cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Limited feedback precoding for orthogonal space-time block codes

Orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) are an efficient solution for obtaining full diversity order in Rayleigh fading channels. Unfortunately, OSTBCs exist for only certain numbers of transmit antennas and do not provide array gain as diversity techniques that exploit transmit channel information do. When channel state information is available at the transmitter, linearly precoded space-time codes can he used to support different numbers of transmit antennas and to improve array gain. Precoding generally requires complete channel knowledge, thus motivating limited feedback methods such as channel quantization or antenna subset selection. The paper investigates limited feedback precoding that uses a codebook of matrices known a priori to both the transmitter and receiver. Using the codebook, the receiver chooses a matrix based on current channel conditions and conveys the optimal codebook matrix to the transmitter over an error-free, zero-delay feedback channel A precoder matrix selection criterion is proposed that relates directly to minimizing the probability of symbol error of the precoded system. Low average distortion codebooks based on Grassmannian subspace packing are derived for the optimal codeword selection criterion. It is shown that codebooks designed by this method provide full diversity order in Rayleigh fading channels.
PAGE: phase-shifted analysis of gene expression

Summary: Grouping of gene expression patterns across biological experiments, treatments and time-series data is performed in q-intervals of measurements using phase-shifted analysis of gene expression (PAGE); a Java-based tool to find clusters of genes that share trends of expression profiles within the dataset. The patterns and genes within q-Clusters are visualized in trend plots and compared to determine biological relevance from the gene annotations. Availability: PAGE is available at http://dir.niehs.nih.gov/microarray/software/page/ Contact: bushel@niehs.nih.gov Supplementary information: The Supplementary data are available at http://dir.niehs.nih.gov/microarray/software/page/
Developing an overall CO 2 footprint for semiconductor products

Understanding the total life cycle CO 2 impacts of different types of products and operations has been a subject of significant interest recently. Total life cycle impacts include not just the CO 2 generated from the manufacture of a product, but also from the product's use and from the manufacture of all the inputs that go into creating the product. In theory, understanding this total impact can help manufacturers identify means of reducing the impact and could gives consumers information that can be used as a consideration in purchase decisions. Unfortunately, there are to date no broadly accepted and consistent methods for calculating this impact. Determining the boundaries that define which inputs should be included in the assessment is a significant challenge. In addition, supply chains for manufactured products can be highly complicated, involving hundreds or thousands of individual suppliers, all of which have a large number of end customers. Few if any of these suppliers have the ability to collect energy use and CO 2 impact data in a way that breaks the impact down by product or customer. This is especially true with complex products like semiconductors, making it very difficult to allocate the CO 2 from the supply chain in a way that a customer such as Intel can estimate its portion of the impact from the manufacture of a material that is used by many other customers as well.
Soil Contamination Caused by Emergency Bio-Reduction of Catastrophic Livestock Mortalities

Catastrophic regional losses of poultry and livestock have caused environmental officials in North America to seek emergency on-farm disposal alternatives that pose less pollution risk to soil and shallow groundwater than burial. Bio-decomposition of remains followed by land application of the resulting product is used throughout the U.S. and Canada for management of routine poultry, swine, and cattle mortalities, and is often cited as being more environmentally friendly than burial since it recycles nutrients and other potential pollutants into the topsoil and crop production cycle, rather than placing them deeper in the ground and closer to groundwater. During emergencies, however, when time and resources are limited, bio-reduction is likely to be done in unsheltered windrows constructed on unprotected soil—conditions that could cause localized soil pollution. Pollution associated with emergency bio-reduction procedures was assessed by comparing pre- and post-bio-reduction concentrations in soil beneath the bio-reduction sites. Small but statistically significant (p < 0.05) increases in chloride at depths of 1.2 m indicated that bio-reduction leachate reached this depth. Significant increases in % total nitrogen and % total carbon were observed only in the top 15 cm of soil, but large increases in total ammonia–nitrogen were observed at depths of 30–90 cm. The total mass of N added to soil by bio-reduction was 10–25% of the estimated total N in the cattle carcasses, indicating that bio-reduction poses a lower pollution threat to soil and shallow groundwater than burial.
Specific Heat of 4 He Confined in Cylindrical Micro-Channels and Near the Superfluid Transition

We present new measurements of the specific heat CP of 4He confined in cylindrical micro-channels of diameter L=1.89 μm at saturated vapor pressure and near the bulk superfluid-transition temperature Tλ. The results, when combined with the specific-heat exponent α=−0.01264, and with the correlation-length exponent ν=0.6709 obtained from α by hyper-scaling, support the departure from a universal, size independent, scaling function reported before by Lipa et al. [J. Low Temp. Phys. 124(3–4): 443, 2001] for L=8.17 μm and 0.26 μm. In agreement with Lipa et al., we found that a size independent effective scaling function can be recovered within experimental resolution when an empirical effective correlation-length exponent \(\tilde{\nu}=0.716\) is used. As expected from theory, well away from Tλ the temperature dependence of the suppression of CP by the confining medium is consistent with a power law with an exponent equal to α+ν=0.658. The universal ratio of the suppression at equal distances below and above the transition was measured to be Rf2=2.3±0.2. This result is consistent with the theoretical value Rf2=2.06 obtained by Bhattacharyya and Bhattacharjee and is close also to the ratio Rξ≃2.7 of the correlation-length amplitudes.
Comparison of Open and Laparoscopic Nephrectomy in Obese and Nonobese Patients: Outcomes Stratified by Body Mass Index

