cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Future prospects for the Xα method

Recent work to eliminate the effect of the muffin-tin approximation has shown that this makes an important improvement in Xα results for diatomic molecules, though it is less important for atoms with many neighbors. Various aspects of the Xα method itself, not involving the muffin-tin approximation, are discussed. It is pointed out that for the Hellmann Feynman and virial theorems to hold for the Xα method, with α's varying from one atom to another, it is sufficient if the α's change values from those appropriate to one atom to those for another on the surfaces of spheres small enough so that the charge density is practically constant over the surface of such a sphere. This means that the spheres should be smaller than those usually used for the muffin-tin method. It is shown that one can get approximately the correct exchange correlation for any atom, except the very lightest ones, if a value of α equal to 0.7772 is used within a sphere of radius rα, somewhat smaller than the radius of maximum radial charge density in the L shell, and a value of 2/3 is used everywhere outside these spheres. Except for the very light atoms, this would fulfill the requirements for the Hellmann Feynman and virial theorems to hold. There is a discussion of spin polarization in molecules. The value of 0.7772 for hydrogen would imply that it is to be treated in a spin-polarized way, which would imply that an antiferromagnetic type of structure for the H2 molecule, somewhat similar to that proposed many years ago by Coulson and Fischer, should be used. Some magnetic problems are discussed, and in particular a procedure is outlined for using the Xα method to find the Heisenberg exchange integral in an antiferromagnetic substance like NiO. Calculations of this quantity have not yet been completed.
Model reference adaptive fuzzy control of robot manipulator

An model reference adaptive fuzzy control, MRAFC, scheme for manipulator control is proposed to incorporate with nonlinear and time-varying dynamic behavior of the system. The scheme employs a reference model to provide closed-loop performance feedback. The basic idea of MRAFC scheme for manipulator control is to perform adaptive feedback linearization, i.e. to asymptotically cancel the nonlinearity in the system and place system poles in the desired locations as specified in the reference model. The type of controller used is a class of fuzzy controllers, which can be expressed in an explicit form. The stability of the fuzzy rule adaptive laws is assured by the existence of the Lyapunov function. In the simulation, two adaptive fuzzy controllers are applied on a two-link manipulator. The results show that the MRAFC system is stable and the performance in tracking the reference model response can be improved by simply repeating the same task.
Lung microbiome and disease progression in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: an analysis of the COMET study

Summary Background The role of the lung microbiome in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is unknown. We investigated whether unique microbial signatures were associated with progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Methods Patients (aged 35–80 years) with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis within 4 years of diagnosis from the Correlating Outcomes with biochemical Markers to Estimate Time-progression (COMET) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis study were followed up for a maximum of 80 weeks. Progression-free survival was defined as time to death, acute exacerbation, lung transplant, or decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC) of 10% or greater or decrease in diffusion capacity of the lung (DLCO) of 15% or greater. DNA was isolated from 55 samples of bronchoscopic alveolar lavage. 454 pyrosequencing was used to assign operational taxonomic units (OTUs) to bacteria based on a 3% sequence divergence. Adjusted Cox models were used to identify OTUs that were significantly associated with progression-free survival at a p Findings Mean FVC was 70·1% (SD 17·0) and DLCO 42·3% (14·0) of predicted. Disease progression was significantly associated with increased relative abundance of two OTUs— Streptococcus OTU 1345 (relative risk 1·11, 95% CI 1·04–1·18; p=0·0009) and Staphylococcus OTU 1348 (1·16, 1·03–1·31, p=0·012). Thresholds for relative abundance of each OTU associated with progression-free survival were more than 3·9% for Streptococcus OTU 1345 (10·19, 2·94–35·35; p=0·0002) and more than 1·8% for Staphylococcus OTU 1348 (5·06, 1·71–14·93; p=0·003). Interpretation These preliminary data suggest progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is associated with the presence of specific members within the Staphylococcus and Streptococcus genera. Additional research will be needed to identify the specific bacterial species and to ascertain whether this is a causal association. Funding National Institutes of Health.
Cache modeling and optimization for portable devices running MPEG-4 video decoder

There are increasing demands on portable communication devices to run multimedia applications. ISO (an International Organization for Standardization) standard MPEG-4 is an important and demanding multimedia application. To satisfy the growing consumer demands, more functions are added to support MPEG-4 video applications. With improved CPU speed, memory sub-system deficiency is the major barrier to improving the system performance. Studies show that there is sufficient reuse of values for caching that significantly reduce the memory bandwidth requirement for video data. Software decoding of MPEG-4 video data generates much more cache-memory traffic than required. Proper understanding of the decoding algorithm and the composition of its data set is obvious to improve the performance of such a system. The focus of this paper is cache modeling and optimization for portable communication devices running MPEG-4 video decoding algorithm. The architecture we simulate includes a digital signal processor (DSP) for running the MPEG-4 decoding algorithm and a memory system with two levels of caches. We use VisualSim and Cachegrind simulation tools to optimize cache sizes, levels of associativity, and cache levels for a portable device decoding MPEG-4 video.
A Nano-scale Nanocrystal Photodetector with High Sensitivity

