cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of parasites on fish populations: practical considerations.

Abstract Fish populations are subject to numerous natural and anthropogenic factors which reduce abundance. In wild populations it is difficult to isolate and quantify the effects of any single factor, such as predation, or starvation, or disease, on fish stock size. Evidence is accumulating, however, which supports the notion that some of the animal parasites, and particularly the Protozoa, can act as severe pathogens, causing direct mortality or rendering the hosts more vulnerable to other environmental or biotic Stressors. Lethal effects of parasites can be determined statistically or by experiment, but actual observation of mortalities is rare—especially in the sea—principally because of predation or scavenging. Sublethal effects (a partial misnomer since many such effects lead indirectly to mortality) include muscle degeneration, liver dysfunction, interference with nutrition, cardiac disruption, nervous system involvement, castration or mechanical interference with spawning, weight loss, and gross distortion of the body. Study of fish in captivity or under culture conditions has provided much information about the effects of animal parasites on survival. Epizootics occur, mortalities ensue, immunity may or may not develop, and parasites considered inocuous may prove to be not so under added Stressors such as crowding and poor water quality found in the culture environment.
Chronic cigarette smoke inhalation and aging in mice: 1. Morphologic and functional lung abnormalities

The effects of long-term cigarette smoke inhalation on the morphologic and functional integrity of lungs of C57BL/6 young and old mice have been assessed. Smoke exposure occurred over a 9-month period beginning when the young animals were 2 months of age and the old mice 8-10 months. At the termination of the experiment, microscopic and morphometric evaluation of pulmonary tissue revealed peribronchiolar and perivascular accumulations of lymphocytes and macrophages in lungs of both young and old smoke-exposed mice. Such lesions were never observed in sham-treated or control animals of either age. These observations indicate that lesions in mice can be induced by long-term smoke inhalation. In addition, three other anomalous manifestations, prominent only in the smoke-exposed old animals, were noted: 1) reduction of alveolar space with a concomitant increase in lung cellularity and thickened alveolar septa; 2) intra-alveolar accumulation of surfactantlike material; and 3) decreased pulmonary function. Since these abnormalities were prominent only in smoke-exposed old animals, an interaction between smoke inhalation and aging is indicated. Pulmonary function data complement morphologic and morphometric observations and indicate that the manifestation of abnormality noted in the old smoke-exposed animals are restrictive in nature and conform most closely to pulmonary fibrosis.
Organized Labor’s Civic Niche

I compare the effects of labor union member density and religious adherent density on apolitical and political types of civic engagement. Results indicate that religious and union activists are involved in civic affairs, but only unions elevate prosocial behavior among persons that are not in a church or union. For political forms of civic engagement, union contexts positively correlate with a wide range of prosocial acts, whereas religious contexts showed no effect, or were negatively correlated with signing a petition, participating in demonstrations, protests, boycotts or marches, and involvement in local action for social or political reform. The effect of religious organizations on apolitical civic engagement is largely confined to adherents, and in the community, religious institutions reduce political activism and cultivate conservative identity. In contrast, labor organizations are institutions that elevate civic behavior in the nonunion community, especially political types of engagement, and cul...
Finding surface Lyapunov functions through sum-of-squares programming

This work presents a sum-of-squares method to construct polynomial surface Lyapunov functions (SuLF) of arbitrary order for the impact maps of limit cycles in piecewise linear systems (PLS). This work extends previous results on stability analysis of such limit cycles, which utilized quadratic SuLFs. This paper also discusses an initial study of hierarchical jump linear systems where the switching is driven by feedback of low-level dynamical system states and a Markovian process.
Optimizing Bandwidth of Call Traces for Wireless Embedded Systems

Call traces expose runtime behaviors that greatly aid system developers in profiling performance and diagnosing problems within wireless embedded applications. Strict resource constraints limit the volume of trace data that can be handled on embedded devices, especially bandwidth limited wireless embedded systems. We propose two new call trace gathering techniques, local identifier logging and control flow logging, which provide significant reductions in bandwidth consumption compared to the current standard practice of global identifier logging. Intuition into the savings made possible by the proposed trace gathering techniques is provided by an analytical comparison of the bandwidth required by various call tracing approaches. Confirmation of this intuition is demonstrated through experimentation that reveals log bandwidth savings of approximately 85% compared to global identifier logging using flat name spaces, and 35% compared to global identifier logging using optimal Huffman coding.
A decadally-resolved paleohurricane record archived in the late Holocene sediments of a Florida sinkhole

