cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the pediatric populations: prevalence and clinical outcomes

Vitamin D deficiency is becoming increasingly common in the USA. In this review we provide estimates of the prevalence of deficiency, and review the risk factors and the evidence of clinical consequences of vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency causes the pediatric disease rickets. In addition, there is some evidence that vitamin D deficiency may lead to other diseases including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, infections, asthma and dyslipidemia.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF COSPECTRAL COMPOSITE GRAPHS

Summary An operation loosely described as a type of composition of graphs is studied. Under rather flexible conditions, the resulting composite graphs must be cospectral. This operation is sufficiently powerful to generate eighty-one cospectral pairs with at most nine vertices. These pairs include the unique smallest cospectral pair, the smallest cospectral connected pair, and one pair of trees with nine vertices. It is felt that this operation provides a unified explanation of cospectrality in several cases that were previously viewed as coincidental.
Formation of Cyclobutene Compounds via Gold(I)-Catalyzed Cycloisomerization of 1,n-Enynes

As an extension of Chap. 1 and, in order to obtain a clearer picture of the intertwined reaction pathways at play in the gold(I)-catalyzed addition of carbonyl compounds. The gold-catalyzed cycloisomerization of 1,6-enynes of type II-22 bearing a carbonyl group at the alkyne moiety was examinazed. The reaction led to the unexpected formation of cyclobutene compounds of type II-23. As a further development of cyclobutene synthesis, two more examples presenting the cyclobutene motif (II-24) were obtained via gold(I)-catalyzed cyclization of 1,8-enynes.
MASTING IN ANIMAL-DISPERSED PINES FACILITATES SEED DISPERSAL

Masting increases the efficiency of wind pollination and satiates seed predators, but there is little evidence that masting facilitates seed dispersal by animals. Masting in pines was studied over three field seasons by simulating seed crops in synchrony (mast years, autumn 1998 and 1999) or out of synchrony (non-mast year, autumn 2000) with the local population. Rodents removed simulated wind-dispersed Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) seeds significantly more rapidly in mast years than in the non-mast year. Radioisotopes were used to follow the fates of individual pine seeds taken from three source trees. Rodents cached nearly all experimental seeds in mast and non-mast years, making 562 caches in 1998, 510 caches in 1999, and 1034 caches in 2000. Mean dispersal distances of seeds in primary caches were 5.9 and 4.6 m (28.6% and 22.1%) farther in the two mast years than in the non-mast year. Rodents often excavated cached seeds and moved them to new sites (secondary caching). During mast years, some seeds were found in as many as three cache sites, but during the non-mast year, the level of secondary caching approximately tripled, with some seeds being found in five or six separate cache sites. Large seed crops were associated with reduced secondary caching of seeds, reduced seed consumption, and greater seed survival in the following spring. Animal-mediated seed dispersal may be a selective force, along with predator satiation and increased efficiency of wind pollination, driving temporal variation in seed production in some large-seeded pines.
Applying Dale's Cone of Experience to increase learning and retention: A study of student learning in a foundational leadership course

The goal of this study will be to examine how Edger Dale's Cone of Experience is employed to positively impact student learning in a foundational leadership course. To accomplish this we will examine student projects in a foundational leadership course at Purdue in which students interactively evaluate leadership by creating surveys, summarizing the results and developing a leadership guidebook with practical recommendations. In addition, the authors will survey students who have completed this project and measure student achievement of learning outcomes as defined as what the student should know and realistically be able to do by the end of the course. This approach will focus on a self-assessment survey to gather in-depth understanding of learning and the reasons that student learning occurred as a result application of Edger Dale's Cone of Experience. The results will be the why and how of learning and retention, not just what. This method will produce information only on this particular course but general conclusions about the application of student projects in any course or discipline will be inferred. Our study will show that in the foundational leadership course effective learning was achieved by applying strategies at the bottom of the pyramid using direct, purposeful learning experiences that simulates “doing the real thing,” and represents reality or the closest things to real, every-day life.
Efficiently and precisely locating memory leaks and bloat

Inefficient use of memory, including leaks and bloat, remain a significant challenge for C and C++ developers. Applications with these problems become slower over time as their working set grows and can become unresponsive. At the same time, memory leaks and bloat remain notoriously difficult to debug, and comprise a large number of reported bugs in mature applications. Previous tools for diagnosing memory inefficiencies-based on garbage collection, binary rewriting, or code sampling-impose high overheads (up to 100X) or generate many false alarms.This paper presents Hound, a runtime system that helps track down the sources of memory leaks and bloat in C and C++ applications. Hound employs data sampling, a staleness-tracking approach based on a novel heap organization, to make it both precise and efficient. Hound has no false positives, and its runtime and space overhead are low enough that it can be used in deployed applications. We demonstrate Hound's efficacy across a suite of synthetic benchmarks and real applications.
Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate Inhibits Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor-induced Protein Tyrosine Phosphorylation in a Human Factor-dependent Hematopoietic Cell Line*

