cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Database Optimizations for Modern Hardware

Databases are an important workload for modern commodity microarchitectures. Achieving the best performance requires that careful attention be paid to the underlying architecture, including instruction and data cache usage, data layout, branch prediction, and multithreading. Specialized commodity microarchitectures, such as graphics cards and network processors, have also been investigated as effective query coprocessors. This paper presents a survey of recent architecture-sensitive database research. The insights gained from optimizing database performance on modern microarchitectures are also applicable to other domains, particularly those that are similarly data intensive.
The Influence of Cognitive and Affective Based Job Satisfaction Measures on the Relationship Between Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

One of the most widely believed maxims of management is that a happy worker is a productive worker. However, most research on the nature of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance has not yielded convincing evidence that such a relationship exists to the degree most managers believe. One reason for this might lie in the way in which job performance is measured. Numerous studies have been published that showed that using Organizational Citizenship Behavior to supplant more traditional measures of job performance has resulted in a more robust relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Yet, recent work has suggested that the relationship between job satisfaction and citizenship may be more complex than originally reported. This study investigated whether the relationship between job satisfaction and citizenship could depend upon the nature of the job satisfaction measure used. Specifically, it was hypothesized that job satisfaction measures which reflect a cognitive basi...
Ends and Means in Church History

Presidents of our Society have usually delivered annual addresses based on some aspect of their research interests. Few of these customary presentations (13 of 80) have self-consciously grappled with questions of method, definition, or interpretation in the larger context of historiographical concerns. My effort tries to honor both precedents, reporting on my current studies of twentieth-century American church historians while making some normative observations on perennially difficult philosophical problems, particularly those dealing with sacred references in a secular framework. Some of you might think that speaking to historians about historical procedures comes close to violating the injunction in Exodus 23:19 against boiling a kid in its mother's milk. But I suggest that such an exercise is beneficial because all of us can derive greater professional awareness from surveying the options found in scholarly practices past and present. Today the historical enterprise is characterized by both diversity and uniformity. Major concerns about method and interpretation-such as scientific objectivity, environmental conditioning, and relativistic skepticism-have contributed to this state of affairs. Arguments supporting different topical focuses-ranging from the now staid New History to emphases on consensus themes, intellectual history, the significance of ethnic groups and feminist roles-have added variety to the situation. These various orientations did not arise sequentially or progress in an orderly line of succession. They emerged with overlapping timetables, and in our day no single perspective dominates inquiries into the past because many attitudes vie uncertainly with each other. Despite this diversity, however, historians do share a common procedural core. Through pronouncements and demonstrations, theoretical overviews and practical studies, historians have shaped an implicit framework within which all of us operate. Looking at basic elements in this uniform pattern will allow us to see how church historians have adjusted their special topical concerns within the current system. Over recent generations historians have hammered out a standard set of procedures for accomplishing their work. These procedural steps have acquired a rationality and integrity of their own, whether or not practitioners are conscious of following them as a linked sequence. They also provide analytic-minded students with a comprehensive, abstract framework useful
Ethnic Parties and Democratic Stability

Ethnic divisions, according to empirical democratic theory, and commonsense understandings of politics, threaten the survival of democratic institutions. One of the principal mechanisms linking the politicization of ethnic divisions with the destabilization of democracy is the so-called outbidding effect. According to theories of ethnic outbidding, the politicization of ethnic divisions inevitably gives rise to one or more ethnic parties. The emergence of even a single ethnic party, in turn, “infects” the political system, leading to a spiral of extreme bids that destroys competitive politics altogether. In contrast, I make the (counterintuitive) claim that ethnic parties can sustain a democratic system if they are institutionally encouraged: outbidding can be reversed by replacing the unidimensional ethnic identities assumed by the outbidding models with multidimensional ones. My argument is based on the anomalous case of ethnic party behavior in India. It implies that the threat to democratic stability, where it exists, comes not from the intrinsic nature of ethnic divisions, but from the institutional context within which ethnic politics takes place. Institutions that artificially restrict ethnic politics to a single dimension destabilize democracy, whereas institutions that foster multiple dimensions of ethnic identity can sustain it.Kanchan Chandra is associate professor of political science at MIT (kchandra@mit.edu) and author of Why Ethnic Parties Succeed (2004). For useful discussions and written comments, the author thanks the anonymous reviewers and the editorial board of Perspectives on Politics, Steve Ansolabehere, Paul Brass, Eric Dickson, Cynthia Enloe, James Fearon, Rachel Gisselquist, J. P. Gownder, Henry Hale, Jennifer Hochschild, Mala Htun, Samuel Huntington, Stathis Kalyvas, Nelson Kasfir, Herbert Kitschelt, David Laitin, Gerard Padro-i-Miquel, Lloyd Rudolph, Susanne Rudolph, Jody Shapiro, Kenneth Shepsle, James Snyder, Ashutosh Varshney, Santhanagopalan Vasudev, Barry Weingast, Myron Weiner, Chris Wendt, Steven Wilkinson, Adam Ziegfeld, and participants of the fall 2003 meeting of the Laboratory in Comparative Ethnic Processes (LICEP) at UCLA.
A model for the sickle hemoglobin fiber using both mutation sites

