cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nano-Hydroxyapatite Coated Femoral Stem Implant by Electrophoretic Deposition

A nanostructural hydroxyapatite (HA) coating was deposited to a porous Ti6Al4V femoral stem implant using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) to improve the bond strength, healing speed, and durable service life. The nanostructure of HA and micro-pores created in the coating can enhance the bioactivity and increase the adhesion between the implant and hard tissue. In order to achieve homogenous HA coating on the stem implant with a porous surface profile, a compensation electrode was designed and prepared. Rotation of the implant was conducted during the coating process so that a uniform coating could be achieved. The EPD combined with a dip coating was used to compensate for the complex profile and led to a homogenous coating throughout both peak and valley areas. This developed coating process is able to deposit homogeneous HA coating on a complicated implant surface. Compared to the coating made by plasma thermal spray, the EPD HA coating can cover inner cores and exhibit a better adhesion and bioactivity. The EPD HA coating possesses significantly improved corrosion resistance compared to thermal spray HA coating. Most importantly, the biomechanical property was significantly promoted based on an in vivo animal test.
Effects of Calving Season on Stocker and Feedlot Performance

Abstract In environments where cool-season forages are the major forage resource, shifting calving season from winter to spring may match up forage nutrient supply with animal nutrient demands and thereby reduce purchased feed cost. However, calf BW at weaning in the fall may be less. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of calving season and age at weaning on stocker and finishing phase performance. Cows were assigned to late winter (LW), early spring (ES), or late spring (LS) calving seasons. Steers in the LW and ES groups were weaned at 190 and 240 d of age. Steers in the LS group were weaned at 140 and 190 d of age. Delaying the calving season reduced (P 0.10) among the 6 treatments groups. Steers developed in Montana had greater stocker ADG than steers grown in Oklahoma, and stocker ADG decreased (P
Accelerated aging and lifetime prediction: Review of non-Arrhenius behaviour due to two competing processes

Abstract Lifetime prediction of polymeric materials often requires extrapolation of accelerated aging data with the suitability and confidence in such approaches being subject to ongoing discussions. This paper reviews the evidence of non-Arrhenius behaviour (curvature) instead of linear extrapolations in polymer degradation studies. Several studies have emphasized mechanistic variations in the degradation mechanism and demonstrated changes in activation energies but often data have not been fully quantified. To improve predictive capabilities a simple approach for dealing with curvature in Arrhenius plots is examined on a basis of two competing reactions. This allows for excellent fitting of experimental data as shown for some elastomers, does not require complex kinetic modelling, and individual activation energies are easily determined. Reviewing literature data for the thermal degradation of polypropylene a crossover temperature (temperature at which the two processes equally contribute) of ∼83 °C was determined, with the high temperature process having a considerably higher activation energy (107–156 kJ/mol) than the low temperature process (35–50 kJ/mol). Since low activation energy processes can dominate at low temperatures and longer extrapolations result in larger uncertainties in lifetime predictions, experiments focused on estimating E a values at the lowest possible temperature instead of assuming straight line extrapolations will lead to more confident lifetime estimates.
Christian Denominational and Special Interest Political Action on Public Policy Issues Related to Sexual Orientation

Little empirical research has been undertaken to compare political activity of denominations and Christian special interest groups on a specific subject to see if special interest groups serve as a substi tute for denominational political action. I do this by examining Christian denominational and special interest political action on public policy issues related to sexual orientation. This study shows that most Christian denominations are taking positions on such public policies as are many liberal and conser vative special interest groups, although conservative groups are significantly more politically active. The widespread political activity of denominations and the extensive interaction between special inter est groups and denominations suggests that special interest groups are in no way acting as a substitute or replacement for them. This study additionally seeks to explain the variation in denominational activity by reference to lay opinion, theological orientation, and policy and governance structures. Christian special interest groups have different qualities that distinguish them from denominations, thereby offering citizens an alternative means of political influence, thereby offering an explanation of their political activity alongside that of denominations.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided pancreatic pseudocyst cystogastrostomy using a novel self-expandable metal stent with antimigration system: A case series

