cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Human Patient Simulation Technology: Perceptions From a Multidisciplinary Sample of Health Care Educators

Abstract Background A survey of an interdisciplinary group of university health care faculty and nonuniversity health care educators who were primarily nonusers of human patient simulation (HPS) was conducted regarding utilization of HPS in health care education. Method Respondents were recruited from an HPS demonstration seminar meant to introduce educators to HPS technology. Educators responded to an electronic survey that asked about specific instructional uses of HPS for clinical skills. The survey also asked respondents to rate their concern with common barriers to HPS implementation. Results Common opinions were held by an interdisciplinary group of university faculty and nonuniversity health care educators about benefits and barriers to implementing HPS in health care curricula. Conclusions The university faculty and nonuniversity health care educators surveyed were like minded about the use of HPS for education and training. These findings demonstrate that an interdisciplinary approach to establishing a collaborative interprofessional HPS program is possible in a time of limited resources.
The penitential motif in Cynewulf's Fates of the Apostles and in his epilogues

In the past few years a real advance has been made in the appreciation of Cynewulf's shortest signed poem, the Fates of the Apostles, extant in the Vercelli Book. For most of the century and more since this poem was first published critical opinion has been almost unanimously unfavourable about its literary merit and until recently scholarly attention has been limited mainly to textual and source investigations. Today, however, illuminating studies, such as those by James L. Boren and Constance B. Hieatt, have made us aware of the poem's subtleties of image and structure. In particular, now that we have begun to apprehend the depth of the poem's meaning, I believe that we can use this understanding to gain further insight into the thematic concerns of Cynewulf's other three signed poems. This can be achieved, I suggest, through recognizing how the basic theme of the Fates reappears as a motif linking Cynewulf's epilogues.
Is creativity domain-specific? Latent class models of creative accomplishments and creative self-descriptions.

Is creativity domain-specific? We describe the value of latent class analysis for appraising domain generality, and we report two studies that explore the latent class structure of creative accomplishments (using Carson, Peterson, and Higgins’s Creative Achievement Questionnaire; n = 749) and creative self-descriptions (using Kaufman and Baer’s Creativity Domain Questionnaire; n = 3,534). For creative achievements, clear latent classes were found: the majority of people belonged to an ?uncreative? class, and smaller classes were found for visual arts and performing arts. For creative self-descriptions, however, latent classes were not found: people’s views of themselves as ?creative people? varied quantitatively but not qualitatively. Implications for the assessment and analysis of creativity are considered.
Peering into the black box: billing and insurance activities in a medical group.

Billing and insurance–related functions have been reported to consume 14 percent of medical group revenue, but little is known about the costs associated with performing specific activities. We conducted semistructured interviews, observed work flows, analyzed department budgets, and surveyed clinicians to evaluate these activities at a large multispecialty medical group. We identified 0.67 nonclinical full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff working on billing and insurance functions per FTE physician. In addition, clinicians spent more than thirty-five minutes per day performing these tasks. The cost to medical groups, including clinicians’ time, was at least $85,276 per FTE physician (10 percent of revenue).
A Scalable High-Bandwidth Architecture for Lossless Compression on FPGAs

Data compression techniques have been the subject of intense study over the past several decades due to exponential increases in the quantity of data stored and transmitted by computer systems. Compression algorithms are traditionally forced to make tradeoffs between throughput and compression quality (the ratio of original file size to compressed file size). FPGAs represent a compelling substrate for streaming applications such as data compression thanks to their capacity for deep pipelines and custom caching solutions. Unfortunately, data hazards in compression algorithms such as LZ77 inhibit the creation of deep pipelines without sacrificing some amount of compression quality. In this work we detail a scalable fully pipelined FPGA accelerator that performs LZ77 compression and static Huffman encoding at rates up to 5.6 GB/s. Furthermore, we explore tradeoffs between compression quality and FPGA area that allow the same throughput at a fraction of the logic utilization in exchange for moderate reductions in compression quality. Compared to recent FPGA compression studies, our emphasis on scalability gives our accelerator a 3.0x advantage in resource utilization at equivalent throughput and compression ratio.
Colonic stent vs. emergency surgery for management of acute left-sided malignant colonic obstruction: a decision analysis.

