cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cord Blood Graft Thawing

About 2500 transplantations using cord blood (CB) units for hematopoietic reconstitution are performed each year in the world. Their advantages, compared to other allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) sources such as peripheral blood and bone marrow, are that CB HPCs allow higher HLA mismatch, result in lower GvHD rates, and are readily available for transplantation. Since CB units are small-dose, cryopreserved, and irreplaceable products, their preparation for transplantation is relatively more complex than other HPC sources. Additionally, each cord blood bank (CBB) uses slightly different methods to collect, process, and cryopreserve CB units, increasing the complexity of their processing. In order to determine how to prepare CB units for infusion, transplant centers need to assess multiple factors including transplant program setting, patient demographics, and availability of trained laboratory staff.
Understanding contributing factors to verbal coercion while studying abroad

Objective: Verbal coercion (VC) is a common sexual assault (SA) tactic whereby men and women can be victims or perpetrators. College study abroad students report engagement in casual sex, alcohol c...
Protein Structure Comparison and Visualization Tools on Cloud Platform

The biological function of a protein molecule is decided by its 3D-shape, which eventually determines how the molecule interacts with other molecules in living cells. Identifying similar structures between proteins provide the opportunity to recognize homology that is undetectable by sequence comparison. Thus comparison and alignment of protein structures represents a powerful means of discovering functions, yielding direct insight into the molecular mechanisms.
5.07 – Force Measurements

Direct measurement of force produced by an operator on a tool during a job can be a difficult task, especially if this measurement needs to be done on many tools and many different jobs in short succession. Typically, indirect methods, such as grip force distributions with force-sensing resistors, either applied to the tool directly or, more efficiently, built in to a ‘touch glove’ worn by the operator, are utilized. Sometimes, even more indirect measurements, such as electromyography measurements of the muscles utilized by the operator, are used to estimate the forces utilized on the task. Such indirect measurements are quite good for obtaining a relative comparison of force levels required between different jobs or comparing different methods or tools utilized on the same job.
TIME AND HISTORY, DIVISIONS

Archaeologists and geologists use hierarchical time scales based on sequences of events. The scale can be in relative (non-numerical) time or numerical (absolute) time depending on the data source. These sequences then can be correlated from place to place to determine the relation of events in space and time. The archaeological time scale that represents the presence of humans on Earth is only about one-thousandth of the Earth's history. The material used for dating, the interpretation of data, and their correlation are discussed.
Otitis Media and Its Relationship to Allergy

The importance of infection in the etiology of otitis media and the role of eustachian tube obstruction in the pathogenesis of otitis media with effusion are well known. Recently, allergic rhinitis has been documented to induce eustachian tube obstruction. When allergic rhinitis is diagnosed in a child with recurrent or chronic middle ear disease, allergy should be considered as another risk factor for the development of otitis media with effusion.
Endometrial Stem Cells as Potential Cures for Human Diseases

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with the potential to both self-replicate and give rise to other more differentiated cell types. They have tremendous medical potential for use in tissue repair and regeneration and engender optimism for treating some of the most catastrophic illnesses that still lack reliable therapy. Adult stem cells are particularly well suited for immediate therapeutic application; they are immunologically identical to the individual from whom they are obtained, typically do not lead to teratoma formation, and do not need genetic transformation. Further, they can often be differentiated using specific culture techniques and defined media without transfection. These characteristics have already allowed the use of adult stem cells in several clinical applications. We show in preliminary data that human endometrium contains multipotent mesenchymal stem cells that can be differentiated into chondrocytes, adipocytes, myocytes, neurons, and pancreatic beta-like cells that secrete insulin.
Building a structural model for understanding school readiness

Factors that affect children’s school readiness potential are evident from birth. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses that certain factors related to family risk conditions...
Impact damping ratio of a nonlinear viscoelastic foam

Abstract Damping is an important parameter to measure the energy dissipated by a cushion foam during an impact. Damping is commonly characterized by damping indices such as damping ratio, loss factor, and tangent of the phase lag. In general, these indices are defined based on steady-state harmonic oscillations of a single degree of freedom, linear viscoelastic model, with an inertia and low damping. When any of these assumptions are violated, the simple linear relationships relating the different damping indices are no longer valid. A steady-state linear model is not well suited for describing impact damping of nonlinear cushion foams. This study reviews classical damping theory and linear and nonlinear viscoelastic models, and proposes a contact force law based nonlinear viscoelastic model for modeling drop platen tests (impact) of a cushion foam. Based on this nonlinear model, a mathematical relationship between the specific damping capacity and damping ratio is formulated. Drop platen tests were carried out under different loading weights and drop heights. The raw data were channeled into dynamic force-deflection curves for calculating analytically specific damping capacity and impact damping ratio. The raw data were also imported into Matlab to develop the numeric impact model for calculating the impact damping ratios. The results show that the nonlinear viscoelastic model, both analytic and numeric, yield damping ratios that are 3–5 times larger than the linear viscoelastic model. The proposed nonlinear viscoelastic model is shown to be an effective tool to describe impact damping and cushion characteristics of a polymer foam. For cushion design, damping ratios of a nonlinear cushion foam are affected by loading weight and strain rate. In addition, the analytical computation of damping ratio, ζ, from specific damping capacity, D, opens up the possibility to project impact damping ratios based on quasi-static compression tests.
David Oliver: Incendiary healthcare hashtags.

