cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Review of Nonantibiotic Agents to Prevent Urinary Tract Infections in Older Women

Abstract Objective This article provides a comprehensive literature review on nonantibiotic agents used for the prevention of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women ≥45 years of age. Design A structured review was performed by conducting a literature search to identify relevant studies pertaining to the use of nonantibiotic agents to prevent UTIs in women who were perimenopausal through postmenopausal. Recommendations were made for or against the use of each nonantibiotic agent, unless data were unavailable. Levels of evidence were assigned to each recommendation made. Setting and participants Studies on the prevention of UTIs with women subjects ≥45 years of age in the community, inpatient, and long-term care settings were considered for inclusion. Measure The efficacy and safety of using ascorbic acid, cranberry products, d -mannose, estrogens, lactobacilli, and methenamine hippurate for prevention of UTIs was assessed. Results There is evidence to support use of estrogens (A-I) in postmenopausal women, and cranberry capsules (C-I) in women ≥45 years of age for the prevention of UTIs. There was a lack of evidence to make recommendations for or against the use of ascorbic acid, cranberry juice, cranberry capsules with high proanthocyanidin (PAC) content, d -mannose, lactobacillus, and methenamine hippurate in this population. Conclusions/Implications Current studies support that estrogens and cranberry capsules may have a role in preventing UTIs in women ≥45 years of age. Further research is needed to elucidate the role of these nonantibiotic agents and how they may be used to decrease antibiotic use.
Lossy Mode Resonance based Optical Fiber-Tip Moisture Sensor in Foods

We designed, fabricated, and characterized a lossy mode resonance based optical fiber-tip moisture sensor. We experimentally demonstrated the sensor’s capability of in-situ moisture content monitoring within food samples during their drying process.
Five Keys from the Past to the Future of CALL.

Current trends in CALL such as mobile learning, gamification, and use of social media appear to represent major shifts in the digital language learning landscape. However, these and other applications of technology to mediate language learning may be informed by reflecting not only on the present but perhaps more importantly on relevant insights from past research and practice. This article draws on selected studies and the author's experience to lay out five key lessons learned over more than three decades in CALL. These lessons involve understanding: 1) the cycle of technology adoption; 2) the dimensions of technology mediation in the language learning process; 3) the promise and limitations of CALL research; 4) the critical importance of teacher education and professional development in an age of continuous change; and 5) the need for learner training for effective technology use. Teachers, researchers, and developers alike are encouraged to reflect on these lessons as they create and seek to control the technologies, tasks, and activities of the future.
Oculomotor Nerve Palsy in the Emergency Department: A Complication of Epidural Injection

Abstract Background Epidural injections are routinely used for management of radicular pain and are prevalent nonsurgical interventions for chronic low back pain. Pneumocephalus is a rare complication that may occur as a result of inadvertent dural puncture with an epidural needle. Pneumocephalus-induced cranial nerve deficit is also rare, with only a few reported cases. Case Report We report a case of a 61-year-old woman with a chief complaint of diplopia after she underwent epidural injection for chronic lumbar pain. Her examination was remarkable for a partial right oculomotor nerve palsy. We obtained a computed tomography brain scan, which revealed pneumocephalus. She was managed conservatively and reported complete symptom resolution after 2 weeks. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? Pneumocephalus is an uncommon complication of epidural spinal injections. Emergency physicians should include this on the differential for a patient presenting with cranial nerve deficit after this procedure.
Adaptive Orientation Imaging Microscopy

This paper describes a new form of orientation imaging microscopy: Adaptive Orientation Imaging Microscopy or AOIM. In standard OIM experiments the local orientation of the crystal lattice is determined with respect to a suitable reference frame by acquiring and indexing electron back-scattering (EBS) patterns on a square or hexagonal grid of sampling points. Since its invention, OIM has been extensively used to characterize polycrystalline materials. With the fast development of computers and CCD camera systems in the past few years, the standard OIM can now acquire and index of the order of 4000 EBS patterns per hour.In a typical OIM experiment one is usually interested in either the overall texture of. the sample, or in the types and relative frequencies of grain boundaries. In the former case the proper way of acquiring orientation data involves the use of an equidistant grid of sampling points. In the latter case, however, a large fraction of the acquisition time is wasted sampling the grain interior, which does not provide any information about the grain boundaries.
Digital Public Forums: Power and Representation in the Internet’s Public Squares

Political engagement is increasingly digital. Recent United States (US) court cases such as Knight v. Trump, which examines interaction between the President and citizens on Twitter, highlight the ...
Why Do Medical Students Choose to Become Neurologists? A Computational Linguistics Analysis of Residency Personal Statements (S39.001)

