cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimal number of phased array faces for horizon and volume surveillance revisited

The problem of the optimal number of phased array faces for performing both horizon and volume surveillance over 360 degrees is revisited. Previously, assuming the detection performance is the same in all beam positions and the total number of T/R modules is constant, it was shown that for either horizon or volume surveillance, the optimal number of array faces was three. This was true whether the arrays were operating simultaneously or sequentially. In this paper a more realistic scan loss is used and the effects of fill pulses for pulse-Doppler waveforms are considered. It is shown that for array faces operating simultaneously, as the required clutter fill increases, the optimal number of array faces grows from three to four for both horizon surveillance and volume surveillance. For equal performance, the fill is about 50 km for horizon surveillance and in excess of 200 km for volume surveillance. However, the four-face systems may require additional electronics and an additional signal processor; and this needs to be taken into account.
Anterior Cervical Approach

A C4 biopsy was planned, which would be followed by vertebroplasty. There is no contraindication to percutaneous vertebroplasty (PV) in conjunction with biopsy before the cell type of a metastatic or primary tumor of bone is known. The approach to C4 used was anterior oblique with a small guide needle to first ensure that no critical structures (i.e., carotid artery) were punctured. A right side approach is always preferred to avoid the esophagus, found centrally or to the left behind the trachea. The vascular structures on the right are manually pushed aside during the insertion of a 20-gauge guide needle (Case Figure 6.2A,B; see also Figure 2.3). After introduction, the guide needle position can be confirmed with CT scanning. As opposed to fluoroscopy, CT scanning can show the internal structures of the neck and help ensure that the guide needle adequately misses critical structures. Subsequently, a
Conspicuous Consumption of Time: When Busyness and Lack of Leisure Time Become a Status Symbol

Movies, magazines, and popular TV shows such as “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” often highlight the abundance of money and leisure time among the wealthy. Consistent with this portrayal, Veblen’s (1899/2007) theory of the leisure class suggests that the wealthy signal their ability to live idle lives by consuming time unproductively. At the same time though, complaining about being busy and about working all the time is an increasingly widespread phenomenon in modern society. On Twitter, celebrities publicly complain about “having no life” or “being in desperate need for a vacation” (Alford 2012). New York Times social commentator suggests that a common response to the question “How are you?” is “Busy!” (Kreider 2012). An analysis of holiday letters indicates that references to “crazy schedules” have increased since the 1960s (Schulte 2014). Contrary to the prediction that signaling time spent leisurely is associated with high status and wealth, we propose that signaling busyness has also become a status symbol and is regarded as an aspirational lifestyle.
Development of an Aeroelastic Formulation for Deformable Airfoils Using Orthogonal Polynomials

In this paper, an aeroelastic formulation is developed to analyze aeroelastic behavior of flexible airfoils with arbitrary camber deformations. The camberwise bending deformation of flexible airfoi...
Measuring succession: methods for establishing long-term vegetation monitoring sites

Successional stages are often characterized by dominant plant species (species with the highest cover) and their effect on the structure and function of an area through time. However, the plant species determining the ecosystem properties and plant community dynamics may not be the dominant, especially when it is exotic. Understanding plant community dynamics in ecosystems that are uncharacterized and/or affected by invasive plant species requires a data-driven approach and proper placement of monitoring plots. To generate robust datasets on vegetation change through time, monitoring plot placement must consider the scale of ecological variation for both vegetation and soils and plots would ideally be replicated within similar ecological site types to quantify the consistency of successional transitions. We characterized soil and vegetation across and within seven floodplains affected by Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.) along the Yellowstone River in southeastern Montana, USA. Using modern Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and multivariate net differentiation, we identified five distinct plant community types, or classes, characterized by their tertiary woody plant cover, not the primary species, Russian olive. Our findings indicate that Russian olive communities differ across space, and these riparian areas can be classified into distinct plant community types. Characterizing plant community types via this analytical approach should allow practitioners to modify management decisions and forecast succession within relevant plant communities.
A Review of MongoDB and Singularity Container Security in regards to HIPAA Regulations

Nowadays Linux Containers which have operating system level virtualization, are very popular over virtual machines (VMs) which have hypervisor or kernel level virtualization in high performance computing (HPC) due to reasons, such as high portability, high performance, efficiency and high security[1]. Hence, LXCs can make an efficient and secure big data analytic framework with the help of secure, efficient, easily scalable, and highly available databases. A concern for security on high performance computing clusters is high for the transdisciplinary Texas Tech University (TTU) EXPOSOME Project. This project mainly focuses on sensitive healthcare data which is operating in the Quanah Linux cluster in the High Performance Computing Center of Texas Tech University. Data privacy in this project is in 4 areas: the database, the network infrastructure, web applications, and physical security, in line with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The study in this paper investigates how to assure the TTU EXPOSOME Project data security by proposing a secure data analytic framework with the Singularity Linux container and the MongoDB NoSQL database, commonly available at TTU. First, the paper investigates what are the advantages of LXCs over VMs with security and performance perspectives. Then, it focuses on four main HIPAA required areas in data security, such as authentication, authorization, encryption, and auditing, in order to make sure system security is assured to handle healthcare data. Finally it shows how the TTU EXPOSOME Project strengthens security in the aforementioned four areas using MongoDB and Singularity, such that system security is approaching compliance with HIPAA.
Fabrication and operational considerations of hydrogen permeable Mo2C/V metal membranes and improvement with application of Pd