article i nfo A 4500-year record of hurricane-induced storm surges is developed from sediment cores collected from a coastal sinkhole near Apalachee Bay, Florida. Recent deposition of sand layers in the upper sediments of the pond was found to be contemporaneous with significant, historic storm surges at the site modeled using SLOSH and the Best Track, post-1851 A.D. dataset. Using the historic portion of the record for calibration, paleohurricane deposits were identified by sand content and dated using radiocarbon-based age models. Marine-indicative foraminifera, some originating at least 5 km offshore, were present in several modern and ancient storm deposits. The presence and long-term preservation of offshore foraminifera suggest that this site and others like it may yield promising microfossil-based paleohurricane reconstructions in the future. Due to the sub-decadal (~7 years) resolution of the record and the site's high susceptibility to hurricane-generated storm surges, the average, local frequency of recorded events, approximately 3.9 storms per century, is greater than that of previously published paleohurricane records from the region. The high incidence of recorded events permitted a time series of local hurricane frequency during the last five millennia to be constructed. Variability in the frequency of the largest storm layers was found to be greater than what would likely occur by chance alone, with intervals of both anomalously high and low storm frequency identified. However, the rate at which smaller layers were deposited was relatively constant over the last five millennia. This may suggest that significant variability in hurricane frequency has occurred only in the highest magnitude events. The frequency of high magnitude events peaked near 6 storms per century between 2800 and 2300 years ago. High magnitude events were relatively rare with about 0-3 storms per century occurring between 1900 and 1600 years ago and between 400 and 150 years ago. A marked decline in the number of large storm deposits, which began around 600 years ago, has persisted through present with below average frequency over the last 150 years when compared to the preceding five millennia.
A THREE-STEP COMBINED GENETIC PROGRAMMING AND NEURAL NETWORKS METHOD OF FORECASTING THE S&P/CASE-SHILLER HOME PRICE INDEX

Forecasts of the San Diego and San Francisco S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices through December 2012 are obtained using a multi-agent system that utilizes January, 2002–June, 2011 data. Agents employ genetic programming (GP) and neural networks (NN) in a three-stage process to produce fits and forecasts. First, GP and NN compete to provide independent predictions. In the second stage, they cooperate by fitting the first-stage competitor's residuals. Outputs from the first two stages then become inputs to produce two final GP and NN outputs. The NN output from the third stage using the combined method produces improved forecasts over the 3-stage GP method as well as those produced by either method alone. The proposed methodology serves as an example of how combining more than one estimation/forecasting technique may lead to more accurate forecasts.
Oral Feeding in the Preterm Infant

After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Describe the sequential development of sucking, swallowing, and respiration. 2. Delineate the limitation of an infant’s oral feeding skills at specific times of development to provide realistic expectations for oral feeding performance. 3. Define oral feeding success in preterm infants. 4. Use the current knowledge of preterm infants’ oral motor skills to facilitate and enhance their performance. 5. Enumerate the potential short- and long-term consequences of an infant’s oral feeding aversion for the patient, family, and health professional. Oral feeding issues in preterm infants are a growing concern for neonatologists because attainment of independent oral feeding is one of the prerequisites for hospital discharge. With the increase in survival of infants born continuously more preterm, understanding such issues has a certain urgency. Concerns do not pertain only to difficulties encountered by neonatologists during the birthstay hospitalization, but also by pediatricians and pediatric gastroenterologists who attend to long-term feeding difficulties/disorders, such as oral feeding aversion. Indeed, greater than 40% of patients followed in feeding disorder clinics are former preterm infants. Research over the last decade has begun to shed light on the development of oral feeding skills in these infants as they mature, which has increased understanding of their limited skills at varying postmenstrual ages. Such knowledge is crucial in clinical practice insofar as expectations of these infants’ oral feeding performance must take into account the ever-changing level of maturity of their skills. This article focuses on the development of sucking, swallowing, and respiration (as it pertains to oral feeding) and the coordination of these three functions. Additional factors, separate from infant feeding skills, also are discussed because they can affect oral feeding performance. This review examines information gathered from bottle feeding because more extensive research has been conducted on bottle feeding than on breastfeeding. However, …
Factors affecting Burrowing Owl occupancy of prairie dog colonies

ABSTRACT Understanding patch dynamics can help scientists better understand metapopulations and the relationships of animals that share a habitat. The Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) is a well-known associate of prairie dog colonies, thereby linking conservation measures that benefit these species. We used occupancy modeling to determine how colony attributes (e.g., size and edge effects) and the loss of prairie dog colonies to sylvatic plague affected the occupancy of those colonies by Burrowing Owls in north-central Montana. We surveyed presence–absence of Burrowing Owls during a 13-yr period (1995–2007) and analyzed the data using a robust-design occupancy model in Program MARK. The proportion of colonies occupied by Burrowing Owls ranged from 0.41 to 0.54 across years while the probability of detecting the owls ranged from 0.22 to 0.92. Contrary to our predictions, colony edge effects and plague epizootics showed only weak or no effects on Burrowing Owl occupancy. Prairie dog colony size had the gr...
Reduced complexity iterative equalizers for M-ary 2D ISI channels

This paper considers detection of a signal corrupted by 2D intersymbol interference (ISI) and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). We compute equivalent convolution masks for 4-ary and binary modulation with Gaussian and Sinc square point spread functions (PSFs). To maintain the same spatial density, the binary mask is wider than the corresponding 4-ary mask. Based on the maximum likelihood (ML) bound, we find that for larger values of the PSF spread parameter σ b , the bit error rate (BER) of a 4-ary modulation can be better than that of the equivalent binary system. Reduced complexity algorithms for detection of 4-ary signals on 2D-ISI channels are also proposed.
Cirrus clouds in a global climate model with a statistical cirrus cloud scheme