Objective: We sought to understand medical students’ motivations for choosing neurology, specifically investigating how applicants of different backgrounds conceptualize this field. This information can be used to foster further interest in neurology and develop educational programs to help future neurologists find gratifying career paths. Background: Applicants to neurology residencies submit personal statements via the Electronic Residency Application System (ERAS). Textual analysis of personal statements has been performed in internal medicine, but never before in neurology. By using computational linguistics software, key words can be assessed to study motivations, expectations, and themes present amongst neurology applicants. Design/Methods: 2,405 personal statements submitted over five years to our institution were de-identified and compiled into a database for evaluation through two computational linguistics software programs. We searched for term frequency (TF), utilized term weighting models, and calculated Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF), to evaluate statistical differences among subgroups. Results: Specific disease states and subspecialties were often discussed in personal statements, with widely variable term frequency. For example, stroke (TF=2178), epilepsy (TF=970), dementia (TF=944) were referenced more often than ALS (TF=220) and carpal tunnel (TF=10). The most common proper names cited include Oliver Sacks (TF=94) and Sherlock Holmes (TF=41). Females commonly mentioned: health, stroke, brain, love, student, and family; males referenced: stroke, human, training, brain, and teach. Further linguistic analysis of gender differences showed females emphasized: grandmother, puzzle, language, dance, culture, mother, and support, while male counterparts highlighted: computer, technology, highlight, EEG, neurophysiology, benefit, and suffer. Conclusions: This first computational linguistic analysis of neurology personal statements provides an initial characterization of medical student motivations, highlighting interest in specific disease states and subspecialties. In gender subgroup analysis, there was large variation in language used by males and females. Ongoing subgroup and thematic analyses will inform neuro-educational strategies and enhance recruitment to our field. Disclosure: Dr. Cheung has nothing to disclose. Dr. Grzebinski has nothing to disclose. Dr. Sanky has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for Associate Editor for AHEAD, the University of Michigan School of Social Work’s research magazine. Dr. Ouyang has nothing to disclose. Dr. Krieger has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Acorda, Bayer, Biogen, Celgene, EMD Serono, Genentech, Genzyme, Mallinckrodt, MedDay, Novartis, Teva, and TG Therapeutics.
Studying Subject Ontogeny at Scale in a Polyhierarchical Indexing Language

Subject ontogeny, the study of how subjects change or do not change during revisions of indexing languages, has added to our understanding of indexing languages through case studies. However, subject ontogeny research to date has been unable to examine key functionality of indexing languages at scale. For example, how do large-scale changes to social and literary warrant affect the utility of indexing languages over time? This paper discusses concrete progress made towards studying subject ontogeny at scale and the challenges presented by studying a large-scale polyhierarchical indexing language, Wikipedia Categories. The paper presents early findings, argues for continued research on subject ontogeny at scale, and suggests possible paths forward for this research.
Real-Time Evasion Attacks against Deep Learning-Based Anomaly Detection from Distributed System Logs

Distributed system logs, which record states and events that occurred during the execution of a distributed system, provide valuable information for troubleshooting and diagnosis of its operational issues. Due to the complexity of such systems, there have been some recent research efforts on automating anomaly detection from distributed system logs using deep learning models. As these anomaly detection models can also be used to detect malicious activities inside distributed systems, it is important to understand their robustness against evasive manipulations in adversarial environments. Although there are various attacks against deep learning models in domains such as natural language processing and image classification, they cannot be applied directly to evade anomaly detection from distributed system logs. In this work, we explore the adversarial robustness of deep learning-based anomaly detection models on distributed system logs. We propose a real-time attack method called LAM (Log Anomaly Mask) to perturb streaming logs with minimal modifications in an online fashion so that the attacks can evade anomaly detection by even the state-of-the-art deep learning models. To overcome the search space complexity challenge, LAM models the perturber as a reinforcement learning agent that operates in a partially observable environment to predict the best perturbation action. We have evaluated the effectiveness of LAM on two log-based anomaly detection systems for distributed systems: DeepLog and an AutoEncoder-based anomaly detection system. Our experimental results show that LAM significantly reduces the true positive rate of these two models while achieving attack imperceptibility and real-time responsiveness.
Neo-darwinism still haunts evolutionary theory: A modern perspective on Charlesworth, Lande, and Slatkin (1982)

The Modern Synthesis (or "Neo-Darwinism"), which arose out of the reconciliation of Darwin's theory of natural selection and Mendel's research on genetics, remains the foundation of evolutionary theory. However, since its inception, it has been a lightning rod for criticism, which has ranged from minor quibbles to complete dismissal. Among the most famous of the critics was Stephen Jay Gould, who, in 1980, proclaimed that the Modern Synthesis was "effectively dead." Gould and others claimed that the action of natural selection on random mutations was insufficient on its own to explain patterns of macroevolutionary diversity and divergence, and that new processes were required to explain findings from the fossil record. In 1982, Charlesworth, Lande, and Slatkin published a response to this critique in Evolution, in which they argued that Neo-Darwinism was indeed sufficient to explain macroevolutionary patterns. In this Perspective for the 75th Anniversary of the Society for the Study of Evolution, we review Charlesworth et al. in its historical context and provide modern support for their arguments. We emphasize the importance of microevolutionary processes in the study of macroevolutionary patterns. Ultimately, we conclude that punctuated equilibrium did not represent a major revolution in evolutionary biology - although debate on this point stimulated significant research and furthered the field - and that Neo-Darwinism is alive and well.
In situ optical study of the phase transformation kinetics of plasmonic Ag in laser-irradiated nanocomposite glass