Background and Objectives: Development of symptomatic pseudocysts after acute pancreatitis is a common occurrence. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided transmural drainage has become the treatment of choice for symptomatic pseudocysts. Following this procedure, stent migration can occur. A recently developed fully covered biliary metal stent with antimigration system has shown promise as an alternative endoprosthetic option for cystogastrostomy. The aim of this study is to describe the success and complications of using covered metal stents with antimigration system to drain pseudocysts at a single tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: The patients undergoing cystogastrostomy using the biliary metal stent with antimigration system over the course of a 10-month period (January-November, 2014) were retrospectively reviewed and all the pertinent information including length of the follow-up, age and sex of the patient, pseudocyst size, pseudocyst size at follow-up, and symptom improvement were recorded. Results: Five patients underwent endoscopic cystogastrostomy using a biliary metal stent with antimigration system. The average age of the patients was 57 years, with all the patients being males. The average size of the largest dimension of pseudocyst was 9 cm. The average follow-up time to repeat imaging was 30 days. All the patients had a significant improvement in their pseudocyst size, with two patients having complete resolution, one patient with a residual 2 cm cyst, and another with a residual 5 cm pseudocyst at follow-up. The average size at follow-up was 2 cm. No complications occurred during the follow-up period. No episodes of stent migration occurred. All the patients had symptom improvement at follow-up. Conclusion: Using a novel biliary covered self-expandable metal stent with antimigration system with EUS guidance to drain pseudocysts appears to be a safe and effective procedure in certain settings. Our experience shows rapid cyst resolution with no complications and no stent migration. This stent gives the providers another option when performing cystogastrostomy.
A technique for producing graphical presentations with instances of a unit symbol

A class of graphical presentations—including common ones like bar charts, column charts, and symbol charts—is characterized by a model of its production as a set of affinely transformed instances of a unit symbol. This paper discusses an APL technique for producing that class of presentations by functionally controlling the instance-producing transformations. Illustrations are given and the principal advantages of the technique are outlined.
Contribution of electrodes and microstructures to the electrical properties of Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 thin film capacitors

Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) thin film capacitors have been fabricated with four electrode combinations: Pt/PZT/Pt/SiO2Si, RuO2/PZT/Pt/SiO2/Si, RuO2/PZT/RuO2/SiO2/Si, and Pt/PZT/RuO2/SiO2/Si. It is shown that polarization fatigue is determined largely by the electrode type (Pt vs RuO2), and microstructure has only a second-order effect on fatigue. If either the top or bottom electrode is platinum, significant polarization fatigue occurs. Fatigue-free capacitors are obtained only when both electrodes are RuO2. In contrast, the bottom electrode is found to have a major effect on the leakage characteristics of the PZT capacitors, presumably via microstructural modifications. Capacitors with bottom RuO2 electrodes show high leakage currents (J = 10−3-10−5 A/cm2 at 1 V) irrespective of the top electrode material. Capacitors with Pt bottom electrodes have much lower leakage currents (J = 10−8 A/cm2 at 1 V) irrespective of the top electrode material. At low voltage, the I-V curves show ohmic behavior and negligible polarity dependence for all capacitor types. At higher voltages, the leakage current is probably Schottky emission controlled for the capacitors with Pt bottom electrodes.
Control of dynamic response of a continuum model of a large space structure

Abstract The problem of active control of the transient dynamic response of large space structures, modeled as equivalent continua, is investigated here. The effects of initial stresses, in the form of inplane stress resultants in an equivalent plate model, on the controllability of transverse dynamic response, are studied. A singular solution approach is used to derive a fully coupled set of nodal equations of motion which also include nonproportional passive damping. One approach considers a direct attack on this system of nodal equations. An alternative scheme implements a reduced-order model of coupled ordinary differential equations which are obtained in terms of the amplitudes of the pseudomodes of the nominally undamped system. Optimal control techniques are employed to develop a feedback control law. Algorithms for the efficient solution of the Riccati equation are implemented. Several examples are presented which involve the suppression of vibration of the transient dynamic response of the structure using an arbitrary number of control force actuators.
Frameless stereotactic neurosurgery using intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging: stereotactic brain biopsy.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the application accuracy of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging for frameless stereotactic surgery, and to evaluate the performance of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging for the brain biopsy, a standard stereotactic procedure. METHODS: A series of spatial coordinate and phantom experiments were performed to analyze the application accuracy of the system. A prospective analysis of 68 consecutive patients undergoing stereotactic brain biopsy was then performed. RESULTS: The spatial coordinate experiments revealed a mean overall error in acquisition of 0.2 mm. The phantom experiments demonstrated a 1:1 correlation between the magnetic resonance image of a stereotactically guided probe and its relationship to a target and the actual relationship of the probe and target. Sixty-eight brain biopsies were successfully performed in all intracranial compartments except the sella. The radiographic abnormality was localized successfully in all patients (100%). Sixty-six (97.1%) of the biopsies yielded diagnostic tissue. Two biopsies (2.9%) were complicated by intraparenchymal hemorrhage. One expanding temporal lobe hemorrhage was evacuated by immediate craniotomy in the magnet with no postoperative sequelae. A deep hemorrhage from a lymphoma was managed conservatively with interval resolution of symptoms. There were no infections. There was no perioperative mortality. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging allows excellent target localization, provides true real-time imaging to account for anatomic changes during surgery, and permits intraoperative confirmation that the biopsy needle has reached the targeted lesion. Immediate postoperative imaging in the operating room allows assessment of adverse events and the potential for immediate management of hemorrhagic complications. (Neurosurgery 47:1138‐1146, 2000)
Human α Spectrin II and the Fanconi Anemia Proteins FANCA and FANCC Interact to Form a Nuclear Complex

