cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Buoyant inhibition of Ekman transport on a slope and its effect on stratified spin-up

The unsteady boundary layer of a rotating, stratified, viscous, and diffusive flow along an insulating slope is investigated using theory, numerical simulation, and laboratory experiment. Previous work in this field has focused either on steady flow, or flow over a conducting boundary, both of which yield Ekman-type solutions. After the onset of a circulation directed along constant-depth contours, Ekman-type flux up or down the slope is opposed by buoyancy forces. In the unsteady, insulating case, it is found that the cross-slope transport decreases in time as (t/τ)−½ where \[ \tau = \frac{1}{S^2f\cos\alpha}\left(\frac{1/\sigma + S}{1+S}\right), \] may be called the ‘shut-down’ time. Here S = (N sin α/f cos α)2, f is the Coriolis frequency, α is the slope angle, N is the buoyancy frequency, and σ is the Prandtl number. Subsequently the along-slope flow, , approximately obeys a simple diffusion equation \[ \frac{\partial\hat{v}}{\partial t} = \nu\left(\frac{1/\sigma + S}{1+S}\right)\frac{\partial^2\hat{v}}{\partial\hat{z}^2}, \] where t is time, ν is the kinematic viscosity, and , is nevertheless close to thermal wind balance, and the much-reduced cross-slope transport is balanced by stress on the boundary. For a slope of infinite extent the steady asymptotic state is the diffusively driven ‘boundary-mixing’ circulation of Thorpe (1987). By inhibiting the cross-slope transport, buoyancy virtually eliminated the boundary stress and hence the ‘ fast’ spin-up of classical theory in laboratory experiments with a bowl-shaped container of stratified, rotating fluid.
Summer residential programs: Academics and beyond

Every summer, bright students participate in highly challenging residential programs on university campuses. Since many students return year after year, they must be finding something of great valu...
The Historical John of Apamea: A Framework of the Problem of His Identity

The present study expounds the problem related to the historical John of Apamea, a Syrian monk who became famous for his spiritual and theological writings in the Middle Ages. The analysis of the critical works published by Dedering, Strothmann, Baumstark, Hausherr, Lavenant, Rignell, among other authors, serves as the starting point to highlight the problem of the historicity and accreditation of different theological and spiritual tractates, dialogues, and letters to one Syrian monk. The study presents an organisation of the different theories that portray the lack of consensus among scholars in order to propose a possible solution.
optimizing spectrum-energy efficiency in wireless networks

The popularity of smart mobile devices has brought significant growth of data service for mobile service providers. Very often, mobile users of data service are charged based on the amount of data used. With the increasing revenue, mobile operators are also facing the increasing operation cost due to the high energy consumption. Meanwhile, as the access to spectral resource is limited, increasing spectrum efficiency is an economic incentive for operators alike. However, we are faced with the dilemma that focusing only on reducing energy consumption might incur the cost of decreasing spectrum efficiency. In this paper, we study the spectrum-energy efficiency enhancement problem by way of jointly considering the mechanisms of cell zooming, sleep mode and user migration. To gain the benefits economically, we formulate an optimization framework into an integer linear program which is solvable by CPLEX to maximize spectrum and energy efficiencies jointly as well as to meet the minimal traffic demand by associated users in multicell/multi-user networks. To avoid high computation time, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to efficiently solve the formulated problem. Numerical analysis through case studies demonstrates the energy saved and efficiency improvements and the comparison between the proposed heuristic algorithm against the optimal solutions.
Myogenic activity in isolated subepicardial and subendocardial coronary arterioles

The goal of this study was to examine myogenic responses of isolated porcine subepicardial and subendocardial arterioles (80–100 micron in diameter) within physiological ranges of intraluminal pres...
A Transcription Task for Crowdsourcing with Automatic Quality Control

In this paper, we propose a two-stage transcription task design for crowdsourcing with an automatic quality control mechanism embedded in each stage. For the first stage, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier is utilized to quickly filter poor quality transcripts based on acoustic cues and language patterns in the transcript. In the second stage, word level confidence scores are used to estimate a transcription quality and provide instantaneous feedback to the transcriber. The proposed design was evaluated using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and tested on seven hours of academic lecture speech, which is typically conversational in nature and contains technical material. Compared to baseline transcripts which were also collected from MTurk using a ROVER-based method, we observed that the new method resulted in higher quality transcripts while requiring less transcriber effort. Index Terms: Transcription, crowdsourcing, quality control
Effective and Efficient Authentication and Authorization in Distributed Systems