Abstract A real-time spectroscopic study of the optical response of plasmonic Ag produced during thermal processing of laser-irradiated silver nanocomposite glass has been carried out. Specifically, this work addresses the early stage of in situ heat treatment prior to the plasmonic coupling which has been reported for relatively high temperatures and long holding times [13]. The data supports the plasmonic Ag phase transformation in the confined “super nucleation” regimes created as a result of the photofragmentation of Ag nanoparticles by the laser pulses. Consistent application of the Kolmogorov–Johnson–Mehl–Avrami theory in the 623–653 K relatively low temperature range to optical data collected in the 1–15 min time window allows for determining an activation energy for the phase transformation in the non-interacting regime at 0.55 (± 0.04) eV.
Using Spatial Language to Guide and Instruct Robots in Household Environments

We present an approach for enabling in-home service robots to follow natural language commands from non-expert users, with a particular focus on spatial language understanding. Specifically, we propose an extension to the semantic field model of spatial prepositions that enables the representation of dynamic spatial relations involving paths. The relevance of the proposed methodology to interactive robot learning is discussed, and the paper concludes with a description of how we plan to integrate and evaluate our proposed model with end-users.
Comparative geothermometry based on major-element and oxygen isotope distributions in Precambrian metamorphic rocks from southwestern Montana

Mineral assemblages in the Kelly and Carter Creek areas of the Ruby Range, southwestern Montana, indicate orthopyroxene-zone and sillimanite-K felspar-zone metamorphism, respectively. Because the two areas are small and contain diverse lithologies, they are ideal for a comparative study of mineral-pair geothermometers and grade indicators. For the Kelly area, various major-element methods (clinopyroxene-orthopyroxene, garnet-orthopyroxene, garnet-hornblende, garnet-biotite, and K feldspar-plagioclase) yield a consensus peak temperature estimate of 745 +- 50/sup 0/C. For the Carter Creek area, garnet-clinopyroxene, garnet-hornblende, garnet-biotite, and K fledspar-plagioclase methods plus assemblage data yield 675 +- 45/sup 0/c. Coexisting quartz and magnetite in metamorphic iron-formations from the two areas yield anomalously low temperature estimates of 530 +- 15/sup 0/C and 475 +- 25/sup 0/C, respectively, based on oxygen isotopic fractionations of 8.41 +- 0.30 per mil and 9.92 +- 0.20 per mil. Similarly, Mg distributions between calcite and dolomite in metadolomites from the Kelly area yield estimates of ca. 545/sup 0/C. These lower temperatures are probably the result of (1) solid-state diffusion of chemical species between minerals; or (2) recrystallization of quartz, magnetite, and carbonates (i.e., the non-refractory minerals) during retrograde or subsequent low-grade metamorphism. Another low estimate (545/sup 0/C) is obtained from rim compositions of coexisting garnetmore » and cordierite in one magnesian meta-pelite sample from the Kelly area. This estimate is consistent with the observation of cordierite coronas on garnet, a texture that suggests retrograde origin for the cordierite. These data show it cannot be assumed a priori that a given geothermometer will record peak metamorphic temperature. Instead, the bimodal discordance of estimates presented here reflects the varied response of different mineral pairs to a given metamorphic and tectonic history.« less
Isolation of completely inactive plasma prorenin and its activation by kallikreins. A possible new link between renin and kallikrein.

Abstract Existing views on prorenin are conflicting and its physiological activation mechanism is not clear. In an attempt to obtain clearcut views on the molecular properties of prorenin in human plasma, the renin zymogen (prorenin) was separated from active renin by two steps of affinity chromatography and it was demonstrated that prorenin is a completely inactive zymogen contrary to the existing information. Inactive prorenin has an apparent molecular weight of 56 000 contrary to 46 000-43 000 of partially active prorenin. Isolated and acid-treated human prorenin was shown to be activated by kallikreins from human urine and plasma. This activation was completely blocked by trasylol. Hog pancreatic kallikrein also activated human prorenin. The kallikrein mediated activation of prorenin indicates the existence of a new link between the vasoconstricting renin-angiotensin system and the vasodilating kallikreinkinin system.
Ultrasonic Inspection of Acoustically “Noisy” Materials

