cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Hidden Markov disturbance model for Offset-free linear model predictive control

Abstract Model predictive controllers are often designed with integral action to impart robustness. For this, disturbance models are usually employed. It is customary to append integrated white-noises to either the input or output channels. However, neither by themselves may be adequate representations in the presence of switching disturbance patterns that are typically witnessed in process industries. In order to handle such scenarios, we first propose a differenced state-space formulation that can incorporate both input and output disturbances while retaining detectability. Then, we couple it with Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to express the switching characteristics of the disturbances. This bypasses the need to add artificial noises into state variables to consider both the input and output disturbances, as previously suggested. Simulation examples are provided to highlight closed-loop performance improvement as a result of the proposed formulation.
Neuroradiological covariates of drug-induced parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia.

Computed tomographic (CT) studies have demonstrated structural brain abnormalities including cortical atrophy and enlarged lateral ventricles in a subset of schizophrenic patients including those with abnormal involuntary movements. In the following series of studies, we present our findings pertaining to neurora-diological covariates of drug-induced Parkinsonism and Tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenic patients. In these studies we have explored the relationship of Parkinsonism and Tardive dyskinesia to pineal and choroid plexus calcification. In addition, we also investigated the relationship of pineal calcification to schizophrenia, and specifically to the paranoid and nonparanoid subgroups.In a further series of studies, we investigated the neuroradiological covariates of disorders of gait and posture as well as tremor in schizophrenic patients with drug-induced Parkinsonism. In addition, we explored the relationship of Tardive dyskinesia and its subsyndromes to CT scan measurements of cortical and sub...
Early intervention in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A review of the Lung Health Study results

The major findings of the LHS that have been reported thus far are that an effective smoking cessation program can be developed that can produce more than a 20% success rate in getting smokers to give up the habit permanently, and that by stopping smoking, individuals with early COPD benefit by having an initial improvement in lung function and a slowing of the annual loss of their FEV1. The use of a bronchodilator has a short-term effect in improving the FEV1, but it does not affect long-term changes in lung function. AHR is common in patients with mild-to-moderate COPD. The reward for a smoker to give up the habit is an initial gain in FEV1 and a subsequent close to normal annual rate of decline of this pulmonary function parameter. These results should provide a positive incentive for smokers to quit and thereby decrease the morbidity and mortality caused by the use of tobacco.
The auditory P50 response is normal in Alzheimer's disease when measured via a paired click paradigm

Abstract Recent findings of missing or markedly attenuated P50 (or P1) auditory ERPs in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients suggest this may be a useful diagnostic and/or prognostic marker of AD cholinergic deficits. Those studies used repetitive 1/sec clicks. Given P50's long recovery time, all but the first click in that paradigm was presented during the recovery of the P50 generation system from the response to the prior click. We studied 8 AD patients and 17 elderly controls using a paradigm incorporating 7–8 sec intervals between clicks, which allows examination of P50 generation separate from P50 recovery. With the long inter-click interval, we identified P50 responses in most AD patients and controls, and found no difference in P50 amplitude between groups. These results suggest that if there is a P50 deficit in AD patients, it is the result of the accumulative effect of repetitive stimulation, rather than a primary deficit in P50 generation.
The effect of systemic hyperinsulinemia with concomitant amino acid infusion on skeletal muscle protein turnover in the human forearm

Abstract In vitro, insulin has been shown to increase skeletal muscle (SM) protein synthesis and decrease SM protein breakdown. Whether these same effects are found in vivo in man is less clear. The study of the effect of hyperinsulinemia (INS) on SM protein turnover (SMPT) is complicated by hypoaminoacidemia, which can obviate the true effect of insulin on SMPT. To prevent this, we studied the effect of INS on SMPT in the human forearm with amino acid (AA) infusion to ensure adequate substrate for full evaluation of insulin's effect. Twelve healthy volunteers (aged 53 ± 3 years) were studied. Steady-state AA kinetics were measured across the foream after a systemic 2-hour primed continuous infusion of 3H-phenylalanine (3H-Phe) and 14C-leucine (14C-Leu) in the postabsorptive (PA) state and in response to systemic INS (71 ± 5 μU/mL). AAs were infused during INS as 10% Travasol (Travenol Laboratories, Deerfield, IL) at .011 mL/kg/min to maintain PA branched-chain AA (BCAA) levels, known regulators of SMPT, and to mildly elevate total AA levels. The negative PA net balance of both Phe and total Leu carbons (LeuC) became positive with INS + AA infusion (Phe from −16 ± 2 to 12 ± 3 nmol / min 100 g [P ; LeuC from −26 ± 6 to 24 ± 7 nmol / min 100 g [P ). The rate of disposal (Rd) of Phe into SM, an index of protein synthesis, increased from 31 ± 5 nmol / min 100 g postabsorptively to 52 ± 7 nmol / min 100 g with INS + AA (P 82 ± 16 to 86 ± 18 nmol / min 100 g (P = .85). The rate of appearance (Ra) of phe from SM, an index of protein breakdown, decreased from 48 ± 6 nmol / min 100 g postabsorptively to 40 ± 5 nmol / min 100 g with INS + AA (P = .06), while the LeuC Ra decreased from 107 ± 18 to 62 ± 14 nmol / min 100 g (P
Real and complex polynomial root-finding with eigen-solving and preprocessing