Distributed systems are inherently more vulnerable to security threats than single computer systems due to their openness in architecture, nonexistence of a centralized management authority, and the need for interactions across a wide range of autonomous and heterogeneous computers over open and insecure communication networks. More in-depth study and investigation into different subjects of authentication and authorization are of immediate importance to further applicability of distributed systems. This research explores various security problems and provides an innovative solution to each problem. In the first part of this research, we concentrate on enhancing performance of authentication and key distribution protocols. A new authentication protocol based on uncertified session keys is proposed and shown to be minimum in message complexity. The protocol is refined further to counter session key compromises and extended to support repeated authentication to reduce the workload of authentication services. An extension of the protocol is performed to achieve transparent and and autonomous authentication for inter-domain applications. The second part of this research addresses modeling of complex access control policies. Multilevel exceptions are systematically categorized, and their significance is justified by many desirable commercial security policies. A new model based on boolean expressions for classifying categories is proposed to enforce these exceptions and access sequences in a uniform manner. Enforcement of complex security requirements using capabilities is considered in the third part of this research. The main strategy is to place tedious and complicated access control information on traditional capabilities distributed to subjects, and to equip object servers with only simple and regulated rules to process capabilities. It has been shown that many security policies which must be enforced by conventional centralized methods can now be enforced with an efficient distributed mechanism. In summary, this dissertation is devoted to the investigation of many emerging security issues in distributed systems. Significant results have been demonstrated that efficiency and effectiveness of authentication and authorization services and mechanisms can be enhanced by evolutionary and revolutionary methodologies.
Abstract 363A: PAX2 is an oncogene in type I ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynecologic malignancy, but the most lethal gynecologic cancer. Ovarian cancer is divided into Type I and Type II subgroups. Type I tumors include low-grade micropapillary serous carcinoma, mucinous, endometrioid, and clear cell carcinomas and are characterized by high frequency of KRAS, BRAF, PTEN, or beta-catenin mutations. Type II tumors include high-grade serous carcinoma, malignant mixed mesodermal tumors (carcinosarcomas) and undifferentiated carcinomas and are characterized by high genetic instability and high frequency of TP53 mutation. Using gene expression profiling, we found that Pax2, a transcription factor of the Pax gene family, is highly expressed in type I ovarian tumors but is less expressed in Type II tumors. Pax2 is one of the nine Pax genes which have a conserved DNA sequence motif called the paired box, a 128 amino acid domain in the amino-terminal portion of the protein. Pax2 regulates tissue development and cellular differentiation in embryos and Pax2 expression is attenuated after development. Unattenuated Pax2 expression has been found in several cancer types, but the function of Pax2 in ovarian cancer is not clearly understood. In this study, we further validated the expression of Pax2 in Type I ovarian cancer by immunohistochemistry, western blot analysis and quantitative real-time PCR. Furthermore, the expression of Pax2 in two Type I ovarian cancer cell lines (RMUGL and TOV21G) was knockdown by Pax2 specific shRNA. By comparing to the control non-target shRNA cancer cell lines and the parental cell lines, Pax2 knockdown cell lines have significant reduction in growth rate as measured by WST cell proliferation assay. From the gene expression profiles of three independent Pax2 knockdown cell lines, we identified 196 genes that were significantly affected by the down-regulation of Pax2. Many of these genes are involved in cell cycle control, cellular growth and proliferation, and the TP53 pathway such as BBC3, CHEK1, GADD45A and GADD45B and JUN genes. This suggests that Pax2 may play an oncogenic role in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer through a TP53-dependent pathway. Since immunotherapy targeting Pax2 is currently being developed, Pax2 could be a therapeutic target for Type I ovarian cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 363A.
Inhibition of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling reduces fibrosis and lipid accumulation after rotator cuff repair

Background The repair of rotator cuff tears is often complicated by fatty degeneration, which is the combination of lipid accumulation, fibrosis, inflammation, and muscle weakness. A signaling molecule that plays a central role in these processes is p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of a small molecule inhibitor of p38 MAPK, SB203580, to reduce fatty degeneration in a preclinical model of rotator cuff injury and repair. Materials and Methods Adult rats underwent a bilateral supraspinatus tenotomy that was repaired 30 days later. Rats were treated with SB203580 or vehicle every 2 days, with injections beginning 3 days before surgery and continuing until 7 days after surgery. Two weeks after surgical repair, muscles were analyzed using histology, lipid profiling, gene expression, and permeabilized muscle fiber contractility. Results Inhibition of p38 MAPK resulted in a nearly 49% reduction in fat accumulation and a 29% reduction in collagen content, along with changes in corresponding genes regulating adipogenesis and matrix accumulation. There was also a marked 40% to 80% decrease in the expression of several proinflammatory genes, including IL1B , IL6 , and COX2 , and a 360% increase in the anti-inflammatory gene IL10 . No differences were observed for muscle fiber force production. Conclusion Inhibition of p38 MAPK was found to result in a significant decrease in intramuscular lipid accumulation and fibrosis that is usually seen in the degenerative cascade of rotator cuff tears, without having negative effects on the contractile properties of the rotator cuff muscle tissue.
Cloning and partial characterization of a novel hemolysin gene of Vibrio tubiashii and the development of a PCR-based detection assay