Ultrasonic inspection of large gas turbine rotor forgings made of IN706 (40Ni-15Cr-Ti-Nb superalloy) is complicated by the material’s anisotropic and nonuniform acoustic properties. These properties stem from the intrinsically coarse grain structure of IN706 in forgings weighing up to 22,000 pounds and having axial and radial dimensions up to 20 inches and 90 inches, respectively. Although recent advances in the melting and forging processes have helped to improve the material’s microstructure, many characteristics still preside which make ultrasonic inspection a challenge. The inspection and signal processing techniques described herein compensate for variations in the acoustic properties that we have observed from forging to forging as well as within any given forging. These techniques may be applied to a wide variety of applications dealing with acoustically noisy materials with nonuniform acoustic characteristics.
Low molar mass thieno[3,2-b] and thieno[2,3-b]thiophenes in liquid crystal materials science: recent synthetic approaches

One of us (AJS) was fortunate enough to have known Professor George Gray during his final years of teaching at the University of Hull. In 1989, I was finishing my undergraduate studies when I sat in George's class entitled Proteins and Polypeptides. I was in awe of George, as were all students in the class, but struck by his down-to-earth demeanour, warmth, approachability and his soft Scottish accent (I still have the notes I took from his class). George was a truly inspirational teacher to everyone who knew him and I consider it a great privilege to have known him. During my time at Hull I became fascinated with thiophene-containing liquid crystals, my interest being strongly influenced by George Gray, Ken Toyne and Mike Scrowston. This manuscript is my small tribute to George and it describes our new methodological developments in the synthesis of low molar mass liquid crystals that contain the thieno[3,2-b]thiophene and thieno[2,3-b]thiophene cores.
Neuroscience, Atomic Physics, and the Human Person

This article is an integration of the contents of three talks and one text that I have prepared and delivered during the past year. They were aimed at four different audiences. The first talk was at a small conference in Philadelphia of scientists who are leading proponents of various diverse efforts to further develop and understand quantum theory. The second talk was at a public event in Switzerland where a number of scientists, and several artists, described to a general audience recent developments aimed at a better understanding of the nature of the human person. The third talk was at a conference in Tucson entitled “Quantum Approaches to the Understanding of Consciousness” and attended mainly by physicists, psychologists, and neuroscientists. The “text” was a section of a chapter of a book aimed at neuroscientists. Although the details of these four presentations were different, the essential content was the same: an explanation of the enormous difference in the scientific conception of the connection between mind and brain brought about by the replacement of the essentially seventeenth-century classical physical theory of Newton, Galileo, and Descartes by the twentieth-century quantum physics of Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, and von Neumann.
Endothelial cell motility, coordination and pattern formation during vasculogenesis

How vascular networks assemble is a fundamental problem of developmental biology that also has medical importance. To explain the organizational principles behind vascular patterning, we must understand how can tissue level structures be controlled through cell behavior patterns like motility and adhesion that, in turn, are determined by biochemical signal transduction processes? We discuss the various ideas that have been proposed as mechanisms for vascular network assembly: cell motility guided by extracellular matrix alignment (contact guidance), chemotaxis guided by paracrine and autocrine morphogens, and multicellular sprouting guided by cell-cell contacts. All of these processes yield emergent patterns, thus endothelial cells can form an interconnected structure autonomously, without guidance from an external pre-pattern.
Calls for caution in genome engineering should be a model for similar dialogue on pandemic pathogen research.

This commentary discusses genome engineering and pandemic pathogen research. The authors call for appropriate transparency, safeguards, and limits to such research and advise that scientific, clini...
Probabilistic user modeling in the presence of drifting concepts

We investigate supervised prediction tasks which involve multiple agents over time, in the presence of drifting concepts. The motivation behind choosing the topic is that such tasks arise in many domains which require predicting human actions. An example of such a task is recommender systems, where it is required to predict the future ratings, given features describing items and context along with the previous ratings assigned by the users. In such a system, the relationships among the features and the class values can vary over time. A common challenge to learners in such a setting is that this variation can occur both across time for a given agent, and also across different agents, (i.e. each agent behaves differently). Furthermore, the factors causing this variation are often hidden. We explore probabilistic models suitable for this setting, along with efficient algorithms to learn the model structure. Our experiments use the Netflix Prize dataset, a real world dataset which shows the presence of time variant concepts. The results show that the approaches we describe are more accurate than alternative approaches, especially when there is a large variation among agents. All the data and source code would be made open-source under the GNU GPL.
Argentaffine Tumors of the Gastro-Intestinal Tract: Report of Eleven Cases

