cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Intensive care unit palliative medicine: some issues--part I.

Who gets it and how much of the health care resources has been bantered about in this country for decades if not centuries. One of the better analogies regarding the finite nature of health care resources was published in 1968. In an essay in Science, Garrett Hardin eloquently paints a picture in which he describes the ‘‘The Tragedy of the Commons.’’ His thesis is that the population problem is a member of the class of human problems that have no technical solution. He likens the commons to the area where all herdsmen graze their cattle. Over centuries, this arrangement worked quite well due to tribal wars, poaching, and disease keeping the number of men and cattle well below the capacity of the land. As rational human beings, each herdsman sought to maximize his gain by adding one more animal to his herd. On the positive side, this produced more revenue for the herdsman in the sale of the additional animal. On the negative side, this created additional grazing, however, this overgrazing is shared by all herdsmen. In view of the advantage of adding one more cow to the herd, the rational herdsman continues to add animals to his herd. This same beneficial conclusion is reached by each and every herdsman sharing the common resulting in overgrazing and ultimately destroying the commons. As noted by Harding, each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limits in a world with limits. Furthermore, quoting Hardin:
Effect of smoking on comparative efficacy of antiplatelet agents: systematic review, meta-analysis, and indirect comparison

Objective To evaluate whether smoking status is associated with the efficacy of antiplatelet treatment in the prevention of cardiovascular events. Design Systematic review, meta-analysis, and indirect comparisons. Data sources Medline (1966 to present) and Embase (1974 to present), with supplementary searches in databases of abstracts from major cardiology conferences, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) and the CAB Abstracts databases, and Google Scholar. Study selection Randomized trials of clopidogrel, prasugrel, or ticagrelor that examined clinical outcomes among subgroups of smokers and nonsmokers. Data extraction Two authors independently extracted all data, including information on the patient populations included in the trials, treatment types and doses, definitions of clinical outcomes and duration of follow-up, definitions of smoking subgroups and number of patients in each group, and effect estimates and 95% confidence intervals for each smoking status subgroup. Results Of nine eligible randomized trials, one investigated clopidogrel compared with aspirin, four investigated clopidogrel plus aspirin compared with aspirin alone, and one investigated double dose compared with standard dose clopidogrel; these trials include 74 489 patients, of whom 21 717 (29%) were smokers. Among smokers, patients randomized to clopidogrel experienced a 25% reduction in the primary composite clinical outcome of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke compared with patients in the control groups (relative risk 0.75, 95% confidence interval 0.67 to 0.83). In nonsmokers, however, clopidogrel produced just an 8% reduction in the composite outcome (0.92, 0.87 to 0.98). Two studies investigated prasugrel plus aspirin compared with clopidogrel plus aspirin, and one study investigated ticagrelor plus aspirin compared with clopidogrel plus aspirin. In smokers, the relative risk was 0.71 (0.61 to 0.82) for prasugrel compared with clopidogrel and 0.83 (0.68 to 1.00) for ticagrelor compared with clopidogrel. Corresponding relative risks were 0.92 (0.83 to 1.01) and 0.89 (0.79 to 1.00) among nonsmokers. Conclusions In randomized clinical trials of antiplatelet drugs, the reported clinical benefit of clopidogrel in reducing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke was seen primarily in smokers, with little benefit in nonsmokers.
An effective wave-trapping system

Abstract This is a theoretical study of a breakwater-seawall wave-trapping system. The breakwater, being flexible, porous and thin beam-like, is held fixed in the sea bed and idealized as one-dimensional beam of uniform flexural rigidity and uniform mass per unit length. The seawall, being vertical, rigid and impermeable, is located behind the breakwater by a distance of L . The velocity potentials of the wave motion are coupled with the equation of motion of the breakwater. Analytical solutions in closed forms are obtained for the reflected and transmitted velocity potentials together with the displacement of the breakwater. The free-surface elevation, hydrodynamic forces acting on both the breakwater and the seawall are determined. It is found that the values of L , at which the minimum reflected-wave amplitudes reach, are in the range of 2n+1 4 λ to 3n+2 6 λ for breakwaters with different rigidity and permeability. It is shown that, when the spacing L maintains values in the range of 2n+1 4 λ to 3n+2 6 λ, the resultant amplitudes in both regions can be reduced to a favorable amount for any wave and structural parameters. It is also shown that the hydrodynamic forces on the breakwater decrease as the structural flexibility and porosity increase. However, with increases of the structural porosity and flexibility, the seawall experiences an increase of the hydrodynamic forces. Various results are presented in this paper to illustrate the effects of the structural and perous parameters together with the spacing on the response and efficiency of the breakwater-seawall wave-trapping system.
The highly saddled octaethyltetraphenylporphyrin-(H4OETPP) dichloride toluene 1.33-solvate

