cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Random vibration analysis of time-delayed dynamical systems

Abstract This paper presents random vibration analyses of time-delayed linear and nonlinear dynamical systems. The method of continuous time approximation (CTA) is applied to describe the system dynamics in a high dimensional state space without time delay. Spectral analysis of time-delayed linear systems is studied first. An exact solution of the power spectral density function of the linear system is obtained and used to check the validity of the CTA method. The methods of CTA and equivalent linearization are combined to obtain steady-state responses of the system. The analytical results of E [ x 2 ] and E [ x 2 ] of a Duffing system with time delay are compared with those of extensive Monte Carlo simulations. It is found that when the system is weakly nonlinear under low-level random excitations, the solutions agree well. For the system with strong nonlinearity or under high-level random excitations, the method of equivalent linearization becomes less accurate and its prediction error grows with the nonlinearity and the excitation strength.
A machine vision system forautomatically grading hardwood lumber

Abstract Any automatic system for grading hardwood lumber can conceptually be dividedinto two components. One of these is a machine vision system for locating and identifying grading defects. The other is an automatic grading program that accepts as input the output of the machine vision system and, based on these data, determines the grade of a board. The progress that has been made on developing the first component, the machine vision component, will be reported in this paper. The machine vision system being developed is made up of a subsystem for imaging rough lumber surfaces, a computer vision subsystem for analyzing the image data and identifying grading defects, a materials handling subsystem for moving boards through the imaging devices, a computer for executing the algorithms comprising the computer vision sub-system and, finally, another small computer for controlling all the other components. This paper will describe the progress that has been made on developing all of these components. It will also indicate the directions for future research. A major goal of this research activity is to create a vision technology that will be applicable to not only the grading of hardwood lumber but a number of other forest products related applications as well.
Electrostatic fasteners hold the T cell receptor-CD3 complex together

Assembly of the T cell receptor includes the formation of trimers stabilized by electrostatic interactions inside the membrane (Call et al., 2003). Such interactions can strongly stabilize subunit associations while permitting conformation changes during signaling.
A phase II trial of aclacinomycin-A in advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Sixteen patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck were entered into a phase II trial of Aclacinomycin-A (ACM), 100 mg/M2 administered by brief infusion every three weeks. All patients had received prior radiation therapy and prior non-anthracycline containing chemotherapy. No clinically significant disease regression was observed in fourteen patients having adequate trials. The major toxicity was myelosuppression; leukopenia occurred in 93% of patients. Gastro-intestinal toxicity was mild and included two patients with transient liver function test abnormalities. No antitumor activity was observed in this patient population which was heavily pre-treated and had a median Karnofsky performance status of only 60%. The results of other phase II trials of ACM-A have been similarly disappointing suggesting that it is not a clinically useful agent in the treatment of solid tumors.
Forensics without uniqueness, conclusions without individualization: the new epistemology of forensic identification

Among the causes of the current sense that the forensic identification disciplines are ‘under siege’ are conceptual difficulties in these disciplines. Forensic identification disciplines either claim to achieve or strive to achieve conclusions of ‘individualization’, the reduction of the donor pool to a single source. They tend to support such claims by reference to the supposed ‘uniqueness’ of their objects of analysis. Both these notions remain extremely salient among practitioners and courts. And yet, a broad consensus in the forensic literature holds that individualization is unachievable and uniqueness is largely irrelevant to supporting claims of individualization. Focusing on latent print evidence, this article provides a clear articulation of the need to make a clean break from both individualization and uniqueness as forensic concepts. It argues that trace evidence disciplines can live without these concepts, and it explores what defensible conclusions might look like and how they might be supported.
Plasma concentrations of quinidine, its major metabolites, and dihydroquinidine in patients with torsades de pointes

We examined the hypothesis that excess accumulation of major quinidine metabolites or the commercial impurity dihydroquinidine contributes to the development of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (torsades de pointes, [TdP]) in patients taking quinidine. Total and free plasma concentrations of these compounds were measured by reverse-phase HPLC with fluorescence detection and equilibrium dialysis in 19 patients with TdP and 38 control patients tolerating quinidine therapy without toxicity. No significant differences were found between the two groups of patients. Ratios of metabolite or dihydroquinidine to quinidine varied up to tenfold among patients but were similarly distributed in the TdP and control groups. Only the metabolite 3-hydroxyquinidine was present at free plasma concentrations that exceeded free concentrations of quinidine. We conclude that although quinidine metabolism is highly variable, there does not appear to be any correlation between the plasma concentrations of quinidine, its metabolites or dihydroquinidine, and the subsequent development of TdP.
Viability and maturation of Aphanomyces cochlioides oospores

