cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Terminating the Last Interglacial: The Role of Ice Sheet–Climate Feedbacks in a GCM Asynchronously Coupled to an Ice Sheet Model

AbstractClimatic deterioration in northeastern Canada following the last interglacial resulted in the formation and abrupt expansion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. However, the physical mechanisms leading to rapid ice sheet expansion are not well understood. Here, the authors report on experiments using an ice sheet model asynchronously coupled to a GCM to investigate the role of ice sheet–climate feedbacks in terminating the last interglacial period. In agreement with simpler models, the experiments indicate that a specific type of ice–albedo feedback, the small ice cap instability, is the dominant process controlling rapid expansion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. As ice elevations increase in northeastern Canada, a stationary wave forms and strengthens over the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which acts to hinder further expansion of the ice margin and reduce the effect of the small ice cap instability. The sensitivity of these feedbacks to ice topography results in a reduction in simulated ice volume when the commun...
The Insulin-3 Gene: Lack of a Genetic Basis for Human Cryptorchidism

Purpose: The etiology of cryptorchidism appears to be multifactorial and related to hormonal and mechanical factors. Recently, the insulin-3 gene (INSL3) was noted to have a role in mouse gubernacular development and testicular descent. Knockout male mice for the INSL3 gene show isolated bilateral cryptorchidism. This phenotype suggests that INSL3 may have a role in the development of human cryptorchidism. Using single strand conformational polymorphism analysis we detected mutations of the INSL3 gene in boys with cryptorchidism.Materials and Methods: Genomic DNA from 118 boys with cryptorchidism and 48 normal controls were obtained from 3 institutions. Using polymerase chain reaction with INSL3 sequence specific primers DNA fragments were analyzed using single strand conformational polymorphism reactions. Samples with band shifts were re-amplified and sequenced to detect mutations.Results: A single base substitution (G greater than A) causing an amino acid change (missense mutation) was identified in 27 ...
Parenteral ketorolac and risk of myocardial infarction.

Purpose To examine the effects of ketorolac, a non-aspirin non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NANSAID) with anti-platelet properties, on the risk of in-hospital myocardial infarction (MI). Methods A retrospective cohort study was performed among hospitalized patients given 10 219 courses of parenteral ketorolac and patients given 10 145 courses of parenteral opioids, without ketorolac, in 35 hospitals. Patients were matched by hospital, admitting service, and date of study drug initiation. Any MI documented in the chart that occurred during the drug course and up to 3 days after the last dose was recorded by trained abstractors. Results MI occurred in 18 (0.2%) ketorolac and 45 (0.4%) opioid courses (odds ratio (OR) 0.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23–0.69). This negative association persisted in multivariable analysis adjusting for age, sex, history of diabetes mellitus or cardiovascular disease, and administration of antiplatelet agents (OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.24–0.73). The association also persisted in numerous analyses excluding patients who may have been treated with analgesics for ischemic pain, and when restricting events to those occurring while on the drug (OR 0.34; 95% CI 0.17–0.69). Conclusion These results are consistent with a protective effect of ketorolac against MI. Future research that implements uniform screening for and independent validation of MIs as well as eliminates possible confounding by indication is the next logical step in confirming these findings. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Craft, romantic, rhetorical: traditions that have shaped our identities

Different traditions (craft, romantic, and rhetorical) have shaped beliefs about writing and design. These traditions have served as lenses through which others view us and we view ourselves. This paper discusses these three historical traditions, how they have shaped perceptions of technical communicators, and how we can use this knowledge to enhance communication in the workplace.
Exchange Relationships Between Apparel Retailers and Manufacturers

The outcome of exchange relationships between retailers and manufacturers may depend upon the amount of power held by each channel member. In this study, the power held by apparel retailers and manufacturers was examined, based on Emerson's power-dependence theory which states that one channel member's power resides in the dependency of another. Results indicate that the power of retailers and manufacturers was related to their dependence on each other. An imbalance of power was found, with retailers perceived as having greater power than manufacturers in key decision-making areas.
Long-term membrane oxygenation in respiratory failure.

Abstract Three patients with acute terminal respiratory failure who did not respond to maximum constant controlled-volume ventilation at 100 cm. H 2 O inhalation pressure with constant positive-pressure breathing of 20 cm. H 2 O were treated by membrane oxygenation for a total of 12 days. There was marked clearing of the lungs on roentgenogram. Compliance increased, and shunting decreased. All patients were able to maintain an adequate arterial Po 2 off membrane oxygenation and on intermittent positive-pressure breathing before their deaths. Deaths were due to anoxia, renal failure, and a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). Each patient was potentially a survivor; however, the CVA and renal failure were the results of pumping and heparinization. The best route for cannulation is still unknown, so both venovenous and venoarterial cannulations were done in these patients.
Follicular thyroid lesions, elements that affect both diagnosis and prognosis

