cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Correction of horizontal-vertical coupling in the SSC

Coupling between the horizontal and vertical betatron motion in the SSC (Superconducting Super Collider) is produced by skew quadrupole errors in the dipole magnets, angular alignment errors in the quadrupoles, and vertical closed-orbit errors in the sextupoles. The anticipated random errors in the arcs alone will produce a coupling coefficient of about 0.017 in the current lattice. The largest source of coupling for collision optics is expected to be the quadrupole triplets adjacent to the low-beta interaction points, each pair of which, if uncorrected, can contribute about 0.05 to the coupling efficient. A correction scheme using skew quadrupoles at favorable positions in the interaction straight sections has been devised and tested. An interactive, graphical simulation was performed using this corrector configuration. In the simulation each skew quadrupole family was set to the value which minimized the separation between the two tunes, cycling between families until the machine was sufficiently decoupled ( mod C mod >
A SURVEY FOR SELECTED VIRAL, CHLAMYDIAL, AND PARASITIC DISEASES IN WILD DUSKY-HEADED PARAKEETS (ARATINGA WEDDELLII) AND TUI PARAKEETS (BROTOGERIS SANCTITHOMAE) IN PERU

Thirty-eight free-ranging dusky-headed parakeets (Aratinga weddellii) and 13 tui parakeets (Brotogeris sanctithomae) were caught and released in Parque Nacional del Manu in southeastern Peru from 19 July to 5 August 1993. Blood and fecal samples were collected and sera were evaluated for titers to Pacheco's disease herpesvirus, psittacine polyomavirus, paramyxovirus-1, and Chlamydia psittaci. Fecal samples were examined for evidence of ascarid or coccidial infection by fecal flotation, and blood smears were examined for hemoparasites. Five (50%) of 10 A. weddellii serum samples tested by complement fixation (CF) for psittacine polyomavirus antibodies were positive, and three (19%) of 16 A. weddellii samples tested by virus neutralization (VN) for psittacine polyomavirus antibodies were positive, yielding a total of 8 (38%) of the 21 A. weddellii samples positive for psittacine polyomavirus. Based on CF for herpesvirus, four (11%) of 38 A. weddellii samples had antibodies against herpesvirus. All B. sancti...
Rifaximin: A New Treatment for Travelers' Diarrhea

OBJECTIVE:To review the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, adverse effects, drug interactions and precautions, and dosing recommendations of rifaximin, a new nonabsorbed antimicrobial agent for travelers' diarrhea.DATA SOURCES:A MEDLINE search (1966–July 2004) was conducted to extract human and animal research data in the English language on rifaximin.STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION:Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials were reviewed and included to evaluate the efficacy of rifaximin in the treatment of travelers' diarrhea.DATA SYNTHESIS:Rifaximin is approved for the treatment of travelers' diarrhea in patients ≥12 years of age with diarrhea caused by noninvasive strains of Escherichia coli. Rifaximin was superior to placebo and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and equivalent to ciprofloxacin in the primary clinical endpoint of the time to the last unformed stool passed.CONCLUSIONS:Rifaximin is a viable alternative to ciprofloxacin for the treatment of travelers' diarrhea. A...
Vector set partitioning with classified successive refinement VQ for embedded wavelet image and video coding

The set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) approach for still image compression proposed by Said and Pearlman (see IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol.6, no.3, 1996) is one of the most efficient embedded gray image compression schemes to date. The algorithm relies on a very efficient scanning cum bit-allocation scheme for quantizing the coefficients obtained by a wavelet decomposition of an image. We adopt this scheme to scan vectors of wavelet coefficients, and use successive refinement VQ techniques with staggered bit-allocation to quantize several wavelet coefficients at once. The new scheme is named VSPIHT (vector SPIHT). We present some coding results comparing VSPIHT to the scalar counterpart in the mean-squared-error sense. The method readily generalizes to color images and video where the vector-based approach makes more sense. We present the coding results on intra frames of QCIF sequences as compared against H.263.
Mechanical Properties of Composite Hydrogels

Preparation de gels colloidaux par polymerisation photochimique de N-vinyl pyrrolidone en presence d'un polymere hydrophobe aux bonnes proprietes mecaniques (PVC,PU,PS,PVB,PMMA,CA), donnant les polymeres «cage a serpent». Excellentes proprietes mecaniques et permeabilite a l'eau du gel PVP/CA
Fast and accurate resource estimation of automatically generated custom DFT IP cores

This paper presents an equation-based resource utilization model for automatically generated discrete Fourier transform (DFT) soft core IPs. The parameterized DFT IP generator allows a user to make customized tradeoffs between cost and performance and between utilization of different resource classes. The equation-based resource model permits immediate and accurate estimation of resource requirements as the user considers the different generator options. Furthermore, the fast turnaround of the model allows it to be combined with a search algorithm such that the user could query automatically for an optimal design within the stated performance and resource constraints.Following a brief review of the DFT IP generator, this paper presents the development of the equation-based models for estimating slice and hard macro utilizations in the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA family. The evaluation section shows that an average error of 6.1% is achievable by a model of linear equations that can be evaluated in sub-microseconds. The paper further offers a demonstration of the automatic design exploration capability.
A model for security management of SCADA systems

Current infrastructure for SCADA systems within industry are increasing in complexity and size and are demanding models that are more accurate for system management. Management models that are based on policies are becoming suitable for such situations, since they are able to provide flexibility, scalability and uniformity when a large number of objects is considered. This work proposes a solution for security management of SCADA systems using the Ponder framework for formal specification of policies, rule validation, distribution and application of policies, as well as conformity check with current standards on information security of critical systems.
Sequential haplotype scan methods for association analysis.

