cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterizing and managing system risks with selective redundancy during early mission formulation

NASA pay load medium-risk projects encounter an architectural need to identify and manage risks associated with selective redundancy. An innovative technique has been developed and implemented on two JPL instruments to help managers make risk-informed decisions during early mission formulation, when design details are often sparse. The process relies on an elicitation approach intended to balance the potential benefits of redundancy against the adverse reliability impacts of additional complexity, potential deviations from heritage practices, and the risk significance/likelihood of a single string failure. Experts in hardware, software, parts, and reliability are asked to rate the likelihood of a system failure due to six broad reliability factors. Those ratings are averaged. Then the experts are asked to rate the likelihood of failure of the same system if it were to be made redundant. While the ratings are subjective, the technique described strives to unify and normalize the ratings between experts and systems. The ratio between the averaged redundant and single-string ratings is called the "improvement factor" and is used to rank redundant systems' ability to lower technical performance risk. By presenting items with the greatest improvement factors on the NASA 5×5 risk matrix, managers can more easily visualize the risk reduction provided by redundancy. The process has been well received at JPL (nominated for a NASA Systems Engineering Excellence Award, as a "unique and immensely useful exercise in quantifying the benefit of redundancy"). It is currently in-use on several Earth science missions, and will be incorporated into the formulation phase of future missions.
On the utility of curricula in unsupervised learning of probabilistic grammars

We examine the utility of a curriculum (a means of presenting training samples in a meaningful order) in unsupervised learning of probabilistic grammars. We introduce the incremental construction hypothesis that explains the benefits of a curriculum in learning grammars and offers some useful insights into the design of curricula as well as learning algorithms. We present results of experiments with (a) carefully crafted synthetic data that provide support for our hypothesis and (b) natural language corpus that demonstrate the utility of curricula in unsupervised learning of probabilistic grammars.
Cellular Telephone Dialing Influences Kinematic and Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Healthy Adults

Gait speed is typically reduced when individuals simultaneously perform other tasks. However, the impact of dual tasking on kinetic and kinematic gait parameters is unclear because these vary with gait speed. The objective of this study was to identify whether dual tasking impacts gait in healthy adults when speed is constant. Twenty-two healthy adults dialed a cell phone during treadmill walking at a self-selected speed while kinetic, kinematic, and spatial parameters were recorded. Results indicated that dual tasking did not impact phone dialing speed, but increased stride width, peak knee flexion during stance, and peak plantarflexion, and decreased knee and ankle range of motion. Dual tasking appears to influence kinematic gait variables in a manner consistent with promotion of stability.
Taming the DFM beast into an adorable pet - a comprehensive approach

Summary form only given. Design for manufacturability, or DFM, strikes mortal fear in the heart of design and manufacturing communities. Relentless technology scaling coupled with an uncooperative lithography has begotten a significant DFM problem. Today, the scope of the problem has expanded to include not only functional yield and parametric yield, but manufacturing cost containment as well. Taming this DFM beast requires an orchestrated assault on multiple fronts
Characterization of Pancreaticojejunal Anastomotic Healing in a Porcine Survival Model

Introduction: Anastomotic leak after pancreaticoduodenectomy is the most important cause of postoperative morbidity and mortality. Histological studies of bowel anastomoses have provided valuable i...
Second Movement: Destitution of the Subject

This chapter contends that Chaucer develops his thematic of abandonment to extraordinary lengths to dramatize the extreme suffering of Custance caused by sovereign indifference. This section of the tale rehearses the vicissitudes of her life of exile, including trial for murder, rescue through God’s intervention, marriage to the king of Northumbria, his desertion, another trial, and again exile, this time with a child. The analysis of these scenes reveals how Chaucer depicts and comments on the intense suffering and destitution of the subject in order to highlight the horrific consequences of sovereign abandonment. Chaucer’s histrionic melodrama of Custance’s suffering is made necessary, it is asserted, because of the normative high level of violence in medieval culture and society.
Acute Traumatic Anterior Shoulder Instability: Surgical Management for the First-Time Dislocator

The complex relationship between increased range of motion and decreased stability subjects the shoulder to more episodes of subluxation and dislocation than other joints in the body. Traumatic anterior glenohumeral dislocation remains a common problem not only in young athletes, but also for older individuals after a fall. The most common mechanism of injury remains shoulder abduction with forced external rotation that often results in significant disability and time lost from work or sports.
PeaPaw: Performance and Energy-Aware Partitioning of Workload on Heterogeneous Platforms

