cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of realistic 3D microstructure in crystal plasticity finite element analysis of polycrystalline Ti-5Al-2.5Sn

Abstract The effect of constitutive parameters and microstructure on the kinematic and constitutive responses within grains in a crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) simulation of a polycrystalline titanium alloy are compared with experimental results. The simulation of a Ti-5Al-2.5Sn sample deformed in uniaxial tension at room temperature used a phenomenological power-law based CPFE model, which includes four families of slip systems commonly observed in structural metals with a hexagonal lattice structure. The experimentally characterized microstructure patch was approximated by a quasi-3D columnar grain structure and by a more realistic 3D representation. The quasi-3D microstructure was generated by extending the EBSD characterized surface microstructure in the depth direction, while the 3D microstructure was built based on subsurface orientation information acquired using differential-aperture X-ray microscopy (DAXM). The effect of grain morphology and constitutive parameters on simulation results are compared in terms of stress–strain responses and lattice reorientation.
What have we learned about galaxies through large computations

Numerical models permit modelling processes within galaxies that are seemingly beyond the reach of physical contact or close-up viewing from different angles. N-body equations permit simple computations of the interactions of individual stars within galaxies, but the motions of these objects feature nonlinear characteristics because of the forces exerted by the complex as a whole which are not amenable to examination with Newtonian laws of force. The models have, however, revealed that thin disk galactic are not stable forms, that barlike structures rotating end-over-end are more stable structures, and that galactic contraction occurs during collisions between galaxies. Internal effects have been successfully predicted for galaxies which are part of clusters, growth rate disturbances due to the expansion of the Universe have been quantified as 2-3 percent and dynamical friction has been shown to damage galaxies which are sliding into background material.
HIV-1 infection and risk of vulvovaginal and perianal condylomata acuminata and intraepithelial neoplasia: a prospective cohort study.

Summary Background Information about vulvovaginal and perianal condylomata acuminata and intraepithelial neoplasia in women infected with HIV-1 is needed to develop guidelines for clinical care. Our aim was to investigate the incidence of these lesions in HIV-1-positive and HIV-1-negative women and to examine risk factors for disease. Methods In a prospective cohort study, 925 women had a gynaecological examination twice yearly—including colposcopy and tests for human papillomavirus DNA in cervicovaginal lavage—for a median follow-up of 3·2 years (IQR 0·98–4·87). Findings Vulvovaginal and perianal condylomata acuminata or intraepithelial neoplasia were present in 30 (6%) of 481 HIV-1-positive and four (1%) of 437 HIV-1-negative women (p Interpretation Our results suggest that HIV-1-positive women are at increased risk of development of invasive vulvar carcinoma. Thus, we recommend that, as part of every gynaecological examination, HIV-1-positive women should have a thorough inspection of the vulva and perianal region, and women with abnormalities—except for typical, exophytic condylomata acuminata—should undergo colposcopy and biopsy.
On systemic problem solving and the error of the third kind

This paper attempts to formulate the error of the third kind, Em. Em. is defined as the probability of having solved the wrong problem when one should have solved the right problem. Em is basic to the notion of systemic problem conceptualization. This paper shows that Em can be given a precise treatment by considering how the value of a problem state changes as we vary its conceptualization across a set of basic systemic problem representations. It is shown that Em can itself be represented as a constrained maximization decision problem.
Interspinous process device versus standard conventional surgical decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis results in increased reoperation rates and costs without improving patient outcomes.

Commentary on: Moojen WA, Arts MP, Jacobs WCH, et al. Interspinous process device versus standard conventional surgical decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis: randomized controlled trial. BMJ 2013;347:f6415. Lumbar spinal stenosis, caused by arthrosis of the facets and ligamentous hypertrophy, is a common cause of disability in older patients. Many patients suffer from leg pain and weakness, often aggravated by walking and standing. In patients with progressive symptoms that fail to respond to conservative care, surgery is often elected. The widely accepted standard treatment is a non-instrumented bony and ligamentous decompression. Exceptions are made for patients with mobile spondylolisthesis or focal instability, wherein instrumented fusion is often indicated. The recent development of minimally invasive implants, including interspinous process devices, has led to a growing application of these devices for spinal stenosis. The current study evaluates the efficacy of an interspinous process device as …
Ground-penetrating radar for buried mine detection

LLNL is developing an ultra-wideband, side-looking, ground- penetrating impulse radar system that can be mounted on an airborne platform for the purpose of locating buried mines. The radar system is presently mounted on an 18-meter boom. We have successfully imaged a minefield located at the Nevada Test Site. The minefield consists of real and surrogate mines of various materials and sizes placed in natural vegetation. Some areas have been cleared for noncluttered studies. A technical description of the system will be presented, describing the wideband antennas, the video pulser, the receiver hardware, and the data acquisition system. The receiver and data acquisition hardware are off-the- shelf components. The data was processed using LLLNL-developed image reconstruction software, and has been registered against the ground truth data. Images showing clearly visible mines, surface reference markers, and ground clutter will be presented.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Mutagenic activity of ethylenimine in Neurospora crassa