The standard molecular model of the fiber of the sickle hemoglobin (HbS: beta6 Glu-->Val) has been revised to allow both beta6 mutation sites to participate in intermolecular contacts, rather than only one beta6 site as previously thought, for four molecules per 14-molecule fiber cross section. This structure accurately predicts the copolymerization of hybridized mixtures of HbS with HbA or HbC (beta6 Glu-->Lys), which could not be reconciled with prior models in which only half the beta6 sites were required for assembly. This model suggests new contacts within the fiber and raises the question of whether these cross-linked double strands could possess added stability important in such processes as nucleation.
Comparison between decrosslinking of crosslinked high and low density polyethylenes via ultrasonically aided extrusion

Abstract Among various polymer wastes, management of crosslinked plastics is a major environmental problem requiring a solution. Among various crosslinked plastics, recycling of crosslinked polyethylenes is of a great importance due to the presence of a three-dimensional network. To solve this problem, novel environmentally friendly technologies for decrosslinking of the crosslinked polymers are developed based on ultrasonically assisted single (SSE) and twin screw (TSE) extruders. In particular, decrosslinking of peroxide crosslinked high-density polyethylene (XHDPE) and low-density polyethylene (XLDPE) by means of an ultrasonic SSE and TSE is investigated. Barrel pressure, die pressure and ultrasonic power consumption during extrusion are recorded. Swelling, rheological, thermal analysis and tensile tests are used to elucidate the structure–property relationships of decrosslinked XHDPE and XLDPE. The frequency dependencies of the storage and loss moduli, complex viscosity and tangent loss of XHDPE, XLDPE and their decrosslinked networks are described by the post critical gel model with its parameters correlated with gel fraction and crosslink density. The dynamic, thermal and tensile properties of the decrosslinked XHDPE and XLDPE are greatly affected by the type of preferential bond breakage. It was found that the decrosslinking of XLDPE is more difficult than that of XHDPE. An analysis based on the Horikx function reveals a highly preferential breakage of crosslinks during decrosslinking of XHDPE. In contrast to decrosslinking of XHDPE, the presence of long-chain branching in XLDPE is found to lead to the breakage of its main chains during decrosslinking. An improvement and a reduction in mechanical properties of decrosslinked XHDPE and XLDPE are, respectively, observed in comparison with those of virgin XHDPE and XLDPE. Such differences in behavior are due to the occurrence of a highly preferential breakage of crosslinks in XHDPE and the breakage of main chains in XLDPE during ultrasonic decrosslinking.
Exercising with and Without Lungs: II. Experimental Elimination of Pulmonary and Buccopharyngeal Gas Exchange in Individual Salamanders (Ambystoma Tigrinum)

To ascertain whether the presence of lungs per se , or some other physiological feature, might account for the differences in oxygen consumption and stamina previously observed in an interspecific comparison (Full et al . 1988), individual salamanders ( Ambystoma tigrinum ) were exercised on a treadmill before and after their nares and mouth had been sealed. After airway closure, animals behaved normally and suffered no mortality. Airway closure reduced the routine MO2 (rate of oxygen consumption) by an average of 47% in six of seven individuals. Animals with open airways increased their MO2 2-to 4-fold during locomotion at 11 cm s−1, and did not fatigue in 22 min of exercise at this speed. Animals with closed airways managed only small increases above the routine MO2 during exercise at 11 cm s−1, and none could sustain activity for more than 10 min. Thus, exclusively skin-breathing Ambystoma cannot increase cutaneous gas exchange to compensate for the elimination of pulmonary and buccopharyngeal respiration; locomotor stamina suffers accordingly. Small salamanders can apparently increase cutaneous gas exchange during activity, although large salamanders cannot, because cutaneous diffusing capacity and the resting oxygen requirement approach one another with increasing body size; the skin of large salamanders apparently has a limited scope for aerobic activity.
Pion interferometry of nuclear collisions. I. Theory