Background Acute colonic obstruction because of malignancy is often a surgical emergency. Surgical decompression with colostomy with or without resection and eventual re-anastomosis is the traditional treatment of choice. Endoscopic colonic stent insertion effectively decompresses the obstructed colon, allowing for surgery to be performed electively. This study sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of colonic stent vs. surgery for emergent management of acute malignant colonic obstruction. Methods Decision analysis was used to calculate the cost-effectiveness of two competing strategies in a hypothetical patient presenting with acute, complete, malignant colonic obstruction: (1) emergent colonic stent followed by elective surgical resection and re-anastomosis; (2) emergent surgical resection followed by diversion (Hartmann's procedure) or primary anastomosis. Cost estimates were obtained from a third-party payer perspective. Primary outcome measures were mortality, stoma requirement, and total number of operative procedures. Results Colonic stent resulted in 23% fewer operative procedures per patient (1.01 vs. 1.32 operations per patient), an 83% reduction in stoma requirement (7% vs. 43%), and lower procedure-related mortality (5% vs. 11%). Colonic stent was associated with a lower mean cost per patient ($45,709 vs. $49,941). Conclusions Colonic stent insertion followed by elective surgery appears more effective and less costly than emergency surgery under base-case conditions. This finding remains robust over a wide range of assumptions for clinical inputs in sensitivity analysis. Our findings suggest that colonic stent insertion should be offered, whenever feasible, as a bridge to elective surgery in patients presenting with malignant colonic obstruction.
Amino acid digestibility of corn distillers dried grains with solubles, liquid condensed solubles, pulse dried thin stillage, and syrup balls fed to growing pigs.

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) has low and variable AA digestibility. The variability is often attributed to damage during the heating process, and it has been suggested that the damage happens to the soluble components of DDGS such as reducing sugars. Combining solubles and grains sometimes produces syrup balls (SB); their digestibil- ity is unknown. The objective of this experiment was to identify potential sources of poor and variable AA digestibility in DDGS. Specifically, our objective was to determine whether the problems are associated with the solubles component or with SB. The ingredients evaluated were DDGS, intact SB, ground SB, liquid condensed solubles (LCS), and pulse dried thin stillage (PDTS) obtained from the same ethanol plant. The LCS is produced by evaporation of thin stillage. Each ingredient was used as the only source of AA in an experimental diet. In a duplicate 6 × 6 Latin square design with 7-d adaptation and collection periods, the 6 treatments consisted of an N-free diet and the 5 test ingredients. Pigs had 5 d of adaptation to each diet, and on d 6 and 7 ileal digesta were collected from an ileal cannula for 8 h each day. Both SB treatments had apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of AA that were similar or greater (P < 0.05) than those of DDGS. The AID and SID values of Lys and a few other AA were similar in LCS (SID Lys: 63.1%) and DDGS (SID Lys: 61.5%), but the digestibility values of most AA in LCS were less than in DDGS (P < 0.05). The low digestibility of AA in LCS was most pronounced for Met (SID: LCS, 41.9% vs. DDGS, 82.8%). The LCS had less (P < 0.05) AID and SID of CP (SID: 67.8%) than intact SB (SID: 85.2%) and ground SB (SID: 85.9%) as well as all AA. The PDTS generally had the least AID and SID and had less (P < 0.05) CP (SID: 55.3%) and several AA, in- cluding Lys, compared with LCS. In conclusion, the presence of SB does not decrease AA digestibility of DDGS, and the LCS evaluated has less indispensible AA digestibility than DDGS. The LCS has low digest- ibility of AA that seems to not be caused by heat dam- age.
High-resolution meter reading system for gas utility meter

This paper presents the design and implementation of a high-resolution automated metering system for a residential natural gas meter. This new high resolution sensing technique can non-intrusively monitor the gas consumption of individual appliances in a home by resolving small amounts of gas usage. It relies on utilizing an existing meter that will be retrofitted with a module that includes a high-resolution encoder to collect gas flow data and a microprocessor to analyze and identify ap-pliance load profiles. Additional benefits of the system include the ability to detect very small leaks and theft, efficiency analysis, and real time customer feedback of gas usage. The system has the potential for wide scale market adoption.
Harnessing randomness to control the polarization of light transmitted through highly scattering media

We show that the multiple scattering events taking place inside a highly scattering medium, in conjunction with wavefront shaping, can be used to control the state of polarization of the light transmitted through a highly scattering medium. This control is achieved by using the intensity, phase, and polarization changing behavior of a scattering medium captured by a vector transmission matrix (VTM). We use a single beam incident upon a scattering medium to measure the absolute value of the VTM elements, in contrast to the multiple beams required in our previously reported approach. Further, the phase-only spatial light modulator based on a low-cost (< US$600) deformable micro-mirror array used in our work will make similar experiments accessible to other researchers.
Sampling-based exploration of folded state of a protein under kinematic and geometric constraints