I probably spend too much time on “healthcare” Twitter. Twitter is a fantastic place for learning, sharing, networking, and debate. It can be compulsive and distracting, joyous, warm, and enlightening. It’s also sometimes fractious, factional, and shouty, leaving users upset. The ongoing saga of the #doctorsaredickheads hashtag is a prime example. Healthcare workers, researchers, reporters, and policy makers can use Twitter to engage directly with people who use services and with the wider public, who in turn use Twitter for peer support, discussion, lobbying, and speaking directly to people in power (including clinical professionals). They also use it for sharing experiences of illness, including frustrations with health services. Sometimes on Twitter these professional and patient circles intersect and something sparks, as with #doctorsaredickheads. This hashtag …
Clinical management of herpes simplex virus infections: past, present, and future.

Infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2 is ubiquitous in the human population. Most commonly, virus replication is limited to the epithelia and establishes latency in enervating sensory neurons, reactivating periodically to produce localized recurrent lesions. However, these viruses can also cause severe disease such as recurrent keratitis leading potentially to blindness, as well as encephalitis, and systemic disease in neonates and immunocompromised patients. Although antiviral therapy has allowed continual and substantial improvement in the management of both primary and recurrent infections, resistance to currently available drugs and long-term toxicity pose a current and future threat that should be addressed through the development of new antiviral compounds directed against new targets. The development of several promising HSV vaccines has been terminated recently because of modest or controversial therapeutic effects in humans. Nevertheless, several exciting vaccine candidates remain in the pipeline and are effective in animal models; these must also be tested in humans for sufficient therapeutic effects to warrant continued development. Approaches using compounds that modulate the chromatin state of the viral genome to suppress infection and reactivation or induce enhanced antiviral immunity have potential. In addition, technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 have the potential to edit latent viral DNA in sensory neurons, potentially curing the neuron and patient of latent infection. It is hoped that development on all three fronts—antivirals, vaccines, and gene editing—will lead to substantially less HSV morbidity in the future.
Geospatial Big Data Processing in Hybrid Cloud Environments

The importance of big geospatial data hosted on cloud environments is constantly growing. Main reasons are the rapid increase in volume of remote sensing data, the trend to persistently store and share more in-situ data at higher sampling rates, and the reduced management overhead of data hosted on commercial cloud platforms compared to in-house solutions. At the same time, cloud computing has the advantage of high scalability (and often reliability) and the capability to match the increasing computational requirements entailed by Big Data processing. This paper discusses interoperability and portability issues of cloud computing architectures and introduces a standards-based architecture to facilitate geospatial big data processing in hybrid cloud environments by leveraging and extending standards released by the Open Geospatial Consortium, OGC.
Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy: The Matrix Method, 3rd Edition

By Judith Garrard, Ph.D. Published by Jones & Bartlett Learning, 5 Wall Street, Burlington, MA 01803, 2011. 211 p. Price $64.95. This book describes a process to help students understand scientific literature, using the Matrix Method to critically evaluate articles. Each chapter concludes with an
Biomass and lipid productivity of Dunaliella tertiolecta in a produced water-based medium over a range of salinities

Dunaliella tertiolecta was grown in an oilfield-produced water-based medium (PW) over a wide range of salinities (30–210 g total dissolved solids (TDS) L−1). Similar biomass productivity was observed from 30 to 120 g TDS L−1 with decreased growth at the higher salinities of 180 and 210 g TDS L−1. Biomass productivity in all PW conditions was higher than in the commercial f/2 algae growth medium (35 g TDS L−1), which may have been the result of higher bicarbonate concentration of the PW (20 vs. 2 mM). In the lower salinity conditions (30 and 60 g TDS L−1), the total lipid component of biomass was highest at about 35–40% coinciding with nutrient depletion (nitrogen and phosphorus). The lipid fraction then decreased in the nutrient-depleted media as the culture added biomass. Early lipid enrichment in the 30 and 60 g TDS L−1 conditions coincided with peak pH which likely represented maximum bicarbonate uptake. The higher salinities tested (120, 180, and 210 g TDS L−1) displayed a different pattern of an increasing lipid fraction of biomass in a nutrient-depleted media until stationary phase (peak total lipid fraction approximately 31–34%). Fatty acid methyl ester profiles (FAME) at all salinities tested were dominated by C16:0 with a lesser amount of unsaturated C18 carbon chains and should produce a quality biodiesel. The characteristic of the FAME did not vary considerably by salinity. Increased biomass and lipid productivity might result from utilizing hypersaline PW with high bicarbonate concentrations (often already present) for algae cultivation.
Esophagogastric Fundoplication (Open and MIS Approaches)