Multi-locus association analyses, including haplotype-based analyses, can sometimes provide greater power than singlelocus analyses for detecting disease susceptibility loci. This potential gain, however, can be compromised by the large number of degrees of freedom caused by irrelevant markers. Exhaustive search for the optimal set of markers might be possible for a small number of markers, yet it is computationally inefficient. In this paper, we present a sequential haplotype scan method to search for combinations of adjacent markers that are jointly associated with disease status. When evaluating each marker, we add markers close to it in a sequential manner: a marker is added if its contribution to the haplotype association with disease is warranted, conditional on current haplotypes. This conditional evaluation is based on the wellknown Mantel-Haenszel statistic. We propose two permutation based methods to evaluate the growing haplotypes: a haplotype method for the combined markers, and a summary method that sums conditional statistics. We compared our proposed methods, the single-locus method, and a sliding window method using simulated data. We also applied our sequential haplotype scan algorithm to experimental data for CYP2D6. The results indicate that the sequential scan procedure can identify a set of adjacent markers whose haplotypes might have strong genetic effects or be in linkage disequilibrium with disease predisposing variants. As a result, our methods can achieve greater power than the single-locus method, yet is much more computationally efficient than sliding window methods. Genet. Epidemiol.31:553–564, 2007. r 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Cutting edge: the IgG response to the circumsporozoite protein is MHC class II-dependent and CD1d-independent: exploring the role of GPIs in NK T cell activation and antimalarial responses.

Biochemical analysis has suggested that self GPI anchors are the main natural ligand associated with mouse CD1d molecules. A recent study reported that Vα14 + NK T cells responded to self as well as foreign (parasite-derived) GPIs in a CD1d-dependent manner. It further reported that the IgG response to the Plasmodium berghei malarial circumsporozoite (CS) protein was severely impaired in CD1d-deficient mice, leading to a model whereby NK T cells, upon recognition of CD1d molecules presenting the CS-derived GPI anchor, provide help for B cells secreting anti-CS Abs. We tested this model by comparing the anti-CS Ab responses of wild-type, CD1d-deficient, and MHC class II-deficient mice. We found that the IgG response to the CS protein was solely MHC class II-dependent. Furthermore, by measuring the response of a broad panel of CD1d-autoreactive T cells to GPI-deficient CD1d-expressing cells, we found that GPIs were not required for autoreactive responses.
A mechanism for energy transfer leading to conformation change in networked nonlinear systems

Understanding mechanisms for conformation change in large networks of biological oscillators leads to comprehension of robustness notions in generic large interconnected dynamical systems. Biological systems are known to be extremely robust to most environmental perturbation while in certain situations they embrace external influence to carry out a particular task. In light of this, the connection with networked or distributed control systems becomes clear. In this paper, we study the dynamical properties of energy transfer through a macromolecule undergoing conformation change. We use a series of dynamical systems tools to identify energy pathways in the system that enable conformation change. We find that during internal resonance, a certain funneling structure appears which channels energy in a manner that enables this conformation change to occur.
Lack of Antibodies to Legionella Pneumophila and Legionella Micdadei in Hemodialysis Patients

In 231 adult hemodialysis patients and 134 healthy adults, we measured antibodies to Legionella pneumophila (serogroups 1–6) and Legionella micdadei by indirect immunofluorescent antibody tests to assess the risk of Legionnaires' disease. One of the patients had a titer of 1 : 512 to Legionella pneumophila but he had no history of Legionnaires' disease. Two had a titer of 1 : 64 to Legionella pneumophila, and none had a titer of ≥1 : 64 to Legionella micdadei. By contrast, none of the control group had a titer ≥1 : 64 to Legionella pneumophila and two had a titer of 1 : 64 to Legionella micdadei. Thus, our population of maintenance hemodialysis patients did not display increased prevalence of antibodies of Legionella pneumophila and Legionella micdadei, but prospective studies of pneumonia in hemodialysis patients might further evaluate possible risk of Legionnaires' disease.
Moral Identities, Social Anxiety, and Academic Dishonesty Among American College Students