Abstract. A statistical cirrus cloud scheme that accounts for mesoscale temperature perturbations is implemented in a coupled aerosol and atmospheric circulation model to better represent both subgrid-scale supersaturation and cloud formation. This new scheme treats the effects of aerosol on cloud formation and ice freezing in an improved manner, and both homogeneous freezing and heterogeneous freezing are included. The scheme is able to better simulate the observed probability distribution of relative humidity compared to the scheme that was implemented in an older version of the model. Heterogeneous ice nuclei (IN) are shown to decrease the frequency of occurrence of supersaturation, and improve the comparison with observations at 192 hPa. Homogeneous freezing alone can not reproduce observed ice crystal number concentrations at low temperatures (
Conductive Core–Sheath Nanofibers and Their Potential Application in Neural Tissue Engineering

We have prepared conductive core-sheath nanofibers via a combination of electrospinning and aqueous polymerization. Specifically, nanofibers electrospun from poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly((L)-lactide) (PLA) were employed as templates to generate uniform sheaths of polypyrrole (PPy) via in situ polymerization. These conductive core-sheath nanofibers offer a unique system for studying the synergistic effect of different cues on neurite outgrowth in vitro. We found that explanted dorsal root ganglia (DRG) adhered well to the conductive core-sheath nanofibers and generated neurites across the surface when there was a nerve growth factor in the medium. Furthermore, the neurites could be oriented along one direction and enhanced by 82% in terms of maximum length when uniaxially aligned conductive core-sheath nanofibers are compared with their random counterparts. Electrical stimulation, when applied through the mats of conductive core-sheath nanofibers, was found to further increase the maximum length of neurite for random and aligned samples by 83% and 47%, respectively, relative to the controls without electrical stimulation. Combined together, these results suggest the potential use of the conductive core-sheath nanofibers as scaffolds in applications such as neural tissue engineering.
The Role of Moisture in the Dynamics and Energetics of Turbulent Baroclinic Eddies

The effects of moisture on nonlinear baroclinic eddies are examined in the context of a horizontally homogeneous two-layer quasigeostrophic model. Using an explicit equation for moisture and a simple parameterization of latent heat release, the present study focuses on how moisture affects the statistically steady state of a baroclinically unstable flow. It is shown that, when latent heating is weak, the flow is dominated by jets and baroclinic waves, just as in the corresponding dry model. In this regime, the concept of an effective static stability can be used, which allows one to interpret some aspects of the moist simulations in terms of an equivalent dry model. It is found that a useful way of diagnosing the effective static stability is by relating it to the eddy fluxes of moisture and moist potential vorticity; no a priori theory for its value is presented here. As the strength of latent heating is increased, the flow rather suddenly becomes vortex dominated, with an asymmetry between strong low-level cyclones and weak anticyclones that has no analog in the dry model. It is argued that this asymmetry develops because of a correlation between low-level vorticity and moisture that results from the correlated horizontal transports of moisture and vorticity. The energetics of the simulations and the efficiency of energy production by latent heat release are discussed.
The Influence of Coolant Supply Geometry on Film Coolant Exit Flow and Surface Adiabatic Effectiveness

Experimental hot-wire anemometry and thermocouple measurements are taken to document the sensitivity which film cooling performance has to the hole length and the geometry of the plenum which supplies cooling flow to the holes. This sensitivity is described in terms of the effects these geometric features have on hole-exit velocity and turbulence intensity distributions and on adiabatic effectiveness values on the surface downstream. These measurements were taken under high freestream turbulence intensity (12%) conditions, representative of operating gas turbine engines. Coolant is supplied to the film cooling holes by means of (1) an unrestricted plenum, (2) a plenum which restricts the flow approaching the holes, forcing it to flow co-current with the freestream, and (3) a plenum which forces the flow to approach the holes counter-current with the freestream. Short-hole (L/D = 2.3) and long-hole (L/D = 7.0) comparisons are made. The geometry has a single row of film cooling holes with 35°-inclined streamwise injection. The film cooling flow is supplied at the same temperature as that of the freestream for hole-exit measurements and 10°C above the freestream temperature for adiabatic effectiveness measurements, yielding density ratios in the range 0.96–1.0. Two coolant-to-freestream velocity ratios, 0.5 and 1.0, are investigated. The results document the effects of (1) supply plenum geometry, (2) velocity ratio, and (3) hole L/D.Copyright © 1997 by ASME
Chemical analysis of pharmaceuticals and explosives in fingermarks using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Chemical analysis of latent fingermarks, "touch chemistry," has the potential of providing intelligence or forensically relevant information. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI/TOF MS) was used as an analytical platform for obtaining mass spectra and chemical images of target drugs and explosives in fingermark residues following conventional fingerprint development methods and MALDI matrix processing. There were two main purposes of this research: (1) develop effective laboratory methods for detecting drugs and explosives in fingermark residues and (2) determine the feasibility of detecting drugs and explosives after casual contact with pills, powders, and residues. Further, synthetic latent print reference pads were evaluated as mimics of natural fingermark residue to determine if the pads could be used for method development and quality control. The results suggest that artificial amino acid and sebaceous oil residue pads are not suitable to adequately simulate natural fingermark chemistry for MALDI/TOF MS analysis. However, the pads were useful for designing experiments and setting instrumental parameters. Based on the natural fingermark residue experiments, handling whole or broken pills did not transfer sufficient quantities of drugs to allow for definitive detection. Transferring drugs or explosives in the form of powders and residues was successful for preparing analytes for detection after contact with fingers and deposition of fingermark residue. One downfall to handling powders was that the analyte particles were easily spread beyond the original fingermark during development. Analyte particles were confined in the original fingermark when using transfer residues. The MALDI/TOF MS was able to detect procaine, pseudoephedrine, TNT, and RDX from contact residue under laboratory conditions with the integration of conventional fingerprint development methods and MALDI matrix. MALDI/TOF MS is a nondestructive technique which provides chemical information in both the mass spectra and chemical images.
Resilience of Vietnamese Refugees: Resources to Cope with Natural Disasters in Their Resettled Country

