cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Health survey of U.S. long-haul truck drivers: work environment, physical health, and healthcare access.

OBJECTIVE: While trucking in industrialized nations is linked with driver health afflictions, the role of trucking in U.S. truckers' health remains largely unknown. This paper sheds light on links between the trucking work environment and drivers' physical health. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, 316 truckers were enrolled in the Healthy Trucker Survey. Questions included work history, physical and mental health, and healthcare access. PASW 18 was used to examine patterns among factors. PARTICIPANTS: 316 truckers participated. RESULTS: Respondents were mainly full-time, long-haul drivers with over 5 years of experience, and who spent over 17 days on the road per month. While almost 75% described their health as good, 83.4% were overweight/obese, 57.9% had sleeping disturbances, 56.3% fatigue, 42.3% musculoskeletal disorders, and about 40% cardiovascular disease concerns. About 33% had no health insurance, 70% had no regular healthcare visits, 24.4% could not afford insurance, and 42.1% took over-the-counter drugs when sick, while 20.1% waited to reach home for medical care. Exercise facilities were unavailable in over 70% of trucking worksites and 70% of drivers did not exercise regularly.CONCLUSIONS: The trucking occupation places drivers at high risk for poor health outcomes. Prospective studies are needed to delve into how continued exposure to trucking influences the progression of disease burden. Language: en
New approaches to the minimally invasive treatment of lung cancer

UNLABELLED: VATS lobectomies have now been performed for 12 years since the first VATS lobectomy. Although some controversies remain regarding the safety, morbidity, and mortality of that procedure, the procedure is clearly gaining momentum. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature about the procedure. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 1992-2004, we performed 1100 VATS lobectomies in 595 (54.1%) women and 505 men (45.9%), mean age=71.2 years. Diagnoses were as follows: benign disease (53), pulmonary met (27), Lymphoma (5) and lung cancer (1015). 641 (63.1%) of the primary lung cancers were adenocarcinoma. With visualization on a monitor, anatomic hilar dissection and lymph node sampling or dissection were performed, primarily through a 5 cm incision without spreading the ribs. RESULTS: There were 9 deaths (0.8%)-none were intra-operative or due to bleeding. 932 patients had no postoperative complications (84.7%). Blood transfusion was required in 45/1100 (4.1%). Length of stay was median 3 days, mean 4.78 days. 180 patients were discharged on POD 1 or 2 (20%). Conversion to a thoracotomy occurred in 28 patients (2.5%). 5 patients developed recurrence in the incisions (0.57%). In 2003, 89% of 224 lobectomies were performed with VATS. CONCLUSIONS: VATS lobectomy with anatomic dissection can be performed with low morbidity and mortality. The risk of intraoperative bleeding or recurrence in an incision seems minimal.
Investigation of Developing Wave Energy Technology In the Gulf of Mexico

ABSTRACT This article presents an investigative study on developing wave energy technology in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The characteristics and conditions of GOM such as weather, wave climate, and activity of the oil industry were assessed first for possible development of wave energy. The linear wave theory was then reviewed to identify methods to estimate wave power. Using wave data recorded from several stations in the GOM, methods used to estimate the wave energy were verified. Based on the findings, the potential in the GOM for implementing wave energy technology was confirmed. It is expected that the wave energy captured from the GOM can provide a considerable portion of power required by operating the oil platforms in that area.
Na-dependent changes in intracellular Ca in spontaneously hypertensive rat hearts

To determine whether Na:Ca exchange is altered in primary hypertension, Na-dependent changes in intracellular Ca, ([Ca]i), were measured in isolated perfused hearts from Wistar‐Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats. Intracellular Na, (Nai, mEq:kg dry wt), and [Ca]i were measured by NMR spectroscopy. Control [Ca]i was less in WKY than SHR (176918 vs 253921 nmol:l; mean9S.E., PB0.05), whereas Nai was not significantly different. One explanation for this is that net Na:Ca exchange flux is decreased in SHR. If this hypothesis is correct, the rate of Ca uptake in SHR should be less than WKY when Na:Ca exchange is reversed by decreasing the transmembrane Na gradient. The Na gradient was reduced by decreasing extracellular Na, ([Na]o) and:or by increasing [Na]i. To increase [Na]i, Na uptake was stimulated by acidification while Na extrusion by Na:K ATPase was inhibited by K-free perfusion. Seventeen minutes after acidification, Nai had increased but was not significantly different in SHR and WKY (18.092.3 to 57.49 7.6 vs 20.39 0.6 to 66.59 4.8 mEq:kg dry wt, respectively). Yet [Ca]i was greater in WKY than SHR (17689142 vs 12019 90 nmol:l; PB 0.05). [Ca]i was also measured after decreasing [Na]o from 141 to 30 mmol:l. Fifteen minutes after reducing [Na]o, [Ca]i was greater in WKY than SHR (8339 119 vs 4259 94 nmol:l; PB0.05). Thus for both protocols, decreasing the transmembrane Na gradient led to increased [Ca]i in both SHR and WKY, but less increase in SHR. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that Na:Ca exchange activity is less in SHR than WKY myocardium. © 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Aging of wire enamels in transformer oil