Academic dishonesty is a persistent problem in the American educational system. The present investigation examined how reports of academic cheating related to students' emphasis on their moral identities and their sensitivity to social evaluation. Seventy college students at a large southeastern university completed a battery of surveys. Symptoms of social anxiety were positively correlated with recall of academic cheating. Additionally, relative to students who placed less importance on their moral identities, students who placed more importance on their moral identities recalled significantly fewer instances of cheating. In summary, these findings suggest that students are less likely to cheat on their school work when they place greater emphasis on their moral identity and are less sensitive to social evaluation. Practical interventions to rampant cheating in American schools are discussed.
Volunteer Administration Leadership Proficiency and Leadership Styles: Perceptions of Southern Region 4-H County Faculty

Volunteers play an integral role in supporting the mission of 4-H programs in the southern region. For this reason their proficiency in volunteer administration competence and perceived leadership style is important. The researchers sought to examine both the perceived proficiency of 4-H faculty in the southern region in seven competencies associated with volunteer administration leadership (Stedman, 2004) and perceived leadership style based on Full Range Leadership (Avolio & Bass, 1991). Overall respondents’ scores indicated an average proficiency in volunteer administration leadership competence. Yet, their reported scores showed a higher proficiency in the individual competency areas of personal skill and organizational culture. Leadership style was measured based on behavior scores of transformational, transactional, and laissez faire leadership. The 4-H county faculty used transformational leadership most frequently, followed by transactional leadership, and then laissez faire. Implications are 4-H county faculty could use additional professional development opportunities which address accountability and management.
Epigenetic silencing of Kruppel like factor-3 increases expression of pro-metastatic miR-182

Accumulating evidence indicates that microRNAs (miRs) regulate cancer metastasis. We have shown that miR-182 drives sarcoma metastasis in vivo by coordinated regulation of multiple genes. Recently, we also demonstrated that in a subset of primary sarcomas that metastasize to the lung, miR-182 expression is elevated through binding of MyoD1 to the miR-182 promoter. However, it is not known if there are also transcription factors that inhibit miR-182 expression. Defining negative regulators of miR-182 expression may help explain why some sarcomas do not metastasize and may also identify pathways that can modulate miR-182 for therapeutic benefit. Here, we use an in silico screen, chromatin-immunoprecipitation, and luciferase reporter assays to discover that Kruppel like factor-3 (Klf-3) is a novel transcriptional repressor of miR-182. Knockdown of Klf-3 increases miR-182 expression, and stable overexpression of Klf-3, but not a DNA-binding mutant Klf-3, decreases miR-182 levels. Klf-3 expression is downregulated in both primary mouse and human metastatic sarcomas, and Klf-3 levels negatively correlate with miR-182 expression. Interestingly, Klf-3 also negatively regulates MyoD1, suggesting an alternative mechanism for Klf-3 to repress miR-182 expression in addition to direct binding of the miR-182 promoter. Using Methylation Specific PCR (MSP) and pyrosequencing assays, we found that Klf-3 is epigenetically silenced by DNA hypermethylation both in mouse and human sarcoma cells. Finally, we show the DNA methylation inhibitor 5'Azacytidine (Aza) restores Klf-3 expression while reducing miR-182 levels. Thus, our findings suggest that demethylating agents could potentially be used to modulate miR-182 levels as a therapeutic strategy.
Costs and benefits of statistical significance tests

Chow's book provides a thorough analysis of the confusing array of issues surrounding conventional tests of statistical significance. This book should be required reading for behavioral and social scientists. Chow concludes that the null-hypothesis significance-testing procedure (NHSTP) plays a limited, but necessary, role in the experimental sciences. Another possibility is that – owing in part to its metaphorical underpinnings and convoluted logic – the NHSTP is declining in importance in those few sciences in which it ever played a role.
Controlling nucleation and growth of water using hybrid hydrophobic-hydrophilic surfaces

Heterogeneous nucleation of water plays an important role in wide range of natural and industrial processes. Though heterogeneous nucleation of water is ubiquitous and everyday experience, spatial control of this important phenomenon is extremely difficult. Here we show, for the first time, that spatial control in the heterogeneous nucleation of water can be achieved by manipulating the local nucleation energy barrier and nucleation rate via the modification of the local intrinsic wettability of a surface by patterning hybrid hydrophobic-hydrophilic regions on a surface. Such ability to control water nucleation could address the condensation-related limitations of superhydrophobic surfaces, and has implications for efficiency enhancements in energy and desalination systems.
Estimating the short-term recovery potential of little brown bats in the eastern United States in the face of White-nose syndrome

Abstract White-nose syndrome (WNS) was first detected in North American bats in New York in 2006. Since that time WNS has spread throughout the northeastern United States, southeastern Canada, and southwest across Pennsylvania and as far west as Missouri. Suspect WNS cases have been identified in Minnesota and Iowa, and the causative agent of WNS ( Pseudogymnoascus destructans ) has recently been detected in Mississippi. The impact of WNS is devastating for little brown bats ( Myotis lucifugus ), causing up to 100% mortality in some overwintering populations, and previous research has forecast the extirpation of the species due to the disease. Recent evidence indicates that remnant populations may persist in areas where WNS is endemic. We developed a spatially explicit model of little brown bat population dynamics to investigate the potential for populations to recover under alternative scenarios. We used these models to investigate how starting population sizes, potential changes in the number of bats overwintering successfully in hibernacula, and potential changes in demographic rates of the population post WNS may influence the ability of the bats to recover to former levels of abundance. We found that populations of the little brown bat and other species that are highly susceptible to WNS are unlikely to return to pre-WNS levels in the near future under any of the scenarios we examined.
Revisiting Yick Wo v. Hopkins