This chapter describes the surgical procedure for esophagogastric fundoplication as performed by the following approaches: open and MIS. The text includes an introduction that outlines the indications, risks, alternatives, essential steps, needed equipment, and variations in technique for the procedure in question. This is followed by a template operative dictation, which provides the reader with an operative report, such as is found in a patient chart or electronic medical record. A description is provided of the following critical concepts for this procedure: enter the gastrohepatic ligament at the pars flaccida, expose the right and left crus, circumferentially expose of the esophagus, preserve the vagus nerves, close the crura, mobilize gastric fundus by dividing short gastric vessels, pass the fundus behind the esophagus to create a loose wrap, and suture the fundus to itself.
Kinetic Modeling of Coagulation and Fibrinolysis

Abstract Thromboelastic testing provides an assessment of a patient’s coagulation and fibrinolytic systems. In recent years, thromboelastic testing has become an important point of care technique. However, its direct connection with the underlying biochemistry of coagulation and clot formation is not obvious. Toward this issue, we describe a validated reduced order mathematical model of coagulation and fibrinolysis, consisting of 22 ordinary differential equations, which described clot formation from initiation of the coagulation cascade through the degradation of polymerized fibrin by plasmin. We trained the model via leave one out cross validation on ROTEM measurements, a common thromboelastic test, on four patients, and then predicted ROTEM trajectories on four unseen patients, in whole blood and whole blood with the addition of 2 nM tissue plasminogen activator. Following model validation, sensitivity analysis suggested which biochemical interactions and species controlled the system response. Lastly, we investigated if we could estimate protein concentrations from commonly reported thromboelastic metrics. These estimation studies suggested we could (on average) relearn the initial fibrinogen concentration to within 20% of its true value. Taken together, this work presents a model which connects the underlying biochemistry of coagulation and clot formation in patients to a common point of care thrombelastographic test.
Influenza A Virus Field Surveillance at a Swine-Human Interface

ABSTRACT While working overnight at a swine exhibition, we identified an influenza A virus (IAV) outbreak in swine, Nanopore sequenced 13 IAV genomes from samples we collected, and predicted in real time that these viruses posed a novel risk to humans due to genetic mismatches between the viruses and current prepandemic candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs). We developed and used a portable IAV sequencing and analysis platform called Mia (Mobile Influenza Analysis) to complete and characterize full-length consensus genomes approximately 18 h after unpacking the mobile lab. Exhibition swine are a known source for zoonotic transmission of IAV to humans and pose a potential pandemic risk. Genomic analyses of IAV in swine are critical to understanding this risk, the types of viruses circulating in swine, and whether current vaccines developed for use in humans would be predicted to provide immune protection. Nanopore sequencing technology has enabled genome sequencing in the field at the source of viral outbreaks or at the bedside or pen-side of infected humans and animals. The acquired data, however, have not yet demonstrated real-time, actionable public health responses. The Mia system rapidly identified three genetically distinct swine IAV lineages from three subtypes, A(H1N1), A(H3N2), and A(H1N2). Analysis of the hemagglutinin (HA) sequences of the A(H1N2) viruses identified >30 amino acid differences between the HA1 of these viruses and the most closely related CVV. As an exercise in pandemic preparedness, all sequences were emailed to CDC collaborators who initiated the development of a synthetically derived CVV. IMPORTANCE Swine are influenza virus reservoirs that have caused outbreaks and pandemics. Genomic characterization of these viruses enables pandemic risk assessment and vaccine comparisons, though this typically occurs after a novel swine virus jumps into humans. The greatest risk occurs where large groups of swine and humans comingle. At a large swine exhibition, we used Nanopore sequencing and on-site analytics to interpret 13 swine influenza virus genomes and identified an influenza virus cluster that was genetically highly varied to currently available vaccines. As part of the National Strategy for Pandemic Preparedness exercises, the sequences were emailed to colleagues at the CDC who initiated the development of a synthetically derived vaccine designed to match the viruses at the exhibition. Subsequently, this virus caused 14 infections in humans and was the dominant U.S. variant virus in 2018.
The Making of a Monarchical Republic: The Undoing of Presidential Term Limits in Gabon Under Omar Bongo