THERMAL aging characteristics of wire enamels aged under conditions similar to those which may be expected in sealed liquid-filled transformers have been studied and found to be quite different from results obtained by aging the same enamels in air. Enamels which have shown only fair thermal aging characteristics in air in comparison to other enamels may rate very differently when aged in a sealed system with a limited amount of oxygen present. For example, Formex (General Electric registered trademark) wire enamel which has a short life in comparison to a terephthalate polyester when aged thermally in a circulating air oven is equal or superior to the terephthalate polyester when aged in a closed system under oil.
Growth of corn in varying mixtures of paper mill sludge and soil

To evaluate different levels of paper mill sludge as a soil amendment for the production of corn (Zea mays L.), sludge was added to 15-cm pots of soil in a greenhouse experiment. Mixtures were made from paper mill sludge (0 to 560 Mg ha− 1 wet weight) mixed with field soil (Hadley fine sandy loam with coarse, mixed, mesic, Fluventic, Dystrochrept deposits). Nitrogen (N) was added as ammonium nitrate at 0 or 200 kg N ha− 1. Eight corn seeds of ‘Pioneer Max 21’ were seeded into each pot immediately after mixing the paper mill sludge and soil or at 21 days after mixing the media. Seven days after sowing, seedlings were counted in each pot to assess germination (emergence). Delaying of sowing of seeds for 21 days increased the number of seeds that germinated. Corn plants were harvested after 35 days of growth. Plant biomass declined as amounts of sludge increased. Adding N and delaying sowing for 21 days produced the greatest amount of dry mass. Tissue (leaf) total N decreased with increasing amounts of sludg...
Motion Perception following Lesions of the Superior Temporal Sulcus in the Monkey

We examined the effect of bilateral ibotenic acid lesions, aimed at areas MT/MST in three macaques, on their perception of motion. The medial boundary of the lesions in the three monkeys was near the dorsal end of the STS, but the lesions extended different lengths ventrally along the STS. The lesions extended the shortest distance ventrally monkeys 1 and 2, covering most of MST but possibly sparing a portion of lateral MT. That in monkey 3 damaged all of MT and MST bilaterally and extended through most of FST. All three lesions caused a temporary disruption, followed by at least partial recovery, of most motion thresholds. Permanent effects of the lesions on visual sensitivity were graded with lesion extent. Contrast sensitivity for detecting low-spatial-frequency (1 cycle/degree) drifting gratings over a wide range of drift rates, as well as for identifying their direction of motion, was slightly affected only in monkey 3. Only monkeys 2 and 3 showed a deficit in discriminating stimulus speed, and the size of the loss was two- to fourfold. Discrimination of opposite directions of dot pattern motion, which required integration of local motion signals, was mildly affected in monkeys 2 and 3, and not affected in monkey 1. However, addition of directional noise to this discrimination caused the performance of all monkeys to be permanently disrupted, especially that of monkeys 2 and 3. Finally, direction difference thresholds were elevated by a factor of 2-4 after the lesions in all three monkeys. Many of these deficits were more pronounced during the first 2 months of testing following the lesion. Thus, our results demonstrate that areas within dorsal STS make an important contribution to the performance of various motion perception tasks including the discrimination of small differences in direction and speed, and the perception of global motion in the presence of directional noise. The residual motion perception, even in the monkey with virtually complete removal of areas MT/MST, may suggest either that these tasks are normally mediated in part by cortical areas outside of areas MT and MST, or that the disrupted functions were partially assumed by other cortical areas after lesions.
Role of thermal stress in athermal waveguide design using TiO 2 waveguides on a silicon substrate

Experimental demonstrations of ring resonators with TiO2 cores are presented and measured with -2.9pm/K resonance shift. Their thermo-stress-optic behavior was found to be important to their function; therefore an inclusive model is presented and simulated numerically.
Operational Model Updating of Low-Order HAWT Models for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

