cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Advances and controversies in the contemporary management of chronic lymphedema

The lymphatic system is essential for normal body function, as its role is to recover fluid passed to the interstitial tissue from capillaries and to carry it back to the systemic circulation. This review presents briefly the magnitude of the problem first and then focuses on recent key advances and controversies in contemporary management. Lymphedema touches millions of individuals and generates considerable financial burden for the healthcare system. This frequently debilitating disease requires lifelong treatments in most of the cases. Lymphedema can be significantly improved with comprehensive management including always decongestive physiotherapy, compression pumps, and garments. Drug therapy and surgical treatment are optional. Surgical interventions can be reconstructive or excisional. Therapeutic strategies often combine several methods and should be adapted to each patient. At all times, the patient's values and quality of life should be considered. Although nonperfect and in majority of cases noncurative, the therapeutic options are available and they are efficient. Future research efforts should bring better solutions and will improve patients' evaluation and management.
Methane dehydroaromatization over molybdenum supported on sulfated zirconia catalysts

Abstract The shale gas revolution has strongly impacted the world by providing a significant incentive for research in natural gas conversion. Natural gas is becoming an important feedstock for the production of valuable chemicals. Dehydroaromatization (DHA) is an important non-oxidative conversion route for methane conversion, and Mo doped on the H-ZSM-5 or H-MCM-22 have been well-studied for this reaction. In these catalysts, Mo sites activate CH4 to form dimeric species that are subsequently oligomerized on the strong Bronsted acid sites. In the present study, Mo is doped on solid sulfated zirconia (SZ) to create a catalyst similar to Mo/H-ZSM-5, but with a different solid acid. Despite the logic of using SZ as the acid, we are aware of no systematic study of Mo/SZ catalysts for this reaction. These catalysts were characterized using Raman, XPS, DRIFTS, SEM-EDS, HRTEM, XRD, XANES and other temperature programmed techniques. Raman spectra confirmed the formation of Mo = O and O Mo O bonds on the surface of SZ support. DRIFTS confirmed that there was little difference in acid sites when Mo was doped on SZ, except at higher Mo loadings. XPS, XANES, and HRTEM analysis showed that MoO3 is converted to MoOxCy and is further converted to Mo2C as the reaction progresses. Further, these catalysts were evaluated for methane DHA reaction. All of these catalysts showed methane conversions of 5–20 % at temperatures of 600–700 °C. In each case, the catalysts deactivated steadily, attributable to strong coking on the surface, as confirmed with TPO. A comparison with literature showed that Mo/SZ has comparable activity to Mo/H-ZSM-5 at around 650 °C–675 °C temperature range. Further, Mo/SZ was more selective towards heavier aromatics such as naphthalene and coke as compared to Mo/H-ZSM-5 at 700 °C, which is more selective towards benzene.
A Comprehensive Evaluation of the National Water Model (NWM) – Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) Flood Mapping Methodology

Abstract. Flood maps are needed for emergency response, research, and planning. The Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) technique is a low-complexity, terrain-based approach for inundation mapping from elevation, discharge-height relationship, and streamflow data. The recent operational capacities of the NOAA National Water Model (NWM) and pre-processed HAND products from the University of Texas offer an operational framework for real-time and forecast flood mapping across the United States. This paper offers the first detailed evaluation of the coupled NWM-HAND approach by comparing NWM-HAND simulations to a database of remotely sensed flood maps. These comparisons are made both quantitatively and through a detailed evaluation of selected results. The results show that NWM-HAND performs well in the majority of cases with 70 % of the calculated flood maps yielding an agreement of 80 % or better with the remote sensing observations. Persistent inaccuracies occur in lower-order reaches, regions of low relief, and when the NWM misses substantially either in magnitude or timing.
The Early Findings of an Urban Education Teacher Preparation Program

A university near a major city in Georgia and a large, urban school district established a Professional Development School (PDS) in which the majority of junior and senior-level pre-service teacher coursework and fieldwork took place at seven urban, high-needs public schools. The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary feedback to the middle grades teacher preparation program concerning the UE (Urban Education) program in preparation for the second cohort of UE interns and the second year of study with the first cohort. What emerged from the study was evidence that the program, for its participating teacher candidates, leads to commitment, strengthens self-efficacy, and fosters early development of teacher efficacy, but which ultimately evolves into teacher candidate overconfidence. As pressure continues to mount concerning the quality of education in America, teacher preparation programs must improve their programs in order to better prepare teachers for diverse classrooms. This study relates one such effort toward that end.
The One and the Many: The Significance of the Labyrinth in Contemporary America