Plasmolysis, tetrazolium bromide staining and microscopic appearance were tested for their usefulness in determining viability of oospores of Aphanomyces cochlioides. For comparison, three lethal treatments were employed to contrast the reaction of dead oospores and untreated, presumably viable oospores. Few oospores stained with tetrazolium bromide, even though plasmolysis and microscopic appearance indicated that 85% were viable. Cytoplasm of viable oospores was densely organized and uniformly granular (DOUG), whereas cytoplasm of oospores exposed to lethal treatments was loosely organized and non-uniformly granular (LONG). Dose-response bioassay experiments were conducted with untreated oospores of varying inoculum densities or with mixtures of untreated DOUG and heat-treated LONG oospores in varying proportions. The number of DOUG oospores was correlated (R(2) = 0.62, P 80% harvested at 3-4 d after inoculation of hypocotyls stained with tetrazolium, but by 8-9 d <10% stained, apparently because of declining permeability of the spore wall to tetrazolium as oospores matured.
Towards a High Performance Implementation of MPI-IO on the Lustre File System

Lustre is becoming an increasingly important file system for large-scale computing clusters. The problem is that many data-intensive applications use MPI-IO for their I/O requirements, and it has been well documented that MPI-IO performs poorly in a Lustre file system environment. However, the reasons for such poor performance are not currently well understood. We believe that the primary reason for poor performance is that the assumptions underpinning most of the parallel I/O optimizations implemented in MPI-IO do not hold in a Lustre environment. Perhaps the most important assumption that appears to be incorrect is that optimal performance is obtained by performing large, contiguous I/O operations. Our research suggests that this is often the worst approach to take in a Lustre file system. In fact, we found that the best performance is sometimes achieved when each process performs a series of smaller, non-contiguous I/O requests. In this paper, we provide experimental results showing that such assumptions do not apply in Lustre, and explore new approaches that appear to provide significantly better performance.
Closed-form analysis of dual-diversity equal-gain combiners over Rayleigh fading channels

Starting with a new expression for the probability density function of the signal-to-noise ratio at the output of dual-diversity equal-gain combining (EGC) over not identically distributed Rayleigh channels, we provide closed-form expressions for the outage probability as well as average bit and symbol error rate of binary and M-ary phase-shift keying signals. Numerical examples indicate that EGC maintains a good diversity gain as long as the degree of unbalance is not very low but suffers a sharp and significant degradation when the degree of unbalance approaches zero.
Method to Determine Tissue Fluorescence Efficiency in vivo and Predict Signal-to-Noise Ratio for Spectrometers

Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the potential of fluorescence spectroscopy for in vivo diagnosis of pathology. There is significant potential to reduce the cost and complexity of instrumentation to measure tissue spectra; however, careful analysis is required to maximize performance and minimize cost. One measure of performance is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the resulting data. This paper describes a method to predict the SNR of a given optical design for a particular tissue application. In order to calculate the expected SNR, two pieces of information are required: (1) the throughput and inherent noise of the system and (2) a quantitative relationship between the illumination energy and the resulting tissue fluorescence available for collection, which we define as the tissue fluorescence efficiency (FE). We present a method to calculate the fluorescence efficiency of tissue from in vivo measurements of tissue fluorescence. We report FE measurements of the normal and precancerous human cervix in vivo at 337, 380, and 460 nm excitation. We also present and evaluate a method to estimate the throughput and noise of various spectrometers and predict the expected SNR for tissue spectra by using the measured tissue FE. For squamous cervical tissue, as the degree of the disease increases, FE decreases, and as the excitation wavelength increases, FE decreases. Cervical tissue FE varies more than two orders of magnitude, depending on the tissue type and on the excitation wavelength used. Our SNR calculations, based on measured values of tissue FE, demonstrate agreement within a factor of 1.3 of the measured SNR on average. This method can be used to estimate the performance of different spectrometer designs for clinical use.
Phencyclidine disposition after intravenous and oral doses

[3H]-Phencyclidine (PCP) hydrochloride was given in intravenous (0.1 or 1 mg) or oral (1 mg) doses to male subjects. After 1 mg IV, drug and metabolites were recovered in urine (72.8 +/- 4.0% of dose), feces (4.7 +/- 0.9%), and perspiration. Fecal excretion was low (3.4 +/- 0.4%) after oral dosing and oral bioavailability was estimated at 72%. PCP comprised 16% of urinary radioactivity with 31% consisting of enzymatically hydrolyzable conjugates of hydroxylated metabolites. Both cis and trans isomers of 4-phenyl-4-(1-piperidinyl)cyclohexanol were found. Maximum average plasma PCP concentrations of 2.7 to 2.9 ng/ml were observed after oral and intravenous 1-mg doses. Blood/plasma ratios were approximately 1.0 and plasma binding was about 65%. Parent drug was found in saliva. Apparent terminal phase half-lifes averaged 21 +/- 3 hr (harmonic mean 17 hr, range 7 to 46 hr). The volume of distribution averaged 6.2 +/- 0.3 l/kg. Renal clearances were variable, but the average was 9% of the total clearance. Thus, PCP is cleared principally by metabolism.
Neither Enemy Nor Friend: Nature as Creation in the Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas

This paper traces three paradigmatic responses to the presence of evil in nature. Thomas Henry Huxley depicts nature as the enemy of humanity that morality combats “at every step.” Henry Drummond views nature as benevolent, a friend of humanity, and the ultimate basis for morality. The paper argues that a third view, that of Thomas Aquinas, regards nature as creation, capable of being neither enemy nor friend of humanity but rather the context within which relations of enmity or friendship develop between human beings and God.
Two Methods for Extending Hierarchical Rules from the Bilingual Chart Parsing

This paper studies two methods for training hierarchical MT rules independently of word alignments. Bilingual chart parsing and EM algorithm are used to train bi-text correspondences. The first method, rule arithmetic, constructs new rules as combinations of existing and reliable rules used in the bilingual chart, significantly improving the translation accuracy on the German-English and Farsi-English translation task. The second method is proposed to construct additional rules directly from the chart using inside and outside probabilities to determine the span of the rule and its non-terminals. The paper also presents evidence that the rule arithmetic can recover from alignment errors, and that it can learn rules that are difficult to learn from bilingual alignments.
Left Atrial Pacing Following Mustard's Correction of Transposition of the Great Vessels

We report the transvenous placement of a left atrial endocardial lead for permanent pacing therapy seven years after correction of transposition of the great vessels by the Mustard intra-atrial baffle technique.
Numerical investigation of gravitational effects in horizontal annular liquid–gas flow

Abstract In this work, exploratory numerical simulations of liquid–gas flows in horizontal pipes are conducted for three different sets of conditions in the annular and stratified-annular flow regimes. Careful dimensional analysis is used to choose governing parameters in a way that yields flows that are relevant to realistic engineering applications, while remaining computationally tractable. Statistics of the velocity field and height of the liquid film are computed as a function of circumferential location in the pipe, demonstrating the existence of a viscous sublayer within the liquid film, as well as a viscous layer near the interface and a log law region within the gas core. The probability of dry-out conditions at the wall in upper regions of the pipe is shown to increase as gravitational effects increase. Circumferential motion of the liquid and gas phases within the pipe cross section are analyzed, informing possible mechanisms for sustainment of the liquid film. A simple model is developed that helps to characterize the dynamics of the liquid annulus and aids in understanding the effect of secondary gas flow on the circumferential motion of the film. Void fraction, film height, and film asymmetry are compared with experimental correlations available in the literature.
Vitamin C enters mitochondria via facilitative glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) and confers mitochondrial protection against oxidative injury

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced mitochondrial abnormalities may have important consequences in the pathogenesis of degenerative diseases and cancer. Vitamin C is an important antioxidant known to quench ROS, but its mitochondrial transport and functions are poorly understood. We found that the oxidized form of vitamin C, dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), enters mitochondria via facilitative glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) and accumulates mitochondrially as ascorbic acid (mtAA). The stereo-selective mitochondrial uptake of D-glucose, with its ability to inhibit mitochondrial DHA uptake, indicated the presence of mitochondrial Glut. Computational analysis of N-termini of human Glut isoforms indicated that Glut1 had the highest probability of mitochondrial localization, which was experimentally verified via mitochondrial expression of Glut1-EGFP. In vitro mitochondrial import of Glut1, immunoblot analysis of mitochondrial proteins, and cellular immunolocalization studies indicated that Glut1 localizes to mitochondria. Loading mitochondria with AA quenched mitochondrial ROS and inhibited oxidative mitochondrial DNA damage. mtAA inhibited oxidative stress resulting from rotenone-induced disruption of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and prevented mitochondrial membrane depolarization in response to a protonophore, CCCP. Our results show that analogous to the cellular uptake, vitamin C enters mitochondria in its oxidized form via Glut1 and protects mitochondria from oxidative injury. Since mitochondria contribute significantly to intracellular ROS, protection of the mitochondrial genome and membrane may have pharmacological implications against a variety of ROS-mediated disorders.
Biochemical approaches for nutritional support of skeletal muscle protein metabolism during sepsis

