cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Does productivity in Africa benefit from advanced countries’ R&D?

ABSTRACTThis study employs dynamic ordinary least squares and panel co-integration to estimate advanced countries’ R&D spillover effects on labour productivity in 28 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1992–2011. Results show that African countries that import and receive (technical and non-technical) development aid from advanced countries experience an increase in labour productivity, suggesting that trade and aid are transmitters of foreign R&D. However, the extent to which labour productivity responds to R&D spillovers varies based on the country of origin, where spillovers from the USA have a greater impact compared to those from other advanced countries.
Lateral Approach for Spondylolisthesis

Spondylolisthesis causing central spinal canal or neuroforaminal stenosis is one of the most common indications for lumbar decompression and fusion. Patients typically present with back and leg pain. The back pain is typically mechanical, particularly if the listhesis is mobile; the leg pain is typically radicular. Neurogenic claudication is often described in patients with central canal stenosis. Several studies have documented superior outcomes in surgical cohorts of patients with symptomatic spondylolisthesis as compared to their counterparts managed conservatively. Direct lateral, or extreme lateral, interbody fusion is a safe, minimally invasive alternative to traditional open decompression and fusion procedures to treat spondylolisthesis. Lateral interbody fusion reduces the listhesis, restores disk height, indirectly decompresses the nerve roots, and inhibits motion across an unstable segment. The nerves of the lumbosacral plexus pass through the psoas muscle fibers, and they are at risk of injury when accessing the spine using a transpsoas approach. Thigh symptoms such as numbness, pain, and weakness have been noted to be relatively common postoperatively, but these symptoms are largely transient.
IL-15 Augments in-Vitro Expansion and Functional Activity of Antigen-Specific Effector Memory T-Cells (TEM) While Co-Expression of IL-15 and IL-15 Rα on Antigen Presenting Cells Also Promotes Expansion of Central Memory T-Cells (TCM)

Adoptive immunotherapy with in-vitro expanded antigen-specific T cells (TC) is often hampered by the extended culture times required to generate sufficient numbers of antigen- specific TC and their limited persistence in-vivo. IL-2 predominantly supports the generation of short-lived effector memory (T EM ) and effector (T E ) CD8 + TC without expanding the CD62L + and CCR7 + central memory T cells (T CM ), which may persist for long periods in vivo. We examined the potential of IL-15 to foster growth of CMVpp65- specific TC as well as expansion of both T EM and T CM CD8 + TC. Accordingly, TC from 3 seropositive donors bearing HLA A0201 were sensitized in-vitro using NIH 3T3 based artificial antigen presenting cells transduced to express B7.1, ICAM-1, LFA-3, β 2 -M and HLA A0201 heavy chain as well as CMVpp65 (A2-AAPC) in presence of exogenous IL-2, IL-15 or IL-15 plus IL-2. To assess if trans-presentation of IL-15 by the receptor alpha on AAPCs leads to enhancement of IL-15 activity, we sequentially transduced A2-AAPCs with the IL-15 and IL-15 receptor alpha cDNA (A2- AAPC IL-15/IL-15Rα). TC were then cultured using A2-AAPC with either IL-2 (20U/ml) IL-15 (10ng/ml) IL-2 plus IL-15 or with A2-AAPC IL-15/IL-15Rα or A2-AAPC IL-15Rα + IL-2 (20U/ml). TC sensitized using either A2-AAPC IL-15/IL-15Rα or A2-AAPC + IL-15 demonstrated ~ 1500–2000 fold expansion of CMVpp65 A2-NLV tetramer (+) CD8 + TC, compared to a 300–600 fold expansion using A2-AAPC + IL-2 after 21–28 days in culture. Cultures containing IL-15 generated 25–70 ×10 6 A2-NLV tetramer (+) CD8 + TC in comparison to 10–18 ×10 6 in cultures with IL-2. At 7–10 days, ~20% of the tetramer (+) TC demonstrated a T CM phenotype (CD62L + and CCR7 + ) in all cultures, with 75% T EM and 5% T E . By 21- 28 days, no T CM were detected among tetramer (+) TC in cultures containing exogenous IL-2, IL-15 or IL-2 plus IL-15. However, TC sensitized with A2-AAPC IL-15/IL-15Rα still contained 10–12% (~7×10 6 ) tetramer (+) CD8 + T CM which further increased through day 35. In functional assays, TC sensitized in the presence of IL-15 or AAPCs expressing IL-15 and IL-15Rα elicited superior CMV-specific responses with 7–20% CD8 + TC demonstrating CMVpp65 epitope specific interferon gamma production compared to 2–3% in cultures with IL-2. Cytotoxic activity against CMV pp65 peptide loaded autologous EBV transformed B-cell lines (E:T= 10:1) was higher for TC sensitized with IL-15 (80%) compared to cultures with IL-2 (60%). The cytotoxic activity against HLA mismatched targets or K562 was In conclusion, our data demonstrate higher yields and augmented function in antigen specific T cells cultured with IL-15. TC sensitized with A2-AAPC-CMVpp65 together with IL-15 +/− IL-2 only supported sustained expansion of T EM and T E . In contrast, TC sensitized with A2-AAPC IL-15/IL-15Rα also supported sustained expansion of T CM .
Attitudes Toward Tobacco 21 Among US Youth