Unicursal labyrinths, with a single, highly circuitous path based on a medieval design, have enjoyed an unusual amount of interest in the United States over the last twenty years. They appear in such varied settings as churches, parks,hospitals, and retreat centers, their growing popularity coinciding with a time of deep political divisions in American society. The unicursal labyrinth closely resembles a mandala, suggesting that its current appearance is compensatory tothe increasing fragmentation and growing diversity in American life. The labyrinth’s popularity in meditative and recreational settings expresses a deepseated wish to walk a heroic, individual path and connect this path to a largerpurpose. As socio-psychological theories of the individual’s relationship to society move toward an “embedded” model, the labyrinth, too, suggests a collective, perhaps unconscious desire to find a middle way between individualism and common purpose as well as shared ground amid competing cultural values.
Macular Telangiectasia Type 2

Macular Telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel) is a disease that disturbs the central vision in patients. As genetic mutations remain largely unknown, retinal imaging determines the diagnose. As clinical trials are advancing, it is crucial to find imaging modalities that show disease related macular changes in early disease stages. FLIO approaches as a novel imaging tool that detects changes related to MacTel prior to other imaging modalities.
Red tide at morning, tourists take warning? County-level economic effects of HABS on tourism dependent sectors.

Abstract A tourism dependent state such as Florida relies on its environment and climate to attract visitors and generate revenue. HABs can certainly have an impact on the coastal waters of the Gulf, but does this necessarily drive away tourist related activity? To determine not only if the impact of HABs is significant, but also at what magnitude, a time series econometric model was used to study effects of persistent and severe blooms on counties in Southwestern Florida, particularly Sarasota County, hit hardest by blooms in 2006 and 2018 that lasted multiple months. Lodging and restaurant sectors of the economy were found to have monthly losses of 15% and 1.75% respectively, during months when red tide was present. Neighboring counties unaffected by severe blooms did not experience significant losses to these sectors. These results support the intuition that effects of HABs reach far beyond the waters of the Gulf, and as red tide grows in frequency and severity, more economic loss could lie ahead.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in pediatric sickle cell disease.

Background Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) have an increased risk of neurological complications, particularly stroke and silent cerebral infarction (SCI). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a nerve growth factor associated with neuronal survival, synaptic plasticity, elevated transcranial Doppler (TCD) velocities and increased risk of stroke in patients with SCD. The objective of this study was to analyze plasma BDNF protein levels in children with SCD participating in the Silent Cerebral Infarct Transfusion Multi-Center Clinical Trial (SIT Trial), comparing plasma samples of children with SCD and SCI to plasma samples from children with SCD without SCI, as well as healthy pediatric control participants. Procedure Entry, exit, and longitudinal blood samples were collected from 190 SIT Trial participants with SCD and healthy pediatric controls over time. BDNF levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Sample collection was not optimized for measurements of BDNF, but factors affecting BDNF levels were accounted for in analyses. Results BDNF levels were significantly higher in children with SCD in comparison to healthy pediatric control subjects. BDNF levels significantly increased over time in SCD participants. BDNF levels did not show any significant associations with the presence or absence of SCI or new/progressive SCI/stroke or TCD velocities. Conclusions Plasma BDNF levels are elevated and increase over time in children with SCD. Additional studies with more longitudinal samples are needed to address the reasons for those increased levels.
Adaptive driving simulation-based training: framework, status, and needs

Motor vehicle crashes are the major cause of deaths in the United States. Conventional driving training approaches including classroom education, vehicle owner manuals, training videos, on-the-road...
Liquid level control: Simplicity and complexity

Abstract From a superficial perspective, the control of liquid level in a vessel is a “non-problem.” Well-known process control heuristics advise using a proportional-only controller with a gain Kc = 2. However many plant operators are uncomfortable with the resulting “offset” (“steady-state error” or “droop”) between the process variable and the controller setpoint that is inherent in a proportional controller because of the lack of integral action to drive the error to zero. Therefore level controllers with proportional-integral (PI) action are often found in process units. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that PI control does not provide effective attenuation of flow disturbances and that it actually amplifies them. We also show that PI level controllers can give confusing tuning results. In most closedloop systems, increasing controller gain makes the system more oscillatory (smaller closedloop damping coefficient). When PI controllers are used to control liquid level, the exact opposite occurs (increasing controller gain makes the system less oscillatory).
Deep Neural Network–Based Detection and Verification of Microelectronic Images

The safety and integrity of complex electronic devices depend on their electronic components, many of which traverse a complex global supply chain before reaching the device manufacturer. Ensuring that these components are correct and legitimate is a significant challenge, especially given the billions of electronic devices that we depend upon. One possible approach is to use computer vision algorithms to analyze images of electronic components—either installed on printed circuit boards or in isolation—to try to automatically spot incorrect or suspicious parts or other potential problems. Such an automatic approach could be especially helpful for large-scale collections of devices, for which manual inspection would be prohibitively expensive. In this paper, we consider two specific problems in this challenging area of microelectronic device inspection: (i) electronic component detection and (ii) electronic component verification. First, we introduce a technique for locating integrated circuits (ICs) on printed circuit boards (PCBs). We apply modern computer vision algorithms, specifically deep learning with convolutional neural networks, to this problem, but find that the small and cluttered nature of electronic components is a significant challenge. We introduce techniques to help overcome this challenge. Second, we consider the problem of component verification: given a pair of IC images, we try to determine if they are the same part or not, ignoring variations caused both by imaging conditions and by expected manufacturing variations across legitimate instances of the same part. We learn a deep feature representation automatically for this problem by showing the algorithm pairs of known similar parts and different parts during training. We evaluate these techniques on large-scale datasets of PCB and IC images we collected from the web.
Outcomes of pars plana vitrectomy with subretinal tissue plasminogen activator injection and pneumatic displacement of fovea-involving submacular haemorrhage.