This paper offers an overview of the intricacies and complexities of the fifty-three-year-old reign of the Bongo regime in Gabon. It chronicles not only the opaque circumstances that brought Omar Bongo to power in 1967 but also the trajectory that enabled him to sustain his despotic rule over Gabon for almost 42 years and in a way that paved the way to the quasi dynastic succession that allowed his son to easily succeed him upon his death in 2009. Not only was Omar Bongo the longest-serving head of state in the world at the time of his death, Gabon is also now, arguably, the only so-called Republic, that is, the only non-officially monarchical system in the world, to have been ruled not only by the same family, but also by the same regime, for fifty-three years (and counting). This paper argues that at the core of this dynastic succession—and the “monarchical Republic” that ensued—was Omar Bongo’s ability to undo the presidential term-limit provisions that had been agreed upon by national consensus and erected in the constitution that followed the 1990 National Conference that brought multiparty politics back to the country after more than two decades of the absolutist dictatorship that had defined the politics of the country until then.
Comorbidities and Length of Stay in COPD Patients

Background: COPD has a significant burden on patients and the healthcare system. There is a link between COPD and comorbidities such as congestive heart failure (CHF), fluid and electrolyte disorders, and renal failure. This adds to the complexity of healthcare in these patients. The objective of this study is to determine if certain comorbidities affect length of stay. Methods: A sample of 3,399 patients with COPD were assessed from the Premier healthcare database. The cohort had a mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 68.41 (10.85) y. The average number of comorbidities was 24.83 (10.46) with a mean length of stay (SD) of 11.64 (9. 40) d. A negative binomial regression model was used to evaluate the impact that comorbidities have on the length of hospital stay. Results: A moderate positive correlation showed that as the number of comorbidities increases the length of stay increases (r = . 4634, P Conclusions: Renal failure was associated with a 50% greater length of stay (IRR = 1.50, 95%CI 1.45-1.55, P
High-Impact Practices: Evaluating Their Effect on College Completion:

Since the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) introduced high-impact practices (HIPs) in 2007, scholars have argued that students’ involvement in these programs is associated ...
Conformational landscape of non-B variants of HIV-1 protease: A pulsed EPR study

Abstract HIV infection is a global health epidemic with current FDA-approved HIV-1 Protease inhibitors (PIs) designed against subtype B protease, yet they are used in HIV treatment world-wide regardless of patient HIV classification. In this study, double electron-electron resonance (DEER) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was utilized to gain insights in how natural polymorphisms in several African and Brazilian protease (PR) variants affect the conformational landscape both in the absence and presence of inhibitors. Findings show that Subtypes F and H HIV-1 PR adopt a primarily closed conformation in the unbound state with two secondary mutations, D60E and I62V, postulated to be responsible for the increased probability for closed conformation. In contrast, subtype D, CRF_AG, and CRF_BF HIV-1 PR adopt a primarily semi-open conformation, as observed for PI-naive-subtype B when unbound by substrate or inhibitor. The impact that inhibitor binding has on shifting the conformational land scape of these variants is also characterized, where analysis provides classification of inhibitor induced shifts away from the semi-open state into weak, moderate and strong effects. The findings are compared to those for prior studies of inhibitor induced conformational shifts in PI-naive Subtype B, C and CRF_AE.
Employing corn derived products to reduce the corrosivity of pavement deicing materials

Abstract The goal of this study is to reduce the corrosivity of traditional pavement deicers by employing environmentally safe and low-cost corn-derived polyols namely sorbitol, mannitol, and maltitol. The corrosion inhibition performance of polyols-mixed deicers is investigated for ASTM A572 Gr. 50 high strength low alloy steels. For this purpose, each polyol is added to the traditional deicer (23.0% wt. sodium chloride brine) in the following weight concentrations: 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% and 3.0%. The corrosion behavior of ASTM A572 Gr. 50 high strength low alloy steel is then quantified by conducting potentiodynamic polarization tests in the absence and presence of different polyols concentrations in the deicing solution. In addition to the polarization tests, accelerated corrosion tests are performed by continuously subjecting ASTM A572 Gr. 50 steel specimens to the periodic flow of polyols-based deicers in a hot and humid environment inside an environmental chamber to visually monitor the corrosion damage in steel specimens. The results obtained from both polarization tests and accelerated corrosion tests revealed that the addition of small concentrations of corn-derived polyols in the traditional salt brine deicer leads to substantial corrosion inhibition (up to 92%) in the ASTM A572 Gr. 50 steel used in this study. All three polyols are observed to obey the Langmuir’s adsorption isotherm and inhibit the corrosion in ASTM A572 Gr. 50 steels through physical adsorption on the steel surface. The potentiodynamic polarization test results further indicated the mixed-type corrosion inhibiting nature of polyols-based deicing solutions.
Jump ship, shift gears, or just keep on chugging: Assessing the responses to tensions between theory and evidence in contemporary cosmology