Sepsis initiates a unique series of modifications in the homeostasis of N metabolism and profoundly alters the integration of inter-organ cooperatively in the overall N and energy economy of the host. The net effect of these alterations is an overall N catabolic state, which seriously compromises recovery and is semi-refractory to treatment with current therapies. These alterations lead to a functional redistribution of N (amino acids and proteins) and substrate metabolism among injured tissues and major body organs. The redistribution of amino acids and proteins results in a quantitative reordering of the usual pathways of C and N flow within and among regions of the body with a resultant depletion of the required substrates and cofactors in important organs. The metabolic response to sepsis is a highly integrated, complex series of reactions. To understand the regulation of the response to sepsis, a comprehensive, integrated analysis of the fundamental physiological relationships of key metabolic pathways and mechanisms in sepsis is essential. The catabolism of skeletal muscles, which is manifested by an increase in protein degradation and a decrease in synthesis, persists despite state-of-the-art nutritional care. Much effort has focused on the modulation of the overall amount of nutrients given to septic patients in a hope to improve efficiencies in utilisation and N economies, rather than the support of specific end-organ targets. The present review examines current understanding of the processes affected by sepsis and testable means to circumvent the sepsis-induced defects in protein synthesis in skeletal muscle through increasing provision of amino acids (leucine, glutamine, or arginine) that in turn act as nutrient signals to regulate a number of cellular processes.
Improving institutional incentives for public land management: an econometric analysis of school trust land leases

There is considerable interest in the proper management of public lands in the United States, but questions arise over what institutional arrangements may ensure proper land stewardship. Recently, the trust doctrine has been heralded as a way to motivate prudent decision making by land managers. School trust lands, which are managed to generate revenues for public schools, represent a long-standing example of the trust doctrine at work. We examine Mississippi school trust leases and show that the trustees, who are elected officials, maintain multiple conflicting objectives, which ultimately undermine the trust relationship. However, we find that a recent institutional change that made the Boards of Education (the fund recipients) the trustees, caused revenues to increase dramatically.
Beyond bounded activity systems: heterogeneous cultures in instructional uses of persistent conversation

This paper proposes a two-level theoretical framework for the study of CMC illustrating the principles of mediation and contextual analysis. Based on log files and interviews from foreign language users of a University MOO environment, I propose that the process of becoming a competent member of digital speech communities effects the approaches participants take toward in-class electronic discussion. This study addresses the limitations of a bounded unit of analysis, e.g., focal events within a networked computer classroom, and attempts to demonstrate that a research framework which incorporates exogenous activity systems can more fully account for the focal activity system being researched.
The HIF-1 Family of bHLH-PAS Proteins: Master Regulators of Oxygen Homeostasis

Above all other elements, molecules, and compounds, O2 is the critical environmental substrate that must be delivered to all cells of metazoan organisms on a virtually continuous basis for survival. The evolution of multicellular animals in which oxygen could no longer be acquired by all cells via simple diffusion necessitated the co-evolution of physiological systems specialized for O2 delivery, which became progressively more complex as body size increased, most notably with the appearance of the vertebrates. The HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor 1) family of bHLH-PAS transcription factors appears to have evolved as a specialized system for regulating oxygen homeostasis at the level of gene expression in metazoans. HIF-1 is present in simple invertebrates such as the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, which consists of ~103 cells and relies on simple diffusion for O2 transport, more complex invertebrates such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, in which O2 is distributed through the body via a set of specialized tracheal tubes, and in complex vertebrates such as Homo sapiens, which consist of > 1013 cells that are supplied with O2 via the combined functioning of highly complex and specialized circulatory and respiratory systems.
The PIG-A Mutation and Absence of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-Linked Proteins Do Not Confer Resistance to Apoptosis in Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a clonal stem cell disorder characterized by complement-mediated hemolysis and deficient hematopoiesis. The development of PNH involves an acquired mutation in the X-linked PIG-A gene, which leads to incomplete bioassembly of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors and absent or reduced surface expression of GPI-linked proteins. The origin and mechanisms by which the PNH clone becomes dominant are not well understood, but recently resistance to apoptosis has been postulated. To test the hypothesis that the PIG-A mutation and absence of GPI-linked surface proteins directly confer resistance to apoptosis, we isolated peripheral granulocytes from 26 patients with PNH and 20 normal controls and measured apoptosis induced by serum starvation. Granulocytes from patients with PNH were relatively resistant to apoptosis (38.8% ± 14.1%) as compared with granulocytes from controls (55.0% ± 12.0%, P < .001). However, this resistance to apoptosis was not related to the dominance of the PNH clone because patients with a low percentage of GPI-deficient granulocytes had a similar rate of apoptosis as those with a high percentage of GPI-deficient granulocytes. Similarly, the resistance to granulocyte apoptosis was not influenced by the degree of neutropenia or a prior history of aplastic anemia. To investigate formally the importance of GPI-linked surface proteins in apoptosis, we introduced the PIG-A cDNA sequence into the JY5 GPI-negative B-lymphoblastoid cell line using two different methods: (1) stable transfection of a plasmid containing PIG-A, and (2) stable transduction of a retroviral vector containing PIG-A. We then measured rates of apoptosis induced either by Fas antibody, serum starvation, or γ-irradiation. With each stimulus, apoptosis of JY5 with stable surface expression of GPI-linked proteins was not statistically different from the parent JY5 cell line or the JY25 (GPI-positive) cell line. Our data confirm that granulocytes from patients with PNH have a relative resistance to apoptosis as compared with normal granulocytes. However, this resistance does not vary with the level of expression of GPI-linked proteins, and stable introduction of PIG-A cDNA with correction of GPI-linked surface expression does not change the rate of apoptosis. Taken together, our data do not support the hypothesis that the PIG-A mutation and absence of GPI-linked surface proteins directly confer resistance to apoptosis in PNH. We conclude that the resistance to apoptosis in PNH is not related to the PIG-A mutation, indicating that other factors must be important in the origin of this phenomenon and the clonal dominance observed in PNH.
The Variation in the Use of Sub-Regional Integration Courts between Business and Human Rights Actors: The Case of the East African Court of Justice

