cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
WE-G-BRD-02: Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE) MRI for Response Assessment of Inoperable Lung Tumors for Patients Undergoing SBRT Treatment

Purpose: To investigate the changes in T1 perfusion coefficients derived from analysis of Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI of lung cancer patients undergoing SBRT. Methods: 3D DCE-MRI scans utilizing fast-field echo sequences were used in this prospective IRB-approved study of lung cancer patients undergoing SBRT during simulation, 1h after first fraction (8 Gy), after 5 fractions (40 Gy) and 4 weeks after treatment. The scan acquisition parameters were TR/TE = 3.6/1.6 ms, flip angle= 12°, voxel size = 2.7×2.7×5 mm3, 3.2 sec temporal resolution with 60 dynamics. The modified Toft's model was used to perform a voxel-by-voxel fit of the perfusion coefficients Ktrans and Kep using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. Initial area under the time-concentration curve (IAUC) was evaluated at 30, 60, 90 and 180 seconds. The GTV was drawn on each coronal volume after deformable registration to the pre-treatment anatomical MRI. Changes in Ktrans, Kep and IAUC's were evaluated to assess tumor response to SBRT. Results: All time points of the first patient were analyzed. The median Ktrans values of the tumor ROI were 0.76, 0.53, 0.89, 0.28 min−1 at pre-treatment, after 8 Gy, immediately and 4 weeks post-treatment. The median Kep values were 1.47, 1.27, 1.01, and 0.90 min−1 respectively. Both Ktrans and Kep histogram distributions shifted towards lower values 4 weeks post-treatment. After normalizing IAUC values to tumor volumes, median IAUC30 values were 0.032, 0.022, 0.05 and 0.026 mol.s/L and median IAUC180 values were 0.25, 0.26, 0.43 and 0.52 mol.s/L respectively. Conclusion: Decreased Ktrans values from pre-treatment to 4 weeks post-treatment signifies decreased microvessel density and permeability. The decreased Kep values indicate a shallower slope in the delayed phase of the kinetic curve. Both distribution shifts towards lower values signify reduced contrast perfusion, implying reduced tumor perfusion. Both quantities are indicative of tumor response to SBRT treatment.
Anthropology and spirit possession: A reconsideration of the Pythia's role at Delphi

During a consultation at Delphi, one of Apollo's servants imagined, heard, intuited, or feigned Apollo's presence and then uttered Apollo's divine response to the human client who made inquiry of the god. Such inspired mimicry appears incomprehensible to the non-believing distant observer to whom Apollo no longer speaks. Scholars hear nothing at Delphi and, steadfast in their faith in positivism, claim Apollo said nothing. In a similar fashion, scholars have pronounced that the Pythia, like Apollo, did not speak at Delphi, or that her attendant prophets reformulated her utterances and converted them into comprehensible prose or verse. Such a reconstruction of the divinatory consultation at Delphi, however, finds no support in the ancient evidence. Not one ancient source suggests that anyone other than the Pythia issued oracular responses.
Seasonal and spatial distributions and dry deposition fluxes of atmospheric total and labile iron over the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic Ocean

[1] The tropical and subtropical region of the North Atlantic Ocean is under the influence of mineral dust plumes transported from North Africa, resulting in high atmospheric iron (Fe) deposition. Atmospheric Fe, as a major Fe source to this open oceanic region, may influence the rate of nitrogen fixation since Fe is a critical nutrient cofactor for the nitrogenase enzyme in diazotrophic microorganisms. Field measurements of Fe concentrations and Fe speciation in aerosols provide crucial information to understanding the biological role of this atmospheric Fe flux to the ocean. In this study, 24-hour aerosol samples were collected during winter (6 January 2001 to 18 February 2001) and summer (27 June 2001 to 15 August 2001) research cruises over this North Atlantic region. Three labile Fe species, that included ferrous iron (Fe(II)) and reducible ferric iron (Fe(III)) species, were measured in aerosol samples using a sequential aqueous extraction method. Microwave digestion of the aerosol samples followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was used to quantify total elemental concentrations. A spatial gradient of over nearly 3 orders of magnitude in the total Fe concentrations (from 1.6 ng m−3 at 28.6°N to 1688 ng m−3 at 10.9°N) was observed during the winter, while this gradient was not as strong in the summer. The mean total Fe concentrations were approximately a factor of 2 higher during the winter (mean value of 670 ng m−3 between 5°N and 26°N) than in the summer (mean value of 324 ng m−3 between 6°N and 26°N). The highest percentage of labile Fe to total Fe was observed between 26°N and 30°N in the winter with a mean value of 32%, which corresponded to low concentrations of total Fe. At latitude 0°N to 10°N, where the lowest Fe concentrations were observed in the summer, the labile Fe fraction with a mean of 5.0% was similar to the region from 10°N to 20°N where there were much higher mineral aerosol concentrations. Air mass back trajectories showed that mineral dust transport from North Africa is a significant atmospheric Fe source in this Atlantic region. However, the highest labile Fe to total Fe ratios were observed in air masses that had been over the ocean for greater than 7 days and also corresponded to high ratios of non-seasalt-sulfate (NSS-sulfate) to total Fe and oxalate to total Fe. The correlation with NSS-sulfate and oxalate suggests that labile Fe concentrations may have been influenced by anthropogenic activities from North America or Europe.
Bone Loss Detection in Rats Using a Mouse Densitometer