Purpose: Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy has been accepted as the preferred management for low stage renal masses not amenable to partial nephrectomy. Early in the mid 1990s several studies suggested that obesity should be a relative contraindication to laparoscopy. We present our surgical outcomes and complications in patients undergoing open and laparoscopic nephrectomy, stratified by body mass index.Materials and Methods: We retrospectively identified 88 patients, of whom 43 underwent open nephrectomy and 45 were treated laparoscopically. All patients were stratified by body mass index to compare multiple perioperative end points and pathological outcomes of laparoscopy.Results: Overall our data showed that compared to open nephrectomy laparoscopic nephrectomy resulted in statistically significant lower estimated blood loss (147.95 vs 640.48 cc, p <0.0002), operative time (156.11 vs 198.95 minutes, p <0.003) and hospital stay (3.7 vs 5.9 days, p <0.004). When stratified by body mass index less than 25...
Fish consumption and polyunsaturated fatty acids in relation to psychological distress

Conclusions Our results do not support the hypothesis that fish consumption or omega-3 PUFA intake are associated with reduced psychological distress in the general population or in a population with high fish consumption.
Design of an Operating System with In-memory Kernel

This paper lays out different issues and solutions in the design of an operating system with an in-memory kernel - from the minimum features required for a program to become the kernel, to how this kernel should be written into the boot sector of a disc so that it gets loaded into the memory. It highlights how this operating system can be made to support user specific authentication, keyboard and monitor. This also lays out the specifications for a shell to issue system commands, interfacing FAT file system and how to communicate with another similar system using serial port.
Sentinel Management Group: A Case Study on Attestation Standards

ABSTRACT: An understanding of the standards for attest engagements is an important component of the body of knowledge that certified public accountants are expected to possess, and attestation standards became a more important portion of the CPA exam in 2011. However, few instructional case studies are available that deal specifically with the attestation function outside of the financial statement audit. This case is based on real events and addresses some of the key aspects of the attestation standards. The CPA firm of Altschuler, Melvoin, and Glasser, LLP provided an attestation report regarding the assertion of Sentinel Management Group (a registered investment adviser) that it had complied with regulations regarding recordkeeping and custody of assets held for its investment clients. The accounting firm failed to follow the applicable attestation standards and, as a result, did not detect material non-compliance with the recordkeeping and custody regulations for investment advisers.
Cytogenetically confirmed low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma arising from the tibia

Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma is a rare soft tissue tumor with a benign histologic appearance but comparatively aggressive clinical course. These discrepant features make it extremely important to diagnose early so that appropriate management can be initiated. This diagnosis often hinges on the presence of the hallmark cytogenetic aberration, a balanced 7;16 translocation resulting in a FUS-CREB3L2 fusion gene. Although this neoplasm most commonly arises in the deep soft tissue of the lower extremities, it has been reported to arise from a wide variety of sites including intraabdominal and intracranial locations. Only 1 previous study has described low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma as arising from a bony site; however, cytogenetic and immunohistochemical confirmation was not available at that time. Herein, we describe the first ever cytogenetically confirmed case of low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma arising as a primary bone tumor in the tibia of a 35-year-old woman.
Association of reduced Connexin 43 expression with retinal vascular lesions in human diabetic retinopathy.

Connexin 43 (Cx43) downregulation promotes apoptosis in retinal vascular cells of diabetic animal models; however, its relevance to human diabetic retinopathy has not been established. In this study, we investigated whether diabetes alters Cx43 expression and promotes retinal vascular lesions in human retinas. Diabetic human eyes (aged 64-94 years) and non-diabetic human eyes (aged 61-90 years) were analyzed in this study. Retinal protein samples and retinal capillary networks were assessed for Cx43 level by Western blot (WB) analysis and immunostaining. In parallel, retinal capillary networks were stained with hematoxylin and periodic acid Schiff to determine the extent of pericyte loss (PL) and acellular capillaries (AC) in these retinas. Cx43 protein expression was significantly reduced in the diabetic retinas compared to non-diabetic retinas as indicated by WB analysis (81 ± 11% of control). Additionally, a significant decrease in the number of Cx43 plaques per unit length of vessel was observed in the diabetic retinas compared to those of non-diabetic retinas (62 ± 10% of control; p < 0.005). Importantly, a strong inverse relationship was noted between Cx43 expression and the relative number of AC (r = -0.89; p < 0.0005), and between Cx43 expression and number of pericyte loss (r = -0.88; p < 0.0005). Overall, these results show that Cx43 expression is reduced in the human diabetic retinas and Cx43 reduction is associated with increased vascular cell death. These findings suggest that diabetes decreases retinal Cx43 expression and that the development of PL and AC is associated with reduced Cx43 expression in human diabetic retinopathy.
Taphonomic comparison of bones in mountain lion scats, coyote scats, golden eagle pellets, and great-horned owl pellets

