cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Flight Activities of Dolichoderus (Hypoclinea) Taschenbergi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Nuptial flights were observed at a nest on the Edwin S. George Reserve, Livingston County, Michigan, between June 17 and July 28, 1957; they took place daily except when inclement weather occurred during the flight period. Flights occurred between approximately 20 minutes before sunrise and 4 hours after sunrise; at temperatures of 58° F. or higher; at low wind velocities; at high relative humidities (80%–99%); and under various sky conditions. The time of the morning of the emergence of the alates from the nest and of the beginning of flights was influenced by the temperature. The alates flew from the vegetation near the nest. Prior to flight each alate usually fluttered its wings while holding on to the vegetation; it became airborne by releasing its hold while fluttering. The alates usually flew toward open areas at angles of 30° to 60° from the horizontal; their flight speed varied from 2 to 5 feet per second. Flights were moderate in size, usually comprising 300–400 alates. The daily flight duration averaged 66 minutes. After the day's flight was over, a small number of alates came out of the nest and paraded over the nest surface. This behavior occurred throughout the day and, on warm evenings, during the night. These flights are compared to those of the closely related species, D. mariae.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION IN AN ARTIFICIAL POPULATION OF IMPATIENS PALLIDA: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INVISIBLE FRACTION.

Multiple-regression techniques for measuring phenotypic selection have been used in a large number of recent field studies. One benefit of this technique is its ability to discern the direct action of selection on traits by removing effects of correlated traits. However, covariation among traits expressed at different stages in an organism's life history is often poorly estimated because individuals that die before reaching adulthood cannot be measured as adults. Accurate estimates of trait covariances are necessary for the correct interpretation of the direct action of selection on a trait. If phenotypic characters expressed at different life-history stages are of interest, and mortality occurs between stages, the components of the selection model will be biased by not including those individuals that died (the "invisible fraction").
Laboratory Maintenance of Carpenter Ants

The medical or veterinary importance of ants has not generally been recognized even though they have been known to serve as vectors of parasitic organisms pathogenic to both man and animals for more than 50 years (Wheeler 1914, Gosswald 1938). O'Rourke (1956) discussed the medical and veterinary importance of ants as cyclical vectors of disease, and the role of ants as vectors of flatworms was reviewed by Svadzhyan and Frolkova (1966).
Assessing the professional competencies of correctional executives' and senior-level leaders'

Background This non-experimental, quantitative study, examines and validates the National Institute of Corrections' executive and senior-level leadership competencies and predetermined experiences that should lead to identifying the right correctional leadership development. From the solicitation of correctional executives' and senior-level leaders' own perceptions. Methods Correctional Executives (n = 90) completed a researcher designed measure of leaders perceptions of utilization of NIC competencies and experiences. Results On-the-job training and progressive job assignment (serving in a role prior to appointment to a long term or permanent assignment) emerged as favorable ways for developing correctional leadership competencies. Additionally, the results of this study provided evidence supporting some highly predictive dependent variables as beneficial for first time executives in corrections and for effective correctional executive leadership. Conclusions The results of the study does not support separating leadership profiles for correctional executives and senior-level leaders. Study showed that leaders agreed on certain competencies when combining leadership experiences. Finally the biological characteristic ethnicities and organizational size identified as predictable factors for the utilization competencies.
Renal Carcinoma: Computer Analysis of 96 Patients Treated by Nephrectomy

AbstractWe submitted to computer analysis 109 items of pathologic, clinical and survival data from 96 patients with renal carcinoma treated by nephrectomy with or without adjuvant therapy between 1956 and 1976. The combined 1, 5 and 10-year calculated survival rates for potentially curable non-metastatic renal carcinoma (stages I, II and III, provided the regional lymph nodes were not involved) were 95, 61 and 47 per cent, respectively, compared to 1, 5 and 10-year survival rates of 61, 5 and 0 per cent, respectively, for stage IV tumors. The cytoplasmic appearance (clear or granular) was not a significant microscopic feature relevant to survival of the patient but the grade of the tumor was predictive of the outcome of disease. Other features of renal carcinoma, particularly invasion of the renal vein and, to a lesser degree, perinephric fat, were not as prognostically significant in this series. In this retrospective study we further analyze the clinical, radiologic, pathologic and survival data of this...
Ethical Research Primer for the Novice Researcher

As the research process is embarked upon, it is important that a novice researcher become well versed in ethical standards. Maintaining the highest level of ethical conduct is of paramount importance at all stages of the endeavor. Unethical behavior compromises research quality, slows the advancement of knowledge, and undermines societal trust. Thus, development of familiarity and expertise surrounding ethical complexities will enhance the chances of a successful and worthwhile research project. The purpose of this article is to create awareness of the ethical dilemmas novice researchers are faced with in maintaining the academic integrity of published works. The article explores the literature related to ethics in research, and provides a discussion of a number of ethical issues which threaten research quality.
Creating and Exploiting a Web of Semantic Data