Abstract Mo2C has previously been demonstrated as an effective catalyst layer to enable stable H2 permeation through vanadium foils at high temperatures. In this study, this approach was extended to several group V metal foils (V, Nb, and Ta) as well as mixed gas testing. The best permeability was achieved with V, and an activation process was developed to recover the performance of V foils displaying evidence of oxidation. Nb foils yielded ~ 20% the permeability of V, while Ta was too brittle to operate effectively. Mo2C/V membranes were operated at feed conditions well above the ductile-to-brittle transition pressure without embrittlement; however, the H2 permeability of Mo2C/V membranes was significantly attenuated at lower temperatures (
A unified inversion scheme to process multifrequency measurements of various dispersive electromagnetic properties

Abstract Multi-frequency measurement of a dispersive electromagnetic (EM) property, such as electrical conductivity, dielectric permittivity , or magnetic permeability , is commonly analyzed for purposes of material characterization. Such an analysis requires inversion of the multi-frequency measurement based on a specific relaxation model, such as Cole-Cole model or Pelton's model. We develop a unified inversion scheme that can be coupled to various type of relaxation models to independently process multi-frequency measurement of varied EM properties for purposes of improved EM-based geomaterial characterization. The proposed inversion scheme is firstly tested in few synthetic cases in which different relaxation models are coupled into the inversion scheme and then applied to multi-frequency complex conductivity, complex resistivity, complex permittivity, and complex impedance measurements . The method estimates up to seven relaxation-model parameters exhibiting convergence and accuracy for random initializations of the relaxation-model parameters within up to 3-orders of magnitude variation around the true parameter values. The proposed inversion method implements a bounded Levenberg algorithm with tuning initial values of damping parameter and its iterative adjustment factor, which are fixed in all the cases shown in this paper and irrespective of the type of measured EM property and the type of relaxation model. Notably, jump-out step and jump-back-in step are implemented as automated methods in the inversion scheme to prevent the inversion from getting trapped around local minima and to honor physical bounds of model parameters. The proposed inversion scheme can be easily used to process various types of EM measurements without major changes to the inversion scheme.
The Multi-Dimensional Structure of Radiative Shocks: Suppressed Thermal X-rays and Relativistic Ion Acceleration

Radiative shocks, behind which gas cools faster than the dynamical time, play a key role in many astrophysical transients, including classical novae and young supernovae interacting with circumstellar material. The dense layer behind high Mach number $\mathcal{M} \gg 1$ radiative shocks is susceptible to thin-shell instabilities, creating a "corrugated" shock interface. We present two and three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of optically-thin radiative shocks to study their thermal radiation and acceleration of non-thermal relativistic ions. We employ a moving-mesh code and a specialized numerical technique to eliminate artificial heat conduction across grid cells. The fraction of the shock's luminosity $L_{\rm tot}$ radiated at X-ray temperatures $kT_{\rm sh} \approx (3/16)\mu m_p v_{\rm sh}^{2}$ expected from a one-dimensional analysis is suppressed by a factor $L(>T_{\rm sh}/3)/L_{\rm tot} \approx 4.5/\mathcal{M}^{4/3}$ for $\mathcal{M} \approx 4-36$. This suppression results in part from weak shocks driven into under-pressured cold filaments by hot shocked gas, which sap thermal energy from the latter faster than it is radiated. Combining particle-in-cell simulation results for diffusive shock acceleration with the inclination angle distribution across the shock (relative to an upstream magnetic field in the shock plane$-$the expected geometry for transient outflows), we predict the efficiency and energy spectrum of ion acceleration. Though negligible acceleration is predicted for adiabatic shocks, the corrugated shock front enables local regions to satisfy the quasi-parallel magnetic field geometry required for efficient acceleration, resulting in an average acceleration efficiency of $\epsilon_{\rm nth} \sim 0.005-0.02$ for $\mathcal{M} \approx 12-36$, in agreement with modeling of the gamma-ray nova ASASSN-16ma.
Bone Health Considerations for the Adolescent Female Athlete