For the past decade, wind turbines have become the largest source of installed renewable-energy capacity in the United States. Economical, maintenance and operation are critical issues when dealing with such large slender structures, particularly when these structures are sited remotely. Because of the chaotic nature of non-stationary rotating-machinery systems such as the horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs), in-operation modeling and computer-aided numerical characterization is typically troublesome, and tends to be imprecise while predicting the real content of the actual aerodynamic loading. Loading environment under operation conditions is usually substantially different from those driven by modal testing or computer-aided model characterization and difficult to measure directly in the field. In addition, rotational machinery such as HAWTs exhibit complex and nonlinear dynamics (i.e., precession and Coriolis effects, torsional coupling, nonlinear geometries, plasticity of composite materials); and are subjected to nonlinear constrained conditions (i.e., aeroelastic interaction). For those reasons, modal-aeroelastic and computer-aided models reproduced under controlled conditions may fail to predict the correct non-stationary loading and resistance patterns of wind turbines in actual operation. Operational techniques for extracting modal properties under actual non-stationary loadings are needed in order to (1) improve computer-aided elasto-aerodynamic models to better characterize the actual behavior of HAWTs in operational scenarios, (2) improve and correlate models, (3) monitor and diagnose the system for integrity and damage through time, or even (4) optimize control systems. For structural health monitoring (SHM) applications, model updating of stochastic aerodynamic problems has gained interest over the past decades. For situations where optimizing objective functions are not differentiable, convex or continuous in nature that is the case of gradient methods such as Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC), global optimization (metaheurstic) methods based on probability principles have emerged. These search engine techniques are promising suitable to cope with non-stationary-stochastic system identification methods for model updating of HAWT systems. A probability theory framework is employed in this study to update the wind turbine model using such a stochastic global optimization approach. Structural identification is addressed under regular wind turbine operation conditions for non-stationary, unmeasured, and uncontrolled excitations by means of the eigensystem realization theory (ERA). This numerical framework is then tied up with an adaptive simulated annealing (ASA) numerical engine for solving the problem of model updating. Numerical results are presented for an experimental deployment of a small HAWT structure. Results are benchmarked and validated with other empirical mode-decomposition and time-domain solutions.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Electrical design rule checker for core and block based ASIC designs

Due to the complexity of ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) designs, especially those containing core or block cells, it is necessary to perform automated design-rule checking on a netlist. An electrical design rule checker (EDRC) developed to perform design rule checks for conventional standard cells as well as core and block cells is described. Intel uses this tool as a part of accepting a netlist during the transfer of the design from the customer. The electrical design rule checker is described, with special emphasis on the core and block cell-specific checks. >
Assessing Library Instruction Through Web Usability and Vocabulary Studies

ABSTRACT Can we use the methods of Web usability testing to learn about library instruction? This article is among the first in the field trying to establish a link between usability and instruction. The author discusses useful insights that Web usability can bring to our pedagogy as well as to the efficiency of library instruction. The result of a Web usability study conducted at LaGuardia Community College in 2005 are examined. Findings suggest direct relationships between what is being taught in library instruction sessions and how students browse and search library resources. The author discusses vocabulary test results and draws some parallel with students' success at finding information on the library Web site. Finally, a conceptual model of library instruction assessment through usability studies is presented. The author hopes to provide an innovative approach to library instruction assessment.
PERCEPTIONS ABOUT SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC: CONFLICTING DESCRIPTIVE AND COMMUNITY‐PRESCRIBED NORMS

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has one of the largest concentrations of people who have experienced sexual violence in the world. In this article, we use qualitative data to contrast community reactions toward survivors (descriptive norms) with perceptions about what would constitute justice for survivors (prescribed norms). There are noticeable disparities between descriptive norms and prescribed norms regarding community reactions toward survivors of sexual violence. The image of a survivor of sexual violence that emerged from the data is that of a person who should be pitied and who is sick, suffering, often abandoned and neglected, exposed to discrimination, and emotionally disturbed. In contrast to these negative perceptions, community members saw justice for survivors as including compassion, empathy, egalitarian treatment, respect, and protection from taunting and labelling. We drew on the theory of pluralistic ignorance to explain this disparity. The programmatic implications of the findings are discussed.
Optimal causal coding - decoding problems

The symbols produced by a finite Markov source are causally encoded so as to be transmitted through a noisy memoryless channel. The encoder is assumed to have channel feedback information and the decoder to be causal. The feedback information is shown to be useful in general. Separation results are derived and used to prove that encoding is useless for a class of symmetric channels.
Dynamic Parties and Social Turnout: An Agent-Based Model

We develop an agent-based model of dynamic parties with social turnout built upon developments in different fields within social science. This model yields significant turnout, divergent platforms, and numerous results consistent with the rational calculus of voting model and the empirical literature on social turnout. In a simplified version of the model, the authors show how a local imitation structure inherently yields dynamics that encourage positive turnout. The model also generates new hypotheses about the importance of social networks and citizen-party interactions.
A Multiresolution Method for Tagline Detection and Indexing

