cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The chemical stability of coffinite, USiO4·nH2O; 0 < n < 2, associated with organic matter: A case study from Grants uranium region, New Mexico, USA

Coarse-grained coffinite [USiO4•nH2O; n = 0–2] from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in the Grants uranium region, New Mexico, USA, has been investigated in order to understand the processes of coffinite formation and alteration under reducing and oxidizing conditions. Elongated (up to 35 μm) prismatic crystals of coffinite precipitated contemporaneously with layers of organic matter (OM) and a vanadium-rich mica in this sandstone. Three different populations of coffinite were determined based on paragenesis and chemical composition; i) primary coffinite, (U0.924Ca0.218Y,REE0.021)1.163(Si0.835P0.033As0.010)0.878O4•nH2O, that was partially dissolved by migrating organic acids under reducing conditions; ii) recrystallized coffinite, (U0.805Ca0.156Y,REE0.022Zr0.001)0.984(Si0.954P0.036As0.005)0.995O4•nH2O, for which there was a 13% loss of U [apfu] and 28% loss of Ca [apfu], while Y + La + Ce + Nd [apfu] is enriched 5%. Uranium and REEs were incorporated into nano-scale crystals of secondary coffinite within the layers of organic matter; iii) coffinite formed during extensive alteration under oxidizing conditions. This coffinite, (U0.619Ca0.117Y,REE0.018)0.754(Si1.127P0.040As0.004)1.171O4•nH2O, is depleted ~ 23% of U [apfu], 25% of Ca [apfu] and 18% of Y +REE [apfu], as compared with coffinite-(ii). (Na,K)-boltwoodite, [(Na,K)(UO2SiO3OH)(H2O)], and a mixture of various uranyl sulfates, precipitated at the expense of coarse-grained coffinite-(i) as the final products of the alteration under oxidizing conditions. Based on charge balance calculations of coffinite groups (i) and (ii), the amount of U6+ was estimated to be in the range of 0.1–0.19 [apfu]. An upper limit of 0.2 [apfu] U6+ is postulated for the coffinite structure. Thus, the ideal chemical formula of coffinite is: (U4+1 − xU6+x)Si1 − xO4•nH2O, where 0 < x < 0.2; 0 < n < 2. Compositional variations of coffinite are governed by the substitutions: U4+ + Si4+ ⇔ U6+ + [2(OH)−, 0.5 □]; REE3+ + As5+ ⇔ U4+ + Si4+; Ca2+ + (As,P)5+ ⇔ REE3+ + Si4+. The variable, but high, totals of the chemical analyses (92.8–99.7 wt.%) suggest that coffinite contains molecular H2O, which is not an essential component of coffinite structure. The amount of H2O varies between 0 and 2 molecules per formula unit, and a minor amount of (OH)− may be accommodated into the structure. The U–Pb chemical ages limit the age of coffinite precipitation to between 36.6 and 0.7 Ma, which indicates continuous precipitation of coffinite since the mid-Tertiary. These results suggest that organic matter, which has preserved reducing conditions even in the presence of oxidizing fluids, over this long period of approximately 30 million years, plays an important role in the sustained presence of coffinite in these deposits.
Hand Dermatitis: A Focus on Allergic Contact Dermatitis to Biocides

Hand dermatitis is a common disease of the skin resulting in significantly decreased quality of life. Allergic contact dermatitis is a frequent cause of hand dermatitis. Recent studies have revealed that biocides used as preservatives are frequent allergens affecting the hands. This article reviews common biocides implicated in hand dermatitis.
Radiographic findings in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome

Since its description in 1967, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has become a widely recognized, if somewhat imperfectly understood, entity. This article reviews the imaging characteristics of ARDS as demonstrated on plain chest radiography, CT scan, radionuclide imaging, and MR imaging. The abnormalities displayed on these modalities are well understood even though there may be some dispute as to their relative importance in diagnosing and managing patients.
The fate of alternative lifestyles in an era of “pro-family” politics

The pro-family movement combines religious and political motivations and organizational activities. A major goal of the conservative backlash is to restrict or control alternative lifestyles. Through single issue campaigns and political pressure, the movement attempts to influence legislative and administrative policy. The extent to which the government is an agent of pro-family interest groups is explored here. An important question is whether there is a hidden agenda in the sense that the human services orientation has been exchanged for a control orientation. Do proposals for restoring rights to the family apply only to the traditional patriarchal family?
Toll-Like Receptor 5 Engagement Modulates Tumor Development and Growth in a Mouse Xenograft Model of Human Colon Cancer