The precise diagnosis of follicular thyroid lesions is frequently debated because of the subjective nature of capsular invasion as well as both the histological and cytological characteristics. Furthermore, several different prognostic indices have been devised to examine prognosis associated with thyroid cancer. Herein, we describe how these confounding elements can affect the ability to accurately predict prognosis for patients with follicular thyroid lesions.
Emergence in a Burn Center of Populations of Bacteria Resistant to Gentamicin, Tobramycin, and Amikacin: Evidence for the Need for Changes in Zone Diameter Interpretative Standards

From July 1974 through June 1976, a number of isolates of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae , and Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the Burn Center exhibited a shift to smaller zone diameters with gentamicin than did isolates from the general hospital population. Although many had zone diameters ≥13 mm and would have been considered susceptible by this breakpoint, they were found to have minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of ≥8 μg of gentamicin per ml by agar dilution testing. Zone diameters and MICs of gentamicin, tobramycin, and amikacin were subsequently compared for 168 isolates from both the Burn Center and general hospital. The results revealed many isolates that fell into presently used gentamicin- and tobramycin-“susceptible” categories by disk diffusion tests but were resistant by MIC. The data indicated that criteria for gentamicin disk diffusion testing should include an intermediate or indeterminate category, and that the limits of the intermediate category for tobramycin and amikacin should be expanded.
An analysis of the statistical model adsorption isotherm

The statistical model adsorption isotherm developed by Ruthven and coworkers and used in the prediction and correlation of adsorption in microporous materials especially zeolites is critically examined from the perspective of statistical mechanics. This is done by applying the method to a class of molecular models for which the statistical thermodynamics may be solved analytically without approximation. The models considered are finite length single component and binary one-dimensional systems in which the molecules interact via square well potentials. These are among the simplest realistic yet analytically solvable molecular models of adsorption in porous materials. Our analysis clarifies the theoretical status of the Ruthven approach as well as revealing some of the weaknesses in it.
Transport equation approach for heterojunction bipolar transistors

Transport equations for particle, momentum, and energy densities in two conduction bands are applied to a self-consistent numerical simulation of heterojunction bipolar transistors. Simple formulas for the relaxation frequencies, by which the variation of the conduction band energy and doping concentration in a heterojunction device are easily taken into account, are proposed. The electron transport in the AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor with two different collector structures is analyzed and discussed. >
Derivation of cancer diagnostic and prognostic signatures from gene expression data

The ability to compare genome-wide expression profiles in human tissue samples has the potential to add an invaluable molecular pathology aspect to the detection and evaluation of multiple diseases. Applications include initial diagnosis, evaluation of disease subtype, monitoring of response to therapy and the prediction of disease recurrence. The derivation of molecular signatures that can predict tumor recurrence in breast cancer has been a particularly intense area of investigation and a number of studies have shown that molecular signatures can outperform currently used clinicopathologic factors in predicting relapse in this disease. However, many of these predictive models have been derived using relatively simple computational algorithms and whether these models are at a stage of development worthy of large-cohort clinical trial validation is currently a subject of debate. In this review, we focus on the derivation of optimal molecular signatures from high-dimensional data and discuss some of the expected future developments in the field.
Damage prediction in structural mechanics using partitioning approach

In this paper, a novel data mining approach to address damage detection within the large-scale complex structures is proposed. Every structure is defined by the set of finite elements that also represent the number of target variables. Since large-scale complex structures may have extremely large number of elements, predicting the failure in every single element using the original set of natural frequencies as features is exceptionally time-consuming task. Therefore, in order to reduce the time complexity we propose a hierarchical localized approach for partitioning the entire structure into substructures and predicting the failure within these substructures. Unlike our previous sub-structuring approach, which is based on physical substructures in the structure, here we propose to partition the structure into sub-structures employing hierarchical clustering algorithm that also allows localizing the damage in the structure. Finally, when the identified substructure with a failure consists of sufficiently small number of target variables the extent of the damage in the element of the substructure is predicted. A numerical example analyses on an electric transmission tower frame is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Which is a Better Predictor of Job Performance: Job Satisfaction or Life Satisfaction?