Provide an update on bone health considerations for adolescent female athletes. This review explores multiple topics related to bone health in adolescent female athletes, including bone development, facilitators of and risks to bone health, assessment of bone health, and implications for poor bone health in this population. Bone health has important implications for sports performance and overall wellness among adolescent female athletes. Recent studies support the benefits of approaching bone health in this population with an experienced multidisciplinary care team including medical, nutrition, and behavioral health providers. Given the increasing numbers of adolescent females participating in sports and the health benefits of these activities, ongoing research is needed to better articulate guidelines and recommendations for care to optimize bone health in this unique population.
Canonic Texts in Public Policy Studies: A Quantitative Analysis

AbstractAs an interdisciplinary study, public policy is situated at the intersection of traditional academic disciplines combined with the needs of policy research in the governmental sphere. Throu...
Endovascular Stent Graft Exclusion of an Iatrogenic Tracheoinnominate Fistula after Unsuccessful Surgical Repair

A 10-year-old girl with metachromatic leukodystrophy developed a tracheoinnominate artery fistula and massive hemoptysis following tracheostomy, initially requiring open surgical repair. Massive hemoptysis recurred at 1 month due to suspected pericardial patch dehiscence. The authors herein describe the subsequent emergent treatment by stent graft exclusion and review the existing literature surrounding this rare and potentially fatal condition.
Linear Structural Analysis

A linear analysis is conducted if a structure is expected to exhibit linear behavior. The deformation and load-carrying capability can be determined by employing one of the analysis types available in ANSYS, static or dynamic, depending on the nature of the applied loading. If the applied loading is determined as part of the solution for structural stability, a buckling analysis is conducted. If the structure is subjected to thermal loading, the analysis is referred to as thermomechanical.
Food irradiation: an unused weapon against hunger

The author urges use of food irradiation technology now to ease the world's food supply shortage. The holdup appears to relate to whether irradiation is an additive under the 1958 Food Additive Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, although the FAO-IAEA-World Health Organization in 1976 declared five foods unconditionally safe for human consumption after irradiation. Another delay is seen as lack of commercial feasibility data. (PCS)
COMPARING CHESS OPENINGS PART 3: QUEEN'S PAWN OPENINGS

A dual engine experimental design for comparing chess openings was described in a previous paper (Munshi, Comparing Chess Openings, 2014). It is used in this paper to study ten chess openings that are initiated with the queen's pawn move 1. d4. One of the openings is identified as the mainline and the other nine as variations from the mainline. Five of the variations are found to be benign innovations and the other four are deemed to be failed innovations. The findings are mostly consistent with expert opinion. The primary purpose of this paper, however, is not these specific findings but rather the further development and verification of an objective and quantitative methodology for the evaluation of chess openings in general 1 . This paper is the third of a series in a study undertaken to develop a generally applicable methodology for the objective evaluation of chess openings. The proposed methodology uses controlled experiments with chess engines to compare chess openings. The first paper in this series (Munshi, A Method for Comparing Chess Openings, 2014) presented a single engine experimental design (SED) to compare ten openings that are initiated with the King's pawn move 1. e4. It demonstrated that the proposed methodology is able to discriminate between known strong openings and known weak openings. The advantage of the SED is that it removes the difference in playing strength from the experiment and isolates the effect of the opening; but the disadvantage is that the same engine playing both sides of the board may introduce an engine bias in the data by not playing a sufficiently diverse set of opening variations. Subsequently, a dual engine design (DED) was proposed to address the issue of engine bias (Munshi, Comparing Chess Openings, 2014). The second paper showed that there may have been a propensity for engine bias in the SED and that the engine bias problem is mitigated by the DED which forces the engines to play a greater number of variations. This paper describes a further test of the DED using a new set of openings. The motivation for this study is that conventional methods of evaluating chess openings are inadequate. Grandmaster opinions are subjective and inconsistent, while the win-loss-draw statistics in opening book databases are field data that were not taken under controlled conditions and are therefore confounded by intervening variables that have a greater effect on game outcomes than the opening (Munshi, A Method for Comparing Chess Openings, 2014). As a result, there are conflicting opinions on the merit of the different lines in the opening book and these opinions have engendered ongoing debates that have no satisfactory conclusion. It is proposed that an objective method for evaluating openings will settle these issues and help to refine the opening book.
Ontology-Based Supervised Concept Learning for the Biogeochemical Literature