Abstract The mutagenic activity of the monofunctional alkylating agent ethylenimine (EI) was tested with the adenine-3 ( ad -3) system in a two-component heterokaryon of Neurospora crassa . The results of forward-mutation experiments showed that EI is a potent mutagen in N. crassa . Genetic analysis of EI-induced ad -3 mutants showed that the frequencies of leakiness, allelic complementation, and non-polarized complementation patterns are similar to those of ad -3 mutants induced by other alkylating agents. It seems, therefore, that in addition to multilocus deletions (which occur at low a frequency), EI-induced mutations probably include base-pair substitutions, frameshift mutations, and other types of intragenic alterations.
Structured three‐dimensional co‐culture of mesenchymal stem cells with meniscus cells promotes meniscal phenotype without hypertrophy

Menisci play a crucial role in weight distribution, load bearing, shock absorption, lubrication, and nutrition of articular cartilage within the knee joint. Damage to the meniscus typically does not heal spontaneously due to its partial avascular nature. Partial or complete meniscectomy is a common clinical treatment of the defective meniscus. However, this procedure ultimately leads to osteoarthritis due to increased mechanical stress to the articular cartilage. Meniscus tissue engineering offers a promising solution for partial or complete meniscus deficiency. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have the potential to differentiate into meniscal fibrochondrocyte as well as deliver trophic effects to the differentiated cells. This study tested the feasibility of using MSC co-cultured with mature meniscal cells (MC) for meniscus tissue engineering. Structured cell pellets were created using MC and MSC at varying ratios (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, and 0:100) and cultured with or without transforming growth factor-beta 3 supplemented chondrogenic media for 21 days. The meniscal and hypertrophic gene expression, gross appearance and structure of the pellets, meniscus extracellular matrix (ECM), histology and immunohistochemistry of proteoglycan and collagen were evaluated. Co-culture of MC with MSC at 75:25 demonstrated highest levels of collagen type I and glycosaminoglycans (GAG) production, as well as the lowest levels of hypertrophic genes, such as COL10A1 and MMP13. All co-culture conditions showed better meniscus ECM production and hypertrophic inhibition as compared to MSC culture alone. The collagen fiber bundles observed in the co-cultures are important to produce heterogenic ECM structure of meniscus. In conclusion, co-culturing MC and MSC is a feasible and efficient approach to engineer meniscus tissue with enhanced ECM production without hypertrophy.
Detecting video shot boundaries up to 16 times faster (poster session)

Shot boundary detection (SBD) is the first fundamental step to managing video databases. Existing automatic SBD techniques, however, are based on sequential search, and therefore too expensive for practical use. To address this problem, we investigate a non-linear approach in which most video frames do not need to be compared. It can improve their performance substantially. Our experiments show that this idea speeds up a conventional method based on color histograms up to 16 times (five times on average) while preserving the same accuracy.
Visual and auditory anomalies in Chediak-Higashi syndrome

Albinism is correlated with misrouting of decussating retinal fibers in the brain. There is also evidence of anomalies of decussating auditory pathways in albinos. The Chediak-Higashi syndrome (CHS) is a rare form of partial albinism which includes increased susceptibility to infections, a hemorrhagic tendency and peripheral polyneuropathies. Binocular and monocular pattern-onset visually evoked potentials (VEPs) and monaural auditory brain stem responses (ABRs) were recorded from 4 subjects with CHS. Three of the CHS demonstrated asymmetric monocular VEPs and failed the Titmus stereovision test. All 4 CHS produced asymmetric ABRs similar to those reported for albinos. Although the hair, skin and irises are relatively well pigmented in CHS, these individuals apparently have anomalies of their central visual and auditory pathways.
Surgical Treatment of Brain Stem Cavernous Malformations

The indications for treatment of cavernous malformations of the brain stem have evolved greatly in the past decade. As more experience has been gained with these lesions, it has become evident that surgical excision is possible with acceptable rates of surgical morbidity and mortality. Criteria for surgical indications include a symptomatic lesion that reaches a pial or ependymal surface and that can be reached without the need to traverse eloquent brain stem parenchyma. Advances in frameless stereotactic systems have improved localization and made resection safer, even for “intrinsic” symptomatic lesions that are reached through a small incision in “safe entry-zones” on the surface of the brain stem. Although with caution, surgical excision should also be considered for selected young asymptomatic patients with relatively large lesions that reach a pial or ependymal surface. This article summarizes the clinical characteristics, indications for surgery, technical surgical pitfalls, and outcomes of surgical resection of brain stem cavernous malformations.
Academic women, affirmative action, and mid-America in the eighties