The human myeloid cell line MO7 requires either granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) or interleukin 3 (IL-3) for proliferation. We have previously shown that both GM-CSF and IL-3 transiently induce tyrosine phosphorylation of a number of proteins, including two cytosolic proteins, p93 and p70, which are maximally phosphorylated 5-15 min after addition of growth factor to factor-deprived cells. GM-CSF-induced proliferation of MO7 cells was found to be inhibited by two activators of protein kinase C, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and bryostatin-1. PMA did not affect surface expression or affinity of the GM-CSF receptor but significantly inhibited GM-CSF- or IL-3-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of p93 and p70. In contrast, PMA augmented GM-CSF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of another protein, p42. Pretreatment of cells with sodium orthovanadate to inhibit protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPase) partially reversed the inhibitory effects of PMA. These results suggest that one aspect of GM-CSF and IL-3 signal transduction, protein tyrosine phosphorylation, can be inhibited by a mechanism which does not involve receptor down-regulation, and may involve either receptor down-regulation, and may involve either inhibition of a receptor-activated tyrosine kinase, activation of a protein tyrosine phosphatase, or both. This mechanism could be important in exerting control of proliferation of some types of hematopoietic cells.
Low-level programming of parallel supercomputers

It is suggested that, while high-level-language and OS abstractions have evolved gradually and intelligently over the years with respect to single-instruction, single-data stream machines, these abstractions should not necessarily be provided in early generations of parallel supercomputers. Experience with low-level programming must precede the definition and evolution of abstractions for such machines. Future systems will naturally evolve to the correct level of abstraction, but experimentation with current machines must proceed as much as possible at levels that allow direct examination and evaluation of machine characteristics. Further, new software and hardware techniques should be developed to provide services that will be necessary, such as secure access to multiuser devices. >
Performance Characteristics of PET Scanners

A major goal of the PET studies is to obtain a good quality and detailed image of an object by the PET scanner, and so it depends on how well the scanner performs in image formation. Several parameters associated with the scanner are critical to good quality image formation, which include spatial resolution, sensitivity, noise, scattered radiations, and contrast. These parameters are interdependent, and if one parameter is improved, one or more of the others are compromised. A description of these parameters is given below.
Circadian manifestations of barbiturate habituation, addiction and withdrawal in the rat

The thermal acrophase for the circadian oscillation of core temperature in Charles River male rats fed ad libitum and entrained by light (12 hr dim light and 12 hr bright light) (DL 12:12 hr) occurred near the middle of the dim phase on a control diet of 30% protein. Dietary phenobarbital (0.25%) caused an increase in amplitude of the oscillation (from 0.7 degrees to 1.2 degrees C) and a phase-angle difference (psi-advance) between the zeitgeber and the biological oscillation of about 32 degrees, equivalent to an advance in the thermal acrophase of 2.1 hr in the steady-state. Food consumption was monitored continually and was nearly the same in the two groups; however, animals on the control diet ate around the clock, albeit at a greater rate during dim light than during the bright light phase, whereas rats on phenobarbital started to eat earlier and confined their feeding almost exclusively to early dim phase. This pattern of increase in amplitude of the thermal oscillation and of feeding closely resembling programmed feeding, persisted in phenobarbital-treated animals even in the absence of a dim light-bright light (DL) zeitgeber for eight days. Similar behavior was seen in rats entrained by illumination cycles of 17 hr of dim light and 7 hr of bright light, but with this reduced phase ratio for the zeitgeber, few psi-shifts occurred, and these were smaller than those induced in the group receiving 12 hr of dim light and 12 hr of bright light. In each group, introduction of the drug into the diet and, even more noticeably, removal of the drug from the diet, induced transients of circadian dyschronism that persisted for 4-5 days.
Relationship of host recurrence in fungi to rates of tropical leaf decomposition

Summary Here we explore the significance of fungal diversity on ecosystem processes by testing whether microfungal ‘preferences’ for (i.e., host recurrence) different tropical leaf species increases the rate of decomposition. We used pairwise combinations of γ-irradiated litter of five tree species with cultures of two dominant microfungi derived from each plant in a microcosm experiment. The experiment was designed to test whether early leaf decomposition rates differed depending on relationships between the leaf litter from which the fungi were derived (i.e., the source plant) and the leaf substrata decomposed by these fungi in microcosms. Relationships tested were phylogenetic relatedness between the source and substratum leaves, and similarity in litter quality (lignin, N and P) between the source and substratum. We found a significant interaction between microfungi and leaf species ( P 0.0001 ), and differences among the four classes of source–substratum relationships were highly significant ( P = 0.0004 ). Combinations in which fungal source leaves were of the same species or family as the substratum, or the fungal source resembled the substratum in quality had marginally faster decomposition than when the fungal source and substratum leaves were mismatched (i.e., unrelated and of dissimilar quality). In some microcosms, a basidiomycete contaminant had a strong additive effect on decomposition of Croton poecilanthus leaves resulting in faster decomposition than with microfungi alone ( P 0.0001 ). Comparisons among leaf–microfungal combinations were made after the effect of the basidiomycete covariate was adjusted to zero. The data on microfungi suggest differential abundance in particular hosts, which contributes to species diversity of decomposer fungi in tropical forests, affects rates of decomposition.
Consumer possessions, consumer passions, and subjective well-being