The title compound, 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octa­ethyl-5,10,15,20-tetra­phenyl­porphyrin dichloride toluene 1.33-solvate, C60H64N42+·2Cl−·1.33C7H8, displays a highly S4-saddled porphyrin core with the Cβ atoms displaced 1.23 (9) A out of the N4 plane. All N atoms are protonated and form hydrogen bonds [N⋯Cl = 3.206 (1) A] with chloride anions. An S4 symmetry axis passes through the porphyrin center. The phenyl group of the porphyrin is disordered over two sites, with occupancies approximately 0.6:0.4.
Integrated Patient Health Information Systems to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment

This research explores how a wide range of automobile crash, emergency responder, hospital, and trauma information could be useful to emergency medical practitioners for making decisions about automobile crash victims. We use a framework from prior research to consider, devise and examine emergency medical practitioner use of information systems for improving emergency response services and outcomes. This paper first provides an overview of clinical decision support systems focused on car crash emergency and trauma response. Concepts are grounded in a case study investigation conducted in Minnesota at the State and local level (Mayo Clinic). Operational data from 911 communications, ambulance response, and trauma data systems were linked together to demonstrate a data integration "proof of concept" to emergency medical practitioners. Interviews and focus groups discussions were then conducted to discuss the current and potential value of integrating inter-organizational data for real-time decision support. Analysis across these various methods provided a multi-layered understanding which led to a descriptive architecture for a crash trauma information system.
Comparison of demodulation RFI in inverting operational amplifier circuits of the same gain with different input and feedback resistor values

The magnitude of the voltage gain for each circuit is equal to 10. The two op amp circuits are identical with the exception of the values for the input and feedback resistors. In one circuit the value of the input resistor is 10 k Omega , and the value of the feedback resistor is 100 k Omega . For the other circuit, corresponding values for input and feedback resistors are 100 k Omega and 1 M Omega , 50% amplitude modulated (AM) signals were injected into the op amp signal input terminal to produce an undesired demodulated response at the 1 kHz AM-frequency. The RF frequency was varied over the range 0.1 to 400 MHz. Four op amp types were tested. Experimental results show that increasing the values of input and feedback resistors improves the RFI (radio frequency interference) immunity of the inverting op amp circuit. The improvement is caused by the parasitic capacitances of input and feedback resistors. >
Large deviations for the empirical mean of an $$M/M/1$$ queue

Let $$(Q(k):k\ge 0)$$ be an $$M/M/1$$ queue with traffic intensity $$\rho \in (0,1).$$ Consider the quantity $$\begin{aligned} S_{n}(p)=\frac{1}{n}\sum _{j=1}^{n}Q\left( j\right) ^{p} \end{aligned}$$ for any $$p>0.$$ The ergodic theorem yields that $$S_{n}(p) \rightarrow \mu (p) :=E[Q(\infty )^{p}]$$ , where $$Q(\infty )$$ is geometrically distributed with mean $$\rho /(1-\rho ).$$ It is known that one can explicitly characterize $$I(\varepsilon )>0$$ such that $$\begin{aligned} \lim \limits _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{1}{n}\log P\big (S_{n}(p) 0. \end{aligned}$$ In this paper, we show that the approximation of the right tail asymptotics requires a different logarithm scaling, giving $$\begin{aligned} \lim \limits _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{1}{n^{1/(1+p)}}\log P\big (S_{n} (p)>\mu \big (p\big )+\varepsilon \big )=-C\big (p\big ) \varepsilon ^{1/(1+p)}, \end{aligned}$$ where $$C(p)>0$$ is obtained as the solution of a variational problem. We discuss why this phenomenon--Weibullian right tail asymptotics rather than exponential asymptotics--can be expected to occur in more general queueing systems.
Synthesis of 3β-hydroxy-5α-cholest-8-en-7-one and 3β-hydroxy-5α-cholest-8-en-11-one: Evaluation as potential hypocholesterolemic agents

An efficient procedure for the chemical synthesis of 3 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-cholest-8-en-7-one and 3 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-cholest-8-en-11-one is described. These ketosterols have been shown to have possible significant hypocholesterolemic effects when fed to normal rats at a level of 0.15% in a laboratory chow diet. The diets containing the steroids caused significant decreases in food consumption which were associated with decreases in the rate of gain in body weight.
Parallelization of an Unstructured Grid, Hydrodynamic-Diffusion Code

We describe the parallelization of a three dimensional, unstructured grid, finite element code which solves hyperbolic conservation laws for mass; momentum, and energy, and diffusion equations modeling heat conduction and radiation transport. Explicit temporal differencing advances the cell-based gasdynamic equations. Diffusion equations use fully implicit differencing of nodal variables which leads to large, sparse; symmetric, and positive definite matrices. Because of the unstructured grid, the off-diagonal non-zero elements appear in unpredictable locations. The linear systems are solved using parallelized conjugate gradients. The code is parallelized by domain decomposition of physical space into disjoint subdomains (SDs). Each processor receives its own SD plus a border of ghost cells. Results are presented on a problem coupling hydrodynamics to non-linear heat conduction.
Effects of histamine and epinephrine on the small pulmonary blood vessels of living rabbits.

