this site. Microinjection of DSLET in the MRF produced significant antinociception in all three assays. Morphine produced antinociception following i.c.v. administration or microinjection into the PAG in all tests. Microinjection of morphine into the MRF produced antinociception in the HP and 52°C, but not 55°C, TF tests. Morphine antinociception was not antagonized by either DALCE or Cys-DELT. These data demonstrate that supraspinal δ-opioid receptors can be activated to elicit antinociception in the rat and that opioid δ2 receptors predominate in this effect. Further, these effects may occur predominately via ibhibition of supraspinally organized behavior without activation of descending systems such as those mediating the TF response in the rat.
The functionalization of saturated hydrocarbons part XXIX. Application of tert-butyl hydroperoxide and dioxygen using soluble Fe(III) and Cu(II) chelates.

Abstract New methodology for the selective transformation of saturated hydrocarbons into ketones/alcohols and alkenes is described. A crucial aspect of this new process is that no reaction solvent is required since the Fe(III) and Cu(II) complexes used are completely soluble in the hydrocarbon substrates. Thus, the large quantity of pyridine, acetic acid or acetonitrile required in previous systems is no longer a prerequisite.
The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

The effects of different operationalizations of the path-goal theory's leader behavior constructs are examined. The results indicate that some of the inconsistent and non-supportive research findin...
Quantum effects in the early Universe. IV. Nonlocal effects in particle production in anisotropic models

The dynamical equation governing the evolution of the effective geometry in the presence of the production of conformally invariant scalar particles is solved for a homogeneous model cosmology with small anisotropy and classical radiation. The pair-production probabilities and spectrum are calculated in the one-loop approximation to lowest nonvanishing order in the deviation from exact isotropy.
Distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls in marine species from French Frigate Shoals, North Pacific Ocean.

Abstract Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were analyzed in: sediment; coral ( Porites evermanni ); fish ( Stegastes fasciolatus , Neoniphon sammara , Acanthurus triostegus and Mulloidichthys vanicolensis ); crab ( Grapsus tenuicrustatus ); lobster ( Panulirus marginatus ); and eel ( Conger cinereus , Gymnothorax flavimarginatus , G. undulatus and G. meleagris ) samples collected from Tern Island and the corresponding reference samples from Disappearing Island. The two islands are part of French Frigate Shoals, a national wildlife refuge in the North Pacific Ocean. The dominant congeners 118, 138 and 153 represent 22–25, 32–34, 12–39, 37–46 and 30–55% of the sum of PCBs in the coral, sediment, fish, crab and eel, respectively. In general, high trophic species such as eels were found to highly bioaccumulate PCBs. The total average PCB concentrations were as high as 96 and 29 μg/g dry wt. in eels and damselfish, respectively, from Tern Island. The localized behavior and high bioaccumulation potential for PCBs suggest that damselfish are an excellent species for monitoring PCBs in small areas in the ocean. The high average concentrations of the sum of PCBs in different food chain levels suggest that pollution source(s) are around Tern Island and possibly around Disappearing Island. Aroclor 1254 and its analogs are suspected sources responsible for PCBs in the samples.
Testosterone and tissue respiration of the castrate male rat with a possible test for myotrophic activity.

Although the general metabolic effects of gonadal steroids have long been recognized, the mechanisms by which they exert these effects are as yet poorly understood. Jensen and Tenenbaum, in their 1944 review of endocrine enzyme relationships; noted that there were no reports on the relations of these hormones to specific enzyme systems in vitro. Since that time Kochakian has extensively studied the effects of castration and of various steroids upon the acid and alkaline phosphatases and arginases in several tissues (Kochakian, 1947). On the basis of these studies Kochakian (1946) has suggested that kidney arginase may be associated with the protein-anabolic properties of the steroids. Clark, Kochakian, and Fox (1943) have found that testosterone increases the d-amino acid oxidase of the mouse kidney. Kochakian (1943) has also showed a similar increase in the activity of this enzyme in liver. Everett and Sawyer (1946) have found that testosterone lowers the serum content of non-specific cholinesterase in t...
Fast and exact out-of-core and distributed k -means clustering