Estrogen-depletion bone-loss studies often use ovariectomized (ovx) rats and measure bone mineral density in vivo or ex vivo using DXA. Recently, a portable densitometer (PIXImus) was developed for mouse research; however, its use in rats is unclear. This study compared the ability of PIXImus and a standard densitometer (DPXL) to detect ovx-induced bone loss in rats both in vivo and ex vivo. Additionally, instrument accuracy was assessed by comparing measured bone mass with ash weight. Finally, the use of two distal femur regions of interest (ROI) to detect ovx-induced bone loss was evaluated. Twenty-three 6-month-old nulliparous female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to sham or ovx groups. Distal femur bone mineral density was assessed at baseline and at 1 and 2 months postoperatively, using a PIXImus and DPXL densitometer. At 3 months postoperatively, all animals were killed, and ex vivo femur scans obtained. Distal femur bone loss was demonstrable by 1 month post-ovx using either densitometer. With the PIXImus, a 4-mm ROI demonstrated greater bone loss (p < 0.05) than an 8-mm ROI. Using the 4-mm ROI, similar amounts of bone loss were detected by the PIXImus and DPXL: 22.2% and 22.4%, respectively, at 2 months post-ovx. Total femur bone mineral content was overestimated by the PIXImus but highly correlated with the DPXL measurement (r = 0.988) and ash weight (r = 0.998). Given its comparability to standard DXA plus its rapid scan speed and portability, the PIXImus is useful in evaluating ovx-induced osteopenia in rats.
Stop Fraud Cold with Powerful Internal Controls

Since the Enron debacle, companies are re-examining their internal controls. Sometimes managers see them as an obstacle. But it doesn't have to be that way. The author shows you how to build stronger internal controls that can enhance corporate objectives. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Do additional shaved margins at the time of lumpectomy eliminate the need for re-excision?

Abstract Background Most women diagnosed with breast cancer undergo breast-conservation surgery. Re-excision rates for positive margins have been reported to be greater than 50%. The purpose of our study was to determine if removing additional shaved margins from the lumpectomy cavity at the time of lumpectomy reduces re-excisions. Methods A retrospective study was performed on 125 women who had undergone lumpectomy with additional shaved margins taken from the lumpectomy cavity. Pathology reports were reviewed for tumor size and histology, lumpectomy and additional margin status, and specimen and margin volume. Results If additional margins were not taken, 66% would have required re-excision. Because of taking additional shaved margins, re-excision was eliminated in 48%. Conclusion Excising additional shaved margins at the original surgery reduced reoperations by 48%. There is a balance between removing additional margins and desirable cosmesis after breast-conservation surgery. The decision to take extra margins should be based on the surgeon's judgment.
Bricks, Mortar, and Wedding Bells: Does the Cost of Housing Affect the Marriage Rate in the US?

This paper examines the relationship between the cost of housing and the rate of marriage in 2,450 US counties over the period 1970–1999. It is found that the burden of housing costs appears to play a role in the decision to marry. A higher ratio of the cost of owner-occupied housing to per capita income in a given county is associated with a lower marriage rate. The analysis is also extended to include a measure capturing the relationship between the cost of owning housing and the cost of renting and marriage. Evidence suggests that the greater the difference between the annual cost of owning housing and renting as a proportion of per capita income in a county, the lower the marriage rate.
An overview of emerging results in networked multi-vehicle systems

Autonomous vehicle systems have been the topic of much research due to their ability to perform dangerous, repetitive and automated tasks in remote or hazardous environments. The potential for multi-vehicle systems cooperating together to accomplish given tasks is starting to draw together researchers from several fields, including robotics, control systems, and computer science. Multiple vehicles can be more effective than a single one, for example in information gathering tasks. By spreading out over the terrain to be searched, a cluster of autonomous helicopters, for example, can locate a target quite rapidly, or a group of coordinated autonomous underwater vehicles can search a coastal area for mines. In other cases, the coordinated operation of multiple vehicles can provide new capabilities. This is the case, for example, of the PATH strategy of platooning several vehicles as they travel along the highway, which may yield up to a four-fold increase in transportation capacity while enhancing safety. Another example is the Mobile Offshore Base, where semi-submersible modules are aligned to form a military base and runway at sea. The unprecedented length of the at-sea runway (up to a mile long) warrants the use of several modules. In each of these cases, there is a need for inter-vehicle communications so that each vehicle can know the status of the operation, the position of its counterparts, and whether the specific mission goals have changed. Thus the control and communication problems become inexorably tied. However, few results are available to analyze performance and stability of a closed loop system where some of the loops are closed by communicated variables. Using the above examples as a motivation, this paper examines emerging results in networked multi-vehicle systems. Recent work has taken many different approaches, such as hybrid systems, distributed control, differential games, control architectures, and artificial intelligence. The focus of this paper is on the control systems perspective. We attempt to present some current issues common to networked multi-vehicle systems, and to show how they have been solved to date in the perspective of the case studies.
Extrapair paternity is influenced by breeding synchrony and density in the common yellowthroat