Abstract 1.1. The actions of lethal doses of histamine on the small pulmonary blood vessels of living, anesthetized rabbits include dilatation of capillaries, contraction of arterioles and venules, the formation of emboli, and a slowing and finally stagnation of linear blood flow. 2.2. Epinephrine constricts the small arterioles and venules for about one minute. Dilatation follows constriction. During constriction, rate of linear blood flow is slow, but during dilatation the rate is very rapid.
Improving multi-core performance using mixed-cell cache architecture

Many enterprise and mobile systems must operate within strict power constraints. These systems dynamically trade off performance and power to maximize performance while keeping power within specified limits. In multi-core systems, maximizing the number of active cores within a strict power budget requires minimizing the power per core. Lowering core voltage dramatically reduces power, but compromises cache reliability. Mixed-cell cache architectures, where part of the cache is designed with larger, more robust cells, enable caches to operate reliably at low voltage while minimizing the added cost of larger cells. But mixed-cell caches suffer from poor low-voltage scalability since caches can only use robust cells at low voltage, sacrificing up to 75% of cache capacity. Such capacity reduction strains shared cache resources, leading to significant performance losses. In this paper, we propose a mixed-cell architecture that improves multi-core performance by allowing the use of both robust and non-robust cells. Our mechanisms store modified data only in robust lines by modifying the cache replacement policy and handling writes to non-robust lines. For a multi-core processor, our best mechanism improves performance by 17%, and reduces dynamic power in the L1 data cache by 50% over prior mixed-cell proposals.
Navigation Principles of Positioning and Guidance

Navigation is the science of determining our position and our course of motion. Because it involves such fundamental quantities, navigation has played an essential role in human existence for millennia. This role has hardly diminished, even though we now have the capability to determine where we are with global radio navigation systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). If anything, the opposite is true. We are finding new ways of using navigation information to make our travels safer, faster, less costly, and generally more convenient.
"People want to see what happened": Treme, televisual tourism, and the racial remapping of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Occupying the space between cultural reproduction and theatrical production, the HBO series Treme offers an important vantage point from which to analyze the intersection of race, class, culture, a...
Attitudes toward capital punishment: Educational, demographic, and neighborhood crime influences

Studying attitudes toward capital punishment has been a topic of interest for decades. Indeed, it is often the subject of Gallup polls, political commentary, and social science research. Research i...
A multiprogramming system for process control

This paper describes an operational small computer multiprogramming system developed for the control of the Stanford Two Mile Linear Accelerator (SLAC). The system has many features of larger systems such as dynamic memory allocation and interprocess control, but does not have to handle typical batch type jobs which need large arrays and many other system resources. This difference results in a drastic reduction in the complexity of both design and implementation. The accelerator control problem is discussed in terms of what requirements are imposed on the system by the environment. Then the basic subsystems are described with sufficient examples to show the reader other areas where such a system may be applicable.
Team Entrepreneurial Passion: Its Emergence and Influence in New Venture Teams

We introduce the concept of team entrepreneurial passion, a team-level construct representing the level of shared intense positive feelings for a collective and central team identity for new venture teams. Additionally, we develop a dynamic theoretical model of (1) the processes by which team entrepreneurial passion can emerge from different combinations of new venture team members’ individual entrepreneurial passions, (2) the influence of team entrepreneurial passion on team and individual member outcomes, and (3) the relative importance of team entrepreneurial passion emergence and influence processes at different venture stages. Our model has theoretical and practical implications for scholarship concerning affective diversity, shared affect, collective identity, new venture teams, and entrepreneurial passion.
Bioengineering Novel Floating Nanoparticles for Protein and Drug Delivery

Gas vesicle nanoparticles (GVNPs) are hollow protein nanoparticles produced by Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 which are being engineered for protein delivery. To advance the bioengineering potential of GVNPs, a strain of NRC-1 deleted for the gvpC gene (ΔgvpC) was constructed and a synthetic gene coding for Gaussia princeps luciferase was fused to an abbreviated gvpC gene on an expression plasmid. When introduced into theΔgvpC strain, an active GvpC-luciferase fusion protein bound to GVNPs resulted. These results represent both a technical improvement in the GVNP display system and its expansion for the display of active enzymes.
Competing Against Oneself in Sealed-Bid Combinatorial Auctions

Combinatorial auctions are auctions of multiple heterogeneous objects that allow bids on subsets of the objects, giving bidders the flexibility to express if the objects in a set are more valuable together than separate. This added flexibility makes it possible for the bidders to express a variety of preferences, but also complicates the problem they need to solve to find their bidding strategies. I study the problem a bidder has to solve in first-price sealed-bid combinatorial auction of two objects. I find that bidders should avoid bidding for overlapping sets, if their bids can be greater than the best competitive bids; however, this theoretical prediction fails to hold in controlled laboratory experiments.
Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Trauma Patients: Different Criteria, Different Rates.

