cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Numerical simulation of two-dimensional sine-Gordon solitons via a split cosine scheme

This paper proposes a split cosine scheme for simulating solitary solutions of the sine-Gordon equation in two dimensions, as it arises, for instance, in rectangular large-area Josephson junctions. The dispersive nonlinear partial differential equation allows for soliton-type solutions, a ubiquitous phenomenon in a large variety of physical problems. The semidiscretization approach first leads to a system of second-order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The system is then approximated by a nonlinear recurrence relation which involves a cosine function. The numerical solution of the system is obtained via a further application of a sequential splitting in a linearly implicit manner that avoids solving the nonlinear scheme at each time step and allows an efficient implementation of the simulation in a locally one-dimensional fashion. The new method has potential applications in further multi-dimensional nonlinear wave simulations. Rigorous analysis is given for the numerical stability. Numerical demonstrations for colliding circular solitons are given.
RESPONSE OF GROWTH HORMONE DEFICIENT PATIENTS TO SYNTHETIC GROWTH HORMONE-RELEASING FACTOR

We studied the growth hormone (GH) response to synthetic growth hormone-releasing factor (GRF (1-44)-NH2)† in non-GH deficient (NGHD) subjects (4-33 yrs) and GH deficient (GHD) patients (5-24 yrs). The mean (±SE) peak GH response of 6 NGHD children after 5 μg/kg IV of GRF (27.1±5.8 ng/ml) was similar to that of NGHD young men previously reported (JCEM 57:677). Of 20 patients with severe GH deficiency 17 responded to 5 μg/kg IV of GRF, but the mean peak plasma GH concentration was less than that of the NGHD group (5.0±1.2 vs 27.2±3.5 ng/ml; p<0.001). Patients with isolated GH deficiency had responses similar to those with multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies. The GH responses of the GHD children correlated negatively with chronologic age (r= −0.758, p<0.02). Six partially GHD children had a higher GH response to GRF than severely GHD children (13.1±1.8 vs 6.9±1.7 ng/ml; p<0.04) but lower than NGHD children (p<0.05). GRF induced higher plasma GH levels in GHD than did arginine, insulin, or L-dopa. The GRF test is useful for assessing GH reserve. Although a GH response to GRF in GHD patients suggests GRF deficiency, the lack of response does not exclude it. The GH response to synthetic GRF in many GHD children is consistent with a hypothalamic abnormality as the etiology of their GH deficiency and supports the potential therapeutic usefulness of GRF or an analog in these patients.
Energy Dependence of the Nucleon-Nucleon Phase Shifts

Starting from the analytic structure of partial wave amplitudes predicted by the Mandelstam representation, relativistic formulas are derived for the energy dependence of the phase shifts for nucleon-nucleon scattering, neglecting inelastic processes. These formulas depend on integrals over functions defined by a (numerically) soluble integral equation whose kernel is determined from the absorptive part of the amplitude in the nonphysical region. The contribution to this kernel from single-pion exchange is explicitly exhibited and the contribution from two-pion exchange is calculable. A generalization of the formulas to include phenomenological constants representing the unknown contribution of multimeson and other particle exchanges is given. The dependence of the phase shifts on these parameters is sufficiently simple to allow the formulas to be used for the least-squares fitting of empirical data. Further, these constants can be varied independently, and as much empirical information as is desired can be incorporated into the formulas without destroying this independence. In the case of coupled states, the phenomenological formulas satisfy unitarity only approximately; this approximation can be removed by a subsidiary calculation, which destroys the independence of the parameters for these states. Because of the neglect of inelastic processes, the range of validity of the formulas is expected to be from 0 to approximately 400 Mev.
Additive invariants on the Hardy space over the polydisc

Abstract In recent years various advances have been made with respect to the Nevanlinna–Pick kernels, especially on the symmetric Fock space, while the development on the Hardy space over the polydisc is relatively slow. In this paper, several results known on the symmetric Fock space are proved for the Hardy space over the polydisc. The known proofs on the symmetric Fock space make essential use of the Nevanlinna–Pick properties. Specifically, we study several integer-valued numerical invariants which are defined on an arbitrary invariant subspace of the vector-valued Hardy spaces over the polydisc. These invariants include the Samuel multiplicity, curvature, fiber dimension, and a few others. A tool used to overcome the difficulty associated with non-Nevanlinna–Pick kernels is Tauberian theory.
Melanoma with a Plexiform Pattern

One decade ago, a form of melanoma with features mimicking those of deep penetrating nevus was casually mentioned. This remarkable observation was largely ignored, although the subject of melanocytic tumors of unknown malignant potential (MELTUMPs) resembling deep penetrating nevus arose in the discussion of a group of such cases by an expert panel at the International Society of Dermatopathology meeting in Graz in 2008 (Cerroni et al. 2010). Only very recently, Martin Mihm’s group presented on this subject in a paper dedicated to dermal-based melanocytic tumors (Magro et al. 2010).
Infinitely Interesting: Bloom, Kierkegaard, and the Educational Quest

