cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Decentralized control methods for self-organizing collaborative robotic teams

A collaborative robotic team may need to allocate multiple tasks within an unknown and highly dynamic environment. Highly dynamic environments entail constantly changing states of its entities, objects, and situational characteristics. Tasks in dynamic environments can have unknown information, changing requirements, and can result in unforeseen goal states. (e.g., searching an unfamiliar building can result in an unknown number of rooms, or open areas to be further searched). Essentially, the task requirements can change, the asset/robot ability to perform the task can change, and the environment can change such that an allocation of tasks may need to be re-allocated. The allocation process must be flexible enough and ad-hoc in nature to compensate for such dynamics. This report presents the results of multiple investigations into various market-based, ad-hoc methods as a means to flexibly allocate tasks across a mobile robotic team in unknown and highly dynamic environments. These ad-hoc methods can be controlled from a centralized point or implemented in a decentralized mode. The decentralized control is of greater interest since it reduces processing bottlenecks, eliminates single points of failures, and can encourage network dataflow that is more natural to the ad-hoc nature of the mobile team of robotic vehicles. This is especially true when the number of tasks and robots are scaled up (i.e., swarm robotics). The approach utilizes weighted formulas that represent a robot’s ability to engage each of the identified tasks, and a task’s allocation is based on comparing the results of these weighted formulae. The allocation process is improved via optimizing the formulas’ weights based on deep-learning methods.
A Problem-Solving Approach to the Treatment of Obesity

The treatment of obesity presents a rather unique challenge to today’s professionals. Obesity has been considered both a medical problem, because of its biological consequences, and a psychological problem, because of its social/personal consequences. Thus, professionals from many health fields have been involved in efforts to understand the causes of obesity and to work toward more effective ways to treat it or at least minimize its negative consequences. This chapter is designed to organize currently available information in a way that will be most useful to the professional who must make treatment and/or referral decisions regarding a disorder that is still poorly understood. The decision-making perspective that is being suggested offers a flexible framework within which the professional and the client can make more realistic, rational, and humane decisions. The ambiguous and contradictory research findings, the presence of pervasive cultural stereotypes and individual beliefs, and the commercial marketing of “miracle”cures and fad diets make rational choices nearly impossible for the client (consumer). Thus, the client must be educated in the decision-making process and become an active participant in treatment decisions.
The Lateral Foot

On the lateral film it’s important to consider the talo-calcaneal angle and its relation to hindfoot varus or valgus, cavus/planus, vertical/oblique talus, and the equinus or calcaneus calcaneus.
Platelet transfusion practices in immune thrombocytopenia related hospitalizations.

BACKGROUND The role of platelet transfusions in management of Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) remains controversial. Current guidelines recommend that platelet transfusions in ITP be reserved for catastrophic hemorrhage or invasive surgical procedures. This study assesses the nationwide platelet transfusion practices in hospitalized children and adults with ITP. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS We studied hospitalizations with ITP as the primary admitting diagnosis from 2010-2014 in National Inpatient Sample (NIS), the largest all-payer inpatient database. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to determine factors predicting platelet transfusions. Sampling weights were applied to generate nationally representative estimates. Propensity score matching was used to perform sensitivity analyses. RESULTS From 2010 to 2014, there were 78,376 admissions with ITP as the primary admission diagnosis (mean ± SD age: 45 ± 27 years; females 56%, children [age < 18 years] 22%) and 282,285 with ITP as one of all the admission diagnoses. Overall, 27% admissions with ITP as primary (children 4%) and 15% admissions with ITP as one of all the diagnoses documented at least one platelet transfusion. On multivariable adjustment the following factors were associated with worsening disease severity and a higher odds of platelet transfusion, adult age (adjOR = 9.03, 95% CI = 7.40-11.02), male gender (adjOR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.11-1.31), bleeding occurrence (intracranial/gastrointestinal/genitourinary/epistaxis) (adjOR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.61-1.96), admission to rural non-teaching hospital (adjOR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.52-2.22), and small bed-size hospital (adjOR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.05-1.45). Of admissions reporting platelet transfusions, only 26% reported a bleeding complication, and 11% had a major operating-room surgery/procedure. Overall, 65% of transfused patients had neither bleeding nor a major operative procedure during the hospitalization. Admissions with platelet transfusions had a significantly longer mean length of hospitalization 2.2 days (95% CI = 1.96-2.41, p < 0.001), and accrued higher mean total hospital charges; $31,150 USD (95% CI = 27,644-34,656, p < 0.001). However, platelet transfusions were not associated with in-hospital mortality (adjOR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.73-1.45, p = 0.892). CONCLUSION Platelets are administered to a small fraction of the hospitalized ITP patients. In a majority of these cases however, platelet usage does not appear to be concordant with the current guidelines or associated with improvement in clinical outcomes.
Zirconium-89 radiolabeled hollow ferulic acid nanostructure for PET imaging guided acute kidney injury therapy