We present the design, fabrication and testing results of a nano-scale quantum dot photodetector composed of quantum dots that are positioned between a nano-gap in electrodes for high sensitivity and high-resolution photodetection.
Production and utilization of amino acids by ovine placenta in vivo

Uterine and umbilical uptakes of plasma amino acids were measured simultaneously in eighteen singleton pregnant ewes at 130 ± 1 days gestation for the purpose of establishing which amino acids are ...
Energy Expenditure in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Energy expenditure was studied in ten patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and weight loss, and in five malnourished patients without clinical evidence of COPD (control group) prior to and after a two-week refeeding regimen. Patients received 5 percent dextrose solution (plus electrolytes) for 36 hours to establish standard baseline conditions and were then randomly assigned to either a carbohydrate-based (CB; 53 percent of calories) or fat-based (FB; 55 percent of calories) diet for the first week. The alternate diet was given the following week. Total calorie intake was set at 70 percent above the energy expenditure measured prior to institution of nutritional support. During energy repletion, energy expenditure was greater than predicted (116 percent) in patients with COPD and less than predicted (90 percent) in the control patients. Thermic effect of nutrients during administration of either regimen was significantly greater (p less than .05) in patients with COPD than in those without COPD during both diets. The difference between the two groups was enhanced during the CB regimen. These observations suggest that malnourished patients with COPD have an elevated resting energy expenditure, and an enhanced thermic response to nutrients as compared to malnourished patients without COPD. Increased diet-induced thermogenesis may contribute to weight loss in patients with COPD, in addition to factors previously described such as decreased caloric intake and increased resting energy expenditure.
Cultural Differences in Counterfactual Thinking and the Hindsight Bias

Three experiments compared the impact of counterfactual thinking (imagining alternatives to reality) on the hindsight bias (the pervasive tendency for people to believe that an outcome was more predictable in retrospect than it actually was a priori) for Chinese versus American participants. Contrary to previous findings, Chinese participants did not always exhibit a greater hindsight bias than their Western counterparts after event outcomes — indeed sometimes Americans exhibited a greater bias. Moreover, contrary to previous theory suggesting that cultural differences in hindsight bias stem from cultural differences in analytic versus holistic thinking style, the hindsight bias was not accounted for by an individual measure of holistic versus analytic thinking. Instead, our findings suggest that (1) how counterfactual thinking affects the hindsight bias depends on the type of counterfactuals participants generated, and (2) cultural differences in the hindsight bias may stem from East Asians judging different counterfactuals to be different in type, and in particular to be more or less effective and controllable.
Gunshot femoral fractures with vascular injury: a retrospective analysis

OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively investigate the experience at one urban level one trauma center with gunshot femoral fractures with vascular injury and to examine the implication of surgical sequence with regards to short-term complications and ischaemia time. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 24 patients treated at an urban level one trauma center over a 10-year period with low velocity gunshot wounds resulting in femur fractures and major vascular injury. Data were stratified according to sequence of surgical intervention. RESULTS: The mean age was 31.3 years. Mean time to revascularization was highest in patients undergoing definitive orthopaedic fixation first (660 min) and lowest in patient undergoing shunting first (210 min). Most complications in patients undergoing vascular repair first, included two disrupted repairs requiring immediate revision after subsequent orthopaedic fixation. Other complications included compartment syndrome and one amputation. CONCLUSION: Surgical sequence did not appear to impact the outcome with regard to limb loss, compartment syndrome, or mortality. Orthopaedic repair following vascular repair, however, is a risk for disruption of the vascular repair. We suggest that close and early direct communication between the orthopaedic and vascular surgeons take place in order to facilitate a satisfactory outcome. Language: en
Difficult times for college students of color: teaching white students about White Privilege provides hope for change

The prevalence of racism and racial microaggressions on college campuses is discussed, as well as the negative effects of these occurrences for students of color. An important teaching tool for changing white students' attitudes about racism is presented with an empirical evaluation of its effectiveness. Students read McIntosh's list of White Privileges rating their agreement that each item is a White Privilege in modern US society. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires revealed that white students became more sensitive to issues of racism after this experience. Specifically, these students became more likely to agree that: racism occurs today, racism affects their behavior, they personally benefit from White Privilege, whites in modern society can be viewed as racist, and that they reported that they would be more likely to join student organizations or attend campus events focusing on reducing racism. Regression analyses identified examples of White Privileges with the greatest effect.
A joint latent class model for classifying severely hemorrhaging trauma patients.