In The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom laments the current emphasis on the tolerance for diversity, or “openness” as he calls it, in the education of American youth. This democratic accommodation of all points of view has led to a cultural relativism that has “extinguished the real motive of education, the search for a good life,” thus stifling the longing for knowledge. Intended to protect individual views, the educational commitment to neutrality does not contribute to the meaningfulness of individual lives. Rather, it gives rise to the educational malaise of indifference. Bloom’s call for a return to a traditional education centered on the values of Western civilization is aimed at rekindling the passion at the heart of the pursuit of knowledge and self-discovery, to renew the philosophical quest for the answer to the Socratic question of how one should live. If we are to reclaim a place for philosophy — and the “moral unity of learning” — in contemporary American life, education must be reconceived as a quest for truth.
Early events governing memory CD8+ T-cell differentiation

Understanding the regulation of the CD8(+) T-cell response and how protective memory cells are generated has been intensely studied. It is now appreciated that a naive CD8(+) T cell requires at least three signals to mount an effective immune response: (i) TCR triggering, (ii) co-stimulation and (iii) inflammatory cytokines. Only recently have we begun to understand the molecular integration of those signals and how early events regulate the fate decisions of the responding CD8(+) T cells. This review will discuss the recent findings about both the extracellular and intracellular factors that regulate the destiny of responding CD8(+) T cells.
Correlation between frequency and transient responses of feedback control systems

The performance of a feedback control system is often evaluated on the basis of the transient response, for which the step function is used as the input. The abrupt change of input or disturbance may represent important actual operating conditions that the system may be subjected to. However, synthesis or design on this basis is mathematically difficult to carry out when the system has a characteristic equation of high order. As a result, synthesis on the sinusoidal or frequency basis has been developed and widely used. It is obviously most desirable to know the correlation between the frequency and transient responses so that a criterion for the frequency response method may be properly established.
Survival of Some Medically Important Fungi on Hospital Fabrics and Plastics

Tests of the survival of Candida spp., Aspergillus spp., a Fusarium sp., a Mucor sp., and a Paecilomyces sp. on hospital fabrics and plastics indicated that viability was variable, with most fungi surviving at least 1 day but many living for weeks. These findings reinforce the need for appropriate disinfection and conscientious contact control precautions.
CHESSBOARD: A Synergy of Object-Oriented Concurrent Programming and Program Layering

Language support to enable programming by contract offers a systematic approach to the development and verification of object oriented programs [M93]. An object behavior is locally defined in terms of obligations (preconditions) and benefits (postconditions). Concurrent object-oriented programming seems to be an appealing idea because it imposes structure on objects' communication. Since structure of a tightly-coupled, interprocess dependent concurrent program is more than the simple collection of its objects, set of local assertions is not enough to capture cooperation among the different objects. A complementary view which depicts the cooperation among different objects is needed. The concept of communication-closed layers [EF82] is extended for object-oriented concurrent programming. The synergy between concurrent object-oriented programming and layering enables dual reflections of a program as both a collection of objects and a sequence of subgoals achieved by inter-object cooperation. On top of Meyer's intra-object programming by contract we propose inter-object contracts. Intra-object contracts are used for the verification of object state consistency, and inter-object contracts, called teamwork assertions, are used for ensuring cooperation among objects. We view a concurrent program as a CHESSBOARD. The columns are the different objects/tasks and the rows are the program layers. Every square on the board is a logical component of both an object/task and a layer. Our proposal enables a horizontal decomposition of concurrent programs on top of its vertical decomposition into objects/tasks. This synergy, we believe, could make existing design and verification methods for concurrent programming more applicable as teamwork assertions are used to decompose complex programs. The concept neither introduces any physical synchronization barrier among layers nor relies on particular computer architecture and programming language. CHESSBOARD is most beneficial for applications where the objects/tasks are tightly bounded to compute a common objective. We present a simple example of a concurrent program viewed as a CHESSBOARD. The program runs on a Sun workstation using Concurrent C++.
Stability of wild‐type and mutant RTEM‐1 β‐lactamases: Effect of the disulfide bond