416 Objectives: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related renal disease, which is of high morbidity and mortality. Ferulic acid (FA) is a natural phenolic acid with strong antioxidative and cytoprotective activities. Although FA has been studied to protect AKI through intraperitoneal injection or gavage, the low bioavailability of FA has limited the therapeutic effect. To the best of our knowledge, a FA-based nanostructure for AKI therapy has not been reported. Our goal is to construct a novel FA nanostructure to rapidly accumulate in kidney and treat AKI by eliminating ROS. Methods: Hollow FA nanoparticles (HFAN) were prepared via a hydrothermal treatment and further treated with PEGylation (HFAN-PEG). HFAN-PEG was radiolabeled with Zr-89 (half-life: 78.4 h) using the chelator DFO (89Zr-DFO-HFAN-PEG). The biodistribution and renal accumulation of HFAN-PEG in healthy and AKI mice were evaluated using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The AKI model was induced by intramuscularly injecting 50% glycerol into the hind limbs (8mL/kg). HFAN-PEG was intravenously injected for AKI therapy with different doses. PBS and FA were used as the negative control and positive control, respectively. The therapeutic effect was evaluated by blood levels of blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, and kidney tissue staining. Results: The HFAN-PEG showed good ROS-scavenging activities for free radical, •OH and O2•‒. Importantly, PET imaging revealed that HFAN-PEG rapidly entered the kidneys of mice (27.1 ± 2.0 %ID/g at 10 min post-injection and 42.6 ± 5.7 %ID/g at 1 h post-injection; n=3) and accumulated in kidneys up to 72 h (12.7 ± 1.8 %ID/g; n=3) after intravenous injection. Furthermore, HFAN-PEG was found to be therapeutically effective for AKI at the dose of 50 µg FA per mouse and to significantly alleviate AKI at the dose of 10 µg FA per mouse, which was confirmed by serum tests and kidney tissue staining. More interestingly, compared with HFAN-PEG therapy group, the FA chemical showed a much worse therapeutic effect at a dose of 50 µg FA per mouse. Conclusion: With the multi-antioxidative activities and high renal accumulation, HFAN-PEG exhibited a good protective effect against AKI in mice, which endows HFAN-PEG the potential for the treatment of AKI patients.
Comparison of Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Upper Tract versus Lower Tract Urothelial Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Introduction Principles of management for upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) are mostly derived from knowledge of lower tract urothelial carcinoma (LTUC), however recent research indicates that these may be disparate diseases. In this review, we sought to compare the responsiveness of these tumors to similar treatment, platinum-based chemotherapy used in the adjuvant setting. Materials and Methods PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched using a systematic search strategy. Disease-free survival (DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with LTUC and UTUC treated with adjuvant chemotherapy were compared. Review Manager V 5.3 was used for meta-analyses. Results Adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved DFS (HR 0.41, 95%CI 0.31-0.54), CSS (HR 0.29, 95%CI 0.17-0.50) and OS (HR 0.51, 95%CI 0.38-0.70) rates in LTUC. The effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in UTUC was less pronounced with respect to DFS (HR 0.61, 95%CI 0.1-0.93) and CSS (HR 0.70, 95%CI 0.56-0.90) rates, and there was no effect on OS (HR 0.87, 95%CI 0.69-1.10). Differences in CSS and OS were significant (p < 0.0001) in favor of adjuvant chemotherapy for LTUC versus UTUC. Conclusion Despite similar histology, we found significant differences in responsiveness to adjuvant chemotherapy between LTUC and UTUC. This may add to the already growing knowledge that these are disparate diseases. Newer systemic treatments for urothelial carcinoma may prove more effective than platinum-based chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting for UTUC.
Resting heart rate and incident venous thromboembolism: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Objective Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Resting heart rate (RHR), which may be modifiable through lifestyle changes, has been shown to be associated with cardiovascular disease risk and with inflammatory markers that have been predictive of VTE incidence. Methods We examined whether RHR is also associated with VTE incidence independent of these risk factors. We studied 6479 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants free from clinical VTE at baseline who had baseline RHR ascertained by 12-lead ECG. VTE events were recorded from hospital records and death certificates using International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 and ICD-10 codes. We categorised RHR as Results Participants had mean (SD) age of 62 (10) years and RHR of 63 (10) bpm. RHR was cross-sectionally correlated with multiple inflammatory and coagulation factors. There were 236 VTE cases after a median follow-up of 14 years. Compared with those with RHR Conclusion Elevated RHR was positively associated with VTE incidence after a median of 14 years; this association was independent of several traditional VTE and inflammatory markers.
Intersection and Impact of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) on Twenty-First Century Teacher Preparation: UDL-Infused TPACK Practitioner’s Model

This chapter considers the intersection of two innovative and transformative conceptual frameworks, universal design for learning (UDL), and technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK), and the impact of this new merged model—UDL infused TPACK—on teacher preparation. General and special education teachers should be prepared to graduate with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach all students in the digital age. The TPACK model provides a theoretically sound and coherent conceptual framework to prepare general education teachers to effectively integrate technology, but this model alone cannot enable general education teachers to teach the full spectrum of learners, without an understanding of UDL.
Schooling as uncertainty: an ethnographic memoir in comparative education: By Francis Vavrus. pp 296. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2021. £19.99 (ebk). ISBN 9781350164505 (ebk).

