cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
US and France adult fruit and vegetable consumption patterns: an international comparison.

To observe fruit and vegetable consumption as it relates to body mass index (BMI) and other variables, by analyzing the health surveys of two countries—the United States and France—with traditionally distinct diets, and identifying factors that may explain the differences. Two nationally representative surveys that assess food intake via 24-h diet recalls. Respondents include 2126 women and 1911 men from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and 1572 women and 1141 men from the French Nutrition Barometer Survey. Standard linear regression models and t-tests of both simple and predictive marginal means were run employing the software package SUDAAN. Americans appear to consume fruits and vegetables less often than their French counterparts (1.04 vs 1.33 times per day fruits; 1.98 vs 2.29 times per day vegetables). American men consume fruits and vegetables least often (0.98 times per day fruits; 1.88 times per day vegetables) than do American women or French men (1.10 vs 1.25 times per day fruits; 2.07 vs 2.18 times per day vegetables). French women consume fruits and vegetables most often (1.41 times per day fruits; 2.41 times per day vegetables). The French have lower mean BMI than Americans (23.34 vs 28.22 women; 25.20 vs 28.02 men). Regression analyses showed that age, BMI and educational attainment are strongly associated with frequency of consumption. These results support our hypothesis that the French tend to eat fruits and vegetables more often than Americans. This study proves to be an important first step in determining some of the influential factors that may affect various populations' consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Progress in the Development of Post-Acceleration and Electrostatic Deflection

Electrostatic deflection from a common center is possible by the use of electrostatic yokes, or Deflectrons. These consist of a 4-terminal pattern, printed on the inside of glass cylinders or cones. An analysis of the pattern geometry is presented which gives simple expressions for deflection factor of electrostatic yokes. The theory also accounts for a small residual noncircularity of scan, and gives clues as to its correction. Equipment to test tube performance is described, including ultraviolet mapping and electronic detection of the axis. The most suitable type of post-accelerator for use with Deflectrons employs a long drift space, bounded by a metallic mask, and confines the high gradient to a narrow region close to the screen. It is shown that this mask intensifier suffers from secondary emission. This effect can be effectively suppressed by an insulating coating of the first surface of the mask, while connecting the support metal to a lower potential than the drift space. The resulting double layer of charges prevents the escape of secondaries towards the screen. This barrier-mask intensifier permits post-acceleration ratios of 10 to 1 without loss of deflection.
Statistical learning of a tonal language: the influence of bilingualism and previous linguistic experience

While research shows that adults attend to both segmental and suprasegmental regularities in speech, including syllabic transitional probabilities as well as stress and intonational patterns, little is known about how statistical learning operates given input from tonal languages. In the current study, we designed an artificial tone language to address several questions: can adults track regularities in a tonal language? Is learning enhanced by previous exposure to tone-marking languages? Does bilingualism affect learning in this task? To address these questions, we contrasted the performance of English monolingual adults (Experiment 1), Mandarin monolingual and Mandarin–English bilingual adults (Experiment 2), and non-tonal bilingual adults (Experiment 3) in a statistical learning task using an artificial tone language. The pattern of results suggests that while prior exposure to tonal languages did not lead to significant improvements in performance, bilingual experience did enhance learning outcomes. This study represents the first demonstration of statistical learning of an artificial tone language and suggests a complex interplay between prior language experience and subsequent language learning.
Fas-associated phosphatase 1 mediates Fas resistance in myeloid progenitor cells expressing the Bcr-abl oncogene.

AbstractThe interferon consensus sequence binding protein (Icsbp) is a transcription factor that influences multiple aspects of myelopoiesis. Expression of Icsbp is decreased in the bone marrow of human subjects with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and studies in murine models suggest that Icsbp functions as an anti-oncogene for CML. We previously identified a set of Icsbp target genes that may contribute to this anti-oncogene effect. The set includes PTPN13, the gene encoding Fas-associated phosphatase 1 (Fap1, a Fas antagonist). We previously demonstrated that myeloid progenitor cells from Icsbp-knockout mice exhibit Fap1-dependent Fas resistance. In the present study, we determined that the Fas resistance of Bcr–abl+cells is Icsbp- and Fap1-dependent. We also found that treatment of Bcr–abl bone marrow cells with a Fap1-blocking peptide prevents in vitro selection of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-resistant population. Therefore, these results have implications for therapeutic targeting of the Fas-r...
Induction of micronuclei by bleomycin in G0 human lymphocytes: I. Dose‐response and distribution

The cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay was used to investigate the induction of chromosomal damage by bleomycin in G0 human lymphocytes. A dose-dependent increase in the frequency of micronuclei was observed in binucleate cells, and the frequency approached 0.5 micronuclei per cell at the highest dosage tested. The distribution of micronuclei among cells was overdispersed, rather than fitting a Poisson distribution. Even at the highest dosage, more than two-thirds of the cells did not contain micronuclei, while some cells were highly damaged, containing more than 4 micronuclei per cell.
Roads or Radar: The Tradeoff Between Investments in Infrastructure and Forecasting When Facing Hurricane Risk

