cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A distributed routing algorithm for datagram traffic in LEO satelitte networks

Satellite networks provide global coverage and support a wide range of services, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites provide short round-trip delays and are becoming increasingly important. One of the challenges in LEO satellite networks is the development of specialized and efficient routing algorithms. In this work, a datagram routing algorithm for LEO satellite networks is introduced. The algorithm generates minimum propagation delay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated through simulations. The robustness issues of the algorithm are also discussed.
Using Innovative Methodologies From Technology and Manufacturing Companies to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions

Heart failure (HF) patients have high 30-day readmission rates with high costs and poor quality of life. This study investigated the impact of a framework blending Lean Sigma, design thinking, and Lean Startup on 30-day all-cause readmissions among HF patients. This was a prospective study in an academic hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Thirty-day all-cause readmission was assessed using the hospital's electronic medical record. The baseline readmission rate for HF was 28.4% in 2010 with 690 discharges. The framework was developed and interventions implemented in the second half of 2011. The impact of the interventions was evaluated through 2012. The rate declined to 18.9% among 703 discharges (P < .01). There was no significant change for non-HF readmissions. This study concluded that methodologies from technology and manufacturing companies can reduce 30-day readmissions in HF, demonstrating the potential of this innovations framework to improve chronic disease care.
The StageNet fabric for constructing resilient multicore systems

Scaling of CMOS feature size has long been a source of dramatic performance gains. However, the reduction in voltage levels has not been able to match this rate of scaling, leading to increasing operating temperatures and current densities. Given that most wearout mechanisms that plague semiconductor devices are highly dependent on these parameters, significantly higher failure rates are projected for future technology generations. Consequently, high reliability and fault tolerance, which have traditionally been subjects of interest for high-end server markets, are now getting emphasis in the mainstream desktop and embedded systems space. The popular solution for this has been the use of redundancy at a coarse granularity, such as dual/triple modular redundancy. In this work, we challenge the practice of coarse-granularity redundancy by identifying its inability to scale to high failure rate scenarios and investigating the advantages of finer-grained configurations. To this end, this paper presents and evaluates a highly reconfigurable multicore architecture, named StageNet (SN), that is designed with reliability as its first class design criteria. SN relies on a reconfigurable network of replicated processor pipeline stages to maximize the useful lifetime of a chip, gracefully degrading performance towards the end of life. Our results show that the proposed SN architecture can perform nearly 50% more cumulative work compared to a traditional multicore.
Spatio-temporal approach for time-varying image motion estimation

Image motion estimation using the spatio-temporal approach has largely relied on the constant velocity assumption. Spatio-temporal algorithms are developed in this paper to handle time-varying motion. Time-variation is modeled either as a polynomial or as a periodic function of time. Under these models, it is shown that time-varying image motion estimation is equivalent to parameter estimation of one-dimensional polynomial phase or phase modulated signals. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the proposed algorithm. >
Variation in leaf functional trait values within and across individuals and species: an example from a Costa Rican dry forest

Summary 1. Patterns of species co-existence and species diversity in plant communities remain an important research area despite over a century of intensive scrutiny. To provide mechanistic insight into the rules governing plant species co-existence and diversity, plant community ecologists are increasingly quantifying functional trait values for the species found in a wide range of communities. 2. Despite the promise of a quantitative functional trait approach to plant community ecology, we suggest that, along with examining trait variation across species, an assessment of trait variation within species should also be a key component of a trait-based approach to community ecology. Variability within and between individuals and populations is likely widespread due to plastic responses to highly localized abiotic and biotic interactions. 3. In this study, we quantify leaf trait variation within and across ten co-existing tree species in a dry tropical forest in Costa Rica to ask: (i) whether the majority of trait variation is located between species, within species, within individuals or within the leaves themselves; (ii) whether trait values collected using standardized methods correlate with those collected using unstandardized methods; and (iii) to what extent can we differentiate plant species on the basis of their traits? 4. We find that the majority of variation in traits was often explained by between species differences; however, between leaflet trait variation was very high for compound-leaved species. We also show that many species are difficult to reliably differentiate on the basis of functional traits even when sampling many individuals. 5. We suggest an ideal sample size of at least 10, and ideally 20, individuals be used when calculating mean trait values for individual species for entire communities, though even at large sample sizes, it remains unclear if community level trait values will allow comparisons on a larger geographic scale or if species traits are generally similar across scales. It will thus be critical to account for intraspecific variation by comparing species mean trait values across space in multiple microclimatic environments within local communities and along environmental gradients. Further, quantifying trait variability due to plasticity and inheritance will provide a better understanding of the underlying patterns and drivers of trait variation as well as the application of functional traits in outlining mechanisms of species co-existence.
Cardiac-Specific Ablation of the Na+-Ca2+ Exchanger Confers Protection Against Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