Flexibility is critical for a folded protein to bind to other molecules (ligands) and achieve its functions. The conformational selection theory suggests that a folded protein deforms continuously and its ligand selects the most favorable conformations to bind to. Therefore, one of the best options to study protein-ligand binding is to sample conformations broadly distributed over the protein-folded state. This article presents a new sampler, called kino-geometric sampler (KGS). This sampler encodes dominant energy terms implicitly by simple kinematic and geometric constraints. Two key technical contributions of KGS are (1) a robotics-inspired Jacobian-based method to simultaneously deform a large number of interdependent kinematic cycles without any significant break-up of the closure constraints, and (2) a diffusive strategy to generate conformation distributions that diffuse quickly throughout the protein folded state. Experiments on four very different test proteins demonstrate that KGS can efficiently compute distributions containing conformations close to target (e.g., functional) conformations. These targets are not given to KGS, hence are not used to bias the sampling process. In particular, for a lysine-binding protein, KGS was able to sample conformations in both the intermediate and functional states without the ligand, while previous work using molecular dynamics simulation had required the ligand to be taken into account in the potential function. Overall, KGS demonstrates that kino-geometric constraints characterize the folded subset of a protein conformation space and that this subset is small enough to be approximated by a relatively small distribution of conformations. Proteins 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Polyandry and postcopulatory sexual selection in a wild population

When females mate multiply, postcopulatory sexual selection can occur via sperm competition and cryptic female choice. Although postcopulatory selection has the potential to be a major force in driving evolution, few studies have estimated its strength in natural populations. Likewise, although polyandry is widespread across taxa and is the focus of a growing body of research, estimates of natural female mating rates are still limited in number. Microsatellites can be used to estimate the number of mates represented in females' sperm stores and the number of sires contributing to their offspring, enabling comparisons both of polyandry and of two components of postcopulatory selection: the proportion of males that mate but fail to sire offspring, and the degree of paternity skew among the males that do sire offspring. Here, we estimate the number of mates and sires among wild females in the Hawaiian swordtail cricket Laupala cerasina. We compare these estimates to the actual mating rates and paternity shares we observed in a semi-natural population. Our results show that postcopulatory sexual selection operates strongly in this species: wild females mated with an average minimum of 3.6 males but used the sperm from only 58% of them. Furthermore, among the males that did sire offspring, paternity was significantly skewed. These patterns were similar to those observed in the field enclosure, where females mated with an average of 5.7 males and used the sperm from 62% of their mates, with paternity significantly skewed among the sires.
Biological parameters of reproduction in Parcoblatta cockroaches (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae)

Newly emerged adult female Parcoblatta fulvescens (Saussure & Zehntner) mate ca. 10 days after emergence and produce their first ootheca 5 days later. All matings occurred between 0230 and 0700 hours and lasted an average of 100 ± 40 (±SEM) min. Subsequently, females of this species and P. pennsylvanica (DeGeer) produce an ootheca about every 8 days. They feed extensively during the period from oothecal deposition to appearance of the next ootheca. This is necessary to support sustained reproduction because each ootheca equals 15–20% of female body weight. Oothecae of five Parcoblatta species have been compared in size and number of egg compartments. P. pennsylvanica from Texas has been shown to undergo two complete generations per year in the laboratory.
Eight culture strains (Detroit) of human epithelial-like cells.

SummaryThe histories of 8 strains of human epithelial-like cells derived from bone marrow, ascitic and pleural fluids have been described. Preliminary observations on their morphology have been reported and the significance of these observations has been discussed.
Leucocyte blockade of in vitro tuberculin cytolysis.

Summary1. Suspensions of human white blood cells in homologous fresh plasma will adsorb tuberculin (O.T.) from the plasma.2. White blood cells from normal persons with a negative intracutaneous reaction to tuberculin as well as white cells from persons with active tuberculosis show this phenomenon.3. Suspensions of mouse white blood cells in homologous fresh plasma will not adsorb tuberculin from the plasma.4. There is no difference in the lack of tuberculin adsorption by white blood cells from normal or tuberculous mice.5. Normal human plasma does not whereas plasma from patients with active tuberculosis does partially inactivate tuberculin under the conditions of thee experiments.6. Tuberculin has been assayed by its in vitro cytotoxic effect on white blood cells. from tuberculous subjects.
Are Rural Clergy Worse Off?: An Examination of Occupational Conditions and Pastoral Experiences in a Sample of United Methodist Clergy

Scholars have shown that clergy work can be stressful, and that these occupational strains can lead to negative physical and mental health outcomes. Despite the fact that nearly one-third of all congregations in the United States are rural, little work has examined how occupational conditions and clergy experiences might vary systematically by geographical context. This study uses recent data from United Methodist Church clergy in North Carolina to test extant depictions of rural ministry, which typically portray rural churches as challenging occupational settings. It finds that although rural clergy face several unique challenges (such as multichurch ministry and lower salaries), they report lower levels of several stressors and more positive experiences. These differences disappear once controls are added, suggesting that rural ministry per se is neither particularly harmful nor beneficial when compared with ministry in other settings.
A Quantitative Approach to the Petrographic Analysis of Ceramic Thin Sections

This paper introduces a new technique for the quantitative analysis of ceramic thin sections through petrography. The technique is a version of point counting that estimates with considerable precision the amounts of human additives (temper) and natural inclusions (silt and sand) in ceramic pastes. In concert with traditional qualitative identification of mineral inclusions, this technique expands the capacity of petrography to shed meaningful light on such topics in ceramic analysis as technology, production, trade, and classification. To demonstrate the utility of the technique it is used to reassess the taxonomic status of the type Spring Hollow Incised. The results conclusively show that Spring Hollow Incised is much more closely related to a newly defined Early Woodland ceramic assemblage in the Upper Mississippi Valley region than to the Middle Woodland Linn ware to which it originally was assigned.
Loss of somatostatin receptor 2 expression and lung cancer growth.