Uniquely among class A β-lactamases, the RTEM-1 and RTEM-2 enzymes contain a single disulfide bond between Cys 77 and Cys 123. To study the possible role of this naturally occurring disulfide in stabilizing RTEM-1 β-lactamase and its mutants at residue 71, this bond was removed by introducing a Cys 77 → Ser mutation. Both the wild-type enzyme and the single mutant Cys 77 → Ser confer the same high levels of resistance to ampicillin in vivo to Echerichia coli; at 30°C the specific activity of purified Cys 77 → Ser mutant is also the same as that of the wild-type enzyme. Also, neither wild-type enzyme nor the Cys 77 → Ser mutant is inactivated by brief exposure to p-hydroxymercuri-benzoate. However, above 40°C the mutant enzyme is less stable than wild-type enzyme. After introduction of the Cys 77 → Ser mutation, none of the double mutants (containing the second mutations at residue 71) confer resistance to ampicillin in vivo at 37°C; proteins with Ala, Val, Leu, Ile, Met, Pro, His, Cys, and Ser at residue 71 confer low levels of resistance to ampicillin in vivo at 30°C. The use of electrophoretic blots stained with antibodies against β-lactamase to analyze the relative quantities of mutant proteins in whole-cell extracts of E. coli suggests that all 19 of the doubly mutant enzymes are proteolyzed much more readily than their singly mutant analogues (at Thr 71) that contain a disulfide bond. Thus, the disulfide bond of the RTEM-1 β-lactamase seems able to reduce the destabilizing effect of mutations at Thr 71. These results also emphasize the unique and essential role that Thr 71 performs in the stable folding of RTEM-1 β-lactamase and presumably the other class A β-lactamases.
Control Sensor Linearization Using Artificial Neural Networks

Traditionally, the issues of cost, size, and weight of artificial neural network implementations have not been the primary concern of researchers. These issues are important in many applications such as those required in space travel, high-volume commercial products, or products with size limitations. In this paper, we discuss methods to improve the characteristics of control sensors using compact and low-cost circuitry. Our objective is to extend the linear region of operation of a nonlinear sensor using artificial neural networks. An analog circuit approach was investigated for high-speed applications and a microcontroller approach for low-speed applications. The methods are applied to the design of a discrete-component phase-locked loop. Both approaches resulted in doubling the sensor‘s linear range.
ON THE GEOMETRY OF GRADED CONSTRAINT ALGEBRAS: VIELBEINS, METRIC TENSORS AND THE STRING VERTEX SUPEROPERATORS

The geometric interpretation of the vertex superoperators in the Neveu-Schwarz-Ramond (NSR) model is provided by associating them with a canonical mapping between abelian operators and generators of the super-Virasoro algebra. In this setting, the moments of the vertex superoperators are the corresponding vielbiens carrying graded indices. This geometric construction defines a natural metric tensor associated with the graded constraint algebra. Consequently, our approach yields the simple Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky Hamiltonian for the NSR model as the “square” of a graded vector, manifestly invariant under OSP(1, 1|2).
Repair of O6-methylguanine adducts in human telomeric G-quadruplex DNA by O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase

O(6)-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) is a single-cycle DNA repair enzyme that removes pro-mutagenic O(6)-alkylguanine adducts from DNA. Its functions with short single-stranded and duplex substrates have been characterized, but its ability to act on other DNA structures remains poorly understood. Here, we examine the functions of this enzyme on O(6)-methylguanine (6mG) adducts in the four-stranded structure of the human telomeric G-quadruplex. On a folded 22-nt G-quadruplex substrate, binding saturated at 2 AGT:DNA, significantly less than the ∼ 5 AGT:DNA found with linear single-stranded DNAs of similar length, and less than the value found with the telomere sequence under conditions that inhibit quadruplex formation (4 AGT:DNA). Despite these differences, AGT repaired 6mG adducts located within folded G-quadruplexes, at rates that were comparable to those found for a duplex DNA substrate under analogous conditions. Repair was kinetically biphasic with the amplitudes of rapid and slow phases dependent on the position of the adduct within the G-quadruplex: in general, adducts located in the top or bottom tetrads of a quadruplex stack exhibited more rapid-phase repair than did adducts located in the inner tetrad. This distinction may reflect differences in the conformational dynamics of 6mG residues in G-quadruplex DNAs.
Gossip and Distributed Kalman Filtering: Weak Consensus Under Weak Detectability

The paper presents the gossip interactive Kalman filter (GIKF) for distributed Kalman filtering for networked systems and sensor networks, where intersensor communication and observations occur at the same time-scale. The communication among sensors is random; each sensor occasionally exchanges its filtering state information with a neighbor depending on the availability of the appropriate network link. We show that under a weak distributed detectability condition: 1) the GIKF error process remains stochastically bounded, irrespective of the instability of the random process dynamics; and 2) the network achieves weak consensus, i.e., the conditional estimation error covariance at a (uniformly) randomly selected sensor converges in distribution to a unique invariant measure on the space of positive semidefinite matrices (independent of the initial state). To prove these results, we interpret the filtering states (estimates and error covariances) at each node in the GIKF as stochastic particles with local interactions. We analyze the asymptotic properties of the error process by studying as a random dynamical system the associated switched (random) Riccati equation, the switching being dictated by a nonstationary Markov chain on the network graph.
Saturated and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Reciprocally Modulate Dendritic Cell Functions Mediated through TLR4