BACKGROUND: An important movement in reducing youth smoking is to restrict the supply of cigarettes to youth by raising the minimum age of sales to 21, termed Tobacco 21. This study examined attitudes toward Tobacco 21 among youth and their correlations with tobacco use. METHODS: Data from the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey ( n = 17 092, the typical age of 11–18 years) were analyzed to examine the prevalence of support toward Tobacco 21 among youth. This study further assessed whether attitudes toward Tobacco 21 were associated with (1) intention to initiate cigarette smoking among never-smoking youth ( n = 16 449); and (2) intention to quit tobacco use among current tobacco users ( n = 2914). RESULTS: Approximately 63.9% of respondents reported supporting Tobacco 21. Support for Tobacco 21 was higher among middle school students (versus high school students), girls (versus boys), and noncurrent users of cigarettes or electronic cigarettes (versus current users). Youth support attitudes were significantly associated with perceptions of tobacco’s danger and tobacco use by household members. Never smokers who supported Tobacco 21 had lower odds of intention to initiate cigarette use (adjusted odds ratio = 0.2, P P CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco 21 is supported by the majority of youth nationwide and youth attitudes were correlated with smoking behaviors. Education programs about the harm of smoking and nicotine addiction at the early stages of life may help increase support of this policy among young tobacco users.
OFDM for Wireless and Optical Communications

This chapter is devoted to OFDM fundamentals and applications to wireless and optical communications. The chapter starts with the basic of OFDM including the generation of OFDM signal by inverse FFT. After that several basic manipulations on OFDM symbols, required to deal with multipath effects in wireless communications and dispersion effects in fiber-optics communications, including guard time and cyclic extension as well as the windowing operation, are described. Next, the bandwidth efficiency of OFDM is discussed. The next topic in the chapter is devoted to the OFDM system design, description of basic OFDM blocks, and OFDM-based parallel channel decomposition, including multipath fading radio and dispersion-dominated channels decomposition. Following the description of coherent optical OFDM (CO-OFDM) principles, the basic estimation and compensation steps, common to both wireless and optical communication systems, are described including DFT windowing, frequency synchronization, phase estimation, and channel estimation. Regarding the channel estimation, both pilot-aided and data-aided channel estimation techniques are described. Following the differential detection in OFDM description, the focus is on various applications of OFDM in wireless communications including digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital video broadcasting (DVB), WiFi, LTE, WiMAX, and ultra-wideband communication (UWB). Next, optical OFDM applications are discussed starting with description of basic OFDM system types such as CO-OFDM and direct-detection optical OFDM (DDO-OFDM) systems. Regarding the high-speed spectrally efficient CO-OFDM systems, the polarization-division multiplexed OFDM systems and OFDM-based superchannel optical transmission systems are described. Before the concluding remarks, the application of OFDM in multimode fiber links is described.
Structural Indicators Galore

The quantification of geographic configurations of locations has a long and storied history, with much of its earliest work being devoted to point patterns. This work eventually produced spatial weights matrices, shape measures, geographic pattern indices, and families of two-dimensional spatial relationship functions. Its overall focus has been on geographic structure, either contiguous or hierarchical in nature. This chapter treats structural indicates in terms of distance decay effects and the dispersion of economic activities, two of a number of different features characterizing spatial organizations.
The Stomach as an Endocrine Organ: Expression of Key Modulatory Genes and Their Contribution to Obesity and Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

Obesity is currently seen in epidemic proportions globally and is one of the largest contributors to the development of NAFLD. The spectrum of NAFLD, particularly the progressive forms of NASH, is likely to become the leading cause of liver disease in the next decade. Soluble molecules, encoded by the stomach tissue, have been shown to have pleiotropic effects in both central and peripheral systems involved in energy homeostasis and obesity regulation. As such, the stomach is one of the important players in the complex, multi-system deregulation leading to obesity and NAFLD. The understanding of the stomach tissue as an active endocrine organ that contributes to the signaling milieu leading to the development of obesity and NAFLD is crucial.
Mathematical Analysis of Extremity Immersion Cooling for Brain Temperature Management

Due to the low heat conductivity of body tissue, head surface cooling methods for management of the brain temperature during medical treatments often have limited utility. As blood flow rates and surface-to-volume ratios are generally high in the extremities, heat exchange between the body and the environment through the extremities is an important path for heat exchange. This study examines the effects of cold-water extremity immersion on brain temperature by simulation modeling. The work is based on a six-cylinder thermoregulatory model that predicts human thermoregulatory responses to heat, cold, and water immersion. An arteriovenous anastomosis (AVA) response algorithm was added to the base model. Arteriovenous anastomoses are assumed to be controlled by a combination of core and skin temperatures. Our series of simulation scenarios consists of resting in a hot environment (40°C, 75% relative humidity) until the brain temperature rises to 39°C, then continuing to rest for 1 h under one of the following treatments: (A) no cooling; (B) hands immersed in 10°C water; (C) feet immersed in 10°C water; (D) hands/feet immersed in 10°C water. The simulation results indicate that within the first 30 min, the hands, feet, or hands/feet immersion cooling resulted in brain temperature drops of 1.7°C, 2.4°C, and 3.3°C, respectively, which correspond to cooling rates of 0.03°C/min, 0.04°C/min, and 0.05°C/min. The predicted values show that extremity immersion cooling is a viable mechanism for simple and effective control of brain temperature.
Folic acid in alcohol-withdrawal delirium.