The topic of pion interferometry (identical pion correlations) is analyzed in detail in the context of relativistic nuclear collisions. Through an exactly solvable field theoretic model specified by an ensemble of classical pion source currents, ${J}_{i}(x)$, we calculate the ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ correlation function $R({\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{1},{\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{2})$ for chaotic, coherent, and partially coherent pion fields. We analyze how $R$ can be used to determine the degree of coherence of the produced pion field as well as the geometric structure of the source of the chaotic field component. With this model we are able to distinguish between those correlations due to Bose-Einstein symmetrization (the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss or Goldhaber effect) and those due to specific multiparticle production dynamics. In particular we show that Bose-Einstein symmetrization dominates the form of $R({\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{1},{\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{2})$ only for chaotic pion fields produced over a time scale large compared to ${{m}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. If, due to collective phenomena, there is some coherence of the pion field, then the intercept $R(\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k},\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k})=2\ensuremath{-}{D}^{2}(\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k})$ is shown to measure mode by mode that degree of coherence $D(\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k})$. Geometric information about the source of the chaotic field component may be extracted from $R({\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{1},{\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{2})$ only after $D(\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k})$ has been determined. Expressions are also derived that incorporate distortions of $R$ due to one-body and two-body final state interactions. These expressions will be numerically evaluated in a subsequent paper. Relative ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ interactions lead to a penetration factor $G({\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{1},{\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{2})$ that modulates the form of $R({\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{1},{\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k}}_{2})$. An expression for $G$ is obtained to all orders in the one-body optical potential but to first order in the two-body potential. This penetration factor must be evaluated before data for $R$ can be used to determine $D(\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{k})$.NUCLEAR REACTIONS Relativistic nuclear collisions, multipion inclusive cross sections, ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ correlations, Hanbury-Brown-Twiss effect, partially coherent fields, final state interactions.
Risk, Experience and Client Acceptance Decisions

Risk containment efforts are one of the most important activities of public accounting firms in today's litigious and highly competitive environment. Of these efforts, the first "line of defense" is the decision to accept a client. By effectively screening out risky potential clients, firms can guard against the risk of litigation. Despite its growing importance, little is known about how auditors make this decision. Professional standards state that firms should establish procedures for making the client acceptance decision and should "appropriately consider the risks associated with providing professional services in the particular circumstances." However, no guidance is provided about factors that should be considered in making the decision.
Clinical Aspects of Cyclosporine Nephrotoxicity

Nephrotoxicity is the major adverse effect of the valuable immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine. The pharmacology and pharmacokinetic behavior of cyclosporine is complex; clinically relevant considerations, including drug interactions, are covered in this paper. In addition, the major clinical syndromes associated with cyclosporine nephrotoxicity are discussed. These include initial oligoanuria after renal transplant, acute reversible episodes of renal dysfunction, chronic nephrotoxicity with tubulointerstitial fibrosis, hemolytic-uremic syndrome, hypertension, and electrolyte disturbances. An algorithm for distinguishing renal dysfunction due to allograft rejection from acute cyclosporine nephrotoxicity is proposed, since this distinction continues to be a difficult problem for nephrologists. Although therapeutic drug monitoring using blood or plasma cyclosporine levels has not fulfilled its promise, practical guidelines for the use of these studies are presented.
Design for prevention of acoustic fatigue

It is pointed out that new noise prediction methods and acoustic life estimation methods have matured to the point where they can be combined into a unified engineering procedure. "Life derivatives" can be extracted from parametric charts to furnish design data for preventing acoustic fatigue. The acoustic fatigue life is shown to be sensitive to the damping ratio through the use of life derivatives. The localized nature of propeller noise can be quantified with an "isodecibel" contour diagram.Even though the peak sound pressure level may be high, the directional derivatives show the noise decay rates with distance. Acoustic fatigue design is discussed from the overall design methodology and is shown to be similar to other structural design problems. While nonlinearities present a formidable design engineering problem, they are manageable by proven semi-empirical techniques. For new design problems, it is imperative to determine whether the data base completely spans the design variables.
Magnetoelastic beam with extended polymer for low frequency vibration energy harvesting

Ambient energy in the form of mechanical kinetic energy is mostly considered waste energy. The process of scavenging and storing such energy is known as energy harvesting. Energy harvesting from mechanical vibration is performed using resonant energy harvesters (EH) with two major goals: enhancing the power scavenged at low frequency sources of vibrations, and increasing the efficiency of scavenging energy by increasing the bandwidth near the resonant frequency. Toward such goals, we propose a piezoelectric EH of a composite cantilever beam with a tip magnet facing another magnet at a distance. The composite cantilever consists of a piezoelectric bimorph with an extended polymer material. With the effect of the nonlinearity of the magnetic force, higher amplitude can be achieved because of the generated bi-stability oscillations of the cantilever beam under harmonic excitation. The contribution of the this paper is to demonstrate lowering the achieved resonant frequency down to 17 Hz compared to 100 Hz for the piezoelectric bimorph beam without the extended polymer. Depending on the magnetic distance, the beam responses are divided to mono and bi-stable regions, for which we investigate static and dynamic behaviors. The dynamics of the system and the frequency and voltage responses of the beam are obtained using the shooting method.
Quality Assurance: Monitors in Special Care

Special care units need to establish economically feasible and meaningful monitors to evaluate patient care needs. High-cost areas, such as special care, monitor appropriate use of resources in high-risk, high-volume, and problem-prone areas. The monitoring process needs to provide information regarding the quality of care in the special care unit without greatly decreasing time spent by staff in direct patient care. This chapter discusses development of efficient monitoring tools for quality assurance indicators in the special care unit.
Tissue Partitioning During Leaf Development in Ornamentally-grown Frithia pulchra (Mesembryanthemaceae), a ‘Window Plant’