Twenty years ago Tim Berners-Lee proposed a distributed hypertext system based on standard Internet protocols. The Web that resulted fundamentally changed the ways we share information and services, both on the public Internet and within organizations. That original proposal contained the seeds of another effort that has not yet blossomed: a Semantic Web designed to enable computer programs to share and understand structured and semi-structured information easily. We will review the evolution of the idea and technologies to realize a Web of Data and describe how we are exploiting them to enhance information retrieval and in¬formation extraction. A key resource in our work is Wikitology, a hybrid knowledge base of structured and unstructured information extracted from Wikipedia.
God v Caesar: Sir Edward Coke and the Struggles of His Time

In the 1580s at Temple Church, a youthful Edward Coke, recently admitted to the bar, most likely witnessed the ‘Battle of the Pulpit’ waged between the Anglican Richard Hooker, who preached on Sunday morning, and the Puritan Walter Travers, who answered him on Sunday afternoon. That contest symbolised a broader conflict between the Anglicans and the Puritans in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England over economic and political affairs that Coke would, in his own way, try to reconcile in both the theory and practice of English law. Embracing Hooker's emphasis on the past and the seamless continuity of the English legal tradition, Coke would endeavour to make it look as though the strong contemporary impulses in favour of economic freedom and parliamentary government, close to the hearts of many Puritans such as Travers, were but a normal expression of the ‘ancient constitution’ associated with the reign of Edward the Confessor in the first half of the eleventh century. Though Coke temporarily succeeded in conciliating some of the Puritans, the compromise would not satisfy everyone.
Actinomyces in Pregnancy: A Review of the Literature.

Importance Actinomyces is commonly found in many areas of the body where it derives a benefit without harming the host. When it does infect the host during pregnancy, is that infection a threat to the obstetric patient and does that infection cause adverse pregnancy outcomes? Objective The aim of this study was to review what is known about Actinomyces infections and the impact of an Actinomyces infection on pregnancy outcomes. Evidence acquisition A PubMed search was undertaken with the search years unlimited to April 1, 2016, and restricted to articles in English. The search terms included "actinomyces," "pregnancy," "prenatal," "maternal," "actinomyces infection," "pregnancy," "chorioamnionitis," "preterm labor," "premature birth," or "postpartum actinomyces." Results Eighteen of the 154 identified articles are the basis of this review. Actinomyces is a rod-like positive bacterium. The diagnosis of an Actinomyces infection can be by culture or Gram stain. Actinomyces is commensal and typically only infects after a mucosal break or lesion. Seventeen cases were identified in pregnancy. Ten cases were complicated by chorioamnionitis and a preterm delivery. A nidus leading to infection was identified in 12 of the cases including women with a cervical cerclage, dental abscesses, appendicitis, renal actinomycosis, and ovarian abscesses. Adverse pregnancy outcomes have been linked with periodontal disease, but treatment did not prevent preterm delivery in a randomized, blinded, controlled trial. Conclusions Actinomyces infections in pregnancy are rare but, if they occur, have been linked primarily with preterm deliveries. Target audience Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians. Learning objectives After completing this activity, the learner should be better able to identify the areas of the body where Actinomyces infections occur and how the infections typically occur, identify the pathophysiologic changes that occur during pregnancy that might lead to an Actinomyces infection and how that infection may affect pregnancy outcomes, and describe the treatment for mild and severe Actinomyces infections.
Simultaneous Resection for Synchronous Colorectal Liver Metastasis: the New Standard of Care?

Optimal surgical management for patients with synchronous colorectal cancer liver metastasis is controversial. We provide an analysis of surgical utilization and outcomes for patients presenting with synchronous colon and rectal cancer liver metastasis between simultaneous and staged approaches. SPARCS database was used to follow patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer with liver metastases from 2005 to 2014. Using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes, we identified patients undergoing staged and simultaneous resection. Our primary endpoint was major events at 30-day follow-up. Of the patients, 1430 underwent surgery for synchronous colorectal primary and liver metastases between 2005 and 2014. There was no difference in adjusted rates of major events or anastomotic leak. Patients undergoing simultaneous resection were significantly less likely to experience prolonged length of stay (OR = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.21–0.37) or high hospital charges (OR = 0.24; 95% CI = 0.17–0.32) compared to staged resection even among patients undergoing total hepatic lobectomy and complex colorectal resection. Simultaneous resection was found to be equally as safe as staged resection even when evaluating patients undergoing more complex operations, and led to lower health care utilization. Under appropriate clinical circumstances, simultaneous resection offers benefits to patients and the health care system and should be the recommended surgical approach.
Mandibular dimensions in children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