When faced with a significant risk, society must decide how much to invest in prediction and response. For example, in the face of hurricane risk how much should we invest in better forecasting versus increased evacuation speed? To address this need, we develop a Markov decision processes model to analyze the interaction between the emergency response system and the emergency forecasting system. The model shows the tradeoff between the two investments given a budget limit. In addition, the research indicates that the superiority of the investment changes sharply by the lead time.
Four-electron deoxygenative reductive coupling of carbon monoxide at a single metal site

Carbon dioxide is the ultimate source of the fossil fuels that are both central to modern life and problematic: their use increases atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, and their availability is geopolitically constrained. Using carbon dioxide as a feedstock to produce synthetic fuels might, in principle, alleviate these concerns. Although many homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, further deoxygenative coupling of carbon monoxide to generate useful multicarbon products is challenging. Molybdenum and vanadium nitrogenases are capable of converting carbon monoxide into hydrocarbons under mild conditions, using discrete electron and proton sources. Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon monoxide on copper catalysts also uses a combination of electrons and protons, while the industrial Fischer-Tropsch process uses dihydrogen as a combined source of electrons and electrophiles for carbon monoxide coupling at high temperatures and pressures. However, these enzymatic and heterogeneous systems are difficult to probe mechanistically. Molecular catalysts have been studied extensively to investigate the elementary steps by which carbon monoxide is deoxygenated and coupled, but a single metal site that can efficiently induce the required scission of carbon-oxygen bonds and generate carbon-carbon bonds has not yet been documented. Here we describe a molybdenum compound, supported by a terphenyl-diphosphine ligand, that activates and cleaves the strong carbon-oxygen bond of carbon monoxide, enacts carbon-carbon coupling, and spontaneously dissociates the resulting fragment. This complex four-electron transformation is enabled by the terphenyl-diphosphine ligand, which acts as an electron reservoir and exhibits the coordinative flexibility needed to stabilize the different intermediates involved in the overall reaction sequence. We anticipate that these design elements might help in the development of efficient catalysts for converting carbon monoxide to chemical fuels, and should prove useful in the broader context of performing complex multi-electron transformations at a single metal site.
Practice Variation in Management of Childhood Asthma Is Associated with Outcome Differences

Background Although specialist asthma care improves children's asthma outcomes, the impact of primary care management is unknown. Objective To determine whether variation in preventive and acute care for asthma in pediatric practices affects patients' outcomes. Methods For 22 practices, we aggregated 12-month patient data obtained by chart review and parent telephone interviews for 948 children, 3 to 12 years old, diagnosed with asthma to obtain practice-level measures of preventive (≥1 asthma maintenance visit/year) and acute (≥1 acute asthma visit/year) asthma care. Relationships between practice-level measures and individual asthma outcomes (symptom-free days, parental quality of life, emergency department [ED] visits, and hospitalizations) were explored using generalized estimating equations, adjusting for seasonality, specialist care, Medicaid insurance, single-family status, and race. Results For every 10% increase in the proportion of children in the practice receiving preventive care, symptom-free days per child increased by 7.6 days ( P = .02) and ED visits per child decreased by 16.5% ( P = .002), with no difference in parental quality of life or hospitalizations. Only the association between more preventive care and fewer ED visits persisted in adjusted analysis (12.2% reduction; P = .03). For every 10% increase in acute care provision, ED visits per child and hospitalizations per child decreased by 18.1% ( P = .02) and 16.5% ( P P = .02; hospitalizations 13.9%, P = .03). Conclusions Children cared for in practices providing more preventive and acute asthma care had improved outcomes, both impairment and risk. Persistence of improved risk outcomes in the adjusted analyses suggests that practice-level interventions to increase asthma care may reduce childhood asthma disparities.
Early Prediction and Evaluation of Breast Cancer Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Using Quantitative DCE-MRI.