Speculation about the linkages between consumer products, consumption-related attitudes, and subjective well-being is prominent in the social sciences. This paper examines three issues in this literature using data collected in 1989 and 1990. The first issue is whether the accumulation and anticipated accumulation of different types of consumer goods foster subjective well-being. Second is whether accumulation and anticipated accumulation explain the well-established relationship between income and subjective well-being. These issues are explored with two alternative measures that incorporate different assumptions about the relative importance of ownership and the newness of products. The third issue is whether “passions for the new” are positively or negatively related to subjective well-being. Although some results indicate that the heavy theoretical emphasis on the importance of consumer markets for subjective well-being and the income-subjective well-being relationship is overdrawn, others provide weak support for a market-centric perspective that emphasizes the positive consequences of accumulating different types of consumer goods. Different types of consumer goods fill different niches in individuals' lives as they age. Lastly, the passion for new experiences in the marketplace is positively related to subjective well-being.
The effect of sample preparation methods on glass performance

A series of experiments was conducted using SRL 165 synthetic waste glass to investigate the effects of surface preparation and leaching solution composition on the alteration of the glass. Samples of glass with as-cast surfaces produced smooth reaction layers and some evidence for precipitation of secondary phases from solution. Secondary phases were more abundant in samples reacted in deionized water than for those reacted in a silicate solution. Samples with saw-cut surfaces showed a large reduction in surface roughness after 7 days of reaction in either solution. Reaction in silicate solution for up to 91 days produced no further change in surface morphology, while reaction in DIW produced a spongy surface that formed the substrate for further surface layer development. The differences in the surface morphology of the samples may create microclimates that control the details of development of alteration layers on the glass; however, the concentrations of elements in leaching solutions show differences of 50% or less between samples prepared with different surface conditions for tests of a few months duration. 6 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.
Public and private providers' involvement in improving their patients' contraceptive use.

Abstract Background This study measured differences in the provision of care between public and private providers of contraceptive services, what problems using contraception these providers perceived their patients to have and providers' views on how to improve their patients' method use. Study Design A nationally representative mixed-mode survey (mail, Internet and fax) of private family practice and obstetrician/gynecologist physicians who provided contraceptive care in 2005 was conducted. A parallel survey was administered to public contraceptive care providers in community health centers, hospitals, Planned Parenthood clinics and other sites during the same period. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted across both surveys. Results A total of 1256 questionnaires were completed for a response rate of 62%. A majority of providers surveyed believed that over 10% of their contraceptive clients experienced ambivalence about avoiding pregnancy, underestimated the risk of pregnancy and failed to use contraception for one or more months when at risk for unintended pregnancy. Implementation of protocols to promote contraceptive use ranged widely among provider types: a full 78% of Panned Parenthood clinics offered quick-start pill initiation, as did 47% of public health departments. However, 38% of obstetrician-gynecologists, 27% of “other public” clinics and only 13% of family physicians did so. Both public and private providers reported that one of the most important things they could do to improve patients' contraceptive method use was to provide more and better counseling. At least 46% of private providers and at least 21% of public providers reported that changing insurance reimbursement to allow more time for counseling was very important. Conclusions Strategies to improve contraceptive use for all persons in need in the United States have the potential to be more effective if the challenges contraceptive providers face and the differences between public and private providers are taken into account.
A comparative risk analysis of fuel wood use in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract A risk impact analysis is performed for residential space heating derived from fuelwood in the Pacific Northwest. Direct risks associated with the collection and use of fuelwood in homes are characterized and computed per 1012 Btu of fuelwood harvested. The hazards identified are then compared to similar risks associated with the generation of electricity using four different fuels: coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium. The resulting comparison indicates that the acquisition and use of fuelwood in residences is several times more costly in terms of loss of life and injury incurred, than electricity derived from the conventional fuels compared.
Towards disentangling coupled electronic–vibrational dynamics in ultrafast non-adiabatic processes

Femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy is emerging as a new technique for investigating polyatomic excited state dynamics. Due to the sensitivity of photoelectron spectroscopy to both electronic configurations and vibrational dynamics, it is well suited to the study of non-adiabatic processes such as internal conversion, which often occur on sub-picosecond time scales. We discuss the technical requirements for such experiments, including lasers systems, energy- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometers and new detectors for coincidence experiments. We present a few examples of these methods applied to problems in diatomic wavepacket dynamics and ultrafast non-adiabatic processes in polyatomic molecules.
The robustness of resource allocation in parallel and distributed computing systems

This paper gives an overview of the material to be discussed in the invited keynote presentation by H. J. Siegel. Performing computing and communication tasks on parallel and distributed systems involves the coordinated use of different types of machines, networks, interfaces, and other resources. Decisions about how best to allocate resources are often based on estimated values of task and system parameters, due to uncertainties in the system environment. An important research problem is the development of resource management strategies that can guarantee a particular system performance given such uncertainties. We have designed a methodology for deriving the degree of robustness of a resource allocation - the maximum amount of collective uncertainty in system parameters within which a user-specified level of system performance (QoS) can be guaranteed. Our four-step procedure for deriving a robustness metric for an arbitrary system will be presented. We will illustrate this procedure and its usefulness by deriving robustness metrics for some example distributed systems.
Renal hypertension prevents run training modification of cardiomyocyte diastolic Ca2+ regulation in male rats.

The combined effects of endurance run training and renal hypertension on cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]c) dynamics and Na+-dependent Ca2+ regulation in rat left ventricular cardiomyocytes wer...
Risk Manage Capital Investment Decisions: A Lease vs. Purchase Illustration

This paper demonstrates how to build risk into capital investment decisions. We illustrate how to combine distribution theory, technology, and a business professional’s skills and insight into a capital investment analysis. In addition, we show how management can approximate the risk of each cash flow estimate and display the overall capital investment results. This framework is extended by showing how a mutually exclusive decision can be improved, using a lease versus purchase example. [1] An Excel template is readily available from the authors allowing a hands-on application of the framework presented in this paper. In addition, this paper positions the reader to comfortably use more advanced analytics, such as Monte Carlo simulation, a tool that is readily available in commercial software applications. This paper focuses on the application of net present value. The advantage of using net present value in a capital budgeting decision is that it shows the potential stakeholder wealth creation and wealth destruction. An internal rate of return analysis is intentionally left out of this paper. According to Brealey, Myers and Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance , New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006, pp. 91-99, internal rate of return should not be used to evaluate mutually exclusive capital investments.
An African Cultural Organization: The Bali Cultural Association-United States of America

The psychosocial need of people in diaspora underscores the need for African Studies to be interested in how Africans living in the United States stay connected with their cultural roots in Africa. This paper is a narrative of how sons and daughters of the Chamba tribe, specifically the Bali tribe of Cameroon, living in the United States formed and maintains the Bali Cultural Association-United States of America (BCA-USA). The narrative on historical development captures what it takes to form a cultural organization in diaspora, structuring, running and maintaining it. Special projects to maintain its non-profit status and building a support system for its members are included. Considering that a healthy status is a prerequisite for people being where they want to be and doing the things they love doing, special attention is given the health care needs of the members of BCA-USA.
Dynamics of Sand

“Sand” represents a “state of matter” to which not much attention has been paid. A sand pile can be formed into different shapes; it can exist in many stable states, almost all of which are not the flat lowest energy state. Thus, sand contains memory; one can write letters in sand. If a heap of sand is perturbed, for instance by adding more sand, by tilting the pile, or by shaking it, the system goes from one metastable state to another. In some sense, this happens by a diffusion process, but this process is very different from the process which relaxes a glass of water to equilibrium after shaking. The diffusion process in sand can stop at any of many states, and the process is a threshold process, where nothing happens before the perturbation reaches a minimum magnitude. The threshold dynamics of sand is a paradigm of many processes in nature. Earthquakes occur only when the stress somewhere on the crust of the Earth exceeds a critical value, and the earthquake takes the crust from one stable state to another. Economie systems are driven by threshold processes: the individual agents change their behavior only when certain factors reach a certain level. Biological species emerge or die when specifie conditions in the ecology are fulfilled. Neurons in a network fire when the input reaches a threshold level, etc.
Enhanced arsenic removal by biochar modified with nickel (Ni) and manganese (Mn) oxyhydroxides

Abstract Two biochar composites were synthesized by either pyrolysis of Ni/Mn oxide-modified pinewood feedstock (NMMF) or precipitation of Ni/Mn-LDHs onto pristine biochars (NMMB). Both sorbents were characterized and results indicated that NiO and MnO were dominant crystals in NMMF, whereas Ni/Mn-LDHs in NMMB. Sorption experiment showed that the maximum As(V) sorption capacity were 0.549 and 6.52 g kg −1 for NMMF and NMMB, respectively. The As(V)-loaded sorbents can be easily desorbed with 0.1 NaOH, and NMMB maintained 98% removal efficiency after two to three desorption–resorption cycles. The As(V) sorption is mainly attributed to anion exchange and surface complexation by NMMB and surface complexation by NMMF.
Modeling of Neutron Diffraction Patterns from Sheared Silica Gels