Vibrio tubiashii expresses virulence factors, such as a vulnificolysin-like hemolysin or cytolysin and a zinc metalloprotease, similar to those of other pathogenic vibrios. In this study, we report the cloning of a novel hemolysin gene of V. tubiashii in Escherichia coli .A V. tubiashii gene library was screened for hemolytic activity on sheep blood agar. Three hemolytic clones pGem:hly1, pGem:hly2, and pGem:hly3 were sequenced, and the sequences showed a strong homol- ogy to the ribA gene coding for guanosine triphosphate cyclohydrolase II (GCH II), required for riboflavin biosynthesis and reported to be responsible for hemolytic activity in Helicobacter pylori. The plasmids pGem:hly1 and pGem:hly3 when in- troduced into E. coli BSV18 (ribA18::Tn5) were able to restore growth of strain BSV18 in a medium without riboflavin and also produced hemolytic activity on blood agar. PCR primers based on the cloned hly-ribA sequence were tested using 23 different Vibrio strains representing 10 different species. Amplification of ribA gene locus only occurred with V. tubiashii strains. In summary, our results indicate that we have cloned a ribA homolog of V. tubiashii that imparts hemolytic activity to E. coli clones, and primers based on this gene locus might be useful as a species-specific identification tool for V. tubia- shii.
Elevation of Non-Classical (CD14+/lowCD16++) Monocytes Is Associated with Increased Albuminuria and Urine TGF-β1 in HIV-Infected Individuals on Stable Antiretroviral Therapy.

Objective High rates of albuminuria are observed among HIV-infected individuals on stable antiretroviral therapy (ART). Though pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic responses are described as components of albuminuria in the general population, it is unclear how these responses are associated to albuminuria in ART-treated chronic HIV. We investigated the relationship of monocyte subsets and urine inflammatory and fibrotic biomarkers to albuminuria in ART-treated HIV-infected participants. Design and Methods Cross-sectional analyses were performed on Hawaii Aging with HIV-cardiovascular disease study cohort participants who were required at entry to be ≥40 years old and on ART ≥3 months. Monocyte subpopulations were determined in banked peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) using multi-parametric flow-cytometry. Entry random urine samples were assessed for albumin-to-creatinine ratios (UACR). Urine samples were measured for inflammatory and fibrotic biomarkers using Luminex technology. Results Among 96 HIV-infected subjects with measured UACR (87% male, 59% Caucasian, and 89% undetectable HIV RNA with median CD4 of 495.5 cells/μL), 18 patients (19%) had albuminuria. Non-classical (CD14low/+CD16++) monocytes were significantly elevated in subjects with albuminuria (p = 0.034) and were correlated to UACR (r = 0.238, p = 0.019). Elevated non-classical monocyte counts were significant predictors of worsening albuminuria, independent of traditional- and ART-associated risk factors (β = 0.539, p = 0.007). Urine TGF-β1 and collagen-IV were significantly higher in albuminuric compared to non-albuminuric participants (TGF-β1; p = 0.039 and collagen-IV; p = 0.042). Urine TGF-β1 was significantly correlated with non-classical monocyte counts (r = 0.464, p = 0.017). Conclusion Alterations in monocyte subpopulations and urine pro-fibrotic factors may play a role in kidney dysfunction during chronic HIV infection and warrants further study.
Patterns of Sexual Experience Among Urban Latino and African American Ninth Grade Students

This analysis assessed patterns of sexual experience, the order in which behaviors were initiated, and associated factors, among Latino and African American ninth grade students (average age 15.2) who self-administered audio-computer-assisted surveys on netbooks in classes at 10 Los Angeles–area public high schools. Lifetime experiences with vaginal and oral sex were most common (19% and 16%, respectively); fewer reported anal sex (6%). Of the 23% reporting any sex, 91% fell into four categories: 36% reporting both oral and vaginal sex; 23% vaginal only; 18% all three; and 13% oral only. Most sexually experienced students (88%) initiated with vaginal or oral sex (46% vaginal, 33% oral, 9% both same day). No dominant pathway of sexual onset emerged for those reporting all three types of sex. We found no evidence that oral or anal sex substituted for or delayed vaginal sex. Males, those with a current partner, and those reporting multiple partners were more likely than others to report all three sexual beha...
Biographical Dictionary of Republican China Personal Name Index Project

(1976). Biographical Dictionary of Republican China Personal Name Index Project. Chinese Republican Studies Newsletter: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 15-15.
Spinal cord injury.

The successful outcome of providing care to the individual with a spinal cord injury is to enable the patient to live as satisfactory and fulfilling a life as possible. How this is achieved will be different with each individual and family depending on the degree of disability, the family and social environment, and preferred life-styles. The nurse, who deals with the human response to the injury, is in an ideal position to help the patient and family realize their life potential.
Long-range charge fluctuations and search for a quark-gluon plasma signal

We critically discuss recent suggestion to use long-range modes of charge (electric or baryon) fluctuations as a signal for the presence of Quark-Gluon Plasma at the early stages of a heavy ion collision. We evaluate the rate of diffusion in rapidity for different secondaries, and argue that for conditions of the SPS experiments, it is strong enough to relax the magnitude of those fluctuations almost to its equilibrium values, given by hadronic ``resonance gas''. We further argue that experimental data from SPS agree with this conclusion. We evaluate the detector acceptance needed to measure such ``primordial'' long-range fluctuations at RHIC conditions. We conclude with an application of the charge fluctuation analysis to the search for the QCD critical point.
Enhanced mixing from shock-generated turbulence in dusty air