Abstract When is it reasonable to abandon a scientific research program? When would it be premature? We take up these questions in the context of a contemporary debate at the border between astrophysics and cosmology, the so-called “small-scale challenges” to the concordance model of cosmology (ΛCDM) and its cold dark matter paradigm. These challenges consist in discrepancies between the outputs of leading cosmological simulations and observational surveys, and have garnered titles such as the Missing Satellites, Too Big To Fail, and Cusp/Core problems. We argue that these challenges do not currently support a wholesale abandonment or even modification of cold dark matter. Indeed, the nature of the challenges suggests prioritizing the incorporation of known physics into cosmological simulations.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF FDI AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN SRI LANKA

The present study investigates the relationship between financial development, Foreign direct investment and economic growth in Sri Lanka for the period 1980 to 2019 by applying the Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit root test along with the ARDL approach in process of achieving the desired objective. The outcome of this study shows that except GDP and FDI all other variables such as Capital investment as a percent of GDP (CI), Bank credit to the private sector as a percent of GDP (BCP), net foreign direct investment inflows in % of GDP (FDI) are stationary at first difference. The findings reveal that net foreign direct investment inflows are a positive relationship with economic growth in the long run. It means a one percent increase in net foreign direct investment inflows increases the GDP by 0.826439 percent. At the same time, a one percent increase in bank credit to the private sector decreases the GDP by 0.864320 percent. Moreover, in the short run FDI, CI and BCP have a positive and significant impact on GDP. Diagnostic tests such as normality test, heteroskedasticity and serial autocorrelation are employed to validate parameter estimation outcomes. Further, the stability of the variables confirms by the CUSUM test. The country should propose Strategies to boost the growth of efficient domestic financial institutions and encourage policy to attract greater FDI inflows that meet the needs of the knowledge-based economy.
Dual trajectories of physical activity and blood lipids in midlife women: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Abstract Background Physical activity (PA) has the potential to attenuate cardiovascular disease risk in midlife women through multiple pathways, including improving lipid profiles. Longitudinal patterns of PA and blood lipid levels have not been studied in midlife women. Our study identified trajectories of PA and blood lipids across midlife and characterized the associations between these trajectories. Methods We evaluated 2,789 participants from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a longitudinal cohort study with follow-up over the menopause transition. Women reported PA using the Kaiser Physical Activity Survey at seven study visits across 17 years of follow-up. Serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides were measured at eight study visits across the same 17-year follow-up period. We used group-based trajectory models to characterize trajectories of PA and blood lipids over midlife and dual trajectory models to determine the association between PA and blood lipid trajectories adjusted for race/ethnicity, body mass index category, smoking, and lipid-lowering medication use. Results Women were 46 years old, on average, at study entry. Forty-nine percent were non-Hispanic white; 32 % were Black; 10 % were Japanese; and 9 % were Chinese. We identified four PA trajectories, three HDL cholesterol trajectories, four LDL cholesterol trajectories, and two triglyceride trajectories. The most frequently occurring trajectories were the consistently low PA trajectory (69 % of women), the low HDL cholesterol trajectory (43 % of women), the consistently moderate LDL cholesterol trajectory (45 % of women), and the consistently low triglycerides trajectory (90 % of women). In dual trajectory analyses, no clear associations were observed between PA trajectories and HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, or triglycerides trajectories. Conclusions The most frequently observed trajectories across midlife were characterized by low physical activity, low HDL cholesterol, moderate LDL cholesterol, and low triglycerides. Despite the absence of an association between long-term trajectories of PA and blood lipids in this study, a large body of evidence has established the importance of clinical and public health messaging and interventions targeted at midlife women to promote regular and sustained PA during midlife to achieve other cardiovascular and metabolic benefits.
Measuring Telehealth Visit Length and Schedule Adherence Using Videoconferencing Data.