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a genetic disorder characterized by bone marrow failure, congenital abnormalities, cancer susceptibility, and a marked cellular hypersensitivity to DNA interstrand cross-linking agents, which correlates with a defect in ability to repair this type of damage. We have previously identified an approximately 230-kDa protein present in a nuclear protein complex in normal human lymphoblastoid cells that is involved in repair of DNA interstrand cross-links and shows reduced levels in FA-A cell nuclei. The FANCA gene appears to play a role in the stability or expression of this protein. We now show that p230 is a well known structural protein, human alpha spectrin II (alphaSpIISigma*), and that levels of alphaSpIISigma* are not only significantly reduced in FA-A cells but also in FA-B, FA-C and FA-D cells (i.e. in all FA cell lines tested), suggesting a role for these FA proteins in the stability or expression of alphaSpIISigma*. These studies also show that alphaSpIISigma* forms a complex in the nucleus with the FANCA and FANCC proteins. alphaSpIISigma* may thus act as a scaffold to align or enhance interactions between FA proteins and proteins involved in DNA repair. These results suggest that FA represents a disorder in which there is a deficiency in alphaSpIISigma*.
Continuing to Challenge Practice to Be Evidence Based

Practice habits continue in clinical practice despite the availability of research and other forms of evidence that should be used to guide critical care practice interventions. This article is based on a presentation at the 2014 National Teaching Institute of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The article is part of a series of articles that challenge critical care nurses to examine the evidence guiding nursing practice interventions. Four common practice interventions are reviewed: (1) weight-based medication administration, (2) chest tube patency maintenance, (3) daily interruption of sedation, and (4) use of chest physiotherapy in children. For weight-based administration of medication, the patient's actual weight should be measured, rather than using an estimate. The therapeutic effectiveness and dosages of medications used in obese patients must be critically evaluated. Maintaining patency of chest tubes does not require stripping and milking, which probably do more harm than good. Daily interruption of sedation and judicious use of sedatives are appropriate in most patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Traditional chest physiotherapy does not help children with pneumonia, bronchiolitis, or asthma and does not prevent atelectasis after extubation. Critical care nurses are challenged to evaluate their individual practice and to adopt current evidence-based practice interventions into their daily practice.
Sequencing with limited flexibility

We consider the problem of resequencing a set of prearranged jobs when there is limited resequencing flexibility and sequence-dependent changeover costs. Resequencing flexibility is limited by how far forward or backward a job can shift in the sequence relative to its original position. We show how the problem can be solved using dynamic programming in polynomial time with respect to the number of jobs. We also show how the same solution approach can be extended to problems where sequencing constraints are job specific and to problems where job features, which determine changeover costs, are jointly determined with the job sequence. We provide an integer programming formulation to the resequencing problem whose linear programming relaxation offers a useful lower bound. We also describe a family of decomposition heuristics that are easy to customize to provide desired levels of solution quality and solution time. We document the quality of the lower bound from the linear programming relaxation and the uppe...
Application of Data Compression to the MIL-STD-1553 Data Bus

This paper examines multiple data compression algorithms that improve the effective bandwidth of systems using the MIL-STD-1553 data bus. The algorithms are evaluated using data captured from F/A-18 C/D aircraft flights and simulations. Compression ratios of 5 to 1 and greater are achieved using algorithms that are suitable for implementation on legacy processors. It is demonstrated that the time required to compress and decompress the data can be more than offset by the savings in data transmission time. System implementation issues and the effects of data transmission errors are also discussed.
Word-selective training for speech recognition

We previously proposed (Kamm and Meyer (2001, 2002)) a two-pronged approach to improve system performance by selective use of training data. We demonstrated a sentence-selective algorithm that, first, made effective use of the available humanly transcribed training data and, second, focused future human transcription effort on data that was more likely to improve system performance. We now extend that algorithm to focus on word selection, and demonstrate that we can reduce the error rate from 10.3 % to 9.3 % on a simple, 36-word corpus, by selecting 30 % (15 hours) of the 50 hours of training data available in this corpus, without knowledge of the true transcription. We also discuss application of our word selection algorithm to the Wall Street Journal 5 K word task. Preliminary results show that we can select up to 60 % (48 hours) of the training data, with minimal knowledge of the true transcription, and match or beat the error rate of a system built using the same amount of randomly selected training data.
Cartilage imaging: a review of current concepts and emerging technologies.