Rapid, localized deposition of energy in air accompanies the propagation of laser beams, lightening bolts, and charged-particle beams. Unless the beam and the ionized channel in which it propagates are perfectly symmetric, uniform, and coaxial, there is misalignment between pressure gradients generated by the shocks associated with the energy deposition and the density gradients induced by the rapid expansion of the heated beam channel. This results in persistent vorticity rapidly cascading into turbulence. This shock-generated turbulence mixes cold gas from outside the channel with the beam-heated gas, quenching and broadening the channel much faster than thermal conductivity would suggest. This “anomalous thermal conduction,” which in lightening bolts accounts for much of the Earth’s nitrogen fixation, was first observed without explanation in experiments (Grieg et al. 1985). It was subsequently explained theoretically and simulated computationally in a number of two-dimensional cases (Picone et al. 1981, Picone and Boris 1983, 1988). Recent experiments at Livermore, discussed in (Hubbard 1990) with very uniform symmetric beams in clean gas, however, showed markedly less turbulence than earlier experiments, suggesting that possibly the purity of the propagation gas may have been a factor. This paper reports 2-D and 3-D simulations including the enhanced turbulence arising from dust particles exploded by the beam in air.
The role of the bacterial microbiota on reproductive and pregnancy health

Recent assessments have examined the composition of bacterial communities influencing reproductive, pregnancy and infant health. The Microbiome Project has made great strides in sequencing the microbiome and identifying the vast communities of microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and much work continues to examine the individual contribution of bacteria on health and disease to inform future therapies. This review explores the current literature outlining the contribution of important bacteria on reproductive health among sexually active men and women, outlines gaps in current research to determine causal and interventional relationships, and suggests future research initiatives. Novel treatments options to reduce adverse outcomes must recognize the heterogeneity of the bacteria within the microbiome and adequately assess long-term benefits in reducing disease burden and re-establishing a healthy Lactobacillus-dominant state. Recognizing other reservoirs outside of the lower genital track and within sexual partners as well as genetic and individual moderators may be most important for long-term cure and reduction of disease. It will be important to develop useful screening tools and comprehensively examine novel therapeutic options to promote the long-term reduction of high-risk bacteria and the re-establishment of healthy bacterial levels to considerably improve outcomes among pregnant women and sexually active men and women.
UV-OZONATION AND LAND DISPOSAL OF AQUEOUS PESTICIDE WASTES

ABSTRACT Land disposal of pesticides offers many advantages over incineration and other forms of destruction of aqueous liquid wastes. One of the major advantages is cost. Many chlorinated pesticides, however, are not readily degraded by soil processes, and consequently land disposal is not a feasible option. Any pretreatment process that makes these compounds more biodegradable would enhance their disposal on land. We have experimental evidence that pretreatment of aqueous solution of the isooctyl ester of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), 2,5,2′,5′-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB), 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorobenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and pentachlorophenol (PCP) by ultraviolet (UV) ozonation in a laboratory size 450 W mercury vapor lamp causes dechlorination and some ring leavage. In fresh field soils, 14 C-2,4,5-T and PCP were rapidly degraded when low concentrations (1 ppm in water) were first irradiated for 1 hr in the presence of oxygen. 14 C-TCDD and PCB were degraded slower under the same conditions. Concentration of the pesticide in aqueous solution, UV intensity, irradiation time, ozonoation, and chemical structure were found to be important variables affecting the total degradation process. Preliminary experiments with a 66 lamp commercial water purified (~2,244 W) suggest that UV ozonation of some pesticide and industrial wastes can be destroyed in sufficient volumes to make land disposal a viable option.
Calmodulin Inhibition Rescues the Effects of Ribosomal Protein Deficiency by Modulating p53 Activity in Models of Diamond Blackfan Anemia