Background: The ability to measure clinical visit length is critical for operational efficiency, patient experience, and accurate billing. Despite the unprecedented surge in telehealth use in 2020, studies on visit length and schedule adherence in the telehealth setting are nonexistent in the literature. This article aims to demonstrate the use of videoconferencing data to measure telehealth visit length and schedule adherence. Materials and Methods: We used data from telehealth video visits at four clinical specialties at Nationwide Children's Hospital, including behavioral health (BH), speech pathology (SP), physical therapy/occupational therapy (PT/OT), and primary care (PC). We combined videoconferencing timestamp data with visit scheduling data to calculate the total visit length, examination length, and patient wait times. We also assessed schedule adherence, including patient on-time performance, examination on-time performance, provider schedule deviations, and schedule length deviations. Results: The analyses included a total of 175,876 telehealth video visits. On average, children with BH appointments spent a total of 57.2 min for each visit, followed by PT/OT (50.8 min), SP (42.1 min), and PC (25.0 min). The average patient wait times were 4.1 min (BH), 2.7 min (PT/OT), 2.8 min (SP), and 3.1 min (PC). The average examination lengths were 48.8 min (BH), 44.5 min (PT/OT), 34.9 min (SP), and 16.6 min (PC). Regardless of clinical specialty, actual examination lengths of most visits were shorter than the scheduled lengths, except that appointments scheduled for 15 min tended to run overtime. Conclusions: Videoconferencing data provide a low-cost, accurate, and readily available resource for measuring telehealth visit length and schedule adherence.
Becoming a Resident in a Total Care Facility

This book raises critical, troublesome questions about how policy makers are thinking about and planning for the fact that in a decade or so there will be a cohort of aged people numbering not in the thousands but in the millions, a trend that will continue for several decades. It inevitably will transform American society. That transformation will be no less dramatic than the waves of immigrations in the nineteenth and early twentieth century or the less-studied and -discussed consequences of the GI Bill for the millions of citizens who were in the armed services in World War II.
The effects of numerical-model complexity and observation type on estimated porosity values

The relative merits of model complexity and types of observations employed in model calibration are compared. An existing groundwater flow model coupled with an advective transport simulation of the Salt Lake Valley, Utah (USA), is adapted for advective transport, and effective porosity is adjusted until simulated tritium concentrations match concentrations in samples from wells. Two calibration approaches are used: a “complex” highly parameterized porosity field and a “simple” parsimonious model of porosity distribution. The use of an atmospheric tracer (tritium in this case) and apparent ages (from tritium/helium) in model calibration also are discussed. Of the models tested, the complex model (with tritium concentrations and tritium/helium apparent ages) performs best. Although tritium breakthrough curves simulated by complex and simple models are very generally similar, and there is value in the simple model, the complex model is supported by a more realistic porosity distribution and a greater number of estimable parameters. Culling the best quality data did not lead to better calibration, possibly because of processes and aquifer characteristics that are not simulated. Despite many factors that contribute to shortcomings of both the models and the data, useful information is obtained from all the models evaluated. Although any particular prediction of tritium breakthrough may have large errors, overall, the models mimic observed trends.
A re-programmable platform for dynamic burn-in test of Xilinx Virtexii 3000 FPGA for military and aerospace applications

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) have played increasingly important roles in military and aerospace applications. Xilinx SRAM-based FPGAs have been extensively used in commercial applications. They have been used less frequently in space flight applications due to their susceptibility to single event upsets (SEUs). Reliability of these devices in space applications is a concern that has not been addressed. The objective of this project is to design a fully programmable hardware/software platform that allows (but is not limited to) comprehensive static/dynamic burn-in test of Virtex-II 3000 FPGAs, at speed test and SEU test. Conventional methods test very few discrete AC parameters (primarily switching) of a given integrated circuit. This approach will test any possible configuration of the FPGA and any associated performance parameters. It allows complete or partial re-programming of the FPGA and verification of the program by using read back followed by dynamic test. Designers have full control over which functional elements of the FPGA to stress. They can completely simulate all possible types of configurations/functions. Another benefit of this platform is that it allows collecting information on elevation of the junction temperature as a function of gate utilization, operating frequency and functionality. A software tool has been implemented to demonstrate the various features of the system. The software consists of three major parts: the parallel interface driver, main system procedure and a graphical user interface.
Queuing delay performance of the integrated cellular and ad hoc relaying system

The integrated cellular ad hoc relaying (iCAR) system is a representative heterogeneous wireless system, proposed to address the congestion problem in the wireless networks. In this paper, we present an analytic model based on Markov chains for the queuing delay performance of iCAR. Our results show that the new call requests in iCAR have a significantly lower queuing delay than that of the conventional cellular system. The analytic model developed in this paper may serve as the guideline for the delay performance evaluation of the next generation heterogeneous wireless systems.
A model « hidden-variable » theory for hydrogen

We discuss solutions to a heuristic model for wave-mechanical hydrogen in which an ad hoc « hidden-variable » field λπ(x, t) is added into the conventional Schrodinger equation. The resulting equation is nonlinear in ψ(x, t) and has limit cyclic solutions which correspond to the conventional hydrogenic eigenfunctions. However, superpositions of eigenfunctions have the property that they collapse into pure eigenfunctions in a time τ LCT which can be arbitrarily adjusted according to the value of λ. The relationship of the model to that of the « reduction of the wave packet » is discussed.
Adequacy of Representation' in Time (Or Why the Result in Stephenson is Correct)