Performance and energy are two major concerns for application development on heterogeneous platforms. It is challenging for application developers to fully exploit the performance/energy potential of heterogeneous platforms. One reason is the lack of reliable prediction of the system’s performance/energy before application implementation. Another reason is that a heterogeneous platform presents a large design space for workload partitioning between different processors. To reduce such development cost, this article proposes a framework, PeaPaw, to assist application developers to identify a workload partition (WP) that has high potential leading to high performance or energy efficiency before actual implementation. The PeaPaw framework includes both analytical performance/energy models and two sets of workload partitioning guidelines. Based on the design goal, application developers can obtain a workload partitioning guideline from PeaPaw for a given platform and follow it to design one or multiple WPs for a given workload. Then PeaPaw can be used to estimate the performance/energy of the designed WPs, and the WP with the best estimated performance/energy can be selected for actual implementation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of PeaPaw, we have conducted three case studies. Results from these case studies show that PeaPaw can faithfully estimate the performance/energy relationships of WPs and provide effective workload partitioning guidelines.
A phase II study of preoperative chemotherapy and chemoradiation for localized gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (LGCA).

4053 Background: For patients with LGCA, adjunctive therapies improve the 5-year survival rates by ≈10% over surgery alone. We studied preoperative oxaliplatin/5-FU-based chemotherapy followed by c...
High Electron Mobility Transistors With Al 0.65 Ga 0.35 N Channel Layers on Thick AlN/Sapphire Templates

We report Al0.85 Ga0.15 N/Al0.65 Ga0.35N high-electron mobility transistors on low-defect AlN buffer layers over basal plane sapphire substrates. A new epilayer design consisting of a doped barrier layer yielded sheet resistivity values as low as $1800~\Omega /\Box $ . Devices with the source–drain spacing of $5.5~\mu \text{m}$ and a gate length of 1.8 $\mu \text{m}$ exhibited peak drain–currents as high as 250 mA/mm at a gate bias of +4 V. We also show that the 3- $\mu \text{m}$ thick low-defect AlN buffer layers over sapphire to provide sufficient thermal conduction which enables stable device operation up to at least 40 V at 250 mA/mm with no current droop.
Refereed articles: OPUS: Preventing weak password choices

A common problem with systems that use passwords for authentication results when users choose weak passwords. Weak passwords are passwords that are easy to guess, or likely to be found in a dictionary attack. Thus, the choice of weak passwords may lead to a compromised system. Methods exist to prevent users from selecting and using weak passwords. One common method is to compare user choices against a list of unacceptable words. The problem with this approach is the amount of space required to store even a modest-sized dictionary of prohibited password choices. This paper describes a space-efficient method of storing a dictionary of words that are not allowed as password choices. lookups in the dictionary are O(1) (constant time) no matter how many words are in the dictionary. The mechanism described has other interesting features, a few of which are describe here.
Exact steady states of the periodically forced and damped Duffing oscillator

Abstract We present an analytical methodology to compute the exact steady states of the strongly nonlinear Duffing oscillator with arbitrary viscous damping and under the action of a time-periodic excitation. In contrast to current analytical approaches that consider harmonic excitations to produce approximate steady-state solutions, the excitations considered in this work are multi-harmonic and are computed in closed form. We consider the exact fundamental resonance plot of this strongly nonlinear system and present an exact depiction of the dynamic balance between the internal and external forces leading to it in terms of rotating vectors in the complex plane with modulated amplitudes and modulated frequencies of rotation. Moreover, an infinity of exact steady-state solutions seems to be possible, each corresponding to a different time-periodic excitation. Generalization of the presented methodology to systems with other type of nonlinearities or with many degrees of freedom is presumably straightforward.
Protic Ionic Liquids for Lignin Extraction—A Lignin Characterization Study

Protic ionic liquids (PILs) have been established as effective solvents for the selective extraction and recovery of lignin from lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, we utilize extensive analytical techniques to characterize the PIL-extracted lignins to (1) expand on the physical/chemical structure, and to (2) develop a better understanding of the mechanism behind the lignin dissolution process. The PIL-lignins were characterized using elemental and FT-IR analyses, alongside molecular weight distribution and chemical modeling via MM2. For the more ionic pyrrolidinium acetate ([Pyrr][Ac]), there is an increase in the fragmentation of lignin, resulting in lignin with a smaller average molecular weight and a more uniform dispersity. This lends better understanding to previous findings indicating that higher ionicity in a PIL leads to increased lignin extraction.
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition: Early History

(1965). The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition: Early History. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 72, No. 5, pp. 469-473.
The "Reproducibility Crisis:" Might the Methods Used Frequently in Behavior-Analysis Research Help?