Dense silica gels, prepared from suspensions of 24 nm colloidal silica particles, have been studied by small angle neutron scattering. Provided the volume fraction, φ, of the silica is less than about 0.18, the scattered intensity increases at low wavevector, q, as the gelation proceeds and the structure factor, S(q), of the final gel exhibits apparent power law behavior, usually interpreted as a signature of fractal growth. The power law behavior, however, was observed for all measured φ (≤0.30) when the gelation occurred in the presence of an applied shear. Furthermore, the first diffraction maximum, corresponding to the inter-particle contact distance, was more sharply peaked in the high density sheared gels, indicating that the structural arrangement of the silica particles under shear is more densely packed than in gels produced without shear under equivalent conditions. Although it is clear that shear has a marked influence on the gel structure at higher densities, a quantitative interpretation of the diffraction results is difficult because cluster-cluster interference might be present. Such difficulties encountered when trying to interpret the scattering from these dense systems are outlined, and a computer simulation that includes cluster-cluster interference is presented.
Petra Santa Cruz Stevens and the sexual and racial modalities of property relations in the nineteenth-century Arizona–Sonora borderlands:

The 1890s were a period of tremendous social and political upheaval. The intimate nature of boom-bust economies and the end of the Indian wars influenced US–Mexico borderlands social life, forming the basis of this article. A 23 March 1893 murder-suicide attempt by ex-Congressman Hiram Stevens against his wife Petra Santa Cruz in the Arizona territory sets the stage for how larger socioeconomic shifts in racialized capitalist production influenced historical memory. In particular, analyzing Petra Santa Cruz Stevens’ life history in the context of capitalism provides a window for a reassessment of borderlands history as it is currently practiced, the ways in which material objects account for the affective and social labor of producing legible subjects, the ways in which sexual and racial modalities informed property relations of capital, and finally, a feminist critique of social history and national formation by shifting our attention to how borderlands negotiations of violence and history were, and cont...
Sudden chest pain, bradycardia, and hypotension.

(1999). Sudden Chest Pain, Bradycardia, and Hypotension. Hospital Practice: Vol. 34, No. 12, pp. 49-50.
Aortoventriculoplasty in infants and children.

Background. When aortic valve replacement is required in infants or small children with complex left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) or aortic incompetence (AI), the diameter of the annulus may limit the size of the prosthesis that can be safely inserted, and aortoventriculoplasty (AVP) may be required. To assess the results of this procedure in the pediatric age group, we reviewed our results in 19 patients who underwent AVP from May 1986 to April 1991. Methods and Results. Patient age ranged from 1 day to 18 years (mean, 5.9 years), with six patients <2 years of age and 13 patients younger than 5 years
Full Spectrum Collection of Concentrated Solar Energy Using PV Coupled with Selective Filtration Utilizing Nanoparticles

Hybrid solar receivers utilizing both photovoltaic cells and thermal collectors are capable of collecting the entire solar spectrum for use in energy systems. Such systems provide efficient solar energy conversion using PV in addition to dispatchability through thermal storage by incorporating a thermal collector in conjunction with the PV. Proposed hybrid systems typically invoke spectrum splitting so to redirect photons optimized for PV electric conversion to a cell while non-PV efficient photons are directed to a thermal absorber. This work discusses a hybrid system with a selective solar filter using a suspended nanoparticle fluid to directly absorb non-PV photons. Non-absorbed photons pass through the filter and impact the PV. Choice of nanoparticles in the fluid allow absorption and transmission of specific wavelengths. Nanoparticles were chosen based on optimization simulations for a bandpass filter to a cSi solar cell. The synthesized fluid has been experimentally characterized to show the effects of high temperature on nanoparticle stability and optical properties. Thermodynamic modeling of the system suggests solar to electric efficiency of the total system is 23.2% if all thermal energy is converted to electricity through an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). However, high temperature generation could be used for industrial process heat at a specific temperature by changing parameters such as absorbed energy and flow rates. Furthermore, a prototype is being developed with 14x concentration to demonstrate the technology on-sun with initial testing targeted for the 2nd quarter of 2016. Overall, the hybrid nanoparticle filter concentrating solar collector can be modified to fit a variety of applications through easily changeable parameters in the system.
Warp Breaks Detection in Jacquard Weaving using MEMS: Effect of Weave on Break Signals:

This paper reports a study to detect warp breaks in terms of weave structure using MEMS accelerometer based detection system. The system is briefly described. The output signals of MEMS sensors, wh...
Analysis of a Near Field Communication wireless power system