The objective of this research was to describe leaf development in F. pulchra. We did this by quantifying how developing leaves partition their volumes to epidermal, chlorenchyma and window tissues.
IMIA: Coalescing Medical Informatics Worldwide for 40 Years

Objectives: To summarize and highlight the role of IMIA in the past 40 years in becoming the international professional organization that brings together researchers, practitioners, and educators in the field of medical informatics, and more broadly biomedical, nursing, and health informatics Method: Outlining developments of medical informatics related to IMIA from 1967 to 2007 in a time-line and comparative topic and geographical distribution analyses over selected MEDINFOs from 1980 and selected Yearbooks from 1992 onwards. This illustrates how IMIA, through the global reach of its activities, has helped advance the science and development of informatics across the entire spectrum of biomedical and health care research, education, and practice. Results and conclusions: The contribution of IMIA over the past 40 years has been to sponsor and coordinate international conferences and promote interchange and collaborations in biomedical and health informatics by linking national and regional societies, organizing meetings, high quality publications, and working groups. These have helped the coalescing of the discipline worldwide, promoting full participation and a broad interdisciplinary scope that fulfills the hopes of the pioneers in the field.
Escherichia coli O157:H7 Cells Exposed to Lettuce Leaf Lysate in Refrigerated Conditions Exhibit Differential Expression of Selected Virulence and Adhesion-Related Genes with Altered Mammalian Cell Adherence

ABSTRACT Contamination by and persistence of pathogenic bacteria in ready-to-eat produce have emerged as significant food safety and public health concerns. Viable produceborne pathogens cope with several stresses (e.g., temperature fluctuations and low-temperature storage) during production and storage of the commodities. In this study, we investigated the impact of transient cold shock on Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EcO157) cells in a produce matrix (romaine lettuce leaf lysate). EcO157 cells were exposed to 25°C for 1 h, 4°C for 1 h, and 4°C for 10 min in lettuce lysate. The expression of selected genes coding for virulence, stress response, and heat and cold shock proteins was quantified by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR assay. Treated EcO157 cells adhered to MAC-T mammalian cells were enumerated by in vitro bioassay. Expression of the Shiga toxin 1 gene (stx1a) was upregulated significantly (P < 0.05) upon cold shock treatments, but virulence genes related to EcO157 attachment (eaeA, ...
Big types in little runtime: open-world soundness and collaborative blame for gradual type systems

Gradual typing combines static and dynamic typing in the same language, offering programmers the error detection and strong guarantees of static types and the rapid prototyping and flexible programming idioms of dynamic types. Many gradually typed languages are implemented by translation into an untyped target language (e.g., Typed Clojure, TypeScript, Gradualtalk, and Reticulated Python). For such languages, it is desirable to support arbitrary interaction between translated code and legacy code in the untyped language while maintaining the type soundness of the translated code. In this paper we formalize this goal in the form of the open-world soundness criterion. We discuss why it is challenging to achieve open-world soundness using the traditional proxy-based approach for higher-order casts. However, the transient design satisfies open-world soundness. Indeed, we present a formal semantics for the transient design and prove that our semantics satisfies open-world soundness. In this paper we also solve a challenging problem for the transient design: how to provide blame tracking without proxies. We define a semantics for blame and prove the Blame Theorem. We also prove that the Gradual Guarantee holds for this system, ensuring that programs can be evolved freely between static and dynamic typing. Finally, we demonstrate that the runtime overhead of the transient approach is low in the context of Reticulated Python, an implementation of gradual typing for Python.
Bruceolline D: 3,3-dimethyl-1H,4H-cyclo-penta-[b]indol-2(3H)-one.

The title compound, C13H13NO, crystallizes with four independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. The 12-membered penta­[b]indole rings are essentially planar, with maximum deviations ranging from 0.034 (4) to 0.036 (4) A in the four unique mol­ecules. In the crystal, weak C—H⋯O inter­actions are observed, which link the mol­ecules into chains along [010].
Uniform and variable-rate fertilizer and manure phosphorus for the corn-soybean rotation

4 Introduction 5 Materials and Methods 8 Results and Discussion 14 Conclusions 21 References 22 CHAPTER 3. USE OF VARIABLE-RATE TECHNOLOGY FOR AGRONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHOSPHORUS-BASED LIQUID SWINE MANURE MANAGEMENT 41 Abstract 4
A subject librarian's pedagogical path in the digital humanities

As academic libraries evolve with digital humanities scholarship, subject librarians may find themselves teaching in this new pedagogical landscape before colleagues with digital humanities experti...
Reducing Delays to Antiretroviral (ARV) Receipt in Children Prescribed Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV: Meds-in-Hand and a Multidisciplinary Team Approach