Academic literature search is a vital step of every research project, especially in the face of the increasingly rapid growth of scientific knowledge. Semantic academic literature search is an approach to scientific article retrieval and ranking using concepts in an attempt to address well-known deficiencies of keyword-based search. The difficulty of semantic search, however, is that it requires significant knowledge engineering, often in the form of conceptual ontologies tailored to a particular scientific domain. It also requires non-trivial tuning, in the form of domain-specific term and concepts weights. As part of an ongoing project seeking to build a domain-specific semantic search system, we present an ontology-based supervised concept learning approach for the biogeochemical scientific literature. We first discuss the creation of a dataset of scientific articles in the biogeochemical domain annotated using the Environment Ontology (ENVO). Next we present a supervised machine learning classifier-a random decision forest-that uses a distinctive set of features to learn ENVO concepts and then label and index scientific articles at the sentence level. Finally, we evaluate our approach against two baseline methods, keyword-based and bag-of-words, achieving an overall performance of 0.76 F_1 measure, an improvement of approximately 50%.
History of a book project. “Patrimonio culturale, ingegno e tecnologia: dall’energia muscolare all’energia atomica verso l’energia pulita e rinnovabile” in the CNR IRCrES books

In this paper the first report of a cultural enhancement project regarding the ancient and specialized book patrimony kept in the Library of the CNR IRCrES Institute of Genoa. The collection consists of more than two hundred ancient volumes about technical and scientific subjects, a portion of which, about twenty, deals with issues related to mechanics and to energy sources applicable to it. The project involves digitization and systematization in an interactive repository of the ancient volumes, which can be freely read and downloaded from the net by everyone. Thanks to the multimedia technologies, the project entails the implementation of an interactive and user friendly software for reusing the digitized pages. Among the reuse options, it has been implemented a search-way for theme inquiries, for keywords enquiries; besides, animations of the machines drawn within the texts there have been implemented to show and exemplify their mechanics and functionality. The occasion was due to an announcement of the Compagnia di San Paolo, which has funded digitization, the incrementation of the DigiBESS portal and the implementation of the software for the multimedia station.
Data-Driven Computation of Minimal Robust Control Invariant Set

We propose a data-driven framework to compute an approximation of a minimal robust control invariant set (mRCI) for an uncertain dynamical system where the model of the system is also unknown and should be learned from data. First, the set of admissible models is characterized via a set of linear constraints extracted from the experimental data. Each model in the set of admissible models contains information about the nominal model, as well as the characterization of the model uncertainty, including additive and multiplicative uncertainties. Then an iterative algorithm based on robust optimization is proposed to simultaneously compute a minimal robust control invariant set while selecting an optimal model from the admissible set. The numerical results show that the proposed method greatly reduces the size of the invariant set compared to a benchmark method that sequentially selects a model with least squares and then computes the invariant set.
Uso do LED na eficiência energética e na sustentabilidade da produção de aves

By minimizing the impacts of climatic variations on poultry production, technological advances have made possible the expansion in the use of the system known as dark house, with control of variables such as temperature, ventilation, pressure and lighting, in favor of animal welfare and increase Productivity of cutting birds. The research focused on energy sustainability, aiming to comparatively evaluate the results in poultry production from the replacement of technologies in artificial lighting, three batches of birds were evaluated before and three batches in a period after the replacement of the LED lighting system. In order to streamline the investigation of the data, the use of the matrix method was used as an analysis tool, along with statistical tests of multivariate regression. The results showed that the replacement of light technology caused a reduction in feed intake and an increase in water consumption. This result suggests that the technology can positively change feed conversion rates, sparking interest in new studies for low-carbon production. And, especially in poultry farming, technology has been shown to contribute to advances in production processes. Keywords: LED. Dark hause. Energy Efficiency. Poultryfarming Production.
Cesarean overuse and the culture of care

OBJECTIVE To assess hospital unit culture and clinician attitudes associated with varying rates of primary cesarean delivery. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Intrapartum nurses, midwives, and physicians recruited from 79 hospitals in California participating in efforts to reduce cesarean overuse. STUDY DESIGN Labor unit culture and clinician attitudes measured using a survey were linked to the California Maternal Data Center for birth outcomes and hospital covariates. METHODS Association with primary cesarean delivery rates was assessed using multivariate Poisson regression adjusted for hospital covariates. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS 1718 respondents from 70 hospitals responded to the Labor Culture Survey. The "Unit Microculture" subscale was strongly associated with primary cesarean rate; the higher a unit scored on 8-items describing a culture supportive of vaginal birth (eg, nurses are encouraged to spend time in rooms with patients, and doulas are welcomed), the cesarean rate decreased by 41 percent (95% CI = -47 to -35 percent, P < 0.001). Discordant attitudes between nurses and physicians were associated with increased cesarean rates. CONCLUSIONS Hospital unit culture, clinician attitudes, and consistency between professions are strongly associated with primary cesarean rates. Improvement efforts to reduce cesarean overuse must address culture of care as a key part of the change process.
Effects of Exercise With and Without Energy Replacement on Substrate Utilization in the Fasting State.

Objective: The present study aimed to examine the interactive effect of exercise and energy balance on energy expenditure and substrate utilization.Method: Seven men and 7 women underwent three 2-d...
Household Emergency Preparedness Instrument Development: A Delphi Study.