Abstract Bones consumed by carnivores and raptors, and subsequently deposited on the landscape in scats and pellets, respectively, can make up a considerable portion of the faunal remains recovered by North American archaeologists, particularly in caves and rockshelters. This paper compares and contrasts bones recovered from the scats of the mountain lion and coyote, as well as from the pellets of the great-horned owl and golden eagle. Bones in lion scats, coyote scats, and eagle pellets all may be relatively large in size, and display considerable etching, corrosion, and polishing, although bones in coyote scats tend to be smaller in size compared to those in lion scats. Bones in great-horned owl pellets tend to be larger in size and show much less degree of corrosion and polishing compared to the scats and eagle pellet bones.
Surrogate Decision-Making: Judgment Standard Preferences of Older Adults

Abstract This qualitative study examines the judgment standard preferences of older adults related to surrogate decision-making for medical treatment. Thirty community dwelling adults over the age of 60 were presented with scenarios that depicted three decision-making standards, two of which are the predominant legal standards (substituted judgment and best interests), and a proposed third standard that allows the surrogate to consider the interests of the family in the decision-making process (best judgment). Half of the sample preferred substituted judgment, five preferred best interests, and ten chose best judgment. Selected cases are presented that demonstrate the themes associated with each judgment Standard preference.
RULES OF CONDUCT AND THE PERFORMANCE OF OCCUPATIONAL SKILL

Summary.-Information may be directly relevant to rules of performance or nor. Performance of occupational skills is determined by technical or by social rules. The incompatibility of social and technical rules results in one form of role conflict. Types of resolutions of such a conFlict are discussed. Occupational information is knowledge of the subject matter of an occupation. It may be based on past practice of skill, i.e., on "practical experience," or on what a person has perceived (heard, read, seen, etc.) independent of such practical experience.l Information may be viewed as controlling the exercise of skill. While any information may have such controlling effects, from the present perspective, some information is relevant to occupational skill (i.e., has controlling effects) and some is irrelevant. Different subgroups within an occupation (e.g., teachers and practitioners) often vary in the information considered relevant by their members. Rules and usages are of particular importance in the control of skill. Such knowledge determines which of several alternate skills should be performed, whether and when to perform a skill, etc. Two types of rules may be distinguished, technical and social.' Technical rules are concerned with the objective feasibility and likelihood of success of specific persons, using certain skills under certain conditions. These n~les tend to be considered "logical" or "scientific." They are based on the current colzception of what is correct; at some later time such conceptions may be shown to be incorrect. Social controls of skill include the formal and informal rules, expectations, etc., of society as a whole or of subsections of it, such as occlipational associations, ethnic groups and clans. Thus, no matter how technically feasible, abortions tend to be illegal. Similarly, no matter how technically appropriate, it would not be advisable to CLI~ a person's hair without his consent or to build a house without obtaining permission from some city agency. Many skills are not practiced on weekends or holidays, whether this be for religious or secular reasons. The rules of oca~pational organizations, particularly those of professional societies with their code of ethics, are particularly important here." 'One would speculate that chis differs from practical experience in not involving propcioceptive feedback and the consequent change in body image. Tor a related conception, compare Znaniecki's (1940, p. 40) distinction between "technical knowledge" and "common knowledge." 'From the frame of reference of psychoanalysis, technical constraints would be analogous to ego controls, social constraints to superego controls. Social controls are also related to
Subspace Clustering of DNA Microarray Data: Theory, Evaluation, and Applications

Identification of biological significant subspace clusters biclusters and triclusters of genes from microarray experimental data is a very daunting task that emerged, especially with the development of high throughput technologies. Several methods and applications of subspace clustering biclustering and triclustering in DNA microarray data analysis have been developed in recent years. Various computational and evaluation methods based on diverse principles were introduced to identify new similarities among genes. This review discusses and compares these methods, highlights their mathematical principles, and provides insight into the applications to solve biological problems.
Analysis for Measles Antibody and Susceptibility in Tianjin Municipality