7569 Background: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a neuroendocrine cancer of the lung responsible for up to 25% of lung cancer deaths. Targeted therapies for SCLC are sorely needed. Somatostatin re...
Implementation of the Disaster-Tolerant System Transport Protocol Based on LVM

This paper first introduce a data disaster-tolerant system Logic Volume Replicator(LVR)we developed based on Logic Volume Manager(LVM)?Its transport protocol is a component which is crucial to its performance. We discuss the protocol from three aspects: protocol hierarchy, communication link and package design. Afterward we analyze the implementation of the protocol through three characters of disaster-tolerant system, which are the maintenance of data consistency, recovery from failure, and failover and failback. In the end, we give our assessment to the protocol.
Probe into the Structure Character & Operation of EHV Shunt Reactor

Design,manufacture and operation of EHV shunt reactor at home and abroad are summarized in this paper.The structure characters of reactor made by different manufacturers,and special structure applied in light of flux leakage heating,vibration noise, losses of reactor are introduced in detail.The main problem of reactor in the operation of EHV power network is analyzed,and sug- gestions on monitor maintenance of HV shunt reactor are put forward.
Governance of Shadow (Non-Bank) Financial Institutions

We proceed with a discussion of the governance of shadow bank financial institutions. The Dodd-Frank Act established the creation of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, composed of the Secretary of the Treasury and heads of the major governmental agencies, whose main objective is to identify those institutions that pose significant systemic risks to the financial stability of the USA. The Council’s duties are set forth, together with its procedures for identifying those institutions that pose these risks, and the considerations for making a “systemically important financial institution” (SIFI) determination, including foreign non-bank companies.
ATR-FTIR analysis of spectral and biochemical changes in glioma cells induced by chlorotoxin

Abstract Chlorotoxin (CTX) is a small peptide with unique targeting properties towards gliomas and other tumors of the neuroectodermal origin. Despite being investigated in many in vivo and in vitro targeted drug delivery and imaging studies, the mechanism of interaction between CTX and tumor cells has not been well understood. This study presents a new approach in monitoring the biochemical and biophysical changes in glioma cells after being exposed to CTX using Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infra-Red (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. In the first part, we characterized the signature spectra of CTX and U87 cells. Next, we evaluated the differences in biochemical compositions of the spectra of the glioma cells treated with and without CTX over different incubation time periods. Our results indicated biochemical changes in U87 cells at different stages of incubation with CTX, with the most notable changes occurring after 30 min of incubation. Detailed comparisons of the spectra of the U87 cells treated with and without CTX for 30 min revealed distinct changes and shifts of the bands associated with proteins and lipids. In particular, a downshift of the band assigned to CH2 scissoring of lipid membranes from 1454 cm−1 to 1448 cm−1 followed by an appearance of a new shoulder at wavenumber of 1465 cm−1 revealed conformational changes in hydrocarbon chain packing in lipid bilayers of U87 cells due to CTX. Other band shifts indicated additional changes in conformation and orientation of lipids and proteins in U87 cells exposed to CTX.
Global ischemia induces lysosomal-mediated degradation of mTOR and activation of autophagy in hippocampal neurons destined to die

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a key regulator of cell growth, autophagy, translation, and survival. Dysregulation of mTOR signaling is associated with cancer, diabetes, and autism. However, a role for mTOR signaling in neuronal death is not well delineated. Here we show that global ischemia triggers a transient increase in mTOR phosphorylation at S2448, whereas decreasing p-mTOR and functional activity in selectively vulnerable hippocampal CA1 neurons. The decrease in mTOR coincides with an increase in biochemical markers of autophagy, pS317-ULK-1, pS14-Beclin-1, and LC3-II, a decrease in the cargo adaptor p62, and an increase in autophagic flux, a functional readout of autophagy. This is significant in that autophagy, a catabolic process downstream of mTORC1, promotes the formation of autophagosomes that capture and target cytoplasmic components to lysosomes. Inhibitors of the lysosomal (but not proteasomal) pathway rescued the ischemia-induced decrease in mTOR, consistent with degradation of mTOR via the autophagy/lysosomal pathway. Administration of the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin or acute knockdown of mTOR promotes autophagy and attenuates ischemia-induced neuronal death, indicating an inverse causal relation between mTOR, autophagy, and neuronal death. Our findings identify a novel and previously unappreciated mechanism by which mTOR self-regulates its own levels in hippocampal neurons in a clinically relevant model of ischemic stroke.
Abstract 4649: Apigenin increases maspin expression and suppresses invasiveness in prostate cancer cells