Summary Five of eight cases of argentaffine tumors of the appendix had symptoms of appendicitis, while three were discovered when the patients were operated on for other conditions (one hysterectomy and two cholecystectomies). None of the argentaffine tumors of the appendix had metastasized and none appeared to be malignant. These patients were followed for an average of five and one half years after surgery without any evidence of a recurrence. It is possible that argentaffine tumors of the appendix cause symptoms of appendicitis and are removed before they have a chance to become malignant. An argentaffine tumor of the cecum is presented. There have been five such cases previously reported. Argentaffine tumors may occur in any part of the gastrointestinal tract. A case of argentaffine tumor of the ileum is presented. The primary tumor was removed at the first operation but a large node also present was not. The patient received deep roentgen therapy prior to a second operation in which the mesentery and the node were removed. There was no apparent effect of the roentgen therapy on the node. Another case is presented in which the patient had an argentaffine tumor of the ileum with extensive metastasis to regional and peri-aortic lymph nodes. In addition to the main lesion, there were several other smaller tumor nodules in the resected ileum. It is not unusual to find multiple argentaffine tumors of the small intestine. All three argentaffine tumors located outside the appendix (i.e. one in the cecum and two in the ileum) were malignant and had metastatic glands. Two patients died, while one patient was living and well eight years after the operation. Argentaffine tumors must be considered potentially malignant.
Burn Care Update

This issue of "Perioperative Nursing Clinics" will include the following topics: History of Burn Care; Pathophysiology of Burns; Perioperative Considerations for the Burn Injured Patient; Surgical Procedures for the Burn Patient; Epicells; Reconstructive/Plastic Surgery; OR/PACU/ICU Hand Off; Pain; Infection Control; Surgical Care of Thermally Injured Patients on the Battlefield; Burn Pressure Ulcer Management in the Perioperative Burn Patient; Conducting Research in the Operating Room; High-Tech, High-Stress Environment for the Burn Nurse; Costs; and, Personal Experiences of a Perioperative Burn Nurse in the Military.
Effect of environmental temperature on conditioning in the new-born poikilothermic rat.

IN the rat a period of poikilothermy exists for approximately the first seventeen days of life1–2. In this phase of the development action potentials and nerve conduction rate decrease with the lowering of the environmental temperature3. Temperature may change, therefore, the ability of the new-born rat to learn the conditioned leg withdrawal to a vibrotactile stimulus.
On in situ 'calibration' of shipboard ADCPs

Methods for in situ calibration of acoustic-Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) are considered for measurement of absolute current profiles from a moving ship. Errors are of two types: sensitivity and alignment. Least square error estimates are given for experimental determination of both factors, for use in the 'water track' or 'bottom tracking' mode. Errors in the estimation of either factor may lead to large errors in derived water velocities, although the major contributions of the two factors arise from different sources and are approximately orthogonal to one another.
On the necessary conditions for homogeneous nucleation of gas bubbles in liquids

The thermodynamics and kinetics of the homogeneous nucleation of gas bubbles in liquids is rederived. The nucleation rate is found to be essentially independent of solute species. The nucleation rate expression is evaluated for common gases dissolved in blood. This rate is found to be greater than 1 cm-3 sec-1 only when the initial (pre-decompression) partial pressure of the solute gas exceeds 1900 atm. It is concluded that the medical condition of dysbarism is not due to homogeneous nucleation of gas bubbles in the blood.
Weak-isospin violation in "walking" technicolor.

We show that the mechanism which enhances ordinary fermion masses and raises the masses of pseudo Goldstone bosons in walking-technicolor models may also lead to an enhancement of weak-isospin\char21{}violating effects of extended-technicolor interactions. We discuss the constraints on these models due to limits on the deviation of the \ensuremath{\rho} parameter from 1.
Interactive Visualization of Protein Dynamics in Ribbon Mode

In recent years, experimental methods have uncovered more and more dynamic properties of molecular systems. Novel techniques for post-processing data from cryo-electron microscopy or small angle X-ray scattering nowadays routinely reveal conformational differences linked to functional states of a biological system. As opposed to molecular dynamics, these methods typically yield information about larger systems, which in effect makes an interactive visualization of the results challenging.This poster presents an approach that computes a depiction in the more abstract ribbon or cartoon mode, which highlights the secondary structure information of a protein. To accomplish interactive frame rates, the algorithm offloads computational work from a PC's CPU to its graphical processing unit (GPU). This is achieved by separating two phases in the calculation of the geometry representing the protein. The first one involves creating a smooth curve along the protein's backbone, which requires global information and thus has to be computed by the CPU. In the second phase, vertices along that curve are moved to build the geometry for the molecule's depiction. Because local information is sufficient for that, this is handled exclusively by the GPU.The speed-up factor achieved moves a range of large time-varying proteins into the category of those which can be depicted with interactive frame rates. For intermediate sized molecules, the speed-up results in an even smoother animation and an overall increase of the reactivity of the whole program. Especially simultaneously running processes, e.g. calculations for multi-scale modeling, can benefit from the additionally available CPU resources, too.This work was supported by startup funds of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, by NIH grant R01GM62968, and by a grant from the Gillson Longenbaugh Foundation.
Corruption as a Feature of Governmental Organization