This essay is a comment on Gabriel J. Chin's article, "Unexplainable on Grounds of Race: Doubts About Yick Wo". I conclude that Professor Chin's revisionism is a useful corrective to the whiggish view that interprets Yick Wo as a surprisingly modern civil rights decision in an era of rampant hostility to racial minorities. But Professor Chin's revisionism goes too far, in that he downplays or ignores the elements of the Yick Wo opinion that, however haltingly or modestly, advanced equality under the Constitution: the Court's holding that resident aliens, including Chinese resident aliens, were entitled to the full protections of the Fourteenth Amendment; the Court's unwillingness to countenance racial hostility as a valid police power justification for discriminatory economic legislation; and the Court's willingness, as early as 1912, to interpret Yick Wo as prohibiting legislation intending to discriminate against ethnic minorities.
Theories of Business Fluctuations: I. A Classification of the Theories

Definition of the phrases "business fluctuations," 94; "business cycle," 95; "periodic cycle," 95. — Concept of normal, 96. — Old and new meanings attached to "commercial crisis," 98. — Classification of the theories according to emphasis placed on causes, 99. — Extracts from writers emphasizing factors other than economic institutions, 104. — Extracts from writers emphasizing economic institutions, 109.
Predation of Heliothis virescens (F.) Eggs on CoUon in East Texas

Heliothis virescens (Fabricius) eggs labeled with radioactive phosphorus were placed in an east Texas cotton field, and 777 radioactive arthropods were later captured. These captures consisted of 12 species and 3 arthropods identified only to family. Singularly placed H. virescens eggs exposed to predation after the onset of pinhead squaring averaged 77% predation in 24 h. When all nonflying predators were excluded from plants, egg predation averaged 46%, and on plants where nonflying predators and alate predators were unable to penetrate the 42-cm2 mesh, egg predation averaged 34%. The seasonal cumulative percent predation on H. virescens eggs averaged 77.6 and 86.6 for 24 h and 48 h, respectively. D-Vac® sampling of predator numbers and whole-plant sampling of the Heliothis spp. egg numbers revealed a seasonal mean of 137:1 (predator-to-egg ratio). The equation Y = 71.449 (X) 0.194, X > 0 with an r value of 0.60 predicts the expected percent Heliothis spp. egg predation, using the log predator-to-egg ratio as the rredictor. Predator efficiency values were calculated for several species or groups of species and presented as number of eggs individually consumed per 24 h. Eggs consumed per individual per day ranged from 14.2 eggs for Chiracanthium inclusum (Hentz) to 0.3 eggs consumed by Solenopsis invicta Buren.
Cytokine-Suppressive Activity of a Hydroxylated Alkylamide from Echinacea purpurea

Echinacea purpurea has been widely used to treat upper respiratory tract infections. Bioassay-guided fractionation of hexane and ethanol extracts of this plant yielded 4[(2-methylbutyl)amino]-4-oxo-2-butenoic acid ( 1 ) and 8,11-dihidroxy-dodeca-2 E ,4 E ,9 E -trienoic acid isobutylamide ( 2 ), both of which are new to Echinacea . Compound 2 suppressed the production of TNF- α from RAW 264.7 cells with an IC 50 value of 6.8 µM, while 1 was inactive. Neither compound showed cytotoxicity at concentrations up to 100 µM. These findings support a growing body of literature demonstrating that E. purpurea contains an array of compounds that suppress cytokine secretion by macrophage-type cells in vitro .
Macro-level pedestrian and bicycle crash analysis: incorporating spatial spillover effects in dual state count models

This study attempts to explore the viability of dual-state models (i.e., zero-inflated and hurdle models) for traffic analysis zones (TAZs) based pedestrian and bicycle crash frequency analysis. Additionally, spatial spillover effects are explored in the models by employing exogenous variables from neighboring zones. The dual-state models such as zero-inflated negative binomial and hurdle negative binomial models (with and without spatial effects) are compared with the conventional single-state model (i.e., negative binomial). The model comparison for pedestrian and bicycle crashes revealed that the models that considered observed spatial effects perform better than the models that did not consider the observed spatial effects. Across the models with spatial spillover effects, the dual-state models especially zero-inflated negative binomial model offered better performance compared to single-state models. Moreover, the model results clearly highlighted the importance of various traffic, roadway, and sociodemographic characteristics of the TAZ as well as neighboring TAZs on pedestrian and bicycle crash frequency.
Practical Research on a Mechanical Speed-adjustor Refitted to a Electronic Speed-adjustor