Objective To evaluate the measles antibody level in different birth cohorts and the susceptibility to measles.Methods Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)to detect measles Immunoglobulin(Ig)G and comparing measles antibody positive rate and geometric mean concentration(GMC)in different birth cohorts according to measles immunization history. Logistic regression was used to analyze odds ratio(OR)for infecting measles.Results A total of 4544 persons were investigated in 2007-2011. The positive rate of measles antibody was 92.10%. GMC was 1201.06mIU/ml. The measles antibody positive rate of people born in 1972-1981 was lowest(91.22%) with OR as 8.09. The antibody positivity of children aged from 6 to 7 months was 24.68%among the children under 1 year old who are the highest risk(OR=20.05). The antibody positive rate was the highest among 0-9 years old age group with measles-containing vaccine(MCV)vaccinated≥3 doses. Conclusion Young adults and infants are susceptible to measles. Special measures should be taken. Routine immunization with 3 doses of MCV can effectively maintain the immunity barrier, and reduce the risk of measles infection.
Integrated optimization model of pedestrian-public transit emergency evacuation

Aiming at emergent event in large-scale public,an integrated optimization model of emergency evacuation was developed based on public transit.In the model,the problem of emergency evacuation was summarized as a two-level optimization network including pedestrian traffic flow and public transit network.The first-level framework guided evacuees from accident sites(e.g.buildings)to designated pick-up points(e.g.bus stops).The second-level framework properly dispatched and routed a fleet of buses at different transit depots to the pick-up points,and transported evacuees to safe places finally.Integrated optimization model was tested and verified by using a two-stage heuristic algorithm based on tabu search.Verification result indicates that 8buses are used for the evacuation of all 328people in the network.The output result of integrated optimization model is not sensitive to the change of weight assignment of objective function,so the model has strong robustness.Comparing with the optimization software of CPLEX,heuristic algorithm can get near optimum solution in 1h,and the error between near optimum solution and optimal solution is less than 15%.The interactions betweenevacuees distribution and bus route optimization are fully considered in the model.The pedestrian traffic flow and the public transit network during evacuation process are concurrently optimized.9tabs,5figs,21refs.
Consideration on Implementing the System of Teaching Inspection in Universities

The teaching supervision system will have to be put in practice in colleges and universities with the reform of higher education system.It is very useful and necessary to improve teaching quality and to cultivate students with ability.We must think about how to consummate the teaching supervision system and how to improve supervision efficiency,etc.
Design and Implementation of Multi Channel Read-Out and Level 2 Storage for Time Measurement Chip

This paper describes the design, implementation, and testing of a multichannel read-out and level 2 buffering circuit for a time measurement chip, L2I. L2I version 1.0 interfaces a four-channel version of the Time Measurement Cell (TMC) with the next level in the front-end electronics chain, the Data Collection Chip (DCC) for read-out of the SDC straw tracking detector. The chip was implemented as a standard cell design, except for a full-custom SRAM block, and fabricated in a 1.2 /ira n-well CMOS process. The total area of the chip including pads and off-chip driving circuitry is 12 ram2. Power consumption during full-speed operation is 12 mW. High level simulation of the circuitry was performed using Verilog HDL, and detailed timing simulations were carried out with Hspice. The chip was tested on an HP82000 IC test-station and was found functional with a minor design error in the control path.
Alexander Hamilton and the New Republic’s Creole Complex

During the past few decades, scholars of American literature and culture have had much to say about Thomas Jefferson’s iconographic status in the national imaginary, specifically about Jefferson’s mythic vision for the United States as an “empire for liberty” as expressed in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) and later writings. This chapter will not argue against the significance of a Jefferson-centered understanding of national character and literary and cultural formation in the New Republic. Rather, it intends to complicate such an understanding by providing an alternative locus for situating such discussions, one centered on Jefferson’s arch-rival, Alexander Hamilton.
Benzodiazepine receptor-mediated experimental ‘anxiety’ in rhesus monkeys after infusion of 3-carboethoxy-ß-carboline (ß-CCE)

The presence of specific recognition (viz. receptor) sites for benzodiazepines in brain that are functionally (and perhaps structurally) coupled to both recognition sites for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and a chloride ionophore has been firmly established (cf. Tallman et al., 1980; Paul et al., 1981; Skolnick and Paul, 1982). Both direct and indirect evidence suggest that this ‘supramolecular complex’ mediates the pharmacological actions of benzodiazepines as well as other structurally unrelated compounds which share common properties with the benzodiazepines (Paul et al., 1981; Skolnick and Paul, 1982). Whether this supramolecular complex has a physiological role in the absence of an exogenous ligand (drug) has been a source of considerable speculation, particularly regarding its function in the pathophysiology of anxiety and related disorders (cf. Paul and Skolnick, 1981).
Hidden Markov Model Implementation for Prediction of Stock Prices with TF-IDF features

Stock data analysis is challenging research area. The proposed analysis works on online news data for prediction of stock market states such as high, low etc. The Hidden Markov Model along with features extracted such as TF-IDF is used to find out next day's stock market value for group of companies. The method can be further extended to adjustment of probability values to calculate tuned model for prediction.
Assessing the developing knowledge-base of product counterfeiting: a content analysis of four decades of research