Grafenreed et al.[1][1] are to be commended for their recent article describing their protocol for prophylaxis of alcohol-withdrawal delirium. I have one comment regarding the routine administration of folic acid (1 mg orally or intravenously daily for three days), as specified in the protocol.
Sources of Consensus and Variegation in Cultural Affective Meanings

Societal cultures are grounded in characteristic and broadly shared meanings for particular identity labels, which encode social knowledge about the esteem, respect, and treatment that various type...
Sources of pollution and interrelationships between aerosol and precipitation chemistry at a central California site.

Abstract This study examines co-located aerosol and precipitation chemistry data between 2010 and 2016 at Pinnacles National Monument ~65 km east of the coastline in central California. Positive matrix factorization analysis of the aerosol composition data revealed seven distinct pollutant sources: aged sea salt (25.7% of PM2.5), biomass burning (24.2% of PM2.5), fresh sea salt (15.0% of PM2.5), secondary sulfate (11.7% of PM2.5), dust (10.0% of PM2.5), vehicle emissions (8.2% of PM2.5), and secondary nitrate (5.2% of PM2.5). The influence of meteorology and transport on monthly patterns of PM2.5 composition is discussed. Only secondary sulfate exhibited a statistically significant change (a reduction) over time among the PM2.5 source factors. In contrast, PMcoarse exhibited a significant increase most likely due to dust influence. Monthly profiles of precipitation chemistry are summarized showing that the most abundant species in each month was either SO42−, NO3−, or Cl−. Intercomparisons between the precipitation and aerosol data revealed several features: (i) precipitation pH was inversely related to factors associated with more acidic aerosol constituents such as secondary sulfate and aged sea salt, in addition to being reduced by uptake of HNO3 in the liquid phase; (ii) two aerosol source factors (dust and aged sea salt) and PMcoarse exhibited a positive association with Ca2+ in precipitation, suggestive of directly emitted aerosol types with larger sizes promoting precipitation; and (iii) sulfate levels in both the aerosol and precipitation samples analyzed were significantly correlated with dust and aged sea salt PMF factors, pointing to the partitioning of secondary sulfate to dust and sea salt particles. The results of this work have implications for the region's air quality and hydrological cycle, in addition to demonstrating that the use of co-located aerosol and precipitation chemistry data can provide insights relevant to aerosol-precipitation interactions.
Systematic review of the pharmacoeconomics of Parkinson disease medications.

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) causes progressive motor symptoms including tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia, along with non-motor symptoms such as dementia, orthostatic hypotension, and d...
Ceria-based coatings and pigments

Abstract Cerium oxide–based coatings have become a viable and environmentally friendly approach for the corrosion protection of lightweight alloys. Aluminum and more recently magnesium alloys have been the materials selected for reducing weight in industrial applications where recyclability and high strength-to-weight ratio are important design variables. Although both Al and Mg alloys require special surface engineering treatments to be able to work under mild corrosion conditions, ecologically friendly approaches to protect these alloys are limited. This chapter critically reviews cerium oxide-based anticorrosion coating for Al and Mg alloys. Since cerium-based pigments have also shown anticorrosion properties, a section of the chapter addresses this topic.
Maternal Adiposity is Associated with Fat Mass Accretion in Female but not Male Offspring During the First 2 Years of Life.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated which antenatal and postnatal factors determine offspring adiposity during the first 2 years of life. METHODS Participants were mother and child pairs (N = 224). Offspring percent fat mass (%FM) was obtained using quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance at 11 time points between ages 0.5 and 24 months. Independent variables included race, age, gestational weight gain, first-trimester %FM, delivery mode, gestational measures of resting energy expenditure, respiratory exchange ratio, physical activity, serum cytokines and lipids, and dietary intake for the mothers, as well as sex, birth weight and length, breastfeeding duration, and physical activity at age 2 years for the children. Linear mixed models were used to construct the best-fitted models for the entire cohort and for each sex. RESULTS Maternal %FM (P = 0.006), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (P < 0.001), and breastfeeding duration (P = 0.023) were positively associated with female offspring adiposity, whereas maternal dietary fiber intake (P = 0.016) had a negative association. Birth weight (P = 0.004), maternal HDL (P = 0.013), and breastfeeding duration (P = 0.015) were all positively associated with male offspring adiposity. CONCLUSIONS Antenatal and postnatal factors differentially impact male and female offspring adiposity during the first 2 years of life.
Imaging through a homogeneous circular cylinder: the role of virtual caustics, rainbow glare points, and image fragmentation