The purpose is to compare quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) metrics with imaging tumor size for early prediction of breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and evaluation of residual cancer burden (RCB). Twenty-eight patients with 29 primary breast tumors underwent DCE-MRI exams before, after one cycle of, at midpoint of, and after NACT. MRI tumor size in the longest diameter (LD) was measured according to the RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors) guidelines. Pharmacokinetic analyses of DCE-MRI data were performed with the standard Tofts and Shutter-Speed models (TM and SSM). After one NACT cycle the percent changes of DCE-MRI parameters Ktrans (contrast agent plasma/interstitium transfer rate constant), ve (extravascular and extracellular volume fraction), kep (intravasation rate constant), and SSM-unique τi (mean intracellular water lifetime) are good to excellent early predictors of pathologic complete response (pCR) vs. non-pCR, with univariate logistic regression C statistics value in the range of 0.804 to 0.967. ve values after one cycle and at NACT midpoint are also good predictors of response, with C ranging 0.845 to 0.897. However, RECIST LD changes are poor predictors with C = 0.609 and 0.673, respectively. Post-NACT Ktrans, τi, and RECIST LD show statistically significant (P < .05) correlations with RCB. The performances of TM and SSM analyses for early prediction of response and RCB evaluation are comparable. In conclusion, quantitative DCE-MRI parameters are superior to imaging tumor size for early prediction of therapy response. Both TM and SSM analyses are effective for therapy response evaluation. However, the τi parameter derived only with SSM analysis allows the unique opportunity to potentially quantify therapy-induced changes in tumor energetic metabolism.
Abstract 4717: Lymphotoxins activate NF-κB-mediated inflammatory and survival pathways in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) are highly inflammatory and preferentially metastasize to lymph nodes (LN). HNSCC exhibit constitutively activated canonical and alternative NF-κB pathways, but the upstream signals activating these NF-κB pathways have not been well characterized. We hypothesized that immune regulatory cytokines Lymphotoxin (LT) α and β produced by tumor and/or LN cells could be critical in upstream signal activation of NF-κB in HNSCC. Although LTs and their receptors (LTβR and TNFR) are known to be expressed and produced by lymphocytes, we found that LTα and β, and their receptors LTβR and TNFR, are also expressed and produced in a subset of HNSCC cell lines and tumor tissue specimens, when compared with primary human oral mucosal cells. LTα activated both canonical and alternative NF-κB pathways, as indicated by induction of nuclear translocation of NF-κB subunits, RELA, cREL, RELB, p52 in a time dependent manner. In contrast, LTβ mainly activated the alternative NF-κB pathway, enhancing nuclear translocation of RELB and p52. In addition, LTβ-mediated gene expression was examined by Illumina bead microarray platform, and the top pathways of upregulated genes included NF-κB, immunoregulatory, inflammatory, and survival signaling pathways. Our data suggested that HNSCC expressed lymphotoxins and their receptors could be critical factors that contribute to the constitutively activated NF-κB, inflammatory and survival signaling previously implicated in HNSCC pathogenesis. Understanding of lymphotoxin-mediated cross-talk with these inflammatory and survival signaling pathways, could provide a missing link between the inflammation and tumorigenesis in the tumor microenvironment. Citation Format: Tsu-Fan Cheng, Xinping Yang, Jamie Coupar, Han Si, Steven Lee, Jialing Zhang, Carter van Waes, Zhong Chen. Lymphotoxins activate NF-κB-mediated inflammatory and survival pathways in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4717. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4717
Numerical Stiffness Simulation of Auto-body Cover Panel for High Strength Steel Based on Lightweight

Based on shell finite element theory and auto-body design standards,numerical material lightweight simulation of auto-body cover panel is presented by using high strength baked hardening steel on engine hood.Bending stiffness and torsion stiffness analysis model on structural simulation is constructed.By replacing the traditional carbon steel ST14 with high strength steel BH340,the weight of engine hood panel can be reduced by 14.28% while the requirement of auto-body stiffness design standard is satisfied.BH340 is recommanded for engine hood as new lightweight material.
Mao Tse-tung's theoretical Creativity of Reforming the Criminals --Commemorating the 110th anniversary of Mao Tse-tung's birth

Mao Tse-tung's theory of reforming the criminals is a part of Mao Tse-tung thoughts.The theoretical creativity in respect of punishment concept of the human society and prison executing punishment gives expression to the progress of punishment system civilization. In the 21st century, Chinese prisons must always take this theory as the guiding ideology, and utilize and develop Mao Tse-tung's theory of reforming the criminals during the reform of prison work.
A Signature-Based Intrusion Detection System for Web Applications based on Genetic Algorithm

Web application attacks are an extreme threat to the world's information technology infrastructure. A web application is generally defined as a client-server software application where the client uses a user interface within a web browser. Most users are familiar with web application attacks. For instance, a user may have received a link in an email that led the user to a malicious website. The most widely accepted solution to this threat is to deploy an Intrusion Detection System (IDS). Such a system currently relies on signatures of the predefined set of events matching with attacks. Issues still arise as all possible attack signatures may not be defined before deploying an IDS. Attack events may not fit with the pre-defined signatures. Thus, there is a need to detect new types of attacks with a mutated signature based detection approach. Most traditional literature works describe signature based IDSs for application layer attacks, but several works mention that not all attacks can be detected. It is well known that many security threats can be related to software or application development and design or implementation flaws. Given that fact, this work expands a new method for signature based web application layer attack detection. We apply a genetic algorithm to analyze web server and database logs and the log entries. The work contributes to the development of a mutated signature detection framework. The initial results show that the suggested approach can detect specific application layer attacks such as Cross-Site Scripting, SQL Injection and Remote File Inclusion attacks.
Introduction: People in Protest