OBJECTIVE We hypothesized that mandibular size may play a role in the etiology of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children, since a smaller mandible may reduce airway size. We used magnetic resonance imaging to determine the mandible dimensions of children with OSAS. DESIGN Case control study. SETTING Tertiary-care pediatric hospital. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-four subjects (mean age 4.9 +/- 1.7 years) with mild to moderate OSAS (Apnea Index 3.5 +/- 5.1), and 24 matched controls (mean age 4.9 +/- 1.8 years). INTERVENTION Magnetic resonance imaging of the upper airway under sedation. MEASUREMENTS Eight measurements were obtained from a 3-dimensional segmentation of the mandible using 3DVIEWNIX software. Measurements included length, height, width, midsymphysis menti angle, angle of mandible, enclosure area, surface area, and volume. Descriptive comparisons using Student t test and multivariate analyses of variance were performed. RESULTS Individual measurement comparisons revealed no significant differences between groups. Multivariate analysis showed a lower bound of a 95% confidence interval for an effect size measure for "general mandibular size," including all 6 linear, the area, and the volume measurements, to be -0.25. CONCLUSION Our study shows that a smaller mandible is not a feature in children with OSAS who do not have apparent craniofacial abnormalities.
How Symptomatic Should a Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy Patient Be to Consider Alcohol Septal Ablation

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a complex and heterogeneous disease with different anatomical variants, physiologic manifestations, and genetic underpinnings. Even asymptomatic patients with HCM are at potential risk for sudden cardiac death and require risk stratification and consideration of
Understanding Mobile Service Substitution and the Urban-Rural Digital Divide in Nigeria

Across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Internet penetration has lagged behind developed countries. Within countries in SSA, this divide exists between urban and rural areas with the offline population largely in rural areas. Mobile technologies have been identified as a means of leapfrogging the relatively expensive fixed Internet access and bridging the gap between the connected and unconnected populations. Furthermore, over-the-top services – that allow users to make calls and send messages over the Internet – and social networks have been a driver of Internet traffic in SSA. Using panel data from January 2016 to June 2017 of the billing records of 2 million unique customers retrieved from a mobile carrier in Nigeria, this study seeks to understand the urban-rural digital divide and how the relationship between cellular voice and mobile Internet varies across this divide. The results show that the increase in total minutes of voice calls, and the total volume of data used by the sample over time, is largely driven by an increase in the average volume used per person. Urban users have a significantly higher use of mobile Internet than rural users. The result showed mobile Internet is both a substitute and a complement to voice calls. The substitution was weaker for males, older users, those living in the South West region and those with a longer tenure on the network. Urban users also had a weaker substitution compared to rural users, while urban female users had a higher substitution than rural females.
Prospective evaluation of a continuous infusion vancomycin dosing nomogram in critically ill patients undergoing continuous venovenous haemofiltration.

Objectives The most optimal method of attaining therapeutic vancomycin concentrations during continuous venovenous haemofiltration (CVVH) remains unclear. Studies have shown continuous infusion vancomycin (CIV) achieves target concentrations more rapidly and consistently when compared with intermittent infusion. Positive correlations between CVVH intensity and vancomycin clearance (CLvanc) have been noted. This study is the first to evaluate a CIV regimen in patients undergoing CVVH that incorporates weight-based CVVH intensity (mL/kg/h) into the dosing nomogram. Methods This was a prospective, observational study of patients undergoing CVVH and receiving CIV based on the nomogram. The primary outcome was achievement of a therapeutic vancomycin concentration (15-25 mg/L) at 24 h. Secondary outcomes included the achievement of therapeutic concentrations at 48 and 72 h. Results The nomogram was analysed in 52 critically ill adults. Vancomycin concentrations were therapeutic in 43/52 patients (82.7%) at 24 h. Of the nine patients who were not therapeutic at 24 h, seven were supratherapeutic and two were subtherapeutic. The mean (SD) concentration was 20.1 (4.2) mg/L at 24 h, 20.7 (3.7) mg/L at 48 h and 21.9 (3.5) mg/L at 72 h. Patients with CVVH intensity >20 mL/kg/h experienced higher CLvanc at 24 h compared with patients with CVVH intensity <20 mL/kg/h (3.1 versus 2.6 L/h; P = 0.013). Conclusions By incorporating CVVH intensity into the CIV dosing nomogram, the majority of patients achieved therapeutic concentrations at 24 h and maintained them within range at 48 and 72 h. Additional studies are required to validate this nomogram before widespread implementation may be considered.
Exact Algorithms for Global Optimization of Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs

This chapter presents recent advances in the development and application of global optimization algorithms for solving mixed-integer nonlinear programs (MINLPs). It is demonstrated that practically relevant nonlinear programs can be solved to global optimality in a completely automated fashion when carefully chosen relaxation schemes, branching strategies, and domain reduction techniques are are used in conjunction with branch and bound to enhance its performance. In particular, this chapter presents a) applications of the convex extensions theory for constructing tight relaxations, b) unifying ideas behind domain reduction schemes, c) linear outer-approximation schemes with proven convergence guarantees, and d) branching schemes for factorable nonlinear programs. The chapter concludes with computational results on some benchmark mixed-integer nonlinear problems. New solutions are reported for four of these problems.
Influence of Cis and Trans Unsaturated Lipids on an Interdigitated Membrane

We have examined the effects of adding cis- and trans-unsaturated lipid to a fully interdigitated membrane using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and x-ray diffraction. For the interdigitated lipid, we used a monofluorinated analog of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC). The single fluorine atom on the end of the sn-2 chain allows 1-palmitoyl-2-(16-fluoropalmitoyl)sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (F-DPPC) to spontaneously form the interdigitated gel phase (LβI) below the main transition temperature (Tm). Both the cis 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and the equivalent trans lipid 1,2-dielaidoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DEPC) are strongly disfavored to form the LβI phase. There is a large degree of phase segregation between interdigitated and non-interdigitated lipid in DOPC/F-DPPC and DEPC/F-DPPC. The DSC thermograms reveal low miscibility and that both unsaturated lipids broaden and lower the main transition corresponding to the F-DPPC-rich component. Our WAXS data demonstrate that the unsaturated lipids progressively disrupt the intermolecular packing at higher concentrations. Furthermore, the SAXS data show that as the ratio of unsaturated lipid increases, the amount of interdigitated lipid decreases. The interdigitated gel phase formed by F-DPPC is resilient in the sense that the interdigitated phase disappears only at very high fractions of the unsaturated lipid. However, at the same concentration of unsaturated lipid, a greater percentage of the membrane remains interdigitated with DEPC than with DOPC. Therefore, the cis isomer is more disruptive and inhibits interdigitation more effectively than the trans isomer. This behavior supports the general conclusion that lipids with trans fatty acids have properties that are intermediate between saturated and cis-unsaturated lipid.
Acute Pulmonary Infections

Acute lower respiratory infection is a common cause of morbidity in infants and children, and at times, requires intensive care and mechanical ventilation. Viral bronchiolitis and bacterial pneumonia account for the majority of lower respiratory tract infections that lead to respiratory insufficiency and pediatric intensive care admission. Twenty-seven percent of children who require mechanical ventilation for at least 24 h in pediatric intensive care units are diagnosed with bronchiolitis and 16% have the diagnosis of pneumonia. The median length of time intubated for an acute pulmonary infection leading to respiratory failure is approximately 7 days.
Water: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation

This chapter breaks with traditional climate change assessments of the water sector by focusing primarily on emerging adaptation activities being pursued by water providers rather than on either the changes to water cycle or impacts and risks to, and vulnerabilities of, human and natural systems. This altered focus occurs because the mandate of this assessment was to identify important new findings since 2009, the date of the last U.S. national assessment on climate change (Karl, Melillo and Peterson 2009). In most cases, the science about water-cycle changes and human and natural system impacts, risks, and vulnerabilities has changed little over the last three years. During this same period, however, numerous adaptation initiatives have been pursued by water managers and providers in the West. These activities are predominantly new, important, and pertinent to this assessment. It is critical to note that these nascent efforts have produced important documents and networks of knowledgeable experts, but few other tangible products or projects.
Abstract B29: Multiplex three-dimensional optical mapping of tumor immune microenvironment