This essay sketches a Rawlsian defense of allowing subsequent challenges to class action settlements, as in the Stephenson agent orange case and the Homeside Bank Boston case. My normative claim is that the Rawlsian original position is a helpful way of thinking about what a fair distribution among class members entails that is, we should ask whether a settlement conceivably could have been agreed to by class members standing behind a veil of ignorance as to what their particular position or place within the class would be beyond the veil. Subsequent challenges to settlements should be permitted where no reasonable class member standing behind the veil of ignorance, employing maximum decisionmaking, would have consented to the settlement. I also argue that proposed reforms in the manner by which judges approve class action settlements, while perhaps sensible, will not eliminate the problem of inadequate representation, and that the availability of such subsequent challenges based on inadequacy of representation will not appreciably reduce the settlement rate in class actions or otherwise destroy the class action as a dispute resolution mechanism.
Hiding in Plain Sight: Reproducing Masculine Culture at a Video Game Studio

The growing body of research on the production of video games has underscored the disproportionate number of women to men working on the development and creation of digital games. What is not well documented is the role the cultural environment of video game studios plays in maintaining androcentrism. This article explains how discourses of masculinity influence work at a video game studio and how they reproduce a culture unwelcoming to most women. Using ethnographic methods and in-depth interviews, this analysis of a video game studio looks at the interplay of different types of masculinity and the role they play in the reproduction of masculine culture.
Perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in adult moyamoya syndrome: characteristic patterns and change after surgical intervention: case report.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCEMoyamoya disease is a progressive arteriopathy of the intracerebral vessels resulting in stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and alteration of cerebral perfusion. Perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (PWI) tracks the passage of a bolus of gadolinium contrast material t
Stability of incoherence in a population of coupled oscillators

We analyze a mean-field model of coupled oscillators with randomly distributed frequencies. This system is known to exhibit a transition to collective oscillations: for small coupling, the system is incoherent, with all the oscillators running at their natural frequencies, but when the coupling exceeds a certain threshold, the system spontaneously synchronizes. We obtain the first rigorous stability results for this model by linearizing the Fokker-Planck equation about the incoherent state. An unexpected result is that the system has pathological stability properties: the incoherent state is unstable above threshold, butneutrally stable below threshold. We also show that the system is singular in the sense that its stability properties are radically altered by infinitesimal noise.
Mechanisms of neutrophil-mediated injury.

The interaction of neutrophils with endothelial cells results in damage or killing of the latter. This outcome requires alteration of the endothelial cells such thatadhesive interactions betweenncutrophils and endothelia! cells are enhanced. In addition, neutrophil stimulation must also occur. To date, the most important adhesion promoting molecules appear to involve either P-selectiii or E-selectin as vv-ell as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (lCAM-1). The 'counter-receptors' for these endothelial adhesion molecules are oligosaccharides {sialyl Lewis") presumably present on neutrophils in some sort of glycoconjugate as well as the P2 integrins of the neutrophil (CDlla/CD18, CDllb/CDl8, CDllc/ CD18). Engagement of these adhesion molecules results in close physical contact between neutrophils and their targets, the endothelial cells. Activated neutrophils release two important types of products involved in endothelial cell injury: proteases and oxygen products. With respect to the former, human leukocy ticelastase apparently gains entry to the endothelial cell cytoplasm where it induces hmited cleavage of xanthine dehydrogenase, converting this enzyme to xanthine oxidase (x.o.) [1]. The major oxygen product from the activated neutrophil is H^O , which readily diffuses into the endothelial cells. In turn, HjO, causes breakdown of endothelial ceil ATP, ultimately to form xanthine and hypoxanthine. substrates for x.o. [2]. Interactions of these substrates with x.o. results in generation of superoxide anion (Oj). The availability of iron in the endothelial ceil appears to be critical to the outcome of endothetial cell injury, since inadequate availability of iron will block neutrophil-mediated injury of endothehal cells [3]. The requirement for iron has been shown by the use of iron chelators (deferroxamine) or by the use of late passage endothelial cells which show iron depletion [4). In vitro repletion of intracellular iron by exogenously administered iron restores susceptibility to neutrophil-mediatedkilling.Itappears that the key roleofiiUracellularly generated O^ is to reduce the storage form of iron. Fe**, to its transition state, Fe^^ The latter then reacts with H,O^ to cause a single electron addition, producing the hydroxyl radical (HO*). HO* appears to be the toxic oxygen product responsible for endothelial cell injury [3]. The requirement for intracellular O " in neutrophil mediated killing of endothelial cells has been shown by causing the endothelial cell levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) to increase approximately 10 fold by exogenous addition of SOD [5]. Under these conditions, neutrophilmediated killing of endothelial cells is greatly attenuated. Thus, the ability of neutrophils to kill endothelial cells requires products both from neutrophils as well as from endothelial cells.
Spatial correlation-based approach to motion vector estimation in video coding