The effects of breeding synchrony and density on levels of extrapair paternity in birds are controversial. We used multilocus DNA fingerprinting and microsatellite analysis to examine the effects of breeding synchrony and density on levels of extrapair paternity in the common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas). As in many Neotropical migrants, breeding synchrony was greatest at the beginning of the breeding season. Levels of extrapair paternity were higher after the peak in synchrony, leading to an overall negative relationship between extrapair paternity and breeding synchrony. However, there was a significant interaction between breeding synchrony and density, as levels of extrapair paternity were higher only for males breeding when both synchrony and density were low. We discuss several possible explanations for this interaction, including lower quality males or territories in low density areas and greater demands on mate guarding among males with larger territories. Most studies have not considered simultaneously the effects of breeding synchrony and density on extrapair paternity. Our results suggest that ecological correlates of paternity may be revealed only after testing for interactions in multivariate analyses.
When Prostate Brachytherapy Fails: A Case Report and Discussion

For appropriately selected brachytherapy patients, prostate-specific antigen failure is uncommon. Our patient experienced biochemical failure after 125 I brachytherapy treatment for low-risk prostate adenocarcinoma. We suggest neoadjuvant/ adjuvant hormonal therapy combined with pelvic external-beam radiation therapy as a reasonable salvage treatment. At the 2-year follow-up, he is apparently doing well. With limited data available, salvage management for this situation is presently investigational. The Oncologist 2005;10:799–805
Proteoglycan-induced changes in T1ρ-relaxation of articular cartilage at 4T

Proteoglycan (PG) depletion-induced changes in T1rho (spin-lattice relaxation in rotating frame) relaxation and dispersion in articular cartilage were studied at 4T. Using a spin-lock cluster pre-encoded fast spin echo sequence, T1rho maps of healthy bovine specimens and specimens that were subjected to PG depletion were computed at varying spin-lock frequencies. Sequential PG depletion was induced by trypsinization of cartilage for varying amounts of time. Results demonstrated that over 50% depletion of PG from bovine articular cartilage resulted in average T1rho increases from 110-170 ms. Regression analysis of the data showed a strong correlation (R2 = 0.987) between changes in PG and T1rho. T1rho values were highest at the superficial zone and decreased gradually in the middle zone and again showed an increasing trend in the region near the subchondral bone. The potentials of this method in detecting early degenerative changes of cartilage are discussed. Also, T(1rho)-dispersion changes as a function of PG depletion are described.
The small molecule C-6 is selectively cytotoxic against breast cancer cells and its biological action is characterized by mitochondrial defects and endoplasmic reticulum stress.

Introduction The establishment of drug resistance following treatment with chemotherapeutics is strongly associated with poor clinical outcome in patients, and drugs that target chemoresistant tumors have the potential to increase patient survival. In an effort to identify biological pathways of chemoresistant breast cancers that can be targeted therapeutically, a small molecule screen utilizing metastatic patient-derived breast cancer cells was conducted; from this previous report, the cytotoxic small molecule, C-6, was identified for its ability to selectively kill aggressive breast cancer cells in a caspase-independent manner. Here, we describe the cellular and molecular pathways induced following C-6 treatment in both normal and breast cancer cell lines.
A perception/action substrate for cognitive modeling in HCI

This article describes a general-purpose programmable substrate designed to allow cognitive modeling systems to interact with off-the-shelf interactive applications. The substrate, called VisMap, improves on conventional approaches, in which a cognitive model interacts with a hand-constructed abstraction, an artificial simulation or an interface tailored specifically to a modeling system. VisMap can be used to construct static scenarios for input to a cognitive model, without requiring its internal modification; alternatively, the system can be integrated with a cognitive model to support direct control of an application.
Switch module design with application to two-dimensional segmentation design

We address the problem of designing switch modules for FPGAs and FPICs to maximize routability under area and delay constraints. The switch module design problem is closely related to two-dimensional segmentation design for FPGAs and FPICs. We study the properties of switch modules and present an algorithm for switch module design. We also present an algorithm to analyze the routability of a given switch module.
Erythrocyte P antigen: cellular receptor for B19 parvovirus