Recent advances in optical tissue clearing and microscopic imaging have facilitated three-dimensional (3D) visualization of large tissues and whole organs at a high resolution. However, to expand its applications to oncology, current challenges such as slow and complicated tissue clearing and uneven immunostaining must be addressed. Here we describe transparent tissue tomography (T3), a tool for rapid, three-dimensional, multiplex immunofluorescence tumor imaging. Cutting tumors into 400 μm macrosections enables simple and rapid immunofluorescence staining, optical clearing, and confocal microscope imaging. Registering and fusing macrosection images yields high resolution 3D maps of multiple tumor microenvironment components and biomarkers throughout a tumor. The 3D maps can be quantitatively evaluated by automated image analysis. As an application of T3, 3D mapping and analysis revealed a heterogeneous programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) distribution in transgenic mouse mammary tumors, with high expression limited to Her2+ tumor cells at the periphery and to CD31+ vascular endothelium in the core. Also, strong spatial correlation between CD45+ immune cell distribution and PD-L1 expression at the tumor margin was determined by T3 analysis of the whole tumors. We also evaluate anti-tumor immune responses after PD-L1 blockade therapy using T3. We observe broad distribution of tumor infiltrating CD3+CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in 3D tumor section following combination therapy of radiation and anti-PD-L1 antibody compared to PBS, anti-PD-L1 antibody alone, or radiation alone treatment group. Moreover, we apply T3 to immunolocalization of cytotoxic lymphocytes in whole core needle biopsies obtained from mouse mammary tumors and human head & neck tumors. We spatially and quantitatively map granzymeB-producing CD3+CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and CD49b+CD31+ natural killer cells in pre-treatment and in-treatment core needle biopsies at cellular resolution and in three dimensions. Meanwhile, T3 analysis is nondestructive, allowing secondary analysis by chromogenic immunohistochemistry (IHC). We anticipate that T3 can be applied broadly to facilitate preclinical studies of tumor immunology and immunotherapy and also find use in spatial, multiparameter analysis of patient biopsies, particularly to improve predictive testing and analysis of immune responses to tumor immunotherapy. Citation Format: Steve Seung-Young Lee, Vytautas Bindokas, Stephen Kron. Multiplex three-dimensional optical mapping of tumor immune microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy; 2017 Oct 1-4; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2018;6(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B29.
Evaluation of Chemical Effects on Network Formation in Cortical Neurons Grown on Microelectrode Arrays.

Thousands of chemicals to which humans are potentially exposed have not been evaluated for potential developmental neurotoxicity (DNT), driving efforts to develop a battery of in vitro screening approaches for DNT hazard. Here, 136 unique chemicals were evaluated for potential DNT hazard using a network formation assay (NFA) in cortical cells grown on microelectrode arrays. The effects of chemical exposure from 2 h postplating through 12 days in vitro (DIV) on network formation were evaluated at DIV 5, 7, 9, and 12, with cell viability assessed at DIV 12. Only 82 chemicals altered at least 1 network development parameter. Assay results were reproducible; 10 chemicals tested as biological replicates yielded qualitative results that were 100% concordant, with consistent potency values. Toxicological tipping points were determined for 58 chemicals and were similar to or lower than the lowest 50% effect concentrations (EC50) for all parameters. When EC50 and tipping point values from the NFA were compared to the range of potencies observed in ToxCast assays, the NFA EC50 values were less than the lower quartile for ToxCast assay potencies for a subset of chemicals, many of which are acutely neurotoxic in vivo. For 13 chemicals with available in vivo DNT data, estimated administered equivalent doses based on NFA results were similar to or lower than administered doses in vivo. Collectively, these results indicate that the NFA is sensitive to chemicals acting on nervous system function and will be a valuable contribution to an in vitro DNT screening battery.
Trajectory Comparison in a Vehicular Network I: Computing a Consensus Trajectory.

In this paper, we investigate the problem of computing a consensus trajectory of a vehicle giving the history of Points of Interest (POIs) visited by the vehicle over certain period of time. The problem originates from building the social connection between two vehicles in a vehicular network. Formally, given a set of m trajectories (sequences \(S_i\)’s over a given alphabet \(\varSigma \), each with length at most O(n), with \(n=|\varSigma |\)), the problem is to compute a target (median) sequence T over \(\varSigma \) such that the sum of similarity measure (i.e., number of adjacencies) between T and all \(S_i\)’s is maximized. For this version, we show that the problem is NP-hard and we present a simple factor-2 approximation. If T has to be a permutation, then we show that the problem is still NP-hard but the approximation factor can be improved to 1.5. We implement the greedy algorithm and a variation of it which is based on a more natural greedy search. Using simulated data over two months (e.g., \(m=60\)) and variants of \(|S_i|\) and \(\varSigma \) (e.g., \(30\le |S_i|\le 100\) and \(30\le |\varSigma | \le 60\)), the empirical results are very promising and with the local adjustment algorithm the actual approximation factor is between 1.5 and 1.6 for all the cases.
Surgical Versus Non-surgical Management of Early T-Stage Oropharyngeal Cancer

The management of early T-stage oropharyngeal cancer remains a controversial topic with an absence of high-level evidence supporting one treatment approach over another. The current status of best evidence demonstrates oncologic equivalency of these treatment modalities. The choice between surgical and non-surgical management of early stage OPSCC is therefore quite nuanced and is driven by patient selection, functional outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and patient preference. Transoral surgery alone in the appropriately selected patient has improved overall functional results as compared with definitive radiotherapy, however when adjuvant (chemo)radiotherapy is needed functional outcomes are worse and do not appear better than definitive radiotherapy alone. There are currently many ongoing de-intensification trials which will further inform which patients will benefit the most from a functional standpoint while preserving excellent oncologic outcomes.
Quantum blackjack: Advantages offered by quantum strategies in communication-limited games