AbstractBackgroundProvision of antiretrovirals (ARVs) for pediatric patients who require HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) poses many challenges. Many pharmacies do not stock pediatric formulations of ARVs. Prior authorizations and misunderstanding of medication quantity and urgency can delay filling and result in treatment interruptions, risking PEP’s efficacy. While 3-day starter packs are standard of care for patients prescribed PEP in the Emergency Department (ED), we are not aware of programs designed to ensure pediatric patients receive the full 28-day course.MethodsAt Boston Medical Center using the Model for Improvement with Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, we implemented three key interventions: 1) Initiation of “Meds-in-Hand” for patients prescribed PEP during outpatient pharmacy business hours in which the entire course of ARVs is dispensed and handed to the patient in the ED; 2) Establishment of a troubleshooting PEP group email chain for medication receipt after a starter pack is given; and 3) Creation of an ED-Pharmacy workflow to help providers avoid logistic prescription errors. Using run charts, we tracked the proportion of patients who received Meds-In-Hand or a 3-day starter pack over time, and identified delays in full PEP course receipt.ResultsOf the 29 courses of HIV PEP prescribed from our Pediatric ED during 2016, with mean age 16 years (range 1–22 years), the proportion of patients with delays in prescription pick-up that would result in gaps in therapy decreased from 45% (5/11) to 6% (1/18) during the intervention period (Figure 1). During 2 of 5 pre-intervention months, one patient left the ED without a starter pack; all patients in the invention period left with either a starter pack or Meds-In-Hand. Of patients seen during pharmacy business hours, 50% (2/4) during PDSA cycle 2 and 100% (3/3) during cycle 3 received the full 28-day medication course before leaving the ED.ConclusionPatient care measures improved with a multi-disciplinary team approach involving pharmacy, pediatric infectious diseases, and ED improvements in communication and coordination of care. This quality improvement initiative demonstrates simple collaborative interventions to reduce critical delays in HIV prevention for a vulnerable population.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.
Trends and outcomes of the use of percutaneous native kidney biopsy in the United States: 5-year data analysis of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

Background Despite an inordinate share of health care resources being utilized by patients with kidney disease, morbidity and mortality in these patients remain high. Although renal biopsy is an intervention to identify potential treatment-modifiable causes of disease, large-scale data studying the safety and outcomes of percutaneous native kidney biopsy in hospitalized patients are lacking. Methods We queried the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database from 2008 to 2012 and identified all hospital admissions during which a percutaneous renal biopsy was performed. Patients <18 years of age or with a transplanted kidney were excluded. Data regarding associated renal pathology and procedure-related complications were collected and analyzed. Outcomes studied were length of stay, mortality and cost adjusted for inflation. Results A total of 118 064 hospital admissions were included in our analysis. The most common complications reported after percutaneous kidney biopsy were packed red blood cell transfusion (261/1000 cases), hematuria (129/1000 cases) and bleeding (78/1000 cases). Patients had an overall mortality of 1.8%. The mean length of stay for each hospitalization was 10.65 days, with a significant difference between elective and nonelective admissions (6.3 versus 11.7; P < 0.01). The average cost per hospitalization was US$22 917 after adjusting for inflation, again with a significant difference between elective and nonelective admissions (15 168 versus 24 780; P < 0.01). Conclusion Overall, percutaneous renal biopsy is considered a safe procedure; however, our study based on a national database demonstrates a relatively higher complication rate as compared with the limited prior available studies.
Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Average Time Elapsed Before Presentation to the Otolaryngologist and Effectiveness of Oral and/or Intratympanic Steroids in Late Presentations.

Objectives To determine how long after symptom onset that the average patient with an idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) presents to the otolaryngology clinic. In late presentations, to determine the time to presentation cutoff after which intervention may not be effective. To evaluate the effectiveness of oral steroids versus a combination of oral and intratympanic steroid therapy in late presentations of ISSNHL. Methods and procedures Sixty-four patients met inclusion criteria after chart review of 2,037 patients seen at Metro Health Hospital from 2006 to 2016 for sensorineural hearing loss. All sixty-four patients were used to calculate the average time to presentation, but only 40 were included to evaluate treatment efficacy because 24 were lost to follow-up or declined treatment. Audiograms were analyzed for baseline status and response to treatment. Therapy was either oral steroids or intratympanic (IT) steroids. Thirty-nine of the 40 treated patients received oral steroid therapy. Eighteen of these 39 patients received both oral and IT steroids. One patient received IT steroids only. Results For all 64 patients in the study, the average time to presentation was 55 days, ranging from one day to 240 days. Data for 32 of the 40 treated patients were analyzed. These patients were further divided into smaller groups: Group 1 (N = 11) - treatment within seven days of symptom onset, Group 2 (N = 17) - time to treatment greater than seven days but less than 90 days of symptom onset, and Group 3 (N = 4) - greater than 90 days of symptom onset. In Group 2, there was a significant improvement in pure tone average (P-value: 0.005). Forty-seven percent of patients in this group had objective treatment response utilizing Wilson's criteria. Two patients had a complete recovery and six had a partial recovery. Hearing gains ranged from 10 dB (decibels) to 23 dB. Sixty-three percent of patients with objective improvement also had subjective improvement. In Group 3, none of the patients met Wilson's criteria for recovery. There was no statistically significant difference in response between patients treated with oral steroids only versus a combination of oral and IT steroids. Conclusion Patients with ISSNHL present to an otolaryngologist on average 55 days after symptom onset. There is statistically and clinically significant response to treatment in late presenters. Improvement can be seen up to three months from symptom onset. Oral steroid therapy is effective. IT steroid therapy may have an added benefit.
Temperature- and field-driven spin reorientations in triple-layer ruthenate Sr4Ru3O10.