In trauma research, “massive transfusion” (MT), historically defined as receiving ≥10 units of red blood cells (RBCs) within 24 h of admission, has been routinely used as a “gold standard” for quantifying bleeding severity. Due to early in-hospital mortality, however, MT is subject to survivor bias and thus a poorly defined criterion to classify bleeding trauma patients. Using the data from a retrospective trauma transfusion study, we applied a latent-class (LC) mixture model to identify severely hemorrhaging (SH) patients. Based on the joint distribution of cumulative units of RBCs and binary survival outcome at 24 h of admission, we applied an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to obtain model parameters. Estimated posterior probabilities were used for patients’ classification and compared with the MT rule. To evaluate predictive performance of the LC-based classification, we examined the role of six clinical variables as predictors using two separate logistic regression models. Out of 471 trauma patients, 211 (45 %) were MT, while our latent SH classifier identified only 127 (27 %) of patients as SH. The agreement between the two classification methods was 73 %. A non-ignorable portion of patients (17 out of 68, 25 %) who died within 24 h were not classified as MT but the SH group included 62 patients (91 %) who died during the same period. Our comparison of the predictive models based on MT and SH revealed significant differences between the coefficients of potential predictors of patients who may be in need of activation of the massive transfusion protocol. The traditional MT classification does not adequately reflect transfusion practices and outcomes during the trauma reception and initial resuscitation phase. Although we have demonstrated that joint latent class modeling could be used to correct for potential bias caused by misclassification of severely bleeding patients, improvement in this approach could be made in the presence of time to event data from prospective studies.
Evaluation of mitomycin to limit postoperative adhesions in strabismus surgery.

Background: Ocular motility dysfunction following strabismus surgery may be the result of postoperative scarring or the formation of adhesions. Mitomycin C (MMC) has been used with encouraging results as an adjunct to standard treatment of hypertrophic conjunctival scars after strabismus surgery. It has been demonstrated that MMC does not inhibit muscle reattachment and might inhibit adhesions and scar formation in the rabbit. We investigated in a rabbit model the effectiveness of MMC in reducing the formation of postoperative adhesions following reoperations and the tensile strength of the new musculo-scleral junction. Methods: A prospective, masked-observer, controlled study was performed in rabbits. Symmetrical bilateral recessions of the superior and inferior rectus muscles were performed on each rabbit. A reoperation was performed 6 weeks later, in which the muscles were advanced back to their original insertion. During the reoperation, one eye served as the control while the other was treated with a 5-minute intraoperative exposure to topical mitomycin. Results: Mitomycin reduced the formation of adhesions and the amount of postoperative scarring. The tensile strength of the musculo-scleral junction was reduced in the mitomycin-treated eyes but exceeded the force generated during extraocular ductions. Conclusion: MMC may be an effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of strabismus associated with pre-existing adhesions or scarring.
The last preference; Refugees and the 1965 immigration act

© Cambridge University Press 2015. On October 3, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson traveled to the Statue of Liberty to sign Public Law 89–236, the 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. After joking with congressmen from New York and New Jersey about whose state they were in, the president delivered a stirring description of “one of the most important acts of this Congress and of this administration”: ending “the harsh injustice of the national origins quota system.” Henceforth, Johnson said, immigrants to the United States would “come because of what they are, and not because of the land from which they sprung.” Having hailed the end of the national origins quotas, President Johnson then turned to his second topic: the announcement of a new immigration initiative based entirely on national origins. The speech heralded the launch of the Cuban airlift. The contradiction at the heart of President Johnson's signing statement reflected tensions in the 1965 Act itself – specifically, tensions stemming from its treatment of refugees. Where the primary purpose of the Act was to do away with discriminatory national origin quotas, the refugee preference was explicitly tied to communist and Middle Eastern countries. Where the rest of the Act aimed to bring immigration priorities in line with contemporary economic and social needs, its provisions for refugees failed to address even the most obvious demands of the time – most notably, the tens of thousands of Cubans then looking to flee the Castro regime. And where the 1965 Act can otherwise be seen as an assertion of Congressional control over the numbers and types of immigrants the United States would admit, the protection of refugees was largely left to the discretion – not always wanted – of the executive branch. This chapter tells how the ad hoc nature of postwar U.S. refugee policy provided a crucial impetus for the broader immigration reforms of 1965. But refugee policy itself largely escaped such reform, and the formalizing of admissions based on family ties and employment skills – the hallmarks of the 1965 Act – only made ad hocery all the more prevalent when humanitarian crises and political opportunity required admissions outside these bases.
Wal-Mart's Other Woman Problem: Sprawl and Work-Family Balance