Acquisition of metastatic capability during prostate cancer progression leads to clinically incurable malignancy and accounts for the majority of deaths from this disease. Metastasis involves multiple processes, including invasion, intravasation, extravasation and tumor growth at the secondary site. Maspin, a unique member of the serpin (serine protease inhibitor) family, shown to regulate cell motility, invasion and contributes in tumor metastasis. Loss of maspin has been frequently identified in clinical prostate cancer specimens and prostate cancer cell lines, therefore novel therapeutic approaches to restore its expression are needed. Apigenin (4′, 5, 7-trihydroxyflavone), a plant flavone has shown to possess anticancer properties and alters pathways that regulate tumor cell invasion and metastasis, however molecular basis of these effects remains unclear. We demonstrate that apigenin enhances maspin expression in human prostate cancer cells through upregulation of p53 activity and downregulation of histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity. Treatment of human prostate cancer LNCaP cells (harboring wild type p53) with 1-40 μM apigenin for 72 h resulted in dose- and time- dependent decrease in cell invasion and migration with concurrent increase in maspin expression and increased its nuclear localization. Apigenin treatment also resulted in the inhibition of HDAC enzyme activity, increase in H3 and H4 acetylation and p53 activation, similar with the use of Class I HDAC inhibitor, trichostatin A. In human prostate cancer DU145 cells, harboring mutant p53, apigenin treatment resulted in an increase in maspin expression which correlated with upregulation of wild-type p53 activity, conversely trichostatin A was unable to upregulate maspin expression. Transfection of DU145 cells with maspin reporter plasmid increased the activity of maspin promoter, consistent with the results. In another approach, endogenous levels of mapsin was restored after transfection of cells with wild type p53 in prostate cancer PC-3 cells (p53 null), which was further increased by apigenin treatment. Furthermore, knockdown of HDAC1 did not affect maspin levels in human prostate cancer LNCaP and DU145 cell lines suggesting that HDAC1 inhibition does not play a role in maspin regulation, whereas it appears that apigenin-dependent global modulation of HDAC activity resulted in decreased cell invasion and proliferation. Taken together, our findings suggest that apigenin-mediated increase in maspin expression is regulated, in part, by p53 and its activation resulting in decreased invasiveness and migration capabilities of prostate cancer cells. Citation Format: Sanjeev Shukla, Ata Abbas, Sanjay Gupta. Apigenin increases maspin expression and suppresses invasiveness in prostate cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4649. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4649
Gathering High Quality Information on Landslides from Twitter by Relevance Ranking of Users and Tweets

Social networking platforms are increasingly used to report or pass along news and other valuable information. Their use rises especially during emergency situations and can be monitored for the analysis of adverse events, such as disasters. In this paper, we provide an overview of a comprehensive disaster information system using social networks with landslides serving as an illustrative example. We briefly describe each of the steps involved and focus on the classification and ranking steps that determine the relevance of individual messages and groups of messages to landslides. We introduce the concept of "relevant" and "irrelevant" virtual communities of users and compute their influence in each of them. This allows us to improve the existing relevance ranking formula by taking into account not only the semantics of the messages posted by users, but also the users' influence and the amount of their activity in these communities to improve the quality of the collected information on landslides. The resulting system achieves 0.936 F1-score in classifying individual messages and 0.941 F1-score in relevance ranking of the events.
Isolated non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema — A rare complication of MDMA toxicity

This is a case of a 19-year-old male who presented to the medical tent at an outdoor electronic dance music festival (EDMF) due to an altered mental state in the setting of acute 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) intoxication. He was noted to be in severe respiratory distress, required endotracheal intubation in the field and subsequently developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) without other acute organ dysfunction. He was hospitalized for 5days requiring endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. By presenting this case, we will explore and discuss the cardiopulmonary effects of MDMA intoxication that can lead to a rare, deleterious complication of MDMA intoxication other than previously reported adverse outcomes.
Mediagasms, Ironic Nerds, and Mainstream Geeks: A Multimethodological Ideographic Cluster Analysis of and on Twitter

This chapter uses an innovative mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the rhetorical constructions of and and their uses on Twitter. Utilizing the theoretical construct of the ideograph to analyze the way abstractions are marshalled for politicized identity, the chapter traces the ways that the two terms converge and diverge in meaning as used for self-identification. Although the technical-skill overtones of the seem cooler and more active, in practical use those connections are fading and the is returning to its circus-sideshow roots as synonymous with the . However, the more passive, fan-based seems to provide a richer tool for users to tell their story of multiple, struggling, mediated identities in a digital age.
Infectious Scarring: Setting the Trigger for Intestinal Inflammation