This is an exploratory paper, the purposes of which are to identify the principal variables having to do with corruption in governmental organizations in the United States and to point out some significant relationships among them. The paper begins by setting forth a conceptual scheme for the description and analysis of corruption in all sorts of organizational settings. This is applied first to the “typical” business and then to the “typical” governmental organization. (The reason for introducing the business organization into the discussion is to create a contrast that will highlight the characteristic features of governmental organization.) In the concluding section some dynamic factors are noted.
Online distributed ADMM via dual averaging

This paper presents a convergence analysis on a distributed Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm which solves online convex optimization problems under linear constraints. The goal is to distributively optimize a global objective function over a network of decision makers. The global objective function is composed of convex cost functions associated with each agent. The local cost functions can be broken down into two convex functions, one of which is revealed over time to the decision makers and one known a priori. We extend an online ADMM algorithm to a distributed setting based on dual-averaging. We then explore the rate of convergence of the performance of the sequence of decisions generated by the algorithm to the best fixed decision in hindsight. This performance metric is called regret. An upper bound on the regret of the proposed algorithm is presented as a function of the underlying network topology and linear constraints. The online distributed ADMM algorithm is then applied to a formation acquisition problem.
Novel Fluorescent Visualization Method to Characterize Transport Properties in Micro/Nano Heat Pipe Wick Structures

Heat pipes have been gaining a lot of popularity in electronics cooling applications due to their ease of operation, reliability, and high effective thermal conductivity. An important component of a heat pipe is the wick structure, which transports the condensate from condenser to evaporator. The design of wick structures is complicated by competing requirements to create high capillary driving forces and maintain high permeability. While generating large pore sizes will help achieve high permeability, it will significantly reduce the wick’s capillary performance. This study presents a novel experimental method to simultaneously measure capillary and permeability characteristics of the wick structures using fluorescent visualization. This technique will be used to study the effects of pore size and gravitational force on the flow-related properties of the wick structures. Initial results are presented on wick samples visually characterized from zero to nine g acceleration on a centrifuge. These results will provide a tool to understand the physics involved in transport through porous structures and help in the design of high performance heat pipes.© 2009 ASME
Remorse and a Previously Punished Offense in Assignment of Punishment and Estimated Likelihood of a Repeated Offense

A total of 149 college students read two vignettes, one about an individual who had been arrested for assault and one about a psychologist who had violated confidentiality. In a 2 × 2 design, variables examined were whether the person had previously been punished for a similar offense and whether the person expressed remorse for the recent act. Participants made two judgments about each story, (1) estimates of the likelihood that the protagonists would do the same thing again and (2) assignment of an appropriate punishment. For the criminal act but not for the improper act of the psychologist the expression of remorse significantly affected estimates of likelihood of a repeated offense and the length of assigned sentence. Detection and punishment of a previous offense affected judgments of the probability of a future offense but not assigned sentence for both the criminal offense and the violation of professional standards.
Performance characteristics of a pilot-scale biomass gasifier using oxygen-enriched air and steam

Abstract This study is to investigate the characteristics of a biomass gasification system using mixtures of “oxygen-enriched air” and steam as the gasifying agent for increasing the syngas heating value and combustible gas constituents. This study also aims to characterize the effects of oxygen-and-steam gasification on ammonia concentration that can lead to significant NOx emissions from syngas combustion. Experiments are conducted using a pilot-scale, pressurized bubbling fluidized bed gasifier with a capacity of five tons per day. Pure oxygen is added to air before mixing with steam for gasification. A significant amount of steam is required to control the reactivity of the system at high oxygen levels. The oxygen content in the enriched air varies from 21, 45, to 80 vol.% on dry basis, corresponding to 21, 30, and 40 vol.% on wet basis respectively. The bed temperature is maintained at 800 °C for all tests. Three different biomass feedstocks with nitrogen contents varying from 0.05 to 1.4 wt.% are used for study (i.e., pine, maple-oak mixture, and discarded seed corn). The syngas dry composition is measured using a microgas chromatograph while ammonia concentration and moisture content are measured using a modified IEA Tar Protocol and Karl Fischer Titration respectively. Results indicate that oxygen-enriched air and steam gasification favors the production of combustible gas components including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, and lighter hydrocarbons. When 40% oxygen is used, hydrogen increases by 70%, 47%, and 32% for pine, maple-oak, and seed corn respectively, while CO increases by 34%, 18%, and 8.6% respectively. Overall, it is found that oxygen and steam gasification is most effective for feedstock with low nitrogen and moisture contents. Results also show that ammonia and NOx concentrations in syngas increase as oxygen enrichment increases. The lower heating value of syngas can increase by as much as 43% for the feedstock studied. When the oxygen level increases from 21% to 40%, the H 2 /CO ratio also increases from 0.59 to 0.75, 0.67 to 0.84, and 0.36 to 0.43 for pine, maple-oak, and seed corn respectively. Despite the improvement, the H 2 /CO ratio is still moderate. The moderate H 2 /CO ratio is explained by the high water content in syngas at high oxygen and steam conditions, indicating a large amount of un-reacted steam at the current gasifier temperature at 800 °C.
678 THE VALUES OF ABDOMINAL GIRTH MEASUREMENT