Background & Aims: Toll-like receptor (TLR)-dependent signaling was proposed as immunotherapeutic targets against invading pathogens and tumorigenesis. Here, we investigated whether TLR5-dependent signaling modulates colonic tumor development in mouse xenograft model of human colon cancer. Methods: The expression of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) or TLR5 was stably knocked down in human colon cancer cells (DLD-1). Nude mice were subcutaneously implanted with MyD88-knocked down (KD), TLR5-KD, or control cells (n = 16) to examine the pathophysiology of tumor xenografts. Protein microarray assessed the differential expression of cytokines in these tumors. Leukocyte infiltration and tumor angiogenesis were assessed by immunohistochemistry with antibodies against neutrophil (Gr-1, 7/4) or macrophage-specific antigens (CD68, F4-80) and the vascular endothelial cell marker CD31, respectively. Tumor xenografts from DLD-1 cells were treated with flagellin (5.0 μg/kg, 1 injection/every 2 days for 3 weeks), and tumor regression and histopathology were examined. Results: Lack of MyD88 or TLR5 expression dramatically enhanced tumor growth and inhibited tumor necrosis in mouse xenografts of human colon cancer. In contrast, TLR5 activation by peritumoral flagellin treatment substantially increased tumor necrosis, leading to significant tumor regression. Tumors from MyD88-KD or TLR5-KD cells revealed the reduced production of neutrophil attracting chemokines (epithelial cell-derived neutrophil-activating peptide-78, macrophage-inflammatory protein α, and interleukin-8). Consequently, neutrophil infiltration was dramatically diminished in MyD88- or TLR5-KD xenografts, whereas tumor-associated macrophage infiltration or angiogenesis was not changed. Conclusions: TLR5 engagement by flagellin mediates innate immunity and elicits potent antitumor activity, indicating that TLR5-dependent signaling could be a potential immunotherapeutic target to modulate colonic tumors.
Caste Politics, Credibility and Criminality: Political Selection in India

This paper explores the conditions under which political parties select candidates with serious criminal records to contest democratic elections in the world’s largest democracy. I argue that indicted politicians benefit parties when they can exploit social divisions to build a compelling case that their criminality gives them an edge in serving the interests of their fellow co-ethnics. In particular, I hypothesize that criminality is likely to be lower in constituencies constitutionally reserved for protected minorities and in indirectly elected bodies, where caste divisions are less salient. In reserved constituencies, however, the salience of caste is likely to vary with the size of the minority population. Using a unique dataset drawn from candidate affidavits, this paper finds support for these hypotheses. This paper serves as a reminder that the “criminalization” of politics is not a monolithic phenomenon, but is highly contextual.
PR goes to the movies: The image of public relations improves from 1996 to 2008

This qualitative analysis of public relations in popular Hollywood films from 1996 to 2008 looks at three questions: first, how is the PR practitioner portrayed in recent films? Second, what kind of public relations activities and models of public relations are depicted? Third, how do other scholars’ results in prior studies apply to the portrayal of public relations in current films? Results show that for major films from Mars Attacks! (1996) to Hancock (2008), public relations practitioners are more credible, respected and influential, and PR work is more varied and complex than found in studies of films through 1995.
Unpacking Affective Forecasting and Its Ties to Project Work In Organizations

When thinking about the future, people often engage in affective forecasting—predicting what it would feel like to experience a particular event. In this article we explore how a specific form of work ubiquitous in today's organizations—project assignments—provides cause to reconsider assumptions surrounding affective forecasting. To this end, we synthesize research on affective forecasting and theorize connections between affective forecasting and project success (versus failure), rooting our arguments in the claim that affective forecasting shapes a key motivation-related aspect of performance—regulatory focus. Further, we account for systematic biases underlying affective forecasting and consider how organizational factors may shape the strength of these biases. Collectively, our arguments expand and, in some respects, challenge theory on affective forecasting and open new windows into the study of affect (i.e., mood and emotion) in organizations.
Results of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in women. 1985-1986 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Coronary Angioplasty Registry.

BACKGROUND The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) 1978-1981 Registry cohort indicated that PTCA risk was higher and efficacy was lower in women. Data from the 1985-1986 PTCA Registry are used to address the question of whether compared with men, women still have a worse outcome after PTCA. METHODS AND RESULTS The 1985-1986 NHLBI PTCA Registry collected data on consecutive, first-PTCA cases at 16 centers. Initial results are reported for 2,136 patients, 546 of whom were women. Four-year follow-up status was available on 95% of the cohort. Although women were an average of 4.5 years older than the male patients and had more cardiovascular risk factors and more severe angina, their coronary artery disease as assessed by angiography was not more extensive. Rates of angiographic success on a per-lesion basis were similar for women and men (89% versus 88%), and the clinical success rates (79%) were the same. Women had more initial complications (29% versus 20%, p CONCLUSIONS Women undergoing PTCA have a higher procedural mortality risk than men; this is explained in part by their worse cardiovascular risk factor profile. Otherwise, the success rate and long-term prognosis after PTCA are excellent, and PTCA should be considered for women in need of revascularization.
Jefferson Davis, Confederate president