During ischemia and reperfusion, with an increase in intracellular Na+ and a depolarized membrane potential, Ca2+ may enter the myocyte in exchange for intracellular Na+ via reverse-mode Na+-Ca2+ exchange (NCX). To test the role of Ca2+ entry via NCX during ischemia and reperfusion, we studied mice with cardiac-specific ablation of NCX (NCX-KO) and demonstrated that reverse-mode Ca2+ influx is absent in the NCX-KO myocytes. Langendorff perfused hearts were subjected to 20 minutes of global ischemia followed by 2 hours of reperfusion, during which time we monitored high-energy phosphates using 31P-NMR and left-ventricular developed pressure. In another group of hearts, we monitored intracellular Na+ using 23Na-NMR. Consistent with Ca2+ entry via NCX during ischemia, we found that hearts lacking NCX exhibited less of a decline in ATP during ischemia, delayed ischemic contracture, and reduced maximum contracture. Furthermore, on reperfusion following ischemia, NCX-KO hearts had much less necrosis, better recovery of left-ventricular developed pressure, improved phosphocreatine recovery, and reduced Na+ overload. The improved recovery of function following ischemia in NCX-KO hearts was not attributable to the reduced preischemic contractility in NCX-KO hearts, because when the preischemic workload was matched by treatment with isoproterenol, NCX-KO hearts still exhibited improved postischemic function compared with wild-type hearts. Thus, NCX-KO hearts were significantly protected against ischemia-reperfusion injury, suggesting that Ca2+ entry via reverse-mode NCX is a major cause of ischemia/reperfusion injury.
X-Ray Radiation from Hot Sparks

Millikan has been able to study extreme ultra-violet spectra by using a high potential condensed discharge in a high vacuum as a source of light and specially ruled gratings, and he has found that many of the strongest spectrum lines are emitted by stripped atoms, that is, atoms with no valence electrons left. As these hot sparks also were found to radiate X-rays, the spectrum of which, however, has never been analyzed, the author undertook the problem of studying this spectrum, and this paper gives the first results.
Conditional Random People: Tracking Humans with CRFs and Grid Filters

We describe a state-space tracking approach based on a Conditional Random Field (CRF) model, where the observation potentials are learned from data. We find functions that embed both state and observation into a space where similarity corresponds to L1 distance, and define an observation potential based on distance in this space. This potential is extremely fast to compute and in conjunction with a grid-filtering framework can be used to reduce a continuous state estimation problem to a discrete one. We show how a state temporal prior in the grid-filter can be computed in a manner similar to a sparse HMM, resulting in real-time system performance. The resulting system is used for human pose tracking in video sequences.
Volatiles in interplanetary dust particles: A review

The paper presents a review of the volatiles found within interplanetary dust particles. These particles have been shown to represent primitive material from early in the solar system's formation and also may contain records of stellar processes. The organogenic elements (i.e., H, C, N, O, and S) are among the most abundant elements in our solar system, and their abundances, distributions, and isotopic compositions in early solar system materials permit workers to better understand the processes operating early in the evolutionary history of solar system materials. Interplanetary dust particles have a range of elemental compositions, but generally they have been shown to be similar to carbonaceous chondrites, the solar photosphere, Comet Halley's chondritic cores, and matrix materials of chondritic chondrites. Recovery and analysis of interplanetary dust particles have opened new opportunities for analysis of primitive materials, although interplanetary dust particles represent major challenges to the analyst because of their small size.
Smooth Siegel disks without number theory

X. Buff and A. Cheritat proved that there are quadratic polynomials having Siegel disks with smooth boundaries. Based on a simplification of Avila, we give yet another simplification of their proof. The main tool used is a harmonic function introduced by Yoccoz whose boundary values are the sizes of the Siegel disks. The proof also applies to some other families of polynomials, entire and meromorphic functions.
Energy Efficiency of the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code in West Virginia

This report estimate the energy savings, economic impacts, and pollution reduction from adopting the 2003 International Code Council’s 2003 International Energy Conservation Code (as the mandatory residential energy efficiency code in the state of West Virginia. The state currently allows a less stringent replacement option. This report addresses the impacts for low-rise residential buildings only.
The basics of hemodialysis equipment.