Abstract Background: No consensus exists regarding the definition of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Even within a single institution, inconsistent diagnostic criteria result in conflicting rates of VAP. As a Level 1 trauma center participating in the Trauma Quality Improvement Project (TQIP) and the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), our institution showed inconsistencies in VAP rates depending on which criteria was applied. The purpose of this study was to compare VAP definitions, defined by culture-based criteria, National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) and NHSN, using incidence in trauma patients. Methods: A retrospective chart review of consecutive trauma patients who were diagnosed with VAP and met pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria admitted to our rural, 861-bed, Level 1 trauma and tertiary care center between January 2008 and December 2011 was performed. These patients were identified from the National Trauma Registry of the American College of Surgeons (NTRACS) database and a...
Prediction of Treatment Efficacy by Blood Flow Responses to PDT in RIF Tumors

A diffuse correlation spectroscopy is used to non-invasively measure in vivo blood flow responses to PDT in RIF tumors. The treatment efficacy significantly correlates with the flow responses during and after PDT.
ALLELIC VARIATION AND SEGREGATION IN MORCHELLA DELICIOSA AND M. ESCULENTA

Electrophoretic data were obtained for single ascospore isolates ofMorchella deliciosa from individual ascocarps. The loci studied exhibited allelic differences between ascospore isolates, indicating that genes from different paternal genomes exist in individual offspring from a single ascocarp. Less genetic variation was found in M. esculenta but ascospore isolates from individual ascocarps also exhibited allelic differences. The occurrence of only two electrophoretic types was observed among the six isolates and may indicate the existence of linkage or pseudolinkage. The presence of polymorphisms, the possibility of mating types and production of ascospores indicate that M. deliciosa and M. esculenta exist as Mendelian populations. The occurrence of gene exchange among sexually reproducing individuals enables a biological basis for determining taxa. Our data also indicate that local populations of M. deliciosa and M. esculenta can be reproductively isolated and exist as separate gene pools.
Larval and developmental characteristics of the endemic Hawaiian lacewing, Anomalochrysa frater (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae)

In providing the first taxonomic descriptions of the larvae of an Anomalochrysa species, we noted that Anomalochrysa frater Perkins exhibits some traits previously unreported for the genus : Each of the three instars has well-developed lateral tubercles on the thoracic segments and abdominal segments II through VII ; thoracic and abdominal setae are numerous, well developed, and most are blunt or knobbed ; and all three instars vary greatly in thoracic and abdominal markings. In addition, A. frater shares several distinctive biological features with its congener A. maclachlani Blackburn : both species develop well under low temperatures (i.e., 25°C. ; and courtship involves dorsoanteriorly directed flicks of the wings by both males and females
Relative Toxicity of Selected Insecticides to Bacterial Populations in Waste Disposal Lagoons

The toxicity of several insecticides to bacterial populations in waste-disposal lagoons was compared at five concenntrations. Dursban® ( O, O -diethyl O -(3, 5, 6-trichloro-2-pyridyl) phosphorothioate) and naled caused the highest levels of mortality to the bacterial population, having LD50’s of 0.028 and 0.02%, respectively. Abate® ( O, O -dimethyl phosphorothioate O, O -diester with 4, 4'-thiophenol) and fenthion with LD50’s of 0.9 and 0.66%, respectively, caused the lowest mortality. Bacterial mortality as low as that found in tests using 0.0001% (1 ppm) concentrations would probably not cause a functional disruption of the lagoon process. To control mosquito breeding the daily addition of fecal material along with bacterial development in a lagoon could offset the bacterial mortality caused by insecticide application at 1 ppm or less.
‘Well everyone has something’: a case study of a collegiate athlete with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

In popular culture, two narratives have emerged about people with intersex conditions: female athletes being subjected to sex verification tests and adults born with ambiguous genitalia who had sur...
The Influence of Technology on Romantic Relationships: Understanding Online Dating

A culture’s social fabric is deeply dependent on how its members establish romantic bonds. What happens when the way those bonds are formed is radically changed over the course of a single generation? This is the case with the rise of online dating, which is now the second most common way for people to meet a romantic partner. Despite existing research exploring issues such as mate selection, self-presentation, and impressions, we still do not know how online dating systems affect people’s perceptions—about technology, relationships, romantic partners, and themselves—and how these perceptions affect behavior. In this paper, we introduce and explicate the Source Multiplicity, Attribution, Recognition, and Transformation (SMART) Model of Online Dating. The SMART model is a comprehensive theoretical framework that has interdisciplinary roots in human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-mediated communication (CMC), psychology, and decision science.
Trauma Narratives: Breaking the Silence of Childhood Sexual Abuse

This is a theoretical chapter that plays off of an essay by Georg Simmel, “The Adventure” It considers the ways in which trauma may be seen as the shadow-side of adventure that draws one in rather than out. The research literature on trauma and gender violence and excerpts from memoirs inform this micro analysis of childhood sexual abuse narratives from the Global Clothesline Project. Breaking silence and bearing witness are central to the healing process, not only for the individual but also for the restoration of social order.
Store-Related Injuries to Children and Adults:

The present study investigated in detail the circumstances and patterns of injury experienced by adults and children in retail store environments in the United States. Data from the CPSC’s National...
History of Food Laws in the United States

Despite some beliefs to the contrary, the United States has developed laws regulating food which are not surpassed in breadth and definition elsewhere in the world, and the history of these laws began literally centuries ago.
Environmental Management’s Impact on Market Value: Rewards and Punishments

Concerns regarding changes in the natural environment have led to an increase in research regarding environmental management (EM) practices. Studies examining the financial impact of such practices have been inconclusive. Drawing on agency theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we provide a comprehensive examination of the market’s reaction to firms identified by Newsweek’s Green Rankings as the best (top 100) and worst (bottom 100) for EM reputation among the largest 500 firms in the United States. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which the market reacts differently to service firms and manufacturing firms in regards to environmental reputation signals. We find that the market responds favorably to positive environmental management reputation signals for service firms and to negative environmental management reputation signals for manufacturing firms. Post hoc analysis reveals that both service firms and manufacturing firms are rewarded for being ranked “in the middle” of the Newsweek Green Rankings.
A rare diaphragmatic ureteral herniation case report: endoscopic and open reconstructive management

Ureteral herniations are a rare occurrence, generally found incidentally on cross sectional imaging or during surgical intervention for unrelated processes. Several locations of ureteral herniations can occur including the inguinal, femoral, sciatic, obturator, and thoracic regions. While few reports of ureteral hernias are reported in the literature overall, the vast majority of those reported are inguinoscrotal herniations found during evaluation and treatment of inguinal hernias. Pelvic outlet ureteral herniations intrinsically are more common secondary to their dependent locations. Intrathoracic ureteral herniations through diaphragmatic defects are an exceptionally rare subset of ureteral herniations and have only been described sparingly. Fewer than ten case reports of diaphramatic ureteral herniations have been reported and none have described both cystoscopic management and open reconstruction. We report the case of a 81 year old female with flank pain who was found to have idiopathic diaphragmatic hernia with incarcerated proximal ureter. She had no prior injury or surgery that explained her clinical presentation. She was initially observed and then managed conservatively with ureteral stent exchanges. Ultimately she underwent open surgical repair of her diaphragmatic hernia, reduction, resection and anastomosis of redundant proximal incarcerated ureteral segment, and nephropexy for a hypermobile right renal unit. This case report illustrates the pre- and post-operative imaging studies of a very rare intrathoracic ureteral herniation as well as surgical approach to repair. A herniated ureter is a potential source of serious renal and ureteral complications. The thoracic herniation of ureter is the rarest of the ureteral herniations. When discovered, they should be managed to preserve renal function and prevent strangulation of the affected segment of ureter. This case report documents the treatment of a thoracic ureteral herniation with observation, conservative endoscopic management, and finally open surgical reconstruction.
Un estudio de casos y controles para calcular el riesgo de eclampsia en Cali, Colombia

Se compararon 220 pacientes eclampticas de Cali y una muestra al azar de 345 parturientas de la poblacion general, con el objeto de cuantificar el valor predictivo de 7 factores accesibles al obstetra en el comienzo del embarazo: edad, paridad, numero de abortos y mortinatos previos, estado civil, clase social, y estado migratorio. Un segundo objeto fue calcular las tasas de eclampsia, tanto global como especifica, por edad-paridad. La tasa global encontrada en Cali, 1.59 * 1000 nacidos vivos es de 2,5 veces mayor que la cifra correspondiente a jerusalen. La paridad y la edad tienen una relacion muy estrecha con la eclampsia pero presentan un patron distinto con la preeclampsia. Hay mayor riesgo de eclampsia para las madres solteras y para quienes tengan una historia de abortos previos. Cada uno de estos factores (edad, paridad, no casada y antecedente de aborto) es un componente independiente para predecir el riesgo de eclampsia. Un instrumento para calcular el riesgo, con base en estos factores, puede identificar un 12% de las mujeres que producen el 56% de las pacientes eclampticas de Cali.
Psychometric properties and correlates of the PHQ-2 and PHQ-9 after traumatic brain injury.