He was one of the most embattled heads of state in American history. Charged with building a new nation while waging a war for its very independence, he accepted his responsibilities reluctantly but carried them out with a fierce dedication to his ideals. Those efforts ultimately foundered on the shoals of Confederate defeat, leaving Davis stranded in public memory as both valiant leader and desolate loser. Now two renowned Civil War historians, Herman Hattaway and Richard Beringer, take a new and closer look at Davis's presidency. In the process, they provide a clearer image of his leadership and ability to handle domestic, diplomatic, and military matters under the most trying circumstances-without the considerable industrial and population resources of the North and without the formal recognition of other nations. Hattaway and Beringer examine Davis's strengths and weaknesses as president in light of both traditional evidence and current theories of presidential leadership. They show us a man so respected that northern colleagues regretted his departure from the U.S. Senate, but so bent on Southern independence he was willing to impose unthinkable burdens on his citizens-an apologist for slavery who was committed to state rights, even while growing nationalism in his new country called for a stronger central government. In assessing Davis's actual administration of the Confederate state, the authors analyze the Confederate government's constitution, institutions, infrastructure, and cabinet-level administrators. They also integrate events of Davis's presidency with the ongoing war as it encroached upon the South, offering a panoramic view of military strategy as seen from the president's office. They tell how Davis reacted to the outcomes of key battles and campaigns in order to assess his leadership abilities, his relations with civilian and military authorities, and his own personal competency notwithstanding his poor judgment in selecting generals. Rich in detail and exhilaratingly told with generous selections from Davis's own letters and speeches, Hattaway and Beringer provide the most insightful account available of the first and only Confederate presidency-suggesting that perhaps it was the Confederate government, rather than Davis himself, that failed. More than that, it shows us Jefferson Davis as an American leader and offers a new appreciation of his place in our country's history."
Genome-wide histone state profiling of fibroblasts from the opossum, Monodelphis domestica, identifies the first marsupial-specific imprinted gene

Imprinted genes have been extensively documented in eutherian mammals and found to exhibit significant interspecific variation in the suites of genes that are imprinted and in their regulation between tissues and developmental stages. Much less is known about imprinted loci in metatherian (marsupial) mammals, wherein studies have been limited to a small number of genes previously known to be imprinted in eutherians. We describe the first ab initio search for imprinted marsupial genes, in fibroblasts from the opossum, Monodelphis domestica, based on a genome-wide ChIP-seq strategy to identify promoters that are simultaneously marked by mutually exclusive, transcriptionally opposing histone modifications. We identified a novel imprinted gene (Meis1) and two additional monoallelically expressed genes, one of which (Cstb) showed allele-specific, but non-imprinted expression. Imprinted vs. allele-specific expression could not be resolved for the third monoallelically expressed gene (Rpl17). Transcriptionally opposing histone modifications H3K4me3, H3K9Ac, and H3K9me3 were found at the promoters of all three genes, but differential DNA methylation was not detected at CpG islands at any of these promoters. In generating the first genome-wide histone modification profiles for a marsupial, we identified the first gene that is imprinted in a marsupial but not in eutherian mammals. This outcome demonstrates the practicality of an ab initio discovery strategy and implicates histone modification, but not differential DNA methylation, as a conserved mechanism for marking imprinted genes in all therian mammals. Our findings suggest that marsupials use multiple epigenetic mechanisms for imprinting and support the concept that lineage-specific selective forces can produce sets of imprinted genes that differ between metatherian and eutherian lines.
Monitoring distributed embedded systems

An examination is made of symbolic monitoring systems in which monitor correlates the activity of source code objects with lower level observable sequences of target execution events. The monitor must detect and respond to such target system states in a timely fashion in order to provide real-time monitoring response; it is consideration of this real-time monitoring constraint that sets the present work apart from other work related to distributed system monitoring or debugging. The author is interested in the costs and performance limits inherent in real-time monitoring of distributed systems in the sense that the inherent limits constrain feasible approaches to monitoring. A distributed predicate mapping system that supports a general form of distributed embedded system monitoring is described. The major results reported include a practical characterization of real-time monitoring response, an algorithm for dynamic predicate mapping, and an analysis of the computational requirements of predicate mapping that reveals the costs and resource management policies that are pertinent to guaranteeing real-time response. >
Amphiphysin IIm is required for survival of Chlamydia pneumoniae in macrophages.

Macrophages play a critical role in both innate and acquired immunity because of their unique ability to internalize, kill, and degrade bacterial pathogens through the process of phagocytosis. The adaptor protein, amphiphysin IIm, participates in phagocytosis and is transiently associated with early phagosomes. Certain pathogens, including Chlamydia pneumoniae , have evolved mechanisms to subvert macrophage phagosome maturation and, thus, are able to survive within these cells. We report here that, although amphiphysin IIm is usually only transiently associated with the phagosome, it is indefinitely retained on vacuoles containing C. pneumoniae. Under these wild-type conditions, C. pneumoniae do not elicit significant nitric oxide (NO) production and are not killed. Abrogation of amphiphysin IIm function results in C. pneumoniae– induced NO production and in the sterilization of the vacuole. The data suggest that C. pneumoniae retains amphiphysin IIm on the vacuole to survive within the macrophage.
Genetic regulation of seed dormancy in Purshia tridentata (Rosaceae).