Sr4Ru3O10, the n = 3 member of the Ruddlesden-Popper type ruthenate Srn+1Ru n O3n+1, is known to exhibit a peculiar metamagnetic transition in an in-plane magnetic field. However, the nature of both the temperature- and field-dependent phase transitions remains as a topic of debate. Here, we have investigated the magnetic transitions of Sr4Ru3O10 via single-crystal neutron diffraction measurements. At zero field, we find that the system undergoes a ferromagnetic transition with both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic components at Tc ≈ 100 K. Below T * = 50 K, the magnetic moments incline continuously toward the out-of-plane direction. At T = 1.5 K, where the spins are nearly aligned along the c axis, a spin reorientation occurs above a critical field Bc, giving rise to a spin component perpendicular to the plane defined by the field direction and the c axis. We suggest that both the temperature- and field-driven spin reorientations are associated with a change in the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, which is strongly coupled to the lattice degrees of freedom. This study elucidates the long-standing puzzles on the zero-field magnetic orders of Sr4Ru3O10 and provides new insights into the nature of the field-induced metamagnetic transition.
Clinical Assessment of Anal Fistulas

Clinical assessment of anal fistulas is very important for two reasons: (1) identification of primary and secondary openings and clear delineation of the fistula tract and (2) accurate classification of fistula which has bearing on ease or complexity of surgical procedures, success or failure of the operation, recurrence rates and risk of operation-related fecal incontinence. Clinical assessment is often easily performed in the outpatient setting of patient encounter but when needed examination under anesthesia will facilitate assessment of fistulas in most cases.
JAK-STAT signaling is activated in the kidney and peripheral blood cells of patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

Focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS) is a devastating disease with limited treatment options and poor prognosis. Activated JAK-STAT signaling has been implicated in other kidney diseases. Since new technologies allow us to better evaluate changes in systemic and renal JAK-STAT activity as it relates to kidney function, we examined this in 106 patients with biopsy-proven FSGS compared to 47 healthy control individuals. Peripheral immune function was assessed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by phosphoflow studies before and after cytokine stimulation. Kidney JAK-STAT activity was measured by immunofluorescence and by transcriptomics. A STAT1 activity score was calculated by evaluating message status of downstream targets of pSTAT 1. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were found to be upregulated in terms of pSTAT production at baseline in FSGS and to have limited reserve to respond to various cytokines. Increased staining for components of the JAK-STAT system in FSGS by microscopy was found. Furthermore, we found transcriptomic evidence for activation of JAK-STAT that increased pSTAT 1 and pSTAT 3 in glomerular and tubulointerstitial sections of the kidney. Some of these changes were associated with the likelihood of remission of proteinuria and progression of disease. JAK-STAT signaling is altered in patients with FSGS as compared to healthy controls with activated peripheral immune cells, increased message in the kidney and increased activated proteins in the kidney. Thus, our findings support immune activation in this disease and point to the JAK-STAT pathway as a potential target for treatment of FSGS.
Sex differences in stroke: Challenges and opportunities:

Biologic sex influences many variables that are important to brain health in general, and to stroke or cerebral ischemia in particular, such as general health status, cerebrovascular anatomy and function, unique risk factors such as pregnancy and preeclampsia, symptomatology, and therapeutic response. A more complete understanding of the scale and depth of sexual dimorphism in the brain and the role of more general sex-based factors is crucial to reducing the burden of stroke in women and men. This focused review highlights recent findings in stroke, including sex differences in epidemiology, risk factor reduction, comparative use of stroke therapeutics in both sexes, the importance of frailty in women, and the biologic basis for sex differences in stroke. Such findings show tremendous promise for the future of personalized medicine in stroke prevention and treatment.
Abstract P282: Knockout of Transient Receptor Potential Ankyrin 1 Exacerbates Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) is a newly identified oxidant sensor and has anti-oxidative properties. The role of TRPA1 in acute kidney injury is largely unknown. In this study, we...
Building Enterprise IoT Applications