Wal-Mart is often said to be bad for its workers, including those workers in its production chain in developing countries, and good for its consumers, most of whom are women. Most people argue that its consumers gain from low prices. This brief essay argues that consumers absorb a share of the costs of Wal-Mart's low prices. Contrary to intuition, Wal-Mart may increase significantly the financial and time pressures on its shoppers, the majority of whom can ill-afford increases in either. Most small retail is sited to take advantage of travel routines people have already established to meet their residential and work needs. In contrast, Wal-Mart's site choice is driven by the need for a plot of land large enough for a 150,000-200,000 square foot store and a parking lot three times that size. The market plan of a Big Box store includes changing the travel behavior of its shoppers, while small retail merely catches people as they move from home to work to school. Wal-Mart's plan for influencing consumer conduct is more ambitious socially. Compounding this effect, Wal-Mart drives smaller retail stores out of business. The consumer then loses choices over whether to drive to purchase goods. She can no longer mix long trips to Wal-Mart for low-cost goods with shorter trips to local retail for relatively higher-priced goods. Wal-Mart thus introduces barriers for those without cars, financial burdens for those with access to cars, and logistical strains on time use for time-starved consumers. Time and logistics already strain those attempting to balance work and family responsibilities, and the sprawled placement of big box development increases these burdens. I argue that most Wal-Mart consumers intend to choose its low prices, but do not intend to eliminate logistically easier shopping options.
Seismic calibration using the simplex algorithm

Abstract We have modified the software of Sauter and Dorman (1986) to produce a robust and flexible calibration program that works in the frequency domain for longer and noisy calibration signals, as well as in the time domain when shorter, high signal-to-noise calibration signals may be used. The most important improvement was to replace the least squares fitting of the complex polynomial representation of the response function with the simplex fitting of the pole-zero representation of the response function. The simplex algorithm always converges to a minimum, regardless of starting model, and by fitting the poles and zeroes directly, we minimize the degrees of freedom of the solution. Typical VAX 11/750 CPU requirements are on the order of 2 to 3 minutes for both codes, with average errors less than 1 per cent in amplitude and 1° in phase.
On the lyrical presentation of history: Hegel and the modern poem

The article recasts the pre-history of philosophy as it is understood by G. W. F. Hegel, so as to examine what a “Lyrical Presentation of History” might have been. The essay argues that Hegel’s treatment of history at the end of his Lectures on Aesthetics suffers from an inattention to the specific philosophical content of modern lyrical poetry, which can be located in his claim that lyrical poetry is primarily concerned with the subject. In contrast, the author argues that Hegel’s account ought to have led him to hold that lyrical poetry is primarily concerned with subjective, alienated worlds, which he calls “counterworlds”. The essay ends with a brief treatment of three poems by Paul Celan to show how this shift in the meaning of lyrical poetry would have led Hegel to give greater weight to lyrical poetry in his theory of history
Discussion on Verification for Shelf Life of Non-active Implantable Medical Device

Non-active implantable medical device keeps the expected performance in the specified shelf life is one of the important prerequisites for ensuring the safe and effective use.But,the verification for shelf life is a long and complex work.This article discusses on the process,methods and matters needing attention about the verification for shelf life of non-active implantable medical device,suggests medical device manufacturers to pay attention to analyzing the factors which can influence the shelf life data,and selecting the appropriate test methods and test items.
Sex Differences in the Impact of Shift Work Schedules on Pathological Outcomes in an Animal Model of Ischemic Stroke

Circadian clock desynchronization has been implicated in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease and related risk factors (eg, obesity, diabetes). Thus, we examined the extent to which circadian desynchronization exacerbates ischemic stroke outcomes and whether its detrimental effects on stroke severity and functional impairments are further modified by biological sex. Circadian entrainment of activity rhythms in all male and female rats was observed during exposure to a fixed light-dark (LD) 12:12 cycle but was severely disrupted when this LD cycle was routinely shifted (12 h advance/5 d) for approximately 7 weeks. In contrast to the regular estrous cycles in fixed LD animals, cyclicity was abolished and persistent estrus was evident in all shifted LD females. The disruption of estrous cyclicity in shifted LD females was associated with a significant increase in serum estradiol levels relative to that observed in fixed LD controls. Circadian rhythm disruption exacerbated stroke outcomes in both shifted LD male and female rats and further amplified sex differences in stroke impairments. In males, but not females, circadian disruption after exposure to the shifted LD cycle was marked by high rates of mortality. In surviving females, circadian desynchronization after exposure to shifted LD cycles produced significant increases in stroke-induced infarct volume and sensorimotor deficits with corresponding decreases in serum IGF-1 levels. These results suggest that circadian rhythm disruption associated with shift work schedules or the irregular nature of our everyday work and/or social environments may interact with other nonmodifiable risk factors such as biological sex to modulate the pathological effects of stroke.
Free-electron lasers shine on