The initiating factors that trigger inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are poorly understood. In a recent paper, Yang et al. (2017) demonstrate that IBD-like syndrome in mice can develop as a consequence of recurrent pathogen infection. Pathogenic triggering of inflammatory disease is a re-emerging concept that has significant therapeutic implications.
Educators in Industry: An Exploratory Study to Determine how Teacher Externships Influence K-12 Classroom Practices

This exploratory study investigates the impacts of industry-based externships for K-12 teachers, and reports teachers’ perspectives on how these experiences influenced K-12 classroom practices. The program of focus in this research study is the Educators in Industry: K-12 Externship Program. For four weeks in the summer, teacher-participants are placed at a company whose primary focus is engineering, continuous improvement, manufacturing, or other design or process-oriented activities. Participation in the program also involves completing an accompanying 2-credit university course in the summer, and a 1-credit follow-up course in the fall. In this qualitative research study, transcripts from individual interviews with teacher-participants were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results from this study provide empirical evidence that teachers who participated in an industry-based externship program demonstrated an increased understanding of the fundamental importance of skills for problem solving, collaboration, and communication in today’s workplace environments, and expressed commitment to creating classroom opportunities for students to develop these skills through active learning in relationship to authentic, “real world” contexts.
A synthesis of emerging health issues of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) in eastern North America

Abstract Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) is one of the most important conifer species across eastern North America. However, emerging health issues of eastern white pine have increased dramatically in recent decades, raising serious concerns over the health and future of this species. These emerging issues are due to native pests and pathogens that were mostly innocuous in the past and hence, have been rarely studied. One fungal pathogen of concern, Caliciopsis pinea Peck, is associated with severe resinosis, crown thinning, dieback, cankers, and bark cracks/fissures. Reports of C. pinea have been on the rise since the mid-1990s, particularly in the northeastern U.S. An insect of concern, eastern white pine bast scale (Matsucoccus macrocicatrices Richards), is a sap-sucking pest associated with branch flagging, dieback, and canker formation. Although described as early as 1958, this insect was not reported in the southeastern U.S. until 2006, when it was found on eastern white pine with dieback symptoms. A foliar complex of fungal pathogens has also been on the rise since 2006 in the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada, known collectively as White Pine Needle Damage. This complex results in needle discoloration and necrosis, premature needle drop, and branch dieback. In combination, these emerging health issues are occurring at levels not previously reported and across several regions, indicating an imminent range-wide health concern for eastern white pine. Our goal is to synthesize the ecology, evolutionary and post-settlement history, silvicultural practices, and abiotic and biotic stressors of eastern white pine. By unifying the known ecology and stressors of eastern white pine, we aim to provide a forest health framework to assist resource managers in developing a cohesive conservation, management, and restoration plan for this critical conifer species in North America.
Forming the Female Moral Citizen in Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick

ABSTRACTIn nineteenth-century New Brunswick, women and girls created a place in Loyalist settler society as citizens. Despite their restricted legal status under English common law, they constructe...
Feature Compensation Employing Model Combination for Robust In-Vehicle Speech Recognition

An effective feature compensation method is evaluated for reliable speech recognition in real-life in-vehicle environments. The CU-Move corpus, previously collected by RSPG (currently, CRSS) (http://www.utdallas.edu/research/utdrive; Hansen et al., DSP for In-Vehicle and Mobile Systems, 2004), contains a range of speech and noise signals collected for a number of speakers from across the United States under actual driving conditions. PCGMM (parallel combined Gaussian mixture model)-based feature compensation (Kim et al., Eurospeech 2003, 2003; Kim et al., ICASSP 2004, 2004), considered in this chapter, utilizes parallel model combination to generate noise-corrupted speech models by combining clean speech and noise models. In order to address unknown time-varying background noise, an interpolation method of multiple environmental models is employed. To alleviate computational expenses due to multiple models, a noise transition model is proposed, which is motivated from the noise language modeling concept developed in Environmental Sniffing (Akbacak and Hansen, IEEE Trans Audio Speech Lang Process, 15(2): 465–477, 2007). The PCGMM method and the proposed scheme are evaluated on the connected single digits portion of the CU-Move database using the Aurora2 evaluation toolkit. Experimental results indicate that our feature compensation method is effective for improving speech recognition in real-life in-vehicle conditions. Here, a 26.78% computational reduction was obtained by employing the noise transition model with only a slight change in overall recognition performance. The resulting system therefore demonstrates an effective speech recognition strategy for robust speech recognition for noisy in-vehicle environments.
Behavioral Processes and Treatment Outcomes in Coronary Heart Disease