Objective: Study findings suggest that refugees are more vulnerable than the general population to mental disorders from disasters. This pilot study explored the nature of Vietnamese refugees’ resilience to a potential natural disaster as a first step toward improving their disaster mental health.Methods: Interviews were conducted with 20 ethnic Vietnamese and Montagnard adult refugees using a semistructured interview guide. Factors in resilience at both individual and family levels were examined.Results: Our results indicated that these refugees had positive personalities and strong family cohesion. However, although a majority of the participants had experienced natural disasters, they lacked knowledge and specific strategies to cope with these events. The individual participants and their families lacked sufficient information, financial resources, emergency supplies, or social support for a natural disaster.Conclusions: Enhancing refugees’ current strengths in responding to disasters, delivering them tailored emergency training, strengthening relationships between refugee service providers and refugee communities, and advocating for refugees’ socioeconomic capacity building should be considered.
ECOPOLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION

Theories of economic development have focused exclusively on the improvement of production forces and have disregarded questions of social and ecological relations of production. Among geographers, the exclusive focus on production forces can be seen in their work on the spatial diffusion of technological innovation. The costly errors of Green Revolution agriculture in the Third World illustrate the hazards of that approach. A full assessment of the role of technology in development requires a perspective of ecopolitical economy. This viewpoint is explained using the Green Revolution as an example.
Candida albicans SNO1 and SNZ1 expressed in stationary-phase planktonic yeast cells and base of biofilm.

The Candida albicans homologues of the most studied Saccharomyces cerevisiae stationary-phase genes, SNO1 and SNZ1, were used to test the hypothesis that, within a biofilm, some cells reach stationary phase within continuously fed, as well as static, C. albicans biofilms grown on dental acrylic. The authors first studied the expression patterns of these two genes in planktonic growth conditions. Using real-time RT-PCR (RT-RTPCR), increased peak expression of both SNZ1 and SNO1 was observed at 5 and 6 days, respectively, in C. albicans grown in suspension culture. SNZ1–yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) and SNO1–YFP were constructed to study expression at the cellular level and protein localization in C. albicans. Snz1p–YFP and Sno1p–YFP localized to the cytoplasm with maximum expression (>90 %) at 5 and 6 days, respectively, in planktonic conditions. When yeast growth was reinitiated, loss of fluorescence began immediately. Germ tubes and hyphae were non-fluorescent. Pseudohyphae began appearing at 9 days in planktonic yeast culture and expressed each protein by 11 days; however, the cells budding from pseudohyphae were not fluorescent. Biofilm was formed in vitro under either static or continuously fed conditions. Increased expression of the two genes was shown by RT-RTPCR, beginning by day 3 and increasing through to day 15 (continuously fed biofilm). Only the bottommost layer of acrylic-adhered cells in the biofilm showed 25 and 40 % fluorescence at 6 and 15 days, respectively. These observations suggest that only a few cells in C. albicans biofilms express genes associated with the planktonic stationary phase and that these are found at the bottom of the biofilm adhered to the surface.
Efficient Logging and Replication Techniques for Comprehensive Data Protection

Mariner is an iSCSI-based storage system that is designed to provide comprehensive data protection on commodity ATA disk and gigabit Ethernet technologies while offering the same performance as those without any such protection. In particular, Mariner supports continuous data protection (CDP) that allows every disk update within a time window to be undoable, and local/remote mirroring to guard data against machine/site failures. To minimize the performance overhead associated with CDP, Mariner employs a modified track-based logging technique that unifies the long-term logging required for CDP and short-term logging for low-latency disk writes. This new logging technique strikes an optimal balance among log space utilization, disk write latency, and ease of historical data access. To reduce the performance penalty of physical data replication used in local/remote mirroring, Mariner features a modified two-phase commit protocol that in turn is built on top of a novel transparent reliable multicast (TRM) mechanism specifically designed for Ethernet-based storage area networks. Without flooding the network, TRM is able to keep the network traffic load of reliable N-way replication roughly at the same level as the no-replication case, regardless of the value of N. Empirical performance measurements on the first Mariner prototype, which is built from gigabit Ethernet and ATA disks, shows that the average end-to-end latency for a 4KByte iSCSI write is under 1.2 msec when data logging and replication are both turned on.
Edge-based semidefinite programming relaxation of sensor network localization with lower bound constraints