Clustering has been one of the most widely studied topics in data mining and k-means clustering has been one of the popular clustering algorithms. K-means requires several passes on the entire dataset, which can make it very expensive for large disk-resident datasets. In view of this, a lot of work has been done on various approximate versions of k-means, which require only one or a small number of passes on the entire dataset.In this paper, we present a new algorithm, called fast and exact k-means clustering (FEKM), which typically requires only one or a small number of passes on the entire dataset and provably produces the same cluster centres as reported by the original k-means algorithm. The algorithm uses sampling to create initial cluster centres and then takes one or more passes over the entire dataset to adjust these cluster centres. We provide theoretical analysis to show that the cluster centres thus reported are the same as the ones computed by the original k-means algorithm. Experimental results from a number of real and synthetic datasets show speedup between a factor of 2 and 4.5, as compared with k-means.This paper also describes and evaluates a distributed version of FEKM, which we refer to as DFEKM. This algorithm is suitable for analysing data that is distributed across loosely coupled machines. Unlike the previous work in this area, DFEKM provably produces the same results as the original k-means algorithm. Our experimental results show that DFEKM is clearly better than two other possible options for exact clustering on distributed data, which are down loading all data and running sequential k-means or running parallel k-means on a loosely coupled configuration. Moreover, even in a tightly coupled environment, DFEKM can outperform parallel k-means if there is a significant load imbalance.
Indirect photolysis promoted by natural and engineered wetland water constituents: processes leading to alachlor degradation.

Wetland surface waters that received drainage from agricultural fields were probed for constituents that would promote the photodegradation of agriculture herbicides. Alachlor proved to be a good chemical probe for examining indirect photolysis due to its lack of reactivity by either direct photolysis or dark reaction pathways and its ubiquity as an agricultural herbicide. Water samples were taken from natural (Old Woman Creek) and engineered wetlands in Ohio that receive copious amounts of agricultural runoff. Possible photosensitizers including dissolved organic matter (DOM), iron, and nitrate were measured in the samples. In alkaline waters (pH >7.8), the photochemical degradation of alachlor became important only in the presence of high nitrate levels (≈1 mM). In pH-adjusted (∼4) samples, the observed degradation rate coefficient increased 3−18 times of that measured at the natural pH. Methanol quenching experiments and kinetics modeling suggest that hydroxyl radical is the principal reactant. The pro...
Leader-Member Exchange and Job Satisfaction Bond and Predicted Employee Turnover

Results of hypotheses testing using the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) scale and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) indicate that 7 out of 12 LMX measures (explaining 98% of the variance) and 6 out of 20 MSQ measures (explaining 71%-79% of the variance) were positive and significant. Satisfaction with supervision had a significant impact on job satisfaction, explaining 80.7% of the variance. In the near future, employee job satisfaction is predicted to be lower than satisfaction with supervision, due to absence of strong intrinsic motivation. Testing hypotheses on these scales also helped predict future employee turnover in the banking industry.
Nuclear susceptibility of liquid He 3 —II

Pulsed NMR measurements of the nuclear susceptibility of liquid He3 at various molar volumes are presented over the temperature range between 0.035 and 1°K. The scatter in the data is about 0.2%, while the absolute accuracy is estimated to be about ±1%. At temperaturesT such that χ0 T/C≲0.35 the susceptibility data can empirically be represented by the expression χ=χ0[1−β(x0 T/C)2]. Here χ0 is the extrapolated molar susceptibility atT=0 for a given volume, assuming the expression to be valid below 35 m°K.C is the molar Curie constant and β is a factor that appears to be somewhat dependent on molar volume and whose average value is found experimentally to be about 0.53. This result compares with the theoretical prediction by Beal-Monadet al. who used the paramagnon model for liquid He3 and obtained the expression given above with a value of β=0.58. However, the observed apparentT 2dependence of the susceptibility is over a greater temperature range than the theory would lead one to expect, and this point is discussed. The experimental results are also compared with a “molecular-field” approach by Goldstein, who proposed a representation of the susceptibility by a universal curve χT/C=f(χ0 T/C), wheref is the function for the ideal gas. In spite of some systematic discrepancies, a scaled presentation of the data is in good overall agreement with the calculated curve. The data disagree with the Stoner model of a Fermi gas with interactions. Finally, the values of χ0 are compared with those of previous work.
Al/Ge co-doped large mode area fiber with high SBS threshold.