Objective Fovea-involving subretinal haemorrhage is challenging to manage with uncertain visual outcomes. We reviewed outcomes of patients with fovea-involving macular haemorrhage treated with pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and subretinal tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) with pneumatic displacement. Methods and Analysis This is a retrospective interventional case series. All patients with submacular haemorrhage who underwent PPV with subretinal tPA injection were included. Reasons for exclusion encompassed patients who underwent intravitreal tPA injection in the office without surgery, insufficient follow-up or documentation. Primary outcomes of interest were postoperative visual acuity (VA) at month 1 and 3. Secondary outcomes were median VA at month 3 by location of haemorrhage and underlying diagnosis. Results Thirty-seven total patients were included. The mean age was 68.2 years, with 54.1% (20/37) females. The most common aetiology was exudative macular degeneration (43.2%), followed by undifferentiated choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) (18.9%), polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (18.9%), traumatic CNV (10.8%), macroaneurysm (5.4%) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (2.7%). Median preoperative VA was 20/2000, postoperative month 1 was 20/347 (p<0.01), improving to 20/152 (p<0.01) at month 3. Proportion of patients gaining vision 3+ lines in vision was 15/36 (42%). Mean preoperative central subfield thickness on optical coherence tomography was 512.2 µm for sub-retinal pigment epithelium haemorrhage and 648.2 µm for subretinal haemorrhage (p=0.48). Difference in VA by diagnosis was not significant (p=0.60). Conclusions PPV with subretinal tPA injection and pneumatic displacement of submacular haemorrhage offers modest visual recovery for a diverse group of patients. Location of haemorrhage or specific diagnosis may not predict outcome.
Progress & Prejudice: Gendered Press Coverage and Voter Attitudes Toward Hillary Clinton in 2008

Hillary Clinton’s historic bid for the presidency in 2008 is assessed using data from the 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey, as well as an original data set of over 3,000 content-coded newspaper articles from the 2008 election. This unique collection of data allows us to test the proposition that Hillary Clinton’s press coverage influenced voter opinion about her. After describing the press coverage Clinton received relative to her male competitors, we test its effects on readers. The results suggest both progress and prejudice in terms of how the press covers women running for national-level office. While Clinton garnered as much coverage as the men in the race (and often more), and it was equally substantive in nature, it was also disproportionately negative and gendered. Most importantly, it influenced reader perceptions of Clinton during the closest Democratic presidential nominating contest in modern history.
Integral equation theory of thermodynamics, pair structure, and growing static length scale in metastable hard sphere and Weeks-Chandler-Andersen fluids

We employ the Ornstein-Zernike integral equation theory with the Percus-Yevick (PY) and modified-Verlet (MV) closures to study the equilibrium structural and thermodynamic properties of metastable monodisperse hard sphere and continuous repulsion Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) fluids under density and temperature conditions where the system is strongly overcompressed or supercooled, respectively. The theoretical results are compared to crystal-avoiding simulations of these dense monodisperse model one-component fluids. The equation of state (EOS) and dimensionless compressibility are computed using both the virial and compressibility routes. For hard spheres, the MV-based virial route EOS and dimensionless compressibility are in very good agreement with simulation for all packing fractions, much better than the PY analogs. The corresponding MV-based predictions for the static structure factor are also very good. The amplitude of density fluctuations on the local cage scale and in the long wavelength limit, and three technically different measures of the density correlation length, are studied with both closures. All five properties grow in a roughly exponential manner with density in the metastable regime up to packing fractions of 58% with no sign of saturation. The MV-based results are in good agreement with our crystal-avoiding simulations. Interestingly, the density dependences of long and short wavelength quantities are closely related. The MV-based theory is also quite accurate for the thermodynamics and structure of supercooled monodisperse WCA fluids. Overall our findings are also relevant as critical input to microscopic theories that relate the equilibrium pair correlation function or static structure factor to dynamical constraints, barriers, and activated relaxation in glass-forming liquids.
Trends in Sodium Intake in Children and Adolescents in the US and the Impact of US Department of Agriculture Guidelines: NHANES 2003-2016.