In this paper, we strengthen the edge-based semidefinite programming relaxation (ESDP) recently proposed by Wang, Zheng, Boyd, and Ye (SIAM J. Optim. 19:655---673, 2008) by adding lower bound constraints. We show that, when distances are exact, zero individual trace is necessary and sufficient for a sensor to be correctly positioned by an interior solution. To extend this characterization of accurately positioned sensors to the noisy case, we propose a noise-aware version of ESDPlb (?-ESDPlb) and show that, for small noise, a small individual trace is equivalent to the sensor being accurately positioned by a certain analytic center solution. We then propose a postprocessing heuristic based on ?-ESDPlb and a distributed algorithm to solve it. Our computational results show that, when applied to a solution obtained by solving ?-ESDP proposed of Pong and Tseng (Math. Program. doi: 10.1007/s10107-009-0338-x ), this heuristics usually improves the RMSD by at least 10%. Furthermore, it provides a certificate for identifying accurately positioned sensors in the refined solution, which is not common for existing refinement heuristics.
Before Disaster Strikes

Abstract Recent world events point to the need for emergency preparedness at all levels of hospital operations. This is no less true of hospital libraries. With their vulnerable physical collections and reliance on electronic resources, hospital libraries must plan to deal with such emergencies as fire, flood, and Internet loss. Formulating a hospital library emergency management plan is a detailed process but it needn't be difficult. A step-by-step approach can be employed in the development of library disaster control materials. Such a plan will lessen the impact of any potential natural or man-made disaster on library materials and services, and will increase staff confidence and efficiency in the face of an emergency involving the medical library.
Branch recovery with compiler-assisted multiple instruction retry

A compiler-assisted approach to implementing multiple instruction retry has recently been developed by C.-C. J Li et al. (1991). They extend compiler-assisted multiple instruction retry to include a broad class of code execution failures. Five benchmarks were used to measure the performance penalty of hazard resolution. Results indicate that the enhanced pure software approach can produce performance penalties consistent with existing hardware techniques. A combined compiler/hardware resolution strategy is also described and was evaluated. Experimental results indicate a lower performance penalty than with either a totally hardware or totally software approach. >
Detection of Neovessels in Atherosclerotic Plaques of Rabbits Using Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI and 18F-FDG PET

Objective— The association of inflammatory cells and neovessels in atherosclerosis is considered a histological hallmark of high-risk active lesions. Therefore, the development and validation of noninvasive imaging techniques that allow for the detection of inflammation and neoangiogenesis in atherosclerosis would be of major clinical interest. Our aim was to test 2 techniques, black blood dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and 18-fluorine-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET, to quantify inflammation expressed as plaque neovessels content in a rabbit model of atherosclerosis. Methods and Results— Atherosclerotic plaques were induced in the aorta of 10 rabbits by a combination of 2 endothelial abrasions and 4 months hyperlipidemic diet. Six rabbits underwent MRI during the injection of Gd-DTPA, whereas 4 rabbits were imaged after injection of 18F-FDG with PET. We found a positive correlation between neovessels count in atherosclerotic plaques and (1) Gd-DTPA uptake parameters evaluated by DCE-MRI ( r =0.89, P =0.016) and (2) 18F-FDG uptake evaluated by PET ( r =0.5, P =0.103 after clustered robust, Huber-White, standard errors analysis). Conclusion— DCE-MRI and 18F-FDG PET may allow for the evaluation of inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques of rabbits. These noninvasive imaging modalities could be proposed as clinical tools in the evaluation of lesion prognosis and monitoring of anti–angiogenic therapies.
Taking electrons out of bioelectronics: bioprotonic memories and enzymatic logic gates (Presentation Recording)

In living systems, protonic and ionic currents are the basis for all information processing. As such, artificial devices based on protonic and ionic currents offer an exciting opportunity for bioelectronics. Proton transport in nature is important for ATP oxidative phosphorylation, the HCVN1 voltage gated proton channel, light activated proton pumping in bacteriorhodopsin, and the proton conducting single water file of the antibiotic gramicidin. In these systems, protons move along hydrogen bond networks formed by water and the hydrated biomolecules (proton wires). We have previously demonstrated complementary H+- and OH-- FETs with acid and base doped biopolymer proton wires and PdHx proton conducting contacts. Here, I will discuss proton-conducting devices based oh highly conductive proton wires that emulate brain synapses, display memristive behaviour, and are connected to form shift registries. Furthermore, I will present the integration of these devices with enzymatic logic gates for integrated biotic-abiotic protonic information processing. Preliminary results on using these devices to affect biological function will be discussed.
Active manifold learning via gershgorin circle guided sample selection