Abstract Drawing on her personal experiences as an affirmative action officer for seven years in a large midwestern state university, the author contends that academic women fare much better now than a decade ago. She speculates as to why, in spite of significant progress, many women continue to feel like second-class citizens in academe. She also seeks to predict the future for women in higher education in the eighties.
Arterial performance measurement using transit buses as probe vehicles

Developing clear, relevant performance measures for arterials is challenging due to complicated traffic control parameters and users with numerous origins and destinations. With increasing data availability from intelligent transportation systems (ITS) deployments, it is increasingly possible to develop and test new arterial performance measures. Important parameters including average speed, travel time and delay can be obtained both directly and indirectly from sources such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) system. In this paper, we demonstrate how AVL data can be used to characterize the performance of an arterial. Two sources of ITS data were used to assess arterial performance on one corridor in Portland, Oregon. First, we extracted data from the bus dispatch system (BDS) of the transit provider for Portland, Oregon. Performance characteristics as described by bus travel on the arterial were then compared with ground truth data collected by probe vehicles equipped with global positioning systems (GPS) sensors traveling with normal traffic on the same arterial on the same days. Comparisons were made between the two methods and conclusions were drawn regarding the utility of the transit AVL data for real-time advanced traffic management and traveler information systems.
Stability of boronic esters – Structural effects on the relative rates of transesterification of 2-(phenyl)-1,3,2-dioxaborolane ☆

Abstract Relative rates of reaction of the achiral cyclic phenylboronic ester 2-(phenyl)-1,3,2-dioxaborolane with a wide variety of structurally modified diols, have been studied to understand the factors influencing the relative stabilities of boronic esters. It is found that the alkyl substituents on the α-carbons of diols slow down the transesterification, but produce thermodynamically more stable boronic ester. Six-membered boronic esters are thermodynamically more stable than their corresponding five-membered analogs. Amongst cyclic 1,2-diols, cis -1,2-cyclopentanediol displaces ethylene glycol instantaneously whereas trans -1,2-cyclopentanediol is totally unreactive, which suggests that the cis -stereochemistry of the 1,2-diol is a prerequisite for transesterification. Among the 1,5-diols, diethanolamine displaces ethylene glycol quite rapidly forming a more stable bicyclic chelate in which nitrogen is attached to boron by a coordinating bond (as evident by 11 B NMR spectroscopy). The oxygen atom of di(ethylene glycol) and the sulfur atom of 2,2′-thiodiethanol do not assist in displacing the ethylene glycol from their boronic esters.
Ion clearing in an ERL

Abstract The rest-gas in the beam-pipe of a particle accelerator is readily ionized by effects like collisions, synchrotron radiation and field emission. Positive ions are attracted to electron beams and create a nonlinear potential in the vicinity of the beam which can lead to beam halo, particle loss, optical errors or transverse and longitudinal instabilities. In an energy recovery linac (ERL) where beam-loss has to be minimal, and where beam positions and emittances have to be very stable in time, these ion effects have to be avoided. Here we investigate three measures of avoiding ion accumulation: (a) A long gap between linac bunch trains that allows ions to drift out of the beam region, a measure regularly applied in linacs; (b) a short ion clearing gap in the beam that leads to a time varying beam potential and produces large excited oscillations of ions around the electron beam, a measure regularly applied in storage rings; (c) Clearing electrodes that create a sufficient voltage to draw ions out of the beam potential, a measure used for DC electron beams and for antiproton beams. For the parameters of the X-ray ERL planned at Cornell University we show that method (a) cannot be applied, method (b) is technically cumbersome, and (c) should be most easily applicable.
Improved Conversion From DCT Blocks to Integer Cosine Transform Blocks in H.264/AVC

As adoption of the newly standardized H.264 becomes increasingly more widespread, efforts must be made to transcode video from earlier standards, such as MPEG-2, to the H.264 format. One aspect of transcoding is the conversion from the discrete cosine transform (DCT) used in MPEG-2 to the integer-based DCT of H.264, the integer cosine transform. By investigating the structure of the transform kernels, two efficient schemes are introduced to convert an 8 times 8 DCT block into its corresponding four 4times4 integer cosine transform block8 times 8 DCT block into its corresponding four 4times4 integer cosine transform blockss. An analysis of computational complexity shows a reduction of up to 42% in multiplications over existing conversion schemes, while simulations of the conversion system with pre- and post-quantization show that the proposed methods yield high fidelity in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio. Further approximation of matrix coefficients in the second proposed method yields additional conversion schemes which require no multiplications. These also provide comparable quality with fewer operations than existing schemes. Thus, the proposed transform conversion methods can potentially contribute to efficient transcoding systems.
Factors influencing tree species diversity and Betula alleghaniensis establishment in silvicultural openings