Frances Vavrus is an accomplished North American scholar of comparative education, having published widely in the fields of educational anthropology, African Studies, and international development ...
Think Outside The Box: Tackling Fluciclovine PET-CT With Challenging Extraprostatic Findings

1164 Objectives: ntroduction: Anti-1-amino-3-18F-fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid (18F-FACBC, Fluciclovine) is a synthetic non-metabolized leucine amino acid analog PET radiotracer. Leucine is actively transported into proliferating malignant cells in favor of other amino acids and is therefore of interest in molecular imaging of cancer processes. 18F-Fluciclovine uptake is primarily by sodium ion-independent amino acid transporters. These transporters, such as LAT1, work as an exchange system that brings in a preferential amino acid in exchange for a less essential one but do not increase the overall cellular levels of amino acids. LAT1 is overexpressed in several types of malignancy including prostate cancer and has been associated with angiogenesis, proliferation, and metastatic potential. Though amino acid imaging is believed to be less confounded by inflammatory uptake, upregulated amino acid transport also occurs in benign inflammation. Our aim is to present several cases of incidental extraprostatic benign and malignant findings in patients who had undergone 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT and improve the interpretive skills of physicians. Methods: We reviewed a total of 140 cases of 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT at our institute from 2016 and 2017 for cases of incidental extraprostatic uptake worrisome for malignancy with biopsy proven pathology or subsequent imaging which clarified the pathology. 5 cases of incidental extraprostatic findings were selected. Pertinent information such as PSA levels, additional imaging, and pathological reports was abstracted from the chart by the authors for confirmation of diagnosis. Results: - Case 1: F18-Fluciclovine PET/CT showed right parotid mass and cervical adenopathy with uptake. Pathology revealed poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid with metastatic lymph nodes, as well as, metastatic melanoma to the cervical lymph nodes. - Case 2/A: F18-Fluciclovine PET/CT showed multiple pulmonary nodules with uptake. Decreased in size following androgen deprivation therapy. - Case 2/B: F18-Fluciclovine PET/CT showed cavitary lung lesion with uptake. Pathology resulted pulmonary adenosquamous carcinoma. - Case 3: Benign rib fracture with Fluciclovine uptake. - Case 4: Significant wall thickening of the rectum with intense localization of radiotracer. Pathology revealed metastatic poorly differentiated prostatic adenocarcinoma. Discussion: The FDA has approved the use of 18F-Fluciclovine in men with suspected prostate cancer recurrence based on elevated blood PSA levels following prior treatment. While 18F- Fluciclovine is used for localization of recurrent prostate cancer, physiologic uptake is seen within liver and pancreas as well as abnormal localization within inflammation and other types of cancer. Unexpected uptake beyond that ascribed to physiologic activity, especially if focal and intense whether accompanied by an anatomic abnormality on CT, should be further evaluated with clinical correlation, other imaging, or tissue sampling.
Cellulosimicrobium fucosivorans sp. nov., isolated from San Elijo Lagoon, contains a fucose metabolic pathway linked to carotenoid production

Cellulosimicrobium strain SE3T was isolated from the San Elijo coastal lagoon near San Diego. A whole genome-based phylogenetic comparison shows great heterogeneity within the Cellulosimicrobium genus. Based on average nucleotide identity, whole genome-based comparison, and the presence of a unique l-fucose metabolic pathway, strain SE3T was shown to belong to a novel species within the genus, together with five other strains. The name Cellulosimicrobium fucosivorans sp. nov. is proposed, with strain SE3T as the type strain. The strain encodes a unique alpha-l-fucosidase and the l-fucose metabolic pathway is homologous to the one recently described in Campylobacter jejuni. C. fucosivorans is able to grow on l-fucose, and interestingly, the biosynthesis of the yellow carotenoid is dependent on the presence of l-fucose in the media. The ability to metabolize fucose and the linked production of carotenoids are expected to provide C. fucosivorans with a competitive advantage in the sunny coastal lagoon area.
Students' Perceived Difficulty and Satisfaction in Face-to-Face vs. Online Sections of a Technology-Intensive Course