Recent progress on root-finding for polynomial and secular equations largely relied on eigen-solving for the associated companion and diagonal plus rank-one generalized companion matrices. By applying to them Rayleigh quotient iteration, we could have already competed with the current best polynomial root-finders, but we achieve further speedup by applying additive preprocessing. Moreover our novel rational maps of the input matrix enables us to direct the iteration to approximating only real roots, so that we dramatically accelerate their numerical computation in the important case where they are much less numerous than all complex roots.
Suppression of retinoic acid receptor—β in premalignant oral lesions and its up-regulation by isotretinoin

Background Retinoids are effective in the treatment and prevention of certain human cancers. Most of their actions are thought to result from changes in gene expression mediated by nuclear retinoic...
Properties of low-k SiCOH films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using trimethylsilane

Abstract The properties of low-k SiCOH film deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using trimethylsilane are reported here. The deposition process was performed at different temperatures from 200 to 400 °C. The influence of deposition temperature on the films were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to understand its impact on the studied properties. The films were annealed at ∼450 °C in an inert ambient after deposition in all the cases. The deposition rate decreases with increase in deposition temperature. The refractive index of the films increases as a function of deposition temperature. From FTIR spectra, OH-related bonds were not detected in films even when deposited at 200 °C. The Si–CH3 bonds were detected in all the films and decreased monotonically from 200 to 400 °C. All deposition conditions studied resulted in films with dielectric constant less than 3, the lowest being ∼2.7 when deposited at 200 °C. All films exhibited good thermal stability.
Sequence and solution conformation of the 20-residue peptaibols, saturnisporins SA II and SA IV

Saturnisporins SA II and SA IV are the major components of the 20-residue peptaibol mixture isolated from a culture of the fungus Trichoderma saturnisporum. These peptides exhibit antibiotic activity against Staphylococcus aureus. Their sequences were derived from unequivocal methodology implying the combined use of positive ion FAB mass spectrometry and NMR: the majority of the sequences result from mass spectrometry fragmentations and the location of isomeric residues arises either from analysis of ROESY cross-peaks between contiguous amide protons or from heteronuclear 2J or 3J 1H-13C couplings detected in long-range 1H-13C COSY experiments. The sequence specific 1H and 13C NMR assignments are described. Saturnisporins SA II and SA IV exhibit similar secondary structures, as deduced from their ROESY patterns and 3JNHC alpha H coupling constant values, together with amide hydrogen-deuterium exchange rates and temperature coefficients of amide and carbonyl groups. An overall alpha-helical structure is proposed, maintaining two regions of distortion to this regular structure; i) the N-terminal part, which contains 3(10) and mixed alpha-3(10) turns, and ii) the Aib10-Val15 region, including a Pro residue which accommodates a bend stabilized by two 3(10) H-bonds.
The scaling of the phonon frequencies in the diamond-type crystals

Abstract A simplified point ion model for the phonon force tensors in the diamond-type crystals, derived from Baym's first principles treatment of lattice vibrations in the harmonic approximation, is used in preference to the shell model; in the point ion model, the interaction between a pair of ions in the vibrating lattice is essentially a Coulomb potential screened by the electrons. It is shown that if the screening is weakly dependent on the electron density in Si, Ge, and α-Sn, then the phonon frequencies ω qj in these crystals scale approximately as observed by Kucher, ω qj 2 = [ (4e) 2 Ma 3 ]Ω qj 2 , where Ω qj is a dimensionless frequency that is independent of the particular material being considered. Evidence is presented in the RPA to support this explanation of the scaling.
Polyacrylamide and Water Quality Effects on Infiltration in Sandy Loam Soils

Slow infiltration rates constrain effective and economical irrigation in some sandy loam soils in California. Polyacrylamide (PAM) has in- creased soil infiltration in some areas, especially in soils high in clay or silt. Field trials near Fresno, CA, with PAM failed to show improved infiltration. Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate PAM effect on infiltration of various quality waters in sandy loam soils. Twoformulations of ahigh molecular weightPAM,aliquid emul- sion and a granular, were evaluated on a Hanford sandy loam soil (coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, nonacid, thermic Typic Xerorth- ents) in packed soil column experiments. Applying PAM continuously in the infiltration water always decreased infiltration for all PAM concentrations tested (5-20 mg PAM L 21 ). Final infiltration rates of 5 mg PAM L 21 relative to infiltration rate of deionized water were 65% for emulsion PAM and 36% for granular PAM and these ratios decreased with increasing PAM concentration. Reduction of infiltra- tion rates when PAM was applied with water containing Ca (applied as gypsum) was less than with PAM solution containing Na. Permeability tests of PAM solutions through uniform sands showed a decrease of permeability with increased concentrations, due to an apparent in- crease in effective viscosity of the solution. The decrease in infiltration rates in this study was likely due to this increase in viscosity when PAM is added to water. This research concluded that PAM applied in irri- gation water will reduce infiltration unless the material improves sur- face soil aggregate structure and sustains pores sufficient to mask the effect of solution viscosity.
Tumor Biology and Prognostic Factors in Renal Cell Carcinoma