Most people think of lasers as small devices that emit red light and are found in laser pointers or barcode scanners. Experimental physicists tend to be familiar with more powerful devices – some of which are big enough to fill a room – that produce light at shorter wavelengths. But one type of laser is in a league of its own when it comes to size and performance: the free electron laser.
Supply chain optimization under risk and uncertainty

We propose an approach for supply chain optimization under risk and uncertainty.Simulation and optimization models are combined through an iterative procedure.A software application is developed based on the proposed approach.To validate the proposed approach, a case study is provided. This paper presents an approach and a software application for supply chain optimization under risk and uncertainty. The proposed approach combines simulation and optimization techniques for managing risks in supply chains. A multi-objective optimization model is developed which considers the deterministic features of the supply chain. A simulation model is used to represent the stochastic features of the supply chain. Both models communicate to achieve the best values for profit, lead time and risk reduction by selecting a combination of mitigation strategies and allocating orders and inventory. A case study from a high-end server manufacturing environment is used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach. The analytical results show clear trade-offs among the three objectives where changing the risk reduction goal value will affect the total profit and lead time. The proposed approach helps decision makers identify the best risk mitigation strategies and allocate inventory and customer orders effectively.
Examination of stride-to-stride independence of selected lower extremity kinematic and temporal variables during treadmill walking.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the intra-subject independence among strides during treadmill walking. We investigated the strength of the relationships among strides sampled in different ways from a population of observed strides. Eighteen asymptomatic subjects walked on a treadmill at 1.4 ± 0.1 m/s. Maximum angles and ranges of motion from the ankle, knee and hip joints, as well as stride duration were obtained and autocorrelation coefficients (AC) for 3 lags were calculated among 12 strides sampled consecutively (CS), in order but non-adjacently (NA), and randomly (RA). Ninety-nine percent of AC values were within Bartlett's 95% confidence interval limits and thus the strides were not considered significantly autocorrelated. The results support the hypothesis that strides obtained from an individual walking on a treadmill can be statistically independent. This supports the theoretical assumption that in some circumstances humans can be modeled as random sample generators due to inherent movement variability. The ability to assess statistically clinical intervention provides objective rigor for evaluating rehabilitation outcomes.
Bacterial cell wall biogenesis is mediated by SEDS and PBP polymerase families functioning semi-autonomously.

Multi-protein complexes organized by cytoskeletal proteins are essential for cell wall biogenesis in most bacteria. Current models of the wall assembly mechanism assume that class A penicillin-binding proteins (aPBPs), the targets of penicillin-like drugs, function as the primary cell wall polymerases within these machineries. Here, we use an in vivo cell wall polymerase assay in Escherichia coli combined with measurements of the localization dynamics of synthesis proteins to investigate this hypothesis. We find that aPBP activity is not necessary for glycan polymerization by the cell elongation machinery, as is commonly believed. Instead, our results indicate that cell wall synthesis is mediated by two distinct polymerase systems, shape, elongation, division, sporulation (SEDS)-family proteins working within the cytoskeletal machines and aPBP enzymes functioning outside these complexes. These findings thus necessitate a fundamental change in our conception of the cell wall assembly process in bacteria. Cell growth requires the SEDS-family protein RodA to provide transglycosylase activity alongside PBPs.
Equity in the distribution of urban environmental amenities: the case of Washington, D.C.

This study examines equity issues in access to urban environmental amenities using Washington, D.C. as a case study. The amenities that are the focus of this study, urban trees and urban parks, hav...
Nutrient Requirements of Camelina for Biodiesel Feedstock in Central Montana

Camelina (Camelina sativa L. Crantz) shows potential to provide an alternative renewable energy source and enhance crop diversification in temperate semiarid regions. Information on the effect of N, P, K, and S on yield and quality of camelina for biodiesel feedstock in the northern Great Plains (NGP) of the United States is limited. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effects of the above nutrients on seed and oil yields, test weight, oil concentration and agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (ANUE) of camelina on a clay loam soil in central Montana. Results showed that fertilizer treatments significantly affected seed yield, oil concentration and oil yield of camelina. The seed and oil yields ranged from 677 to 1306 kg ha–¹ and from 234 to 445 kg ha–¹, respectively. Although the highest seed and oil yields were obtained from the application of 134–22–22–28 kg ha–¹ N–P₂O₅–K₂O–S, they were statistically in the same group with yields achieved from the application of only 45 kg ha–¹ N. Application of P and S fertilizers increased camelina seed yield compared with the control treatment. There was no response to K fertilization. Simultaneous application of N and S did not show synergistic effects in enhancing ANUE. The ANUE reduced with increasing N application rates. From trend analysis, application of 60 kg ha–¹ N produced agronomic maximum seed and oil yields. Therefore, optimizing camelina seed and oil yields production with regard to nutrient management using current variety should focus on N fertilization.
Anti-cyberstalking: the Predator and Prey Alert (PAPA) system