The hemodialysis (HD) machine pumps the dialysate as well as the patient’s blood through a dialyzer. The blood and dialysate are separated from each other by a semipermeable membrane permitting solute and water transfer as governed by laws of physics. In practice, however, this procedure is somewhat more complex. The operational system of the HD machine represents a complex array of detectors, controllers, monitors, and safety devices to ensure a safe operation. This integrated system allows the operator the ability to control the blood and the dialysate circuits as well as monitor important variables like ultrafiltration (UF) rate, adequacy, dialysate composition, and circuit pressures. Although such advances make patient management somewhat easier for the nephrologist, they do not change the basic tenet of patient care—first to do no harm. Consequently, it is extremely important for the practicing nephrologist to recognize and understand the terminology, significance, and management of the basic operational mechanics of HD machines. This article will focus on essential principles of HD equipment that are necessary for ensuring a safe, standard HD procedure (the description of equipment for other specialized procedures like hemofiltration is beyond the scope of this review). From a practical point of view, it is often useful to divide the HD process into two main parts, that is, the blood circuit and the dialysate circuit. The standards for HD equipment in the United States are set by the AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation). GENERAL GUIDELINES GOVERNING THE USE OF HD EQUIPMENT
Privacy-Preserving Outlier Detection Through Random Nonlinear Data Distortion

Consider a scenario in which the data owner has some private or sensitive data and wants a data miner to access them for studying important patterns without revealing the sensitive information. Privacy-preserving data mining aims to solve this problem by randomly transforming the data prior to their release to the data miners. Previous works only considered the case of linear data perturbations - additive, multiplicative, or a combination of both - for studying the usefulness of the perturbed output. In this paper, we discuss nonlinear data distortion using potentially nonlinear random data transformation and show how it can be useful for privacy-preserving anomaly detection from sensitive data sets. We develop bounds on the expected accuracy of the nonlinear distortion and also quantify privacy by using standard definitions. The highlight of this approach is to allow a user to control the amount of privacy by varying the degree of nonlinearity. We show how our general transformation can be used for anomaly detection in practice for two specific problem instances: a linear model and a popular nonlinear model using the sigmoid function. We also analyze the proposed nonlinear transformation in full generality and then show that, for specific cases, it is distance preserving. A main contribution of this paper is the discussion between the invertibility of a transformation and privacy preservation and the application of these techniques to outlier detection. The experiments conducted on real-life data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
A method to measure the ozone penetration factor in residences under infiltration conditions: application in a multifamily apartment unit.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that outdoor ozone reacts with materials inside residential building enclosures, potentially reducing indoor exposures to ozone or altering ozone reaction byproducts. However, test methods to measure ozone penetration factors in residences (P) remain limited. We developed a method to measure ozone penetration factors in residences under infiltration conditions and applied it in an unoccupied apartment unit. Twenty-four repeated measurements were made, and results were explored to (i) evaluate the accuracy and repeatability of the new procedure using multiple solution methods, (ii) compare results from 'interference-free' and conventional UV absorbance ozone monitors, and (iii) compare results against those from a previously published test method requiring artificial depressurization. The mean (! s.d.) estimate of P was 0.54 ! 0.10 across a wide range of conditions using the new method with an interference-free monitor; the conventional monitor was unable to yield meaningful results due to relatively high limits of detection. Estimates of P were not clearly influenced by any indoor or outdoor environmental conditions or changes in indoor decay rate constants. This work represents the first known measurements of ozone penetration factors in a residential building operating under natural infiltration conditions and provides a new method for widespread application in buildings.
A fine scale phenotype-genotype virulence map of a bacterial pathogen

An important goal in biology is to understand the relationship between genotype and phenotype. With respect to pathogenic microorganisms, this goal is especially relevant because the lack of understanding about the function of a significant part of the pan-genome (Medini et al. 2008) is hampering the design of novel strategies to battle infectious diseases. Developing high-throughput approaches for non-model organisms that can match genotypes to phenotypes under in vitro and in vivo (infection) conditions is therefore crucial. A reverse genetics approach based on genome-wide ordered arrays of single gene knockouts (Tong et al. 2001; Schuldiner et al 2005) has been applied to several model organisms (Giaever et al. 2004; Lee et al. 2005; Baba et al. 2006; St Onge et al. 2007; de Berardinis et al. 2008; Liu et al. 2008; Kim et al. 2010; Noble et al. 2010). By determining their growth rate or fitness under defined conditions, genotype–phenotype patterns are obtained. A limitation of this approach is that genome-wide knockout libraries are only available for a handful of organisms. Even for model organisms, experiments often remain restricted to a small number of strains, because constructing new knockout arrays is extremely laborious. In order to make both model and non-model organisms accessible to high-throughput phenotypic profiling and genetic interaction mapping, we recently developed the method Tn-seq with which it is possible to determine each gene's contribution to fitness in a single experiment (van Opijnen et al. 2009). Here, we report a strategy using Tn-seq to generate detailed genotype–phenotype maps of a microorganism. We apply this strategy to the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae, a gram-positive bacterial species and commensal of the human nasopharynx. Dissemination of S. pneumoniae from the nasopharynx frequently leads to otitis media or less often to invasive diseases including pneumonia, meningitis, and bacteremia. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise and each year over a million people succumb to invasive infection with S. pneumoniae, making it one of the most important bacteria clinically (Tuomanen et al. 2004; Harboe et al. 2009; Linares et al. 2010). Here we measured the fitness of mutant libraries in 17 different in vitro conditions and in two in vivo environments in mice, yielding numerous phenotypes that allowed us to study conditional gene essentiality, discover leads for gene function and antibiotic action, and match defined in vitro stress conditions with in vivo colonization and disease states. Besides creating a resource that provides insight into the biology and virulence of this pathogen, we have drawn up a detailed roadmap that can be used to navigate similar discovery in other microorganisms.
Identification of an actin binding surface on vinculin that mediates mechanical cell and focal adhesion properties.