This paper analyzes the cause of refitting mechanical speed-adjustor of B-type fuel injection pump into electronic speed-adjustor for series 135 diesel engines, and introduces its composition, principle of work, installation, adjustment, notice and comparison of effects.
Ultrasound of extravascular lung water: a new standard for pulmonary congestion

Extravascular lung water (EVLW) is a key variable in heart failure management and prognosis, but its objective assessment remains elusive. Lung imaging has been traditionally considered off-limits for ultrasound techniques due to the acoustic barrier of high-impedance air wall. In pulmonary congestion however, the presence of both air and water creates a peculiar echo fingerprint. Lung ultrasound shows B-lines, comet-like signals arising from a hyper-echoic pleural line with a to-and-fro movement synchronized with respiration. Increasing EVLW accumulation changes the normal, no-echo signal (black lung, no EVLW) into a black-and-white pattern (interstitial sub-pleural oedema with multiple B-lines) or a white lung pattern (alveolar pulmonary oedema) with coalescing B-lines. The number and spatial extent of B-lines on the antero-lateral chest allows a semi-quantitative estimation of EVLW (from absent, ≤5, to severe pulmonary oedema, >30 B-lines). Wet B-lines are made by water and decreased by diuretics, which cannot modify dry B-lines made by connective tissue. B-lines can be evaluated anywhere (including extreme environmental conditions with pocket size instruments to detect high-altitude pulmonary oedema), anytime (during dialysis to titrate intervention), by anyone (even a novice sonographer after 1 h training), and on anybody (since the chest acoustic window usually remains patent when echocardiography is not feasible). Cardiologists can achieve much diagnostic gain with little investment of technology, training, and time. B-lines represent 'the shape of lung water'. They allow non-invasive detection, in real time, of even sub-clinical forms of pulmonary oedema with a low cost, radiation-free approach.
Approach to Treatment of the Febrile Cancer Patient with Low-Risk Neutropenia

All cancer patients who develop fever during a period of neutropenia are not at high risk of developing serious infection. Following hospitalization for empiric broad spectrum antibiotic therapy, certain low-risk patients can be identified and safely be discharged "early", prior to recovery of the absolute neutrophil count to 500 cells per mm3. The medical, psychological, and financial benefits of early hospital discharge are immense. Careful examination for serial increases in components of the peripheral blood count herald marrow recovery and help identify the low-risk patient. It may also be possible to identify "low-risk" neutropenic patients upon development of fever in order to explore alternative management strategies (for example, outpatient oral or intravenous antibiotics) rather than routine hospitalization.
Pathogenesis of nonobstructive fibrous peels in right-sided porcine-valved extracardiac conduits

An autopsy study was conducted of 14 cardiopulmonary specimens in which porcine-valved extracardiac conduits had been placed from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery. The gross and light microscopic appearance of the tissue lining in such conduits was evaluated. In no instance was the lining considered obstructive. The conduits had been in place for varying lengths of time ranging from 1 day to 5 years. The neointima appeared to begin developing as early as the first postoperative day as a thin layer of platelet-fibrin thrombus, followed by incorporation of red blood cells and a few leukocytes. Between 2 to 3 weeks postoperatively, such shallow thrombotic linings had become organized by fibroblastic migration and proliferation from both the proximal and distal anastomosis sites. However, incomplete development of the neointima frequently led to fenestrations. Peels, or neointimae, older than 1 month did not change, having densely fibrous luminal surfaces and having thrombus or necrotic thrombotic debris along the interface between the conduit and peel. These findings support the concept that progressive thickening of the lining peel takes place primarily along the interface between the peel and the conduit rather than the interface between the peel and the lumen.
Radiogenomics to characterize regional genetic heterogeneity in glioblastoma

Background Glioblastoma (GBM) exhibits profound intratumoral genetic heterogeneity. Each tumor comprises multiple genetically distinct clonal populations with different therapeutic sensitivities. This has implications for targeted therapy and genetically informed paradigms. Contrast-enhanced (CE)-MRI and conventional sampling techniques have failed to resolve this heterogeneity, particularly for nonenhancing tumor populations. This study explores the feasibility of using multiparametric MRI and texture analysis to characterize regional genetic heterogeneity throughout MRI-enhancing and nonenhancing tumor segments. Methods We collected multiple image-guided biopsies from primary GBM patients throughout regions of enhancement (ENH) and nonenhancing parenchyma (so called brain-around-tumor, [BAT]). For each biopsy, we analyzed DNA copy number variants for core GBM driver genes reported by The Cancer Genome Atlas. We co-registered biopsy locations with MRI and texture maps to correlate regional genetic status with spatially matched imaging measurements. We also built multivariate predictive decision-tree models for each GBM driver gene and validated accuracies using leave-one-out-cross-validation (LOOCV). Results We collected 48 biopsies (13 tumors) and identified significant imaging correlations (univariate analysis) for 6 driver genes: EGFR, PDGFRA, PTEN, CDKN2A, RB1, and TP53. Predictive model accuracies (on LOOCV) varied by driver gene of interest. Highest accuracies were observed for PDGFRA (77.1%), EGFR (75%), CDKN2A (87.5%), and RB1 (87.5%), while lowest accuracy was observed in TP53 (37.5%). Models for 4 driver genes (EGFR, RB1, CDKN2A, and PTEN) showed higher accuracy in BAT samples (n = 16) compared with those from ENH segments (n = 32). Conclusion MRI and texture analysis can help characterize regional genetic heterogeneity, which offers potential diagnostic value under the paradigm of individualized oncology.
Ethical issues in foetal diagnosis and abortion