Small air bubbles on the rear inside surface of a water-filled cylinder, near its edges, appear horizontally elongated, joined in pairs, and take on color. Similarly, if an extended object is sufficiently close to the water-filled cylinder, three images of the object are seen when looking through the cylinder. The center image joins onto the left or right image as the observer moves his or her head back and forth in front of the cylinder. The first observation is explained in terms of glare points of light, and the real and virtual parts of the external caustic of the light transmitted through the water-filled cylinder. The second observation is explained as an example of Berry's caustic touching theorem which describes the topological method of fragmentation of an object's image into multiple images. For the situation studied here, an imaginary cylindrical aberration caustic of the water-filled cylinder decomposes object space into a three-ray region sandwiched between two one-ray regions. As an extended object crosses the caustic boundary from one of the one-ray regions into the three-ray region, an image-pair creation event occurs, which is followed by an image-pair disconnection event producing the three images. Similarly, when the extended object crosses the caustic boundary from the three-ray region into one of the one-ray regions, an image-pair merging event occurs, which is followed by an image-pair annihilation event producing the one remaining image.
China's Grand Strategy under Xi Jinping: Reassurance, Reform, and Resistance

China's grand strategy under Xi Jinping is clearly distinctive. It does not, however, fundamentally break with the grand strategy that China has embraced since the early 1990s—one that aims to real...
Nature of Work and Distribution of COVID-19 Risks: Evidence from Occupational Sorting, Skills, and Tasks

How does the nature of work—teleworkability and contact intensity—shape the distribution of health, earnings, and unemployment risks, created by the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, I consider two contexts. First, I show that the existing patterns of spousal occupational sorting in the United States matter for the distribution of these risks. In particular, I show that sorting into occupations with similar contact intensity in the workplace mitigates the risk of intra-household contagion relative to the situation where spouses match at random in terms of occupations (zero sorting). Furthermore, I show that sorting into occupations with similar teleworkability exacerbates the exposure to earnings and unemployment risks relative to the case of zero sorting. Second, I document that teleworkable occupations more likely require higher education and experience levels as well as greater cognitive, social, character, and computer skills, compared to non-teleworkable occupations. This difference in skill requirements affects earnings and unemployment risks by increasing the likelihood of skill mismatch for the newly unemployed. My results imply that the current economic downturn may have long-run effects on employment prospects and earnings of workers who had non-teleworkable or high-contact-intensity jobs at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. I discuss the relevant policy implications and associated policy constraints that follow from my findings.
Positive Engagement with Pets Buffers the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children:

Childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with serious psychological outcomes including increased odds of developing callous-unemotional (CU) traits and behaviors. Recent ...
A Fighter Ace and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) had a transformative effect on the operations of United States public companies, prohibiting bribery of foreign officials and requiring adequate internal controls. A pivotal event leading to the new law involved Lockheed’s actions in Germany, notably, sales of their F-104 Starfighter. A major opponent to the F-104 was Erich Hartmann, a former German fighter pilot, who attained recognition as the greatest fighter ace in history. His objections to the F-104 brought public attention to Lockheed and to government officials in Germany. This paper examines how corruption affects economic activity, the FCPA and its connection to German fighter ace, Erich Hartmann, and a brief history of Germany from World War II to the present. This examination is highly relevant to internal auditors and corporate managers by increasing their understanding of the impact of corruption in countries where their companies operate and of the events leading to the world’s most important anti-corruption law.
Predicting childhood lead exposure at an aggregated level using machine learning.

Childhood lead exposure affects over 500,000 children under 6 years old in the US; however, only 14 states recommend regular universal blood screening. Several studies have reported on the use of predictive models to estimate lead exposure of individual children, albeit with limited success: lead exposure can vary greatly among individuals, individual data is not easily accessible, and models trained in one location do not always perform well in another. We report on a novel approach that uses machine learning to accurately predict elevated Blood Lead Levels (BLLs) in large groups of children, using aggregated data. To that end, we used publicly available zip code and city/town BLL data from the states of New York (n = 1642, excluding New York City) and Massachusetts (n = 352), respectively. Five machine learning models were used to predict childhood lead exposure by using socioeconomic, housing, and water quality predictive features. The best-performing model was a Random Forest, with a 10-fold cross validation ROC AUC score of 0.91 and 0.85 for the Massachusetts and New York datasets, respectively. The model was then tested with New York City data and the results compared to measured BLLs at a borough level. The model yielded predictions in excellent agreement with measured data: at a city level it predicted elevated BLL rates of 1.72% for the children in New York City, which is close to the measured value of 1.73%. Predictive models, such as the one presented here, have the potential to help identify geographical hotspots with significantly large occurrence of elevated lead blood levels in children so that limited resources may be deployed to those who are most at risk.
The Rise of Professional Women in France: Gender and Public Administration since 1830