TLRs provide critical signals to induce innate immune responses in APCs such as dendritic cells (DCs) that in turn link to adaptive immune responses. Results from our previous studies demonstrated that saturated fatty acids activate TLRs, whereas n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit agonist-induced TLR activation. These results raise a significant question as to whether fatty acids differentially modulate immune responses mediated through TLR activation. The results presented in this study demonstrate that the saturated fatty acid, lauric acid, up-regulates the expression of costimulatory molecules (CD40, CD80, and CD86), MHC class II, and cytokines (IL-12p70 and IL-6) in bone marrow-derived DCs. The dominant negative mutant of TLR4 or its downstream signaling components inhibits lauric acid-induced expression of a CD86 promoter-reporter gene. In contrast, an n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid, inhibits TLR4 agonist (LPS)-induced up-regulation of the costimulatory molecules, MHC class II, and cytokine production. Similarly, DCs treated with lauric acid show increased T cell activation capacity, whereas docosahexaenoic acid inhibits T cell activation induced by LPS-treated DCs. Together, our results demonstrate that the reciprocal modulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses by saturated fatty acid and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid is mediated at least in part through TLRs. These results imply that TLRs are involved in sterile inflammation and immune responses induced by nonmicrobial endogenous molecules. These results shed new light in understanding how types of dietary fatty acids differentially modulate immune responses that could alter the risk of many chronic diseases.
Forts and Social Control in the Maratha State

... built on the top of a high and steep mountain, incredibly fortified by nature, and able to contain forty thousand horse: in the middle of it are springs which water the mountain, and make the earth so fruitful in the production of grass, herbs, and corn, that there is no want either of provisions or other necessaries: it is also planted round with very fine brass guns . . . EVEN without this wonderful sixteenth-century hyperbole, forts remain an impressive feature of India's landscape. A thoughtful traveller, seeing the jagged walls high above the road, might well wonder who built them, and when, and what events took place within the gates. Scholarly writing on the subject will disappoint him. Toy, in his seminal book, noted that 'this writer has been struck with the dearth of reliable literature on the forts of India.'2
Spheres with positive curvature and nearly dense orbits for the geodesic flow

For any ! > 0, we construct an explicit smooth Riemannian metric on the sphere S n , n " 3, that is within ! of the round metric and has a geodesic for which the corresponding orbit of the geodesic flow is ! -dense in the unit tangent bundle. Moreover, for any ! > 0, we construct a smooth Riemannian metric on S n ,n " 3, that is within ! of the round metric and has a geodesic for which the complement of the closure of the correspondingorbit of the geodesic flow has Liouville measure less than ! .
CodeExchange: Supporting Reformulation of Internet-Scale Code Queries in Context (T)

Programming today regularly involves searching for source code online, whether through a general search engine such as Google or a specialized code search engine such as SearchCode, Ohloh, or GitHub. Searching typically is an iterative process, with develop-ers adjusting the keywords they use based on the results of the previous query. However, searching in this manner is not ideal, because just using keywords places limits on what developers can express as well as the overall interaction that is required. Based on the observation that the results from one query create a con-text in which a next is formulated, we present CodeExchange, a new code search engine that we developed to explicitly leverage this context to support fluid, expressive reformulation of queries. We motivate the need for CodeExchange, highlight its key design decisions and overall architecture, and evaluate its use in both a field deployment and a laboratory study.
Mu-bases and their applications in geometric modeling

This thesis defines the notion of a μ-basis for an arbitrary number of polynomials in one variable. The properties of these μ-bases are derived, and a straightforward algorithm is provided to calculate a μ-basis for any collection of univariate polynomials. Systems where base points are present are also discussed. μ-bases are then applied to solve implicitization, inversion and intersection problems for rational space curves. Next, a natural one to one correspondence is derived between the singular points of rational planar curves and the axial moving lines that follow these curves. This correspondence is applied together with μ-bases to compute and to analyze all the singular points of low degree rational planar curves.
Evaluating a Special Education Training Programme in Nicaragua

This study examined a two-year special education and inclusive practices in-service training programme with a university in Nicaragua. Participants included 14 teachers from nine schools in Nicaragua. Participants’ knowledge of special education concepts were evaluated as part of assessing the training modules. In addition, programme evaluation information were collected. Results from the knowledge pre-and post-test indicated that participants made significant gains in their special education knowledge and the module evaluation forms indicate participants were highly satisfied with the project. Recommendations for planning and implementing a future training programme are also provided.
Reductive spectrophotometry of divalent tin sensitization on soda lime glass

Abstract Rapid and facile evaluation of tin (II) sensitization could lead to improved understanding of metal deposition in electroless (EL) plating. This report used a balanced redox reaction between 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine dihydrochloride (TMB-HCL) and N -bromosuccinimide (NBS) to evaluate effects of sensitization conditions (i.e., sensitization time, analyte concentration, aqueous immersion, and acid content) on the accumulated mass of surface-associated divalent tin ion. The accumulated mass of tin (II) increased as the sensitization time increased up to 30 s in proportion to aqueous tin (II) chloride concentrations between 2.6 and 26 mM at a trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) content of 68 mM. The average mass peaked at 7.3 nanomoles (nmol) per cm 2 after a 5 s aqueous immersion post-sensitization, and then decreased with increasing aqueous immersion post-sensitization. The total average tin (II) + tin (IV) accumulated on soda lime glass measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was 17% higher at 30 s sensitization, suggesting a fraction of the tin (II) present may have oxidized to tin (IV). These results indicated that in situ spectrophotometric evaluation of tin (II) could support development of EL plating for electronics, catalysis, and solar cells.
Model-independent test of the truncated crater function theory of surface morphology evolution during ion bombardment