Vinculin, a cytoskeletal scaffold protein essential for embryogenesis and cardiovascular function, localizes to focal adhesions and adherens junctions, connecting cell surface receptors to the actin cytoskeleton. While vinculin interacts with many adhesion proteins, its interaction with filamentous actin regulates cell morphology, motility, and mechanotransduction. Disruption of this interaction lowers cell traction forces and enhances actin flow rates. Although a model for the vinculin:actin complex exists, we recently identified actin-binding deficient mutants of vinculin outside sites predicted to bind actin and developed an alternative model to better define this actin-binding surface, using negative-stain electron microscopy (EM), discrete molecular dynamics, and mutagenesis. Actin-binding deficient vinculin variants expressed in vinculin knockout fibroblasts fail to rescue cell-spreading defects and reduce cellular response to external force. These findings highlight the importance of this actin-binding surface and provide the molecular basis for elucidating additional roles of this interaction, including actin-induced conformational changes that promote actin bundling.
Investigating Early Career Urban Teachers' Perspectives on and Experiences in Professional Development.

Despite their interconnectedness, teacher education, teacher development, and teacher retention are often treated as discrete domains of inquiry. This article and the research on which it reports resist such compartmentalization and instead focus on relationships between teachers' pasts, presents, and futures. In particular, this qualitative study of 15 specialized teacher education program graduates examines urban teachers' perspectives on and experiences in professional development. Specific attention is paid to the role of professional development—in conjunction with other forces, including preservice preparation and workplace conditions—in shaping teachers' attitudes about their work and their professional futures. Findings illuminate four kinds of complexity underlying teachers' early career needs that are discussed and used to generate suggestions for how universities might better support teacher education program graduates to build rewarding and effective long-term careers in education.
Genetic Assessment of the Red Squirrel in Illinois: Immigrants or Exotics?

ABSTRACT Novel populations pose unusual challenges for wildlife managers because knowledge regarding the source of these populations is essential to develop sound management approaches. One example that illustrates the complexity of this issue is the small population of red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) identified in northeastern Illinois in the 1970s. To elucidate the source of the red squirrel population in Illinois, we examined both contemporary and less recent patterns of genetic structure using nuclear microsatellite loci and mitochondrial DNA. Analyses revealed the Illinois subpopulation was primarily comprised of descendents of immigrants from Indiana, but there was also evidence of a translocation of squirrels from Minnesota. We recommend continued protection for the red squirrel in Illinois due to its restricted geographic range, small population size, and status as a native population.
Does Innovativeness Drive Environmentally Conscious Consumer Behavior

This study seeks to improve the predictive utility of the attitude–behavior link within the realm of environmentally responsible consumption by examining the role of consumer innovativeness as a mediator. A sample of over 1400 American consumers provided data regarding their attitudes about the environment, receptiveness to new and innovative ideas, propensity to adopt new products early, and likelihood of performing a variety of green behaviors. The evidence suggests that one dimension of consumer innovativeness mediates the link between environmentally conscious attitudes and behaviors: the general affinity for new ideas. Managerial implications of these findings are discussed. C
Geometric phases in electric dipole searches with trapped spin-1/2 particles in general fields and measurement cells of arbitrary shape with smooth or rough walls