List of illustrations Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction Part I. Defining a Feminine Sphere of Action, 1830-1914: 1. Public roles for maternal authority: the introduction of inspectresses, 1830-70 2. Educating a new democracy: school inspectresses and the Third Republic 3. Addressing crime, poverty, and depopulation: the Interior ministry inspectresses 4. Protecting women workers: the Labor administration Part II. Steps toward Equality: Women's Administrative Careers since the First World War: Introduction: the First World War: a '1789' for women? 5. New opportunities for women in central government offices, 1919-29 6. The challenges of the 1930s for women civil servants 7. Gendered assignments in the interwar Labor, Health, and Education ministries 8. Firings and hirings, collaboration and resistance: women civil servants and the Second World War 9. After the pioneers: women administrators since 1945 Select bibliography Index.
Lesbian Sexuality Post-Stonewall to Post-Modernism: Putting the “Lesbian Bed Death” Concept to Bed

Over the last 20 years concepts about lesbian sexuality have relied heavily on gender socialization theory, which overgeneralizes and essentializes lesbian women's experiences. The latest concept, lesbian bed death, is additionally problematic because of its lack of definitional clarity and empirical validity. This article provides a critical review of the sex therapy and research literature that has contributed to the formation of the lesbian bed death concept. It discusses the limits of gender socialization theory in explaining lesbian sexuality and suggests a postmodern view of sex and gender as an alternative. A multicontextual model for conducting sex therapy is presented along with 2 case examples that illustrate the complexities of sexual issues in lesbian couples.
Period and phase of microwave-induced resistance oscillations and zero-resistance states in two-dimensional electron systems

We present phenomenological analysis of the period and the phase of microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) and ``zero-resistance'' states (ZRS) recently observed in two-dimensonal electron systems. While MIRO are found to be well described by a ``1/4-cycle shift,'' we find that as MIRO evolve into ZRS with increasing magnetic field B, the phase becomes progressively smaller, decreasing roughly as $1/B.$ As a result, both maxima and minima in the ZRS regime form periodic in $1/B$ sequences, without a 1/4-cycle shift. A simple model based on oscillatory density of states is found to provide a unified description of the period/phase of MIRO/ZRS and leads to an interpretation of previously reported fine structures in terms of multiphoton processes.
Topophilia and place experience

Academic spaces of Regional Dynamics and Semiotics and Aesthetic Thought, developed under the program of Bachelor in Elementary Education with Emphasis on Social Sciences of Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas and the Research Geopaideia Group, interested in providing valuable elements in the discussion around current forms as geographical space is revealed and taught in our societies and educational contexts, especially in a teacher training program, it makes a bid to create a space for dialogue, taking advantage of recent digital media and communication, with experts in concepts and diverse epistemologies about geographic space and its significance in the world of life: it is how it is possible to consolidate an encounter with the teacher - Yi Fu Tuan. This meeting was primarily a time to explore emotional responses and for personal, academic and research enrichment full of opportunities for talking to and from the knowledge of Professor Tuan, about space issues. The work of Professor Tuan, widely known to geographers, geography teachers and those interested in related issues has provided in recent decades valuable items for the understanding, study, research and experience of space from other possibilities in which the subject is a main character. The Group Geopaideia aims to provide references for reflection in order to transform the traditional conception of geography in school that locates it only as a science for the enumeration and description of the biophysical phenomena on Earth’s surface, being the geography neglected and marginalized as a task of just mechanical memorization of dates and locations forgetting its core of study which is the geographical and socio-cultural dimension.
Multi-view regression via canonical correlation analysis

In the multi-view regression problem, we have a regression problem where the input variable (which is a real vector) can be partitioned into two different views, where it is assumed that either view of the input is sufficient to make accurate predictions -- this is essentially (a significantly weaker version of) the co-training assumption for the regression problem. We provide a semi-supervised algorithm which first uses unlabeled data to learn a norm (or, equivalently, a kernel) and then uses labeled data in a ridge regression algorithm (with this induced norm) to provide the predictor. The unlabeled data is used via canonical correlation analysis (CCA, which is a closely related to PCA for two random variables) to derive an appropriate norm over functions. We are able to characterize the intrinsic dimensionality of the subsequent ridge regression problem (which uses this norm) by the correlation coefficients provided by CCA in a rather simple expression. Interestingly, the norm used by the ridge regression algorithm is derived from CCA, unlike in standard kernel methods where a special apriori norm is assumed (i.e. a Banach space is assumed). We discuss how this result shows that unlabeled data can decrease the sample complexity.
A distributed Lagrange multipliers based fictious domain method for the numerical simulation of particulate flow and its parallel implementation

Publisher Summary The chapter presents a parallel implementation of a distributed Lagrange multiplier based fictitious domain method for the direct simulation of particulate flow with thousands of particles. The chapter also compares it with a variant, using fast solvers, such as FISHPAK. For both test cases, the codes that run in sequential mode are slightly slower than the ones with Fishpak. Considering the amount of speed-up after parallelization, this difference in computing time is insignificant. The numerical simulation of particulate flow—such as mixtures of incompressible viscous fluids and thousands of rigid particles—is computationally expensive, and parallelism often appears as the only way toward large scale of simulations. The method advocated in the chapter offers an alternative to the ALE methods, and it can be easily parallelized via OpenMP because of the use of uniform structured grids. Numerical results of particulate flow obtained on a SUN SMP cluster are also presented in the chapter.
An Analytical Approach for Estimating the Highway Capacity Manual Signalized Intersection Delay Variability

