cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Oculodentodigital dysplasia connexin43 mutations result in non-functional connexin hemichannels and gap junctions in C6 glioma cells

Oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD) is a rare developmental disorder characterized by craniofacial and limb abnormalities. Over 35 separate mutations in human connexin43 (Cx43) causing ODDD have been identified. Several mutations are also associated with central nervous system involvement, including white-matter changes detected by magnetic resonance imaging. As Cx43 is abundantly expressed in astrocytes, we hypothesized that the mutant Cx43 proteins that produce neurological dysfunction have abnormal functional characteristics in astrocytes. To understand how ODDD-associated mutations affect Cx43 signaling in cells of glial origin, we conducted studies in rat C6 glioma cells, a communication-deficient glial cell line that expresses low levels of Cx43. We generated stable cell lines expressing enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (eYFP)-tagged human Cx43 constructs encoding wild-type and six eYFP-tagged mutant Cx43 mutants: Y17S, G21R, A40V, F52dup, L90V and I130T. Of these, Y17S, L90V and I130T are associated with neurological abnormalities. We found that all mutants could be detected on the cell surface. Y17S, G21R, A40V, L90V and I130T formed triton-resistant plaques representing gap junctions, although the relative ability to form plaques was decreased in these mutants compared with the wild type. F52dup formed dramatically reduced numbers of plaques. Propidium iodide uptake experiments demonstrated that all mutants were associated with reduced connexin hemichannel function compared with wild type. Scrape-loading experiments performed on the same stable cell lines showed reduced gap junctional dye transfer in all mutants compared with the wild type. These studies demonstrated that ODDD-associated Cx43 mutations result in non-functional connexin hemichannels and gap junction functions in a glial cell line regardless of whether the particular mutant is associated with neurological dysfunction.
Hedonic "adaptation": Specific habituation to disgust/death elicitors as a result of dissecting a cadaver

People live in a world in which they are surrounded by potential disgust elicitors such as “used” chairs, air, silverware, and money as well as excretory activities. People function in this world by ignoring most of these, by active avoidance, reframing, or adaptation. The issue is particularly striking for professions, such as morticians, surgeons, or sanitation workers, in which there is frequent contact with major disgust elicitors. In this study, we study the “adaptation” process to dead bodies as disgust elicitors, by measuring specific types of disgust sensitivity in medical students before and after they have spent a few months dissecting a cadaver. Using the Disgust Scale, we find a significant reduction in disgust responses to death and body envelope violation elicitors, but no significant change in any other specific type of disgust. There is a clear reduction in discomfort at touching a cold dead body, but not in touching a human body which is still warm after death.
Virtual experiments: a new approach for improving process conceptualization in hillslope hydrology

We present an approach for process conceptualization in hillslope hydrology. We develop and implement a series of virtual experiments, whereby the interaction between water flow pathways, source and mixing at the hillslope scale is examined within a virtual experiment framework. We define these virtual experiments as ‘numerical experiments with a model driven by collective field intelligence’. The virtual experiments explore the first-order controls in hillslope hydrology, where the experimentalist and modeler work together to cooperatively develop and analyze the results. Our hillslope model for the virtual experiments (HillVi) in this paper is based on conceptualizing the water balance within the saturated and unsaturated zone in relation to soil physical properties in a spatially explicit manner at the hillslope scale. We argue that a virtual experiment model needs to be able to capture all major controls on subsurface flow processes that the experimentalist might deem important, while at the same time being simple with few ‘tunable parameters’. This combination makes the approach, and the dialog between experimentalist and modeler, a useful hypothesis testing tool. HillVi simulates mass flux for different initial conditions under the same flow conditions. We analyze our results in terms of an artificial line source and isotopic hydrograph separation of water and subsurface flow. Our results for this first set of virtual experiments showed how drainable porosity and soil depth variability exert a first order control on flow and transport at the hillslope scale. We found that high drainable porosity soils resulted in a restricted water table rise, resulting in more pronounced channeling of lateral subsurface flow along the soil‐ bedrock interface. This in turn resulted in a more anastomosing network of tracer movement across the slope. The virtual isotope hydrograph separation showed higher proportions of event water with increasing drainable porosity. When combined with previous experimental findings and conceptualizations, virtual experiments can be an effective way to isolate certain controls and examine their influence over a range of rainfall and antecedent wetness conditions. q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Response to Elders’ Dental Care Financing Papers

The first wave of the baby boomer generation will begin to retire in the next few years. This generation is one that has seen unprecedented advances in medicine and dentistry. Many of them have been positively impacted by fluoridated water systems and aggressive marketing campaigns by the toothpaste
Validation of Biomarkers of CVD Risk from Dried Blood Spots in Community-Based Research: Methodologies and Study-Specific Serum Equivalencies