One of the major concerns about online learning has been the low level of student satisfaction and retention rates. Using the community of inquiry (CoI) framework, this study examined course delivery modes and students' perceived ratings of course difficulty in online and face-to-face sections of a technology-intensive course and how the delivery modes and perceived difficulty were related to the essential elements of the CoI framework and course satisfaction. The findings revealed that more students in the online section found it difficult to learn in a technology-intensive course. Also, while different delivery modes were closely related to social presence, students' perceived course difficulty was significantly related to teaching and cognitive presences of the CoI framework. Additionally, there was a correlation between students' perceived difficulty ratings and student satisfaction in online learning.
Particle Growth in Supported Catalysts

Experimentally determined particle growth kinetics are presented for two types of systems: a dispersion of platinum particles in a microporous alumina support, which is typical of commercial catalysts, and a dispersion of platinum particles on a flat, nonporous alumina substrate, which is more amenable to interpretation by means of theoretical models.
A simplified fuel control approach for low cost aircraft gas turbines.

Reduction in the complexity of gas turbine fuel controls without loss of control accuracy, reliability, or effectiveness as a method for reducing engine costs is discussed. A description and analysis of hydromechanical approach are presented. A computer simulation of the control mechanism is given and performance of a physical model in engine test is reported.
Immune Abnormalities in Fontan Protein-Losing Enteropathy: A Case-Control Study

Objective To comprehensively characterize the immunologic characteristics of patients with protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) post-Fontan and compare them with patients without PLE post-Fontan. Study design Patients with PLE post-Fontan and age-matched controls post-Fontan were prospectively studied with laboratory markers of immune function. Infectious history was obtained by interview and chart review. The groups' demographics, cardiac history, immune characteristics, and infection history were compared using appropriate 2-group statistics. Results A total of 16 patients enrolled (8 patients with PLE and 8 controls). All patients with PLE had lymphopenia compared with 25% of controls ( P = .01). All patients with PLE had markedly depressed CD4 T cell counts (median 58 cells/μL) compared with controls (median 450 cells/μL, P = .0002); CD4% was also low in the PLE group (12.3%) and normal in control (36.9%, P = .004). Both groups had mildly depressed CD8 T cells and normal to slightly elevated natural killer and B-cell subsets. A majority of patients with PLE (62.5%) had negative titers to measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination, compared with no control Fontan with a negative titer ( P = .03). Despite profoundly low CD4 counts, the frequency of infection was not different between groups with no reported opportunistic infections. Conclusions Patients with Fontan-associated PLE have extensive quantitative immune abnormalities, particularly CD4 deficiency. These immune abnormalities are similar to those found in non-Fontan patients with PLE caused by intestinal lymphangiectasia.
Proceedings of the 20th annual international conference on Computer documentation

SIGDOC is the Special Interest Group for Documentation of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), itself the oldest computing association in the U.S. SIGDOC is dedicated to the encouragement and development of the finest in technical communications, and in this vein we give awards to those who are at the forefront of the field, and we have offered several tutorials for those who can take advantage of them.Our Program Chair has provided a carefully crafted structure for the program, including keynote awards recipients and a special keynote speaker. This is an exciting program that is likely to be long remembered.We are delighted this year to give our prestigious Rigo Award to Dr. Stephen Doheny Farina for his outstanding life-time contributions to the field, and to award our institutional Diana Award to the World Wide Web Consortium for their extraordinary work that has brought the web to all of us. Michael Sperberg-McQueen and Liam Quinn from W3C will be accepting this award. We will also honor the winner of our Graduate Student Paper Award for the best graduate-level research paper submitted to our Competition and announce the recipient of our scholarship for this year. Our special keynote speaker is Katherine Corich.As for the preparation of these Proceedings, we have been fortunate to do this, as we have for several past proceedings, all electronically, from author proposals, submissions and the blind reviews, to final production of the printed document. The Proceedings will be available on the ACM Digital Library once submitted there.
'Showrooming' and Price-Matching Guarantee

This paper investigates the roles of price-matching guarantee as a response to `showrooming' (quality free-riding) and as a tool for predation. Employing a duopoly vertical differentiation model, we find that price-matching guarantee raises consumer surplus but its impact on social surplus is ambiguous. We identify two effects of price-matching guarantee on firms' profits. The change of sales effect improves the high quality firm's profit at the cost of its low quality rival while the intensified competition effect reduces both firms' profits. When the level of quality free-riding is sufficiently high, the change of sales effect dominates and price-matching guarantee raises the high quality firm's profit. On the other hand, when the level of quality free-riding is low, a price-matching guarantee lowers both firms' profits, suggesting a possible anti-trust rationale if adopted. That is, the high quality firm adopts a price-matching guarantee to drive the low quality firm out of market (predation through price-matching).
Heavy and Light Particles of Adeno-Associated Virus