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the ethical issues in fetal diagnosis and abortion. The best means for the tactical development of the man-controlled strategy should be those of eugenics, which are gradually becoming socially acceptable: birth control, therapeutic abortion, and artificial insemination. Two interrelated means of negative eugenics, one afforded by recent progress in cytogenetics and the other uncoveredly favored by an apparently social consensus, are fetal diagnosis and abortion. Their applications obviously raise ethical issues. It is well known that abnormalities due to chromosomal aberrations and many metabolic disorders, originated by a deficiency or alteration of enzymes, can be diagnosed between the fifteenth and twentieth week of gestation. The application of the prenatal diagnosis, however, raises ethical problems at three different levels: at the level of the parents or the pregnant woman; at the level of medical and genetic counselor; and at the level of society. Eugenic, or otherwise therapeutic, abortion is advocated as the final act of a positive prenatal diagnosis. If such an analysis clearly indicates the presence of a hereditary disease, the fetus can be aborted. Therefore, one must consider from one side the rights of the fetus and from the other the rights and duties of parents and society. It is also clear that the acquired certainty that the prospective child will be affected by a serious genetic disorder somehow modifies the attitude of parents towards the fetus.
Factors Affecting Airborne Concentrations of Podosphaera xanthii Conidia and Severity of Gerbera Powdery Mildew

To determine the factors affecting airborne conidial concentrations of Podos- phaera xanthii Braun and Shishkoff and powdery mildew severity in greenhouse-grown potted gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii H. Bolus), airborne concentrations of conidia were monitored in a glass and polyethylene greenhouse. Temperature, relative humidity, and leaf wetness were recorded onsite, and the percentage of foliage with visible disease was assessed weekly at the glasshouse and every 2 weeks at the polyethylene greenhouse (1 to 10 visual rating scale). Peak airborne conidial concentrations occurred at 0800/1600 and 0900/1400 HR at the glasshouse and polyethylene greenhouses, respectively. Few conidia were sampled between 2200 and 0500 HR at either greenhouse. Worker activity was associated with conidial release in the glasshouse, but not in the larger polyethylene greenhouse, and worker activity may have influenced the daily periodicity of conidial concentrations. Airborne conidial concentrations were not related to environmental conditions in the same hour as conidial detection. An increase in disease severity was positively related to relative humidity and negatively related to leaf wetness at both greenhouses; in addition, temperature was negatively related to an increase in disease severity in the glasshouse. In light of the results of this study, frequent scouting and fungicideapplications forpowderymildewareadvised.Wideplantspacingandadequate ventilation are also recommended to reduce relative humidity in the microclimate.
Water Oxidation Catalyzed by Cobalt Oxide Supported on the Mattagamite Phase of CoTe2

A chemical synthesis for the cobalt pertelluride mineral mattagamite is reported. Synthetic nanocrystalline mattagamite was investigated for electrochemical water oxidation and showed catalytic activity. Electrochemical water oxidation occurred at an overpotential of 380 mV at 10 mA/cm−2 with a Tafel slope of 58 mV/decade and with a Faradaic efficiency of 96% and turnover frequency of 0.021 s–1 at 0.5 V.
Correlation techniques for estimation of amplifier nonlinearity

Nonlinearity characterization is critical to amplifier linearization. It is shown that correlation techniques can be used to provide an estimate of amplifier nonlinearity. The output envelope is cross-correlated with a test sequence generated by forming the product of multiple uncorrelated input sequences, to yield estimates of the low order nonlinearity coefficients. The proposed method can be employed in the background during amplifier operation to estimate amplifier nonlinearity with IS-95 forward-link CDMA signals.
Sleep Deprivation and Neurological Diseases

Patients with neurological disorders may have comorbid sleep disorders of any kind—in part simply because disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia are common, but direct or indirect causal links are also plausible. These are often bidirectional—meaning that certain disorders may increase the risk of developing a sleep disorder, just as certain sleep disorders may increase the risk of developing a neurological disorder. Sleep disturbance (whether incidental or causally related) may have deleterious impact on neurological function in patients that are compromised by their illness, or neurological recovery in settings where plasticity occurs (such as post-stroke). Whether or not causality is known within a given patient, it is arguable that investigating and treating underlying sleep disorders has great potential to improve quality of life, and possibly objective neurological function or outcomes, as many disorders in sleep medicine are treatable and should be sought in these vulnerable populations.
Extended Abstract: Building Mobile Application Frameworks for Disconnected Data Management