Objective To examine trends in sodium intake and the impact of nutritional guidelines in the US pediatric population. Study design Sodium intake data collected between 2003 and 2016 in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) were analyzed. Trends in intake for individuals aged 4-17 years and subgroups based on age, sex, and race and ethnicity were examined. Adherence to US Department of Agriculture guidelines was assessed. Results A total of 16 013 individuals (50.6% male) were included in the analysis. The median sodium intake was 2840 mg/day (95% CI, 2805-2875 mg/day), decreasing from 2912 mg/day (95% CI 2848-2961 mg/day) in 2003-2004 to 2787 mg/day (95% CI, 2677-2867 mg/day) in 2015-2016 (P = .005). Intake increased with age (2507 mg/day for individuals aged 4-8, 2934 mg/day for those aged 9-13 years, and 3124 mg/day for those aged 14-17 years; P 30% after implementation of pediatric guidelines in 2010. Conclusions Sodium intake remains elevated in all pediatric population segments, and guideline adherence is poor. A greater effort to reduce sodium consumption is needed to mitigate future cardiovascular disease risk.
Feline bilateral inflammatory aural polyps: a descriptive retrospective study.

Background Feline inflammatory aural polyps (IP) have been reported as solitary growths, yet bilateral polyps may occur more commonly than described previously. Objectives To identify the prevalence and risk factors associated with bilateral feline IP within a population of cats evaluated at a veterinary teaching hospital over a 10 year period. Animals Twenty-five cats with histologically confirmed IP. Methods and materials A retrospective study was performed by searching computerized medical records of cats seen at The University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital from 2005 to 2015. Keywords used for the search included "feline polyp", "ventral bulla osteotomy", "inflammatory polyp ear canal" and "nasopharyngeal polyp". Results Cats were separated into groups with unilateral or bilateral disease. Six of 25 (24%) cats had bilateral IP. Twelve cats had computed tomography performed (four of six with bilateral IP; eight of 19 with unilateral IP). Clinical signs, history of upper respiratory infection, post-treatment complications, and IP recurrence with and without local and systemic steroid administration were studied between groups and no differences were identified. In four of six cats with bilateral disease, the second polyp was identified with advanced imaging performed at the time of referral. Conclusions and clinical importance These findings demonstrate that bilateral IP occur more frequently than reported previously and establish a prevalence for bilateral IP. These findings also highlight the value of advanced imaging techniques in diagnosing bilateral IP.
Ratio of Fundamental and Second Order Harmonics in Flux for Oscillator Experiments with Varying Amplitude of Reactivity Insertion

In designing oscillator rods it is important to know where the limit in terms of reactivity lies if onen is to be assured of a linear response. Hence, pertinent exprenssions are extracted to obtain the amplitude ratio of second order harmonic and fundamental with varying amplitude of reactivity insertions. These equations are applicable to any reactor provided the linear frequency response is known over a range equal to twice the nonlinear range of interest. This derivation is only valid for varying amplitude considerably below prompt critical. Furthermore, the frequencies should not be too high in order to avoid the appearance of spatial modes in the flux. In this analysis all the data necessary to obtain information on nonlinear behavior are linear. (N.W.R.)
Health outcomes coding trends in the US Food and Drug Administration’s Sentinel System during transition to International Classification of Diseases‐10 coding system: a brief review

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The transition from International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) to ICD-10-CM poses a challenge to epidemiologic studies that use diagnostic codes to identify health outcomes and covariates. We evaluated coding trends in health outcomes in the US Food and Drug Administration's Sentinel System during the transition. METHODS We reviewed all health outcomes coding trends reports on the Sentinel website through November 30, 2019 and analyzed trends in incidence and prevalence across the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM eras by visual inspection. RESULTS We identified 78 unique health outcomes (22 acute, 32 chronic, and 24 acute or chronic) and 140 time-series graphs of incidence and prevalence. The reports also included code lists and code mapping methods used. Of the 140 graphs reviewed, 81 (57.9%) showed consistent trends across the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM eras, while 51 (36.4%) and 8 (5.7%) graphs showed inconsistent and uncertain trends, respectively. Chronic HOIs and acute/chronic HOIs had higher proportions of consistent trends in prevalence definitions (83.9% and 78.3%, respectively) than acute HOIs (28.6%). For incidence, 55.6% of acute HOIs showed consistent trends, while 41.2% of chronic HOIs and 39.3% of acute/chronic HOIs showed consistency. CONCLUSIONS Researchers using ICD-10-CM algorithms obtained by standardized mappings from ICD-9-CM algorithms should assess the mapping performance before use. The Sentinel reports provide a valuable resource for researchers who need to develop and assess mapping strategies. The reports could benefit from additional information about the algorithm selection process and additional details on monthly incidence and prevalence rates. KEY POINTS We reviewed health outcomes coding trends reports on the US FDA Sentinel website through November 30, 2019 and analyzed trends in incidence and prevalence across the International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) and ICD-10-CM eras by code mapping method and the type of health outcomes of interest (acute, chronic, acute or chronic). More than a third of the 140 time-series graphs of incidence and prevalence of health outcomes showed inconsistent or uncertain trends. Consistency in trends varied by code mapping method, type of health outcomes of interest, and whether the measurement was incidence or prevalence. Studies using ICD-9-CM-based algorithms mapped to ICD-10-CM codes need to assess the performance of the mappings and conduct manual refinement of the algorithms as needed before using them.
Causes of bovine abortion in the North-Central United States:

During 1983-2001, a total of 1618 aborted fetuses from farms with multiple abortions were examined to determine the cause. A specific cause was determined in 592 (36.59%) cases. Infectious agents associated with inflammatory reaction were detected in 435 (26.88%) cases. Bacterial abortions were identified as the most common infectious cause of abortion, 265 (16.38%) cases, with Arcanobacterium pyogenes being the most frequently isolated bacterium. Viral causes of abortion were diagnosed in 77 (4.76%) cases, protozoal in 55 (3.39%) cases, and 38 (2.34%) of the cases were diagnosed as mycotic abortion. There were also 65 (4.01%) cases of congenital myopathy and/or cardiomyopathy, 12 (0.74%) cases of congenital renal oxalosis and 38 (2.34%) cases of multiple congenital malformations. Lesions suggestive of infection were present in 157 (9.70%) fetuses or placentas in which no infectious organisms were identified. The cause of 873 (53.96%) abortions was not determined. Serological examination of 590 single or paired serum samples from aborting dams was of little diagnostic value for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) and leptospiral abortions. Five serum samples from aborting dams (38 examined) had high Neospora caninum antibody titres (800-12?800). Aborted fetuses from these dams had encephalitis and myocarditis. Serological examination of thoracic fluid from 80 fetuses was of little diagnostic value for IBR, BVD, Neospora sp., Toxoplasma sp. and leptospiral abortions.
NMR resonance assignments of human Atg3 in aqueous solution and bicelles

Human Atg3 (hAtg3) is an E2-like enzyme that catalyzes the conjugation of LC3 family proteins to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) lipids in the autophagosomal membrane during autophagy. The reaction product, LC3-PE, acts as a marker for autophagic cargo and is required for the effective construction of functional autophagosomes. However, the structural and molecular basis of this conjugation reaction remains elusive, at least in part, because of the absence of lipid bilayers in structural studies conducted to date. Here, we report a sequential resonance assignment for an hAtg3 construct both in aqueous solution and in bicelles. hAtg3 has 314 residues, and our construct lacks the unstructured region from residues 90 to 190. Our results demonstrate a structural rearrangement of hAtg3 N-terminus when it interacts with membranes.
Robust vehicle routing under uncertainty via branch-price-and-cut

This paper contemplates how branch-price-and-cut solvers can be employed along with the robust optimization paradigm to address parametric uncertainty in the context of vehicle routing problems. In this setting, given postulated uncertainty sets for customer demands and vehicle travel times, one aims to identify a set of cost-effective routes for vehicles to traverse, such that the vehicle capacities and customer time window constraints are respected under any anticipated demand and travel time realization, respectively. To tackle such problems, we propose a novel approach that combines cutting-plane techniques with an advanced branch-price-and-cut algorithm. Specifically, we use deterministic pricing procedures to generate “partially robust” vehicle routes and then utilize robust versions of rounded capacity inequalities and infeasible path elimination constraints to guarantee complete robust feasibility of routing designs against demand and travel time uncertainty. In contrast to recent approaches that modify the pricing algorithm, our approach is both modular and versatile. It permits the use of advanced branch-price-and-cut technologies without significant modification, while it can admit a variety of uncertainty sets that are commonly used in robust optimization but could not be previously employed in a branch-price-and-cut setting.
Lecture notes in algebraic topology

Chain complexes, homology, and cohomology Homological algebra Products Fiber bundles Homology with local coefficients Fibrations, cofibrations and homotopy groups Obstruction theory and Eilenberg-MacLane spaces Bordism, spectra, and generalized homology Spectral sequences Further applications of spectral sequences Simple-homotopy theory Bibliography Index.
On the relationship between image and motion segmentation

In this paper we present a generative model for image sequences, which can be applied to motion segmentation and tracking, and to image sequence compression. The model consists of regions of relatively constant color that have a motion model explaining their motion in time. At each frame, the model can allow accretion and deletion of pixels. We also present an algorithm for maximizing the posterior probability of the image sequence model, based on the recently introduced Swendsen-Wang Cuts algorithm. We show how one can use multiple cues and model switching in a reversible manner to make better bottom-up proposals. The algorithm works on the 3d spatiotemporal pixel volume to reassign entire trajectories of constant color in very few steps, while maintaining detailed balance.
Ruin memory: Havana beyond the revolution