In the past 15 years, there has been an increased understanding of the tumor biology of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The identification of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its related receptor (VEGFR), and the mammalian target of rapamycin as dysregulated signaling pathways in the development and progression of RCC has resulted in the rational development of pharmaceutical agents capable of specifically targeting key steps in these pathways. Clinical trials have demonstrated survival benefit with these agents, particularly in clear cell RCC patients. However, metastatic RCC will progress in all patients, resulting in a critical need to determine patient risk and optimize treatment. The goal of this article is to highlight the significant breakthroughs made in understanding the critical genetic alterations and signaling pathways underlying the pathogenesis of RCC. The discovery of prognostic factors and development of comprehensive nomograms to stratify patient risk and predictive biomarkers to facilitate individualized treatment selection and predict patient response to therapy also are reviewed.
Health care and retirement costs in North America spiralling uncontrollably: what are employers to do?

This article addresses some of the issues related to the rising costs of employee benefits in the United States and Canada in terms of the cost of retirement pensions and employer-provided health insurance for employees and retirees. We examine various factors that affect the cost of these services for organizations as well as how these might affect the choices employers might be forced to make. We elaborate on how various factors might compel employers to shift the cost of benefits to employees. Specifically, we elaborate on various legislative, economic, and demographic constraints on these employee benefits and examine in detail two employer practices of concern, namely cash balance retirement plans and consumer-directed healthcare plans.
Experiments on the origin of slaty cleavage and schistosity

The coupled problems of the tectonic significance and mechanism of development of slaty cleavage and schistosity have been studied in high-temperature and pressure deformation experiments. The primary mechanistic question concerns whether preferred orientation of mica in slates and schists develops by rotation of tabular grains or whether it develops by mechanisms that require crystallization or re-crystallization. Most proposed orienting mechanisms predict the same relationship between principal strain directions and preferred orientation. This frustrates attempts to determine the principal orienting mechanisms. Simple theoretical models of rotation of passive planar markers and of isolated rigid ellipsoids in a deforming fluid predict similar relationships between the magnitudes of the strain and the preferred orientation. In room-temperature experiments, these predictions are followed when interactions between adjacent grains are minimal; when interactions are important, the rotation mechanism is less effective. In high-temperature experiments in which phlogopite is syntectonically crystallized from the constituent oxides or fluorophlogopite or biotite is syntectonically recrystallized, the preferred orientations match the predictions of the rotation models. This suggests that crystallization or recrystallization aided the rotation process by reducing mutual grain interference. Textural observations of the recrystallized samples support this interpretation. In all of the deformation experiments, maximum, intermediate, and minimum principal compressive strain directions coincide with maximum, intermediate, and minimum concentrations of poles to mica basal planes, respectively, even for general noncoaxially accumulating strain. These results coupled with studies of natural slates suggest that mica preferred orientations may be used to estimate both magnitudes and directions of finite strain.
Robust shape description and recognition by gradient propagation

This paper presents a novel hierarchical shape description scheme based on propagating the gradient of the image. The propagated gradient field collides at centers of convex/concave shape components, which can be detected as points of high directional disparity. A novel vectorial disparity measure called cancelation energy is used to measure this collision of the gradient field, and local maxima of this measure yield feature tokens. These feature tokens form a compact description of shapes and their components and indicate their central location and size. In addition, a gradient signature is formed by the gradient field that collides at each center, which is itself a robust and size-independent description of the corresponding shape component. Experimental results demonstrate that the shape description is robust to distortion, noise and clutter. An important advantage of this scheme is that the feature tokens are obtained pre-attentively, without prior understanding of the image. The hierarchical description is also successfully used for similarity-invariant recognition of 2D shapes with a multi-dimensional indexing scheme based on the gradient signature.
Gender Role Attitudes across the Transition to Adolescent Motherhood in Mexican‐Origin Families

Using longitudinal data collected at four time points from 191 dyads of Mexican-origin adolescent first-time mothers and their mother figures, we examined changes in and socialization of traditional gender role attitudes across the transition to parenthood using latent growth curve modeling (LGC) modeling and actor-partner interdependence modeling (APIM). Person-centered analyses indicated that adolescent mothers’, regardless of nativity status, and their foreign-born mother figures’ gender role attitudes became more egalitarian across adolescents’ transition to parenthood, spanning form the 3rd trimester of pregnancy to 36 months postpartum. Further, variable-centered analyses suggested that adolescents’ and their mother figures’ gender role attitudes during adolescents’ third trimester of pregnancy equally contributed to subsequent increases in one another’s gender role attitudes at 10 months postpartum. Importantly, this reciprocal socialization process was not moderated by adolescent mothers’ nor by their mother’ figures’ nativity status. Findings suggest that it is important to understand the cultural and intergenerational family processes that contribute to the development of gender role attitudes during the transition to parenthood for adolescent mothers and their mother figures in Mexican-origin families.
Focused atlas-based image registration for recognition