Political participation exploded during the twentieth century. Asserting diverse policy demands, citizens voted, joined protest movements, and supported revolutions. Today electoral participation represents the main type of political activity for most people. Even though fewer individuals engage in protests, such as demonstrations, marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and fights with police, protest behavior has recently increased. Economic movements seek greater policy benefits for their members. Unionists strike to secure higher wages, more fringe benefits (health care, pensions), and government decisions that will attain greater income equality. Peasant leagues stage land seizures. The urban poor riot against high food prices and cuts in government food subsidies. Communal movements articulate national, ethnic, and religious demands. National liberation movements strive for independence from colonial rule. Ethnic associations seek increased representation in government decisionmaking, even full autonomy or secession. Religious groups, such as the Roman Catholic base communities and Islamic revivalist organizations, struggle for a more purified political system. New civic action movements take actions against central state control.
Collaborative Digital Reference in Small Academic Liberal Arts College Libraries: Connecticut College, Smith College and Wesleyan University, 2001-2002

Wesleyan University Library began a two-year pilot project in Fall 2001 to offer collaborative digital reference services to a group of small liberal arts colleges. Advances in information technology have had a major impact on the organizational structure and philosophy of college reference and research services. This article details the scope of the pilot project during its first year of operation, its impact on the participating libraries, and what they have learned about this new way of reaching library users.
Organogenesis of the Drosophila Respiratory System

The trachea (Drosophila respiratory organ) is a highly branched tubular network, which has emerged as a premier model system for the investigation of molecular and cellular mechanisms of tubular organogenesis. Genetic and molecular analyses of tracheal development have implicated an organogenetic network composed of over two hundred genes, several of which function in highly conserved cell signaling pathways. Tracheal construction incorporates the assembly of multicellular, unicellular and subcellular tube architectures, providing an instructive case study for iterative utilization of the same cell signals under diverse developmental contexts. These signals direct cell specification, migration and branch architecture. Assembly of the tracheal tubular network is driven by several morphogenetic processes, which include invagination, collective cell migration, branch fusion, cell shape changes and cell rearrangements. In addition to assembly, the genetic network also serves to control tubule size while exhibiting a remarkable degree of developmental plasticity. Here, we review all of tracheal development from specification of the primordia in early embryos through the acquisition of terminal architecture to the final clearance of the airway coincident with the onset of tracheal function.
Asymptotic Noise Analysis of Time Reversal Detection

In time reversal, the received signal, including the additive noise component, is time reversed, energy normalized, and re-transmitted. The noise contained in the re-transmitted time-reversed signal has a significant impact on the time reversal detection performance. This paper carries out an asymptotic noise analysis of the time reversal generalized like-lihood ratio detector, and develops an approximate closed form of the asymptotic SNR gain of the time reversal detector compared with the conventional detector. We show that a rich scattering and low noise environment is preferred for time reversal.
A Between-Exam Review Does Not Affect Re-Test Performance of Medical Students in a Two-Test System

This study examined the impact of a targeted, faculty-led, between-exam review session on re-test performance in a “two-test” system that allows students to test, revisit material, and re-test. Scores from the midterm multiple choice examinations were compared between academic years (AY) 2013–2014, when a review session was held between the test and re-test, and AY 2014–15, which had similar content, but no between-exam review. Despite being well received by the students, the review did not significantly affect the increase in score between the test and re-test. Thus, contrary to our predictions and student evaluations, the review session did not improve the re-test performance over self-study.
PLA–PEO–PLA Hydrogels and Their Mechanical Properties

Poly(lactide) – block – poly(ethylene oxide) – block – poly(lactide) [PLA–PEO–PLA] triblock copolymers are known to form physical hydrogels in water, due to the polymer’s amphiphilic architecture. Their biodegradability has made them attractive for use as soft tissue scaffolds and other biological applications such as drug delivery. In many cases, their mechanical properties have been poorly investigated and “rules” for tuning their stiffness are missing. Often the network junction points are only physical cross-links, not covalent, and in a highly aqueous environment, these hydrogels will absorb more water, transform from gel to sol, and lose the designed mechanical properties. New insights into the self-assembly of these materials have resulted in new PLA–PEO–PLA gels with novel structural and mechanical properties. Here, we summarize our recent efforts to understand these novel hydrogels and control their mechanical properties. This is highlighted by a new approach in which the system is allowed to self-assemble and then it is covalently cross-linked to capture this self-assembled architecture. This produces hydrogels with permanent cross-links and allows their mechanical properties to be studied in much more detail.
A Combination of Naltrexone + Varenicline Retards the Expression of a Genetic Predisposition Toward High Alcohol Drinking.