This article defines ruin memory and offers a literary history of special period Havana, read, diagnosed, and represented with curiosity, wonder, and critique in a debate over utopia versus dystopia. Through an examination of the fictional, pedestrian movement of characters such as Victorio in Abilio Estevez’s Los palacios distantes and Usnavy in Achy Obejas’ Ruins, this text traces how the city is survived by locals, exoticized by tourists, and reconstructed by the imagination. Ruin memory asks us to think about the ruins and those living in them in terms of present and evacuated subsistence. This, in the end, is more than a depiction of the past or what has been lost. As we can see through the character development of Victorio and Usnavy, at issue is an urgent present in which all are struggling not just to live, but to live a better life through the discovery of relics and legends within the ruins.
Analysis of Corn Stover Harvesting Equipment and Corn Stover Storage Methods

Harvest. Research was conducted at the Ag Engineering and Agronomy Farm and the ISU Dairy Farm Complex in the fall of 2009. The research equipment, a John Deere 9860 STS combine and an AGCO 4790 large square baler, were prepared in the Ag Engineering/Agronomy (AEA) Farm shop with updated biomass processing attachments and a hitch that would allow for the baler to be pulled behind the combine during field operations. Initial testing was carried out on the Marsden Farm in an area designated for the Advance Machinery Group. Testing continued from October 27 to December 2 at the ISU Dairy site. Tests conducted at the ISU Dairy included both logistical and productivity analysis at various collection rates of corn stover (0%, 50%, 100%). These rates were applied in two different collection tests. The first was bulk collection, which included support machinery in the field to collect stover from the combine during harvest. The second system tested was a single pass baling system. Data loggers connected to the machine’s Controller Area Network (CAN) systems logged GPS location, fuel consumption, and yield data for the combine and supporting vehicles in the field. These data are now being analyzed for both productivity and cost analysis of the systems. Field tests were duplicated during the testing phase to analyze affects of crop and plant moisture on overall machine productivity. Testing will continue next fall to confirm results.
Integrated Spares Solutions (ISS) program

An increasingly expensive element of wafer cost is spares. The Integrated Spares Solutions (ISS) program breaks out of the traditional mold of relying on equipment manufacturers to supply parts, which has proven to be expensive and unreliable in terms of spares availability. The ISS program utilizes a distributor to direct source product at reduced cost and to streamline inventory and order management. This strategy exists in other industries (automotive), but has not found a foothold in the semiconductor industry. The scope of the program is high usage, non-proprietary parts. Suppliers had to be identified developed and managed The suppliers' experience in semiconductor spares is critical. ISS yields many benefits. 1. Integration is facilitated through on-site personnel. 2. The supply base is consolidated reducing supplier management tasks and variability. 3. The inventory investment is reduced. Parts are on-site (consignment) and are stocked in local depots for emergency back up, which improves availability. 4. Prices decline as the suppliers go direct to the part manufacturers. 5. Product is located in the factory near the tool. 6 Order management is consolidated, as are shipments, and the web is utilized. Significant cost savings have been realized and spares availability metrics have improved 10X.
Body size is the history of life: growth confronting landscapes of death

Question: How can we best understand adult body sizes (M) both in the present and in the past? Methods: Maximization of an individual’s Darwinian fitness (R0) for an individual production (growth) function dM/dT = A · M 0.67 and external sources of death (Z) in the setting of M. Conclusions: The body size at maturity (M) favoured by natural selection is always of the form M 1/3 ∝ [A/Z]. This equation is central to understanding the distribution and fluxes of M in space and time because it links adult size to the externally imposed mortality rate (Z) combined with the growth function.
THE INTERSECTIONS OF GENDER AND POWER IN WOMEN VETERANS’ EXPERIENCES OF SUBSTANCE USE AND VA CARE

In this article, we show that the Veterans Health Administration (VA), similar to military organizations, is a gendered organization where women Veterans’ experiences are embedded in and shaped by gender inequalities and structures of power. Based on an in-depth analysis of women Veterans’ substance use histories and VA treatment seeking experiences, we illustrate how gender power dynamics are (re)produced and maintained through everyday social interactions and organizational practices and processes that render women Veterans both visible and invisible: visible as sexual objects and invisible as suffering subjects. By retelling the illness and treatment experiences of women Veterans with trauma histories and co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders—a highly stigmatized population of Veterans—we highlight the importance of giving voice to their concerns when developing policies and programs to address the unique health care needs of women Veterans.
Congenital Deficiency versus Hereditary Persistence of Human Alpha-fetoprotein: A Meta-analysis and Overview of Potential Biomedical Consequences