A broad class of ``local response'' theories seeks to predict morphology evolution during energetic particle irradiation in terms of average surface height response to individual impacts---an approach that has been generalized by the crater function formalism of Norris et al. [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 21, 224017 (2009); Nat. Commun. 2, 276 (2011)]. Keeping only the terms in the crater function formalism associated with the response of a flat surface has facilitated the use of molecular dynamics simulations of individual ion impacts to predict the stability or instability of a flat surface to ion bombardment. Here we report a sensitive experimental test of this truncated crater function theory that is independent of any a priori knowledge of the crater function itself. Existing measurements for 1 keV ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{+}/\mathrm{Si}$ and ${\mathrm{Kr}}^{+}/\mathrm{Ge}$ are inconsistent with the predictions of truncated crater function theory, for any conceivable crater function, at high bombardment angles. The failure of the theory suggests that the prediction of surface evolution from simulations of single-ion impacts will be more challenging than had been assumed.
The Presidents Social Security Plan: How much would you pay to participate?

President Bush is in favor of using private retirement accounts to partially replace the current pay-as-you-go social security program. We use a simple life-cycle model to analyze whether or not private accounts would benefit workers. "Cash equivalents" are calculated under different assumptions to see how much a worker would be willing to pay to participate in the private account program. In most circumstances, workers would benefit from the private account program. Only when market rates of return are very low or a person expects to live for a very long time does the current pay-as-you-go system give a greater present value to a worker.
Language and Social Institutions

Social institutions arose in chapter two as an aspect of cultural theories of people, and they arise again in chapter five as constrictions on self-actualization. Since social institutions are a key part of our arguments, we examine social institutions in detail in this chapter, substantiating our proposal in chapter two that social institutions are implicit in the meanings of social identities, and that knowledge of identities thereby provides an individual with practical knowledge of the macro-sociological structure of society which the individual uses for defining self and others in various situations. In the course of doing this we clarify the nature of social institutions, and provide a method for discovering what social institutions exist in a society and what identities are aligned with each.
Evaluation: Imaging Studies

The malignant or benign nature of a salivary gland (SG) tumor can be predicted with reasonably high accuracy by imaging. There is some overlap between the imaging findings of benign and malignant tumors, particularly for low-grade malignancies, and tissue diagnosis remains necessary for definitive diagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging is the modality of choice for the evaluation of salivary neoplasms, as it allows for delineation of local infiltration, perineural spread and intracranial extension. This review will focus on the advanced imaging techniques that help to characterize SG tumors. A brief overview of the conventional imaging features of SG neoplasms is necessary before a discussion of the advanced imaging methods.
Semantics Driven Human-Machine Computation Framework for Linked Islamic Knowledge Engineering

Formalized knowledge engineering activities including semantic annotation and linked data management tasks in specialized domains suffer from considerable knowledge acquisition bottleneck - owing to the lack of availability of experts and in-efficacy of computational approaches. Human Computation & Crowdsourcing HC&C methods successfully advocate leveraging the human processing power to solve problems that are still difficult to be solved computationally. Contextualized to the domain of Islamic Knowledge, my research investigates the synergistic interplay of these HC&C methods and the semantic web and will seek to devise a semantics driven human-machine computation framework for knowledge engineering in specialized and knowledge intensive domains. The overall objective is to augment the process of automated knowledge extraction and text mining methods using a hybrid approach for combining collective intelligence of the crowds with that of experts to facilitate activities in formalized knowledge engineering - thus overcoming the so-called knowledge acquisition bottleneck.
Practical Strategies for Thought Leaders in College Athletics and Higher Education: Developing a “Meaningful Education and Career Preparation as Compensation” Model