Background This study examined whether naltrexone (NTX) or varenicline (VAR), alone or in combination, can retard the phenotypic expression of a genetic predisposition toward high alcohol drinking in rats selectively bred for high alcohol intake when drug treatment is initiated prior to, or concomitantly with, the onset of alcohol drinking. Methods Alcohol-naive P rats were treated daily with NTX (15.0 mg/kg BW), VAR (1.0 mg/kg BW), a combination of NTX (15.0 mg/kg BW) + VAR (1.0 mg/kg BW), or vehicle (VEH) for 2 weeks prior to, or concomitantly with, their first opportunity to drink alcohol and throughout 21 days of daily 2-hour alcohol access. Drug treatment was then discontinued for 3 weeks followed by reinstatement of drug treatment for an additional 3 weeks. Results When P rats were pretreated with drug for 2 weeks prior to onset of alcohol access, only NTX+VAR in combination blocked the acquisition of alcohol drinking in alcohol-naive P rats. When drug treatment was initiated concomitantly with the first opportunity to drink alcohol, NTX alone, VAR alone, and NTX+VAR blocked the acquisition of alcohol drinking. Following termination of drug treatment, NTX+VAR and VAR alone continued to reduce alcohol drinking but by the end of 3 weeks without drug treatment, alcohol intake in all groups was comparable to that seen in the vehicle-treated group as the expression of a genetic predisposition toward high alcohol drinking emerged in the drug-free P rats. After 3 weeks without drug treatment, reinstatement of NTX+VAR treatment again reduced alcohol intake. Conclusion A combination of NTX+VAR, when administered prior to, or concomitantly with, the first opportunity to drink alcohol, blocks the acquisition of alcohol drinking during both initial access to alcohol and during a later period of alcohol access in P rats with a genetic predisposition toward high alcohol intake. The results suggest that NTX+VAR may be effective in curtailing alcohol drinking in individuals at high genetic risk for developing alcoholism. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project

NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS project, has partnered with Rockwell Collins to develop a concept Control and Non-Payload Communication system prototype radio, operating on recently allocated UAS frequency spectrum bands. The prototype radio will be used to validate initial proposed performance requirements for UAS control communications. This presentation will give an overview of the current status of the design, development, and flight test planning for this prototype radio.
Analyzing how we do Analysis and Consume Data, Results from the SciDAC-Data Project

One of the main goals of the Dept. of Energy funded SciDAC-Data project is to analyze the more than 410,000 high energy physics datasets that have been collected, generated and defined over the past two decades by experiments using the Fermilab storage facilities. These datasets have been used as the input to over 5.6 million recorded analysis projects, for which detailed analytics have been gathered. The analytics and meta information for these datasets and analysis projects are being combined with knowledge of their part of the HEP analysis chains for major experiments to understand how modern computing and data delivery is being used. We present the first results of this project, which examine in detail how the CDF, D0, NOvA, MINERvA and MicroBooNE experiments have organized, classified and consumed petascale datasets to produce their physics results. The results include analysis of the correlations in dataset/file overlap, data usage patterns, data popularity, dataset dependency and temporary dataset consumption. The results provide critical insight into how workflows and data delivery schemes can be combined with different caching strategies to more efficiently perform the work required to mine these large HEP data volumes and to understand the physics analysis requirements for the next generation of HEP computing facilities. In particular we present a detailed analysis of the NOvA data organization and consumption model corresponding to their first and second oscillation results (2014-2016) and the first look at the analysis of the Tevatron Run II experiments. We present statistical distributions for the characterization of these data and data driven models describing their consumption.
Low Overhead CS-Based Heterogeneous Framework for Big Data Acceleration

Big data processing on hardware gained immense interest among the hardware research community to take advantage of fast processing and reconfigurability. Though the computation latency can be reduced using hardware, big data processing cost is dominated by data transfers. In this article, we propose a low overhead framework based on compressive sensing (CS) to reduce data transfers up to 67% without affecting signal quality. CS has two important kernels: “sensing” and “reconstruction.” In this article, we focus on CS reconstruction is using orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm. We implement the OMP CS reconstruction algorithm on a domain-specific PENC many-core platform and a low-power Jetson TK1 platform consisting of an ARM CPU and a K1 GPU. Detailed performance analysis of OMP algorithm on each platform suggests that the PENC many-core platform has 15× and 18× less energy consumption and 16× and 8× faster reconstruction time as compared to the low-power ARM CPU and K1 GPU, respectively. Furthermore, we implement the proposed CS-based framework on heterogeneous architecture, in which the PENC many-core architecture is used as an “accelerator” and processing is performed on the ARM CPU platform. For demonstration, we integrate the proposed CS-based framework with a hadoop MapReduce platform for a face detection application. The results show that the proposed CS-based framework with the PENC many-core as an accelerator achieves a 26.15% data storage/transfer reduction, with an execution time and energy consumption overhead of 3.7% and 0.002%, respectively, for 5,000 image transfers. Compared to the CS-based framework implementation on the low-power Jetson TK1 ARM CPU+GPU platform, the PENC many-core implementation is 2.3× faster for the image reconstruction part, while achieving 29% higher performance and 34% better energy efficiency for the complete face detection application on the Hadoop MapReduce platform.
Design of a leak sensor for operating water pipe systems