KB cells coinfected with adenovirus and adeno-associated virus (AAV) yielded two kinds of infectious AAV particles that banded in CsCl at densities of 1.45 and 1.41 g/cm(2), respectively. The 1.45 band was found to be composed of a heterogeneous group of viral particles that could be subfractionated by velocity sedimentation. The main component from this band had a smaller S value (109) than the main component from the 1.41 band (111S), although both had the same DNA/protein ratio and the same density in metrizamide gradients. Continuous-label experiments showed that early after infection, both components (1.45 and 1.41) were generated in the same amounts, but this was followed by a relative increase in the proportion of the 1.41 component over the 1.45 particles. Pulse-chase analysis failed to demonstrate a precursor-product relationship between these two bands. The slower-sedimenting components from the 1.45 band were unstable in CsCl and were present in a greater proportion early after infection. These particles contained DNA that was enriched for the terminal sequences of the AAV genomes and was accessible to digestion with micrococcal nuclease.
MAPPING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE INTERACTION DOMAINS OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS TYPE 16 E1 AND E2 PROTEINS

The papillomavirus E1 and E2 proteins are both necessary and sufficient in vivo for efficient origin-dependent viral DNA replication. The ability of E1 and E2 to complex with each other appears to be essential for efficient viral DNA replication. In this study, we used the yeast two-hybrid system and in vitro binding assays to map the domains of the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) E1 and E2 proteins required for complex formation. The amino-terminal 190-amino-acid domain of HPV16 E2 was both required and sufficient for E1 binding. The carboxyl-terminal 229 amino acids of E 1 were essential for binding E2, and the amino-terminal 143 amino acids of HPV16 E1 were dispensable. Although the ability of the E1 minimal domain (amino acids [aa] 421 to 649) to interact with E2 was strong at 4 degrees C, it was significantly reduced at temperatures above 25 degrees C. A larger domain of E1 from aa 144 to 649 bound E2 efficiently at any temperature, suggesting that aa 144 to 420 of E1 may play a role in the HPV16 E1-E2 interaction at physiological temperatures.
Multi-slice three-dimensional myocardial strain tensor quantification using ZHARP

In this article we propose a novel method for calculating cardiac 3-D strain. The method requires the acquisition of myocardial short-axis (SA) slices only and produces the 3-D strain tensor at every point within every pair of slices. Three-dimensional displacement is calculated from SA slices using zHARP which is then used for calculating the local displacement gradient and thus the local strain tensor. There are three main advantages of this method. First, the 3-D strain tensor is calculated for every pixel without interpolation; this is unprecedented in cardiac MR imaging. Second, this method is fast, in part because there is no need to acquire long-axis (LA) slices. Third, the method is accurate because the 3-D displacement components are acquired simultaneously and therefore reduces motion artifacts without the need for registration. This article presents the theory of computing 3-D strain from two slices using zHARP, the imaging protocol, and both phantom and in-vivo validation.
Zinc supplementation decreases incidence of infections in the elderly: effect of zinc on generation of cytokines and oxidative stress

Background: Zinc deficiency, cell-mediated immune dysfunction, susceptibilitytoinfections,andincreasedoxidativestresshavebeen observedinelderlysubjects(ie,those55yold).Zincisaneffective antiinflammatory and antioxidant agent. Objectives: The primary objective was to determine the effect of zinc on the incidence of total infections in healthy elderly subjects. The secondary objective was to determine the effect of zinc on cytokines and oxidative stress markers. Design: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of zinc supplementation was conducted in elderly subjects. Fifty healthy subjects of both sexes aged 55–87 y and inclusive of all ethnic groups were recruited for this study from a senior center. The zinc-supplemented group received zinc gluconate (45 mg elemental Zn/d) orally for 12 mo. Incidence of infections during the supplementation period was documented. The generation of inflammatory cytokines, T helper 1 and T helper 2 cytokines, and oxidative stress markers and the plasma concentrations of zinc were measured at baseline and after supplementation. Results: Compared with a group of younger adults, at baseline the older subjects had significantly lower plasma zinc, higher ex vivo generationofinflammatorycytokinesandinterleukin10,andhigher plasma oxidative stress markers and endothelial cell adhesion molecules. The incidence of infections and ex vivo generation of tumor necrosis factor and plasma oxidative stress markers were significantly lower in the zinc-supplemented than in the placebo group. Plasma zinc and phytohemagglutin-induced interleukin 2 mRNA in isolated mononuclear cells were significantly higher in the zincsupplemented than in the placebo group. Conclusions: After zinc supplementation, the incidence of infections was significantly lower, plasma zinc was significantly higher, andgenerationoftumornecrosisfactorandoxidativestressmarkers was significantly lower in the zinc-supplemented than in the placebo group. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:837–44.
Natural Gradient, Surface-Applied Tracer Test at the Ohio Management Systems Evaluation Area