Primary objective: To determine the predictive accuracy of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-2 in predicting PHQ-9 findings and to examine demographic, historical, and injury correlates of PHQ...
Notes on Two Species of Frullania subg. Chonanthelia (Frullaniaceae) from the Southwestern United States

Frullania cuencensis is newly reported from Texas, extending the documented range of this species north of Mexico to the United States. The species can be separated from F. riparia by its inflated, galeate lobules that have triangular proximal portions; subulate styli; and entire, somewhat recurved ventral leaf margins. Frullania mexicana is taken out of synonymy and confirmed from Arizona and New Mexico, as well as newly reported from Texas. It differs from both F. inflata and F. tetraptera in having differentiated marginal/median cells of the leaf lobe and an obovoid perianth with eight or more keels. Other distinctions between F. inflata and F. tetraptera are presented. Frullania mexicana has been confused and overlooked in the United States with several literature reports of F. inflata and F. pluricarinata specimens from Arizona and New Mexico belonging to F. mexicana.
Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation

Once upon a time, man started to use models in his practical activity. Modeling continues to play a very important role in studying natural phenomena and processes as well as helping to create modern engineering systems. Additionally, modeling is used in biology and medicine to find the mechanisms of function and malfunction concerning the organs of living organisms at both the micro and macro level.
Volumetric and linear measurements of lung tumor burden from non-gated micro-CT imaging correlate with histological analysis in a genetically engineered mouse model of non-small cell lung cancer

In vivo micro-computed tomography (CT) imaging allows longitudinal studies of pulmonary neoplasms in genetically engineered mouse models. Respiratory gating increases the accuracy of lung tumor mea...
Assessment of sympathetic neural activity in chronic insomnia: evidence for elevated cardiovascular risk

Study Objectives Chronic insomnia affects up to 15 per cent of adults. Recent cross-sectional and prospective epidemiological studies report an association between insomnia and hypertension, including incident hypertension, yet mechanisms underlying the association remain unknown. We hypothesized that participants with chronic insomnia would have elevated sympathetic neural outflow, blunted baroreflex sensitivity, and augmented sympathetic neural and cardiovascular reactivity to stress when compared with good-sleeper controls. Methods Twelve participants with chronic insomnia (11 women, 1 man) and 12 controls (8 women, 4 men) underwent one night of laboratory polysomnography, two weeks of at-home wrist actigraphy, and one night of controlled laboratory sleep prior to a comprehensive morning autonomic function test. The autonomic function test consisted of simultaneous recordings of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA; microneurography), beat-to-beat blood pressure (finger plethysmography), and heart rate (electrocardiogram) during a 10 min supine baseline and a 2 min cold pressor test. Results Baseline blood pressure, heart rate, and MSNA were not different between groups, but sympathetic baroreflex sensitivity was significantly blunted in participants with insomnia (-2.1 ± 1.0 vs. -4.3 ± 1.3 bursts/100 heartbeats/mm Hg; p < 0.001). During the cold pressor test, systolic arterial pressure reactivity (Δ21 ± 11 vs. Δ14 ± 8 mm Hg; time × group = 0.04) and total MSNA reactivity (Δ127%, 54%-208% vs. Δ52%, 30%-81%; time × group = 0.02) were augmented in chronic insomnia. Conclusions Participants with chronic insomnia demonstrated impaired sympathetic baroreflex function and augmented neural cardiovascular responsiveness to stress, when compared with controls. These findings support growing evidence of cardiovascular risk and physiological hyperarousal in chronic insomnia. Clinical Trial Registration NCT02048878. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02048878.
New Designs of Linear Observers and Observer-Based Controllers for Singularly Perturbed Linear Systems

This paper considers the design of observers for systems with slow and fast modes. The existing methods are able to design independent slow and fast observers with $O(\epsilon)$ accuracy only, where $\epsilon$ is a small positive singular perturbation parameter that indicates separation of system state-space variables into slow and fast. In this paper, the design of independent slow and fast reduced-order observers was performed with very high accuracy $O(\epsilon ^{i}), i=2,3,....$ . The results obtained are extended to the design of corresponding observer driven controllers. The design allows complete time-scale separation for both the observer and controller through the decomposition into slow and fast time scales. This method reduces both offline and online computations. The effectiveness of the new methods is demonstrated through both theoretical and simulation results.
Altered resting state functional connectivity of the cognitive control network in fibromyalgia and the modulation effect of mind-body intervention

This study examines altered resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the cognitive control network (CCN) in fibromyalgia patients as compared to healthy controls, as well as how an effective mind-body intervention, Tai Chi, can modulate the altered rsFC of the CCN. Patients with fibromyalgia and matched healthy subjects were recruited in this study. Fibromyalgia patients were scanned 12 weeks before and after intervention. The bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was used as a seed to explore the rsFC of the CCN. Data analysis was conducted with 21 patients and 20 healthy subjects. Compared to healthy subjects, fibromyalgia patients exhibited increased rsFC between the DLPFC and the bilateral rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) at baseline. The rsFC between the CCN and rACC/MPFC further increased after Tai Chi intervention, and this increase was accompanied by clinical improvements. This rsFC change was also significantly associated with corresponding changes in the Overall Impact domain of the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR). Further analysis showed that the rACC/MPFC rsFC with both the PAG and hippocampus significantly decreased following Tai Chi intervention. Our study suggests that fibromyalgia is associated with altered CCN rsFC and that effective mind-body treatment may elicit clinical improvements by further increasing this altered rsFC. Elucidating this mechanism of enhancing the allostasis process will deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying mind-body interventions in fibromyalgia patients and facilitate the development of new pain management methods.
Long-term functional outcomes after blunt cerebrovascular injury: A 20-year experience