In this paper, we propose an interpretation of active learning from a pure algebraic view and combine it with semi-supervised manifold learning. The proposed active manifold learning algorithm aims to learn the low-dimensional parameter space of the manifold with high accuracy from smartly labeled samples. We demonstrate that this problem is equivalent to a condition number minimization problem of the alignment matrix. Focusing on this problem, we first give a theoretical upper bound for the solution. Then we develop a heuristic but effective sample selection algorithm with the help of the Gershgorin circle theorem. We investigate the rationality, the feasibility, the universality and the complexity of the proposed method and demonstrate that our method yields encouraging active learning results.
Rat proximal tubule cell line transformed with origin-defective SV40 DNA: autocrine ANG II feedback

The renal proximal tubule (PT) is a major site for a complete tissue renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and produces endogenous angiotensin II (ANG II). The present studies demonstrate autocrine RAS fe...
Renal Ammonia Production in the Presence of Citric Acid Cycle Blockade

SummaryThe addition of 1.0 mM fluorocitrate to kidney slices markedly inhibited gluconeogenesis from citrate, while 10.0 mM malonate did the same to gluconeogenesis from glutamate. Both inhibitors increased ammonia production from glutamate by kidney slices. Injections of malonate and fluorocitrate into rats increased ammonia excretion in vivo despite no significant change in urine volume or pH. Therefore, both in vivo and in vitro, a slow down in citric acid cycle activity by two agents blocking at different points in the cycle resulted in augmented renal ammoniagenesis.
Pressurized oxy-combustion with low flue gas recycle: Computational fluid dynamic simulations of radiant boilers

Abstract Oxy-fuel combustion is considered a promising technology for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). One of the primary limitations on full-scale implementation of this technology is the significant increase in the cost of electricity due to a large reduction in plant efficiency and high capital costs. Recently a new concept, namely staged, pressurized oxy-combustion, has been developed in which the flue gas recycle is reduced significantly by means of fuel-staged combustion. At higher pressure the latent heat of condensation of the moisture in the flue gas can be utilized in the Rankine cycle, further increasing the plant efficiency. As determined through ASPEN Plus modeling, this approach increases the net plant efficiency by more than 6 percentage points, compared to first-generation oxy-combustion plants. The early stages of the system involve burning coal in high oxygen concentration, which means the flame temperature is extremely high. New boilers designs are required to handle these extreme conditions. In the present paper, a unique burner and boiler have been designed via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to effectively and safely burn coal under conditions of elevated pressure and low flue gas recycle. The enclosed jet theory was used to design a combustion system with slow mixing and no external recirculation, which helped minimize flame impingement and ash deposition. A cone-shaped geometry was utilized to minimize the effects of buoyancy in the down-fired, axial-flow system. A 1540 MWth SPOC system was simulated based on this design and the results showed that a relatively uniform distribution of wall heat flux can be achieved and the peak wall heat flux was under a manageable level even though local gas temperature are extremely high.
Effects of Heterogeneity in Small π-Type Dimers: Homogeneous and Mixed Dimers of Diacetylene and Cyanogen.

The homo- and heterogeneous dimers of diacetylene (H–C≡C–C≡C–H) and cyanogen (N≡C–C≡N) were studied using ab initio electronic structure computations to probe the effects of heterogeneity on noncovalent interactions between systems with delocalized π electron networks. Full geometry optimizations and harmonic vibrational frequencies were performed using the robust coupled-cluster with single and double and perturbative triple excitations (CCSD(T)) method with the triple-ζ plus 2 sets of polarization functions TZ2P(f,d)++ basis set. Seven basic configurations were examined for each dimer (cross, stacked, parallel-slipped, parallel-tipped, linear, T-shaped and Y-shaped), but only four stationary points were identified on the potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the homogeneous cyanogen dimer and the mixed diacetylene/cyanogen dimer. Six previously characterized stationary points on the diacetylene dimer PES were re-examined with the CCSD(T) method and the TZ2P(f,d)++ basis set for consistency. Second-order M...
A field survey of the relationship between feeding melamine-contaminated powdered formula and urolithiasis in children