Seeds of Purshia tridentata, a shrub of semi-arid North America, require chilling to become non-dormant. Using seeds produced from controlled crosses in a common garden, we examined effects of ovule parent, pollen parent, and year of production on germination percentage in response to chilling for 2 weeks at 2°C. Differences among ovule parents accounted for most of the variance in chilling response, and these differences (2 to 83% germination) were consistent across years. Differences among pollen parents were also significant, producing a two- to five-fold difference in mean germination percentage. Differences among years were significant but small. Ovule parent by year interactions showed that among-year variation in ripening environment did not affect ovule parents equally. There was no significant pollen parent by year interaction, suggesting that the effect of maturation environment was mediated through maternal tissues. In reciprocal crosses, two plants that showed contrasting dormancy levels as ovule parents produced seeds with similar dormancy as pollen parents, indicating that the genetic difference between them was at the testa level. Two plants that produced seeds with contrasting dormancy as pollen parents showed a similar but stronger pattern of contrast as ovule parents, showing that the genetic difference between them was at both embryo and endosperm or testa level. Testa or endosperm genotype was primarily responsible for chilling response of intact seeds, while embryo genotype affected chilling response and also exercised primary control over low temperature germination rate, whether of excised embryos or of intact seeds.
Busting Arbitration Myths

This paper presents an arbitration version of the MythBusters television show. It employs a MythBusters-type approach - subjecting commonly held views to empirical testing - to examine several commonly held myths about arbitration. It finds: (1) the myth that the number of arbitration proceedings held in a country increases after it enacts a new arbitration statute is confirmed, although to nowhere near the extent predicted by some supporters of new arbitration laws; (2) the myth that parties commonly agree to have their disputes resolved under the new Law Merchant in lieu of national law is busted; and (3) the myth that arbitrators "split the baby" - i.e., make compromise awards - is busted as well.
Literacy in African American communities. J. L. Harris, A. G. Kamhi, and K. E. Pollock (Eds.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2001. Pp. 310.

The beauty of edited volumes is their potential to achieve synergism in bringing together diverse work on a significant topic – not just to create a coherent collection of research. Literacy in African American communities succeeds on all fronts. In presenting a broad view of literacy-related practices, the volume evokes a variable African American community that is invisible (or at least hazy) in many schools. Without deep knowledge of the linguistic, cultural, historical, and political contexts for literacy in the community, the schools and university programs that prepare professionals cannot hope to overcome the deficit perspective of cultural and linguistic differences that still drives assessment and instruction to a large degree.
What can acquired nystagmus tell us about congenital forms of nystagmus

For several forms of acquired nystagmus, animal models exist, mathematical hypotheses have been proposed, and treatments are available. What insights could acquired nystagmus provide for congenital forms of nystagmus? Acquired periodic alternating nystagmus (PAN) is caused by instability of the velocity storage mechanism for vestibular eye movements; an adaptive mechanism produces the oscillations that have a period of about 4 minutes. Surprisingly, the ability of individuals with congenital forms of nystagmus to adapt their eye movements to new visual demands has received little study. Acquired pendular nystagmus (APN) may arise from instability in the neural integrator for eye movements; identification of the neurotransmitters contributing to normal gaze holding made it possible to identify candidate drugs for treatment of APN. Similar knowledge of the biology underlying of congenital forms of nystagmus might similarly suggest effective drugs. Downbeat nystagmus (DBN) is caused by cerebellar disease, which includes structural lesions affecting the flocculus and paraflocculus, and calcium channelopathies, such as episodic ataxia type 2 (EA2), for which a mouse model and effective treatment is available. Since some congenital forms of nystagmus are genetic in origin, then the possibility arises that they may be caused by a channelopathy, a hypothesis that suggests novel drugs for evaluation in randomized controlled trials.
A Compiler Based Leakage Reduction Technique by Power-Gating Functional Units in Embedded Microprocessors

Effective power-gating involves deactivating idle functional units for sustained periods incurring little or no performance degradation. Accurate prediction of long idle periods is essential, which, in turn, depends on the application program characteristics. We propose a compiler-based leakage reduction technique for embedded architectures by exploiting the well-known attributes of embedded applications, namely, small code size and intensive loops. From the control flow graph (CFG) representation of the source program, we construct a forest of loop hierarchy trees (LHTs), which capture the nesting loop properties of the program. As an LHT satisfies the partial ordering on the loop nesting, we exploit this property to identify maximal subgraphs (of functional unit idleness) in the original program. For each subgraph so found, a sleep instruction is introduced at the entry point of the corresponding code segment, thus optimizing the number of sleep instructions. The sleep instruction has one operand, a bit-vector comprised of ON/OFF control bits for all functional units in the data path. Our target architecture is a modified ARM processor model comprising of functional units with power-gating ability. We obtained 34% average leakage energy reduction for 12 benchmarks chosen from the MiBench suite
Dynamic modeling of transport and positional control of tokamaks