The clinical value of measuring neonatal abdominal girth is not well established although it is frequently recorded. We studied 43 newborns with gestational ages ranging from 28-40 weeks. Measurements were obtained shortly after birth and before feeding by encircling the abdomen such that the lower border of the tape measure was directly above the umbilicus and the two iliac crests. The data were analyzed by standard regression analysis techniques. The relationship of abdominal girth was greater with weight (r=.90) than with age (r=.83) although both were significant (P<0.05). The regression line for mean abdominal girth as a straight line function of weight is given by: Abdominal girth (cm)=18.90 ± 3.5 (kg). The standard deviation of points around the line equals 1.54 cm. (i.e.standard error of estimate). The following chart shows, at four selected weights, the estimated mean girth as given by the above regression equation. Preliminary data show that abdominal measurements outside the 95% prediction limits indicate possible gastrointestinal and abdominal pathology. Frequent abdominal girth measurements may be a useful screening procedure for gastrointestinal and abdominal pathology in pre-term and full term newborns.
Mutation of tyrosine 318 (Y318F) in the delta-opioid receptor attenuates tyrosine phosphorylation, agonist-dependent receptor internalization, and mitogen-activated protein kinase activation

Opioid receptors are known for their ability to activate diverse second messenger systems. Previously, we showed that selective delta-opioid agonists were able to induce the rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of delta-opioid receptors (delta-ORs) through Src. Src-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation of delta-ORs appears to be important for activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade and for receptor sequestration into clathrin-coated endosomes, as the Src antagonist, PP1, inhibited both. In an attempt to clarify the role of tyrosine phosphorylation in delta-OR signalling and regulation, we constructed a mutant receptor in which the tyrosine located in the conserved NPXXY motif of the C-terminus was replaced by a phenylalanine (Y318F-delta-OR). Mutation of Y318 resulted in a receptor that was comparable to the wild type in its expression level in HEK-293 cells and in its affinity for opioid ligands. Both receptors showed effective coupling to G proteins and were capable of inhibiting forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation with similar potencies. However, the mutant receptor was able to stimulate (35)S-GTPgammaS binding with a lower EC(50) than the wild type receptor. The stimulation of tyrosine phosphorylation in delta-ORs by [D-Thr(2)]-Leu-enkephalin-Thr (DTLET) was significantly less in cells expressing the Y318F-delta-OR than in cells expressing the wild type. In addition, both rapid receptor internalization and down-regulation were markedly attenuated in the mutant. Finally, the mutant receptor was unable to induce a robust activation of the MAPK pathway, suggesting that tyrosine phosphorylation of the delta-OR protein is important for this signalling pathway. These findings implicate tyrosine phosphorylation of Y318 in receptor signalling and agonist-mediated regulation.
Effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and defined simple media on in vitro bovine oocyte maturation and early embryonic development

Abstract The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of EGF and defined simple media on in vitro bovine oocyte maturation and early embryonic development. Bovine follicular oocytes were matured in vitro and co-cultured with frozen-thawed bull sperm, which was capacitated with Hepes buffered saline (HBS) solution. After incubation of oocyte-sperm complexes for 4 days, the cleavage rate was evaluated. The results obtained were as follows: 1) When bovine oocytes were matured and embryos were developed in Park-Lin medium 1 (PL 1 ) containing fetal calf serum (FCS) or EGF + bovine serum albumin (BSA), the latter treatment was more effective in inducing embryonic cleavage (18%) than FCS alone (10%). 2) When bovine oocytes were matured in Park-Lin medium 2 (PL 2 ) without EGF and the subsequent embryos were developed in PL 2 medium with EGF, the cleavage rate was 22.6%. 3) When bovine oocytes were matured in PL 2 medium with EGF and then the embryos were developed in PL 2 medium with EGF, the cleavage rate was 35.8%. 4) When bovine oocytes were matured in Park-Lin medium 3 (PL 3 ) without EGF and then the embryos were developed in PL 3 medium, the cleavage rate was 50%. 5) When bovine oocytes and resulting embryos were matured in PL 3 medium with EGF, the cleavage rate was 53%. 6) The parthenogenesis rate induced by PL 3 medium in our current study was comparable to the findings reported by other laboratories. These results suggest that EGF stimulates in vitro bovine oocyte maturation and subsequently affects embryonic development. It is suggested that PL 3 medium is a better defined simple medium than the other media currently used by other laboratories for in vitro bovine oocyte maturation.
Computational Analysis of the Solvent Effect on the Barrier to Rotation about the Conjugated C−N Bond in Methyl N,N-Dimethylcarbamate

It is known experimentally that, in contrast to the case of amides, barriers to rotation about the conjugated C−N bonds of carbamates show very little solvent dependence. Calculations of the relative solvation energies of the equilibrium and transition state structures of methyl N,N-dimethylcarbamate (MDMC) and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) were carried out using a continuum reaction field model in order to investigate the reason that bulk solvent polarity raises the barrier for DMA but leaves the barrier for MDMC unchanged. The results confirmed that MDMC is insensitive to bulk solvent polarity, probably as a result of the relatively small molecular dipole moment. Calculations of proton affinities and of the strength of association with a single water molecule were then performed in order to investigate why hydrogen-bond-donating solvents affect DMA but not MDMC. These calculations showed that MDMC is a less capable hydrogen-bond acceptor than DMA, and that the rotational barrier of MDMC does not increase ...
Hyperuniversality and the renormalization group for finite systems.