Objective To investigate the relationship between melamine-contaminated powdered formula and urolithiasis of children in China.Methods We administered a questionnaire including sex,age,melamine content,physical examination,urinalysis,ultrasonography in urinary system,renal function,liver function,blood,urinary tests for biochemical markers and so on to the doctors and parents of children aged from 0 to 14 years who were screened for a history of exposure to melamine-contaminated powdered formula.Symptoms and possible predisposing factors of urinary tract stones were collected as well. Melamine-contaminated powdered formulas were classified as having a high melamine content (150 mg·kg-1 or exposing to a 2 563 mg·kg-1 melamine content formula before) and low melamine content(≤150 mg·kg-1)groups. According to the period of feeding melamine-contaminated powdered formula,the children were divided into two groups,more than 30 days group and less than 30 days group.The morbidity of urolithiasis was analyzed in different melamine content and different feeding period children including less than 1 year old,-2 years old,-3 years old,-6 years old and -14 years old.The clinical symptoms,laboratory results and recovery rate were also analyzed.SPSS 11.5 was used for statistical analysis.Results 22 091 children were screened and urinary stones were found in 374 children,including 223 boys and 151 girls(P0.001). The high melamine content group had a higher morbidity of urinary tract stones than the low melamine content group in children less than 3 years old children(P0.001).Similar trend was seen in children aged 3 to 6 years old children(P0.05),but no difference in children aged from 6 to 14 years old children(P0.05). Within the high melamine content group,the morbidity of urinary tract stones was similar with each other at different ages(P0.05). Within the low melamine content group,the morbidity of urinary tract stones was also similar with each other at different ages(P0.05) except for children aged less than 12 months and 12 to 24 months old children(P0.05). Among the total of 374 cases that were found urinary tract stones,369 were kidney stones(309 in one side and 60 in both sides),8 were ureter stones(6 in one side and 2 in both sides),4 were cystolith and 2 were urethral calculus.93 patients were admitted to the hospital,of them 8 cases had hematuria (8.6%),7 cases had leukocyturia,3 cases had proteinuria (3.2%),5 cases had crying on urination (5.4%),2 cases had edema (2.2%). Laboratory tests:25 cases had elevated blood β2-MG (26.9%),4 had elevated urine β2-MG(4.3%) ,2 had elevated serum creatinine and urea nitrogen(2.2%). There was no patient with elevated levels of CK-MB and ALT. 9 of the 93 patients received surgical treatment. 34 patients were cured,55 got better,and 2 were unrecovered.Conclusions Melamine-contaminated powdered formula was associated with urinary tract stones in children.The morbidity of urolithiasis might not be associated with age.The urolithiasis was probable harmful to kidney function.
Molecular evolution analysis of COI gene in five species of Culex

Objective To investigate the relationship between cytochrome oxidase subunit Ⅰ(CO Ⅰ) gene traits and molecular evolution of Culex in Wuxi,China.Methods CO Ⅰ genes of Cx.pipiens pallens,Cx.tritaeniorhynchus,Cx.bitaeniorhynchus,Cx.mimulus,and Cx.fuscanus were amplified,sequenced,and blasted in GenBank.Gene traits,transversion rates,and divergence times were analyzed.Molecular phylogenetic trees were generated using Mega 4.1.Results CO Ⅰ gene of Cx.mimulus was sequenced for the first time.The CO Ⅰ genes studied were 692 bp to 717 bp.GC contents were from 29.91% to 31.42%.Transversion rates were from 5.610% to 8.555%.Divergence times were from 2.44 × 10 6 a to 3.72 × 10 6 a.Each species of Culex showed high support for a monophyletic group(BPP ≥ 98).Conclusion CO Ⅰ gene has species specificity,and it can be used for the identification of the five species of Culex.
Investigation of rodent density in Xi'an city

Objective To grasp the population composition and its seasonal fluctuation of rodent in Xi'an city,and provide scientific basis for control of rodent and rodent-infected disease. Methods Night trap method was used to monitor the rodent density. Results A total of 433 rodents were captured. Four rodent species,Mus musculus,Rattus norvegicus,Apodemus agrarius and Flavipectus were founded. The mean density was 0. 63%. The highest density( 0.80%) appeared in the year of 2010,the lowest( 0.51%) in 2012. The dominant species were Rattus norvegicus( 69.05%) and Mus musculus( 26.10%). Conclusion The main control targets are Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus. The integrated measures including physical and chemical means should be taken before rodent active peak.
The association between physiologic testosterone levels, lean mass, and fat mass in a nationally representative sample of men in the United States.

Abstract Testosterone deficiency leads to increased muscle loss with aging and increased fat mass. Supraphysiologic levels cause an increase in muscle mass and decrease in fat mass. The difference in lean and fat mass across physiologic levels of testosterone has been under examined in men. Objective Examine the association between physiologic testosterone levels with lean and fat mass. Methods Data from the 1999–2000 NHANES were used (n = 252 men; 18–85 yrs). Testosterone and SHBG values were obtained by a morning blood sample. Body composition was measured by DXA. Multivariable linear regression was used to compute unadjusted, minimally adjusted, and extended models of relative upper- and lower-body lean and fat mass. Results In the extended model, men with total testosterone levels in the highest 25% (4th quartile) had more lower-body lean mass (LBLM) (β = 22.1(%), 95%CI: 9.0, 35.3, p = 0.003) and upper-body lean mass (UBLM) (β = 5.6(%), 95%CI: 0.1, 11.2, p = 0.046), and less lower-body fat mass (LBFM) (β = −9.9(%), 95%CI: -17.7, −2.1, p = 0.016) and upper-body fat mass (UBFM) (β = −6.1(%), 95%CI: −10.1, −2.1, p = 0.005) than those in the 1st quartile. Men in the 3rd quartile had more LBLM (β = 14.2, 95%CI: 5.3, 23.1, p = 0.004), UBLM (β = 5.6, 95%CI: 2.0, 9.2, p = 0.004), and less LBFM (β = −9.7(%), 95%CI: −16.7, −2.7, p = 0.010) and UBFM (β = −4.7(%), 95%CI: −8.3, −1.2, p = 0.012) than those in the 1st quartile. Conclusion These findings suggest that, at physiologic levels, an association exists between higher levels of testosterone and favorable lean and fat measures.
Reduction of energy intake using just-in-time feedback from a wearable sensor system.