We describe a numerical model of a free boundary axisymmetric tokamak plasma and its associated control systems. The plasma is modeled with a hybrid method using two-dimensional velocity and flux functions with surface-averaged MHD equations describing the evolution of the adiabatic invariants. Equations are solved for the external circuits and for the effects of eddy currents in nearby conductors. The method is verified by application to several test problems and used to simulate the formation of a bean-shaped plasma in the PBX experiment.
Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccine for Preventing Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza Hospitalizations in Adults, 2011–2012 Influenza Season

During the 2011-2012 influenza season, we enrolled hospitalized adults with acute respiratory illness and tested each for influenza using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Influenza vaccination was verified in 35% (6/17) of adults with influenza-associated hospitalizations compared to 64% (97/152) of test-negative controls; adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 71.4% (95% confidence interval, 17.1%-94.9%).
Remediation of the Wells G & H Superfund Site, Woburn, Massachusetts.

Remediation of ground water and soil contamination at the Wells G & H Superfund Site, Woburn, Massachusetts, uses technologies that reflect differences in hydrogeologic settings, concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and costs of treatment. The poorly permeable glacial materials that overlie fractured bedrock at the W.R. Grace property necessitate use of closely spaced recovery wells. Contaminated ground water is treated with hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet (UV) oxidation. At UniFirst, a deep well completed in fractured bedrock removes contaminated ground water, which is treated by hydrogen peroxide, UV oxidation, and granular activated carbon (GAC). The remediation system at Wildwood integrates air sparging, soil-vapor extraction, and ground water pumping. Air stripping and GAC are used to treat contaminated water; GAC is used to treat contaminated air. New England Plastics (NEP) uses air sparging and soil-vapor extraction to remove VOCs from the unsaturated zone and shallow ground water. Contaminated air and water are treated using separate GAC systems. After nine years of operation at W.R. Grace and UniFirst, 30 and 786 kg, respectively, of VOCs have been removed. In three years of operation, 866 kg of VOCs have been removed at Wildwood. In 15 months of operation, 36 kg of VOCs were removed at NEP. Characterization work continues at the Olympia Nominee Trust, Whitney Barrel, Murphy Waste Oil, and Aberjona Auto Parts properties. Risk assessments are being finalized that address heavy metals in the floodplain sediments along the Aberjona River that are mobilized from the Industri-Plex Superfund Site located a few miles upstream.
The impact of information availability and workload characteristics on the performance of job co-allocation in multi-clusters

In this paper, we utilize a bandwidth-centric job communication model that captures the interaction and impact of simultaneously co-allocating jobs across multiple clusters. We make use of a parallel job model that seeks to capture both local and global communication access patterns. By doing so, we are able to explore scheduling strategies that attempt to improve average job turnaround time by selectively mapping jobs across cluster boundaries in a process known as job co-allocation. In this research, we focus on scheduling strategies that make use of available information such as network link utilization, per-processor bandwidths, and job communication topology in order to make intelligent decisions regarding application partition sizes and job placement. We provide results that help to establish the relationship between the quantity of information available a priori to the scheduler and its ability to improve overall system performance. Additionally, we demonstrate the dramatic impact that salient workload characteristics can have on the effectiveness of co-allocation.
Different medical needs between hurricane and flood victims.

Objective Through the review of patient records seen by the New Mexico-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (NM-1DMAT) after various disasters, we hoped to find patterns that might help in disaster planning. Our hypothesis was that flood and hurricane victims have different medical conditions and needs. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of patient records for NM-1DMAT deployments to Hurricane Andrew in Florida (August 1992) and the Houston, TX flood caused by Tropical Storm Allison (June 2001). We compared age, gender, chief complaint, medical history, diagnosis, diagnostic testing, treatment rendered, triage category, and patient disposition. Results We found several differences between the patients presenting after Hurricane Andrew and those presenting after Tropical Storm Allison. The chief complaint, diagnosis, presence of medical history, diagnostic testing, treatment rendered, triage category, and disposition all differed between the 2 disasters. The mean ages in both groups were similar. Conclusions The needs of the patients differed in several areas between Hurricane Andrew and the Houston flood. This information should be tested in a future hurricane or flood and taken into account when planning for deployments.
Can PDES scale in environments with heterogeneous delays

The performance and scalability of Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES) is often limited by communication latencies and overheads. The emergence of multi-core processors and their expected evolution into many-cores offers the promise of low latency communication and tight memory integration between cores; these properties should significantly improve the performance of PDES in such environments. However, on clusters of multi-cores (CMs), the latency and processing overheads incurred when communicating between different machines (nodes) far outweigh those between cores on the same chip, especially when commodity networking fabrics and communication software are used. It is unclear if there is any benefit to the low latency among cores on the same node given that communication links across nodes are significantly worse. In this study, we examine the performance of a multi-threaded implementation of PDES on CMs. We demonstrate that the inter-node communication costs impose a substantial bottleneck on PDES and demonstrate that without optimizations addressing these long latencies, multi-threaded PDES does not significantly outperform the multiprocess version despite direct communication through shared memory on the individual nodes. We then propose three optimizations: message consolidation and routing, infrequent polling and latency-sensitive model partitioning. We show that with these optimizations in place, threaded implementation of PDES significantly outperforms process-based implementation even on CMs.
The use of acellular dermal matrix for contaminated abdominal wall defects: wound status predicts success