Mainstream biomedical and behavioral sciences are facing what has been dubbed “the reproducibility crisis.” The crisis is borne out of failures to replicate the results of published research at an average rate of somewhere near 50%. In this paper I make a case that the prime culprit leading to this unsatisfactory state of affairs has been the widespread use of p-values from tests of statistical significance as a criterion for publication. Even though it has been known, and made public, for decades that p-values provide no quantitative information about the likelihood that experimental results are likely to be repeatable, they remain a fundamental criterion for publication. A growing realization among researchers that p-values do not provide information that bears on repeatability may offer an opportunity for wider application of research methods frequently used in the research specialty known as Behavior Analysis, as well as a few other research traditions. These alternative approaches are founded on within- and between-participant replication as integral parts of research designs. The erosion of public confidence in science, which is bolstered by the reproducibility crisis, is a serious threat. Anything that the field of Behavior Analysis can offer as assistance in ameliorating the problem should be welcomed.
Integration of Product Design Process and Task Management for Product Data Management Systems

Product design is an evolving process which is characterized with creativity and uncertainty. The task management in this process is different from traditional ones because it involves more specific factors such as user specifications, product design specifications, reengineering, design process, and design data. In this article, we aim to analyze product design process with the viewpoint of project management and task management, and propose an integrated approach to interconnect those constraints, functional and nonfunctional factors coming from both product design and task management processes. In the presented approach, utilizing workflow technique, the design process and task management are directly and closely interconnected at process and data level by using the shared model and the shared database. Therefore, we can easily obtain the work breakdown structure (WBS) for project management. Implemented as part of PDM (Product data management) systems, the proposed method has been tested that it can facilitate the product design.
Complex Semisimple Lie Algebras and Lie Groups: Structure and Representations

From now on we shall be concerned almost exclusively with semisimple Lie algebras and their representations. In this chapter we develop the structure theory of semisimple Lie algebras in full detail. This will then be followed by a treatment of the finite-dimensional representations of semisimple groups, both from the infinitesimal and global points of view.
Presence of functional type B natriuretic peptide receptor in human ocular cells.

Purpose. To study the effects of natriuretic peptides on cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) production and calcium mobilization in cultured human ocular cells. Methods. Cultured simian virus 40-transformed (HTM-3) and nontransformed (HTM-16) human trabecular meshwork (TM) cells and nontransformed human ciliary muscle (CM) cells were used. Accumulation of cGMP in cell lysate was measured by radioimmunoassay. Intracellular calcium concentration was measured by microscope-based ratiofluorometry. Results. Both atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) increased the accumulation of cGMP in HTM-3, HTM-16, and CM cells. In the nontransformed TM cells, CNP was five times more efficacious (maximal effect of CNP was 497% ± 44% that of ANP) and 10 times more potent than ANP (ANP, log [EC 50 ] = -6.99 ± 0.08 ; CNP, log [EC 50 ] = - 7.96 ± 0.20). Similar results were seen in HTM-3 and CM cells. Under the assay conditions used, the peptides increased only the production of cGMP without changing its degradation rate. The peptide-induced increase of cGMP in the TM and CM cells correlated with suppression of carbachol-induced calcium mobilization in the cell. Conclusions. It is known that CNP, but not ANP, selectively activates the guanylyl cyclase associated with the type B natriuretic peptide receptor (NPR-B). Thus, the data suggest that NPR-B is the primary functional NPR in the TM and CM cells. The effects on cGMP and calcium produced by the activation of this receptor are expected to alter TM and CM contractility and may affect aqueous humor hydrodynamics and intraocular pressure.
Constitutive relations of metal crystals at arbitrary strain

At any generic state, the tangent moduli and compliances of a metal crystal are derived in terms of its elastic moduli and compliances, and its physical slip system hardening modulih ij. The structure ofh ij is explored in conjunction with a mixed hardening law. It is found that the latent hardening moduli (h ij,i≠j) are related to the active hardening moduli (h ij,i+j) through the latent hardening coefficients, and that each active hardening modulus is composed of the selfhardening, single slip modulush and the latent structural-change hardening modulih ij ′ . The theory is supplemented with some suggested functions forh andh ij ′ , suitable for metal forming analysis. The derived constitutive relations are finally applied to calculate the tensile stress-strain relations of aluminum and zinc crystals under finite strains.
Characterization of a New Titanium Dioxide-Polymer Composite Material for Electronic Packaging Applications

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a versatile filler material used in polymer based applications. The most common application is in the form of white pigment. However, titanium dioxide brings more to the polymer industry than just white, bright opacity. Titanium dioxide is a photo-responsive material its value is in its interaction with light. Unlike colored pigments that provide opacity by absorbing visible light, titanium dioxide and other white pigments provide opacity by scattering light. This scattering is possible because the white pigment can bend light. If there is enough pigment in the system, all light striking the surface, except for the small amount absorbed by the polymer or pigment, will be scattered outward, and the system will appear opaque and white. Light scattering is accomplished by refraction and diffraction of light as it passes through or near pigment particles [1].
A Prospective Detailed Time Analysis Study of 18 Patients Undergoing Elective Single-Level Open Lumbar Microdiscectomy Spinal Surgery Compared with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Reimbursement Guidelines.