We propose a novel approach of making large effective area laser fiber with higher threshold for the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) using Al/Ge co-doping in the fiber core. The increased SBS threshold is achieved by reducing the acoustic-optic overlap integral while keeping the optical refractive index profile with a step structure. The manipulation of the overlap integral is done by adjusting the relative doping level between Al2O3 and GeO2 in the core. The mechanism is validated by detailed examples of numerical modeling. An Yb-doped double clad fiber with the core co-doped with Al2O3 and GeO2 was fabricated by the OVD process. Measured acoustic velocity profile using a scanning acoustic microscope verified that the acoustic velocity in the fiber core changes with the design. An amplifier utilizing the fiber demonstrated that the proposed fiber yielded 6 dB higher SBS threshold than a fiber without using the co-doping scheme.
Integration of collective bargaining and formal worker participation processes: Boon or barrier to worker rights?

Many employers are extending workplace rights by allowing for more employee voice in decision making. Numerous unionized organizations have established formal worker participation processes to help achieve this end and to improve organizational performance. Based largely on theory, such processes are normally designed to operate independently from the bargaining process. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between participation and bargaining processes, and the effect of this relationship on workplace satisfaction. A total of 712 Midwest union officials were surveyed, and the results indicate that the processes tend to become integrated in the workplace. Further, union officials' workplace satisfaction was greater where formal worker participation is institutionalized within the bargaining process.
On-Line Monitoring of Fluid Effective Bulk Modulus Using Piezoelectric Transducer Impedance

The fluid effective bulk modulus plays a significant role in hydraulic control systems due to its effect on the system response time and performance. In general, the fluid effective bulk modulus is a function of the amount of entrapped air, pressure, and temperature variations. Therefore, it has been recognized that monitoring of the effective bulk modulus is essential for the control of hydraulic actuation system. Measuring of the effective bulk modulus is a very challenging task. Current methods normally require precision testing equipments. Furthermore, the required equipment usually consists of many complex components that will affect the bulk modulus. Their size is in general large and thus makes on-line measurement impractical. In this research, we develop a new on-line effective bulk modulus measuring technique based upon the impedance of piezoelectric transducers. Using the piezoelectric impedance equation, numerical simulation for predicting the peak resonance frequency is performed to identify its dependency on the variation of the fluid bulk modulus. In order to verify the results, the effective bulk modulus of an ATF (automatic transmission fluid) is examined experimentally. The proposed method and the conventional method are also compared. The experimental results show the validity of the proposed method.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
Virus-like Particles in Sub-acute Sclerosing Encephalitis

SUB-ACUTE sclerosing encephalitis (van Bogaert) is a fatal disease of the central nervous system of uncertain origin, usually affecting children and adolescents. The pathological features of this disease are diffuse inflammatory cell infiltrates in the white and grey matter, gliosis, and demyelination1. Frequently, Type A intranuclear inclusion bodies have been observed in neurones of cases running a short clinical course (Dawson's inclusion body encephalitis) while in the more chronic cases these bodies are less frequently found. Although often a viral aetiology has been suggested, the cause of this disease remains obscure, since animal inoculations of brain tissue have been unsuccessful in transmitting the disease1.
Structural changes in cerebral cortex during cobalt-induced epilepsy in the rat

Rods of cobalt metal were inserted into rat cerebral cortex to produce experimental epilepsy. Brain sections were then stained and examined for structural changes at several survival times. Times were based on previous electrocorticographic studies. Comparisons were made with tissue from rats implanted with non-epileptogenic copper or glass rods. Gliosis was much more extensive after copper than after cobalt. Silver-staining revealed unusual , dark granules associated with neurons only in the cobalt-treated rats. Three weeks after cobalt treatment, enlarged perikarya were observed around the implant. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.
Rydberg states of Li2 and molecular constants of Li+2

Abstract A Rydberg series of excited electronic states of 7 Li 2 has been characterized by pulsed optical—optical double resonance spectroscopy. Molecular constants of these states have been extrapolated to give the ionization potential of 7 Li 2 and molecular constants of the X 2 Σ + g state of 7 Li + 2 .
Differential expression of CD200 in B-cell neoplasms by flow cytometry can assist in diagnosis, subclassification, and bone marrow staging

Objectives: To analyze CD200 expression by flow cytometry in a large series of B-cell neoplasms in a variety of tissue types in comparison with benign B-lineage cells. Methods: We measured CD200 expression levels in 505 peripheral blood (PB), bone marrow (BM), and lymphoid tissue biopsy specimens, including 364 cases positive for B-cell leukemias and lymphomas. Results: CD200 expression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cases was as bright as or brighter than normal PB B cells in nearly all cases, while mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cases were usually dim or negative. However, rare MCL cases (about 5%) were moderately bright for CD200. Marginal zone lymphomas varied by subtype, with nodal cases brighter, splenic cases dimmer, and extranodal cases heterogeneous for CD200 expression. Follicular lymphoma (FL) cells were brighter for CD200 in BM specimens than in lymph nodes. In some BM specimens, dim CD200 could distinguish FL cells from background hematogones. Large B-cell lymphomas of the non–germinal center type tended to be brighter for CD200 than those of the germinal center type, while Burkitt lymphomas were negative. Conclusions: CD200 staining by flow cytometry can be useful in the differential diagnosis of B-cell neoplasms and in their detection in the BM.
The Pu−Th (Plutonium-Thorium) system