Will people who are happy with their jobs exhibit superior job performance? Researchers have examined the “happy worker is a productive worker” postulation for decades and concluded the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is not as strong as one would expect. The current research investigates possible explanations, including operationalizations of the satisfaction and performance variables. Using information from 87 respondents and their supervisors, the addition of life satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior to the model was tested. Results moderately supported the addition of life satisfaction to increase our ability to predict in- and extra-role job performance.
Prognostic and Therapeutic Implications of PNI in Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Definitive Radiation

+/61Gy vs 234 +/68Gy, p Z 0.047. V150% of the DIL was 60.6% (36.6-80.4) for bouncers while it was 93.9% (51.9-99.3) for non-bouncers, p Z 0.039. D90%, D95%, V100% and V150% of the entire prostate were not correlated with the occurrence of a PSA bounce. Bouncers had a significant worse PSA decrease at one year with a mean drop of 4.2ng/mL +/1.9 vs 6.64ng/mL +/2.9, p Z 0.02. Conclusions: A lower D90% and V150% in the DIL were predictive of the occurrence of PSA bounce after PPI, in mp-MRI-based post implanted dosimetry. Focal dose escalation to the DIL may render the follow-up of PPI patients more convenient in the absence of a PSA bounce. Author Disclosure: M. Quivrin: None. R. Loffroy: None. C. Mirjolet: None. A. Cueff: None. D. Sottier: None. F. Bidault: None. E. Martin: None. P. Maingon: None. P. Walker: None. G. Crehange: None.
Vps52p, Vps53p, and Vps54p Form a Novel Multisubunit Complex Required for Protein Sorting at the Yeast Late Golgi

The late Golgi of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiaereceives membrane traffic from the secretory pathway as well as retrograde traffic from post-Golgi compartments, but the machinery that regulates...
The validation of a hog management survey

Abstract In 1988, a survey was sent to hog producers in the mid-west states of the USA as part of a large retrospective study designed to determine the factors associated with reduced parity-two litter size in swine. The survey was validated on 20 farms for the 14 (out of 30) questions that were verifiable either by seeing the facility or by observing a re-enactment of the event. The sensitivity of five dichotomous questions ranged from 33.3 to 100% and the specificity from 77.8 to 100%. Of five other qualitative questions validated, one question had five parts and the agreement ranged from low (one part) to excellent (two parts), two questions had fair to good agreement and two questions had only three observations (too few for comparisoon). Eight questions with continuous numeric variables were analyzed. There was a significant (P≤0.05) difference between the farm survey and validation value for four question parts (the eight questions had a total of 40 parts).
Motor and somatosensory evoked potentials: their role in predicting spinal cord ischemia in patients undergoing thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair with regional lumbar epidural cooling.

Background Paraplegia is a devastating complication for patients undergoing repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. A monitor to detect spinal cord ischemia is necessary if anesthesiologists are to intervene to protect the spinal cord during aortic aneurysm clamping. Methods: The medical records of 60 patients who underwent thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair with regional lumbar epidural cooling with evoked potential monitoring were reviewed. The authors analyzed latency and amplitude of motor evoked potentials, somatosensory evoked potentials, and H reflexes before cooling and clamping, after cooling and before clamping, during clamping, and after release of aortic cross clamp. Results: Twenty minutes after the aortic cross clamp was placed, motor evoked potentials had 88% sensitivity and 65% specificity in predicting spinal cord ischemia. The negative predictive value of motor evoked potentials at 20 min after aortic cross clamping was 96%. Conclusions: Rapid loss of motor evoked potentials or H reflexes after application of the aortic cross clamp identifies a subgroup of patients who are at high risk of developing spinal cord ischemia and in whom aggressive anesthetic and surgical interventions may be justified.
Regime type, issues of contention, and economic sanctions: Re-evaluating the economic peace between democracies

Past studies have applied insights from the democratic peace to show that democracies are also less likely to sanction one another compared to other regime types. More recent work challenges this f...
Assessment of gestational age and neuromaturation

Neuromaturation is the functional development of the central nervous system (CNS). It is by its very nature a dynamic process, a continuous interaction between the genome and first the intrauterine environment, then the extrauterine environment. Understanding neuromaturation and being able to measure it is fundamental to infant neurodevelopmental assessment. Fetal and preterm neuromaturation has become easier to observe with the advent of prenatal ultrasonography and neonatal intensive care units. A number of measures of degree of fetal maturation have been developed and used to estimate gestational age (GA) at birth. The most reliable measures of GA are prenatal measures, especially from the first trimester. Postnatal GA measurements tend to be least accurate at the extremes of gestation, that is, in extremely preterm and post-term infants. Observations of measures of neuromaturation in infants born to mothers with pregnancy complications, including intrauterine growth restriction, multiple gestation, and chronic hypertension, have led to the discovery that stressed pregnancies may accelerate fetal pulmonary and CNS maturation. This acceleration of neuromaturation does not occur before 30 weeks' gestation and has a cost with respect to cognitive limitations manifested in childhood. The ability to measure fetal and preterm neuromaturation provides an assessment of neurodevelopmental progress that can be used to reassure parents or identify at risk infants who would benefit from limited comprehensive follow-up and early intervention services. In addition, measures of neuromaturation have the potential to provide insight into mechanisms of CNS injury and recovery, much-needed early feedback in intervention or treatment trials and a measure of early CNS function for research into the relationships between CNS structure and function.
Mode of tumor penetration of intravenously administered liposomal doxorubicin