Stalking is a crime typified by repeated harassment of another person and intrusion upon his or her privacy. Cyberstalking extends stalking into the realm of cyberspace wherein a predator stalks a victim or prey through Internet technologies such as emails, chat rooms, and instant messaging. This paper describes the Predator and Prey Alert (PAPA) system. PAPA consists of a set of integrated software and hardware modules and tools designed to support law enforcement in helping victims of cyberstalking, facilitate the investigation of such crimes, and maintain evidence for the potential prosecution of the cyberstalker.
An Alternative Observer for Zero Deficiency Chemical Networks

Abstract This paper provides an explicit observer for chemical reaction networks of the Feinberg-Horn-Jackson zero deficiency type. This observer is obtained by a construction different from the one employed in a previous paper. The new observer exhibits slower performance, but this is traded for more robustness to additive disturbances, expressed through an ISS property.
Business Process Reengineering

The sections in this article are 1 Business Process Reengineering Defined 2 Logic of Business Process Reengineering 3 Business Process Reengineering Fails 4 How to Get Started for Reengineering 5 Need for Formal Modeling 6 Example of Or/Ms Thinking Used for Reengineering 7 Business Process Modeling Tools 8 System Dynamics 9 Case Study 10 Conclusion
SemEval-2017 Task 9: Abstract Meaning Representation Parsing and Generation.

In this report we summarize the results of the 2017 AMR SemEval shared task. The task consisted of two separate yet related subtasks. In the parsing subtask, participants were asked to produce Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) (Banarescu et al., 2013) graphs for a set of English sentences in the biomedical domain. In the generation subtask, participants were asked to generate English sentences given AMR graphs in the news/forum domain. A total of five sites participated in the parsing subtask, and four participated in the generation subtask. Along with a description of the task and the participants’ systems, we show various score ablations and some sample outputs.
Medical First-Trimester Termination of Pregnancy with Massive Fibroid Uterus

First-trimester termination of pregnancy by medical or surgical route is highly effective with a low complication rate. Uterine abnormalities can complicate a procedure due to distortion of normal anatomy. In this case presentation, medical termination of pregnancy is performed using fetal intracardiac potassium chloride injection and intramuscular methotrexate.
Role of Grain Boundary Cr 5 B 3 Precipitates on Intergranular Attack in Alloy 600

It is well established that thermally treated (TT) alloy 600 exhibits superior resistance to intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) in pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary water environments than do solution annealed (SA) and mill annealed (MA) equivalents of the same material. This improved resistance is nominally ascribed to the prevalence of grain boundary (GB) Cr-carbide precipitates (M7C3 or M23C6). In this study, we perform high-resolution characterization by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) on a heat of alloy 600 with a very low concentration of C (0.01 at.%) and a modest B concentration (46 appm). After SA+TT annealing, this heat exhibits IG Cr-boride precipitates (Cr5B3) in the absence of Cr carbides. Despite IG precipitation of Cr5B3, the pristine GB shows no measurable Cr depletion and B remains segregated at the GB. During intergranular attack (IGA) in PWR primary water at 360 °C, the Cr5B3 precipitates dissolve rapidly. The observed IGA is subtly different from what is typical for alloy 600, specifically with higher concentrations of Li and B within the corrosion oxides while the GB ahead exhibits less depletion of oxidizing species (e.g. Cr, Fe, Si and B) than other alloy 600 heats. Together these observations suggest that IG precipitation of Cr5B3 in the absence of Cr carbides has a neutral to slightly positive effect on the IG corrosion resistance of alloy 600 GBs in PWR primary water.
Imaging the rat liver and heart with a 3D motion corrected acoustic angiography system

Acoustic Angiography enables high resolution and high SNR imaging of microbubble contrast agents. The technique relies on pulsing and receiving at two widely separated acoustic bandwidths to reject signal from the tissue. To date this technique has been used to evaluate microvasculature within tumors and kidneys, but has not been used to visualize in vivo blood flow within heart, or liver. These targets are challenging to image due to their proximal locations to the lungs and thus increased susceptibility to respiration artifacts. We tested a new acquisition approach to allow semi-automated microvascular imaging of these organs without relying on respiratory gating electronics.
Moocs: Disruptive Innovation and the Future of Higher Education