The pathogenic human parvovirus B19 replicates only in erythroid progenitor cells. This virus was shown to bind to blood-group P antigen, as measured by hemagglutination. Erythrocytes lacking P antigen were not agglutinated with B19. Purified P antigen (globoside) blocked the binding of the virus to erythroid cells and the infectivity of the virus in a hematopoietic colony assay. Target cells were protected from infection by preincubation with monoclonal antibody to globoside. Knowledge of a parvovirus receptor has implications for understanding the pathogenesis of parvovirus infections and for the use of parvoviruses in gene therapy.
Phenotypic screening identifies prostacyclin agonists as differentiation agents in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia

One success story in AML treatment has been the discovery of drugs that trigger the differentiation of leukemic blasts in the subset of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. Differentiation therapy is not available for the remaining 90% of AML patients. To identify small molecules that trigger differentiation, we developed a novel model of AML, with a built-in GFP reporter of differentiation. In this model, primary bone marrow cells from a lysozyme-GFP knock-in mouse were arrested in differentiation by an ER-HoxA9 fusion protein. The cells grow indefinitely in the presence of SCF and estradiol, but upon withdrawal of estradiol (inactivation of HoxA9), the cells undergo terminal myeloid differentiation, becoming brightly GFP(+). This model formed the basis of a screen of 350,000 small molecules using the flow-cytometric detection of GFP as a marker of myeloid differentiation. Our screen identified treprostinil, a prostacyclin agonist, as a pro-differentiation agent; prostacyclin agonists have not previously been reported as active in myelopoiesis. The importance of prostacyclin signaling in AML is supported by a number of observations. (1) AML expression databases demonstrate that the prostacyclin receptor (PTGIR) is present on a subset of blasts, making this an attractive therapeutic target. (2) Murine cell lines arrested in differentiation by HoxA9, E2a/Pbx1 and MLL/AF9 upregulate CD11b in response to treprostinil suggesting that stimulation through PTGIR acts via a general mechanism rather than in a HoxA9-specific manner. (3) A subset of primary human AML samples upregulate CD11b when treated with treprostinil ex vivo. (4) Mice bearing a HoxA9-driven secondary leukemia were treated with treprostinil or PBS for 10-days. Those mice treated with treprostinil showed a marked reduction in spleen size and a significant reduction in marrow leukemic burden. Leukemic cells isolated from these mice showed a similar pattern of expression changes as those cells treated in vitro. Prostacyclin agonists may represent a new form of differentiation therapy in the treatment of AML.
Nursing care for patients at end of life in the adult intensive care unit

The care patients receive at the end of life in the intensive care unit (ICU) is highly dependent on the ICU nurse’s knowledge, skill, and comfort level in caring for the dying patient and the patient’s family. However, formal nursing education supports the acute care culture with little or no curriculum offered on end-of-life care. A search for national standards and best practices and participating in the July 2010 End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Train the Trainer conference led to a needs assessment on how best to educate nurses on quality end of life care in the ICU setting. By identifying the nursing education and skills needed for quality end-of-life care in the ICU on the basis of best practices and national standards, ICU nurses can be empowered to provide optimal end-of-life care. Staff education and development is a key strategy for implementing evidenced-based end-of-life care in the ICU setting. Investing in ELNEC training, using available tools such as the IPAL-ICU screening tool to identify unmet palliative needs, training end-of-life resource nurses for specific hospital units, and offering education for hospital staff can begin to raise awareness regarding end-of-life care and change the existing culture. Developing an evidenced-based order set to treat symptoms of the dying patient can help to ensure that such patients’ symptoms are well managed. A willingness to take information about the end of life to the community, such as a partnership with a local nursing school, is a key strategy for filling the gaps in knowledge in end of life care.
A Novel Screening Method for Isolating Exopolysaccharide-Deficient Mutants

A screening method based on differential staining of the wild type and exopolysaccharide-deficient mutants of Rhizobium (Sinorhizobium) meliloti by the lipophilic dye Sudan Black B is described. Mutants defective in the production of either succinoglycan or EPS II (galactoglucan) were isolated by using this method, which might also prove useful for isolating exopolysaccharide-defective derivatives of other bacteria.
Intelligent tutoring systems

Cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer technology have advanced to the point where it is feasible to build computer systems that are as effective as intelligent human tutors. Computer tutors based on a set of pedagogical principles derived from the ACT theory of cognition have been developed for teaching students to do proofs in geometry and to write computer programs in the language LISP.
Shape from the light field boundary

Ray-based representations of shape have received little attention in computer vision. In this paper we show that the problem of recovering shape from silhouettes becomes considerably simplified if it is formulated as a reconstruction problem in the space of oriented rays that intersect the object. The method can be used with both calibrated and uncalibrated cameras, does not rely on point correspondences to compute shape, and does not impose restrictions on object topology or smoothness.
Silicon Photonic On-Chip Optical Interconnection Networks

The recent emergence of multicore processor architectures is challenging the on-chip and inter-node communications infrastructure. We present the design of a silicon photonic network-on-chip that can deliver a high-bandwidth, low-latency, and power efficient scalable solution for future chip multiprocessors.
Ultrastructural localization of blood-retinal barrier breakdown in diabetic and galactosemic rats

Breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) is an early event in diabetic and galactosemic rats, but the location and nature of the specific defect(s) are controversial. Using an electron microscopic immunocytochemical technique, the retinas of normal, diabetic, and galactosemic rats were immunostained for endogenous albumin. Normal rats showed little evidence of BRB breakdown at either the inner barrier (retinal vasculature) or the outer barrier (retinal pigment epithelium) (RPE). In diabetic and galactosemic rats, as was true in human diabetics, BRB breakdown occurred predominantly at the inner BRB, but in some cases at the outer barrier as well. Treatment with the aldose reductase inhibitor sorbinil largely prevented BRB failure in galactosemic rats. In the inner retina of diabetic and galactosemic rats, albumin was frequently demonstrated on the abluminal side of the retinal capillary endothelium (RCE) in intercellular spaces, basal laminae, pericytes, ganglion cells, astrocytes, and the perinuclear ...
A theory of the brain: there are parts of the brain that control other parts

A large body of science about the brain, such as connectionism and artificial neural networks, is based on the notion that there are no controllers in the brain. The paper focuses on connectionism and artificial neural networks and argues that this assumption of "no controllers in the brain" is flawed and violated in every connectionist and neural network system. Moreover, given the current evidence from neuroscience about the brain and from the work of the last fifty years from the connectionist and neural network fields, it is obvious that there are parts of the brain that control other parts. The paper presents this new theory about the brain and argues for it.
Noninvasive determination of perfused blood vessel dimensions using a pressure-diameter relationship

Based on the decisive effects of the hemodynamic/mechanical environments on the development and remodeling of arteries in vivo, several groups have cultured tissue-engineered vessels in various mechanically active perfusions systems leading to the consensus that a mechanically active environment is beneficial for the engineered vessels. To facilitate the interpretation and design of such studies, accurate estimates of the applied forces and resulting stresses are required which in turn require an accurate estimate of vessel dimensions. Here we present and validate a simple technique that uses the measured pressure drop along the length of the vessel to calculate the inner diameter, which when combined with the measured outer diameter, yields wall thickness and area. This approach requires only minor modification of existing perfusion systems and provides noninvasive real-time estimates of wall area within /spl sim/10%.
Sidewall Boundary-Layer Influence on Shock Wave/Turbulent Boundary-Layer Interactions

Gl, G2 = shock generator # 1, # 2 M = Mach number P = pressure Re^ — freestream unit Reynolds number Redot = Reynolds number based on 60* S, R = separation, reattachment T = temperature W = test surface span x = axial coordinate xi = shock intercept with test surface in the absence of any boundary layer y* = vertical coordinate of sonic line a = shock generator angle of attack 6 = boundary-layer thickness 6* = displacement thickness 6 = momentum thickness
Evolution and ecology of influenza A viruses.

Wild aquatic bird populations have long been considered the natural reservoir for influenza A viruses with virus transmission from these birds seeding other avian and mammalian hosts. While most evidence still supports this dogma, recent studies in bats have suggested other reservoir species may also exist. Extensive surveillance studies coupled with an enhanced awareness in response to H5N1 and pandemic 2009 H1N1 outbreaks is also revealing a growing list of animals susceptible to infection with influenza A viruses. Although in a relatively stable host–pathogen interaction in aquatic birds, antigenic, and genetic evolution of influenza A viruses often accompanies interspecies transmission as the virus adapts to a new host. The evolutionary changes in the new hosts result from a number of processes including mutation, reassortment, and recombination. Depending on host and virus these changes can be accompanied by disease outbreaks impacting wildlife, veterinary, and public health.
CHOMP: Covariant Hamiltonian optimization for motion planning

In this paper, we present CHOMP (covariant Hamiltonian optimization for motion planning), a method for trajectory optimization invariant to reparametrization. CHOMP uses functional gradient techniques to iteratively improve the quality of an initial trajectory, optimizing a functional that trades off between a smoothness and an obstacle avoidance component. CHOMP can be used to locally optimize feasible trajectories, as well as to solve motion planning queries, converging to low-cost trajectories even when initialized with infeasible ones. It uses Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to alleviate the problem of convergence to high-cost local minima (and for probabilistic completeness), and is capable of respecting hard constraints along the trajectory. We present extensive experiments with CHOMP on manipulation and locomotion tasks, using seven-degree-of-freedom manipulators and a rough-terrain quadruped robot.
The theory of chirowaveguides

The theory of chirowaveguides is discussed, and their salient features are analyzed. It is shown that the Helmholtz equations for the longitudinal components of electric and magnetic fields in chirowaveguides are always coupled and that, consequently, in these waveguides individual transverse electric (TE), transverse magnetic (TM), or transverse electromagnetic (TEM) modes cannot be supported. As an illustrative example, the parallel-plate chirowaveguide is analyzed in detail and the corresponding dispersion relations, cutoff frequencies, and propagating and evanescent modes are obtained. In the dispersion (Brillouin) diagram for a chirowaveguide, three regions are identified: the fast-fast-wave region, the fast-slow-wave region and the slow-slow-wave region. For each of these regions, the electromagnetic field components in a parallel-plate chirowaveguide are analyzed and the electric field components are plotted. Potential applications of chirowaveguides in integrated optical devices, communications systems, and printed circuit antennas are mentioned. >
Giant condyloma with demise secondary to meningococcemia in an infant boy.