Summary We examined the short-term effects of group-selection harvesting with seed tree retention on the diversity, abundance and establishment of tree seedlings in a northern hardwood forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (49 openings, 20 closed canopy reference sites). Three opening sizes were examined – opening radius 0.5 × canopy height (267 ± 62 m 2 , n = 16), 0.75 × canopy height (642 ± 85 m 2 , n = 17) and 1.0 × canopy height (1192 ± 155 m 2 , n = 16) (canopy height = 22 m). A single yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.) seed tree was retained in the centre of each opening. Tree seedling density was signifi cantly higher in the largest group-selection opening than at the closed canopy reference sites (P < 0.05), the main factor for this was the increased proportion of yellow birch, red maple (Acer rubrum L.) and other minor species. Nevertheless, yellow birch was still a minor component of the developing gap cohort, comprising 5.9 per cent of the seedlings and 1.1 per cent of the saplings. Within openings, microsite variables, such as per cent covers of bare soil and coarse woody debris, were the best predictors of yellow birch occurrence and density. Our results suggest that microsite limitations and competing vegetation may greatly reduce the effi cacy of openings for ensuring the maintenance of mid-tolerants.
On the Behavior of Fiberglass Epoxy Composites under Low Velocity Impact Loading

Response of fiberglass epoxy composite laminates under low velocity impact loading is investigated using LS-DYNA®, and the results are compared with experimental analysis performed using an instrumented impact test setup (Instron dynatup 8250). The composite laminates are manufactured using H-VARTM© process with basket weave E-Glass fabrics. Epon 862 is used as a resin system and Epicure-W as a hardening agent. Composite laminates, with 10 layers of fiberglass fabrics, are modeled using 3D solid elements in a mosaic fashion to represent basket weave pattern. Mechanical properties are calculated by using classical micromechanical theory and assigned to the elements using ORTHOTROPIC ELASTIC material model. The damage occurred since increasing impact energy is incorporated using ADVANCED COMPOSITE DAMAGE material model in LS-DYNA®. Good agreements are obtained with the failure damage results in LS-DYNA® and experimental results. Main considerations for comparison are given to the impact load carrying capaci...
Effects of Sampling Parameters on Principal Components Analysis of Raman Line Images

Raman images of the distribution of materials in a sample prepared from 10-μm-diameter polystyrene spheres embedded in epoxy were reconstructed from sets of line-scanned images, with the use of univariate and multivariate processing of the spectral data. Multiple sets of microscopic Raman spectral line images were acquired by using line-focused illumination with a cylindrical lens, a motorized translation stage to move the sample perpendicular to the illumination line, and a holographic imaging spectrograph equipped with a 2D charge-coupled device (CCD) detector. Repeat sets of data were obtained at different spectrometer slit width settings and different magnification. The raw spectral data were processed by using both a simple univariate method (single-band integration) and a more sophisticated multivariate method [principal components analysis (PCA) with eigenvector rotation] to generate 2D Raman images representing spatial distribution of the individual polymeric constituents. The repeat data sets were compared to ascertain the effects of the sampling parameters on the PCA method. The results indicated that spectrometer slit width and magnification affect the sampling depth and spatial resolution, but have little effect on the PCA. Moreover, digital sampling (i.e., number of PCA wavelength variables) could be significantly reduced with little or no degradation of the PCA-generated images, particularly if key bands were represented.
Comparing Diurnal and Nocturnal Effects of Brinzolamide and Timolol on Intraocular Pressure in Patients Receiving Latanoprost Monotherapy

Purpose To compare the diurnal and nocturnal effects of brinzolamide and timolol on intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients already receiving monotherapy with latanoprost. Design Prospective, open-label, and crossover clinical trial. Participants Twenty-six patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension (ages, 44–79 years) who were receiving treatment with 0.005% latanoprost once every evening. Methods Baseline data of 24-hour IOP were collected in a sleep laboratory while patients were receiving latanoprost monotherapy. Measurements were taken every 2 hours in the sitting and supine positions during the 16-hour diurnal/wake period and in a supine position during the 8-hour nocturnal/sleep period. Patients were randomly assigned to receive an add-on treatment with either 1% brinzolamide 3 times per day or 0.5% timolol gel forming solution once every morning for 8 weeks, and then crossed over to receive the other add-on treatment. At the end of each add-on treatment period, 24-hour IOP data were collected. Main Outcome Measures Diurnal and nocturnal IOP means were compared among the baseline, the brinzolamide add-on treatment, and the timolol add-on treatment. Results During the diurnal period, the mean IOP under brinzolamide or timolol add-on treatment was significantly lower than the baseline IOP in both the sitting and supine positions. There was no statistical difference between the 2 add-on treatments. During the nocturnal period, the supine IOP under brinzolamide add-on treatment was significantly lower than both the baseline and the timolol add-on treatment. There was no difference in nocturnal IOP between the timolol add-on treatment and the baseline. Conclusions In patients already receiving the latanoprost monotherapy, adding brinzolamide or timolol significantly reduced IOP during the diurnal period. However, only the brinzolamide add-on treatment had an IOP-lowering efficacy during the nocturnal period. Financial Disclosure(s) Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.
Using research poetics responsibly: Applications for health promotion research