The important role of geometric phases in searches for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron, using Ramsey separated oscillatory field nuclear magnetic resonance, was first noted by Commins [Am. J. Phys. 59, 1077 (1991)] and investigated in detail by Pendlebury et al. [Phys. Rev. A 70, 032102 (2004)]. Their analysis was based on the Bloch equations. In subsequent work using the spin-density matrix, Lamoreaux and Golub [Phys. Rev. A 71, 032104 (2005)] showed the relation between the frequency shifts and the correlation functions of the fields seen by trapped particles in general fields (Redfield theory). More recently, we presented a solution of the Schr\"odinger equation for spin-$1/2$ particles in circular cylindrical traps with smooth walls and exposed to arbitrary fields [A. Steyerl et al., Phys. Rev. A 89, 052129 (2014)]. Here, we extend this work to show how the Redfield theory follows directly from the Schr\"odinger equation solution. This serves to highlight the conditions of validity of the Redfield theory, a subject of considerable discussion in the literature [e.g., M. P. Nicholas et al., Prog. Nucl. Magn. Reson. Spectrosc. 57, 111 (2010)]. Our results can be applied where the Redfield result no longer holds, such as observation times on the order of or shorter than the correlation time and nonstochastic systems, and thus we can illustrate the transient spin dynamics, i.e., the gradual development of the shift with increasing time subsequent to the start of the free precession. We consider systems with rough, diffuse reflecting walls, cylindrical trap geometry with arbitrary cross section, and field perturbations that do not, in the frame of the moving particles, average to zero in time. We show by direct, detailed, calculation the agreement of the results from the Schr\"odinger equation with the Redfield theory for the cases of a rectangular cell with specular walls and of a circular cell with diffuse reflecting walls.
An Afrocentric Understanding of Second-Generation African Immigrants in the United States

This theoretical paper locates second-generation Africans (SGAs) in the United States in the context of Afrocentricity, in order to understand how SGAs articulate their ethnic and transnational identity struggles in the diaspora. I build the paper on available studies relating to Afrocentricity and second-generation Africans in the diaspora. To address these struggles, I do the following: introduce the paper and reflect on the background, discuss Afrocentricity as a theoretical and methodological framework, highlight the Afrocentric discourse of African children, and articulate identity struggles that affect SGAs. Finally, I conclude by synthesizing SGAs with Afrocentricity.
Abstract P1-16-03: Residual disease after breast conservation surgery: To excise or not to excise?

Background: The definition of adequate margins after breast conservation surgery for invasive breast cancer has been a highly debated topic. A recent consensus statement by the SSO/ASTRO recommends re-excision only for positive margins, defined as tumor at ink. In light of this consensus statement, we studied the characteristics of patients undergoing breast conservation surgery with subsequent re-excision at our institution in order to examine factors predictive for residual disease (RD+) in the re-excision specimen, as well as a second re-excision. Methods: In this IRB approved retrospective chart review of our breast cancer cases from 1998-2013, we reviewed 828 patients who underwent breast conservation surgery with re-excision for invasive breast carcinoma. A close margin was defined as less than 2mm from the inked margins, and a positive margin was defined as tumor at ink. We analyzed various clinicopathologic features. RD+ was missing in 7 patients (0.8%), who were excluded from that analysis. Pearson chi-square was used to test significance in univariate analysis. Binary logistic regression was applied in multivariate analysis of factors significant at p Results: Overall, 230 patients (28%) had RD+, and 103 patients required a second re-excision (12.4%) due to persistently positive or close margins (44% of RD+). Factors not significant for RD+ were: diagnosis era (before June 2007 vs. after), menstrual status, age In multivariate analysis, the number of positive or close margins was significant, (p Conclusions: Residual disease at re-excision for positive or close margins was present in approximately one-fourth of patients. The probability of residual disease was unrelated to margin positivity or margin width within 2mm. Consideration of re-excision should take into account the burden of intraductal disease in the specimen, its presence at or close to the margin, and the number of positive or close margins. Citation Format: Catherine R Campo, Erika Reategui, Sarah P Cate, John Rescigno, Priyanka Mittar, Alyssa Gillego, Susan K Boolbol. Residual disease after breast conservation surgery: To excise or not to excise? [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-16-03.
Progressive approach to relational entity resolution

This paper proposes a progressive approach to entity resolution (ER) that allows users to explore a trade-off between the resolution cost and the achieved quality of the resolved data. In particular, our approach aims to produce the highest quality result given a constraint on the resolution budget, specified by the user. Our proposed method monitors and dynamically reassesses the resolution progress to determine which parts of the data should be resolved next and how they should be resolved. The comprehensive empirical evaluation of the proposed approach demonstrates its significant advantage in terms of efficiency over the traditional ER techniques for the given problem settings.
Bone and joint tuberculosis: CASES IN BLACKBURN BETWEEN 1988 AND 2005

We report 79 cases of bone and joint tuberculosis between 1988 and 2005, eight of which were in the Caucasian population and 71 in the non-white population. The diagnosis was made in the majority (73.4%) by positive bacteriology and/or histology. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was higher in the Caucasian group at 51.5 years (28 to 66) than in the South Asian group at 36.85 years (12 to 93). Only one patient had previous BCG immunisation. The spine was the site most commonly affected (44.3%). Surgical stabilisation and/or decompression was performed in 23% of these cases because of cord compression on imaging or the presence of neurological signs. A six-month course of chemotherapy comprising of an initial two months of rifampicin, isoniazide, pyrazinamide and sometimes ethambutol followed by four months treatment with rifampicin and isoniazide, was successful in all cases without proven drug resistance.
Automatic Hand-Over Animation for Free-Hand Motions from Low Resolution Input