Near Field Communication (NFC) readers, ubiquitously embedded in smart-phones, buses and other infrastructures, are able to wirelessly deliver mW-level power to ultra-low power, passive NFC tags via a coupled magnetic field. Additionally, an NFC reader can leverage the coupled communication channel to support relatively heavy computational applications, such as sensing, visual displays, etc. Consequently, reliable and efficient power-transfer with robust communication in the cm reading range is required to enable various more demanding NFC-WISP applications. However, there is a fundamental tradeoff between wireless power delivery and resonator bandwidth, which are critical to NFC communication. Another common trait of magnetically coupled systems is the vulnerability to variations in tag reading distance and antenna misalignment. To mitigate these challenges, we present two simulation-based investigations to study the power transfer and bandwidth performance given different NFC reading range with consideration of parasitic effects. Firstly, we compare a 2-coil NFC system with a 3-coil NFC system via theoretical analysis utilizing a simplified simulation model by ignoring the cross-coupling effect. Secondly, we present the influence of cross-coupling effects of a 3-coil system using a complex model. Finally, we demonstrate the effect of parasitic capacitance across coils for both 2 and 3-coil systems.
Egyptian Regional Policy in the Wake of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936: Arab Alliance or Islamic Caliphate?

The conclusion of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of Alliance of 26 August 1936, which formally terminated the British occupation of Egypt and provided for Egyptian entry into the League of Nations, was received by many Egyptians with the expectation that the regularisation of the Anglo-Egyptian relationship would allow Egypt to play a greater role in the world around it. To Emile Zaydan, the editor of the cultural journal al-Hilal, the treaty opened ‘new horizons’ for Egypt and the opportunity to consolidate its ties with other Arab, Muslim, and Eastern peoples.1 The intellectual Taha Husayn saw the treaty as the start of a ‘new era’ of greater international responsibilities for Egypt, including the obligation to spread the benefits of its own precocious modernisation to its more backward Arab neighbours.2 The Liberal leader Muhammad Husayn Haykal viewed the implications of the treaty as meaning that Egypt would now be able to develop a definite ‘Arab or Islamic or Eastern policy’, something it had not been free to do prior to the conclusion of the treaty.3 The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which this anticipation of Egypt developing a more forward regional policy was realised in the years immediately before the Second World War.
High Frequency Em Scattering by Non-Uniform Open Waveguide Cavities Containing an Interior Obstacle

An analysis of the high frequency (HF) electromagnetic scattering by an open waveguide cavity containing a complex interior obstacle is of interest in scattered field and electromagnetic coupling predictions. A typical cavity-obstacle geometry is shown in Figure 1; this geometry is illuminated by an external source. The interior walls of the cavity are assumed to be perfectly conducting but may contain a thin material coating. The HF scattering by the configuration in Figure 1 is analyzed here primarily for the case when the observation point lies on the same side of the scattering geometry as the source, and for incidence and scattering angles within about 75° from the axis of the waveguide at the open front end. Outside of this region the scattering by external features of the cavity are generally more dominant than the scattering from the cavity interior. The method of analysis described here is based on a hybrid combination of HF ray/beam techniques, or modal techniques (mostly for cavities built up by connecting separable waveguide sections), with other methods. The HF techniques, or the modal techniques, are used to track the fields coupled into the waveguide cavity; whereas, other (numerical or experimental) methods are required in general to deal with the effect of the complex interior obstacle.
Interaction between a domain wall and spin supercurrent in easy-cone magnets

A domain wall and spin supercurrent can coexist in magnets with easy-cone anisotropy owing to simultaneous spontaneous breaking of ${Z}_{2}$ and U(1) symmetries. Their interaction is theoretically investigated in quasi-one-dimensional ferromagnets within the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert phenomenology. Specifically, the spin supercurrent can exert the torque on a domain wall and thereby drive it. We also show, as a reciprocal phenomenon, a field-induced motion of a domain wall can generate spin supercurrent.
Adeno-associated Virus (AAV) Assembly-Activating Protein Is Not an Essential Requirement for Capsid Assembly of AAV Serotypes 4, 5, and 11.