Research poetics, a form of arts-based research methods, has been underutilized in the field of health promotion. Poetic methods have most commonly been used as a form of representation of the lived experience in qualitative research. For the community-engaged researcher, representing findings through poetry offers unique opportunities for engaging the reader and reaching diverse communities. However, this approach also has implications as an analytic method and allows the analyst to have a more meaningful and personal engagement with participants’ stories. Perhaps most importantly, this approach acknowledges and brings to the forefront the co-construction of qualitative findings and de-centers the authority of the researcher by preserving and promoting the participant’s voice. Using examples from the authors’ own research, this article describes opportunities for incorporating research poetics into health promotion research and argues for its applicability for community-engaged health promotion researchers.
Influence of trans-Pacific pollution transport on acyl peroxy nitrate abundances and speciation at Mount Bachelor Observatory during INTEX-B

We present month-long observations of speciated acyl peroxy nitrates (APNs), including PAN, PPN, MPAN, APAN, and the sum of PiBN and PnBN, measured at the Mount Bachelor Observatory (MBO) as part of the INTEX-B collaborative field campaign during spring 2006. APN abundances, measured by thermal dissociation-chemical ionization mass spectrometry (TD-CIMS), are discussed in terms of differing contributions from the boundary layer (BL) and the free troposphere (FT) and in the context of previous APN measurements in the NE Pacific region. PAN mixing ratios range from 11 to 3955 pptv, with a mean value of 334 pptv for the full measurement period. PPN is linearly correlated with PAN ( r 2 =0.96), with an average abundance of 6.5% relative to PAN; other APNs are generally <1% of PAN. Diurnal cycles and relationships of APNs with ozone reveal a gradient in hydrocarbon chemistry between the BL and the FT. On average, levels of APNs, ozone and PPN/PAN are substantially higher in FT air relative to BL air, suggesting that this site is strongly influenced by distant pollution sources. To estimate the impact of long-range transport of Asian pollution on atmospheric composition at MBO, we perform a detailed analysis utilizing HYSPLIT back trajectories. This analysis suggests that trans-Pacific transport of Asian pollution leads to substantial increases in APN and ozone mixing ratios at MBO, especially when transport occurs via the free troposphere. The ensemble of trajectories indicate that Asian-influenced free tropospheric air was sampled in ~16% of our data and contained a median PAN mixing ratio double that of the full dataset.
Intimate Partner Violence and HIV/STD Risk Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals

To date, there has been little research examining HIV/STD risk among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals who are in abusive relationships. This article uses data collected from a community-based organization that provides counseling for LGBT victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). A total of 58 clients completed the survey, which inquired as to sexual violence and difficulties negotiating safer sex with their abusive partners. A large percentage of participants reported being forced by their partners to have sex (41%). Many stated that they felt unsafe to ask their abusive partners to use safer sex protection or that they feared their partners' response to safer sex (28%). In addition, many participants experienced sexual (19%), physical (21%), and/or verbal abuse (32%) as a direct consequence of asking their partner to use safer sex protection. Training counselors on issues of sexuality and safer sex will benefit victims of IPV.
Invertebrate community variation in seasonal forest wetlands: Implications for sampling and analyses

Using data sets from two separate studies, we assessed within-year variation in aquatic invertebrate communities in 31 seasonally flooded (seasonal) wetlands in aspen (Populus spp.) — dominated forests in north central Minnesota. Principal components analysis (PCA) indicated that, in each case, three axes explained > 55% of variance in aquatic invertebrates, with the first axis strongly correlated with sampling date. Indicator species tests showed that this variation along axis 1 was largely due to shifts in abundance of crustaceans, Diptera and other insects, leeches, and other taxa. Temporal shifts in aquatic invertebrate community structure pose a major obstacle for ecological studies of aquatic invertebrates in seasonal forest wetlands and should receive more attention from investigators planning research in these and perhaps other wetland habitats.
Experience-based mitigation of age-related performance declines: evidence from air traffic control.