This paper juxtaposes how human rights advocates and business actors resort to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). In doing so, this paper considers how Alter, Helfer and Madsen’s concept of the authority of an international court (IC), fits this case study of the EACJ. I argue that the EACJ has intermediate authority at a thin-elite level in human rights cases because urban-based human rights NGOs, pro-democracy activists and some governmental officials, in some but not all cases, recognize the legally binding nature of the court’s human rights cases and they take steps to give effect to the rulings of the EACJ. Most importantly, I find that the EACJ has intermediate authority over human rights cases not only because of compliance with its human rights cases by governments as the Alter et al authority framework would argue, but because of the way in which these cases have been mobilized to “name and shame” EAC governments for human rights violations. By contrast, the EACJ has no authority at all with respect to business actors. Unlike human rights advocates, business actors in general and the East African Business Council (EABC) in particular, have eschewed litigating before the EACJ. Yet, non-tariff barriers (NTBs), impose very high costs for business in the East African Community (EAC). Rather than pursue litigation, the EABC has for the last ten years pursued an administrative strategy embodied in the NTB Monitoring Mechanism for monitoring, reporting and removing NTBs. This mechanism gives the EABC access to the EAC’s Council of Ministers and Secretariat as well as EAC member states. This preference for a non-litigation strategy to promote their interests therefore demonstrates that the EACJ has no authority over business cases.
A Bottleneck Matching Problem with Edge-Crossing Constraints

Motivated by a crane assignment problem, we consider a Euclidean bipartite matching problem with edge-crossing constraints. Specifically, given n red points and n blue points in the plane, we want to construct a perfect matching between red and blue points that minimizes the length of the longest edge, while imposing a constraint that no two edges may cross each other. We show that the problem cannot be approximately solved within a factor less than 1:277 in polynomial time unless P = NP. We give simple dynamic programming algorithms that solve our problem in two special cases, namely (1) the case where the red and blue points form the vertices of a convex polygon and (2) the case where the red points are collinear and the blue points lie to one side of the line through the red points.
Roles of species-preferential seed dispersal by ants and endozoochory in Melampyrum (Orobanchaceae)

Aims Melampyrum pratense and M. subalpinum are two myrmecochorous species, which possess similar habitat requirements and frequently occur together. Despite this, their population sizes differ markedly. Melampyrum pratense populations are usually very large, whereas M. subalpinum has rather small and isolated populations. We suggest that such an imbalance might be partially influenced by the difference in ant-mediated seed-removal rates. Genus Melampyrum is considered to be exclusively myrmecochorous, though to achieve the recent distribution of some Melampyrum species during the Holocene myrmecochory would be highly insufficient. We suggest that endozoochory takes place in the long-distance migration, whereas myrmecochory is important for the removal of seeds on a local scale. Methods For seed-preference analysis, M. pratense and M. subalpinum mixed seed samples were placed around Formica polyctena anthills. After a period of time, the remaining seeds of both species were counted for each sample. The results were analysed by analysis of variance and generalized linear mixed-effect model. To test myrmecochorous removal distances, M. pratense seeds were covered with fluorescent dactyloscopic powder and placed in the vicinity of a large ant trail. The area around the starting plot was searched in the dark using UV LED torchlight 7 h after the beginning. The distance from the starting plot was measured for each seed found. Birds, rodents, leporine and a ruminant were fed with M. pratense seeds and fresh plants to test the possibility of endozoochorous dispersal of the species. Animal droppings were searched for intact seeds. Important Findings Our field studies show that from mixed seed samples, containing both species, ants significantly preferred the seeds of M. pratense. This may be one of factors that has positive influence on M. pratense success in seed dispersal on mixed stands and consequently in the colonization of favourable sites. Experiments focusing on antmediated dispersal distance revealed that F. polyctena ants are able to move seeds over a distance of 36 m in only 7 h. This distance is among the furthest known myrmecochorous removals of forest plant seeds. A new Melampyrum seed disperser Oligolophus tridens (Opiliones) was observed repeatedly. Our pilot study documented that Melampyrum seeds are able to pass through the digestive tract of a cow intact. This suggests that large ruminants such as deer, bison or forest-grazing livestock may function as important longdistance dispersers of Melampyrum species.
Communication in the Sciences as Seen through Physics and Chemistry: A Look at the Complex Relationship between Author, Publisher, and Distributor as They Relate to the Reader