In resource-constrained environments, organizations helping disadvantaged communities often rely on mobile devices as their field worker's primary computing device. While over two-thirds of the world's population have mobile phones, less than half the world's population is connected to the Internet [14]. Thus, many existing mobile frameworks that rely on Internet connectivity are not well suited to long periods of disconnected data collection and management. Furthermore, many existing frameworks are generally aimed at developers or users with significant technical skills and/or financial resources, making it difficult for organizations in resource-constrained communities to adapt mobile frameworks to their highly context dependent field deployments. My research focuses on creating tools that adapt mobile technologies to meet the needs of under-served populations by creating a modular, service-based mobile application framework suited to disconnected data management. The aim is to enable organizations to create domain-independent mobile applications by leveraging customizable frameworks designed to adapt to extreme mobile networking conditions. Designing flexible tools that are configurable by global development organizations necessitates new abstractions that are usable by non-programmers with limited technical expertise. These abstractions should be based on open standards to enable interoperability with other tools to establish an ecosystem of modules that can be used together or independently to create custom information management solutions.
Measuring association between nominal categorical variables: an alternative to the Goodman–Kruskal lambda

ABSTRACTAs a measure of association between two nominal categorical variables, the lambda coefficient or Goodman–Kruskal's lambda has become a most popular measure. Its popularity is primarily due to its simple and meaningful definition and interpretation in terms of the proportional reduction in error when predicting a random observation's category for one variable given (versus not knowing) its category for the other variable. It is an asymmetric measure, although a symmetric version is available. The lambda coefficient does, however, have a widely recognized limitation: it can equal zero even when there is no independence between the variables and when all other measures take on positive values. In order to mitigate this problem, an alternative lambda coefficient is introduced in this paper as a slight modification of the Goodman–Kruskal lambda. The properties of the new measure are discussed and a symmetric form is introduced. A statistical inference procedure is developed and a numerical example is p...
Entrepreneurial minded learning in app development courses

Engineering courses often make use of term projects to tie together course concepts and enable open-ended learning. Projects can also be used to teach entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML). At Rose-Hulman we offer mobile/web app development in 4 different courses. In each of these courses, we have two goals for our students: (1) to master fundamental technical skills for that platform and (2) to create an app of their choosing to add real value for users of the app. To meet the first goal, we use a traditional approach with a series of hands-on lectures and labs. To meet the second goal, students complete a 10-week term project in which they work with a partner to identify a real world need and create a high quality app to meet that need. We surveyed students about their motivation and learning experience in the project. Students reported that self-selected projects that add value for others helped motivate them to work harder in the course which improves student learning. Students leave our app development courses with both an understanding of the technical material and a hands-on learning opportunity where they solve real problems for users.
Geophysical Investigation of Mission San Francisco Solano, Sonoma, California

Recent advances in mission archaeology advocate for studies beyond the mission church and quadrangle in order to better understand their spatial organizations and how they were embedded within the landscapes of indigenous populations. This raises the question of how to implement such studies in areas impacted for years by urban development, which has made it difficult to detect archaeological remains using standard pedestrian-survey methods. This article advocates for the use of geophysical survey as part of the mix of field strategies. Archaeologists undertook fieldwork at Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, California, to assess the potential of employing geophysical-survey methods in contexts characterized by extensive post-mission reuse. The results indicate that ground-penetrating radar and resistivity surveys are capable of detecting earlier mission architectural remains that can be differentiated from the remains of post-mission urban development from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Treatment decisions in brain AVMs: the case for and against surgery.

Abstract Thus, it is clear that intracranial AVMs are a complex and heterogeneous condition, as are the patients they afflict. There is no true single strategy that is successful in even a majority of patients. The process of evaluation and management of AVM patients is a very strong argument for the creation of a "stroke center" in which a multidisciplinary team of cerebrovascular practitioners interacts collegially and effectively on a day-to-day basis for the management of the gamut of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke problems.
Automatic Independent Component Scalp Map Analysis of Electroencephalogram During Motor Preparation

This work presents a method for automatic independent component (IC) scalp map analysis of electroencephalogram during motor preparation in visuomotor tasks. The strength of this approach is the analysis of the IC scalp maps based on the apriori given mask. This uses an image processing approach, comparable to visual classification used by experts, to automate the selection of relevant ICs in visuomotor tasks. Thirty iterations of the Infomax ICA algorithm were used to test the reliability of the ICs. ICs above 95% quality index were used for IC scalp topography image analysis. Here, we used a linkage-clustering algorithm for IC clustering and gap statistic to estimate the number of clusters. After classifying the components with our approach, the labels were compared to those from well-known MARA (”Multiple Artifact Rejection Algorithm”) – an open-source EEGLAB plug-in. It was found that 334 of the 568 labels were in-agreement. MARA labeled 81 out of the 177 source-related components, and 238 out of the 319 non-source-related components, as artifacts. Here, the strength of our approach lies in using an image-processing algorithm to identify the task-specific ICs whereas MARA focuses on the automatic classification of the artifactual ICs by combining stereotyped artifact-specific spatial and temporal features that depend on the electrode montage. After “artefactual” ICs are removed, task-specific ICs still remains to be identified from the remaining “good” ICs where our scalp topography image analysis approach can be applied. Our IC scalp topography image analysis is focused on task-specific IC selection based on an apriori mask, which is not limited to specific EEG features and/or electrode configurations for high-density EEG.
Concept-Driven Load Shedding: Reducing Size and Error of Voluminous and Variable Data Streams