The phase behavior of the Pu-Th system has been studied by metallography, X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, dilatometry, and density measurements, and by optical pyrometry. Results of studies of the system over the entire composition range are reported. The assessed phase diagram was constructed from the combined results of previous workers. Elemental Pu has six allotropic phases, whereas Th metal has two allotropes. The elemental transformation temperatures are based on a review of the actinides by Ward, et al. The diagram is dominated by the high solubility of Pu in Th, which is contrasted with the relatively small solubility of Th in Pu. The system has a single intermediate compound, zeta, formed by a peritectic reaction. The special points associated with the binary system are summarized. 10 references, 2 figures, 2 tables.
Framing in cognitive clinical interviews about intuitive science knowledge: Dynamic student understandings of the discourse interaction

Researchers in the science education community make extensive use of cognitive clinical interviews as windows into student knowledge and thinking. Despite our familiarity with the interviews, there has been very limited research addressing the ways that students understand these interactions. In this work, we examine students' behaviors and speech patterns in a set of clinical interviews about chemistry for evidence of their tacit understandings and underlying expectations about the activity in which they are engaged. We draw on the construct of framing from anthropology and sociolinguistics and identify clusters of behaviors that indicate that students may alternatively frame the interview as inquiry, an oral examination, or an expert interview. We present two examples of students shifting between frames during the course of individual interviews. By examining the surrounding interaction, we identify both conceptual and epistemological interviewer cues that facilitate and constrain frame shifts. We discuss the implications of dynamic student framing, that is identifiable in student behaviors and discourse, for researchers who use clinical interviews to map student's intuitive science knowledge. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96:572–599, 2012
A new class of natural magnetic materials - The ordering alloys

It is shown that tetrataenite (approximately FeNi), found in many meteorites, and Josephinite (approximately FeNi3), found in many serpentinized peridotites and possibly in Allende, are atomically ordered alloys. Data are presented, showing magnetic hysteresis loops, coercivity-temperature behavior at cryogenic temperatures, and thermomagnetic curves, that show that these ordered magnetic materials have unique magnetic properties and do not fit the conventional rock magnetism paradigms represented by Fe3O4 serpentinites. The ordered state is characterized by induced magnetic anisotropy, reaching the extreme for the tetragonal truly uniaxial anisotropy in FeNi. It is suggested that these ordered magnetic alloys should be considered a new class of natural magnetic materials.
Naval free space optical communications — Mission and technology requirements

Tactical free-space optical communications can add a significant capability to Naval missions, from high bandwidth to operation in RF denied environments. Additionally, a retro-reflective transmission mode holds promise to significantly reduce size, weight, power and cost for disadvantaged platforms.
Discover True Association Rates in Multi-protein Complex Proteomics Data Sets