McKinsey Global Institute predicts Internet of Things (IoT) could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025. Gartner Research Company expects 20 billion inter-connected devices by 2020 and, as per Gartner, the IoT will have a significant impact on the economy by transforming many enterprises into digital businesses and facilitating new business models, improving efficiency and increasing employee and customer engagement. It’s clear from above and our research that the IoT is a game changer and will have huge positive impact in foreseeable future. In order to harvest the benefits of IoT revolution, the traditional software development paradigms must be fully upgraded. The mission of our book, is to prepare current and future software engineering teams with the skills and tools to fully utilize IoT capabilities. The book introduces essential IoT concepts from the perspectives of full-scale software development with the emphasis on creating niche blue ocean products. It also: Outlines a fundamental full stack architecture for IoT Describes various development technologies in each IoT layer Explains IoT solution development from Product management perspective Extensively covers security and applicable threat models as part of IoT stack The book provides details of several IoT reference architectures with emphasis on data integration, edge analytics, cluster architectures and closed loop responses.
Cathodic Protection System Design for Steel Pilings of a Wharf Structure

Corrosion of steel pilings in sea and brackish water is mostly due to the establishment of localized corrosion cells and the effects of the tidal changes. The most frequently used corrosion protection systems are coatingsand/or cathodic protection. These protective systems when properly designed, installed and operated are very effective in preventing corrosion problems. The design of a cathodic protection system, in order to be effective and reliable, must take into consideration all technical design criteria, the type of materials used, the geometric shape of the structure, environmental conditions, site restrictions, and any outside interferences. These design considerations, as well as the use of design data and an overall design methodology for a cathodic protection system for pipe and sheet piling used in a wharf structure, are discussed in this paper.
Hypoxic-ischemic-related cerebrovascular changes and potential therapeutic strategies in the neonatal brain

Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic (HI)-related brain injury is an important cause of morbidity and long-standing disability in newborns. The only currently approved therapeutic strategy available to reduce brain injury in the newborn is hypothermia. Therapeutic hypothermia can only be used to treat HI encephalopathy in full-term infants and survivors remain at high risk for a wide spectrum of neurodevelopmental abnormalities as a result of residual brain injury. Therefore, there is an urgent need for adjunctive therapeutic strategies. Inflammation and neurovascular damage are important factors that contribute to the pathophysiology of HI-related brain injury and represent exciting potential targets for therapeutic intervention. In this review, we address the role of each component of the neurovascular unit (NVU) in the pathophysiology of HI-related injury in the neonatal brain. Disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) observed in the early hours after an HI-related event is associated with a response at the basal lamina level, which comprises astrocytes, pericytes, and immune cells, all of which could affect BBB function to further exacerbate parenchymal injury. Future research is required to determine potential drugs that could prevent or attenuate neurovascular damage and/or augment repair. However, some studies have reported beneficial effects of hypothermia, erythropoietin, stem cell therapy, anti-cytokine therapy and metformin in ameliorating several different facets of damage to the NVU after HI-related brain injury in the perinatal period.
A High-Bandwidth Resistive Current Sensing Technology for Breakers and Desaturation Protection

High switching frequencies, steeper voltage and current slopes make for challenging requirements for real time current sensing, especially due to overshoot from sensing element inductance. High-bandwidth current sensing is required to ensure safe, reliable and efficient operations and to engage protection during critical failures. This paper describes and demonstrates a high bandwidth resistive current sensing technology for solid state circuit protection and diode-less power device desaturation protection. The sensor uses mutual inductance cancellation as well as residual inductive voltage subtraction for ultra-low-overshoot transient response. Full design steps and equations are presented for scaling the design. The demonstration design is fabricated using rigid and flexible PCB technologies. Test results show a 70.5% reduction of insertion inductance for the same power dissipation and sensitivity. VNA and spectrum analyzer measurements are used to characterize the prototypes of the proposed design. The paper also discusses two applications of desaturation protection and overcurrent protection for SiC FETs.
The Achaemenid Parasol: Symbol of Authority and Feature of Court Protocol

From as early as the mid-third millennium B.C.E in the ancient Near East, the parasol was associated with royal images as a symbol of royal authority. Among the reliefs at sixth- and fifth-century B.C.E Persepolis, carved on some of the doorjambs, is the Achaemenid king shown beneath a parasol as if moving from one building to another. The parasol depicted in these reliefs is compared with the remains of one actually excavated at Persepolis.
First-order pre-melting transition of vortex lattices