Water pipe leakage is a common and significant problem around the world. In recent years, an increasing amount of effort has been put into developing effective leak detection solutions for water pipes. Among them, the pressure gradient based method developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology excels for its sensitivity in low pressure, small diameter pipes. It can also work in both plastic and metallic pipes carrying gas or water. However, the method was only verified in static fluid pipes, and the previous sensor designs were unable to detect leaks when there is a significant water flow in the pipe. This is undesired as the inspection can only be performed when water service is shut down. A modeling analysis shows that fluid dynamic effects in the water pipe make the original sensors dynamics too slow to react to leaks. Moreover, this leak detection method is prone to false alarms such as obstacles in the pipes, but there is a lack of studies on this topic. In this paper, we present three things: the design of a new leak sensor that is fast enough to detect leaks in dynamic fluid environments, a prototype for 52mm-inner-diameter pipeline tested in an industrial facility, and a method to differentiate leaks from false alarms supported by the test results.
Multi-segment, Frequency-Dependent Rupture of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku Earthquake

High-quality vertical component seismograms of teleseismic P waves recorded at 151 stations of the European seismic network have been used to image the rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake rapidly by a two-step back-projection method. The spatiotemporal distribution of rupture fronts suggests that the earthquake ruptured northeastward and southwestward over a total length of more than 340 km during at least 143 s. The fact that three fault segments ruptured at regions having different lateral heterogeneities implies that the earthquake comprised three subevents. The first subevent ruptured northeastward during the first 25 s and then turned to the northwest direction. The second subevent ruptured at a relatively high speed of 2.78∼4.70 km/s. The third subevent ruptured with a direction variation from southwest to southeast near the latitude of 37°. In addition, considering that the first front of the second subevent appeared at 74.6 s and was about 28 km away from the epicenter, we propose that the second subevent might have been triggered by the localized increase in tectonic stress in the vicinity of the hypocenter that resulted from the rupture of the first subevent. Additionally, the frequency-dependent rupture feature is discovered during the earthquake.
Carbon-Based Nanomaterials from Biopolymer Lignin via Catalytic Thermal Treatment at 700 to 1000 °C

We report the preparation of carbon-based nanomaterials from biopolymer kraft lignin via an iron catalytic thermal treatment process. Both the carbonaceous gases and amorphous carbon (AC) from lignin thermal decomposition were found to have participated in the formation of graphitic-carbon-encapsulated iron nanoparticles (GCEINs). GCEINs originating from carbonaceous gases have thick-walled graphitic-carbon layers (10 to 50) and form at a temperature of 700 °C. By contrast, GCEINs from AC usually have thin-walled graphitic-carbon layers (1 to 3) and form at a temperature of at least 800 °C. Iron catalyst nanoparticles started their phase transition from α-Fe to γ-Fe at 700 °C, and then from γ-Fe to Fe3C at 1000 °C. Furthermore, we derived a formula to calculate the maximum number of graphitic-carbon layers formed on iron nanoparticles via the AC dissolution-precipitation mechanism.
Horner’s Syndrome as the Presenting Symptom in Giant Cell Arteritis (P2.143)

Objective: NA Background: An etiology for isolated Horner’s syndrome is found in ~60% of patients and rarely associated with Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA). In five previously reported cases each had associated constitutional symptoms, other neurological signs and/or elevated inflammatory markers. We examined a 73 year old woman free of constitutional symptoms other than mild temporal headaches who developed Horner’s syndrome without other neurological symptoms and normal inflammatory markers. Bilateral ischemic optic neuropathies subsequently developed despite steroid treatment. Design/Methods: Case report. Results: 73 year old female complained of left temporal headaches sensitive to touch. Over a period of two months left lid ptosis appeared, without orbital or neck pain. She denied prior TIA like symptoms, she felt constitutionally well. Past history was negative for migraines, head or neck trauma. She had no chronic medical conditions. Physical examination: corrected visual acuity 20/25- OU; full confrontational fields. Funduscopy revealed normal appearing discs with 0.3 cup/disc ratios. Motility was full, tracking smooth, refixational saccades accurate. Both pupils were reactive, the right measured 3mm, the left 2mm. Pupillometry revealed dilator lag in the left pupil. There was a 3 mm ptosis, non-fatiguing of the left lid. Pharmacologic testing supported the diagnosis of left Horner’s syndrome. Diagnostic: ESR 2, CRP 0.6, platelets 192,000. MRI of head, orbits, and neck with/without contrast unremarkable. MRA chest normal. Temporal artery biopsy demonstrated partial segmental loss of elastic lamina with focal inflammation. She was started on 80mg prednisone QID with gradual reduction monthly. After 5 months, on 30mg QID, she developed slight disc head elevation (OCT 116Um OD, 110Um OS) and arcuate bundle defects bilaterally. Steroids were increased and the condition stabilized. Conclusions: Giant cell arteritis presents in many forms. An isolated Horner’s syndrome, particularly in the elderly, even in the absence of other constitutional symptoms and signs may be the only manifestation of GCA. Disclosure: Dr. Figueira has nothing to disclose. Dr. Farley has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hartenstein has nothing to disclose. Dr. Maitland has nothing to disclose.
From Serial Monologue to Deep Dialogue: Designing Online Discussions to Facilitate Student Learning in Teacher Education Courses