Objective The main objective of this research was to generate a consensus on the conceptual definition of household emergency preparedness from experts representing multiple disciplines and countries, in order to facilitate the development of an all-hazards, comprehensive, valid, and reliable instrument. Methods Questions were generated via 3 methods: literature search, using existing instruments, and expert panels using the Delphi technique. Results Panelists (n = 154) representing 36 countries came to a consensus that household emergency preparedness is defined as the completion of several preparedness actions and assembling a kit that can be transported in an evacuation. The new 51-question instrument demonstrates face, content, and criterion validity and internal consistency reliability (α = 0.96). The instrument assesses whether specific preparedness actions have been taken, and the presence or absence of essential supplies that could enable households to safely endure conditions that disasters would likely present (loss of power, water limitations, and/or lack of access to additional supplies for a few days). Conclusion A valid and reliable instrument provides researchers with a replicable approach to assessment of preparedness levels, which is necessary to plan mitigation strategies, enhance health promotion, prevent injuries, and increase resilience for individuals and communities. The instrument can provide evidence to support interventions addressing health needs of community members following a disaster.
Swarm Optimization of Lunar Transfers from Earth Orbit with Operational Constraints

Due to the frequent launches of primary satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbits, lunar transfer from an initial geosynchronous transfer orbit represents an attractive option for secondary payloads with lunar mission objectives. The development of advanced launch vehicle upper stages with low boil off rates and restartable engines further enhances the potential of geosynchronous transfer orbits to serve as starting points for lunar transfers. Lunar trajectory design from arbitrarily oriented Earth orbits involves complex tradeoffs that can be successfully addressed with particle swarm optimization. An important mission design consideration is radiation dose, since coasting in a geosynchronous transfer orbit involves repeated passes through the Van Allen radiation belts. In this investigation, a mixture density neural network is trained on the state-of-the-art radiation environment models to provide a surrogate model capable of making probabilistic estimates of radiation dosage. The network is combined with the particle swarm method to optimize the coasting and transfer arcs of a lunar trajectory. The end-to-end design of a trajectory from geosynchronous transfer orbit into a specified lunar orbit is demonstrated by modeling the optimized trajectory in a high-fidelity orbit propagator, including B-plane targeting to overfly a desired lunar landing site.
Using Kahoot! to increase exam scores and engagement

Instructional games in the classroom help to facilitate student engagement and utilize technology to help students prepare for exams. The purpose of this experiential learning exercise is to increa...
The Guilty Pleasures of Saas-Bahu Style

Clothing and fashion play a prominent part in the presentation of key female characters in Indian television family dramas, referred to as saas-bahu serials.1 The purposeful sartorial branding of t...
Quorum Sensing Behavior in the Model Unicellular Eukaryote Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Summary Microbial communities display behavioral changes in response to variable environmental conditions. In some bacteria, motility increases as a function of cell density, allowing for population dispersal before the onset of nutrient scarcity. Utilizing automated particle tracking, we now report on a population-dependent increase in the swimming speeds of the photosynthetic unicellular eukaryotes Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and C. moewussi. Our findings confirm that this acceleration in swimming speed arises as a function of culture density, rather than with age and/or nutrient availability. Furthermore, this phenomenon depends on the synthesis and detection of a low-molecular-weight compound which can be transferred between cultures and stimulates comparable effects across both species, supporting the existence of a conserved phenomenon, not unlike bacterial quorum sensing, among members of this genus. The potential expansion of density-dependent phenomena to a new group of unicellular eukaryotes provides important insight into how microbial populations evolve and regulate “social” behaviors.
Combined cut down and endovascular retrieval of orphaned ventriculoatrial shunt with stenting of chronic superior vena cava occlusion

Revascularization of the superior vena cava (SVC) in the context of symptomatic luminal obstruction is a therapeutic intervention performed for SVC syndrome of benign or malignant etiology. Venous occlusion can preclude future access and cause symptoms ranging from mild chest discomfort to the more serious effects of SVC syndrome. This case report demonstrates the treatment of a novel case of SVC syndrome arising from a previously placed SVC stent. An intravascular, extraluminal orphaned ventriculoatrial shunt was used to go through the SVC but around the existing lumen-limiting stent to place a new larger stent for revascularization. This case highlights the need for an innovative approach for complex foreign body retrieval and treatment of chronic SVC occlusion.
Cardiac mri productivity increases with high-quality structured pre-appointment telephone contact