Dried blood spot (DBS) methodology offers significant advantages over venipuncture in studies of vulnerable populations or large-scale studies, including reduced participant burden and higher response rates. Uncertainty about the validity of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk biomarkers remains a barrier to wide-scale use. We determined the validity of DBS-derived biomarkers of CVD risk versus gold-standard assessments, and study-specific, serum-equivalency values for clinical relevance of DBS-derived values. Concurrent venipuncture serum and DBS samples (n = 150 adults) were assayed in Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments-certified and DBS laboratories, respectively. Time controls of DBS standard samples were assayed single-blind along with test samples. Linear regression analyses evaluated DBS-to-serum equivalency values; agreement and bias were assessed via Bland-Altman plots. Linear regressions of venipuncture values on DBS-to-serum equivalencies provided R(2) values for total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and C-reactive protein (CRP) of 0.484, 0.118, and 0.666, respectively. Bland-Altman plots revealed minimal systematic bias between DBS-to-serum and venipuncture values; precision worsened at higher mean values of CRP. Time controls revealed little degradation or change in analyte values for HDL-C and CRP over 30 weeks. We concluded that DBS-assessed biomarkers represent a valid alternative to venipuncture assessments. Large studies using DBS should include study-specific serum-equivalency determinations to optimize individual-level sensitivity, the viability of detecting intervention effects, and generalizability in community-level primary prevention interventions.
The World Bank’s Impact on International Law a Case-Study in the International Law of Cooperation

By his concern with and emphasis on an emerging “international law of cooperation” Wolfgang Friedmann greatly contributed to our perception and understanding of the current state of the international legal process.1 In contrast to the traditional “international law of coexistence,” which he saw as consisting mainly of rules of abstention concerned with the delimitation of national sovereignty, the law of cooperation is “concerned with the organization and implementation of joint endeavors on a binational, regional, or multinational level directed to human welfare.” This law has an affirmative thrust; it deals with substantive, rather than jurisdictional, issues, thus reaching deep into the internal life of nations. Its consequent sensitivity to differences in “political, economic and social structure and principles,” makes it depend for its existence and operation on the perception of common interests by the parties involved. As a result, it has grown mainly on a regional basis; on the universal or quasi-universal level, it is found chiefly in two types of areas: first, technically oriented fields, where the advantages from cooperation are immediate and easily perceivable (e.g., communications and transport); second, areas immediately affecting human welfare, in particular those relating to assistance for the development of less developed countries.
Pre-equilibrium particle emission from fusion of /sup 12/C + /sup 158/Gd and /sup 20/Ne + /sup 150/Nd

Neutron time-of-flight spectra and ..cap alpha..-particle spectra were obtained in coincidence with ..gamma.. rays characteristic of specific evaporation residues in the reactions 174.8 MeV /sup 20/Ne + /sup 150/Nd and 152.0 MeV /sup 12/C + /sup 158/Gd, producing /sup 170/Yb at 134.2 and 132.0 MeV of excitation. The average multiplicity of ..gamma.. rays associated with such coincident events were also determined. The neutron spectra from the /sup 20/Ne reactions are characteristic of equilibrium evaporation processes. They show a temperature t approx. 2 MeV, in agreement with a prediction from level-density parameters based on data at far lower excitation energy. The neutron spectra from the /sup 12/C reactions show a low-temperature equilibrium component (average t approx. 1.8 MeV) and a high-temperature (t approx. 6 MeV) pre-equilibrium component. The latter observation may be interpreted as evidence for the transient existence of a hot spot involving no more than 25 nucleons. The estimated number of pre-equilibrium neutrons emitted varies from 1.8 to 0.6 for the 8n to 10n products and from 1.2 to 0.25 for the ..cap alpha..6n to ..cap alpha..9n products. The fraction of /sup 166-x/Er products formed by 2p (x + 2) n rather than ..cap alpha..xn emission decreases with increasingmore » x for both thee /sup 20/Ne and /sup 12/C reactions, and is roughly twice as large for /sup 12/C. The high-energy portions of the ..cap alpha..-particle spectra from (/sup 12/C,..cap alpha..xn) for small x exhibit a strong dependence on exit channel and on angle of emission, indicating clearly that these ..cap alpha.. particles are emitted from a nonequilibrated system. The angular correlations of the higher-energy ..cap alpha.. particles from (/sup 12/C,..cap alpha..7n) to (/sup 12/C,..cap alpha..10n) all have the same shape, suggesting that in these channels the ..cap alpha.. emission occurs first. The pre-equilibrium emission accounts for (16 +- 7) % and (28 +- 6) % of the total (/sup 12/C,xn) and (/sup 12/C,..cap alpha..xn) cross sections, respectively.« less
Strength of the PC-SAN Interface as Determined by Delamination of Polymer Microlayers