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose two new fast algorithms for motion vector (MV) estimation using spatial correlationof MVs in adjacent blocks. We select a set of MV candidates based on the MV knowledge of its neighboringblocks, and then perform further search to refine the MV result. The first algorithm is performed on each blockconsecutively. The second algorithm is a modified version of the first one by using a block subsampling techniqueto reduce computational cost. We show with experimental results that, compared with full search block matchingalgorithm (FBMA), the proposed algorithms have a speed-up factor ranging from 50 to 100 with only 2-15% MSEincrease when applied to typical test image sequences.Keywords: motion vector estimation, spatial correlation, block matching algorithm, video coding 1 INTRODUCTION Video image compression has been an active research area recently, since it plays an essential role in trans-mission and storage of digital video data. The applications includes multimedia transmission, digital TV, tele-conferencing, videophone, CD-ROM storage, etc. The main idea of video compression is to exploit both spatialand temporal redundancies inherent in image sequences. A commomly used method for reducing temporal re-dundancy is motion compensated predictive coding, which is also employed in the MPEG standard [1], [8], [9].One key ingredient in motion compensated coding is motion vector (MV) estimation.The block matching technique has been widely used for MV estimation due to its simplicity. The full searchblock matching algorithm (FBMA) performs search at all locations in a fixed search window and provides an
Gear noise source identification and reduction.

Some common sources of noise in large industrial and marine high-speed gears are described. Several methods, including instrumentation and test procedures, for the identification of such noise sources are discussed. Reduction of noise from gears is usually achieved by one or more of three primary methods, which are, in order of preference: (a) reduction of source mechanisms, (b) alteration of structureborne noise transmission paths, and (c) alteration of airborne noise transmission paths. A case history of a typical investigation from identification of the source through the confirmation of the effectiveness of the control measures adopted is presented in detail.
Adaptive fault-tolerant H∞ control against sensor failures

A fault-tolerant control scheme via dynamic output feedback for continuous-time linear systems against sensor failures, which is based on the combination of adaptive method and linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is proposed. On the basis of the online estimations of sensor failures, the controller parameters are updated automatically to compensate the sensor fault effects on systems. Meanwhile, asymptotic stability and L 2 -gain for the resultant closed-loop systems are guaranteed in normal case as well as in the sensor failure cases in the framework of LMIs. A numerical example is also given to illustrate the design procedure and its effectiveness.
p190-B RhoGAP regulates the functional composition of the mesenchymal microenvironment

Hematopoiesis is regulated by components of the microenvironment, so-called niche. Here, we show that p190-B GTPase-activating protein (p190-B) deletion in mice causes hematopoietic failure during ontogeny, in p190-B−/− fetal liver and bones, and in p190-B+/− adult bones and spleen. These defects are non-cell autonomous, as we previously showed that transplantation of p190-B−/− hematopoietic cells into wild-type (WT) hosts leads to normal hematopoiesis. Coculture of mesenchymal stem (MSC)/progenitor cells and wild-type bone marrow (BM) cells reveals that p190-B−/− MSCs are dysfunctional in supporting hematopoiesis owing to impaired Wnt signaling. Furthermore, p190-B loss causes alteration in BM niche composition, including abnormal colony-forming unit (CFU)-fibroblast, CFU-adipocyte and CFU-osteoblast numbers. This is due to altered MSC lineage fate specification to osteoblast and adipocyte lineages. Thus, p190-B organizes a functional mesenchymal/microenvironment for normal hematopoiesis during development.
Boron isotopic composition of subduction-zone metamorphic rocks

Abstract Many arc lavas contain material derived from subducted oceanic crust and sediments, but it remains unresolved whether this distinctive geochemical signature is transferred from the subducting slab by aqueous fluids, silicate melts, or both. Boron isotopic measurements have the potential to distinguish between slab transfer mechanisms because 11 B fractionates preferentially into aqueous fluids whereas little fractionation may occur during partial melting. Previous studies have shown that δ 11 B values of island arc lavas (−6 to +7) overlap the range of δ 11 B values for altered oceanic crust (−5 to +25) and pelagic sediments and turbidites (−7 to +11). Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analyses of minerals in subduction-zone metamorphic rocks yield δ 11 B =−11 to −3 suggesting that slab dehydration reactions significantly lower the δ 11 B values of subducted oceanic crust and sediments. In order to explain the higher δ 11 B values reported for arc lavas as compared to subduction-zone metamorphic rocks, the B-bearing component derived from the metamorphosed slab must be enriched in 11 B relative to the slab, favoring an aqueous fluid as the slab transfer mechanism.