Objective This work explored the potential use of a wearable sensor system for providing just-in-time (JIT) feedback on the progression of a meal and tested its ability to reduce the total food mass intake. Methods Eighteen participants consumed three meals each in a lab while monitored by a wearable sensor system capable of accurately tracking chew counts. The baseline visit was used to establish the self-determined ingested mass and the associated chew counts. Real-time feedback on chew counts was provided in the next two visits, during which the target chew count was either the same as that at baseline or the baseline chew count reduced by 25% (in randomized order). The target was concealed from the participant and from the experimenter. Nonparametric repeated-measures ANOVAs were performed to compare mass of intake, meal duration, and ratings of hunger, appetite, and thirst across three meals. Results JIT feedback targeting a 25% reduction in chew counts resulted in a reduction in mass and energy intake without affecting perceived hunger or fullness. Conclusions JIT feedback on chewing behavior may reduce intake within a meal. This system can be further used to help develop individualized strategies to provide JIT adaptive interventions for reducing energy intake.
Dissolution behavior of Na2O–FeO–Fe2O3–P2O5 glasses

Abstract The dissolution behavior of five series of Na2O–FeO–Fe2O3–P2O5 glasses with ranges of O/P (3.0–3.5) and Fe/P (0.13–0.67) ratios were investigated in deionized water (DI H2O) using static and semi-dynamic tests. Glass composition, which determines the average phosphate chain length, determines the dissolution mechanism and kinetics. The initial dissolution kinetics are parabolic and are described by a 3D diffusion model (DM), whereas a linear contracting volume model (CVM) describes the later-stage dissolution kinetics. Temperature dependent rate parameters, kDM and kCVM, decrease by several orders of magnitude with increasing Fe/P ratio, but are less dependent on the O/P ratio. The surface morphology and composition of the corroded glasses are characterized by analytical electron microscopy, which provides information related to the change from DM to CVM kinetics. Three types of dissolution behavior were identified for these Na-Fe-phosphate glasses, and were associated with either selective leaching or congruent dissolution. Type I behavior involves selective leaching of ions for both the DM and the CVM stages. Type II behavior involves congruent dissolution for both dissolution stages. Type III behavior involves congruent dissolution during the DM stage and then selective leaching in the CVM stage.
Monte Carlo simulations of a novel coherent scatter materials discrimination system

X-ray coherent scatter imaging has the potential to improve the detection of liquid and powder materials of concern in security screening. While x-ray attenuation is dependent on atomic number, coherent scatter is highly dependent on the characteristic angle for the target material, and thus offers an additional discrimination. Conventional coherent scatter analysis requires pixel-by-pixel scanning, and so could be prohibitively slow for security applications. A novel slot scan system has been developed to provide rapid imaging of the coherent scatter at selected angles of interest, simultaneously with the conventional absorption images. Prior experimental results showed promising capability. In this work, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to assess discrimination capability and provide system optimization. Simulation analysis performed using the measured ring profiles for an array of powders and liquids, including water, ethanol and peroxide. For example, simulations yielded a signal-to-background ratio of 1.63±0.08 for a sample consisting of two 10 mm diameter vials, one containing ethanol (signal) and one water (background). This high SBR value is due to the high angular separation of the coherent scatter between the two liquids. The results indicate that the addition of coherent scatter information to single or dual energy attenuation images improves the discrimination of materials of interest.
Managing Perpetual Access

Libraries are committed to long-term access to the scholarly record in published journals. The transition from print to online format has presented numerous challenges for libraries. While many pub...
The angel flap for nipple reconstruction

Creation of an aesthetically pleasing nipple plays a significant role in breast reconstruction as a determining factor in patient satisfaction. The goals for nipple reconstruction include minimal donor site morbidity and appropriate, long-lasting projection. Currently, the most popular techniques used are associated with a significant loss of projection postoperatively. Accordingly, the authors introduce the angel flap, which is designed to achieve nipple projection with lasting results. The lateral edges of the flap and the area surrounding the top of the nipple are de-epithelialized and the flaps are wrapped to create a nipple mound composed primarily of dermis. Decreasing the amount of fat within core of the nipple and enhancing dermal content promotes long-lasting projection. Furthermore, the incision pattern fits within a desired areolar size, preventing unnecessary superfluous extension of the incisions. Thus, the technique described herein achieves the goals of nipple reconstruction, including adequate and long-lasting projection, without extension of the lateral limb scars.