The delamination strength of PC/SAN microlayers was measured with the T-peel test. To evaluate the contribution of crazing to delamination, the effects of PC and SAN layer thicknesses on the delamination strength were examined using SAN with 25% AN. The SAN layer thickness determined whether the crack propagated along a PC-SAN interface (interfacial delamination) or through crazes within an SAN layer (craze delamination). Only interfacial delamination was observed if the SAN layers were thinner than 1.5 gm. The thickness of the PC layers determined whether the crack propagated along a single layer or jumped from one layer to the next. Both SAN crazing and crack jumping increased the measured delamination strength. The effect of AN content of the SAN was studied in microlayers with SAN layers thin enough to exhibit interfacial delamination. The results confirmed an optimum AN content for maximum PC-SAN adhesion in the range of 20–25%. The effect of AN content on craze delamination was subsequently studied using microlayers with thicker SAN layers. The results indicated that the dependence of delamination strength on AN content was exaggerated when both cohesive and adhesive modes contributed to delamination failure.
Trajectory Control and Analysis for the Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing Reusable Launch Vehicle's Upper Stage

*Reusable launch vehicles are a promising business for the future. The vertical takeoff and vertical landing vehicle is one example of reusable launch vehicles. However, compared with other types of reusable launch vehicles such as horizontal take off and horizontal landing ones, this type of vehicles typically has a small payload capacity and the ability to provide very small or even zero velocity to the upper stage at the peak of the reusable launch vehicle’s trajectory. This makes the payload difficult to achieve a parking orbit for further orbital transfers. This paper develops a new and intuitive method of the trajectory control, called “energy for altitude and time” (EFAT), which allows an upper stage to achieve low Earth orbit with little initial velocity. This proposed method will be numerically compared with a conventional method (optimal ascent algorithm) combined with two optimization methods (a genetic algorithm and SNOPT). Nomenclature A = upper stage cross section area a a ∆ = maximum available acceleration from the selected engine c t a ∆ = acceleration in the transverse direction c r a ∆ = acceleration in the radial direction n r a ∆ = desired acceleration in the radial direction n t a ∆ = desired acceleration in the transverse direction drag a = atmospheric drag acceleration 2 J a = J2 acceleration D C = atmospheric drag coefficient GA = genetic algorithm 0 g = gravitational constant at sea level n g = desired acceleration of the upper stage sp I = propellant specific impulse 2 J = J2 perturbation coefficient m m � = max mass flow rate of propellant c m = current mass of the upper stage f m = final mass of the upper stage i m = initial mass of the upper stage re m = remaining mass of the upper stage p m = mass of propellant m m = mass of the selected motor s
The Use of Black Models in Advertising

In his recent JMR article on the use of blacks in advertising, Kassarjian says that the "mass media of communication, and advertising as a subset, reflect the culture and society in which they exist" [7, p. 29]. While this is probably true, it is a framework for viewing the question of the utilization of blacks in advertising that seems to be predicated on Kassarjian's ability to assess, at least implicitly, the status of race relations in American society. This seems to be an unnecessarily omniscient position. The extent to which Kassarjian relied on it is revealed in the following excerpt on how frequently black models appear in magazine advertisements [7, p. 30]:
Distribution of Yellow Pecan Aphids Within Pecan Trees

The relative densities of yellow pecan aphids within mature trees were examined for 1972 and 1973. In both years the aphid populations demonstrated 2 pronounced peaks. The population levels of yellow aphids had an effect on their distribution within the tree as related to height and direction. The aphids preferred the lower portion of the tree canopy, but once the saturation level was reached, no preference was shown. By increasing the number of trees sampled and the number of sampling dates in 1973, trends in the aphid distribution within the canopy showed that directional preferences changed throughout the dates sampled.
Failure Analysis of Vertical Water-wall Panels of Ultra-supercritical Pressure Once-through Boiler and the Anti-explosion Strategies

Three sects of domestic 1 000 MW ultra-supercritical pressure once-through boilers were introduced.The causes for failure of water-wall with vertical tube panels of ultra-supercritical pressure once-through boilers were analyzed.Results show that the direct cause for failure of water-wall with vertical tube panels is that the throttles located at entrance of water-wall have been blocked by deposits of magnetite pollutants.While the fundamental cause is the high content of ferri ion at the inlet of economizer caused by poor all volatile feedwater treatment.Efficient anti-explosion strategies are put forward.Once overheating phenomenon of water-wall occurs,which indicates that serious blocking of throttles might exist,tube cutting inspection should be taken as soon as possible.Local cleaning should be carried out for the throttles by a special chemical cleaning procedure.And the feedwater should adopt oxygenated treatment.
Acute stent recoil and optimal balloon inflation strategy: an experimental study using real-time optical coherence tomography.