Considering the steady and rapid growth of product counterfeiting and the damage it causes to society, it is important for criminology and criminal justice scholars to assist criminal justice officials, industry practitioners, and law makers in understanding the product counterfeiting problem and developing strategies to combat it. However, for researchers to be effective in their advisory role they must first establish what is known about product counterfeiting. As a first step in this process, we investigated relevant published research through a content analysis of 47 articles discussing product counterfeiting published in criminal justice and criminology journals through 2014. We analyzed various characteristics about the articles themselves, their authors, the journals they appeared in, and the nature and extent of their focus on product counterfeiting. We conclude this study with an evaluation of the state of product counterfeiting research and recommendations for future research.
Clustering dictionary definitions using Amazon Mechanical Turk

Vocabulary tutors need word sense disambiguation (WSD) in order to provide exercises and assessments that match the sense of words being taught. Using expert annotators to build a WSD training set for all the words supported would be too expensive. Crowdsourcing that task seems to be a good solution. However, a first required step is to define what the possible sense labels to assign to word occurrence are. This can be viewed as a clustering task on dictionary definitions. This paper evaluates the possibility of using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to carry out that prerequisite step to WSD. We propose two different approaches to using a crowd to accomplish clustering: one where the worker has a global view of the task, and one where only a local view is available. We discuss how we can aggregate multiple workers' clusters together, as well as pros and cons of our two approaches. We show that either approach has an interannotator agreement with experts that corresponds to the agreement between experts, and so using MTurk to cluster dictionary definitions appears to be a reliable approach.
Systemic sclerosis in 2016: Dermal white adipose tissue implicated in SSc pathogenesis.

Several strands of new research indicate that skin-specific adipocyte progenitor cells regulate myofibroblasts and skin fibrosis in scleroderma.
Thyroid cancer surgery guidelines in an era of de-escalation

Well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma has seen a tremendous rise in global incidence over the past three decades, largely owing to widespread screening and identification of small, incidentally detected tumors. With this increased incidence has emerged a movement questioning whether all cases of thyroid cancer merit a treatment approach focused on oncologic completeness. Such trends towards thoughtful, evidence-based treatment de-escalation paradigms reflect better risk stratification of thyroid cancers, and recognition that not all detected disease poses a threat to health or survival. Thus, national and professional guidelines are evolving to incorporate higher thresholds for surgery, acceptance of less than total thyroidectomy in specific circumstances, higher thresholds for adjuvant therapy, and introduction of the role of active surveillance for selected cases of low risk disease. Despite these common themes, there are significant differences among guidelines. This lack of consensus in guidelines persists due to variation in clinical practice patterns, differences in consideration and interpretation of existing evidence, cultural and geographical considerations, and resources available for both diagnosis and treatment.
Monolayer graphene-insulator-semiconductor emitter for large-area electron lithography

The rapid adoption of nanotechnology in fields as varied as semiconductors, energy, and medicine requires the continual improvement of nanopatterning tools. Lithography is central to this evolving nanotechnology landscape, but current production systems are subject to high costs, low throughput, or low resolution. Herein, we present a solution to these problems with the use of monolayer graphene in a graphene-insulator-semiconductor (GIS) electron emitter device for large-area electron lithography. Our GIS device displayed high emission efficiency (up to 13%) and transferred large patterns (500 × 500 μm) with high fidelity (<50% spread). The performance of our device demonstrates a feasible path to dramatic improvements in lithographic patterning systems, enabling continued progress in existing industries and opening opportunities in nanomanufacturing.
Symmetries and Non-relativistic Quantum Fields

In our study (chapters 25 and 26) of quantization using complex structures on phase space, we found that using the Poisson bracket, quadratic polynomials of the (complexified) phase space coordinates provided a symplectic Lie algebra \(\mathfrak {sp}(2d,\mathbf C)\), with a distinguished \(\mathfrak {gl}(d,\mathbf C)\) sub-Lie algebra determined by the complex structure (see section 25.2). In section 25.3, we saw that these quadratic polynomials could be quantized as quadratic combinations of the annihilation and creation operators, giving a representation on the harmonic oscillator state space, one that was unitary on the unitary sub-Lie algebra \(\mathfrak {u}(d)\subset \mathfrak {gl}(d,\mathbf C)\).
Slow Magnetic Relaxation in a Dysprosium Ammonia Metallocene Complex.