Despite the wide use of discussion in online courses, the quality of these exchanges varies. In this article, the authors draw on the community of inquiry (CoI) model to inform the design of what w...
Probabilistic Short-term Wind Forecasting Based on Pinball Loss Optimization

Probabilistic wind power forecasts that quantify the uncertainty in wind output have the potential to aid in the economic grid integration of wind power at large penetration levels. In this paper, a novel probabilistic wind forecasting approach based on pinball loss optimization is proposed, in conjunction with a multi-model machine learning based ensemble deterministic forecasting framework. By assuming the point-forecasted value as the mean at each point, one unknown parameter (i.e., standard deviation) of a predictive distribution at each forecasting point is determined by minimizing the pinball loss. A surrogate model is developed to represent the unknown distribution parameter as a function of deterministic forecasts. This surrogate model can be used together with deterministic forecasts to predict the unknown distribution parameter and thereby generate probabilistic forecasts. Numerical results of case studies show that the proposed method has improved the pinball loss by up to 35% compared to a baseline quantile regression forecasting model.
The 28th International Symposium on Paediatric Surgical Research.

The 28th international symposium on paediatric surgical research was held at the Gibson Hotel, Dublin, Ireland from 24 to 26 September 2015. This was a highly successful meeting in which 132 papers on paediatric surgical research were presented. As always, the highlight of the symposium was the Prize Session. There were ten excellent papers presented at this session. The Prem Puri Basic Science Research Prize was awarded to Dr Nana Nakazawa-Tanaka for her presentation on ‘‘three-and four-dimensional analysis of altered behavior of enteric neural crest derived cells in the hirschsprung’s disease mouse model’’. The Michael Hollwarth Clinical Research Prize was awarded to Dr Christian Tomuschat for his presentation on ‘‘reduced expression of voltage-gated Kv11.1 (Herg) K? channels in Aganglionic Colon in Hirschsprung’s disease’’. The International Board of Paediatric Surgical Research thanks the Dublin team for a highly successful meeting in Dublin.
Effects of platforms, size filter cutoffs, and targeted regions of cytogenomic microarray on detection of copy number variants and uniparental disomy in prenatal diagnosis: Results from 5026 pregnancies

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the effects of platforms, size filter cutoffs, and targeted regions of cytogenomic microarray (CMA) on the detection of copy number variants (CNVs) and uniparental disomy (UPD) in prenatal diagnosis. METHODS Five thousand twenty-six consecutive prenatal specimens (>98% high-risk pregnancy) were studied by high-resolution CMA, with cutoffs of 50 kb for losses and 200 kb for gains in nontargeted regions and 20 kb for losses and 100 kb for gains in targeted regions. We assessed actual detection rates using the current assay as well as hypothetical detection rates using platforms with the same or lower resolution and smaller or larger cutoffs. RESULTS The detection rate of our current assay was 11.2% (562 of 5026), including abnormal findings in 543 cases and likely pathogenic variants in 19. The hypothetical decrease in the overall detection of variants (excluding likely benign) and UPD ranged from 3.8% to 23.0%. For the subgroup of pathogenic and likely pathogenic CNVs < 1 Mb, the decrease of detection ranged from 2.7% to 24.3%. CONCLUSIONS These findings underscore the significant effects of chosen CMA platform, as well as size filter cutoffs and targeted regions used in data analysis, on detection of CNVs and UPDs in a cohort of prenatal cases.
Designing a Solution to the Global Problem of Overfishing Using the Engineering Design Process

Given that science and engineering practices are a large focus in the Next Generation Science Standards, biology teachers need to find ways to incorporate the engineering design process into their curriculum. To address this need, I present a lesson that allows for student collaboration in designing and developing a solution to a global problem resulting from overfishing and our use of unsustainable fishing practices. This lesson also demonstrates to students that larger, global issues that seem insurmountable to solve can be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces. My approach involves having students research a problem related to sustainable fishing practices and design a physical model of a solution to combat their specific issue. Peer review is then used in order to help students revise and edit their models during the lesson in response to the peer feedback received. The lesson will culminate in a presentation to the class about the biological, social, and economic ramifications of both their assigned problem and a potential solution.
Systems Driven by an Infinite Dimensional Brownian Noise