Abstract 512 Ribosomal protein mutations are common in patients with Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA), who have red cell aplasia and craniofacial abnormalities, and rps14 deficiency has been linked to 5q- myelodysplastic syndrome. We have characterized a zebrafish mutant in rps29, a ribosomal protein in the small subunit. Rps29 −/− embryos have hematopoietic and endothelial defects, including decreased hematopoietic stem cells, defects in hemoglobinization, and decreased staining of vessel markers. Heads of mutant embryos are also morphologically affected, with increased apoptosis. Consistent with other models of DBA, knockdown of p53 completely rescues the rps29 hematopoietic and apoptotic phenotypes. We wanted to identify chemicals that could rescue the rps29 mutant phenotype. Using 600 compounds from known bioactive libraries, we performed an in vivo chemical screen for rescue of the rps29 apoptotic and endothelial defects. Treatment with one compound, A-3, improved the morphology of the apoptotic embryo head. A-3 is an inhibitor of calmodulin, which interacts with a host of calmodulin-dependent enzymes and can bind to other proteins in the cell, including p21. W-7, another calmodulin inhibitor related to A-3, can rescue the endothelial defect in the rps29 mutant. Calmodulin inhibition in rps29 mutant embryos rescues the hemoglobin defect. Furthermore, structurally unrelated chemicals that inhibit calmodulin rescue the endothelial defect. We hypothesized that calmodulin inhibition was affecting some part of the p53 pathway. We tested whether A-3 had an effect on the phenotype in vitro in a cancer cell line where shRNA knockdown of RPS19 has been shown to stabilize p53 and induce p21. When rps19 is knocked down in A549 cells, treatment with calmodulin inhibitors resulted in a decrease of p21 protein, as measured by flow cytometry, although p53 protein levels were stable. This effect was also observed in primary human cord blood-derived CD34 + hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. In situ immunofluorescence in A549s further revealed that nuclear localization of p53 and p21 upon RPS19 knockdown was disrupted by chemical treatment. Calmodulin inhibitors also rescue ribosomal protein deficiency-mediated erythroid defects both in vitro and in vivo . When RPS19 is knocked down in CD34 + cells, there is a defect in erythroid differentiation. Treatment with calmodulin inhibitors rescued production of CD71 + cells upon differentiation. In conclusion, we have demonstrated the use of calmodulin inhibitors as a novel approach for mediating p53 activation upon ribosomal protein knockdown, thereby rescuing the erythroid defects of ribosomal deficiency. Our data suggests that small molecules that inhibit calmodulin may be effective therapies for patients with ribosomal deficiency. Disclosures: Ebert: Celgene: Consultancy; Genoptix: Consultancy. Zon: Fate Therapeutics: Founder Other.
Optimizing Data-Intensive Applications Automatically By Leveraging Parallel Data Processing Frameworks

In this demonstration we will showcase CASPER, a novel tool that enables sequential data-intensive programs to automatically leverage the optimizations provided by parallel data processing frameworks. The goal of CASPER is to reduce the inertia against adaptation of new data processing frameworks---particularly for non-expert users---by automatically re-writing sequential programs written in general purpose languages to the high-level DSLs or APIs of these frameworks. Through CASPER's browser-based interface, users can enter the source code of their Java applications and have it automatically retargeted to execute on Apache Spark. In our interactive presentation, we will use CASPER to optimize sequential implementations of data visualization programs as well as image processing kernels. The optimized Spark implementations along with the original sequential implementations will then be executed simultaneously on the cloud to allow the demo to audience compare the runtime performances and outputs in real-time.
Dendritic Cell Recovery Impacts Outcomes after Umbilical Cord Blood and Sibling Donor Transplantation for Hematologic Malignancies.

Abstract Dendritic cells (DCs) orchestrate immune responses after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We studied the association of donor myeloid DCs (mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) recovery in the landmark analysis of umbilical cord blood (UCB) and matched related donor (RD) HCT. Eighty patients (42 UCB and 38 RD recipients) with a day 100 blood sample were included in the analysis. Median age was 51 years (range, 20 to 71). Most patients had acute leukemia (50%) or lymphoma (23%) and received reduced-intensity conditioning (75%). After transplantation, UCB recipients had higher DC counts than RD recipients reaching normal levels at day 100 after transplantation (UCB median 4.7 cells/µL versus RD median 1.7 cells/µL). UCB recipients with high day 100 pDCs levels (≥ median) had 2-fold lower risk of relapse compared with those with pDClow (14% versus 28%, P = .29) and a trend to improved 1-year survival in multivariate analysis with hazard ratio of .22 (95% confidence interval, .04 to 1.05; P = .057). Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation had adverse impact on DC reconstitution at day 100 in both UCB and RD groups and almost exclusively affected the mDC subset (CMV reactivation: mDC 3.2 cells/µL versus no CMV reactivation: 7.8 cells/µL; P = .004). Collectively, these data suggest that high levels of circulating pDCs at day 100 after UCB transplantation confer a survival advantage at 1 year.
Response by Taqueti and Di Carli to Letter Regarding Article, “Excess Cardiovascular Risk in Women Relative to Men Referred for Coronary Angiography Is Associated With Severely Impaired Coronary Flow Reserve, Not Obstructive Disease”

We thank Drs Zimmermann, Zelis, and van’t Veer for their interest in our article,1 in which we found that excess cardiovascular risk in women relative to men was independently associated with and mediated by impaired coronary flow reserve. In response to their first inquiry regarding whether we examined the contribution of absolute stress flow in addition to coronary flow reserve, the answer is yes, and it was concordantly reduced (from Table 1, median [Q1–Q3] stress myocardial blood flow in mL·g–1·min–1 was 1.7 [1.2–2.3] in women and 1.5 [1.0–1.9] in men). As such, these patients have ischemic heart disease; in fact, many of them demonstrated a severe ischemic …
Resilience-based water main rehabilitation planning in a multi-hazard context