AIMS Our aim was to evaluate stent expansion and acute recoil at deployment and post-dilatation, and the impact of post-dilatation strategies on final stent dimensions. METHODS AND RESULTS Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was performed on eight bare metal platforms of drug-eluting stents (3.0 mm diameter, n=6 for each) during and after balloon inflation in a silicone mock vessel. After nominal-pressure deployment, a single long (30 sec) vs. multiple short (10 sec x3) post-dilatations were performed using a non-compliant balloon (3.25 mm, 20 atm). Stent areas during deployment with original delivery systems were smaller in stainless steel stents than in cobalt-chromium and platinum-chromium stents (p<0.001), whereas subsequent acute recoil was comparable among the three materials. At post-dilatation, acute recoil was greater in cobalt-chromium and platinum-chromium stents than in stainless steel stents (p<0.001), resulting in smaller final stent areas in cobalt-chromium and platinum-chromium stents than in stainless steel stents (p<0.001). In comparison between conventional and latest-generation cobalt-chromium stents, stent areas were not significantly different after both deployment and post-dilatation. With multiple short post-dilatations, acute recoil was significantly improved from first to third short inflation (p<0.001), achieving larger final area than a single long inflation, despite stent materials/designs (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Real-time OCT revealed significant acute recoil in all stent types. Both stent materials/designs and post-dilatation strategies showed a significant impact on final stent expansion.
Numerical and Experimental Characterizations of Dose Distributions in UV Disinfection Systems

UV photoreactors, especially those used for disinfection, have emerged as important alternatives to conventional treatment operations. UV dose represents the master variable in governing the performance of these systems; however, the interpretation of the term “dose” in continuous-flow UV reactor systems has been unclear until fairly recently. Coordinated application of all three methods (biodosimetry, numerical model, and dyed microspheres) in the analysis of UV reactor performance represents the most comprehensive approach to reactor validation. The three methods represent complementary methods of reactor characterization. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series ISBN: 9781843397342 (eBook)
MO-G-204-02: Assessing Cognitive Expertise of Medical Physics Diplomates

Learning Objectives: 1.The participants will understand how to comply with the revised ABR MOC requirements 2.The participants be able to utilize the new Participatory PQI into their MOC program 3.The participants will be able to comply with the ABR MOC simplified attestation requirements 4.The participants will be able to meet the requirements for the annual ABR MOC lookback This presentation will update medical physicists about the American Board of Radiology Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process. The MOC process has recently undergone a number of significant changes and this presentation will review these for the attendees. The entire process has been simplified by going to a process whereby most items can be attested to. The ABR has also adopted a process whereby the status of the diplomate is reviewed on an annual basis (lookback). This process makes the MOC process continuous basis rather than the episodic basis that existed in the past. The Process Quality Improvement (Part 4) has many new opportunities so that many medical physicists can meet the Part 4 requirement based on their routine clinical activities.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Infections

Although the life expectancy of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has improved, increased vulnerability to infection continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality. In addition to intrinsic immune dysregulation, drug-induced immunosuppression contributes to the susceptibility of SLE patients to both common and rare infections. Abnormal autoantibody production and clearance, humoral defects, and cellular immune dysfunction predispose patients with SLE to infection. This chapter reviews the spectrum of infections encountered by patients with SLE, epidemiological features of these infections, and intrinsic and treatment-associated immune dysregulation. A practical approach to diagnosis and strategies to prevent infection are also considered with a focus on ways to diminish the high rates of infection and related morbidity among patients with SLE.
Basics of Billing and Coding: A Primer for the New Hospitalist Attending

Billing and coding have become the bane of some physicians’ careers. The adage, “if it’s not documented, it didn’t happen,” is relevant to professional billing, since justification is required for the level of care that is being submitted and the associated compensation that is being sought. “E&M service” is the umbrella term under which patient encounters fall. It stands for “evaluation and management,” asking the physician for documentation describing the steps taken to clinically evaluate a problem and then establish a management plan. There are three elements to a typical billable service. They include history, physical exam, and medical decision-making. The common denominator for all of billing and coding is documentation.
Medical Authorisms and Their Creators

An authorism is a made-up word. But, of course, many medical words are made up, most combining Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots. A medical neologism becomes an authorism when we know who coined the term and how it was introduced into the medical lexicon. Familiar medical authorisms, their authors, and the backstories covered in this chapter include pellagra (Francesco Frapolli, 1771), angina pectoris (William Heberden, 1772), anesthesia (Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1846), sarcoid (Caesar Peter Moller Boeck, 1889), radioactivity (Marie and Pierre Curie, 1898), and chemotherapy (Paul Ehrlich, 1910).
Saddle-Node Collisions

Model neurons, as well as real neurons, don’t fire when they receive little or no input current, but fire periodically when they receive strong input current. The transition from rest to firing, as the input current is raised, is called a bifurcation. In general, a bifurcation is a sudden qualitative change in the solutions to a differential equation, or a system of differential equations, occurring as a parameter, called the bifurcation parameter in this context, is moved past a threshold value, also called the critical value. (To bifurcate, in general, means to divide or fork into two branches. This suggests that in a bifurcation, one thing turns into two. This is indeed the case in some bifurcations, but not in all.) Because the variation of drive to a neuron is the primary example we have in mind, we will denote the bifurcation parameter by I, and its threshold value by I c , in this chapter.
Tule Elk on Private Lands: Species Preservation, Habitat Protection, or Wildlife Commercialization?

Tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes), the only North American elk endemic to California, once occurred throughout much of that state. Historically, the population numbered approximately 500 000, but that was reduced to critically low levels in the late nineteenth century as a result of habitat loss and commercial hunting. As recently as 1975, only 500 tule elk existed; recent efforts to reestablish this subspecies on historical ranges have resulted in a current population of at least 2700. Much of the previously suitable tule elk habitat has been altered by commercial development, or for agricultural uses. However, substantial tracts of suitable habitat remain in private ownership. In several instances, landowners have accepted translocated true elk in cooperative ventures with the California Department of Fish and Game.
Limitations of the TCRE: Transient Climate Response to Cumulative Emissions

Observed correlations between cumulative emissions and cumulative changes in climate variables form the basis of the Transient Climate Response to Cumulative Emissions (TCRE) function. The TCRE is used to make forecasts of future climate scenarios based on different emission pathways and thereby to derive their policy implications for climate action. Inaccuracies in these forecasts likely derive from a statistical weakness in the methodology used. The limitations of the TCRE are related to its reliance on correlations between cumulative values of time series data. Time series of cumulative values contain neither time scale nor degrees of freedom. Their correlations are spurious. No conclusions may be drawn from them.
Gustav Shpet and Phenomenology in an Orthodox Key

Gustav Gustavovich Shpet (1879--1937) is undoubtedly best known for introducing Husserlian phenomenology to Russia. He applied to aesthetics and the philosophy of language the principles he had discovered in Husserl's Logical Investigations and Ideas I. But, perhaps without knowing it, he modified the phenomenology he had found in Husserl. His modifications show a thinker who is thoroughly grounded in Russian religious thought of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The result is a philosophy that combines Husserl's analysis of the structure of consciousness with the fundamental Platonism of Orthodoxy, the doctrine of incarnation, and the related notion that matter is to be venerated.
Continuous-Infusion Labetalol vs Nicardipine for Hypertension Management in Stroke Patients.

Background Labetalol and nicardipine are antihypertensives commonly used in the management of elevated blood pressure (BP) following an acute stroke, but there is limited evidence to suggest which agent as a continuous infusion should be used preferentially in this setting. Objective This study aimed to compare the safety, efficacy, and ease of administration of continuous-infusion labetalol with continuous-infusion nicardipine following an acute stroke. Methods This retrospective cohort study of patients with acute ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage included patients if they received either study agent within 24 hours of admission. The primary outcome was percent time spent at goal BP. Secondary outcomes included time to goal BP, the number of dose adjustments, and use of rescue antihypertensives. Results The analysis included 99 patients who received labetalol- (n = 34) or nicardipine- (n = 65) continuous infusions. Intracerebral hemorrhage was the most common stroke subset (n = 81) followed by acute ischemic stroke (n = 18). There was no statistical difference in time at goal BP (labetalol 68.0%, nicardipine 67.0%; P = .885), rescue antihypertensive use (labetalol 14.7%, nicardipine 24.6%; P = .2570), time spent 10% above or below mean systolic BP (labetalol 35.5%, nicardipine 33.5%; P = .885), time to goal BP (labetalol 81.4 minutes, nicardipine 56.3 minutes; P = .162), and mean number of dose adjustments (labetalol 5.9, nicardipine 6.9; P = .262). Conclusions Labetalol- and nicardipine-continuous infusions were comparable in the studied safety and efficacy outcomes including time at goal and BP variability. Further prospective studies are needed to validate these safety and efficacy findings and to assess clinical outcomes.
Periodogram-based derivation of first-order power spectral density from remote sensing of the ocean surface by HF-Doppler radar

In the Ph.D. thesis of Gill, the author determines the power spectral density per unit area by finding the auto-correlation of the received voltage assuming a certain number of scatters, and then taking its Fourier transform. Here, we instead find the power spectral density using Welch's periodogram approach, where we take the Fourier transform of the expression for the received voltage, and equate the power spectral density to the expected value of the squared-magnitude of this transform. This simplifies the analysis, and leads to new insights about the first-order Bragg peaks.
Culture and Food

The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology defines culture as "the symbolic and learned, non-biological aspects of human society, including language, custom and convention…" (p. 98). Thus one approach to food and nutrition undertaken by sociologists is cultural in nature. This course, drawing on sociological theory, explores the relationship between the elements of culture and food and nutrition. Having said this, I will freely admit that this course will stray considerably into the land of social structure, stratification, and power.
Nuclear recoil spectroscopy of levitated particles

Nuclear decay processes are proposed to be detected and characterized by measuring nuclear decay recoils within small particles levitated in an optical trap with high positional resolution. The interesting technique may shed light on the ``uncertainty of the half-life'' debate.
Roles of Thrombospondin and Fibronectin in Vascular Injury

Thrombospondin is a major platelet a-granule glycoprotein that is secreted and then bound to platelet membranes when platelets aggregate in response to thrombin (1–5). Studies by Lawler and others (6,9) indicate that thrombospondin is 420–450 kilodaltons (kd), has a pI of 4.7, and is composed of three large disulfide-linked subunits. It interacts avidly with heparin (7,10).
Adsorption of inorganic and organic ions to polycarbophil as a means of sustained-release dosage formulation.