s t b c c u o i m The evaluation of articular cartilage using advanced imaging techniques has become a focus of intensive research with numerous advancements in recent years. Cartilage damage may occur as the result of an acute injury or as a chronic degenerative process as in osteoarthritis. Acute injuries affecting articular cartilage are common in young athletes. In skeletally immature patients, chondral injuries are more prevalent than meniscal or cruciate ligament injuries.1 Chondral injuries can be classified into 3 basic patterns: (1) those that cause chondral, and possibly subchondral bone, damage but without disruption of the articular surface; (2) those that do disrupt the articular surface but are limited to involvement of the cartilage; and (3) those that cause mechanical disruption of both the cartilage and underlying bone.2 It is important to characterize the type of injury that has occurred so that the surgeon can make an informed decision as to the appropriate course of therapy. The sequela of chondral injury, whether due to an isolated major injury or repetitive minor trauma, is the development of osteoarthritis.3,4 Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease affecting cartilage and the underlying bone. It is the most common arthritis and affects men and women equally. From 2007 to 2009, an estimated 22.2% (approximately 50 million) adults in the United States reported-doctor diagnosed arthritis and 9.4% reported arthritis-attributable activity limitation.5 It is the most common cause of disability among US adults. By 2030, an estimated 67 million Americans aged 18 years are proected to have doctor-diagnosed arthritis.6 The burden on the health care system from arthritis is not insignificant. In 2004, an estimated 3% of hospitalizations and 5% of ambulatory visits had a primary diagnosis of arthritis.6 In 2003, the estiated total cost attributable to arthritis and other rheumatoogic conditions in the United States was 128 billion dollars, ith an additional estimated 47 billion dollars in earning osses.6,7
L2 and pointwise a posteriori error estimates for FEM for elliptic PDEs on surfaces

Surface Finite Element Methods (SFEM) are widely used to solve surface partial differential equations arising in applications including crystal growth, fluid mechanics and computer graphics. A posteriori error estimators are computable measures of the error and are used to implement adaptive mesh refinement. Previous studies of a posteriori error estimation in SFEM have mainly focused on bounding energy norm errors. In this work we derive a posteriori L2 and pointwise error estimates for piecewise linear SFEM for the Laplace-Beltrami equation on implicitly defined surfaces. There are two main error sources in SFEM, a “Galerkin error” arising in the usual way for finite element methods, and a “geometric error” arising from replacing the continuous surface by a discrete approximation when writing the finite element equations. Our work includes numerical estimation of the dependence of the error bounds on the geometric properties of the surface. We provide also numerical experiments where the estimators have been used to implement an adaptive FEM over surfaces with different curvatures.
Expression of O6-methylguanine–deoxyribose nucleic acid methyltransferase and temozolomide response in a patient with a malignant spinal cord astrocytoma: Case report

✓The authors report the case of a 28-year-old woman with a high-grade spinal cord astrocytoma. Treatment using surgery, radiation, and temozolomide (TMZ) led to functional recovery and regression of the residual tumor as demonstrated on serial magnetic resonance images. Genetic testing revealed that this tumor did not express the DNA repair enzyme O6-methylguanine–DNA methyltransferase (MGMT). This is the first report in the literature correlating MGMT expression with the clinical response of a high-grade spinal cord astrocytoma treated using TMZ.
Measurement, modeling, and simulation of flip-chip CMOS ASIC simultaneous switching noise on a multilayer ceramic BGA

This paper presents the simultaneous switching noise (SSN) measurements, modeling, and simulation of a flip-chip complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) test chip on a multilayer ceramic ball grid array (CBGA) package. Technology and design features of the chip and package test vehicles are described. Time-domain noise measurement techniques and results are presented in detail. Circuit modeling and simulation methodologies are developed and validated by strong correlation between measurement and simulation results.
EVOLUTIONARY VARIATION IN FEATHER WAXES OF PASSERINE BIRDS

Abstract Feather waxes are ubiquitous in passerine birds, but their composition, phylogenetic distribution, and function are poorly characterized. We used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to survey the diversity of saturated fatty acids in feather waxes of 91 taxa representing most major passerine groups, and used an independent phylogenetic hypothesis to explore evolutionary variation in the expression of those compounds. Saturated fatty acids are highly stable, and we obtained congruent results in comparisons of extracts from fresh material and from museum skins as much as a century old. All taxa expressed unbranched fatty acids, but in a broad range of proportions relative to their total saturated fatty-acid profile. The expression of three other classes of fatty acids was more variable, although each showed a high degree of conservation at the phylogenetic level corresponding approximately to avian families. The 2-methyl fatty acids were expressed in a number of families, often in high proportions...
Gene expression profiling in lymphoma diagnosis and research.