Human alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a 70 kD tumor-associated fetal protein (oncofetal protein) which has been utilized clinically as a biomarker for both multiple cancers and for fetal defects including neural tube defects and chromosomal abnormalities. Extreme low and high levels of serum AFP in conjunction with gene mutations have now been established in disorders such as congenital deficiency (CD) and hereditary persistence (HP) of AFP. The objectives of the present review are to compare the clinical manifestations and analyze the mutational basis of these two AFP genetic disorders in accordance with presently accepted models of AFP gene regulation. The regulatory elements of AFP gene expression i.e., enhancers, promoters, and silencers are described in light of the genetic alterations expressed by the CD- and HP-AFP patients. By use of structure/function peptide mapping of the full-length AFP amino acid sequence, the potential biomedical consequences exhibited by CD-AFP and HP-AFP patients are presented and discussed. A new prospective on placental dysfunction in these AFP genetic disorders has also been introduced. Using AFP reference levels in maternal serum, cord blood, newborn blood, pediatric and adult serum, AFP serum concentrations are presented that could alert the obstetrician of potential CD-AFP during pregnancy. Knowledge of such serum values could provide tools to allow clinicians to distinguish between adult HP-AFP and malignant/non-malignant diseases such as liver and germ cell tumors, cirrhosis, hepatitis, and various liver disorders. Knowledge of AFP reference levels might serve to guide the clinician in avoiding: a) misguided diagnoses; b) unnecessary treatments and therapies; and c) undue anxieties and stress during pregnant and non-pregnant states.
Two modifications of the clonogenic assay: One which detects cell mediated cytotoxicity and a second for factor mediated cytotoxicity

Two techniques are described for the modification of the soft agar clonogenic assay which produces assay systems suitable for detecting cell-mediated cytotoxicity and cytotoxic activity induced by soluble factors. In the first modification of the clonogenic assay, activated leukocytes are admixed with human tumor cells, coincubated for 12 h, added to soft agar, and plated in 96-well assay plates. In the second adaptation, tumor cells alone are suspended in soft agar, added to 96-well plates and then the agar is solidified by cooling. This is followed by overlayering the wells with liquid soft agar containing activated leukocytes and solidifying the upper agar plug. In both techniques the survival of the tumor cells is measured by tritiated thymidine uptake after a 6-d incubation.
A polycationic amine that induces unique conformational changes in poly(dA-dT) in low salt)

Circular dichroism was used to examine alterations in the secondary structure of poly(dA-dT) X poly(dA-dT) upon binding polymer X, a polycationic CD probe for aspects of DNA structure. Stable complex formation is evidenced by increasing Tm and the appearance of large extrinsic bands in the greater than 300 nm, region which increase proportionally with r (ratio of polymer charge to DNa phosphate), in the range 0.0 to 0.32. At relatively low values of r (less than .32), CD spectra of the poly(dA-dT) X poly(dA-dT)-polymer X complex show a gradual non-cooperative inversion in the long wavelength portion (275 nm) of the intrinsic band in low salt solutions suggesting structural and conformational flexibility in poly(dA-dT) X poly(dA-dT) and further implicating polymer X as a potential probe for variations in DNA secondary structure. The dinucleotide repeat configuration of poly(dA-dT) X poly(dA-dT) is presumed to play a role in the observed intrinsic CD changes. NMR data support an "alternating B" conformation for the complex.
MRF-MAP-MFT visual object segmentation based on motion boundary field

In our earlier work, a two-pass motion estimation algorithm (TPA) was developed to estimate a motion field for two adjacent frames in an image sequence where contextual constraints are handled by several Markov random fields (MRFs) and the maximum a posteriori (MAP) configuration is taken to be the resulting motion field. In order to provide a trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness, the mean field theory (MFT) was selected to carry out the optimization process to locate the MAP with desirable performance. Given that currently in the disciplines of digital library [IEEE Trans. PAMI 18 (8) (1996); IEEE Trans. Image Process. 11 (8) (2002) 912] and video processing [IEEE Trans. Circ. Sys. Video Tech. 7 (1) (1997)] of utmost interest are the extraction and representation of visual objects, instead of estimating motion field, in this paper we focus on segmenting out visual objects based on spatial and temporal properties present in two contiguous frames in the same MRF-MAP-MFT framework. To achieve object segmentation, a "motion boundary field" is introduced which can turn off interactions between different object regions and in the mean time remove spurious object boundaries. Furthermore, in light of the generally smooth and slow velocities in-between two contiguous frames, we discover that in the process of calculating matching blocks, assigning different weights to different locations can result in better object segmentation. Experimental results conducted on both synthetic and real-world videos demonstrate encouraging performance.
Simple quark models of baryon-nucleon spin-orbit forces

Abstract The contributions to the baryon-nucleon spin-orbit forces from both the antisymmetric and the symmetric parts of the Breit-Fermi one-gluon-exchange spin-orbit quark-quark interaction for a simple nonrelativistic quark model are studied. Except for the Σ + p Σ − n channels, the addition of the antisymmetric contributions does not change the rough similarity between the one-gluon-exchange and the meson-exchange quark models.
HORSESHOES IN THE TWIST-AND-FLIP MAP

We derive an analytical relationship between the parameters of a square-wave forced, nonlinear, two-dimensional ordinary differential equation which determines conditions under which the Poincare map has a horseshoe. This provides an analytical test for chaos for this equation. In doing this we show that the Poincare map has a closed-form expression as a transformation of R2 of the form FTFT, where F is a flip, i.e., a 180-degree rotation about the origin and T is a twist centered at (a, 0) for a > 0. We show that this derivation is quite general. We aiso show how to relate our results to ODEs with continuous periodic forcing (e.g., the sinusoidal-forced Duffing equation). Finally, we provide a conjecture as to a sufficient condition for chaos in square-wave forced, nonlinear ODEs.
Transcendent customer experience and brand community