Abstract Background Contaminated abdominal wall fascial defects present a challenging problem. The use of human acellular dermal matrix (AlloDerm; LifeCell Corp., Branchburg, NJ) provides a novel method of primary closure of abdominal wall defects in this setting. The aim of the current study was to determine what factors predicted fascial wall failure as determined by the presence of hernia on follow-up exam after AlloDerm placement. Methods All patients who underwent surgery for contaminated abdominal wall fascial defects with placement of AlloDerm from June 2003 to September 2005 at a tertiary care Veterans Affairs hospital were included in the analysis. Patients were followed until hernia recurrence or last clinic visit. Results Eighteen patients had AlloDerm placed for contaminated fascial defects and all were included in the analysis. Primary wound closure was performed on 12/18 (67%) patients, with 6/18 (33%) patients initially left with open wounds. Patients with open wounds were treated with wound vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) devices (4/6) or saline dressings (2/6). Overall ventral hernia recurrence rate was 50% (9/18) with an average follow up of 9.1 months. Patients who had primary wound closure at the completion of the operation had a 33% (4/12) recurrence rate. Patients who did not have primary wound closure had an 83.3% (5/6) recurrence rate. The significant difference shows ( P = .03) that open wound status predicts recurrence. The average size of AlloDerm sheets used was 164.0 cm 2 in the closed group and 146.2 cm 2 in the primary open wound group ( P = .64). Average cost per patient was $4680 for AlloDerm. Conclusion These data suggest that an open wound in the postoperative period after AlloDerm placement for treatment of contaminated fascial defects is associated with a high probability of hernia recurrence. Our data do not support the use of this expensive material unless there is a good chance of having a closed wound.
Enrolling adolescents in asthma research: adolescent, parent, and physician influence in the decision-making process.

Background. The factors influencing family decisions to participate in adolescent asthma research are not well understood. Legal and ethical imperatives require adolescent research participation to be voluntary. While parents and adolescents often agree about research decisions, disagreements may also occur with relative frequency. Physician recommendations are also known to influence research participation decisions. Little attention has been given to how these dynamics may affect adolescents' involvement in decisions to participate in research. Objective. To examine the influence of family and physician-investigator relationships and recommendations on adolescent asthma clinical research participation decisions. Methods. A statewide community sample of 111 adolescents 11 to 17 years of age, with a diagnosis of asthma, and their parents participated in this study. Adolescents received a medical evaluation from an asthma specialist and then the family was offered participation in a hypothetical asthma cli...
Towards a Theoretical Ethnography of Migration

Ethnographers' long-standing interest in migration has taken on new significance as researchers grapple with globalization on the ground. Building on the transnationalism literature, I explore how recent appeals to use local archival work and revisits to achieve historical depth can be applied fruitfully to ethnographies of migration. I argue for multi-sited fieldwork in countries of migrants' origin and destination and the removal of national blinders so that both domestic and international migrations are brought into the same frame for comparison. Finally, I amend the extended case method by arguing for the engagement of case studies with theoretical research programs in ways that attend to the representativeness of the case. The utility of these strategies is demonstrated with examples from the migration literature and five years of ethnographic fieldwork among Mexican migrants.
Controversies in blood pressure goal guidelines and masked hypertension

In uncomplicated hypertension, <140/90 mmHg is the treatment goal for individuals aged 18-79 and between 140 mmHg and 150 mmHg in those 80 years of age. Inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, as well as calcium channel blockers, are universally accepted as first-line therapy in uncomplicated hypertension, but controversy exists over the role of thiazide diuretics and beta blockers. Because at similar blood pressure (BP) levels, African Americans have more target organ damage than whites, a lower goal of <135/85 mmHg is recommended. In patients with coronary artery disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, <130/80 mmHg is recommended. Masked hypertension, defined as normal clinic BP with a high average self-monitored or ambulatory BP, is prevalent in those with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea. Masked hypertension is associated with worse outcome. Ambulatory BP monitoring for those at risk for masked hypertension needs to be incorporated into guidelines.
Abstract 128: Catheter-based Ablation May Improve Survival in Patients with Acute Decompensated Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction and Atrial Fibrillation or Flutter with Rapid Ventricular Response