Abstract Vortex lattices in the high-temperature superconductors undergo a first-order phase transition that has thus far been regarded as melting from a solid to a liquid. We point out an alternative possibility of a two-step process in which there is a first-order transition from an ordinary vortex lattice to a soft vortex solid followed by another first-order melting transition from the soft vortex solid to a vortex liquid. We focus on the first step. This pre-melting transition is induced by vacancy and interstitial vortex lines. We obtain good agreement with the experimental transition temperature against field, latent heat, and magnetization jumps for YBa2Cu3O7-[sgrave] and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8.
Biomechanical analysis of accessory tendon graft augmentation for primary gastrocnemius tendon reconstruction in dogs.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of accessory tendon graft (ATG) augmentation as an adjunct to a core locking-loop (LL) and epitendinous suture (ES) repair in a gastrocnemius tendon (GT) model. STUDY DESIGN Randomized, ex vivo, biomechanical. POPULATION Twenty-two canine GT musculotendinous constructs. METHODS GT repair constructs were randomly divided into two groups (n = 10/group). After transection, paired GT were repaired with LL + ES alone or with concurrent ATG augmentation. Yield, peak and failure loads, tensile loads required to create 1 and 3 mm gapping, and failure modes were evaluated. Four GT were used as intact controls for validation of testing methodology. ATG constructs were compared to LL + ES and control specimens. RESULTS Yield (p < .0001), peak (p = .0001) and failure loads (p = .0003) were greater when ATG was used for repair. Greater force was required to cause 1 mm (p = .0001) and 3 mm (p = .0002) gap formation in the ATG group, however, the frequency of gap formation did not differ between groups. All repaired constructs failed exclusively by suture pull-through. CONCLUSION Autologous ATG augmentation as an adjunct to primary GT repair increased yield, peak and failure forces by approximately 1.6×, 1.9×, 1.8× respectively and required 2.1× greater force to cause 1 and 3 mm formation respectively compared to LL + ES repairs alone. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE ATG augmentation should be considered as an autologous method to support and strengthen the primary GT repair. These results justify studies to determine the effect of ATG on clinical function following graft harvest in dogs.
Varied effects of doxorubicin (DOX) on the corpus luteum of C57BL/6 mice during early pregnancy.

Certain chemotherapeutic drugs are toxic to ovarian follicles. The corpus luteum (CL) is normally developed from an ovulated follicle for producing progesterone (P4) to support early pregnancy. To fill in the knowledge gap about effects of chemotherapy on the CL, we tested the hypothesis that chemotherapy may target endothelial cells and/or luteal cells in the CL to impair CL function in P4 steroidogenesis using doxorubicin (DOX) as a representative chemotherapeutic drug in mice. In both mixed background mice and C57BL/6 mice, a single intraperitoneal injection of DOX (10 mg/kg) on 0.5 days post coitum (D0.5, post-ovulation) led to ~58% D3.5 mice with serum P4 levels lower than the serum P4 range in the PBS-treated control mice. Further studies in the C57BL/6 ovaries revealed that CLs from DOX-treated mice with low P4 levels had less defined luteal cords and disrupted collagen IV expression pattern, indicating disrupted capillary, accompanied with less differentiated luteal cells that had smaller cytoplasm and reduced StAR expression. DOX-treated ovaries had increased granulosa cell death in the growing follicles, reduced PCNA-positive endothelial cells in the CLs, enlarged lipid droplets and disrupted F-actin in the luteal cells. These novel data suggest that the proliferating endothelial cells in the developing CL may be the primary target of DOX to impair the vascular support for luteal cell differentiation and subsequently P4 steroidogenesis. This study fills in the knowledge gap about the toxic effects of chemotherapy on the CL and provides critical information for risk assessment of chemotherapy in premenopausal patients.
Disorders of the Neuromuscular Junction

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) may be considered simply a connection between the nerve and muscle fiber. However, it is a specialized synapse which includes complex structures such as the presynaptic nerve terminal, synaptic cleft and a postsynaptic muscle fiber endplate. With the aid of these structures, the NMJ serves as a site for conversion of nerve impulse into an action potential which is required for contraction of skeletal muscle. The NMJ is particularly vulnerable to damage from auto-antibodies (due to lack of blood-nerve barrier) and certain toxins [1]. Genetic disorders that can specifically impair the neuromuscular transmission can result in fatigable weakness which serves as a hallmark feature for NMJ disorders. In this chapter, we will be focusing on the most common disorders of neuromuscular junction transmission such as Myasthenia Gravis (including Congenital Myasthenia Gravis), and Lambert-Eaton Syndrome.
Nonmedical Cannabis Use: Patterns and Correlates of Use, Exposure, and Harm, and Cancer Risk

Cannabis has certain health benefits, but some people may experience harms from use. Co-use of tobacco and cannabis is common. Smoke from cannabis contains many of the same carcinogens and toxicants as the smoke from tobacco, raising concerns that cannabis smoking may be a risk factor for cancer. With growing access to and acceptance of medical and nonmedical cannabis, there is an urgent need to understand the risks and benefits of the current modes of cannabis use and how cannabis may be associated with cancer risk. This monograph summarizes a session from a National Cancer Institute Symposium on nonmedical cannabis use and cancer risk. We had 3 objectives: describe the relation between nonmedical cannabis use and cancer risk, delineate patterns and correlates of cannabis co-use with tobacco, and document potentially harmful inhalational exposure resulting from smoked and vaped cannabis. Methodological limitations in the literature and future research recommendations are provided.