: This article developed a generalized model incorporating three stochastic input variables in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) delay equation and analyzed the delay variability explicitly considering variations in key input variables including traffic volume, effective green time, and saturation flow rate. An integration method was used for calculations of mean and variance of the HCM delay. Unlike the previous Expectation Function Method, the proposed integration method can be applied for both undersaturated and oversaturated situations. The applicability of the proposed methodology was demonstrated through a hypothetical case study for a lane group at an isolated signalized intersection. The effects of stochastic variables (e.g., traffic volume, saturation flow rate, and effective green time) and correlations among these variables in the HCM delay were examined.
The larger world of nano

Research in the social sciences and humanities can help scientists and policymakers to better understand the nanotechnology enterprise and to make it more transparent to an enthusiastic but cautious public.
Negative frequency aspects of doubly fed machine analysis

Negative frequencies occur in the analysis of doubly fed machines. The properties of negative-frequency quantities are investigated and volt-amp relationships described, for both single-phase and three-phase circuits. Transformations of negative-frequency quantities to equivalent positive-frequency quantities are considered. A general equivalent circuit of the doubly fed machine is described which is directly applicable over the entire operating range.
Influence of Sex on Genetic Regulation of “Drinking in the Dark” Alcohol Consumption

The ILSXISS (LXS) recombinant inbred (RI) panel of mice is a valuable resource for genetic mapping studies of complex traits, due to its genetic diversity and large number of strains. Male and female mice from this panel were used to investigate genetic influences on alcohol consumption in the “drinking in the dark” (DID) model. Male mice (38 strains) and female mice (36 strains) were given access to 20 % ethanol during the early phase of their circadian dark cycle for four consecutive days. The first principal component of alcohol consumption measures on days 2, 3, and 4 was used as a phenotype (DID phenotype) to calculate QTLs, using a SNP marker set for the LXS RI panel. Five QTLs were identified, three of which included a significant genotype by sex interaction, i.e., a significant genotype effect in males and not females. To investigate candidate genes associated with the DID phenotype, data from brain microarray analysis (Affymetrix Mouse Exon 1.0 ST Arrays) of male LXS RI strains were combined with RNA-Seq data (mouse brain transcriptome reconstruction) from the parental ILS and ISS strains in order to identify expressed mouse brain transcripts. Candidate genes were determined based on common eQTL and DID phenotype QTL regions and correlation of transcript expression levels with the DID phenotype. The resulting candidate genes (in particular, Arntl/Bmal1) focused attention on the influence of circadian regulation on the variation in the DID phenotype in this population of mice.
Evaluation of molar weight and deacetylation degree of chitosan during chitin deacetylation reaction: Used to produce biofilm

Abstract Chitosan is a polysaccharide derived from chitin, mainly of crustacean shells and shrimp wastes. The utilization of chitosan is related to the molar weight and deacetylation degree of the biopolymer. The aim of this work is to study the chitin deacetylation reaction, by the viscosity average molar weight and deacetylation degree of chitosan as a function of reaction time. Deacetylation was carried out in concentrated alkaline solution, 421 g L −1 , at 130 °C and the reaction occurred during 4 h. Chitosan paste obtained after 20, 90 and 240 min was used to produce biofilms, which were characterized according water vapor permeability and mechanical properties (tensile strength and percentage tensile elongation at break). During the reaction time deacetylation degree reached 93%, and a 50% reduction in the viscosity average molar weight value in relation to the value of the first 20 min of reaction was found Both reactions presented a kinetic behavior of the pseudo-first order. Biofilm produced from the paste of chitosan with high deacetylation degree showed higher water vapor permeability (WVP), tensile strength (TS) and elongation ( E ) when compared to films with a low deacetylation.
Paleoecological implications of new megafaunal 14C ages from the McKittrick tar seeps, California

The McKittrick tar seeps, located along the eastern foothills of the Temblor Range in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California (Kern County), are part of a vast complex of oil, gas, and tar se...
Nano-scale focusing of surface plasmons in metallic V-grooves

We present an experimental evidence for nanofocusing of SPPs in tapered metallic V-grooves at deep sub-wavelength scale (~?/40 at wavelength 1.5 micron). We find the power emerging from different V-grooves increases with decreased output width.
Using dendronal signatures for feature extraction and retrieval