Registration with an atlas is a method to recognize and label structures that is used especially for the analysis of medical images. Its application to images containing many objects, such as images of the human abdomen, may prove to be very challenging. The underlying idea of our approach is to follow a strategy that resembles commonsense problem solving - goal-directed, context-based and focused. In our method, the goal of recognizing a particular anatomical structure, such as the aorta, is achieved by following a plan, which is a sequence of image registration tasks. The plan is derived by decomposing the registration of the goal object into a series of object registration subtasks using the anatomy knowledge and the modality-specific image properties. Preliminary experiments to recognize the aorta in human abdominal CT images have demonstrated the potential of our method.
Role of routine repeat head imaging in paediatric traumatic brain injury.

Background Paediatric traumatic brain injuries (TBI) remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Australia. There are clear guidelines on head imaging for children with TBI, but there is conflicting evidence on the role of routine repeat head computed tomography (CT) scan. This study aims to determine whether routine repeat head CT scans in paediatric TBI alter surgical or medical management. Methods A retrospective study was performed at a level 1 tertiary paediatric trauma centre between January 2002 and July 2012. Patients with TBI who were admitted with acute intracranial injury and at least one repeat head CT scan were included. Mechanism of injury, severity of TBI, Glasgow Coma Score, use of intracranial pressure monitoring and operative procedures were listed. The need for operative management was compared for routine and clinically indicated head scans. Results Routine head CT scan was done in 36 out of 71 patients (51%). None from this group required craniotomy, but two children (6%) needed delayed ICP monitoring. Three patients with moderate to severe TBI required intracranial pressure monitor or external ventricular drain insertion based on a clinically indicated repeat head CT. Conclusion Repeat head imaging is more likely to alter management of children with moderate to severe TBI. There is no role for routine repeat CT scan on mild TBI. Results of repeat cranial imaging should be correlated with the clinical status of the patient.
Evolution of anatomical and physiological specialization in the compound eyes of stomatopod crustaceans

Stomatopod crustaceans have complex and diverse visual systems. Among their many unique features are a specialized ommatidial region (the midband) that enables the eye to have multiple overlapping visual fields, as well as sets of spectral filters that are intercalated at two levels between tiers of photoreceptors involved in polychromatic color vision. Although the physiology and visual function of stomatopod eyes have been studied for many years, how these unique visual features originated and diversified is still an open question. In order to investigate how stomatopods have attained the current complexity in visual function, we have combined physiological and morphological information (e.g. number of midband rows, number of filters in the retina, and the spectral properties of filters) with new phylogenetic analyses of relationships among species based on nucleotide sequence data from two nuclear (18S and 28S rDNA) and two mitochondrial [16S and cytochrome oxidase I (COI)] genes. Based on our recovered phylogenetic relationships among species, we propose two new superfamilies within the Stomatopoda: Hemisquilloidea and Pseudosquillodea. Maximum likelihood ancestral state reconstructions indicate that ancestral stomatopod eyes contained six midband rows and four intrarhabdomal filters, illustrating that the visual physiological complexity originated early in stomatopod evolutionary history. While the two distal filters contain conservative sets of filter pigments, the proximal filters show more spectral diversity in filter types, particularly in midband row 2, and are involved in tuning the color vision system to the photic environment. In particular, a set of related gonodactyloid families (Gonodactylidae, Protosquillidae, Takuidae) inhabiting shallow, brightly lit coral reef waters contain the largest diversity of filter pigments, which are spectrally placed relative to the underlying photoreceptors to take advantage of the broad spectrum of light available in the environment. * aLRT : approximate likelihood ratio test COI : cytochrome oxidase I GTR : general time reversible model ML : maximum likelihood PCR : polymerase chain reaction rDNA : ribosomal DNA R1–R7 : retinular cells 1–7, contained within the main rhabdom of crustacean ommatidia
Life-span changes in EEG spectral amplitude, amplitude variability and mean frequency.