Experimental processes to collect and process proteomics data are increasingly complex, while the computational methods to assess the quality and significance of these data remain unsophisticated. These challenges have led to many biological oversights and computational misconceptions. We developed a complete empirical Bayes model to analyze multi-protein complex (MPC) proteomics data derived from peptide mass spectrometry detections of purified protein complex pull-down experiments. Our model considers not only bait-prey associations, but also prey-prey associations missed in previous work. Using our model and a yeast MPC proteomics data set, we estimated that there should be an average of 28 true associations per MPC, almost ten times as high as was previously estimated. For data sets generated to mimic a real proteome, our model achieved on average 80% sensitivity in detecting true associations, as compared with the 3% sensitivity in previous work, while maintaining a comparable false discovery rate of 0.3%
Genetic and clinical factors associated with obesity among adult survivors of childhood cancer: A report from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to identify treatment and genetic factors associated with obesity among childhood cancer survivors. METHODS Participants included 1996 survivors who previously received treatment for cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and who survived ≥10 years from diagnosis (median age at diagnosis, 7.2 years; median age at follow-up, 32.4 years). Obesity was defined as a body mass index ≥30 kg/m2. The factors associated with adult obesity were identified by subgroup-specific (cranial radiation [CRT] exposure status) multivariable logistic regression. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with obesity were identified by subgroup-specific, exploratory, genome-wide association analyses using a 2-stage resampling approach with a type I error rate of 5 × 10−6. RESULTS Forty-seven percent of survivors who received CRT and 29.4% of those who did not receive CRT were obese at evaluation. In multivariable analyses, abdominal/pelvic radiation exposure was associated with decreased prevalence of obesity among survivors regardless of CRT status (P < .0001). The odds of obesity were increased among survivors who received CRT who had also received glucocorticoids (P = .014) or who were younger at diagnosis (P = .013). Among the survivors who had received CRT, 166 SNPs were associated with obesity. The strongest association was observed with reference SNP rs35669975 (P = 3.3 × 10−8) on segment 33.3 of the long arm of chromosome 13 (13q33.3), approximately 30 kb downstream of FAM155A (family with sequence similarity 155, member A). SNPs within the glycine receptor α3 (GLRA3) gene and near the sex-determining region Y box 11 (SOX11) and cadherin 18 type 2 (CDH18) genes also were identified. These genes have been implicated in neural growth, repair, and connectivity. CONCLUSIONS Obesity in childhood cancer survivors remains associated with previous exposure to CRT and glucocorticoids. Genetic variants related to neural connectivity may modify the risk of obesity among survivors who receive CRT. Validation of these findings in independent cohorts is required. Cancer 2015;121:2262–2270. © 2015 American Cancer Society.
Sex-Specific Content Preferences for Visual Sexual Stimuli

Although experimental studies support that men generally respond more to visual sexual stimuli than do women, there is substantial variability in this effect. One potential source of variability is the type of stimuli used that may not be of equal interest to both men and women whose preferences may be dependent upon the activities and situations depicted. The current study investigated whether men and women had preferences for certain types of stimuli. We measured the subjective evaluations and viewing times of 15 men and 30 women (15 using hormonal contraception) to sexually explicit photos. Heterosexual participants viewed 216 pictures that were controlled for the sexual activity depicted, gaze of the female actor, and the proportion of the image that the genital region occupied. Men and women did not differ in their overall interest in the stimuli, indicated by equal subjective ratings and viewing times, although there were preferences for specific types of pictures. Pictures of the opposite sex receiving oral sex were rated as least sexually attractive by all participants and they looked longer at pictures showing the female actor’s body. Women rated pictures in which the female actor was looking indirectly at the camera as more attractive, while men did not discriminate by female gaze. Participants did not look as long at close-ups of genitals, and men and women on oral contraceptives rated genital images as less sexually attractive. Together, these data demonstrate sex-specific preferences for specific types of stimuli even when, across stimuli, overall interest was comparable.
Health Educators' Perceptions of Ethics in Professional Preparation and Practice

This commentary reflects health educators' views concerning perceptions of the need for increased awareness of the Code of Ethics for the Health Education Profession, improvement in professionals' ability to engage in ethical reflection, and the need for incorporation of ethical considerations into health education practice.
Implementation of wireless and intelligent sensor technologies in the propulsion test environment

Wireless and intelligent sensors are being developed and applied to a variety of engine test applications at SSC. A Wireless Sensor Suite has been developed to provide for an easily configurable and deployable data collection capability as well as serve as an upgradable laboratory and field platform that evolves to accommodate new technologies and smart sensor paradigms. One promising application is to use this system as a platform for experimental demonstration of facility health monitoring using arrays of intelligent networked sensors.
STUDIES ON THE ANTIGENIC STRUCTURE OF SOME MAMMALIAN SPERMATOZOA

1. A method has been described for separation of heads and tails of mammalian spermatozoa. 2. By means of absorption technique applied to homologous spermatozoal sera, head-specific and tail-specific antigens could be demonstrated. Both are heat-labile. 3. A heat-stable antigen was found to be common to both heads and tails. This substance is species-specific. 4. Antibodies against the head- and tail-specific antigens led to two different types of agglutination as shown by the slide method. 5. Using heterologous antisera against spermatozoa three different cross-reacting antigens could be observed, two in the heads, one in the tails. 6. One of the head-antigens is not active in the native cell; it comes to action only after breaking the cell. Antibodies against this substance were not found in antisera against native bull spermatozoa but were formed when vibrated spermatozoa or heads were injected into rabbits. 7. The cross-reactions can be removed from an antiserum leaving the head- as well as the tail-specific reaction intact.
Using the photoload technique with double sampling to improve surface fuel loading estimates.