The adsorption and desorption of drugs and inorganic ions to and from polycarbophil (PC), a polymer, were investigated to determine if PC would be a suitable carrier for sustained-release dosage formulations. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments with a polycarbophil–atropine sulfate complex demonstrated the gradual-release properties of this system. Adsorbed Cr3+ ions, like atropine, are released slowly. In contrast, 51CrO42− ions are predominantly bound in an irreversible manner. A third group of drugs minimally adsorbed to PC under the conditions studied. We conclude that PC under both in vitro and in vivo conditions is able to bind certain ions and drugs and then release them over a period of time in a predictable and repeatable manner.
Preliminary Singular Systems Theory

Since the 1960s, much research has been extensively focused on system analysis and synthesis of dynamical system with the core features in modern control theory based on space system model. state space variable method not only provides us with a completely new method for system analysis and synthesis, but it also offers us more understanding of systems. Using the so-called state space variable method, state space models of systems are obtained.
Etude on the Chromatic Number of the Plane

The Borsuk Conjecture survived for sixty-one years from 1932 to its negative resolution in 1993. The problem I am going to share with you here is now sixty years old. It may require another century, may be centuries, to be settled. This is my favorite unsolved problem in all of mathematics, because it is so easy to understand — I have presented it to middle school audiences — but very hard, if it is even possible, to solve.
An Automated Fluorescence-Based Method for Continuous Assay of PP2A Activity

Protein serine/threonine phosphatase (PP2A) is a major cellular enzyme implicated in the control of numerous signaling processes. The accurate measurement of PP2A activity in crude cell lysates, immune complexes, and purified preparations provides insight into the function and regulation of this essential enzyme, which, in turn, can lead to a better understanding of the signaling pathways that it modulates. The method presented here utilizes 6,8-difluoro-4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate (DiFMUP) and a FLEXstation for the continuous measure of PP2A activity associated with many different protein preparations. This automated fluorescence-based assay offers several distinct advantages over colorimetric and radioactive assays of phosphatase activity including (1) decreased substrate preparation time, (2) real-time kinetic data, (3) high sensitivity, and (4) the capability to analyze a wide variety of phosphatases.
The onset of dynamic stall at a high, transitional Reynolds number

Dynamic stall due to a ramp-type pitching motion is investigated on the NACA 0012 airfoil at chord Reynolds number of . This comparison demonstrates trends in the boundary-layer mechanics that explain the sensitivity of the dynamic stall process to Reynolds number.
Thalictrum alkaloids—VII

Abstract The following new isoquinoline alkaloids have been isolated from T. fendleri: the bisbenzylisoquinoline thalidezine (IIIb), and the aporphines thaliporphine (XI) and preocoteine (XIV). Thaliporphine has been assigned a structure previously given to glaucentrine. The plant genus Thalictrum has a pronounced tendency to produce isoquinoline alkaloids possessing the trioxygenated moiety XIX.
Energy efficient operation and modeling for greenhouses: A literature review

Abstract With growing food demand worldwide, controlled environment agriculture is an important strategy for crop production year-round. One of the important types of controlled environment agriculture is greenhouses. Key indoor environmental parameters such as carbon dioxide, moisture, lighting, and temperature are required to be maintained for favorable crop growth in greenhouses. Due to lightweight construction and inefficient operation, greenhouses consume more fossil fuel energy in the operation of mechanical systems than other similar sized buildings and have larger carbon footprints. In fact, greenhouses are one of the most energy-intensive sectors of the agricultural industry. Energy consumption in greenhouses is influenced by mechanical systems, indoor environment, crop growth, and evapotranspiration. Therefore, energy simulations help analyze the complex thermal processes in greenhouse operation, and contribute to energy efficient greenhouse operation. This paper reviews existing strategies on energy efficient control operation and state-of-the-art energy simulation for greenhouses. It first discusses strategies for improving energy efficiency in greenhouse control operation by summarizing the studies on energy efficient operation strategies, the control of key greenhouse parameters, sensing network and monitoring systems, along with various control algorithms. Second, the review covers energy modeling of greenhouses by summarizing existing and developed approaches. Finally, this review identifies areas in which future research has the potential to reduce greenhouse energy consumption and carbon footprint.
TIMING OF POST MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION VENTRICULAR SEPTAL REPAIR: A CASE SERIES AS RELOOK IN THE ERA OF NOVEL MECHANICAL HEMODYNAMIC SUPPORT DEVICES