Abstract Objectives : The objectives were to assess life-span alterations in intrasubject variability of EEG spectral amplitudes and in amplitude and mean frequency computed from spectral amplitude profiles. Methods : EEG was recorded from the central and occipital scalp of 222 healthy males aged 4 to 90 years. Amplitude spectral profiles derived from FFT procedures provided data for the computation of amplitude variability (ampCV), absolute and relative amplitude and mean frequency for each of five spectral bands. Analysis of variance, coefficient of correlation and t test were employed in data analyses. Results : The ampCV measure did not provide direct evidence of age-related intrasubject changes in EEG frequency but was useful for indexing the presence of rhythmic EEG activity. Marked decreases in absolute amplitude occurred during childhood with little change thereafter. Age changes in relative amplitude were more complex and differed for slow and fast EEG activity. We also report that an algorithm frequently used to estimate mean frequency can introduce consistent bias into mean frequency computations under some conditions. Conclusions : Life-span changes in measured EEG characteristics were generally consistent with those from earlier studies. It is important that investigators validate and describe procedures used to determine mean frequency of EEG spectral data.
No Small Hope: The Basic Goods Imperative

Abstract This paper argues in favor of a basic goods approach to outcomes assessment in development policy analysis. It contrasts the basic goods approach with the utility-of-consumption and capabilities approaches and argues, on a number of grounds, that it is a more relevant and appropriate framework. The dimensions of the basic goods approach analyzed include a common, minimalist character, sense of justice, subjectivist-objectivist considerations, the human condition, relationship to policy space, and the theoretical and empirical role of basic needs. Taken as a whole, these perspectives suggest that the basic goods approach offers key advantages not found in the two relevant alternatives.
Modeling The Global Oscillations OF Epsilon Eridani

We have reviewed the observational data for ∈ Eri to derive our best estimates of luminosity, radius, temperature, composition, and age, as well as the uncertainties associated with each of these. These quantities are then used in stellar structure models to try to reproduce the global oscillation frequencies observed by Noyeset al. We find that we can reproduce the observed frequencies and splittings at least as well as the computations of Guenther and Demarque, yet for significantly different stellar parameters, most notably the age.
The relaxation response resiliency program (3RP) in patients with neurofibromatosis 1, neurofibromatosis 2, and schwannomatosis: results from a pilot study

NF1, NF2, and Schwannomatosis are incurable tumor suppressor syndromes associated with poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of an NF adapted, 8-week group mind body skills based intervention, the relaxation response resiliency program (3RP) aimed at improving resiliency and increasing satisfaction with life. Patients seen at MGH’s Neurofibromatosis Clinic were offered participation if they described difficulties coping to a treating physician. Participants completed measures of life satisfaction, resiliency, stress, mood, lifestyle, pain, post-traumatic growth and mindfulness at baseline and after completing the 3RP program. The intervention had relative feasible enrollment rate (48 % rate, 32 out of 67 of patients signing the informed consent form). However, out of the 32 patients who signed the informed consent, only 20 started the study (62.5 %) and only 16 completed it (50 %), suggesting problems with feasibility. The main reason cited for non-participation was burden of travel to the clinic. The intervention was highly acceptable, as evidenced by an 80 % completion rate (16/20). Paired t tests showed significant improvement in resiliency, satisfaction with life, depression, stress, anxiety, mindfulness and post traumatic growth, with effect sizes ranging from 0.73–1.33. There was a trend for significance for improvement in somatization and sleepiness (p = 0.06), with effect sizes of 0.54–0.92 respectively. Statistically nonsignificant improvement was observed in all other measures, with effect sizes small to medium. In sum, the 3RP was found to be relatively feasible, highly acceptable and preliminary efficacious in decreasing symptom burden in this population, supporting the need of a randomized controlled trial.
Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom Literature (Didactic)

Wisdom Literature is found in several major cultures of the ancient Near East: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Israel, and in peripheral areas. Texts of this type are extant from some two millennia, as early as 2600 B.C.E. to the first century C.E. Works from these areas are demonstrably related in style and content and connected at several points, early and late. Wisdom Literature shows us the ancient Near East functioning as a single world, with distinctive but interconnected cultures. This article looks at didactic Wisdom Literature, books that seek to educate young men in the skills of leading a good and virtuous life. These texts seek to shape a man who has the character-qualities—skills of comportment, practical talents, ethics, and religious bearing—that will make him well suited to the position and who can transmit the ideas and attitudes to future generations. Most of these books present themselves as teachings of a father to his son or sons. The article surveys Wisdom books in Egypt, Mesopotamia and its periphery, and Israel. The latter discusses the dating, composition, contents, and main messages of Proverbs, Qohelet, Ben Sira, the Qumran Wisdom texts, and the Wisdom of Solomon.
Posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder of the head and neck: imaging features in seven adults.

PURPOSE: To determine the cross-sectional imaging findings of posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) of the head and neck. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Computed tomographic (CT) scans (n = 6) and magnetic resonance (MR) images (n = 2) in seven patients with histopathologically proved PTLD of the Waldeyer (lymphoid) ring or cervical lymph nodes were retrospectively reviewed for abnormalities. RESULTS: The interval between transplantation and PTLD onset was 3.5–108 months (mean, 30 months). All patients had imaging abnormalities involving the Waldeyer ring, and focal 2.0–4.5-cm masses were present in six patients (unilateral oropharyngeal tonsil in two, bilateral oropharyngeal tonsils in one, nasopharyngeal adenoids in three, unilateral pharyngeal tonsil and ipsilateral nasopharynx in one). In three patients, the mass was centrally low attenuating at CT or isointense to fluid at MR imaging, with enhancing solid peripheral lymphoid tissue. Three patients also had nodal findings: one with a 7-cm lo...
Effect of toothbrushing on shade and surface roughness of extrinsically stained pressable ceramics.