Previous research has found age-related deficits in a variety of cognitive processes. However, some studies have demonstrated age-related sparing on tasks where individuals have substantial experience, often attained over many decades. Here, the authors examined whether decades of experience in a fast-paced demanding profession, air traffic control (ATC), would enable older controllers to perform at high levels of proficiency. The authors also investigated whether older controllers would show diminished age-related decrements on domain-relevant cognitive abilities. Both young and old controllers and noncontrollers performed a battery of cognitive and ATC tasks. Results indicate that although high levels of experience can reduce the magnitude of age-related decline on the component processes that underlie complex task performance, this sparing is limited in scope. More important, however, the authors observed experience-based sparing on simulated ATC tasks, with the sparing being most evident on the more complex air traffic control tasks. These results suggest that given substantial experience, older adults may be quite capable of performing at high levels of proficiency on fast-paced demanding real-world tasks. The implications of these findings for global skilled labor shortages are discussed.
A Risk Assessment Framework for analyzing risks associated with a Systems Engineering Process

Systems Engineering Process (SEP) is the systemic approach to design, development and implementation of a reliable and trustworthy system that satisfies its specified requirements. However, beyond the precision of the plans developed through SEP, it is also essential to consider uncertainties as well as emergent properties created through the process that might lead to negative consequences and subsequent financial losses throughout the system's life cycle. Therefore, assessing the risks associated with various stages of the SEP is among the key factors in efficiency of engineered systems and one of the major challenges that a systems engineer has to encounter. This paper proposes a Risk Assessment Framework (RAF) for analyzing risks associated with the process of systems engineering. RAF proposes a systemic approach to risk management and analysis through identification, classification, and prioritization of risks associated with different stages of a systems engineering process. The framework is subsequently applied to an illustrative example through which hundreds of subject matter experts participate in the risk evaluation process. Enterprises involved in systems engineering activities can use the findings of this research as a guideline to develop their risk management strategies.
Nonlinear seismo-acoustic technique for land mine detection and discrimination

The innovative technique for detection of artificial objects, such as mines, pipes, containers, etc., buried in the ground, is developed and tested. The technique does not depend upon the material from which the object is fabricated whether it be metal, plastic, wood, or any other material. It depends upon the fact that a mine is a “shell” whose purpose is to contain explosive materials and associated detonation apparatus. The mine shell is in contact with the soil in which it is buried. The shell is an acoustically compliant article, which compliance is notably different from the compliance of the surrounding soil. This difference is responsible for the mechanically nonlinear behavior of the soil/shell interface making it the detectable entity. Thus for this new technology, the fact that the mine is buried is turned to a detection advantage. Because the technique intrinsically detects buried “shells”, it is insensitive to rocks, tree roots, chunks of metal, bricks, etc. which was confirmed experimentally. The paper discusses physical mechanisms of the nonlinear behavior of the soil-mine interface, the results of experimental investigation of the observed nonlinear interaction, and demonstration of land mine detection technique based on the discovered phenomenon.
On the creep transition from superplastic behavior to nanocrystalline behavior

Abstract The present analysis shows that the creep transition from superplastic behavior to nanocrystalline behavior can be defined by an expression, which relates the normalized grain size, d/b (b is the Burgers vector) to the normalized shear stress, τ/G (G is the shear modulus).
Designing for the audience: past practices and inclusive considerations

Most research on designing for the audience centers on understanding personality, pleasure preferences, or player motivations. Structural and dramatic elements are integral to driving motivation and constructing game pleasures. The physical and cognitive abilities of players should also be important when considering your audience. Design should be inclusive in ways that look beyond demographics and assumed differences (such as gender differences). Particular attention should be paid to increasing diversity in representation, and decreasing bias and harassment in play. Design should consider how to limit player avoidance of game or learning mechanics (through cheating or exploiting) and should craft ways to vary how players use game affordances and solve problems.
Opting Out: Parents Creating Contested Spaces to Challenge Standardized Tests.

We explore how the opt-out movement has responded to the combination of a stringent federal policy with weak and often variable implementation among the states. Gaps between federal expectations and states’ understandings of just how to make NCLB’s demands a reality have created policy ambiguity. Parents who oppose standardized testing have recognized the resulting tensions and oversights in state education systems as a policy vacuum rife with opportunities for resistance. We examine how parents have exploited policy ambiguity through creating contested spaces—places of agency in stringent policy environments in which grassroots can question policy authority and take action. We conclude by considering whether these contested spaces are sustainable and whether the policy outcomes generated in contested spaces are reasonably equitable.
The Incredible Shrinking Protestant Ethic