A dendrone is a hierarchical thresholding structure that can be automatically generated from a complex image. The dendrone structure captures the connectedness of objects and subobjects during successive brightness thresholding. Based on connectedness and changes in intensity contours, dendronic representations of objects in images capture the coarse-to-fine unfolding of finer and finer detail, creating a unique signature for target objects that is invariant to lighting, scale, and placement of the object within the image. Subdendrones within the hierarchy are recognizable as objects within the picture. Complex composite images can be autonomously analyzed to determine if they contain the unique dendronic signatures of particular target objects of interest. In this paper, we describe the initial design of the dendronic image characterization environment (DICE) for the generation of dendronic signatures from complex multiband remote imagery. By comparing subdendrones within an image to dendronic signatures of target objects of interest, DICE can be used to match/retrieve target features from a library of composite images. The DICE framework can organize and support a number of alternative object recognition and comparison techniques, depending on the application domain. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 11, 243–253, 2000
Polyclonal immune responses to antigens associated with cancer signaling pathways and new strategies to enhance cancer vaccines

Aberrant signaling pathways are a hallmark of cancer. A variety of strategies for inhibiting signaling pathways have been developed, but monoclonal antibodies against receptor tyrosine kinases have been among the most successful. A challenge for these therapies is therapeutic unresponsiveness and acquired resistance due to mutations in the receptors, upregulation of alternate growth and survival pathways, or inadequate function of the monoclonal antibodies. Vaccines are able to induce polyclonal responses that can have a multitude of affects against the target molecule. We began to explore therapeutic vaccine development to antigens associated with these signaling pathways. We provide an illustrative example in developing therapeutic cancer vaccines inducing polyclonal adaptive immune responses targeting the ErbB family member HER2. Further, we will discuss new strategies to augment the clinical efficacy of cancer vaccines by enhancing vaccine immunogenicity and reversing the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.
Molecular engineering of liquid crystal polymers by living polymerization. II. Living cationic polymerization of 11‐[(4‐cyano‐4′‐biphenyl) oxy] undecanyl vinyl ether and the mesomorphic behavior of the resulting polymers

Le comportement mesomorphique du polymere est etudie en Fonction de la masse moleculaire et compare avec celui du monomere et d'un compose modele de l'unite structurale. Les resultats montrent que la transformation de la mesophase nematique du monomere en mesophase smectique apres polymerisation a lieu au niveau de l'unite structurale
School Performance at Ten Years in Infants ≤ 31 Weeks' Gestational Age† 1263

The impact of prematurity on school performance was assessed in a 10 year prospective study of all 125 surviving infants ≤31 weeks' gestation born 7/1/85 to 6/30/86. Each preterm infant was matched at birth with a term infant for sex (57% male), race (86% Caucasian), and maternal age (25 ± 6 yr), education (12 ± 2 yr) and marital status (67% married). At 10 years, school performance was categorized for 120/125 preterm and 119/125 term children as either satisfactory (no grade retention, no special classroom help, normal achievement test scores in math, reading and spelling and teacher ratings of academic and intellectual functioning in the top 70% of peers) or poor (any above criteria not met). Preterm children were significantly less likely than term children to have satisfactory school performance (34% vs 61%, p<.001). Preterm children with satisfactory and poor school performance did not differ for neonatal variables including gestational age (28 ± 2 wk, both groups), severe IVH (5 vs 15%), BPD (34 vs 28%) or length of hospitalization (61 ±28 vs 67 ± 34 days). Preterm children reared in a stable family constellation (custodial make-up unchanged) and who experienced few moves were significantly more likely to have satisfactory school outcome: Table Preterm children with regular contact with both biological (or early adoptive) parents were twice as likely to have satisfactory school outcome (33/77, 43%) than were those with single parent contact (8/41, 20%; p<.01). The influence of family structure on school outcome was not significant for term children. In conclusion, while neonatal morbidities predict school outcome poorly, the family structure in which preterm children develop has a significant impact on school outcome at 10 years.
Intramolecular Cyclizations of Co2(CO)6-Complexed Propargyl Radicals: Synthesis of d,l- and meso-1,5-Cyclodecadiynes

Intramolecular radical cyclizations of Co2(CO)6-complexed bis-propargyl alcohols 1−5 provide an easy, two-step access to the otherwise hardly accessible d,l- and meso-3,4-diaryl-1,5-cyclodecadiynes 21−25. The acid-induced generation of bis-cations 6−10 is followed by reduction with a 100-fold excess of zinc, generating key reactive intermediates, i.e. the cobalt-complexed bis-propargyl radicals 11−15. The substitution pattern (0-, 4-, 3,4-, 3,4,5-) and the nature of aromatic substituents (H, i-Pr, OMe) are found essential both to the diastereoselectivity of the process—with d,l:meso ratios varying from 54:46 to 80:20—and the isolability of individual stereoisomers. In particular, an accumulation of methoxy groups on the periphery of the aromatic rings facilitates separation in both intra- and intermolecular reactions. The observed disparity in the level of diastereoselection in intra- and intermolecular reactions is accounted for on the basis of conformational analysis, calculation data for cobalt-complex...
Clinical significance of brain white matter hyperintensities in young adults with psychiatric illness