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005 3847 The use of liposomes as vehicles to transport anticancer drugs to increase drug effectiveness and decrease toxicity has been studied for several decades. A large number of reports on the uptake of liposome particles by tumor cells in vitro and dispersion in solid tumor have been published. However, since liposome particles are not stable under the conditions of the regular procedures of tissue staining, the standard methodologies have not clearly demonstrated the exact process by which liposome particles penetrate solid tumor tissue. In this study, we used rhodamine-labeled latex microspheres that mimic the particle size (100 nm) and electric charge of liposome particles as well as DSPC pegylated liposomal doxorubicin to visualize pentration of nanoparticles into solid tissue tumors. Solid tumors of L1210 cells transplanted subcutaneously in DBA2 mice and human oral carcinoma cells transplanted in SCID mice were used as animal models in this study. After i.v. injection through the tail vein, tumor tissue samples were collected at different time points, and immediately embedded in O.C.T. Cryosections (0.6 μm) of this sample were stained using anti-mouse CD31 to localize endothelial cells in blood vessels which were visualized by the green fluorescence of a FITC-streptavidin-biotin system. In these sections, the blue fluorescence of the dye DAPI was used to identify the nuclei of the tumor cells. Red fluorescent liposomal particles or rhodaminine-labeled latex microspheres were also readily detected in the sections under a fluorescent microscope. The results showed that the model nanoparticles could only enter the tumor tissue at certain foci presumably representing leaky sites in the blood vessels and spread locally. The findings could be used to explain the observed differences in anticancer effectiveness among tissue-targeted liposomal doxorubicin, non-targeted liposomal doxorubicin and free doxorubicin.
A phase II trial of capecitabine and docetaxel in patients with previously treated pancreatic cancer

14111 Background: There is no accepted standard treatment for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who progress after gemcitabine-based therapy. Capecitabine and docetaxel have single-agent activity in pancreatic cancer and have documented synergy in both pre-clinical models and in the treatment of other solid tumors. Methods: A phase II trial with a 3-stage sequential design was planned to assess the efficacy (primary end-point: response rate) and toxicity of capecitabine 800 mg/m2 PO bid on days 1–14 in combination with docetaxel 30 mg/m2 IV on days 1 and 8 of each 21-day cycle in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who failed first-line gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. If no responses are observed after 13 patients or less than 3 responses are seen after 26 patients, accrual will stop and the combination deemed ineffective. Results: Eight patients have been enrolled (5 women, 3 men). Median age was 67 years. ECOG PS was as follows: PS 1, three patients; PS 2, five patients. All patients had ade...
Historical Queries on Wikipedia: A Usability-Driven Approach

Over time, contents of Wikipedia pages Infoboxes and knowledge bases evolve to reflect changes in the real world, and the history of that evolution is of great interest. Now, users need query languages and interfaces that access to such historical knowledge bases with ease via systems that assure fast response. We will discuss these challenging requirement starting from the query languages and interfaces that assure usability for non-temporal queries, and then analyzing temporal extensions proposed in the past.
Experimental study of shock wave discontinuities and interactions with laser induced plasmas

Summary form only given. The transmission of shock waves through weakly ionized reducing plasmas with gradients in the plasma electron density, the neutral particles density and the gas temperature is of interest in several scientific and applied problems. We report the initial measurements and analysis of Nd:YAG 1064 nm laser induced plasmas in air and the generated shockwave discontinuity analysis and its interaction with decaying plasma. The plasma is generated by focusing 1st harmonic 1064 nm Nd:YAG 450mJ, 45 MW high power IR laser radiation on to a 30 micron spot size that can produce a maximum laser intensity of >;1013 W/cm2 well above the threshold flux for air ionization. Optical laser shadowgraphy diagnostic is currently setup to study the spatial and temporal evolution of the laser focused plasma and shock waves using the second harmonic laser beam at 532 nm and using high speed 2 ns gated ICCD. The plasma temperatures can be measured by measuring the velocity of the shock wave front [1]. The laser induced plasmas and concurrent shockwaves and their interactions at various configurations are studied. Two-wavelength laser interferometry diagnostic technique is being developed to study the density decay of the plasma. These optical diagnostics are used to study the propagation of a shock wave through weakly ionized laser induced plasma at various gradients of the plasma evolution such as growing and decaying phases.
The Spaces in Between: Labor and Mobility in Central Mozambique