We report the serendipitous discovery and magnetic characterization of a dysprosium bis(ammonia) metallocene complex, [(C5Me5)2Dy(NH3)2](BPh4) (1), isolated in the course of performing a well-established synthesis of the unsolvated cationic complex [(C5Me5)2Dy][(μ-Ph)2BPh2]. While side reactivity studies suggest that this bis(ammonia) species owes its initial incidence to impurities in the DyCl3(H2O)x starting material, we were able to independently prepare 1 and its tetrahydrofuran (THF) derivative, [(C5Me5)2Dy(NH3)(THF)](BPh4) (2), from the reaction of [(C5Me5)2Dy][(μ-Ph)2BPh2] with ammonia in THF. The low-symmetry complex 1 exhibits slow magnetic relaxation under zero applied direct-current (dc) field to temperatures as high as 46 K and notably exhibits an effective barrier to magnetic relaxation that is more than 150% greater than that previously reported for the [(C5Me5)2Ln][(μ-Ph)2BPh2] precursor. On the basis of fitting of the temperature-dependent relaxation data, magnetic relaxation is found to o...
Robot manipulation of 3D cylindrical objects with a robot-mounted 2D vision camera

Position measurements of objects (or parts) have always been one of the most important requirements in industrial robot applications. Machine vision has been one of the promising solutions on detecting objects for enhanced robot intelligence. This paper addresses the common problems and solutions related to developing vision-guided industrial robot applications with the use of two-dimensional (2D) vision data for detecting three-dimensional (3D) cylindrical objects. The discussions include the robot reference frames and their transformations, 2D camera calibration and view positions, vision measurements, and robot programming for vision-guided robot motions and operations. Results of a 2D vision-guided FAUNC robot project are used to demonstrate solutions of the method.
Kostis Kornetis, Eirini Kotsovili and Nikolaos Papadogiannis, eds. Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s

Kostis Kornetis, Eirini Kotsovili, and Nikolaos Papadogiannis, eds. Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s . London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. xvi + 280 pp.
Kingella kingae meningitis with bilateral infarcts of the basal ganglia.

Kingella kingae was isolated for the first time from the cerebrospinal fluid in a 21-month-old Causasian girl with stomatitis and meningitis. A computed axial tomogram of the brain showed changes compatible with bilateral infarction of the basal ganglia. Ampicillin and chloramphenicol treatment was effective.
Ulnocarpal abutment : Treatment options

Ulnocarpal abutment presents a significant clinical challenge. In the last two decades, the anatomy of the ulnar side of the wrist and the pathophysiology of ulnocarpal abutment have been defined more clearly. Based on this greater understanding, a variety of treatments have been devised. This article reviews the current methods of treatment of ulnocarpal abutment.
Trends in Albuminuria and GFR Among Adolescents in the United States, 1988-2014.

Rationale & Objective Albuminuria and low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) define chronic kidney disease in adults and youth. Different from adults, the burden of abnormal kidney markers among youth in the general United States population is largely unknown. Study Design Serial cross-sectional national surveys. Setting & Participants Adolescents aged 12 to 18 years participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 1988 to 2014. Surveys were grouped into three 6-year periods. Predictors Demographic and clinical determinants of kidney markers. Outcome Prevalence and trends in persistent albuminuria, low ( Analytical Approach Outcomes defined as persistent albumin-creatinine ratio ≥ 30mg/g (persistent albuminuria), eGFR Results Prevalences of persistent albuminuria were 3.64% (95% CI, 1.82%-5.46%) in 1988-1994 and 3.29% (95% CI, 1.94%-4.63%) in 2009-2014 (adjusted prevalence ratio, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.53-1.62; P=0.8 for trend). Prevalences of reduced eGFR were 31.46% (95% CI, 28.42%-34.67%) and 34.58% (95% CI, 32.07%-37.18%), respectively (adjusted prevalence ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.00-1.46; P Limitations Persistent albuminuria data were based on imputed values (for second assessment of albuminuria) in 91% of participants; lack of second eGFR assessment to confirm sustained reduction in kidney function. Conclusions Albuminuria prevalence has not changed significantly in the US adolescent population between 1988 and 2014. Prevalences of both reduced and low eGFRs were higher in the most recent study period; however,
Plant Physiological Responses to Rising CO2 Modify Simulated Daily Runoff Intensity With Implications for Global-Scale Flood Risk Assessment

Author(s): Kooperman, GJ; Fowler, MD; Hoffman, FM; Koven, CD; Lindsay, K; Pritchard, MS; Swann, ALS; Randerson, JT | Abstract: Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of flooding events and, thus, the risks of flood-related mortality and infrastructure damage. Global-scale assessments of future flooding from Earth system models based only on precipitation changes neglect important processes that occur within the land surface, particularly plant physiological responses to rising CO2. Higher CO2 can reduce stomatal conductance and transpiration, which may lead to increased soil moisture and runoff in some regions, promoting flooding even without changes in precipitation. Here we assess the relative impacts of plant physiological and radiative greenhouse effects on changes in daily runoff intensity over tropical continents using the Community Earth System Model. We find that extreme percentile rates increase significantly more than mean runoff in response to higher CO2. Plant physiological effects have a small impact on precipitation intensity but are a dominant driver of runoff intensification, contributing to one half of the 99th and one third of the 99.9th percentile runoff intensity changes.
Organic selenium synergizes with tamoxifen to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells and inhibit tamoxifen-sensitive and -resistant breast cancer xenografts