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are one of the latest innovations in higher education. They represent a classic example of a phenomenon called disruptive innovation. This article traces the ori...
Surgical Swine Model of Chronic Cardiac Ischemia Treated by Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

Chronic cardiac ischemia that impairs cardiac function, but does not result in infarct, is termed hibernating myocardium (HM). A large clinical subset of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients have HM, which in addition to causing impaired function, puts them at higher risk for arrhythmia and future cardiac events. The standard treatment for this condition is revascularization, but this has been shown to be an imperfect therapy. The majority of pre-clinical cardiac research focuses on infarct models of cardiac ischemia, leaving this subset of chronic ischemia patients largely underserved. To address this gap in research, we have developed a well-characterized and highly reproducible model of hibernating myocardium in swine, as swine are ideal translational models for human heart disease. In addition to creating this unique disease model, we have optimized a clinically relevant treatment model of coronary artery bypass surgery in swine. This allows us to accurately study the effects of bypass surgery on heart disease, as well as investigate additional or alternate therapies. This model surgically induces single vessel stenosis by implanting a constrictor on the left anterior descending (LAD) artery in a young pig. As the pig grows, the constrictor creates a gradual stenosis, resulting in chronic ischemia with impaired regional function, but preserving tissue viability. Following the establishment of the hibernating myocardium phenotype, we perform off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery to revascularize the ischemic region, mimicking the gold-standard treatment for patients in the clinic.
Analysis and detection on noise characteristics of AC power transmission and transformation project in different voltage levels

In order to accomplish the environmental friendly power system and improve the noise treatment level of power transmission and transformation project, the audible noise of 9 seat substations and 13 bands transmission lines in different voltage levels are field measured and analyzed combine with the actual situation of south power system for a province. So the frequency and attenuation characteristics of the audible noise are researched based on the testing data considering the transformer, reactor, charged architecture, substation boundary and transmission lines. The testing results show that the main noise source of transmission and transformation project is the transformer, reactor and transmission lines, which the main frequency of noise is low frequency noise in substation. It can provide a basis for the substation and noise control zone design.
Fuchs' Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy: Subjective Grading versus Objective Grading Based on the Central-to-Peripheral Thickness Ratio

Purpose To assess interobserver agreement between 2 corneal specialists grading Fuchs' dystrophy clinically and to determine if the corneal central-to-peripheral thickness ratio (CPTR) may be an alternative and objective metric of disease severity. Design Cross-sectional study. Participants Forty-five eyes (26 subjects) with mild and moderate Fuchs' dystrophy, 73 eyes (60 subjects) with advanced Fuchs' dystrophy, and 267 eyes (142 subjects) with normal corneas. Methods Corneas with Fuchs' dystrophy were graded by 2 corneal specialists based on the confluence and area of guttae and the presence or absence of edema. Central corneal thickness (CCT) and peripheral corneal thickness at 4 mm from the center (PCT 4 ) were measured by using scanning-slit pachymetry. The value of CPTR 4 was the quotient of CCT and PCT 4 . Main Outcome Measures Interobserver agreement for clinical grade and CPTR 4 . Results Interobserver agreement for clinical grading of Fuchs' dystrophy was moderate (κ = 0.32; 95% confidence interval, 0.19–0.45). In normal corneas, CCT was not correlated with age ( r = −0.10; P = 0.28; n=267), PCT 4 decreased with age ( r = −0.33; P 4 increased with age ( r = 0.59; P P 4 was higher in Fuchs' dystrophy (650±51 μm; n=107) than in normal corneas (643±43 μm; n=254; P 4 was higher in advanced Fuchs' dystrophy (1.03±0.07; n=65) than in mild and moderate Fuchs' dystrophy (0.95±0.07; n=42; age-adjusted P P 4 was highly correlated with clinical grade of Fuchs' dystrophy ( r = 0.77; P Conclusions Agreement between corneal specialists for the subjective and morphologic clinical grading of Fuchs' dystrophy is only moderate . The corneal CPTR is an objective, repeatable, and possibly functional, metric of severity of Fuchs' dystrophy that warrants further investigation to determine its role in monitoring disease progression and predicting the need for keratoplasty. Financial Disclosure(s) The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
Signal Averaged ECG