We examine the advantages that quantum strategies afford in communication-limited games. Inspired by the card game blackjack, we focus on cooperative, two-party sequential games in which a single classical bit of communication is allowed from the player who moves first to the player who moves second. Within this setting, we explore the usage of quantum entanglement between the players and find analytic and numerical conditions for quantum advantage over classical strategies. Using these conditions, we study a family of blackjack-type games with varying numbers of card types, and find a range of parameters where quantum advantage is achieved.
Handling the pressure drop in strainers

A strainer is a device composed of a perforated plate and mesh element designed to remove debris from fluid. Strainers are used in piping systems to protect sensitive equipment such as pumps and compressors against the dirt and particles carried by the fluid, thereby reducing maintenance and downtime. Strainers are available in different types and are generally considered either permanent or temporary strainers. Different parameters such as installation direction (applicable for conical strainers), strainer type selection, strainer flow open area, basket clogging, and filtration affect the strainers’ pressure drop, as discussed in this paper. Comparing different type of strainers, tee-type and conical-type strainers have higher pressure drop values compared to Y-type and basket-type strainers. Capacity or flow open area of a strainer affects the operation characteristics of the strainer in terms of how long the strainer can operate without cleaning and creating a pressure loss. Clogging the strainer using a finer screen or mesh increases the pressure drop. This paper discusses a model of pressure drop calculation for strainers developed based on the screen opening, viscosity of the fluid, component factor, body factor, etc., using the results from a case study of the pressure drop calculation for a 12″ class 300 strainer in 22Cr duplex material. In addition to discussing clean pressure drop for strainers, this article also reviews an example of pressure drop for a strainer in different cases of clogging (dirty pressure drop).
Sumoylation of the DNA polymerase ε by the Smc5/6 complex contributes to DNA replication

DNA polymerase epsilon (Pol e) is critical for genome duplication, but little is known about how post-translational modification regulates its function. Here we report that the Pol e catalytic subunit Pol2 in yeast is sumoylated at a single lysine within a catalytic domain insertion uniquely possessed by Pol2 family members. We found that Pol2 sumoylation occurs specifically in S phase and is increased under conditions of replication fork blockade. Analyses of the genetic requirements of this modification indicate that Pol2 sumoylation is associated with replication fork progression and dependent on the Smc5/6 SUMO ligase known to promote DNA synthesis. Consistently, the pol2 sumoylation mutant phenotype suggests impaired replication progression and increased levels of gross chromosomal rearrangements. Our findings thus indicate a direct role for SUMO in Pol2-mediated DNA synthesis and a molecular basis for Smc5/6-mediated regulation of genome stability.
Breath Test Gas Patterns in Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Concomitant Irritable Bowel Syndrome-Like Symptoms: A Controlled Large-Scale Database Linkage Analysis

Breath testing (BT) has gained interest for diagnosing small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in IBD patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) overlap. We aim to characterize the rate of SIBO and BT gas patterns in IBD patients with IBS-like symptoms compared to non-IBD patients. A database of 14,847 consecutive lactulose BTs was developed from patients with IBS-like symptoms between November 2005 and October 2013. BTs were classified as normal, H2 predominant, CH4 predominant, and flatline based on criteria established from the literature. BT data linkage with electronic health records and chart review identified IBD patients along with disease phenotype, location, severity, and antibiotic response. Poisson loglinear model evaluated differences in gas patterns between the two groups. After excluding patients with repeat breath tests, we identified 486 IBD and 10,505 non-IBD patients with at least one BT. Positive BT was present in 57% (n = 264) of IBD patients. Crohn’s disease (odds ratio (OR) 0.21, [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.11–0.38]) and ulcerative colitis (OR 0.39, [95% CI 0.22–0.70]) patients were less likely to produce excess CH4. IBD patients were more likely to have flatline BT (OR 1.82, [95% CI 1.20–2.77]). In IBD patients with SIBO, 57% improved symptomatically with antibiotics. In a cohort of IBD patients with IBS-like symptoms, a high rate of patients had positive BT and symptomatic improvement with antibiotics. In IBD, methanogenesis is suppressed and flatline BT is more frequent, suggesting excess hydrogenotrophic bacteria. These findings suggest methanogenic and hydrogenotrophic microorganisms as potential targets for microbiome-driven biomarkers and therapies.
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin

“Either write things worth reading, Or do things worth the writing.” Benjamin Franklin wrote these words in the 1738 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack, and they form a fitting mantra for the most ...
PERIACETABULAR OSTEOTOMY IN ACTIVE DUTY U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL: A SINGLE CENTER’S EXPERIENCE WITH A MINIMUM OF TWO YEARS FOLLOW-UP

Background:The primary focus of periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) literature has been survivorship until hip arthroplasty. This endpoint overlooks its impact on young, active patients.Hypothesis/Purpo...
Discovering Relationships Among Software Artifacts