4293 Tamoxifen is widely prescribed as hormonal therapy for breast cancer and as a chemopreventative. Tamoxifen binds to estrogen receptor (ER) and antagonizes estrogen-mediated breast cancer growth. Despite the benefits of tamoxifen, almost all tamoxifen-responsive patients develop resistance to therapy. Selenium is an essential micronutrient currently in clinical trials for cancer prevention. Recent evidence now demonstrates the potential of utilizing selenium in a new way: as a novel therapy for overt cancer through combination with well-established chemotherapeutic and hormonal agents. We previously showed that organic selenium disrupts ERα signaling via downregulation of ERα and that selenium potentiates tamoxifen efficacy in tamoxifen-sensitive breast cancer cells and restored tamoxifen sensitivity in tamoxifen-resistant cells. The present work extends these studies to examine the effects of selenium + tamoxifen on apoptosis and growth of human breast cancer xenografts. Methylseleninic acid (MSA, 10 μM), a nontoxic, monomethylated form of selenium, but not 4-hydroxytamoxifen (10-7M), induced apoptosis of tamoxifen-sensitive MCF-7 cells and -resistant MCF-7-LCC2 cells in vitro as measured by quantitation of histone-associated DNA fragments. Remarkably, addition of tamoxifen to MSA resulted in synergistic apoptosis in both cell lines. In both MCF7 and MCF7-LCC2 cells, MSA and MSA + tamoxifen activated Bim, cytochrome-C, PARP, and caspases 7, 8, 9 but not caspases 2, 6, 10, 12 as measured by Western blot. Inhibitors of caspase 8 (Z-IETD-FMK, 20 μM) and 9 (Z-LEHD-FMK, 20 μM) blocked MSA + tamoxifen induced apoptosis. These data support a model in which MSA or MSA + tamoxifen activate the intrinsic, mitochondrial apoptotic pathway with cross-talk to caspase 8. Methylselenocysteine (MSC) was used in in vivo studies for reasons of efficacy, lack of toxicity, and recent approval for human clinical trials. 5 x 106 MCF-7 cells were bilaterally injected into mammary fat pads of ovariectomized nu/nu mice and implanted with an estradiol pellet (0.72 mg) until palpable tumor (10 days). At day 10, administration of either MSC (100 μg/mouse/day IP) or tamoxifen (5 mg implant) for an additional 30 days did not significantly alter estrogen-stimulated tumor growth. However, co-administration of MSC with tamoxifen completely suppressed growth of MCF-7 tumors. These data indicate that elevated apoptosis may underlie synergistic growth inhibition of breast cancer by combination of organic selenium with tamoxifen. Combination of selenium with tamoxifen may delay the onset of tamoxifen resistance while simultaneously improving therapeutic efficacy.
Addressing the challenges of new decentralized flour mills in alternative agriculture and food systems: a study on grain aging prior to whole wheat milling

Entrepreneurship in grain infrastructure has emerged in the development of new wheat supply chains from farm to market to support alternative agriculture and food systems. This includes the establi...
What determines the public’s support for water quality regulations to mitigate agricultural runoff?

Abstract For many freshwater systems, mitigating agricultural runoff of nutrients is a key requirement for curbing eutrophication and reducing subsequent ecological threats. However, defining the best way to achieve reductions in agricultural runoff can be a contentious issue. A policy debate is currently unfolding in Ohio focused on whether the state government should introduce regulatory policies on agriculture to reduce nutrient loadings from watersheds in an attempt to also reduce harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. To inform policy development, we used a survey instrument to gauge public acceptance of regulatory policies and examined the psychological determinants of Ohio residents’ support for a regulatory policy proposal that would introduce fines on excessive agricultural runoff. We designed a survey instrument with nine predictors of people’s willingness to support regulations: 1) effectiveness of voluntary programs, 2) risk perception, 3) water quality perception, 4) trust in farmers, 5) trust in state government, 6) belief about fertilizer runoff as a major cause of HABs, 7) belief that farmers alone should not bear the burden to restore water quality in Lake Erie, 8) belief that regulation is necessary to keep farmers accountable, and 9) belief that regulation harms economy and employment. We also measured variables that represented different levels of self-interests, awareness of reduction goals, political party affiliation, and demographic characteristics. We collected a sample of 1000 respondents, who were representative of Ohio residents by age, gender, race, and education level. Most predictors were significant and in the directions hypothesized, with exception of water quality perception and belief about regulation and jobs. One’s a priori belief that regulations are necessary to keep farmers accountable for their land management practices had the largest enhancing effect for accepting a regulatory policy of fines, while trust for farmers had the largest inhibiting effect. In comparison, water quality perception was not significant in predicting individual policy attitudes. This study informs the public engagement and communication efforts and suggest directions for future research on public policy support.
The clinical impact of ASCO “choosing wisely” recommendations on staging imaging for early stage breast cancers: An interrupted time-series analysis utilizing SEER-Medicare data.