Post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) ventricular septal defects (VSD) are potentially lethal complication. However, their treatment approach and timing of surgery remains controversial. Patient A was a 69-year old female with a late presenting anterior STEMI complicated by (c/b) a large apical
Turbulent universality and the drift velocity at the interface between two homogeneous fluids

The drift velocity U0 at the interface between two homogeneous turbulent fluids of arbitrary relative densities in differential mean motion is considered. It is shown that an analytical expression for U0 follows from the classical scaling for these flows when the scaling is supplemented by standard turbulent universality and symmetry assumptions. This predicted U0 is the weighted mean of the free-stream velocities in each fluid, where the weighting factors are the square roots of the densities of the two fluids, normalized by their sum. For fluids of nearly equal densities, this weighted mean reduces to the simple mean of the free-stream velocities. For fluids of two widely differing densities, such as air overlying water, the result gives U0 ≈ αV∞, where α ≪ 1 is the square root of the ratio of the fluid densities, V∞ is the free-stream velocity of the overlying fluid, and the denser fluid is assumed nearly stationary. Comparisons with two classical laboratory experiments for fluids in these two limits and with previous numerical simulations of flow near a gas–liquid interface provide specific illustrations of the result. Solutions of a classical analytical model formulated to reproduce the air–water laboratory flow reveal compensating departures from the universality prediction, of order 15% in α, including a correction that is logarithmic in the ratio of dimensionless air and water roughness lengths. Solutions reproducing the numerical simulations illustrate that the logarithmic correction can arise from asymmetry in the dimensionless laminar viscous sublayers.
Optimized OCT-based depth-resolved model for attenuation compensation using point-spread-function calibration

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) with a robust depth-resolved attenuation compensation method for a wide range of imaging applications is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed novel OCT attenuation compensation algorithm introduces an optimized axial point spread function (PSF) to modify existing depth-resolved methods and mitigates under and overestimation in biological tissues, providing a uniform resolution over the entire imaging range. The preliminary study is implemented using A-mode numerical simulation, where this method achieved stable and robust compensation results over the entire depth of samples. The experiment results using phantoms and corneal imaging exhibit agreement with the simulation result evaluated using signal-to-noise (SNR) and contrast-to-noise (CNR) metrics.
Efficient and Generic 1D Dilated Convolution Layer for Deep Learning.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have found many applications in tasks involving two-dimensional (2D) data, such as image classification and image processing. Therefore, 2D convolution layers have been heavily optimized on CPUs and GPUs. However, in many applications - for example genomics and speech recognition, the data can be one-dimensional (1D). Such applications can benefit from optimized 1D convolution layers. In this work, we introduce our efficient implementation of a generic 1D convolution layer covering a wide range of parameters. It is optimized for x86 CPU architectures, in particular, for architectures containing Intel AVX-512 and AVX-512 BFloat16 instructions. We use the LIBXSMM library's batch-reduce General Matrix Multiplication (BRGEMM) kernel for FP32 and BFloat16 precision. We demonstrate that our implementation can achieve up to 80% efficiency on Intel Xeon Cascade Lake and Cooper Lake CPUs. Additionally, we show the generalization capability of our BRGEMM based approach by achieving high efficiency across a range of parameters. We consistently achieve higher efficiency than the 1D convolution layer with Intel oneDNN library backend for varying input tensor widths, filter widths, number of channels, filters, and dilation parameters. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our optimized 1D convolution layer by utilizing it in the end-to-end neural network training with real genomics datasets and achieve up to 6.86x speedup over the oneDNN library-based implementation on Cascade Lake CPUs. We also demonstrate the scaling with 16 sockets of Cascade/Cooper Lake CPUs and achieve significant speedup over eight V100 GPUs using a similar power envelop. In the end-to-end training, we get a speedup of 1.41x on Cascade Lake with FP32, 1.57x on Cooper Lake with FP32, and 2.27x on Cooper Lake with BFloat16 over eight V100 GPUs with FP32.
Light-emitting metalenses and meta-axicons for focusing and beaming of spontaneous emission

Phased-array metasurfaces have been extensively used for wavefront shaping of coherent incident light. Due to the incoherent nature of spontaneous emission, the ability to similarly tailor photoluminescence remains largely unexplored. Recently, unidirectional photoluminescence from InGaN/GaN quantum-well metasurfaces incorporating one-dimensional phase profiles has been shown. However, the possibility of generating arbitrary two-dimensional waveforms-such as focused beams-is not yet realized. Here, we demonstrate two-dimensional metasurface axicons and lenses that emit collimated and focused beams, respectively. First, we develop off-axis meta-axicon/metalens equations designed to redirect surface-guided waves that dominate the natural emission pattern of quantum wells. Next, we show that photoluminescence properties are well predicted by passive transmission results using suitably engineered incident light sources. Finally, we compare collimating and focusing performances across a variety of different light-emitting metasurface axicons and lenses. These generated two-dimensional phased-array photoluminescence waveforms facilitate future development of light sources with arbitrary functionalities.
Associations Between Hypertension and Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference in U.S. Adults: A Comparative Analysis by Gender