Gene expression profiling in the past 5 years has generated a large amount of data on a variety of malig- nancies. Unique gene expression signatures have been identified for the more common types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including clinically and biologically important subsets that have not been defined before. In addition, molecularly defined prognosticators have also been constructed for the major types of NHL and these prognosticators provide added value to the widely used International Prognostic Index. The new information should be included in our evaluation of NHL patients, espe- cially when conducting clinical trials. Studies are ongoing to validate and refine these diagnostic and prognostic signatures and to develop platforms that are suitable for routine clinical applications. Similar studies will be performed on the less common types of NHL to complete the molecular classification of NHLs. It is also anticipated that gene expression profiling studies will lead to the identification of novel targets for the development of new therapeutic agents for NHL.
Dynamic stress concentration for multiple multilayered inclusions embedded in an elastic half-space subjected to SH-waves

Abstract The dynamic stress concentration factor (DSCF) is evaluated along the interfaces of multiple multilayered inclusions embedded in a half-space when subjected to a plane harmonic SH-wave. A weak form of Helmholtz equation is utilized to derive a non-hypersingular boundary integral equations to compute the stresses. Eliminating the need to rely on hypersingular integrals, greatly simplifies the procedure. The numerical results obtained by the proposed method, are validated against analytical solutions. Various contributing factors that can influence the DSCF are investigated, including multiple scattering, layering, stiffness of the adjacent inclusions, and impedance contrast of the layers. The DSCF is found to be highly prone to these changes, particularly with the soft materials. Therefore, accurate analysis of stresses requires models that consider multiple scattering and layering. The presented result could be used for predicting the seismic failure of pipes and underground tunnels and for estimating the stress failure in strong ground motion seismology due to subsurface irregularities.
Spatial distribution of major and trace elements in shallow reservoir sediments: an example from Lake Waco, Texas

Sediment geochemistry of a shallow (6-m average) reservoir (Lake Waco) was evaluated for the spatial distribution of major and trace elements. Sixty bottom and core samples along a 21-km transect within the reservoir, 18 overbank sediment samples, and 8 rock types in the drainage area were collected and analyzed for major (Al, Ca, Fe) and trace elements (As, Ba, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, V, Zn). Elemental concentrations in the reservoir sediments closely correspond to concentrations in the regional rocks and represent a mixture of overbank sediment composition of the tributaries. Elemental concentrations were statistically regressed against Al concentrations in order to establish regional baseline levels and thereby distinguish natural from anthropogenic sources. Spatial geochemical trends, considered in terms of element-to-Al ratio versus V-to-Al ratio, relate to the natural and anthropogenic sources contributing to the elemental concentrations. The spatial elemental distribution in the reservoir, which receive sediments from two mineralogically contrasting basins, reflect textural and mineralogical transition within the reservoir and suggest a progressive mixing of sediment from the tributaries. The spatial elemental distribution and sediment texture suggest that the sediment-source, which determines the sediment-type, has a greater influence on the major- and trace-element distributions in shallow reservoir sediments than bathymetry.
Hybrids and phylogenetic systematics. II. The impact of hybrids on cladistic analysis

I examined three aspects of the cladistic treatment of a set of 17 F1 hybrids of known parental origin: (1) impact of hybrids on consistency index (CI) and number of most parsimonious trees (Trees), (2) placement of hybrids in cladograms, and (3) impact of hybrids on hypotheses of relationship among species. The hybrids were added singly and in randomly selected sets of two to five to a data set composed of Central American species of Aphelandra (including the parents of all hybrids). Compared to analyses with the same number of OTUs all of which were species, the analyses with hybrids yielded results with significantly higher CI. There was no difference in Trees between analyses with hybrids versus species. There was thus no evidence that hybrids would appear to be more problematic for cladistic methods than species. Accordingly, hybrids will not be readily identifiable as taxa that cause marked change in these indices. About % of the hybrids were placed as the cladistically basal members of the lineage that included the most apomorphic parent. Relatively apomorphic hybrids were placed proximate to the most derived parent (ca. 13% of hybrids). Other placements occurred more rarely. The most frequent placements of hybrids thus did not distinguish them from normal intermediate or apomorphic taxa. When analyses with hybrids yielded multiple most parsimonious trees, these were no more different from each other than were the equally parsimonious trees that resulted from analyses with species. Most analyses with one or two hybrids resulted in minor or no change in topology. When hybrids caused topological change, they frequently caused rearrangements of weakly supported portions of the cladogram that did not include their parents. When they disrupted the cladistic placement of their parents, they often caused their parents to change positions, with at least one topology bringing the parental lineages into closer proximity with the hybrid placed between them. Hybrids between parents from the two main lineages of the group caused total cladistic restructuring. In fact, the degree of relationship between a hybrid's parents (measured by both cladistic and patristic distance) was strongly correlated with CI (negatively) and with the degree of disturbance to cladistic relationships (positively). Thus, hybrids between distantly related parents resulted in cladograms with low CI and major topological changes. This study suggests that hybrids are unlikely to cause breakdown of cladistic structure unless they are between distantly related parents. However, these results also indicate that cladistics may not be specially useful in distinguishing hybrids from normal taxa. The applicability of these results to other kinds of hybrids is examined and the likely cladistic treatment of hybrids using other sources of data is discussed.
SUNCT Syndrome in a Child