A tracer test was conducted from spring 1991 to winter 1995 to calculate travel times of agrichemicals surface applied in 1991 through a 1.0- to 5.4-m thick vadose zone to an unconfined aquifer. Bromide was applied on a 2.6 hectare agricultural plot coincident with the application of nitrogen, atrazine, and alachlor in the corn phase of a corn-soybean rotation in May 1991. Soil-water and ground-water samples were collected from lysimeters, soil-core extractions, and wells. Transport velocities in the soil based on the conservative behavior of bromide as observed in breakthrough curves from lysimeters were between 60 and 80 cm/year. Because the test occurred under natural recharge conditions, transport velocities varied over the five-year period depending on natural variations in precipitation and the associated transient infiltration rates. The center of mass of the bromide pulse intercepted the water table four years after application. Bromide remained in soil above the water table six years after application. There were no detections of alachlor, atrazine, or the two degradation products of atrazine, desethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine at the water table during the six-year period of monitoring. This suggests that despite the ability of conservative species to travel to the water table at this site, the pesticides were attenuated in the vadose zone.
Parallelism and Competition in Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution

A central issue in sentence-processing research is whether the parser entertains multiple analyses of syntactically ambiguous input in parallel, and whether these analyses compete for selection. In this article, we review theoretical positions for and against such competitive parallelism. We then review empirical evidence, primarily drawing on reading time studies, bearing on the prediction made by parallel competitive models that some cost ought to be associated with processing syntactically ambiguous material. We argue that this prediction is not confirmed by the data, and we discuss recent claims that the models in question do not actually make this prediction. We also emphasize the contrast with lexical ambiguity, where there is clearly a processing cost associated with competition between alternate meanings. Finally, we review a different kind of recent evidence suggesting that two syntactic analyses may indeed coexist under specific circumstances.
Cell growth and metastasis in pancreatic cancer: is Vav the Rho'd to activation?

The best-known family of low molecular weight GTP-binding proteins is Ras, owing to their high incidence of gain of function mutations in a variety of human cancers including pancreatic cancer. Unlike Ras, no activating mutations have been observed thus far for Rho family GTP-binding proteins in cancer, yet there is increasing evidence that overexpression of Rho family members and/or dysregulation of the GDP→GTP cycle play an important role in cancer development and progression. The activation of Rho family GTPases downstream of cell surface receptors results in the induction of several intracellular signaling cascades that have been shown to impact on such diverse cellular responses as reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, gene transcription, cell survival, and cell proliferation. One family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that have the potential to couple the activation of Rho family members to upstream growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) is the Vav family of proto-oncogenes. Recent experimental evidence has implicated Vav in the regulation of numerous Rho-mediated pathways downstream of RTKs and other cell surface receptors. In this review, we will discuss our current understanding of how Vav proteins are regulated, and how Vav and their target GTP-binding proteins participate in tumorigenesis.
Photometry of skin and collagenous tissue phantoms with focused linearly polarized light

Equi-intensity contours of photometric patterns of backscattered focused linearly polarized light were fitted with ellipses. The orientation and ratio of semi-axes lengths revealed correlation with collagen fiber orientation. Optical anisotropy parameters were measured.
Fast surrogates of U-statistics

U-statistics have long been known as a class of nonparametric estimators with good theoretical properties such as unbiasedness and asymptotic normality. However, their applications in modern statistical analysis are limited due to the high computational complexity, especially when massive data sets are becoming more and more common nowadays. In this paper, using the ''divide-and-conquer'' technique, we developed two surrogates of the U-statistics, aggregated U-statistics and average aggregated U-statistics, both of which are shown asymptotically equivalent to U-statistics and computationally much more efficient. When dividing the raw data set into K subsets, the two proposed estimators reduce the computational complexity from O(N^m) to O(K(N/K)^m), which results in significant time reduction as long as K=o(N) and m>=2. The merit of the two proposed statistics is demonstrated by both simulation studies and real data examples.
The Effect of Silicon on the High Temperature Oxidation Behavior of Low-carbon Steels Containing the Residual Elements Copper and Nickel

This study investigates effects of silicon on copper- and nickel-rich phases during the oxidation of iron-based alloys containing 0.3 wt% copper and 0.3 wt% copper +0.15 wt% nickel in addition to steel samples containing various amounts of copper (0.17–0.41 wt%), nickel (0.03–0.13 wt%), and silicon (0.03–0.12 wt%). Samples were exposed to air at 1 150°C for 60, 300, and 600 s. A low-carbon steel sample (0.02 wt% silicon) without copper and nickel was subjected to the same conditions for comparison.The oxidation rates of copper- and nickel-containing steels decreased with time and were consistently lower than the rate of the residual-free low-carbon steel. An internal oxide layer was observed only in the copper- and nickel-containing steels. The number of internal oxides in this layer increased with oxidation time and larger internal oxides in this layer were characterized to be rich in iron and silicon. Compared to the iron–copper–nickel alloy, steels containing copper, nickel, and silicon, had more copper-, nickel-rich material found as particles entrapped in the oxide.It is proposed that the population of internal silica particles increases due to increasing oxygen content near the oxide/metal interface. The rise in oxygen content results from increased oxygen solubility caused by copper and nickel enrichment. These internal oxides decrease oxidation rate and assist occlusion. An increase by a factor of 10 in amount of occluded material was measured in material containing copper, nickel and silicon compared to copper and nickel.
Airport pavement NDE research at CQEFP

The Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention (CQEFP) at Northwestern University is actively involved in the development of new stress-wave based non-destructive evaluation techniques for airport pavements. This paper summarizes recent accomplishments and outlines current research directions. The development of a new stress-wave source is detailed first. The stress-wave generating technique allows for a high degree of control of the input stress wave while at the same time enabling the generation of significant wave amplitudes. Experimental results on concrete specimens demonstrate the controllability and penetrating ability of the developed stress wave generation technique. Its performance is compared to that of an impact source. Experimental results from an existing stress-wave based NDE technique, the impact-echo method, are presented and limitations of that approach are demonstrated. Finally, directions of future airport pavement NDE research at CQEFP, which focus upon application of the developed stress wave generation technique to pavement NDE problems, are outlined.
Dietary choline requirements, phospholipids and development in Phormia regina

Abstract 1. 1. Twenty-six compounds were tested for their ability to support growth and development when fed, in lieu of choline, to Phormia regina . Sixteen supported larval growth and previous findings on structure-function relationships in choline substitutes were confirmed (Hodgson & Dauterman, 1964). 2. 2. Only ten compounds permitted appreciable formation of puparia and only four of these permitted the emergence of normal adults. Thus, the structural requirements for post-larval development are much more rigorous than those for larval growth. No compound was as effective as choline. 3. 3. All compounds which support larval growth are incorporated into phospholipids analogous to phosphatidylcholine, indicating that the cytidine pathway for phospholipid synthesis is relatively non-specific. 4. 4. i -Propylaminoethanol is a growth inhibitor when fed to Phormia regina larvae.
SU‐FF‐I‐26: Automatic Detection of Calcifications in Cone Beam Breast CT Images

Purpose: Microcalcifications (MCs) play an important role in early detection of breast cancer. This study is to describe a technique to automatically identify and segment the calcifications from the breast anatomy in cone beam CT(CBCT)images.Method and Materials: Projection images of mastectomy breast specimens were acquired with a bench‐top experimental CBCT system and reconstructed using FDK algorithm with a regular ramp filter. The reconstructed images were first corrected for the non‐uniform cupping artifacts due to x‐ray scatter and beam hardening. The corrected CBCTimages had more uniform background but were still too noisy for threshold segmentation. To reduce the noise level, the images were processed with a noise averaging filter in z direction followed by a total variation filter to reduce the noise level while keeping the edge sharpness and contrast of calcifications. To automatically detect the calcifications with proper threshold level, a Gaussian curve fitting was used to fit the histogram of the CBCTimage. Since the CT numbers of calcifications are usually significantly above those for breast tissue, cutoff point of the Gaussian curve was used as the threshold value to segment the calcifications. Results: With this method, the calcifications in the entire breast were successfully segmented from the breast tissue background. The results agreed well with those identified by visualization. Conclusion: The calcifications in CBCT breast images can be automatically detected by threshold based segmentation method with the nonuniform cupping artifacts corrected for and the noise level properly reduced.
Discourse on the utilization of polyaniline coatings for surface plasmon resonance sensing of ammonia vapor.

Abstract Surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy is sensitive to near-surface ( Different strategies explored thus far for sensing of small molecules have relied on optical and electrical changes of the recognition layer upon exposure to the analyte, yielding an indirect measurement. Examples of coatings used for gas-phase sensing with SPR include conducting metal oxides, polymers and organometallic dyes. Electrically conducting polymers, like polyaniline and polypyrrole, display dramatic conductivity changes in the presence of certain compounds. This property has resulted in their routine incorporation into different sensing schemes. However, application of electrically conducting polymers to SPR gas-phase sensing has been limited to a few examples, despite encouraging results. The emeraldine salt form of polyaniline (PAni) demonstrates a decreased electrical conductivity correlated to NH 3 concentration. In this contribution, PAni doped with camphorsulfonic acid (PAni-CSA) was applied to gas-phase sensing of NH 3 by way of SPR spectroscopy. Spectroscopic ellipsometry was used to determine the optical constants ( n and k ) for emeraldine salt and emeraldine base forms of PAni, confirming the wavelength-dependent response observed via SPR. The analytical performance of the coatings show that a limit of detection of 32 ppm NH 3 based on precision of the mass-flow controllers used and an estimated method limit of detection of ∼0.2 ppm based on three standard deviations of the blank. This is directly comparable to other, more established sensing architectures.
Computer-aided reporting of the results of mental retardation evaluations