Transcendent customer experiences (TCEs), which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes, including subjective self-transformation. With data from a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental field experiment we examine the impact of TCEs on customers’ integration in a brand community. Because TCEs are highly desirable and valued for their own sake, customers value marketing activities they perceive as instrumental to them. This study demonstrates that a TCE in the context of a marketer-facilitated consumption activity can strengthen a person’s ties to a brand community, delivering a particularly strong form of brand loyalty.
Selectivity of plankton nets over mesozooplankton taxa: implications for abundance, biomass and diversity estimation

The importance of the smaller copepod species is often underestimated as a result of the use of standard 200 μm mesh size nets, even though the small copepods probably represent the dominant component of the mesozooplankton community. Although the inadequacy of relatively coarse nets in providing reliable descriptions of the mesozooplankton assemblage is increasingly welldocumented, such nets continue to be commonly used. A major reason for this unwillingness to break with tradition is the belief that samples remain comparable even though the absolute values are biased. A one-year study of the abundance and size distribution of zooplankton collected in the Venice Lagoon using an 80 μm mesh size net showed an overwhelming abundance of small taxa. These data were used to derive estimates of the mesh selection effects of standard WP-2 nets on zooplankton abundance and biomass. Only 11% of numbers and 54% of biomass of lagoon zooplankton are likely to be caught with standard WP-2 nets. A comparison of seasonal changes in diversity, estimated from the fine and coarse datasets, confirmed that retention efficiency is seasonally dependent, which results in serious implications when extrapolating temporal patterns in community structure from WP-2 mesozooplankton counts.
Water pulls the strings in hydrophobic polymer collapse

The molecular mechanisms of chemical reactions and conformational transitions are captured by their transition states and reaction coordinates. Transition states can be thought of as being intermediate between the reactant and product states, typically at elevated potential energy and correspondingly low popu lation yet visited on transition paths between the two metastable states. Reaction coordinates are measures of the progress of a reaction.
Endovascular surgery based solely on noninvasive preprocedural imaging.

Abstract Purpose: Conventional pre-endovascular procedural evaluation uses both noninvasive testing and diagnostic arteriography. Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures often must be performed separately because of concerns about excessive contrast administration or inappropriate location of vascular access for the interventional procedure. We wanted to determine if patients could successfully undergo endovascular procedures based on noninvasive modalities alone. Methods: One hundred nineteen consecutive patients requiring intervention for lower-extremity ischemia were evaluated by means of physical examinations and segmental pressure measurements. Patients then underwent magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) to image native vessels or duplex scanning for failing bypass grafts. Suitable patients underwent endovascular procedures with "road map" arteriography, which was compared with preoperative duplex scanning or MRA findings. Costs of the conventional and noninvasive approaches were compared, on the basis of estimated hospital cost schedule. Results: Sixty consecutive endovascular procedures were performed in 56 patients (105 lesions angioplastied), either alone (30, 50%) or in combination (30, 50%) with another vascular reconstruction. Completely noninvasive evaluation was accomplished in 43 procedures (72%), either by means of duplex scanning (11, 18%) or MRA (32, 53%). Conventional arteriography (CA) was required in 2 patients (3%) because of MRA contraindications and in 1 patient because of complex previous arterial reconstruction. Fourteen patients had earlier CAs. The findings of the noninvasive modalities were confirmed in every case by means of intraoperative arteriography, and no additional lesions were revealed (no false positive or negative studies). After endovascular interventions, the mean patient ankle-brachial index (ABI) improved from 0.64 ± 0.03 to 0.81 ± 0.03 (P P Conclusion: Endovascular procedures can be performed based on preprocedural noninvasive modalities alone. For patients requiring endovascular procedures, knowledge of the arterial anatomy before obtaining arterial access avoids the need for additional punctures or sessions (eg, antegrade puncture for femoral angioplasty after retrograde puncture for the diagnostic arteriogram). This approach is less costly than performing preprocedural diagnostic arteriography and avoids the hazards of arterial puncture and nephrotoxic contrast agents. (J Vasc Surg 1998;28:995-1005.)
Heavy fermion superconductivity in the filled skutterudite compound PrOs4Sb12

Abstract The filled skutterudite compound PrOs 4 Sb 12 has been found to exhibit superconductivity with a critical temperature T c =1.85 K that develops out of a heavy Fermi liquid with an effective mass m ∗ ≈50m e . The current experimental situation regarding the heavy fermion state, the superconducting state, and a high field, low temperature phase that is apparently associated with magnetic or quadrupolar order in PrOs 4 Sb 12 is briefly reviewed herein.