ABSTRACT Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors have made great progress in their use for gene therapy; however, fundamental aspects of AAV9s capsid assembly remain poorly characterized. In this regard, the discovery of assembly-activating protein (AAP) sheds new light on this crucial part of AAV biology and vector production. Previous studies have shown that AAP is essential for assembly; however, how its mechanistic roles in assembly might differ among AAV serotypes remains uncharacterized. Here, we show that biological properties of AAPs and capsid assembly processes are surprisingly distinct among AAV serotypes 1 to 12. In the study, we investigated subcellular localizations and assembly-promoting functions of AAP1 to -12 (i.e., AAPs derived from AAV1 to -12, respectively) and examined the AAP dependence of capsid assembly processes of these 12 serotypes using combinatorial approaches that involved immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy, barcode-Seq (i. e., a high-throughput quantitative method using DNA barcodes and a next-generation sequencing technology), and quantitative dot blot assays. This study revealed that AAP1 to -12 are all localized in the nucleus with serotype-specific differential patterns of nucleolar association; AAPs and assembled capsids do not necessarily colocalize; AAPs are promiscuous in promoting capsid assembly of other serotypes, with the exception of AAP4, -5, -11, and -12; assembled AAV5, -8, and -9 capsids are excluded from the nucleolus, in contrast to the nucleolar enrichment of assembled AAV2 capsids; and, surprisingly, AAV4, -5, and -11 capsids are not dependent on AAP for assembly. These observations highlight the serotype-dependent heterogeneity of the capsid assembly process and challenge current notions about the role of AAP and the nucleolus in capsid assembly. IMPORTANCE Assembly-activating protein (AAP) is a recently discovered adeno-associated virus (AAV) protein that promotes capsid assembly and provides new opportunities for research in assembly. Previous studies on AAV serotype 2 (AAV2) showed that assembly takes place in the nucleolus and is dependent on AAP and that capsids colocalize with AAP in the nucleolus during the assembly process. However, through the investigation of 12 different AAV serotypes (AAV1 to -12), we find that AAP is not an essential requirement for capsid assembly of AAV4, -5, and -11, and AAP, assembled capsids, and the nucleolus do not colocalize for all the serotypes. In addition, we find that there are both serotype-restricted and serotype-promiscuous AAPs in their assembly roles. These findings challenge widely held beliefs about the importance of the nucleolus and AAP in AAV assembly and show the heterogeneous nature of the assembly process within the AAV family.
Engineering Management Models for Urban Security

The allocation of limited yet costly police resources is a daily dilemma for police commanders. More than 50% of police department costs go into patrolling operations, which include responding to emergencies and maintaining police presence in patrolling areas. This research aims to address the managerial challenges and tradeoffs that police commanders face when designing patrolling strategies: lessening the economic burden of crime prevention and maintaining high levels of public safety. The proposed framework is implemented through a mathematical framework and simulation to obtain the best patrolling strategies for the Seattle Police Department, and the simulation results show that patrol performance can be improved using the proposed framework.
Network Codes Based on Symmetric Matrices

The key challenges of future wireless communication are improving data rate and quality of service. However, the challenges posed by having a large number of users such as power control, frequency synchronization and independently faded channels scales with the number of users. Cooperative communications is a candidate technology for high data rate and multi-user communications. In this paper, a new design of distributed network codes is introduced. These network codes are based on algebraic constructions in finite fields. Finite fields have an attractive feature of constraining transmit signal energy and is resilient to fading channels. The codes have high diversity and scale up with an arbitrary number of users. The codes are an alternative to Generalized Dynamic Network Codes without a restriction on the field size. Results are compared to theoretical evaluations and systems with similar configurations.
Muscular and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Homeschool versus Public School Children

Purpose:The growth and unregulated structure of homeschooling creates an unknown population in regard to muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness. The purpose of this research was to compare muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness between elementary school aged homeschool and public school children. Method:Homeschool children ages 8–11 years old (n = 75) completed the curl-up, 90° push-up, and Progressive Aerobic Capacity Endurance Run (PACER) portions of the FitnessGram to assess abdominal and upper body strength and endurance as well as cardiorespiratory fitness. Comparisons to public school children (n = 75) were made using t tests and chi-square tests. Results:Homeschool children showed significantly lower abdominal (t(148) = -11.441, p < .001; χ2 (1) = 35.503, p < .001) and upper body (t(148) = -3.610, p < .001; χ2 (1) = 4.881, p = .027) strength and endurance. There were no significant differences in cardiorespiratory fitness by total PACER laps (t(108) = 0.879, p = .381) or estimated VO2max (t(70) = 1...
Sleep, health behaviors, and behavioral interventions: Reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease in adults

Numerous health behaviors, including physical activity, diet, smoking, and sleep, play a major role in preventing the development and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Among these behaviors, sleep may play a pivotal role, yet it has been studied somewhat less than other behaviors and there have been few well-designed sleep intervention studies targeting CVD. Furthermore, despite the fact that these behaviors are often interrelated, interventions tend to focus on changing one health behavior rather than concurrently intervening on multiple behaviors. Psychological constructs from depression to positive affect may also have a major effect on these health behaviors and ultimately on CVD. In this review, we summarize the existing literature on the impact of sleep and other cardiac health behaviors on CVD onset and prognosis. We also describe interventions that may promote these behaviors, from established interventions such as motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy, to more novel approaches focused on mindfulness and other positive psychological constructs. Finally, we outline population-health-level care management approaches for patients with psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression) that may impact cardiac health, and discuss their potential utility in improving mental health, promoting health behaviors, and reducing CVD-related risk. Much work is still needed to better understand how sleep and other health behaviors may uniquely contribute to CVD risk, and additional high-quality studies of interventions designed to modify cardiac health behaviors are required to improve cardiovascular health in individuals and the population at large.
Early detection of squamous cell carcinoma in carcinogen induced oral cancer rodent model by ratiometric activatable cell penetrating peptides