Tagline detection and indexing are challenging tasks due to complicated anatomical properties and imaging noise. In this paper, we will address the following two important issues in tagline detection: 1) an automatic method independent from imaging approaches with improved robustness and accuracy and 2) tagline indexing that matches taglines in task and reference images for postprocessing. Our method consists of two steps: First, a wavelet decomposition is performed on a tagged magnetic resonance (tMR) image. Subband correlation is used to dampen anatomical boundaries but enhance taglines. A tagline map is created by segmenting a reconstructed image using pseudowavelet reconstruction. Next, tagline pixels are grouped into clusters and isolated small line segments are eliminated. A snake method is then used to index and recover broken taglines. Our method has been validated with 320 tMR tongue images. Measurement of tagline accuracy was performed by computing tag pixel displacement. Without assumptions on tagline models, it detects taglines automatically. Comparison studies were conducted against the harmonic phase method. Our experiments resulted in a p-value of 1E-6 with one-way ANOVA, which indicates a significant improvement in accuracy and robustness.
Cooperative inquiry for learning and connectedness

There has been rising concern about the disconnect between universities, their communities and society at large. This is of special interest to professional schools, whose missions are founded on connecting practice and theory. We argue that cooperative inquiry, an action-based methodology, can help foster connectedness and contribute to healing the university-society schism. Doing this requires more than mere replication of the methodology; it entails engaging in dialectics with practitioners, a process that is mediated both by democratic aspirations and claims of authority. We share our experience working with social change practitioners on collaborative research about leadership, highlighting the dialectics and implications for academics wishing to capitalize on cooperative inquiry for connectedness.
Revisiting MacCannell's site sacralization theory as an analytical tool: Historic prophetstown as a case study

Historic Prophetstown in Battle Ground, Indiana is intrinsically connected to a pivotal event in Native American and United States military history. While it appears to have all the necessary elements to become a successful tourism attraction, it consistently teeters on the verge of insolvency. Applying sociologist Dean MacCannell's (1976) five-stage site sacralization theory as an analytical lens to investigate the site revealed that it has never successfully moved beyond MacCannell's first stage (i.e. naming), which may be a key factor contributing to low visitation and poor economic performance. This suggests that MacCannell's theory can offer unique insights into site development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hormonal contraceptives and HIV: hazards of pronouncing “negative” studies with low power

Wall et al. [1] contribute additional observational data from follow-up of Zambian HIV discordant couples to the current controversy over whether hormonal contraceptives (HCs) increase risk of HIV acquisition. While their recommendations — to increase contraceptive method mix and reinforce condom counseling and regular HIV testing of couples — are laudable, their conclusion of a lack of observed association deserves scrutiny. For linked HIV infections, the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for injectables was 1.34 (0.85, 2.12); for oral contraceptive pill (OCPs), the estimate was 1.39 (0.90, 2.15). The study was insufficiently powered to rule out a clinically significant effect of a doubling of risk of HIV acquisition among HC users; the confidence interval (CI) includes 1.0 as well as 2.0. The authors' conclusion of no association does not adequately take into account this imprecision and the clear possibility of having missed a harmful effect. With greater power to detect risk, the CI would have been narrower and the point estimates statistically significant. Numerous other individual studies on the HC-HIV association have also been reported as “negative”, despite having a similar lack of precision. Furthermore, the range of possible risk values for depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) from Wall et al. is consistent with two recent meta-analyses [2,3] which pooled available studies and determined an overall relative risk of HIV for DMPA use of 1.4–1.5. The discrepancy between the individual study results and the pooled analyses cautions us against drawing strong conclusions from single, underpowered studies.
Sufficient conditions used in admittance selection for force-guided assembly of polygonal parts

Admittance control approaches show significant promise in providing reliable force-guided assembly. An important issue in the development of these approaches is the specification of an appropriate admittance control law. This paper identifies procedures for selecting the appropriate admittance to achieve reliable force-guided assembly of planar polyhedral parts for single-point contact cases. A set of conditions that are imposed on the admittance matrix is presented. These conditions ensure that the motion that results from contact reduces part misalignment. We show that, for bounded misalignments, if an admittance satisfies the misalignment-reduction conditions at a finite number of contact configurations, then the admittance will also satisfy the conditions at all intermediate configurations.
PLA-based runtime dynamism in support of privacy-enhanced Web personalization

Software product line architectures (PLAs) have been widely recognized as a successful approach in industrial software development for improving productivity, software quality and time-to-market. In this paper, we focus on the usage of a PLA for a quite different purpose, namely, handling privacy constraints in Web personalization. To provide personalized services such as customized recommendations, a personalized Website collects users' personal data, which raises various privacy concerns. We aim at reconciling the benefits of web personalization with privacy constraints that come from users themselves as well as from privacy legislations and regulations that apply to a given user. We propose a dynamic, privacy-enabling personalization infrastructure and conceive it as a PLA. This infrastructure allows for dynamically selecting and instantiating personalization architectures that provide personalized services to each individual user and comply with the prevailing privacy constraints.
Fluid Mixing Control Inside a Y-Shaped Microchannel by Using Electrokinetic Instability