Due to aging beyond the intended design life, many water mains in the USA are currently deteriorated resulting in an increasing number of failures which challenge water utilities with diminished supply reliabilities, loss of treated water, and numerous other societal issues. Water pipeline systems serving regions that are naturally vulnerable to external hazards, such as earthquakes, pose additional challenges. Numerous vulnerabilities such as these must be congruently analyzed for optimal capital improvement planning of water supply systems. A resilience-based rehabilitation planning framework is presented and demonstrated in this paper to coherently integrate the vulnerabilities of water pipelines to seismic hazards and natural deterioration. The artificial bee colony (ABC), shuffled frog leaping (SFLA), and genetic algorithms (GA) are investigated to identify the best performing optimization algorithm to be used in the modeling framework presented in this study. A scenario of a real-world water supply system operating in the earthquake-prone region in South Carolina is used for demonstrating the rehabilitation framework. The study approach and the presented findings will provide guidance to water utility professionals in optimal capital improvement planning to enhance supply resilience to a multitude of vulnerabilities.
Effect of mindfulness meditation on short-term weight loss and eating behaviors in overweight and obese adults: A randomized controlled trial

Background There is a significant health crisis with rates of obesity continuing to increase despite research and clinical standard behavioral weight loss programs (SBWP). Mindfulness meditation (MM), with demonstrated benefits on physical, psychological health, and self-regulation behaviors was explored with SBWP. Methods Forty-six adults (BMI=32.5±3.7 kg/m2; age=45.2±8.2 years, 87 % female, 21.7 % African American) were randomly assigned to a 6-month SBWP only (n=24) or SBWP+MM (n=22) at a university-based physical activity and weight management research center in a northeastern US city. Participants were instructed to decrease intake (1200-1500 kcal/day), increase physical activity (300 min/wk), and attend weekly SBWP or SBWP+MM sessions. SBWP+MM had the same SBWP lessons with addition of focused MM training. Outcome measures collected at 0, 3, and 6 months included: weight, Block Food Frequency Questionnaire, Eating Behavior Inventory, Eating Inventory and Paffenbarger Physical Activity Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using linear mixed modeling for efficacy analysis of weight (primary) and eating, exercise and mindfulness (secondary outcomes). Results Retention rate was 76.1 % (n=35). A significant group by time interaction (p=0.03) was found for weight, with weight loss favoring SBWP+MM (-6.9 kg+2.9) over SBWP (-4.1 kg+2.8). Eating behaviors (p=0.02) and dietary restraint (p=0.02) improved significantly in SBWP+MM, compared to SBWP. MM enhanced weight loss by 2.8 kg potentially through greater improvements in eating behaviors and dietary restraint. Conclusions These findings support further study into the use of MM strategies with overweight and obese adults. The use of this low-cost, portable strategy with standard behavioral interventions could improve weight management outcomes.
It’s All Relative: A Team-Based Social Comparison Model for Self-Evaluations of Effectiveness

We apply social comparison theory (SCT) to the organizational context and develop a model explicating the social comparison process that occurs within organizational teams. In doing so, we highligh...
A systematic review on management of nutcracker syndrome.

Abstract Objective Although nutcracker syndrome (NS) is rare, patients presenting with symptoms or signs and anatomic compression of the left renal vein (LRV) can be considered for intervention. Open, laparoscopic, and endovascular techniques have been developed to decrease the venous outflow obstruction of the LRV. The paucity of data regarding the management of this uncommon disease process poses a challenge for adequate recommendations of the best treatment modality. Herein, we aim to present a systematic review for the management of NS. Methods We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement standards to systematically search the electronic databases of MEDLINE from October 1982 to July 2017 for articles about the management of NS. Included were studies in English, Spanish, and German in all age groups. Results The literature search provided 249 references. After abstract and full review screening for inclusion, 17 references were analyzed. Eight (47%) described the open surgical approach. The LRV transposition was the most commonly reported technique, followed by renal autotransplantation. Seven (41.11%) described the endovascular technique of stent implantation, and two (11.7%) described the minimally invasive laparoscopic extravascular stent implantation. Conclusions NS is a rare entity. Multiple techniques have been developed for the treatment of this condition. However, the rarity of this syndrome, the paucity of data, and the short-term follow-up of the existing evidence are the disadvantages that prevent recommendations for the best treatment strategy. Up to now, open surgical intervention, specifically LRV transposition, has been considered by some experts the mainstay for treatment of NS. The endovascular approach is gaining strength as more evidence has become available. However, the long-term patency and durability of this approach remain to be elucidated. Therefore, careful selection of patients is necessary in recommending this technique.
Accountability, Ethics, Evaluation, and Governance in Nonprofit Management Education: Trends and Treatment

As the scope and influence of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have increased in recent decades, so has demand for the professional management of such organizations. Specialized, graduate-level educa...
Is the Medium the Message: Unleashing the Power of E-Communication in the Twenty-First Century