This paper explores the connections between forced labor and migrant labor in postwar central Mozambique. While specific circuits of involuntary and migrant labor in southern Africa have received extensive study, scholars have devoted little attention to the links between them. This reflects historiographical convention, rather than historical reality; individuals constantly moved between different types of labor, and this movement was an essential aspect of how labor was experienced and conceptualized. My paper develops these arguments through an exploration of the contrato, a particular variant of forced labor in late colonial Mozambique. The force of the contrato was not always legible in the ways that forced labor is traditionally conceived: contratados were not always forced to start laboring, and the labor they performed was not always distinguished by force. Nonetheless, in contrast to the autonomous capacities of labor mobility which individuals exercised to move to, from, and between other circuits of wage labor, contratados had no control over where they labored, or for how long. The contrato was thus forced in large part through control over mobility. Through this argument my paper explores the broader importance of mobility in defining labor and its historiographical implications.
The Couple's Constructive and Destructive Superego Functions:

Just as the couple becomes the repository of both partners' conscious and unconscious sexual fantasies and desires, and of their consciously and unconsciously activated internalized object relations, so does the couple activate both partners' conscious and unconscious superego functions. The interaction of the partners' superego over time results in the forging of a new system, which I am calling the couple's superego. The functions of the couple's joint superego structure is described, as are the symptoms of superego pathology in the couple's love life. The vicissitudes of gratitude and guilt, of stereotyping and conventionality, of deceptiveness and long-range destructive and self-destructive scenarios, are explored in the context of a spectrum reflecting the severity of joint superego pathology. A clinical case vignette illustrates some of these developments in a couple's life.
The Importance of Knowledge Ascriptions

Knowledge ascriptions of the form ‘S knows that p’ are a central area of research in philosophy. But why do humans think and talk about knowledge? What are knowledge ascriptions for ?T his article surveys a variety of proposals about the role (or roles) of knowledge ascriptions and attempts to provide a unified account of these seemingly distinct views.
Sub-imperialism and the Loss of the Khyber The Politics of Imperial Defence on British India’s North-West Frontier

In 1897 the British were confronted with a formidable revolt in their turbulent North-West Frontier of India. On 25 August they lost the historic and strategically important Khyber Pass to the attacking Afridi tribesmen. The loss of the Khyber was seen as a humiliating defeat and a heavy blow to British prestige. In order to recover this prestige and exact reparations from the Afridis, the British sanctioned the punitive Tirah campaign—one of the biggest and costliest expeditions in colonial warfare. Drawing upon original evidence, this article revisits the fall of the Khyber to examine the circumstances that led to its loss. In shifting our vantage point from grand schemes of imperial defence to on the ground military decision-making, conceptualised here as sub-imperialism, core assumptions about imperial defence are problematised, bringing forth a new perspective on the inconsistencies and contradictions within British imperialism on the North-West Frontier in the late nineteenth century.
Quakers and Baptists in Colonial Massachusetts

This book presents the history of two religious sects successfully established in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, where it was illegal to participate in any faith other than the legally established congregationalism of the Puritan founders of the colony. The author examines the Quaker meeting in Salem and the Baptist church in Boston over more than a century. The work opens with the dramatic events surrounding dissenters' efforts to gain a foothold in the colony, and goes on to locate sectarians within their families and communities, and to examine their beliefs and the changing nature of the organizations they founded and their interactions with the larger community and its leaders. The work deals with the religiosity of lay colonists, finding that men and women responded to these sects differently. It also analyzes sociological theories of sectarian evolution, the politics of dissent, and changes in beliefs and practices.
Interactions of phosphororganic agents with water and components of polyelectrolyte membranes.

Interactions of nerve G-agents (sarin and soman) and their simulants DMMP (dimethyl methylphosphonate) and DIFP (diisopropyl fluorophosphate) with water and components of polyelectrolyte membranes ...
Effect of boric acid on biological activity of alloxan.

SummaryWhen rats on special rations were injected simultaneously with alloxan and boric acid, the deleterious effects of the alloxan were reduced. Only a few animals showed mild diabetes while allo...
345 INITIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF EFFECTS OF THE N-METHYL-D-ASPARTATE AGONIST 1-AMINOCYCLOBUTANE-CIS-1,3-DICARBOXYLIC ACID ON GLUTAMATE-EVOKED EXCITATORY JUNCTIONAL POTENTIALS AT A CRAYFISH NEUROMUSCULAR JUNCTION.