Abstract Statement of problem The effect of toothbrushing on extrinsically stained pressable ceramic materials is unknown. Purpose The purpose of this in vitro study was to investigate the effects of toothbrushing on the shade and surface roughness of extrinsically stained, pressable ceramics. Material and methods Two materials, leucite-based (IPS Empress Esthetic [EE]; Ivoclar Vivadent AG) and lithium disilicate-based ceramic (IPS e.max Press [EP]; Ivoclar Vivadent AG), were studied. For each material, 24 disk-shaped specimens, 10 mm (diameter)×3 mm (height) were fabricated. Three different methods (n=8) of applying extrinsic stains were performed on each material: glazed only (G, control group); stained then glazed (SG); and stained and glazed together (T). The specimens were brushed with a multistation brushing machine under a load of 1.96 N at a rate of 90 strokes per minute with a soft and straight toothbrush (Oral-B #35) and a 1:1 toothpaste and distilled water slurry. Shade and roughness were measured at baseline and at 72, 144, 216, and 288 hours, which is equivalent to 3, 6, 9, and 12 years of simulated toothbrushing for 2 minutes twice a day. A repeated measures ANOVA with staining technique as a fixed factor was used to evaluate shade and roughness (α=.05). Results For EE groups, no significant change was found after 12 years of simulated toothbrushing regarding shade and surface roughness, irrespective of staining techniques ( P >.05). However, EP groups demonstrated a significant shade change and an increase in surface roughness after 12 years of simulated toothbrushing. Shade change was found to depend on the method of applying stain. For the EP-SG technique, a significant shade change was observed only at the 9- to 12-year interval ( P =.047). However, the EP-T technique demonstrated a significant difference in shade between baseline and 3 years ( P =.005) and in the 6- to 9-year interval ( P =.005). Surface roughness was only significantly affected at baseline and 3 years for the EP-T group ( P =.005). Conclusions For the shade and surface roughness of the EE groups, no statistically significant difference was found after 12 years of toothbrushing, irrespective of the staining technique. The shade and surface roughness of the EP groups were significantly statistically affected by toothbrushing time; only shade changes were found to depend on technique.
Alterations of the lumbar curve related to posture and seating.

The most common cause of low-back pain related to seating is posterior protrusion or extrusion of lower lumbar intervertebral discs. The normal curve of the lumbar spine in adult man is determined by maintenance of the trunk-thigh and the knee angles at approximately 135 degrees. Alteration of this normal lumbar curve, either an increase in standing erect or a decrease in sitting or stooping, is caused largely by the limited length and consequent pull of the trunk-thigh muscles of the opposite side. The most important postural factor in the causation of low-back pain in sitting is decrease of the trunk-thigh angle and consequent flattening of the lumbar curve. The next most important cause of low-back pain in sitting is lack of primary back support over the vulnerable lower lumbar intervertebral discs. Added factors of comfort in seating are the shortness of the seat, a rounded narrow front border, an open space beneath for better positioning of the legs, and permissive change of position in the seat. The design of all seats, regardless of model or size, should be based on this knowledge.
A comparison of autogenous theories for the origin of eukaryotic cells

Premise Eukaryotic cells have many unique features that all evolved on the stem lineage of living eukaryotes, making it difficult to reconstruct the order in which they accumulated. Nuclear endosymbiotic theories hold that three prokaryotes (nucleus, cytoplasm, and mitochondrion) came together to form a eukaryotic cell, whereas autogenous models hold that the nucleus and cytoplasm formed through evolutionary changes in a single prokaryotic lineage. Given several problems with nuclear endosymbiotic theories, this review focuses on autogenous models. Key insights Until recently all autogenous models assumed an outside-in (OI) topology, proposing that the nuclear envelope was formed from membrane-bound vesicles within the original cell body. Buzz Baum and I recently proposed an inside-out (IO) alternative, suggesting that the nucleus corresponds to the original cell body, with the cytoplasmic compartment deriving from extracellular protrusions. In this review, I show that OI and IO models are compatible with both mitochondria early (ME) or mitochondria late (ML) formulations. Whereas ME models allow that the relationship between mitochondria and host was mutualistic from the outset, ML models imply that the association began with predation or parasitism, becoming mutualistic later. In either case, the mutualistic interaction that eventually formed was probably syntrophic. Conclusions Diverse features of eukaryotic cell biology align well with the IOME model, but it would be premature to rule out the OIME model. ML models require that phagocytosis, a complex and energy expensive process, evolved before mitochondria, which seems unlikely. Nonetheless, further research is needed, especially resolution of the phylogenetic affinities of mitochondria.
Abstract 3204: Acute Mechanical Embolectomy Use in the US Doubled from 2008 to 2010

BACKGROUND: Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) therapy has been established by randomized clinical trials for administration within 4.5 hours. Both the MERCI Retrieval Devi...
College Students' Responses to Suicidal Content on Social Networking Sites: An Examination Using a Simulated Facebook Newsfeed