It has been estimated that in 1979 110,000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) operations were performed at an average cost of $15,000 per patient—a total cost of $1.65 billion (Kolata, 1981). While it has been shown in several studies (Conley, Wechsler, Anderson, Oldham, Sabiston and Rosati, 1977; Whalen, Wallace, McNeer, Rosati, and Lee, 1977; Kloster, Kremkau, Ritzmann, Rahimtoola, Rosch, and Kanarek, 1979; Hammermeister, DeRouen and Dodge, 1979; Harris, Phil, Harrell, Lee, Behar, and Rosati, 1979) that survival is prolonged with CABG treatment in patients with leftmain disease and, possibly, three-vessel disease, patients with these grades of coronary atherosclerosis make up only about 43% of patients in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Coronary Artery Surgery Study (Kolata, 1981). Thus, over half the patients currently being treated with CABG surgery cannot logically be expected to survive longer as a result of the surgery than patients receiving medical management alone. However, what does appear clear from the cited studies, as well as from the recent concensus conference on CABG surgery (Kolata, 1981), is that even among patients with one- and two-vessel disease relief of anginal pain from surgery is superior to that from medical management alone, and it is to achieve this benefit of angina relief that the majority of CABG operations are performed. If the approximately 62,700 patients per year with one- and two-vessel disease who are currently failing to obtain adequate control of angina with medical management and who go on to CABG could be prospectively identified and given special attention prior to embarking on the eventually unsuccessful trail of medical management, it is conceivable that a substantial reduction in costs of treatment, as well as reduction in pain and suffering and risks associated with CABG surgery, could be achieved in a significant proportion.
4.13 – Concrete*

This chapter describes the nuclear power plant concrete structures, their materials of construction, and their operating experience. Aging and environmental factors that can affect the durability of the concrete structures are identified. Basic components of a program to manage aging of these structures are identified and described. Application of structural reliability theory to devise uniform risk-based criteria by which existing facilities can be evaluated to achieve a desired performance level when subjected to uncertain demands and to quantify the effects of degradation is outlined. Finally, several areas where additional research is desired are identified.
Radon-222 on the island of Hawaii.

The island of Hawaii, like other locations in a marine environment, has low levels of atmospheric 222Rn. The low concentrations of 222Rn and its decay products result from a low average flux density of 9.8 mBq m-2 s-1, the mixing of marine air from the Pacific having a 222Rn concentration of only 0.04 Bq m-3 with air from over the island, and the decay of 222Rn as it is transported in air masses across the Pacific primarily from the Asian continent. The overall mean concentration over the Island The overall mean concentration over the Island was found to be 0.44 Bq m-3 compared with a figure of about 8 Bq m-3 for air over continents. A consideration of the island as a source of 222Rn must take into account the relatively low average flux density associated with the lava fields and accompanying thin soils. The 222Rn formed from the U and 226Ra present in the lava cannot escape to the atmosphere. The deep agricultural soils, on the other hand, provide relatively high flux densities. When the areas of the soil types are taken into account, the exhalation for the lava fields, thin organic soils, and deep agricultural soils were 0.25,more » 1.7, and 32 MBq s-1, respectively. Measurements of indoor 222Rn on the island indicate levels of approximately 25 Bq m-3 which is appreciably lower than 40 Bq m-3 taken as an average for indoor levels on the mainland. Based on an assumed indoor occupancy level of 0.8, the effective dose equivalent for inhaled 222Rn and its decay products on Hawaii is 1.2 mSv y-1. This is only a little more than one-half of that for a resident of the continental United States who is estimated to receive an effective dose equivalent of 2 mSv y-1. The relatively low effective dose equivalent for the population on the island may have interesting effects in comparison with people living in areas where the inhaled dose from 222Rn is much higher.« less
Diagnosis and the Skin Immune System

The traditional means of diagnosis of inflammatory skin diseases include physical examination, diagnostic tests such as skin biopsy for histology and immunofluorescence, and a variety of special serologic assays. Tools and techniques utilizing nanotechnology are designed to utilize less material; be minimally invasive; and offer rapid, sensitive, and specific results.
Sterols of the Toxic Marine Dinoflagellate, Pyrodinium bahamense

Pyrodinium bahamense is a dinoflagellate of concern in subtropical and tropical coastal environments. To date, there is only a single published study on its fatty acids, but no published data on its sterol composition. Sterols, which are membrane-reinforcing lipids in eukaryotes, display a great diversity of structures in dinoflagellates, with some serving as chemotaxonomic markers. We have examined the sterol compositions of two isolates of P. bahamense from Indian River Lagoon and Tampa Bay, Florida, and have found both to produce three sterols: cholesterol, dinosterol, and 4α-methylgorgostanol. All three sterols are found in closely related, armored taxa.
Impact of Static Pressure Differential Between Supply Air and Return Exhaust on Server Level Performance