Background Single-level open lumbar microdiscectomy surgery is one of the most straightforward and effective spinal surgeries performed by spinal surgeons today to treat disk herniation. Although a common operation, little in the literature is reported on the exact overall time, cost, and effort associated with the performance of this surgery. The consistency of this operation across institutions and disciplines makes it a good starting point to accurately track the total time and effort of all phases of the surgical intervention. Methods Eighteen patients undergoing elective single-level open lumbar microdiscectomy surgery were prospectively enrolled in this study. The time spent interacting with each patient by every member of the surgical team was tracked and recorded along will every phone call and e-mail. All perioperative times associated with the surgery were tracked and analyzed. Each patient was followed from their first interaction through surgery and for the first 3 months postoperatively. Results The advanced practice providers spent the most time with the patient both pre- and postoperatively followed by the surgeon and resident. A total of 2.98 hours was spent with the patient preoperatively in clinic and 1.69 hours postoperatively. The total time commitment of an institution treating this condition was 12.56 hours. Conclusions Comparing our results with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, a significant discrepancy and underestimation was observed. As such, we hope our results enable health care providers to more accurately allocate resources for the provision of high-quality medical care to patients with this increasingly common condition.
Effect of 24-month physical activity on cognitive frailty and the role of inflammation: the LIFE randomized clinical trial

Whether physical activity can reduce cognitive frailty—a relatively new “compound” phenotype proposed in 2013—and whether the effect of physical activity differs based on levels of inflammation are unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of physical activity on cognitive frailty and whether baseline interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels modified this effect. We used data from the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) Study, a multicenter, single-blinded randomized trial conducted at eight US field centers between February 2010 and December 2013. The main outcome was cognitive frailty at 24 months, expressed as an ordinal variable based on the six combinations of its two components: frailty (non-frail, pre-frail, and frail) and mild cognitive impairment (yes, no). Frailty and cognition were assessed by the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) index and the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) scale, respectively. Plasma IL-6 was measured at baseline. Of the 1635 original randomized sedentary participants (70–89 years), this study included 1298 participants with data on both cognitive frailty and IL-6 assessments at baseline. After adjusting for field center, sex, and baseline levels of cognitive frailty, the ordinal logistic regression model revealed that participants in the physical activity group had 21% lower odds (odds ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.64–0.98) of worsening cognitive frailty over 24 months than those in the health education group. The effect of physical activity on cognitive frailty did not differ according to baseline IL-6 levels (P for interaction = 0.919). The results did not change after additional adjustment for IL-6 subgroups and the inverse probability of remaining in the study. Comparable results were observed according to age, sex, ethnicity/race, and short physical performance battery score (P for interaction = 0.835, 0.536, 0.934, and 0.458, respectively). A 24-month structured, moderate-intensity physical activity program reduced cognitive frailty compared with a health education program in sedentary older persons, and this beneficial effect did not differ according to baseline levels of inflammatory biomarker IL-6. These findings suggest that the new cognitive frailty construct is modifiable and highlight the potential of targeting cognitive frailty for promoting healthy aging. Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01072500
Permeability of the Skin

The sections in this article are: 1 Manifestations of Skin Permeability 2 Structure of the Skin 2.1 Relevant Structural Features of the Whole Skin 3 The Stratum Corneum 3.1 Regional Variations in Structure 4 Human Versus Other Mammalian Skin 5 Biophysics of Skin Permeability 5.1 Mathematical Analysis of Skin Permeability 5.2 Steady-State Permeability of Skin—Fick's Law 5.3 Appendageal Diffusion 5.4 Concentration Levels in the Skin 5.5 Regional Variations in Permeability 6 Effect of Solvents and Surfactants 6.1 Water 6.2 Aprotic Solvents 6.3 Surfactants 6.4 Organic Solvents
Bragg grating dispersion compensation: comments on ‘UV-written in-fibre Bragg gratings’ by I. Bennion, J. A. R. Williams, L. Zhang, K. Sugden, N. J. Doran

The design criteria for fibre Bragg grating dispersion compensation are discussed, and the use of local grating dispersion d2 φ/d2 by Bennion et al. [1] is shown to be overly restrictive. A more useful measure of compensation degradation is phase deviation from the desired quadratic frequency dependence.
Effect of polarity on beam and plasma target formation in a dense plasma focus