Background: There is no current evidence regarding safety and efficacy of various rhythm control strategies such as Amiodarone, electrical cardioversion (DCCV), catheter based ablation and other anti-arrhythmic drugs (AAD) for acute control of rapid ventricular response (RVR) in hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter (AF/AFL) and acute decompensated heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (ADHFrEF). Methods: Single center retrospective study from our registry of hospitalized patients with ADHFrEF and rapid AF/AFL over a 5-year period Results: We included 52 patients with ADHFrEF and rapid AF/AFL (mean age, 64.3±13.9 years; 39 (75%) males; mean left ventricular EF [%], 29.4±8.1; median follow up duration [months], 13 [interquartile range, 5.3-19]): 30 (57.7%) received amiodarone, 19 (36.5%) received DCCV, 10 (19.2%) received catheter ablation and 1 (1.9%) received other AAD. Patients who were treated with catheter ablation had significantly higher rates of survival to median follow up and to hospital discharge compared to those who were not treated with ablation. There were no significant differences in symptoms control, major bleeding event, systemic embolism, worsening HF, procedure related complications, and length of hospital stay between patients treated with and without amiodarone, DCCV and catheter ablation (Table 1). New onset AF/AFL, new HF, left ventricular EF, NYHA functional class, and loading with AAD did not predict response to DCCV (P = 0.22-0.87) (Table 2). Conclusion: Acute control of rapid AF/AFL in hospitalized patients with ADHFrEF using catheter ablation significantly improved survival. Catheter-based ablation may be a safe and efficacious treatment option for these patients. ![][1] ![][2] [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/graphic-2.gif
Association between increase in cyclic AMP and subsequent induction of tyrosine hydroxylase in rat adrenal medulla. Experiments with swimming stress.

After male rats (100 g body weight) have completed 7 min of swimming at 15°C, their rectal temperature is decreased by 15°C. As expected, the increase of cAMP and the decrease of cGMP concentrations in adrenal medulla are delayed by the time period necessary for the body temperature to return to normal. Thus, taking into consideration the delaying effect of hypothermia, the swimming stress experiments are in agreement with the view that the enhancement of cyclic AMP/cGMP concentration ratios may function as the second messengers for the induction of tyrosine hydroxylase in adrenal medulla.
25 GHz Embedded-Gate Graphene Transistors with High-K Dielectrics on Extremely Flexible Plastic Sheets

Despite the widespread interest in graphene electronics over the past decade, high-performance graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) on flexible substrates have been rarely achieved, even though this atomic sheet is widely understood to have greater prospects for flexible electronic systems. In this article, we report detailed studies on the electrical and mechanical properties of vapor synthesized high-quality monolayer graphene integrated onto flexible polyimide substrates. Flexible graphene transistors with high-k dielectric afforded intrinsic gain, maximum carrier mobilities of 3900 cm2/V·s, and importantly, 25 GHz cutoff frequency, which is more than a factor of 2.5 times higher than prior results. Mechanical studies reveal robust transistor performance under repeated bending, down to 0.7 mm bending radius, whose tensile strain is a factor of 2–5 times higher than in prior studies. In addition, integration of functional coatings such as highly hydrophobic fluoropolymers combined with the self-pas...
Alternative to the traditional discount method of wholesaler purchasing

A program of purchasing drugs from wholesalers at the wholesaler's exact invoice cost plus a percentage is described and compared with the traditional method of average wholesale price (AWP) less a discount. The comparison was conducted by the pharmacy department of a 310-bed, teaching hospital that awarded a one-year contract to a wholesaler offering its items at the exact cost plus a pre-established percentage. Data collected from monthly wholesaler computer printouts gave the following information on each product: (1) list price per item, (2) actual cost to pharmacy per item, (3) percentage discount from AWP, and (4) quantity ordered. The net percentage discount from AWP for 12 months was calculated and compared to the former (traditional) discount rate. The net discount from AWP was 15.6% for purchases made by the hospital during the first 12 months of the program. When compared with the smaller discount the hospital traditionally received, the new program saved the hospital $5758 on annual purchases of $136,419. The actual dollar savings to an institution that changes from a traditional discount program to a cost-plus-percentage program depends on: (1) the negotiated percentage added to wholesaler cost, (2) the discount from AWP that the institution was previously receiving, and (3) the volume of wholesale purchases.
Ultra-wideband planar antennas: Slot vs. monopole

Planar antenna designs have many advantages such as low-profile, light-weight, and ease of fabrication and integration. Here, a planar monopole and a slot-type antenna of the same overall size on a thin substrate with coplanar waveguide feed are compared. This paper summarizes a numerical investigation using both frequency and time-domain solvers. The results serve to guide the future analysis of broadband antennas for ground penetrating radars.
Surgery for ovarian remnant syndrome : lessons learned from difficult cases

Ten cases of ovarian remnant syndrome jointly managed by gynecology and urology departments are presented. Complications of the surgery included a high incidence of ureteral and bowel injury. Preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative considerations may reduce the complications or minimize their significance. One case of ovarian cancer developed among the instances of ovarian remnant syndrome in this series. Preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative considerations can reduce the complications of surgery for ovarian remnant syndrome.
Correlations of Attenuated Total Reflectance Spectra to Physical Properties or Polyurethane Foams