An experimental study was conducted to further our understanding about the fundamental physics of electrokinetic instability (EKI) and to explore the effectiveness to enhance fluid mixing inside a Y-shaped microchannel by manipulating convective EKI waves. The dependence of the critical voltage of applied static electric field to trig EKI to generate convective EKI waves on the conductivity ratio of the two adjacent streams was quantified at first. The effect of the strength of the applied static electric field on the evolution of the convective EKI waves and fluid mixing process were assessed in terms of scalar concentration fields, shedding frequency of the convective EKI waves and scalar mixing efficiency. The effectiveness of manipulating the convective EKI waves by introducing alternative electric perturbations to the applied static electric fields was also explored for the further enhancement of the fluid mixing process inside the Y-shaped microchannel.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
The association of reduced lung function with blood pressure variability in African Americans: data from the Jackson Heart Study

Background African Americans (AAs) have lower lung function, higher blood pressure variability (BPV) and increased risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with whites. The mechanism through which reduced lung-function is associated with increased CVD risk is unclear.
Ultraviolet Light-Induced Generation of Vitamin E Radicals and Their Recycling. a Possible Photosensitizing Effect of Vitamin E IN Skin

Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) is the major lipid-soluble chain-breaking antioxidant of membranes. Its UV-absorbance spectrum (lambda max 295 nm) extends well into the solar spectrum. We hypothesize that in skin alpha-tocopherol may absorb solar UV light and generate tocopheroxyl radicals. Reduction of tocopheroxyl radicals by other antioxidants (e.g. ascorbate, thiols) will regenerate (recycle) vitamin E at the expense of their own depletion. Hence, vitamin E in skin may act in two conflicting manners upon solar illumination: in addition to its antioxidant function as a peroxyl radical scavenger, it may act as an endogenous photosensitizer, enhancing light-induced oxidative damage. To test this hypothesis, we have illuminated various systems (methanol-buffer dispersions, liposomes and skin homogenates) containing alpha-tocopherol or its homologue with a shorter 6-carbon side chain, chromanol-alpha-C6 with UV light closely matching solar UV light, in the presence or absence of endogenous or exogenous reductants. We found that: (i) alpha-tocopheroxyl (chromanoxyl) radicals are directly generated by solar UV light in model systems (methanol-water dispersions, liposomes) and in skin homogenates; (ii) reducing antioxidants (ascorbate, ascorbate+dihydrolipoic acid) can donate electrons to alpha-tocopheroxyl (chromanoxyl) radicals providing for vitamin E (chromanol-alpha-C6) recycling; (iii) recycling of UV-induced alpha-tocopheroxyl radicals depletes endogenous antioxidant pools (accelerates ascorbate oxidation); (iv) beta-carotene, a non-reducing antioxidant, is not active in alpha-tocopherol recycling, and its UV-dependent depletion is unaffected by vitamin E.
A Kinetic Study of the Oxidation of Zeta Phase Praseodymium Oxide: \(\frac{{10}}{9}{\Pr _9}{O_{16}} + \frac{1}{9}{O_2} \to {\Pr _{10}}{0_{18}}\)

Thermodynamic studies of phase transformations between the intermediate phases (PrnO2n−2) reveal reproducible hysteresis loops. In this report, kinetic studies between the zeta (n = 9) and the epsilon (n = 10) phases have been carried out by measuring the weight change of the sample as a function of time after a sudden increase of oxygen pressure. The experiments covered temperatures of 464, 477, 491 and 503°C and oxygen pressure varied from 0.01 to 50 Torr.
Performance issues in the implementation of the M-VIA communication software

Publisher Summary The Modular-Virtual Interface Architecture (M-VIA) is a communication software suite developed by the National Energy Research Scientific Center. M-VIA is based on the Intel hardware-based VI standard. This software currently outperforms TCP in both bandwidth and latency. A performance analysis of the M-VIA software is conducted to determine, if there are opportunities to gain additional performance improvements for parallel applications. The performance critical regions of the M-VIA software is identified and two modifications to the existing code that aim to improve local computer performance without affecting overall network performance in a cluster environment is explored. Vnettest is provided as an example, M-VIA application used to measure latency and bandwidth between two cluster nodes. The program is extremely network intensive and is used to demonstrate performance for applications that rely on the network heavily. Signal implementation introduces a new bottom barrier related to the time it takes to handle a signal, and scheduler introduced delays. Transmission times for small packets can actually be less than this new delay. An improvement to implementation would be a simple bottom boundary where the introduced delay meets the packet transmission size. This would require benchmarking.
Race, Not Class: Explaining Racial Housing Segregation in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, 2000