Recent discussion amongst scholars and practitioners related to current issues in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletics has focused on areas such as the widespread commercialization of amateur sports, consistent corruption within athletics departments at NCAA member institutions, extensive exploitation of student-athletes and the necessity of a “pay for play” employee compensation model for student-athletes (see, for example, Benedict & Keteyian, 2014; Branch, 2011; Huma & Staurowsky, 2012; Nocera & Strauss, 2016; Southall & Staurowsky, 2013; Staurowsky, Maxcy, Karcher, Southall, Berri, & Otto, 2015). However, there has been minimal scholarly and industry discourse on how to leverage some of the revenues generated at the NCAA, conference and individual athletics program levels in order to develop innovative and sustainable higher education solutions that would prepare all student-athletes for career and personal success after participation in college athletics. The primary objective of this journal article is to encourage a more informed conversation about important issues in college athletics in part by proposing several practical strategies that would improve the overall student-athlete experience and further align participation in college athletics with the core goals of institutions of higher education. This research note provides an overview of the college athletics business model at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions within Division I of the NCAA. In addition, this article reviews the current NCAA Division I governance structure. An accurate knowledge of the business and governance realities within college athletics is essential to understanding that paying student-athletes an hourly wage or annual salary is actually not one of the main system issues or central student-athlete wellbeing priorities of advocates for student-athletes, athletics leaders and higher education administrators. This article analyzes the primary issues and areas in which key college athletics stakeholders presently seek change and improvement. This article also spotlights innovative, culturally relevant student-athlete career and professional development programs recently developed by the University of Central Florida, Oregon State University and Vanderbilt University. Finally, this article provides a series of recommendations for all stakeholders involved in college athletics to optimize the student-athlete academic and athletic experience and to improve the level of career preparedness of all student-athletes.
Rhizosphere priming and plant-mediated cover crop decomposition

Rhizosphere priming occurs when plant belowground carbon (C) allocation influences the rate of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition. We investigated the effects of priming and plant-mediated cover crop decomposition on agroecosystem C and nitrogen (N) dynamics. Using C stable isotopes, we tracked C and N from corn, clover (Trifolium pratense) and rye (Secale cereale) cover crop litter, and background SOM in plots following clover, rye, or no cover crop (fallow) in 2013 and 2014. Corn enhanced the decomposition of N-rich clover cover crop litter in 2013, but there was little evidence of priming of bulk SOM decomposition. There was no corn effect on litterbag decomposition in 2014, likely due to greater soil moisture and temperature in no-corn plots. Corn N uptake per unit of corn-derived CO2 respiration was consistently lower following rye than clover and fallow, suggesting a higher C cost for corn to access N following a rye cover crop. This is one of the first field-based studies to provide evidence that plant-mediated litter decomposition potentially provides an important source of plant-available N. Climate and residue quality influence the extent to which corn mediates its own N supply with implications for agroecosystem C and N cycling.
Towards the design of a secure and compliant framework for OpenEMR

The purpose of this research is to explore and identify the vulnerabilities in OpenEMR 5.0.0, which is a free and open source medical practice management application. We are to provide recommendations/suggestions to OpenEMR developers on identifying the vulnerabilities. We chose to use vulnerabilities scanning tools to manually explore the demo site of OpenEMR 5.0.0. The targeted vulnerabilities belong to the following three types, namely, SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) including persistent XSS and reflected XSS and Arbitrary File Upload. We have inducted a qualitative based risk assessment to determine the risk levels for the vulnerabilities identified. The results of risk assessment include two kinds of risk levels, which are high risk and medium risk, and two kinds of priorities, which are priority 1 (high) and priority 2 (medium). In addition, we provided recommendations and best practices about how to prevent the identified vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the research also presents an exploit automation program written in Python to test and exploit the vulnerabilities including SQL Injection and reflected XSS on the demo server of OpenEMR.
The molecular characteristics of avian influenza viruses (H9N2) derived from air samples in live poultry markets.

Abstract Objective To study the molecular characteristics of H9N2-subtype avian influenza viruses (AIVs) isolated from air samples collected in live poultry markets (LPMs) and explore their sequence identities with AIVs that caused human infection. Methods Weekly surveillance of H9N2-subtype AIVs in the air of LPMs was conducted from 2015 to 2016. H9-positive samples were isolated from chicken embryos. Whole genome sequences of the isolated AIVs were obtained through high-throughput sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis and key loci variations of the sequences were further analyzed. Results A total of 327 aerosol samples were collected from LPMs. Nine samples were positive for H9-subtype AIVs based on quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRRT-PCR). According to the whole genome sequence analysis and phylogenetic analysis, except for the A/Environment/Zhongshan/ZS201505/2015 (ZS201505) strain, 8 gene segments of 8 aerosol H9N2 isolates and 2 H9N2 human isolates in 2015 were located in the same clade. Among key loci variations, except for the ZS201505 strain, H9N2-subtype AIVs had no mutations in eight receptor binding sites of hemagglutinin (HA), and stalks of neuraminidase (NA) proteins exhibited a deletion site of three bases. The PA gene of ZS201503 and ZS201602 exhibited an L336M mutation. The N30D and T215A mutations in the M1 gene and amino acid residues L89V in PB2, P42S in NS1 and S31N in M2 were retained in these 9 strains of H9N2 isolates, which could enhance the virus's virulence. Conclusion Live H9N2 AIVs survived in the aerosol of LPMs in Zhongshan City. The aerosol viruses had a close evolutionary relationship with human epidemic strains, indicating that there might be a risk of AIV transmission from polluted aerosols in LPMs to humans. Mutations in H9N2-subtype AIVs isolated from air samples collected from LPMs suggested their pathogenicity was enhanced to infect humans.
Rapid development of lymphoma following liver transplantation in a recipient with hepatitis B and primary hemochromatosis