Background Secondary injury following spinal cord trauma can include sequelae of glutamate excitotoxicity (GE). A crayfish walking limb neuromuscular junction (NMJ), having NMDA glutamate receptors, may be a useful model for studying potential GE mechanisms and countermeasures. This project examines the effects of 1-aminocyclobutane-cis-1,3-dicarboxylic acid (ACDA), a potent glutamate agonist in vertebrate nervous systems, on excitatory junctional potentials (EJPs) at crayfish (Procambarus clarkii and simulans) NMJs. Methods Crayfish first and second walking limbs were dissected to expose the dactylopodite opener muscle and the single, excitatory axon innervating it. Standard intracellular electrophysiologic techniques were used to measure EJPs. The opener muscle, located in the proprodite, and its excitatory axon, in the meropodite, were exposed and bathed in van Harreveld9s solution (VanH) pH 7.2 ± 0.1. Van H was removed, and ACDA in vanH at 100 μM was added to exposed opener muscles. EJPs were measured at 1- and 2-minute intervals for each data collection. Short-term facilitated EJPs were evoked by 10-second stimulation at 30 Hz, then EJPs were averaged for 10 seconds. Results EJPs in 100 μM ACDA-treated preparations showed partial suppression, ranging from 17 to 44% of control amplitude, with return to nearly control level (approximately 90%) following vanH wash with at least three complete exchanges of the bath. Qualitatively similar results were obtained using six separate limb preparations. Discussion Suppression of EJPs by the NMDA agonist ACDA was unexpected as the crayfish NMJ has NMDA receptors and glutamate is the excitatory neurotransmitter. A complete concentration:response study is warranted to determine if ACDA acts as an agonist at lesser concentrations. It is also possible that the invertebrate and vertebrate receptors have different responses to ACDA. However, at the 100 μM concentration, ACDA should not be ruled out for studies of means of reducing glutamate excitotoxicity. Arnold C., Barbara M. and Georgianna Fossa Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund and the Indiana University Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research Program.
Effects of continuous venovenous hemofiltration on cardiopulmonary function in a porcine model of endotoxin-induced shock.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether continuous venovenous hemofiltration, proposed to remove inflammatory mediators from circulation, would resolve cardiopulmonary derangements in a model of established endotoxic shock. ANIMALS 16 clinically normal pigs. PROCEDURE Endotoxin was infused, IV, into anesthetized pigs for a total of 50 minutes. Thirty minutes after termination of the infusion period, extracorporeal circulation was initiated through a 50-kd diafilter, or past the filter without ultrafiltrate formation. Cardiac and respiratory variables were monitored for a period of 4 hours. RESULTS Infusion of lipopolysaccharide resulted in a severe hypodynamic circulatory state, with significant decreases in mean arterial pressure and cardiac output concurrent with a significant increase in pulmonary arterial pressure. Hemofiltration was not associated with any correction of lipopolysaccharide-induced cardiopulmonary derangements. CONCLUSIONS Continuous venovenous hemofiltration, as used in this acute experiment, did not improve cardiopulmonary dysfunction during endotoxic shock. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Continuous venovenous hemofiltration needs further investigation before it can be recommended as a clinically effective treatment.
Alcoholism prevention and reality.

At present alcoholism is not diagnosed and treated until it has reached its late stage. Activities should now be directed toward early diagnosis and prevention. Some clues to early diagnosis are gi...
Teaching legal competencies through an individualized elective in medicine and law.

Medical education, including education intended to prepare future physicians to care to older individuals, should include development and implementation of competencies relating to a physician’s ab...
Fidelity-aware replication for mobile devices

Mobile devices often store data in reduced resolutions or custom formats in order to accommodate resource constraints and tailor-made software. The Polyjuz framework enables sharing and synchronization of data across a collection of personal devices that use formats of different fidelity. Layered transparently between the application and an off-the-shelf replication platform, Polyjuz bridges the isolated worlds of different data formats. With Polyjuz, data items created or updated on high-fidelity devices-such as laptops and desktops-are automatically replicated onto low-fidelity, mobile devices. Similarly, data items updated on low-fidelity devices are reintegrated with their high-fidelity counterparts, when the application permits it. Polyjuz performs these fidelity reductions and reintegrations as devices exchange data in a peer-to-peer manner, ultimately extending the eventual-consistency guarantee of the underlying replication platform to the multi-fidelity universe.In this paper, we present the design and implementation of Polyjuz and demonstrate its benefits for a fidelity-aware contacts-management application.
Skeletal Dysplasias: Growing Therapy for Growing Bones

Skeletal dysplasias represent a large and diverse group of rare conditions affecting collagen and bone. They can be clinically classified based on radiographic and physical features, and many can be further defined at a molecular level (Bonafe et al., 2015). Early diagnosis is critical to proper medical management including pharmacologic treatment when available. Patients with severe skeletal dysplasias often have small chests with respiratory insufficiency or airway obstruction and require immediate intubation after birth. Thereafter a variety of orthopedic, neurosurgical, pulmonary, otolaryngology interventions may be needed. In terms of definitive treatment for skeletal dysplasias, there are few pharmacotherapeutic options available for the majority of these conditions. We sought to describe therapies that are currently available or under investigation for skeletal dysplasias.
Juvenile dermatomyositis/polymyositis and lymphoma