The technological revolution has brought dramatic changes to the world of law practice, including legal research and writing, yet the basic conventions of legal writing have remained unchanged for decades. Memoranda and briefs today look much as they did early in the last century. Yet if the medium of legal communication has shifted from print to pixels, shouldn’t that lead to changes in the way legal analysis is communicated? This article considers the differences as a result of both writing and reading in a digital medium, and addresses the changes in writing that should flow from that, including changes in typography and document design, changes in document navigation and communicating organization, and the use of hyperlinks and images to create multi-dimensional documents. The article suggests that lawyers must make changes in traditional forms of legal writing in order to be effective writers for the 21st century.
How to Subvert your University's Canned Curriculum

The article offers a brief "how-to" guide for getting around canned curriculum while still ensuring that your students learn the course content. It also includes caveats, trouble-shoots, and a justification for subverting requirements to teach standardized curriculum.
Underneath the Mask of the Strong Black Woman Schema: Disentangling Influences of Strength and Self-Silencing on Depressive Symptoms among U.S. Black Women

Recent investigations have elucidated the influence of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) Schema on the mental health and treatment seeking behaviors of Black women in the United States. However, the SBW schematic characteristics that produce depression have yet to be identified. The current study fills this void in the literature through a quantitative examination of how characteristics of the SBW Schema relate to depressive symptomology. Analyses were based on 194 participants, including college students (n = 98) and community members (n = 96), ranging in age from 18 to 82 years-old (M = 37.53, SD = 19.88). As hypothesized, various manifestations of self-silencing were found to significantly mediate the relationship between the perceived obligation to manifest strength (a SBW characteristic) and depressive symptomatology. The present study advances the idea that depressive symptoms are related to endorsement of the SBW Schema and highlights self-silencing as a mechanism by which this relationship occurs. These results offer evidence and clarification of the impact of the SBW Schema on Black women's mental health and identify specific points of intervention for mental health practitioners conducting therapeutic work with Black women. We provide recommendations for future research to avoid pathologizing strength and we discuss the implications and potential benefits of integrating a Womanist theoretical perspective into counseling for Black women, a population that has historically underutilized mental health resources.
Hash-Grams: Faster N-Gram Features for Classification and Malware Detection

N-grams have long been used as features for classification problems, and their distribution often allows selection of the top-k occurring n-grams as a reliable first-pass to feature selection. However, this top-k selection can be a performance bottleneck, especially when dealing with massive item sets and corpora. In this work we introduce Hash-Grams, an approach to perform top-k feature mining for classification problems. We show that the Hash-Gram approach can be up to three orders of magnitude faster than exact top-k selection algorithms. Using a malware corpus of over 2 TB in size, we show how Hash-Grams retain comparable classification accuracy, while dramatically reducing computational requirements.
Analysing Data Security Requirements of Android Mobile Banking Application

Mobile banking applications are at high risk of cyber attacks due to security vulnerabilities in their application design and underlying operating systems. The Inter-Process Communication mechanism in Android enables applications to communicate, share data and reuse functionality between them. However, if used incorrectly, it can become an attack surface, which allows malicious applications to exploit devices and compromise sensitive financial information. In this research, we focused on addressing the intent vulnerabilities by applying a hybrid fuzzing testing technique to analyze the data security requirements of native Android financial applications. The system first automatically constructs an application behavior model and later apply hybrid fuzzing to the model to analyze the data leak vulnerabilities. Testing results help to discover the unknown exploitable entry points in the applications under test.
3D Bounding Boxes for Road Vehicles: A One-Stage, Localization Prioritized Approach using Single Monocular Images.

Understanding 3D semantics of the surrounding objects is critically important and a challenging requirement from the safety perspective of autonomous driving. We present a localization prioritized approach for effectively localizing the position of the object in the 3D world and fit a complete 3D box around it. Our method requires a single image and performs both 2D and 3D detection in an end to end fashion. Estimating depth of an object from a monocular image is not as generalizable as pose and dimensions. Hence, we approach this problem by effectively localizing the projection of the center of bottom face of 3D bounding box (CBF) to the image. Later in our post processing stage, we use a look up table based approach to reproject the CBF in the 3D world. This stage is a single time setup and simple enough to be deployed in fixed map communities where we can store complete knowledge about the ground plane. The object’s dimension and pose are predicted in multitask fashion using a shared set of features. Experiments show that our method is able to produce smooth tracks for surround objects and outperforms existing image based approaches in 3D localization.
Synthesis of Conformationally Modified Peptides Through Isonitrile Chemistry: Implications for Dealing with Polypeptide Aggregation.