The signal averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG) is one of several proposed methods for non-invasive risk stratification for sudden cardiac death (SCD). The term SAECG refers to techniques improving the signal-to-noise ratio, thus allowing analysis of signals that are too small to be detected by routine measurement. Among such signals are those arising from areas of slow and inhomogeneous conduction in diseased ventricular myocardium, which may represent a substrate for malignant reentrant ventricular tachyarrhythmias. A recently published AHA/ACC/HRS Consensus Document acknowledged that an abnormal SAECG may identify patients with prior myocardial infarction at risk of SCD. Given its high negative predictive accuracy, the SAECG could be useful for identification of low-risk patients. However, the document noted that routine use of the SAECG to identify patients at high risk for SCD is not adequately supported by existing data and further studies would be required to assess the utility of this test. It is possible that improved risk stratification may be accomplished if the SAECG is utilized as part of an algorithm in conjunction with other risk stratifiers. Large prospective studies to develop a robust prediction model are still warranted.
Tension Control for Coping and for Habit Change

Edmund Jacobson’s discovery about half-a-century ago that progressive relaxation produces a state of emotional calmness was one of the most important developments in the history of psychiatry. Anxiety and its consequences are the commonest source of suffering and disability in the whole field of mental health. Since we can directly control our muscles, but not our autonomic nervous systems, the ability to use our muscles to bring about autonomic effects of a desirable kind is a remarkable therapeutic resource.
Decolonial Innovation in Teacher Development: Praxis beyond the Colonial Zero-Point.

Despite a rich repertoire of inventive and robust practices, and stated commitments to equity, social justice, and diversity, teacher education has continued to struggle to produce educators capabl...
Abstract TP306: Streamlining the Enrollment Process in Acute Stroke Trials: Perspective From a Comprehensive Stroke Center

Introduction: Acute stroke is a stressful time for patients, families, and medical staff. Adding potential clinical trial enrollment to this mix further complicates the situation, and can result in...
Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness:

In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13–18) and entering college students, 1976–2017 (N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less...
THE INTERACTION BETWEEN CHROMIUM AND INSULIN

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the interaction between chromium and insulin. It is known that chromium deficiency results in a progressive impairment of intravenous glucose tolerance, which can be prevented and cured by adding chromium-rich foods or pure chromium complexes to the diet. Soon after this discovery, attempts to identify the mode and site of action of chromium pointed to a close interaction of this essential trace element with insulin. In one study, epididymal fat tissue, obtained from chromium-deficient rats, responded to insulin in vitro with a very small increase, but the addition of chromium compounds, ineffective by itself, significantly stimulated the tissue's response to the hormone. It has also been demonstrated that in young, healthy, presumably chromium-sufficient subjects, plasma chromium acutely increases, following a glucose load. This release of chromium into the plasma is probably mediated by the increase of plasma insulin concentrations. The increment of chromium in plasma is transient, with peaks appearing between 30 and 120 min following the glucose administration and a subsequent return to fasting values.
COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTS FOR SOME MULTIVARIATE NORMAL SITUATIONS

SUMMARY The concept of an experiment being more informative than another, defined by Bohnenblust, Shapley and Sherman (see also Blackwell (1951)) has been applied to the case of univariate linear models by Hansen and Torgersen (1974) referred to henceforth as HT. The results of this paper following earlier work by Boll (1955) are generalized here to the multivariate case.
Experimental method to monitor temperature stability of SiPMs operating in conditions of extremely high dark count rate

Abstract The use of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) in high radiation environments (e.g. detectors at collider experiments) or in outdoor conditions (e.g. LIDAR applications), requires to deal with a high level of dark count noise. An undesired effect emerging under these conditions is the self-heating of the SiPM due to a large power dissipation that causes variations of the breakdown voltage and thus affects operating parameters such as gain and PDE. A method to evaluate the heat dissipation properties of different SiPM packages and the temperature stability of SiPMs during operation under extremely high dark count rates (larger than 30 GHz) is presented in this paper. Starting from a condition in which the SiPM is at thermal equilibrium with the environment, a change in the current measured under intense illumination with a LED can be attributed to a temperature variation of the SiPM due to self-heating. Under certain assumptions, a quantitative estimate of the local change of temperature can be obtained if certain parameters of the SiPM are known: gain, photon detection efficiency, equivalent charge factor and drift of the SiPM breakdown voltage with temperature. The method is applied to evaluate the thermal conductivity of different SiPM package configurations, which is a key requirement for reliable operation in conditions of extremely high dark count rate. Among the SiPM package configurations tested, the one consisting of a ceramic substrate coupled to a copper heat sink provided the best performance in terms of good heat dissipation with less than 0.5 °C temperature variation for 100 mW dissipated power.
The role of negative staff behavior and fairness on perceptions of post-release success among formerly incarcerated juveniles

A large body of literature has examined the impact of staff behavior in correctional settings on offenders’ likelihood of recidivism. However, gaps remain with respect to how staff behavior is rela...
1D-TICapsNet: An audio signal processing algorithm for bolt early looseness detection:

Recently, for bolt looseness detection, percussion-based methods have attracted more attention due to their advantages of eliminating contact sensors. The core issue of percussion-based methods is ...