Writing has long been the primary means of communicating in the sciences, yet the nature of the written word is rapidly changing as we enter a new era of electronic communications and virtual realities. This article examines some of these changes, particularly as they pertain to the disciplines of chemistry and physics and, most important, within the scope of the complex relationship between authors, publishers, and distributors (distributors in this case being academic libraries). This examination involves looking at changes within this triumvirate, the relationship each of the three has with the other, and ramifications of the changes as we peer into the near future. The three members of the triumvirate are intricately and inextricably bound together, and problems that occur within any one component will inevitably affect the others, imperiling the relationship between writer and reader. Such potential problems are brought to light in this article.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Wuhou District of Chengdu

Objective To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of diabetes mellitus in a population older than 18 years in Wuhou district of Chengdu.Methods The cluster random sampling were conducted on street residents with age of over 18,from October 2010 to June 2011.The survey included questionnaire,physical and biochemical examinations.Chi-square analysis was used to test the difference of prevalence among different groups.Multivariate Logistic regression was performed to estimate the odd ratios of all risk factors.Results The prevalence of the type 2 diabetes of 24 675 residents was 4.9%.The prevalence among males was 4.4% while 5.3% among females.The prevalence of the type 2 diabetes was higher among old age than young age.The prevalence of IFG was 25.2%.Relative factors of diabetes included aging,smoking and hypertension.Conclusion The age-standardized prevalence of diabetes was 2.6%.Pertinent measures as strengthening health education,advocating a healthy lifestyle and promoting a reasonable diet structure were of importance to prevent and control T2DM.
Hepatocyte DACH1 Is Increased in Obesity via Nuclear Exclusion of HDAC4 and Promotes Hepatic Insulin Resistance.

Defective insulin signaling in hepatocytes is a key factor in type 2 diabetes. In obesity, activation of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in hepatocytes suppresses ATF6, which triggers a PERK-ATF4-TRB3 pathway that disrupts insulin signaling. Elucidating how CaMKII suppresses ATF6 is therefore essential to understanding this insulin resistance pathway. We show that CaMKII phosphorylates and blocks nuclear translocation of histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4). As a result, HDAC4-mediated SUMOylation of the corepressor DACH1 is decreased, which protects DACH1 from proteasomal degradation. DACH1, together with nuclear receptor corepressor (NCOR), represses Atf6 transcription, leading to activation of the PERK-TRB3 pathway and defective insulin signaling. DACH1 is increased in the livers of obese mice and humans, and treatment of obese mice with liver-targeted constitutively nuclear HDAC4 or DACH1 small hairpin RNA (shRNA) increases ATF6, improves hepatocyte insulin signaling, and protects against hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia. Thus, DACH1-mediated corepression in hepatocytes emerges as an important link between obesity and insulin resistance.
Hydraulic pouches of canine latissimus dorsi: Potential for left ventricular assistance

We have studied the fatigue rates of hydraulic pouches constructed in the form of a multilayered conical spiral using the latissimus dorsi muscle of 17 beagles. The roles that electrical muscle conditioning and early interruption of collateral blood supply have in the prevention of pouch fatigue were evaluated. The length of time that a pouch could generate flow in a hydraulic test system was measured; afterload was set at 80 mm Hg and preload 24 mm Hg. Pouches (N = 3) fashioned from muscles subject to neither electrical conditioning nor a vascular delay generated an initial flow of 990 +/- 346 ml/min, but could sustain flow for only 2.3, 3.8 and 3.6 minutes. Pouches (N = 5) constructed with electrically unconditioned muscles after a vascular delay (median 3 weeks) demonstrated a variable improvement in fatigue rates (initial flow 826 +/- 265 ml/min; time to no forward flow, 2.5, 7.5, 7.5, 10, and 200 minutes). Four of six pouches that received the benefit of long-term electrical muscle conditioning and a vascular delay (N = 6) were able to generate flow for a 4 hour period, at which time the experiment was terminated (initial flow 478 +/- 204 ml/min; final flow 195 +/- 157 ml/min). After the 4 hour fatigue test was completed, one electrically conditioned pouch was placed in series with the heart and served as a counterpulsator. The initial volume of blood pumped by the muscle pouch was 262 ml/min or 13.8% of cardiac output. After the pouch had contracted at a rate of approximately 45 beats/min for 1 hour, the volume of blood pumped was 178 ml/min, or 11% of cardiac output. In three other animals a pouch was fashioned and then left in situ for a 1 to 3 week period before hydraulic testing. These pouches generated significant initial flows (390 +/- 60 ml/min), which demonstrates the feasibility of further study of permanent pouches. These results suggest that permanent electrical muscle conditioning and perhaps a vascular collateral delay might permit an auxiliary skeletal muscle-powered ventricle to assume a portion of left ventricular function.
Workplace Romance Can Be Sexual Harassment: Time to Mandate Preventive and Protective Sensitivity Training