Software systems have become ubiquitous in today's world. Most software will evolve after initial deployment. Software changes that are a part of that evolution often are documented in a requirements change document. One of the challenges when changing software is understanding the portions of the existing requirements and the existing code that could be affected by the change in order to avoid or minimize unexpected side effects from the changes. Researchers have addressed the problem of minimizing the effect of changes by using different methods, including text mining and clustering. Some approaches to determine change impact are based on information retrieval (IR) techniques using both term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF—IDF) and latent semantic indexing (LSI) methods. Other approaches are based on visualization techniques using degree and betweenness centrality measures. In this research, we approach the problem by applying IR techniques along with data mining. We apply TF-IDF and LSI to investigate which changes have a high potential of modifying existing requirements. We also analyze similarities between changes that do not map to existing requirements. In both cases, our threshold for identifying similarity is 80%. We designed our approach to identify, for a given change, one or more requirements that have a high potential of being associated with the change as well as identifying intra-document requirements or changes that have a high potential for consolidation. We were able to identify requirements that had a similarity of at least 80% to a change request using TF-IDF and LSI. We were also able to isolate changes that did not show a high similarity to any requirement, thus indicating that the change request was likely a request for a new requirement. The results are encouraging for assessing the impact of software change requests on requirements of an existing system.
A prospective, blinded assessment of ammonia testing demonstrates low utility among front-line clinicians.

Although ammonia is essential to the pathophysiology of hepatic encephalopathy (HE), its levels cannot diagnose HE, do not correlate with the grade of HE, and are plagued by technical challenges.1 Nevertheless, ammonia levels are routinely obtained in the evaluation of hospitalized patients.2 We have advocated for quality improvement to limit testing.3 However, data are lacking regarding the reasons for, context, and perceived value of ammonia testing among ordering clinicians. Additional data are needed to optimize a quality improvement intervention aiming to curb overuse.
Please Don't Vote for Me: Voting in a Natural Experiment with Perverse Incentives

Whether individuals vote strategically is one of the most important questions at the intersection of economics and political science. Exploiting a aw in the German electoral system by which a party may gain seats by receiving fewer votes, this paper documents patterns of preference misrepresentation in a large, real world election. During the 2005 elections to the Bundestag, the sudden death of a rightwing candidate necessitated a by-election in one electoral district. Knowing the results in all other districts and given the paradoxical incentives in place, a substantial fraction of the electorate voted for a party other than their most preferred one, or abstained. As a result, the Christian Democratic Union won an additional mandate, extending its narrow lead over the Social Democrats.
Neural Network-Based Mitigation of Nonlinear Inband Distortion in Coded OFDM System

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) technique suffers from the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) drawback due to its multicarrier modulation nature. Clipping techniques can reduce the PAPR. However, they generate a clipping noise that distorts the in-band spectrum of OFDM and increases the error vector magnitude (EVM). Considering that nonlinear distortion impacts some subcarriers more than others, this work proposes an approach in which an artificial neural network (ANN) is trained to predict the highly distorted subcarriers in the clipped OFDM signal. Information in the frequency-domain is first encoded by Reed Solomon (RS) encoder, and then an ANN is used to forecast the indices of severely distorted subcarriers and punctures their corresponding symbols in RS codewords before OFDM multiplexing. Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of our method in deactivating the erroneous subcarriers in OFDM with nonlinear noise and improving the bit error rate (BER) performance of the system while reducing complexity.
“Granite Outcroppings but Half-Emerged from the Soil”: Using Ethan Frome in a Gateway Course for the English Major

This chapter explores the ways in which Wharton’s Ethan Frome is taught to students in Mount Saint Mary College’s Foundations of Literary Studies, a sophomore-level gateway course for the English major, which builds on and refines students’ close reading skills while introducing them to a range of critical approaches. Demonstrating how various close reading exercises can encourage students to form a deeper awareness of the language of Wharton’s text, this chapter also suggests ways to situate the novella in both its historical moment and the theoretically informed contexts of psychology and gender studies. Ultimately, the chapter highlights the importance of Wharton’s classic novella and its teachability, especially for students new to the discipline of literary studies.
SpZip: architectural support for effective data compression in irregular applications

Irregular applications, such as graph analytics and sparse linear algebra, exhibit frequent indirect, data-dependent accesses to single or short sequences of elements that cause high main memory traffic and limit performance. Data compression is a promising way to accelerate irregular applications by reducing memory traffic. However, software compression adds substantial overheads, and prior hardware compression techniques work poorly on the complex access patterns of irregular applications. We present SpZip, an architectural approach that makes data compression practical for irregular algorithms. SpZip accelerates the traversal, decompression, and compression of the data structures used by irregular applications. In addition, these activities run in a decoupled fashion, hiding both memory access and decompression latencies. To support the wide range of access patterns in these applications, SpZip is programmable, and uses a novel Dataflow Configuration Language to specify programs that traverse and generate compressed data. Our SpZip implementation leverages dataflow execution and time-multiplexing to implement programmability cheaply. We evaluate SpZip on a simulated multicore system running a broad set of graph and linear algebra algorithms. SpZip outperforms prior state-of-the art software-only (hardware-accelerated) systems by gmean 3.0X (1.5X) and reduces memory traffic by 1.7X (1.4X). These benefits stem from both reducing data movement due to compression, and offloading expensive traversal and (de)compression operations.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Ophthalmology: A Contemporary Prospective.