Dense plasma focus (DPF) devices are conventionally operated with a polarity such that the inner electrode (IE) is the anode. It has been found that interchanging the polarity of the electrodes (i.e., IE as the cathode) can cause an order of magnitude decrease in the neutron yield. This polarity riddle has previously been studied empirically through several experiments and is yet not well understood. We have performed kinetic simulations using the particle-in-cell modeling to investigate the problem. This is the first time that both polarities have been studied with simulations in great detail. In our simulations, we have modeled the entire beam and plasma target formation processes, but we did not consider differences in break-down conditions caused by the two polarities. We have found that when using reverse polarity ions are still accelerated and, in fact, attain similar energy spectra as in the standard polarity case. The difference is that the fields are flipped and thus ions are accelerated in the opposite direction. So, in the reverse polarity case, the majority of the “plasma target” (formed by the imploding plasma) is in the opposite direction of the beam, and thus, the beam hits the IE and produces few neutrons. With a better inner electrode configuration, reverse polarity is able to create a high-quality ion beam as well as a high-density target. Both can be comparable to that generated by standard polarity. Furthermore, we will show that it is easier to add an additional solid catcher target to a DPF device with reverse polarity, potentially enabling it to generate more neutrons than standard polarity.
Handbook Of Nutraceuticals: Volume I, Ingredients, Formulations And Applications

As soon as Dr. Stephen DeFelice coined the phrase nutraceutical, product and supplement developers swung into action. Yet among the numerous books available on nutraceuticals, there is none that systematically lists, categorizes, and analyzes nutraceutical extracts and formulations in a pharmacopoeia-like manner. Handbook of Nutraceuticals, Volume
The Effectiveness of Protective Headgear in Attenuating Ball-to-Forehead Impacts in Water Polo.

Recent reports have demonstrated that there is a serious risk of head impact and injury in water polo. The use of protective headgear in contact sports is a commonly accepted strategy for reducing the risk of head injury, but there are few available protective headgears for use in water polo. Many of those that are available are banned by the sport's governing bodies due to a lack of published data supporting the effectiveness of those headgears in reducing head impact kinematics. To address this gap in knowledge, we launched a water polo ball at the forehead of an anthropomorphic testing device fitted with either a standard water polo headgear or one of two protective headgears. We selected a range of launch speeds representative of those observed across various athlete ages. Mixed-model ANOVAs revealed that, relative to standard headgear, protective headgears reduced peak linear acceleration (by 10.8-21.6%; p < 0.001), and peak rotational acceleration (by 24.5-48.5%; p < 0.001) induced by the simulated ball-to-forehead impacts. We discuss the possibility of using protective headgears in water polo to attenuate head impact kinematics.
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulants, and other controlled substances are widely prescribed in the medical field, but these medications may also be misused, abused or diverted for nonmedical purposes. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), opioid use (prescription and illicit) was involved in the deaths of 42,249 people in 2016, representing a 5-fold increase from 1999 (Drug Overdose Death Data, CDC). One contributing factor is the increased number of total opioid prescriptions administered. Despite the quadrupling of prescribed opioid sales in the United States from 1999 to 2014, there has not been an observed change in the overall pain Americans report.The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) was implemented to help mitigate prescription misuse and diversion, as well as to monitor and analyze prescription and dispensing data for controlled substances. The PDMP system consists of independent statewide electronic databases that track prescriptions of controlled substances within that particular state. This data can be utilized by health authorities to obtain timely information on prescribing practices and patient behaviors. The concept of the PDMP dates back as early as 1918 in the state of New York, while California maintains the oldest continuously operating PDMP program since 1939. Oklahoma was the first state to establish a technologically modern PDMP that collected and distributed prescription data electronically in 1991. Despite its longstanding conceptual history, many states have only recently started to form PDMPs within the last 2 decades.
Harnessing Digital Videos to Promote Cancer Prevention and Education: a Systematic Review of the Literature from 2013–2018

Social media has transformed the way cancer patients search for information about their chronic health problems. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify the use of online digital videos to increase cancer knowledge and to understand information preference, behavioral changes, and attitudes towards online cancer education videos. The databases used for this review included MedLine, PsychINFO, and PubMed. These medical databases were used to locate peer-reviewed academic journals from 2013-2018 using the following MeSH terms: "cancer education videos," "cancer prevention videos," and "cancer education digital videos." A total of 4996 articles were retrieved from the initial search, and 33 articles were reviewed. Articles were excluded if videos did not (1) focus on cancer education and prevention; (2) posted on an online platform; and (3) assessed participants' knowledge, attitude, or beliefs about cancer. Eleven articles were found to meet inclusion criteria for final review. All of the studies focused on increasing education on preventive health behaviors (i.e., sunscreen use, smoking, and diet) and/or early detection strategies (i.e., screening testing and/or self-skin exams). While online digital health videos have the potential to improve health outcomes, issues related to technology access and health literacy must be considered when developing online health education videos.
ST2 Predicts Risk of Unplanned Readmission Within 1 Year After Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery

Background Approximately 10% to 20% of children are readmitted after congenital heart surgery. Very little is known about biomarkers as predictors of risk of unplanned readmission after pediatric congenital heart surgery. Novel cardiac biomarker ST2 may be associated with risk of unplanned readmission. ST2 concentrations are believed to reflect cardiovascular stress and fibrosis. Our objective was to explore the relationship between pre- and postoperative ST2 biomarker levels and risk of readmission within 1 year after congenital heart surgery. Methods We prospectively enrolled pediatric patients aged Results Of our cohort of 145 patients, we found 39 children with readmissions within 365 days. The median time to unplanned readmission was 54 days (interquartile range, 10-153). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a significant difference across terciles of pre- and postoperative ST2 biomarker levels. After adjustment, elevated serum levels of ST2 measured preoperatively and postoperatively were associated with increased risk of readmission (hazard ratio, 2.5-3.7; all P Conclusions Elevated levels of ST2 are significantly associated with increased risk of unplanned readmission within 1 year after pediatric congenital heart surgery. Novel serum biomarker ST2 can be used for risk stratification or estimating postsurgical prognosis.
Infant Corpus Callosum Size After Surgery and Critical Care for Long-Gap Esophageal Atresia: Qualitative and Quantitative MRI

Previous studies in preterm infants report white matter abnormalities of the corpus callosum (CC) as an important predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes. Our cross-sectional study aimed to describe qualitative and quantitative CC size in critically ill infants following surgical and critical care for long-gap esophageal atresia (LGEA) – in comparison to healthy infants – using MRI. Non-sedated brain MRI was acquired for full-term (n = 13) and premature (n = 13) patients following treatment for LGEA, and controls (n = 20) <1 year corrected age. A neuroradiologist performed qualitative evaluation of T1-weighted images. ITK-SNAP was used for linear, 2-D and 3-D manual CC measures and segmentations as part of CC size quantification. Qualitative MRI analysis indicated underdeveloped CC in both patient groups in comparison to controls. We show no group differences in mid-sagittal CC length. Although 2-D results were inconclusive, volumetric analysis showed smaller absolute (F(2,42) = 20.40, p < 0.001) and normalized (F(2,42) = 16.61, p < 0.001) CC volumes following complex perioperative treatment for LGEA in both full-term and premature patients, suggesting delayed or diminished CC growth in comparison to controls, with no difference between patient groups. Future research should look into etiology of described differences, neurodevelopmental outcomes, and role of the CC as an early marker of neurodevelopment in this unique infant population.
Structural correlates of atypical visual and motor cortical oscillations in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis.

We have previously demonstrated that pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS) negatively impacts the visual pathway as well as motor processing speed. Relationships between MS-related diffuse structural damage of gray and white matter (WM) tissue and cortical responses to visual and motor stimuli remain poorly understood. We used magnetoencephalography in 14 POMS patients and 15 age- and sex-matched healthy controls to assess visual gamma (30-80 Hz), motor gamma (60-90 Hz), and motor beta (15-30 Hz) cortical oscillatory responses to a visual-motor task. Then, 3T MRI was used to: (a) calculate fractional anisotropy (FA) of the posterior visual and corticospinal motor WM pathways and (b) quantify volume and thickness of the cuneus and primary motor cortex. Visual gamma band power was reduced in POMS and was associated with reduced FA of the optic radiations but not with loss of cuneus volume or thickness. Activity in the primary motor cortex, as measured by postmovement beta rebound amplitude associated with peak latency, was decreased in POMS, although this reduction was not predicted by structural metrics. Our findings implicate loss of WM integrity as a contributor to reduced electrical responses in the visual cortex in POMS. Future work in larger cohorts will inform on the cognitive implications of this finding in terms of visual processing function and will determine whether the progressive loss of brain volume known to occur in POMS ultimately contributes to both progressive dysfunction in such tasks as well as progressive reduction in cortical electrical responses in the visual cortex.
Friends in Close Places: Social Ties in Economic Education Research:

This article examines whether the author–editor social connections identified by Tommaso Colussi among general-interest economic journals offer similar benefits to contributors to three top economi...
Sol-gel synthesis of nano-scale, end-member albite feldspar (NaAlSi3O8).

Abstract Feldspars are the most abundant minerals in the Earth’s crust, and are also important constituents of many lunar rocks and some stony meteorites. Albite (NaAlSi3O8) makes up the sodium corner of the feldspar ternary diagram (KAlSi3O8 - NaAlSi3O8 – CaAl2Si2O8) and connects the alkali-feldspar and plagioclase binary joins. Synthesis of albite, however, has long been a problem, even at high temperatures and even at high pressures when dry. In fact, most successful syntheses require the combination of high-pressure, high-temperature, and hydrothermal environments. This paper presents a sol–gel method of albite synthesis that requires hydrothermal processing followed by high-temperature recrystallization, but no high-pressure environments. This has the advantage of allowing synthesis of relatively large amounts of material and controlled elemental substitutions.
The Landscape of Perception: Racial Differences in How Disability Is Viewed Among Older-Adult Cancer Survivors.