Two techniques, computation of segregation indices within income categories, and indirect standardizations based on income and two measures of housing cost, are used to assess the extent to which residential segregation in the St. Louis metropolitan area in 2000 may be attributed to socioeconomic differences between whites and African Americans. Both techniques indicate that the overwhelming majority of segregation is attributable to race, not class. In all income categories, segregation of blacks from whites is as great or greater than in the overall population. Indirect standardizations show that housing cost measures using estimated value of the house explain away somewhat more segregation than those based on monthly owner cost. However, the former type of measure may itself reflect consequences of racial discrimination in housing and lending. Despite a modest decline in the proportion of segregation attributable to race, the large majority of segregation remains tied to race, not class.
Analysis of injury surveillance among the elderly in urban and rural areas of Hebei Province,2006-2011

Objective To understand the prevalence of injury among the elderly in urban and rural areas of Hebei Province,and provide scientific basis for prevention strategy of injury making. Methods The data of primary injury patients were collected from Jan. 1st 2006 to Dec. 31st 2011 in injury surveillance plots from. Results A total of 11 039 elderly injury cases were collected and analyzed. Sex ratio of male to female was 1. 16 ∶ 1,there were significant differences between male and female in injuries occurrence( χ2= 386. 67,P 0. 01). The top five injuries causations were fall( 37. 78%),traffic injury by motor vehicles( 26. 78%),poisoning( 13. 23%),stuck/hit by person or object( 10. 64%) and traffic injury by non-motor vehicles( 5. 43%),respectively. The poisoning was the first cause for female elderly in rural areas( 29. 87%). The most common injured position was the head( 28. 68%). Most of injury was unintentional( 91. 11%). Approximately 51. 73% of the patients were mild,outcome of injury were back to home( 40. 61%), and observation / in hospital / transferred to other hospital( 57. 80%). Conclusion The major causes of injuries among the elderly in Hebei Province were fall,traffic injury by motor vehicles,and poisoning,the incidence of injuries among the elderly in all injuries kept increasing from 2006 to 2011. Targeted preventive measures should be taken among them.
Interactive Mathematica Simulations in Chemical Engineering Courses.

Interactive Mathematica1 simulations with graphical displays of system behavior are an excellent addition to chemical engineering courses. The Manipulate command in Mathematica creates on-screen controls that allow users to change system variables and see the graphical output almost instantaneously. They can be used both in and outside class. More than 400 chemical engineering simulations, developed by a number of authors, are available on the Wolfram site, and they can be used without a Mathematica license.
Record Statistics from Point Process Models

Let X0, X1,… be a sequence of independent identically distributed random variables with a continuous distribution function. Suppose these are observed at successive time points determined by an independent point process P defined on positive reals. We say Xj is an upper record value if Xj = max(X0,…, Xj). Let {RjS, j ≥ 1} be the sequence of upper records and let {Tj, j ≥ 1} be the times at which these records are observed. We describe the distribution of these and related record statistics under various assumptions on P. We discuss some applications of the results to climatology, shock models, and the best-choice problem.
Planning Sample Sizes When Effect Sizes Are Uncertain: The Power-Calibrated Effect Size Approach

Statistical power and thus the sample size required to achieve some desired level of power depend on the size of the effect of interest. However, effect sizes are seldom known exactly in psychological research. Instead, researchers often possess an estimate of an effect size as well as a measure of its uncertainty (e.g., a standard error or confidence interval). Previous proposals for planning sample sizes either ignore this uncertainty thereby resulting in sample sizes that are too small and thus power that is lower than the desired level or overstate the impact of this uncertainty thereby resulting in sample sizes that are too large and thus power that is higher than the desired level. We propose a power-calibrated effect size (PCES) approach to sample size planning that accounts for the uncertainty associated with an effect size estimate in a properly calibrated manner: sample sizes determined on the basis of the PCES are neither too small nor too large and thus provide the desired level of power. We derive the PCES for comparisons of independent and dependent means, comparisons of independent and dependent proportions, and tests of correlation coefficients. We also provide a tutorial on setting sample sizes for a replication study using data from prior studies and discuss an easy-to-use website and code that implement our PCES approach to sample size planning.
Aging and Adipose Tissue

Publisher Summary This chapter describes how aging is associated with fat tissue redistribution from subcutaneous to visceral depots. This redistribution is correlated with and may cause insulin resistance and metabolic complications, as well as functional decline and mortality in the elderly. As subcutaneous fat loses its ability to store lipids, circulating fatty acids are elevated, with fatty acids being deposited ectopically, further contributing to metabolic dysfunction. Circulating free fatty acids (FFAs) are toxic to most cell types, including aged preadipocytes, potentially exacerbating fat tissue dysfunction and establishing a vicious cycle. Thus, when the main function of fat tissue, lipid storage, which requires fat cells to be able to increase in size and preadipocytes to differentiate into new fat cells, becomes dysregulated, the other functions of adipose tissue are disrupted, including immune, hormonal/paracrine regulation, and mechanical protection. Aging and obesity exert similar effects on metabolic function and share clinical consequences. Aging and obesity are both associated with increased inflammatory cytokines in adipose tissue and systemically. These cytokines, together with reduced anti-inflammatory factor generation (e.g., adiponectin, IL-10), may have a causal role in the generation of insulin resistance, impaired glucose metabolism, and systemic inflammation and are potential targets for future therapeutic interventions. However, there are notable differences between the cellular and the molecular mechanisms of fat tissue dysfunction in aging and obesity, including differences in extent of macrophage infiltration, fat cell size, and gene expression profiles.
Novel Picornavirus Associated with Avian Keratin Disorder in Alaskan Birds