The structure of finite-size scaling within the framework of the field-theoretic renormalization-group approach is examined. New size-dependent ultraviolet divergences are introduced into the theory. It is shown, nonetheless, that ``two-scale-factor'' universality reflects itself in the finite-size free energy and produces a scaling form such as that discussed by Privman and Fisher. A consequence is that the singular part of the finite-system free energy at the bulk critical point is universal. Extensions to surface and interfacial free energies, first proposed from the results of Ising simulations, are supported qualitatively.
The synthesis of 13N labeled atmospheric gases via proton irradiation of a high pressure oxygen target.

The bombardment of a 10–15 atm high purity O2 target with a 5–10 μA beam of 15 MeV protons produces 13N(t12 = 9·96 min) by the 16O(p,α) 13N nuclear reaction. The nitrogen atoms are incorporated into the primary products, 13N2, 13N2O and 13NO2 in a ratio of 8:1:3·5 respectively. Cryogenic recovery of 13NO2 under steady-state production conditions corresponds to 1 mCiμA. The concentration of radiolytically produced carrier NO2 is in the range of a 0·3–0·6 ppm.
Early Holocene change in atmospheric circulation in the Northern Great Plains: an upstream view of the 8.2 ka cold event

Elk Lake, in northwestern Minnesota, contains numerous proxy records of climatic and environmental change contained in varved sediments with annual resolution for the last 10,000 years. These proxies show that about 8200 calendar years ago (8.2 cal. ka; 7300 radiocarbon years) Elk Lake went froma well-stratified lake that was wind-protected in a boreal forest to a wellmixed lake in open prairie savanna receiving northwesterly wind-blown dust, probably from the dry floor of Lake Agassiz. This change in climate marks the initiation of the widely recognized mid-Holocene ‘‘altithermal’’ in central North America. The coincidence of this change with the so-called 8.2 cal. ka cold event, recognized in ice-core and other records fromthe circum-North Atlantic, and thought by some to be caused by catastrophic discharge of freshwater from proglacial lakes Agassiz and Ojibway, suggests that the two ‘‘events’’ might be related. Our interpretation of the Elk Lake proxy records, and of other records from less accurately dated sites, suggests that change in climate over North America was the result of a fundamental change in atmospheric circulation in response to marked changes in the relative proportions of land, water, and, especially, glacial ice in North America during the early Holocene. This change in circulation probably post-dates the final drainage of proglacial lakes along the southern margin of the Laurentide ice sheet, and may have produced a minor perturbation in climate over Greenland that resulted in a brief cold pulse detected in ice cores. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sequential whole bladder photodynamic therapy treatments: A preclinical study.

Abstract We postulated that sequential whole bladder photodynamic therapy (WBPDT) treatments with a low WBPDT dose would result in improved safety profile and good local tumor control. However, the drawback with such a proposal is the potential cumulative effect of sequential WBPDT treatments on bladder function. We designed this preclinical study to determine the safety of sequential WBPDT treatments. Six female dogs underwent a single WBPDT treatment comprising 1.5 mg/kg of Photofrin® and 15 J/cm 2 of light. Four dogs received a second treatment; and three dogs received three treatments. Pre- and post-WBPDT evaluations included cystoscopy and saline cystometry at baseline, 1 week, and 12 weeks. Gross and histopathologic analysis of cystectomy specimens occurred at 1 and 12 weeks. A single photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment induced average bladder capacity losses of 11% (0–33) and 0% at post-WBPDT weeks 1 and 12, respectively. A second sequential WBPDT treatment caused average bladder capacity losses of 36% (0–57%) and 17% (2–24%) at weeks 1 and 12, respectively. Three sequential WBPDT treatments induced average bladder capacity losses of 22% (0–42) and 0% at weeks 1 and 12, respectively. Full recovery in bladder capacity occurred in all cases except after the second sequential treatment, which induced a persistent bladder capacity loss of 17% at 12 weeks. Histopathologic analysis of cystectomy specimens revealed a focal discernible injury to the superficial muscle in only one of the dogs that received three treatments. We conclude that sequential WBPDT treatments using low dose PDT Photofrin® (1.5 mg/kg and light ≤15 J/cm 2 ) is safe, and we recommend using this low WBPDT dose in clinical investigation.