2078Background: The “Choosing Wisely” (CW) list, released by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), highlights low-value procedures. In 2012, the CW recommendations advised against the ...
The Representation Gap and Political Sophistication: A Contrarian Perspective:

Political behavior research persistently questions the ability of the average citizen to make voting choices that accurately represent their political views. We argue that voters’ choices should be...
Detecting and Exorcising Statistical Demons from Language Models with Anti-Models of Negative Data.

It's been said that "Language Models are Unsupervised Multitask Learners." Indeed, self-supervised language models trained on "positive" examples of English text generalize in desirable ways to many natural language tasks. But if such models can stray so far from an initial self-supervision objective, a wayward model might generalize in undesirable ways too, say to nonsensical "negative" examples of unnatural language. A key question in this work is: do language models trained on (positive) training data also generalize to (negative) test data? We use this question as a contrivance to assess the extent to which language models learn undesirable properties of text, such as n-grams, that might interfere with the learning of more desirable properties of text, such as syntax. We find that within a model family, as the number of parameters, training epochs, and data set size increase, so does a model's ability to generalize to negative n-gram data, indicating standard self-supervision generalizes too far. We propose a form of inductive bias that attenuates such undesirable signals with negative data distributions automatically learned from positive data. We apply the method to remove n-gram signals from LSTMs and find that doing so causes them to favor syntactic signals, as demonstrated by large error reductions (up to 46% on the hardest cases) on a syntactic subject-verb agreement task.
Attitudes of Homebound Older Adults and Their Caregivers Toward Research and Participation as Research Advisors.

Background and objectives Homebound older adults and their caregivers have not historically been engaged as advisors in patient-centered outcomes research. This study aimed to understand the attitudes of homebound older adults and their caregivers towards research and participation as research advisors. Research design and methods Descriptive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 homebound older adults and caregivers recruited from home-based medical care practices. Interview questions addressed opinions on research and preferences for engaging as research advisors. Results Of 30 participants, 22 were female, 17 were people of color, and 11 had Medicaid. Two themes emerged related to perceptions of research overall: 1) utility of research and 2) relevance of research. Overall, participants reported positive attitudes towards research and felt that research could affect people like them. Three themes emerged related to participating as research advisors: 1) motivators, 2) barriers, and 3) preferences. Participants were open to engaging in a variety of activities as research advisors. Most participants were motivated by helping others. Common barriers included time constraints and caregiving responsibilities, and physical barriers for homebound individuals. Participants also reported fears such as lacking the skills or expertise to contribute as advisors. Many were willing to participate if these barriers were accommodated and shared their communication preferences. Discussion and implications Diverse homebound older adults and caregivers are willing to be engaged as research advisors and provided information to inform future engagement strategies. Findings can inform efforts to meet new age-inclusive requirements of the National Institutes of Health.
Analysis on Vacuum Type On-load Tap-Changer about Abnormal Increase of Acetylene Content in Oil Chromatography

Taking an abnormal increase of acetylene content in oil chromatogram of 220kV transformer vacuum type on-load tap-changer as an example, the diagnosis method is introduced. In the case of no abnormality found in conventional DC resistance, voltage ratio and DC compound switching waveform test, the diverter switch of on-load tap-changer is inspected by hanging core. The full step switching waveform is acquired by DC power supply and oscilloscope, the abnormal situation of voltage waveform is analyzed, and the defect location is accurately judged by combining the disassembly inspection and the principle of switching steps. The results show that the interior resistance chip of the transition resistance has poor contact, overheating and low-energy discharge during the switching process cause the cracking of insulating oil to produce acetylene.
A Roadmap for Automating Lineage Tracing to Aid Automatically Explaining Machine Learning Predictions for Clinical Decision Support.

Using machine learning predictive models for clinical decision support has great potential in improving patient outcomes and reducing health care costs. However, most machine learning models are black boxes that do not explain their predictions, thereby forming a barrier to clinical adoption. To overcome this barrier, an automated method was recently developed to provide rule-style explanations of any machine learning model’s predictions on tabular data and to suggest customized interventions. Each explanation delineates the association between a feature value pattern and an outcome value. Although the association and intervention information is useful, the user of the automated explaining function often requires more detailed information to better understand the patient’s situation and to aid in decision making. More specifically, consider a feature value in the explanation that is computed by an aggregation function on the raw data, such as the number of emergency department visits related to asthma that the patient had in the prior 12 months. The user often wants to rapidly drill through to see certain parts of the related raw data that produce the feature value. This task is frequently difficult and time-consuming because the few pieces of related raw data are submerged by many pieces of raw data of the patient that are unrelated to the feature value. To address this issue, this paper outlines an automated lineage tracing approach, which adds automated drill-through capability to the automated explaining function, and provides a roadmap for future research.