The MR Report Assistant is designed to perform the types of routine tasks that computers do well, while freeing the skilled psychologist to concentrate on tasks that are best done by knowledgeable humans. The Assistant is intended for reporting the results of psychological evaluation of known or suspected mental retardation patients using a standard battery consisting of the WAIS-R, the Vineland, and an interview. The program encourages the inclusion of additional information by writing to a disk file suitable for editing with a word processor, rather than directly to a printer. Research and training are encouraged by making the program available to qualified persons at no charge.
On Mixed Boundary-Value Problems for Axially-Symmetric Potentials

S>An axially symmetrical harmonic function U(r.y) is determined that corresponds physically to the potential of a disk in an external field. It is shown that U(r,y) may be found by reduction of the problem to a boundary-value problem for a harmonic function of 2 variables. U(r.y) may be found by this method for symmetric and non-symmetric external fields. (T.F.H.)
A Metric for the Temporal Characterization of Parallel Programs

We consider the time-dependent demands for data movement that a parallel program makes on the architecture that executes it. The result is an architecture-independent metric that represents the temporal behavior of data-movement requirements. Programs are described as series of computations and data movements, and while message passing is not ruled out, we focus on explicit parallel programs using a fixed number of processes in a distributed shared-memory environment. Operations are assumed to be explicitly allocated to processors when the metric is applied, which might correspond to intermediate code in a parallelizing compiler. The metric is called the interprocess read (IR) temporal metric. A key to developing an architecture-independent temporal metric is modeling program execution time in an architecture-independent way. This is possible because well-synchronized parallel programs make coordinated progress above a certain level of granularity. Our execution time characterization takes into account barrier synchronization and critical sections. We illustrate the metric using instruction count on simple code fragments and then from multiprocessor program traces (Splash benchmarks). Results of running the benchmarks on simulated network architectures show that the IR metric for the time scale of network response predicts performance better than whole program measures.
Electrochemistry of enzymes. Determination of peroxidase and catalase

Abstract A recently developed electrochemical method is extended to the determination of enzymic reactions of the type A → B C + D , in which an electrochemically active substrate, A, is oxidized to electroinactive products, C and D. This involved removal of the electroactive species before any change in potential could be observed. The representative enzyme systems that were chosen for study were peroxide-catalase and peroxide-peroxidase. Peroxide is electroactive, but the products of its oxidation are not. By proper control of the current and experimental conditions, a method was developed for the determination of these enzymes. In the case of peroxidase, which requires a proton donor to function enzymically, a donor was chosen whose oxidation and reduction forms are not electroactive at the potentials used. By this procedure, 0.0100 to 1.00 unit of peroxidase or catalase was determined with a relative standard deviation of about 1.7%. Anodic polarographic studies were used to study the significance of the potentials observed in the method described. The concept of following enzymic reactions of the type A → B C + D , where A is more electroactive than the products C and D, is thus shown to be feasible using the proper applied current and experimental conditions. The method should be readily applicable to other systems similar to peroxide-peroxidase and peroxide-catalase.
Vibrational Raman studies of particle induced damage in oxide glasses

Radiation effects in oxide glasses are manifested by color center formation, densification, and atom displacements. Localized vibrational modes are sensitive to such phenomena and exhibit both dose dependent frequency shifts and intensity variations in measured Raman spectra of irradiated glasses. Both bulk and glass fiber samples of NaPO3, Y(PO3)3, and SiO2 were subjected to external 5.5 MeV alpha irradiation in a nitrogen glove box from either 238Pu or 244Cm sources. Since damage is induced in a ca. 20 μm surface layer, thin fiber samples were chosen to optimize surface effects. All glasses developed color centers upon irradiation observed in measured UV/VIS absorption spectra. Raman spectra of binary phosphate glasses reveal two strong bands assigned to symmetric stretching of network -P-O-P- groups and terminal -PO2- groups which both exhibit dose dependent frequency shifts and intensity variations. Results indicate that the onset of radiation damage is manifested at nonbridging oxygen sites in the glass. The observation of nitrate stretching vibrations in alpha-irradiated NaPO3, a glass known to contain significant surface absorbed water, suggests that moisture enhanced radiolysis of N2 near the glass surface has occurred. This effect was not observed for the more durable yttrium containing glass. Raman spectra of alpha-irradiated fused silica show changes in accord with previously reported results for neutron compacted silica. Lines assigned to bonding defect modes in the glass intensify with increasing dose, while band intensities for network vibrational modes decrease exponentially. The implication of these results to induced microstructural changes in the glass following alpha irradiation will be discussed.