Background Cardiac MRI is often an essential component for the diagnosis and follow-up of cardiac disease in both children and adults These studies can be time intensive and often require anesthesia support Unlled cardiac MRI appointments therefore unnecessarily delay availability and decrease productivity At our institution, we recognized a backlog of cases due to a high number of patients canceling 2-4 days before the appointment during the pre-procedural telephone screening or simply not keeping their appointments Such late cancelations were often unable to be lled due to a variety of barriers This quality improvement project sought to increase the utilization of cardiac MRI by implementing new communication procedures prior the patient's study Methodology A cardiology nurse was tasked with contacting each scheduled patient 21 days prior to their MRI and requiring conrmation within 7 days that the patient would be able to attend In cases where a patient was unable to conrm, they were rescheduled, and their spot lled with another patient from the wait list who was able to conrm To evaluate this intervention, we tracked service utilization for the 7 months before implementation of this policy, and for 10 months afterwards, up until the routine outpatientservice was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Monthly utilization was charted on a statistical processcontrol X-chart with control limits set at +/- 2 66 moving range averages Consecutive data points above orbelow the mean indicated special cause variation, resulting in a shift of the mean line Results and DiscussionThere was special cause variation associated with the new communication procedure, resulting in a signicantincrease in the average number of monthly studies from 18 to 24 3 Our utilization of available appointmentsalso increased from 59 4% to 75 3% following the policy change A second shift back to baseline occurred onceour patient backlog was exhausted, though the utilization of available appointments remained slightly higherthan baseline at 64 2% These results suggest that with this new policy, our cardiac MRI service can be run at autilization rate which exceeds our current demand Future directions for improvement may include re-allocating cardiac MRI slots for other services, or adding other types of MRI into our waiting list ConclusionOur policy intervention of calling all patients 21 days prior to their cardiac MRI studies to conrm theirappointments, resulted in a signicant improvement in service utilization This persisted until our backlog of cases was exhausted, and suggests that this intervention allows our service to run at a utilization rate whichexceeds our current demand
Nutritional niche overlap analysis as a method to identify potential biocontrol fungi against trunk pathogens

Biological control agents possess various mechanisms to limit pathogens including ability to outcompete pathogens for resources and occupy shared niches. However, measuring this competition between putative biocontrol agents and pathogens for the same resources remains difficult. To evaluate carbon and nitrogen source utilization as a measure of competitiveness, we used phenotype microarrays on three endophytes (Trichoderma atroviridae, Trichoderma harzianum and Lecanicillium lecanii) with reported biological control activity and five stem-infecting fungal pathogens (Diplodia seriata, Eutypa lata, Neofusicoccum parvum, Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, and Phaeoacremonium minimum) that infect grapevine and other important woody plant hosts. The faster growing N. parvum and D. seriata utilized a greater number of the 190 assessed carbon and 380 assessed nitrogen sources than the relatively slower growing pathogens E. lata, P. chlamydospora, and P. minimum. All three endophytes had a greater niche overlap of carbon and nitrogen resource use than E. lata and P. chlamydospora. However, only T. harzianum and L. lecanii were determined to be able to equally compete or slightly outcompete N. parvum and D. seriata over carbon or nitrogen sources. Therefore, based on these results involving carbon and nitrogen source niche utilization, T. harzianum and L. lecanii would be advanced to additional biological control agent screening. Furthermore, according to plate bioassays, both Trichoderma spp. exhibited significant growth reduction of all pathogens except P. minimum, and L. lecanii significant reduced growth of D. seriata, E. lata, and N. parvum. Therefore, a combination of direct antagonism and ability to outcompete over resources is important in selecting biocontrols. Regardless, these results demonstrated the capacity of phenotype microarrays to assess the ability of endophytes to outcompete pathogens over shared resources in in vitro conditions as a complement to traditional plate assays.
Underreporting of past-year cannabis use on a national survey by people who smoke blunts.

Background: Accurate prevalence estimates are critical to epidemiological research but discordant responses on self-report surveys can lead to over- or underestimation of drug use. We sought to exa...
Oxidized carbon black nanoparticles induce endothelial damage through C-X-C chemokine receptor 3-mediated pathway.

Abstract Oxidation of engineered nanomaterials during application in various industrial sectors can alter their toxicity. Oxidized nanomaterials also have widespread industrial and biomedical applications. In this study, we evaluated the cardiopulmonary hazard posed by these nanomaterials using oxidized carbon black (CB) nanoparticles (CBox) as a model particle. Particle surface chemistry was characterized by X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Colloidal characterization and in vitro dosimetry modeling (particle kinetics, fate and transport modeling) were performed. Lung inflammation was assessed following oropharyngeal aspiration of CB or oxidized CBox particles (20 μg per mouse) in C57BL/6J mice. Toxicity and functional assays were also performed on murine macrophage (RAW 264.7) and endothelial cell lines (C166) with and without pharmacological inhibitors. Oxidant generation was assessed by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) and via flow cytometry. Endothelial toxicity was evaluated by quantifying pro-inflammatory mRNA expression, monolayer permeability, and wound closure. XPS and FTIR spectra indicated surface modifications, the appearance of new functionalities, and greater oxidative potential (both acellular and in vitro) of CBox particles. Treatment with CBox demonstrated greater in vivo inflammatory potentials (lavage neutrophil counts, secreted cytokine, and lung tissue mRNA expression) and air-blood barrier disruption (lavage proteins). Oxidant-dependent pro-inflammatory signaling in macrophages led to the production of CXCR3 ligands (CXCL9,10,11). Conditioned medium from CBox-treated macrophages induced significant elevation in endothelial cell pro-inflammatory mRNA expression, enhanced monolayer permeability and impairment of scratch healing in CXCR3 dependent manner. In summary, this study mechanistically demonstrated an increased biological potency of CBox particles and established the role of macrophage-released chemical mediators in endothelial damage.
Increasing Access to Care for Transgender/Gender Diverse Youth Using Telehealth: A Quality Improvement Project.