Abstract Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease among adults in the USA; however, the presence of HPV in infants is rare. Condyloma acuminata, a cutaneous, fungating lesion caused by HPV, has a generally mild course that often resolves spontaneously or can be managed both medically and surgically. Typical treatments for condyloma include imiquimoid cream, podofilox gel, podophyllin resin, cryotherapy, laser surgery, tangential shave excision, and electrocautery. Rapidly progressing condyloma acuminata followed by a fatal course of Neisseria meningitis in an infant is an extremely rare presentation that merits further investigation into possible immunologic etiology. A 7-month-old circumcised Caucasian boy presented with a rapidly progressing giant penile condyloma acuminatum. This is the youngest documented case of this type. Refractory to medical and surgical treatments, this otherwise apparently healthy child was referred to pediatric immunology. Normal complete blood count led to deferment, suggesting further medical and surgical treatment. Five days after such treatment, the baby presented with progressive systemic rash, fever and tachycardia. The patient died from meningococcemia. This case serves as a warning concerning the course of condyloma in infants. Immunologic investigation may be critically important in young patients refractory to designated treatments for condyloma.
Simulating physics with computers

This chapter describes the possibility of simulating physics in the classical approximation, a thing which is usually described by local differential equations. But the physical world is quantum mechanical, and therefore the proper problem is the simulation of quantum physics. A computer which will give the same probabilities as the quantum system does. The present theory of physics allows space to go down into infinitesimal distances, wavelengths to get infinitely great, terms to be summed in infinite order, and so forth; and therefore, if this proposition is right, physical law is wrong. Quantum theory and quantizing is a very specific type of theory. The chapter talks about the possibility that there is to be an exact simulation, that the computer will do exactly the same as nature. There are interesting philosophical questions about reasoning, and relationship, observation, and measurement and so on, which computers have stimulated people to think about anew, with new types of thinking.
Rejoinder to Critics of Place Matters

This rejoinder to the previous three critiques acknowledges the gaps and omissions in Place Matters but defends its central argument about the need for a political coalition to push for more regional approaches to spatial inequalities supported by more progressive state and national policies.
Mathematical modeling of relationship between pavement quality indexes and parameters of asphalt mixture

To improve the service performance of pavement,mass data of observation and test were accumulated.According to the data provided by the 4thNational Post-graduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling,the relationship between quality indexes of pavement and parameters of asphalt mixture were analyzed using grey correlation analysis theory,regression analysis and F test method.The mathematical model was established to evaluate the relationship between quality indexes of pavement and parameters of asphalt mixture.The mathematic modeling performed well in processing quantitative data,and successfully selected out the main influencing factors of pavement quality indexes from the provided parameters.The results agree with the achievements in relative fields,which suggests the validity of the model.
Effective field theories

This chapter reviews effective field theory (EFT) techniques, focusing on the intertheoretic relations between low-energy effective theories and their high-energy counterparts. It discusses how EFT can be interpreted and describes the steps in the construction of an EFT in the top-down and bottom-up approaches. The chapter also analyzes the dependence of EFT on renormalization schemes, and evaluates the extent to which the intertheoretic relation between an EFT and its high-energy theory can be described in terms of emergence.
Resource Requirements and Proliferation Risks Associated with Small Modular Reactors

Small modular reactors (SMRs) with power levels much smaller than the currently standard 1000- to 1600-MW(electric) reactor designs have been proposed as a potential game changer for the future of ...
In Situ Optical Sensing and State Estimation for Control of Surface Processing

Many industrial processes involve the modification of surfaces. The semiconductor and microelectronics industries are extremely reliant upon surface processing [1], but other applications include solar cells, MEMS and microfluidics, thermal barrier coatings, and fuel cells. Optical measurements are commonly used to indirectly quantify the surface and bulk properties of materials. Unlike direct imaging methods, in which the local surface topography is visualized, indirect methods provide information on surface and bulk properties which are averaged over the entire area being sampled. Typically, a beam of light is directed at the surface to be measured, and the light interacts with the surface to produce the reflected or diffracted light that is then measured by a photodetector. One advantage of indirect measurement techniques is that they are non-invasive, and therefore can be used in extreme or harsh processing environments such as vacuum chambers and reaction vessels by passing the light through windows. These in situ optical sensors have been used for process control of film thickness and chemical composition. However, many more microscopic and nanoscale surface properties can be measured and potentially controlled using optical sensors. The barriers include the difficulty of modeling the optical response, the difficulty of inverting these relationships to robustly infer surface properties, and the practicality of including windows on the chamber to enable optical access. However, to create precise nanostructures in a high-throughput manufacturing setting, real-time measurement and control will be required, and optical sensors are expected to play a significant role.
CAL-B catalyzed regioselective bulk polymerization of L-aspartic acid diethyl ester to α-linked polypeptides