Accurate surface fuel load estimates based on the planar intercept method require a considerable amount of time and cost. Recently the photoload method has been proposed as an alternative for sampling of fine woody surface fuels. To evaluate the use of photoload fuel sampling, six simulated fuel beds of 100 photoload visual estimates and destructively sampled fuel loads were generated at three levels of fuel loading (0.016, 0.060, and 0.120 kg m–2) and two levels of variability (coefficients of variation of ~42 and 85%). We assessed the accuracy and precision of simple random sampling with and without double sampling on surface fuel load estimation. Direct visual estimates often overestimated fuel loads where actual fuel loading was low and underestimated fuel loads where fuel loads were large. We found that double sampling with a classical regression estimation approach provided the most accurate and precise fuel load estimates, substantially improving the accuracy and precision achieved over standard photoload estimation when n ≥ 20 and double sampling rate ≥20%. These results indicate that fine woody fuel loading estimation with the photoload technique can be improved by incorporating a double sampling approach.
Metabolic Evaluation: Underused or Overdone?

Stone recurrence is very common. The metabolic evaluation can help direct dietary and medical approaches to stone prevention. What is not known is whether a “directed approach” is more successful than an empiric approach. How many 24-h urine evaluations should be obtained? How often should one follow these patients? These issues and more will be addressed in this chapter.
Comparison of subscriber assignment methods on scalable distributed Pub/Sub systems

Scalable messaging methods for IoT services are needed to accommodate a vast number of devices. Skip Graph based topic based pub/sub (SG-TPS), which utilizes multiple brokers composing a structured overlay network, is one of the promising candidates. In SG-TPS, the distribution delay time is widely influenced by a way to assign subscribers to each broker. There are two possible approaches: the intensive assignment by which subscribers having a same topic are accommodated on a same broker, and the extensive assignment by which the subscribers are accommodated on different brokers as far as possible. In this paper, we formulate the difference of the distribution delay time between these two approaches, and discuss about the optimization of subscriber assignment.
Sentenced to Science: One Black Man’s Story of Imprisonment in America. By Allen M. Hornblum.

The present moment is marked by a new critical focus on the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States. Citizens and leaders from across the political spectrum seem to be inching toward ...
Retrospective Review of Pediatric Transport: Where Do Our Patients Go after Transport?

Pediatric transport teams are required to make patient triage assessments to best determine patient placement upon completion of inbound transports. Accurate placement optimizes hospital resource utilization and length of stay. Demographics of transported patients and eventual disposition on arrival and utilization of subspecialty services at the accepting institution has not been investigated. This retrospective review describes the disposition of children transported to a large tertiary care academic medical institution, and determine factors that may impede optimal patient placement. This study reviewed patients transported by Kangaroo Crew from …
An Exploration of Semantic Tendencies in Word of Mouth Business Reviews

Explicit customer review ratings mark future business success. One important and well-studied aspect of customer satisfaction is a review's affective—positive or negative—valence. More recently, tools from natural language processing (NLP) applied to reviews show less obvious linguistic differences in review texts dependent on reviewer rating. Consistent with this is previous work using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), showing that language use changes depending on one's current psychological state. Finer-grained analyses of review text focusing on less obvious linguistic categories may provide insight into customer values. In an attempt to explore how the content of a review is related to a review's explicit rating, we analyzed review texts using LIWC. LIWC determines the percentage of review text associated with a variety of different psychologically relevant categories such as social or cognitive words. We explore how certain categories of words relate to review ratings and use a support vector machine to determine how well each category predicts reviewer's review rating. We relate our findings to previous work and speculate that businesses would benefit from the application of various Natural Language Processing tools in attempting to obtain comprehensive insight into customer satisfaction. We end with the connection between this work and theories of language use, for which data sets of customer reviews may be useful for exploring the role of psychological state in determining word choice.
Studies on rat liver ribonucleases. I. Intracellular localization of the alkal ineribonucleases.