We report a case of a posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) which presented in a liver allograft shortly after transplantation. The patient, who had been transplanted because of cirrhosis due to primary hemochromatosis and chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV), developed early recurrent HBV in the graft, and 2 months after transplantation, liver biopsies showed a malignant large-cell lymphoma. The neoplastic cells demonstrated Epstein-Barr virus DNA by in situ hybridization. The patient died 3.5 months posttransplant due to liver failure. At autopsy, the liver showed nodules of malignant lymphoma, massive hepatic necrosis, and iron overload, but no evidence of rejection. This report suggests that the grafted liver can be the site of PTLD in recurrent HBV and hemochromatosis.
Mechanisms of oxide growth during the combustion of Al:Zr nanolaminate foils

Abstract Reactive metal nanolaminates, most notably aluminum/zirconium composites, have been developed as fuels to aid combustion in explosive formulations. Thus far, however, their energy density is limited by incomplete oxidation. An in situ x-ray diffraction (XRD) study was performed on a 40 µm thick Al:Zr (atomic ratio 1:1) multilayer foil to track the growth of reaction products during ignition, combustion, and cooling (over approximately 5 s) to determine the mechanisms that prevent complete combustion from occurring. Simultaneous pyrometry provides the ability to relate the observed phase progression to the foil temperature throughout the reaction, and post-reaction cross-sectional electron microprobe and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the combusted foils identify the location, composition, and microstructure of each product phase. We have used the combined results to develop an understanding of the growth mechanisms at play during the rapid reactions. The most significant finding is that the primary combustion product, orthorhombic ZrO2, grows linearly throughout the first 1.3 s of the reaction, indicating interface-limited growth, but then switches to slower diffusion-controlled growth. The transition in growth rate coincides with the abrupt end of a temperature plateau that is associated with self-sustained combustion. A thick (≈8 µm) Al2Zr layer is observed beneath the oxidized exterior in cross-sections of the reacted foil and is likely responsible for the reaction “turning off” before complete combustion is achieved. This underlying Al-rich intermetallic layer prevents the diffusion of aluminum away from the oxide interface, causing an increasing proportion of aluminum to oxidize. The resulting alumina creates a barrier to oxygen diffusion and is responsible for the incomplete combustion in air.
A Shock Tube Study of Jet Fuel Pyrolysis and Ignition at Elevated Pressures and Temperatures

Abstract The development of compact HyChem hybrid models for jet fuels requires datasets of pyrolysis product yields to constrain the model and of kinetic targets to evaluate the model. To this end, we have measured selected species time-histories during fuel pyrolysis using laser absorption, and ignition delay times using multiple methods behind reflected shock waves in a heated shock tube. Measurements were performed for three different jet fuels diluted in air or argon over a temperature range of 1000–1400 K, a pressure range of 12–40 atm, and equivalence ratios of 0.5–1. Fuel loading was measured using an IR He-Ne laser at 3391 nm; ethylene with a CO 2 gas laser at wavelengths of 10532 nm and 10674 nm; and methane with a tunable diode laser at wavelengths of 3175 nm and 3177 nm. Ignition delay times were measured in three ways: by monitoring fuel removal with laser absorption, by sidewall pressure, and by OH∗ emission. Particular care was taken in mixture preparation and efficient transfer of the gaseous fuel mixture to the shock tube. The current HyChem model by Wang et al. shows good agreement with these data.
Effect of Patient Acuity of Illness and Nurse Experience on EMR Works in Intensive Care Unit

The objective of this study is to analyze the impact on the nurse’s process time during the electronic medical record (EMR) charting task in an intensive care unit (ICU). The dynamic uncertainty of clinical tasks in the ICU can make it difficult for nurses to take care of critically ill patients. According to the literature, EMR documentation is one of the tasks on which nurses spend most of their time during the shift. To understand and improve the EMR documenting process, a time & motion study was conducted in a medical ICU at the University of Missouri Hospital. Data was collected on processes and standard times of every EMR activity performed by ICU nurses. Based on the results of this study, hierarchical task analysis (HTA) charts were developed and analyzed nurse’s workflow during EMR documentation. After that, a simulation model was developed for documenting in the EMR in an ICU.
Schrödinger’s Zebra: Applying Mutual Information Maximization to Graphical Halftoning

The graphical process of halftoning is, fundamentally, a communication process: an image made from a continuous set of possible grays, for example, is to be represented recognizably by elements that are only black or white. With this in mind, we ask what a halftoning algorithm would look like that maximizes the mutual information between images and their halftoned renditions. Here, we find such an algorithm and explore its properties. The algorithm is inherently probabilistic and bears an information theoretic similarity to features of quantum mechanical measurements, so we dub the method quantum halftoning. The algorithm provides greater discrimination of medium gray shades, and less so very dark or very light shades, as we show via both the algorithm’s mathematical structure and examples of its application. We note, in passing, some generalized applications of this algorithm. Finally, we conclude by showing that our methodology offers a tool to investigate Bayesian priors of the human visual system, and spell out a scheme to use the results of this paper to do so.
Modulation of Folate Receptor Beta for Drug Targeting in Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