In patients with juvenile dermatomyositis/polymyositis (JDM/PM), malignancy is a rare phenomenon. An extensive workup for neoplastic disease is not routinely indicated, but should be considered if unusual physical findings are noted at JDM/PM diagnosis or during follow-up period. The objective of this literature review was to assess for any association between, and disease profile of, JDM/PM and lymphoma in childhood. Risk determinants of the possible development of lymphoma in the pediatric population with JDM/PM appear to be the degree and duration of inflammatory activity with chronic B-cell activation and/or antigen stimulation; a paraneoplastic relationship is unlikely.
Commentary on ‘Ethnography as Knowledge in the Arab Region’ by Lila Abu-Lughod

It is an honour to be asked to comment on this set of essays by young Arab ethnographers, just as I was honoured thirty years ago when Soraya Altorki and Camilla El-Solh invited me to contribute to...
A transfer learning and progressive stacking approach to reducing deep model sizes with an application to speech enhancement

Leveraging upon transfer learning, we distill the knowledge in a conventional wide and deep neural network (DNN) into a narrower yet deeper model with fewer parameters and comparable system performance for speech enhancement. We present three transfer-learning solutions to accomplish our goal. First, the knowledge embedded in the form of the output values of a high-performance DNN is used to guide the training of a smaller DNN model in sequential transfer learning. In the second multi-task transfer learning solution, the smaller DNN is trained to learn the output value of the larger DNN, and the speech enhancement task in parallel. Finally, a progressive stacking transfer learning is accomplished through multi-task learning, and DNN stacking. Our experimental evidences demonstrate 5 times parameter reduction while maintaining similar enhancement performance with the proposed framework.
Detectors Based on Superconductors

Abstract Superconducting materials provide a unique opportunity for single-photon detectors. The combination of the strong non-linearity present in the superconducting-metal transition and in Josephson junctions; the unique electrical property of zero resistance; the fast relaxation processes present in many superconducting materials; and the easily engineered optical absorptance of metals results in a system that can be adapted to many photo-detection requirements. As a result of these material features, a variety of detector families have emerged in recent years based on superconducting nanowires, tunnel junctions, weak thermal links, and kinetic-inductive resonators. The detectors variously provide high speed single-photon detection; high-sensitivity in the infrared, optical, UV, or even x-ray wavelengths; and high efficiency. The resulting applications include quantum and classical high-data-rate communication, biological imaging, LIDAR, and VLSI circuit evaluation among others.
Photonics in Data Centers

This chapter discusses challenges in current and future data center architectures and opportunities for photonics to solve part of these challenges and bring transformative solutions to improve scalability, throughput, and energy efficiency of next-generation cloud computing systems.
Towards real-time in-situ antenna analysis and design on platforms of 1000 wavelengths

We present a supercomputing-enabled in-situ antenna analysis and design framework. This work involves an affordable up-front offline calculation in order to obtain a rapid, yet accurate, online resolution over the space of design paramters. The advancements presented make high-fidelity, in-situ antenna design orders of magnitude faster. Near real-time optimization of antenna systems can be performed in a single computer workstation.
CULTIVATING COMIDA: Cacao Fields and Dairy Cows: The Interdependencies between Mexican Workers and the U.S. Food System

First paragraph: The tamales that Miguel [1] pulled out of the large steamer pot as we sat down for our first interview in the summer of 2015 were a welcome treat as my stomach rumbled to remind me it had been several hours since my last meal. Wrapped in aluminum foil because banana leaves are difficult to find in the rural countryside of northern Vermont, these tamales connected Miguel to the foodways of his home in Tabasco, Mexico. In his early 40s, Miguel is one of the 1,000 to 1,200 farmworkers from Latin American laboring in the state’s dairy industry. He first arrived in 2011 to secure the year-round employment that the industry promises and has worked at two farms during this time. Supporting his wife and five children, who remain at home in Tabasco, he has only returned home once in the past six years, though he makes it a point to speak with them by phone at least once a day. For 70 hours or more each week, Miguel works in a milking parlor at one of Vermont’s larger dairies, a form of agricultural labor very different than tending the cacao fields of his extended family in Mexico.... [1] Per Internal Review Board guidelines, all names have been changed.
Using Process Improvement Tools to Improve the Care of Patients With Neutropenic Fever in the Emergency Room.

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to improve the care of patients with neutropenic fever in an academic acute care hospital’s emergency room (ER).Methods:Using the define, measure, analyze, improve, control method, a two-phase project with three critical to quality metrics (reduction in time to antibiotic administration, increase in percentage of patients with neutropenic fever identified as an oncology emergency, and increase in patients cohorted on oncology units) was completed. Phase I consisted of implementation of best practices (ie, use of neutropenic fever protocol and order set, altering ER workflow, and educating patients and staff). In phase II, the team drew from cardiac and stroke alerts and response teams and implemented an innovative hospital‐wide overhead neutropenic fever alert and an ER neutropenic fever response team.Results:After implementing phase I interventions, the time to antibiotic administration decreased from a mean of 100 minutes at baseline to a mean of 67 minutes. After i...
Efficient reliability-based design with second order approximations