Since blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) became increasingly recognized more than 20 years ago, significant improvements have been made in both diagnosis and treatment. Little is known regarding long-term functional outcomes in BCVI. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of BCVI on those long-term outcomes. All patients with BCVI from 1996 to 2014 were identified from the trauma registry. Functional outcome was measured using the Boston University Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify potential predictors of outcomes. A total of 509 patients were identified. Overall mortality was 18 per cent (BCVI-related = 1%). Of the 415 survivors, follow-up was obtained in 77 (19%). Mean follow-up was five years, with a maximum of 19 years. Mean age and injury severity score were 47 and 25, respectively. Six (8%) patients suffered strokes. Mean Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care scores were 59 (mobility), 58 (activity), and 44 (cognitive function), each indicating significant impairment compared with normal. Multiple regression models identified 1) age as a predictor of decreased mobility, 2) injury severity score as a predictor of decreased mobility, activity, and cognitive function, and 3) stroke as a predictor of decreased activity, cognitive function, and likely mobility. Development of stroke and increased injury severity resulted in worse long-term functional outcomes after BCVI. Thus, stroke prevention with optimal diagnostic and treatment algorithms remains critical in the successful treatment of BCVI because it has significant impact on long-term functional outcomes and is the only modifiable predictor of outcomes in patients after BCVI.
On the Fate of Oil Ganglia during Immiscible Displacement in Water Wet Granular Porous Media

In a series of previous publications a model was formulated for the study of the dynamics of oil ganglia populations during immiscible displacement in oil recovery processes. The model is composed of four components: a suitable model for granular porous media, a mobilization/breakup criterion, a Monte Carlo simulation method capable of predicting the fate (mobilization, breakup, stranding) of solitary oil ganglia, and two coupled ganglia-population balance equations—one applying to moving ganglia and the other to stranded ones. Central roles in this model are played by the probability of mobilization, the probability of breakup per rheon, the probability of stranding per rheon, the breakup coefficient and the stranding coefficient. These parameters have already been calculated for randomly shaped oil ganglia. However, stochastic simulations show that mobilized oil ganglia tend to get elongated and slender. The effect of slenderization on the aforementioned parameters is investigated here based on Monte Carlo simulation results.
Roles and Regulation of Phenazines in the Biological Control Strain Pseudomonas chlororaphis 30-84

Pseudomonads are well known for the production of diverse secondary metabolites, including phenazines that are essential for the control of plant diseases. Emerging evidence demonstrates that phenazines play multiple roles in the ecological fitness of the producing microbe. It is now understood that phenazines modify cellular redox state, act as electron shuttles altering electron flow patterns, contribute to biofilm formation and architecture, act as cell signals that regulate patterns of gene expression, and contribute to the survival of the producer. When associated with eukaryotic hosts, phenazines modify numerous host cellular responses. Of particular interest in defining their functional impact are the observations that bacterial species may produce different types of phenazines and many produce more than one phenazine derivative. The amount of each derivative produced may change during growth or in response to the intracellular or extracellular environment. Furthermore, environmental conditions influence the redox state of the derivatives, altering their functionality. The regulatory complexity governing phenazine production likely reflects the complexity of the roles they play for the producing microbe. Here, we highlight briefly some of the roles phenazines play in the biological control activity of pseudomonads belonging to the Pseudomonas fluorescens subgroup, with special emphasis on Pseudomonas chlororaphis 30-84. We also review the regulatory network governing phenazine production in P. chlororaphis 30-84, with special emphasis on how the different regulatory controls function in terms of the signals to which they respond and the suites of genes they control. Despite the recognized roles phenazines play in bacterial fitness and biological control, growing evidence suggests that phenazine non-producing phenotypic variants defective in the GacS/GacA two component regulatory system are common components of plant-associated bacterial communities. We provide additional discussion on why these phenotypic variants should not be overlooked.
Education Quality Audit as Applied in Hong Kong

Academic audit emerged in the UK circa 1990 and is being applied in a growing number of venues across the world. This paper describes the variant, called “Education Quality Audit,” applied by Hong Kong 's University Grants Committee (UGC) in the mid 1990s and again 2002. The UGC's policy problem was how to discharge its obligation to Government and the public to assure the quality of teaching and learning without disempowering the institutions, infringing their autonomy, or spending too much in relation to the results achieved. Its solution was to evaluate the maturity of the universities' “education quality work” (EQW): that is, the organized activities dedicated to improving and assuring educational quality. EQW includes the assessment of student learning, and also educational goals, curricula, teaching methods, and quality assurance. Audit differs from external assessment in that it does not directly evaluate the quality of educational provision. Such evaluations are important, but they are difficult for external bodies to achieve in university education. Audit asks whether the entity itself makes the requisite measurements and what it does with the results. It assumes a delegation of responsibility to the institution and verifies that the delegation is being discharged effectively. The audit mantra is, “Trust but check.”
Building Institutions for Cooperation in Querétaro, 1979–1991