A method is presented for the introduction of a dimethyleneoxy bridge spanning the amide functionalities of two consecutive amino acids such as shown for (VII).
Intra-Cell Pilot Contamination Mitigation in Massive MIMO Systems with Underlay Spectrum-Sharing

The coherence residual interference caused by intra-cell pilot contamination has been shown to be the most detrimental impediment to the underlay spectrum-sharing in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. As a remedy, a reverse time-division-duplexing (R-TDD) transmission strategy is proposed for mitigating intra-cell pilot contamination. To this end, the performance of multi-cell multi-user underlay spectrum-sharing MIMO with R-TDD is investigated. The secondary transmit power constraints and achievable uplink&#x002F;downlink sum rates are derived for both finite and infinite base-station (BS) antenna regimes. Thereby, the joint detrimental effects of spatial correlation, beamforming uncertainty caused by imperfectly estimated channels, inter-cell co-channel interference (CCI) and residual interference incurred by inter-cell pilot contamination are analytically quantified and compared against the conventional TDD (C-TDD) counterpart. Our analysis reveals that the secondary performance metrics with imperfectly estimated channels become independent of primary interference threshold when the number of BS antennas grows without bound. Thus, the secondary system can be operated in its maximum average transmit power independent of the primary system without hindering its asymptotic achievable rates. This is because the intra-cell coherence CCI of two systems can be asymptotically mitigated by exploiting R-TDD and asymptotic channel orthogonality in massive MIMO systems.
Congenital heart defects in West Virginia: Preliminary findings from an ecological study of effects of an industrial watershed on increased incidence.

Abstract Objective Congenital anomalies are the leading cause of infant death, with congenital heart (CHD) defects the most common type. The study objective was to evaluate the incidence of fetal CHD in a tertiary care medical center’s obstetric population in West Virginia and map areas of possible environmental exposure. Methods This was an observational study of patients with positive ultrasound screen for CHD from 1/1/2007-8/31/2016. An Optimized Hot Spot analysis and Ripley’s K- Function was constructed to understand the effect of CHD in relation to proximity to chemical and coal extraction sites. Results Of the 16,871 obstetric pregnancies, 206 (1.2%) had fetal CHD with ventriculoseptal defects the most common (88; 42.7%). The majority of cases of CHD followed the industrial watershed of the Kanawha River in West Virginia. Direct point source exposure suggests a relationship in cases of CHD within Kanawha River and surrounding areas. The observed K was significantly above the expected K across all 10 distance bands. The fourth distance band exhibited the larger difference at (37914), between the expected verses the observed K function. Conclusion Through spatial analysis, there appears to be a direct point source exposure for observed cases of f CHD along the industrial watershed of Kanawha County, West Virginia
Telemetry Parameter Synthesis System to Support Machine Learning Tuning and Validation

Advanced machine learning (ML) prognostics are leading to increasing Return-on-Investment (ROI) for dense-sensor Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications across multiple industries including Utilities, Oil-and-Gas, Manufacturing, Transportation, and for business-critical assets in enterprise and cloud data centers. For all of these IoT prognostic applications, a nontrivial challenge for data scientists is acquiring enough time series data from executing assets with which to evaluate, tune, optimize, and validate important prognostic functional requirements that include false-alarm and missed-alarm probabilities (FAPs, MAPs), time-to-detect (TTD) metrics for early-warning of incipient issues in monitored components and systems, and overhead compute cost (CC) for real-time stream ML prognostics. In this paper we present a new data synthesis methodology called the Telemetry Parameter Synthesis System (TPSS) that can take any limited chunk of real sensor telemetry from monitored assets, decompose the sensor signals into deterministic and stochastic components, and then generate millions of hours of high-fidelity synthesized telemetry signals that possess exactly the same serial correlation structure and statistical idiosyncrasies (resolution, variance, skewness, kurtosis, auto-correlation content, and spikiness) as the real telemetry signals from the IoT monitored critical assets. The synthesized signals bring significant value-add for ML data science researchers for evaluation and tuning of candidate ML algorithmics and for offline validation of important prognostic functional requirements including sensitivity, false alarm avoidance, and overhead compute cost. The TPSS has become an indispensable tool in Oracle's ongoing development of innovative diagnostic/prognostic algorithms for dense-sensor predictive maintenance applications in multiple industries.
Experiences of Trust in Postmortem Profile Management

In the landscape of online social networking sites, many platforms are reaching a scale and longevity that require designers to address the postmortem data interactions that follow people’s deaths. To evaluate the experiences and challenges people face when caring for memorialized profiles, we conducted 28 qualitative interviews with people serving as legacy contacts for memorialized Facebook accounts. We report on who legacy contacts are and their practices and their expectations, and find that people were chosen to be a legacy contact for one major reason: trust. In our analysis, we find disconnects between how people understand trust in the context of interpersonal relationships and how trust is technically implemented. We conclude by discussing the persistent challenges of representing the ambiguity of interpersonal trust in impersonal, computational systems.
Anxiety and depression assessment scales for epileptic children and their applications

The incidence of anxiety and depression is high among epileptic children, and the morbidity has a growth trend seriously affecting children's many aspects, such as life quality, learning ability and mental growth which should be paid more attention to. At present, there are various kinds of instruments to assess anxiety and depression of epileptic children. The unified research on the instruments for assessing anxiety and depression of epileptic children is less at the present stage. This paper reviewed the status, correlative factors, assessment instrument and application status of anxiety and depression of epileptic children. Key words: Review; Epilepsy; Child; Anxiety; Depression; Assessment instrument