The body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are a risk of hypertension, but their potentially multiplicative effect on hypertension is underexplored. To examine modifying effects of BMI and WC on hypertension using a nationally representative U.S. adult sample stratified by gender. Data were derived from the 2009–2010 NHANES. Overweight and obesity were based on BMI of 25.0–29.9 and ≥30 kg/m2, respectively. High-risk WC was based on ≥102.0 and ≥88.0 cm for males and females, respectively. Hypertension was determined by systolic/diastolic blood pressure of ≥140/≥90 mmHg, or taking prescribed medications. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between hypertension and BMI and WC by gender. Interaction terms were added to examine if BMI modified the effect of WC on hypertension. Both BMI and WC were significant predictors of hypertension in overall population. Gender-specific models indicated that BMI played an important role in hypertension risk among males, but WC in females. The interaction effects were present among males implying that the association of WC with hypertension was stronger if subjects were overweight or obese. This effect, however, was not present in females. BMI and WC may influence hypertension differently among males and females.
Witchcraft, Demonology, and Confession in Early Modern France

Denounced by neighbors and scrutinized by demonologists, the early modern French witch also confessed, self-identified as a witch and as the author of horrific deeds. What led her to this point? Despair, solitude, perhaps even physical pain, but most decisively, demonology's two-pronged prosecutorial and truth-seeking confessional apparatus. This book examines the systematic and well-oiled machinery that served to extract, interpret, and disseminate witches' confessions in early modern France. For the demonologist, confession was the only way to find out the truth about the clandestine activities of witches. For the witch, however, trial confessions opened new horizons of selfhood. In this book, Virginia Krause unravels the threads that wove together the demonologist's will to know and the witch's subjectivity. By examining textual and visual evidence, Krause shows how confession not only generated demonological theory but also brought forth a specific kind of self, which we now recognize as the modern subject.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS RELATED TO SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Firms are increasingly under pressure from stakeholders to incorporate the triple-bottom line of social, environmental and economic responsibility considerations into operations and supply chain management strategies. This research uses content analysis software that performed centering resonance analysis to examine corporate communication to stakeholders through corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. The intent is to determine how supply chain strategies factor in to the triple-bottom line of 100 socially and environmentally responsible global companies. This research compares and contrasts the influential words in the CSR reports of firms from a range of industries, sizes and geographical regions. The content analysis revealed ten themes that provide a snapshot of how top global companies integrate and improve the triple-bottom line in internal operations and external supply chains. Findings indicated that while institutional pressure is the major driving force behind strategy development for all of the industries studied, companies emphasize different facets of social, environmental and economic responsibility upstream and downstream in supply chains based on industry, size and geographic location. The analysis revealed unique insights regarding corporate communications that other methodologies would not find.
Advanced non-etching adhesion promoter for next generation IC packaging

In this paper findings from the development of a new Non Etching Adhesion Promoter process (NEAP) targeting inner and outer layer bonding are discussed. The herein described approach propagates a nano-scale copper structure that forms a thin anchoring layer with increased surface area, but hardly contributes to the surface roughness. The superb adhesion results obtained to a wide range of dielectrics support the hypothesis of a mechanical type of adhesion mechanism. This paper also outlines detailed examinations on impacts of the adhesion promoter to subsequent processes revealing an unaffected performance generating conductors with excellent geometries for inner- and outerlayer application and clear benefits to the industry.
Assessing the effects of natural and anthropogenic stressors in the potomac estuary : Implications for long-term monitoring

Ecological conditions in the Potomac Estuary are affected by a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors. Natural climatic factors combined with anthropogenic activities affect fluxes of material through Potomac River watersheds and cause changes in ecological conditions in the Potomac Estuary. A basic premise of this ongoing study is that effects of anthropogenic and natural stressors can be distinguished. The investigation involves: 1) analysis of existing data using time series methods, 2) retrospective modeling to link the response of estuarine water quality to changes in stressors, and 3) new measurements on sediment cores from the Potomac Estuary. Estuarine effects being considered include changes in the distribution and abundance of chlorophyll a, diatoms, dinoflagellates, ostracods, submerged aquatic vegetation, benthic fauna, dissolved oxygen, and foraminifera. Since current conditions may be due to the accumulation of effects over many years, our research considers variability and changes during the past century in the context of long-term changes during the past 500 years. The availability of large data sets from the past century, long-term information on variability in precipitation from tree ring data from the past 300 years, and paleoecological studies by other investigators in the Potomac Estuary and main stem of Chesapeake Bay make the Potomac Estuary an ideal place to develop methods to distinguish between effects of natural and anthropogenic stressors in estuaries, in the context of a varying, and perhaps changing, climate.