The 1980s brought a series of economic shocks, beginning with Mexico’s historic debt default and subsequent economic crash in 1982 and continuing with its rapid trade liberalization in 1985. In response, local officials, business associations, and labor organizations in Queretaro developed effective mechanisms for coordination, which smoothed the state’s adjustment to economic hardship and laid the groundwork for a globally competitive economy. The most visible manifestation of local cooperation was the Tripartite Commission, a monthly forum for consultation and dialogue among government, business, and labor that lasted into the twenty-first century. Coordination allowed the state to implement a clear strategy to enhance productivity, build industrial infrastructure, and promote technological sophistication, a set of policies strongly influenced by Queretaro’s modernizing business associations, which were led by large, globally integrated manufacturing firms. As a result, the state economy recovered rapidly from the 1982 crisis and experienced remarkably fast growth during Mexico’s “lost decade.”
Comparisons of QPFs Derived from Single- and Multicore Convection-Allowing Ensembles

AbstractThis study compares ensemble precipitation forecasts from 10-member, 3-km grid-spacing, CONUS domain single- and multicore ensembles that were a part of the 2016 Community Leveraged Unified...
Human shields, missiles, negative homesteading and libertarianism

Human shields, missiles, negative homesteading and libertarianismWhen a bad guy throws one innocent person against another, or uses one as a body shield so as to facilitate murdering the other, or is in the process of bashing in the heads of two such people, what are the rights and responsibilities of each of these latter two victimized parties vis a vis each other? The concept of negative homesteading is introduced in an attempt to shed light on these legal puzzles.
The intersection of pedestrian safety and multimodal perception

Abstract Pedestrian injury is a costly and all-too-common form of unintentional injury. The pedestrian’s task is complex, requiring individuals to glean information from the environment and make judgments based on that information. Previous pedestrian safety research has included both visual and auditory perceptual cues. Few studies, however, have specifically focused on examining the unique strengths and weaknesses of vision and audition in the pedestrian task. We therefore posit future pedestrian safety research should give more detailed consideration to the perceptual modalities involved in the pedestrian task. The human factors literature contains theories and frameworks which pedestrian safety researchers and practitioners may use to conceptualize the perceptual components of the pedestrian’s tasks. We propose a multimodal approach to pedestrian safety research comprising two broad principles drawn from the perceptual modality literature: independence and dominance. We discuss the principles in the context of how each principle may inform pedestrian safety research as well as injury prevention efforts.
Authentication and Partial Message Correction over Adversarial Multiple-Access Channels

In this paper, we present results on the authentication capacity region for the two-user arbitrarily-varying multipleaccess channel. We first consider a standard definition of authentication, in which the receiver may discard both messages if an adversary is detected. For this setting, we show that an extension of the arbitrarily-varying channel condition overwritability characterizes the authentication capacity region. We then define γ-correcting authentication, where we require that at least a γ fraction of the users’ messages be correctable, even in the presence of an adversary. We give necessary conditions for the γ-correcting authentication capacity region to have nonempty interior, and show that positive rate pairs are achievable over a particular channel that satisfies these conditions.
FROM H i TO STARS: H I DEPLETION IN STARBURSTS AND STAR-FORMING GALAXIES IN THE ALFALFA Hα SURVEY

H i in galaxies traces the fuel for future star formation and reveals the effects of feedback on neutral gas. Using a statistically uniform, H i-selected sample of 565 galaxies from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) H? survey, we explore H i properties as a function of star formation activity. ALFALFA H? provides R-band and H? imaging for a volume-limited subset of the 21 cm ALFALFA survey. We identify eight starbursts based on H??equivalent width and six with enhanced star formation relative to the main sequence. Both starbursts and non-starbursts have similar H i-to-stellar mass ratios (/), which suggests that feedback is not depleting the starbursts? H i. Consequently, the starbursts do have shorter H i depletion times (), implying more efficient H i-to-H2 conversion. While major mergers likely drive this enhanced efficiency in some starbursts, the lowest-mass starbursts may experience periodic bursts, consistent with enhanced scatter in at low . Two starbursts appear to be pre-coalescence mergers; their elevated / suggest that H i-to-H2 conversion is still ongoing at this stage. By comparing with the GASS sample, we find that anticorrelates with stellar surface density for disks, while spheroids show no such trend. Among early-type galaxies, does not correlate with bulge-to-disk ratio; instead, the gas distribution may determine the star formation efficiency. Finally, the weak connection between galaxies? specific star formation rates and / contrasts with the well-known correlation between / and color. We show that dust extinction can explain the H i?color trend, which may arise from the relationship between , , and metallicity.
Disparities in Secondhand Smoke Exposure in the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2018.

This cross-sectional study examines National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data to assess the prevalence of secondhand smoke exposure in nonsmokers in the US population 3 years and older.