ABSTRACT Avian keratin disorder (AKD), characterized by debilitating overgrowth of the avian beak, was first documented in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in Alaska. Subsequently, similar deformities have appeared in numerous species across continents. Despite the widespread distribution of this emerging pathology, the cause of AKD remains elusive. As a result, it is unknown whether suspected cases of AKD in the afflicted species are causally linked, and the impacts of this pathology at the population and community levels are difficult to evaluate. We applied unbiased, metagenomic next-generation sequencing to search for candidate pathogens in birds affected with AKD. We identified and sequenced the complete coding region of a novel picornavirus, which we are calling poecivirus. Subsequent screening of 19 AKD-affected black-capped chickadees and 9 control individuals for the presence of poecivirus revealed that 19/19 (100%) AKD-affected individuals were positive, while only 2/9 (22%) control individuals were infected with poecivirus. Two northwestern crows (Corvus caurinus) and two red-breasted nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) with AKD-consistent pathology also tested positive for poecivirus. We suggest that poecivirus is a candidate etiological agent of AKD. IMPORTANCE Avian keratin disorder (AKD) is an increasingly common disease of wild birds. This disease, characterized by beak overgrowth, was first described in the late 1990s and has been spreading rapidly both geographically and in terms of host species affected. AKD decreases host fitness and can be fatal. However, the cause of the disease has remained elusive, and its impact on host populations is poorly understood. We found a novel and divergent picornavirus in 19/19 AKD-affected black-capped chickadees that we examined but in only 2/9 control cases. We also found this virus in 4 individuals of 2 other passerine species that exhibited symptoms consistent with AKD. Our data suggest that this novel picornavirus warrants further investigation as the causative agent of AKD.
Gesundheitssysteme im internationalen Vergleich

Es gibt keine zwei Gesundheitssysteme, deren Organisation, Finanzierung und Leistungsangebot gleich waren. Dies ist auch auf die heutige komplexe Welt zuruckzufuhren, in der es schwierig ist exakt zu sagen, was ein Gesundheitssystem ist, woraus es besteht, wo es beginnt und endet. Anspruche auf und Ausgestaltung der Versorgungsleistungen, Finanzierung, Kostenubernahme sowie Selbstbeteiligungen der Patienten variieren nicht nur zwischen den Landern erheblich, sondern sind in einem Land auch im Zeitablauf verschieden. Deshalb sind Vergleiche zwischen Landern nur schwer moglich. Dennoch bieten Erfahrungen anderer Lander immer einen Referenzpunkt, eigene Strukturen zu uberdenken und zu verbessern sowie erprobte Konzepte zu ubernehmen. Landerbesonderheiten sind zu berucksichtigen.
Trust, opinion diffusion and radicalization in social networks

Gossiping models have increasingly been applied to study social network phenomena. In this context, this paper is specifically concerned with modeling how opinions of social agents can be radicalized if the agents interact more strongly with neighbors that share their beliefs. In our model, each agent's belief is represented by a vector of probabilities that a given state is true. The agents average their opinions with that of their neighbors over time, giving more weight to opinions that are closer to their current beliefs. The increasing trust that may exist among likeminded agents is modeled through a weight that is a monotonically decreasing function of the distance in opinion. We consider a continuous (soft) and a discontinuous (hard) model for the weight and analyze the convergence properties.
Higher-order averaging analysis of the nonlinear time-periodic dynamics of hovering insects/flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles

Because of the wing oscillatory motion, the flight dynamics of biological flyers as well as their man-made mimetic vehicles, flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles (FWMAVs), is typically represented as a nonlinear time-periodic system (NLTP). Moreover, its equilibrium configurations (e.g., hovering) are represented by periodic orbits instead of fixed points. In this work, we combine tools from geometric control theory and averaging to perform higher-order averaging analysis on the NLTP dynamics of FWMAVs near the hovering equilibrium. The objective is to achieve balance at hover; that is, to ensure a periodic solution whose velocities have zero-mean values.
Necessarily Incompatible Consistent Wants

This paper argues that the wants or desires of a person can be consistent with each other and still necessarily incompatible with each other and for interesting reasons. It is argued here that this problem is not rare and that there is no solution in sight.
Wormhole Generations in Indiana Limestone with CO2 Intrusion: Numerical Simulations Based on Core Flooding Experiments