Sensitivity training for workplace romance (WPR) and sexual harassment (SHM) across workplaces should be mandated because this knowledge may protect employees and employers by preventing workplace romanticism-sexism.
Imaging of Vascular Compression Syndromes

Trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, vestibulocochlear neuralgia and glossopharyngeal neuralgia represent the most common neurovascular compression syndromes. Repeated vascular pulsations at the vulnerable transitional zone of the individual cranial nerves lead to focal axonal injury and demyelination. High-resolution 3-D T2-weighted MR imaging is essential in detecting and mapping neurovascular compression for directed therapy. Knowledge of the specific nerve root exit, the transitional zones, and the adjacent vasculature is critical in proper management. Treatment options for these neurovascular compressions syndromes run the gamut from medical therapy to stereotactic radiosurgery to botulinum injections and to surgical decompression.
Brentuximab vedotin for treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphomas: A systematic review

Abstract Background Brentuximab vedotin (BV) is an antibody-drug conjucate (ADC) comprising a CD30-directed antibody, conjugated to the microtubule-disrupting agent MMAE via a protease cleavable linker. BV is FDA approved for use in relapsed classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and relapsed systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (sALCL). There are multiple publications for its utility in other malignancies such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), mycosis fungoides (MF), Sezary syndrome (SS), T-cell lymphomas (TCL), primary mediastinal lymphoma (PMBL), and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD). We believe that BV could potentially provide a strong additional treatment option for patients suffering from NHL. Objective Perform a systematic review on the use of BV in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and other CD30+ malignancies in humans. Data sources We searched various databases including PubMed (1946–2015), EMBASE (1947–2015), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (1898–2015). Eligibility criteria Inclusion criteria specified all studies and case reports of NHLs in which BV therapy was administered. Included studies A total of 28 articles met these criteria and are summarized in this manuscript. Conclusion Our findings indicate that BV induces a variety of responses, largely positive in nature and variable between NHL subtypes. With additional, properly powered prospective studies, BV may prove to be a strong candidate in the treatment of various CD30+ malignancies.
Value-based Purchasing for Osteoarthritis and Total Knee Arthroplasty: What Role for Patient-reported Outcomes?

Prompted by the aims to improve the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction), improve the health of populations, and reduce the per capita cost of health care, the US healthcare system is embarking upon a new era in care delivery that seeks to optimize healthcare value. Value,
A New Predictive Measure Using Agent-Based Behavioral Finance

We calibrate Friedman and Abraham’s (J Econ Dyn Control 33:922–937, 2009) agent-based model using actual financial data in the US stock market. The evidence shows that the estimated price series from the model is similar to real S&P price series and the model does match return moments at the second and higher order. In addition, we develop a new measure of investor heterogeneity based on the variability in the estimated position sizes across all mutual fund managers. Our results show that the volatility in individual fund manager positions is able to predict future returns in various time horizons. Moreover, increased variability in position sizes positively affects the contemporaneous change in the CBOE Volatility Index and also leads to greater probability of recession.
Beyond the matrix of oppression: Reframing human smuggling through instersectionality- informed approaches:

What are the challenges and the advantages of using an intersectionality-informed approach in criminological research? In this essay I raise that question via an analysis of human smuggling discour...
Immune-reconstitution after combined haploidentical and umbilical cord blood transplantation.

6535^ Background: Umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells are frequently employed for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. However, delayed myeloid and lymphoid immune-reconstitution with UCB transplantation leads to increased risk of infections. We recently reported a pilot study combining UCB with a HLA haploidentical donor (Liu et al. Blood. 2011). Here, we report the immune reconstitution after the haploidentical-cord blood transplantation. Methods: Pts received reduced-intensity conditioning with fludarabine/melphalan/rATG and were assessed for lymphocyte subsets, serological response to pneumococcal vaccination, Cylex Immuknow assay which measures amount of ATP secreted by CD4 lymphocytes on stimulation by PHA, and T-cell spectratyping. Results: 45 pts, enrolled between 01/2007 and 04/2011, are included in this analysis. The median absolute lymphocyte subset counts at serial time-points are shown in the Table. The median absolute values of CD3, CD4 and CD8 counts remained below the normal range throu...
On Stabilizability of Conservative Systems

Abstract Stabilizability of conservative systems on Hilbert space will be studied using a new stability result regarding Hilbert space contraction semi groups.
A Behavioral and Biological Analysis of Aesthetics: Implications for Research and Applications.