Abstract Objectives Ratiometric cell-penetrating-peptides (RACPP) are hairpin-shaped molecules that undergo cleavage by tumor-associated proteases resulting in measurable Cy5:Cy7 fluorescence ratiometric change to label cancer in vivo. We evaluated an MMP cleavable RACPP for use in the early detection of malignant lesions in a carcinogen-induced rodent tumor model. Methods Wild-type immune-competent mice were given 4-nitroquinoline-oxide (4NQO) for 16 weeks. Oral cavities from live mice that had been intravenously administered MMP cleavable PLGC(Me)AG-RACPP were serially imaged from week 11 through week 21 using white-light reflectance and Cy5:Cy7 ratiometric fluorescence. Results In an initial study we found that at week 21 nearly all mice (13/14) had oral cavity lesions, of which 90% were high-grade dysplasia or invasive carcinoma. These high-grade lesions were identifiable with white light reflectance and RACPP Cy5:Cy7 ratiometric fluorescence with similar detectability, Area Under Curve (AUC) for RACPP detection was 0.97 (95% Confidence interval (CI) = 0.92–1.02, p Conclusions RACPP ratiometric fluorescence can be used to accurately detect carcinogen-induced carcinoma in immunocompetent mice that are poorly visible or undetectable by white light reflectance.
Field Theory in Science: Its Role as a Necessary and Sufficient Condition in Psychology

Whereas physics has evolved through three conceptual stages, the third being that of field theory, psychology has remained largely at the second stage, that of mechanistic or statistical correlation, and it has retained even some elements of the first stage, that of substance-property. However, some accomplishments in psychology utilize a field conception. Two of these, the interbehavioral field and the subjectivity field, are closely interconnected and show parallels with modern physics. They replace single causation and self-causation, analogical explanation, biological reductionism, and psychophysical dualism with the field as a necessary and sufficient condition for a psychological event. Q methodology for subjectivity adds an objective method of studying self-reference that the interbehavioral field lacks.
Social Problems in Contemporary Chinese Society: Editor's Introduction

Social problems in socialist China? If this query had been raised during Maoist times a decade or more ago, the likely answer, both inside China and in the West by those in a position to know, would have been "No," or "No serious ones that we know about." Now, in the 1980s ask the same question of any knowledgeable person—Chinese or not, official, social scientist, tourist, or ordinary citizen—and the answer invariably is an emphatic "Yes," followed by a long list of "urgent social problems" topped almost always by the population problem. In recent years and months, ample evidence of serious Chinese concern with the study and resolution of a variety of social problems facing contemporary Chinese society can be found in their media, government policy directives, and scholarly journals. Indeed, it is the emergence of the systematic study of social problems, particularly as a branch of sociology (itself a nascent but growing discipline), that makes it possible to compile this and other specialized volumes on...
Clinical predictors of survival in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer receiving sipuleucel-T cellular immunotherapy

We evaluated the patterns of progression and determined clinical predictors of survival in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPCa) who received sipuleucel-T. We retrospectively analyzed 56 consecutive patients with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic CRPCa treated with sipuleucel-T. Age, number of bone metastases, history of prior systemic treatment, and alkaline phosphatase level (ALP) were tested as predictors of survival in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate event-free probabilities. The 56 patients were a median age of 67 years (range 51–84 years). After sipuleucel-T treatment, 25 patients developed bone progression after a median of 22 months of follow-up (54% of patients were event free at 2 years) and 10% (6/56 patients) developed rapid progression. Eleven deaths were observed after a median of 28 months of follow-up. Forty-eight patients were included in the multivariate analysis for overall survival. The analysis showed that age >70 years (p = 0.012), number of bone metastases >20 (p = 0.018), prior systemic treatment (p = 0.018), and ALP level >90 IU/L (p = 0.010) significantly predicted worse overall survival. Two-year overall survival was 36% among the 16 patients with two or more of these factors and was 93% among the 32 patients with one or none of these factors (p = 0.0004). CRPCa patients with age (>70 years), increased tumor burden in bone (>20 metastases and/or elevated ALP level), and/or prior systemic treatment are more likely to experience rapid deterioration after sipuleucel-T. These results need to be prospectively validated.