Sequential optimization and reliability analysis (SORA) is an efficient approach to reliability-based design (RBD). It decouples the double-loop structure of RBD into a serial cycle of deterministi...
Evaluating Performance Tradeoffs on the Radeon Open Compute Platform

GPUs have been shown to deliver impressive computing performance, while also providing high energy efficiency, across a wide range of high-performance and embedded system workloads. However, limited support for efficient communication and synchronization between the CPU and the GPU impacts our ability to fully exploit the benefits of heterogeneous systems. Recently, the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) was introduced to address these issues with synchronization and communication, but given the low-level nature of HSA, it was not easily adopted by the broader programming community. In 2016, AMD described the Radeon Open Compute (ROC) platform that brings high-level programming frameworks such as OpenCL, HC++, and HIP to end users. These high-level programming frameworks offer a simpler programming experience by wrapping complex HSA APIs, while still delivering the power of HSA. To date, there has been little evaluation of the potential performance benefits and trade-offs of leveraging the ROC platform. In this work, we evaluate the performance of the ROC platform using the Hetero-Mark and DNNMark benchmark suites. Equipped with Hetero-Mark, we compare the performance of different programming frameworks, including OpenCL, HC++, and HIP on both integrated APUs and discrete GPUs. We also present three new CPU-GPU collaborative patterns and employ three new benchmarks to evaluate system-level atomics. With DNNMark and a new DNN Face Detection benchmark, we evaluate the performance of ROC libraries including rocBLAS and MIOpen. We also provide guidance on best practices to programmers when developing applications leveraging the ROC platform.
Internal Carotid Aneurysms—Communicating Segment

Abstract Aneurysms of the communicating artery segment of the internal carotid artery comprise a significant portion of the anterior circulation aneurysms. In particular, knowledge of aneurysms of the posterior communicating artery is considered fundamental to neurosurgery and these aneurysms are generally amenable to both endovascular and surgical treatment. This chapter explores the fundamental natural history and anatomy relevant to dealing with this class of aneurysms and some specific considerations that are important for the practitioner faced with the task of deciding between modalities.
Books, Butterflies, and ‘Bots: Integrating Engineering and Robotics into Early Childhood Curricula

Although we are surrounded by technology on a daily basis, the inner working of devices like phones and computers is often a mystery to children and adults alike. Robotics offers a unique way for children (and grown-ups!) to explore sensors, motors, circuit boards, and other electronic components together from the inside out. This chapter describes how robotics can be used as a playful medium in early childhood classrooms to learn foundational engineering and computer science concepts. By presenting vignettes from three early childhood classrooms that embarked on an eight-week KIBO robotics curriculum, this chapter highlights how educators with little to no prior engineering experience were able to successfully integrate robotics with traditional early childhood content such as literacy and science. KIBO is a developmentally appropriate robotics kit specifically designed for children ages 4–7 that is controlled with tangible programming blocks—no screen time required. The three classroom teachers worked with researchers from Tufts University and Lesley University to integrate KIBO robotics with the teachers’ traditional learning units. The three vignettes will describe the following classroom experiences: using robotics to bring to life the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See? in the context of literacy explorations; and in science, programming the life cycles of the frog and the butterfly, and using robots to model the movement of worms through different environments. These vignettes will highlight the very different approaches teachers took to introducing robotics to their students and how they utilized the engineering design process as a teaching tool that can be applied to most subject areas.
Task complexity and rapport in outsourced system development

Little work exists to study the impact of context on offshore development teams for information systems development (ISD) projects. This study examines the role of rapport and the impact of task co...
On a Conjecture of A. Hartman

We denote the complete design D (or the so-called trivial design) by \(S\left( {\left( {_{k - t}^{v - t}} \right);t,k,v} \right).\) A conjecture of Hartman states that one can partition D into two \(S\left( {\left( {_{k - t}^{v - t}} \right)/2;t,k,v} \right)\) designs if and only if \(\left( {_{k - i}^{v - i}} \right)\) is even for i = 0,...t. In this paper, some progress in support of the conjecture is reported.
Modeling and Estimation of Fractional Brownian Motion using Multiresolution Stochastic Processes

In this paper, we present a comprehensive framework for synthesizing, processing, and analyzing fractional Brownian motion (fBm). fBm is modeled using the class of multiresolution processes introduced in [2]. The structure of these processes, which are indexed by the nodes on a tree, is naturally suited to the modeling of fBm and other 1/f processes. These processes can reproduce and improve upon the random midpoint displacement and the wavelet-based approximations of fBm. Furthermore, these multiresolution processes are also accompanied by a general set of algorithms for estimation and likelihood calculation. While wavelet-based models for fBm assume dense measurements of the finest-scale process and a constant variance for the measurement noise, the multiscale algorithms make no such assumptions.