Short-duration unilateral neuralgiform headache with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) is reported in a 5-year-old boy treated at Children Hospital Queen Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
Formaldehyde scavengers function as novel antigen retrieval agents

Antigen retrieval agents improve the detection of formaldehyde-fixed proteins, but how they work is not well understood. We demonstrate that formaldehyde scavenging represents a key characteristic associated with effective antigen retrieval; under controlled temperature and pH conditions, scavenging improves the typical antigen retrieval process through reversal of formaldehyde-protein adduct formation. This approach provides a rational framework for the identification and development of more effective antigen retrieval agents.
How Should Firms Hedge Market Risk

Consider a firm whose stock returns are affected by market returns and an idiosyncratic market-orthogonal factor. The level of the firmâ€™s cash flows depends on the level of the market and the level of the idiosyncratic factor multiplicatively because of compounding. Although a large hedge against the market index minimizes the variance of cash flows, such a hedge does not minimize the costs of financial distress associated with low cash flow realizations below a debt threshold. A hedge ratio based on asset-rate-of-return regression estimates is then incorrect. This holds even in continuous time and with dynamic hedging policies. Our paper provides a simple heuristic for corporations wishing to hedge out the adverse consequences of market risk.
An Application of the Construction of Confidence Intervals for Global Recoverable Reserve Estimates

At the Second International Geostatistics Congress in September 1983 at South Lake Tahoe, California, this author presented an idea for assessing the precision of global recoverable reserve estimates with a new estimation variance. Since that time this research has been expanded to include the complete construction of confidence interval estimates for global reserves. This paper summarizes the estimation method and presents the results of some of the testing of the method that was done. In particular, the quality of the discrete gaussian and affine correction estimators for block recovery is highlighted.
The Nation-State and Institutionalist Theories

Although Japanese elites regard the state as an instrument for promoting economic modernization, less powerful social groups believe that government policies bring undesirable social changes. During the last three decades, protests against the construction of the New Tokyo International airport represented a dramatic movement against the state. The cabinet, led by the dominant Liberal-Democratic Party, decided in the early 1960s to build a new airport outside Narita City. For the bureaucrats, corporate capitalists, and Liberal-Democratic politicians, the airport symbolized the Japanese commitment to rapid industrial growth, technological innovation, and export expansion. The construction of the airport involved the confiscation of land from small farmers, who organized a Farmers’ League to protest this land expropriation. Along with militant students, the league staged demonstrations against the airport authority. Old women hurled human excrement at the police. Youths built fortresses, solidarity huts, watchtowers, and underground bunkers. A few young people attacked police with stones and bamboo spears. Molotov cocktails ignited construction machinery. Radical militants seized temporary control of the airport tower.
Optimal waveform selection in range-Doppler imaging

Solves the problem of adaptively selecting a set of N radar waveforms to obtain the optimal L/sub 2/ estimate of a target range-Doppler reflectivity function. The authors assume that the targets correspond to one of two classes. They show that the waveform selection strategy involves an initial class identification phase followed by a pure imaging phase. They provide a recipe for minimizing the number of waveforms needed for the class identification phase. They show that this leads to an optimal adaptive target imaging strategy. >
How tobacco smoke changes the (epi)genome

Worldwide, more than 1 billion people are tobacco smokers. Cigarette smoking drastically increases the risk of lung cancer. However, many other cancer types also occur more frequently in smokers than in nonsmokers, including cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, liver, cervix, pancreas, bladder, and kidney. Genome sequencing efforts are beginning to provide more sophisticated clues as to the processes at work that are shaping the mutational landscape of tumors. On page [618][1] of this issue, Alexandrov et al. ( 1 ) focused specifically on smoking-associated cancers and dissected genetic and epigenetic differences in tumors between smokers and lifetime nonsmokers. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aag0299
Solution-Mediated Growth of Two-Dimensional SnSe@GeSe Nanosheet Heterostructures

Nanosheet heterostructures that directly interface multiple distinct metal chalcogenides are important two-dimensional materials with unique synergistic properties. Solution routes to these materials offer potential advantages over existing vapor deposition and exfoliation/restacking methods, but they remain difficult to implement and control. Here, we show that SnSe can be grown in solution on micrometer-sized GeSe nanosheets and establish guidelines for achieving controllable deposition. Heating GeSe nanosheets in oleylamine with various amounts of SnCl2 and TOP-Se reveals distinct regimes that favor growth of SnSe on the edge sites vs basal planes of GeSe. Using continuous injection to better control concentrations and reagent delivery, SnSe can be grown on GeSe to produce two distinct types of crystallographically aligned SnSe@GeSe nanosheet heterostructures.
Effects of nasal O2 on sleep-related disordered breathing in ambulatory patients with stable heart failure.