This paper reports that the bulk polymerization of L-aspartic acid diethyl ester catalyzed by immobilized CAL-B at 80 °C for 24 h gives primarily (∼95%) α-linked poly(L-aspartate) in 70% yield with DPavg = 50 and regioselectivity (α/β) = 94 : 6. Plots of log{[M]0/[M]t} vs. time and DPavgvs. conversion indicate that this polymerization proceeds in a controlled manner by a chain-growth mechanism up to 90% conversion. Thereafter, competition occurs between chain growth and step mechanisms.
Chemical Pursuit: A Modified Trivia Board Game

A cumulative review of content in most college courses is often relegated to either a review session outside of class, during exams, or the last class. Students frequently become bored or overwhelmed. Games provide an interesting way for students to test their understanding of chemical concepts. An educational exercise based on a trivia board game has been developed for use in a chemistry laboratory as a review for the final exam in General Chemistry courses. The categories in the original game provide an easy way to categorize material for review. Since the laboratory period is 3 h and ends before the lecture, students have time to review more material and improve in areas in which they are deficient.
Strengthening International Collaboration in Congenital Heart Surgery

This paper was presented by the author at the 2016 biannual scientific meeting in Abu dhabi of the World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery as his incoming presidential address. In addition to listing the accomplishments of the World Society including several successful international scientific meetings and regional meetings, the Society has established the only journal devoted to congenital heart surgery and is in the process of establishing the new World Society database. The mission statement of the World Society emphasizes equitable global management of patients with congenital heart disease and includes an emphasis on excellence in education, research and community service. The Society will promote international exchange of trainees in congenital heart surgery, the facilitation of international teaching and treatment missions as well as a system for global certification of congenital heart surgeons to facilitate international movement of surgeons to areas of greatest need.
Probing Temperature-Dependent Organo-mineral Interactions with Molecular Spectroscopy and Quartz Crystal Microgravimetry

The global-scale cycling of carbon and mechanisms of carbon storage are important in climate change issues. It is uncertain as to whether climate change will turn soil into a carbon source or change its ability to serve as a sink. In fact, 50–75 % of all natural organic matter (NOM) in soils and sediments is associated with mineral surfaces. These organo-mineral associations can protect NOM from decomposition for timescales of centuries to millennia and serve as a mechanism by which carbon is stored in soils. The stability of organo-mineral complexes, defined as the degree of resistance to decomposition, could affect carbon storage as temperatures increase. The temperature-dependence of the kinetics and mechanisms of carbon stabilization need to be studied for the purpose of developing models to predict how soil carbon reservoirs respond to changes in temperature. Several techniques are proposed to be used in organo-mineral interaction studies. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and quartz crystal microgravimetry are discussed as potential tools to identify chemical bonding environment and adsorption/desorption dynamics.
Carcinogenic risk assessment--the consequences of believing models.

To estimate risks to humans from carcinogens requires extrapolation from animal or other data. Any such extrapolation must be made in the context of a model or models, but no current consensus exists as to which models are correct. There is no shortage of suggested models for this task, each motivated by theoretical arguments, but the differences among them can lead to enormously different predictions. Furthermore, they often lack any practical demonstration of validity.
Kaumātua: Anō te Ātaahua- Honouring the Gifts of Our Elders

Pohaku were present. Stones were everywhere. It was the ho ‘ ailona for this stone carver that I was able to open this photographic exhibition book to bear witness to the depth and presence of what is of substance here in Aotearoa. Kaum ā tua (elders) has, for this Hawaiian cousin, a special meaning as m ā tua is makua, parent. Ma-kua, a place in our body. Kua is our spine or backbone. There at the site of our uprightness is where our elders exist. They are our backbones, the uprightness of ourknowing, our strength. This stunning collection of photographs and brief moments with 63 kaum ā tua is a complete and uplifting expression of mana M ā ori (M ā ori prestige). I was struck by the beauty of te reo (the language); truly, struck. It was as if someone had reached across the Paciﬁc and said, O wai la oe? Who are you? We are who we are. Their voices, their work ethic, their searing eyes, their commitment to the education of youth, to their marae (tribal meeting grounds) and to their faith. This collection is more than uplifting, stunning and timely; it is a road-map giving me guidance, encouragement and steadiness. To remember our future is to be inspired by those who have acted on behalf of a wider good. It was clearly evident that our elders come from this knowing. They responded with their lives. We could see it in their expressions and read it in the summaries of why they were chosen as unsung heroes. In this gathering of brief histories and collected faces we are privy to our own futures, our own best reach. To be in the service of others, to extend what is deep about our own culture, to feed, to care, to bear witness to. What is most important in life? It is indeed people, people, people. Here is a book that honours that karakia (chants and incantations).
Small Base Station Management - Improving Energy Efficiency in Heterogeneous Networks