Abstract Results obtained from various fractionation methods such as differential centrifugation, zonal centrifugation, and sucrose density-gradient centrifugation, showed that both alkaline ribonucleases in rat liver were found diffusely distributed in all subcellular fractions; ribonuclease II showed higher activity in the supernatant compared to ribonuclease III. The diffuse distribution pattern is not due to adsorption phenomena.
Interventional Options for Coronary Artery Calcification

Coronary artery calcification is an integral process in atherogenesis. When it is moderate or severe, coronary artery calcification presents several challenges to percutaneous coronary intervention. Historically, these difficulties have caused percutaneous coronary intervention of calcified lesions to be associated with lower rates of procedural success, higher rates of angiographic complications, and higher rates of subsequent adverse cardiovascular events. With growth of technologies and maturation of technique for atheroablation, in particular rotational atherectomy and orbital atherectomy, percutaneous coronary intervention of calcified coronary lesions has become possible with an extremely high success rate and a favorable safety profile. In this focused review, we present an updated overview of the pathobiology of coronary artery calcification and discuss the current slate of options for interventional management of calcified coronary lesions.
Rapid Photorealistic Blendshape Modeling from RGB-D Sensors

Creating and animating realistic 3D human faces is an important element of virtual reality, video games, and other areas that involve interactive 3D graphics. In this paper, we propose a system to generate photorealistic 3D blendshape-based face models automatically using only a single consumer RGB-D sensor. The capture and processing requires no artistic expertise to operate, takes 15 seconds to capture and generate a single facial expression, and approximately 1 minute of processing time per expression to transform it into a blendshape model. Our main contributions include a complete end-to-end pipeline for capturing and generating photorealistic blendshape models automatically and a registration method that solves dense correspondences between two face scans by utilizing facial landmarks detection and optical flows. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by capturing different human subjects with a variety of sensors and puppeteering their 3D faces with real-time facial performance retargeting. The rapid nature of our method allows for just-in-time construction of a digital face. To that end, we also integrated our pipeline with a virtual reality facial performance capture system that allows dynamic embodiment of the generated faces despite partial occlusion of the user's real face by the head-mounted display.
Neurofibromatosis: an unusual cause of cervical myopathy.

Generalized neurofibromatosis (NF) is characterized by cafe au lait spots, deformity of the skeleton and tumors involving the skin as well as spinal, peripheral and cranial nerves. The spine is that part of the skeleton most commonly affected in NF, although involvement of the cervical spine in NF has only rarely been reported. The majority of neurofibromas involving spinal nerves are asymptomatic or present with symptoms consistent with nerve root involvement. Classic symptoms of myelopathy secondary to spinal cord compression in NF are rare. We describe a 35-year-old male with generalized NF who presented with worsening gait instability. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed enhancing masses producing spinal cord compression at the C1-C2 and C4 levels. The patient underwent decompressive laminectomy and, at eight weeks after surgery, was once again ambulatory. The literature discussing the sequelae and treatment of NF when it produces myelopathy is reviewed.
Development of the Quantified Human

A Sense-Assess-Augment (SAA) framework – originally outlined by Galster and Johnson (Sense-assess-augment: a taxonomy for human effectiveness. Technical report. United States Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 2013) and based loosely on the adaptive system framework of Feigh et al. (Hum Fact 54(6):1008–1024, 2012) – is presented for approaching augmentation of human performance. While the SAA framework has broad application across all three elements of human-computer interaction, including the machine, the human-machine interface, and the human operator, here we focus on its role for human performance augmentation. SAA begins with the human, sensing their physical, physiological, and psychological state. Sensing is the most mature piece of the SAA paradigm, because it leverages the considerable commercial investments in wearable sensors for athletics, healthcare, and human productivity. As a result, sensors exist or are in development that can measure a wide range of physiological parameters, such as brain activity, eye movement, skin temperature, and increasingly biological performance markers, such as blood glucose levels and molecules like orexin that indicate the onset of fatigue. Assessment involves aggregation of data from multiple sensors, algorithmic processing of the data, and correlation of the results to behaviors and actions of interest. The challenge is to empirically make sense of the data in relation to baselines that vary between and within individuals, and the needs of a task at hand that is shared by both human and machine and that may occur both in real time and across the human lifetime. Finally, based on the assessment, appropriate augmentation is delivered, which can take many forms, including redistribution of tasks from man to machine, changes in the operating environment, influences from external hardware, or even the growing use of “electroceuticals” – the use of electric stimulation to augment performance. The SAA framework provides a way of approaching human performance augmentation that is consistent with and leverages the emerging understanding of how humans can interact effectively with autonomous systems in an entirely new socio-technical dynamic.
Transforming UML Models to and from Conceptual Graphs to Identify Missing Requirements