Max Weber's body of writings represents the most sophisticated effort in the classical sociological tradition to create an historical, comparative, and interpretive sociology. However, his book?more precisely, two lengthy articles?on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism remains his most focused attempt to actually explain a particular historical transforma tion. Was he successful in demonstrating his main claims or even making them entirely clear? The two new volumes currently under review pro vide valuable evidence for the examination of this and a series of related questions. David Chalcraft and Austin Harrington have published a collection of English translations of Weber's replies between 1907-1910 to his early critics, Fischer and Rachfahl. The book contains indispensible summaries of the original critiques as well as an informative introduction which discusses the importance of Weber's "anticritical" writings and draws attention to Weber's language usages (Weber, 2001). Peter Baehr and Gordon Wells have given us the first English translation of Weber's original essays on The Protes tant Ethic, published in the Archiv f?r Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpoli tik in 1905.1 In addition to The Protestant Ethic of 1905, the Baehr-Wells volume also contains a variety of supplementary texts. These include trans lations of Weber's 1906 essay on " 'Churches' and 'Sects' in North America" and his replies to Fisher and Rachfahl. There are also selections from the 1920 edition's notes detailing Weber's responses to Brentano and Sombart, and a new translation of Weber's "Prefatory Remarks" to the three vol ume Gesammelte Aufs?tze zur Religionssoziologie of 1920 (Weber, 2002b). The addition of these later texts represents an editorial temptation which
The impact of an antibiotic specific prescription form in the accident and emergency department

Aims An antibiotic specific prescription for use in the Accident and Emergency Department (AED) has recently been introduced to encourage appropriate antimicrobial prescribing. This prescription is used between 9:00 h and 17:00 h. The aim of this audit is to assess the impact of the recently introduced antibiotic prescription proforma by evaluating compliance with the Trust9s antibiotic guidelines. Methods A data collection form was used to determine if patients visiting AED between 15 and 28 November 2010 were prescribed an appropriate regimen of antibiotics. The Trust antibiotic guidelines were used as the audit standard. Prescriptions were included for analysis if an antibiotic was prescribed. Patient details recorded included: initials, age, clerking in time, antibiotic prescribed, route of administration, duration of therapy, clinical indication, and allergy status. Prescriptions were excluded if the name of antibiotic was missing from patient records, or if the indication being treated was not in the Trust guidelines. Patients not receiving an antibiotic were also excluded. Results 2092 patients visited AED between 15 and 28 November 2010 of which 287 were given a prescription for an antibiotic. eight prescriptions did not have the name of the antibiotic recorded, and 20 were for clinical indications not listed in Trust guidance so were excluded from the study. Therefore, 259 prescriptions were eligible for analysis purposes of which 27 (approx 10%) were deemed non-compliant with Trust policy. The majority of non-compliance occurred out-of-hours when the pre-printed prescription was not in use: 7/146 antibiotic prescriptions between 9:00 h and 17:00 h were non-compliant compared to 20/132 out-of-hours. Conclusions The recently introduced antibiotic specific prescription proforma helped prescribers in AED achieve 90% compliance with the Trust antimicrobial guidelines. The majority of prescriptions that were not compliant with guidelines had been prescribed out-of-hours, when the prescription was not in use. Nine prescriptions were for upper respiratory tract infections which are usually viral and antibiotics have not been shown to improve outcomes. 1 This suggests that antibiotics are possibly being overused for this indication. In conclusion, AED prescribers should be made aware of the Trust prescribing guidance for antimicrobials and use of the pre-printed AED prescription should be encouraged out-of-hours as a prescribing tool to encourage the prudent prescribing of antibiotics.
Development and assessment of indices to determine stream fish vulnerability to climate change and habitat alteration

Abstract Understanding the future impacts of climate and land use change are critical for long-term biodiversity conservation. We developed and compared two indices to assess the vulnerability of stream fish in Missouri, USA based on species environmental tolerances, rarity, range size, dispersal ability and on the average connectivity of the streams occupied by each species. These two indices differed in how environmental tolerance was classified (i.e., vulnerability to habitat alteration, changes in stream temperature, and changes to flow regimes). Environmental tolerance was classified based on measured species responses to habitat alteration, and extremes in stream temperatures and flow conditions for one index, while environmental tolerance for the second index was based on species’ traits. The indices were compared to determine if vulnerability scores differed by index or state listing status. We also evaluated the spatial distribution of species classified as vulnerable to habitat alteration, changes in stream temperature, and change in flow regimes. Vulnerability scores were calculated for all 133 species with the trait association index, while only 101 species were evaluated using the species response index, because 32 species lacked data to analyze for a response. Scores from the trait association index were greater than the species response index. This is likely due to the species response index's inability to evaluate many rare species, which generally had high vulnerability scores for the trait association index. The indices were consistent in classifying vulnerability to habitat alteration, but varied in their classification of vulnerability due to increases in stream temperature and alterations to flow regimes, likely because extremes in current climate may not fully capture future conditions and their influence on stream fish communities. Both indices showed higher mean vulnerability scores for listed species than unlisted species, which provided a coarse measure of validation. Our indices classified species identified as being in need of conservation by the state of Missouri as highly vulnerable. The distribution of vulnerable species in Missouri showed consistent patterns between indices, with the more forest-dominated, groundwater fed streams in the Ozark subregion generally having higher numbers and proportions of vulnerable species per site than subregions that were agriculturally dominated with more overland flow. These results suggest that both indices will identify similar habitats as conservation action targets despite discrepancies in the classification of vulnerable species. Our vulnerability assessment provides a framework that can be refined and used in other regions.
Global Optimization Algorithm for Sum of Linear Ratios Problem