Purpose: We sought to expand telehealth at an academic multidisciplinary pediatric gender center to increase access to gender-affirming care without compromising communication, privacy, or patient satisfaction. Materials and Methods: Patient needs assessments were performed from January 2019 to March 2020. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic accelerated implementation of the quality improvement project, and clinically appropriate patients were scheduled for video visits starting March 16, 2020. From September 8, 2020 to October 2, 2020, caregivers of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) minors or TGD young adults pursuing gender-affirming medications completed 9-item surveys evaluating communication quality and privacy, access to care, and quality of services for video and clinic visits. Answers were rated via Likert scales (1 = strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree; 1 = less travel time, 4 = more travel time). Results: Needs assessment (n = 69) showed that 63.8% felt that video visits would improve follow-up. Survey participants (n = 91) reported statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in several areas. Compared with clinic visits, video visits were more convenient, 1.21 ± 0.435 versus 2.36 ± 1.207, took less time from other activities, 4.55 ± 0.522 versus 2.93 ± 1.281, required less travel time, 1.03 ± 0.180 versus 2.63 ± 0.901, and were more acceptable, 1.35 ± 0.545 versus 1.65 ± 0.736. Participants were more likely to choose video visits in the future, 1.32 ± 0.555 versus 1.57 ± 0.732. There were no statistically significant differences in communication quality, privacy, or overall satisfaction. Conclusion: An integrated clinic-video visit model increases access to gender-affirming care for TGD youth while maintaining excellent communication, privacy, and patient satisfaction.
An Introduction to Extremal Kähler Metrics

Kahler geometry Analytic preliminaries Kahler-Einstein metrics Extremal metrics Moment maps and geometric invariant theory K-stability The Bergman kernel CscK metrics on blow-ups Bibliography Index
The Role of Biomaterials on Cancer Stem Cell Enrichment and Behavior

The theory of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their role in cancer metastasis, tumorigenicity and resistance to therapy is slowly shifting the emphasis on the search for cancer cure: more evidence is surfacing that a successful therapy should be geared against this rare cancer cell population. Unfortunately, CSCs are difficult to culture in vitro which severely limits the progress of CSC research. This review gives a brief overview of CSCs and their microenvironment, with particular focus on studies that used in vitro biomaterial-based models and biomaterial/CSC interfaces for the enrichment of CSCs. Biomaterial properties relevant to CSC behaviors are also addressed. While the discussed research field is still in its infancy, it appears that in vitro cancer models that include a biomaterial can support CSC enrichment and this has proved indispensable to the study of their biology as well as the development of novel cancer therapies.
Antigen-stimulated trafficking from the recycling compartment to the plasma membrane in RBL mast cells.

Binding of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated cholera toxin B subunit to ganglioside GM1 on RBL-2H3 cells at 37 °C results in labeling of the plasma membrane as well as a pool of perinuclear intracellular membranes identified as the endosomal recycling compartment. Antigen-mediated activation of IgE receptor signaling causes rapid, sustained outward trafficking of these labeled endosomes, that is monitored as an increase in FITC fluorescence due to relief of quenching in the acidic endosomes upon delivery to the plasma membrane. Stimulation of this process depends on the integrity of cholesterol-dependent lipid rafts and occurs in response to Ca2+-mobilizing thapsigargin as well as antigen. Inhibitors of some early signaling enzymes stimulated by FceRI, including Syk tyrosine kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase, have little or no effect on this trafficking response. Other signaling pathways, including activation of phospholipase C and Ca2+ influx, do not appear to be necessary for the initiation of the outward trafficking response, but they contribute to maintaining the sustained phase of this process. Consistent with this, antigen-stimulated ruffles are labeled with FITC-cholera toxin B in a Ca2+-dependent manner. Thus, this trafficking response provides a mechanism by which an internal membrane pool can contribute to plasma membrane remodeling during stimulated membrane ruffling, cell motility, and phagocytosis.
Supplier selection and order allocation in closed-loop supply chain systems using hybrid Monte Carlo simulation and goal programming