Hand-over animation is the process by which hand animation is added to existing full-body motion. This paper proposes a technique for automatically synthesizing full-resolution, high quality free-hand motion based on the capture of a specific, select small number of markers. Starting from a large full-resolution hand motion corpus, our technique extracts a finite pose database and selects the marker sets offline, based on user-defined inputs. For synthesis, capture sequences that include this marker set drive a reconstruction process that results in a full-resolution of the hand through the aid of the pose database. This effort addresses two distinct issues, first how to objectively select which is the best marker set based on a fixed number of desired markers and, second, how to perform reconstruction from this data set automatically. Findings on both of these fronts are reported in this paper.
Distillation and Isolation of Commodity Chemicals from Bio-Oil Made by Tail-Gas Reactive Pyrolysis

Owing to instabilities, very little has been accomplished with regard to simple cost-effective separations of fast pyrolysis bio-oil. However, recent developments in the use of tail-gas reactive pyrolysis (TGRP) (Mullen, C. A.; Boateng, A. A.; Goldberg, N. M. Energy Fuels 2013.) provide higher quality bio-oils that are thermally stable. We used fractional distillation to isolate compounds from bio-oil produced by TGRP. All bio-oils produced from TGRP contained significantly less acid (0.2–4% total), trace amounts of aldehydes, and significantly higher concentrations of hydrocarbons and phenolics (5–20% each). One TGRP bio-oil rich in naphthalenes yielded the greatest mass of distillates (close to 65%). Using atmospheric distillation alone, we recovered the most distillates from another phenol-rich TGRP oil. Compared to traditional bio-oils, distillation of TGRP oils yielded three times more organic compounds; the yield improvement increases to a factor of 10 when the contribution of acetic acid is removed...
The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the Postmodern Age

We focus on the changing understanding of romance in contemporary American society. Through an analysis of romantic comedies and dramas produced in Hollywood between 1930 and the present, we demonstrate how the decline of the romantic drama is due to significant social and cultural change, the most important of which is the weakening of norms governing the choice of romantic partners. The romantic comedy, however, has more than compensated for the decline in dramas, with the decade of the 1990s seeing more romantic films produced than in any previous time in the history of filmmaking. Although the contemporary romantic comedy almost invariably reinforces the most conservative tendencies in our culture, we argue that these films nonetheless work effectively to reinforce a usable cultural script governing romantic behavior. By depicting ideal culture as a real possibility, the romantic comedy nurtures the utopian wish of “slipping one over on modernity.”
Phase i trial of vorinostat added to chemoradiation with capecitabine in pancreatic cancer

Abstract Background and purpose This single institution phase I trial determined the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of concurrent vorinostat and capecitabine with radiation in non-metastatic pancreatic cancer. Material and methods Twenty-one patients received escalating doses of vorinostat (100–400mg daily) during radiation. Capecitabine was given 1000mg q12 on the days of radiation. Radiation consisted of 30Gy in 10 fractions. Vorinostat dose escalation followed the standard 3+3 design. No dose escalation beyond 400mg vorinostat was planned. Diffusion-weighted (DW)-MRI pre- and post-treatment was used to evaluate in vivo tumor cellularity. Results The MTD of vorinostat was 400mg. Dose limiting toxicities occurred in one patient each at dose levels 100mg, 300mg, and 400mg: 2 gastrointestinal toxicities and one thrombocytopenia. The most common adverse events were lymphopenia (76%) and nausea (14%). The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) increased in most tumors. Nineteen (90%) patients had stable disease, and two (10%) had progressive disease at time of surgery. Eleven patients underwent surgical exploration with four R0 resections and one R1 resection. Median overall survival was 1.1years (95% confidence interval 0.78–1.35). Conclusions The combination of vorinostat 400mg daily M–F and capecitabine 1000mg q12 M–F with radiation (30Gy in 10 fractions) was well tolerated with encouraging median overall survival.
Evaluation of Toxicity Ranking for Metal Oxide Nanoparticles via an in Vitro Dosimetry Model