Load shedding is a technique that aims to ameliorate the consequences of the Velocity and the Volume of Big Data stream processing. When temporal input spikes appear, tuples are shed until a Stream Processing Engine’s (SPE) processing capacity is not overwhelmed and results are produced in a timely fashion. Existing load shedding techniques have become obsolete and are not applicable to modern use-cases which require the extraction of patterns from continuously evolving (i.e., Variable) voluminous streams.In this work, we identify the shortcomings of existing load shedding techniques when applied to streams with concept drift. We propose Concept-Driven load shedding (CoD), which aims at limiting the data volume imposed on the SPE while producing high accuracy results. On top of that, we designed CoD for modern SPEs and made its overhead negligible. Our experiments indicate that CoD can deliver more than 10x more accurate results compared to the state of the art in load shedding. Also, CoD can offer up to 2.25× better performance compared to normal processing and reduce the processed data volume significantly.
Graphical augmentations to sample-size-based funnel plot in meta-analysis.

Assessing publication bias is a critical procedure in meta-analyses for rating the synthesized overall evidence. Because statistical tests for publication bias are usually not powerful and only give P values that inform either the presence or absence of the bias, examining the asymmetry of funnel plots has been popular to investigate potentially missing studies and the direction of the bias. Most funnel plots present treatment effects against their standard errors, and the contours depicting studies' significance levels have been used in the plots to distinguish publication bias from other factors (such as heterogeneity and subgroup effects) that may cause the plots' asymmetry. However, treatment effects and their standard errors are frequently associated even if no publication bias exists (eg, both variables depend on the four data cells in a 2 × 2 table for the odds ratio), so standard-error-based funnel plots may lead to false positive conclusions when such association may not be negligible. In addition, the missingness of studies may relate to their sample sizes besides P values (which are partly determined by standard errors); studies with more samples are more likely published. Therefore, funnel plots based on sample sizes can be an alternative tool. However, the contours for standard-error-based funnel plots cannot be directly applied to sample-size-based ones. This article introduces contours for sample-size-based funnel plots of various effect sizes, which may help meta-analysts properly interpret such plots' asymmetry. We provide five examples to illustrate the use of the proposed contours.
Comments on “A Wave-Resolving Simulation of Langmuir Circulations with a Nonhydrostatic Free-Surface Model: Comparison with Craik–Leibovich Theory and an Alternative Eulerian View of the Driving Mechanism”

AbstractThe results of the subject paper are reviewed wherein credible Langmuir cells are produced by a numerical solution of the primitive fluid dynamic equations with a free surface. Whereas it i...
Masterpiece Cakeshop on Gay Rights Versus Religious Liberty

This landmark ruling addresses the competing claims of gay rights and religious liberty. The Colorado cake case illustrates the limits to the doctrine of dignity championed by Justice Kennedy and the growing focus of the Court on the protection of religious expression. The crux of the Masterpiece Cakeshop dispute is that the Equal Protection Clause applies to government action alone; the Constitution contains no explicit guarantee that citizens must treat each other equally or without discrimination, especially when they have an explicit rights of freedom of religion justifying their actions. However, the ruling does not address this core debate, but instead focuses on the actions of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in disparaging the religious beliefs of the baker. Because the state government was not a neutral arbiter of the competing claims, seven Justices ruled that the government’s actions against the baker could not stand.
Cancer in the tropics: geographical pathology and the formation of cancer epidemiology

Researchers have long been concerned with cancer in what has been called the tropics, developing world, and low- and middle-income countries. Global health advocates' recent calls to attend to an emergent cancer epidemic in these regions were only the latest effort in this long history. Researchers, known as geographical pathologists, sought to determine the etiologies of cancer and other non-infectious diseases between the 1920s and the 1960s by comparing their occurrence across different environments. The geographical pathologists used the concept of the environment to analyze the influences that natural and artificial surroundings had on health. While the international network of geographical pathology fostered medical thinking about environmental health in the early and mid-twentieth century, the very meaning of environment, alongside the scientific methods for studying the environment, changed in this period. In the 1960s, epidemiology, previously used for the study of infectious diseases, displaced geographical pathology as the cohesive framework of cancer research. This signaled a shift in research focus, from one dedicated to diagnostics and the environment to one centered on population and statistical studies. This article shows that it was not the lack of knowledge about cancer in the developing world but rather specific configurations of knowledge that shaped which cancer interventions in the developing world researchers and public health officials conceived.