Although Facebook has a peer-initiated suicide prevention protocol, little is known about users' abilities to notice, recognize, and appropriately interpret suicidal content or about their willingness to intervene. In this study, 468 college students were randomly assigned to interact with a simulated Facebook newsfeed containing content reflecting various suicide risk levels. A larger proportion of those exposed to content reflecting moderate and severe suicide risk noticed, recognized, appropriately interpreted, and endorsed taking action to intervene, as compared to those exposed to content representing no or low risk. Overall, results indicate that college students are responsive to suicidal content on Facebook.
Method of Wing Inheritance in Cephalonomia Gallicola Ashmead (Bethylidae: Hymenoptera)

It was observed in Cephalonomia gallicola Ashmead that the female is always wingless, but both winged and wingless forms of the male occur. This observation provoked the question of how the winged condition is transmitted from one generation to another, or what caused the production of the winged form of male. Since the character for wing inheritance is restricted to the male sex, it was obvious that any study upon the hereditary nature of this characteristic would necessitate an understanding of the mode of reproduction and sex determination in this species.
Guanethidine in the Treatment of Hypertension

Guanethidine is a sympatholytic agent with a hypotensive potency similar to that of the ganglion-blocking compounds. Its effectiveness is further enhanced by the concomitant administration of thiazide derivatives.The decrease in blood pressure obtained with guanethidine is chiefly a postural response.A lower incidence of side effects has been observed with guanethidine than with the ganglionoplegic drugs.Results of a study by the authors have shown that guanethidine is particularly promising for patients with the more severe elevations of diastolic blood pressure.
Epidemiological Analysis of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease in Xiantao City of Hubei Province in 2010

[Objective]To learn the epidemiological characteristics of hand foot and mouth disease(HFMD) in Xiantao city of Hubei province in 2010. [Methods]The epidemiological characteristics of HFMD cases in Xiantao city in 2010 were analyzed by descriptive epidemiology method. [Results]In 2010,a total of 1 538 HFMD cases were reported in Xiantao city,the reported incidence rate was 108.06/lakh,and there were 7 severe cases and 2 death cases.The peak season was from April to July,and most of patients were scattered children under 3 years old.The incidence rate for males was higher than that for females,and the incidence rate in urban areas was higher than that in rural areas.Among 66 samples for pathogen detection,there were 21 positive samples,which included 16 samples of EV71 and 5 samples of other enterovirus. [Conclusion]The incidence rate of hand foot and mouth disease had obvious differences among different season,age and gender,and it was an infectious disease that should be especially prevented and controlled in recent years in Xiantao city.It is necessary to strengthen the surveillance and analysis of disease,to restrain the increasing trend of incidence.
Evaluation for Cooking and Tasting Quality of Indica Rice in Fujian

Five hundreds indica varieties were analyzed to evaluate their cooking and tasting quality.The results showed that differences in the averages of alkali spreading value,amylose content and gel consistency were not remarkable for rice between three seasons.However,by the coefficient variation of the traits in various seasons,the differentiation was found greater in early-and middle-season than it in late-season varieties.More than 90% of the rice varieties were qualified with the super-excellence standard rice by three traits.With comprehensive evaluation for the traits in season,high quality rate in super-excellence rice were 69.8%、78.9% and 91.8% for early-season、middle-season and late-season indica rice,respectively.For the rest,about 34.6% of it was short in amylose contents.With combination of three traits,87.6% of the varieties were fit into 6 types out of 18 groups.Results suggest that,in high-eating quality rice breeding,it is important to select varieties that with amylase content in 15.0%-24.0%.
Myocardial Infarction and Sudden Death

With substantial reductions in mortality among hospitalized coronary patients, the problem of sudden death looms ever larger. Thrombosis appears involved in only a minority of cases, but other pathophysiologic factors may be implicated, among them abnormal free fatty acid metabolism, arrhythmias, and microcirculatory compromise. Major stress is now being placed on identifying both epidemiologic and prodromal clues.
Floating axis does not reduce motion artifacts in a model of left ventricular wall motion in dogs

Methods of measuring regional wall motion of the left ventricle superimpose end-diastolic and end-systolic images. Differences in dimensions between images are assumed to be due to contraction, but they are also due to motion artifacts. To determine whether the errors caused by motion artifacts are reduced when measured with floating-axis referencing, and whether the measurement method affects these errors, we simulated end-systolic angiograms of a pure contraction (control) and contractions affected by motion artifacts and then measured differences in wall motion between angiograms with hemichord, radial, and trapezoid methods, using floating-axis and fixed-axis referencing. We chose these three methods because they form the basis for other methods, e.g., the center line method. For the simulations, we applied deformation patterns of the left ventricle, computed from the motion of tantalum markers implanted in the endocardiums of six dogs, to end-diastolic angiograms. This marker method measured the myocardial wall motion directly, independent of the angiogram. We found that differences caused by motion artifacts were not significantly reduced when measured with floating-axis referencing in our model. Normalized differences measured by radial and trapezoid methods were not significantly different, but they were significantly smaller than those measured by the hemichord method. We conclude that the axis referencing system has no significant effect on errors caused by motion artifacts in regional wall motion in our model. The measurement method, however, does affect these errors, with the radial and trapezoid methods being superior to the hemichord method.
SU-F-T-168: Development and Implementation of An Anthropomorphic Head & Neck Phantom for the Assessment of Proton Therapy Treatment Procedures