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides detailed images of brain anatomy, with especially clear definition of gray and white matter structures. Several brain MRI studies have suggested that adults with bipolar disorder (BD) are more likely to have "white matter hyperintensities" (WMH) than adults without BD. The disproportionately greater frequency of these lesions in otherwise physically healthy patients suggests that the illness itself, or treatments used to control the illness, may be risk factors for the development of white matter changes. Similarly, WMH may be an etiological factor for some types of BD. In addition to reviewing the relevant literature, this research study attempted to determine whether lithium treatment is associated with an increased prevalence of WMH in young adults with psychiatric illness. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated over 600 brain MRI scans from inpatients at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. We controlled for possible confounding variables such as age, vascular disease, substance abuse, and markers of illness severity. We found that individuals with BD were no more likely to have WMH than other psychiatric patients. Lithium use was nonsignificantly associated with the presence of WMH. A multivariate regression model for the presence of WMH showed that heart disease, female gender, and multiple psychiatric admissions were significant predictors of WMH. This study does not support previous findings that BD, compared to other psychiatric illnesses, was associated with increased risk of WMH. Lithium use may be subtly associated with WMH. Our results are consistent with previous research that found an association between cardiovascular disease, advanced age, and the presence of WMH, though our analysis appears to be unique in its inclusion of cardiovascular disease as a risk factor in young adults with psychiatric illness.
Accelerated unsteady flow line integral convolution

Unsteady flow line integral convolution (UFLIC) is a texture synthesis technique for visualizing unsteady flows with high temporal-spatial coherence. Unfortunately, UFLIC requires considerable time to generate each frame due to the huge amount of pathline integration that is computed for particle value scattering. This paper presents accelerated UFLIC (AUFLIC) for near interactive (1 frame/second) visualization with 160,000 particles per frame. AUFLIC reuses pathlines in the value scattering process to reduce computationally expensive pathline integration. A flow-driven seeding strategy is employed to distribute seeds such that only a few of them need pathline integration while most seeds are placed along the pathlines advected at earlier times by other seeds upstream and, therefore, the known pathlines can be reused for fast value scattering. To maintain a dense scattering coverage to convey high temporal-spatial coherence while keeping the expense of pathline integration low, a dynamic seeding controller is designed to decide whether to advect, copy, or reuse a pathline. At a negligible memory cost, AUFLIC is 9 times faster than UFLIC with comparable image quality
The impact of discharging minimally injured trauma patient: does age play a role in trauma admission?

BACKGROUND Age is suggested as a triage criteria for transfer to a trauma center, despite poor outcomes after similar injury regardless of trauma center level. The effect of differential triage based on age to a trauma center has not been evaluated. We hypothesized that there would be a difference in the admission rates of geriatric patients compared with the rest of the adult trauma population independent of injury severity. METHODS Records of 1,970 adult patients evaluated by the trauma team at a Level I trauma center and discharged directly from the emergency department were reviewed. Data abstracted included demographics, injuries, and physiologic information. These data were compared with 3,232 trauma patients admitted over the same time period who had similar information abstracted via record review. χ analysis of the admission rates of geriatric patients was performed, followed by a binomial logistic regression to determine factors that affected the odds of admission. RESULTS A total of 451 (8.68%) patients were 65 years or older; 62.2% of the total population was admitted. Significantly more geriatric patients (82%) were admitted (χ = 126.24; p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that age, head injury, Injury Severity Score, Glasgow Coma Scale, and initial blood pressure were significant independent factors in predicting hospital admission (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Age alone is associated with increased odds of being admitted to the hospital, independent of injury severity and other physiologic parameters. This has implications for trauma centers that see a significant proportion of geriatric trauma patients and for trauma systems that must prepare for the "aging of America."
Predictors for readmissions after video-EEG monitoring

Objective: Identification of variables prognosticating 30-day readmission among adult patients admitted for video-EEG (VEEG) monitoring at a major epilepsy center. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted, examining 865 consecutive admissions to the epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) from January 2010 to June 2013. Data extracted from chart review included demographics, length of stay (LOS), seizure type(s), number of 30-day readmissions or emergency department (ED) visits and reasons for these, and patient and system/provider factors potentially contributing to the readmission. Results: Of 865 elective admissions for VEEG monitoring, 49 patients accounted for 33 readmissions and 40 ED visits within 30 days of discharge for an overall 30-day encounter rate of 7.0% after excluding those lost to follow-up; 9 patients had more than one ED visit or readmission. Statistically significant risk factors for urgent 30-day encounters included a history of nonepileptic seizures (NES) (odds ratio [OR] 1.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–3.4), a dual diagnosis of both epilepsy and NES (OR 5.9, 95% CI 3.0–11.8), an urgent index admission to the EMU (OR 2.5, 95%CI 1.4–4.8), and a shorter LOS of index hospitalization (median 4.0 days vs 5.0 days, p Conclusions: In addition to the presence of intractable epilepsy and shorter LOS, mental health comorbidities and the presence of NES were important risk factors for 30-day readmissions and ED visits in the epilepsy population. Therefore, proactively addressing mental health comorbidities may decrease urgent health care utilization after VEEG monitoring.