In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous network (HetNet) system with a cloud control center to dynamically manage small base stations (SBSs) based on traffic load. The cloud can provide a user equipment (UE) association mechanism to balance both traffic load and spectrum allocation of SBSs and the macro base station (MBS) with throughput requirements of uplink and downlink. Our proposed association mechanism and SBS management mechanism can optimize the energy efficiency (EE) of the network and UE by considering EE of both uplink and downlink. Device-to-device communications are adopted under service request probability of UE and distance limitation. The EE optimization problem is solved in two steps in this paper. First, a decoupled association for UE over uplink and downlink is adopted. Least path loss criterion is used for uplink association. And priority SBS under signal-to-interference-plus-noise rate threshold and data rate requirement is applied in downlink association. After association, the SBSs management is implemented iteratively for adjusting the operation of SBSs to maximize the EE of both the network and UE. Simulation results show that our proposed method can improve the EE of the system with better performance on offloading traffic from the MBS to SBSs.
Low-Distortion Social Welfare Functions

Work on implicit utilitarian voting advocates the design of preference aggregation methods that maximize utilitarian social welfare with respect to latent utility functions, based only on observed rankings of the alternatives. This approach has been successfully deployed in order to help people choose a single alternative or a subset of alternatives, but it has previously been unclear how to apply the same approach to the design of social welfare functions, where the desired output is a ranking. We propose to address this problem by assuming that voters’ utilities for rankings are induced by unknown weights and unknown utility functions, which, moreover, have a combinatorial (subadditive) structure. Despite the extreme lack of information about voters’ preferences, we show that it is possible to choose rankings such that the worst-case gap between their social welfare and that of the optimal ranking, called distortion, is no larger (up to polylogarithmic factors) than the distortion associated with much simpler problems. Through experiments, we identify practical methods that achieve nearoptimal social welfare on average.
A preliminary investigation of sleep quality and patient‐reported outcomes in pediatric solid organ transplant candidates

The current cross-sectional, single-center study aimed to examine sleep quality in a sample of adolescents awaiting solid organ transplantation and to explore associations between sleep quality and both health-related quality of life and barriers to adherence. Thirty adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years (M age = 15.26, SD = 1.89) who were awaiting transplantation participated in this study. Participants completed measures of sleep quality, health-related quality of life, and barriers to adherence. T test and correlational analyses were performed to examine study aims. Adolescents awaiting transplantation had significantly lower levels of overall sleep quality compared to published norms of healthy peers. Domains of sleep quality were positively related to emotional and psychosocial health-related quality of life. Sleep quality domains were also negatively related to adherence barriers. This study provides preliminary evidence demonstrating that sleep quality among transplant candidates is compromised, and that poor sleep quality is related to adolescents' functioning across a number of domains during the pretransplant period. Results highlight the clinical importance of assessing and targeting sleep functioning in adolescents awaiting transplantation in order to reduce the negative influence of suboptimal sleep on functioning during this vulnerable period.
Non-Hermitian Selective Thermal Emitters Using Hybrid Plasmonic-Photonic Resonators

We experimentally demonstrate non-Hermitian physics of thermal emitters by coupling a plasmonic resonator with high losses to a bound-state-in-continuum dielectric resonator with low losses. Our thermal emitter exhibits passive $\mathcal{P}\ \mathcal{J}$ -symmetry while operating at 700°C. © 2019 The Author(s)
Quest for a universal density functional: The accuracy of density functionals across a broad spectrum of databases in chemistry and physics

Kohn-Sham density functional theory is in principle an exact formulation of quantum mechanical electronic structure theory, but in practice we have to rely on approximate exchange-correlation (xc) functionals. The objective of our work has been to design an xc functional with broad accuracy across as wide an expanse of chemistry and physics as possible, leading--as a long-range goal--to a functional with good accuracy for all problems, i.e. a universal functional. To guide our path towards that goal and to measure our progress, we have developed-building on earlier work of our group-a set of databases of reference data for a variety of energetic and structural properties in chemistry and physics. These databases include energies of molecular processes, such as atomization, complexation, proton addition and ionization; they also include molecular geometries and solid-state lattice constants, chemical reaction barrier heights, and cohesive energies and band gaps of solids. For this paper, we gather many of these databases into four comprehensive databases, two with 384 energetic data for chemistry and solid-state physics and another two with 68 structural data for chemistry and solid-state physics, and we test two wave function methods and 77 density functionals (12 Minnesota meta functionals and 65 others) in a consistent way across this same broad set of data. We especially highlight the Minnesota density functionals, but the results have broader implications in that one may see the successes and failures of many kinds of density functionals when they are all applied to the same data. Therefore, the results provide a status report on the quest for a universal functional.