Objective The purpose of this study was 1) to determine the effects of nasal O2 on periodic breathing, arterial oxyhemoglobin desaturation and nocturnal ventricular arrhythmias in patients with heart failure and 2) determine the characteristics of patients whose periodic breathing will be reversed by O2 administration; our hypothesis was that patients with more severe periodic breathing and desaturation, will respond more favorably to oxygen. Design Prospective study. Setting Referral sleep laboratory of a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Participants 36 ambulatory male patients with heart failure whose initial polysomnograms showed periodic breathing with fifteen or more episodes of apnea (A) and hypopnea (H) per hour (AH index, AHI) were treated with nasal O2 during the subsequent full night polysomnography. Interventions Oxygen. Measurements and results Arterial blood gases and hydrogen ion concentrations were measured, and cardiac radionuclide ventriculography, Holter monitoring, and polysomnography were done. The studies were scored blindly. Treatment with O2 resulted in a significant reduction in AHI (49+/-19 vs 29+/-29, means+/-SD), central apnea index (28+/-23 vs 13+/-18 per hour), and the percent of total sleep time below an arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation of 90% (23+/-21% vs 0.8+/-2.3%). In spite of virtual normalization of saturation with O2 therapy, the number of ventricular arrhythmias during sleep did not change significantly. In 39% of the patients (14 out of 36), O2 therapy resulted in reversal of central sleep apnea (defined by a reduction in AHI to less than 15/hr). In this group, the AHI decreased by 78% which was significantly (p=0.0001) more than improved (22%) in AHI of the remaining patients (n=22). The main differences between baseline characteristics of the two groups was a significantly higher mean PaCO2 in patients who did respond fully to O2 (39.3+/-5.4 vs 36.1+/-4.2 mm Hg, p=0.03). In both groups, however, O2 administration resulted in significant and similar improvement in arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation (saturation Conclusion In patients with stable heart failure, administration of nasal O2 significantly improves periodic breathing and virtually eliminates clinically significant arterial oxyhemoglobin desaturation. The beneficial effects of O2, however, may be modulated by the level of arterial PCO2. Acute O2 therapy has important benefits on sleep apnea and nocturnal arterial oxyhemoglobin desaturation in heart failure patients. Long term benefits of O2 therapy in heart failure and sleep apnea need to be determined.
A Bayesian analysis of quantal bioassay experiments incorporating historical controls via Bayes factors.

This paper addresses model-based Bayesian inference in the analysis of data arising from bioassay experiments. In such experiments, increasing doses of a chemical substance are given to treatment groups (usually rats or mice) for a fixed period of time (usually 2 years). The goal of such an experiment is to determine whether an increased dosage of the chemical is associated with increased probability of an adverse effect (usually presence of adenoma or carcinoma). The data consists of dosage, survival time, and the occurrence of the adverse event for each unit in the study. To determine whether such relationship exists, this paper proposes using Bayes factors to compare two probit models, the model that assumes increasing dose effects and the model that assumes no dose effect. These models account for the survival time of each unit through a Poly-k type correction. In order to increase statistical power, the proposed approach allows the incorporation of information from control groups from previous studies. The proposed method is able to handle data with very few occurrences of the adverse event. The proposed method is compared with a variation of the Peddada test via simulation and is shown to have higher power. We demonstrate the method by applying it to the two bioassay experiment datasets previously analyzed by other authors. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Single-cell resolution of intracellular T cell Ca2+ dynamics in response to frequency-based H2O2 stimulation