It has been argued that in vitro toxicity testing of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) should consider delivered dose (i.e., NP mass settled per suspension volume) rather than relying exclusively on administered dose (initial NP mass concentration). Delivered dose calculations require quantification of NP sedimentation in tissue cell culture media, taking into consideration fundamental suspension properties. In this article, we calculate delivered dose using a first-principles "particles in a box" sedimentation model, which accounts for the particle size distribution, fractal dimension, and permeability of agglomerated NPs. The sedimentation model was evaluated against external and our own experimental sedimentation data for metal oxide NPs. We then utilized the model to construct delivered dose-response analysis for a library of metal oxide NPs (previously used for hazard ranking and prediction making) in different cell culture media. Hierarchical hazard ranking of the seven (out of 24) toxic metal oxide NPs in our library, using EC50 calculated on the basis of delivered dose, did not measurably differ from our ranking based on administered dose. In contrast, simplified sedimentation calculations based on the assumption of impermeable NP agglomerates of a single average size significantly underestimated the settled NPs' mass, resulting in misinterpretation of toxicity ranking. It is acknowledged that in vitro dose-response outcomes are likely to be shaped by complex toxicodynamics, which include NP/cellular association, triggering of dynamic cell response pathways involved in NP uptake, and multiple physicochemical parameters that influence NP sedimentation and internalization.
Epidemiologic survey of diarrhea in foals

Epidemiologic and etiologic data about diarrhea in foals were collected under a planned prospective recording and monitoring study. The survey and monitoring procedures included a survey to obtain an overview of current horse management practices on participating farms, a daily health record survey to obtain information on mares and their foals, and collection of feces from 19 of 144 diarrheic foals and 10 age-matched nondiarrheic foals for electron microscopy, ELISA for rotavirus, and bacteriologic culture. Coronavirus was detected in the feces of diarrheic as well as clinically normal foals. Rotavirus was detected in the feces of diarrheic foals only. With regard to agents found in the feces, there was no significant (P less than 0.05) difference between diarrheic and nondiarrheic foals. Half of the 297 foals on which data were available developed diarrhea. Most foals that developed diarrhea lacked other clinical manifestations of disease. Basic cleanliness at foaling was associated with a lower percentage of foals developing diarrhea. Prophylactic use of antibiotics and vitamins in newborn foals was associated with a higher percentage of foals developing diarrhea. A higher percentage of foals born to visiting mares developed diarrhea, compared with foals born to resident mares.
Ready for a relationship

Before a hospital seeks a change in control, trustees need to identify their organization's strengths, weaknesses, goals and partner criteria.
Superresolution intrinsic fluorescence imaging of chromatin utilizing native, unmodified nucleic acids for contrast

Visualizing the nanoscale intracellular structures formed by nucleic acids, such as chromatin, in nonperturbed, structurally and dynamically complex cellular systems, will help expand our understanding of biological processes and open the next frontier for biological discovery. Traditional superresolution techniques to visualize subdiffractional macromolecular structures formed by nucleic acids require exogenous labels that may perturb cell function and change the very molecular processes they intend to study, especially at the extremely high label densities required for superresolution. However, despite tremendous interest and demonstrated need, label-free optical superresolution imaging of nucleotide topology under native nonperturbing conditions has never been possible. Here we investigate a photoswitching process of native nucleotides and present the demonstration of subdiffraction-resolution imaging of cellular structures using intrinsic contrast from unmodified DNA based on the principle of single-molecule photon localization microscopy (PLM). Using DNA-PLM, we achieved nanoscopic imaging of interphase nuclei and mitotic chromosomes, allowing a quantitative analysis of the DNA occupancy level and a subdiffractional analysis of the chromosomal organization. This study may pave a new way for label-free superresolution nanoscopic imaging of macromolecular structures with nucleotide topologies and could contribute to the development of new DNA-based contrast agents for superresolution imaging.
Risk of Cerebral Embolization with Caseous Calcification of the Mitral Annulus: Review Article

Background Caseous calcification of the mitral annulus (CCMA) is believed to have a benign prognosis. Several authors have recommended conservative management in asymptomatic patients. However, the prevalence of cerebrovascular events (CVE) in patients with CCMA has never been evaluated before. The aims of this study are to investigate whether patients with CCMA are at increased risk of cerebral embolization, and to determine whether elective surgical resection of CCMA should be considered to prevent a cardioembolic stroke. Methods A comprehensive literature search was obtained from MEDLINE via PubMed.gov, ScienceDirect.com, and Google Scholar using the following search queries: caseous calcification of the mitral annulus, intracardiac pseudotumor, mitral annular calcification, and cardioembolic stroke. Results From our initial search that yielded 1,502 articles, we identified a total of 130 patients with CCMA reported in 86 publications. Literature review revealed that the prevalence of CVE associated with CCMA is 19.2% (25 of 130) which is significantly higher than the prevalence of CVE reported with mitral annular calcification (MAC), 11.8% (214 of 1818) (range 4.8% to 24.1%) (P = 0.01796) (odds ratio = 1.78; 0.95 confidence interval = 1.1278 - 2.8239). Only four of 25 (16.0%) patients with CCMA who suffered a CVE had history of atrial fibrillation (AF). Conclusion Based on our review, it would be reasonable to consider elective surgical resection of CCMA in asymptomatic patients who are good surgical candidates, because patients with CCMA may be at increased risk of embolic strokes, which are unrelated to AF.
Input Optimisation: Phonology and morphology