Polyurethane foams are produced from five basic components: polyol, silicone surfactant, tin and amine catalyst, water and an isocyanate. Inconsistency in the measurement of physical properties of the foam arises if there is a change in reactivity of any of the components. The change in reactivity is often the result of batch-to-batch variability of the chemical components. Production of a consistent foam in these cases is difficult and manufacturing takes time and wastes chemicals. The purpose of this study is to correlate attenuated total reflectance (ATR) infrared spectra of the physical properties of the foam. Correlations were made with the use of partial least squares (PLS) software. Both PLS-1 and PLS-2 algorithms were implemented for correlation. The correlation coefficient (R 2) was better with the PLS-1 than the PLS-2 algorithm. The values predicted by the PLS model fall within the standard deviation.
Geologic evolution of a Cretaceous tectonometamorphic unit in the Franciscan Complex, western California

ABSTRACTThe Franciscan Yolla Bolly terrane of the NE California Coast Ranges consists mainly of quartzose metagreywackes containing sparse high-pressure/low-temperature (HP/LT) neoblastic minerals, including ubiquitous lawsonite. Some Yolla Bolly rocks also contain one or more of the newly grown phases, pumpellyite, aragonite, glaucophane, and/or jadeitic pyroxene. These blueschist-facies metasandstones recrystallized under physical conditions of ~200–300°C and ~8 kbar at subduction-zone depths approaching 30 km. Petrologically similar Franciscan metaclastic-rich map units – Yolla Bolly terrane-like rocks, here designated the ‘YB’ unit – crop out in the central and southern California Coast Ranges. Recently published detrital zircon U‒Pb SIMS and LA-ICPMS data for 19 ‘YB’ metagreywackes indicate maximum ages of formation as follows: ~110–115 Ma (8) in the NE California Coast Ranges; ~95–107 Ma (7) in the San Francisco Bay area + Diablo Range; and ~85–92 Ma (4) in the dextrally offset Nacimiento Block. The...
Effects of Low-Level Electric and Magnetic Fields on the Growth of Animals

Depressions in growth rate were observed in chicks continuously exposed to the following signals up to 28 days of age: (1) the near field of a UHF signal at 880 MHz, with a calculated average power density of 33 μW/cm 2 ; (2) the near field of a VHF signal at 260 MHz, with a calculated average power density of 33 μW/cm 2 ; (3) a low frequency electric field at either 45 or 60 Hz with calculated electric fields of 36 and 34 V/cm, respectively; and (4) a low frequency magnetic field at either 45 or 60 Hz with 1.4 and 1.2 G measured values of magnetic fields. No significant differences in feed utilization between control chicks and chicks exposed to the UHF and VHF signals were noted. Feed utilization between control chicks and chicks exposed to the electric and the magnetic fields was different and varied depending upon the experiment.
Engagement in the Hepatitis C Care Cascade Among Homeless Veterans, 2015.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest provider of hepatitis C virus (HCV) care nationally and provides health care to >200 000 homeless veterans each year. We used the VHA’s Corpo...
Imaging Performance of a 1 mm3 Resolution Clinical PET System in the Presence of Out of FOV Activity from a Realistic Torso Phantom

1850 Objectives High resolution PET offers an effective way to guide the clinical management of breast cancer alongside traditional imaging modalities. We are building a dual panel 1 mm3-resolution PET camera dedicated to breast imaging, which increases photon sensitivity by placing the PET panels close to the breast. This setup puts the imaging heads near regions with high uptake outside the FOV, such as the liver or heart. Out of FOV (OFOV) activity causes increased dead time and random coincidences, both of which decrease the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in the image. We have designed a realistic torso phantom to quantify the effects of OFOV uptake on imaging performance during a breast PET scan. Methods Two scans are performed with a µ-Derenzo phantom, one with the OFOV torso phantom present, and one without. The scans are performed with two functioning sections of opposing flat panel imaging heads, with a sensitive FOV of 22mm x 160 mm x 64 mm. In the first study, the phantom is injected with 200 µCi of FDG, and imaged at the center of the FOV without any OFOV activity. For the second study, the µ-Derenzo phantom is filled in the same manner, while the torso phantom is filled with a total of 1.7 mCi and placed outside of the FOV in an anatomically consistent position relative to the breast. Both scans are taken over 105 minutes with a time window of 20 ns. The minimum-resolvable rod size, randoms fraction, CNR, timing and energy resolutions are reported. Results Rods of 1.2mm are resolvable in both scans. The results are quantified in the table below. Conclusions The imaging performance of a µ-Derenzo scan is quantified with and without the presence of OFOV activity from a realistic torso phantom. The results demonstrate that our high-resolution clinical breast PET scanner is resistant to image degradation in the presence of realistic OFOV uptake in the torso. Research Support This work is funded in part by NIH grant R01 CA119056. D.F.C. Hsu and D.L. Freese are supported by the Stanford Graduate Fellowship. D.L. Freese is also supported by an NSF Fellowship.