Adaptive immune cells, such as T cells, integrate information from their extracellular environment through complex signaling networks with exquisite sensitivity in order to direct decisions on proliferation, apoptosis, and cytokine production. These signaling networks are reliant on the interplay between finely tuned secondary messengers, such as Ca2+ and H2O2. Frequency response analysis, originally developed in control engineering, is a tool used for discerning complex networks. This analytical technique has been shown to be useful for understanding biological systems and facilitates identification of the dominant behaviour of the system. We probed intracellular Ca2+ dynamics in the frequency domain to investigate the complex relationship between two second messenger signaling molecules, H2O2 and Ca2+, during T cell activation with single cell resolution. Single-cell analysis provides a unique platform for interrogating and monitoring cellular processes of interest. We utilized a previously developed microfluidic device to monitor individual T cells through time while applying a dynamic input to reveal a natural frequency of the system at approximately 2.78 mHz stimulation. Although our network was much larger with more unknown connections than previous applications, we are able to derive features from our data, observe forced oscillations associated with specific amplitudes and frequencies of stimuli, and arrive at conclusions about potential transfer function fits as well as the underlying population dynamics.
A geometric model of sensitivity of multistage elections to change

This paper geometrically compares multistage, multiple, and positional elections. The method of comparison shows that multiple stage elections are not necessarily more sensitive to small scale manipulation or other small scale effects. In particular, when all rank-order outcomes matter, multistage elections are in general less sensitive to perturbation, while in the case where the election’s outcome simply produces a singular winner and stages are not closely correlated, some multistage elections show similar or higher levels of intrinsic vulnerability to manipulation, error, and fraud as positional or multiple elections. In elections where the outcome simply produces a singular winner, a plurality vote is identified as less vulnerable in a single stage election than in multiple stages, while an antiplurality vote is identified as more vulnerable in a single stage than in multiple stages.
A content analysis process for qualitative software engineering research

A review of the qualitative research methods discussed in papers that study software engineering teams showed most of those papers did not follow a systematic process during the qualitative analysis. This finding is concerning as this deficiency in research analysis procedure may reduce the validity and/or completeness of the qualitative results. Such a lack of rigor may be a result of qualitative research not being as firmly established in software engineering as quantitative research methodologies. In engineering research, quantitative methods are typically more prevalent and qualitative analysis is part of a mixed-method analysis process. However, when researching teams, where human activity is abundant, qualitative analysis may need to take precedence. In this paper, we focus on the qualitative analysis method called content analysis with the goal of presenting a rigorous process for content analysis in the context of software engineering. We then present and demonstrate the use of that content analysis process for software engineering researchers using two examples. An analysis of 215 articles that were a result of a mapping study on software engineering team research is presented. Those papers were analyzed to determine which utilized a qualitative data analysis method in their research in addition to the rigor and type of qualitative analysis performed. We ultimately included 23 papers in this study. We present a mapping study and a content analysis process that include a straightforward way to select, code, and present data in both inductive and deductive studies. We demonstrated the process using the keywords from the papers included in this study as well as on a second data set that utilized responses from structured interview transcripts from practicing software engineers. The first dataset also resulted in a taxonomy to categorize software engineering team research. We presented and demonstrated a content analysis process in terms of software engineering in order to improve future qualitative software engineering research that would benefit from systematic content analysis.
Tribology and sliding electrical contact resistance of e-beam hard Au: Effects of annealing

Abstract Nanocomposite Au-ZnO thin films in the dilute oxide ( −5 mm 3 /N m than for a typical Ni hardened, electroplated Au film at 1.3×10 −4 mm 3 /N m. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy studies inside the wear surfaces revealed that the extremely stable, low friction coefficients and wear rate of annealed Au-2 vol% ZnO film was due to partial coverage of the wear surface with a ZnO tribofilm that reduced the adhesive contact contribution to wear with minimal impact on ECR. The potential implications of this study in the search for an environmentally friendly alternative to widely used electroplated hard Au are discussed.
Predicting effects of future development on a territorial forest songbird: methodology matters

Projected increases in human population size are expected to increase forest loss and fragmentation in the next century at the expense of forest-dwelling species. We estimated landscape carrying capacity (N k) for Ovenbirds in urban, suburban, exurban, and rural areas for the years 2000 and 2050, and compared changes in N k with changes in occupancy probability. Maximum clique analysis, a branch of mathematical graph theory, was used to estimate landscape carrying capacity, the maximum potential number of territories a given landscape is capable of supporting (N k). We used occupancy probability maps as inputs for calculating Ovenbird N k in the northeastern USA and a spatially explicit growth model to forecast future development patterns in 2050. We compared occupancy probability with estimates of N k for urban, suburban, exurban, and rural areas for the years 2000 and 2050. In response to human population growth and development, Ovenbird N k was predicted to decrease 23% in urban landscapes, 28% in suburban landscapes, 43% in exurban landscapes, and 20% in rural landscapes. These decreases far exceeded decreases in mean occupancy probabilities that ranged between 2 and 5% across the same development categories. Thus, small decreases in occupancy probability between 2000 and 2050 translated to much larger decreases in N k. For the first time, our study compares occupancy probability with a species population metric, N k, to assess the impact of future development. Maximum clique analysis is a tool that can be used to estimate N k and inform landscape management and communication with stakeholders.