Purpose Most published systematic reviews have focused on the use of virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) technology in ophthalmology as it relates to surgical training. To date, this is the first review that investigates the current state of VR/AR technology applied more broadly to the entire field of ophthalmology. Methods PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL databases were searched systematically from January 2014 through December 1, 2020. Studies that discussed VR and/or AR as it relates to the field of ophthalmology and provided information on the technology used were considered. Abstracts, non-peer-reviewed literature, review articles, studies that reported only qualitative data, and studies without English translations were excluded. Results A total of 77 studies were included in this review. Of these, 28 evaluated the use of VR/AR in ophthalmic surgical training/assessment and guidance, 7 in clinical training, 23 in diagnosis/screening, and 19 in treatment/therapy. 15 studies used AR, 61 used VR, and 1 used both. Most studies focused on the validity and usability of novel technologies. Conclusions Ophthalmology is a field of medicine that is well suited for the use of VR/AR. However, further longitudinal studies examining the practical feasibility, efficacy, and safety of such novel technologies, the cost-effectiveness, and medical/legal considerations are still needed. We believe that time will indeed foster further technological advances and lead to widespread use of VR/AR in routine ophthalmic practice.
Shear Strength Properties of a Sodium Illite

Osmotic repulsive forces between clay particles appear as a component of the effective normal stress, but do not withstand shearing stresses; hence, the osmotic forces reduce the effective angle of internal friction. This was determined from a series of effective-stress triaxial compression tests that were performed on sedimented samples of 0.1N sodium illite and the results were compared with a similar series of tests on 0.01N calcium illite. The tests also suggested that the size of the hysteresis loop in the effective-stress Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope is a function of the strain at failure rather than the void ratio and that the failure strain depends on the initial soil structure and the type and relative magnitude of interparticle physico-chemical forces. The shear-induced pore-water pressures for normally consolidated samples at 30 psi were functions only of strain, not being effected by a wide range in strain rate.
Dental Identification of Aircraft-Accident Fatalities

The identification of the dead represents a humane and moral responsibility that often comes to rest upon the shoulders of the dentist. The identification of unknown human remains is mandatory for legal certification of death, which is prerequisite to the culmination of subsequent legal events, such as the settlement of wills, awarding of insurance benefits, termination of business affairs, and remarriage of survivors. In deaths resulting from accidents, certification of death is necessary prior to the possible institution of legal action involving negligent parties. From the standpoint of the aerospace pathologist or other persons concerned with air safety and improvement of the man-machine relationship as it applies to aircraft, the identification of air-crash victims enables an assessment to be made regarding the seating location of those involved so as in turn to allow reconstruction of crash mechanics and the mechanism of injury patterns. In addition, identification of the crewmembers enables the pathologist to assess the role played by natural disease in a given accident. As an example, a question may arise as to whether the pilot suffered a fatal heart attack that resulted in the accident. The pathologist may have found a diseased heart, but is it from the pilot or whom?
Statistical Performance Modeling: Case Study of the NPB 2.1 Results

With the results of version 2.1 a consistent set of performance measurements of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) are available. Unchanged portable MPI code was used for this set of 269 single measurements. In this study we investigate how this amount of information can be condensed. We present a methodology for analyzing performance data not requiring detailed knowledge of the codes. For this we study several different generic timing models and fit the reported data. We show that with a joint timing model for all codes and all systems the data can be fitted reasonable well. The timing model also contains only a minimal set of free parameters. This method is usable in all cases where the analysis of results from complex application code benchmarks is necessary.
Methods of Partial Hedging

In this article we survey methods of dealing with the following problem: A financial agent is trying to hedge a claim C, without having enough initial capital to perform a perfect (super) replication. In particular, we describe results for minimizing the expected loss of hedging the claim C both in complete and incomplete continuous-time financial market models, and for maximizing the probability of perfect hedge in complete markets and markets with partial information. In these cases, the optimal strategy is in the form of a binary option on C, depending on the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the equivalent martingale measure which is optimal for a corresponding dual problem. We also present results on dynamic measures for the risk associated with the liability C, defined as the supremum over different scenarios of the minimal expected loss of hedging C.