The folate receptor (FR) type β is a promising target for therapeutic intervention in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) owing particularly to its selective up-regulation in the leukemic cells by all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). Here we show, using KG-1 and MV4- 11 AML cells and recombinant 293 cells, that the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors Trichostatin A (TSA), valproic acid (VPA) and FK228 potentiated ATRA induction of FR-β gene transcription and FR-β mRNA/protein expression. ATRA and/or TSA did not induce de novo FR synthesis in any of a variety of FR-negative cell lines tested. TSA did not alter the effect of ATRA on the expression of retinoic acid receptors (RARs) α, β or γ. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays indicate that HDAC inhibitors act on the FR-β gene by enhancing RAR-associated histone acetylation to increase the association of Sp1 with the basal FR-β promoter. Under these conditions, the expression level of Sp1 is unaltered. A decreased availability of putative repressor Ap-1 proteins may also indirectly contribute to the effect of HDAC inhibitors. Finally, FR-β selectively mediated cell growth inhibition by (6S) dideaza tetrahydrofolate in a manner that was greatly potentiated in AML cells by ATRA and HDAC inhibition. Therefore, the combination of ATRA and innocuous HDAC inhibitors may be expected to facilitate selective FR-β-targeted therapies in AML.
Adiposity and Diabetes in Breast and Prostate Cancer

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are two of the most common potentially life-threatening diseases among men and women in the developed and developing countries of the world. Both diseases share common factors in the risk and prognosis of breast and prostate cancers. Adiposity, together with type 2 diabetes, promotes an aggressive and metastatic phenotype via endocrine and paracrine mechanisms of action by increasing the expression patterns of hormones and adipokines that are proposed to drive tumor grown. Understanding how the expansion of white adipose tissue, in addition to diabetes, alters the tumor microenvironment could provide links between obesity, metabolic diseases, and cancer progression. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the complex relationships between obesity and type 2 diabetes, and cancers of the breast and prostate, focusing on the biological mechanisms involved, and explaining how adipose tissue acts as a local source of steroid hormones, growth factors, and adipokines, which stimulate the growth cancer cells. Furthermore, the diametrically opposed effects of obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes on premenopausal and postmenopausal carcinoma of the breast are discussed, as well as their potential influence on the development of the metastatic phenotype in both breast and prostate cancers.
Effects of interleukin-3 and erythropoietin on in vivo erythropoiesis and F-cell formation in primates

To test the in vivo cooperativity between interleukin-3 (IL-3) and erythropoietin (Epo) in stimulating erythropoiesis and hemoglobin F (HbF) production in primates, we administered recombinant human IL-3 and recombinant human Epo to baboons and macaques. The effect of these treatments was assessed by serial bone marrow cultures and by measuring HbF production in the progeny of bone marrow progenitors and in peripheral-blood reticulocytes. Administration of IL-3 alone to hematologically normal or anemic baboons produced an early increase in erythroid colony-forming units (CFUe) and erythroid clusters (e-clusters) with an increase in reticulocyte counts and a late increment in the relative frequency of erythroid burst-forming units (BFUe). In parallel to the increase in peripheral-blood reticulocytes, IL-3 increased the frequency of F reticulocytes in the normal and anemic animals. When administration of IL-3 was followed by administration of Epo, expansion in all classes of erythroid progenitors and increase in reticulocytes occurred, beyond the levels observed when the animals were treated with Epo alone. The combination of IL-3 and Epo, however, did not increase consistently the rate of F reticulocytes beyond the level induced by Epo alone. These results suggest that IL-3 enhances the effect of Epo on erythropoiesis, but the combination of the two growth factors does not lead to a preferential and significant enhancement of HbF production.
Emergency evacuation of people with disabilities: A survey of drills, simulations, and accessibility

A natural or man-made disaster may destabilize the structure of a building and endanger the lives of its occupants. Evacuating occupants in the shortest possible time is the first reaction in such ...
Interaction Patterns in a Multilayer Social Network

In this paper, we study the interaction patterns among university students whose interactions are recorded in an aligned multilayer social network. One layer of this network represents the smartphone communications, including calls and text messages. The other layer represents face-to- face interactions. We analyze this multilayer network to find whether communication and face-to- face interactions are correlated, and what impact the aging, that is the growing over time familiarity of each node with its peers, has on students' interaction patterns. We also investigate to what extent the academic year structure and external events, such as holidays, affect the network and the interactions between the nodes, and how the individual's communication pattern profile varies as a function of the node's degree and intensity of its interactions. The results that we obtained shed a light on how students' interaction patterns are impacted by the structure of a social network, its age, and social profiles of its nodes.