In this paper,a branch and bound algorithm is proposed for globally solving sum of linear ratios problem.In our algorithm,an equivalence problem is derived by using equivalence transformation technique.A linear relaxation programming of the equivalence problem can be constructed by basing upon the convex envelopes and concave envelopes technique.Thereby,the initial problem can be converted to a sequence of linear programming problem,and determine the global optimum's lower bound.The convergence of the algorithm is proved,and numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm is feasible and effective.
APRNs' Confidence to Prescribe

Prescribing medications is an integral part of the Nurse Practitioner (NP) role. Review of the literature revealed a considerable amount of evidenced-based practice recommendations related to prescribing with accuracy. Petty (2012) suggested using evidence-based data to drive prescribing decisions; knowing the patient’s medications; involving the patient in the decision making process; being knowledgeable about drug interactions; remembering that every patient is unique and listening to their story; avoiding polypharmacy; and reviewing the need for continuing a medication and monitoring appropriate labs/diagnostics related to usage. The purpose of this study was to explore the confidence level of the NP related to prescribing medications. The survey used to examine prescribing confidence levels was a 10-question survey entitled Measuring Confidence . This study used a quantitative descriptive design with one open ended question. The sample included a convenience sample of NPs from one organization. Results revealed that overall NPs were confident in prescribing practices. Four areas of low confidence included adjusting medications prescribed by other providers, recommendations for alternative therapies, identifying potential drug interactions, and identifying adverse drug interactions. The practitioners identified the need and desire for further education related to prescribing. Recommendations and implications for practice are discussed.
The Isotropy Group. Solids, Isotropic Materials, Fluids, Fluid Crystals

In the older literature a material is said to be “isotropic” if it is “unaffected by rotations.” This means that if we first rotate a specimen of material and then do an experiment upon it, the-outcome is the same as if the specimen had not been rotated. In other words, within the class of effects considered by the theory, rotations cannot be detected by any experiment. The response of the material with respect to the reference configuration κ is the same as that with respect to any other obtained from it by rotation.
Asymptomatic CMV Replication During Early Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection Is Associated With Lower CD4/CD8 Ratio During HIV Treatment.

Author(s): Smith, Davey M; Nakazawa, Masato; Freeman, Michael L; Anderson, Christy M; Oliveira, Michelli F; Little, Susan J; Gianella, Sara | Abstract: Background A low CD4/CD8 ratio in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals is associated with inflammation and higher risk of non-AIDS morbidity and mortality. In this study, we investigated the effect of subclinical cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) replication on CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell dynamics when antiretroviral therapy (ART) is started during early infection.Methods We investigated 604 peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from 108 CMV- and EBV-seropositive HIV-infected men who have sex with men, who started ART within a median of 4 months from their estimated date of infection and were followed for a median of 29.1 months thereafter. Levels of CMV and EBV DNA were measured at each timepoint. Mixed-effects asymptotic regression models were applied to characterize CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell dynamics, and Bayesian hierarchical models were used to quantify individual differences in CMV and EBV DNA replication.Results Higher levels of subclinical CMV replication were associated with lower predicted maximum levels of CD4/CD8 ratio (P l .05), which was driven by higher levels of CD8+ T-cell counts (P l .05), without affecting CD4+ T-cell counts (P g .1). Age was negatively associated with CD4/CD8 levels (P l .05), and this effect was independent of the CMV association (P l .05 for both CMV and age in a multivariate model).Conclusions Subclinical CMV replication in blood cells during early HIV infection and younger age were associated with lower CD4/CD8 ratios during suppressive ART. These findings suggest that active CMV infection in the setting of treated HIV may represent an attractive potential target for therapeutic intervention.
Soil water balance dynamics on reclaimed mine land in the southwestern United States

Abstract Understanding the dynamics of soil water movement in arid and semi-arid environments is critical to successful reclamation of mined lands. Characteristics of applied topsoil impact soil water processes and long-term ecosystem health. The objective of this study was to better understand the soil water balance at a reclaimed mine in the southwestern United States through the investigation of soil hydraulic properties and subsequent one-dimensional water balance modeling. The study was conducted on a mine reclaimed using geomorphic principles. Complementary field and laboratory techniques were used to describe soil properties. Dry bulk density of topsoil at the mine sites increased with depth, while saturated hydraulic conductivity decreased with increasing bulk density. Two discrete one-dimensional models were created to investigate soil water dynamics and results indicate the importance of appropriately describing soil layering to create more accurate model predictions. In addition, results suggest that matric potentials during the study period were often too low for substantial plant growth. Models similar to those created in this study may be helpful in future assessment of seed germination on reclaimed lands as well as the implications that global climate change may have on reclamation strategies in the future.