In this paper, I provide a unified account of three frequency effects in phonology. First, typologically marked elements are underrepresented. Second, phonological changes are underrepresented. Third, morphologically conditioned phonological changes are overrepresented. These effects are demonstrated with corpus data from English and Welsh. I show how all three effects follow from a simple conception of phonological complexity. Further, I demonstrate how this notion of complexity makes predictions about other phenomena in these languages, and that these predictions are borne out. I model this with traditional Optimality Theory, but the proposal is consistent with any constraint-based formalism that weights constraints in some way.
Double Sample Estimation When Cost Depends on the Parameter

Consider a random variable X whose distribution is a one parameter exponential family. The problem is to estimate E θ X based on a two stage sampling procedure. The loss function is squared error divided by the variance of X plus nc(θ), where n represents the number of observations and c(θ) is a cost or a penalty function that depends on the unknown parameter. Motivation for such a cost function comes from situations in auditing and in medical trials. We develop Bayes and limits of Bayes procedures that consist of (n 1, n 2 (X 1), δ (X)) where n 1 is the size of the first sample, n 2 (X 1) is the size of the second sample which depends on the observations from the first sample, and δ(X) is the estimator depending on the entire sample. Under further mild conditions on the distribution and some reasonable restrictions on the cost function, an explicit and intuitive procedure arises as the limit of a sequence of Bayes procedures. As applications we suggest procedures for the normal, gamma, binomial, and Poisson distributions. Simulation studies for some of these indicate that the procedures do well.
Examining the Relationship Between Introductory Computing Course Experiences, Self-Efficacy, and Belonging Among First-Generation College Women

Computing self-efficacy and sense of belonging are known predictors of motivation and persistence. As such, these psychological states are important to study in order to broaden participation in computing. This study examined the relationship between (a) introductory computing course experiences and (b) self-efficacy and sense of belonging in computing, focusing on differences by gender and college generation status. We found that the relationship between some introductory course experiences and self-efficacy and sense of belonging was strongest among first-generation college women, which reveals the importance of considering women's experiences in light of their additional intersectional identities. Recommendations for best practices in introductory computing courses are discussed.
Impact of improving vehicle front design on the burden of pedestrian injuries in Germany, the United States, and India.

ABSTRACTObjective: European car design regulations and New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) ratings have led to reductions in pedestrian injuries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of improving vehicle front design on mortality and morbidity due to pedestrian injuries in a European country (Germany) and 2 countries (the United States and India) that do not have pedestrian-focused NCAP testing or design regulations.Methods: We used data from the International Road Traffic and Accident Database and the Global Burden of Disease project to estimate baseline pedestrian deaths and nonfatal injuries in each country in 2013. The effect of improved passenger car star ratings on probability of pedestrian injury was based on recent evaluations of pedestrian crash data from Germany. The effect of improved heavy motor vehicle (HMV) front end design on pedestrian injuries was based on estimates reported by simulation studies. We used burden of disease methods to estimate population health loss by combining ...
Rainfall-Runoff Model Validation: the Need for Unambiguous Tests

Abstract Historical developments leading to conceptual rainfall-runoff models are examined and methods for calibrating them are discussed . Calibration is deemed satisfactory when recorded and simulated time series of streamflow are matched to some desired degree. With such a calibrated model predictions encode model structure inadequacies, parameter errors, and input data errors. Three groups of tests are proposed to provide means by which model structural adequacy can be assessed . The tests would use outputs from an accurate physically based model which would provide hydrologic responses to climatological inputs to an individual hillslope element, a first order catchment comprised of hillslope elements, and a higher order catchment; the outputs would be used to determine the adequacy of simpler conceptual rainfall-runoff models
Cloud-Side Shuffling Defenses against DDoS Attacks on Proxied Multiserver Systems

We consider a cloud based multiserver system, consisting of a set of replica application servers behind a set of proxy (indirection) servers which interact directly with clients over the Internet. We address cloud-side proactive and reactive defenses to combat DDoS attacks that may target this system. DDoS attacks are endemic with some notable attacks occurring just this past fall. Volumetric attacks may target proxies while "low volume" attacks may target replicas. After reviewing existing and proposed defenses, such as changing proxy IP addresses (a "moving target" technique to combat the reconnaissance phase of the botnet) and fission of overloaded servers, we focus on evaluation of defenses based on shuffling client-to-server assignments that can be both proactive and reactive to a DDoS attack. Our evaluations are based on a binomial distribution model that well agrees with simulations and preliminary experiments on a prototype that is also described.