In this paper, we examined possible impact factors for calcite dissolution and wormhole generation in limestone formations with CO2 saturated brine intrusion by continuum-scale reactive transport simulations. Previous core-flood experiments that mimic near-wellbore region conditions of Geological CO2 Storage (GCS) fields were used as verification cases. Simulation results reasonably reproduce the experimental results. The results suggest that the initial permeability distribution of the core and pre-existing large permeability zones along the core were key factors for wormhole generation. Porosity distribution also affects wormhole generation, but not significantly. According to our simulation results, CO2 saturated brine injection rate, injection pattern, calcite dissolution rate, and permeability anisotropy do not significantly impact calcite dissolution and wormhole generation. The Damkohler (Da) numbers were 0.45–0.9 for the experiments at the core scale in this study, which are in accordance with the...
NDEx 2.0: A Clearinghouse for Research on Cancer Pathways

We present NDEx 2.0, the latest release of the Network Data Exchange (NDEx) online data commons (www.ndexbio.org) and the ways in which it can be used to (i) improve the quality and abundance of biological networks relevant to the cancer research community; (ii) provide a medium for collaboration involving networks; and (iii) facilitate the review and dissemination of networks. We describe innovations addressing the challenges of an online data commons: scalability, data integration, data standardization, control of content and format by authors, and decentralized mechanisms for review. The practical use of NDEx is presented in the context of a novel strategy to foster network-oriented communities of interest in cancer research by adapting methods from academic publishing and social media. Cancer Res; 77(21); e58-61. ©2017 AACR.
Teacher language in the preschool classroom: Initial validation of a classroom environment observation tool.

Research Findings: This study reports initial descriptive and validity results of a new early childhood classroom observation measure, the Classroom Language Environment Observation Scales (CLEOS),...
Managing Illegitimate Task Requests Through Explanation and Acknowledgment: A Discursive Leadership Approach:

This study explored how discursive framing can mitigate an illegitimate task request—a request from a supervisor that extends beyond the appropriate parameters of the role. Using hypothetical vigne...
The effect of zirconia substitution on the high-temperature transformation of the monoclinic-prime phase in yttrium tantalate

Abstract Amorphous yttrium tantalate, as well as solid solutions containing zirconia, transform on heating to a monoclinic-prime phase and then, with further heating, to a crystalline tetragonal (T) solid solution phase at ∼1450 °C. On subsequent cooling the tetragonal phase converts by a second-order displacive transformation to a different monoclinic phase not to the monoclinic-prime phase. On subsequent reheating and cooling, the phase transformation occurs between the monoclinic (M) and tetragonal phases, and the monoclinic-prime phase cannot be recovered. The limit of zirconia solubility in both the monoclinic-prime and monoclinic phases lies between 25 and 28 m/o ZrO2, consistent with previous first-principles calculations. The monoclinic-prime phase is stable up to at least 1400 °C for 100 h for zirconia concentrations from 0 to ∼60 m/o ZrO2. This temperature exceeds the temperature of the equilibrium M-T phase transformation suggesting that the monoclinic-prime phase transforms directly to the tetragonal phase by a reconstructive transformation and is unaffected by the zirconia in solid solution.
Alterations in Extracellular Matrix/Bruch's Membrane Can Cause the Activation of the Alternative Complement Pathway via Tick-Over.

Given the complex etiology of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), treatments are developed to target intermediate/late stages of the disease. Unfortunately, the design of therapies for early stages of the disease is limited by our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the formation of basal deposits and drusen, the first clinical signs of AMD. During the last decade, the identification of common and rare alleles in complement genes as risk AMD variants in addition to the presence of active complement components in basal deposits and drusen has provided compelling evidence that the complement system plays a key role in the pathobiology of AMD. However, the mechanisms for complement activation in AMD are unknown. Here we propose that the activation of the complement system is a consequence of alterations in the aged extracellular matrix (ECM) of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/Bruch’s membrane (BrM), which favors the anchoring of complement C3b generated by convertase-independent cleavage of C3 via tick-over and produces a chronic activation of the alternative complement pathway.
Multi-node partial-mesh network communication via AT commands

AT commands tool Kit (ATK), used in mobile phones in the global system for mobile communication (GSM) to provide value-added services for the user and the operator. Today, this standard is in practice on many AT command cards. In this paper, we have used the concept of the AT commands to control various devices and send text, messages without creating a session between the two devices. This is a novel method to determine new communication protocols for simple messaging service like sending alerts and target command messages. Target command messages could be like turning on the Air-conditioning or the water heater. It could be used in developing nations were the data networks have yet to be established and thus we are achieving the seven layers communication model functions with the basic proposed three layers. This paper also describes, in brief, the background of smart card, AT commands card and AT commands tool Kit communication. By monitoring various metrics in the WSN, we can also show that the AT command Protocol over a mesh network topology is better in terms of network life-time.