Seeking to identify the common and distinguishing attributes of effects one might call “aesthetic,” I examined hundreds of examples in music, visual arts, poetry, literature, humor, performance arts, architecture, science, mathematics, games, and other disciplines. I observed that all involve quasi-emotional reactions to stimuli that are composites of multiple elements that ordinarily do not occur together and whose interaction, when appropriately potentiated, is transformative—different in kind from the effects of the separate constituent elements. Such effects, termed synergetic, can evoke surprise-tinged emotional responses. Aesthetic reactions, unlike many other kinds of emotional reactions, are never evoked by biologically urgent action-demanding events, such as threats or opportunities. The examined effects were created by various concept manipulation devices: class expansion, identification of new relations, repetition, symmetry, parsimony, and emotional displays for the audience to mirror (I identified a total of 16 such devices). The effects would occur only for individuals with the necessary priming, in circumstances that include effective potentiating factors. Synergetic stimuli that evoke aesthetic responses tend to be reinforcing, via mechanisms related to their biological utility during our evolution. I offer a theory as to how aesthetics may have evolved from its primordial pre-aesthetic roots, with examples of how consideration of those roots often explains aesthetic and related effects. The article suggests that aesthetic phenomena are a special case of a more pervasive aspect of behavior and proposes research approaches involving laboratory models and fMRI technology.
Jitter and Wander Reduction for a SONET DS3 Desynchronizer Using Predictive Fuzzy Control

An abstract of the dissertation of Kevin Blythe Stanton for the Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering presented July 17, 1996. Title: Jitter and Wander Reduction for a SONETIDS3 Desynchronizer using Predictive Fuzzy Control Excessive high-frequency jitter or low-frequency wander can create problems within synchronous transmission systems and must be kept within limits to ensure reliable network operation. The emerging Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET) introduces additional challenges for jitter and wander attenuation equipment (called desynchronizers) when used to carry payloads from the existing Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH), such as the DS3. The difficulty is primarily due to the large phase transients resulting from the pointer-based justification technique employed by SONET (called Pointer Justification Events or PJEs). While some previous desynchronization techniques consider the buffer level in their control actions, none has explicitly considered wander generation. Instead, compliance with jitter, wander, and buffer-size constraints have typically been met implicitly through testing and tuning of the Phase Locked Loop (PLL) controller. We investigated a fuzzy/rule-based solution to this desynchronization/constraintsatisfaction problem. But rather than mapping the input state to an action, as is done in standard fuzzy logic, our controller maps a state and a candidate action to a desired result. In other words, this control paradigm employs prediction to evaluate which of a set of candidate actions would result in the "best" predicted performance. Before the 2 controller could predict an action's affect on buffer and wander levels, appropriate models were required. The model of the buffer is simply the integral of the frequency difference between the input and output of the PLL, and a novel MTIE Constraint Envelope technique was developed to evaluate future wander performance. We show that a predictive knowledge-based controller is capable of achieving the following three objectives: • Reduce jitter implicitly by avoiding unnecessary frequency changes such that the jitter limits specified in relevant standards are met • Explicitly satisfy both buffer-level and wander (MTIE) constraints by trading off performance in one to meet the hard limit of the other • When both buffer-level and wander constraints are in danger of violation and cannot be satisfied simultaneously, maintain the preferred constraint by sacrificing the other. We also show that the computation required for this control algorithm is easily within the reach of modem microprocessors.
Radiative fraction of dust entrained turbulent premixed flames

Abstract The aim of this paper is to estimate the radiative fraction of heat released by methane-air-dust turbulent premixed flames and to study the effect of dust particles (75–90 μm) on the radiative heat released. Radiative heat flux measurements were captured from burner stabilized methane-air-dust premixed flames at different equivalence ratios (ϕg = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2), and turbulent intensities ( u r m s ' = 0.65, 0.72, 0.88 m/s) using different dust types (coal, sand and sodium bicarbonate) and dust concentrations (λp = 25, 50, 75 g/m3). The effect of these parameters on the resulting radiative fraction of heat released (Xr) was investigated. It was identified that the addition of dust particles increase the radiative fraction irrespective of the dust type due to the radial and axial extension of flame. An increase in the turbulent intensity decreases the radiative fraction. Addition of coal dust results in the maximum value of radiative fraction of heat released, whereas sand and sodium bicarbonate results in approximately similar average radiative fraction values. With the addition of coal dust, the radiative fraction of premixed methane-air flames become comparable to that of methane-air diffusion flames. The range of radiative fractions of methane-air gaseous turbulent premixed flame is found to be 2.7%–6%, whereas the addition of coal, sand and sodium bicarbonate results in an increased range of Xr values of 10.5%–17.5%, 7.6%–11.5%, and 8.5%–12.7% respectively.
Intraluminal Assessment of Coronary Arteries With Ferumoxytol-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography.

Diagnostic angiography is sometimes inevitable in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of <30 ml/min/1.73 m2 who are not yet on dialysis. However, iodine- or gadolinium-based contrast agents pose a risk of acute kidney injury or nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, respectively [(1)][