For a set of UML models built for a system, ensuring that each model is relatively complete with respect to the rest of the set is critical to further analysis and design. In this paper, we present a novel idea to identify requirements gap in a model by synthesizing requirements from other types of models. This is accomplished by a bidirectional transformation between a set of partially complete UML models and conceptual graphs. UML models are first transformed to conceptual graphs based on a well-defined set of primitives and canonical graphs to form a centralized requirements knowledge reservoir, then inference rules are applied to unveil possible missing requirements. These identified missing requirements, when transformed back to UML, can provide prompts of requirements gap to software modelers and stimulate them to come up with more requirements in order to resolve them, thus making UML models more complete.
Schwann cells: a new player in the tumor microenvironment

Cancerous cells must cooperate with the surrounding stroma and non-malignant cells within the microenvironment to support the growth and invasion of the tumor. The nervous system is a component of every organ system of the body, and therefore, is invariably at the front line of the tumor invasion. Due to the complexity of the nervous system physiology, this review separately discusses the contributions of the central and peripheral nervous systems to the tumorigenesis and tumor progression. We further focus the discussion on the evidence that Schwann cells aid in tumor growth and invasion. Schwann cells, a largely unexplored element of the tumor microenvironment, may participate in the creation of tumor-favorable conditions through both bi-directional interaction with cancer cells and the facilitation of the immune-suppressive microenvironment through the mechanism of neural repair and immunomodulation.
Learning Analytics as an Assessment Tool in Serious Games: A Review of Literature

The purpose of this chapter is to conduct a systematic review of research on studies using analytics (particularly in-game data such as logs) in serious games (SG) to understand what research has been conducted and what research evidences there are in using analytics in SG to support teaching and learning. The findings of this review showed learner performance and game design strategies were the two most common researched topics. Other topics included motivation and engagement, student behavior, problem solving, learner progress trajectories, and student collaboration. In addressing students’ learning performance, more studies reported that SG had a positive impact on learning; and many highlighted the importance of game design. Some of the studies reviewed also indicated the challenges for researchers to use in-game dynamic data as a research measure. Several trends are identified and implications for future research are discussed.
Avoiding oesophageal injury during cardiac ablation: insights gained from mediastinal anatomy.

Aims This study investigates the lateral displacement of the oesophagus at the level of the left atrium (LA) in 11 cadavers. Methods and results The study was conducted using human cadavers. An endotracheal stylet probe was inserted into the eosphagus. The pericardium overlying the posterior LA was fixed in place. The lateral movement of the oesophagus from side to side was recorded. The initial study method had the stylet probe extending to the gastroesophageal (GE) junction. A revised protocol had the distal end of the endotracheal stylet probe ∼4 cm cranial to the GE junction. In six cadavers using the initial study method, the oesophagus was displaced a mean of 1.8 ± 0.35 cm to the right and 2 ± 0.48 cm to the left. In five cadavers, using the revised method, the oesophagus was displaced by a mean of 2.26 ± 0.27 cm to the right and 2.3 ± 0.66 cm to the left. Conclusion Mediastinal anatomy, specifically the presence of a loose connective tissue that attaches the oesophagus to the parietal pericardium overlying the posterior LA wall will allow for a lateral displacement of the oesophagus. This should decrease or eliminate the likelihood of thermal injury of the oesophagus. Using an endotracheal stylet, we investigated the lateral displacement of the oesophagus in 11 human cadavers. In six with the stylet extending to the GE junction, the oesophagus was displaced a mean of 3.8 cm. In five, with stylet 4 cm cranial to the junction, the displacement was 4.56 cm.
From Margins to Seams: Imbrication, Inclusion, and Torque in the Aadhaar Identification Project

Problems of marginalization and inclusion are central to HCI scholarship and impact in the world, but are badly named in the binary models of access that currently dominate the field. Building on prior work in ICTD and infrastructure studies, this paper explores the problem of inclusion through historical and ethnographic study of Aadhaar, India's biometrics-based national identification project. We illustrate tensions between Aadhaar users' ability to register, authenticate and successfully deploy their registered identity to participate in the Public Distribution System (PDS), a government scheme that provides subsidized food grains to the Indian poor. We argue that rather than an all-or-nothing state, inclusion in ICTD infrastructures is an ongoing and fragile process, achieved (unevenly) at the seams of multiple interconnected systems. Finally, we show that questions of (effective) inclusion are determined not just at margins of a system (who is in and who is out) but also through the artful and often challenging negotiation of the seams that run through and connect complex distributed infrastructures.