Modern Information Technology (IT) servers are typically assumed to operate in quiescent conditions with almost zero static pressure differentials between inlet and exhaust. However, when operating in a data center containment system the IT equipment thermal status is a strong function of the non- homogenous environment of the air space, IT utilization workloads and the overall facility cooling system design. To implement a dynamic and interfaced cooling solution, the interdependencies of variabilities between the chassis, rack and room level must be determined. In this paper, the effect of positive as well as negative static pressure differential between inlet and outlet of servers on thermal performance, fan control schemes, the direction of air flow through the servers as well as fan energy consumption within a server is observed at the chassis level. In this study, a web server with internal air-flow paths segregated into two separate streams, each having dedicated fan/group of fans within the chassis, is operated over a range of static pressure differential across the server. Experiments were conducted to observe the steady-state temperatures of CPUs and fan power consumption. Furthermore, the server fan speed control scheme’s transient response to a typical peak in IT computational workload while operating at negative pressure differentials across the server is reported. The effects of the internal air flow paths within the chassis is studied through experimental testing and simulations for flow visualization. The results indicate that at higher positive differential pressures across the server, increasing server fans speeds will have minimal impact on the cooling of the system. On the contrary, at lower, negative differential pressure server fan power becomes strongly dependent on operating pressure differential. More importantly, it is shown that an imbalance of flow impedances in internal airflow paths and fan control logic can onset recirculation of exhaust air within the server. For accurate prediction of airflow in cases where negative pressure differential exists, this study proposes an extended fan performance curve instead of a regular fan performance curve to be applied as a fan boundary condition for Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations.
Is the Mind Still a Mystery

The ancient mind/body problem is to explain how our mental experience arises from our embodied brains. But there are continuing major advances in our knowledge of human behavior, the brain, and computation. Should the mind/body problem now be routine science?
Performance of GaSb Photovoltaics with Graphene Coating

GaSb cells grown by MBE have high quality material growth, but struggle to overcome high sheet resistance in p-type emitter designs. To overcome this issue, GaSb photovoltaic devices with a p-type emitter were fabricated and coated with a single layer of graphene. Graphene's intrinsic transport properties and low optical transparency make it a suitable candidate for use as a transparent conducting electrode. By adding single layer graphene to the surface of the fabricated GaSb photovoltaics, the series resistance and shunt resistance are improved, with an associated increase in fill factor and efficiency.
Attitudinal learning and its relation to gender, age, ethnicity, enrolment purpose, and most impactful learning activity in a science of happiness MOOC

This mixed-method study examined learners' perceptions of attitudinal learning gains in a MOOC and the impact of their demographics, enrolment purpose, and perception of the most impactful learning activity on those gains. Interview data provided greater insights into survey results, with learners sharing their thoughts on instructional design choices and learning challenges and how those impacted attitudinal learning in the MOOC. Furthermore, a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that age and ethnicity were the best predictors for affective learning gains; gender and perception of impactful activity for behavioural learning gains; and ethnicity, enrolment purpose, and perception of impactful activity for cognitive learning gains. Implications for the design and facilitation of instructional activities in MOOCs designed to enhance attitudinal learning are discussed.
The Dynamics of the Skin's Immune System

The skin is a complex organ that has devised numerous strategies, such as physical, chemical, and microbiological barriers, to protect the host from external insults. In addition, the skin contains an intricate network of immune cells resident to the tissue, crucial for host defense as well as tissue homeostasis. In the event of an insult, the skin-resident immune cells are crucial not only for prevention of infection but also for tissue reconstruction. Deregulation of immune responses often leads to impaired healing and poor tissue restoration and function. In this review, we will discuss the defensive components of the skin and focus on the function of skin-resident immune cells in homeostasis and their role in wound healing.
In Vitro Antioxidant and Cancer Inhibitory Activity of a Colored Avocado Seed Extract

Avocado (Persea americana) seeds have been used traditionally for a number of health-related indications. Because of its high polyphenol content, we investigated the potential antioxidant and anticancer effects of a colored avocado seed extract (CASE). CASE exhibited an oxygen radical acceptance capacity value of 2012 ± 300 trolox equivalents/mg. CASE reduced lipid hydroperoxide formation in an oil-in-water emulsion (33% reduction at 500 μg/mL). CASE dose-dependently reduced the viability of human breast (MCF7), lung (H1299), colon (HT29), and prostate (LNCaP) cancer cells in vitro. The half maximal inhibitory concentrations ranged from 19 to 132 μg/mL after treatment for 48 h. CASE treatment downregulated the expression of cyclin D1 and E2 in LNCaP cells. This was associated with cell G0/G1 phase cycle arrest. CASE also dose-dependently induced apoptosis in LNCaP cells. CASE reduced nuclear translocation of nuclear factor κB, a prosurvival signal. Further studies are needed to examine these effects in in vivo models.