Supplier selection is an important strategic design decision in closed-loop supply chain systems. In addition, and after identifying the candidate suppliers, optimal order allocations are also considered as crucial tactical decisions. This research presents a multi-objective optimisation model to select the best suppliers and configure manufacturing and refurbishing facilities with the optimal number of parts and products in a closed-loop supply chain network. The objective functions in this research are formulated as total profit, total defective parts, total late delivered parts and economic risk factors of the candidate suppliers. The proposed multi-objective model is solved by hybrid Monte Carlo simulation integrated with three different variants of goal programming method. The effectiveness of the mathematical model and the proposed solution algorithms in obtaining Pareto-optimal solutions is demonstrated in a numerical example adopted from a real case study.
Rural and Urban Primary Care Physician Professional Beliefs and Quality Improvement Behaviors

Purpose: We evaluated whether primary care physicians (PCPs) from urban and rural practices differ on attitudes and behaviors related to quality improvement (QI) activities, patient relationships, and professionalism/self-regulation. Methods: Data from a national survey that assessed physician attitudes and behaviors based on the Physician Charter on Medical Professionalism were used. Of the 1,891 survey respondents, N = 840 were PCPs (n = 274 family medicine (response rate = 67.5%); n = 257 general internal medicine (60.8%); and n = 309 pediatricians (72.7%)). Using Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes, PCPs were classified as urban and rural according to their practice ZIP code. Findings: A total of n = 691 physicians were urban and n = 127 rural. Attitudes regarding participating in QI did not differ by practice location; however, rural PCPs were more likely to have reviewed an other physician’s records for QI than urban PCPs (65.6% vs 48.0%, P < .001). Rural physicians were more likely to agree that physicians should talk with their patients about the cost of care than urban PCPs (40.5% vs 29.2%, P = .02). While all PCPs endorsed attitudes regarding the importance of professional behaviors (eg, reporting impaired/incompetent colleagues, disclosing medical errors) at generally similar levels, their behaviors differed. More rural physicians had a personal knowledge of an impaired/incompetent physician than urban physicians (20.7% vs 12.7%, P = .02). Conclusions: PCPs from rural and urban areas share similar attitudes regarding the importance of participating in QI and fulfilling professional responsibilities. However, certain behaviors (eg, knowledge of impaired colleagues) do differ. These results should be confirmed in larger studies of rural PCPs.
Value iteration and adaptive optimal control for linear continuous-time systems

In this paper, a new non-model-based optimal control design is proposed for linear continuous-time systems. First, a continuous-time value iteration (VI) algorithm is presented. Then, an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method based on the obtained VI algorithm is developed to solve the optimal control problem for linear continuous-time systems. Different from existing results, the a priori knowledge of an initial admissible control policy is no longer required. The convergence of the proposed method is investigated. A practical example is presented to illustrate the obtained results.
Understanding and Managing Cognitive Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of understanding and managing cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis (MS). The chapter also discusses the characteristics of cognitive dysfunction in MS and factors associated with severity of deficits. It is now recognized that cognitive dysfunction is one of the most common symptoms of MS, as studies have shown that nearly half of all patients with this disease experience cognitive decline. The chapter reviews that while MRI lesion burden and atrophy seem to be most predictive of cognitive decline, other factors such as disease course and gender are showing association with cognitive dysfunction as well. Cognitive complaints are relatively common in MS but the actual cause of these problems can vary. While MS pathology can lead to cognitive loss, studies have also shown association between cognitive complaints and fatigue, pain, mood disturbance, and pain. The chapter concludes that careful assessment of cognitive complaints is critical to developing optimal, individualized treatment plans. While treatment options suggest that the next few decades of research will emphasize methods for managing cognitive dysfunction in MS.
Factors limiting the tensile strength of PBO-based carbon fibers

Abstract Poly p-phenylene benzobisoxazole (PBO) converts directly to carbon fiber without stabilization. However, the applicability of PBO-based carbon fibers is limited by their low tensile strength. This paper represents the first study of the high-temperature conversion of PBO to carbon fiber and examines some factors leading to this low tensile strength. A mixed-mode Weibull analysis implies that the flaws present in the precursor fiber persist throughout carbonization and cause the tensile failure of the carbonized fiber. Improvements in the PBO spinning process resulted in increased tensile strengths for the carbonized fibers. Further, the tensile strengths of the carbonized fibers appear to be related to the release of nitrogen during the onset of crystallite growth. The rapid heating rates associated with continuous carbonization were shown to minimize the negative effects of this nitrogen release. Fibers heated to 1600 °C in a continuous operation displayed nearly double the tensile strength of those produced in a batch operation. Ultimately, this study showed that, while the tensile strengths of PBO-based carbon fibers can be increased by using a continuous process, enhancements in the solution spinning process of the polymer will be required for PBO to become a commercially viable carbon fiber precursor.