Purpose: To design a Head and Neck (H&N) anthropomorphic QA phantom that the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core Houston (IROC-H) can use to verify the quality of intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) H&N treatments for institutions participating in NCI clinical trials. Methods: The phantom was created to serve as a remote auditing tool for IROC-H to evaluate an institution's IMPT planning and delivery abilities. The design was based on the composition, size, and geometry of a generalized oropharyngeal tumor and contains critical structures (parotids and spinal cord). Radiochromic film in the axial and sagittal planes and thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD)-100 capsules were embedded in the phantom and used to perform the dose delivery evaluation. A CT simulation was used to create a passive scatter and a spot scanning treatment plan with typical clinical constraints for H&N cancer. The IMPT plan was approved by a radiation oncologist and the phantom was irradiated multiple times. The measured dose distribution using a 7%/4mm gamma analysis (85% of pixels passing) and point doses were compared with the treatment planning system calculations. Results: The designed phantom could not achieve the target dose prescription and organ at risk dose constraints with the passive scatter treatment plan. The target prescription dose could be met but not the parotid dose constraint. The average TLD point dose ratio in the target was 0.975, well within the 5% acceptance criterion. The dose distribution analysis using various acceptance criteria, 5%/4mm, 5%/3mm, 7%/4mm and 7%/5mm, had average pixel passing rates of 85.9%, 81.8%, 89.6% and 91.6%, and respectively. Conclusion: An anthropomorphic IMPT H&N phantom was designed that can assess the dose delivery of proton sites wishing to participate in clinical trials using a 5% TLD dose and 7%/4mm gamma analysis acceptance criteria.
Quantum Algorithms in Hilbert Database

A fast quantum algorithm for a search and pattern recognition in a Hilbert space memory structure is proposed. All the memory information is mapped onto a unitary operator acting upon a quantum state which represents a piece of information to be retrieved. As a result of only one quantum measurement, the address of the required information encoded in a number of the corresponding row of the unitary matrix is determined. By combining direct and dot products, the dimensionality of the memory space can be made exponentially large, using only linear resources. However, since the preprocessing, i.e., mapping the memory information into a Hilbert space can appear to be exponentially expensive, the proposed algorithm will be effective for NASA applications when the preprocessing is implemented on the ground, while the memory search is performed on remote objects.
Predictors of Acute Kidney Injury in Neurocritical Care Patients Receiving Continuous Hypertonic Saline.

Background and Purpose:Continuous intravenous 3% hypertonic saline (HTS) infusions are commonly used for the management of cerebral edema following severe neurologic injuries. Despite widespread us...
Medication Reduction After DBS Placement in Parkinson’s Disease (P6.383)

OBJECTIVE: Proportion of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients achieving the goal of at least 50[percnt] reduction in dopaminergic medications after DBS placement over a period of 3 years. Is the DBS effect being sustained over the long run and is it a disease-modifying therapy? BACKGROUND: Understanding the long term effects of DBS placement in PD patients and quantification of reduction of dopaminergic medications over a period. DESIGN: A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database at our center of PD patients undergoing DBS surgery between 2002 and 2014. Of 174 cases, 77 have been reviewed. 50[percnt] patients had PD symptom onset between age 40 and 59. 57[percnt] patients had surgery before age 60. Each patient was followed for 3 years, post-DBS. Dopaminergic medications were converted to Levodopa Equivalent Dose (LED). 50[percnt] reduction in LED has been set and proportion of patients in whom the goal was achieved at 1 month, 1 year and 3 years post-DBS. Statistical methods used were Paired Sample t-test and Group analysis. RESULTS: Mean LED, before surgery: 1251.54; post-DBS: at 1 month (638.55), 1year (776.83) and 3 years (863.55). Post-DBS, 50[percnt] dose reduction in [percnt] of patients: at 1 month (50[percnt]), 1 year (32[percnt]) and 3 years (27[percnt]). No difference in characteristics (age, age of onset of PD, duration of Levodopa treatment, number of years of PD prior to DBS placement or gender) of the patient population in whom 50[percnt] dose reduction was possible compared to population in whom it was not. CONCLUSION: In at least one-third of patients, we can decrease dopaminergic medications by 50[percnt], even after 3 years. This study provides an indirect evidence that effect of DBS is sustained over the period. Additional studies are required to prove whether DBS surgery helps in disease modification. Disclosure: Dr. Guduru has nothing to disclose. Dr. Schramke has nothing to disclose. Dr. Baser has nothing to disclose. Dr. Leichliter has nothing to disclose.