This paper compares disability perceptions of Black with white older cancer survivors’ to document racial disparities in these perceptions and the factors that contribute to them. The data are from...
Non-self-intersecting trajectories and their applications to satellite constellation design and orbital capacity

This work focuses on the generation of non-self-intersecting relative trajectories, and their applications to satellite constellation design, slotting architectures, and Space Traffic Management. To that end, this paper introduces two theorems to determine when two spacecrafts share the same relative trajectory, and to identify the only conditions that allow the existence of non-self-intersecting relative trajectories. Then, these results are applied first to the estimation of the limits of the orbital capacity at a given altitude, and second, to the design of satellite constellations and slotting architectures that present no conjunctions between any element compliant with these space structures.
Integrating Science and Technology to Proctology

Anal fistula and haemorrhoids are two of the most common anal conditions encountered by surgeons worldwide. While advancement in science and technology has improved the outcomes in various medical and surgical fields, its effectiveness in the field of proctology remained debatable. Lay-open fistulotomy and excisional haemorrhoidectomy are still frequently performed for these conditions currently. This article aims to evaluate the efficacy of the various scientific and technological innovations that were designed with the specific intention to improve the outcomes in the management of anal fistula and haemorrhoids.
Importance of Geometric Phase Effects in Ultracold Chemistry

It is demonstrated that the inclusion of the geometric phase has an important effect on ultracold chemical reaction rates. The effect appears in rotationally and vibrationally resolved integral cross sections as well as cross sections summed over all product quantum states. The effect arises from interference between scattering amplitudes of two reaction pathways: a direct path and a looping path that encircle the conical intersection between the two lowest adiabatic electronic potential energy surfaces. It is magnified when the two scattering amplitudes have comparable magnitude and they scatter into the same angular region which occurs in the isotropic scattering characteristic of the ultracold regime (s-wave scattering). Results are presented for the O + OH → H + O2 reaction for total angular momentum quantum number J = 0–5. Large geometric phase effects occur for collision energies below 0.1 K, but the effect vanishes at higher energies when contributions from different partial waves are included. It ...
Heat stress increases global mitochondrial protein acetylation and steady state levels of SIRT3 (LB798)

Aging results in exacerbated mitochondrial damage and cellular dysfunction after exposure to physiological challenges such as heat stress. Additionally, induction of mitochondrial stress-defense pr...
Examining Green Advertising and Its Impact on Consumer Skepticism and Purchasing Patterns

The twenty-first century has seen a significant increase in environmental awareness and activism, which has ultimately developed into a pro-environmental trend. Similar to previous societal trends such as cigarette smoking and fashion fads, environmentalism has recently entered the advertising world under the term “green advertising.” This research aimed to identify the impact of green advertising through evaluating consumers’ connection to the environment, trust in advertising and willingness to purchase green products. An analysis of 107 online survey responses indicated that consumers are generally skeptical of green advertisements, and have clear motivating and deterring factors when purchasing green products. This research is useful for advertisers, as it can help environmental firms understand and reach their target consumers more effectively.
Equilibrium Behavior in All-Pay Auction with Complete Information

A widely used sealed-bid auction is the first-price auction. In this auction, the highest bidder wins the item and pays the price submitted; the other bidders get and pay nothing. The all-pay auction is similar to the first-price auction, except that losers must also pay their submitted bids. The Nash equilibria of this game involve the use of randomized strategies, which protect bidders from being overbid by a small amount. This paper generalizes the standard Nash equilibrium analysis of the all-pay auction to allow for endogenously determined decision errors. Such errors may either be due to mistakes or to unobserved random variation in payoff functions. The error distributions depend on equilibrium expected payoffs, which in turn determine the error distributions as a fixed point. A striking result derived in this paper is that for any structure of the error terms the generalized Nash equilibrium and the Nash equilibrium of the all-pay auction are equivalent if the error terms are identically and independently distributed.
LEACHING OF POLLUTANTS FROM REFUSE BEDS

A procedure is presented for estimating theoretically the chemical quality of leachates from sanitary landfills. A theory of column chromatography was employed to determine the leaching of chloride during the movement of water through refuse beds. Generalized breakthrough curves given by Hiester and Vermeulen were used to obtain the theoretical chloride concentrations. Families of curves were then derived from experimental results, representing the ratios of various leaching materials to the theoretical chloride concentrations. A comparison of experimental and theoretical results shows good agreement. The method can be applied to the field study of existing landfills to determine the chemical composition of polluting liquid during the leaching process, if the cumulative precipitation, evaporation, evapotranspiration, runoff coefficients, and the depth of refuse beds are known.
Equilibrium Solutions of Optimal Portfolios and Asset Prices