In Chap. 8 we gave a representation for positive functionals of a Hilbert space valued Brownian motion. This chapter will apply the representation to study the large deviation properties of infinite dimensional small noise stochastic dynamical systems. In the application, the driving noise is given by a Brownian sheet, and so in this chapter we will present a sufficient condition analogous to Condition 9.1 (but there will be no Poisson noise in this chapter) that covers the setting of such noise processes (see Condition 11.15). Another formulation of an infinite dimensional Brownian motion that will be needed in Chap. 12 is as a sequence of independent Brownian motions regarded as a \(\mathscr {C}([0,T]:\mathbb {R}^{\infty })\)-valued random variable. We also present the analogous sufficient condition (Condition 11.12) for an LDP to hold for this type of driving noise.
Normal Gastric Motility

Gastric neuromuscular function is a highly complex process that is influenced by many different intrinsic and extrinsic factors, some of which are not completely understood. The goal of gastric motility is not only to facilitate the transfer of foodstuffs from the esophagus to the duodenum but also to do so at an appropriate speed and volume. This section will outline normal gastric neuromuscular function, as well as the systems that exert control over each step in the process. There is also a brief discussion of common gastric pathologies and their effects on the different neuromuscular systems that control gastric motility.
Durability of ionomer encapsulants in photovoltaic modules

Abstract Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) has for decades been the material of choice for photovoltaic (PV) module encapsulation. However, while it is relatively inexpensive and initially adheres well to module components, EVA discolors with age and—as interfacial adhesion degrades—becomes susceptible to delamination, ultimately resulting in reduced module efficiency and shortened service lifetimes. As potential replacements for EVA, ionomer thermoplastic materials cure faster, are more resistant to discoloration and potential induced degradation, and do not evolve corrosive acetic acid, making them compatible with new device materials such as perovskites. Since there is limited information on ionomer durability for PV module applications, a series of field and accelerated laboratory aging studies were conducted to assess ionomer interface stability in the presence of terrestrial environmental stressors. It is shown that adhesion to the glass and cell interfaces of PV modules is inferior to EVA, both before and after aging, rendering ionomers particularly susceptible to delamination after short timeframes. Potential solutions to improve ionomer adhesion are discussed.
The SMAC mimetic LCL-161 selectively targets JAK2V617F mutant cells.

Evasion from programmed cell death is a hallmark of cancer and can be achieved in cancer cells by overexpression of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). Second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases (SMAC) directly bind to IAPs and promote apoptosis; thus, SMAC mimetics have been investigated in a variety of cancer types. particularly in diseases with high inflammation and NFĸB activation. Given that elevated TNFα levels and NFĸB activation is a characteristic feature of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), we investigated the effect of the SMAC mimetic LCL-161 on MPN cell survival in vitro and disease development in vivo. To investigate the effect of the SMAC mimetic LCL-161 in vitro, we utilized murine and human cell lines to perform cell viability assays as well as primary bone marrow from mice or humans with JAK2V617F–driven MPN to interrogate myeloid colony formation. To elucidate the effect of the SMAC mimetic LCL-161 in vivo, we treated a JAK2V617F–driven mouse model of MPN with LCL-161 then assessed blood counts, splenomegaly, and myelofibrosis. We found that JAK2V617F-mutated cells are hypersensitive to the SMAC mimetic LCL-161 in the absence of exogenous TNFα. JAK2 kinase activity and NFĸB activation is required for JAK2V617F-mediated sensitivity to LCL-161, as JAK or NFĸB inhibitors diminished the differential sensitivity of JAK2V617F mutant cells to IAP inhibition. Finally, LCL-161 reduces splenomegaly and may reduce fibrosis in a mouse model of JAK2V617F-driven MPN. LCL-161 may be therapeutically useful in MPN, in particular when exogenous TNFα signaling is blocked. NFĸB activation is a characteristic feature of JAK2V617F mutant cells and this sensitizes them to SMAC mimetic induced killing even in the absence of TNFα. However, when exogenous TNFα is added, NFĸB is activated in both mutant and wild-type cells, abolishing the differential sensitivity. Moreover, JAK kinase activity is required for the differential sensitivity of JAK2V617F mutant cells, suggesting that the addition of JAK2 inhibitors to SMAC mimetics would detract from the ability of SMAC mimetics to selectively target JAK2V617F mutant cells. Instead, combination therapy with other agents that reduce inflammatory cytokines but preserve JAK2 signaling in mutant cells may be a more beneficial combination therapy in MPN.