The wealth-consumption ratio of an investor, say, H must be calculated to solve models of optimal portfolios and asset prices. At this time there is no standard method to obtain H for investors with stochastic differential utility in incomplete markets. One reason is that boundary conditions of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation are unkown. I show that H solves a Feynman-Kac equation, which is a probabilistic representation of the HJB in which regularity conditions substitute for boundary conditions. FK equations are given for three settings: an exchange economy, a production economy, and a model of optimal portfolio choice. Explicit solutions for H are shown in two special cases of the exchange economy, and a numerical procedure to calculate H is provided for general cases.
The direct effect of hypertonic sodium chloride on spontaneous contractility in human and rat myometrium.

Abstract 1. 1. Human and rat myometrial specimens were studied, first in Ringer's solution and then in Ringer's solution in which the concentration of sodium chloride had been increased. 2. 2. No increased concentration of sodium chloride was found which would enhance myometrial contractility. 3. 3. At NaCl concentrations above 1.00 per cent, there was found progressive deterioration of the muscle contraction pattern. Human myometrial strips were affected at a NaCl concentration of 1.03–1.07 per cent. Rat uteri began to be affected at a NaCl concentration of 1.07–1.14 per cent. At higher concentrations there was progressive diminution of muscle function until the concentration of 1.93 per cent was reached, at which contractions ceased almost immediately. 4. 4. The failure of hypertonic saline to exert any direct stimulatory effect upon myometrial tissue in vitro helps indirectly to provide support for the contention that the enhanced uterine contractility which follows the intravenous infusion of hypertonic saline is due to a central rather than a local action, and is probably brought about through release of hormones from the posterior pituitary.
Dynamically reconfigurable vision with high performance CMOS active pixel sensors (APS)

A high-performance computational imager based on integration of CMOS active pixel imager array with on-chip signal processing and control via a new column-parallel architecture is presented. Unlike CCDs and other CMOS imagers, the sensor is capable of providing simultaneous image data from three flexible, partially overlapping, dynamically reconfigurable regions of interest (ROIs) with different spatial resolution over a large field-of-view (FOV) to achieve data-efficient operation with high update rates. The power dissipation depends upon reconfiguration modes, but is small even in the worst case. Unlike conventional computational imagers, the integration of processing circuitry does not trade with radiometric accuracy, nor does it impose any limit to scaling the imager size to larger format and smaller pixels. By eliminating the need for mechanical pointing through floating-fovea support, the dynamically reconfigurable vision sensor (DSRVS) enables a low-power staring vision system. By maximizing system throughput through intelligent data reduction and through real-time programmability, it meets the diverse and conflicting requirements of search, identify and track vision-modes, and represents an efficient platform for high-bandwidth automatic target acquisition and tracking.
Breath detection using a fuzzy neural network and sensor fusion

We have developed and trained a fuzzy neural network (FNN) to detect individual breaths using information from multiple independent noninvasive ventilation sensors. We derive input features from simultaneous recordings from impedance and inductance plethysmographs, and a pneumotachometer while healthy adults performed several different combinations of ventilation and motion. We first tested our FNN using membership functions, rules and consequent sets derived using a heuristic approach. Using all features, on 4 subjects we found that the average rate of combined false-positive and false-negative detections was 5.1%. When we trained our FNN using a gradient descent algorithm, the average rate of combined false-positive and false-negative detections was reduced to 2.6%.
Acute hypermagnesemia: a rare complication of antacid administration after bone marrow transplantation.

Abstract Introduction : We reported a case of hypermagnesemia in whom hypotension, hypothermia, and coma developed after repetitive doses of a seemingly harmless antacid for epigastric pain following bone marrow transplantation. Methods : For this case, serial electrolytes, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, calcium, and magnesium were obtained. Issues addressed were the restoration of normal hydration by normal saline, together with forced diuresis to hasten the renal excretion of magnesium, and eventual changes in its levels. Results : The highest measured magnesium concentration was 5.9 mmol/l. She recovered without dialysis. The patient's condition improved with intravenous doses of calcium gluconate, saline solution infusion, and cardiovascular support. Conclusion : Hypermagnesemia is rare in allogeneic stem cell recipients receiving cyclosporine therapy for prevention of acute graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD). A posttransplant status with possible GVHD, poor nutritional intake, impaired intestinal absorption, dehydration, and the use of aluminum magnesia oral suspension may have resulted in magnesium imbalance. This case report highlights several associated nonrenal risk factors for hypermagnesemia, which include gastrointestinal tract disease, dehydration, and concomitant medications, particularly, the antacids that contain magnesium.